DECEMBER 14
164 BCE (3597): On the secular calendar date on which Judah Maccabee restored the service in the Temple in Jerusalem.
1503: Birthdate of Nostradamus. Nostradamus was not Jewish but his family had been. His paternal grandfather converted to Catholicism ending the Jewish line.
1546: Birthdate of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe who spent time with Jewish astronomer David Gans while visiting in Prague and who wrote Path to God which Franz Rosenzweig said “should be considered a ‘Jewish book’” but which said should be called a “Jewishlike book.”
1584: According to a document with this day’s date, “Isaac (Isaiko) Shachovich, a Jew of Brest, visited Moscow on business in 1581, notwithstanding the prohibition of Ivan the Terrible, and en route stopped in Mohilev at the house of his friend, the tax-collector Isaac Jacobovich.”
1754: Mahmud I, Sultan of Turkey, passed away at the age of 58. Under the reign of Mahmud I, the treaty of Belgrade was signed (September 18th, 1739). This gave rights to the Ottoman Jews. Their situation was so good that Austrian Jews applied for Ottoman citizenship.
1760: The Board of Deputies of British Jews was founded. The Board of Deputies was composed of elected Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews.
1778(25thof Kislev, 5539): Chanukah
1799: President George Washington passed away. Washington’s letters of acceptance to Jewish communities in the early days of the United States set the tone for acceptance that has made it possible for the Jewish community to flourish.
1807: In Hamburg, Israel Abraham Meyer and his wife gave birth to Meyer Isler who wrote a these on the Greek poet to earn his doctorate and who was a follower “of the new science of Judaism” as presented by Leopold Zunz and Isaak Markus Jost.
1808(25thof Kislev, 5569): Chanukah celebrated for the last time during the Presidency of Thomas Jefferson
1808(25thof Kislev, 5569):Abraham ben Elijah of Vilna the son of Elijah, the Vilna Gaon passed away today in Vilna.
1819: Alabama becomes the 22nd state to join the Union. For those of you who think that Jews only made a contribution on the eastern seaboard, please take note. Abram Mordecai came to Alabama in 1785 and is credited by some with the founding of Montgomery, the state capital. He was described as “’an intelligent Jew who lived fifty years in the Creek nation.’” (The Creeks were an Indian tribe made famous by their battles with Andrew Jackson and Davey Crockett.) He traded with the Creeks, married a Creek woman and found what he considered proof positive that the Creeks were descendants of the ten lost tribes. The first congregation in Alabama was formed in Mobile in 1844 and a second congregation was founded in Montgomery in 1852.
1825: A group of disgruntled Russian Army officers begin what is now known as the Decembrist Revolt, an uprising against the newly installed Czar, Nicholas I. The Jews had nothing to do with the revolt. The officers were animated by the tainted road to throne followed by Nicholas and their desire for a more liberal regime. The unsuccessful revolt reinforced the despot’s drive to follow in the reactionary footsteps of his father. Among other things he increased the drive to remove the Jews from Russian society by forcing growing numbers into the Pale of Settlement and by enforcing draft laws that forced young Jewish boys to serve 25 years in the Russian Army.
1827(25th of Kislev, 5588): First Day of Chanukah.
1846(25thof Kislev, 5607): Chanukah is observed for the first time during the Mexican-American War.
1849: Following the revolution in Hungary during which he had been arrested Rabbi Judah Leib "Leopold" Löw was pardoned by General Julius Jacob von Haynau
1850: Birthdate of Jean (Jan) Taubenhaus, the native of Warsaw who became a “French chess master.” He was the brother of Godfrey Taubenhaus and Joseph Taubenhaus both of whom would become rabbis in the United States.
1852: In Curaçao, Sarah Jesurun De Leon and Daniel de Leon, the descendant of Spanish-Dutch Jews gave birth to Daniel De Leon the future lead of the Socialist Labor Party of America.
1856: In Syracuse, NY, Zilli Strauss and Jacob Marshall gave birth to Louis Marshall, prominent lawyer and leader of the United States Jewish community.
1862: Following the crushing Union defeat at Fredericksburg caused by the ineptness of General Burnside, Lieut. G.L. Snyder, Company B, of the 104thN.Y. was among the group of Jewish members of the Army of the Potomac who were buried near the hospital that had been set up across the river from the battlefield.
1868: A Hungarian Jewish Congress was convened today which created Neolog Judaism a “mild reform movement” that was concentrated in the “Hungarian speaking regions of Europe”
1870: Birthdate of South Carolinian Julius Levin, the husband of Etta Karesh Levin and the father of Sidney L. Levin
1870: A large number of Jews and Christians including several governmental dignitaries attended today’s cornerstone laying ceremony for Ahavath Chesed on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan In his introductory remarks, Ignatz Stein traced the history of the congregation which began with a few Jews from Bohemia holding High Holiday services at house on Ludlow Street. The congregation’s real growth began in 1848 when large number of Jews fled Europe following the failure of the liberal revolutions.
1877: It was reported that the few Jewish families who had fled last summer as the Russian Army crossed into the Balkans last summer have been proven right in fearing the treatment they could expect from the Czar.
1879: Mr. Isaac Rosenwald chaired the annual meeting of the Society of the Home for Aged and Infirmed Hebrews in New York City today. The home is providing shelter for 44 women and 32 men. The election of officers was held which included the re-election of Mr. Rosenwald as President
1880: Mrs. Lizzie Wenke appeared in Essex Market Police Court today to answer charges that she had horse-whipped Isaac Stern, a Jewish tenant living in the same tenement.
1881: Birthdate of Nicholas M. Schenck, the Russian born American movie mogul who headed MGM.
1882: Julius W. Kaskel, an early Jewish settler of Leadville, was an active member of the Reception Committee for the charity ball held today in the Colorado bootown
1883(15th of Kislev, 5644): Ignatz Fischl, a 23 year old German Jewish immigrant was found dead in his room at the Great Northern Hotel, in the Bowery.
1883: In Rochester, NY, for the first time in the history of Berith Kodesh, Rabbi Max Landsberg led the Friday night service using the newly printed English language order of service. (They prayed in \English and not Hebrew. One of the tenants of Reform Judaism was that people should pray in the vernacular – Germans in German, French in French, Americans in English)
1884: The Hebrew Free School Association held its annual meeting today at their building on East Broadway.
1884: Professor Felix Adler delivered an address at Chickering Hall where he condemned the conditions of those living in tenements on the Lower East Side, blamed them on the landlords and called for the establishment of inspection committees as the first step in improving conditions.
1887: It was reported today that of the twenty-eight hospitals in New York represented by The Hospital Saturday and Sunday Association, two of them have “a Jewish connection,” “are of distinctively Jewish origin and depend for their maintenance almost exclusively upon Jewish support.”
1888: Rabbi Gustave Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El was among the clergymen appointed by Elbridge T. Gerry to organize the church services to be held on April 30, 1889 as part of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washing as President of the United States.
1888: In New York, Justice Patterson is scheduled to hear evidence on the charges that Telemaque T. Timayneis “doctored” the books of Minerva Publishing Company. The complaining witness in this case of grand larceny is his partner, Emma Dickinson. Timayenis is the author of three very popular books aimed at discrediting the Jewish people - The Original Mr. Jacobs: A Startling Exposé, The American Jew: An Expose of His Career, and Judas Iscariot: An Old Type in a New Form.
1889: “New Departures” published today summarized the views of newspaper editor Moritz Ellinger which included the advocacy of “a departure from many of old forms and ceremonies used by Hebrews for centuries, some of which characterized as superstitions. Mr. Ellinger felt that such reforms were the only to attract the “new blood” needed to strengthen Jewish congregations.
1890: “The Jews In Russia” published today described “the mass meeting recently held in London to protest against the persecution of the Jews in Russia” which was attended by many prominent Christian Englishman who “made speeches denouncing the obnoxious laws” aimed at the Jews which American Jews hope will emulated in this country including outspoken support by prominent Christian Americans.
1890: The residents of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews will be able to attend an afternoon of music starting at 3 p.m.
1890: In Berlin, the stock marked “closed weak” today due to many chaotic situations in Europe included the “stringent measures” taken against the Jews.
1891: “An Indictment of Russia” described the abusive treatment of the Jews in the Czar’s empire including their recent expulsion from St. Petersburg that came without warning. Among those affected were “Moses Mordechai Feinberg, a gold and silversmith whose right of residence” in St. Petersburg “dated from 1871 and Eidel Solomon Gissing, whose permit extended back to 1868” reducing them and there co-religionist “to beggary.”
1892(25thof Kislev, 5653): Chanukah observed for the last time during the Presidency of Benjamin Harrison.
1893: Sarah Polskie, whose three children were turned over to the Hebrew Children’s Guardian Society by order of the court, said that she had been unable to provide for the youngsters since her husband had been sent to the penitentiary and she had been out of work for five weeks.
1895: The Allen Memorial Church on Rivington Street played host an overflow crowd that come to protest the visit to American by Hermann Ahlwardt the German anti-Semite who has been delivering speeches in New York.
1895: “Against Cuba’s Rebels” published today described a pamphlet that has been circulated among members of Congress that demonizes their leaders including Carlos Roloff “the most inhuman and ferocious of them all” a Polish born Jew who is “a Nihilist and dynamiter.” (According to Ben Frank, Roloff was “a Ukrainian Jewish adventurer” and “became the first finance minister of Cuba after she gained her independence. who supported the revolt against For more see “Carlos Roloff:A Cuban Jewish Patriot” by Isidoro Aizenberg in the Judaica Philatelic Journal
1895: After Shabbat, the charity fair sponsored by leading Jewish New York families reopened this evening at 8 p.m.
1895: At the charity fair sponsored by the leading Jewish New York families, the Aguilar Library book was given one of the first copies of The American in Paris by Eugene Coleman Savidge which it would be able to sell to raise funds.
1895: At the Hebrew Charity Fair, Mrs. Joseph L. Buttenweiser has raised $5,650 at the Candy Booth.
1895: Birthdate of King George VI of the United Kingdom, whose reign covered the dark days leading up to World War II and the war itself. According to documents published in the Guardian in 2002, in the spring of 1939 George VI instructed his private secretary to write to Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax: “Having learnt that ‘a number of Jewish refugees from different countries were surreptitiously getting into Palestine’, the King was ‘glad to think that steps are being taken to prevent these people leaving their country of origin.’” Halifax’s office telegraphed Britain’s ambassador in Berlin asking him to encourage the German government ‘to check the unauthorized emigration’ of Jews.”Halifax’s telegraph in 1939 initiating the request that Hitler not allow “unauthorized” Jews to leave Germany was thus a direct result of George VI’s letter to him. “When it came to anti-Semitism, King George VI did not stutter at all!” King George Street in Israel is named for George V not George VI.
1895: A copy of the Hebrew Scriptures is among the items placed in the bronze box which is in a cavity of the cornerstone of the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science which the mayor will lay this afternoon at 3 p.m.
1898(1stof Tevet, 5659): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; 6th day of Chanukah
1898(1stof Tevet, 5659): David Marks, the benefactor of many Jewish charities, passed away today in New York City.
1900: In Romania, the issue of Lazăr Șăineanu's naturalization was also revisited by the lower chamber, and the proposal defeated with 44 votes to 31 (from an insufficient quorum of 75) despite the fact that he had converted to Christianity to facilitate the process.
1900: Max Plank publishes his study on quantum theory. His greatness as a scientist is transcended as his greatness as man. He protested Hitler’s treatment of Jewish scientists. At great personal risk he resigned in protest but stayed in Germany.
1903(25th of Kislev, 5664): First Day of Chanukah
1903: Herzl explains his position on Uganda in a letter to Sir Francis Montefiore, President of the English Zionist Federation.
1903: The United Zionists of Greater New York continued its semi-annual meeting today. The 250 delegates representing 74 Zionist societies were scheduled to deal with “routine business.”
1903: Belle Mandel, the daughter of Simon Mandel who with his brothers Solomon, Leon and Emanuel formed Chicago’s Mandel Brother’s department store, married Ben Altheimer, the Arkansas born lawyer and philanthropist who was the driving force behind the creation of Flag Day. (Carolyn Gray LeMaster)
1908: Birthdate of comedian Morey Amsterdam.
1909: Marcus M. Marks, President of the Tuberculosis’ Prevenotrium at Lakewood, NJ met with Samuel Untermeyer, counsel for Max Nathan in an attempt to reach an agreement on the disposition of Mr. Nathan's share of the Lakewood Hotel Property which is valued at $300,000.
1914: Solomon Rabinowitz who writes under the name of Shalom Aleichim and is known as the “Jewish Mark Twain” is scheduled to lecture at Cooper Union where last spoke in 1908 when he his family had come to the United States to escape the anti-Semitic violence in his native Kiev.
1914: Birthdate of Solomon Spiegelman, an American microbiologist and geneticist who discovered that only one of two strands of molecules that make up DNA , carried the genetic information to produce new substances. The carrier was called ribonucleic acid (RNA ). In 1962, he developed a technique that allowed the detection of specific RNA and DNA molecules in cells. This technique, called nucleic acid hybridization, is credited for helping to lay the groundwork for current advances in recombinant DNA technology. Much earlier, his Ph.D. thesis (1944) was the first work to establish that genes are activated and deactivated by compounds that he called inducers, which thus radically affect the pattern of proteins that a cell fabricates without actually altering the genes themselves. He passed away in 1983.
1917: A Reuters’ telegram to Amsterdam reported that the population of Palestine is suffering terribly; and that the population has been reduced to one third because of hunger, sickness and distress. Only 23,000 of the 60,000 Jews are left in Jerusalem.
1921: Members of Gdud HaAvoda, “a socialist Zionist work group” went to work at Tel Yosef to help develop the fledgling Kibbuz.
1922(24th of Kislev, 5683): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1922: Birthdate of producer Don Hewitt, the man who created Sixty Minutes.
1923: Sir William Graham Greene wrote Churchill congratulating him on finally being cleared of charges that he issued misleading reports about the Battle of Jutland that benefited Jewish financiers to whom Churchill owed a greater allegiance than he did to the British people.
1924:Dedication of the Beth El’s new synagogue took place today in Camden, NJ. Participating in the ceremonies were Mayor Victor King of Camden, Dr. A. A. Neuman of Philadelphia's Adath Jeshurun, Judge William M. Lewis of Philadelphia and Rabbi Samuel Freedman of Beth EI in Philadelphia. Rabbi Grayzel and Cantor Mickleman officiated at the service. The Cantor was accompanied by a choir under the direction of Gedalia Rabinowitz.
1926: Louis Marshall is honored on his seventieth birthday for his success as a lawyer, a philanthropist who raised millions, supporter of forest conservation and immigration reform, statesman and champion of Jewish causes.
1924: Martin Henry Glynn, the first Irish American Roman Catholic governor of New York and a staunch defender of the rights of Jewish immigrants living in his state, passed away.
1930(24th of Kislev, 5691): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1930: 74thanniversary of the birth of Louis Marshall.
1930: Dr. Nathan Krass delivered a sermon at Temple Emanu-El “on the significance of the festival of Chanukah and on the problem of human suffering.”
1930: Murray Seasongood, the Jewish former Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio and Rabbi Samuel S. Cohen of Hebrew Union College are two of the speakers scheduled to address tonight’s fourth annual dinner of the metropolitan conference of Temple Men’s Club at the Emanu-El Community House in New York City
1932(15th of Kislev, 5693): Dr. Angel Pulido y Fernandez, Spanish researcher of the Sephardim passed away. In 1904 he wrote Espanoles sin Patria (Spaniards Without A Home) which sparked the idea of the Sephardim returning to Spain. He became a member of the Spanish Parliament, and later the King made him a Senator. He spent the latter part of his life writing, holding meetings and passionately advocating for the return of the Sephardim.
1935(18th of Kislev, 5696): Science fiction writer Stanley G Weinbaum passed away.
1935:Lillian Hellman's "The Children's Hour" is banned in Boston. Calling it "indecent," Mayor Frederick Mansfield issued a decree banning Lillian Hellman's first play, The Children's Hour, from being staged in Boston.
1936(30th of Kislev, 5697): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1936:The original production of “You Can't Take It with You” a comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart opened at the Booth Theater tonight and played for 837 performances. The play won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
1936: Dr. Maurice B Hexter “summed up Jewish grievances when testified before the Royal Commission. These include a complaint that survey and settlement of titles to land take too long to be completed are required and a demand to accelerate the pace of the work.
1936: The Palestine Post reported that despite official assurances further instances of violence and arson were carried out by various Arab armed bands throughout the country. There was arson in Tel Aviv port, bus passengers were robbed on roads, and trees in Jewish settlements were uprooted. Moslem youth boycotted the Christian-owned National Bus Company, claiming that it had offered assistance to the British army and police during the Arab strike. But both the Jerusalem Mufti, Haj Amin el-Husseini, and the Arab Higher Committee appealed to both Jerusalem's Moslems and Christians to settle their differences.
1939: Raymond Samuel married Lucie Bernard today “after he warned her that it might be dangerous for her to marry a Jew.” He would take the nom de guerre of Raymond Aubrac. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1939: Heydrich issued a modified directive ordering all rural and small-townJews in the General Government (occupied Poland) to be transported to the larger Polish cities where they would be quarantined from the rest of the Polish population and kept under tight SS surveillance.
1939: The League of Nations expelled the Soviet Union for its attack on Finland in what is known as the Winter War which would result in Jewish soldiers fighting on the same side as the Wermacht.
1940: British military intelligence confirmed that the effect of the Patria decision on the Arabs had been “remarkably small.”
1941: The German military commander of Kharkiv, Ukraine ordered the Jewish population to move to the city periphery within 2 days and to occupy the barracks of the works of a machine factory. In the next days, 15.000 Jews were shot at Drobitsky Yar.
1941:Jews by the hundreds are dying from hunger and the cold in the Warsaw Ghetto. Two Jews were shot dead at a funeral for a friend
1941: A Jewish ghetto at Kharkov, Ukraine, is established.
1944: Birthdate of Mitchel Jay Feigenbaum, a mathematical physicist whose pioneering studies in chaos theory led to the discovery of the Feigenbaum constants. In 1983 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, and in 1986, he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics "for his pioneering theoretical studies demonstrating the universal character of non-linear systems, which has made possible the systematic study of chaos".
1945: Josef Kramer known as "beast of Belsen", and 10 others were hanged for crimes committed at the Belsen and Oswiecim Nazi concentration camps.
1945(10th of Tevet, 5706): Asara B'Tevet
1945(10th of Tevet, 5706): Ten years after her husband passed away, Lucie Hadamard Dreyfus passed away She had remained in France at the behest of her granddaughter who worked with the Resistance. Ultimately she took refuge in a convent in Valence where her benefactors did not know her identity. Her death so close to the end of the Shoah served as a reminder that the road to Vichy and Drancy had begun a half century before when her husband was convicted because he was Le Juif, the Jew
1945: The Broadway production of “Dream Girl” by Elmer Rice opened at the Coronet Theatre
1947(1st of Tevet, 5708): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1947: Birthdate of entertainment mogul, Michael Ovitz.
1948: At a meeting today with Jordanian commander Abdullah el-Tell, Elias Sasson “recorded el-Tell saying ‘strike the Egyptians as much as you like. Our attitude will be totally neutral.’
1949: In keeping with a resolution adopted by the Knesset, the Israeli government moves from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
1951: Birthdate of Norton A. Schwartz, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, the 19th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force and the first Jew to hold this position.
1951: The Jerusalem Post announced that for the third successive year the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Palestine Archaeological Museum refused to admit the participation of Prof. E.L. Sukenik of the Hebrew University, the board's sole Jewish representative, to its deliberations. Since the museum was located in the Jordanian-occupied part of Jerusalem, Prof. Sukenik suggested that meetings should be held at the Mandelbaum Gate, on the border, but his offer was turned down.
1952: In Little Rock, Arkansas, on the third day of Chanukah, Agudas Achim dedicated its new synagogue.
1952:“Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl” a radio drama written Jewish journalist Meyer Levin who had visited the concentration camps after the war and had contacted Anne's father Otto Frank to request the rights to create a play based on the diary of Anne Frank, appeared on The Eternal Light series, produced by the Jewish Theological Seminary on the NBC network.
1953: The Brooklyn Dodgers signed pitcher Sandy Koufax.
1955:Arthur M. Loew, the son of Marcus Loew, succeeded Nicholas Schenck as the President of MGM, although Schenck remained Chairman of the Board
1957: U.S. premiere of a remake of “Farewell To Arms” the cinematic version of the Ernest Hemingway novel directed by Charles Viodr. produced by David O. Selznick with a screenplay by Ben Hecht.
1957: At Adas Israel in Washington, DC, Bar Mitzvah of Avraham Elimelech ben Yosef Dov
1957: The City of Paris awarded the Gold Medal of the City of Paris to David Feuerwerker the French Rabbi and Jewish historian who fought against the Nazis as a member of the French Army at the start of WW II and then joined the Resistance after Petain and Vichy came to power.
1959: “The World of Sholom Aleichem” produced by Henry T. Weinstein was broadcast as “The Play of the Week.”
1960: U.S. premiere of “Esther and the King” and Italian made movie based on the Book of Esther starring Joan Collins whose father was Jewish in the title role.
1961: U.S. release date for the epic film “El Cid” produced by Bessarabian born American Jew Samuel Bronston who was a nephew of Leon Trotsky.
1963: Gustav Machatý, the movie director who gave Hedy Lamar her big break in “Ecstasy” passed away today. He was not Jewish but she was.
1967: U.S. premiere of “In Cold Blood” the movie version of the novel of the same name directed and produced by Richard Brooks who also wrote the screenplay and edited by Holocaust survivor Peter Zinner.
1967: The first synthesis of biologically active DNA in a test tube was announced at a press conference by Arthur Kornberg who had worked with Mehran Goulian at Stanford and Robert L. Sinsheimer of MIT. Kornberg
1970: Joseph B. Levin represented the National Assn. of Securities Dealers, Inc. when arguments opened before the Supreme Court in INVESTMENT COMPANY INSTITUTE et al., Petitioners, v. William B. CAMP, Comptroller of the Currency, et al. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECURITIES DEALERS, INC., Petitioner, v. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION et al.
1971: U.S. premiere of “The Hospital” directed by Arthur Hiller, a Canadian born Jew for which Paddy Chayefsky won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and featuring Stephen Elliot.
1973(19th of Kislev, 5734): Composer Yitzhak Edel passed away.
1974(30th of Kislev, 5735): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1974(30th of Kislev, 5735): Eighty-five year old American journalist and political philosopher Walter Lippmann passed away. (As reported by Alden Whitman
1974: In New York, WNYC is scheduled to broadcast “The Story of Chanukah” adopted by Pearl Klein
1976:The Jerusalem Post reported from Washington that the US State Department, Pentagon and industry were becoming concerned over Israeli use of foreign military sales credits (from the US) not only to obtain US weapons for its inventory, but also to import technical data packages that eventually could be exported in competition with American products. Syrian troops moved into East Beirut where two Christian militias continued to fight each other.
1977: U.S. premiere of “Saturday Night Fever” based on “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night” a New York Magazine article by Nik Cohm with a screenplay by Norman Wexler with Donna Pescow as “Annette” and Fran Drescher as “Connie.”
1977: Representatives of Egypt and Israel gathered in Cairo for their first formal peace conference
1981: Israel annexed the Golan Heights which had been captured from Syria in 1967. The Syrians had shelled Israeli farmers from the Golan Heights for almost twenty years. The IDF took the heights in an amazing exercise of physical courage at the end of the Six Days War.
1984:Howard Cosell retired from Monday Night Football. The Carolina Israelite via Brooklyn was no longer the third man in the booth.
1988: U.S. premiere of “Torch Song Trilogy” written and co-starring Harvey Fierstein, produced by Ronald K. Fierstein with music by Peter Matz.
1989:Joel Brinkley, writing in the New York Times, reported that Soviet Jews are leaving at a record pace, with many of them opting to settle in Israel. “The number of Jews streaming out of the Soviet Union has reached a record. Not counting people departing this month, more than 62,500 Jews have left this year, surpassing by more than 20 percent the high of 51,320 set in 1979. In recent years most Soviet Jews have gone to the United States. But because of immigration limits imposed by Washington recently, the number of Jews going to Israel has increased dramatically in recent months. As a result, Israel is bracing for its greatest flow of immigrants since its early days of independence four decades ago.
1990: U.S. premiere of “Look Who’s Talking Too” directed by Amy Heckerling
1993:As a closely watched target date came and went with no change in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin suggested today that there could be still further delays in withdrawing Israel's soldiers and introducing Palestinian self-rule.
1994: Alfred Moses presented his credentials today as the U.S. Ambassador to Romania.
1995: “After a private audience with Pope John Paul II,” Leah Rabin, the widow of Yitzhak Rabin said today that the Pope “had acknowledged Jerusalem's "double role" as capital of Israel and a holy city to Jews, Christians and Muslims”
1997(15th of Kislev, 5758): Seventy-nine year old musical comedy “second banana” Stubby Kaye, passed away. Two of his more famous film credits were “Guys and Dolls” and “Cat Baliou.” (As reported by Myrna Oliver)
1997: The New York Times book section included a review of Gloria Steinem by Sydney Ladensohn Stern
1998: President Clinton stood witness as hundreds of Palestinian leaders renounced a call for the destruction of Israel. Based on what has happened since then, the deeds did not match the word.
1998(25th of Kislev, 5759): First Day of Chanukah
1998(25th of Kislev, 5759): Actor Norman Fell passed away.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-norman-fell-1191859.html1998(25th of Kislev, 5759): Seventy-four year old Annette Strauss, the former Mayor of Dallas, passed away.
1999: U.S. and German negotiators agreed to establish a $5.2 billion fund for Nazi-era slaves and forced laborers.
2000: Marty Glickman underwent heart bypass surgery
2000: The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation presented the Raoul Wallenberg 2000 Award. This award, which is being offered for the first time, was presented to Oscar Vicente, CEO of Perez Companc Holding and Peter Landelius, Swedish Ambassador to Argentina. This new distinction was created with the purpose of recognizing the exemplary conduct of individuals with rectitude and outstanding performance in their respective occupations as well as their thorough and continuous support of non-governmental organizations.
2001:In what some considered an unusual turn of events, the men who gathered for the funeral of a local boy killed by a Palestinian attack spoke little about revenge or military reprisals. Instead the talk was about God's mysterious ways and about what many saw as a divine signal that Jews had strayed from their faith in their own land.
2003: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jewsby Melvin Konner and The Conspiracy Club by Jonathan Kellerman.
2004: Molly Tambor gave birth to Mason Jay Moore Jeffrey Michael Tambor’s first grandchild.
2004: Gary Shaprio reviews Ron Rubin’s book on the New York City Marathon's co-founder, Anything for a T-Shirt: Fred Lebow and the New York City Marathon, the World's Greatest Footrace .The book - the first biography of Lebow - has been published on the 10th anniversary of his death.
2005(13th of Kislev, 5766): Israeli archaeologist Ruth Amiran passed away. Born in 1914 she was the author of Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land: From Its Beginnings in the Neolithic Period to the End of the Iron Age and a 1982 recipient of the Israel Prize.
2005(13th of Kislev, 5766): Eighty-one year old“Dr. Herman Roiphe, a psychoanalyst who explored the notion of sexual identity in early childhood development, passed away today.(As reported by Jeremy Pearce)
2005(13th of Kislev, 5766):Nathalie Babel Brown, a daughter of Isaac Babel, the illustrious Russian-Jewish storyteller of the Soviet era, whose literary work she edited, died in Washington at the age of 76. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon
2006: The Jerusalem Post reported that Ha’eda, the official organ of the fiercely anti-Zionist Eda haharedit, characterized those Jews attending the Teheran Holocaust denial conference as a ‘tiny group of insane people, who are liable to incited hatred agiainst hareidi Jews.’ The paper’s editor lambasted them for having ignored the ‘opinion of Torah Sages’ in pursuit of their distorted anti-Zionist zealotry.
2006: In Boston, The Improv Asylum presents its new production, "Andy Warhol's Christmas Special, or, How Hanukkah Stole Christmas" -- a story narrated by Andy Warhol about a sick, young Jewish woman who makes a wish for Hanukkah to replace Christmas. Sadly, it comes true.
2007(5th of Tevet, 5768): Eighty-eight year old Hank Kaplan, an American boxing historian and writer who was the founder and editor of Boxing Digest, passed away today, at his home in Florida. (As reported by Matt Schudel)
2007: In New York City The 92nd Street Y School of Music presents a recital by pianist Laura Barg as part of its series of one-hour faculty concerts in the Weill Art Gallery.
2007: The Washington (D.C.) Jewish Community Center continues “Theater J,” its successful series of informal play readings, with a presentation from “Forgiveness” by David Schulner, directed by Daniella Topol, featuring Tim Getman, Conrad Feininger, Helen Hedman, Kimberly Gilbert and Julia Proctor.
2008: Final performance of The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater production of “The Very Sad Story of Ethel & Julius, Lovers and Spies, and About Their Untimely End While Sitting in a Small Room at the Correctional Facility in Ossining New York.”
2008: In Washington, D.C., the 3rd Shalshelet International Festival continues for its second and final day when the composers and performers will provide a day of free creative workshops beginning at 10:00 am, also at the Sixth & I historic Synagogue.
2008: At the Chabad House in Little Rock, AR, Rabbi Pinchas Ciment facilitates the beginning of the writing of a Sefer Torah as part of this special year of Hakhel. . This momentous occasion will take place as Mrs. Ruth Itzkowitz will be celebrating her 90th birthday and is being partially underwritten by the Itzkowitz family in loving memory of Bob Itzkowitz (obm).
2008: The Washington Post book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics uniquely related to the Jewish people including The Alchemy of Air:A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler by Thomas Hager Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean byEdward Kritzler and American Priestess: The Extraordinary Story of Anna Spafford and the American Colony in Jerusalem by Jane Fletcher Geniesse.
2008: Funeral services are held for Holocaust Survivor and long time resident of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Ann Gilbert (Chana Zylberstajn) at Tempe Judah with burial at Eben Israel Cemetary.
2008: Avraham Infeld, President of the Chais foundation confirmed today that the California-based foundation that doles out about $12 million per year was forced to close as a result of the securities scheme orchestrated by Bernard Madoff, The Chais Family Foundation, which gives away approximately $12.5 million annually to Jewish causes in Israel, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, closed Sunday because all of its assets were invested with Madoff. The United Jewish Communities and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee were among its main beneficiaries.
2008: Jack Black hosted the Spike Video Games.
2009(27 Kislev): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of Harvey David Luber. He will always be missed and never be forgotten.
2009: The Center for Jewish History, American Sephardi Federation and Center for Traditional Music and Dance present: “Ilyas Malayev: Remembering the Poet Laureate of the Bukharian Jews.”
2009: Gary Schmitt and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius take part in a discussion of "The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking" with one of the book's editors, Kenneth Weinstein, at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C.
2009: Israel's top-ranked player Boris Gelfand, a grand master from Rishon LeZion, defeated former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in a playoff today in the Russian town of Khanty-Mansiysk to take the $120,000 top prize.
2010: The Historic 6th& I Synagogue is scheduled to present “Food for Thought: Digesting Ethics, Mysticism, and Philosophy” with Rabbi Yosef Edelstein of MesorahDC
2010: In New York, the YIVO is scheduled to present a program entitled “Ukrainian-Jewish Relations in the Aftermath of the Schwarzbard Trial.”
2010: In Hawaii, The Kahului Union Church is scheduled to host a program entitled “A Voice for Israel” featuring Nora Finberg the wife of Pastor Robb Finberg of Grace Church in Pukalani.
2010: Today Israeli officials canceled a ceremony planned to honor the Palestinian firemen who assisted in battling the Carmel fire last week, after a number of crew members were refused permits to cross the border.
2010: It was reported today that Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is off to an early lead in the race for Chicago mayor, but there is plenty of room for other contenders in the crowded field as the fluid contest takes shape, a new Tribune/WGN poll found.
2011: Opening session the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial is scheduled to take place today at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Session in suburban Maryland.
2011: “Yiddle with His Fiddle” is scheduled to be shown today at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood, Ohi
2011: Arsonists set fire to a deserted mosque in central Jerusalem during the night. There was no structural damage reported and the damage mainly consisted of the blackening of walls and graffiti reading “Price Tag,” and anti-Islamic phrases.
2011: Dozens of right-wing activists clashed with police officers in Jerusalem today, amid attempts to arrest suspects linked to recent so-called price tag attacks.
2012: Ninety-eight year old “Joe Simon, a writer, editor and illustrator of comic books who was a co-creator of the superhero Captain America, conceived out of a patriotic impulse as war was roiling Europe,” passed away today (As reported by Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/books/joe-simon-a-creator-of-captain-america-is-dead-at-98.html2011(14thof Kislev): Ninety-eight year old “Norman Krim, an electronics visionary who played a pivotal role in the industry’s transition from the bulky electron vacuum tube, which once lined the innards of radios and televisions, to the tiny, far more powerful transistor” passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
2012(1stof Tevet, 5773): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth day of Chanukah; Kindle the 7 candles.
2012(1stof Tevet, 5773): Six year old Adam Posner was the youngest of the victims murdered today at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT
2012(1stof Tevet, 5773): Seventy-two year old China scholar and UCLA professor Richard Baum passed away today. (As reported by Meg Sullivan
2012: “Call me a Jew,” a documentary about Austrian treatment of Jews during World War II is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2012: Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis is scheduled to bring her unique message to members and guests of Park East Synagogue.
2012: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host its second Musical Shabbat in the 5773 season.
2012: Report of ’80s Sexual Abuse Rattles Yeshiva Campus
2012: Avigdor Liberman announced today he would resign from his position as foreign minister and vice premier in the current government in light of a pending indictment against him for fraud and breach of public trust
2013: Two days before his 90th birthday, Israeli pianist Menahem Pressler is scheduled to perform on the Tully stage of the Lincoln Center
2013: Weather permitting, “Francis Ha” and “Life Sentences” will be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: The Union of Reform Judaism Biennial Convention is scheduled to host a centennial celebration “Extraordinary Women Shaping Reform Judaism: A celebration of the 100th anniversary of Women of Reform Judaism” followed by a concert featuring Neshama Carlebach and Josh Nelson.
2013: As thousands of Gazans suffer from record flooding, Israel relaxes restrictions at the border crossing to allow the shipment of water pumps and gas for heating to relieve the human misery.
2013: Israel faced another freezing night, with fears of icy roads nationwide, but the worst storm in decades was winding down. Late tonight, much of Jerusalem and northern Israel were still deep in snow, the authorities were working to open roads in and out of the capital, and much of the rest of the country was still grappling with stormy conditions.
2014: Musician David Broza is scheduled to perform in the Mintz Auditorium of the Uptown Jewish Community Center as part of the Community Chanukah Celebration in New Orleans.
2014: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to host a program with Ruth W. Messinger, President of the American Jewish World Service.
2014: At the Berman Museum, Emory Professor and WW II veteran Dr. Mort Waitzman is scheduled to speak in third installment of the Bearing Witness series.
2014: After today’s performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” Miriam Isaacs who taught Yiddish at the University of Maryland for 15 years is scheduled to speak on the literary antecedents to the show based on Sholom Aleichem's "Tevye" short stories.
2014:Ambassador Mal Berisha is scheduled to deliver “a talk on the role of U.S. Ambassador Herman Bernstein (1930-1933) in championing positive Albanian Jewish relations and how this set the stage for Albania sheltering its Jews during the war.
2014: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Jby Howard Jacobson and Gangsterland by Tod Goldberg.
2014: Today’s New York Times list of the 10 Best Books of 2014 included Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright.