January 1
630: Prophet Muhammad sets out toward Mecca with the army that will capture it bloodlessly. At first Mohammed “had hoped to find is main supporters among the Jewish tribes” of Arabia. This can be seen in his early adoption of certain laws regarding fasting and facing Jerusalem during prayer. When the Jews refused to accept him as the final line of prophets that had included Abraham and Moses, he turned against the Jews “in a cruel war of extermination.” Mohammed would die two years after the conquest of Mecca but his legacy lives on to this very day.
1430: The Jews of Sicily were no longer required to attend “conversionist services.”
1432: Alexander the Good
1438: Albert II of Habsburg is crowned King of Hungary. Albert confirmed the privilegium of Béla IV. In 1251 Béla had granted a privilgium to his Jewish subjects which was essentially the same as that granted by Duke Frederick II the Quarrelsome to the Austrian Jews in 1244, but which Béla modified to suit the conditions of Hungary.
1515: King Francis I succeeds to the French throne. Francis did not have any Jewish subjects since they had been expelled by Charles V at the end of the 14thcentury and they would not return until 1675 when Louis XIV would grant permission to the Jews living in Alsace and Lorraine, his two newly acquired provinces, to remain in their ancestral homes.
1515: Jews were expelled from Laibach, Austria.
1527: Croatian nobles elect Ferdinand I of Austria as king of Croatia in the Parliament on Cetin. There were no Croatian Jews in attendance since the Jews had been expelled and there was no record of any Jews living in Croatia after 1526.
1549(Shevat, 5309): Elia Levita also known as Elijah Levita, Elias Levita, Eliahu Bakhur ("Eliahu the Bachelor") a Renaissance-period Hebrew grammarian, poet and one of the first writers in the Yiddish language passed away. Born in 1469, he “was the author of the Bovo-Bukh the most popular chivalric romance written in Yiddish, which, according to Sol Liptzin, is ‘generally regarded as the most outstanding poetic work in Old Yiddish.’”[
1577: Today, Pope Gregory XIII decreed that all Roman Jews, under pain of death, must listen attentively to the compulsory Catholic conversion sermon given in Roman synagogues after Friday night services.
1578: Today, Pope Gregory XIII signed into law a tax forcing Jews to pay for the support of a “House of Conversion” to convert Jews to Christianity.
1581: Today, Pope Gregory XIII ordered his troops to confiscate all sacred literature from the Roman Jewish community. Thousands of Jews were murdered in the campaign.
1594:Rodrigo Lopez, a Marrano who was serving as physician to Queen Elizabeth, was arrested on charges of trying to poison the English Monarch
1627 (13th of Tevet, 5387): A press belonging to Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel published a prayer book, which was the first work produced by this Hebrew particular printing press.
1651: Coronation of King Charles II of Scotland who as King Charles of II of England would issue several proclamations guaranteeing the rights of the fledgling Jewish community in the British Isles.
1515: Louis XII who ordered the final expulsion of the Jews from Provence in 1501 and who introduced a tax in 1512 on the remaining Jews there, who had accepted baptism known as the "tax of the neophytes," passed away today.
1714:Leffmann Behrends, the son of Issachar Barmann and the grandson of Isaac Cohen of Borkum, who was a leading German financier who used his influence to protect his co-religionists passed away today.
1784:Sara Rodrigues Alvares and Abraham Furtado, President of the Assemblee des Notables gave birth to their daughter Anne Emilie
1793 Birthdate of Bertha Morgenstern, the native of Russia who came to New York City in 1842 with her children and husband.
1798: The first Jewish censor was appointed by the Russian government to censor all Hebrew books printed in Russia or imported from other countries. As you can see from the next comment about life under Communism, the Czars and the Commissars agreed on the need to censor Jewish books. However, some times, the outcome could be a bit on comical side. “Yosef Mendelovitch tells that when he was being transferred from one Russian prison to another, he was in temporary possession of his Chumash that had been confiscated when he was first imprisoned. He would have to give it up again upon arrival at the new prison. Also in his possession was a collection of selected speeches by Brezhnev translated into Yiddish. This book was officially passed by the censor (which is why I'm relating this story). He separated content from covers in both books, which happened to be of the same size, got rid of the speeches, and pasted (with well-chewed bread) the Chumash into the censor-approved cover. His Chumash passed cursory inspection at his new prison and was his unfailing companion during his incarceration.”
1802: In a letter written to the Danbury, CT Baptist Association, ThomasJefferson coined the metaphor, "a wall of separation between Church and State." Many think this term originated in 1947, when the "wall of separation" concept gained acceptance as a constitutional guideline. It obviously dates back to the Founding Fathers. Contrary to the nonsense being passed around by various demagogues today, separation of Church and State was a basic concept in the founding of the United States. The assault on Jefferson’s “Wall of Separation” could be styled as an attempt by modern day radicals to undo the work of the American Revolution.
1804: As a result of the slave revolt of Toussaint L’Ouverture French rule ends in Haiti. Haiti becomes the first black republic and first country independent in the West Indies. “Unfortunately, “during the slave revolt, much of the Jewish community was murdered or expelled from Haiti. A few years later, many Polish Jews arrived in Haiti due to civil strife in Poland.”
1807: Birthdate of German rabbi Asher Sammter
1807: Birthdate of Abraham Kohn, the Chief Reform Rabbi of Lemberg.
1808: Several restrictions on Jewish ownership of land went into effect in Russia.
1811: Today Lübeck was annexed to France. This meant an end to all anti-Jewish discrimination including an abolition of the special taxes of the "Schutzjuden.” This change brought an influx of Jews who entered the town from surrounding areas including Moisling. All this would come to an end when the French left and the Germans again took control. :
1815: Birthdate of German author Boas Eduard who passed away in June of 1853l
1834: Gustav Schwabe, a Jewish native of Hamburg whose family was forced to convert when he was 6 years old, became a partner at Boustead and Company was renamed Boustead, Schwabe and Company.
1834: Birthdate of Salomon Stricker, the native of Waag-Neustdadt which was part of the Autro-Hungarian empire at that time who became a note pathologist and histologist.
1834: Birthdate of Ludovic Halévy, a member of the famed Halevy clan whose artistic and social activities spanned at least three centuries starting in 1760. Halevy was prominent in the musical theatre of 19th century France. One of his most famous works was the libretto for the opera “Carmen.”Halevy is an example of the fate of European Jews. His father had converted in order to marry the daughter of the architect Louis-Hippolyte Lebas and this enabled him in 1831 to become assistant professor of French literature at the Ecole Polytechnique, where there was some discrimination against Jews.
1837: Earthquake in the Tzfat-Tiberias area of Eretz Israel killed between two thousand and four thousand people, mostly Jews. Many monuments and archaeological sites were damaged. The quake is also called The Galilee Earthquake of 1937 and the Safed Earthquake.
1837(24thof Tevet, 5597):Nissim Zerahiah Azulai “editor and annotator of Shabbethai Cohen's "Shulḥan ha-Ṭahor" (The Pure Table), a treatise on the 613 commandments, perished in the earthquake at Safed”
1854: Solomon Nunes Carvalho,a South Carolina native of Portuguese and Sephardic Jewish descent, who had the good or bad fortune to join John C. Fremont's 1853-54 mapping expedition to the Rocky Mountains, served a dessert of blanc mange “to the ‘satisfaction and astonishment of the whole party,’ a fitting climax to a meal of horse soup and horse steaks fried in buffalo tallow.”
1849: Birthdate of Bohemian born pediatrician Alois Epstein
1854(1st of Tevet, 5614): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1858: French author Mario Uchard exchanges New Year's greetings with the famed Franco-Jewish actress Rachel Félix in which the latter seemed to be bidding Uchard "an eternal adiu. However, her doctor assured Uchard that "she would live some days longer.
[Editor’s Note: The following is not an error. There were two different letters.]
1859: The New York Times published a copy of the letter “The Executive Committee of the Representatives of the United Congregations of Israelites of the City of New York” had sent to President James Buchanan in November of 1858 concerning the Mortara Case. Their letter included a reference to the letter sent by The London Committee of Deputies of British Jews “to their brethren in the United States” seeking their support in having the boy who was kidnapped in Bologna returned to his family. The letter informed the President of the support being offered by several European nations and of plans to hold a public meeting to enlist public support in the United States. The committee reminded President Buchanan of the prompt action taken by President Van Buren in 1840 when he was asked to intervene to aid the persecuted Jews of Damascus and expressed the hope that he would do the same.
1859: The New York Times published a copy of the letter The Executive Committee of the Representatives of the United Congregations of Israelites of the City of New York had sent to President James Buchanan in December of 1858 which described a public meeting held on December 4 in which Jews and non-Jews gathered to demand the return of Edgardo Mortara to his parents. Those attending the meeting also petitioned the President to join with the several European nations who were protesting the kidnapping of the youngster by representatives of the Pope.
1863: Edward Rosewater, a member of the United States Telegraph Corps serving at the White House telegraph office, was responsible sending out President Abraham Lincoln’s “Emancipation Proclamation” today. Rosewater was born to a Jewish family in Bohemia and moved to the United States in 1854
1863: During the Civil War, Confederate forces recaptured Galveston, Texas with assistance from Rosanna Dyer Osterman. As recounted in Jewish Women in America: An Historical
Encyclopedia, Rosanna Dyer Osterman, a native of Germany, was living in Galveston, Texas, in 1862 when Union forces captured the city. She had come to Texas in 1838 to help her husband run his mercantile business. Eventually, she became a leading member of the Jewish community, helping to bring the first rabbi to Texas in 1852. When the Civil War broke out, Osterman, by then a widow, remained in Galveston. While many others left for the mainland, she stayed to nurse the sick and wounded, turning her home into a hospital. After the city was captured by Northern troops, she provided military information to Confederate officers in Houston. This information helped them to successfully recapture Galveston on January 1, 1863. Just three years later, Osterman was killed in a steamboat explosion on the Mississippi River. In her will, she left her considerable fortune, over $200,000, to a host of Jewish and benevolent institutions. Gifts went to Jewish hospitals in New York, New Orleans, and Cincinnati, and enabled the establishment of a Hebrew Benevolent Society in Galveston, which cared for poor and sick people of all faiths. Osterman's bequests also funded synagogues in Houston and Galveston, a Home for Widows and Orphans and a Sailors’ Home in Galveston, and a Jewish Foster Home in Philadelphia. In an obituary, the Galveston News lauded Osterman for her "unselfish devotion to the suffering and the sick" and said that "the history of Rosanna Osterman is more eloquently written in the untold charities that have been dispensed by her liberal hands than any eulogy man can bestow."
1864: Birthdate of Alfred Stieglitz considered by some to be “the father of modern photography.”
1867: Birthdate of Lew Fields. This New York native was part of the Weber and Fields one of the most successful vaudeville acts of their time. When the act split up, Fields became one of the most influential producers in New York. He was the father of songwriter Dorothy Fields who enjoyed a successful Broadway career in her own right.
1867: Rabbi Isaac Leeser of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, presided over the first Jewish wedding in Atlanta, which joined Emilie Baer to Abraham Rosenfeld in the holy bonds of matrimony. He used the occasion to encourage the creation of a congregation to replace the short-lived one begun in 1862. The Hebrew Benevolent Congregation received a charter four months later and began constructing a synagogue in 1875.
1867: Following the retirement of Joseph Herzfeld, Hallgarten & Herzfeld, changed its name to Hallgarten & Co, the investment bank co-founded by Lazarus Hallgarten.
1869: Birthdate of Milton J. Rosenau. Rosenau played a crucial role in the long, contentious campaign to make milk supplies pure and safe in the United States. As researcher, health official, and educator, Rosenau put medical science to work in the service of preventive medicine and public health. The Philadelphia native received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1889. In 1890, he joined the United States Marine Hospital Service (MHS). He served as quarantine officer in San Francisco from 1895-1898 and in Cuba in 1898. During 1899-1909, he directed the MHS Hygienic Laboratory, transforming a one-person operation into a bustling institution with divisions in bacteriology, chemistry, pathology, pharmacology, zoology, and biology. Rosenau conducted his most important medical research during his 10 years at the Hygienic Laboratory, publishing many articles and books, including The Milk Question (1912) and Preventive Medicine and Hygiene (1913), which quickly became the most influential textbook on the subject. From early in his career, campaigns to reduce milkborne diseases occupied Rosenau's attention. As he stated in his textbook, "Next to water purification, pasteurization is the most important single preventive measure in the field of sanitation." A Public Health Service study in 1909 reported that 500 outbreaks of milkborne diseases had occurred during 1880-1907. By 1900, increasing numbers of children drank pasteurized milk, but raw milk remained the norm partly because the high-temperature process then in use imparted a "cooked milk" taste. In 1906, Rosenau established that low temperature, slow pasteurization (140 F [60 C] for 20 minutes) killed pathogens without spoiling the taste, thus eliminating a key obstacle to public acceptance of pasteurized milk. However, securing a safe milk supply nationwide took another generation. By 1936, pasteurized, certified milk was the standard in most large cities, although over half of all milk in the United States was still consumed raw. In 1913, Rosenau became a Harvard University Medical School professor and a co-founder of the Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology School for Health Officers. When Harvard established a school of public health in 1922, Rosenau directed its epidemiology program until 1935. In 1936, he moved to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to help establish its public health school (1940), where he served as dean until his death in 1946. Rosenau was a dedicated teacher and advocate for improved training in preventive medicine, but he is better remembered for his textbook than his pioneering epidemiologic work. This is as he expected: "We find monuments erected to heroes who have won wars, but we find none commemorating anyone's preventing a war. The same is true with epidemics." As can be seen from his membership on the Executive Committee of the American Jewish Committee, Rosenau was active in the affairs of the Jewish Community in the United States.
1873: Julie Judith Bamberger and Isaac Bamberger gave birth to Shimon Simcha Bamberger.
1874: Frederick de Sola Mendes assumed his duties as of Rabbi at Shaaray Tefillah congregation (later known as the West End Synagogue) in New York City.
1874: As part of the New Year’s Day celebration, 200 children at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum partook of an excellent dinner. Afterwards, they marched to the homes of Meyer Stern and Mrs. Max Herzog, President of the Ladies’ Sewing Society, where they paid there respects.
1875: In New York, Hirsch & Mayer, a firm dealing in woolen goods, was reported “to have a stock of goods wholly paid for” and to be owed $30,000.
1875: Jacob Schiff (1847-1920), Solomon Loeb's son-in-law, joined the firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
1876: As of today, the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith has a total of $550,000 in its treasury.
1876: As of today, the Independent Order Free Sons of Israel has a total of $58,350 in its treasury
1876: As of today, the Improved Order Free Sons of Israel has a total of $25,500 in its treasury.
1876: In New York, Hirsch & Mayer was found to be insolvent. The insolvency touched off 20 civil suits and criminal charges aimed at Benjamin Mayer, a young, well-connected man, from a prominent Jewish New York family.
1878: Birthdate of Edwin Franko Goldman. Goldman was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of David Henry and Selma Franko Goldman. His father died when Goldman was only nine. Golman's mother was a professional pianist was was part of the famous Franko Family. At the age of nine, Goldman studied cornet with George Weigand at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York. In 1892, after winning a scholarship, he attended the National Conservatory of Music, where he studied music theory and played trumpet in the Conservatory orchestra. In 1893 he became a professional trumpet player, performing in such organizations as the Metropolitan Opera House orchestra and with his uncle Nahan Franko, a famous trumpet player.Goldman soon founded the New York Military Band, which is known today as the famous Goldman Band. The band played in many summer band concerts throughout New York, especially The Green at the Columbia University and then The Mall in Central Park. They were also heard on many radio broadcasts.Goldman was known for his very congenial personality and dedication to music. He was very close to city officials and earned three honorary doctorates. Eventually in 1929, he founded the American Bandmasters Association and served as Second Honorary Life President after John Philip Sousa. In his lifetime, Goldman composed over 150 works. He was also the composer of many cornet solos and other short works for piano and orchestra. Goldman's works are known for their pleasant and catchy tunes, as well as their fine trios and solos. He also encouraged audiences to whistle/hum along to his marches. This has become a tradition with his most famous march "On the Mall".
1878: After completing his legal studies today, Louis Marshall “joined the law firm of William C. Ruger in Syracuse, NY.”
1878: Leopold Ullstein converted the Berliner Tageblatt into the Berliner Zeitgung(B.Z.)
1879: Birthdate of Alfred Ernest Jones, the official biographer of Sigmund Freud.
1879: Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum opened its facility today with four children.
1880: David Joël, brother of Manuel Joël, assumed his duties as professor of the Talmudic branches, with the title of "Seminarrabbiner", at The Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau
1880: Alonozo B. Cornell began serving as the 27th Governor of New York during which term he appointed Myer S. Isaacs, the son of the late Rabbi Samuel M. Isaacs, as Justice of the Marine Court.
1881: Hallgarten & Company became a member of the New York Stock Exchange.
1882: A magic act presented by Professor Leon is part of the scheduled entertainment to be presented tonight at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1882: The New York Times published a detailed review of The Mendelssohn Family, 1729-1847 by Sebastien Hensel
1882: Leon Pinsker anonymously published
1883: It was reported today that Marcus Marx has been elected Chairman of a committee to consider the merger of B’nai B’rith, the Free Sons of Israel, and Kesher Shel Barzel since half of the members of the latter two organizations are members of B’nai B’rith.
1884: As of today the two story frame building used by the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids housed 30 patients
1885: As of today, the Russian Imperial Government will begin its monopoly pawnbroking in an attempt to add to the misery of its Jewish subjects which it believes are the only people engaging in this form of moneylending.
1885: “An English Society for the Conversion of the Jews” announced that during 1884 it had converted “four Jews at an average cost of about $21,000 each.”
1885: As of today, the Hebrew Technical Institute enrollment has risen from 27 to 45.
1885: This month marking the founding of The Chicago Israelite, “an American weekly newspaper devoted to Jewish interests” under the “editorship of Leo Wise who wrote the “Notes and Comments” column along with Dr. Emil G. Hirsch, Levi A. Eliel and Dr. Julius Wise “who wrote under the pen-name of ‘Nickerdown.’”
1886: Birthdate of Clara Lemlich Shavelson who was a leader of the Uprising of 20,000, the massive strike of shirtwaist workers in New York's garment industry in 1909. Later blacklisted from the industry for her union work, she became a member of the Communist Party and a consumer activist. In her last years as a nursing home resident she helped to organize the staff. Clara Lemlich Shavelson was already a confirmed radical when she arrived in New York City in 1905. Raised in a religious household in Ukraine, she had defied her parents to learn Russian, traded folk songs for volumes of Tolstoy, and borrowed revolutionary tracts from a sympathetic neighbor. In New York, she found work in a Lower East Side garment shop, and soon began organizing the workers. She quickly became an influential member of the new International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), where she protested the virtually all-male leadership's habit of ignoring female union members. In 1909, Lemlich burst onto a larger political stage when her speech in New York's Cooper Union Hall galvanized young, predominantly Jewish, working girls and set off what became known as the Uprising of the 20,000. Though the strike was only partially successful, the speech marked the beginning of Lemlich Shavelson's long career in political activism. Her next project was women's suffrage; she helped to found the Wage Earners League for Women's Suffrage, a group distinguished by its working-class membership at a time when most suffrage organizations were composed of more moderate middle-class members. Although Lemlich Shavelson's radicalism eventually cost her a paid organizing position with the suffrage league, she remained an outspoken activist, leading the kosher meat boycotts of 1917 and the New York City rent strikes of 1919. After her 1913 marriage and a move to Brooklyn, some of Shavelson's colleagues in the trade union movement felt that she had sold out to middle-class ideals by raising children in the suburbs. However, Shavelson redirected her energies without moderating her radicalism, joining the Communist Party in 1926, and founding the United Council of Working-Class Housewives and then, in 1929, the United Council of Working-Class Women (UCWW). The UCWW argued that consumption was integrally tied to production and that housewives, as consumers, could be an integral part of the class struggle. The Council led meat, milk, and bread boycotts, marched on Washington, and staged rent strikes and sit-ins, winning periodic victories that addressed some of the most pernicious threats to the economic survival of many families during the depression. In addition, Shavelson's insistence on the importance of women's labor in the home laid the groundwork for the later feminist movement's emphasis on gender politics and personal power relations within the family. After the Second World War, Shavelson became a peace activist, working as an organizer for the American League Against War and Fascism, which opposed nuclear weapons. She also worked for a time in a garment shop, and renewed her activism in the ILGWU, from which she finally retired in 1954. Although she is still hailed as a founder of that union, she was never granted a union pension. At age 81, Shavelson moved into the Jewish Home for the Aged in Los Angeles, where she spent her time convincing the administrators to honor grape and lettuce boycotts, and organizing a union among the orderlies.
1887: Henry M. Stanley was back in London preparing the expedition that is designed to rescue Emin Pasha, the governor of Equatoria who is besieged by forces of Muslim fanatics. Emin Pasha was a Silesian born Jew named Isaak Eduard Schnitzer who successively converted to Christianity and Islam.
1887: The Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society of New York is scheduled to move into its new home “in the building formerly occupied by the Home and School for the Children of Soldiers and Sailors on 11th Avenue near 151stStreet in New York where it will continue to care for over 400 children.
1888: “The People of Israel” published today provides a detailed review of Histoire Du Peuple D’Israel (Volume I) by Ernest Renan.
1890: In Louisiana, any Jews remaining in Alsatia, East Carroll Parish faces the threat of being driven out by “lead.” (That’s mean guns for the uninitiated)
1890: A fair being held under the auspices the People’s Free School Association, is scheduled to come to an end today. This is a fundraiser sponsored by the Executive Council of the Hebrew Fair Association.
1890: “A mass meeting of down-town” Jews held this evening at the Pythagoras Hall on Canal Street to discuss the construction of a new hospital to be built on the Lower East Side. The up-town hospitals cannot accommodate the influx of sick Jewish immigrants.
1890: According to H.I. Goldsmith, the Grand Secretary of Grand Lodge, No. 1 of the Independent Order of the Free Sons of Israel, there is $295,027.33 in “the degree benefit, an increase over the last year of $7,608.94.
1890: As today, the Hebrew Technical Institute had a balance on hand of a little more than six thousand dollars.
1890: The terms of Messrs. Tuska, Thalmessinger and Bloomingdale as trustees for the Hebrew Technical Institute were scheduled to come to an end today.
1892(1stof Tevet, 5652): Rosh Chodesh Tevet and 7th day of Chanukah
1892: Roswell P. Flower, who would appoint Edward Jacobs as Loan Commissioner, began serving as Governor of New York.
1892: The SS Masilia whose passengers include a large number of Russia Jews whose passage had been paid by the Baron Hirsch Fund left Marseilles today for a four week voyage to New York
1892: Birthdate of Bertha Solomon, one of the first women’s rights activists in South Africa.
1892: The Ellis Island Immigrant Station in New York opened. Millions of mostly eastern European Jews would pass through Ellis Island on their way to New York’s Lower East Side or other such urban locations.
1892: The Society of the Hebrew Sheltering Home has received $2,005 in the last twelve months.
1892: Colonel John Weber, the first Commissioner of Immigration at the port of New York, gave a $10 gold Liberty coin to the first immigrant processed at Ellis Island.
1893: The new sliding scale dues structures based on age adopted by the Grand Lodge District No 1 of the Order of B’nai B’rith to encourage younger Jews to join went into effect today.
1893: It was reported today that Darkest Russia, “the organ of the English Jewish community” had suspended publication on the assurance if it did so Russia “would modify her persecution” of the Jews would resume publishing since things have actually gotten worse.
1894: Birthdate of Heinrich Hertz, the German physicist for whom the hertz, the SI unit of frequency, is named. Hertz was born in Hamburg, Germany, to a Jewish family that had converted to Christianity.
1894: As of today, the United Hebrew Charities has spent an additional $64,900 in the last three months (October 1) to provide a variety of services including medical, educational and vocational to aid those suffering during the worst economic depression to hit the United States until 1929 and 2008.
1895: In Cincinnati, Ohio formation of Council No. 13 of the National Council of Jewish Women was formed with Miss Clara Bloch as President and Miss Mathilda Bettman as Secretary.
1895: Birthdate of Nathaniel Shilkret, American composer and conductor. For many years he was "director of light music" for the Victor Talking Machine Company. His best-known popular composition was "The Lonesome Road", which has been recorded by more than one-hundred artists, including Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman. He passed away in 1992.
1896: “Destroying the Old Relic” published today described the destruction of the Rolls House which had originally been “built by Henry III as a House of Maintenance for converted Jews” but was converted to other uses by Edward III when the supply of Jewish converts ran out.
1896: As of this date, there were 43, 658 Jews living in Minsk. There were forty synagogues along with numerous less formal “houses of prayer.” The city boasted a large number of Yeshivot including Blumke’s Yeshivah, the Little Yeshivah and the Yeshivah at the Synagogue of the Water Carriers. At this time Minsk was also home to a Jewish Trade School that offered training for locksmiths and carpenters as well as providing instruction in Hebrew and Religion. The Jewish hospital had accommodations for 70 patients and the Jewish poorhouse had beds for 80 indigent patrons.
1897: A fundraiser for the Hebrew Technical School for Girls was held at the Carnegie Lyceum.
1898: In Silesia, Maximillian Ullman and his wife, two Jews who had converted to Catholicism, gave birth to “composer, conductor and pianist” Viktor Ullman. Their conversion and did not save this musical genius who was imprisoned at Theresienstadt and murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
1898: “Do People Read the Bible Nowadays?” by Amos Kidder Fiske, author of “The Jewish Scriptures” and “The Myths of Israel” was published today.
1898:”Miracles and Dilettantism” published today disputes the version of the conversion of Abbe Ratisbonne to Catholicism as described in The Life of Cardinal Wisemanby Wilfred Ward.
1898: Dr. Joseph Silverman delivered an address entitled “The Religious and Ethical Possibilities of New York” at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
1899: “Dr. Baar’s New Year Address” published today described Dr. Hermann Baar’s what is his last address to the children at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum since he has announced his retirement as Superintendent of the organization.
1899: Birthdate of Elazar Menachem Man Shach, (Eliezer Schach) the Lithuanian born Haredi rabbi who became a leader in Bnei Brak.
1899: Leopold Cohn sent a letter to President McKinley concerning the anti-Semitic prejudice that exists in Brooklyn and Manhattan which is manifested by “acts of violence” aimed the poor Jews of these cities. Cohn, a former Rabbi, converted to Christianity and now is a missionary for the Baptist Church.
1899: “A Benevolent Society’s Jubilee” published today described plans for the upcoming celebration of the Noah Benevolent Widows and Orphans’ Association 50thanniversary celebration. The association was originally formed by German Jews in the 1840’s.
1899: Mrs. Bertha Morgenstern observed New Year’s Day and her 106thbirthday at the Hebrew Sheltering House in NYC.
1899: It was reported today that Aaron Baerlein is President of the Noah Benevolent Widows and Orphans’ Association, a fraternal and benevolent order formed by German Jews in New York before the Civil War.
1900: Starting today The Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) “restructured the way in which the colonies received financial and managerial support, with the effect of making them more profitable and independent.”
1900: Birthdate of Chiune Sugihara “ aJapanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Empire of Japan in Lithuania who risked his career and life by issuing travel documents to thousands of Jews so that they could escape the Nazis by appearing to be traveling to Japan
1901: Birthdate of Russian born American sculptor and watercolorist Eugenie Gershoy.
1902: Birthdate of Hans von Dohnányi, the German jurist, anti-Nazi who rescued Jews including “two Jewish lawyers from Berlin, Friedrich Arnold and Julius Fliess.”
1902(22ndof Tevet, 5662): Solomon Lyons, the 6th son of Rose and Henry Lyons of Birmingham, UK “accidently drowned in Jersey” today.
1903: Herzl begins a trip to Elach, Austira, his home town.
1904: Birthdate of Louis Cohen a New York mobster who murdered labor racketeer "Kid Dropper" Nathan Kaplan and was an associate of labor racketeer Louis "Lepke" Buchalter.
1906: During the dispute about establishing a temporary Jewish homeland in a place other than Palestine, Winston Churchill wrote to his constituent Dr. Joseph Dulberg, leader of the Manchester Jewish community, describing the difficulties in establishing “a self-governing Jewish colony in British East Africa” not the least of which was the division between the Territorialists and the “Palestine or bust” faction.
1909(8thof Tevet, 5669): Louis A. Heinsheimer passed away. Born in 1859, he was a partner in the investment banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. from 1894 to 1909. Heinsheimer was the nephew of one of the Firm's founders, Solomon Loeb. Heinsheimer's estate in Far Rockaway, New York, was called Breezy Point (not to be confused with the Breezy Point neighborhood on the western tip of the Rockaway Peninsula) and stood until 1987. Heinsheimer's mansion was owned and used for several years by the Maimonides Institute for Exceptional Children until it burned down. The mansion site is now a part of Bayswater Point State Park.
1909: Birthdate of Barry Goldwater, Republican Senator from Arizona and godfather to what has become the dominate right wing of the Republican Party. Goldwater was not Jewish. His father was Jewish but he raised his son as an Episcopalian for the obvious advantages it brought to him. However, some of Goldwater’s critics did not let him forget his Jewish origins. When he ran for President, his running-mate was William Miller, a Catholic member of the House of Representatives. Bigots referred to the ticket as the Arizona Israelite and his fellow-traveler from the Vatican.
1909: As of today, agents of the Baron Hirsch Fund have purchased several hundred acres of farm land four miles west of Millville, New Jersey for the purpose of establishing a colony. Forty families are ready to move into the houses once they are built. Each family will receive 25 acres of cleared ground to work.
1910: Isabel Hyams, an 1888 MIT graduate and a trustee of the Boston Consumptive Hospital, began an experimental “Penny Lunch” program in a Boston elementary school.
1911(1stof Tevet, 5671): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1911: In Łódź, Poland, Slanislava (Vinaver) and Adam Totenberg gave birth to Roman Totenberg, the child prodigy violinist who is the father of NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg, Judge Amy Totenberg and business woman Jill Totenberg.
1911: The Sunday Magazine Section of the New York Times described the debate between Dr. Solomon Schechter of the Jewish Theological Seminary and Dr. G. Margoliouth of the British Museum over the interpretation of a document entitled “A Document on the Sectaries” which had been found in the Cairo Genizah.
1911: Birthdate of Hammering Hank Greenberg Hall-of-Fame first baseman for the Detroit Tigers.
1913: A treaty of commerce and navigation and commerce between the United States and Russia “became inoperative” today “because it was interpreted by Russia as permitting the exclusion of American Jews from her dominions.
1914: In an attempt to obliterate loan sharking and enable American wage earners to borrow money easily, cheaply, and under self-respecting conditions, Julius Rosenwald of Chicago, announced plans to create “industrial loan banks that could make small loans at a low rate of interest - loans so trifling in character that the ordinary bank would not consider them - to workingmen whose means are too insignificant to give them any standing with banks. These industrial loan banks “shall require no collateral but simply an endorsement from some fellow wage-earner.” Loans will be made only after the bank has ascertained that the money is to be used for legal activities. By making these loans, Rosenwald and his supporters plan to teach the working class the proper use of credit while keeping them out of the clutches of loan sharks and predatory lenders. “The inspiration for the idea came from one of Mr. Rosenwald’s eminent European co-religionist, Signor Jusotti, the Italian Minister of Finance, who is the founder of a system of banks in Italy which lend sums as low as $10 to workingmen, small tradesmen, farmers and other who have no credit at the banks.”
1914: The sons of Leopold Ullstein purchased the Vossische Zeitug, “a liberal newspaper with a tradition dating back to the 1617.”
1915: “Texans Make Plea For Leo M. Frank” published today described a petition signed by over three hundred “Gentile citizens:” from Waco, TX sent to the Governor of Georgia listing the reasons why he should stay the execution of Leo Frank and free him if the evidence warrants such a conclusion.
1915: Charles Whitman, who after being elected promised to appoint at least one Jew to each of New York’s hospital boards began serving as the state’s 41stgovernor.
1915: Jews of Laibach Austria were expelled.
1919: Prince Faisal “submitted a formal memorandum to the Supreme Council of the Peace Conference outlining his vision for Arab nationalism throughout the Middle East. It was not monolithic or pan-Arab. It sought only one territory: Syria.”
1919: (29th of Tevet, 5679): Sixty-nine year old David Lubin, the Polish born American “merchant and agriculturalist” who played a pivotal role “in founding the International Institute of Agriculture” passed away today.
1919: Birthdate of J.D. Salinger who is as famous for being a recluse as he is for being the author of Catcher in the Rye. “Salinger was born in 1919 in New York City. His mother was Irish Catholic and his father was Jewish. And because many people in the early half of the 20th century were often openly racist toward Jews, being half-Jewish was hard on Salinger’s psyche.
What also hurt Salinger’s relationship with his father was the fact that he wanted him to take over the family meat business. Salinger was initially unopposed to the proposition. However, after taking a trip to his father’s native land of Poland and seeing the slaughter houses, Salinger lost respect for his father and his profession. Salinger then became a devout vegetarian. What probably had the strongest effect on the mental makeup of Salinger was his experience in World War II. Salinger was in one of the most dangerous regiments of the entire war, as he saw as many as 200 of his fellow soldiers die in a day. Plus, he is also believed to be one of the first soldiers to see the Nazi concentration camps. This probably greatly affected him because of his Jewish ancestry.” Salinger, who passed away in 2010, became a Buddhist who only would eat organic foods.
1920:Arnold "Arnie" Horween kicked the PAT that provided the margin of victory as Harvard won the Rose Bowl.
1922(1st of Tevet, 5682): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1923: Birthdate of Daniel Gorenstein, American mathematician.
1925: Greece mandates a national day of rest, in disregard to any religion. Thus the Jews are forced to work on the Sabbath, and those who did not, lost profits. The Jews saw this as a move on the government's part to get rid of them.
1926: Lazar Kaganovich completed his first term as a member of the Orgburo (The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union)
1927: Birthdate of Canadian political leader Shelia Finestone.
1927 (28th of Tevet, 5687): “Asher Ginsberg, whose pen name was Achad Ha’am passed away 5 o’clock this morning at Tel Aviv.” Born in 1856 near Kiev, Ginsberg lived in England from 1906 until 1921 when he made Aliyah. While living in England, managed a tea shop owned by one his literary admirers and worked with Chaim Weizmann to create the document known as the Balfour Declaration. In 1889, Ginsberg caused a stir with “the publication in the Russian Jewish periodical Ha-Meliz of his frist article dealing with the Zionist movement and the future of the Jews.” Over time he would develop the concept of Cultural Zionism which espouses a belief “in the development of Palestine as intellectual and moral homeland for the Jewish people throughout the word, as well as a place of physical refuge.” His most famous literary work was a three-volume work called Al Parshat Derachimor The Parting of the Ways.
1928: Sixty five year old theatrical dancer Loie Fuller whose rumored engagement to Jacob Cantor helped lead to his defeat when he ran for a seat in Congress representing New York’s 15th district, passed away today.
1929: The Labor Party has been defeated in the elections for the Municipal Council of Tel Aviv. Labor had controlled the council for the past three years but had only won five of the fifteen seats on the council in this year’s election. It would appear that the United Centre Party has captured a majority of the seats which means that Meir Dizengoff will return as Mayor of the Jewish metropolis since the council elects the mayor. Dizengoof had resigned three years ago in a dispute with the Laborites.
1930(1st of Tevet, 5690): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1933: A pastoral letter of Austrian Bishop Gfollner of Linz states that it is the duty of all Catholics to adopt a "moral form of anti-Semitism."
1934: In New York City, Henry G. Schanko “took office as a Justice of the City Court” today.
1934: The Nazis remove Jewish holidays from the official German calendar.
1934: German laws allowing sterilization of the "unfit," which were passed in July 1933, are promulgated.
1934: In a move that will upset the balance of power in Europe and therefore threaten the well-being of the Jewish people, Hitler orders the German government to undertake a building program that will produce 4000 aircraft by October 1935. (As reported by the Jewish Virtual Library)
1936: Section 3 of the Nuremberg Laws – “Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens under the age of 45, of German or kindred blood, as domestic workers” – went into effect.
1936: Birthdate of Actress Zelda Rubinstein.
1937: The New York Times describes the very successful performance in Tel Aviv of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. The site of an Italian maestro conducting a Jewish orchestra in front of a predominately Jewish orchestra is proof to the Times of “how completely forgiven and forgotten is the serious misunderstanding between the twopeoples that arose under Titus and Hadrian a couple of thousand years ago.”
1937: Georg Wertheim head of Wertheim’s one the four largest department store chains in Germany writes in his diary, “The store is declared to be ‘German.’” This marked the end to his involvement in the family business begun by his parents in 1875. Wertheim died in 1939.
1938: During January, the concentration camp at Dachau, Germany, is enlarged.
1938: The Namensänderungsverordnung went into effect today forcing 87 year old German mathematician Alfred Pringsheim to legally change his name to Alfred Israel Pringsheim
1938: During January, a collaborationist organization, National-Socialistische Vrouwen
Organisatie (National Socialist Women's Organization), is established in Holland.
1939: The Palestine Post expressed world-wide Jewish disgust for Sir Horace Rumbold after he had publicly referred to the Jews of Palestine as an “alien race.”
1939: “By today, in Cologne, all the Jews were excluded from the economic life and constrained to forced labor.”
1939: As of today, the licenses of the Jewish cattle traders in Laupheim, Germany were revoked.
1939: In an infamous prophecy delivered in a speech to the Reichstag, Hitler threatened that if “international Jewry” started “another” world war, such a war would not end in the extermination of the Aryan race but rather in the extermination of the “Jewish race.”
1939: In Germany, The Decree for the Elimination of Jews from German Economic Life took effect. This was part of what was known as the compulsory Aryanization process in which all Jewish retail businesses were to be eliminated. All stock was forbidden to be traded on the free market, but it had to be "sold" to a German competitor or association. This edict was signed just a month earlier by the Economic and the Justice ministries.
1939: By the end of January "Illegal immigration" from Germany to Palestine has begun. 27,000 Jews will illegally immigrate by the end of 1940.
1939: As decreed on August 17, 1938, Jewish men in Germany must adopt the middle name of "Israel"; Jewish women must take the middle name "Sara."
1939: Jews are eliminated from the German economy; their capital is seized, though some Jews continue to work under Germans.
1939: At the Buchenwald, Germany, concentration camp, Deputy Commandant Arthur Rödl orders several thousand inmates to assemble for inspection shortly before midnight. He selects five men and has them whipped to the melody played by the inmate orchestra. The whipping continues all night.
1940(20th of Tevet, 5700): Hugo Herrmann a Zionist author and publisher passed away. He was one of the founders of the Jewish student organization Bar Kochba in Prague, worked for the Keren Hayesod . He settled in Jerusalem in 1934 where he published descriptions of his extensive travels in Palestine.
1940: The Nazis shot Dr. Cooperman in Warsaw for being out after eight o'clock.
1940: Nazis prohibited Jews from gathering in shuls or private homes for prayer.
1941(2ndof Tevet, 5701): 8th and final day of Chanukah
1942: U.S premiere of “The Man Who Came to Dinner” the film version of the play of the same name by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman with a script by Julius and Philip G. Epstein produced by Jerry Wald.
1942: In the U.S., the Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) is established to investigate and arrest suspected Nazi war criminals.
1942: Birthdate of Democratic politician Martin Frost who represented the 24thCongressional District in Texas from 1979 until 2004.
1943: Birthdate of American investor and businessman Ronald Perelman.
1943 (24th of Tevet, 5703): Arthur Ruppin passed away today in Jerusalem at the age of 67. “Born in Germany, Mr. Ruppin came to Palestine in 1908 to direct the first Palestine office of World Zionist Organization in Jaffa. He was one of the founders of Tel Aviv.” Dr. Ruppin was considered an authority on all facets of the economic situation in Palestine and was a strong fighter against those who claimed that limits must be placed on Jewish immigration because the country could not sustain anything more than a marginal growth in population.
1944: Operation Halyard, one of the largest Allied airlift operation behind enemy lines of World War II in which Yugoslav Partisans (a multi-ethnic resistance force that included Bosnian Muslims and Jews) played a key role, began today.
1946: In Tel Aviv, police found a large arms cache today that contained a both heavy and light automatic weapons, various chemicals of the type used for detonating explosives and a number of military uniforms.
1947: A British Military Court sentenced Dov Bela Gruner to be hanged for his part in the attack on the police station at Ramt Gan. Gruner, a 33 year old veteran of the British Army, is a member of the Irgun and claimed that he should have been treated as a prisoner of war and not a criminal.
1948: Thousands of “illegal” Jewish refugees who had been trying to reach Palestine disembarked in Cyprus where the British interned them in DP camps.
1949: As promised by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, Israeli troops began withdrawing from the Sinai Peninsula.
1950: In Guyana, Janet Rosenberg Jagan and her husband formed the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) which she served as General Secretary until 1970.
1952: In Jerusalem, “shooting attack by terrorists during a home invasion.”
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel continued to protest against the increased British, French and US arms sales to the belligerent Arab states, at least until they agreed to negotiate peace. While Britain, threatened by the Egyptian guerrilla war against its forces stationed at Suez, had temporarily suspended her arms shipments there, France and the US had no such problem and continued to arm Israel¹s neighbors without any restrictions.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the government presented the oil-importing companies with IL 3,800,000 financial guarantees, covered by funds earmarked under the German Reparations Agreement for this purpose.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the number of unemployed in 1952 was 16,500. This number, however, did not include Israeli Arabs, residents of immigrant transit camps, and others who had not registered with the Labor Exchange for employment.
1955: Arthur Leavitt, Sr begins serving as New York State Comptroller, a position he will hold for a record 24 years.
1955: Jacob K. Javits begins serving as the 58th New York State Attorney General.
1956: In an open-the-flap book titled See the Circus published today H. A. Rey illustrated a man who looks very much like the Man with the Yellow Hat wearing a blue and white polka-dotted kerchief. The caption for the page reads, "Ted has a tricycle, so very small, He cannot ride it, because he's so tall. If you want to find out WHO the rider will be, just open the flap, and then you will see." Opening the flap reveals two monkeys riding a tricycle.”
1959: Caroline Klein Simon was sworn in as New York's Secretary of State as part of the administration of newly elected Governor Nelson Rockefeller.
1960(1st of Tevet, 5720): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; The first day of the year coincides with the first day of the month and, in the evening, the kindling of the candles for the 8th day of Chanukah
1963(5th of Tevet, 5723) A fire broke out at the Telshe Yeshiva claiming the lives of two students.
1965: Palestinian al-Fatah terrorist organization forms.
1966: “Dr. Manfred George 72, Dies” published today
1968: Louis Begley named partner in the law firm now known as Debevoise & Plimpton. Begley would eventually leave the law and become a successful, award winning author.
1967: A month-long exhibition of the paintings of Isser Arnovici, opened at the Elizabeth Street Gallery.
1966: Simon & Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence" reaches #1.
1968: During a reception today, “President de Gaulle…assured the Grand Rabbi of France that it was from his intention to insult the Jews when he call them an ‘elite people, sure of itself and domineering.’”
1968: Louis Begley became a partner of the law firm now known as Debevoise & Plimpton
1969: Isidore Dollinger begins serving as a justice of New York Supreme Court, from the first judicial district.
1971: U.S. premiere of “Something Big” with music by Marvin Hamlisch.
1977: Jerry Nadler began serving as a member of the New York State Assembly from the 69thdistrict.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Egyptian negotiators in Cairo demanded that Israel liquidate her settlements on the West Bank and in Gaza as a pre-condition for the Palestine Arabs¹ self-determination.
Israel suggested that under the proposed peace plan, the prospective Sinai settlers would pay taxes to Egypt.
1978: Ed Koch begins serving as the 105th mayor of New York City.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that US President Jimmy Carter, who concluded his talks with the Shah of Iran and King Hussein of Jordan, was expected to arrive in Cairo for talks with President Anwar Sadat and a possible active participation in Israeli-Egyptian peace negotiations.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli population toward the end of 1977 stood at 3,650,000 3,076,000 Jews and 574,000 non-Jews.
1979: After 22 years, Louis Lefkowitz completes his service as Attorney General of New York State.
1983: Moshe Levy was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and appointed IDF Chief of General Staff.
1984: The funeral for Rabbi Morris N. Kertzer, author of What Is a Jew? is scheduled to held in Toronto today.
1985: Carolyn Leigh was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame today.
1985: Louis Silverstein, the long time Art Director of The New York Times, retired today.
1986: Jerry Abramson began serving as the 47th mayor of Louisville, KY.
1987(30th of Kislev, 5747): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1988(11th of Tevet, 5748): Leo Steiner owner of the famed Carnegie Deli's in New York passes away.
1989: As new measures, imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration in response to the bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Scotland on December 21 take effect, Senator John D. Rockefeller 4th, a West Virginia Democrat who was en route from Israel to the United States and was transferring to a Pan Am flight in Paris, said the security was tighter than usual, but not as heavy as that which he had experienced at Ben-Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv. ''They opened everything, and that's excellent,'' he said of his early-morning departure. Security officers gave every passenger ''a very diplomatic, but careful grilling,'' asking questions like: Do you have anything new? Are you carrying anything for anyone? One security officer, he said, told him bluntly: ''Get nothing between here and the airplane. Go straight to the plane.''
1989: Stephen Engelberg and Michael Gordon of The New York Times are the first to report in detail about West German participation in the design and construction of the vast chemical plant designed to produce poison gas at Rabta in Libya along with facts about French aid in refueling bombers that would make possible the quick delivery of poison-gas bombs to Tel Aviv residents who are descendants of those forced to breathe Cyclon-B at Auschwitz.
1990: Elizabeth Holtzman became the 40th Comptroller of New York City.
1990: Stephen Breyer began servicing as Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
1991: Bruce Sundlun began serving as the 21st governor of Rhode and the second Jew to hold this position.
1992: In “Frank Binswanger - Philadelphia's Golem - Remembered Fondly He Was Constantly Exhorting Philadelphians To Join His Pursuit Of Impossible Dreams” Dan Rottenberg provides a personal picture of this descendant of Rabbi Judah, the 16th century creator of the Golem.
1992: A suspicious fire broke out in the basement of a synagogue in Brooklyn, severely damaging the building and forcing the removal of several torahs. . Flames rushed through the basement of Congregation Hisachbis Yirieim at 902 Avenue L, near East Ninth Street, at 4:02 P.M. It was under control at 4:47 P.M., Fire Marshal Glynn said. Fire department officials said that the fire “is being considered as suspicious” in origin.
1994: Abraham M. Lackman is scheduled to begin serving as budget director under new mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani
1994: Alan Hevesi began serving as the 41st Comptroller of New York City
1994: Gabriel Oliver Koppell began serving as the 61st New York State Attorney General.
1995(29th of Tevet, 5755): Eugene Wigner, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1963 passed away.
1995: The full text of report compiled by the Agranat Commission, except for 48 pages, was made public today.
1995: “The final phase of the Free Trade Agreement was fully implemented today when Israel and the United States completely eliminated all duties and tariffs on manufactured goods.”
1997: Eighty-eight year old James Bennett Pritchard, the University of Pennsylvania archaeologist whose work included six expeditions that unearthed and examined the remains of the Biblical city of Gibeon.
1998: Share prices on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange closed higher today, on optimism that the Government would pass its 1998 budget and that there would be a cut in interest rates as early as February. The TA-100 index of the shares with the highest market capitalization rose nine-tenths of 1 percent, to 293.74, an increase of 2.68 points. The Maof index of the 25 blue-chip shares gained seven-tenths of 1 percent, to 305.92, a jump of 2.11 points. The TACT index of continuously traded shares rose 1 percent, to 98.06, a gain of 0.92 points. Trading volume was 121 million shekels ($34.30 million). Stockbrokers said the relatively low volume was attributable to the closing of foreign markets for New Year's Day.
1999: After 13 years, Jerry Abramson completed his final term as mayor of Louisville, KY.
1999: The Times of London features a review of Athens In Jerusalem: Classical antiquity and Hellenism in the making of the modern secular Jew by Yaacov Shavi; translated from the Hebrew by Chaya Naor and Niki Werner.
1999: Eliot Spitzer became the 63rd New York Attorney General.
2000: David Hurlbut moved into the Harmony Club in Selma, Alabama. It had originally been built as a social club by a group of prominent Jewish businessmen in 1909.
2000(23rd of Tevet, 5760): Jeshajahu Weinberg, the first director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum here and one of the principal forces behind its creation, died today in Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. He was 81. Mr. Weinberg served as the museum's director from its beginning in 1989 until 1995, as it became one of Washington's leading tourist attractions. He also helped create museums in Israel and Europe. Walter Reich, who succeeded Mr. Weinberg as director of the Washington museum, said today that Mr. Weinberg's interests in it went from inducing a British television documentary maker to design the exhibitions to worrying about the impact that a museum depicting the Nazi horrors might have on children who visit it and curators who work there. Mr. Weinberg, whose first name was pronounced yuh-shah-YAH-who but who was known as Shaike (pronounced SHY-kuh), was born in Warsaw and educated in Germany until his family fled to Palestine in the 1930's with the rise of Hitler. Mr. Weinberg served from 1935 to 1948 in the Jewish underground army, the Haganah, and from 1942 to 1946 in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army, although the Haganah and the British Army were frequently at odds. He fought in Italy while in the British Army and became a sergeant. Martin Smith, the documentary filmmaker who designed the exhibitions, said from his home in Bristol, England, that Albert Abramson, one of the museum's founders, had suggested to Mr. Weinberg that Mr. Smith would make the ideal designer of the museum. ''I wasn't Jewish, I wasn't museum inclined, and I wasn't American,'' Mr. Smith said, but Mr. Weinberg was persuasive. ''He encouraged me to look at how the techniques of documentary filmmaking could be used in a museum setting,'' Mr. Smith said. The museum's architect, James I. Freed, also described how Mr. Weinberg had driven the design and construction of the museum. After a section had been built, Mr. Freed said, ''Shaike was insistent -- he wanted a railroad freight car to be included. We had to change the building to accommodate it. He never accepted 'no.''' Mr. Freed added that Mr. Weinberg worked to bring together competing constituencies that wanted to make sure their groups' sufferings were not ignored. The groups included European Jews, Gypsies and other ethnic groups as well as members of dissenting religions and political parties, homosexuals and the physically and mentally handicapped. Mr. Weinberg was also an official of the Israeli government and director of the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv. He helped create the Beth Hatefutsoth Museum of the Jewish Diaspora in Tel Aviv, where he served as director, and the Museum of the History of the City of Jerusalem. At his death, even while slowed by vascular illness, Mr. Weinberg was working on the design of Jewish museums in Warsaw and Berlin. (As reported by Irvin Molotsky)
2001: A car bomb rocked the commercial heart of the Israeli coastal city of Netanya today wounding more than 30 people, at least one seriously. The terror attack shattered store windows and draped central Netanya in black smoke, sending ripples of panic through a downtown area that was still twinkling with leftover Hanukkah lights. It came five days after a bus bombing in Tel Aviv. Jan. 1 is a routine working day in Israel, so there was no holiday spirit to dampen. But as the latest in a spate of terror attacks, the bombing hardened hearts.
2001: Yasir Arafat left Gaza shortly after midnight today for a hastily arranged meeting with President Clinton to discuss the Palestinian leader's reservations about an American blueprint for a final peace deal. The announcement of his trip to Washington, made by aides and confirmed by American officials, came several hours after a car bomb rocked the commercial heart of the Israeli coastal city of Netanya on Monday evening, wounding more than 30 people, at least one seriously.
2001: Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu belatedly endorsed Ariel Sharon in his bid to become Prime Minister.
2002: Michael Bloomberg became the 108th Mayor of New York City.
2002: Gabriel Oliver Koppell began servicing as a member of the New York City Council from the 11thDistrict.
2002: Michael Applebaum began serving as Borough mayor for Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Montreal City Councilor
2002(17thof Tevet, 5762): Fifty seven film producer Julia Phillips passed away. (As reported by Bernard Weinraub)
2002: Gabriel Oliver Koppell began serving as member of the New York City Council from the 11thDistrict.
2003: Het Parool “an Amsterdam based daily newspaper” that got its start “as a resistance paper during the German occupation” took a financial bailout today to save it from the consequences of failing circulation and revenue.
2003: Alan Hevesi began serving as the 53rd Comptroller of New York
2004: Louis Begley retired from Debevoise & Plimpton
2005: Jessalyn Sarah Gilsig and Bobby Salomon were married today in “a traditional Jewish wedding.
2006: Jack Lebewohl, the new owner of the 2nd Avenue Deli which was located at its original location in the East Village, closed the famed eatery after a rent increase and a dispute over back rent that the landlord had said was due.
2006: Daniel C. Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt, assumes the position of S. Daniel Abraham Visiting Professor in Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton University.
2006: Eric Garcetti began serving as President of the Los Angeles City Council
2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Kafka: The Decisive Years by Reiner Stach, Savage Shorthand The Life and Death of Isaac Babel by Jerome Charyn, Siegfried Sassoon: A Life by Max Egremont and Why She Married Him Myriam Chapman’s first novel based on her grandmother's recently discovered manuscript describing a childhood in turn-of-the-century czarist Russia, close escapes from its brutal pogroms and life as a Jewish émigré in Paris.
2006(1st of Tevet, 5766): Henry Samuel Magdoffpassed away. He was a prominent American social commentator who held several administrative positions in government during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt and later became co-editor of the Monthly Review.
2007: As a result of “the incident in which the Hanit Navy ship was struck by an Iranian missile launched by Hizbullah during the second Lebanon war” “IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Dan Halutz announced today that the two Navy officers at the rank of colonel would be reprimanded following the incident, and that the ship's commander, a lieutenant colonel, would also be punished by the Navy commander, and his next position would be at the headquarters and not a commanding position.” (As reported by Hanan Greenberg)
2007: Eliot Spitzer became the 54th governor of New York
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2007: Under Commissioner David Stern, the NBA switched back to the leather ball.
2007: Jane Doe Buys a Challah and Other Short Stories, the first publication of Ang-Lit Press, a newly established English publishing house based in Tel-Aviv goes on sale in Israel. The book is the first ever anthology of short stories by Israeli Anglo writers.
2008: Lieutenant General Moshe Levy, who had served at the 12th Chief of Staff of the IDF, suffered a massive stroke.
2008: At the Museum of Jewish Heritage and closing day of an exhibition entitled The Other Promised Land: Vacationing, Identity, and the Jewish-American Dream. “Set against the backdrop of the seashore, the mountains, or the countryside, vacations have always been a meaningful part of American Jewish life. American Jews chose their own distinctive destinations - Florida, the Catskills, Atlantic City, sites of Jewish heritage - to join with friends or in response to being excluded at other venues, creating temporary communities of like-minded people. Some vacations were pursuits of luxury and abundance, while others emphasized Jewish beliefs and traditions, but all expressed the excitement and promise of America. The history of Jewish vacationing provides a glimpse into Jewish values, past and present.”
2009: In a move that bodes well for Israel, The Czech Republic takes over the presidency of the European Union from France. While France has condemned Israel’s attacks on Hamas, the Czech Foreign Minister Karel Shwarzenberg has “insisted Israel had the right to defend itself…Schwarzenberg said Hamas has excluded itself from serious political debate due to its rocket attacks on Israel” and that Hamas “has put its bases in gun warehouses in densely populated areas” which “was the reason for the Palestinians’ growing death toll.
2009: Haaretz reported that according to a story published by the Belgian daily La Derniere Heure published earlier this week Jewish-French philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy was listed by a Belgium-based Islamist group as a target for assassination alongside other leading Jewish personalities in Europe. The planned assassination was apparently thwarted after group leader Abdelkader Belliraj, a Belgian of Moroccan ascent, was arrested last February in Morocco, the newspaper reported. Belgian authorities found the list during a raid on homes of local Muslim community members last November, according to the report. The hit list mentioned the names of five other well-know Jewish figures in Belgium and France: Josy Eisenberg, producer of the A Bible ouverte (Open Bible) television program on FR2; Simone Susskind, a leader of Belgium's secular Jewish community; attorney Markus Pardes, president of the International Association of Jewish lawyers and jurists; Belgian writer Jean-Claude Bologne and La Derniere Heurereporter Edmond Blattche. Belliraj is scheduled for trial next week over charges of assassinating and orchestrating the murders of six people in Belgium during 1980s, as well as for charges of arms trafficking.
2009 (5 Tevet 5769): Helen Suzman, the internationally renowned anti-apartheid campaigner who befriended the imprisoned Nelson Mandela and offered an often lonely voice for change among South Africa’s white minority, died in Johannesburg at the age of 91. (As reported by John F. Burns and Alan Cowell)
2009: “Teapacks, an Israeli band that formed in 1988 in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, officially disbanded today.
2009(5th of Tevet, 5769): Polish writer Henryk Halkowski, one of Poland's most notable contemporary Jewish personalities, died suddenly today just days after celebrating his 57th birthday. (As reported by JTA)
2010: Starting at noon, Congregation Tikvat Israel in Rockville, Md., is hosting a sale of used books about Judaism.
2010: In a case of Jew vs Jew Lionel Perez replaced Saulie Zajdel as Montreal City Councillor for Darlington.
2010:In Israel the Water Authority is supposed to be implementing a price hike. If the price increase does not go through, several water corporations - including those servicing the Galilee - will not have the funds to buy water from Mekorot, the national water company.
2010:In Jerusalem Hama'abada and The Visual Theatre present a unique collaboration: "Snow Will Fall Tonight" including the following three shows: "Pollyamoria" by Ma'ayan Moses, Pets" by Anat Arbel--tragi-comic dance theatre and "To Raise You Wild"--by Shai Persil.
2010:The Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility today for firing two Grad-type rockets at the Netivot area from Gaza on last night.
2010:Two mortar shells hit open areas in southern Israel this evening. There were no reports of casualties or damage in both attacks. One of the projectiles landed near the Kerem Shalom border crossing at the southeastern end of the Gaza Strip and the other hit an open area in the Sdot Negev region, and has not yet been located.
2010: Michael Bloomberg is sworn in for this third term as Mayor of New York.
2010: Birthdate of Nathan Zachary Silber son of David and Rebecca Silber and grandson of Dr. Robert “Bob” and Laurie Silber, pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community and all around great guys.
2011: András Schiff “published a letter in the Washington Post questioning whether "Hungary is ready and worthy to take on" the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, as it did that day,because of "racism, discrimination against the Roma, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, chauvinism and reactionary nationalism," and "the latest media laws"
2011:Frederick Lawrence, 54, is scheduled to become Brandeis University’s eighth president today succeeding President Jehuda Reinharz
2011: With snow falling and temperatures well below freezing, the Traditional Minyan at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, ushered in the New Year. In keeping with the bowl games that dominate the day, Deb Levin and Amy Barnum provided a football themed Kiddush complete with pizza, munchies and a whole lot more.
2011: Arab terrorists launched a mortar attack near Sderot this evening. One woman was treated for shock. The IDF noted that 6,500 residents live in the immediate area, which includes several kibbutzim. The IDF retaliated by bombing a terrorist base and a weapons factory in northern and central Gaza later that night.
2011:Two female soldiers managed to escape a would-be attacker tonight. The two were attacked by a Palestinian Authority man with a knife as they left their base in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem. The two reported the incident immediately, and Border Police began searching the area. They found the PA man nearby, and he admitted to having attempted to stab soldiers at the base. He was arrested and taken in for questioning.
2011:An earthquake hit northern Israel on this evening, being felt most strongly in the region of Beit Shean and Afula; residents of Tzfat reported feeling motion as well. The quake was measured at 3.6 on the Richter scale. No injuries were reported following the quake. One residential building sustained damage, and the families living there were evacuated by Homefront Command workers. Residents of Beit Shean live along the Syrian-African fault line, and are accustomed to occasional earthquakes. However, many said that Saturday night's earthquake was unusually strong. Some residents fled their homes during the quake, fearing the buildings would collapse. An earthquake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale hit the northern Galilee in late November, but did not cause injury. Scientists have warned that Israel is likely to experience a strong earthquake, measuring at least 7.5 on the Richter scale, in the near future. The epicenter will be near Beit Shean, they say. A governmental committee found in November that a strong earthquake could kill 16,000 people, injure 6,000 more and leave up to 377,000 homeless if old buildings are not reinforced to prevent collapse.
2011(25th of Tevet, 5771): Abdallah Simon, called one of America's "most powerful" wine executives for decades and a philanthropist, died today at the age of 88. Simon, a Baghdad native, was the developer of the Seagram's Chateau & Estate Wines Company and helped craft America's taste for fine French wines. In a 1988 article, The New York Times described Simon as a "superpower" in the world of fine French wines and said his yearly visits to Bordeaux were "probably more important than those of the president of France." Simon, who was known as "Ab" to both the American and Bordeaux wine industries, attended private school in England and American University in Beirut, but left Iraq for New York after a pro-Nazi regime came to power there in 1941. Simon's wine career began in 1952 when he tasted a 1929 Chateau Latour Bordeaux, a prominent First Growth wine, on the Queen Mary while sailing to Europe. He joined Seagram in 1974. With $2 million staked by Seagram, Simon turned the division into a leading force in the wine industry. Simon bypassed the middlemen, called negociants, and struck deals with chateau owners that allowed him to influence prices and deliver large quantities of fine wine to the U.S. market. In 1980, France made Simon a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor for service to that nation’s wine industry. Simon's philanthropy in retirement included the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Foundation, which said upon his death that his "generosity and friendship will be missed but his contributions to Tel Aviv's future generations will live on for all time."
2011: As a result of the 2010 Congressional Elections, the following is a list of the 39 Jewish members — 12 senators and 27 representatives — who are expected to serve in the 112th U.S. Congress, which is set to convene in January:
U.S. SENATE
Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)*
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)**
Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.)
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
Al Franken (D-Minn.)
Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.)
Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)
Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.)
Carl Levin (D-Mich.)
Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.)
Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)**
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)**
(Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who is projected to win his re-election bid, does not identify a religion, but notes that his mother is Jewish and a Holocaust survivor.)
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.)
Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.)
Howard Berman (D-Calif.)
Eric Cantor (R-Va.)
David Cicilline (D-R.I.)*
Stephen Cohen (D-Tenn.)
Susan Davis (D-Calif.)
Ted Deutch (D-Fla.)
Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.)
Bob Filner (D-Calif.)
Barney Frank (D-Mass.)
Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.)
Jane Harman (D-Calif.)
Steve Israel (D-N.Y.)
Sander Levin (D-Mich.)
Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.)
Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.)
Jared Polis (D-Colo.)
Steve Rothman (D-N.J.)
Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)
Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.)
Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)
Brad Sherman (D-Calif.)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.)
Henry Waxman (D-Calif.)
Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.)
John Yarmuth (D-Ky.)
*Elected to House or Senate for the first time in 2010 midterms
**Senators who were re-elected in 2010 midterms (As reported by JTA)
2012:Simon Greer will become the president and CEO at the Nathan Cummings Foundation after serving in the same roles at Jewish Funds for Justice. He succeeds Lance Lindblom.
2012: A memorial service was held to honor the late Yiddish singer Adrienne Cooper at Congregation Ansche Chesed while shiva was held at her daughter’s apartment in New York City.
2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Gossip: The Untrivial Pursuit” by Joseph Epstein and “Some of My Lives: A Scrapbook Memoir” by Rosamond Bernier whose mother was English and whose father was an American Jew.
2012(6th of Tevet, 5772):Venerated Israeli singer Yafa Yarkoni died at the age of 86 at Reut Medical Center in Tel Aviv today, after years of suffering from Alzheimer's disease. (As reported by Isabel Kershner)
2012: Israeli politicians responded to last night‘s ultra-Orthodox demonstration in Jerusalem’s Kikar Hashabbat (Sabbath Square), with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni expressing outrage over protesters use of Holocaust symbolism to protest what they termed the exclusion of Haredim.
2012:Gaza terrorists resumed 11 years of aerial attacks on Israel late this morning, firing two mortars shells on the western Negev.
2013: Paul Shapiro's Ribs and Brisket Revue is scheduled to host a special Klezmer Brunch for the New Year.
2013: “The Looper” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: Starting today, female and male models who have a body mass index (BMI) of less than 18.5 may not be shown in the media or on Israeli websites or go down the catwalk at fashion shows
2013: After coming under fire from right-wing Israeli politicians for a series of statements he made over the past few days regarding the peace process and the prospect of talks with Hamas, President Shimon Peres was subjected to an unexpected tongue lashing — from a top Palestinian Authority official today.
2013:The ascendant head of the Jewish Home party, Naftali Bennett, continued to make political waves on Tuesday, after supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-Yisrael Beytenu list released an Internet ad featuring Holocaust-era imagery that implied that the national religious party aspires to take the country’s Orthodox citizens back to “the ghetto.”
2014:Professor Gal Kaminka, of Bar-Ilan University’s Department of Computer Science and Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, one of Israel’s, and the world’s, leading contributors to intelligent robotics – the science of using artificial intelligence to make robots “smarter” – is scheduled to receive Landau Prize for Arts and Sciences in the robotics category for his outstanding contributions to the advancement of science today (As reported by David Shamah)
2014: Rabbi David Ellenson completed his term as President of HUC-JOR
2014: “The Escape” and “Omar” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014: Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's condition continues to worsen, Sheba Hospital in Tel HaShomer reported today to Channel 10. (As reported by Tova Dvorin)
2014:A memorial service for the 69 sailors of the INS Dakar was held at Mount Herzl today, marking 46 years since it sank into the Mediterranean. (As reported by Tova Dvorin)
2015: “The IDF is scheduled to withdraw its security forces from Israeli communities near Gaza that are not adjacent to the border effective today.”
2015: “Heartburn” and Foxcatcher” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2015(10thof Tevet, 5775): Fast of the 10th Tevet
2015(10thof Tevet, 5775): Yahrzeit of Judith Sharon Levin Rosenstein, known to one and all simply as Judy.