March 6
19 BCE (12th of Adar II, 3741): The Temple “built” by King Herod was dedicated. Technically, Herod had refurbished the Second Temple and not built a ‘third ‘Sanctuary
1239: With the Edict of Valencia, Spanish King James I validated privileges of the Jews of Aragon. The Jewish courts (Bet din) were authorized to try all cases except capital offenses.
1447: The papacy of Nicholas V began today. According to Shlomo Simonsohn he “changed course several times in his policy the Jews just as his predecessors had done.” (For more on Nicholas V and the Jewish people see The Apostolic See and the Jews)
1475: Birthdate of famed Italian artist Michelangelo Buonarroti. Say Michelangelo to most people and they respond, Sistine Chapel ceiling. Say his name to Jews and the response is “Moses.” “Moses” is a marble sculpture which depicts the greater Jewish leader. Originally intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II in St. Peter's Basilica it was placed in the minor church of San Pietro in Vincoli on the Esquiline in Rome after the pope's death. The statue depicts Moses with horns on his head. This is believed to be because of the mistranslation of Exodus 34:29-35 by St Jerome. Moses is actually described as having "rays of light" coming from his head, which Jerome in the Vulgate had translated as "horns." This horned Moses provided further proof that the Jews were, as the Gospel says, “the Devil’s spawn.”
1754: British statesman Henry Pelham who while serving as Prime Minister introduced the Jew Bill of 1753 “which allowed Jews to become naturalized citizens by application to Parliament” passed away today.
1758: Abraham de Mesquito was one of those witnessing the changes of the will made by Abraham Menedes Seixas also known as Miguel Pancheco Da Silva.
1766(25th of Adar): “The Sefardim congregation of London passed a resolution that a Sefardi marrying an Ashkenazi has forfeited his claim on congressional charities.
1781: James Wright, the British Colonial Governor ordered the Jews of the Georgia to leave; accusing them of disloyalty to his majesty by supporting the revolution. The order was never carried out. For the most part, Wright had it right. Most Jews did support the American Revolution.
1789(8th of Adar): Rabbi Aryeh Leib ben Jacob Joshua Falk, author of Penei Aryeh,passed away
1791: Birthdate of David Paul Drach the native of Strasbourg who converted to Catholicism after moving to Paris and eventually became the librarian of the College of Propaganda in Rome
1792: Moses Alexander (Moshe ben Abraham) was buried today at the Alderney Road Jewish Cemetery.
1815: With the defeat of Napoleon, new restrictions were imposed on the Jews all over Europe.
1816: The Jews were expelled from the Free City of Lubeck, Germany at the instance of the local guilds. This was part of the reactionary backlash that followed the defeat of Napoleon a year earlier. Many of these Jews finally found refuge in the German of city of Moisling. After “a period of adjustment” where the citizens of Moisling determined how many Jews would live in their city and under what conditions, the government provided a house for a rabbi and constructed a building that the Jews were allowed to use as a synagogue if they paid “a moderate annual rent.”
1819: Birthdate of Fanny Neuda author of Studen de Anacht (Hours of Devotion) a prayer book for women.
1821: Start of the Greek War for independence. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, Jewish populations in the Peloponnese had become in disfavour with the Greeks by apparently supporting the Ottomans, and during the Greek War of Independence thousands of Jews were massacred alongside the Ottoman Turks by the Greek rebels, with the Jewish communities of Mistras, Tripolis, Kalamata and Patras completely destroyed. At the same time, Jews throughout other parts of Europe, including the Rothschilds supported the revolt, which captured the popular imagination with its imagery of Greece the cradle of Democracy versus the Ottoman Sultan.
1821: In Paris Elie Furtado and Rose Fould gave birth to Cécile Charlotte Julie Fould-Furtado who was the wife of Charles Heine who unlike his cousin Heinrich did not convert to Christianity.
1825(16th of Adar, 5585): Hungarian Talmudist Shalom Charif Ullman passed away at Lackenbach where he, his son and grandson all served as Rabbis.
1834: In Canada, York was incorporated as the city of Toronto.It was not until the 1840s that small numbers of Jewish immigrants from Western and Central Europe began to arrive in Ontario Hamilton Kingston Toronto Kingston Toronto Germany Bavaria Bohemia Alsace Great Britain United States Russia Galicia Lithuania York , England Toronto Toronto Hebrew Congregation-Holy Blossom Temple Toronto Temple Sinai Temple Emanu-El. Canada Russia Israel Toronto Ukraine Lithuania Belorussia Toronto Toronto Europe , based on pogroms and persecution in various countries. In 1911, the Jewish population of Toronto Canada United States Toronto Canada Toronto Toronto Montreal Winnipeg Toronto Toronto Morocco Toronto Quebec Montreal Toronto Toronto Quebec Toronto Montreal Toronto Toronto South Africa Soviet Union , the United States Israel Toronto Toronto Canada United States Toronto
1836: The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell to Mexican forces after a 13-day siege. Antony Wolfe, a young Englishman, was reportedly the only Jew who fought and died at the Alamo .
1851(2nd of Adar II, 5611): Benjamin Wolf Löw passed away today. Born at Loslau in 1775, this Polish-Hungarian rabbi was the son of Eleazar Low, the father of Eleazar Low and the grandfather of Abraham and Benjamin Singer.
1844: In Amsterdam, Ahasuerus Salomon van Nierop and Lady Rachel Salvador gave birth to Frederick Salomon van Nierop the Dutch lawyer who became a director of the Amsterdam Bank in 1871 and also served on the City Council.
1856: The University of Maryland, College Park is chartered as the Maryland Agricultural College. According to recent figures approximately 5,000 of the school’s 25,000 undergraduate students are Jewish while 1,500 of the 10,000 grad students are Jewish. These figures do not include the other U of Md. Campuses. The school offers 35 Jewish studies courses with a major and minor in Jewish Students. In 1949, Evelyn Levow Greenberg, the wife of the Hillel Rabbi at the University of Maryland published The Little Tractor who Traveled to Israel one of the first children’s books to celebrate the Kibbutz movement and the creation of the state of Israel.
1858: Isadore Untermyer and Therese Laudauer, two Jews from Bavaria, gave birth to Samuel Untermeyer in Lynchburg, VA. Untermeyer would move to New York as a child and become a prominent lawyer, civic leader, successful businessman and pillar of the Jewish Community
1863: Mr. Max Maretzek resumption of his old position at the Academy of Music this evening was greeted with the full approval of “all classes of the music-loving community in New York.
1870: Birthdate of Austrian-born composer Oscar Straus whose most famous work is an operetta called “Der tapfere Soldat” or “The Chocolate Soldier.”
1871(13thof Adar, 5631): Fast of Esther
1872(26th of Adar I, 5632): Fifty-one year old Theodor Goldstücker, the German born Sanskri school who was appointed professor of Sanskrit at University College London in 1852 passed away today in his adopted homeland.
1876: Birthdate of Chaim Aaron ben David the native of Berlin who gained fame as artist Hermann Struck an ardent Zionist who “helped establish the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
1876: “Ben Israel or Under the Curse” opened at the Grand Opera House in New York City this evening. Described as “a Jewish drama” in five acts, the drama had previously been performed in Troy, New York.
1876: It was reported today that the Purim Association will host a full dress reception at Delmonico’s that will mark the end of five days of festivities celebrated the Jewish people who hold private masquerade parties as is their “usual custom.”
1877(21st of Adar, 5637): Seventy-one year old Johann Jacoby, the physician turned political activist passed away today in his native Konigsberg.
1877(21st of Adar, 5637): Franklin J. Moses, Sr. an attorney, planter, politician and judge in South Carolina who both opposed secession, then supported the Confederacy and then was accused of being a scalawag during Reconstruction, passed away. His maternal grandfather was Jonas Phillips a founder of Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia, PA and the paternal grandfather Commodore Uriah P. Levy, the highest ranking Jewish officer to serve in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War. Yes, you got it right. These two Jewish grandees were on opposite sides during the Civil War, a fight that pitted brother against brother, father against son and in this case, grandson against grandson. For a contemporary view of Moses, written by a Northern newspaper see
1877: It was reported today that humorist Raphael J. de Cordova is scheduled to deliver a lecture at an upcoming fundraiser to be held at Steinway Hall sponsored by the Hebrew Lodge for those who suffered during the recent fire in Brooklyn.
1878: “Beaconsfield on the Jews” published today described Benjamin Disraeli’s view of the Jews as described in Coningsby, a novel he wrote before he entered political life including the fanciful sentiment that “the Jews hold in their hands the destinies of Europe.”
1879 (11th of Adar, 5639): Fast of Esther observed because the 13th of Adar is Shabbat
1879: The Purim Association is sponsoring this evening’s fancy dress charity ball which is taking placed at the Academy of Music.
1883(27th of Adar): Jacob Barit (Yankele Kovner) passed away1886 Nine thousand members of the Knights of Labor struck Jay Gould’s Southwestern Railroad System. The Knights were one of the earliest attempts at forming a national labor union in the United States. The Cloak and Suit Maker’s Union which was made up largely of “westernized Jews from Austria, Galicia and Germany” was part of the Knights which made it one of the successful joining of Jewish laborers with this umbrella labor organization. Cultural and linguistic differences as well as plain old fashioned anti-Semitism trumped the supposed solidarity of labor.
1890(14thof Adar, 5650) Purim
1890: It was reported today that the United Hebrew Charities have offered to post a bond on behalf of Lazar Anezes, his wife and four children who have been detained by the Commissioners of Emigrations because they are “paupers.”
1890: It was reported today that the next event sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association waill be held at the Vienna Hall on Lexington Avenue at 58thStreet.
1890: Solomon Barnett, a Jewish tailor who had thwarted an attempt to rob him “is lying at his home in a badly demoralized condition” as a result of the injuries he received at the hand of the thieves.
1891: I.S. Isaacs of the United Hebrew Charities was among those who a attended a conference in the office of the President of the Sanitary Aid Soceity where plans were made to promote a municipal lodging house law in New York City.
1891: It was rumored today that United States Collector of Internal Revenue Ernst Nathan had retired.
1891: “They Ask For Palestine” published today described the efforts of William E. Blackstone, Chairman of the Conference of Christians and Jews to present “a memorial to President Harrison concerning the Russian Government’s treatment of the Jews.”
1892: In New Jersey, two Jewish grocers operated their business today for which they would be arrested because they were open on Sunday.
1892: The Superintendent of the orphan asylum operated by the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society said that only of the youngsters was suffering from measles and that the twelve other youngsters who had been diagnosed with the disease have been sent to the Willard Parker Hospital.
1892: Henry Pereira Mendes, the rabbi at Shearith Israel is recovering from the gunshot wound he suffered at the hands of Jose Mizrachee who some describe as a “professional beggar”
1892: “To Establish ‘Special Alcoves’” published today described the efforts of the directors of the Aguilar Free Circulating Library to establish special alcoves at the various branches of the library” including the one in the Hebrew Institute at East Broadway and Jefferson Street “for the reception of works on particular lines of reading.”
1893: Charles W. Foster completed his service as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury who during his term in dealt with issues surrounding the massive influx of Russian Jews as can be seen by his response to the letters of 1891 from Simon Wolf and Lewis Abraham of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in which he expressed his appreciation for their “expressions of confidence” that the department would act humanely “while executing the immigration laws efficiently.”
1893: “The Answers to Correspondence Column” published today included the information that “a ellow badge, round or square, was the mark of degradation a Jew was obliged to wear in certain parts of medieval Europe.”
1895: In Germany, by a vote of 167 to 51, the Reichstag rejected the bill to restrict Jewish emigration.
1896(21stof Adar, 5565):Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor a leading Russian rabbi and Talmudist passed away. Born in 1817, Rav Spektor engaged in a wide variety of activities including visiting St. Petersburg to ameliorate the suffering that followed the Pogroms of 1881, the establishment of yeshivas and involvement with the Hovevei Zion movement. His impact was so great that the Yeshiva University named it theologic seminary after him - Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), or Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan,
1896: Rabbi M.H. Harris delivered the first in a series of lectures on the Inquisition tonight at Temple Israel in New York City.
1897: In City Court today, Justice McCarthy signed an order for the release of Oscar Altman from the Ludlow Street Jail where he has been held on a charge of “breach of promise of marriage.”
1897: It was reported today that Mrs. Esther Herrmann whose late husband was a partner in H. Herrmann, Sternbach & Co has given $10,000 to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association. According Percival Menken, the President of the association, the money will make it possible to improve the facility at 861 Lexington Avenue which Jacob Schiff had donated to YMHA last January.
1897: Seymour Mork and Philip Harrison won the prizes at the debate hosted this evening by the Young Men’s Literary Society of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association which was held at Temple Ahawath Chesed.
1897: Cantor David Kahn led “the regular Sabbath” at Temple Rodloph Shalom at Lexington and 63rd.
1897: Rabbi Kaufman Kohler delivered the “charge” to Dr. Rudolph Grossman at services marking his installation as the new rabbi at Temple Roloph Sholom.
1897: A two day conference begins in Vienna with members of the Zionist circles of Vienna, Berlin, Breslau and Galicia. Herzl's proposal of a general Zionist Congress is adopted with the reservation that the cooperation of the Russian Zionists will be obtained. München is chosen as the city for the congress.
1898: Congregants from Beth Elohim with a membership of 150 and Congregants from Temple Israel with a membership of 140 met in Brooklyn and voted unanimously to consolidate the two congregations and build a new building to serve as their synagogue.
1898: More than a thousand people attended the annual Purim reception at the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews hosted by the President Simon Borg and the Board of Trustees.
1898: It was reported today that the “heads of the army” refused to allow Commandant Esterhazy who played a key role in framing Dreyfus with Colonel Picquart because they were afraid of “the effect on popular sentiment if Esterhazy were defeated.”
1899: According to the Court Circular, today "The Emperor of Austria has given the title of Baron De Forest to M. Arnold [De] Forest and to his brother M. Raymond De Forest, both the adopted sons of Baroness de Hirsch de Gereuth, widow of the late Baron de Hirsch."
1899:Bayer registers aspirin as a trademark. According to Diarmuid Jeffreys, the author of Aspirin: The Story of a Wonder Drug, a Jew named Arthur Eichengrün, was “the Bayer chemist who first found an aspirin formulation which was tolerable in the human stomach and did not have the unpleasant side effects of nausea and gastric pain. Eichengrün also invented the name aspirin and was the first person to use the new formulation to test its safety and efficacy. However, Eichengrün was excluded from the official version of Bayer's history in 1934 because of his Jewish origin. Instead, it was claimed by Bayer that aspirin was ‘discovered" by an Aryan scientist, Felix Hoffman, to alleviate the sufferings of his rheumatic father.” Fritz ter Meer who “became chairman of Bayer's supervisory board” in 1956 had been “convicted at the Nuremberg trials for his part in carrying out experiments on human subjects at Auschwitz and was imprisoned for five years.”
1900: Birthdate of Avraham Shlonsky, a Russian born Israeli poet.
1903:On this date it is announced that the King has been pleased to give and grant unto the Right Honorable Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel, E.C.M.G., K.C.V.O., his Majesty's Royal license and authority that he may accept and wear the Grand Cordon of the Imperial Ottoman Order of the Osmanieh, conferred upon him by his Highness the Khedive of Egypt, authorized by his Imperial Majesty the Sultan of Turkey, in recognition of valuable services rendered by him to his Highness.
1901: Birthdate of Russian born film director Mark Donskoy
1902: Herzl informs the Sultan that on March 15th three million francs will be deposited to his account in banks in Paris, Berlin and London.
1910: Fifteen hundred members of The Hebrew Actor’s Union honor the memory of Morris Horowitz with “an elaborate funeral” that remembered his contributions to the Yiddish Theatre yet belied the impoverished state to which he had fallen in his declining years.
1915: As of today, “the Palestine Relief Ship Fund, which is being raised by the American Jewish Relief Committee and will used purchase supplies to be shipped on the naval collier Vulcan has reached a total of $34,413.86.
1915: The list of contribution to the Palestine Relief Ship Fund published today includes the Lawrence, MA Jewish Relief Committee,, the Zadek Lodge, International Order of B’nai Brith of Selma, Alabama and the Minneapolis American Jewish Relief Committee.
1917: Birthdate of cartoonist Will Eisner. Besides his other accomplishments, Eisner was a mentor for Jules Pfeiffer.
1918(22nd of Adar, 5678): Ludwig Dreyfus whose estate was valued at $1, 305, 318, passed away today.
1921: In Vienna, Max Bretholtz, a Polish born tailor and Yiddish actor and Dora Fischmann Bretholtz, a seamstress gave birth to Leo Bretholz a Holocaust survivor who played a key role in the class action lawsuit against the French railway system - the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français, or S.N.C.F.
1921: Birthdate of Austrian born conductor Julius Rudel who fled to the United States at the age of 17after the Anschluss.
1921: As the lockout aimed of members of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers enters its 14th week, Joseph Schlossberg told a meeting at New York’s Town Hall, that employers were trying to the old sweatshop environment. Schlossberg was a Russian born Jewish was one of the founders the Amalgamated and served as its Secretary General.
1924(30thof Adar I, 5684): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
1924(30thof Adar I, 5684): Seventy-one year old Thomas Jefferson Levy, the three-term Congressman from New York who followed in the footsteps of his uncle Uriah P. Levy by spending a great deal of his time and fortune on the preservation and restoration on Monticello, the home of President Thomas Jefferson
1924: The Jewish Transcript of the Pacific Northwest now known as JTNews was published for the first time today. (JTA and Times of Israel)
1926: In Washington Heights (NYC) stockbroker and market analyst Herbert Greenspan and Rose Goldsmith gave birth to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
1927: Fritz Lang's silent film epic “Metropolis” is released. Lang’s murky ethnic heritage is typical of many Germans of his era. Lang’s parents were practicing Roman Catholics. But Lang’s mother was born Jewish and she did not convert until Fritz was ten. Sort of makes hash of those easy answers about “who is a Jew” although by Nazi standards Fritz and his brother would have been fodder for the Holocaust.
1928(14thof Adar, 5688): Purim
1928(14thof Adar, 5688): Mrs. Lewis M. Nelson who was a member of the Directors of the Beth El Sisterhood and Hadassah, passed away today in Camden, NJ.
1930: In Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, Marion "Marie" Shulman Maazel, the founder of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orcestra and mult-talented actor and musician Lincoln Maazel gave birth to conductor and composer Lorin Maazel(As reported by Allan Kozinn)
1930: In the Bronx, David and Dora Rubin gave birth to “Ira Rubin, a champion bridge player and an innovative theorist who was nicknamed the Beast because of the emotional intensity of his play…” (As reported by Paul Vitello)
1937: And on the other side of the financial ledger, birthdate of Ivan Boesky the stockbroker convicted of insider trading.
1937: “Despite the official statement of regret made by the State Department yesterday for Mayor La Guardia’s attack on Adolf Hitler, the Mayor said he would stand by what he had said.”
1937: In the Old City section of Jerusalem, an Arab shot and wounded M. Schneerson as he walked to daven at the Western Wall.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that an armed Arab gang was routed by troops in the Umm el-Fahm area. One British soldier was killed and three wounded in this operation, while numerous Arabs were killed, wounded or arrested. There was also unrest in the Acre northern district.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that the new High Commissioner, Sir Harold MacMichael, had outlined his immediate policy in a radio broadcast. He asked the rival parties in the area to reconcile their claims “upon an amended basis.”
1938: The Palestine Post reported that the first Palestinian “Who’s Who” was published by Masada in Tel Aviv.
1939(15th of Adar, 5699): The last observance of Shushan Purim before the Holocaust explodes across Europe.
1940: The Nazis barred Jewish physicians from treating Aryans and vice-versa.
1940: Vladimir Jabotinsky, president of the New Zionist Organization of the World lectures on "The Fate of, Jewry" at Manhattan Center.
1940: “Three leaders of the Jewish Labor party were sentenced to three months in prison today on charges of organizing recent demonstrations against the British government that took place in Tel Aviv.
1940: Laborite M.P. Philip J. Noel introduced a motion to censure the British government in response to the newly enacted laws restricting the purchase of land in Palestine by Jews. In defending the government’s action, Malcolm MacDonald, the Colonial Secretary, said, in effect, that the restrictions were put in place to placate the Arabs and avoid more Arab-led violence. Baker contended that the enactment of the new laws was in violation of the rules of the League of Nations. Furthermore he said that “if the Jews were not a weak and hunted race today, the British government would have repudiated the moral contract which we made with them while the last great was going on.” Sir Archibald Sinclair, the Liberal leader and Leopold S. Amery, the former Colonial Secretary spoke out against the government’s action, with Mr. Amery reminding the House that Winston Churchill also opposed the new rules. All of the talk was useless since the Chamberlain government had the votes to thwart any vote of censure.
1942: Adolph Eichmann talked of deportation of 50,000 Jews from the Old Reich. He emphasized the importance of secrecy.
1943: In Swieciany, Ukraine, 20 youths armed with two revolvers escaped the ghetto and hid in the forest.
1943: The Bulgarian army started to liquidate Jewish property. All confiscated gold and silver was deposited it in sealed packages in the Bulgarian National Bank. Many Bulgarian officials became rich by stealing from the Jews.
1944: An internal memo from the United States Government War Refugee Board states that the United States was negotiating the purchase of a ship for $400,000. The S.S. Necat would be donated to the Turkish Red Crescent after evacuating 5,000 Jewish refugee children from Romania Palestine
1947: Birthdate of John Stossel, the Chicago born journalist who was born to two Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany who raised him as a Protestant.
1947: In the Bronx, “Estelle Reiner (née Lebost), an actress, and Carl Reiner, a renowned comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director” gave birth to actor and director Rob Reiner best known for his role of “Meathead.” Archie Bunker’s son-in-law in the comedy hit “All in the Family.”
1947: In his second visit to Tel Aviv in two days, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the former President of the Zionist organization and world-class chemist, told a group of civic leaders that he is setting aside his research to do whatever he can to help the people on the coastal plain who are living under strict martial law.
1947: In a demonstration of how successful their campaign has been, British authorities announced today that “25 known terrorists have been captured in Palestine in recent days.” Authorities said that many of them are members of Irgun or the Stern Gang.
1949: On the second day of Operation Uvda “the Negev Brigade travelled to Sde Avraham and began to clear land for an airfield there” and that night the “7th Brigade reinforcements from the Gahal platoon arrived by air in the newly cleared airfield” carrying “supplies and fuel vital to continue the operation.”
1950(17th of Adar, 5710):Fifty-your year old Lew Lehr, the comedian, writer and editor who authored Lew Lehr's Cookbook for Men and Stop Me If You've Heard This One passed away today
1951: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg go on trial charged with espionage for providing secret information concerning the Atomic Bomb to the Soviet Union. In this case the defendants, the prosecutor and the Judge will all be Jews. But right wing America
1953: U.S. premiere of “Battle Circus” a Korean War movie directed by Richard Brooks (b. Ruben Sax) and produced by Pandro S. Berman.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Stalin¹s condition was very grave.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that The World Jewish Conference, scheduled to open in Zurich was postponed.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill had promised that the British sales of jet aircraft to Arab States would take care to preserve the balance of power in the area.
1957: United Kingdom colonies Gold Coast and British Togoland become the independent Republic of Ghana. Israel Ghana Ghana Israel
1957: Israel withdrew its troops from the Sinai Peninsula. The withdrawal followed the October, 1956 war with Egypt. The Americans and the Soviets joined forces to make the Israelis leave. They saved President Nasser of Egypt. The Soviets quickly re-armed Nassar. The American action had the effect of giving Nasser a free hand to follow his Pan-Arab dream which included the destruction of the state of Israel.
1958: U.S. Premiere of “Star Struck” directed by Sidney Lumet and co-starring Susan Strasberg.
1959: Birthdate of actor Tom Arnold.
1964: Allan Sherman sang “The Dropouts March” on tonight’s edition of “That Was The Week That Was.
1964: Jewish movie star Liz Taylor divorced Jewish “crooner” Eddie Fisher so that she could marry Richard Burton. Fisher and Taylor were Jewish – he by birth, she by choice.
1966(14th of Adar, 5726): Purim
1967: Birthdate of “lawyer, journalist and author” Glenn Greenwald.
1969: Twenty-nine people, most of whom were students were injured when a terrorist detonated a bomb in the cafeteria at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
1969: One person was injured when a terrorist exploded a grenade at a bank in Al Bireh
1969: Yonatan Netanyahu wrote to his parents, "In another week I'll be 23. On me, on us, the young men of Israel, rests the duty of keeping our country safe. This is a heavy responsibility, which matures us early... I do not regret what I have done and what I'm about to do. I'm convinced that what I am doing is right. I believe in myself, in my country and in my future"
1971: Publication of “Diplomacy in the Living Room.”
1972: Birthdate of Israeli Olympic swimmer Yoav Bruck
1973: Marcel Marceau appears at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA.
1976(4th of Adar II, 5736): "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenbloom light-heavyweight box champion from 1932 to 1934 passed away at the age of 71. Rosenbloom boxed during a period when Jews dominated the ring. In 1933, during Maxie's reign as light-heavyweight champion, Jewish boxers were the champions in four out of the eight weight classes.
1978:The Jerusalem Post reported that Premier Menachem Begin, on the eve of his departure to the US, was adamant that Resolution 242 did not specify the withdrawal of the “territories occupied in the recent conflict” and that the war of 1967 was a war of national self-defense, while the West Bank was never under Jordanian sovereignty. Begin did not rule out any West Bank territorial compromise, but argued that 242 was unspecific, and Israel reserved its position until there was a practical prospect of negotiating the issue.
1981: The Mannes Orchestra performed under the baton of Yakov Kreizberg as part of his graduation ceremony from the Mannes College The New School for Music.
1981: U.S. premiere of “On the Right Track” featuring Herb Edelman and Norman Fell.
1982(11th of Adar, 5742): Russian born Ayn Rand, author and social commentator, Martin Niemöller passed away.
1984: Ninety-two year old “German anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor passed away today. He is best known for his statement
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me
1986: Birthdate of American actor Eli Marienthal.
1986: The New York Times reported that those who gathered at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City to celebrate the wisdom of Maimonides whose work they have been studying for the past year “were centuries removed from the life” of the sage “who was born 851 years ago in Cordoba, Spain.
1987: U.S. premiere of “Tin Men,” the second of Barry Levinson’s four “Baltimore films co-starring Richard Drefyus and Barbara Hershey, whose father was Jewish.
1991: Harry Heinz Schwarz began serving as the Ambassador of South Africa to the United States.
1991: “CBS Newsman Bob Smon Tells of Ordeal as Captured Jew” published today
1992: U.S. premiere of “Once Upon A Crime” a comedy directed by Eugene Levy with a script co-authored by Nancy Meyers and co-starring Richard Lewis as “Julian Peters.”
1994: Twenty-six year old Rabbi David Keehn, who is legally blind, is one of 144 rabbis who is honored with formal ordination at the quadrennial Chag HaSemikhah (rabbinic convocation) of Yeshiva University's affiliated Rabbis Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) in the Nathan Lamport Auditorium, Joseph and Faye Tanenbaum Hall, New York City.
1997: Janet Rosenberg Jagan, the daughter of middle class Jewish parents from Chicago moved from being the first lady of Guyana to the role of Prime Minister.
1998: The Times of London featured a review of The Founding Myths of Israel: Nationalism, Socialism and the Making of the Jewish State by Zeev Sternhell; translated by David Maisel.
2000:First showing of ''The Life of the Jews in Palestine'' at the Museum of Modern Art. The classic documentary was produced in 1913 by the Odessa-based Mizrakh Company and presumed to be lost for some 80 years -- has resurfaced in New York. This excellent new print with English inter-titles of Noah Sokolovsky's 78-minute silent film is quite likely the rarest of the rarities featured in the museum's 10-program tribute to France's national film archives, the Centre Nationale de la Cinematographie.
2002(22nd of Adar, 5762): Seventy-four year old “Walter Goodman, a former reporter and critic at The New York Times and the author of a widely read history of the House Committee on Un-American Activities” passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2002(22nd of Adar, 5762): Eighty-five year old Scottish economist and psychologist Ralph Glasser passed away today.
2005:After 138 years, Rich's (as Rich's-Macy's) disappeared and became part of Macy’s-Central. Rich’s began as a dry goods store run by Morris Rich in 1876.
2005: The Washington Post book section features a review of Michael Medved’s autobiography, The Faith of a Critic.
2005: The Chicago Tribune reported that despite an anti-Semitic backlash, the renaissance of Jewish culture and religion continued its growth in Russia. This “quiet cultural revolution” has been fueled, in part, by Jews who moved to Israel
2005: The New York Times reported that Robert K. Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots made his thirtieth visit to Israel Sharon
2005: The New York Times reviewed Ester and Ruzya by Masha Gessen. The title characters are Gessen’s grandmothers. The biography tells how these two women maintained their Jewish identities while living through Stalin, Hitler and the Cold War.
2005: The cover story of The New York Times Magazine was “A Memory Loop” by Joseph Lelyveld featuring an account of life with his father Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld.
2006(6th of Adar, 5766): Ninety-seven year old Ruth F. Weiss, also known as Wèi Lùshī, an Austrian born Chinese “educator, journalist and lecturer” passed away today.
2007: The Colorado Jewish Artist’s Guild of the Mizel Museum hosts a workshop styled “Catapulting Your Visions to Achievements: Do You Want to Be A Working Artist or An Artist Who Works?”
2007: Former White House aide I. Lewis Libby, Jr. was found guilty on four of five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice trial. The one person convicted in the whole Plame Affair was a practicing Reform Jew.
2008: As part of its Israel at 60 celebration, the 92nd Street Y presents “Lee Saar The Company & Netta Yerushalmy: Out of Israel” as two innovate Israeli dance companies join forces to present a compelling evening of duets.
2008(29th of Adar, 5768): Ninety year old screenwriter who was nominated for Best Story Oscar for “Naked City” passed away today.
2008(29th of Adar, 5768): Eight people were killed and nine others were wounded this evening when a terrorist infiltrated a Jerusalem yeshiva and opened fire. Three of the wounded in the attack at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood were serious condition and taken to Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Karem. The other six were lightly hurt and taken to Sha'arei Tzedek Medical Center. One of the wounded is 15 years old. Magen David Adom emergency medical service declared the incident a "multiple casualty event."
2009: Agudas Achim hosts Shabbat Across Iowa City with an early Friday evening service followed by a Shabbat Dinner.
2009:Composer Samuel Adler lights up the marquee at Temple Emanuel’s Synaplex Shabbat service on Friday night.
2009: At the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, Kirk Douglas appears in “Before I Forget” a scripted one-Douglas show all about the 92-year-old Hollywood icon. . In this rare theatrical appearance, Douglas shares stories about his life and acting career — the stroke he suffered in 1996 that left him unable to speak, his numerous starring roles and his return to Judaism.
2009: The lawyers for Bernard Madoff, the goniff who ran the biggest Ponzi Scheme in history, have taken steps that could lead to him pleading guilty as early as next Tuesday.
2009:The Foreign Ministry said today it had closed its embassy after the government of Mauritania, an overwhelmingly Muslim West African nation asked the Israeli ambassador and his staff to leave.
2009: In Davis Cup competition, Thomas Johansson put Sweden ahead of Israel with a five-set win over Harel Levy Israel’s Duda Sela even the series with a five-set victory against Andreas Vinciquerra.
2010 (5770): Shabbat Parah
2010: The 40th Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches” opened in Philadelphia, PA.
2010:Theater J in association with Jonathan Reinis Productions is scheduled to present the World Premiere of Andy Warhol - Good for the Jews?
2010: In London, UK, Jewish Book Week came to an end.
2010:U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell met with Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv today as he began a round of meetings aimed at relaunching peace negotiations.
2011:Veretski Pass is scheduled to perform their new composition “Klezmer Shul” as well as their standard repertoire and some special surprises at the Freight and Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley, CA as part of the Jewish Music Festival.
2011: Mlle. God” by playwright Nick Kazan is scheduled to have is final performance at the Atwater Village Theatre in Los Angeles. “The subtext of Kazan’s production is an attempt to mitigate the controversial role the playwright’s father — Oscar- and Tony-winning director Elia Kazan — played during the era of the Hollywood blacklist.” Regardless of how you may view the elder Kazan’s role during the Red Hunting days of the 1950’s, this Greek immigrant had the courage to serve as director of “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” the 1947 film that dealt with the issue of anti-Semitism in the United States. Jewish directors and movie moguls had shied away from making the film because they were afraid of an anti-Semitic backlash. [Yes, this is post Holocaust America]
2011:“Down Home,” a multi-media project that “celebrates Jewish contributions to North Carolina social, civic and commercial life” that has been appearing at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh is scheduled to come to a close today. The project also aimed “to capture a nearly vanished way of life for Jews in the state’s mill and market towns, according to Leonard Rogoff, an organizer of the project and historian at the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina, which is producing “Down Home.” According to Eli Evans, a speechwriter for Lyndon Johnson whose parents lived in Durham where his mother served Hadassah for 40 years, “The story of the Jews is the untold story of the South.” The Jewish experience in North Carolina was unique in the South, Evans said, because North Carolina was unique in the South. “We didn’t have a strong Klan in our state. We had a commitment to public education, a more moderate political atmosphere, and enlightened political leaders,” he said. “I’m not saying no antisemitism existed. But there was a philo-Semitism that manifested itself in many ways.” While the exhibit’s was partly intended to educate North Carolinians about their own history, it was also intended to provide Jews from outside of the South a look at Jewish culture and customs as practiced below the Mason-Dixon Line.
2011: The Los Angeles Times featured reviews by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Eisenhower 1956: The President's Year of Crisis — Suez and the Brink of War by David A. Nichols
2011: Most of the Israel’s welfare services will be suspended indefinitely starting today morning after negotiations between representatives of social workers and the Finance Ministry broke down two days ago.
2011:A sanitation worker of the Jerusalem Municipality was moderately injured today by an explosion apparently set off when he picked up a garbage bag in Jerusalem.
2011(30th of Adar I, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
2011(30th of Adar I, 5771) Ninety-two year old Dr. Sholom Omi Waife a noted writer and medical researcher who was the grandson of Sholom Aleichem passed away today.
2012: The annual AIPAC Policy Conference is scheduled to come to an end.
2012: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host its annual Humanitiarian Awards Dinner.
2012: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to sponsor a noontime screening of “Jewish Women in American Sport: Settlement Houses to the Olympics,”
2012: Jewish Women's Morning at the Capitol (JWMC) is scheduled to take place in St. Paul, MN.
2012: Professor Deborah E. Lipstadt is scheduled to deliver the annual Charles Grossman Lecture In Jewish Intellectual History entitled “History Written, History Re-Written: On American, The Holocaust and Playing the Blame Game” at The Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El
2012:The organization Peace Now filed a complaint with police this morning after a death threat was made against director Yariv Oppenheimer the night before. (As reported by Ben Hartman)
2012: Following the death of Robert Sherman, the founder of Music World, “his son Robert J. Sherman succeeded him as CEO and President.”
2012(12thof Adar, 5772): Ninety-four year old “Albert Abramson, who became a principal force in the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington by using the same pragmatic approach that had made him a successful developer of apartments, offices and malls” passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2012:Israel Military Industries will be barred from submitting bids for Indian defense contracts for the next ten years, along with five other firms, The Times of India reported today.
2013: The Humanitarian Awards Dinner co-sponsored by the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to take place this evening in Chicago, Illinois.
2013: To mark its acquisition of the defense archive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, The Wiener Library is scheduled to host a public panel discussion on the subject of Anglo-Jewish responses to domestic fascism in the 1930s.
2013: “The Last White Knight: Is Reconciliation Possible?” is scheduled to have its Minnesota Premier tonight at the Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival.
2013: The Hebrew language edition of Playboy will be available on newsstands today in Israel.
2013: “Agriculture Ministry workers armed with pesticides went into action at first light today morning, distributing both aerial and ground sprays in the area where millions of locusts descended upon southern Israel from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula the day before.” (As reported by Sharon Udasin)
2013:New York police today said they arrested a suspected hit-and-run driver following a weekend accident that killed a young Orthodox Jewish couple whose baby was later delivered by C-section but then died.
2013: A global Shi’ite terrorism network made up of Iranian Quds Force operatives and Hezbollah continues to target Israelis overseas, the National Security Council’s counterterrorism bureau warned today, ahead of the Passover vacation season.
2013:The Los Angeles mayoral runoff opened today with Democrats Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greue, each of whom have Jewish connections, fighting over who best can craft an image of fiscal restraint in a cash-strapped city whose voters refuse to raise taxes to maintain public services.
2014: Shaul Magid, professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies at Indiana University Bloomington is scheduled to deliver a lecture “After Multiculturalism: Postethnicity and Judaism in America” at the University of Colorado Boulder.
2014: Leslie Maitland is scheduled to discuss “Crossing the Borders of Time: A True Story of War, Exile and Love Reclaimed.”
2014: “Dove’s Cry and “Sukkah City” are scheduled to be shown at the Washington Jewish Film Festival.
2014: Dr. Rose Cohen is scheduled speak on “Facets of Holocaust Research: Victims and Survivors, Possessions and Plunder Search strategies and Integrating Resources” at the Center for Jewish History.
2014: A source at the Foreign Ministry confirmed today that the trip of Pope Francis scheduled for this May has been cancelled because Foreign Ministry workers “are currently on strike and are unable to make the necessary arrangements for the visit.”
2014: In Columbus, Ohio, Abbie and Feivel Straus have a new daughter; Joseph Straus has a new sister and Dr. Bob & Laurie Silber have a new granddaughter.
2014: Today’s decision “in Crimea’s parliament to hold a referendum on March 16 asking whether the semi-autonomous region should become part of Russia took some members of the peninsula’s 17,000-strong Jewish community by surprise.”
2015: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host the “penultimate Friday night dinner.”
2015: Agudas Achim is scheduled to host “Shabbat Across Iowa City.”
2015: Lewis Black is scheduled to perform at the Club Regent Event Center in Winnipeg, Canada.