November 10
1217: During the Fifth Crusade, King Andrew II of Hungary defeated Sultan Al-Adi in what would prove to by a pyric on the banks of Jordan River. The Moslems retreated into fortified positions from which they could not be dislodged and the Hungarian monarch finally went home with little more than bags of “relics” to show for all of his campaigning.
1290: The community of Huesca, Spain prohibited Christians from buying meat or poultry from Jews under a penalty of 70 days in jail.
1444: At the Battle of Varna the Ottoman Sultan Murad II defeated a Christian Crusading Army under the Polish King Vladislus III. The Turkish victory paved the way for the Ottoman Moslem conquest of parts of Eastern Europe as well as the conquest of Constantinople. The extension and consolidation of the Ottomans was “a good thing for the Jews” since Ottoman Empire was a place of refuge for Jews escaping Christian Europe. Murad II opened his empire to Jews escaping from persecution in Germany and employed two Jews as court physicians. Vladislus III followed in the footsteps of his father Valdislus II and attempted to deny the Jews the rights and privileges granted by previous Polish monarch. The Battle of Varna paved the way for the fall of Constantinople in 1453 which in turn provided some of the impetus for the search for a water route to the Orient which gave rise to the travels of Columbus which opened the way for what would become the American Jewish community. No, this is not a shaggy dog story. It is the law of unintended consequences that makes up the history of Jews.
1483: Birthdate of Martin Luther, German religious leader and reformer. At first Luther was friendly to the Jews thinking that this kindly treatment would them to accept his new form of Christianity. When the Jews accepted his friendship but rejected conversions, he turned on them and began his anti-Semitic attacks. He died in 1546.
1509: Emperor Maximilien issued a second mandate reproaching the Jews of Frankfort for disobeying his first edict and ordering the confiscation of their holy books to continue.
1549: Pope Paul III passed away. According to the Graetz, “Paul III was specially well-disposed to Jews.” According to a Bishop named Sadolet of Carpentras, “No pope has ever bestowed on Christians so many honors, such privileges and concessions as Paul III has givn to the Jews. They are not onlyu assisted, but positively armed with benefits and prerogatives.” Paul protected the Marranos from the Inquisition and employed a Jewish physician named Jacob Mantin.
1619: René Descartes has the dreams that inspire his Meditations on First Philosophy. Descartes would play a major role in the development of the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza with the Dutch Jew first accepting and the rejecting Descartes’ notion of duality. Furthermore, while Descartes was able to maintain some semblance of religious practice even though his philosophy was at odds with Catholic doctrine, Spinoza took a different road. When he found a dissonance between his philosophy and Judaism, he ceased to follow its rituals and customs.
1659(24th of Cheshvan, 5420): Antonio Fernandez Carvajal(a Portuguese-Jewish merchant, who became the first naturalized English Jew passed away. He was born about 1590, probably at Fundão, Portugal. He appears to have left Fundão on account of the persecution of the Inquisition and, proceeding to the Canary Islands, acquired much property there, made many commercial connections, which led him (about 1635) to London, where he settled in Leadenhall Street. In 1649 the council of state appointed him one among the five persons who received the army contract for corn. In 1653 Carvajal was reported as owning a number of ships trading to the East and West Indies, to Brazil, and to the Levant. He dealt in all kinds of merchandise, including gunpowder, wine, hides, pictures, cochineal, and especially corn and silver, and is reported to have brought to England, on average, £100,000 worth of silver per annum. In the early days of his residence in England, Carvajal used to attend mass at the Spanish ambassador's chapel, and in 1645 was informed against for not attending church; but the House of Lords, on the petition of several leading London merchants, quashed the proceedings. In 1650, when war broke out with Portugal, Carvajal's ships were especially exempted from seizure, though he was nominally a Portuguese subject. In 1655 he and his two sons were granted denizenship as English subjects (the patent being dated August 17 of that year); and when the war with Spain broke out in the following year, his property in the Canaries was liable to seizure, as he was a British subject. Oliver Cromwell made arrangements by which Carvajal's goods were transported from the Canaries in an English ship which passed under Dutch colors. When Menasseh Ben Israel came to England in 1655 to petition Parliament for the return of the Jews to England, Carvajal, though his own position was secured, associated himself with the petition; and he was one of the three persons in whose names the first Jewish burial-ground was acquired after the Robles case had forced the Jews in England to acknowledge their creed. Carvajal, besides advancing money to Parliament on cochineal, had been of service to Cromwell in obtaining information as to the Royalists' doings in Holland (1656). One of his servants, Somers, alias Butler, and also a relative, Alonzo di Fonseca Meza, acted as intelligencers for Cromwell in Holland, and reported about Royalist levies, finances, and spies, and the relations between Charles II and Spain. It was to Carvajal that Cromwell gave the assurance of the right of Jews to remain in England. Under the date of February 4, 1657, Burton, in his diary, states: The Jews, those able and general intelligencers whose intercourse with the Continent Cromwell had before turned to profitable account, he now conciliated by a seasonable benefaction to their principal agent [Carvajal] resident in England. In 1648 a cargo of logwood belonging to Carvajal was seized by the customs officers. He assembled his servants and friends, broke open the government warehouses, and carried off his merchandise. The litigation to which this gave rise was interrupted only by Carvajal's death, which occurred in London.
1674: As provided in the Treaty of Westminster which ended the Anglo-Dutch War, the Netherlands ceded New Netherlands to England. This meant that New Amsterdam would become New York and the Jewish community in the New World would be tied to the fate of an English speaking world.
1687: The Jews of Posen, Poland successfully defended themselves against attack by anti-Semitic mobs
1766: William Franklin (son of Benjamin Franklin born out of wedlock) royal governor of the colony of New Jersey, signs the charter of Queen’s College which is now known as Rutgers University. Today, “The Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers offers an interdisciplinary approach to the academic study of all aspects of the Jewish experience. Courses offered by the Department, which are open to all students, address the historical, social, cultural, religious and political life of the Jewish people from ancient times to the present. Students pursuing a B.A. degree may major or minor in Jewish Studies.”
1773: Birthdate of Joseph Perl, the native of Galicia who went from being a youthful follower of Chasidism to being a leader of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment Movement)
1775: The United States Marine Corps is founded at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia by Samuel Nicholas. Robert Magnus was probably the highest ranking Jew to serve with the Marine Corps. When he retired in July of 2008 he had four stars on his shoulders and had just finished serving a tour as the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps. Barney Ross is considered by some to be the most famous Jewish hero to serve with the Marine Corps. Despite the fact that he was in this 30’s when Pearl Harbor was attacked, Ross enlisted in the Marines. He rejected a ceremonial, public relations role and insisted on joining the combat forces. He got his wish when he began a tour on Guadalcanal where he earned a Silver Star, the third highest commendation awarded for bravery in battle. The largest single contingent of Jewish members of the corps to serve in one place might have been at Iwo Jima where approximately 1,500 Sons of Jacob joined their fellow Leathernecks in the some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific. The most famous novel to come out of World War II about the Marines was “Battlecry” written by Leon Uris, a Jewish Marine who had a flair for words and a combat veteran’s view of war that was up close and personal.
1807: The Jews of the region of Widdin on the Danube escape destruction leading to “an annual celebration known as the Purim of the Poisoned Sword.”
1808: Birthdate of Lewis Charles Levin the first Jew elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He was the American Party candidate from Pennsylvania in 1844. Born in Charleston South Carolina, he graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) with a law degree. He was a founder of the Native American Party and published and edited the Philadelphia Daily Sun. Levin was reelected twice before being defeated in 1850. He then returned to the practice of law in Philadelphia until his death on March 14, 1860. [The Native American Party, popularly called The No-Nothings, was a nativist, anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant party supposedly founded by WASPS. So one must wonder how a Jew got involved with this and/or how did these people let a Jew became part of their party.]
1809: In Diespeck, Bavaria, Maier and Karoline Einhorn gave birth to David Einhnorn one of the most influential of the Rabbis in the early days of the Reform Movement who risked his life while serving at Har Sinai in the slave holding state of Maryland to denounce the institution and support the cause of the Union.
1810: Birthdate of Lazarus Adler, the Bavarian born rabbi and author whose last “work, favoring wise reforms, bore the title Hillel and Shammai.”
1810: Birthdate of Eduard Simson the Konigsberg born Jew whose family converted in 1823; a move which surely helped him rise to serve as the first President of the German Parliament.
1826: In Loslau, Upper Silesia, David Hamburger and his wife gave birth to Jacob Hamburger the “editor of the first explicitly Jewish Encyclopedia.”
1828: Birthdate of Hector-Jonathan Crémieux, the French librettist who collaborated with Ludovic Halévy to create “Orpheus in the Underworld.”
1840: Birthdate of Alois Kaiser, the Hungarian born Chazzan and Composer who came to the United States in 1866 where he soon became the cantor at Oheb Shalom in Baltimore, MD. He passed away in 1908l
1848: Ibrahim Pasha, who served as the de facto Kehdive of Egypt and Sudan passed away. In 1840 he he had forbidden “the Jews to page the passage in front of the (Western) Wall” and had “cautioned them against ‘raising their voices and displaying their books there.’”
1852: Dr Raphall is scheduled to give a lecture entitled “The Literature of the Hebrews” this evening at the Hebrew Young Men’s Literary Association at Stuyvesant Institute in NYC.
1853: The Jews of Philadelphia established the Mercantile Club. Louis Bomeisler was its first president.
1856: Jews’ College, the rabbinical seminary of London opened its doors today
1859: In Moravia, Charlotte Eisler and Joseph Singer gave birth to Isidor Singer who served “as literary sectry to Count Foucher de Carell, the former French Ambassador at Vienna” befor coming to New York in 1895 where he became managing editor of the Jewish Encyclopedia.
1861: Three rabbis, including Marcus Jastrow who had participated in Polish nationalist activities were arrested today and imprisoned in the citadel of Warsaw.
1861: In London, Lewis Levy and Isobel Levin gave birth to Amy Levy, the author and poet who was the first Jewish student to attend Newnham College, Cambridge and whose love affair with Vernon Lee provided the impetus for her work on Sapphic love.
1865: Henry Wirz, the commandant at Andersonville Prison whose inmates included Jewish Medal of Honor winner George Geiger, was hung today after a Union Court Martial found him guilty of conspiracy and murder for his role in administering the p.o.w. compound.
1867: Birthdate of Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson a supporter of the Zionist cause who commanded the Zion Mule Corps and the Jewish Legion.
1867(12thof Cheshvan, 5628): Fifty-three year old Solomon Klein, the Grand Rabbi at Colmar in Alsace, passed away today.
1868(25th of Cheshvan, 5629): Samuel Sampson, a solicitor and secretary to the London Board of Deputies passed away today. Born in 1804, he began life on the Stock Exchange, but after some time resigned his membership and entered the legal profession. He became honorary solicitor to several of the leading charities; as solicitor and secretary to the Board of Deputies his advice was sought on many important issues, and he accompanied Sir Moses Montefiore on his mission to Morocco. Samuel was a member of the committee of the Great Synagogue and of nearly all the charitable institutions, in the foundation of many of which he was concerned. He helped to establish the Jews' Infant School, London, and took an active part in its management. (As reported by Joseph Jacobs and Goodman Lipkind)
1869: Moritz Ellinger became publisher of The Jewish Times
1874: (1st of Kislev, 5635): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1876: In Philadelphia, PA, The Centennial International Exhibition where Charles Fleishmann who “created the first commercially produced yeast” “demonstrated Viennese baking” which “dramatically increased” the revolutionary product,came to an end.
1879: A report published today described conditions in the central Asian city of Merv including the fact that this “immense walled city with 2,000 houses and 5 palaces included “a small quarter for the Jews separated by a wall from the rest of the city.”
1880: Birthdate of American born British sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein.
1880: It was reported today that “3,000 Jews have left Romania” for the United States by way of the prot of Bremen.
1881: “A Home For Aged Hebrews” published today described plans for the new building that will be constructed by the Home for Aged and Infirm Jews at a cost of $100,000 for its clients and patients.
1883: It was reported today that Jews have joined with Protestants and Catholics in the opening of the celebration at Eisleben of the 400thanniversary of the birth of Martin Luther. (Considering how Luther treated the Jews, this is a surprising entry.)
1883: It was reported today that “a mob attacked the Jews” at Zalaloevoe, Hungary. The mob fired on the police who came to protect the Jews.
1883: “Helping The Prophets” published today described the demise of the Palestine Railroad Company “which has been dissolved by order of a Massachusetts court.” In addition to providing transportation for those traveling from Cairo to Jerusalem, the builders thought the locomotive fulfilled the prophetic vision “that fiery chariots would someday be seen in the streets of Jerusalem.”
1884: “A Rear Tenement Fire” published today described the efforts of fireman to put out a fire on Cannon Street that housed the shops of Jewish tailors, slipper makers and cigar manufactures S.G. Goldsmith, Sieche & Hummel and Meigner & Kander. The loss to building and contents is estimated to exceed ten thousand dollars.
1884: English actor Henry Irving played the role of Shylock, the Jew, in tonight’s performance of “The Merchant of Venice” at the Start Theatre. Shylock is one of Irving’s singular roles.
1885: Mrs. Clara Bronner Waterman, the daughter of Isaac H. Bronner applied for a divorce today in the Common Pleas Court in New York City.
1885: In St. Louis, MO, Frederick “Tiny” Pagels fired a double-barreled shotgun at a Kohn a Jewish business rival, killing him instantly. Pagels would be tried and sentenced to death for the crime. (Unlike in Europe, the fact that the victim was Jewish was not enough to beat the hangman.)
1886: A fire broke out this evening in a school run for Jewish children by Joseph Isaac Bluestone in New York City.
1887: Birthdate of German born author and peace activist Arnold Zweig.
1889: Celeste Martin and Julius P. Witmark peformed a musical sketch entitled “When We Are Married” as part of the benefit concert being held tonight for the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society at Hardman Hall in NYC.
1889: It was reported today that the “American Hebrew, the excellent Jewish newspaper pbished yb the American Hebrew Publishing company has issued a special” edition “to make the close of the 10thand beginning of the eleventh year of its existence.”
1889: A reception was held today at the newly completed annex at the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews on 9th Avenue between 105thand 106th Street in New York City.
1889: Ascher Lodge Number 13 of the Order of Free Sons of Israel celebrated its 20th anniversary tonight at Webster Hall.
1890: “Literary Notes” published today included anecdotes about Lord Beaconsfield that can be found in James Anthony Froude’s biography of the British statesman including “one pertaining to the death of the Prince Imperial in Africa” of whom he said, “A remarkable people the Zulus. They defeat our Generals, the convert our Bishops, they have settled the fate of a great European dynasty.”
1890: According to reports published today, the third volume of Renan’s Histoire du People d’ Israel will soon be available in Paris. In this volume, Renan presents the evidence that the turning point in the history of the world was the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. If this had not happened, he contends that Jews would have suffered the same fate as the citizens of the Northern Kingdom which would have meant Christianity would never have been created and the world would not have known the information contained in Biblical literature.
1890: Birthdate of El Lissitzky, multi-talented Russian born artist.
1892(20th of Cheshvan, 5653): Seventy-four year old Israel Meyer Japhet who “was choir director at the Realschule (Adass Jeschurun) in Frankfurt am Main” passed away today.
http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Japhet,_Israel_Meyer
1893(1st of Kislev, 5654): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1893: Baron Hirsch’s “four year old brown fill La Fleche” won the Liverpool Autumn Cup. Among the horses she beat was “The Jew” which had led as the horses turned into the straightaway and headed for home.
1893: As young Jewish men in New York seek to elicit support from leaders of the community such as Nathan Straus and Edward C. Stone, for an new facility for the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, it was reported that the organization has gained 200 members since last May bringing its membership up to 700 and that it has a small surplus having paid off all of its debts.
1893: The list of those receiving bequests from the late Louis Arnheim published today included $500 each to the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society and Mount Sinai Hospital and $100 each to the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews, the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids and the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.
1894: In Newark, NJ, Ferdinand Bornstein told police today that four sets of the Ten Commandments were stolen from a closet in his synagogue. Bound in silver, they “were valued at $600.”
1895: In New York details are announced describing the events of "The Great Hebrew Fair" to be held in December. The goal is to raise at least $225,000 to aide in educational endeavors.
1897: President Henry Rice presided over the annual meeting of the United Hebrew Charities held tonight at Temple Emanu-El
1897(15th of Cheshvan, 5658): Sixty-six year old stockbroker and historian whose works included Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History passed away today.
http://www.jewishstore.com/books/Products.asp?ProdID=187105503
1898: Tammany leader Croker was reported today to have expressed his displeasure with Patrick Divver for waiting until election to tell him that the Democrats were in danger of losing the Jewish vote in New York County because if such were the case he should have known about “two weeks” before the election when he should have sounded the alarm.
1898: Henry Rice was re-elected President at tonight’s meeting of the United Hebrew Charities. Others chosen were Henry S. Allen and Isaiah Joseph, Vice Presidents; C.L Sulzberger, Treasurer and I.S. Isaacs, Secretary.
1898: The Hebrew Infant Asylum which had been housed at 490 Mott Avenue “moved into its new building on Eagle Avenue near 161st Street.
1899: In Paris, “pandemonium” reigned in the Senate as the galleries echoed with cries of “Down with the Jews’ and a Dreyfusard Deputy traded blows with an anti-Dreyfusard journalist.
1899: A summary of the October report for the United Hebrew Charities of New York published today that the society had received 2,306 applications from 7,687 seeking various forms of relief and assistance including help with finding employment.
1900: At Karl-Ferdinand University students call for a boycott of the classes taught by Czech patriot and intellectual Tomas Masaryk for his role in gaining a re-trial for Leopold Hilsner on the trumped up charges of ritual murder following the death of Agnes Hruza. Masaryk felt that the faculty and the student body were “infected with the uncultivated virus of street anti-Semitism.
1908: It was reported that Sir Joseph J. Duveen, a partner in Duveen Brothers of London, one of the largest art dealers in the world, has passed away while visiting France.
1909: This morning’s session of the Central Conference of American Rabbis “was devoted to the reading of reports from various committees and biographic paper by Rabbi Kaufman Kohler, President of the Hebrew Union College…in honor of the hundredth anniversary of the birth of” Rabbi David Einhorn.
1909: Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch of Chicago’s Sinai Congregation delivered a memorial address in honor of the centenary of the birth of Rabbi David Einhorn. “Judaism…is not a matter of confession, nor yet of race.” It is “a gift of birth that cannot be lost or shaken off and that carries with it the mission of spreading the monotheistic conception among all nations until the messianic age of love and righteousness be accomplished.” At the same time, Dr. Hirsch spoke out against Zionism, Zionists and attempts to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
1909: This afternoon delegates attending the meetng of the Central Conference of American Rabbis visited the Hebrew Technical School for Boys and the Hebrew Technical School for Girls at the United Charities Building in New York City.
1911: Rabbi Moses Franco of Rhodes was made Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem.
1911: Press department of Zionist Central Bureau in Berlin denies report that Chief Rabbi of Tripoli had telegraphed to Rome welcoming Italians. The Hahambashi in Turkey declared there is no, and has not been any, chief rabbi in Tripoli for a long time.
1913: Birthdate of Karl Shapiro, Pulitzer Prize winning poet and fifth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress
1913: Birthdate of American poet James Broughton who would be the father of Gina, the daughter of film critic Pauline Kael. (Kael was Jewish; I could find no record concerning him.
1918: Samuel Untermeyer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Keren Hayeson announced that a dinner would be held on Sunday, November 13 for a delegation of Zionists led by Vladimir Jabotinsky that would be arriving in New York on November 11.
1919: A special committee formed by the House of Representatives to determine whether or not a convicted felon and war opponent should be seated as a member of Congress concluded that Victor L. Berger should not be allowed to take his seat. The committee then declared his seat vacant.
1920: The New York Times reported on a luncheon attended by about thirty members of the Jewish clergy, at the Cafe Boulevard honoring Dr. Frederick De Sola Mendes, one of the oldest rabbis in New York, following his retirement from the Rabbinate two weeks ago.
1924: A campaign for 5,000 new members of the Hadassah -- the women s Zionist organization of America -- was launched at a luncheon attended by 2,000 women, in the Hotel Astor today. The guests of honor were Miss Henrietta Szold, President of the Hadassah, and Mrs. Edward Jacobs and Mrs. A.H. Fromenson, two members of the National Board, all of whom have recently returned from Palestine.
1936: Nicolas Louis Alexandre, Baron de Gunzburg arrived in New York City today “and rented an apartment in the Ritz Tower.
1937: Benjamin Cohen, a 70-year old American Jew living in Tel Aviv sued Hebrew University for 5,000 pounds in damages for rejecting his discovery reversing the theory of Copernicus today in the District Court of Jerusalem. The case was heard by Judge W. Clive Curry, President of the District Court. “After forty years of work” Cohen “has become convinced that the sun revolves around the earth and sets in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.” Cohen contends that “the university committed a crime against science” by not accepting his discovery. “Judge Curry rejected the claim for damages since the claimant had no contract with the University for accepting his discovery and since the institution caused him no damage in any sense whatsoever.”
1937:The Palestine Post reported that five young pioneers: Itzhak Migdal, Moshe Baumgarten, Joshua Puchovsky, Arie Mordecovitch and Aaron Olechowsky, members of Kvutzat "Bama’aleh" of Gordonia, were murdered by eight armed Arabs in the Judean hills while engaged in clearing grounds for a new settlement, "Kiryat Anavim B" (renamed Ma¹aleh Hahamisha in their honor). Police arrested 12 Arab villagers.
1938: It was learned today that “fifty-one of the sixty-eight persons condemned since the establishment of military courts” on November 18, 1938 “had been hanged.”
1938: The synagogue in Hanau, a town outside of Frankurt am Main was set afire today. The Jewish community shrank from less than 500 in 1933 to a mere 82 souls in pre-war 1939.
1938: The Neu-Isenburg orphanage which had been founded by the late Bertha Pappeheim was attacked today and the main building was burned to the ground.
1938: One hundred thousand cheering Germans attend a rally in Nuremberg, Germany, celebrating Kristallnacht.
1938: After 24 hours of nationwide violence, 91 Jews have been killed, 30,000 more have been arrested and sent to Dachau concentration camp, and 8,000 have been evicted from Berlin. Tens of thousands of shops and homes have broken into and Nazi Storm Troopers have set fire to 191 Synagogues.
1938: Most of the men living in Karlsruhe were arrested today and sent to Dachau.
1938: The largest synagogue in Vienna, The Leopoldstädter Tempel, was destroyed during the Reichskristallnacht. The building designed by Ludwig Förster was built in 1858. All that remains is a memorial plaque that reads:Here stood the Leopoldstädter Tempel, built in 1858 in the moorish style according the plans of architect Leopold Förster, all but the foundation of which was completely destroyed by National Socialist barbarians on the so-called "Night of Broken Glass", on the 10th of November 1938).
1938: American musical icon Kate Smith sang her signature song, Irving Berlin’s God Bless America, for the first time on radio.
1938: Paul “Sachs, one of the founding members of The Museum of Modern Art, who had been serving as a trustee since 1929 completed his service in that role today.
1938: One day after Kristallnacht, the main building of the Neu-Isenburg orphanage for Jewish girls, founded by Bertha Pappenheim was burned down “and the other buildings were burned down.
1939: U.S. Premiere of “First Love” directed by Henry Koster and co-produced by Koster and Joe Pasternak,
1941: Friedric Jeckeln, arrived in Berlin where he would discuss plans with Himmler for the liquidation of the Riga Ghetto.
1942: During World War II, Germany invaded Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan's agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa. Vichy referred to the pro-Nazi “rump” French government headed by Marshall Petain. As bad as things were for the Jews under Vichy, they would get a whole lot worse now that the Nazis were in total control.
1942: Six thousand Polish Jews who have been hiding in forests since the spring of 1942 surrender after the Germans promise safe passage to a new Jewish ghetto.
1944(15th of Cheshvan, 5658): Thirteen members of the anti-Nazi Ehrenfeld group which included “escaped detainees from forced labor camps and Jews” were “publicly hanged in Cologne.
1944(15th of Cheshvan, 5658): Thirty-five year old Miklós Radnóti was murdered by militia man while a group of 3,200 Jews was being forced march into central Hungary and “buried in a mass grave near the village of Abda.”
http://forward.com/articles/187883/hungarian-jewish-poets-statue-struck-by-a-car-brea/
1948: The United Nations ruled that the Israelis had violated the truce.
1948: There are reports that the Israelis detained two UN representatives who were trying to observe the fighting in the Negev.
1949: Israel holds a reception for new immigrants. According to the Jewish Agency 32,000 Yemenite Jews have been flow from Aden to Israel and that another 15,000 will be flown out in the next two weeks. At the same time, Jews living in the USSR, Romania and Hungary have been prevented by their governments from making Aliyan
1950: Broadway premiere of “The Country Girl” written and directed by Clifford Odets, the Philadelphia born son of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Romania.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported extensively on the death of the first president of the State of Israel, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, 78, who died at his home in Rehovot on the morning of 21 Heshvan, 5713, November 9, 1952. The funeral was planned to take place on a consecrated spot in Rehovot, in an olive grove of 75 trees planted in honor of his 70th and 75th birthdays. Born in Russia in 1874, Weizmann was trained as a biochemist in Switzerland. He moved to England in 1905 where he became a leader in the Zionist movement. Weizmann’s discovery of acetone played a key role in the issuance of the Balfour Declaration. Weizmann played a leading role during the inter-war years in developing the Jewish home in Eretz Israel. He was elected Israel’s first President in 1949 and was received by President Truman in that capacity at the White House.
1952: During a parliamentary debate on Egypt, Winston Churchill rose in the House of Commons to pay tribute to Chaim Weizmann who had passed away the day before and to the accomplishments of the Zionist movement.
1956(6th of Kislev, 5717): Just ten days before his 45th birthday photojournalist David Seymour was killed by Egyptian machine-gun fire while covering the aftermath of the Suez War.
http://lightbox.time.com/2013/01/16/a-second-look-chims-children-of-war/#1
http://merrill.umd.edu/events/visible-scars-children-and-war-photography-david-chim-seymour
http://museum.icp.org/mexican_suitcase/bio_chim.html
1961: Tonight’s episode of The Twilight Zone is “Deaths-Head Revisited” Rod “Serling's statement on the Holocaust, written in reaction to the then-ongoing Eichmann trial, in which a former Nazi, on a nostalgic visit to Dachau, is haunted and ultimately driven insane by the ghosts of inmates he had killed there during the war including “Alfred Becker” portrayed by Austrian born American actor Joseph Schildkraut.
1967: The HMS Totem formerly a British submarine, was commissioned as the INS Dakar by the Israeli Navy.
1969: Debut of Sesame Street. Joan Ganz Cooney, one of the two creators of the program, was a Roman Catholic. However, her father was Jewish and her maternal grandfather was Emil Ganz, the three-mayor of Phoenix, AZ, where Cooney grew up.
1975: PLO leader Yasser Arafat addressed the United Nations General Assembly. In a low point in the history of an organization founded to support peace, the members of the General Assembly applauded as the pistol-packing Arafat arose to address them with the blood the Israeli athletes slaughtered at the Munich Olympics on his hands. In the 21st century the world learned the price of those applauses as terrorists struck from New York, to London, to Madrid, to Mumbai, to…the list goes on.
1975: The UN General Assembly voted to equate Zionism with Racism. This infamous proclamation was officially retracted 16 years later in December 1991.
1975: Daniel Patrick Moynihan, America's Ambassador to the UN proclaimed: “The United States does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act.” The “infamous act” was Resolution 3379, calling Zionism racism, slandering one form of nationalism, Jewish nationalism.
1975: Israel's Ambassador Chaim Herzog, carrying the dignity of 4,000 years of Jewish history, declared: “I stand here not as a supplicant. For the issue is neither Israel nor Zionism. The issue is the continued existence of this organization, which has been dragged to its lowest point of discredit by a coalition of despots and racists. You yourselves bear the responsibility for your stand before history. We, the Jewish people, will not forget.” Herzog then ripped the resolution to shreds.
1976: “The United Nations Security Council issued a Consensus Statement, which warned Israel “that any act or profanation of the Holy Places, religious buildings and sites, or any encouragement of, or connivance at, any such act, may seriously endanger international peace and security.’ Ironically, the first Israeli interference with worship in Jerusalem was made against the Jews, whom the Israeli authorities prevented praying on the Harram, in deference to Muslim sensibilities.”
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli jets bombed PLO bases in South Lebanon, in response to the Katyusha rocket attack by Palestine terrorists in which Rivka Lupu, 35, was killed and five persons were wounded by shrapnel
1978: Hannah Ruppin the widow of the late Zionist leader Arthur Ruppin and a long time resident of Jerusalem expressed her concern that the treaty with Egypt would not work. She wrote a letter stating, “As I am a Pessimist, I don’t believe we will have peace.” There was a special poignancy in these words since Arthur Ruppin had been a supporter of a bi-national state. He gave up on the concept during the Arab Riots that started in 1929 and became a supporter of an independent Jewish state.
1981(13th of Cheshvan, 5242): Seventy-five year old Manfred Erich Swarsensky, the German born rabbi who survived being imprisoned Sachsenhausen concentration camp and escaped to America in 1940 where he served for 36 years as the spiritual leader of Temple Beth El in Madison Wisconsin.
1990: Final broadcast of Pee-wee’s Playhouse starring Paul Reubens.
1991: Marty Glickman broadcasts his 1,000th football game. What is less remembered about the Nazi Olympics is the saga of two American Jewish sprinters, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller. In 1936, Marty Glickman was an 18-year-old track and football star at Syracuse University. Glickman and Sam Stoller, a star athlete at the University of Michigan made the 1936 U. S. Olympic squad as members of the 400-yard relay team. Glickman and Stoller traveled to Germany and prepared diligently for the relay race. The day before the race, however, with little explanation, the U.S. track team coaches replaced Glickman and Stoller with two other runners, Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe, both African-Americans. By Glickman’s own account, the last-minute switch was a straightforward case of anti-Semitism. Avery Brundage, chairman of the United States Olympic Committee, was an enthusiastic supporter of Hitler’s regime and denied that the Nazis followed anti-Semitic policies. Brundage and assistant U. S. Olympic track coach Dean Cromwell were members of America First, an isolationist political movement that attracted American Nazi sympathizers. Additionally, Cromwell coached two of the other Olympic sprinters, Foy Draper and Frank Wyckoff, at the University of Southern California and openly favored those two over Glickman and Stoller. Glickman’s suspicions about the fairness of the relay team selection process began at the American Olympic team trials in New York, when he was told he placed fifth of the seven runners competing in the sprint finals. Finish-line photography was not yet in use at that time, but films of the race seem to indicate that Glickman actually finished third behind Owens and Metcalfe. The judges, apparently under pressure from Cromwell, placed Glickman fifth behind Draper and Wyckoff. As a result, Glickman was not one of the three sprinters entered in the 100-yard dash, a premiere Olympic event. Instead, Glickman and Stoller traveled to Berlin as part of the 400-yard relay team, each scheduled to run a 100-yard leg of the race. As an 18 year old, Glickman was grateful to be going to the Olympics; even if he felt that he’d been robbed of his chance at a medal in the 100 yard dash. There was an effort made by some American Jewish organizations to convince the U. S. Olympic committee to boycott the Nazi Olympics, but Brundage prevailed and the team went. Glickman, like most American Jews, thought that the anti-Semitism he might encounter in Berlin would be no worse than what he faced growing up in Brooklyn. Like many Americans, Glickman had no inkling of the horrific fate awaiting German Jewry in the years after 1936. Once in Germany, Glickman, Stoller, Draper and Wyckoff spent two weeks practicing as the 400-yard relay team. They were confident of victory. Then, on the day of the qualifying trials, head track coach Lawson Robertson told Glickman and Stoller that Owens and Metcalfe would be replacing them. To his credit, Owens protested to Robertson that Glickman and Stoller deserved to run. Glickman pointed out to Robertson that any combination of the seven teammates could win the race by 15 yards. Robertson replied that he would enter his four best athletes in the relay and that, in his judgment, Owens and Metcalfe were better than Stoller and Glickman. Robertson said his goal was winning, nothing more. Glickman turned to assistant coach Cromwell and said, "Coach, you know that Sam and I are the only two Jews on the track team. If we don’t run there’s bound to be a lot of criticism back home." Cromwell retorted, "We’ll take our chances." The American team won in record time as Glickman watched from the stands. Glickman (who remained a close friend of Owens until the latter’s death) and Stoller were devastated by the decision. Stoller, age 21, announced his retirement from track competition but later recanted. Later that year, he won an NCAA sprint championship. Glickman returned to college and became a football All-American. After a brief professional career in football and basketball, Glickman went on to become a distinguished sportscaster, best known as the voice of the New York Knicks and football Giants. He joined the radio station WHN and by 1943 was its sports director. A long, distinguished broadcasting career followed. When the New York Knickerbockers were formed in 1946, Glickman was their radio announcer. Later, he was the National Basketball Association's first announcer for TV. He was the voice of the football Giants, for 23 years, of the Knicks for 21, Yonkers Raceway for 12, the New York Jets for 11. Glickman did pre- and postgame shows for the Dodgers and Yankees for 22 years; he broadcast track meets, wrestling matches, roller derbies and rodeos, even a marbles tournament. NBC employed him as a critic and teacher of its sports announcers. In 1988 WCBS hired him for his second tour as the Jets' play-by-play announcer on radio. It was from that position that Glickman quietly said goodbye to his last audience in December 1992, at age 74. Glickman underwent heart bypass surgery Dec. 14. He died of complications from the operation at the age of 83.
1997: The Dark Side of Camelot by Jewish investigative reporter Seymour Hirsch is published.
1997: Edward S. Walker, Jr. was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1997: Daniel Charles Kurtzer, a graduate of Yeshiva University, was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Egypt by President Clinton.
1999(1st of Kislev, 5760): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1999(1st of Kislev, 5760): Actress Mary Kay Bergman passed away. Bergman continued in the tradition of Mel Blanc as the voice for numerous animations ranging from South Park to Mrs. Butterworth, the symbol of pancake syrup.
2000(12th of Cheshvan, 5761):Sgt. Shahar Vekret, 20, of Lod was fatally shot by a Palestinian sniper near Rachel's Tomb at the entrance to Bethlehem.
2002(5th of Kislev, 5763): Revital Ohayon, 34, and her two sons, Matan, 5, and Noam, 4, as well as Yitzhak Dori, 44 - all of Kibbutz Metzer - and Tirza Damari, 42, of Elyachin, were killed when a terrorist infiltrated the kibbutz, located east of Hadera near the Green Line, and opened fire. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.
2002: The New York Timesfeatures reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interest including the following two works released in new paperback editions:
Collected Stories by Saul Bellow; All but one of these 13 stories appeared in earlier collections, but together they provide new and old fans with an immersion into Bellow's vibrant world, a place where events happen, (typically brainy) characters think about them and then the fun begins.
The Same Sea by Amos Oz; Set in modern-day Tibet and Tel Aviv, this novel revolves around the sexual mixing and matching of several sets of characters, including a middle-aged widower and his son, who wanders off to the Himalayas in search of himself. (The characters telephone the author from time to time, criticizing him for the way he portrays them in the novel.)
2003(15th of Cheshvan, 5764): Irv Kupcinet, the famed Chicago Sun-Times columnist passed away at the age of 91. (As reported by Richard Severo)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/11/us/irv-kupcinet-91-dies-chronicled-chicago-for-60-years.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
2005: Cantor Rebecca Garfein performed a concert at Carnegie Hall where she presented the debut of “Golden Chants in America…Commemorating 350 Years of Jewish Music, 1654-2004.
2005: Haaretz reported on the work of Aaron Lansky, founder and director of the National Yiddish Book Center in Massachusetts. Lansky started the center 27 years ago when he singled handedly set out to save the remaining Yiddish books in the world from extinction. The center which is located at Hampshire College is the home of a large book center, which now houses 1.5 million books in Yiddish and has 32,000 members. The center is active all over the world, inviting young people to study Yiddish language, literature and culture. The center's story is documented in Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books.
2006: In Halbe, Germany suspected neo-Nazis attacked a memorial to a synagogue burned down on Kristallnacht, the anti-Jewish pogrom of 1938. The German government vows to take action to bring the perpetrators to justice. What a difference six decades can make.
2007: “One Family”, an exhibit of the works of Israeli photographer Vardi Kahana opens at New York’s Andrea Meislin Gallery.
2007: The Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra under Doron Salomon presents its Balkan music program at Kibbutz Givat Brenner.
2007: Zeev Tene releases his new album “Heder” at a concert in Tel Aviv.
2007(29th of Cheshvan, 5768): Novelist, Pulitzer Prize winning writer and pseudo-social rebel, Norman Mailer passed away at the age of 84. The Brooklyn Jew with the engineering science degree from Harvard used his experiences as a soldier in the Philippines to launch his literary career with The Naked and the Dead.
2007: Freshman Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a third generation Arizona Jew, married astronaut Mark Kelly.
2008: In New York City, presentation of two works by Israeli choreographer Netta Yerushalmy that are parts of two larger works – “Dispostif” and an unnamed project scheduled to premiere in 2009.
2008: Time magazine publishes a list of “The 50 Best Inventions of the Year” that lists at the thirty first spot “Einstein's Fridge.” That Albert Einstein guy had some pretty good ideas — relativity, the photoelectric effect, the "up" hairdo — but his contributions to the field of refrigerator theory have been sadly neglected. No longer; scientists at Oxford University have resurrected an eco-friendly refrigerator design that Einstein and a collaborator patented in 1930. Instead of cooling the interior of the refrigerator with freon — a serious contributor to global warming — Einstein's design uses ammonia, butane and water. It also requires very little energy. Though Einstein's original refrigerator wasn't all that efficient, the Oxford researchers have tweaked his version and believe it could eventually compete in the marketplace. Then maybe we'll remember Einstein the way he wanted — as a guy who liked to keep things cool.
2009:Patrick K. O'Donnell discusses and signs They Dared Return: The True Story of Jewish Spies Behind the Lines in Nazi Germany at Borders in Baileys Crossroads, Va.
2009:Jonathan Tropper as he discusses his latest novel, This Is Where I Leave You, at the Fourth Annual JCCNVJ Jewish Book Festival.
2009: Charles London, author of Far From Zion: In Search of a Global Jewish Community, shares his personal journey grappling with his heritage and coming to terms with his connection to Israel at a session of the 40th Annual Book Festival sponsored by the JCCGW.
2010: Robert L. Bernstein delivered The Shirley and Leonard Goldstein Lecture University of Nebraska at Omaha on Human Rights entitled “Human Rights in the Middle East
2010: Paramount Pictures releases “Morning Glory,” a marvelous, underappreciated comedy co-produced by J.J. Abram and co-starring Jeff Goldlbum
2010: Elaine Hall author of Now I See The Moon: A Mother, A Son, A Miracle and Abraham H. Foxman, author of Jews & Money: The Story of a Stereotypeare scheduled to appear at The St. Louis Jewish Book Festival, which is :Proud to be the Largest Jewish Book Festival in the U.S.!”
2010: It was reported that The U.S. Attorney's Office in New York has charges against 17 people for participating in a $42.5 million fraud at the Claims Conference.
2010:The storied career of an indomitable ultra-Orthodox political fixer appears to have entered its final phase with the conviction of Rabbi Milton Balkany, known to the press as the “Brooklyn Bundler.”Balkany was found guilty today of attempting to extort $4 million from Steven A. Cohen, a hedge fund manager.
2011: Sonia Taitz is scheduled to discuss her novel “In the King’s Arms” at the JCC of Northern Virigina’s Jewish Book Festival.
2011: In Israel “the supreme court delivered its opinion today unanimously upholding Moseh Katsav's conviction and sentence.”
2011: Bob Gruen and Joel Dovev are schedule to participate in the “Rock & Roll Retro Nite” at the 33rdAnnual St. Louis Jewish Book Festival.
2011: “Jewish Political Behavior in Europe, Israel and the United States,” a two-day symposium that will explore aspects of Jews' political experience in Eastern Europe, the United States, Israel, and in the international arena is scheduled to open at the University of Michigan.
2011: Professor Brian Horowitz, of Tulane University, is scheduled to take part in “Jews in Russian and East European Politics in Historical Perspective,” a panel discussion that is part of a symposium sponsored by the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies.
2011: Dennis B. Ross, a seasoned diplomat who has been one of President Obama’s most influential advisers on Iran, the Middle East peace process and the political upheaval in the Arab world, will leave the White House in December, a senior administration official said today. Mr. Ross, who announced his departure at a lunch with Jewish leaders, told White House officials that he promised his wife he would leave the government after two years.
2011: Jewish comedian Billy Crystal agreed to take over the role of Oscar host.
2011:A delegation of Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Druze religious leaders in Israel met today with Pope Benedict XVI in a high-profile display of their efforts to promote interfaith peace initiatives in the region.Israeli chief rabbi Yonah Metzger praised the "historic" nature of the audience with the German-born pope and noted that it fell on the anniversary of the Kristallnacht, the Nazi's 1938 anti-Jewish pogrom which left 91 Jews dead, damaged more than 1,000 synagogues and left some 7,500 Jewish businesses ransacked and looted.
2011(13th of Cheshvan, 5772): Ninety-three year old Irving H. Franklin, co-founder of Franklin Sports and innovator of the baseball batting glove, passed away.(As reported by Douglas Martin)
2012: Temple Judah’s Tessa Cohen is scheduled to appear in tonight’s final performance Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoir” at Linn-Mar High School
2012: Temple Judah’s Bentlee Birchansky and Lincoln Ginsberg are scheduled to appear in tonight’s final performance of “Guys & Dolls.”
2012: In Greensboro, NC, the URJ Southern Region Shabbaton hosted by Temple Emanuel is scheduled to come to an end.
2012: “Off White Lies” is scheduled to be shown at the UK Jewish Film Festival.
2012: The 4thInternational Holiday Bazar is scheduled to open today at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.
2012: Maggie Anton, author of the book-club favorite Rashi’s Daughter, Secret Scholar, is scheduled to introduce her new historical novel, Rav Hisda’s Daughter: A Novel of Love, the Talmud and Sorcery at Beth Shalom of Whittier, in Whittier, CA.
2012:Southern Israel came under a barrage of rocket fire from Gaza tonight, in a cross-border escalation following an earlier terrorist attack that injured four soldiers.
2012:Intermittent rainfall accompanied by strong winds and unseasonably cold weather were experienced in the North and Center this morning after yesteday’s showers caused flooding and damage in Haifa and Eilat.
2013: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Double Down: Game Change 2012 by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, With A Mighty Hand: The Story in the Torah adapted by Amy Ehrlich, The Barefoot Book of Jewish Tales by Shoshanah Boyd Gelfland and the recently released paperback edition of The New Religious Intoleranceby Martha C. Nussbaum
2013: Sholem is scheduled to present “Yiddish on the Silver Screen – Tevya “ @Westdie Neighborhood School
2013: Members of Temple Judah as well as friends and family from the community are scheduled to take a field trip to the Holocuast Museum in Skokie, Illinois.
2013: “The Jewish Cardinal,” a dramatization of the life of Cardinal Jean Marie Lustiger is scheduled to be shown at the UK Jewish Film Festival.
2013: The Fourth Annual Israeli-Russian Film Festival is scheduled to take place at the Tribeca Film Center.
2013: Lauren Strauss presented “Kosher Southern Belles and Yankee Bubbies Confront America’s Greatest Crisis: Jewish Women and the Civil War” at the Jewish Museum of Baltimore.
2013: The General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America is scheduled to open in Jerusalem.
2013: Dozens of protetesters gathered in front of the U.S. Consulate in Jersualem to express their displeasure with Secretary of State John Kerry’s remarks that gave the green light to terrorists to start a 3rd Infitdada because of “Israeli intransigence.” (As reported by Daniel K. Eisenbud)
2013: Today “the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Center commemorated the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht, “the night of broken glass,” when Nazis swept through Jewish towns and neighborhoods throughout Germany burning homes and synagogues, destroying shops, and attacking Jews. (As reported by David Lev)
2013: “Imprinting on Clay” is scheduled to come to an end at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv.
2014: As part of its "World War I and the Jews" initiative, the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Jews and the Great War: A Reflection at the Centennial.”
2014: In Melbourne, “Yalom’s Cure” and “The Israeli Code” are scheduled to be shown at the Jewish International Film Festival.
2014: “Hora 79” is scheduled to be shown at the UK Jewish Film Festival.
2014: Israeli television is scheduled to air a segment that “focuses on the search for shadowy commander Muhammad Deif.” (As reported by Avi Issacharoff)