January 4
41: The Praetorian Guard killed the Roman Emperor Caligula. Caligula is one of those vile figures whose behavior is dismissed as the acts of crazy person. As far as the Jews are concerned, Caligula had no use for them as a people. His attempts to have them worship his image led to anti-Jewish riots in Alexandria, among other places. His death avoided a collision between the Jews and Rome because Caligula had ordered that the Jews begin worshipping him as god at their Temple in Jerusalem.
1034:According to Yahia of Antiochia the port of' Akko fell dry for an hour and there was a Tsunami at Jaffa.
1248: Alfonso III replaced, whose mention of the Jews of Faro in the municipal establishes the antiquity of the community replaced Sancho II as King of Portugal.
1278(2ndof Shevat, 5038): Rabbi Isaac Males was burned at the stake by order of the Inquisition. A Jew who had converted to Christianity returned to Judaism. When he died, he was buried in a Jewish cemetery by the Rabbi. The Church felt the need to severely punish Males as a part of deterring converts to Judaism and encouraging those who had converted to Christianity to remain faithful to their new faith.
1361: The aljama of Barcelona was pardoned by the king after it had "persuaded" a Muslim to convert to Judaism. An aljama was the name given to self-governing Jewish communities in the kingdoms of Christian Spain.
1559: The first critical edition of Hovot ha-Levavot by Rabbi Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquada was published in Mantua, Italy
1729(4th of Shevat, 5489) Hebrew poet Meir Bacharach passed away.
1786 (5th of Shevat, 5546): Moses Mendelssohn passed away at the age of 56. Born in 1729 at Dessau Germany, Mendelssohn was leader of the movement to emancipate the Jews of Europe. He argued for the separation of church and state. At the same time he sought to prepare Jews for entrance into German society. This included efforts to replace Yiddish with German as can be seen by his translation of the TaNaCh into German. Mendelssohn himself was an observant Jew for his entire life. Some view him as one of the fathers of what would become Reform Judaism. Mendelssohn’s descendants would forsake the religion of Mendelssohn and convert to Christianity as they sought acceptance in the world of German culture.
1796: “Solomon Etting's name appears in the Advertiser as one of five persons authorized ‘to receive proposals in writing for a house or suitable lot’ for a bank to be established in Baltimore Town.”
1802: In Paris, Chazzan Élie Halévy and his wife gave birth to Léon Halévy the French intellectual who converted so he could “marry the daughter of the architect Louis-Hippolyte Lebas and become assistant professor of French literature at the Ecole Polytechnique,
1803(10th of Tevet, 5563): Asara B’Tevet
1822: Eugenia Pavia Gentilomo Fortis, the native of Milan who composed poetry in Italian and translated “medieval Hebrew poems” into Italian.
1824: In Cincinnati, Ohio a group of approximately 20 Jews met “to consider the advisability of organizing a congregation.
1830: In Cincinnati, Ohio, a preliminary meeting was held by a group of Jews to consider the advisability of organizing a congregation.
1850: Birthdate of Frederick Kohn, the native of Prague better known as the French author Paul d’Brest who married Fannie Sulzer, the wife of Viennese cantor Salomon Selzer in 1877.
1855: Birthdate of Edward S. Rothchild, the native of Louisville who “is believed to have built the first sizable office building in San Francisco after the…earthquake” and who served as President of two New York banks – the Public National Bank and the Chelsea Exchange Bank formerly known as “The Bank of the Theatre.
1858: The New York Timespublished a very detailed article describing “the ‘jahrszeit’ or mortuary services” on the 4th anniversary of the death of Judah Touro held at the Green-street Synagogue “which were performed by the Gemelth Chased Society.” The article noted that “every man, woman and child Israel knew that…the anniversary of parent’s decease should be observed with prayer and fasting by his kindred.” Since Touro had no children he would be denied such honor would be denied him; a reality that was offensive given the virtue and generosity of this self-made millionaire. So the community gathered to honor his memory with a service that included a sermon by Rabbi Raphall that included a biography of this wealthy businessman who had fought at the Battle Of New Orleans and who was a generous benefactor to a variety of Jewish and gentile causes and charities. The service concluded with the Dr. Ritterman chanting in Hebrew, “a prayer for the soul of the deceased.”
1858: French author Mario Uchard wrote a letter to Victorien Sardou describing the final hours of the Rachel Felix, the Franc-Jewish actress known as Mademoiselle Rachel
1858: French author Mario Uchard wrote a letter to Victorien Sardou describing the final hours of the Rachel Felix, the Franc-Jewish actress known as Mademoiselle Rachel
1861: Members of the New Orleans Jewish community heard an address delivered by Rabbi Bernard Illowy in Baltimore which resulted in their offering him a position in the Crescent City.
1861: As the storm clouds of the Civil War gathered, Morris J. Raphall, the Rabbi at B’Nai Jershrun in New York gave a sermon entitled “The Bible View of Slavery.” In the sermon Raphall argued that the Bible did permit slavery. This statement was popular with pro-slavery forces and erroneously stamped Raphall as being pro-slavery since he personally opposed what Southerners called “their peculiar institution.”
1862: Rabbi Arnold Fischel wrote a letter today describing his efforts to get Congress to pass legislation that would Jews to serve as Chaplains in the Union Army. The bill would remove the requirement that a chaplain be “of a Christian denomination” but will instead say the "the Chaplains must be of a religious denomination", which will open the office to Jews without offending the religious sensibilities of the Christians. He also asked that this news not be shared with the general public or with the newspapers since the matter has not been voted on by Congress.
1863: Today Congressman John A. Gurley arranged a meeting between Cesar J. Kaskel, and Abraham Lincoln regarding an order issued by Gen. Grant expelling Jews from Military Department of Tennessee. Bertram W. Korn, American Jewry and the Civil War (Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1951), 125.
1863: Following the instructions of President Lincoln, General Halleck sent a telegram to General Grant calling for the immediate revocation of General Order 11.
1865: The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City. The NYSE was founded in 1791. Three Jews, Benjamin Mendes Seixas, Ephraim Hart and Alexander Zuntz, were among the original founders.
1869:Baron George de Worms and Louisa de Samuel gave birth to 1.Baron Anthony Denis Maruice George de Worms.
1872: In Baltimore, Rose Laura Sutro and Ottilie Sutro gave birth to their second daughter Ottilie who along with her sister Rose “were notable as one of the first recognized duo-piano teams.”
1875: “A Disappointed Russian wrote to the London Times to denounce last year’s proclamation of amnesty issued by the Russian government was a fraud. Under the terms of the declaration anybody who not took part in an assassination plot were eligible to return. The author’s only crime was leaving the country without a passport. However, his application to return home was denied because, according to the Russian official in London, he was Jewish. Furthermore, the Russian Consul asked the writer not to disclose the facts of the case.
1877: It was reported today that the Austrian Government will probably take decisive steps to ameliorate the suffering of Jews in Romania because some of the suffering Jews may actually be subjects of the Austrian Empire.
1878: Birthdate of Zvi Nishri, the native of Russia who made Aliyah in 1903 and became one of he “founding fathers” of modern physical education programs in Israel.
1878: A report published today that described the conflict between the Turks and the Russians described a plan being put forth by business leaders in London to check “Russian progress toward the Mediterranean” by having the Jews purchase Syria and Palestine from the Turks which would lead to “the establishment of a Jewish Kingdom or Republic under the guarantee of England and France.” Reportedly the Jews of London and “several eminent Christians” support the idea. “The restoration of the Jews with the aid and under the patronage of a financial company, would at least be in keeping with the utilitarian spirit of the age.”
1880(20th of Tevet, 5640):Yaakov Abuhatzeira, also known as the Avir Yaakov and Abu Hasira,” a leading Moroccan Rabbi” passed away today in Egypt while on his way to Palestine.
1882: Members of the Baruch family of Alexandria Egypt were released from jail and exonerated from ritual murder charges in the Fornaraki affair
1882: British political leader Ralph Bernal Osborne, the eldest son of an Anglo-Sephardic Jew who converted to Christianity, passed away today.
1884: The Fabian Society is founded in London. The society advocated socialist reform but by gradual, not revolutionary means. Leonard Woolf an English Jew, was one of the early members of this society of intellectuals derisively referred to as Parlor Pinks by left wing activists.
1891: “Matters We Ought To Know” published today provides a detailed review of How The Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York, the seminal work on this topic by social reformer Jacob A. Riis. (When one considers the large number of Jews who would live in these tenements during the next three or four decades, the importance of this work to Jewish people should be self-obvious)
1892: R.D. MacLean played the role of Shylock the Jew in a performance of The Merchant of Venice produced by the MacLean-Presscott Company in New York. The Merchant of Venice was the first play by Shakespeare performed in the Thirteen Colonies and its continued performance attests to the popular enjoyment of a play that portrays the Jew as the “moneylender.”
1892: The funeral for retired businessman and Jewish communal leader Jacob Goldsmith who is the stepfather of Alan L. Sanger is scheduled to be held at Temple Emanu-El.
1892: Birthdate of James G. Heller, the New Orleans native and Tulane alum who gained famed as a musician and reform rabbi.
1894: “A special meeting of the Board of Alderman will be held today” to deal with the death of Adolph L. Sanger, the President of the Board of Education
1894: It was reported today that one hundred Jews who have converted to Christianity have signed a protest that they will present to the New York Presbytery over the refusal to ordain Hermann Warszawiak. Warszawiak is a convert and the petitioners express their displeasure he should be subjected to persecution and attack by Christians…from whom only brotherly love and kindness were due.”
1894: A reporter for the New York Times visited the headquarters of the United Hebrew Charities on Second Avenue in search of a reaction to Oliver Sumner Teall’s report that was highly critical of the work being done by charities in New York.
1894: “Want The Jewish Sabbath Observed” published today described efforts by rabbis in New York to improve the observance of the Jewish day of rest. They plan to publish a list of all Jewish businesses that observe Shabbat so that those in search of work can know where they should go for a job if they are “observant.” Among those take a leading role in the movement are Stephen S. Wise, Aaron Wise, Max Cohen, Moses Oettinger, Simon M. Roeder, Joan Weil, David M. Pizer and Abraham Neumark.
1896: Utah becomes the 45thstate to join the Union. According to Ralph Tannenbaum, Jews have been in Utah from its earliest days. “Julius and Gerson Brooks came to Salt Lake in July 1853 from Illinois, and their millinery establishment became the first Jewish business in the area. The earliest record of Jewish religious observance in the area is the celebration of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) in 1864 at the home of one of the Jewish merchants. High Holyday (Rosh Hashonah [New Year] and Yom Kippur) services in 1867 were observed in the Seventies Hall at the invitation of Brigham Young. The Passover observance of 1876 was reported in the Salt Lake Tribune, which noted that the Jewish congregation of Salt Lake numbered some forty families. Jewish men were active in public life. Louis Cohn was elected as a member of the city council in 1874 and was reelected in 1882. The formation of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce in 1887 records the names of J.E. Bamberger, M.H. Lipman, Fred H. Auerbach, and several other prominent Jews. Although Moses Alexander of Idaho was elected as the first Jewish governor in the United States, it is still surprising to learn of the election two years later of Simon Bamberger as the governor of Utah in 1916. Governor Bamberger was the first non-Mormon governor of Utah.”
1896(18th of Tevet, 5656): In Philadelphia, PA, 45 year old Levi Harris and 30 year old Marks Feinberg died in a fire at a tenement house on 3rd and Gaskill Streets. Harris suffocated while marks died in the hospital from internal injuries suffered while trying to escape the burning building.
1896: Jacques Ochs, a Romanian Jew was arrested in Chicago today on charges that he had masterminded a swindle that had earned him over $50,000.
1896: Speaking in Russian and Hebrew, Dr. Adolph Rodin addressed a meeting of the City Vigilance League which was held at the Hebrew Institute.
1896: At the Oakland Club in Chicago, Rabbi Joseph Stoltz officiated at the first services of Reform Congregation of Isaiah Temple
1896: It was reported today that McMillan & Co will be publishing Jewish Ideals and Other Essays by Joseph Jacobs which include chapters on “the Jewish diffusion of folks tales, the London Jewry, Mordecai of Daniel Deronda as typical Jews, Browning’s theology of the Jewish point of view, the solution other Jewish questions, the legends concerned with little St. Hugh of Lincoln and the poet Jehuda Halevi.
1897: It was reported today that those taking the competitive civil service examinations that will be given for the post of court interpreter may be fluent in any one of six languages including Hebrew (but not Yiddish).
1897: The Hebrew Technical Institute began using its new building today although the formal dedication will not take place until Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12.
1898(10th of Tevet, 5658): Asara B'Tevet
1898: It was reported today that State Supreme Court Judge William N. Cohen will speak at the upcoming meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1902: After 128 performances on Broadway, “The Messenger,” a musical with “additional material and numbers by Paul Rubens” came to a close.
1903: Herzl ends a four day visit to Edlach, his home town.
1908(1st of Shevat, 5668): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1909: The funeral of Louis A. Heinsheimer, who passed away on January 1st will take place today at 9:30 a.m. at Temple Emanu-El on New York’s Fifth Avenue.
1915: “Duties of American Jews” published today provided Louis D. Brandies view that with “half the entire Jewish population of the world in the western zone of the European war” “the people of Israel are now suffering the greatest calamity since 1492” and that American Jews have “two obligations – to give quickly and generous to the aid of the war sufferers and to live up to the highest ideals of American democracy.”
1915: “Louis Marshall, Chairman of the American Jewish Relief Committee received a telegram from Secretary of State Bryan” today “saying that the expulsion program recently adopted by Turkey applies to Russian Jews who do not renounce the Czar and become Ottoman subjects and that Ambassador Morgenthau had cabled that while Jews in Turkey, who had not become Ottoman subjects had suffered no ill treatment.”
1915: A letter to the American Jewish War Relief Committee was made public today that came from Wolf Glucksin of Alexandria saying that “the fund for Jewish relief was being expended carefully and that that the authorities were warned from Constantinople to touch nothing that belongs to the American Fund.”
1915: “Jacob H. Schiff made public” today “a letter from the Jewish Relief Committee in Petrograd saying that the Petrograd committee was collecting funds: and that the public was responding satisfactorily.
1915: As of today the American Jewish Relief Committee of which Felix M. Warburg has raised $276,566.35
1915: “British Dominions Pray For Victory” published today described how all denominations included the Jews have responded to King George’s call for special prayers of “intercession on behalf of the empire and its allies in this time of war.”
1915: In Ben Shemen, Itzhak Elazari Volcani and Sarah Krieger gave birth to microbiologist Benjamin Elazari Volcani who “discovered life in the Dead Sea.”
1915: Democrat Moses Alexander, 62, was sworn in as governor of Idaho. He was the first elected Jewish governor in the U.S. He served two terms (1915-19).
1915: It was reported today that there were 300,000 Jews serving in the Russian army and ‘a total of 600,000 Jews” in all “the warring armies.”
1916: In New Haven, CT, Luba Newman and her husband gave birth to American conductor, pianist, and film and television composer Lionel Newman part of a distinguished family including brothers Alfred and Emil Newman and nephew Randy Newman.
1917(10th of Tevet, 5677): Asara B’Tevet
1919: A memorandum dated with today’s date signed by Faisal said that he will agree to the implementation of the Balfour Declaration in Palestine provided that he is named ruler of Syria. Faisal wrote that any deviation from the agreement would nullify it in its entirety.
1919: Birthdate of Lester L. Wolfe a Democratic politician who represented two different Congressional districts from New York.
1920: French forces stationed at a fort near Metulla retreated northward after being attacked by Bedouins. With the defeat and retreat of the French army, the 120 members of the settlement of Metulla, all of whom were Jewish, fled to Sidon where they boarded a ship to Haifa. Metulla was the northern most Jewish town in Eretz Israel having been settled in 1896. Since it was close to the border with Lebanon, which was under French control at the time, the retreat of French military forces would have left the Jews to the “tender mercies” of local, armed Arabs.
1923: As part of the Association of Reform Rabbis’ Lecture Series, Dr. Nathan Stern will speak on “The Exile to the Destruction of the Second Temple” at West End Synagogue in Manhattan.
1923: As part of the Association of Reform Rabbis’ Lecture Series, Dr. Rudolph Grossman will speak on “Hanukah and Purim” at the West End Synagogue.
1928: The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that Lord Burnham, the grandson of J.M. Levy, has sold the Daily Telegraph to the Berry Newspaper Group.
1932 (25th of Tevet, 5692): Alexander Moses, former Governor of Idaho passed away at the age of 78,
1933: As he moved to consolidate his power, Hitler and former Prime Minister Franz von Papen meet secretly to discuss Hitler’s future in the German government.
1934 (17th of Tevet, 5694): Samuel Sakier, a pioneer Jewish farmer in Palestine, where he took part in the student agrarian movement of the Biluim forty years ago, passed away.
1935: Pierre Laval, the French politician who will be the driving force behind Vichy France, met with Benito Mussolini for the first time
1936:“Diego von Bergen, Nazi Germany's ambassador to the Vatican, wrote a letter to German foreign minister Constantin von Neurath describing Pope Pius XI’s complaints about German violations of the Concordat with the Vatican.”
1937: Solomon Levitan took office today as state treasurer of Wisconsin
1937: “At the closed session of the Royal Commission of Inquiry…Lieut. Gen. J.G. Dill, commanding the British Forces in Palestine, submitted the plan for maintaining public security in the country in the event of further disturbances.” The commission is popularly known as the Peel Commission.
1937: Toscanini conducted a concert in Jerusalem for the second time.
1937: Birthdate of actress Dyan Cannon. Born Samile Diane Friesen, Cannon was the fourth wife of actor Cary Grant. She was the mother of Grant's only child. Thus the great matinee idol's sole offspring is Jewish. Only in America!
1939: Hermann Goering appointed Reinhard Heydrich head of Jewish Emigration. This is a charming euphemism for moving Jews to what would be the chain of ghettos and death camps that would be known as the Final Solution.
1938: A decree issued today by “Adolf Hitler defines a Jewish business as one where: Jews own it, dominate it, or if form a majority on the corporate board” and starting next month “such companies will be ineligible for government contracts.”
1940: Birthdate of Brian D. Josephson winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1973.
1942 (15th of Tevet, 5702): At the age of 70, composer Leon Jessel was murdered by the Gestapo.
1943: Armed with only one gun and knife members of the Jewish Fighting Organization at Czestochowa resisted a ‘selection.' As a reprisal, the Germans shot 25 men. Czestochowa is a town in Poland famous for the “Black Madonna” and is scene of annual religious pilgrimages. Sometimes, the Jewish view is a little different than the non-Jewish view of places and events.
1943 (27th of Tevet, 5703): Young members of the Jewish Fighting Organization are rounded up in Czestochowa, Poland. Its leader, Mendel Fiszlewicz, uses a hidden pistol to wound the German commander of the Aktion. Fiszlewicz and 25 other men are immediately shot, and 300 women and children from the group are deported to the Treblinka death camp and gassed.
1943: The SS administrative office instructs all concentration-camp commandants to send human hair taken from Jewish women to the firm of Alex Zink, Filzfabrik AG at Roth, Germany, near Nuremberg, for processing.
1944: “What’s Up” the “first Broadway collaboration of Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner closed after only 63 performances.
1945 (19th of Tevet, 5705): Fritz Elsas, the Jewish mayor of Berlin until his arrest for alleged resistance activities in 1933, was executed at Sachsenhausen, Germany, after 12 years of imprisonment.
1947: "Show Boat" closes at Ziegfeld Theater New York City NY after 417 performances
1956: Announcement in the Seattle Times: “The first new Jewish congregation in Seattle in more than a generation will be launched with a service Friday evening...”
1960: “The Closing Door” produced by David Susskind with George Segal in the role of “Don” was broadcast today as The Play of the Week.
1961: Nobel Prize winner Erwin Schrödinger who “in 1935, after extensive correspondence with Albert Einstein, he proposed what is now called the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment” passed away. In 1934, he left Germany because “he disliked the Nazis’ anti-semitism” but recanted his position when the Nazis annexed Austria, an act for which he personally apologized to Einstein, after he fled Austria and was beyond the grasp of the Germans.
1962: Today, Doubleday will issue “The Man Who Played God,” a novel about a man who bargains with the Nazis for a few thousand Jewish lives and is tried for collaboration after the war.
1964: In a series of first Pope Paul VI became the first Pope to fly in a plane, the first Pope to leave Italy in more than a century and the first Pope to visit “the Holy Land” when he began his trip to Israel and Jordan today.
1965(1st of Shevat, 5225): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1966: Seventy four year old Henry Torres the attorney who defended Samuel Schwartzbard in his historic 1927 murder trial.
1970: Abba Eban published an appeal for peace between Israel and the Arab states in the London Sunday Times following an Arab summit in the Moroccan city of Rabat.
1972: Having left the HaOlam HaZeh – Koah Hadash political movement in 1971, today Shalom Cohen began sitting as in independent in the Knesset. Born in Baghdad in 1926, Cohen made Aliyah in 1946 where he joined kibbutz Nahshonim. “During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War he was part of the Samson's Foxes commando unit in the Givati Brigade.” In 1950, Cohen and Uri Avnery bought the HaOlam HaZeh weekly magazine, which he remained an editor of until 1971. “He joined the Black Panthers in 1971 and served as their secretary general until 1977. Between 1971 and 1977 he was also a member of the Histadrut's executive committee. In the 1977 elections he ran as part of the Hofesh party together with Yehoshua Peretz. However, it failed to cross the electoral threshold. He later worked as a journalist for the French language paper Le Matin. He died in 1993.”
1972: Rose Heilbron became the first woman judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London. The daughter of a Jewish hotelier, Rose Heilbron was born in Liverpool on August 19, 1914, and educated at Belvedere School and Liverpool University, where she took the top First in Law. Called to the Bar by Gray's Inn in 1939, she began practicing on the Northern Circuit from chambers in Liverpool. Dame Rose Heilbron was one of the most celebrated defense barristers of the post-war years; no woman before her enjoyed anything like her success rate at the criminal Bar, and she later became only the second woman to be appointed a High Court judge. She passed away in 2005 at the age of 91.
1974(10th of Tevet, 5734): Asara B'Tevet
1975: A Broadway revival of “Gypsy” closed at New York’s Winter Garden Theatre.
1975 (21st of Tevet, 5735): Carlo Levi, Italian writer and painter, passed away at the age of 72. Levi was trained as a doctor and was an anti-Fascist leader in Italy during the 1930’s.
1978: When PLO official Said Hammami was shot and killed today in London, those suspected of responsibility were Mossad and the Abu Nidal Organization.
1981In New York at The Jewish Museumof Andy Warhol: Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century comes to a close.
1981(28th of Tevet, 5741):Yehuda L. Rabin, an aircraft company executive and one of the founders of the Israeli Air Force, died of a heart attack today while seeing a friend off at Kennedy International Airport. He was 64 years old and lived in Manhattan.
1983 (19th of Tevet, 5743): New York Congressman Benjamin Stanley Rosenthal passed away.
1985: As of today, since November 20, 1984, 6,500 Ethiopian Jews have secretly made their way to Israel as part of Operation Moses.
1987: In “The Istanbul Synagogue Massacre” published today, Judith Miller described the inter-locking terrorist networks that were responsible for the attack on the Neve Shalom Synagogue. The Arab terrorists killed 22 worshippers before setting the building ablaze by detonating grenades. [Reading this article years later makes it clear that authorities knew a lot about terrorists and terrorism which means that 9/11 should not have as such a surprise.]
1987: An Israeli gunboat stopped a Cypriot ferry bound for Lebanon today. The officials in the Lebanese port of Junieh said the ferry, the Empress, was stopped off the Lebanese coast. The Israeli gunboat allowed it to proceed after being told that only crewmen were aboard, they said.
1991:With most tourists staying away from Israel because of the Persian Gulf crisis, the country's two major museums have had to lay off employees and cut back operations. "There are almost no tourists coming to Israel," said Nissim Tal, the deputy director of the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv. Mr. Tal said the number of tourists visiting the museum was only a fifth of the usual number. As a result, the museum has dismissed 15 percent of its employees, including a few tenured staff members, to help reduce its $4.2 million budget. "We hope the situation will stabilize shortly," Mr. Tal said.
1995(3rd of Shevat, 5755): Eighty-one year old “Victor Riesel, the crusading syndicated labor columnist who was blinded by an acid attack in 1956, died today at his home in Manhattan. (As reported by Lawrence Van Gelder)
1998: The New York Times book section featured a review of Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education by Martha C. Nussbaum who would become a Bat Mitzvah ten and a half years later in August, 2008.
2000: In “A New Armageddon Erupts Over Ancient Battlefield; Archaeological Finds Challenge Chronologies of the Israelites,” published today John Noble Wilford describes how work at this ancient site is being used by Dr. Israel Finkelstein and his associate to challenge the timelines presented in the Bible as well as the historic accuracy of the Biblical narrative.
2002: TheMV Karine A, a Palestinian ship loaded with 50 tons of arms including rockets and missiles which the Israeli Navy had seized during the intifada was brought to Eilat.
2002:The Israeli Army said today that it had seized a ship carrying 50 tons of rockets, mines, antitank missiles and other munitions meant for Yasir Arafat's Palestinian Authority, even as the Bush administration's envoy met with Mr. Arafat in the hope of strengthening his declared cease-fire with Israel.
2003(1st of Shevat, 5763): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
2003(1st of Shevat, 5763): Seventy-nine year old violinist Fra Neaman, the Lebanese son of Jewish parents from Palestine, passed away today.
2004: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Hegemony or Survival America's Quest for Global Dominanceby Noam Chomsky and a newly release paperback edition of Welcome to Heavenly Heights, by Risa Miller which tells the story of an Orthodox couple from Baltimore, responding to their longing for the holy city of Jerusalem who relocate to a heavily guarded settlement in the West Bank, where they confront the vast abyss between contemporary Israel and the ideals of their spiritual life.
2005: It was announced today that Mark Lehrman has been appointed director of YU’s S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program. Mr. Lehrman has been at the university’s Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Institute in Israel since 1995 where he was most recently assistant director of admissions. In the past decade, he has led YU’s recruitment efforts in Israel and has helped bring about a significant increase in enrollment in the Israel Program
2005: The 2 day international "Bridge Between Judaism and Islam" conference held at Bar-Ilan University comes to a conclusion.
2006, Rabbi Yaaqov Medan and Rabbi Baruch Gigi were officially invested as co-roshei yeshiva alongside Rav Amital and Rav Lichtenstein, with an eye toward Rabbi Amital's intention to retire.
2006 (4th of Tevet, 5766): Milton Himmelfarb who coined the aphorism on the Jewish community's political persuasions: "Jews earn like Episcopalians, and vote like Puerto Ricans” passed away at the age of 87 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. (As reported by Joseph Berger)
2006: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage at Havat Shimim and collapses into a coma.
2006: Ehud Olmert assumes the duties of the Prime Minister after Prime Minister Sharon suffered his second stroke.
2007: Representative Bob Filner began serving as Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
2007: The 108th Congress is sworn in. Of the 43 Jewish members of Congress, there is only one Jewish Republican in the House and two in the Senate The number of Jews in the Senate will rise from 10 to 11. The number of Jews in the House of Representatives will remain at 26.
2007: Max “Kampelman served as a motivating forced the op-ed ‘A World Free of Nuclear Weapons’ published today in the Wall Street Journal
2008: Israeli officials reported that they they had uncovered an arms cache in the West Bank city of Nablus last night that contained explosives, military equipment and materials for manufacturing rockets. At least one rocket was found in an early stage of production.
2009: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 by Paul Krugman and Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds by Joel L. Kraemer
2009: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers that have recently been published in paperback editions including: Linda Grant’s The Clothes on Their Backs in which the protagonist is a London woman whose parents, Hungarian Jewish refugees, have always been secretive about their past Ehud Havazelet’s Bearing the Body in which a medical resident, accompanied by his father, a grumpy Holocaust survivor, travels to San Francisco to investigate the life and death of his older brother, a drug-addicted former ’60s radical and Suzanne Braun’s Bella Abzug, an oral history of “the feisty feminist New York congresswoman.”
2009: Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” a new musical stage reinvention of the classic film, completed a limited engagement on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre in New York City.
2009: An exhibition at the Jewish Museum titled “The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World” comes to an end.
2009: New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and U.S. Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia arrived Sunday in Israel to show solidarity with Israel’s besieged southern residents. The three men are scheduled to tour the rocket-battered cities of Sderot and Ashkelon today.
2009: Helen Suzman, who spearheaded the battle against apartheid in South Africa's parliament, was buried in a private Jewish ceremony at Johannesburg's Westpark Cemetery.
2009: Three men charged with involvement in a deadly synagogue bombing in Tunisia went on trial today in Paris in a case expected to highlight the reach and complexity of al-Qaida-linked networks in North Africa. Among those charges is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who says he orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.
2009(8 Tevet 5769): Sergeant Dvir Emmanueloff, 22, was killed during a firefight in northern Gaza's densely populated Jabalya refugee camp today. He was the first fatality suffered by Israel since it launched the ground operation on Saturday. Emmanueloff, who served in the Israel Defense Forces Golani infantry brigade, was a resident of Givat Ze'ev, near Jerusalem. He was laid to rest late Sunday at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl military cemetery. Emmanueloff was a graduate of a Jewish seminary in the southern town of Netivot. He had been set to complete his compulsory service in the Israel Defense Forces in six months' time. The 22-year-old had recently been serving as an instructor at the IDF academy for squad leaders, away from the front, and had fought to rejoin the Golani infantry brigade in order to participate in operations.
2009(8 Tevet 5769): Gregory Sher, a Private serving in the Australian Army was killed in a rocket attack on a military compound southwest of Kabul. Sher is the eighth Australian soldier, and the first of the country's reservists, killed in Afghanistan since Australia sent forces to aid the United States-led coalition against the Taliban and al-Qaida in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. He is believed to be Australia's first Jewish military casualty at least since the Vietnam War.
2010: Three Palestinian men were arrested in Jerusalem for allegedly planning a stabbing attack. The men, from Hebron, were arrested today near the Jaffa Gate with a knife in their possession. They told police later that they planned to stab a security officer or a Jewish person. Also today, two Palestinians carrying knives were stopped at a checkpoint near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, according to the Israeli army. They were detained for questioning.
2010: In New York Israeli violinist Sergey Ostrovsky and Israeli pianist Einav Yarden, together with the Jupiter musicians, perform the Janacek Concertino and Dvorak’s beloved “American” String Quartet.
2010: Yisrael Bar Kochav's new book Shmu'ot (Rumors) is celebrated at Mishkenot Sha'ananim.
2010: Beit Avi Chai's Music on Monday’s series presents Guitar virtuoso Ofer Amar in a wonderful acoustic performance that combines world music, flamenco, and ethnic jazz.
2010: Yitta Schwartz of Kiryas Joel in New York was buried this morning. The 94-year-old Holocaust survivor left behind at least 2,500 descendants. She had five generations of descendants. Schwartz survived Bergen Belsen, leaving the concentration camp with her family intact when World War II ended in 1945. Schwartz, her husband and six children moved to Antwerp and then Belgium before settling in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, the Times Herald-Recordreported. The Schwartzes had 11 more children following the war. Her husband died 33 years ago. Schwartz, who reportedly was reluctant to talk about the Holocaust, had about 170 grandchildren -- and knew all their names.
2010: In Israel, the National Insurance Institute reported today that the number of new claims for unemployment benefits dropped four percent in December.
2010: Mitchell A. Levin retires as Vice President of AEGON/Transamerica in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Mr. Levin is the editor and publisher of
http://ThisDayInJewishHistory.blogspot.com and http://DownhomeDavarTorah.blogspot.com/ as well a Contributing Editor to Janglo.net and a Contributing Editor and featured columnist for Segula, a magazine devoted to history and culture.
2011: Prof. Howard N. Lupovitch is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Hillel’s World” at Congregation Beth Ahm in West Bloomfield, Michigan
2011: The Jerusalem Theatre is schedule to present “Sheindale,” an “Amnon Levy and Rami Danon play about the ultra-Orthodox society, its fine line between tradition and profess and its attitude towards women.”
2011: Israeli greenhouses on a farm near Ashkelon sustained damage from a terrorist rocket fired from Gaza today, and the Air Force responded by bombing a Hamas training base.
2011: About 20 Israeli suppliers will help build the first modern Palestinian city in the West Bank but only after promising they will not use products or services from Israeli settlements, the project’s developer said today.The announcement angered Israeli residents of the West Bank, who accused the suppliers of caving in to an international boycott of settlement goods and businesses.
2012: “When Jews Lived in the Muslim Quarter,” an English Walking Tour that will help participants to discover what life was like when Jews lived in the Muslim Quarter is scheduled to begin at 9:30 this morning.
2012: A comedy entitled “The Religion Thing” is scheduled to have its world premiere at Theatre J, part of the DCJCC.
2012:Opposition leader Tzipi Livni (Kadima) warned that ties between Jews in the Diaspora and their Israeli counterparts are weakening, in today’s meeting with US Senator Joe Lieberman in Jerusalem
2012:Police arrested two terrorists at different locations this morning and prevented intended attacks on Be’er Sheva residents.
2013:Rabbi Joshua Plaut and cantorial soloist Leah Tehrani as scheduled to lead “Golden Shabbat” services at Metropolitan Synagogue which are inteneded to honor “elder members” of the community.
2013: Gesher City is scheduled to sponsor “SPY Shabbat”
2013: “Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: The Reform movement's international umbrella announced plans to open a large community center in Kiev later this year.
2013: Former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a mass shooting in her Arizona district two years ago, met with Newtown officials on Friday afternoon before heading to visit with families of the victims of last month’s Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre
2014:B'nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim on Lake Cook Road is scheduled to host a free concert featuring “local band Shakshuka and Kol Echad, an a capella group” made up of students from Boston University.
2014:”Herod the Great: The King’s Final Journey” an example that “seeks to illuminate Herod’s story – his reign and his role in the history of the region – through a display of the archaeological remains of the architecture he created and the art and artifacts that surrounded his royal life” at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem is scheduled to come to an end today.
2014: In Jerusalem, the Eden-Tamir Music Center a musical “New Year’s Celebration.”
2014: “Last Vegas” and “Enough Said” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014: After Shabbat, Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids is scheduled to host a special performance by members Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre.
2014: Happy New Year Shabbat, marks the start of the 13th consecutive year of the Traditional Shabbat Monthly Minyan at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids – an event that owes its creation to the vision of Deb Levin
2014: Efforts continued today despite the fact that it was Shabbat to find developer Menachem Stark the Hasidic millionaire real estate developer “who was reportedly kidnapped outside his Brooklyn office.”
2014: “Israel and the Palestinians are making progress towards reaching a framework peace agreement but they are not there yet, US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters” today. (As reported by Eilor Levy)
2014: The funeral for Menachem Stark, the Hasidic millioniaire whose body had been found in a dumpster yesterday after he had been kidnapped was held at Lodiner Bais Medrash on Marcy Avenue in Williamsburg.
2015: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback edition of Falling Out of Timeby David Grossman and Honeydew: Stories by Edith Pearlman
2015: In Atlanta, the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum is scheduled to host Holocaust Survivor Henry Friedman as part of its “Bearing Witness” program.
2015: The Jewish Museum of London is scheduled to host a screening of 'Abram Games: Maximum Meaning, Minimum Means'