February 6
337: Julius I began his papacy during which “he officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25thof December.”
http://www.whychristmas.com/customs/25th.shtml
1095: Henry IV of Germany who issued a charter to the Jews and a decree against forced baptism. He desired to protect the Jews even during the Crusades and granted favorable conditions wherever possible. He also permitted forcibly baptized Jews to return to Judaism. He did this partly because he viewed the Jews as valuable property. The Church criticized his actions.
1190: In England, the Jews of Norwich were massacred by a mob following a similar attack in Lynn.
1283: In England, a Justice of the Jews named Hamo Hauteyn, set up a commission to investigate charges against Jews accused of selling plate made of clippings or silvered tinplate to foreign merchants.
1298: King Jaime II had a Jewish man's property confiscated. Moses Avencurel of Elche was punished for taking part in an anti-royalist rebellion.
1413: The first sitting of a “disputation” in which the Jews must listen to the Treatise of Geronimo De Santa, a convert to Christianity, contend that the Talmud recognized Jesus as the Messiah. This disputation was ordered by Pope Benedict XIII and would last until November, 1414 with a total of 68 sittings.
1481: Several affluent men of the community in Seville, led by Diego de Susan, plotted to strike back at the Inquisitors. He stated to his co-religionists: "Are we not the principal men of this city in standing, and the best esteemed of the people? Let us assemble troops; and if they come to take us, let us start an uprising with the troops and the people; and so we will kill them and avenge ourselves on our enemies!"
1508: Maximilian I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. In the first decade of his reign, Maximilian would put an end to the attempts by some German nobles to banish the Jews from their realms. Maximilian did this, not so much because he loved Jews, but because he saw these attempts at banishment as an encroachment on his imperial authority. Wherever they lived in the empire, the Jews were the subjects of the emperor and not of any local lord. Therefore only he could banish Jews. Maximilian feared that if he gave way on his control over the Jews, who knew what power the nobles might try and take from him next.
1521: Suleiman the Magnificent, whose reign was one of the highpoints for Jews living in the domains of the Ottomans, led his army west with the intention of conquering Hungary.
1640(13th of Shevat): Rabbi Israel Samuel Kalihari, author Yismah Yistrael passed away
1647(1st of Adar): Rabbi Azariah Figo (Picho) author of Giddulei ha-Terumah passed away
1649: King Charles II of England and Scotland was declared King of Great Britain by the Parliament of Scotland. While on the throne, Charles showed his support for the Jews. In 1660, when Thomas Violet introduced a petition to have the Jews expelled again from Great Britain, a “Royal message” was sent “Parliament them to take the protection of the Jews into consideration.” Violet’s petition was rejected.
(The Great Trappaner of England': Thomas Violet, Jews and crypto-Jews during the English Revolution and at the Restoration by Ariel Hessayon)
1664: Birthdate of Sultan Mustafa II. During his reign Ottoman forces conquered Belgrade again in 1690 and Jews were allowed to return to the city.
1685: James II of England and VII of Scotland becomes King upon the death of his brother Charles II. For once, a change in monarchs turned out to be a “win-win” situation for the Jewish people. While still in the Netherlands, prior to regaining the throne, the Anglican “Charles had assured Amsterdam Jews that their coreligionists had no reason to fear his reemergence in England.” How much of this was promise was due to personal beliefs and how much was the product of the substantial financial support the soon to be crowned monarch received from Dutch Jews is immaterial. The fact is, he kept his word. A group of London merchants who wanted to limit their competition petitioned the king to keep the Jews out of the country to protect the religion and welfare of his subjects. “The targeted Jews” sought the King’s protection which he granted. In 1673, 13 years after Charles II’s coronation, “a grand jury…responded to anti-Semitic rabble rousing by indicting Jewish communal leaders for worshipping in public. When Jews threatened to leave England rather than endure loss of religious freedom, Charles had an order in council issued to halt the legal proceedings. And to make sure it did not happen again, King Charles gave orders “not to cause any more anxieties to Jews.” During the first year of his reign King James II put an end to the custom of requiring the Jews to pay “the mandatory tax imposed on those who failed to attend the established church.” The King declared that he did not want the Jews to be troubled about this ever again and only wanted them be able to “quietly enjoy the free exercise of their religion.” What makes this all the more remarkable is that it took place against a backdrop of religious wars fought between English Catholics, Anglicans and Protestants. While the Jews became victims of the religious wars on the Continent, in England they were able to survive and thrive. This may account for the affection which Jews came to hold England and its later iteration as Great Britain.
1693: Royal charter granted College of William & Mary, at Williamsburg VA. Currently the most famous alumnus of this storied academic institution is Jon Stewart, award winning host of “The Daly Show” and featured speaker at the William and Mary’s commencement ceremonies in 2004.
1756: Birthdate of Aaron Burr, Jr. one of America’s less distinguished “founding fathers.” Burr’s greatest claim to fame is his participation in a duel with Alexander Hamilton, whose mother was Jewish. Burr also played a role in the career of Sampson who was one of the founders “Jews Hospital” which became Mt. Sinai. Born at Danbury, CN, he studied under Burr who was a New York lawyer before he went to become one of New York City’s first Jewish lawyers.
1756: In response to King George II”s order that today be observed as a period fasting and penitence Isaac Nieto, the Cha-Cham of Sha'ar ha-Shamayim, the Spanish and Portuguese congregation also known as Bevis Marks Synagogue preached a “Sermon Moral” that was “published in Spanish and English in London, 1756.” The English monarch proclamation was probably issued in connection with the Seven Year’s War. The positive response of the kingdom’s Jewish community was an indication of how quickly it had become a part of the UK’s social and political environment.
1767: In Berlin, Deiche Aaron and bank broker Anschell Jaffe gave birth to Saul ben Anschel Jaffe, “a prolific writer whose work can be divided into three different areas: author, translator, editor/publisher.”
1776: Solomon Isaac, a Jew living in Philadelphia, enlisted as private in the Sixth Pennsylvania Battalion, part of the Rebel forces fighting the British.
1778: In Paris the United States and France signed treaties of alliance that, among other thing, provided French aid for the fledgling republic. This helped to guarantee the success of the American Revolution which helped to create the site for the most prominent Jewish community in the diaspora. The aid would also helped bring financial ruin to France. This financial ruin was a catalyst for the French Revolution which had a major impact of Jews throughout Europel
1788: Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution. Solomon Franco a Sephardic Jew was reportedly the first Jew to come to Massachusetts. He settled in Boston in 1649. Judah Monis, a descendant of conversos is the next person of Jewish lineage connected with Bay State to appear on the scene. He filled the chair of Hebrew in Harvard College from 1722 until his death in 1764. When and why Monis became identified as a Christian is a bit cloudy. Could he be the first example of a Jew who swam through the baptismal font to secure a position in American academia? The first significant Jewish settlers made their homes in “Massachusetts when the Revolutionary War drove the Jews from Newport. In 1777 Aaron Lopez and Jacob Rivera, with fifty-nine others, went from Newport to Leicester, and established themselves there; but this settlement did not survive the close of the war. A number of Jews, including the Hays family, settled at Boston before 1800. Of these Moses Michael Hays was the most important. In 1830 a number of Algerian Jews went to Boston, but they soon disappeared. The history of the present community begins with the year 1840, when the first congregation was established.”
1799(1st of Adar I, 5559): Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1801: Birthdate of Salomon Herxheimer, the of Dotzheim in Wiesbaden who became the Chief Rabbi of Anhalf-Bernburg.
1804: Seventy-year old Joseph Priestly the English theologian and chemist who in 1786 published his Letters to the Jews in which he urged them to convert which led David Levi to respond with his three-volume Dissertation on the Prophecies of the Old Testamentpassed away today.
1818: One of two birthdates for Germain Sée the French physician from Ribeauvillé
1822(15th of Shevat, 5582): Tu B’Shevat
1838: Birthdate of Sir Henry Irving, the English actor who gained fame for his portrayal of Mathias in “The Bells,” a version of Erckmann-Chatrian's Le Juif polonais by Leopold Lewis, a property which Irving had found for himself.
1838: Birthdate of Yisrael Meir Kagan also known as the Chofetz Chaim. He passed away in September of 1933.
1839: Birthdate of Ferdinand Forzinetti, one of the first French officers to come to the conclusion that Captain Dreyfus was innocent.
1839:Moshe Yehoshua Yehuda Leib Jusha Diskin and Sara Sonia Diskin gave birth to Yitzhak Yeruham Diskin
1840: Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the document making New Zealand a British colony. By this time, there were at least 30 Jews living in the area. David Nathan is credited with founding the first Jewish community at Aukland, in the same year that New Zealand became a colony.
1840: In Hanover, German banker Adolph Meyer and his wife gave birth to banker Sigmund Meyer the grandson of banker Simon Meyer.
1841(15th of Shevat, 5601): Tu B’Shevat
1845: In Ottenberg, Germany, Lazarus Strauss and his second wife Sara gave birth to Isidor Strauss, the first of their five children who would become co-owner of Macy’s and die when the Titanic sank.
1849: In Worms, Germany wedding of Abraham and Clara Kuhn.
1849: In Worms, Wilhelmine "Mindel" Freudenberg and Nathan Blun gave birth to Rosalie Ida Blun who gained fame as Ida Straus, the wife of Isidor Straus, the co-owner of Macy’s.
1855: It wasreported today that "two German Jews" were arrested and charged with "stealing two pieces of black silk with a value of $131.00 from the Importing House of Henry E. Leyrain in New York City. According to the charge, one of the men would appear to be pricing an item while the other would be hiding an item in his coat. After appearing before a judge at the Tombs, the two were bound over for trial. [How the Times discovered their religion is one question. Why the two are identified by their religion is another question since such practice was not common with those belong to other religious groups.]
1870: In Brixton, a suburb of London, James Yalden and his wife gave birth to James Ernest Grant Yalden who became head “of a special new school to prepare Jewish immigrants for jobs” in American which was the brainchild, and supported by, the trustee of the Baron de Hirsch fund in America.”
1872:Benjamin Franklin Peixotto, the U.S. Counsel at Bucharest wrote to the Secretary of State that reports describing the attacks the Jews had suffered in several towns in Bessarabia and Romania as a result of which hundreds of Jews had fled across the Danube to seek refuge in Turkey.
1872: Birthdate of German-born author Theodor Lessing. After the Nazis came to power, Lessing fled to Czechoslovakia where he was murdered in broad day light by Nazi supporters.
1873: The Hebrew Charity Ball took place this evening at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, PA.
1874(19thof Shevat, 5634): Fifty-five year old Mayer Amschel de Rothschild the fourth and youngest son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild who was named for his grandfather, the patriarch of the Rothschild family and whose only daughter Hannah became the Countess of Rosebery, the wife of the Earl of Rosebery, the Prime Minister in the 1890’s and one of the wealthiest women in Europe, passed away today.
1875(1stof Adar I, 5635): Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1876: It was reported today that Rabbi Brown addressed the Indianapolis (Indiana) Young Men’s Christian Association on the subject of the “Harmony of all creeds on the Principle of Love.”
1876: It was reported today that the Purim Association will host a ball at Delmonico’s on March 7. The association expects a larger crowd than in the past due to its recent decision to increase its membership.
1876: According to reports published today, the Jews of New York are planning on issuing a call for a national meeting to discuss plans for creating a college designed to teach the Hebrew language and literature and to establish a system of Jewish education.
1879: It was reported on Zebulon Baird Vance’s last day as Governor of North Carolina that he has pardoned the only Jewish person imprisoned in the state’s penitentiary. This unnamed Jew had been sentenced to serve 10 years for manslaughter. Of the pardon, Vance wrote that he took pleasure in issuing the pardon as recognitions of the good and law abiding character of the state’s Jewish citizens. According to Vance, this episode was “the first serious case ever brought to my notice on the part of any of that people.”
1880: It was reported today that Isaac Adolphe Cremieux, the Jewish-French, political leader is seriously ill. He currently is serving as a “life Senator.”
1881: In Edinburg, Scotland, Professor Robertson Smith delivered a lecture on the “Spirit of Hebrew Poetry.” He believes that the “Canticles’ (another name for the Song of Songs” is simply a love poem and that the Book of Job was written after the Exile and should not be viewed as historical literature.
1883(29thof Shevat, 5643): Raphael Jonathan Bischoffsheim passed away. Born at Mayence in 1808, he gained fame as a Belgian financier and philanthropist (As reported by Singer, Bloch & Weill)
1887: Birthdate of Ernest Henry Gruening, the Senator from Alaska who joined in Wayne Morse in being the only two to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
1888 (24th of Shevat, 5648):Rebbetzin Menuchah Rachel Slonim, daughter of Rabbi DovBer of Lubavitch and granddaughter of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, passed away. She was born on Kislev 19, 5559 (1798 on the secular calendar) -- the very day on which her illustrious grandfather was freed from his imprisonment in the Peter-Paul Fortress in Petersburg; she was thus named "Menuchah", meaning "tranquility" (Rachel was the name of a daughter of Rabbi Schneur Zalman who died in her youth). The Rebbetzin's lifelong desire to live in the Holy Land was realized in 1845, when she and her husband, Rabbi Yaakov Culi Slonim, who passed away in 1857,led a contingent of Chassidim who settled in Hebron. Famed for her wisdom, piety and erudition, she served as the matriarch of the Chassidic community in Hebron until her passing in her 90th year in 1888.
1890: The Hofburgtheater produces Herzl's comedy "Die Dame in Schwarz" - "The Lady in Black". The play is condemned as hokum by the critics.
1891: Herzl's best friend, Heinrich Kana, commits suicide in Berlin. After Herzl receives the message, he sets out for a three week journey to Italy and South France.
1893: Following today’s scheduled performance of “Lady Windermere’s Fan” produced by Charles Frohman at Palmer’s Theatre, the cast of the production will sent on the road “under Frohman’s personal management.
1893: It was reported today that of 1,100 inmates at the workhouse on Blackwell’s Island, 5 of them are Jews. Of the 800 prisoners in the Kings County Penitentiary, 7 are Jews. In the whole state of New York, which has the largest Jewish population of any state in the United States, fewer than 350 of those in prison are Jews.
1893: It was reported today that “with a view to promoting the organization of a society to be called the Jewish Aid Association for the Relief of the Unfortunate, the Jewish Ministers’ Association has published a sketch of the work of its prison chaplain Rabbi Adolph M. Radin.”
1893: Samuel J. Cohn, who had been a successful lace merchant, was still being held today on charges that he had collected over $500 by posing as an agent of the United Hebrew Charities.
1893: It was reported today that the Central Labor Federation has “received a letter from the International Typographical Union asking why the Federation had protested against the issuance of a charter to the Hebrew Typographical Union.”
1893: “Central Labor Union” published today described allegations by that body that the United Hebrew Charities has used money from the Baron Hirsch Fund “to import thousands of poor and persecuted Hebrews, who in turn underbid American workmen in the labor.” (For those not acquainted with the immigration and labor battles of the 19th and 20thcenturies, this is the double whammy – “The Jews” are using their money to take jobs from American workers and give them to foreigners.)
1894: Among those charities that benefited from today’s distribution of the theatrical and concert license moneys were: Montefiore Home, $500; Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews, $350; Beth Israel Hospital.
1894: Sixty-four year old Prussian born Austrian surgeon Theodor Billroth who in 1876 triggered a “storm at Austrian universities with his “criticism of what he considered the disproportionately large share of Jewish medical students from Hungary and Galicia” and his strongly stated belief that Jews could never be real Germans passed away today.
1897(4thof Adar, 5657): Fifty-eight year old Morris Goodhart, a prominent New York lawyer, passed away today. Born in Amsterdam in 1838, he came to the United States in 1846 and graduated from Yale Law School in 1867. In 1869, he married the daughter of Philip J. Joachimsen, a prominent jurists and leader of the New York Jewish community.
1897: A significant number of Jewish men and women attended a meeting at the New York Presbyterian-Hebrew Church Mission on Forsyth Street where they expected to proposals about how to deal with the poor living on the East Side. Many of the Jewish attendees were unemployed tailors who were suffering do to the economic downturn.
1899: The Hebrew Fair which will feature a speech by author Israel Zangwill is scheduled tonight at the Tuxedo in New York City.
1899: The U.S. Senate ratified the peace treaty ending the Spanish-American War. There were fifteen Jewish crewmen aboard the battleship Maine when she blew up in 1898 in Havana harbor. This was the “cause” of the war. Approximately 5,000 Jews served in the war. In 1898 there were reportedly four thousand requests for furloughs at the time of the High Holidays. The first trooper in the famed Rough Riders was Jewish.
1900(7thof Adar I, 5660): Elijah Benamozegh, who “served for half a century as rabbi of the important Jewish community of Livorno, where the Piazza Benamozegh now commemorates his name and distinction and whose major work is Israel and Humanity passed away today.
1901: Herzl travels to London and tries to win Rothschild for his plan. Despite the efforts of British Zionists, Rothschild refuses to receive him.
1902: Birthdate of famed attorney and author Louis Nizer
1902: Young Women's Hebrew Association was organized in New York City. According to the Jewish Women’s Archive, “Bella Epstein Unterberg held a meeting in her New York City home to discuss the founding of the first Young Women's Hebrew Association. At the meeting, at which she was unanimously elected president of the new association, a decision was made to establish a sister organization to the YMHA, a community center dedicated to the uplift—both social and spiritual—of young Jewish women.”
1909: Birthdate of Russian-born American composer Israel Citkowitz. Citkowitz had an impact on the careers of Aaron Copeland and Elmer Bernstein.
1914 (10th of Shevat, 5674):Rebbetzin Rivkah Schneerson passed away. She was born in Lubavitch in 1833; her maternal grandfather was Rabbi DovBer, the 2nd Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch. In 1849 she married her first cousin, Rabbi Shmuel, who later became the fourth Lubavitcher Rebbe. For many years Rebbetzin Rivkah, who survived her husband by 33 years, was the esteemed matriarch of Lubavitch, and Chassidim frequented her home to listen to her accounts of the early years of Lubavitch. She is the source of many of the stories recorded in the talks, letters and memoirs of her grandson, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe). The Beth Rivkah network of girls' schools, founded by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak in the 1940's, is named after her.
1917: The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) was founded today “by Jacob Landau as the Jewish Correspondence Bureau with the mandate of collecting and disseminating news among and affecting the Jewish communities of the Diaspora.”
1917(14thof Shevat, 5677): Seventy-seven year old German physiologist Julius Bernstein, the son of Aron Bernstein, a founder of the Reform Congregation in Berlin and the father of mathematician Felix Bernstein.
1917: Edouard A. Drumont, French anti-Semitic journalist, dies at 72. His book La France Juive (Jewish France) attacked the role of Jews in France and argued for their exclusion from society. His newspaper “La Libre Parole,” played a leading role in whipping up anti-Semitic passions during the Dreyfus Affair.
1918: Austrian painter Gustav Klimt passed away. Klimt was not Jewish but many of his patrons were. Born in 1862, by 1898, Klimt had “managed to become the portraitist of the Jewish haute bourgeoisie in Vienna who, since the Jews had reached legal equality in 1867, had become a thriving force in commerce, finance, industry and art. Klimt's patrons were financiers, industrials and other members of the liberal (in the European sense) haute bourgeoisie. Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer (see Klimt's portrait of his wife below) was dominating the Austrian-Czech sugar industry. Karl Wittgenstein, another of his patrons, was often referred to as the "Austrian Krupp" and the creator of the steel cartel. August Lederer was the leading figure in the alcohol business in Central Europe. In the 1920s, he was considered ‘the richest man in Austria after Rothschild’". Several of the works Klimt painted for his Jewish patrons were seized by the Nazis. The recovery of these art works became a part of lengthy, difficult litigation in the post-War years.
1920: Birthdate of Congressman James Scheuer who represented New York in the House of Representatives from 1965 to 1993.
1920: Birthdate of Tidor Rudas, the native of Budapest who survived Bergen-Belsen and who “was the impresario who brought Luciano Pavarotti out of the opera house and into the arena.”
1921: "The Kid", starring Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan was released. (Coogan was not Jewish.)
1922: Birthdate of Academy Award winner, Chicago native, Haskell Wexler, one of the ten most influential cinematographers of the 20th century.
1923: Birthdate of Judge Harold H. Greene.
1926: Birthdate of Rashi Fein, the health economist referred to as “a father of Medicare” who was the brother of Leonard J. Fein, the editor of Moment magazine.
1927: The Atlanta Journal reproduced the receipt of Major Rafael Jacob Moses (CSA) from 1865 for $40,000 of bullion which he was supposed to get to the remnants of the Confederate Army to pay for food and munitions.
1933: Time magazine published “Hitler Into Chancellor” an article that provides a contemporaneous account of the German leaders rise to power and plans for the immediate future.
1934: In France, Jewish political leader Leon Blum, chairman of the Socialist Party, promised to stand with Premier-designate Daladier as right wing paramilitary gangs battered at the doors of the Chamber of Deputies. This attempt to impose a fascist regime on France came before Vichy but explains why so many Jews were so quickly shipped to Drancy, the doorway to Auschwitz.
1934: Following tonight’s right-wing anti-government riots historian Daniel Halévy “publicly declared that he “was now ‘a man of the extreme right’” which despite his Jewish origins would lead him to support the Vichy anti-Semitic pro-Nazi Vichy regime.
1935: Birthdate of New Jersey political leaders Loretta Weinberg has served as a member of the New Jersey Senate from the 37th Legislative District and was an unsuccessful candidate for Lt. Governor in 2009
1936: In Washington, DC, Nehemiah Cohen and Samuel Lehrman opened the first Giant supermarket on Georgia Avenue and Park Road, NW. Giant would grow to become a major supermarket chain in the Washington metropolitan area. In the 1950’s, Giant would be the first grocery chain in Washington sell challah in its in-store bakery.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that Ezekiel Altman, 22, a Jewish supernumerary constable, was found guilty of firing at an Arab truck on December 27, 19 37
1938: The Palestine Post reported that in Tel Aviv, High Commissioner Sir Arthur Wauchope inaugurated the first automatic telephone exchange. Romania started the expropriation of Jewish private land properties in Bukovina.
1942: Birthdate of Dr. James W. Lowen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong in which he wrote that the prosecution of Robert Goldstein a Jewish Germnan-American who produced “The Spirit of ‘76” “was consistent with Woodrow Wilson's targeting anyone suspecting of holding anti-British views, which the president claimed gave aid to Germany” which the movie did not.
1943: Upon arriving in “liberated” Algiers, Churchill discovered that the Vichy laws restricting the rights of the Jews of Algeria were still in force and insisted that they be repealed at once.
1943: Himmler received a report on the quantity of garments collected from Birkenau. The list included: 97,000 sets of men's clothing, 76,000 sets of women's clothing, 132,000 men's shirts, 155,000 women's coats and 3,000 kilograms of women's hair. The hair filled an entire railroad car. Children's items included 15,000 overcoats, 11,000 boys' jackets, 9,000 dresses and 22,000 pairs of shoes. The clothing filled 825 freight cars. Included in this inventory was also close to a half of million in American currency and $116,420 dollars in gold.
1943: Fifteen trains of deportees reached Birkenau from Holland, Drancy (Paris) and from Berlin. Five thousand on board were gassed.
1943: Rutka Laskier, a fourteen year old living in Bedzin, Poland writes in her diary: “Something has broken in Me. When I pass by a German, everything shrinks in me. I don't know whether it is out of fear or hatred. I would like to torture them, their women and children, who set their doggies on us, to beat and strangle them vigorously, more and more. When will this day arrive which Nica talked about ... that's one matter. And now another matter. I think my womanhood has awoken in me. That means, yesterday when I was taking a bath and the water stroked my body, I longed for someone's hands to stroke me ... I didn't know what it was, I have never had such sensations until now ...I met Micka today. I don't know with what these "dubious" lovers attract her, to the point that she refuses to get into a quarrel with them. They are so dazzled by her and think that every boy should be in love with her. Of course, I ascribe this to Janek, but Janek finds her disgusting (I don't know why). I think Janek likes me very much. But it doesn't matter to me, either way. Today, I recalled in detail the day of Aug. 12, 1942. I'll try to describe that day so that in a few years, of course if I'm not deported, I'll be able to remember it. We got up at 4 o'clock in the morning. We had a great breakfast (considering it was wartime): eggs, salad, real butter, coffee with milk. When we were ... ready, it was already half past 5, and then we left. There were thousands of people on the road. Every once in a while we had to stop, in order to let the crowd in front of us proceed. At half past 6, we were in place. We managed to get quite good seats on a bench. We were in a pretty good mood until 9 o'clock . Then I looked beyond the fence and I saw soldiers with machine guns aimed at the square in case someone tried to escape (how could you possibly escape from here?). People fainted, children cried. In short--Judgment Day. People were thirsty, and there was not a single drop of water around ... Then ... it started pouring. The rain didn't stop. At 3 o'clock Kuczynsky arrived and the selection started. "1" meant returning home, "1a" meant going to labor, which was even worse than deportation, "2" meant going for further inspection, and "3" meant deportation, in other words, death. Then I saw what disaster meant. We reported for selection at 4 o'clock . Mom, Dad and my little brother were sent to group 1, and I was sent to 1a. I walked as if I were stunned ... The weirdest thing was that we didn't cry at all, AT ALL ... Later on, I saw many more disasters. I can't put it in words. Little children were lying on the wet grass, the storm raging above our heads. The policemen beat them ferociously and also shot them. I sat there until 1 o'clock at night. Then I ran away. My heart pounded. I jumped out of a window from the first floor of a small building, and nothing happened to me. Only my lips were bitten so bad that they bled ... When I was already on the street, I ran into someone "in uniform," and I felt that I couldn't take it anymore. My head was spinning. I was pretty sure he was going to beat me ... but apparently he was drunk and didn't see the "yellow star," and he let me go.
Around me it was dark like in a closed cabin. From time to time flashes of lightning lightened the sky ... and it thundered. The journey that normally takes me half an hour I did in 10 minutes. Everybody was at home except Grandma, whom Dad released and brought home the next day ...
Oh, I forgot the most important thing. I saw how a soldier tore a baby, who was only a few months old, out of its mother's hands and bashed his head against an electric pylon. The baby's brain splashed on the wood. The mother went crazy. I am writing this as if nothing has happened. As if I were in an army experienced in cruelty. But I'm young, I'm 14, and I haven't seen much in my life, and I'm already so indifferent. Now I am terrified when I see "uniforms." I'm turning into an animal waiting to die ...Now to everyday matters: Janek came by this afternoon. We had to sit in the kitchen ... I told him that I had given away all my photographs. He got very upset. We were joking around; we spoke about "Nica and the gang." While we were talking he suddenly blurted out he'd like it very much if he could kiss me. I said "maybe" and continued the conversation. He was a bit confused; he thought I was Tusia or Hala Zelinger. I would have allowed [myself] to be kissed only by the person I loved, and I feel indifferent towards him. Then Dad sent me to deal with something. I had to leave. Janek accompanied me. While going downstairs I asked him, is kissing such a pleasant thing? And then I told him that I had already kissed before, what a taste it has (that's completely true). He burst out laughing. (He has a nice laugh, I must admit.) He said he was curious too. Maybe, but I won't let him kiss me. I'm afraid it would destroy something beautiful, pure ... I'm also afraid that I'll be very disappointed.” For more about a young Jewess who has been compared to Anne Frank, another diary writer see:
1944: Birthdate of actor Michael Tucker. Born in Baltimore, Maryland he is best known for his role as the nebbish tax attorney, Stuart Markowitz on the television series, “LA Law.”
1944(12th of Shevat 5704): Phillip Max Raskin, editor of TheAnthology of Modern Jewish Poetry and author of New Songs of a Jew died
1946: Two Jews who were plowing a field near Ramle were wounded by an unknown number of attacking Arabs.
1946: After one of their men had been killed tonight during an attack on the headquarters of an East African soldiers' camp just south of Jaffa-Tel Aviv, British soldiers stormed into the near-by Jewish community of Holon and began firing at “anything that moved.” Apparently the soldiers were not content to fire their weapons since of the fatalities was a 15 year old boy who had been stabbed to death.
1946 (5th of Adar I, 5706): Fifty-year old Ben Zion Shenkar, the director of a knitting mill and the vice chairman of the Community Council in Cholon was murdered by ramapaging British troops who shot up the town after an attack on their headquarters. There are no records of anybody being held accountable for his death.
1947: Birthdate of Daniel Yergin, the Los Angeles born author, economist and co-founder of Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel told Britain and the US that Jordan was entirely responsible for the current border unrest. The Mixed Israeli-Jordanian Armistice Commission censured Jordan for mining Israeli railway line near Kalkilya.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel had contributed to "Watershood 1953," the Dutch Welfare Fund for the victims of the recent terrifying floods which claimed over 1,300 dead in Holland.
1954: Birthdate of “Érik Izraelewicz[, a French journalist and author, specialised in economics and finance.”
1955: Birthdate of Avraham “Avram” Grant the Petah Tikva native who became a successful “football” manager. (In the U.S. this football is called soccer)
1956(24th of Shevat): Composer Joseph Rumshinsky passed away.
1967(26thof Shevat, 5727): Seventy-five year old Henry Morgenthau, Jr. who served as 52ndU.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1934 to 1945 passed away today.
http://www.jta.org/1967/02/08/archive/henry-morgenthau-jr-ex-secretary-of-treasury-dead-at-age-of-75
1972(21stof Shevat, 5732): Seventy one year old Gavriel Mullokandov regarded by some “as the greatest Bukharin Jewish singer and musician” passed away
1972: A ground breaking ceremony was held today in Reno for Temple Emanu-El's new building. The dedication ceremony would take place in March of 1973.
1975: U.S. premiere of “The Strongest Man in the World” co-starring Phil Silvers and featuring Harold Gould a “Regent Dietz.”
1980: In a letter-to-the editor published today, Zachary Saletan, President of Moriches Duck Farm, takes issue with derogatory comments made by Patricia Wells in an article published on December 19 entitled “So You Want to Buy a Duck” about ducks sold by Empire Poultry. Saletan contends that it was unfair to compare kosher ducks (Empire) with non-kosher fowl since the kosher birds have to slaughtered and dressed in conformity with the laws of Kashrut. This requires a process which would account for the different appearance, texture, etc of the final product. Saletan is doubly upset because Moriches supplies Empire with its ducks.
1983: The New York Times publishes“Hebrew Poetry In Its Israeli Phase,” Edward Hirsch’s review of The Static Element: Selected Poems of Natan Zach; translated by Peter Everwine and Shulamit Yasny-Starkman
1985(15thof Shevat, 5745): Tu B’Shevat
1985(15thof Shevat, 5745): Eighty-four year old Shelomo Dov Goitein, Jewish Arabist, historian and author of the 5-volume work A Mediterranean Society, passed away..
1988(18thof Shevat, 5748): Seventy-two year old Marghanita Laski, the author and critic who was part of distinguished family of Anglo-Jewish intellectuals passed away.
1989(1st of Adar I, 5749): Seventy-seven year old Pulitzer Prize winning historian Barbara Tuchman passed away (As reported by Eric Pace)
1990: The Egyptian authorities said today that the men they suspected of killing nine Israelis in a rifle and grenade attack on a tour bus near here on Sunday were Palestinians. That has come as no comfort to a dwindling minority of 40,000 Palestinians whose roots here, once firm, have weakened with time.
1990(11th of Shevat, 5750): Eighty-one year old attorney and Treasury Department Bernard Bernstein official passed away today.
1991: Today an Arab traveling on a bus got up and attacked a soldier with a knife.
1994(25th of Shevat, 5754): Seventy six year old Jacob Kurtzberg, the son of Austrian immigrants who gained famed as Jack Kirbypassed away. He was one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in American comic books, and the co-creator of such enduring characters and popular culture icons as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America, and hundreds of others stretching back to the earliest days of the medium. He was also a comic book writer and editor. His most common nickname is "The King."
1997(29thof Shevat, 5757): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Ezer Weizman attended funerals and visited grieving families while thousands of Israelis went to pray at the Western Wall and assemblies were held at schools nationwide as Israel observed a national day of mourning for the 73 Israeli soldiers who died on February 4 when two Sikorsky helicopters collided.
1998: U. S. premiere of “Blues Brothers 2000” directed by John Landis with music by Paul Shaffer.
2000: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Trouble With Principleby Stanley Fish and a newly published paperback edition of Kaddish by Leon Wieseltier
2001: Ariel Sharon was elected Israeli prime minister in a landslide over Ehud Barak.
2002(24th of Shevat, 5762): Max Perutz, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1962, passed away.
2003(4thof Adar I, 5763): Eighty-seven year old journalist Herb Brit passed away today.
2004: “Focus on the Soul: The Photographs of Lotte Jacobi” opened at the Jewish Museum.
2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Unholy Alliance Radical Islam and the American Left” by David Horowitz
2005: The New York Times reported that two sisters who were separated in Budapest in 1944 were re-united. Unbeknownst to each other, they had made their separate ways to Israel in 1948 and had been living 45 miles from each other.
2005: Robert Kraft, the Jewish owner of the New England Patriots, received the Vince Lombardi Trophy, as his team won their third super bowl in four years.
2005 (27th of Shevat, 5765): Russian born pianist Lazar Berman passed away at age 75 in Florence, Italy.
2005 (27th of Shevat, 5765): Karl Haas, award winning host of the radio show “Adventures in Good Music” passed away.
2006: Ezekiel Isaac Malekar, the head of the Jewish community in New Delhi who “is the Honorary Secretary of the Judah Hyam Syagogue, “was a key participant in the 15thInternational Conference on Human Integration which took place at Kirpal Bagh.” He was “a recipient of the Mahavir mahatma Award for preserving Jewish heritage and culture in India.”
2006: In one of the largest restitutions ever of art seized by the Nazis, the Dutch government announced that it would return more than 200 old-master paintings to the heir of Jacques Goudstikker, a wealthy Dutch Jewish dealer and collector who fled Amsterdam ahead of advancing German troops in May 1940.
2006: British Jewry was stunned and outraged over a surprise decision by the Anglican Church's General Synod to divest from companies whose products are used by Israel in the territories. The synod backed a call by the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem to divest from "companies profiting from the illegal occupation," such as Caterpillar, which makes bulldozers that Israel is using to build the separation fence. Several Protestant churches in the United States have adopted similar resolutions over the past two
2007: Nine Star Hotel, winner of the 2006 Wologin Award for Israeli Cinema at the Jerusalem Film Festival will begin being screened in movie theatres in several Israeli cities
2007: In Cedar Rapids, Harold Becker, Chairman of Guaranty Bank and Trust Company and pillar of the Jewish Community, was surprised with a reception celebrating his 85th birthday and marking his 35 year tenure as Chairman. Mr. Becker is driving force behind the Jewish Welfare Board, the community umbrella organization for the Jews of Cedar Rapids and surrounding communities.
2007: A Holocaust denier who gave his name as “Eric Hunt” wrote on an anti-Semitic website explaining why he had attempted to kidnap Eli Wiesel from an elevator in San Francisco on February 1. Police would later issue an arrest warrant for what is described as a “New Jersey” man for on charges including kidnapping, false imprisonment, elder abuse, stalking, battery and the commission of a hate crime.
2007: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appointed Daniel Friedmann as the Minister of Justice today.
2008: Rosh Chodesh Adar I 5768
2008: The headsof one of the largest Palestinian clans in Hebron met with the Kiryat Arba local council chief and prominent leaders of the Jewish community in Hebron in what both sides described as a meeting of reconciliation. Sheikh Abu-Hader Ja'abri, the head of a prominent Palestinian clan and a relative of a former mayor of Hebron, and the head of the Abu Sneinah clan, Haj Akram Abu-Sneinah met with the head of the Kiryat Arba settlement council, Zvi K'tzubar, and the heads of Jewish settlers in Hebron.
2009: An exhibition entitled Woman with a Camera: Liselotte Grschebina: Germany, 1908 – Israel, 1994 appearing at the Ticho House Gallery of the Israel Museum comes to an end.
2009: A day after a Hamas delegation left Egypt without an agreement on a long-term Gaza truce, terrorists in the Strip fired two rockets at southern Israel. One of the rockets landed near a kibbutz in the Sha'ar Hanegev region, while the other hit an open area south of Ashkelon
2009: Eddie Schawartz, “the king of overnight radio in Chicago from the late 1970’s to the mid-1990’s …was laid to rest after graveside services at Waldheim Jewish Cemetery in Forest Park.
2010: Sidney Ferris Rosenberg returned to WFAN to host a special Super Bowl preview show from Miami.
2010: In an article published in today’s LA Times, Megan Strack describes the ordeal of Alexei Vaitsen, one of the few Jews who escaped from Sobibor, and has lived to be able to bear witness against concentration camp guard, John Demjanjuk.
2010: At Temple Judah, in Cedar Rapids, IA, Super Bowl Shabbat combines Tefillah & Tailgating with the Reading of the Ten Commandments.
2010: Cellist Alisa Weilerstein and Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan are scheduled to perform tonight at the Historic Sixth and I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.
2010: “A Matter of Size” is scheduled to shown this evening as part of the 14th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.
2010:Tony Copti, a supporting actor in the Oscar-nominated Israeli film Ajami and brother of Ajami co-director Scandar Copti, was arrested this evening along with another brother for allegedly assaulting police officers during a brawl in Jaffa, and released several hours later.
2010:In a rare occurrence, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon shook the hand of Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki al-Faisal during the annual security conference in Munich today.
2011:"Hitler and the Germans — Nation and Crime," an exhibition at the German Historical Museum that juxtaposes the Nazis' propaganda images and artifacts such as 1930s Hitler busts with footage and documentation on the regime's brutality and Germans' involvement in it is scheduled to come a close today.
2011: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present a program entitled “Tableau Vivant: The Berberisca Ceremony (A Living Picture)” which is part “of the year-long series, "2,000 Years of Jewish Life in Morocco: An Epic Journey", presented Under the High Patronage of His Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco.”
2011: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Ugly Beauty: Helena Rubinstein, L’Oréal, and the Blemished History of Looking Good” by Ruth Brandon and “The Last Brother” by Nathacha Appanah, a novel “inspired by the largely unknown story of 1,500 Jews who fled Europe only to be imprisoned in Mauritius from 1940 to 1945 after their ship was refused entry into Palestine (then under British rule)” that “recounts the heartfelt friendship between two boys: David, a Czech orphan, and Raj, an Indian-Mauritian grieving for the two brothers he lost in a flash flood.”
2011:As the Pittsburgh prepares to take on the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV in Dallas, there will be at least one Jew rooting for the Steelers - Randy Grossman the tight end who earned four Super Bowl rings while playing for teams from “the Steel City.” On the other hand, according to Andrew Muchin, the Green Bay Packers might have not existed if it had not been for the unheralded efforts of Nate Abrams, a five foot, four inch “Jewish cattle dealer” who helped finance the Packers and who played for them in their first season.
2011:A colorful procession of dancers and musicians walked down the aisles and took the stage tonight at Tel Aviv’s Mann Auditorium, the venerable music venue where the sounds of Bach and Mozart are more often heard than the blares of huge Korzai trumpets and bangs of Doyra drums. In the stands some 2,800 Bukharan Jews and dignitaries – a handful of whom were dressed in the colorful traditional garb of the Central Asian community – clapped and cheered on the occasion of the Bukhara Jewish Congress’s 11th annual gathering.
2012: Israeli violinist Shmuel Ashkenasi, pianist Seymour Lipkin and the Jupiter musicians will perform Mozart’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, K. 493; the Beethoven String Quintet in C minor, Op. 104; and Clarinet Quartet No. 2 inC minor by Bernhard Crusell, Finland’s first great master of chamber music at the Good Shepherd Church in New York City.
2012: Actor Mandy Patinkin who has star of stage, film and television, is scheduled to appear “in conversation with Than Rosenbaum” at the 92nd Street Y.
2012:Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini today announced that the general strike in support of contract workers will begin in two days.
2013(28th of Shevat, 5773): Eighty-two year old bridge champion Ira Rubin passed away today. (As reported by Paul Vitello)
2013: Sylvie Simmon and Liel Leibovitz are scheduled to discuss the life of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen at the Museum of Jewish Heritage at 36 Battery Place.
2013: “The Other Son” is scheduled to be shown at the 13th Annual Broward County Jewish Film Festival.
2013(28th of Shevat, 5773): Eighty-nine year old Menachem Elon, the former Supreme Court passed away today and was buried in Jerusalem.
2013:Officials in charge of Bosnia’s national monuments said today they rejected an offer by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to exhibit one of Bosnia’s most prized relics, a 600-year-old Jewish manuscript that remains locked in a museum which closed because of a lack of money.
2013: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg today spoke up for academic freedom amid controversy over an event at a public college, despite stressing his distaste for the cause at hand.
2013:U.S President Barack Obama wants to host a summit between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during his visit here this spring, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said today.
2014: Anniversary of the birth Isaac Zaretski, “a Yiddish linguist, lexicographer and educator…who was one of the major figures of the movement to reform and standardize the Yiddish language in the Soviet Union.” (As reported by Yiddishkayt)
2014: The San Diego Center for Jewish Culture’s 24th annual Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to begin today.
2014(6thof Adar I, 5774): Eighty-seven CBS newsman Marty Plissner passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)
2014(6thof Adar 1, 5774): Eighty-eight year old Pulitzer Prize winning poet Maxine Kumin passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to a panel discussion “Jews, Cities, Culture: Hamburg, New York, Kiev.’
2014: Michael Steinlauf of Gratz College is scheduled to deliver a lecture in Yiddish on “Y.L Peretz in a Time of Revolution.
2014: The Third Annual Reelabilities: Greater DC Disabilities Film Festival is scheduled to begin today.
2014: The Haifa Symphony Orchestra of Israel is scheduled to make its first New York appearance at the Lehman Center for the Performing of Arts in Bronx
2014: Thousands of Haredi demonstrators demanded the government to reinstate payments to religious seminaries which were frozen earlier this week by Finance Minister Yair Lapid. (As reported by Adiv Sterman and Stuart Winer)
2014: For the third time in the past 24 hours terrorists in the Gaza strip fired a rocket into the Ashkelon and Eshkol regions.
2015: The Roni Koresh Dance Company is scheduled to perform at Pace University’s Schimmel Center.
2015: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to present Singers of the "Meitar" Opera Studio Of The Israel Opera “Bel Canto Gems”
2015: “Educating Rita” is scheduled to shown at the 92nd St Y as part of the Women on Top series.