January 21
763: Thirteen years after coming to power, the Abbasids defeated the Alids at the Battle of Bakhamra, ending this challenge to their Caliphate. The Abbasid Dynasty lasted for approximately 500 and ruled an area extending from Central Asia on the east to North Africa on the west which meant they controlled all of the Jewish communities outside of Europe. They built Baghdad and according to some, power in the Jewish world shifted to those living in this new Moslem power center.
1188: After hearing Archbishop of Tyre Josias describe Henry II Plantagenet of England and Philip II of France set aside their differences and agree to “take up the cross” The monarch impose a “Saladin Tax” (one tenth of earnings over the next 3 years) which can be avoided by those who join the Crusade. Of course for the Jews, there is no escape so they will be despoiled by the monarchs as well as by the marauding Crusaders.
1189: Philip II, Henry II and Richard Lion-Hearted began gathering the forces for The Third Crusade. The Third Crusade took an exceptionally harsh toll on the Jews of England. Although the third crusade became famous in song and fable, it was a failure. Unfortunately, it did not end the crusading spirit. More crusades would follow which meant more misery for the Jews of Europe and the Middle East .
1306: Phillip the Fair of France issued secret orders today for his officials to prepare for the expulsion of his Jewish subjects and the confiscation of their property. Phillip found that his treasury had been depleted by his wars with the Flemish and he saw this as a way of replenishing his treasury. Under the terms of the expulsion any Jews found after the July 22, 13 06
1393:The Jews of Majorca were guaranteed protection by the governor who “issued an edict for their protection, providing that a citizen who should injure a Jew should be hanged, and that a knight for the same offense should be subjected to the strappado.”
1495:Isaac ben Judah Abravanel and King Alfonso sailed from Naples to Mazzara near Sicily . The city of Mazzazra was given as a gift from Ferdinand of Spain to Alfonso. While there, news reached both Abravanel and Alfonso that Charles VIII had taken Naples . The French rioted against and looted the Jewish community almost wiping it out. Many Jews were sold as slaves, and many were forced to convert to Christianity. Abravanel later wrote, "My entire enormous wealth was stolen."
1527: Jakob van Hoogstraten, the Dominican priest who burned Hebrew books belonging to Johannes Reuchlin, a friend of the Jews, passed away today.
1596(21st of Shevat): Rabbi Judah Leib Hanlish author of Vaygash Yehuda, passed away
1727(28thof Tevet, 5487): Abraham de Fonseca the native of Hamburg who “graduated in medicine from Leyden University” and was the son of Joseph ben Joshua de Fonseca passed away today.
1749: Birthdate of Chaim Volozhin, a disciple of the Valna Gaon. Also known as Reb Cahim he was the founder of the Volozhin Yeshiva, which provided the “template” for similar academies throughout much of what was at that time part of Poland and the Russian Empire.
1793: Prussia and Russia signed a treaty that portioned Poland . All of a sudden, Russia had a large Jewish population, something which her rulers had not bargained for and did not want.
1812: Birthdate of Moses Hess, Born in Germany , Hess, was an author, socialist and forerunner of the Zionist movement. In his book Rome and Jerusalem published in 1862, he expressed the belief that German anti-Semitism was based on race and nationhood. He advised Jews to accept the fact and revive their own state in Eretz Israel . Hess, a socialist, had worked with Marx and Engels. He grew disillusioned with the idea that a "progressive society would eradicate anti-Semitism." He passed away in 1875.
1829: In Prague, Abraham and Judith Eidlitz gave birth to Markus Eidlitz who emigrated to the United States in 1846 where he gained fame as Marc Eidlitz, a leader in the New York construction industry.
1831 (7th of Shevat, 5591): Author Achim von Arnim passed away. Von Arnim was not Jewish but he incorporated the Golem into his works thus helping this Jewish myth to move into the general European culture.
1841: Birthdate of Edward Rosenwasser, the native of Bohemia, who gained fame as Edward Rosewater the Republican Party leader and editor of the Omaha (Nebraska) Bee. Rosewater played a minor role in one of the great moments of U.S. History – the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation. While serving as the telegrapher at the White House, he was the one who actually sent President Lincoln’s words out over the wires to the world.
1847: Birthdate of Lionel Jonas Cohen, oldest brother of famed musician Frederic Hymen Cowen.
1858: Birthdate of Joseph Krauskopf, the native of Prussia who came to the United States in 1872 and enrolled in the first class of Hebrew Union College in 1875.
1860: Punch reported that a dispute has broken out between two Jewish businessmen – Lazarus Simon Magnus and Henry Guedalla – over control over the Great Eastern Steamship Company. In one exchange of letters, Mr. Magnus challenged Mr. Guedalla to a duel.
1861: David Levy Yulee, the first Jew elected to the United States Senate withdrew from that body when Florida seceded and joined the Confederacy. Yulee, who married a Christian and raised his children in the faith of his wife, then joined the Confederate cause as a Senator.
1863:Union General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck wrote to Grant to explain the rescission of the order #11, stating that "The President has no objection to your expelling traitors and Jew peddlers, which, I suppose was the object of your order; but as it in terms proscribed an entire religious class, some of whom are fighting in our ranks, the President deemed it necessary to revoke it." Captain Philip Trounstine of the Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, being unable in good conscience to round up and expel his fellow Jews, resigned his army commission, saying he could "no longer bear the Taunts and malice of his fellow officers… brought on by … that order." The officials responsible for the United States government's most vicious anti-Jewish actions ever were never dismissed, admonished or, apparently, even officially criticized for the religious persecution they inflicted on innocent citizens.
1864: Birthdate of Israel Zangwill the noted Anglo-Jewish author and Zionist whose literary career in the United States was launched when he wrote “Children of the Ghetto.
1864: Apparently Jews were a significant part of the population of Utah since in a report from Great Salt Lake City, it was noted that “there are two subjects…which Jew and Gentile..consider of more than ordinary importance” when it comes to legislative action – bills concerning mining claims and general corporation.
1868: Birthdate of “German poet, writer and publicist” Ludwig Jacobowski.
1871: It was reported today that a popular Jewish peddler named Frank who sold to customers throughout Queens County, New York, has died of wounds inflicted by an unknown assailant who shot him while traveling to his home in Flushing. Since nothing has been found missing, authorities assume that the motive was not robbery but no suspects are in custody at this time.
1871: Establishment of Emanuel Jewish Cemetery in Des Moines , Iowa Woodland Cemetery Woodland and Harding, just northwest of downtown Des Moines .
1874(3rdof Shevat, 5634): Daniel Joseph Jaffe died in Nice, France. Jaffe had settled in Belfast in 1852 where he had become a successful businessman. He was the father of Otto and Martin Jaffe. Martin bought a plot Belfast’s City Cemetery for his father’s internment. This plot was the origin of the city’s Jewish Cemetery.
1877: The 25th annual meeting of the B’nai Brit of the United States began in Cincinnati, Ohio with 100 delegates in attendance.
1878:Birthdate of Simon Glazer, the native of Lithuania who served as the Rabbi for Congregation Bnai Israel in Des Moines, Iowa from 1902 to 1905 before moving on to congregations in Toledo, Montreal, Seattle, Kansas City and New York City. He passed away in 1938.
1882: The BILU Movement took root in Russia . The Russian students at the University of Khrakov
1883(13th of Shevat): Rabbi Eliezer Landau, author of Dammesek Eliezer passed away
1884: Birthdate of Roger Baldwin, the protégé of Louis Brandeis who was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union, an organization that has been of immeasurable importance to Jews over the decades.
1885: Rabbi David Levy presided at the marriage of J.S. Pinkussohn and Miss Ray Foot of Newberry, SC.
1887: Henry M. Stanley left London for Cairo as he prepared to lead “The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition.”
1887(25thof Tevet, 5647): Alfred Alvarez Newman, the London born founder of the Old English Smithy whose “collection of Jewish prints and tracts was exhibited at the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition and who fought to save the old Bevis Marks synagogue because of its historic significance passed away today.
1887: Birthdate of Wolfgang Kohler. “Kohler was the only non-Jewish psychologist who ever protested against Germany and the Nazis. He was not afraid to make his thoughts about them very public which could have cost him his life at a very early age. He was lucky that he was not thrown into a prison and killed off for the things he said about Germany and the Nazis”
1890(29th of Tevet, 5650):Rabbi Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler put on his tallit and t’fillin, aided by Joseph Vangelder, his faithful servant for twenty years. He said the Sh’ma with a clear and unhesitating voice and at 8.45 am breathed his last. Born in 1803, he was the Orthodox Chief Rabbi of the British Empire from 1845 until his death and one of the most prominent 19th century rabbi in the English-speaking world. (As reported by Rabbi Raymond Apple)
1891: It was reported that “there are not many Jews in the prisons or reformatories” of New York City. But based on the request from a board of local rabbis, a “salaried officer” will be hired to provide for the “spiritual care” the Jews that have been incarcerated.
1891: It was reported that “Abraham Tabber, Treasurer of a Hebrew Lodge and Cemetery Association in Elizabeth, NJ” has disappeared along with the funds in his care.
1891: It was reported today that Sarah Bernhardt and her company will be sailing from the French port of Havre for an upcoming performance in New York City.
1891: Louis May chaired a special meeting of the Board of Trustees of Temple Emanu-El where the death of Lazarus Rosenfeld, its vice president was announced. Rabbi Gustav Gottheil “was appointed as a special committee of one to draft suitable resolutions expressing the sentiment and sympathy of the board” which will “be published in the American Hebrew, the Jewish Messenger, The New York Times and The New York Herald.
1892: A large number of paintings by Thomas Hicks whose works include copies of two portraits of Jews by Rembrandt hanging in the National Gallery of London are scheduled to be auctioned off this evening at the American Art Galleries on Madison Square. (There were those who mistakenly thought that the great Dutch painter was Jewish)
1892: As the battle over immigration in the United States intensifies, certain unidentified labor leaders said today “that protests of workingman were directed not against the Jews, in particular, but against further immigration” by any group such as the Chinese “as being hurtful to the welfare of the working classes.”
1893: “German-American Reformers” which was published today described the activities of the German American Association, an organization that worked to re-elect President Grover Cleveland which included efforts to attract the support of Russian and Polish Jews. Translations of letters by Carl Schurz and Grover Cleveland that had been addressed to Jews were printed in Hebrew in a quantity of one hundred thousand. Additionally, the association sent Jewish, Russian and German speakers to New York’s east side to address the immigrant voters.
1894: Based on information that first appeared in The Westminster Gazette, it was reported today that Sydney Grundy’s new play, “The Old Jew” which opened at the Garrick Theatre in London “seems to be a failure and is “one of the author’s worst plays.
1894: “A Great Education Work” published today described the twice a week evening lecture series inaugurated by the Board of Education in 1889 as an invaluable resource for elevating the known of the working class, especially among recently arrived immigrant’s. When attendance began to fall, the program was placed under the control of Dr. Henry M. Leipziger , the “well known…lecturer, educator and Director of the Hebrew Technical Institute.” “Since then, under his able supervision, the courses of lectures have prospered marvelously in popularity.”
1894: It was reported today that Sarah Bernhardt will perform in New York for six weeks following a six week stint by Eleonora Duse.
1894: It was reported today that the Rothschilds are forming schools to provide primary technical education for Jews immigrating to Palestine.
1895: Solon P. Rothschild represented Annie Winterman on charges that she had defrauded two men who were patrons of her matrimonial bureau.
1896: Oscar S. Straus, the former United States Ambassador to Turkey, delivered a lecture on “Religious Liberty” at a meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1897: It was reported that Mr. and Mrs. Moses May led the grand march that opened the 14th annual ball sponsored by the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society. May, the society’s President, was fiiling in for May Wurster who had been originally expected to fill this role.
1898: Abraham Schlesinger is scheduled to be buried today at Cypress Hills following a funeral at his residence on East 53rd Street.
1896: It was reported today that Russian-American Hebrew Association adopted a resolution expressing support for the “patriots of Cuba” struggling to free themselves from “degrading…corrupt rule of the Spanish Government” while expressing “the opinion…that the United States…should not deviate from its policy of strict neutrality…but should take immediate steps to recognize the Cubans as a belligerent power.” (The Russian American Jews emotionally identified with the Cubans as another oppressed people but were savvy enough to know the dangers of expressing belligerency. All of this would be resolved two years later with the Spanish American War.)
1898: As ant-Semitic mobs continue to move through the streets of Paris, 500 angry students demonstrated in front of Emile Zola’s house.
1898: In Algiers, the troops have cleared the streets of anti-Jewish rioters and made 300 arrests in an attempt to restore law and order.
1899: Reports are published that Leopold de Rothschild was hurt when a branch hit his face, breaking his nose and injuring an eye, while the newly elected Member of Parliament was taking part in a hunt.
1899: Opel manufactured its first automobile. In 1931, General Motors acquired 100% ownership of the German automobile company.In 1998 General Motors hired historian Henry Ashby Turner, Jr. to investigate the wartime activities of Opel, its German subsidiary, which a group of Holocaust survivors was suing. His research led to the book General Motors and the Nazis: The Struggle for Control of Opel, Europe ’s Biggest Carmaker published in 2005. Mr. Turner concluded that although Opel had made the morally dubious decision to produce engines for the Luftwaffe in 1938, by the time the war began General Motors had lost control of the company and therefore had no say in its production of military vehicles or its use of slave labor.
1899(10thof Shevat, 5659): Seventy-one year old Sarah Joseph Ullman the wife of Solomon Ullmann passed away today in Plymouth, UK.
1901 :Legendary American humorist Mark Twain addressed members of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls at their Annual Meeting on the issue of female suffrage. Speaking to a packed audience at Temple Emanu-El, Hebrew Tech’s then-President Nathaniel Myers introduced Twain, starting the ceremony off with an update about the school’s ongoing expansion efforts and an explanation of its unique purpose as the single society in New York City offering a vocational education to Jewish girls. Explaining women’s role in society as vulnerable in comparison to men’s, President Myers declared the work of the school to be vital in a world where girls were too often forgotten. When Twain took center stage, he said that he had been an advocate of women’s rights for many years and that he saw in this school "a hope for the realization of a project [he had] always dreamed of.” Women, he felt, were equally competent to vote. He went on to say that women had been making great progress in their crusade against discriminatory laws, but that what was needed next was for women to be the makers and enforcers of laws. As he saw it, men’s corruption in party politics was a disgrace to democracy, but he said he believed that if women were given the ballot, they would use their strength to vote down unworthy candidates and restore the morals on which states are built. Optimistic about the movement’s progress, Twain insisted that if he lived long enough that he would surely see women receive their voting rights and use them to enact positive change.” (As reported by the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women)
1903: Harry Houdini escaped from the police station Halvemaansteeg in Amsterdam.
1903: Herzl traveled to Paris.
1904: Birthdate of Latvian Nazi collaborator who hid out in Mineola, NY for almost forty years after WW II who was “brought to Justice by Israeli historian, author and Director of the Public Policy Center at the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies” Zev Golan.
1907(6thof Shevat, 5667): Seventy six year old Italian linguist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli who in 1860 “was appointed professor of linguistics at the Accademia scientifico-letteraria in Milan and introduced the study of comparative philology, Romance studies, and Sanskrit” passed away today.
1908: Birthdate of Mordechai Surkis, the first mayor of Kfar Saba.
1910: The Angel Island Immigration Station opened today. Prior to the opening of the Immigration Station, immigrants landed directly in San Francisco. Jews immigrated through Angel Island primarily in two waves: in the 1920s from Russia to escape the Bolshevik revolution, and between 1938 and 1940, when German and Austrian Jews crossed Asia to flee the Nazis. In some ways, Angel Island was the Ellis Island of the West. But because of the politics and laws of its time, unlike Ellis Island, many immigrants were detained on Angel Island for weeks or months at a time, particularly Chinese and other Asian immigrants. According to Judy Yung, a retired professor at U.C. Santa Cruz and co-author of a new book about Angel Island’s history, Jewish immigrants had it better. The average stay for Russians and Jews on Angel Island was two to three days, and less than 2 percent were deported.“Overall, the Russian and Jewish experiences on Angel Island were very similar if not better than those of their counterparts on Ellis Island, where their rejection rate was almost twice as high,” she writes. “For the overwhelming majority who were coming to escape religious or political persecution, Angel Island was truly a gateway to the promised land of freedom and opportunity.” However, it wasn’t an easy gateway to pass through. Many immigrants — including Jews — were detained. In some instances, representatives from Jewish and Hebrew benevolent societies felt compelled to come to Angel Island to testify on behalf of Jewish detainees. In 1915, for example, one such representative spoke to immigration officials, telling them that “we always take steps to see that Jewish boys obtain work and do not become beggars.” After this, officials released eight Jewish detainees, according to Yung’s book. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society also stepped in to help, opening a Pacific Coast branch in San Francisco in May 1915 mainly to advocate for the increased number of Jews coming through Angel Island. In 1916, for example, when 17 Jews refused to eat the food served to them in the Angel Island dining hall during Passover, HIAS provided the immigrants with matzah and kosher-for-Passover food they could eat in their rooms. And in 1933, when a 54-year-old widower traveling with his two sons was detained on the island because officials thought he was “emaciated and frail looking,” HIAS offered a hand. HIAS helped round up $1,000 from other family members, and the father, who spent two months on Angel Island, was finally released. In another instance, a shoe-store owner from Vienna and his wife were held overnight because they were suspected of being an LPC, a “likely public charge,” meaning they would need government support to get by. They had come from Shanghai with just $22 to their name. But because they had the foresight to leave Germany with two fur coats worth over $2,000 — the Nazis allowed them to take goods but not money — they were able to convince the officials of their financial stability. “I was really struck by the resourcefulness of the Jewish immigrants,” Yung said during a phone interview.
1912: Birthdate of Konrad Bloch. The noted biochemist earned a Nobel Prize in 1964 for his studies of cholesterol
1912: “Y.M.H.A.” Dedicates Heinsheimer Annex” published today described the meeting of the National Young Men’s Hebrew Association where the Louis A. Heinsheimer Memorial Building which was a gift from Felix M. Warburg was dedicated along with the unveiling of a tablet memorializing the late Percival S. Menken “which has been placed at the west end of the swimming pool.
1913: At the request of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 156 women from 52 congregations around the country met in Cincinnati , Ohio U.S. , Canada , and twelve other countries by 1995. In recent decades, NFTS extended its earlier mandate beyond the domestic sphere to take a public role in such issues as civil rights, child labor legislation, capital punishment, and abortion rights. In 1993, NFTS was renamed Women of Reform Judaism, reflecting a desire to be seen not only as an auxiliary group, but as an organization that puts its members and their interests at the center of Reform Judaism.
1913: The annual meeting of the United States Chamber of Commerce opened in Washington, DC with S.S. Brill of St. Louis, MO in attendance as a delegate.
1914. Birthdate of Myer Samuel Kripke, the Toledo, Ohio native who served as the Rabbi of Beth El Synagogue in Omaha, Nebraska, and became friends with Warren Buffet.
1914(23rd of Tevet, 5674): Adolph Krakauer, a pioneer Texas merchant died of a heart attack today in El Paso. Born in Fürth, Bavaria, in 1846, this son of Joel and Babette (Elsasser) Krakauer was educated in the Latin schools and graduated from the Royal Commercial College of Fürth in 1862. He immigrated to New York in 1865 and was employed as a clerk there. In 1869 he moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he went to work for Louis Zork, a leading merchant. He married Zork's daughter Ada and became a member of the firm. Though he was presumably well established, he chose to move to El Paso in 1875, at a time when the town's population was listed as seventy-five Mexicans and twenty-five Anglos. There he clerked in the firm of Sam Schutz and Son and became manager when the business was sold; later he became a partner. In 1885 he sold his interest in the firm and organized the firm of Krakauer, Zork, and Moye with his brother-in-law, Gustave Zork. The company became a leading wholesale hardware dealer in the Southwest, with a branch in Chihuahua, Mexico. Krakauer also became president of Two Republic Life Insurance Company, the Krakauer-Zork Investment Company, and the Mountainside Realty Company and director of the First National Bank and the Rio Grande Valley Banking and Trust Company. He also owned extensive real estate in El Paso. He served as county commissioner and alderman and was elected mayor as a Republican after a bitter election campaign in 1889. He never assumed the office, for it was discovered he had not taken out his final citizenship papers. Krakauer was a leader in Jewish community activities and served as president of Temple Mount Sinai. He spoke fluent Spanish.
1915: As of today, the American Jewish Relief Committee for Suffers from the War has collected $320,097.36
1915: “Final arrangements were made today for the public hearing President will host on the Immigration Bill tomorrow in the East Room of the White House where the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and the Hebrew League of Boston will be among those speaking in opposition to the proposed legislation.
1915: In Chicago, at today’s final session of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Committee on General welfare “reported than 400,000 Jews are serving in the various armies of Europe.”
1916: In Paris, Jacques Henri Bloch and Suzanne Levi-Strauss gave birth to Denise Madeleine Bloch who worked as agent with the French Resistance and SOE before being captured and murdered by the Nazis at Ravensbruck.
1918(8th of Shevat, 5678): Sixty-four year old Emil Jellinke, the highly successful Austrian businessman who put the “Mercedes” in Mercedes Benz, passed away today.
1918:Following the lead of Reform Jewish sisterhoods, and at the behest of Solomon Schechter, Conservative synagogue sisterhoods joined together to form the National Women's League of the United Synagogue. The founding president of the League was Schechter's wife, Mathilde Roth Schechter. Mathilde Schechter, born in Silesia and educated in Breslau and London , had married Solomon Schechter in 1887 and came to the U.S. in 1902, when Solomon was appointed president of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York . The Women's League was just one in a line of significant projects for Mathilde Schechter. Before establishing the League, she had helped to establish a Jewish vocational school for girls on the Lower East Side of New York, and had helped to publish a hymn book called Kol Rina — Hebrew Hymnal for School and Home. The Women's League's mission was to promote traditional Judaism in homes, synagogues, and communities. In line with that goal, one early project was the establishment of a kosher boarding house for Jewish students in New York City . Other projects included publications providing guidance on domestic religious ritual as well as traditional recipes and music. In addition, the League became involved with social action from an early date, taking an especially active role in the Jewish Braille Institute. The League, now called the Women's League for Conservative Judaism, has grown from an original one hundred women in 26 sisterhoods to 150,000 members in 700 sisterhoods. As it has since the beginning, the League continues to be involved in public policy issues, including women's health, literacy, and foreign policy. Since 1972, the League has also helped to support sisterhoods in Masorti(Israeli Conservative) congregations.
1919:Submission of the Tentative Report of the Intelligence Section of the American Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference
1920: Having escaped from the clutches of the “Whites” in Odessa Sholom Schwartzbard arrived back in Paris today.
1921: King Constantine donates 10,000 Drachmae for the relief of Jewish sufferers of the fire in Salonica.
1921: Birthdate of Barney Clark. Clark was the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart, an operation that was performed at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky.
1923: Birthdate of Annemarie Dinah Gottliebova, the native of Brno, Czechoslovakia, who was shipped to Auschwitz with her mother where she bartered her services as a portrait painter for her life and her mother’s life. After the war, as Dina Babbit, she spent the past several decades trying to retrieve her paintings from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and State Museum (As reported by Bruce Weber)
1924(15thof Shevat, 5684): Tu B’Shvat
1924: Birthdate of comedian Benny Hill. “Roses are reddish, Violets are bluish If it weren't for Christmas, We’d all be Jewish.”
1924: Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin Russian leader died of a stroke at the age of 54. Lenin’s death brought a power struggle between Stalin and Trotsky to a boil. Stalin would triumph and anti-Semitism would become as much of a staple for the Commissars as it had been for the Czars.
1927: Two funeral services were held today for famed philanthropist Lee Kohns. Bishop Thomas F. Failer of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Tennessee conducted the first service at the family’s Manhattan home. Dr. Samuel Schulman of Temple Beth-El presided over the grave side service in Beth-El Cemetery at Cypress Hills.
1927: Bernard Baruch is among the members of a delegation representing the Board of Directors of City College’s Alumni Association that is attending today’s funeral of Lee Kohns who graduated in 1884.
1927: At 10:30 this morning, classes were halted for five minutes at City College in memory of Lee Kohns.
1927: The will of Lee Kohns was filed for probate this afternoon after having been read at his funeral. The estate is worth about $3,000,000. While the will the leaves generous bequests to charity, the bulk of the estate will go to his wife and their children.
1928: While serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill receives a request from Chaim Weizmann for a loan intended to assist the Jewish population in Palestine in a manner consistent the aims of the Mandate. The loan would gain the support of Lord Balfour but would be rejected by the Cabinet in a move that had a whiff of anti-Semitism.
1931 (3rd of Shevat, 5691): Composer and pianist Felix Blumenfeld passed away at the age of 67 in the Soviet Union . Born in 1863 Blumenfeld taught Vladimir Horowitz. Blumenfeld’s work wasRussia .
1931: Isaacs Isaacs, the first Jew to serve as Chief Justice of Australia completed his term of office. He was the third person to fill this position.
1933: Birthdate Itzhak Fuks, the Israeli El Al captain who would die when his plane crashed in Amsterdam 1992.
1934: The New York Times correspondent in Jerusalem suggests that “the division of Palestine into Jewish and Arab canton with each of these peoples living as a separate entity” would be “a solution to the Arab Jewish problem.” Based on reports from other sources, the Arab canton would include Jerusalem, Haifa and Jaffa while the Jewish canton would be limited to Tel Aviv, which virtually an all-Jewish city any way, and a narrow strip of land stretching from Betsian to Tiberias to the swamps around Lake Huleh.
1938: The Romanian government strips Romanian Jews of their citizenship.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that an Arab from Hebron , sentenced to death by the Military Court , confessed that he participated, 11 days earlier, in the murder of John Starkey, one of the most distinguished archaeologists working in Palestine .
1938, fifteen of the San Fernando Valley’s 100 Jewish families (15/100 = 15%) met in a private home and, to put together religious services and establish a Sunday school for kids and a social club for adults, founded the Valley Jewish Community Center
1941: Birthdate of Plácido Domingo the Spanish tenor “who spent three years” in Tel Aviv “in the early 1960’s…where “he learned the basic tenor repertoire before embarking on an international career.
1941: After observing a three-day anti-Semitic rampage in Bucharest by the SS-supported Iron guard in Romania, the Romanian Jewish writer Mihael Sebastian wrote, “The stunning thing about the Bucharest bloodbath is the quite bestial ferocity to its…the butchered Jews were hanged by the neck on hooks normally used for beef carcasses. A sheet of paper was stuck to each corpse with the notation “Kosher Meat.”
1941: In Rumania , the Iron Guard raided thousands of Jews, destroyed hundreds of shops, and looted or burned twenty five synagogues. In addition, 120 Jews were cruelly tortured and killed.
1941: Bulgaria enacted its first anti-Jewish measures.
1942: In the Vilna Ghetto, the Jews established the United Partisan Organization (Fareynigte Partizaner Organizatsye, FPO), the only organization in the ghettos that included all the Zionist youth movements.
1942: U.S. premiere of “Nazi Agent” an American spy film directed by Jules Dassin.
1943: In Warsaw , the Germans opened fire in the ghetto. Resistance was given by Jews seizing weapons and firing from rooftops with only 10 pistols. The Germans retreated after twelve were killed.
1943: “After seizing 5,000-6,500 ghetto residents to be deported, the Germans suspended further deportations.”
1943: Over the next four days, two thousand Jews fromCzechoslovakia , are deported to Auschwitz . Some 1760 are gassed on arrival, including patients from the Jewish mental hospital at Apeldoorn , Holland , as well as about 50 of the hospital's nurses who accompany the patients to lessen their terror.
1944: Birthdate of Professor Stefan Reif the distinguished academic from Edinburg who was the founding director of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit
1945: Ninety-six Hungarian Jews interned at Auschwitz and working at a quarry at Golleschau , Germany Zwittau , Germany
1945: Birthdate of Andrew Stein, President of the New York City Council.
1945: As Soviet troops approached, Arno Lustiger left Blechhammer, a subcamp of Auschwitz as part of the “death march” that was supposed to end at Gross-Rosen Concentration camp in Lower Silesa.
1948:Golda Meir's speech to the General Assembly of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds helped raise $50 million for the Haganah at a critical moment in Israel 's fight for independence.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported on the worsening security situation along the country's borders, especially the Jordanian-Israeli no-man's-land dividing Jerusalem . This security deterioration, infiltration and frequent robberies may have been directly influenced by an intensified anti-Israeli activity of the Arab states at the UN General Assembly. Jordan prevented any cement or building materials from being transported to the Israeli enclave on Mount Scopus Israel wished to fortify the enclave. The 9,000-ton British cruiser, HMS Kenya, steamed into Haifa Port
1954: Letters of administration were granted to Richard Samuel because his father Bernard Samuel, the former mayor of Philadelphia, passed away without leaving a will. The estate of the man who served as mayor from 1941 until 1952 is worth approximately $50,000.1954: The U.S.S. Nautilus, America ’s first nuclear powered submarine is launched at Groton , Conn.
1954: During a cabinet debate over Egypt ’s decision to bar ships going to Israel from using the Suez Canal , Foreign Minister Anthony Eden is able to make a case for the Arab state’s behavior.
1959 (12th of Shevat, 5719): Film pioneer Cecil B. DeMille passed away, His father was an Episcopalian. His mother, Matilda Beatrice Samuel, was the daughter of parents of “German Jewish heritage.” For most Jews he is the man who gave the world Moses in the guise of Charlton Heston.
1961: At the Ambassador Theatre in New York, after 102 performances, the curtain came down on “The 49th Cousin” featuring Marian Winters as “Tracy Lowe.”
1964(7th of Shevat, 5724): Austrian born American actor Joseph Schildkraut passes away at the age of 68. He won an Oscar in 1937 as Best Supporting Actor. Younger audiences may remember him as the father in “Diary of Anne Frank.”
1968: Simon & Garfunkel released the Original Soundtrack to “The Graduate,” which quickly went to #1 on the pop charts and which will bring Paul Simon a Grammy for Best Original Score.
1971(24th of Tevet, 5731): Polish born Jewish author Yuli Borisovich Margolin passed away at the age of 70. http://www.forward.com/articles/134265/
1971: Twenty one year old Annie Leibovitz’s photograph of John Lennon appeared on today’s issue of Rolling Stonemagazine.
1974(27th of Tevet, 5734): Lewis L Strauss passed away at the age of 78. Strauss was a Republican which was unusual at that time and he headed the US Atomic Energy Commission under President Eisenhower from 1953 until 1958.
1976: In France, premiere of “Assassination in Davos” film based “on the assassination of the Swiss Nazi Wilhelm Gustloff by David Frankfurter in 1936.”
1979: Final performance of “The Girl From Tel Aviv” starring Israeli singer Mary Soreanu took place at the Hotel Diplomat in New York. Surprisingly, this Israeli play is written Yiddish with only a few words of Hebrews. The show was written by Moshe Tamir, with music by Shaul Berzowski
1982: In one of those reminders of the prominent role Jews have played in the world of the Broadway musical a revival of “Little Me” a musical written by Neil Simon with music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh opened today at the Eugene O’Neil Theatre.
1983:TheBollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Anthony E Hecht.
1985: Ronald Reagan is publicly inaugurated for his second term as U.S. President. January 20 was a Sunday, so the public ceremony was delayed for twenty-four hours. During his second term Reagan awarded Elie Weisel with a Medal of Freedom. Much to the dismay of Weisel and other Jews, during his second term he also visited Bittberg Cemetery where SS Soldiers were buried. Last but not least, the Iran-Contra Affair which involved Israel in some rather strange arms deals took placed during Dutch’s second term.
1989(15thof Shevat, 5749: Tu B’Shevat
1990: Shimon Peres, the Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, arrived in Prague today on the first visit to Czechoslovakia by an Israeli minister since ties between the two countries were cut in 1967.
1991:Orders to stay home from work were canceled for the rest of Israel today, but not for Tel Aviv, which appears to be the main Iraqi target. Scud missiles came down here Friday and Saturday with miraculously little effect and no deaths thus far; one hit the only vacant lot for blocks, another an empty bomb shelter.
1991: Topol, who left his starring role as Tevye the milkman in the Broadway revival of "Fiddler on the Roof," to return to Israel explained the reasons for his decision today. “Speaking by telephone from his home in Tel Aviv, where his son and daughter were visiting, said: ‘I really felt I should be where my heart is, with my friends and family and all the people I grew up with. I hope I can contribute something to the Israeli morale.’"
1992: Yuval Ne’eman, a Likud MK, completed his terms as Minister of Science and Technology.
1992: Israeli physicist Yuval Ne’eman completed his term as Minister of Energy and Water Resources.
1992: William Caldwell Harrop, who was appointed to his post by President Bush, presented his credentials as U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1993: Mervyn Taylor completed his service as Minister for Labour.
1993: In Ireland, Mervyn Taylor began serving as Minister for Equality and Law Reform.
1994: The future of the New England Patriots was settled in New England's favor when Robert Kraft, a Jewish Boston businessman who bought the team's Foxboro Stadium six years ago, won a bidding war that included a nominally higher bid from a group that hoped to move the team to St. Louis.
1997: Steve Grossman began serving as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
1999 (4th of Shevat, 5759): Actress and author Susan Strasberg passed away at the age of 60.
2000:Maria Paasche, who helped Jews escape from Nazi Germany on the back of her motorcycle and whose father and brothers conspired to kill Hitler, died today in a San Francisco nursing home. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Black, White and JewishAutobiography of a Shifting Selfby Rebecca Walker.
2001: One day after leaving the White House, former President Bill Clinton said that Jack Quinn, a former chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore and a former counsel to President Clinton, had persuaded him to grant pardons to Marc Rich and Pincus Green, but he did not elaborate and he referred questions to Mr. Quinn. Mr. Quinn referred calls to Robert F. Fink, a partner in the Manhattan law firm Piper, Marbury, Rudnick & Wolfe who said he believed the president had been convinced that the criminal charges against the men had not been justified.
2002: As Arab violence continued the Associated Press reported that the governor of the West Bank town of Tulkarem, Izzedine Sharif, said today that about 100 tanks and armored personnel carriers took part in a raid on his town making it the largest raid on a Palestinian town in 16 months of fighting. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
2003:Today at Avery Fisher Hall, the New York Philharmonic played with its namesake from Israel for the first time in more than 20 years, and Lorin Maazel conducted Mahler's First Symphony, with the New York and Tel Aviv musicians sharing desks.
2003:Edward Gene "Ed" Rendell began his first term as Governor of Pennsylvania.
2004: David Appel, a prominent real estate developer with ties to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was indicted today. He is charged with having tried to bribe Mr. Sharon starting in the 1990’s when Sharon was the Foreign Minister. Specifically, the Israeli court indicted the real estate developer on charges of paying roughly $700,000 to Mr. Sharon's son, Gilad, in the hope of bribing Mr. Sharon.The indictment raises potentially serious legal and political issues for Mr. Sharon and prompted political opponents to call for his resignation.
2004(27thof Tevet, 5764): Eighty seven year old Hedi Stadlen an “Austrian Jewish philosopher, political activist, and musicologist who was one of the handful of European Radicals in Sri Lanka” passed away today.
2006:Hundreds of Venezuelan intellectuals expressed "shock and consternation" in a public condemnation of allegedly anti-Semitic remarks made recently by President Hugo Chavez. "These dangerous tendencies must be denounced and combated before our society loses its humanity," the group of 250 intellectuals, writers, artists, journalists and others said in a full-page letter published in the major Venezuelan daily El Nacional. Chavez in a Christmas Eve speech last month said: "The world has enough for all. But it turned out that some minorities, descendants of those who crucified Christ, descendants of those who threw Bolivar out of here and also crucified him in their own way in Santa Marta , there in Colombia, a minority took the world's riches for themselves
2007: The Sunday Washington Post book section opened with a review of Power, Faith And Fantasy:America in the Middle East , 1776 to the Present by Michael Oren. Oren is a prolific author who received a Ph.D. from Princeton . He served as Director of Inter-Religious Affairs under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and is currently a Senior Fellow at the Shalem Center Jerusalem . The Sunday edition of the Washington Post book section also featured “a conversation” with Norman Mailer discussing The Castle in The Forest, excerpts from the late Art Buchwald’s Too Soon To Say Goodbye, the last literary work of the humorist “dictated from his hospice chair” and the latest excerpt from the novel Jezebel’s Tomb by David Hilzenrath.
2007: The SundayNew York Times book section featured a review of Norman Mailer’s The Castle In The Forest“a remarkable novel about a young Adolph Hitler and his family.”
2007: The London Sunday Times book section featured a review of Rome & Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations by Martin Goodman in which the author asks “Was there anything intrinsic in Jewish and Roman society,” he asks, “that made it impossible for Jerusalem and Rome to coexist?”
2007: The Sunday edition of the Los Angeles Times featured reviews of Mailer’s The Castle in the Forest and Daniel Hurwitz’s Bohemian Los Angeles and the Making of Modern Politics.
2008: In Manhattan, screenings of “His Wife’s Lover” which was billed as the “first Jewish musical comedy talking picture,” staring popular stage comedian Ludwig Satz in his only screen performance and “Santa Fe” a film depicting the plight of exhausted Jewish immigrants desperate to begin a new life who arrive on a ship in New York harbor in 1940.
2008: As part of plans to celebrate the efforts of Sir Nicholas Winton to save Jewish children from Czechoslovakia at the outbreak of WW II, plans for the “Train Prague-London Project” were announced today.
2009(25th of Tevet, 5769):Charles Hirsh Schneer, a noted film producer who for a quarter-century helped the Oscar-winning special-effects wizard Ray Harryhausen lay waste to Washington, San Francisco, Rome and many other places, passed away today in Boca Raton, Florida at the age of 88.(As reported by Margalit Fox)
2009 The Jewish community will be represented in the Prayer Service at National Cathedralby Reform Rabbi David Saperstein, Conservative Rabbi Jerome Epstein and Orthodox Rabbi Haskel Lookstein of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in New York.
2010(6thof Shevat, 5770):Lawrence Garfinkel, an epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society who helped design landmark studies that linked smoking to lung cancer, died today in Seattle. He was 88. (As reported by Denise Grady)
2010: The 19th annual New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present the New York Premiere of “Human Failure,” a documentary directed by Michael Verhoeven “that reveals the expropriation and sale of Jewish assets that benefited innumerable citizens of the Third Reich.
2010: The 10th annual Atlanta Jewish Festival is scheduled to present a screening of “Ultimatum,”
“a tense melodrama adopted from Valérie Zenatti's 2006 novel” that “authentically recreates the eerie wartime mood that consumed Israeli society in January 1991.”
2010:Authorities say a misunderstanding about a Jewish prayer ritual led to the diversion of a US Airways flight to Philadelphia today. City police Lt. Frank Vanore said a 17-year-old boy on the plane was using tefillin. Tefillin is a set of small black boxes attached to leather straps and containing biblical passages. One box is strapped to the arm; the other box is placed on the head. Vanore said the crew on US Airways Flight 3079 questioned the teen, who explained the ritual. Still, the pilot decided to land in Philadelphia. The flight had left La Guardia airport in New York this morning bound for Louisville, Kentucky. It landed without incident in Philadelphia around 9 a.m. Vanore said the teen has been very cooperative with law enforcement.
2010: The Washington Post features a review of Koeslter: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic by Michael Scammel, a biography of Arthur Kosetler.
2011: At Bloomfield, Michigan, The Jewish Community Center is scheduled to host a concert performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
2011: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host a Tu B'Shevat Seder Dinner with Karina where attendees can celebrate the birthday of the trees while welcoming Shabbat.
2011: In Washington, DC, Theater J Middle East Festival is scheduled to present “Argentina Reading.” Argentina is a new work by Boaz Gaon in which “the Israeli daughter of a ‘disappeared’ Argentinean Jew visits the former Ambassador to Argentina hoping to discover what became of her father 20 years earlier during the junta’s rise to power.”
2011: Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was moved from the University Medical Center in Tucson to TIRR Memorial Hermann hospital in Houston, Texas where she can continue her rehabilitation following her nearly fatal shooting two weeks ago.
2011:The funeral for Sonia Peres is scheduled to be held on today at 11:00 am at the Ben Shemen Youth Village cemetery.
2012: “Daas” – a period drama that explore the influence Jacob Frank, the false messiah -- is scheduled to have its U.S. premiere at the New York Jewish Film Festival.
2012:Comedian Dave Goldstein is scheduled to appear at the Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival.
2012: “Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray” is scheduled to be shown at the Baton Rouge (LA) Film Festival and the Polo Grill and Bar/ The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee in Lakewood Ranch, FL.
2012: “Mahler on the Couch” is scheduled to be shown at the Las Vegas (NV) Jewish Film Festival.
2012: IAF aircraft struck a site in the southern Gaza Strip this morning, after three mortar shells were fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip.
2012: A soldier guarding a military post at the Susya settlement in south Mount Hebron fired warning shots in the air after a Jewish resident approached the post without identifying himself.
2012: This afternoon a Palestinian man stabbed a Border Guard officer near the Shufat Refugee Camp in north-east Jerusalem.
2013: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed former Communications and Welfare Minister Moshe Kahlon as the new chairman of the Israel Land Authority.
2013: On the eve of the elections in Israel, “Well-Meaning Idiots” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: Anthony Russell, Anthony Coleman, & Michael Winograd are scheduled to present a medley of Hebrew, Yiddish, Yemenite, and African-American songs in a Contemporary Jazz Setting at the JCC in Manhattan
2013: In what may seem like some kind of political symbiosis, President Obama takes the office of office publicly as Israel prepares to choose a new government.
2013:When Dan Margalit, the top commentator at the daily free sheet Israel Hayom, opened the newspaper this morning, he was likely surprised to see that the commentary he had written the night before did not appear in its usual spot on the front page. Nor did it appear on the second page or the third. In fact, he had to rifle through the paper quite a bit to find his commentary – on page 37. According to some reports, this was as a result of criticizing Prime Minister Netanyahu (As reported by Barak Ravid)
2013: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu dangled the prospect of cheaper housing in front of voters in one of his last press conferences before tomorrow’s election.
2014:The Lawrence Family JCC is scheduled to host “The Poetry of Hayyim Nahman Bialik” an evening in which “Gabriella Auspitz Labson will discuss selected poems by Israel's national poet, Hayyim Nahman Bialik. Eileen Wingard will play some melodies to which Bialik's poems have been set.”
2014: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is scheduled to “attend a joint meeting of the Israeli and Canadian governments before accompanying Prime Minister Netanyahu to Yad Vashem
2014: “The Women Pioneers” and “Before the Revolution” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.
2014: In an interview published in the New Yorker magazine, President Obama said that "The Palestinian-Israeli conflict as well as Arab anti-Semitism dog reconciliation between Arab nations and Israel, even in the face of a common threat from Iran.” (As reported by JTA)
2014: Isaac Herzog, the leader of the Labor Party said today that Prime Minister Netanyahu “appreciates the wisdom of making peace with the Palestinians” but does not have the “guts” to seal the deal.
2014: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which has close ties to Egypt’s Salafi movement, claimed that it was behind the rocket attacks that struck Eilat yesterday.
2015(1stof Shevat, 5775): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
2015: “The Battle of Algiers” and “Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.
2015: Yivo and the Museum of the City of New York are scheduled to present “Behind the Lens: New York Jews between the Wars.”
2015: “The Counterfeiters” which tells the story of Salomon “Sally” Sorowitsch” is scheduled to be shown at the Beth El Hebrew Congregation in Alexandria, VA.
2015: In Little Rock, Lubavitch of Arkansas led by Rabbi Pinchas Ciment is scheduled to offer “The Art of Parenting.”