OCTOBER 13
2010:David Grossman and Nicole Krauss are scheduled to talk about their new novels, To the End of the Land and Great House at the New York Public Library.
54: Roman Emperor Claudius passed away. For Jews, Claudius has to rate as one of the best of the Roman rulers. Among other things, he took the side of the Jews when they were attacked in Alexandria; he maintained a genuine friendship with Agrippa and allowed the Jews to elect their own high Priest while refraining from tampering with the Temple treasury.
54: Nero ascends to the Roman throne. Nero would appoint four increasingly incompetent and venal governors whose misrule would play a key role in the outbreak of the Great Revolt. When the Jews did rebel, Nero appointed Vespasian to put down the revolt.
1307: In France, Phillip IV ordered the arrest of hundreds of Knights Templar on charges of heresy. What Phillip was really after was control of the wealth of the Templars. A year earlier, he had expelled the Jews from France after stripping them of their wealth. Philip’s behavior is just one more example of greed hiding behind a façade of religious belief.
1398:Richard Whittington was elected Lord Mayor of London. Whittington was one of those who defied the ban on Jews living in England when it suited his purposes. He brought a physician named Samson de Mirabeau into the realm for care for his wife in 1409. Whittington was in good company when it came to ignoring the ban since King Henry IV brought Elias Ben Sabbetai from Bologna to serve as his physician in 1410.
1483: Isaac Ben Judah Abravanel (also spelled Abarbanel) started his exegesis on the Bible. Born in Portugal 1437, Abravanel was one of the most colorful and interesting characters of the final decades of during which Jews lived in Spain and Portugal. He was part of a distinguished family and he was well educated in Jewish and secular studies. Abravanel was a financier, tax collector and advisor to the King Alfonso of Portugal. When Alfonso died, Abravanel had falling out with his successor. It was at this time that Abravanel decided to give up his political duties and devote himself to writing commentaries. For reasons that are too complex for this brief entry, Abravanel was forced to flee to Spain where he returned to his tax collecting duties. He left Spain in 1492 and ended up in Naples where he ended up as financier and tax collector again. He passed away in 1503 leaving behind a body of commentaries on the Torah and the Prophets. According to some authorities, his work is solid, but not original. He is, however seen as being the last in a long line of Jewish commentators and philosophers who were part of the Sephardic culture that flourished from the 8th to the 15thcenturies.
1534: Papacy of Paul III began. In response to the threat of the Protestant Reformation, Paul “established a system of tribunals, administered by the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition’, and staffed by cardinals and other Church officials. This system would later become known as the Roman Inquisition.” Unfortunately for the Jews, this iteration of the Inquisition also dealt with the “crimes” relating to Judaism including the attempts by Jews who had been forced to convert to return to the faith of their ancestors.
1654: (2nd of Heshvan 5415): On this date Isaac Rodriguez Cunha, a citizen of Curacao, writes a letter which is addressed “to the illustrious Gentlemen, the Mahamad of the Holy Congregation Mikvah Israel, Curacao.” This is one of the first written pieces of evidence used in fixing the dates for the founding of the Jewish community and the synagogue in Curacao. Mahamad is a term used for the “board of directors of a Spanish-Portuguese Congregation
1759(22ndof Tishrei, 5520): Shemini Atzeret
1773: It was reported today that “a gentleman” who has “returned from the interior parts of North America, beyond the Ohio,” claims to have discovered “a nation of Jews” living among the Indians, “who call themselves Naphthali.” (Naphtali was the second son born to Jacob the concubine Bilhah)
1788: In Kremenetz, Judah Levin, a grandson of Jekuthiel Solomon and his wife gave birth to Isaac Baer Levinsohn a leader of the Haskalah movement
1789(23rdof Tishrei, 5550): Simchat Torah
1791 :( 15th of Tishrei, 5552): Sukkoth
1797(23rdof Tishrei, 5558): Simchat Torah
1796: Censorship of Jewish books in Russia became official policy.
1891: Birthdate of Emil Roediger the German orientalist and Hebrew linguist who edited books on Hebrew grammar.
1816: In New York, Michael and Elizabeth Daly gave birth to Judge Charles Patrick Daly author of The Settlement of the Jews in North America.
1820: Birthdate of Sir John William Dawson the Canadian geologist who “traveled extensively in Egypt and Syria” and whose works included “Archaia” Studies on the Cosmogony and Natural History of the Hebrew Scriptures.
1821: Birthdate of Rudolf Virchow, the German biologist and anthropologist whose family may have at one time been Jewish and who studied the biological characteristics of thousands of Jewish schoolchildren as part of his attempt to “provide a rational for the sense of Jewish acculturation” even though “he still assumed that Jews were a separate and distinct racial category.”
1823: Francis Ephriam Cohen who would change his name to Francis Palgrave married Elizabeth Turner following his conversion to Anglican Christianity, a move that no doubt advanced his career as an historian and archivist.
1843: B'nai Brithwas founded under the leadership of Henry Jones at Sinsheimer's cafe on Essex Street in New York. Its original mission was the maintenance of orphanages and homes for the elderly and widows. It extended its work to many spheres of American Jewish life, including combating anti-Semitism. (A.D.L.) and working with students on campus (Hillel).
1844: An election was scheduled to be held today to choose the Orthodox Chief Rabbi of the British Empire. The election was won by Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler who held the position from 1845 until his death in 1890.
1846(23rdof Tishrei, 5607): Simchat Torah
1846: Birthdate of Hebrew poet and Yiddish author Isaac Rabinowitz the native of Kovno many of whose works can be found in Zemirot Yisrael and who passed away in the New York City where he went to join his children.
1847(3rdof Cheshvan, 5608):Rabbi Jizchok Arye, (Isaac Loew Matthes Wormser) also called the Wonder Rabbi Michel city and Baal Shem of Michel City passed away today.
1853: “Hebrew Ceremonial” published today reported that the Jews were absent from their businesses on New York City’s Chatham Street yesterday because they were observing the “Day of Atonement, which the Hebrew still duly celebrates though three thousand years have elapsed Moses delivered his Levitical command” concerning this Fast Day. It is the “same statute” the Jews have observed “by the rivers of Poland, in the streets of York, in the valleys of the Aragon” or now “by the banks of the Hudson” river.
1862: In Manchester, Rabbi Gustav Gottheil and his wife gave birth Birthdate of RabbiRichard James Horatio Gottheil
1865(23rd of Tishrei, 5626): Simchat Torah celebrated for the first time during the Presidency of Andrew Johnson.
1871(28th of Tishrei, 5632): Fifty-eight year old Moses Millaud, French banker, businessman and founder of Le Petit Journal passed away today. He was a supporter of Louis Napoleon (Emperor Napoleon) and was involved in some of the more infamous financial scandals of his time.
1873(22ndof Tishrei, 5634): Shemini Atzeret
1873: Today, the Hebrew Society of St. Joseph, MO, sent five hundred dollars to aid people in Memphis, TN caught in the grips of a Yellow Fever Epidemic.
1875(14thof Tishrei, 5636): Erev Sukkoth
1875(14thof Tishrei, 5636): Sixty-four year old Judah Leib "Leopold" Löw, the Hungarian Rabbi who incorporated elements of modernity in his Orthodox world passed away Szeged where he had been leading the community since 1850 despite many offers to lead large communities including Bucharest.
1875: It was reported today that a survey expedition composed of English officers and soldiers was attacked by marauders at their camp at Ain el Beida in Palestine. The group was conducting a triangulation exercise in western Palestine, specifically the Galilee and most important of all Safed “one of the ‘Holy Cities’ of the Jews’…” According to the report, Lieutenant Kitchener was of the English officers who was involved in this minor skirmish. [History would come to know him as Lord Kitchener, who was involved in all of those 19th British Imperial Campaigns from Egypt, to Sudan, to Khartoum to South Africa. He played a critical role in Britain’s early war effort in WWI before being drowned while on his way to Russia. But all of that began here, in Palestine, when a 24 year old lieutenant faced an armed enemy for the first time.]
1876: In New York, Clara Koffman and Joseph B. Bloomingdale gave birth to Rosalie Stanton Bloomingdale.
1877: It was reported today that New York State Supreme Court Judge Barrett has turned down the application of Rabbi Ash of the Ludlow Street Synagogue to be given the $200 that had belonged to the late Abraham Weisberg so that he could send it to a rabbi the Polish village where the descendant’s children live. Under the law, Barrett said that a guardian for the minor children would have to appointed before he could take action. (This is an example of the myriad conflicts that arose from the fact that fathers and husbands came to the U.S. ahead of their families with the intent to bring them to America once they had earned enough to pay for passage.)
1878(16thof Tishrei, 5639): Second Day of Sukkot
1878(16thof Tishrei, 5639): Twenty three days before his 71st birthday Seligman Baer Bamberger who was serving as the rabbi of Wurzburg passed away today.
1878: “Lord Beaconsfield’s Policy” published today, claimed that Great Britain has shifted her foreign policy for the first time in over 135 years to one of annexation and aggressive imperialism. This change is the result of Beaconsfield’s ability to dissemble and confuse the English people which is due, in part, to the fact that he is a Jew.
1880: Birthdate of Sasha Cherny, the pen name of Russian poet and satirist Alexander Mikhailovich Glikberg
1881: Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and friends decided to speak Hebrew exclusively, marking the beginning of the revival of the language in modern times. Born Eliezer Perlman in Lithuania, Ben- Yehuda is proof that one person can make a difference. As a youngster, a rabbi gave Ben-Yeuda a Hebrew translation of Robinson Crusoe. That experience convinced him that Hebrew should be a modern, spoken language as well as a language of prayer. He devoted the rest of his life to the idea of living in the land of Israel where Hebrew would be the spoken language. He arrived in Jaffa with his bride In 1881 and he became associate editor of a Hebrew Language journal. His task of creating a modern Hebrew language was not an easy one. He was attacked both in print and physically by those who thought he was desecrating the holy tongue. At the same time, he had to keep inventing words since much had happened since Hebrew was last a an active language. Life was a real challenge for his children. It was difficult for them to have playmates since they were the only people who spoke Hebrew. Ben-Yehuda did not give up his dream. He lived to see Hebrew become one of the three official languages of Palestine under the Mandate after World War I. Such was his success that by the time he died in 1922, a majority of the Jews in Palestine listed Hebrew as their native tongue on the census forms.
1884: “Two Love-Sick Ducks” published today described an altercation between a Jew and a Gentile who were competing for the affections of Jewish widow living in St. Mark’s Place. The two became so violent that they ended up in front of a Judge who agreed to release them “with the hope that Providence will improve the quality of your brains.
1884: Funeral services were held today for Rabbi Adoph Huebsch at Ahavath Chesed in New York City. The overflow crowd included numerous Jewish leaders from across the United States the most prominent of whom was Rabbi Wise of Cincinnati, the leader of the Reform Movement in the United States. Rabbi Theodore Guenzberg, Huebsch’s assistant, led the worship service. Temple Emanu-El’s Rabbi Gottehiel delivered a sermon in German. Rabbi Jacob delivered the English language sermon. Following the funeral services the rabbi was interred in Linden Hill Cemetery on Long Island.
1885: Harry Hershfield who has been described as “the Jewish Will Rogers” was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
1885: The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), home of the Yellow Jackets, is founded in Atlanta, Georgia. Today, Tech’s undergraduate and graduate population of 19,000 includes approximately 600 Jewish students. There are several Jewish organizations on campus including AEPi Fraternity, Hillel and Jackets for Israel which co-sponsors the annual Israel-fest.
1888: At the insistence of his future wife, Otto Pierre Siegelstein married Mary Bubis at City Hall; a fact that he would later contest in his attempt to have the marriage annulled.
1891: As the famine in Russia worsens, it was reported that “the destitute Jews who have expelled from Kiev, Moscow and Odessa are swelling the ranks of the famished” populated primarily by Christian peasants.
1891: Birthdate of Jennie Loitman Barron, judge, lawyer, and suffragist. Born in Boston's West End, Barron attended Boston University where she earned her BA, LL.B, and LL.M. degrees and was active in Boston University's League for Equal Suffrage. Barron started her own law firm after graduation and created a new firm with her husband Samuel Barron, Jr. when they married four years later.Barron was elected president of the Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers and campaigned for uniform marriage and divorce laws, as well as for women's right to serve on juries. She also worked to mobilize women to exercise their newly established right to vote. Barron began her thirty-five year career as a judge in 1934 when she was appointed by the governor as a special justice of the Western Norfolk District Court. In 1937, she was named to be an associate of the Boston Municipal Court. She left this position when she became an associate of the Massachusetts Superior Court in 1957 -- the first woman to hold this position. Throughout her career, Barron remained active in the Jewish community serving as the first president of the Women's Auxiliary of Boston's Beth Israel Hospital, on the first board of Brandeis University National Women's Committee, and as the first president of the New England Women's Division of the American Jewish Congress. Barron died in March 1969, one year after her husband's death. (As reported by Jewish Women’s Archive)
1892(22ndof Tishrei, 5653): Shemini Atzeret
1892: “A Republican Insult To Jews” published today described the problems facing William Warner, the Republican candidate for Governor of Missouri, following the denouement of Isaac Isaacs, the Secretary of the League of Republican Clubs and the “roasting” of the Jews by his personal manager John T. Blake.
1892: Isaac Issacs, the deposed Secretary of the League of Republicans who is Jewish said that the Jews would not accept an apology from Mr. Blake, the campaign manager for Major Warner, the Republican candidate for governor of Missouri. “The only thing that will conciliate the Jewish vote will be the removal of Mr. Blake.
1893: Edward Everett Hale delivered an address at the Lake Mohonk Conference of Friends of the Indians in which “he spoke of the great success of Massachusetts in assimilating the Hebrew immigrants by breaking up their clannishness and scattering them among the American populations and asked why the same principle should not apply to the Indian.”
1893: The Hebrew Journal express praise for the opposition of the New York Times to an upcoming prize fight between and American and an English man which is supported by powerful interest in New York and Brooklyn.
1893: Congressman Rayner of Maryland gave a speech in the House of Representatives expressing his views on the Geary Chinese Registration and Exclusion Act which “closed with a fervid appeal…to not commit a great national crime, as gross and wicked as the treatment accorded by Russia to the unfortunate Jews in her dominion and against which our own Government had protested.”
1893: “Curious Coincidences” published today described recently discovered connections between Columbus and the Jewish people including evidence that “Hebrews were among the sailors that composed crews of the three vessels,” the role of Luis de Toress and the evidence produced by Dr. Moses of Kayserling of Budapest that Columbus set sail on the 9th day of Av and made landfall in the New World on the “Seventh Day of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacle, the da of the great Hosanas.”
1893: Because it is erev Shabbat, there will be a pause in the festivities marking the Golden Anniversary of the B’Nai B’rith.
1893(3rdof Cheshvan, 5654): Eighty-one year old the Confederate officer who “pioneered the commercial growing of peaches in “the Peachtree State” passed away today in Belgium.
1894: “A Bully’s Career Ends in Death” published today described the demise of Otto Slimbach a Brooklyn bully who on the night he was mortally stabbed by an unknown party had beaten his mother and gone through the Jewish neighborhood indulging “in Jew-baiting for his further amusement.”
1894: In New York, Police Inspector Williams began an investigation into charges that the police had beaten the striking cloakmakers many of whom were Jewish including Israel Groman.
1894: Alfred Dreyfus is arrested by Commandant du Paty de Clam, an assistant to the Army Chief of Staff and charged with treason. Dreyfus was left alone with a pistol, having been encouraged to do “the honorable thing.” When Dreyfus refused he was marched off to prison where he would be kept in solitary confinement for the next five days.
1898:The Zionist Delegation including Joseph Seidener, Moses T. Schnirer, Theodor Herzl, David Wolffsohn and Max Bodenheimer takes the Orient Express to Constantinople as they pursue Herzl’s dream of top-down Zionism.
1903(22nd of Tishrei, 5664): Shemini Atzeret
1903(22nd of Tishrei, 5664): Dr. Marcus M. Jastrow a noted Hebrew scholar and educator who was rabbi emeritus of Rodef Shalom, a synagogue in Philadelphia, PA, passed away today at his home in Germantown, PA. Born in Pozen in 1829 he graduated from the University of Berlin. He came to the United States in 1866 and became the Rabbi at Rodef Shalom, a position he held until his retirement in 1892. His major literary work was “A Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli, Talmud Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature.”
1905: Sixty-seven year old Sir Henry Irving the British actor manager whose first great career success came with his portrayal of Mathias in “The Bells” (an adaptation of “Le Juif Polonais” and whose portrayal of Shylock provided him with a dignity not usually seen in other actors, passed away today.
1909: Birthdate of Herbert Lawrence Block, the Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist who gained fame as Herblock and set the standard by which all practice this genre are evaluated.
1910(10th of Tishrei, 5671): Yom Kippur
1911: Multiple telegrams were received in London from Malta, Gabes and Djerba, appealing for help for the many thousands of Jewish refugees from Tripoli.
1912: Birthdate of Hugo David Weisgall, the Moravian born American composer and conductor “who served as aid-de-camp to General Patton” during WW II.
1912: Israel Abrahams, a Reader in Rabbinics at the University of Cambridge and a leader of the UK’s liberal Jewish movement addressed a meeting held in his honor at New York’s Astor Hotel. Dr. Henry M. Leipziger, President of Judeans, presided over the meeting and introduced Mr. Abrahams. Among the other speakers were Rabbi Joseph Silverman of Temple Emanu-El and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue. Oscar S. Straus, Progressive Party candidate for Governor of New York, who was to have delivered an address, sent a message expressing his regrets at having been unavoidably detained. Abrahams spoke about a favorite topic of the time “The Jewish Problem.” In a unique twist, Abrahams defined it as “The eternal question of living two lives harmoniously.”
1913: According to legend, German-Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzwieg attended Yom Kippur services for what he thought would be his last visit to a Jewish house of worship before converting to Christianity. “But that prayer service moved him so profoundly that he gave up the idea of converting and became a committed Jewish philosopher, who saw his religion as preferable to Christianity.
1914(23rd of Tishrei, 5676): Simchat Torah
1914(23rd of Tishrei 5676): 50 year old Mrs. Rose Baruch Streng, the wife of Bernard Streng, a native of Landau, Germany passed away at her home on West 143rd Street in New York.
1914: “Russian Treaty Approved” published today the decision of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to approve a peace treaty with Russia which might be a prelude to the signing of new treaty of commerce “to take the place of the treaty of 1832 abrogated by the United States because of Russia’s treatment of American Jews.”
1914: “Foreign Legion Of Jews published today provides Israel Zangwill’s view that Jews support the Allies over the cause of the Kaiser as can be seen by the number of Jews who have tried to enlist in the Jewish Territorial Organization which is a Zionist organization under the misconception that it is part of the British Army – proof that “it would be easy to form a foreign legion of Jews grateful for Britain’s sympathy” as can already be seen by the thousands of Jews already serving in the military.
1914: “15 Poisoned at Feast” published today described the unfortunate events at the Sukkoth Meal eaten by the large family of Samuel Horowitz where several of the attendees came down with ptomaine poisoning after having some tainted fish.
1914: Judge Leon Sanders, the President of the Hebrew Shelter and Immigrant Aid Society, has organized “a special Relief Committee for the Jewish suffers in all of the nations at war, following an appeal sent to the Austro-Hungarian Legation in New York by Jews in Austria.
1920: In Berlin chess champion Mimi (née Heller) and psychiatrist Harry Marcuse gave birth to Albert Marcuse who was raised as a Lutheran because “his family considered their Jewish heritage a liability” and who gained fame as American composer and actor Albert Hague.
1924(15th of Tishrei, 5685): Sukkoth
1925: Birthdate of Lenny Bruce. Born Leonard Alfred Schneider he was a controversial comedian and satirist. He passed away in 1966
1928(29thof Tishrei, 5689): Seventy year old German Jewish otolaryngologist Wilhelm Fliess passed away today
1929(9thof Tishrei, 5690): Erev Yom Kippur
1929: In Manhattan, Joseph and Sylvia Slifka gave birth to twins – Barabara and Alan Bruce Slifka, “a New York investment manager who used his fortune to promote harmony among Israeli Arabs and Jews and to give the Big Apple Circus its start.” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1937:The Palestine Post reported that a slight earth tremor was felt in Jerusalem. It lasted about a second, and caused in some cases a definite sway of upper stories of buildings. There were sporadic Arab attacks, accompanied by heavy firing, at Hadera, Safed and on Kibbutz Gordonia. A curfew was imposed on Safed. Robbers operated in the no-man's-land between the Palestinian and Lebanese French border posts at Nakura. The attackers were protected by other well-armed men in surrounding area.
1939: Chaim Kaplan, the director of a Hebrew School in Warsaw, described the Jewish reactions to the Soviet occupation of Poland with the following diary entry: “The Jews there looked upon the Bolsheviks as redeeming messiahs. Even the wealthy, who would become poor under Bolshevism, preferred the Russians to the Germans. There is plunder on the one hand and plunder on the other, but the Russians plunder one as a citizen and a man, while the Nazis plunder one as a Jew. The former Polish government never spoiled us, but at the same time never overtly singled us out for torture. The Nazi is a sadist, however. His hatred of the Jews is psychosis. He flogs and derives pleasure from it. The torment of the victim is a balm to his soul, especially if the victim is a Jew.
1939: New York premiere of “Babes In Arms,” a musical produced by Arthur Freed with songs by Richard Rogers, Lorenz Hart, Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg.
1940: Jews from Warsaw's suburbs were ordered into the Warsaw Ghetto.
1941(22ndof Tishrei, 5702): Shemini Atzeret
1942: Birthdate of singer and composer Paul Simon.
1943: One hundredth anniversary of the founding of B’nai B’rith
1943: A revolt took place in Camp Number I at Sobibor. Alexander Pechersky distributed knives and hatchets to other prisoners. Nine SS and two Ukrainians were killed in the fighting. Three hundred of the prisoners from Camp Number I' escaped. The other 300 would be killed. However, as a result of this revolt, Sobibor ended its operation.
1944: The Soviet Troops entered Riga. Only a handful of Jews had survived in city where there were 30,000 Jews just ten years earlier.
1945 (6th of Cheshvan, 5706): On Shabbat, Leon Recanati, Sephardic leader of Palestine and formerly of Salonika passed away. Recanati was a "happy admixture of a learned Jew with his Biblical wisdom on the one hand and a man of affairs with a sense of reality on the other."
1946: “Three masked gunmen” believed to members of the Irgun “escaped with $12,000 after a daring daylight robbery in down town Tel Aviv.
1946: Members of Hashomir Hatzair (Young Guard), a left-wing Zionist organization, “distributed pamphlets in Tel Aviv calling on the Jewish community in Palestine to take ‘active measures’ against Jewish terrorist organizations.”
1948(10th of Tishrei, 5709) Yom Kippur
1948: An Israeli army unit held Yom Kippur services on Mt. Zion, right outside the [then] sealed Zion's Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. There they blew the Shofar, the closest place to the Western Wall they could get.
1948: U.N. “observers reported that the Arabs had fired with automatic weapons ‘for several hours, from an area under UN supervision, and with any provocation by Jewish Forces.’”
1950: U.S. premiere of “All About Eve,” a drama written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz with music by Alfred Newman.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the cabinet had appointed a seven-member Board of Directors of the German Reparations Purchasing Company. The board was responsible, through Foreign Minister Levi Eshkol, to a five-man ministerial committee which was aided by a 13-member Planning Committee and an Advisory Council of 25 members. You might recognize the name of Levi Eshkol. He would be Prime Minister in June of 1967 when Israel defended itself against its Arab neighbors and reunited the city of Jerusalem
1953(4th of Cheshvan, 5714): “Arab terrorists called Fedayeen, infiltrate into the Israeli village of Yahud and kill Suzanne Kinyas and two of her children (the youngest of which was only 18 months old) in their sleep bringing the toll of Israeli civilian victims to 124.
1955: Premiere of “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter” written by George Axelrod, whose father was Jewish.
1955: “The Pajama Game,” the Richard Adler and Jerry Ross musical opened in London, UK today for the first of 588 performances.
1957(18thof Tishrei, 5718): Sukkoth IV
1957(18thof Tishrei, 5718): Sixty-four year old literary critic and philologist Erich Auberbach passed away today.
1960(22ndof Tishrei, 5721): Shemini Atzeret
1960: Birthdate of Ari Fleischer, former Press Secretary for President Bush
1962(15thof Tishrei, 5723): Sukkoth
1960: In the seventh game of the World Series, as future hall of famer Bill Mazeroski rounded first base after having hit the series winning home run, he runs past first base coach, Lenny Levy, the Pittsburgh native who spent most of his life serving in some capacity with the Pirates organization.
1967(9th of Tishrei, 5728): Erev Yom Kippur
1968: B’nai B’rith celebrates its 125th anniversary
1968: “A Birthday Today For B’nai B’rith” published today traces the history and contributions of the Jewish fraternal organization from its inception during the Presidency of John Tyler to the middle of the twentieth century.
1971(24th of Tishrei, 5732): Fifty-seven Phoebe Ephron, part of a noted artistic family passed away today in New York City.
1971: Birthdate Sacha Baron Cohen, the British born comedian who first gained fame portraying his highly successful comedy character Ali G.
1973: Jordan entered the Yom Kippur War. Thinking that initial Arab victories would spell the demise of Israel, King Hussein thought he would get back the West Bank and east Jerusalem. In the end he lost again and ended up having to surrender his claims to these lands to the PLO.
1973: During the Yom Kippur War, Egyptian reinforcements continued to cross the Suez Canal and began attacking Israeli forces.
1973: Israeli forces confronted large numbers of Iraqi tanks both on the road to Damascus and on the Golan Heights. In both battles, Israeli forces destroyed considerable number of the Iraqi tanks while sustaining minimal losses. Israeli aircraft refrained from shooting down the Soviet transports that were landing at Damascus. However, Israeli forces did destroy at least two Soviet craft once they had landed sparking threats from Moscow.
1973: After much hesitation and despite opposition from America’s Western Allies, President Nixon ordered a massive airlift of supplies for the IDF. The material helped offset the tons of modern weaponry being shipped into the region by the Russians. Many Jews shifted their allegiance to Nixon and the Republicans based on the airlift. However, they seemed to have forgotten that if the Nixon administration had not kept the Israelis from conducting a pre-emptive strike against the Egyptians before they crossed the Canal, none of this would have been necessary in the first place.
1973: Avraham Lanir was scrambled for a reconnaissance mission deep in Syrian territory. During his return to Israel, Lanir was caught in a missile ambush and his Mirage was hit in the rear, forcing him to eject. The wind carried the parachuting pilot back over the border into Syrian territory and he landed in the area of Mazra'at Beit Jinn. Israeli Armor Corps soldiers witnessed him land and attempted to rescue him, but he was captured by a Syrian jeep patrol that reached him first. Lt. Col. Lanir was tortured to death by his Syrian captors. His body was finally returned by the Syrians in 1974. “Former Israel Air Force Commander Mordechai Hod noted that Lanir had information that would have placed the existence of Israel at risk had he revealed it to the Syrians.”
1973:Ady Bnaya and David Ya'ir made it back safely to Israeli lines after their F-4E Phantom Jet was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire.
1973: Iftach Zemer and Itzhak Amitai returned safely to Israeli lines when they were forced to eject from their F-4E Phantom Jet after it suffered a technical malfunction.
1973: After his Phantom F-4E Jet fell victim to “friendly fire,” Uri Bakal safely ejected and made it back to Israeli lines.
1974: Seventy-two year old Austrian conductor Josef Krips, whose father was Jewish which meant he had to leave his native land to pursue his career while the Nazis were in power, passed away today.
1977:The Jerusalem Post reported that US President Jimmy Carter welcomed the Israeli cabinet's approval of a "working paper" on procedures for reconvening of the Geneva Middle East peace conference. "I am pleased with that," he said. His officials explained that what the US had in mind was the creation of some sort of a Palestinian "borough" on the West Bank and in Gaza which would be linked with Jordan. Asked directly whether he advocated an "entity," Carter simply replied, "I have never advocated an independent Palestinian state." These negotiations of 25 years ago provide a tragic-comical backdrop to the so-called peace negotiations that have been taking place since the Camp David Meetings hosted by President Clinton.
1977: Four Palestinians hijacked a Lufthansa Airlines flight to Somalia and demand release of 11 members of the Red Army Faction. Yes, twenty-five years ago, terrorists were interconnected, often sharing resources, training facilities and killing assignments.
1986:Rita Levi-Montalcini’s pioneering work on nerve growth earned her the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archive)
1989: Israeli soldiers killed an 18-year-old Palestinian in a West Bank village, Qalqilya, after they were attacked by masked youths.
1990: Syria invaded Lebanon killing over 500. There was no noticeable protest from Arab states or the U.N.
1993: 150thanniversary of the founding of B’nai B’rith.
1993: U.S. Premiere of the Notre Dame football film “Rudy” co-starring Jon Favreau with music by Jerry Goldsmith
1994: Fifty thousand Jews gathered at the Wailing Wall to pray for the life of Nachshon Wachsman, a nineteen year old Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped by Hamas.
1995(19th of Tishrei, 5756): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
1995(19th of Tishrei, 5756): Eighty-nine year old Henry Roth, author of Call It Sleeppassed away. Born in 1906, Roth was ignored for most of his career and was reduced to holding a variety of jobs since he could not support himself as a writer. Later in life, he enjoyed a re-birth of interest which continued for at least a decade after his death. (As reported by Richard Nicholls)
1997: Syria Invaded Lebanon again. Actually, Syrian troops had occupied parts of Lebanon since 1977. Lebanon is more like a satellite of Syria, than a truly independent nation. The late President Assad had a vision of ruling Greater Syria – nation that would include Syria, parts of Jordan, Lebanon and Israel.
2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of special interest to Jews includingThe Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, by Steven Pinker, Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball by Scott Simon and Rereading Sex: Battle Over Sexual Knowledge and Suppression in Nineteenth-Century American by Helen Lefkowitz
2004(28th of Tishrei, 5765): In London, Bernice Rubens passed away at the age of 76. The prolific British novelist drew on her Jewish upbringing to tell stories of vice and grimness with warmth and humor. “She won Britain’s’ prestigious Booker Prize for fiction in 1970 for The Elected Member, the story of a Jewish family whose secrets drive one son insane.”
2005(10th of Tishrei, 5766): Yom Kippur is observed by Jews all over the world.
2006(21st of Tishrei, 5767): Hoshana Rabah
2006: “Stage Killing: Solving an Attempted Murder” published today provides Faith Jones account of the love triangle surrounding David Levinson, Morris Finkel and Yiddish theatre star Emma Thomashefsky Finkel.
2006: The End, Lemony Snicket’s final novel is scheduled to come out today.
2007: Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, 5768(Second Day) – First of Cheshvan
2007: Yaakov Katz the military correspondent and defense analyst for The Jerusalem Post, the Middle East's leading English daily speaks at Agudas Achim in Iowa City, IA.
2007:Haaretz reported that in Lakewood, New Jersey, a man wielding an aluminum baseball bat attacked an Orthodox Jewish rabbi walking to synagogue critically injuring the 53-year-old man and threatening to strain the already tense ethnic relations in a New Jersey city, officials and residents said. The beating of Mordechai Moskowitz, reportedly at the hands of am African-American man, has put residents on edge in Lakewood, a diverse city of 70,000 near the Jersey Shore that is home to a large Orthodox Jewish population, as well as black and Hispanic communities.
2008(14th of Tishrei, 5769): Erev Sukkoth
2008: Paul Krugman, the Princeton University scholar and New York Times columnist, won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his analysis of how economies of scale can affect trade patterns and the location of economic activity
2009: Chronic City, a novel by Jonathan Lethem, was published today.
2009: Assaf Ramon, the son of Colonel Ilan Ramon who died on the Columbia in 2003, was commemorated today during a military rememberance ceremony marking the 30-day anniversary of his death.
2009: Former Agriproccessor executive Shlomo Rubashkin is scheduled to go on trial in St. Louis, MO.
2009: Channel Two reported that Dalia Itzik spent NIS 75,000 of taxpayers' money on an unnecessary hotel upgrade during a 2006 4-night trip to Paris, France.
2009: The Library of Congress opens a new exhibition "Herblock!," highlighting the life and works of the great political cartoonist.
2009:A Massachusetts judge has denied a motion by Brandeis University to dismiss a lawsuit brought by three overseers of the school’s Rose Art Museum who are seeking to stop the university from closing the museum and selling its works.
2009(25thof Tishrei, 5770):Seventy-seven year old movie producer and studio executive Daniel Melnick passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2010(5thof Cheshvan, 5771): Eighty year old lexicographer, author and tenured member of Olbom (On Language’s Board of Octogenarian Mentors) Sol Steinmetz passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2010:David Grossman and Nicole Krauss are scheduled to talk about their new novels, To the End of the Land and Great House at the New York Public Library.
2010:Among the 20 finalists for the National Book Awards that were announced today was Nicole Krauss for her third novel, Great House, a sprawling story of memory and loss
2010: Ron Charles reviewed The Finkler Question the Howard Jacobson comic novel about anti-Semitism which just won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in London.
2011(15thof Tishrei, 5772): Sukkoth
2011(15thof Tishrei, 5722): Yahrzeit of William Schueller, husband of Eleanor Schueller and father of Deb Levin
2011:Milan's La Scala opera house said today that Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim would serve as its new music director for the next five years.
2011:IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz met with Noam and Aviv Schalit this evening, confirming that their son Gilad Schalit would be returning to Israel on October 18, Channel 2 reported.
2011: Hamas-affiliated media outlets began today publishing names of imprisoned terrorists who will reportedly be set free by Israel in exchange for captive soldier Gilad Schalit.
2012: Six13 “a six-man vocal band that brings an unprecedented style of Jewish music to the stage” is scheduled to appear in the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia Performing Art Series.
2012: Israeli films “Chasing A Star” and “One Day After Peace” are scheduled to be shown at the Syracuse Film Festival in Syracuse, NY.
2012: Tosha Skolnik, an 8th grader at Alice Deal, is scheduled to be called to the Torah as Bar Mitzvah at Adas Israel in Washington, DC.
2012: Seventy year old Barbra Streisand is scheduled to “return to her roots” with a concert at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.
2012(27thof Tishrei, 5773): The cycle begins again as Jews all over the world read Bereshit.
2012: One man was reportedly killed and two others were injured tonight in an IAF attack in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip. The strike targeted Islamic Jihad members who had reportedly planned to carry out an attack against Israelis during the Sukkot holiday. They were said to belong to the Mujahideen Shura Council, an armed group linked to al-Qaeda.
2012: Iran hinted today that it was responsible for a drone that flew deep into Israel on October 6, before being shot down by the Israeli Air Force.
2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Anti-Semitism by Daniel Johnah Goldhagen and the Kraus Project: The Essays of Karl Kraus translated and annotated by Jonathan Franzen as well as an interview with Scott Turrow whose latest work is Identical.
2013:“Passages through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War” is scheduled to open today at the Maryland Museum of Jewish History
2013: “Her” starring Puerto Rican born Jewish actor Joaquin Phoenix is scheduled to debut at the New York Film Festival.
2013: The Hyman S & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival is scheduled to host a Local Author Fair featuring Melissa Ford, author of Measure of Loveand David Bruce Smith, author of American Hero: John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States
2013: After almost a year, “It’s a Thin Line: The Eruv and Jewish Community in New York and Beyond comes to an end at the Yeshiva University Museum
2013:“Skokie: Invaded, But Not Conquered” is scheduled to shown this afternoon at the Illinois Museum and Education Center.
2013: Led by Amy Barnum, Hadassah is scheduled to hold its annual dinner at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2014: In Scarsdale, NY, thhe funeral for Edward M. Davidowitz, retired Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York is scheduled to be held Westchester Reform Temple
2014: As part of its series on the Jewish Experience in the Trenches and at the Homefront” during WW I, the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to show La Grande Illusion (The Grand Illusion), a 1937 French war film directed by Jean Renoir
2014: The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host a presentation by Bill Schneider entitled 2014 Election – Viewpoint from the Nation’s Electionmeister.”
2014: Members of the House of Commons are scheduled to vote on a motion “that is being put forward by Labor MP Grahame Morris” calling for recognizing “the Palestinian state.” (As reported by Times of Israel)