November 13
354: Birthdate of St. Augustine of Hippo. While St. Augustine may be held in high regard by the Roman Catholic Church, he held the Jews in especially low regard. In his famous work The City of God, Augustine reports that the Jews were exiled because of their rejection of Jesus. The dispersal of the Jews to so many different places is way of reminding Christians that their belief in Jesus as Messiah is correct. The exile came about because the Jews were enemies of the Church, but the Jews must not be slain so that they can finally see the error of their ways an repent. The sword of Constantine and the cross of Augustine would soon draw together to make a bitter brew for Jews for centuries to come.
361: Emperor Constantius II who continued the anti-Semitic policies of his father and who, among other things, “decreed that a person who was proven to have converted from Christianity to Judaism would have all of his property confiscated by the state” passed away today. (Those who contend that Christianity grew because of spiritual superiority might want to rethink this in light of this entry)
1160: Marriage of LouisVII of France with Adele of Champagne. Unfortunately, this marriage produced King Phillip II who exploited the Jews and then expelled them from his kingdom.
1460: Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal passed away at the age of 66. A devout Catholic who was a master of the Knights Templar, Henry was dedicated to bring glory to Portugal through maritime endeavors. To that end he was only too willing to employ Jewish mathematicians, astronomers and cartographers despite his strong Crusading temperament.
1549: Paul Fagius, who learned Hebrew from Elia Levita with whom he founded a printing business that published Shemot Devarim, an Old Yiddish-Hebrew-Latin-German dictionary, in 1542 and who served as Hebrew lecturer at the University of Cambridge before being replaced by convert Immanuel Tremellius passed away today.
1685: King James II of England ordered the Attorney General to stop any proceedings against the Jews because “they should not be troubled upon his (the King’s) account but they should quietly enjoy the free exercise of their religion whilst they behaved dutifully and obediently to his government.”
1757: The Talmud was publicly burned in Kamenets-Podolski (Poland). Jacob Frank, a follower of the false Messiah Shabbetai Zevi had begun his own movement which emphasized the Kabbalah and denigrated the Talmud. His practices (some of which were of sexual nature) were condemned by the local Rabbinate. In revenge, he arranged a dispute in Lvov between himself and the local Jewish leaders. Bishop Nicholas Dembowski who presided over the disputation ruled in favor of Frank and ordered all copies of the Talmud found to be dragged through the streets and burned. Around 1000 copies of the Talmud were destroyed. Within a few years, many of the Frankists converted to Christianity.
1761(19th of Cheshvan, 5522): Nathan Nata Spira, the son of Selig Spira and grandson of Nathan Nata Spira passed away at at Eibenschütz, in Moravia, where he had been serving as rabbi for the past year.
1785:Hirsch Janow, known as “Hirsch Harfi” (Hirsch the acute) who had succeeded his father-in-law Raphael Kohn as the rabbi of Posen in 1776 before becoming chief rabbi at Furth passed away today in Bavaria.
1791: King Louis XVI signed the resolution of emancipation guaranteeing all French Jews full rights of citizenship.
1806: Jewish merchants of Gibraltar wrote Aaron Nunez Cardozo a prominent merchant serving as a liaison between the British government and the Muslim Barbary States seeking his help in getting them an exemption from the Moroccan dress code for dhimmis. As the following entry shows, dhimmi status was part of the “peculiar relationship” that the Muslims imposed on the Jews. “The Muslim attitude toward Jews is reflected in various verses throughout the Koran, the holy book of the Islamic faith. "They [the Children of Israel] were consigned to humiliation and wretchedness. They brought the wrath of God upon themselves, and this because they used to deny God's signs and kill His Prophets unjustly and because they disobeyed and were transgressors" (Sura 2:61). According to the Koran, the Jews try to introduce corruption (5:64), have always been disobedient (5:78), and are enemies of Allah, the Prophet and the angels (2:9798). Still, as "People of the Book," Jews (and Christians) are protected under Islamic law. The traditional concept of the "dhimma"("writ of protection") was extended by Muslim conquerors to Christians and Jews in exchange for their subordination to the Muslims. Peoples subjected to Muslim rule usually had a choice between death and conversion, but Jews and Christians, who adhered to the Scriptures, were allowed as dhimmis (protected persons) to practice their faith. This "protection" did little, however, to insure that Jews and Christians were treated well by the Muslims. On the contrary, an integral aspect of the dhimma was that, being an infidel, he had to openly acknowledge the superiority of the true believer--the Muslim. In the early years of the Islamic conquest, the "tribute" (or jizya), paid as a yearly poll tax, symbolized the subordination of the dhimmi. Later, the inferior status of Jews and Christians was reinforced through a series of regulations that governed the behavior of the dhimmi. Dhimmis, on pain of death, were forbidden to mock or criticize the Koran, Islam or Muhammad, to proselytize among Muslims or to touch a Muslim woman (though a Muslim man could take a non-Muslim as a wife). Dhimmis were excluded from public office and armed service, and were forbidden to bear arms. They were not allowed to ride horses or camels, to build synagogues or churches taller than mosques, to construct houses higher than those of Muslims or to drink wine in public. They were not allowed to pray or mourn in loud voices-as that might offend the Muslims. The dhimmi had to show public deference toward Muslims-always yielding them the center of the road. The dhimmi was not allowed to give evidence in court against a Muslim, and his oath was unacceptable in an Islamic court. To defend himself, the dhimmi would have to purchase Muslim witnesses at great expense. This left the dhimmi with little legal recourse when harmed by a Muslim. Dhimmis were also forced to wear distinctive clothing. In the ninth century, for example, Baghdad's Caliph al-Mutawakkil designated a yellow badge for Jews, setting a precedent that would be followed centuries later in Nazi Germany. The Moslem view of the Jew as permanent second class citizen would help to explain the hostility towards the state of Israel. Under the concept of dhimmi Moslems could not accept living in a state where Jews had equal rights and they certainly could not accept living in a state that had been created by a victory of Jewish soldiers over soldiers of Islam.
1830: Joseph Mérilhou, the Minister of Public Education under Louis Phillippe, offered a motion placing Judaism on an equal footing with the Christian religions, paying Synagogues and rabbis from the public treasury in the same manner as was done for Churches and their ministers. In presenting his motion, "which was adopted by a large majority" Merilhou spoke approvingly of how well Jews had performed as citizens of the republice since they had been granted citizenship during the French Revolution
1834: Birthdate of Benjamin Franklin Peixotto a New York born lawyer who was the son of Dr. Daniel Levy Maduro Peixotto and the grandson of Rabbi Moses L. M. Peixotto. After attending school in New York he went to Cleveland, Ohio, where he studied law under Stephen A. Douglas and wrote for the Cleveland Plaindealer. In 1867 he removed to San Francisco, where he continued his practice as a lawyer. In 1870-'5 he was United States consul in Bucharest, Romania, where his influence was marked in securing civil and religious liberty. In 1876 he returned to the United States and took part in the presidential canvass in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes. In 1877 he declined the appointment of consul-general at St. Petersburg. He was subsequently made United States consul at Lyons, France, a post which he held until 1885, when he returned to New York and resumed the practice of law. Peixotto was active in various Jewish educational and charitable movements throughout the United States. A well-known lecturer, he was the editor of the Menorah, a publication established in 1886 which highlighted the activities of the B’nai Brith as well as the Jewish religion and literature.
1844(3rd of Kislev): Purim Amtchislav (Mstislavl, Belorussia) was annually observed by that community in a commemoration of a happy event that took place on that day
1844: Czar Nicholas I of Russia issued a decree calling for the establishment of a school for Jewish students and a seminary to train rabbis and teachers. This was not nearly as benign as it sounded and most Jews avoided the siren call of enrolling their young in schools run by the government of Czarist Russia. The Czar had a secret plan to gradually close the old Jewish schools and thus leave Jewish education in the hands of a government committed to the extinction of the Jewish people in Russia.
1845: In Germany, Zadek and Esther Machol gave birth to Michaelis Machol, the graduate of the Theological Seminary of Breslau and served as rabbi at Kehillath Anshe Maariv in Chicago before beginning his long-term service as a Rabbi at Temple Anshe Chesed in Cleveland, Ohio.
http://www.clevelandjewishhistory.net/people/machol.htm
http://www.clevelandjewishhistory.net/people/machol-ccar.htm
1856: Birthdate of Louis Brandeis. Southern born, Harvard educated; Brandeis pursued a successful legal career as a champion of the underdog. He was an ally and confidant of President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson appointed Brandeis to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1916. This was a milestone in American history and Jewish history. Brandeis was the first Jew named to the high court. He was also the first of whole group of minorities who would eventually take their place on the court including African-American and women. The Brandeis nomination was contested by anti-Semites and the American business community. Brandeis served on the bench until 1939. Brandeis was also a committed Zionist and a leader of the movement in the United States. He passed away in 1941. Words from Brandeis: “The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people.” “Every American Jew who aids in advancing the Jewish settlement in Palestine, though he feels that neither he nor his descendants will ever live there, will be a better man and a better American for doing so.”
http://www.brandeis.edu/legacyfund/bio.html
1856: In New York, the Hebrew Benevolent Society celebrated the 35thanniversary of its founding with a lavish banquet held in the City Assembly Rooms.
1878: Birthdate of German born American mathematician Max Wilhelm Dehn, who like so many others gave up his career in his homeland with the rise of the Nazis, but unlike others, was able to find refuge in the United States.
1880: Todays dispatch to the London Standard from Berlin stated “A petition has been presented to Prince Bismarck to restrict the civil rights of the Jews and repeal the absolute equality enjoyed by them with German citizens.” (Prince Bismarck is Otto Von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor who really ran Germany)
1882: It was reported today that “the Mount Sinai Hospital…is one of the leading hospitals” in New York City. It treats patients of all creeds and its “list of free patients is as large as any other institution of its kind in the country.”
1882(2nd of Kislev, 5643): Ephraim Alex the Anglo-Jewish philanthropist who served as overseer of the Great Synagogue and founded the Jewish Board of Guardians passed away today in London.
1883: It was reported today that when the Lord Mayor of London refused to allow the Dr. Stocker, the anti-Semitic Chaplain to the Court of Germany to lecture at Mansion House, he said “he could not disregard the feelings of the Jewish community of London by giving prominence…to a man who has excited hostility against the Jews.”
1884: Rosa Schuminchler, a Polish Jewess who had previously been deported, and her seven children were among those who arrived in the United States today aboard the SS Queen
1884: Samuel A. Lewis, Tammany political leader, former President of the Board of Alderman and the editor of Jewish newspaper was arrested as a result of civil suit brought by his sister, Harriet L. Lewis.
1884: “Mgr. Capel on Patriotism” published today described the speech by Monsignor Thomas John Capel to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association” in which he calls for quality public education where the teachers are “appointed upon their merits and goodness” and not “because they are friends of the mayor.” In describing the role of women, he reminds his listeners that “husbands are breadwinners” but women “are formers of character.” (Why Capel, a Catholic priest who stood accused of a variety of “improprieties” during his lifetime, was chosen to lecture to a Jewish organization is something for which I have not found an explanation.)
1884: English thespians Henry Irving and Ellen Terry will perform “The Merchant of Venice” this evening. She will play the Jewess Portia and he will play Shylock, the Jew – one of his signature dramatic roles. (Based on newspaper accounts at the time, this particular Shakespearian drama was extremely popular in the post-Civil War United States.)
1885: William Sharon, the former Senator from Nevada, who would bequeath $5,000 to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum at San Francisco passed away today.
1886: It was reported today that plans are being made for a concert at the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews.
1889: A delegation of Jews went to New York political leader Coroner Levy to protest the failure of authorities to bury Abraham Bergman, a child who died two weeks ago.
1892: “Israel in the Wilderness” a cantata by Dr. Alfred R. Gaul which opens with “a Hebrew chorale” was performed for the first time in New York City.
1892: Founding of the Perth Hebrew Congregation “the oldest of three synagogues serving the Jewish community of Perth, Australia”
1892: The Trustees of Temple Emanu-El met today and decided to hold a memorial service in honor of the late Seligman Adler the New York businessman who was a trustee of the Temple for 22 years.
1893: Birthdate of Romanian born Israeli painter Reuven Rubin. Among his works are an oil canvas painted in 1922 entitled “Self Portrait with a Flower” which is on display in the Rubin Museum. http://www.flickr.com/photos/32357038@N08/6152510301/
For more of his paintings see http://www.imj.org.il/artcenter/galleryE.asp?artist=277535&list=
1894: In Vienna, Jewish philosopher Nathan Birnbaum and Rosa Korngut gave birth to Austrian artist Uriel Birnbaum.
1894: Following their debut at London in July pianists Rose Laura Sutro and Ottilie Sutro played a Bach concerto during their American debut which took place in Brooklyn today.
1895: According to a summary of the United Hebrew Charities’ monthly report, during October the society processed 2,507 applications which provided assistance for a total of 8, 356 people.
1895: "Work of United Hebrew Charities” published today described the successful operations of this New York organization which collected $14, 413. 50 this past month of which it spent over $10,000 to provide services ranging from the support of an industrial school for girls to providing transportation for immigrants to settle in other parts of the country.
1895: The New York Times reported on an instructive and most entertaining lecture on the subject of “Ghosts” given in the West End Synagogue by Rabbi F. de Sola Mendes to an audience composed almost entirely of women and young girls.
1896: “Dowers For Orphan Girls” published today described the work of the newly formed Greater New York German Orphan Society which was modeled on a program started several years ago by Mr. Morgenthau for Jewish girls that will provide dowries to German girls, regardless of their religious denomination which will enable these worthy but impoverished maidens a chance to enjoy the benefits of marriage.
1899: In Chicago, Julia (née Cohen) and Paul Caspary gave birth to American “lady of letters” Vera Louise Caspary who wrote the novel Laura, which was turned into one of the finest films-noire
1900: Herzl meets the French millionaire Reitlinger and discusses the idea of redeeming the Turkish debt.
1903(22nd of Cheshvan, 5664): French impressionist painter Camille Pissarro passed away at the age of 73. Born Jacob-Abraham-Camille Pissarro he was the son of a Sephardic Jew living in the Virgin Islands where owned by Denmark. “None of Pissarro's paintings refer to the Bible or Jewish rituals or include Hebrew inscriptions. However, the art historian Stephanie Rachum has pointed out references to Judaism in three pen and ink drawings that Pissarro created in 1890 for his nieces. In "Capitol," Pissarro drew a smartly-dressed man with a hooked nose amidst throngs of needy people. In a letter to his nieces, Pissarro identified the ‘vulgar and ugly’ figure as a portrait of a rich Jew, ‘of an Oppenheim, of a Rothschild, of a Gould, whatever.’ The hooked noses appear in two other illustrations in the series, which also depict the Golden Calf. Although some might consider Pissarro a self-hating Jew for drawing these pictures, it is significant that they were not intended for publication. They reflect the complicated way in which his anarchist political views confronted his Jewish identity; to Pissarro, a rich Jew seemed to have been primarily a rich man and coincidentally Jewish. Joachim Pissarro, an art scholar and Camille's great-grandson, suggests that Camille's complicated relationship with Judaism impacted his work. The artist's religious struggles helped him develop, according to Joachim, "a critical stance which he could apply to the system of taste and to the conventions that governed art teaching at the time of his arrival in France in 1855."
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/culture/2/Art/History_and_Theory/Jewish_Painters/pissarro.shtml
1904: In Hamburg, Louise (née Löwenthal) and John Biermann gave birth to Dagobert Biermann the Jewish resistance fighter who was murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz.
1906: Birthdate of Eva Zeisel, American industrial designer. Born in Hungary, Zeisel is another refugee from Hitler’s Europe who enriched American culture; in her case in the world of ceramics and pottery.
1906: Miss Alice Lewisohn, the daughter of the late Leonard Lewisohn and the sister of Jesse Lewisohn explained that she was performing in “Pippa Passes” under the name of “Eleanora Leigh” because while she enjoyed the theatre she did not want to be known as a professional actress.
1907: In West Park, Ohio, Wilbur and May Nichols gave birth to Kenneth David “Nick” Nichols, a Major General who played a key role in the Manhattan project and who was one of the driving forces behind removing the security clearance of J. Robert Oppenheimer whom he said was a community “in every sense except that he did not carry a party card.”
1911: The Vaad or Council of Rabbis of the Jewish community of Safed voted 20,000 Francs toward the [Turkish] war fund.
1913: Birthdate of Karl Jay Shapiro, the Baltimore native who “was appointed the fifth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1946.
1916: Julius Rosenwald, Chicago merchant and philanthropist contributed $500,000 toward the endowment fund for the proposed medical department of the University of Chicago
1918: A group of prominent Jewish leaders including Samuel Untermeyer, Nathan Straus, Abram I. Elkus, Louis Marshal, Adolph Lewisohn Samuel C. Pamport, Louis Lipsky, Judge Otto A. Rasalsky, Dr. Samuel Schlman, Israel Unterberg and Franklin Simon host a dinner in New York for a delegation of visiting Zionists led by Vladimir Jabotinksy that includes Professor Otto Warburg and Alexander Goldstein.
1920: Birthdate of Eugene Ferkauf “the founder of the E. J. Korvette chain of discount department stores, whose 1950s strategy of low prices, quick turnover and high volume helped shape today’s retail landscape…” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1921: Over 2,000 men, women and children gathered today to commemorate “the completion of thirty-nine years by Edward Lauterbach as a trustee of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1921: In Camden, NJ, Rabbi Mortimer J. Cohen of Philadelphia’s Beth Sholom and Rabbi Max Klein took part in the services dedicated the building which would serve as the temporary home for Congregation Beth El
1923: In Boyle Heights, Morton and Fanny Greenstone gave birth to Leonard Greenstone, “a Los Angeles businessman and developer who helped create innovative training and rehabilitation programs for California prison inmates during 50 years of volunteer service to the prison system…” (As reported by Rebecca Trounson)
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-leonard-greenstone-20121031,0,7464335.story
1931: In Budapest Klara nee Fejer and grain merchant Alexander Steiner gave birth to Agnes Steiner who survived the Holocaust and made a new life for herself as Leach Barcela in Israel.
1933: “A rally of German Christians was held at the Berlin Sportpalast, where — before a packed hall — banners proclaimed the unity of National Socialism and Christianity, interspersed with the omnipresent swastikas and series of speakers addressed the crowd's pro-Nazi sentiments with ideas such as:
1934: “J. W. Mack to Remain As Head of Reform Union Body Till’35” published today described the decision to have “Jacob W. Mack, newly elected chairman of the executive board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, serve in that capacity at least until the Union’s thirty-fourth annual council in Washington in March, 1935.” (As reported by JTA)
1936: Winston Churchill wrote to his son Randolph that although the initial basis for the creation of the Anti-Nazi League was Jewish resentment at their abominable persecution, the base had grown to include all those who are prepared to support genuine military action to resist tyranny or aggression.
1938: The Nazi government orders the Jews to cease all trading and business activities by end of the year.
1939: “Divisional meetings of members of the Women’s League for Palestine were held…at the homes of members in all part of” New York “ to discuss plans for a campaign to raise $100,000 for a new league center in Jerusalem similar to those already established in Haifa and Tel Aviv.”
1939: SS troops in Poland arrest and execute 53 Jewish men who happen to reside at the same address as a Jewish man who has shot and killed a Polish policeman.
1940: In Bay Shore, New York, Dorothy K. Kripke and Myer S. Kripke would serve as rabbi at Beth El Synagogue in Omaha, Nebraska gave brith to their first child, “philosopher and logician” Saul Kripke
1941: Warsaw diarist Chaim Kaplan writes that his wife has been stricken with typhus.
1942: The members of a Kibbutz originally called Sha’ar HaNegev “moved to the Finger of the Galilee, where they established a new kibbutz called Kfar Szold.”
1942: The American (Jewish) Joint Distribution Committee (AJDC) report on the situation of Jews in North Africa including the fact that the occupation by Spanish military forces at Tangiers had led to the introduction of anti-Jewish laws being put into effect.
1943: Frizt Lustig tried to escape from Birkenau. He was caught and shot ten days later.
1945: American soprano Edis de Philippe landed in Israel and within a short time created the Israel National Opera. De Philippe's company performed night after night all over the country. The company was so successful, that it attracted young and rising international opera stars to spend some time in Israel.
1945: Prime Minister Clement Attlee suggests formation of a joint Anglo-American committee to investigate the problem of Jewish refugees and devise a solution to it. This apparently benign suggestion was an attempt to smooth Truman’s ruffled feathers over the British government’s refusal to accept Truman’s request that 100,000 Jews be admitted immediately to Palestine.
1946: As part of growing wave of terror caused by Britain’s failure to honor its war time promise to allow Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel and increasing repressive measure aimed at the Jews of the Yishuv, two British policemen were killed while patrolling the Jerusalem-Jaffa rail line.
1947: U.S. premiere of “Out of the Past” starring Kirk Douglas
1948: The newly created Israeli government announced that it will launch shortly a full-scale development plan for the Negev desert area of southern Palestine, centered on Beersheba as an Israeli town, it was learned today.
1949: The biennial convention of the American Jewish Congress comes to an end
1956: The first Israeli train arrived in Gaza, after Israeli troops drove out the occupying Egyptian army and cleaned out the terrorist bases. Israeli troops would leave Gaza in 1957 under pressure from the U.N. and the Eisenhower Administration. Ten years later, the U.N. would fail to honor the guarantees made to Israel concerning protecting the Jewish state from the Arabs. The result would the Six Day War in 1976.
1960: Sammy Davis, Jr. married Swedish actress May Britt. Davis was probably one of the most famous if not the most famous convert to Judaism in the middle of the 20th century. His marriage to Britt caused a furor because it was inter-racial. Others, with a more parochial view, were upset that he had married a non-Jew.
1963: U.S. premiere of “Take her, She’s Mine,” produced and directed by Harry Koster based on a play by Henry and Phoebe Ephron with music by Jerry Goldsmith.
1964: Birthdate of actress Tzufit Grant, the native of Petah Tikvah who hosted the television show “Milkshake” and who has had two children with her husband Avram Grant.
1967: World class pianist Harriet Cohen passed away. Born in London in 1895, she studied at the London Conservatory before going on to fame and fortune. Such was her skill, that she was honored as aCBE (Most Excellent order of the British Empire) in 1938.
1970: Birthdate of Ariel Atias, the Tel Aviv native who has served as an MK and cabinet minister.
1975: In Jerusalem an explosive charge went off near cafe Naveh, on Jaffa Road near the pedestrian mall. Seven people were killed and 45 injured.
1977: The comic strip ''Li'l Abner'' by Jewish cartoonist Al Capp appeared in newspapers for the last time.
1979: Birthdate of Ya'akov "Kobi" Shimoni known by his stage name Subliminal an Israeli hip hop artist and music producer.
1982: Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, the former military chaplain who “worked to create the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC…delivered the closing prayer” today at its official dedication.
1984: David Levy finds his 1st comet.
1990: Comptroller Liz Holtzman greeted the Committee for Responsive Democracy when it began its hearings in New York City by “saying that ‘many don’t see themselves as being represented.’”
1991: World Premiere of Beauty and the Beast, a 1991 American animated musical romantic fantasy film, with music by Alan Menken.
1995: “Israeli Security Neglected a Tip Of a Rabin Plot” published today describes the failures that led to the assassination of the Prime Minister by Yigal Amir including a reliable tip received last June about the killer’s intention on which there was no follow up.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/13/world/israeli-security-neglected-a-tip-of-a-rabin-plot.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
1995: The Henry and Lucy Moses Fund, freely admitting that it was reviving the charitable practices of a bygone era, announced that it would give a total of $2 million to four leading New York City hospitals to help pay for care for uninsured patients as government cutbacks are made in Medicare and Medicaid.
1998: “Lord Levene of Portsoken became the eighth Jewish Lord Mayor of London. An Ashkenazi by birth, Lord Levene's first public act was to walk, with a retinue, from his official residence (Mansion House) to Bevis Marks Synagogue, for the Sabbath Eve service.”
1998: U.S. premiere of “Meet Joe Black” directed and produced by Martin Brest, with a script by Bo Goldman, music by Thomas Newman and filmed by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki.
2000(15th of Cheshvan, 5761): Gabi Zaghouri, 36, of Netivot was killed by gunfire directed at the truck he was driving near the Kissufim junction in the southern part of the Gaza Strip
2000(15th of Cheshvan, 5761): Sarah Leisha, 42, of Neveh Tzuf was killed by gunfire from a passing car while travelling near Ofra, north of Ramallah.
2000(15th of Cheshvan, 5761): Cpl. Elad Wallenstein, 18, of Ashkelon, and Cpl. Amit Zanna, 19, of Netanya were killed by gunfire from a car passing the military bus carrying them near Ofra.
2002(3th of Kislev, 5763): Irving D. Rubin chairman of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) from 1985 to 2002 died in jail awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy to bomb private and government property.
2003:In a reiteration of the American commitment to the separation of church and state, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary (COJ), issued a unanimous opinion ruling that "Chief Justice Moore has violated the Alabama Canons of Judicial Ethics” and that he was being removed from office because it was obvious from his past behavior and statements that he would not comply with any orders regarding the removal of his “Ten Commandments Monunment”
2004: Opening of the 2004 Inaugural Festival of New Jewish Liturgical Music
2005: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interest including A Time to Run by Barbara Boxer
2006: Haaretz reported that an initiative to refurbish the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp has sparked a storm among Holocaust survivors in Israel. The initiative was announced last month by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum's new director, who claimed that the current exhibits were outdated and insufficiently attractive to visitors. A detailed refurbishing plan has yet to be drawn up, but participants at a recent meeting of Holocaust survivors' organizations warned against moves to "beautify" the site, as has been done with other Nazi concentration camps. "Dachau and Sachsenhausen have already become well-kept gardens; we won't allow the same to happen to Auschwitz," they said.
2008: The Jewish Reconstructionist (JRF) Biennial Convention opens in Boston, Mass.
2008: In New York, the 23rd annual Israel Film Festival comes to an end.
2008: Opening of Congregation Beth Judea’s Family Education Weekend featuring Mordechai Rosenstein as its Artist in Residence in Long Grove, Il. “The Hebrew alphabet is the essence of the art of Mordechai Rosenstein.”
2008: In Iowa City, Award winning authorAmy Bloom attends a reception at the University of Iowa Hillel and then participates in a reading at Prairie Lights Book Store.
2008: Hassan Diab, 54, a dual Lebanese-Canadian citizen who teaches at the University of Ottawa, was arrested at his home in Gatineau, Quebec today by Royal Canadian Mounted Police acting on a French request for extradition. Diab is suspected in the October 3, 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue that killed four people, including an Israeli woman, and wounded dozens.
2008: Today, the day after municipal elections, secular Jerusalem mayor-elect Nir Barkat attempted to assuage the fears of the city's haredi community, whose candidate Meir Porush failed in his bid to replace Mayor Uri Lupolianski, saying he would gladly welcome the ultra-Orthodox parties into his coalition if they agree to his basic party line.
2008: US President-elect Barack Obama's White House chief of staff apologized to the Arab-American community today for remarks his Israeli-born father made to Ma'ariv.
2009(29th of Cheshvan, 5770): Hannah Block, one of the Tar-Heel State’s leading civic leaders and trailblazing feminists passed away at the age of 96 in Wilmington, North Carolina.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/nov/08/2010/hannah-block
2009: At 8 PM this evening Lt Col (Ret) Bruce Lichtman will lead a Veteran’s Day Service at Ft. Belvoir in Virginia. Services will be preceded by a deli dinner at the Fort Belvoir Chapel Social Hall. Rabbi Chaplain Gary Davidson is the featured speaker for the evening.
2009: Friday the 13th– The idea that Friday the 13this inherently unlucky is a belief whose origin has been lost. According to some, it is tied to the story of Jesus i.e. there were thirteen people at the Last Supper which provided the impetus for Good Friday. Others claim that the Egyptian First Born died on Friday the 13th. The idea that 13 is unlucky for Jews would certainly come as a heck of a shock to the legion of Bar Mitzvah Boys whose right of religious passage is tied to their 13th birthday.
2009: An 18-year-old Arab terrorist attempted to attack a group of IDF soldiers near the Mughrabi Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem today. Shouting "Allahu Akbar!" (Allah is Great), the cry of the Muslim jihad (holy war), the young man unsheathed a knife and tried to stab a Border Patrol officer.
2009: Jeffrey Pollack announced on his Twitter feed that he was resigning as Commissioner of the World Series of Poker.
2010: On Shabbat,Rahm Emanuel formally kicked off his campaign for Chicago mayor at large public gathering.
2010: Bernard Kouchner, the French physician who co-founded Doctors Without Borders completed his term as Minister of Foreign and European Affairs
2010: Chavruta, the first ever county wide Night of Jewish Learning and Celebration complete with a Chinese/Sushi Bar sponsored by the Westchester Board of Rabbis and The Westchester Jewish Council is scheduled to be held tonight at the Temple Israel Center of White Plains in White Plains, NY.
2010:Hollywood's Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is scheduled to award an honorary Oscar to French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, "a notorious vocal...anti-Semite."
2011: Funeral services will be held at noon today at Temple Beth Emunah, for “Irving H. Franklin …co-founder of Franklin Sports and innovator of the baseball batting glove.”
2011: The 8th Jewish Eye Festival, the World Jewish Film Festival held each year in Ashkelon is scheduled to open today.
2011: Erin Bode is scheduled to appear with St. Louis Symphony Musicians in a concert featuring the works of Rogers and Hammerstein at the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival.
2011: Dr. Stephen P. Morse is scheduled to present a lecture entitled “Getting Ready for the 1940 Census” sponsored by the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington.
2011: The 3rd Annual International Holiday Bazaar sponsored by the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to come to an end in Skokie, Illinois.
2011:The Global Day of Jewish Learning is scheduled to take place in over 200 Communities in 40 different countries.
http://www.theglobalday.com/
2011:A popular German radio host is slated to return to his program today, after being temporarily pulled from his post for writing an email denying the Holocaust and spreading conspiracy theories against the US to a listener earlier this month. Ken Jebsen, who is a host at the publicly funded “Jugendwelle” music program aired by Radio Fritz, wrote, “I know who invented the Holocaust as PR.” In his crude e-mail, Jebsen said Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels implemented the public relations plan of the Holocaust and the Americans provided fuel for the entire Nazi bombing campaign, citing Standard Oil and John D. Rockefeller, the American businessman.
2011:Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat today urged District Police Commander Niso Shaham to put a stop to the exclusion of women's images from billboards across the city, and to the defacing of advertisements on which women do appear, both trends initiated of late by the local ultra-Orthodox sector. out of advertising in the capital.
2011:Egyptian security forces have arrested 16 suspects in connection with recurrent attacks on a pipeline for the supply of gas to Israel and Jordan, a security source said today.
2012: The Hebrew language film “The Matchmaker” is scheduled to be shown at the UK Jewish Film Festival.
2012: Ilan Elia, whose songs “have always combined local Jewish and Israeli traditions with ancient ones from the mountains of Kurdistan,” is scheduled to perform at the Jerusalem International Oud Festival.
2012: Israeli artist Domy Reiter-Soffer is scheduled to lecture at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
2012: In Baltimore, MD, the largest annual Jewish philanthropic conference in the country - The Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly - is scheduled to come to an end today.
2012: Two rockets fired by Gaza terrorists slammed into a greenhouse in the Hof Ashkelon region this afternoon, breaking a brief lull in hostilities after four days of cross border fire.
2012: Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak during a visit to the Gaza border said the current episode of rocket fire from the coastal strip is not over.
2012:Elie Wiesel and President Obama are not writing a book together, as reported by an Israeli newspaper. The subscription-only Publisher's Lunch, citing a source close to Obama, reported that there is no book and no book deal, the Forward reported today
354: Birthdate of St. Augustine of Hippo. While St. Augustine may be held in high regard by the Roman Catholic Church, he held the Jews in especially low regard. In his famous work The City of God, Augustine reports that the Jews were exiled because of their rejection of Jesus. The dispersal of the Jews to so many different places is way of reminding Christians that their belief in Jesus as Messiah is correct. The exile came about because the Jews were enemies of the Church, but the Jews must not be slain so that they can finally see the error of their ways an repent. The sword of Constantine and the cross of Augustine would soon draw together to make a bitter brew for Jews for centuries to come.
361: Emperor Constantius II who continued the anti-Semitic policies of his father and who, among other things, “decreed that a person who was proven to have converted from Christianity to Judaism would have all of his property confiscated by the state” passed away today. (Those who contend that Christianity grew because of spiritual superiority might want to rethink this in light of this entry)
1160: Marriage of Louis
1460: Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal passed away at the age of 66. A devout Catholic who was a master of the Knights Templar, Henry was dedicated to bring glory to Portugal through maritime endeavors. To that end he was only too willing to employ Jewish mathematicians, astronomers and cartographers despite his strong Crusading temperament.
1549: Paul Fagius, who learned Hebrew from Elia Levita with whom he founded a printing business that published Shemot Devarim, an Old Yiddish-Hebrew-Latin-German dictionary, in 1542 and who served as Hebrew lecturer at the University of Cambridge before being replaced by convert Immanuel Tremellius passed away today.
1685: King James II of England ordered the Attorney General to stop any proceedings against the Jews because “they should not be troubled upon his (the King’s) account but they should quietly enjoy the free exercise of their religion whilst they behaved dutifully and obediently to his government.”
1757: The Talmud was publicly burned in Kamenets-Podolski (Poland). Jacob Frank, a follower of the false Messiah Shabbetai Zevi had begun his own movement which emphasized the Kabbalah and denigrated the Talmud. His practices (some of which were of sexual nature) were condemned by the local Rabbinate. In revenge, he arranged a dispute in Lvov between himself and the local Jewish leaders. Bishop Nicholas Dembowski who presided over the disputation ruled in favor of Frank and ordered all copies of the Talmud found to be dragged through the streets and burned. Around 1000 copies of the Talmud were destroyed. Within a few years, many of the Frankists converted to Christianity.
1761(19th of Cheshvan, 5522): Nathan Nata Spira, the son of Selig Spira and grandson of Nathan Nata Spira passed away at at Eibenschütz, in Moravia, where he had been serving as rabbi for the past year.
1785:Hirsch Janow, known as “Hirsch Harfi” (Hirsch the acute) who had succeeded his father-in-law Raphael Kohn as the rabbi of Posen in 1776 before becoming chief rabbi at Furth passed away today in Bavaria.
1791: King Louis XVI signed the resolution of emancipation guaranteeing all French Jews full rights of citizenship.
1806: Jewish merchants of Gibraltar wrote Aaron Nunez Cardozo a prominent merchant serving as a liaison between the British government and the Muslim Barbary States seeking his help in getting them an exemption from the Moroccan dress code for dhimmis. As the following entry shows, dhimmi status was part of the “peculiar relationship” that the Muslims imposed on the Jews. “The Muslim attitude toward Jews is reflected in various verses throughout the Koran, the holy book of the Islamic faith. "They [the Children of Israel] were consigned to humiliation and wretchedness. They brought the wrath of God upon themselves, and this because they used to deny God's signs and kill His Prophets unjustly and because they disobeyed and were transgressors" (Sura 2:61). According to the Koran, the Jews try to introduce corruption (5:64), have always been disobedient (5:78), and are enemies of Allah, the Prophet and the angels (2:9798). Still, as "People of the Book," Jews (and Christians) are protected under Islamic law. The traditional concept of the "dhimma"("writ of protection") was extended by Muslim conquerors to Christians and Jews in exchange for their subordination to the Muslims. Peoples subjected to Muslim rule usually had a choice between death and conversion, but Jews and Christians, who adhered to the Scriptures, were allowed as dhimmis (protected persons) to practice their faith. This "protection" did little, however, to insure that Jews and Christians were treated well by the Muslims. On the contrary, an integral aspect of the dhimma was that, being an infidel, he had to openly acknowledge the superiority of the true believer--the Muslim. In the early years of the Islamic conquest, the "tribute" (or jizya), paid as a yearly poll tax, symbolized the subordination of the dhimmi. Later, the inferior status of Jews and Christians was reinforced through a series of regulations that governed the behavior of the dhimmi. Dhimmis, on pain of death, were forbidden to mock or criticize the Koran, Islam or Muhammad, to proselytize among Muslims or to touch a Muslim woman (though a Muslim man could take a non-Muslim as a wife). Dhimmis were excluded from public office and armed service, and were forbidden to bear arms. They were not allowed to ride horses or camels, to build synagogues or churches taller than mosques, to construct houses higher than those of Muslims or to drink wine in public. They were not allowed to pray or mourn in loud voices-as that might offend the Muslims. The dhimmi had to show public deference toward Muslims-always yielding them the center of the road. The dhimmi was not allowed to give evidence in court against a Muslim, and his oath was unacceptable in an Islamic court. To defend himself, the dhimmi would have to purchase Muslim witnesses at great expense. This left the dhimmi with little legal recourse when harmed by a Muslim. Dhimmis were also forced to wear distinctive clothing. In the ninth century, for example, Baghdad's Caliph al-Mutawakkil designated a yellow badge for Jews, setting a precedent that would be followed centuries later in Nazi Germany. The Moslem view of the Jew as permanent second class citizen would help to explain the hostility towards the state of Israel. Under the concept of dhimmi Moslems could not accept living in a state where Jews had equal rights and they certainly could not accept living in a state that had been created by a victory of Jewish soldiers over soldiers of Islam.
1830: Joseph Mérilhou, the Minister of Public Education under Louis Phillippe, offered a motion placing Judaism on an equal footing with the Christian religions, paying Synagogues and rabbis from the public treasury in the same manner as was done for Churches and their ministers. In presenting his motion, "which was adopted by a large majority" Merilhou spoke approvingly of how well Jews had performed as citizens of the republice since they had been granted citizenship during the French Revolution
1834: Birthdate of Benjamin Franklin Peixotto a New York born lawyer who was the son of Dr. Daniel Levy Maduro Peixotto and the grandson of Rabbi Moses L. M. Peixotto. After attending school in New York he went to Cleveland, Ohio, where he studied law under Stephen A. Douglas and wrote for the Cleveland Plaindealer. In 1867 he removed to San Francisco, where he continued his practice as a lawyer. In 1870-'5 he was United States consul in Bucharest, Romania, where his influence was marked in securing civil and religious liberty. In 1876 he returned to the United States and took part in the presidential canvass in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes. In 1877 he declined the appointment of consul-general at St. Petersburg. He was subsequently made United States consul at Lyons, France, a post which he held until 1885, when he returned to New York and resumed the practice of law. Peixotto was active in various Jewish educational and charitable movements throughout the United States. A well-known lecturer, he was the editor of the Menorah, a publication established in 1886 which highlighted the activities of the B’nai Brith as well as the Jewish religion and literature.
1844(3rd of Kislev): Purim Amtchislav (Mstislavl, Belorussia) was annually observed by that community in a commemoration of a happy event that took place on that day
1844: Czar Nicholas I of Russia issued a decree calling for the establishment of a school for Jewish students and a seminary to train rabbis and teachers. This was not nearly as benign as it sounded and most Jews avoided the siren call of enrolling their young in schools run by the government of Czarist Russia. The Czar had a secret plan to gradually close the old Jewish schools and thus leave Jewish education in the hands of a government committed to the extinction of the Jewish people in Russia.
1845: In Germany, Zadek and Esther Machol gave birth to Michaelis Machol, the graduate of the Theological Seminary of Breslau and served as rabbi at Kehillath Anshe Maariv in Chicago before beginning his long-term service as a Rabbi at Temple Anshe Chesed in Cleveland, Ohio.
http://www.clevelandjewishhistory.net/people/machol.htm
http://www.clevelandjewishhistory.net/people/machol-ccar.htm
1849: The Hebrew Benevolent and German Hebrew Benevolent Society are scheduled to hold its anniversary in New York City.
1852: Birthdate of Jacob Voorsanger, the native of Amsterdam who came to the United States in the early 1870’s where he served as the rabbi at several congregations including Emanu-El in San Francisco while also serving as a professor of Semitic Languages at the University of California and a chaplain at Stanford.
1855: Rabbi Isidor Kalisch’s translation of a Phoenician inscription that had been found in Sidon, Asia was read before the Syro-Egyptian Society of London,
1856: Birthdate of Louis Brandeis. Southern born, Harvard educated; Brandeis pursued a successful legal career as a champion of the underdog. He was an ally and confidant of President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson appointed Brandeis to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1916. This was a milestone in American history and Jewish history. Brandeis was the first Jew named to the high court. He was also the first of whole group of minorities who would eventually take their place on the court including African-American and women. The Brandeis nomination was contested by anti-Semites and the American business community. Brandeis served on the bench until 1939. Brandeis was also a committed Zionist and a leader of the movement in the United States. He passed away in 1941. Words from Brandeis: “The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people.” “Every American Jew who aids in advancing the Jewish settlement in Palestine, though he feels that neither he nor his descendants will ever live there, will be a better man and a better American for doing so.”
http://www.brandeis.edu/legacyfund/bio.html
1856: In New York, the Hebrew Benevolent Society celebrated the 35thanniversary of its founding with a lavish banquet held in the City Assembly Rooms.
1858: It was reported today in what was a reference to the Yellow Fever Epidemic it was reported that "the Jews of New York have contributed $150 for the New Orleans sick."
1863: Sixty-four year old Alexander McCaul, the Anglo-Irish author who spent over a decade trying to convert Jews in Poland, who “wrote vigorously against the blood libel” and who “became professor of Hebrew and rabbinical literature at King’s College, London” passed away today.
1872: It was reported today that, based on information that had first appeared in The Times of London that the suffering of the Romanian Jews has given rise to a demand for concerted action by their co-religionists to protest and improve their condition. A conference to be held in Brussels for this purpose is attracting delegates who are prominent leaders from several places including Paris, London and Berlin.
1878: Birthdate of German born American mathematician Max Wilhelm Dehn, who like so many others gave up his career in his homeland with the rise of the Nazis, but unlike others, was able to find refuge in the United States.
1880: Todays dispatch to the London Standard from Berlin stated “A petition has been presented to Prince Bismarck to restrict the civil rights of the Jews and repeal the absolute equality enjoyed by them with German citizens.” (Prince Bismarck is Otto Von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor who really ran Germany)
1882: It was reported today that “the Mount Sinai Hospital…is one of the leading hospitals” in New York City. It treats patients of all creeds and its “list of free patients is as large as any other institution of its kind in the country.”
1882(2nd of Kislev, 5643): Ephraim Alex the Anglo-Jewish philanthropist who served as overseer of the Great Synagogue and founded the Jewish Board of Guardians passed away today in London.
1883: It was reported today that when the Lord Mayor of London refused to allow the Dr. Stocker, the anti-Semitic Chaplain to the Court of Germany to lecture at Mansion House, he said “he could not disregard the feelings of the Jewish community of London by giving prominence…to a man who has excited hostility against the Jews.”
1884: Rosa Schuminchler, a Polish Jewess who had previously been deported, and her seven children were among those who arrived in the United States today aboard the SS Queen
1884: Samuel A. Lewis, Tammany political leader, former President of the Board of Alderman and the editor of Jewish newspaper was arrested as a result of civil suit brought by his sister, Harriet L. Lewis.
1884: “Mgr. Capel on Patriotism” published today described the speech by Monsignor Thomas John Capel to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association” in which he calls for quality public education where the teachers are “appointed upon their merits and goodness” and not “because they are friends of the mayor.” In describing the role of women, he reminds his listeners that “husbands are breadwinners” but women “are formers of character.” (Why Capel, a Catholic priest who stood accused of a variety of “improprieties” during his lifetime, was chosen to lecture to a Jewish organization is something for which I have not found an explanation.)
1884: English thespians Henry Irving and Ellen Terry will perform “The Merchant of Venice” this evening. She will play the Jewess Portia and he will play Shylock, the Jew – one of his signature dramatic roles. (Based on newspaper accounts at the time, this particular Shakespearian drama was extremely popular in the post-Civil War United States.)
1885: William Sharon, the former Senator from Nevada, who would bequeath $5,000 to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum at San Francisco passed away today.
1886: It was reported today that plans are being made for a concert at the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews.
1889: A delegation of Jews went to New York political leader Coroner Levy to protest the failure of authorities to bury Abraham Bergman, a child who died two weeks ago.
1892: “Israel in the Wilderness” a cantata by Dr. Alfred R. Gaul which opens with “a Hebrew chorale” was performed for the first time in New York City.
1892: Founding of the Perth Hebrew Congregation “the oldest of three synagogues serving the Jewish community of Perth, Australia”
1892: The Trustees of Temple Emanu-El met today and decided to hold a memorial service in honor of the late Seligman Adler the New York businessman who was a trustee of the Temple for 22 years.
1893: Birthdate of Romanian born Israeli painter Reuven Rubin. Among his works are an oil canvas painted in 1922 entitled “Self Portrait with a Flower” which is on display in the Rubin Museum. http://www.flickr.com/photos/32357038@N08/6152510301/
For more of his paintings see http://www.imj.org.il/artcenter/galleryE.asp?artist=277535&list=
1894: In Vienna, Jewish philosopher Nathan Birnbaum and Rosa Korngut gave birth to Austrian artist Uriel Birnbaum.
1894: Following their debut at London in July pianists Rose Laura Sutro and Ottilie Sutro played a Bach concerto during their American debut which took place in Brooklyn today.
1895: According to a summary of the United Hebrew Charities’ monthly report, during October the society processed 2,507 applications which provided assistance for a total of 8, 356 people.
1895: "Work of United Hebrew Charities” published today described the successful operations of this New York organization which collected $14, 413. 50 this past month of which it spent over $10,000 to provide services ranging from the support of an industrial school for girls to providing transportation for immigrants to settle in other parts of the country.
1895: The New York Times reported on an instructive and most entertaining lecture on the subject of “Ghosts” given in the West End Synagogue by Rabbi F. de Sola Mendes to an audience composed almost entirely of women and young girls.
1896: “Dowers For Orphan Girls” published today described the work of the newly formed Greater New York German Orphan Society which was modeled on a program started several years ago by Mr. Morgenthau for Jewish girls that will provide dowries to German girls, regardless of their religious denomination which will enable these worthy but impoverished maidens a chance to enjoy the benefits of marriage.
1897: Birthdate of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Friedman, the founder and former spiritual leader of the Garment Center Synagogue in Manhattan. Born in Jerusalem, Rabbi Friedman came to the United States with his mother and brother in 1918 to escape famine in his homeland. His father had arrived a year earlier. Trained as a scribe, Rabbi Friedman began his rabbinical studies in 1919. He was a rabbinical graduate of Yeshiva University's Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1921. After his ordination, he was appointed rabbi of Congregation Ezrath Israel in Ellenville, N.Y., a position he held for four years before moving to Brooklyn. In 1931, after serving at several synagogues in New York City, Rabbi Friedman founded the Garment Center Synagogue. In the mid-1950's, he was named rabbi emeritus. He passed away in 1993 at the age of 95.
1897(18th of Cheshvan, 5658): Mrs. Marion Levy, the widow of A.S. Levy, who was born in New York in 1857 and who later moved to Brooklyn passed away in her adopted home town.
1897: In Vienna police were called to quell the fighting that broke out today between German and Jewish university students
1897: “The Rev. Sabato Morais” published today eulogized the life of the recently deceased Rabbi whom the secular press said devoted his life “ to the promotion of the liberty and advancement of the human race, the defense of the conservatism of the Jewish religion and the leadership and uplifting of the Jewish People.”
1898: Plans were published today describing the upcoming course of Monday talks to be given at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1899: In Chicago, Julia (née Cohen) and Paul Caspary gave birth to American “lady of letters” Vera Louise Caspary who wrote the novel Laura, which was turned into one of the finest films-noire
1900: Herzl meets the French millionaire Reitlinger and discusses the idea of redeeming the Turkish debt.
1903(22nd of Cheshvan, 5664): French impressionist painter Camille Pissarro passed away at the age of 73. Born Jacob-Abraham-Camille Pissarro he was the son of a Sephardic Jew living in the Virgin Islands where owned by Denmark. “None of Pissarro's paintings refer to the Bible or Jewish rituals or include Hebrew inscriptions. However, the art historian Stephanie Rachum has pointed out references to Judaism in three pen and ink drawings that Pissarro created in 1890 for his nieces. In "Capitol," Pissarro drew a smartly-dressed man with a hooked nose amidst throngs of needy people. In a letter to his nieces, Pissarro identified the ‘vulgar and ugly’ figure as a portrait of a rich Jew, ‘of an Oppenheim, of a Rothschild, of a Gould, whatever.’ The hooked noses appear in two other illustrations in the series, which also depict the Golden Calf. Although some might consider Pissarro a self-hating Jew for drawing these pictures, it is significant that they were not intended for publication. They reflect the complicated way in which his anarchist political views confronted his Jewish identity; to Pissarro, a rich Jew seemed to have been primarily a rich man and coincidentally Jewish. Joachim Pissarro, an art scholar and Camille's great-grandson, suggests that Camille's complicated relationship with Judaism impacted his work. The artist's religious struggles helped him develop, according to Joachim, "a critical stance which he could apply to the system of taste and to the conventions that governed art teaching at the time of his arrival in France in 1855."
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/culture/2/Art/History_and_Theory/Jewish_Painters/pissarro.shtml
1904: In Hamburg, Louise (née Löwenthal) and John Biermann gave birth to Dagobert Biermann the Jewish resistance fighter who was murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz.
1906: Birthdate of Eva Zeisel, American industrial designer. Born in Hungary, Zeisel is another refugee from Hitler’s Europe who enriched American culture; in her case in the world of ceramics and pottery.
1906: Miss Alice Lewisohn, the daughter of the late Leonard Lewisohn and the sister of Jesse Lewisohn explained that she was performing in “Pippa Passes” under the name of “Eleanora Leigh” because while she enjoyed the theatre she did not want to be known as a professional actress.
1907: In West Park, Ohio, Wilbur and May Nichols gave birth to Kenneth David “Nick” Nichols, a Major General who played a key role in the Manhattan project and who was one of the driving forces behind removing the security clearance of J. Robert Oppenheimer whom he said was a community “in every sense except that he did not carry a party card.”
1911: The Vaad or Council of Rabbis of the Jewish community of Safed voted 20,000 Francs toward the [Turkish] war fund.
1913: Birthdate of Karl Jay Shapiro, the Baltimore native who “was appointed the fifth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1946.
1916: Julius Rosenwald, Chicago merchant and philanthropist contributed $500,000 toward the endowment fund for the proposed medical department of the University of Chicago
1918: A group of prominent Jewish leaders including Samuel Untermeyer, Nathan Straus, Abram I. Elkus, Louis Marshal, Adolph Lewisohn Samuel C. Pamport, Louis Lipsky, Judge Otto A. Rasalsky, Dr. Samuel Schlman, Israel Unterberg and Franklin Simon host a dinner in New York for a delegation of visiting Zionists led by Vladimir Jabotinksy that includes Professor Otto Warburg and Alexander Goldstein.
1920: Birthdate of Eugene Ferkauf “the founder of the E. J. Korvette chain of discount department stores, whose 1950s strategy of low prices, quick turnover and high volume helped shape today’s retail landscape…” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1921: Over 2,000 men, women and children gathered today to commemorate “the completion of thirty-nine years by Edward Lauterbach as a trustee of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1921(12th of Cheshvan, 5682)Fifty-one year oldIgnác (Yitzhaq Yehuda) Goldziher passed away. Born in 1850, this Hungarian Jew is considered with of the three founders of modern Islamic studies in Europe.
1921:Dr. Joseph Silverman, rabbi emeritus of Temple Emanu-El, surprised almost 1,200 guests at a dinner at the Hotel Astor tonight by declaring himself in favor of the upbuilding of Palestine and the establishment there of a republic patterned after the democracy of the United States. “Rabbi Silverman has always been known as a non-Zionist, and while his beliefs do not quite coincide with those of the ardent Zionist, they were accepted by the large attendance as a practical endorsement of the Zionist movement.”
1921: In Camden, NJ, Rabbi Mortimer J. Cohen of Philadelphia’s Beth Sholom and Rabbi Max Klein took part in the services dedicated the building which would serve as the temporary home for Congregation Beth El
1923: In Boyle Heights, Morton and Fanny Greenstone gave birth to Leonard Greenstone, “a Los Angeles businessman and developer who helped create innovative training and rehabilitation programs for California prison inmates during 50 years of volunteer service to the prison system…” (As reported by Rebecca Trounson)
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-leonard-greenstone-20121031,0,7464335.story
1931: In Budapest Klara nee Fejer and grain merchant Alexander Steiner gave birth to Agnes Steiner who survived the Holocaust and made a new life for herself as Leach Barcela in Israel.
1933: “A rally of German Christians was held at the Berlin Sportpalast, where — before a packed hall — banners proclaimed the unity of National Socialism and Christianity, interspersed with the omnipresent swastikas and series of speakers addressed the crowd's pro-Nazi sentiments with ideas such as:
- the removal of all pastors unsympathetic with National Socialism
- the expulsion of members of Jewish descent, who might be arrogated to a separate church
- the implementation of the Aryan Paragraph church-wide
- the removal of the Old Testament from the Bible
- the removal of "non-German" elements from religious services
- the adoption of a more "heroic" and "positive" interpretation of Jesus, who in pro-Aryan fashion should be portrayed to be battling mightily against corrupt Jewish influences.
1934: “J. W. Mack to Remain As Head of Reform Union Body Till’35” published today described the decision to have “Jacob W. Mack, newly elected chairman of the executive board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, serve in that capacity at least until the Union’s thirty-fourth annual council in Washington in March, 1935.” (As reported by JTA)
1936: Winston Churchill wrote to his son Randolph that although the initial basis for the creation of the Anti-Nazi League was Jewish resentment at their abominable persecution, the base had grown to include all those who are prepared to support genuine military action to resist tyranny or aggression.
1938: The Nazi government orders the Jews to cease all trading and business activities by end of the year.
1939: “Divisional meetings of members of the Women’s League for Palestine were held…at the homes of members in all part of” New York “ to discuss plans for a campaign to raise $100,000 for a new league center in Jerusalem similar to those already established in Haifa and Tel Aviv.”
1939: SS troops in Poland arrest and execute 53 Jewish men who happen to reside at the same address as a Jewish man who has shot and killed a Polish policeman.
1940: In Bay Shore, New York, Dorothy K. Kripke and Myer S. Kripke would serve as rabbi at Beth El Synagogue in Omaha, Nebraska gave brith to their first child, “philosopher and logician” Saul Kripke
1941: Warsaw diarist Chaim Kaplan writes that his wife has been stricken with typhus.
1942: The members of a Kibbutz originally called Sha’ar HaNegev “moved to the Finger of the Galilee, where they established a new kibbutz called Kfar Szold.”
1942: The American (Jewish) Joint Distribution Committee (AJDC) report on the situation of Jews in North Africa including the fact that the occupation by Spanish military forces at Tangiers had led to the introduction of anti-Jewish laws being put into effect.
1943: Frizt Lustig tried to escape from Birkenau. He was caught and shot ten days later.
1945: American soprano Edis de Philippe landed in Israel and within a short time created the Israel National Opera. De Philippe's company performed night after night all over the country. The company was so successful, that it attracted young and rising international opera stars to spend some time in Israel.
1945: Prime Minister Clement Attlee suggests formation of a joint Anglo-American committee to investigate the problem of Jewish refugees and devise a solution to it. This apparently benign suggestion was an attempt to smooth Truman’s ruffled feathers over the British government’s refusal to accept Truman’s request that 100,000 Jews be admitted immediately to Palestine.
1945: British Foreign Minister Bevin gives a speech attacking Zionism and the Jewish people.
1945:President Truman and British foreign minister Ernest Bevin announce U.S.-British agreement on creating joint committee of inquiry to examine problem of European Jews and Palestine. Bevin suggests that Palestine become a trustee state of UN and later have self-government.
1945: Foreign Minister Bevin refuses the entry of 100,000 Jews into Palestine and declares a quota of 1,500 immigrants a month, subject to Arab acquiescence.
1945: Senator Kenneth McKellar (Tennessee) charges that British are distributing arms to Arabs and denounces UK Foreign Minister Bevin.
1945. Senator Warren G. Magnuson of Washington State, Representative Bertrand W. Gearhart of California’s 9th Congressional District and Guy W. Gillette, the former Senator from Iowa appeared on radio show tonight to discuss the situation in Palestine. During the broadcast, Senator Gillette charged “that the present restrictions on Jews in Palestine were comparable with the anti-Jewish Nuremberg laws of Nazi Germany.” Senator Magnuson “discounted the idea that transfer of large numbers of Jews to Palestine would cause any trouble with the Arabs.” Representative Gearhart, a conservative Republican said, “Every Hebrew who declares his desire to go to Palestine should be declared a citizen of that land, ipso fact, and should immediately be repatriated”
1945: Congressman Emanuel Celler (New York) denounces the British.
1946: As part of growing wave of terror caused by Britain’s failure to honor its war time promise to allow Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel and increasing repressive measure aimed at the Jews of the Yishuv, two British policemen were killed while patrolling the Jerusalem-Jaffa rail line.
1947: U.S. premiere of “Out of the Past” starring Kirk Douglas
1948: The newly created Israeli government announced that it will launch shortly a full-scale development plan for the Negev desert area of southern Palestine, centered on Beersheba as an Israeli town, it was learned today.
1948: President Truman feels that direct Arab-Jewish negotiations might work. He advocates a full recognition of Israel and aid for 500,000 Arab refugees in Middle East.
1948:UN Security Council listens to plan by UN mediator Ralph Bunche. Israel would withdraw to October 14 lines. Egypt would stay where it had retreated in Negev fighting. A large part of Negev would be demilitarized pending UN negotiations for peace. Israel rejects part of plan in which Beersheba would be under Arab administration. Plan is endorsed by Council's special committee on Negev and Bunche orders Egypt and Israel to carry out plan.
1949: The biennial convention of the American Jewish Congress comes to an end
1956: The first Israeli train arrived in Gaza, after Israeli troops drove out the occupying Egyptian army and cleaned out the terrorist bases. Israeli troops would leave Gaza in 1957 under pressure from the U.N. and the Eisenhower Administration. Ten years later, the U.N. would fail to honor the guarantees made to Israel concerning protecting the Jewish state from the Arabs. The result would the Six Day War in 1976.
1960: Sammy Davis, Jr. married Swedish actress May Britt. Davis was probably one of the most famous if not the most famous convert to Judaism in the middle of the 20th century. His marriage to Britt caused a furor because it was inter-racial. Others, with a more parochial view, were upset that he had married a non-Jew.
1963: U.S. premiere of “Take her, She’s Mine,” produced and directed by Harry Koster based on a play by Henry and Phoebe Ephron with music by Jerry Goldsmith.
1964: Birthdate of actress Tzufit Grant, the native of Petah Tikvah who hosted the television show “Milkshake” and who has had two children with her husband Avram Grant.
1967: World class pianist Harriet Cohen passed away. Born in London in 1895, she studied at the London Conservatory before going on to fame and fortune. Such was her skill, that she was honored as a
1970: Birthdate of Ariel Atias, the Tel Aviv native who has served as an MK and cabinet minister.
1975: In Jerusalem an explosive charge went off near cafe Naveh, on Jaffa Road near the pedestrian mall. Seven people were killed and 45 injured.
1977: The comic strip ''Li'l Abner'' by Jewish cartoonist Al Capp appeared in newspapers for the last time.
1979: Birthdate of Ya'akov "Kobi" Shimoni known by his stage name Subliminal an Israeli hip hop artist and music producer.
1982: Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, the former military chaplain who “worked to create the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC…delivered the closing prayer” today at its official dedication.
1984: David Levy finds his 1st comet.
1990: Comptroller Liz Holtzman greeted the Committee for Responsive Democracy when it began its hearings in New York City by “saying that ‘many don’t see themselves as being represented.’”
1991: World Premiere of Beauty and the Beast, a 1991 American animated musical romantic fantasy film, with music by Alan Menken.
1995: “Israeli Security Neglected a Tip Of a Rabin Plot” published today describes the failures that led to the assassination of the Prime Minister by Yigal Amir including a reliable tip received last June about the killer’s intention on which there was no follow up.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/13/world/israeli-security-neglected-a-tip-of-a-rabin-plot.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
1995: The Henry and Lucy Moses Fund, freely admitting that it was reviving the charitable practices of a bygone era, announced that it would give a total of $2 million to four leading New York City hospitals to help pay for care for uninsured patients as government cutbacks are made in Medicare and Medicaid.
1998: “Lord Levene of Portsoken became the eighth Jewish Lord Mayor of London. An Ashkenazi by birth, Lord Levene's first public act was to walk, with a retinue, from his official residence (Mansion House) to Bevis Marks Synagogue, for the Sabbath Eve service.”
1998: U.S. premiere of “Meet Joe Black” directed and produced by Martin Brest, with a script by Bo Goldman, music by Thomas Newman and filmed by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki.
2000(15th of Cheshvan, 5761): Gabi Zaghouri, 36, of Netivot was killed by gunfire directed at the truck he was driving near the Kissufim junction in the southern part of the Gaza Strip
2000(15th of Cheshvan, 5761): Sarah Leisha, 42, of Neveh Tzuf was killed by gunfire from a passing car while travelling near Ofra, north of Ramallah.
2000(15th of Cheshvan, 5761): Cpl. Elad Wallenstein, 18, of Ashkelon, and Cpl. Amit Zanna, 19, of Netanya were killed by gunfire from a car passing the military bus carrying them near Ofra.
2002(3th of Kislev, 5763): Irving D. Rubin chairman of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) from 1985 to 2002 died in jail awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy to bomb private and government property.
2003:In a reiteration of the American commitment to the separation of church and state, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary (COJ), issued a unanimous opinion ruling that "Chief Justice Moore has violated the Alabama Canons of Judicial Ethics” and that he was being removed from office because it was obvious from his past behavior and statements that he would not comply with any orders regarding the removal of his “Ten Commandments Monunment”
2004: Opening of the 2004 Inaugural Festival of New Jewish Liturgical Music
2005: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interest including A Time to Run by Barbara Boxer
2006: Haaretz reported that an initiative to refurbish the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp has sparked a storm among Holocaust survivors in Israel. The initiative was announced last month by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum's new director, who claimed that the current exhibits were outdated and insufficiently attractive to visitors. A detailed refurbishing plan has yet to be drawn up, but participants at a recent meeting of Holocaust survivors' organizations warned against moves to "beautify" the site, as has been done with other Nazi concentration camps. "Dachau and Sachsenhausen have already become well-kept gardens; we won't allow the same to happen to Auschwitz," they said.
2007:Wagner College and the Center for Jewish History present “Immigration to New York City:100 Years of Transformation” in whicha distinguished panel explores the changing face of New York City through the framework of three diverse ethnic and religious communities--Irish, Italian, and Jewish--and address the implications of these transformations on current and future generations.
2007: While visiting Israel, Ukranian President Viktor Yuschenko promised followers of Reb Nachman that he would protect the gravesite from sale or commercial exploitation.
2008: The Jewish Reconstructionist (JRF) Biennial Convention opens in Boston, Mass.
2008: In New York, the 23rd annual Israel Film Festival comes to an end.
2008: Opening of Congregation Beth Judea’s Family Education Weekend featuring Mordechai Rosenstein as its Artist in Residence in Long Grove, Il. “The Hebrew alphabet is the essence of the art of Mordechai Rosenstein.”
2008: In Iowa City, Award winning authorAmy Bloom attends a reception at the University of Iowa Hillel and then participates in a reading at Prairie Lights Book Store.
2008: Hassan Diab, 54, a dual Lebanese-Canadian citizen who teaches at the University of Ottawa, was arrested at his home in Gatineau, Quebec today by Royal Canadian Mounted Police acting on a French request for extradition. Diab is suspected in the October 3, 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue that killed four people, including an Israeli woman, and wounded dozens.
2008: Today, the day after municipal elections, secular Jerusalem mayor-elect Nir Barkat attempted to assuage the fears of the city's haredi community, whose candidate Meir Porush failed in his bid to replace Mayor Uri Lupolianski, saying he would gladly welcome the ultra-Orthodox parties into his coalition if they agree to his basic party line.
2008: US President-elect Barack Obama's White House chief of staff apologized to the Arab-American community today for remarks his Israeli-born father made to Ma'ariv.
2009(29th of Cheshvan, 5770): Hannah Block, one of the Tar-Heel State’s leading civic leaders and trailblazing feminists passed away at the age of 96 in Wilmington, North Carolina.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/nov/08/2010/hannah-block
2009: At 8 PM this evening Lt Col (Ret) Bruce Lichtman will lead a Veteran’s Day Service at Ft. Belvoir in Virginia. Services will be preceded by a deli dinner at the Fort Belvoir Chapel Social Hall. Rabbi Chaplain Gary Davidson is the featured speaker for the evening.
2009: Friday the 13th– The idea that Friday the 13this inherently unlucky is a belief whose origin has been lost. According to some, it is tied to the story of Jesus i.e. there were thirteen people at the Last Supper which provided the impetus for Good Friday. Others claim that the Egyptian First Born died on Friday the 13th. The idea that 13 is unlucky for Jews would certainly come as a heck of a shock to the legion of Bar Mitzvah Boys whose right of religious passage is tied to their 13th birthday.
2009: An 18-year-old Arab terrorist attempted to attack a group of IDF soldiers near the Mughrabi Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem today. Shouting "Allahu Akbar!" (Allah is Great), the cry of the Muslim jihad (holy war), the young man unsheathed a knife and tried to stab a Border Patrol officer.
2009: Jeffrey Pollack announced on his Twitter feed that he was resigning as Commissioner of the World Series of Poker.
2010: On Shabbat,Rahm Emanuel formally kicked off his campaign for Chicago mayor at large public gathering.
2010: Bernard Kouchner, the French physician who co-founded Doctors Without Borders completed his term as Minister of Foreign and European Affairs
2010: Chavruta, the first ever county wide Night of Jewish Learning and Celebration complete with a Chinese/Sushi Bar sponsored by the Westchester Board of Rabbis and The Westchester Jewish Council is scheduled to be held tonight at the Temple Israel Center of White Plains in White Plains, NY.
2010:Hollywood's Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is scheduled to award an honorary Oscar to French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, "a notorious vocal...anti-Semite."
2011: Funeral services will be held at noon today at Temple Beth Emunah, for “Irving H. Franklin …co-founder of Franklin Sports and innovator of the baseball batting glove.”
2011: The 8th Jewish Eye Festival, the World Jewish Film Festival held each year in Ashkelon is scheduled to open today.
2011: Erin Bode is scheduled to appear with St. Louis Symphony Musicians in a concert featuring the works of Rogers and Hammerstein at the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival.
2011: Dr. Stephen P. Morse is scheduled to present a lecture entitled “Getting Ready for the 1940 Census” sponsored by the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington.
2011: The 3rd Annual International Holiday Bazaar sponsored by the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to come to an end in Skokie, Illinois.
2011:The Global Day of Jewish Learning is scheduled to take place in over 200 Communities in 40 different countries.
http://www.theglobalday.com/
2011:A popular German radio host is slated to return to his program today, after being temporarily pulled from his post for writing an email denying the Holocaust and spreading conspiracy theories against the US to a listener earlier this month. Ken Jebsen, who is a host at the publicly funded “Jugendwelle” music program aired by Radio Fritz, wrote, “I know who invented the Holocaust as PR.” In his crude e-mail, Jebsen said Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels implemented the public relations plan of the Holocaust and the Americans provided fuel for the entire Nazi bombing campaign, citing Standard Oil and John D. Rockefeller, the American businessman.
2011:Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat today urged District Police Commander Niso Shaham to put a stop to the exclusion of women's images from billboards across the city, and to the defacing of advertisements on which women do appear, both trends initiated of late by the local ultra-Orthodox sector. out of advertising in the capital.
2011:Egyptian security forces have arrested 16 suspects in connection with recurrent attacks on a pipeline for the supply of gas to Israel and Jordan, a security source said today.
2012: The Hebrew language film “The Matchmaker” is scheduled to be shown at the UK Jewish Film Festival.
2012: Ilan Elia, whose songs “have always combined local Jewish and Israeli traditions with ancient ones from the mountains of Kurdistan,” is scheduled to perform at the Jerusalem International Oud Festival.
2012: Israeli artist Domy Reiter-Soffer is scheduled to lecture at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
2012: In Baltimore, MD, the largest annual Jewish philanthropic conference in the country - The Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly - is scheduled to come to an end today.
2012: Two rockets fired by Gaza terrorists slammed into a greenhouse in the Hof Ashkelon region this afternoon, breaking a brief lull in hostilities after four days of cross border fire.
2012: Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak during a visit to the Gaza border said the current episode of rocket fire from the coastal strip is not over.
2012:Elie Wiesel and President Obama are not writing a book together, as reported by an Israeli newspaper. The subscription-only Publisher's Lunch, citing a source close to Obama, reported that there is no book and no book deal, the Forward reported today
2013: In California, the Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to present “Pacific Jews: Exploring 19th Century Jewish In California” in which Dr. Joellyn Zollman “will look at the many reasons American Jews settled in the Golden State.”
2013: Israeli born glass artist, Ilanit Shalev is scheduled to lead a “fused glass workshop at the LFJCC.
2013: The History Channel is scheduled to broadcast “Lost in Translation,” the first in a series entitled “Bible Secrets Revealed” part of which “was shot in Tel Zekah” where U of I Professor Robert Cargill is “participating in an excavation of a sit on the border of the Biblical kingdoms of Judah and the Philistines.”
2013(10th of Kislev): Eighteen year old Eden Atias, an Israeli soldier was stabbed to death by a sixteen year old Palestinian terrorist from Jenin as he slept on a bus in Afula. The murderous attack comes a day after Prime Minister Netanyahu had called a halt to further construction In Jerusalem in compliance with Secretary of State Kerry’s demand which he said, if unmet, could lead to a third Intifada.
2013: Jerry Levin received the Hall of Fame Award at the National Shoe Retail Leadership Conference today in Boston, MA.
2013: Benjamin Weiser described the government’s response to charges of ant-Semitism in New York’s Pine Bush Central School District first reported in the New York Times on November
2014: Lewis Black is scheduled to perform at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre of the Performing Arts in New Orleans, LA.
2014: Barbara Winton, the daughter of Nicholas Winton is scheduled to share the “story of her father’s rescue of Czech Jewish children on the eve of the Holocaust” at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a panel discussion – “Giving Women their Place in Holocaust History.”
2014: “Next Year Jerusalem” is scheduled to be shown at the 18th UK Jewish Film Festival.
2014: “THE INTELLIGENT HOMOSEXUAL’S GUIDE TO CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM WITH A KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES” by Tony Kushner is scheduled to open at Theatre J in Washington, DC.