January 2
438: Empress Eudocia allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem
1012: Jewish mourners were attacked at a funeral in Egypt.
1481: An edict was handed down in Spain Andalusia were not true to the teachings of the Church.
1481: The officers of the Inquisition issued an edict to the governor of Cadiz and other officials to seize the possessions of the Marranos and to turn these conversos over to them or suffer excommunication, confiscation of their goods and deprivation of public office.
1492: The Reconquista was completed as the emirate of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrendered to the forces under the command of Ferdinand and Isabella. The fall of Granada
1554:A mandate promulgated today ordered that the Jews should leave the territory of Lower Austria at the end of six months.
1661(2nd of Shevat): Rabbi Menahem Mendel ben Abraham Krochmal, author of Zemah Zedek passed away
1642: Birthdate of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV. As proof of the role that Jews played in his government, we find the Sultan appointing Moses Beben as ambassador to Sweden. When Moses passed away, the Sultan appointed his son Yehuda to serve in his place. At the time, Sweden was a major European power. Mehmed is also the Sultan who dealt with Sabbait Zivi, giving him the choice of conversion or death.
1712: Clement XI issued “Salvatoris nostri vices,” a Papal Bull that transferred the work of catechumens to Pii Operai (Holy Works). [Pii Operai was an offshoot of The College of Neophytes, a Roman Catholic College founded for training Jewish converts]
1745: Maria Theresa threatened Moravian Jewry with expulsion but rescinded her order, permitting them to remain for another ten years.(As reported by the Jewish Virtual Library
1768: In New York, Eva Esther Hendricks and Uriah Hendricks gave birth to Hannah de Leon.
1770:The Crown Prince of Brunswick "expressed his admiration" for the "great tact and high degree of humanitarianism" that Moses Mendelssohn had shown in responding to the writings of Charles Bonnett that had been sent to him by Johann Lavater.
1782: The Tolerance Edict (Toleranzpatent) guaranteeing existing rights and obligation of the Jewish population, was enacted by Joseph II of Austria
1788: Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. A year later, Georgia
1801: Birthdate of Jonas Ennery a native of Nancy who was affiliated with the Jewish school at Strasbourg for twenty-six years.
1816: Birthdate of Shmuel Salant, the native of Bialystok, who “served as the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem for almost 70 years.”
1822: Birthdate of Bernhard Felsenthal, the German-born American Rabbi who was a leader in the Reform Movement and served as the leader of Zion Congregation in Chicago from 1864 to 1887. (As reported by Adler & Stolz)
1829(27th of Tevet): Rabbi Samuel Austerer of Brody, author of Ketav Yosher passed away
1830:Abraham Geiger preached his first sermon.
1836: Birthdate of Mendele Mocher Sforim (מענדעלע מוכר ספֿרים) "Mendele the bookseller," is the pseudonym of Sholem Yakov Abramovich, Jewish author and one of the founders of modern Yiddish and Modern Hebrew literature. He was born to a poor family in Kopyl near Minsk and lost his father, Chaim Moyshe Broyde, shortly after he was bar mitzvahed. He studied in yeshiva in Slucak and Vilna until he was 17; during this time he was a day-boarder under the system of Teg-Essen, barely scraping by, and often hungry. He next travelled extensively around Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania at the mercy of an abusive beggar named Avreml Khromoy (Avreml would later become the source for the title character of Fishke der Krumer, Fishke the Lame). In 1854 he settled in Kamenets-Podolskiy, where he got to know writer and poet Avrom Ber Gotlober, who helped him to learn secular culture, philosophy, literature, history, Russian and other languages. His first article, "Letter on Education", appeared in first Hebrew newspaper, Hamagid, in 1857. At Berdichev in the Ukraine, where he lived in 1858-1869, he began to publish fiction both in Hebrew and Yiddish. Having offended the local powers with his satire, he left Berdichev to train as a rabbi at the relatively theologically liberal, government-sponsored rabbinical school in Zhitomir, where he lived in 1869-1881, and became head of traditional school (Talmud Torah) in Odessa in 1881. He lived in Odessa until his death in 1917. He initially wrote in Hebrew, coining many words in that language, but ultimately switched to Yiddish in order to expand his audience. Like Sholom Aleichem, he used a pseudonym because of the perception at the time that as a ghetto vernacular, Yiddish was not suited to serious literary work — an idea he did much to dispel. His writing strongly bore the mark of the Haskalah. He is considered by many to be the "grandfather of Yiddish literature"; his style in both Hebrew and Yiddish has strongly influenced several generations of later writers. While the tradition of journalism in Yiddish had a bit more of a history than in Hebrew, Kol Mevasser, which he supported from the outset and where he published his first Yiddish story "Dos Kleine Menshele" ("The Little Man") in 1863, is generally seen as the first stable and important Yiddish newspaper. Sol Liptzin writes that in his early Yiddish narratives, Mendele "wanted to be useful to his people rather than gain literary laurels". [Liptzin, 1972, 42] "The Little Man" and the unstaged 1869 drama Die Takse ("The Tax") both condemned the corruption by which religious taxes (in the latter case, specifically the tax on kosher meat) were diverted to benefit community leaders rather than the poor. This satiric tendency continued in Die Klatshe (The Dobbin, 1873) about a prince, a stand-in for the Jewish people, who is bewitched and becomes a much put-upon beast of burden, but maintains his moral superiority throughout his sufferings. His later work became more humane and less satiric, starting with Fishke (written 1868-1888) and continuing with the unfinished Masoes Beniamin Hashlishi (The Wanderings of Benjamin III , 1878), something of a Jewish Don Quixote. As with Fishke, Mendele worked on and off for decades on his long novel Dos Vinshfingeril (The Wishing Ring, 1889); at least two versions preceded the final one. It is the story of a maskil—that is, a supporter of the Haskalah, like Mendele himself—who escapes a poor town, survives miserable to obtain a secular education much like Mendele's own, but is driven by the pogroms of the 1880sfrom his dreams of universal brotherhood to one of Jewish nationalism. His last major work was his autobiography, Shlome Reb Chaims, completed shortly before his death in 1917.
1854(2nd of Tevet, 5614): 8th Day Chanukah
1856: “What the Jews Think of New Year’s” published today reported that “in the opinion of our Jewish fellow-citizens New Year’s day and its accompanying custom of giving presents is a blessed institution. “ According to the author, being able to give gifts to their children on New Year’s, makes it possible for Jewish parents to avoid gift giving at Christmas while still being able to bring joy to their youngsters. Oddly enough, the more recently arrived German Jews still cling to the habit they developed in Europe of gift giving on Christmas. “The Jewish families of long standing in” New York “universally” prefer the New Year’s gift giving celebration. The article concludes by reminding readers that ‘our New Year’s, of course, does not correspond with the commencement of the Hebrew year. That falls in the month of Tishrei, which comprises a part of our September and October, and is celebrated, besides religious ceremonies, by magnificent entertainments and a general wish of ‘Happy New Year.’”
1858: Towards midnight, Rachel Felix, who was dying awoke from her sleep and said she wanted to write a letter to her father. Since she did not have the strength to do so, she began dictating the letter "which contained her last wishes."
1858: Birthdate of Bernard Sachs the Harvard trained neurologist who is the “Sachs” in “Tay-Sachs
1861: Wilhelm I became King of Prussia. His repeated clashes “with the liberal Chamber of Deputies” forced legal scholar Ferdinand Lassalle “to make public addresses dealing with the nature of the constitution and its relationship to the social forces within society.”
1862: Rabbi Arnold Fischel wrote a letter from Washington, DC to Henry Hart in New York updating him on the progress he was making in having the law changed so that Rabbis could serve as Chaplains in the Union Army. Fischel also asked Hart to send him the smallest sized prayer book and Tehillim for the use of the Jewish soldiers serving in the Union Army. He asked for an immediate shipment of 50, the smaller the better since they have to fit into the packs carried by the soldiers. Fischel said that Joseph Seligman had assured him that the members of Temple Emanu-El would contribute a large sum of money for such a project was would the Jews at the Stanton Street Synagogue. Finally, Fischel asked Hart to apologize on his behalf to Rabbi S.M. Isaacs for having not written but he, Fischel had been dealing with a bout of Cholera.
1863: The Battle of Stones River in which Colonel Frederick Knefler commanded the 79thIndiana Infantry came to an end with the Rebels being forced to withdraw.
1863(11thof Tevet, 5623):Shlomo Zalman, the son of Shalom Charif Ullmann, who had been born in 1792, passed away today.
1873: It was reported today that an Imperial ukase or proclamation of the Czar has been issued today concerning the rules and regulations surrounding the recruiting program for the navy and army. Among other things, in that part of Poland ruled by Russia, Jews who have converted to Christianity will no longer be exempted from military service. These converts, like others who have lost their exemption, can purchase one by 800 silver rubles to the government. [Considering the treatment of Jews in the Russian Army, conversion may have seemed like the lesser of two evils, especially for those who were too poor to be able to leave the country.]
1874(13thof Tevet, 5634): David Stern, husband of Fanny and brother-in-law of Levi Strauss, passes away.
1878: “The Merchant of Venice In 1652” which was published today and which was based on information that first appeared in the London Athenaeum speculated on the possibility that the republication of Shakespeare’s play featuring the infamous Shylock was released as part of the campaign against readmitting Jews to England which championed by Cromwell but opposed by a large segment of the population including the merchants in London, the clergy and such notables as William Prynne.
1879: It was reported today that The Hebrew Book Union has issued a prospectus for a new “Lexcicon to the Talmud, Targum and Midrash” compiled by Dr. F. De Sola Mendes. It will be issued in four parts and will be the first such work published with an English translation.
1884:Sir Harry Lawson Webster Levy-Lawson, 1st Viscount Burnham “married Olive de Bathe, daughter of General Sir Gerald Henry Perceval de Bathe, 4th Bt and Charlotte Clare.”
1884: Birthdate of Ben-Zion Dinaburg, who studied to be a rabbi before moving to Palestine in 1921 where he gained fame as Ben-Zion Dinur where he served as head of the Jewish Teachers’ Training College and as an MK in the first Knesset.
1886: Alice le Strange, the wife of English philo-semite Laurence Oliphant passed away today after having contracted a fever while traveling along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Oliphant, who had also contracted the fever, was too sick to attend her funeral. Oliphant was in Palestine to pursue his dream of helping large numbers of Jews to settle in their ancient homeland.
1886: Birthdate of Moyshe-Leyb Halpern one of “the most innovative and ironic of the modernist Yiddish poets.
1887: The Jewish Theological Seminary Association, the educational and spiritual center of Conservative Judaism opened under the leadership of Saba Morais. Morais, a Rabbi of Congregation Mikve Israel Philadelphia Pittsburgh
1890(10th of Tevet, 5650):Asara B'Tevet
1890: It was reported today that the Beth Israel Hospital Association, which was recently formed to build a hospital on the Lower East Side for the burgeoning immigrant population has 180 members who have raised $1,200 in pledges and $500 in cash contriubtions.
1892(2ndof Tevet, 5652): 8th day of Chanukah
1892(2ndof Tevet, 5652): Jacob Goldsmith, a trustee of Temple Emanu-El and director of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, passed away today. Born in Germany in 1821, he moved to the United States at the age of 15. He successfully operated dry goods stores in Shreveport, Portland and San Francisco. Finally, he sold his interest in a petroleum refining company to Standard Oil and moved to New York where owned a stationary business.
1893: It was reported today that Professor Cyrus Adler of Johns Hopkins University acquired a rare manuscript while in Constantinople that related to Columbus and the New World.
1893: It was reported today that Henry S. Morais is preparing a publication that will cover the history of “the Jews of Philadelphia from the earliest settlements until the present.”
1893: As the outbreak of typhus that began on December 1st continues to work its way through the city, Henry Mazinsky, an eleven year old Jewish boy, who had been under the care of the Ladies’ Deborah Nursery fell victim to typhus today.
1894: Birthdate of Robert Gruntal Nathan an American novelist and poet whose works included The Bishop’s Wife which became a hit movie starring Cary Grant, David Niven and Loretta Young.
1895: Birthdate of Count Folke Bernadotte. Bernadotte was a member of a prominent Swedish family and well-known diplomat. His negotiations with Himmler during World War II saved the lives of thousands of Jews. As a U.N. representative, Bernadotte negotiated the first truce between the Arabs and the Israelis in 1948. During the truce, Bernadotte visited Israel
1895: Sir Matthew Nathan “was created a companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George for his services” “as secretary of the Colonial Defense Committee.
1895(6th of Tevet, 5655): A mother and her two children were burned to death at fire in the tenement house on Pitt Street. The dead were, Lena Leiman (24), Sadie Leiman (2) and Henry Leiman (2 months)
1896: It was reported that Hirsh Leavitt, a Russian Jew hired by William Rubin as a night watchman for his building on 19th Bleecker Street had suffered a broken leg which would heal and not require amputation. Leavitt, who speaks no English, had been injured when police mistook him for a burglar.
1897: Jacob A. Riss delivered an address at a dinner hosted by the Reform Club in which he described the tenement system as “an invention of Satan” which had the power to overwhelm the scruples of its tenants including Jews as well as Roman Catholics.
1897: It was reported today that “Morris Goodhart, President of the Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society and…the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society is dangerously ill” as a result of “an abcess in the peritoneal cavity.”
1897: “Good-Will to Men” which was published today and which relies on information that first appeared in The Jewish Messenger, notes that “the trend of thought today among our Christian brethren of any culture and enlightenment is against bigotry and hatred for the greater glory of God.”
1898: “My Interview with the Wandering Jew” by John Denison Champlin was published today.
1898: It was reported today that “an explosion of accumulated gas wrecked the entire first floor of” Israel Cohen’s bathhouse at 23 Hester Street.
1898: It was reported today that a the two existing “Jewish colleges” – Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and Jewish Theological Seminary in New York – are about to be joined by a third school located in Philadelphia that will be funded, in part by a legacy created by the late Hyman Gratz which yields $5,000 per year.
1899: The Noah Benevolent Widows and Orphans’ Association is scheduled to “celebrate its golden jubilee” this “afternoon and evening with a banquet and reception at the Terrace Garden.”
1899: Mrs. Bertha Morgenstern told a reporter that she had celebrated her 106thbirthday yesterday drinking “a pint of beer” and eating “three hearty meals” which is how she spends each and every one of her days at the Hebrew Sheltering Home.
1901: In New York Florence (née Lowenstein) Marshall and Louis Marshall gave birth to their third child,Robert "Bob" Marshall “an American forester, writer and wilderness activist.”
1903: Publication of the first edition of The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger.
1903: British minister Joseph Chamberlain “found” a wonderful piece of land in East Africa for Jewish settlement.
1904:Manya Shochat the “Russian Jewish politician and the "mother" of the collective settlement in Palestine, the forerunner of the kibbutz movement” joined her brother Nachum Wilbuszewicz the founder of the Shemen soap factory “on a research expedition to some of the wilder places of Palestine.
1905: Japanese General Nogi received from Russian General Stoessel at 9 p.m. a letter formally offering to surrender, ending the Russo-Japanese War. The Russian defeat led to an uprising against the Czar and Pogroms aimed at the Jews. In an attempt to gain support, Czar Nicholas II agreed to popular elections for the Duma (Russian Parliament). The reforms were short lived and produced limited results. Even more significantly, the Russians were unable to reform their military establishment. This meant that the Russians were ill-suited to fight the Germans in World War I which would break out five years later. Jews would suffer during World War I and would suffer even more when the Bolsheviks came to power at the end of World War I. As we have discovered in our studies in Cedar Rapids, Jewish History is entwined with the history of all of the civilizations in which they live and have lived. That is part of the challenge and half of the fun.
1905: Birthdate of Russian mathematician Lev Schnirelmann.
1906: The 9th Duke of Marlborough, a cousin of Winston Churchill, expressed his dissatisfaction with a review of Churchill’s newly published biography about his father Randolph by threatening “to administer a good and sound trouncing to that dirty little Hebrew,” Harry Levy-Lawson, the Jewish manager of the paper in which the review appeared. The two cousins had very different views of Jews and the Jewish people.
1909(9thof Tevet, 5669): Russian born British artist and illustrator Henry Ospovat passed away today.
1912: Newly-elected Sheriff Julius Harburger announced “that he would appoint a number of women deputies.” Only was it later discovered that such appointments were against the law.
1913: Birthdate of English actress Anna Lee was the seventh wife of poet Robert Gruntal Nathan (He was Jewish. She was not)
1915(16th of Tevet, 5675): Karl Goldmark Austria-Hungarian composer passes away at the age of 84.
1916: Birthdate of Edmund Leopold de Rothschild.
1916: In Camden, NJ, : Rabbi Max Klein of Philadelphia's Adath Jeshurun Synagogue, Rabbi Bernard Levinthal, Philadelphia's renown Orthodox Jewish leader, Dr. Solomon Solis-Cohen, Rabbi Samuel S. Grossman and Rabbi Abraham Nowak of New York City were scheduled to appear at a mass meeting at the North Broadway Theater at Broadway and Kaighn
1916:Birthdate of Zypora Tannenbaumwho gained fame as Zypora Spaisman. Born in Lublin, she was a Polish-American actress and Yiddish theatre empresaria. She emigrated to the United States in 1954 where she helped keep the Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre in NYC alive for 42 years (along with Morris Adler), before helping to found the Yiddish Public Theater following a dispute with the Folksbiene's new management
1920: “In a speech in Sunderland …Churchill described Bolshevism as a ‘Jewish movement.’”
1922(2nd of Tevet, 5682): 8th Day of Chanukah
1927: According to published reports, two plans are being developed for the electrification of Palestine. One plan “contemplates pumping the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean over a low ridge of mountains between the Palestinian coast and the Jordan Valley, and then through turbines into Lake Tiberius and the Dead Sea.” The other, a more modest plan, calls for using the flow of the Jordan to create mechanical power which could then generate an affordable supply of electricity.
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: The municipality of Tel Aviv is scheduled to start paying the principle on a 75,000 pound bond issue that was offered in December of 1922.
1932: Maurice J. Karpf was elected President of the American Association of Schools of Social Work.
1933(4th of Tevet, 5693):Belle Moskowitz the political advisor to New York Governor Al Smith who managed his 1928 presidential campaign died unexpectedly as a result of complications from a fall on the steps in front of her house.
1933: The death of Mrs. Henry (Belle) Moskowitz came as a great shock to those gathered in Albany for today’s inauguration ceremony. Both Governor Herbert Lehman and former Governor (1928 Presidential candidate) Al Smith were taken aback by the loss of their friend and political ally.
1933: Birthdate of author Leonard Michaels whose works included Sylvia and The Men’s Club.
1934: New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was among the many prominent civic, academic and religious leaders who attended today’s funeral for Dr. George Alexander Kohut which was held at the deceased’s Park Avenue Home. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue and a life-long friend of the Dr. Kohut conducted the service and delivered the eulogy. Internment followed the service at the Linden Hill Cemetery
1936: On his 75th birthday, Philadelphian Samuel Bloom announced that he was contributing 3000 pounds for the establishment of a home for “vagrant children” in Tel Aviv.
1938: The Palestine Post reported from London Palestine British Empire . They stressed the common ideals and interests in Palestine Great Britain
1939: Time magazine names Adolf Hitler “Man of the Year, 1938.” (This was not a vote of approval; merely acknowledgement of his importance.)
1939: Roman Dmowski, an anti-Semitic Polish politician who co-found the National Democracy movement which sought to counter what it considers unfair “Polish-Jewish economic competition with Catholic Poles” passed away. (Polish anti-Semitism was homegrown which helped to account for why there was no refuge for the Jews of Poland when the Nazis invaded.)
1939: Solomon Levitan served his final day in office as state treasurer of Wisconsin
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1940: In Poland
1941: “In the Netherlands, Jews are prohibited from visiting cinemas.”
1941(3rd of Tevet, 5701): Forty-two year old pianist Mischa Levitzki died suddenly of a heart attack in Avon-by-the-Sea, New Jersey.
1942: Truckloads of deportees were driven around Chelmo, gassed and then buried. The first of 5,000 Gypsies were brought to Chelmo and gassed.
1945: Abba Eban ended his tour of duty at the Ministry of State.
1945: Abba Eban is betrothed to his future wife Suzy.
1946: Holocaust survivors Ann Gilbert (Chana Zylberstajn) Fred Gilbert (Felek Gebotszrajber) were married in Scwabisch Hall , Germany
1946: At a press conference, British General Frederick Morgan, the director general of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in Europe, disclosed that "thousands of Polish Jews were coming into the U.S. Zone of Occupation assisted by an unknown secret Jewish organization." He further stated that Jewish Holocaust survivors were being forced by that organization to immigrate to Palestine Palestine
1946:Ruth Seid, writing under the ethnically neutral and gender-ambiguous pen name Jo Sinclair, won the $10,000 Harper Prize for new writers. “Seid had supported her writing through the generosity of a local patron. She shared her $10 a week stipend with her parents, Russian immigrants living in Cleveland
1946: The Women’s League for Palestine holds an open meeting and tea to plan a campaign for raising funds for enlarging and maintain the league’s other homes in Jerusalem and Haifa.
1946: Eleanor Florence Rathbone, a member of the British House of Commons and advocate for the rights of women passed away. In the House of Commons, the courageous Eleanor Rathbone attacked the British government for the defeatist attitudes expressed at the Bermuda Conference and noted that the Allies are responsible for the deaths of any Jews if they refuse to help.
1947(10th of Tevet, 5707): Asara B'Tevet
1947: Jewish underground staged bombings and machine gun attacks in five cities. Casualties were low. Pamphlets seized warned that the Irgun had again declared war against the British
1948:Birthdate of Tony Robert Judt who went from being an ardent Zionist to one who was so critical of the Jewish state that he might classified as an anti-Zionist.
1949: In the aftermath of the War of Independence, the last Israeli troops left the Sinai Peninsula completing a withdrawal that had been worked out between Ben Gurion and Britain
1949: In an example of what difference a year makes, two Israeli Spitfires attacked an Egyptian train traveling in violation of the withdrawal agreement.
1949: An Egyptian plan flew over Jerusalem
1949:As part of Bill Paley’s “great raid” the Jack Benny Program returned to CBS radio where it will remain until its last broadcast in 1955.
1951: The North American tour of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra sponsored by the American Fund for Israeli Institutions began with a concert in Washington, D.C. conducted by Dr./ Serge Koussevitzky,
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that on the first day on which price control was lifted from poultry, prices rose from IL 2 to IL 6 a kilo. The Norwegian s.s. Rimfort passed through the Suez Canal , and arrived with a cargo of 150 tons of meat from Ethiopia Brazil Argentina
1953: Birthdate of Egyptian born American author Andre Aciman who wrote the autobiographical Out of Egypt
1954: Herman Wouk’s "Caine Mutiny" premiered in New York City.
1955: Arab militant gunmen attacked and killed 2 hikers in the Judean Desert.
1955: First broadcast of “The Bob Cummings Show” for which Stanley Frazen served as Supervising Editor.
1956: Sydney Fine resigned from his position as member of the House of Representatives for New York’s 22nd congressional district so that he could join the New York Supreme Court.
1957(29thof Tevet, 5717): Six-eight year old Isaac Nachman Steinberg passed away.
1960: Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts Israel
1961: Birthdate of Representative Rob Wexler, representing Florida
1966: First native Jewish child was born in Spain since the expulsion in 1492
1966: “The Trefa Banquet” published today described the famous dinner given in Cincinnati in 1883 which proved to be a decisive moment in the separation of the Reform movement from traditional Judaism.
1967: Yisrael Yeshayahu replaced Eliyahu Sasson as Communications Minister.
1967: Eliyahu Sasson replaced Bechor Shalom Sheetrit as Minister of Public Security.
1967: An exhibition of the works of Gertrude Schaefler began today at the Bodley Gallery in New York City.
1969: Opening of “The Fig Leaves Are Falling” with script and lyrics by Allan Sherman
1970: In Operation Double Bass 10, The Golani Brigade took part in a retaliatory raid on Kfar Kila in response to the kidnapping of an elderly guard from Metula by Fatah two days earlier.
1970: During the War of Attrition, Hagi Zamir , together with two other soldiers - including Aharon Danziger - were hurt while entering the island of Shaduan with Zamir’s wounds resulting in the amputation of his left leg.
1971:A team of Israeli scholars announced the discovery in Jerusalem of a 2,000-year-old skeleton of a crucified male. Found in a cave-tomb, it was the first direct physical evidence of the well-documented Roman method of execution.
1972: Opening of “Fun City
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that during the current Egyptian-Israeli peace negotiations, Mustafa Amin, a well-known Egyptian journalist, described Prime Minister Menachem Begin as a "Shylock," determined to get his pound of flesh from his people. Residents of the Yamit area were "more disappointed than ever" by the government decision to allow Egyptian sovereignty over the entire Rafiah Approaches.
1981: As of today Helen Reddy and Jeff Wald “had separated with Wald moving into a Beverly Hills rehad facility to treat an eight-year addiction to cocaine.” Reddy had “converted Judaism before marrying Wald.”
1981: “Nadezhda Mandelstam, widow of Osip Mandelstam, the poet who died in a Stalinist purge, was buried today on the outskirts of Moscow” (As reported by Anthony Austin)
1987(1stof Tevet, 5747): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1987:During the Intifada, Israel stopped another Junieh-bound ferry, the Sunny Boat, and turned it back to Larnaca after the Cypriot captain refused an Israeli demand that he hand over Palestinian passengers suspected of being terrorists.
1989:In an article entitled “Israel, Hardly the Monaco of the Middle East,” Abba Eban explained why Israel must negotiate with the Arabs and why her “friends” must not be alarmed at this turn of events. Since Eban may be considered as “the dean of Israeli foreign policy and one of those who got it more right than most, the article is worth reading in its entirety.
1990: The Likud and Labor parties averted a breakup of their governing coalition today with a compromise under which Ezer Weizmann, the independent-minded Labor Party Science Minister, would keep his post but be suspended from the Government's decision-making core.
1990: In “From Letter Writer to Starting Forward,” published today Jack Cavanugh described the unique approach followed by Nadav Henefield as he transitioned from being one of the best basketball players in Israel to a scholarship and starting role with the University of Connecticut.
1992: Tonight, Israel announced that it would expel 12 Palestinians who were involved with known terrorists following the murder of a Jewish settler.
1992: Jerusalem struggled with its worst snowstorm in four decades. Across the Israeli capital, tree branches, and even entire trees, snapped with rifle-shot cracks under the heavy snow. Besides blocking roads, the fallen trees knocked out power lines, leaving large sections of the city without electricity and, in some instances, without telephones as well. As Jerusalem knows all too well, it is not equipped to deal with such calamities. For hours, there was no way for cars to move up or down the steep, winding main highway that connects Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and other coastal cities, and so this city had to carry on in uncertain isolation. Most people elected to remain indoors, thus turning normally bustling streets into milky canyons of quiet. The storm t dumped at least 18 inches on the city, the heaviest snowfall in 42 years. All of Israel was hit hard by rain and snow. In the Tel Aviv district of Ezra, where people had fled as Iraqi Scud missiles fell on them a year ago during the Persian Gulf war, hundreds of residents had to be evacuated once more today as heavy rains brought six-foot-high waters. Since this is a region where water is often scarcer than peace, it was hardly all bad news. The Middle East has been plagued for a long time by severe drought, but this fall and winter have been one of the wettest periods in years. As a result, many Arabs and Jews view the ordeal of the last day or two as a worthwhile price for the ultimate payoff in healthy river flows. In northern Israel, the Sea of Galilee, a primary water source for the country, is said to have risen by at least 30 inches over the last two months -- almost five inches in the last day alone.
1993:The New York Times published the following letter tothe editor from David L. Gold; President of the Association of the Study of Jewish Languages disputing early claims that that the word “turkey” had a Hebrew root.
“Harold M. Kamsler's attempt to trace English "turkey" to Hebrew "tuki" (letter, Dec. 13) makes etymology seem as easy as finding like-sounding words in other languages.
To set the record straight: The English word is a shortening of "Turkey-cock" and "Turkey-hen," which were originally the names of the guinea fowl (so called because the guinea fowl was sometimes imported into Europe through Turkey). Because people misidentified the turkey with the guinea fowl or mistakenly considered it to be a species of that bird, these English names came to designate the turkey. Furthermore, the word "Turkey-cock" is not attested until 1541, that is, almost a half-century after Columbus's voyages. "Turkey-hen and "turkey" are not attested until even later. Rabbi Kamsler's explanation, not original with him, is an old yarn spun in uninformed Jewish circles. Along with countless other pseudoscientific claims about supposed Hebrew influence on English and other languages, the myth of the Hebrew origin of "turkey" was quietly exploded in volume 2 of Jewish Linguistic Studies (1990).”
1994: “A Coat of Many Colors: Two Centuries of Jewish Life in Canada” comes to a close today at the Jewish Museum in NYC
1994: Final day for showing"A Coat of Many Colors: Two Centuries of Jewish Life in Canada" at the Jewish Museum in New York City.
1994: The last in a series of three family tours sponsored by American Jewish Congress are scheduled to come to an end.
1997: The governor of Colorado appointed Michael Bender to serve as an associate Justice of the Colorado State Supreme Court He was the son of basketball legend and former U.S. Attorney Lou Bender,
1997(23rdof Tevet, 5757): Eighty-six year old Moshe Vilenski, the native of Warsaw who is considered a pioneer of Israeli music and who wrote the music for “Kalaniyot” passed away today.
1998: In “Are yeshiva students dumb?” published today author Jonathan Rosenblum quoted the following story in explaining why yeshivot are important to the survival of the Jewish people. “At the cornerstone-laying of Ponevezh Yeshiva, nearly 50 years ago, many were surprised by the presence of Mapai stalwart Pinhas Lavon. Asked what an avowed secularist was doing there, Lavon replied in all seriousness, 'The leaders of the Jewish people have always come from the yeshivas. If we have no yeshivas, where will the leaders come from?"
2000: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including And the Sea Is Never Full: Memoirs, 1969by Elie Wiesel, Arthur Kosetler: The Homeless Mindby David Cesarani and The Multiple Identities of the Middle East by Bernard Lewis.
2001:Yasir Arafat was scheduled to meet with President Clinton this afternoon following Arafat’s emergency flight to Washington from Gaza coming in the wake of a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on New Year’s Day. Arafat is expected to discuss his “reservations” about the blue-print for peace that President Clinton had brokered during meetings with Arafat and Prime Minister Barak.
2003:Today Israeli soldiers found the charred body of a 73-year-old Israeli man near a West Bank village hours after his family had reported him missing. The grisly discovery came after the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group linked to Yasir Arafat's Fatah faction, issued a statement declaring it had killed an Israeli in the Jordan Valley near Tubas.
2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Catastrophe:Risk and Response by Richard A. Posner and the recently published paperback editions of Nobody’s Perfect: Billy Wilder: A Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler,Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s by Gerald Nachman, Who Killed Daniel Pearl? by Bernard-Henri Levy; translated by James X. Mitchell andA Mighty Heart The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Danny Pearlby Mariane Pearl with Sarah Crichton.
2005: In “Shalom, y’all a smile from South’s Jews” published today the Chicago Tribune reported on “an archive opening soon in South Carolina that salutes 300 years of immigrants’ history.” The archive located on the campus of the College of Charleston United States
2006: In “Satire That Spares Nothing, Not Even God and Country” Dina Kraft described Israel's hit spoof news show, "A Wonderful Country" which drew inspiration in part from "Saturday Night Live" and "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart."
2007: Police Inspector - General Karadi has decided to appoint a special national police task force to combat the attacks and threats against Israeli mayors.
2007(17 Shevat 5767): Teddy Kolleck, Jerusalem
2008: In Buenos Aires , Argentina
2008: The Film Forum in Manhattan started a sixteen day showing of 23 of the films of producer-director Otto Preminger. The Viennese born refugee from Hitler’s Europe , Preminger’s accomplishments transcended those of a movie mogul. The crusading liberal challenged racism by directing “Porgy and Bess” and “Carmen Jones.” He challenged McCarthyism and the Red Baiting Right Wing by hiring Dalton Trumbo one of the jailed Hollywood 10 as the writer screenwriter for the film “Exodus.”
2008: The New York Times features a review of Richard Cook’s Alfred Kazin a biography of the literary critic who was “a proud Jew” and “a champion of writers like Bernard Malamud, Saul Bellow and Philip Roth.”
2008: Representative Tom Lantos a California Democrat and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee announced that he will not seek re-election because he has cancer of the esophagus. Born in Budapest , Hungary
2009: As the impact of Bernard L. Madoff’s con game spreads, the management of the Bank Medici, the small Austrian merchant bank that emerged as one of its largest victims resigned making room for a government appointed accountant to temporarily take over day-to-day management of the bank’s operations. The bank, based in Vienna
2009: As Jews around the world prepared for Shabbat, the following names would be added to the Yahrzeit Lists read at more than one synagogue or temple:
2010: Jews around the world complete the reading of Bereshit (Genesis)– one down, four to go.
2010: Jerusalem native Dan Aran, leads the Dan Aran Trio, as it performs at The Bar Next Door in New York.
2010: In Cedar Rapids, the traditional Saturday Morning Minyan at Temple Judah entered its ninth year. Despite sub-zero temperatures and the New Year’s weekend, our small congregation produced a number in excess of the basic prayer quorum. Per the request of our youngest attendee, Gabriella Thalblum Deb Levin saw to it that we had Pizza as part of the Kiddush following services.
2010:A hacker attacked Jewish Web sites in Boulder, Colo., posting anti-Semitic messages. The Web sites of two Boulder synagogues, Bonai Shalom and Har HaShem, were defaced today.
2010(16th of Tevet, 5770):David Gerber, an Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning television producer who brought forward-thinking series like “Police Story” and “Police Woman” to prime time in the 1970s and produced more than 50 television films and mini-series during a four-decade career, died today in Los Angeles at the age of 86. (As reported by Anita Gates)
2011: A Judaica book sale -- the largest of its kind in the Greater Washington area -- with an estimated 1,600 titles is scheduled to take place at Congregation Tikvat Israel in Rockville, Md.
2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt
2011: The funeral of Rabbi Yissachar Meir, who passed away on Shabbat, was held today at Netiviot, Israel
2011: Jerusalem Post reporter Khaled Abu Toameh is one of two winners of Israel’s Media Watch’s 2011 award for media criticism, the organization announced today. The right-wing satirical news site Latma was a co-winner of the award.
2011: As of today, Deborah Shapiro and Michael Rieber who have been friends, political allies, and fellow members of Congregation Etz Chaim in Livingston for several years enjoy another distinction. Together, they form the Republican minority on the five-person Livingston Township Council.
2012: In Jerusalem, local talent is scheduled to have a chance to shine at Open Mic Night at Mike’s Place
2012: Rabbi Chaim Sabato and Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein are scheduled to appear at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue in a program is in celebration of the recently published book "Mevakshay Panecha" by Rabbis Sabato and Lichtenstein. “Adjusting Sites” and “Aleppo Tales” by Chaim Sabato are available in English and are a must read for everybody.
2012: The Knesset approved today in second and third readings the so-called Grunis bill, which is expected to pave the way for Supreme Court Justice Asher Dan Grunis, a conservative judge popular with right-wing politicians, to be named the next court president.
2012:The IDF General Staff forum has decided to adopt a special committee's recommendation to excuse religious soldiers from informal events which include women's singing, Ynet learned today. The committee, which is headed by IDF Personnel Directorate chief Major-General Orna Barbivai, also determined that religious soldiers should not be allowed to leave an official event where women are invited to perform.
2013: “Aya” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: “Israel’s prestigious Wolf Prize will honor American, German and Austrian scientists as well as an architect from Portugal this year, the Wolf Foundation announced today.” (As reported by Michal Shumlovich
2013: Ruth Goodman, Yossi Almani and the Hilulim team from Israel featuring Gadi Bitton, Yaron Ben Simchon, Yaron Carmel are scheduled to lead an evening of Israeli Dancing at the 92nd Street Y.
2013(20thof Tevet, 5773): Ninety-two year old scholar and author Gerda Lerner passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)
2013:Clashes broke out for the second day running between Palestinians and settlers outside the West Bank outpost of Esh Kodesh near the Shiloh settlement this morning, Army Radio reported.
2013:The IDF Prosecutor today filed an indictment against the alleged “mastermind” of the Tel Aviv bus bombing which injured 24 passengers during Operation Pillar of Defense with the West Bank Military Court of Yehuda.
2014: “Sage of a Photo” and “Behind the Candelabra” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014(1stof Shevat, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
2014: “An internal Palestinian Authority document” “whose contents were reported by…Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel Radio this morning” predicted a “third intifada” if the Kerry Peace talks fail.
2014: The IDF expects Israeli born Seton Hall basketball player Tom Maayan to return to fulfill his military obligation.
2014: The gag order was removed on Shin Bet’s arrest of “14 terrorists some from the Islamic Jihad organization, on suspicion that they were involved in the bombing of a bus in Bat Yam two weeks ago.” (As reported by Gil Ronen)