August 20
430: The Vandals, a Germanic tribe, established a kingdom in North Africa. The Jews lived there peacefully and flourished until the Almohad conquest in the 11th century.
636: Arab forces defeat the Byzantine Christians at the Battle of Yarmuk. This battle fought only four years after the death of Mohammed opened the road the road to Damascus. After seizing Syria, the Arabs under Khalid bin Walid turned south and took Jerusalem and all of the territory that is now Jordan and Israel. This area had been under control of the Christian Byzantine Empire. The victory at Yarmuk led to the first great wave of Moslem conquest that would sweep across Egypt, North Africa and across the Mediterranean to Spain. Conditions for the Jews improved compared to life under the Byzantines. The Golden Age of Spain was the ultimate high point of this change. But life under Islam was uneven for Jews and they suffered in many different areas depending upon which group of Islamists was in control.
917: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria decisively defeated a Byzantine army at the Battle of Acheloos. This was a plus for the Jews since Jews had been moving to the Bulgarian Empire since the 7th century to avoid the persecution they were enduring under the Byzantines.
1000: The foundation of the Hungarian state, Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary. Archaeological evidence indicates the existence of Jews in Pannonia and Dacia, who came there in the wake of the Roman legions. Jewish historical tradition, however, only mentions the Jews in Hungary Germany Bohemia Moravia
1100:Using the Venetian fleet, Tancred and Daimbert conquer Haifa during the first crusade.
1153: Bernard of Clairvaux, the monk known as St. Bernard who laid down principles in how to deal with Jews at the time of the Second Crusade passed away today. He believed that Jews should not physically attacked but were to be punished by being forced to wander the world until they were ultimately converted. At the same time, he followed the party line when it came to “stealing from the Jews” by agreeing that those who went on Crusade did not have to pay their debts.
1559: Connation of Frederick as King of Denmark and Norway who barred Jews from his realm when in 1569 he “ordered that all foreigners in Denmark had to affirm their commitment to 25 articles of faith central to Lutheranism on pain of deportation, forfeiture of all property, and death.”
1642: The ashes of Ferdiand Francis, a converted Bohemian Jew whose original name was Chaim or Joachim, were cast into the Danuabe at Vienna. He was alledged to have been the author of “Toldoth Jeshu” for which he was condemned to be hung. Just before he was to die, Francis renounced his conversion to Christianity for which he was horribly tortured before he finally died.
1656: Parliamentary diarist Thomas Burton was re-elected to the House of Commons. Burton’s diary which provided a record of Parliamentary proceedings for three years (1656-1659) includes an entry on the relationship between Cromwell and Jewish merchants including Antonio Fernandez Carvajal
“The Jews, those able and general intelligencers whose intercourse with the Continent Cromwell had before turned to profitable account, he now conciliated by a seasonable benefaction to their principal agent [Carvajal] resident in England.”
1671: Leopold I revoked the decree he had issued in April expelling the Jews from the portion Hungary controlled by the Habsburgs.
1684: A riotous mob attacked the ghetto of Buda (that's the half of Budapest Danube , which was joined with Pest on the left bank in 1873). During the war between Venice Turkey Budapest Budapest
1771: Birthdate of Schonche Rothschild, first child of A.M. Rothschild.
1806: The Assembly of Notables presented their collective response to Napoleon’s questions.
1807: Rothschild writes to his son Nathan in England
1820: Birthdate of German physician Ferdinand Falkson.
1826: “A new edict from Pope Leo XII forbids Jews from leaving their ghetto in Rome without a written permit from the Criminal Tribunal. While outside the ghetto, Jews are forbidden from speaking in a ‘familiar way’ with Christians.” (As reported by Austin Cline)
1833: Birthdate of Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States. As President, Harrison had Secretary of State James G. Blaine issue instructions to the American minister to Russia to “exert his influence” to stop Czar Alexander III from implementing his draconian anti-Jewish regulations. In 1891, a Christian minster from Illinois named William E. Blackstone “presented a Memorial to” President Benjamin and his Secretary of State “which called upon them to exert their influence with the powers of Europe ‘to secure the holding, at any early date, of an international conference to consider the condition of the Israelites and their claims to Palestine as their ancient home.’”
1839 While relaxing at Boulogne, Giacomo Meyerbeer met for the first time with Richard Wagner for the first time at which time Wagner read to Meyerbeer from the libretto of “Rienzi” and Meyerbeer agreed to look through the score which he subsequently recommended for performance at Dresden
1845: Thirty three year old author and editor Rufus Wilmot Griswold married Charlotte Myers, a 45 year old Jewess from Charleston, South Carolina.
1852:It was reported today that "the French counsel is still prosecuting a demand for the satisfaction for the murder of a Roman Catholic priest at Aleppo. It was believed for a long time he was murdered by Jews, but it is now said that the Counsel has evidence that he was murdered by members of the city police for his success in building a Christian church.” The police were Moslems. The Jews were convenient by-standers. During the notorious Damascus Affair, Isaac de Picciotto, was accused of having offered to sell the priest’s blood to Jews living in Aleppo. He was the nephew of Elias de Picciotto, a prominent member of the Aleppo Jewish community and the Austrian counsel. This would be the last involvement of Aleppo with a Blood Libel. In 1875, an Armenian boy went missing and the charge surfaced again. Fortunately, he was found in a nearby village.
1852: It is reported that Lionel de Rothschild is planning to resign from the House of Commons since he has not been permitted to take his seat.
1856:In "English Celebrities" a column published today, the author provides a description of Benjamin Disraeli which includes the following, "Nor is his faithfulness to his friendships less remarkable than his devoted attention to his old and silly wife...as Disraeli says 'I owe her everything. But some men forget these things. Not so Disraeli...at no party is he to be found without fat, middle-age, gray-haired lady, hanging on his arm. But this domestic love is an essentially Jewish trait."
1860: Birthdate of Raymond Poincaré, the philo-Semitic French political leader who served as President of France during World War I.
1871: It was reported today that Rabbi Raphael D.C. Lewin who has served as spiritual leader for Mikveh Israel in Savannah and Temple Israel in Brooklyn, has expressed his displeasure with some of his colleagues in The New Era magazine. According to Lewin, there is more to being a rabbi than “sermonizing…performing marriages, burying the dead and receiving large salaries and handsome presents. Rabbis have a duty to educate their congregants about Jewish literature and beliefs.
1871: According to reports published today the Jewish Times contends that that the Chicago synagogue that fired Rabbi Herzman for eating ice cream had every right to do so. Herzman had been engaged to lead an Orthodox congregation. It was obvious from his behavior that he did not respect these views and the synagogue was well within its rights to remove the hypocrite.
1872: A review panning “The Bells” was published today. “The Bells” is a one act play imported from France that centers around the consequences suffered by the protagonist for having murdered a Polish Jew.
1874: In Indianapolis, Indiana, George C. Harding, editor and proprietor of the Indianapolis Herald fired five shots at Sol Mortiz a prominent Jewish merchant in broad daylight this afternoon. One of the shots shattered his left elbow and another passed through his lung and lodged in his chest. The shooting took place after Harding found out that Mortiz had taken advantage of his 18 year old daughter.
1875: Birthdate of Shaul Tchernichovsky a Russian-born Hebrew poet considered one of the great Hebrew poets, identified with nature poetry, and as a poet greatly influenced by the culture of ancient Greece.
1879(1st of Elul, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1880: It was reported today that there “an ugly rumor” in England that “a now well-known firm of Hebrew jewelers emerged mysteriously from obscurity to importance in the trade within twelve months” of Lady Ellesmere being robbed while she en route visit the Queen at Windsor Castle. The loss totaled $150,000. (Unsubstantiated claims like this were often more inidicative of ant-Semitism, envy or both)
1882: It was reported today that the Hebrew Union of Raleigh, NC, had contributed five dollars to the fund for the Garfield Memorial Hospital.
1884: Unidentified hooligans tried to burn down a building on Clinton Street that housed the grocery story own by Solomon Ellison. The five story tenement was home to countless Jewish families.
1887(30thof Av, 5647): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1887: Abraham Reiter of Greensburg, Indiana and A.B. Frank of San Antonio, TX each contributed $10.00 to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
1887: It was reported today that “there was tumult” among those who think they have a claim to Julius Weisbaden, the miser who died in Bellevue and was buried without any service. The estate was thought to be worth $40,000 but it may be only worth $2,800.
1890: Isadore Loeb, Michel Erlanger, Dr. W. Lowenthal, C.E. Cullen, Colonel Vanivkeroy and Dr. E. Schwarzfeld attended a conference in the Paris residence of Baron de Hirsch to discuss the settlement of Jewish refugees in Argentina at the end of which Cullen, Lowenthall and Vanikeroy were appointed as a commission to visit the country with the expectation that they would submit a report within six months on the feasibility of the project.
1890: The Sanitarium for the Hebrew Children will host there next free excursion today.
1890: In Little Rock, AR, Miss Dora Vorminsky, a prominent Jewish socialite beat Louis Englander a Jew who worked as a clerk at Lasker Brothers’ with a cowhide whip because she had been told that he had made statements damaging to her reputation.
1891: Somebody known only as “E.S.W.” has sent $2 to the New York times “for destitute Jews.”
1891: “The Socialist Congress” published today described the meeting in Brussels where the delegates discussed labor’s attitude toward the “Jewish question” and anti-Semitism. The Congress was ready to condemn anti-Semitism but it also deplored the that several of the oppressors of labor were Jews and Jewish bankers.
1893: Sh'chita was banned in Switzerland. In those cantons where there is a small Jewish population, “the Swiss Hebrews” have “unanimously” agreed to “abandon eating meat” and have “put themselves on a vegetarian and poultry diet.”(The ban is still in place and the Jewish community gets its meat from several different countries.)
1893: Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor opened today’s meeting of delegates from 30 labor organizations who looking for means to “relieve the distress among the unemployed workingmen” of New York who were enduring the Depression of 1893.
1893: Joseph Peel was arrested today on charges that he had poisoned the horses of Max Cooper and G. Feinberg, two Orthodox Jewish peddlers with whom he had been partners.
1893: It was reported that a mass meeting of the unemployed, socialists and anarchist Joseph Barondees called for “the abolishment of prison labor” and Mayer Schoenfeld said “that the Jews would have to join with the other trade unions if they wanted to accomplish anything.”
1893: Between 1,500 and 1,800 people responded to the call of the Chicago Tailors’ Union for a mass meeting of the unemployed at Metropolitan Hall. “The majority of the gathering was composed of Jews” with the rest being “Germans, Poles and Italians, with a few Americans.”
1894: It was reported today that Miss Maria V. Lawrence is the sole survivor of the late Eugene Lawrence, the historian whose work included The Jews and Their Persecutors and who was unmarried.
1895: The will of the late Joseph Lewis was filled in the Surrogate’s office today. According to the document, the residue of the estate valued at $20,000 is given to his widow for life and that upon her death the residue will go to his nieces including Julia D. Davis and Leontine Hepner and to his nephews including O.A. Lithauer.
1896: Birthdate of Jacob Glatstein, the Polish born American Yiddish poet and literary critic.
1896: The Summernight’s festival hosted by District Grand Lodge No.1, Independent Order Free Sons of Israel will take place today at Harlem River Park.
1897: Disturbances were begun today “by the fanatical opponents of the Jews in Pilsen, Boehmia.
1897: In New York, Myer S. Isaacs, the Secretary of the Palestine Society said “that he was sure there had been…no misappropriation of funds by Rabbi Salant” in the distribution of funds sent by American Jews to help their co-religionists in Jerusalem because he “is a man of the highest character.”
1899: “The Chuetas of Majorca” published today traced the history of the Chuetas, a 15th century group of persecuted Jewish refugees who had fled to Majorca for protection” and who appeared to embrace Catholicism. Calling them Chuetas was a term of derision since that word is the diminutive for ’chuya’ the Majorcan word for bacon. (Reminds one of the term marrano which means pig)
1899: “Zionists’ Congress Votes Down the Proposal of New York Delegates” published today described the decision of the Third Congress of Zionist to reject a proposal to by two delegates from New York that Island of Cyprus should be the site of colonization by the Jews.
1901: The First Congress of Caucasus Zionists was held in Tbilisi. Rabbi David Baazov led Georgian Zionism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1903, Baazov attended the Sixth Zionist Congress in Basel
1903: Barney Pelty pitched his first major league game as a member of the St. Louis Brown
1904: Birthdate of Judikje Simons, later Judikje Themans- Simons, one the Jewish members of the Dutch ladies’ gymnastic team which won the Gold at the 1928 Olympics. She and her husband, as well as her two children were murdered at Sobibor in 1943.
1912(7th of Elul, 5672):Walter Goodman, British painter, illustrator and author, passed away.
1915(9th of Elul, 5675): Paul Ehrlich, the man who discovered the treatment for syphilis, passed away. Born in Germany in 1854 Ehrlich gained famed for his work in immunology and chemotherapy. He won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1901. He received numerous honors from the German government. He was 61 at the time of his death.
1915: Leo Frank “was buried” today “in the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Glendale, Queens, New York.
1917(2nd of Elul, 5677):Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer, known as Adolph von Baeyer, the first Jew to ever receive the Nobel Prize, passed away today. “Baeyer was a German chemist, acknowledged in 1905 for synthesizing dye indigo. He was also awarded the Davie Medal by the Royal Society of London in 1881, for his work with indigo. Baeyer was born on October 31, 1835, in Berlin, Germany. Initially, at the Berlin University, Baeyer studied mathematics and physics. Nevertheless, he soon discovered his passion for chemistry and transferred to Heidelberg to study with Robert Bunsen in 1856. Bunsen was a famous chemist, who is best known for perfecting the burner. In Heidelberg, Baeyer studied in the laboratory of August Kekule, a famous organic chemist. In 1858, Baeyer received his doctorate in chemistry from Berlin University. In 1871, he became a Professor at Strasbourg and, in 1875, Baeyer became the Chemistry Professor at the University of Munich. In addition to synthesizing dye indigo, some of Baeyer’s other achievements include the discovery of the phthanein dyes, investigation of polyacetylenes, oxonium salts, and uric acid derivatives. Bayer synthesized barbituic acid in 1864. This acid is used in surgery as a sedative or hypnotic. Baeyer is also renowned for his work in theoretical chemistry, developing the ‘strain’ (Spannung) theory of triple bonds and the strain theory in small carbon rings. Baeyer was also the founder of Baeyer Chemical Co”.
1918:Birthdate of Hanna Poznanskia, who as British psychoanalyst Hanna Segal,Hanna Segal, “helped change child psychology in the United States by explaining and popularizing the play therapy techniques developed by her mentor, the seminal psychoanalytic thinker Melanie Klein.:
1919: Birthdate of Walter Bernstein an American screenwriter and film producer who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s.
1919(25th of Av, 5679): Sixteen year old Yechiel Bernhard passed away today.
1919(25th of Av, 5679): Mrs. Lttle Lewenstein passed away today.
1920: Israel
1921:Leo "Lindy" Lindermann and his wife Clara opened “Lindy’s”, the iconoclastic New York restaurant, at1626 Broadway, between 49th and 50th Streets
1922: Birthdate of Bernard Sahlins, “a founder of the Second City, the Chicago nightclub that helped to establish improvisational sketch comedy as a rudiment of American entertainment and created a resident troupe that propelled the careers of myriad funnymen and women.” (As reported by Bruce Weber)
1922: Birthdate of Judith Craner Protas the native of Brooklyn with degrees from Barnard and Yale who became a leading advertising executive with Doyle Dane Bernbach and told the world that you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy “Levy’s real Jewish rye.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1923: Birthdate of Chicago native Sheldon Bernard Keller, an Emmy-winning comedy writer whose work included “Caesar’s Hour,” one of the jewels of 1950s television” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1927: Birthdate of Stanley Anselm Bosworth a self-described “old wizard” who shaped his own Hogwarts in Brooklyn in the form of Saint Ann’s School, which rapidly gained national prominence for its free-form approach to education and its success in sending graduates to top colleges. Born in Manhattan he was the child of Jewish immigrants from Russia who had changed their name from Boscovitz to better assimilate. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1927: Birthdate of Shraga Feivel Gruberger, the Brooklyn native who gained fame as Rabbi Philip S. Berg, “dean of the worldwide Kabbalah Centre Orgization.”
1928: State Supreme Court Alfred Frankenthaler officiated at the marriage of Jascha Heiftiz and Florence Vidor. The private ceremony uniting the 28 year old violinist and the motion picture actress took place the Mayfair House on Park Avenue in Manhattan. This is his first marriage and her second.
1929: As the Arab riots continued a late-night meeting initiated by the Jewish leadership, at which acting high commissioner Harry Luke, Jamal al-Husayni, and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi were present, failed to produce a call for an end to the violence.
1929: Premiere of Irving Thalberg’s “Hallelujah!” “one of the first all-black films by a major studio" featuring the muisc of Irving Berlin.
1929:Haganah leaders proposed to provide defense for 600 Jews of the Old Yishuv in Hebron, or to help them evacuate. However, the leaders of the Hebron community declined these offers, insisting that they trusted the A'yan (Arab notables) to protect them.
1930: Dr. Jacob Levitsky, a math teacher in Jerusalem, has won Yale’s annual $2000 prize Sterling Fund. Levitsky is a graduate of Tel Aviv High School and the University of Goettingen
1930: The General Executive Committee of RSFSR accepted the decree that led to the creation of a Jewish administrative territorial unit in the Asiatic portion of the Soviet Union that would come to be known as The Jewish Autonomous Oblast.
1933: Gabriel Terra, President of Uruguay issued a special decree, permitting 500 Jewish families, fleeing from Germany, to enter the country. The Jewish Immigrant Aid Society had petitioned the President on behalf of the country’s Jewish community.
1933: In Montevideo, Vos Hebres (The Hebrew Voice), defended the Jews against attacks which followed permission being given for the immigration of 500 German-Jewish families.
1933:The Jewish National Fund announced that it has reclaimed 300,000 dunams of land (75,000 acres) in the Emek since 1923, and that 10,000 people are settled on it.
1933:The Keren Hayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund) reported that it has collected in the past two years £400,077; of which the United States contributed one-third (£133,545); during the 12 years of its existence, the Fund has raised £4,821,510 of which the United States contributed one-half (£2,409,392).
1933: American Jewish Congress declared a boycott against Nazi Germany
1935: “A conference of ministers was held today to discuss the negative economic effects of Party actions against Jews during which Hitler argued that such effects would cease once the government decided on a firm policy against the Jews.”
1935:The world Zionist leader, Dr. Nahum Sokolow, with almost the first words of his presidential speech tonight shattered reports that the nineteenth biennial Zionist congress would sidestep the situation of German Jews, out of deference to delegates from the Reich, who were among the representatives from forty-three nations.
1936: Premiere of “Romeo and Juliet’ a cinematic version of Shakespeare’s drama directed by George Cukor, produced by Irving Thalberg and starring Leslie Howard (Leslie Howard Steiner) as Romeo.
1938(23rd of Av, 5698): Communist Party loyalist Semyon Dimanstein fell victim to one of Stalin’s purges today. After six months in prison, he was sentenced to death today and then executed. He was rehabilitated two years after Stalin died.
1938: Hank Greenberg hits three homers, bringing his total to 41 which puts him ahead of Babe Ruth’s record breaking 1927 pace.
1939:General debate in the twenty-first World Zionist Congress had to be suspended today after an announcement at the morning's meeting of a decision by the court of the congress to reduce the number of mandates allotted to the Palestine delegations from 133 to 127.
1940: Leon Trotsky is attacked by an assassin in Mexico City
1940: Premiere of “Boomtown” co-starring Hedy Lamar with music by Waxman
1941:A low-rent United States Housing' Authority development in East St. Louis, Il, has been named in memory of Samuel Gompers, longtime president of the American Federation of Labor.
1941: For the next 48 hours about 4300 Jews are sent from Paris Drancy France Drancy
1941(26th of Av, 5701): Several Jews were pulled from their homes in Sabac by the Germans, then brought into the street and shot. The Germans made other Jews come carry the dead bodies through the town, and then hang them from electricity poles. This attacked was the beginning of a series of attacks which lasted for 2 months and resulted in several thousands of Jewish murders.
1942 The ZOB (Jewish Fighting Organization) attempts to assassinate Joseph Szerynski, commander of the Jewish police in the Warsaw Ghetto. Later in the day, other ZOB members set fire to several Warsaw
1942(6th of Elul, 5702): The Jewish community from Falenica, Poland, is liquidated at the Treblinka death camp.
1942: The Nazis began deporting the Jews of Kielce, Poland to Treblinka,
1942: For the next four days gas/disinfectant expert Kurt Gerstein observes gas executions at the Treblinka, one day after witnessing similar deaths at Belzec.
1943: Pvt. Ed Koch writes in his diary today complaining “about an inspection he called a huge waste of time. “It took about an hour to get everything ready for display and then the (colonel) merely walked swiftly up and down the aisles and glanced at the tents once in a while,” he wrote. “It was the biggest example of a waste of time that I have ever seen in the Army.” (As reported by Forwards staff)
1943(18th of Av, 5703): Three thousand Jews are executed during a revolt at Glebokie, Belorussia.
1944: During World War II, Soviet forces “made an all-out attack” on Nazi forces in Romania – an attack that would be successful and help to save a significant percentage of the Jewish population.
1944: The United States Army Air Force bombs Auschwitz III (oil and rubber plant), three miles from Auschwitz I (main camp) and five miles from Birkenau, the Auschwitz death camp. On the ground below, Jewish slave laborers, including 15 year-old Elie Wiesel, cheered the bombing. In his best-selling memoir, Night, Wiesel described their reaction: "We were not afraid. And yet, if a bomb had fallen on the blocks [the prisoners' barracks], it alone would have claimed hundreds of victims on the spot. But we were no longer afraid of death; at any rate, not of that death. Every bomb that exploded filled us with joy and gave us new confidence in life. The raid lasted over an hour. If it could only have lasted ten times ten hours!"
1952(28th of Av, 5712): Yitzhak Sadeh, the founder of the Palmach and a hero of the War of Independence passed away at the age of 62. While a name unknown to most non-Israelis. Yitzhak Sadeh was a brave man who played a key role in the founding of the state of Israel Russia Israel Lubin , Poland land of Israel Israel Jerusalem Haifa Jerusalem Israel Israel St. Petersburg Mount Tavor
1952: Work started on a number of concrete dams, expected to hold back the rainwater accumulating in the Negev wadis during the winter. This was part of the Zionist dream to make the Negev green.
1952: Birthdate of American singer-song writer Doug Fieger, the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the band the Knack, whose enduring 1979 hit “My Sharona” has become an emblem of the new wave era in rock and a prime example of the brevity of pop fame.” His father was Jewish.
1960: Larry Sherry pitches the Dodgers past the Cards for his 12thwin of the season
1964: President Lyndon Johnson signed an anti-poverty bill that would commit almost one billion dollars to the “War on Poverty.” The measure had the support of numerous Jewish political leaders and Jewish voters. This was an era when Jewish voters were drawn to politicians who supported a society that sought to care for the “widow, the orphan and the stranger in your midst.”
1971: FBI begins covert investigation of journalist Daniel Schorr. Schorr would become a member of Richard Nixon’s infamous enemies list. Earlier in his career, Schoor had been thrown out of the Soviet Union for his news broadcasts. This makes him one of the few people to be declared an enemy by both the Soviet Communists and right-wing American Anti-Communists.
1971:The Brighton Regency Synagogue was “designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.”
1977: Despite the initial rejection by both Israel Jordan West Bank could yet get off the ground.
1977: The French government appeared to be reconciled to a new period of chilly relations after Israel
1977: The US Central Intelligence Agency told Congressional investigators that enriched uranium, designed to build atomic bombs, was mysteriously diverted from the privately owned American plant to Israel
1979: It was reported today that Yigal Yadin, Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister rejected Andrew Young’s characterization his government as “stubborn and intransigent” and “pursuing and expansionist policy” when he appeared on ABC’s “Issue and Answers.”
1980: The UN Security Council condemns (14-0, US abstains) Israeli declaration that all of Jerusalem Jerusalem Jordan
1982: During the Lebanese Civil War a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the PLO withdrawal from Lebanon. The Lebanese Civil War was conflict between Christian and Moslem Arabs. It was part of centuries old struggle for power that flared up periodically. The PLO had come to Lebanon after having been thrown out of Jordan where it had attempted to overthrow the government. The PLO was a destabilizing force in Lebanon as its fighters took the side of the Moslems and tried to use Lebanon as a base for terrorist attacks against Israel. The PLO had to go because of its role in destroying the social fabric of Lebanon which had been an oasis of Western progress and civility in among the violent Arab dictatorships of the Middle East.
1983: In Los Angeles, Lynn and Richard Garfield gave birth to actor Andrew Garfield whose “paternal grandparents were from Jewish immigrant families who had moved to London from Eastern Europe (Poland, Russia, and Romania), and whose family surname was originally "Garfinkel".
1985: Israel Iran US
1985: The New York Times features a review (see below) of Jerusalem: Rebirth of a City by Martin Gilbert, a first rate book by a first rate author and historian. There is no such thing as “a bad” Martin Gilbert book since the works of this author range from very good to great.
"Mr. Gilbert has written a lively book, full of excellent quotations -roundly outspoken and often eloquent in the 19th-century manner - and providing glimpses of figures as diverse as Herman Melville and the future Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, along with many curious minor characters. It is also a handsome book, decked out with a large number of striking photographs."
1988: In Chicago
1991(9th of Elul, 5751): Lenore Strunsky Gershwin widow of Ira Gershwin passed away. She was 90 years old at the time of her death.
1991:“Approximately 500 mostly young blacks returned to the scene” of the accident in Crown Heights where Gavin Cato had died. “Vehicles were set ablaze, a shoe store was ransacked, and reporters and photographers were beaten.
1993: After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Peace Accords were signed. A more public signing ceremony would take place in Washington in September of 1993.
1998: Journalist Seymour “Hersh strongly criticized the destruction of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory, the largest pharmaceutical factory in Sudan—providing about half the medicines produced in Sudan—by United States cruise missiles during Bill Clinton's presidency.”
2000: The New York Times book section featured reviews of Touching Peace: From the Oslo Accord to a Final Agreement by Yossi Beilin, Cruel Banquet: The Life and Loves of Frida Strindberg by Monica Strauss and Dream Stuff, a collection of nine short stories by David Malouf, the Australian author with the Lebanese Christian father and the Sephardic Jewish mother.
2001(1st of Elul, 5761): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2002: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Hebrew University
2004:A Walking tour today styled ''Emma Lazarus and the Jewish Heritage of Washington Square'' passes the former home of Emma Lazarus, the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory and the Hanging Elm of Washington Square Park.
2005(14th of Av, 5765): Abraham S. Goldstein, an influential scholar of criminal law and former dean of the Yale Law School Woodbridge , Connecticut Law School
2005: The evacuation of settlers and their supporters from Gaza Israel
2006: The Sunday New York Times book section includes a review of I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron.
2006: The Chicago Tribunereported that Clara Ambrus-Baire, a woman whose family shielded Jews in Budapest Israel Budapest Buffalo
2006: Kohenet, the Hebrew Priestess Institute launched its first training institute in Accord, NY.(As reported by Jewish Women’s Archiv)
2007: “The Facebook Effect” is Newsweek Magazine’s cover story. The story describes how 23 year old “Mark Zuckerberg has already changed the way millions of us connect. How he’s facing a challenge; how to turn an online obsession into a fixture of he digital age” If the pundits and prophets are correct, Zuckerberg will join the likes of Einstein and Freud as one who has brought a sea change in the course of Western, if not world, Civilization.
2007: In an article favorably evaluating the performance of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, The New York Timesincluded the following. “But to understand Mr. Bernanke’s worldview, one must go back to his hometown, Dillon , S.C. North Jersey and South Florida . Dillon is known as the home of South of the Border, the Tijuana-themed tourist stop and a Mecca of American roadside kitsch. Mr. Bernanke, 53, grew up in Dillon in the 1950s and ’60s, the son of the local pharmacist and a member of one of the few Jewish families in the largely agricultural region. He says his home was the only kosher household in a 50-mile radius. His mother had meat delivered from a butcher in Charlotte , N.C. Harvard University
2007:A database with millions of documents from more than 50 concentration camps and prisons - which include books recording Jewish deaths, transportation lists and medical reports - was handed over to Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority and Washington Holocaust Memorial Museum Washington
2008:After a disappointing run for Israel Israel
2008: The New York Times included a review of The Grift by Debra Ginsberg.
2008:About 50 rabbis in charge of supervising the kosher slaughter and processing of meat at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville walked off the job today to protest recent pay cuts.
2008: A former Agriprocessors Inc. supervisor pleaded guilty today to helping his employer hire illegal immigrants. Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35, a former upper-level supervisor at the kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids
2008:The decision by Perth Magistrate Barbara Lane today to allow the extradition of Karoly (Charles) Zentai to Hungary to stand trial for the murder of Jewish teenager Peter Balazs in Budapest on November 8, 19 44, paves the way for an unprecedented, historic victory for Holocaust justice in Australia. Assuming, as expected, that Zentai's appeals against the decision will be rejected, all that will be missing will be the signature of Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus for Australia to succeed for the first time ever in taking successful legal action against a Holocaust perpetrator living in the country.
2009: Rosh Chodesh Elul (First Day)
2009: The final of a 3 part series of security briefings for leaders of Jewish institutions in Northern Virginia sponsored by ADL, JCRC & the Jewish Federation Learn featuring presentations y Local Police District Commanders, FBI Senior Personnel, and national Jewish security experts about the latest threats to Jewish communal security and how to be prepared takes place at Congregation Ahavat Israel (Fairfax Chabad) in Fairfax, VA.
2009:In a video-taped message to be screened today at a rally to be held at Rabbi Reuven Elbaz's Or Hachaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Shas mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef lashes out at the Supreme Court for rejecting former minister Shlomo Benizri's appeal to shorten his four-year prison sentence for corruption charges.
2009:Today the High Court of Justice rejected a petition accusing the Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims Assets of breaking the law by allocating funds to organizations that were not solely dedicated to the welfare of Holocaust survivors.
2009(30th of Av, 5769): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2009(30th of Av, 5769): Controversial Israeli entertainment personality Dudu Topaz took his own life today.
2010: U.S. premiere of “The Switch” a comedy by Allan Loeb and co-starring Jeff Golblumb
2010:"A Film Unfinished" Directed by Yael Harsonski is scheduled to premiere at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema in New York City.
2010:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have been invited to Washington to begin direct peace talks on Sept. 2, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a press conference today. The meeting will serve to "re-launch direct negotiations to resolve all final status issues which we believe we can complete in one year," Clinton said.
2010:Harvard University said that it had found a prominent researcher, Marc Hauser, “solely responsible” for eight instances of scientific misconduct. Hauser is the son of French Jew who survived the Holocaust.
2011: Senator Joe Lieberman is scheduled to attend Glen Beck’s Restoring Courage rally in Jerusalem. A self-proclaimed supporter of Israel, Beck has also compared Reform Rabbis to Islamic radicals.
2011(20thof Av, 5771): Eighty-seven year old, Dr. William B. Kannel, the cardiologist was the director of the Framingham Heart Study, passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2011(20thof Av, 5771): Eighty-seven year old Rafael Halperin who gained fame as “The Rasslin Rabbi” before founding Optica Halperin, “the largest eyeglass store chain In Israel.”
2011: Gabriella Elizabeth Thalblum (Gavriella Elisheva) was called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA.
2011: A musical Havdalah service followed by a performance by Emilio Estevez is scheduled to take place at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC.
2011:Hamas announced early today they were no longer committed to a more than two-year de facto truce with Israel since the end of a war in early 2009.
2011:A Grad rocket directly struck a home in the southern city of Be'er Sheva tonight, killing one person and seriously wounding four. A number of others are being treated for shock. Another Grad rocket fired at Be'er Sheva was intercepted by the Iron Dome system. Also this evening, two children were lightly wounded when four Grad rockets landed in Ofakim. The Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the Be'er Sheva rocket attacks while Hamas claimed responsibility for the Ofakim rocket attacks
2011:Around 4,000 demonstrators participated in a silent march in Tel Aviv tonight to protest the high cost of living in Israel.
2011:Egypt's ambassador to Israel will remain in the country, Foreign Ministry officials said this evening, as the diplomatic crisis vis-à-vis Cairo in the wake of earlier terror attacks appeared to be waning.
2012: TheKlezKanada Laurentian Retreat, which this year will be dedicated to the memory of Adrienne Cooper z”l is scheduled to begin today.
2012: The Nazareth Orchestra is scheduled to perform at Hazan Hall this evening. The orchestra, “conducted by Dr. Nizar Raduwan, will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Egyptian diva Asmahane with the beloved songs of Umm Kulthum, Asmahane and Layla Morad performed by orchestra soloist Hiba Battihish and Rula Azar, who will be performing with the orchestra for the first time.”
2012:University heads are seeking the reversal of a July decision in favor of granting university status to Ariel’s academic institute, filing a petition with the High Court of Justice to that effect Monday.
2012:The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and IDF, uncovered and indicted a cell of four terrorists belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Shin Bet released for publication today.
2013: German Chancellor Angela Merkeil is scheduled to visit Dachau today “making her Berlin’s first leader to travel to the former Nazi concentration camp. (As reported Lazar Berman)
2013: The Kraemer and Ciment clans gather in Little Rock, AR as they prepare to celebrate a simcha that will unite two of their young adults in marriage.
2013: Israeli officials criticized UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon today for backtracking on his admission last week in Jeruslam that “there was bias and discrimination against Israel at the UN.”(As reported by Herb Keinon)
2013: The United States said today it "strongly condemns" comments from Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan blaming Israel for the military coup and ensuing crisis gripping Egypt (As reported by Michael Wilner)
2013: Tzipi Livini, Israel’s chief negotiator predicted today that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians “will result in dramatic Israeli decisions.” (As reported by Herb Keinon and khaled Abu Toameh)
2014: “Young Israeli clarinetist and saxophonist, Anat Cohen, celebrated in Brazil as a virtuoso player of "choro" music is scheduled perform at the New York premiere of her "Choro Aventoroso" band at 54 Below.