December 30
39: A black day on the Jewish calendar; birthdate of Roman Emperor Titus the man who destroyed the Second Temple. The Arch of Titus commemorates the exile of the Israelites.
1066((9 Tevet 4827): Joseph ibn Nagrela, son of Samuel ibn Nagrela, was murdered in Granada during the Granada Massacre. He had served as vizier to Badis, ruler of the Berbers. There had been constant tension between the Berbers and the Arab population. Joseph attempted to ease the conflict between the two camps and prevent excesses against the local Arabs. His enemies included Abu Ishak, Berber advisor to the prince, who accused him of trying to cede the city to a neighboring prince. Badis ordered Joseph killed and crucified. In the ensuing massacre of the Jewish population, 1,500 families were killed, including Joseph's wife and son. A few years later, Jews were readmitted to Granada
1066(9th of Tevet, 4827): In what is called the 1066 Granada Massacre an untold number of Jews in this part of Muslim-ruled al-Andalus were murdered by a Islamist mob.
1066(9th of Tevet, 4827): Joseph ibn Naghrela, the eldest son of Rabbi Sh'muel ha-Nagid and vizier to the King of Granada, was crucified by an Arab mob
1576: After spending four and one half years in prison, Fray Luis De Leon, a converso descendant was released. As a scholar of Hebrew at the University of Salamanca
1596(9th of Tevet, 5357): Menachem Rapoport (Menachem Abraham ben Jacob Ha-Kohen) passed away. Known as Rappa, this Italian rabbi witnessed “the burning of the Talmud pursuant to the papal bull of 1553” and was the author of several works including “Zofnat Pa’neach.”
1665: Sabbetai Zvi, the famous or infamous "False Messiah" departed for Constantinople
1669: Based on a case involving “the kahal of Brest and some Russian priests of Brest, “it appears that the latter caused much damage to the Jews of Brest, and that during the religious processions riots took place in which Jewish property was stolen and Jews were murdered or wounded by priests as well as by others.”
1673: Birthdate of Ahmed III the sultan who appointed Judah ben Samuel Rosanes as chief rabbi of hakam bashi of the Ottoman Empire.
1695:Based on the diploma on display at the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem, today is the day on which Dr. Coppilia Pictor graduated from Medical School in Padua. He was the first doctor in Bochum, Germany
1673: Birthdate of Ahmed III, the Ottoman Sultan who signed the peace treaty of Passarowitz between Austria and Turkey in 1718. According to the treaty, “Jews who were Turkish subjects were permitted to live and trade freely in Austria. Their position was thus more favorable than that of Jews who were Austrian subjects. In 1736, Diego d'*Aguilar founded the "Turkish community" in Vienna.
1792(15th of Tevet, 5553): Abraham Samuel Covo, the Chief Rabbi of Salonica passed away.
1836: Birthdate of David Castelli, the native of Leghorn who became “an Italian scholar and educator in the field of secular Jewish studies” before passing away at Florence in 1901.1814: Birthdate of Barbara Elizabeth Gluck the native of Vienna who wrote her poetry under the name of “Betty Paoli.”
1851:Horace Greely delivered a lecture tonight at the Philomathean Society of Brooklyn on "The World's Fair and Its Lessons" based on his visit to the Crystal Palace where the display of "Jerusalem, in her lonely humiliation, best typifies the Hebrew state and race."
1855: In Hungary, Leon Faber and his wife gave birth to Maurice Faber who served as Rabbi of Congregation B'nai Zlon, Tltusville, Pa., for ten years, and of Congregation B'nai Israel, Keokuk, Iowa, for two years and finally of Congregation Beth-El in Tyler, TX.
1855(21st of Tevet, 5616): Seventy-six year old German Jewish banker Samuel Bleichröder the father of Gerson von Bleichröder and Julius Bleichröder passed away today.
1857(13th of Tevet, 5618): Fourth Yahrtzeit of Judah Touro.
1862: Based on information supplied by the Associated Press several newspapers carried stories about General Order11 including on that used the headline “Expulsion of Jews from General Grant’s Department – The Circumstances Stated and the Documents Quoted”
1863: Leopold Kompert was fined as a result of a suit “brought against him by the clerical anti-Semite Sebastian Brunner for libeling the Jewish religion.”
1864(1st of Tevet, 5625): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1865: Birthdate of English writer, Rudyard Kipling. In an article entitled “How not to be a stranger in a strange land” David Mamet wrote “My favorite poet was a Jewish man from Krakow, Rudolph Klepsteen. He wrote under the name of Rudyard Kipling, and his most famous poem is called “If.”It begins: “If you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you.”He was writing, as he always did, about the Jewish experience.” This runs contrary to the standard biography that says Kipling was born in India. The death of his son in World War I had a profound effect on Kipling who became a very active member the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The man who wrote of “the white man’s burden” was particularly concerned that dead Jewish soldiers, as well as other non-Christians including Hindus and Muslims troops “were remembered in ways suitable and compatible with their religion and culture.” He also wrote a poem entitled “The Burden of Jerusalem” that begins:
“In ancient days
and deserts wild
There rose a feud –
still unsubdued –
'Twixt Sarah's son
and Hagar's child
That centred round Jerusalem.”
1867: In Philadelphia, PA, Meyer Guggenheim and Barbara Guggenheim gave birth to John Simon Guggenheim the father of John and George Guggenheim who served as a U.S. Senator from Colorado.
1869: Birthdate of Belgian political leader, Adolphe Max.
1871: The annual report on deaths in New York published today reported that only one person had passed away at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1871: George Cruikshank, the illustrator who created the Copper plate engraving “Fagin in his cell” “published a letter in The Times which claimed credit for much of the plot of Oliver Twist” a work that helped create the image of Charles Dickens as an anti-Semite.
1873: Birthdate of Al Smith, 4-term Governor of New York and the first Catholic to run for President of the United States. Smith enjoyed a great of deal support among New York’s immigrant Jewish population. He served on the commission that investigated the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and championed laws to improve working conditions; a position that would have made very popular with the thousands of Jewish workers employed in the garment industry. Belle Moskowtiz was long-time political advisor to Smith and managed his 1928 Presidential campaign. Smith gave Robert Moses his big chance in New York State government allowing him to reorganize the state’s government on a basis fitting the 20th century. Smith’s 1928 campaign actually created the coalition that would lead to major Democratic victories over the next couple of years. Jews were a major component of that coalition and it ultimately gave them political influence that they had been sorely lacking.
1875(2ndof Tevet, 5636): 8th and final day of Chanukah
1878: The New York Times reported that last “Saturday was the anniversary of the feast of dedication as commemorated by the Jewish race; that is to say, the anniversary of the resuscitation of Jewish worship in the temple at Jerusalem, after the long interruption of the Assyrian conquest and the renewed (but brief) autonomy of the Jewish nationality, after one of the severest military struggles, waged by the Maccabees, recounted in ancient history.” (The NYT would not be the first, nor will it be the last, to confuse the Syrians with the Assyrians.)
1879: An article published today that traced the history of the hospitals of New York City, reported that when Mt. Sinai Hospital opened in 1852 with the support of the Jewish community, it was the third hospital founded by a religious group. During the 1840’s the Episcopalians had founded St. Luke’s and the Catholics had founded St, Vincent’s.
1880: Birthdate of Alfred Einstein. The German-born American musicologist and critic was a nephew of Albert Einstein. He passed away in 1952.
1880: In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, “Samuel Hirch…brought suit” today “against Rabbi Isaac Moses, the editor of a Jewish newspaper…for slander claiming $5,000 damages” because Rabbi Moses had described Mr. Hirsch as liar and a thief in his publication.
1880: Ernst Henrici, the “co-initiator of the so-called Anti-Semite Petition” delivered a speech at “Bock Assembly” espousing his “anti-capitalist, anti-liberal and anti-conservative agenda.”
1882: “Help for the Hospitals” published today provided a description of various New York City health institutions including Mt. Sinai Hospital which was originally created for the use of the Jews of New York City, but now serves patients regardless of “race, creed or nationality” and also maintains a system of “charity beds” to serve the city’s needy.
1886: “A Bar But No Barroom” published today included Charles Goldstein response to complaints by members of St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church to his receiving a license to sell liquor at Webster Hall which is a block away from the church. Goldstein said that no objections were raised before or after the foundation was laid for the building last August. Webster Hall is a building designed to host various Jewish social events including weddings. Liquor would not be sold until 8:30 or nine in the evening. (Considering the popular image connecting certain groups of Catholics with the consumption of alcohol, one must wonder what the real motive for the late-blooming objections was)
1886: It was reported today that a ukase issued during the reign of Czar Nicholas compelling “resident German Jews to hold certificates as merchants of the first guild” has been revived in Poland. The certificates cost seven rubles. Since few of the Jewish merchants can afford the certificates, they will be forced to leave.
1888: Among the charitable institutions receiving money from city is the Hebrew Benevolent Society of the City of New York was got a payment of $60,000.
1888: The Seligman Solomon Society sponsored evening of entertainment at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1889: It was reported today the Jesse Seligman, Henry Rice and Julian Nathan were among the dignitaries who attended the recent evening of entertainment held in the chapel of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum
1889(7th of Tevet, 5650): Thirty-three year old Myer Silberman, a jeweler from Poland, apparently took his own life today while “alone in his room at 5 Orchard Street.”
1889: It was reported today that Philip J. Joachimsen, the Chairman of Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society Advisory is “confined to his home by illness” which made it impossible for him to take part in the events honoring state Senator Jacob A. Cantor and Assemblyman Joseph Blumenthal.
1891: “The Siege of Yemen” published today described 10 week siege of Yemenite town by an Arab army whose leader declared he would convert the Jews of Yemen to Islam “or extirpate them.” (That is a fancy way for saying “wipe them out.”)
1892: Cornelius Herz, the English born American and French trained physician who worked to develop uses for electricity is in London, where he may stay for some time as France deals with the Panama Scandal.
1892: “No Mercy for the Jews” published today described reports “from St. Petersburg and other parts of Russia which show that the persecution of the Jews and the inhumanity of the Czar’s officals toward that unhappy race are greater than ever before” as can be seen by the issuance of “six edicts…aiming to disperse the Jewish subjects…weaken their position in the trading centers and crush out their religion.
1892: As of today it is reported that many of the 20,000 Jews who have been converted to Orthodox Christianity since 1891 have been deported to Tcherkesovo, five miles from Moscow where they can be watch priests of the Russian Orthodox Church.
1892: It is reported that “many of the Jewish tradesmen and artisans who have been driven from Moscow” have gone to Lodz, a city in Poland which, thanks to their efforts “is fast become and an important manufacturing center.”
1893: As the economic crisis worsens, “the plan” for supplying bread, coal, tea and other necessities to the poor advocated by and financed by Nathan Straus “will be put in operation today.” Mr. Koppel, a nephew of Mr. Strauss will oversee the daily opearation.
1893(21st of Tevet, 5654): Seventy-one year old Italian poetess and translator “of medieval Hebrew poems and original Italian verses in Jewish” passed away today in Asolo.
1893: Russia France France France Germany Germany Russia
1894: Herzl published a long and detailed article in the Neue Freie Presse summing up the major events of the preceding year in France
1894: “The Dreyfus Scandal and the Growth of French Anti-Semitism” published today described the growing power of General Mercier “who scored a distinct personal triumph…in the conviction of Captain Dreyfus” as well as the quadrupling of the circulation of Drumont’s Libre Parole which makes a specialty of anti-Semitic violence and which along with “Rocherfort’s Intransigeant are preaching…nothing less than the wholesale massacre of the Jews.”
1897: Oscar S. Straus, President of the American Jewish Historical Society presided over the last session of its annual meeting which was held today in the Assembly Room of New York’s Temple Emanu-El. The secretary of the society, Dr. Cyrus Adler, reported a proposed amendment to the constitution on behalf of the Executive Council that would increase the number of Vice Presidents from 3 to 4 and suggesting that Herbert B. Adams fill the newly created position. The amendment and recommendation were adopted.
1902:Herzl considers the possibility of using the waters of the Nile as a means of irrigating the wilderness lands of the Sinai Peninsula .
1905: Birthdate of philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.
1909: Jacob Rogovin and the former Dora Shainhouse, who operated a dry goods business, in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, gave birth to Milton Rogovin, an optometrist and persecuted leftist who took up photography as a way to champion the underprivileged and went on to become one of America’s most dedicated social documentarians. (As reported by Benjamin Genocchio)
1912: In a two-column letter to The Times, Dr. Max Nordau, President of the Tenth Zionist Congress “points out the opportunity presented by the impending partition of the Turkish Empire for the earnest consideration by European diplomacy of the Zionist scheme for the resettlement of the Jews in Palestine.”
1914: Dr. William S. Friedman, the rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Denver, “likens the persecution of Leo Frank to the persecution of Mendel Bellis in Russia” and “predicted that when the nations now engaged in the European war have finished the struggle they will turn their attention to the Jews to make him the scapegoat.”
1914: “Shows Jews’ Sufferings” published today described how Oliver Bachrach wore a yoke built of ash, tore his air and “broke an earthen post…as did the patriarch in the time of old in token of great stress of mind” all of which he used to demonstrate the sense of suffering that he was trying to convey in his address about Jewish suffering.
1914: Today’s list contributors to the American Jewish Relief Committee for Suffers from the War included the Cohn Raincoat, Co, the West St. Paul Congregation, Chattanooga Relief Committee and Davidson Bros & Co of Sioux City, Iowa.
1914: At Rochester, NY, “in an address tonight before about 1,000 delegates to the Jewish Chautauqua Convention Dr. Leon Harrison of St. Louis said that regardless of Leo Frank’s guilt or innocence, he is “certain that Leo Frank has not received the fundamental right to which every American citizen under arrest is entitled – a fair trial.”
1915: The Treasurer’s Report of the American Jewish Relief Committee released tonight showed that the total contributions had reached $965.886.25; $755,000 of which was in cash and $210,886.25 in pledges. Today’s largest contribution in the amount of $5,000 came from Henry P. Goldschmidt. Felix Warburg is the committee’s treasurer.
1915: Oscar S. Straus, Chairman of the Clothing Appeal Committee of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, issued a New Year’s appeal today for clothing and shoes for the destitute” people living in war-torn Belgium and Northern France. [Straus, a leading member of the Jewish community, also played a prominent role in the civic and charitable endeavors of the general community.]
1923: Philip Guedalla, the well-known English author and Liberal leader, was elected President of the Federation of English Zionists today.(As reported by JTA)
1925: U.S. premiere of “Ben Hur” the silent screen version of the novel by the same name produced by Louis B. Mayer and featuring Camel Myers as Iras, “the Egyptian vamp.”
1928: Birthdate of Yehuda Haffner, the native of Manchester England who gained as Yehuda Avner “personal secretary and speechwriter to Israeli Prime Ministers Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Golda Meir and Levi Eshkol, and as Israeli Ambassador to Australia and the United Kingdom.”
1928: The National Labor Committee hosted a reception in honor of Mayor David Block of Tel Aviv and the other members of the Palestine Labor Delegation including Miss Goldie Meyerson (who as Golda Meir would become Prime Minister of Israel) this evening at the Manhattan Opera House. Violinist Max Rosen and Metropolitan Opera soprano Nanette Guilford make their first joint appearance as part of the evening’s entertainment.
1928: A debate is held at Yeshiva College where teams from the Hebrew Theological College of Chicago and the Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary take opposing sides on “Resolved: The Cultural Restoration of Judaism depends upon the Restoration of Palestine.”
1930(10th of Tevet, 5691): Asara B'Tevet
1932: U.S. premiere of “Back Street” the film treatment of the novel by Fannie Hurst directed by John M. Stahl, produced by Carl Laemmle, Jr with a script co-authored by Ben Hecht and filmed by cinematographer Karl Fruend
1935: Birthdate of Dodger southpaw Sandy Koufax.
1935: Birthdate of Isaiah Sheffer, the native New Yorker who created “Symphony Space, a vibrant, eclectic institution known for its broadcasts of actors reading short stories…” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1936: In Manhattan, publicist Benjamin Sonnenberg and his wife gave birth to Benjamin “Ben” Sonnenberg, Jr. whose whims and myriad enthusiasms made Grand Street, the quarterly he founded in 1981, one of the most revered literary magazines of the postwar era. (As reported by William Grimes)
1936: The newly-organized Palestine Symphony Orchestra is heard on the air for the first time today when a concert under the direction of Arturo Toscanini is broadcast over WJZ’s network from 2:50 to 3:40 pm. The seventy piece orchestra is broadcasting from Exhibition Hall in Tel Aviv.
1936: At today’s session of the Peel Commission Jewish leaders including Beryl Katznenellenson, editor of the Jewish labor daily Davarand Miss Goldie Myerson, “denounced the government as ‘unfriendly, begrudging Jewish efforts, unmindful of the mandate and its purpose and negligent eve in fulfilling plain civic functions.”
1936: The Peel Commission interviewed Dov Hos a Russian born senior member of the General Federation of Jewish Labour who had been sentenced to death by the Turks for defending the Jews of Galilee and who had fought with the British during World War I. During his testimony Hos told the commissioners that where the Jews established hospitals and schools, the British government is being relieved of the responsibility and expense of creating and operating them. Commissioner Rumbold responded to these comments by angrily defending the Mandate government and referring to the Jews as “an alien race.” Hos responded that Jews were not an “alien race but a children returning to their country, to the country where they lived or to a country where they are going to have their home.”
1936: Members of the Peel Commission “attended a concert which attested to the new Jewish life in Jerusalem.” In what was described as the most important musical experience in its history, “ancient Jerusalem came alive musically.”
1937: The Palestine Postreported from London
1937: The Palestine Postreported that the Jewish settlement of Atarot and police patrols at Tulkarm and on the Nablus-Jenin road came under heavy Arab fire, but there were no reports of casualties.
1937: Birthdate of Paul Stookey. Stookey is “Paul” in the folk trio, Peter, Paul & Mary. He is the non-Jewish member of the famous trio.
1939: U.S. premiere of “Of Mice and Men” directed and produced by Lewis Milestone with music by Aaron Copland.
1939: The riverboat Uranus reached the Iron Gates gorge in Romania, on the Yugoslavian border, with 1210 fugitive Jews from Vienna, Austria, and Prague, Czechoslovakia. The boat's journey was halted after Great Britain, holder of the Mandate on Palestine, protested to the Yugoslavian government.
1940: Birthdate of James Burrows, son of Abe Burrows and director of television hits including’ Taxi,''''Cheers,'' and ''Will and Grace.''“He also presided over one of the most Jewish moments in television. In a medium in which Jewish characters rarely do anything Jewish, let alone marry within the faith (Valerie Harper as Rhoda Morgenstern in Rhoda and Paul Reiser as Paul Buchman in “Mad About You” are just two examples — and don’t even mention Seinfeld), Grace Adler (Debra Messing) of “Will & Grace,” not only was married by a rabbi under a chupah, but got hitched to a Jewish doctor. That was Leo Markus played by Harry Connick Jr. Certainly, Jewishness has increasingly factored into Burrows’ life. Both his parents were Jewish but not observant. But his first wife was a Conservative Jew and “made him get back on the bus.” He had a bar mitzvah at 47, prompting one of his producing partners, Les Charles, to say: “You’re the first Jew I know who was a bar mitzvah at 47 and bald at 13.”He is what he calls a once-a-year Jew, attending shul for Yom Kippur. But he still gathers with his daughters every Friday evening “to light the candles, have a challah and say a bracha.”
1941(10th of Tevet, 5702):Asara B'Tevet
1941(10th of Tevet, 5702):: Lazar Markovich Lissitzky, the Soviet artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer, and architect, better known as El Lissitzky, passed away. For examples of his art see:
1942: Pope Pius XII told an American representative that he regarded the atrocity stories about Jews as exaggerations "for the purposes of propaganda."
1943: The keel for the SS. Sigman, a U.S. Navy liberty ship, was laid today. A Russian immigrant, Morris Sigman was active in the labor movement and was president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
1945: Mrs. William Prince President of the Women’s League for Palestine announced today that work has been started on an addition to the League’s home for immigrant girls in Tel Aviv
1945: Birthdate of director and actor Lloyd Kaufman.
1945: The New York Times reported that in their hunt for the Jews thought to be responsible for Thursday night’s violence in Palestine airborne troops surrounded the town of Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv and took more than 800 men into custody for questioning.
1947: Birthdate of historian Michael Burns the author of Dreyfus: A Family Affair, 1789-1945, France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Documentary History and Rural Society and French Politics: Boulangism and the Dreyfus Affair” 1888-1900.
1947: Forty Jewish workers were killed by Arabs at the Haifa
1947: A bus carrying hospital workers to Mount Scopus Hadassah Hospital
1947: Arab gun men attacked a group of Jews as they began to bury ten of their murdered co-religionists at the Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives. British policemen accompanying the burial party carried on a gun fight with the attackers. One policeman and one Jew from the Burial Society were killed. The ten people who were to have been buried and the two new fatalities were put back on a bus and returned to Jerusalem
1947: The Dora Trial came to an end today when the following verdicts were handed down: Death by hanging, Hans Moser; Life imprisonment – Erhard Brauny, Otto Brinkmann, Emil Buhring, Ruldof Jacobi, Josef Kilian, George Konig, Wilhelm Simon; 20 years imprisonment – Willi Zwiener; 20 years imprisonemtn Arthur Adra, Oskar Helbig, Richard Walenta; 7 years – Heinrich Detmers; 5 years – Walter Ulbricht, Paul Maischein
1948: Israeli armor and infantry captured the airfield south of El Arish and moved to capture the town itself.
1948: The original Broadway production of “Kiss Me Kate” with a book written by Samuel and Bella Spewack which earned them two Tony Awards.
1948: During Operation Horev, the Harel brigade moved further west into the Sinai Peninsula.
1948: The British government took an active role on the side of the Arabs in the Israel War for Independence Israel
1949(10th of Tevet, 5710): Asara B’Tevet
1952: The Jerusalem Postreported that the US Israel Britain March 25, 19 50Middle East . The Women's Labor Bill, which banned women from dangerous employment and offered special maternity privileges, passed the first reading in the Knesset.
1954: “House of Flowers is a musical by Harold Arlen opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre and played for 165 performances.’
1957: The Israeli government of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion resigned.
1960(11thof Tevet, 5721): Seventy-five year old Ángelo Donati, “the Jewish Schindler” passed away today.
1960: A group of Israeli university professors signed and published a public letter denouncing Prime Minister David Ben Gurion.
1965(7th of Tevet, 5726): Seventy-two year old Manfred George the German born Jewish journalist who came to the United States in 1939 where he “became the editor of Aufbau, a periodical published in German, and transformed it from a small monthly newsletter into an important weekly newspaper, especially during World War II and the postwar era, when it became an important source of information for Jews trying to establish new lives and for Nazi concentration camp survivors to find each other.”
1965: Birthdate of Heidi Fleiss convicted prostitute and Madame. Her doctor father is an opponent of circumcision, a rather strange position for a Jew to take.
1967: Thirty-eight year old song writer and record producer Bertrand “Bert” Russell Berns passed away today.
1968: Trygve Lie passed away. Born in Norway in 1896, Trygve Lie was the first United Nations Secretary General. In that position he headed the U.N. at the time of creation of state of Israel. His support was critical in the birth of the Jewish state and the successful conclusion of the War for Independence.
1969:While living in Stretford, Greater Manchester, Karen Kay gave birth to twin boys, Jason and David, a few weeks after birth David died. Jason (Jason Kay) was born Jason Cheetham.
1969: Birthdate of Jason Kay, best known by his stage name Jay Kay. He “is Grammy Award winning English musician from the band Jamiroquai.”
1960: Danielle Kahn and modernist architect Isi Metzstein gave fir to Scottish film director Saul Metzstein.
1973: The New York Times featured a review of Selected Poems a collection of the poems of Jewish poet Joseph Brodsky.
1977: A frustrated Moshe Dayan told Israeli television that if Sadat insisted on an Israeli agreement to “return” all Arab lands and recognize Palestinian sovereignty as pre-conditions to peace negotiations than the peace process is finished. For the next six months there is virtually no progress in talks between Egypt and Israel.
1977: The Jerusalem Postreported that President Anwar Sadat of Egypt US
1977: The Jerusalem Postreported that two persons were killed and another two injured by a bomb explosion in Rehov Shoham in Netanya.
1977: The Jerusalem Postreported Ephraim Katzir, Israel¹s fourth president, declined a second term of office.
1978: Roger and Hammerstein’s “King & I" closed after 719 performances at the Uris Theater in New York City
1979(10th of Tevet, 5740): Asara B'Tevet
1979(10th of Tevet, 5740): Composer Richard Rodgers passed away at the age of 77
1983: In “Three Decades of Chaim Soutine Paintings” Grace Glueck provides a brief history of the late French expressionist painter and a description of his works now appearing at the Galleri Bellman.
1988(22nd of Tevet, 5749): Yuli Markovich Daniel Soviet dissident writer, poet, translator, political prisoner and gulag survivor passed away.
1989: In “Pursue Peace, Not Just Elections,” Abba Eban, the former Foreign Minister of Israel, described what he sees as the next steps to be taken on the road to a Middle East settlement:
1993: Israel Vatican
1993(16th of Tevet, 5754): “Superagent” [Irving Paul] "Swifty" Lazar passed away at the age of 86.
1993:Israel's Foreign Minister said today that Israel and the P.L.O. had concluded their latest round of talks with a "meeting of the minds," but there was no breakthrough and significant differences remained. The two sides, still trying to work out the details of the accord that they signed in Washington in September and that was supposed to have gone into effect two weeks ago, reached what an Israeli official described as "a set of understandings" on how to carry out the first phase -- an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho.
1993: Roni Milo resigned from the Knesset so he can concentrate on his role as mayor of Tel Aviv.
1995: In reviewing the events that flickered across our television screen, Walter Goodman described 1995 as being a year of “Emotional Overload and Emotional Lift.” As an example of this he wrote that “The shock at the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's Prime Minister was to some extent alleviated by the immediate surge of revulsion, expressed on television both in the United States and in Israel, over violent political language as well as acts of violence. At the widely covered funeral, the tributes of so many heads of state were heartening, with the pictures of an obviously moved King Hussein of Jordan carrying special force. Even amid the anxiety over the future, it was a historic and consoling moment: an Arab leader showing personal sorrow for the death of an Israeli leader.”
1996: Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.
1997(2nd of Tevet, 5758): 8th& final day of Chanukah
1997: “Legends of Yiddish Stage Brought To Life” describes Fyvush Finkel’s homage to the world of theatrical Yiddish -- ''Fyvush Finkel -- From Second Avenue to Broadway.''
2000(4th of Tevet, 5761): Ninety one year old screenwriter Julius J. Epstein passed away today.(As reported by Richard Natale)
2000: In an article entitled“Humble Bagel, Highly Priced But Worth It,” Clyde Haberman lamented the increasing cost of what was once the quintessential New York Jewish Food.
“The holidays required a stop at H & H, the bagel emporium on the Upper West Side. This produced a discovery that, since the last visit a few weeks earlier, the price of a bagel had gone up a dime. It now cost 95 cents. Nearly a buck for a bagel! A bagel! You could understand it, maybe, if you were able to read your fortune in the poppy seeds. But what is humbler than an unadorned, untoasted, unshmeared bagel? Ninety-five cents? At Zabar's, across the street, bagels sell for only 39 cents each. They're 60 cents at Barney Greengrass, nearby, and at Columbia Bagels, half a mile farther north on Broadway, and 50 cents at Kossar's, the bialy mavens on the Lower East Side. One bagel purveyor in Manhattan -- please, he said, no names -- was not aware of the new H & H price until a phone caller mentioned it. He had to share the news with a colleague. ''Hey,'' he called out, ''H & H gets 95 cents.'' Then he returned to the phone. ''You should see his grimace,'' he reported. ''That,'' he agreed, ''is a lot of money for a bagel.'' Indeed. At the H & H store, a counterman could muster little more than an embarrassed smile when asked why. ''Ask the boss,'' he replied. But the boss, Helmer Toro, was not to be found at the H & H headquarters in Midtown. A woman who picked up the phone did allow, however, that ''our bagels are great.'' No argument, even if there are those who insist that Columbia's or Kossar's are tastier. And the long lines at H & H this week suggested that 95 cents (with a discount price of $11 for a dozen, and an extra thrown in free) is hardly enough to deter committed New York shoppers.”
2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including Wittgenstein’s Poker: The Story of a 10-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers by David Edmonds and John Eidinow and Making The List:A Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900-1999by Michael Korda.
2001(16th of Tevet, 5762): Rabbi Chaim Kreiswirth passed away shortly before midnight, aged 82, after suffering from an illness. Born at Wojnicz, Poland in 1918, the son of Rabbi Avrohom Yosef Schermann and Perla Kreiswirth, he was an Orthodox rabbi who served as the longtime Chief Rabbi of Congregation Machzikei Hadass Antwerp, Belgium. He was the founder and rosh yeshiva of the Mercaz HaTorah yeshiva in Jerusalem, and was a highly regarded Torah scholar.
2003: U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft recued himself and his office from investigating The Plame Affair. Palme is Valerie Plame the Jewish CIA operative whose identity was exposed in column by Robert Novak.
2004: Airel Sharon “sealed a deal with the Labor Party to form a coalition with Shimon Peres becoming Vice Premier, restoring the government’s majority in the Knesset”
2004(18th of Tevet, 5765): Artie Shaw passed away. Born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky, Shaw gained fame for as a clarinet player and Big Band Leader. He received a Grammy Life Time Achievement Award and is member of the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.
2005(29th of Kislev, 5766: Rona Jaffe author of The Best of Everything passed away at the age of 74.
2005: Pepe Eliaschev, the grandson of Russian Jewish immigrants, a fixture of Argentine media, and host of the daily radio show, “Esto Que Pasa” or “This is what’s happening” was fired in what he saw as a form of media self-censorship.
2005: The first kosher restaurant, Kineret Aruba Glatt Kosher Deli opened at the Playa Linda Beach Resort in Aruba .
2006:The second edition of Encyclopedia Judaica, a 22-volume work, was published which is to be released in January, was published today.
2006: The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports about the growth of religiously orientated games in an article entitled “How about a game of Kosherland?” The story begins “The crazy Jewish fun of Kosherland looks la lot like the board game Candy Land, except gefilte fishing substitutes for he visits to the Ice Cream Sea
2006: “Spotlight Moves to Hellman’s Plays”
2007: The Sunday New York Times features reviews of the books by Jewish authors and/or about matters of special interest to Jewish readers including Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg and The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner.
2007: In what would seem to be a reminder of the common origins of mankind, the Chicago Tribune reported that the a genetic mutation known to increase the odds of breast cancer in some Jewish women has been found in significant numbers of Hispanic and African-American breast cancer patients underscoring the need for genetic testing across ethnic lines to determine who is at risk.
2008: At 1:33 A.M. , Israeli time, Haaretz reported that two Israelis had been killed Monday evening as Gaza Israel Israel Negev base, and another was seriously wounded. Four others were lightly hurt in the attack. The other fatality occurred when a woman got out of her vehicle when she heard the early warning siren in the city of Ashdod
2008 (3 Tevet, 5769):Seventy eight year old“Harvey Ginsberg, a New York book editor who served long tenures at G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Harper & Row and William Morrow & Company, and whose most loyal writers included John Irving and Saul Bellow, passed away today in Manhattan.” (As reported Bruce Weber) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/books/11ginsberg.html?_r=0
2009:New York’s classical music radio station, WQXR, 105.9 fm presented a broadcast of selections from the Keshet Eilon 2009 Violin Mastercourse, performed at its gala final concert at Kibbutz Eilon by participants in the course.
2009:The Gerard Bechar Center presented The Jerusalem Cantors Choir, in a concert entitled "Mizmor Le-toda:" a festive show combining Israeli and Cantorial classics. The evening is a tribute to Cantor Binyamin Glickman on the occasion of his 75th birthday and celebrating 55 years of his career as a conductor.
2009:The Psik Theater presented "The Jerusalem Comedy:" a comedy about Ultra Orthodox, Secular, and those stuck somewhere in the middle. The play tells the story of the struggle between the secular theatre "Le'Mehadrin" and the adjacent orthodox yeshiva in the same neighborhood. The juxtaposition of the two creates extreme comical situations.
2009: Closing session of the International Conference on Conservative Judaism: Halakhah, Culture and Sociology at The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.
2009: Final session of The USY International Convention was held in Chicago, IL.
2009:Israel's population stands at 7.5 million, according to figures released today by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Published ahead of the Gregorian New Year 2010, Israel's population has continued to grow at a steady rate of 1.8 percent over the past seven years, with 160,000 new babies born since last January 1 and some 14,500 new immigrants arriving over the past year. In terms of ethnic divisions, Israel's Jews now make up 75.4% of the population, or 5,664,000 people; Arabs consist of 20.3%, or 1,526,000 citizens; and the remaining 4.3% (319,000) are those registered as "others" by the Interior Ministry. According to the CBS's population report published ahead of the Jewish New Year in September, Israel is still a fairly young nation with nearly 30% of its population under the age of 14, compared to 17% in most other Western countries. Only 9.7% of the population is over the age of 65 in Israel, whereas in other Western countries the average is closer to 15%. The report also showed that the average Jewish family size increased since 2008 from 2.8 children per household to 2.96. In the Muslim community, the average number of children per mother was 3.84, a drop from the previous two years where it had previously reached 3.97 children per household. Among Christian families the average number of children was down to 2.11 in 2008. The ratio of men to women continues to be consistent too, with the number of women in the country still slightly outweighing the number of men, especially in the more advanced years of life. According to the statistics, there is 979 men for every 1000 women, however in the under 37 set there are more men but it is the imbalance in the over 75 age group that off-sets this with some 673 men for every 1000 women.
2009:One or more mortars were fired from Gaza into southern Israel.
2009: Today, the Shin Bet, Israel's security service, released a report which showed that 566 rockets were fired on Israel from Gaza in 2009; most were fired in January, during Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza. By comparison, 2,048 rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza in 2008.
2010: In Orlando, FL, the USY International Convention is scheduled to come to an end.
2010: The 30th Limmud Conference is scheduled to come to an end today.
2010:The Rt. Hon. Sir Martin Gilbert, CBE is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled "Britain and Palestine, 1917-1947: Researching the Relationship" at Beit Avi Chai. Attendees will enjoy an evening with Sir Martin, the official biographer of Winston Churchill, who is one of the most knowledgeable, literate and prolific historians in the 20th and 21st century. His eighty-two books include Israel, Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century, Churchill and the Jews, Holocaust Journeyand his latest offering, In Ishmael’s House
2010: The Shin Ben (Israel Security Agency) reported today that there was a decrease in the number of terrorist attacks targeting Israelis in 2010. There were 798 recorded terrorist attacks in 2010 at the time the report was written, compared to 1,354 in 2009.
2010:This evening, a group of Arab men attacked a soldier at the entrance to Kiryat Arba. The soldier suffered head injuries in the attack. His assailants were arrested.
2010:An exhibition on the Jews of Iran showcasing the community’s 2,700-year-old history and rich heritage opens today at Beit Hatefutsoth in Tel Aviv.
2010: Former president Moshe Katsav was found guilty of raping former Tourism Ministry worker "Aleph," in the Tel Aviv District Court this morning. "The event happened in the accused's office," the judges said. "Aleph said no - she expressed dissent. This is not sexual harassment, this is rape."The judges said that just because Aleph complained years after the event, does not mean that she is lying.
"Aleph is honest and speaking the truth, while Katsav's testimony is full of lies," the judges determined.
2010: The Limmud Conference, British Jewry’s answer to the Edinburgh Festival which has been celebrating its 30th anniversary came to an end today. .
2011(4th of Tevet, 5772): Ninety four year old Bernard Bellush,Professor Emeritus of History at the City College of New York (CCNY), who was part of “Alcove Number One” – “a group of student radicals at CCNY during the 1930’s – passed away today.
2011:The Jaffa Rd Walking Tour, an exploration of Jerusalem’s main artery to the coast for centuries which was also an Ottoman road with British influences, is scheduled to begin this morning. at Tzahal Square, Kikar Safra #10, across from Jaffa Gate Plaza, at 9:00am
2011: The Israel Air Force struck a group of terrorists attempting to fire rockets into Israel this morning.
2011: Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, the rabbi of the Har Bracha settlement and the dean of the Har Bracha yeshiva, strongly criticized gender segregation on buses in a column to be published in the B’Sheva weekly today.
2012: Choreographer Ssmulik Gov-Are and Hadassah Badoch-Kruger Yemenite dance expert & former soloist with the Inbal and Batsheva dance companies are scheduled to attend the Israeli Folk Dance End-of-Year Party
2012: After a year, Uncovered & Rediscovered, an evolving eight-part exhibit that explores the Chicago Jewish experience at the Spertus Institute is scheduled to come to an end today
2012: Celebration of the birthday of University of Iowa Hillel Director Jerry Sorki
2012: “DADB – A Story of an Israeli Icon” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival
2012: Dorit Beinisch “was awarded as a knight of The Movement for Quality Government in Israe2012: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg and Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks
2012: Israel’s population stands at 7,981,000 citizens, an increase of nearly 2 percent, according to an annual end of the year tally from the Central Bureau of Statistics, released on today (As reported by Gabe Fisher)2012(17thof Tevet, 5773): Nobel Prize winner Rita-Montaclini passed away at the age of 103 (As reported by Benedict Carey
2012(17thof Tevet, 5773): Eighty-nine year old Beate Sirota Gordon, “the unsung heroine of Japanese women’s rights” passed away. (As reported by Margalit Fox)2012: Security forces arrived early this morning at the West Bank outpost of Oz Zion, demolished makeshift structures and evacuated a small group of right-wing activists who had remained at the site.
2012: In “Several Eras End at One Lower East Side Building” published today David W. Dunlap described the world that surrounded the First Romanian-American Synagogue known as ‘the cantors’ Carnegie Hall.”
2013: “Ender’s Game” and “The Godfather II” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: Twenty-six more murdering Palestinian terrorists are scheduled to be released today as part of the Israeli compliance with the pre-conditions for the latest rounds of “peace talks” which are taking place against a background of stabbings, shootings and bombings. For a list of the killers and their crimes see
2013:Hours before Israel was set to free another 26 Palestinians convicted of terrorism, the High Court of Justice refused the bereaved families' appeal against the release scheduled for midnight.(As reported by Omri Efraim)
2013:An art historian has found two art works stolen by the Nazis inside Germany's parliament, a newspaper reported today, in a new embarrassment for authorities after a huge stash of looted art came to light last month.
2014: “October 7, 1944” an “installation, commissioned by the American Jewish Historical Society, that offers a response by the internationally acclaimed choreographer Jonah Bokaer to an uprising organized by Jewish inmates at Auschwitz in 1944 which pays tribute to the role of four unheralded women who took part in the uprising” is scheduled to come to a close today.
2014: “Winter Sleep “and “David Perlov” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.