December 17
520 BCE (24th of Kislev): “The foundation-stone of the Temple was laid” (As reported by Jewish Encyclopedia)
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4902-darius-i
1141 (Tevet, 4902): After leaving Cairo, Jehuda Halevi arrived at the port of Damietta where he was warmly received by his old friend Abu Said Chalfon.
1187: Gregory VIII, the Pope who called for the disastrous Third Crusade, passed away. Each of the crusades was a disaster for the Jewish people in way or another. On top of everything else, the Third Crusade removed the protective hand of King Richard from England and left the Jews to suffer under the anti-Semitic Prince John.
1398: Tamerlane, also known as Timur, defeated the armies of Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud's in Delhi.This battle was part of the war between the Persians and the Mongols. According to one source, Timur brought Persian Jews to his kingdom so that they could help develop the textile industry. For more on this subject see Tamerlane and the Jews by Michael Shterenshis
1490: Yucef Franco went on trial today charged with “trying to attract conversos to Judaism as well as having participated in the ritual crucifixion of a Christian child on Good Friday.”
1531: A Bull was issued by Pope Clement
1538: Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England. Henry had reportedly sought support from Italian rabbis in making the Biblical case for his annulment. The Italian Jews were fearful of the Pope among whom they lived than they were of a distant monarch who did not let Jews live in his kingdom. The excommunication led to a weakening of the Church and the strengthening of the Protestant Reformation which helped to contribute to the Jews return to England in the 17th century.
1600: King Henry IV of France married Marie de' Medici. She is most famous as the mother of Louis XIII in whose name she reigned for seven years as Queen Mother and regent. During that time she defied the ban on Jews living in France by retaining Elijah Montalto as court physician. To gain his services Marie agreed to let him practice his religion and not to have to work on Shabbat. When Louis came of age he reverted to the practice of his predecessors and reaffirmed the ban on Jews living in his kingdom.
1728: Congregation Shearith Israel purchased a lot on Mill Street in lower Manhattan, to build New York's first synagogue.
1775: Moses Dobruška a cousin of Jacob Frank, the founder of the Frankist sect, “converted from Judaism to the Catholic faith and took the name of Franz Thomas Schönfeld.”
1791(21st of Kislev, 5552):Chief Rabbi David Tevele Schiff passed away. He was the chief rabbi of the United Kingdom and the rabbi of the Great Synagogue of London from 1765 until his death. He was the son of Solomon Schiff, member of a famous and learned family from Frankfurt am Main. Tevele Schiff was educated in the schools of Rabbis Jacob Poper and Jacob Joshua Falk. He served as maggid in Vienna. He also was head of the Beth Midrash in Worms, and later Dayan in Frankfurt.
1794:William Moultrie completed his second term in office as Governor of South Carolina. In 1794, during his final year in office, Moultrie attended the consecration of Congregation Beth Elohim in Charleston, SC.
1806: Birthdate of German historian Theodor Hirsch who like a certain segment of Jewish society at this time converted to Christianity in order to further his career and/or gain greater social acceptance.
1807: In Charleston, SC, Caroline Lazarus and Aaron Phillips gave birth to Philip Phillips a lawyer who served as Representative from Alabama’s First Congressional District before the American Civil War.
1819: Simón Bolívar declared the independence of the Republic of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela). Jews served in Bolivar’s army and provided him with the financial backing that was necessary for his ultimate success.
1822(3rdof Tevet, 5583): Joseph Aguilar the husband of Grace Aguilar and the grandfather of author Grace Aguilar passed away today
1839: Birthdate of Ferdinand James Anselm von Rothschild an English politician and art collector, and a member of the prominent Rothschild family of bankers. He would pass away exactly 59 years later on his birthday.
1830: Simon Bolivar, the liberator of
1833: In Philadelphia, PA, Benjamin and Harriet Marx Etting gave birth to Frank Marx Etting who became Paymaster of the United States Army during the Civil War.
1832(25thof Kislev, 5593): Chanukah
1839(10thof Tevet, 5600): Asarah BeTevet
1839(10thof Tevet, 5600): Joseph Flesch, the son of Abraham Flesch, whose accomplishments included translating the works of Philo into Hebrew, passed away today in his native Moravia.
1851: In Baltimore, MD, Members of the Kaschurn Lodge, No. 3, a Jewish fraternal organization, met with Lajos Kossuth, the exiled Hungarian leader. They gave him seventy-five dollars. They also gave him three banners. The largest one had three full length pictures of Moses, Washington and Kossuth. Moses represented Asia; Washington represented America and Kossuth represented Europe. The two smaller banners contained the statement, in both Hebrew and English, “Thy enemies shall come against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.”
1852: Benjamin Disraeli finished serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He will be replaced by Gladstone. This is the first of three times that Disraeli will hold this office in the English government.
1859: British political leader Henry Fitzroy, the husband of Hannah Rothschild and the son-in-law of Nathan Mayer Rothschild passed away.
1859: During his sermon at the Greene Street Synagogue, Rabbi Raphall delivered “a fervent appeal on behalf” of the Jews who had been forced to seek refuge at Gibraltar because of the war between Spain and Morocco. The Jews fled because of their justified fear of attacks by the enraged native population. Several thousand had been forced to leave all of their possessions behind and were now living in tents provided by the British colonial government and eating food provided by funds from the Jews of England. The congregation responded by immediately raising several hundred dollars to aid their suffering co-religionists.
1859: It was reported today that “From Austria, amid the echoes of Hungarian dissatisfaction, and Tyrolese boldness, come the reports of promised reform. It is stated as a certain fact that in a few days the Emperor will issue a decree, relieving the Jews from many disabilities under which they now lie. The law which forbade a Jew to have a Christian servant is already repealed; and the emancipated Israelite can now rejoice in the possession of a cook who hasn't a conscientious objection to getting up and making a fire, of a Saturday morning. The expected decree will abolish the old law, by which no one of the three witnesses required for a Christian's will could be a Jew -- a blind provision, which has been the source of more trouble to Christians than Jews. Then the rule, still on the statute-books in Austria, that a Jew's evidence in a civil case against a Christian should be considered as "doubtful," will be done away; as also the present prohibition, which prevents any but a Christian from filling the office of Notary. This last provision is no older than 1855. Before that year Jews were allowed to be Notaries, and it is said that there is a Jewish Notary in Prague, who was appointed under the old law, and holds his office still. It is proper that the Government should concede these rights to an oppressed class; but one cannot but notice how, through these reforms, it hopes to escape more pressing and important demands from its subjects. Hungary demands her constitutional rights, and the Emperor grants a couple of reforms to Venice. Tyrol desires her ancient and guaranteed privileges, and he emancipates the Jews at Prague! No matter -- the day is coming
1860: “Affairs in France” published today described the conflict between the French Empress and Achille Fould, the Jewish financier and political leader whom she used to value as an advisor. The Empress has changed her view of Fould due to the influence of the Catholic clergy. Fould is not bothered by the possible loss of the Pope’s temporal power while the clergy and the Empress are greatly distressed by such a possibility. It is rumored that the Empress has said she will not return from England until Fould has been dismissed from office.
1862(25thof Kislev, 5623): Chanukah
1862: Birthdate of Moriz Reosenthal, the native of Lemberg who became a world renowned pianist and composer.
1862: General Grant, in issuing his infamous Order 11, ordered all "Jews as a class" expelled from his lines. In
1863: Eleven year old Frederic Hymen Cowen gave “his first genuine public recital at the Bijou Theatre of the old Her Majesty’s Opera House.
1864:La belle Hélène (The Beautiful Helen), an operetta by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto co-authored Ludovic Halévy “was first performed at Paris's Théâtre des Variétés” today.
1870: This evening will mark the close of the Hebrew Fair which has been held for several days at the 22nd Regiment Armory in New York City.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E0CE6DE1E3DE53BBC4F52DFB467838B669FDE
1874: At today’s meeting of the Board of Alderman in New York, the resolution submitted a t a previous meeting in favor of permitting the Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Society to sublet their premises” which is property own by the city “was called up and laid over.”
1875: The three men convicted of killing a Jewish peddler named Abraham Weissburg are scheduled to be executed today in New York.
1875: It was reported today that in the Hebrew Charity Fair’s contest for most popular minister Dr. Einhorn is in first place with 43 votes followed by Dr. Isaacs with 37 votes. This is just part of the many activities connected with this pre-Chanukah fundraising fair.
1875: P. Nathan Rubenstein was identified as the man who had bought the knife that was used in the murder of Sarah Alexander. The same witness said she had not sold this unique item to Lewis Rubenstein, Nathan’s brother. Both of the young men are Jewish.
1878: Garnier and Schaefer will play tonight at the Hebrew Fair in Tammany Hill.[ Garnier and Schaefer were locally famous billiard players and this match must have been part of the fair’s fundraising activities.]
1880: Ernst Henrici delivered a speech propagating his anti-Semitic ideas at the Imperial Hall.
1881(25thof Kislev, 5642): Chanukah
1882: It was reported today that Herr Belchman has come to the conclusion that there are both blond and dark haired people among the Jews living in Western Russia. Furthermore, they have “narrower chests” and “shorter heads” than their non-Jewish counterparts.
1882: It was reported today that Rabbi Gustav Gottheil had testified before Senators Boy and Browning who are investigating “corner and futures and the effect… they have on commerce and public morals.” The Rabbi said he could not speak about the business aspect of the topic. But as to the moral implication he cited the Jewish prohibitions against allowing a man who engaged in gambling to serve as a Judge as a witness. Furthermore, the lure of gambling misled young man and was comparable to putting a stumbling block before the blind.
1883: Madame Fanny Janauschek will appear in tonight’s production of “Zillah, the Hebrew Mother” at the Third Avenue Theatre in New York
1883: A Jewish peddler named Simon Holzman was assaulted and nearly killed near Eatontown, NJ.
1885: Julius C. Koosher, a Russian Jew who came to this country after his business was destroyed in his native land because of his religion and who worked in the United States worked as a land agent but was cheated out the money owed to him by the railroad tycoon Henry Villard, was being held by authorities after having been arrested yesterday for trying to murder 20 prominent Californians and blow up Chinatown
1888: In Philadelphia, PA, Mat Goldberger went to trail today for the murder last April of Mrs. Annie Schuleberg
1888: The Republican Club of 450 5th Avenue blackballed Benjamin F. Peixotto and James W. Moses this evening
1889: Mrs. Martin M. Lewis took a leading part in the activities at today’s Hebrew Fair.
1889: A fire broke in a tenement on Eldridge Street that housed several Jewish owned businesses as well as a synagogue and school used by Jewish immigrants from Russia.
1889: Anton Solki, an itinerant Jewish dentist will be arraigned today in Yorkville for having attacked Dr. C.H. de Lamater, after the latter had treated him for a dental problem. The accused does not remember the attack and can give no reason for having done what he is accused of doing.
1890: The Auxiliary Society of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society is scheduled to host a reception at Terrace Garden this evening.
1891: “Under Cover Of Her Child’s Right” published today described the case of Hannah Bocks a Russian Jewess who will be allowed to stay in the United States because her child was born here and “the law will not permit her to be separated from her child” who is an American by birth.
1891: Alexander Becce, a Russian Jew living in San Antonio, TX filed suit today in Federal court against the Hamburg-American Packet Company for $5,000 in damages after the company refused to honor the tickets it had sold him or to refund his money.
1891(16th of Kislev, 5652): Benedict Zuckermann, an observant German-Jewish mathematician and astronomer passed away today. He was a colleague of Henrich Graetz and a supporter of Zacharis Frankel.
1892: Birthdate of American biochemist Edwin Cohn, the hard-driving Harvard biochemist who broke plasma down into its different proteins — and saved millions of soldiers' lives. .
1892: Rabbi David Cahn conducted services this morning as Rodeph Shalom continued the celebration of its fiftieth anniversary which included a sermon, delivered in German, by Rabbi Wise entitled “Retrospective Glances” that traced the history of the congregation
1892: In an attempt to exercise better control over the Jews, “the Russian Senate has promulgated a law requiring that Jewish artisans shall only reside in places where official boards of trade exist.”
1892: Samuel Muhr a leading Philadelphia Jewish merchant and Mayer Sulzberger a prominent Jewish Philadelphia lawyer were among the dignitaries who attended a dinner at the Art Club in Philadelphia honoring the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania who was also the Chairman of the National Democratic Committee.
1892: The celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of Rodeph Sholom continues today with services starting at 9:30 a.m.
1893: Birthdate of Erwin Piscator.The German born Piscator has been described as one of the most renowned figures of modern theater famous for his avant-garde productions at the Epic Theater in
1893: Rabbi Joseph Silverman delivered a sermon on “Shall We Give State Aid to Denominational Schools?” this morning at Temple Emanu-El
1893: In “France and Autocracy” published today Gabriel Monod of The Contemporary Reviews writes “we cannot go on feigning ignorance” of the persecution of the Jews by the “Russian autocratic government.”
1894: Birthdate of Arthur Fiedler. Fiedler gained fame as the conductor of the Boston Pops which he turned into an American institution. He passed away in 1979.
1895: “The Sweat-Shop Problem” published today described the growth of the clothing industry which “has been built up…largely on the cheap labor of poor Jews who have sought refuge here from oppression in other countries.
1895: The New York Life Insurance Company made a donation of $500 to the Hebrew Educational Fair which was conveyed to Oscar Straus in the form of a check from its president, John A. McCall.
1895: Max Schindler was injured today when he tried to stop a fight between Italian and Jewish pushcart peddlers on Essex Street which was being repaved.
1897: New Yorkers who were contributing to American kolel “incorporated today as ‘The American Congregation, Pride of Jerusalem.’”
1900(25thof Kislev, 5661): First Chanukah of the 20th century
1900: British soldier and diplomat Sir Matthew Nathan began serving as the Governor of the Gold Coast.
1900: New buildings were opened on Ellis Island as it returned to operation following fire which had meant that immigrants, including tens of thousands of Jewish immigrants, had been processed at the Barge Office.
1901: Birthdate of Lee Strasberg. Strasberg was an actor and a director. But his greatest fame came from teaching others to act. He passed away in 1982
1903 (28th Kislev): On the fourth day of Chanukah The Wright Brothers made their first powered and heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. According to some, the success of the Dayton bicycle men was based on early work by Otto Lielenthal who died during a flight test seven years before. Arthur L. Welsh, a young Jew from Dayton
1904: T.C. Evans reviewed “he Life of Lord Beaconsfield” by Walter Sichel, a “biographical study of the remarkable man, wit, statesman, novelist, the celebration of whose centenary is now at hand.”
1906: Oscar Straus became the third U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Labor.1909: Muslims in Tunis protested when Jews were going to be put under French jurisdiction. Muslims stated that this was discriminatory and a violation of treaties, even though it was the Muslims the French were going to protect the Jews from.
1913: Birthdate of American business man Sol Linowitz who served as Chairman of the Board of Xerox Corp and negotiated the return of the Panama Canal.
1913: It was reported today that Judge Leonard S. Roan who had presided over the original Leo Frank trial and refused to grant a new trial “said that he personally was not absolutely convinced of the accused’s guilt or innocence.”1914: It was reported today that Senator Ellison Smith the South Carolina bigot and racist who was Chairman of the Committee on Immigration expressed his opposition to any change to the immigration laws that might be of benefit of Jews Russia.
1914: In New York, Herbert L. Satterlee “announced that he had completed arrangements with Felix Warburg who was at the head of the committee for the relief of the Jews in Poland, whereby the Polish American Relief Committee and the Polish American Relief Committee and Mr. Warburg’s committee would work in unison in relieving the distress of the Poles.
1914: The Turks expelled the Jews of Tel Aviv, sending them to Egypt Russia Turkey
1914: This “afternoon Bedouin police raided the Ghetto at Jaffa, arrested 1,600 persons and drove them at the point of the bayonet” While being forced aboard the already overcrowded Florio, “sever of the men resenting the brutalities to their wives were thrown overboard by boatmen and drowned before the eyes of the women.” (Editor’s note – these Jews were transported to Alexandria where they found temporary refuge at the Hotel Metropole)
1917(2nd of Tevet, 5678): Eighth Day of Chanukah1917(2nd of Tevet, 5678):Dov Ber Borochov, one of the founding fathers of the Labor Zionist movement, passed awa
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Borokhov_Be
http://streetsofisrael.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-dovberborochov/
1917: Birthdate of Jacob Landau, the native of Philadelphia who gained fame as an artist “known for his evocative works on the human condition.1918: Release date for “Carmen” a 1918 German silent drama film directed by Ernst Lubitsch
1919(25th of Kislev, 5680): Chanukah1924: Birthdate of Yohai Ben-Nun, the sixth commander of the Israeli Navy.
1928: Aaron Copland is part of a group participating in a musical event at the New School for Social Work.
1929: In New York City, Oliver C. and Ida Panish Safir gave birth to William Safire. Unique among the Jews of his generation, Safire was a conservative Republican who was a speech writer for President Nixon. He spent almost three decades as a political columnist for The New York Times.
1930: According to reports published today, Arabs have failed to stop Jewish settlers from plowing their land at Hedera after they lost a lawsuit designed to keep the land from the Jews. After the police intervened, the Arabs agreed to await the outcome of the appeal before taking any further action. The Arabs said that they understood the recently issued White Paper to mean that all land in Palestine belonged to them.
1931: In Manhattan, Blanche and Milton Frankfurt gave birth to Stephen Owen Frankfurt “an advertising executive who helped lead the transformation of television commercials from straightforward sales pitches in the 1950s to sophisticated, art-designed productions” (As reported by Leslie Kaufman)
1931: The meeting of the World Islamic conference came to an end in
1933:In today’s Advent sermon Michael von Faulhaber, the Cardinal Archbishop of Munich “spoke to the "People of Israel" about the "Old Testament" and declared "This treasure did not grow in your own garden... this condemnation of usurious land-grabbing; this war against the oppression of the farmer by debt, this prohibition of usury, is certainly not the product of your spirit!". (Editor’s Note: Guenter Lewy concludes: "It, therefore, is little short of falsification of history when Faulhaber's sermons in 1933 are hailed by one recent Catholic writer [Yves Congar] as a 'condemnation of the persecution of Jews)
1935: Based on votes counted so far, Meier Dizengoff trails Laborite Joseph Aronowitz in the Tel Aviv mayoral election held on Sunday.
1937:Temple Shaaray Tefila began a weekend of services dedicating their reconstructed sanctuary. The Temple had been the victim of an arsonist’s fire in March necessitating this rebuilding project.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that three Arabs were killed when British troops and police fought a large Arab gang near Tulkarm.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that a Jewish boy of 16 was killed when a Polish hooligan shot him and threw a bomb at a shop in the village of Czarna, near Warsaw, completely demolishing it. Polish officials were reported to be planning to deport, with French approval, some 30,000 Jewish families, 120,000 persons to
1940: Thanks to the efforts of Marge Iverson, the wife of Phillip Iverson, The St, Johnsbury Jewish Woman’s Club held its first meeting in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.
1940: Drunken SS guards at the Sachsenhausen labor camp awaken Jews during a frigid night and order them to roll in the snow.
1941: Presidential Executive Order 8982 created the Board of Economic Warfare among whose employees was Raphael Lemkin the Polish lawyer who created the term “genocide” in 1944.
1941: The slaughter of the Jews of Skede, which began on December 15, came to an end. German security police and Latvian police marched almost three thousand Jews to a ditch, forced them to strip and then shot them in groups of ten. For those who doubt the truth, Yad Vashem has a photograph that was taken by one of the German or Latvian killers.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/december/06.asp
1941: German Christian church leaders of Saxony, Nassau-Hesse, Mecklenburg, Schleswig-Holstei, Anhalt, Thuringia and Lubeck announced that the “severest measures” should be taken against the Jews, who should be expelled from German territories.
1941(27th of Kislev, 5702): Dr. David Dubslo and two of his colleagues died of spotted typhus while treating Gypsies who had been sent to the
1942: Celebration of the 80thbirthday of Moriz Rosenthal
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9C0CE2D6173FE33BBC4B52DFB4678389659EDE
1942: Dr. Samuel Goldenson is scheduled to officiate at the funeral services for David M. Bressler at Temple Emanu-El
1942: The Yishuv announces a 30-day period of mourning to commemorate the tragedy of the Jews in
1942: Pressure from members of Parliament, from Jewish groups in
1942: Accepting the United States government’s position that the Jews being massacred by the Germans can be helped only by a total and unconditional Allied victory over Germany, the American press continues to treat the Holocaust as just another war story, and is unwilling to discuss the systematic annihilation of the Jews. Given the Allied governments' knowledge of the Holocaust at this time, waiting until the Allied Armed Forces have achieved a total victory over the Germans indicates that the Allied governments have accepted the probability that the majority of European Jews will be killed before the Germans can be stopped.
1942: Jewish inmates at the labor camp at
1942:The Allies issued a statement saying Jews were being taken to tBirkenau, the part of Auschwitz devoted to extermination and killed.
1943: Transport 63 departed with a cargo of French Jews being sent to Nazi-Germany
1943: Jews are executed at
1943: Birthdate of Barbara Berman who as Barbara Berman Dobkin, the wife of Eric Dobkin became “the pre-eminent Jewish feminist philanthropist of the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century.”
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/dobkin-barbara
1944(1stof Tevet, 5705): Rosh Chodesh Tevet coincides with the 2nd day of the Battle of the Bulge.
1945: U.S. Senate votes for Wagner-Taft resolution calling for free entry of Jews into Palestine and establishment of Jewish commonwealth. Wagner is Senator Robert Wagner, a New York liberal Democrat. Taft is Senator Robert Taft a conservative Republican from Ohio. This shows the bipartisan support the measure had.
1946: Land purchases and budgetary matters were discussed at a meeting of the World Zionist Congress.
1946: Birthdate of Eugene Levy. A native of
1947: Birthdate of Eddie Antar who was the cofounder of the electronics retail chain Crazy Eddie, Inc. He fled to
1947: In the face of mounting violence and fearing that worse was to come, the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem opened a blood bank with goal of producing 1000 doses of plasma.
1947: The U.S. State Department expressed its fears that the Soviet Union is supplying arms to both sides of the Palestine conflict.
1947: The Arab League Council announced it will stop the proposed partition of Palestine by force and begins raids on the Jewish communities in Palestine.
1947: The State Department reported that the Arab League Council had begun buying weapons to implement its policy of thwarting the partition of Palestine.
1947: Moshe Shertok, Jewish Agency political head, charges that British are obstructing partition and that British administration does not protect Jews from Arab attacks, yet they prevent Jews from defending themselves. Dr. Nahum Goldmann,
1947: The Jewish Agency executive, reports Jewish plans for Swiss-like neutrality.
1947: Pinchas Ben-Porat, a pilot with Sherut Avir, the air arm of Haganah, boarded his single engine RWD-13 and flew a medical doctor to the small town of Beit Eshel.
1947: After completing his flight to Beit Eshel, “Ben-Porat was assigned a support role to Nevatim, a Jewish settlement in the Negev desert. When Nevatim came under attack by Arab irregulars, Ben-Porat flew an RWD 13 or Auster to Nevatim. Upon arriving, he removed the right door of the plane and set up a Bren gun and gunner with several hand grenades. Ben-Porat and his gunner flew a half-hour of close air support. The tactic was emulated by many Jewish pilots and crew in the Israeli War of Independence.” Once he completed that leg of the mission Ben-Porat was supposed to fly to Nevatim, but learning that 200 Arabs were assaulting it, he removed the doors of his aircraft to install a Bren Gun, and with a volunteer gunner and some hand grenades, took off for the village
1948: Four thousand, one hundred Jews set sail from Yugoslavia for Israel.
1952:According to a report issued today by Moshe Kol, co-treasurer of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, and chairman of the Youth Aliyah management committee in Israel twenty million dollars has been expended by Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, on its Youth Aliyah (youth immigration) activities in Israel in the last eighteen and a half years.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the new Mapai-General Zionists coalition won 73 seats in the Knesset.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that in
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that officers and men of the Jerusalem Area Police Force contributed IL 136 to the Post's Hanukkah Toy Fund, the largest amount given by any organized group of workers, and assisted the newspaper's volunteers in the distribution of toys and sweets in the Jerusalem Corridor's outlying ma'abarot.
1956: In London, Conservative politician Nigel Lawson, and his first wife socialite Vanessa Salmon gave birth to journalist Dominic Lawson
1956: Time magazine “panned" Jewish playwright’s “Night of the Auk” saying “that a good case of actors…were unhappily squandered on a pudding of a script…that sounded like cosmic advertising copy.”
1959: “The fourth Knesset started with David Ben-Gurion's Mapai party forming the ninth government” today.
1959:Haim-Moshe Shapira replaced Israel Bar-Yehuda as Internal Affairs Minister.
1959:Yisrael Barzilai completed his term in office as Communications Minister.
1959: Rabbi Ya'akov Moshe Toledano returned to his position as Minister of Religions.
1960(28thof Kislev, 5721): Fifty-nine year old Bella Weretnikow Rosenbaum, the first Jewish female attorney in the state of Washington, passed away today.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/jun/06/1901/bella-weretnikow
1964: Nobel Prize winner Victor Francis Hess passed away. A native of
1965: AstronomerDavid H. Levy began his search for comets
1969: A planned attack by two British nationals on an El Al plane in London was “forestalled” today
1972: Release date for “Avanti!” a comedy produced and directed by Billy Wilder with a screenplay by Billy Wilder and I.A. L. Diamond
1974: Birthdate of super chef Duff Goldman.
1974: Release date for “Front Page,” the cinematic adaptation of Ben Hecht’s play made possible by the writing team of I.A.L. Diamond and Billy Wilder who also served as the director, starring Walter Matthau and featuring Harold Gould as “The Mayor” and Allen Garfield as “Kruger.”
1976(25thof Kislev, 5737): Chanukah for the last time during the Presidency of Gerald Ford
1978: Channel 2 (WCBS) broadcasts “Lamp Unto My Feet – Chanukah in Romania” at ten o’clock this morning.
1978(17th of Kislev, 5739: Eighty-year old Irving Jacobson, a star of the Yiddish theatre who made the successfully transition to the world of American film and legitimate theatre passed away today.
1982: Opening of “Tootsie,” starring Dustin Hoffman.
1982: In the U.K. and U.S. opening of Frank Oz’s “The Dark Crystal.”
1982: Israeli born cellist Ofra Harnoy, a winner of the 1982 Concert Artists Guild Award, made her debut this evening at the Carnegie Recital Hall at the age of 17.
1988: Abdeen Jabara, the 45-year-old president of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, an American citizen, was barred from entering Israel today. According to a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry the decision was based on Jabara’s record which includes “activities as a lawyer defending terrorists, attempts to prevent the collection of money for Israel, trying to legally prevent the entry of Prime Minister Shamir into the U.S., and an F.B.I. investigation against him.''
1989: The New York Times reviewed “Birth Power: The Case for Surrogacy” by Israeli lawyer Carmel Shalev.
1991(10th of Tevet, 5752): Asara B'Tevet
1992: As violence from Palestinian terrorist escalated 415 terrorist leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad were flown to Israel’s northern border and deported to Lebanon.
1993: At the Apollo Theater in Harlem, another screening of “Liberators,” directed by Williams Miles and Nina Rosenblum, was held before an audience of 1,200 prominent Jews and blacks, hosted by three influential politicians: Congressman Charles Rangel, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and Jesse Jackson. Elie Wiesel, who didn’t appear in the film, sent a videotaped message of support, and the event was broadcast on WNET. (As reported by Mark Schulte)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/ceremony-marks-20-years-since-oscar-nominated-sham/
1995:”Vatican Reaffirms Its Policy on Jerusalem” published today takes issued with Leah Rabin’s description of the Pope’s comments about the Israeli capital city.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/17/world/vatican-reaffirms-its-policy-on-jerusalem.html?ref=leahrabin
1995: The New York Times featured a review of the recently published paperback edition of Yehoshua Kenaz’s The Way To The Cats, an “Israeli novel that presents old age with all its ravages” as seen through the life of its protagonist “Yolanda Moscowitz, 76, who is recuperating from a broken leg in a rehabilitation center in Tel Aviv, where she hopes that her dignity won't go the way of her beauty.
1996(7th of Tevet, 5757): Song writer Irving Caesar passed away. Born in 1895, he was originally known as Isidor Caesar. He wrote lyrics for "Swanee,""Sometimes I'm Happy,""Crazy Rhythm," and "Tea for Two," one of the most frequently recorded tunes ever written.
2000: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including Maestro: Greenspan's Fed and the American Boomby Bob Woodward, Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision by Louis Breger, Schmidt Deliveredby Holocaust survivor Louis Begley and Sex and Power by Susan Estrich.
2000: In “A Haunting Legacy in Provence” published today Michael Frank provides a brief informative view of the history of a French Jewry.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/17/travel/a-haunting-legacy-in-provence.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
2002: The money that South African businessman Cyril Kern had lent to the campaign of Ariel Sharon was returned to him today.
2005: On SNL, Andy Samberg co-starred in the Digital Short "Lazy Sunday", a nerdcore hip hop song performed by two Manhattanites on a quest to see the film The Chronicles of Narnia.
2006: Sir Arnold Wesker, the Jewish dramatist was the castaway on Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4
2006: The Times of London names Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky (translated by Sandra Smith) as number one on its list of “The Best Books of 2006.” This recently discovered volume written by a French Jewish author describes life in
2006: The Jewish people should develop a long-term strategic planning mechanism to address the threats that endanger all Jews, according to recommendations submitted at today’s cabinet meeting. According to former US envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross "The nature of the threats to the Jewish people put a premium on better planning," Ross is chairman of the board of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, a Jewish Agency think tank presenting the recommendations to the cabinet in the framework of its third annual assessment of the state of the Jewish people.
2006: In
2006: The Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) opened its 38th Annual Conference,
2006(26th of Kislev, 5767): Dodger Pitcher Larry Sherry, who with his brother Norm formed the only all brother, all Jewish battery in baseball history that led a team (the 1959 Dodgers) to a World Series Championship, passed away.
2007: In
2007: The Jerusalem Post reported that for the first time since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, a chief rabbinical chaplain is servicing the spiritual and religious needs of Jewish soldiers in
2007: The owners of the 2nd Avenue 33rd Street Third Avenue Manhattan
2008: In New York, Chamber Music at the Y features acclaimed Jerusalem born pianist, Benjamin Hochman
2008:The rocket that shattered the front windshield of Pinchas Cohen's bright yellow hatchback this evening narrowly missed his wife and son.
2008: Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, announced today that it had invested $90 million with Bernard Madoff, who has been charged with securities fraud. This means that “The Madoff Scam” may cost Hadassah the entire ninety million dollars.
2009: The Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation and the Potomac Chapter offer a program entitled “Harry Truman and the Founding of Israel” featuring Allis and Ronald Radosh, authors of A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel.
2009(30 Kislev, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Kislev.
2009: The third annual Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism comes to a close today in Jerusalem.
2009: Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, an American lawyer and blogger also known as Samuel Shamai Leibowitz, who is the grandson of Yeshayahu Leibowitz also known as Samuel Shamai Leibowitz, “pleaded guilty to knowingly and willfully disclosing five Secret level FBI documents in April 2009, to a blogger, who then published information derived from those documents on the blog.”
2009: Germany announced today that it was donating 87 million dollars to a new endowment for Auschwitz-Birkenau to preserve barracks, gas chambers and other evidence of Nazi crimes at the former death camp.
2010(10thof Tevet, 5771): Yarhtzeit of Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin)
2010(10th of Tevet, 5771): Fast of the Tenth of Tevet
2010:"A Day in the Warsaw Ghetto: A Birthday Trip in Hell" is scheduled to open at Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan
2010: A traditional Friday Night Shabbat services with MesorahDC complete “with soulful melodies, contemporary insights, and stories followed by a three-course dinner is scheduled to take place at the Historic 6th& I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.
2010: The Los Angeles Times published David Ulin’s list of the ten top books of 2010 which included three works by Jewish authors – Almost Dead by by Assaf Gavron, Freedom by by Jonathan Franzen and The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg by Deborah Eisenberg.
2010(10th of Tevet, 5771: Mary Jane “M.J.” Bear, a journalist and Internet pioneer who built websites around the world, died today at the age of 48. Bear, a native of Des Moines, Iowa, worked for TV and radio stations. At National Public Radio she became a vice president. She also worked for Online, Radio Free Europe in Prague and Microsoft, in Vienna, Austria. She launched websites for Microsoft in Greece, Poland, Israel and Turkey, as well as TV programming in Kyrgyzstan and Georgia. During her illness from leukemia, Bear created a website on Caring Bridge, which provides free and private websites “that connect people experiencing a significant health challenge to family and friends.” The site is now filled with touching tributes from friends and family. Bear took an active role in Jewish communities in every city in which she lived, and was a founding board member of the Online News Association, which is establishing an endowment fund in her name for young journalists.
2010: In “Beneath the Dead Sea, Scientists Are Drilling for Natural History,” published today Isabel Kershner, describes how “an an international team of scientists has been drilling beneath the seabed to extract a record of climate change and earthquake history stretching back half a million years.
2011: “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” is scheduled to be shown at Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos, CA.
2011: The third weekend of Hamshoushalayim is scheduled to come to an end.
2011: Havdalah, Board Installation and Centennial are scheduled to take place this evening at the Union Of Reform Judaism Biennial.
2011: Opening night of the 13th annual Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival
2012: The Conservative Synagogue of Fifth Avenue is scheduled to host “Living A Serious Jewish Life” which will examine what it mean to be an “observant Jew’ using The Observant Life as the basis for the presentation.
2012: Director Mariano Wainsztein is scheduled to discuss his film “The Mitzvah makers which premieres tonight at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.
2012: “Jud Süss” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2012: Dorit Beinisch, the first female President of the Supreme Court of Israel became an Officer at The French "National Order of the Legion of Honour
2012: A memorial service was held today for director, writer, actor and impresario Isaiah Sheffer
2012: Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, the spiritual leader of one of the largest congregations in London and a former chief rabbi of Ireland, was named Britain's chief rabbi-designate today
2013: The UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to sponsor a screening of “David” directed by Joel Fendelman and “Don’t Tell Santa You’re Jewish.”
2013: Weather permitting, the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to show “Jews for Sale” which tells the story of “the sale of Jews of Romania to the State Israel starting with WW II and climaxing during the rule of Nicolai Ceausescu.
2013: After having been indicted on charges of “obstruction of justice, child endangerment, failure to report child abuse and conspiracy” the Dauphin County Judge ruled that Graham Spanier’s attorneys “would not be allowed to call to the stand Cynthia Baldwin” the attorney for Penn State who had testified against him before the Grand Jury as part of a guarantee for immunity. (Spanier was the child of Holocuast survivors who served as the head of Penn State who was charged with not fulfilling his duties during the Jerry Sandusky child molestation investigation.)
2013: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is due to arrive in Israel tonight for a high-profile visit, which is expected, for the first time, to focus on political issues such as Iran and the peace process in addition to efforts to foster economic cooperation. (As reported by Raphael Ahren)
2013(3rd of Tevet. 5583): Eighty year old Dr. Robert Neuwirth, “a pioneering gynecologist” passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)
2014: “Tito’s Glasses” and “Closer to the Moon” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014(25th of Kislev, 5775): Chanukah – one hundred years ago Jews in Vienna provided provisions for Jewish refugees who fled the battlefields held by the Russians to help them celebrate the holiday.