January 8
1198: Start of the papacy of Innocent III who was responsible for the Fourth Lateran Council which produced an array of anti-Jewish promulgations.
1297: Monaco gains its independence when Francesco Grimaldi and his men captured the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco. Monaco has been ruled by the House of Grimaldi. Any Jews living in Monaco from the 14th century until the start of World War II were usually Ashkenazim fleeing from France. An organized Jewish community was established in 1948. Almost half of the Jewish community is made up of British Jews living in Monte Carlo.
1324: Venetian traveler Marco Polo, who visited China, then under the Yuan Dynasty, in the late 13th century and described the prominence of Jewish traders in Beijing, passed away.
1414: The Disputation of Tortosa, one of the famous disputations between Jews and Christians of the Middle Ages, which was held in the city of Tortosa, Spain resumed.
1455: Nicholas V issued a “Romanus Pontifex,” a Papal Bull that expressed the Church’s approval of Portugal’s seizure of lands in the New World and Asia. This was part of an attempt to divide the newly discovered lands between Catholic monarchs and freeze out the Protestant nations. Fortunately for the Jews, the Church’s bull was not worth the paper it was written on since the Protestant nations such as the Dutch and the English would provide a place where Jews could practice their religion and engage in commerce.
1575: Many Marranos were among the victims of the Auto de Fe at Seville.
1598: Expulsion of the Jews from Genoa , Italy
1790:In France, the Deputies excluded the rights of Jews when considering the rules governing the election of municipal officers
1806: Cape Colony became a British colony as the Union Jack replaced Dutch rule. Dutch Jews had been living in the colony since 1652. In 1804, they had finally gained freedom of religion thanks to a proclamation issued by the Dutch commissioner-general Jacob Abraham de Mist that instituted religious equality for all persons (including the Jews) without any regard to creed. One of the first acts of the British was to repeal this proclamation. While a new wave of Jews began arriving in the 1820’s, the first synagogue was not formed until 1841 with the establishment of the Gardens Shul in Cape Town.
1815: American forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the British at the Battle of New Orleans. The pirate leader, Jean Lafitte provided a large number of soldiers and several cannon that were critical to Jackson ’s success. According to some sources, Lafitte’s mother was a Sephardic Jew whose family had fled the Inquisition. He was raised in a home that observed Kashrut and his first wife was Jewish. Like so many other things about Lafitte, we cannot be sure where fact ends and legend begins. There is no question about the Jewish identity of another fighter at the Battle of New Orleans. Judah Touro, of the famed New England Turo family had moved to New Orleans and become a prominent member of the community. He volunteered and fought with Jackson ’s forces. He was severely wounded and taken from the battlefield by Rezin Shepherd, a close friend and fellow merchant. Touro walked with a limp as a result of the wounds sustained in the battle. Touro Infirmary (hospital) and Touro Synagogue provide modern reminders of this businessman-philanthropist who answered the call to defend the United States in one of its darkest moments.
1830: The Ohio General Assembly granted Congregation B’Nai Israel in Cincinnati a charter whereby it was incorporated under the laws of the state.
1849: Following the failure of the Revolution of 1848, Prague native Isidor Bush arrived in New York City where he briefly published Israel’s Herald before moving to St. Louis where he found fame and fortune.
1851: In Cayuga County, New York, a jury is to be impaneled in the case of People vs. John Baham, Jr. Baham and his brothers were charged in the vicious murder of Nathan Adler, a Jewish peddler from Syracuse.
1852: Jacob Lehman, the son of a Jewish peddler living in Philadelphia is seen for the last time. His disappearance will eventually lead to a gruesome murder case.
1855: The sixth anniversary of the German Hebrew Mutual Aid and Benevolent Society was celebrated this evening in Pythagoras Hall on Walker Street in New York City. The dinner, which began at 7 pm, was attended by two hundred members of the society and their guests. Before the meal began, a Hebrew hymn was chanted in memory of the members of the society who had passed away. Among the speakers for the evening were Rabbis Raphael and Isaacs. The guests gave a “liberal contribution” to the poor before departing from the event.
1856:The New York Times published a summary of The Jew: A Story of the South by the same author who wrote Leaves From The Journal of a Physician's Wife
1862: Rabbi Arnold Fischel enclosed a copy of the bill that has been approved which will allow Rabbis to serve as Chaplains in the Union Army in a letter he sent to his supporters in New York. In the letter, Fischel thanked them for their financial support. He assured them that the money had been put to good use in getting the Congressional Committee to approve the change in the law. He also reported that a letter had been published in the Washington newspapers from Reform Rabbis, including Wise, Einhorn and Adler claiming that Fishcel did not have the authority to act for the Jewish community.
1865(10th of Tevet, 5625): As the American Civil War enters its final years, Jews observed Asara B’Tevet.
1870: Dr. Ellinger, editor of the Jewish Times addressed the Longfellow Literary Association at the YMCA in New York City on the outcome of the Rabbinic Conference which was held in Philadelphia, PA. Ellinger provided an analysis of the religious reforms proposed by the Jewish leaders.
1871: “The Jews In America” published today points out that “few outside of the Jewish fold have any precise knowledge of “the difference between Orthodox and Reform Jews and then proceeds to described the differences “between the rigid orthodox Jew who repeats a hundred benedictions daily…and the radical reformed Jew…who believes there is nothing supernatural about the Bible but regards it merely as a book written by mortal hands.
1871: Vice President Samuel A. Lewis, chaired today’s annual meeting of the members of Mount Sinai Hospital. The meeting was informal since only fifty members were in attendance the by-laws require 75 for a quorum. Emanuel B. Hart has replaced Benjamin Nathan as President, Nathan having passed away. The hospital, which treats Jewish and Gentile patients, treated 1,787 out-patients during the past year. The hospital admitted 677 patients during the year or whom 609 were designed at “cured or relieved.”
1871: The Hebrew Relief Association which was incorporated in 1831 held its annual meeting this morning at the 19th Street Synagogue in New York City. Officers include, President Hendry S. Allen, Vice President A.R.B. Moses and Treasurer E.B. Hart. During this past year, the association distributed $2,500 among the city’s less fortunate Jewish population.
1874: In New York City, Anna Rosenbaum Grossmann and Ignaz Grossmann gave birth to Mary Grossman who married Louis Buxbaum and became Mary Grossman Buxbaum.
1875: The Downtown Hebrew Ladies’ Benevolent Society met this evening and elected a slate of officers.
1878: It was reported today that the Young Men’s Hebrew Union has elected the following officers: President, A. Ottinger; Vice President, William Rothschild; Secretaries, Alfred Steckler and Lewis Heyman; Treasurer, Henry Bausch.
1881: Birthdate of Isaac Lowi who would be buried at Beth Israel Cemetery in Gadsden, Alabama in 1952.
1882: Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery and Hanna Primrose, Countess of Rosebery, “the daughter of Mayer de Rothschild and his wife Juliana, née Cohen who upon the death of her father in 1874 became the richest woman in Britain” gave birth to (Albert Edward) Harry Meyer Archibald Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery
1882: “Anti-Juif” an anti-Semitic weekly first published at Paris in 1881 is published for the fourth and final time today. (There will be several other publications that will appear using this name.)
1887(12th of Tevet, 5647): Forty-five year Isaac Margolis, the husband of Hinde Bernstein passed away in New York City.
1888: Judge Nathaniel Rollins, who represented Jacob Schloss in his suit aimed to protect his “placer patent” from the federal government, relished the victory he had scored for his Jewish clients from Leadville, Colorado.
1888: In Lublinitz, Siegmund Courant and Martha Courant née Freund of Oels gave birth to Richard Courant the mathematician who wrote What Is Mathematics and was forced to flee to England and then the United States when the Nazis came to power.
1889: In New York, Stella Corbet and Jules Levy, “perhaps the most celebrated cornetist of the 19th century” gave birth to the third child and only son, Jules Levy, Jr. a fine corentist in his own right who “led his own brass quartet, and made records for Edison, Emerson and Pathé.”
1890(16th of Tevet, 5650): Sixty year old Seligmann Heller, the Bohemian born poet who “published ‘Ahasverus,’ an epic poem on the Wandering Jew in 1866” passed away today in Vienna.
1890: Rabbi H. Pereira Mendes of Congregation Shearith Israel presided over the funeral services for Judge Philip J. Joachimsen, which were held at his home on 54th Street followed by internment at Cypress Guardians
1892: It was reported today that Madame Olga Novikoff claims that in an effort to downplay the seriousness of the famine in Russia, the Czar is willing to accept private donations, but no government money. She reports that money has been sent from England “to aid the distressed Jews.” (This famine was but one more reasons that so many Jews were arriving in the U.S. and the U.K.
1892; It was reported today that stepsons of the late Bernhard Blumenberg are contesting the will which leave half of his estate to his widow Anna Blumenberg. They claim that she could not have been their father’s wife since she had married Loeb Sigel who was still alive. She claims that they had been divorced.
1893: Thirteen year old David Koblenzer delivered an address today in which he recounted the history of the Boys’ Yorkville Charity Society, a philanthropic organization begun Jewish youngsters in June of 1891.
1893: Hyman Blum presided over the annual meeting of the Mount Sinai Hospital Society in New York City.
1893: It was announced today that in September Princeton University will offer a $75.00 prize to the incoming junior who had the highest score on the Hebrew Examination. (They may not have liked the Jews, but they loved their language)
1894(1st of Shevat, 5654): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1894: Funeral services for Adolph L. Sanger, the President of the New York City Board of Education, will take place today at Temple Emanu-El
1894: As the economic downturn in the United States continue to worsen the offices of the United Hebrew Charities on Second Avenue were so crowded that the clerks had to work “briskly” to deal with all of the requests for aid.
1894: In an attempt to help those suffering as a result of the “Depression of 1893” Nathan Straus will begin selling coal at 25 per cent less than before. This means that 25 pounds can be bought for a nickel and 100 pounds can be bought for 20 cents. Straus had already started selling fresh bake bread at reduced prices “at his sterilized milk depot.”
1895: Establishment of the first "Israel Gymnastic Club" in Constantinople (Kushta), Turkey
1895: During a strike by 200 cloakmakers in New York City, the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor withdrew its offer to give $10,000 to the United Hebrew Charities. The money was going to be used “pay” the strikers for their work as street-cleaners.
1895: It was reported today that members of the Union League are not bothered by the fact that their last Jewish members has resigned. Proving that they are snobs, as well as anti-Semites members of the league are opposed to admitting Henry Fricke, a partner of the powerful Andrew Carnegie, because he lives in Pittsburgh.
1896: It was reported today that Rabbi Gottheil was one of several clergyman who responded favorably to the creation of the United Charities, an umbrella, inter-denominational organization meant to help the city’s destitute.
1896: Among those who were reported today to have thanked President Theodore Roosevelt of the Police Board for services rendered was Isidor Struass who sent a letter to TR “thanking the board for” providing a special detail during the recent Charity Fair at Madison Square Garden.
1896: It was reported today that rising shops belong to Dutch, German and Jewish merchants have been destroyed as a result of rising anti-German feeling among those living in London’s east end.
1898: It was reported today that among those serving as directors of the newly created Brooklyn Hebrew Hospital Society are Morris Kotlowitz, Frank Baratt, Dora Kotlowitz and Annie Levy.
1898: It was reported today that Solomon Loeber has purchased a lot on the corner of Second Avenue and 21st Street from the estate of Dr. Aaron wise on which he plans to build a seven story office building which he will give to the United Hebrew Charities as a headquarters.
1897: It was reported today that the Educational Alliance received over $25,000 in contributions last year but spent more than $52,000. The deficit was covered by proceeds from a charity fair. According to Isidor Strauss, the President of the Alliance, Jewish people play a dominate role in managing the organization but it is strictly non-sectarian when it comes to providing services.
1898: Graduation exercises were held this evening at the Baron de Hirsch Trades Circles on East 9th Street.
1898: Miss Julia Richman presided over the monthly meeting of the Jewish Religious School Union which was held at Temple Beth-El in Manhattan . The main topic for discussion was providing the proper incentives for students. Miss Richman expressed her opposition to artificial incentives except as expedients. She feels that natural incentives are the key to educational success and that the use of artificial incentives will lead to the ruin of the character of a majority of the students.
1899: President James H. Hoffman addressed the annual meeting of the “patrons and members of the Hebrew Technical Institute”
1899: Five hundred people attended an evening of entertainment sponsored by the Young Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s League of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society. One hundred new members joined the league which provides financial support for the charity.
1900: In Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia, to George Francis Baillieu and Agnes Sheehan gave birth to Margery Merlyn Bailliu who became Merlyn Myer when she married Sidney Myer (Simcha Baevski) the penniless Russian Jew who found the Myer retail company.
1906: A meeting was held in the board-room of the Hampstead Synagogue for the purpose of inaugurating a North-West London branch of the Jewish Territorial Organization (ITO). Mr. Lucien Wolf presided. Mr. Wolf said the formation of this branch of the I.T.O. was a gratifying illustration of the way in which the movement was progressing among the Jewish community. He did not pretend that territorialism would be a panacea for all the ills Jewry was heir to, the essence of which was the position of the Jews in Russia. During the 20 years past attempts to solve the problem in Russia had been pursued by means of representations and petitions, but no step had been made towards emancipation. Meanwhile, emigration schemes had no perceptible effect in Russia and did very little to improve the social conditions of Jews, who through the operations of laws, formed new ghettos in the towns to which they were transferred and entering congested labor markets created an impression of numbers greater than they were and stimulated prejudice and Anti-Semitism. Then the late Baron de Hirsch conceived the idea of substituting colonization for emigration. Baron de Hirsch’s idea was to found colonies in new countries free from ghettos and Anti-Semitism, but his scheme had not the success hoped for. It attempted to work from above and did not enlist the enthusiasm or the sympathy of the people for whom it worked. Dr Herzl proposed territorialism and afterwards adopted Zionism as the only means of enlisting the almost fanatical enthusiasm of the Russian Jews. Zionism in turn failed and the I.T.O. came forward with the natural development of Dr Herzl’s scheme. The advantage was that they could begin at once upon territory wherever they could get it, and they had the opportunity of obtaining it in the British Empire. It is of great importance to get to work at once. Within the last few days the great Revolution in Russia had been crushed, and the emancipation of Russian Jews was more remote than ever. He felt bound to pay tribute to the gallantry and heroism with which their brothers and sisters in Russia had acquitted themselves in the heroic struggle of the last few months. (Hear, hear). [Ed. Note - In 1905 the question of a future Jewish state in Palestine split the Zionist movement. The breakaway Jewish Territorial Organization (known as the ITO) sought any land that was available within the British Empire as homeland for the Jewish people. The rest of the Zionist movement clung to the idea that Palestine was the only place for a Jewish homeland. . After the British Government, and then the League of Nations, declared support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, the organization lost its appeal and by 1925 had disbanded.]
1912:The Chicago Section adopted resolution to withdraw from Council of Jewish Women.
1914(10th of Tevet, 5674): Asara B'Tevet observed for the last time before the start of WW I and all the horrors of the 20thcentury.
1915: “Poles and Cossacks Massacre Jews” published today contains a summary of an article written by Dr. Shmaryah Levin, “the noted Zionist leader and member of the first Russian Duma that appeared in The Warheit in which he “reveals the shocking details of massacres of Jews in Poland as a result of the treachery and duplicity of the Poles who caused the most flagrant falsehoods to be circulated impugning he loyalty of the Jews’
1915: Louis Marshall, President of the American Jewish Committee received a telegram from Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan saying that “The State Department has received a telegram from Constantinople in which it is stated that the Sublime Porte has accorded an additional month’s time for foreign Jews to become naturalized and has also decided to exempt the indigent Jews from the payment of the naturalization fee.”
1916: Alvey A. Adee, the Second Assistant Secretary of State wrote to Simon Wolf acknowledging the President’s request that the Department “use its good offices for the purpose of obtaining permission from the allies to ship several cargoes of whole wheat so that at the coming Passover it can be used to make unleavened bread” and asking “how much wheat you desire to ship, to what places, to whom it is to consigned and how it is to be distributed” since “these questions are certain to be asked of the Department by the Governments from whom the permission to ship the wheat is requested.” (Editor’s Note: Yes, as the World War entered into what would prove to be its most disastrous year, the Jews are worried about Matzah for Pesach. Think about that when you sit down to your Seder this year.)
1916: During World War I, Allied forces withdrew from Gallipoli marking the end of this ill-fated attempt to break the stalemate on the Western Front by forcing their way through the Dardanelles and up the Balkans. Among the forces withdrawn were the Zion Mule Corps, a Jewish military unit that was part of the British Army. The Zion Mule Corps was the first Jewish unit to take action since the end of the Second Commonwealth
1919: In Hungary , Bela Kuhn, a communist dictator, was disposed of with the help of Rumania and Admiral Nicholas Horthy. Since Kuhn was a Jew, all the Jews were accused of being communists. During the "White Terror" that followed, an estimated five thousand Jews were killed.
1923: Birthdate of Joseph Wiezenbaum, a pioneer in the study of artificial intelligence.
1923: In New York City, realtor Alfred Storch and Sally Kupperman Storch, “a telephone operator” gave birth to actor-comedian Larry Storch who served with Bernard Schwartz, the future Tony Curtis, aboard the U.S. Proteus.
1924: In Hamburg, a schoolteacher, Julia (née Cohen) and James (or Jakob) Cohn, owner of an import business gave birth to Paul Moritz Cohn, the Astor Professor of Mathematics at University College London.
1926: “Sid Terris” who was Jewish, won “a 10 round decision over European lightweight champion Lucien Vinez, in New York.”
1926: In Brooklyn Nina (Kwartin), a coloratura, and Nathan Shulman gave birth to Evelyn Shulman who gained fame as operatic soprano Evelyn Lear.
1926: In Franklinton, NC, Irving and Sadie Supman gave birth to Milton Supman who gained fame as comedian Soupy Sales
1926: Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud becomes the King of Hejaz and renames it Saudi Arabia. The Saudis had been competing with the Hashemites for control over the holy places in Arabia . With the ascendancy of the Saudis, the British were forced to find a “home’ for the Hashemites. The Hashemite got two homes. One son got the throne of the British invention known as Iraq . The other Hashemite son got the throne of that other British invention, the Kingdom of Trans-Jordan later the Kingdom of Jordan Jordan and that is the proper Palestinian State
1926: Birthdate of Evelyn Shulman, the granddaughter of Cantor Savel Kwartin and the daughter of opera singer Nine Shulman, who gained fame as “Evelyn Lear, an American soprano who became a star in Europe in the 1950s and who later won acclaim in the United States for singing some of the most difficult roles in contemporary opera…” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1929: The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that Meir Dizengoff has been chosen to serve as Mayor of Tel Aviv. Dizengoff was one of the founders of the city and has previously held the position of Mayor.
1932: In Austria, celebration of the 150th anniversary of the promulgation of the Toleration Decree of 1781 issued by Emperor Josef II under which the Jews of Austria were accorded civil and political equality.
1932: In Brooklyn, NY, Pauline and Dr. Jacob Rosenblum gave birth to Morton Edgar Rosenblum who gained fame as “M. Edgar Rosenblum, an arts executive who helped steer the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven to prominence in the American theater landscape, developing work that traveled to Broadway and elsewhere and that won Pulitzer Prizes and Tony Awards along the way…” (As reported by Bruce Weber)
1933(10th of Tevet, 5693): Asara B'Tevet
1933: Birthdate of Warren Kenton, the London native who gained famed as Z’ev ben Shimon Halevi, a leading teacher of Kabbalah who founded the Kabbalah Society which promotes the Toledano Tradition.
1934(21st of Tevet, 5694):Serge Alexandre Stavisky passed away. Born in 1886 in the Ukraine, he was a French financier and embezzler whose actions created a political scandal that became known as the Stavisky Affair. In 1927, Stavisky was put on trial for fraud. However, the trial was postponed again and again and he was granted bail 19 times. Faced with exposure in December 1933, Stavisky fled. Today the police found him in a Chamonix chalet suffering from a gunshot wound. Officially Stavisky committed suicide but there was a persistent speculation that police killed him. Alexandre Stavisky was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery.
1937: Eugene Wigner,the JewishHungarian American theoretical physicist and mathematician became a naturalized United States citizen.
1939: In “Solution of Problem Must Be based on Present, Not Past,” published today, Anne O’Hare McCormick writes that the one thing that is clear “is that it is impossible to go back twenty years to solve the present problem under the terms of the Balfour Declaration or the promises made to Sharif Hussein in the McMahon correspondence.” Among the changed realities are “the 400,000 Jews now settled” in Palestine and their “push and energy” which “are transforming the country at an astounding rate.” She goes on to describe the modernizing impact the Zionists have had on Jerusalem, the growth of Tel Aviv which “is one of the most extraordinary boom towns on earth.” Finally she cites the creation of the port at Tel Aviv by a “people without experience in seafaring or maritime commerce” when the Arab uprising deprived the use of the port a Jaffa. The Arab response has been one of resistance. Ironically, long time residents of Palestine “find not only Palestine but also the Palestinians altered in the last five years (the period of greatest Jewish influx) than in the preceding century.” She concludes that the “Arab guerilla war is not independence” but for a halt to Jewish immigration even if this can only be accomplished with a prolongation of British rule.”
1940: The body of State Supreme Court Justice Alfred Frankenthaler, who passed away yesterday, lay in state today at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
1943: “The Thin Man,” produced by Himan Brown, returns to the airways sponsored this time by General Foods
1943: Birthdate of Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin), truly an Ashit Chayil, “A Woman of Valor.” A devoted wife, loving mother, doting grandmother, faithful friend as well as daughter and sister extraordinaire, Judy is a gift to all who are fortunate enough to be part of her life. “And her children called her ‘Blessed’.”
1944(12th of Tevet, 5704): Eighty year old psychologist Joseph Jastrow passed away.
1944: U.S. premiere of “What’s Cooking Doc?” starring Bugs Bunny the cartoon figure given voice by el Blanc
1945: The Alois Mission, an Anglo-American intelligence unit investigating the progress of the Germans in creating an Atomic bomb departed Stasbourg today
1949: On the day following RAF intervention in the fighting between Israel and Egypt in which several British planes were shot down “British pilots were issued a directive to regard any Israeli aircraft infiltrating Egyptian or Jordanian airspace as hostile and to shoot them down, but were also ordered to avoid activity close to Israel's borders.”
1953: When Prime Minister Churchill and President Truman dined at the British Embassy, Churchill impressed Truman with his vocal support of Israel and his criticism of Egypt for closing the Suez Canal to ships bound for Israel.
1953: The Jerusalem Postreported that with the last piece of rock blasted away the new 88-km. Beersheba-Sdom road was opened. The road was expected to revitalize the Potash Works which had been inactive since the road north of the Dead Sea was cut during the 1948 war. Despite Israeli protests, Washington announced that it had no objections to the British plans to sell jet planes to the Arab states.
1953: Leo Lerman, the Jewish editor and writer for such glossy fashion magazines as Vogue, Mademoiselle and Vanity Fairhelped discover a new European singing sensation at the Le Fenice opera house in Venice by the of name Maria Callas.
1953: René Mayer becomes Prime Minister of France.
1958: “Music World Corporation, an American music production and music publishing company” founded by “Academy Award-winning songwriter Robert Sherman” was incorporated today in the State of California.
1959(28th of Tevet, 5719): New York State Supreme Court Justice Albert C. Cohn passed away. Unfortunately, for Judge Cohn, despite a distinguished career, he will be best remembered as the father of Roy Cohn
1971: Today’s Bulletin described the annual meeting of Congregation Shaar Hasyomyim of Montreal where Dr. Charles Solomon, the President of the Congregation described the shaky financial situation followed by the approval by the Board of Trustees of a special assessment to be paid by each member which would raise $350,000 to be applied against the structural indebtedness
1975(25th of Tevet, 5735): Richard Tucker passed away at the age of 61. Born Reuben Ticker, he gained fame as a Cantor and as an operatic tenor.
1978(29th of Tevet, 5738):Rose Luria Halprin one of the foremost American Zionist leaders of the twentieth century who served twice as the national president of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, held key posts within the Jewish Agency at critical periods in the history of the Yishuv and the subsequent State of Israel passed away today.
1978: The Jerusalem Postreported from Washington the announcement made by US President Jimmy Carter that he was still opposed to the creation of an independent Palestinian state, as it could be used as a base for subversion against Israel.
1978: Isaiah Sheffer “wrote down his idea for a place he had decided to call Symphony Space, in part because that was the name of the theater and in part because its first event was a symphony concert. After tens of millions of dollars raised and a decade of litigation, it became a complex of two theaters with a cafe, offices and a board directors.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1980:Park East Synagogue designated as a New York City Landmark. The structure was built on New York’s Upper East Side in the last decade of the 19thcentury for a congregation led by Rabbi Bernard Drachman.
1982:As part of the breakup of AT&T, AT&T agreed to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions. Judge Harold Greene, a Jew who fled Hitler’s German with his parents, presided over United States v. AT&T, the antitrust suit that broke up the AT&T vertical market monopoly on the telecommunications industry in the United States.
1982: Birthdate of actress Gabby Hoffmann.
1984 (4th of Shevat, 5744):In Netivot (southern Israel), Reb Yisroel Abuchatzeira, the Baba Sali passed away. Rabbi Israel Abuchatzera known as "Baba Sali," was born in Tafillalt, Morocco in 1890, to the illustrious Abuchatzera family. From a young age he was renowned as a sage, miracle maker and master Kabbalist. In 1964 he moved to the Holy Land, eventually settling in the southern development town he made famous, Netivot. His graveside in Netivot will become a holy site visited by thousands annually.
1986, New York City teachers elected long-time teacher advocate Sandra Feldman president of the city's United Federation of Teachers (UFT). “She was the first woman to head the UFT. After a decade heading the UFT, Feldman was elected president of the American Federation of Teachers in May 1997, a position she held until her retirement in 2004. She was the first woman to head the union since 1930, and only the second in the organization's history. A recognized authority on urban education and a former teacher herself, Feldman also served on the Executive Council of the AFL -CIO . A passionate advocate for children with an intense commitment to social justice, Feldman continues to be involved in numerous community organizations. She co-chairs the Child Labor Coalition and heads the AFL -CIO Committee on Social Policy. In addition, she serves on the board of the Jewish Labor Committee, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, and the United States Committee for UNICEF. To mark her retirement, Congress passed a resolution in 2004 honoring Feldman for "her tireless efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning."
1991(22nd of Tevet, 5751):Harold J. Mason, a seller of rare books and a publishing company executive passed away today at the age of 64.Dr. Mason, a native of Brooklyn, held bachelor's and master's degrees from Emory University and a doctorate in library science form Columbia. He was with the Kraus Reprint Company before co-founding the Greenwood Press in Westport, Conn., in 1966. In 1973 he established a company in his own name in Norwalk, Conn., selling antiquarian journals and magazines. He is survived by his wife, the fomer Selma Werner; two daughters, Lori Reisman of Ventura and Dione Katz of Tel Aviv; a brother, Robert, of Washington and three grandchildren.
1991: Israel deported four Palestinians to Lebanon today, less than 24 hours after they had dropped their final legal appeals. The four, suspected of being leaders of an Islamic fundamentalist group in the Gaza Strip, were flown handcuffed and blindfolded to southern Lebanon, dropped off at the edge of Israel's self-declared security zone and then ordered to march north toward a Lebanese Army checkpoint. There they offered angry, threatening statements to waiting Lebanese journalists and then made their way to Beirut.
1992: Israel and China are expected to establish diplomatic relations for the first time during a trip by Foreign Minister David Levy to Beijing toward the end of the month, senior officials here said today. Although Israel was quick to recognize the People's Republic of China after the Communist revolution in 1949, the countries never developed diplomatic relations.
2000(1stof Shevat, 5760): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
2001: Jack Abramoff left Preston Gates to join the Government Relations division of the Washington, D.C. law firm Greenberg Traurig. “With the move to Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff took as much as $6 million worth of client business from his old firm, including the Marianas Islands account. At Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff recruited a team of lobbyists known familiarly as "Team Abramoff". The team included many of his former employees from Preston Gates and former senior staffers of members of Congress.”
2003:Today, Israeli forces killed a gunman in the Golan Heights, Israel Radio reported. The Israeli military said the man was killed and another was captured during a clash with armed men who were crossing into Israeli-controlled territory near the Syrian and Jordanian borders.
2006: Pulitzer Prize-winner Ron Suskind, author of The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House and the Education of Paul O'Neill, was the special guest speaker at the United Jewish Community of Broward County's annual Major Gifts Event in Fort Lauderdale .
2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster, The Reason I Wont Be Coming: Stories by Eliot Perlman,Busting Vega$: The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees by Ben Mezrich and newly released paperback editions of Seven Types of Ambiguity by Ellot Perlman, The Speakeasies of 1932 and Hirschfeld's Harlem by Al Hirschfeld, Pragmatism, and Democracy by Richard A. Posner and Amos Oz’s Tale of Love and Darkness a “richly layered memoir that chronicles the life of one of Israel's most acclaimed novelists. Tracing his ancestors back to 19th-century Ukraine , Oz weaves his family's history into the broader story of World War II, the rise of the Israeli state and the death of the socialist-Zionist dream. Oz returns often to his mother's suicide in 1952, when he was 12: the wound shapes his self discovery and the story of how he became a writer.”
2007: New York magazine, published an article entitled “Mall Menorah Smackdown” which told the tale about “dueling rabbis struggling over who gets to spread the faith to newcomers in the gentrifying area around Atlantic Yards.” “A turf war has erupted between two Lubavitch rabbis claiming dibs on the rapidly gentrifying brownstone neighborhoods that surround it. In one corner is Rabbi Ari Kirschenbaum, who showed up in Prospect Heights
2008: “A scaled down London revival” of the Jerry Herman musical, “La Cage aux Folles, opened at the Menier Chocolate, in London.
2008(1st of Shevat, 5768): According to tradition 1 Shevat, 2488 marked the start of Moshe’s dissertations that compose the Devarim (Book of Deuteronomy).
2008(1st of Shevat, 5768): Lieutenant General Moshe Levy, the 12th Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) passed away. Born in Tel Aviv in 1936, he was person of Misrahi origin to serve as Chief of Staff.
2009: As part of the Spiritual Journeys series, at the 92nd Street Y Rabbi Joyce Reinitz, the spiritual leader of the Society of Jewish Science in Manhattan and psychotherapist facilitates a noon time presentation styled “Feminine Reflections on the Rhythms of Our Lives: Tevet—Illuminating the Miraculous.”
2009 (12th of Tevet, 5769):Two IDF officers and a soldier were killed today as the IDF penetrated deeper into urban centers in the northern Gaza Strip. Maj. Ro'i Rosner of the Kfir Brigade's Haruv Battalion was killed and another soldier was lightly wounded, when a Hamas man fired an anti-tank missile at them as they conducted searches near the Kissufim crossing into the Strip.Capt. Omer Rabinovitch, 23, of Arad , was killed in the close-quarter firefights in Zeitoun. Sgt. Amit Robinson, 21, a tank crewman from Kibbutz Magal, south of Baka al-Gharbiya, was killed by a sniper, also in northern Gaza . His parents made aliya from Argentina .
2009:Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a barrage of at least 30 rockets at southern Israel today, just hours after the United Nations passed a resolution calling for an immediate truce between Israel and Hamas.
2009:Three Katyusha rockets fired from Lebanon struck Nahariya, one of which slammed into a retirement home. Two people were lightly wounded.
2009: The comrades of Private David Sher, the 8thAustralian soldier killed in Afghanistan while fighting the Taliban, hung a Star of David above his casket as it was prepared to be sent to Melbourne for burial.
2010: Brit of Nathan Zachary Silber son of David and Rebecca Silber and grandson of Dr. Robert “Bob” and Laurie Silber, pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community and all around great guys.
2010: An exhibition is scheduled to open at Ben Uri Gallery at The London Jewish Museum of Art that includes “Apocalypse,” the “previously unknown 1945 gouache by Mac Chagall.” Painted in New York, “Apocalypse shows a naked Christ screaming a Nazi storm trooper below the cross who has a backwards swastika on his arm, a Hitler-like mustache and serpentine tail.” This is one more example of Chagall using “an image of a crucified Jesus…as a metaphor for persecuted Jewry
2010:Israel has taken the upper hand in a new kind of Mideast conflict, one in which bullets are replaced by chickpeas. Using a satellite dish on loan from a nearby broadcast station, chefs in Abu Ghosh today whipped up more than 4,000 kg. of humous, adding a Guinness world record to the Arab town's reputation for hospitality and harmony. The cooks nearly doubled the previous record for the world's biggest serving of humous, set on October 24 by cooks in Lebanon.
2011: The 10th Red Sea Classical Festival in Eilat comes to a close.
2011:Nadav Kohen is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a bar mitzvah at Agudas Achim in Iowa City, IA.
2011:Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum who “fears that without pluralism, Israel will become ‘a state alienated from itself’” is scheduled to give two talks at Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex, Caldwell, NJ, entitled “Israeli Female Rabbis and the Challenges of 5771” and “Feminine Voices: Halacha and The Public Square.”
2011:Representative Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords, Arizona’s first Jewish congresswoman,was in critical condition after being shot in the head. “Giffords was outside one of her signature "Congress at your corner" events outside a Safeway in Tucson, the district she represented, when a gunman approached and shot her in the head. The gunman, identified by media as Jared Lee Loughner, shot 17 people, killing six of them, including a 9-year old boy and a federal judge.
2011(3rd of Shevat, 5711):Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, was killed in the mass shooting at Rep. Gabrielle Giffords's Congress on the Corner event. Zimmerman, a former social worker, was Giffords's director of community outreach and the organizer of the meet-and-greet event. Zimmerman was Giffords's point of contact for constituents in the district.
2011:Today four mortar shells fired by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza landed in a kibbutz in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council, wounding three foreign agricultural workers – one of them seriously. The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the al-Quds Brigades, took responsibility for mortar fire that injured three agricultural workers
2011(3rd of Shevat, 5771): Eighty-two year old “Alexis Weissenberg, a charismatic Bulgarian-born pianist known for his thundering aggressiveness and rational detachment at the keyboard, and for his unapologetic defense of those traits in interviews” passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2012: “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg is scheduled to be shown at the Salisbury Film Festival at Salisbury University in Salisbury, MD.
2012: “Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray” is scheduled to be shown at the Mobile Jewish Film Festival in Mobile, Alabama.
2012: A display of Chanukah menorahs designed by Bronx-based silversmith Bernard Bernstein which has been part of the New York Historical Society’s Chanukah celebration is scheduled to come to an end.
2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Breakdown” by Sara Paretsky, “Henrich Himmler” by Peter Longerich, “Hitler’s Hangman: The Life of Heydrich” by Robert Gerwarth, “A More Perfect Heavan: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos” by Dava Sobel and “Kayak Morning: Reflections on Love, Grief and Small Boats” by Roger Rosenblatt.
2012:IDF soldiers captured close to a dozen pipe bombs at the Salem Crossing near Jenin in the northern West Bank today, thwarting what appears to have been a major terrorist attack, possibly against a nearby military court. Four Palestinians were arrested at the crossing and were found to be in possession of 11 pipe bombs, a homemade pistol and a commando knife.
2012: The Jerusalem District Court today indicted five right-wing activists suspected of involvement in the so-called 'price tag' attack on the IDF's Ephraim Division military base last month. Jerusalem district prosecutors accused the suspects of collecting important military intelligence, conspiracy to riot, entering a closed military zone and direct involvement in the attack on the Ephraim Brigade base. The five suspects were named as Akiva Pinchas Hacohen, 27, from Yitzhar, Elad Meir, 36, from Machrasha, Ephraim Moshe Chaykin, 18, from Jerusalem, Meir Etinger, 18, from Jerusalem and David Tzvi Eliyahu, 17, from Jerusalem.
2013:Seth Chernoff is scheduled to have a discussion and signing of his new book Manual For Living: Connection, A User’s guide to the Meaning of Life at American Jewish University in Los Angeles.
2013: Three shorts – Reality Check, Martha Must Fly and Shalom – are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: Seventieth anniversary of the birth of Judy Levin Rosenstein זיכרונה לברכה
2013: The Associated Press reported today that "the consensus now among some U.S. officials involved in the case is that despite years of denials, Iran's intelligence service was almost certainly behind the 54-second video and five photographs of Robert Levinson that were emailed anonymously to his family.
2013: Rabbis from the Rabbis for Human Rights-North America board are scheduled to deliver a copy of a letter,expressing concerns about settlement expansion in the E-1 Corridor to the Israeli Embassy in Washington today. The letter contains the signatures of 720 Rabbis and rabbinical students.
2013: Traffic resumed in both directions of Tel Aviv’s main highway, the Ayalon freeway, this afternoon, hours after the road was closed along with other major arteries due to heavy rains that caused waters to rise near road-level.
2013:The Israeli Navy was sent into the coastal city of Hadera late tonight to help rescue residents stranded by massive flooding.
2014: Professor Steven Kennedy is scheduled to deliver a second lecture on “Leonard Bernstein: From Jewish Roots To Broadway” which looks at the legacy of the multi-talented musician whose Jewish identity was such that he conducted the symphony in Tel Aviv while Israel was fighting for its independence.
2014: “Wild West Hebron” and “Pulse” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014: “Protests by African migrants in Israel, unprecedented in their scope, continued for a fourth straight day today as about 10,000 people, many of whom came by bus from Tel Aviv, gathered at the Rose Garden in Jerusalem across from the Knesset.” (As reported by Spencer Ho)
2014: Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon “vehemently condemned extremist Jewish violence” known as price tag attackes of “terror.” (As reported by Stuart Winer)
2014: In a statement released to the Times of Israel today, Karen Lawrence, the President of Sarah Lawrence University spoke out againt the American Studies Association boycott of Israel writing, “I oppose this boycott. Academic boycotts have the effect of stifling dialogue vital to academic freedom; indeed, Israeli academics themselves are crucial voices in debating the policies of their government. To declare their institutions barred from academic exchange unfairly curtails their academic freedom and limits the possibilities for dialogue to contribute to understanding, affect policy, and even change minds.” (As reported by Debra Kamin)
2015: The Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism is scheduled to host the second of day “Beyond Camps and Forced Labour.”
2015: In the UK, a conference hosted by the University of Kent that “seeks to examine the significance of topography of the Nazi concentration camps” which is part of the schools way to mark the 70thanniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz is scheduled to come to an end