OCTOBER 31
445 BCE : In Jerusalem Ezra, the Scribe reads the Scroll of the Law, the Torah, to the Jews of Judea as described in Nehemiah 9:1.
475: Twenty five years after the redaction of the Jerusalem Talmud, Orestes refused to “wear the Purple” and named his son Romulus Augustus as Western Roman Emperor. Romulus Augustus would be the last person to hold this job and when he was deposed in 476 it marked the end of the Roman Empire, at least in the West. This period of chaos combined with the rise of Christianity as the state religion in Europe was not conducive to the well-being of the Jews who had settled in what once had been the Roman Empire.
1345: Birthdate King Fernando I of Portugal. During his reign Jews not only enjoyed a certain amount of self-government through the position of a Chief Rabbi or Ar-Rabbi Mor. The King trusted Jews so much that Don Judah served as his chief treasurer and Don David Negro served as “his confidant and counselor.”
1391: Birthdate of King Duarte of Portugal who during his reign enacted laws prohibiting Jews from employing Christians.
1497: Last date given by King Manuel for Jews to leave Portugal. Four years after the expulsion of Jews from Spain Portugal
1517: Luther posted 95 theses on Wittenberg Europe for the next one hundred years.
1655: As the week long Tishrei festivals come to an end, Manassah Ben Israel prepared to make his voyage where is to meet with Oliver Cromwell whom he hopes will allow the Jews to return to the British Isles.
1655: A “humble address” is sent from Manasseh ben Israel to Oliver Cromwell, The Lord Protector. A fortnight later on 13 November he submitted a petition for the readmission of Jews to England
1705: Birthdate of Clement XIV, the Pope who declared the Jews “innocent of the slanderous blood accusation” and who moved the Jews from the jurisdiction of the Inquisition to the “Viciariato di Roma.” (The Vicar of Rome who is the Pope)
1759(10th of Cheshvan, 5520): An earthquake killed several hundred Jews in Safed. Safed is the town most people connect with Jewish mystics and the famous Shabbat Eve hymn, Lecha Dodi. Prior to the earthquake, Safed had been a thriving city. The first printing presses in the Middle East were set up in Safed and the first Hebrew book published in Eretz Israel Israel
1784(16th of Cheshvan, 5545): Couronna, the wife of Lion Acher ou Shaagat Arie and the mother of Asser, Juda and Wolf Lion passed away today in Metz, Lorraine, France.
1817: Birthdate of Tzvi Hirsch Graetz who gained fame as historian Heinrich Graetz.
1824: Birthdate of Galician author Fabius Mieses whose works including “a history of modern philosophy from Kant to his own time” published in 1887.
1826: Birthdate of Agnes (nee Lewin) Byk, the native of Pinsk who was the wife of Samuel Alexander Byk.
1834: Samuel Landau, the chief dayan of Prague who was the son of Rabbi Yechezkel ben Yehuda Landau passed away today.
1835: Birthdate of Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer, known as Adolph von Baeyer, the first Jew to ever receive the Nobel Prize. A native of Berlin, this German chemist was acknowledged in 1905 for synthesizing dye indigo and was awarded the Davie Medal by the Royal Society of London in 1881, for his work with indigo. He passed away in 1917.
1841: In the first Jewish marriage in New Zealand
1842(27th of Cheshvan, 5603):Eighty year old Rabbi Solomon Hirschell passed away. Born in 1761, he was the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, from 1802 until his death. He is best remembered for his unsuccessful attempt to stop the spread of Reform Judaism in Britain by excommunicating its leaders. His father was a Polish Jew from Galicia Hirschel Levin, Chief Rabbi of London and Berlin and a friend of Moses Mendelssohn. His older brother was Talmudist Saul Berlin.
1849; Mordecai Manuel Noah wrote to Daniel Webster today inviting him to attend the Hebrew Benevolent and German Hebrew Benevolent Society banquet to be held in New York on November 13. In the letter, Noah informs Webster that there are 13,000 Jews living in New York City and that number is continuing to rise daily.
1851: “Hebrew Customs – Interesting Case” published today described a case being heard in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia where P.S. Rowland, a Jewish plaintiff has filed suit against the widow of his brother and her new husband contesting the distribution of the will based on the Biblical concept of the Levirate Marriage .
1856: Birthdate of Julia Raphael the mother of Dorothy Elizabeth Levitt a pioneer female automobile and motor boat racer
1864: Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state. It was a series of silver strikes, the most famous of which was the Comstock Lode that attracted large numbers of early settlers to Nevada including Jews as well as Gentiles. For example, when Eureka, Nevada experienced its silver strike the town’s population reached four thousand including more than one hundred Jews. Among these Jews was Ben C. Levy a native of France who became superintendent of two mines and who, along with his wife, was a leader of the Jewish community. David H. Cohen was typical of these early Jewish settlers. He began as a “49er” in California, moved on to Virginia City, Nevada before “striking it reach” with a liquor business in Austin, Nevada. Adoph Sutro left the most lasting monument to the intrepid Jewish population of Nevada’s early days. This placer panner turned entrepreneur raised the money for the construction of the four mile long Sutro Tunnel designed to drain water from the mines thus making them safer and more protective. The man who made the modern Nevada was Jewish gangster Bugsy Siegel, the man behind Las Vegas. As of 2000, there were an estimated 77,100 Jews living in Nevada, representing an increase of 277% from 1990.
1857: In a letter to the editor published in today's New York Times, "Grace, a farmer's wife" expresses her indignation of having the farmer classed with "the Wall-street gamblers or Chatham-street Jews." In New York, Chatham Street was the center of the second-hand clothing business, an industry dominated by immigrant Jews who allegedly took advantage of their Christian costumers.
1860: The News of the Day Column published today reported that “a ball and banquet in aid of the ‘Jews Hospital in New-York’ was given at the City Assembly Rooms last evening, which was largely attended by members of the Jewish faith and others. Donations in aid of the Hospital were received from those present, and from absent persons, by letter, amounting to $14,000. Among the donors was Gov. Morgan, who sent a complimentary letter in closing $100.”
1861: The General News column published today reported that “A murder of a most atrocious nature has been committed in New-Jersey, on the body of a German Jew named Sigismund Felluer. Deceased had only been in this country a few days, and had property in jewels and diamonds to the amount of $50,000. A man with whom Felluer left the Prescott House, and a Jewess in whose company Felluer was seen, are suspected, and the police are diligently searching for them. A reward of $500 for the discovery of the murderer or murderers has been offered by the friends of Felluer.
1875: It was reported today that “eight Jews and Jewesses were recently baptized in London."
1875: It was reported today that in England, a revision of the Book of Isaiah has been completed and work on a revision of the translation of the Book of Jeremiah has reach the midpoint of that book of the Bible.
1875: It was reported today that the Jewish messenger said of Moody and Sankey, “We give the two enterprising gentlemen the credit of being honest in their intentions, earnest in their work and as the past has proved, disinterested in the pecuniary results of their vast undertakings. Would that we could say the same of all our Deacons and Trustees, Pastors and Rabbis” [ Moody is Dwight Moody, the famous evangelist. Sankey is Ira David Sankey, “The Sweet Singer of Methodism” who was known for his composition and singing of gospel music. During a trip to the United Kingdom, the two raised tens of thousands of dollars for the use of missionaries.
1875: Birthdate of Eugene Meyer. A Yale graduate, Meyer established his own very successful banking firm. Starting with World War I, he served actively on numerous government boards and committees. He gained lasting fame when he bought the bankrupt Washington Post at public auction. As published of the Post until 1946 and then as chairman of the board of the Washington Post & Times Herald,Meyer was instrumentally in making the Post a leading American newspaper and creating a media empire that included the Washington outlet of CBS and Newsweek Magazine. He passed away in 1959. His daughter, Katherine Graham would continue his work and take the Post to levels of which he only dreamed.
1879: According to reports published today from Berlin, Romania is seeking to gain formal recognition of her independence in light of her government’s recent action concerning the emancipation of the Jews.
1880: Simon Sterne was among those who attended a reception this evening for President and Mrs. Grant at Parlor No. 81 in New York City.
1880: Reverend J.P. Newman delivered a sermon this morning at New York’s Central Methodist Church on “The Impending Danger to Our Public Schools in which he contended “that the public schools were sectarian” because all children including Jewish children “meet there on an equal footing…without undergoing sectarian instruction.” (This benign view of the public schools was one that many Jews showed they favored by sending their children to them. This was especially true among the Russian and Polish Jews who saw the schools as the pathway to “Americanization.’)
1881: It was reported today that “the Turkish Governor of Jerusalem has recently received orders from Sultan Abdul Hamid to resume the work” on “restoration of Solomon’s Temple” that had stopped five years ago. The first order of business is to remove “all the rubbish and …vegetation” that has filled the area. The original restoration work had begun “at the instance of” Franz Joseph and the Austrian imperial family.
1881: It was reported today a fair being held in Cincinnati, Ohio, will raise $50,000 for the Jewish Orphan Asylum in Cleveland, Ohio.
1881: “Reformed Judaism” published today described the change in Jewish observance that took place at Temple Beth-El where Dr. Kaufmann Kohler delivered a lecture entitled “Our Religious and Social State” as part of a Sunday morning service that will now replace the traditional Saturday Sabbath observance.
1884: “The Clergymen and Mr. Blaine” published today took “Rabbi Brown” task for the manner in which he expressed his support for the Republican candidate for President.
1885: Rabbi de Sola Mendes responded approvingly today to plans to create a prayer book with selections in Hebrew and English “for the home use of women and children” Rabbi Mendes said there is nothing new about such tomes but that for some reason those that exist are all written in German.
1886: It was reported today that, in a rare display of 19th ecumenical harmony, English Jews and Protestants joined with Catholics in celebrating the 50thanniversary of the ordination of János Cardinal Simor
1885: It was reported today that the Hebrew Journal has endorsed Walter Howe to serve in the New York State representing the 10thDistrict. Howe was active in the protesting the treatment of Russian Jews and has worked to have the penal code changed so that Jews who observed Shabbat can work on Sunday.
1887: The annual meeting of the United Hebrew Charities was held this evening at Temple Emanu-El where the following officers were elected: President – Henry Rice, Vice President – Morris Tuska, Treasurer – James H Hoffman, Secretary – J.S. Isaacs
1887(13thof Cheshvan, 5648): Two weeks before his 77th birthday, “educator and author” Jacob Auerbach author of “Lessing and Mendelssohn” and a “History of the Jewish Community of Vienna from 1784” passed away today.
1888: Based on information supplied by Mrs. Philip J. Joachimsen, the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society has taken 1,339 Jewish children since it began providing service. Currently there are 585 children living in the institution 278 of whom are girls and 307 are boys. 207 of the children were born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and 242 came from Russia or Poland.
1889: Mr. Rosenthal, the leader of the Republicans in the Fourth District and the head of the Hebrew-American Republic Party sent a letter to the leader of the district today stating that he is leaving the party because of its “ingratitude” and “disregard for sacred promises.”
1889: Elise Hausch and Major General Erwin Von Heimerdinger gave birth to Gertrud von Heimerdingerwho was employed in the German Foreign Office as assistant Chief of the Diplomatic Courier Section but as an anti-Nazi, secretly arranged for special passes to enable diplomat Fritz Kolbe (the main Allied source of intelligence) to make frequent trips to Switzerland to pass on information to Allen Dulles, head of American O.S.S. (Jewish Virtual Library)
1889: “Lore of the East” published today described the recent meeting of the American Oriental Society during which Professor Isaac Hall read from “The Colloquy of Moses on Mount Sinai, the Martyrdom of St. Geroge and the Story of the Letters which Fell from Heaven” and attendees examined “a scroll of the Law in Hebrew which” had been found “in China.
1889: “Marriage or Betrothal” published today described events surrounding claims that David Harfeld is a serial bigamist. Miss Julia Harlan testified that after nine years of marriage, Harfield had disappeared without a trace. Last year she heard that that Harfeld had been wed to Sarah Marx in a traditional Jewish ceremony. The defendant’s brother, who is a rabbi, testified that it was a betrothal ceremony, a claim that Miss Marx repeated on the stand. However, Rabbi DeSola Mendes testified that the ceremony described was a wedding ceremony. However, Mendes is a Sephardic Jew and the contract submitted by the defense was identified as what Polish Jews consider a betrothal contract. The confused Judge has not rendered a verdict.
1892: The eighty-six Russian and Polish workers arrested yesterday at the cloakmaking firm of S.M. Levi & Co on charges that they were violating the “Sunday law” claimed that they did not work on Saturday which meant that they could work on Sunday according to the law. Labor leader Joseph Barondess claimed that this was not so and that they along with thousands of other cloakmakers in the city worked seven days a week. The Judge released them with a warning that if they were ever brought before him on these charges again “he would fine them heavily.”
1893: “Mr. Hammerstein’s Work” published today described a speech given by Oscar Hammerstein at the premiere of “Koh-i-Noor” in which he said he had made “a bet of $100” with himself “that he could write an operetta, words and music, design the scenery and costumes, engage the company and get 300 columns of advance notices in the newspaper, all in forty-eight hours” and that he was pleased to say he had won the bet.
1894: Governor Roswell P. Flower delivered speeches today at Niagara Falls and Suspension in which he warned of an alliance between the Republicans and the American Protective Association (A.P.A.) a secret Protestant organization that promotes “hostility to Jews and Catholics” and would keep “men from employment and pubic office on account of their religious belief.” (Compare this to the anti-immigrant stance taken in the 21st century)
1894: Major Du Paty de Clam “finished his inquiry, and handed in his report, which accused Dreyfus but left it to the minister to decide what further steps should be taken.”
1894: Jacob H. Schiff chaired this evening’s meeting at Cooper Union where “German-American Citizen” enthusiastically endorsed the anti-Tammany ticket. Among those on the platform were Aaron Levy, Hy Hyman, Magnus Levy and Dr. Felix Adler.
1894: A summary of the annual report for the United Hebrew Charities in New York published today showed that the organization had responded to 37,097 applications for relief. The new applications for relief included 623 from people over sixty and 1,107 widows. In responding to all requests for assistance, the society spent $225, 063.73 while bringing in $227, 244.82 from all sources.
1895: “Annie Silverman of 105 Allen Street was arrested” today “on a warrant sworn out by Max Sanftman, an agent for the Hebrew Anti-Vice Society, charging her with being a disorderly woman.”
1896(24th of Cheshvan, 5657): Sixty year old Ernestine Fox died from consumption 2 days after her son Abraham passed away from the same cause.
1896: Joseph Jacobs, “the distinguished Jewish scholar” arrived in New York from London aboard the SS St. Louis. The President of the British Folklore Association, some of Jacobs best known works are Jews of Angevin England, Sources of Spanish History and the recently published Jewish Year Book.
1898: Detective Connelly arrested Leopold Lederer and Abraham Zucker on charges of arson in the first and second degrees. Zucker is the brother of Isaac Zucker who is serving 36 years in prison for burning down his own store.
1898: Solomon Loeb was elected honorary vice president at tonight’s annual meeting of the Society of United Hebrew Charities which was held at Temple Emanu-El
1898: Their Majesties, the Emperor and Empress of Germany attended the consecration of the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem, which is part of the trip where the Herzl will meet with the Kaiser to promote his Zionist dream.
1905(2nd of Cheshvan, 5666): Three hundred Jews were killed in a Pogrom in Odessa, Russia.
1905: Rabbi Moses and Tamara Shorr were married at Königsberg
1907: The apartment building at 67 Riverside Drive in Riverdale, designed by architect George F. Pelham who also designed the synagogue for Beth Jacob Anshe Sholom in Brooklyn, opened today.
1911(9th of Cheshvan, 5672): At Constantinople Daoud Effendi Molho, a member of the Ottoman Diplomatic Staff, passed away at the age of 67.
1912: Birthdate of Oscar Dystel “who combined sharp editorial judgments, shrewd marketing and attention-grabbing covers to propel Bantam Books from the brink of collapse to pre-eminence in paperback publishing after World War II.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1912: In Lancaster, PA, Laurence B. Myers and Edith Hirsh Myers gave birth to Robert Julius Myersthe actuary who helped to create the Social Security program and to set America’s official retirement age at 65
1914: As charges of bigotry come to dominate the New York gubernatorial race, former President Theodore Roosevelt, the leader of the Progressive Party delivered a speech tonight in which said that his party treats “with absolute equality all me, whether they are Catholics, Protestants or Jews.”
1914: Charles H. Sherrill, the former American Minister to Argentina, reported on “the patriotism of Russian Jews” who are “rallying to the Russian flag in the present war.”
1917: During World War I, the “last successful cavalry charge in history” took place at the Battle of Beersheba. The Battle of Beersheba was part of the British campaign against the Ottoman Turks. In an era dominated by machine guns, barged wire and massed heavy artillery, the Australian 4thLight Horse Brigade charged four miles of Turkish trenches, overran them and captured the wells at Beersheba Beersheba October 30, 2004 , the day before the anniversary of this event Jews around the world would read an account from the book of Bereshit of contest between Abraham and Abimelech over the wells at Beersheba Beersheba Gaza
1917: In Great Britain
1918: Following the armistice with Turkey today, the 38th Battalion under the command of Colonel John Henry Patterson (the Jewish Legion) was sent to Rafa
1919: An article entitled “The Crucifixion of Jews Must Stop!” written by Marin Henry Glynn, the former of governor of New York appeared in today’s issue of The American Hebrew. Glynn lamented the poor conditions for European Jews after World War I. He “referred to these conditions as a potential ‘holocaust’ and asserted that ‘six million Jewish men and women are starving across the seas’. Because of these coincidences, the article has been exploited by Holocaust-denial groups. Others, while in no way intending to deny the Holocaust, nonetheless acknowledge that the commonly-quoted figure of six million deaths is an estimate, that the actual number may have been less, that not all of the victims were Jewish, and that there is a wide margin of error.”
1920: In Berlin Klara "Claire" (née Marquis) and Max Neustädter, a button factory owner gave birth to photographer Helmut Newton.
1924: Birthdate of Yehuda Klien who as Yehuda Amital would become an Orthodox rabbi, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion and a member of the Israeli cabinet
1925(13th of Cheshvan, 5686): Max Linder, French actor, director and screenwriter, passed away.
1926(23rd of Cheshvan, 5687): Erich Weiss better known as magician Harry Houdini, died in Detroit of gangrene and peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix thought to have been brought on by interaction at an earlier performance.
1926: Following his recent arrival in the United States Dr. Chaim Weismann, President of the ZOA announced that “he had come to work with his friends on behalf of the Jewish National Home in Palestine. He said that he feld confident that this time, as on earlier occasions, his pleading would find a sympathetic response among the great Jewish Community of America.
1927: In New York, Witia (née Haskell), an actress and teacher, and Abraham W. Rosenthal, a realtor and educator gave birth to their only child Lyova Haskell Rosenthal who gained fame as actress Lee Grant
1929: In New York, Mr. and Mrs. William Zeckendorf, Sr. gave birth to William Zeckendorf, Jr. who “transformed New York City by making big bets on big projects that helped refashion neighborhoods from the Upper West Side to Union Square.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1930: Dr. Karl Landsteiner, who was just named as the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine talked today “of his researches that led to the discovery of a serum for infantile paralysis; of his studies of human blood groups, which have opened a new field in the establishment of the paternity of children…and of his work in immunology…” His work in the classification of blood into thirty subdivisions has improved the selection of blood donors transforming transfusions from a “dangerous operation” to “a safe and frequently used procedure.”
1930: Tonight approximately eight thousand “Jews gathered in Tel Aviv to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of Vladimir Jabotinsky” and to protest against the White Paper on the British Policy in Palestine.
1931: U.S. premiere of “Platinum Blonde,” a romantic comedy produced Harry Cohn and a script by Robert Riskin and future Tony Award winner Jo Swerling.
1931: Professor Otto Warburg’s explanation of “how respiration takes place in the cell” and proof that “a living cell can breathe only in the presence of the iron carried by a specific enzyme” was published today. This is the work for which Warburg won this year’s Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine. Warburg explained that his conclusion had differed from Dr. Heinrich Wieland’s because he had used living cells and Wieland, who had won the Nobel Prize in 1928, used dead cell material.
1933: “The new port of Haifa, the first modern port in Palestine” which had been chosen by the Mandatory government “because of its natural harbor and its proximity to important shipping lanes, to rail transport to the rest of Palestine and Egypt, and to the Hejaz railway to Jordan and Syria” was opened today.
1934: U.S. premiere of “Broadway Bill,” a comedy with a script by Mark Hellinger and Robert Riskin.
1935: Under orders from the German government, SS Albert Balin was re-named the SS Hansa because Ballin was Jewish.
1936: Birthdate of actor and director Michael Landon. Born Eugene Orowitz, Landon first gained fame playing the part of Little Joe on the hit western Bonanza. Pa Cartwright was played by Jewish actor Lorene Greene. Later he played the father on another television hit, Little House on the Prairie. Once again Jewish artists helped to create the cultural American myth. He died of cancer in 1991.
1938: As of this date the Polish government would no long allow Jews of Polish origins “whom it no longer considered to be Polish citizens” to enter the country.
1938: “You Can’t Take It With You” written by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman and directed by Kaufman continued its Broadway run with it opened at the Ambassador Theatre.
1939: Psychologist Otto Rank passed away. Born Otto Rosenfeld in Vienna New York City
1939: In New York, Miriam and Herman Rifkin gave birth to the first of their three children Saul M. Rifkin who gained fame as actor Ron Rifkin.
1939:In what is now central Israel, Kfar Warburg or Warburg Village was founded by members of the "Menachem" organization. It was named after Felix M. Warburg, one of the leaders of the Jewish community in the United States and a founder of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
1940: The French authorities in Morocco Vichy
1940: During World War II, the Nazi air attacks against the British Isles known as the Battle of Britain ended. The good news was that the victory of the RAF (Royal Air Force) meant there would be no invasion of England. The British would live on to fight another day. The bad news was that the end of the Battle of Britain meant that Hitler was working to put his plan to invade the Soviet Union into effect. The invasion of the Soviet Union would lead to the murder of millions of Jews.
1940: “Władysław Szpilman and his family, along with all other Jews living in Warsaw, were forced to move into the Warsaw Ghetto.
1941(10th of Cheshvan, 5702): The Nazis murdered 200 Jews in Kleck (Byelorussia) when its council members tried to make contact with non-Jews from outside the ghetto. Jews had lived in Kleck since 1529. At the start of the war, there were more than 4000 Jews living in the town. After putting most of the Jews in a ghetto, the ghetto was set on fire and most of the Jews perished. The community was not rebuilt after the war.
1941(10thof Cheshvan, 5702): Sixty-two year old Herwarth Walden died in Stalin’s Gulag.
1942: Local peasants betray six members of the Jewish Fighting Organization near Kraków , Poland
1942: Three thousand Jews readied for deportation from eastern Poland
1943(2nd of Cheshvan, 5704: Max Reinhardt passed while living in New York. Born Max Goldman, Reinhardt was an influential Austrian actor and director.
1944: Birthdate of Kinky Friedman, musician and candidate for governor of the state of Texas
1944: By the end of October, the Jewish brigade under the command of Brigadier General Ernest F. Benjamin had been shipped to Italy where it joined the British Eighth Army.
1944: The gas chambers at Birkenau were silenced and ceased operating. The Germans began to dismantle them in a futile attempt to hide their evil deeds.
1945: Birthdate of Iraqi born Israeli historian Avi Shalim who is “emeritus professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford” and author of several works including The Cold War and the Middle East.
1945: In the wake of the British government’s decision to continue enforcing the White Paper of 1939, “Palmach sank three British patrol boats, 2 in Haifa and one in Jaffa, and were involved in 153 bomb attacks on bridges and culverts of the railway system.”
1946: Two bombs exploded at a Jerusalem railway station killing a British constable. Meir Feinstein, a British army veteran, Daniel Azulai, Massoud Bouton and Moshe Horowitz were captured afterwards and charged with the bombing.
1947: Following a request by Major Leon B. Poullada, Milton Crook joined the lawyers defending the accused during the Dora-Mittelbau War Crimes Trial.
1948: The United Nations observers in Jerusalem
1948: Despite their lack of modern equipment, Israeli forces liberated the Galilee panhandle and actually took the land all the way to the Litani River in Lebanon at the end of Operation Hiram.
1948: During the Israel War of Independence a ceasefire was scheduled to go into effect today at eleven o’clock
1948: As October came to an end, “the Egyptian paper, El-Ahram, estimated that as a result of arrests, trials and sequestation of property, the Iraqi treasury collected some 20 million dinars or the equivalent of 80 million U.S. dollars.”
1950: During the Korean War, Tibor Rubin“manned a .30 caliber machine gun at the south end of the unit's line after three previous gunners became casualties. He continued to man his machine gun until his ammunition was exhausted. His determined stand slowed the pace of the enemy advance in his sector, permitting the remnants of his unit to retreat southward.” (From his Medal of Honor citation)
1954: The Algerian Revolution against the French begins. The French were sure that President of Nasser was a driving force behind the Arab uprising in Algeria Israel Britain France Nasser in power.
1956:Britain France Egypt Egypt
1956: An Egyptian frigate began shelling Haifa 3:30 in the morning. A French destroyer, later joined by two Israeli ships, drove off the attacker. As dawn broke, the ship that bombarded Haifa
1956: The rest of the paratroop brigade joins Rafael Eitan’s regiment and completed its missional
1956: In what would be part of a pattern for his career, Sharon Mitla Pass.
1956: The Egyptians put up a stubborn defense at Abu Agelia. This would be the start of a two day battle for this key piece of real estate that Israel Suez Canal . Anybody who thinks that Arabs cannot fight need only go to Abu Agelia.
1963: Birthdate of comedic actor Rob Schneider.
1964: Birthdate of Yoram Marciano, the native of Lod who is Labor MK.
1965: Arthur Gelb, the managing editor of the New York Times phoned McCandlish Phillips to tell him that that Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Daniel Burros whose Jewish origins he had exposed had shot himself to which Phillips replied, “What I think we’ve seen here, Arthur is the God of Israel acting in judgment.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1966: Birthdate of entertainer Adam Keefe Horovitz, a.k.a. King Ad-Rock.
1967: Birthdate of Adam Schlesinger, Jewish-American composer, musician, and producer. He has performed on bass guitar in the indie pop band Ivy and the power pop band Fountains of Wayne. In 1997 he also earned an Academy Award nomination for best original song for the title song to That Thing You Do!
1964: Barbra Streisand's album "People," began a five week stint at the top of music charts.
1978: The West End production of Bar Mitzvah Boy, a musical by Jule Styne, Don Black and Jack Rosenthal opened at Her Majesty’s Theater.
1980: The dedication of the Altheimer Laboratory Agricultural Experiment State, named in honor of Ben J. Altheimer, took place at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
1982: A revival performance of Abraham Goldfaden’s “Shulamith” takes place at the Norman Thomas Theater in New York City.
1982: In Monmouth County, NH, Temple Beth Miriam “a ceremony was held for the Religious School in which a Time Capsule designed by Joseph Bergman was filled with items made by the children and deposited at the entrance of the Temple.”
1984:The Mapleton Park Hebrew Institute, which houses a synagogue and a yeshiva, at 2022 66th Street Brooklyn , was virtually destroyed in an arson fire.
1985: Richard Schifter, an American lawyer who was one of the Ritchie Boys, began serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs
1988(20thof Cheshvan, 5749): Eighty-six year old actor and producer John Houseman whose mother was a English Christian and whose father was an Alsatian born Jew passed away today.
1991(23rd of Cheshvan, 5752): Joseph Papp, American theatrical producer, passed away.
1991: Geula Cohen completed her service as Deputy Minister of Science and Technology.
1993:Galgalatz an Israeli radio station operated by Israel Defense Forces Radio began broadcasting this morning
1995(7th of Cheshvan, 5756): Austrian born violinist, Erika Morini passed away in New York at the age of 91. She had retired in 1976, and passed away soon after the theft of her Stradivari violin.
1995: Doctors Jennifer and Todd Burstain give birth to their second son Jonathan, who like his Biblical namesake, is fine and virtuous young man.
1996(18th of Cheshvan, 5757):Ninety-three year old businessman, philanthropist and founder of the UJA, William Rosenwald, passed away today. (As reported by Lawrence Van Gelder)
1999:The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interesting including Rebellionby Joseph Roth, translated by Michael Hofmann,Ice Fire Water: A Leib Goldkorn Cocktail byLeslie Epstein and A Flame of Pure Fire:Jack Dempsey and the Roaring '20sby Roger Kahn.
1999 (21st of Cheshvan, 5760): Seventy-eight year old Lord Immanuel Jakobovits, Britain's emeritus chief rabbi, died unexpectedly early this morning at his London home after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage.
2002: As the scandal surrounding Enron continues to grow Andrew “Fastow was indicted by a federal grand jury in Houston, Texas on 78 counts including fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy.”
2003: As part of the government’s ongoing battle with Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky u Vladimir Putin froze shares of Yukos, his petroleum company, because of tax charges
2003: In Tel Aviv, the first ever Azrieli Circular Tower Empire State Building
2003: “Mazel Tov Y'all! The South as a Melting Pot,” Pam Kingsbury’s interview with Roy Hoffman, author of Chicken Dreaming Corn was published today.
2004:The New York Timesfeatures a review of The Story of a Lifeby Aharon Appelfeld. Translated by Aloma Halter
2004: TheFounders and Builders and Charter Members of the Jewish Historical Society were honored at the Double Chai (36th) anniversary banquet held at Etz Chaim Synagogue.
2005: There are numerous signs today that Israel is breaking out of its diplomatic and cultural isolation. First, the UN has scheduled a vote on the establishment of an international Holocaust remembrance day. The proposal, which was submitted by Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, enjoys a solid majority, with at least 100 out of a total of 190 UN members promising to approve it.The motion - which marks the first time Israel has submitted a resolution to the GA - calls for January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, to be recognized as an international day of Holocaust remembrance. As part of the proposal, all member states will be called upon to develop an educational curriculum meant to instill the memory of the Holocaust in future generations to prevent genocide from occurring again. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has expressed his support for the measure. The draft resolution reads, in part: "The Holocaust constituted a systematic and barbarous attempt to annihilate an entire people, in a manner and magnitude that have no parallel in human history. Six million Jews, a full third of the Jewish people, together with countless other minorities, were murdered. And yet, while the Holocaust was a unique tragedy forthe Jewish people, its lessons are universal. "The United Nations, an organization founded on the ashes of the Holocaust and committed to `save succeeding generations from thescourge of war' and to uphold and protect the `dignity and worth of human beings,' bears a special responsibility to ensure that the Holocaust and its lessons are never forgotten and that this tragedy will forever serve as a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice." Second, the Jordaninans have agreed to end an anti-Semitic television series based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Third, Italian notables plan on taking part in public demonstration later this week protesting Iran’s call for the destruction of the state of Israel.
2006: For the first time ever, one of the largest and most prestigious music festivals in New York, the “Cmj Music Marathon” dedicates an entire evening to Israeli artists who sing in English.
2007: The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra performs Gershwin’s American in Paris, Hindemith’s Kammermusik No. 6 and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1 at the Jerusalem Theater in Jerusalem
2007: At the Israel Museum Jerusalem Israel Museum
2007:The seventh Alex Rider novel, Snakehead by Anglo-Jewish author Anthony Horowitz was released today.
2007: Halloween - Should Jews participate in holiday celebrations. See, Rabbi Michael Broyde’s “Collecting Candy on Halloween: Harmless Pastime or Halachic Prohibition?” for one view on this topic.http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/About_Jewish_Holidays/Secular_Holidays/HalloweenBroyde.htm.
2008: At the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, premier of “One Day You’ll Understand.” A meditation on loss, memory, identity and family legacy, directed by acclaimed Israeli director Amos Gitai, “One Day You’ll Understand” takes place in Paris
2008: Suits were violated today relating to allegations that Deep Marine Technology (DMT) had illegally funneled campaign contributions to Norm Coleman through Hays Companies the employer of his wife Laurie.
2008(2nd of Cheshvan, 5769):Studs Terkel, 96, the preeminent oral historian of 20th-century America who described the major events of his time through the experiences and observations of the ordinary men and women who lived them, died today at his home in Chicago after a fall. (As reported by William Grimes)
2009:In Jerusalem the Camery Theater presents "Amadeus," with Itzhak Hezkiah, Itai Tiran, Chani Firstenberg, Ezra Daggan, Eran Mor, Ori Ravitz, Ohad Shahar/Moti Katz/Amir Kriaf, Eran Sarel, and ten dancers.
2010:Theodore C. Sorensen, who was a close adviser and counselor to John F. Kennedy for 11 years, writing words and giving voice to ideas that shaped the president’s image and legacy, passed away today at the age of 82. The Nebraska native was the daughter Annis Chaikin, a Russian Jew. However he was raised as a Unitarian. In reality, he was best known as Kennedy’s Ghost Writer and the real author of “Profiles in Courage.” (As reported by Tim Weiner)
2010: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Finishing the Hat by Stephen Sondheim and Adam and Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund.
2010:The Ruth Spector Memorial Mah Jongg Tournament is scheduled to take place at the JCC of Northern Virginia
2010:The Israeli film, Intimate Grammar, won the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prize Film Award at the 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival today. The film directed by Nir Bergman and starring actress Orly Zibershatz, was based on a novel by Israeli author David Grossman.
2010: Susan Jacoby reviewed Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legendsby Tom Segev.
2011: The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival is scheduled to present a program based on “Precious Objects: A Story of Diamonds, Family, and a Way of Life” by Alicia Oltuski.
2011: An exhibition on the Mamilla Mall in Jerusalem featuring sculptures of stone, bronze and other materials, depicting Biblical scenes and characters,which were created by some of Israel’s top artists is scheduled to come to an end today.
2011: The David Posnack Jewish Day Schoolin south Florida's Broward County, known as “the Rams” is scheduled to begin its Basketball Season today.
2011: IAF targeted the squad responsible for launching the rockets early this morning.
2011: Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said he’s “very worried” about Israel’s economy in 2012 at a Knesset Finance Committee meeting today. “Our economic ship did not sink like most of the West’s ships did,” he explained, “but black storm clouds are gathering around us, and we have yet to steer the ship to shore safely
2011: Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the IDF does not pay attention to empty calls for cease fires from various terrorist groups, in an interview today with Army Radio. If they want a cease fire, Islamic Jihad and Hamas will need to actually stop their attacks, he explained.
2012: In “Holocaust survivor tailors an American success story” published today Ned Martel tells the story of Buchenwald inmate Martin Greenfield.
2012: Before the arrival of Hurricane Sandy, the Center for Jewish History had been scheduled to present “The Circumcision Debates, Then and Now: Religious Ritual in Historic Perspective.”
2012: Labor Party chairwoman Shelly Yachimovich said today that Israel should take more concrete steps to accommodate non-Orthodox
2012:Interior Minister Eli Yishai called on the public to boycott Israel’s largest supermarket chain after it announced it would be raising prices today. The Shufersal chain announced earlier today it will bump up the prices of thousands of products by 4 percent on average, the latest in a wave of unpopular price hikes.
2012: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won pledges from France’s president to push harder for new sanctions against Iran to keep it from developing nuclear weapons — but no empathy for any possible Israeli military strike against Iran.
2013: The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra String Quarter is scheduled to perform in Sonoma County, marking the first time the quartet has performed in this California County.
2013: “The Jewish Film Festival of Sonoma County is scheduled to present a special screening of ‘Orchestra of Exiles’ at the Rialto Cinemas in Sebastopol, CA.” “Orchestra of Exiles is the suspenseful chronicle of how one man helped save Europe’s premiere Jewish musicians from obliteration by the Nazis during WWII!”
2013: Halloween – See below for the Jewish Connection to the American Candy Orgy centered on good-natured ghosts and ghouls!
2013: The European Union’s foreign policy chief today condemned Israel’s announcement of expansion plans in East Jerusalem neighborhoods, calling on the government to desist even from construction intended to accommodate “natural growth.” (As reported by Raphael Ahren)
2013: While Israel has remained tight-lipped over an alleged strike in Syria, an Obama administration official confirmed today that Israeli warplanes had in fact attacked an airbase in Latakia yesterday. (As reported by Yifa Yaakov, Lazar Berman and Ilan Ben Zion)
2013: “Former Yale Standout Breslow, Boston Red Sox Win World Series” published today described the role of Craig Breslow in defeating the St. Louis Cardinals.
2014: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host a piano recital by Dana Vakhustinsky as part of their Future Generation Series.
2014: Lewis Black is scheduled to appear at the Arlene Schnitzer Hall in Portland, OR.
2014: Before Shabbat, “Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem is scheduled to be shown at the Jewish International Film Festival in Sydney, Australia.
2014: The site called the Temple Mount by Jews and the Noble Sanctuary by Muslims which had been closed following a wave of Arab violence is scheduled to be re-opened today.
2014: As children are scheduled to participate in Halloween, Rabbi Regina Sandle-Phillips shares her views on whether Jews should participate in “Zombies, Vampires, and Things That Come Back to Life: A Rabbi’s Take on Halloween and Beyond.”