December 18
1271: Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of China. Reportedly, Marco Polo found several influential Jews at the court of Kubla Khan. These Jews would have been descendants of Persian Jews who probably came to China the 11thcentury as merchants. In the 13th century, Marco Polo, traveling in China Hangzhou Guangzhou Ningbo Yangzhou Kaifeng Henan Province
1495: King Alphonso II of Naples passed away. Both Alphonso and his father employed Isaac Abravanel the biblical scholar who was also a financial wizard.
1626: Birthdate of Christina, Queen of Sweden who became a Catholic and moved to Rome in December 1655 where she made Clement X prohibit the custom of chasing Jews through the streets during the carnival. In 1686 she issued a declaration that Roman Jews stood under her protection, signed la Regina – the queen.
1655: Oliver Cromwell presided over the fourth, and what he hopes will be the final, debate over allowing the Jewish people to return to England. Much to his chagrin, Cromwell cannot get a majority to support the return of the Israelites despite his argument that “The pure (Puritan) gospel must be preached to the Jews, to win them to church. ‘But can we preach to them, if we will not tolerate them among us?’” Cromwell closed the meeting and announced that he would decide the issue on his own.
1744: In Prague, Empress Maria Theresa banished the Jews. A few weeks earlier, Frederick Prague England Holland Prague Old World was continuing to find ways to persecute Jews, the New World was about to enjoy a new birth of freedom that would include the Jews.
1775(25thKislev, 5535): As Americans spend the first winter in rebellion against King George, Jews on both sides of the Atlantic celebrate Chanukah.
1787: New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Like many of the original thirteen colonies, New Jersey had religious restrictions for holding office that were not removed until the 19th century. By the 1840’s Patterson, NJ, “launched a congregation” and in 1857, the Jews of Elizabeth began meeting for regular worship services. New Jersey’s Jewish experience would prove to be unique because of the success of the agricultural movement that began in 1882 when Michael Heilprin helped a group of European immigrants establish Carmel in southern New Jersey.
1803: Fifty-nine Johann Gottfried Herder, the German philosopher who “argued that Jews in Germany should enjoy the full rights and obligations of Germans, and that the non-Jews of the world owed a debt to Jews for centuries of abuse, and that this debt could be discharged only by actively assisting those Jews who wished to do so to regain political sovereignty in their ancient homeland of Israel.[5] Herder refused to adhere to a rigid racial theory, writing that "notwithstanding the varieties of the human form, there is but one and the same species of man throughout the whole earth".
1813: Birthdate of David Spangler Kaufman, the first Jew elected to the U.S. Congress from the state of Texas.
1813(25thof Kislev, 5574): Chanukah and Shabbat
1813(25thof Kislev, 5574): Fifty-one year old “Bohemian Talmudist and Hebraist” Baruch ben Jonah Benedict Jeiteles, eldest son of Jonas Jeiteles and father of Ignaz Jeiteles passed away today in his native Prague.
1820(13th of Tevet, 5581): Moseh Sofer, the Chief Rabbi of Pressburg and Sarel Sofer gave birth to Rabbi Shimon Sofer
1839: Birthdate of German physiologist Julius Bernstein
1843(25thof Kislev, 5604): Chanukah
1850(13th of Tevet, 5611): Daniel Meijer’s sister, Eva, passed away. Daniel was the first Jewish lawyer in the Netherlands and one of the youngest members of the bar in that nation’s history.
1852: The New York Times described a recent major address by Chancellor of the Exchequer Benjamin Disraeli before the House of Commons on the Budget and plans to make make major revisions in the tax code. The speech and proposals are so well received that the Times concluded by saying that “”The Chancellor evidently wins new laurels at every fresh display of his truly remarkable ability.”
1856: Birthdate of Alfred Steckler, a graduate of Columbia Law School who served as a judge of the Fourth District Court of New York City and before serving on the Supreme Court of the First Judicial District of New York County.
1861: In Chicago it is reported that a young girl who had run away from her parents’ home in Maine to live with an uncle in Wisconsin now is in critical condition in Chicago following an attempted suicide. While making her way back to Main, the young girl allegedly met young Jew named Laselle with whom she stayed at various hotels including the Tremont, the Stewart House and Sollitt House where “he effected her ruin.” He then allegedly turned the girl over to another Jew named Stein who brought her “to an assignation house.” Within half an hour the police “pounced” on the house arresting Stein and several others at which time the girl tried to kill herself. The investigation is at a standstill until she recovers so that authorities can question her.
1862: At St. Pancras, London, Edward Levy-Lawson, 1st Baron Burnham and his wife Harriette Georgiana Webster gave birth to Harry Lawson Webster Levy-Lawson, 1st Viscount Burnham.
1865: Slavery ended in the United States Union and Jews played a role in the movement to gain freedom for slaves. For example a visit to the Lloyd Street Synagogue in Baltimore Maryland
1869(14th of Tevet, 5630): Louis Moreau Gottschalk passed away.Born in 1829, Gottschalk was born of a Jewish businessman from London and a white Creole Haitian in New Orleans. He was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano pieces.
1870: “The Jews in America” published today traces this people’s history with an special emphasis on religious practice starting with the earliest settlers, to the arrival the Germans as well as the role of such leaders as Rabbi Merzbacher and Rabbi Samuel Adler.
1872: George Geiger re-enlisted today and was attached to Troop H of the 7th Cavalry, the military unit that would be under the command Custer at the Little Big Horn.
1876: The Hebrew Charity Fair which is a fund-raiser for the Ladies’ Benevolent Society opened this evening at the Masonic Hall in New York. Despite the inclement weather, the event was well attended.
1877: Sergeant George Geiger who earned the Medal of Honor for his bravery at the Battle of the Little Big Horn was discharged today “for medical reasons.
1878: Birthdate Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union. Stalin recognized the state of Israel at the moment of its birth and he did allow the Czechs to sell fighter planes to the new-born Israeli Air Force. But these measures were a reflection of his fight against British Imperialism and not a reflection of any love for the Jewish people. Stalin did employ Jews in his regime before and during the war. But he also conducted bloody purges aimed at the Jews. Stalin did enjoy support among some Jews – those who were loyal party members and those who regarded him as a savior because the Soviet Army was the force that liberated much of Europe from Nazis. The reality was that Stalin was an anti-Semite who began a series of murderous purges aimed at the Jews of the Soviet Union and that he died before he could carry out his own version of the Final Solution.
1878: “The editor of a prominent Jewish newspaper said this afternoon” that Jewish institutions including Mt. Sinai Hospital and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, have no choice but to reject donations from anybody tied to Judge Hilton who has banned Jews from staying at his hotel.
1878: Jews of New York are planning on rejecting the donations made by Mrs. A.T. Stewart through Judge Hilton. The gifts included $500 for Mount Sinai Hospital, $250 for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and $250 for the Hebrew Home for the Aged and Infirmed. These Jewish organizations have received donations from Mrs. Stewart in the past. However, this year the notices of the donations were worded in such a way that it would have required Jewish leaders to come to Judge Hilton’s office to get the money. Considering the fact that Judge Hilton has banned Jews from his hotel in Saratoga Springs, such an arrangement is totally unacceptable.
1878: Randolph Herr, a New York lawyer who was a partner of Judge Bloom, shot himself through the head today.
1881: Anti-Juif ,a weekly, was published for the first time in Paris. This would be the first of four publications with this name all of which had a common anti-Semitic theme.
1881: It was reported today that an unnamed American who was performing in a circus at St. Petersburg received orders from the Russian government to leave the capital city because he was Jewish. (This is part of the pattern of discriminating against American citizens because they were Jews that would be protested by President Arthur in his message to Congress)
1882: It was reported today that Mount Sinai Hospital is one of the “most imposing structures” in New York. It has a capacity to serve 160 patients and has added to new units in the last year – an eye and ear department and an “isolation house.” While the hospital is almost totally dependent on the Jewish community for financial support, it provides services to one and all regardless of religious affiliation.
1882: “A Hebrew Colony Broken Up” published today described the demise of a colony that had been “established a year ago on Sicily Island in Concordia Parish by several families” of Jewish immigrants from Russia. According to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Association representative in New Orleans, so many of the colonists were stricken with swamp fever that they were unable to care for themselves let alone work at building the settlement. After returning to New Orleans, the immigrants have been sent to either Chicago or New York.
1882: “Value of the Bible” published today provided some of the views of Reverend Richard Heber Newton, an Episcopalian minister and theologians, on the ancient text. Among other things, that Bible did not included “the whole of Hebrew literature” because “many of the Hebrew writings had been lost.” But the Bible contains “the best of the Hebrew writings” because it’s a sifted and winnowed library” that represented “the literature of a race whose religion grew until it became a universal religion for all men.”
1883: George Reeveys is in jail at Freehold, NJ because he has been charged with an attack on a Jewish peddler named Simon Holzman whom authorities fear may die from his wounds.
1883: In the Westchester County Court at White Plains, NY, Judge Pratt sentenced Theodore Hoffman to be hanged after he had been convicted of kill a Jewish peddler, Zife Marks.
!886: After two weeks, the fair that was raising funds for the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids came to a close tonight. The successful event was held in New York’s Central Park Garden.
1886: It was reported today that the during the year, the Hebrew Free School Association had provided services to 2,698 students as compared to 2,046 students in 1885.
1886: The Hebrew Free School Association held its annual meeting today. During the meeting it was announced that prominent educator Julia Richman has been chosen to serve on its board of directors. Ms. Richman along with Ms. Froelich are the first two women to serve on the board.
1887: Al Hayman, the partner of Charles Frohman, who managed the Baldwin and California Theatres in San Francisco left to New York today to return to “the city by the Bay.”
1887: The Ladies’ Deborah Nursery and Child’s Protectory held its Chanukah reception at 95 East Broadway. After the children sang in Hebrew, Mrs. Deborah Alexander distributed fruit and candy to the youngsters.
1887: Birthdate of Capt. Artur Carlos de Barros Basto, “a decorated Portuguese military officer, a hero of Portugal's 1910 revolution and World War I and leader of the open return to Judaism of the Crypto-Jews of Portugal. Barros Basto died in 1961, almost blind, a disappointed man. He has never been exonerated by the Portuguese Army of the decision of 1943 of the Minister of the War under the Fascist regime of Antonio Salazar who stripped him from the Portuguese Army Officer Corp for the simple fact of his being Jewish and being a defender of religious tolerance and of the Portuguese Crypto-Jews in particular. The attempts and efforts to rehabilitate him continue to this day. He was born in the Portuguese city of Amarante on December 1887, and was given a Catholic education. When he was nine years old his grandfather told him they were descendants of Jews forcibly converted in 1497. Raised by his mother in Porto, he attended the Portuguese Military Academy and participated in 1910 in the founding of the Portuguese Republic. He later commanded a battalion of the Portuguese Corps in World War I, as lieutenant on the Western front. There he met a French rabbi who likely further influenced him. Upon his return to Portugal from the war he began to study Judaism and Hebrew. Rebuffed by the Israeli community of Lisbon, he went to Tangier to formally return to normative Judaism, adopting the name of Abraham Israel Ben-Rosh. He married the daughter of a prominent Lisbon Jewish family and settled in Porto where in 1923 he created the Israeli community of Porto, still active today[4] Barros Basto became known as the "Apostle of the Marranos", the title of a short biography by noted historian Cecil Roth who met Basto in 1930 and described him as the most charismatic man that he had ever met. Basto had been recommended in 1926 by Lucien Wolf of the London Marranos Committee to be the recipient of funds to establish a Jewish school and lead the return of thousands of descendants of Jews forcibly baptized in 1497 (New Christian, Conversos, or Marranos, more politically correct known as "Anusim", Hebrew for "forced one"). Basto established "Rosh Pinah", described by him as a "theological seminary", the first Jewish school in 500 years. In 1929 the first stone of a new synagogue was laid. A magnificent art nouveau synagogue, Mekor Haim was inaugurated, in 1939, the year of Kristallnacht. Basto had led a successful international fund raising campaign from Jewish communities with historical connection to Portugal such as Amsterdam, London, New York, Hamburg and Paris. Paul Goodman, friend, and president of the Portuguese Marranos Committee attended; so did Moses Amazalak, president of the Lisbon Israeli community. Rabbi David de Sola Pool of New York was an avid supporter and a room in the synagogue is named after him. "Adonai (God) is with me and I will not fear"[5] was his motto, and he was not afraid to canvas the interior of Portugal to make surveys, the contacts, to defend the Jewish identity of the Crypto-Jews at the same time having the goal of returning them to modern Judaism. Upon his return to the city of Oporto, he established the Israelite Community in 1923, and was one of the founders of the synagogue of the city of Oporto in 1938. Given the difficulties that he found in Portugal, most of all financial, he left Portugal. In London the Committee of Portuguese Marranos was created, that raised £10,000 for the construction of a community centre with a synagogue and a reading room, and to hire a resident rabbi”
1888: Birthdate of Robert Moses. The son of Emanuel Moses, a department-store owner, and Bella Silverman Moses, the Moses family was part of the well-to-do circle of New York German Jews known as ''our crowd.'' Moses was public works planner who re-shaped New York Lincoln Center
1888: Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs read the opening prayer at the dedication ceremonies marking the official opening of the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids were held today. Isaac Eppinger, Chairman of the Building Committee then presented a ceremonial golden key to Jacob H. Schiff, President of the Montefiore Home.
1888: In Philadelphia, PA, the murder trial of Jewish businessman Mat Goldberger entered its second day. He is accused of murdering Annie Schuleberg who fell to her death while trying to escape a fire that Goldberger had set to collect the insurance for his business which was on the ground floor of the building where Mrs. Schuleberg lived with her husband and eight children.
1889(25thof Kislev, 5650): Chanukah
1889: Three Russian Jewish shoemakers – Harris Elias, Solomon Elias and Abraham – are being treated for burns and smoke inhalation following a fire at their tenement on Eldridge Street. The three were the only ones injured when the five story building went up in smoke, (Fires like these were all too common and were run of the reasons that some Uptown Jews formed committees to look into conditions in these buildings that dominated the Lower East Side)
1889(25thof Kislev, 5650): Mrs. Martin M. Lewis ( nee Lizzie Lazarus) passed away unexpectedly this evening. Her husband is a prominent importer of woolen goods. She was the daughter of Alfred Lazarus, the Secretary of the Third Avenue Railroad Company. She is survived by her seven year old son and seven month old son and a sister-in-law, Mrs. Charles Lewis.
1890: Birthdate of Neville Jonas Laski, the younger brother of Harold Laski, who was a jurist and leader of the Anglo-Jewish community.
1890: Colonel George P. Clark will give a lecture this evening at 55thStreet and Lexington sponsored by the Young Men’s Association of Congregation Ahawath Chesed.
1891: The body of a well-dressed man, thought to be a Russian Jewish immigrant was found in flour mill today at Petersburg, PA.
1892: Almost 1,500 people attended the third and final day of the celebration of Rodeph Shalom’s 50th anniversary which featured the 300 children attending the religious school under the direction of Benjamin Blumenthal.
1892: Rabbi H. Rosenberg was expelled from Temple Beth Jacob in Brooklyn , for eating pork.
1892: The United Hebrew Charities Society has reportedly refused to give any more support to the striking cloakmakers because the society “received a good deal of support from the cloak manufacturers and these men refused to give any more money to support the persons who were fighting against them.
1892: As gold leaves Europe for America and America moves to restrict the exportation of the precious metal, the Austrian government has reportedly “concluded a gold loan of 50,000,000 florins from a Rothschild Syndicate” in an attempt to stabilize its economy.
1892: “The admissions by [Isidor] Loewe, the Jewish small arms manufacturer the offered to supply France with the machinery necessary for the manufacture of Lebel rilfles has caused renewed viruluence in the Judenhetze.” [German anti-Semites] They overlook the “open fact” that the Krupp, the great German arms manufacturer has continued to supply Russia with guns and ammunition, even when the two nations seemed to be on the verge of war.
1892: The Cologne Gazette attacked Loew’s offer to supply France “as strengthen the assertions of the anti-Semites that the Jews have no national feeling, that they never amalgamate with any people and that they are dominated by the idea that they are a privileged nation that may prey upon but be absorbed by other nationalities. (These sentiments expressed by a prominent German paper pre-date Hitler by forty years providing more proof that German anti-Semitism was not a Nazi aberration but a part of the German social fabric)
1893: Twelve Jews were held at the Essex Mark Police Court “on charges of violating the law by keeping their places of business on Essex, Hester, Ludlow, Orchard, Rivington and Canal Streets open on Sunday.
1893: "Must Have No State Aid" published today described Rabbi Joseph Silverman’s views on public funds being used to support parochial schools.
1894: In Manchester, UK, David Rodker and his wife gave birth to John Rodker one of the “Whitechapel Boys” and a leading figure in the world of British literature.
1895: Antonio Cappel is being held by authorities today on charges that he assaulted a Jew named Max Shindler when Jewish and Italian pushcart peddlers clashed on Essex Street yesterday.
1895: Today is “Fraternity Day” at the two-week long charity fair which is raising funds for the Educational Alliance and the Hebrew Technical Institute. Music was supplied by the band from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the Victor Herbert Orchestra.
1897: Emmanuel Célestin Suhard, who would speak out against the treatment of the Jews by the Vichy government, was ordained as a priest today.
1898(5th of Tevet, 5659):Baron Ferdinand James de Rothschild, M. P., passed away on his 59thbirthday.
1902: Great Britain Sinai Peninsula to report on conditions and prospects. This was part of plan to start a Jewish settlement in the Sinai which could eventually lead to a Jewish home in Palestine
1902: N. Taylor Phillips chaired a contentious meeting of Zionists and those opposed to Zionism at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
1904: The New York Times reports that Lionel de Rothschild is building a 250 Horse Power auto boat as an entry for the Harmsworth Cup race to be held in July of 1905.
1906: The Czar approved a bill presented to him by the Russian Council of Ministers which purported to give greater liberties to Jews living in the 15 provinces of western Russia known as the Pale of Settlement.
1908: Rabbi Panigel was forced to surrender his seals of the office of Hahambashi of Jerusalem. Rabbi Hiskia Shabbatai filled the office temporarily.
1910: Birthdate of Abe Burrows. Born in Brooklyn , this successful composer won a Tony in 1951 for the Broadway hit, “Guys and Dolls.”
1911: In Middletown, CT, Berthe Vogel and Samuel Dassin gave birth to director and victim of the Hollywood blacklist, Julius “Jules” Dassin.
1912: La sorcière, an opera composed by Camille Erlanger, premiered in Paris.
1914: Jacob Furth’s conviction on charges of financial irregularities related to a bank in La Conner, Washington, was over-turned today. Furth was an Austrian born American businessman and banker who played a prominent role in the development of Seattle, Washington. The removal of this blemish on his record was bittersweet since it came six months after he had passed away.
1914: Those listed today as contributors to the fund for “the relief of Jews through the war included the Hebrew Ladies’ Relief Association of Kansas City, The Dallas Texas Committee, the Salem Mass. Hebrew Ladies’ Association and Katz Rosenthal Company of Columbus, Ohio.
1914: As of today it was reported that an additional $42,147.53 has been collected to aid the Jews of Europe suffering the effects of the war.
1914: “Poles In Need of Help” published today described plans to provide aid to those caught on what has become a battleground between German and Russian armies including a joint effort by the American-Polish Relief Committee and the committee that Felix Warburg had formed to aid Jews in Poland.
1917: Major General, Charles-Arthur Gonse who refused to admit that Dreyfus was innocent and continue to work to keep him in prison even after being shown conclusive evidence of his innocence passed away today.
1917: Hermann Frenkel a partner of the Jacquier and Securius Bank was one of the founders of Universum Film was established today in Germany as a direct response to foreign competition in the realm of film and propaganda.
1917: During World War I, the American Joint Distribution Committee issues $50,000 for the Jews of Salonica, $25,000 for the Jews of Turkey living outside of Palestine
1918: Birthdate of Daniel Mazia, an American a cell biologist who was notable for his work in nuclear and cellular physiology. His research centered on the broad question of cell reproduction, especially the division and regulation mechanisms involved in mitosis (the process by which the chromosomes within the nucleus of a cell double and divide prior to cell division). Mazia is best known for his isolation (1951, with Japanese biologist Katsuma Dan) of the mitotic apparatus, the structure responsible for cell division. This brought understanding of the mechanisms of cell division and intracellular motility. A study in the early '60s on centrosomal reproduction, until recently an unappreciated structure, led to Mazia's interest in this cell organelle and the publication of a seminal paper. He passed away in 1996.
1918: Birthdate of Savannah, GA, native Hal Kanter, an Emmy Award-winning comedy writer, and a director and producer whose career included writing for Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, directing Elvis Presley and creating a landmark 1960s TV series starring Diahann Carroll. (As reported by Dennis McLellan)
1923(10th of Tevet, 5684): Asara B'Tevet
1924(20th of Kislev, 5685) California Republican Congressman Julius Kahn, Chairman of the Military Affairs Committee dies paving the way for his widow Florence Kahn to begin her active political career in the same legislative body.
1924: “A protest again the attitude of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of nations with regard to Jewish immigration into Palestine was adopted today the conference of the representatives of the Jewish settlements and communities which is in session in Tel Aviv for the purpose of creating better facilities for the arriving immigrants.” The conference also adopted resolutions “demanding immediate abolition of restrictions on Jewish immigration into Palestine” and the assignment funds to building inexpensive housing to accommodate those making Aliyah.
1926: Eighty-four year old Civil War veteran and Congressman John B. Weber who was motivated to serve “as one of the general agents of the Hirsch Fund” and to help straighten “out the kinks and snarls” at the Woodbine Colony which is the home to 500 people” after having visited Russia and seen the conditions under which the Jews live, passed away today.
1927: According to today’s New York Times, “The organization of two Jewish Fascist groups in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is reported in recent dispatches from Palestine to German newspapers. It is averred that the self-assumed task of the new organizations consists in fighting Socialist and Communist ideas and the Yiddish jargon brought to Palestine by immigrants from Poland and Russia. The Jewish Fascists insist that the use of Yiddish handicaps the establishment of Hebrew as the common language of Palestine Jews.”
1931: Birthdate of record producer Allen Klein.
1932(19thof Kislev, 5693): Eighty-two year old Eduard Bernstein a German social democratic political theorist and politician passed away today.
1934: Birthdate of Marcell David Reich, the Antwerp born commodity trader Marc Rich, the fugitive financier who purchased a Presidential Pardon from Bill Clinton.
1936(3rd of Tevet, 5697): Dr. Henry Moskowitz, a leader in civil, political and labors circles” passed away at the age of 57 in his New York Home. A native of Romania, Moskowitz graduated from NYC public schools and City College before moving to Germany where he earned his Doctorate. Moskowitz was active in the settlement house movement, an ally of Governor Al Smith and served as chairman of the Civil Service Commission and Commissioner of Public Markets. Moskowitz was active in Jewish affairs He was on the board of directors of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Social Service. His most notable achievement may have been being one of the founders of the National Association of Colored People (NAACP).
1937: On Shabbat (Saturday), Temple Shaaray Tefila continued with the dedication of its new facilities in New York City.
1938(25th of Kislev, 5699): First Day of Chanukah; kindle the second light in the evening
1938: “Sheik Said el Khatib, who was a leader at the Mosque of Omar was shot dead by Arabs in the Old City of Jerusalem this morning… The killing eliminates another important Arab from the opponents of the exile Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini.”
1938(25th of Kislev, 5699): Chanukah
1938(25th of Kislev, 5699): “One Jew was killed and two were wounded when a Jewish-owned bus, traveling on the new coastal road between Haifa and Tel Aviv was fired on by “unidentified assailants” while an Arab woman was shot dead by another Arab in the Old City of Jerusalem.
1938: Birthdate of Bronx-born, Oscar winning song writer, Joel Hirschhorn. He and his partner Al Kasha won in 1972 for “The Morning After” from The Poseidon Adventure and We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno in 1974.
1938: Thousands of Father Charles Coughlin's followers take to the streets of New York City, chanting, "Send Jews back where they came from in leaky boats!" and "Wait until Hitler comes over here!" Many Christian policemen are sympathetic to the Coughlinites. The protests will last until April 1939. They are opposed by other Catholic organizations and by leftists and liberals.
1939: Birthdate of Harold Varmus. Varmus was an American virologist and co-winner (with J. Michael Bishop) of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1989 for their work on the origins of cancer - that cancer genes (oncogenes) can arise from normal cellular genes, called proto-oncogenes. Oncogenes are normal genes that control growth in every living cell, but which under certain conditions can turn renegade and cancerous. They believed that the growth of cancerous cells is not the result of an invasion from outside the cell, but rather a misuse of a normal gene by a retrovirus, as a result of exposure to some aggravating carcinogen, such as radiation or smoke. Their research in the mid '70s has led to great strides in the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of a variety of cancers.
1940: The South Shore Group of the Women’s League for Palestine is selling tickets for today’s matinee performance of “The Corn is Green” at the National Theatre as part of their efforts to raise funds for refugee relief. Proceeds of the sale will “augment a $25,000 Emergency Refugee Relief Fund for young women refugees living the two homes of the Women’s League in Haifa and Tel Aviv.
1940: Hitler prepared his directive for war with Russia Germany May 15, 19 41Russia Greece
1941: Three months before the deportations of the Jews in France
1941: U.S. premiere of “H. M. Pulham, Esq” starring Hedy Lamarr.
1942(10thof Tevet, 5703): Asara B’Tevet
1942: When Jewish forced laborers at Kruszyna , Poland
1942: British Ambassador to the Vatican Francis d'Arcy Osborne asserts that Pope Pius XII "does not see that his silence is highly damning to the Holy See." He had provided the Vatican with detailed information on the killings of Jews and pleaded for a clear denunciation of this horror in the Pope’s Christmas Eve broadcast to the world.
1943:In Neve Sha’anan, Malka and Israel Levin gave birth to Israeli dramatist Hanoch Levin
1945: Birthdate of Cantor Marsha Fensin.
1945: The father of Aryeh ben Eliezer, a former member of the American Committee to Save the Jews of Europe who was deported from Palestine to Eritrea in October of 1944, failed in his attempt gain his son’s freedom in suit brought before the high court in Jerusalem.
1946:Sir William Fitzgerald, chief justice of Palestine, says Jerusalem will be divided into Jewish and Arab boroughs.
1946: An Arab landowner is assassinated because he sold land to Jews.
1947: Arab guerilla forces that have been recruited in Damascus and Beirut gathered in the Syrian capital as they prepare to invade Palestine.
1947: Birthdate of Shabtai Kalmanovich
1947: Birthdate of Steven Spielberg. Born in Cincinnati
1948: During the “Operation Velvetta,” which was part of the clandestine movement to provide the new Jewish state with modern aircraft, a flight of Spitfires left Czechoslovakia for Israel but was forced to turn back because of “poor weather conditions.”
1948:UN mediator Ralph Bunche announces that a final solution to Palestine conflict is well on its way.
1949: The Palestine Post reported thirty-five men and women from 12 countries signed up for a three month class to become first-aid workers for the Magen David Adom, the Israeli ambulance service. Instruction was in French, Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish and Yiddish.
1950: Birthdate of film critic Leonard Maltin.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported from Sofia that the new Israeli Chargé d'Affaires, Gershon Avner, who presented his credentials, was assured that Bulgaria would not restrict Jewish emigration to Israel
1953:Israel Haifa United States Brazil Australia Israel Israel
1953: Two Unit 101 squads let by Meir Har-Zion began an attack along the road running from Bethlehem to Hebron.
1955: Release in Asia today of sci-fi thriller “Lost Continent” co-starring Sid Melton.
1956: The IDF hoisted the Israeli flag on the purported site of Mount Sinai . Actually, there are at least three places on the Sinai Peninsula that lay claim to being the location for the giving of the Ten Commandments.
1957(25th of Kislev, 5718): Chanukah
1958: U.S. premiere of “Some Came Running” produced by Sol Siegel with music by Elmer Bernstein and a script co-authored by Arthur Sheekman
1963: U.S premiere of “4 for Texas” that included an uncredited appearance by Yaphet Kotto as well as one of the final appearances of the Three Stooges including Larry Fine and Moe Howard.
1968: Seventy-six year old Dorothy Garrod who “was the pioneer excavator of the famous Mount Carmel caves, where a long sequence of prehistoric cultures and human fossils was discovered” passed away today.
1969: Today marked the historic move of the original home of Adas Israel to its current location at Third and G Streets, NW. With help from the District, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and an Act of Congress, the Society relocated the building, now the Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum. The first floor was too weak to survive a move, so the structure was severed horizontally and only the second and third floors (Sanctuary and Balcony levels) made the journey by flatbed truck.
1972: Neil Simon’s “The Sunshine Boys”produced by Emanuel Azenberg, directed by Alan Arkin, with Sam Levene as Lewis and Jack Albertson as Clark,premiered on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre
1976: "A Star is Born," with Barbra Streisand, premieres
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Menachem Begin, upon his return from the US Egypt Washington Cairo
1977: The Post described in great detail the emotional moments for Israelis who spent their first Shabbat in Cairo Cairo Mexico
1979:Amy Sheridan, who would go on to be “the first American Jewish woman to gain aviator status in any branch of the Armed Services” earned her bars as a Warrant Officer One at the United States Army Aviation Center in Fort Rucker, Alabama (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)
1982: At Ohev Shalom Talmud Torah Congregation in Washington, rabbi Hillel Klavan officiated at the wedding of Barbara Eileen Cohen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jay J. Cohen of Bethesda, MD and Andrew Mark Hutter, son of Dr. and Mrs. Robert V.P. Hutter of Livingston, N.J.
1982: Rabbi Israel Mowshowitz officiated at the wedding of Linda Rachel Nass, daughter of Edna Kadin Nass of New York and the late Samuel Nass and Dr. Brian Lloyd Tell, son of Frieda Tell of Jamaica Estates, Queens, and Lake Worth, Fla., and the late Dr. Meyer Tell.
1984(24thof Kislev, 5745): Kindle the first Chanukah light in the evening.
1984:Christopher Lehmann-Haupt reviewed Albert Speer: The End of a Myth by Matthias Schmidt
1987: The Jewish National Fund New Leadership of Greater New York is sponsoring ''A New York Chanuka'' at the Crystal Pavilion, 805 Third Avenue near 49th Street.
1987: A federal judge sentenced Ivan F Boesky to 3 years in jail for insider trading.
1987: Israeli troops kept a tight lid on the occupied Gaza Strip today, but scattered demonstrations broke out in Palestinian refugee districts and towns in the West Bank and the Arab sector of East Jerusalem. A Palestinian shot as he stabbed an Israeli soldier in the Gaza border town of Rafa died today, bringing the death toll to at least 14 Palestinians shot by the army in the current round of violence.
1988:Israel's political leaders continued to flounder today in their nearly seven-week effort to form a new government. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's hard-line Likud supporters said he was ready to abandon efforts to form another government with his Labor Party rivals. They said the Prime Minister was prepared to enlist several small religious parties in a narrow rightist government, a development that could add strains to Israel's relations with Washington and with American Jews.
1988: In an article entitled “American-Jewish Writers: On Edge Once More,” Ted Solotaroff, author of A Few Good Voices In My Head examines the changes in American Jewish literature over the last quarter of a century
1989:Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said today that his ministry authorized and paid for meetings between relatives of Israeli soldiers captured during the invasion of Lebanon and representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
1990: The former New York City Mayor, Edward I. Koch, was hit in the head and slightly hurt today when a stone was thrown at him as he strolled through the Arab Quarter of the Old City. Mr. Koch and Jerusalem's Mayor, Teddy Kollek, were walking to the Western Wall without a police escort when the stone was thrown. Mr. Koch was in Jerusalem as a guest of the city government, which was trying to use his visit to promote tourism. However, because of the three-year uprising by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories, few Israelis or tourists walk or shop in the Arab marketplaces. "I would hope that the Jews and Christians in New York and in the United States would say, 'You're not going to keep us out of Jerusalem,'" Mr. Koch said after the incident today. "'You're not going to prevent us by stoning innocent people from supporting the people of Israel."
1992(23rd of Kislev, 5753): Television producer and game show creator Mark Goodson passed away. Born in 1915, his stable of creations included Beat the Clock, The Price Is Right, To Tell the Truth and that Sunday favorite, What’s My Lin
1994(15th of Tevet, 5755): Seventy-year old Heinz Bernard, the German born British actor, director and theatre manager passed away today
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaries-heinz-bernard-1568974.html
1995(25thof Kislev, 5756): Chanukah
1995 (25th of Kislev, 5756): Rabbi Chaim Pearl passed away. Born in England Birmingham England United States New York Jerusalem Birmingham
1995 (25th of Kislev, 5756): Nathan Rosen passed away. Born in 1909, he was a U.S.-born Israeli theoretical physicist who in 1935 collaborated with Albert Einstein and Boris Podolsky on a much-debated refutation of the theory of quantum mechanics; he later came to accept the theory. The famous Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen critique of quantum mechanics was published in the 1935 Physical Review. (A New York Times obituary described The Physical Review as "one of the most impenetrable periodicals in the English language.") Rosen founded the Institute of Physics
1998: Release date for “You’ve Got Mail,” a comedy produced and directed by Nora Ephron with a script by Nora and Delia Ephron.
2005: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed to hospital in Jerusalem after suffering a minor stroke and briefly losing consciousness. His doctors later said that the prime minister was in a stable condition and was undergoing tests. Sharon's long-time personal physician, Dr. Boleslav Goldman, said several hours later that the "prime minister is fully conscious. He is talking freely, moving and joking. He underwent a mild stroke."
2005: Israeli Holocaust survivor Lea Fuchs Chayen sends her e-mail address to Iowan David Cmelik so that they could communicate in a more direct, personal manner. Cmelik is the son of Frank Cmelik who was a rifleman in the 84th Division of the Ninth Army. The 84th Divisions was recognized a a liberating unit by the United States Holocaust Museum and the United States Army. Cmelik had been searching for Chayen because she was one of the girls his father had mentioned that he had helped to liberate when his unit entered the Salzwedel Labor Camp in the spring of 1945. His father was finally being awarded the Bronze Star that he had earned as part of the liberation effort. In her e-mail and subsequent correspondence, Chayen described the details of her liberation and her gratitude for what Frank Cmelik and his fellow soldiers had one.
2006: The "Local Testimony" photography exhibition opens in Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv, in commemoration of Lior Ziv, an IDF Spokesman photographer who was killed during an Israel Defense Forces operation in 2003.
2007: Internet voting, sponsored by The Philatelic Service of the Israel Postal Company, designed to choose the stamp to be used to mark Israeli’s 60thIndependence Day, comes to an end.
2007(9thof Tevet, 5768): Eighty-three year old mathematician Samuel Karlin passed away. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2007: David Rubenstein purchased the last privately owned copy of the Magna Carta at Sotheby's auction house in New York for $21.3 million
2007:Naftali Tzi Weisz, the 59-year-old Grand Rabbi of Spinka, and Gabbai Moshe E. Zigelman, 60, both of Brooklyn , N.Y. Los Angeles
2008: In its final evening, The 10th Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival features a screening of the 1920 classic, “The Golem.”
2008:In New York, as part of the “18 Nights of Inspiration lecture series “Dov Waxman, professor of political science at Baruch College, discusses the main issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the prospects for peace in a talk entitled "Is Peace Possible?"
2008:The largest and most hi-tech movie theater in the South is opening in Beersheba's ONE center today.
2008: Members of an Australian trade union that accused Israel
2008:Hamas officially declared this evening that it would not extend the six-month-old truce between Gaza factions and Israel. The announcement appeared to be anti-climactic since 11 Kassam rockets and five mortar shells had already pounded southern Israel by mid-afternoon.
2008(21st of Kislev, 5769): Centenarian Scottish sculptor Hannah Frank the daughter of immigrants from the Pale of Settlement passed away today in Glasgow.
2009: In New York, as part of the Concert Masters Series, the Baruch Performing Arts Center presents as an evening with Roman Spitzer, Principal Violist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
2009(1 Tevet, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
2009: In the evening, light the eighth Chanukah candle, 5770
2009:A Las Vegas teacher has been told to stay home while district officials investigate a claim that she denied in class the Holocaust happened, a newspaper reported today. Clark County schools spokesman Michael Rodriguez said Northwest Career and Technical Academy teacher Lori Sublette was assigned to remain home, and appropriate action would follow an investigation.
2009: Amjal Kasab, a Pakistani man standing trial for his role in the terrorist attack on Mumbai last year that included the murder of Jews at the Chabad House, recanted his earlier confession in court today saying he been framed by the Indian police.
2009: According to police reports, the infamous iron sign over the gate to the Auschwitz memorial site with the cynical phrase “Arbeit Macht Frei” – German for “Work Sets You Free” was stolen this morning between 3:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. when museum guards noticed that it was missing and alerted police.
2009: U.S. release date for “Avatar” the epic sci-fi thrill co-produced by Jon Landau
2010: Hazak Shabbat -The United Synagogue has designated this Shabbat as HaZaK Shabbat, to recognize the older adults' groups of Conservative congregations.
2010: “Shabbat Chazak” – Finished reading Bereshit or Genesis. This is “one of the four Shabbats when we complete one of the books of the Torah (the fifth time is on Simchat Torah); just as we complete the weekly Torah reading Shabbat morning, the entire congregation rises and together calls out “Chazak, Chazak, V’nitchazaik” –“Be strong. Be strong. Let us strengthen ourselves!” Just as we have completed one of the books of the Torah, God will help us be strong and complete all of the loose end of our lives, physically and spiritually. The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that there is a superiority to the “chazak of Parashat Vayechi in that it is the first one. (The Rhinebeck Jewish Center)
2010: The 92nd St Y is scheduled to present “Wiesel in Concert: Memories & Melodies of My Childhood” during which the “renowned scholar, teacher and advocate, with orchestra and choir, is scheduled to sing songs from his youth for a new generation—a review of Jewish melodies from the shtetl to today.
2010:Oy Vey in a Manger is scheduled to open at Theatre J in Washington, DC.
2010: “Jerusalem Rejuvenates C.R. Native” published today, describes the spiritual and professional journey made by Abbie Silber, the daughter of Dr. Robert and Laurie Silber, from growing up in Cedar Rapids to studying and performing in Jerusalem. http://easterniowalife.com/2010/12/16/cedar-rapids-native-studies-finds-a-home-in-jerusalem/
2010:Two women were stabbed in a forest near Beit Shemesh. Kay Wilson, an olah from Great Britain, and her American friend Kristine Luken were hiking in the wooded hills west of Jerusalem.
2010(11th of Tevet, 5771): French scholar Jacqueline de Romilly, a specialist on ancient Greece, a prolific writer and one of the first women to join the prestigious Academie Francaise, died today at the age of 97. (As reported by Cecile Roux)
2010(11th of Tevet, 5771):Eighty-three year old “Morris L. Cohen, a book lover who shunned the practice of law because it was too contentious and became one of the nation’s most influential legal librarians, bringing both the Harvard and Yale law libraries into the digital age, died today at his home in New Haven.” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “In The King’s Arms,” Sonia Taitz’s first novel about a Yeshiva-schooled and Vassar-scrubbed, 21-year-old New Yorker named Lily Taub and “Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World” by Richard Rhodes. Unbeknownst to most of her fans, Hedy Lamar a Viennese born Jewess whose birth-name was Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler.
2011: The Union for Reform Judaism Biennial is scheduled to come to an end.
2011: London’s Jewish Community Center is scheduled to host a family-friendly Chanukah Party this afternoon.
2011:”Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” is scheduled to be shown at the Jewish Cinema Mississippi Chanukah Event in Jackson, MS.
2011: The Jewish Community Center Wide Chanukah Concert with Craig Taubman is scheduled to take place at the Uptown JCC in New Orleans, LA.
2011:Viewers of ION-TV are in for a musical treat as Meaghan Reider, daughter of Sue and Ronald Reider, pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community is scheduled to perform a cantorial role this morning.
2011(22nd of Kislev): Yahrzeit of Dulcina, the wife of Eleazar Rokeach and his son Jacob and his daughters, Belat and Hannah. They were killed in 1196 by two crusaders who broke into Eleazar’s home while he was working on a commentary on “Bereshit.” Born in 1176, this native of Mainz (Germany) was also known as Eleazar ben Judah ben Kalonymus. A leading Talmudist and author his works included “Ha-Rokeah” (Perfumer) “a halachic guide to ethics and Jewish Law for the common reader. The title derives from the numerical value of the word הרקח, which corresponds to that of אלעזר. The book is divided into 497 paragraphs containing halachot and ethics; first published at Fano, 1505.” The title of the book probably was the source of his “last name.” He played a critical role in devising legislation that helped the Jews of the Rhineland survive the devastation of the Crusades. He passed away in 1238.
2011:Today, the Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved a bill that would allow Jewish couples to register for marriage with any rabbinate bureau in the country, irrespective of where they live. The bill was approved despite pressure from religious parties, namely Shas.
2011: Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger criticized the segregation of men and women on public transportation, in an interview with Army Radio. According to Metzger, the haredi community does not have the right to impose its practices on public bus lines.
2011: An Egyptian pipeline carrying gas to Israel and Jordan was bombed today, the 10th such attack this year, but no fire erupted because the line that runs through North Sinai was already disabled, a security source said. The blast took place in an area five km (three miles) south of the Mediterranean coastal town of El-Arish.
2012: “Fill the Void” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2012:Mitchell Davis of the James Beard Foundation is scheduled to moderate a panel discussion with Julia Moskin of The New York Times, Stephanie Pierson – author of Brisket Book, Daniel Delaney of Brisket Town, Noah Bernamoff of Mile End and butcher Jake Dickson entitled “Let’s Brisket” in which they will discuss what was once considered to be the quintessential Jewish cut of beef.
2012:Thousands of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls went online today with the launch of a new website by Google and the Israel Antiquities Authority, part of a move to make the famed manuscripts easily available to scholars and casual web surfers.2013: Rev. Canon Jack E. Lindquist is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “The Holocaust and Churches in Nazi Germany: Examples of Complicity and Resistance” at the Coronado Library.
2013: The UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present “Don’t Tell Santa You’re Jewish” and “David” by Director Joel Fendelman.
2013: “Fill the Void” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival, weather permitting.
2013: A 22-year-old man was killed and six more were injured when the IDF exchanged fire with Palestinians during an operation in the West Bank city of Jenin tonight.
2013:The Justice Ministry unveiled the draft of a proposed bill today that will ultimately completely restructure the legal regime and sovereignty principles governing the country’s coastal waters. (As reported by Sharon Udasin and Yonah Jeremy Bob)
2013: In contrasting decisions handed down today Germany says it won’t return two paintings once owned by a Jewish businessman who fled the Nazis, even as the western city of Cologne agreed to hand back almost a dozen other valuable drawings to heirs in two separate cases.
2013: The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court today sentenced Rabbi Mordechai Elon to six months of community service, as well as a 15-month suspended jail term, rejecting the prosecution’s demand that he be sent to prison for fondling a minor. Elon, once a celebrated mentor of Israel’s religious Zionist movement, was also ordered to pay the victim NIS 10,000 ($2,850) in compensation. (As reported by Spencer Ho)
2014: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host its annual Festival of Lights this evening at the Center for Jewish History.
2014: The Washington, DC Jewish Community Center is scheduled to host “Authors Out Loud” featuring Boris Fishman whose latest work is A Replacement Life: A Novel.
2014: In Iowa, Chabad led by Rabbi Avrohom Blesofsky is scheduled to light the menorah this evening at Coral Ridge Mall.
2014: Israeli pianist Daniel Gortler is scheduled to perform at the Jewish Museum.