March 17
796 BCE (1stof Nisan, 2956): Based on computations using the Bible and archaeology, possible date for the death of Jehoash, King of Judah.
45 BCE : Julius Caesar defeated the forces of Pompey at the Battle of Munda. Caesar’s victory put an end to the Pompeian attempt to rule Rome
180: Antonius Marcus Aurelius Emperor of Rome passed away at the age of 58. The author of Meditations was known as a wise philosopher-king. However, he had little use for the Jews. While traveling in Judea , he described the Jews as "Stinking and tumultuous." He reportedly expressed a preference for the Teutonic barbarians whom he was fighting on the border between Gaul and Germania .
455: Petronius Maximus becomes emperor of the Western Roman Empire after murdering Valentinian III and forcing the Empress Eudoxia to marry him. The Empress wrote to Genseric the Vandal asking him to come to Rome to avenge her. According to Theophanes he came and sacked the city and reportedly carried off the treasures from the Second Temple that had been seized by Titus in 70.
763: Birthdate of Harun al-Rashid, the Abbasid caliph who sent Jewish teachers to France at the request of Charlemagne.
1190: The Crusaders completed the massacre of Jews of York England slaughtering 500 Jews on this particular day.
1616: In Holland, under the rule of Prince Maurice of Orange, it is decided that each city could decide for itself whether or not to admit Jews. In those towns where they were admitted they would not be required to wear a badge of any sort identifying them as Jews.
1636:Urban VIII issued “Cum allias piae” a Papal Bull that ordered the “Synagogues of the Duchies of Ferarri and Urban, to pay a tax of 10 ecus.”
1654: Alexis Mikhailovich, the second Romanov Czar, issued an edict today instructing “a party of Lithuanian Jews to proceed from Kaluga to Nijni-Novgorod” under the protection of an “escort of twenty sharpshooters.”
1733: “Deborah,” an oratorio by Handel based on Chapters 4 and 5 of the Book of Judges premiered at the King’s Theatre in London.
1749: “Solomon,” an oratorio by Handel based on the Biblical account of the Israelite King had its first performance at the Theatre Royal in London.
1762: The first St. Patrick’s Day Parade is held in New York City America America
1757:Following a dispute with other members of the Bet Din in London, Isaac Nieto wrote a letter today resigning as ab bet din. Nieto was the son David Nieto and he had served as the Haham of Bevis Marks and as the first Rabbi of the Great Synagogue in Gibraltar. He had been serving as the ab bet din since 1751.
1798: Birthdate of Jacob Ettlinger, the native of Baden who became a leader of Orthodox Judaism and served as Chief Rabbi in Altona from 1836 until his death in 1871
1789: Birthdate of Edmund Kean, the great 19thcentury Shakespearian actor who first gained fame for his portrayal of Shylock. The portrayal of the Jew from Venice was a difficult role and a career-maker for those few who did it successfully.
1801: In Galicia, Rabbi Shebah ha-Levi and his wife gave birth to Orientalist Simchah Pinksker, the father of Leon Pinsker.
1805: The Italian Republic, a creation of Napoleon, was transformed in the Kingdom of Italy with the French emperor serving as King. The Jews of Italy benefited from the appearance of the French revolutionary armies. Between 1796 and 1798, they had liberated several ghettos, most notably the Rome Ghetto in 1798. The Jews will be forced to return to their ghettos with the return of Italian reactionaries but Napoleon would have one last success when he freed the Jews of Florence from their Ghetto in 1808.
1807: Birthdate of Mendel Hess the Chief Rabbi of the Grand Duchy of Weimar (Germany).
1808: Today an imperial edict was issued that “divided the Jews living in French countries into consistories. Brussels (Belgium) was included in the consistory of Crefeld. Since 1794, the French had controlled Belgium. By the time of the issuance of that edit, this meant Napoleon was the one issuing the orders. On the overthrow of Napoleon, Belgium was united with Holland; and the Jewish community of Brussels became the head of the fourteenth religious district of Holland. After the revolution of 1830 Brussels became the head of the Belgian consistories, and a chief rabbi was nominated.”
1808: The Infamous Decree (decret infame) of Napoleon canceled all debts owed to Jews by those serving in the military or by women if it was signed without the approval of their husbands or parents. It also abolished freedom of trade of the Jews by forcing them to acquire permits (which were almost never given) from the local prefects, and it prevented Jews from settling in the area of the Upper and Lower Rhine.
1808: Establishment of the Central Consistory of French Jews.
1811: Birthdate of Karl Gutzkow, the author “Uriel Acosta” which was first performed in Yiddish in 1882 at the Mariinsky Theatre in Odessa starring Abba Schoengold whom Jacob Adler described as "the god of the Yiddish public, the god, indeed, of all who saw him on stage... the handsomest man in the world. Tall. Blue eyes. Golden hair. An Apollo."
1811: The Austrian Emperor denied Simon Edler von Lämel permission to purchase a house in Vienna but “in the same year elevated him to the hereditary nobility” as a reward for his assistance in supplying the Army during the Napoleonic Wars.
1815: In Darmstadt, Reina (Rachel) Oppenheimer and Abraham Oppenheimer gave birth to Myer Oppenheimer
1832: Birthdate of Moncure Daniel Conway the Unitarian clergyman and author whose works include The Wandering Jew and Solomon and Solomonic Literature
1836: In Charleston, South Carolina, Isaac and Babetta Dittenhoefer, gave birth to Abram Jess Dittenhoefer. His parents were immigrants from Germany who lived in Baltimore and Charleston before settling in New York where his father became a successful merchant. A graduate of Columbia Law, young Dittenhoefer would become a practicing attorney and successful judge. Oddly enough, this Jew who was born in the Cradle of the Confederacy would be one of the electors from New York who would cast a vote for Abraham Lincoln in the Electoral College.
1840: Birthdate of Henri Didon Louis Remy, the Dominican friar who spoke “approvingly of Renan’s closing work, History of the Jews which depicts “Christianity as the flower, masterpiece and glory of Judaism.”
1848: Eight years before the death of his father Jacob Steinschenider, Moritz Steinschneider “after many difficulties succeeded in becoming a Prussian citizen” in “the same year” that “he was charged with preparation of the catalogue of Hebrew books in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.”
1851: Rabbi Sabato Morais arrives in Philadelphia with the expectation of becoming the spiritual leader of Congregation Mikveh Israel.
1852: In Eubigheim, Lazarus Siegel and Zerlina Koch gave birth to Henry Seigel, the German immigrant who came to United States in 1852 where he established and/or acquired a series of increasingly successful department store including Siegel, Hartsfield & Co., the Siegel Cooper Company, Simpson Crawford Company in New York, and the Schlesinger and Mayer Company in Chicago.
1854: Mr. and Mrs. Moses Ley Maduro Peixotta gave birth to Daniel Levy Maduro Peixotto, a leader in the New York State Militia who died as a result of fever contracted during the Spanish-American War.
1857: Paul Reuter, a Jew by birth who would become one of the first of the modern Press Lords as the founder of Reuters legally became a British subject. Reuter had already shed the Jewish part of his origins when he converted in November of 1845, a month after he had moved to London.
1859: In Frankfurt, Selig and Clementine Goldschmidt gave birth to their second child Flora.
1861: The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed. The ghetto walls came tumbling down and the Jews were fully emancipated. Jews played an active part in the creation of the modern Italian state and they enjoyed a level of social and legal acceptance that was second only to that enjoyed by the Jews of Great Britain.
1862(15th of Adar II, 5622):Shushan Purim
1862: A group of wealthy young men who formed what would be known as the Purim Association held the first Purim Ball in New York City.
1862(15th of Adar II, 5622): Composer Jacques François Fromental Élie Halévy passed away. Born in 1799, Halévy composed the tragic opera La Juive and the comic opera L'Éclair. These works are his major claim to artistic fame.
1864(9th of Adar II, 5624): Abraham David Meijer, the brother of Jonas Daniel Meijer (the first Jewish lawyer in the Netherlands) passed away today.
1865(19th of Adar, 5625):Seventy-one year old Isaac Noah Mannheimer, the native of Cophenahgen passed who was serving as the rabbi for the Seitensteeten Synagogue passed away today in Vienna.
1870(14th of Adar II, 5630): Purim
1870(14th of Adar): Rabbi Dov Ber ben Isaac Meisels of Cracow, author of Hiddushei Mahardam passed away
1870: Since the Purim balls in New York appear to have lost their popularity, tonight’s Purim celebrations will not consist of any “grand demonstration” but will be limited to some unpretentious entertainments.
1873(18th of Adar, 5633): Seventy-seven year old Joseph Salvador a member of a distinguished French Sephardi family whose mother was Roman Catholic, the author of Paris, Rome, Jerusalem ou la Question religieuse au XIX siècle who was angered by the anti-Jewish riots in German and was considered a ‘proto-Zionist” passed away today
1874: Birthdate of Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise President of Zionist Organization of America. Rabbi Wise declined to accept the pulpit of New York United States
1879: In Paris,Noémie and Adolphe Bloch gave birth to Jules André Albert Bloch
1886(10th of Adar II, 5646)Leopold Zunz also known—"Yom Tov Lipmann Tzuntz" passed away. Born in 1794, “he was a German Reform rabbi and writer, the founder of what has been termed the "Science of Judaism" (Wissenschaft des Judentums), the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual.”
1878: “Ethical Culture” which was published today describes the growth of The Society for Ethical Culture which was founded only two years before by Felix Adler. The author gives due consideration to Adler’s Jewish origins and the effect that has had in creating the increasingly popular movement.
1878: The Jewish owner of the coffee and cake saloon at number 7 Fulton Street failed in his effort to get Justice Murray to find that his employee was not guilty of violating the city’s ordinance against throwing oyster shells, after shucking them, into the street.
1878: The annual Purim reception at the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews began this morning at 11 o’clock. Due to the inclement weather, the turnout was smaller than normal. The reception ended at 6 in the evening.
1878: Cohen Davis, an elderly glazier, was tried for perjury today in the General Sessions Court. The prosecutor charged that he had lied under oath during the trial of Abraham Freeman and Charles Freeman who have been convicted of arson in the first degree.
1880: It was reported today that the annual ball sponsored by the Purim Association had raised $18,585.80 for the New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital.
1880: It was reported today that George Kessler is among those selling tickets the Concord Society’s first grand annual charity ball which is a benefit for the Young Ladies’ Charitable which is an adjunct of the United Hebrew Charities.
1882: “Justice Steckler Expelled” published today described the decision to expel Alfred Steckler and some of his associates from the Tenth Assembly District Republican Association. Steckler and his associates were not expelled because they were Jewish but because they had failed to support the Republican candidate.
1884: Birthdate of Dr. Nahum Nir, the native of Warsaw who made Aliyah in 1925 and was one of the signatories of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
1884(20th of Adar, 5644): Benjamin Gratz passed away in Lexington, KY. Part of the famous Gratz family, he was born in Philadelphia in 1792. After serving in the Army during the War of 1812 he moved to Kentucky where he practiced law and served as trustee of Transylvania University.
1889(14th of Adar II, 5649): Purim
1892: It was reported today that Rabbi Stephen S. Wise will be addressing the congregants at Temple Israel in Harlem.
1893: “Russia’s Securities May Suffer” published today described an appeal made by the London Russo-Jewish Committee that has been “sent to every Jewish banker, bank director, bank manager, stock broker, and “agent de change” in Europe calling on them” to boycott Russian loans and Russian financial transactions in general. “The appeal is in retaliation” for the continued severe treatment of the Russian Jews by the Czar
1894: Moritz Kepes, a Jewish saloon owner, was beaten up today by John Fuchs and his son who owned a nearby saloon.
1894: A fire broke out today in a tenement house on Jefferson Street this morning that is owned by Abraham Doworsky and is occupied by Russian Jews. Some of the tenants told Doworsky that they would be starting a newspaper in the building’s basement, but the fire exposed the fact that they were operating an illegal still.
1894: “The Germans and their Fatherland” published today provides a detailed review Germany and the Germans by William Harbutt in which the author devotes one chapter to the anti-Semitic party and another chapter the criminal activities in which Jews engage. The author does raise and does not answer the question “What do the anti-Semites propose to do with the Jews and what would do without them
1894: The United Hebrew Charities reported today that between October 1, 1893 to March 1, 1894 that they had over 18,000 applicants for assistance. During those five months, the charity had spent over $103,000 for clothing, medicine burials, coal and operating the industrial schools. For the same period a year ago, they had spent a little more than $46,000 which is indicative of the losses caused by the depression that began in 1893.
1895: Birthdate of Shemp Howard. Born Samuel Horwitz in Brooklyn , New York
1897: Birthdate of Charles Levine, the son of Massachusetts scrap metal dealer, who was a pioneer in the field of aviation. A contemporary of Lindbergh, he was on the second plane that flew from America across the Atlantic. Unlike Lindbergh who was heading for Paris, Levine was trying to make Berlin. Although he had to land one hundred miles short of his distance, he had actually out-distanced the Lone Eagle.
1897: Samuel Simon Leibowitz arrived in America with his parents from Romania. Born in 1893, he would become a famous defense attorney and New York Judge. He is best known as attorney who took the lead in defending the Scottsboro Boys.
1898:”The Baron De Hirsch Fund” published today described the efforts to build “model tenements” and erect “suburban homes” to relieve the overcrowding on the Lower East Side. Some of the money had already been used to purchase 12 lots across the Harlem River where “model tenements” will be constructed. These efforts are not to be confused with other efforts financed by the late Baron Hirsch and his widow to develop “agricultural colonies” including the one at Woodbine, NJ.
1899: “Jewish Philanthropy” published today described Simon Wolf’s view of Jewish generosity. According to him, “We take care of our people and we help others.” “In the largest cities in the United States” Jews have collected $64,000,000 for philanthropic purposes, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of such mean as Oscar Nathan, Isidor Straus and Adolphus S. Solomon.
1899: On Chicago’s South Side, Rabbi Isaac M. Wise dedicated the sanctuary of The Reform Congregation of Isaiah Temple which had been designed by Dankmar Adler.
1900: Birthdate Alfred Newman, a major Jewish-American composer of music for films who received 45 Academy Award nominations (a record in the music categories, now shared with John Williams), winning 9 times; in 1940 he was nominated for 4 different films. He also composed the familiar fanfare which accompanies the studio logo for 20th Century Fox, where he headed the music department. He was active until the end of his life, scoring Airport shortly before his death. Between 1930 and 1970, he wrote music for over 200 films of every imaginable type, including a score for the newsreel made from the World War II footage of the Battle of Midway
1901: In Philadelphia, PA, a federation of Jewish charities including the Jewish Hospital Association, Jewish Foster Home, Society of United Hebrew Charities, Hebrew Education Society, Orphans' Guardians, Jewish Maternity Association, Jewish Immigration Society, Young Women's Union, and Hebrew Sunday-School Society was formed today with Jacob Gimbel as President
1902: Herzl is authorized to obtain three letters of credit, each for a million francs, from banks in Paris, Berlin and London which are to be deposited in Turkish banks. Several members of the Actions Committee including Avraham Menachem Mendel Ussishkin are opposed to the plan. Ussishkin and Herzl were both fervent Zionists but they had different views as to how the goal of establishing a Jewish home in Eretz Israel could be accomplished.
1904: Birthdate of Chaim Gross an Austrian born American sculptor. Gross began exhibiting both his sculpture and graphic art in 1935, and was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 1949. Gross was a practitioner of the direct carving method, with the majority of his work being carved from wood. Gross was a professor of printmaking and sculpture at both the Educational Alliance and the New School New York City
1907(2nd of Nisan, 5667): Gotlieb Schmelkes the husband of Henriette Schmelkes and the father of Markus and Rachel Schmelkes passed away toay
1908(14thof Adar II, 5668): Purim
1910: Birthdate of David Abraham "Sonny" Werblin the Flatbush native who gained national fame for his purchase of the New York Jets and the signing of Joe Namath – an act which helped to force the NFL to merge with the AFL.
1911: Birthdate of Moshe Baram the native of Zdolbuniv who made Aliyah in 1931 after Independence served as an MK and cabinet minister.
1915: “The American Jewish Relief Committee announced” today “that letters to person in Russia should be written in either Russian, English or French” since owing to the strict censorship in force in Russia…letters written in Yiddish or any other language than those named had little or no chance of being delivered.”
1915: As of today, the American Jewish Relief Committee has collected $573,267.00.
1915: As of today it was reported that there are an estimated 50,000 Falsahas (Black Jews) living in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and that Dr. Jacques Faitlovitch, a French Jew is working on developing an educational program for them.
1915: Tonight, in Washington, DC, “the Austro-Hungarian Embassy…made public a dispatch from the Foreign Office in Vienna” that the “Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army under the pretext that populating sympathizing with Austrians and Germans…has ordered that Jews are forbidden to remain in districts occupied by the army and are forbidden to enter the country east of Jaroslau.” (Editor’s Note – Jaroslau is a town in southeast Poland on the border with Russia where Jews had lived since the 15th century and whose pre-WW I population was 25% Jewish. On the Eastern Front all warring parties accused the Jews of being spies or worse and used this as an excuse for indiscriminate killing and expulsion.)
1916: Birthdate of Dr. Albert M. Kligman, a dermatologist who invented the widely used acne medication Retin-A but whose experiments involving prisoners raised ethical questions that dogged his career.
1917: One hundred and ninety Jews from Palestine migrate to Cyprus on an Ottoman mail steamer.
1917:Dorothy Cohen Schwartzman, Ida Bienstock Landau, Minna Goldsmith Mahler, Eva Effron Robin, and Sylvia Steierman founded Delta Phi Epsilon (ΔΦΕ or DPhiE) is an international sorority at New York University Law School.
1918: The British Army including the Jewish battalion captured Amman
1921: Birthdate of Meir Slutzki who as Meir Amit gained fame as an Israeli politician, general, and Director of the Mossad.
1921: The Constituent Assembly ratified the constitution of the Polish Republic which granted equal rights to the Jews.
1921: At the Cairo Conference attended by Winston Churchill and T.E. Lawrence (better known as “Lawrence of Arabia”) it was agreed that Transjordan (an Arab State) should be separated from Palestine “thus enabling Britain to fulfill its wartime pledges to both the Arabs and the Jews.” The decision reinforced the right for Jews to “be able to settle the land from the Mediterranean to the Jordan Galilee to the Negev .” (“This comprised the area of both Israel West Bank today.”)
1926: Rodgers and Hart's musical "Girl Friend" premiered in New York. This is but one example of a Jewish team providing a hit musical comedy for Broadway.
1927(13thof Adar II, 5687): Fast of Esther
1933: Victor Klemperer writes in his diary, “on Friday, unfortunately, Thiemes was here. It was frightful . . . such enthusiastic conviction and support. The phraseology of unity. Progress piously repeated. Grete (his wife) said, "Everything else failed, now we have to blow this horn." He corrected her vehemently. "We didn't have to." In really free elections he has voted for the right cause. This I can't forgive him. The poor dog may be frightened for his job. He must howl with the wolves. But why in front of me? . . . Naked violence, breach of law, terrible hypocrisy, and unmitigated barbarism poses as law.
1933: The Chevrolet Program starring Jack Benny is broadcast for the first time on NBC Radio
1935: The Palestine Maccabee Association announced that it would not participate in the 1936 Olympics to be held in Germany because of that country’s treatment of its Jewish citizens.
1936: In response to the receipt of a copy of Victor Gallancz’s The Yellow Spot: The Extermination of the Jews in Germany from Harold Laski, Churchill wrote Laksi urging the Laborite to find a way to gain support from the Labor Party for the re-armament program designed to thwart the threat of the Nazis.
1936: A mass demonstration of Polish Jews, left-wingers, and liberals protests anti-Semitism in Poland.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that in addition to five young Jews who were murdered by Arabs during the past few days, there were two more victims: Samuel Gottfried, 26, of Rosh Pina and an Arab villager who defended his flock from robbers.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that The Jewish Agency Executive in London submitted a memorandum to the British government which claimed that the Arab disturbances which began on April 19, 19 36, did not end on October 12, 19 36, as claimed by the government and the Arab Higher Committee, but continued uninterruptedly, claiming many Jewish lives.
1938(14thof Adar II, 5698); Purim
1939: At a meeting in Tel Aviv today, “the National Council of Palestine Jews…decided to a call a 24 hour strike” to start on Monday, March 20th “ “as the first step in its program of ‘drastic political action’ against Great Britain’s plan” for Palestine. “The Council condemned the plan as ‘the liquidation of the Jewish national home and strangulation of the Jewish settlement.’”
1939: Erich Otto Sonnheim arrived in the United States from Germany.
1941: According to a death certificate issued by the Soviet government and made public in 1954 this is date of the death of Isaac Babel. It would not be until the 1990’s that this would be exposed as a lie. Babel had actually been executed by the Soviets on January 27, 1940.
1941: Hans Frank, General Governor of Occupied Poland, had a meeting with Adolf Hitler about the fate of Jews in Europe. Afterwards, Frank informs the General Government's undersecretaries of state, police and SS chiefs, district governors, and department directors that the Jews are to be eliminated.
1942: The 60,000 Jews in Tunisia are restricted to publishing only one newspaper.
1942: In eastern Poland, the Belzec Concentration Camp opened as 1,500 Jews arrive from the Lviv Ghetto in the western Ukraine. At that time 30,000 Lublin Polish Jews were transported to this death camp.
1942: Birthdate of educator Meyer Feldberg. Born in South Africa Tulane University
1942(28th of Adar, 5702): In Pochep, Russia, 1,816 Jewish villagers were massacred in an anti-tank ditch.
1943(10th of Adar II, 5703): More than 1200 Jews from Lvov, Ukraine, were killed at Piaski, Poland, as retribution for the March 16 murder of an SS trooper by a Jewish man. Eleven Jewish policemen were hanged in the ghetto, 1000 Jewish slave laborers were executed, and an additional 200 Jews were murdered.
1943:Dimitur Peshev and 40 other members of the Sobranje, the Bulgarian parliament, sign a petition demanding that deportations of Jews from Bulgaria to Occupied Poland end. Archbishop Kiril of Plovdiv sends a telegram to Tsar Boris III informing him of his intention to lie down on the tracks in front of any trains transporting Bulgarian Jews.
1946: Some of the members of “Kibbutz Buchenwald” set sail for Palestine from France today on the Maapilim boat the “Tel-Chai”.
1947: The Palestine police issued a “broadsheet” today “offering an unspecified reward for information leading to the arrest of 18 wanted men” described as “terrorist chiefs.” The list which includes photos and physical descriptions is in alphabetical order beginning with Menachem Begin of the Irgun. The penultimate spot on the list goes to Nathan Friedman Yellin, Abrahm Stern’s successor as head of the Stern Gang. The last name on the list is Itshak Yexernitsky who has been captured by the British but has escaped their custody.
1947: Leaders of the Arab League are scheduled to meet in Cairo today where they will map out their propaganda program to oppose the creation of a Jewish state and how best to present their case at the upcoming meeting of the United Nations.
1947: “Just before noon today an Army officer blew his whistle” in Jerusalem marking the end of martial law in several areas including Mea Shearim.
1948: In Jerusalem, the British abandoned their compound on the grounds of Schneller Orphanage which the Etzioni Brigade would “use at its base of operations during the Israeli War of Independence.
1948: The Naval Service, which became the Israeli Sea Corps, was formed today and the members for the Plugat HaYam (the naval arm of the Palmach) were ordered to join.
1950: The Jewish Agency for Palestine announced tonight that it was prepared to receive 20,000 refugees from Iraq. This issue has taken on a great deal of urgency for Iraq’s 150,000 Jews, since the Baghdad government has given them a year to leave the country for Israel. As part of the price of departure, the Jews must basically leave behind most of their possessions and wealth for use by the Iraqi’s.
1950(28th of Adar, 5710): Eighty-four year old Ellis Gimbel, Sr. the last surviving of the Gimbel brothers who has served as Chairman of the Board of Gimbel Brothers, Inc since 1936 passed away today
1953(1stof Nisan, 5713): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1954: Following last night attack in the Negev, where an Israeli bus was ambushed by “a group of Palestinian Arabs who had infiltrated into Israel from Jordan in which the driver and ten passengers were killed “Israeli trackers assisted by police dogs and accompanied by UN observers followed the attackers' tracks to a point 6 miles west of the Jordanian border, where the tracks were lost”
1957(14thof Adar II, 5717): Purim
1957: “Great Philosophy in Small Packets” included a review of The Age of Enlightenment: The Eighteenth Century Philosophers, with introduction and commentary by Isaiah Berlin.
1962(11thof Adar II, 5722): Shabbat Zachor
1962(11thof Adar II, 5722): Ninety-four year old “Rabbi Clifton H. Levy, the oldest past president of the New York Board of Rabbis and a leader of the Reform rabbinate” passed away today. “Together with the late Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Rabbi Levy was a founder in 1922 of the Association of Reform Rabbis of New York City and Vicinity. Born in New Orleans, LA, Rabbi Levy received his ordination from the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. He was the author of a book, Judaism Applied to Life, and of pamphlets and articles on Biblical archaeology and art.” (As reported by JTA)
1969: Golda Meir became Prime Minister of Israel. A dedicated Zionist and Socialist, Mrs. Meir devoted her entire life to creating a national homeland for the Jewish people where we could flourish in peace and safety. Her life reads more like a novel with all of its twists and turns ranging from the gritty determination of the 1920's when she was a pioneer in primitive Palestine, to the clandestine trips she made to meet the King of Jordan in an attempt to avert war in 1948, to her fund raising in the United States so the unborn state would have some weapons with which to face the invading Arab Armies, to...well I think you get the idea. She certainly is worthy successor to the memory of Miriam and Deborah and Moses and David as well.
1972: “The Time of Your Life” a revival of which in 1969 was directed by John Hirsch was revived again today in Los Angeles co-starring Richard Dreyfus.
1974(23rd of Adar, 5734): Architect Louis Kahn passed away.
1977:The Jerusalem Postreported that Leah Rabin, wife of the prime minister, admitted that she had closed her dollar account in Washington and transferred the money totaling $2,000, as a donation to a charity for autistic children which she headed. Events surrounding this bank account would lead to Prime Minster Rabin’s political downfall, end the Labor Party’s domination of Israeli politics and bring Menachem Begin and Likud to power for the first time since the founding of the state in 1948.
1977: “The Cadaver in the Clutter” the second episode of “Lanigan’s Rabbi” starring Bruce Solomon as Rabbi David Small was broadcast tonight.
1978: Jack Klugman was roasted on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast on NBC
1983: Actor Dustin Hoffman and Lisa Hoffman give birth to their daughter Rebecca Lillian Hoffman
1989: The Broadway production of “Chu Chem,” a musical inspired by “a trip to Kaifeng Fu (prefecture), China, the site of a major Jewish migration in the 10th century” with music by Mitch Leigh opened at the Ritz Theatre.
1992(12th of Adar II, 5752): The Islamic Jihad used a truck bomb to attack the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires Argentina killing 29.
1994(5th of Nisan, 5754): Ninety-four year old German born English zoologist and geneticist Charlotte Auerbach, the daughter of Friedrich Auerbach and the granddaughter of Leopold Auerbach passed away today.
1995: Premiere of “Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh” a horror film with music composed by Philip Glass.
1997:Janet Rosenberg Jagan, the Chicago born Jewess, began serving as Prime Minster of Guyana.
1997: Eighty-one year old Joe J. Heydecker who as a German soldier created a secret photographic record of the Warsaw Ghetto, which, after being published in 1981 provided “evidence of Nazi atrocities and inhumane living conditions in the Ghetto passed away today.
1999(29th of Adar, 5759): Composer Ernest Gold passed away. Born in 1921 in Vienna Gold was an Austrian-born Jewish-American Academy Award winning composer of the theme from the movie Exodus. Gold wrote nearly 100 film/television scores between 1945 and 1992, including the Hawaii Five-O theme. He also composed a 1968 Broadway musical "I'm Solomon".
2002: At the Jewish Museum in New York an exhibition entitled ''The Emergence of Jewish Artists in 19th-Century Europe'' comes to a close.
2002: Twenty-five people were injured in a terrorist bombing of Egged Bus 22 in Jerusalem.
2003(13thof Adar II, 5763): Ta’anit Esther; Erev Purim
2003(13thof Adar II, 5763): Eight-seven year old historian Herbert Aptheker passed away. (As reported by Christopher Lehman-Haupt)
2005: “The Southern Command of the Israel Defense Forces issued a military order prohibiting Israeli citizens not living in the Gaza Strip settlements from taking up residence there.”
2006: The Forwards reported that the Aleph Institute, an organization linked to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement was approved by the Department of Defense to endorse chaplains
2006: Premiere of “Tall: The American Skyscraper and Louis Sullivan” a documentary directed and produced by Manfred Kirchheimer.
2007: Shabbat Ha-Chodesh
2007: At the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, an exhibition styled “Adi Nes: Bible Stories” opens to the general public. The series contains fourteen works of staged photography created by Adi Nes between 2003 and 2006.
2008: In an article entitled “How Hamas Is Playing the Spoiler,” U.S. News & World Report describes how the latest Hamas rocket attacks on Ashkelon pose a new strategic threat to Israel Middle East .
2008(10 Adar II, 5768): Ronald E. Arnall, French born American businessman who served as U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands and was a “friend” of Chabad-Lubavitch passed away.
2008: Sports Illustrated describes the pending confrontation over allegations that Patriots coach Bill Bilichick illegally videotaped his opponents. This could turn into a Jew versus Jew situation since the probe into the matter is being spearheaded by Arlen Specter, the Jewish Republican Senator from Pennsylvania
2008: Israel and Germany upgraded their ties approving a host of joint projects and agreeing to hold annual government consultations, in one of the highlights of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's three-day visit. Merkel started the second day of her three-day trip with a ceremony at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, laying a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance. Signing the guest book, the German chancellor wrote: "The German government, keeping in mind its responsibility for the Holocaust, expresses its determination to shape a joint future by holding the first German-Israeli consultations."
2008: Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar announced that Ethiopian immigrants should be able to convert to Judaism in their native land and make Aliyah under the Law of Return.
2008: Haaretz reported that Elie Wiesel has told the Prime Minister’s office that he will not take part in the torch-lighting ceremony marking the 60thanniversary of Israel’s Independence due to prior commitments.
2008: Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer resigns after a scandal involving a high-end prostitute.
2009: At The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Dr. Ellen Kellman of Brandeis University
2009: Services are held at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield for Detroit Pistons owner Bill Davidson, a noted philanthropist who was inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame last year and passed away on March 13, 2009 at the age of 86.Among the causes he funded were Hadassah University Medical Center Jerusalem Archaeological Park New York
2009:Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said today that her surgery for pancreatic cancer was successful and that she is scheduled to undergo a precautionary round of chemotherapy starting later this month. Ginsburg said in a statement issued by the U.S. Supreme Court that her Feb. 5 procedure at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York was "a complete, successful surgical removal of a pancreatic cancer," and that she will start chemotherapy later this month at the National Institutes of Health.
2010(2nd of Nisan, 5770): Ninety-one year old Albert J. Rosenthal who had served as Dean of the Columbia Law School passed away.
2010: In Jerusalem, Hama'abada is scheduled to present "Janana," by Yiftach Klein.
2010: Cookbook author Judy Zeidler is scheduled to offer tips on prepping for your Seder and mastering your grocery list, along with recipes for new and traditional Seder dishes in a program entitled “Passover: Cooking with Judy” sponsored by the American Jewish University.
2010:Some 3,000 officers were put on high alert on today after Hamas called for anti-Israel protests.
2010: “Sin,” a play by Mark Altman opened at the .Baruch Performing Arts Center.
2010:Veteran IPO subscribers enjoy a memorable evening as Itzhak Perlman performs with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
2011:Tamar Hirschl is scheduled to show a suite of paintings and recent resin works “in the inaugural Artist Project in New York City, a fair for independent artists.”
2011: The Hadassah Mahj Tournament, sponsored by Hadassah of Greater Detroit, is scheduled to take place at Hadassah House in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
2011(11th of Adar II): Ninety-year old Betty Sarah Wouk, “the wife and literary agent of bestselling writer Herman Wouk” passed away.
2011(11th of Adar II): Ta’anit Esther
2011(11th of Adar II): Eighty-one year old Gabrial Laderman, a painter of figurative art, passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)
2011:President Shimon Peres said today that the Navy's seizure of the cargo ship Victoria earlier this week proves that Syria is providing weapons to Hamas in Gaza and to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Peres made the comments at a memorial ceremony for Joseph Trumpledor in Tel Hai near the Lebanon border.
2011:Sacramento Kings and Israel National Basketball Team forward Omri Casspi may temporarily sign to play with Maccabi Tel Aviv in the event of an NBA work stoppage, he said in an interview with Army Radio today. The second-year NBA player, who formerly played with Maccabi Tel Aviv, said that there had already been some discussions about him possibly rejoining the team in the event of a lockout.
2011:Alaska Airlines apologizes today for the misunderstanding that occurred earlier this week on board one of their flights, in which flight attendants issued a security alert when three Mexican Jews began praying with Tefillin."To help make sure this misunderstanding does not happen again, we plan to incorporate awareness training of Orthodox Jewish religious practices into our ongoing diversity and inclusion efforts," a statement issued by the airlines said. Flight attendants aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 241 from Mexico City to Los Angeles issued a security alert on March 13 after three Orthodox Jewish passengers began praying with Tefillin. Following the alert the place was met at LAX by fire crews, foam trucks, FBI agents, and police.
2012: Twentieth Anniversary of the Iranian bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina.
2012(23rd of Adar, 5772): Yahrzeit of Yitzchak Meir Alter the first Rebbe of the Ger Chasidic Dynasty who was born in 1799 and passed away on March 10, 1866.
2012: “Grace Paley: Collected Shorts” is scheduled to be shown at the Schenectady JCC Jewish Film Festival at Niskayuna, NY
2012(23rd of Adar, 5772): Anniversary of the first assembling of the Mishkan on Adar 23 (1321 BCE)
2012: The Eilat Chamber Music Festival is scheduled to come to an end.
2013: The Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to present “Deconstructing Woody Allen: Humor, Identity, Judaism” with Dr. Daniel Fainstein
2013: The Theatre at the 14thStreet Y is scheduled to present a puppet show “Lost & Found In Israel” written and performed by Zvi Sahar and Leat Klingman.
2013: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Yellow Sneaker and "The Matzah Time Crunch"
2013:“Samson and Delilah,” sung in French (with English supertitles) will be presented today at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts in New Orleans featuring Cantor Joel Coleman “as the Old Hebrew.”
2013: The Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end.
2013: Today, “Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras vowed to crack down on neo-Nazi groups in a landmark speech marking the 70th anniversary of the first deportations of Thessaloniki’s Jews to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.” (As reported by JTA)
2013: Minutes released today by the Israel State Archive revealed details of tense and nearly failed meetings between then-prime minister Menachem Begin and former US president Jimmy Carter during the latter’s visit to the country in 1979, as the two leaders tried to hammer out the last details of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty.
2013: Likud MKs met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his office in Jerusalem -today receive their marching orders for the next Cabinet and other government roles.
2014: Film critic Shlomo Schwartberg is scheduled to present the final lecture in the series “Defining Greatness – Director Steven Speilberg at the Miles Nadal JCC.
2004:Professor Yair Reisner of the Weizmann Institute of Science is scheduled to be recognized for his work in bone marrow transplant therapy when he receives his Rapport Prize today. (As reported by David Shamah)
2014: Dr. Yaakov Nahmias of Hebrew University is scheduled to receive the Rapport Prize today for identifying a grapefruit molecule that can block viruses. (As reported by David Shamah)
2014: “Brave Miss World” is scheduled to be shown at the Houston Jewish Film Festival.
2014: “Once Upon a Time at 55th and Hoover,” a documentary about the 300 Sephardic families from Rhodes who emigrated to Los Angeles (USA) and established a Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) language neighborhood in the area around 55th St and Hoover, in South Central Los Angeles” is scheduled to be shown at the New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.
2014: Grammy-award winning performer Ron Levine is scheduled to share stories from his fantastic career, including touring with nationally renowned recording artists and his award-winning work on the motion picture Urban Cowboy, at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa this evening.
2014: During his visit to the White House today “US President Barack Obama urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to make tough decisions and take risks for peace with Israel, saying he hoped to see progress in US-brokered negotiations in coming weeks.”
2014: Today, Jordan condmenned what is call Israeli ‘escalation’ in the flashpoint Temple Mount in Jerusalem after Housing Minster Uri Ariel “deputy leader of the hardline national-rligious Bayit Yehudi party visited the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem’s Old City yesterday.
2015: The Jewish Community Relations Council and The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington are scheduled to host “a real time analysis of the results of the Israeli elections as they unfold” in North Bethesda, MD.
2015: “The Iranian Americans” and “Before the Revolution” are scheduled to be shown at the 18th Annual New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.
2015: In San Diego, Jack Goldberg is scheduled to deliver a lecture on American Dilemmas in the "New" Middle East: The Elusive search for Coherent Strategies
2015: For those looking for a Jewish connection to St. Patrick’s Day consider “St. Patrick’s Day, Kosher Style.”