March 9
590: Bahram Chobin is crowned as King Barham VI of Persia. The newly crowned king enjoyed support among Persian Jews since opposing forces under a general named Mahbad “killed the Jewish followers of the pretender to the throne, Bahram Chobin.”
1230: Bulgarian tsar Ivan Asen II defeats Theodore of Epirus in the Battle of Klokotnitsa. According to information in the Virtual Jewish Library Jacob b. Elijah wrote a letter in which he reported that two Jews were thrown from a mountaintop for refusing to obey the order of the Czar to put out the eyes of the defeated Greek ruler.
1244: The Pope ordered the burning of the Talmud. Those who hate the Jews understand how critical studying and learning are to our survival. Hence they have always burned our books and outlawed study.
1276: Augsburg becomes an Imperial Free City in the Holy Roman Empire. The Jewish presence in Augsburg began during the days of the Romans. Existing records show that a Jewish cemetery and synagogue existed by 1276. The Augsburg Municipal Charter of 1276, determining the political and economic status of the Jewish residents, was adopted by several cities in South Germany. “Regulation of the legal status of Augsburg Jewry was complicated by the rivalry between the religious and municipal powers. Both contended with the emperor for jurisdiction over the Jews and enjoyment of the concomitant revenues.” For more about this ancient Jewish community see
1316: “Louis the Bavarian granted the city of Worms the privilege of levying on the Jewish community a yearly tax of 100 pounds heller in addition to the 300 pounds it had thitherto paid.”
1490: In Florence, Berahiel ben Hezekiah Trabot completed “a small machzor” today.
1496: The Jews of Carinthia, Austria were expelled (and not readmitted until 1848).
1513: Start of the papacy of Leo X who employed Immanuel ben Jacob “as a physician and translator.
1666: Birthdate of George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne, the English poet, playwright and political leader. In 1701 Lord Lansdowne produced “a spurious version” the “Merchant of Venice” entitled “The Jew of Venice.” In Lansdowne’s version the part of “Shylock was degraded to a kind of low comedy.” The play would not be performed again for 40 years when Macklin would revive it and begin the hundreds of his sensitive portrayals of Shakespeare’s most famous Jewish character.
1739: Birthdate of Boston, MA merchant Moses Michael Hays, the son of Judah and Rebecca Hays. He was one of the founding members of the famous Touro Synagogue.
1773(14th of Adar, 5533): Purim
1773: On Purim at the Newport synagogue, the future President of Yale University at Ezra Stiles described Rabbi Raphael Chiam Isaac Carregal as being "dressed in a red garment with the usual Phylacteries and habiliments, the white silk Surplice; he wore a high fur cap, had a long beard. He has the appearance of an ingenious and sensible man"
1789: In Coswig, David Salomon Unger, the first Jew to settle in Erfurt with full “civil rights” and his wife gave birth to mathematician Ephraim Salomon Unger.
1799: Napoleon comes to power as a result of a coup d’etat.
1808: Seligman Löb (Siegmund Leopold) Beyfus married Babette Rothschild
1820: The revolutionary military leader and de facto Spanish leader, Riego of Spain issued a decree ending the Inquisition. This decree was apparently not accepted by everybody since people continue to suffer under the Inquisition until 1826. The Spanish Inquisition was actually only brought to an end on July 15, 1834
1828: At Posen, Rabbi Levi Aron Pinner and Wilhelmine Goldbarth Pinner gave birth to Moritz Pinner who moving to the United States became active in the anti-Slavery movement and the creation of the Republican Party.
1846: Birthdate of Emil Gabriel Warbug a leading German Jewish physicist was part of the famous Warbug Family
1849: “The Merry Wives of Windsor” an opera with a libretto by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal was performed for the first time in Berlin
1851(5th of Adar II, 5611): Eighty one year old Ruben Samuel Gumperz an advocate of Jewish emancipation passed away today in Berlin.
1852: The New York Times reported that “France has addressed three demands to the government of Switzerland” one of which concerned the treatment of the Jews of Basle Champagne.
1855: “Response to the Call for a Rabbinical Conference” published today.
1860(15th of Adar, 5620: Shushan Purim
1860(15th of Adar, 5620): David Romm, who became head of the family printing business in Wilna after the death of his father Joseph Reuben Romm, passed away today “while on his way to St. Petersburg.”
1868(15th of Adar, 5628): Shushan Purim.
1868: The annual Purim Ball was held tonight at Pike’s Opera House in New York City. The ball marked the end of city’s “season of Carnival.”
1872: A reporter for The New York Times visited Temple Emanu El in this morning where he “at once noticed the extraordinary resemblance” that this Jewish house of worship had “to the Christian cathedral form.”
1876(13th of Adar, 5636): Fast of Esther.
1879(14th of Adar, 5639): Purim
1879: It was reported today that there of the 849,870 people living in Australia’s Victoria Colony, 4,237 are Jews.
1879: Thomas Grady is scheduled to speak at meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association tonight where he will defend his proposal to abolish the Free College.
1880: Birthdate of Bernard “Barney” Samuel a leader of the Republican Party in Pennsylvania who served as May of Philadelphia from 1941 to 1952. He passed away two years later.
1881: Birthdate of English labor leader and politician Ernest Bevin. Bevin was Foreign Minister in the Labor Government after World War II. He helped to enforce the White Paper and hewed to a pro-Arab line. In responding to request for consideration for Jews after the Holocaust, Bevin
commented that Jews were always trying to push to the head of the line. Bevin died in 1951 at the age of 70.
commented that Jews were always trying to push to the head of the line. Bevin died in 1951 at the age of 70.
1884(12th of Adar, 5644): Moses Wilhelm Shapira “shot himself in the Hotel Bloemendaal in Rotterdam. Born in the Russian Empire in 1830 he followed his father to Palestine in 1856. He converted to Christianity and began a career selling artifacts. Unfortunately, many of these were reported to be fakes. According to some reports he took his own life as the result of his involvement in the forging of supposedly biblical texts.
1890: Several “Sabbath Schools of Jewish congregations” in New York City hosted special Purim celebrations. One congregation hosted a Purim Operetta performed by the female faculty for the benefit of the young children.
1890: Almost 2,000 people attended the Purim celebration hosted by the Temple Beth El Sabbath School which was held at the Lexington Avenue Opera House.
1890: It was reported today that the money raised by the Hebrew Benevolent Society’s charity ball at Long Island City will go “to the erection of a house of worship, a school for children, the purchase of a burial plot” and for a fund to provide relief for widows and orphans.
1890: Rabbi Kohut recounted the Purim story to 350 children, their parents and friends at Temple Ahawath Chesed at 55thand Lexington Avenue.
1890: It was announced today that Dr. Charles Elliot who has been teaching Hebrew at Lafayette College for the past four years will not be teaching after this year.
1891: Today during the strike by Polish cloakmakers “ a group of Polish Jews” broke into the tenement occupied by two cloak contractors – Hermann Greenbaum and Sam Billet – where they were reportedly having non-union workers make cloaks and broke up the work stations.
1891: Benjamin Fernstein, a seventy year old clothing cutter who died yesterday while riding the Second Avenue El was the victim of a heart attack according to his family.
1892: Following the death of two more Jewish immigrants and two more Irish immigrants, it was reported that there have been 14 deaths since the outbreak of typhus with 70 known or suspected cases quarantined on North Brother Island.
1892: Mason Hirsh, a senior member of the umbrella manufacturing firm of Hirsh Brothers located in Philadelphia was knocked down by a car in front of 435 Broadway in New York City today.
1892: A. J. Rosenthal, a Jewish banker from Fayette County served as Chairman of the Credentials Committee when the Republican State Convention opened today in Austin, Texas.
1892: The New York State Senate passed the “so-called Freedom of Worship bill” this afternoon
1892: Birthdate of Mátyás Rosenfeld, the Hungarian communist leader who repudiated Judaism and changed his name to Mátyás Rákosi as he climbed the ladder of “party success.”
1893: A charity ball sponsored by the Purim Association will take place tonight at Madison Square Garden with the United Hebrew Charities serving as the beneficiaries of the event where the admission ticket costs $10 per attendee regardless of their sex.
1893: “Gift to the Aguilar Library published today described an anonymous gift given to this non-sectarian institution founded by several prominent Jews that is “open to any resident of New York over twelve years of age. (In a day of “tablets” and “i-pads” it is hard to envision what the availability of this trove of free books meant to generations of immigrants and their families)
1893: Today, Lord Lyon Playfair explained to the House of Lords that “Messrs. Burnett and Schloss” had been sent to the United States “as part of a general inquiry in the subject of pauper alients to the United Kingdom” especially as it pertained to Russian and Polish Jews.
1895: Fifty-nine year old Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch “who faithfully described the manners of Polish Jews but feared that his affection for them might give the impression that he was” Jewish passed away today. He was the author Jews and Russians and the editor of At the Pinnacle, “a progressive magazine” that championed “tolerance and integration for the Jews of Saxony.”
1895: Birthdate of Albert Günther Göring, the older brother of Hermann Göring, who worked to save Jews while his brothers was killing them.
1895: Purim will be celebrated this evening with an invitation only fance-dress reception at Delmonico’ sponsored by the Purim Association.
1896: Judge Julian Mack married Jessie Fox.
1897: Maurico Jacobs and his family are scheduled to set sail from New York to Panama today aboard the SS Allianca thanks to funds provided by the United Hebrew Charities. Jacobs is a native of Peru who owned a sugar plantation in Cuba with his brother. He claims that they were forced to leave the island after his brother was killed and the plantation was seized.
1898: Mrs. Oscar Hammerstein has obtained a lease Olympia which was arranged by Andrew Freeman.
1898: It was reported today that the name of Esterhazy, one of the French officers responsible for the false imprisonment of Captain Dreyfus, was added to the name of villains who were booed during the reading of the Megillah during Purim Services.
1899: “Peters Praises The Jews” published today provides a summary of Reverend Madison C. Peters lecture on “Justice to the Jew” – a unique highly positive view of the Jewish people.
1900: Herzl had another meeting with Austrian Prime Minister Ernest von Koerber. The subscribers the Colonial Bank were permitted to complete their payments and receive their shares.
1900(8th of Adar II): Sixty-three year old Hebrew poet and Yiddish author Isaac Rabinowitz (Ish Kovno) passed away
1902: Composer Gustav Mahler married Alma Schindler in Vienna.
1902: Birthdate of Elisabeth Pelletier de Chambure, the member of a wealthy Catholic aristocratic family who became Élisabeth de Rothschild when she married famed vintner Baron Philippe de Rothschild.
1904: Birthdate of Gerald Ernest Heal Abraham, the native of the Isle of Wright who forsook a career in the Royal Navy to become one of Britain’s leading musicologists.
1908: It was reported today that in Camden, NJ, “because of the excellent work she has done in behalf of the Jewish Ladies’ Aid Society, Mrs. Jacob Silver has been presented with a gold medal.”
1908: In Camden, NJ, “tonight Jacob Wietzman” is scheduled to “give a reception and dinner to his fellow members of the Seventh Ward Republican Club.
1912(20th of Adar, 5672): Shabbat Parah
1912(20th of Adar, 5672): Fifty-seven year old Hiram Ullman, the Pennsylvania businessman who served on the Williamsport Common Council passed away today.
1913: The Independent Anshe Bessarabia Talmud Torah was founded in Philadelphia, Pa.
1913: In Bangor, Maine, founding of Beth Israel Synagogue.
1916: Birthdate of Hyman H. “Bookie” Bookbinder a Washington lobbyist for Jewish causes who spent many years working for a variety of liberal causes including civil rights and the rights of labor.
1918:Ukrainian mobs massacre Jews of Seredino Buda
1918: In Bloomington, Illinois, vaudevillians Claire and George Rockwell gave birth to George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party.
1920: The tombstone for Emanuel Jacobs of Covent Garden is scheduled to be consecrated at Jersey today.
1921: Winston and Clementine Churchill arrive in Cairo in preparation for a conference to examine the workings of the mandates for Palestine and Iraq.
1922: Winston Churchill delivered a speech in Parliament support the Balfour Declaration against its opponents. He reiterated support for the establishment of the Jewish Homeland in Palestine while cautioning against letting Jews who were Bolsheviks settle in Palestine.
1922: The Shearith Israel League of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York City is scheduled to present a performance of “The Mikado” today in the grand ballroom of the Hotel Plaza.
1923: Birthdate of Walter Kohn winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1998.
1928: In Vienna, Franzi Grossman and her husband, a chief bank accountant gave birth to Lore Groszmann, who gained fame as Lore Segal, the author of Shakespeare’s Kitchen, one of the finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in 2008.
1928: New York State Supreme Court Justice Alfred Frankenthal was injured this morning when the taxicab in which he was riding skidded out of control and hit an elevated pillar. Israel Mora was the cab driver.
1928: In Manhattan, Maxwell Walzer, a furrier and the former Ruth Rosenthal, gave birth to Peggy Sandelle Walzer gave birth to Peggy Charren who gained fame as an advocate for improved children television programming. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
1929(27th of Adar I, 5689): Shabbat Shekalim
1929(27th of Adar I, 5689): Thirty-four “English composer, arranger, music teacher and pupil of Gustav Holst, Jane Joseph passed away today.
1929: The Zionist Organization of America announced plans for the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the founding of Tel Aviv. The planned activities include a Jewish ‘world Congress for Propagation of Interest in Palestine Products and a Palestine and Newar East Exhibition and Fair.
1931: Dr. Victor Rosewater, the former editor and publisher of The Omaha Bee and a leader of the Jewish community and Republican Party in Nebraska spoke at the school of politics of the Women’s National Republican Club. He told the gathering that “the influence of the press in forming political opinion is no longer as directed as it once was…”
1932: The new turbines at the hydroelectric project created by Pinhas Rutenberg began to turn today.
1933: The first of thousands of “critics” of The Third Reich were sent to Dachau
1935: “New German Plea” published today described Dr. Julius Lippert’s call for American businessman to put an end to the Jewish Boycott of German goods.
1936: The cover of Time magazine features the beaten, bandaged visage of Leon Blum who had been beaten Royalist (right wing) youths.
1936: “Abominable Triumph” published today as the cover story for Time described the causes of the life threatening beating given to Leon Blum by those who oppose him because he is a socialist, anti-fascist and Jewish. (The road from Drancy to Auschwitz began on the streets and chambers of Paris in the 1930’s)
1936 :( 15th of Adar, 5696): Shushan Purim
1936: Birthdate of Juda Bar-Norwegian, Dutch born Israeli actor.
1936: The Przytyk, Pogrom, the worst of a series of pogroms that took place in Poland during the interwar decades, claimed the lives of three people.
1938: The Chancellor of Austria, Schuschnigg, announces a plebiscite on the question of Austrian independence. His policy was to try and keep Austria semi-independent and to limit the more overt anti-Semitic activities. Hitler furiously demanded his resignation, which arrived two days later. His resignation opened the way to the Anschluss (annexation) of Austria by Germany on March 13
.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that Arab terrorists sniped at various quarters of Jewish Jerusalem. The Sanhedria Quarter came under a direct Arab fire from Lifta.
1941: Esther "Etty" Hillesum began writing in her diary which would provide a description of life Amsterdam under the Nazis.
1941: After 8 months in office Petain and his Vichy Government adopted an ordinance requiring Jews to get “authorization to sell or rent property.”
1942: The Jews of the small Polish community of Mielec were driven out of their homes and rounded up in the marketplace; the old and feeble were shot on the equivalent of a death march. The survivors waited in a hangar in the aircraft factory without food or water and were herded into cattle cars a few days later.
1943: U.S. Army Colonel F.B. Yancy, Chief of the Special Services spoke at the opening club designed for the use of U.S. military personnel. The club is housed in former Tel Aviv luxury hotel.
1943: The Nazis continued the transport of Greek Jews from Salonika to Auschwitz. Salonika was an ancient Jewish community. It became a haven for Sephardic Jews when they fled Spain at the end of the fifteenth century. It was renowned center for kabalistic studies. In 1943, Elie Veissi, a journalist, formed an all Jewish resistance group at Salonika. Veissi supplied valuable information to the British about Nazi activities in Greece. But he and his group failed in their main mission - saving the Jews of Salonika. A few thousand escaped to Athens, but most of the rest perished in the camps. Some of you know about the Jews of Salonika because of their unique music. Some of it was captured in a recording called Kol Salonika. You may have heard their haunting melody for verses five and six of the 118th Psalm – Min hameitzar karati Ya, anani vemerchav, Out of my distress I called upon the Lord and He set me free. . The other famous song is entitled Kol Ha-Olam Kulo - "The entire world is a narrow bridge; the main thing is not to fear." (I realize this has been a little lengthy, but one of the lessons of Jewish History is that Holocaust Memorial Day should be plural, not singular, event.)
1943: In a rare case of open police resistance to the arrest and murder of Jews of Europe during WWII, 12 Dutch military policemen including 23 year old Henk Drogt refused orders to round up the remaining local Jews in Grootegast, Holland. The policemen were pressured and threatened by their commanders with incarceration at a concentration camp themselves, but steadfastly refused to carry out the orders. The group was subsequently arrested and taken to the Vught concentration camp in the Southern Netherlands. Drogt would evade capture until his arrest in August of 1943. He was executed in April of 1944. In 2010, he received the State of Israel's highest honor for non-Jews on Monday at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.
1943: An audience of 40,000 gathered in New York’s Madison Square Garden to watch “We Will Never Die” “a dramatic pageant” designed “to raise public awareness of the ongoing mass murder of Europe's Jews. It was organized and written by screenwriter and author Ben Hecht and produced by Billy Rose and Ernst Lubitsch. The musical score was composed by Kurt Weill and staged by Moss Hart. The pageant starred Edward G. Robinson and Paul Muni and subsequently traveled to other cities nationwide.”
1944(14thof Adar, 5704): Purim
1947: The first unauthorized immigrant ship known to have been sent to Palestine by the Hebrew Committee of National Liberation was taken into government custody today. The ship which was known variously as the SS Ben Hecht and/or the SS Abril was filled with 599 Jewish refugees including 385 men, 194 women and 20 children. All of the refugees were placed on two ferries by the British and sent immediately to displaced persons camps in Cyprus. .
1947: “Troops fired over the heads of a number of Jews in the marital-law area of Jerusalem” because officials said they were “’too slow in returning to their homes when the daily curfew was re-imposed at 5 P.M.’”
1947: British policed reported that 25 “suspected terrorists” have been arrested in Tel Aviv in the last 24 hours.
1948: Birthdate of American artist Eric Fischl.
1949: During Operation Uvda, one unit from Alexandroni Brigade captured Ein Gedi while another unit captured Masada.
1949: During Operation Uvda,“Golani forces captured Gharandal and proceeded to Ein Ghadyan (now Yotvata).”
1949: During the War for Independence, two IDF units set off to take Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba1950: A special meeting of the board of directors at the Astor Hotel is held to announce the formation of the Amun-Israeli House Corporation that “will finance $20,000,000 worth of housing construction” in Israel. The lack of adequate housing is one of the Jewish state’s most pressing problems and this effort which enjoys support from a diverse group that includes Nelson Rockefeller and the leaders of the I.L.G.W.U. represents a major effort to provide both immediate and long term relief.
1950: It was officially announced tonight that Turkey “has accorded full diplomatic recognition” to the state of Israel.
1950: The Swedish government issued a report today accusing the Israeli police of demonstrating grave negligence in investigating the assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte which had taken place in September of 1948.
1950: AT&T announced today that it has created a new direct circuit between New York and Tel Aviv which will improve phone service between the major cities. Calls can only be made between 7 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon at a cost of $12 for the first three minutes.
1951: Birthdate of Michael Kinsley, journalist and founder of Slate.
1951: Almost thirty thousand Iraqi Jews had signed up for immigration for Israel as of today. Today was the deadline the Iraqi government had set for this registration. Registration meant giving up their Iraqi citizenship which meant that as of this date these people were "stateless."
1952: Birthdate of Amir Petertz, the native of Morocco whose family made Aliyah in 1956. A Labor Party MK, he has served as Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that in Moscow following the death of Stalin,Georgi Malenkov, 51, was appointed the head of the Soviet Union while Molotov, Beria, Bulganin and Kaganovitch had been named as his deputies. Israel was one of the few countries which were not invited to Stalin’s funeral.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel had been divided into six administrative districts: three urban: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, and three rural: the Northern, Central and South.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that fifteen marauders were killed and 11 captured during the past week.
1954: CBS television broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy," that featured Ed Murrow at his finest. Fred Friendly, a Jewish television producer born in New York, joined forces with Murrow to produce all of the See It Now episodes. CBS was owned by William Paley who was also Jewish. Their ethnic origins had nothing to do with this choice of programming. In fact, Paley, like so many other Jews in the print and electronic media, bent over backwards to avoid any connection between being Jewish and the product they offered.
1956: In Finland, premiere of “The Rose Tatoo” directed by Daniel Mann, produced by Hal B. Wallis with a script co-authored by Hal Kanter.
1959: Barbie, the popular girls' doll, debuted, Over 800 million have been sold marking another Jewish business success brought to us, in this case, by Ruth Mosko Handler.
1962: Egyptian President Nasser declared that Gaza belonged to Palestinians. Of course Gaza was occupied by Egypt from 1948 until 1967. No attempt was made to turn the government over to the Palestinians at the time of this declaration. In fact, the Palestinians were trapped in Gaza without meaningful economic assistance from their Arab brethren.
1963: The 1963 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament which would provide a showcase for the talents of Duke’s Art Heyman opened today.
1963: Allan Sherman’s “My Son The Celebrity” reached #1 on Billboard’s Top 150 Best Sell LP’s Chart.
1968: Today, while serving with the U.S. Army in Viet Nam Jack S. Jacobs performed so heroically that earned the Medal of Honor for Valor. “Although seriously wounded and bleeding profusely, he assumed command and ordered a withdrawal. He then repeatedly returned through heavy fire, to rescue other wounded including the company commander and treated their wounds. On three occasions he repelled Viet Cong squads who were also searching for wounded American soldiers in the same area, killing three and wounding several others.”
1968: Birthdate of Adam Carl Adamowicz, “concept artist whose paintings of exotic landscapes, monsters and elaborately costumed heroes and villains formed the visual foundation for two of the most popular single-player role-playing video games of all time” – Fallout3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. (As reported by Daniel E. Slotnik)
1969: The chief of staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces was killed today during the War of Attrition. Today marked the second day of Egypt’s attempt to destroy the Bar Lev using massive artillery bombardments. While General Abdul Munim Riad was at the front to personally viewing the product of his handiwork, he was mortally wounded by Israeli artillery that had been fired in response to the Egyptian assault.
1970: A meeting of over 100 investors interested in financing tourist development projects in Israel will take place in Jerusalem today.
1972(23rd of Adar, 5732): Fifty year old Israeli diplomat and former intelligence officer Yaakov Herzog, the son of Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog and the brother of Chaim Herzog who was trained as a rabbi and a lawyer passed away today.
1977: About a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington D.C., killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. The three buildings were the District Building (city hall), the Islamic Center and, surprise, surprise the national headquarters of B’nai B’rith. And you thought terrorism like this only started with Osama and company.
1978:The Jerusalem Post reported that the US refused to consider any new sale of arms to Israel, despite Defense Minister Ezer Weizmann’s pressing requests, until the conclusion of the current Carter-Begin summit meetings and negotiations.
1978:The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel has started the commercial exploitation of oil from the Alma II and III wells, situated near a-Tur in the Gulf of Suez.
1982(14th of Adar, 5742): Purim
1982: Pola Nirenska, a Polish-born dancer and choreographer who first came to the United States with Mary Wigman's company from Germany in 1932, presented ''An Evening of Choreography'' to night in George Washington University's Marvin Theater.
1989: “The Heidi Chronicles” by Wendy Wasserstein opened on Broadway today.
1992(4th of Adar II, 5752): Former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin died in Tel Aviv at age 78. Regardless of your view of his politics, Begin was one of the central characters in the Zionist movement. Begin was the heir to Jabotinsky and the founder of what today is the Likud Party. In other words, he was the leader of the Jewish opposition to the Labor Zionists personified by Ben Gurion. Begin was the founder and leader of the Irgun. He was the first right wing Prime Minister of Israel. Most important of all, he negotiated the peace treaty with Sadat that ended the state of war that had existed with Egypt since 1948.
1994(26th of Adar, 5754): Lawrence E. Spivak, creator of Meet the Press passed away at the age of 93. On radio and then on television, Meet the Press was billed as the live press conference of the air. With Spivak sometimes serving as the moderator and sometimes as a member of the four person panel, American and foreign government officials took part in a thirty minute unrehearsed question and answer session. While the programs were marked by an air of civility, the members of the print and electronic media asked real questions and the guests were expected to provide real answers.
1996(18th of Adar, 5756): Comedian George Burns passed away at the age 100.
1997:The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Blood and Water:Sabotaging Hitler's Bombby Dan Kurzman, Southernmost And Other Storiesby Michael Brodsky and The Stories of David Bergelson:Yiddish Short Fiction From Russiaby David Bergelson.
1999(21stof Adar, 5759): Hermann Merkin, the native of Leipzig who fled Nazi German and in 1940 arrived in the United States where, in turn, he served in the Army, founded the investment firm of Merkin and Company and became a philanthropist whose good works including the founding of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue.
2001(14th of Adar, 5761): Purim
2002(25th of Adar, 5762): Shabbat HaChodesh
2002(25th of Adar, 5762):Limor Ben-Shoham, 27, of Jerusalem; Nir Rahamim Borochov, 22, of Givat Ze'ev; Danit Dagan, 25, of Tel Aviv; Livnat Dvash, 28, of Jerusalem; Tali Eliyahu, 26, of Jerusalem;Uri Felix, 25, of Givat Ze'ev; Dan Imani, 23, of Jerusalem; Natanel Kochavi, 31, of Kiryat Ata; Baruch Lerner-Naor, 28, of Eli;Orit Ozarov, 28, of Jerusalem and Avraham Haim Rahamim, 29, of Jerusalem were murdered by an Arab terrorist and 54 more people were murdered at the Café Moment in Jerusalem “about 100 meters from the home of the Prime Minister.
2003: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of interest to Jewish readers including Regions of the Great Heresay: Bruno Schulz: A Biographical Portrait by Jerzy Ficowski, Down and Out in the Magic by Cory Doctorow and the recently released paperback edition of Me Times Three, by Alex Witchel.
2006:There was a palpable air of excitement at the Kraft Family Stadium, as two-time Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady of the New England Patriots made a special visit to see what American Football in Israel was all about. Fans of all ages surrounded Brady as he signed autographs and threw passes to some of the AFI athletes
2007: As the college basketball world is seized with “March Madness,” The Jewish Weekfeatures an article styled “Carolina on his Mind” in which “Lennie Rosenbluth looks back a half century later on the historic victory that put the UNC Tar Heels on the basketball map.” Rosenbluth led UNC to a perfect 32-0 season including Carolina’s first NCAA championship. Along the way, Rosenbluth averaged 27.9 points and 8.6 rebounds per game during the regular season and defeated a team led by the legendary Wilt “the Stilt” Chamberlain. This is further evidence of the pervasive impact that Jews have had on many facets of American culture.
2007: Robert Alan “Bob” Levinson “was taken hostage” today “when visiting Iran’s Kish Island
2008: Novelist and former Roman Catholic priest James Carroll discusses his 2001 book Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History at the National Cathedral in
Washington, D.C.
2008: The Sunday New York Times featured reviews of Beaufort, a novel by Israeli author Ron Lehsem, translated by Evan Fallenberg, The Life of the Skiesby Jonathan Rosen and a collection of four short works of fiction by French novelist and Holocaust victim by by Irène Némirovsky including David Golder, The Ball, Snow In Autumn and The Courilof Affair.
2008: In an article entitled, “A Family Tree of Literary Fakers,” Motoko Rich traces famous literary frauds including Clifford Irving’s “biography of Howard Hughes,” Binjamin Wilkomirski’s 1996 phony memoir, Fragmentsdescribing how he survived as a Latvian Jewish orphan in a Nazi concentration camp and Misha Defonseca’s book, Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Yearsabout a childhood spent running from the Nazis and searching for her deported parents; a childhood that did not happen.
2008: The Washington Post book section featured a review of Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America by Steven Waldman. “Founding Faith takes up two central questions about religion in early America. First, what did such Founding Fathers as Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison usually believe? And second, how did it come about that the First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees that "Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"? The answers to these questions carry implications for Jewish Americans since the role of religion and religious freedom has allowed the American Jewish community to think of itself as a unique element that will transcend past Jewish experiences in other societies and countries.
2008(2 Adar II, 5768):Twenty-year-old Sergeant Liran Banay, who was critically wounded last Thursday when a bomb was detonated near an IDF vehicle patrolling the Gaza security fence, died of his wounds on Sunday morning. The Givati Brigade soldier, who lost both legs as a result of Thursday’s explosion, died in Soroka Hospital in Ashkelon.
2009: WebYeshiva started the WebYeshiva Blog today.
2009 (13 Adar 5769): Fast of Esther
2009: In the evening, Megillah Reading
2009: Economist Nouriel Roubini, the Turkish born son of Iranian Jews who spent part of his youth living in Israel and who was the “man who predicted the current financial crisis said the US recession could drag on for years without drastic action…Roubini sees ‘no hope for the recession ending in 2009 and will more than likely last into 2010.’”
2009:Police arrested two Arab youths carrying a commando blade in the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood of Jerusalem today foiling a stabbing attack. During a preliminary investigation, the pair said they had planned on carrying out a terror attack.
2009: In an article entitled “Bad Guy Inspires Goodies,’ published in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, columnist Cecilia Hanley provides a brief account about Purim, the history of Hamantaschen and a recipe for a pastry that she likened to the Kolache, a pastry popular with the Czech population that settled Cedar Rapids and is still a unique local delicacy.
2009: In “The Perfect Hamantaschen” published today Deborah Gardner attempts to settle the dispute between those who prefer prune and those who munch on “mun.”
2010: The winners of the National Jewish Book Award are scheduled to be honored today in New York City
2010: David Nemeth is scheduled to be the instructor at this evening’s session of How to Give A D’var Torah at Adas Israel in Washington, D.C.
2011: Alan Joseph Shatter, Irish political leader, began serving as Minister for Justice and Equality
2011(3rd of Adar II, 5771): Seventy-two year old “Owen Laster, one of the most powerful literary agents of his generation, who ran William Morris’s worldwide literary operations and had a long list of best-selling writers that included James A. Michener and Gore Vidal”, passed away today (As reported by William Grimes)
2011: Calvin Goldscheider (Professor Emeritus of Judaic Studies, Brown University), Max Ticktin (Professor of Judaic Studies, George Washington University), Susan K. Finston (CEO and Managing Director, Amrita Therapeutics Ltd.), Steve Rabinowitz (future emeritus president and CEO of Rabinowitz-something Communications), and a special mystery guest speaker are scheduled to appear at Washington DC's 20th Annual Latke-Hamantash Symposium at Adas Israel.
2011: The Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum is scheduled to host “From Shtetl to City: Travel in the Old Jewish Heartland” featuring author Ruth Ellen Gruber.
2011:As Jerusalem prepared for the possibility of a snowstorm, Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat asked the public “to be responsible” “during an inspection of the city’s emergency snow plans at the Givat Shaul maintenance center.
2011: Today the Knesset approved the initial reading of a bill which proposes an end to allowing companies to discriminate against customers based on where they live, a law which could potentially benefit West bank cities and residents.
2011: UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks was honored by Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba today for his exceptional work as “a widely published theologian and philosopher, whose aspirations for truth and mutual respect of all peoples guide his actions.”
2011: According to an article entitled “50 Famous Travel Spots Every Literary Geek Should See” published today by the website “Online Courses must see spots include the following four spots of special interest to followers of Jewish history.
- The Secret Annex: Amsterdam has converted The Secret Annex into the Anne Frank Museum, preserving the memory of lives lost and destroyed when Nazis discovered their hiding place.
2. Auschwitz-Birkenau: Holocaust literature frequently relates horrific tales of the Auschwitz concentration camp, most notably Night and Maus, and today it stands as a somber reminder of humanity’s capacity for senseless cruelty. Buchenwald also appears in many memoirs as well.
3. Algonquin Hotel: This lush Midtown Manhattan locale used to host the Algonquin Round Table, consisting of New York’s finest wits. Their meetings resulted in a plethora of fictitious and non-fictitious works alike, most famously the bulk of Dorothy Parker’s oeuvre. Parker was born Dorothy Rothschild, the daughter of German-Jew who was not related to the famous banking house.
4. Dublin, Ireland: Visit the Irish capital on June 16th for Bloomsday, a festival honoring James Joyce’s modernist magnum opus Ulysses. Readings and walks bring the brick of a novel to life, allowing celebrants to follow in the footsteps of iconic protagonist Leopold Bloom. Although fictious, Bloom may be Ireland’s most famous Jews.
2011(3rd of Adar II): Anniversary of the dedication of the Second Temple which took placed on the 3rd of Adar, 3412 (349 BCE)
2011(3rdof Adar II, 5771): Seventy-two year old Owen Laster, a literary agent for William Morris passed away.
2012: In Washington, DC, at Tifereth Israel, Artist in Residence Alison Westermann is scheduled to kick off a weekend of “Translating Text Into Song” with a Carlebach Kabbalat Shabbat Service.
2012: “Footnote” – the Oscar nominated tale of a rivalry between two Talmudic scholars who are father and son – is scheduled to pen Angelika Film Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinema.
2012: Two senior terrorists were killed in Gaza today after IDF aircraft targeted a vehicle in the Strip, the army confirmed. One of the fatalities is Zuhir al-Qaisi, the secretary-general of the Popular Resistance Committees terror group, Palestinian sources said. The second terrorist killed in the strike is Ahmad al-Khanini, a senior PRC member freed in the Shalit prisoner swap, the Palestinians said. The senior terrorist killed in an IDF strike today was planning a major terror attack on Israeli targets near the Egypt border, army officials said. Zuhir al-Qaisi, also known as Abu Ibraim, was planning a mega-attack in recent days that could have resulted in numerous casualties, the army said. The planned multipronged terror strike was to originate from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, military officials said.
(As reported by Yoav Zitun)
2012: More than 30 rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel tonight, leaving at least eight people injured, one of them seriously.
2013: “No Place On Earth” is scheduled to have its Minnesota Premiere this evening at the Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival.
2013: AMIT is scheduled to host “A Night of Israeli Cinema” at Tribeca Cinemas.
2013: The Eden-Tamir Music is scheduled to host a concert “Loving Brahms” today in Jerusalem.
2014: In Coralville, Iowa, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host its annual Purim Carnival under the leadership of Rabbi Jeff Portman.
2014: “The Sturgeon Queens,” a documentary about Russ & Daughters is scheduled to be shown in Boulder, CO.
2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “The Whole Megillah: A Family Purim Program featuring a Puppet Show and Art Project”
2014: The Washington DC JCC is scheduled to host the 4th Annual Community Day of Education on Israeli Arab Issues.
2014: The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host a Pre-Purim Pajama Party.
2014: The 24th annual Washington Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end.
2014: David Brooks is scheduled to lecture on “Genius, God and Morality” at the 92ndStreet Y.
2014: The third bi-annual LimmudFest New Orleans is scheduled to come to an end. (For more see
http://www.limmudnola.org/ or the Crescent City Jewish News)
2014: The New York Times published reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Genesis: Truman, American Jews and the Origins of the Arab/Israeli Conflict by John Judis and The Double Life of Paul De Man by Evelyn Barish
2014: In “Eulogy for a Source” published today, Helen Epstein remembers Jiri Fiedler, who along with his wife was murdered at the end of January.
2014: In Eilat, this morning, Israeli troops unloaded some 150 containers, suspected of holding illicit Iranian arms, from a ship seized several days earlier in the Red Sea
2014:Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews filled the streets in lower Manhattan today to protest Israel’s proposal to draft strictly religious citizens into its army.
2015: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host a field trip to The National Museum of American Jewish History which is featuring a an exhibited “that examines the role that Jews have played in the American Military from 1654 to present.”
2015: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host an evening with the Meitar Ensemble which was “founded in 2004 in Tel Aviv by artistic director Amit Dolberg.
2015: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a screening of “Above and Beyond,” “the first major feature length-documentary about the foreign airman” who served in the War of Independence in 1948 produced by Nancy Spielberg.