September 7
1927: JTA reported that Louis Marshall, president of the American Jewish Relief Committee, has expressed his astonishment at the sensational charges made by Max D. Steuer on his arrival from Europe concerning the alleged existence of fraud in the administration of unnamed Jewish relief funds prior to 1925.
1949: The USS Benjamin Peixotto, a decommissioned “liberty ship” that had been sold to China “went aground in Tola harbor at Hong Kong during a typhoon.
2011: The Gilad Hekselman Quartet is scheduled to perform at the Jazz Standard in NYC where they will celebrate the release of Gilad's third album 'Hearts Wide Open' on Le Chant Du Monde label of Harmina Mundi
2011(8th of Elul, 5771):Daniel Rogov, Israel's leading food and wine critic and veteran writer for Haaretz, passed away today.
70: On the secular calendar the date on which a Roman army under Titus occupied and plundered Jerusalem.
1191:The Crusader army led by King Richard the Lionhearted defeated the army of Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf, north of Jaffa. The victory proved to be a tactical one, since Richard was not able to wrest control of Jerusalem from Saladin. From a Jewish point of view this was a definite plus since the Crusaders had butchered the Jews of Jerusalem while Saladin had permitted them to return to the City of David.
1307: Alexander Susskind passed away. Susskind gave his whole fortune as ransom for the body of Rabbi Meir of Rottenberg. Rabbi Meir ben Baruch of Rothenburg was a Tosaphist (codifier and commentator on the Talmud), as well as a liturgical poet. He was imprisoned in the town of Ensisheim, which was located in Alsace in 1286. When he died in 1293, the authorities refused to release the body. Fourteen years later the authorities succumbed to their greed and allowed Susskind to buy it back. The remains were given a proper burial at the town of Worms.
1312: King Ferdinand IV of Castile passed away. During his reign the monarch employed a Jew named Samuel as his treasurer. Ferdinand followed his advice in political as well as financial matters. This earned him the enmity of the dowager Queen, Maria de Molina who had ruled before Ferdinand reached his majority. She, or her sympathizers, may have been responsible for the near fatal beating suffered by Samuel
1434: The Council of Basle instituted new measures against the Jews. The council, aside from adopting many of the old measures preventing interaction between Jews and Christians, prohibited Jews from entering Universities, and were forced to listen to conversion sermons. The council encouraged Christian study of Hebrew in order to "combat Jewish Heresy."
1533: Birthdate of Queen Elizabeth I. There were no practicing Jews living in England during her reign but that did not keep anti-Semitism from being a part of the Elizabethan cultural environment as can be seen from Shakespeare’s merchants of Venice. There was a handful of secret Jews and/or Marranos living in England during her reign. One of them was Dr. Hector Nunes who provided valuable intelligence to English leaders on the movement of the Spanish Armada. On the other hand Dr. Roderigo Lopez who had served as the Queen’s physician, ended up being executed at Tyburn for his part (real or imagined) in a plot to poison the queen. The fate of Lopez was the “led to new productions of The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe.
1628: Opening day of the Battle in the Bay of Matanzas, a naval battle during the Eighty Year’s War fought off the coast of Cuba in which the Dutch captured the Spanish treasure fleet. Moses Cohen Henrqiues, a Sephardic Dutch pirate helped Piet Pieterszoon, the Dutch commander win the victory
1654: A petition by Jacques de la Motthe, the French master of the ship St. Charles requested payment for Jews and their freight which he brought to New Amsterdam from Cape St. Anthony. He said there were "23 souls, big and little, who must pay equally." After a week passed, the Jews belongings were put up for auction, and it was said many Christians bought the Jews belongings, only to give them back to the Jews.
1654: A petition by Jacques de la Motthe, the French master of the ship St. Charles requested payment for Jews and their freight which he brought to New Amsterdam from Cape St. Anthony. He said there were "23 souls, big and little, who must pay equally." After a week passed, the Jews belongings were put up for auction, and it was said many Christians bought the Jews belongings, only to give them back to the Jews.
1787:Jonas Phillips, a member of a prominent Philadelphia Jewish family sent a petition to the delegates of what became known as the Constitutional Convention ( the body that wrote the U.S. Constitution) asking that they not adopt a religious test for Federal office holders.
1812(1st of Tishrei, 5573): Jews on both sides of the Atlantic were joined together by the observance of Rosh Hashanah but American and English Jews were separated by the conflict known as The War of 1812.
1814: Birthdate of German Jewish novelist Ludwig Kalisch.
1822: Brazil declared its independence from Portugal. Brazil’s declaration of independence triggered an influx of Jewish settlers primarily from Morocco who “set up a synagogue in Belem (northern Brazil) called Porta do Ceu (Gate of Heaven) in 1824 and later one in Manaus (on the Amazon River).”
1827: The Russian government decreed that the draft of Jewish boys would begin at the age of 12. This was part of the Russian government's plan to deal with the Jewish problem. This early draft was intended to separate the youngsters from their homes and families and force them to eventually adopt the Christian religion.
1837: Birthdate of chess master Samuel Rosenthal.
1845:St. Louis, Missouri, became the site of the first synagogue to be built in the Mississippi Valley. For more information about the history of the Jewish community in St. Louis, consult the two-volume Zion in the Valley by Walter Ehrlich is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
1848(9th of Elul, 5608): Forty-one year old Abraham Kohn, the leading Reform Rabbi in Lemberg died today after having been poisoned yesterday Abraham Ber Pilpel who had been hired by traditionalist offended by impact that Reform was having on their concept of Judaism.
1850(1st of Tishrei, 5611): As Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah, Americans breathe a sigh of relief with the passage this month of the legislation known as the Compromise of 1850 which avoided the outbreak of Civil War. Unfortunately, the compromise did not hold and ten years later, America would cross the abyss.
1860:Giuseppe Garibaldi captured Naples today and set up a provisional government. Because of the family's close political connections with Austria and France, this put Adolf von Rothschild in a delicate position. He chose to take temporary sanctuary in Gaeta with the Bourbon king Francis II of the Two Sicilies but the Rothschild houses in London, Paris, and Vienna were not prepared to financially support the deposed king. With the ensuing unification of Italy, and the mounting tension between Adolf and the rest of the family, after forty-two years in business the Naples house closed in 1863.
1862: In New York Gustavus Speyer and Sophia Speyer (née Rubino) gave birth to Sir Edgar Speyer the American born financier and philanthropist who became a British subject whose loyalty to his adopted home led him to be created a baronet.
1863: During the Civil War, Alfred Mordecai, Jr. was promoted from Captain to Major in the Union Army. He would eventually become a Brigadier General.
1866: Birthdate of Paul Bernard who gained fame as French man of letters and attorney Tristan Bernard and whose celebrity finally earned his release from Drancy during WW II
1871: The German Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha conferred a barony on Julius Reuter, the German-born English pioneer of the newswire service which is known as Reuters. This meant that Israel Beer Josafat, the son of a rabbi who had become a Lutheran would now be known as Baron de Reuter.
1871: “The Bed of the Tiber” published today described various attempts to retrieve relics from the Roman river and/or to divert it in attempts to clean its fetid waters. According to Addison’s His Remarks on Several Parts of Italy in 1701, the Jews had approached the Holy See with a proposal that they would clean the bed of the stream in exchanged for the right to keep whatever they might find among the debris.
1872: Birthdate of Samuel S. Koenig the Hungarian born American attorney and leader of the New York Republican Party.
1877(29th of Elul, 5637): Erev of Rosh Hashanah
1877: An article published today “The Jewish New Year” reported that “this evening the Israelites throughout the world will commence the celebration of Rosh Hashanah or the New Year.” After describing the differences in the observance of those “who still adhere to the Rabbinical ritual” and those “who have enlisted under the banner of reform” the article points out that “the celebration of the festival is considered as a preparation for the solemn fast of Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement.”
1879: Rabbi Isaac Noot officiated at this afternoon’s dedication service for the new synagogue housing B’Nai Israel. Located on 4th street, the building is simple edifice lacking the expected Moorish columns and stained glass windows. The congregation’s leaders include its President, Meyer Rosenthal and its Vice President, Lewis I. Schilt.
1879: The Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society facility was officially opened to the public today in New York City. The society is committed to provide for the needs of destitute and vagrant Jewish children. Currently the society is provided shelter, food and education for 33 children ranging in age from 1 to 10 years.
1879: Rabbi E. M. Myers officiated at the rededication of Baith Israel which had reconfigured its pews to allow for mixed seating.
1880: It was reported today that “George Solomon, a Jewish writer” has published a new work – The Jews of History and the Jesus of Tradition Identified.
1881: Henry Lezinskey, a Jewish wholesale liquor dealer from New York was arrested in Long Branch, NJ on charges of stealing $775 from John J. Wheeler, the owner of the Germania Hotel.
1883: The Indianapolis News reported that “a tag on a pair of boots in front” of a store “on South Illinois Street” owned by a Jewish merchant reads “$1.25, not each.” The reason for the strange wording is that a competitor advertises boots at a $1.25 and then charges the customer $2.50 because the each boot costs $1.25.
1884: “To Fight the Machine” published today described the battle for the First Congressional District in New Orleans between the regular Democratic organization and the self-style “reform Democrats” who are backing Carleton Hunt against General Adolph Mayer, “a millionaire Jew with an ace for social distincti
1885: A delegation of “Hebrew working girls” will march in today’s “working men’s parade under the leadership of Paul Mayer.
1888: “The Beaches at Rockaway” described economic and social conditions at various New York beaches during the just ended summer season. Among other things, the clientele at the Far Rockaway Beach has shifted from being “a fashionable resort” that attracted notables like Horace Greely, to being so heavily visited by those of Irish origins that it was called the “Irish Long Branch.” However during the past three years there has been such a growth in the number of Jewish families that fewer and fewer old time families from Troy and Albany have been coming to the beach.
1890: As of today it is estimated that the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society will need $74, 850 from the City of New York in 1891.
1890: “New Publications” published today provided a review of Recha by Dorothea Gerard.
1891: It was reported today that at least one Jew has been arrested in Odessa on charges of having helped hundreds of wealthy Jewish youths evade the draft by injecting them with a combination of petroleum and cotton oil that gives them the appearance of “a serious skin infection.”
1891(4th of Elul, 5651): Heinrich Graetz, one of the intellectual giants of the 19th century and the author of multi-volume History of the Jews a seminal work in more ways than one, passed away. (This blog cannot do justice to his accomplishments and impact)
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Themes/About_Jewish_History/Emergence_of_Jewish_History_I/Emergence_of_Jewish_History_II/Heinrich_Graetz.shtml1892: In Brooklyn, Dr. A.W. Shepard completed his examination of the corpse of Lazarus Aizenstat, and determined that he had been strangled by more than attacker since three coils of rope were used. Police believe that the Jewish immigrant from Odessa was killed by his roommate a man known variously as Isaacs or Solomon in an attempt to rob him 35,000 rubies alleged to have been in his possession.
1893: The funeral for Charles Frank, the Superintendent of the United Hebrew Charities will take place this morning at 58 St. Marks Place.
1893: "Women elbowed, trod on each other’s toes, and did everything else they could without violating the proprieties" to find a place in the overcrowded hall to hear the speakers at the first-ever Jewish Women's Congress.
1893: Birthdate of (Isaac) Leslie Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha (of Devonport), statesman and inventor of belisha beacons. Born in London, he was British secretary of state for war (1937-40) who instituted military conscription in the spring of 1939, a few months before the outbreak of World War II.
1895: Birthdate of Joseph Richard Vogel who replaced Arthur Loew as President of MGM where approved the production as such hit films as “Gigi,” “North by Northwest” and “Ben Hur” as well as such flops as “Mutiny on the Bounty.
1895: The Magistrate at the Essex Market Police Court sent the son of Aaron Rosie Goldstein back to the New York Juvenile Asylum from which he had escaped months ago after having been convicted of being a burglar.
1896(29th of Elul, 5656): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1896: “As soon as the gun on Governors Island” was fired announcing that it was “sundown” Rosh Hashanah services began in a wide variety of venues and congregations in New York City.
1896: In the Bowery, large crowds attended services at the Thalia Theatre and the Liberty Theatre. Rabbis Schengold and Silverman officiated at the Orthodox service at the Thalia while Romanian Jews attended the services at the Liberty.
1896: “Reader Isidor Kartschmaroff conducted services” at Congregation Beth Israel and Dr. Levi Kleeburg delivered a sermon on “the necessity of being as observant watchful the entire year as on its first day.”
1896: Rabbi Kauffman Kohler officiated at New Year’s services this evening at Temple Beth-El.
1896: Rabbis Joseph Silverman and Gustav Gottheil conducted New Year’s Eve services this evening at Temple Emanu-el.
1896: Rabbi Moses Maisner conducted New Year ’s Eve services at Adath Israel Synagouge on 57th Street.
1897: “Mathew Sterling Borden, Yale ’95, the son of Chicago millionaire C.D. Borden” married “Mildred N Nerbaur, the daughter of Jewish tailor in New Haven; in Worcester, MA for the second time – the first marriage having ended in a divorce forced on the couple by the senior Borden.
1899: In a letter to Alfred Dreyfus, Ludovic Trarieux, the founding president of the League of Human and Civil Rights “told him that ‘the sorry spectacle of [his] trials has awakened feelings of solidarity and goodwill that were slumbering in all of us (…) [our thoughts] go out to the masses of the underprivileged and the meek to whom, in their abandon and their weakness, it may be even more necessary to extend a helping hand than to you.’"
1899: At the opening of today’s session of trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, his counsel Maitre Labori told the court that the former military attaches for Germany and Italy “would be unable to personally before the court” and asked that special measures be taken to receive their depositions. The court rejected the request.
1899: The Beth Moshav Z'keinim (Orthodox Home for Aged Jews), was organized today in Chicago., Illinois.
1899: Dr. Emil H. Hirsch, the rabbi of Sinai Congregation and a member of the faculty of the University of Chicago expressed his disapproval of the Jews of Memphis, TN petitioning the Kaiser “to allow any evidence he may control to appear in the Dreyfus case” because such a request, if made, should come from the American community, not the Jewish community because Dreyfus was being tried as a man and not as a Jew.
1904: Dr. Rudolph J. Coffee conducted today’s funeral service for Dr. Herman Baar, the former Superintendent of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York. Among the attendees, were the children from the orphanage which currently serves almost 1,000 youngsters
1905: In Cleveland, OH, Edith (née Joseph) and Louis Rorimer gave birth to James Joseph Rorimer, the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art who was the driving force behind the creation of “the cloisters” and would have remained unknown to most people were it not for his role as a member of U.S. Army’s Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section making him one the “Monuments Men” who was the character portrayed by Matt Damon in the film of the same name.
1906: A Pogrom took place in Shedlitz, Russia. This was part of the pattern of unrest that preceded and followed the defeat of the Czar's army in the Russo-Japanese War.
1906: A 20 year old Russian Jew, David Gruen, landed at Jaffa. History would come to know him as David Ben Gurion. Ben Gurion is Hebrew for Son of Gruen
1909:Sigmund Freud Gives First of Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis at Clark University
1910: Eighty-three year old English painter William Hunt who in 1869 built a house at #64 Rehov HaNevi’im (Street of the Prophets) where he planted a pear tree that would provide the inspiration for a poem by Rachel Bluwstein.
1913: “Jews of Today” provided a full-scale review of The Jews of Today by Arthur Ruppin with an introduction by Joseph Jacobs.
1913: Carl Jung makes public break with Sigmund Freud
1915: Outfield Sam Mayer made his major league debut with the Washington Senators.
1918(1st of Tishrei, 5679): Unbeknownst to any of the warring parties, this is last Rosh Hashanah of WW I.
1918: In San Sebastian, Spain, Jewish New Year services are held for the first time in 400 years. The services were attended by 30 worshipers.
1921: The first Miss America Pageant was held in Atlantic City, NJ. Bess Myerson was the first Jew to win the contest in 1945.
1922: Birthdate of pianist Art Ferrante. This non-Jew gained fame as part of the duo Ferrante and Tachere which recorded the theme from “Exodus.”
1923: Birthdate of Holocaust survivor Peter David Bisseliches.
1923: JTA reported today that “Anti-Jewish disturbances broke out simultaneously in two places in Roumania this week. In Bacau student disciples of the anti-Semitic agitator, Professor Cuza, invaded en masse a hall in which a Jewish students' dance was being held and attacked the guests. The police, according to eye-witnesses' reports, received here, worked in cahoots with the mob, arresting Jews who attempted to fight back their assailants. Among those taken into custody are two officials, Solomon Pascal and Carl Meyerowici. Deputy Christo Vianu, liberal, who witnessed the attack issued a statement following the disturbance demanding the release of the officials. He confirms that the police favored the assailants. A thorough investigation of the attack and drastic punishment for the offenders is promised by the Minister of Justice, who hurried to Bacau on receiving reports of the disturbance.”With the beginning of the new semester at the University of Klausenberg, the rector Jacobovicci has promised police protection to the Jewish students who were routed from the campus. The Minister of instruction, in view of the disturbances, has announced he will facilitate the issuance of passports to Jewish students who desire to study in foreign countries.The government is still timerous about opening all of the universities on account of the fear of more trouble. The league of Non-partisan Students has issued a memorandum appealing to the authorities to open "the universities before we become gray".
1923: The JTA reported today that Lord Rothschild had presided at Leeds at a meeting called to reestablish the local branch of the Anglo-Jewish Association. Those spreading anti-Semitism contend. Rothschild said, that the Jew is incapable of becoming a good citizen. "We must prove to the world that this is a gross libel. We must prove that the Jew cannot only be a good citizen but can be a better citizen than anyone" he insisted. D'Avigdor Goldsmid who also spoke said that the Anglo Jewish Association has existed for 52 years and in all of that time had played an active part in Jewish affairs of the British Empire.The Association, he said, takes a great interest in Palestine, having pledged to support the British Government in the execution of the mandate and to do all possible to assist in the development of the Jewish Home land.
1923: The JTA reported that negotiations are now under way between representatives of the Vaad Ha-Ir, or Jewish Council of the city with the Municipality of Montreal over the issue of establishing schools for the Jewish children of Canada’s largest municipality.
1923: JTA reported that The American Keren Hayesod has made a second payment of $57,000 towards its 50,000 pounds subscription to the Rutenberg Electric Company, sponsoring the electrification project in Palestine.
1924: Birthdate of composer Leonard Rosenman. Born in Brooklyn, Rosenman composed the theme for the television hit "Marcus Welby, MD.”
1926: JTA published figures portraying the employment picture in Palestine. Unemployment has increased since the cessation of the building activity in the country. In July 1925, the number of unemployed was 300, in August 950, September 975. October 1,750, November 2,000. December 2,700, in January 1926, 4,729, February 4,741, March 4,902, April 5,657, May 6,113 and June 6,400. Most of the unemployed are in Tel Aviv where they number 3,500; in Haifa there are 1,500 unemployed and in Jerusalem 300. About 2,000 of the unemployed in Tel-Aviv belong to the building trades In the period from January to June 1926, over 5,000 immigrants are reported to have entered Palestine, about 1,400 of them being absorbed in the colonies.
1927: JTA reported that The largest bequest ever received by the National Jewish Hospital here wamade by Louis Heineman of Jamestown, N. Y. A gift of $100,000 will be paid in 18 months by the Union Trust Co., of Jamestown, N. Y. from the estate of Louis Heinemann, who was a patient at the hospital 12 years ago.A sum of $100,000 was made in gifts to friends and relatives, and the remainder of the estate of $300,000 will go to the local Jewish Hospital and the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati.
1927: JTA reported that Louis Marshall, president of the American Jewish Relief Committee, has expressed his astonishment at the sensational charges made by Max D. Steuer on his arrival from Europe concerning the alleged existence of fraud in the administration of unnamed Jewish relief funds prior to 1925.
1927: JTA reported that Alfred M. Cohen. international President of the Independent Order B'nai Brith returned on the steamer Hamburg from an extended tour in Europe. He was met at the pier by Dr. Boris D. Bogen. Exective Secretary of the Order and by numerous friends.
1927: JTA reported that A gift of $250,000 to the University of Chicago from Louis B. Kuppenheimer was announced by Vice President Frederick C. Woodward.The money will be used to establish an endowment fund to be known as the Louis B. and Emma M. Kuppenheimer Foundation. [Louis Kuppenheimer was the son of Jonas Kuppenheimer and the brother of Albert Kuppenheimer, the trio who over fifty years ago came to Chicago and stared what has become one of the world’s largest clothing concerns in the world.]
1929: Based reports published todaythere are now 9,200 refugees scattered throughout Palestine as a result of Arab terror and violence. Of this number 2,500 are gathered in Jerusalem, 1,500 at Tel Aviv, 2,700 at Haifa and 2,500 at Safed.
1932:Representative Emanuel Celler of New York, who returned today on the Europa, accompanied by Mrs. Celler, predicted that beer and light wines would be legalized at the next session of Congress. In anticipation of this he said that he went abroad as a member of the Judiciary Committee to study the licensing systems of various European countries.
1934: The New York Times reviewed Those Who Perish, Edward Dahlberg’s novel about “the psychological repercussions of Hitlerism on the people who worked for a Jewish community house in the town of New Republic, NJ.
1936: A 25-percent tax is imposed on all Jewish assets in Germany.
1939: During World War II, the Polish air force was now completely destroyed after less than a week of combat. Germany began plans to move troops to the West (French Border.) Despite being sworn to support Poland, France declined to attack or militarily engage Germany. This inaction was a prelude to France's feeble resistance to the German attack in the Spring of 1940 and the willingness with which many Frenchmen would collaborate with the Nazis
1940: In a speech to a special SS Squad, Himmler said that there was only one goal, ". . . To create an order that will spread a consciousness of Nordic blood until we draw to us all the Nordic blood in the world."
1940 The Duneera arrives at Sydney, carrying Jewish refugees from Axis countries, incarcerated as enemy aliens.
1941: British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden notes that "if we must have preferences, let me murmur in your ear that I prefer Arabs to Jews." This strain of anti-Semitism was acceptable at certain levels of British society and certainly was part and parcel of the British Foreign Office. Eden was Churchill’s protégé. Supposedly he was responsible for the policies that kept the British for doing more to rescue the Jews of Europe and to admit them to Palestine. Eden finally became Prime Minister in the 1950’s. His government fell as a result of the Suez crisis when Eden clumsily tried to remove Nasser from power; a ploy that included covert support for an Israeli strike across the Sinai Peninsula.
1942: At least 5000 Jews from Kolomyia, Ukraine, are deported to Belzec; 1000 are killed in the Kolomyia Ghetto itself.
1942: Third baseman Cy Block made his major league debut with the Chicago Cubs.
1942: The main article on the foreign page of The Time of London was headed "Vichy's Jewish victims, children deported to Germany." Where they were deported was not stated. There was plenty of information floating around that England's "newspaper of record" could have at least speculated as their fate.
1943: A transport left Westerbork for Auschwitz. Among those on board were Etty Hillesum and her family.
1943: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise officiated at the funeral of Judge Julian W. Mack, “prominent jurist and Zionist leader.” (JTA)
1944: After having been interrogated by the Gestapo for almost a month, Victor Kluger, one of those who helped hide the Frank family, “was moved to the prison on Weteringschans, in a cell with people sentenced to death.”
1944: Hungarian authorities permit Ottó Komoly, a Jew, to rent buildings in Budapest to be used for the protection of Jewish children. Komoly will ultimately protect 5000 children in 35 buildings.
1948: “Sundown Beach” by Bessie Breuer opened on Broadway in NYC.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/sep/07/1948/bessie-breuer1949: The USS Benjamin Peixotto, a decommissioned “liberty ship” that had been sold to China “went aground in Tola harbor at Hong Kong during a typhoon.
1950: Two Holocaust survivors from Budapest who moved to Israel Peter David Bisseliches and Agnes Steiner married today
1950: Birthdate of Emmy award winning actress Julie Kavner. Kavner is best known for her role as Brenda Morgenstern in “Rhoda”and the voice of Marge on “The Simpsons.”
1951:“Spurred by the current food crisis, Israel has signed a contract with a private Ethiopian group for the purchase within the next year of 10,000 tons of meat equal to six months' rations for the entire Israeli population. Shipments from Eritrea through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba to the Israeli port of Elath are expected to begin in a few months.”
1953: Following the death of Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev becomes head of the Soviet Central Committee. During the post-World War II period, Nikita Khrushchev had governed the Ukraine, an area of intense suffering for the Jews during the war and an area where the local population had worked with the Nazis to murder their Jewish neighbors.“Ukrainian Jews who fled to Soviet Asia during the occupation slowly returned to reclaim their homes, possessions and jobs. The Ukrainians who remained in the communities were hostile to the returning Jews. “The Khrushchev led government refused to interfere in the conflicts between the Russians and the Jews. As a result, anti-Semitic sentiments surfaced everywhere — in the nation’s literature and art, and through political propaganda.” In his new position, Khrushchev was the fist among equals. He did not replicate Stalin’s paranoid anti-Semitism and Jews actually benefited from Khrushchev’s program of de-Stalinization that began in earnest in 1956. Khrushchev would use his new position to support the Arabs in the Middle East. He would proivde the arms and support for the Egyptians and the Syrians which made them a threat to Israel’s very existence in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.
1955: Birthdate of mathematician Efim Isaakovich Zelmanov. Born in the Soviet Union, Zelmanov has taught in a number of American universities as he did the academic work that led to him winning the Fields Medal in 1994.
1956:In Columbus, OH, Florence Mazie (née Cohen), an amateur tap dancer, and Edward Feinstein, a sales executive for the Sara Lee Corporation and a former amateur singer gave birth to multi-dimensional musician Michael Jay Feinstein.
1964(1st of Tishrei, 5725): As Jews observed Rosh Hashanah, they now enjoyed a new sense of inclusion thanks to the efforts passage two months ago of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which outlawed discrimination based on religion. Jews would repay the efforts of Lyndon Johnson, the man who made this possible by voting for him in overwhelming numbers in the November elections.
1969: During the ‘War of Attrition “Shayetet 13 carried out Operation Escort, raiding the Egyptian anchorage at Ras Sadat and destroying a pair of Egyptian P-183 torpedo-boats.”
1985: “A staged concert” featuring music from Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies” took place at Lincoln Center.
1991: In “Seeking Symmetry Between Palestinians and Jews” Edward Rothstein reviews “Death of Klinghoffer” an opera that provides a rationalization for throwing a wheel-chair bound American Jew off the deck of cruise ship that had been hijacked by terrorists.
1994(2nd of Tishrei, 5755): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1997: The New York Times book section includes reviews of Uncrowned King:The Life of Prince Albert by Jewish author Stanley Weintraub and A Mad, Mad, Mad,Mad World: A Life in Hollywoodby Stanley Kramer
1998: Google was co-founded by Larry Page and Russian born Sergey Brin and while they were students at Stanford Umiversity. Sergey Brin was born to a Jewish family in Moscow. He moved to the United States at the age of six when his father took a teaching position at the University of Maryland.
2002(1st of Tishrei, 5763): Rosh Hashanah
2002(1st of Tishrei,5763): Uziel "Uzi" Gal the German-born- Israeli gun designer best remembered as the designer and namesake of the Uzi submachine gun passed away.
2003(10th of Elul, 5763): Rock musician and songwriter Warren Zevon passed away at the age of 56. His father was Jewish and his mother was Mormon.
2003:The New York Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including Triangle: The Fire That Changed Americaby David Von Drehle. Woody Allen: A Life in Film by Richard Schickel
2005(3rd of Elul, 5765): Eighty-one year old Bessie Hope Wolf Garber who gained fame as actress and television personality “Hope Garber,” hostess of “At Home with Garber” passed away today.
2005: Haaretzreported that The Jewish Agency has invited university students in New Orleans - Jews and non-Jews alike - to study in Israel. According to the Jewish Agency, some 20 college students have taken an interest in the offer.
2006: Based on complaints from four different women, the police decided that they had enough evidence to indict Moshe Katsav.
2006:According to an article in Haaretz,“Britain’s Jewish community faces an unprecedented level of anti-Semitism and feels more threatened than ever, according to the report of the all-party parliamentary inquiry into anti-Semitism. The panel was initiated by members of Parliament and not intended to be an official inquiry. According to the report, the number of anti-Semitic incidents reported in Britain has risen since 2000, accompanied by a decline in public support for Jews. The panel attributed the escalation to flare-ups in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict (but did not specify a direct connection), as well as the "anti-Semitic discourse" being held openly among Muslims, the extreme left and, to a lesser extent, the extreme right.
2007:On the first day of his three day trip to Austria, Pope Benedict XVI “paid solemn tribute to Holocaust victims, extending his ‘sadness, repentance and friendship’ to the Jewish People.”
2007: As part of his “private” visit to Israel Prince Edward, who is seventh in line for succession to the British throne attends a Shabbat dinner in Jerusalem with Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, as well as prominent members of the British community in Israel. During his visit, Prince Edward went to Yad Vashem where a tree has been planted in honor of his grandmother Princess Alice of Greece, who was recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" for sheltering a Jewish family in her Athens home during the Holocaust.
2007: As part of his “private” visit to Israel Prince Edward, who is seventh in line for succession to the British throne attends a Shabbat dinner in Jerusalem with Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, as well as prominent members of the British community in Israel. During his visit, Prince Edward went to Yad Vashem where a tree has been planted in honor of his grandmother Princess Alice of Greece, who was recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" for sheltering a Jewish family in her Athens home during the Holocaust.
2007: Five Moroccan Jews, three of them women, ran in elections for positions in the Parliament of Morocco.
2007: “Iran’s Unlikely TV Hit” published today described the popularity of “Zero Degree Turn,” a drama that “centers on a love story between an Iranian-Palestinian Muslim man and a French Jewish woman” during the Holocaust.
2008: Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency medical response service, opens this year's "Lifesaving Olympics" on the top of Masada.
2008:At Lester J. Morris Hillel at Michigan State University, UJC Network Midwest Cluster Leadership Meeting Hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Lansing.
2008: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, presentation of a concert titled “Klezmer to Clasiccal.” From the haunting sounds of Klezmer folk music to the classical beauty of works by Mendelssohn and lush 20thcentury harmonies of Gershwin and Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Jewish composers have given us some of the world’s most transcendent and emotionally moving music. Klezmer to Classical honors the creative genius of these composers and features a little-known masterpiece by Czech composer Gideon Klein, composed shortly before his death in a concentration camp in 1945. In a display of the best of Cedar Rapids’ ecumenical spirit the concert is sponsored by Ann Lipsky, Harold and Robert Becker and the Thaler Holocaust in collaboration with the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library and is being held at First Presbyterian Church.
2008: The Washington Post book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of Jewish interest including Hot, Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution -- And How It Can Renew America by Thomas Friedman, The Black Hole War: My Battle with Steven Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanicsby Leonard Susskind and The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means by George Soros.
2008: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish reader including the recently paperback editions of Mort Zachter’s Dough: A Memoir and Yael Goldstein Love’sThe Passion of Darsky.
2009: Opening night of the Second annual Piyyut Festival in Jerusalem featuring Cantor David Riachi, an orchestra and a children's choir.
2009:Opposition leader and Kadima party chief Tzipi Livni blasted the Netanyahu government today, calling its policy amateurish and indecisive and denying she had any intentions of having Kadima join the government.
2009:Today, the Jerusalem Post obtained an exclusive letter from German President Horst Köhler criticizing the decision to award Germany's highest medal of honor - the Federal Cross of Merit - to anti-Zionist attorney Felicia Langer.
2010:Notyetness, a solo exhibition featuring the work of Israeli-American Yael Kanarek is scheduled to open at Bitforms Gallery in New York City.
2011: The Gilad Hekselman Quartet is scheduled to perform at the Jazz Standard in NYC where they will celebrate the release of Gilad's third album 'Hearts Wide Open' on Le Chant Du Monde label of Harmina Mundi
2011: Rabbi Mindy Avra Portnoy is scheduled to lead the opening session of “Not the Matriarchs: Lesser Known Women of the Hebrew Bible” at the JCC of Greater Washington.
2011:Day @ the J is scheduled to feature a screening of the documentary "Yiddish Theater: A Love Story," a hot lunch, and an Israeli art exhibit, Expressions Fine Art at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington, in Rockville, MD.
2011: Israeli settlers in the West Bank vandalized an Israel Defense Forces base today, carrying out a "price tag" operation against the army for the first time since adopting the policy in recent years.
2011: Today,Israel Police began dismantling social protest encampment sites in Tel Aviv and Holon, less than two months after activists set up the tent cities to demonstrate against the high cost of living in the country
2011(8th of Elul, 5771): Eighty-four year old William Lee Frost, the Jewish philanthropist who had succeeded his father a President of the Jewish Telegraphic agency passed away today. (As reported by JTA)
2011(8th of Elul, 5771):Daniel Rogov, Israel's leading food and wine critic and veteran writer for Haaretz, passed away today.
2011: Commissioner Insp.-Gen. Yochanan Danino has set up a special task force to tackle far right elements in the West Bank suspected of being behind a string of recent attacks launched as a response to demolitions of illegal outposts. The task force will be made up of officers from the elite national Lahav 433 unit and Judea and Samaria police district, police said today.
2012: A symposium sponsored by the Library of Congress entitled “The Stations That Spoke Your Language: Radio and the Yiddish American Cultural Renaissance” is scheduled to come to an end today.
2012: Elad Lassry’s Untitled (Presence) is scheduled to open at the Kitchen in NYC.
2012(20th of Elul): Yahrtzeit of Dr. Jacob Levin – a great man who lives on in so many ways.
2012:Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired two Kassam rockets into the western Negev early today. The rockets landed in open areas in the Sdot Negev Regional Council, close to Netivot. No damage or injuries were reported. Red alert sirens were heard in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, just north of the Strip, late this morning, but no rockets or mortars were discovered. (As reported by Times of Israel Staff)
2012: Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Israel may reoccupy parts of the Gaza strip in the future, while speaking at a meeting of the Fisher Institute on "Operation Cast Lead" today.
2013(3rdof Tishrei, 5774): In Cedar Rapids, guest Chazan Ilan Caplan leads traditional Shabbat Shuvah services at Temple Judah.
2013(3rdof Tishrei, 5774): Ninety-four year old cellist Fred Katz passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2013: As Israelis and Jews around the world wait for “the next shoe to drop” Egyptian troops move into the Sinai “to clean out insurgents,” CNN released videos showing victims of Syrian gas attacks and supporters of the Assad regieme threaten all kinds of retaliation ranging from terrorism to cyber attacks aimed at disrupting commerece and industry around the world.
2013: Israel drew 1-1 with Azerbaijan tonight in a disappointing performance which made the team’s World Cup 2014 hopes a very long shot.
2014: The New York Times published reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including 10:04 by Ben Lerner and Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer by Bettina Stangneth.
2014: Zvi Eckstein is scheduled to speak on “The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History” at the Center for Jewish History
2014: As part of events marking the 50th anniversary of the premiere of “Fiddler on the Roof” the Slidell (LA) Little Theatre is scheduled to present its final performance of the Broadway hit. (As reported by the Crescent City Jewish News, the source of information about Jewish communities along the bayous and Gulf Coast)
2014: The Chicago Bears, led by Coach Mark Tressman, the only Jewish NFL coach are scheduled to open their season against the Green Bay Packers.
2014: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to sponsor “a Sephardic-focused walking tour of South Portland, including a behind the scenes look at Portland’s Sephardic synagogue, Congregation Ahavath Achim.”
2014: Robyn Helzner, whose underground performances in the Soviet Union inspired countless Jews and refuseniks is scheduled to perform at the ceremonies marking the opening of “Voices of the Vigil: Documenting the Soviet Jewry Movement.”
2014: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Creative Corridor’s cultural season opens with Brucemorchestra presenting an “American Salute” featuring the music of those all-American composers, George Gershwin, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein.