August 17
986: During the days of
the First Bulgarian Empire, the army of Emperor Samuil of Bulgaria and his
brother defeat the Byzantines led by Basil II.
The Bulgarian Empire had provided a haven for Jews escaping from the Byzantine
Army so the Bulgarian victory was good news for the Jews.
1236: Pope Gregory IX
issued a list of charges against Emperor Frederick II that included a reference
to “the matter of Jewish communities of which certain churches were deprived.”
(This would appear to be a clash over who “owned the Jews” which would determine
who could tax them)
1585: As the British
began to colonize Virginia, over hundred men built a fort on Roanoke Island,
the failed colony that would be visited by a relief fleet in 1586 whose members
included “Joachim Gans, a Jewish metallurgist from Prague who may have been “the
first Jew to set foot in that part of North America under the British flag.
1592: The pope
prohibited Jews from admitting Christians into their synagogues.
1596: Today at the age
of 19, King Christian IV of Denmark who reversed a prohibition against Jews
living in Denmark that dated back to 1536 “signed his haandfæstning (lit.
"Handbinding" viz. curtailment of the monarch's power, a Danish
parallel to the Magna Carta), which was an identical copy of his father's from
1559.”
1655: In a patent dated
today, Antonio Fernandez Carvajal, a Portuguese-Jewish merchant, and his two
sons were granted citizenship as English subjects. This made them the first naturalized English
Jews.
1655: Portuguese born
merchant Antonio Fernandez Carvajal and his sons were officially granted
denizhenship as English subjects. (As reported by Joseph Jacobs) Official granting of citizenship of Jews is
one that would be debated in England for the next two centuries
1665: The small colony
of Surinam recently occupied by the English gave full rights to the Jews
(mostly Spanish and Portuguese refugees) to practice Judaism and run their own
affairs. This remarkably liberal charter was transferred over to the Dutch when
they conquered the colony. They used it as a means of encouraging the Jews to
remain.
1629: Birthdate of King
John III of Poland. King John ruled from
1674 until his death in 1696. He ruled in a period when Poland was
disintegrating under rebellions from the Ukraine and attacks from Sweden. Like
previous Polish monarchs, King John was reasonably well disposed towards his
Jewish subjects since he saw them as a valuable economic asset. But as Poland drifted into chaos his views
were increasingly unpopular among the nobles and the Catholic clergy.
Denizenship confirmed a limited amount of English rights on foreign born
residence.
1692: Jews were
forbidden by law to work as peddlers in Berlin.
1740: Beginning of the
Papacy of Benedict XIV who authored “Singulari
noblis consoldtioni on the topic Christians and Jews Marrying”, Probe te meminesse which set “down the
rules for baptizing Jewish children,” Elapso
proxime anno which dealt with Jewish heresy despite the fact that “a
heretic had to be a Christian to commit the sin” and Beatus Adreas which gave credence to a three hundred year old blood
libel involving Andreas Von Rinn.
1762: The Council of 4
Countries (semi-autonomous congress of Polish Jewry) met for the last time. It
functioned for almost 200 years before the Polish government ordered its
dissolution.
1786: Frederick II (The
Great) who had enough problems with Jews living in Prussia but did exploit them
for financial gain passed away today. He did keep them at “arm’s length” as can
been seen when he overturned the vote that would have admitted Moses Mendelssohn
to the Berlin of Academy of Science. After the partition of Poland, he
inherited a Jewish population that was too impoverished to offer him gain. While he found it impractical to expel them
from their Polish homes, he would not allow them to move into Prussia,
effectively quarantining these “beggar Jews.”
In 1780, he wrote of the Jews that they were “‘usurious vermin who
multiply so infamously.’” Frederick
followed in the footsteps by retaining Veitel-Heine Ephraim as court jeweler
and mint master. Born in 1703, he was charged by sum of debasing the country’s
currency. Any truth to that charge was
covered up when Frederick ordered an end to any investigations into the
matter. He married Elke Fraenkel which
made him the brother-in-law of David Frankel, who was elected rabbi of Berlin
in 1743.
1787:
The Jews of Budapest, Hungary, received permission from the government to
conduct religious services in private homes provided no rabbi officiated.
1790:
Julia Asher, a native of London and Raphael Raphael gave birth to Samuel
Raphael who died in Amsterdam in 1844.
1790: President George Washington visits Newport,
Rhode Island, where he is given “the address of the ‘Hebrew Congregation of
Newport’” that expressed their appreciation for the rights and liberties that
the Jews enjoyed in the United States.
It was in response to this document, that Washington wrote his famous
reply guaranteeing the Jews religious liberty and promising them that they
would be able to sit under their own vine and fig tree and none would make them
afraid.
1790:
Moses Seixas, the warden of Congregation Kahal Kadosh Yeshuat Israel, better
known as the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, penned an epistle to
George Washington, welcoming the newly elected first president of the United
States on his visit to that city. Newport had suffered greatly during the
Revolutionary War. Invaded and occupied by the British and blockaded by the
American navy, hundreds of residents fled, and many of those who remained were
Tories. After the British defeat, the Tories fled in turn. Newport’s
nineteenth-century economy never recovered from these interruptions and
dislocations. Washington’s visit to Newport was largely ceremonial—part of a
goodwill tour Washington was making on behalf of the new national government created
by the adoption of the Constitution in 1787. Newport had historically been a
good home to its Jewish residents, who numbered approximately 300 at the time
of Washington’s visit. The Newport Christian community’s acceptance of Jewish
worship was exemplary, although individual Jews such as Aaron Lopez and Isaac
Elizer were unable to obtain full political equality as citizens of Rhode
Island. The Jews of Newport looked to the new national government, and
particularly to the enlightened president of the United States, to remove the
last of the barriers to religious liberty and civil equality confronting
American Jewry. Moses Seixas’s letter on behalf of the congregation – he
described them as “the children of the Stock of Abraham” – expressed the Jewish
community’s esteem for President Washington and joined “with our fellow
citizens in welcoming [him] to New Port.” The congregation expressed its
pleasure that the God of Israel, who had protected King David, had also
protected General Washington, and that the same spirit which resided in the
bosom of Daniel and allowed him to govern over the “Babylonish Empire” now
rested upon Washington. While the rest of world Jewry lived under the rule of
monarchs, potentates and despots, as American citizens the members of the
congregation were part of a great experiment: a government “erected by the
Majesty of the People,” to which they could look to ensure their “invaluable
rights as free citizens.” Seixas expressed his vision of an American government
in words that have become a part of the national lexicon. He beheld in the
United States “a Government which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution
no assistance—but generously affording to All liberty of conscience, and
immunities of citizenship: - deeming every one, of whatever nation, tongue or
language equal parts of the great Governmental Machine: – This so ample and
extensive federal union whose basis is Philanthropy, mutual confidence, and
public virtue, we cannot but acknowledge to be the work of the Great God, who
ruleth the Armies of Heaven, and among the Inhabitants of the Earth, doing
whatsoever seemeth [to Him] good.” Seixas closed his letter to the president by
asking God to send the “Angel who conducted our forefathers through the
wilderness into the promised land [to] conduct [Washington] through all the
difficulties and dangers of this mortal life.” He told Washington of his hope
that “when like Joshua full of days, and full of honour, you are gathered to
your Fathers, may you be admitted into the Heavenly Paradise to partake of the
water of life, and the tree of immortality.”
Not
surprisingly, it is Washington’s response, rather than Seixas’s epistle, which
is best remembered and most frequently reprinted. Washington began by thanking
the congregation for its good wishes and rejoicing that the days of hardship
caused by the war were replaced by days of prosperity. Washington’s concluding
paragraph perfectly expresses the ideal relationship among the government, its
individual citizens and religious groups:
“May
the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit
and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while everyone shall sit under
his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the
father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us
all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way
everlastingly happy.”
Washington’s
letter, a foundation stone of American religious liberty and the principle of
separation between church and state, is signed, simply, “G. Washington.” Each
year, Newport’s Congregation Kahal Kadosh Yeshuat Israel, now known as the
Touro Synagogue, re-reads Washington’s letter in a public ceremony.
1791:Birthdate
of Richard Lalor Sheil the Irish politician, writer and orator who spoke out in
favor of allowing Jews to sit in Parliament.
1807:
In Liverpool, Hannah Woolf and Myer Tobias gave birth to Rebecca Tobias.1807: Robert Fulton's first American steamboat, the Clermont left New
York City for Albany, New York on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first
commercial steamboat service in the world. The copper for the boilers in the
Clermont, and many of Fulton’s other ships was supplied a Sephardic Jew named
Harmon Hendricks.
1813(21st of Av, 5573): Moses Judah, the son of Hillel Judah, who had
been born in March of 1779 passed away toay.
1814: Barnett Levy married Bluma Phillips today at the Hambro Synagogue.
1815: In Bavaria, Moses and Brunhilda Morgenthau gave birth to Lazarus
Morgenthau.
1816: Four days after she had passed away, Esther (nee Moses) Gomperts,
the widow of Joseph Gomperts was buried today at the “Hoxton Old Jewish Burial
Ground.”
1825: Shumel ben Isaac married Sheina bat Joseph at the New Synagogue
today.
1827: In Württemberg, Germany, Bernhard Frankfuter, the son of “Mkrjam
and Moses Levi Frankfurter” and his wife Esther Frank gave birth to Bronnet
Frankfurter.
1832: Birthdate of Kutno, Poland native Abraham Wolf Edelman, the first
Rabbi to serve in Los Angeles who was the husband of Hannah Pessah Cohn with
whom he had six children – Benjamin, Abram, Henry, David, Rachel and Matilda
http://www.jmaw.org/edelman-jewish-los-angeles/
https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19070725.2.156&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1
1838: Eighty-nine-year-old librettist and Roman Catholic Priest Lorenzo
Da Ponte who father had converted him and his three sons from Judaism to
Catholicism in 1764 so that he could “marry a Catholic woman” passed away
today.
1842: Emanuel Lion married Rosetta Medex at the Great Synagogue today.
1848: Morris Solomons married Caroline Abrahams at the Great Synagogue
today.
1856:” One day after she had passed away, Catherine Salaman was buried
today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1858: In New York City, Hannah Sarner and Isaac Fischer gave birth to
Kings County (NY) Republican Party leader and attorney Israel F. Fischer, an
Associate Justice of the U.S. Customs Court, husband of Clara Grodel and member
of the Union Temple in Brooklyn.
1859: Aaron Abecasis married Esther Brandon at the Bevis Marks Synagogue
today.
1859: Joseph Nordon married Rachel Levin today at the Western Synagogue
today.
1856: In California, Strasburg native Charles August Lauff, “the youngest
child of Jacob and Caroline Ashelmann Lauff and his wife, Mrs. Maria J. Sebran
gave birth to their oldest child, Joseph L. Lauff.
1861(11th of Elul, 5621): Parashat Ki Teitzei
1861: Congressional Medal of Honor Winner Abraham Greenawalt and Jane
Greenawalt gave birth to Anna Greenawalt, the sister of Harry Greenawalt.
1863:
During the Civil War, Isaac Hyneman, was permanently assigned to the United
States Signal Corps. During the next
three years he would see combat in such memorable battles as Chancellorsville,
Gettysburg and the Wilderness Campaign before being at Appomattox Court House
where the war ended.
1863:
Birthdate of Odessa born American Socialist Sergius Ingerman, a graduate of
“the medical school at the University of Berne, co-founder of the Socialist
Party of America with Eugene V. Debs and Morris Hilliquit and the husband of
Dr. Anna Ingerman passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/02/19/85084470.pdf
1864(15th
of Av, 5624): Tu B’Av
1865(25th
of Av, 5625): Henry Eger Lowenberg, the son of Rose and Solomon Henry Lowenberg
passed away today nine days after celebrating his second bith.
1868:
In Cincinnati, OH, Amelia and Joseph Freiberg gave birth to University of
Cincinnati trained orthopedic surgeon, Albert Henry Freiberg and the World War
I veteran and member of the board of Hebrew Union College who was the husband
of Jeanette Freiberg and the father of Joseph Freiberg.
https://litfl.com/albert-henry-freiberg/
1871(30th
of Elul, 5631): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1871(30th
of Elul, 5631): Sixty-five-year-old
Charleston, SC native Henry Florance, the husband of Mary Levy Florance
with whom he had three children – Sarah, Henry and Alfred – passed away today
after which he was buried in the Dispersed of Judah Cemetery in New Orleans,
LA.
1871: A dispatch datelined Berlin reported that
cases of cholera in Suwalki, Poland which has a population of 60,000 half of
whom are Jews are decreasing. 1871: In Spitalfields
Middlesex, London, Levi Garf, the Amsterdam born “son of Israel Jacob Garf
Dikje and Santje / Tserle Abraham Blok Blog and his wife
Rebecca
Delmonte gave birth to Sara Garf, the wife of Henri de Leeuw and the mother of
Rebecca de Leeuw; Benjamin de Leeuw; Abraham Leib de Leeuw and Henriette de
Leeuw”
1872:
“The Tribune and the Hebrew Voters” published today reported that the New York Tribune, the newspaper owned by
Presidential candidate Horace Greeley, is making “frantic”, “clumsy” attempts
to overcome the impact of anti-Semitic story told by James Mitchell Ashley, the
former governor of Montana at public meeting with Mr. Greely sitting at his
elbow.
1873:
In New York, David Lewis Einstein and Caroline Einstein gave birth to Florence
Einstein who became Florence Walston when she married Sir Charles Walston.
1875:
Baron George de Worms and Louisa de Samuel gave birth to their third child and
only daughter Henrietta Emmy Louisa Amelia de Worms.
1875(16th of
Av, 5635): Seventy-six-year-old Esther Cahn-Lazard, the Lorraine, France born daughter
of Jonas Alexandre Aron and Sara Zerlé Simon Aron and wife of Elie ben Abraham
Lazard and Moïse Cahn [assed at Ile-de-France Rance today.
1878: A Modern Hebrew Poet: the Life and
Writings of Moses Chaim Luzzato by A.S. Isaacs was reviewed today in a
column styled “A Jewish Singer.” Luzatto was an Italian Rabbi known as the
RaMCHal.
1879:
In Warsaw, Aaron David Gelbfisz, a peddler, and his wife, Hannah Reban (née
Jarecka) gave birth to Szmuel Gelbfisz (Samuel Goldfish) who gained family as
movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn.
http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/samuel-goldwyn_intro.htm
1879:
It was reported today that all places of business in White Plains, NY, were
closed last Sunday as result of the conviction of a Jew named Adolphe D.
Pollock for having previously kept his business open on Sunday. Barber shops were the only business exempted
from the closing ordinance.
1879:
An editorial that originally appeared in the Jewish Messenger which was
reprinted today said there was something wrong with the laws in White Plains if
the government could not find a way to punish Jews who violate “their own and
the general Sabbath by transacting business.”
The Messenger has “no sympathy for the hypocrite and money
grabber who breaks his own Sabbath, yet claims the privilege of selling goods
on Sunday because…he is a Jew.” On the
other hand, there should be some kind of allowance made for the Jew who closes
his business on Saturday that would allow him to conduct business on Sunday as
long as he “is not conspicuous.
1880:
“The Turk and the Greek” published today examined the current conditions in the
Balkans including French Prime Minister Michael Waddington’s decision to
champion the cause of the Rumanian Jews at the Congress of Berlin despite the
counsel from “a few intelligent Jewish politicians” for France to abstain from
involvement in “matters in no way affecting French interests.”
1881:
It was reported today that the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society is planning
to host another excursion for the poor children of the Lower East Side.
1881:
Esther Siegel and Morris Nova gave birth to Columbia educated lawyer Algernon I. Nova Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn and
the County Judge in Brooklyn who was the husband of Sadie Nova and the father
of Barnett J. Nova.
1882:
It was reported today that Samuel Obreight has been declared sane by the state
Supreme Court. Obreight’s family had had
him declared insane and institutionalized because he had married a Christian
girl. The judge ruled that the family’s “wounded sectarian pride” should not be
the basis for such a charge. The judge said that the marriage was one of the
outcomes of the religious liberty enjoyed in this country since the Revolution.
1883:
Nathan Gottgetren, alias Nicholas Gilbert, a 35-year-old Jew was brought back
to New York by two detectives from Putnam County. A married man and
confidential bookkeeper, he has been arrested on charges of forgery.
1883:
This afternoon, the members of Shaarai Berocho (Gates of Blessing) dedicated
their new facility located on East 45th Street in New York. The congregation was founded in 1858 under
the leadership of Rabbi Elias Epstein.
1883:
It was reported today that the Jewish World of London has announced “that Count
Tolstoi, the Russian Minister of the Interior, has ordered the enforcement of
the decree forbidding Jewish manufacturers from employing Christian workmen.”
1883:
It was reported today that “a British Jew, representing Raphael Tuck &
Sons,” a London business firm has been expelled from Russia despite having a
“proper British passport.”
1884:
It was reported today that a mobbed attacked seven Jews were killed, and an
untold number injured by a mob at Dombrovitz, Russia.
1884:
Two days after he had passed away, Lewis Moses was buried at “Brompton (Fulham
Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1885:
It was reported today that G.A. Heap, the U.S. Consul General in Constantinople
has sent a second, more strongly worded protest to the Turkish government protesting the expulsion of Americans from
Jerusalem because they were Jews. Heap
pointed out that the expulsions are in violation of a treaty between the two
nations and that he is referring the matter to Washington.
1885:
The Book of Psalms translated from the Hebrew and edited by John G.
Lansing is among the tomes appearing on today’s “New Books” list
1885:
It was reported today that Rabbi Ash will continue serving as the Rabbi of Beth
Hamedrash Hagadol after its move into new facility on Norfolk Street. Ash had
urged the congregation to buy the building from the Methodists at a cost of
$45,000 and to spend the $10,000 necessary to prepare the inside for use by the
Jews.
1885:
In a speech given to a Jewish literary society whose members were 16, 17 and 18
year old Jewish boys, it was reported that G.A. Ettinger that the recently
deceased Sir Moses Montefiore had sought “to free his people from the shackles
of prejudice and the evils of persecution” while the recently deceased General
U.S. Grant (and former President of the U.S.) had “labored to free 4,000,000
human beings from the shackles of slavery.” As if to dispel any charges past,
present or future that Grant was an anti-Semite, a bevy of speakers including
Julius Levy, Eugene N. Levy and William Grossman, echoed Ettinger’s sentiments
about the recently deceased Giant of Judaism and the General who had saved the
Union.
1886:
In Philadelphia, PA, “Simon and Theresa Abrahams” gave birth to Helen Abrahams,
a student of the school of Design for Woman” and the Academy of Fine Arts who
after marrying Alex Blum became Helen Abrahams Blum the artist, set designed,
author and member of the Rodolph Shalom Sisterhood.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/blum-helen-abrahams
1886:
“The Jews of Italy” using information that has appeared in the Lunario
Israelitico of Leghorn and the London Times provides a snapshot of Jewish
society in the middle of the 19th century. There are approximately 45,000 Jews living in
the country which means they comprise about 1 per cent of Europe’s Jewish
population. Rome has the largest Jewish
population – 5,600. Mantua now has the
leading rabbinical school while Padua is home “to the greatest Hebrew scholar
in Italy, Rabbi Ende Lolli…)
1887:
It was reported today that Jonas Heller, who passed away in March, bequeathed
gifts of $2,500 to Mount Sinai, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the United Hebrew
Charities, the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids and the Hebrew Technical
Institute. (The list of recipients provides a snapshot of major Jewish
institutions in post-Civil War New York City)
1887:
“Julius Weisbaden, a miser and monomaniac, was found dying in his room” today
“and was taken to Bellevue Hospital”
1887:
Temple Emanuel contributed $264 to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
1888:In
Manhattan, Clara and Daniel Henry Cardozo gave birth to Sidney Benjamin
Cardoza, the husband of Eva Cardoza
1888:
In a case of Jew versus Jew, Samuel Gompers has testified before Congressman
Ford’s Immigration Committee. Gompers,
an English born Jew who professed his loyalty to his adopted country said that
the “importation” of Polish and Russian Jews had depressed the wages of
cigar-makers. Gompers said that he had
no problem with Jews being brought to the United States for humanitarian
reasons but he did have a problem with the current process which was designed
to depress wages. Gompers then went on
to decry the conditions in the cigar industry where all workers, regardless of
their origins, were exploited by the owners. (The latter information was surely
not well received by Congressman Ford)
1889(20th
of Av, 5649): Parashat Eikev
1889(20th
of Av, 5649): Sixty-two-year-old Isabella “Zipporah” Seixas, the New York City
born daughter of Dr. Daniel Moses Levy Maduro Peixotto and Rachel Lopes Mendes
Peixotto and wife of Benjamin Hayman Seixas passed away today in NYC.
1890:
It was reported today that “Michael Gernsheim & Co, the bankers, have made
a new move in their fight against an assessment on the stockholders under the
reorganization scheme of the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company.”
1890:
Birthdate of bacteriologist Harry Plotz who was a leading physician in the
fight against typhus.
http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/227849/view
http://www.scilogs.com/science-extracted/this-week-in-science-100-years-ago-an-unexpected-mystery/
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9801E6DE153EEE3BBC4F53DFB766838C659EDE
1890(1st of Elul, 5650): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1890:
“King of the British Gypsies” published today included information on the
origins of the gypsies who, according to some, were “the mixed multitude” that
went out of Egypt during the Exodus. According to Ernst Hengstenberg since
there is no mention of them during the wanderings in the wilderness or after
the entrance into Canaan they must have left the Israelites shortly after the
crossing at the Sea of Reeds.
1890:
Dr. Bernard Drachman is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Judaism and Ethics”
at Cooper Union which is the seventh in a series of public lectures sponsored
by the Jewish Theological Seminary.
1890:
“Precious Stones” published today compared the “frequent and enthusiastic”
references to precious stones in Hebrew literature” with the “paucity of
allusion to them in…Greek literature” which the author attributed to the Jewish
view of these stones as objects to be used in the creation of art while the
Greeks saw them, like all other objects, as potential gods.
1890:
“Czar and Kaiser To Meet” published today described the upcoming meeting
between the two monarchs during which the condition of Russia’s Jews will be
discussed. Baron Max von Oppenheim who
has the backing of the “Jewish financial houses in Germany and Austria” has
expressed his concerns as have the Rothchilds who have obtained “the
assurance…that the existing condition of the Russian Jews would not be made
worse.”
1891:
“He Swindled Undertakers” published today described the anger that a number of
New York undertakers feel toward a young Jewish man who has been soliciting ads
from them for the Jewish Times. First he tells them about complaints in the
community about their services and then tells them that advertising in the
paper will defuse the anger since most Jews have a very high opinion of the Jewish Times.
1891: The American Hebrew mourns the recent deaths of poet
James Russell Lowell and New York Timesman, George Jones.
1891: “Angry Jews In Boston” published today described the
disgust the Jews felt when they came to take possession of the Old Church of
the Messiah, which they planned to convert into a synagogue. The Jews were so repelled by the damage that
the Episcopalians had done to the building that they were willing to forfeit
their $500 deposit.
1891(13th of Av, 5651): Eighty-two-year-old
Louis Goodheim, who had been living at the Hebrew Home since 1884 took his own
life. Goodheim, who had once been a
successful merchant in London, left a note thanking the staff for its kindness. He had told his brother that he was in such
agony that if he had had a gun he would have shot himself
1891: In Peoria, Illinois, “Gussie Woolner
Calisch” and “Rabbi Edward Calisch of Congregation Anshai Emeth,” gave birth to
Adiran Calisch who would tragically passe away before his first birthday.
1891: “The Russian Refugees” published today described the
problems encountered by Jewish colonists who have been settled in New Jersey
under the auspices of the Baron Hirsch Fund.
1892: David Flndling, the son of Abraham Findling and Beile
Malke FIndling and his wife “Ester Reisell Flndling gave birth Max Marcus
Flndling
1893: As the unemployment rate reached 12% and continued to
rise during the depression brought on by the Panic of 1893, approximately 5,000
unemployed Jews gathered for a peaceful mass meeting at Walhalla Hall turned
violent as the worker vented their frustrations when jobs that were advertised
turned out to be nonexistent.
1893: Birthdate of Indianapolis, IN native and University
of Indiana Medical School trained internist and WW I veteran Dr. Reuben Albert
Solomon a member of the faculty at Indian University and a member of the board
of the Jewish Federation.
1893: “One of the Czar’s Victims” published today described
the arrival of Vladimir Korlenko, who had spent six years in Siberian exile and
who has two sympathetic novels on “the Jewish question in Russia, in New York
where he is staying at the Astor House.
1894 (15th of Av, 5654): Tu B’Av
1894: One day after he had passed away, Simon Isaac Cohen
was buried at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery” on Buckingham Road today
1895: In two days of meetings,Herzl meets Rabbi
Moritz Güdemann and Berlin philanthropist Heinrich Meyer-Cohn in München.
Güdemann was an Austrian born Rabbi who was sympathetic to the Zionist cause
but was concerned about the tendency to downplay the religious component of
re-settling the land. Herzl looked to
Gudemann to introduce him to the Rothschilds.
1895:
“The Time” a Hebrew language weekly edited and published by Joseph Gabreelow appeared
for the first time today
1895:
Based on information that first appeared in The
London Daily News it was reported today that there are 571, 300 people
living in Warsaw of whom 190,300 are Jews.
1896:
Birthdate of Lotte Jacobi the Prussian-born photographer whose subjects
included Albert Einstein, Marc Chagall and Alfred Stieglitz. She left Germany
and settled in New York in September, 1935 “as persecution against Jews
increased.”
1896:
Birthdate of Johannes Kleiman, the Dutch business associate of Otto Frank who
was arrested by the Gestapo for his role in hiding the famous Frank family.
1896:
In Clinton Township, NJ. Mrs. Paul Wissen found a body in the barnyard who “had
a Hebraic cast to his features” but whom could not be positively identified.
1897:
At Rishon Lezion, Reveivel Miransky one of the Bilium who founded Rishon Lezion
and his wife gave birth to Joshua Myron. During World War I, Mr. Myron was a
Sergeant in “the camel-mounted Zionist brigade that fought with Vladimir
Jabotinsky against Turkey in Palestine.”
This unit was part of the Jewish Brigade that was part of the British
Army. When Mr. Myron passed away in
2000, at the age of 102, he was one of the last surviving members of this force
that helped lay the groundwork for the creation of the state of Israel and the
I.D.F.
1898:The first conference of Russian Zionists is held secretly in Warsaw.
Warsaw, like much of Poland was part of the Russian Empire. During the
conference, Achad Ha-Am discussed his differences with Theodor Herzl. Achad
Ha-Am was the pen name of Asher Hirsch Ginsberg one of the most famous Jewish
intellectuals of the second half of the 19th century and the
beginning of the 20th century.
Unlike Herzl who believed in a political, semi-assimilationist solution
to the creation of Jewish state, Achad Ha-Am saw the Jewish home as being “a
national spiritual center.” Ginsberg was area of the practical challenges that
the Jewish people faced. For example, at
the time of Kishinev Pogroms, he called for Jews to take arms in their own
defense. While Herzl’s dream of a Jewish
state has been realized, the Jewish people are still wrestling with the
creation of a Jewish homeland that encompasses Jewish values from tradition to
the world of the Haskalah.
1898:
As of today 715, of the 865 children staying at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum have
been taken from the building at 138th Street and Amsterdam Avenue
and moved to the facility at Rockaway as officials deal with the epidemic of
dysentery.
1899:
The third Zionist Congress came to an end in Basel.
1899:
Pennsylvania Congressman Marriott Brozzius announced the appointment of Frank
Eshelman as a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy following the resignation of
Rigmund Albert, a young Jew, from West Point.
1899:
Philadelphian George M. Appel began serving as a 1st Lt. in the 39th
United States Volunteer Infantry
1899:
Philadelphian Gustav Schlachter, a veteran of the Spanish-American War,
transferred from Company F, 3rd Infantry to the 44th U.S.
Infantry with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.
1899:
The Court Martial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus resumed today with his attorney
making General Roget “squirm in his seat” as he cross-examined him about the
Esterhazy’s letters.
1899:
“Shot Down By Anti-Semite” published today described the shooting of a
locksmith named Bonnet in Paris by an unknown assailant who called out “He
looks like one of those dirty Jews” before firing his weapon.
1899:
Philadelphian Gustav F. Schlachter, who rose to the rank of Quarter-Master
Sergeant during the Spanish American War and who had re-enlisted in Company F
of the 3rd Infantry was promoted to the rank of 2nd
Lieutenant today.
1899:
“Is A Warm Champion of Dreyfus” published today described Anton Weiss of Pine
Bluff, AR admiration for and personal friendship with Captain Dreyfus. Weis had met Dreyfus one was working for the
Transatlantic Steamship Line at Harve France where Dreyfus was serving with an
artillery unit. There were only a few Jews in the city and no house of
worship. Dreyfus “who was greatly
respected” because “of his extensive knowledge” of Jewish ritual served as “the
rabbi’ and led the services.”
1900:
During the siege of Peking which ended today and was part of the Boxer
Rebellion U.S.M.C. Private William Zion “distinguished himself in the presence
of the enemy” with such bravery that he earned the Congressional Medal of
Honor.
1900:
Birthdate of San Francisco native and Columbia educated University of Chicago
professor and expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls Ralph Marcus
https://www.jstor.org/stable/542757?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/marcus-ralph
1901(2nd
of Elul, 5661): Parashat Shoftim
1901:
In “Longfellow” published today Professor O. L Triggs of the University
Chicago, says that Longfellow’s “limitations prevent his poetry from being entirely
satisfactory to serious minds,” “the man is to be pitied who can read…’The
Jewish Cemetery at Newport’…”and find nothing in it.”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44634/the-jewish-cemetery-at-newport
1902:
It was reported today “that the Jews of New York number over 600,00 or 16.5
percent of the total population where 500,000 reside on Manhattan Island” which
means they make up 27 percent of the population.
1903:
Birthdate of Abram Chasins “an American composer, pianist, piano teacher,
lecturer, musicologist, music broadcaster, radio executive and author.”
1903:
Today, while the Sixth Zionist Congress was meeting Jacob de Haas spent the
evening touring Paris with Dr. Marmorek and Dr. Nordeau.
1903:
In Russia, “Isaac Abramovich Piatigorsky, a frustrated violinist” and his wife
Basya Maria Amshislavska gave birth to cellist Gregor Piatigorsky a product of
the Imperial Conservatory in Moscow who came to the United States in 1929.
1904:
“Russian Blame Jews for Riots in Poland” published today carried the claim by
the Police Department of the Ministry of
the Interior that the “Jewish massacres in the Polish towns of Parchevo and
Ostrovetz arose rom affrays between the Jewish inhabitants in which the Jews in
both cases were the aggressors” and that in fact “only one Jew had succumbed to
his injuries.
1905:
It was reported today that “leading Jews of Europe, particularly those in
Russia, are bitterly opposed to the reported plan to grant a loan to Russia in
return for concessions to the Jews in that country” in part because “if such
reforms were granted,” “the Governors of the provinces in which Jews reside”
would never carry them out.
1906:
It was reported today that the rioting in Warsaw “was due to the determination
of the revolutionists to revenge the arrest of 140 workmen of an enamel ware
factory” and that “the first shots were fired by a young Jew who killed a
soldier and a policeman and then fled into a shop.”
1906:
It was reported today that the streets in the Jewish quarter of Warsaw “are
deserted because military patrols knock down with the butts of their rifles
everybody they meet.”
1907(7th
of Elul, 5667): Parashat Shoftim
1907:
Oscar S. Straus, the Secretary of Commerce and Labor arrived in San Francisco
“from Honolulu” where he “said that during his stay on the islands he looked
into immigrations matters and into labor questions.”
1908:
In Galicia, Toybe Padwa and R’Eleazar Wolf Padwa gave birth to “Rabbi Chanoch
Dov Padw.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1368138/Rabbi-Chanoch-Padwa.html
1908:
Birthdate of Felix Eliezer Bergmann the native of Frankfurt and brother of
Rabbi Dr. Adolf Rosenzweig who earned his degrees from the University of Berlin
1933 before he made Aliyah where became Chairman of Pharmacology at the Hebrew
University.
1908:
Birthdate of Prague native and holder of a PhD from Charles University Dr.
Arthur Katz, the rabbi who “left Czechoslovakia on the day the Germans marched
in, and for a while assisted the Chief Rabbi of Flanders, assisted Rabbi Dr.
Reinhart at West London Synagogue from 1942 to 1947 and then held the post of
first minister of Hendon Reform Synagouge.
1909:
Twenty-six-year-old Samuel Barnett who at the of six came to the United States
where his father went into the iron business in Wooster Ohio and who has become
a leading businessman in Cleveland and a member of the Euclid Street Temple
today married Sadie Friedman
1910(12th
of Av, 5670): Sixty-five-year-old Anna Madeline Graff Kahn, the German born
wife of Solomon Kahn with whom she had four children passed away today in Fort
Worth, TX.
1910:
“Straus Milk Saves Many German Lives” published today described the success
Nathan Strauss has had in gaining the support of German officials for supplying
pasteurized milk as can be seen by the fact that the pasteurization plant he
presented to the Baden Women’s Society in Karlsruhe is now “operated under the
patronage of the Dowager Grand Duchess.”
1911:
Birthdate of Mikhail Moiseyevich
Botvinnik Jewish Russian International Grandmaster and long-time World
Champion of chess. He passed away in
1995.
1911:
In Russia, arrests continue in Kiev in connection with charges of blood libel.
1912:
In Minneapolis, Eva and Abraham Sabesewitz, gave birth to publisher Harold
Sabes who attended Minnesota, Tulane and Northwestern universities and who was
the husband of Jessie Winnick Sabes
1912:
University of Minnesota trained attorney Benjamin M. Goldman, the son of Anna
Braum and Jacob Goldman married Clara Winthrop today after which he became vice
president and general counsel of the Los Angeles Life Insurance Company and
member of the executive committee of the United Jewish Campaign of California.
1913:
A letter from Dr. Armand Kaminka, the secretary of the Israelitische Allianz
and rabbi in Vienna, called for a world congress “to protest against the
Russian persecution of the Jews and to denounce the ‘ritual murder’ charge now
being prosecuted against Melvin Beilis.”
1914:
Two days after he had passed away, sixty-year-old Russian born Englishman Isaac
Benjamin, the husband of Polly Benjamin with whom he had nine children was
buried today at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery.
1914:
During WW I, as the Germans continued their march through neutral Belgium the
government transferred from Brussels to Antwerp which had gained in its Jewish
population when the “diamond trade shifted from Amsterdam to Antwerp.”
1915:
Birthdate of Chittagong, Bangladesh native Sir Reginald Michael Hadow and
British Diplomat who “Ambassador to Israel from 1965 to 1969.”
1915:
In Philadelphia, Jewish academic Max Leopold Margolis and his wife Evelyn Kate
Aronson gave birth to Max Leopold Margolis
1915(7th of Elul, 5675): Leo Frank was lynched after having been
wrongfully convicted of raping 12 year old in Georgia. “Frank, the manager of a
pencil factory in Atlanta, Georgia, was accused of raping and murdering an
employee, thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan. Frank was convicted, despite evidence
incriminating a janitor at the factory, Jim Conley. The prosecution claimed
that Conley only helped Frank dispose of the body, in return for $200. After
the trial, further evidence came to light calling Frank's guilt into question.
The governor commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment, but Frank was
then lynched. Frank's trial was sensationalized in the media, which promoted
fantastic stories about orgies and rape at the factory. Populist politician and
publisher Tom Watson skillfully manipulated the story in order to inflame
public opinion, and succeeded in using it to build support for the creation of
a new Ku Klux Klan, the original organization having been dormant since
Reconstruction due to federal action; a second Klan was founded in 1915 by a
group calling itself the Knights of Mary Phagan. Frank's lynching turned the
spotlight on anti-Semitism in the United States and led to the founding of the
Anti-Defamation League.”
1915: “Louis Marshall who argued the Frank case before the United States
Supreme Court, said tonight that Tom Watson, editor of The Jeffersonian and at one time candidate for President on the
Populist ticket was responsible for the lynching of Leo M. Frank.”
1915: Nathan Straus who was raised in Georgia said tonight that “the
lynching” of Leo Frank “has brought disgrace to Georgia and the whole country”
and that the only way for the state to redeem itself was to bring the killers
to justice.
1915: “On the first page of the Jeffersonian,
a weekly paper edited by Thomas E. Watson which was issued tonight appears the
following” ‘A Vigilance Committee redeems Georgia and carries out the sentence
of the law on the Jew who raped and murdered the little Gentile girl, Mary
Phagan.’”
1916: During World War
I Julius Mendes Price “was the only foreign correspondent present at the
capture of Gorizia by the Italian army” during the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo
which ended today.
1916: “Abram I. Elkus,
the newly appointed American Ambassador to Turkey,” “his wife, his two daughter
Ethel and Katherine Elkus and his son James Hess Elkus,” set sail today on the
steamship Oscar II “for Constantinople via Copenhagen and Berlin”
1917: A tremendous fire swept through the Jewish quarter of Salonica
leaving 50,000 Jews homeless. Thirty-two synagogues and fifty Jewish schools
were destroyed. The Jews suffered 90% damage to everything they owned.
1917: A movement was made today to “establish a Jewish settlement on the
Island of Java.”
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/indonesia.html
1917: During WW I, in which the U.S. was now a combatant, “Ira Nelson
Morris, the American Minister” in Stockholm said today “that he had received
official advices from Turkey that permission had been granted to about 700
American Jews to leave Palestine for the United States.”
1917: Vilmos Vázsonyi completed his term of Minister of Justice of
Hungary.
1918: In Moscow, followers of Lenin “proclaim Jews as a danger to the
masses.”
1918: In Brooklyn, a block party featuring “music games and dancing” is
scheduled to be held on South 9th Street between Roebling and Driggs
Avenue to raise funds for the Red Mogen David (the Jewish version of the Red
Cross.
1918: In Riga, “local police refuse to interfere in pogrom agitation.
1918: In Petrograd, “in a demonstration against the Jews,” “anti-Semites
among the revolutionaries” tore “up the banner of the ‘Bund.’”
1918: Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky was assassinated by
fellow Jew Leonid Kanegeiser. Uritsky,
like many Bolsheviks, traveled a tortuous path from his early idealism. At the time of his death, he was head the
Petrograd Cheka. The Cheka were the
secret police and over time became much for efficient and showed greater
cruetly that did those who had served the Czar.
1919(21st of Av, 5679): Thirteen-year-old Laser Skutelsky was
murdered today after which he was buried in the Liepaja Jewish Cemetery.
1920: Birthdate of photographer Lida Moser.
http://www.hebrew-home.org/site/DocServer/HH_LTimes6_08.pdf?docID=8961
http://www.artnet.com/artists/lida-moser/past-auction-results
1921: In Tübingen, Germany, Jewish scholars Victor Ehrenberg and Eva
Dorothea Sommer gave birth to Sir Geoffrey Rudolph Elton the British historian
“who specialized in the Tudor Period.”
1921:
In London, The Times published the second 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.’”
1922(23rd of Av, 5682): Sixty give year old Ada Rachael
Micholls, the English born daughter of
Maurice Moses Beddington and Hannah Maria Beddington and wife of Edward
Montefiore MIcholls with whom she had had four children passed away today.
1923: The 13th Zionist Congress came to an in Carlsbad.
1923: Birthdate of Wuerzberg, Germany native and U.S. art historian
Joseph Gutman who served in the army as a chaplain and interpreter from 1943 to
1946, who earned a B.A. from Temple University and an M.A. from New York
University's Institute of Fine Arts and
who received a doctorate in Jewish history and a rabbinical degree form Hebrew
Union College.
1923: “Children of the Moon,” produced by Morris Green opened at the
Comedy Theatre in New York tonight.
1923: In the Bronx Samuel and Sonya Grossberg gave birth to Yitzroch
Loiza Grossberg who gained fame as pop-artist Larry Rivers.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/aug/17/guardianobituaries.arts
1924: In Zholkiew (which was in Poland at that time) Shlomo and Hayyah
Gittel Schachter gave birth to Meshullam Zalman Schachter whom some consider to
be “the spiritual father of the Jewish Renewal movement.” (As reported by Paul
Vitello)
1925: “With the entire police force of Vienna, numbering 6,000 men,
mobilized for the defense of Zionist delegates from all parts of the world who
opened their congress tonight, thousands of anti-Jewish demonstrators stormed
the Freiheit Platz. Despite desperate efforts by the police about forty persons
were injured, including a number of police officers.”
1925: In Lawrence, NY, dress designer Miriam Rosenbaum and furniture salesman
Wiliam Greenberg, Sr. gave birth “William Greenberg Jr., a baked goods
impresario whose fanciful cakes, butter cookies, brownies, Linzer tarts and
sticky buns would exert a Proustian hold over generations of New Yorkers” who
was the husband of Carol Greenberg and the father of Seth and Adam Greenberg.
(As reported by Penelope Green)
https://wmgreenbergdesserts.com/
1926: M. Ketrzynski, the Polish Minister at Moscow warned today from
Warsaw that “there is a strong anti-Jewish feeling growing” under the Stalin
government “and that anti-Semitic rioting may be expected momentarily.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/08/18/98502501.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1927: Birthdate of Bernard Cornfield, the Turkish born son of a
Romanian-Jewish actor “who became one of the most flamboyant and controversial
figures ever to stride through the American mutual fund industry.” (As reported by Diana B. Henriques)
1927:The Conference on Jewish Rights is scheduled to begin today in
Zurich.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/06/16/97234148.html?pageNumber=25
1928: “The Patriot” a silent film with “some talking sequences” directed
and edited by Ernst Lubitsch was released in the United States today.
1929(11th of Av, 5689): Shabbat Nachamu
1929(11th of Av, 5689): Following yesterday’s attack on Jews
at the Wailing Wall, Arabs attack Jews in Jerusalem on Shabbat. A young
Sephardic Jew named Abraham Mizrachi was mortally wounded when he was stabbed
at the Maccabi grounds near Mea Shearim, in the Bukharan Quarter.
1929(11th of Av, 5689): “Young Jewish boy was stabbed to death
by Arabs while retrieving a football.”
1930(23rd of 5690): Seventy-one-year-old painter Florence Wolf
Gotthold, the daughter of Jewish leader Simon Wolf and the wife of Frederick
Gotthold, whose most famous work was “A Venetian Lady” passed away today.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Venetian_Lady_by_Florence_W._Gotthold.jpg
1931: “The Man at Midnight,” “a French comedy directed by Harry Lachman
was released today in France.
1931: Birthdate of artist Mary Ellen Mendes, the daughter of Milton and
Muriel Rosenbluth and the wife of Jonathan de Sola Mende with whom she had two
children
1932(15th of Av, 5692): Tu B’Av
1932(15th of Av, 5692): Forty-five year old Mrs. Louise H.
Pollak, the wife of Cincinnati, Ohio, City Councilman, a graduate of Bryn Mawr
College who was a former president of the League of Woman Voters and a member
of the Council of Jewish Women passed away today
1933: In Tel Aviv,The British High Commissioner and other
officials participate in the laying of the cornerstone for the Levant Fair
which is to be held here in 1934.
1933: “The Private Life of Henry VIII,” a biopic and costume drama
directed and co-produced by Alexander Korda and co-staring Binnie Barnes was
released today in the United Kingdom
1933: “The Private Life of Henry VII” directed and co-produced by
Alexander Korda and featuring Binnie Barnes as “Catherine Howard” was released
today in the United Kingdom.
1933:In Saarbrucken, a decision by a court
in Berlin stating that a Jew doing business in Germany cannot hold the State
responsible for negligence in failing to maintain order and to afford him
protection is printed in the Freiheit
1934: Twenty-seven-year-old pitcher Cyrus Sol “Cy” Malis struck out one
batter today in his first and last major league baseball game as a member of
the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League.
1934: Today, in Zurich, the board of governors of the Hebrew University
of Palestine “elected a university council consisting of Professors Saul Adler,
Rabbi S. Assaf, M. Fekete and S. Klein”
1935(18th of Av, 5696):
Parashat Eikev
1935(18th of Av, 5696): William Farber, the husband of “Rachel
Plocinsky Farber” with whom he had five children – “Nathan, Bluma, Edward,
Maurice and Saul – passed away today in Chicago.
1936(29th of Av, 5696): Two Jewish nurses were killed today by Arab
snipers in Jaffa.
1936(29th of Av, 5696): “Haya Freud, a lookout on the water
tower at Ramath Hakovesh” was killed by
“an Arab during a night raid.”
1936: “Gershon Mosteioff, a student at the Hebrew University” who was
acting as a volunteer watchman at Kiryath Anavim was among the thirteen Jews
wounded by Arab attackers today.
1936: It was reported today that Louis Lipsky of New York the head of the
central council said the completed membership” of the Executive Committee of
the World Jewish Congress “would consist of 136 representatives from 32
countries.”
1937(10th of Elul, 5697): Yiddish author Nosn Perlberg, the
Polish born son of a shochet who made Aliya in 1936 passed away today.
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2018/07/nosn-perlberg.html
1937: As Japanese troops moved through Shanghai, the Shanghai Volunteer
Corps including its Jewish Company under the command of Major Noel S. Jacobs
was activated for a three-month tour of duty.
1937: In Geneva, Mr. Ormsby-Gore, the British Colonial Secretary, told
the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations that Great Britain
definitely considered that she should no longer maintain the Mandate of
Palestine, if it has to be applied by violence. He insisted that the whole
basis of the Palestine Mandate should be changed. Of course these pious
sentiments did not keep the British from holding on to Palestine for another
ten years, denying the establishment of a Jewish state and enforcing pro-Arab
immigration policies that were a death sentence to the Jews of Europe.
1937: Forty-one congressmen requested that Cordell Hull, the US Secretary
of State, advise the British that they were not carrying out the intentions and
promises of the Balfour Declaration and of the Palestine Mandate.
1937: While the diplomats debated in Geneva, the Arab terror continued. A
long list of sporadic shooting incidents, the wounding of a police agent in Ein
Kerem, a bomb explosion in Tiberias and many robberies, all within one week,
was announced by the Palestine Police.
1937: At the closing session of the historic, 20th Zionist Congress held
in Zurich, Dr. Chaim Weizmann was re-elected the President of the World Zionist
Organization.
1937: The New York Times reports that “A remarkable document,
purporting to give a confidential report by Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Zionist
president, of a conversation he had in London with William G. A. Ormsby-Gore,
British Colonial Secretary, on a plan for the partition of Palestine, has been
published by The Jewish Chronicle here.”
1938(20th of Av, 5698): Eight-nine-year-old Adolph Lewisohn, the
German-born American banker and philanthropist who was known as a “copper king”
because of his mining success, passed away.
1938:
In Berlin, the Reich Minister of the Interior signed Reichsgesetz Part I, the second decree on the law concerning the change
of first and last names that included the requirement that male Jews adopt the
middle name of “Israel” and that the female Jews adopt the middle name of
“Sara” – the violation of which led to the imprisonment of Lilli Jahn, “a
German-Jewish doctor” was killed at Auschwitz.
1938(20th of Av, 5698): Seventy-three-year-old CCNY grad and
NYU trained attorney Joseph L. Buttenweiser, the President of the Federation
for Support of Jewish Philanthropic Society, the President of the Hebrew
Technical Institute and a member of both Temple Israel and the Spanish and
Portuguese Synagogue who with his wife Caroline raised five children passed
away today.
1938(20th of Av, 5698): Arab violence continued to spread and grow more
virulent. Early this morning, the body of Meyer Gutwird a 21 year old
rabbinical studen, “who used to devote virtually of his time to religious
studies and was often seen early in the morning at the Wailing Wall reading a
holy” was found in Jerusalem. Gutwird
had been stoned to death and then beaten with an iron rod. A bomb was thrown at a taxicab in Jaffa and
Judah Mosseri, a Yemenite Jew, was wounded in both legs when shots were on the
border between Jaffa and Tel Aviv. Arab
terrorist did not limit their activities to attacking Jews. They attacked eight Arab telephone linemen
whom they robbed before they released them.
1939: The 85,000 Jews living in Slovakia were terrified of being robbed
and pillaged by the non-Jews, who were encouraged by the Germans.
1939(2nd of Elul, 5699): Seventy-four-year-old New York
native, “the Vice President of the Consolidated Cigar Corporation and Vice
President of the S. Elkeles Cigar Box Company” who was survived by four
siblings – David, Moses, Julia and Mollie -- passed away today “at his home on
East 61st Street after a long illness.
1939: The New York City premiere of “The Wizard of Oz” produced by Mervyn
LeRoy with Oscar winning music by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg was held at
Lowe’s Capitol Theatre
1940: “The Prefecture of Haute-Garonne issued Leon Blum a new
identification card, which indicated that his hair and mustache were grey, his
nose “straight,” and his complexion “clear.”
1941(24th
of Av, 5701): Three men in Khmelnik, Ukraine, were gathered together and shot
dead. The deaths were justified by Einsatzkommando as retaliation for Jewish
resistance. Considering how the SS death squads worked, it is surprising that
they felt the need to offer an excuse for killing more Jews.
1942(24th of Av, 5701): The Nazis gassed 341 French-Jewish
children from the ages of two to ten, as well as 323 girls up to the age of 16,
at Auschwitz. Two of the victims are Suzanne Perl, seven, and her sister
Micheline, three.
1942:
In Chicago, educator Arthur Mordechai Rabinovitz, the Lithuanian born son of
Chaya-Leah Levy and Sholem Moshe Rabinovitiz and his wife Anna Dorothy
Silverstone gave birth to Marcia Lee Rabinovitz
1942: Over the next 48 hours the Nazis murdered 2500 Jews from
Drogobych, Ukraine, at the Belzec death camp.
1942:
Birthdate of barrister and campaigner for children’s rights Allan Edward Levy.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/sep/29/guardianobituaries.children
1943:
“A survivor from Sabinov in Slovakia, who has remained anonymous, wrote a
report in which he described his selection in Sobibór, together with
approximately one hundred men and fifty women, upon arrival.”
1943:
The latest deportation continued at Bialystok; The Nazis selection 1,200 children
for transport to Theresienstadt. Four weeks later, those children still alive
were sent to Birkenau where all of them met the fate of death. Fifty-three
adults volunteered to join them.
1943: Some 1200 children are taken from the
Jewish ghetto at Bialystok, Poland, to Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, and
later to Auschwitz, where they will be killed.
1944:
In New York City, an “Florence Spellman, an unwed Jewish mother
1944:
In New York“Florence
Spellman, an unwed Jewish mother” gave birth University of Illinois and
University of Chicago educated entrepreneur Lawrene Joseph Ellison, the
co-founder of Oracle Corporation, the either ninth wealthiest person in the
world (Bloomberg) or fifth-wealthiest person in the world (Forbes) and a
supporter of Bibi Netanyahu who has been married four times and was raised by
his great-aunt, Lillan Spellman Ellison and his great-uncle Louis Ellison on Chicago’s
South Shore neighborhood where he was raised Jewish but decided not to have a
bar mitva.
1944:
Nicholas Winton, the Englishman who rescued almost 700 Jewish children from
Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia was promoted to the rank of pilot officer in the
RAF.
1944:
Premiere of “Cry of the Werewolf” directed by Henry Levin.
1944:
Birthdate of Larry Ellison, the co-founder and CEO of Oracle.
1944: The last deportation from Drancy, France,
leaves for Buchenwald bearing 51 Jews. Once again we have a reminder of how
critical the Final Solution was to the Germans and their allies. This deportation took place as the Allies
were liberating Paris. While the Germans
were preparing to pull out and leave the French capital to the liberators, they
had to ship one more load of Jews to their death.
1945:
Animal Farm by George Orwell is first published by Fredric Warburg both
of whose parents were Jewish.
1945:
It was reported today that the meeting between representatives of the World
Zionist Conference and British Colonial Secretary George Hall was “the first
known official contact between the Zionists and the new Labor Government.” In the past the Laborites have pledged their
support for the creation of a Jewish homeland so “the Zionists are eagerly
awaiting the British Governments action on the request for 100,000 more
immigration certificates…”
1946(20th
of Av, 5706) Parashat Eikev
1946:
Birthdate of Drake Maxwell Levin, the Chicago native “who played lead guitar
for the teen-idol rock band Paul Revere & the Raiders during their biggest
hit-making years in the mid-1960s.” (As reported by Bruce Weber)
1947(1st
of Elul, 5707): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1947:
It was reported today that the Museum of Modern Art has placed on view in one
of its first floor galleries an exhibition that included “three canvases by
Juan Gris” that “were acquired through a bequest from Mrs. Anna Erickson Levene
who gave them in memory of Dr. Phoebus Aaron Theodor Levene.”
1948:
Mitchell Flint “took up D-108 for an hour of formation flying part of an
exhibition for Prime Minister Ben-Gurion's visit to Netanya.”
1948:
“During today's visit by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to Netanya, Modi Alon
scrambled Syd Cohen and four of his B flight pilots, if only for show in front
of the prime minister.”
1948:
Mordechai Weingarten, a Jewish civilian leader in Old Jerusalem “appeared
before a commission investigating events” that had led up to the surrender of
the Old City to the Jordanians.
1949:
In New York, Ambassador Eliabu Elath and the chief Israeli delegate to the
U.N., Aubrey Eban, “addressed a meeting of officials of the Consulate and of
various Israeli missions in the United States” as part of the celebration
marking the transfer of the remains of Theodore Herzl to Jerusalem. (As
reported by JTA)
1949:
In New York Norman Bertram Coleman, Sr., and his wife, Beverly (Behrman) gave
birth to Norman Bertram "Norm" Coleman, Jr the future Mayor of St.
Paul and U.S. Senator from Minnesota.
1949:
Premiere of “Jolson Sings Again” the sequel of “The Jolson Story,” biopics
about Al Jolson directed by Henry Levin
1950:
Premier of “The Petty Girl” a musical comedy directed by Henry Levin.
1951(15th
of Av, 5711): Tu B’Av
1951(15th
of Av, 5711); Seventy-one-year-old Prussian native and NYU trained attorney
Leopold Prince, the Municipal Court Judge and founder/conductor of the
City Amateur Symphony Orchestra who was a member of the Free Sons of Israel and
the husband of Hedwig Prince passed away today
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/08/18/84682880.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1951:
U.S. Premiere of “The Lost Continent” a science fiction thriller co-starring
Sid Melton, the son of Yiddish comedian Isidor Meltzer.
1951:
Today, Oswego, NY native and Columbia trained urologist Dr. Clarence Garfield
Bandler, the son of William and Eva Fox Bandler married Miriam Zack
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/11/17/132854902.pdf
1951:
The conflict in the World Zionist Congress on the aims of Zionism now that
Israel has been established as a state remained sharp as the delegates
adjourned this afternoon for the Sabbath recess.
1952: John Blanford of UNRWA and the government of Jordan signed an
agreement that provided eleven million dollars for the resettling of Arab
refugees in Jordan. The Arab governments, including Jordan, did all that they
could to keep the Palestinian refugees penned up in camps and keep them out of
their respective countries.
1952: Two Jews were sentenced to death for economic crimes in Poland. It
was thought that the Polish Communist regime was exploiting anti-Semitism to
distract attention for its own, ever-growing economic difficulties.
1956: In Paris, Gaby and Raymond Aghion gave birth to Philippe Mario
Aghion the “Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics at Harvard University and
the co-developer of “Schumpeterian Paradigm.”
1956(10th of Elul, 5716): Sixty-five-year-old Russian born
Yiddish poet Moishe Broderzon passed away today.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Broderzon_Moyshe
1957(20th of Av, 5717): Sixty-six-year-old English painter and
“Whitechapel Boy” David Bomberg passed away.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ARTbomberg.htm
1957(20th of Av, 5717):
Seventy-nine-year-old Myers Jacobs passed away today after which he was
buried at Karrakatta,
Nedlands City, Western Australia, Australia.
1958(1st of
Elul, 5718): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1958: A group of leaders
of the American Jewish Committee, including Irving M. Engel, president of the
committee are visiting Rio de Janeiro as part of a “three-day good will visit.”
1959: Rabbi Jacob
Joseph Twersky and his eighteen-year-old so David are flyting to Israel where
his son will be married to 16-year-old Hannah Hager in B’nai B’rak.
1959: It as reported
today that Arab pressure led by the UAR and Saudia Arabia “is delaying the
transfer of two Israeli frigates purchased by Ceylon.”
1960: Birthdate of actor Sean
Penn. Penn’s father was Jewish. His mother was not. Penn’s father was director Leo Penn who was a
victim to the infamous Blacklist.
1960: ITV broadcast the final episode of “The Four Just Men” a television
series overseen by Executive Producer Hannah Fisher, with music Francis
Chagrin.
1961(5th of Elul, 5721): Seventy-six-year-old Carlos Salezdo,
the scion of two Sephardi families and a leading “French harpist, pianist,
composer and conductor” passed away today.
http://www.yourharpist.com/carlos5.html
1962: In a rare loss of control, reliever Larry Sherry hit Red’s lead-off
batter Gordie Coleman in the seventh inning.
The Dodgers go on to defeat Cincinnati.
1963( 27th of Av, 5723): Parashat Re’eh
1963(27th of Av, 5723): Eighty-two-year-old Odessa born and
Kansas City, MO educated architect and photographer
Ben Judah Lubschez whose “images appeared in several architectural and photographic magazines” and who moved to
New York where he worked for “H. Van Buren Magonigle,, then opened his own
offices, and in 1944 he joined the firm of Voorhees, Walker, Foley, Smith,
where he remained until his 1961 retirement.
1963: Three days after his death, a friend disclosed the fact that
Clifford Odets’ “The Flowering Peach” “had been the Pulitzer Prize jury’s 1955
drama choice” but that it had been overruled by Pulitzer Advisory Board.
1964(9th of Elul, 5724): Seventy-three-year-old Louise M.
Lehman Pollak, the wife of Cleveland native Robert M. Pollak, the President of
Pollak Brothers, Inc., a clothing manufacturing company in Fort Wayne, IN and
the the mother of Helen Pollak who died on the day she was born in 1916, passed
away today after she was interred at the Lindenwood Cemetery in Fort Wayne.
1966(1st of Elul, 5726): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1966 (1st of Elul, 5726): Eighty-two-year-old Des Moines, IA
native Ira M. Younker, the husband of Rose Marie Younker with whom he had two
children – Herman and Janet – who was the “President of the Jewish Family
Service and a trustee of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York”
passed away today.
1966(1st of Elul, 5726): 1967:Yonatan
Netanyahu married Tuti today.
1966: Ninety-year-old, John Spargo, the author of The Jews and American
Ideals in which he “attacked the problems of anti-Semitism and exposes the
un-American nature and its positive danger to American ideals and institutions”
passed away today.
1967: Tuti and Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu were married today after which
they moved to the U.S. so he could enroll at Harvard.
1967: “The Stranger Returns” a “spaghetti Western film produced by Allen
Klein was released in Italy today.
1968(23rd of Av, 5728): Parashat Eikev
1968(23rd of Av, 5728): Sixty-seven-year-old Joseph Platzker,
a life-long resident of New York City and “Commissioner of Housing and
Buildings” under Mayor La Guardia who was the husband of Bess Ratner Platzker
with whom he had two children – Harold and Doris – passed away today “at the
Albert Einstein Hospital.”
1969: Birthdate of Baltimore native and Clemson University educated Brian
Mark Kowitz the outfielder for the Atlanta Braves.
1969(3rd of Elul, 5729): German
born physicist Otto Stern who worked with Einstein before World War I and came
to the United States in 1933 where he taught and won the Nobel Prize for
Physics in 1943 passed away today.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1943/stern/biographical/
1970: Sixty-nine-year-old to Dr. Frederick Lascoff, the recipient of a
pharmacy degree from Columbia where he taught for 20 years and a Doctorate in
Pharmacy from the Connecticut College of Pharmacy who operated the “Yorkville
pharmacy started by his father” and who was the husband of Emmy Lascoff with
whom he had one son passed away today.
1974: Leonard Bernstein conducted the premiere of Dybbuk Variations with
NYP in Auckland, New Zealand.
1975(10th of Elul, 5735): Seventy-nine-year-old painter and
actor Sig Arno, the native of Hamburg, who left Germany in 1933 for Hollywood
where ‘he appeared in over fifty films” over the next twenty years and also
found time two appear in three different shows on Broadway including “Time
Remembered’ “for which he was nominated for a Tony Award…in 1958.
1976: Hadassah continues its national convention for a third day in
Washington, DC.
1977: A memorial is scheduled to be held this evening at Riverside Chapel
for art dealer Hugo Perls who passed away yesterday at the age of 91.
1978(14th of Av, 5738): Seventy-seven-year-old Sarajevo native Morris
Muster who in 1909 came to the United States where served as secretary of the
Home Furniture Association of New York and was active in B’nai B’rith and the
UJA passed away today.
1979: Premiere of “The Seduction of Joe Tynan” a cinematic commentary on
the state of American politics directed by Jerry Schatzberg, produced by
Bregman co-starring Melvyn Douglas.
1979: “The Concorde ... Airport '79” with a screenplay by Eric Roth,
music by Lalo Schifrin and featuring performances by Avery Schreiber and Harry
Shearer was released in the United States today by Universal Pictures.
1980(5th of Elul, 5740): Eighty-eight-year-old Morris Murray
Peshkin, the graduate of Fordham Medical School and allergist who was on the
faculty of Columbia and an officer of the American Jewish Congress passed away
today.
1980(5th of Elul, 5740): In Jaffa, one person was killed and eight were
injured during a terrorist car bombing.
1981(17th of Av, 5741): Ninety-one-year-old Jewish historian, author and
academic Selma Stern Taebuler passed away.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/stern-taeubler-selma
1982(28th of Av, 5742): Fifty-seven anti-apartheid activist Ruth First,
the daughter of Latvian Jews who had moved to South Africa in 1906 and the wife
of Joe Slovo passed away today.
1983(8th of Elul, 5743): Lyricist Ira Gershwin, brother of the famous
George Gershwin, passed away at the age of 86. (As reported by John S. Wilson)
1984: Birthdate of
San Mateo, CA native Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the son and grandson of Jewish book
and gift store proprietors known for his role in creating original content for
Netflix.
1985: U.S. Army Lt.
Gen. Sidney Thomas Weinstein began serving as the Deputy Chief of Staff for
Intelligence.
1986(12th of Av, 5746)Moses Hadas an
American teacher, who was one of the leading classical scholars of the
twentieth century, and a translator of numerous works, passed away today.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/alumni/Magazine/Fall2001/Hadas.html
“Raised in Atlanta in a Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish household, his
early studies included rabbinical training; he graduated from Jewish
Theological Seminary of America (1926) and took his doctorate in classics in
1930. He was fluent in Yiddish, German, ancient Hebrew, ancient Greek, Latin,
French, and Italian, and well-versed in other languages. His most productive
years were spent at Columbia University, where he was a colleague of Jacques
Barzun and Lionel Trilling. There, he took his talent for languages, combined
it with a popularizing impulse, to buck the prevailing classical methods of the
day—textual criticism and grammar—presenting classics, even in translation, as
worthy of study as literary works in their own right. This approach may be compared
to the New Criticism school: even as the New Critics emphasized close reading,
eschewing outside sources and cumbersome apparatus, Hadas, in presenting
classical works in translation to an influx of post-war G.I. Bill students,
brought forth an appreciation of his domain for those without the specialized
training of classicists. His popularizing impulse led him to embrace television
as a tool for education, becoming a telelecturer and a pundit on broadcast
television. He also recorded classical works on phonograph and tape.”
Or
Moses Hadas passed away.Hadas was an
American teacher, one of the leading classical scholars of the twentieth
century, and a translator of numerous works. Raised in Atlanta in a Yiddish-speaking
Orthodox Jewish household, his early studies included rabbinical training; he
graduated from Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1926) and took his
doctorate in classics in 1930. He was fluent in Yiddish, German, ancient
Hebrew, ancient Greek, Latin, French, and Italian, and well-versed in other
languages. His most productive years were spent at Columbia University, where
he was a colleague of Jacques Barzun and Lionel Trilling. There, he took his
talent for languages, combined it with a popularizing impulse, to buck the
prevailing classical methods of the day—textual criticism and
grammar—presenting classics, even in translation, as worthy of study as
literary works in their own right. This approach may be compared to the New
Criticism school: even as the New Critics emphasized close reading, eschewing
outside sources and cumbersome apparatus, Hadas, in presenting classical works
in translation to an influx of post-war G.I. Bill students, brought forth an
appreciation of his domain for those without the specialized training of
classicists. His popularizing impulse led him to embrace television as a tool
for education, becoming a telelecturer and a pundit on broadcast television. He
also recorded classical works on phonograph and tape. His daughter Rachel Hadas
is a poet, teacher, essayist, and translator.
1986: Birthdate of Deborah Feldman, the author who rebelled against her
upbringing by “the Hasidic Satmar group in Williamsburg” and wrote her
autobiography, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots.
http://www.deborahfeldman.com/
1987: Rudolf Hess, the last of Hitler’s inner
circle died in a Berlin hospital at the age of 93. He apparently attempted to
commit suicide by hanging himself with an electrical cord. Hess had parachuted into England in 1941 for
reasons that to this day are unclear.
Convicted as a war criminal at Nuremberg, he spent the rest of his life
at Spandau Prison.
1988:According to an article in the Cedar Rapids Gazette entitled, “A Tale of Two Piggies.” Concrete
pigs had replaced pink flamingos as yard ornaments for Temple Judah congregants
Terri and Brian Cohen. The 1,100-pound concrete porker showed up in the
couple’s front yard at 1290 35th St. NE after a mysterious phone call invited
Terri to leave her home. Brian recalled a friend asking what kind of lawn
ornament he wanted and when he responded, “no pink flamingos and no Virgin Mary
grottoes,” he neglected to mention swine.
1992:
Woody Allen admitted to being romantically involved with Soon-Yi Previn, the
adopted daughter of Allen’s longtime companion, actress Mia Farrow.
1994:
Elias Canetti, a novelist, playwright and cultural historian who had won the
Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981 was buried today in Zurich next to James
Joyce.
1960:
ITV released the final episode of “The Four Just Men” produced by Hannah
Fisher.
1995(21st
of Av, 5755): Ninety-three-year-old screenwriter Howard Koch, who won an Oscar
for his work on “Casablanca”, passed away. (As reported by Mel Gussow)
1997:
Guy Hever disappeared after finishing his stint on guard duty while serving
with an artillery unit based in the Golan Heights.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-soldier-who-vanished-guy-hever-syria/
1997:
In the Gaza Strip a two-day celebration was held to celebrate the 25th
anniversary of the Gush Katif settlement bloc
1997:
The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback
edition of Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics by Ruth Lewin
1998:
US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an
"improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica
Lewinsky.
2000:
Two days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to held today
in Great Neck for 95 year-old Irving Levine, the husband of Sylvia Levine Z”L
with whom he had three children – Susan, Arthur and Beth – and a member of
Temple Israel of Great Neck.
2001:
“Rat Race,” a comedy directed by Jerry Zucker, co-produced by Jerry Zucker and
Janet Zucer, written by Andy Breckman and co-starring Jon Lovit was released in
the United States and Canada today.
2001(28th
of Av, 5761): Eighty-year-old Penn State track star Herman Goffberg who
competed in the 1948 Olympics passed away today.
http://old.post-gazette.com/obituaries/20010822goffberg0822p2.asp
2002:
“Israeli security forces arrested the Hamas terrorists known as the ‘Silwan
Cell’ who were responsible for the attack on the Café Moment coffee shop in
Jerusalem that killed 11 Israeli civilians and wounded another 54.”
2002:
The end of the two-day dedication ceremony of the Anne Frank Human Rights
Memorial in Boise, Idaho.
2003:
In Malibu, CA, “at the Saddlerock Vineyards and Ranch,” Rabbi Michael Gotlieb
is scheduled to officiate at the wedding of Brandeis graduate and “creative
writer” Elisa Tamar Albert and Joel Samuel Farkas, a third year law student at
Fordham Law School.
2003:
Ariel Sharon completed his term in office as Communications Minister of Israel.
2003:
The Sunday New York Times includes
reviews of Einstein’s Clocks,
Poincare’s Maps: Empires of Time by Peter Galison,Kate Remembered, a biography of Kathryn Hepburn by the
Jewish author A. Scott Bergand What Was She Thinking?:Notes on a
Scandal, a novel by Jewish author Zoe Holler.
2004(30th of Av, 5764): Rosh Chodesh Av
2004:
The day before Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, faces sharp debate about his
policies that include his decision to leave Gaza without pre-conditions, at his
own Likud Party convention, “his government made an effort to pacify his
critics today, issuing tenders for 1,001 new, government-subsidized apartments
for settlers in the occupied West Bank.” (As reported by Steve Erlanger)
2005: In a tribute to the vitality of the Jewish
people Hutzot Hayotzer Jerusalem’s largest summer festival celebrating art and various
crafts returns to its original location at the Sultan’s Pool when it opened
today. Hutzot Havotzer is celebrating
its thirtieth anniversary and is a cultural happening in the truest sense of
the word. With the world fixated on Gaza
and terror, this is another reminder of the vitality of Jewish culture even in
times of unbelievable stress and hostility.
2005: Sixteen families of “Morag, a moshav in the southwest edge
of the Gaza Strip” “were evicted today by the IDF and Israeli police.”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2005/08/17/israeli-troops-forcibly-remove-gaza-settlers.html
2005:
Today, “as the Vikings' morning training camp session ended at Minnesota State
University about half a dozen fans approached Zygmunt Wilf -- a New Jersey real
estate developer and the new principal owner of the Minnesota Vikings for
autographs as he walked off the field.”
2005: In an
example of the demise of another Jewish founded department store chain Coles
announced that it would decide the fate of Myer, an Australian retail group
founded Sidney Myer a Jewish immigrant from Russia.
2006: IDF
Chief of Staff Dan Halutz refused to resign over charges that he had sold off
his portfolio because, unlike most Israelis, he knew that his country was faced
with the prospect of going to war after two Israelis soldiers had been captured
by Hezbollah.
2006: I
Was a Child of Holocuast Survivors by Bernice Eisenstein went on sale
today.
2006:Israel's Attorney General Menachem Mazuz decided to indict
Haim Ramon for indecent assault. Ramon responded by saying: "I am certain
of my innocence. The court will prove it."
2007(2nd
Elul, 5676): Ninety-one-year-old Carolyn Goodman, the psychologist turned
“civil rights advocate” and mother of murdered Civil Rights worker Andrew
Goodman passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/18/us/18goodman.html?_r=1&
2007:
“Superbad” produced by Judd Apaow, written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and
starring Jonah Hill opens in movie theatres throughout the United States. Jonah Hill, who plays
the socially inept teen, says he's really a nice Jewish boy. "I am not a
super lecherous guy. I usually enjoy having a girlfriend as opposed to dating a
variety of women. I'm a nice Jewish boy."
2008: In St. Paul, Minnesota,Bais Chana Jewish Women's Weekend Retreat
comes to a close.
2008: Services were held at Tifereth Israel
Synagogue in Des Moines for Marvin Pomerantz, 78, a friend and adviser of
Republican governors and presidents for four decades who twice served as
president of the Iowa Board of Regents
2008: The
Washington Post book section reported that The D.C. Jewish Community Center is seeking submissions for its
third annual writing contest -- short essays or stories that illuminate how
humor has been helpful in difficult times. The winning entries will be part of
"Laughing for God's Sake: Humor in Jewish Literature," the opening
event in the upcoming Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary
Festival to be held in September.
2008:The cabinet
voted this morning to release some 200 security prisoners as a goodwill gesture
to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
2008: Anna Gostamelsky shattered Israel’s national
swimming record the 100-meter freestyle this evening at the Beijing
Olympics. But after six years, Ms.
Gostamelsky, one of thousands of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, has
not been able to convince the rabbinate that she is Jewish according to
halacha.
2008: “The tribute concert Lyrics by Don Black was held at the London Palladium, featuring
performances of Black's songs by a selection of guest artists
2008: Opening of the12th Annual Jewish
Arts Fest of Dallasfeaturing the deeply Texan and Jewish
story of The Immigrant in a musical concert production by Fort Worth's Stage
West.
2009: Time magazine features reviews of three
books about Bernie Madoff “who hawked his investment fund to a largely Jewish
clientele” including Too Good to be True by Erin Arvedlund, Madoff
with Money by Jerry Oppenheimer and Betrayal; The Life and Lies of
Bernie Madoff by Andrew Kirtzman.
2009: In Washington, D.C.
Community organizer Michael Rosen discusses and signs What Else But Home:
Seven Boys and an American Journey Between the Projects and the Penthouse
at Politics and Prose Bookstore
2009(27th of Av, 5769):Two more Israelis
died on today due to complications from the swine flu, becoming the eighth and
ninth people in Israel to succumb to the pandemic. The two men, age 76 and 67,
died at the Sharon Hospital and Beilinson Hospital, both in Petah Tikva.
2009(27th of Av, 5769): Eighty-four-year-old Israel Adler
founder of the National Sound Archives of the National Library of Israel,
founder and former director of the Jewish Music Research Centre of the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, and one of the co-founders of IASA died today after a
prolonged illness.
http://www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il/thesaurus243c.html?cat=9&in=9&id=12&act=view
http://www.iasa-web.org/notice_board/obituary-professor-israel-adle
2009: “New Doubts Raised
Over Famous War Photo” published today described challenges to the authenticity
of one of the iconic combat photographs Robert Capa’s “Falling Soldier.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/arts/design/18capa.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/08/17/arts/18CAPA_hp_ready.html
2010: The National Jewish
Retreat is scheduled to begin at Reston, VA.
2010: Clashes between the IDF and Palestinian
terrorists along the Gaza border intensified today, when two IDF soldiers were
slightly injured by mortar fire near the security fence in southern Gaza.
2010(7th of Elul, 5770):Harold Shpeen, 87, of Marlton, a longtime
dentist and former president of the Jewish Federation of South Jersey, passed
away today. Dr. Shpeen was a dentist for
nearly 50 years, owning a practice in Westmont and later Cherry Hill. He was
also an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Dental School and
at Camden County College. But his volunteering and social life dealt with the
local Jewish community, his family said. During his presidency of the federation
in the early 1970s, he led the way in the development of Bernard Dubin House, a
senior housing project in Cherry Hill. Dr. Shpeen was an "innovative"
and "dedicated" leader, said Joel Kaber, chief executive officer of
the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey. In 1977, Dr. Shpeen was awarded
the federation's annual lifetime achievement award for dedication to his
community, Kaber said. He continued to volunteer for the federation but slowed
down after retiring from his practice in the 1990s. He and his wife lived in
Tucson, Ariz., for several years before returning to South Jersey in 2000. Dr.
Shpeen was born and raised in Glassboro, graduating from Glassboro High School
in 1941. Because of World War II, he had to race through college and dental
school, his family said, graduating from Temple University Dental School in
1945. Dr. Shpeen, who was a captain in the Army, was sent to Germany just in
time for the liberation of prisoner camps, Feist said. He helped identify many
victims through dental records and checked on some of the survivors of the
camps, his family said. He remained in the Army for a couple of years after the
war. When Dr. Shpeen returned to South Jersey, he started his dental practice
in Westmont. In 1951 he married Judith Z. Goodman, whom he had met while
playing cards with her parents. Judith Shpeen died in 2002.
2010: LAJFF
in cooperation with the Anti-Defamation League and Second Generation host an
exclusive pre-release screening of “A Film Unfinished” in Encino.
2010: Ryan
“Kalish hit his first career grand slam in game against the Angeles in Fenway
Park.”
2011: Les Bergen, a JHSGW Board Member, is scheduled
to facilitate “a virtual tour of Arlington National Cemetery, where more than
5,200 Jews are buried. We'll discuss the
Confederate Memorial by sculptor Moses Ezekiel and talk about the first
Hadassah nurse, a Supreme Court justice, astronauts, four-star admirals, and
more.
2011: “Smiley - How about some emotional
pornography?” written by Eyal Weiser and directed by Allon Cohen is scheduled
to open in New York City.
2011: “The California Supreme Court declined to
review the Court of Appeal's decision to affirm Phil Spector’s conviction” for
the murder of Lana Clarkson.
2011:
Fighting bad lighting and a spotty internet connection, activists at the
Rothschild tent city held a live chat tonight with leaders of the “May 15”
anti-government protests that brought hundreds of thousands into the streets
across Spain since they began over three months ago.
2011: It was reported today that “The Hebrew
University in Jerusalem has been ranked the 57th best university in the world,
in a list of the top 500 universities worldwide.
2011: Peter Shumlin
became the first sitting governor in the United States to preside over a
same-sex wedding ceremony
2012: Among the many choices Washington Metropolitan
Areas Jews have for welcoming the Sabbath are the Pre-service wine and cheese
social at Beth El Hebrew Congregation in Alexandria and the Shabbat BBQ at
Congregation Beth Emeth in Herndon, VA
2012: A final vote is scheduled to take place today
when the United Church of Canada's General Council can choose to accept or
reject an overall motion that includes recommendations to approve a boycott of
products made in Israeli settlements. (As reported by JTA)
2012: The leader of the Lebanese Shiite terrorist
Hezbollah said his group will transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of
Israelis to “hell” if Israel attacks Lebanon. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said
today that the group has a list of Israeli targets that it can hit with few
rockets.
2012:South
Africa’s chief rabbi has called on the country’s deputy minister of
international relations to resign, saying he is unfit to hold public office.
Earlier this week, South African politician Ebrahim Ebrahim issued a statement
saying that South Africans would be discouraged from visiting Israel unless
they were involved in peace efforts. In an open letter published today in
Business Day and The Jerusalem Post, Rabbi Warren Goldstein wrote, “As a
citizen and as a national religious leader of South Africa, I object to the way
in which you are abusing your high office to promote your own personal agenda.
You obviously have a ‘blind spot’ when it comes to Israel; you lose your sense
of objectivity and rationality when dealing with the Jewish state
2012(29th
of Av,5772): Seventy-seven-year-old “Samuel H. Lindenbaum, who was widely
considered New York City’s top zoning lawyer and who was credited with doing as
much as any of the powerful developers among his clients to shape the modern
skyline of Manhattan” passed away today.
(As reported by David W. Dunlap)
2013:
In Monticello, NY, second and final day of the Bagel Festival attendees can
participate in the Best Bagels Contest and the Bagel Triathalon that includes seeing how far you can roll a
bagel, how far you can shot put a bagel and how high you can stack bagels
without have them fall.
2013:
“Arthur Fields: the man on O'Connell bridge” published today described the
“career” Irish photographer Arthur Fields, the Dublin native Abraham Feldman
who was the son of Jews from Ukraine.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/aug/18/arthur-fields-man-oconnell-bridge-photographs
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/galleries/man-on-a-bridge-1.1488230
2013(11th
of Elul, 5773): Eight-nine-year-old historian David Landes author of Revolution
in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World passed away today. (As
reported by Douglas Martin)
2013:
The Tamarod ("Rebellion") movement in Egypt has joined a campaign
calling to stop US aid to Egypt, and to cancel the 1979 Camp David peace treaty
with Israel, Daily News Egypt reported today.
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=323386
2013:The
IDF fired a Tammuz surface-to-surface missile at a Syrian army post today,
after several Syrian mortar shells exploded in the Golan Heights. (As reported
by Yaakov Lappin)
2014: The New York Times featured books by Jewish
authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Kill My Mother:
A Graphic Novel written and illustrated by Jules Feifer, Timeless: Love,
Morgenthau and Me by Lucinda Franks and “Andrew Lewis Conn’s new novel, O, Africa!,
which explores the fictional exploits of two Jewish brothers whose commercial
partnership propels them to the forefront of the silent film industry in the
years between the World Wars.”
2014(21st of Av, 5774): Ninety-six-year-old
Sophie Masloff, “the first woman and the first Jew to serve as mayor of
Pittsburgh” passed away today. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
2014: This evening, the PBS premiere of “Before The
Revolution - The Untold Story of the Israeli Paradise in Iran.”
2014: The Baton Rouge (LA) Jewish Film Festival is
scheduled to host a screening of “Fiddler on the Roof” complete with a
sing-along.
2014: “Israel will not agree under any circumstances to a
ceasefire deal that doesn’t meet the country’s security demands, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said today, as an Israeli delegation landed in Cairo to
discuss an Egyptian proposal aimed at ending hostilities in the Gaza Strip and
across the Israeli border.” (As reported by Adiv Sterman)
2014: Israeli security forces are preparing to examine
“three openings in the ground…inside communities in the Gaza border area” near
homes, kindergartens and playing fields” which arethought to “tunnel entrances dug by
Hamas under the border from Gaza into Israel.” (As reported by Stuart Winer)
2014: Elena Kats-Chernin is scheduled to perform
“Remembering Bialystok,” “her new work for piano and cello” at “A Concert to
Remember Bialystok” at the Melbourne Recital Center.
2014: After yesterday’s violent protests at a Tesco
supermarket by pro-Hamas demonstrators and the decisions of the grocery chain
which was founded by Jewish businessman Jack Cohen to knuckle under to the
Bobycott Divestment and Sanctions movement, today another UK grocery chain
removed kosher items from their shelves out of fear of violence from
pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
2015: The “Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited”
is scheduled to open to the public today at the Southern Museum in Kennesaw,
GA.
http://historymuseum.kennesaw.edu/events/leo_frank.pdf
2015: As part of program sponsored by the Southern Museum,
the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum and the Museum of History and
Holocaust Education at Kennesaw State University Congregation Neir Tamid is
scheduled to lead a centennial remembrance of Leo Frank’s lynching including
the recitation of Kaddish led by Rabbi Tom Liebschutz.
2016(13th of Av, 5776): Ninety-two-year-old Arthur Hiller,
the director who may be best known for the tear-jerker “Love Story” passed away
today.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/18/movies/arthur-hiller-dead.html?_r=0
2016: “At 8 p.m., violinist Gil Shaham is scheduled tol
perform Bach's complete Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin in single recital
at Tanglewood.
2016: Rabbi Deborah Silver and Deborah Mintz are scheduled
to lead the Summer Learning Series at Shir Chadish, the Conservative synagogue
which gave the author of this blog his first teaching job.
2017: The 2017 Daniel Pearl Fellows, Nichals Chang and
Samuel Yousafazi are scheduled to participate in “an open discussion” moderated
by Rob Eshman at the Steve Allen Theatre in Los Angeles.
2017: “Brig. Gen. Dr. Tarif Bader was sworn in today as
the Israel Defense Forces chief medical officer, marking the first time in the
country's history that the position is manned by a Druze officer.” (Editor’s
note: Does anybody see any sense of irony in this entry given the events of the
Summer of 2018?)
2017: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
is scheduled to host an evening with photographer Baron Wolman who “became the
first chief photographer of the legendary publication, Rolling Stone magazine.”
2017: “Pawn Sacrifice,” a film about American chess
prodigy Bobby Fisher and co-starring Live Schreiber is scheduled to be shown
for the last time in London and Manchester.
2017: The Cleveland Jewish News is scheduled to present an
evening of comedy featuring Sarge Pickman, “The Black Jew with the Chai IQ” at
Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood.
2018: Due to the presence of “high levels of fecal E. coli
bacteria” the Health Ministry is not allowing the public to “several streams”
including “Zaki, Yehudiya, Meshushim, Zavitan, Jilabun, and Daliyot (at the
Majrassa Nature Reserve), as well as the Jordan River (only in the Jordan Park
area).” (As reported by Rotem Elizera and Gilad Carmeli)
2018: The Bezalel Art Fair is scheduled to begin at ten
this morning in Jerusalem.
https://www.facebook.com/bezalel.fair/videos/1932926923594949/
2019(16th of Av, 5779): Shabbat Nachamu;
2019: Two hundred and twenty-ninth anniversary of
President George Washington’s visit to Newport, Rhode Island, a depiction of
which is part of the core exhibition at the National Museum of American Jewish
History in Philadelphia, PA.
https://www.nmajh.org/religiousfreedom/
2020: “Israeli fighter jets on Monday landed in Germany
for the first time, in a display of the two countries’ strong ties more than 75
years after the end of the Nazi Holocaust and as the German military is
struggling with signs of rising far-right sentiment in its ranks.
2021:
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen is scheduled to host a webinar on “Must We Believe in God?”
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83996527218?pwd=WU9oczJpM1Bna1loREY4ckVESEhtZz09
2021:
The Breman Museum is scheduled to present, for the first time anywhere,
bestselling author Bruce Feiler (Walking the Bible, Council of Dads, Life Is in
the Transitions) and his brother, photographer and writer Andrew Feiler
(Without Regard to Sex, Race, or Color; A Better Life for their Children), in
conversation about being fifth-generation Jewish Georgians and their upbringing
in Savannah, the role of Southern Jews in American today, and their most recent
work.
2021:
In Columbus, OH, Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host via zoom “Do We Really
Believe in the Books of Life and Death? with Rabbi Braver.”
2021:
Based on reports published yesterday, Israel has vaccinated more than half of
1.9 million Israelis aged 50 and up who have been given the first two vaccine
doses at least five months ago.
2021:
Israel is awaiting a response to an appeal made yesterday “for help from
several countries to help fight a massive wildfire in the Jerusalem area that
has already consumed thousands of acres of land and engulfed several
communities around the capital.”
2021:
After a 52-hour battle with unrelenting flames, Fire and Rescue Services
Commissioner Dedy Simhi announced this evening that the Jerusalem-area wildfire
was finally contained. As reported by Gilad Cohen and Roe Rubinstein)
2021:
The Streicker Center is scheduled host Sharit Yishai-Levi, author of The Beauty
Queen of Jerusalem as she talks about
growing up in a 7th-generation Jerusalem family, her transformation from
journalist to novelist and watching her characters come to life in an eagerly
anticipated drama.”
2021:
Trudy Gold is scheduled to present a webinar on “Dreyfus to Vichy: The Crisis
of Jewish Identity.”
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83996527218?pwd=WU9oczJpM1Bna1loREY4ckVESEhtZz09
2022:
The Arizona Diamondbacks play the S.F. Giants at Oracle Park on “S.F. Jewish
Heritage Night” some of the proceeds of which will go to benefit local
charities and Jewish community organizations.”
2022:
The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to host
the final session, of the National Educators Institute which will cover “The
Art and Science of Teaching Jewish History in America.”
2022:
Congregation Or Atid is scheduled to present online a screening and discussion
of “American Birthright” as part of Boston Jewish Film’s Summer Cinematheque.
2023:
Temple Judea is scheduled to host a 9:30 a.m. Elul Minyan with Rabbi Feivel and
Cantor Abbie in person and via Livestream.
2023: The Addison-Penzak JCC is scheduled to host “Watch and Nosh,”
during which “Bishulim SF chef Aliza Grayevsky Somekh and J. TV columnist
Esther D. Kustanowitz will present clips from Jewish films and TV shows, along
with Covenant wine and vegetarian appetizers.”
2023:
The Illinois Museum’s Director of Education, Leah Ruch is scheduled to be a
presenter at the Parliament of the World’s Religions being held at the Lakeside
Center of McCormick Place.
2023:
In Palo Alto, the Lucie Stern Theatre is scheduled to present a “lineup of
plays in early stages of development includes Bess Welden’s “Madeleines,” which
tells the story of a Jewish family in Ohio as its women grapple with grief and
past family woes and find solace in baking together.”
2023(30th
of Av, 5783): Rosh Chodesh of Elul
2024:In
Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host a “Vintage Shabbat” complete
with the “traditional melodies – the tunes you grew up with.’
2024:
The Sixth and I Synagogue is scheduled to host Melissa Fitgerald and Mary McCormack
as they introduce What’s Next, a book inspired by the 25th
anniversary of the television show “The West Wing.”
2024(13th
of Av, 5784): Shabbat Nachamu; for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2024:As
August 17th 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 316 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)