August 15
423: Honorious Flavius, the Western Roman Emperor who confiscated gold and silver which had been collected by the synagogues to be sent to Jerusalem and “defined Judaism as an unworthy superstition passed away today.
1096: The armies of the First Crusade set out from Europe to deliver Jerusalem from the occupying forces of Islamic Turks. Championed by Peter the Hermit in 1093, Pope Urban II had sanctioned the crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095.
1286: As what the original and 21st tenants of the city might find as an act of usurpation, during the era of the Crusaders, Henry II was name King of Jerusalem succeeding his brother John I whose death he was rumored to have hastened with the use of poison.
1309: Knights of St. John, complete their conquest of Rhodes. Apparently the Knights treatment of the Jewish population was comparatively benign since many Sicilian conversos would move to the island because “they remembered the Knights’’ liberal policy towards the Jews or Rhodes.”
1461: Trapezunt surrenders to the forces of Sultan Mehmet II marking the real end of the Byzantine Empire. The experience of the Jews of Anatolia had been uneven in the days of the Byzantine (Christian) Empire. The Jews of Constantinople remained in place after the Islamic forces came to power under Mehmet II.
1534: Ignatius of Loyola and six classmates took initial vows that would lead to the creation of the Society of Jesus in September of 1540. In its early days, the Jesuits accepted Jewish converts and their descendants who were known as New Christians were admitted to the order. After the death of Loyola, the Jesuits adopted the Spanish attitudes and refused to accept New Christians or their descendants as members.
1769: Birthdate of Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon had profound effect on the Jews of Europe. But if one asks “Was Napoleon good for the Jews” the best answer might be, “It depends.”
1776(30thof Av, 5536): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1784: In Gorizia, Rabbi Abraham Vita and his wife gave birth to Isaac Samuel Reggio an Austro-Italian scholar and rabbi.
1796: In what may have been the first attempt for a governmental entity to protect Kashrut in the United States, the Common Coincil suppressed the butcher license of Nicholas Smart, a non-Jew, for affixing Jewish seals to non-kosher meats.
1806: Rabbi Joseph David Sinzheim delivered a sermon in the synagogue of Paris in honor of the emperor's birthday that strengthened Napoleon's favorable opinion of the Jews, who received the imperial promise that their rights as French citizens would not be withdrawn.
1815 (9th of Av): Rabbi Joseph Isaac Horowitz, author of Divrei Emet, passed away.
1819: Birthdate of Joseph Jacob Goldmark, the Hungarian physician who came to the United States after the failed revolution of 1848 where he discovered red phosphorous and became the father-in-law of Louis Brandeis and Felix Adler.
1830: Birthdate of Henry Aaron Isaacs who became sheriff of London and was knighted in 1887 and was elected Lord Mayor of London two years later.
1838(24thof Av, 5598): German businessman Moses Moser whose business associates included Moses Friedländer and Moritz Robert and who was a close personal friend of Heinrich Heine passed away today in Berlin.
1842: Charles Henry Churchill, the British Consul in Damascus whose area of responsibility included Palestine, delivered his formal proposal to Sir Moses Montefiore concerning the role of Jews in the Middle East. A Zionist before Zionism existed, Churchill proposed ”that the Jews of England conjointly with their brethren on the Continent of Europe should make an application to the British Government through the Earl of Aberdeen to accredit and send out a fit and proper person to reside in Syria for the sole and express purpose of superintending and watching over the interests of the Jews residing in that country.” Charles Churchill was the grandfather of Sir Winston Churchill.
1854: M.H. Bresslau began serving as editor of "The Jewish Chronicle (New Series) and Working Man's Friend" an Anglo-Jewish newspaper which he renamed "The Jewish Chronicle and Hebrew Observer."
1855(1st of Elul, 5615): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1857: Birthdate of Albert Ballin, the German-born businessman who served a general manager of the Hamburg America (Shipping) Line.
1861: Ralph Disraeli, the brother of Benjamin Disraeli, and Katherine Trevor were married today in Middlesex, England.
1865:The New York Times reported that "A letter in the Journal de Posen alleges that the official journals, not daring to support the accusations launched by the Moscow Gazette against the Polish nobility, imputing to them the recent fires in Lithuania, and, on the other hand, feeling it necessary to throw the blame upon somebody, represent the Jews as the authors of these disasters. According to the official journals, the Jews, having first insured their houses for a sum superior to their real value, themselves set fire to the buildings to pocket the difference. If this criminal calculation has been made in certain cases, the supposition of its existence cannot give an explanation of all the disasters of this nature that have lately taken place; for, although insurance against fire is much practiced in Lithuania and Ruthenia, it is to be seen only in the more important towns, while a great number of fires have broken out even in the smallest towns."
1868: S.A. Bierfield was lynched by the K.K.K. in Franklin Tenn. This was the first such incident involving a Jew. “a masked mob of Ku Klux Klansmen broke into the dry goods store of S. A. Bierfield, a Russian Jew, in Franklin, Tennessee, and fatally shot both Bierfield and his Black clerk, Lawrence Bowman. The reason given by the lynchers was a false charge of Bierfield's implication in a murder a few days earlier. But as the New York Times reported about a week later, the real reason for the lynching was that Bierfield was "an intelligent advocate of the present reconstruction policy of Congress and a friend to the freedmen of his neighborhood, among whom--he being a merchant--he commanded quite a trade, and perhaps found it expedient to keep one from among their number in his employ." A Nashville newspaper account stated that Bierfield was "an active and prominent Republican, having considerable influence with the colored people. . . . Our informant says that was his only crime"
1871: Jacob Levi a German Jew swindled Alois Grieshaber out of $545 today using a form of the “pigeon drop.” Grieshaber eventually discovered the swindle and went to the police. Levi, who had become wealthy as a swindler, was tried, convicted and sent to Sing Sing Prison in 1872.
1873: John J. Malloy, Chief of the Brooklyn Police, notified police in several “Western cities” to be on the lookout for Emil Lowenstein, a German Jewish barber who sometimes uses the alias of Livingston. Lowenstein is wanted in connection with his part in the murder of John Weston. The governor of New York has offered a $500 reward for his capture. Police believe that Mrs. Weston was a confederate in the plan and that she planned to run off with Lowenstein once they had murdered Mr. Weston and taken his money.
1873: “England’s New Master of the Rolls,” an article published today reports on the announcement that Sir George Jessel will soon be serving as the new Master of the Rolls. The Master of the Rolls dates back to the 13th century and “is the second most senior judge in England and Wales, after the Lord Chief Justice”. When he assumes the office later this month, Jessel will be the first Jew to serve in this capacity. The Jewish Chronicle noted the irony of Jessel’s appointment. At one time the Master of the Rolls was officially known as “the Guardian of the Converted Jews” but thanks to a changed in the Judicature Act such is no longer the case. Jessel was the son of a coral merchant named Zadok Aaron who graduated from the University College London because his religion kept him from attending either Oxford or Cambridge.
1877: The funeral of Rabbi J.J. Lyon took place at the 19th Street Synagogue today. Albert Cardozo, father of future Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo was one of the pallbearers.
1878(1st of Elul, 5547): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1879: In Belarus, Zvi Mileikowsky and Liba Gitl Milikovsky gave birth to Rabbi Nathan Mileikowsky the father of historian Benzion Netanyahu and the grandfather of Yonatan Netanyahu of blessed memory (the Hero of Entebbe) and Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu.
1879: According to reports published today police still do not feel like they have the true story surrounding the shooting of Harris Levy, a 28 Polish Jew who worked as a night watchman for a workshop owned by Louis Soloman, a manufacturing tailor. Levy claims he was shot by an unknown assailant. The police think the wound was self-inflicted. However, they cannot find any evidence that it was suicide and Soloman believes the story about the burglar since his workshop was robbed 5 or 6 weeks ago.
1879: Justice C.W. Chocrane found Adolph D. Pollack, a Jew from White Plains, NY, guilty of having sold merchandize on Sunday, in violation of the law. Chochrane suspended the sentence because it was Pollack’s first offense, but warned the defendant not to open his store again on Sunday.
1879: It was reported today that Lord Salisbury, British Foreign Minister, feels that it is time for Romania to fulfill to honor its commitments to improve the situation of its Jews since the autonomy the country enjoys was conditional on these promises.
1880: It was reported today that Silesia has a population of 3,800,000 of which 47,000 are Jewish.
1881: It was reported today that M.J. Butler, the proprietor of the Manson House donated the use of the hotel’s dining room for the concert that had been held to raise funds for a cemetery in Long Branch, NJ, that will be open to all regardless of faith or financial status.
1881: “Jews in Germany” published today described the pervasive anti-Semitism in that country that stands in stark contrast to the theme of the “Nathan the Wise” which is a popular German theatrical production.
1882(30th of Av, 5642): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1882: “Mr. Cox’s Wild Eloquence” published today provided a summary of speech by Representative Samuel S. Cox that he delivered during the last session of Congress in which he “eloquently” reviewed “the atrocities perpetrated on the Jews of Russia” and concluded “with an appeal for help and sympathy from America” to help the Jews overcome their plight.
1883: An unnamed British Jew representing a London business firm was expelled from Russia today even though he was carrying a British Passport.
1883: Among those receiving funds from the Board of Estimate and Apportionment was the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society which got $1,896.85.
1884: “Doom of the Ghetto at Rome” published today described the crumbling condition of the former Jewish quarter. Paul IV was the first Pope to move the Jews across the river into “somber Tower of Marcellus. He was the same Pope who used to force the Jews to listen to annual sermons on Holy Cross Day in hopes that they would convert.
1886: Based on information that first appeared in the Hebrew Standard it was reported today that a young Jewish lady “refused to play at a game of kissing forfeits, giving as her reason the quotation ‘Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves’ (Hosea, XII, 2)”
1887: It was reported today that Israel Lipski has been granted a reprieve from the hangman’s rope.
1887(25th of Av, 5647): Sixty-seven year old Danish author Meïr Aron Goldschmidt whose works included A Jew, “the first novel to provide an” an insider’s “description of the Copenhagen Jewish milieu” passed away today.
1887: Birthdate of novelist Edna Ferber. Born in Michigan, Ferber wrote sweeping epics many of which became equally famous films. Included in these are Showboat, Cimarron and Giant. Ferber won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1925 for the novel So Big. She passed away in 1968.
1888: Congressman Ford’s Immigration Committee heard testimony today in New York from Daniel Harris a journeyman cigar maker who testified on the impact of foreigners on his business. In the past two decades foreigners have gone from being 10 per cent of the cigar makers to being 90 percent. Wages have gone from fifty dollars a week to twelve dollars a week. He blames part of this one the arrival of thousands of Russian and Polish Jews many of whom have their tickets to the United States by charitable organizations.
1888:Birthdate of Girsh Yankelovich Brilliant who as Grigori Yakovlovich Sokolnikov became a leading Bolshevik who would be murdered by Stalin during the purges of the 1930’s.
1888: In Vienna Leopold Leopoldi (whose name was Kohn before he changed it) and his wife gave birth to Herman Leopoldi the Austrian composer and performer who survived Buchenwald.
1890: Jacob Levy was delivered to the City of London lunatic asylum, Stone, in Kent, as an insane person. Born in 1856, at Aldgate to Joseph and Caroline Levy, he was a butcher who was a suspect in the Jack the Ripper Cases.
1890: The Jewish Messenger reported that Mr. Lippman Levy has left New York and returned to Cincinnati, Ohio.
1890: It was reported today that Mount Sinai Temple has elected Godfrey Taubenhaus as rabbi.
1891: Congregants at the House of Miriam in Long Branch, NJ, donated approximately $165 in response to today’s appeal made by Rabbi William H. Karuskopf.
1891: In London, the lead article in the Daily News deals with “the question of the Jews of Russia.”
1891: “Russian Refugees” published today described the difficulties faced by the Jewish immigrants from Russia who had been sent to Hightstown, NJ by the Baron Hirsch Fund. Wallach & Sons of New York opened a shirt factory there and agreed to hire them as workers. However, none of them have any experience and do not like the work. They have complained to Jesse Seligman about conditions, but Seligman has expressed the feeling that those who are complaining are a few malcontents who do not want to work.
1892: “Orthodox or Reform?” published today described main issue that will be dealt with when a “conclave of Rabbis gathers in New York in October. The Reform have clashed with the Orthodox by adopting a resolution making performance of “the Abrahamic rite” (circumcision) optional for those wanting to convert to Judaism. The change championed by the Reform movement grew out of the fact that the daughter of Rabbi Wise, their leader, had married her physician, Dr. Maloney, who was Catholic. Maloney said he would convert but he would not submit to circumcision. According to the Orthodox, it was at that point that Rabbi Wise decided that the “Abrahamic rite” was optional.
1892: Meyer Reinherz of the of the United Hebrew Charities appeared in the Essex Market Police Court as the complainant in the case again Edward Pollock, an Austro-Hungarian reporter who had written several articles about Ellis Island and the Jewish boarding houses.
1892: “A Wedding of Midgets” published today described the courtship and marriage of Leopold Kahn and Lottie Naomi Swartwood. The 48 inch tall Jewish comedian met the 49 inch tall love of his life in Philadelphia where he was performing with the American Lilliputian Company. They overcame the obstacle of religion when she agreed to convert before they married and took the name Naomi which she incorporated into her secular name.
1892: “Will Not Object to Crosses” published today described the decision of Russian Jews who are the members of the Erie Street Congregation in Cleveland, Ohio to rent a hall from the Young Men’s Christian Association for use during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It was agreed that “inasmuch as the crosses were more than twenty feet above the hall…and there were no crosses in the decoration in the room itself” there was no reason not to rent the room which will provide the needed space for the upcoming High Holiday services.
1893: The police promise to keep Hester and Mulberry Streets clear of all peddlers and vendors, many of whom are Jewish, after having conducting a successful operation to remove all such obstacles.
1895: While stopping at the Union Square Hotel Senor Segundo Alvarez, the Mayor of Havana blamed the troubles in Cuba on American adventures including Carlos Roloff, “a Polish Jew” who has gotten funding from “the cigar-makers of Key West” whom some “say has landed in Cuba with a thousand men, guns and ammunition and dynamite.
1896: In Prague, Martha and Otto Radnitz, the manager of a sugar refinery, gave birth to “Dr. Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology, in 1947, which was shared with her husband, Dr. Carl F. Cori, and Dr. B.A. Houssay of Argentina.” (As reported by Jewish Virtual Library)
1897: The New York Times published a lengthy favorable article about the Zionist cause led by Herzl and the upcoming congress to be held in Basel, Switzerland.
1897: It was reported today that Joseph Barondess has started a new labor organization in opposition to the Hebrew Trades and the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance.
1897: “The Jewish State Idea” published today described the history of Jewish settlement in Palestine and the challenges facing the Zionists as they meet at Basle.
1897: “The Adaptiveness of the Jew” published today summarizes an article by Professor A.S. Isaacs that first appeared in the August issue of the North American Review in which he said that “critic of Judaism…must familiarize himself with the history of the Jew in every land” in which he has lived. And then “he must account for that marvelous vitality…which has made the Jew at home whether” on the banks of the Vistula, the Thames or the Eurpahtes or “amid the orange groves of Sicily or the plains of Arabia.
1898: “Bad Water Kills Orphans” published today described the efforts to care for those at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum who have become ill during the latest outbreak of dysentery in the neighborhood which has been attributed to polluted city water.
1899: In Washington, DC, the Treasurer of the Dewey Home Fund received a letter and a contribution of ten dollars from Mrs. Lizzie A. Cohen, Treasurer of the Woman’s Democratic Club of Salt Lake City which did not surprise him since the Jews have “contributed liberally” to this cause from the beginning.
1898: The fifteenth and final codicil for the will of Clara, Baroness von Hirsch, formerly Bischoffsheim, the widow of Baron Moritz von Hirsch which declares that her estate should be administered in Vienna under the terms of Austrian law is filed and attested to.
1899: As passions flare in France during the second court martial of Captain Dreyfus Bonapartists and Oreleanists held rallies and dinners during which they challenged the very existence of the French Republic. (These divisions are meaningless today. In a nutshell, these were two right wing groups seeking to bring down the republican government and replace it with a monarch. Of course, each group wanted their own candidate to fill the job. The important thing to remember is that while Jews focus on the anti-Semitic aspect of the Dreyfus Affair, it really was part of a larger conflict between republicans and reactionaries. The last act of this dreadful conflict would be played out at Vichy and Drancy four decades later)
1899:The Third Zionist Congress begins meeting in Basel.
1899: The American delegation at today’s Third Zionist Congress includes Professor Richard Gottheil of Columbia University and his wife, Miss Eva Leon, Rabbi Stephen Wise, Rabbi Marcus Jastrow of Philadelphia, Henrietta Szold of Baltimore and William Schurr of Chicago.
1899:”Would-Be Suicide Shaming” published today described the condition of Abraham Reinold who has been a patient at Georgetown Hospital ever since he tried to shoot himself while visiting Washington, DC.
1902:Birthdate of Iris Margaret Origo, an Anglo-Irish writer who helped to save Jewish children through the kindertransport including the painter Frank Helmut Auerbach.
1907(5th of Elul, 5667): Seventy-six year old violinist and composer Joseph Joachim passed away.
1911: B’Nai Brith contributes $3,382 to Jews who have suffered during the fires that raged through Constantinople.
1911: The 10thZionist Congress elects Professor Otto Warburg, Dr. Hantke, Dr. Shmaryahu Levin, Hahum Sokolow and Victor Jacobsohn as successors to David Wolffsohn
1914: The Panama Canal opened to traffic. The territory that made up the nation of Panama had been amputated from Columbia in a revolution supported, if not created, by the United States so that a canal could be built. Panama has a very old Jewish community. When the Canal opened there were about six hundred Jews, mostly Sephardic, living in Panama. Panama is the only country, with the exception of Israel, to have elected two Jews as President.
1915(5th of Elul, 5675): Albert Bettelhein, journalist and author, convicted by a Georgia jury of murder, was lynched by an anti-Semitic mob.
1915: Robert Moses married “Mary Louise Sims, of Dodgeville, Wisconsin, the granddaughter of the Reverend George Sims, a Methodist circuit rider.
1917: The New York Times reports that Samuel Gompers is “denounced at a workingmen’s council.”
1918: Birthdate of Sanford Daniel Garelik, the first Jewish chief inspector of the New York Police Department. Garelik graduated from the Police Academy in 1940 along with Gertrude Schimmel who became the first female and the first Jewish female deputy chief of police.
1919: Birthdate of Stanley Frazen, “a longtime film and television editor who was a member of the Army Air Forces' First Motion Picture Unit during World War II.”
1921: Birthdate of August Marian Kowalczyk, the Polish actor and director who “was the last survivor of a breakout from Auschwitz on June 10, 1942.”
1922: Birthdate of sculptor and printmaker Leonard Baskin.
1924: In Brooklyn, Dr Henry and Celia Kresky gave birth to Edward Mordecai Kresky “an investment banker who was an architect of the debit refinancing plan that saved New York City from bankruptcy in the 1970’s” (As reported by Paul Vitello.
1925: Charlie Chaplin in "The Gold Rush" opens with a gala performance at midnight .
1926: The Chevra Kadisha, at its last meeting here, decided to contribute a sum of 5,000 pesos to the Palestine campaign. At the same time, it decided to contribute a sum of 500 pesos to the Jewish Colonization work in Russia. (As reported by JTA)
1928: In Rochester, NY Abraham and Hannah Glazer gave birth to their fifth child Malcolm Irving Glazer the CEO of First Allied Corporation who owned two football teams – Manchester United (soccer) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (NFL)
1929(9th of Av, 5689): Tish'a B'Av
1929:Several hundred members of Joseph Klausner's Committee for the Western Wall, among them members of Vladimir Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionism movement Betar youth organisation, under the leadership of Jeremiah Halpern, assembled at the Western Wall. They raised the Jewish national flag and sang the Hatikvah. The authorities had been notified of the march in advance and provided a heavy police escort in a bid to prevent any incidents.
1933: In Prague, the Conference of the Women's International Zionist Organization (Wizo), attended by 103 delegates from 19 countries, came to a close after hearing that its membership is now 50,000; adopts budget of £47,000, and approves resolutions encouraging immigration into Palestine of German-Jewish youth, especially those of the middle classes, urging more certificates for girl immigrants, and equal rights for women.
1933: In New York City Romanian born Adele (née Israel), and Hungarian-born baker, Samuel Milgram gave birth to social psychologist Stanley Milgram.
1933: In Bucharest.—M. Pandrei, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Education, in an interview with the press, denies that the Government intends to establish a “numerus clauses” in the universities of Romania, and announces that owing to a lack of laboratory facilities, a general limitation of students is contemplated.
1934: Premiere of “Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back,” a comedic murder mystery with a script co-authored by Henry Lehman and music by Alfred Newman.
1935: Humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post were killed when their airplane crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska. Rogers was one of the most popular celebrities of his time. His radio shows, movies and columns were devoured by millions of Americans. This son of the American Plains got his first big break when Flo Ziegfield featured him in the famous Zigfield Follies. According to legend, he took away Will’s horse, left him with a rope and the wit that became his trademarks.
1937: Sha’ar HaNeveg (which was renamed Kfar Szold) a new agricultural village east of Gedera was established. It was the 17th village to be settled in 1937. Kfar Szold was only two hundred yards from the Syrian border. In January, 1948, even before the state of Israel had been created, the Syrian army attacked the settlement in a determined effort to destroy it and kill the inhabitants. Nine hundred Syrian soldiers attacked a settlement manned by fewer than hundred defenders. After a spirited defense, the British army, for once, intervened on behalf of the Jews and the Syrians withdrew.
1937: Lord Melchett, Prof. L. Namier, H. Sacher, M. Ussishkin, Dr. S. Wise, Berl Katznelson, Dov Hos, Rabbi Berlin, Dr. Glickson, and Franz Bernstein joined the Advisory Commission, formed to assist the new Zionist Executive to negotiate the country’s partition under the Royal (Peel) Commission¹s scheme.
1937(8th of Elul, 5697):Solomon Wander, one of the first Jewish immigrants to form the Jewish community in Albany. New York passed away at the age of 71.
1937: The New York Times describes the growing tension in Palestine on the streets of Jerusalem and Haifa and the British response which includes the recommendation by a Royal Commission for "a surgical operation" on Palestine which will result in the creation of a Jewish State, an Arab State and a new British mandate over Jerusalem with a corridor to the sea.
1938: Birthdate of Lewis E. “Lew” Lehrman the founder of Rite Aid Drugstore and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History who ran for Governor of New York in 1982 on the Republican ticket.
1938: In San Francisco, CA, Anne A. and Irving G. Breyer gave birth to Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
1938: As Arab violence spirals to new levels of intensity, “six Jews were killed and two, both women, were seriously injured near Haifa this afternoon when a bus going to Mount Carmel was ambushed by Arabs while passing through a forest. It is believed several of those killed were Jewish special policemen.” A bomb was detonated on the road running between Herzliah and Raananh wounding some of the 25 workers in a truck bound for a local orange grove. Several other acts of violence and sabotage took place including a bomb-throwing episode on the streets of Tel Aviv.
1938: Paul Ferdinand Strassmann, the Jewish born German gynecologist who became a Protestant, passed away.
1939: The MGM musical ''The Wizard of Oz'' premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. This is another example of Jews creating an icon of American popular culture.
1939(30th of Av, 5699): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1941: Heinrich Lohse, Reich commissioner for Eastern Territories of the Ostland (Eastern Europe) region, decrees that Jews must wear two yellow badges, one on the chest and one on the back; that Jews cannot own automobiles or radios; and that their presence in public places will be severely proscribed.
1941 A Jewish ghetto is established at Riga, Latvia.
1941: Last of the remaining 25,000 Jews in Kovno were removed to Viampole. Each is allotted three square feet of living space.
1941: Six hundred Jews are taken from Stawiski and shot in nearby woods.
1941: A massacre begins at Rokiskis that leaves 3,200 men, women and children, shot by the next evening.
1942: The Germans open Jawiszowice, a slave-labor camp located near Auschwitz.
1942: One thousand Belgian Jews, including 172 children, are deported to their deaths in the East.
1943: Nearly 1000 French Jews of Polish birth are deported to a slave-labor camp on Alderney, one of the British Channel Islands seized in 1940 by Germany, and are put to work building fortifications. Hundreds of the Jews die due to ill treatment and exhaustion
1944: “Operation Dragoon,” the Allied invasion of southern France in which former B-17 pilot Bruce Sundlin served as a bombardment spotter for the OSS, began today.
1944: “Children standing behind the ghetto fence in Lodz, Poland.”
1945: V.J. Day – Victory over Japan Day is proclaimed by the Allies after having received official word of that the Japanese had indeed surrendered.
1947: With the end of the British rule of the Indian subcontinent, two new nations declared the independence. One was Islamic Pakistan; the other was India which while heavily Hindu retained a large Islamic population. India’s relations with Israel have been a mixed bag. In the early days, under Nehru, the Indian government was anti-Israel, taking the lead, for example in denying it admittance to the Bandung Conference. In more recent times, relations between the two states and their citizens have improved.
1947: Following today’s division of the Indian sub-continent into two states, Indian airlines responded to the Prime Minister Nehru’s request that they fly Hindus living in Pakistan to India. Among those participating was Abie Nathan who was a co-pilot for one of the Indian airlines.
1948(10th of Av, 5708): Tish’a B’Av observed since the 9th of Av fell on Shabbat
1948(10th of Av, 5708): As Israel fights for her independence Tish'a B'Av is observed today because the 9th of Av fell on Shabbat.
1948: In Iraq, a leading Jewish businessman, Shafiq Adas was hanged on trumped up charges of treason. His body was mutilated by a crowd of on-lookers.
1948: American Michael “Mike” Flint joined Israel’s squadron 101.
1948: Two Israeli and two Arab soldiers were killed during a second unsuccessful Arab attack on the Mandelbaum House a key defensive point in Jerusalem.
1949(20th of Av, 5709):Fanny Binswanger Hoffman passed away. (As reported bySelma Weintraub, a past national president of the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism)
1950: In Indianapolis, Indiana, Anne and Wolf Rosenblum gave birth to Gail Sue Rosenblum who gained fame as Gaylen Ross “American actress, writer, producer and director” who produced the awarded “Killing Kasztner”
(For more see Gaylen Ross’s award winning documentary “Killing Kasztner: The Jew Who Dealt With Nazis” http://www.killingkasztner.com/
1951:Prime Minister David Ben Gurion's plan to take control of the Zionist movement outside of Israel from political parties and transfer it to non-partisan regional organizations was attacked here today by delegates to the twenty-third World Zionist Congress.
1951(13th of Av, 5711): Pianist and composer Artur Schnabel passed away.
1951: The last inmates of Bergen-Belsen left the camp on their way to the United States. Bergen- Belsen was originally set up in 1943. Many of its inmates were Jewish prisoners who had dual citizenship with Latin American countries or entry permits to Palestine. A few hundred were used by the Germans for prisoner exchanges. Though not a death camp per se, over 51,000 people died there including Anne Frank.
1959(11thof Av, 5719): Shabbat Nachamu
1959: As the Los Angeles Dodgers made a surprising run for the National League pennant ‘Larry Sherry walloped three hits, including his first home run, and pitched eight and two-thirds innings of scoreless relief ball today in leading the second place Los Angeles Dodgers to a 4-3 decision over the Cardinals.”
1961: Elections were held today for the fifth Knesset Ben-Gurion’s Mapai came in first with 34.7% of the vote which earned 42 seats. Herut, led by Menachem Begin and Liberal led by Peretz Bernstein tied for second with each getting a little more than 13% of the vote which translated into 17 seats for each party.
1968: Birthdate of actress Debra Messing who plays Grace on the television show Will and Grace.
1969(1stof Elul, 5729): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1969: The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, which became the iconoclastic hippie happening simply known as Woodstock, began today in Bethel, NY, at the farm of Jewish dairyman Max B. Yagur.
1971: A new paperback version of Tillie Olsen's classic short story collection Tell Me a Riddle was issued
1973: Black September, the Palestinian terror group, kills 3 and wounds 55 in Athens
1977: The Arabs in the administered territories and neighboring countries continued to dismiss the Israeli government’s decision to equalize the standard services on the West Bank and in Gaza as one more step toward annexation. Israeli opposition, the Alignment and the Democratic Movement for a Change, dismissed the plan, claiming that Israel could not afford to give residents of the administered territories services equal to those enjoyed by Israelis. The new prime minister, Menachem Begin called upon the Labor Opposition to support his government if and when Israel would be pressed to accept the PLO as a negotiating peace-talks partner.
1980: “The Girl in the Book” by Primo Levi was published for the first time in La Stampa.
1983(6th of Elul, 5743): Eighty-eight year old Benjamin V. Cohen a member of FDR’s “Brain Trust” who stayed on to work with Harry S. Truman passed away. (As reported by Marjorie Hunter)
1984: A car bomb was discovered on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem and defused about 10 minutes before it was to have exploded. In the car were about 12 kilograms of explosives and another three kilograms of iron nails.
1992: Giorgio Perlasca, an Italian businessman who saved more than 3,000 Jews from deportation to Nazi concentration camps in World War II, passed away today at his home in Padua, Italy. He was 82 years old. Mr. Perlasca died of a heart attack, The Associated Press reported. Trapped in Budapest late in the war by the fall of the fascist Italian Government, Mr. Perlasca, a livestock trader, joined in a plan conceived by international relief workers and diplomats from neutral countries to save as many Jews as possible from the Nazis. When the Spanish diplomatic representative fled Budapest in November 1944, Mr. Perlasca, who had been a volunteer in Franco's army in the Spanish Civil War, persuaded Hungary to accept him as the Spanish representative, and in two months he issued travel documents to thousands of Jews to save them from deportation. In 1987 Mr. Perlasca, whose achievements had gone largely unnoticed, was made an honorary citizen of Israel and was honored by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum there. In 1990 he received the Medal of Remembrance of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. A tall, quiet man, Mr. Perlasca told The Jerusalem Post in 1987 that he had been motivated by neither religion nor politics. "I couldn't ignore it," he said. "I did what I had to do. I was lucky. I had friends among the Jews who were being killed by the Nazis. That gave me courage."
1993: TraveldoctorOnline commemorated “the 55th anniversary of the death of the Berlin gynecologist Prof. Paul Ferdinand Strassmann. In the first half of the 20th century, Strassmann was one of the leading specialists of plastic surgery of the female genital tract. Famous gynecologists and surgeons, e.g. the Mayo brothers, visited the Strassmann clinic in the Schumannstrasse with the aim of learn new surgical techniques. The present paper aims to outline particularly the life of Paul F. Strassmann but also his importance in the creation of modern gynecological surgery.”
1996(30th of Av, 5756): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1998: The curtain came down tonight on a three month revival of Neil Simon’s “Sweet Charity” at London’s Victoria Palace Theatre.
1999: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Edward Albee: A Singular Journey: A Biographyby Mel Gussow and Inside Picture Booksby Ellen Handler Spitz.
2002(7th of Elul, 5762): Haim Yosef Zadok a native of Galicia who made Aliyah in 1935 and served as Jurist and political leader, passed away.
2003: “In Doctor Writes ‘Epic Saga’ of Jews in Medicine,” Max Gross reviewed Jews and Medicine: An Epic Saga by Frank Heynick
2004: The Sunday New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish authors including Dark Voyage by Alan Furst andThe Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination With Statistics by Alan Schwarz
2004: In “Past, Prologue and Paris” published today Alice Steinbach visits the world of the Camondo family and reminds us tenuous the fate of even the most powerful Jews can be.
2005: Deadline for Israeli citizens living in Gaza to accept government compensation packages as part of the voluntary evacuation plan.
2005: Haaretz reported that the Israeli Defense Forces unit that is responsible for finding the remains of missing soldiers discovered the burial site of eight soldiers who died during the War of Independence. The missing eight died in fighting on May 13, 19 48
2006:The Sony BMG Masterworks label released Jay "Bluejay" Greenberg’s first CD. It includes his Symphony no. 5
2006(21st of Av, 5766): Myriam Fefer, a Jewish businesswoman, was brutally murdered in her home in Lima Peru.
2007(1st of Elul, 5767): Rosh Chodesh Elul.
2007:Yad Vashem posthumously honored a Romanian reserve officer who blocked the deportation of Romanian Jews to Nazi death camps during World War II. Theodor Criveanu joined the Righteous Among the Nations group of non-Jews who rescued Jews from the Nazis. His son, Willie Criveanu, accepted the award on his behalf. Yad Vashem said it could not estimate how many Jews he saved. Criveanu married the daughter of one of the Jews he saved. He died in Romania in 1988.
2008: At the Israel Museum an exhibition entitled “Swords into Plowshares: The Isaiah Scroll and Its Message of Peace” comes to an end. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel, the Israel Museum presents the longest, best preserved, and most complete Dead Sea Scroll document ever found, in a special installation in the Shrine of the Book. Never before shown in an extended public display, this 2.60 meter-long section of the Isaiah Scroll comprises the first twenty-eight chapters of the Book of Isaiah, including Isaiah’s celebrated message of peace: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares…" (Is. 2:4). In order to illustrate this important message, iron tools from the days of the prophet Isaiah (8th century BCE) will be displayed alongside the Scroll. A Hellenistic seal depicting a dove carrying an olive branch, newly excavated and never before displayed will also be on view. The exhibition is curated by Adolfo Roitman, Head of the Shrine of the Book and Curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Michal Dayagi-Mendels, Chief Curator of Archaeology. An international conference on Dead Sea Scrolls research will be held July 6-8, 2008 , and is scheduled to coincide with the exhibition.
2008:Bais Chana Jewish Women's Weekend Retreat opens in St. Paul, Minnesota
2008:A Kassam rocket was launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip in the afternoon. The rocket hit an open field in the western Negev. No casualties or damage were reported.
2008:In a letter published today in Corriere della Sera, former Italian President Francesco Cossiga described a "secret 'non-belligerence pact' between the Italian state and Palestinian resistance organizations, including terrorist groups" such as the PFLP. The deal, he said, had been devised by Prime Minister Aldo Moro, who in 1978 was kidnapped and assassinated by the Italian terror group the Red Brigades. The former president says his country had allowed Palestinian terror groups to roam free in exchange for not attacking Italian targets. Francesco Cossiga's admission confirmed claims of such a deal revealed last week in an interview in the Corriere della Sera newspaper with Bassam Abu Sharif, the former chief of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Nonetheless, there were several major Palestinian terror attacks on Italian targets in the 1970s and 1980s. They included attacks on Rome's airport and main synagogue, and the hijacking of the cruise ship the Achille Lauro cruise ship. Last month, Cossiga accused the PFLP of being behind a terrorist attack at the Bologna train station in 1980 that killed 85 people. That attack has long been ascribed to Italian neo-fascist terrorists, and two leaders of a neo-fascist extremist group were given life sentences for their role in the attack.
2008: Jody Wagner announces her candidacy for Lt. Gov. on the Republican ticket in the state of Virginia.
2008(14th of Av, 5768): Ninety-one year record producer Jerry Wexler who coined the term “rhythm and blues” passed away today. (As reported by Patricia Sullivan)
2009: The 92nd Street Y sponsors Israeli Folk Dance: Summer Marathon 2009.
2009: In Jerusalem, Amit Erez hits the stage at Hama'abada, playing an acoustic show which blends folk and indie style music, influenced by musicians such as Nick Drake and Elliot Smith on the one hand, and Shalom Hanoch on the other. Erez performs songs from his new album, including "Last Night When I Tried to Sleep" and "I Felt the Ocean on my Fingertips."
2009: As part of the activities designed to welcome Rabbi Todd Thalblum and his family to Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah celebrates a special outdoor Havdalah service at Woodpecker Lodge.
2009: A revival “How Now Dow Jones” with a book by Max Shulman, music by Elmer Bernstein and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh opens at the New York International Fringe Festival.
2009:According to a report broadcast today on Voice of Israel government radio wealthy foreign Arabs have bought up hundreds of dunams of land in the Galilee, land, which was owned privately and which was zoned for agricultural use, was sold due to economic hardship. The buyers were wealthy citizens of Arab states in the Persian Gulf that do not have any diplomatic relations with the State of Israel. Groups of Galilee Jewish farmers who tried to organize a counter-offer failed to raise enough money to purchase the land from its owners.Israeli lands are being sold to the highest bidder.
2010: Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave his approval today for the purchase of the fifth-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) by the Israeli Air Force from the US.
2010: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Denial: A Memoir of Terror By Jessica Stern
2010: The Los Angeles Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldmanand Quantum: Eisenstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality by Manjit Kumar. [Editor’s note – The only person I know who is smart enough to understand this is Dr. Joe Rosen, so if you have questions write to him not to me.]
2011: The 31st International Conference on Jewish Genealogy (sponsored by the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington) and the Washingtoniana Division of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library are scheduled to offer a free talk on "What’s Your Story? An Introduction to Genealogy and Family History"
2011:Hutzot Hayotzer, the popular international arts and crafts fair that has become a Jerusalemite ritual, is scheduled to open today.
2011(15thof Av, 5771): Tu B’Av- Jewish Saidie Hawkins Day
2011:A marble statue of Hercules dating back to the second century C.E.has been found in an archeological dig in northern Israel, Israel's Antiquities Authority announced today. The statue, approximately a meter and half tall, was probably part of the decoration of a bathhouse pool. The statue depicts Hercules leaning on a club, with the skin of the Nemean lion hanging from it. Hercules killed the monstrous lion as the first of the twelve "Labors of Hercules." Archeologist Walid Atrash of the Israel Antiquities Authority said the statue is a rare and high-quality discovery. Hercules, son of the god Zeus (Jupiter in Roman mythology) and the mortal Alcmnene, was considered in the Greek and Roman civilizations as a symbol of power, bravery and superhuman strength. The excavation took place at Horvat Tarbenet in the Jezreel Valley, which was a Jewish settlement in the third century C.E.
2011:The Israel Medical Association said in a discussion at the High Court today that it would be willing to hold mediated talks on points of contention with the Ministry of Finance, so long as certain conditions are upheld.
2011: A column entitled “No Loss For Words” published in today’s Sports Illustrated provides a portrait of Marv Levy, the coach who took the Bills to four Super Bowl, and a review of his soon to be published first novel, Between the Lines.
2011: The documentary “Gloria: In Her Own Words” about the life and times of Gloria Steinem premiered on HBO. (As reported by Jewish Women’s Archives)
2012: The brit of “Baby Boy Sann” the son of Debbie and Ron Sann is scheduled to take place at Adas Israel in Washington, DC
2012: In Boston, MA, Congregation Beth Elohim is scheduled to sponsor an evening of “Jewish Meditation.
2012: Cantor Regina Heit is scheduled to lead the Learn and Lunch at Temple Emanuel in Denver, CO.
2012: Members of Israel’s national soccer team apologized today for laughing during a lecture the day before on the murder of Hungarian Jewry by the Nazis. Some players tittered during a talk in Budapest, one day before the team’s friendly match against Hungary, the Sport Channel reported today
2012:Egg, milk and chicken prices are expected to rise by up to 17 percent by the end of this year, the Agriculture Ministry forecast today. A study conducted by the ministry’s Research, Economy and Strategy Division said the price increases can be attributed mainly to the prolonged drought in the US, which has triggered a rise in the cost of agricultural commodities.
2012(27thof Av, 5772): Sixty-eight year old “David M. Lederman, who led the team of scientists that developed the first fully implantable artificial heart — which, although it had limited success, prompted further advances in the treatment of late-stage heart disease” passed away today (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
2013: Israeli jazz guitarist Assaf Kehati and his trio are scheduled to perform at the Bar Next Door in New York City.
2013: Oakland A’s first baseman Nate Freiman had four hits today including a homer and a double.
2013: “Soul Doctor,” a musical based on the life of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach opened tonight at the Circle in the Square in New York City.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/theater/reviews/soul-doctor-a-musical-about-rabbi-shlomo-carlebach.html?hpw&_r=1&pagewanted=print&
2013: “An archeological team headed by Dr. Alexander Fantalkin of Tel Aviv university has announced the discovery of one of the largest construction projects in the entire Mediterranean basin: a system of fortifications from the 8th century BCE, as well as coins, weights and parts of buildings from the Hellenistic period, have all been found in the archeological dig Tel Ashdod Yam – where the harbor of the philistine city of Ashdod used to be. The site is about 3 miles south of today’s thriving Israeli city of Ashdod.’ (As reported by Yori Yanover)
2013:Documents linked to Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist known for his efforts to save Jews from World War Two concentration camps, were sold at auction for more than $122,000, a New Hampshire auction house said today.
2013:Hebrew University is ranked first in Israel and 59th globally, according to the 2013 Academic Ranking of World Universities released today. (As reported by Lahav Harkov)
2014: Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington’s deadline for raising funds to save the original portions of the synagogue mural on 415 M Street, NW in Washington, D.C.