September 15
1889: Members of Shaar Hashomyim (Gates of Heaven) gathered today to celebrate the dedication of their new sanctuary on East 15th Street near Third Avenue. The congregation was founded in 1839 and was moving from current facility on Rivington Street. Built in 1865 with seating for 1,000, the congregation was forced to move again because it had outgrown this facility.
53: Birthdate of Trajan who was Roman emperor from 98 until his death of 117. In the last decade of his rule, Trajan began a campaign against the Parthians, a people living east of the Roman Empire . Since this territory bordered Judea with its large Jewish population, Trajan sought to improve relations between Rome Temple Parthia Parthia Rome Temple Egypt Rome Nile which weakened his already doomed campaign as Parthia
1199: Pope Innocent published “Constitutio Pro Judeis: An Edict in Favor of the Jews”
1084: Rüdiger Huzmann, the Bishop of Speyer, signed and sealed a document explaining why he had invited the Jews to settle in his city and the terms and conditions under which this community was to live. Among other things, he stated that he “believed” it would “multiply” the “image” of Speyer “a thousand times by inviting the Jews” and “turn the village of Speyer into a city.”
1254: Birthdate of explorer Marco Polo who told of meeting Chinese Jews in his 1286 journey to China.
1348: On the Day of Atonement, three Jews and a Jewess in Chillon, a town near Lake Geneva were tortured in an attempt to get them to confess to charges of well poisoning that was the alleged cause of the Black Death.
1485: Pedro Arbues, Canon of the Cathedral of Saragossa was attacked while praying. He died two days later, and when the news went public, the Christian community gathered to swear revenge. The attack was planned by prominent Jews (Conversos) of Aragon including Sancho de Paternoy, Master of the Royal Household; Gabriel Sanches, the High Treasurer of the kingdom; and Francisco de Santa Fe, assessor to the Governor of Aragon. The results of this “were that nearly 200 people had revenge struck upon them, some were murdered outright and some were beheaded with their mutilated bodies put on display. Some were imprisoned, some committed suicide to alleviate their suffering, and some fled to France
1497:Gershon Soncino published one of the first printed editions of “Selihot” in Braco, Italy.
1683: Germantown, Pennsylvania was founded by 13 immigrant families as a separate township outside of Philadelphia. In 1793, Isaac Franks, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, opened his Germantown home to President George Washington, when a yellow fever epidemic gripped Philadelphia which was the capital of the United States of America at that time.
1697:Frederick Augustus I or Augustus II the Strong crowned King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth “with the backing of Imperial Russia and Austria, which financed him through the Jewish banker, Berend Lehmann.”
1730(4th of Tishrei, 5491): Sir Solomon de Medina passed away. A native of Bordeaux Medina was a wealthy Amsterdam Jew who went to England with William III, when he and Queen Anne gained the throne of the United Kingdom. According to Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne “The first Jewish knight, created by Queen Anne, was Sir Solomon de Medina. It was Sir Solomon who provided the supplies, including the food that enabled the British Army under the Duke of Marlborough to win the decisive Battle of Blenheim – a vital turning point in the War of Spanish Succession and a swift kick in the shins to Louis XIV’s aspirations.”
1735: Birthdate of Issachar Bär ben Judah Carmoly an Alsatian rabbi. At the age of 10, he was sufficiently advanced in his training for the rabbinate to follow the elaborate lectures of Jonathan Eybeschütz. Later, Carmoly studied successively at Frankfurt, under the direction of Jacob Joshua, author of Pene Yehoshu'a, and at Metz, under Samuel Helman, who conferred upon him the title of rabbi. On returning home, in compliance with the wish of his father, Carmoly began the study of medicine under the direction of Jacob Assur, a physician of Nancy, but had to give it up, being engrossed with his Talmudical studies. The only benefit he derived from his tutor was a fair knowledge of mathematics, of which he made use later. He passed away in May of 1781. Carmoly married the daughter of a rich banker named Joseph Raineau. The latter persuaded the bishop of Sulz to create a rabbinate in his see; and Carmoly was appointed rabbi of Sulz. Carmoly was the author of a commentary on the Tosefta to the treatise Betzah, published, together with the text, under the title Yam Yissakar (Sea of Issachar; Metz, 1769). The grandson of the author, Eliakim Carmoly, claimed to have had in his possession the following manuscripts of his grandfather
1752: The Merchant of Venice was presented in Williamsburg , Virginia
1776: British troops occupied New York City Newport , Rhode Island
1780: Birthdate of Jonas Daniel Meijer, the first Jew admitted to the Bar in the Netherlands. As a lawyer, he worked to help the Dutch Jews gain full emancipation.
1780(15th of Elul, 5540): Jacob Rodrigues Pereira or Jacob Rodrigue Péreire an academic and the first teacher of deaf-mutes in France, passed away. Born Jacob Rodrigues Pereira in 1715 at Peniche, Portugal, “he was a descendant of a Marrano (Portuguese Crypto-Jews) family and was baptized with the name of Francisco António Rodrigues. He returned to Judaism together with his mother. His parents were Magalhães Rodrigues Pereira and Abigail Ribea Rodrigues. After his father's death his mother fled with her son from Portugal to escape the Portuguese Inquisition and the charge that she had relapsed into heresy, and about 1741 she settled at Bordeaux. Jacob Rodrigue Péreire formulated signs for numbers and punctuation and adapted Juan Pablo Bonet's manual alphabet by adding 30 handshapes each corresponding to a sound instead of to a letter. He is therefore seen as one of the inventors of manual language for the deaf and is credited with being the first person to teach a non-verbal deaf person to speak. In 1759, he was made a member of the Royal Society of London. A lifelong devotee to the well-being of the Jews of southern France, Portugal, and Spain, beginning in 1749 he was a volunteer agent for the Portuguese Jews at Paris. In 1777, his efforts led to Jews from Portugal receiving the right to settle in France. In 1876 Pereira's remains were transferred from the Cimetière de la Villette (where he had been buried the year in which that cemetery was opened) to that of the Cimetière de Montmartre. In Bordeaux the street "Rodrigues-Pereire" was named in his honor. His grandsons, the Péreire brothers, Emile Péreire (1800–75) and Isaac Péreire (1806–80), were well-known French financiers and bankers during the second empire who encouraged the construction of the first railway in France in 1835. In 1852, they founded the Société Générale du Crédit Mobilier.”
1801: Coronation of Czar Alexander I who “declared the Blood Libel -- the infamous accusation that Jews murdered Christian children to use their blood in the baking of matzah for Passover, for which thousands of Jews were massacred through the centuries -- to be false.
1812(9th of Tishrei, 5573): Erev Yom Kippur
1812: The only Jews who would have chanted Kol Nidre tonight in Moscow would have been members of the French Army which had entered the Russian capital to find it devoid of the local population.
1814(1stof Tishrei, 5575): Rosh Hashanah
1814: Jews in Baltimore, Maryland, have a special reason to rejoice as they welcomed the New Year, since today marked the end of the “Battle of Baltimore” when the Americans withstood the British bombardment of Fort McHenry and thwarted their planned attack on the American port.
1821:Costa Rica Spain Costa Rica Curacao , Jamaica Panama Caribbean who arrived in the 19th century. Jewish life in Costa Rica
1821: El Salvador declares independence from Spain. Except for the occasional transit of Portuguese Conversos, there were no Jews in the country until the first half of the nineteenth century when Sephardim from France Chaluchuapa El Salvador
1821: Guatemala declares independence from Spain. Documents in the archives of the Mexican Inquisition attest to the presence of Marranos in Guatemala Guatemala Guatemala City
1821: Honduras declares independence from Spain. Conversos, or New Christians, who converted to Christianity while secretly practicing Judaism, were believed to be among the Spaniards who succeeded in buying permits that allowed them to circumvent prohibitions against sailing to the New World during the period after the Jewish expulsion from Spain Gulf of Mexico , and the Honduran coast. It is possible that these were the first "Jews" to arrive in Honduras Honduras Russia Poland Germany Romania Hungary Greece Turkey North Africa
1821: Nicaragua declares independence from Spain. The Jewish population of Nicaragua Managua
1824: In Posen, Aaron Levin Lazarus and his wife gave birth to Moritz Lazarus, the professor of psychology at the University of Bern who was an outspoken opponent of ant-Semitism and who held several leadership roles in the German Jewish community including the presidency of Jewish Synod of Leipzig and the Berlin branch of the Alliance Israélite Universelle.
1825(3rd of Tishrei, 5586):Tzom Gedaliah
1825: The foundation stone for Ararat was laid in Buffalo , New York Grand Island Niagara River . Apparently Mordechai Noah, the self-appointed leader of the Jewish community was not bothered by the conflict with today’s fast.
1834:Birthdate of Heinrich Gotthard von Treitschke, one of the first prominent German leaders to take a leading role in the anti-Semitic attacks that began in Germany in the last three decades of the 19th century. His lament that “The Jews are our misfortune” would become the motto of Der Stürmer Nazi newspaper published by Julius Streicher the Nazi leader who was hung at Nuremberg after having been convicted of committing “crimes against humanity.”
1849: The first synagogue in South Africa, Tikvat Yisrael, was dedicated in Cape Town.
1850(9th of Tishrei, 5611): Kol Nidre
1854: The second Jewish synagogue built in Boston was concecrated today. The synagogue was erected by German Jews who had left the city’s other synagogue which was controlled by Polish Jews.
1856: Mina (Halfin) and Abraham Levi gave birth to Levi Napoleon Levi in Victoria, Texas. Young Levi went “north” for college (The University of Virginia) where he earned an undergraduate and law degree by the age of 20. Levi returned to the Lone Star State where he practiced law in Galveston and became a leader of the civil and Jewish communities. Eventually he would become President of the National Order of B’nai Brith. He passed away in 1904,
1857: James Finn of the British Council in Jerusalem
1857: Birthdate of William Howard Taft. Taft is the only man to serve as President and then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Taft served one term of President sandwiched between Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Taft was the first President to attend a Seder. In 1912, when he visited Providence , RI Russia Russia Eastern Europe out of the United States Russia
1862: During the Civil War, Company D of Cameroon’s Dragoons, a Union Cavalry regiment founded and commanded by Max Friedman took part in an expedition the left for Indiantown, NC, today while Companies F and H moved toward Drummond Lake,.
1863(2nd of Tishrei, 5624): As Jews observe the Second Day of Rosh Hashanah “President Lincoln used the authority granted him under the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act to suspend habeas corpus throughout the Union in any case involving prisoners of war, spies, traitors, or any member of the military.
1869(10thof Tishrei, 5630): Jews observe Yom Kippur for the first time under the Presidency of U.S. Grant.
1870: In Baltimore, Arianna née Handy and Otto Sutro gave birth to Rose Sutro, the niece of the first Jewish mayor of San Francisco, who with her younger sister Ottilie would form on of the first, if not the first, duo-piano teams.
1870: Birthdate of Rachel Hirsch, the daughter Mendel Hirsch, the director of the girls’ school serving the Jewish religious community in Frankfurt am Main. In a move that was unusual for her time, she became a doctor in German and a professor at Charité.
1870: Future Dreyfusard Clément Moras became the imperial prosecutor in Saint-Girons
1872: It was reported today that presidential candidate Horace Greely had “indecently insulted the Hebrews” while speaking in Chappaqua, NY. [Greely was running against U.S. Grant who would garner the majority of Jewish votes]
1876: Birthdate of German born American composer and conductor Bruno Walter
1877: Birthdate of Jakob Ehrlich the Austrian lawyer and early Zionist leader whose service in the Austrian Army during WW I did not save him from being beaten to death at Dachau.
1878(3rd of Tishrei, 5548): Shabbat Shuvah (the fast is put off out respect for the Sabbath)
1878: “Lessing’s Dramas” published today reviews the three finest plays by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing which include “Nathan the Wise” which was written in 1779. In Nathan the Wise, Lessing succeeds in his “aim is to present a perfect ideal embodiment of the spirit of toleration” which this “a powerful drama.” “The Germans love this drama” which features “this wise and noble hearted Jew” “and place it beside Faust as one of their two finest classics.”
1879: It was reported today that the population of Romania is 4,582,602 of which 270,000 are Jewish.
1879: It was reported today that the Foreign Minister of Romania is continuing to offer arguments for not allowing Jews to become citizens of his country as was agreed to during the meeting of the European Powers in Berlin. He contends that they can be subjects without being citizen of the country. He describes the Jews “by their customs, their traditions and their aspirations” as forming a “foreign colony, a species of German colony” in Romania. (This charge comes at the same time that the growing anti-Semitic movement in Germany is attacking Jews as being aliens)
1880(10thof Tishrei, 5641): Yom Kippur
1880: “The Church Question” published today described the condition of religion in the United States which “is not a Christian nation.” This is “a Christian land inasmuch as that form of religion prevails among our people…but the government has only government political relations with its subjects and makes no discrimination between Christians, Jews, Mohammedans, believers of any kind and absolute unbelievers.
1881: It was reported today that leaders of several Jewish communities in the eastern provinces of Germany have appealed to their co-religionist in Berlin “to exert their influence” with the authorities to provide them protections during riots which they fear will come during the upcoming holiday season which begins on September 23, Erev Rosh Hashanah
1881: Reports published today described the passage of 400 Russian Jews who have gone through Lemberg on their way to the United States.
1882(2nd of Tishrei, 5643): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1885: it was reported today that 4 year old John Franze and Abraham Schmidt caught smallpox from a fellow student with whom they attend Hebrew School at 127 Pitt Street in New York.
1888(10thof Tishrei, 5649): Yom Kippur
1889: Judge Henry M. Goldfogle and Mr. Warley M. Patzek addressed the attendees at the ceremonies celebrating the dedication of the Temple to be used by Congregation of Mount Sinai which is located on 72nd Street in Manhattan.
1889: Members of Shaar Hashomyim (Gates of Heaven) gathered today to celebrate the dedication of their new sanctuary on East 15th Street near Third Avenue. The congregation was founded in 1839 and was moving from current facility on Rivington Street. Built in 1865 with seating for 1,000, the congregation was forced to move again because it had outgrown this facility.
1890(1stof Tishrei, 5651): Rosh Hashanah
1890(1stof Tishrei, 5651): A fight broke out in a synagogue at Trenton, NJ, when Max Rodden, the congregation’s former rabbi and some of his followers tried “to take part in the prayers after they had been warned to keep away.
1890: “A September New Year’s Day” published today described the presentation of “a set of silver and gold ornaments” for the Torah by J.H. Schiff and Mrs. Theresa Schiff to Lewis May who accepted them on behalf of Temple Emanu-El
1890: It was reported today that as Rachel Greenberg and two of her children left the Barge House to begin their new lives in the United States she gave the fruit and candy which her two other sons had brought as welcoming gift to a group of Polish Jewish children who were still begin detained.
1891: The London Opera Company composed of six Polish Jewish men and 2 Polish Jewish women were stranded in Providence, R.I., tonight because the managers had fled and taken all of the money with them.
1892: The SS Nevada arrived in New York from Liverpool via Queenstown carrying 900 steerage passengers none of whom are Russian Jews which lessens the authorities that they will have deal with cholera.
1893: Seventeen year old Rebecca Feinberg who had been shot in the face by her frustrated boyfriend yesterday was a patient at Gouverneur Hospital where doctors say “she will be disfigured for life.
1893: Bernhard Weinberger, the banker who had offices in Essex, Grand and Huston Streets and who had suffered severe business losses checked into the Mount Vernon Hotel where he registered as “Fred Klein” in what may have been an attempt to avoid angry creditors.
1894: Birthdate of Oskar Klein. The famed Swedish physicist was the son of the chief rabbi of Stockholm
1894: “The Jew Tenderly Handled” published today provides a review of Lesser’s Daughter by Mrs. Andrew Dean, the penname of Cecily Wilhelmine Sidgwick who also wrote Scenes of Jewish Life
1894: Among those listed today to receive bequests from the late Dr. Bernard Grunhut are Mt. Sinai Hospital and the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum of New York.
1895: Theatrical agent Marcus Mayer returned to the United States from Paris today with production material that will be produced “under the exclusive management of Charles Frohman and Al Hayman.
1895: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El officiated at the funeral for 50 year old Bernhard Mainzer,at his home on East 65th Street followed by burial in the Cypress Hill Cemetery. Pall bearers included his partner Henry Budge, Ewald Blathasar, Morris Barr and Hans Sommerhof.
1895: In Dresden, art historian Cornelius Gurlitt and his wife gave birth to Hildebrand Gurlitt, who was able to overcome the fact that his grandmother was Jewish to become one of those who helped the Nazis in the looting of art during WW II and continue to hide that stolen art until his death.
1896: It was reported today that the German ant-Semite, Dr. Hermann Ahlwardt who has been in the United States since last December has founded The Gentile News, a paper that he uses to express his support for William Jennings Bryan as President while devoting the rest of the space “to violent attack upon the” Jews.
1896: Colonel George Picquart met with General Charles-Arthur Gonse, deputy chief of the French general staff. Picquart presented the general with evidence proving that Dreyfus was innocent. The general did not dispute the proof but told Picquart that it really did not matter. The case was closed.
1896: Relying on information that first appeared in The Chicago Israelite, it was noted today that “Max Nordau and Theodor Herzl, the leaders of the ‘Zionist Movement’ are avowed Agnostics” who totally indifferent to Judaism yet “they appeal for and followers only among the more than extremely orthodox members of their race.”
1896: When David Meyer, an unemployed locksmith applied for a job at butcher shop owned by John Dangels he was assaulted by the owner who said “You can’t work here for I hate sheenys.”
1898: Fifty-three year old William Ulick O'Connor Cuffe, 4th Earl of Desart, the son-in-law of Jewish banker Henri Louis Bischoffsheim and the husband of Ellen Odette Cuffe “the most important Jewish woman in Irish history” passed awa today.
1899: “The Ghetto” by Dutch dramatist Henrik Hyermann and with an English adaption by American author Chester Bailey Fernald is scheduled to open up tonight at the Broadway Theatre in New York under the direction of Jacob Litt.
1899: “Yom Kippur Fast Ended” published today described “the merrymaking” that took place on the lower east side “after the holiday ended” which found “the restaurants and dance hall…filled to overflowing.”
1899: In a letter published today, Michael Davitt, the Irish Nationalist MP said “English sympathy for” Dreyfus “is entirely due to the fact that he is a rich Jew instead of a poor one and to the desire to injure a rival nation.”
1901(2nd of Tishrei, 5662): Jews the Second Day of Rosh Hashanah as Americans respond to the death of President McKinley and his replacement by Theodore Roosevelt.
1902: The reorganized Jewish Theological Seminary of America which had been endowed by $500,000 and had been given a building by Jacob H. Schiff opened today “at 736 Lexington Avenue.”
1911: In New York City, Supreme Court Justice Goff refuses the incorporation of congregation “Agudath Achim Kahal Adath Jeshurun on the grounds that the title should be in English.
1911: The police at Munich expel a large number of Jewish families who had migrated from Russia and Galicia on charges of peddling without a license.
1913(13thof Elul, 5673): Eighty-one year old world traveler and author Ármin Vámbéry passed away today.
1913: The trial of Melvin Bellis began. Called the “Russian Dreyfus Affair”, the trial is covered by hundreds of journalist from Russia Europe and the United States
1914(24thof Elul, 5674): Wulf Hoffman passed away.
1914(24thof Elul, 5674): Bene Kirschner passed away.
1915: Colonel John Henry, the non-Jewish commander of the British Legion, a unit in his majesty’s service described the Zion Mule Corps in the following words to the Jewish Chronicle:
These brave lads who had never seen shellfire before most competently unloaded the boats and handled the mules whilst shells were bursting in close proximity to them … nor were they in any way discouraged when they had to plod their way to Seddul Bahr, walking over dead bodies while the bullets flew around them … for two days and two nights we marched … thanks to the ZMC the 29th Division did not meet with a sad fate, for the ZMC were the only Army Service Corps in that part of Gallipolli at that time.’
1917: Felix Warburg, the Chairman of the Joint Distribution committee of the Funds for Jewish War Sufferers issued a statement today directed the Jewish population of the United States. So far the committee has disbursed over $8,000,000 to alleviate the suffering their co-religionist trapped in war-torn Europe. He reassured that representatives of the committee were directly, or indirectly, in contact with and providing aid to, Jewish communities in Russia, Palestine, Rumanian and various states in the Balkans. He commended the American Jewish community for raising money for war relief while still meeting the demands of their local charities. At the end of the statement he extended them “my most cordial good wishes for the New Year.”
1917: Birthdate of David Flusser, a professor of Early Christianity and Judaism of the Second Temple Period at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who passed away in 2000.
1918(9th of Tishrei, 5679): Erev Yom Kippur
1918: As Jews prepared to go to the synagogue for Kol Nidre, General John Pershing commander of the American Expeditionary Force fighting in Europe sent the following cablegram to Colonel Harry Cutler of Providence, Rhodes Island, Chairman of the Jewish Welfare Board, “The stirring message of greetings from the Jewish Welfare Board is much appreciated…The constant support and cordial assistance of our brothers of the Jewish faith and the thought that all creeds are united one banner gives courage to our army and urges us on to victory.” Colonel Cutler replied by saying, “This message coming on the eve of the most sacred day of the Jewish calendar, the Day of Atonement will bring cheer to the hearts of millions of American citizens of the Jewish faith.”
1919: Birthdate of Heda Bloch, the native of Prague who gained fame as “Heda Margolius Kovaly, a Czech writer and translator whose memoir, “Under a Cruel Star,” described her imprisonment by the Nazis during World War II and her persecution by the Communists in the 1950s.”
1924: Birthdate of Mordechai Hankovich-Hendin who as Mordechai Tzipori served in the Knesset and as Minister of Communication. Tzipori was born at Petak Tikva, served with the Irgun before pursuing a career with the IDF.
1928(1stof Tishrei, 5698): As Al Smith, the first Roman Catholic to run for President campaigns against Herbert Hoover, Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah.
1929: Birthdate of famed physicist Murray Gell-Mann.Murray Gell-Mann was born in New York City Chicago University Princeton University
1929: Pitcher Ed Wineapple made his major league debut with the Washington Senators.
1933 (24 Elul 5693): Israel Meir Hacohen, the Hafetz Hayim passed away. Born in 1838, he was prominent Talmudic leader and author who among other accomplishments wrote commentaries on the Sifraand Musser. Earning his living as a teacher and later founding a yeshiva, he consistently refused a rabbinical position. This was partly based on his belief that "he who hates gifts shall live." Rabbi Yisroel Meir HaKohen was one of the greatest figures in modern Jewish history. He was recognized as both an outstanding scholar and an extraordinarily righteous man. His impact on Judaism was phenomenal. It is interesting to note that, despite his great stature; he refused to accept any rabbinical position and supported himself from a small grocery run by his saintly wife in the town of Radin
1933: Anne Frank’s father flees Germany and moves to Amsterdam where he opens a firm that sells spices and pectin for jam.
1935: The anti-Semitic Nuremberg Germany Germany Germany
1936:Accompanied by officials and prominent members of the Federation of Polish Jews in America, the Maccabees of Tel Aviv, soccer champions of Palestine received an official welcome to New York from Mayor La Guardia at the City Hall.
1937(10thof Tishrei, 5698): Yom Kippur
1937: The Palestine Post reported that British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden addressed the League of Nations Council, meeting in Geneva. Eden Palestine Britain Palestine
1937: Abdel Barkawi, one of the leaders of the opposition to the Husseini family, was killed by an Arab terrorist in Jenin.
1938: In an article entitled “Arab Nations Lose Zeal on Palestine,” Joseph M. Levy reports that based on reliable information provided by sources in Syria, which is the “headquarters of the Palestinian Arab rebellion,” German and Italian money is subsidizing Arab terrorism in Palestine.
1938: British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flies to Germany “where he meets with Hitler” at Berchtesgaden to discuss the crisis that the Nazi leader has manufactured over the Sudeten Land, a portion of Czechoslovakia populated by ethnic Germans.
1939: Charles Lindbergh delivers a speech where he calls for American neutrality that contains veiled implications that the Jews are behind any war effort when he asks “who owns and who influences newspaper, the news picture and the radio station.”
1940:Two massive waves of German attacks were decisively repulsed by the RAF. The German defeat caused Hitler to order, two days later, the postponement of preparations for the invasion of Britain. Although the Blitz would last until October, the decision to call of the invasion meant, among other things, that the Jews of the British Isles would not fall victim to the Shoah. Henceforth, in the face of mounting losses in men, aircraft and the lack of adequate replacements, the Luftwaffe switched from daylight to night-time bombing. There was a significant number of Jews (for the size of their population) serving with the RAF during the Battle of Britain. Among the Jews who flew for the RAF was Lt Michael Oser Weizmann, the son of Chaim Weizmann who was killed when his plane was shot down over the Bay of Biscay in 1942. The body was never recovered.
1941(23rd of Elul, 5701): The Nazis killed 800 Jewish women at Shkudvil, Lithuania
1941(23rd of Elul, 5701): Eighteen thousand Jews are murdered at Berdichev, Ukraine.
1942: The Nazis begin deporting the Jewish community of Kalush, Ukraine, to the Belzec death camp. It will take 48 hours to complete this vile task.
1942: Mala Zimetbaum, the first woman and the first Jewish woman to escape from Auschwitz-Birkenau was shipped to from Belgium to Auschwitz today aboard Transport 10.
1942(4th of Tishrei, 5703): The Nazis began the week long process of murdering the Jewish community from Kamenka, Ukraine, at the Belzec death camp.
1942: One thousand Jews were deported from Lille, France to Auschwitz. Among the deportees were Mozes Hirschsprung, his wife Helene and their two little children. Mozes had been born at Auschwitz in 1901 and Helene had been born there in 1909. At that time, it was border town in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Between the world wars, the family had moved to Amsterdam. They moved to Lille after the start of the war because it would be safer there. In the end, they would be murdered two miles from the place of their birth. Forty-eight year old Fanny Yerkowski was also among the deportees. A native of London, she had married a French man before WW II and had settled in Lille. Twenty-one year old Bernice Winer was also a deportee. She was a citizen of neutral Switzerland. To the Nazis, a Jew was a Jew was a Jew regardless of his or her nationality. [Source – Holocaust Journey by Martin Gilbert]
1943: By the middle of September members of the corpse-burning detail at the Sobibór death camp, had built an escape tunnel intended to lead them into the camp minefield. Most of the 150 members of the detail are killed.
1943: Commandant Kappler, the SS attaché at the German embassy in Rome
1944(27thof Elul, 5704):Mala Zimetbaum, the first woman and the first Jewish woman to escape from Auschwitz-Birkenau was sadistically murdered today.
1944: One thousand, five hundred young boys were taken to the Children's Block at Birkenau. Three days later, on Rosh Hashanah Eve, they would be sent to the gas chambers.
1944: U.S. premiere of “Bride by Mistake,” a romantic comedy based on a story by Norman Krasna with a script by Phoebe and Henry Ephron.
1947(1stof Tishrei, 5708): David Levin celebrates his first Rosh Hashanah
1948: Catcher Joe Ginsberg made his major league debut with the Detroit Tigers.
1950: Today, Jordan’s King Abdullah said that if Israel did not remove its forces from the disputed land near the confluence of the Yarmuk and Jordan Rivers within four days, his government would take military action to dislodge the Israelis.
1951: On the eve of Hadassah’s 37th annual convention, delegates received congratulatory telegrams expressing support for the organizations and its goals from Monnett B. David, United States Ambassador to Israel and President Chaim Weizmann.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the government decided to form a Reparations from Germany Purchasing Mission, attached to the Ministry of Finance. The mission undertook that it would purchase and use the received goods exclusively for the development in four fields: agriculture, industry, transportation and power.
1953(6th of Tishrei, 5714):Erich Mendelsohn a German Jewish architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for department stores and cinemas passed away.
1955:Betty Robbins, the world's first female cantor, led Rosh Hashanah evening services at Temple Avodah Oceanside , New York Germany
1956(10thof Tishrei, 5717): As Ike and Adlai faced off in the Presidential election, Jews observed Yom Kippur and Shabbat.
1958(1stof Tishrei, 5719): For the tenth year in a row, the citizens of an independent Jewish state celebrate Rosh Hashanah
1966(1stof Tishrei, 5727): Rosh Hashanah
1968: "Barbra Streisand: A Happening in Central Park " Show appeared on CBS TV.
1971: A new paperback version of Tillie Olsen's classic short story collection Tell Me a Riddle was issued
1975(10thof Tishrei, 5736): Yom Kippur
1976: The Auditorium Building which was designed by Dankmar Adler was designated as a Chicago Landmark today.
1977(3rd of Tishrei, 5738):Tzom Gedaliah
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that Moshe Dayan, the new foreign minister, left for Washington Israel West Bank .
1978: Meir Amit who had been appointed Minister of Transportation and Minister of Communications in Menachem Begin's government, resigned both posts today after the Democratic Movement for Change broke up. Before entering politics Amit had held the top post in military intelligence before serving as Director of Mossad.
1982: An Associated Press report published today stated, "Defence Minister Ariel Sharon, in a statement, tied the killing [of the Phalangist leader Bachir Gemayel] to the PLO, saying 'it symbolizes the terrorist murderousness of the PLO terrorist organizations and their supporters'."
1982: A memorial service is scheduled to be held today at the Riverside Memorial Chapel, to honor the memory of Louis Waldman, a former Socialist State Assemblyman who became one of the city's foremost labor lawyers,
1982: Israeli forces began pouring into west Beirut Lebanon
1983: Israeli premier Menachem Begin resigns.
1985 (29th of Elul, 5745): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1985: A DC-8 cargo plane returning from Iran Malaga , Spain Miami US Iran Israel Israel Iran Malaga
1989: U.S premiere of “Sea of Love” produced by Martin Bregman and co-starring Ellen Barkin.
1991: Birthdate of Israeli singer Roni Daloomi
1991: “Jewish History in Provence” published today provides a history of the Cavaillon synagogue which was still standing in the last decade of the 20th century.
1993(29th of Elul, 5753): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1933: Two days after the Oslo Agreements were signed at the White House, at the 1,000-person Reconstructionist University Synagogue in Los Angeles, an American, an Israeli and an Arab were scheduled to read the speeches President Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat had given at Monday's signing ceremony. Rabbi Arnold Rachlis planned to retell the biblical stories of Abraham's banishment of his son Ishmael--said to be the father of the Arab nation--and Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac--the ancestor of the Jews--to show contemporary connections.
1994(10th of Tishrei, 5755): Yom Kippur
2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest includingWhat Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves and Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay byDaniel Mark Epstein, Middle Age A Romance by Joyce Carol Oates, An Old Wife’s Tale: My Seven Decades in Love and War by Midge Decter and Venus In Exile:The Rejection of Beauty in Twentieth-Century Art by Wendy Steiner.
2002:The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including The Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Tellerby Gregg Herken, Why Terrorism works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge by Alan M. Dershowitz and Sharon: Israel's Warrior-Politician by Anita Miller, Jordan Miller and Sigalit Zetouni.
2004:Gary Bettman, the Jewish commissioner of the National Hockey League, announced that the owners again locked the players out prior to the start of the 2004–05 season.
2004:The Seventh Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, under the musical direction of pianist Elena Bashkirova comes to an end.
2004: In the evening, Jews around the world begin the observance of Rosh Hashanah. This marks the start of the year 5765.
2005:Israel Vatican document on relations with Jews, and urge him to support the fight against anti-Semitism and terrorism.The meeting follows the historic visit by Benedict to the central synagogue in Cologne, Germany last month, the second time a pope had entered a Jewish house of worship. It also follows a diplomatic altercation between the Vatican and Israel that erupted over the pope's omission of Israel in a list of countries hit by terrorism. Prior to the meeting Israeli said the dispute had been resolved.
2005(11th of Elul, 5765):Hundreds of mourners gathered at Jerusalem's Har Hamenuhot cemetery to bury Cyril Harris, the former chief rabbi of South Africa whose body was flown from Cape Town after he died of cancer Tuesday. Harris, credited by many with aiding the transition process in South Africa
2005: The Bergen County Democratic Organization caucused today, to select a candidate to fill the seat for District. In balloting to fill the position on an interim basis, Loretta Weinberg lost by a 114-110 margin to Charles Zisa. In a separate vote, by a 112-111 margin, Zisa was selected over Weinberg to be the party's candidate on the November ballot. (Weinberg was Jewish; Zisa was not).
2006: The Jerusalem Post reported that China Israel Taiwan
2007(3rd of Tishrei, 5768): Shabbat Shuva – Sabbath of Return
2007: The winners of the 2007 Lasker Awards, widely considered to be one of the most prestigious medical prizes, were announced to the public. The awards are funded by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. Born in 1880, Lasker, a Jew who made his home in Chicago
2008: Esther Jungreis, the Hungarian born founder of the international Hineni movement in the United States is photograph with the U.S. Ambassador of Hungary.
2008: On the second night of The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival Adam Langer reads from his novel Ellington Boulevard
2008: As part of the Annual Primo Levi Conference, Centro Primo Levi presents: Primo Levi: Historian and Public Figure. The event features the premiere screening of a documentary on Primo Levi from the archives of the Italian Broadcasting Company followed by a discussion of Primo Levi's public profile vis-à-vis history and politics. For a full program see
2008: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This marked the demise of a firm that traced its origins to three Jewish brothers from Bavaria – Henry, Emanuel and Mayer – who first settled in Montgomery, Alabama in the 1850’s before moving their operations to New York. The firm ceased to be a family company in the 1920’s.
2009:In Jerusalem,Beit Avi Chai presents "Singing Psalms" with the "Al Palgei Mayim" ensemble, which put Psalms to new tunes. For more than two thousand years, melodies have been hidden among the written words of the Psalms. The "Al Palgei Mayim" ensemble draws its lyrics from these ancient poems that so many of us know and find inspirational. This is a unique project based on new melodies for the Psalms from a contemporary perspective.
2009(26th of Elul, 5769): Eighty-seven year old Dr. Leon Eisenberg who was a pioneer in the field of autism, attention deficit disorder and other learning disabilities passed away today. (As reported by Benedict Cary)
2009: Rabbi David Kalb leads a program entitled Controversy and Conversion at the 92nd Street Y in which he acknowledges that “conversion is one of the most controversial issues in the Jewish community today and then delves into the different movements of Judaism as he explores each movement's separate approach to conversion and how these differences can create conflict.”
2010: Israeli born pianist Shai Wosner is scheduled to perform tonight with the New York Philharmonic.
2010:U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem.
2010:Two mortar shells and two rockets were fired into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip in the early this morning in what would appear to be Hamas's attempts to fulfill threats made by the group promising a wave of violence meant to derail Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
2010:Israeli and Palestinian leaders are "getting down to business" and tackling the main issues of the Middle East conflict, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today in Jerusalem. "They have begun to grapple with the core issues that can only be resolved through face to face negotiations," she said before another round of negotiations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
2010: Janet Maslin reviews Earth (The Book): A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race written and edited by Jewish faux newsman Jon Stewart, David Javerbaum, Rory Albanese, Steve Bodow and Josh Lieb
2011: Elisheva Carlebach, Salo W. Baron Professor of Jewish History at Columbia University, is scheduled to give an illustrated talk in honor of the coming New Year on Jewish conceptions of time and how these are interwoven with the Jewish sense of history and represented in Jewish imagery entitled. The Center for Jewish History is sponsoring “Genesis: Imagining the Beginning of Time.”
2011:Israeli pianist Matan Porat and Alis Weilerstein are scheduled to perform Beethoven’s Cello Sonata no. 5 in D major, op. 102 at the 14th Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival.
2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Grief of Other by Leah Hager Cohen and The Little Bride by Anna Solomon.
2011:British Ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould announced today that the Queen of England has signed an amendment to a bill that will prevent the issuing of arrest warrants against Israeli officials.
2011:Thousands of Turkish protesters gathered outside the soccer stadium in Istanbul where Maccabi Tel Aviv was playing against Turkish team Beşiktaş, waving Hezbollah flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans.
2011:Dozens of Muslim Brotherhood activists held a demonstration in front of the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan, demanding the cancellation of peace accords between the two countries and calling for the deportation of the Israeli ambassador.
2011(16th of Elul, 5772): Ninety-two year Francis Bay, the Canadian born Jewish character actress passed away.
2011(16th of Elul, 5772): Ninety-year old Suzy Eban, the widow of Abba Eban, who charmed Americans into loving Israel while he served as Ambassador to the United States, passed away today.
2012: The Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival is scheduled to come to an end.
2012: As the attacks by murderous Muslim mobs spreads from North Africa, to India, Indonesdia and Australia, the video that has supposedly enranged so many turns out to have been made by a expatriate Coptic Egyptian and not some mysterious Jew as originally reported.
2012: On the last Shabbat of 5722 and the second to the last day of that year, The Crescent City News published a summary of the events of the year “The year that was 5772.”
2012:The Palestinian Authority today accused Hamas of exploiting peaceful protests against the high cost of living to spread chaos and anarchy in the West Bank.
2013: The exhibition, "Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait," is scheduled to come to an at the Jewish Museum in London
2013: JCRS (Jewish Children Regional Services) volunteers are scheduled to wrap thousands of small gifts that comprise 2013's JCRS Hanukkah Gift Program at the Goldring/Woldenberg Metairie Campus.
2013:The Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal reported today that “20 trucks laden with equipment used in the manufacture of chemical weapons were driven across the border from Syria into Iraq” for the last two days.
2013:Lawrence H. Summers, one of President Obama’s closest economic confidants and a former Treasury secretary, withdrew his name from consideration for the position of chairman of the Federal Reserve opening up the way for possible confirmation of another Jewish candidate – Janet Yellen.
2014: “As part of the European Days of Jewish Culture and Heritage, the Wiener Library is scheduled to host “a special tour exploring the experience of women with the archives.”
2014: Dr. Harvey E. Goldberg, Professor Emeritus, The Sarah Allen Shaine Chair in Sociology and Anthropology at Hebrew University of Jerusalem is scheduled to deliver a lecture on "Ritual Mutuality in North Africa: Jews and Muslims listen to the Ten Commandments in the Synagogue” at the University of Connecticut.
2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a screening of “The Fighting 69,” the first in a series of films to be shown about Jews and World War I.
2014(20 Elul): Yahrzeit of Dr. Jacob Levin, of blessed memory, beloved husband of Betty, loving father of Michael (Gigi Cohen) Levin, Stephen (Dian Garton) Levin, Sharon (Philip) Wein and Lawrence (Sandra Morrison) Levin and proud Zaide to a whole tribe of grandchildren. To his brother Joe, he was the incomparable “Yaenkel” and to me his was my wonderful Uncle Jack – living proof that good guys finish first.