September 11
1789: President George Washington appointed Alexander Hamilton as the first Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton’s parentage is a little murky to say the least. He was born out of wedlock reportedly to a Jewish woman and received his early education from Jews before moving to the North American mainland. He would be the first in a long line of Jews who would play a major role in U.S. government financial policies.
1893(1st of Tishrei, 5654): As Americans suffer through the Panic of 1893 (which had begun in January and was the worst economic crisis the country would suffer until 1929), Jews observed the first day of Rosh Hashanah
1895: In City Court, Judge Botty ordered the release of Samuel Lustbader, a kosher butcher who had been imprisoned following his failure to pay a judgment obtained against him by default in a slander suit brought by one of his competitors.
1895: It was reported today that during the month of August the United Hebrew Charities received contributions totaling $10, 702.66 and disbursed $7, 513.12 to the needy. During this period, the charity received 2,805 applications for relief reflecting the needs of 9,350 people.
2010(3rd of Tishrei, 5771):Eighty-six year old Harold Gould, an actor who succeeded in film, theatre and television who was never the star but was always there passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/arts/14gould.html?pagewanted=print
2010:After a 39-year absence, today the Israeli women’s national volleyball team qualified for the 2011 European Championships.
2011(12thof Elul, 5772): Eighty-seven year old Israeli tycoon Yuli Ofer passed away today. (As reported by Elad Benari)
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/147776
2011:Alisa Weilerstein, Carolin Widmann and Matan Porat are scheduled to perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C major, op. 56 at the 14th Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival.
2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including That Used To Be Us:How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back by Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum,
2011: The 2011-2012 Religious School Year is scheduled to begin today at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2011: In conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York, the ADL has issued “Decade of Deceit: Anti-Semitic 9/11 Conspiracy Theories 10 Years Later.”
Decade of Deceit: Anti-Semitic 9/11 Conspiracy Theories 10 Years Later
2011: The Seattle Jewish Chorale is scheduled to take part in an inter-faith service “Remember9/11: Blessed are the Peacemakers” which is one of many observances marking the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attack on Washington, DC and New York City. Rabbi Daniel Weiner of Temple de Hirsch Sinai is scheduled to co-officiate at the service.
2011:Shots were fired from Egypt across the border with Israel today, near the site of last month's terror attack in which eight Israelis were killed.
2011:Israel vowed to develop and defend gas platforms recently discovered in its waters, Energy Minister Uzi Landau said today, after Turkey declared its plan to boost naval patrols in the eastern Mediterranean in a deepening diplomatic feud.
1526: After the Turkish Army had defeated the Austrians and seized the city of Buda, Sultan Suleiman I entered the city. Some of the Jews had remained in the city and before the Sultan arrived, they met with Ibrahim Pasha before whom they humbled themselves and begged to be spared.
1683: Battle Vienna Poland Europe . There are those who date the beginning of the slow decay of the Moslem dominated world from this event. There will be those who contend that this event was the impetus for choosing 9/11 as the date to blow up the Twin Towers Holland Spain Western Europe . Whether or not the shift in power marked by this was “good for the Jews” is up for the debate; the important thing is that it took place and had a profound impact on the general society as well as the Jewish component.
1779(1stof Tishrei, 5540): Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat
1798(1st of Tishrei, 5559): Rosh Hashanah
1803: Birthdate of Léon Gozlan, the native of Marseille who gained fames as a novelist and playwright.
1817(1stof Tishrei, 5578): Rosh Hashanah
1823: Fifty-one year old David Ricardo, one of the most influential of the classical economists, passed away. Born in London England
1824: Birthdate of Jakob Bernays the “German philologist and philosophical writer” who served as the chairman of classical philology at the newly founded Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau
1847(1st of Tishrei, 5608): Rosh Hashanah
1852:Reports reached the United States that Marchand Ennery, the Chief Rabbi of Paris, had passed away in August.
1858(3rdof Tishrei, 5619): Shabbat Shuvah
1858(3rdof Tishrei 5619): Hette Steckler, a native of Rogasen, Prussia, the wife of Jackson, CA. merchant Charles Steckler passed away today.
1859: Estra (Therese) Wiesner and Rabbi Jonas Wiesner gave birth to Moritz Wiesner.
1860: The Jewish population of Baltimore must have reached a size where it was noticed by the general public. A report published today describing how George Proctor Kane, the Chief Marshall of Police is strictly enforcing the Sunday closings laws states that "Cigar stores, lager-bier saloons, Hebrew establishments and all such are closed."
1860: Forty-three year old German historian Sigfried Hirsch who like his cousin and fellow historian Theodore Hirsch converted to Christianity passed away today.
1863: It was reported today that a group of 600 women and children who supposedly had husbands and fathers serving in the Confederate Army stormed through Spring Hill, Alabama carrying banners demanding “Bread or Blood.” A Jewish merchant who was attempting to protect his store was arrested by the police and beaten for his efforts.
1869: Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about a movement to oust August Belmont as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Belmont was the German born Jewish financier who opened a private bank in the United States before the Civil War. He was a former employee of and a close associate of the Rothschilds. He was also a power in the Democratic Party both before and after the war.
1872: Samuel J. Pietrowski, a Polish Jew and the proprietor of a dry-goods store in Key West, Florida, was arraigned at the Tombs in New York City on charges of bigamy. The complaint was filed by Bertha Pietrowski who claimed that Samuel had married her twenty four years ago in Poland. She claimed he moved to Leeds, UK where married and had five children before moving to the United States with his second family. Bertha claimed she had borrowed the money to come to United States where she discovered Samuel’s new life as well as the fact that he was worth “several thousand dollars. [Unfortunately, there were many instances of men coming to America and deserting the wives and families they had left behind.]
1874(29th of Elul, 5634):Erev Rosh Hashanah
1874: “The Hebraic New Year,” a column published today reported that the year 5635 on the Jewish calendar begins tomorrow with the celebration of Rosh Hashanah. The article described the solemnity of the holiday but also highlights the differences in the celebration among the Reform and the Orthodox. The Reform now celebrate the holiday for only one day and their shortened service includes music played by an organ.
1877: “The Russian Army of Invasion” published today describes miserable the conditions of Czar’s forces as they move forward to fight the Turks. The Russians are addicted to alcohol which is supplied by people in “long gabardines,” a disparaging term for the Jews who are making a fortune off of their monopoly. The article paints a picture of suffering Russian soldiers being “poisoned by spoiled provisions” supplied Isaac and Jacob whose “Jewish purses can pay their protectors from their ill-gotten gains.”
1878: In Washington, DC, “the Hebrew Committee” has collected $4,608 to aid those in the Deep South suffering during the current Yellow Fever Epidemic.
1879: It was reported today that Prince Gregorie Stourdza has arrived in Bucharest to assume the leadership of all the parties opposed to the Jews receiving full rights of citizenship in Romania. The proposed party is modeled after the American Party also called the “Know-nothings” a nativist political party that enjoyed some success in the 1850’s.
1880: It was reported today that on the day Simon Rosenheim allegedly set fire to the tenement in which he was living the place had received an anonymous letter containing these words: “To get insurance Polish Jew’ll set fire to his place…on Monday or Tuesday.” The police arrested Rosenheim because the fire took place on Tuesday; he was a Polish Jew; and he lived at the tenement house described in the note. (Not exactly CSI material)
1881: In “What Germans Talk Of “ published today, Andrew White the President of Cornell and the former American Ambassador to Germany who has just returned from that country responded to a question about the “anti-Jewish crusade in Germany” by saying that “The worst of the trouble is over. The sober second though has come and the Emperor of Germany has declared himself as opposed to the Jewish proscription.” After talking about the prominent role Jews play in finance and business, White said the Emperor thought “they were the best of his subjects” and that Bismarck has come around to that point of view.
1882: The Chevry Bennei Bachemenim Anschel Schofchatchow, a Jewish charitable and benevolent society was incorporated today in the state of New York.
1882: It was reported that one of the railway lines from the coast of Egypt to Cairo passes by the ruin of Tel-el-Yahoodeh also known as the Mound of the Jews. (This is probably a reference to Tel el-Yehudiyah -Mound of the Jewess – which is supposed to cover the ruins of the Temple of Onais, a Jewish place of worship located in Helipolois. For more see http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_15110.html
1882: In Dresdent, Reverend Adolf Stoecker presided at the opening of the first Anti-Semitic Congress opened in Dresden
1886(11thof Elul, 5646): Fifty year old Ludwig Lowe, whose business ventures included the armaments company Loewe & Company and who was a member of the Reichstag passed away today.
1887: Based on information that first appeared in the Times of London, it was reported today that the “persecution of the Jews” has been revived in several parts of the Russian Empire. Besides being subjected to riots and attacks in outlying provinces, Jews in St. Petersburg have been interrogated by the police in an attempt to intimidate them so that they will not conduct business in the capital city.
1891: The Jewish Colonial Association is officially established by Baron de Hirsh. He donated two million pounds and incorporated the Association in London Palestine
OR1891:The Jewish Colonization Association (JCA, in Yiddish ICA) was created today by Baron Maurice de Hirsch. Its aim was to facilitate the mass emigration of Jews from Russia and other Eastern European countries, by settling them in agricultural colonies on lands purchased by the committee, particularly in North and South America (especially Argentina).Colonies were funded within the United States in southern New Jersey, Ellington, Connecticut (Congregation Knesseth Israel), and elsewhere. A Canadian Committee of the JCA was established in November 1906 to assist in the settlement of the thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing Russia, and to oversee the development of all the JCA settlements in the country
1891: A critique of the platform adopted by the Republicans at their convention in Rochester dismissed the plank calling for an end calling for an end to the “cruelties and persecutions practiced upon the Jews in Russia” as “a rather awkward bid for the votes of a class” which is meaningless since the Democrats “will hardly” take “the opposite side.”
1891: In Brooklyn, U.S. Federal Judge Benedict “listened to additional arguments in the cases of the nineteen Polish Jews “ who are trying to overturn the decision of the Immigration Commissioner to deny them entry into the United States.
1893: The New York Times estimated that there are 225,000 Jews living in New York City.
1893(1st of Tishrei, 5654): As Americans suffer through the Panic of 1893 (which had begun in January and was the worst economic crisis the country would suffer until 1929), Jews observed the first day of Rosh Hashanah
1893: New Yorkers who did not know that today was the Jewish New Year “were puzzled” by “the large number of stores and factories that were closed throughout the city.”
1895: In City Court, Judge Botty ordered the release of Samuel Lustbader, a kosher butcher who had been imprisoned following his failure to pay a judgment obtained against him by default in a slander suit brought by one of his competitors.
1895: It was reported today that during the month of August the United Hebrew Charities received contributions totaling $10, 702.66 and disbursed $7, 513.12 to the needy. During this period, the charity received 2,805 applications for relief reflecting the needs of 9,350 people.
1897: It was announced from Odessa that the late Baron Hirsch's plant to colonize the Argentine Republic with Jews from Russia has been abandoned in favor of the establishment of Hebrew schools in Russia.
1898: Adath Jeshurun, which had been worshipping at 125 East 112th Street, dedicated its new synagogue at 112 East 110th Street in Harlem. The congregation which is made up of Orthodox German Jews is using a facility that was previously home to the Portuguese Jews of Harlem.
1898: Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel and Beatrice Miriam Samuel, Viscountess Samuel gave birth to Edwin Herbert Samuel, 2nd Viscount Samuel who colorful career including serving in the Jewish Legion and serving as the last Director of the Palestine Broadcasting Service.
1898: In Chicago, Dr. Isaac M. Wise laid the cornerstone for the building that would The Reform Congregation of Isaiah Temple which was designed by the Jewish architect Dankmar Adler.
1898: It was announced today that any Jewish soldiers at Camps Wikoff or Black or who are in New York on leave or furlough should contact Phillip Cowen, publisher of The American Hebrew or William Mitchell, superintendent of the YMHA if they wish to attend services celebrating the Jewish New Year that begins on the evening of September 16.
1899: Reverend Henry Morgan Stone is scheduled to officiate at the funeral of James B. Eustis who served as U.S. Ambassador to France during the first court martial of Captain Dreyfus and who had spent the past summers writing a review of the case which he was on the verge of finishing at the time of his death.
1899: Approximately 25 to 30 businessman and clergy including Rabbi Rudolph Grossman, Rabbi Joseph Silverman and Father Barholomew Montruchio of Jersey City met in the office of Assistant District Attorney Maurice B. Blumenthal to discuss plans for a mass meeting to be held on September 16 to protest the verdict in the Dreyfus Court Martial.
1899: Jonas Weil, President of Zichron Ephraim, was named as the executor in the will of Daniel Woolf which Roeder & Bernard filed in the Surrogate’s Court today.
1899: Assistant District Attorney Maurice B. Blumenthal is planning to ask President William McKinley “to request a pardon” for Captain Dreyfus.
1899: As the attorney representing Dreyfus began working on his appeal today, it was discovered that the verdict had not been unanimous; but the product of a five to two vote. Also the police had believed in the possibility of acquittal since they had formalized a plan to sneak Dreyfus out of the court disguised in civilian clothers.
1899: “W.D. Stevens, a ship owner and Royal Commissioner declared that as a result of the Dreyfus verdict he will put his foot on French soil. He adds that thousands of his countrymen will do the same.”
1903: Birthdate of Theodor W. Adorno, a German-born international sociologist, philosopher, and musicologist who was “the only child to the wealthy wine merchant Oscar Alexander Wiesengrund who had converted from Judaism to Christianity. Adomo is an example of the many 19th& 20th century people lost to Judaism because a trip to the font made life more attractive.
1903: In Russia Kishinev
1903: Julia Richman, the Principal of P.S. 77, is nominated by the Board of district Superintendents to be District Superintendent succeeding Charles Haskell. "If appointed, Miss Richman will be the first female District Superintendent in the Manhattan New York City Brooklyn .
1909: At Bordeaux, premiere performance of “Bacchus triumphant” an opera composed by Camille Erlanger.
1911: At the age of 24, Guy Zinn broke into major league baseball playing his first game with the New York Highlanders.
1911: Circuit Judge Rassieur of St. Louis , MO
Association For Conversion of Jews to Christianity on grounds that it violates the religious liberty clause of the Constitution.
1911: In London, England, The Bethnal Green Board of Guardians rejected bids by Jewish contractors.
1914: In the UK, at the start of WW I, a Royal Proclamation was issued that required “British subjects to have no links with companies doing business with Germany” which forced Sir Edgar Speyer to resign as a partner of the American bank controlled by his family. This move did not quiet the whispering campaign aimed him that would eventually destroy his professional life.
1914(20th of Elul, 5674) Benjamin Aron Jacob Gutman passed away today.
1921: The first Moshav, Nahalal, was found in the Jezreel Valley
1922: The British mandate in Palestine
1923(1st of Tishrei, 5684): Rosh Hashanah
1923: The Lithuanian General Census, which originally was supposed to be taken today, has been postponed because today is Rosh Hashanah.
1923:In his Rosh Hashanah message to the Jews of Britain Chief Rabbi Hertz “paints a gloomy picture of conditions affecting Jewry throughout the world.”
"Nearly five years have passed since the close of the most devastating of wars. The earth is still reeling like a drunken man. The inhabitants thereof are bereft of reason by the poison gas of racial antagonisms in a world that was nearly destroyed by hate, and is seeking to save itself by hate, and Israel is the greatest sufferer in these distracted days."The forces of reaction and race hatred everywhere have joined hands in the unholy work of reviling and slandering the Jew. We are back once more in the Dark Ages. New Jewish massacres and on an unprecedented scale are openly advocated and systematically planned."The Russian monarchists declare that in the event of their regaining power they will slaughter every Jewish man, woman and child in that land. Western Jews do not sufficiently realize the infinite danger that hovers over four million of our brethren in Russia."
1923: Daf Yomi was initiated by Rabbi Meir Shapira of Lublin Europe in 1923, Rabbi Meir Shapira of Lublin
1923: The census was scheduled to take place today in Lithuania. However, because of the intervention of the Jewish National Council, the government of Lithuania, postponed it for a future, undisclosed date. (As reported by JTA)
1924: Birthdate of Canadian professor of Pharmacology, Rudolf Vrba. Born Walter Rosenberg, Vrba would gain fame as an early escapee from Auschwitz who along with fellow escapee Alfred Wetzler told the Allies what was happening at the infamous concentration camp. For more see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Vrba
1926(3rd of Tishrei, 5687): Shabbat Shuva (no Fast of Gedaliah because it is the Sabbath)
1927: Birthdate of G. David Schine. Schine gained notoriety as the buddy of Roy Cohn when Cohn was riding high as the chief counsel for Joseph McCarthy's Communist hunting Senatorial Committee. Without going into too great detail, this relationship ended up with McCarthy and Cohn accusing the United States Army of being involved in a Communist Conspiracy. These charges helped to break the Republican Senator from Wisconsin
1929 (6 Elul, 5689): Louis B. Marshall passes away. Marshall Europe as well as those who wished to create a Jewish home in Palestine
1934(2ndof Tishrei, 5695): Second day of Rosh Hashanah
1934: Filming of Director John Stahl’s “Imitation of Life,” the cinematic version of Fannie Hurst’s novel came to an end today.
1938: Shortstop Eddie Feinberg made his major league debut with the Philadelphia Phillies.
1938: Six Jewish constables were ambushed by terrorists as they escorted a group of telephone workers traveling between Jaffa and Gaza. All six died but the workers escaped to the safety ofa nearby Jewish settlement. When the shooting stopped, it was discovered that the attackers had taken the weapons, ammunition and uniforms of the dead Jewish policemen. [Yes, they stripped the bodies of the dead!]
1940: The Jewish refugee ship Quanzastops to refuel at Norfolk , Virginia United States New York Mexico shore of Hampton Roads Virginia
1940:Late dispatches from Palestine said tonight that at least 150 persons were killed today in the Italian bombing of Tel Aviv, modern Jewish city.
1941: Outfielder Sid Gordon made his major league debut with the New York Giants
1941:Rudolf Schoenheimer,German-American biochemist whose technique of "tagging" molecules with radioactive isotopes made it possible to trace the paths of organic substances through animals and plants and revolutionized metabolic studies, passed away.
1941: Charles Lindbergh made an anti-Semitic speech on radio. The Lone Eagle or Lucky Lindy as he was called was an isolationist and part of the America First Committee. He was impressed with the Nazis. He saw fascism as the wave of the future and believed that "the wave was rolling towards America United States America December 7, 19 41Roosevelt 's reaction to the reports of the murder of European Jewry, one must be aware of the level of anti-Semitism in the United States Pearl Harbor there were plenty of people who believed that American involvement in the war was part of a Jewish plot.
1942: Lucy Mandelstram, who was born in Vienna
1942: As the Nazis wiped out the ghetto in Stolin , Poland
1942: Meir Berliner, an Argentine Jew deported to the Treblinka death camp from Warsaw
1942: Five thousand Jews are deported from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka. Among the deportees is noted author Hillel Zeitlin, age 71. Born in Belorussia
1942: Ninety thousand Jews were sent to their deaths from the Warsaw
1943: German troops occupied Kosovo-Metohien.
1943: The Nazis began the liquidation of the Minsk
1943: One thousand Jews discovered hiding in Przemysl , Poland
1943: Starting on this date and ending 3 days later, the Jewish community at Minsk , Belorussia
1943: Forty-sixth annual convention of the Zionist Organization of America opened this evening at Columbus, Ohio.
1943: The late Judge Julian W. Mack is scheduled to be honored with a special memorial service at the ZOA convention (JTA).
1944: Filming “Der Fuhrer schenkt den Juden eine Statdt” (The Fuher Gives the Jews a Town) comes to an end. This bit of cinematic propaganda describing “the merits and virtues of the ghetto, was made at the command of authorities in Berlin under the immediate supervision of Karl Rahm, the last commandant of Theresienstadt.
1944: The following article entitled “Murder Incorporated” appeared today in Timemagazine describing the scene at Majdanek. You would never know from reading it that at least half of the victims were Jewish.
Fortnight ago a Soviet correspondent described the Nazi murder camp near Lublin. Last week TIME'S Moscow Correspondent Richard Lauterbach visited Maidenek with a party of non-Russian newsmen. His report: It was Sunday and the sun was hot. The Polish girls wore their best embroidered dresses to Mass and the men of Lublin chatted on street corners without a furtive, over-the-shoulder look. We drove out along the Chelm road about a mile from town. Dmitri Kudriavtsev, Secretary of the Soviet Atrocities Commission, said: "They called this 'the road of death.'" Kudriavtsev is a short man, with curly hair and a nice face. He has an even, soft way of talking. You could not guess that he has pored over more horrors in the past three years than any living man. Our car halted before a well-guarded gate. "This is Maidenek," Kudriavtsev said. I saw a huge, not unattractive, temporary city. There were about 200 trim, grey green barracks, systematically spaced for maximum light, air and sunshine. There were winding roads and patches of vegetables and flowers. I had to blink twice to take in the jarring realities: the 14 machine-gun turrets jutting into the so-blue sky; the 12-ft.-high double rows of electrically charged barbed wire; the kennels which once housed hundreds of gaunt, man-eating dogs. Gas Chambers. We got out to inspect the bathhouses. Said Kudriavtsev without emotion: "They came here first for a shower. Then the Germans said: 'Now you have had your wash. Go in there.'" He led us into one of four gas chambers. It was a solid grey concrete room, about 20 ft. square and 7 ft. high. A single large steel door sealed the entrance hermetically. There were three apertures, two for the pipes which brought in the gas, one, a thick glass peephole, protected by steel netting. It took about seven minutes for this "Zyklon B" to kill the occupants, as many as 250 at a time. Kudriavtsev was explaining: "The gas affects all parts of the organism. It is quicker when the body is warm, washed and wet." I took notes calmly, feeling little emotion. It was all so cold and bare. I wrote: "There are four chambers fed with these small, innocent, pale blue Zyklon crystals which give off cyanide when exposed to air. Two extra chambers for plain carbon monoxide. Maximum simultaneous capacity: 2,000." Kudriavtsev was still explaining: "On one day, Nov. 3, 1943, they annihilated 18,000 people—Poles, Jews, political prisoners and war prisoners."Death by Fire. We walked back into the sun. There was no horror left in Maidenek. It had evaporated with the Germans. We rode a little distance to some cabbage patches. The big, leafy cabbages were covered with a sooty, grey dust and next to them were high mounds of grey brown stuff. "This," said Kudriavtsev, "is fertilizer. A layer of human bones, a layer of human ashes, a layer of manure. This is German food production. Kill people; fertilize cabbages."The crematorium might have been a big bakeshop or a very small blast furnace. Here the Nazis carted the bodies, straight from the gas chambers. They cut them up scientifically. They put the chunks on iron stretchers, slid them on rollers into the five greedy mouths of the coke-fed ovens. They could disintegrate 1,900 people a day. "There was great economy," said Kudriavtsev. "These furnaces also heated the water for the camp."We heard about a young Polish girl who had refused to undress for a shower. The degenerate, sadistic Mussfelt who ran the crematorium ordered her shoved into the furnace alive. Her hair burned quick and bright. Then she crisped up like bacon on an over-hot skillet.Near the ovens were the remains of a room with a big stone table. Here gold fillings were extracted from the teeth. No corpse or piece of a corpse could be burned without a stamp on the chest: "Inspected for gold fillings."Skulls and Buzzing Flies. Kudriavtsev led us to some large, open graves. Here were buried the bodies of the camp's personnel, hastily shot and buried on July 21 in the last hectic days before the Red Army closed in. The pits stank in the warm sun. There were skulls and a piece of a Red Army cap and a buzzing of large flies. Around the pits, in the grass, poppies were growing. Orange red poppies. Big ones.Back in the camp we saw a room full of passports and documents. Papers of Frenchmen, Russians, Greeks, Czechs, Jews, Italians, Belo-Russians, Serbs, Poles. Records left behind by some of the 1,500,000 of 22 nationalities who were brought to Maidenek.820,000 Pairs of Shoes. We came to a large, unpainted warehouse. Not suspecting, I stepped up and went inside. It was full of shoes. A sea of shoes. I walked across them unsteadily. They were piled, like pieces of coal in a bin, halfway up the walls. Not only shoes. Boots. Rubbers. Leggings. Slippers. Children's shoes, soldiers' shoes, old shoes, new shoes. They were red and grey and black. Some had once been white. High heels, low heels, shoes with open toes. Evening slippers, beach sandals, wooden Dutch shoes, pumps, Oxfords, high-laced old-ladies' shoes. In one corner there was a stock of artificial limbs. I kicked over a pair of tiny white shoes which might have been my youngest daughter's. The sea of shoes was engulfing. In one place the sheer weight had broken the wall. Part of the wall had fallen out, and with it a cascade of shoes. Kudriavtsev said: "There are 820,000 pairs here and 18 carloads of the best were shipped to Germany. You will see the receipts at the Gestapo warehouse." Standing on the sea of shoes, Maidenek suddenly became real. It was no longer a half-remembered sequence from an old movie or a clipping from Pravda or chapters from a book by a German refugee living in Mexico City. The barbed wire had barbs which ripped flesh. The ashes on the big cabbages were the ashes of the brothers of the worn but pretty peasant women who had spoken to us that morning at Mass. "The loudspeakers from the camp kept screeching Strauss waltzes," a Polish woman in Lublin said to me. "The Beautiful Blue Danube can never be beautiful to us again." She paused and repeated the words so many Poles and Russians had said that day: "I hope you Americans will not be soft with the Germans."
1944: In Casablanca,Valentine Haroche, née Roubleva and Valentine Haroche gave birth to French physicist Serge Haroche who “who was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physics jointly with David J. Wineland.”
1944: Victor Kugler, one of the people who helped to hide the Frank family, was transported from the prison in Weteringschans to a concentration camp in Amersfoort where he was selected for transport to Germany.
1947: Outfielder Mickey Rutner made his major league debut with the Philadelphia Athletics.
1948:Samuel Ralph "Subway Sam" Nahem appeared in his last major league baseball game as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies.
1949: A memorial plaque was put up at The Langenstein-Zwieberge concentration camp, an under-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp to mark the site “of the common graves.”
1951: According to reports published today, American actress Yvonne de Carolo will cut short her current tour of Israel and return to the United States so that she can be filming “San Francisco Story” a movie in which she shares top billing with Joel McCrea. [editor’s note: We have no idea why she was touring in Israel.]
1951: David Horowitz, Israel’s director-general of the Ministry of Finance, arrived in New York today. As Israel faces an economic crisis caused by the in-gathering of the exiles and the continued state of war with its Arab neighbors, Mr. Horowitz has the United States to address a number of Jewish organizations sympathetic to the growth of Israel.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that in a secret, silent ceremony that lasted 13 minutes, Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett and West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed in Luxembourg Israel
1959: U.S. Premiere of Director Sidney Lumet’s “That Kind of Woman” with a script co-authored by Walter Bernstein, filmed by cinematographer Boris Kaufman and co-starring Tab Hunter (Jewish father).
1960: It was reported today that the Library of Congress had purchased a rare piece of Lincoln Memorabilia using funds left by the late Alfred Stern of Chicago. The item, a sales circular advertising the sale of various Lincoln election items such as pins and button, will join Stern’s collection in the Rare Book Room.
1965: Outfielder Norm Miller made his major league debut with the Houston Astros.
1965(14th of Elul, 5725): Eighty-five year old Bethel Albert Herbert Solomons the Dublin born physician who was a noted rugby player as well as a supporter of Sinn Fein and the famous “1916 Rising,” a key moment in the Irish fight for independence.
1966: In London, The Destruction in Art Symposium chaired by Gustav Metzger, came to a close.
1969: In the aftermath of Israel’s successful raid on Egypt’s Red Sea coast called Operation Raviv, Egypt “launched a large 102-aircraft raid on Israeli positions in the Sinai, during which they lost a MiG-17, five MiG-21s and two Sukhoi Su-7s while claiming to have destroyed 3 Israeli aircraft.
1969: Giora Romm was taken prisoner today when the Egyptians shot down his Dassault Mirage.
1970: As part of the Dawson Field Hijackings, when members of the Palestinian terrorists group PLFP hijacked four jet and had forced them to fly to Jordan, the PLFP released over three hundred of the passengers. The PLFP kept the Jews and Israeli citizens as hostages.
1972(3rd of Tishrei, 5733): Tzom Gedaliah
1972(3rd of Tishrei, 5733): Eighty-nine year old pioneer animator Max Fleischer whose Fleischer Studios brought to life several characters including “Popeye, the spinach eating sailor man” passed away.
1973: Israel Police minister Shlomo Hillel spoke to the International Police Association about confronting terrorism (including aviation terrorism). "Surrender to terrorism," said Hillel "results not only in the decline of the value of law but also degrades every international moral authority, encourages the growth of murder, terrorism and global extortionism, and pushes the world into a state of anarchy and chaos." (As reported by Adam Soclof).
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that US US Israel Israel Sharon
1978: President Jimmy Carter, President Sadat and Prime Minister met at Camp David and agreed on a framework for peace between Israel Egypt
1980(1stof Tishrei, 5741): As Illinois Congressman John Andersen mounts a third party run against Carter and Regan for the Presidency, Jews observe Rosh Hashanah
1981: Pitcher Larry Rothschild made his major league debut with the Detroit Tigers.
1982: Detroit pitcher Larry Rothschild played his last major league baseball game. He then went on to a career as major league coach and manager.
1987(17th of Elul, 5747: Actor Lorne Greene passed away. Greene was born in 1914 in Canada Russia
1988(29thof Elul, 5748): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1988(29thof Elul, 5748): Seventy-nine year old Cornell University professor Isaac Rabinowitz who was an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls passed away today.
1988: Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff “was one of 100 religious leaders at” today’s “White House discussion with then President Bill Clinton on the way religion might combat violence in American schools.”
1993(25th of Elul, 5753): Conductor Erich Leinsdorf passed away.
1994(6th of Tishrei, 5755: Shimon Avidan, “an Israeli soldier and officer, the commander of the Givati Brigade during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war,” passed away. Born Shimon Koch in Germany in 1911, he moved to Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar in 1934 and then Ein Hashofet in Palestine. “He fought with the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. Avidan is also known for his activities in the Palmach in World War II. He led the "German Unit" of the Palmach, which was responsible for conducting guerilla operations against the Axis powers.[1] In 1945 he commanded the Saison operation against the Irgun and Stern Gang.[3] During the 1948 war he was the operational commander of Operation Nachshon, Operation Barak, Operation Pleshet and Operation An-Far. His troops also fought at Nitzanim as well as joining Operations Death to the Invader and Yoav. He resigned from the army after, according to Chaim Herzog, 'his extreme left-wing philosophy proved to be irreconcilable with Ben-Gurion's policies'. In 1975, he was appointed as the internal comptroller of the Ministry of Defense by the minister Shimon Peres.
1999(1st of Tishrei, 5760): Rosh Hashanah 5760
1999: On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Shanghai government permitted the Jewish community to use Ohel Rachel for 24 hours. This would be the first time a Jewish service was held at the Ohel Rachel Synagogue since 1952. Evening and morning services were held, with approximately 120 Jews in attendance. This was the highest attendance the modern Shanghai
2001: Today marked Cpl. Dustin H. Schrage’s first day in the United States Marine Corps. The young Jewish Marine would lose his life while swimming across the Euphrates River in the Al Anbar province in 2004.
2001: The September 11 attacks destroyed the World Trade Center New York City Washington , D.C. Pennsylvania
2001: Silverstein Properties owned the World Trade Center and will be represented by Proskauer Rose in litigation that will result from the attack and its aftermath.
2001: In an odd twist of fate Larry Silverstein, the owner of Silverstein Properties was at the dermatologist this morning instead of eating breakfast with new tenants at Windows on the World.
2001: Following today’s attacks in Washington, DC and New York City, demand for Robert D. Kaplan’s analysis of events as can be found in “The Coming Anarchy:How scarcity, crime, overpopulation, tribalism, and disease are rapidly destroying the social fabric of our planet” and Warrior Politics increased.
2001: “In the wake of today’s attacks, Martin S. Bergman wrote an article concerning its implications on psychoanalysis called ‘Psychoanalytical Reflections on September 11.’’
2003: “Sharon Delighted with Gift from Kochi” published today described the Prime Minister’s joyful reaction with being given “replicas of the Copper plates from the `Magna Carta' of the Jews of Kochi, which has the oldest synagogue outside Israel. According to some scholars, the Copper plates given by the then rulers of Kochi during the arrival of the Jews to that place, dated back to the 11th century. But the traditional date according to the Cochin Jews is 379 AD.”
2004: Nathan Cooper is called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2005: The funeral for painter and Israel Prize laureate Lea Nikel is held at Kidron Cemetery London
2005, United States Senator Jon Corzine, the Democratic candidate for Governor of New Jersey, endorsed Loretta Weinberg for State Senate held by Byron Baer who was retiring. [Weinberg was Jewish; Corzine was not.
2005: Jewish authors continue to add to the richness of the general culture as they write on a variety of subjects. Where God Was Born by Bruce Feiler received less than glowing reviews in the Sunday New York Times. This is the third in Mr. Feiler’s series on the Bible and religion, two things that he apparently did not study at an earlier age. Dvorak:Romantic Music's Most Versatile Genius by David Hurwitz which has now appeared in paperback received favorable reviews in the Sunday Washington Post book section. Hurwitz takes the unconventional stand that the relationship between Brahms and Dvorak was not a one way street. He contends that Brahms benefited from Dvorak’s influence every bit as much did Dvorak benefit from that of Brahms.
2005:Sidney Ferris Rosenberg failed to show up to host the Giants' pre-game show
2006: (Elul 18) Celebration of the birth of Israel
2006: (Elul 18) Celebration of the birth of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of the Chabad Lubavitch branch of Chasidism.
2006: In the Time Magazine edition of this date a report appeared that Leonard Nimoy, the Jewish actor who portrayed Mr. Spock had published a book entitled Shekina, which explores the mythological feminine aspect of God.
2006: Seventy-nine year old German historian who specialized in works about the Nazis and Hitler passed away today.
2006:Leonard Woolfby Victoria Glendinning was published today by Simon and Schuster
2007: The board of Deputies of British Jews released a statement “accusing the New Statesman, a weekly journal published in London Israel
2007: Elul 29 – The Shofar is sounded for the last time in 5767.
2008:“Setting the Stage,” Beit Lessin's ninth annual revelation of new plays by local playwrights opens at ZOA House in Tel Aviv, there will be 10 staged readings, a musical special to open the proceedings and peer-awarded prizes for those who are part of four other full productions. "Israeli plays are the beating heart of Israeli theater," says Beit Lessin General Manager Tzippi Pines, who has positioned her theater as a nurturing cradle for new playwrights.
2008: In Manhattan the Center for Jewish History in collaboration with Levinas Ethical Legacy Foundation, Société International de Research Emmanuel Levinas, and the North American Levinas Society presents "Renewing the Colloque: Celebrating Levinas' Talmudic Readings during which human rights activists, rabbis and philosophers join in an evening of study and discussion in the spirit of the famous Paris colloquia at which Emmanuel Levinas delivered profoundly ethical Talmudic lessons for our day.
2008:Israel conveyed its displeasure to Washington today over remarks reportedly made by US Consul General Jacob Walles that it had agreed to start negotiations with the Palestinians over Jerusalem.
2009 (22nd of Elul): Yahrzeit of Joseph B. Levin
2009: William Blake’s World: A New Heaven Is Begun opened today and runs, at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. Blake was a leading painter and poet during the Romantic Age. According to some, Blake was influenced by Kabbalah and that the dozen or so Hebrew inscriptions in his etchings and watercolors show that he was fluent in Hebrew. According to others “close analysis of the works, some of which are on exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum, reveal that Blake had not even mastered the letter aleph. Reading Kabbalah in Hebrew without knowing the first letter of the aleph-betwould be as implausible as tackling Finnegan’s Wake with barely a grasp of the English alphabet.”
2009(22ndof Elul, 5770):Eighty-one year old comedy writer Larry Gelbart, the man who gave us the television version of “M*A*S*H passed away today. (As reported by Robert Berkvist)
2009: The Toronto International Film Festival features screenings ofA History of Israeli Cinema Part 1 (Historia Shel Hakolnoah and A History of Israeli Cinema Part 2 (Historia Shel Hakolnoah Israeli). Both films are directed by Raphaël Nadjari who “was born in Marseille, France, and now lives in Israel.
2009:Israeli archaeologists have uncovered one of the earliest depictions of a menorah, the seven-branched candelabrum that has come to symbolize Judaism, the Israel Antiquities Authority said today. The menorah was engraved in stone around 2,000 years ago and found in a synagogue recently discovered by the Kinneret. Pottery, coins and tools found at the site indicate the synagogue dates to the period of the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem, where the actual menorah was kept, said archaeologist Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
2009:Several rockets fired from southern Lebanon slammed into Israel today triggering retaliatory artillery fire across the border, the Israeli military said."Several rockets hit western Galilee. They did not cause any casualties," a military spokesman told AFP.
2010(3rd of Tishrei, 5771): Shabbat Shuva
2010(3rd of Tishrei, 5771):Eighty-six year old Harold Gould, an actor who succeeded in film, theatre and television who was never the star but was always there passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/arts/14gould.html?pagewanted=print
2010:After a 39-year absence, today the Israeli women’s national volleyball team qualified for the 2011 European Championships.
2011(12thof Elul, 5772): Eighty-seven year old Israeli tycoon Yuli Ofer passed away today. (As reported by Elad Benari)
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/147776
2011:Alisa Weilerstein, Carolin Widmann and Matan Porat are scheduled to perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C major, op. 56 at the 14th Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival.
2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including That Used To Be Us:How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back by Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum,
2011: The 2011-2012 Religious School Year is scheduled to begin today at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2011: In conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York, the ADL has issued “Decade of Deceit: Anti-Semitic 9/11 Conspiracy Theories 10 Years Later.”
Decade of Deceit: Anti-Semitic 9/11 Conspiracy Theories 10 Years Later
2011: The Seattle Jewish Chorale is scheduled to take part in an inter-faith service “Remember9/11: Blessed are the Peacemakers” which is one of many observances marking the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attack on Washington, DC and New York City. Rabbi Daniel Weiner of Temple de Hirsch Sinai is scheduled to co-officiate at the service.
2011:Shots were fired from Egypt across the border with Israel today, near the site of last month's terror attack in which eight Israelis were killed.
2011:Israel vowed to develop and defend gas platforms recently discovered in its waters, Energy Minister Uzi Landau said today, after Turkey declared its plan to boost naval patrols in the eastern Mediterranean in a deepening diplomatic feud.
2011: Turkish hackers are preparing to launch a wave of cyber attacks on sensitive Israeli internet sites, the head of a major Israeli website building company warned today. Elik Cohen, chairman of Daronet, which maintains more than 3,000 websites, sent a warning to his company's branches in Israel and abroad saying that Turkish hackers could be targeting sites vital for trade and the presentation of content belonging to banks and the government. Cohen added that Daronet's defense systems have identified "tracks" left behind by Turkish hackers who were "making preparations ahead of launching their attack."
2011: The Los Angeles Times reviewed Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield
2012: For those looking for a “Jewish” way to remember what this date means consider the following
2012:The chairman of Yad Vashem has been appointed the deputy chairman of the International Auschwitz Council. The appointment of Avner Shalev by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was announced by Yad Vashem today.
2012: Following a New Yorker article that appeared yesterday exposing details of the Israeli bombing of a Syrian nuclear facility in 2007, the IDF chief of staff at the time flatly today denied knowledge of the operation.
2013: “Writing Jews in Contemporary Britain” featuring a range of speakers including Nathan Arbrams of Bangor University sponsored by The Pears Institute for the study of Antisemistism in collaboration with the University of Kent and University of Sheffield is scheduled to take place at the University of London.
2013: In London, the Weiner Library co-hosts the second a final day of a “Conference to Mark the 70th Anniversary of the Creation of the United Nations War Crimes Commission in 1943” chaired by Justice Richard Goldstone.
2013:Bulgaria’s President Rosen Plevneliev announced on the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks in the US that Bulgaria “experienced our September 11” last year in Burgas, in which alleged Hezbollah operatives murdered five Israelis and a Bulgarian national. (As reported by Benjamin Weinthal)
2013:To honor the memory of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, including five Israelis, the Keren Kayemet LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund held its 12th annual memorial ceremony with the US Embassy this afternoon. The memorial, held at the 9/11 Living Memorial in the Arazim Valley in Jerusalem, was attended by US Ambassador Daniel B. Shapiro, KKL-JNF World Chairman Efi Stenzler, Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, as well numerous other dignitaries and mourners. (As reported by Daniel K. Eisenbud)
2014: In Rockville, MD, the Magen David Sephardic Congregation is scheduled to present“The Israel-Gaza War: From A Local, Regional & International Perspective With Moran Stern.”
2014 UK Jewish Film, a cultural charity dedicated to developing an environment in which Jewish themed films entertain, educate and enlighten diverse audiences in the UK and internationally, is scheduled to host the final showing of “Wakolda,” a film “set in 1960s Argentina, about an innocent family who unknowingly welcome Dr. Josef Mengele into their home.”
2014: Lewis Black is scheduled to perform at the National Arts Centre Theatre in Ottawa.