April 14
69: Vitellius defeated Emperor Otho in the Battle of Bedriacum and seized the throne and becomes the third Emperor in what is known as the Year of the Four Emperors. Vitellius’ rise to power made the Roman populace very uneasy because it seemed as if the Empire was tottering on the brink of a destructive Civil War. Following the death of Nero in 68, four men served as Emperor during 69 including. First came Galba, who was followed by Galba who was followed by Vitellius who was followed by Vespasian, the general who had been sent to Judea to put an end to the Jewish Revolt. Vespasian was the first of the Flavian Emperors. When Vespasian replaced Vitellius it was with the understanding that he and his son Titus would bring stability to the Empire. Jerusalem was destroyed as a demonstration of the Flavian’s ability to end civil strife in the Empire and bring a return to the Pax Rommana. [Editor’s Note: According to this, the leaders who had seized control in Jerusalem completely failed to understand the new reality of Roman power, even as they had confused their victory of Roman Cohorts as being the same as victory over a Roman Legion. If they had spent more time considering the realities of the situation and less time killing their Jewish “enemies” they might have been able to negotiate some kind of settlement that would have avoided the destruction of the Temple and the massive deportation of the Jewish population that marked the beginning of the Diaspora.]
70: The Siege of Jerusalem begins in earnest as Titus, son of Emperor Vespasian, surrounds the Jewish capital, with four Roman legions.
73(3833): According to the Jewish historian Josephus, 967 Jewish zealots committed mass suicide within the fortress of Masada on this last night before the walls were breached by the attacking Roman Tenth Legion. (Two women and five children survived by hiding in a cistern, and were later released unharmed by the Romans. Technically it was not a mass suicide. According to the story a group of the leaders killed most the population who had agreed to die this way rather than become prisoners of the Romans. The leaders committed suicide. This way of dealing with the Romans contrast with Yochanan Ben Zakai who negotiated with the Romans. He ended up saving many scholars and establishing the Academy at Yavneh. While the Legend of Masada has taken on a life of its own, the cold reality is that if the rest of the Jewish population had followed their example, the Jews of Israel would have disappeared.
193:Septimius Severus began his reign as Roman Emperor. In 194, Severus defeated Pescennnius Niger at the Battle of Issus. Niger had competed with Severus for throne and made his headquarters in Antioch where “he displayed especial harshness to the Jews.” When the Jews came to complain about their heavy tax burned Niger replied “You asked me to relieve your lands of their taxes; would that I were able to tax the very air that you breathe!” Severus spent a short period in Palestine (200) following his semi-successful war with the Parthia. He promulgated laws forbidding conversion to either Christianity or Judaism. He allowed Jews to serve in public positions, but they were not to receive any pay for their work. The people continued to suffer from attacks at the hands of marauding bands that had been active since the war with Niger. Eleazar, the son of Simon ben Jochai and Ishmael, the son of Jose the Prudent were the leading sages of this time.
1118: As the Crusaders continue their hold over the “Holy Land” Baldwin II is crowned King of Jerusalem, a title that should not be confused with that held by those who ruled from the days of Saul until 586 BCE.
1205:Bulgarians under Tsar Kaloyan of Bulgaria, soundly defeated the Crusaders under Baldwin I at the Battle of Adrianople. The victory cemented the rule of Kaloyan and his family. This would prove to be beneficial for Jews since Kaloyan’s nephew opened the kingdom to Jewish traders from Italy. This also would have proved beneficial to Jewish community already living in Bulgaria which probably dated back to the second century of the Common Era
1341: In the Piedmont Region, Italian-Angevine troops sack the city of Saluzzo. Although Jews have been living in the Piedmont since the middle ages, the first synagogue was not built until the 16th century. A synagogue was built in Saluzzo in the early 18th century. For more see http://synagogues360.net/synagogues.php?ident=italy_014
1484: The Cortes at Tarazona approved the formation of Inquisitional Tribunals at Valencia and Saragossa. The Inquisitors wasted no time in beginning their investigations for signs of Jewishness in the communities of the New Christians.
1660: Seven Jews were burned at the stake in Seville.
1712(7th of Nisan): Rabbi Elijah Shapira of Prague, author of Eilyahu Rabba, passed away
1759: Composer George Frederic Handel passed away. Among Handel’s Oratorios that used Jewish characters and/or themes were “Esther,” Saul,” “Joseph and His Brethren,” “Athalia,” “Israel In Egypt,” “Samson,” “Joshua,” “Judas Maccabaeus,” “Jephtha” and “Deborah.” For more about Handel and the Jewish people see George Frederic Handel and the Jews: Fact, Fiction and Tolerances of Scholarshipby David Hunter.
1775: Massachusetts Governor Gage is secretly ordered by the British to enforce the Coercive Acts and suppress "open rebellion" among colonists by using all necessary force. From this simple statement flowed all of the events that would lead to the battles of Lexington & Concord and the American Revolution. During the American Revolution the Jewish population was so small that it could only support five synagogues which were located in, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and Savannah. All five followed the Sephardic Minchag. Most of the Jews supported the Revolutionaries.
1783: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s “Nathan the Wise” which the church refused to be allowed to be produced during the author’s life time was performed for the first time today in Berlin.
1799: Napoleon called for establishing Jerusalem for the Jews.
1802: Birthdate of Jacob Liebermann, the son of the Chief Rabbi of Saverne who converted to Catholicism and gained fame as Francis Mary Paul Libermann “The Second Founder of the Holy Ghost Fathers.”
1805(15thof Nisan, 5565): Pesach
1809: Three Royal Dukes visit the Great Synagogue.
1815: Birthdate of Chaim Zebi Lerner, the native of Dubno whose “reputation among Hebrew grammarians was founded on his More ha-Lashon” first published in 1859, thirty years before he passed away in 1889.
1824: In Bavaria, Fanny and David Isaac Seilgman gave birth to James (Jacob) Seligman
1837: Birthdate of Jacob Herzl, the native of Zemun who was the father of Theodor Herzl.
1837(9th of Nisan, 5597): Benjamin Zeeb Wolf ben Isaac ha-Kohen Rapoport passed away today at Papa, Hungary. Born at Nikolsburg, Morvia in 1754, his views set him at odds with Mordecai Benet, the chief rabbi of Moravia and Moses Schreiber, rabbi of Presburg. Their enmity was such that they denounced him to the civil authorities. He published several works including Simlat Binyamin u-Bigde Kehunnah a “novellæ on that part of the Shulḥan 'Aruk (Yoreh De'ah) which deals with vows and oaths.”
1849: Hungary declares itself independent of Austria with Louis Kossuth as its leader. Kossuth was sympathetic to Jewish hopes for emancipation and the right to become full-fledged citizens of the newly independent Hungry. Based on Kossuth’s commitment to these values Jews contributed 80,000 florins to the cause. Thirty thousand Jews enlisted in Kossuth’s army, making them 11% of the force. Unfortunately, the Magyar leadership and the rural peasants did not share Kossuth’s values. Anti-Semitic outbreaks in the countryside combined with the efforts of these political leaders blocked attempts to grant the Jews full rights of citizenship. All this would become a mute point, since Kossuth and the independent Hungarian movement would be defeated by the imperial forces and Kossuth would be forced to flee for his life. Ironically, the returning Imperial government saved their harshest punishment for the Jews.
1859: In Galatz, Rumania, Jews were accused of taking blood from a Christian child (for the baking of matzos) though not of killing him. Fifteen "culprits" were arrested. The next day a mob broke into the synagogue, killing some of the worshippers, destroying some fifty scrolls and demolishing the synagogue. The fifteen were soon released with no convictions, yet the government refused to allow the synagogue to be rebuilt for nearly twenty years.
1862(14th of Nisan, 5622): Fast of the First Born.
1862: With over 1500 cows having been sold today the Jewish cattle dealers were active in the market at New York today since they would be absent tomorrow due to the fact tomorrow is “their Passover.”
1862: Private Louis Leon enlisted in Company B of the 53rd North Carolina (CSA). He was one of five Jews to serve in this infantry company that had been mustered at Charlotte, in Mecklenburg County, in the western part of the state of North Carolina.
1862(14th of Nisan, 5622): In the evening, during the Civil War, Pesach begins with 21 Union soldiers of the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Regiment celebrating with a Seder in Fayette, West Virginia.
1864: Fifty-seven year old Ridley Haim Herschell, the “Anglo-Polish minister who converted from Judaism to evangelical Christianity and was a founder of the British Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Jews and of the Evangelical Alliance.
1865: Abraham Lincoln was shot while attending at play at Ford Theatre. In the late1850’s, Lincoln expressed his disgust with the “Known Nothing Party” and its platform of bigotry and ant-Semitism. Lincoln enjoyed electoral support among Jews. In 1860, Louis Dembitz of Kentucky was a staunch supporter of Lincoln at the Republican Convention in 1860. (Dembitz was an ancestor of Supreme Court Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis.) Sigmund Kaufman a German-Jewish newspaper publisher in New York worked furiously and successfully to deliver the German immigrant vote to Lincoln. The philanthropist Moses Dropsie, founder of Dropsie College was another of Lincoln’s famous Jewish supporters. Lincoln appointed a Jew to serve as U.S. Counsel in Zurich, the first time a Jew had been appointed to such a high diplomatic post. But Lincoln’s most famous moment in dealing with the Jews came when he countermanded Grant’s infamous Order #11. Lincoln was the first president to approve of the appointment of Jewish Chaplains in the U.S. Army. April the 14thwas the fourth day of Pesach. But Lincoln was killed on Friday night, so a case can be made that he was actually killed on the fifth day of the Jewish holiday of freedom that provided so much of the liberation motif for the work of the Great Emancipator.
1867: Dr. Simon Abrahams, a well-known New York physician passed away today at the age 57.
1870: In London, Nathan Adler and Lionel Cahn established the United Synagogue. It united the Ashkenazi synagogues of London for charities and civic affairs.
1870: In New York Banker Isaias Wolf Hellman, one of the founders of the University of Southern California married Esther Newgass whose sister, Babette, was married to Mayer Lehman, one of the founders of Lehman Brothers and with whom he had three children - Isaias William Hellman, Jr., Clara, and Florence
1873: “The Wandering Jew” by Leopold Davis Lewis, who was the author of “The Bells”, opened at the Adelphi Theatre.
1879: “A Railroad Test Case” published today described litigation filed against Joseph Seligman & Co in which if he plaintiffs are successful could ruin the “eminent bankers from New York City.”
1880: The New York Times featured a review of a book about Palestine entitled “The Land and the Book: Or Biblical Illustrations drawn from manners and customs, the Scenes and Scenery of the Holy Land” by William M. Thompson.
1881(15thof Nisan, 5641): American Jews observe the first and only Pesach of newly inaugurated President James Garfield who would be die from an assassin’s bullet in September of 1881.
1886: A major story, possibly the first of its kind, was published in today’s Atlanta Constituion, Georgia’s leading daily newspaper. “The main headline read: ‘Passover Preparations for Celebrating the Festival.’ The writer stated, “The Jewish citizens of Atlanta are getting ready for the Feast of Passover. Unleavened bread will be eaten.The interesting facts about observance will be given plus an explanation of the plagues of Egypt.”
1880: “Became A Hebrew For Love” published today described the path that led to the marriage of Baltimore merchant Emanuel Strauss and Lillie Williams. Miss Williams met and fell in love with Mr. Straus while working at Strauss Brothers, a large wholesale dry goods store in Baltimore. Since young Mr. Strauss came from a prominent Orthodox family she studied for six months and then went through a conversion ceremony that included immersion in the mikvah at which time she changed her name from Lillie to Rachel. The couple wed secretly and took a trip to Chicago from which they hope to return with the blessings of his family.
1882(25thof Nisan, 5642): Dr. Ludwig Waldenburg passed away in Berlin.
1885: In Minsk, Vladimir and Sophie Bernstein gave birth to Rachel Bernstein, who, as Rachel Wishnitzer gained fame as “a pioneer in the fields of Jewish art history and synagogue architecture.” (As reported by Shulamith Z. Berger)
1891: In delivering his response to the claims of Reverend Howard MacQueary “the alleged heretic who has been expelled from the Protestant Episcopal Church” Rabbi Gustav Gottheil denied claims made about the crucifixion of Jesus by the Jews” stating that “Jesus of Nazareth was never persecuted by the Jews.”
1892: “Russia’s Warlike Measures” published today described the major moves by Czar to strengthen his military position on the western frontier including a demand by General Iosif Gurko that he be given permission to expel the Jewish people from the frontier and move them sixty verts (approx. 40 miles) inland. (Having forced the Jews to live in the Pale, now the Russians want to dispose them for military reasons – think of the scene at the end of Fiddler on the Roof for context)
1892: It was reported today that the Jewish Emigration Committee has decided to only send Russian Jews to the United States and Argentina who are “suitable for colonization” and to limit the immigrants to batches of a hundred. At this rate, it will take twenty years to settle all of the land bought under Baron Hirsch’s auspices for agricultural settlements.
1893: As the Reichstag opened today in Berlin, members waited for Hermann Ahlwardt , “the Jew baiter” to produce documents proving German officials of corrupt conduct.
1893: “A Frenzied Mob In Bohemia” described an outbreak of anti-Semitic violence in Kolin, a town 35 miles from Prague which was nothing more than another blood libel. The body of a servant girl name Marie Panlik was found floating in the Elbe and the citizenry decided that she had been killed by the Jews as part of their religious customs. Before the military could quell the riot the homes of the Jews had been sacked, the population “assaulted” and the synagogue had been wrecked.
1894: “Shaaray Tefila’s New Home” published today described the consecration of the new home for Gates of Prayer located on West 82nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.
1895: Lt. Colonel Jean Sandherr who was head of the Statistical Section, the French army’s counter-espionage unit who “gathered a secret commission of inquiry that hastily decided on Captain Alfred Dreyfus as being the author of handwritten notes found in the wastepaper basked of the German ambassador in Paris, was promoted to Colonel today.
1895: In Russia, Hannah and Max Jaffe gave birth to Adeline Jaffe who gained fame as Adeline Schulberg the talent and literary agent who married B.P. Schulberg.
1895: It was reported today that “last winter, Lord Rothschild had assured his co-religionist…that he and his associates would have not have touched the new Russian loan” without a promise from St. Petersburg that “the persecution of their people would be stopped.” Not only have the Russians not kept their promises, in the last fortnight, they have revived all the edicts against the Jews that had been cancelled meaning that “this is to be year of peculiarly evil memory to Israel in Holy Russia,”
1895: The highlight of the third and final day marking the celebration of Temple Emanu-El’s fiftieth anniversary was “the festival arranged by the children of the religious school”
1897: It was reported today that Jewish children from Russia have a disproportionately high rate of Trachoma or “granulated eyelid.”
1897(12thof Nisan): Seventy-eight year old French rabbi and author Lazar Wogue “best known for his translation of the Pentateuch…and for his history of Bible exegesis” passed away today in Paris.
1899: Among the bills passed today by the New York State Assembly was one providing “for the consolidation of the Educational Alliance and the Hebrew Free School Association of New York…”
1900(15thof Nisan, 5660): First Pesach of the 20th century
1911(16thof Nisan, 5671): Second Day of Pesach
1911(16thof Nisan, 5671): Sixty-one year old August Iganaz Einstein, the brother of Hermann Einstein and an uncle of Albert Einstein passed away today.
1912: The RMS Titanic struck an iceberg just at approximately 11:45 pm. Among those who were not aboard was Nathan Strauss, the brother of Isador Strauss, and his wife “In 1912, the brothers and their wives were touring Europe, when Nathan, the more ardent Zionist of the two, impulsively said one day:- “Hey, why don’t we hop over to Palestine?”
Israel wasn’t the tourist hotspot then that it is today. Its population was ravaged by disease, famine, and poverty; but the two had a strong sense of solidarity with their less fortunate brethren, and they also wanted to see the health and welfare centers they had endowed with their millions.
However, after a week spent touring, Isidor Straus had enough.- “How many camels, hovels, and yeshivas can you see? It’s time to go,” Isidor decreed with edgy impatience in his voice. But Nathan refused to heed his brother’s imperious command. It wasn’t that he was oblivious to the hardships around him; it was precisely because of them that he wanted to stay. As he absorbed firsthand the vastness of the challenges his fellow Jews were coping with, he felt the burden of responsibility.- “We can’t leave now,” he protested. “Look how much work has to be done here. We have to help. We have the means to help. We can’t turn our backs on our people.”- “So we’ll send more money,” his brother snapped back. “I just want to get out of here.”
But Nathan felt that money simply wasn’t enough. He felt that the Jews who lived under such dire circumstances in Palestine needed the brothers’ very presence among them: their initiative, their leadership, and their ideas. Isidor disagreed. The two argued back and forth, and finally Isidor said,- “If you insist, stay here. Ida and I are going back to America where we belong.” The two separated. Isidor and his wife returned to Europe, while Nathan and his spouse stayed in Palestine, traveling the country and contributing huge sums of money to the establishment of education, health, and social welfare programs to benefit the needy. Nathan also financed the creation of a brand-new city on the shores of the Mediterranean. And since his name in Hebrew was Natan, and he was the city’s chief donor, the founders named it after him and called it…Natanya. Meanwhile, back in Europe, Isidor Straus was preparing to sail home to America aboard an ocean liner for which he had also made reservations for his brother, Nathan, and his wife. - “You must leave Palestine NOW!” he cabled his brother in an urgent telegram. “I have made reservations for you and if you don’t get here soon, you’ll miss the boat.”
But Nathan delayed. There was so much work to be done that he waited until the last possible moment to make the connection. By the time he reached London, it was April 12 and the liner had already left port in Southampton with Isidor and Ida Straus aboard. Nathan felt disconsolate that he had, as his brother had warned, “missed the boat.” For this was no ordinary expedition, no common, everyday cruise that he had forfeited, but the much ballyhooed maiden voyage of the most famous ship of the century. This was the Titanic. Nathan Straus, grief-stricken and deeply mourning his brother and sister-in-law could not shake off his sense that he had had a rendezvous with history The knowledge that he had avoided death permeated his consciousness for the rest of his life, and until his death in l931, he pursued his philanthropic activities with an intensity that was unrivaled in his time. Today, Natanya is a scenic resort city of 200,000 and headquarters to Israel’s thriving diamond trade – one of the most important industries in the country. And in almost every part of the city, there is some small reminder of Nathan Straus’s largesse, his humanity, and love for his people.”
1912: Just before midnight, Archibald Gracie IV, who had spent much of the voyage talking about the Civil War with his friend Isdiore Straus was jolted awake as the Titanic struck an iceberg. Gracie is the source for the story of the last moments of the Mr. and Mrs. Straus who died together on the ship.
1912: Mary Antin's The Promised Land, an autobiography recounting her life in the Russian Pale of Settlement and as an immigrant in Boston, was reviewed in the New York Times.
1916: Birthdate of Suleiman (Solomon) Alexandrovich Yudakov , the native of Kokand who became a leading Bukharian composer whose work included “Surudi Milli,” the modern-day national anthem of Tajikistan. After surviving a lifetime under Soviet rule, he passed away in 1990.
1917(22ndof Nisan, 5677): Fifty-seven year old L.L. (Leyzer Leyvi) Zamenhoff, the Jewish doctor and linguist who created Esperanto passed away in Warsaw. His youngest daughter Lidia was murdered by the Nazis at Treblinka in 1942.
1917: Birthdate of Marvin Miller. According to The National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum “Marvin Miller never played the game, but he may have had more influence on baseball than anyone else in this half of the century. Hired by the players in 1966, he brought a wealth of experience garnered in the tough steelworkers' union to bear on baseball labor relations, and his knowledge, organizational ability, and resolve completely overmatched the owners and their representatives, particularly Commissioners Bowie Kuhn and Spike Eckert. In a time of baseball prosperity which saw manifold increase in the value of franchises, his tough tactics finally got the players not only a "bigger piece of the pie" but also greater, if grudging, respect for their wishes in regard to trades and other matters. Executive director of Players' Assn. from 1966-82; increased average salary from $19,000 to over $240,000; led 13-day strike in 1972 and 50-day walkout in '81.”
1919(14th of Nisan, 5679): Fast of the First Born
1919(14th of Nisan, 5679): Jewish Soldiers serving with His Majesty’s forces hold a Seder in Jerusalem
1920: Birthdate of Sheldon Douglas Moldoff who “drew covers for the first appearances of the characters Flash and Green Lantern in 1940”, created “some of the earliest renderings of Hawkman: and who “contributed to the first issue of Action Comics, in which Superman was introduced (though he did not draw the Man of Steel).”
1920(26th of Nisan, 5680): Eighty-five year old Hungarian-Austrian neurologist Mortiz Benedikt passed away today.
1921: Joseph Barondess went to Ellis Island today where he was united with the infant child of Elka Lerner, a refugee from pogroms in Ukraine who had died last night and who was a cousin of Barondess.
1921: Pinchus Ruttenberg “announced today that within a few days his plan for electrification of Jaffa, Tel-Aviv and Petach-Tikvah will be completed.”
1921: The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that “Tel-Aviv has been officially recognized as an independent township.”
1921: The adoption of Hebrew names by Jewish immigrants has resulted in the adoption of government policy “permitting any change of name provided the change is duly advertised in the Official Gazette.
1924: In The Bronx, Maurice Schulweis and his wife gave birth Harold Maurice Schulweis “an influential rabbi and theologian who focused his sermons, books and social activism on connecting the Jewish community with the wider world — and vice versa —.” (As reported by Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/26/us/harold-m-schulweis-progressive-rabbi-is-dead-at-89.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=1
1925: In Manhattan Sam and Bea Traub gave birth to Marvin Stuart Traub, “the retailing impresario who transformed Bloomingdale’s from a stodgy Upper East Side family department store into a trendsetting international showcase of style and showmanship in the 1970s and ’80s.” (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
1926: “Lady, Be Good” a George and Ira Gershwin “opened in the West End at the Empire Theatre’ today.
1932: U.S. premiere of “Symphony of Six Million,” “based on the story “Night Bell” by Fannie Hurst, the movie concerns the rise of a Jewish physician from humble roots to the top of his profession and the social costs of losing his connection with his community, his family and with the craft of healing” produced by Pandro S. Berman and David O. Selznick, co-starring Gregory Ratoff and with music by Max Steiner.
1933: The Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten (National Political Educational Institutes) were established as training schools for Nazi Party cadets.
1934: An anti-Semitic organization in Poland, Ob<ó>z Narodowo-Radykalny (National Radical Camp), was established. Anti-Semitism was part of the Polish social fabric before and after World War II.
1934: In the second of such outbreaks in Tangier, "Arabs responded to a march by Jewish boy scouts by mounting public demonstrations against Jews." As Martin Gilbert points out, April the 14th was Shabbat and the demonstrations took place when most Jews were in their homes.
1936(22nd of Nisan, 5696): 8th day of Pesach
1938: The Palestine Post reported from London that the Palestine Police Force had been supplemented and would continue to be increased - new men were being trained and sent to Palestine.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that 35 families from Rexigen in south Germany were settled, together with a number of other families in a new village, south of Nahariya. Work went on erecting buildings, the defense stockade and a search-light tower.
1939(25th of Nisan, 5699): In Tel Aviv, Samuel Solow past away at the age of 90. Born in Russia, he moved to the United States in 1893 where he became a successful shirt manufacturer. He retired in 1927 and moved to Palestine. In 1935 he gave $15,000 for the construction of a students’ club at Hebrew University.
1940: Birthdate of Yossef Romano ( יוסף רומנו) “a Libyan-born, Jewish Israeli weightlifter with the Israeli team that went to the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. He was the second of eleven Israeli team members murdered in the Munich massacre by Black September terrorists during that Olympics. He was the Israeli weight-lifting champion in the light and middle-weight divisions for nine years.”
1941: Adolf Hitler appeared on the cover of Time magazine
1941: Time magazine published its cover story – “World War, Strategy: A Dictator’s Hour”
1941: Time magazine featured a review of “Blood, Sweat and Tears,” a collection of Churchill’s public pronouncements from May 1938 to February 1941.
1941:The Ustashe, a Croatian far-right organization that pursued Nazi and fascist policies, is put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis Powers. The Ustashe would be responsible for the murder of at least 30,000 Croatian Jews.
1941: Hungarian troops occupied portions of northern Yugoslavia. About 500 Jews and Serbs were shot.
1941: Two hundred Flemish supporters of the Nazis burned two synagogues in the Oosten straat as part of what is called the “Antwerp Pogrom.” By the end of WW II, the Jewish population had been decreased from a pre-war total of 35,000 to 15,000. The Jewish community traced its origins back to the 13th century although its modern configuration did not begin until the end of the 18th century with reforms forced by the French Revolution.
1943: The slave-labor camp at Siedlce, Poland, was dissolved.
1943: A paper, Program for the Rescue of Jews from Nazi Occupied Europe, was submitted to the Bermuda Conference by the Joint Emergency Committee for European Jewish Affairs.
1943: Gerhart Riegner, World Jewish Congress representative in Geneva, suggested that money be deposited in a Swiss account to be paid after the war to enable the 70,000 Romanian Jews previously offered to the Allies to immigrate to Palestine. This comes to be known as the Riegner Plan.
1944: Henk Drogt, a 24 year old Dutch policeman who had refused orders to round up the remaining local Jews in Grootegast, Holland and deserted the police force and joined one of the Dutch resistance groups, where he took part in the smuggling of downed Allied pilots to the Belgian border as well as helping to keep Jews out of the hands of the Nazis was executed after having been caputed and sentenced to death by the Germans.
1944: Henk Drogt, a 24 year old Dutch military policeman, was executed by the Nazis eight months after having been arrested by the Nazis for his refusal to arrest Jews and then joining the Resistance. After the war, Drogt was posthumously decorated by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Dutch Government for his actions in the resistance movement. He has also been honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem
1944: “While an agreement was arrived at between Wesenmayer, German Minister and a representative of Sauckel on the other hand, and Prime Minister Sztojay, on the other, that Hungary would place 300,000 Jewish workers at the disposal of the Reich (who were to be selected by a mixed Hungarian-German committee), total deportation was decided by Endre, Baky, and Eichmann at a meeting in the Ministry of the Interior” today.
1944: The first transport of Athenian Jews left Greece for Auschwitz.
1944(21st of Nisan): Rabbi Benjamin Menasseh Levin, author of “Ozar ha-Geonim” passed away today
1945: U.S. Soldiers of the 84th Division of the Ninth Army liberated Salzwedel Labor Camp. Frank J. Cmelik of Iowa was on the liberators. Lea Fuchs Chayen was one of those who were liberated.
1945: Soldiers of the United States Army reached Gardelegen Camp. They found smoldering logs strewn with the bodies of the recently cremated victims.
1945: Ellen Geller was among the 60,000 people who were liberated by British troops at Bergen-Belsen.“Geller and her family were taken captive by the Nazis in Poland when she was only 4 years old and she spent time in concentration camps until the age of 8. Most of her time was spent in Bergen-Belsen.”
1945: British units reach the Elbe, joining American forces who had reached the river two days earlier where they would not wait to be joined by Soviet Forces thus making the encirclement and defeat of the remaining German forces a realitiy.
1946: The New York Times reported that Bronislaw Huberman the Polish born violinist who is President and founder of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra has begun a tenth month concert tour that will take him to Europe and Egypt before he returns to Palestine in December.
1947: Two thousand five hundred fifty-two illegal immigrants reached Haifa on board the Guardian. Three of them had been killed while unsuccessfully resisting a Royal Navy boarding party which was in the process of transporting them to Cyprus.
1948: The British withdrew from Safed. Before leaving, they gave the Arabs the city's police station, the fortress like police station on Mount Canaan and the ancient citadel in the heart of the town.
1948: Surrounded by armed Arabs, the Jews of Safed awaited the final onslaught and their death when a Palmach platoon that was the spearhead of Operation Yiftach entered the city after marching through the mountains. They brought food, weapons and hope.
1949(15th of Nisan, 5709): First Day of Pesach in the newly created state of Israel.
1949(15th of Nisan, 5709): In one of the great ironies of history the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg's last judgment takes place on the first day of Pesach. The Nuremberg Tribunal was an attempt to punish those responsible for Crimes Against Humanity (among other charges) in a judicial setting. The alternatives were to just line people up against the wall and shoot them or let them go. For all of its imperfections, the Tribunal was an expression of faith in the rule of law and it did punish some of the leading survivors of the Third Reich. For a full account of the work of the Tribunal on line, try this website
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the tenants of the houses administered by the Custodian for Abandoned Property had from then on been allowed to sell, or transfer their flats or rooms for an agreed sum. However one-third of the price would have to be paid to the custodian.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli-Syrian Mixed Armistice Commission met for the first time in two years.
1953: Israelis intercepted a boatload of terrorists who were trying, for the first time, to infiltrate the state from the sea.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that in Jerusalem’s Zion Square, hundreds of singing and dancing men celebrated the conclusion of the fourth complete reading of Gemara.
1954: Birthdate of Shari Ellin Redstone who would serve as president of National Amusements, vice-chairman of CBS Corporation and Viacom, and chairman of Midway Games. It probably did not hurt her career that she is the daughter of Sumner Redstone and the granddaughter of Michael Redston.
1960: Birthdate of actor Brad Garrett, Robert on “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
1961: Birthdate of cartoonist David Clowes creator of Eightball and Ghost World.
1962: On Shabbat Hagadol Rabbi Maurice J. Bloom delivered a sermon at Termont Temple in the Bronx condemning the “Soviet Union’s restrictions on Matzah baking.”
1962: In a sermon delivered at Congregation and Talmud Torah Tifereth Israel, Rabbi Kurt Klappholz decried the hypocrisy being shown during the current teachers strike while ‘we stoutly maintain that the teaching profession must be on of dignity we do not provide for a decent livelihood for those who are entrusted with the molding of the characters of our children.”
1962: Rabbi Julius Mark of Temple Emanu-El and Rabbi Joseph Zeitlin of Whitestone Hebrew Center devoted their sermons to condemnations of the U.N.’s recent resolution that censured Israel for its attacks on its neighbors with censuring the Syrians for the provocations and for the world organizations failure to deal with the root cause of the problems in the Middle East.
1963: Tito, the leader Yugoslavia, rebuffed Ben Gurion’s request for help in improving relations with Egypt. The Yugoslav leader appeared to be pandering to leaders of the so-called “Third World” by saying that he would concentrate his efforts at the United Nations instead of on bi-lateral talks.
1964: Sandy Koufax threw his 9th complete game without allowing a walk.
1969: Barbra Streisand shared the Best Actress Oscar with Katherine Hepburn
1969: In New Haven, CT Linda Susan (née Dronsick) who is Jewish and Professor Harry Jack Ausumus gave birth to Bradley David "Brad" Ausmus who followed his career as a major league baseball player by becoming a manager with the Detroit Tigers.
1973: Birthdate of actor Adrien Brody star of the film, “The Pianist.”
1974: U.S. premiere of “Thursday’s Game,” written by James L. Brooks, with Gene Wilder, Valier Harper, Rob Reiner and Norman Fell.
1977: The President Jimmy Carter nominated Manuel D. Plotkin, of Chicago, Ill., to be Director of the Census. Plotkin is associate director of corporate planning and research for Sears, Roebuck and Co., in Chicago. (Plotkin was Jewish; Jimmy was not)
1977: NBC broadcasts “Say It Ain’t So, Chief,” the third episode in the crime drama series “Lanigan’s Rabbi” co-starring Bruce Solomon as David Small, the crime-busting rabbi,
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the prime minister, Menachem Begin, and his foreign minister, Moshe Dayan, had softened their policy regarding the applicability of the UN Security Council's Resolution 242 on the West Bank - hitherto the most serious area of disagreement with the US. This move was expected to bring about a renewal of the American mediation efforts in the stalled Israeli-Egyptian peace negotiations.
1979: CBS broadcast the final episode of the 4th season of “One Day At A Time” the sitcom developed by Norman Lear starring Bonnie Franklin.
1980: Dustin Hoffman won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his starring role in 'Kramer vs. Kramer.”
1980(28thof Nisan, 5740): Jewish comedian Shimon Dzigan who along with Israel Shumacher formed “the most famous Yiddish comic duo of ‘Dzigan and Schumacher’” passed away today.
1980: The Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Norman Mailer for The Executioner's Song.
1983(1st of Iyar, 5743): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1984: The IDF began blowing up the houses of the terrorists who had seized Bus 300
1988: The New York Times reported that “Plans to organize independent events to mark the 45th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising have provoked bitter Government charges that the political opposition is exploiting the ghetto memory for ''petty, shallow and ad hoc political games.''
1990: Emma Freud appeared on the game show “Just A Minute” “playing against her father Sir Clement Freud who was a regular on the show.
1990: Detroit Tigers pitcher Steve Wapnick appeared in his first major league baseball game.
1992: A revival of Frank Loesser’s “Guys and Dolls” opened at the Martin Beck Theatre.
1994: Avi Perlmuter, a nineteen year old soldier killed in the latest round of terror attacks, who lived in the Negev town of Ir Ovot was buried today.
1994: Prime Minister Rabin accused Jordan today of helping the Islamic militant group whose suicide bombers have killed 12 Israelis in two weeks.
2000: U.S. release of “Keeping the Faith” with a script by Stuart Blumberg, with Rena Sofer as Rachel Rose, Lisa Edelstein as Ali Decker, Bodhi Elfman as Howard the Casanova, Susie Essman as Ellen Friedman,Ben Stiller as Rabbi Jacob "Jake" Schram,Miloš Forman as Father Havel and Eli Wallach as Rabbi Ben Lewis and with music by Elmer Bernstein.
2000: Today, The Times of London wrote about Deborah Lipstadt’s victory over David Irving saying “History has had its day in court and scored a crushing victory.”
2000: The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California reports on the reissuance of a “D.P. camp Haggadah.” "A Survivors' Haggadah" which was written by a Holocaust survivor in Germany in 1945 and 1946 was published again this year..
2000(9th of Nisan, 5760): Phil Katz passed away. He was the creator of "PKZIP" and the ZIP archive format, which replaced ARC as the standard mechanism for distributing files on IBM PC compatible systems.
2002(2ndof Iyar, 5762): Eighty-one year old British jurist and author Sir Michael Robert Emanuel Kerr passed away today.
2002: In Skokie, Illinois, Gary Elkins collected $50,000 for the IDF today at a rally for Russian Jews.
2002: In the aftermath of Operation Defensive Shield, IDF Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz told the media that “the army intended to bury the bodies” of the terrorists killed during the Battle of Jenin “in a special cemetery.”
2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently published paperback edition of “Collected Poems In English” by Joseph Brodsky; edited by Ann Kjellberg, a large volume containing all the verse that appeared in English during Brodsky's lifetime.
2003: U.S. troops captured Abul Abbas in Baghdad. Abbas was the leader of the Palestinian terrorists who high jacked the Achille Laura in 1985. They threw Leon Klinghoffera wheel-chair bound Jewish passenger overboard. According to some accounts, Abbas was "allowed to escape" by Italian authorities.
2004: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon formally announced his plan for withdrawing from Gaza today in a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush, stating that "there exists no Palestinian partner with whom to advance peacefully toward a settlement"
2006: Following Ariel Sharon’s second stroke, Ehud Olmert officially became acting Prime Minister.
2007:Calling the decision by the Vatican ambassador to Israel to boycott the Holocaust memorial services at Yad Vashem "inappropriate and insulting," the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today repeated its longstanding call for the Vatican to open its wartime archives so that the facts concerning the wartime actions of Pope Pius XII may finally be brought to light. Archbishop Antonio Franco, the Vatican's ambassador to Israel, has made the unprecedented announcement that he will boycott the April 16 memorial events at Yad Vashem, Israel's national memorial to the Holocaust, in protest of a photo caption in an exhibit that seemingly charges Pope Pius XII with failing to save Jews during the Holocaust.
2008: In Seattle, Washington,Naveed Haq is scheduled to go on trial for a shooting rampage at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. Haq, 32, is charged with aggravated first-degree murder for storming into the Jewish charity in July 2006, killing one woman and injuring five others. He railed against the Iraq war and Israel during the rampage.
2008: State Department veteran Aaron David Miller, discusses his new book, The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace, at the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C.
2008: Timemagazine features a profile of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell “Hillary’s Point Man” during the state Democratic Primary. The article mentions Rendell’s New York origins but says nothing about his Jewish heritage.
2009: Publication date for Rhyming Life and Death a new book written by Amos Oz and translated by Nicholas de Lange.
2010: PBS is scheduled to show “Worse Than War” which is based on Daniel Goldhagen’s book of the same title. The program offers an exploration of the nature of genocide, ethnic cleansing and large-scale mass murder in our time during which Goldhagen speaks with victims, perpetrators, witnesses, religious leaders, politicians, diplomats, historians, humanitarian aid workers and journalists.
2010: The new on-line Chabad Talmud Course for Beginners is scheduled to begin today.
2011: The Center for Jewish History, The Jewish Week and Nextbook are scheduled to present “Revisiting Eichmann: The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Trial That Shook the World.”
2011: Elie Wiesel is scheduled to give a lecture entitled “The Rebbe of Ger: A Tragedy in Hasidism” which will include information of “Rabbi Yitzhak Meir, founder of the rebbes who lead the movement and the profound effects of his life and work.”
2011: Teenage heartthrob Justin Beiber has invited children from Sderot to attend his concert that is scheduled to take place today in Tel Aviv.
2011: The second annual Festigalgal happening, a colorful joyous occasion which offers funky entertainment, informative workshops, outdoor education and an opportunity to boost Jerusalemites’ awareness of the existence of, and need for, cycling in the capital is scheduled to take place today. This afternoon, from 4 p.m., part of the Jerusalem city center is scheduled to “be temporally taken over by a different, even more environmentally friendly and far more colorful, mode of transport when around 150 cyclists take off from Safra Square and peddle their way through town, via the shuk, to the Nature Museum in the German Colony.”
2011:IDF pensioners demonstrated outside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv today, complaining that their pensions were being eaten up by inflation.
2011: Rabbi Gilad Kariv, head of the Reform Movement in Israel, told The Jerusalem Post today that the nighttime attack on The Kehilat Ra’anan synagogue in Ra’anana by vandals was the third such attack of its kind. Unknown persons shattered six windows – covering two sides of the synagogue – with stones, and spray-painted a black Star of David below the words “It has begun” on one of the exterior walls.
2011:President Shimon Peres paid a surprise visit to Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where he met with children who were on school bus before it was hit by an anti-tank missile last week
2012(22ndof Nisan, 5772): 8th day of Pesach with services to include Hallel, Yizkor and Shir HaShrim
2012: “Free Men,” a film based on actual events that took place during the Nazi occupation of Paris, is scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2013: “Iron Man 3” based on a character created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby and co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jon Favreau was shown publicly for the first time in Paris at the Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival
2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Odds Against Tomorrow by Nathaniel Rich and Mary Coin by Marisa Silver.
2013: Historian Daniel Goldhagen is scheduled premieres his book and documentary feature "Worse Than War" on PBS.
2013: The week-long “National Days of Remembrance” sponsored by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to end today.
2013: The Maccabeats are scheduled to perform at the Jewish Community Center of Paramus (NJ) this afternoon.
2013: The State of Israel Memorial Day Service marking Yom Hazikaron, sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel in New York is scheduled to take place at the 92nd Street Y.
2013: PBS is scheduled to broadcast “Orchestra of Exiles” that describes the creation of whatis now the Israel Philharmonic in the darks days just before WW II.
2013: In the evening, Israel is scheduled to begin the observance of Memorial Day for servicemen and women and terror victims.
2013: Israel’s population at its 65th Independence Day stands at 8,018,000 people, three-fourths of whom are Jewish, according to data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics today.
2014(14 of Nisan): Fast of the first born- Erev Pesach
2014: “Nearly 100 members of the ancient Jewish community of Kaifeng, China, attended a first-of-its-kind traditional Passover Seder” tonight.
2014: The International Jewish Vegetarian Society is scheduled to host a Vegan and Kosher Seder at 8 Balfour Street in Jerusalem
2014: The Tel Aviv Municipality is scheduled to host a Seder in the community center in Beit Dani, in Hatikva Quarter
2014: White City Shabbat in partnership with Hineni is scheduled to host “a massive international community Seder in Tel Aviv.”
2015: Zohar Weiman-Kelman is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Libe and Linguistics: Towards an Archive of Yiddish Sexuality” at the Center for Jewish History.
2015: Maggie Anton is scheduled to discuss her latest work Enchantress at the Skirball Center
2015: “Zero Motivation” and “Beneath the Helmet: From High School to the Home Front” are scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2015: The Jewish Historical Society of England is scheduled to sponsor Paul Anticoni’s lecture “My Jewish Humanitarian Journey around the World.”