OCTOBER 30
1708: Abraham ben Saul Broda entered into a contract with Jewish community of Metz to serve as its rabbi.
2008: Haaretz reported that an Israeli archaeologist digging at a hilltop south of Jerusalem believes a ceramic shard found in the ruins of an ancient town bears the oldest Hebrew inscription ever discovered, a find that could provide an important glimpse into the culture and language of the Holy Land at the time of the Bible. The five lines of faded characters written 3,000 years ago, and the ruins of the fortified settlement where they were found, are indications that a powerful Israelite kingdom existed at the time of the Old Testament's King David, says Yossi Garfinkel, the Hebrew University archaeologist in charge of the new dig at Hirbet Qeiyafa.
2008:The "gutter," or water system mentioned in the Bible as the way King David's men conquered Jerusalem may have been found. Dr. Eilat Mazar, an archaeologist excavating the City of David, the most ancient part of Jerusalem, believes it has, and is to present her findings this evening at a seminar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
2009:Hundreds of exhibits supporting a scathing report on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s past investigations of Bernard L. Madoff were released today by the author of the report, the agency’s inspector general, H. David Kotz.The exhibits include a full account of an interview with Mr. Madoff, who confessed in March to running the largest Ponzi scheme in history, a fraud whose victims number in the thousands and whose cash losses are now put at more than $21 billion.
2009(12th of Cheshvan, 5770)Claude Lévi-Strauss the "father of modern anthropology" passed away.(As reported by Edward Rothstein)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/europe/04levistrauss.html?pagewanted=all
2009:The Tower of David Museum presents: "Peace Making in Jerusalem--a Concert at the Tower of David Museum:"
2009:Opening of "Synergy,” the new exhibit on display in Beit Tzarfat, at Hebrew University's Givat Ram campus. The group exhibit displays the drawing, sculpture, and photography of artists Ann Rakover, Gila Robinson, Datia Landau, Yitzhak Shalhevet and Sasson Tiram.
2009: The Los Angeles Times featured a review of Ariel Sabar’s memoir “My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Family's Past," which won a 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award and has just been reissued in paperback.
2010:Mark Zuckerberg received a "Medal of Fear" at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
2010: The 16th Annual R' Shlomo Carlebach Memorial Concert sponsored by The R' Shlomo Carlebach Foundation is scheduled to take place in Jerusalem.
2010: The 15th Memorial Day Rally commemorating the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin is scheduled to be held at 7:30pm in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv.
2010: Brazilian-born violist Myrna Herzog performed this evening at the Blumenthal Center in Tel Aviv.
2011: Sam Kringlen, Temple Judah’s young violin virtuos is scheduled to perform at The Hadassah Donor Dinner in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2011:The Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago, Illinois, is scheduled to show Legado (Legacy) a documentary that tells the story of the Jewish colonization in Argentina. .
2011:Acclaimed up-and-coming novelists David Bezmozgis, author of The Free World and one of The New Yorker’s “2010 top 20 fiction writers under the age of 40;” Nadia Kalman, author of The Cosmopolitans; and Haley Tanner, author of Vaclav & Lena are scheduled to explore the modern Russian immigrant experience with moderator Faye Moskowitz, author and professor of English and creative writing at George Washington University at the Hyman S & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival.
2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Jerusalem: The Biography the 650 page epic tale by Simon Sebag Montefiore whose great-great uncle was Sir Moses Montefiore a giant of 19thcentury Jewry whom some only remember because of the windmill in Jerusalem that bears his name – Montefiore’s Windmill.
2011:Israel was hit with another volley of rockets launched by Gaza militants, despite reports that Egypt was working to secure a truce between Israel and the Islamic Jihad that would halt all rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip effective at 10 P.M.
2011: The Tel Aviv District Court sentenced Anat Kamm a former soldier to four and a half years in prison this morning for gathering and possessing secret military documents and passing them to "Haaretz" reporter Uri Blau.
1270: Eighth Crusade comes to an ignominious end. The crusade started under the banner of France’s anti-Semitic King Louis IX. But he died of stomach ailment in August. Effective leadership devolved to Charles, King of Naples. The crusaders got no further than Tunis. The crusaders agreed to lift their siege of the Arab capital in exchange for commercial advantages. The crusaders went home having failed to accomplish any of their own noble aims. Considering the miseries that the Crusaders heaped on the Jews, they were just as glad to finally glad to see them come to an end after almost two centuries.
1340: At the Battle of Río Salado King Afonso IV of Portugal and King Alfonso XI of Castile defeated Muslim ruler Abu al-Hasan 'Ali of Marinid dynasty and Nasrid ruler Yusuf I. A Marinid victory would not have been a good thing for the Jews. In fact, Alfonso was greeted by crowds of cheering Jews when he returned to his capital. The victory was doubly important to the Jews of Spain and Portugal because the successors to both of these monarchs followed policies that were favorable to the Jewish people in their realms.
1348: After two days, the authorities of Amont, in France, had finished arresting all of the local Jews and taking their possession. The arrest of the Jews was tied to the belief that they were responsible for the Black Plague which was working its way across France. The Jews of Amont were lucky to have been just arrested and robs since in most towns the Jews were expelled without their possessions or murdered.
1485: King Henry VII of England is crowned. Henry was quite willing to continue the policy of keeping England free of Jews; a policy that dated back to 1290. When Henry VII was arranging for the marriage of his son to Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella “he promised never to allow Jews into his domain. Isabella had made it quite clear, if he refused the oath, the marriage was off.
1491: Gershon Soncino printed the first copy of “Immanuel Romi, Mahberot” (The Notebook of Imamanuel Romi) at Brescia, Italy. (Heinrich Graetz described him as a “Jewish Dante)
1682: Pope Innocent XI issued an edict by which all the money-lending activities carried out by the Roman Jews were to cease. However ultimately convinced that such a measure would cause much misery in destroying livelihoods, the enforcement of the edict was twice delayed
1708: Abraham ben Saul Broda entered into a contract with Jewish community of Metz to serve as its rabbi.
1735: Birthdate of John Adams, Founding Father and Second President of the United States.The correspondence of John Adams reflects the complexity with which Jews and Judaism were viewed in early national America. Most "enlightened" American Christians such as Adams saw Jews as an ancient people who, by enunciating monotheism, laid the groundwork for Christianity. He also saw them as individuals who deserved rights and protection under the law. Like many of his peers, Adams venerated ancient Jews and thought contemporary Jews worthy of respect, but found Judaism, the religion of the Jewish people, an anachronism and the Jewish people candidates for conversion to Christianity. In an 1808 letter criticizing the depiction of Jews by the French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire, Adams expressed his respect for ancient Jewry. Adams wrote of Voltaire, "How is it possible [that he] should represent the Hebrews in such a contemptible light? They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their Empire were but a Bauble in comparison of the Jews. They have given religion to three quarters of the Globe and have influenced the affairs of Mankind more, and more happily, than any other Nation ancient or modern." Aware of Adams' benign view of Jews, American Jewish newspaper editor, politician, diplomat and playwright Mordecai Manuel Noah (1785-1851) maintained a correspondence with the former president. In 1818, Noah delivered a speech consecrating the new building erected by his own Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York. Noah's "Discourse," a copy of which resides in the archives of the American Jewish Historical Society, focused on the universal history of Jewish persecution at the hands of non-democratic governments and their peoples. An early Zionist, Noah believed that only when the Jewish people were reestablished in their own home, with self-governance, could they live free of oppression. Noah sent a copy of his "Discourse" to Adams. Adams responded encouragingly to Noah, although the former president was evasive regarding Jewish self-governance. Adams expressed to Noah his personal wish that "your Nation may be admitted to all Privileges of Citizens in every Country of the World." Adams continued, This Country has done much. I wish it may do more, and annul every narrow idea in Religion, Government and Commerce. … It has please the Providence of the 'first Cause,' the Universal Cause [phrases by which Adams' defined G-d], that Abraham should give Religion, not only to the Hebrews but to Christians and Mahomitans, the greatest Part of the Modern civilized World." For Adams, Jews had earned their rights by virtue of their historic contributions and by virtue of their citizenship, but he did not respond to the idea of a Jewish homeland. Remarkably, a year later, Adams made the first pro-Zionist declaration by an American head of state, active or retired. In 1819, Noah sent Adams a copy of his recently published travel book, Travels in England, France Spain and the Barbary States. In his letter acknowledging the gift, Adams praised Noah's tome as "a magazine of ancient and modern learning of judicious observations & ingenious reflections." Adams expressed regret that Noah had not extended his travels to "Syria, Judea and Jerusalem" as Adams would have attended "more to [his] remarks than to those of any traveller I have yet read." Adams continued, "Farther I could find it in my heart to wish that you had been at the head of a hundred thousand Israelites . . . & marching with them into Judea & making a conquest of that country & restoring your nation to the dominion of it. For I really wish the Jews were again in Judea an independent nation." What was the source of Adams's Zionist sympathies? What moved him to make his extraordinary statement? A clue can be found in the next sentence of his letter: I believe [that] . . . once restored to an independent government & no longer persecuted they [the Jews] would soon wear away some of the asperities and peculiarities of their character & possibly in time become liberal Unitarian Christians for your Jeh-vah is our Jeh-vah & your G-d of Abraham Isaac and Jacob is our G-d. Alexis de Tocqueville observed, "The Americans combine notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to conceive the one without the other." Adams was clearly confident that freedom would lead the Jewish people to enlightenment and that enlightenment would lead them to Christianity. For Adams, Jewish self-governance in the Holy Land was a step toward their elevation. Today, our understanding of democracy includes respect for diversity and support for the retention of one's religious faith.
1786: A deadly fire in the Jewish Ghetto of Verona occurred causing a great loss of life.
1821: Birthdate of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. The author of such major works as The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishmentwas an anti-Semite. As he grew older he became convinced that Jews were the cause of all social ills and he was phobic on the idea of letting Jews live outside of the Pale of Settlement.
1856: William Cullen Bryant delivered a speech tonight in favor of the abolition of slavery. He recounted the story of the Israelite encounter with the Amalekites when Moses arms grew weary and Aaron and Hur contrived to keep Moses hands raised until victory was achieved. He urged the attendees to lend their support to the leaders of the fight against slavery so that when their arms grew weary like Moses, the people would lend their hands in support of abolition.
1856: During an anti-Slavery rally held at the Academy of Music in New York the speakers, who were Christian ministers, took issue with the idea that the Bible supported the institution of slavery as practiced in the United States. They contended that "there was no such idea of property in a servant existing among the ancient Jews." [For once somebody had actually read and understood the text of "The Old Testament."]
1860:The biennial banquet and ball in aid of the Jew’s Hospital, well known charitable Institution took place at the City Assembly Rooms this evening. As on former occasions of the same kind, the attendance was large, and the contributions in aid of the Institution were most liberal. Not less than 600 ladies and gentlemen of the Jewish faith sat down to the banquet, and subsequently joined in the dance. Mr. Benjamin Nathan the President of the Hospital, presided at the banquet, and on his right and left, at the head of the tables, sat Rabbi Lyons of the Nineteenth-street Synagogue , Rabbi Isaacs of the Wooster-street Synagogue, Rabbi Cramer, of the Greene-street Synagogue, and other prominent clergymen and laymen of the Jewish faith. The "grace before meal" was said in Hebrew by Rabbi Lyons, and the "grace after" was sung in the same language by Rev. Mr. Cramer. Following the latter, the President of the Institution addressed the audience, giving a brief sketch of the "Jews' Hospital in New-York," and welcoming his hearers to the entertainments of the evening. He said that the Jews' Hospital, since its foundation, in 1855, had accommodated 1,225 inmates, of whom 1,127 had been treated gratuitously. The benefits of the Institution were not confined to any creed or sect, but the sick and unfortunate of all creeds and nations had partaken of its blessings. At the same time it had neither asked nor received any aid from the State or Municipal Governments, but had depended entirely upon the voluntary contributions of its friends for support. In the intervals between the toasts, the Secretary read off a list of the donations received from those present, as well as by letter from absent donors. Among the latter was a letter from Gov. Morgan, speaking in the highest terms of the Jews' Hospital, and inclosing a check for $100. The total amount of donations announced last evening reached the liberal sum of $14,000. At the conclusion of the toasts the party retired to the ball-room adjoining, when the, dancing commenced, and was continued till a late hour of the night.
1864:Helena, Montana's capital, founded. Jews were involved with the Helena from its earliest days. According to local legend Russian born Julius Basinsky arrived in Helena in 1866 with one thousand cigars and not enough pocket change to buy lunch in on of the town’s saloons. Louis Kaufman came to Helena and worked in mining until 1872. He and Louis Stadler formed Stadler and Kaufman Meat Company in 1872. Charles M. Russell, one of America’s premier Western artists managed their ranch for several years. From the 1870’s on banks owned completely or partially be Jews were launched in towns and cities all over the Far West including Lewish Herschfield’s Merchants National Banking Company in Helena.
1872: A two day meeting at Brussels that had been called so that leading European Jews could discuss measures that could be taken to relieve the suffering of their co-religionist in Romania was scheduled to come to an end.
1875: As the debate over the use of public tax dollars to support religious education it was reported that in New York the Catholic Schools receive almost $1,400,000 or 91% of the amount spent while the Jewish schools receive less than $26,000.
1877: Birthdate of Salman Schocken, the German born publisher who became an ardent Zionist. Among other things, he founded Schocken Publishing House and published Haaretz. His life is too rich and textured for this blog and you are urged to study from the many resources that tell his fascinating story.
1879: In New York, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association is scheduled to present its first “down-town entertainment of the season” at the Pythagoras Hall.
1880: Billee Taylor or The Reward of Virtue "a nautical comedy opera" by Edward Solomon, the Anglo-Jewish composer and conductor was first produced today at the Imperial Theatre in London
1881: Dr. Kaufmann Kohler gave his first Sunday lecture this morning at Temple Beth-El in New York. This is a reform championed by the Rabbi which will replace traditional Saturday morning services with an observance on Sunday since the realities of the American business world prevents people from attending services on the traditional day.
1882: “Church Contributions” published today provided a breakdown of charitable efforts by denomination including the fact that there are 2,937 Jews in New York who have contributed $100,000 for “benevolent purposes” that there are 12,516 Jews throughout the United States who contributed $300,000 “for benevolent purposes.”
1883: “Mr. Henry Irving In ‘The Bells’” published today gives a full-scale review of English actor Henry Irving’s performance in the American premiere of “The Bells.” “The Bells” by Anglo-Jewish playwright Leopold Davis Lewis is based on “The Polish Jew” by the French team of Erckmann and Chatrian.
1884(11th of Cheshvan, 5645): Isaac Honig, a native of Mayence who came to the United States in 1859 where he became a leading real estate dealer as well as a patron of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society and Mount Sinai Hospital passed away today.
1885: The newly elected officers of the United Hebrew Charities are: Henry Rice, President; Henry S. Allen and Morris Tuska, Vice Presidents; J.H. Hoffman, Treasurer; and I.S. Isaacs, Secretary.
1887: Mrs. Philip J. Joachimsen, President of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society reported that currently the society is providing “a home” to 543 children, 384 of whom range in age from 2 to 5 years. The facility which is on Washington Heights is the only facility in the city that provides shelter for “orphans, half-orphans or deserted children.”
1887: “The Oldest Jewish Gravestone” published today relied on information first published in the Times of London to the latest discovery about the history of the Jews of Europe. Up until now, a headstone on a grave in a cemetery at Worms dated 4660 (or 900 CE) has been thought to be the oldest of its kind. But now a headstone has been found at “Zahlbach, a small village close to Mayence” that bears the date 4560 (806 BC). After having been verified by Rabbi Lehman of Mayence, the stone was placed in the town’s museum.
1888: It was reported today that in the last year the United Hebrew Charities of New York assisted 16,953 in the past year. The society provided help to 29,602 immigrants who arrived at Castle Garden. Approximately 2,600 people were “provided with employment” and 600 poor Jews were provided with free burial. The society collected over $73,000.00 and spent all but $4,000 in providing assistance.
1889: “He Talks To Hebrews” published today described a well-received address Colonel Elliot F. Shepard a prominent lawyer and civic leader gave at Avhavth Chesed in New York City.
1889: Professor Morris Jastrow of the University of Pennsylvania presented a paper on “The Text Books of the Assyrians and Babylonians” at today’s meeting of the American Oriental Society.
1889: David Harfeld, a Richmond pawnbroker and the brother of Rabbi Eugene Harfeld went on trial for bigamy today in New York City
1889: “His Race Proud of Him” published today reported that Jesse Seligman presided over the dinner held in honor of Sir Julian Goldmid, Seligman praised the visiting Englishman as “one of the champions of Hebrew emancipation throughout the world” who “had made this voice heard in the halls of Parliament in behalf of civil and religious liberty and the removal of political disabilities from Jewish citizens of all nations.”
1890: According to reports in Figaro and the New York Times, the key to Baron Hirsch’s close relationship with the Prince of Wales is a combination of his great wealth and, more importantly, his good manners. The Baron is considered remarkable for his philanthropy and his love of England.
1891: As Russia reels from a series of social and economic problems that have been exacerbated by a famine it was reported today that “the suffering Russian peasantry has…avenged their sufferings upon the Jews who are already under an official as well as popular ban and this direction of their energies is entirely pleasing to the Russian Government.”
1892: Twenty women and sixty-three men, all of whom are Polish and Russian Jews were arrested today at the cloakmaking fir of S.M. Levi & Co on charges that they had violated the laws banning working on Sunday.
1892: V. Henry Rothschild, Lyman G. Bloomingadle, Isaac Eppinger, Sigmund Neustadt, Isidor Straus, Louis Gans, Samuel H. Eckman and Henry S. Hermnaa were elected directors of the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids when the patrons and managers held their annual meeting today.
1892: “Felix Adler’s New Book” published today provides a detailed review The Moral Instruction of Children by Felix Adler.
1893: “Koh-i-Noor” a one act operetta authored by Oscar Hammerstein opened tonight at Koster and Bial’s Music Hall.
1894(30th of Tishrei, 5655): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1894: The Board of Estimate and Apportionment is scheduled to meet today to consider requests for 1895 including $80,000 by the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, $85,000 for the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society of New York Orphan Asylum and $5,000 for the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children
1894: Superintendent Stump of the Bureau of Immigration has received a letter from Baron Hirsh, stating that the Jewish Colonization Society, of which Baron Hirsch is the head, is engaged in diverting Jewish immigration from the United States to Argentina; a county that is more open to accepting the Jewish immigrants.
1895: President Henry Rice and General Manager Nathaniel S. Rouseau presented the annual reports at the annual meeting of the United Hebrew Charities which was held at Temple Emanu-El today.
1896(23rd of Cheshvan, 5657): Samuel Corn, a native of Prussia who came to the United States in 1825 at the age of 22 where he became a successful businessman in the cap and furrier business as well as a patron of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society and the Montefiore Home passed away today.
1898: Birthdate of Lothar Kreyssig the German judge who defied the Nazis by trying to stop their euthanasia program and who hid two Jews on his farm.
1899: In Saratov, Russia, Yakov Arkad'evich Khazin and Vera Yakovlevna Khazina Nadezhda Yakovlevna Mandelstam the author and educatior who was the wife of poet Osip Mandelstam.
1899:Major Karri Davies was among the Jewish soldiers who fought during the Siege of Ladysmith which began today during the Second Boer War.
1903: During the debate over accepting Uganda as a Jewish homeland, even on a temporary basis, the newspaperDie Welt publishes Menachem Ussishkin's letter and Herzl's answer. Menachem Ussishkin opposed an expedition to Uganda.
1904: Cypriotes in Athens, Greece adopt a resolution, which they plan to send to England to protest against the increasing immigration of Jews to Cyprus.
1905: After a nation-wide strike, Russia’s Czar Nicholas II issued a manifesto granting a constitution and a Duma (parliament) in which the Constitutional Democrats (Cadets) and Social Democrats would participate. These revolutionaries many of whom were Jews, were known as the "Octoberists." The reforms did not work. Conditions worsened, in part because the Czar was a weak ruler and not committed to reform. Seventeen years later, Russia would explode in a revolution that would bring the Communists to power.
1910: A review of three plays by Arthur Schnitzler published today decries the fact that there is no English theatre equivalent to the German theatre as represented by Schnitzler’s work. That Schnitzler was actually an Austrian born Jew did not keep the critic from identifying the noted playwright as being “German.” Of course large numbers of the Jews in Austria and Germany would see themselves in the same way until the they had their rude awakening in the 1930’s.
1910: During a pogrom known as the Shiraz Blood Libel, 12 Jews were killed, 50 more were injured and 6,000 were robbed of all their possession by a mob seeking vengeance for the baseless charge that the Jews had ritually murdered a Muslim girl.
1912: The first phase of the State of New York v Charles Becker came to an end. Becker was a police officer who had been charged with having a group of Jewish gangsters from the Lower East Side murder Herman Rosenthal, a well known New York gambler.
1912: When the Bulgarians captured the Greek city of Didymoteikhon, the economic conditions of the Jews deteriorated when a great deal of their property including Jewish owned stores were damaged or destroy.
1914: The Ottoman Empire enters the Great War as an ally of Germany and Austro-Hungary.
1914: During the election campaign Nathan Strauss spoke at Niblo’s Gardens where he “struck down the charges of religious prejudice” that had been unfairly lodged against Governor Glynn.
1914: Dr. Bernard Drachman, the rabbi of Congregation Oham Zedek spoke out against the injection of religious prejudice in the current gubernatorial campaign.
1915: Birthdate of Fred Friendly. Ferdinand Friendly Wachenheimer the son of Samuel Wachenheimer, a jewelry manufacturer, and Theresa Friendly Wachenheimer began using the name Fred Friendly when he went into radio broadcasting. He gained fame as the courageous, creative producer who worked with Edward Morrow on See It Now. There most famous broadcast was the one exposing Senator McCarthy. George Clooney played the role of Friendly in Good Night and Good Luck which captured the courage of Friendly and Morrow as well as the hostile environment in which they lived.
1915: It was decided today to award the Nobel Prize in Medicine to Dr. Robert Barany of Vienna University for his work in the physiology and pathology of the ear.
1918: Sándor Wekerle, who had supported “a bill providing for equal religious rights for Jews and Christians” completed his second term as Prime Minister of Hungary.
1918: The Ottoman Empire signed an armistice signifying the end of hostilities for World War I. The news was greeted with great joy by the Jews of Palestine who believed that a benign British military government would allow them to live under the terms of the Balfour Declaration.
1922: Benito Mussolini became Premier of Italy. Mussolini was no anti-Semite. Several Jews supported him and he had a Jewish mistress. Mussolini would turn on the Jews during the 1930’s. How much of this was a matter of his own doing and how much was merely in response to curry favor with Hitler has become a matter of debate. Any diminution of suffering enjoyed by the Italian Jews was a credit to the people of Italy and not to Mussolini.
1927: With more than 1,000 representatives of American Zionism to hear his challenge at a conference in Cleveland, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, of New York, today called upon Zionist leaders attending the national conference on Palestine to hold Britain to its pledge to carry out the obligations of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
1928: Birthdate of Daniel Nathans. Nathans was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. Despite the fact that his father lost his business during the Great Depression, Nathans took advantage of the American education system graduating from Washington University in St. Louis. A microbiologist, he spent at least some of his time at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovoth. Nathans won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1978. He won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1978. He passed away in 1999.
1930: Austrian born bacteriologist and pathologist Dr. Karl Landsteiner won the Nobel Prize for Medicine today. Since 1922, Landsteiner has been doing his research at New York City’s Rockefeller Institute ofr Medical Research.
1932:The Jack Benny Program is broadcast for the first time on CBS Radio.
1933: Irma Lindheim, a wealthy American-born Jewish woman who became President of Hadassah in 1926 joined Kibbutz Mishmar Haemek today
1935: In New York, Cele (née Mendelow) and Benjamin Caro gave birth to author Robert Caro, best known for his multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson http://www.robertcaro.com/
1935:As reported in today’s Baltimore Sun, “Long owned by the Dukes of Brunswick, the treasure was purchased by a consortium of art dealers and sold to the government of Prussia.” “The treasure” refers to 82 pieces of the Guelph treasure which four Jewish art dealers, Zachary Max Hackenbroch, Julius Falk Goldschmidt, Isaac Rosenbaum and nephew Saemy Rosenberg bought from the Duke of Brunswick for 7.5 million reichsmarks in1929” and “the government of Prussia” refers to Hermann Goering.
1936: In London Hester and Siegfried Sassoon gave birth to their only child George Sassoon whose father described his expectations for his son to Max Beerbohm when he wrote "Will he, I wonder, become Prime Minister, Poet Laureate, Archbishop of Canterbury, or merely Editor of The Times Literary Supplement? Or Master of The Quorn? Or merely Squire of Heytesbury?"
1938: In an article entitled “A Poignant Record of Palestine,” T.R. Ybarra reviews Going Homeby Ernst Harthern. Harthern is German newspaper correspondent who has been working in Scandinavia which means he has been spared much direct contact with Hitler and his Nazis. In fact Hitler is not mentioned in this book which described Harthern’s first visit to Palestine in which he has the sensation of a true homecoming. As he says at one point, “Almost anywhere on earth ther are more modern buses with better springs, but they are not Jewish buses.”
1938: In an article dateline Haifa, entitled “Fear Colors All Life In The Stricken Holy Land” Madeleine Miller describes the toll that Arab violence which she descriges as a “civil war” has taken on Jews and Arabs.
1938: Mitch Miller was playing oboe with the CBS Symphony tonight during the broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” based on a script co-authored by Howard Koch.
1938(5thof Cheshvan, 5699): Fifty-two year old Baruch Nachman Charney (Baruch Charney Vladeck), the American Jewish labor leader who was the manager of the Jewish Daily Forward passed away today.
1939: Heinrich Himmler head of the S.S. was instructed to have about a million people transported from the Generalgouverenment. Half are to be Jews and half are to be Poles.
1939: SS chief Heinrich Himmler designates the next three months as the period during which all Jews must be cleared from the rural areas of western Poland. Hundreds of communities will be affected, and thousands of Jews will be expelled with nothing but what they can carry with them.
1941(9th of Cheshvan, 5702): Four thousand Jews are murdered at Nesvizh, Belorussia.
1941: A 12-year-old boy who escapes the Ninth Fort massacre of October 28 returns to the Kovno Ghetto and reveals what happened.
1942; The New York Times features a review of On Native Grounds: An Interpretation of Modern American Prose Literatureby the Jewish author Alfred Kazin.
1943(1stof Cheshvan, 5704): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1943(1stof Cheshvan, 5704): Max Reinhardt, the Austrian-born American who was a director in both live theatre and film passed away today in New York at the age of 70. If you read the New York Times obituary of this (for his time) titan of the theatre and cinema you will find no mention of the fact that he was in New York because after the Anschlusshe could not remain in Austria.
1943: Dr. Zelik Levinbok, a Jewish doctor interned at the Koldichevo camp in Belorussia, escapes with his wife and eight-year-old son.
1944: Rudolf Kastner “travelled to St. Gallen, accompanied by Kurt Becher and Dr. Wilhem Billitz, director of the Manfred Weiss Works.
1944: The Martha Graham ballet ''Appalachian Spring,'' with music by Aaron Copland, premiered at the Library of Congress, with Graham in a leading role. Aaron Copland is another example of an American Jew who helped create a uniquely American culture.
1944: The final deportation train from Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, to Auschwitz arrives at the camp. Of the 2038 prisoners on board, 1689 are immediately gassed.
1944: Edith Frank was separated from her daughters today when she was selected for the gas chambers; a fate she avoided when with a friend “she escaped to another section of the camp.”
1944: The Nazis deported Margot and Anne Frank from Auschwitz to Bergen Belsen, where they both died five months later.
1945: Birthdate of actor and director Henry Winkler. For a whole generation of television viewers, Winkler will always be The Fonz of the sitcom Happy Days.
1946: Birthdate of NBC newscaster Andrea Mitchell. When asked if her Judaism has ever been an issue, positive or negative, in the course of her career she responded as follows. “It's certainly not been a negative issue. I think when I was watching the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1979, after the Camp David Summit in 1978; I certainly felt a tremendous emotional connection to the issue and to the chances of a breakthrough between the Israelis and the Arabs. Seeing Sadat and Begin was a very emotional experience. Similarly, in 1993 I was one of many people on the South Lawn who were very excited about prospects for peace, when we finally saw Rabin and Arafat shake hands under the guidance of Bill Clinton. Perhaps it made me more eager to go the West Bank and interview people and learn more about the Palestinian perspective. So I think it's less a religious issue than a cultural connection to the Middle East. One other experience that was important was the controversy over President Reagan's visit to the cemetery in Bitburg where S.S. soldiers were buried. I remember when Elie Weisel came to appeal to the president not to go. That was a very powerful experience for me. I spent a lot of time covering that issue, then we ended up going and visiting Bergen-Belsen with the president. Certainly all of my childhood experiences and my parents' stories about the Holocaust are part of my personal and intellectual history. Our family was not Holocaust survivors, but it was a very important part of the way we were raised. My mother and father talked about it all the time.”
1946: British authorities held groups described as “Zionist extremists” responsible for the death of two British soldiers and one British police sergeant who were killed in separate land mine explosions today.
1947: “A Haganah sourced said today that a number of” its leading members “had been attacked and would by members of…Irgun Zvai Leumi in the Tel Aviv region last night.”
1948: During the War For Independence, Egyptian planes drop supplies to their troops trapped in the Faluja pocket.
1948: During Operation Hiram, the Carmeli Brigade successfully fulfilled it mission of thwarting counter attacks from Syria and Lebanon when it crossed into Lebanon and surged all the way to the Litani River.
1950: During the Korean War, Chinese forces attacked Tibor Rubin’s unit (Company I, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division) at Unsan, North Korea during a massive nighttime assault.” Tibor manned a 30 caliber machine gun at the south end of the unit's line which would mark the start of one-man holding operation that lasted for more than twenty four hours. (Based on Tibor’s Medal of Honor Citation)
1952,The Jerusalem Post reported that the Jewish National Fund had been granted a six million dollar loan by the Bank of America to further settlement activities in draining the Hula region, and for land reclamation and acquisition.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that work began on the 165-meter westward extension of Haifa Port's main quay to make it accessible to the largest ship in the Mediterranean. Building a new state took many forms including immigrant absorption, irrigating the Negev and expanding port facilities for future export trade.
1953(21stof Cheshvan, 5714): Sixty-nine year old classical pianist Leonid Kreutzer passed away today in Tokyo.
1956: During the Sinai Campaign Israel captured the Egyptian military post at El-Thamad
1956: Soldiers in Rafael Eitan’s regiment spot an Egyptian armored column and call for an airstrike which destroys the vehicles, that unbeknownst to the Israelis, are empty because the Egyptian soldiers were already in position in the Mitla Pass.
1956: During the Sinai Campaign Israeli paratroops dug in to hold the Mitla Pass and await what would be the successful linkup with IDF armor moving overland. Egyptian aircraft attacked the Israelis for the first time, but the IDF was able to hold its own despite long odds.
1956: President Eisenhower assured Ben-Gurion that the United States would not censure Israel as long as the Sinai attack was not a grab for additional territory. Ben-Gurion responded that all Israel wanted was the end of Egyptian support for the fedayeen (the name for Arab terrorists), the end of Arab economic warfare against Israel and the opening of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. Ben-Gurion would stick to his goals. Eisenhower would betray his promise.
1958: Birthdate of Kevin Pollak, host of Celebrity Poker.
1959: U.S. Premiere of “The Wasp Woman” with music by Fred Katz.
1961:Birthdate of Emmanuel Finkiel, the French-born producer/director of Voyages, considered by some to be the best Jewish film of 2000)
1962: Yosefi Almogi began serving as Minister of Housing and Construction
1963: U.S. premiere of “A New Kind of Love” a romantic comedy directed, produced and written by Melville Shavelson and co-starring Paul Newman.
1968: Israeli helicopter-borne Sayeret Matkal commandos carry out Operation Helem (Shock), destroying an Egyptian electric transformator station, two dams along the Nile River and a bridge.[29] The blackout causes Nasser to cease hostilities for a few months while fortifications around hundreds of important targets are built. Simultaneously, Israel reinforces its position on the east bank of the Suez Canal by construction of the Bar Lev Line
1968: U.S. Premier of “The Lion in Winter” the movie version of James Goldman’s play produced by Joseph E. Levine.
1974: The National Religious Party joined the governing coalition led by Yitzhak Rabin who had replaced Golda Meir as Prime Minister.
1976: The second season of “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids” with Lou Scheimer as the voice of “Dumb” Donald came to an end.
1976: Clarence Chamberlin, the second man to fly the Atlantic and the first to do so with a passenger, passed away. The passenger was a Jewish businessman from Massachusetts, Charles Albert Levine who had been dabbling in the new field of commercial aviation.
1977: The settlement of Mevo Dotan was founded on the West Bank by secular settlers.
1982: In Monmouth County, Temple Beth Miriam “hosted a gala Dinner-Dance in Jacobson Hall.”
1984: Seventy-one year old Charles “Charlie” Thompson Winters, the American businessman who was imprisoned for his role in helping to smuggle three B-17’s to Israel during the War for Independence passed away today.
1984(4thof Cheshvan, 5735): Eighty-four year old German actor and director Wolfgang Heinz, born David Hrisch, who “President of the Academy of the Arts in Berlin between 1968 and 1974” passed away today.
1988: NBC broadcast the first episode of “Family Ties,” a sitcom created by Gary David Goldberg in what would be its seventh and final season.
1991: Mid East peace conference began in Madrid, Spain.
1995: In a case of Jew versus Jews Ben Kamin, Senior Rabbi, Temple-Tifereth Israel Beachwood, Ohio, wrote the following letter-to-the editor in response to a column by Thomas L. Friedman.
Thomas L. Friedman's Oct. 29 column on Israel's emerging and opulent culture says a great deal about postmodern Israel, but it ultimately oversimplifies. Israel is a lot more than a cell phone, and Jewish identity has to do with a lot more than a new shopping mall in Kfar Saba. I was born in Kfar Saba, and I share some of Mr. Friedman's amazement at the transition. It's true that the orchards of my childhood are giving way to shopping plazas, condominiums and automatic teller machines. But a lot of the fear and concern that was part of those years has given way to a certain contentment with life that was not part of things a generation ago. Contrary to Mr. Friedman's assertion, a Jew who can have a pizza delivered via a cellular phone is not a Jew with a lost identity. That is a Jew who is free. I remember Kfar Saba very vividly. The dusty, underdeveloped hamlet was a prototype of early Israel. My birth village, tucked next to the Samarian mountains, sat on a tense border with what was then the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. A mile from my grandmother's house, where we lived, the Arab town of Qalqilya brooded with hostility and occasional mortar fire. When I sat with my grandmother on her back porch and recited the words of the Prophets, we could see the minarets of Qalqilya to the east. The Mediterranean Sea was just a few miles to the west. We were living the post-Holocaust predicament of national Jewish life in a land still fighting for its life. There was indeed a strong pioneering spirit in Kfar Saba and throughout the fledgling country. Our teachers came from many other lands and many difficult experiences. They often wept while leading us in Hebrew folk songs and exhorting us to love the Bible. The mailman came on a tall horse. His sinewy arms betrayed the tattoos of Auschwitz. There was something to be learned from every conversation with people who either valued or feared life. The orange groves of the valley sent us a fragrance that none of us shall ever forget. It was the smell of rebirth. Somehow we knew that we were the free children of a dream that the world had disparaged and that even Qalqilya next door was determined to destroy. Now, many groves are gone and the delicious smell is no more. Yes, my birth village of donkeys and orange trees is a successful hub of sports cars and video stores. It's so easy for all who no longer live there, who are not taking the risks of peace, to criticize and lament. How ironic to dispatch a report about the creeping technological dexterity of Israel via electronic mail. All Israel is doing is becoming more like us. This is what we hoped for a generation ago. None of us would begrudge an Israeli youngster the right not to be killed in battle, not to fear the future or not to call his or her mother via a cell phone from any army base in Lebanon. None of us who lived in quaint Kfar Saba back then wanted anything for our descendants but the chance to be free or prosperous enough to draw cash out of a machine or to enjoy a fashionable coffee outdoors in the very same century as Hitler and Eichmann.
1999: Britain's emeritus chief rabbi, Lord Immanuel Jakobovits attended Shabbat services for the last time. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and passed away on the following day.
2001: Lawsuits are filed seeking the removal Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s Ten Commandments monument. (Moore’s disregard for the Constitution is not a unique phenomenon in Alabama as anybody who remembers George Wallace and his ilk will know)
2003: In Miami, The IsraFest Foundation proudly presents Don BrowneCOO of Telemundo Communications Group, with the 19th Israel Film Festival 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award; Community Activist and Philanthropist Marcy Lefton with the 2003 IFF Humanitarian Award and Innovative Artist Ilana Lilienthal and Human Potential Researcher Alexander Brodt with the 2003 IFF Visionary Award.
2003: Broadway premiere of the Stephen Schwartz musical “Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz.”
2004: The exhibition “David Bomberg en Ronda: at the Museo Joaquin Peinado in Ronda in Andalusia which showed work by Bomberg in the city and environment which he had celebrated in paintings and drawings in 1934-35 and 1954-47 came to an end.
2005: Idina Menzel appeared off-Broadway in the Public Theater's production of “See What I Wanna See, “which premiered today and for which she received Drama Desk Award and Drama League Award nominations.
2005: An Islamic Jihad fugitive was shot and killed by Israeli security forces in a gun battle that erupted outside a house in Kabatiyah near Jenin. The man who died, rather than surrender to the Israelis, was being sought in connection with the part he played in the suicide attack on Hadera. The murder killed five Israelis and wounded at least fifty people in the peaceful coastal town of 80,000.
2005:The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interesting including Ahmad’s War, Ahmad’s Peace: Surviving Under Saddam, Dying in the New Iraqby Michael Goldfarb, Women’s Letters: America from the Revolutionary War to the Present, edited by Lisa Grunwald and Stephen J. Adler and Faith for Beginnersby Aaron Hamburger
2006Israeli-born scholar Prof. Jehezkel Shoshani published an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science identifying the remains of a 27-million-year-old creature unearthed in Eritrea as those of an ancestor of the modern elephant.
2006: Efraim Sneh begins serving as Deputy Minister of Defense.
2007: Columnist Michael J. Gerson, a former speechwriter for President Bush, discusses and signs Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America's Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail If They Don't)in Reston, Virginia
2007: Haaretz reports that a new memorial center opens at Bergen-Belsen camp.
2007: The state prosecution told the High Court of Justice that it had changed its mind about the indictment of Moshe Katsav on the basis of evidence from the two key complainants.
2007(18th of Cheshvan, 5768): Sixty-six year old Israeli comedian and actor died of cancer at the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus Petah Tikva after which there was a public memorial service at the Cameri Theatre followed by a burial at Kibbutz Einat.
2008: Dor Chadash presents the exclusive New York premiere of “The Debt.” “Twenty years after WWII has ended, three Mossad agents kidnap the infamous "Surgeon of Birkenau" in Berlin. As they await their return to Israel with this monstrous Nazi war criminal, a psychological duel commences between the Nazi and the young Mossad agents.”
2008(1st of Cheshvan, 5769): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, 5769
2008: Haaretz reported that an Israeli archaeologist digging at a hilltop south of Jerusalem believes a ceramic shard found in the ruins of an ancient town bears the oldest Hebrew inscription ever discovered, a find that could provide an important glimpse into the culture and language of the Holy Land at the time of the Bible. The five lines of faded characters written 3,000 years ago, and the ruins of the fortified settlement where they were found, are indications that a powerful Israelite kingdom existed at the time of the Old Testament's King David, says Yossi Garfinkel, the Hebrew University archaeologist in charge of the new dig at Hirbet Qeiyafa.
2008:The "gutter," or water system mentioned in the Bible as the way King David's men conquered Jerusalem may have been found. Dr. Eilat Mazar, an archaeologist excavating the City of David, the most ancient part of Jerusalem, believes it has, and is to present her findings this evening at a seminar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
2009:Hundreds of exhibits supporting a scathing report on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s past investigations of Bernard L. Madoff were released today by the author of the report, the agency’s inspector general, H. David Kotz.The exhibits include a full account of an interview with Mr. Madoff, who confessed in March to running the largest Ponzi scheme in history, a fraud whose victims number in the thousands and whose cash losses are now put at more than $21 billion.
2009(12th of Cheshvan, 5770)Claude Lévi-Strauss the "father of modern anthropology" passed away.(As reported by Edward Rothstein)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/europe/04levistrauss.html?pagewanted=all
2009:The Tower of David Museum presents: "Peace Making in Jerusalem--a Concert at the Tower of David Museum:"
2009:Opening of "Synergy,” the new exhibit on display in Beit Tzarfat, at Hebrew University's Givat Ram campus. The group exhibit displays the drawing, sculpture, and photography of artists Ann Rakover, Gila Robinson, Datia Landau, Yitzhak Shalhevet and Sasson Tiram.
2009: The Los Angeles Times featured a review of Ariel Sabar’s memoir “My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Family's Past," which won a 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award and has just been reissued in paperback.
2010:Mark Zuckerberg received a "Medal of Fear" at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
2010: The 16th Annual R' Shlomo Carlebach Memorial Concert sponsored by The R' Shlomo Carlebach Foundation is scheduled to take place in Jerusalem.
2010: The 15th Memorial Day Rally commemorating the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin is scheduled to be held at 7:30pm in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv.
2010: Brazilian-born violist Myrna Herzog performed this evening at the Blumenthal Center in Tel Aviv.
2011: Sam Kringlen, Temple Judah’s young violin virtuos is scheduled to perform at The Hadassah Donor Dinner in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2011:The Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago, Illinois, is scheduled to show Legado (Legacy) a documentary that tells the story of the Jewish colonization in Argentina. .
2011:Acclaimed up-and-coming novelists David Bezmozgis, author of The Free World and one of The New Yorker’s “2010 top 20 fiction writers under the age of 40;” Nadia Kalman, author of The Cosmopolitans; and Haley Tanner, author of Vaclav & Lena are scheduled to explore the modern Russian immigrant experience with moderator Faye Moskowitz, author and professor of English and creative writing at George Washington University at the Hyman S & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival.
2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Jerusalem: The Biography the 650 page epic tale by Simon Sebag Montefiore whose great-great uncle was Sir Moses Montefiore a giant of 19thcentury Jewry whom some only remember because of the windmill in Jerusalem that bears his name – Montefiore’s Windmill.
2011:Israel was hit with another volley of rockets launched by Gaza militants, despite reports that Egypt was working to secure a truce between Israel and the Islamic Jihad that would halt all rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip effective at 10 P.M.
2011: The Tel Aviv District Court sentenced Anat Kamm a former soldier to four and a half years in prison this morning for gathering and possessing secret military documents and passing them to "Haaretz" reporter Uri Blau.
2011:Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reiterated the Israeli government's policy of strict retaliation against those that harm Israelis, warning both Islamic Jihad and Hamas not to test Israel. His comments came the day after an Israeli man was killed by shrapnel when a Grad rocket hit Ashdod.
2012: The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra is scheduled to perform at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles under the baton of Zubin Mehta.
2012: “Forty Years on the Bimah” a retreat organized by 80 year old Leah Novick the oldest woman rabbi within the Reconstructionist, Reform, and Renewal movements came to an end today.
2012: In Bloomfield Hills, MI, Temple Beth El is scheduled to present Jan Durecki speaking on “Behind the Wheel” part of the Rabbi Leo M. Franklin Archives Jewish History Detectives Lecture series.
2012:Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said today that Tehran was ready to discuss the 1994 terrorist bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center.
2012:More than 120 major decision makers, scholars and leaders from around the Jewish world will attend a conference in Jerusalem today to discuss strategic issues facing the Jewish people and the State of Israel in the future.
2013: Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal is scheduled to perform a new work by American-born Israeli choreographer Barak Marshal.
2013: French Film Director Ilan Duran Cohen is scheduled to attend the opening of The UK Jewish Film Festival
2013: The 25th annual Kosherfest is scheduled to come to an end today.
2013: The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of conductor/violinist Julian Rachlin is scheduled to perform tonight at The Beverly Hills Hotel.
2013:Today the Israel Antiquities Authority released the discovery of a 1,700 year old curse found at the City of David archaeological site in Jerusalem.
2013: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries announced today that its president and CEO for the past two years, Jeremy Levin, has agreed to step down. Trading in shares of Teva were halted following the announcement of Levin's departure, and once trading resumed, the stock plummeted by 8 percent.
2014: The Skirball Center is scheduled to present Jerry Rabow lecturing on “The Lost Matriarch: Finding Leah in the Bible and Midrash.”
2014: Louis Black is scheduled to perform at the Hull Center in Eugene, Ohio
2014:“Rescue, Relief, and Renewal: 100 Years of ’the Joint’ in Poland” is scheduled to open at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow today.
2014: YIVO and the Museum of the City of New York are scheduled to present “Creating History: Can We Tell the Past?”
2014: The Thaler Holocaust Memorial Fund Planning Committee under the direction of Dr. Bob Silber is scheduled to meet in Cedar Rapids, IA.