September 9
1905: Birthdate of movie mogul Joseph Levine who founded Embassy Pictures that produced such interesting flics as “A Bridge Too Far” and “The Lion in Winter.”
"The minority of intolerant people in our land are soon hushed by the chorus of disapproval which arises when intolerance and hatred raise their voices. True Americanism does not tolerate anything so un-American and unpatriotic as intolerance of any race or any religion. Once again at the approach of the Jewish New Year, I want to extend to the Jewish citizens of the State my cordial and heartfelt greetings. I appreciate the sacredness of the time and have many memories of the deep solemnity with which my old friends and neighbors observed these Holidays. In our busy lives it is an inspiring thing to set aside days on which we take thought of our actions and our life during the past year and prepared for the future. Communion with God in the deepest spiritual sense is the basis of all true religion. I profoundly believe in the separation of church and State as a basic American principle and I could not believe otherwise. But I do not believe in the separation of religion from daily life. Each of us observes the requirements of his religion in his own way but together we are all children of the one God. The minority of intolerant people in our land are soon hushed by the chorus of disapproval which arises when intolerance and hatred raises their voices. True Americanism does not tolerate anything so un-American and unpatriotic as intolerance of any race or any religion. The Jews are notably a people of peace and in wishing my fellow Jewish citizens of the State of New York a good New Year, I hope that their prayers will join with mine that our Universal Father help us all to strengthen the time-honored American principles of toleration and religious freedom." (As reported by JTA)
337: Constantine II, Constantius II, and Constans I succeed their father Constantine I as co-emperors dividing the Roman Empire between the three Augusti. Constantine was responsible for making Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. The sons would quarrel but would not reverse the father’s decision.
384: Birthdate of Honorious, one of the Roman Emperors who prohibited the practice of burning an effigy of Haman on Purim because early Christians saw it “as a disguised attempt to re-enact the death of Jesus and ridicule the Christian faith.”
As early as the fifth century, there was a custom to burn an effigy of Haman on Purim.[32] The spectacle aroused the wrath of the early Christians who interpreted the mocking and "execution" of the Haman effigy as a disguised attempt to re-enact the death of Jesus and ridicule the Christian faith. Prohibitions were issued against such displays under the reign of Flavius Augustus Honorius (395–423) and of1087: William the Conqueror, first Norman king of England, passed away. The first verifiable Jewish population moved from Rouen in France to the British Isles in the wake of William’s victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Based on the continued acceptance of Jews in the kingdom by William’s son, the Jews were not there by accident. Rather, the new English rulers saw them as a source for developing trade and commerce in their new domain.
1379; The Treaty of Neuberg was signed splitting the Austrian Habsburg lands between the Habsburg Dukes Albert III and Leopold III. According to historian Jacqueline Shields, “The position of the Jews became increasingly precarious during the reigns of Albert III and Leopold III starting in the middle of the 14thcentury and lasting into the early years of the 15th century.
1516: “A Judeo-conversa named María López” and her daughter Isabel were put trial on trial during the never-ending Spanish Inquisition for allegedly performing acts that were tantamount to observing Shabbat and the dietary laws.” (As reported by Renee Levine Melammed)
1553: Under the auspices of Cardinal Caraffa, later to be Pope Paul IV, a “rabid” leader of the counter-Reformation, the Talmud was confiscated and publicly burned in Rome. The Cardinal chose the day of Rosh Hashanah of that year specifically so the Jews would feel the grief more strongly. Talmud burning would soon spread across many other parts of Italy.
1751:Joseph Solomon Ottolenghe wrote a letter today describing his arrival in Savanah, which was the capitol of the British colony of Georgia.
1774:Birthdate of Salomon Mayer von Rothschild the founder of the Viennese branch of the “House of Rothschild”. He passed away in 1855 while visiting in Paris.
1796: The National Assembly of the Batavian Republic accorded equal rights to the Jews of the Netherlands.
1812(3rd of Tishrei, 5573): Jews in the UK and the US are divided by war between their two countries but they share in hunger as they observe Tzom Gedaliah
1820(1stof Tishrei, 5581): Two months before Americans elect James Monroe in the least contested Presidential Election in the history of the U.S. Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah
1828: Birthdate of Russian author, Count Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy’s attitude towards Jews is a mixed bag. He signed a petition sent to Alexander III protesting pogroms in 1881. He strongly condemned the Kishnev Pogrom writing, “The outrages at Kishinev are but the direct result of the propaganda of falsehood and violence which our government conducts with such energy.” At the same time he blamed Russia’s defeat in the war with Japan on Russia becoming a “pseudo-Christian civilization.” In this civilization “the struggle for money and success in so-called scientific and artistic pursuits” becomes the dominant factor. And it is the society in which “the Jews got the edge on the Christians in every country and thereby earned the envy and hatred of all.” As old age crept up on him he wrote, “I should like to write something to prove how the teachings of Christ, who was not a Jew, were replaced by very different teachings of the apostle Paul, who was a Jews.” But in the end, Tolstoy noted that his physician Dushin Makovitsky would have been a saint except for one flaw – his hatred of Jews.”
1836: Members of Congregation B'ne Israel dedicated the first synagogue built in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1839(1stof Tishrei, 5600): Rosh Hashanah
1839: The Jewish community of Melbourne, whose members had begun arriving in 1835, held their first High Holiday services.
1845: Birthdate of Ignatz Acsady, the Hungarian Jewish historian whose works include The Common State Law and the History of Politics and Jewish and Non-Jewish Hungarians after the Emancipation.
1850(3rd of Tishrei, 5611):Tzom Gedaliah
1850: California joins the Union adding a 33rdstar to the U.S. flag. A year before California joined the Union there were enough Jews to hold Yom Kippur Services in San Francisco. By the end of the decade there were ten congregations in San Francisco and one in Sacramento. During this time there were two Jewish associate justices of the state court and at least one Jew was serving in the state legislature.
1857:Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt discovered Asteroid 56 Melete.
1858 (1st of Tishrei, 5619): As Lincoln debates Douglas in the Illinois Senate Contest, Jews observe Rosh Hashanah
1858: The City Items column published today reported “The most important of the annual religious festivals of the Jews, the "Rosh Hashannah," commenced today. It is not only one of the most important, but also one of the most ancient of Hebrew celebrations.” The writer then quoted the verses from Chapter XXII of Leviticus that describe the commands related to the observance of the holiday.
1859: Dr. Maurice Raphall “the most celebrated Rabbi in the United States” delivered the Rosh Hashanah sermon at the Greene Street Synagogue. Dr. Samuel Adler delivered the sermon at Temple Emanu-el. Dr. Bondi, the new rabbi at the Norfolk Street Synagogue, delivered his first Rosh Hashanah sermon in New York.
1860: Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt discovered Asteroid 61 Danae.
1861(5thof Tishrei, 5622): Italian historian Samuel Romanin who became a college professor at Venice, passed away today having completed only three volumes in a projected nine volume History of Venice.
1861: As the Civil War entered its sixth month, reports were published today that “there is a universal stampede of Jews southward, who have been engaged in running goods into the Southern Confederacy, caused by a report that the trains on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad would probably be stopped to-morrow.” This would not be the first, nor the last, attempt to connect Jews with war profiteering. These stories primarily emanated from the western theatre of fighting. The author of this particular item shows an ignorance of the pro-Union sentiment among Jews living in Kentucky as exemplified by Louis Naphtali Dembitz of Louisville who was one of the three men who placed Lincoln’s name in nomination for the Presidency.
1863:Mr. J. L. De Cordova, the humorist and author is delivered his famed lecture, "Fairy Land and the Fairies," at Dodworth's Hall this evening. The proceeds will be given to the Hebrew Free Sunday School Teachers' Association
1864: In Kaschau, Hungary, Henrietta A. Weintraub and Rabbi Albert Bettelheim gave birth to Rebekah Bettelheim who as Rebekah Bettelheim Kohut, the wife of Rabbi Alexander Kohut, became one of the pioneering leaders in the fields of “in the areas of education, social welfare, and the organization of Jewish women” (As reported by Karla Goldman)
1870: In Philadelphia, PA, Rabbi Marcus Jastow was serving as the spiritual leader of Rodeph Shalom, a German Jewish Congregation, which dedicated its new sanctuary on Broad and Mt. Vernon Streets today. It replaced the congregation’s first synagogue that had been located on Julianna Street.
1872(6thof Elul, 5632): Sixty-six year oldJohanna Katharina Diamant, the wife of Herman Diamant passed away in Pest, Hungary.
1873: G.L. Fox played Goliath in tonight’s performance of “The Wandering Jew” at the Grand Opera House in New York City. “The Wandering Jew” or “Le Juif Errant” is an opera by Fromental Halevy’s based on the medieval Christian legend that claims a Jew who taunted Jesus at the Crucifixion is destined to wander the world until the Second Coming.
1873: Birthdate of Max Reinhardt. Born Maximilian Goldmann, the famed director is described as being of Jewish ancestry by one source. Regardless of the term “Jewish ancestry” he fled Hitler’s Europe and settled in the United States where he passed away in 1943.
1877(2ndof Tishrei, 5638): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1877: Despite claims that it was too small, the little synagogue in Chatham square in New York City held Rosh Hashanah services in room that could hold anywhere from 300 to 400 people that could be accessed by a four-foot wide stairway which provided a satisfactory route for worshippers to enter and leave.
1881: “Russian Immigrants” published today described plans that are being made by prominent New York Jews to deal with the more than 500 Jewish refugees from Russia that are expected to arrive at Castle Garden in the next three months. It is estimated that it will take more than $50,000 to meet their initial needs.
1883: Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Agram, the city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire which is also known by its Croatian name – Zagreb.
1884: A group of Polish and Hungarian miners from Montana, PA, attacked a Jewish clothier and chased him and his assistants out town after stealing their packs.
1885(29th of Elul, 5645): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1885: Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs led services this evening at the new synagogue on Madison Avenue at 65th Street in Manhattan which had opened last March.
1889: “The Jews of London” published today provides a review of Reuben Sachs: A Sketch by Amy Levy.
“Reuben Sachs is a London lawyer whose political aspirations do not include marriage to Judith Quixano, the daughter of a respectable but unexceptional family. But without Reuben, a woman like Judith might have a bleak future in mid-19th century England: a loveless marriage or lifelong dependency are apparently her only options…” Amy Levy was 19th century Jewish author who led what was called at the time “an unconventional life.”
1890: Birthdate of Dr. Kurt Lewin, the German born American psychologist.
1890: “The St. Petersburg correspondent of the London Daily Graphic” noted today that there are “no less than 125,000 Jews in the military forces of the empire” and that “next year’s draft will…amount to no fewer than 50,000” which means that military service is one of the few rights of citizenship the Jews are allowed to enjoy and that the Czar’s government see nothing “strange in arming a body of men habitually oppressed by the State.”
1891: It was announced today that Rabbi Solomon Sonnenschein of Temple Israel has resigned because of health problems and will be returning to Germany. He must have recovered his health because in 1905 he was the Rabbi at Temple B’nai Yeshrun in Des Moines, Iowa.
1891: Yesterday’s ceremony dedicating Temple Beth-Jacob’s new facility was described today as an ecumenical affair since the speakers included Rabbis De Sola Mendez and A.S. Isaacs as well as Reverenc R. H. Barr of the Associate Reformed Church.
1892: Rabbi Hirsch officiated at the dedication of a new synagogue located at on 50thStreet between 3rd and Lexington Avenues which was originally founded 34 years ago by French speaking Jews from Alsace when they started worshipping at a sanctuary on 45th Street between Second and Third Avenues
1892: “Driven From Their Homes” published today relied on first evidence supplied by a group of Russian Jews passing through Paris on their way to Canada to describe the plight of their co-religionists who were being expelled by Czar’s government.
1893: Morris Goodhart has been elected President of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society to replace the late Priscilla J. Joachimsen who was the driving force behind creation of the society which oversees the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and has been its only President.
1894: Abraham Cahan addressed a mass meeting of tailors affiliated with the Knights of Labor at the Windsor Theatre.
1894: There were enough Jews at tonight’s mass meeting of tailors held at the Thalia Theatre that some of the speeches had to be delivered in Hebrew.
1894: Birthdate of Arthur Freed, the Charleston, SC, native who gained fame as a songwriter and movie producer whose work included the 1951 re-make of “Showboat” based on the novel by Edna Ferber.
1896(2ndof Tishrei, 5657): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1896: The Fourth Assembly District Convention was held this evening at 8 p.m. two hours after the end of the Jewish New Year. All other district conventions had been held yesterday, but this one was postponed until this evening because the district has a large Jewish population and they would not participate in an event on Rosh Hashanah.
1898: In Washington, DC, the Turkish Legations issued statement banning the entrance of foreign born Jews into Palestine.
1899: “Changing the Commandments” published today described an order by “the Minister of Education in Russia that the 5th commandment “shall read ‘Honor thy father and thy mother, the Emperor and his officials…” but gives no indication of what would happen if a Jew rejects “the garbling of the text…”
1899: In Rennes, crowds of anti-Dreyfusards expressed their pleasure at today’s verdict by marching through the streets shouting “Vive l'armée” and “Down with the Jews.”
1899: When J.M. Francoeur who plays the part of a French officer in the French far “The Girl from Maxim’s” playing at the Criteriorn Theatre first came on stage in his army uniform the audience show its anger over the verdict in the Dreyfus case by booing, hissing and calling out “Vive Dreyfus.”
1899: Tonight, after hearing of the verdict in the Dreyfus case, New York Deputy Assistant District Attorney Maurice B. Blumenthal began organizing “a committee of citizens” regardless of their religion, “including clergymen of all denominations” which would hold a mass protest meeting and send a committee to President McKinley requesting that he intervene with French President Loubert on behalf of Dreyfus.
1899: At tonight’s meeting in Kansas City, MO, the women of the Hebrew Relief Association adopted the following resolution: “We do hereby pledge ourselves not to visit the territory of the French Republic, buy or handle any merchandise or other thing manufactured or grown in any territory or possession of said republic until the truth of the innocence of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus shall be shown to the world by a fair and impartial trial.”
1899: Among the books listed today as having been received this week were The Modern Jew by Arnold White and The American Jewish Year Book: 5660edited by Cyrus Adler.
1899: Sixty-five year old James Biddle Eustis who had first-hand knowledge of the Dreyfus Affair because he had been the U.S. Ambassador to France from 1894 through 1897 passed away today before he could complete his book on the affair.
1899: Anti-Jewish riots occurred in Algeria.
1901: Toulouse-Lautrec passed away who painted Reine de joie, moeurs du demi-monde(Queen of Joy, The World of Easy Virtue) which depicts “Baron de Rozenfeld, a Jewish banker, a fictional allusion to the French Baron Alphonse de Rothschild”
1903: For one of the first time, “Jewish self-defense units appearing during the pogrom in Gomel, Mogilev Province, Russia. (As described by John Klier)
1905: Birthdate of movie mogul Joseph Levine who founded Embassy Pictures that produced such interesting flics as “A Bridge Too Far” and “The Lion in Winter.”
1907(1stof Tishrei, 5668): Rosh Hashanah
1907: In Columbus, GA, the local newspaper that it “looked odd to see how many stores are closed” today “and that the number of closed businesses…reflected ‘how prominently the Jews are identified with city’s business life.’”
1910: In Paris, Alice B. Toklas moves into the home of Gertrude Stein. [Do you think these two daughters of Israel kept a kosher kitchen?]
1910: El Desperter a new Ladino newspaper which is the first Jewish newspaper in Morocco, appears in Tetuan.
1910: The Turkish government placed a tax on sales of kosher meat by local communities. Proceeds were promised to go to philanthropic purposes. Governors of all vilayets (provinces) informed and directed to assist chief rabbis in enforcing payment
1911: In New York Barnett and Augusta Goodman gave birth to writer and social commentator Paul Goodman.
1911: The first party of Jewish farmers arrived in Salt Lake City Utah, on their way to the Piute Project, to colonize Southern Utah.
1912: Twenty-six year old Joseph Josephson, the native of Vilnius who lived in Sweden and England before arriving today at Fremantle, Australia.
1915(1stof Tishrei, 5676): Rosh Hashanah
1916: Second baseman Sam Bohne made his major league debut with the St. Louis Cardinals.
1916: Birthdate of Montague Ullman, the psychiatrist who founded the Dream Laboratory at Maimonides Medical Center.
1917: The New York Times reviewed The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text: a New Translation and The Story of Bible Translation by Max L. Margolis. Dr. Cyrus Adler chaired the committee that was responsible for the translation and the late Dr. Solomon Schechter played a key role in this effort as well.
1920: A memorial service was held in New York in honor of Rabbi Bernard Cantor and Dr. Israel Friedlander, a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary who had been murdered outside of Kiev while brining aid to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were suffering as a result of WW I and the Russian Revolution.
1923: Birthdate of David Rayfiel, the native of Corinth, NY a screenwriter who in a long creative relationship with the director Sydney Pollack and Robert Redford collaborated on many of their most successful films, including “Three Days of the Condor,” “Out of Africa” and “The Way We Were. ” (As reported by William Grimes)
1926(1st of Tishrei, 5687): Rosh Hashanah
1926: Thanks to a directive from the Director of Public Safety, Jewish policemen and firemen are to be excused from active duty today because of the High Holidays.
1926: As Jews in New York observed Rosh Hashanah, they contemplated the following message from Governor Alfred E. Smith, who would be the first Catholic to run for President of the United States in 1928.
"The minority of intolerant people in our land are soon hushed by the chorus of disapproval which arises when intolerance and hatred raise their voices. True Americanism does not tolerate anything so un-American and unpatriotic as intolerance of any race or any religion. Once again at the approach of the Jewish New Year, I want to extend to the Jewish citizens of the State my cordial and heartfelt greetings. I appreciate the sacredness of the time and have many memories of the deep solemnity with which my old friends and neighbors observed these Holidays. In our busy lives it is an inspiring thing to set aside days on which we take thought of our actions and our life during the past year and prepared for the future. Communion with God in the deepest spiritual sense is the basis of all true religion. I profoundly believe in the separation of church and State as a basic American principle and I could not believe otherwise. But I do not believe in the separation of religion from daily life. Each of us observes the requirements of his religion in his own way but together we are all children of the one God. The minority of intolerant people in our land are soon hushed by the chorus of disapproval which arises when intolerance and hatred raises their voices. True Americanism does not tolerate anything so un-American and unpatriotic as intolerance of any race or any religion. The Jews are notably a people of peace and in wishing my fellow Jewish citizens of the State of New York a good New Year, I hope that their prayers will join with mine that our Universal Father help us all to strengthen the time-honored American principles of toleration and religious freedom." (As reported by JTA)
1926:The New York Board of Jewish Ministers issued a New Year message, in which it declared:
"With Rosh Hashanah begins Israel's most solemn season of the year, culminating in Yom Kippur, the sacred Day of Atonement. It is a hallowed usage in the House of Israel that this season is a time for noting and estimating the individual and the collective situation."Crowded synagogues will once more attest to the call of the Faith which summons the Jew to scrutinize his soul and take inventory of his spiritual condition. May the Heavenly Father send light and guidance upon the path of every sincere supplicant who implores help from On High. "The celebration of the 150th anniversary of American independence brings vividly to mind the privilege as well as the responsibility with which the Jew has been entrusted in this blessed land. He has shared fully in the life of the nation, from its beginning, having made many sacrifices and received many benefits. Among the patriots who achieved the success of the Revolution, the Jewish names were plentiful, though the Jewish population was meager. The Jew therefore feels thoroughly at home in the land which he has helped to defend in times of war and to upbuild in times of peace. He appreciates the bounties, material and spiritual, which he, together with all American citizens, here enjoys; and with the same fervor that he prays for his personal well being, he prays also for the well being of the United States of America, its civil leaders, its citizens, and its institutions."The collective situation of the House of Israel abroad gives promise of better things for the coming year."The lot of the Jew in Europe and in Palestine is showing measurable improvement. As the European nations regain their composure, the Jew regains his safety. The Peace and Welfare of Israel is intimately bound up with the Peace and Welfare of Humanity. Therefore the Prophetic Proclamation of the Holy Day season, 'Peace, Peace, afar and near,' is Israel's constant prayer."May the wounds of sorrow and suffering everywhere be healed. "May the New Year 5687 bring Peace and Blessing to Israel and to all Humanity."
1926: Establishment of the National Broadcasting Company. NBC (first in radio and then in television) was the network dominated by David Sarnoff, Chairman of RCA. With William Paley owning CBS, this meant that two Jews were at the top of the two major broadcasting networks. Contrary to what the anti-Semites claim, having two Jews at the top did not translate into a Jewish controlled media; one look at the programming of these two broadcasters will tell you that these men aimed most of their programming at middle-brow, Middle America.
1929: “Joseph Absuhdid, one of the Jews wounded in Hebron during the massacre now recovering in a Jerusalem Hospital was taken by the police to Hebron where he identified eighty prisoners as a part of the mob which perpetrated the massacre on August 24.”
1933(18th of Elul, 5693):Hirsch Smulowitz, who although 109 years old only had twenty-seven birthdays because he was born on Feb. 29, died in his sleep at the New York Guild for Jewish Blind on St. John's Avenue today. He was one of the oldest men in the State.
1935: Birthdate of Chaim Topol. Born in Tel Aviv, Topol is best known to American audiences for playing Tevye in the film version of "Fiddler on the Roof."
1937: The Palestine Post reported that the National Arab Congress, attended by delegates from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and Egypt, started its deliberations in a small summer resort of Bludan, in Syria. The Palestine Postwas the pre-Independence name of the Jerusalem Post. It was only after the establishment of the state of Israel that the term Palestinian came to refer to Arabs.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that the stabbed and mutilated body of a young unidentified Jew was found in the Yarkon River. Another Jew, Willy Weiss, was robbed and killed by five armed Arabs on the Haifa-Nazareth road. His passenger, Michael Dubowsky, was also wounded and robbed, but left alive.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that during the first seven months of 1937, Ha’avara Trust Office transferred 18.8 million marks of Jewish capital from Germany to Palestine. The transfers were about 11m. in 1933-1934, 17.1m. in 1935, 20m. in 1936. Parts of the transfers consisted of goods, machines and raw materials.
1938: Premiere of “Boys Town” which told the story of Father Edward Flanigan directed by Norman Taurog and script co-authored by Dore Schary.
1939: Birthdate of Reuven “Rubi” Rivlin, a native of Jerusalem who is a member of Likud and Speaker of the Knesset.
1939: Harry F. Guggenheim and his journalist wife launched Newsday, a tabloid designed to serve metropolitan New York City.
1940: Louis Werfel who graduated from Yeshiva College in 1937 and would be known as “The Flying Rabbi” while serving in the U.S. Army in WW II married Adina Gerstel whom he had met at the college’s cafeteria.
1940: Italian planes bombed Tel Aviv. One hundred seventeen people were killed. The Jews of Palestine posed a threat to the fascists. With much of the Arab world supporting the Nazis, the area controlled by the Yishuv provided a safe area for British forces in the Middle East. The oil refineries at Haifa were of great value to the Allies and were subject to bombing raids by the Italians. At the outset of the war Weitzman had pledged the support of the Yishuv to the Allied cause. Ben-Gurion spoke for many when he said the Jews would fight the White Paper (the closing of immigration) as if there were no war and fight the war as if there were no White Paper.
1940: The Ordinance Judenkodex (Jewish Code) was adopted in Slovakia. This was part of a series of law designed to strip Jews of their sources of livelihood.
1942: The Vichy Government (Unoccupied France) ordered the arrest of all Catholic priests who were sheltering Jews.
1942(27th of Elul, 5702): Two thousand Jews were assembled at Kislovodsk, sent to nearby Mineralnye Vody, marched to a ditch and shot dead. There were no survivors among the 2000. Kislovodsk is located in southern Russia. In 1987 Kislovodsk took part in a pioneering U.S. - Soviet venture in peaceful relations by becoming a sister city to Muscatine, Iowa. (You have to live in Iowa to really appreciate this one.)
1942(27thof Elul, 5702): Margarete Schiff, the daughter Dr. Josef Bauer whose works laid the foundation for the therapy that came to known as psychoanalysis, died today at Theresienstadt, a fate her sister Dora had avoided by committing suicide.
1942: Two thousand Jews are deported from the camp in Lublin, Poland, to Majdanek.
1944:Allied forces liberated Luxembourg today. Of the 3,500 Jews living there in 1939, 1,555 survived, by fleeing, hiding, or surviving in the camps; 1,945 were murdered, a third in the camps to which they had been deported from Luxembourg, and the rest in the country itself or in other occupied countries to which they had fled or been deported. (As reported by Yad Vashem)
1944: At the Chelmno Death Camp in Poland, an inventory was reported of 775 wrist watches and 550 pocket watches which had been collected since July from the victims of the Lodz ghetto cleansing. At one level, the Holocaust was an economic venture with what might be called a reallocation of resources. In other words, the Germans and their allies took the property of the Jews and gave it to themselves. During the 1950's there was great deal of hoopla over the German Economic Miracle - the name given to quick recovery of the West German economy after the devastating defeat in 1945. How much of this "miracle" was actually funded by the wealth confiscated from the victims of the Holocaust remains one of the great unasked and unanswered questions of the post war world.
1944: The U.S.N. Drum (SS-228) began its 11th war patrol that would take it to the enemy controlled Luzon Straits in the Philippines. The submarine was under the command of Maurice H. Rindskopf who would earn the Navy Cross for his gallantry and intrepidity on this patrol. The Jewish “sailor” would rise to the rank of Rear Admiral before his retirement in 1972.
1945(2nd of Tishrei, 5706): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1945:Lt. Col. Louis Geffen, a judge advocate in the US Army, led Rosh Hashanah services on a naval transport crossing the Pacific Ocean.
1947: In Camden, NJ, Louis L. Goldman oversaw the ceremonies during which Dr. Max Artz installed Philip L. Lipis as the rabbi at Congregation Beth El.
1950: Gimbel’s began selling sports coats from Tel Aviv this afternoon, making it the first New York Department store to sell clothes designed and manufactured in Israel. The coats cost $98 plus tax.
1951:The draft of a mining law designed to promote oil exploration in Israel by foreign petroleum companies has been drawn up and will be submitted for Government consideration as soon as a new Cabinet is formed. According to a report prepared by U.S. Petroleum engineer Max Ball, three are geological in three different locations in Israel that suggest the presence of oil. The area of greatest interest is in the Negev.
1951: Today Leonard Bernstein married Costa Rican born actress Felicia Montealegre-Cohn; an event which occurred during the same month when he was appointed Professor of Music at Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass.
1951: “A basic reorganization of the United Palestine Appeal and other American Zionist fund-raising agencies is the principal item on the agenda of a forthcoming national conference to be called by the United Palestine Appeal, Rudolf G. Sonneborn, U.P.A. national chairman, announced today upon his return from a two-month stay in Israel. Mr. Sonneborn, who was a delegate to the recently concluded World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, declared that "the conference which will be convened as soon as possible in Washington, D.C., must implement the basic decision of the Congress to streamline and consolidate the Zionist Funds."
1951: The newspaper Le Monde reported today that of 7,700 newspapers and periodicals published in the Soviet Union in 109 different languages not one is being published in Yiddish.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that West Germany approved the terms of The Hague Reparations Agreement. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and his government hoped that this act, apart from the contribution to the economic recovery of Israel will build a bridge of reconciliation. Parliamentary circles in Bonn believed that full diplomatic and commercial relations with Israel will be necessary to warrant the agreement¹s safe realization.
1954: Birthdate of Dr. Martin Seth Kramer who developed an expertise on the politics of Arabs and Islam
1954: In London premiere of “Sabrina” a classic directed, produced and co-written by Will Wilder. Ernest Lehman was the other author.
1957: Alfred K. Stern and his wife Martha Dodd Stern “were indicted in absentia on espionage charges.” (Martha Dodd’s father was the first U.S. Ambassador to serve in Germany during the Hitler era. She got to see the Nazis up close and this transformative experience shaped the rest of her life.)
1957: President Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first such legislation enacted since Reconstruction. Congressman Emanuel Celler was a driving force behind the act having introduced it into the House. Celler would play a similar key role when it came to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
1958: French Premiere of “The Goddess” with a script by Paddy Chayefsky.
1965: While on his way to start his freshman year at Tulane University, David Levin “rides out” Hurricane Betsy in a parked railroad car in Slidell, Louisiana as the storm makes its second landfall near the Crescent City, leaving 76 dead and $1.42 billion ($10-12 billion in 2005 dollars) in damages, becoming the first hurricane to top $1 billion in unadjusted damages
1965: The most famous Jewish player, Sandy Koufax pitched his 4th no-hitter; a perfect game in which the Dodgers beat the Cubs 1 to 0. (Hank Greenberg rates as the second most famous.)
1966: Birthdate of actor and comedian Adam Sandler.
1966: In London, opening of the Destruction in Art Symposium chaired by Gustav Metzger
1966:Schocken Books, Inc. is scheduled to publish today "Two Tales" by S.Y. Agnon, the Israeli who has been acclaimed as today's leading writer in Hebrew and has been nominated for the Nobel Prize. It will be the first English translation of a book by Mr. Agnon since 1948, and it will mark 50 years of association between the writer and the Shocken family.
1969: Operation Raviv, a ten hour raid mounted against Egypt under the command of General Avraham Adan and Admiral Arvaham Botzer successfully destroyed a radar site at Ras Saafrana while playing havoc with Egyptian forces on that nation’s Red Sea Coast.
1970: A British airliner is hijacked by the Popular From for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and flown to Dawson Field in Jordan. The names of the Palestinian terrorist groups may change but the goals remain the same; remove western influence from the Arab worlds and destroy the state of Israel.
1972(1st of Tishrei, 5733): Rosh Hashanah
1973(12th of Elul, 5733):American playwright and screenwriter Samuel Nathaniel Behrman passed away.
1978(7th of Elul, 5738): Jack Warner, founder of Warner Brothers Studio, passed away.
1980(28thof Elul, 5740): Seventy-eight year Harold Edgar Clurman one of the three founders of “New York City’s Group Theatre, influential drama critic and former husband of Stella Adler passed away today.
1982: The New York Times reviewed books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Leo Rosten’s Hooray For Yiddish!.
1991(1stof Tishrei, 5752): Rosh Hashanah
1993: Aryeh Gamliel completed his term as Deputy Minister of Housing and Construction.
1993: The Palestine Liberation Organization officially recognizes Israel as a legitimate state. Future events would seem to indicate the PLO really did not do this. In point of fact no copy of the PLO’s National Charter has been published without the “many clauses declaring the creation of the state of Israel "null and void", since it was created by force on Palestinian soil calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.”
1995(14th of Elul, 5755): Eighty-nine year old Biblical archaeologist Benjamin Mazar passed away. (As reported by Joel Greenberg)
1995:In Dayton, The Ohio State Korean War Veterans monument which is “adjacent to the Jewish Temple” will be dedicated today. The memorial which overlooks the Great Miami River is the culmination of a six year effort that included the work of innumerable volunteers.
1997(7th of Elul, 5757): Gertude Lookstein passes away at the age of 90.Gertrude S. Lookstein, who with her husband, Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein, was a leader in the New York Orthodox community and was active in a number of organizations. Her maternal grandfather, Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies, was the leader of Congregation Kehilath Jeshrun in Manhattan. He was succeeded by her husband, who served also as president, then chancellor, of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, until his death in 1979. Their son, Haskel, succeeded his father in the rabbinate in Kehilath Jeshrun. Mrs. Lookstein was a national board member and New York chapter president of Amit Women. She was also involved in fund-raising for the Yeshiva University Women's Organization, the U.J.A. Federation and the Women's Branch of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
2000: Abu Mazen delivered a speech at the meeting of the Palestinian Central Council in which he articulated the PLO’s view of peace negotiations.
2001(21stof Elul, 5761): Yigal Goldstein, 47, of Jerusalem, Morrel Derfler, 45, of Mevaseret Zion and Daniel Yifrach, 19, of Jerusalem were murdered today when a Hamas terrorist detonated a bomb in the Nahariya Railway Station in Nahariya, Israel
2001: A Hamas terrorist injured 17 people when he detonated a bomb Beit Lid Highway Junction in the Sharon region of Israel.
2002: Slovakia observed its first Holocaust Remembrance Day.
2002: At the Toronto International Film Festival, premiere of “The Emperor’s Club” co-produced by Marc Abraham and starring Kevin Klein whose father was Jewish.
2003(12th of Elul, 5763): Physicist Edward Teller passed away. Teller is known as the "Father of the H-Bomb." With Oppenheimer as the "Father of the Atomic Bomb" and Rickover as the "Father of the Atomic Submarine" it is obvious that the Jews played a primary role in providing the United States with the nuclear deterrent during the Cold War. (As reported by Walter Sullivan)
2003(12thof Elul, 5763): Senior Warrant Officer Haim Alfasi, 39, of Haifa; Chief Warrant Officer Yaakov Ben-Shabbat, 39, of Pardes Hanna; Cpl. Mazi Grego, 19, of Holon; Capt. Yael Kfir, 21, of Ashkelon; Cpl. Felix Nikolaichuk, 20, of Bat Yam; Sgt. Efrat Schwartzman, 19, of Ganei Yehuda; Sgt. Yonatan Peleg, 21, of Moshav Yanuv and Cpl. Prosper Twito, 20, of Upper Nazareth were murdered this evening and 31 people of one of whom would later die from his wounds, were injured today when Hamas terrorist detonated a bomb at a bus stop “near Tzrifin,” a military compound.
2003(12thof Elul, 5763): Dr. David Applebaum, 51, of Jerusalem – head of the emergency room at Shaare Zedek Medical Center; Nava Applebaum, 20, of Jerusalem – David Applebaum's daughter who was to have been married the day after the bombing; David Shimon Avizadris, 51, of Mevaseret Zion; Shafik Kerem, 27, of Beit Hanina; Alon Mizrahi, 22, of Jerusalem – the Café Hillel’s coffee security guard; Gila Moshe, 40, of Jerusalem and Yehiel (Emil) Tubol, 52, of Jerusalem were murdered today by a Hamas terrorist at the Café Hillel, a Jerusalem coffee house
2005:Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf praised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as “courageous” for ordering the withdrawal of Jewish settlements from Gaza, but doesn’t plan to follow up a recent diplomatic breakthrough between the countries by meeting him at the United Nations this month.
2005: In a manner reminiscent of the American Judicial System, the Israeli justice system seemed to be sending mixed messages concerning the treatment of women. Former defense minister and retired army general Yitzhak Mordechai will not be stripped of his rank, despite his two convictions for sexual misconduct. The three general panel felt he had been punished enough. The government can appeal the decisions. At the same time a” panel of High Court judges ruled that employers are not permitted to fire female workers for absence from work if this is due to their undergoing fertility treatment. However, the judges decided that the law does not provide women with general immunity against being dismissed for other disciplinary reasons, or if the fertility treatment does not justify absence from work.”
2006:“Riding the Wave,” an Ashdod arts festival celebrating the beachside city's 50th anniversary which was held at Ashdod's Monart Center came to an end after three days with a singing contest
2007: Ryan Braun hit a home run today helping “the Brewers to become one of only three teams in major league history to start a game with three straight homers.”
2007: The Sunday Washington Post book section featured a review of The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt and reported that two of the three books that the Post describes as “the most anticipated books of the season” are the products of Jewish authors – Alan Greenspan and Philip Roth.
2007: The Sunday New York Times book section features reviews of World War IV
The Long Struggle Against Islamofascismby Norman Podhoretz former editor of Commentary, Diane Ackerman’s The Zookeeper’s Wife, which chronicles Antonia and Jan Zabinski’s successful efforts to save three hundred Warsaw Jews during the Holocaust and God’s Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America by Hanna Rosin a Jewish Israeli born writer who has been covering religious issues for the Washington Post for ten years. 2007:Israeli archeologists announced that they've stumbled upon the site of one of the great dramatic scenes of the Roman sacking of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago: the subterranean drainage channel Jews used to escape from the city's Roman conquerors. The ancient tunnel was dug beneath what would become the main road of Jerusalem in the days of the second biblical Temple, which the Romans destroyed in the year 70, the dig's directors, archaeology Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority, told a news conference. The channel was buried beneath the rubble of the sacking, and the parts that have been exposed have been preserved intact. The walls - ashlar stones one meter deep - reach a height of 3 meters - in some places and are covered by heavy stone slabs that were the main road's paving stones, Shukron said. Several manholes are visible, and portions of the original plastering remain, he said. Pottery shards, vessel fragments and coins from the end of the Second Temple period were discovered inside the channel, attesting to its age, Reich said.
The discovery of the drainage channel was momentous in itself, a sign of how the city's rulers looked out for the welfare of their citizens by organizing a system that drained the rainfall and prevented flooding, Reich said. The discovery "shows you planning on a grand scale, unlike other cities in the ancient Near East," said anthropologist Joe Zias, an expert in the Second Temple period who was not involved in the dig. But what makes the channel doubly significant is its role as an escape hatch for Jews desperate to flee the conquering Romans, the dig's directors said.
Historian Josephus Flavius indicated in "The War of the Jews" that numerous people took shelter in the channel and lived inside until they fled the city through its southern end. "It was a place where people hid and fled to from burning, destroyed Jerusalem," Shukron said. Tens of thousands of people lived in Jerusalem at the time, but it is not clear how many used the channel as an escape hatch, he said.The discovery of the channel was unintended. Shukron said excavators looking for Jerusalem's main road in the time of the Second Temple happened upon a small drainage channel. That discovery led them to the massive tunnel that archeologists say lies beneath that road. "We were looking for the road and suddenly we discovered it," Shukron said. "And the first thing we said was, 'Wow."' The icing on the cake, he said, is that archeologists now know in what direction the road lies. About 100 meters of the canal have been uncovered so far. Reich estimates its total length will approximate one kilometer, stretching north from the Shiloah Pool at the Old City's southern end to the Temple Mount. Archeologists think the tunnel leads to the Kidron River, which empties into the Dead Sea.
2008: An article entitled “A Friend In Deed” published today describes the little known story of the relationship of Lyndon Johnson and the Jewish people; a relationship that stretched from the Hill Country to Capitol Hill.
2008:The Leo Baeck Institute presents “Shadows in Paradise” a film that recreates the stories of the exiled German and Austrian composers and writers who fled the Nazi regime, hoping to make a living in the movie industry in Hollywood.
2008:Following the filing of criminal charges against Agriprocessors, the Orthodox Union announced today that it would withdraw certification from the kosher meat company, the nation's largest, unless new management is hired.
2008: Avigdor Levin Tel Aviv city official said today that a 215-year-old Jewish manuscript stolen from a Tel Aviv library a decade ago will be returned by the German library where it surfaced.
2009 (20th of Elul): Yahrzeit of Dr. Jacob Levin who, if the legend of the 36 Righteous Men is true, certainly qualified. He will always be missed. He will always be remembered. He will always be loved.
2009: In Pittsburgh, PA, the local klezmer-jazz ensemble The Ortner-Roberts Duo kicks off the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Opus Concert Series this year with a “High Holiday Klezmer Fest Kickoff” concert.
2009:Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the New York Times Book Review and the paper's Week in Review section, discusses and signs his new book, The Death of Conservatism, at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.
2009: A rare Hebrew manuscript written in 14th century Germany is going on display for the first time, just before the Jewish New Year, Israel Museum officials said today. The text, called the Nuremberg Mahzor, is one of the largest surviving medieval texts in the world. Written in 1331 in Germany, the prayer book remains mostly intact - only seven of its original 528 leaves are missing. The book has 22 illuminations inlaid with gold and silver. The text includes one of the largest collections of handwritten Ashkenazi, or northern European, prayers and liturgical poems. About 100 have never before been published. Also, rabbinical commentary is printed in the margins. The manuscript is one of the heaviest surviving texts from the period, weighing more than 57 pounds (26 kilograms). It probably took about one year to complete, said Michael Maggen, the head of the paper conservation laboratory at the Israel Museum. "Mahzor" is Hebrew for holiday prayer book. The Nuremberg Mahzor got its name from its home for more than 300 years - the Nuremberg municipal library in Germany. The manuscript was originally commissioned for private study and synagogue use by a Jewish patron and was most likely used by the Nuremberg community after 1499. Sometime during the 19th century, 11 leaves were removed from the prayer book by Napoleon's army, museum officials believe. The Israel Museum spent about six months restoring the text after it was stored for 50 years in the Schocken Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. Salman Schocken, a German-Jewish publisher and book collector, acquired four of the missing leaves in the 1930s after he fled Nazi Germany. He received the Nuremberg Mahzor as post-World War II restitution in 1951 for property confiscated by the Nazis. Six leaves remain missing, and one is in a private collection. The exhibition is the latest at the museum's Shrine of the Book, where the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient manuscripts are displayed.
2010(1st of Tishrei, 5771): Rosh Hashanah 5771
2010:Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was unable to go to the nearby Great Synagogue in Jerusalem because of security considerations that would seriously have inconvenienced the other worshipers. So instead of going to hear the shofar on the holiday, the shofar came to Netanyahu, with Eli Yaffe, director of the synagogue’s choir, going to Netanyahu’s official residence to sound the shofar blasts so the prime minister and his family would fulfill the commandment.
2010:Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres to wish them a happy Rosh Hashanah. During their conversation, Abbas told Peres that [the Palestinian people] want a peace agreement with Israel and hope that Israeli inhabitants will be able to achieve a peace that will include all Arab nations.” Peres told Abbas that “No one is more fitting than you to achieve peace for your people and the entire region.” He also wished Abbas and Muslims well on Id al-Fitr.
2011: Steve Ross is scheduled to present a Special Cabaret Concert featuring songs by George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Noel Coward at the 14thJerusalem International Chamber Music Festival.
2011: The Gilad Hekselman Quartet is scheduled to appear at The Falcon in New York City.
2011: Rabbi Shira Stutman and Sheldon Low are scheduled to lead 6thin the City Shabbat in Washington, DC.
2011: Standard & Poor's Ratings Service announced it was raising Israel's credit rating today, citing Israel's response to a global recession. Israel's new credit rating is A+ "with a stable outlook
2011: An Egyptian protester pulled down the Israeli flag today at the Jewish state's embassy in Cairo, the second time in less than a month. A protester climbed the building, where the Israeli embassy occupies the top floor, and took down the flag, witnesses said.
2011: “About 100 people gathered in” Pushkin, “a suburb of St. Petersburg – believed to be the northernmost point where the Nazis implemented their plan to annihilate the Jews – to remember the brutal killings that took place here 70 years ago.” Today’s ceremony “ was attended by dignitaries including Immigrant Absorption Minister Marina Solodkin, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee head Steve Schwager and Canadian Jewish businessman and philanthropist Matthew Bronfman was organized by Jewish educational outfit Limmud FSU to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the massacre. In September 1941, the Jews of Pushkin were rounded up and marched in a column to the nearby gardens of the baroque palace built by Alexander I. There they were shot one by one and buried in common graves. “The battle hadn’t even ended and immediately Einsatzgruppen showed up and began to murder Jews in this area,” said Aharon Weiss, an Israeli Holocaust survivor originally from Poland who attended the ceremony. “This emphasizes the importance that the Nazis saw in their ideology as part of their war effort.” The number of those killed in that “aktion,” the term the Nazis used for operations involving the assembly, deportation and murder of Jews, is uncertain, as is the precise date, although it is known to have taken place in September. “There may have been 200, 300 Jews killed that day or perhaps many more,” said Alexander Frenkel, the executive director of the Jewish Community Center of St. Petersburg. “It is impossible to say. This whole area is a graveyard not just of Jews but of Germans and Russians.” For Jews living in St. Petersburg, the capture of Pushkin and its environs by the Germans was the start of the siege of Leningrad that lasted until January 1944. During those 900 days, up to 1,500,000 Soviet soldiers and civilians died, and during the evacuation of 1,400,000 people, mainly women and children, many more died due to starvation and bombardment. (As reported by the Jerusalem Post)
2012: The 2012 London Paralympics, in which a 25 person Israeli team has been competing, are scheduled to come to an end today. (As reported by Aaron Kalman)
2012: As the NFL kicks off its first Sunday slate games some of the Jewish owners and executives include Bob Kraft (Patriots), Marv Levy (Bills). Stephen Ross (Dolphins), Daniel Snyder (Redskins) as well as a cadre of players
2012: The Los Angeles Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Vagina: A New Biography by Naomi Wolf and The End of Men by Hanna Rosin
2012 The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon and Domestic Affairsby Bridget Siegel.
2012:The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court sentenced four people today to between nine months and four years imprisonment for stealing Jewish ritual and holy objects worth approximately $1 million from the Great Synagogue of Milan.
2012:School was canceled for students in Beeresheba and Ashdod today after two Grad rockets were fired towards southern Israel from Gaza a little after 2 a.m. this morning.
2013: In Rockville, MD, Temple Beth Ami is scheduled to host MK Rabbi Dov Lipman who will speak about “The Future of Religious Cooperation In Israel.”
2013 (5th of Tishrei, 5774): Seventy-seven year old documentary filmmaker Saul Landau passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2013: Traces of the wild polio virus were detected in Jerusalem’s sewage system, the Health Ministry announced today. (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)
2013: Today Hebrew University researchers announced the discovery of a rare trove of Byzantine-era gold and silver artifacts, the most impressive of which is a 10-centimeter solid gold medallion emblazoned with a menorah and other Jewish iconography. (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)
2014: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum historian Edna Friedberg is scheduled to lead a discussion entitled “Some Were Wives, Some Were Mothers: Female Perpetrators during the Holocaust.”
2014: In Chicago, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to honor Fern and Manny Steinfeld with the National Leadership Award at luncheon where Doris Kearns Goodwin is the featured speaker.
2014: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host a trip the National Museum of American Jewish History that will included a tour of the exhibition “Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American.”