September 22
2001 (5th of Tishrei, 5762): Violinist Isaac Stern passed away. Born in 1920, Stern is part of a long list of Jewish violin greats.
2005:During a meeting in Jerusalem, Rabbi Bretton-Granatoor, along with other Jewish leaders, questioned Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek, Director of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, about his position on Israel's legitimate right to exist, citing quotations from his book, Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation (1989), in which he wrote, "It has taken me years to accept the establishment of the state of Israel and its need – although not its right – to exist. ""We read to him several quotations from his sermons and writings that we believed denied the legitimate right of the Jewish people to live in their land, and echoed medieval anti-Semitic canards," Rabbi Bretton-Granatoor said. "He affirmed that he continues to support the suggestion
384: Roman Emperors Gratian, Valentinian II, and Theodosius I forbid Jews from buying or owning Christian slaves. If any such slaves are found with Jews, they must be removed and sold to other Christians. If a Jewish master converts a Christian to Judaism, they will be severely punished.
1499: Switzerland gained de factor independence from the Holy Roman Empire. Jews began settling in Switzerland Basel Europe . However, during the last half of the 14th century and on 15thcentury, successive bans drove Jews from the homes in various cities and cantons. The bans were primarily caused charges of well poisoning tied the spread of the Black Death. By the time Switzerland
1521: Selim I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire passed away. Selim did away with the Law of No Return, the Roman ban on Jews living in Eretz Israel
1526: Sultan Sueliman decreed that all the Jews seized at Buda and elsewhere, more than 2,000 in number, should be distributed among the cities of the Turkish Empire.
1558: In Recanti, Italy, under the protection of Pope Paul IV, Joseph (Paul) Moro, a baptized Jew, entered a synagogue on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). Holding a crucifix, he tried to preach a conversion sermon. The congregation evicted him and a near massacre occurred. Eventually the entire Jewish population was expelled.
1730: In Cento, Italy, Isaac Israeli and his wife gave birth to Benjamin D’Israeli, the grandfather of Benjamin Disreali, the British author and political leader also known as the Earl of Beeconsfield.
1759(1stof Tishrei, 5520): Nine days after the British defeated the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, Jews could openly observe Rosh Hashanah in Canada. The French banned Jews from living in Canada. The British took the opposite view.
1761: Coronation of King George III who had his first conversation with a Jew when he spoke with prizefighter Daniel Mendoza
1774: Pope Clement XIV passed away. In 1759, while still known as Cardinal Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio Ganganelli, he had issued a reported condemning blood libel accusation.“In 1758, Pope Benedict XIV ordered an investigation into the matter and charged Lorenzo Ganganelli, councilor of the Holy Office of the Inquisition—and later Pope Clement XIV—to prepare a report on the commission’s work. Ganganelli’s report, presented to the congregation of the Inquisition in March 1758, reviewed the major accusations of Jewish ritual murder since the thirteenth century and concluded that the blood libel was indeed a calumny, of which Jews and Judaism were innocent.”
1776(9thof Tishrei, 5537): Erev Yom Kippur – one has to wonder what was going through the mind of American Jews as they heard the words of Kol Nidre and its references to vows following the decision to break the vows of loyalty to the King of England as stated in the recently adopted Declaration of Independence.
1776: George Washington wrote to John Hancock denying any knowledge as to the cause of the great fire that burned over 25% of New York City – thus putting the lie to British claims that the Americans had started the blaze to thwart their occupation of the city.
1778(1stof Tishrei, 5539): As the British tried to figure out what to do having lost the “first Battle of Saratoga’ Jews observed Rosh Hashanah
1789(2ndof Tishrei, 5550): During the first year of the presidency of George Washington, Jews in the United States observe the second day of Rosh Hashanah.
1806(10thof Tishrei, 5567): A day before Lewis and Clark arrive in St. Louis, thus competing their successful exploration that took them to the Pacific Ocean, Jews observed Yom Kippur
1807(1stof Tishrei, 5569): Rosh Hashanah
1812: In Glasgow, Scotland, a “hatter” (maker of hats) named Isaac Cohen was admitted as a burgess of the city.
1817: Birthdate of Austrian dermatologist Hermann Edler von Zeissl.
1825(10thof Tishrei, 5586): Jews observe Yom Kippur in the first year of the Presidency of John Q. Adams, the only American President chosen by the House of Representatives.
1831(15thof Tishrei, 5592): Sukkoth
1842: Birthdate of Abdulhamid II who issued a firman in 1889 stating “That there shall be no interference with the Jews' places of devotional visits and of pilgrimage, that are situated in the localities which are dependent on the Chief Rabbinate, nor with the practice of their ritual
1850: In Detroit , Michigan
1851: The city of Des Moines, Iowa is incorporated as Fort Des Moines.William Krause was one those instrumental in the incorporation effort. He and has his wife had arrived in the area in 1846 when it was known as Raccoon Forks, making them the first Jewish settlers. The Krause family which had opened the towns first store in 1848 was joined by Joseph and Isaac Kuhn in 1849. Krause was active in civic affairs and played a key role in having the state capital moved to Des Moines. By 1870, there were enough Jews in Des Moines to form a congregation called B’nai Jeshurn which built a synagogue in 1878.
1852: The New York Times reported that "The Kohinoor must be a rouser, to allow a company of Hebrew artists to cut away for months upon its sides, and yet be left the largest diamond out of the mines.” The Kohinoor is one of the largest diamonds in the world.
1855 (10th of Tishrei, 5616): Eleven days after the fall of Sevastopol during the Crimean War, Jews on both sides of the conflict observe Yom Kippur
1855: Adam Mickiewicz arrived in Constantinople. He had journeyed to the capital of the Ottoman Empire from Paris so that he could organize a Jewish legion called the Hussars of Israel made up Jews from Russia and Palestine. The legion was to part of the forces fighting against the Czar during the Crimean War.
1855: The New York Times reported on the celebration by “the Israelites of the ceremonies marking the start of their New Year including a list of all the synagogues in the city that are holding services on what is described as ‘a fast day…a day of atonement.’”
1857:Daniele Manin an Italian patriot and statesman from Venice who was a hero of Italian unification (Risorgimento) passed away. He was born Daniele Fonseca, the son of a Jew in Ramo Astori, Venice. His name was changed to Manin when he was converted to Catholicism as a child.
1863(9th of Tishrei, 5624): Erev Yom Kippur
1863: Lt. Colonel Samuel Tolles and nine men from the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry captured a Jew names Falk Odenheimer near the Pasquotank River in North Carolina. Odenheimer claimed he was a refugee from Goldsboro, NC. He was carrying $12,000 in gold and “Southern State money” as well as a number of watches when he was captured. He had spent the night in the woods looking for a place where he could cross into the Union lines without being detected. Apparently Tolles did not know what to make of the story since he sent Odenheimer back to headquarters under armed guard.
1867: In Lancaster, PA Congregation Shaarai Shomayim dedicated its new synagogue building.
1873(1stof Tishrei, 5634): Rosh Hashanah
1873: In New York City the commercial centers and Wall Street are seemingly depopulated because the city’s Jewish population are crowding their synagogues “to their utmost capacity” for services “that are of the most impressive and solemn nature.”
1875: In Jersey, Esther Simon was married today at the home of her uncle.
1876: “Pauline,” an opera in four acts with music by the Anglo- Jewish composer Frederic H. Cowen opened at the Lyceum Theatre in London.
1877(15th of Tishrei, 5638): In the first year of the Presidency of Ruther B. Hayes, Jews observe Sukkoth
1878(10thof Tishrei, 5548): Yom Kippur
1878: It was reported today that Union of American Hebrew Congregations (Reform) are moving ahead with the plans adopted last year to reorganize. According to information supplied by the Jewish Messenger, a newly created Board of Delegates on Civil and Religious Rights will replace the old Board of Delegates of American Israelites.
1879: It was reported today that the police in New York do not believe the story of Meyer Friedman, a Polish Jewish shoemaker, and his wife that there home was broken into by thieves who made off with $90 and a gold watch. The police base their disbelief on the fact that the glass where the break-in was supposed to have occurred was lying on the ground outside the dwelling and not inside on the flooring indicating that it was broken by somebody on the inside. Nobody doubts the Friedman’s no longer have the money and nobody has commented on the fact that the alleged burglary took place on Rosh Hashanah
1882(9thof Tishrei, 5643): Erev Yom Kippur
1882: In one of the ironies of history, Wilhelm Keitel, a German Field Marshall and senior Nazi military leader who would be hung as war criminal at Nuremberg was born as Jews prepared to hear the haunting tones of Kol Nidre.
1884: “The Connecticut Campaign” published today described the reaction of Dr. Lewis Kleeberg, the rabbi at Mishkahn Israel to the publication of anti-Semitic language used by the current Republican candidate for governor in a jury summation back in 1857. Kleeberg said that words spoken in haste and hurry of a court room should not be taken as the speaker’s personal opinions. Furthermore he dislikes “this mingling of religion and politics. The effort to use the Jews of Connecticut as a sort of a club to wreak political revenge can do no harm to the man it is aimed at.
1884: New York stock broker Henry C. Friedman eloped tonight with Sarah Scheuer, the daughter of million merchant Solomon Scheuer.
1885: Birthdate of Erich von Stroheim, actor, writer, director.
1889: It was reported today that in their annual report, the managers of House of Refuge on Randall’s Island do not disclose figures on the religious affiliation of any of its inmates except for those who are Jewish.
1889: It was reported today that the new Prince of Monaco has been “betrothed to the Dowager Duchess of Richelieu, a beautiful 31 year old widow who is the daughter of Michel Heine, an orthodox Jew who is a nephew of Heinrich Heine.
1889: It was reported today that Amy Levy, the 23 year old Anglo-Jewish author who was thought to be a future “Emma Lazarus” was cremated today, per her own request. The ashes were then placed in a small oak chest after which they were buried in a Jewish cemetery.
1889: It was reported today that “a few men are taking the offered course in elementary Hebrew” being offered at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Future U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s course in American history was the most popular elective being offered during this same fall semester.
1889: Rabbi Aaron Cohen delivered the sermon at today’s dedication of the new synagogue built by Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagodol in New York. Coroner Ferdinand Levy delivered an address after the endstone was laid at the building which had cost $44,000.
1889: Rabbi Moses Guedalia led the services this afternoon that marked the consecration of the Congres of Moses Montefiore’s new synagogue on in New York City. He was assisted by several visiting clergymen including Rabbis A.H. Nieto and H. Pereira Mendes.
1890: “Literary Notes” published today described “a Hebrew translation of Longfellow’s ‘Psalm of Life’” by Rabbi Isidore Meyers of Melbourne, Australia that has just been printed in Jerusalem
1891: Russians claim that seven thousand Jews left Berdichefon for Argentina today. This claim would be appear to be bogus since there is no railway facility at Berdichefon capable of handling such a large number of people at one time.
1891: In Brooklyn the only Isaac Marks listed in the city directory denied that the Henry Marks, the young who committed suicide yesterday in suburban Chicago , is his brother as claimed by the note found with the body that also contained a request that he be buried “according to Jewish rites”
1892: Approximately two thirds of the 358 passengers who arrived in New York today aboard the Moravia were Russian Jews.
1892: In Cleveland, Ohio, “the Erie Street congregation of Russian Jews” is scheduled to hold Rosh Hashanah services in an assembly room of the new Young Men’s Christian Association Building.
1892(1stof Tishrei, 5653): As Grover Cleveland seeks to defeat Benjamin Harrison in the upcoming U.S. Presidential election, Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah
1893: Bernard Pachman and Carl Feldman were arrested tonight when police attempted to stop a group of “Hebrew Anarchists” from throwing cobblestones at the offices of Freie Arbeiter Stimme on Pike Street.
1895(4thof Tishrei, 5656): Tzom Gedaliah observed since the 3rd was Shabbat
1895(4thof Tishrei, 5656:) Prominent Jewish leader Abraham B. Wasser “dropped dead this afternoon while visiting at the home of a friend “in Elizabeth, NJ
1895: Birthdate of Academy Award winning actor, Paul Muni. Muni got his start in the Yiddish theatre. Unlike other leading men of his day, Muni gained fame as a character actor playing figures as widely different as Mexican revolutionary, a Chinese peasant and a French publisher.
1895: In Detroit, Temple Bethel adopted the use of the New Union Prayer Book for Sabbath services.
1895: Birthdate of celebrated poet, novelist, critic, and editor, Babette Deutsch. While still a student at Barnard College Academy of American Poets Poetry Center
1896: Birthdate of Uri Zvi Grinberg the Galacian born Israeli poet and author who uniquely wrote in both Yiddish and Hebrew
1897: In Special Sessions Court, “Nathan Straus pleaded not guilty” this morning “in the case brought by the Board of Health charging him with selling “impure milk.” Straus has been providing sterilized and modified milk products through conveniently located distribution centers to the primarily immigrant population of the Lower East Side; a program he subsidizes which has demonstrably lowered the infant and child mortality rate in New York.
1899: “Max Regis, the former Mayor of Algiers and a notorious Jew baiter” fled from his villa which was just outside of town in which he and his fellow anti-Semites “had been barricaded for some days” because they feared arrest by the government.
1901(9thof Tishrei, 5662): Eight days after Vice President Teddy Roosevelt was sworn in as President following the death of William McKinley, Jews prepare to hear Kol Nidre
1901(9thof Tishrei, 5662): Sixty-two year old attorney and economist Simon Sterne passed away today in New York City.
1902: Birthdate of Academy award winning actor John Houseman. Born Jacques Haussman in Bucharest
1902(20thof Elul, 5662): Eighty year Solomon Cohn who began served a rabbi in Berlin from 1876 to 1894 when he retired and moved to Breslau where he passed away today.
1903(1st of Tishrei, 5664): Rosh Hashanah
1905: The Jewish Chronicle reported that Aria College, in Portsmouth which had been founded Lewis Aria has closed for lack of funds.
1906(3rd of Tishrei, 5667): Shabbat Shuvah; the fast is delayed 24 hours
1909: Jews were forced to leave Arabia (Yemen) to avoid being forced to convert to Islam.
1910: Announcement of the death of Lady Louisa de Rothschild widow of Sir Anthony de Rothschild upon whom a barony had been conferred by Sir Robert Peel in 1847. Sir Anthony passed away in 1876. Lady Louisa was known as “Lady Bountiful” because of her charitable works among the less fortunate Jews. Her fame as a gracious hostess is attested to by the fact that the Prince of Wales learned of the death of Napoleon III while visiting her summer home, Aston Clinton, in 1873.
1911: In New South Wales University College
1911: New laws drafted for the governing of the Jewish community of Frankfort
1911: The German Emperor confers the Order of Red Eagle, Third Class on Dr. Albert Moses, the German legal scholar who helped draft Japan’s Meiji Constitution.
1914(2ndof Tishrei, 5675): 2nd day of Rosh Hashanah
1914: In Chicago, as World War stretches into its third month, “it is estimated that more than 100,000 Orthodox Jews gathered in synagogues today in observance of the second day of Rosh Hashanah” thousands of whom were praying “for relatives who are engaged in the battles now being waged.”
1915: Birthdate of Professor Samuel Edward Finer, the son Romanian Jewish immigrants, who became one the United Kingdom’s leading historians and political scientist.
1916: Rabbis in Palestine
1916: The funeral of Adolf Deiches is scheduled to take place this morning at Temple Rodeph Shalom at 63rd and Lexington.
1916: The funeral of Lena Gunther, the widow of Isaac Gunther, who was a member of Deborah Verein No.1 and Henrietta Verein, is scheduled to be held at Mt. Nebo Cemetery in Brooklyn.
1916: A memoriam published today marked the 15th anniversary, on the English calendar of Simon Sterne “In reverent memory of Simon Sterne, passed away Sept. 22, 1901. His engaging personality, dignity, great knowledge and modesty made contact with him a privilege.”
1918: The Jewish Legion, which was part of the British Army under General Allenby, dislodged Turkish army units from their entrenched position at Umm esh-Shert Ford on the Jordan River . This is the same ford where Joshua crossed with the Israelites in Biblical times. As we said when we began our studies last year, Jewish History covers an unbelievably long span of time. More importantly, when Jews tread the land of Israel
1918: Birthdate of Henryk Szeryng, the Polish born Mexican violinist who served as a liaison officer and interpreter during WW II at the request of General Sikorksi, the Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile.
1920(10thof Tishrei, 5681): Yom Kippur is observed for the last time during the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson
1921: Birthdate of Wolf William Eisenberg who gained fame as cartoonist William Elder, one of those who helped created “Mad” magazine.
1921:Gdud HaAvoda VeHaHaganah al shem Yosef Trumpeldor (the Joseph Trumpeldor Work and Defense Battalion) known simply Gdud HaAvod established kibbutz Ein Harod today.
1922(29thof Elul, 5682): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1922: In Brooklyn, Rebecca Schwartz and David Sive gave birth to David Sive who was one of the earliest practitioners of “Environmental Law.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1922: In “Palestine Land of Promise,” published today Maurice Harris, the Rabbi at Temple Israel in NYC, provides an eyewitness account of how the land and people of Palestine have benefited from Zionist programs based on his recent visit to Eretz Israel.
1924: Birthdate of Gerald Schoenfeld who became chairman of the powerful Shubert Organization, the largest and most important theater owner on Broadway and in the United States.
1924: In the Soviet Union , Chjekists (secret police) rounded up all known Zionists. Over thirty thousand were arrested and the Zionist organization was forced to move underground. This determined drive to destroy the Zionist was driven by a variety of motives. One had to do with the Communists' fear of competing political groups and ideologies. Another had to do with anti-Semitism some of which one might say was endemic to Russians and some of which was a manifestation of self-loathing on the part of Jews who had bought into the Communist ideology.
1927(25thof Elul, 5687): Sixty year old Rudolph Grossman, who had served as associate Rabbi of Temple Beth-El until 1896 when he became rabbi at Rodef Sholom passed away today.
1928: Today, in Massena, New York, two days before Yom Kippur, four-year-old Barbara Griffiths went for a walk and did not come back home. After a long search by townspeople and state police, a rumor began to circulate that the girl had been kidnapped and killed by the town's Jews for a religious ritual associated with the impending holiday. This was the opening event in what would be called the Massena Blood Libel.
1929: Today marks the thirtieth day since a group of Jews were killed in Jerusalem by Arabs. The level of danger felt by the Jewish community is so great that the Jews have “abandoned their age old ritual for the dead” and not publicly taken note of the Shloshim.
1929: In what can only be described as a unique form of British even-handedness, the Mandatory government informed “Jews who protested against the erection of a Moslem religious school at the Wailing Wall that a fully sanctioned permit had been granted to the Arabs by the government.”
1931: Birthdate of cinematographer Isidor Mankofsky, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants who used the name “Bill Mann” while doing some of his filming for the Encyclopedia Britannica “on the advice of a producer who warned him of anti-Jewish bias.”
1933(2nd of Tishrei, 5694): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1933: German Jews are banned from the fields of journalism, art, literature, music, broadcasting, and theater.
1939: Joint victory parade of Wehrmacht and Red Army in Brest-Litovsk at the end of the Invasion of Poland.
1941(1st of Tishrei, 5702): Rosh Hashanah
1941: This day saw the beginning of a new intensity in the murder of the Jewish people. In Vinnitsa
1941: Nearly 500 Jews escaped from Ejszyszki, Lithuania, after being alerted to an impending Nazi sweep
1941: All Jews of Litin, Ukraine
1941: Sculptor Louise Nevelson's first one-woman show opened at the Nierendorf Gallery
1942: The Jewish ghetto in Czestochowa , Poland
1942: The leading French Protestant, Pastor Marc Boegner, publicly protests the Jewish deportations. He personally attempts to convince Vichy France Laval France
1943: The Germans announce through their puppet Greek press that all Jews have only five days to register their names, or face a penalty of death. Christians were told if they hide Jews they would be shot.
1943(22nd of Elul, 5703): Forty Jews hiding in forests near Koniecpol, Poland, are attacked by Poles. Many of the Jews are killed.
1943: The Baltimore Sun reported Nazi “Slayings Near 250,000,"
1943: Wilhelm Kube, the Generalkommissarof Belorussia
1944: During WW II the Red Army enters Tallinn, Estonia. Before the war Tallin had been home to a vibrant Jewish community of about 2,300 people. The liberation of Estonia from the Nazis by the Soviets meant an end to the Holocaust, it was not much of any improvement for the Jews since the Estonia became a puppet state of the U.S.S.R. implementing the anti-Jewish policies of larger neighbor to the east.
1945(15th of Tishrei, 5706): Sukkoth is observed for the first time during the Presidency of Harry S. Truman
1945: U.S. premiere of “Rhapsody in Blue,” “a fictionalized biography of George Gershwin.
1945(15th of Tishrei, 5706): Chief Judge Irving Lehman of the New York State Court of Appeals passed way early this morning at the age of 69. . He had been a member of the State's judiciary for thirty-seven years. Lehman was the older brother of Herbert Lehman, former Governor of New York who is currently serving as the Director of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Judge Lehman was born in New York in 1876, the son of two transplanted Alabama Jews. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia in 1896 where he also earned a Master Degree and a Law Degree. He was in private practice until 1908 when he was first elected to the State Supreme Court. He was elected Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals in 1939. He was respected for his ability to make the law “a living force subject to change and development” as well as his “ability to slash through legal verbiage and get to the heart of complex commercial and financial problems. A philanthropist, Lehman was actively involved with several Jewish organizations including the Young Men’s Hebrew Association an Temple Emanu-El both of which he led as President.
1946(26th of Elul, 5706): One Jew was killed and both sides suffered other casualties when refugees on board the blockade runner Palmach battled a British naval boarding party off the northern coast of Palestine today. Off the coast of Haifa Israel
1946:Congregation Beth-El Synagogue was dedicated today at St. Johnsbury, Vermont
1946: In Camden, NJ, Beth-El held a memorial service for Rabbi Amoff who was killed in an army truck accident following his discharge at Fort Kilmer. During WW II, he served as a chaplain in the U.S. Army
1947: Secretary of State George Marshall instructed the American U.N. delegation to refrain from supporting the UNSCOP majority report that included a recommendation for partition.
1949: Birthdate of Larisa Bergen, the native of Kazakhstan who won silver medal in volleyball at the 1976 Olympics.
1951: Reuven Shiloah, special Israeli Government counselor left Paris for Washington where he is scheduled discuss the latest peace proposal and other developments in the Middle East with representatives of the U.S. State Department.
1951: Unidentified authorities at the highest level of the Israeli government reveal that Israel “is willing to compensate Arab refugees for property that they behind when fled, and in addition, is willing to make contributions for the resettlement of Arab refugees.” Until now, the Israeli government has refused to take responsibility for the plight of the refugees because the Arabs caused the problem when they invaded the Jewish state. At the same time, Israel feels that consideration should be given for the expense born by Israel in re-settling Jewish refugees from Arab countries, especially the 100,000 who had left Iraq. The Israelis want their bank accounts, which are valued at between 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 pounds, unblocked.
1952: Isser Harel named head of Mossad.
1954: New York Premiere of the Billy Wilder hit comedy “Sabrina”
1957:American author and screenwriter Robert Katz, the son of Sidney and Helen Katz, married Beverly Gerstel today. Katz wrote Death in Rome in “which he blamed Pope Pius XII for the massacre of 335 Romans and 70 Jews at the Ardeatine Caves in 1944.”
1960(1stof Tishrei, 5721): As the race between Nixon and Kennedy for the White House heats up, Jews observe the first day of Rosh Hashanah
1960(1s of Tishrei, 5721): Seventy-eight year old psychoanalyst Melanie Klein passed away in London.
1964: "Fiddler on the Roof" opened on Broadway. It would run for 3,242 performances
1969(10th of Tishrei, 5730): As the war in Viet Nam rages on, Jews observe Yom Kippur
1977(10thof Tishrei, 5738): In the first year of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, Jews observe Yom Kippur
1978: Aharon Barak began his service as a Justice on the Supreme Court of Israel
1982: NBC broadcast the first episode of “Family Ties,” the sitcom created by Gary David Goldberg.
1983(15thof Tishrei, 5744): Sukkoth
1984: Israeli political leader Avraham Hirschson and his wife gave birth to their youngest son Barak.
1989 (22nd of Elul, 5749): Composer Irving Berlin passed away at the age of 101. Berlin America
1996(9th of Tishrei, 5757): Erev Yom Kippur
1996: Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, had asked that the kickoff tonight’s game between the Patriots and the Jacksonville Jaguars be changed to avoid a conflict with Yom Kippur, which started at sundown that evening. Kraft requested the change so Jews, including himself and his family, could see the entire game before the start of Kol Nidre services that night.
1997 (20th of Elul, 5757):Nedim Yahya, a committee member of the Quincentennial Foundation passed away. The Quincentennial Foundation was established in 1989 by a group of 113 Turkish citizens, Jews and Moslems alike. Founded in Istanbul the Quincentennial Foundation planned a three-year (1990 - 1992) cultural and academic program both within Turkey and abroad mainly in the U.S, Canada and Mexico on the American continent; France, United Kingdom and Italy in Europe designed to celebrate“the five hundredth anniversary of the most gracious welcome of Sephardim to Turkish lands” in 1492.
1997: In “A Traveler in the realm of the Mind” published today, Jason Cowley provides a portrait of George Steiner.
2002: Today Theatre Garden presented “Lady of Cooper” a play written by Jonathan Goldstein and his sister Dana Leslie Goldstein that tells the story of the arrival of the Statute of Liberty in New York including the role of Emma Lazarus who wrote the famous poem at the statute’s base.
2002:The New York Times included reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Beforeby Tony Horwitz, Sloan-Kettering: Poems by Abba Kovner; Translated by Eddie Levenston, The Ideas That Conquered The World: Peace, Democracy, and Free Markets in the Twenty-First Centuryby Michael Mandelbaum, Bad Boy Ballmer: The Man Who Rules Microsoft by Fredric Alan Maxwell and ![Description: !]()
The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonné 1948-1997by Mary Lee Corlett and Ruth E. Fine
The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonné 1948-1997by Mary Lee Corlett and Ruth E. Fine2004(7thof Tishrei, 5765): Terrorists from Al-Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for the bombing at French Hill, Jerusalem that claimed the lives of two people.
2005: At the same time when the world is mourning the death of Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, the world was given a graphic reminder of the Holocaust. The Jerusalem Post reported that workers at a US Army airfield near Stuttgart , Germany
2005:In a move that sets it apart from most, if not all Catholic colleges and universities, Boston College launched “a program that allows student to minor in Jewish Studies.” Go Eagles!
2005: Kalman Feinberg won the Great Shofar Blast Off sponsored by the National Jewish Outreach Program.
2005: The “IDF finished evacuating four settlement in the Northern West Bank
2005:During a meeting in Jerusalem, Rabbi Bretton-Granatoor, along with other Jewish leaders, questioned Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek, Director of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, about his position on Israel's legitimate right to exist, citing quotations from his book, Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation (1989), in which he wrote, "It has taken me years to accept the establishment of the state of Israel and its need – although not its right – to exist. ""We read to him several quotations from his sermons and writings that we believed denied the legitimate right of the Jewish people to live in their land, and echoed medieval anti-Semitic canards," Rabbi Bretton-Granatoor said. "He affirmed that he continues to support the suggestion
2006(29th of Elul, 5766): Erev Rosh Hashanah
2006: As can be seen from Libby Copeland’s column in the Washington Post, entitled “For Sen. Allen, Questions of More Than Faith,” the issue of who is a Jew and who is not a Jew and how they respond to it is becoming a regular phenomena in American politics. The issue is often not just whether but when a candidate discovered the Jewish connection. John Kerry discovered Jewish grandparents. Howard Dean is married to a Jew, something he always knew and never hid. Dennis Kucinich and Hillary Clinton appeared to have stretched the envelope. He is dating a Jew and she has discovered a Jewish step-grandfather. Wesley Clark discovered his Jewish lineage during his abortive 2004 quest for the Presidency and Madeline Albright, who is not running for anything discovered that her family was Jewish until it fled totalitarian Europe. Post columnist Charles Krauthammer puts things in their proper, if tragic perspective. These public figures were not told about their Jewish heritage because the family members wanted to spare them the pain and suffering that was all too often the reality of being Jewish whether it was Sen. Allen’s grandfather being imprisoned in Algeria or Madeline Albright’s family fleeing the Nazis. The question is not why did Sen. Allen react the way he did; the question is what kind of people made being Jewish such a fearful thing.
2007(10th of Tishrei, 5768): Yom Kippur
2007: Gabe Carmi, a standout offensive guard for the University of Wisconsin football team fasted today even though his Badgers were facing the University of Iowa in their first Big Ten game of the season. Carmi did not break his fast until an hour before the game began. The reward for doing a mitzvah is doing the mitzvah, but in this case it did not hurt the Wisconsin won the game and kept the Heartland Trophy in Madison.
2007(10th of Tishrei, 5768): While in Atlanta for a concert with Elvis Costello and Amos Lee, Bob Dylan (born Robert Zimmerman) reportedly attend the Chabad-Lubavitch of Georgia’s Yom Kippur services where he was up to the Torah and recited the blessings in Hebrew.
2007(10th of Tishrei, 5768): Marcel Marceau, the famous mime and Holocaust survivor passed away on Yom Kippur at the age of 84.
2007: An exhibition honoring Yiddish theatre legend - and Milk and Honey star - Molly Picon being held in the Vincent Astor Gallery of the New York Library of Performing Arts comes to an end.
2007: As a sign of worsening economic conditions, Gottschalks closed its store in Tacoma Highlands. This was part of the tragic end of a West Coast department store chain that had been started by German Jewish immigrant Emil Gottschalk in 1904.
2008 (22 Elul): Yarthzeit of Joseph B. Levin, who among other accomplishments was a father who raised sons who not only knew how to recite the Kaddish, but whom he knew would rise to say Kaddish. There is real irony that his Yarthzeit comes at the time when the American financial system is crashing in chaos. As an attorney with the S.E.C., he spent two decades of his life enforcing the laws designed to prevent what we are experiencing today.
2008: Han Drogt, a Dutch policeman who joined the resistance movement after being ordered to round up Jews posthumously receives Israel's highest honor for people who rescued Jews from the Holocaust. His bravery became known thanks to the efforts of an El Al pilot who heard the story from the hero's son. Drogt, who was executed by the Nazis in 1944, was already recognized as a hero by former U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower, Britain and the Netherlands for his role in rescuing Allied pilots who ejected over occupied Holland. But Israel had never acknowledged the circumstances in which Drogt joined the resistance. His son will receive the honor naming his father Righteous Among the Nations in a formal ceremony in Jerusalem at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes Remembrance Authority. Drogt, who was not Jewish, defected in 1943 with his rifle after receiving orders to arrest the remaining Jews in the Groningen area in northern Holland, where he served in the ranks of the Marechaussee, the military police. Some of his comrades who also refused the order were arrested, and later honored by Yad Vashem for their actions. Drogt's name was omitted from the list submitted to the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous, because he had managed to escape. It took another 20 years and the unexpected help of an El Al pilot to complete the picture. The pilot met the son, Henk Brink, a few years ago in South Africa. He also told Yad Vashem about it, but wasn’t sure they'd name him Righteous among the Nations. Drogt, 23 at the time of his arrest, was planning to marry his pregnant girlfriend. She gave birth to Brink, the son, one month after Drogt's arrest.
2009: The Capitol Hill Village sponsors a reading and discussion with journalist Ariel Sabar, author of “My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq,” at the Southeast Neighborhood Library in Washington, D.C.
2009: In Washington, D.C., the Hadassah Attorneys' Council hosts a Brown Bag Lunch Conversation with Rabbi Avis Miller about "Fortune, Family and Faith” during which Rabbi Miller explores the High Holiday liturgy to see what these sacred texts teach us about the work/life balance.
2009: While all three are in New York to attend sessions of the UN General Assembly Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with President Barak Obama and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas today in an attempt to re-open peace negotiations.
2009(4thof Tishrei, 5770): Ninety-eight year old Rose Friedman, the wife and collaborator of Milton Friedman, who was a noted free-market economist in her own right, passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
2010(14th of Tishrei, 5771): Erev Sukkoth
2010(14thof Tishrei, 5771): Crooner Eddie Fisher passed away at the age of 82.
2010: it was reported today that Mark Zuckerberg had arranged to donate $100 million to Newark Public Schools, the public school system of Newark, New Jersey
2011: A daylong conference, sponsored by the Hudson Institute and Touro College and titled “The Perils of Global Intolerance: the United Nations and Durban III” is scheduled to be held today. The conference which will feature a presentation by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, seeks to debunk a Durban process which critics say is riddled with hatred and intolerance.
2011: New York was the scene of an anti-Semitic triple header - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan took turns bashing Israel at the United Nations General Assembly while representatives of Iran, Cuba and Lebanon blasted Israel at the Durban Review Conference at the United Nations
2012(6thof Tishrei, 5773): Shabbat Shuvah
2012(6thof Tishrei, 5773): Ninety-nine year old Irving Adler, “a former New York City teacher who became a prolific writer of books on math and science for young people after being forced from the classroom during the Red Scare of the early 1950s” passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
2012: The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, said that war with Israel will “eventually happen,” and that the Islamic Republic would “destroy the Jewish state.”
2012: If Team Israel has won its first two games, it will be scheduled to play again today in the World Baseball Classic.
2012: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to “celebrate the sweetness of the New Year” with its annual Rosh Hashanah Dance Marathon.
2012: Daylight Saving Time ended tonight, as dozens of Meretz activists protested in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square and in front of Interior Minister Eli Yishai’s Jerusalem home.
2013: “Pop” Lubin’s Silent Film Empire is scheduled to open today at the National Museum of American Jewish History.
2013: Sally Oren is scheduled to address the open meeting of the Greater Washington Chapter of Hadassah.
2013: The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide is schedule to host its annual Open House, in London, UK.
2013: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors or of special interest to Jewish readers including The American Way of Poverty by Sasha Abramsky, Wilson by Scott Berg, and The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polansky by Samantha Geimer, Lawrence Silver and Judith Newman
2013: The semiannual mass priestly benediction service — or Birkat Kohanim -- took place this morning at the Western Wall. Tens of thousands of Jewish worshippers crowded the plaza to receive the blessing from the Kohanim, descendants of Aaron who make up the priestly caste. Both new chief rabbis, David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef, participated as well. (As reported by Lazar Berman)
2013: Today, Israeli forces werehelping Kenyan officials end a deadly siege at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, where al-Qaeda-linked terrorists have been holed up for a day with some 30 hostages. (As reported by Gavriel Fiske)
2013(18th of Tishrei, 5774: Twenty year old Gabriel (Gal) Kobi, an IDF soldier from Tirat Hacarmel died of wounds he suffered when a sniper shot him in Hebron.
2014: “Jewish student groups are planning protests against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at a speech” he is scheduled to give tonight in New York “hosted by Cooper Union in cooperation with Churches for Middle East Peace.” (As reported by Rachel Delia Benaim)
2014: A photo exhibition, “Jewish Refugees in Cyprus En Route to Israel” is scheduled to open at the Same and Esther Minskoff Cultural Center in New York City.
2014: Fiftieth anniversary of the Broadway premiere “Fiddler on the Roof.”