September 13
1874: In the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna, Samuel and Pauline Schoenberg gave birth to composer Arnold Schoenberg who “is particularly remembered as one of the first composers to embrace atonality, and for his twelve tone technique of composition using tone rows.”
1880(8thof Tishrei, 5641): Eighty-three year old Penina Moise, the Charleston native known for writing hymns and poetry, passed away.
2004: The leadership of the National Religious Party approved the party’s remaining “in the government on condition that the government would not hold a general referendum regarding removal of the Israeli settlements, which would require a special majority, before the issue could be brought to a decision in the Knesset.
2008: An historic event takes place in Vienna when the first festival devoted to Jewish and Israeli music ever held in Austria opens.
586 BCE (3 Tishrei 3338): On the civil calendar assassination of Gedaliah ben Achikam. He had been appointed Governor of Judea by Nebuchadnezzar in an attempt to revitalize the Jewish community. His assassin, Ishmael ben Natanya, a descendent of the royal house, was convinced by neighboring nations that a revolt against the Babylonians could succeed. In fear of retribution, many of the remaining Jews fled to Egypt destroying what was left of the Judean government. This day is commemorated as a fast day, The Fast of Gedaliah. Yes, on the Jewish calendar, the first two days of Tishrei are days of Joy - Rosh Hashanah. This is immediately followed by a minor fast day - the Jew never forgets that life is a mixture of joy and sorrow.
81: The Roman Emperor Titus who gained fame for destroying the Second Temple passed away.
122: The building of Hadrian's Wall begins. The wall was named for Hadrian, the Roman Emperor who had it built as part of plan to set limits on the size of the Roman Empire and to essentially go over to a defensive posture. For the Jews, Hadrian was no “prince of peace” since he is the suppressed the Bar Kochba Revolt with vehemence and violence.
335: In an example of the Religious Imperialism that afflicts the Jewish people, Emperor Constantine the Great consecrates the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Christians believe that this is the site where Jesus was crucified by the Romans as well as the site of Jesus' tomb
1438: King Duarte of Portugal passed away. During his reign he enacted laws prohibiting Jews from employing Christians. In 1433 Master Guedelha, a rabbi who served as doctor and astrologer for King Duarte prophesied “to King Duarte terrible events if he did not postpone his ascent to the throne of Portugal. A year later, Duarte and his army met with disaster at Tangiers and four years later - 1438 - King Duarte died of the plague - the Black Plague which decimated all of Europe.”
1503: Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David. While the statue may win high marks as Renaissance heart, it gets a big “F” in Halakah since the statue of the Jewish king is of an uncircumcised male.
1600: The Jews of Klausenburg, Hungary, were massacred.
1610: Bookseller Thomas Bushnell transferred his rights in “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus” which includes a reference to Rodrigo Lopez, the Marrano physician who served Queen Elizabeth, to John Wright.
1625: Rabbi Isaiah Horowith and 15 other rabbis were arrested in Jerusalem by an Arab leader and held for ransom. Rabbi Isaiah ben Avraham Ha-Levi Horowitz, known as the Shlah after the title of one of his major works Shnei Luchos Ha-Bris, was a renowned Halachist, kabbalist and communal leader. Born in Prague in 1565, he made aliyah in 1621 after the death of his wife. Unlike most others, he settled in Jerusalem where he worked to rebuild the community. After his release he moved to Tiberius where he was buried next to the grave of the Rambam.
1635: The Massachusetts General Court banished Separatist preacher Roger Williams, 32, for criticizing the Massachusetts Bay Company charter and for perpetually advocating a separation of church and state. Williams would end up with his own colony, Rhode Island, where rules of religious toleration would become the template for the future United States. Of course, it was the values and vision of Williams that made the United States such a hospitable place for Jewish migration and development.
1721(21st of Elul, 5481): Banker Mendel Menachem Emanuel Oppenheimer, the husband of Judith Gomperz and the son-in-law of Salman Gomperz passed away today in Vienna.
1762: Birthdate of Canadian politician Pierre-Stanislas Bédard the leader of Le Canadien, who argued against granting a seat to Ezekiel Hart in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada claiming that "no Christian nation had granted Jews the rights of citizens, not for unjust reasons, but because they themselves do not wish to be part of any country. They may make a country their residence to pursue their business dealings, but never their home. This state of affairs is a result of the Jewish tradition, which requires Jews to wait for the messiah, their prince; while waiting, they cannot pledge allegiance to any other prince.”
1759: At the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, the British defeat French near Quebec City in the Seven Years' War, known in the United States as the French and Indian War. This victory led to a peace treaty that made Canada an English Colony. English colonies were usually more hospitable venues for the growth of Jewish communities. In 1760, the first Jewish families arrived in Montreal and by 1768 they had formed the first congregation in Canada called Shearith Israel.
1768: In Newport Rhode, Island, Aaron Lopez closes his businesses on the Second Day of Rosh Hashanah.
1772: Birthdate of Hirschel Eliazer Kann, the Nederland native who was the found of the Lissa & Kann Bank.
1782: The Kahal Kadosh Mickvé Israel, the first Jewish congregation in Philadelphia, PA, its new building on Cherry near Third Street. Haym Salomon, of Revolutionary War fame, “agreed to pay one four of the cost” of the new building which had a price tag of £600. Gershom Mendez Seixas, the New York rabbi who had fled when the British occupied the city, was the spiritual leader of the congregation. Rabbi Jacob Raphael Cohen replaced Seixas when he returned to New York after the war.
1783: In Prague Baruch (Benedict) Jeiteles gave birth to Ignaz Jeitels “a German writer and philosopher, who studied at the law school of Prague University but dedicated himself to classic languages and literature.”
1800: Birthdate of Max Letteris a leading poet of the Enlightenment (Haskala) in Galacia who in 1852 edited “an edition of the masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible for a Christian missionary organization, the British and Foreign Bible Society.”
1806(1stof Tishrei, 5567): As Jews observe Rosh Hashanah they join their fellow Americans in mourning the death today of William Paterson, the Governor of New Jersey who had the courage to sign the Declaration of Independence in 1766.
1814: During the War of 1812, the British begin the assaults intended to caputre Ft. McHenry, the gateway to Baltimore. There were at least thirty Jews among the defenders of the famous fort including Privates Jacob, Philip and Mendes Cohen and Second Sergeant Samuel Cohen all of the 1st Regiment Maryland Artillery and Solomon and Samuel Etting, the father & son duo of the Baltimore Fencibles. (Editor’s Note: At night, the famous Bombardment of Fort McHenry would be observed by Washington attorney Francis Scott Key who was being held aboard a British ship)
1825(1st of Tishrei, 5586): Rosh Hashanah is observed for the first time during the Presidency of John Quincy Adams.
1846:Representatives of Rome's Jewish community send a message to Pope Pius IX complaining about the conditions they live in and asking for release from the many onerous restrictions that have been imposed upon them by recent popes.
1847(3rd of Tishrei, 5608): Tzom Gedaliah
1847(3rdof Tishrei, 5608): Rabbi Isaac Lob Wormser, the “Baal Shem of Michelstadt” whose reputation for miracles was so well known that during World War I, Jewish soldiers would stop and pray at his grave, passed away today.
1851(16thof Elul, 5611): Fifty-two year old Oskar Ludwig Bernhard Wolff who while serving as a Professor of Literature at the University of Jena where one of his students was Karl Marx and who wrote and published “under the pseudonym "Pliny the youngest” passed away today.
1861(9th of Tishrei, 5622): During the Civil War, Erev Yom Kippur. Jewish soldiers serving with the Army of Northern Virginia are in the trenches because the Confederate general in command rejected the request of a rabbi in Richmond to allow them to leave to observe the holiday.
1863(29th of Elul, 5623): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1863: In Van Buren, AR, Samuel and Sarah (Sulzberger) Adler gave birth to their third child Cyrus Adler who would become famous for his role as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., President of the Jewish Theological Society, a key player in the translation of the JPS Bible of 1917 and a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference (to name but a few of his accomplishments.)
1864: Corporal Isaac Gause distinguished himself today when he captured the colors of the 8th South Carolina Infantry during a reconnaissance mission along the Berryville and Winchester Pike in Virginia.
1874(2nd of Tishrei, 5635) Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1874: An article published today entitled “The Jewish New Year” described the observance of the holiday by the Jews of New York City as well as a preview of the upcoming holiday of Yom Kippur, “the greatest and most solemn of all the Jewish religious days, it being the only one upon which Jews kneel in their devotions.
1874: It was reported today that there are upward of 100,000 Jews living in New York.
1874: In the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna, Samuel and Pauline Schoenberg gave birth to composer Arnold Schoenberg who “is particularly remembered as one of the first composers to embrace atonality, and for his twelve tone technique of composition using tone rows.”
1874: “The Hebrew Orphan Asylum” published today describes the results of an investigation of this institution “which has always been regarded with especial pride by the Jewish community.” The investigation highlights the managerial shortcomings of Meyer Stern, President of this organization.
1874: An article published today questioned Myer Stern’s qualifications to serve as Commissioner of Charities and Correction in New York. Stern’s supporters had argued that his experience as President of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum qualified him for this public position. However, reports recently published in The New Era, a Jewish publication cite his failures as evidence by the inability of any of the 173 youngsters at the institution to be able to recite the Ten Commandments in English or Hebrew and the poor quality of the food served “in one of the most liberally endowed institutions in the country.”
1878(1stof Tishrei, 5548): As a Yellow Fever Epidemic ravages the Mississippi River Valley claiming the lives of at least 20,00 people, Jews observe Rosh Hashanah
1880(8thof Tishrei, 5641): Eighty-three year old Penina Moise, the Charleston native known for writing hymns and poetry, passed away.
http://www.discoveringpeninamoise.com/
1880: “Teaching A Boy to Steal – One Blumenthal, Cigar Deal, Assumes the Character of Fagin the Jew” published today presents the unsubstantiated claims of August Jambert, who was caught stealing by his employer, that he was led into this life of crime by William Blumenthal. The inflammatory and stereotypical headline shows that anti-Semitism was part and parcel of the American scene.
1882(29th of Elul, 5642): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1882: Members of Shearith Israel will attend services in their refurbished synagogue which has been undergoing alterations and repairs for the past three months.
1883(11thof Elul, 5643): Reb Avraham Yaakov Friedman zt’l a son of the Sabba Kadisha who led the Sadigur Chassidim for 30 years, passed away.
1883: Louise Brener, a widow and her child who arrived in New York today aboard the SS Canada told authorities that she had been here by The Hebrew of Society of Paris.
1883: It was reported today that the police in Agram have arrested the leaders of several secret societies which are “endeavoring to direct riots against the Jews.”
1885: Coroner Levy presided over a meeting at Pythagoras Hall that sought to take steps to protect the tens of thousands of newly arrived Jewish immigrants the bulk of whom come from Russia and Poland.
1885: Four year old John Franze, who contracted smallpox from a boy named Neumann who first showed signs while attending the Hebrew School on Pitt Street, was taken to the hospital today.
1889: At its meeting in Buffalo, NY, the Polish Alliance Convention amended its by-laws to exclude “Jews and infidels” from its membership.
1889(17th of Elul, 5649): Hakham Adbdallah Somekh, the merchant turned Torah scholar who took a leading role in promoting the educational level of the Jews of Iraq passed away tonight during a cholera epidemic.
1890: A dozen newly arrived Polish Jews immigrants were placed in the detention pen at the Barge Office because no relatives or other responsible people had arrived to take them into New York.
1890 The surviving son and three daughters of the late Joseph Bossie are contesting the will of their father which “leaves his entire estate,” approximately $10,000, to the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews which they claim as a violation of the 1860 law “under which a person cannot leave more than one-half of his estate for charitable purposes.”
1891: As of today, in Montreal, a group of Russian Jewish immigrants is being housed at the Government Immigration Office and fed by the Baron de Hirsch Institute whose advisory board is planning on soliciting public to support to aid their destitute co-religionists.
1891: As an example of the law of unintended consequences, it was reported today that credit is no longer available in Moscow, Kiev and Odessa, in part because “the Jews are calling in very available kopek of assets” as they leave in the country in response to government regulations.
1891:”Forty-two Polish and Russian Jews were arraigned at the Essex Market Police Court” this morning on charges of “having blocked the sidewalk at the corner of Delancy and Ridge Streets.
1891: “Mr. Kipling’s Stories” published today provided a review of Life’s Handicap, a collection of short stories by Rudyard Kipling that includes the “Jews of Shushan.”
1891: “New Books” published today included a brief review of A King of Tyre: A Tale of the Time of Ezra and Nehemiah by James Ludlow.
1891: Gustav Jacob Born married Bertha Epstein. Born’s first wife, Gretchen Kauffmann had passed away five years earlier. This earlier union had produced Max Born, the Nobel Prize Laureate. The elder Born was famous in his own write for his work in the field of microscopy and embryology.
1892: “Justice Connelly of the Gates Avenue Court issued thirty warrants for the arrest of” Jews “in the section of the 26th Ward called Brownsville for violating the regulations for the preservation of health and cleanliness.”
1892: “Two letters signed by passengers on board the Scandia…were sent to the office of the Hamburg-American Packet this morning” refuting claims about mistreatment and unsanitary conditions aboard the vessel including claims that “the Polish and Russian Jews…were placed in a compartment by themselves.”
1892: Dr. Alfred R. Gaul’s latest cantata “Israel in the Wilderness” was performed tonight for the first time in New York City under the direction of Alfred Stubbs Baker.
1893: Reverend James J Dougherty, the past of St. Monica’s Church attributed the attendance of six or seven Jewish children in his parochial school to a lack of classroom space in the public schools where there are not enough desks for each of the children.
1894: Birthdate of Julian Tuwim, the Polish born Jewish poet
1894: “Not The Hebrews Of Fiction” published today describes the difference between “sensational romantic” depiction of Jews as “richly-fed men, extravagantly attired with diamonds…rubbing their hands and computing their tremendous and illicit gains with oily satisfaction” and the reality of life among the Jews living along Orchard and Broome Streets where “none of them have jewelry” and “all of them only too plainly suffer from a perpetual insufficiency of food.”
1895: A fire that is consuming vast amounts of timber and game lands” broke at Reega, NJ, which home is home to colony for Russian Jewish immigrants financed by the Baron Hirsch Fund. The fire appears to be of natural origin, fueled by the drought like conditions.1895: Henry Budge, a partner in the banking firm of Hallgarten & Co who cut short his European trip when he heard of the tumor being removed from the throat of Bernhard Mainzer is scheduled to arrive in New York where he will learn that his partner passed away yesterday.
1896: In Bunkie, LA, Gisella Elias and Samuel Weiss gave birth to Seymour Weiss the long-time manager of the Roosevelt Hotel and confidant of Huey P. Long.
1896: It was reported today that the Armenian Relief Fund being formed in Hamburg includes the city’s “eminent and public spirited” Jews who have already displayed their “splendid philanthropy in the cause of their own suffering people” who are fleeing from Russia.
1899: A resolution was sent to Secretary of State asking him to obtain “an official copy” of the testimony by a French minister “in which he said that the rigorous treatment of Dreyfus was due in part to the understanding that there was a plan on foot to rescue the prisoner by a party of Americans” so that this “slander” could be refuted.
1899: Robert J. Thompson, Secretary of the Lafayette Memorial Commission says he think the people of the United States are making a rash move in condiment the French nation because of the Dreyfus verdict.”
1899: In Chicago, Dr. Zuhn has been elected President of the Dreyfus Movement Auxiliary Society which is made up of a “100 prominent Jews.”
1899(9thof Tishrei, 5660): In the evening, Kol Nidre is chanted for the last time in the 19th century.
1899: Jacob Wolf led services for 2,000 Jews at Tammany Hall.
1899: Yom Kippur services began at 6:30 pm at Temple Israel on the corner of 125thStreet and 5th Avenue.
1899: Shouts of “Fire, fire” filled the air in the Thalia Theatre on the Bowery where Jews were attending Yom Kippur services. It turned out to be a false alarm and the firemen had no use for their hoses when they arrived.
1899: “The Jewish Year Book” published today provides a “snapshot” of the American Jewish Community at the turn of the century.
1901(29th of Elul, 5661): As Jews prepare to observe Rosh Hashanah, President McKinley who is dying of gangrene brought on by an assassin’s bullet tells those surrounding his bed, “It is useless gentlemen. I think we ought to have a prayer”
1902: Herzl writes to Austrian Prime Minister Ernest von Koerber. He encloses a copy of a letter Plehve addressed to Herzl. He expresses the hope that also Austria will support the Zionist undertaking.
1903: Birthdate of Fredric R. Mann, the Russian born Jewish-American industrialist and patron of the arts who helped finance music centers in Philadelphia and Tel Aviv.
1903: In New York, Henry Krensky married Julia Rabinowitz following which they would move to Waterloo, IA in 1908 where he owned a retail grocery store at 1500 Commercial Street.
1909: A total of 12,214 Jewish young men registered as recruits for the Turkish Army.
1913: After leaving the Army, Sir John Robert Chancellor, began serving as Governor of Mauritius, the first step on a diplomatic career that would lead to him being named High Commissioner of the British Mandate of Palestine, a post from which he expressed his anti-Jewish views.
1913: Seventy-six year old English composer Alfred Robert Gaul, whose work included “Israel in the Wilderness” passed away today.
1914: Birthdate of American movie producer Max J. Rosenberg.
1914(22ndof Elul, 5674): Moses Hirschberg passed away today.
1919: Birthdate of Arthur George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld, the Austrian native who came to Britain after the Nazis annexed Austria and became a major publisher and philanthropist. He has served as “Chairman of the Ben Gurion University of the Negev (1996–2004), Governor of Tel Aviv University, Governor of the Weizmann Institute and Vice-Chairman of the EU-Israel Forum..”
1920(1st of Tishrei, 5681): As women prepare to vote in their first U.S Presidential Election Jews observe Rosh Hashanah
1923(3rd of Tishrei, 5684): Tzom Gedaliah
1923: In Newark, NJ, Mr. and Mrs. Isadore Laufer gave birth to Charles Harry Laufer, the high school teacher who created Tiger Beat. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1924: Birthdate of Israel Tal, the IDF general who was an expert in Tank Warfare and took the lead in developing the Merkava Tank.
1925: Birthdate of Melvin Howard Tormé, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants who gained fame as singer and jazz man Mel Tormé.
1925: The "Cinderella of the Sweatshop," Anzia Yezierska, received a glowing review in the New York Times for her best known novel, Bread Givers."Bread Givers enables us to see our life more clearly, to test its values, to reckon up what it is that our aims and achievements may mean. It has a raw, uncontrollable poetry and a powerful, sweeping design," the Times wrote. Yezierska, dubbed the "Cinderella of the Sweatshop" by the popular press, wrote Bread Givers about the daughter of an immigrant family who struggles against her Orthodox father's rigid idea of Jewish womanhood. Yezierska immigrated as a young girl with her family to the United States in the early 1890s. Her fiction centered upon the lives of Eastern European Jewish immigrants in New York City around the turn of the century. Her work featured female protagonists struggling with issues of economic survival, Americanization, and the tension between immigrant parents and their children. In addition to Bread Givers, Yezierska wrote a number of other books. Her first, a collection of short stories entitled Hungry Hearts, was turned into a 1922 silent film. The film's producer, Samuel Goldwyn, offered Yezierska a $100,000 contract to write screenplays. Yezierska moved to Hollywood but was unable to feel at home there and moved back to New York City. Yezierska's first novel, 1923's Salome of Tenements, was also made into a silent film, though it did not become as well known.
1925: Birthdate of Leon Levy, “a hedge fund pioneer who began investing at 13 with $200 and went on to make many millions, enough to make him one of the main individual backers of archaeological research…” “His father, Jerome, a dry goods merchant, amateur economist and successful investor, predicted the stock market crash of 1929 and sold much of his stock before it happened. He taught his son many financial lessons, particularly the importance of corporate profits in charting overall economic directions.”
1926: Birthdate of Helmut Sonnenfeldt, “an expert on Soviet and European affairs who was known as “Kissinger’s Kissinger” for his influence in advising Henry A. Kissinger, the architect of American foreign policy.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1929: Today Rabbi Moses Blau and several Austrian Jewish refugees who had arrived in Vienna from Palestine gave their impressions of the situation in Eretz Israel. Blau was a leader among the oldest group of Jews who had settled in Palestine. His family had settled there more than a century ago, long before the birth of the modern Zionist movement.
1931(2nd of Tishrei, 5692): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1931: Birthdate of Millicent Fogel, the Chicago native who gained famed as actress Barbara Bain best known for her role as “Cinnamon Carter” in the television hit series “Mission Impossible.”
1934: Nahum Goldmann met Jozef Beck, the Polish Foreign Minister, in Geneva today to try and persuade him not to repudiate the Minorities Treaty. He was not successful in his attempt.
1934: Poland revoked the minority treaty, fearing that Russia (now a League member) would become involved with her "private" affairs. This move meant more free-reign in the country's discrimination against the Jewish population.
1937: Laurence Steinhardt began serving U.S. Ambassador to Peru.
1937: Birthdate of Fred Silverman; one of host of Jews who rose to fame in the broadcasting industry. In Silverman's case he held top positions at both ABC and NBC.
1937: The Palestine Post's special correspondent, Molly Lyons, described in glowing terms how a group of American pioneers from Hadera established a new settlement on the hill of Jiara, a desolate, uninhabited area, some 22 kilometers away from Mishmar Ha'emek.
1937: In the Palestine Post, Lord Peel described the objective difficulties he and his colleagues faced as members of the Royal Commission, before they reached their unanimous decision recommending the partition of Palestine.
1938(17th of Elul, 5698): A Jewish policeman was shot dead tonight at Rishonlet Zion.
1938 (17th of Elul, 5698): Professor Samuel Alexander, O.M., Litt.D., who had served as a for Professor of Philosophy at Manchester University for over 30 years died at his home in Manchester, at the age of 79. He was the first Jewish fellow of an Oxbridge college.
1939: Germany occupied Miclec, Poland, and murdered its entire Jewish population. Among those killed 35 Jews were burned alive at the slaughterhouse and 20 more were burned alive in their synagogue.
1940: Italian forces begin their ill-fated invasion of Egypt. The Italian failure will draw Germany into the fighting in North Africa. Irwin Rommel will lead a drive that takes him figuratively to the gates of Cairo. These German successes are cheered by the Arabs. They also lead the British to enlist the aid of Jewish forces in Palestine. The training and arms that they Jews received would later help in the fight for Israeli independence.
1941: Suspicious that the Allies may be decoding its radio messages, Berlin orders German commanders in the Soviet Union to send future reports of Nazi executions of Jews and other Soviet civilians by courier instead of radio.
1941(21st of Elul, 5701): Eleven members of the Jewish Council of Piotrkow, Poland, who had cooperated with the Jewish underground, are executed following two months of Gestapo torture.
1941: Charles and Anne Lindbergh, members of the America First Committee, attend a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, at which Lindbergh blames the Jews for "agitating for war...for reasons that are not American....Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government." [Ed. Note: Anybody seeking to understand FDR’s response to the plight of Europe’s Jews must factor in the depth of anit-Semitism that existed in the United States. Echoes of Lindbergh and the America First Movement can be heard today in the writings of Pat Buchanan a former Republican White House Speech writer who regularly appears on MSNBC.]
1942(2nd of Tishrei, 5703): Rosh Hashanah II
1942: The Jewish community at Checiny, Poland, is deported.
1942(2nd of Tishrei, 5703): Forty Rabbis of the ghetto of Lodz were killed by the Nazis
1943(13th of Elul, 5703): In the Lodz Ghetto, the Nazis hung Icek Bekerman, 34, for stealing a few pieces of leather with which he had planned to make himself a pair of shoelaces. The Lodz carpentry shop was ordered to build the gallows.
1944: The shipment of Jews from Westerbork, the Dutch concentration camp, to Auschwitz, Sobibor, Begen-Belsen and Thereisendstdat which had begun in 1942 came to an end. Over 100,000 Jews were shipped to the camps during this period. The Frank Family were among those who were shipped from Westerbrook to the death camps.
1945: Senator Guy Gillette of Iowa made public a letter that President Truman had written on August 31, 1945, to Britain's Prime Minister Clement Attlee that the issuance of 100,000 certificates of immigration to Palestine would help to alleviate the refugee situation.
1945: The U.S.S. President Warfield, the ship that would gain fame as the SS Exodus, left active service with the United States Navy.
1945: Affidavit of Dr. Rudolf Kastner, former President of the Hungarian Zionist Organization
1947: Mickey Rutner hit his only major league home run. He did it as a member of the Philadelphia Athletics in an 8-2 win over the Chicago White Sox. In the following interview with the NJ Jewish News, Rutner, who has made his retirement home in Georgetown, Tex., describes the big blow as well as providing insights on his diamond career.
“The guy threw me a curve ball, and I hit it quite well, and as I was rounding second I was thinking to myself, ‘Holy cow!’”He also had his first base hit, which had come a few days earlier in Yankee Stadium, against Joe Page. “That’s what you dream about. You always want to play at the Stadium against the Yankees,” said Rutner, who was born in Hempstead, NY, and attended St. John’s University. Actually, retirement is a relative term. Rutner, at 87, the oldest living Jewish ex-major leaguer, has been working for the public relations department of the Round Rock Express, the AAA affiliate of the Houston Astros owned by Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan. “I work as a greeter in the luxury suites,” he said. “I keep them away from Nolan so they don’t bother him during the game. I enjoy being out there. The people are very nice to me. I do a lot of handshaking.”Rutner played with Lou Limmer — who had been the oldest Jewish ex-major leaguer before passing away last April — in the Puerto Rican winter leagues. Like Limmer, he was a basically a New York kid who was shocked by the anti-Semitism he faced in the Deep South towns of the minor leagues. “It was an experience,” Rutner said. One of his teammates when he first started out was the author Eliot Asinof. “The manager of the team…said, ‘I can’t have two Yids on my team,’ so he released Eliot,” Rutner recalled. It turned out to be a good career move for his friend. “He was a bright man and he went on to play in a different league and then he wrote a few books.” One on those books, Eight Men Out, became the seminal account of the 1919 Black Sox gambling scandal. Rutner himself was the subject of a novel by Asinof, Man on Spikes, the fictional account of Mike Kutner, a good career minor leaguer struggling to break into the bigs. “[Asinof] was visiting us at the house…and he was taking notes and he asked me if it would be all right if he wrote this book about me — but he wouldn’t use my name.”In Memories of Summer: When Baseball Was an Art, and Writing about It a Game, author Roger Kahn cites Man On Spikesas one of his favorite baseball books and offers an insightful observation on the subtleties of discrimination.“Rutner was Jewish; apparently Connie Mack held that against him,” Kahn wrote. “Asinof’s hero is not Jewish. He wears eyeglasses. The techniques of novelists can be every bit as fascinating as the techniques of lefthanded pitchers and center fielders.”Rutner said he hoped the novel, originally published in 1955, will be turned into a movie some day. Although he still enjoys good health and as much as he still loves baseball, Rutner doesn’t know if he’ll return to the Express in 2008; it might interfere too much with his weekly golf game.
1948(9th of Elul, 5708): Four Jews, including two children, were killed in Jerusalem today by shelling from the Arab Legion, the Jordanian army that had invaded Israel and has occupied the Old City. Another four children were wounded in the shell.
1948: Two unidentified Jewish women died in a Jerusalem hospital today from wounds sustained in last week-end’s Arab shelling.
1948: In a violation of the truce agreement, the Arab legion shelled Jerusalem’s northern residential quarter as well as positions in the southern part of the city held by Israeli troops.
1950: Israeli forces have occupied an area at Naharayim along the border of Jordan because it is Israel's territory under the Rhodes armistice agreement with King Abdullah, an Army spokesman said today. The territory controls the confluence of the Yarmuk and Jordan Rivers. “The confluence is about six miles south of the Sea of Galilee and” near the Rutenberg hydroelectric works.
1951: Ely Palmer, chairman of the United Nations Palestine Conciliation Commission meeting in Paris, “handed the Israelis a copy of five proposals that the commission drafted for the Arabs and Israelis in an effort to transform the armistice into a peace treaty.”
1951: As David Ben Gurion continues to establish a new coalition government six weeks after the last national election, the Mapam Workers party broke off negotiations with the Prime Minister paving the way for a coalition made up of Mapai and the General Zionists.
1967: Varian Fry passed away. Fry was an American journalist who ran a rescue network in Vichy France that helped approximately 2,000 to 4,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees to escape Nazi occupied Europe and the Holocaust. Among those Fry aided were the following:
- Hannah Arendt
- Andre Breton
- Marc Chagall
- Max Ernst
- Lion Feuchtwanger
- Heinz Jolles
- Wilfredo Lam
- Wanda Landowska
- Jacques Lipchitz
- Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel
- Andre Masson
- Otto Meyerhoff
- Marcel Duchamp
- Franz Werfel
- Henrich Mann
- Ylla
1969(1st of Tishrei, 5730): Rosh Hashanah
1970: Running of the first New York City Marathon. The famed running event was co-founded by Holocaust survivor Fred Lebow.
1970: Birthdate of Louise Lombard the title role in “Esther” a film “that follows the biblical account very closely and featured F. Murray Abraham as Mordecai.
1973: Syrian and Israeli planes clash over the Mediterranean. The Israelis shoot down 13 Syrian MIGS while losing only one plane. The subsequent mobilization of the Syrian armed forces is seen as a response to the Israeli air victory and not what it really was – preparations for all-out war that would being on Yom Kippur, 1973.
1977(1stof Tishrei, 5738): Rosh Hashanah is celebrated for the first time during the Presidency of Jimmy Carter.
1981: As his ten day trip to the United States was coming to a close Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel spent a busy day in New York seeking approval from sectors of opinion made wary by recent events in the Middle East while at the same time reassuring his followers that nothing had changed.
1984: Yitzhak Shamir completed his first term as Prime Minister
1984: Haim Bar-Lev began serving as Minister of Public Safety, a ministry that had been abolished in 1977 and renewed in 1984.
1984: Moshe Shahal replaced Yitzhak Moda’I as Minister of Energy and Water Resources.
1984: Gideon Patt replaced Yuval Ne’eman as Minister of Science and Technology
1984: Amnon Rubinstein replaced Mordechai Tzipori as Minister of Communications.
1984: Yitzhak Rabin replaced Moshe Arens as Minister of Defense.
1984: Leonard Bernstein conducts the 40th anniversary concert of Jeremiah Symphony with PSO.
1984: Shimon Peres replaced Yosef Burg as Internal Affairs Mnister.
1985: The original hand-written copy of the lines that have inspired millions and served for generations as a symbol of America - ''Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free'' - are among the highlights of an exhibition opening today at the New-York Historical Society honoring the centennial celebration of the Statue of Liberty. Emma Lazarus's famous poem, ''The New Colossus,'' was later inscribed on a bronze tablet on an interior wall of the pedestal, but the original copy will be on view in this exhibition.
1986: Leonard Bernstein led the premiere of Jubilee Games with IPO.
1986: Pee-Wee’s Playhouse starring Pee-wee Herman (real name – Paul Rubens) was broadcast for the first time on CBS.
1987: ''Jacob Epstein: Sculpture and Drawings'' an exhibition at the White Chapel Art Gallery which is part of the Jewish East End Celebration was scheduled to close today.
1989(13th of Elul, 5749): Arye Leon Dulzin, a former Israeli Government official and former chairman of the World Zionist Organization and of Israel's Jewish Agency, died after a prolonged kidney illness today in Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv. He was 76 years old and had lived in Tel Aviv. Born in Minsk in 1913, Mr. Dulzin had a lifelong interest in Zionism and in the plight of Russian Jews. He immigrated with his parents to Mexico in 1928 and in time became secretary general of the Zionist Federation of Mexico, serving as president of the organization from 1938 to 1942. He later became chairman of the political committee and president of the Mexican branch of the World Jewish Congress and was a delegate to several sessions of the Zionist Congress in Jerusalem. Mr. Dulzin settled in Israel in 1956 and joined the Jewish Agency, where he headed the economic department and investment bureau until 1965. He then served as head of immigration, absorption and resettlement for the agency and was its treasurer from 1968 to 1978. As a member of the Israeli Liberal Party, Mr. Dulzin joined the Cabinet of Prime Minister Golda Meir as a Minister Without Portfolio in 1969 and was later affiliated with the Likud coalition headed by Prime Minister Menachem Begin. In 1986, he broke with the Liberals, and he and several other leaders formed the Liberal Center Party. Role in Settlements Mr. Dulzin was elected chairman of the World Zionist Federation in 1978 and a short time later became chairman of the Jewish Agency. As head of that organization, he was deeply involved in Jewish emigration to Israel, and as chairman of the World Zionist Organization, he was responsible for furthering the spread of the Hebrew language and Jewish culture and with promoting new Jewish settlements in Israel's occupied Arab territories. He retired in 1987. In 1980, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Yeshiva University in New York for his role in directing immigration and resettling Jews in Israel. Bernice S. Tannenbaum, chairman of the American section of the World Zionist Orgnization, described Mr. Dulzin as a leading force in modern Zionism who had helped draw the major religious streams of Judaism into the Zionist ranks.
1991(5th of Tishrei, 5752): Movie producer Joseph Pasternakmovie producer at the age of 89, a victim of cancer
1991: U.S. premiere of “Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare” part of the Nightmare on Elm Street series co-starring Yaphet Kotto who has described the difficulty of growing up as “a black Jew.”
1992: The Jerusalem Post reported that US President George Bush proposed legislation to Congress granting Israel a $10 billion loan guarantee for the absorption of Soviet immigrants. He also announced a proposed sale of 72 F-15s to Saudi Arabia with "compensatory steps to ensure Israel's military edge." For those looking for evidence of Bush and Saudi ties, look no further. President Bush would use aid to Israel as lever to for that government to take a "more conciliatory" view towards the Arabs.
1993: Public unveiling of the Oslo Accords, an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement initiated by Norway
1993: In a triumph of hope over history, Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yasir Arafat, the chairman of the P.L.O., shook hands today on the White House lawn, sealing the first agreement between Jews and Palestinians to end their conflict and share the holy land along the River Jordan that they both call home.
1997(1stof Tishrei, 5738): Rosh Hashanah is celebrated as Bill Clinton begins his second term as President of the United States.
1998: The New York Times book section included reviews by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including A History of Palestine From Bonaparte and Muhammad Ali to Ben-Gurion and the Muftiby Thomas A. Idinopulos and The Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up by Andrew Tobias
2000:At a meeting of the High Follow-up Committee for Arab citizens in Israel in Kafar Manda, United Arab List's MK Abdulmalik Dehamshe declared: "We will beat or forcefully attack any policeman and we will break his hands if he comes to demolish an Arab house … we are on the verge of an Intifada among Israel’s Arabs following Alik Ron’s incitement."
2001: At the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of “The Grey Zone, based on the book Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account written by Dr. Miklós Nyiszli directed by Tim Blake Nelson whose maternal grandparents escaped from the Nazis just before the start of WW II.
2002: An exhibition styled “Myer Myers: Jewish Silversmith in Colonial New York came to a close at the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware.
2003: The Tel Aviv – Beit Shemesh section of the Jaffa-Jerusalem railway and Beit Shemesh Railway Station were re-opened.
2004: The leadership of the National Religious Party approved the party’s remaining “in the government on condition that the government would not hold a general referendum regarding removal of the Israeli settlements, which would require a special majority, before the issue could be brought to a decision in the Knesset.
2005: Despite the desecration and destruction of Synagogues in Gaza by Palestinians, the Jerusalem Post reported that Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar announced he was considering ostracizing any Jew that attacks mosques in retaliation. “I and other rabbis are considering putting a Cherem [ban] on any Jew that desecrates Mosques or other holy places…What right do Jews have to hurt the places of worship of other faiths? It is a good thing that the peoples of the world pray to God." This is the latest example of Jewish leaders following an ethical path that differentiates the Children of Israel from its antagonists.
2005(9th of Elul, 5765): Sixty-eight year old Cyril Kitchener Harris, the native of Glasgow who served as Chief Rabbi of South Africa from 1987 to 2004 passed away today.
2005: In “How Curious George Escaped the Nazis,” published today, Dinitia Smith recounts the harrowing trip Hans and Margret Rey took to avoid being victims of the Holocaust.
2006: Today’s offerings of the 2006 OyHoo Festival in New York includes
- Homage to Lenny Bruce & Free Speech;
- Jewish Music Showcase featuring some of the best Jewish Music from many great Jewish Labels such as Tzaddik and such performers as Paul Brody, Chana Rothman and Gary Lucas
- By the Rivers of Babylon featuring Jewish Poetry as Music and Music as Poetry
- The Big Quiz Thing, NYC's live-trivia spectacular, pitting Jewish bigwigs against each other in a game-show smack down of all things
2006: “The Knesset House Committee approved Moshe Katsav's request for leave of absence.”
2007(1st of Tishrei, 5768): Rosh Hashanah 5768
2007: According toPeter Applebome, Kehillat Lev Shalem, the Jewish congregation in Woodstock, NY, is scheduled to again hold the High Holy Days ceremonies outdoors in their beloved tent. The Rosh Hashanah service is scheduled to begin with the singing of the ’60s anthem “Turn! Turn! Turn!” with the congregation’s leader, Rabbi Jonathan Kligler playing guitar. Mr. Applebome sees this as “a tale of modern Jewish life” in a hippie outpost
2008: An historic event takes place in Vienna when the first festival devoted to Jewish and Israeli music ever held in Austria opens.
2008: Temple Judah hosts it first annual rustic “Barbecue and HavdalahService” at Woodpecker Lodge, Pinicon Ridge Park, in Central City.
2008: “The King and I,” opens at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City featuring Temple Judah’s very own Cyndie and BentleeBirchansky.
2008: At ZOA House in Tel Aviv, the curtain comes down on “Setting the Stage,” Beit Lessin's ninth annual revelation of new plays by local playwrights.
2009: Religious School begins at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA
2009: Jack Black led the audience at the MTV Video Music Awards in a Satanic prayer.
2009: The Sisterhood and Men's Club of Olam Tikvah presents historian, world traveler, and lecturer Claire Simmons who leads a discussion of "The Mystery of the Jewish Knapsack: What the Jews Packed for Their Journey into the Diaspora.”
2009: In Teaneck, NJ, a Beshert Moment as Debbie Rosenbloom and David Levin join together under the Chupah to begin a life together that should be marked only by health, happiness and the most sublime sense of joy possible. Mazel tov.
2009: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Why Jews Are Liberals by Norman Podhoretz, Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow and The Magicians by Lev Grossman.
2009: The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times book sections each featured a review of Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression by Morris Dickstein
2009(24th of Elul, 5769): Tragedy struck the family of late Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon again today, when his son Captain Asaf Ramon was killed in a crash while flying an Israel Air Force F16-A. Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut was one of seven crew members killed when the U.S. space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry on February 1, 2003. Asaf Ramon's aircraft crashed near the settlement of Bnei Haver, in the rugged terrain of the Hebron Hills. The Israel Defense Forces carried out an aerial and terrestrial search of the area for some 90 minutes before locating the crash site. IAF Blackhawk ("Yanshuf") helicopters carrying soldiers from 669, the Air Force's elite search and rescue unit, were the first to locate the plane, and they retrieved the pilot's body. At a press conference this evening, a grim-faced Brigadier General Yochanan Locker of the Israel Air Force confirmed the circumstances of the crash. "The plane crashed during a routine training flight," Locker said. "Helicopters, rescue forces from [elite unit] 669, grounds troops and rescue personnel were dispatched to the site. "The remains of the plane were found after an extensive search. The Air Force commander has established a committee of inquiry headed by a colonel to investigate the incident," he said. "It is a difficult day for the Air Force [when there is] an accident like this, in which people are killed." Asaf, 21, excelled in the IAF's grueling training course for pilots. In June he received a presidential honor and was given his pilot's wings by President Shimon Peres. He then joined the squadron in which the course's advanced training program is carried out. The young pilot escaped another plane crash only half a year ago during a routine training flight. The Air Force commander, Major General Ido Nehushtan, called an official inquiry and halted training in Israel's F-16 squadrons until further notice, the military said in a statement. The IAF is investigating a number of possible causes and is looking into whether Ramon was suffering from any physiological problems, such as vertigo or a blackout, at the time of the crash. The young captain had passed a physical exam and was not known to have any medical problems. Ilan Ramon himself was a fighter pilot in the IAF, and the youngest to take part in Israel's 1981 air strike on Iraq's unfinished Osirak nuclear reactor. He was also the son and grandson of Holocaust survivors. People in Israel had tracked Ramon's journey into space as a welcome distraction from the violence of the second intifada; they responded to his death with shock and grief. Today Israeli TV stations screened footage of Ramon floating weightless in the space shuttle, swallowing floating drops of water and speaking about his love for his wife and children. Asaf, was the eldest of Ilan Ramon's four children. He was 15 when his father died; shortly afterward, he promised on a number of occasions that he would follow in his father's footsteps and serve as a pilot and possibly even as an astronaut in the future. He is survived by his mother, and his two brothers and sister. Shortly before receiving his wings, Ramon told the IAF journal that, "It was important to me to mention my father and tell his stories, because I am proud of him and proud to be his son. But I also want people to know me as Asaf and not just as the son of the astronaut Ilan Ramon."
2009: The Cedar Rapids Gazette features a review of Gertruda’s Oath: A child, a Promise and a Heroic Escape During World War II by Ram Oren.
2009:The Israel Antiquities Authority researchers said today that a stretch of road in Jerusalem dating to the Second Temple and thought to be used by pilgrims on their ascent to the temple had been cleared over the past few months. The reclaimed section had been known to researchers for over 100 years, as it was discovered by British examiners at the end of the 19th century.
2010:David Broza who was raised and educated in Israel, Spain and England and is a superstar in his homeland of Israel, as well as a modern troubadour of urban folk-rock is scheduled to appear at the City Winery in New York City.
2010:The 6th Annual Behind the Scenes Gala, sponsored by the Jewish Ensemble Theatre is scheduled to take place in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
2010:Ben Gurion International Airport was shut down for nearly eight hours today due to a strike by Israel Aviation Authority workers over their pensions.
2010(5th of Tishrei, 5771): Eighty-eight year old William Coblenz, prominent San Francisco attorney and civic leader, passed away today. (As reported by Dan Pine)
2010: New York magazine featured a cover story about The Lampshade: A Holocaust Detective Story from Buchenwald to New Orleans by Mark Jacobson in which the author provides documentary proof that the skin of Holocaust victims was indeed used to make lampshades.
2011: The Ariel Quartet and Alisa Weilerstein are scheduled to perform Schubert’s String Quintet in C major, D. 956 at the 14thJerusalem International Chamber Music Festival.
2011: The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to present the first of a series of brown-bag programs with the theme of “In Search of Jewish Spirituality.”
2011:Turkey's Military Electronic Industry developed a new identification system for its F-16 fighter jets that will allow it to attack Israeli targets, according to report by the Turkish Star Gazette today. The previous US system automatically classified all Israeli targets as "friend" and disallowed any attacks on them.
2011:Today MK Amir Peretz attacked his opponent for the leadership of the Labor Party, MK Shelly Yacimovich, saying that she had resorted to the "lowest possible tactics in Israeli politics," during the primary election in which she slightly edged Peretz with 32 percent of the vote to his 31%. Labor will hold a run-off between Yacimovich and Peretz on September 21, after neither succeeded in winning the necessary 40 percent of the vote in the primary.
2011:Hamas is weighing a resumption of suicide bomb attacks against Israeli civilians, a senior counter-terrorism expert warned in Herzliya today. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Fighel, a researcher with the Interdisciplinary Center's Institute for Counter-Terrorism, spoke at the Institute's eleventh annual terrorism conference."
2011: Hakim Awad was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences today for murdering Ehud and Ruth Fogel, along with three of their young child-ren, Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, 3 months old.
2011: Republican Bob Turner and Democratic Assemblyman David I. Weprin are facing each other in a special election being held today to fill the Congressional seat vacated by Representative Anthony D. Weiner.
2012: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present a lecture by Professor John Lukacs entitled: Anti-Semitism and Judaeophobia: A Critical Analysis of the Development in European Anti-Jewish Sentiment During The Interwar Period.”
2012:At a Rosh Hashanah reception at his residence, today, US Vice President Joe Biden said “there is no daylight” between the United States and Israel when it comes to Iran.
2012:A top Reform rabbi appeared with Libya's U.S. ambassador and Muslim and Christian leaders condemning the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya and the U.S. Embassy in Egypt, along with the anti-Muslim film that allegedly incited the violence.
2013(9thof Tishrei, 5774): In the evening Kol Nidre and the start of Yom Kippur
2013: Kol Nidre services will not take place tonight at the Chabad Synagouge in Boulder due to the unprecendneted flooding wreacking havoc across a large swath of Colorado.
2013: Expecting many thousands of Jewish worshipers to gather at the Western Wall in Jerusalem at the start of Yom Kippur this evening, police have preemptively undertaken numerous security measures to safeguard them for the duration of the fast, which ends tomorrow evening.(As reported by Daniel K. Eisenbud)
2014: Social Commentator and Comedian Lewis Black is scheduled to appear at Centennial Hall in London, Ontario.
2014: Korean is scheduled to resume flying to Israel “after shutting down flights to and from Israel at the beginning of Operation Protective Edge in mid-July.” (As reported by Yaakov Levi)
2014: Friends and family of Debbie Rosenbloom and David Levin take pleasure in the celebration of their fifth wedding anniversary.