August 20
430: The Vandals, a
Germanic tribe, established a kingdom in North Africa. The Jews lived there peacefully and
flourished until the Almohad conquest in the 11th century.
636: Arab forces defeat
the Byzantine Christians at the Battle of Yarmuk. This battle fought only four years after the
death of Mohammed opened the road the road to Damascus. After seizing Syria, the Arabs under Khalid
bin Walid turned south and took Jerusalem and all of the territory that is now
Jordan and Israel. This area had been
under control of the Christian Byzantine Empire. The victory at Yarmuk led to the first great
wave of Moslem conquest that would sweep across Egypt, North Africa and across
the Mediterranean to Spain. Conditions for the Jews improved compared to life
under the Byzantines. The Golden Age of
Spain was the ultimate high point of this change. But life under Islam was uneven for Jews and
they suffered in many different areas depending upon which group of Islamists
was in control.
917: Tsar Simeon I of
Bulgaria decisively defeated a Byzantine army at the Battle of Acheloos. This
was a plus for the Jews since Jews had been moving to the Bulgarian Empire
since the 7th century to avoid the persecution they were enduring
under the Byzantines.
1000: The foundation of
the Hungarian state, Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I
of Hungary. Archaeological evidence indicates the existence of Jews in Pannonia
and Dacia, who came there in the wake of the Roman legions. Jewish historical
tradition, however, only mentions the Jews in Hungary from the second half of
the 11th century, when Jews from Germany, Bohemia, and Moravia settled there.
In 1092, at the council of Szabolcs, the Church prohibited marriages between
Jews and Christians, work on Christian festivals, and the purchase of slaves.
King Koloman protected the Jews in his territory at the end of the 11th
century.
1086: Prince Władysław
I Herman and his first wife Judith, daughter of Vratislaus II of Bohemia gave
birth to Bolesław III Wrymouth who “recognized the utility of the Jewish in the
development of the commercial interests of” Poland and whose “tolerant regime”
encouraged them to settle as far east as Kiev passed away today.
1100: Using the
Venetian fleet, Tancred and Daimbert conquer Haifa during the first crusade.
1153: Bernard of
Clairvaux, the monk known as St. Bernard who laid down principles in how to
deal with Jews at the time of the Second Crusade passed away today. He believed
that Jews should not physically attacked but were to be punished by being
forced to wander the world until they were ultimately converted. At the same time, he followed the party line
when it came to “stealing from the Jews” by agreeing that those who went on
Crusade did not have to pay their debts.
1559: Coronation of
Frederick as King of Denmark and Norway who barred Jews from his realm when in
1569, he “ordered that all foreigners in Denmark had to affirm their commitment
to 25 articles of faith central to Lutheranism on pain of deportation, forfeiture
of all property, and death.”
1626: Urban VIII who
had issued a Bull a year ago dealing with “heretical Portuguese Jews” today
issued Injuncti Nobis a Bull dealing
with the privileges granted to the monastery for catechumens, which would have
been Jews who had converted to Christianity.
1642: The ashes of Ferdinand
Francis, a converted Bohemian Jew whose original name was Chaim or Joachim,
were cast into the Danube at Vienna. He
was alleged to have been the author of “Toldoth Jeshu” for which he was
condemned to be hung. Just before he was
to die, Francis renounced his conversion to Christianity for which he was
horribly tortured before he finally died.
1656: Parliamentary
diarist Thomas Burton was re-elected to the House of Commons. Burton’s diary
which provided a record of Parliamentary proceedings for three years
(1656-1659) includes an entry on the relationship between Cromwell and Jewish
merchants including Antonio Fernandez Carvajal
“The Jews, those able and general intelligencers whose
intercourse with the Continent Cromwell had before turned to profitable
account, he now conciliated by a seasonable benefaction to their principal
agent [Carvajal] resident in England.”
1661: The Will of Jacob
Atten, a resident of Barbados was dated today.
1671: Leopold I revoked
the decree he had issued in April expelling the Jews from the portion Hungary
controlled by the Habsburgs.
1684: A riotous mob
attacked the ghetto of Buda (that's the half of Budapest that is on the right
bank of the Danube, which was joined with Pest on the left bank in 1873).
During the war between Venice and Turkey, the Jews were accused of praying for
the Turks in their attack on Budapest. In actuality, it was the 9th of Av and
all the Jews were in the synagogue mourning the destruction of the temple. Soon
after, the attack on the Jewish ghetto began. When the gates were opened to
allow for an emissary to the duke to leave, the crowd of attackers rushed in.
As soon as the authorities heard about the disturbances, an order to forcibly
curb them was given. That day of the order became a day of thanksgiving. In
gratitude to G-d for being spared serious injury, the Jews celebrated Buda
Purim on the 10th of Elul. This date became known as Purim Buda – Buda as in
Budapest.
1763(11th of
Elul, 5523): Parashat Ki Teitzei read on the same that during the French and Indian
War a British relief column arrived a ended the siege of Fort Pitt, the future site
of Pittsburgh, PA which today has a population of approximately 50,000 Jews and
boast on the oldest Jewish Federations in the United States.
1768(7th of
Elul, 5528): Parashat Shoftim as British troops are in their way to “restore
order in Boston,” an event that was milestone of the road to Revolution.
1771: Birthdate of
Schonche Rothschild, first child of A.M. Rothschild.
1790: In Lorraine,
France, Baruch Goughenheim, the Alsace born son of Sara and Jacob Wolff
Gugenheim and his wife “Rosel Rosette Rosele Goughenhim gave birth to Thérèse
Gougenheim who became Thérèse Aron when she married Isaac Aron with whom she
had five children.
1794: “Orderly Sergeant
Simon Levy, who would become “the second overall graduate and the first Jewish
graduate of the United States Military Academy, distinguished himself today
when American forces were victorious at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
1789(28th of
Av,5549): Sixty-eight-year-old fur merchant Hayman Levy, the Hanover, Germany
born son of Reyna and Moses Levy and the husband of Sloe Levy passed away today
in New York.
1794: Orderly Sergeant
Simon M. Levy served with such distinction today The Battle of Fallen Timbers
also known as the Battle of Maumme, “the final battle of the Northwest Indian
War” that he was appointed as a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point,
NY.
1801: In Maryland,
Frances “Fanny” Gratz and Reuben Etting who were married in 1794 gave birth
Isabella Etting. (She is not to be confused with an older sister who passed
away at the age of 3 in 1800)
1806: The Assembly of
Notables presented their collective response to Napoleon’s questions.
1807: Rothschild writes
to his son Nathan in England that he has sold all the English goods sent to him
at a considerable profit.
1811(30th of
Av, 5571): Rosh Chodesh Elul observed on the same day that former President John
Adams wrote to his fellow founding father and signer of the Declaration of Independence
calling on him to write an ”address to the citizens of the United States in
which shall be inculcated all those great national, social, domestic &
religious virtues which alone can make a people free, great and happy.”
1816: In “Clerkenwell,”
Eliza and Lewis Solomon gave birth to Henry Solomon who would not live to see
his 12th birthday.
1819: Today, at the
Carlsbad Conference, Friedrich von
Gentz, who was secretary of the conference who had already raised the issue of
the treatment of Jews in Frankfurt brought up the issue of anti-Semitic riots.
1820: Birthdate of Dr.
Ferdinand Falkson who “in 1844 was appointed physician to the poor of the
Jewish community, a position which he held until his death.
1820: Birthdate of
Meyer Abraham Heckscher, the husband of Sara Cohn.
1820: Eliza Israel and
Alexander Goldsmid gave birth to Alfred Goldsmid, the husband of Constance
Augusta Mocatta
1826(17th of
Av, 5586): Thirty-six-year-old Grace Judah the husband of Manuel Judah, “the
father-in-law of Asher Kursheedt” passed away today in Virginia.
1826: “A new edict from
Pope Leo XII forbids Jews from leaving their ghetto in Rome without a written
permit from the Criminal Tribunal. While outside the ghetto, Jews are forbidden
from speaking in a ‘familiar way’ with Christians.” (As reported by Austin
Cline)
1831: Esther and John
Nathan gave birth to Hannah Nathan the wife of Isaac Davis.
1832(24th of
Av, 5592): Seventy-two-year-old Zipporah Mendes Siexas, the New York born
daughter of Sloe and Hayman M. Levy and the wife of Benjamin Mendes Seixas
passed away today in New York City.
1833: Birthdate of
Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States. As President, Harrison
had Secretary of State James G. Blaine issue instructions to the American
minister to Russia to “exert his influence” to stop Czar Alexander III from
implementing his draconian anti-Jewish regulations. In 1891, a Christian minster from Illinois
named William E. Blackstone “presented a Memorial to” President Benjamin and
his Secretary of State “which called upon them to exert their influence with
the powers of Europe ‘to secure the holding, at any early date, of an
international conference to consider the condition of the Israelites and their
claims to Palestine as their ancient home.’”
1834: Lewis Benjamin
married Rosetta Meyer at the Western Synagogue today.
1834: Joseph Lamert
married Eliza Barnett at the Great Synagogue today.
1839 While relaxing at
Boulogne, Giacomo Meyerbeer met for the first time with Richard Wagner for the
first time at which time Wagner read to Meyerbeer from the libretto of “Rienzi”
and Meyerbeer agreed to look through the score which he subsequently recommended
for performance at Dresden
1840: David Pollock
married Isabella Hyams at the New Synagogue today.
1841(3rd of
Elul, 5601): Esther Eudora Hart, the Jamaica born daughter of Lean and Joseph Ezekiel
and the wife of Samuel Hart, Sr. passed away today in New York City.
1840: Birthdate of Rosa
Wohlgemuth Printz, the husband of Abraham Printz with whom she had seven
children – Bert, Fanny, Emma, Minnie, David, Harry and Leo.
1845: Thirty-three-year-old
author and editor Rufus Wilmot Griswold married Charlotte Myers, a 45 year old
Jewess from Charleston, South Carolina.
1845: Michael Aaron
married Elizabeth Phillips at the Great Synagogue today.
1845: In “Whitechapel,
London,” Phoebe Levy and Aaron Samuel gave birth to Morris Samuel.
1845: Henry Benjamin
married Hannah Isaacs at the Great Synagogue today.
1848: Benjamin Woolf
Phillips married Dinah Levy today.
1848: B’nai Jeshurun,
the oldest Jewish congregation in Newark, NJ was founded today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11504-newark
1849: “In London to
Jewish parents, Benjamin Simmons, a violinist and conductor, and Julia Lewis “
gave birth to “English singer, actress, theatre manager and writer of the late
Victorian era” Selina Simmons Belasco Dolaro.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/dolaro-selina
1852: It was reported
today that "the French counsel is still prosecuting a demand for the
satisfaction for the murder of a Roman Catholic priest at Aleppo. It was
believed for a long time he was murdered by Jews, but it is now said that the
Counsel has evidence that he was murdered by members of the city police for his
success in building a Christian church.”
The police were Moslems. The Jews were convenient by-standers. During
the notorious Damascus Affair, Isaac de Picciotto, was accused of having offered
to sell the priest’s blood to Jews living in Aleppo. He was the nephew of Elias de Picciotto, a
prominent member of the Aleppo Jewish community and the Austrian counsel. This would be the last involvement of Aleppo
with a Blood Libel. In 1875, an Armenian
boy went missing and the charge surfaced again.
Fortunately, he was found in a nearby village.
1852: It is reported
that Lionel de Rothschild is planning to resign from the House of Commons since
he has not been permitted to take his seat.
1856: In “Pentonville,
London,” Caroline Lazarus and Mark George Simmons gave birth to Leonard Simmons
1856: John Davis
married Rachel Adelaide Moses at the Great Synagogue today.
1856: In "English
Celebrities" a column published today, the author provides a description
of Benjamin Disraeli which includes the following, "Nor is his
faithfulness to his friendships less remarkable than his devoted attention to
his old and silly wife...as Disraeli says 'I owe her everything. But some men forget these things. Not so
Disraeli...at no party is he to be found without fat, middle-age, gray-haired
lady, hanging on his arm. But this
domestic love is an essentially Jewish trait."
1856: George Jesse
married Amelia Moses at the Great Synagogue today.
1858: Marie Mariam
Rosenstiel, the German born daughter of Salomon Bernheimer and Ella Bernheimer
and he husband Baruch Rosenstiel gave birth to Leopold Rosenstiel, the “husband
of Emma Rosenstiel and father of Doris Alice Rosenstiel; Paul Rosenstiel;
Siegfried Rosenstiel and Albert Rosenstiel.’
1860: Birthdate of
Carrollton, Illinois native and future Speaker of the House of Repesentaive
Henry Thomas Rainey who in 1906 attended a mass meeting held to protest the
“atrocities in Russia” and told the audience that the Romanoffs “are inflaming
the populace against the helpless Jews – and already the blood of 100,000 Jews
cries out for vengeance”
1860: Birthdate of
Raymond Poincaré, the philo-Semitic French political leader who served as
President of France during World War I.
1861: In Telpice,
Henriette and Leopold Rindskopf gave birth to Paul Rindskopf.
1862: David S. Bloom
began serving with Company I of the 137th Regiment.
1862: Three days after
he had passed away, Moise Brunswick, the husband of the former “Fanny Meyer”
with whom he had two children – Annette and Clara – was buried today the
“Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery” today.
1863 Two days after he
had passed away, 27-year-old John Nathan Raphael, the husband of Hamburg native
Josephine Raphael was buried to in the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1863: The Keystone
Battery of the Pennsylvania Light Artillery of which Leon da Silva Solis-Cohen
was a member was mustered out of service after having fought at the Battle of
Gettysburg.
1864: In Latvia, Jonah
Kaplan and his wife gave birth to future Missouri resident Frieda Kaplan
Sievers, the wife of Aaron Sievers and mother of Samuel I. Sievers.
1864: In Austria,
Abraham and Rosa Wohlgemuth Printz gave birth to Fanny Printz, the sister of
Emma, Minnie, David, Harry, Bert and Leo Printz who would make her way to
America and settle in Ohio before her death 1922.
1864: In Latvia, Jonah Kaplan
and his wife gave birth to Frieda Kaplan Sievers the future resident of
Missouri and wife of Aaron Sievers.
1865: Birthdate of
Polish native and future Texas resident Molka Schulman, the wife of Abraham
Schulman with who she had seven children including Harr, Nathan, Leah Alec and
Mannie Schulman as well as two others.
1865(28th of
Av, 5625): Fifty-six-year-old Judith Nunez Cardoza, the Easton, PA born
daughter of Sarah and Isaac Nunez Cardoza passed away today.
1868: In Albany New
York, “Isaac Hahn and Rose (Stern) Hahn” gave birth to Boston University
trained attorney, Joseph Jerome Hahn, a Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme
Court and the husband of Katherine L. Marr.
1869(13th of
Elul, 5629): Sixty-eight-year-old Gustavus Adophus Myers, the Virginia born son
of Judith Moses Myers, the daughter of Rachel and Moses Michael Hays and her
husband Samuel Myers the husband of Anne Augusta Myers and Nelly Myers and
father of Maj. William Barksdale Myers, (CSA) and Richard Gustavus Forrester
passed away today in Richmond, VA/
1871: Birthdate of
Gibraltar native and Bevis Marks Rabbi,Solomon Conquy, the rabbi at Bevis Marks
the husband of Theresa Spiers and father of Theresa Orovida Conquy.
1871: It was reported
today that Rabbi Raphael D.C. Lewin who has served as spiritual leader for
Mikveh Israel in Savannah and Temple Israel in Brooklyn, has expressed his
displeasure with some of his colleagues in The New Era magazine. According to Lewin, there is more to being a
rabbi than “sermonizing…performing marriages, burying the dead and receiving
large salaries and handsome presents.
Rabbis have a duty to educate their congregants about Jewish literature
and beliefs.
1871: According to
reports published today the Jewish Times contends that that the Chicago
synagogue that fired Rabbi Herzman for eating ice cream had every right to do
so. Herzman had been engaged to lead an
Orthodox congregation. It was obvious
from his behavior that he did not respect these views, and the synagogue was
well within its rights to remove the hypocrite.
1872: William Moultrie
Moses and Penina Septima Robison gave birth to Captain Stanford E Moses, USN
the husband of Agnes Moses
1872: A review panning
“The Bells” was published today. “The
Bells” is a one act play imported from France that centers around the
consequences suffered by the protagonist for having murdered a Polish Jew.
1874: In London,
Zilllah Simon and Samuel Henry Beddington gave birth to Violet Zillah
Beddington.
1874: In Indianapolis,
Indiana, George C. Harding, editor and proprietor of the Indianapolis Herald fired five shots at Sol Mortiz a prominent
Jewish merchant in broad daylight this afternoon. One of the shots shattered
his left elbow and another passed through his lung and lodged in his
chest. The shooting took place after
Harding found out that Mortiz had taken advantage of his 18 year old daughter.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E04E6DF1E39EF34BC4951DFBE66838F669FDE
1875: Birthdate of
Shaul Tchernichovsky a Russian-born Hebrew poet considered one of the great
Hebrew poets, identified with nature poetry, and as a poet greatly influenced
by the culture of ancient Greece.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/tchernichovsky.html
1879(1st of Elul,
5639): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1879: In “Dubinow,
Russia,” David and Leah (Deutsch) Freeman gave birth to N.Y. College of
Dentistry trained dental surgeon Solomon Deutsch the husband of Ceclia Newman
and Hebrew teacher in Memel, Germany who in 1908 arrived in the United States
where he served as a member of the national executive committee of the Z.O.A
and Temple Issac while serving as “acting dental surgeon to the Soldiers
Training Campy in Syracuse, NY” during World War I.
1880: It was reported
today that there “an ugly rumor” in England that “a now well-known firm of
Hebrew jewelers emerged mysteriously from obscurity to importance in the trade
within twelve months” of Lady Ellesmere being robbed while she was en route
visit the Queen at Windsor Castle. The
loss totaled $150,000. (Unsubstantiated claims like this were often more
indicative of ant-Semitism, envy or both)
1881: Birthdate of
Struchin, Russia native and social worker Elias Trotzkey who in 1912 came to
the United States where he served as supervisor at the Marks Nathan Jewish
Orphan Home and wrote several books.
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Trotzkey%2C%20Elias%20L%2E
1882: Tchaikovsky’s “1812
Overture” (one of my favorite pieces of classical music) debuted today in Moscow.
1882: It was reported
today that the Hebrew Union of Raleigh, NC, had contributed five dollars to the
fund for the Garfield Memorial Hospital.
1884: Unidentified
hooligans tried to burn down a building on Clinton Street that housed the
grocery story own by Solomon Ellison.
The five-story tenement was home to countless Jewish families.
1885: In Greater Poland
Jacobi and Thelka Bornstein gave birth to Gertrude Bornstein who became
Gertrude Koeppler when she married Friedrich Koeppler..
1886: Birthdate of Ukraine
native and Art Institute of Chicago graduate Feivsh Reiseberg, who gained famed
as Peter Krasnow, the husband of Rose Bloom and the “colorist artist known for
his abstract wood sculptures and architectonic hard-edge paintings and drawings
which were often based on Hebrew calligraphy and other subjects related to his
Jewish heritage.”
https://www.skirball.org/museum/peter-krasnow-breathing-joy-and-light
1887(30th of
Av, 5647): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1887: Abraham Reiter of
Greensburg, Indiana and A.B. Frank of San Antonio, TX each contributed $10.00
to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
1887: It was reported
today that “there was tumult” among those who think they have a claim to Julius
Weisbaden, the miser who died in Bellevue and was buried without any
service. The estate was thought to be
worth $40,000 but it may be only worth $2,800.
1888: In Kansas
City, MO, Felix and Matilda Epstein Kander gave birth to newspaperman Allen
Kander.
1888: In
Yelisand-Grad, Russia, Bessie and Isaac White gave birth to Morris White who
went from being a newsboy to being recognized as the largest manufacturers of
handbags by the U.S. government who served as chairman of the Leather Division
of the Federation of the Jewish Philanthropic Societies in New York City and
was the husband of Lillian Brenner.
1889: Birthdate of
Polish-American “trade-union official Nathan Schedeltsky,” a member of the
“Amalgamated Clothing Workers of American” and “the “business agent for the
Pants-makers local No. 8.”
1890: Isadore Loeb,
Michel Erlanger, Dr. W. Lowenthal, C.E. Cullen, Colonel Vanivkeroy and Dr. E.
Schwarzfeld attended a conference in the Paris residence of Baron de Hirsch to
discuss the settlement of Jewish refugees in Argentina at the end of which Cullen,
Lowenthall and Vanikeroy were appointed as a commission to visit the country
with the expectation that they would submit a report within six months on the
feasibility of the project.
1890: The Sanitarium for the Hebrew Children is scheduled
to host their next free excursion today.
1890:
In Little Rock, AR, Miss Dora Vorminsky, a prominent Jewish socialite beat
Louis Englander a Jew who worked as a clerk at Lasker Brothers with a cowhide
whip because she had been told that he had made statements damaging to her
reputation.
1891:
Somebody known only as “E.S.W.” has sent $2 to the New York Times “for
destitute Jews.”
1891:
“The Socialist Congress” published today described the meeting in Brussels
where the delegates discussed labor’s attitude toward the “Jewish question” and
anti-Semitism. The Congress was ready to
condemn anti-Semitism but it also deplored the fact that several of the
oppressors of labor were Jews and Jewish bankers.
1892:
Birthdate of Sir Godfrey Rolles Driver, one of a cadre of English Christians
who specialized in Semitic languages including Hebrew which led to his taking
the lead in translating the “Old Testament for the New English Bible.”
1893:
In St. Louis, MO, Joseph Lazarus Kranson and Caroline Kranson gave birth to
Harry Kranson
1893:
Sh'chita was banned in Switzerland. In those cantons where there is a small
Jewish population, “the Swiss Hebrews” have “unanimously” agreed to “abandon
eating meat” and have “put themselves on a vegetarian and poultry diet.”(The
ban is still in place and the Jewish community gets its meat from several
different countries.)
1893:
Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor opened today’s
meeting of delegates from 30 labor organizations who looking for means to
“relieve the distress among the unemployed workingmen” of New York who were
enduring the Depression of 1893.
1893:
Joseph Peel was arrested today on charges that he had poisoned the horses of
Max Cooper and G. Feinberg, two Orthodox Jewish peddlers with whom he had been
partners.
1893:
It was reported that a mass meeting of the unemployed, socialists and anarchist
Joseph Barondees called for “the abolishment of prison labor” and Mayer
Schoenfeld said “that the Jews would have to join with the other trade unions
if they wanted to accomplish anything.”
1893:
Between 1,500 and 1,800 people responded to the call of the Chicago Tailors’
Union for a mass meeting of the unemployed at Metropolitan Hall. “The majority of the gathering was composed
of Jews” with the rest being “Germans, Poles and Italians, with a few
Americans.”
1894:
In Krakow, Avrom Gerstenman, a
translator and , Meshe (née Kopps) a dressmaker gave birth to Berta Gerstenman
who gained fame as the Bronx raised Yiddish theatre
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/gersten-berta
1894:
It was reported today that Miss Maria V. Lawrence is the sole survivor of the
late Eugene Lawrence, the historian whose work included The Jews and Their
Persecutors and who was unmarried.
1895:
Two days after she had passed away, 36-year-old Helen Micholls, the daughter of
“Horatio Micholls” and the former “Rebecca Montefiore” was buried today at the
Balls Pond Road Cemetery.
1895:
The will of the late Joseph Lewis was filled in the Surrogate’s office today.
According to the document, the residue of the estate valued at $20,000 is given
to his widow for life and that upon her death the residue will go to his nieces
including Julia D. Davis and Leontine Hepner and to his nephews including O.A.
Lithauer.
1896:
Jessie Mayer and Henry Lipkie gave birth to Albert Liplkie.
1896:
Birthdate of Jacob Glatstein, the Polish born American Yiddish poet and
literary critic.
1896(OS): Birthdate of
fifty-four Odessa born American pianist Simon Barere and husband of Helena
Vlashek who survived the Bolsheviks and the Nazis so he could make his Carnegie
Hall debut in 1936 and who, “suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while performing
the first bars of Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 in Carnegie Hall
with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, before he suddenly
collapsed and died backstage.”
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Barere-Simon.htm
1896:
The Summernight’s festival hosted by District Grand Lodge No.1, Independent
Order Free Sons of Israel will take place today at Harlem River Park.
1897:
Disturbances were begun today “by the fanatical opponents of the Jews in
Pilsen, Bohemia.
1897:
In New York, Myer S. Isaacs, the Secretary of the Palestine Society said “that
he was sure there had been…no misappropriation of funds by Rabbi Salant” in the
distribution of funds sent by American Jews to help their co-religionists in
Jerusalem because he “is a man of the highest character.”
1898(2nd
of Elul, 5658): Parashat Shoftim
1898:
In Krakow, “Salomon and Ester Keile Infeld” gave birth to physicist and
colleague of Albert Einstein, Leopold Infeld
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Infeld_Leopold
https://www.amazon.com/Books-Leopold-Infeld/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ALeopold%20Infeld
1899:
“The Chuetas of Majorca” published today traced the history of the Chuetas, a
15th century group of persecuted Jewish refugees who had fled to
Majorca for protection” and who appeared to embrace Catholicism. Calling them Chuetas was a term of derision
since that word is the diminutive for ’chuya’ the Majorcan word for bacon. (Reminds one of the term marrano which means
pig)
1899:
“Zionists’ Congress Votes Down the Proposal of New York Delegates” published
today described the decision of the Third Congress of Zionist to reject a proposal to by two delegates from
New York that Island of Cyprus should be the site of colonization by the Jews.
1900:
Birthdate of Ernst Papenek, the native of Vienna who came to the United States
in 1940 where he earned a Doctorate in Education from Columbia, served on the
faculty of CUNY and served as Director of the Children’s Home and School for
Refugee Children.
1901:
The First Congress of Caucasus Zionists was held in Tbilisi. Rabbi David Baazov
led Georgian Zionism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1903,
Baazov attended the Sixth Zionist Congress in Basel.
1902:
Edwin Beer, the Columbia trained surgeon and New York City born son of Julius
and Sophia (Walter) Beer “who pioneered the endoscopic
treatment of papillary bladder tumors and is recognized as the founder of
electrosurgery of the bladder” married Elsie V. Lilienthal today.
1903:
Herzl arrives in Basel
1903:
Maurice Leon and Jacob de Haas got off the train “in Basle, raised our hats to
the Zionist flags waving in front of the Stadt Casino” before setting out to
find their hotel.
Today,
while the Sixth Zionist Congress was meeting Jacob de Haas spent the evening
touring Paris with Dr. Marmorek and Dr. Nordeau.
1903:
Barney Pelty pitched his first major league game as a member of the St. Louis
Brown
1904:
Birthdate of Judikje Simons, later Judikje Themans- Simons, one the Jewish
members of the Dutch ladies’ gymnastic team which won the Gold at the 1928
Olympics. She and her husband, as well as her two children were murdered at
Sobibor in 1943.
1905:
In New York, Abraham Isaac Shiplacoff, the son of Naphthalia Hertz Shiplacoff
and Chana Tshipliacov and his wife Yetta Ettel Itta "Henrietta"
Shiplacoff gave birth to Frederick Engels Shiplacoff
1906(29th
of Av, 5666): Simeon Singer, the rabbi at the New West Synagogue since 1878
where he had also created a new translation of the prayer book and who had
married Charlotte Pyke in 1867 with whom he had six children - Jules, Samuel,
David, Richard, Freda and historian Charles Singer – passed away today “in the
prime of manhood.”
1906:
“The Rabbis of Palestine and Russia requested that Jews everywhere observe”
today “as a fast and a day of prayer for the Jews of Russia.”
1907:
Birthdate of New York City native Herbert Theodore Bergman who gained fame as
actor Alan Reed, “the voice of Fred Flintstone.”
1907:
The will of “Sigmund Rosenwald, who was a wealthy importer of tobacco leave, a
directory of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Vice President of the United Hebrew
Charities” who had passed away on August 11” which will be contested by “a
woman calling herself Mrs. Ella Rosenwald who says she is his widow” was filed
for probate today.
1908:
Birthdate of Dr. Herbert Kaiser of Breslau who was murder at Terezin at the age
of 35.
1909:
“A Jewish congregation that formerly worship on Eldridge Street” bought the
property at 67 East 113th Street from the Mount Zion Congregation.”
1910(15th
of Av, 5670): Parashat Vaetchanan; Tu B’Av
1911:
“The Juvenile Band of the Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans” is scheduled to give
an “open air band concert at the Chicago Hebrew Institute” this afternnon.
1911
Ceremonies marking the opening of the Annex for the Orthodox Home for the Aged
in Cleveland, Ohio began today.
1912:
It was reported today that Samuel Lewisohn has been added to the Citizens
Committee investigating the police department whose members already included
Jacob H. Schiff and Henry Moskowitz.
1912(7th
of Elul, 5672): Seventy-four-year-old Walter Goodman, British painter,
illustrator and author who was the son of portrait painter Julia Salaman and
Louis Goodman passed away today.
http://www.mill-race.com/media/MAGWalterGoodmanBook.pdf
1913:
“The Rumanian Government which planned to confer full rights of citizenship on
Jews who served in the army in the recent campaign against Bulgaria seems
bent…on restricting its action to the narrowest limits” according to a
communication received by the Tageblatt.
1913:
The defense rested in the Leo Frank trial which unbeknownst to the participants
would be the exact day in 1915 when the lynched body of Leo Frank would be laid
to rest.
1914:
During World War I, the Germans occupied Brussels which would lead to a series
of depredations that would be visited on the civilian population – both Jewish
and non-Jewish.
1914: Copies of a resolution endorsing
President Wilson’s “stand on the European War” was taken to Washington by Dr.
Carroll of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America and “Dr. H.
Pereira Mendes, Chairman of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration of the Union
of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations in America.”
1914: Seventy-nine-year-old Pope Pius X,
who had met with Herzl in the Vatican in 1904 and said that “Jews have
recognized Our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people” which
mean that “Jerusalem cannot be placed in Jewish hands” passed away today.
1915(9th of Elul, 5675): Sixty-one-year-old
Nobel Prize winner Paul Ehrlich, the man who discovered the treatment for
syphilis, passed away.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1908/ehrlich/biographical/
1915(9th of Elul, 5675:
Philanthropist Bernard Baumgarden passed away today in Chicago after which he
was buried at Waldheim Cemetery
1915: It was reported today that at the
mass meeting held at Cooper Union to consider the plight of the Jews of Russia
and the need for the establishment of Zionist State in Palestine after the war
“at the suggestion of Joseph Baroness all in the hall rose to their feet as an
expression of sympathy for the family of Leo Frank.
1915(10th of Elul, 5675): Seventy-five-year-old
“Yitzchak Yaakov Reines (Isaac Jacob Reines) the Orthodox rabbi whose belief in
Zionism led him to found the Mizrachi Religious Zionist Movement” passed away
today.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Reines_Yitshak_Yaakov
1915: Leo Frank “was buried” today “in
the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Glendale, Queens, New York.
1916: Among the contributions reported
today to have been received by the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews
Suffering Through the War was $50 from Congregation Share Torah, $14 from
Congregation Emunah Israel and $38 from Congregation Ahavath Chesed.
1916: It was reported today the Joint
Distribution Committee has sent $1,800,000 to Russia, $1,454,500 to German
Poland, $1,065,000 to Austro-Hungary including Galicia, $403,788 to Palestine,
$132,325 to Greece and Turkey, $21,000 to Alexandria, Egypt, $5,000 to Jewish
students in Swiss universities, $5,000 to Tunis, Algiers and Morocco and $5,000
to destitute families of Russian Jews in France.
1916: The Independent Western Star Order
which had been founded in 1894 and now has 148 Lodges under the leadership of
Grand Master Max Levy of Cincinnati, Ohio, held its fourth biennial convention
today at Buffalo, NY.
1917: The three-day long Salonica fired
which destroyed “three-fourths of the city and leaving some 100,000 people,
included 60,000 Jews, homeless” came to an end today.
1917: “The Secretary of the Joint
Distribution Committee for Jewish Relief Funds announced” tonight “that the
committee of which Felix M. Warburg is the Chairman has solved the problem of
the distribution of relief money in the war zones, and that a commission which
has been accredited by the United States Government has sailed for Europe to
put the plan into effect.” (Editor’s
note – the entrance of the United States into the World War meant that the
country was no longer a neutral so aid coming from the United States was no
seen as part of the Allied war effort.)
1917(2nd of Elul, 5677):Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf
von Baeyer, known as Adolph von Baeyer, the first Jew to ever receive the Nobel
Prize, passed away today. “Baeyer was a German chemist, acknowledged in 1905
for synthesizing dye indigo. He was also awarded the Davie Medal by the Royal
Society of London in 1881, for his work with indigo. Baeyer was born on October
31, 1835, in Berlin, Germany. Initially, at Berlin University, Baeyer studied mathematics
and physics. Nevertheless, he soon discovered his passion for chemistry and
transferred to Heidelberg to study with Robert Bunsen in 1856. Bunsen was a
famous chemist, who is best known for perfecting the burner. In Heidelberg,
Baeyer studied in the laboratory of August Kekule, a famous organic chemist. In
1858, Baeyer received his doctorate in chemistry from Berlin University. In
1871, he became a Professor at Strasbourg and, in 1875, Baeyer became the
Chemistry Professor at the University of Munich. In addition to synthesizing
dye indigo, some of Baeyer’s other achievements include the discovery of the phthalein
dyes, investigation of polyacetylenes, oxonium salts, and uric acid
derivatives. Bayer synthesized barbituic acid in 1864. This acid is used in
surgery as a sedative or hypnotic. Baeyer is also renowned for his work in
theoretical chemistry, developing the ‘strain’ (Spannung) theory of triple
bonds and the strain theory in small carbon rings. Baeyer was also the founder
of Baeyer Chemical Co”.
1918: Dr. Solf, the German Colonial
Secretary delivered a talk today in which he reputed Lord Balfour’s claim to the
colonies held by the Central Powers on the ground of superior morality – a
claim that took on additional weight due to the success of the Allies and held
special meaning for the Jews seeking a commonwealth in Palestine.
1918: Birthdate of Hanna Poznanskia, who
as British psychoanalyst Hanna Segal,Hanna Segal, “helped change child psychology in the United States by
explaining and popularizing the play therapy techniques developed by her
mentor, the seminal psychoanalytic thinker Melanie Klein.:
1918: In Philadelphia, “portrait painter
Robert Susan” and “public schoolteacher Rose Jans” gave birth to novelist
Jacqueline Susann who produced such bestselling pot-boilers as Valley of the
Dolls and The Love Machine,
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/04/home/susann-obit.html?mcubz=1
https://jwa.org/thisweek/aug/20/1921/birth-of-novelist-jacqueline-susanne
1918: In Brooklyn “Abraham Fox, a
tailor” and his wife Anna gave birth to Gertrude Fox who became Gertrude
Mokotoff when she married Dr. Reuben Moktoff and later gained fame as “the
first female Mayor of Middleton, NY.” (As reported by Vincent M. Mallozzi)
1919: In Brooklyn, Hannah (née Bistrong)
and Louis Bernstein, a teacher gave birth to Walter Bernstein an American
screenwriter and film producer who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie
studio bosses in the 1950s.
1919(25th Av, 5679): Sixteen-year-old
Yechiel Bernhard passed away today.
1919(25th of Av, 5679): Mrs.
Lttle Lewenstein passed away today.
1920: Israel
publishes its first medical journal, "Ha-Refuah."
1920: It was reported today that “10,000 Jews have already
been expelled from” Hungary and that orders are being issued for more
deportations.
1920: It was reported today that “the Jewish War Memorial
Fund in England has now reached £150,000.”
1920: Birthdate of Melvin Wallace “Mel” Bleekr the Los
Angeles born quarterback and track star at USC during the 1940’d who went to
play in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams.
1920: “Jews Expelled from Hungary” published today
described the expulsion of 100,000 Jews from that country and the warm welcome
extended to “a group of Russian officers from General Denikin’s army who are
believed to be experts at conducting pogroms.”
1921: In Barnwell, South Carolina, South Carolina political
leader Samuel Blatt, Sr and Ethel Green
gave birth to University of South Carolina trained attorney and federal
jurist Solomon “Sol” Blatt, Jr. the
husband of Carolyn Gayden who served as Senior Judge of the United States
District Court for the District South Carolina from 1990 to 2016.
1921:Leo
"Lindy" Lindermann and his wife Clara opened “Lindy’s”, the
iconoclastic New York restaurant, at1626
Broadway, between 49th and 50th Streets
1921: In Philadelphia, portrait artist Robert Susann and
public school teacher Rose Susann gave birth to author Jacqueline Susann, the
creator of a what, at their team, were a series of “torrid” novels beginning
with Valley of the Dolls. (As reported by Laurie Johnston)
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/04/home/susann-obit.html?mcubz=1
https://jwa.org/thisweek/aug/20/1921/birth-of-novelist-jacqueline-susanne
Editor’s Note – Some sources show her birthdate as 1918 but
we’ll go with the NYT version.
1922: Maude Rosenbaum, of the United States won the Bronze
Medal in the two-handed shot put at the 1922 Women’s World Games held today at
the Pershing Stadium in Paris.
1922: Birthdate of Bernard Sahlins, “a founder of the
Second City, the Chicago nightclub that helped to establish improvisational
sketch comedy as a rudiment of American entertainment and created a resident
troupe that propelled the careers of myriad funnymen and women.” (As reported
by Bruce Weber)
1922: “The Ladder Jinx” a silent picture filmed by
cinematographer Irving Reis was released today in the United States.
1922: Birthdate of Judith Craner Protas the native of
Brooklyn with degrees from Barnard and Yale who became a leading advertising
executive with Doyle Dane Bernbach and told the world that you don’t have to be
Jewish to enjoy “Levy’s real Jewish rye.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1923: Birthdate of Chicago native Sheldon Bernard Keller,
an Emmy-winning comedy writer whose work included “Caesar’s Hour,” one of the
jewels of 1950s television.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/arts/television/04keller.html
1924: Birthdate of Eugene D. “Gene” Alexander the native of
Orange New Jersey who was one of the American volunteers who manned the refugee
ships that ran the British blockade of Palestine.
http://www.machal.org.il/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=719&Itemid=1129&lang=en
1925: Two days after
he had passed away, 42-year-old Sydney Lipkin was buried today at the
“Willesden Jewish Cemetery.”
1925: “In Birkenhead,” Joe and May Makin gave birth to
“celebrity solicitor” Elkan Rex Makin, whose work with Brian Epstein led to his
close association with the Beatles
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/rex-makin-dies-liverpool-lawyer-13244311
https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/240181/rex-makin-mr-beatlemania-dies-at-91
1926: Middle Augie Ratner ended his ten year long
professional ring career by winning his last bout in Long Beach on points.
1927(22nd of Av, 5687): Parashat Ekev
1927(22nd of Av, 5687): Sixty-four-year-old
Austrian born concert pianist Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler, the wife of Sigmund
Zeisler passed away today in Chicago.
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0587/ms0587.html
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Bloomfield-Zeisler-Fannie.htm
1927: Birthdate of Stanley Anselm Bosworth a self-described
“old wizard” who shaped his own Hogwarts in Brooklyn in the form of Saint Ann’s
School, which rapidly gained national prominence for its free-form approach to
education and its success in sending graduates to top colleges. Born in
Manhattan he was the child of Jewish immigrants from Russia who had changed
their name from Boscovitz to better assimilate. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1927: Birthdate of Shraga Feivel Gruberger, the Brooklyn
native who gained fame as Rabbi Philip S. Berg, “dean of the worldwide Kabbalah
Centre Origination.”
1927: “Underworld,” “silent crime film directed by Josef
von Stemberg, co-produced by B.P. Shulberg with a script co-authored by Ben
Hecht was released today in the United States by Paramount Pictures.
1928: State Supreme Court Alfred Frankenthaler officiated
at the marriage of Jascha Heiftiz and Florence Vidor. The private ceremony uniting the 28 year old
violinist and the motion picture actress took place the Mayfair House on Park
Avenue in Manhattan. This is his first
marriage and her second.
1929: As the Arab riots continued a late-night meeting
initiated by the Jewish leadership, at which acting high commissioner Harry
Luke, Jamal al-Husayni, and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi were present, failed to produce a
call for an end to the violence.
1929: Premiere of Irving Thalberg’s “Hallelujah!” “One of the first all-black films by a major
studio featuring the music of Irving Berlin.
1929:Haganah
leaders proposed to provide defense for 600 Jews of the Old Yishuv in Hebron,
or to help them evacuate. However, the leaders of the Hebron community declined
these offers, insisting that they trusted the A'yan (Arab notables) to protect
them.
1930: Dr. Jacob Levitsky, a math teacher in Jerusalem, has
won Yale’s annual $2000 prize Sterling Fund. Levitsky is a graduate of Tel Aviv
High School and the University of Goettingen
1930: The General Executive Committee of RSFSR accepted the
decree that led to the creation of a Jewish administrative territorial unit in
the Asiatic portion of the Soviet Union that would come to be known as The
Jewish Autonomous Oblast.
1931: “Hungarian national propaganda was launched in
Jerusalem today when a guard of the British War Cemetery on Mount Scopus, found
a wooden plaque about 6 feet by four and a half feet containing a violent
denunciation by Magyar patriots of the Treaty of Trianon.”
1932: In Buenos
Aires, “Extraordinary police precautions were taken this afternoon and tonight
to prevent threatened attacks on Jews as part of anti-Communist demonstrations”
as “mounted policemen, armed with rifles, patrolled the streets of the business
district and Jewish neighborhoods where movie theatre patrons have been
insulted and individual Jews beaten almost nightly this week.”
1933: Gabriel Terra, President of Uruguay issued a special
decree, permitting 500 Jewish families, fleeing from Germany, to enter the
country. The Jewish Immigrant Aid Society had petitioned the President on
behalf of the country’s Jewish community.
1933: In Montevideo, Vos Hebres (The Hebrew Voice),
defended the Jews against attacks which followed permission being given for the
immigration of 500 German-Jewish families.
1933:The Jewish
National Fund announced that it has reclaimed 300,000 dunams of land (75,000
acres) in the Emek since 1923, and that 10,000 people are settled on it.
1933:The Keren
Hayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund) reported that it has collected in the past
two years £400,077; of which the United States contributed one-third
(£133,545); during the 12 years of its existence, the Fund has raised
£4,821,510 of which the United States contributed one-half (£2,409,392).
1933: American Jewish Congress declared a boycott against
Nazi Germany
1935: “A conference of ministers was held today to discuss
the negative economic effects of Party actions against Jews during which Hitler
argued that such effects would cease once the government decided on a firm
policy against the Jews.”
1934: “Improvement of the situation of Jews in Germany will
be an objective of a world congress of Jewish leaders” scheduled to open
tonight in Geneva “with 100 delegaties present from forty Jewish organizations
in 24 countries.”
1935: The world Zionist leader, Dr. Nahum Sokolow,
with almost the first words of his presidential speech tonight shattered
reports that the nineteenth biennial Zionist congress would sidestep the
situation of German Jews, out of deference to delegates from the Reich, who
were among the representatives from forty-three nations.
1936:
“Germany succeeded in showing the world a well-trained army and a strictly
disciplined people during the Olympic Games but did not hesitate to break most
of the Olympic commandments, according to four members of the International
Committee for the Preservation of the Olympic Ideal who arrived” in Paris
today.
1936:
It was reported today that “mystery surrounds the death of…Captain Fuerstner,
the constructor and organizer of the Olympic village and its officer in command
and its administrative official” and the “one of the last ‘non-Aryan’ officers
to retain his active rank in the new Germany” who has variously been reported
to have died in an automobile accident or in “an accident with a pistol.” (Editor’s Note – in reality he had shot
himself after he realized that under the Nuremberg Laws that would go into effect
after the Olympics, he would be classified as a Jew and would be expelled from
the Army.)
1936:
“Benny Leonard, the former lightweight champion announced” today that “an
all-star combination made up of the leading players from the New York State
Football Association” will play the Maccabee Palestine champion team in a
benefit soccer contest at Yankee Stadium in September.
1936:
Premiere of “Romeo and Juliet’ a cinematic version of Shakespeare’s drama
directed by George Cukor, produced by Irving Thalberg and starring Leslie
Howard (Leslie Howard Steiner) as Romeo and Norma Shearer as Juliet.
1937:
At Zurich, “in a calmer atmosphere and with more hope of success, the
negotiations continued today for a compromise to prevent a split between
Zionists and American non-Zionists in the Jewish Agency on issues raised by the
Palestine partition.”
1937:
“Broadway Melody of 1938” a musical with lyrics by Arthur Freed, known in his
native Charleston, SC, as Arthur Grossman, was released today in the United
States.
1938(23rd
of Av, 5698): Communist Party loyalist Semyon Dimanstein fell victim to one of
Stalin’s purges today. After six months in prison, he was sentenced to death
today and then executed. He was
rehabilitated two years after Stalin died.
1938:
“Book Notes” published today described plans by Knopf to publish a second
collection of short stories entitled The River Breaks Up by I.J. Singer, which
likes its predecessor The Brothers Ashkenazi tells tales about Polish Jews
“during the period of transition from the beginning of the present century
trough the” World War and the Russian Revolution.
1938:
Hank Greenberg hits three homers, bringing his total to 41 which puts him ahead
of Babe Ruth’s record breaking 1927 pace.
1938:
Today Morrie Arnovich and Phil Weintraub of the Phillies hit home runs in an
8-7 win over the New York Giants while Harry Danning, the Giants catcher, also
hit one out, which “according to the
Jewish Major Leaguers 2009 card set, marked the only time that three Jewish
players accomplished the feat in the same game.” (As reported by Ron Kaplan)
1939:
General debate in the twenty-first World Zionist Congress had to be suspended
today after an announcement at the morning's meeting of a decision by the court
of the congress to reduce the number of mandates allotted to the Palestine
delegations from 133 to 127.
1940(1st
of Elul, 5704): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1940: Leon Trotsky is attacked by an
assassin in Mexico City. Trotsky is
hiding from Stalin who has ordered Trotsky’s execution. Trotsky will die of his wounds the following
day. According to one version of the
story, had moved from a fortress like villa to an unguarded homes because of a
dispute over a woman.
1940: “Boomtown” a comedy-adventure film
co-starring Hedy Lamar, produced by Sam Zimbalist with music by Franz Waxman
was released in the United States today by MGM.
1941:A low-rent United States Housing' Authority development in East St.
Louis, Il, has been named in memory of Samuel Gompers, longtime president of
the American Federation of Labor.
1941: For the next 48 hours about 4300 Jews are
sent from Paris to Drancy, a transit camp in France. These are the first of
70,000 Jews who will be deported to Drancy and then to extermination camps,
primarily Auschwitz-Birkenau
1941(26th of Av, 5701): Several Jews
were pulled from their homes in Sabac by the Germans, then brought into
the street and shot. The Germans made other Jews come carry the dead bodies
through the town, and then hang them from electricity poles. This attacked was
the beginning of a series of attacks which lasted for 2 months and resulted in
several thousands of Jewish murders.
1942: “The Talk of the Town” a comedy
with a screenplay by Irwin Shaw and Sidney Buchman with music by Friedrich
Hollaender was released in the United Sates today by Columbia Pictures.
1942: Today, ‘the Council of Protestant
Federation, under the signature of its president, Pastor Marc Boegner, wrote to
Marsh Petain protesting against the deportation of Jews and the inhuman manner
in which orders for these deportations were being carried out.”
1942 The
ZOB (Jewish Fighting Organization) attempts to assassinate Joseph Szerynski,
commander of the Jewish police in the Warsaw Ghetto. Later in the day, other
ZOB members set fire to several Warsaw warehouses.
1942(6th of Elul, 5702): The Jewish community from Falenica, Poland, is
liquidated at the Treblinka death camp.
1942: The Nazis began deporting the Jews of Kielce, Poland to Treblinka,
1942: For the next four days, nineteen thousand Jews of Kielce, Poland, are
deported to the Treblinka death camp.
1942: For the next four days gas/disinfectant expert Kurt Gerstein
observes gas executions at the Treblinka, one day after witnessing similar
deaths at Belzec.
1943: Pvt. Ed Koch
writes in his diary today complaining “about an inspection he called a huge
waste of time. “It took about an hour to get everything ready for display and
then the (colonel) merely walked swiftly up and down the aisles and glanced at
the tents once in a while,” he wrote. “It was the biggest example of a waste of
time that I have ever seen in the Army.” (As reported by Forwards staff)
1943(18th of Av, 5703): Three thousand Jews are executed during a revolt at
Glebokie, Belorussia.
1944(1st of
Elul, 5704): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1944(1st of
Elul, 5704): Thirty-two-year-old Corporal Philipp Henry Samuel, the London born
son of Marie Rose and Albert Montefiore Hyamson died today while serving with
the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve after which he was buried in Golders
Green Jewish Cemetery, in “Golders Green, London, England.”
1944: During World War
II, Soviet forces “made an all-out attack” on Nazi forces in Romania – an
attack that would be successful and help to save a significant percentage of
the Jewish population.
1944: The United States Army Air Force bombs
Auschwitz
1944:
“Kodiak Bear and Friends,” published today provided a review of Big Brownie,
“the tale of a Kodiak bear” illustrated by Jacob Landau.
1944:
In an unusual move even for the Nazis, 168 aviates from the United States,
United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica arrived at
Buchenwald Concentration Camp today.
1945:
“Dr. Joseph Tenenbaum, president of the World Federation of Polish Jews,
asserted today that a new wave of pogroms directed particularly against Jews
returning from concentration camps in Germany had broken out in Poland.”
1946:
“The 8,000-ton cargo steamer Empire Rival returned to Haifa today from Cyprus
to which she had transported 784 Jewish refugees and will probably transship
others still on board her sister ship the Empire Heywood, anchored in the bay
under guard of British warships.
1947:
In Englewood, NJ, the former Ruth Grodnick and Irving Howard Kudlow, gave birth
“media economist” Larry Kudlow the recovering drug and alcohol addict who
converted to Catholicism in the 1990’s and replaced Gary Cohn as President
Trump’s Director of the National Economic Council.
1948:
“In testimony under subpoena before the HUAC, Lee Pressman declined to answer
questions regarding Communist Party membership, citing grounds of potential
self-incrimination.”
1948:
“After an hour in D-117 today, Michael Flint, WW II naval pilot serving with
the IAF, had to make a wheels-up landing when his gear wouldn't descend.”
1948:
Re-release today of “Dick Tracy Returns” a film based on the comic strip cop
featuring Ned Glass (born Nusyn Glass) as “Kid Stark.”
1950: According to
Samuel J. Borowsky, president of the Histadruth Ivirth of America (Hebrew
Language and Culture Association)/ more than one million dollars will be
required to carry out the program, pf the association which was created at the
meeting of the First World Hebrew Congress recently held in Jerusalem.
1950(7th
of Elul, 5710): Aaron Parsonnet, the Newark, NJ physician who received his M.D.
degree from Loyola University and was the husband of the former Julia Lifson
passed away today at West Orange, NJ.
1951: “Music Award Planned” published today described the plans of the
Music Lovers League to establish a scholarship in memory of former Municipal
Court Justice Leopold Prince who a vice preseidnt of the league and the
conductor of the City Amateur Symphony Orchestra.
1952(28th of Av, 5712): Yitzhak Sadeh, the founder of the Palmach and a
hero of the War of Independence passed away at the age of 62. While a name
unknown to most non-Israelis. Yitzhak Sadeh was a brave man who played a key role in the
founding of the state of Israel. He was
the commander for the Palmach units, a soldier, a writer, an educator, and was
one of the founders of Tshal. He originally lived in Russia, but he moved to
Israel later in his life. Yitzhak was born in Lubin, Poland in 1890. He
began his military career, by fighting for the Russian army in World War One.
Later, he was honored for his bravery in the war. During 1917, 1918, and 1919,
Yitzhak Sadeh, with the help of Joseph Trumpeldor, established the foundation
of “Ha- Halutz”. “Ha- Halutz”, in 1920, made an aliyah to the land of Israel.
He moved as soon as he heard of his friend, Joseph Trumpeldor’s death. When
Yitzhak arrived in Israel, he became one of the founders of the
“Gdud-Ha-Avoda”. In 1929, Sadeh joined the Hagganah. He was made
commander in the Hagganah, in Jerusalem, shortly after he joined. During the
1929 riots, he took part in defending the city of Haifa. When the 1936 riots
started, Sadeh established the “Nodedt” in Jerusalem. This organization was the
one that confronted the enemy in their villages and in the army bases. Yitzhak
introduced a policy for defending settlements by going out to attack the Arab
bands, instead of staying behind the fences of their settlements to await the
raids. In the summer of 1937, Sadeh
founded the “Fosh”. He also commanded the kibbutz of Hanitah. One of the things
that Yitzhak Sadeh is most famous for is founding the Palmach. He served as
chief commander for the Palmach until 1945. During 1945, he was appointed to be
Hagganah’s Chief of General staff. He was also in charge of planning operations
against the British forces. Yitzhak planned many operations involving bringing
Jewish immigrants to the Promised Land, Israel. In the beginning of the
Independence War in 1948, Yitzhak Sadeh commanded the defense of the kibbutz,
Mishmar Ha-Emek. Kibbutz Mishmar Ha-Emek was attacked by Syrian forces, which
were trying to divide the country into two parts. After this, Sadeh was
promoted to the job of “Aluf”. When he was promoted, he was able to establish
the first armored brigade in the IDF. The Israeli Defense Forces, later, led
critical battles for the state of Israel.
After the War of Independence, Yitzhak participated in the operation,
“Khorev”. Also, the Palmach was
disconnected. Sadeh left the military services in 1949. After retiring from the
army, he wrote many books, essays, and even plays. He would write with the pen
name, Y. Noded. Sadeh promoted a lot of sports. He was the wrestling champion
of St. Petersburg and featured in wrestling performances. He thought of sports
being an important part of life and it held important cultural and educational
value. He created Hapoel’s slogan, “Alafim and not Alufim”. They wanted many
people to take part in sports. Thousands of sports figures and soldiers, to
this day, take part in the Run around Mount Tavor, in honor of Yitzhak Sadeh.
Yitzhak Sadeh died in Tel-Aviv
in August 1952, and was buried in Kibbutz Givat Brenner. He was a very brave
man. Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak and kibbutz Mashabey Sadeh were named after Yitzhak
Sadeh
http://www.giga.co.il/hatavor/esadeh.htm
1952: Work started on a number of concrete dams, expected to hold back
the rainwater accumulating in the Negev wadis during the winter. This was part
of the Zionist dream to make the Negev green.
1952: Birthdate of American singer-song writer Doug Fieger, the lead
singer and rhythm guitarist of the band the Knack, whose enduring 1979 hit “My
Sharona” has become an emblem of the new wave era in rock and a prime example
of the brevity of pop fame.” His father
was Jewish.
1958(4th of Elul, 5718): Pioneering psychoanalyst Adolph
Stern, who had been “analyzed by Sigmund Freud in 1920” passed away today.
https://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=paq.028.0149b
1960: Larry Sherry pitches the Dodgers past the Cards for his 12th
win of the season.
1964:Atentát is a 1964 black-and-white Czech
film directed that “depicts events before and after the assassination of top
German leader Reinhard Heydrich in Prague (Operation Anthropoid) which was
entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a Golden
Prize” was released today/
1964: President Lyndon Johnson signed an anti-poverty bill that would
commit almost one billion dollars to the “War on Poverty.” The measure had the support of numerous
Jewish political leaders and Jewish voters.
This was an era when Jewish voters were drawn to politicians who
supported a society that sought to care for the “widow, the orphan and the
stranger in your midst.”
1965: Today, President Lyndon Johnson appointed 37-year-old Harvard Law
School graduate James Vorenberg to serve “as executive secretary of the
President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice.
1965(22nd of Av, 5725): Forty-six-year-old “Dr. Martin B.
Dworkis, the president of the Manhattan Community College and husband of the
“former Ida Levine” with whom he was raising their son Charles, suffered a
fatal heart attack today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/08/21/101563141.html?pageNumber=21
1966(4th of Elul, 5726): Parashat Shoftim
1966(4th of Elul, 5726): Seventy-three-year-old Rebie Massell
May, the Georgia born daughter Clara Mitnick Massell and Raphael M. Massell,
the wife of Benjamin Franklin may with whom he had two children – Joseph and
Mary Claire – passed away today in Atlanta, GA.
1966(4th of Elul, 5726): Eighty-two-year-old New York native
and graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University
Dr. David John Kaliski, the husband of Kate Mountjoy Kaliski passed away today
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/08/22/83228186.pdf
1967: This evening Rabbi Abram Vossen Gooman officiated at the weeding of
Virginia Ann Alman and Yale Law School graduate Roger Shaw.
1968: It was reported today that plans have been “disclosed in Paris for
a West German one-hour television film on the problems of European Jewish
communities, which will be shown in West Germany next October” (JTA)
1969(6th of Elul, 5729): Seventy-seven-year-old Polish native,
Simon Federbush, the former Chief Rabbi of Finland, the principal of several
yeshivas in the United States and “a founder of the Religious Zionist Labor
Movement” who married “the former Miriam Horowitz” with whom he had “two sons,
Urieland and Emanuel—passed away today.
1969: After having been released in Italy earlier in the year, “Orgasmo”
starring Carroll Baker was released today in New York City.
1971: FBI begins covert investigation of journalist Daniel Schorr. Schorr would become a member of Richard
Nixon’s infamous enemies list. Earlier
in his career, Schoor had been thrown out of the Soviet Union for his news
broadcasts. This makes him one of the
few people to be declared an enemy by both the Soviet Communists and right-wing
American Anti-Communists.
1971:The Brighton Regency Synagogue was “designated by English
Heritage as a Grade II listed building.”
1974(2nd of
Elul, 5734): Seventy-four-year-old New Haven born Yale Law School graduate
Abraham Stodel the husband of the former Helen Green with whom he had two
children who was a state attorney from 1939 to 1961 and who was office of the
YMHA and B’nai B’rith passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/22/archives/abraham-ullman.html?searchResultPosition=1
1974: Forty
“British radiologists protested the treatment by the Soviets of radiologist Dr.
Victoria Poltinikova in Novosibirsk, who had applied for emigration to Israel
in 1972 with her parents.”
1975:
“Isaac Yilyulitin, a 35 year old Doctor of Mathematics, was sentenced to one
year in prison on charges of attempted smuggling, having been arrested at
Leningrad airport en route to Israel.”
1976: It
was reported today that Uganda President Idi Amin has “set a seven day deadline
for a personal reply” from Prime Minister Rabin on his demand for compensation
from the Israelis for the raid on Entebbe.
1976: Seventy-five-year-old
Sid Silvers whose career spanned vaudeville, Broadway and the silver screen
passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/1559225/Sid-Silvers/biography
1976: “The
Shootist” a film about an aging, dying gunfighter directed by Don Siegel,
co-starring Lauren Bacall and with music by Elmer Bernstein which was the final
movie for the legendary John Wayne (who was not Jewish) was released to in the
United States.
1977: Despite the initial rejection by both Israel and Jordan, US
officials were still hopeful that their idea of establishing a joint
Israeli-Jordanian temporary trusteeship over the West Bank could yet get off
the ground.
1977: The French government appeared to be reconciled to a new period of
chilly relations after Israel rejected its contention that the three new
settlements in administered areas hampered peace prospects.
1977: The US Central Intelligence Agency told Congressional investigators
that enriched uranium, designed to build atomic bombs, was mysteriously
diverted from the privately owned American plant to Israel in the middle 1960s
1979: It was reported today that Yigal Yadin, Israel’s Deputy Prime
Minister rejected Andrew Young’s characterization his government as “stubborn
and intransigent” and “pursuing and expansionist policy” when he appeared on
ABC’s “Issue and Answers.”
1980: The UN Security Council condemns (14-0, US abstains) Israeli
declaration that all of Jerusalem is its capital. The UN Security Council never said or did
anything about the illegal occupation of the eastern section of Jerusalem by
Jordan that lasted for almost twenty years.
During that same time, the UN was equally silent when it came to the
fact that Jews were not allowed to enter the Old City or that the Jordanians
had systematically dismembered the physical remains of the ancient Jewish
Quarter. This lack of equivalent concern
is but one of a long list of reasons by why many Israelis and as well as others
have lost respect for the United Nations.
1981(20th
of Av, 5741): Eighty-one-year-old Hungarian cartographer, WW II Soviet military
intelligence agent and member of the anti-Nazi Red Orchestra, the Upest born
son of Gabor Reich a trading firm who later became a wealthy businessman
through the ownership of a small timber works, a scrap dealer and a brewery and
Malvina Rado” passed away today in Budapest.
1981: “An
American Werewolf in London,” a “horror comedy film” directed by John Landis,
with music by Elmer Bernstein was released in the United States by Universal
Pictures.
1982: During the Lebanese Civil War a multinational
force lands in Beirut to oversee the PLO withdrawal from Lebanon. The Lebanese Civil War was conflict between
Christian and Moslem Arabs. It was part
of a centuries old struggle for power that flared up periodically. The PLO had come to Lebanon after having been
thrown out of Jordan where it had attempted to overthrow the government. The PLO was a destabilizing force in Lebanon
as its fighters took the side of the Moslems and tried to use Lebanon as a base
for terrorist attacks against Israel.
The PLO had to go because of its role in destroying the social fabric of
Lebanon which had been an oasis of Western progress and civility in among the
violent Arab dictatorships of the Middle East.
1982(1st of
Elul, 5742): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1982: “The Beastmaster,”
co-staring Tanya Roberts, aka Victoria Leigh Blum, the New York born daughter of
Dorothy Smith and Oscar Blum and the granddaughter of pioneering oral surgeon
Theodor Blum.
1982(1st of
Elul, 5742): Sixty-six-year-old Alfred S. Bloomingdale, the grandson of the
founder of Bloomingdale’s department store passed away today in Santa Monica,
CA. (As reported by David W. Dunlap)
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/24/obituaries/alfred-bloomingdale-diners-club-developer-dies.html
(Wiki shows the date as
August 23 but I will take the word of the NYT Obit writers, a marvelous and
trustworthy group of writers.)
1983: In Los Angeles,
Lynn and Richard Garfield gave birth to actor Andrew Garfield whose “paternal
grandparents were from Jewish immigrant families who had moved to London from
Eastern Europe (Poland, Russia, and Romania), and whose family surname was originally
"Garfinkel".
1985: Israel ships 96 TOWs to Iran on behalf of the US. The TOW missiles were shipped as part of an
arms deal that became known as Iran Contra.
1985: The New York Times features a review
(see below) of Jerusalem: Rebirth of a City by Martin Gilbert, a first-rate
book by a first rate author and historian. There is no such thing as “a bad”
Martin Gilbert book since the works of this author range from very good to
great.
No city in
the world can have captured more imaginations and stirred more hearts over the
centuries than Jerusalem. No city, in the 19th century, was more liable to
provoke comments on the dismal contrast between past and present, between the
image and the reality. A stream of visitors recorded their impressions of the
prevailing torpor, the poverty, the filth, the squalid squabbles between
different races and religious communities. In 1838, the year Martin Gilbert
chooses to open his chronicle of Jerusalem's reviving fortunes, the American
biblical scholar Edward Robinson, one of the earliest archeologists to work in
the city, lamented - with good reason - that ''the glory of Jerusalem has
indeed departed.'' From its ''ancient high estate'' it had declined into ''the
neglected capital of a petty Turkish province,'' with a population of fewer
than 16,000 (5,000 Muslim Arabs, 3,000 Christian Arabs, 6,000 Jews, a Turkish
garrison, a small colony of European traders and missionaries). At the end of
the century, which is where Mr. Gilbert closes his account, guidebooks were
still stressing the stagnation and decay, and most travelers were still
recording their disappointment or distaste. Theodor Herzl, visiting the city
for the first time in 1898, wrote in his diary that ''when I remember thee in
days to come, O Jerusalem, it will not be with delight.'' He wished that it
were possible to tear down everything except the sacred sites and begin all
over again. Yet for over half a century important changes had in fact been
taking place in the city, changes that were gradually to draw it back into the
mainstream of history. While Mr. Gilbert bases much of his survey on the rich
range of literature in which visitors recorded their impressions, his central
theme is the slow transformation that was already in progress, but which most
visitors underestimated or failed to appreciate. In some ways 1839 would have
made a more appropriate starting point. In that year a British vice consul took
up residence - the only foreign diplomat in the city, though before long the
appointment prompted other powers to show the flag. Russian and French
consulates were established in 1841; an Anglican bishopric was created the same
year; in due course Germans, Austrians and Italians made their presence felt,
the Germans in particular. An American consul was appointed in 1857 and
promptly found himself embroiled in a dispute with the local Turkish commander,
who refused to arrange a 21-gun salute on the Fourth of July on the grounds
that such honors ought to be reserved for monarchies, not mere republics. (The
consul eventually carried the day.) The diplomatic campaigns were generally
accompanied by an increase in missionary work, which inevitably became a fresh
cause of dissension in a city already riven by conflicts - often violent ones -
not only between Christian, Moslem and Jew but between a multitude of subgroups
and separate denominations. The religious life of the city was both colorful
and intense, but it all too often reminds you of Jonathan Swift's remark that
we have just enough religion to make us hate, but not to love one another. Of
the major religious groupings, it was the Jews who recorded the largest gain in
numbers during the period Mr. Gilbert covers. By 1896 Jerusalem had a population
of 45,000, of whom 28,000 were Jewish and the rest divided almost equally
between Moslems and Christians. Although Sephardi immigrants from many
different parts of the world, including Yemen and Bukhara, had settled in the
city, the Ashkenazim, who had been in a minority 60 years earlier, now
predominated. Most Ashkenazim came from Eastern Europe, most of them were still
rigidly orthodox, and heavily dependent on charity from Jews living abroad. But
since the days of Sir Moses Montefiore (who had paid his first visit to
Palestine in 1827) there had been attempts to introduce social and educational
reforms, and by the 1880's change - though it met with bitter resistance - was
increasingly in the air. The Alliance Israelite Universelle of Paris played a particularly
important part in sponsoring secular education and technical training.
Meanwhile modern institutions and inventions had belatedly taken root in the
city. The first printing press was established in 1840, the first hotel in
1843, the first bank in 1848. An overland telegraph was opened in 1865 (an Arab
who threw his spear at it was sentenced to death for damaging Ottoman property
and hanged from one of the posts). In 1892, the railroad finally made its
appearance: a narrow-gauge, single-track line that wound its way up from Jaffa.
By normal 19th-century standards, none of this progress was exactly
spectacular, and contemporaries can surely be forgiven for emphasizing the
unchanging, even the apparently moribund aspects of Jerusalem. It is only in
retrospect that it is easy to discern in fairly modest developments the shape
of major achievements and far-reaching conflicts to come. At the very end of
the century, however, two interconnected events should have made it clear, even
without the benefit of hindsight that history wasn't standing still. In 1898
Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Jerusalem, riding into the city through a triumphal
arch on a black charger, in full ceremonial uniform. Theodor Herzl was there at
the same time; he had come specially to meet him. A new and uncertain future
was at hand. Mr. Gilbert has written a lively book, full of excellent
quotations -roundly outspoken and often eloquent in the 19th-century manner -
and providing glimpses of figures as diverse as Herman Melville and the future
Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, along with many curious minor characters. It is
also a handsome book, decked out with a large number of striking photographs 1988: In
Chicago, The pastor of a black church told members of a Jewish congregation
Friday night that the common backgrounds of the two groups should be remembered
as the two communities reach toward common ground. "We forgot our
histories," the Rev. George Riddick, executive vice president of Operation
PUSH, told members of Congregation Kol Ami in the first-of-its-kind pulpit
exchange.
1986(15th of Av, 5746): Tu B’Av
1991(9th of Elul, 5751): Lenore Strunsky Gershwin widow of
Ira Gershwin passed away. She was 90
years old at the time of her death.
1991(9th
of Elul, 5751):About three hours after the riots began, early on the
morning of August 20, a group of approximately 20 young black men surrounded
29-year-old Australian Jew, Yankel Rosenbaum, a University of Melbourne student
in the United States conducting research for his doctorate. They stabbed him
several times in the back and beat him severely, fracturing his skull. Before
being taken to the hospital, Rosenbaum was able to identify 16-year-old Lemrick
Nelson, Jr. as his assailant in a line-up shown to him by the police. Rosenbaum
died later that night. Nelson was charged as an adult with murder and
acquitted. Later he was convicted in federal court of violating Rosenbaum's
civil rights; Nelson eventually admitted that he had stabbed Rosenbaum
1991:“Approximately 500 mostly young blacks returned to the
scene” of the accident in Crown Heights where Gavin Cato had died. “Vehicles
were set ablaze, a shoe store was ransacked, and reporters and photographers
were beaten.
1993: After
rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Peace Accords were
signed. A more public signing ceremony
would take place in Washington in September of 1993.
1997(17th
of Av, 5757): Daniel and Michael Alper, the sons of Marilyn Marcus Alper, an
active member of the UJA Federation of New York, passed away today.
1998:
“Three days after Clinton testified on the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Operation
Infinite Reach launched missiles against al-Qaeda bases in Khost, Afghanistan,
and the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, Sudan
1998:
Journalist Seymour “Hersh strongly criticized the destruction of the Al-Shifa
pharmaceutical factory, the largest pharmaceutical factory in Sudan—providing
about half the medicines produced in Sudan—by United States cruise missiles
during Bill Clinton's presidency.”
1998(28th
of Av, 5758): Eighty-eight year old Fred Sington, an All-American Tackle at
Alabama where he was a member of ZBT and an outfielder for the Washington
Senators and Brooklyn Dodgers passed away today.
http://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Fred_Sington
1999: The 7th
World Championships in Athletics in which Aleksandr Valeryevich Averbukh placed
third in the Pole Vault representing Israel opened today in Seville, Spain.
2000: The New York Times book section featured
reviews of Touching Peace: From the
Oslo Accord to a Final Agreement by Yossi Beilin, Cruel Banquet: The Life and Loves of Frida
Strindberg by Monica
Strauss and Dream Stuff, a collection of nine short stories by David
Malouf, the Australian author with the Lebanese Christian father and the
Sephardic Jewish mother.
2001(1st of
Elul, 5761): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2002: The Jerusalem Post reported that the
Hebrew University archeologist Dr. Eila Mazar's 120-page The Complete Guide
to the Temple Mount Excavations has just been translated into English.
2002(12th
of Elul, 5762): Nineteen-year-old Staff Sargent Kevin Cohen of Petah Tikva was
murdered by a Palestinian sniper.
2002(12th
of Elul, 5762): Eighty-year-old philanthropist Lillian Goldman, the widow of
Sol Goldman passed away today. (As reported by Paul Lewis)
2003:
“Israeli tanks reinforced positions encircling the West Bank city of Ramallah
tonight as Israel ratcheted up pressure on the Palestinian leadership to strike
against militant groups, after a suicide bomber killed 20 people aboard a bus
here yesterday.” (As reported by James Bennett)
2004: The
initial public offering by Google which was founded by Larry Page and Sergey
Brin took place today.
2004(3rd
of Elul, 5764): Eighty-two-year-old Safed born prize winning Israeli author and
MK Moshe Shamir passed away today. (Editor’s note – The NYT would appear to
have been in error. Shamir died about a
month before his 83rd birthday.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/27/guardianobituaries.israel
2004:A Walking tour today styled ''Emma Lazarus and the Jewish
Heritage of Washington Square'' passes the former home of Emma Lazarus, the
Triangle Shirt Waist Factory and the Hanging Elm of Washington Square Park.
2005(14th
of Av, 5765): Abraham S. Goldstein, an influential scholar of criminal law and
former dean of the Yale Law School, died of a heart attack at his home in
Woodbridge, Connecticut. Goldstein taught at the Law School for almost 50 years
and was, at the time of his death, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and
Professorial Lecturer in Law. He was 80.
2005: The evacuation of settlers and their
supporters from Gaza halted because of the Shabbat. The evacuations which are part of a bold move
by Prime Minister Sharon to bring peace to the region while improving the
geo-political position of Israel is slated to end on Tuesday.
2006(26th
of Av, 5766): Eighty-four-year-old labor economist and Holocaust survivor Jacob
Mincer passed away today. (As reported by Louis Uchitelle)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/23/business/23mincer.html?_r=0
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/06/09/mincer.html
2006: Today
Tower Records, which began in “1960 when Richard Solomon opened his first store
in Sacramento: filed Chapter 11
bankruptcy for the second time, in order to facilitate a purchase of the
company prior to the holiday shopping season.
2006: The Sunday New York Times book section
includes a review of I Feel Bad
About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron.
2006: The Chicago Tribune
reported that Clara Ambrus-Baire, a woman whose family shielded
Jews in Budapest had
received a “Righteous Among the Nations Award.”
The award is presented to people who risked their lives to save Jews
during the Holocaust. It is the highest honor bestowed on non-Jews by Israel,
with 21,310 recipients as of January 2006. Ambrus-Baer was 19 when the Germans
invaded Budapest in 1944. Her family turned its home into a haven for Jews
hiding from the Nazis. "I never expected this," said Ambrus-Baer, 81
and living in Buffalo. "I didn't want to get praised for what I did. I
took it for normal that somebody saves people's lives."
2006:
Kohenet, the Hebrew Priestess Institute launched its first training institute
in Accord, NY. (As reported by Jewish Women’s Archives)
2007:
“The Facebook Effect” is Newsweek
Magazine’s cover story. The story
describes how 23 year old “Mark Zuckerberg has already changed the way millions
of us connect. How he’s facing a
challenge; how to turn an online obsession into a fixture of he digital
age” If the pundits and prophets are
correct, Zuckerberg will join the likes of Einstein and Freud as one who has
brought a sea change in the course of Western, if not world, Civilization.
2007:
In an article favorably evaluating the performance of Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben S. Bernanke, The New York Times
included the following. “But to understand Mr. Bernanke’s worldview, one must
go back to his hometown, Dillon, S.C., which sits athwart Interstate 95 about
halfway between North Jersey and South Florida. Dillon is known as the home of
South of the Border, the Tijuana-themed tourist stop and a Mecca of American
roadside kitsch. Mr. Bernanke, 53, grew up in Dillon in the 1950s and ’60s, the
son of the local pharmacist and a member of one of the few Jewish families in
the largely agricultural region. He says his home was the only kosher household
in a 50-mile radius. His mother had meat delivered from a butcher in Charlotte,
N.C., where his parents live now. Being a member of a minority taught him about
discrimination and prejudice. “There was more than one request to see my
horns,” he said years later. He also watched the struggles of small farmers,
who drove mule-drawn carts down the main street of town and had trouble paying
their bills even in good years. His father granted credit for purchases at the
drugstore, keeping records on small cards he kept in a drawer. Many of the
debts were never repaid. As Mr. Bernanke grew older, the textile mills that had
supported the area closed and moved overseas in search of cheap labor. Mr.
Bernanke worked construction jobs and waited on tables at South of the Border
during the summer while an undergraduate at Harvard University. “I was
impressed by these experiences,” Mr. Bernanke said last fall at a ceremony in
his honor on the steps of the neoclassical courthouse in Dillon, “and I think
they were an important reason I went into economics, which a great economist
once called the study of people in the ordinary business of life.”
2007:A database
with millions of documents from more than 50 concentration camps and prisons -
which include books recording Jewish deaths, transportation lists and medical
reports - was handed over to Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes
Remembrance Authority and Washington's Holocaust Memorial Museum. "These
documents reflect the most despicable operations of the Nazi era and constitute
an essential part of our archive," said International Tracing Service
(ITS) director Reto Meister during the official handover at the Washington
museum.
2008:After a
disappointing run for Israel in the Beijing Olympics, windsurfer Shahar Zubari
finally gave Israelis a reason to cheer. Zubari won the bronze medal at today's
Neil Pryde finals, Israel's first medal at the 2008 games, after arriving in
second place in the final race.
2008: The New
York Times included a review of The Grift by Debra Ginsberg.
2008:About
50 rabbis in charge of supervising the kosher slaughter and processing of meat
at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville walked off the job today to
protest recent pay cuts. The rabbis reportedly took the action because of a
decrease in pay since a May 12 immigration raid, the largest in U.S. history.
Agriprocessors spokesman Menachem Lubinsky downplayed the incident, saying the
walkout lasted only 30 minutes. But Lubinsky said the issue of decreased pay,
as well as increased time between work performed and payment, has been an issue
for the rabbis since the raid. “The rabbis were complaining that they didn’t
have as much time for overtime and additional shifts,” Lubinsky said.
2008: A former Agriprocessors Inc. supervisor
pleaded guilty today to helping his employer hire illegal immigrants. Juan
Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35, a former upper-level supervisor at the kosher
meatpacking plant in Postville, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Cedar
Rapids to conspiracy to hire and aiding and abetting the hiring of illegal
immigrants.
2008:The decision
by Perth Magistrate Barbara Lane today to allow the extradition of Karoly
(Charles) Zentai to Hungary to stand trial for the murder of Jewish teenager
Peter Balazs in Budapest on
2009: Rosh Chodesh Elul (First Day)
2009: The final of a 3-part series of security
briefings for leaders of Jewish institutions in Northern Virginia sponsored by
ADL, JCRC & the Jewish Federation Learn featuring presentations y Local
Police District Commanders, FBI Senior Personnel, and national Jewish security experts
about the latest threats to Jewish communal security and how to be prepared
takes place at Congregation Ahavat Israel (Fairfax Chabad) in Fairfax, VA.
2009:In a
video-taped message to be screened today at a rally to be held at Rabbi Reuven
Elbaz's Or Hachaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem,
Shas mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef lashes out at the Supreme Court for
rejecting former minister Shlomo Benizri's appeal to shorten his four-year
prison sentence for corruption charges. In the taped message which can be
described as somewhere between inflammatory and incendiary, the rabbi declares,
"The courts are twisted, and the judges don't believe in anything. They
are apostates."
2009:Today
the High Court of Justice rejected a petition accusing the Company for Location
and Restitution of Holocaust Victims Assets of breaking the law by allocating
funds to organizations that were not solely dedicated to the welfare of
Holocaust survivors. The petition was filed in 2008 by The Fund on Behalf of
Holocaust Victims in Israel, which was established in 1991 by the umbrella
organization of survivors groups.
2009(30th of Av, 5769): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2009(30th of Av, 5769): Controversial
Israeli entertainment personality Dudu Topaz took his own life today.
2010: U.S. premiere of “The Switch” a comedy by
Allan Loeb and co-starring Jeff Goldblum
2010:
"A Film Unfinished" Directed by Yael Harsonski is scheduled to
premiere at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema in New York City.
2010:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have
been invited to Washington to begin direct peace talks on Sept. 2, U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a press conference today. The
meeting will serve to "re-launch direct negotiations to resolve all final
status issues which we believe we can complete in one year," Clinton said.
2010:Harvard University said Friday that it had found a
prominent researcher, Marc Hauser, “solely responsible” for eight instances of
scientific misconduct. Hauser is the son of French Jew who survived the
Holocaust.
2011:
Senator Joe Lieberman is scheduled to attend Glen Beck’s Restoring Courage
rally in Jerusalem. A self-proclaimed supporter of Israel, Beck has also
compared Reform Rabbis to Islamic radicals.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/blogs/political_insider/glenn_beck_reform_rabbis_and_radicalized_islam
2011(20th
of Av, 5771): Eighty-seven-year-old, Dr. William B. Kannel, the cardiologist
was the director of the Framingham Heart Study, passed away today. (As reported
by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/health/23kannel.html?pagewanted=print
2011(20th
of Av, 5771): Eighty-seven-year-old Rafael Halperin who gained fame as “The
Rasslin Rabbi” before founding Optica Halperin, “the largest eyeglass store
chain In Israel.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4111512,00.html
2011:
Gabriella Elizabeth Thalblum (Gavriella Elisheva) was called to the Torah as a
Bat Mitzvah at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA. This very intelligent and
poised young Jewess is the daughter of Rabbi Todd and Sabrina Thalblum. A lover of music and dance, this seventh
grader speaks English with that charming drawl she acquired while living in
Texas. She did a marvelous job.
2011:
A musical Havdalah service followed by a performance by Emilio Estevez is
scheduled to take place at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington,
DC.
2011:
Hamas announced early today they were no longer committed to a more than
two-year de facto truce with Israel since the end of a war in early 2009. The
statement was broadcast over a Hamas radio station in Gaza after Israel pounded
the Strip for two days with air strikes in response to rocket salvoes and
attacks that killed eight people."There is no longer any truce with the
enemy," the statement said in a move seen as paving the way for Hamas to
escalate the violence with Israel.
2011:
A Grad rocket directly struck a home in the southern city of Be'er Sheva
tonight, killing one person and seriously wounding four.
2011:
Around 4,000 demonstrators participated in a silent march in Tel Aviv on
tonight to protest the high cost of living in Israel.
2011:
Egypt's ambassador to Israel will remain in the country, Foreign Ministry
officials said this evening, as the diplomatic crisis vis-à-vis Cairo in the
wake of Thursday's terror attacks appeared to be waning.
2012:
The KlezKanada Laurentian Retreat, which this year will be dedicated to the
memory of Adrienne Cooper z”l is scheduled to begin today.
2012:
The Nazareth Orchestra is scheduled to perform at Hazan Hall this evening. The
orchestra, “conducted by Dr. Nizar Raduwan, will celebrate the 100th
anniversary of Egyptian diva Asmahane with the beloved songs of Umm Kulthum,
Asmahane and Layla Morad performed by orchestra soloist Hiba Battihish and Rula
Azar, who will be performing with the orchestra for the first time.”
2012:
University heads are seeking the reversal of a July decision in favor of
granting university status to Ariel’s academic institute, filing a petition
with the High Court of Justice to that effect Monday.
2012:
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and IDF, uncovered and indicted a cell of
four terrorists belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP), the Shin Bet released for publication today.
2013:
German Chancellor Angela Merkeil is scheduled to visit Dachau today “making her
Berlin’s first leader to travel to the former Nazi concentration camp. (As
reported Lazar Berman)
2013:
The Kraemer and Ciment clans gather in Little Rock, AR as they prepare to
celebrate a simcha that will unite two of their young adults in marriage.
2013:
Israeli officials criticized UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon today for
backtracking on his admission last week in Jerusalem that “there was bias and
discrimination against Israel at the UN.”
(As
reported by Herb Keinon)
2013:
The United States said today it "strongly condemns" comments from
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan blaming Israel for the military coup and
ensuing crisis gripping Egypt (As reported by Michael Wilner)
2013:
Tzipi Livini, Israel’s chief negotiator predicted today that peace talks
between Israel and the Palestinians “will result in dramatic Israeli
decisions.” (As reported by Herb Keinon and khaled Abu Toameh)
2014:
“Young Israeli clarinetist and saxophonist, Anat Cohen, celebrated in Brazil as
a virtuoso player of "choro" music is scheduled perform at the New
York premiere of her "Choro Aventoroso" band at 54 Below.
2014:
Hamas's "military wing" warned foreign airlines today against flying
into Tel Aviv, threatening to step up its six-week conflict with Israel after
firing more than 100 rockets on Israeli civilians and pulling out of peace
talks. "We are warning
international airlines and press them to stop flying into Ben Gurion airport
from 6 am (0300 GMT) Thursday," Al Qassam
Brigades
spokesman Abu Obeida stated today, in a televised speech.” (As reported byAFP
and Arutz Sheva Staff)
2014:
“As a result of the renewed rocket fire, the Barzilai Medical Center in
Ashkelon announced new-borns would be transferred to sheltered areas for their
protection.”
2014:
Shortly after 11:00 p.m., sirens were heard in the vicinity of Ashdod as well
as in Sderot and the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council in response to the
on-going rocket barrage from Gaza which earlier in the day had included an
attack on the Israeli gas installation in the Mediterranean.
2015:
Today, “the IDF deployed the Iron Dome missile defense system near the port
city of Ashdod.”
2015: At The Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center, Rabbi
Lawrence Hoffman, the editor of the multi-volume series “Prayers of Awe” is
scheduled to “the fascinating history of Avinu Malkeinu, one of the best known
prayers of the High Holiday liturgy.
2015:
Four rockets fired from Syrian “hit Israel this afternoon in the Upper Galilee
region in the north near the Lebanese bored after ‘color red’ warning sires
were sounded in the area.”
2015:
In “Israel’s Other Existential Threat Comes From Within” published today Hilik
Bar a deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset and the secretary general of the
Labor Party provided his view of political conditions in his country.
2015:
The Women’s Leadership Committee of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education
Center is scheduled to host the “Intimate Illusions Summer Benefit” in Chicago,
Illinois.
2015:
A visitation is scheduled to take place at Temple Judah in memory of Joan
Lipsky.
http://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2015/Aug/Joan-M-Lipsky/
2016(16th
of Av, 5776): Parashat Vaetchanan – Shabbat Nachamu;
2016(16th
of Av, 5776): One hundred one year old composer Irving Fields passed away
today.(As reported by Joseph Berger)
2016:
“Murmurs and Incantations” which “tells the story of a gay New York performance
artist with creative block who fatefully travels to Poland in an attempt to
revive his art career, only to be further confounded by the disapproving ghost
of his grandfather, a rabbi killed in the Holocaust” is scheduled to open in
New York City.
2016:
In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host a “Pancakes and Prayer
Shabbat Service and Breakfast.
2016:
In New Orleans, LA, Gates of Prayer is scheduled to mark the end of Shabbat
with a Brotherhood Havdalah and Saints Pre-season game watch.
2017(28th
of Av): Yarhrzeit for Larry Rosenstein, of blessed memory, husband of Judy
Levin Rosenstein, of blessed memory.
Gone to soon but always remembered!
2017(28th
of Av, 5777): Ninety-one year old multi-talented funny man Jerry Lewis passed
away today.
https://variety.com/2017/film/people-news/jerry-lewis-dies-dead-nutty-professor-1202533899/
2017:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Wrestling With His Angel: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln,
Volume II, 1849-1856 by Sidney Blumenthal, Freud: The Making of an
Illusion by Frederick Crews, The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History
of Women in World War II by Svetlana Alexievich and the recently released
paperback edition of The Chosen Ones by Steve Sem-Sandberg.
2017:
Cantor Jennifer Bern-Vogel and singer-songwriter Dan Bern along with friends
Karla Goettel, soprano, Steve Vosatka, piano; singer-songwriter Sam
Weis, Lena Gilbert, actors Megan and Steve Ginsberg and others are
scheduled to present a memorial concert featuring music and poetry in memory of
Marianne Bern, pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community.
2017:
As the school year beings at the University of Iowa, Hillel is scheduled to
host a Bagel Brunch.
2018:
“The Guy Mintus Tiro,” led by the Israeli band leader…who will mix his
originals with Israeli classics” is scheduled to perform at the Rockwood Music
Hall.
2018:
As part of “The Lunar Legends series” Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to host a
performance of “The Tale of Two Cats.”
2018(9th
of Elul, 5778): Ninety-four-year-old Uri Avneri, Israeli author and politician
who has traveled the political spectrum from membership in the Irgun to
left-wing peace activist passed away today. (As reported by Isabel Kershner)
2018:
In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Damascus Cover,” a film centering
around Mossad agents.
2019:
In Atlanta, GA, Docent Training is scheduled to begin at the Breman Museum.
2019:
In New Orleans, the Jewish Community Day School is scheduled to host Curriculum
Night.
2019:
This evening, Klezkanda is scheduled to host Margot Leverett speaking on the
“Art of the Klezmer Clarinet.”
2019:
Those attending the McGill/Klezkanda Academic Seminar are scheduled to begin
the day with “An Overview of Jewish Music in Eastern Europe.”
2020(30th
of Av, 5780): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2020:
“Two 27-year-old from northern Israel were in custody” today, after an Israeli
teenager said that she was gang-raped during a visit to the resort city of
Eilat by possibly as many as 30 attackers. (As reported by David M. Halbfinger)
2021:
In Wayland, MA, Temple Shir Tikva is scheduled to present Shabbat Yeladim.
2021:
The Bezalel Arts & Crafts Fair is scheduled to opens its doors again today
to a wide variety of artists from throughout the Jerusalem area
2021:
In Marblehead, MA, Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to host an “Open House With
Outdoor Service.”
2021:
In Columbus, OH, Beth Brown is scheduled to explore and experience two new
meditation techniques from a Jewish perspective.
2021:
Based on The Health Ministry’s approved of the immediate expansion of Israel’s
coronavirus vaccine booster shot to include Israelis over the age of forty, 49
year old “Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that he would get the jab this
morning.” (YNET)
2021:
“Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art,” an exhibition that “traces the fascinating
timelines of individual objects as they passed through hands and sites before,
during, and after World War II, bringing forward their myriad stories” is
scheduled to open at the Jewish Museum in New York.
2022:
Shaker Heights native and solo pianist Jim Brickman is scheduled to return to
Northeast Ohio for a stop on his “Brickman Across America” tour today at Cain
Park in Cleveland Heights.
2022:
In what some feel is a “pivotal moment in the history of American anti-Semitism
a Florida synagogue canceled its
“Beach Shabbat” services amid threats against one of its board members, the
judge who signed the warrant authorizing an FBI search of President Donald
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
2022
(23rd of Av, 5782): Parashat Eikev (“because,” “reward,” or “heel”)
2023:
The Museum at Eldrige Street is scheduled to host a “stroll through the story
and into the streets to learn about the real-life people and Lower East Side
places that inspired Sydney Taylor to write All-of-a-Kind Family.”
2023:
In Coralville, IA, as of today, “the Agudas Achim Mahjong group is scheduled to
be back in business!”
2023:
In Pepper Pike, OH, Park Synagogue is scheduled to host its
end-of-summer congregational party, Parkapalooza, with festivities that include
“a shuk celebreating Israel@75.
2023:
The Weekly Daf Yomi class is scheduled to “enter” on-line “the tractate of
Kiddushin (“Betrothal in Jewish Law”), which is the seventh and final tractate
in Seder Nashim (“Order of Women,” that addresses issues of family law).”
2023:
In the wake of yesterday’s terrorist attack on a father and son using a
carwash, Defense Minister Yoav gallant plans “to hold a situation assessment
with the attendance of senior security officials.
2024:
Agnon House is scheduled to host an online lecture during which author Matan
Hermoni will discuss the writing of Sholem Aleichem through reading his works
"London" and "Man from Buenos Aires".
2024:
The Forward is scheduled is scheduled to host, online, ‘Safety Through
Solidarity” which “uses personal stories, historical deep-dives, front-line
reporting, and interviews with leading change-makers, with the aim of helping
readers understand how antisemitism works, what’s missing in contemporary
debates, and how to build true safety through solidarity, for Jews and all
people.”
2024:
The Documentary Film Festival at the National Library of Israel is scheduled to
continue for a third day beginning with screenings of “Black Snow” and “Obsessed
With Light.’
2024:At
the Phoenix, UK Jewish Film is scheduled
to host a preview screening of “Between the Temples,” a film by Nate Silver.
2024:
Following the “massive bomb blast in
Tel Aviv” for which Hamas has claimed responsibility and the failure of the peace
talks at Qatar, Israel braces for more deadly violence
2024:As
August 20th 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 319 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)