January 5
1355: Charles I of Bohemia was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in Milan. Charles I morphed into Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor who at the beginning of his reign made an effectual attempt to protect his Jewish subjects by issuing “letter after letter forbidding the person of the His Jews, his ‘servi camerae,’ to be touched.” His Christian subjects in Germany disregarded their Emperor and continued their persecution of the Jews.
1548: Birthdate of Francisco Suarez the Jesuit theologian who “advocated the banning of the Talmud and the building of synagogues as well as forbidding ‘any familiarity with Jews.’” (As described by The History of the Jewish People)
1589: Catherine de Medici, Queen of France, the wife of King Henry II passed away. Along with several other French rulers and power brokers including Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV, she had a penchant for collecting Hebrew Manuscripts.
1642: King Charles I of England sends soldiers to arrest members of Parliament, commencing England's slide into civil war. The Civil War would bring Oliver Cromwell to power. Cromwell would champion the return of the Jews to England, leading to the creation of the modern Jewish committee in Great Britain, and by extension throughout the British Empire including the United States.
1796: Birthdate of Joseph Salvador, the French historian “who according to family traditions were descendants of the Maccabees” but whose mother Elizabeth Vincens was a Roman Catholic.
1797: Birthdate of German-Jewish banker and astronomer Wilhelm Wolff Beer, the half-brother of Giacomo Meyerbeer
1814:Today Chief Rabbi Lehmans of The Hague organized a special thanksgiving service and implored God's protection for the allied armies.
1826: Maryland put into effect the "Jew Bill", 1826, which allowed Jews to hold public office if they believed in Reward and Punishment in the Hereafter. Maryland had an interesting history when it came to questions of religious toleration. Unlike other colonies, it was founded by Catholics and the Act of Toleration was one of its landmark pieces of colonial legislation.
1841: Birthdate of Shlomo Elyashiv, the son of Rabbi Chayim Chaiil Elisahoff and author of Leshem Shevo V’Achlama.
1846: Birthdate of Arsène Darmesteter the French Philologist who “deciphered the difficult and beautiful French elegy, preserved in the Vatican, on the burning of the thirteen Jewish martyrs at Troyes in 1288.”
1856: Under the heading “We May Eat Pork Without Fear of the Tape Worm,” the New York Times published a letter to the editor written in response to a previously published article warning about the relationship between pork consumption and tape worm infestation. Citing the statement “that a Jew was never known to have a tape-worm,” the author warns any “hypochondriac” who “should be tempted to turn Jew from this statement and forswear pork” need not do so since it is a “rare occurrence in this country” for anybody to be infested by the worms “notwithstanding we are such universal pork-eaters.”
1863: Lazarus Powell, the U.S. Senator from Kentucky called on Congress to adopt “a resolution condemning…General Orders No. 11 as ‘illegal, tyrannical, cruel and unjust.’”
1868(10th of Tevet, 5628): Asara B’Tevet
1874: It was reported today that when the noted author Léon Gozlan passed away he was buried by a Catholic priest. “He had the features of a Jew and lived like a Jew…but it was positively declared that he had been so baptized so the Rabbi gave way” and Gozlan was interred using the rites of the Church.
1874: Birthdate of American physiologist Joseph Erlanger
1875(28th of Tevet, 5635): Seventy-four year old Émile Péreire one of the two Péreire brothers, 19th century Sephardic French financiers who were on a par with the Rothschilds passed away today.
1875: A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which includes several Jewish members, was held at their new offices on Broadway and 34thStreet.
1876: Birthdate of Konrad Adenauer. Adenauer was the first post-war Chancellor of West Germany. He took office in 1949. Having been imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II, Adenauer sought to return Germany to the world community. He sought to make amends with the Jewish community by offering war reparations to the government of Israel . Under Adenauer , Germany Israel and provided arms for her defense despite threats from the Arab governments.
1877: The Supreme Court of Massachusetts upheld a lower court decision that Jews must observe the laws of the state regulating the observance of the Sabbath. The case grew out of an attempt to keep a store open on Sunday.
1878(1st of Shevat, 5638): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1878: It was reported today that “a thrilling tale of a brave young Jew will appear in the New York Weekly on the morning of January 7.
1878: Rabbi Abram S. Isaacs will deliver lecture entitled “The Dance to Death” at tonight’s meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in New York’s Lyric Hall.
1879(10th of Tevet, 5639): Asara B’Tevet
1879: The Board of Directors of the Home for Aged and Infirm Jews met this afternoon. The Board limited itself to routine business and did not take up the matter of accepting or rejecting Judge Hilton’s recent offer to contribute $250 to the Home. Judge Hilton is the New York businessman who banned Jews from his hotel at Saratoga Springs.
1879: An article profiling Otto von Bismarck published today reported that “mixed marriage in Germany” is “a source of horror to the orthodox Christians as well as to orthodox Jews.” Bismarck coarsely described mixed marriage as “the crossing of a Jewish mare with a Christian stallion.”
1881: The price of l'Union Générale stock began an eleven day crash, which the anti-Semites would later blame on a conspiracy of Jewish bankers,
1884(8th of Tevet, 5644): Fifty-four year old Eduard Lasker, “a German politician and jurist” who “promoted the unification of German” passed away today in New York City.
1885: Ludovic Trarieux, the future Minister of Justice who would become a defender of Alfred Dreyfus, was elected Senator from the Gironde.
1886(28th of Tevet, 5646): Seventy-five year old Lazarus (Levi) Adler, the author of "Emancipation and Religion of the Jews, or the Jewish Race and its Adversaries" passed away while serving as the chief rabbinate of the electorate of Hesse, at Cassel, as successor to Philip Roman, who had died 1842.”
1886: Birthdate of Israeli scientist Markus Reiner.
1888(21st of Tevet, 5648): Henri Herz, the Austrian born French pianist and composer passed away. Hertz owned his own piano factory, built a concert hall in Paris and still found time to teach write and perform.
1890: Birthdate of Sarah Aaronsohn, the native of the moshav Zikhron Ya’akov who became a leader of Nili during World War I. After being tortured by the Turks, she took her own life in 1917.
1891” It was reported today that “Solomon J. Solomons has been moved Russia’s persecution of the Jews to” create a painting that is an allegorical representation of the struggle. In the picture, “the Russian Eagle falls with the beak and claw on a Jewish family while a Fury, masquerading as Justice, presented to defend the family from the monster’s attack.”
1892: Captain Strauss of the Seventh Precinct took five children, all Russian Jewish immigrants, from a hotel on 141 Madison Street. They were suffering variously from varioloid, diphtheria and/or scarlet fever.
1892: Birthdate of Louis Waldman, a native of the Ukraine who became an American labor leader and a leader of the Socialist Party.
1892: A review of the MacLean-Prescott company’s production of “The Merchant of Venice” described Marie Prescott’s portrayal of the Jewess Portia as “very bad, cold” and “stilted.” R.D. MacLean’s portrayal of Shylock which appeared to be on par with Cruikshank’s drawing of Fagen was based on “a totally false idea.”
1894: Rabbi Gottheil officiated at a private funeral service for Adolph L. Sanger, the late President of the Board of Education after which a public ceremony was held at Temple Emanu-El followed by burial at Salem Field in Cypress Hills Cemetery.
1894: It was reported that “Marie,” a one act play by Charles D. Levin was performed at the Berkley Lyceum as part of a fundraiser for the Louis Down-Town Sabbath and Daily School.
1894: It was reported today that during the current economic depression Nathan Straus has begun the sale of bread “at his sterilized milk depot” at reduced prices and will begin selling coal at reduced prices starting next week.
1894: It was reported today that the United Hebrew Charities had spent over $171,000 in aiding the needy. Due to the economic downturn in 1893, the organization had spent $200,000 through November of 1893.
1895: According to the will of the late multi-millionaire Eugene Kelly which was filed in the Surrogate’s office today, $10,000 should “go to such Hebrew charitable institutions” as may be selected y by the executors.
1895: Colonel David S. Brown is scheduled to set sail today on the SS Normannia for a trip that will take him to Egypt and then to Palestine.
1895: Alfred Dreyfus was publicly degraded and sent to Devil's Island . Later, evidence was produced which proved that Major Esterhazy and Colonel Henry, Dreyfus' chief accusers, had forged the evidence. Yet, a new trial was not begun until 1899. The Dreyfus Affair brought on a torrent of anti-Semitism that spawned the modern Zionist movement. It tore at the fabric of French society and for decades later, there was still a political divide between those who supported Dreyfus and those who wanted to believe that he was a traitor.
1896: “Colonial New York City” published today provides a picture of “the Big Apple” in 1748 based on the writings of Peter Kalm who visited the city at that time which includes a description of “the Jews of New York at that time” who “formed a considerable portion of the population. They had stores and fine houses and ships and a flouring synagogue and enjoyed all the privileges of the other citizens. The young Jews, especially when away from home made no scruple about eating pork when” the opportunity presented itself.
1896: Julius Harburger, the Excise Commissioner of New York City, addressed a meeting of the Boston chapter of the Independent Order of Free Sons of Israel, of which he is a Grand Master.
1896: The will of Eugene Kelly which was filed for probate today included a bequest of “$10,000…to go to such Hebrew charitable institutions” of which the executors “may approve.”
1896:Dr. Joseph Silverman delivered his second lecture today entitled “Another Basis on Which Christians and Jews Can Unite” at Temple Emanu-El.
1896: It was reported today that the most recent census of the state of New Jersey shows that there are 16.413 people in the category of “other nationalities” which includes Jews as well as Italians and Hungarians.
1896: Detective Sargent Cuff was on his way to Chicago today where he was to take custody of Jacques Oschs, a Romanian born Jew and bring him back to New York to face charges of participating in swindling schemes many of which were aimed at his co-religionist which earned him over $50,000.
1896: “Effect of Hellenism on Judaism” which relied on information that first appeared in The Edinburg Scotsman provided a summary of an address delivered by Claude G. Montefiore in Glasgow entitled “Some Reflections on Hellenistic Judaism.” Montefiore used the term “Hellenic Judaism” to described “that Judaism which was touched an influenced by the Hellenism of the time of Alexander the Great and his immediate successors
1896: It was reported today that Reverend C.H. Parkhurst publicly expressed his appreciation for the support the Jews have given to the City Vigilance League, the successor to the Society for the Prevention of Crime.
1896: It was reported today that 16 year old Jennie Zellers saved the lives of her five siblings when a fire broke out in a tenement building in Philadelphia. A grocery store owned by Samuel Lipman occupied the first floor of the four-story building that suffered $5,000 in damages.
1897: It was reported today that the Trustees of Columbia tendered their thanks to Benjamin Stern and Charles A. Dana for their donation of Hebrew manuscripts to the school’s library.
1898: In the Supreme Court in Brooklyn, Justice Gaynor is scheduled to hear Mrs. Martha Reubel’s petition for an annulment based on a claim that he is a Christian. Mrs. Reubel is an 18 year old Jewess and contends that her husband Siegfried mis-represented himself as being an Orthodox Jews.
1898: Herzl’s "The New Ghetto" was finally produced in the Carl-Theater in Vienna.
The play was also performed in Berlin and Prague.
The play was also performed in Berlin and Prague.
1899: The will of David Marks, benefactor of Jewish organizations, was filed for probate today.
1899: It was reported today that a French civil court has fined Comtesse de Martel who writes under the nom de plume of “Gyp” five thousand francs for libeling Senator Ludovic Trarieux, the former Minister of Justice. The libel consisted of an unfounded accusation that the Senator had become a Protestant “in order to contract a rich marriage.
1899: It was reported today that the Comtesse de Martel, who proclaimed herself to be an anti-Semite said the Jews should not only be driven out of Paris but out of the whole country.
1899: “Alleged Outrages on Jews” published today summarized the “anti-Semitic prejudice existing in “the United States as described by Brooklyn resident Leopold Cohn, a former rabbi who had converted to Christianity
1904: Birthdate of Austrian violinist Erika Morini who began her studies under the guidance of her father, Oscar Morini, who directed his own school in Vienna.
1906: In London, biblical scholar Sir Frederic Kenyon and Amy Kenyon gave birth to archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon who worked on excavations at Jericho from 1952 until 1958 and at Jerusalem “concentrating on the ‘City of David’ from 1961 to 1967.”
1908: Birthdate of American playwright, novelist and screenwriter Harry Kurnitz.
1908:Adas Israel dedicated its new sanctuary at Sixth and I NW in Washington, DC which replaced the original building at Sixth and G Streets, NW. The cornerstone for the building, which was designed by Louis Levi, the Baltimore Architect, was laid in 1906.
1909: In Switzerland, Ernest Bloch and his wife gave birth to American artist Lucienne Bloch.
1912: Birthdate of Kalmen Kaplansky, the native of Bialystok who has been described as “the zaideh of the Canadian human rights movement.”
1912:State organization formed in Boston, Mass. to encourage naturalization of Jews living in the Bay State
1912: ThePhiladelphia Jewish community requested leniency in the enforcement the Sunday Closing Law of 1794.
1912:The Boston Section withdrew from Council of Jewish Women.
1914: Mary Kursheedt and 24 year old Albert Kursheedt, the son of Alexander E. Kursheedt and the nephew of Moses Montefiore Kursheedt were wed today.
1914:Birthdate of Heinz Berggruen a German art dealer and collector who founded the Berggruen Museum Berlin Germany . Born in Berlin , he immigrated to the United States in 1936 and studied at Berkeley University Paris , who spontaneously had confidence in Berggruen and so he became Picasso's art dealer. In 1996, after 60 years in exile, he returned to Germany and opened an art museum in front of the Charlottenburg Palace Berlin and the Federal Cross of Merit (Grand Cross 2nd Class) of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz, Großes Verdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband). He died in Paris on February 23, 2007 .
1915: “From Leo M. Frank” published today contained a letter from Leo M. Frank expressing his appreciation for the stand the New York Times has taken for the cause of justice as it relates to his case, for “Mr. Marshall’s successful presentation of his appeal before Supreme Court Justice Lamar and wishing everybody on behalf of his wife and parents, a Happy New Year.
1915: The list published today of donors to the fund of the American Jewish Relief Community included the Montefiore Benefit Corporation of Boston, the Jewish Community of Attelboro, Mass., the New Bedford (CT) Jews, Meyer Cohen of Washington, DC, Jewish Women, Bedford, PA; Lover of Israel, Susquehanna, PA; Zion Lodge, Chicago, Ill; Phoenix Packing Company, San Francisco, CA; Jewish Community, Beaumont, TX; Jewish Community, Tyler, TX and Congregation Adath Israel, Douglas, Arizona.
1916: African-American actor Sam Lucas passed away. In 1878 he became the first black man to play the part of Uncle Tom when he appeared a production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin produced by Charles and Gustave Frohman “who financed a number of theatre productions featuring African American actors” – something quite unusual for its time.
1919: The National Socialist Party (Nazi) formed as German Farmers Party. Hitler was not one of the party founders.
1923: Birthdate of Robert L Bernstein, chief executive of Random House.
1923: Birthdate of Israel Prize-winning author and translator Aharon Amir. Amir, who was born in Lithuania , grew up in Tel Aviv and was a member of both the Irgun and the Lehi. He was one of the founders of the Canaanite movement, which saw geographical location rather than religious affiliation as the defining element of Hebrew or Israeli culture. He studied Arabic language and literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but translated works of literature mainly from English and French. Authors whose work he rendered into Hebrew include Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Lewis Carroll, Albert Camus, and Charles de Gaulle. Amir won the Tchernichovsky Prize for translation in 1951 and the Israel Prize for translation in 2003. He passed away on February 28, 2008 at the age of 85.
1924: Leon and Henrietta Shershevsky gave birth to George Leon Sherry, a United Nations official who helped calm crises around the world — a role that evolved from his time as the leading rapid-fire translator of speeches by Russian diplomats in the organization’s early days…(As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1928: Reports of a large number of unemployed workers in the non-agricultural sector of the economy are a cause of major concern for the Government and leaders of the Labor movement. While approximately 21,000 people are employed non-farm jobs, there may be as many as 10,000 unemployed workers. It is hope that the situation will be alleviated, in part, with the construction and operation of a variety of public works projects including the building of the Straus Health Clinic in Jerusalem.
1930: Mapia was founded today “by the merger of the Hapoel Hatzair founded by A. D. Gordon and the original Ahdut HaAvoda (founded in 1919 from the right, more moderate, wing of the Marxist Zionist socialist Poale Zion led by David Ben-Gurion
1931: Elections were held today to choose members for the Asefat Hanivcharim (The Jewish Elected Assembly). Only 35 to 40 per cent of those eligible are expected cast their ballots. The sharpest contest is between the Labor Party and the Revisionists. Labor is expected to win 23 seats and the Revisionists will end up with 18 seats, the same number expected to be won by the Party representing “Oriental Jews.” There are a total of 71 seats at stake. There has been no prediction about how many seats will be won by the United Women’s ticket head by Henrietta Szold.
1933: Birthdate of Leonard Marsh, the New York born window washer, who along with his brother Hyman Golden and childhood friend Arnold Greenberg founded the Snapple Beverage Corporation. (As reported by Margalit Fox).
1936: Birthdate of Steven Cojocaru, Canadian born American television personality and fashion critic.
1937: In the Beit She’an Valley, members of the Sadeh group from the Mikveh Israel agricultural school and immigrants from Austria, Germany and Poland Kibbutz HaSadeah, which was later re-named Sde Naum in honor of Zionist leader and author Nahum Sokolov
1937: Israel Rokach, Mayor of Tel Aviv, testified before the Peel Commission. Rokach said that he was not opposed to a certain amount of governmental involvement with municipal affairs but that the real dispute centered on underfunding of the city government. Members of the commission expressed positive interest in Rokach’s proposal to develop a port that would serve both Jaffa and Tel Aviv.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that the British government was about to send to Palestine a new, largely technical commission, essentially a fact-finding body, which would plan how to implement Partition, according to the terms of the agreement reached with the Mandatory Commission of the League of Nations. The government, however, indicated that it was in no way committed to the actual execution of such a plan. Three Arabs out of a band of 40, apparently arms smugglers, were killed close to the Syrian border. Haskiel Joseph and Nathan Yairoff were shot and badly wounded by an Arab terrorist inside the Jaffa Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem.
1939: The gathering of a group of young Jews in Riga is captured in a photograph which will later become the property of Yad Vashem.
1939: Sir Horace Rumbold, a member of the Peel Commission, attempts to explain away his description of the Jews of Palestine as an “alien race” by saying that he merely meant that the Jews were a race with different characteristics from the Arab race.
1939: Germany declared Karaite Jews exempt from enforcement of the Nuremberg Laws.
1939: President Roosevelt nominated Felix Frankfurter to serve as an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. He was chosen for the position following the death of Benjamin N. Cardozo. When Frankfurter was confirmed two weeks later, he became the third Jew to serve on the High Court.
1940: Jews were forbidden by the General Gouvernment be in the streets between 9:00PM and 5:00AM .
1942: Birthdate of Elzbieta Ficowska, nee Koppel, one of the 2,500 children smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto by Irena Sendler and her associate Stanislawa, a widowed Catholic mid-wife. (Shades of the story of the brave mid-wives found in the Book of Exodus.)
1942: The Jewish ghetto at Kharkov , Ukraine
1943: The Vught, Holland , concentration camp is established
1943: In an orgy of killing that would last for the next two days the Nazis murdered thousands of Jews at Lvov , Ukraine
1943: Birthdate of Lawrence E. Stager, the Dorot Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard Semitic Museum” who since 1985 “has overseen the excavations of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon.
1944: Birthdate of Ed Rendell, Democratic Mayor of Philadelphia in the 1990’s before being elected Governor of the State of Pennsylvania in 2002.
1944: Twenty-nine year old Jean Tatlock, the woman whose “romantic relationship” with J. Robert Oppenheimer would help to lead to his loss of top security clearance, passed away today.
1945: In artcle entitled “American Boy’s Find Tel Aviv Like a Home Town” published today Anne O’Hare McCormick described conditions in Palestine’s major metropolis. According to her, “40% of the Jewish population of Palestine lives in Tel Aviv.” She describes Tel Aviv “as being one of the world’s youngest cities” and as being “better planned and more modernistic that the Florida boom towns it resembles.” This very cosmopolitan city is suffering from a housing shortage brought on by an influx of refugees from Europe and North Africa.
1946: The long running Broadway revival of "Show Boat" opened at Ziegfeld Theater in New York City for the first of 417 performances. This was a musical adaption of a novel of the same name by Edna Ferber, Jewish author who remembered being taunted as a “sheeny” when walking the streets of home town in Michigan. Ferber’s willingness to tackle the touchy subjects of race and miscegenation stood in stark contrast to the romanticized formula followed by Margaret Mitchell and others and is yet another example of Jews advancing the cause of social justice. The creation of the musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II is a reminder that this unique culture phenomenon is in many ways, an Jewish creation.
1947:In a broadcast from its secret transmitter, Haganah, the Jewish defense organization denounced Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang as extremist organizations and blamed them for the latest outburst of violence in Eretz Israel .
1948: Benjamin Rabin begins serving on the New York Supreme Court.
1948: Warner Brothers offered the first color newsreel, covering the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game. At that time, the company was still the property of the four brothers name Warner – Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack L. – Polish Jews who came to the United States via Canada.
1948: As the siege of Jerusalem continues, the Haganah launches an attack against Katamon, a suburb from which Arab gunmen have been firing non-stop into adjacent Jewish neighborhoods.
1949: As the War of Independence winds down, Israeli forces struggle to dislodge the Egyptians from Gaza . A sandstorm hinders and IDF column attacking the town of Rafa . At the same time the storm provides cover for an Egyptian armored column that launched a counter-attack aimed at keeping the Israelis from Rafa.
1950: Birthdate of guitarist Chris Stein, co-founder of “Blondie.”
1953: Shlomo-Yisrael Ben-Meir was appointed Deputy Minister of Welfare.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that East Germany had launched a Zionist witch-hunt, accusing two Jewish Communist leaders of being Zionists, American agents, Titoists and Trotskyites.
1959:In his introduction to A Matter of Taste: The Albert D. Lasker Collection: Renoir to Matisse that includes commentaries by Wallace Brockway, Alfred Frankfurter asks, “What was it that made an American business man * * * train his eye and his energies so spectacularly as to produce this extraordinary array of art ?"
1963: After 873 performances, the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of Lerner an Loewe’s “Camelot” which was directed by Moss Hat.
1964: Pope Paul VI and President Zalman Shazar of Israel met today at Megiddo, the scene of ancient battles, and both voiced hope for a moral revival and for peace among men.
1964: Under the leadership of Head Coach Sid Gillman, the San Diego Chargers defeated the Boston Patriots for the AFL Championship.
1968: “Informed Jewish sources said today that Jacob Kaplan, the Chief Rabbi of France told President de Gaulle of his concern over the fact that” his statement calling the Jews “an elite people, people, sure of itself and domineering” “had been used by ‘real’ anti-Semites as an instrument against Jews.”
1970(27th of Tevet, 5730): Max Born passed away at the age of 87. A native of Germany , the famous physicist was forced to take refuge in Britain in 1933 when the Nazis came to power. Max Born won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1954.
1970: Nine Egyptians soldiers crossed the Suez Canal and under covering fire from the west bank attacked Israeli positions. All nine were killed.
1973(2ndof Shevat, 5733): Hyman Reznick who had founded the Halevi Choral Society with Harry Coopersmith, passed away today.
1978: The Jerusalem Postreported that at Aswan US President Jimmy Carter and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat declared jointly that any Middle East peace settlement required the recognition of the "legitimate rights of the Palestinians and their participation in deciding their own future." In Jerusalem Premier Menachem Begin declared his firm opposition to this self-determination principle.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Jewish National Fund started ground-breaking operations for eight new settlements in Sinai, between Yamit and El Arish.
1981: Yoram Aridor, a member of Likud, began serving as Communications Minister.
1985: In response to pressure from Arab countries, Sudan ended the airlift of Jews from Ethopia after Israeli Shimon Peres held a press conference confirming reports of what would become known as Operation Moses. With help from the CIA , Israel would organize Operation Sheba, the last of the airlifts which had secretly brought over 14,000 Jews from Ethiopia from 1972 through 1985.
1988: Richard Mathew Stallman starts developing GNU. GNU is a free software operating system.
1988: The New York Times reviews Operation Babylon by Shlomo Hillel (Translated from the Hebrew by Ina Friedman) which relates the fascinating tale of the rescue of the Iraqi Jewish community.
1989:Secretary of State George P. Shultz said today that the reported death threat by Mr. Arafat against other Palestinians ran counter to a P.L.O. pledge to refrain from terrorism and had created a ''real problem'' for the United States. Mr. Arafat was reported to have said in the radio broadcast on Monday that ''any Palestinian leader who proposes an end to the intifada exposes himself to the bullets of his own people.'' Speaking to reporters on his way here for a conference on chemical weapons, Mr. Shultz said that the United States did not have direct information about Mr. Arafat's reported statement. He said: ''What we have is reports of what Arafat is alleged to have said. We have not seen any statement as such.'' But the Secretary then assailed the reported remark. ''It represents a real problem and an equivocation,'' he said.
1992: “Yeshivas Defy the Odds” published today described the growth of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School.
1993: Israel approved a $380 million grant today to support a major upgrading of the Jerusalem plant of the computer-chip manufacturer Intel Israel. The money, spread over seven years, was approved under a law authorizing state grants covering 38 percent of high-technology business ventures in the city. The cost of upgrading the silicon chip manufacturing plant is estimated at $1 billion. A Treasury spokeswoman said it was now up to Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., parent of Intel Israel, to give the plan final approval. Intel Israel, established in 1974, has operations in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
1996: Yahya Ayyash, chief bomb maker for Hamas, is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
1997:In the Southern Ocean near 52°S 100°E, Tony Bullimore's boat, Exide Challenger capsized and the majority of press and media reports assumed that the 55 year old sailor was lost
1997: A revival production of "Show Boat" the famed musical that owes its music, lyrics and book to three American Jews closed at Gershwin Theater New York City.
1997: The Sunday New York Times book section featured review of books by Jewish authors or of special interest to Jewish readers including My Teacher’s Secret Life by Stephen Krensky,A Journalist's Search for the Heart of His Country by Henry Grunwald which tells the story of how a Jewish refugee from Hitler’s Germany became editor in chief of all publications in the vast Time Inc. empire, before retiring at the end of 1987 and Unfinished People: Eastern European Jews Encounter America by Ruth Gay which “is essentially a memoir of Jewish life in the West Bronx in the 1920's and 30's, including the author's discomfort with her Eastern European immigrant family and her ''ordeal of civility,'' to use John Murray Cuddihy's phrase, in moving from ghetto culture to gentility.”
1998:To commemorate her 30 years on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Muriel Siebert rang the closing bell to mark the end of the trading day. She was the first woman to own a seat on the NYSE “Known as the "First Woman of Finance," Muriel "Mickie" Siebert was a dentist's daughter from Cleveland , OH
2002: In the wake of shoe-bomber Richard Reid’s attempt to blow up a plane last December, airlines and government officials are looking at additional security measures. As food service deliveries and food cars used on planes are coming under scrutiny the stringent procedures followed by El Al, the Israeli airline are considered the gold standard for aviation security. At its catering center, several miles from Tel Aviv's airport, security guards monitor every step of food packaging, from items being ladled onto trays and sealed with plastic wrap, said Isaac Zeffet, a former chief of El Al security who now runs a consulting concern in Cliffside Park, N.J.Mr. Zeffet, the former El Al security chief, said banning food carts would be only a patch on a security system that requires a complete overhaul, including tighter controls on everyone and everything that comes in contact with planes before takeoff.
2003: Deborah“Solomon made her debut as the New York Times Magazine's "Questions For" columnist.”
2003(2nd of Sh'vat, 5763):In the deadliest attack against Israel in 10 months a pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up just seconds apart today in the Neve Sha’anan neighborhood of Tel Aviv, an area crowded with foreign laborers, killing 23 other people and injuring 100 more. The attackers, only 500 feet away from each other, set off their bombs 30 seconds apart. The first attacker stood in front of a bus stop, the second next to a currency exchange kiosk in a pedestrian mall, both sites teeming with Sunday evening shoppers. The blasts blew out windows, burned awnings and scattered limbs and torsos across two wide swaths. A spokesman for Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a Palestinian militant organization, claimed responsibility. The death toll kept climbing into the night here, making the tandem bombing the worst attack since a suicide bomber killed 29 people at the Park Hotel in Netanya during the Passover Holiday last March. That assault sent Israeli forces wheeling into the West Bank in a fierce counterattack. In Tel Aviv, Israeli rescue teams rushing to the site tonight encountered a scene of horrific carnage. The injured, clutching wounds, staggered from the scene in search of help, marking their escapes with long trails of blood. One man, calling for help, lifted himself from the ground and ran 50 yards down Neveh Shaanan Street before finally falling down dead. All about the scene hung the grim evidence of the attackers' work -- nails and ball bearings and hunks of metal, evidently planted in the bombs to sharpen their effect. Rescue workers said the two bombs appeared to be unusually large. The evidence, they said, came in the number of body parts they found scattered over so wide a distance and the fact that so many people were killed even though they were in an open area.
2004: The Center Art Gallery at Calvin College presents “Talmud: in the Art of Ben-Zion and Marc Chagall,” an exhibit that brings together the Biblical work of two of the most important Jewish artists of the 20th Century. It features 18 intaglio prints by Ben-Zion and 25 color lithographs by Marc Chagall. The title, Talmud, is appropriate for this exhibit of images that help illustrate the collection of Biblical writings that constitute the Jewish civil and religious law (Talmud, n. {Heb. Talmud, instruction, from lamed, to learn}). Although Talmud traditionally deals with text and not image, these works act as aesthetic and insightful commentaries on the text of Scripture in the best of the Talmudic tradition. Viewed together, Zion ’s blunt, powerful expressions of Biblical subjects and Chagall’s vibrant and dreamlike interpretations of religious narrative create an artistic dialogue that furthers understanding and enjoyment of their work and the Scripture they interpret.
2005 Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered by the team of 4 that included David L. Rabinowitz.
2005: The 10th Pan American Maccabi Games came to an end in Santiago, Chile.
2007: Haaretzreported that The Amsterdam house where Anne Frank wrote her diaries in hiding before dying in a Nazi concentration camp drew almost a million visitors during 2006. The total of 982,000 was 16,000 higher than in 2005. Most of the visitors were young tourists, primarily from the United States and Britain, the Anne Frank House said.
2008: In Cedar Rapids , Iowa Temple Judah
2008: The Israeli Army wound up a large-scale, three-day operation in the northern West Bank city of Nablus . Nineteen Palestinians had been detained during the operation that uncovered a major arms cache including rockets similar to the hundreds of projectiles that have been fired from Gaza into Israel .
2009:Rabbi Ari Solomont, a native of Boston, has been named director of the Yeshiva University S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program. The program enables hundreds of young men and women every year to incorporate their study at more than 45 participating yeshivot and other educational institutions in Israel into their college years, enhancing their academic experience. The program is supervised by the Israel Program staff at the YU campus in Jerusalem
2009: “For Women Only,” a drama, song and dance review showcasing the Jewish women and girls of Baltimore was presented at Goucher College.
2009:Lawmakers are scheduled to take their first close look at financier Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud and why the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to discover the scandal. Critics say the SEC missed warning signs and failed to uncover the scandal until Madoff's sons went to the authorities and told them he confessed to the fraud.
2009: The Washington Post reviewed Old Flame, a Jackson Steeg novel, by Ira Berkowitz.
2009:The Minnesota State Canvassing Board certified results today showing Al Franken, a Democrat, winning the Senate recount over Republican Norm Coleman, who is expected to challenge the result. Earlier today, the state Supreme Court rejected the Coleman campaign’s petition to count several hundred additional absentee ballots.
2009:The disgraced financier Bernard L. Madoff tried to hide at least $1 million in watches and jewelry from government investigators and should have his bail revoked and sent to jail immediately, federal prosecutors told a judge this aftern
2009: In France , a car containing Molotov cocktails rammed into the door of a French synagogue and burst into flames. A rabbi and about 10 of his adult students in the Toulouse synagogue during the attack tonight fled unharmed. A second car containing Molotov cocktails was found near the synagogue, according to police.
2009 (9 Tevet 5769):Four soldiers were killed in friendly-fire incidents that took place during fighting on Monday night. Three soldiers were killed when a tank mistakenly opened fire on a home in Saja'iya occupied by officers and soldiers from the Golani Brigade. Another tank accidentally fired on a home in al-Atatra, killing an officer in the 202nd Battalion of the Paratroop Brigade. The soldiers were Cpl. Yousef Moadi, 19, who lived recently in Haifa , but was originally from the Druse village of Yirka Jerusalem ; and Capt. Yonatan Netanel, 27, from Kedumim.
2010: In Jerusalem, Hama'abada presents a Double Feature show featuring Uri Dror a Jerusalemite singer-songwriter gaining recognition in the Israeli rock music scene in advance of his upcoming debut album and missFlag, the four piece band from Jerusalem that will soon begin a tour in the United States.
2010:The Yellow Submarine's Zik Gallery presents Diyukan (Portrait), a group photography exhibit of the Third Year Students at the Musrara School of Photography and Media
2010:Defense Minister Ehud Barak held a phone conversation today with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and asked him to assist in renewing peace talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Barak also updated the UN chief regarding Israeli efforts meet the humanitarian needs of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
2010:Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated in New Zealand against Israel’s top-ranked women's tennis player amid a bomb scare in the arena. Shahar Pe'er, 22, was delayed from entering the arena for her opening match in the ASB Tennis Classic in Auckland for about 20 minutes today after an unattended bag in the ASB Tennis Centre prompted the bomb scare. Pe'er said at the time, “I’m Shahar Pe'er. I came here to play tennis. I know I’m from Israel and I’m proud of my country.”
2010(19th of Tevet, 5770):Murray Saltzman a Reform Rabbi and civil rights leader passed away. Born in 1929 to a Russian-immigrant family, he was the youngest of three sons. He led congregations in Maryland, Indianapolis, and Florida, among them Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation and Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. Saltzman was appointed by President Gerald Ford to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, after marching with Martin Luther King, Jr. and leading in various civil action projects.
2010: Rabbi Shira Stutman is scheduled to lead an interactive conversation about Rosh Chodesh, traditionally considered a “woman’s holiday” for reasons including perceived connections between the moon and the female cycles answering the question ‘How does the monthly reminder of womanhood shape our identity as women and as Jews?’ at the Historic 6th& I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.
2011: After Senators returned Amy Totenberg’s nomination to the President at the end of the 111th Congress, he re-submitted the nomination today.
2011: The 92nd St Y is scheduled to feature a screening of “Coming to America: The History of the Syrian Jewish Community 1900-1919.” This documentary is envisioned as part of a series on Syrian Jewish History and includes interviews with Syrian Jews living in the New York metropolitan area talking about their own families' experiences, histories, customs and traditions.
2011:Terrorists from the Hamas-controlled Gaza region struck the western Negev with another mortar attack this morning.
2011: 39 Jewish members — 12 senators and 27 representatives — are expected to serve in the 112th U.S. Congress, which is set to convene to
2011:Relatives and friends of those killed in the devastating Carmel fire last month refused to let Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak today as he stood at the podium of the official state memorial ceremony to deliver a eulogy to the victims. Those present at the ceremony mourning the 44 people killed in Israel's largest-ever wildfire let President Shimon Peres address the audience, but began heckling the premier and calling him a "liar" as he took his turn on the stage.
2011:According to an email sent today from the West Coast branch of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Songwriter Debbie Friedman is sedated and on a respirator at a hospital in Orange County, Calif. The email asked that prayers be said on Friedman's behalf, as well as for her mother, sister and aunt.
2011(29th of Tevet, 5771):Seventy three year old“David G. Trager, a federal judge in Brooklyn whose rulings were pivotal in a racially charged case in Crown Heights and in the first civil suit to challenge the Bush administration’s practice of sending terrorism suspects to countries that employ torture, died today at his home in Brooklyn.” (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
2012: The Red Sea Classical Music Festival is scheduled to open this evening at Eilat.
2012(10th of Tevet, 5772): Asara B’Tevet
2012(10th of Tevet, 5772): Yahrzeit of Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin), a true woman of valor who will always be missed.
2012:Israeli Police have been unsuccessful in running its agents in the West Bank, a senior police officer said today, adding that officers have been struggling to gather evidence on crimes committed by right-wing activists.
2012:Ehud Olmert, who resigned as prime minister of Israel in 2008 amid corruption charges, was indicted today for allegedly taking bribes in the construction of a huge residential complex while he was mayor of Jerusalem.
2013: “Les Troyens,” a cinematic presentation of Berlio’s epic is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival
2013: Ms. Erica Strauss, a soprano making a guest appearance with the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre is scheduled to present a one hour program of live opera and Jewish music this evening at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2013(23rdof Tevet, 5773): Eddie Goldstein, who lived in Boyle Heights for almost 8 decades, possibly making him “the last Jewish resident from the original Boyle Heights Jewish community” passed away today.
http://www.jewishjournal.com/obituaries/article/eddie_goldstein_last_jew_of_boyle_heights_dies_at_79
2013: Israeli documentary "The Gatekeepers" was awarded the nonfiction or documentary prize by the National Society of Film Critics in the U.S. today
2013: The traditional minyan at Temple Judah starts its 12th year of Saturday morning services.
2013: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed willingness to form a broad-based coalition with center-left parties, but claimed they have negated the possibility in advance.
2013: Vienna's Jewish Museum holds hundreds of books and works of art that may have been stolen by Nazis, a newspaper reported today.
2013: Deadline for raising the one hundred thousand dollars need to make “Next Year In Jerusalem”
2014: “Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage” an exhibition that had opened at the National Archives in October is scheduled to come to a close today
2014: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart and The Downfall of Money by Frederick Taylor in which he described Germany’s hyperinflation during the 1920’s which some contend helped bring Hitler to power.
2014: When Aaron Liberman of Northwestern checked in for the final minute of action against Michigan he made history by being the first basketball player to wear a kippa in Big Ten Conference history. (As reported by Adam Soclof)
2014: “Behind the Candelabra” and “Happy Happy” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014: Thousands of African asylum seekers in Israel and their supporters held a silent march and then a rally in Tel Aviv to day in an escalation of their protest against measures restricting their movement and ability to work.
2014: New York government officials publicly condemned the New York Post today, hours after the paper published a front-page picture of a slain Hasidic businessman and the headline “Who didn’t want him dead?”
2014: Pope Francis today announced long-awaited plans to travel to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan this May.
2014: “Radical Transformation: Magnum Photos into the Digital Age” is scheduled to have its final showing at the University of Texas’ Harry Ransom Center in Austin, TX.
2015: At the Center for Jewish History David is scheduled to “tell, for the first time, the dramatic story of how Yiddish poets Abraham Sutzkever and Shmerke Kaczerginski rescued hundreds of treasures from YIVO’s archives following WWII and brought them to YIVO’s new headquarters in New York.”
2015: An exhibition “Batsheva Dance Company at 50: American Concepts and the Israeli Spirit” is scheduled to come to an end at the New York Library for the Performing Arts