December 19
324: Licinius abdicates his position as Emperor leaving Constatine I, “the first Christian Emperor” in control of the Roman Empire much to the detriment of the Jewish people.
1154: Coronation of Henry II, King of England.With the restoration of order under Henry II, conditions of the Jews improved markedly. Within five years of his accession Jews are found at London, Oxford, Cambridge, Norwich, Thetford, Bungay, Canterbury, Winchester, Newport, Stafford, Windsor, and Reading. Yet they were not permitted to bury their dead elsewhere than in London, a restriction which was not removed till 1177. Their spread throughout the country enabled the king to draw upon them as occasion demanded; he repaid them by demand notes on the sheriffs of the counties, who accounted for payments thus made in the half-yearly accounts on the pipe rolls (see Aaron of Lincoln). Richard "Strongbow" de Clare's conquest of Ireland
1187: Clement III elected Pope. Clement III was no friend of the Jews. In the aftermath of the First Crusaders violent march through the Rhine, Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor sought to allow Jews who had been forced to convert to return to Judaism. Pope Clement III opposed Henry on this insisting that the Jews, no matter how they had come to the Church, could not leave it. To his credit, Henry ignored the Pope. He went so far as to find those who had killed his Jewish subjects and bring them to justice. From the Jewish point of view, Henry was the exception to the norm among European Princes and Prelates. We should remember him for this and not for shivering in the winter as he did penance before an arrogant prince of the Church.
1370: Pope Urban V passed away. Urban issued a bull entitled “Sicuti judaeis non debet” that forbade the molestation of Jews and condemned the forced baptism of Jews.
1483: The first edition of Talmud Babli Berakot was published in Soncino, Italy by Joshua Solomon Soncino. This is the tractate of the Babylonia Talmud that discusses the laws of Kriat Shema, Prayers and Blessing.
1483: The first edition of Talmud Betzah was published in Soncino, Italy by Joshua Solomon Soncino. Betzah is the tractate that deals rules concerning Festivals.
1488: The first edition of the Sefer Mitzvoth Gadol was published in Soncino, Italy. The Sefer Mitzvoth Gadol (The Great Book of the Commandments) was written by Rabbi Moses ben Jacob of Coucy'. Rabbi ben Jacob lived in the first half of the 13th century in Coucy , France
1521: John III was crowned King of Portugal in the Church of São Domingos in Lisbon, beginning a thirty-six-year reign that included negotiations with David Reubeni over the providing a fleet to help in his competition with the Ottomans in 1525 and the introduction of the Inquisition to his realm in 1536.
1762: Birthdate of Ephraim Zalman Margolis the Galician born rabbi who was the brother of Hayyim Mordecai Margolioth and whose works including commentaries on parts of the Shulchan Arukh.
1777: Gen. George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge , Pa. Valley Forge . He spies a soldier lighting a candle. Curious, he asks the soldier what he is doing. The soldier explains that he is celebrating the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. He goes on to relate a miraculous story—how long ago a ragtag army of Jewish soldiers defeated a much larger force of powerful Greeks, a tale that provides just the kind of inspiration General Washington needs. Stephen Krensky's fictionalized version of a poignant historical anecdote is brought vividly to life in Greg Harlin's brilliant watercolor illustrations.” The thirty two page book is designed for children from 4 to 7. While we may not know the names of all the Jews who spent the winter freezing in the Pennsylvania cold, we do know that Abraham Levy and Phillip Russell were among those who stuck it out. When the army marched out in the spring, some of the soldiers carried rifles supplied by Joseph Simon who crafted them at this forge in Lancaster, PA.
1781: Joseph II abolished Leibzoll (body tax) along with the "special law taxes, the passport duty, the night duty and all similar oppressive imposts which had stamped the Jews as outcasts."
1821(25th of Kislev, 5582): Chanukah
1821: Birthdate of Dutch bibliographer Meyer Roest whose best known work is the two volume Catalog der Hebraica und Judaica aus der L. Rosenthal'schen Bibliothek
1831: The Privy Council in England granted the Jewish community official recognition and equality on the island. Jews were then permitted to vote in the elections and, by 1849, eight of the 47 members of House of Assembly were Jewish, including the Speaker of the House. Jews became so prominent in society that in 1849, the House of Assembly did not gather on Yom Kippur.
1841: Birthdate of Russian-born Austrian “rabbinical scholar” Abraham Epstein author of the Ḳadmut ha-Tanḥuma, who passed away in 1918.
1844 (9th of Tevet, 5605): The Czar abolished all Kahals in the Russian Empire
1852: Birthdate of Albert A. Michelson. The Russian born Michelson taught at the U.S. Naval Academy. He calculated the Speed of Light and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1907.
1855(10thof Tevet, 5616): Aasara B’Tevet
1856: The Huntington Trial a case being heard before Judge Capron was in recess today “because on of the jurors was a Jew and had conscientious scruples about working on his Sabbath…”
1857: Under a modification of the 1855 Naval Reform designed to remove superfluous officers, Uriah Phillips Levy began the first of three days before a Board of Inquiry that had been convened to see if he should be reinstated. Fifty -three character witnesses, including former Secretary of the Navy and historian George Bancroft, governors, senators, congressmen, bank presidents, merchants, doctors, and editors had already testified on his behalf before Phillips began testify. The most shocking statement had come from Bancroft who confirmed Levy had been purged "because he was of the Jewish persuasion." The most moving part of the testimony came with the statement of Phillips,"My parents were Israelites, and I was nurtured in the faith of my ancestors.""I am an American, a sailor, and a Jew," At the end, there was a moment's silence before the explosion of cheers, the hats flung in the air, the wild applause.
1859: Nine year old Israel Dov Frumkin emigrated from Russia to Jerusalem with his father, Alexander Sender Frumkin, mother and brother
1867: In Prague, Joseph and Julie Wolf gave birth to Siegfried Reginald Wolf.
1868: In Vienna, the Rudolphinum founded in honor of Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria and funded by A.M. Pollak was dedicated today.
1870(25thof Kislev, 5631): First Day of Chanukah
1876: It was reported today that William J. Ree, “one of the most daring and expert swindlers and forgers” ever to operate in New York City, is among the many convicts paroled by Governor Tilden without informing the District Attorney or the criminals’ victims. Ree is reportedly from Denmark and a member of a wealthy Jewish who has two brothers who are successful merchants in London. He married the wealthy widow of the late Commodore Uriah P. Levy and proceeded to run through her fortune of $400,000. He also was the heir to a fortune left to him by one of his wife’s aunts – a fortune that he dissipated with equal speed which led him to turn to active swindling.
1876: A fair to raise funds for Hebrew Charities is to be held this evening at the Masonic Hall in NYC.
1878: It was reported today that most of the Jews of Cincinnati, Ohio, approved decision of the Hebrew Benevolent Societies decision to refuse the contributions offered by Mrs. A.T. Stewart. They feel that the involvement of Judge Hilton makes it impossible for Jews to accept the money. Several Jews have offered to make up any short-fall. A minority, including Louis Kramer and Henry Mack Southern, have expressed the opinion that charities have no right to reject contributions regardless of the source. Jews have refused to do business with Hilton and his company since he banned Jews from being guests at his fashionable New York hotel.
1880: It was reported today that Mt. Sinai Hospital, which was opened in 1852 was the third private hospital opened that provided for New York City’s destitute. St Vincent’s which was opened by the Roman Catholics in 1859 and St. Luke’s which opened in 1850 are the only two such institutions that are older than the facility funded by the Jewish community that is opened to all regardless race or creed.
1880: In New York, Reverends John Cotton Smith, R. Heber Newton and L.D. Devan expressed their concern from their respective pulpits about the wave of “anti-Jewish agitation” currently sweeping Germany. (Compare this to the relative silence that one “heard” during the 1930’s)
1880: In Belz, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach and Basha Ruchama Twersky gave birth to Aharon Rokeach the fourth Rebbe of the Belz Hasidic dynasty who led the movement from 1926 until his death in 1957.
1880: “First Chandlery Factory In America” published today credited Jews who had come to Newport from Portugal between 1745 and 1750 with introducing this “lucrative…business” in which they had an advantage because they knew “the art of preparing the sperm for candles.” “Of the 16 people” originally “engaged in this business” three were Jews named Riveria, Lopez and Siexas.
1881: It was reported today that police in New York, Brooklyn Staten Island and Jersey City are all looking for thirty eight year old Louis Hammel, the Jewish foreman of J. Beck & Sons who has been reported missing by his relatives.
1881: Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, who would take an active role in determining and trying to ameliorate the conditions of the Russian Jews after the passage of the May Laws, began serving as Secretary of State under President Chester A. Arthur.
1881: In New York, Sarah and Julius Goldman gave birth to Hetty Goldman “a well know archaeologist who unearthed many new excavations that gave historians a better insight of the past in Greece” and who “was very active in sponsoring Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.” (As reported by Seymour Brody)
1882: In New York Superior Court, Judge Arnoux heard the argument of Abraham Meyer who is seeking an injunction that will restrain police from enforcing that part of the Penal Code that would force him to close on Sunday. Meyer is Jewish and claims that under the law he can “sell goods on Sunday because he observes Saturday as his ‘holy time.’”
1882: Birthdate of Bronislaw Huberman, the Polish born violinist who founded the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra in 1936. After the creation of the state of Israel, a year after Huberman’s death, the orchestra would change its name to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
1883: D. Wiley Travis, the attorney for Theodore Hoffman who was sentenced to death for murdering Jewish peddler Zife Marks, “will take the case to the Court of Appeals.”
1883:Madame Fanny Janauschek will appear in “Zillah, The Hebrew Mother” today at the Third Avenue Theatre.
1885: At least a thousand people attended tonight’s session of the fair being held to raise funds for the kindergarten and industrial schools of the Hebrew Free School Association.
1886: First meeting of the “Emin Pasha Relief Committee.” Mehmed Emin Pasha was the name of a German Jew Eduard Schnitzer had taken when he had converted to Islam to further his career in the world of the Ottomans.
1886: Five hundred prominent Jews met at Temple Israel in Brooklyn, NY, this afternoon and formed the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1886: It was reported today that the Hebrew Fee School Association is now supporting a “Ladies Hebrew Seminary” in addition to its industrial branches for manual training and kindergartens.
1886: An auction will held today, the day after the close of the charity fair held to raise funds for the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids, which is expected to raise an additional $15,000. The fair raised $168,000 for the Home.
1887: It was reported today that the Ladies’ Deborah Nursery, founded by Mrs. Deborah Alexander, is currently providing care “for 150 young boys and babies.”
1888: It was reported today that Benjamin F. Peixotto and James W. Moses were blackballed from the Republican Club on 5th Avenue because they “had enough Jews in the club at present.” Peixotto is a member of a distinguished Sephardic family that has served the United States for three generations. But Moses, a prominent member of the Cotton Exchange, is a Yankee from Maine without a drop of Jewish “blood in his veins.”
1888: “The Republican Club” published today described plans for this new organization which plans on blackballing Jews, a fact that the author is able to easily rationalize, but also is willing to accept contributions of Jewish money.
1888: It was reported today that the following have made donations to the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids: Lazarus Straus, $2,500; Louis Stern, $500, W.J. Cholle, $200; Henry Newman, $100 and M.W. Mendel and Jacob H. Schiff, $1,000 each.
1888: Birthdate of Fritz Reiner, Hungarian born American symphony conductor who passed away in 1963.
1890: It was reported today that a St. Petersburg newspaper has responded to “English remonstrances against the treatment of the Russian Jews” by charging the English with having exterminated the natives of Australia and poisoned the Chinese with opium among other crimes.
1891: “The coroner is making a searching inquiry” into events surrounding the death of Maxwell Castine, a Russian Jew whose body was discovered yesterday with his throat cut from ear to ear in a “flouring mill at Petersburg
1891: Ninety Russian Jews who have been brought to the United States by Baron Hirsch are staying at the synagogue in Fall River, MA until they begin working in the local mills.
1892: The State Board of Arbitration met in Camden, NJ tonight and decided to go to Woodbine and “get the facts regarding the cloakmaker’s strike” taking place at the Jewish colony.
1892: “Fifty Years A Temple” published today the jubilee celebration that has been taking place at Rodeph Sholom which were attended by a host of dignitaries including Judges Goldfolgle, Newberger and Lachman as well as Otto J. Wise, Charles S. Cohn, A.H. Berrick and Abram Stern.
1893: Henry Solomon, Lazarus Diamond, Max Rosenthal and Leah Blumental are among the saloonkeepers were being held on charges violating the excise law which forbids the sale of alcohol on Sundays.
1894: Judge Henry Mayer Goldfogle expressed his sympathy with the striking cloakmakers who are faced with eviction and “asked the landlord to give their tenants an extension of time” – a request with which they complied so “no evictions were ordered.”
1894: The trial of Alfred Dreyfus began today at the Cheche-Midi Prison.
1894: As of today the officers of the Jewish Historical Society are President--Oscar S. Straus; Vice Presidents – Dr. Charles Gross, Simon W. Rosendale, Paul Leicester Ford; Corresponding Secretary – Dr. Cyrus Adler; Recording Secretary – Dr. Herbert Friedenwald; Treasurer – Professor R.J.H. Gottheild.
1895: “Dr. Hermann Kahn will sell copies of Maritz Oppenheim’s paints of scenes from the life of the Israelites at tonight’s session of the charity fair which is a fundraiser for the Educational Alliance and The Hebrew Technical Institute
1895: “The Anti-Semites in Vienna” described the unpopularity of the Imperial Government’s decision to reject the election of a Jew baiter, Dr. Luger, to be Burgomaster of Vienna.”
1896: “Santa Maria,” an operetta by Oscar Hammerstein I closed at the Olympia Theatre after three months of performances.
1898: Today, “an indenture was recorded by the Register of Deeds for Camden County, New Jersey for a property consisting of three lots at the southeast corner of South 8th Street and Sycamore Street to Congregation Sons of Israel, who were acquiring the property from George W. Jessup.”
1902: ‘Lively Zionist Meeting” published today described a speech given by Jacob De Haas Secretary of the Federation of American Zionists which was supposed to be part of a debate between him and Rabbi Silverman, who was an opponent of Zionist. The debate did not take place because Silverman failed to show up.
1903:Chaim Zelig Louban, a 27 year old student, attempts to assassinate Max Nordau at a Chanukah ball of the Paris Zionist society. He approaches Nordau, cries "Death to Nordau, the East African" and fires two shots. Nordau writes to Herzl: "Yesterday evening I got an installment on the debt of gratitude which the Jewish people owe me for my selfless labors on its behalf. I say this without bitterness, only in sorrow. How unhappy is our people, to be able to produce such deeds." This incident goes to show the depth of feeling surrounding the “Uganda Plan.”
1903: “Camden Hebrews to Have Synagogue” published today described the purchase of the church building at the southeast corner of Eighth and Sycamore streets for $2,300 by the city’s Jews which will hereafter be used as a synagogue.
1903: Herzl publishes an account of the Kharkov
1903: The Williamsburg Bridge New York City America Brooklyn Bridge Manhattan Williamsburg Brooklyn , and was the second of three steel-frame suspension bridges to span the East River . Designed by Leffert L. Buck and Henry Hornbostel, it had taken over seven years to complete. The 1,600 foot Williamsburg Bridge Lower East Side and what would become the thriving Jewish neighborhoods of 20th century Brooklyn .
1908(25thof Kislev, 5669): Chanukah celebrated for the last time during the Presidency of Teddy Roosevelt.
1910: Birthdate of David Raziel, one of the founders of "The National Military Organization in the Land of Israel" better known at the Irgun.
1914(2ndof Tevet, 5675): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1914(2ndof Tevet, 5675): During WW I, Captain Cecil David Woodburn Bamberger, who “had attended University College School was killed while serving with the Royal Engineers.
1914: A letter received today in New York from a journalist in Jerusalem described “conditions in Palestine since the Turkish declaration of war: that “shows how serious the hardships brought upon the population are likely to be.
1916(24thof Kislev, 5677): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1916: The New York Times reported, “the celebration of the Jewish festival of Chanukah, or Feast of Dedication known also as the Feast of Lights, will being this evening and will continue for eight days.
1917: Seventy-one year old Ernst Herter the German sculptor who” was present in New York when his Heinrich Heine memorial sculpture, known as the Lorelei Fountain, was unveiled in the Bronx, New York” after “Heine's city of birth, Düsseldorf “squelched” the project” due to the anti-Semitic sentiment that pervaded the German Reich at that time>
1918: “On the initiative of Chajjim Weiszburg, a leader of the Zionist movement, Uj Kelet, a Zionist Jewish newspaper in the Hungarian language whose writers included Rudolf Kastner, was launched as a weekly today.
1919: Birthdate of Sally Ann Lowengart, the native of Portland, Oregon who gained fame as civil rights activist Sally Lilienthal, found of the Ploughshares Fund.
1919: Victor Berger was elected for a second time to serve in the House of Representatives for a district in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The House had denied Berger the right to serve after having been elected in 1918 because he a convicted felon and opponent of the Great War.
1919: In New York, David Freedman an immigrant from Romania and his wife gave birth to “American novelist and mathematician” Benedict Freedman
1919: Zionist office opened in Constantinople for Jews wanting to move to Palestine
1919: The SS Ruslam reached Jaffa Israel Russia Poland
1920: Rabbi Max D. Klein of Adath Jeshuron Congregation in Philadelphia will address those attending today’s celebration of the organization of Congregation Beth-El in Camden, NJ.
1920: Birthdate of David Susskind who was known primarily as movie, stage and television producer. But during the late 1950’s he hosted one of the original late-night talk shows. It was a high-brow event with no singers, no book pluggers and no comedy monologues. The set would become wreathed in a haze of cigarette smoke as the guests discussed weighty and artsy issues of the day. Susskind passed away in 1987.
1924: Governor General Primo de Rivera of Spain December 31, 19 30
1925: Birthdate of Robert B. Sherman one half of the Sherman Brothers, the old half of the “American songwriting duo.”
1926: Birthdate of Mina Arison Sapir, the native of Belz Bessarabia, Romania who is the wife Yekutiel Sapir and the mother of Micky and Shari Arison. Her daughter is reported to be one of the richest women in the world.
1927(25thof Kislev, 5688) Chanukah
1934:The projected Jewish republic in Biro-Bidjan, Russia, constitutes no menace to the Zionist movement, E.Z. Goldberg, associate editor of The Day, who recently returned from the Soviet, declared today. He was interviewed at 285 Madison Avenue, the office of the American Committee for the Settlement of Jews in the U.S.S.R., of which he is a member. Mr. Goldberg said that the Soviet territory of Biro-Bidjan was an improvement over Palestine as a home for the Jews because it was three times larger than Palestine, “had no Arab problem” and benefited from support from the government. At the same time he said that Biro-Bidjan would not be a homeland for all Jews since there would no place for Orthodox Jews “who are capitalistically minded” and can go to Tel Aviv to make money.
1934: Thomas Lovejoy, Vice Chancellor of Bristol, wrote to Churchill that he would not be able to help him in his quest to find any more places for German-Jewish medical students because “there had been a heavy rush on entry to the Faculty of Medicine that year and we have had to refuse applications for entry from all foreign counties and even from some of the Dominions.” If the German-Jewish students could gain admission to the college than they could get out of Germany Great Britain
1935: Birthdate of Sidney Alvin Field, the Hollywood native who gained fame as Syd Field, author of Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting
1936: “Tribulations of the Persecuted Jews” published today provides a detailed review of Some of My Best Friends Are Jews by Robert Gessner.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that out of the three Arab constables ambushed by an Arab terrorist gang, two were "tried" and killed on the spot, while the third was released after he promised to report on the "trial" and undertook to leave the police force within the next three days. All three constables were robbed of all their belongings. A punitive fine of £500 was imposed on the Jureina quarter of Haifa
1939: The Nazi government officially gave Heydrich the responsibility for centralizing the implementation of his deportation plans. This was one of the basic steps in creating the organization that would lead to the slaughter of European Jewry. German efficiency and detailed planning was one of the hallmarks of the Final Solution.
1939: Three months after the German invasion of Poland Palestine
1940:Zygmund William “Bill” Birnbaum married Hilde Merzbach. The two had met in Seattle while both of them were involved in assisting Jewish refugees arriving from Europe.
1940: Birthdate of Phil Ochs, singer, songwriter and social activist.
1941: Adolf Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army. It is realties like this that put the lie to those who apologist who tried to separate the Whermacht from the Nazi death machine.
1942: After three weeks trapped in a synagogue by hostile Ukrainian troops, 42 Jewish men are marched to the Rakow Forest
1942: In Norway Auschwitz . Within three weeks the clothing of the Plesanksy family would be in the hands of the superintendent of the Berg Concentration Camp. Needless to say, the heirs of the Plesansky family were never compensated for the loss after the war.
1944(3rd of Tevet, 5705): Eighty three year old Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp passed away today.
http://books.usatoday.com/book/swing-into-%E2%80%98ok-corral-for-the-story-of-mrs-wyatt-earp/r850848
1944: Birthdate of Mitchell Feigenbaum. Born in Philadelphia Philadelphia
1945: The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution on Palestine which had been approved by the U.S. Senate.
1945: U.S. premiere of “Leave Her to Heaven” directed by John M. Stahl, with a screenplay by Jo Swerling and music by Alfred Newman.
1946:Johan J. Smertenko, vice president of American League for a Free Palestine, is barred from England where he had planned to start British branch of organization. He says terrorism is justified.
1946:William B. Ziff declares that negotiation by Jewish Agency would be opposed by Palestinian underground groups. Revisionists say that Ziff had been expelled for breaches of party discipline.
1947: In an attempt to deal with the looming threat to its water supply, Jerusalem
1948: During “Operation Velvetta” 12 more Spitfires were flown to Israel as part of the effort to create a modern air force in the heat of battle.
1950: As the Allies tried to integrate Germany back into the family nations and deal with the realities of the Cold War Foreign Ministers France, the UK and US declared at the end of their lengthy meetings “that among other measures to strengthen West Germany's position in the Cold War that the western allies would ‘end by legislation the state of war with Germany.’”
1952: David Ben-Gurion’s government resigned due to a dispute with the religious parties over religious education.
1952: In the UK and USA, release date for “Hans Christian Andersen” produced by Samuel Goldwyn, directed by Charles Vidor, with a screenplay by Moss Hart and Ben Hecht and starring Danny Kaye. (So many Jews to immortalize a Dane – only in America)
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the resolution of the UN General Assembly's Political Committee urging direct Arab-Israeli peace negotiations was hindered by a sudden Philippine and Catholic Bloc countries' amendment demanding the implementation of all old UN resolutions, including the internationalization of Jerusalem. Israel US Britain
1953: Two Unit 101 Squads led by Meir Harzion completed a night time attack during which they ambushed a car carrying Mansour Awad, “a Lebanese born doctor serving in the Arab Legion” who died during the attack.
1957:Aharon Remez, the second commander of the Israeli Air Force, resigned his seat in the Knesset. He had been elected in 1955 as a member of Mapai and was followed in office by Amos Degani.
1961: U.S. premiere of “Judgment at Nuremberg” directed and produced by Stanley Kramer, with a script by Abby Mann and music by Ernest Gold, the native of Austria who moved to the U.S. after the Anschluss because his paternal grandfather was Jewish.
1963: “Nobody Loves an Albatross” produced by Philip Rose, directed by Gene Saks and featuring Marian Winters as “Marge Weber” opened at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway.
1965(25thof Kislev, 5726): Chanukah
1967: Gertrude D.T. Schimmel was “promoted to Lieutenant” and “was assigned as Commanding Officer of the ‘Know Your Police Department’ program which was an information and community relations program for children.
1968: American Socialist Party leader and social critic Norman Thomas passed away. While he may have been a visionary liberal on many issues including the need to end racial segregation, his record regarding the Jews is more of a mixed bag. During the 1930’s, Thomas actively opposed the United States entering World War II, a view that he changed after Pearl Harbor. Thomas campaigned…in favor of opening the United States to Jewish victims of Nazi persecution in the 1930s. Thomas was also very critical of Zionism and of Israel's policies towards the Arabs in the postwar years (especially after the Suez Crisis) and often collaborated with the American Council for Judaism.
1968: MK Avraham Hirschson and his wife gave birth to his first son, Ofer.
1968: In Italy, premiere of “A Place for Lovers” produced by Arthur Cohn with music by Lee Konitz.
1969: Two pharmacists were killed in a bloody robbery. In 1974, Pierre Goldman, the illegitimate son of Jewish WW II Resistance Leader Alter Mojze Goldman, was given a life-sentence by the Paris cour d'assises, after being convicted of this crime. He denied having committed this robbery, although he admitted to three earlier robberies. He was finally acquitted of the murders that took place during the robbery, but condemned to twelve years in prison for the other three robberies
1971(1st of Tevet, 5732): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1971(1st of Tevet, 5732): James G. Heller an American composer and rabbi passed away in Cincinnati, Ohio. “James Gutheim Heller was born in New Orleans on January 4, 1892, to the famous Reform rabbi Maximilian H. Heller. He received an undergraduate degree from Tulane University, a graduate degree from the University Of Cincinnati College Conservatory Of Music, and was ordained a rabbi at Hebrew Union College. Heller was rabbi of Congregation Bene Yeshurun (Isaac M. Wise Temple) in Cincinnati from 1920-1952, and was involved with several organizations including the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Labor Zionist Organization of America, and the State of Israel Bonds Organization. He was an active Zionist, and introduced Youth Temple, which was designed to bring young individuals together for religious education. Heller was also a composer and musician who wrote program notes for the Cincinnati Symphony.”
1971: Stanley Kubrick's X-rated "A Clockwork Orange" premieres
1977: The Jerusalem Post published details of Menachem Begin's peace plan which outlined a mutual Arab-Jewish right of settlement in Judea and Samaria Jerusalem Jordan Israel West Bank and Gaza Israel US
1979: Newly minted Warrant Officer “Amy Sheridan earned her wings as an aviator for the US Army, making her the first American Jewish woman to gain aviator status in any branch of the Armed Services” (As reported by Jewish Woman’s Archives
1979: Results of a comparison test of White Pekin Ducks published today it was reported that the Kosher Empire Duckling (frozen) had an “extremely mushy exterior, with skin broken in several areas. It was poorly cleared with many pin feathers remaining. The meat was very mush and flavorless. At $2.25 a pound it was by far the most expensive of the ducks in the test group. [Editor’s Note – as a consumer of Empire poultry, I can honestly say that this comes as a complete surprise. In my experience, their products have always been first rate.
1980: Birthdate of actress Marla Sokoloff.
1981(23rdof Kislev, 5742): MK Shabtai Daniel, born Shabtai Don-Yichye in 1909, passed away today.
1982: At Congregation Schomre Israel in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Rabbi Morris Bekritsky officiated at the marriage of Grett Evonne Singer and David Rapport Lachterman.
1982: Edward Rothstein reviewed the Carnegie debut of Israeli cellist Ofra Harnoy and the 92nd Street Y debut of pianist Sofia Cosma.
1984(25thof Kislev, 5745): First Day of Chanukah
1986: U.S. premiere of “Little Shop of Horrors” directed by Frank Oz, produced by David Geffen, with a script by Howard Ashman and co-starring Rick Moranis and Ellen Green.
1987: As Congress tries to finish its business before adjourning for the holidays, the House holds a rare Saturday session which has made many members re-consider their travel plans including House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas who wonders if he will be able to make his scheduled Sunday evening flight for Tel Aviv.
1990: Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 18 Palestinians today during a strike to protest Israeli plans to expel four Arabs, residents said.
1991: Professor Avishair Margalist of the Hebrew University publishes a plan in the New York Review of Books suggesting a form of joint sovereignty whereby Jerusalem would be the capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian State.
1992(24thof Kislev, 5753): Kindle the first candle of Chanukah in the evening.
1992(24thof Kislev, 5753): A Hamas terrorist kidnapped and murdered a policeman in Jerusalem.
1992(24thof Kislev, 5753): Eighty-five year old legal philosopher and Oxford professor H.L.A. Hart passed away
1995:Roval Elimelech who lives in Kfar Saba, a suburban town north of Tel Aviv, found out that a new border had sprung up overnight not far from her doorstep. About a mile away, Palestinian policemen had moved into Qalqilya, a town on the West Bank's border with Israel, taking it over from Israeli soldiers who had withdrawn on Saturday night in keeping with an agreement signed in September on expanding Palestinian self-rule. At a new crossing point into Qalqilya this morning, a red sign informed Israeli motorists that they were entering a zone under the control of the Palestinian Authority. The sign warned that they could be stopped by Palestinian policemen and asked to produce drivers' licenses and other identification, Qalqilya is the closest town to Israel's main population centers that has changed hands so far. Less than 10 miles separates it from the metropolitan sprawl around Tel Aviv. Under the September agreement, Israel was to complete a pullout from six major West Bank towns and hundreds of neighboring villages by the end of this month. Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus and Qalqilya have already been turned over to Palestinian control. Bethlehem and Ramallah are next. Kfar Sava, a rapidly growing community of 75,000, has a history of neighborly relations with Qalqilya that were disrupted during the seven-year Palestinian uprising that broke out in 1987. Thousands of Israelis used to visit Qalqilya regularly for bargains in its market and shops, but most stayed away during the years of violent unrest. Today, community leaders and ordinary citizens in both towns said they hoped that they could restore old ties on a new footing. The Mayors of both towns have already met to discuss cooperation in sewage projects and waste disposal, and Kfar Sava's Deputy Mayor was a guest of honor at a festive reception today in Qalqilya.
1996(9th of Tevet, 5757:Sefton D. Temkin, an author and scholar of American Jewish history, passed away in his native Liverpool , England Albany
1997(20th of Kislev, 5758): Physicist David Norman Schramm passed away at the age of 52. He had a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother.
1997: Release date for “Titanic” co-produced by Jon Landau
1997: Janet Rosenberg Jagan completed her term as Prime Minister of Guyana.
1997: Janet Rosenberg Jagan began serving as President of Guyana.
1999: The New York Times book section includes a review of Mailer: A Biographyby Mary V. Dearborn which tells “How a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn grew up to be you-know-who.”
2004: The New York Times features a review of the paperback edition of American Music by Annie Leibovitz
2004(7th of Tevet, 5765): Herbert Brown passed away. He discovered organoboranes and received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1979. Brown was born Herbert Brovarnik in London to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. He moved to the United States at a young age and was educated at the University of Chicago, earning a B.S. and Ph.D. in 1936 and 1938, respectively. He became professor at Purdue University in 1947, a position he had held emeritus until his death.
2005: Having pulled out of Gaza, the Israeli government announced further measures to improve relations with the Palestinians. The IDF announced thatIsrael will ease access to Bethlehem during the upcoming Christmas celebrations in a "calculated risk" intended to let Christian pilgrims worship the holiday freely in the West Bank town. IDF Lt. Col. Aviv Feigel said pilgrims will not need permission from the army to enter the town, the traditional birthplace of Jesus. The military will try to speed the process by not checking every tourist bus, but conducting spot checks of random buses instead, he said. The Israelis are doing this despite the fact that half of the Israeli terror fatalities in 2004 came from attackers who entered Jerusalem Bethlehem
2006(28th of Kislev, 5767): The joy of Chanukah was marred as three yeshiva students belonging to the Lubavitch Hasidic sect were killed in a car accident on their way to light Hanukkah candles and distribute doughnuts for the holiday at Israel Defense Forces bases in the south of the country. Five other Lubavitchers traveling in the same vehicle were injured in the accident.
2007: Yonatan Dagan performs in his capacity as lead DJ of the J.Viewz proejcted, a ensenbmle that defies any clear musical classification at Jerusalem’s Yellow Submarine a venue for some of the most clectic and innovative music styles available.
2007(10thof Tevet, 5768): Fast of the Tenth of Tevet
2007(10thof Tevet, 5768): Yarhtzeit of Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin)
2008:Temple Beth Rishon, in North West Bergen County, NJ, presents the Marvin Gastman Memorial Concertfeaturing "The Chanukah Story" sung byThe Western Wind as part of its pre-Chanukah festivities.
2008:Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the defense minister met at IDF headquarters in central Tel Aviv to approve Operation Cast Lead
2008: Haaretz reported that a rare half shekel coin, first minted in 66 or 67 C.E., was discovered by 14 year-old Omri Ya'ari as volunteers sifted through mounds of dirt from the Temple Mount Jerusalem
2009: Final performance of at Theater 3 of “Biography,” a play written by S.N. Behrman aka Samuel Nathaniel Behrman a native of Worcester, Massachusetts, who was the third child of Joseph and Zelda Behrman, Jewish immigrants living on Worcester's East Side.
2009: (2 Tevet, 5770): Eighth Day of Chanukah
2009: Final night of the 5thAnnual Sephardic Music Festival in New York.
2010:Shaloah Sunsets, a fund raiser for the Jewish Congregaton of Maui is scheduled to host a fund-raising event – Shaloah Sunsets- at the Four Seasons Resorts Waliea.
2010: The 92nd St Y is scheduled to present “Jews and Money: The Story of a Stereotype” featuring Abe Foxman and Allan Chernoff.
2010: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback editions of Digital Barabarism: A Writer’s Manifesto by Mark Helprin and Arthur Miller: 1915-1962 by Christopher Bigsby.
2010: The body of Kristine Luken, a US citizen living in England who was visiting Israel, was found south of Mata, approximately 400 meters from the road between was discovered around 6:30 a.m. today. She was one of two women who were stabbed while were hiking in the wooded hills west of Jerusalem on Saturday.
2010: A crowd of approximately 200 people demonstrated outside the Silver Spring apartment of 34 year old Aharon Friedman demanding that he give his wife Tamar Epstein a “get.” The two have already received a civil divorce. Friedman’s refusal to grant the “get” is reportedly tied to his dissatisfaction with the visitation rights granted by the courts.
2011:The third annual Latke Festival is scheduled to take place this evening, with attendees sampling the potato-pancake offerings of local restaurants like Kutsher’s Tribeca and Veselka and judges choosing the winning recipe.
2011: “Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray” is scheduled to be shown at the JCC of Dutchess County/Upstate Film Festival in Rhinebeck, NY.
2011: Israel has offered to export natural gas to India, according to a report in today’s edition of the Indian daily Economic Times. Negotiations for the gas deal are set to intensify when India's foreign minister visits Israel in January, according to the report.
2012: The Museum of Jewish Heritage is scheduled to present an evening with Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut, author of A Kosher Christmas: ‘Tis the Season to Be Jewish
2012: Comedic actor Alan Alda is scheduled to discuss math and science with Steven Strogatz, author of The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Math from One to Infinity at the 92ndStreet Y.
2012:Those who “sleep with rockets and amass large stockpiles of weapons” in southern Lebanon are “in a very unsafe place,” OC Air Force Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel said today.
2012(6th of Tevet, 5773): Leading figures from across the political spectrum closed ranks today in paying tribute to Israel’s 15th chief of staff, Lt.-Gen. (res.) Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who died at age 68 at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem after a prolonged battle with leukemia.
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=296559 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/world/middleeast/amnon-lipkin-shahak-israeli-peace-negotiator-dies-at-68.html?hpw&_r=0
2013: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is scheduled to meet with President Shimon Peres before going to the Yad Vashem where he will lay a wreath after which he will attend a luncheon hosted by Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (As reported by Raphael Ahren)
2013:In the central region, KKL-JNF foresters are scheduled to distribute Christmas trees in the Cypress grove adjacent to the KKL-JNF offices in Givat Yishayahu
2013:The Tel Aviv District Court sentenced former Bank Hapoalim chairman Dan Dankner to one year in prison, after having convicted him of fraud, breach of trust, violation of proper management of Bank Hapoalim and illegal receipt of funds and loans, as part of a plea bargain agreement
2013: Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man who opened fire on them during operations in the West Bank city of Qalqilya early this morning, the second such incident in several hours.(As reported by Lazar Berman
2013(16th of Tevet 5774): Seventy-seven year old publisher Al Goldstein passed away today.(As reported by Andy Newman)
2014: In New Orleans Touro Synagogue is scheduled to sponsor its annual College Students Homecoming Lunch.
2014: “The Big Trip” and “Samson and Delilah” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014: In Little Rock, AR, Chabad Lubavitch led by Rabbi Pinchas Ciment is scheduled to host a Menorah Lighting ceremony complete with Latkes, Doughnuts and that warm holiday feeling that the Ciments have been bringing to the land of the Razorbacks for more than 2 decades.