August 16
1027: The King of Georgia, Giorgi I, passed away.
Jews were among the subjects of this monarch who ruled over a country situated
in the Caucuses, on the eastern edge of the Black Sea. Leonti Mroveli, an eleventh century
chronicler of Georgian history, offers various dates for the arrival of the
Jews including the period after the destruction of the First Temple or after
the destruction of the Second Temple.
Other sources claim that the first Jews arrived during the time of
Alexander the Great or during the Sixth Century of the Common Era when they
were fleeing persecution of the Byzantines.
No matter which source you choose to believe, The Jews were there when
King George died and remain there to this day.
1097:
Peter I married Bertha of Aragon in
Huesca, marking the transfer of the Aragonese capital from Jaca.
1157:
Ramiro the Monk died. Petronilla succeeded him as queen regnant of Aragon.
1284:
A year before he began his reign as King of France, Philip IV, who expelled the
Jews from his realm to avoid paying his debts began his reign as King of
Navarre and Count of Champagne.
1399:
Today, Yom Tov Lipmann and many other Jews were thrown into prison at the
instigation of a converted Jew named Peter, who accused them of insulting
Christianity in their works.
1419:
Wenceslaus IV, the Emperor who failed to continue the Imperial protection of
the Jews of Luxembourg which led to their expulsion in 1391 passed away today.
1458:
Coronation of Ferdinand I of Naples, who provided a refuge for Jews expelled
from Spain.
1486:
Twenty men and five women were burned after being sentenced at an auto-de-fe in
Toledo on the charge of Judaizing. Among them were Dr. Alonso Cota and many
other notables of the town. They were marched through town being humiliated
wearing the dreadful san benito, with their hands tied to their neck behind
their backs.
1648(28th
of Av, 5408): Rabbi Joshua Höschel ben Joseph passed away in Cracow. Born at Vilnius in 1578, he studied both the
Kabbalah and the Talmud. He wrote Maginne
Shelomoh and She'elot u-Teshubot Pene Yehoshua'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_H%C3%B6schel_ben_Joseph
1532: John Frederick I began his reign as Elector of Saxony during which, four
years later in August of 1536, in response to the teaching of Martin Luther
“issued a mandate that prohibited Jews from inhabiting, engaging in business
in, or passing through his realm.”
1571:
Today Spanish born Hebraist Casiodoro de Reina, the author of one of the first
books that opposed the Inquisition and the translator of a Spanish language
bible that was a source for the creators of the King James Bible “was granted citizenship
by Frankfurt.
1599(25th
of Av, 5359): Isaiah Menahem Ben Isaac passed away today while serving in the
rabbinate in Cracow.
1664:
Sixty-five-year-old Christian Hebrew language student and author Johannes
Buxtorf the Younger who “employed Abraham Braunschweig to purchase Hebrew books
for him and for many years corresponded with the scholarly Jacob Roman of
Constantinople regarding the acquisition of Hebrew manuscripts and rare printed
works” passed away today.
1648(28th
of Av, 5408): Rabbi Joshua Höschel ben Joseph, a student of Rabbi Samuel ben
Phoebus of Cracow and Rabbi Joshua Falk
whose students included Rav Shabbatai HaKohen, passed away today.
1675:
Ukrainian leader Bogdan Chemlnicki (with the blood of over 300,000 Jews on his
hands) died.
1724:
In London, Bavarian immigrants Yehezkel (Ezekiel) and Judah Hirsh gave birth to
their son Aaron Hart. The family changed their name from Hirsh to its English
version, Hart. Hart would go on to
become a successful businessman and “is considered the father of Canadian
Jewry.”
1755:
Today, one of the sons of Veitel Ephriam, the “Jeweler to the Prussian Court”
who had successfully operated the Konigsberger mint, took charge of the mint in
Cleves.
1761:
During a period of internecine communal conflict in the London Jewish
Community, today “after consultation with their colleagues of the Hambro'
Shool, the wardens and elders (presumably with their Rabbi's concurrence)
passed the following resolution:
‘Whereas
certain persons unworthy of our countenance and protection have formed
themselves into a society calling themselves a congregation at Bucklers' Hall;
we do hereby strictly charge our Priest, now and hereafter, that he does not
directly or indirectly, or other in his name or with his knowledge or
permission, officiate either publicly or privately in the service of marriages,
burials, circumcisions, or other acts of priesthood, for any persons whatever
belonging to the said society. And to prevent any persons from unwarily joining
with that Society, we order that this resolution be read publicly two Sabbaths
successively in our synagogues, that none may plead ignorance thereof. And we
further order that a copy of this resolution be forthwith delivered to the
Mahamad of the Portuguese Synagogue, desiring their concurrence in supporting
and maintaining with us the good order of our respective communities.’”
1772:
In New York City, Joseph Abrahams and his wife gave birth to Abraham de Lyon
Abrahams who reported lived in Savannah, GA from 1791 to 1795 but who should
not be confused with Abraham de Lyon who settled in Savannah in 1733 when James
Oglethorpe was founding the colony of Georgia.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10207-lyon-abraham-de
1772:
Israel Abbady was appointed Chazan in Barbados – a position he held until 1794
when he was replaced by David Sarfaty De Pien
1776(1st
of Elul, 5536): Rosh Chodesh Elul; for the first time the shofar is sounded in
the newly independent United States of America.
1799(15th
of Av, 5559): Tu B’Av
1799:
“The Prague Jew Pzřibram bought a house in the village of Hanichen (Hanychov)
from Joseph Porsche but was ordered by Count of Clam-Gallasto sell it within a
year to a gentile.”
1799:
In Amsterdam, Rachel Cornelia Bernard and Abraham Levy gave birth to future
Houston resident Lewis A. Levy, the husband of Mary A Levy whom he married at
London in 1817.
1807:
During the “Gunboat Wars” which helped lead to the “complete emancipation of
the Danish Jews, the British began the bombardment of Copenhagen.
1807:
Today, under the chairmanship of Samuel Marx, the Jewish community of Trier
held a celebration in honor of Napoleon.
1817(4th
of Elul, 5577): Parashat Shoftim
1817(4th
of Elul, 5577): Benjamin Mendez Seixas, the Newport, RI born son of Isaac
Mendez Seixas, who was a prominent merchant in Newport, Philadelphia, and New
York, and was one of the founders of the New York Stock Exchange passed away
today.
1827:
In Richmond, VA, Hayman Levy Seixas and Abigail Nunez Seixas gave birth to Benjamin
Hayman Seixas, the “husband of Isabella Seixas and father of Lewis Daniel
Mendes Seixas; Rachel Seixas; Franklin Pierce Seixas; Jessica Davis
Oberndorfer; Isaac Cardozo Seixas; Henry Evan Seixas and Frederic Benjamin
Seixas.
1834:
In Amsterdam, Joseph Barend Stokvis, Jr., a Jewish physician and obstetrician
and his wife gave birth to Barend Joseph Stokvis a physician and professor of
physiology and pharmacology at the University of Amsterdam who was the husband
Julia Elisabeth Wertheim and a leader of the Dutch Jewish community.
1837(15th
of Av, 5597): Tu B’Av
1837:
Birthdate Mariane Dreyfus Baer, the wife of Marx Baer, the “dealer in
groceries, liquors and dry goods” with whom she had six children - Anna, Stella, Faie, Hattie, Leon and Maurice
- and who was buried in the Shreveport’s
Hebrew Rest Cemetery.
1837:
Birthdate of German native Joseph Cahn, the “husband of Miriam Cahn” and the
father of Bertram, Army, Stella and Morton Cahn.
1840:
During the Damascus Affair, in a move supporting the Jewish prisoners, the
British led European powers issued a stern warning to the Egyptian Khedive that
he should move his forces away from the Turkish frontier.
1840:
In Iowa, Alexander Lewis, the Charleston, SC born son of David and Rachel
Benjamin Lewis and his wife Rebecca Lewis gave birth to confirmed bachelor
David Lewis.
1842:
In Canterbury, England, Fanny Nathan and Joel Abrahams gave birth to Fanny
Abrahams.
1842:
Birthdate of Jakob Rosanes, the native of Brody who gained fame as a
mathematician and chess master.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12827-rosanes-jacob
1843(20th
of Av, 5603): “Polish banker and philanthropist Jacob Epstein, the founder of
the Jewish hospital at Warsaw whose service as an officer in the
insurrectionist army during the Polish uprising did keep him from being
apponted “banker of the treasury commission of the Kingdom of Poland” and named
as a “hereditary honorary citizen” by Czar Nicholas I passed away today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5825-epstein#anchor4
1845(13th
of Av, 5605): Shabbat Nachamu
1845:
In Bonnevoie, Luxembourg, Miriam Rose (Lévy) and Isaïe Lippman, the manager of
the family glove-making business gave birth to Gabriel Lippman, French
physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1908.
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1908/lippmann-bio.html
1845:
Jonathan and Rebecca Gratz Nathan gave birth to Jonathan Nathan, the “brother
of Seixas Nathan; Gratz Nathan; Benjamin Nathan; Rachel Gratz Nathan; Edmund
Nathan; Lucien Nathan and Rebecca Gratz Nathan.”
1845:
In what might have been the first mention of potato blight in the British
Isles, today Gardeners' Chronicle and Horticultural Gazette reported "a
blight of unusual character" in the Isle of Wight the home of the Isle of
Wight Jewish Society
1847:
One day after she had passed away,
71year old Grace (nee Da Costa) Cohen, the widow of Judah Cohen was buried
today in the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1848:
William Flatau married Rebecca Meseena today.
1849:
Birthdate of Sibylle Riqueti de Mirabeau, the French anti-Semite and
“anti-Dreyfusard” who wrote under the pseudonym of GYP. While testifying in a court case she “gave
her profession as ‘anti-Semite’ rather than ‘writer.’”
1850:
In Hungary, Josephine Weiss and David Sessler, gave birth to University of
Pennsylvania graduate Rabbi Morris Sessler the husband of Louisa Cahn who
served congregations in Alexandria, VA, Wheeling, W.Va., Providence, R.I. and
New Orleans, LA before coming to Jonesboro, AR in 1904 where he began serving
Temple Israel.
1851:
In Buffalo, VA, Robert and Anna Harvey gave birth to William Hope
"Coin" Harvey the populist leader who wrote the anti-Semitic Tale of
Two Nations, “the story of a wealthy London banker, Baron Rothe, who engineers
a plot to keep the United States from ever using a silver as currency.”
http://projects.vassar.edu/1896/antisemitism.html
1852:
In reporting on the clash between Sir Robert Peel and Benjamin Disraeli over
the issue of Free Trade "Items of Foreign News" column published
today quotes the following disparaging remarks that appeared in The Morning
Chronicle. "When Mr. Disraeli attempts to trade on the policy of Sir
Robert Peel, it will be difficult to refrain from challenging him in the words
of the Hebrew prophet, 'Hast thou killed and also taken possession.'" [Editor's Note: the quote is from 1 Kings
21:19]
1855:
Birthdate of Russian born chemist Harry Mann Gordin, the holder of a Ph.D. from
the University of Berne who served on the faculty of Northwestern in Evanston,
Illinois.
1858:
In Konigsberg, Prussia, Michaelis Spicker and Flora Rosenthal gave birth to Max
Spicker the pianists and conductor who came to the United States in 1883 where
he eventually became the “Musical Director at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
https://www.milkenarchive.org/artists/view/max-spicker/
1859(16th
of Av, 5619): Loeb Bendel, the son of Henry and Mary Anker Bendel passed away
today after which he was buried in Beth Emeth Cemetery in Loudonville, NY.
1859:
In London, birthdate of “communal worker” Ernest Louis Franklin
1860:
David Wemyss Jobson was found guilty of libeling the character of Sir James
Furgurson in the London Central Criminal Court today. Among the many prominent witnesses to appear
was Benjamin Disraeli. When asked by the Defendant “Are you a Jew now or
not?” Mr. Disraeli repIied, “I am what I
always was -- a Christian.” This is an interesting answer since Disraeli was
actually born a Jew. Was he being
disingenuous or was he taking poet license in writing his own biography.
1861:
Jacob Miller, who would be killed at South Mountain in 1862 began serving in
Company A of the 45th Regiment.
1862:
The Chicago Tribune published a tribute to the Jews of Chicago.
1864:
Two days after he had passed away, sixty-one-year-old John Levy, the son of
David Levy and Hannah Solomons was buried today the “Brompton (Fulham Road)
Jewish Cemetery.”
1868(28th
of Av, 5628): Fifty-five-year-old Ruben Joseph Wunderbar the author who
succeeded Max Lilienthal as principal the Jewish school at Riga passed away
today in his hometown of Mitau.
1872:
In the Ukraine, Phillip and Fishberg and Gittel Mauerman gave birth to Maurice
Fishberg, who came to the United States in 1890 and earned his medical degree
from New York University in 1895 after which he married Bertha Fishberg with
whom he had two children – Dr. Arthur Maurice Fishberg and Dr. Harriet Fishberg
– and became “a professor of clinical medicine of the University and Bellevue
Hospital Medical College.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6159-fishberg-maurice
1873(23rd
of Av,5634): David Margittai, the “son of Rabbi Yitzchok Tzvi Margaretten and
Rachel Lea Margaretten, the the husband of Rachel Rozalia, Juli Margittai and
the father of Ignatz Margittai; Chaim Jacob Margittai; Sarah Zali Rozalia
Weiss; Isak Hirs Ignac Margittai; Eva Schwartz; Fani Hani Schwartz and Rose
Schwart” passed away today in Szarvas, Békés, Hungary
1873:
Lipman “Lip” Pike, one of the first Jewish major league baseball players,
“raced a fast-trotting horse named Clarence in a 100-yard sprint at Baltimore's
Newington Park, and won by four yards with a time of 10 seconds flat, earning
$250 ($4,570 today).”
1873:
It was reported today that the Governor of New York has offered a $500 reward
for the apprehension of Emil Lowenstein who allegedly murder John Weston in
Albany, NY. Mrs. Weston has already been
arrested for her role in the killing.
Lowenstein, a German Jewish barber’s assistant, is thought to be headed
for an unnamed “Western city.”
1875(15th
of Av, 5635): Tu B’AV
1875:
It was reported today that of the 57,200 children attending primary schools in
Algeria, 5,646 “are native Jews.’
1875:
In Prague, Moritz Moses Piesen and Rosalia Piesen gave birth to Hugo Peisen the
husband of Annie Piesen and treasurer of the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish
Federation.
1875:
It was reported today that 40-year-old Joseph Samuels and 15 year old Sallie
Mossheim were arrested in New Jersey. This tangled tale of two Jews includes a
married man (Samuels) and the daughter of a successful businessman, who fell in
love and ran off together. The case is
complicated by the fact that Sallie’s father reported that $500 was missing
from his safe and this same amount was found in his daughter’s possession.
1878:
Birthdate of Adolph Lebovitz, the husband of Charlotte “Sadie” Lebovitz and
broth of “Molly and Dora Lebovitz.”
1879:
In Indianapolis, Indiana, Mark C and Rebecca Davis gave birth Indiana Law
School trained attorney Lawrence Bowen Davis, a member of the law firm of
Newberger, Simon and Davis and a member of the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation
who was the husband of Isabel Haas.
1880:
Sir Saul Samuel completed his second term as a Member of the Legislative
Council of New South Wales
1880:
“Hebrew Poetry” published today provided a detailed review of The Historical
Poetry of the Ancient Hebrews, a two volume work by Michael Heilprin.
1880:
Based on information that originally appeared the Journal de St. Petersburg it was reported today that Jews account
for 0.22 of the illegitimate births in the European portion of the Russian
Empire
1881:
In Washington, IN, Sigmund and Lena Sterberger Eckhouse gave birth to future
New Jersey resident Elmer Louis Eckhouse who married Lillie Rothschild Eckhouse
in 1905.
1881:
It was reported today that Count Kutisoff, who is investigating the causes of
the anti-Jewish riots met with a deputation of Jews from Kharkoff. The Jews told him that the causes were not
just economic. The count said that the
government was determined to stop the violence.
He said that they needed “to regulate the abnormal conditions” in the
Western provinces where “the Jews outnumber the Christians and monopolize
trade.” (The Western provinces included
the Pale of Settlement, and it is inconceivable that the Russian leader did not
know that there were so many Jews there because that is where the government
had confined them)
1882(1st
of Elul, 5642): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1882:
Today, in St. Louis, printer and journalist Adolph Ungar the German born son of
Loeb Leopold Ungar and Adelheid Edel Ungar his wife Henrietta Ungar gave birth
to Adele Ungar.
1882:
It was reported today that the speech by Congressman Cox on the persecution of
Russian Jews that appears in the Congressional Record was in fact never given
since Congress had already adjourned. Cox had apparently taken advantage of the
time-honored practice of entering remarks in the Record that has gone into the
20th century.
1884:
In Luxembourg City, “Berta (Durlacher), a housewife and Mortiz Gernsbacher, a
wine maker” gave birth to Hugo Gernsbach, “an inventor, author, editor and
publisher who has been called the father of modern science fiction.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/08/20/107196605.pdf
1885:
Birthdate of Kiev native and New York City “merchant” Jacob Ravinovich.
1885:
Beth Hamedresh Hagadol, an Orthodox congregation formed by Polish Jews 30 years
ago, dedicated its new sanctuary on Norfolk Street this afternoon. Rabbi
Abraham Ash, the spiritual leader of the congregation, was the driving force
behind the project.
1885:
The Associate Members’ Literary Society of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association
held a Grant-Montefiore Memorial Meeting this evening in New York City. G.A.
Ettinger delivered a speech in which compared both of these saying that
although one was a man of war and the other a man of peace, “they were alike in
one respect, that both labored for the emancipation of the human race.”
1886:
Based on information that first appeared in the Warsaw Courier two Polish peasants have been sentenced to six
months in prison after having been found of disinterring two Jewish corpses, cutting off their hands
and then grinding them into “little morsels for…medicinal purposes.”
1886(15th
of Av, 5646): Tu B’Av
1886(15th
of Av, 5646): Seventy-two-year-old Henry M. Hirschberg, the husband of Frances
Francks Hirschberg and the father of Georgina, Michael and Isabella Hirschberg
passed away today after he was buried at the Temple Beth Jacob Cemetery in
Newburgh, NY,
1886:
“Last of the Roman Ghetto” published today reported that within the next couple
of weeks the Jew’s quarter of Rome, “a picturesque piece of antiquity” will
disappear. The reporter of the Pall Mall
Gazette (a British publication) described the ghetto as a place where “the Jews
had made themselves…a sort of second fatherland” where they could observe
“their habits and traditions…in a little town” they had all to themselves.
1887:
Joseph Froehlich of Davenport, Iowa donated $4.00 to the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations.
1887:
The will of Jonas Heller which was filed for probate today gave $10,000 for the
Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews on the condition that the Directors erect a
prominently placed tablet saying “In Memory
of Jonas Heller, Trustee, from______ to ______ Bequeathed Ten Thousand
Dollars.”
1888:
It was reported today that Levi Davis, a prominent Jewish citizen living in New
Brunswick, NJ, has filed a suit seeking $10,000 in damages from Charles Scheede
“for ruining his daughter Jennie.” Schweede, who is a partner in the clothing
firm of Schweede Brothers denied the charge.
1888:
It was reported today that Siegfried Porter, a native of Bohemia who is now an
American citizen, testified before Congressman Ford’s Immigration Committee
that he was now able to earn seven or eight dollars a week as a cigar maker
because of the influx of Russian and Polish Jews. According to the embittered witness the Jews
were willing to work for four or five dollars a week and that they lived in
such poor conditions that they were able to save three dollars of that.
1888:
Birthdate of T.E. Lawrence, known to history as “Lawrence of Arabia.” In the popular mind, Lawrence is remembered
as a driving force behind Arab nationalism.
However, Lawrence was not anti-Zionist.
In “The Changing East” he wrote of the way in which the Zionist settlers
would help improve the economic and social condition of the Arab
population. “In 1919 he drafted a letter
for Emir Feisal for a meeting with Felix Frankfurter, a leader of American
Zionists. In his letter Feisal wished ‘the Jews a hearty welcome home’ and
asserted ‘our two movements complete one another.’ ‘There is room in Syria for
both of us’ he concluded.”
1889:
Birthdate of Maurice Copisarow, the Russian born Chemist who came to England in
1908 where he received his education and co-authored a paper with fellow
chemist Chaim Weizmann.
1889:
Birthdate of Chicago native and University of Michigan Law School graduate
Sigmund David.
1890(30th
of Av, 5650) Rosh Chodesh Elul
1890:
Rabbi Gustave Gottheil is scheduled to deliver a sermon today entitled “Who
Needs Converting?”
1890(30th
of Av, 5650): On Shabbat, New York attorney Montague L. Marks passed away
today.
1891:
The funeral for Emilie J. Frank, the widow of Joseph Frank, is scheduled to be
held at the home of her daughter Mrs. William Rosenberg at 40 West 95th
Street.
1891:
As local merchants expressed their indignation over the high-pressure tactics
of salesperson working for the “Jewish Times” the publishers said that the
agent had sent in the ads but that they “were not aware of his making false
representations” to obtain them.
1891:
“Russian Jew Question” published today described the impact the articles that
George Kenan has written on this subject have had including Prime Minister
Gladstone urging Continental to conduct
“a full and fair” investigation of the issue.
1892:
“Charges Against Edward Pollock” published today described events surrounding
Meyer Reinherz’s an agent of the United Hebrew Charities, decision to file a
complaint against Edward Pollock for allegedly attacking him while writing
stories for Austro-Hungarian newspapers.”
1893:
A circular was disturbed today setting forth the rights of the thousands of
unemployed Jewish workers and the wrongs done to them and calling for a mass
meeting tomorrow at the Walhalla Hall on Orchard Street.
1894:
Birthdate of “historian, literary and theater critic, editor, bibliographer,
lexicographer, lecturer, teacher and librarian” Dr. Jacob Shatzky the native of
Warsaw who came to the United States in 1923 and helped to found “the U.S.
Section of the YIVO Institute for Jewish research.”
1894(14th
of Av, 5654): Just two days before her 74th birthday Elisa “Elka”
Hirschfelder Bodenheimer, the daughter of Fradel and Jakob Hirsch Moses
Hirschfelder and the wife of Hermann Bodenheimer with whom she had eight
children passed away today in Germany
1895:
In Massachusetts, the Worcester Hebrew Benevolent Society which had been
founded in 1891 received its charge today.
1895: Birthdate of novelist Albert Cohen. A native of Greece, Cohen worked for various
international organizations located in Switzerland. He became a Swiss citizen
after World War I and based some of his fiction on experiences with the League
of Nations. The Greek native, who was a
Swiss citizen, wrote in French.
1896:
In Lemberg, Austria, “Louis and Ethel (Schaumann) Salpeter gave birth to art
dealer and art critic, Harry Salpeter, the husband of Betty Berkowitz.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/11/14/90417644.pdf
https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/harry-salpeter-papers-9052
1896:
Birthdate of Buffalo native wood engraving artist Asa Cheffetz.
http://rogallery.com/Cheffetz_Asa/cheffetz-biography.html
https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.3742.html
1896:
“Heat and the Babes” published today described various steps being taken to
beat the August heat including the decision of the Hebrew Institute to open a
free roof garden on the top of its building.
1897:
Birthdate of Sir Hersch Lauterpacht the Austro-Hungarian born British Jurist
who served as a member of the United Nations Internal Law Commission and a
Judge of the International Court of Justice.
1897:
In Missouri, Russian born Joseph Lazarus Kranson and Caroline Kranson gave
birth to Bernard J. Kranson today.
1898:
Children are being removed from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum at 138th
Street and Amsterdam Avenue because of an epidemic of dysentery.
1898:
“For Jewish Worshippers” published today described a letter J.E. Bloom,
Assistant Adjutant General, Third Brigade, Second Division, Third Army Corps
wrote to the President and Executive Committee of the Young Men’s Hebrew
Association in New York suggesting that they raise funds to be used to “provide
a large tent for holding religious services for Jewish soldiers” attending the
re-union at the Chickamauga Battlefield this Fall.
1898:
“Great Charity Enterprise” published today described plans for a fundraiser to
be sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Charity Association in Chicago. Half of the funds will go to Michael Reese
Hospital and the other half will go to the United Hebrew Charities.
1899:
It was reported today that “the leading Jews of Europe are” planning on holding
a meeting “in Switzerland in order to form an international association for
their defense against the crusade of the anti-Semites and to protect the Jews
in France after the Dreyfus court-martial is ended.”
1899:
The New York Federation of Zionists met at Cooper Union tonight. “They adopted
resolutions against anti-Semitism and for the rejuvenation of Zion.”
1899:
“Jews Aid The Dewey Home Fund” published today described the “considerable
interest” that the Jews have shown in raising money to buy a home for the Hero
of Manila Bay. “At least one-fourth of
the names making up the list of contributors so far are Jews.”
1899:
In South Africa, President Kruger “has issued a brochure supporting his
proposal regarding the removal of religious disabilities” which would the
discrimination against the Jews by the Protestant dominated government.
1899:
Julius P. Witmark, J.W. Bratton, Sager Midgley, J. Leslie Gossing, J.J.
Raffael, Miss Alic Magil, Smith O’Brien, Miss Grace L. Weir and Fred Rycroff
proved the entertainment tonight at the Arverne Hotel Casino where a
fund-raiser was held for the benefit of the Hebrew Infant Asylum.
1899(10th
of Elul, 5659): Abraham Cohen Labatt, native of Charleston, SC who founded
several Reform Congregations from South Carolina to Louisiana to California to
Texas passed away in Galveston.
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fla72
1900:
The Fourth Zionist Congress came to an end in London.
1901:
“Items from Philadelphia” took note of the recent publication by Edward Stern
and Company of A Rabbi’s Impressions of the Oberammergau Passion Play by
Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf of Philadelphia.
1902:
In Dvinks Latvia, Mendel and Sarah (Einhorn) Siegel.to philosopher, educator,
founder of Aesthetic Realism Eli Siegel
https://aestheticrealism.org/about-us/eli-siegel-founder/
1902:
Birthdate of novelist Georgette Heyer, author of the 1950 Regency Roman, The
Grand Sophy which featured a “villainous moneylender named Goldhanger, who
is described as a “swarthy individual, with long, greasy curls, a semitic nose,
and an ingratiating leer” in a scene which has come to be seen as anti-Semitic
and which was, “sanitized” in a posthumously revised edition much to the
chagrin of those who think an author’s work should not be “modified” to comply
with 21st century sensitivity.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/30/books/georgette-heyer-romance-novel-antisemitism.html
1902: Several thousand persons greeted Samuel
Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, at Mountain Lake Park,
Maryland where he delivered an address before the Chautauqua Assembly on
"Labor and Capital -- the Workman's Side of the Story."
1903(23rd
of Av, 5663): Seventy-one-year-old Moses Polock “a well-known and somewhat
eccentric antiquarian bookseller” who was the maternal uncle of Abraham Simon
Wolf Rosenbach as well as mentor passed away today.
1903:
In Newark, NJ, The Young Ladies’ Zionist Society hosted an ice cream festival
this evening at Foresters’ Hall where several “well-known Zionists” addressed
the attendees.
1903:
Herzl stopped in Vilna where a tremendous ovation is awaiting him. Old Reb
Shleimele lifted his hands over Herzl and pronounced the Priestly Benediction.
After one day of rest in Altaussee, Herzl left for Basle and the Sixth
Congress.
1903:
In Brooklyn, NY, “the annual ice cream festival of the Shosanath Zion was held”
today “at the Arion Hall.”
1904:
“Reports from the Governors of Radom and Syedlets, Russian Poland, which have
been received by the Police Department of the Ministry of the Interior, state
that the reports of Jewish massacres in the small Polish towns of Parchevo and
Ostrovetz arose from affrays between the Jewish and Christian inhabitants, in
which the Jews in both cases were the aggressors.”
1905(15th
of Av, 5665): Tu B’Av
1905(15th
of Av, 5665): Seventy-six-year-old Yetta Hacks the Bavarian born daughter of
Zidone Wald and Joseph Hacks and the wife of Louis Stix who she marred at
Cincinnati in 1852 and with whom she had ten children, passed away today in Far
Rockaway, NY
1905(15th
of Av, 5665): Tu B’Av
1905:
The “District Grand Lodge No 1 of the Independent Order of the Free Sons of
Israel, the larger Jewish fraternal institution in the United States is
scheduled to hold its annual picnic” today “at the Manhattan Casino.”
1906:
A telegram sent today from Warsaw to the Jewish Chronical says “250 Jews were
killed or wounded by the soldiery” and “in an orgy pf blood in the Jewish
quarter” more than 300 “persons were clubbed or bayoneted…”
1906:
In Philadelphia, “disturbances occurred between Jewish strikers and the
non-Jewish workingmen” who had been hired to replace them.
1907:
“Reminiscences of the Breslau Seminary: Leyser Lazarus” appeared today in
“Jewish Comment.”
1908:
Birthdate of Philadelphia, PA native Fannie Turnoff Belsky the wife of Abraham
Belsky
1909:
La Divorziata, the Italian version of
Die geschiedene Frau (The Divorcée),
“an operetta in three acts by Leo Fall with a libretto by Victor Léon” opened
today “at the Teatro Lirico Internationale in Milan.”
1909
(29th Av): Rabbi Samuel “Shmuel” Salant Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi of
Jerusalem, who was a leading Talmudist and a friend of Moses Montefiore passed
away and was buried on the Mount of Olives.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D04E3D6173EE733A25754C1A96E9C946897D6CF
1910:
“Striking demonstrations by Nathan Straus of the efficacy of his method of
saving babies lives” which included the drop in the death at Sandhausaen after
Mr. Straus established an infant milk depot that began supplying pasteurized
milk “aroused great interest at the German Imperial Health Office.
1911:
Rabbis David de Sola Pool and H.Z. Masliansky and laymen Louis Lipsky and
Reuben Brainin were among those who spoke at “a mass meeting at the Educational
Alliance” marking the opening of the Tenth Congress of the Federation of
American Zionists.
1912:
In Harrisburg, PA, Rabbi Eliezer Silver, the Lithuanian born “son of R' Bunim
Tzemach Silver, A.B.D. Dobel, Kamai & Dosat and Chaya Malka Zilber” and his
wife Bessie (Batya) Silver (Aronowitz) gave birth to Dr. Nathan Nata Silver,
the husband of Lillian Silver.
1912:
In Harrisburg, PA, Rabbi Eliezer Silver, the Lithuanian born “son of R' Bunim
Tzemach Silver, A.B.D. Dobel, Kamai & Dosat and Chaya Malka Zilber” and his
wife Bessie (Batya) Silver (Aronowitz) gave birth to Fruma Pessia Gershuni, the
wife of Rabbi Yehuda Gershuni.
1912(3rd
of Elul, 5672): Seventy-year-old Elias Landauer who with “his spouse, Bertha
Bodenheimer Landauer, immigrated from Germany in 1866 settled in Harrisonburg,
Louisiana where he operated a retail supply business for 22 years before coming
to New Orleans and opening Landauer & Meyer, a wholesale hat store” passed
away today.
1913:
“Potash and Perlmutter” a British comedy “featuring the characters Abe Potash
and Mawruss Perlmutter, who are business partners in the garment industry”
opened today in New York at the George M. Cohan Theatre.
1913:
In “Brest, a town called Brest-Litovsk, then part of the Russian Empire, but
today Belarus” Zeev and Hassia Biegun” gave birth to Menachem Begin, Prime
Minister of Israel and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. The life of Menachem Begin is too colorful
and controversial to be covered in this brief guide. His life became one of many
contradictions. Consider that this
political heir to Jabotinsky, the man who waged violent war against the British
in the last years of the Mandate was the man who signed the peace accord with
Sadat.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/begin.html
http://www.biography.com/people/menachem-begin-37331
1914:
As WW I expanded, the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) which would later
include Dr. Michael Adler as the first Jewish chaplain to serve with the
British Army overseas, landed in France today
1915:
It was reported today that Louis D. Brandeis and Nathan Straus will address the
upcoming national meeting of Jews to be held at Cooper Union.
1915:
Among those who were reported today to have addressed the mass meeting aimed at
raising money for Jews in the war zone were Dr. M.S. Margolies, President of
the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of New York, Dr. Moses Hyamson the rabbi of
Congregation Orach Cahim in New York and Rabbi Aaron Tietelbaum of Jerusalem.
1915:
A lynch mob from Marietta, GA arrived at the prison in Milledgeville. After cutting the telephone wire emptying the
gas from the prison’s automobiles and handcuffing the warden, they seized Leo
Frank and drove away from the prison.
1916:
Today, DePauw University graduate and University of Chicago trained attorney
Benjamin Blumberg the son of Max and Theresa Blumberg who served as an officer
realty and investment companies while being a member of Temple Israel and the
Temple Israel Men’s Cub married Fannie Louise Burgheim.
1916:
Neutral Romania continued its negotiations with the Entente Powers, as the
Allies try to get her to declare war on the Central Powers – a move that could
have profound effect on the suffering Jewish population of that eastern
European nation.
1917:
Two after she was killed in air raid along with her husband during WW I, Leah
Cohen, the wife of John Cohen was buried at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery in
London.
1917:
Two days after he was killed in an air raid along with his wife, 54-year-old
John Cohen was buried at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.
1917:
The State Department instructed Ira Nelson Morris, the American Minister to
Sweden “to forward $25,000 for the continuation of soup kitchens and relief of
Jews in Turkey.”
1917(28th
of Av, 5677): Seventy-five-year-old
Rabbi David Baer Kamaiky passed away today at Tiberias.
1917:
In the East New York section of Brooklyn Benjamin and Bertha Taubman gave birth
to “Dorothy Taubman, who developed a method to help pianists strengthen their
techniques and avoid repetitive strain injuries.” (As reported by Vivien
Schweitzer)
1918(8th
of Elul, 5678): Sixty-eight-year-old Dr. Adolf Rosenzweig, the rabbi at the New
Synagogue (Neue Synagoge) in Oranienburger Straße, Berlin passed away today and
was buried under a gravestone on which was written "The law of truth was
in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips" (Malachi
2:6).
1918:
It was reported today Joseph Duveen, “a well-known member of the Anglo-Jewish
Community” has offered to provide the funds for a National Gallery for modern
foreign art that had been planned for by a committee chaired by Lord Curzon in
1915.
1919:
“The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” is distributed in Germany and the United
States.
1920(2nd
of Elul, 5680): Adolf Kahn, the son of Jacob Kohn and Franziska Kahn and the
husband of Elsie Kahn passed away today in Vienna.
1920:
Morris Abrams, “who ran a successful company that produced machinery and
factory tools” and the former Freda Sugarman gave birth to Dr. Herbert Leroy
Abrams “a radiologist at Stanford and Harvard universities and a founder of
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1985 for its work in publicizing the health consequences of
atomic warfare.” (As reported by William Grimes)
1921:
In London, The Times published the first in a series of articles by it
“Constantinople Correspondent” that “incontrovertibly demonstrated that ‘The
Protocols’ consist in the main of ‘clumsy plagiarisms’ from a French political
pamphlet directed against Napoleon III and published in Brussels in 1865 by a
French Lawyer named Maurice Joly and entitled ‘Dialogues in Hell between
Machiavelli and Montesquieu.’”
1921:
Rabbi Joseph Hertz, who had been the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom from
1913 completed his tour of Canada today after giving a final lecture on the
Bible in St. John, New Brunswick.
1922:
Birthdate of Herbert Vogel, the New York born postal clerk, who, along with his
wife, became “fabled art collectors. (As reported by Douglas Marin)
1922:
“Theatrical release of ‘Up and at ‘Em’” a silent film which “marks the first
Hollywood screenplay” by Lewis Mileston.”
1922:
Edgar Raphael Meyer Spielman, the London born son of Sir Meyer Adam Spielman
and Gertrude Emily Spielman and his wife Mozelle Spielman gave birth to Nancy
Louise Lank, the wife of Herbert Lank.
1923:
Rabbi Meir Shapiro “introduced his idea” of “a daily regimen” of studying the
Babylonian Talmud “one day at a time in a cycle of seven and a half years” “at
the First World Congress of the World Agudath Israel in Vienna” today.
1923:
Birthdate of Shimon Peres, Zionist leader who would hold numerous positions
including President of the Jewish state.
There are as many views of Peres as there are candles on his birthday
cake.
1924(16th
of Av, 5684): Parashat Vaetchanan
1924:
A copy of the law which has been described as “the most important legislation
enacted in Palestine…because it removes custom duties from all machinery
intended for industrial purposes imported into the Holy Land arrived in New
York today.
1925:
The Palestine Foundation Fund reported that it had spent $8,646,750 in the
economic rebuilding of Palestine during its four years of existence, just
concluded. More than 60 per cent of this sum has come from American Jews,
according to the statement, the balance being collected from fifty-two other
countries. $2,570,785 was expended on farming enterprises and $1,624,695 for
Hebrew education. Samuel Untermeyer is President of the American branch of the
fund.
1926:
Today, Time magazine wrote: "If it is strange that Otto Hermann Kahn,
sensitive patron of high art in Manhattan, should have a saxophone-tooting,
banjo-plunking, clarinet-wailing, violin-jazzing son, it is stranger still that
that son, Roger Wolfe Kahn, has become a truly outstanding jazzer at the
perilous age of 18
1926:
Sephardic and Oriental Jews at a Zionist conference in Vienna had their
delegates gather for the purpose of furthering Zionist interests among their
peoples.
1927(18th
of Av, 5687): Forty-eight-year-old Jennie Weiner passed away today after which
she was buried at the Waldheim Jewish Cemetery in Cook County, Illinois.
1927(18th
of Av, 5687): Seventy-five-year-old Leopold Pick, the husband of Betty Pick
passed away today.
1928:
“Jewish colonization work in Crimea for which a sufficient sum will be made
available through the $10,000,000 Rosenwald fund was given further impetus and
opportunity by the decision of the All-Russian Zik, the Central Executive
Committee, to allot an additional area in Crimea of 109,000 hectares where
15,000 Jewish families may be settled as farmers.”
1929:
In Amsterdam, neurologist “Herman H. DeJong” and psychologist “Marianna
(Witteboon) De Jong whose “Jewish roots made them targets of the Nazis” gave
birth to Evelyn Yvonne DeJong who gained fame as corporate gadfly Evelyn Y.
Davis. (As reported by Emily Flitter)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/business/evelyn-davis-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Obituaries
1929: Although warned by the Zionist Executive that the Arabs were preparing to
attack the Jews of Jerusalem in massive riots, High Commissioner Sir John
Chancellor refused to cut his vacation short, declaring that relations between
the sides were improving. After Friday prayers on the day after the ninth of
Av, two thousand Arabs attacked Jews praying at the Western Wall. One Jewish
youth was stabbed in the back. The British Government refused to condemn the
attack leading the Arabs again to believe that the British supported their
riots.
1930:
“Dreyfus” or “The Dreyfus Case, “as it would be known when released in the
United States, based on a novel about the French officer directed by Richard
Oswald and starring Fritz Kornter in the title role was released today in the
Weimar Republic (Germany)/
1930(22nd
of Av, 5690): Gustave Frohman who along with his brothers Charles and Daniel
worked together as theatrical producers and advanced men passed away.
http://www.jta.org/1930/08/19/archive/gustave-frohman-eminent-theatrical-figure-dead
1931:
Birthdate of “piano prodigy” Michael “Mickey” Leonard the native of Rockville
Center, NY who became a leading composer and arranger. (As reported by Daniel
L. Slotnik)
http://www.playbill.com/article/michael-leonard-broadway-composer-dead-at-84-com-371319
1932:
In Washington, DC, “Marceline Gray and George Jackson Eder, a lawyer and
economist who for a time worked in the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt”
gave birth to Richard Gray Eder the New
York Times foreign correspondent who “won a Pulitzer Prize for his book
reviews in The Los Angeles Times.”
1933:
Following a baseball game in Toronto, six hours of violence broke out between
Harbord Playground, which was predominantly Jewish, and St. Peter's, a baseball
team sponsored by a church at Bathurst and Bloor that became known as the
Christie Pitts Riot.
1933:
In New York, more than seventy thousand workers joined a strike called by the
ILGWU under the leadership of David Dubinsky.
1933:
In Berlin Kurt Maschler, a successful publisher’s representative and Rita
(Lechner) Maschler gave birth to Thomas Michael Maschler, the refugee from Nazi
Germany and swashbuckling British publisher who fostered the literary careers
of more than a dozen Nobel laureates and conceived the coveted Booker Prize to
promote fiction…” (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1933:
Three hundred Polish Jews including a group of 140 chalutzim leave for
Palestine.
1933:
Local authorities in East Prussia inform Jews that they must call for their
mail because Nazi postmen will be humiliated in delivering mail to Jews.
1934:
In Liverpool, a homemaker Violet
Greenberg and Harry Buxton, a jewelry trader in Leeds, gave birth to Angela
Buxton, a granddaughter of Russian Jews who had fled the pogroms in the early
1900s, who forged barrier breaking relationship with fellow tennis player,
Althea Gibson.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/sports/tennis/angela-buxton-dead.html?searchResultPosition=4
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/aug/19/angela-buxton-obituary
1934:
Birthdate of Dr. Daniel Norman Stern “a psychiatrist who increased the
understanding of early human development by scrutinizing the most minute
interactions between mothers and babies” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1936:
The 1936 Olympics came to an end in Berlin.
Calls for boycotting the Hitler Olympics fell on deaf ears.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005680
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/detail.php?content=jewish_athletes_more&lang=en
1936:
The New York Times published a lengthy review of Jewish Studies in
Memory of George A. Kohut, 1874-1933, edited by Salo W. Baron and Alexander
Marx.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0F16F63C59167B93C4A81783D85F428385F9
1936(28th of Av, 5696): An eight-year-old Jewish boy “was killed
and nineteen Jews were injured by the explosion of a bomb thrown by an Arab
from a train window into one of the principal streets of Tel Aviv today as the
train was passing the city en route to Jaffa.” In the last three days ten Jews
– 7 adults and 3 children – have been killed in Safed, Haifa and on the highway
between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Authorities fear that this latest in a series of attacks that began four
months ago will finally provoke the Jewish population into acts of violence
aimed at their attackers.
1936(28th
of Av, 5696): “Julius Vagshall, an employee of the Palestine Electric Company
was shot by assailants from the darkness near Mikveh Israel” and two others
were wounded in what was the climax to a night of terror in which at least
twenty people were wounded including British constable.
1936:
“Saar Now Shares Reich Hardships” published today described the deteriorating
conditions of the territory seized by the Germans 18 months ago including a
scarcity of capital for investment that “has been greatly intensified by the
emigration of approximately 5, 000 Jew…who under the Rome protocol were allowed
to take all of their property with them…”
1936:
In Cleveland, Ohio, between 25,000 and 30,000 followers of Father Charles E.
Coughlin heard him this afternoon in Municipal Stadium describe “his
disillusionment in President Roosevelt” and “challenge the Jews of America to
accept the doctrine of Christian brotherhood…”
1936:
According to the Palcor Agency, the Palestine Government “was accused of
negligence in the protection of Jews from Arab violence.”
1936:
“The World Jewish Congress decided tonight to incorporate as a permanent
organization in Switzerland” with offices in Geneva, Paris and New York that
should be financed by the $75,000 that will be raised in 1937.
1936:
“A Yiddish Novel” published today provided a review of Noah Pandre
written by Salman Schneour and translated by Joseph Leftwich.
1936:
“Studies in Memory of George Kohut” published today provided a review of Jewish
Studies in Memory of George A. Kohut edited by Salo W. Baron and Alexander
Marx
1936:
It was reported today that “all efforts of Emir Abdullah to mediate between the
Palestine Government and the Arabs have been futile” because “none of the older
Arab leaders dare accept the British Government’s proposal of a royal
commission in the fact of the militant Nationalist youths” who have been
attacking Arabs who oppose them.
1936:
It was reported today that “a reign of terror is prevailing throughout
Palestine” where “Arab leaders, especially Arab police officer are just as
exposed to the bullets” of Arab terrorists “as Britons and Jews.”
1936:
In “Habimah in Emek,” published today Arthur Settel describes a recent
performance of “Jew Suss” in Ain Taun a village in the Valley Of Jezrel on the
northern plain of Palestine.
1937:
“Hammer Icons” published today tells the story of Armand and Victor Hammer,
“two of the most startling characters in the U.S. art world.
1937:
The 20th World Zionist Congress comes to an end with a resounding
vote of support for Dr. Chaim Weizmann who was re-elected as President with
only 8 delegates voting against him
1937:
Talks are proceeding between Americans of Jewish and of Arab origin with a view
to-exploring the possibilities of bringing peace between their peoples in
Palestine by applying the American federal principle, it was revealed by Adil
Arslan, one of the Arab High Committee's two delegates here.
1938(19th
of Av, 5698): Arabs killed three people when they kidnapped a Jewish family
today at Atlit.
1938:
Andrej Hlinka, a Catholic Priest, a leader of the Slovak National Party and “a
symbol of Slovak fascism” passed away.
He opposed the democratic principles of Czechoslovakia and was an
admirer of Hitler and Mussolini.
Although he died before the war, he was considered to be the spiritual
“godfather” of Slovak nationalism that sent 70,000 Jews to the concentration
camps, most of whom perished.
1938:
Russian born, British trained Harry Mordecai Freedman began serving as the
“rabbi of the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation at South Harra.”
1939:
More than 600 Zionists from all parts of the world attend the twenty-first
World Zionist Congress, which opens in Geneva today. The congress will last
thirteen days.
1939:
Birthdate of American banjo player Eric Weissberg best known for “Dueling
Banjos” which provided the musical background for “Deliverance.”
1939(1st
of Elul, 5699): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1940:
“Foreign Correspondent” a spy film produced by Walter Wanger, with music by
Alfred Newman and filmed by cinematographer Rudolph Maté was released in the
United States today.
1940:
The Vichy (France) government prohibited aliens from practicing as physicians,
dentists or pharmacists. This destroyed
the livelihood for numerous Jews who had fled to France before the war and/or
were not living in Vichy at the time of the French surrender to the Nazis. The Jews living in Vichy France would learn
that anti-Semitism was part and parcel of the Petain government
1940:
Today the building at 770 Eastern Parkway in the Crown Heights section of
Brooklyn, New York was purchased by Agudas Chassidei Chabad (the
Chabad-Lubavitch community) to house the living quarters, study and office,
Yeshivah, and synagogue of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak
Schneersohn who had arrived in New York (following his rescue from
Nazi-occupied Warsaw) five months earlier [It would later serve as the
headquarters of his son-in-law and successor, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson,
and become the vortex of Chabad-Lubavitch's global network of institutions of
Jewish education and outreach.]
1941(16th
of Av, 5701): Parashat Eikev
1941:
Birthdate of Brooklyn native Vivian Hoffman who gained famed as Vivian
Stromberg a champion of women’s rights around the world and founder of Madre.
1942:
In the Warsaw Ghetto at today’s selection only two members of Władysław
Szpilman’s family “were passed as fit to work” while “the rest of the family
was taken to the Umschlagplatz.
1942:
Tonight, all the members of Władysław Szpilman’s family were shipped from
Warsaw to Treblinka where they were murdered.
1943: Nazi troops enter the Jewish ghetto at
Bialystok, Poland and over the next four days destroy the more than 30,000 Jews
inside. Hundreds of Resistance fighters, led by Mordechai Tenenbaum-Tamaroff
and Daniel Moszkowicz--who battle back with small arms, axes, and bayonets--are
annihilated. Those who survive are transported to death camps, where 25,000 are
killed
1943: Inmates revolt at the slave-labor camp at
Krychów, Poland.
1943:
During World War II, the keel for the SS Oscar Strauss was laid today.
1943:
Maurice H. Rindskopf was among the officers serving on ehe USS Drum, an
American submarine as she left Brisbane on her seventh war patrol
1943:
The Spanish government stated that they would allow more repatriated Jews to
come to Spain, "only if those in Spain already left." The obvious
lack of sentiment on the part of Spain was apparent to the Joint Distribution
Committee, which went ahead and placed a "priority" on emigration of
"these so-called Sephardics." The Jews who did make it to Spain were
not in any way treated like citizens.
1944:
In Newark, NJ, Dr. William Zimmer and Evelyn Zimmer gave birth Yale Law School
graduate and Republican party leader Richard Alan “Dick” Zimmer “who served in
both houses of the New Jersey Legislature and in the United States House of
Representatives.”
1944:
A train arrived at Birkenau from Athens with 1,651 Jews from Rhodes and 94 from
Kos. Upon arrival and then separation, Sidney Fahn would see his wife and young
child for the last time. Only 151 of these Jews would survive.
1945:
In Chicago, Illinois, Eleanor (née Pottasch) and Elmer Balaban, who owned
several movie theatres and later was a pioneer in cable television gave birth
to Robert Elmer “Bob” Balaban the “actor, author, producer and director who
gave one of his most memorable roles in “The Monuments Men” as Private Preston
Savitz.
1945:
Today, “President Truman called…for the free and open settlement of Palestine
by Jews to the point consistent with the maintenance of civil peace.” For the first time he revealed that that U.S.
government has informed the British who are attending the Big Three’s Berlin
Conference. (The Big Three were the U.S., U.K. and U.S.S.R.)
1945:
Former Iowa Senator Guy Gillette who is President of the American League for a
Free Palestine expressed his “disappointment at the inconclusive nature of the
American position” about Jewish settlement “as outlined by” President Truman
today. According to Gillette, millions
of displaced persons have been returned to their homes. Yet, the Jews, who suffered the most, have
been denied a clear solution to their plight.
The League of Nations had already designated that Palestine should be a
free and independent nation. According
to Gillette, Palestine “is the historic national territory of the Hebrew people
and their right to enter it should no
longer be challenged.
1945:
“Dr. Abba Hillel Silver of Cleveland, Ohio and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of New
York were elected member of the executive board of the Jewish Agency for
Palestine by the general council of the World Zion Conference today in London,
UK.”
1946:
In New York City, “Margot (née Verblow), a singer, and William Warren, a real
estate agent whose original surname was "Warrenoff" gave birth to act
Academy Award nominated actress Lesley Ann Warren.
1947(30th
of Av, 5707): Parshat Re’eh: Rosh Chodesh Elul
1947:
‘Lewis Neikrug, director of overseas activities, of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid
Society, said today he had been informed that the Australian Government had in
the last few days asked organizations dealing with Jewish immigration not to
send any Jews to Australia on ships flying American, British or Panamanian
flags.’
1948: Birthdate of Patrick Balkany, the native of Neuilly-sur-Seine, who is a member of the National Assembly of France
1948(11th of Av, 5708): Sixty-seven-year-old
“Yiddish dramatist and novelist Peretz Hirschbein” lost his three year battle
with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), and passed away
today in Los Angeles
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Hirshbeyn_Perets
1948(11th of Av, 5708): Fifty-five-year-old Harry Dexter White passed
away today after having answered accusations before HUAC that he was a
communist and a traitor.
http://spartacus-educational.com/Harry_Dexter_White.htm
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2000/wp00149.pdf
1948: Three months after the establishment of the State of Israel,
an agreement was signed between the Bank Leumi and the temporary Government.
The official charter appointing the Bank as the Government's financial agent
was signed by Hoofien and the Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. On that very
day, the official bank notes of the new state, bearing the name of the
Anglo-Palestine Bank and the signatures of Hoofien and Barth, were distributed.
The Israeli pound becomes legal tender.
1949: Herzl's remains are transferred to Jerusalem
and reburied on Mount Herzl.
1949:
Netiv HaLamed-Heh ( נְתִיב הַל"ה, Path of the 35) a kibbutz in central Israel
located in the Valley of Elah, was established today by demobilized members of
the Daled Company of the Palmach's Harel Brigade. It was initially named Peled
(an acronym for Plugot Daled, lit. Daled Company) It was later renamed after
the 35 Haganah soldiers killed in a convoy to resupply the Gush Etzion
kibbutzim during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine (Lamed-Heh is
35 in Hebrew numerals).
1950:
“No Way Out” a film noir directed by Joseph L. Mankeiwicz with music by Alfred
Newman was released in the United States today by 20th Century Fox.
1951:
“The Guy Who Came Back” featuring Zero Mostel was released in the United States
today by 20th Century Fox.
1955:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at “The Riverside” for Louis H.
Sobel, the executive director of the Jewish Child Care Association.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1955/08/16/79451228.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1956(9th
of Elul, 5716): A squad of Fedayeen attacked Egged Bus 391 traveling from
Tel-Aviv to Eilat murdering three soldiers and a female civilian passenger and
wounding an additional three civilian passengers. (Editor’s Note – Fedayeen was
the 1950’s name for the terrorists. The
names have changed over the decades but the deadly attacks remain the same.)
1959:
In Rochester, NY, at Temple Bethel, Rabbi Abraham Karp officiated at the
wedding of Naomi Kitty Sachran, the daughter of former New York State Supreme
Court Justice Goodman Sacharan and University of Michigan trained Engineer
Warren Singer.
1959(12th
of Av, 5719): Harpsichordist and composer Wanda Landowska, who was credited
with the 20th-century revival of harpsichord music passed away.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/aug/16/1959/wanda-landowska
1960:
Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom (Great Britain). Jews have lived on the island of Cyprus since
the days of the ancient Greeks. In
modern times, Cyprus provided a haven for Jews trying to escape from Hitler’s
Europe. After the war, the British set
up internment camps on the island where they detained Jews trying to run the
blockade and reach pre-Israel Palestine.
Israel established diplomatic relations with Cyprus and the Israeli
embassy served as focal point for the small Cypriot Jewish community.
1960(23rd
of Av, 5720): Seventy-five-year-old Martha Zadek, the wife of old
“writer, theatre critic, journalist and art collector” Alfred Gold the Vienna
born son of merchant Samuel Gold and Sara Pipper and mother of sculptor Marane
Gold Littman passed away today.
1961:
Frank Robinson hit a homer off of Larry Sherry as the Jewish pitcher and the
Dodgers came out on the short end of game with the Reds losing 6 to 0.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/08/18/90177138.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
https://www.amazon.com/Doubleday-book-interior-decorating/dp/B0006BMVXM
1965(18th
of Av, 5725): Eighty-four-year-old Russian born NYU Law School graduate Harry
Handler, “the principal of the Stone Avenue Talmud Torah in Brooklyn” for 39
years and the husband of “the former Esther Liskowsky” passed away today while
“visiting his son Dr. Archie Handler.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/08/18/101562176.pdf
1965:
David Katz, “the founder of the Queens Symphony Orchestra” and Jeanne Dale
Katz, the founder of “the Queens Council of on the Arts gave birth to St.
John’s University School of Law trained attorney Melinda R. Katz, the former
New York City Councilwoman who went on to serve as the Queens Borough
President.
1966(30th
of Av, 5726): Seventy-two-year-old Yale educated anthropologist Edwin Loeb, the
Manhattan born son of Albert and Rose Guggenheim and the husband of Margurite
Gladys David Waldman whom he married 1916, Lisl Groag Davis whom he married in
1930 and Ella-Marie Karr and the father of three children – Robert, Peter and Barbara –
who served with OSS during WW II passed away today
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1967.69.2.02a00070
1966:
Simon and Garfunkel record “the 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’
Groovy”I as the 6th cut on side one of “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and
Thyme.”
1969(2nd
of Elul, 5729): Parashat Shoftim
1969(2nd
of Elul, 5729): Portrait painter Henry R. Rittenberg, the 1929 winner of the
Thomas R. Proctor portrait prize at the National Academy of Design and husband
of Rachel Rittenberg whose best known work may be his paint of “President Harry
S. Truman in a group at the Potsdam Conference in 1945” passed away today.
1971(25th
of Av, 5731): Seventy-six-year-old Edward Anthony, the former director of
public relations during Herbert Hoover’s successful presidential campaign and
magazine editor passed away today.
1972:
“Two British girls, unaware that the gramophone given them by 2 Arab
acquaintances in Rome was booby trapped” carried it on board an El Al Flight
bound for Lod” where it exploded in the luggage compartment causing “slight
damage.” (Jewish Virtual Library)
1973(18th
of Av, 5733): Selman Waksman, Ukrainian-born American biochemist and recipient
of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine passed away.
http://www.jewoftheweek.net/?s=Selman+Abraham+Waksman+&submit=Search
1975(9th
of Elul, 5735): Parashat, Ki Teitzei
1975(9th
of Elul, 5735: Ninety-nine-year-old “Balance Frank Ittleson, a pioneer in
mental health care” and the “the widow of Henry Ittleson, founder of the
Commercial Credit and Investment Company” passed away today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ittleson-blanche-frank
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/17/archives/blanche-ittleson-99-dies-a-pioneer-in-mental-health.html
1976:
In Washington, the national convention of Hadassah continued for a second day.
1978:
Pitcher Ross Baumgarten makes his major league debut with the White Sox.
1978:
In Moscow, the government continued its “anti-Zionist trials” today with
Alexander Podrabinek as the prisoner in the dock.
1980(4th
of Elul, 5740): Parashat Shoftim
1980:
“The Israeli Government is pressing the Carter Administration to reach
agreement before the November election on guidelines clarifying the American
pledge to sell oil to Israel during an emergency.”
1984:
Hadassah leader Bernice S. Tannenbaum brought “a five-member delegation” to the
White House where they “met with President Ronald
Reagan for 40 minutes over tea, coffee and cookies, to lobby against the
resolution linking Zionism and racism.” Reagan agreed “to publicly repudiate”
“the United Nations resolution defining Zionism as a ‘form of racism and racial
discrimination’” and “that the U.S. delegation would walk out of” the U.N.
Conference at Nairobi “if the Zionism-equals-racism resolution was included in
the final conference declaration.”
1985:
Lieutenant General Sidney T. Weinstein, one of the highest ranking Jewish
soldiers at that time, began serving “as the Deputy Chief of Staff for
Intelligence, Headquarters Department of the Army
1985:
Birthdate of Bensiyon Songavkar, the Indian born Jewish professional cricketer.
1986:
Today, University of Michigan graduate Robert Present Tisch, the Brooklyn born
son of Sadye and Al Tisch and husband of Joan Hyman with whom he had three
children – Steve, Jonathan and Laurie – “Who was the chairman and—along with
his brother Laurence Tisch—was part owner of the Loews Corporation” was
apponted 68th United States Postmaster General.
1988(3rd
of Elul, 5748): Auckland City Councillor Harold Goodman, the husband of Dame
Barbara Goodman, passed away.
1988: Ed Koch, the Jewish Mayor of New York City says
he plans to wipe out street-corner windshield washers
1988:
The New York Times included reviews
of Confessions of a Good Arab by Yoram Kaniuk, translated by Dalya Bilu
and The Road to Ein Harod by Amos Kenan, translated by Anselm Hollo.
1989:
15th of Av, 5749): Tu B’Av
1989:
Today, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a telegram to Israeli
security forces warning that Hezbollah terrorists were on their way to Brazil
“in order commit attacks on diplomatic representatives of Israel.”
1991(6th
of Elul, 5751): Sixty-six-year-old “Dr. Gerson D. Cohen, chancellor emeritus of
the Jewish Theological Seminary” and the husband of scholar Naomi Choen passed
away today.
1992:
In Buenos Aires, Ricardo and Silvana Schwartzman gave birth to Tennis Champion
Diego Schwartzman known as “El Peque.”
http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/diego-schwartzman-into-world-top-20-after-winning-rio-open/
1993: The two men who kidnapped Harvey Weinstein, a formalwear
manufacturer and chairman of Lord West Formal Wear are arrested in New York
when the go to pick up the ransom.
Weinstein survives and lives to the ripe old age of 82.
1993(29th
of Av, 5753): Eighty-eight-year-old grand prix driver Rene Dreyfus passed away
today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/19/obituaries/rene-dreyfus-auto-racer-88.html
1994: The
first ever Papal Nuncio to Israel presented his credentials in Jerusalem
1994(9th
of Elul, 5754): Seventy-two-year-old Pennsylvania born WW II Army Veteran
Alfred Sachs, the longtime employee of the “Maryland Toll Authority’s Harbor
Tunnel” and husband of Dorothy Sachs passed away today.
1995(20th
Av, 5755): Sixty-six-year-old newspaper executive Stanley Asimov, the brother
of Isaac Asimov passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/17/obituaries/stanley-asimov-66-newsday-executive.html
1995:
Seven months after premiering at Sundance, “The Usual Suspects” a dark crime movie
directed by Bryan Singer and filmed by cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel was
released in the United States today.
1996(1st of
Elul, 5756): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1996(1st
of Elul, 5676): Forty-seven-year-old composer Miles Goodman passed away today.
http://america.pink/miles-goodman_3015112.html
1996: “The
Fan” a film that takes a dark look at celebrity produced by Wendy Fineman, with
music by Hans Zimmer and co-starring Ellen Barkin was released in the United
States today by TriStar Pictures.
1998: The New York Times featured a review of The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the
Birth of Public Relations by
Larry Tye. Bernays is the Austrian born
Jew who was the nephew of Sigmund Freud.
2000(15th of Av, 5760): Tu B’Av observed for the first time in
the 21st century.
2000(15th of Av, 5760): Rabbi Chanoch Dov Padow, the Galician
born son of Toybe
Padwa and R’Eleazar Wolf Padwa” the Jerusalem rabbi who led London’s Haredi
Jewish community for half a century passed away today.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1368138/Rabbi-Chanoch-Padwa.html
2000:A
documentary film entitled “The Ballad of Rambling Jack Elliot” about the life
of Brooklyn native Elliott Adnopoz the son of a middle class Jewish doctor who
transformed himself into a musical iconoclast opens at the Film Forum. The film was written and directed by his
daughter Aiyana Elliot.
2001: Osama el-Baz “1Egypt's top foreign
policy official warned today that the Bush administration's ''inaction'' in the
Middle East could allow extremists to take hold in moderate Arab countries” and
“this would be a consequence far graver than the administration's apparent
fear, he said, of risking its prestige with an Israeli-Palestinian peace
initiative.”
2002: “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” a comedy produced by Martin Bregman
released in the United States today.
2002: As proclaimed by Mayor Martin O’Malley and Governor Parris N.
Glendening today was observed as Eli Siegel Day.
https://aestheticrealism.org/eli-siegel-day-carrie-wilson-edward-green/
2002(8th of Elul,
5762): Martin Deutsch the American physicist who studied positronium passed
away. Positronium is a temporary state in the decay of the positron which is
the antiparticle of the electron (and that is more than I really know about
this.)
2003: Idid Amin, the
former President of Uganda who had been trained as a paratrooper by the
Israelis and who provided a safe haven for the Palestinian hijackers in 1976
passed away today.
2004: As
“the ferment” produced by “Israel’s intention to withdraw unilaterally from the
Gaza Strip in a year” “Yasir Arafat survived the latest challenge to his
authority from a younger generation of frustrated politicians, outmaneuvering
an American favorite, Muhammad Dahlan, 42, a former security chief.” (As
reported by Steven Erlanger)
2005: The
evacuation of Gaza continued for a second day.
2005: The
Jerusalem Post reported that Britain had played a major role in Israel’s
development of a nuclear capability in the late 1950’s. According to the Post, the government of Prime Minister Harold McMillan sold 20 tons
of heavy water (necessary for making weapons grade plutonium) in 1958.
2006:
As part of the cease-fire agreement, Israeli troops turn control of territory
in Lebanon over to UNIFL. At the same
time, in one of those many ironies of history, the army of Lebanon returns to
the southern part of the country for the first time since the 1970’s thanks to
the attacks of the IDF on Hezbollah strongholds.
2007:
Israel and the United States signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the new
American defense package for Israel. Under the new aid agreement, the U.S. will
transfer $30 billion to Israel over 10 years, compared with $24 billion over
the past decade. The aid deal signed at represents a 25 percent rise in U.S.
military aid to Israel. Israel is slated to receive the first pay out in
October 2008, amounting to $2.55 billion. That sum will grow each year by $150
million, until it reaches $3.1 billion in 2011.
2008:
At Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Bar Mitzvah of Daniel Finn.
2008:Today, Itai Magidi will be the first Israeli to
take part in the athletics competitions, running the 3000m Steeplechase
qualifiers and all seven of Israel's sailors are scheduled to race at the
Beijing Olympics.
2008, Martha Nussbaum—University of Chicago
professor and Boston Review contributing editor—became a bat mitzvah “in a service at Temple K. A. M. Isaiah Israel
in Chicago's Hyde Park, chanting from the Parashah Va-etchanan and the Haftarah
Nahamu, and delivering a D'var Torah about the connection between genuine,
non-narcissistic consolation and the pursuit of global justice.”
2009: The Washington Post features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Rashi
by Elie Wiesel.
2009:The
Massachusetts secretary of state’s office has rejected a proposed settlement by
an investment firm to repay nearly $6 million to state investors who lost money
in Bernard L. Madoff’s fraudulent investment scheme.
2009: “Can Game Theory Predict When Iran Will Get
the Bomb” published today describes Bruce Bueno de Mesquita’s answer to this
question.
2009: Led by his widow, Betty Levin, a true Ashish
Chayil, the family and friends of Dr. Jacob Levin, of blessed memory, gather to
dedicate a classroom named in his honor at North Suburban Beth El
Synagogue. Dr. Levin taught in this room
for several years and his time as a Religious School teacher was but one
example of his contributions to the Jewish community. He will always be
missed. He will always be remembered.
2010:KlezKanada
is scheduled to open in Lantier, Quebec.
2010:An IDF
soldier was lightly wounded today in clashes with Palestinian terrorists in the
Gaza Strip.
2010:A bomb
squad checked out two unattended suitcases outside the consulate Monday
morning, the Los Angeles Police Department said. Police cordoned off part of
Wilshire Boulevard, where the consulate and other Jewish organizations are
located, for several hours. Police declared the area safe shortly after noon
Pacific time, according to reports. As videos of closed-off streets began
surfacing on YouTube, police told several news agencies of the bomb threat. The
city's Israeli Consulate has been the target of previous bomb threats. On Dec.
18, 2007, the entire building, which houses the consulate, the Jewish Agency
for Israel, Young Judea and the Israeli Scouts, was evacuated due to a bomb
threat that was later found to be a false alarm.
2011: Today is the
release date for The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath
by Senator Joe Lieberman
2011: Today, “in a
jailhouse interview with Yahoo! Sports, Nevin Shaprio” who was imprisoned for
running a huge Ponzi scheme” made good on the promise for the revelations
exposing a lack of NCAA-mandated institution oversight at” the University of
Miami “which allowed his illegal and unethical behaviors to continue unimpeded
for years.”
2011: The 2nd
Avenue Deli reopened at its new location on 1st Avenue and 75th Street in the
Upper East Side much to the joy of those who enjoy the best kosher meat knishes
and tongue sandwiches imaginable.
2011: Wendy Turman, JHSGW
Curator/Archivist is scheduled to deliver “an illustrated lecture tracing the
history of the Jewish community in the Washington area from the arrival of the
first Jewish Washingtonian in 1795 to today, when the region's Jewish community
has grown to more than 215,000 people.
2011:Representatives
from the National Union of Israeli Students and leaders of the tent city
protest movement met this morning with former chief rabbi of Israel and current
Head Rabbi of Tel Aviv Yisrael Lau, where they held a discussion on the ongoing
social justice protests.
2011:Israel's
parliament interrupted its summer recess today to debate popular protests
against high living costs but there seemed to be little sense of urgency among
the smattering of lawmakers, some of whom tapped away on mobile phones and
iPads. During the session dozens of protesters tried to break into the building
through the back gate. Knesset Guard officers held them back but the
confrontation soon turned violent.
2012: The Knesset is
scheduled to convene in a special session during its summer recess to approve
Avi Dichter as Home Front Defense Minister (As reported by the Jerusalem Post.)
2012(28th of Av): Yarhtzeit of
Larry Rosenstein – gone to soon but never forgotten
2012(28th of
Av): HaRav Akiva Ehrenfeld, president of the Chasam Sofer Institutions in the
U.S. and President of Kiryat Mattersdorf passed away tonight at Shaare Zedek
Medical Center and was buried that night on Har HaMenuchot near the grave of
his father
http://www.chareidi.org/archives5772/shoftim/arehrnfldshf72.htm
2012: Bulgarian police
released a computer-generated image and a fake driver's license photo of a man
believed to be an accomplice in the bombing of an Israeli tour bus in Burgas
that killed six. (As reported by JTA)
2012: “Shimon Peres,
Israel’s president and elder statesman, spoke out against the prospect of a
lone Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, a message that
contradicts the hawkish, go-it-alone line emanating from the offices of
Israel’s prime minister and defense minister.” (As reported by Isabel Kirshner)
2012: Police resumed searching for the remains of
Grad rockets in the desert outside Eilat this morning, hours after two loud
blasts rocked the resort town.
2013: In Montgomery, AL, the Capri Community Film
Society is scheduled to show “Fill the Void,” a cinematic treatment of the life
of a Chasidic family from Tel Aviv.
2013: Amir Levy is scheduled to perform at the New
York International Fringe Festival.
2013: Seven months after premiering at the Sundance
Film Festival, “Jobs” a biopic co-starring Jose Gad as “Steve Wozniak” and
featuring Brett Gelman and Lesley Ann Warren was released in the United States
today.
2013: In Herndon, VA, Congregation Beth Emeth is
scheduled to host a special Shabbat Community BBQ where everybody can meet the
new Rabbi – Michelle Goldsmith.
2013: In “Israel Keeps a Wary Eye on Turmoil in
Egypt” published today, Isabel Kershner describes the Jewish state’s reaction
to the violence going on within its neighbor with which it signed a peace
treaty that has held for more than three decades.
2014:
In Mandeville, LA, the Northshore Jewish Congregation (NJC) is scheduled to
host “Havdalah on the River” to help welcome Rabbi Deborah Zecher who will be
leading the congregation’s High Holiday Services.
2014:
The Historic 6th& I Synagogue is scheduled to host #NoFilter
featuring Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart and Mamrie Hart
2014:
“A Hamas official today threatened Israel with a prolonged war of attrition if
the group’s terms for a permanent ceasefire agreement, currently being
negotiated in indirect talks in Cairo, are not met.” (As reported by Times of
Israel)
2014:
Following a declaration by Fatah’s military wing to “increase its terror
attacks against Israeli citizens” tonight Arab terrorists threw a Molotov
cocktail at an Israeli car near Bethlehem inflicting first and second degree
burns on the 40 year old driver who was also hit by stones.(As reported byUzi
Baruch and Ari Yashar)
2014:
“Over ten thousand people assembled in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square tonight for the
largest pro-peace rally the country has seen since the start of the war in Gaza
in early July.”
2014:
By today, the 101st anniversary of the birth of Menachem Begin, the
Israel State Archives, the Israel State Archives will have published “a
collection of documents on the life the former Prime Minister best known as the
leader of the Irgun and the signatory for the 1973 peace accords with Egypt.
http://israelsdocuments.blogspot.com/search/label/1913
2015(1st of Elul, 5775): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2015(1st of Elul, 5775): Eighty-two-year-old
art collector Melva Bucksbaum, whose first hubsband had been Iowa shopping
center and real estate mogul Martin Bucksbaum, passed away today. (As reported
by Sam Roberts)
2015(1st of Elul, 5775): Sixty-eight-year-old
Jacob Bekenstein, the “physicist who revolutionized the theory of Black Holes”
passed away today. (As reported by
Dennis Overbye)
2015(1st of Elul, 5775): One hundred fourteen
year old, “Goldie Steinberg, reportedly the world’s oldest Jew” passed away
today.
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/192938/goldie-steinberg-reportedly-the-worlds-oldest-jew-dies-at-114
2015: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors
and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Patricia Drucker’s
Sophie and the Sibyl in which “a novelist imagines an incident that inspired
George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda which portrayed the concepts of what would become
Zionism in a positive light and Alice Hoffman’s The Marriage of Opposites, “a
novel inspired by the painter Camille Pissarro’s parents.”
2015: UK Jewish Film which “aims to
develop a culture where Jewish and Israeli film is recognised and enjoyed by
the widest possible audience, and to bring Jewish related film to the heart of
British culture” is scheduled to host a screening of “She’s Funny That Way.”
2015: In Kiryas Joel, the school year
is scheduled to begin for the children whose parents have signed an affidavit
stating “We the parents are confirming in writing that our
cellphones/smartphones are in accordance to the rules of the community and yeshiva,
according to the guidance of our holy grand rabbi and the judge. We also
confirm that we do not possess in our home another cellphone/smartphone except
for the ones mentioned above.” (A reported by Brian Shaefer)
2015: The Illinois Holocaust &
Education Center is scheduled to present “Soviet Composers Discovering A Jewish
Sound” featuring violinist David Lisker, pianist Ani Gogovo and cellist Richard
Hirschl.
2015: The Jewish Museum of Maryland
is scheduled to show “An American Tail,” the classic animation that “follows
the story of Fievel a young Russian mouse, who while emigrating to the United
States, gets separated from his family and must relocate them while trying to
survive in a new country.”
2016: Today, “The Beth Din of America
was added to the list of defendants in a $100 million class action suit against
Rabbi Barry Freundel, the prominent Washington, D.C., spiritual leader who was
convicted of secretly videotaping women in his synagogue’s ritual bath, and
several Jewish institutions.”
2016: In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel
is scheduled to host a session of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy! - The Spiritual
Wisdom of Judaism in Reducing Stress.”
2016: “Jewish-American gymnast Aly
Raisman won the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Games today, competing against
teammate and reigning world champion Simone Biles who took gold.”
2016: “The Kind Words” a film by
Shemi Zarhin which has been “nominated for 12 Ophir Awards” is scheduled to be
shown in Tacoma, Washington.
2017: Avraham Tal, a judge on Voice
of Israel is scheduled to host Rishon LeZion born singer and rapper Muki at the
Jerusalem Arts and Crafts Fair.
2017: “Jerusalem’s Tower of David is
scheduled to host a White Night of music, art, and design in the largest event
of its kind in Israel this evening.
2017: In Cedar Rapids, the Hadassah
Book Club is scheduled to discuss Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner.
2017: The “organizers of the March
for Racial Justice” issued “a lengthy statement in which it said that the group
“was unaware that the September 30 date it chose for its march” was the Jewish
Day of Atonement but that the date which has just been announced a few days ago
could not be changed.
2017: Stephen Allen Schwarzman, the
founder of The Blackstone Group completed his service as the Chairman of the
Strategic and Policy Forum today.
2018:
In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the final screening of “Through Lotte’s
Lens” a documentary that tells the extraordinary story of the ‘Hitler Émigrés’,
the refugees – mainly Jewish who escaped the Nazi regime in the 1930s and found
refuge in the UK.”
2018:
The report of “police officers foiling a stabbing attack in Jerusalem’s Old
City last week” “was cleared for publication today.
2018:
“At the Security Cabinet Meeting” today “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
presented a document titled "Security model 2030" which outlines the
new budgetary additions to the country's security budget, has been formulated
by Netanyahu over the past couple of years.” (As reported by Itamar Eichner)
2018:
At UIHC, during GI/Hepatology Division Grand Rounds, Dr. Robert Silber was the
presenter for “Didactic: ‘Reflective Analysis of Clinical Behavior.’”
2019(15th
of Av, 5779): Tu B’Av or in English simply the 15th Day of Av which
was “originally a post-biblical day of joy, that served as a matchmaking day
for unmarried women in the second Temple period which went virtually unnoticed
for almost 2,000 years before being “rejuvenated in recent decades, especially
in Israel as Jewish Day of Love which at least one sabra likened to Valentine’s
Day but which has “no formal legal status.”
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/tubav.html
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/53680/jewish/15th-of-Av.htm
http://www.israeldailypicture.com/
2019:
One-hundred sixth anniversary of the birth of Menachem Begin, the Nobel Peace
Prize winner who went from leading the Jewish revolt against British rule to
gambling on the promises of the Egyptian President that he would keep his word
about peace after he got back the Sinai.
2019:
In Tel Aviv, “the Whiskey Bar Milk and Honey” is scheduled to host “a
fun-filled romantic Valentine’s evening sipping local whiskey.”
2019:
In Seattle, WA, the Crest Cinema is scheduled to host a special screening of
“The Spy Behind Home Plate.”
2019:
The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to lead a tour of the “Queens of
Egypt” at the National Geographic Museum.
2020:
In an interview with YNET today, Dr. Ronni Gamzu, “Israel’s coronavirus czar”
criticized what he said was the Arab community’s failure to prevent the spread
of the virus and the later “apologized” saying his words had been
misunderstood.” (As reported by JTA)
https://www.jta.org/quick-reads
2021:
Judy Batalion, author of The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women
Resistance Fighters is scheduled to speak on the Nonfiction and Creative
Nonfiction panel at the Bryant Park Reading Room in New York.
2021:
At the virtual “Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards Ceremony” 15 exceptional teens
from across the nation are scheduled to be honored for their leadership and
philanthropy work and awarded with a $36,000 stipend each.
2021:
Jonathan Sarna is scheduled to be one of the speakers at the National Educators
Institute sponsored by the National Museum of American Jewish History which
begins today.
2021: Based on reports published last night
that coronavirus infection rates among Israelis over the age of 60 seemed to
have declined in recent days, today Israel has the hope that “its vaccine
booster shot campaign may succeed in staving off severe illness.” (As reported
by Yaron Druckman,and Adir Yanko)
2022: In Boston, the Jewish Alliance For Law
and Social Actions is scheduled to present “An Evening of Art and Activism.”
2022:
The Museum on Eldridge Street is scheduled to host another session of “Make Yourself at Home! Home, Exile, and
Return in the Hebrew Bible,” a lecture by Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Regina
Stein.
2022: The Illinois Holocaust Museum, the Nancy
& David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center; Evanston Public Library; The
Selfhelp Home are scheduled to host a lunch and learn “The Watchmakers,” a “conversation
with Scott Lenga in which he recounts the moving and harrowing story of the
Holocaust through the eyes of his father and two uncles – the Lenga brothers,
three young men whose watchmaking skills, rudimentary tools, and an
entrepreneurial spark – helped them survive Nazi concentration camps and stay
together despite the odds.
https://www.ilholocaustmuseum.org/events/lunch-learn-the-watchmakers/
2022:
The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to host
the second session of the National
Educators Institute which will cover “The Art and Science of Teaching Jewish
History in America.”
2022:
While Israelis bask in the glow of yesterday’s track triumphs at the Euro
Championships in Munich, they must also deal with last month’s “increase in
consumer price index which brings Israel’s yearly inflation rate to 5.2%.”
2023: The Boston
Synagogue is scheduled to present “Camp NexGen: Old School Fun.”
2023: The Yiddish Theatre
Ensemble and KlezCalifornia is scheduled to present “Between Worlds,” a “play based on the life and poetry of Holocaust
survivor Irena Klepfisz, about the transformative power of poetry and a
writer’s journey facing the traumas of war, displacement and identity.”
2023: Writer Haim Be’er
is scheduled to deliver at lecture on “Agnon’s German Stories: ‘Another Faces’”
at Beit Agnon in Jerusalem.
https://mailchi.mp/01427108e2e7/05x5v34yno-282700?e=b0fbcc2d98
2023: The Streicker
Center hosts a screening of “ Mamma Mia” as part of its Movies Under the Stars
series.
2024: Katrina Armstrong
begins her service as the new interim President of Columbia following the resignation of Nemat Shafik whose departure
was triggered by her response to pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic at this Ivy
League one of whose earliest students was Alexander Hamilton.
2024: Gaza truce talks
are scheduled to continue today in Doha.
2024: The Jewish Baby
Network is scheduled to host Shabbat in the Park, in Oakland’s Dover Park.
2024: In Palo Alto, CA,
Congregation Kol Emeth is scheduled to host an “Outdoor Shabbat Picnic.”
2024:As
August 16th begins in Israel, an
unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism that has included Hamas supporters calling
for Zionist passengers on a New York subway to raise their hands, sweeps the
United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day 315 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)