August 30
1923: Today the United Jewish People's Bank, Ltd., was registered in London by the cirectorium of the United Jewish Emigration Committee. The bank which, according to its articles of incorporation, will seek to promote the development of handicraft industries and agriculture among Jews starts with a capital of £500,000. It will aim to foster in particular all kinds of cooperative undertakings and assist in the emigration and immigration of Jews throughout the world. While its ultimate objects are of a social nature the institution is authorized to conduct a regular banking business. Among the subscribers are Latzki-Bertholdi, Advocate Sliosberg, Leo Motzkin, Dr. L. Branson, Vladimir Tiomkin, Rabbi Jochelman, and Dr. Brutzkus. The directors of the bank have not yet been appointed. (As reported by JTA)
1924(30thof Av, 5684): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2007: Ant-Zionists Max Blumenthal and Norton Mezvinksy, were joined by Tehran Professor Kaveh Afrasiabion WBEZ”s “Worldview” which features discussions on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
70: According to Josephus, the day one which the Second Temple was set aflame
500: Having conquered Italy, Ostrogoth King Theodoric gave the Jews freedom to worship.
526 Death of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths (the eastern Goths) who controlled the Italian Peninsula and area adjacent to it. Theodoric had a reputation for religious toleration which he extended to the Jewish people. He encouraged them to settle in his kingdom reportedly because he saw them as a source of economic benefit.
1179: As the Crusaders and the Moslems jockey for control over Palestine, soldiers under the command of Saladin had sacked the castle at Jacob’s Ford, the critical passage way across the Jordan River. The crossing takes its name from the Biblical patriarch and would be a seen of fighting in 1948 and 1967.
1181: The papacy of Alexander III comes to an end. He was “the author of the oldest extant version of the bull “Sicut Judaeis” (As the Jews) first promulgated in 1120 by Calixtus II.
1334: Birthdate of King Peter who reigned over Castile and Leon from 1350 to 1369. “Peter's rival Henry of Trastámara continuously depicted Peter as "King of the Jews", and had some success in taking advantage of popular Castilian resentment towards the Jews. Henry of Trastámara instigated pogroms beginning a period of anti-Jewish riots and forced conversions in Castile that lasted approximately from 1370 to 1390. Peter took forceful measures against this, including the execution of at least five anti-Jewish leaders of a riot.”
1563: The Jewish community of Neutitschlin, Moravia was expelled.
1803: Twenty-two year old Leo Wolf and Johanna Wolf gave birth to Dr. Moritz (Morris) Wolf
1808: The Magistrate of Frankfurt (a puppet of the French Government) summoned Rothschild to give an account of his business dealings with the Landgrave.
1835: Founding of Melbourne, Australia. The first synagogue opened in Melbourne in 1847. Melbourne provided the first native born Australian to serve as Governor-General – a lawyer named Isaac Isaacs. King George V was reportedly reluctant to appoint Isaacs to the post because he was Jewish. Prime Minister James Scullin assured the reluctant monarch that Australians took a more liberal view than most Englishmen did in such matters. They were not bothered by the matter of religion and therefore, the appointment was made without further complications
1836: The city of Houston is founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen. Within twenty years after the founding of the city there were enough Jews living in Houston to form a burial society. In 1859, Congregation Beth Israel, the first chartered Jewish congregation in Texas was founded as an Orthodox Synagogue but switched to the Reform movement fifteen years later. In 1906, Houston saw the publication of The Jewish Herald Voice, the first journal of its kind to appear in the state. A list of early Houston Hebrew businessmen would include Joseph Weingarten, Simon Sakowitz and Tobias Sakowitz. Houston established its Jewish Community Council in 1936 under the presidency of Max Nathan and enhanced its Jewish Family Service under Ruth Fred.
1843: Mary and Philip William Flower gave birth to Cyril Flower, the 1st Baron of Battersea who married Sir Anthony de Rothschild’s daughter Constance in 1877. The couple were the last of their line since they had not children.
1848(1stof Elul, 5608): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1851: Birthdate of Abram S. Isaacs, the New York native who served as the Rabbi for Barnett Memorial Temple in Paterson, NJ and served as the first Professor of Hebrew at New York University.
1855: James Finn, the British Counsel in Jerusalem reported to the British Ambassador in Constantinople that Sir Moses Montefiore had been given permission by the Ottoman government to purchase land in Jerusalem on which he would be allowed to build a hospital and where he could employ poor Jews in gardening. Montefiore was only the second European who had been allowed to purchase land. Finn had been the first.
1860: Birthdate of Isaac Levitan, famed Russian landscape painter.
1862(4thof Elul, 5622): As the Union Army suffers a crushing blow thanks to the stupidity of General Pope, thirty-three year old Captain Jacob A. Cohen, Company A, 10th Louisiana, was killed today fighting for the Confederacy.
1865:On Broadway, Mr. Edmund Kean is scheduled to play "the Jew" in tonight's performance of the Merchant of Venice.
1865: Judah P. Benjamin arrived at Southampton, Britain marking the final stop on his flight from America when the Confederacy was finally defeated.
1867: The Washington Avenue Synagogue, also known as Temple Beth El, was dedicated today in Detroit, Michigan.
1867: Prince Charles, the future King Charles (a.k.a. King Carlos I) wrote a letter to Sir Moses Montifore, expressing his pleasure at the Anglo-Jewish leader’s recent visit to Romania and his support for better treatment of the Jews living in Romania.
1872: It was reported today that Sir Moses Montefiore has completed his trip to St. Petersburg, Russia and returned to his home at Ramsgate. Sir Moses had gone to Russia at the behest of the Board of Deputies to intercede with the Czar’s government on behalf of the Jews of Russia.
1873: In the United Kingdom, Sir George Jessel begins serving as the Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls. For the two years prior to accepting this position, he had served as Solicitor General.
1875: The New York Times published an account of Sir Moses Montefiore’s trip to Palestine including his visit to Jerusalem.
1875: It was reported today that Abraham H. Guedalla has provided The Jewish World with some of the correspondence between him and Sir Moses Montefiore that provided details of his visit to Palestine during July of 1875.
1876:Henry Schneeberger wassent a letter inviting him to become the first rabbi of Chizuk Amuno in Baltimore, MD.
1878(1st of Elul, 5638): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1878: In New York, Judge Van Rant, granted a writ of habeas corpus directing Thomas F. Fallon to bring Caroline Cohen to court. Caroline was the 15 year old daughter of Loewenthal Cohen, a Jewish clothing dealer. Fallon was a Roman Catholic who allegedly had eloped with young Caroline. The judge had granted the write in response to Cohen’s petition claiming that his daughter was being held against her will having been enticed away from her home “under the pretext that he wanted to marry her.”
1879: In New York, 12 year old Henry O’Brien decided to find out if it was true that Jews did not eat pork. He thrust a piece of pork down the throat of Harris Goldstein, a Polish Jew. Goldstein chased after O’Brien who hit Goldstein with a shovel when the Jewish boy caught up to him. O’Brien hit him in the face and broke his nose. At the end of the melee, both of the boys were arrested by Officer McCarthy of the Tenth Precinct.
1881: It was reported today that authorities have denied “Jew-baiter” Ernst Henrici the right to address a public meeting in Hamburg, Germany. [His speeches had been connected to riots in Berlin and the burning of the synagogue in Neustettin.]
1883: It was reported today that martial law has been declared at Eglerszeg, Hungary after an outbreak of anti-Jewish riots. All of the shops remain closed and many of the Jewish families have fled from the city.
1885: Rabbis Mendes and Morais are scheduled to speak at the service being held at the 19thStreet Synagogue in memory of the late Sir Moses Montefiore.
1885: “New Antiquities” published today described the career of Moses Shapira, “the converted Jew” whose discovery of a “so-called Moabitish manuscript of Deuteronomy…and a Moabitish dictionary” which he offered to sell to the British Museum for $5,000,000 has been declared to be “a clumsy forgergy” by experts from Germany. This, and other forgeries tied to Mr. Shapira, is attributed to the fact that he left the faith of his birth.
1886: Thirty-one of the forty Russian Jewish immigrants who arrived in the U.S. yesterday left Castle Garden with friends who had promised to provide support for them.
1890: The boy’s band from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum will perform at the Summernight’s festival sponsored by District No. 1 of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith which is being held at Sulzer’s Harlem River Park.
1891: The tenth free excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children will begin with a boat ride up the East River starting at 9 a.m.
1891: “Famine Face in Russia” published today described how the government’s anti-Jewish laws have exacerbated the situation since, in the past, Jewish money lenders have provided funds for the peasants when their crops have failed. Such is not the case which makes the agricultural crisis all the worst and the government refuses to alter the laws.
1891: State Senator Jacob A. Cantor is preparing for the upcoming election following his return from Europe yesterday.
1892(7thof Elul, 5652): Four year old Ida Samyan, the daughter of a Russian Jewish couple who had just arrived from Hamburg passed away today. Much to the relief of authorities “a post-mortem examination showed that her death was not due to cholera.”
1892: Max Strassburger, a representative of the United Hebrew Society arrived at Ziontown, NJ to investigate the claims that the Jewish settlers had been brought their under false pretenses and were now facing the prospect of starvation.
1892: In Elizabeth, NJ, the city Board of Health met this evening and adopted measures to deal with the threat of cholera including measures to improve the sanitary conditions in the First War which is home to “a large number of Russian and Polish Jews.”
1895(10thof Elul, 5655): Mrs. Rebecca Kastor who left legacies of $100 each to several Jewish institutions including Mount Sinai Hospital and the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society, passed away today.
1896:Herzl received a "Shana Tova" from Jerusalem signed by Ephraim Cohn, director of the Lämel School, David Yellin, Eliezer ben Yehuda and Wilhelm Gross.
1897: The funeral for David J. Seligman who passed away in his 48th year and was the son of the late Joseph Seligman will take place at his home on East 55thStreet in Manhattan.
1897: At today’s session of the Zionist Congress being held in Basel, Switzerland, “the delegates…unanimously adopted, with great enthusiasm, the program for re-establishing” the Jews “in Palestine, with publicly recognized rights.” “A dispatch was sent to the Sultan of Turkey thanking his Majesty for the privileges enjoyed by “the Jews “in his empire.”
1898: During the Dreyfus Affair, Major Henry, one of those who had helped to frame the French officer, was arrested. Following his arrest, Henry confessed to his role in the matter.
1898(12thof Elul, 5658): In Chicago Sixty-four year old Rabbi Louis Rosenbloom was kicked to death by seventeen year old John Schlechta when he tried to the teenager from attacking various members of the Levi family.
1898: The second annual Zionist Congress at Basel Switzerland, where the American delegation was led by Dr. Richard J.H. Gottheil, Professor of Rabbinical Literature and Semitic Languages at Columbia University was scheduled to come to and today.
1899: On this date Herzl wrote in his diary “While riding out to Währing today on a jolting bus the title for my Zion novel occurred to me:Alt-Neuland [Old-Newland].”
1899: Three handwriting experts, including Paul Meyer, Director of the of the School of Ancient Manuscripts all testified today at the court martial of Captain Dreyfus that Estherhazy and not Dreyfus had written the bordereau that was at the heart of the claim that Dreyfus had betrayed France to the Germans.
1902: Birthdate of Paul Massing the German sociologist who wrote “Rehearsal for Destruction: A Study Of Political Anti-Semitism in Imperial Germany.”
1902: Birthdate of Gisela Kohn Dollinger the native of Baden-be-Wien, a Vienna suburb, who survived the Holocaust and lived to be 111. (As resulted by Julie Wiener)
1906: Native Muslim soldiers attack the Hara (Jewish Quarter) of Tunis.
1906(9th of Elul, 5666):Edward Rosewater passed away. Born in Bohemia in 1841, he came to the United States in 1854. He became the publisher and editor of the Omaha (Neb) Bee. “Rosewater had a reputation for always being ‘aggressive and controversial’, and was influential in Nebraska politics as one of the leaders of the state Republican Party.”
1908:First Conference for the Yiddish Language opens in Czernowitz
1909 (13th of Elul, 5669 ):Yosef Chaim (a leading Hakham (Sephardic Rabbi), authority on Jewish law (Halakha) and Master Kabbalist passed away two days before his 71stbirthday. He is best known as author of the work on Halakha Ben Ish Chai ("Son of Man (who) Lives"), by which title he is also known.
1909(13thof Elul, 5669): Chaim Jossel Eidelsohn passed away today.
1909(13thof Elul, 5669): A young girl named Scheitel Lewin passed away today.
1913: The Manchester Guardian and the New York Times, report that Max Nordeau will not be giving the opening address at the upcoming Eleventh Zionist Congress. This is first time Nordeau will not have given the opening address since the Zionists began their meetings. It is further evidence of a shift to the program of the practical Zionists as opposed to those Zionists who had looked to a combination of European nations acting in concert to create a Jewish Homeland.
1914: During World War I, the Battle of Tannenberg came to an end. At the urging of the French, the Russian Army had begun advancing before it was fully mobilized and ready for battle. The Russian Army advanced into East Prussia which caused panic in Berlin. The Germans transferred troops from the Western Front to meet the Russian advance. This shift of troops weakened the forcing attacking the French, undermined the German grand strategic design and enabled the French to finally halt the advance. This would lead to the four year stalemate known as World War I. The strengthened German forces in Prussia blocked the Russians and hurled them back. The fighting in the East would be a see-saw affair that would bleed Russia until the Revolutions of 1917 and 1918. The Jews living in the Pale of Settlement which was in the path of this clash between the Kaiser and the Czar suffered great privations. The irony was that the Germans could probably have won the battle without the additional troops and World War I might have been a rather brief affair where the troops were home by Christmas and Europe (including the Jews) would have been the upheavals that led to World War II and the Holocaust.
1915: Birthdate of composer Robert Strassburg whose works would span both the secular and religious worlds as can be seen by his work on such Broadway shows as “The Rose Tattoo” and such compositions as “Torah Sonata” and the opera “Chelm.”
1915: Birthdate of Shifra Lerer, “who was discovered at age 5 in Argentina by the great Yiddish actor Boris Thomashefsky and went on to become a winsome and wide-ranging trouper of the Yiddish theater for the next 90 years.”
1918:Samuel Gompers and the American Labor Mission were entertained by the British Government today at luncheon, where the visitors were welcomed by Lloyd George, G.H. Roberts and Lord Reading. The British Prime Minister lauded Gompers saying that “no man has done more to convince civilization must fight to victory.
1918: The Jews of Salonica who were originally Ottoman subjects are exempted from alien restrictions, under which they had previously lived.
1918: Fanya Kaplan a disillusioned revolutionary shoots and seriously injures Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. This, along with the assassination of Bolshevik senior official Moisei Uritsky days earlier, prompts the decree for what is known as the Red Terror.
1919: Samuel Gompers announces support for the Versailles Treaty and denounces Republican leaders for opposing a document, which among other things, contains provisions beneficial to labor and workers.
1919: The Jewish Commissariat Yevsektsiya of Russia proclaimed Hebrew a "reactionary language." As such the teaching of Hebrew was prohibited in all educational institutions and books in Hebrew removed from libraries.
1920” The reign of Mohammed Alim Kahn, the last Emir of Bukhara whom Levi Babakhan served as court vocalist came to an end. Babakhanov was part of dynasty of Jewish musicians that included his son Moshe and grandson Ari.
1922: Birthdate of famed mezzo-soprano Regina Resnik.
1923: Today the United Jewish People's Bank, Ltd., was registered in London by the cirectorium of the United Jewish Emigration Committee. The bank which, according to its articles of incorporation, will seek to promote the development of handicraft industries and agriculture among Jews starts with a capital of £500,000. It will aim to foster in particular all kinds of cooperative undertakings and assist in the emigration and immigration of Jews throughout the world. While its ultimate objects are of a social nature the institution is authorized to conduct a regular banking business. Among the subscribers are Latzki-Bertholdi, Advocate Sliosberg, Leo Motzkin, Dr. L. Branson, Vladimir Tiomkin, Rabbi Jochelman, and Dr. Brutzkus. The directors of the bank have not yet been appointed. (As reported by JTA)
1924(30thof Av, 5684): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1927:The Fifteenth Zionist Congress, the legislative body of the International Zionist movement, went into session at Basel, Switzerland, today with 280 delegates representing Zionist societies from all parts of the world present. Forty of the delegates are from the United States and chooses Sokolow at President
1927: According to reports published today, the Palestine Economic Corporation which had been organized in February, 1925, has increased its investments in Palestine by $575,000 during its first year of operation. The corporation was organized by the Non-Partisan Palestine Conference under the Chairmanship of Louis Marshall, with investments of $620,000. Substantial funding has gone to support the citrus growing industry.
1929: “A telegram from Reuters news agency was sent to all its subscribers: ‘Jerusalem has now been a city of death for eight days during which work has ceased and people are starving. Hundreds are receiving bread rations. Everywhere it is deadly quiet, and everyone is very nervous.’”
1929:With relative quiet restored to central Palestine today, people and officials looked anxiously to the north, where a force of Syrian Arabs has crossed the border to march on Jerusalem. British planes are searching for them. The incursion of large forces of Arabs over the Syrian frontier is causing considerable uneasiness in London tonight.
1933: In a bid for the support of the Laborite faction in the forthcoming election of the administration of the World Zionist Organization, Nahum Sokolow, 72-year-old president of the organization, addressing the World Zionist Congress tonight, defined his views on the position of labor in the building of a Jewish national home in Palestine.
1933: William Dodd began serving as U.S. Ambassador to Germany. He was the first Roosevelt appointee to deal with the Hitler government. Unfortunately, the professionals in the State Department would not listen to the warnings offered by this American college professor.
1933: The Hessische Volkswacht publishes a list of 30 concerns in Hessen that have been represented by Jews in court actions.
1933: In a published declaration the Union of German National Jews protests against the resolution adopted by the Zionist Congress against Nazi Germany, and blames Zionism for the present situation of German Jewry.
1933: In Worms, the police announce that "a large number of Jews" have been arrested and taken to a concentration camp because of their provocative attitude and degrading remarks against the Nazi regime.
1937: In what was described as “a new political murder against Jews in Palestine” heats up. “A bomb was thrown in a Tel Aviv thoroughfare severely wounding at least one Jew while two Jewish workers – Daniel Swanitsky and Isar Pankus – were murdered early this morning.
1937: The Arab Higher Committee decided that the Arab General Strike, begun on April 19, would continue. The problem of Jewish refugees from Jaffa and the surrounding area had been finally solved after every family was furnished with a home, comprising a large room with a balcony, kitchen, lavatory and a shower at the cost of 90 pounds, paid back in form of rent at the rate of half a pound a month over a period of 15 years. One British soldier was severely wounded at Lydda and more British troops arrived from Malta
1938: Several cases of Arab arson attacks are reported to authorities throughout Palestine and Haifa police shot and killed a fleeing Arab terrorist.
1938: Birthdate of Owen Jacob Laster, the son of immigrants from the Ukraine and Russia, who became one of the most powerful literary agents of his generation, running William Morris’s worldwide literary operations that had a long list of best-selling writers including James A. Michener and Gore Vidal (As reported by William Grimes)
1938(3rd of Elul, 5698): Max Factor, Sr. passed away. Born Max Firestein, this Russian Jewish immigrant had reportedly been a makeup artist for Russian nobility. He made his debut as Max Factor, Sr. at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair to launch what would become a cosmetics empire with a special relationship with the stars of the Hollywood film industry.
1940: Registration of all Jewish property became mandatory in Slovakia.
1940: Much to the initial pleasure of the Jews, the Nazis returned Kolozsvar to Hungarian control. The Jews did not realize how much influence the Nazis had over the Hungarians or the depth of anti-Semitism that existed among some of their non-Jewish neighbors. Kolozsvar was the home of Rudolf Kastner who at this time was thirty-six years old and writing for the Jewish newspaper Új Kelet
1941: The SS at Chelmo work camp ordered fifty Jewish workers to dig trenches. Five were shot at a time, as five would dig a new trench, until all but the last five were killed.
1942: Members of the Jewish community at Rabka, Poland, are murdered.
1942: French Bishop Pierre-Marie Théas reminds his parishes that all human beings are created by the same God, Christians and Jews alike, and that "all men regardless of race or religion deserve respect from individuals and governments."
1943: A statement by the American Council for Judaism stating its opposition to “the creation of a Jewish national state” was made public today in Philadelphia.
1943: The American Council for Judaism, Inc “appealed to the United Nations for the earliest possible repatriation or resettlement under the best possible conditions of all peoples uprooted from their homes by the Axis Powers” while expressing its “hope for the ultimate establishment of a democratic autonomous government in Palestine where Jews, Moslems and Christians shall be justly represented.”
1943: The Jews of Denmark began their first day of living without the protection of the Danish government which had resigned meaning the country was now under the direct control of the Nazis.
1944: The SS St. Louis, which had been the centerpiece of the famous 1939 voyage “was heavily damaged” today during an Allied bombing attack at Kiel.
1944: After visiting Majdanek and seeing firsthand what the Germans had done, W.H. Lawrence wrote in the New York Times, “I am now prepared to believe any story of German atrocities no matter how savage, cruel and depraved.”
1944:Sir Harold Alfred MacMichael completes his term as British High Commissioner of Palestine.
1948: In Silver Spring, MD, Jeannette and Sam Black gave birth to comedian and social commentator Lewis Black. http://lewisblack.com/
1948(25th of Av, 5708): “A Jewish worker was shot dead by sniper fire from the Old City walls while crossing a street on the Israeli side of the city.” This threat of death would only finally end when the Israelis reunited the city in 1967.
1948:Alice Salomon passed away in New York City. She was a pioneer German social worker who fled the Nazis after being arrested and interrogated. She was not Jewish, but her Jewish origins put her at risk given the Nazi racial laws.
1951:The twenty-third World Zionist Congress, which closed early this morning, unanimously adopted a resolution asking the Israeli Government to give the world Zionist organization legal status.
1954: This evening, start of Operation Binyamin 2 under the command of Ariel Sharon.
1954: Birthdate of Shlomi Shabat, the native of Yehud who has become a popular singer and musician.
1956: In Israel, the eight day nation-wide bus strike ended today. The strikers were from the Egged Bus Company which serves Haifa and provided interurban services and the Dan Company that serves the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. These companies are owner-operator co-ops.
1968: Birthdate of Scottish author and broadcaster Muriel Gray who creating a documentary entitle “The Wandering Jew” in 1996 which traced the Jewish roots of her mother’s which stretched back to Moldova.
1962(30thof Av, 5722): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1964:Five hundred Orthodox rabbis issued a proclamation calling on religious Jews to join the Religious Zionists of America
1965: The album ''Highway 61 Revisited'' by Bob Dylan was released.
1966: The first Knesset building was dedicated in Jerusalem. This was one of several artistic ventures that marked 1966. Two others were the opening of the America-Culture House in New York which displayed Israeli arts and crafts while providing scholarships for Israeli artists to study in the United States and the naming of Israeli author Shai Agnon as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
1976: An Israeli patrol killed two terrorists who infiltrated through a security fence from Lebanon.
1976: London's Spectator weekly claimed that the PLO was making millions out of terror and had some £50 million invested in Britain. For those of you who think terror began on September 11, think again. .
1976: Pravda, the Soviet Communist Party's major newspaper, described the US proposal to send American monitoring personnel to Sinai as a "questionable development." This should serve as a reminder that the conflict in the Middle East was fueled, in part, by the needs of Soviet imperialism.
1976(4th of Elul, 5736): Dr. Paul Lazarsfeld, a Columbia University sociologist whose studies of American voting patterns and the influences of the printed and electronic press on society are classics in his field, died of cancer at New York Hospital today at the age of 75.
1981(30th of Av, 5741): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1983: “A tired and depressed Prime Minister Meachem Begin turned to his colleagues and said with a sigh, ‘I cannot go on any longer.’” [Begin would leave office a few days and return to his Jerusalem apartment at 1 Semach Street where he would lead a life of almost total isolation.]
1984: Judith Resnik begins her first space flight aboard the Discovery which was making its maiden voyage.
1989: A federal jury in New York found ''hotel queen'' Leona Helmsley guilty of income tax evasion but acquitted her of extortion.
1989(29th of Av, 5749): Dorothy Schiff owner and publisher of the New York Postfor nearly 40 years passed away. She was a granddaughter of German born Jewish financier Jacob H. Schiff and the daughter of Mortimer Schiff and Adele Neustadt Schiff.
1989(29th of Av, 5749): Author, essayist and editor Seymour Krim passed away. According to at least one critic, “some of the Jewish themes that obsessed him were post-Holocaust anger, the lack of a nourishing Jewish culture, assimilation and emasculation, and the ugliness of self-hatred.”
1992(1st of Elul, 5752): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1998: The New York Times book section features reviews of two works by Jewish authors: Theatre on the Edge by Mel Gussow and Capital Dilemma by Michael Z. Wise.
1998: In article entitled “First, the People Moved East. Now, So Are the Cemeteries,” John Rather describes the changes in the New York cemetery scene including four Jewish cemeteries on Cemetery Row including Mount Ararat, New Montefiore, Beth Moses and Wellwood . The Jewish community faces its own unique set of challenges.''Very often what Jews do is arrange for family plots, which means there may be people who pass away in Florida who want to return to New York to be buried,'' said Rabbi Bruce Ginsburg, president of the Long Island Board of Rabbis. Some Long Island funeral homes have affiliates in Florida to speed the return home.
2005(25th of Av, 5765): Eighty-five year old James H. Scheuer who served 13 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives passed away today. (As reported by Jennifer Lee)
2005: “A Scrappy Congressman, Ready for His Next Risk” published today examined the career of Congressman Anthony D. Weiner and his chances to become Mayor of New York City. (The more things change, the more they stay the same)
2005: The Bedouin guard who subdued a suicide bomber in Beersheba was hailed as a hero of the state of Israel in headlines of the Jerusalem Post.
2006:America gets ready for new Jewish-themed cable network. “First there was the Kinky Friedman documentary Shalom Y'All, and now there's Rabbi Mark S. Golub's Shalom TV. Golub is launching America's first national television channel dedicated to celebrating Jewish life and culture.
2006: The Bank Leumi announced that leak concerning the stock transactions of Lt. Gen. Dan Haulutz that took place before fighting broke out Hezbollah did not come from anybody working that institution.
2007: An exhibit at the Land of Israel Museum in Tel Aviv featuring hundreds of works by cartoonist Kariel Gardosh, who became famous under his pen name “Dosh” comes to an end. Dosh was the first Israeli cartoonist to have his work published in a daily newspaper.
2007:An article entitled “Faith and Civic Pride Clash Over Parade on Yom Kippur” published today describes the conflict between Yom Kippur and a civic celebration in Herkimer, NY.
2007: Ant-Zionists Max Blumenthal and Norton Mezvinksy, were joined by Tehran Professor Kaveh Afrasiabion WBEZ”s “Worldview” which features discussions on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
2007: A national tour of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeny Todd” which would last until November, 2007 began today.
2007: The Red Sea Jazz Festival comes to an end at Eilat.
2008: The Eleventh Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival opens today.
2008:Today, Democratic Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida lashed out at John McCain's choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, accusing her of supporting "Nazi sympathizer" Pat Buchanan, and branding the move an "affront to all Jewish Americans.""John McCain's decision to select a vice presidential running mate that endorsed Pat Buchanan for president in 2000 is a direct affront to all Jewish Americans," said a statement by Wexler. "Pat Buchanan is a Nazi sympathizer with a uniquely atrocious record on Israel, even going as far as to denounce bringing former Nazi soldiers to justice and praising Adolf Hitler for his 'great courage'".Wexler went on to accuse McCain of having "failed his first test of leadership."
"At a time when standing up for Israel's right to self-defense has never been more critical, John McCain has failed his first test of leadership and judgment by selecting a running mate who has aligned herself with a leading anti-Israel voice in American politics. It is frightening that John McCain would select someone one heartbeat away from the presidency who supported a man who embodies vitriolic anti-Israel sentiments." The National Jewish Democratic Council also issued a statement saying that McCain's judgment appears "lacking" in choosing Palin. "Prior to today's selection, Palin apparently has never spoken publicly about Israel," said a statement by the group's Executive Director Ira N. Forman. "Moreover, on a broad range of issues - most strikingly on the issue of women's reproductive freedom - she is totally out of step with Jewish public opinion. The Republican Jewish Coalition, however, welcomed Palin's nomination. "As governor of Alaska, Palin has enjoyed a strong working relationship with Alaska's Jewish community. She has demonstrated sensitivity to the concerns of the community and has been accessible and responsive," said coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks.
"At a time when standing up for Israel's right to self-defense has never been more critical, John McCain has failed his first test of leadership and judgment by selecting a running mate who has aligned herself with a leading anti-Israel voice in American politics. It is frightening that John McCain would select someone one heartbeat away from the presidency who supported a man who embodies vitriolic anti-Israel sentiments." The National Jewish Democratic Council also issued a statement saying that McCain's judgment appears "lacking" in choosing Palin. "Prior to today's selection, Palin apparently has never spoken publicly about Israel," said a statement by the group's Executive Director Ira N. Forman. "Moreover, on a broad range of issues - most strikingly on the issue of women's reproductive freedom - she is totally out of step with Jewish public opinion. The Republican Jewish Coalition, however, welcomed Palin's nomination. "As governor of Alaska, Palin has enjoyed a strong working relationship with Alaska's Jewish community. She has demonstrated sensitivity to the concerns of the community and has been accessible and responsive," said coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks.
2009: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A Village Life by Louise Glück and I’m So Happy For You by Lucinda Rosenfeld.
2009: Today’s announcement by Africa Israel Investments which is owned by Lev Leviev “that it could not repay billions of dollars in debt…caused shares to drop 25.5 percent on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.” (As reported by JTA)
2009: The Washington Post features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Too Good To Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff by Erin Arvedlund, Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff by Andrew Kirtzman, Madoff With The Money by Jerry Oppenheimer, Israel is Real by Rich Cohen and The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe by J. Randy Taraborrelli
2009: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow and A Village Life: Poems by Louise Gluck
2009:Israel Air Force planes struck a tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip early today in response to a Qassam rocket fired by Palestinian militants into the western Negev early yesterday. Also today Army Radio said an IDF unit patrolling Gaza's northern border reported it went under fire.
2009: In Little Rock, the Jewish community gathers at the Chabad House to celebrate the completion of the first sefer torah to ever be written for the Jewish community of Arkansas. The project is one more example of the great works done by Rabbi Pinchas Ciment, a mensch in the truest sense of the word who is the epitome of the Rebbe’s concept of “the Lamplighter.
2009:Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was indicted today in three corruption affairs, concluding months of investigations into cases allegedly conducted during his tenure as Jerusalem mayor and trade minister.
2009 Israeli singer Roni Dalumi was the final of Kochav Nolad 7.
2010: Release of “Box of Secrets,” featuring “Let Me Back,” “Box of Secrets” and “Over which was the debut album of Zarif Davidson, better known as Zarif the daughter of an Iranian Jewish mother.
2010:Bernice K. Weiss, author of Converting to Judaism - Choosing to be Chosen: Personal Stories is scheduled to lead a course entitled “Basic Judaism for Jews and Non-Jews Alike”that provides an overview of the Bible, Shabbat ritual and observances, how to observe kashrut and the Jewish laws of death and mourning.
2010(20 Elul): Yahrzeit of Dr. Jacob Levin, of blessed memory, beloved husband of Betty, loving father of Michael (Gigi Cohen) Levin, Stephen (Dian Garton) Levin, Sharon (Philip) Wein and Lawrence (Sandra Morrison) Levin and proud Zaide to a whole tribe of grandchildren. To his brother Joe, he was the incomparable “Yaenkel” and to me his was my wonderful Uncle Jack – living proof that good guys finish first.
2010:Israeli archeologists unveiled a 2,000 year old semi-precious cameo bearing the image of Cupid today, which the Israel Antiquities Authorities (IAA) said was among several items located in the City of David archeological area in Jerusalem's Old City in the last 12 months. The cameo, which will be displayed at the 11th Annual City of David Archaeology Conference scheduled to take place later this week, is 1 cm in length and 0.7 mm in width, and was discovered in the Givati Parking Lot Excavation, a part of the Jerusalem Walls National Park.
2011: An exhibition of charcoal drawings by artist Jean Barry that interpret the Book of Job is scheduled to come to a close at the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives in Washington, DC.
2011(30thof Av, 5771):Rosh Chodesh Elul
2011:Israel has been warned that a terrorist cell linked to the Islamic Jihad and based in the Sinai Peninsula may try to carry out a series of attacks over the coming days, Home Front Minister Matan Vilnai said today. The cell, which Vilnai said comprises at least 10 militants, has been preparing for such attacks for some time and may exploit the Eid al-Fitr holiday as "the right time" to carry out their plot. .
2011: Iran is planning to send its 15th fleet, comprised of a submarine and a warship, to the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, semi-official news agency Press TV quoted Iranian naval commander Admiral Habibollah Sayyari as saying today The announcement came after the IDF modified the operational doctrine of the Navy Command Center in Eilat which is responsible for protecting southern Israel from threats originating in the Red Sea. Yesterday, two large Navy corvettes were seen docked in Eilat, likely for anti-terror and smuggling operations in the Red Sea
2011:Labor Party leadership candidate Erel Margalit demanded today that the upcoming primary be delayed, because the list of party members eligible to vote has yet to be published. If the Labor Party’s administration does
2011(29th of Av, 5771): Ninety-nine year old Ayala Zacks Abramov, the Israeli-born art collectior passed away today.
2012: Yemen Blues is scheduled to appear at The Montreal Jewish Music Festival
2012: In Berkeley, Urban Adamah and Wilderness are scheduled to sponsor “Mother-Daughter Full Moon of Elul Circle,” an event that will “include harvesting wheat, grinding it into flour with a new grain mill and then baking it into pita over an open fire.”
2012:Without naming Iran, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon denounced his hosts in Tehran today for threatening to destroy Israel and for denying the Holocaust.
2012: The Egyptian army began withdrawing tanks from the Sinai Peninsula today, pan-Arab daily newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported. The report comes just a day after Egypt's army said it would broaden its offensive against militants in the Sinai Peninsula, a campaign that has raised concerns in Israel about the movement of heavy armor into the area near its border.
2013: “Fill The Void” is scheduled to open at the Ridgeway Quarter in Memphis, TN
2013: Rabbi Shira Stutman is scheduled to lead Shabbat eve services which will be a celebration of “Labor on the Bimah,” an initiative of Jews United for Justice that “weaves together labor issues, social justice and Judaism, in an effort to bring meaning and reflection back into Labor Day.”
2013: Michael Barenboim and Alexander Melnikov are scheduled to perform Mozart’s Sonata for Piano and Violin in D Major at the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival.
2013: “IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz visited Artillery Corps units stationed on the Golan Heights this morning, and received a briefing by commanders on the state of readiness of the military forces on the northern border.” (As reported by Yaakov Lappin)
2013: “US President Barack Obama said today the chemical weapons attack in Syria threatened US allies Israel and Jordan and said his preference would have been for the international community to move forward on a response.” (As reported by Michael Wilner)
2013: As his legal woes mounted, San Diego Mayor Bob Filner “signed a letter of resignation that became effective at 5 pm PDT.”
2014: Chani Nachmias and Friends are scheduled to sing in Tel Aviv as part of the Performing Arts Center August Concert Series.
2014: Ashkelon’s annual pop music festival Briza is scheduled to come to an end today. (As reported by Simone Somekh)