OCTOBER 13
54: Roman Emperor Claudius passed away.
For Jews, Claudius has to rate as one of the best of the Roman rulers.
Among other things, he took the side of the Jews when they were attacked in
Alexandria; he maintained a genuine friendship with Agrippa and allowed the
Jews to elect their own high Priest while refraining from tampering with the
Temple treasury.
54: Nero ascends to the Roman throne. Nero would appoint four
increasingly incompetent and venal governors whose misrule would play a key
role in the outbreak of the Great Revolt.
When the Jews did rebel, Nero appointed Vespasian to put down the
revolt.
1307: In France, Phillip IV ordered the arrest of hundreds of Knights
Templar on charges of heresy. What
Phillip was really after was control of the wealth of the Templars. A year earlier, he had expelled the Jews from
France after stripping them of their wealth.
Philip’s behavior is just one more example of greed hiding behind a
façade of religious belief.
1397:Richard Whittington was
elected Lord Mayor of London. Whittington was one of those who defied the ban
on Jews living in England when it suited his purposes. He brought a physician
named Samson de Mirabeau into the realm for care for his wife in 1409. Whittington was in good company when it came
to ignoring the ban since King Henry IV brought Elias Ben Sabbetai from Bologna
to serve as his physician in 1410.
1399: Coronation of King Henry IV of England who in December of 1410,
issued a safe conduct for Elias Sabot, a much praised Jewish doctor”
who”arrived with a retinue of servants and was granted royal protection for two
years” which would seem to indicate that protecting the health of the monarch
trumped the century old ban on Jews living in England
1483: Isaac Ben Judah Abravanel (also spelled Abarbanel) started his
exegesis on the Bible. Born in Portugal 1437, Abravanel was one of the most
colorful and interesting characters of the final decades of during which Jews
lived in Spain and Portugal. He was part of a distinguished family and he was
well educated in Jewish and secular studies.
Abravanel was a financier, tax collector and advisor to the King Alfonso
of Portugal. When Alfonso died, Abravanel
had falling out with his successor. It
was at this time that Abravanel decided to give up his political duties and
devote himself to writing commentaries.
For reasons that are too complex for this brief entry, Abravanel was
forced to flee to Spain where he returned to his tax collecting duties. He left Spain in 1492 and ended up in Naples
where he ended up as financier and tax collector again. He passed away in 1503 leaving behind a body
of commentaries on the Torah and the Prophets. According to some authorities,
his work is solid, but not original. He
is, however seen as being the last in a long line of Jewish commentators and
philosophers who were part of the Sephardic culture that flourished from the 8th
to the 15th centuries.
1513:
Today, German born Catholic scholar Johann Reuchlin “begged” “Bonet de Lattes,
a Jewish physician and astrologer…known chiefly as the inventor an astronomical
ring-dial” and the father of two sons – Joseph and Immanuel -- “to use his influence in order that the
examination of the Augenspiegel
should not be given into the hands of a commission made up of strangers…”
1534:
Papacy of Paul III began. In response to the threat of the Protestant
Reformation, Paul “established a system of tribunals, administered by the
Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition’, and staffed by
cardinals and other Church officials. This system would later become known as
the Roman Inquisition.” Unfortunately
for the Jews, this iteration of the Inquisition also dealt with the “crimes”
relating to Judaism including the attempts by Jews who had been forced to
convert to return to the faith of their ancestors.
1605: Eighty-six-year-old
French Protestant theologian Theodore Beza, the successor to John Calvin at
Geneva and like Luther was a believer “that Christian churches were largely
responsible for the current unbelief among the Jews and “that there would a
large-scale conversion of the Jews” while still acknowledging “the Justice of
divine anger the Jewish people” passed away today.
1639(Tishrei,
5400): Simcha Heller Kahana, the son of Yaakov Yosef Heller Kahana and Raizel
Segal Kahana passed away today.
1654: (2nd of Heshvan 5415): On this date Isaac Rodriguez Cunha, a
citizen of Curacao, writes a letter which is addressed “to the illustrious
Gentlemen, the Mahamad of the Holy Congregation Mikvah Israel, Curacao.” This
is one of the first written pieces of evidence used in fixing the dates for the
founding of the Jewish community and the synagogue in Curacao. Mahamad is a
term used for the “board of directors of a Spanish-Portuguese Congregation
1660:
Hugh Peter the Puritan preacher who had renounced his belief that Jews should
be readmitted to England while attending the Whitehall Conference of 1655 was
executed today for his role in the be-heading of King Charles I
1676:
“Compositor, Josel (Joseph) Witzenhausen” was warned “not to compete with ‘the alderman Wilhelm Blau and the jurist Laurens Ball, the
Christian partners of Uri Phoebus when it came to printing “a Judaeo-German
Bible” in the Netherlands.
1722(13th of Cheshvan, 5483): Abraham Burgos, a
former resident of Barbados who was reported to have been one of the earliest
settlers of Rhode Island passed away today in New York.
1753(15th
of Tishrei, 5514): Sukkoth and Shabbat.
1753: In
Philadelphia, Mathias and Tabitha Bush gave birth to Solomon Bush who will rise
to the rank of Lt. Colonel during the American Revolution.
1755: In Arnhem,
a resolution was adopted that assigned the Jews “a lot of forty feet by one
hundred” which was to be fenced in by them” to be use used as a cemetery.
1757: In
Georgetown, SC, Dinah Comgile and Moses Cohen gave birth to Solomon Cohen, the
seventh of their eleven children who was the husband of Ella Moses Hart and the
postmaster and tax collector in Georgetown.
1759(22nd
of Tishrei, 5520): Shemini Atzeret
1770(24th
of Tishrei, 5531) Parashat Bershit; the cycle begins again as founding father
Benjamin Franklin receives a letter from Philadelphian Ebenezer Kinnersley on a
variety of subjects including the electrical conductivity of charcoal.
1773: It
was reported today that “a gentleman” who has “returned from the interior parts
of North America, beyond the Ohio,” claims to have discovered “a nation of
Jews” living among the Indians, “who call themselves Naphthali.” (Naphtali was
the second son born to Jacob the concubine Bilhah)
1775(19th of
Tishrei, 5536): Fifth Day of Sukkot
1775: The Continental
Congress creates the United States Navy. Some of the famous Jews to serve in
the U.S. Navy include Commodore Uriah P. Levy who played a key role in ending
flogging as a punishment for seamen; Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of the
Nuclear Navy; Admiral Jeremy Michael Boorda, Chief of Naval Operations.
1776(30th
of Tishrei, 5537): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1778(22nd
of Tishrei, 5539): Shemini Atzert
1780(14th
of Tishrei, 5541): Erev Sukkoth observed as the “Great Hurricane” made its way
through the Carribean.
1783(17th
of Tishrei, 5544): Third Day of Sukkoth
1788: In
Kremenetz, Judah Levin, a grandson of Jekuthiel Solomon and his wife gave birth
to Isaac Baer Levinsohn a leader of the Haskalah movement
1789(23rd
of Tishrei, 5550): Simchat Torah
1791 :(
15th of Tishrei, 5552): Sukkoth
1795(30th
of Tishrei, 5556): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1795(30th
of Tishrei, 5556): In Savannah, GA, Jacob de Lyon, the six-month-old son of
Abraham de Lyo passed away today in Savannah, GA.
1796:
Censorship of Jewish books in Russia became official policy.
1797(23rd
of Tishrei, 5558): Simchat Torah
1798:
Birthdate of Nikolsburg, Moravia native Solomon Quetsch, the rabbi who trained
under Mordecai Benet and served at Piesling, Lepnik and Nikolsburg.
1801:
Birthdate of Emil Roediger the German orientalist and Hebrew linguist who
edited books on Hebrew grammar.
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Roediger%2C%20Emil%2C%201801-1874
1802(17th
of Tishrei, 5563): Third Day of Sukkot
1805(20th
of Tishrei, 5566): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
1805: Today
John Charles Lucena and Mary Anne Lancaster whom he had married at Hampstead in
1791 gave birth to daughter today.
1808(22nd
of Tishrei, 5569): Shmini Atzeret observed for the last time during the
presidency of Thomas Jefferson.
1810(15th
of Tishrei, 5571): Sukkot
1813(19th
of Tishrei, 5574): Fifth Day of Sukkot
1815: Eliza
and Lewis Solomon, the parents of Henry, Louis and Esther Solomon, were married
today at the New Synagogue.
1816(21st
of Tishrei, 5577): Hoshana Raba
1816: In
New York, Michael and Elizabeth Daly gave birth to Judge Charles Patrick Daly
author of The Settlement of the Jews in North America.
http://www.amazon.com/The-settlement-Jews-North-America/dp/B00085JW9M#reader_B00085JW9M
1818: In
London, Samson Beck and his wife gave birth to Philip Beck.
1818:
Birthdate for Regina Kohen, the wife of Angelo Vivante, both of whom were
buried in Trieste Jewish Cemetery.
1820:
Birthdate of Sir John William Dawson the Canadian geologist who “traveled
extensively in Egypt and Syria” and whose works included “Archaia” Studies on
the Cosmogony and Natural History of the Hebrew Scriptures.
1821:
Birthdate of Rudolf Virchow, the German biologist and anthropologist whose
family may have at one time been Jewish and who studied the biological
characteristics of thousands of Jewish schoolchildren as part of his attempt to
“provide a rational for the sense of Jewish acculturation” even though “he
still assumed that Jews were a separate and distinct racial category.”
1823:
Francis Ephriam Cohen who would change his name to Francis Palgrave married
Elizabeth Turner following his conversion to Anglican Christianity, a move that
no doubt advanced his career as an historian and archivist.
1824(21st
of Tishrei, 5585): Hoshana Raba observed for the last time during the
Presidency of James Monroe.
1827(22nd
of Tishrei, 5588): Shmini Atzeret
1829(16th
of Tishrei, 5590): Second Day of Sukkoth.
1830: Thirty-two-year-old
Baltimore born son of Reuben Etting who
settled in Philadelphia married Harriet Marx today.
1834(10th
of Tishrei, 5595): Yom Kippur
1835: In
London, Maurice Solomon, the son of Moshe Eliezer Lieberman Solomon and Betsy
(Elizabeth) Solomon and his wife Louisa Solomon gave birth to Samuel Solomon,
the husband of Emma Maurice and the
1837(14th
of Tishrei, 5598): Erev Sukkoth
1839:
Isaias and Elisabeth Popper gave birth to their first child Simon Popper
1843: B'nai Brith
was founded under the leadership of Henry Jones at Sinsheimer's cafe on Essex Street in New York. Its original mission was the
maintenance of orphanages and homes for the elderly and widows. It extended its
work to many spheres of American Jewish life, including combating
anti-Semitism. (A.D.L.) and working with students on campus (Hillel).
1844: An
election was scheduled to be held today to choose the Orthodox Chief Rabbi of
the British Empire. The election was won
by Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler who held the position from 1845 until his death in
1890.
1845: In
Richmond, VA, Larkin White Glazebrook and America Henley Bullington gave birth
to VMI graduate and Episcopal Bishop Otis Allan Glazebrook who served as
American Counsel in Jerusalem during WW I where distributed relief funds to the
Jews of Palestine for three years which earned him a ceremonial dinner of
thanks organized by Henry Morgenthau, Felix Warburg, Jacob Schiff and Felix
Elkus who “presented him with a sliver tea service as a symoble of the
affection and esteem of the Jewish People of the United States.”
1846(23rd
of Tishrei, 5607): Simchat Torah
1846:
Birthdate of Hebrew poet and Yiddish author Isaac Rabinowitz the native of
Kovno many of whose works can be found in Zemirot Yisrael and who passed away
in the New York City where he went to join his children.
1847(3rd
of Cheshvan, 5608):Rabbi Jizchok Arye, (Isaac Loew Matthes Wormser) also
called the Wonder Rabbi Michel city and Baal Shem of Michel City passed away
today.
1848: In
Fort Wayne, IN, Frederic Nirdlinger and Hannah Meyerson who were of “German
Jewish origin” gave birth to American theatre own and member of the Theatrical
Syndicate Samuel Frederick Nirdlinger who gained fame as theatre own and
co-founder of the Theatrical Syndicate had almost total control over theatrical
bookings while raising two children – Carrie and Fred – with his wife Sallie
Straus.
1851: Three
days after he had passed away, 61-year-old Solomon Lucas, a native of Kent and
the husband of Elizabeth Lucas was buried today at the “Chatham Jewish
Cemetery.”
1853:
“Hebrew Ceremonial” published today reported that the Jews were absent from
their businesses on New York City’s Chatham Street yesterday because they were
observing the “Day of Atonement, which the Hebrew still duly celebrates though
three thousand years have elapsed Moses delivered his Levitical command”
concerning this Fast Day. It is the
“same statute” the Jews have observed “by the rivers of Poland, in the streets
of York, in the valleys of the Aragon” or now “by the banks of the Hudson”
river.
1854(21st
of Tishrei, 5615): Hoshana Raba
1855: In
New York, Newport R.I. native Benjamin Hayman Seixas and Zipporah Peixotto gave
birth to Jessica Davis Seixas, the wife of Israel Oberndorfer whom she married
in 1890.
1856: Rabbi
Uria Feibelman and Maie Klaus Feibelman a birth to Mobile, AL resident Joseph
Feibelman, the husband of Saah Feibelman whom he married in 1884.
1856:
Isabella Siexas, the New York born daughter of Dr. Daniel Moses Levy Maduro
Peixotto and Rachel Lopes Mendes Peixotto, and her husband Benjamin Hayman
Seixas gave birth to Jessica Davis Oberndorfer, the wife of Israel Oberndorfer,
the business partner of Joshua G. Falk.
1858:
Birthdate of Pauline Ehrlich, the second wife of Biblical commentator and
scholar Arnold Ehrlich whose daughter Olga was born in 1881.
1859(15th
of Tishrei, 5620): First Day of Sukkoth
1862: In
Manchester, Rabbi Gustav Gottheil and his wife Rosalie Wollman gave birth to RabbiRichard James Horatio Gottheil, the husband of Emma R. Leon
and professor of Semitic Languages at Columbia whose many activities included
serving as a delegate to the Zionist Congress at Basel, serving as editor of
the Jewish Encyclopedia starting in 1901 and being a founder and president of
the Jewish Religious Schol Union in New York
http://jewishmag.com/118mag/richard_gottheil/richard_gottheil.htm
1863:
Birthdate of Hardinsburg, KY, native Silas Ichenhausen who settled in
Evansville, IN where he was a merchant and a member of the Planning Commission.
1864: Henry
Berg who had begun his service with Company G of the 108th Regiment
in 1862 was wounded at Richmond as the Union Army besieged the Confederates.
1864: In
Keokuk, Iowa, “Mr. Falk handed in his resignation as schochet for the
congregation” and he was replaced by “Mr. Berman” after he sharpened his ritual
knife to remove “all of the rough edges making it sharp and smooth”
1865(23rd
of Tishrei, 5626): Simchat Torah
1866(4th
of Cheshvan, 5627): Parashat Noach read on the same day that Karl Marx wrote
Ludwig Kugelmann describing his desperate financial circumstances.
https://wikirouge.net/texts/en/Letter_to_Ludwig_Kugelmann,_October_13,_1866
1867: In
Syracuse, NY, David Stoltz and Regina Straus gave birth to Benjamin Stoltz the
graduate of Columbia University Law School and husband of Rose Landsberg who
was the director of the Hebrew Free Loan Association and a trustee of the
Jewish Orphan Asylum Association of Western New York.
1868: In
New York, Dora Levy and Isidore Phillips gave birth to Michael C. Phillips, the
husband of Sarah Newman Phillips whom he married in 1895.
1871(28th
of Tishrei, 5632): Fifty-eight-year-old Moses Millaud, French banker,
businessman and founder of Le Petit
Journal passed away today. He was a
supporter of Louis Napoleon (Emperor Napoleon) and was involved in some of the
more infamous financial scandals of his time.
1871: In
Vienna, Salomon Federn, “an important Viennese doctor who did pioneering work
in blood” and Ernestine Spitzer, a member of a prominent Jewish merchant family
gave birth to Paul Federn, he psychologist who was one of the early supporters
of Sigmund Freud.
https://www.histclo.com/bio/f/fe/bio-federnp.html
1873(22nd
of Tishrei, 5634): Shemini Atzeret
1873: In
Hamburg, German, Viktor Isaac Michael, the “Son of Isaac Joseph Michael and
Jette Michael and his wife Therese Michael gave birth to Hermine Molling, th
wife of Gustave Molling and “other of Therese Gottschalk (Godshaw); Käthe
Salomon; Alice Burlin and Dr. jur. Hans Victor Molling.”
1873:
Today, the Hebrew Society of St. Joseph, MO, sent five hundred dollars to aid
people in Memphis, TN caught in the grips of a Yellow Fever Epidemic.
1874: In
Riga, Liba and Faivish Grintuch gave birth to Ita Halsman, the wife of Max
Halsman and the mother of portrait photographer Philippe Halsman and Liouba
Golschmann.”
1875(14th
of Tishrei, 5636): Erev Sukkoth
1875: Two
days after he had passed away, 51-year-old Hyman Davis, the husband of Isabella
Davis, with whom he had eight children, was buried today at the “Balls Pond
Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1875(14th
of Tishrei, 5636): Sixty-four-year-old Judah Leib "Leopold" Löw, the
Hungarian Rabbi who incorporated elements of modernity in his Orthodox world
passed away Szeged where he had been leading the community since 1850 despite
many offers to lead large communities including Bucharest.
1875: It
was reported today that a survey expedition composed of English officers and
soldiers was attacked by marauders at their camp at Ain el Beida in Palestine.
The group was conducting a triangulation exercise in western Palestine,
specifically the Galilee and most important of all Safed “one of the ‘Holy
Cities’ of the Jews’…” According to the report, Lieutenant Kitchener was of the
English officers who was involved in this minor skirmish. [History would come
to know him as Lord Kitchener, who was involved in all of those 19th British
Imperial Campaigns from Egypt, to Sudan, to Khartoum to South Africa. He played
a critical role in Britain’s early war effort in WWI before being drowned while
on his way to Russia. But all of that
began here, in Palestine, when a 24-year-old lieutenant faced an armed enemy
for the first time.]
1876: In
New York, Clara Koffman and Joseph B. Bloomingdale gave birth to Rosalie
Stanton Bloomingdale.
1877: It
was reported today that New York State Supreme Court Judge Barrett has turned
down the application of Rabbi Ash of the Ludlow Street Synagogue to be given
the $200 that had belonged to the late Abraham Weisberg so that he could send
it to a rabbi the Polish village where the descendant’s children live. Under the law, Barrett said that a guardian
for the minor children would have to be appointed before he could take action.
(This is an example of the myriad conflicts that arose from the fact that fathers
and husbands came to the U.S. ahead of their families with the intent to bring
them to America once they had earned enough to pay for passage.)
1878(16th
of Tishrei, 5639): Second Day of Sukkot
1878(16th
of Tishrei, 5639): Twenty-three days before his 71st birthday
Seligman Baer Bamberger who was serving as the rabbi of Wurzburg passed away
today.
1878: “Lord
Beaconsfield’s Policy” published today, claimed that Great Britain has shifted
her foreign policy for the first time in over 135 years to one of annexation
and aggressive imperialism. This change
is the result of Beaconsfield’s ability to dissemble and confuse the English
people which is due, in part, to the fact that he is a Jew.
1880:
Birthdate of Sasha Cherny, the pen name of Russian poet and satirist Alexander
Mikhailovich Glikberg
1881:
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and friends decided to speak Hebrew exclusively, marking the
beginning of the revival of the language in modern times. Born Eliezer Perlman in Lithuania, Ben-
Yehuda is proof that one person can make a difference. As a youngster, a rabbi gave Ben-Yeuda a
Hebrew translation of Robinson Crusoe.
That experience convinced him that Hebrew should be a modern, spoken language
as well as a language of prayer. He
devoted the rest of his life to the idea of living in the land of Israel where
Hebrew would be the spoken language. He
arrived in Jaffa with his bride in 1881 and he became associate editor of a
Hebrew Language journal. His task of
creating a Modern Hebrew language was not an easy one. He was attacked both in print and physically
by those who thought he was desecrating the holy tongue. At the same time, he had to keep inventing
words since much had happened since Hebrew was last an active language. Life was a real challenge for his
children. It was difficult for them to
have playmates since they were the only people who spoke Hebrew. Ben-Yehuda did not give up his dream. He lived to see Hebrew become one of the
three official languages of Palestine under the Mandate after World War I. Such was his success that by the time he died
in 1922, a majority of the Jews in Palestine listed Hebrew as their native
tongue on the census forms.
1883:
Birthdate of Communist
party leader Max Bedacht who was raised as a Catholic and is sometimes
misidentified as being Jewish because when he was a member of the Central
Committee he was one of only two members the other eight being “foreign born
Jews”
1884: “Two
Love-Sick Ducks” published today described an altercation between a Jew and a
Gentile who were competing for the affections of Jewish widow living in St.
Mark’s Place. The two became so violent that they ended up in front of a Judge
who agreed to release them “with the hope that Providence will improve the
quality of your brains.
1884:
Funeral services were held today for Rabbi Adoph Huebsch at Ahavath Chesed in
New York City. The overflow crowd
included numerous Jewish leaders from across the United States the most
prominent of whom was Rabbi Wise of Cincinnati, the leader of the Reform
Movement in the United States. Rabbi Theodore Guenzberg, Huebsch’s assistant,
led the worship service. Temple
Emanu-El’s Rabbi Gottehiel delivered a sermon in German. Rabbi Jacob delivered the English language
sermon. Following the funeral services
the rabbi was interred in Linden Hill Cemetery on Long Island.
1885: In
Cedar Rapids, IA, Michael and Alta Hershfield gave birth to Chicago Fine Arts
academy trained cartoonist Harry Hershfield, the husband of Sara Jane Isell and
creator of “Abbie the Agent,” “Desperate Desmond,” Homeless Hector,” “Balky
Bob,” “Kabibble Kabaret” and “Theatrical Review” while working for the New York
Journal and King Features and who was a member of the Jewish Theatrical Guild
and B’nai B’rith and has been described as “the Jewish Will Rogers.
1885: The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia
Tech), home of the Yellow Jackets, is founded in Atlanta, Georgia. Today,
Tech’s undergraduate and graduate population of 19,000 includes approximately
600 Jewish students. There are several
Jewish organizations on campus including AEPi Fraternity, Hillel and Jackets
for Israel which co-sponsors the annual Israel-fest.
1888: In
“Kensington, London,” Clotilde and Herman Schiff gave birth to Mortimer Edward
Harold Schiff, graduate of Cambridge, “managing clerk with Stepheson, Harwood
and Co” who “joined the Inns of Court OTC in 1915” after which joined the
Suffolk Regiment where he rose to the rank of Captain before being killed on
the Western Front on September 25, 1917.
1888: At
the insistence of his future wife, Otto Pierre Siegelstein married Mary Bubis
at City Hall; a fact that he would later contest in his attempt to have the
marriage annulled.
1889(18th
of Tishrei, 5650): Fourth Day of Sukkoth
1891: As the famine in Russia worsens, it was reported that “the
destitute Jews who have expelled from Kiev, Moscow and Odessa are swelling the
ranks of the famished” populated primarily by Christian peasants.
1891: Three days after she had pass away, thirty year old Annie Gertrude
(nee Earle) Newmann, the husband Isaiah Alfred Newmann with whom she had two
children – “Percy and Winnie” – was buried today Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.
1891: Birthdate of Jennie Loitman Barron, judge,
lawyer, and suffragist. Born in Boston's West End, Barron attended Boston
University where she earned her BA, LL.B, and LL.M. degrees and was active in
Boston University's League for Equal Suffrage. Barron started her own law firm
after graduation and created a new firm with her husband Samuel Barron, Jr.
when they married four years later.Barron was elected president of the
Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers and campaigned for uniform marriage
and divorce laws, as well as for women's right to serve on juries. She also
worked to mobilize women to exercise their newly established right to vote.
Barron began her thirty-five year career as a judge in 1934 when she was
appointed by the governor as a special justice of the Western Norfolk District
Court. In 1937, she was named to be an associate of the Boston Municipal Court.
She left this position when she became an associate of the Massachusetts
Superior Court in 1957 -- the first woman to hold this position. Throughout her
career, Barron remained active in the Jewish community serving as the first
president of the Women's Auxiliary of Boston's Beth Israel Hospital, on the
first board of Brandeis University National Women's Committee, and as the first
president of the New England Women's Division of the American Jewish Congress.
Barron died in March 1969, one year after her husband's death. (As reported by
Jewish Women’s Archive)
1892(22nd
of Tishrei, 5653): Shemini Atzeret
1892: Isaac
Issacs, the deposed Secretary of the League of Republicans who is Jewish said
that the Jews would not accept an apology from Mr. Blake, the campaign manager
for Major Warner, the Republican candidate for governor of Missouri. “The only
thing that will conciliate the Jewish vote will be the removal of Mr. Blake.
1892: “A
Republican Insult To Jews” published today described the problems facing
William Warner, the Republican candidate for Governor of Missouri, following
the denouement of Isaac Isaacs, the Secretary of the League of Republican Clubs
and the “roasting” of the Jews by his
personal manager John T. Blake.
1893:
Edward Everett Hale delivered an address at the Lake Mohonk Conference of
Friends of the Indians in which “he spoke of the great success of Massachusetts
in assimilating the Hebrew immigrants by breaking up their clannishness and
scattering them among the American populations and asked why the same principle
should not apply to the Indian.”
1893: The
Hebrew Journal express praise for the opposition of the New York Times to an
upcoming prize fight between and American and an English man which is supported
by powerful interest in New York and Brooklyn.
1893:
Congressman Rayner of Maryland gave a speech in the House of Representatives
expressing his views on the Geary Chinese Registration and Exclusion Act which
“closed with a fervid appeal…to not commit a great national crime, as gross and
wicked as the treatment accorded by Russia to the unfortunate Jews in her
dominion and against which our own Government had protested.”
1893:
“Curious Coincidences” published today described recently discovered
connections between Columbus and the Jewish people including evidence that
“Hebrews were among the sailors that composed crews of the three vessels,” the
role of Luis de Toress and the evidence produced by Dr. Moses of Kayserling of
Budapest that Columbus set sail on the 9th day of Av and made
landfall in the New World on the “Seventh Day of the Jewish Feast of
Tabernacle, the da of the great Hosanas.”
1893:
Because it is erev Shabbat, there will be a pause in the festivities marking
the Golden Anniversary of the B’nai B’rith.
1893(3rd
of Cheshvan, 5654): Eighty-one-year-old Major Raphael J. Moses, CSA the
Confederate officer who “pioneered the commercial growing of peaches in “the
Peachtree State” passed away today in Belgium after which he was buried at the
Esquiline Cemetery in Columbus, GA.
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/raphael-moses-1812-1893
1894: “A
Bully’s Career Ends in Death” published today described the demise of Otto
Slimbach a Brooklyn bully who on the night he was mortally stabbed by an
unknown party had beaten his mother and gone through the Jewish neighborhood
indulging “in Jew-baiting for his further amusement.”
1894: In
New York, Police Inspector Williams began an investigation into charges that
the police had beaten the striking cloakmakers many of whom were Jewish
including Israel Groman.
1894:
Alfred Dreyfus is arrested by Commandant du Paty de Clam, an assistant to the
Army Chief of Staff and charged with treason.
Dreyfus was left alone with a pistol, having been encouraged to do “the
honorable thing.” When Dreyfus refused
he was marched off to prison where he would be kept in solitary confinement for
the next five days.
1895(25th
of Tishrei, 5656): Seventy-seven-year-old Jacob Reifrman the native of Opatow
who wrote Hebrew poetry and was the son-in-law of Joseph Maimon passed away
today.
1896: In
Alameda, CA, founding of the Hebrews Ladies’ Endeavor Society which was
“organized for charitable purposed and for the maintenance of a Sabbath School”
and whose members included Mrs. D.A. Levy and Mrs. J.S. Oppenheim.
1897(17th
of Tishrei, 5658): Third Day of Sukkoth observed the first time during the
Presidency of William McKinley.
1898:The Zionist Delegation
including Joseph Seidener, Moses T. Schnirer, Theodor Herzl, David Wolffsohn
and Max Bodenheimer takes the Orient Express to Constantinople as they pursue
Herzl’s dream of top-down Zionism.
1899(9th of Cheshvan, 5660): Seventy-one-year-old Vienna
native Magdelena “Lena” Woolner, the wife of Abraham Woolner with whom she had
five children, passed away today after which she was buried in Peoria, Il.
1899: Two days after he had passed away, 82-year-old Abraham Hyams was
buried today in the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.”
1900(20th of Tishrei, 5661): Shabbat shel Sukkoth
1900: Birthdate of Gerald Marks, the Saginaw, Michigan native best known
as the composer of the hit “All of Me.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-gerald-marks-1278362.html
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/gerald-marks-mn0000653199
1900: Birthdate of New Yorker Ida Klein Clurman, the husband of Sam
Clurman whom she married in 1921.
1900: “Practical Charity in New York’s Ghetto” published today described
the work “of the Jewish Agricultural and Aid Society whose filed is in the
Jewish ghetto of the east side and whose work has for the lst six months been
carried forward on a gigantic and constantly growing scale, and et so quietly
that I may be said to haven but discovered recently by observers with
membership in Jewish synagogues and societies.”
1901: “Practical Charity in New York’s Ghetto” published today described
the work “of the Jewish Agricultural and Aid Society whose field is in the
Jewish ghetto of the east side” was published today.
1902: “After dining at the Union League Club and before to the Republican
mass meeting in the Clermont Avenue Rink” this evening “Governor Odell drove
around to the Brooklyn Academy of Music and opened the Hebrew Charity Fair.?
1903(22nd of Tishrei, 5664): Shemini Atzeret
1903: In Albany County, NY, Aaron and Sarah Kravitz Scheinker gave birth
to Ida Scheinker Zuckerman, the wife of Benjamin Zuckerman whom she married in
1926.
1903: In Brooklyn, Abraham Isaac Shiplacoff and Yetta Ettel Itta
Shiplacoff” gave birth to William Morris Shipley
1903: Birthdate of Polish native and NYU trained attorney who in 1908
came to the United States where he was active in Republican politics while
serving as a director of the ZOA.
1903(22nd of Tishrei, 5664): Dr. Marcus M. Jastrow a noted Hebrew scholar
and educator who was rabbi emeritus of
Rodef Shalom, a synagogue in Philadelphia, PA, passed away today at his home in
Germantown, PA. Born in Pozen in 1829 he
graduated from the University of Berlin.
He came to the United States in 1866 and became the Rabbi at Rodef
Shalom, a position he held until his retirement in 1892. His major literary work was “A Dictionary of
the Targumim, Talmud Babli, Talmud Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature.”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D02EEDA1439E433A25757C1A9669D946297D6CF
1904: Birthdate of Isidore Grünbaum one of the last Jewish inhabitants of
Kleinsteinach who in 1942 was deported to either Izbica or Theresienstadt.
1904: Today, “a small group of men organized Emanu-El Congregation of
Borough Park who members who included Max Baron, Simon Frank, Isaac Ipp, Max
Perlman, Louis Levy and Philip Abrahams
1905(14th of Tishrei, 5666): Erev Sukkoth
1905: “According to the regulations in force among Orthodox Jews,
marriages may not be solemnized” today, the “day preceding the Feast of
Tabernacles.”
1905(14th of Tishrei, 5666): Sixty-seven-year-old Sir Henry
Irving the British actor manager whose first great career success came with his
portrayal of Mathias in “The Bells” (an adaptation of “Le Juif Polonais” and
whose portrayal of Shylock provided him with a dignity not usually seen in
other actors, passed away today.
1905: Birthdate of Alice Vantochová the residence of Prague was murder at
Ujazdow in 1942
1906(24th of Tishrei, 5667): Parashat Bereshit
1906: “In correspondence from St. Petersburg, published by the Courier
European, it is stated that the League of the Russian People has issued its
program in view which of the elections for the next Duma that includes support
for policies that will “force to Jews to emigrate.
1907: Today at the Fifth Avenue
Baptist Church, the church attended by John D. Rockefller, Reverend Charles
said “I do not believe on word of the Book of Johan as history” and that “the
story means only that God by captivity brought the people of Israel to a sense
of their own sinfulness and pitiful narrowness” while “the three days in the
whale’s belly is but a type for Israel’s bondage and the story shows “God
intended to extend his gospel through the Jewish nation.”
1908(18th of Tishrei, 5669): Fourth Day of Sukkoth observed
today as the strike by chauffeurs against the New York Taxicab Company turned
violent.
1909: In Chicago, Theresa Lupe Block and David Julian Block, a Jewish
chemist and electrical engineer gave to Herbert Lawrence Block, the Pulitzer Prize winning political
cartoonist who gained fame as Herblock and set the standard by which all
practice this genre are evaluated.
http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/herblock/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herblock
1910(10th of Tishrei, 5671): Yom Kippur
1910: As of this date, Joseph Shongut, the Coroner was shown to be
1911: Following the outbreak of war between Turkey and Italy, “fourth
thousand Italian subjects, nearly all of whom were Jews” began leaving Salonica
because they feared expulsion by the Ottomans
1911: Multiple telegrams were received in London from Malta, Gabes and
Djerba, appealing for help for the many thousands of Jewish refugees from
Tripoli.
1911: In Philadelphia, Max and Olga Hirsh gave birth to filmmaker Hyman
“Hy” Hirsh who passed away in Paris at the age of 49.
1912: Birthdate of Hugo David Weisgall, the Moravian born American
composer and conductor “who served as aid-de-camp to General Patton” during WW
II.
1912: Ludwig Teller, the son of Isak and Anna Teller, who was married
twice and was the father of three children, was buried today in his home town
of Vienna.
1912: In Philadelphia, PA, Max and Olga Hirsh gave birth to “photographer
and filmmaker” Hyman “Hy” Hirsch.
http://www.hertzmann.net/pages/catalogs/79.pdf
1912: Israel Abrahams, a Reader in Rabbinics at the University of
Cambridge and a leader of the UK’s liberal Jewish movement addressed a meeting
held in his honor at New York’s Astor Hotel.
Dr. Henry M. Leipziger, President of Judeans, presided over the meeting
and introduced Mr. Abrahams. Among the
other speakers were Rabbi Joseph Silverman of Temple Emanu-El and Rabbi Stephen
S. Wise of the Free Synagogue. Oscar S.
Straus, Progressive Party candidate for Governor of New York, who was to have
delivered an address, sent a message expressing his regrets at having been
unavoidably detained. Abrahams spoke about a favorite topic of the time “The
Jewish Problem.” In a unique twist,
Abrahams defined it as “The eternal question of living two lives harmoniously.”
1913: According to legend, German-Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzwieg
attended Yom Kippur services for what he thought would be his last visit to a
Jewish house of worship before converting to Christianity. “But that prayer service moved him so
profoundly that he gave up the idea of converting and became a committed Jewish
philosopher, who saw his religion as preferable to Christianity.
1913: One day after she had passed away, sixty-five year old Russian-born
Annie Summ, the wife of Joseph Summ with whom she had three children – “Tilly,
Alexander and Samuel” – was buried today in the “Belfast Jewish Cemetery in
Northern Ireland.”
1914(23rd of Tishrei, 5675): Simchat Torah
1914(23rd of Tishrei 5675): 50-year-old Mrs. Rose Baruch
Streng, the wife of Bernard Streng, a native of Landau, Germany passed away at
her home on West 143rd Street in New York.
1914(23rd of Tishrei, 5675): Abram Scholomir, the son of Jakob
Scholmir passed away today.
1914: “Russian Treaty Approved” published today described the decision of
the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to approve a peace treaty with Russia
which might be a prelude to the signing of new treaty of commerce “to take the
place of the treaty of 1832 abrogated by the United States because of Russia’s
treatment of American Jews.”
1914: “Foreign Legion Of Jews published today provides Israel Zangwill’s
view that Jews support the Allies over the cause of the Kaiser as can be seen
by the number of Jews who have tried to enlist in the Jewish Territorial
Organization which is a Zionist organization under the misconception that it is
part of the British Army – proof that “it would be easy to form a foreign
legion of Jews grateful for Britain’s sympathy” as can already be seen by the
thousands of Jews already serving in the military.
1914: “15 Poisoned at Feast” published today described the unfortunate
events at the Sukkoth Meal eaten by the large family of Samuel Horowitz where
several of the attendees came down with ptomaine poisoning after having eaten
some tainted fish.
1914: Judge Leon Sanders, the President of the Hebrew Shelter and
Immigrant Aid Society, has organized “a special Relief Committee for the Jewish
suffers in all of the nations at war, following an appeal sent to the
Austro-Hungarian Legation in New York by Jews in Austria.
1915: A famous Russian Revolutionary who has recently returned to
European Russia from Siberia was reported today to have said he regretted that
the “abolition of restrictions endured by the Jews had not been removed a year
ago” because “it might have save millions of Russian lives.”
1915: “A dispatch from Petrograd published today in The Daily Telegraph
in London said that “Alexander Volzsin who “is credit with the initiator of the
recently adopted statute extending residential rights to Jews” has been
appointed “the new Procurator-General of the Holy Synod.”
1916: It was reported today that former New York State Assemblyman Aaron
J. Levy had told a Columbus Day gathering that “he lived in expectation of the
time when there be a more wholesome respect in the heart of every man for the
religion of his fellow man.”
1916: “Dr. Magnes Reaches Warsaw” published today described the arrival
of the Brooklyn born rabbi in the Polish capital city where he will be
distributing money raised by American Jews to aid Jews suffering from the war.
1917(27th of Tishrei, 5678): Parashat Bereshit
1917(27th of Tishrei, 5678): Eighty-seven-year-old Araon
Abrahm Weinberg the son of Abraham Bendix Weinberg and Hannchen Leffmann
Weinberg, the husband of Pauline Weinberg and father of Avraham Alfred Weinberg
passed away today in Westphalia, Germany.
1917: “In order to relieve the destitution of hundreds of Jews who are
stranded in Yokohama, the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society
announced” today that “it has forwarded to B.J. Fleisher, publisher of the
Japan Advertiser of Yokohama , $3,000 with which to lease a suitable building
for an immigrant station and that it will shortly send to the Far East a
representative to superintend the caring for those in need” many of whom are
Russian Jews who are trapped there because of the war.
1918: Today, “after being on duty continuously for thirty-six hours”
Corporal Louis Sorrow with Company B, 307th Field Signal Battalion,
“volunteered to repair telephone lines which had been cut by shell fire” and
after working all night repairing breaks to the line made it possible for
“constant communication” to be resumed with forward regiments.
1918: “Dies of Influenza” published today recounted the accomplishments
of Reverend Madison Clinton Peters who in addition to his work as a minister,
social reformer and advocate for defeating the Kaiser in the World War wrote
several books including Justice to the Jews, The Wit and Wisdom of the
Talmud, The Jews as a Patriot and The Jews Who Stood By
Washington.
1919: It was reported today that Disbursements amounting to $2,978,992
from funds raised throughout the United States by the American Jewish Relief
Committee and other Jewish organizations were made in September alone by the
Joint Distribution Committee”
1919: In Pittsburgh, PA, Bessie and Joshua Lippman gave birth to
University of Pittsburgh and University of Cincinnati alum and HUC ordained
rabbi, Eugene Jay Lipman, the husband of Esther Marcuson with whom he “had
three children, Michael, Jonathan, and David” and author of “several
books—including Justice and Judaism, A Tale of Ten Cities, The
Rabbi in Secular Society, and The Mishnah Oral Teachings of Judaism—”
who served as an U.S. Army chaplain and who led Temple Beth El in Fort Worth,
Texas, and Temple Emanuel in Mansfield, Ohio before coming to Washington, DC to
served Temple Sinai from June 1961 to July 1985
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/lipman-eugene-jay
https://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0862/ms0862.html
1920: In Berlin chess champion Mimi (née Heller) and psychiatrist Harry
Marcuse gave birth to Albert Marcuse who was raised as a Lutheran because “his
family considered their Jewish heritage a liability” and who gained fame as
American composer and actor Albert Hague.
1920: The Bazaar and Fair sponsored by the Kane Street Temple in Brooklyn
continued for a second day.
1921: Julius Marshuetz Mayer completed his service as Judge of the United
States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
1921: “In San Salvador, Argentina, north of Buenos Aires”, Russian
immigrant, small store owner and horse herder Mauricio Minuchin and “the former
Clara Tolachier gave birth to Dr. Salvador Minuchin, a cutting-edge American
psychotherapist. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1922(21st of Tishrei, 5683): Hoshana Rabah
1922(21st of Tishrei, 5683): Fifty-year-old Ethel Julia Edgar,
the Liverpool born daughter of Louis Samuel Cohen and Martha May Cohen and the
wife of Samuel Edgar passed away today in Dorset, England.
1922: “Sodom and Gomorrah” an “epic film” directed by Michael Curtiz who
also wrote the script was released in Austria today.
1922: “According to a German police report written today: "The fact
cannot be denied that the anti-Semitic idea has penetrated the widest levels of
the middle class, even far into the working class. It is clear that this
movement [the NSDAP]...is gaining increasing ground and that it has a
future."
1923(3rd of Cheshvan, 5684): Parashat Noach
1923: The Palestine Foundation Fund gave a farewell reception this
evening “in the Hotel Astor in honor of Dr. Joseph Silverman of Temple Emanu-el
who will be sailing next week for Palestine with his wife on a five-month trip.
1924(15th of Tishrei, 5685): Sukkoth
1924: It was reported today that ll institutions affiliated with the
Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies are scheduled to
host appropriate celebrations for Sukkoth
1925: Birthdate Leonard Alfred Schneider who gained famed as controversial
comedian and satirist Lenny Bruce.
1925:
Birthdate of Brooklynite film editor Ralph Rosenblum.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/08/obituaries/ralph-rosenblum-film-editor-69.html
1926: In
Chicago, Russian-Jewish immigrants Louis Stein, “a jewelry designer” and Zelda
(Sam) Stein gave birth to Solomon Stein the author and playwright who helped to
fashion the essays of his boyhood friend James Baldwin into Notes of a Native
Son. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1927(17th
of Tishrei, 5688): Third Day of Sukkoth
1927: “In
Chicago, Illinois, Hungarian born Jewess Rosika Schwimmer, an internationally
known feminist, author, and lecturer, is denied American citizenship by Federal
Judge George Albert Carpenter because she is a pacifist.”
https://archive.org/details/TheCaseOfRosikaSchwimmer1929
1927: In
Chicago, Abraham Konitz, the owner of a laundry and Anna (Getlin) Konitz gave
birth to Leon Konitz, one of the leading “Jazz-men” of the 20th
century.
http://www.solosjazz.com/a_lee.php
1928(29th
of Tishrei, 5689): Seventy-year-old German Jewish otolaryngologist Wilhelm
Fliess passed away today
http://www.freudfile.org/fliess.html
1929(9th
of Tishrei, 5690): Erev Yom Kippur
1929:
Birthdate of Cleveland native Richard Joseph Orowitz who gained fame as Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Joseph Howard “an
American poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator.”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/richard-howard
1929: In
Manhattan, Joseph and Sylvia Slifka gave birth to twins – Barbara and Alan
Bruce Slifka, “a New York investment manager who used his fortune to promote
harmony among Israeli Arabs and Jews and to give the Big Apple Circus its
start.” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1930(21st
of Tishrei, 5691): Hoshana Raba
1930:
“Darling of the Gods” “a German music written by Robert Lieberman “premiered at
the Gloria-Palast in Berlin” today.
1930:
William Howard Taft, the only person to serve as President of the United States
and Chief Justice of the United States, who while President visited Rodef
Shalom where he became “the first time a sitting United States President spoke
from the pulpit of a Jewish house of worship during regular Sabbath services”
and who supposed “the abrogation of a treaty with Russia because of Russia’s
treatment of Jews” completed his service as head of “the high court” today
1930: In
New York City, Dorothy (Friedlander) and General Sessions Judge Abraham N.
Geller gave birth to Yale trained television script writer and producer Bruce
Geller best known for his work on the western series “Rawhide” and the longer
running “Mission Impossible.”
1931: In
his speech tonight at the first meeting of the Grand Street Boy’s Association
New York Mayor Jimmy Walker “lauded the Jews of New York for their civic and
charitable contributions” and “ praised Judge Max Levine of the Court of
General Sessions who is president of the Grand Street Boys Association.”
1932: A
committee was appointed tonight at a meeting of the Association of Federation
Workers which will meet with Joseph M. Proskauer, the President of the
Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Society “to discussion
reductions in wages effected by the federation’s curtailment of its budgetary
allotments for 1932.”
1933(23rd
of Tishrei, 5694): Simchat Torah observed for the first time during the
Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt.
1934(4th
of Cheshvan, 5695): Parashat Noach
1934:
According to a report of HIAS issued today “by Isaac L. Agofsky, general
manager of the society,” “more than 5,000 Jewish aliens arrived in the United
States during the first seven months of 1934…”
1935:
“Barbary Coast” produced by Samuel Goldwyn, written by Ben Hecht, co-starring
Edward G. Robinson and with music by Alfred Newman was released today in the
United States by United Artists.
1936:
Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau (FDR’s Jewish neighbor at Hyde Park) pointed out that “the tripartite agreement
between the United States, France and Great Britain published” today which was
designed to promote the stabilizing of the three nations’ currencies and
foreign exchanges” could “on twenty-four hours’ notice be revoked or altered”
which an observer might have quickly deduced meant that problem of currency
stability that had been a cause and result of the Great Depression has not been
addressed.
1937:
Birthdate of Parisian actor Samuel “Sami” Frei whose movie career began in 1960
with an appearance “The Truth.
1937: Twenty-five-year-old
Milwaukee, WI native David Robert Altman was “wounded in accident at Fuentes de
Ebro today while fighting with the Republican forces during the Spanish Civil
War.
1937:The Palestine Post reported that a
slight earth tremor was felt in Jerusalem. It lasted about a second and caused
in some cases a definite sway of upper stories of buildings. There were
sporadic Arab attacks, accompanied by heavy firing, at Hadera, Safed and on
Kibbutz Gordonia. A curfew was imposed on Safed. Robbers operated in the
no-man's-land between the Palestinian and Lebanese French border posts at
Nakura. The attackers were protected by other well-armed men in surrounding
area.
1938(18th
of Tishrei, 5699): Fourth day of Sukkoth
1938: Moses
Max Ehrlich died at Gelsenkirchen where on Kristallnacht
“antisemitic riots destroyed Jewish business, dwellings and cemeteries” and
left a synagogue in Buer and downtown Gelsenkirchen in ruins.
1938:Hans and Lotte Liebermann boarded a ship today and left
Germany for the United States where their son Hans had found refuge in June of
1938.
http://www.ushmm.org/remember/office-of-survivor-affairs/survivor-volunteer/frank-liebermann
1938:
German mathematician Fritz Noether who had immigrated to the Soviet Union after
the Nazis came to power and destroyed his career and had been convicted of
being a Nazi spy in a trial where the charges were based on “trumped up
evidence” was sentenced to twenty five years in prison today by the Soviets who
had originally welcomed him with open arms.
1939: Chaim
Kaplan, the director of a Hebrew School in Warsaw, described the Jewish
reactions to the Soviet occupation of Poland with the following diary entry:
“The Jews there looked upon the Bolsheviks as redeeming messiahs. Even the wealthy, who would become poor under
Bolshevism, preferred the Russians to the Germans. There is plunder on the one hand and plunder
on the other, but the Russians plunder one as a citizen and a man, while the
Nazis plunder one as a Jew. The former
Polish government never spoiled us, but at the same time never overtly singled
us out for torture. The Nazi is a
sadist, however. His hatred of the Jews
is psychosis. He flogs and derives
pleasure from it. The torment of the
victim is a balm to his soul, especially if the victim is a Jew.
1939: New
York premiere of “Babes In Arms,” a musical produced by Arthur Freed with songs
by Richard Rogers, Lorenz Hart, Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg.
1939(29th
of Tishrei, 5700): Sixty-six-year-old Swedish born magician Nate Leipzig who
had given command performances at Buckingham Palace and raised three sons –
George, Leo and Rabbi Emil Leipziger with his Leila, passed away today.
https://www.finchmagician.com/magic/nate-leipzig
1939: NBC
radio made its first attempt to cancel The Guiding Light, a soap opera created
by Irna Phillips.
1939: In
“the Nazi Amtsleiter in Łódź appointed Chaim Rumkowski the Judenälteste
("Chief Elder of the Jews"), head of the Ältestenrat ("Council
of Elders").
1940: Jews
from Warsaw's suburbs were ordered into the Warsaw Ghetto.
1940: On
his 55th birthday, humorist Harry Hershfield, the Cedar Rapids, IA
native, in making a reference to the inclusive of American society was quoted as saying, “The is the only
country in the world where they would allow Columbus Day to fall on Yom
Kippur.”
1940: “In a
plea for tolerance” the leader of the Knights of Columbus in New York was
quoted as having taken notice of the fact that this year Columbus Day and Yom
Kippur were celebrated on the same day this year.
1940:
Having been snuck across the border between Nazi-occupied France and Spain by
American diplomat Varian Fry, Franz Werfel and his wife, Anna Mahler, arrived
in New York on ship that had sailed from Lisbon.
1941(22nd
of Tishrei, 5702): Shemini Atzeret
1941:
“Odilo Globocnik, SS and Police Leader of Lublin, is ordered by Heinrich
Himmler to begin constructing the Belzec extermination camp and launch a
program to Germanize the region.”
1942: In Newark, NJ, Louis Simon “a college professor, upright bass
player, and dance bandleader who performed under the name "Lee Sims"
and his wife Belle, “an elementary school teacher” gave birth to America’s
troubadour, Paul Simon.
1942: It was reported today that “Len Levy, the former star for the
University of Minnesota will be playing right guard when the Great Lakes
Bluejackets” square off against the University of Wisconsin Badgers at Soldiers
Field in Chicago.
1943: One hundredth anniversary of the founding of B’nai B’rith
1943: A revolt took place in Camp Number I at Sobibor. Alexander Pechersky distributed knives and
hatchets to other prisoners. Nine SS and two Ukrainians were killed in the
fighting. Three hundred of the prisoners from Camp Number I' escaped. The other
300 would be killed. However, as a result of this revolt, Sobibor ended its
operation.
1944: In
San Francisco, “Edward and Dorian (Goldman) Goldstein, both of whom were
jewelers” gave birth cultural “impresario” Sydney Goldstein. (As reported by
Katharine Q. Seelye)
1944:
Hans-Jürgen Graf von Blumenthal “a German aristocrat and army officer” who
began working with the anti-Hitler resistance in 1942 was executed today for
his part in the plot to assassinate Hitler.
1944: The Soviet Troops entered Riga. Only a handful of Jews had survived
in city where there were 30,000 Jews just ten years earlier.
1944: “The special People’s Court sentenced “Hans
Neumann, Leo Drabant, his wife along with eight other resistance members” “to
death because they had ‘attempted to destroy the resistance of the German
People…”
1945 (6th of Cheshvan, 5706): On
Shabbat, Leon Recanati, Sephardic leader of Palestine and formerly of Salonika
passed away. Recanati was a "happy admixture of a learned Jew with his
Biblical wisdom on the one hand and a man of affairs with a sense of reality on
the other."
1945: “Star in the Night” which marked the directorial debut of Don
Siegel, with a script by Saul Elkins and which “won an Academy Award in 1946
for Best Short Subject” was released in the United States today.
1946: “Three masked gunmen” believed to members of the Irgun “escaped
with $12,000 after a daring daylight robbery in down town Tel Aviv.
1946: Members of Hashomir Hatzair (Young Guard), a left-wing Zionist
organization, “distributed pamphlets in Tel Aviv calling on the Jewish
community in Palestine to take ‘active measures’ against Jewish terrorist
organizations.”
1947: Birthdate of Philadelphia native and magnum cum laude Harvard graduate
Robert David Levin, “an American classical pianist, musicologist, and composer
who was a professor of music at Harvard University from 1994 to 2014 and the
artistic director of the Sarasota Music Festival from 2007 to 2017.”
https://www.pcmsconcerts.org/artist/robert-levin-piano/
1947: “A member of a special House subcommittee investigating European
displaced persons said today that the group intended to urge Secretary of State
Marshall to place the DP problem before the United Nations for immediate
action.”
1947: “Richard H.S. Crossman, a member of the British Parliament and
former member of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry” predicted in a speech
tonight at the Waldorf-Astoria that the British would suffer a “completed
defeat in Palestine.”
1948(10th of Tishrei, 5709) Yom Kippur
1948: An
Israeli army unit held Yom Kippur services on Mt. Zion, right outside the
[then] sealed Zion's Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. There they blew the
Shofar, the closest place to the Western Wall they could get.
1948: U.N. “observers reported that the Arabs had fired with automatic
weapons ‘for several hours, from an area under UN supervision, and with any
provocation by Jewish Forces.’”
1949(20th of Tishrei, 5710): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
1949(20th of Tishrei, 5710): Sixty-one-year-old Brooklyn
“crusading journalist” Abraham Hurwitz who served as the editor of the Reading
(PA) Times and was a columnist for the Miami Herald passed away today in Miami,
FL.
1949: Birthdate of Marc Mandel, the son of a New York taxi driver who was
nicknamed “Babaloo” by his “longer-time writing partner Lowell Ganz.”
1949: Having been confirmed by the United States Senate yesterday to
serve as on Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of
Illinois, Casper Platt received his commission today.
1950: U.S. premiere of “All About Eve,” a drama written and directed by
Joseph L. Mankiewicz with music by Alfred Newman.
1950: Birthdate of Montreal native and Canadian Conservative Party Leader
Hugh Segal who left politics to serve as “Master of Massey college in the
University of Toronto.”
1950: “Harvey” a film version of the Broadway comedy directed by Henry
Koster (Hermann Kosterlitz) was released in the United States today.
1952(24th of Tishrei, 5713):Samuel Bortzell, the native of Russia who moved to Sydney before World
War I, enlisted with the ANZACs in 1915 and served at Gallipoli and on the
Western Front before being discharged in September of 1918 passed away today
leaving behind a his second wife Zena Ardon and his daughter Reva whose mother
Eileen Harwood had passed away in 1931.
1952: The
Jerusalem Post reported that the cabinet had appointed a seven-member Board of
Directors of the German Reparations Purchasing Company. The board was
responsible, through Foreign Minister Levi Eshkol, to a five-man ministerial
committee which was aided by a 13-member Planning Committee and an Advisory
Council of 25 members. You might recognize the name of Levi Eshkol. He would be Prime Minister in June of 1967
when Israel defended itself against its Arab neighbors and reunited the city of
Jerusalem
1953: “Answer
Me,” the English version of the German song “Mütterlein", with English
lyrics by Crown Heights native Carl Sigman was published today.
1953(4th of
Cheshvan, 5714): “Arab terrorists called Fedayeen, infiltrate into the Israeli
village of Yahud and kill Suzanne Kinyas and two of her children (the youngest
of which was only 18 months old) in their sleep bringing the toll of Israeli
civilian victims to 124.
1954(16th
of Tishrei, 5715): Second Day of Sukkoth
1954(16th
of Tishrei, 5715): Sixty-nine-year-old Viennese born soprano and music teacher
Emily (Emilie) Heim who found ultimate refuge from European anti-Semitism in
Canada passed away today in Toronto.
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/emmy-heim-emc
1954: “A
60-minute adaptation of “The Man Who Came to Dinner” by George S. Kaufman and
Moss Hart was aired today on the CBS Television series The Best of Broadway
1955:
Premiere of “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter” written by George Axelrod, whose
father was Jewish.
1955: “The
Pajama Game,” the Richard Adler and Jerry Ross musical opened in London, UK
today for the first of 588 performances.
1957(18th
of Tishrei, 5718): Sukkoth IV
1957: CBS
television broadcast the final episode of “You Are There” a half-hour program
of historical re-enactments created by Goodman Ace that included appearances by
Paul Newman and Martin Gable.
1957(18th
of Tishrei, 5718): Sixty-four-year-old literary critic and philologist Erich Auerbach
passed away today.
1958(29th
of Tishrei, 5719): Seventy-year-old Lithuanian born Joseph Katz who in 1891
came to the United States where he served as the director of the Hebrew Home
for the Aged in Baltimore, passed away today
1959: CBS
television broadcast a live version “The Jazz Singer” with Jerry Lewis starring
the “Al Jolson” role and featuring Molly Picon and Alan Reed.
1959:
Today, Samuil Lubarsky who had been murdered in 1938 in one of Stalin’s purges
“was rehabilitated” “by the decision of the Military Collegium of the Supreme
Court of the USSR” during the period known as de-Stalinization.
In Memoriam: Samuil
Lubarsky | JDC Archives
1960(22nd
of Tishrei, 5721): Shemini Atzeret
1960:
Birthdate of Ari Fleischer, former Press Secretary for President Bush
1960: In the seventh game of the World Series, as future hall of
famer Bill Mazeroski rounded first base after having hit the series winning
home run, he runs past first base coach, Lenny Levy, the Pittsburgh native who
spent most of his life serving in some capacity with the Pirates organization.
1961(3rd of Cheshvan, 5722): Sixty-six-year-old
Hungarian born “screenwriter, director and producer” Zoltan Korda part of the trio of Korda brothers (the other
two being Alexander and Vincent ) whose works include the anti-war “The Four
Feathers” and the WW II classic “Sahara” passed away today. (Editor’s note –
these three brothers are fascinating, worthy of at least one of those big
biographies as well as one or more epic film like the ones they used to make.)
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/10/15/101478143.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1961(3rd of Cheshvan, 5722): Sixty-nine-year-old
Cincinnati, OH, native Carl J. Fechheimer, the Purdue trained engineer who
settled in Milwaukee the husband of Carla Wilhemine Rich Fechheimer who left “a
$150,000 bequest…to establish a chair in electrical engineering at the
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology” passed away today.
1962(15th
of Tishrei, 5723): Sukkoth
1963: “American
civic, religious and intellectual leaders appealed yesterday to the Soviet
government and people to restore the cultural and religious privileges of Jews
living within the Soviet Union.”
1964: In
Brooklyn, Barbara Kanzer and Michael Emhoff gave birth to University of Southern California trained
attorney whose claim to fame is that his second wife is Vice President Kamala
Harris.
1964(7th
of Cheshvan, 5725): Seventy-one-year-old former chairman of the board of examiners
of the Board of Education Dr. Abraham Kroll, the holder of a B.S. degree from
Columbia and “a Ph.D. from Fordham University and the husband of the “former
Jane Reilly” with whom he had a son Leonard who “began his career as a teacher
of science and mathematics in the high schools of Puerto Rico in 1913” passed
away today.
1964:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at the Riverside Chapel for
Julia Adler, the mother of Walter C. and Lucille Rosaler.
1965: “South
African Jews reacted angrily to statements
in The Afrikaans-language weekly paper Dagbrekk,” a pro-government newspaper, “questioning their
loyalty because the Nationalist white supremacist “felt that Jews could not be related
on to South Africa.
1966: A funeral
service is scheduled to be held today at the Society for the Advancement of
Judaism for 77-year-old Latvia born and NYU trained accountant Samuel J.
Jacobson, the husband of the former Ruth Rubin with whom he had two children –
Daniel and Carolyn – and a leader of the American Jewish Congress, the ZOA and the
Society for the Advancement of Judaism.
1967(9th of Tishrei, 5728): Erev Yom Kippur
1967:Funeral
services are scheduled to held today seventy-year-old
Columbia trained psychoanalyst Wiiliam V. Silverberg who trained with Franz
Alexander, “an early disciple of Sigmund Freud” and who was a founder of the
American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry” who had passed away in
White Plains, NY.
1968(21st of Tishrei, 5729): Hoshana Raba
1968: B’nai B’rith celebrates its 125th anniversary
1968: “A Birthday Today For B’nai B’rith” published today traces
the history and contributions of the Jewish fraternal organization from its
inception during the Presidency of John Tyler to the middle of the twentieth
century.
1969: Episode 5 of My World…and Welcome to it created by Melville
Shavelson and co-starring Harold J. Stone was broadcast today.
1969(1st of Cheshvan, 5730): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1969(1st of Cheshvan, 5730): Seventy-year-old Cornell alum and
Brooklyn Law School trained attorney who raised two sons – Norman and Mark –
with his wife Irene.
1969: “Indians,” a play by
Arthur Kopit which had premiered in London in 1968 opnws on Broadway today.
1971(24th of Tishrei, 5732): Fifty-seven Phoebe Ephron,
part of a noted artistic family passed away today in New York City.
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/06/28/nora-ephron%E2%80%99s-potato-chip-legacy/
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ephron-phoebe
1971: Birthdate Sacha
Baron Cohen, the British born comedian who first gained fame portraying his
highly successful comedy character Ali G.
1973(17th of Tishrei, 5734): Shabbat Shel Sukkoth
1973(17th of Tishrei, 5734): Seventy-three-year-old
Nathan Henry Schlafter, the Detroit born son of Mina and Henry Schlafter and
the husband of Adele Lehman Schlafter passed away today after which he was
buried in Livonia, Michigan.
1973: Jordan entered the Yom Kippur War. Thinking that initial Arab victories would
spell the demise of Israel, King Hussein thought he would get back the West
Bank and east Jerusalem. In the end he
lost again and ended up having to surrender his claims to these lands to the
PLO.
1973:
During the Yom Kippur War, Egyptian reinforcements continued to cross the Suez
Canal and began attacking Israeli forces.
1973: Israeli forces confronted large numbers of
Iraqi tanks both on the road to Damascus and on the Golan Heights. In both battles, Israeli forces destroyed
considerable number of the Iraqi tanks while sustaining minimal losses. Israeli aircraft refrained from shooting down
the Soviet transports that were landing at Damascus. However, Israeli forces did destroy at least
two Soviet craft once they had landed sparking threats from Moscow.
1973: After much hesitation and despite opposition
from America’s Western Allies, President Nixon ordered a massive airlift of
supplies for the IDF. The material
helped offset the tons of modern weaponry being shipped into the region by the
Russians. Many Jews shifted their
allegiance to Nixon and the Republicans based on the airlift. However, they seemed to have forgotten that
if the Nixon administration had not kept the Israelis from conducting a
pre-emptive strike against the Egyptians before they crossed the Canal, none of
this would have been necessary in the first place.
1973:
Avraham Lanir was scrambled for a reconnaissance mission deep in Syrian
territory. During his return to Israel, Lanir was caught in a missile ambush
and his Mirage was hit in the rear, forcing him to eject. The wind carried the
parachuting pilot back over the border into Syrian territory and he landed in
the area of Mazra'at Beit Jinn. Israeli Armor Corps soldiers witnessed him land
and attempted to rescue him, but he was captured by a Syrian jeep patrol that
reached him first. Lt. Col. Lanir was
tortured to death by his Syrian captors. His body was finally returned by the
Syrians in 1974. “Former Israel Air Force Commander Mordechai Hod noted that
Lanir had information that would have placed the existence of Israel at risk
had he revealed it to the Syrians.”
1973:Ady Bnaya and David Ya'ir made it back safely to Israeli
lines after their F-4E Phantom Jet was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire.
1973:
Iftach Zemer and Itzhak Amitai returned safely to Israeli lines when they were
forced to eject from their F-4E Phantom Jet after it suffered a technical
malfunction.
1973: After
his Phantom F-4E Jet fell victim to “friendly fire,” Uri Bakal safely ejected
and made it back to Israeli lines.
1974(27th
of Tishrei, 5735): Eighty-year-old Romanian born Israeli artist Reuven Rubin
who returned to his native land to serve as Israel’s first ambassador passed
away today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/reuven-rubin
1974: Seventy-two-year-old
Austrian conductor Josef Krips, whose father was Jewish which meant he had to
leave his native land to pursue his career while the Nazis were in power,
passed away today.
1975: As
the Russians worked to increase their influence in the Middle East, Soviet
President Zhivkov began a visit to Tunisia.
1976: In
Livingston, NJ, “Mike and Sandi Friedman” gave birth to Duke University left
guard “Leonard Lebrecht Friedman” whose pro career included stops with the
Broncos, Redskins, Bears and Bears.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/lennie-friedman
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/F/FrieLe20.htm
1977(1st
of Cheshvan, 5738): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1977:The Jerusalem Post
reported that US President Jimmy Carter welcomed the Israeli cabinet's approval
of a "working paper" on procedures for reconvening of the Geneva
Middle East peace conference. "I am pleased with that," he said. His
officials explained that what the US had in mind was the creation of some sort
of a Palestinian "borough" on the West Bank and in Gaza which would
be linked with Jordan. Asked directly whether he advocated an
"entity," Carter simply replied, "I have never advocated an independent
Palestinian state." These
negotiations of 25 years ago provide a tragic-comical backdrop to the so-called
peace negotiations that have been taking place since the Camp David Meetings
hosted by President Clinton.
1977: Four
Palestinians hijacked a Lufthansa Airlines flight to Somalia and demand release
of 11 members of the Red Army Faction. Yes, twenty-five years ago, terrorists
were interconnected, often sharing resources, training facilities and killing
assignments.
1979(22nd
of Tishrei, 5740): Shemini Atzeret combines with Shabbat
1980: Eric
Levin examined the reasons for the longevity of 67-year-old Garson Kanin’s
marriage.
http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20077614,00.html
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10694.html
1985(4th
of Cheshvan, 5646): Eighty-four-year-old Sidney R. Rabb, the Boston born third
generation philanthropist and grocery store chain executive passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/15/us/sidney-rabb-84-dies-supermarket-executive.html
http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=109208
1986:Rita Levi-Montalcini’s pioneering work on nerve
growth earned her the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Born in Turin, in
northwestern Italy, on April 22, 1909, Levi-Montalcini had begun her research
on nerve cells at the University of Turin. Banned from the university in a
purge of Jews in 1938, and then forced to hide during the Nazi occupation of
Italy, she immigrated to the United States and joined the faculty of Washington
University in St. Louis, Missouri in 1946. Levi-Montalcini went to St. Louis at
the invitation of embryologist Viktor Hamburger; his support helped her to
continue her work at a time when very few women worked in basic science
research. It was at Washington University, in 1951, that Levi-Montalcini first
hypothesized the existence of the nerve growth factor. Between 1953 and 1959,
she worked with collaborator Stanley Cohen to identify nerve growth factor as a
protein. For this work, Levi-Montalcini and Cohen shared the 1986 Nobel Prize
in Physiology or Medicine. Their work had significant effects on cancer
research and has also been important in work on Parkinson’s disease.
Levi-Montalcini retired from Washington University in 1977. Beginning in the
1960s, she also held an appointment at the National Laboratory for Cell Biology
in Rome. After the Nobel Prize, Levi-Montalcini won many other honors. In 1986,
she and Cohen were awarded the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award. The
following year, she received the National Medal of Science, America’s highest
scientific award. She also became the first woman ever named to membership in
the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Rome. https://jwa.org/thisweek/oct/13/1986/rita-levi-montalcini
1987(20th of Tishrei, 5748): Sixth day of Sukkoth
1987(20th of Tishrei, 5748): Ninety-seven-year-old
Albert Lorch “Al” Loeb who played center from 1910 through 1913 for the Georgia
Tech Yellow Jackets where he was known as the Yiddish Wildcat passed away
today.
1988(2nd of Cheshvan, 5749): Seventy-five-year-old
Melvin Frank who wrote the screenplay for one of my favorite movies “Mrs.
Blandings Builds His Dream House” passed away today.
1989: “Look
Who’s Talking” a comedy-fantasy directed by Amy Heckerling and featuring George
Segal and Abe Vigoda was released today in the United States by Tri-Star
Pictures.
1989:
Israeli soldiers killed an 18-year-old Palestinian in a West Bank village,
Qalqilya, after they were attacked by masked youths.
1989:
“Crimes and Misdemeanors” directed and written by Woody Allen co-starring
Martin Landau as “Judah Rosenthal” and Claire Bloom as “Miriam Rosenthal” was
released in the United States by Orion
Pictures.
1990: Syria
invaded Lebanon killing over 500. There
was no noticeable protest from Arab states or the U.N.
1990(24th
of Tishrei, 5751): Eighty-five-year-old German-born Dutch mathematician Hans
Freudenthal who survived the Holocaust thanks to his wife who was a non-Jews
passed away today.
http://www.fi.uu.nl/en/freudenthal.html
1991: “At
the Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Center in East Rockaway, LI” Rabbis Stanley
Platek and Abraham Kelman officiated the marriage of Amy Beth Spector and
Steven A. Adler.
1992(16th
of Tishrei, 5753): Second Day of Sukkoth
1992:
Charlotte “Pomerantz's story ‘The Piggy In The Puddle’ was featured today on
Reading Rainbow, where it was retold using a claymation process
1993: 150th
anniversary of the founding of B’nai B’rith.
1993: U.S.
Premiere of the Notre Dame football film “Rudy” co-starring Jon Favreau with
music by Jerry Goldsmith
1993:
Anthony Paul Lester, the Baron Lester of Herne Hill began serving as a Lord
Temporal.20
1994: Fifty
thousand Jews gathered at the Wailing Wall to pray for the life of Nachshon
Wachsman, a nineteen year old Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped by Hamas.
1995(19th
of Tishrei, 5756): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
1995(19th
of Tishrei, 5756): Eighty-year-old Rena Galibova who is buried in Mt. Carmel
Cemetery passed away today.
1995(19th
of Tishrei, 5756): Eighty-nine-year-old Henry Roth, author of Call It Sleep
passed away. Born in 1906, Roth was ignored for most of his career and was
reduced to holding a variety of jobs since he could not support himself as a
writer. Later in life, he enjoyed a
re-birth of interest which continued for at least a decade after his death. (As
reported by Richard Nicholls)
1996: After
196 performances at the Shubert Theatre the curtain came down n “Big, the
musical” which featured the music of David Shire.
1997: Syria Invaded Lebanon again. Actually, Syrian troops had occupied parts of
Lebanon since 1977. Lebanon is more like
a satellite of Syria, than a truly independent nation. The late President Assad had a vision of
ruling Greater Syria – nation that would include Syria, parts of Jordan,
Lebanon and Israel.
1997: In “A
Shrine to Books Past Clings to Independence” Dinitia Smith described the
history and status of The Argosy Book Store which is operated by Ruth Shevin
Cohen, the 90 year old widow of the founder Louis Cohen and their three
daughters – Judith Lowry, Naomi Hample and Adina Cohen.
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/13/books/a-shrine-to-books-past-clings-to-independence.html
1998(23rd
of Tishrei, 5759): Simchat Torah
1998: Today,
the body of Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider, known as Tania the Guerillera, a
German-Jewish guerrilla fighter in the National Liberation Army of Bolivia, led
by Che Guevara who had been killed in ambush while fighting in Bolivia in 1967,
was identified in the mass grave and brought to Cuba where she and nine of her
comrades were interred with military honors in the Che Guevara mausoleum in
Santa Clara.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/aug/31/1967/tamara-bunke-aka-tania-guerrillera-killed-bolivian-army
1999: U.S.
premiere of “The Story of Us” directed, produced and written by Rob Reiner.
2000(14th
of Tishrei, 5761): Erev Sukkoth
2000: A
huge Israeli security cordon “averted a third consecutive Friday of riots at
the sacred plaza, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble
Sanctuary.”
2001: Today
marked the second day of Michael Bloomberg’s general election campaign in which
he was running for Mayor against Democratic nominee Mark Green
2002: The
New York Times featured
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of special interest to
Jews includingThe Blank Slate: The Modern
Denial of Human Nature, by Steven
Pinker, Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball by Scott Simon
and Rereading Sex: Battle Over Sexual Knowledge and Suppression in
Nineteenth-Century American by Helen Lefkowitz
2003: The
chief lawyer for the Holocaust victims and their survivors disclosed an
agreement today in which “Swiss banks that five years ago settled a suit filed
on behalf of Holocaust victims claiming lost or looted Nazi-era accounts will
for the first time give investigators limited access to information on millions
of accounts.
2003: Funeral
services were held today at Assumption Church in Zwingle, IA for William F. “Bill”
Schuller, the husband of “Eleanor E. Schueller; a daughter, Deborah J.
(Mitchell) Levin, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; a son, Steven W. (Debra) Schueller, of
Lakota, N.D.; and three grandchildren, Jared, Richard and Rebecca Schueller.”
https://iagenweb.org/boards/dubuque/obituaries/index.cgi?read=581196
2004(28th
of Tishrei, 5765): In London, Bernice Rubens passed away at the age of 76. The prolific British novelist drew on her
Jewish upbringing to tell stories of vice and grimness with warmth and humor. “She won Britain’s’ prestigious Booker Prize
for fiction in 1970 for The Elected Member, the story of a Jewish family
whose secrets drive one son insane.”
2005(10th
of Tishrei, 5766): Yom Kippur is observed by Jews all over the world.
2005: It
was reported today that Israeli forces had arrested Hamas member Ibrahim
Ghneimat who is “accused him of involvement in the suicide bombing of a Tel
Aviv cafe in March 1997 that killed three Israelis, the kidnapping and killing
of an Israeli soldier in September 1996 and two shooting attacks that year that
killed five Israelis.”
2006(21st
of Tishrei, 5767): Hoshana Rabah
2006:
“Stage Killing: Solving an Attempted Murder” published today provides Faith
Jones account of the love triangle surrounding David Levinson, Morris Finkel
and Yiddish theatre star Emma Thomashefsky Finkel.
http://forward.com/articles/4898/stage-killing/
2006(21st
of Tishrei, 5767): Ninety-two-year-old Newburyport, MA native Hilda
Terry, one of the first female cartoonist and creator of “Teena” which ran for
over almost a quarter of a century starting in 1941 passed away,
https://www.nysun.com/obituaries/hilda-terry-92-cartoonist-and-scoreboard-artist/41781/
2006: Six
days after she had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held for
portrait artist Rosalind Weinman the Portland, Maine born daughter of Ana and
Nathan Weinamn who was also coauthor of the children's book Nate the Great
and the Pillowcase, part of a series named for her father Nathan…” and then
novel A Visit with Rosalind followed by burial at Mt. Sinai Cemetery.
2006: The
End, Lemony Snicket’s final novel is scheduled to come out today.
2006:
Daniel Handler, who wrote under the penname Lemony Snicket “appeared on the
Today show today “as Lemony Snicket's representative.”
2007: Rosh
Chodesh Cheshvan, 5768(Second Day) – First of Cheshvan
2007: Yaakov Katz the military
correspondent and defense analyst for The Jerusalem Post, the Middle East's
leading English daily speaks at Agudas
Achim in Iowa City, IA.
2007:
Haaretz reported that in Lakewood, New Jersey, a man wielding an
aluminum baseball bat attacked an Orthodox Jewish rabbi walking to synagogue
critically injuring the 53-year-old man and threatening to strain the already
tense ethnic relations in a New Jersey city, officials and residents said. The
beating of Mordechai Moskowitz, reportedly at the hands of an African-American
man, has put residents on edge in Lakewood, a diverse city of 70,000 near the
Jersey Shore that is home to a large Orthodox Jewish population, as well as
black and Hispanic communities. An Orthodox Jewish middle school teacher was
found not guilty this summer of assaulting a black teenager. And a few weeks
ago, a group of Orthodox Jews was pelted with eggs by teenagers from another
town, The New York Times reported Thursday. Authorities have arrested no one
and have no motive in the beating of the rabbi, police Lt. Joseph Isnardi said.
2008: Paul Krugman, the Princeton University scholar and New York Times columnist, won the Nobel
Prize in Economics for his analysis of how economies of scale can affect trade
patterns and the location of economic activity
2008(14th of Tishrei, 5769): Erev Sukkoth
2008: As reports multiplied of Harvey Weinsten’s ruthless and
aggressive behavior continued to multiply, today Newsweek magazine ran a story
accusing him of “"hassling Sydney Pollack on his deathbed" about the
release of the film The Reader.
2009(25th of Tishrei, 5770): Seventy-seven-year-old
producer Daniel Melnick passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/movies/17melnick.html
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/21/daniel-melnick-obituary
2009: Publication of “Chronic City,” a novel by Jonathan Lethem,
was published today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2009: Assaf Ramon, the son of Colonel Ilan Ramon who died on the
Columbia in 2003, was commemorated today during a military rememberance
ceremony marking the 30-day anniversary of his death.
2009: Former Agriproccessor executive Shlomo Rubashkin is
scheduled to go on trial in St. Louis, MO.
2009: Channel Two reported that Dalia Itzik spent NIS 75,000 of
taxpayers' money on an unnecessary hotel upgrade during a 2006 4-night trip to
Paris, France.
2009:
The Library of Congress opens a new exhibition "Herblock!,"
highlighting the life and works of the great political cartoonist.
2009:
A Massachusetts judge has denied a motion by Brandeis University to dismiss a
lawsuit brought by three overseers of the school’s Rose Art Museum who are
seeking to stop the university from closing the museum and selling its works..
2009(25th
of Tishrei, 5770): Seventy-seven-year-old movie producer and studio executive
Daniel Melnick passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/movies/17melnick.html
2010(5th
of Cheshvan, 5771): Eighty-year-old lexicographer, author and tenured member of
Olbom (On Language’s Board of Octogenarian Mentors) Sol Steinmetz passed away
today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/books/25steinmetz.html
2010:
David Grossman and Nicole Krauss are scheduled to talk about their new novels, To
the End of the Land and Great House at the New York Public Library.
2010:
Among the 20 finalists for the National Book Awards that were announced today
was Nicole Krauss for her third novel, Great House, a sprawling story of memory and loss
2010:
Ron Charles reviewed “The Finkler Question” the Howard Jacobson comic novel
about anti-Semitism which just won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in London.
2011(15th
of Tishrei, 5772): Sukkoth
2011(15th
of Tishrei, 5722): Yahrzeit of William Schueller, husband of Eleanor Schueller
and father of Deb Levin
2011:
The National Basketball Association “formally approved” the purchase of the
Philadelphia 76ers by an investment group that included David S. Blitzer, Art
Wrubel, Adam Aron, Martin J. Geller and managing partner Joshua Harris.
2011:
Milan's La Scala opera house said today that Israeli pianist and conductor
Daniel Barenboim would serve as its new music director from December for the
next five years.
2011:
IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz met with Noam and Aviv Schalit
this evening, confirming that their son Gilad Schalit would be returning to
Israel on October 18, Channel 2 reported.
2011: Hamas-affiliated media outlets began today
publishing names of imprisoned terrorists who will reportedly be set free by
Israel in exchange for captive soldier Gilad Schalit.
2012:
Six13 “a six-man vocal band that brings an unprecedented style of Jewish music
to the stage” is scheduled to appear in the Jewish Community Center of Northern
Virginia Performing Art Series.
2012:
Israeli films “Chasing A Star” and “One Day After Peace” are scheduled to be
shown at the Syracuse Film Festival in Syracuse, NY.
2012:
Tosha Skolnik, an 8th grader at Alice Deal, is scheduled to be
called to the Torah as Bar Mitzvah at Adas Israel in Washington, DC.
2012:
Seventy-year-old Barbra Streisand is scheduled to “return to her roots” with a
concert at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.
2012(27th
of Tishrei, 5773): The cycle begins again as Jews all over the world read
Bereshit.
2012:
One man was reportedly killed and two others were injured tonight in an IAF
attack in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip. The strike targeted Islamic
Jihad members who had reportedly planned to carry out an attack against
Israelis during the Sukkot holiday. They were said to belong to the Mujahideen
Shura Council, an armed group linked to al-Qaeda.
2012:
Iran hinted today that it was responsible for a drone that flew deep into
Israel on October 6, before being shot down by the Israeli Air Force.
2013:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global
Anti-Semitism by Daniel Johnah Goldhagen and the Kraus Project: The
Essays of Karl Kraus translated and annotated by Jonathan Franzen as well
as an interview with Scott Turrow whose latest work is Identical.
2013:
“Passages through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War” is scheduled to open today
at the Maryland Museum of Jewish History
2013:
“Her” starring Puerto Rican born Jewish actor Joaquin Phoenix is scheduled to
debut at the New York Film Festival.
2013:
The Hyman S & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival is scheduled to host
a Local Author Fair featuring Melissa Ford, author of Measure of Love
and David Bruce Smith, author of American Hero: John Marshall, Chief Justice of
the United States
2013:
After almost a year, “It’s a Thin Line: The Eruv and Jewish Community in New
York and Beyond comes to an end at the Yeshiva University Museum
2013:
“Skokie: Invaded, But Not Conquered” is scheduled to be shown this afternoon at
the Illinois Museum and Education Center.
2013:
Led by Amy Barnum, Hadassah is scheduled to hold its annual dinner at Temple
Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2014(19th
of Tishrei, 5775): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
2014(19th
of Tishrei, 5775): Richard Larkin, “a longtime family friend” of Renee
Ghert-Zand, was shot and stabbed by Palestinian terrorists while waiting for a
bus in Jerusalem in attack that would lead to his death two weeks later. (As
reported by Renee Ghert-Zand)
2014:
In Scarsdale, NY, the funeral for Edward M. Davidowitz, retired Justice of the
Supreme Court of the State of New York is scheduled to be held Westchester
Reform Temple
2014:
As part of its series on the Jewish Experience in the Trenches and at the
Homefront” during WW I, the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to show La Grande Illusion (The Grand Illusion),
a 1937 French war film directed by Jean Renoir
2014:
“The principal photography” for “Get Ready For Ricki,” a cultural-wars comedy
featuring Ben Platt and Charlotte Rae “began today in Rye, NY.
2014:
The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host a presentation by Bill
Schneider entitled 2014 Election – Viewpoint from the Nation’s
Electionmeister.”
2014:
British lawmakers voted today to recognize Palestine as a state in a debate
unlikely to change government policy but laden with political symbolism. The
ayes carried the vote with 274 votes, against only 12 nays. (As reported by
Lazar Berman)
2014:
“Dozens of Arab rioters, primarily young men, were holed up today in the
Al-Aqsa Mosque atop the Temple Mount.”
2014:
According to a report made public today one of the few remaining Jewish
families in Syria “was secretly smuggled into Israel several months ago with
the aid of a network of Israeli businesspeople and has begun a new life in the
Jewish state.” (As reported by Gavriel Fiske)
2015(30th
of Tishrei, 5775): Rosh Chodesh 1 Cheshvan
2015(30th
of Tishrei, 5775): Eighty-eight-year-old commercial real estate mogul Julien
Studley passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2015:
Richard Larkin “an American educator who marched for civil rights in the 1960s
and advocated coexistence between Muslims and Jews when he moved to Israel” was
mortally wounded today “when two Palestinians boarded a bus in Jerusalem and
began shooting and stabbing passengers.”
2015:
The Center for Jewish History, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Fordham
University are scheduled to mark the 50th anniversary of the
issuance of “Nostra Aetate” at the Second Vatican council with a screening of
“Ida followed by discussion with Magda Teter, Fordham University; Jonathan
Brent, Executive Director of YIVO, and Father Guy Massie, Chair,
Catholic-Jewish Relations for the Diocese of Brooklyn.”
2015:
LBNY Productions is scheduled to present a performance by “Ehud Banai who will
perform inspiring songs that became Israeli rock n' roll anthems.”
2015:
In the UK, Rabbi Jonathan Romain is scheduled to lecture on “Royal Jews –
Jewish Life in Berkshire from the Readmission till Today.”
2015:
Violinist Gil Shaham is scheduled to perform this evening with the Philadelphia
Orchestra.
2016:
The chief Sephardi rabbi of Israel, the President of the Sharia Court of the
Palestinian Authority and two rabbis from a West Bank yeshiva’ were among the
guests who attended a meeting this evening at the home of Israel’s president.
2016:
“Bob Dylan was named the winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature today, in
a stunning announcement that for the first time bestowed the prestigious award
to someone primarily seen as a musician.”
2016:
“Two days after a terrorist shot and killed police Special Patrol
Adv.-St.-Sgt.-Maj. Yosef Kirma, 29, and Levana Malichi, 60, a former Knesset
employee, and wounded six others in a driveby attack in the capital on Sunday,
Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Meir Turgeman called for a complete shutdown of all Arab
construction in the city.”
2016:
As Jews transition from Yom Kippur to Sukkoth, The London Jewish Cultural
Centre is scheduled to host “an interactive learning experience” in which Dina
Brawer will present “the underlying theme behind each of the festivals.”
2016:
At a meeting in Paris, a committee of UNESCO approved a “resolution sponsored
by several Arab countries that referred to the Temple Mount and Western
Wall…only by their Muslim names and condemned Israel as ‘the occupying power’.”
2016:
“Mexico supported a resolution on Jerusalem at UNESCO’s executive board that
Israeli and Jewish leaders decried as denying the Jewish people’s historic
connection to the ancient city and to the Temple Mount, or Al-Haram Al-Sharif,
as most Muslims refer to the site.”
2016(11th
of Tishrei, 5777): Ninety-three-year-old socially conscious and documentary
photography Louis
Stettner
passed away today.”
2016:
“Wallflower” “a collaboration project between Inbal pinto and Avshalom Pollak
is scheduled to open at the Kay Theatre in College Park, MD.
2016:
Having defeated the Giants, the Chicago Cubs led by Theo Epstein the Jewish
baseball executive who worked miracles for the Boston Red Sox, turn their eyes
to the East and West coasts to see if they will be facing the Dodgers or the
Nationals in the next leg of their quest to break the World Series jinx.
2016:
The American Jewish Historical Society and Center for Jewish History are
scheduled to sponsor a Fathers and Sons concert featuring the Phoenix Chamber
Ensemble playing music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich and Weinberg.
2017(23rd of Tishrei, 5778): Simchat Torah
2017:
Once again the Children of Israel deal with the question of Jews and Friday the
13th.
https://www.thejewniverse.com/2017/why-friday-the-13th-is-a-lucky-day-for-jews/
http://joshuahammerman.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-friday-13th-is-lucky-day-for-jews.html
2017:
“In a New York Times op-ed titled ‘Being a Feminist in Harvey Weinstein’s
World’ published today, Jewish actress Mayim Bialik said she was shocked by the
scope of Holly producer Harvey Weinstein’s predatory behavior toward women…but
was not surprised by the fact he abused his position of power to do so.”
2017:
The Irish Times reported today that “according to the 2016 census” the
country’s “Jewish population rose by 573 people to 2,557 since 2011.”
2017:
Dance Tel Aviv is scheduled to host the first performance by Compagnie Thor
“directed by Belgian dancer Thierry Smits.”
2017:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Shabbat service
followed an hour later by a Shabbat Dinner.
2018:
At Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA, Joseph Heeren is scheduled to be called to
the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah. (Editor’s note – this is a cool kid who is one of
the most regular attendees of Shabbat services in the world)
2018:
In Jerusalem, the Eden-Tamir Concert is scheduled to host “We Love
Tchaikovsky,” the season’s opening concert.
2018(4th
of Cheshvan, 5779): Parashat Noah
2019(14th
of Tishrei, 5880): Erev Sukkoth
2019:
“According to the
regulations in force among Orthodox Jews, marriages may not be solemnized”
today, the “day preceding the Feast of Tabernacles.”
2019: At the Chicago YIVO Society Sarah
Lazarus Memorial Concert “Klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and pianist/composer
Donald Sosin are scheduled to perform the live original score from The Ancient
Law, a recently restored 1923 Weimar silent cinema classic.”
2019:
In Albany, CA, the Albany Community Center is scheduled to host “The Assault on
Jews Today,” a “discussion of contemporary anti-Semitism on the political left
and right. Facilitated by UC Berkeley Jewish history professor John M. Efron.”
2019:
In New Orleans, Gates of Prayer, the last congregation in the city to have “a
Judaica gift shop: is scheduled to “hold a clearance sale” under the leadership
of Janet Krane.
2019:
In Los Gatos, CA, the Addison-Penzak JCC is scheduled to host “Challah for
Hunger,” a “charity baking even for families with children two to eight.”
2019:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors including The World That We Knew, Alice
Hoffman’s “Holocaust novel,” Transaction Man by Nicholas Lemann whom I
first met when I was his Sunday School teacher at Temple Sinai in New Orleans, The
Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution by
Eric Foner, and We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins At Breakfast by
Jonathan Safran Foer
2020:
In Metairie, LA, the Jewish Endowment Foundation is scheduled to hold its
Executive Committee Meeting.
2020:
The S.F. Jewish Community Library and the SFSU Jewish studies program are
scheduled to host online as “SFSU Jewish studies Professor Fred Astren will
talk about the history of the Jewish religious movement that opposed rabbis and
the Talmud.”
2020:
JALSA (Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action) and JCAN MA (Jewish Climate
Action Network Massachusetts) are scheduled to host online a “Climate Action
Night.
2020:
The Sonoma, CA, JCC’s film festival is scheduled to kick off its 25th
anniversary year today with people being able to “watch from home or wherever
they may be sheltering currently” as a result of this year’s record forest
fires.
2020:
As part of the series “Agreeing to Disagree: How Jews and Christians Read
Scripture Differently” the Streicker Center is scheduled to Dr. Amy-Jill Levine
is scheduled to lecture on “Virginal Conception or a Pregnant Women: Jewish and
Christian Readings of Isaiah 7:14.”
2020: As part of the Webinar Series: Jews, Class and History, Professor Lila
Corwin Berman, Amy Schiller and Katherine Acey are scheduled to discuss
“1980’s: Philanthropic Establishment.”
2020:
“In Israel Coronavirus restrictions limiting public gatherings, namely protests
and prayer in public, are set to expire” today.
2021:
The Striecker Center is scheduled to host Adam Kirsch as he talks about his
newest book Come and Here.
2021:
The Breman is scheduled to host “Mindy Weisel author of AFTER: The Obligation
of Beauty in Conversation with Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat.”
2021:
The Jewish Film Festival at the Jacob Burns Film Center is scheduled to host
the last showing of “The Crossing.”
2022:
In Boston, the Vilna Shul is scheduled to host a private tour and welcome
reception at its special sukkah designed by artist Caron Tabb followed by live
jazz performed by The Warren Pettey Trio from The Berklee College of Music.
2022:
In Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is scheduled to host “Pizza in the
Hut,” a “Sukkot celebration for 20- and 30-somethings with dinner, drinks and a
holiday trivia game.”
2022:
Tamar Eisenman a blues-folk-rock guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer,
born in Jerusalem is scheduled to play at Room 31 at Arlo NoMad in New York tonight
2022:
LBI is scheduled to host a presentation by Michael Lahr and Gregorij H. von
Leitis the life of Lew Nussimbaum the became Essa Bey when he converted to
Islam
2022:
Congregation Rodef Sholom and Taube Center for Jewish Peoplehood at Marin JC
are scheduled to host a screening of “Renewal,” a “40-minute, 2015 documentary
about a Jerusalem ballet company that focuses on environmental activism”.
2022:
Holons Sounds of Childhood Festival is scheduled to come to an end.
2022:
The 38th Haifa Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of
“The Black Pharaoh, the Savage and the Princess.”
2022(18th
of Tishrei, 5783): Fourth Day of Sukkoth
2023:
A full night at Temple Judea with a Pre-Oneg, Shabbat worship with Rabbi Yaron
and Cantor Abbie and a Shabbat dinner immediately after services.
2023:
The Chelsea Film Festival which will showcase four titles directed by Israeli
Filmmakers is scheduled to continue today.
2023:
“Staff Sgt. Itay Avraham Ron, 20, a Golani soldier from Ness Ziona, who was
killed on October 7 battling the Hamas invasion of the Nahal Oz IDF outpost”
was buried today in Ness Ziona.
2023:
The Americans and the Holocaust traveling exhibition which has been on display
at Jacksonville Public Library (Jacksonville, FL), Snow College, Karen H.
Huntsman Library (Ephraim, UT), Pikes Peak Library District (Colorado Springs,
CO) and Marshall Public Library (Marshall, IL) is scheduled to come to an end
today.
2023:
In New Orleans the Federation’s Katz-Phillips Tolmas Leadership Retreat is
scheduled to begin today.
2023:
Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to host a Shabbat Service in Solidarity With
Israel with Ambassador Dennis Ross.
2023:
Friday falls on the 13th which many connect with bad luck but for
Jews 13 is the age for being called to the Torah, the number of months in the
lunar calendar and the “number of attributes
of God laid out in Exodus to explain why God forgave us for that whole golden
calf episode.” (As reported by Ilana Sichel)
2023:
JWI (Jewish Women International is scheduled to host a
virtual Shabbat candle lighting as a way of coming “together as a community at
this difficult time.”
2023:
As October 13 begins in Israel, more accounts of horror inflicted by the Hamas
terrorists emerge including the murder of 90-year-old Gina Semiatich, who was
forcibly taken and killed by the Hamas
terrorists at Kibbutz Kissufim, U.S.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is scheduled to meet with the Prime Minister,
terrorists continue “fire barrages at the south” and “Israelis abroad are urged
to take care as Hamas calls on supporters to ‘day of rage’ today.
(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)
2024:The Santa Fe
Distinguished Lecture Series and the American Sephardi Federation are scheduled
to present ‘Sontinuity: Sephardi Transmission Through Song & Sound.”
2024:
Israelis prepare to cope with the aftermath of massive drone attacks launched
on Yom Kippur.
2024:
All decent people mourn the death of Staff Sgt. Ittai Fogel, 22, of the 401st
“Iron Tracks” Brigade, from the West Bank settlement of Yakir who served as a
tank commander in the brigade’s 46th Armored Battalion and was killed on Yom
Kippur by those seeking to destroy the state of Israel.
2024:
Yaakov Katz is scheduled to be interviewed by Carly Maisel about “A Year Since
October 7th: A Local and International Assessment” in a Lockdown University
webinar.
2024:
At the Weitzman Nation Museum of American Jewish History, the exhibition “October
Seventh; A Visual and Sound Journey from the ANU Museum is scheduled to come to
an end.
2024:
As October 13th 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 372 in captivity while Jerusalem braces for more rocket
attacks by Hezbollah (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)