November 3
166 BCE (15th of Cheshvan, 3595): Mattathais ben Yochanan passed away.
361: Roman Emperor Constantius II died. Constantius II enhanced the anti-Jewish policies begun by his father. Under his rule, converting to Judaism became a combination of trip down the road to economic ruin and a capital offense. He prohibited Jews from marrying Christian women and from converting Christian women to Judaism. Christian slaves owned by Jews were freed and it was a capital offense for Jews to circumcise slaves in their household. He decreed that Christians who converted to Judaism would forfeit their property to the state.
1394: Enforcement of an order expelling all Jews from France that had Charles the VI had signed on Yom Kippur. The pretext for issuing the order on September 17, 1394, was a report that a Parisian named Denis Machuit who had converted to Christianity had returned to Judaism.
1534: Pope Paul III decided that the bulls of his predecessor, Pope Clement that favored the Marranos and expressed opposition to the Inquisition should not be issued.
1604: Birthdate of Osman II, a Sultan who reigned during the 17thcentury which was a period of decline for the Ottoman Empire and its Jewish subjects. Unlike many of his predecessors, it appears that Osman did not employ an Jews as court physicians or close advisors.
1643(21st of Cheshvan): Rabbi ben Mordecai Azulai, author of Or ha-Hamahpassed away
1654: David Abrabanel Dormido, presented a petition calling for the re-admission of the Jews to England Oliver Cromwell, the English Lord Protector. Dormido, was a leading Amsterdam Jew, who had been entrusted by Manasseh ben Israel to handle negotiations aimed at gaining the re-admittance of the Jews into England. Cromwell recommended that the Council accept the petition, but the matter stalled and Cromwell was forced to find another way to reach his goal.
1766: Twenty-seven year old German mathematician Thomas Abbt who befriend Moses Mendelsohn before he became famous, passed away today.
1783: At the end of the American Revolution, The American Continental Army was disbanded. The majority of the small Jewish community in the United States supported the Revolution. Among those who fought for the cause were: Francis Salvador of South Carolina who literally lost his scalp while fighting for the American cause, Mordecai Sheftall of Georgia who served as Commissary-General for the state’s troops, David Franks who had the mis-fortune of serving as aide-de-camp to Benedict Arnold, Isaac Franks who was captured at the Battle of Long Island but escaped to fight another day and Solomon Bush who rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel, possibly making him the highest ranking Jew to serve in the Continental Army.
1787: Seventy-six year old Robert Loth, a Bishop of the Church of England who was awarded a Doctorate in Divinity by Oxford University, for his treatise on Hebrew poetry entitled Praelectiones Academicae de Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum (On the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews) in 1754 and whose translation of Isaiah would be rated as the best English version by scholars in the 19th century passed away today.
1810: Birthdate of German Reform rabbi Leopold Stein who “composed for the Reform ritual the song "Tag des Herrn," to be sung to the music of "Kol Nidre" on the eve of the Day of Atonement.”
1810: In Zagare, Lithuania, Rabbi Zev Wolf and his wife Leah gave birth to Rabbi Yisroel ben Ze'ev Wolf Lipkin, also known as "Yisroel Salanter" or "Israel Salanter" the father of the Musar movement in Orthodox Judaism
1826: The French version “Margherita d'Anjou,” an operatic melodramma semiseria in two acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer premiered at Theatre Odéon in Paris
1835: Birthdate of Charles Louis Fleischmann who, along with his brother Maximilian created America’s first commercially produced yeast, which revolutionized baking in a way that made today’s mass production and consumption of bread possible. Yes, Fleischmann’s yeast is Kosher.
1837: Birthdate of German actor Ludwig Chronegk, the native of Brandenburg-on-the-Havel who “was the stage-manager and "Intendanzrath" of the famous Meininger troupe established at Weimar by Duke George of Meiningen.”
1839: Issuance of The Hatt-ı Şerif of Gülhane a proclamation that “launched a period of reforms” in the Ottoman Empire which held to improve the situation of Turkish Jews.
1846(14th of Cheshvan, 5607): Rabbi Abraham Auerbach, nephew of Joseph David Sinzheim who survived the Reign of Terror in France and whose seven sons included Rabbi Benjamin Hirsch Auerbach, passed away today in Bonn, Germany
1847: Kehillat Anshe Ma'arab, the first Jewish congregation in Chicago, was established today, when a constitution was adopted and signed by fourteen members. Morris L. Leopold, a young man of twenty-six, born in Laubheim, Württemberg, was elected president(As reported by the Jewish Encyclopedia)
1860: The first neighborhood outside the old city wall of Jerusalem was dedicated. The site was purchased by Sir Moses Montefiore five years earlier and known as Mishkenot Sha'ananim. Although there was initial resistance to leaving the "security" of the old city walls, it soon led to the establishment of dozens of new neighborhoods.
1868: U.S. Grant won the Presidential election defeating Horatio Seymour. Grant was the first President to attend a synagogue service while in office. In 1876 Adas Israel Congregation in Washington D.C. was dedicated and Grant was in attendance. At the time, Adas Israel was an Orthodox Congregation. Today it is one of two Conservative congregations still in the District of Columbia.
1869: The Philadelphia Conference of Reform Rabbi opened today p46
1873: George de Worms, 2nd Baron de Worms and Louisa de Samuel gave birth to Percy de Worms the grandson of Solomon Benedict de Worms and Henrietta Samuel and the great-great-grandson of Mayer Amschel Rothschild.
1877: As conflict continues to swirl through the Balkans, it was reported today, that several Polish dissidents who may have been the intended recipient of arms being shipped secretly from Vienna have been arrested based on information provided by an un-named Jew from Gratz “who has turned state’s evidence for a consideration. [Editor’s note – the veracity of this report is open to question. It could have represented an attempt to stir up enmity between Poles and Jews; the image of the Jew selling out for money is as old as the calumny about Judas Iscariot]
1878: First settlers moved to Petach Tikva. Petach Tikva is Hebrew for Gateway of Hope. A group of Jews from Jerusalem bought land from a Greek landowner on the coastal plain. The initial settlement failed because of malaria and crop failure. Petach Tikva would rise again and a youthful David Ben Gurion would be one of the settlers.
1879: The Board of Trustees of Temple Beth-El met this evening to plan the funeral for the Rabbi David Einhorn, of blessed memory. Mrs. Einhorn, who had wanted the funeral to be a private affair agreed to allow for a more public event which will be conducted by Rabbi Kauffman Kohler, her son-in-law and the man who had succeeded Rabbi Einhorn when he retired as the spiritual leader of Temple Beth-El
1879: It was reported today that France has successfully reasserted herself in the field of foreign affairs. Among the areas where the French appear to be on the verge of accomplishing their goals is Romania where she has worked to convince the government of the need to fully emancipate her Jewish population. This is reported as a self-less act since the French have no national interest in accomplishing this.
1881: It was reported today that the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum is planning on building a new facility that will house 600 children. Located between 136thand 138th street, the new structure will cost $250,000 which does not include the cost of the land.
1884: “Tried For Burning A Synagogue” published today draws on information that first appeared in the London Standard describes a trial In Hungary where five Jews have been charged with arson for their role in burning down a synagogue five years ago. The trial is expected to last two weeks since testimony is to be heard from 90 witnesses.
1884: Based on information that first appeared in the London Truth, it was reported today that the Duke of Westminster has declined to renew Sir Moses Montefiore’s lease on the house in Park Lane that has been his home for several decades on the terms requested. Instead he has said that he will “accept the worthy old gentleman as a yearly tenant”
1885(25th of Cheshvan, 5646): Milton Silverman, the son of shoemaker Julius Silverman died as a result of a blow struck by Julius Rubiner, a Jew from Poland who owned a grocery store on Hester Street.
1888: In St. Petersburg, the police “have given notice that Jews will not be allowed to change their names or to reside in the capital without a permit.”
1889: Professor Felix Adler is scheduled to speak at the funeral of August Henry Edinger, the patron of several Jewish charities which is to be held this morning at 9:30 a.m.
1889: It was reported today that 30% of the students at the four inns of court in England “who passed examinations qualifying them to be called barristers” have “names that are Jewish.”
1890(20th of Cheshvan, 5651): Sixty four year old Manuel Joël, the Jewish philosopher who wrote essays on Ibn Gabriol and Maimonides and succeeded Abraham Geiger as the rabbi in Breslau, passed away today.
1894: At Memorial Hall in Boston, 2,000 Jews attended “a mock funeral service” in which they rejoiced over the death of Czar Alexander III.
1894: George T. Selikovitsch, the former editor of the Jewish Eagle declined an invitation to speak at the “mock funeral” for Czar Alexander III saying that “he disliked the Czar but was unwilling to trample on the grave.”
1894: As European government’s mourned the death of Czar Alexander III, the Vienna correspondent for the London Standard reported that “some time ago a deputation petitioned the Czarevitch to intervene” on behalf of the Russian Jews. The heir to the Russian throne replied, “I despise and condemn the expulsion of your countrymen, but my hands are tied.” (The Czarevith, Nicholas II, proved to be as anti-Semitic as his late father)
1895: The second annual concert of the Halevy Singing Society took place this evening at the Hebrew Institute Hall at East Broadway and Jefferson Street.
1895: It was reported today that in Paris, the anti-Semitic Libre Parole is making an effort “to elevate personal hatred of the Jews to the height of a great principle
1895(16th of Cheshvan, 5656): Forty year old Morris Deschner, forty-five Isaac Pensen and fifty-five old Jacob Shapiro, all Jewish tailors from Russia died today in a fire this morning at 7 Pelham Street which is “in the heart of the sweat-shop district.”
1895: The monthly visiting day at the Hebrew Sheltering Arms was not held because the place has been placed under quarantine because of the measles epidemic.
1895: “Youngsters In Politics” published today described a meeting co-hosted by the Hebrew Institute Street Cleaning League in which Mayor Strong addressed the Jewish boys and girls who have voluntarily joined together to keep the streets of the Lower East Side free from trash and garbage.
1896: William McKinley defeated William Jennings Bryan in the race of the Presidency. Like many populists of the day, Bryan dabbled in anti-Semitism. The image of the international Jewish bankers denying the “free silver” to American farmers and workers was a favorite of the time. (You have to know American history to follow this one.) Tom Watson of Georgia ran on the ticket with Bryan as the candidate for Vice President. Watson’s anti-Semitism was cruder and more blatant than many other of his contemporaries. Watson was a supporter of the Klan. In 1913, he was a leader in whipping up anti-Semitic sentiment against Leo Frank. Watson may not have actually been at Frank’s lynching, but he certainly played a major role in making it possible to put the noose around the innocent Frank’s neck.
1896: “Mother and Son Buried” published today described the joint funeral services that were held for Abraham Fox and his mother Ernestine Fox who had died two days from the effects of consumption, the same illness that claimed Abraham’s life.
1898:The Zionist Delegation leaves Jerusalem and goes back to Yaffe. Herzl wants to leave the country immediately and they board the English orange freighter "Dundee" for Alexandria, Egypt.
1899(1st of Kislev, 5660): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1899(1st of Kislev, 5660): Belgian engraver Jacques Wiener who designed the first Belgian postage stamps and whose talent led to him being “decorated with the Order of the Knights of Leopold and the Prussian Eagle” passed away today.
1902(3rd of Cheshvan, 5663): Eighty-five year old philanthropist Ferdinand Reichenheim passed away in Berlin.
1903: Panama proclaimed its independence from Colombia. The first Jews who arrived in Panama in the early 16th century were Conversos, secret Jews. The Jews formed their first community in 1876. Within a decade after the revolution that created the independent Panama, there were approximately 500 Jews living in Panama. Two of the families living in Panama at that time were the Henriques and the Sassos. Vera Sasso, the daughter of a Sephardic merchant made her way to the United States where she became Vera Sasso Levy. She is the great-great-great- grandmother of Jacob and Rachel Levin.
1903(13th of Cheshvan, 5664:) Mena Roos, wife of Aaron Roos passed away. Born in Bavaria in 1826, she was buried in Natchez, Mississippi, which at one time was home to a thriving Jewish community.
1905: Czar Nicholas II of Russia signs a document of amnesty for political prisoners.
1908:William Howard Taft was elected 27th President. Taftwas the first President to attend a Seder while in office. In 1912, when he visited Providence, RI, he participated in the family Seder of Colonel Harry Cutler, first president of the National Jewish Welfare Board. This was probably a political fence-mending gesture designed to recapture some of the Jewish political support Taft lost when he failed to support efforts to halt anti-Semitic policies of the Czar aimed at American Jews.
1908: Morris Hillquite received 21.23% of the vote in today’s election where he was running for the House seat in the 9thCongressional District.
1911: Hundreds of Jews were left destitute by floods at Serres, Salonica.
1911: The New York Timesreports that the Russian Premier has “heeded to the plea of the Jews” and modified the order to expel the Jews from the province of Ekaterinoslaff.
1911(12th of Cheshvan, 5672): Seventy-five year old Rabbi Solomon Mosche passed away.
1912: A Jewish teacher in a government school for girls in Volo, Greece, was dismissed as not being qualified to instruct Christian children.
1913: In Pittsburgh, PA, Harry and Mary Levine gave birth to Milton Martin Levine, who “With his brother-in-law,…devised what was eventually named Uncle Milton's Ant Farm, which was an instant hit in the fad-crazy 1950s.”
1913: The New York Timesreports on a study conducted by Abram Lipsky and published in the American Hebrew that examines the question of whether or not there is among the Jews of New York City a "Jewish vote" that can be depended upon for political purposes.
1914: Meyer London defeated his Tammany Hall backed opponent in his bid for election to the House of Representatives. This made him the second member of the Socialist Party to be elected to Congress.
1914: Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire
1914: Mary Phelps Jacob won a patent for the first modern brassiere. Mary Phelps Jacob was not Jewish. But the woman who took the bra to its next level was “During the flat-chested Flapper era in the 1920’s, a Russian immigrant named Ida Rosenthal noticed that a bra that fit one woman did not fit another woman of the same bra size. With the help of her husband William, they founded Maidenform. Ida was responsible for grouping women into bust size categories (cup sizes) and developed bras for every stage of life from puberty to maturity.” (And you thought this was all about Talmud, Torah and Nobel Prizes.)
1917: As the Russian Revolution moves to its climax, which means Russia, will drop out of the war leaving the Germans to turn the full weight of the arms against the Allies on the Western Front, plans are made to send three leading Zionists, including Vladimir Jabotinsky, to Petrograd to rally Russian Jewry to the Allied cause. One British official, Lord Hardinge, summed up the British expectations by writing, “With skillful management of the Jews of Russia the situation may still be restored by spring.” Alas, the Allies were a day late and a dollar short. They underestimated the power of the Bolsheviks and they overestimated the power of the Zionists and believed too much, like philo-Semites and anti-Semites, in the mythic power of “the Jews.”
1918: Poland proclaims independence from Russia after WW I. There were about three million Jews living in Poland. Many Jews were active in the movement for Polish Independence. From 1918 until 1921, Poland was wracked by a series of wars and internecine conflicts that included several Pogroms. There was enough concern among the Western Powers about Polish anti-Semitism that there was a series of explicit clauses in the Paris Peace Conference protecting the rights of minorities in Poland. In 1921 the March Constitution gave the Jews the same legal rights as other citizens and guaranteed them religious tolerance. Unfortunately, the Polish government did not always honor these guarantees.
1921: In his diary, Zionist leader Arthur Rupin describes how he convinced Montague David Eder that the four victims of Arab rioting should not be buried in quietly in the evening but should be interred following a dignified public funeral
1924: Josiah Wegwood, the English political leader who would opposed the appeasement of Hitler and the British anti-Zionist policies in the 1930’s relinquished the role of Chancellor of the Duchy Lancaster.
1928: Arnold Rothstein was shot and mortally wounded while conducting some business affairs at Manhattan's Park Central Hotel. He died the next day at the Stuyvesant Polyclinic Hospital in Manhattan. The shooting was allegedly linked to a gambling event that Rothstein had participated in the previous month with several associates and acquaintances
1928: Premiere of B.P. Schulberg’s “Abie’s Irish Rose,” a film based on a play of the same name with a script co-authored by Herman Mankiewicz, that “tells the story of a Jewish boy, Abie Levy, who falls in love with and secretly marries Rosemary Murphy, an Irish Catholic girl, but lies to his family, saying that she's Jewish.”
1932: German industrial leaders petitioned President Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor, thus putting the lie to the later claim that they had not been early supporters of the Nazis.
1938: In Hanover, Rabbi Emil Schorsch and his wife gave birth to Ismar Schorsch , the sixth Chancellor of The Jewish Theological Seminary.
1936: President Roosevelt was re-elected in a landslide over Republican Alfred "Alf" Landon. During this second term, FDR would appoint Felix Frankfurter as a Supreme Court Justice.
1936: Birthdate of Manford Levy the most ardent Longhorn fan on the face of the earth and one of the nicest people to grace the face of the earth.
1938:Dr. Simon Ginzburg of Tel Aviv announced the formation of an American campaign committee to help raise $50,000 for the Palestine Hebrew Culture Fund. He had come to the United States to promote the interests of the fund. “Dr. Ginsburg is the chairman of the Hebrew Writers Association of Palestine and honorary secretary of the Hebrew Pen Club of Palestine.” Plans are also in the works to “call a world conference of Hebrew writers, educators and laymen in connection with the World’s Fair in New York during May or June, 1939.”
1938: In Paris, Herschel Grynszpan received a post card from his sister Berta that described how his family had been forced to leave Germany and then were stranded on the Polish border because the Poles would not admit them.
1939: In Los Angeles, CA, Arthur and Zelda Wolpe gave birth to Howard Eliot Wolpe, the “congressman who played a crucial role in passing legislation that imposed economic sanctions on South Africa in the 1980s, helping to bring an end to apartheid while overcoming two vetoes by President Ronald Reagan. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1941: Einsatzgruppe B reported 80,000 Jews have been killed in the Ukraine up to this point
1942: During World War II the Second Battle of El Alamein ended in Egypt with the British defeating the German and Italian forces under Erwin Rommel. This defeat was one of the turning points of the war because it ended the threat of Axis conquest of the Suez Canal which would have severed the British lifeline to India and Australia. It also ended the threat of genocide for the Jews of Palestine. The same killing units that had joined the German Army when it swept across Eastern Europe were posted to the Rommel’s forces. The threat was so real that the Jews had made plans for fighting a Nazi invasion in an attempt to ameliorate the impending slaughter.
1942: Nathan Goldstein was elected for the first time as New York State Attorney General on the Republican ticket.
1942: Forty-four year old Saul Adler of Ouachita Parish married Doshie Katherine Medaries of Lincoln Parish.
1942(23rd of Cheshvan, 5703) Jewish communities of Bilgoraj, Poland, and Ostryna, Belorussia, are destroyed at the Belzec and Auschwitz death camps, respectively.
1943(5th of Cheshvan, 5704): At Majdanek, 17,000 Jewish prisoners were mowed down by machine-gun fire.
1943(5th of Cheshvan, 5704): Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Grand Rabbi of Piaseczno, Poland, whose works included Esh Kodesh, “a compilation of weekly sermons that contend with complex questions of faith in the face of the mounting suffering of the Jews in the ghetto” was among those murdered by the Nazis – a fate made all the more tragic by the fact that this sage had survived the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
1943(5th of Cheshvan, 5704): The Nazis murdered 43,000 in Aktion Erntefest (Operation Harvest Festival)
1943: Three hundred Jews at Borki, Poland, near Chelm, are put to work exhuming 30,000 corpses, mostly of Red Army POWs taken prisoner and murderedlate in 1941. The bodies are burned on massive pyres.
1943: The Germans undertake Erntefest(Harvest Festival), a planned massacre of Jews of three camps in the area around Lublin, Poland. About 18,000 are murdered at Majdanek, 10,000 at Trawniki, and 15,000 at Poniatowa. At Poniatowa, Jews who resist are burned alive in a barrack.
1943: Jacob Katz, a Jewish cleaner at the Budzyn, Poland, concentration camp, rescues seven elderly Jews by hiding them beneath mattresses.
1943: Riccardo Pacifici, rabbi of Genoa, Italy, is deported to Auschwitz along with 200 members of his congregation and 100 Jewish refugees from Northern Europe. The community in Genoa traced its roots to 511 C.E.
1943: Birthdate of pitcher Ken Holtzman. Holtzman was often compared to that other Jewish southpaw, Sandy Koufax. Holtzman’s rookie season coincided with Koufax’s last in the majors. In his final game, Koufax pitched against Holtzman. At the end of a pitcher’s duel, youth was served and Ken beat Sandy.
1944: A trainload of Jews from the labor camp at Sered, Slovakia, arrives at Auschwitz. Because the camp's gas chambers are being dismantled, the 990 Jews on board are sent to work or to barracks rather than to their deaths.
1945: Anti-Jewish riots continued for a second day in Egypt.
1952:Mordechai Nurock became Israel’s first Minister of Postal Services which later became the Ministry of Communications.
1952: In Salt Lake City, Utah, Helen (née Davis), a bookkeeper and cashier, and Jerome Hershel "Jerry" Barr, gave birth to the first child Roseanne Cherrie Barr who gained fame as the star of the hit sitcom “Roseanne.”
1953: In Fort Worth, TX, Edwin Leon Nail and his wife Beverly Sue gave birth to Kathleen Sue Nail who gained fame as actress Kate Capshaw and the wife of Stephen Spielberg whom married after converting to Judaism.
1953: Stanley M. Isaacs garnered 65.14% of the election for New York City Council.
1955: “ ‘Israeli 'Hill 24 Doesn't Answer' at World” published today provides a review of one the earliest and what would prove to be one of Israel’s most enduring cinematic efforts.
1955: The third Knesset started with David Ben-Gurion forming the seventh government of Israel today
1955:Israel Bar-Yehuda replaced Haim-Moshe Shapira as Internal Affairs Minister in Israel.
1955: Operation Volcano was completed this morning when units from the Golan Brigade’s 12 Battalion destroyed all of “the targeted Egyptian emplacements” at Sachba capturing “22 military vehicles of various types, anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, heavy machine guns, mortars, light arms and communications equipment’ while killing and/or capturing 136 of the enemy.
1956: During the Suez Crisis, British bombers attacked Egyptian ammunition dumps, airfields and military barracks.
1956: During the Sinai Campaign, Israel informed Dag Hammarskjold that she accepted the cease fire and that her forces had already halted 15 kilometers east of the Suez Canal.
1956: Among the large quantities of Egyptian military stores captured, Israeli soldiers found that captured Egyptian officers carried Arabic translations of Mein Kampf.
1957: William Reich passed away. Reich was born in Austria and trained under Freud. In 1933, he published The Mass Psychology of Fascism. When the text was banned by the Nazis Reich came to the United States. His work with orgone got him in trouble with the FDA and he ended up in prison. He passed away before he could gain parole.
1959:Elections for the fourth Knesset were held in Israel today. Voter turnout was 81.5%
1961: Eliyahu Sasson began serving as Minister of Communications.
1962: Birthdate of Phil Katz, the programmer who created PZIP.
1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson soundly defeated Arizona Republican Senator Barry Goldwater to win a White House term on his own right. Senator Goldwater’s father was Jewish, but Goldwater was raised as an Episcopalian. Goldwater’s running mate was Congressman Miller who happened to be Catholic. Bigots characterized the ticket as the Arizona Israelite and his fellow traveler from the Vatican. During this second term Johnson would support Israel during the Six Day War in 1967. Among other things, when the Soviets threatened Israel when the war went against their Arab clients, Johnson sent the Sixth Fleet into the eastern Mediterranean to let the Russians know that their interference would not be tolerated.
1964(28th of Cheshvan, 5725): Bank manager Shimon Shalom, the father of Silvan Shalom, was murdered today during a bank robbery
1968: The New York Times includes a review of Mosby’s Memoirs and Other Stories, Saul Bellow’s first work since the publication of Herzog.
1968: During what became known as the War of Attrition, IAF jets rise up to meet Egyptian MiG-17s attacking positions held by the IDF.
1970: U. S. Premiere of “The Owl and the Pussycat” co-starring Barbra Streisand and George Segal.
1970: Salvador Allende, an avowed Marxist, was elected President of Child. “He immediately set about nationalizing the banks and larger industries. The development was as alarming to the Jews as it was to the rest of the nation’s middle class citizens. At least 6,000 of Chile’s 30,000 Jews departed for Israel or the United States within months of his election.
1971: U.S. premiere of Fiddler on the Roof the movie version of the famous Broadway musical starring Chaim Topol
1973(8th of Cheshvan, 5734):Gustave "Gus" Levy a senior partner of Goldman Sachs since 1969 when he succeeded the legendary Sidney Weinberg passed away. Levy was born in 1910 in New Orleans, one of three children of Sigmund and Bella Levy. Levy briefly attended Tulane University before dropping out, moving to New York City, working various job in the financial sector, and then joining Goldman Sachs in 1933 to head the then one-man trading department for a salary of $27.50 a week. He remained at Goldman Sachs for rest of his career and rose to senior partner in 1969. Levy was known for his tremendous energy, short temper, intelligence, and generosity.
1978(3rd of Cheshvan, 5739): Fifty-six year old Marian Winters passed away while appearing on Broadway in “Deathtrap.”
1981: David Levy began serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Israel.
1988: Soviet Union agreed to allow the teaching of Hebrew
1992: Jerry Nadler completes his service as a member of the New York State Assembly from the 67th District.
1992: Jerry Nadler was elected to House of Representative for New York’s 17th district.
1992: Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer were elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming the first Jewish women senators, the first female senators from California, and the first two women to ever represent any state at the same time. An advocate and advisor on prison reform to California Governor Edmund (Pat) Brown; Feinstein became the first woman president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969. In 1979, she won election as the first female mayor of San Francisco after the brutal assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. In 1992, she won a special Senate election to replace Pete Wilson who had left his seat to become governor of California. She was re-elected in the 1994 and 2000 elections. Feinstein became the first female member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Inspired to run for Senate by the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings, Barbara Boxer became a Senator after 10 years of service in the House of Representatives. She was elected to a second six-year term in 1998. The Senate's leading defender of a woman's right to choose, Senator Boxer authored the Family Planning and Choice Protection Act and helped lead the floor fight for passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
1992: Bill Clinton defeats George Bush and Ross Perot to become President of the United States. During Clinton’s presidency, Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty. He also played a key role in brokering the peace accords between the Israelis and the PLO. When Rabin and Arafat shook hands in the presence of a beaming Clinton most people thought a new day had dawned in the Middle East. Unfortunately Arafat would never be able to make the leap from photo op to being the next “Anwar Sadat.” Of course, another Jew, Monica Lewinsky played a prominent part in another aspect of the Clinton presidency as did Mark Rich the man who was mysteriously pardoned by Bill as he literally walked out of the White Office.
1994: “Market Place; Big Winners, Big Losers in Snapple’s Life Story published today provides Floyd Norris’ view of the beverage company originally founded by Arnold Greenberg and Hyman Goldman.
1998: Brian Schatz was elected to the Hawaii House of Representatives from the 24thDistrict.
1998(14th of Cheshvan, 5759): Bob Kane, the creator of Batman, passed away. Born Robert Kahn, you might say was the high priest of the World of Action Heroes.
1998: In “A Holocaust Memoir in Doubt,” Doreen Carvajal discusses the controversy swirling around Fragments by Binjamin Wilkomirski.
2001: Sir Ernst Gombrich passed away. Born in Austria in in 1909 to a Jewish family that converted to a form of mystical Protestantism, Gombrich was left Austria in 1936 and moved to England where he became a renowned art historian. Although he never reversed his family’s conversion Gombrich had a strong Jewish identity. After the Nazis came to power he was always insistent on describing himself as an Austrian Jew.
2002: In an article entitled “Norman Podhoretz's Old-Time Religion” Judith Shulevitz reviews The Prophets: Who They Were, What They Are and provides a vivid description of how Podhoretz manipulates the ancient text to fit his modern political agenda.
2002(28th of Cheshvan, 5763): Actor Jonathan Harris passed away. He was best known for his portrayal of Dr. Smith on Lost in Space.
2002: Brian Schatz was elected to the Hawaii House of Representatives from the 25th District.
2003: The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s appeal of a lower court order to remove his Ten Commandments Monument from the rotunda in Montgomery, Alabama.
2004: The World Jewish Film Festival, the first of its kind in Israel and the Jewish world comes to a close in Tel Aviv.
2004: NPR features Kevin Rudd, foreign policy spokesman, in a segment on the Australian Labour Party and its policy toward Israel and the Jewish people in which he defends the party against charges of anti-Semitism and hypocrisy by Barry Cohen.
2005: In a major shift of public sentiment Israeli newspapers reported that Pro-Israel rallies were being held front of Iran embassies across Europe.
2005: A Broadway revival of StephenSondheim’s “Sweeny Todd” opened at the Eugene O’Neil Theatre.
2005: Officials in a Slovak town have apologized to local Jews for a pogrom that took place shortly after the end of World War II. "We express deep regret of the tragic event, which has no equivalent in our modern history in terms of its evil and inhuman character," said the statement by Topolcany municipal officials presented to representatives of the Federation of Jewish Communities
2007: In the early morning hours, one Hamas terrorist was killed and two others wounded when an IAF helicopter attacked a Hamas outpost in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israelis were responding to mortar attacks launched against from Gaza against southern Israel.
2007: The Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra under Doron Salomon presents its Balkan music program at the Givataim Theatre at the Tel Aviv Museum featuring Theodosii Spassov the greatest player of a unique type of flute called the kaval
2007: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to arrive in the evening for her eighth trip to Israel in 2007. The reported purpose of the trip is to bring pressure on Israel to ensure that the upcoming meeting between Arabs and Israelis in Annapolis is a success.
2007: The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that seven out of ten of the 265 Kibbutzim in Israel are now at least partially privatized operations.
2008:Centro Primo Levi presents a lecture by David Ruderman, the Director of the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and renowned expert in the history of ideas that shaped the identity and culture of Italian Jewry, entitled “Beyond the Dialectic of Ghetto Versus Integration: Towards a New Vision of Jewish Cultural History in Italy.”
2008: Time magazine includes a notice in its Milestones section about the recent death of Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal who ran four Las Vegas casinos in the 1970s and was the inspiration for Robert De Niro’s character in Martin Scorese’s film “Casino” as well as a review of Philip Roth’s newest novel, Indignation which begins with the reviewer writing “The first thing to say about Roth’s Indignation is that it’s a terrible book.”
2008: The National Religious Party “announced a merger with the National Union, Tkuma and Moledet to form a new right-wing party, later named The Jewish Home.”
2009: Janice Lieberman, author of How To Shop for a Husband: A Consumer Guide to Getting A Great Buy on a Guy appears at the 31st Annual St. Louis Jewish Book Festival.
2010: Centro Primo Levi, CDEC, Milan, NYU Skirball Department for Hebrew and Judaic Studies, and Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò are scheduled to present a symposium entitled “Racial Policies in Fascist Italy: New Documents and Perspectives.”
2010: The San Diego Jewish Book fair is scheduled to open this evening with a presentation by Mosab Hassan Yousef, author of Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue and Unthinkable Choices
2010:The IDF, working with the Israel Security Agency (ISA), killed a senior Al-Qaeda terrorist in Gaza today. The terrorist was identified as 27-year-old Mohammed Jamal a-Nahmnam who was plotting attacks against Israel and American targets in Sinai, Egypt, in coordination with Hamas.
2010:About 500 Jewish agencies joined a 75-minute conference call today focusing on security. The call was organized after the thwarted mail-bomb threat against two Jewish institutions in Chicago.
2010(26th of Cheshvan, 5770): Eighty-one year old Jerry Bock who composed the scores for such hits as “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Fiorello” passed away today. (As reported by Robert Bervist)
2011:In New York City, Israeli historian and journalist Gershom Gorenberg is scheduled to discuss the policies that threaten Israel's democracy, the little known history behind them, and the new direction that Israel needs to take to remain a democratic and Jewish state.
2011:Dr. Judith Hauptman, the E. Billi Ivry Professor of Talmud and Rabbinic Culture at the Jewish Theological Seminary is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Did Women Study Torah in the Talmudic Period?” at Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase, MD
2011:President Obama called for keeping up international pressure on Iran amid news reports that Israel may be preparing for war with the Islamic Republic.
2011: Palestinian terrorists fired at Israeli security forces near Gaza today
2011:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided today to freeze funding to UNESCO after it had granted the Palestinians membership. Israel transfers some $2 million to the UN cultural body yearly.
2012: Director Eytan Fox’s “Yossi” is scheduled to be shown at the UK Jewish Film Festival.
2012: In Springfield, VA, Adat Reyim is scheduled to sponsor a fundraiser “Casino Royim.”
2012: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the traditional minyan is scheduled to observe Jewish Book Month Shabbat celebrating two Living Literary Legends – Sir Martin Gilbert and Herman Wouk.
2012:Jewish and Arab protesters squared off in Jerusalem tonight, a day after a Jewish man was non-fatally stabbed in the predominately Arab neighborhood of Ras al-Amoud.
2012: In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the 14th Street Y gets it power back today and announces that it will be open for business tomorrow.
2013: SIGD Celebration 2013 sponsored by the Ethiopian Jewish Community is scheduled to end today.
2013: Former Wall Street Journal editor Naomi Schaefer Riley is scheduled to talk about interfaith marriage at the San Diego Jewish Book Fair.
2013: At Tikvat Israel in Rockville, MD, “Chocolate & Jewish Values: A Fair Experience” – a program which is designed to “promote overseas fair trade in the context of Jewish values – is scheduled to come to a close.
2013: Jeremie Bracka's hilarious one-man Israeli comedy "Arafat in Therapy" satirizes the Middle-East peace process through farce, mockumentary and autobiographical monologue is scheduled to have its final performance at the United Solo Theatre.
2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect by Matthew D. Lieberman, Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution by Fred Vogelstein and DOT Complicated: Untangling Our Wired Lives by Randi Zuckerberg
2013: One of the largest, if not the largest picture of Chabad Rabbis is scheduled to be taken this morning at the Annual International Shluchim Convention (Kinus Hashluchim) in Brooklyn, NY
2013: Brad Ausmus was named the 37th manager in the history of the Detroit Tigers,
2013:Chief of Staff Benny Gantz visited the soldiers who had been wounded in last Thursday's tunnel explosion on the Gaza Strip border. At the same time doctors are fighting to save the eyesight of Ahiya Klein, one of the soldiers wounded in the attack. (As reported by Maayana Miskin)
2013: “A pregnant Syrian woman gave birth at Safed’s Ziv Medical Center this morning. Her son is the first baby from a mother fleeing Syria’s civil war to be born in Israel. When the mother realized there was no one in Syria who could deliver her, she asked to be taken to the border, where she hoped Israeli soldiers would pick her up and send her to an Israeli medical center, she said. (As reported by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich)
2014: “A Letter to Mother,” the 1939 film which one of the last Yiddish movies made in Poland before the Nazi invasion is scheduled to be shown at the Center for Jewish History today.
2014: JTA Washington Bureau Chief Ron Kampeas, Israel Correspondent Ben Sales and Senior Correspondent Uriel Heilman are scheduled to participate in a telephone discussion on the state of U.S. – Israeli relations.
2014: In Sydney, “Gett, the Trial of Vivian Amsalem” and “The Outrageous Sophie Tucker” are among the films scheduled to be shown at the Jewish International Film Festival.
2014: In London, The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide is scheduled to host “The Normality of Terror: the Heinrich and Margarete Himmler Correspondence.”
2014(10thof Cheshvan):On this date 1656 from Creation, Noah and family entered the Ark. (Aish)