OCTOBER 18
1948:Gertrude Berg made her television debut asBronx housewife Molly Goldberg on NBC's Chevrolet on Broadway in 1948. The Goldbergs began running as a comedy series on NBC radio in 1929 and became one of television's earliest and most popular situation comedies beginning in 1949. Berg produced and scripted the shows and portrayed Molly Goldberg, the family matriarch. Each show offered audiences a pleasant, often comical portrayal of the life of a second-generation Jewish American family. Assimilation into American culture was a prominent theme throughout the series with the last season incorporating the family's move from their Bronx apartment to a fictitious suburb. After the series' cancellation in 1955, Berg went on to win a Tony Award in 1959 for her work in the Broadway comedy A Majority of One by Leonard Spigelgass (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)
2004: The New York Times book section features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jews including Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib by Seymour M. Hersh and The Five Books of Moses: A Translation With Commentary by Robert Alter
2004: The Jewish Women's Archive joined with National Women's Philanthropy of the United Jewish Communities for an historic celebration of 350 years of American Jewish community. The evening showcased Jewish women, of the past and the present, whose boldness, vision, and hard work have shaped the American and the American Jewish life. Part of the International Lion of Judah conference inWashington , D.C. United States North America . Honorees included Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Representative Shelley Berkley; communal leaders Shoshana Cardin, Amy Friedkin, Carole Solomon, and Linda Rae Sher; artist Judy Chicago; actress Tovah Feldshuh; composers Debbie Friedman and Elizabeth Swados; cookbook author Joan Nathan; authors and activists Blu Greenberg, Ruth Gruber, and Letty Cottin Pogrebin; Rabbi Sally J. Priesand; and Barnard College President Judith Shapiro.
2005:Matt Bloom unsuccessfully challenged Satoshi Kojima for the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship.
2011:Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called the release of over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the return of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit today a strategic turning point in Hamas’s struggle against Israel.
67 CE: Roman soldiers captured Gamla, a fortress in Israel's Golan region, and killed all its inhabitants. The ancient historian Josephus Flavius, a leader of the Jewish revolt against Rome, fortified Gamla as a main stronghold in 66 CE. The Romans attempted to take the city by means of a siege ramp, but were turned back by the defenders; only on the second attempt did they succeed in penetrating the fortifications and conquering the city. Thousands of inhabitants were slaughtered, while others chose to jump to their deaths from the top of the cliff. The location of ancient Gamla was discovered in archeological excavations during the 1970s; the remains have been preserved as a national park (As reported by Aish)
323: Constantine the Great decisively defeats Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman Empire. Constantine is perhaps best known for being the first Roman Emperor to endorse Christianity. To put it mildly, Constantine tipped the scales in favor of Christianity and helped begin a downward spiral for European Jewry for an extended period of time. This is an example of the fact that Christianity owes its dominant position to the power of the state. As one author has pointed out in a recent bestseller, the Sword of Constantine was the vehicle for empowering the Cross of the Church.
412:Cyril was made Pope or Patriarch of Alexandria. Two years later, he “incited the Greeks to kill or expel the Jews. He forced his way into the synagogue at the head of a mob, expelled the Jews and gave their property to the crowd. The Prefect Orestes, who refused to condone this behavior, was set upon and almost stoned to death. Only one Jew, Adamanlius, agreed to be baptized. Within a few years Jews were allowed to return, but a majority of them returned only after the Mohammedans conquered Egypt.”
1009: The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church's foundations down to bedrock. His treatment of a Christian shrine provides an insight as to how Islam treated the holy sites of other religions. In other words, Islam’s current claims to the Temple Mount are consistent with a pattern of usurpation and destruction.
1035: Sancho III, King of Navarre, called by some, the Great, was assassinated during a revolt. Four officials and sixty Jews were put to death during that revolt, because the locals considered Jews to be "property" of the crown.
1210: Pope Innocent III excommunicates German leader Otto IV. This was part of Innocent’s drive to become the dominant power in Europe. Jews will recognize him as the true father of the Inquisition and the driving force behind the Fourth Lateran Council that served to demean the Jewish people and force them to live a life isolated from their Christian neighbors which would ensure their impoverishment.
1270: The Last Crusade ended. The Crusades began in 1095 with the People’s Crusade. These first Crusaders moved through Central Europe like a giant wave attacking the local Jewish communities as they moved toward the Holy Land . There were eight crusades, the last two led by the French King, Louis IX known as St. Louis St. Louis Tunis Holy Land . Many historians see the Crusades as a negative in Jewish History. The slaughter of the Jews in Europe by the Crusaders on their way to the Holy Land and the slaughter of the Jews of Jerusalem by the Crusaders once they got there are two examples for this view. The fact that the Crusaders lost out boded well for the Jews since Islamic dominated societies at this time provided better treatment for the Jewish citizens.
1356: Basel, Switzerland was destroyed by an earthquake which was the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps. In all likelihood, no Jews died in the earthquake since the Jewish community in Basel had been dissolved in 1349 when 600 adults were burned to death and the children were forcibly baptized in response to claims that the Jews were well-poisoners who were responsible for the Black Death.
1503: Pope Pius III passed away. The Papacy of Pius III was one of the shortest in history since it had begun on September 22, 0f 1503. He was a compromise Pope who was preceded by Alexander VI and followed by Julius II, two the Medici popes who showed some sympathy for the Jews and otherwise left them alone while they pursued other, more worldly interests. There are those who think that Pius may have died as the victim of sort of Medici induced plot.
1571: In Mexico
1635: Urban VIII issued “Cum sicut acceptimus” a papal bull dealing with the requirement to feed poor Jews imprisoned for failure to pay their debts.
1739(16th of Tishrei, 5500):António José da Silva, a Portuguese-Brazilian dramatist, known as "the Jew" (O Judeu) fell victim to the Inquisition suffering death in an auto-da-fé.
1747: In London, establishment of the Sephardi Jews’ Hospital (Beth Holim).
1747: Three Jewish doctors, Jacob de Castro Sarmento, Dr. Phillip de la Cour and Dr. Joseph Vaz de Silva offered their services to the newly opened Beth Holim - The Sephardi Jewish Hospital.
1748: Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession. The Jews of Silesia would now live under Prussian rule instead of Austrian governance. Silesia would eventually become part of Poland. This is an excellent example of how the Jews never moved; the nations of Europe kept redrawing their boundaries so that a Jew, depending upon the time period could be an Austrian, a German or a Pole. Breslau, which at one time was home to a significant Jewish community, is located in Silesia.
1762: Birthdate of Lazarus Bendavid, the native of Berlin who became a leading mathematician and philosopher.
1763: Uriah and Eva Hendricks gave birth to Richa Hendricks who would marry Abraham Gomez
1764: Uriah and Eva Hendricks gave birth to Rebecca Eve Hendricks who married Solomon Levy
1844: “Under the editorship of Joseph Mitchell,” The Jewish Chronicle “to the title of The Jewish Chronicle and Working Man’s Friend.”
1851(22nd of Tishrei, 5612): Shemini Atzeret
1851: The New York Times began publishing. Contrary to popular misconception the paper was not founded by Jews. Nicknamed "The Gray Lady" or The Times, the newspaper was founded as The New-York Daily Times by Henry J. Raymond and George Jones as a sober alternative to the more partisan newspapers that dominated the New York journalism of the time. In 1896, the times was purchased by Adolph Simon Ochs, an American Jewish reporter of Bavarian background who rescued it from near oblivion, increasing its readership from 9,000 at the time of his purchase to 780,000 by the 1920s. His daughter, Iphigene Bertha Ochs, married Arthur Hays Sulzberger, who became publisher of the Times after his father-in-law. Her son Arthur Ochs "Punch" Sulzberger also became publisher of the Times. The Times may be owned by Jews but it sure is not a Jewish newspaper.
1859: In Paris, pianist Michal Bergson and Katherin Levison, the daughter of an English doctor gave birth to French philosopher, author and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature Henri Bergson.
1863(22nd of Tishrei, 5764): Shemini Atzertz
1867: Birthdate of Adolf Büchler “a Hungarian-Austrian rabbi, historian and theologian. In 1887 he began his theological studies at the Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest, and at the same time studied in the department of philosophy of the university under Ignác Goldziher and Moritz Kármán. Büchler continued his studies at the Breslau Seminary, and in 1890 graduated as PhD at Leipzig University, his dissertation being Zur Entstehung der Hebräischen Accente, which was afterward published in the Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie der Wissenschaften of 1891. Büchler returned to Budapest to finish his theological studies, and was graduated as rabbi in 1892. He then went to Oxford for 1 year, where he worked under the direction of his uncle, Adolf Neubauer, and published an essay, "The Reading of the Law and Prophets in a Triennial Cycle". The same year he accepted a call as instructor at the Vienna Jewish Theological Seminary, teaching Jewish history, Bible, and Talmud. He became Principal of Jews' College in London, in 1906. He passed away in 1939.
1869: In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Temple Emanu-El was formed under the leadership of David Adler and Herny Friend.
1871: It was reported today that 800 buildings have been burned by arsonists in Boguslav who are described as “fanatical oppressors of the Jews.” [Boguslav is a city in the Kiev district of the Ukraine which at that time was part of the Russian Empire. The Ukraine was the scene of periodic spasm of anti-Semitism from the 17th century through the 20th century.]
1873: “Explorations in the East” published today examines recent archaeological discoveries including the Stone of Moab which was uncovered five years ago. Questions still remain about its authenticity. There is a thriving traffic in fake ancient antiques some of which are attributed to Professor Shapira a noted Orientalist living in Jerusalem. [Moses Shapira would be involved in several cases where he was accused of forging or creating relics. These charges would contribute to his death in 1884. Shapira was born a Jew but became an Anglican while living in Palestine.]
1873: Based on information that first appeared in Germany’s Cologne Gazette, it was reported today that the Kingdom of Poland has a total population of six million people, over 800,000 of whom are Jews meaning that they make up about 13 per cent of the total. Since 1816, the Jewish population has quadrupled. The eastern districts of the kingdom have the largest proportions of Jewish citizens while the western districts have a larger proportion of Germans in their population.
1878(21st of Tishrei, 5639): Hoshana Raba
1878: A meeting of property owners was held tonight at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association at #110 West 42nd Street to protest the construction of a horse-railroad at this location. The protesting property owners include Jews and non-Jews who are united in a desire to protect their aggregate investment of $1,730,000
1878: It was reported today that Italy, France and the United Kingdom have informed the government at Belgrade that they will not recognize Serbian independence until the civil and political of its Jewish citizens are guaranteed.
1879: At tonight’s meeting of St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City, the report of the house physician stated that in the past fiscal year, the hospital treated 1,216 patients two of whom were Jews.
1880: Birthdate of Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky. There is no way that this blog can do justice to the life of this complicated person who played such an active role in the activities that led to the creation of the state of Israel. His untimely death in 1940 prevented him from seeing the horrors of the Holocaust and the final fruits of his labors. Regardless of your view of his Revisionist wing of the Zionist movement all would do well to learn more about him.
1880: As of today, in the past six months the Jews of Newcastle-upon-Tyne have purchased beef from 15 different shipments from the United States. This is an indication that American meat is gaining in acceptability among the British since the “the Jews are the most particular race of people upon the face of the earch grading the wholesome state of their butcher’s meat.”
1881: It was reported today that 131 Russian Jewish immigrants were on board the SS Italy when it docked at Castle Garden.
1881: It was reported at tonight’s annual meeting of the Society of St. Luke’s Hospital that the Episcopal institution had treated 1,665 patients in the past year, seven of whom were Jewish.
1881: “Mr. Jacobsohn’s Grievance” published today described the suit that Adolph Jacobsohn has brought against Moses Keniger. The Plaintiff claims that the Respondent has defamed him by claiming that he “failed to fast and pray on Yom Kippur” and that, instead, he had gone to Connecticut “to purchase goods.” Jacobsohn is seeking two thousand dollars in damages because he claims that his fellow Orthodox Jews have refused to do business with him.
1882: In New York City, a concert sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association will be held in Chickering Hall this evening.
1883: There were several families of Russian Jewish immigrants aboard the SS Canada when it arrived in New York today.
1883: Henry J. Greenberg, a thirty year old Jewish peddler from Huntingdon County, PA, registered at Hartman’s Hotel in the Bowery.
1884:Dr. Kaufmann Kohler, the rabbi at New York’s Temple Beth-El will deliver the address at the centenary birthday celebration being sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association tonight.
1884: An “informal celebration” marking the 100th birthday of Sir Moses Montefiore was held “in the last chapel of the Five Points House of Industry. N.W. Platzek, President of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association provided the opening remarks to the standing room only crowd during which he praised Montefiore and introduced the evening’s main speaker, Dr. Kohler, Rabbi of Temple Bethel. Kohler, who began his speech in English, but switched to German so that all assembled could understand spoke glowing of Montefiore’s efforts including those alleviate the suffering of the Jews of Russia.
1884: Birthdate of Emmanuel “Manny” Shinwell, the British trade unionist who would become a member of Clement Attlee’s government – the first Labour government in British history.
1885: “A Magazine Library” published today provides a look at various traditions and tales based on folklore including The Merchant of Venice which Shakespeare seemed to have completely twisted from its Italian origins. “According to an authority from 131 years, in the time of Pope Sixtus, Paul Sedchi insured his ships with Samson Ceneda, a Jewish underwriter…” It was the gentile Secchi who bet the pound of flesh meaning that when his ships were lost he was the one who “insisted on taking his pound” from Ceneda, the Jew. In response to all of these the Pope said: “Go ahead Secchi carve your meat rare; but we wold advise you to careful it you cut a scruple more or less than is due you shall certainly be hanged.” (Editor’s Note: The Pope would be “Sixtus” not Sextus. In terms of the reference to Shakespeare it might be a reference to Sixtus V, one of the Popes issued a bull against the Blood Libel since the only other Sixtus it could be was Sixtus IV who instituted the Inquisition)
1886: A bail of $300 was set yesterday in the Essex Market Police Court for Wolf Bloom a 26 year old Russian Jew who is charged with violating the Sunday “closing laws.”
1886: Henry L. Sayles is scheduled to on trial in the Court of General Sessions for his role of alleged financial improprieties surrounding the Broadway Surface Railroad in New York.
1888: Attendance at Poole Theatre fell off markedly tonight following the withdrawal of support of the production by the Jewish Order of the Harp of David,
1889(23rdof Tishrei, 5650): Simchat Torah
1889: In Hamilton, Ohio, Rose and Samuel Hurst gave birth to Fannie Hurst, the St. Louis educated novelist who wrote Imitation Of Life
1890: Mayor Grant responded to a request by a committee led by Samuel Roeder for the appointment of Coroner Ferdinand Levy to one of the vacant Police Justiceships by expressing doubt that such a vacancy existed but adding that even if one did he would not fill it until after the elections had been held.
1891: It was reported today that “Count Koffsky, the Cossack Chief of Police whose brutalities in evicting the poor Jews of Moscow last March shocked the whole world has been” accused of being part of a forgery ring involving 200,000 rubles.
1893: “Otto Irving Wise’s Candidacy” published today provided background information on the Republican nominee for the Assemblyman in the 21st District including the fact that he is the son of Dr. Aaron Wise, the rabbi at Rodolph Shalom, the brother of Stephen S. Wise, the rabbi at Madison Avenue Synagogue and the editor of The Hebrew World
1894: The Jockey Club purchased Baron Hirsch's three year old English horse Matchbox for 18,000 English pounds
1894: The Lexow Committee which had already heard testimony from Senator Cantor and from Jewish soda water peddlers on the Lower East Side continued its hearings into charges of corruption in the New York City Police Department.
1894: A circular printed in Hebrew advertising a meeting of Republicans in New Haven to be held tonight when translated revealed “a bitter attack on the Irish and requesting the Russians to turn out to the mass meeting and denounce the Irish.” (The Republicans canceled the meeting for fear of trouble.)
1896: German Lutheran missionary Johann Ludwig Schneller, the founder of Jerusalem’s Schneller Orphanage passed away
1896: In London, operetta composer Victor Hallaender and his wife gave birth to German film composer Friedrich Hallaender.
1898(2ndof Cheshvan, 5659): David Levi, who fought in the Italian wars of independence and whose literary efforts included “Il Profeta,” a five act drama set in the final days of the First Temple, passed away today.
1898(2ndof Cheshvan, 5659): Eighty-nine year old Ralph Disraeli, the son Isaac D’Israeli passed away today in Yorkshire.
1898: Herzl has an audience with Wilhelm II in Constantinople.
1898: Louis Selig, Director of the Hebrew Charities in Detroit is scheduled to be one of the speakers at the Civic-Philanthropic Conference that opens today in Battle Creek, Michigan.
1898: United States takes possession of Puerto Rico.
1902:Herzl begins his trip to London in search of support for the Jewish homeland.
1902: Inaugural service of the Jewish Religious Union which led to the formation of the Liberal Jewish Movement.
1902(17thof Tishrei, 5663): Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkoth
1902(17thof Tishrei, 5663):Reuben Asher Braudes, the Wilna born Hebrew author whose novels included The Repentant, Religion and Life and The Morning Light and editor of the Yiddish weekly Yedhudit passed away today in Vienna.
1903:Hedwig Bergman, the daughter of Rabbi Adolf Rosenzweig and Rabbi Juda Bergman gave birth to physicist Ernst David Bergman, “the father of the Israeli nuclear program.”
1903: Birthdate of Zygmund William Birnbaum a native of Lwów, Austria-Hungary who gain fame as Bill Birnbaum, Professor of mathematics and statistics at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.
1904: Birthdate of Chaim Shirman an Israeli scholar of medieval Spanish Jewish poetry who passed away in 1981.
1905: This marked the first day of what was the blackest week in Russian Jewish history until the Holocaust. The Black Hundreds and other bands of reactionary, anti-Semites were formed during and after the Russian Revolution of 1905. They alleged that the Jews were responsible for Russia
1905: Start of a Pogrom in Rostov.
1908(23rdof Tishrei, 5669): Simchat Torah
1910(15thof Tishrei, 5671): Sukkoth
1910: Birthdate of Morris Kertzer, the Canadian born rabbi who earned a bronze start for bravery during the Battle of Anzio and who became an active leader in the move to improve relations between Christians and Jews after the war.
1911: It was reported today that“James Loeb, the banker, who retired from the firm of Kuhn, Loeb Co, a few years ago, has made arrangements for the translation into English and publication at his own expense of the classical authors of all periods.” The volumes in question were originally written in Latin or Greek. Professor Salomon Reinach, the French archaeologist and intellectual (who happens to be Jewish) brought the need for this project to Mr. Loeb’s attention. Details are not available at this time because Mr. Loeb is traveling.
1912: The First Balkan War begins. When the war ended Salonica, with its large Jewish population that numbered approximately 60,000 souls would be detached from the Ottoman Empire and became part of Greece. There was concern among the Jewish population about how they would be affected by the change. The new Greek government moved to gain support among the Jews and was one of the first supporters of the Balfour Declaration when it was issued in 1917.
1914: During World War I, The Yorkshire Herald, an English newspaper, reported on the Czar’s awarding the Cross of St. George to a Jewish soldier named Leo Osnas by that his display of bravery “has won freedom for the Jews in Russia; he has gained for his race the right to become officers in the Russian army and navy, hitherto denied them, and he has so delighted the Russian government that it has since proclaimed that henceforth Jews in the Empire shall enjoy the full rights of citizenship. Surely no man’s winning the Victoria Cross ever resulted in such magnificent results for a subject people as this.” As Martin Gilbert points, the Herald went a bit too far in its praise since under the Czars the Jews never attained full citizenship nor did the persecution ever stop.
1919: A pogrom began at Ivankiv, a town the Ukrainian district of Kiev. This was part of a series of pogroms that racked the Ukraine during 1919 during the Civil War that found the Whites, the Cossacks and the Reds battling for control of what had been the Russian Empire.
1920: Birthdate of actress and political activist Melina Mercouri, the wife of Jewish movie director Jules Dassin who was a victim of the infamous Hollywood Blacklist.
1926: U.S. premiere of “The Eagle of the Sea,” a silent film produced by B.P. Schulberg and co-starring Florence Vidor, the future wife of Jascha Heifitz.
1927(22nd of Tishrei, 5688): Shemini Atzertz
1927:In Paris, Sholom Schwartzbard goes on trial for allegedly having assassinated Symon Petliura the Ukrainian leader who played a leading role in the pogroms during which Schwartzbard’s family was wiped out. Despite the fact that Schwartzbard had in fact shot him, a jury would acquit him after an eight day trial
1927: Columbia Broadcasting System went on the air. This radio network lost money in its first year, and two years later it was purchased by William S. Paley, the son of Jewish cigar manufacturer from Philadelphia.
1927: Birthdate of Marvin Joseph Rotblatt, a left-handed relief pitcher who toiled for the Chicago White Sox for “three seasons in the late 1940s and early 1950’s” (As reported by Richard Goldstein
1929: Birthdate of New Jersey state Democratic political leader Byron Baer. He passed away in June, 2007. “In 2005, shortly before he retired from the Senate, the New Jersey Association of Jewish Federations presented Baer with the Shem Tov and Distinguished Service awards. Jeffrey Maas, then executive director of the association, said Baer was responsible for making sure Jewish community centers, nursing homes, and social service agencies received extensive state funding.”
1933: The Mortimer L. Schiff Scout Reservation was officially dedicated today. “The Mortimer L. Schiff Scout Reservation, located in central New Jersey, was a major Boy Scout training facility for almost 50 years. It was named after Mortimer L. Schiff, the father of John M. Schiff; both of whom were World Scout Committee members and notable early Boy Scouts of America (BSA) leaders.The land was purchased for the BSA by Mrs. Jacob Schiff in memory of her son, Mortimer, who died while President of the BSA in 1931…When the Mortimer L. Schiff Scout Reservation was closed, Nassau County Council's Camp Wauwepex in Wading River, New York was renamed as the John M. Schiff Scout Reservation, in honor of Moritmer's son, John.”
1933: Birthdate of Irwin Mark Jacobs the Cornell University electrical engineer who co-founded Qualcomm.
1934: U.S. premiere of “Man of Aran,” a “British fictional documentary” produced by Michael Balcon.
1934: “An exchange agreement to facilitate the importation of Palestinian oranges into Germany has been devised by the Anglo-Palestine Bank of London and Tel Aviv and the banking firm of M.M. Warburg & Co. in Hamburg.” The agreement will “enable Germany to buy about three million dollars worth of Jaffa oranges during the coming year…”
1935(21st of Tishrei, 5696): Hoshana Raba
1935: The German government introduces the anti-Semitic Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German People.
1936: “A Detroit all star soccer team…held the Maccabees of Tel Aviv…to a 2 to 2 tie before 10,000 spectators at the University of Detroit stadium.”
1936: The SS Excalibur of the American Exports line unloaded it cargo at Tel Aviv, making it he first American ship to use the newly built port facilities at the first “all Jewish metropolis”
1937, The Palestine Post reported that renewed Arab terror claimed three more Jewish victims, while violence continued throughout the country. One Arab assailant was killed in the Old City of Jerusalem. In Ness Ziona an 11-year-old Yemenite boy, Eliahu Sherabi, was fatally shot in the head while sleeping in his house. Jewish buses were shot at and armed Arabs attacked workers of the Palestine Quarries near Motza. Arabs had also attacked Kibbutz Ramat Rahel, where the children's house became their main target. In Jerusalem
1937: Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered an address on “Problems of Youth” at a luncheon at the Hotel Astor. The luncheon is the opening event of a campaign by the Women’s League for Palestine to raise $100,000 to build “a home for immigrant girls in Jerusalem.” Mayor La Guardia will also address the gathering while Dr. Stephen S. Wise and Rabbia Israel H. Leinthal will open the dirve.
1937: As Arab violence continued to grow, a gang of terroirsts attacked the Jewish settlement at Artuf in southern Palestine and a band of twenty armed Arabs “attacked the Baharieh police post between Hebron and Beersheba” and made off with weapons belonging to the British police.
1938(23rd of Tishrei, 5699): Simchat Torah
1938: During his third visit to Germany, Charles Lindbergh attends a dinner at the U.S. embassy in Berlin during which Hermann Göring presents him with the Service Cross of the German Eagle with Star, also known as the Order of the German Eagle (Verdienstorden vom Deutschen Adler).Personally created by Adolf Hitler, this is the highest honor which the Nazi government can give to a foreigner and was last presented to Henry Ford two months earlier.
1938: With Jerusalem under a virtual state of siege because of the worst outbreak of Arab violence since 1929, the British declared a state of virtual martial law and sent troops into the Old City aimed at driving out the “rebel bands.” “The Mufti of Jerusalem, leader of the rebellious Moslems, declared from exile in Syria, that the Arab peace terms included an independent Ara state and an end to Jewish immigration into Palestine.
1939: In Poland, Arthur Weissmann, the brother of Holocaust survivor and author Gerda Weissmann complied with the German summons to register for military service and was never seen again.
1941: When it appeared that the Germans might defeat the Red Army outside Moscow Warsaw
1941: Mass executions of Soviet Jews in Borisov , Byelorussia Minsk , Byelorussia
1942: The Nazis gassed 1,594 deportees from Holland Auschwitz .
1943: Pope Pius explained his failure to speak out against the Nazi deportation of the Jews of Rome. He told Harold Tittman, the United States Vatican
1944(1st of Cheshvan, 5705): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1944: Seven hundred Plaszów , Poland Germany Sudetenland . Oskar Schindler, owner of a newly opened munitions factory in Brünnlitz, persuades the SS to give him all 700 Jews for use as workers. Schindler also makes arrangements to have 300 Jewish women transferred from Auschwitz to his factory.
1944: As the Red Army drives toward Berlin, the Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia. This would help to lead to Soviet control of Czechoslovakia after the war; a fact that proved oddly beneficial to Israel when it was fighting for its independence. The Israelis had no aircraft. There was a store of surplus ME-109’s in Czechoslovakia. The Soviets gave the Czechs permission to sell the planes to the Jews which meant that the first fighter craft flown by the Israelis in May of 1948 were planes left over from the Luftwaffe.
1944(1st of Cheshvan, 5705): Eva Heyman and Gisi Fleischmann, head of the women's Zionist movement in pre-war Slovakia were murdered at Birkenau.
1944(1st of Cheshvan, 5705): Forty-six year old composer, conductor and pianist Viktor Ullman was gassed today at Auschwitz-Birkenau
1945: Nazi war crimes trials opened in Nuremberg , Germany
1946: In Jerusalem, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and his wife gave birth to Rabbi and MK Ya’akov Yosef.
1947: In three separate incidents seen as part of the work of Jewish fighters seeking to end British rule in Palestine, a British army truck “was blown up by a mine just west of Petah Tikva injuring two soldiers, “another army truck hit two mines near Benyaminia” without any casualties and an RAF jeep “ran over a mine on the road near Hadera wrecking the Jeep” without any casualties.
1947: Birthdate of songwriter Laura Nyro. She passed away in 1997.
1947: “Several …banners with legends such as ‘Don’t dissect our counrty’ and ‘Remember the Warsaw ghetto’ went up on the wire in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem this afternoon.”
1948(15thof Tishrei, 5709): For the first time in almost 2,000 years Jews celebrate Sukkoth in their own country.
1948:Gertrude Berg made her television debut as
1950: In Brooklyn Lola (née Liska) Schleifer and textile manufacturer Morris Wasserstein gave birth to Tony Award winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein, the author of “The Heidi Chronicles.”
1954: Texas Instruments introduces the first transistor radio. “The transistor was invented and patented in the 1920s by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld. Its re-invention some twenty years later earned Bell Telephone Laboratories the Nobel Prize, but Bell Labs was forced to abandon all patent claims to the field-effect transistor (which completely dominates modern electronics) because of Lilienfeld's prior work.”
1954: "The Week in Religion" aired for the last time over Dumont television. First broadcast in March 1952, this ecumenical Sunday evening panel show divided the hour into 20-minute segments each for Protestant, Catholic and Jewish news.
1967: MGM released “Far from the Madding Crowd” directed by John Schlesinger with a script by Frederic Raphael.
1973 (22nd of Tishrei, 5734): Shemini Atzeres
1973 (22nd of Tishrei, 5734): German-born American philosopher, Leo Strauss, passed away.
1973: During the Yom Kippur War, the Israelis were able to finally put a pre-fabricated bridge across the Suez Canal. Moving the bridge into position and actually using it to span the Canal was a costly operation. One hundred IDF soldiers died in the attempt with forty-one dying in a single night. The bridge made it easier to move tanks across the Canal but there was no lightening quick strike as had been seen in 1956 and 1967. In fact, if the Egyptians had pressed home their advantage while the bridge was being put in place, the whole plan would have ended in failure. This is another example of how much the Yom Kippur War was “a near run thing.”
1973: Guri Palter and Itzhak Bar’am were taken prisoner after ejecting from their F-4E Phantom Jet that had fallen victim to an Egyptian SAM.
1973: Doron Shalev and Yosef Lev-Ari were taken prisoner after ejecting from their F-4E Phantom Jet that had fallen victim to an Egyptian SAM.
1973:The half-track in which Eliezer Kalina was riding was hit by Syrian gunfire killing the two other occupants and leaving Kalina so gravely wounded that his leg had to be amputated. He overcame adversity to form a volleyball team which he led to three gold medals and one silver medal at the Paralympic Games.
1973: During the Yom Kippur war, Colonel Giora "Hawkeye" Epstein went on a two day spree in which he downed 17 enemy aircraft.
1974: After two years of negotiations over the proposed Jackson-Vanick Amendment, Secretary Henry Kissinger and Senator Henry Jackson exchanged a series of letters that would pave the way for Jews to leave the Soviet Union in large numbers with relatively little impediment.
1981: Publication of “How Clifford Odets Spent His last Desperate Days” by Margaret Brenman-Gibson
1982(1st of Cheshvan, 5743): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1982(1st of Cheshvan, 5743): French political leader and former Premier, Pierre Mendès France passed away. Political accomplishments aside, Mendes France may be best remembered for his choice of beverages. Convinced that the French drank too much wine, Mendes France made a point of drinking milk in public. When he first appeared on the American news program Meet the Press, a class of milk was prominently placed next to the French leader much to the delight of the interviewers.
1984(22nd of Tishrei, 5745): Shemini Atzeret
1986(15th of Tishrei): Sukkoth
1987(25th of Tishrei, 5748): Eighty-seven year old Philip Levine, the renowned pathologist who is the namesake of the “Philip Levine Award” passed away today.(As reported by Peter Flint)
1987: “In Jerusalem of the 1800’s” published today, Nitza Rosovsky, curator of the exhibits at the Harvard Semitic Museum and author of Jerusalem Walks provides a virtual walking of Jerusalem highlighting the history of the city by referencing various architectural gems
1988: Israel's supreme court upheld the ban on Meir Kahane`s Kach Party as racist.
1988 ((7th of Cheshvan 5749): Bar Mitzvah ofAharon Mordechai Rokeach the only child and heir of the current Rebbe of Belz, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach. Born in Jerusalem, Israel, he was named after his father's uncle, Rabbi Aharon Rokeach, the fourth Belzer Rebbe, and his father's father, Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgorai.
1988: In Waterford, CT, premiere of “Italian American Reconciliation” co-starring Helen Hanft.
1988: ABC broadcast the first episode of “Roseanne,” starring Roseanne Barr.
1990: "O you beloved Spain, ‘mother’ we call you, and throughout our lives we will not forget your sweet language. Even though you have expelled us as a stepmother from your womb, we have not stopped loving you as our holy ground, where our ancestors are buried and where the ashes of thousands of tormented and burned still lie..." Haham Solomon Gaon quoted at the ceremony of the Prince of Asturias Concord Award, Oviedo, Spain.
1992(21s of Tishrei, 5753): Hoshana Raba
1992(21s of Tishrei, 5753):Yoram Ben-Porath, the president of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a leading Israeli economist, died today in an automobile accident. He was 55 years old. Also killed in the accident near the town of Eilat were his wife, Yael Cohen Ben-Porath, 42, a lecturer in the university's philosophy department, and their 5-year-old son, Yahali. Mr. Ben-Porath was named president of Hebrew University, Israel's largest and oldest, in 1990. He had previously served as its rector. He received his doctorate from Harvard and was known for his research on surveys and random sampling. During the 1980's he was active in the Israeli political movement Peace Now, which favors conciliation with the Arabs.
1998:The New York Times book section included a review of The Microsoft File: The Secret Case Against Bill Gatesby Jewish author Wendy Goldman Rohm.
2001: U.S. premiere of “The Grey Zone,” a film based on Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account written by Dr. Miklós Nyiszli co-starring Harvey Keitel and produced by Avi Lerner.
2002: Congregation Har Sinai, a congregation that traces its origins to pre-Civil War Baltimore began the dedication of its new facility in Owings Mills, MD
2003(22ndof Tishrei, 5764): Shemini Atzeret
2004: The New York Times book section features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jews including Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib by Seymour M. Hersh and The Five Books of Moses: A Translation With Commentary by Robert Alter
2004: The Jewish Women's Archive joined with National Women's Philanthropy of the United Jewish Communities for an historic celebration of 350 years of American Jewish community. The evening showcased Jewish women, of the past and the present, whose boldness, vision, and hard work have shaped the American and the American Jewish life. Part of the International Lion of Judah conference in
2005:Matt Bloom unsuccessfully challenged Satoshi Kojima for the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship.
2005: The Icon Festival, a celebration of science fiction and the imagination which is held yearly during the Hol Hamoed period of Sukkoth, begins at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque.
2006:The exhibition "Israel Milan
2006: French Jewish director’s O Jerusalem a film version of the history written thirty years ago by Collins and Lapierre premiered in Paris, France.
2006: The Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz was not released to the public today as previously announced.
2007:The Center for Jewish History presents a screening of the documentary On My Way to Fathers Land a 1995 Hebrew Language film with English subtitles directed by Aner Premingerof Anthropology at the University of Illinois
2007: Limmud FSU, the largest Jewish studies and cultural event ever to take place in Russia Moscow
2008: On the fifth day of the 24th Haifa International Film festival, screenings of a variety of films including “A Jumpin Night in the Garden of Eden,” a 1980’s film that was the first cinematic effort to document the American Kletzmer revival.
2009 (30 Tishrei, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan I
2009:This afternoon the Open Door Reading Series at the Writer's Center in Bethesda, MD presents a reading by Gail Collins from "Words that Burn Within Me: Faith, Values, Survival," a book of poetry and prose by the late Hilda Stern Cohen.
2009: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Chronic City” by Jonathan Lethem and an hitherto unpublished short story by Kurt Vonnegut appearing in his latest work "Look at the Birdie"
2009: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity” by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen and “Manhood For Amateurs” by Michael Chabon and the recently released paperback edition of “Writing In The Dark” a collection essays by David Grossman, the Israeli novelist and peace advocate who defends the necessity of literature in a violent world.
2009: The Washington Post features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Enemies of the People:My Family's Journey to America” by Kati Marton
2009: In Washington D.C., opening night of Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival
2009:In an opinion piece published today in The Times and Democrat newspaper, Bamberg County, GOP Chairman Edwin Merwin and Orangeburg County Chairman James Ulmer defended the fiscal policies of U.S. Senator Jim DeMint, by saying he was "like Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves."
2010:Michal Govrin, author of Hold on to the Sun is scheduled to appear at the Library of Congress as part of the Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival in Washington, DC.
2010: “Confessions of An Agent” published today in Sports Illustrated, Josh Luchs “a dyslexic Jewish kid” tells how he used $2,500 of his bar mitzvah money to pay a college player in violation of NCAA rules in hopes that he would become a client of Luchs. In the article Luchs gives detailed accounts of the various players he would illegally pay during his twenty year career.
2010:General Staff Forum members gathered this morning at the Rabin Center to mark 15 years since the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
2010: The New York Times featured a review of Claude Levi-Strauss: The Poet in His Laboratory by Patrick Wilcken
2010: A memorial service honoring the late William Coblentz one San Francisco’s most ardent champions of major civic projects and one of its most influential attorneys is scheduled to be held at the Herbst Theatre.
2010: A website providing information on over 20,000 works of art stolen by the Nazis from their Jewish owners during the 1930s and 1940s was launched today.
2011(20thof Tishrei, 5772): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth
2011(20thof Tishrei, 5772): Eight-nine year old Ruby Cohn, the academic who was the leading authority on Samuel Beckett, passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
2011(20thof Tishrei, 5772): Norman Corwin, a producer and dramatist from the golden age of radio passed away today at the age of 101. (As reported by William Grimes)
2011: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to co-sponsor a screening of “The People v Leo Rank.”
2011: Rabbi Ita Paskind, the Assistant Rabbi of Olam Tikvah in Fairfax, Virginia, is scheduled to deliver the first in a series of lectures on “Aggadah's Influence in Development of Law in the Torah.”
2012: The 96th Hadassah Convention is scheduled to come to an end in Jerusalem.
2012: Hayehudim, considered one of the most successful Rock bands in Israel, is scheduled to perform at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill
2012: Pianist Jeanne Golan is scheduled to perform the piano sonatas of Viktor Ullman under the sponsorship of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
2012:YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present a screening of “Everything is illuminated.”
2012: President Shimon Peres said today that the people of Iran should be encouraged to overthrow their government.
2012: A new centrist “super party,” bringing together former prime minister Ehud Olmert, former Kadima chair Tzipi Livni and popular political newcomer Yair Lapid, “is not going to happen,” Lapid said today.
2013: A screening of “Ghosts of the Third Reich” which “documents the stories of the descendants of the Nazis who confront their family’s past and communicate their most profound feelings of guilt by inheritance” is scheduled to take place today at the Library of Congress.
2013: In the UK, The Wiener Library is scheduled to present “Hitler’s Helpers: The Female Administrators of the Holocaust”
2013: Folk/Reggae/songwriting Rabbi Jack Gabriel is scheduled to lead a special Kabbalat Shabbat service at Kol Ami in Arlington, VA.
2013: “German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to slow down settlement construction today. (As reported by JP staff)
2013: Scattered showers fell in northern Israel this morning, eventually making their way to Tel Aviv in the early afternoon.
2013(14thof Cheshvan, 5774): Ninety-one year old airline victims advocate Hans Ephraimson-Abt passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2013(14thof Cheshvan, 5774): Seventy-year old Norman Geras, Professor Emeritus of Politics at the University of Manchester and husband of Jerusalem born children’s author Adèle Geras passed away today.
2014(24thof Tishrei, 5775): On Shabbat the cycle is scheduled to begin again with “Bereshit.”
2014: Four-time Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh is scheduled to recreate her award-winning performance as Golda Meir in “Golda’s Balcony” at the Victoria Theatre.
2014: Louis Black is scheduled to appear the Seneca Allegany Casino in Salamanca, NY.