OCTOBER 17
832BCE (7 Cheshvan 2928): This is considered the traditional date of the inauguration of the first Temple Jerusalem
539BCE : King Cyrus, The Great, of Persia marches into the city of Babylon. This will lead to the return of the Jews to Jerusalem after 70 years of exile.
415: Emperors Honorius and Thedosius II issued an edict deposing Rabin Gamliel IV as the Nasi “because he had disregarded an earlier decree by Honorius, which had curtailed his privileges and the ban on the building of new synagogues and had adjudicated disputes between Jews and Christians.”
1448: Second Battle of Kosovo, where the mainly Hungarian army led by John Hunyadi is defeated by an Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad II. Murad is remembered favorably by the Jews since he allowed German Jews who were fleeing persecution and death to settle in Salonica. He also employed Jews as his court physicians. On the other hand, John Hunyadi enjoyed the support of the Italian Monk Jean de Capistrano who had previously convinced King Ludwig of Bavaria to expel his Jewish subjects. These two leaders would meet again a decade later during the siege of Belgrade with a different outcome. [Editor’s note – As you can see, conflicts between Moslems and Christians is not an invention of the 21st century]
1483: Pope Sixtus IV launched the Spanish Inquisition, placing it under joint direction of the Church and state. Despite his previous protest, Pope Sixtus
1532: Pope ClementVII issued an apostolical brief halting the Portuguese Inquisition “until further notice.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_09920.html
1775(23rd of Tishrei, 5536): Simchat Torah is celebrated for the first time since the Americans rebelled against the British.
1781: The Americans, with a lot of help from the French, defeated Cornwallis at Yorktown. This victory ensured the creation of the
1793: Birthdate of Isaac Noah Mannheimer, the Copenhagen Talmudist and Rabbi who held a variety of posts in Denmark, Germany and Austria. A leader in the Reform Movement, he served as a representative in the Austrian Reichstag.
1794(23rd of Tishrei, 5555): Simchat Torah
1808: With Napoleon's arrival at the Duchy of Warsaw, the new State parliament called for equal rights. Unfortunately this did not include the Jews whose rights “would be postponed for 10 years in the hope of eradicating all their distinctions which set them apart."
1812: In the Netherlands, Branca and Hirschel Eliazer Kann gave birth to Jacob Kahn
1813(12rid of Tishrei, 5574): As the war between Great Britain and the United States drags into its second year, Jews on both side of the Atlantic celebrate Simchat Torah.
1830: Birthdate of Mortiz Ellinger, who emigrated to the United States from Bavaria in 1854 where he held several city government jobs while being active in the B’Nai B’rith and editing The Menorahand The Jewish Times.
1831: Birthdate of Bernhardine Wetzlar.
1832(23rdof Tishrei, 5593): Simchat Torah
1832(23rdof Tishrei, 5593): Forty-six year old Moses Lemans, the Dutch born Jewish educator and author whose works including The Spirit of the Talmudic Lordand a biography of Maimonides, passed away today.
1835: Birthdate of Abraham Harkavy (Avraham Eliyahu ben Yaakov Harkavy), the Russian born Jewish historian and author. As an author, he was one of the first to write in Hebrew in modern times.
1843(23rdof Tishrei, 5604): Simchat Torah
1846:On Sabbath Bereshit a Beth-din was established, composed of the following gentlemen: Chief Rabbi Lilienthal, Moreno [Isaac M.] Wise, Rabbi of Albany and Syracuse; Moreno Doctor Felsenheldt, and Moreno Doctor Kohlmayer. Dr. Lilienthal, elected Rosh Beth Din, presented the Dayanim to his congregations, and in a sermon, delivered on that occasion, declared, on behalf of the Beth-din, that their services were ready to be given to every Jewish congregation in America, without claiming any clerical rights or dues.
1850: Anti-Christian rioters pillage Christian neighborhoods inAleppo , Syria Middle East was a fact of life before the birth of the Zionist movement and that this long-standing pattern of violence had nothing to do with the Jews.
1851(21st of Tishrei, 5612): Hoshanah Rabah
1851: A letter was sent to Samuel J. Rubinstein thanking him for his two years of “excellent service” as the treasurer of the synagogue in Dublin, Ireland.
1853(15thof Tishrei, 5614): Sukkoth
1854:Ernestine Rose, a leading early American advocate for women's rights, presided over the Fifth National Woman's Rights Convention inPhiladelphia Philadelphia
1858: Birthdate of David Samuel Margoliouth, The son of Ezekiel Margoliouth and the nephew Moses Margoliouth, both of whom were Anglican converts, he was a noted Orientalist and Oxford Don. Among other accomplishments, “He identified a business letter written in the Judeo-Persian language, found in Danfan Uiliq, northwest China, in 1901, as dating from 718 C.E. (the earliest evidence showing the presence of Jews in China).” He passed away in 1940.
1862(23rd of Tishrei, 5623): Simchat Torah
1862: As the Jewish “holiday season” comes to an end with the celebration of Simchat Torah, General U.S. Grant returns to active field service as he takes command of the Department of Tennessee. In that capacity he will issue the infamous General Order Number Eleven that expelled Jews, “as a class” from the district under his command. This regrettable episode would be used by some to unfairly brand Grant as an anti-Semite.
1863(21st of Tishrei, 5764): Hoshana Rabah
1864(17th of Tishrei, 5625): As the Jewish soldiers serving with the Army of Northern Virginia observe Sukkoth Chol Hamoed, General James “Pete” Longstreet, Lee’s good right arm resumes command of troops after having been seriously wounded during the Battle of Wilderness.
1872(15th of Tishrei, 5633): Sukkoth
1875: It was reported today The Hebrew Charity Fair is to take placed in December at New York’s 22nd Regiment Armory. All proceeds from the event will go to support Mount Sinai Hospital. Women from all of the city’s synagogues are actively working to prepare for the event.
1875: According to an article entitled “The Wandering Jew” published today, the first document mentioning this mythic figure are about 650 years old, dating back to the reign of Henry III. The next references to him do not appear until the 16thcentury when he supposedly revealed himself to a weaver in Bohemia. Contrary to the name, the Wandering Jew has nothing to do with Judaism. Rather he is a Christological Character tied to one of the stories relating to the Crucifixion
1875: “The Bible in the Public Schools” published today described the conflict going on at the Board of Education of Union Hill, NJ concerning mandatory Bible readings at the start of each school day.
1877: Herman C. Bush wrote a letter from Cincinnati today addressed to his friend Christopher J. Bush of New York confessing that he had stolen seven piece of cassimere from his employer in New York City. He claimed that he had sold five of the pieces to a Jew on the corner of Baxter and Leonard Streets. Further investigation would establish that this was the address of a second-hand clothing store owned by Louis Lazarus, who had been arrested previously on charges of receiving stolen goods. Lazarus claimed the items in question had been bought by his son who had no idea that they were stolen. Lazarus would later be arrested. There is no word as to the fate or religion of either of the men named Bush.
1877: Dr. F. De Sola Mendez is scheduled to deliver a lecture at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in New York City, starting at 8 p.m.
1879: Birthdate of German historian Eugen Täubler who worked as a lecturer at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Higher Institute for Jewish Studies) in Berlin from 1910 to 1914 and again from 1933 to 1941 after which he and his fled Nazi Germany for the United States where he became a professor at HUC in Cincinnati.
1881: “Minor Affairs Abroad” published today provides a statistical snapshot of births in Russia including the fact that Jews accounted for 3 percent of the 8,119 out-of-wedlock births
1881: One hundred thirty two more Jewish immigrants from Russia are expected to arrive in New York City today.
1882: Leo Pinkser published his famous pamphlet"Autoemancipation; A Warning of a Russian Jew to his Brethren."He published it as a result of the Russian pogroms of the previous year. Pinsker advocated establishing a homeland as a cure for anti-Semitism. He thought that a Jewish congress should decide if that homeland should be in Eretz-Israel, theUnited States Mt. Scopus
1882: Mr. and Mrs. Julius W. Kaskel buried their three week old son Asher in the Hebrew Cemetery in Leadville, CO.
1882: It was reported today that the Young Men’s Hebrew Association will be sponsoring a concert at Chckering Hall later this week.
1882: It was reported today that Israel Ettler has been arraigned in the Harlem Police Court for his alleged role in the recent riot at Ward’s Island.
1884: It was reported today that Young Men’s Hebrew Association will be hosting a celebration marking the 100th birthday of Sir Moses Montefiore tomorrow night. (The overwhelming number of centennial celebrations marking the birth of Montefiore attests to his importance to Jews throughout the world and the affection in which he was held. But how many people know who is today/)
1885: A law enacted on this date madereligious instruction for Jewish children living in Lübeck who were attending public schools compulsory. The city paid an annual subsidy to the synagogue in Lubeck for providing this instruction
1886: “Moses and Henry George” published today provided George’s praise for the system “Moses tried to found in which there was an absence of poverty and the idea of the brotherhood of man was paramount. To that end, “Moses proved not only for a fair division of the land among the people but for a redistribution every 50 years making monopoly impossible.”
1888: “A Jewish Wedding” published today described the wedding ceremony that joined New Yorker Louis H. Rascover to Miss Carrie Thalheimer in Reading, PA which was one of the social highlights of the year. The ceremony was followed by a reception attended by five hundred people from New York and most of the major cities in eastern Pennsylvania. Before her marriage, Miss Thalheimrt “was the acknowledged belle in Hebrew society circles in Reading.”
1888: The leaders of the Jewish Order of the Harp of David who were sponsoring a series of “grand operas, tragedies and high comedies at Poole’s Theatre for the benefit of its charitable and mutual benefit funds” clashed with Professor Horowitz, the man it had retained to manage the events during which the latter ceased the proceeds from the ticket offices and only agreed to pay the actors after they threatened not to perform this evening.
1890: A citizen’s committee met with Mayor Grant today and urged him to appoint Coroner Ferdinand Levy to serve as a Police Justice.
1891(15thof Tishrei, 5652): Sukkoth
1891: Birthdate of Henry Torres, the attorney who defended Samuel Schwartbard, the Jewish poet and anarchist who was accused of assassinating Simon Petlioura for his role in the Ukrainian Pogroms in which thousands of Jews including his parents were murdered.
1893: In response to an allegation published in The Evening Post that Otto Irving Wise is a “hack politician” one of his friends said today “that Mr. Wise had been connected with Tammany Hall for short time only and then resigned and affiliated himself with the Republicans.”
1894: As reported today, the average age of the 163 people living at the Aged and Infirm Hebrews is seventy-two.
1894: The Lexow Committee (named for its chairman Clarence Lexow), the New York State Senate Committee investigating charges of corruption in the New York City Police Department heard more testimony including charges of police intimidation and payoffs in the operation of soda water stands on the Lower East Side by Samuel Ebert, Wolf Lipman, Samuel Cohen and Amelia Levine.
1898: A.C. Wheeler writes a letter to the New York Times in which he takes issue with the surprise expressed by the paper’s London correspondent at the positive and warm reception received by Israel Zangwill during his highly successful lecture tour.
1900: Birthdate of molecular biologist Alfred Ezra Mirsky, the husband of children’s author Reba Paeff and the father of Reba Goodman and Jonathan Mirsky.
1900: Herzl meets with the Ernest von Koerber, Austrian Prime Minister.
1903(26thof Tishrei, 5664): Lewis Abraham Tallerman, the brother of Australian merchant Daniel Tallerman passed away today.
1903: Birthdate of author Nathanael West best known for Miss Lonelyhearts and Day of the Locusts.
1905: Birthdate of Lev Nussimbaum, the native of Kiev “who wrote under the pen names Essad Bey and Kurban Said.
1911: In New York Dr. Morris Loeb said today that it was his understanding that his brother, James Loeb, the retired banker, was going to underwrite the expense of translating 200 hundred volumes of the classics into English. The volumes in question were originally written in Latin and Greek.
1914: Birthdate of Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman.
1915: Birthdate of Arthur Miller. Two of this American playwright’s noted works were “Death of a Salesman” and “The Crucible.” His other claim to fame was his marriage to Marilyn Monroe.
1916: Cartoonist Rube Goldberg married Irma Seeman after which they set up housekeep at 98 Central Park West in New York City where they gave birth to two sons, Thomas and George.
1917: Birthdate of Herschel Schater, the Brownsville native who was youngest son of a 7th generation shochet and a real estate manager and as chaplain serving with the Third Army was the first rabbi “to enter and participate in the liberation of Buchenwald.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1917: Birthdate of Alfred Edward “Fred” Kahn “a leading regulatory scholar who wielded his influence in both government and academia, helped spur a broad movement beginning in the mid-1970s toward freer markets in rail and automotive transportation, telecommunications, utilities and the securities markets.”
1919(23rd of Tishrei, 5680): Simchat Torah is observed for the first time after the end of World War I.
1920: Today South Jersey's first Conservative congregation was officially "organized" and elected Morris Handle as Beth El's first President.
1920: In Brussels, Sadi Kirschen and his wife gave birth to Claude-Anne Kirschen who gained fame as Claude-Anne Lopez one of the most, if not the most formidable, expert on Benjamin Franklin. “Her father was a defense lawyer for Edith Cavell, the British nurse who was executed by the Germans after she helped scores of Allied soldiers escape German-occupied Belgium during World War I.” (As reported by William Yardley)
1924: The Ku Klux Klan staged its second march in less than six months in Las Vagas, Nevada but found little support for its message of hating Catholics and Jews.
1925: Birthdate of Irwin Silber, “a founder and the longtime editor of the folk-music magazine Sing Out!, who was one of the prime movers behind the folk-music revival of the 1950s and 1960s.” (As reported by William Grimes)
1930:In Biddeford, ME, Samuel and Leah Osher gave birth to Marion Osher, the future wife of Hebert Sandler her partner in creating Golden West Financial.
1933:Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany. Strangely enough, the New York Times story referred to him as a German scientist. I guess the guys at the Times had not figured out that for all of his greatness, he was just another Jew fleeing Hitler’s Germany. When is a Jew in Germany a German and not a Jew? When he wins the Nobel Prize.
1935: When the Belgian steamship Leopold II was unloading 97 tons of cement at Jaffa, “a tin case of cartridges concealed in a barrel” was discovered. According to “unconfirmed reports…from Arab sources…800 rifles and 400,000 cartridges” were also found among the 537 barrels of cement.
1935: “The party of Haj Amin el Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem asserted” today that the arms discovered yesterday when the SS Leopold II was being unloaded in Jaffa yesterday, “were part of a Jewish plot” and gave rise to the threat of a general Arab work stoppage.
1937: As the Arab Reign of Terror designed to drive the Jews from EretzIsrael Lydda Airport Hebron Jerusalem
1937 (12th of Cheshvan, 5698): A band of Arab terrorists shot and killed a ten-year old Jewish boy from Yemeni at Tirath Shalom which is located near Ness Zionah in southern Palestine.
1937 (12th of Cheshvan, 5698): In the wake of renewed Arab terrorism, “Samuel Gutman, a young Jewish theological student studying his Talmud lesson in the shade of a tree in the Schneller quarter of Jerusalem was attacked by an Arab, who stabbed him six times.”
1937 (12th of Cheshvan, 5698): In the wake of renewed Arab terrorism, two buses filled with Jewish workers returning to Jerusalem from the quarry near Motzah were fired on by Arabs. The gunmen escaped having failed to wound or kill any of their targets.
1937: A movement “led by Max Seligman” a lawyer from Cardiff, Wales, now living in Tel Aviv, that is seeking to convert Palestine into a British Crown Colony as a way of ending the fighting between Arabs and Jews files an application with the Palestine Attorney General’s office in attempt o register an organization called “The Palestine Crown Colony Association.”
1937: Late tonight Arab terrorists attempted to blow up a ridge on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho. The bridge was partially damaged but the road remained opened to traffic.
1939: The Nazis deported over one thousand Jews from Moravska Ostrava, of the formerCzechoslovakia Lublin Poland
1939: With the cessation of hostilities the Nazis finally fixed the Polish-German frontier. At a meeting, Hitler made clear that the policy would be to cleansePoland
1939: Hitler lectures General Wilhelm Keitel and other top Wehrmacht generals on the need for "Jews, Poles, and similar trash" to be cleared from old and new territories of the Reich.
1942: According to reports published in the New York Times, Palestine is filling a dual role in the British war effort. It is home to a key military headquarters called the “Palestine Base and Lines of Communications Headquarters.” It has also become an industrial center that fills many needs of the British military in the Middle East including the manufacture of mines and hand grenades and the repair of British and American tanks and other military vehicles damaged during combat action. Many of the workers are refugees from central and eastern Europe which has given them the capability of producing goods that used to be supplied by “Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany and other industrialized European nations.”
1942: Austrian librettist, lyricist and writer Fritz Löhner-Beda was deported to the Monowitz concentration camp near Auschwitz.
1942: Over 10,000 Jews were transferred from Buchenwald Concentration camp to Auschwitz.
1942: The Nazis murdered 1600 Jews from Buczacz, Ukraineat the Belzec death camp.
1942: Four hundred and five Jews held in theBuchenwald and Sachsenhausen , Germany Auschwitz . Austrian-Jewish opera librettist Fritz Beda is among those deported from Buchenwald .
1943: A Jewish partisan unit commanded by Abba Kovner destroys two rail engines and two bridges nearVilna , Lithuania
1943: German Ambassador to the Vatican Ernst von Weizsäcker writes to the German Foreign Ministry that the College of Cardinals has been "particularly dismayed" since the roundup of Jews in Rome is occurring "below the very windows of the Pope." He notes that the Pope continues to do everything he can "not to burden relations with the German government and German agencies inRome
1944: Adolf Eichmann returned toBudapest Germany
1944: At Birkenau, Dr. Mengele began another selection of children to be sent to the gas chambers. Only his small selected group of about 200 twins were continued to be spared his wretched wrath.
1946: King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia sent a letter to President Truman charging that the American leader’s “call for opening the gates of Palestine to more Jews was in ‘complete contradiction’” to what the King said were “presidential assurances to the Arabs.” The King described the Jews as “aggressors from the start” when it came to matters regarding Palestine.
1947: Following a six day trial, Yossef Vavriel and Abraham Katalan, two members of the Irgun, “were convicted of carrying arms in a room of the house at Kiryat Sahul where two British policemen” who had been kidnapped from a swimming pool in June were being held prisoner. The two British policemen had not been harmed by their captors.
1947: David Ben-Gurion called on members of the Irgun and the Stern Gang to disband their organizations and join the Haganah as the Jewish community moved to protect itself from attacks from the Arabs. Ben-Gurion denied that negotiations were being held with the leaders of these organizations since his goal is to have only one military force that will answer to the civilian leaders of the Yishuv.
1947: Mr. Moshe Shertok the head of Political Department of the Jewish Agency, addressed the United Nations, making the case for the creation of a Jewish state as part of the Two State Solution. Moshe Shertok would become Moshe Sharett after the creation of the state of Israel, serving as it first Foreign Minister and second Prime Minister.
1947: U.S premiere of “The Exile” directed by Max Ophüls,
1948(14th of Tishrei, 5709): Erev Sukkoth;
1948: Israeli naval vessels shelled Majdal which had been occupied by invading Egyptian troops.
1948(14th of Tishrei) Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky, also known as the Maharitz, passed away. Born in 1865 he moved to Jerusalem in 1930. He was the first Rebbe of Dushinsky and Chief Rabbi (Govad) of the Edah HaChareidis of Jerusalem.
1948: The 52nd and 54thBattalions of the Givati Brigade began a three day action aimed at taking control of “the internal Negev road from Julis to Bror Hayial through Kawkaba and Huleiqat.”
1948: During Operation Yoav, Egyptian forces begin withdrawing from theNegev after suffering heavy attacks by the Israelis. The Egyptians were retreating from land to which they had no legal or moral claim. Operation Yoav was conducted during the Israeli War for Independence
1950: David Ben-Gurion made an attempt to form a minority government consisting of Mapai and Sephardim and Oriental Communities today, but it was not approved by the Knesset.
1952:The Jerusalem Post reported that the Joint Distribution Committee agreed to defray half the cost of the upkeep and medical treatment of the North African immigration. The forced migration of Jews living in Moslem lands toIsrael Morocco Israel Israel
1956: U.S. premiere of “What Happened to Julie on Her Honeymoon?” produced by Martin Melcher.
1958: NBC broadcast “An Evening with Fred Astaire,” the Emmy winning special directed and co-produced by Bud Yorkin (Alan David Yorkin)
1959(15th of Tishrei, 5720): Sukkoth
1959: In the UK, Julie Brett and Eric Selig Phllip Cowell, Sr. who is Jewish gave birth to television personality Simon Cowell.
1963(29th of Tishrei, 5724): Mathematician Jacques-Salomon Hadamard passed away at the age of 98. Although Hadamard claimed to be an atheist when it came to religion he became an active in support of Jewish causes following the Dreyfus Affair. Part of this may have stemmed from the fact that his wife was related to the wrongly accused French Colonel.
1967: Barbra Streisand starred in "Belle of
1967: Memorial service for Brian Epstein was held at New London Synagogue – The Jewish Connection to the lads from Liverpool.
1973: The “Battle of the Chinese Farms” comes to an end when an Egyptian counter-attack fails to dislodge Israeli troops leaving the bridgehead across the Suez Canal intact. The battle, which began on October 15th was one of the bloodiest and costliest of the war.
1973: During the Yom Kippur War, the Soviets were landing 70 planes per day crammed with modern supplies at Egyptian and Syrian airports. Egyptian forces failed in their attempts to dislodge Israeli forces from their new positions on the west bank of theSuez Canal . At the same time, the Egyptians were not making any progress with the attacks on Israeli positions east of the Canal. As the fortunes of war began to turn against the attacking Arab Armies, the Soviets increased the pressure for a cease fire. The Israelis were unwilling to consider any action that would reward Arab Aggression.
1973: OPEC started an oil embargo against a number of western countries. Supposedly OPEC was using the Oil Weapon to reverse the Arab defeat during the Yom Kippur War. In point of fact, OPEC succeeded in raising the price of petroleum which enriched OPEC, shifted the economic balance and along the way impoverished millions of people living in Third World Nations – untold numbers of Arabs and other followers of Islam living in non-OPEC nations.
1975: The United Nations declared that “Zionism is racism.” This came in the same period when the U.N. General greeted the pistol packing Yasser Arafat with a standing ovation. Arafat was still in the full flush of his victory; having been responsible for the terrorist attack on the Munich Olympics and the slaughter of the Israeli athletes.
1975: U.S. premiere of “Rooster Cogburn” produced by Hal Wallis.
1976(23rd of Tishrei, 5737): Simchat Torah
1977(5th of Cheshvan, 5738): Eighty-one year old English film producer Sir Michael Elias Balcon, the grandfather of Daniel Day-Lewis and Tasmin Day-Lewish passed away today.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that a prominent, unnamed, West Bank figure, whom the local Arab politicians expected to become a central member of any Palestinian delegation at the renewed Geneva Peace Conference, was seeking an urgent meeting with Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, to check whether Israel would be prepared to negotiate an eventual self-determination for the Palestine Arabs at the conference table.
1979(26th of Tishrei, 5740): Sidney Joseph Perelman passed away. Known as S.J. Perelman, he was born in
1983(9th of Cheshvan, 5744): Seventy-eight year old Raymond Aron passed away. Born in Paris, the famed author and social commentator, served in the French Air Force and then fought with the Free French during WW II. While his name may not be a household word, he was a life-long friend and worthy intellectual opponent of Jean-Paul Sartre.
http://www.egs.edu/library/raymond-aron/biography/
1984(21st of Tishrei, 5745): Rabbi Levi Arthur Olan passed away. Born in 1903 at Cherkasy, Ukraine, he was Rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Worcester, Massachusetts from 1929 to 1948. From 1949 to 1970 he was Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El of Dallas, Texas.
1985(2nd of Cheshvan, 5746): Ninety-year old conductor and opera manager Joseph Rosenstock passed away today. (As reported by Dena Kleiman)
1988:Today’s announcement that chemist Gertrude Elion had won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine represented the culmination of an unlikely career. The young Elion had known what she wanted to do—but nobody seemed ready to let her do it.
1989: An army inquiry completed today found that a Syrian
1990: Publication of William Steig’s Shrek! a picture book for children about a young ogre whose name is derived from the Yiddish work for “fear” or “fright.”
1994: The draft of a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan was finalized. This would prove to be one of the tangible positive by-products of the Oslo Peace Process.
1995(23rd of Tishrei, 5756): Simchat Torah
1998: A Palestinian conducted a grenade assault on the
1999: The New York Times book section features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jews including Bad Jews And Other Stories by Gerald Shapiro and Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel.
2000: At the Library of Congress opening of an exhibition entitledHerblock’s History: Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millennium that presents works by cartoonist Herb Block, who chronicled the nation’s political history and caricatured twelve American presidents from Herbert Hoover to Bill Clinton.
2001 (30th of Tishrei, 5762):Israel's tourism minister, Rehavam Zeevi was shot to death in the first assassination of a serving Cabinet minister by Palestinians. Born inJerusalem
2003(21st of Tishrei, 5764): Hoshana Rabah
2003: U.S. premiere of “Runaway Jury,” co-starring Dustin Hoffman and Rachel Weisz
2004: The body of Sam Kellerman was found in a Hollywood (CA) apartment. Sam Kellerman was the broth of Max Kellerman an American boxing commentator and sports talk radio host based in Los Angeles. “As a result of the ensuing investigation, former boxer James Butler was arrested and charged with Sam's murder. He later confessed to the murder and was given a 29 year sentence.”
2004(2nd of Cheshvan, 5765): Uzi Hitman “an Israeli singer, songwriter, composer and television personality” passed away. His career began in 1976 and he became a popular Israeli artist during the 1980s and 1990s. He has famously composed a popular melody for Adon Olam in 1976. His most famous songs include Noladati Lashalom (I Was Born for Peace), Ratziti Sheteda (I Wanted You to Know), Todah (Thank you) and Kan (Here), which reached 3rd place during the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest. Hitman also appeared on the 1980s children's programmes Parpar Nehmad and Hopa Hei. He died after a heart attack at the age of 52. He was buried at the Yarkon Cemetery near Tel Aviv. The City of Ramat Gan renamed Kikar Hashoshanim (Roses Square) in his neighborhood of residence to Kikar Hitman (Hitman Square).
2005: Haaretz reported that Kinneret Mendel and Matat Rosenfeld-Adler, 21-year-old cousins from the settlement ofCarmel
2005(14th of Tishrei, 5766): Erev Sukkoth
2006: Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called on President Moshe Katsav to resign in response to the police's recommendation to indict him on a number of charges including rape.
2007:Virtuoso Pianist Vladimir Feltsman plays “Music from Poland and Russia” at the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.
2007: As an example of the secular power 21stcentury Jews have attained, a photo is taken at 10:13 a.m. of Michael Mukasey, President Bush’s nominee for attorney general chatting with Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman prior to the start of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The two Orthodox Jews were classmates atYale Law School
2007: The New York Times features a review of Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won’t Do) by Michael Wex.
2007:A London-based Jewish radio station, Shalom FM, founded by Mike Menoza as a way of providing, "some balanced reporting about the community and Israel" ceased broadcasting at midnight.
2008: In a reversal of cultural roles. The Jerusalem Cinematheque features an American film about an Israeli. The film is “You Don’t Mess with Zohan” an American made film about an Israeli. “
2008: Jerusalem mayoral candidate Nir Barkat toured Jewish and state owned lands in an area between the French Hill and the Arab neighborhood of Anata, promising that “In Anata, a new Jewish neighborhood will be established and this will provide a solution to the housing needs of students and the city’s younger generation.
2008 (18th of Tishrei, 5769): Eighty five year old Montreal native Ben Weider who was a founder and longtime president of the International Federation of Body Builders” passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/sports/othersports/21weider.html?_r=0
2009:Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s “The Diary of Anne Frank” is performed at Kimmel Theatre on the campus of Cornell College in Mt. Vernon Iowa.
2012: University of Liverpool Professor Eve Rosenhaft is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Black People under Nazi Rule: Perspectives on the ‘Racial State’” at the Wiener Library in London.
2012: The Washington Jewish Film Festival and the Hebrew Language are among the sponsors of the scheduled screening of “Four Pairs of Shoes” at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
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415: Emperors Honorius and Thedosius II issued an edict deposing Rabin Gamliel IV as the Nasi “because he had disregarded an earlier decree by Honorius, which had curtailed his privileges and the ban on the building of new synagogues and had adjudicated disputes between Jews and Christians.”
1448: Second Battle of Kosovo, where the mainly Hungarian army led by John Hunyadi is defeated by an Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad II. Murad is remembered favorably by the Jews since he allowed German Jews who were fleeing persecution and death to settle in Salonica. He also employed Jews as his court physicians. On the other hand, John Hunyadi enjoyed the support of the Italian Monk Jean de Capistrano who had previously convinced King Ludwig of Bavaria to expel his Jewish subjects. These two leaders would meet again a decade later during the siege of Belgrade with a different outcome. [Editor’s note – As you can see, conflicts between Moslems and Christians is not an invention of the 21st century]
1469: Ferdinand II of Aragon married Isabella of Castile. Their marriage led to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single country, Spain. This rapacious duo would expel the Jews in 1492. While cloaking themselves in the Cross, they filled their pockets with stolen Jewish wealth.
1483: Pope Sixtus IV launched the Spanish Inquisition, placing it under joint direction of the Church and state. Despite his previous protest, Pope Sixtus III gave into Ferdinand's pressure and extended the authority of the Inquisition to Aragon Catalonia Valencia Spain Cedar Rapids
1532: Pope Clement
1756: Birthdate of Isaac Abraham Euchel, the native of Copenhagen and nephew of Rabbi Masos Rintel who was one of the founders of the Haskalah movement.
1762(30th of Tishrei, 5523): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1762(30th of Tishrei, 5523): Sixty-three year old Samson Gideon, "one of the outstanding members of the London Jewish Community" and "a leader in the Parliamentary struggle to pass the Jews' Naturalization Act of 1753" passed away today after having contracted dropsy leaving £1000 of his £350,000 fortune to the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation in London on condition he was buried with honor as a married man in their cemetery in Mile End.
1768: Birthdate of Israel Jacobson, the native of Halberstadt Germany who was a sccessful businessman, philanthropist and one of the founders of the Reform Movement
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_09920.html
1775(23rd of Tishrei, 5536): Simchat Torah is celebrated for the first time since the Americans rebelled against the British.1781: The Americans, with a lot of help from the French, defeated Cornwallis at Yorktown. This victory ensured the creation of the United States
1793: Birthdate of Isaac Noah Mannheimer, the Copenhagen Talmudist and Rabbi who held a variety of posts in Denmark, Germany and Austria. A leader in the Reform Movement, he served as a representative in the Austrian Reichstag. 1794(23rd of Tishrei, 5555): Simchat Torah
1796(15th of Tishrei, 5557): Sukkoth celebrated for the last time during the Presidency of George Washington.
1808: With Napoleon's arrival at the Duchy of Warsaw, the new State parliament called for equal rights. Unfortunately this did not include the Jews whose rights “would be postponed for 10 years in the hope of eradicating all their distinctions which set them apart."
1812: In the Netherlands, Branca and Hirschel Eliazer Kann gave birth to Jacob Kahn
1813(12rid of Tishrei, 5574): As the war between Great Britain and the United States drags into its second year, Jews on both side of the Atlantic celebrate Simchat Torah.
1830: Birthdate of Mortiz Ellinger, who emigrated to the United States from Bavaria in 1854 where he held several city government jobs while being active in the B’Nai B’rith and editing The Menorahand The Jewish Times.
1831: Birthdate of Bernhardine Wetzlar.
1832(23rdof Tishrei, 5593): Simchat Torah
1832(23rdof Tishrei, 5593): Forty-six year old Moses Lemans, the Dutch born Jewish educator and author whose works including The Spirit of the Talmudic Lordand a biography of Maimonides, passed away today.
1835: Birthdate of Abraham Harkavy (Avraham Eliyahu ben Yaakov Harkavy), the Russian born Jewish historian and author. As an author, he was one of the first to write in Hebrew in modern times.
1843(23rdof Tishrei, 5604): Simchat Torah
1846:On Sabbath Bereshit a Beth-din was established, composed of the following gentlemen: Chief Rabbi Lilienthal, Moreno [Isaac M.] Wise, Rabbi of Albany and Syracuse; Moreno Doctor Felsenheldt, and Moreno Doctor Kohlmayer. Dr. Lilienthal, elected Rosh Beth Din, presented the Dayanim to his congregations, and in a sermon, delivered on that occasion, declared, on behalf of the Beth-din, that their services were ready to be given to every Jewish congregation in America, without claiming any clerical rights or dues.
1850: Anti-Christian rioters pillage Christian neighborhoods in
1851(21st of Tishrei, 5612): Hoshanah Rabah
1851: A letter was sent to Samuel J. Rubinstein thanking him for his two years of “excellent service” as the treasurer of the synagogue in Dublin, Ireland.
1853(15thof Tishrei, 5614): Sukkoth
1854:Ernestine Rose, a leading early American advocate for women's rights, presided over the Fifth National Woman's Rights Convention in
1858: Birthdate of David Samuel Margoliouth, The son of Ezekiel Margoliouth and the nephew Moses Margoliouth, both of whom were Anglican converts, he was a noted Orientalist and Oxford Don. Among other accomplishments, “He identified a business letter written in the Judeo-Persian language, found in Danfan Uiliq, northwest China, in 1901, as dating from 718 C.E. (the earliest evidence showing the presence of Jews in China).” He passed away in 1940.
1862(23rd of Tishrei, 5623): Simchat Torah
1862: As the Jewish “holiday season” comes to an end with the celebration of Simchat Torah, General U.S. Grant returns to active field service as he takes command of the Department of Tennessee. In that capacity he will issue the infamous General Order Number Eleven that expelled Jews, “as a class” from the district under his command. This regrettable episode would be used by some to unfairly brand Grant as an anti-Semite.
1863(21st of Tishrei, 5764): Hoshana Rabah
1864(17th of Tishrei, 5625): As the Jewish soldiers serving with the Army of Northern Virginia observe Sukkoth Chol Hamoed, General James “Pete” Longstreet, Lee’s good right arm resumes command of troops after having been seriously wounded during the Battle of Wilderness.
1872(15th of Tishrei, 5633): Sukkoth
1875: It was reported today The Hebrew Charity Fair is to take placed in December at New York’s 22nd Regiment Armory. All proceeds from the event will go to support Mount Sinai Hospital. Women from all of the city’s synagogues are actively working to prepare for the event.
1875: According to an article entitled “The Wandering Jew” published today, the first document mentioning this mythic figure are about 650 years old, dating back to the reign of Henry III. The next references to him do not appear until the 16thcentury when he supposedly revealed himself to a weaver in Bohemia. Contrary to the name, the Wandering Jew has nothing to do with Judaism. Rather he is a Christological Character tied to one of the stories relating to the Crucifixion
1875: “The Bible in the Public Schools” published today described the conflict going on at the Board of Education of Union Hill, NJ concerning mandatory Bible readings at the start of each school day.
1877: Herman C. Bush wrote a letter from Cincinnati today addressed to his friend Christopher J. Bush of New York confessing that he had stolen seven piece of cassimere from his employer in New York City. He claimed that he had sold five of the pieces to a Jew on the corner of Baxter and Leonard Streets. Further investigation would establish that this was the address of a second-hand clothing store owned by Louis Lazarus, who had been arrested previously on charges of receiving stolen goods. Lazarus claimed the items in question had been bought by his son who had no idea that they were stolen. Lazarus would later be arrested. There is no word as to the fate or religion of either of the men named Bush.
1877: Dr. F. De Sola Mendez is scheduled to deliver a lecture at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in New York City, starting at 8 p.m.
1879: Birthdate of German historian Eugen Täubler who worked as a lecturer at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Higher Institute for Jewish Studies) in Berlin from 1910 to 1914 and again from 1933 to 1941 after which he and his fled Nazi Germany for the United States where he became a professor at HUC in Cincinnati.
1881: “Minor Affairs Abroad” published today provides a statistical snapshot of births in Russia including the fact that Jews accounted for 3 percent of the 8,119 out-of-wedlock births
1881: One hundred thirty two more Jewish immigrants from Russia are expected to arrive in New York City today.
1882: Leo Pinkser published his famous pamphlet"Autoemancipation; A Warning of a Russian Jew to his Brethren."He published it as a result of the Russian pogroms of the previous year. Pinsker advocated establishing a homeland as a cure for anti-Semitism. He thought that a Jewish congress should decide if that homeland should be in Eretz-Israel, the
1882: Mr. and Mrs. Julius W. Kaskel buried their three week old son Asher in the Hebrew Cemetery in Leadville, CO.
1882: It was reported today that the Young Men’s Hebrew Association will be sponsoring a concert at Chckering Hall later this week.
1882: It was reported today that Israel Ettler has been arraigned in the Harlem Police Court for his alleged role in the recent riot at Ward’s Island.
1884: It was reported today that Young Men’s Hebrew Association will be hosting a celebration marking the 100th birthday of Sir Moses Montefiore tomorrow night. (The overwhelming number of centennial celebrations marking the birth of Montefiore attests to his importance to Jews throughout the world and the affection in which he was held. But how many people know who is today/)
1885: The first American Rabbinical Conference was held in Cleveland, Ohio
1885: “Statistics of the Jews” published today used figures provided by The Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Marseilles to present a demographic picture of world Jewry. There are 6,377,601 Jews in the world, 5,407, 602 of whom live in Europe, 245,000 in Asia, 413,000 in Africa, 300,000 in American and 12,000 in Oceania. Of the European countries, Russia has the largest population at over 2,000,000 followed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire with 1,600,000. With a combined Jewish population of 3,000 Norway and Sweden have the fewest.
1886: “Moses and Henry George” published today provided George’s praise for the system “Moses tried to found in which there was an absence of poverty and the idea of the brotherhood of man was paramount. To that end, “Moses proved not only for a fair division of the land among the people but for a redistribution every 50 years making monopoly impossible.”
1888: “A Jewish Wedding” published today described the wedding ceremony that joined New Yorker Louis H. Rascover to Miss Carrie Thalheimer in Reading, PA which was one of the social highlights of the year. The ceremony was followed by a reception attended by five hundred people from New York and most of the major cities in eastern Pennsylvania. Before her marriage, Miss Thalheimrt “was the acknowledged belle in Hebrew society circles in Reading.”
1888: The leaders of the Jewish Order of the Harp of David who were sponsoring a series of “grand operas, tragedies and high comedies at Poole’s Theatre for the benefit of its charitable and mutual benefit funds” clashed with Professor Horowitz, the man it had retained to manage the events during which the latter ceased the proceeds from the ticket offices and only agreed to pay the actors after they threatened not to perform this evening.
1890: A citizen’s committee met with Mayor Grant today and urged him to appoint Coroner Ferdinand Levy to serve as a Police Justice.
1891(15thof Tishrei, 5652): Sukkoth
1891: Birthdate of Henry Torres, the attorney who defended Samuel Schwartbard, the Jewish poet and anarchist who was accused of assassinating Simon Petlioura for his role in the Ukrainian Pogroms in which thousands of Jews including his parents were murdered.
1893: In response to an allegation published in The Evening Post that Otto Irving Wise is a “hack politician” one of his friends said today “that Mr. Wise had been connected with Tammany Hall for short time only and then resigned and affiliated himself with the Republicans.”
1894: As reported today, the average age of the 163 people living at the Aged and Infirm Hebrews is seventy-two.
1894: The Lexow Committee (named for its chairman Clarence Lexow), the New York State Senate Committee investigating charges of corruption in the New York City Police Department heard more testimony including charges of police intimidation and payoffs in the operation of soda water stands on the Lower East Side by Samuel Ebert, Wolf Lipman, Samuel Cohen and Amelia Levine.
1898: A.C. Wheeler writes a letter to the New York Times in which he takes issue with the surprise expressed by the paper’s London correspondent at the positive and warm reception received by Israel Zangwill during his highly successful lecture tour.
1900: Birthdate of molecular biologist Alfred Ezra Mirsky, the husband of children’s author Reba Paeff and the father of Reba Goodman and Jonathan Mirsky.
1900: Herzl meets with the Ernest von Koerber, Austrian Prime Minister.
1903(26thof Tishrei, 5664): Lewis Abraham Tallerman, the brother of Australian merchant Daniel Tallerman passed away today.
1903: Birthdate of author Nathanael West best known for Miss Lonelyhearts and Day of the Locusts.
1905: Birthdate of Lev Nussimbaum, the native of Kiev “who wrote under the pen names Essad Bey and Kurban Said.
1911: In New York Dr. Morris Loeb said today that it was his understanding that his brother, James Loeb, the retired banker, was going to underwrite the expense of translating 200 hundred volumes of the classics into English. The volumes in question were originally written in Latin and Greek.
1914: Birthdate of Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman.
1915: Birthdate of Arthur Miller. Two of this American playwright’s noted works were “Death of a Salesman” and “The Crucible.” His other claim to fame was his marriage to Marilyn Monroe. Monroe
1916: Eighteen year old Mischa Levitz, famed Russian born concert pianist made his American debut in New York, at Aeolian Hall
1916: Cartoonist Rube Goldberg married Irma Seeman after which they set up housekeep at 98 Central Park West in New York City where they gave birth to two sons, Thomas and George.
1917: Birthdate of Herschel Schater, the Brownsville native who was youngest son of a 7th generation shochet and a real estate manager and as chaplain serving with the Third Army was the first rabbi “to enter and participate in the liberation of Buchenwald.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)1917: Birthdate of Alfred Edward “Fred” Kahn “a leading regulatory scholar who wielded his influence in both government and academia, helped spur a broad movement beginning in the mid-1970s toward freer markets in rail and automotive transportation, telecommunications, utilities and the securities markets.”
1919(23rd of Tishrei, 5680): Simchat Torah is observed for the first time after the end of World War I.1919: Radio Corporation of America (RCA) created. RCA and NBC were inextricably linked with David Sarnoff.
1919: Birthdate of Russian physicist Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov
1920: Today South Jersey's first Conservative congregation was officially "organized" and elected Morris Handle as Beth El's first President.
1920: In Brussels, Sadi Kirschen and his wife gave birth to Claude-Anne Kirschen who gained fame as Claude-Anne Lopez one of the most, if not the most formidable, expert on Benjamin Franklin. “Her father was a defense lawyer for Edith Cavell, the British nurse who was executed by the Germans after she helped scores of Allied soldiers escape German-occupied Belgium during World War I.” (As reported by William Yardley)1920: Birthdate of Betty Sarah Wouk, of blessed memory. Born Betty Brown in Grangeville, Idaho, this graduate of USC married Herman Wouk, the great American-Jewish novelist, in 1945. Wouk’s service on the USS Zane gave him two great gifts, Mrs. Wouk and the material for the “.Caine Mutiny.”
1921(15th of Tishrei, 5682): Sukkoth
1923: Birthdate of Isaac Saba Raffoul, “a Mexican businessman.”
1924: The Ku Klux Klan staged its second march in less than six months in Las Vagas, Nevada but found little support for its message of hating Catholics and Jews.
1925: Birthdate of Irwin Silber, “a founder and the longtime editor of the folk-music magazine Sing Out!, who was one of the prime movers behind the folk-music revival of the 1950s and 1960s.” (As reported by William Grimes)1927(21st of Tishrei, 5688): Hoshanah Rabah
1927: Birthdate of guitarist Barney Kessel.
1930:In Biddeford, ME, Samuel and Leah Osher gave birth to Marion Osher, the future wife of Hebert Sandler her partner in creating Golden West Financial.
1933:Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany. Strangely enough, the New York Times story referred to him as a German scientist. I guess the guys at the Times had not figured out that for all of his greatness, he was just another Jew fleeing Hitler’s Germany. When is a Jew in Germany a German and not a Jew? When he wins the Nobel Prize.
1935: When the Belgian steamship Leopold II was unloading 97 tons of cement at Jaffa, “a tin case of cartridges concealed in a barrel” was discovered. According to “unconfirmed reports…from Arab sources…800 rifles and 400,000 cartridges” were also found among the 537 barrels of cement.
1935: “The party of Haj Amin el Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem asserted” today that the arms discovered yesterday when the SS Leopold II was being unloaded in Jaffa yesterday, “were part of a Jewish plot” and gave rise to the threat of a general Arab work stoppage.
1937: As the Arab Reign of Terror designed to drive the Jews from Eretz
1937 (12th of Cheshvan, 5698): A band of Arab terrorists shot and killed a ten-year old Jewish boy from Yemeni at Tirath Shalom which is located near Ness Zionah in southern Palestine.
1937 (12th of Cheshvan, 5698): In the wake of renewed Arab terrorism, “Samuel Gutman, a young Jewish theological student studying his Talmud lesson in the shade of a tree in the Schneller quarter of Jerusalem was attacked by an Arab, who stabbed him six times.”
1937 (12th of Cheshvan, 5698): In the wake of renewed Arab terrorism, two buses filled with Jewish workers returning to Jerusalem from the quarry near Motzah were fired on by Arabs. The gunmen escaped having failed to wound or kill any of their targets.
1937: A movement “led by Max Seligman” a lawyer from Cardiff, Wales, now living in Tel Aviv, that is seeking to convert Palestine into a British Crown Colony as a way of ending the fighting between Arabs and Jews files an application with the Palestine Attorney General’s office in attempt o register an organization called “The Palestine Crown Colony Association.”
1937: Late tonight Arab terrorists attempted to blow up a ridge on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho. The bridge was partially damaged but the road remained opened to traffic.
1939: The Nazis deported over one thousand Jews from Moravska Ostrava, of the former
1939: With the cessation of hostilities the Nazis finally fixed the Polish-German frontier. At a meeting, Hitler made clear that the policy would be to cleanse
1939: Hitler lectures General Wilhelm Keitel and other top Wehrmacht generals on the need for "Jews, Poles, and similar trash" to be cleared from old and new territories of the Reich.
1940(15th of Tishrei, 5701): Sukkoth
1941: U.S. premiere of “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” co-starring Simone Simon with music by Bernhard Herrmann who won an Oscar for his work on this picture.
1942: According to reports published in the New York Times, Palestine is filling a dual role in the British war effort. It is home to a key military headquarters called the “Palestine Base and Lines of Communications Headquarters.” It has also become an industrial center that fills many needs of the British military in the Middle East including the manufacture of mines and hand grenades and the repair of British and American tanks and other military vehicles damaged during combat action. Many of the workers are refugees from central and eastern Europe which has given them the capability of producing goods that used to be supplied by “Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany and other industrialized European nations.”
1942: Austrian librettist, lyricist and writer Fritz Löhner-Beda was deported to the Monowitz concentration camp near Auschwitz.
1942: Over 10,000 Jews were transferred from Buchenwald Concentration camp to Auschwitz.
1942: The Nazis murdered 1600 Jews from Buczacz, Ukraineat the Belzec death camp.
1942: Four hundred and five Jews held in the
1943: A Jewish partisan unit commanded by Abba Kovner destroys two rail engines and two bridges near
1943: German Ambassador to the Vatican Ernst von Weizsäcker writes to the German Foreign Ministry that the College of Cardinals has been "particularly dismayed" since the roundup of Jews in Rome is occurring "below the very windows of the Pope." He notes that the Pope continues to do everything he can "not to burden relations with the German government and German agencies in
1944: Adolf Eichmann returned to
1944: At Birkenau, Dr. Mengele began another selection of children to be sent to the gas chambers. Only his small selected group of about 200 twins were continued to be spared his wretched wrath.
1946: King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia sent a letter to President Truman charging that the American leader’s “call for opening the gates of Palestine to more Jews was in ‘complete contradiction’” to what the King said were “presidential assurances to the Arabs.” The King described the Jews as “aggressors from the start” when it came to matters regarding Palestine.
1947: Following a six day trial, Yossef Vavriel and Abraham Katalan, two members of the Irgun, “were convicted of carrying arms in a room of the house at Kiryat Sahul where two British policemen” who had been kidnapped from a swimming pool in June were being held prisoner. The two British policemen had not been harmed by their captors.
1947: David Ben-Gurion called on members of the Irgun and the Stern Gang to disband their organizations and join the Haganah as the Jewish community moved to protect itself from attacks from the Arabs. Ben-Gurion denied that negotiations were being held with the leaders of these organizations since his goal is to have only one military force that will answer to the civilian leaders of the Yishuv.
1947: Mr. Moshe Shertok the head of Political Department of the Jewish Agency, addressed the United Nations, making the case for the creation of a Jewish state as part of the Two State Solution. Moshe Shertok would become Moshe Sharett after the creation of the state of Israel, serving as it first Foreign Minister and second Prime Minister.
1947: U.S premiere of “The Exile” directed by Max Ophüls,
1948(14th of Tishrei, 5709): Erev Sukkoth;
1948: Israeli naval vessels shelled Majdal which had been occupied by invading Egyptian troops.
1948(14th of Tishrei) Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky, also known as the Maharitz, passed away. Born in 1865 he moved to Jerusalem in 1930. He was the first Rebbe of Dushinsky and Chief Rabbi (Govad) of the Edah HaChareidis of Jerusalem.
1948: The 52nd and 54thBattalions of the Givati Brigade began a three day action aimed at taking control of “the internal Negev road from Julis to Bror Hayial through Kawkaba and Huleiqat.”
1948: During Operation Yoav, Egyptian forces begin withdrawing from the
1950: David Ben-Gurion made an attempt to form a minority government consisting of Mapai and Sephardim and Oriental Communities today, but it was not approved by the Knesset.
1952:The Jerusalem Post reported that the Joint Distribution Committee agreed to defray half the cost of the upkeep and medical treatment of the North African immigration. The forced migration of Jews living in Moslem lands to
1956: U.S. premiere of “What Happened to Julie on Her Honeymoon?” produced by Martin Melcher.
1958: NBC broadcast “An Evening with Fred Astaire,” the Emmy winning special directed and co-produced by Bud Yorkin (Alan David Yorkin)
1959(15th of Tishrei, 5720): Sukkoth
1959: In the UK, Julie Brett and Eric Selig Phllip Cowell, Sr. who is Jewish gave birth to television personality Simon Cowell.
1963(29th of Tishrei, 5724): Mathematician Jacques-Salomon Hadamard passed away at the age of 98. Although Hadamard claimed to be an atheist when it came to religion he became an active in support of Jewish causes following the Dreyfus Affair. Part of this may have stemmed from the fact that his wife was related to the wrongly accused French Colonel.
1967: Barbra Streisand starred in "Belle of 14th Street
1967: Memorial service for Brian Epstein was held at New London Synagogue – The Jewish Connection to the lads from Liverpool.1973: The “Battle of the Chinese Farms” comes to an end when an Egyptian counter-attack fails to dislodge Israeli troops leaving the bridgehead across the Suez Canal intact. The battle, which began on October 15th was one of the bloodiest and costliest of the war.
1973: During the Yom Kippur War, the Soviets were landing 70 planes per day crammed with modern supplies at Egyptian and Syrian airports. Egyptian forces failed in their attempts to dislodge Israeli forces from their new positions on the west bank of the
1973: OPEC started an oil embargo against a number of western countries. Supposedly OPEC was using the Oil Weapon to reverse the Arab defeat during the Yom Kippur War. In point of fact, OPEC succeeded in raising the price of petroleum which enriched OPEC, shifted the economic balance and along the way impoverished millions of people living in Third World Nations – untold numbers of Arabs and other followers of Islam living in non-OPEC nations.
1975: The United Nations declared that “Zionism is racism.” This came in the same period when the U.N. General greeted the pistol packing Yasser Arafat with a standing ovation. Arafat was still in the full flush of his victory; having been responsible for the terrorist attack on the Munich Olympics and the slaughter of the Israeli athletes.
1975: U.S. premiere of “Rooster Cogburn” produced by Hal Wallis.
1976(23rd of Tishrei, 5737): Simchat Torah
1977(5th of Cheshvan, 5738): Eighty-one year old English film producer Sir Michael Elias Balcon, the grandfather of Daniel Day-Lewis and Tasmin Day-Lewish passed away today.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that a prominent, unnamed, West Bank figure, whom the local Arab politicians expected to become a central member of any Palestinian delegation at the renewed Geneva Peace Conference, was seeking an urgent meeting with Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, to check whether Israel would be prepared to negotiate an eventual self-determination for the Palestine Arabs at the conference table.
1979(26th of Tishrei, 5740): Sidney Joseph Perelman passed away. Known as S.J. Perelman, he was born in Brooklyn in 1904, raised in Providence Brown University Bucks County
1983(9th of Cheshvan, 5744): Seventy-eight year old Raymond Aron passed away. Born in Paris, the famed author and social commentator, served in the French Air Force and then fought with the Free French during WW II. While his name may not be a household word, he was a life-long friend and worthy intellectual opponent of Jean-Paul Sartre.http://www.egs.edu/library/raymond-aron/biography/
1984(21st of Tishrei, 5745): Hoshanah Rabah
1984(21st of Tishrei, 5745): Rabbi Levi Arthur Olan passed away. Born in 1903 at Cherkasy, Ukraine, he was Rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Worcester, Massachusetts from 1929 to 1948. From 1949 to 1970 he was Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El of Dallas, Texas.1985(2nd of Cheshvan, 5746): Ninety-year old conductor and opera manager Joseph Rosenstock passed away today. (As reported by Dena Kleiman)
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/18/arts/joseph-rosenstock-90-conductor-of-operas.html
1988:Today’s announcement that chemist Gertrude Elion had won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine represented the culmination of an unlikely career. The young Elion had known what she wanted to do—but nobody seemed ready to let her do it. New York Hunter College
1989: An army inquiry completed today found that a Syrian MIG -23 fighter-bomber was able to penetrate Israeli airspace unchallenged last week because of an error by the air defense officer on duty at the time.
1990: Publication of William Steig’s Shrek! a picture book for children about a young ogre whose name is derived from the Yiddish work for “fear” or “fright.”
1994: The draft of a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan was finalized. This would prove to be one of the tangible positive by-products of the Oslo Peace Process.1995(23rd of Tishrei, 5756): Simchat Torah
1997(16th of Tishrei, 5758): Second day of Sukkoth
1997(16th of Tishrei, 5758): Ninety-six year old character actor Ben Welden passed away today.
1998: A Palestinian conducted a grenade assault on the Beersheba
1999: The New York Times book section features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jews including Bad Jews And Other Stories by Gerald Shapiro and Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel.2000: At the Library of Congress opening of an exhibition entitledHerblock’s History: Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millennium that presents works by cartoonist Herb Block, who chronicled the nation’s political history and caricatured twelve American presidents from Herbert Hoover to Bill Clinton.
2001 (30th of Tishrei, 5762):Israel's tourism minister, Rehavam Zeevi was shot to death in the first assassination of a serving Cabinet minister by Palestinians. Born in
2003(21st of Tishrei, 5764): Hoshana Rabah
2003: U.S. premiere of “Runaway Jury,” co-starring Dustin Hoffman and Rachel Weisz
2004: The body of Sam Kellerman was found in a Hollywood (CA) apartment. Sam Kellerman was the broth of Max Kellerman an American boxing commentator and sports talk radio host based in Los Angeles. “As a result of the ensuing investigation, former boxer James Butler was arrested and charged with Sam's murder. He later confessed to the murder and was given a 29 year sentence.”
2004(2nd of Cheshvan, 5765): Uzi Hitman “an Israeli singer, songwriter, composer and television personality” passed away. His career began in 1976 and he became a popular Israeli artist during the 1980s and 1990s. He has famously composed a popular melody for Adon Olam in 1976. His most famous songs include Noladati Lashalom (I Was Born for Peace), Ratziti Sheteda (I Wanted You to Know), Todah (Thank you) and Kan (Here), which reached 3rd place during the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest. Hitman also appeared on the 1980s children's programmes Parpar Nehmad and Hopa Hei. He died after a heart attack at the age of 52. He was buried at the Yarkon Cemetery near Tel Aviv. The City of Ramat Gan renamed Kikar Hashoshanim (Roses Square) in his neighborhood of residence to Kikar Hitman (Hitman Square).
2005: Haaretz reported that Kinneret Mendel and Matat Rosenfeld-Adler, 21-year-old cousins from the settlement of
2005(14th of Tishrei, 5766): Erev Sukkoth
2006: Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called on President Moshe Katsav to resign in response to the police's recommendation to indict him on a number of charges including rape.
2007:Virtuoso Pianist Vladimir Feltsman plays “Music from Poland and Russia” at the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.
2007: As an example of the secular power 21stcentury Jews have attained, a photo is taken at 10:13 a.m. of Michael Mukasey, President Bush’s nominee for attorney general chatting with Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman prior to the start of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The two Orthodox Jews were classmates at
2007: The New York Times features a review of Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won’t Do) by Michael Wex.
2007:A London-based Jewish radio station, Shalom FM, founded by Mike Menoza as a way of providing, "some balanced reporting about the community and Israel" ceased broadcasting at midnight.
2008: In a reversal of cultural roles. The Jerusalem Cinematheque features an American film about an Israeli. The film is “You Don’t Mess with Zohan” an American made film about an Israeli. “
2008: Jerusalem mayoral candidate Nir Barkat toured Jewish and state owned lands in an area between the French Hill and the Arab neighborhood of Anata, promising that “In Anata, a new Jewish neighborhood will be established and this will provide a solution to the housing needs of students and the city’s younger generation.
2008 (18th of Tishrei, 5769): Eighty five year old Montreal native Ben Weider who was a founder and longtime president of the International Federation of Body Builders” passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/sports/othersports/21weider.html?_r=0
2009:Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s “The Diary of Anne Frank” is performed at Kimmel Theatre on the campus of Cornell College in Mt. Vernon Iowa.
2009: At Agudas Achim in Iowa City, Sam Stalkfleet is called to the Torah as a the Bar Mitzvah
2009: At the 14th St Y in Manhattan opening of the LABALMA Exhibition followed by the Y Dance party.
2009(29th of Tishrei, 5770):Sheldon Jerome Segal “an American embryologist and biochemist who spent his entire career working on contraception and made major innovations in the field of long-lasting alternatives, including in the creation of Norplant, the first major development advance in birth control since the birth control pill” passed away.
2009(29th of Tishrei, 5770): Seventy-eight year old novelist Norma Fox Mazer, passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/arts/25mazer.html
2009: “A Believer in Heroism, to Jews’ Lasting Gratitude” published today told the tale of Dr. Tina Strobos and her who hid more than 100 Jews from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam.
2010: The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival opened in Washington, DC.
2010: Dr. Stephen Whitfield, Professor of American Studies at Brandeis University, author of In Search of American Jewish Culture and one of Tulane University’s most distinguished graduates is scheduled to speak at the Guardain-Benefactor Luncheon sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.
2010: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Great House by Nicole Krauss and David Susskind: A Televised Life by Stephen Battaglio.
2010:The IDF Israel Defense Forces attacked a terrorist cell planning to launch Qassam rockets or mortar bombs at Israel from Gaza.
2011: President Shimon Peres is scheduled to open his residence to the public today from from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon. It is the continuation of a long-held tradition for the presidents of Israel to open the residence to the wider public during one of the intermediate days of the Succoth.
2011:Philip Levine, the newly named Poet Laureate is scheduled to open the annual literary season of the Library of Congress with a reading of his work at the Coolidge Auditorium.
2011:Ron Skolnik, Executive Director of Partners for Progressive Israel (formerly Meretz USA) is scheduled to speak on "Rent, Cottage Cheese and Peace: What's making Israel tick these days?" at Kol Ami, the Northern Virginia Reconstructionist Community
2011: Dr. Michael Berenbaum is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Three German Jews Rediscover Their Judaism” during which he will examine the lives of Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, and Gershom Scholem.
2011: A genuine simchah as the family and friends of Laurie Silber celebrate the birthday of this remarkable ayshish chayal: loving wife, devoted daughter, doting mother and grandmother, sweet singer of Psalms who brightens the Musical Shabbat and energetic community leader who taught in our Sunday School for many years and who brings new energy to Temple Judah in each of her terms as co-President. For those lucky enough to know her she is a “chever” – a friend for all seasons.
2011:The Israel Law Center (Shurat Hadin) is set to launch a hotline today, to help Jewish college students who are victims of anti-Semitism on their campuses.
2011:The State responded to petitions lodged against the release of 477 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit at the High Court of Justice today, saying the swap was strictly a political matter to be carried out by the government.
2011:The High Court of Justice rejected numerous petitions against the execution of the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap deal today, effectively removing the last legal obstacle en route to the release of the abducted Israel Defense Forces solder.
2011(19thof Tishrei, 5772): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth
2011: Following a speech by David Einhorn today at the Value Investing Congress in which he “publicly announced his short position in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, its share price fell by 10 per cent.
2011(19thof Tishrei, 5772): Ninety-four year old audio innovator Edgar M. Villchur passed away (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
2012(1stof Cheshvan, 5773): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
2012(1stof Cheshvan, 5773): Eighty-nine year old “Stanford R. Ovshinsky, an iconoclastic, largely self-taught and commercially successful scientist who invented the nickel-metal hydride battery and contributed to the development of a host of devices, including solar energy panels, flat-panel displays and rewritable compact discs,” passed away today. (As reported by Barnaby J. Feder)
2012: Israeli singer-song writer Onili (Nili Ohayon) is scheduled to perform at Littlefiled in Brooklyn.
2012: Israel has not done enough to carry out the directive issued by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to increase the country's aerial firefighting capabilities, in spite of the growing threat of wildfires posed by rockets and missiles pointed at the Israeli home-front both from the north and south, the state comptroller's report stated today.
2012:"Incoming Egyptian ambassador to Israel Atef Salem presented President Shimon Peres with his official credentials at the President's Residence in Jerusalem today. Salem, the first ambassador sent by new Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, said at the ceremony that Cairo is committed to all agreements with Israel, including the peace agreement."
2012: Friends and family look forward to celebrating the birthday of Laurie Silber a pillar of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Jewish community whose efforts has included multiple tours as President of Temple Judah, enthusiastic singing member of Shir Yehuda, long-time Sunday School teacher as well as a loving wife, devoted mother and “grand” grandmother An Ashish Chayil in the truest sense of the term.
2013(13thof Cheshvan, 5774): Eighty-four year old Emmy award winning producer Lou Scheimer passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2013: At the Library of Congress, the Czech film series that features movies with Jewish themes is scheduled to show “Four Pairs of Shoes.”
2013: The Center For Jewish History is scheduled to host a panel discussion on “The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of Sholem Aleichem” featuring Jeremy Dauber author of The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Tevye
2013: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to present “Behind the Scenes of Elegy” in which Ron Hirsen discusses his play that “reveals the family dynamic between Holocaust survivors and the next generation.”
2013: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington and the National Archives are scheduled to present “Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage”
2013: Middle Eastern vocalist and composer Galeet Dardashti is scheduled to demonstrate the melismatic vocal ornaments present in Mizrachi Jewish music and Persian classical music to students at Tulane University
2013: US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism following an IDF guided tour of a recently unearthed tunnel running beneath the border with the Gaza Strip today. (As reported Naama Barak)
2013: While Israel issued no official response to a Washington Post report today that claimed Turkey had deliberately exposed a network of up to 10 Iranians working for the Mossad, a former Israeli spy chief fumed that, if accurate, the incident constituted a grave betrayal by Turkey of years of unwritten understandings between the two intelligence communities.
2014: SukkahPDX 2014 , Juried Outdoor Design Exhibit sponsored by the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to come to an end.
2014(23rdof Tishrei, 5775): Simchat Torah
2014: In the UK, the Oxford University Jewish Society chaplains are scheduled to host a festive lunch at their home.
2014: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Ritual Committee hosts a Pizza dinner prior to the Consecration Ceremony honoring the newest youngster in the Religious School.