May 24
1218: The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt. The driving forces behind the crusade were two Popes who broke new ground in the mistreatment of the Jews – Innocent III and his successor, Honorius III. One of their most infamous innovations was the creation of “the Jew Badge,” which usually took the form of circle or square of saffron yellow cloth. The Crusade itself was a debacle and the forces of Islam continued to hold onto Jerusalem. Given a choice, at this time, for the Jews this outcome was the lesser of two evils.
1241(6th of Sivan, 5001): Shavuot
1241(6th of Sivan, 5001): The community of Frankfort-on-Main was attacked after Jews tried to prevent a child from being baptized. As a result, a number of townspeople were killed. Seeing no option the Jews set fire to their houses. The fire spread to the rest of the community destroying nearly half the city. One hundred and eighty Jews died while twenty-four agreed to be baptized.
1293 (5053): Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg passed away. Born circa 1225, he was the last of the Tosophists and the leading Rabbi in
1588(14th of Sivan): 24 Jews lost their lives in an auto-da-fe in Barcelona
1738: On a day now celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day, John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement. According to Building New Bridges in Hope the official statement of the United Methodist Church on Christian-Jewish relations, “Christians and Jews are bound to God though biblical covenants that are eternally valid… that God has continued, and continues today, to work through Judaism and the Jewish people
1749(7th of Sivan): Abraham Valentine Potocki was burned at the stake
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12317-potocki-pototzki-count-valentine-abraham-b-abraham
1776(6th of Sivan, 5536): As the Founding Fathers debate the question of declaring independence from Great Britain, Jews observe the first day of Shavuot.
1795(6th of Sivan, 5555): Shavuot
1804: In Cologne, Salomon Oppenheim, Jr. and his wife Therese Stein gave birth to their second son Abraham Oppenheim.
1810: Birthdate of Rabbi Abraham Geiger. Born in
1814(5th of Sivan, 5574): S.Wilhelm Königswarter’s mother Elisabeth passed away today.
1818: In Charleston, SC, Mr. Moses Joseph of Amsterdam married Miss Abigail Audler.1825(7th of Sivan, 5585): Second Day of Shavuot
1837: In Antwerp, Meyer Joseph Cahen d'Anvers and Clara Bischoffsheim gave birth to future French banker Louis Raphaël Cahen d'Anvers.
1842: In Balaton-Kojár, Hungary, Gabriel L. Dessauer and his wife gave birth Moritz Dessauer, the German rabbi whose works included a book about Hobbes and Spinoza.
1850: The Jewish Chronicle reported that Rabbi Jacobs delivered a sermon on Shavuot based on Deuteronomy, Chapter 16, verse 9.
1852(6th of Sivan, 5612): Shavuot
1855: In London, “Lucy (née Daines) and John Daniel Pinero, a solicitor” gave birth to actor Sir Arthur Wing Pinero whose paternal grandparents were Sephardic Jews and his maternal grandparents were English Christians.
1856: Abolitionist John Brown and his men killed five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas. Three of his followers - August Bondi, Jacob Benjamin and Theodore Weinter – have been identified as Jews according to the historian Rufus Learsi.
1861: Major Mordecai and his family left the arsenal at Watervliet, NY. For reasons of personal safety they left in the evening without any fanfare since there were those who felt that Mordecai had betrayed his country. Mordecai was one of the most prominent Jewish officers serving with the U.S. Army prior to the Civil War. A Southerner by birth, he had tried to arrange a transfer to a post in the West that would enable him to serve his country without having to actually fight family and friends. When this attempt failed, Mordecai resigned. But unlike other Southerners, he refused all of the offers to join the Confederate Army. He entered civilian life and never wore a uniform again.
1863(6th of Sivan, 5623): Shavuot
1864(18th of Iyar, 5624): As Grant perused Lee across northern Virginia in a series of battles called the Wilderness Campaign, Jews observed Lag B’Omer.
1868:A public meeting of Hebrew Christians was held at Room No. 24, Cooper Institute, this evening, for the purpose of presenting the claims of the Messiah to their inquiring brethren.[Editor’s Note – this is a 19th century version of the Jews for Jesus]
1870: Birthdate of Benjamin Cardozo. A legal scholar and jurist, Cardozo was the second Jew appointed as an American Supreme Court Justice. He served from 1932 until 1938. He passed away in July of that year.
1870:A house at No. 215 West Seventeenth in Manhattan was dedicated today as a Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews. It is the first such institution in New York State. The home is for those over the age of 60 who, for reasons beyond their control, are not able to receive care and treatment anywhere else. When the Home opened, it cared for only three people. (By 1876 that number would grow to 57)
1876: Delegates from fifteen congregations representing New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Baltimore and Brooklyn met in New York today to plan for the establishment of Jewish theological seminary or college. Mr. Lewis May was chosen to preside over the group and M.S. Isaacs served as secretary. Mr. May informed the group that Temple Emanuel had already voted to spend $2,000 a year to support any Jewish school that was established as a result of these meetings.
1876: Today, at the sixth session of Presbyterian General Conference being held in Brooklyn, the delegates adopted the recommendation that the “mission to English speaking Jews” should be discontinued. This unique action came amidst a flurry of other motions to continue or expand missionary efforts a wide group of people including Native Americans and citizens of China.
1876: Rabbi Rubin officiated at the wedding of Kaufman Marks to Miss Jennie Baum of Charleston, SC at the Synagogue on St. Philip Street.
1876: Rabbi David Levy of Charleston, SC, officiated at the wedding of Robert Caccavajo to Lena Levy in Kingstree, SC, the hometown of both the bride and groom.
1877: In Patterson, NJ, Judge Barkalow heard further testimony regarding an application for the annulment of the marriage of Moses Tanneholz and Rachel Blumenthal. Tanneholz is a cigar dealer living in Patterson. Miss Blumenthal, who is seeking the annulment, is the eighteen year old daughter of well to-do resident of Montreal, Canada. Blumenthal claims that she had not wanted to marry Tanneholz; that she thought the marriage ceremony was only a betrothal ceremony; and that she was only 17 at the time of the “marriage” which meant that she was under-age according to New Jersey Law. Furthermore, she had gone to New York right after the ceremony and the couple had never consummated the marriage. The Justice who performed the ceremony testified today that the bridge seemed to be fully cognizant of the fact that it was a marriage ceremony. The matter of her age only became important when he had been told after the ceremony that this was a “runaway marriage” and he told the groom that he would need affidavit signed by the bride saying that she was at least 18 years of age. Because of the prominence of the families involved, this case has generated interested among the Jewish communities in the both New Jersey and Montreal.
1878:The curtain came down on the final performance of “The Sorcerer” in which Giulia Warwick (born Julia Ehrenberg) had been performing “in the leading soprano role of Aline”
1882(6th of Sivan, 5642): Shavuot
1882: A Pogrom began in Rostov, Russia
1890: The summaries of affidavits from two of the daughters of Mary Frohman – Lena Frohman Vollman and Bertha Frohman – and the family physician Thomas Courtney were published today which purport to show that “Mrs. Frohman is insane” and should be prevented from disposing of her late husband’s estate and returning to Germany.
1891: Birthdate of archeologist and Bible scholar William F Albright. Albright was not Jewish. But much of what we know about the history of ancient Israel
1891:The Jaffa–Ramla section of the Jaffa-Jeruslaum was fully opened for use today.
1891: It was reported that Joseph Roth was responsible for preventing a major fire at a tenement house on Ludlow Street. Roth discovered a bundle of smoldering rags under the staircase which he stomped on to keep them from breaking into flames, thus saving the building that is home to 18 Jewish families including Max Rudolf, a tailor who lived in the building with his family.
1892(27th of Iyar, 5652): This morning in Budapest a wealthy Jewish land owner named Karsay was mortally wounded in a duel.
1892: “A special train left Long Island City carrying over 100 people left Long Island City bound for Rockaway Park where they would attend the formal opening of the new sanitarium that has been built for Jewish children.
1892: It was reported today that Reverend Johnson of Sweden expressed his opposition to a resolution adopted by a conference of Methodist ministers that called upon the Czar to end the persecution of the Jews in Russia. He contended that the resolution would “tend to aggravate the Russian Government against the Methodist Church” and jeopardize the Methodist missions in that country.
1894: “For the third time in the last two days Register Ferdinand Levy” today “secured a summons from Justice Feltner of the Yorkville Police Court for Florian Sicher…who is charged with annoying respectable people of all nationalities and especially Hebrews” as can be seen from the signs in his sausage store in which he advertises “Anti-Semitic Sausages” “Do Not Buy From the Jews” and “No Sale Made to Jews.”
1894: Moses and Julia Levy, who used to own a millinery store on Broadway are being held in the Tombs Police Court having been charged with “secreting goods with intent to defraud.”
1894: “Theodore Seligman, an executor and trustee under the will of his father, Jesse Seligman filed a petition with the Surrogate’s Court” that was one of the preliminary actions necessary to presenting the will for probate.
1894: It was reported that the American Conference of Hebrew and Christian Workers for Israel has formed a committee “to discuss the proper methods of teaching Christianity to the Jews.”
1895: Birthdate of Marcel Janco “a Romanian-born Israeli painter and architect” who was “one of the founders of the Dada movement.”
1895: A written request for a meeting from Theodor Herzl is received by French railroad tycoon and philanthropist Baron Moritz de Hirsch.
1895: A Jew named Samuel Samuelson who lives with his wife and family in Miles Alley was shot this afternoon by an unknown assailant.
1895: Birthdate of Samuel Irving Newhouse, American publisher and philanthropist. Some of his publications included Parade Magazine, Vogue and Glamour.
1896: The New York Times describes the various provisions of the last will and testament of the late Baron Hirsch. The big winner is his wife who is named as “universal heiress.” In one sense, the biggest loser is the Jewish Colonization Association which would have come into possession of the inheritance had the Baroness predeceased the Baron.
1897: Colonel Nicolas Jean Robert Conrad Auguste Sandherr the first person to accuse Dreyfus of treason passed away.
1898: It was reported today that an insurance agent named Martin Beir has been elected Governor for the New York State chapter of B’nai B’rith
1899: Herman Lichtner, a Hungarian tailor who has lived in the United States for the last 15 years set sail on the White Star Liner Cymric with his daughter as they made their way back to Europe.
1901(6th of Sivan, 5661): Shavuot
1903: A copy of the memorandum adopted by the American Baptist Missionary Union in Buffalo, NY, condemning the massacre of the Jews at Kishinev was published today being with the opening declaration, “The recent massacre of Jews in Russia calls for our sympathy, our prayers and our protests.”
1904(10th of Sivan, 5664):Eighty year oldKalonymus Wissotzky, “the largest tea manufacturer in Russia, noted philanthropist and leading member of Choveve Zion” passed away today in Moscow.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Wissotzky_Kalonymus_Zeev
1904(10th of Sivan, 5664):Myer S. Isaacs, for years President of the Baron de Hirsch Fund and leader in many other charitable and philanthropic movements of the Jewish people, died in the Equitable Building, 120 Broadway, this afternoon from heart disease, a condition that had afflicted him for an extended period of time. Born in 1841 at New York City, he was the oldest son of Rabbi Samuel M. Isaacs. He graduated from University of the City of New York in 1859 and graduated from its law school in 1862. He passed the bar exam on May 8, 1862. His successful business and legal career included serving as vice President of the Real Estate Exchange (1867), serving as Justice of the Marine Court (1880), Justice of the Superior Court (1891) and State Supreme Court Justice (1895). He was active in Jewish affairs. In 1857, he and his father founded the Jewish Messenger. He served as President of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites and the Hebrews Free School Association. He also played a key role in establishing the United Hebrew Charities, the Montefiore Home, the Hebrew Technical Institution and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. He was preceded in death by his wife the former Marie Solomon and is survived by 6 children including I.S. Isaacs and Louis Isaacs
1905: Sixteen year old Herman Maltz, the future owner of a furniture store in Los Angeles arrived at Ellis Island.
1907: “Bill To Protect Jews In Hotels” described legislation that has been introduced by New York State Martin Saxe to see to it that nobody is banned from a hotel because of their religion as happened to Mrs. Berth Rayner-Frank of Baltimore. She and her nieces were turned away from a hotel in Atlantic City because they were Jewish. Legislators in the Empire State who were unmoved by what happened to the Seligman family at Saratoga Springs in the 1870’s now want to take action.
1911: The New York Public Library opened. Abraham Solomon Freidus was the first head of the library’s Jewish Division.
1912:Montefiore G. Kahn's mother publicly addresses her concern that the reports her son has given 13,000 to the American Immigration and Distribution Leagueare not accurate. She fears that her son misspoke himself orwas misunderstood.
1912(8thof Sivan, 5672): Less than a month before his 56th birthday, Sir Edward Albert Sassoon, the eldest surviving son of Sir Albert Sassoon, who was a successful British businessman and political leader passed away today.
1913: A murder indictment was returned against Leon Frank by a grand jury in the death of Mary Phagan.
1913: As the police continue to look for the person who had strangled Mary Phagan, Jim Conley, the pencil factory's janitor, who was a suspect in the case, continued to give conflicting testimony as to what had happened. By now, he was attempting to implicate Leo Frank in the murder
1914: In Posen, “Dr. Alfred Peiser, a German Jewish surgeon and Rose Lissman, an Austrian Jewish stage actress gave birth Lili Marie Peiser who gained fame as award winning actress Lilli Palmer.
1914: Birthdate of Budapest native George Tabori playwright and director. Tabori would flee to
1915: “Calls Frank Victim of Cry Against Jews” published today provides a summary of Dr. Madison C. Peters, a Baptist minister, views on the Leo Frank case including his belief that “The American believes in a square deal, a fair trial should be given to Frank. To commute his sentence only adds to the outrage. Nothing less than a fair trial is just. What has happened to Frank may happen equally as well to any citizen of the Republic. If you believe that Frank has not gotten a fair deal, say so.” (Editor’s note – Peters was an unusual figure when you consider that among the many books he wrote you would find Justice to the Jew and The Jew as a Patriot.)
1915: It was reported today that “the jurors who found Leo Frank guilty will meet this week to decide whether to ask the Prison Commission to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
1915: “A resolution appealing for” the commutation of Leo Frank’s death sentence is scheduled to “be submitted to the Governor” by a “body of ministers” who include Dr. John E. White, pastor of the Second Baptist Church and Reverend C.B. Wilmer of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta.
1915: The list of the newly elected officers of the American branch of the Alliance Israelite Universelle published today included Justice Leon Sanders, President and Major Kaufman Mandel, U.S.A. (ret) Treasurer.
1915: In remarks published today Justice Leon Sanders “said the Jews in the eastern theatre of the European War were the worst sufferers and express the hope that when the time came for peace treaties provision would be made for the advancement of the Zionist movement for a home for Jews in Palestine.”
1915: Louis H. Levin, Superintendent of the Federation of Jewish Charities in Baltimore, MD, who went to Palestine aboard the Vulcan which was carrying $100,000 in relief funds from the United States via Alexandria to Jaffa is now in charge of the relief work in Palestine.
1915: At Atlantic City, NJ, “Resolutions lauding President Wilson for his stand in relation to the Lusitania disaster were adopted and telegraphed to Washington today at the convention of the United States Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Sons Israel” which stated “that the President in his note to Germany had expressed the sentiments of every loyal member of the Jewish race in America…”
1915: Over 4,000 letters asking for clemency for Leo M. Frank were received by Governor Slaton today including epistles from Senator Lawrence Y. Sherman of Illinois, Governor James E. Ferguson of Texas, Judge Glendy B. Arnold of the Circuit Court of St. Louis and Judge Ben B. Lindsey of the Juvenile Court in Denver, Colorado.
1915: A resolution adopted by the Alliance Israelite Universelle in New York protesting” in the name of the Jews of the United States against the execution of Leo Frank” based on the belief “that the Frank verdict was the result of race prejudice” was reportedly being sent to the Governor of Georgia.
1915: Birthdate of opera singer Rena Galibova the daughter of Bukharan Jewish parents “who was named the People’s Artist of Tajikistan.
1915: Today, on the day “known as Frank Day” approximately 400 members of fifty women’s organizations are scheduled to canvass the streets of Chicago seeking signatures on petitions asking for clemency for Leo Frank.
1917: The Turkish minister at The Hague, Netherlands, issued a statement regarding deportation of the Jews in Palestine and denied reports that they were being slaughtered.
1917: David Lindo Alexander and Claude Montefiore, president of the Anglo-Jewish Association signed a letter published in today’s Times of London which declared "grave objections" to two claims in the "published statements of the Zionist leaders": "The first is a claim that the Jewish settlements in Palestine shall be recognized as possessing a national character in the political sense... the second... is the proposal to invest the Jewish settlers in Palestine with certain special rights in excess of those enjoyed by the rest of the population".
1917: Funeral services are scheduled to be held this morning for Amalie Freudenberg, the wife of Charles A. Freudenberg at a chapel on 4649 Prairie Avenue in Chicago.
1917: Following a funeral service, Sol Bloom, the husband of Carrie Hartz Bloom is scheduled to be interred at the Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago.
1917: Funeral services for Julia Frieler Stein, the wife of Bernhard Stein, are scheduled to be held today at the Zion Temple on the corner of Washington Boulevard and Ogden Avenue.
1917:The Times of London published an anti-Zionist manifesto issued by the Conjoint Foreign Committee of British Jews.Lucien Wolf, historian, author and advocate for Jewish rights was a leading member of the Conjoint Foreign Committee of British Jews. He had already written to James de Rothschild, arguing against Zionism which he believes sees "Jews as aliens in foreign lands" thus making it similar to anti-Semitism in insisting that Jews will never be integrated into other cultures. David Lindo Alexander and Claude Montefiore, the president of the Anglo Jewish Association were co-signatories of this document.
1917: Birthdate of sculptor Milton Elting Hebald.
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-milton-hebald-20150108-story.html#page=1
1918: Birthdate of Samuel M. Rubinwho was known as "Sam the Popcorn Man" for making popcorn almost as popular in New York City movie theaters as jokes and kisses. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1919: In Ellenville, NY, Samuel and Sarah Leventhal gave birth to music manager and song plugger Harold Leventhal. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405E0D61130F935A35753C1A9639C8B63
1921: Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti began. Harvard law professor and future Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter would play an active role in what would ultimately be their futile defense.
1923: Birthdate of Stanley H. Biber, the Des Moines, Iowa, native and graduate of the U of I Medical School who became the internationally renowned dean of sex-change surgery. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1923: In New York City, Albert Israel Becker and Miriam Rosner Becker gave birth to “David V. Becker, a pioneer in using radioactive materials to diagnose and treat thyroid disease and an expert on the thyroid damage caused by the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident in 1986.” He passed away in 2010 at the age of 86.
1925: A law was put into force in Salonica demanding Sunday as a day of rest. The Jewish community formally disputed this, and in the end the Council of the Jewish Community at Salonica resigned to the governor general of Salonica.
1926: In an article in its Religion Section entitled “Jew and Jew”, Time Magazine describes the philanthropic activities of some of the America’s leading civic and business leaders.
Greek wars with Greek; Jew helps Jew ..." a procurator wrote to his Emperor, Trajan. He was not the first to observe what he expressed so pithily: the racial loyalty of the Jewish people, a loyalty that has kept them together, like a colossal freemasonry, while other nations light the world for a while, then crumble down. For some weeks past the Jews in various U.S. cities, animated by this tradition, have been working to raise money for the relief of the Jews in Eastern Europe. Felix Warburg, Louis Marshall, William Fox and other rich Jews are on the committee which, with headquarters in Biltmore Hotel, Manhattan, has sent its representatives and its publicity up and down the country — the most intense activity being in Greater New York. "There is one hope for the Jews in Eastern Europe," great posters state; "that hope is in the drive for fifteen million dollars. . . ." Speakers have outlined the purposes, the causes of the campaign: "Women and children are dropping dead of hunger on the streets in Bessarabia. Many others are found dead in their homes in Poland. A horrible scourge of typhus is sweeping over the Jews in both lands. . . Children eat what they can find in garbage cans . . . sleep in alleys, in cellars. . . . Hundreds are killing themselves . . . the Jews of America must respond. . . ." To emphasize this appeal, posters in streetcars, on the pillars of subway stations, the billboards of vacant lots, present the picture of a woman in a shawl. Her chin is pressed to the pivot of her wrist; her eyes are smeared with black. She might be any age, this sad, sharpened Jewess; the thing that has pointed her bones and thinned her flesh is not age but weariness; she is the incarnation of the most desolate of physical woes, fatigue. "Are You Tired of Giving?" asks the caption. "You Don't Know What It Is to Be Tired. . . ." Money came in fast. Felix Warburg gave $400,000, Herbert Lehman, Mrs. S. W. Straus, Mortimer Schiff gave $50,000 each; Louis Marshall, William Fox, Benjamin Winter made big contributions, and a disabled veteran sent $28 (government allowance for war wounds). Advertisers, art-goods makers, bag-makers, bankers, butter, egg, and dairy firms; chain stores, crockery companies, cloak and suit houses; the dental, the funeral, the grocery, the hosiery, the laundry, millinery, musical and neckwear trades; opticians, pawnbrokers, petticoat cutters, physicians, rubber-goods makers, rabbis, underwear and umbrella manufacturers — all were appraised for definite amounts, all came near to filling their quotas. Adolph S. Ochs, genius of the New York Times, by many revered as the greatest U. S. newspaper proprietor and the greatest U. S. Jew, swung into the campaign handsomely. His paper advocated the fund far more than any other Manhattan journal, exhorted, reported extensively, published stimulating daily lists of contributors. Nor were Jews the only people to help Jews. Onetime Ambassador James Gerard spoke at a meeting, and a bellboy contributed $5 that he had won on a baseball game. Senator James W. Wadsworth composed a plea, Governor Alfred Smith of New York sent a check by messenger, a Negro elevator man gave two dollars, and Thomas Burke, editor of the official organ of the Irish Temperance Society, wrote "I'm an Irishman . . . but I've advised my race to imitate the good qualities of yours." Meanwhile, reflective Jews and Gentiles asked: "What is the matter with the Jews in Eastern Europe? Are they any worse off than the Christians there? Do they really need 15 million dollars?" They do need their $15,000,000 and untold millions more.* Indeed, when the leaders of the Fund Campaign and of the cooperating organizations† realized that the sum fixed would be oversubscribed in the two weeks allotted (April 25 -May 9), they raised the goal to $25,000,000 and extended the formal collection period another week, well knowing that the donation momentum would continue. The whole country and Canada besides have contributed — not only the cities of close Jewish concentration — New York City, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia — but also the hamlets where a stray Jewish family persists in traditional pioneering. The whole $25,000,000 more than the original goal was not reached, yet was approximated. There will be no cessation of ingathering or of giving. Fertile lands, of high Jewish concentration appropriated after the War from Tsarist Russia by Romania. In the past $60,000,000 have been donated and spent for East European Jews.
1928: The resumption of State Attorney General Albert Ottinger's investigation into the conduct of certain Jewish cemeteries brought out testimony in support of charges that the Baron Hirsch Cemetery of Port Richmond, S.I. charged unjust fees, barred cars from the burial ground forcing mourners to walk to gravesites and fees for grass cutting had been raised from fifty cents to two dollars a lot.
1929: The Marx Brothers made cinematic history with the opening of their first film, The Cocoanuts
1932: In London, Leah and Joseph Wesker gave birth to British dramatist Sir Arnold Wesker. Dr. Samuel Sacks, the father of Oliver Sacks delivered the youngster.
1933(28th of Iyar, 5693): Dr. Alfred Strauss was murdered at Dachau today.
1933: Birthdate of Aharon Lichtenstein the Paris born American Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva.
1935: Birthdate of acclaimed screenwriter and director Joan Micklin Silver.Born in Omaha, Nebraska, on to Russian Jewish parents Maurice David and Doris (Shoshone) Micklin, she graduated from Omaha Central High School in 1952 and Sarah Lawrence College in 1956. Fresh out of college, she married Raphael D. Silver, son of Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver of Cleveland. The Silvers lived in Cleveland from 1956 to 1967 and raised three daughters there: Dina, Marisa, and Claudia. Two of the three daughters now work in film, Marisa as a director and Dina as a producer.
1938: Robert Hollitscher, the son-in-law of Sigmund Freud, and his daughter Mathilde left Vienna for London.
1939: After reading about Churchill’s speech opposing the White Paper, Nathan Laski wrote to him from Manchester: “May I congratulate you upon the great and statesmanlike speech you made on the Palestine questions last night. I think it is not exaggerating to say that you will get the blessings of millions of Jews all over the world.”
1940: Birthdate of the Russian born, American poet Joseph Brodsky. Brodsky won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987 and was U.S. Poet Laureate in 1991.
1941: Birthdate of Bob Dylan. Born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth MN, Dylan has enjoyed a successful career as a singer and songwriter while bouncing back and forth between Judaism and other religions.
1941: U.S. premiere of “Crook’s Tour” featuring the Burmese-Jew Abraham Sofaer as “Ali.”
1942: Birthdate of Aron "Ali" Bacher, the native of Johannesburg who “is an administrator of the United Cricket Board of South Africa. He was born to Lithuanian-Jewish parents who emigrated to South Africa and got his nickname "Ali" at the age of seven from Ali Baba. Ali married Shira Teeger, and they have two daughters and one son. His nephew Adam Bacher played for South Africa in the 1990s. Ali started playing cricket while at school and represented Transvaal at the age of 17. He played in 12 Tests for South Africa, three against England and nine against Australia; he was captain in the last four. In a first-class match for Transvaal against the visiting Australian cricket team in 1966/67, he made a high score of 235 in the second innings. He captained the national team in only one series: in 1969/70 against Australia at home in which the South Africans won all the Tests in the four match series. He studied at the University of the Witwatersrand and became a general practitioner. In 1981 he had heart bypass surgery.”
1943: Birthdate of British conductor James Levine
1943: While training at an Army boot camp in South Carolina, future Mayor Ed Koch wrote in his diary “Had an argument with several of the boys over anti-Negro prejudice, this led to arguments over Jews and the usual line. It’s a pity that there are so few liberals in the land and so many ignorant people.”Read more: http://forward.com/articles/171416/ed-kochs-lost-diary-recalls-face-down-with-jew-hat/#ixzz2U4vZm7UU
1943: Dr. Josef Mengele arrived at Auschwitz shortly after celebrating his thirty-second birthday. He began conducting horrific medical experiments on the Jews. Aside from his ‘experiments' he would also personally inject his victims with phenol, gasoline, chloroform or air. With a wave of his hand, Mengele dispatched the old, injured, crippled, children, and pregnant women to their death in the gas chambers because they were not fit for work.
1943: A Jewish partisan group organized by Judith Nowogrodzka escapes from the Bialystok (Poland) Ghetto. The escape is led by Szymon Datner.
1944: Violette Szabo who was in reality an agent for Special Operations Executive (Britain’s fabled SOE) who would eventually be murdered at Ravensbruck was promoted to Ensign in the FANY (The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteer Corps) which had to be one of the more bizarre cover stories in the history of spycraft.
1944(11th of Sivan, 5770): At Auschwitz, Hungarian Jews being led to the gas chamber scatter but are shot down by the SS
1944: The deportations from Hungary to Birkenau are now averaging 13,000 Jews per day.
1947:Jewish underground fighters, believed to be Stern Gang members, raided two bridge clubs in the all-Jewish city of Tel Aviv early today and escaped with $3,200 in cash from one of them.
1947: The British loaded 1,457 Jewish refugees onto a ship that would take them to detention camps on Cyprus. According to the British, some of the Jews used crowbars in an attempt to break down the barbed-wire enclosures in the hold of the vessel but the Tommies were able to subdue them with water hoses and the firing of weapons in the air. The Jews had been caught the day before trying to enter Palestine in violation of the British blockade.
1948: South Africa recognized Israel.
1948: The Egyptian army captured Yad Mordecai. Yad Mordecai was one of the kibbutzim blocking the road to Tel Aviv. The Egyptian army and air force had attacked Yad Mordecai on May 19. The Jewish force was the size of a company composed of farmers and handful of Haganah troops. For five days the Jews fought off the Egyptians. Before dawn, on May 24 the final Egyptian assault began with two infantry battalions, one armored battalion and one artillery regiment. That night, having used all of their ammunition, the defenders snuck through the Egyptian lines carrying their wounded with them. Four hundred Egyptian soldiers lay dead. More importantly the defenders of Yad Mordecai had bought the Israelis five precious days to strengthen their position at Ashdod
1948: Yitzhak Rabin, commander of the Jewish forces in Jerusalem sends Ben Gurion a desperate plea for help. While the Israelis had been able to thwart an attack by Jordanian armored forces at the New Gate, Rabin feared they could not beat back an additional attack. Also, the city was faced with Egyptian forces to the south which had attacked Ramat Rahel.
1948: In the evening, the Seventh Brigade begins its attack on the fortress at Latrun that is blocking the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. One of the first companies into the fray was led by a sabra named Ariel Sheinermann. Sheinermann would survive the wounds he suffered that day and as Ariel Sharon, would become one of Israel’s most daring and controversial generals.
1948: Ariel Sharon, the future IDF General and Prime Minister leads a platoon during the IDF’s attempt to capture the Latrun Police Compound
1950: “An authoritative source said today that Israel would pay an indemnity of $54,000 to the family of Count Folke Bernadotte, United Nations Mediator who was assassinated in Jerusalem in September, 1948.” Israel “was also expected to pay $3,000 to the United Nations as a special premium on war risk insurance carried by the Swedish mediator and other United Nations in personnel in Israel.”
1950: Foreign Minister Moshe Sharret leaves Israel today on a “good-will” mission to South African Jewry.
1950: According to Health Minister Moshe Shapiro the Polio outbreak continues to spread with 191 cases reported in May as opposed to 83 cases in April. The outbreak in Israel follows the pattern seen in nations in Western Europe and the United States.
1950: Sixty-seven year old Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell who “in August, 1937, was transferred to Palestine, during the Arab Revolt to be General Officer Commanding (GOC) British Forces in Palestine and Trans-Jordan” passed away today.
1951: Fanny Brice suffered a stroke which would prove fatal.
1952: In the fight against Apartheid, Emil “Solly” Sachs addressed 15 000 people on the steps of the Johannesburg City Hall at a meeting arranged by the Garment Workers’ Union in defiance of the decrees issued by the Minister of Justice.
1954: In Helsinki, Finland, Abram Zyskowicz who had survived Sachsenhausen and his wife Ester gave birth to Ben Zyskowicz the first Jew elected to the Finnish parliament
1961: Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion left Israel for a visit to the United States that would include his first meeting with President John Kennedy who had assumed office in January of 1961.
1963(1stof Sivan, 5723): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1966: “Mame” a musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a “book” co-authored by Jerome Lawrence premiered on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre.
1967: CIA Director Richard Helms reports that there are no nuclear weapons in the eastern Mediterranean or the adjacent territory. The report was in error since the Soviets had ships in the area armed with nuclear weapons and instruction to use them against Israel if need be to support the Arabs. 1969(7th of Sivan, 5729): Second Day of Shavuot
1970: During the “War of Attrition” Abba Eban and Yitzchak Rabin meet with Nixon and Kissinger to discuss ways of ending the violence between Egypt and Israel.
1975: Larry Blyden videotaped a pilot for “Showoffs,” a game show created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman.
1977(7th of Sivan, 5737): Second Day of Shavuot
1981: It was reported today that Ukrainian Jewish activist Kim Friedman was sentenced to year in prison for “parasitism.” He would be released in 1982 but would have to wait another six years before he could make Aliyah.
1981: In “By Train Through A Sandstorm From Aswan to Cairo” David K. Shipler, the New York Times bureau chief in Jerusalem described how Arie Kandel, an Israeli travel agent in Egypt “saved his trip to the land of the Pharaohs.
1982: Psychologist Carol Gilligan published In a Different Voice, the first book to argue that women's psychological development could not be understood by studying men.http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/24/1982/carol-gilligan
1986: Final broadcast “Krovim Krovim” “an Israeli sitcom created by Ephraim Sidon.
1987: In an article entitled “An English Rainbow,” Annasue McCleave Wilson portrays the history of Exbury, the estate originally created by Lionel de Rothschild and describes the postwar rejuvenation undertaken by Major Edmund de Rothschild, which has turned the estate into one of the ten most visited properties in England.
1991:Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel. “Operation Solomon was a 1991 covert Israeli military operation to take Ethiopian Jews to Israel. In 1991, the sitting Ethiopian government, the Mariam regime, was close to being toppled with the recent military successes of Eritrean and Tigrean rebels, threatening Ethiopia with dangerous political destabilization. Several Jewish organizations, including the state of Israel were concerned about the well-being of the sizable population of Ethiopian Jews, properly referred to as Beta Israel, residing in Ethiopia. Also, the Mariam regime had made mass emigration difficult for Beta Israel residing in Ethiopia, and the regime's dwindling power presented a promising opportunity for those Beta Israel who had been wanting to emigrate to Israel. In the previous year, 1990, the Israeli government and Israeli Defense Forces, aware of Mariam's worsening political situation, made covert plans to airlift the Beta Israel population in Ethiopia to Israel. This became the largest emigration of Beta Israel to date. In 36 hours, non-stop flights of 34 El Al C-130s, filled to absolute capacity with seats transported 14,325 Beta Israel émigrés from Ethiopia to Israel, where they were given food and shelter. After it was over, Operation Solomon took twice as many Beta Israel émigrés to their spiritual homeland as Operation Moses and Operation Joshua combined.”
1991:During Operation Solomon a world record was set for single-flight passenger load when an El Al 747 carried 1,122 passengers to Israel
1994(14th of Sivan, 5754): Yehuda Mor-Mirkovsky Israeli kibbutz-founder passed away at the age of 96.
1994: The INS Eilat, a Sa’ar 5 class corvette was commissioned today.
1996(6th of Sivan, 5756): Shavuot
1996:Jews praying in an egalitarian minyan at the Western Wall in the early hours of Shavuot morning were verbally and physically attacked by Orthodox men and boys, according to participants in the prayer group. The group of about 50 men and women, some of whom were from the Conservative and Reform movement's rabbinical seminaries in Jerusalem, had studied throughout the night, as is customary on Shavuot. Before dawn, they, along with thousands of other Jews, walked from other parts of Jerusalem to the Wall. Members of the egalitarian minyan began praying shortly after 5 a.m. in the rear right-hand corner of the plaza that fronts the wall, near the flagpoles that stand at the back.A few guys in tallitot stood in the front so that others could not see the women wearing tallitot and kipot and to prevent any possible problems. As they finished the morning prayer on Shavuot, the minyan swelled to about 125 people, and as they continued by reading the Book of Ruth, most of the minyan sat down. It was at that time that the trouble began as Haredi men soon walked up and began to curse and shout at members of the egalitarian minyan. An Orthodox woman who had been part of a prayer group next to the egalitarian minyan approached the haredi men to ask them to be quiet, because they were disturbing other prayers besides those of the mixed group. They spit on her and threw rocks at the man chanting haftarah.
1998: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Soldier of Peace: The Life of Yitzhak Rabin, 1922-1995 by Dan Kurzman and Crossing the Jordan: Israel's Hard Road to Peaceby Sameul Segev.
1998(28th of Iyar, 5758): Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Day
1998: In New London, CT, an op/ed article in The Day reminder readers of the courage of Hiram Bingham when it wrote, “Collectively Bingham and 10 righteous diplomats from other countries "clandestinely saved 200,000 lives from the Holocaust, by writing visas and affidavits of eligibility for passage, and planning escapes from Europe, circumventing their superiors' orders. There are an estimated 1 million descendants of these survivors."
1999: Congressman Paul Ryan identifies Ayn Rand as one of the two authors who has the most influence on him. The other is the “author” of the Bible.
1999: A joint U.S.–Israeli team which was searching for the remains of the INS Dakar used information received from U.S. intelligence sources that led to the detection a large body on the seabed between Crete and Cyprus, at a depth of some 3000 meters (9800 ft). The team was led by subcontractor Thomas Kent Dettweiler of the American Nauticos Corporation,
2000: Israeli troops leave southern Lebanon after 18 years.
2000: The final episode of the second season of “Felicity” created by J.J. Abrams was broadcast today.
2002: In Tel Aviv, a security guard at Studio 49 Disco killed a Palestinian terrorist who “was attempting to detonate a car bomb.” Despite his quick action, five people were seriously injured.”
2002(13thof Sivan, 5762): Twenty-three year old Sergeant First Class Oren Tzelnik of Bat Yam was killed by terrorists and two of his comrades were seriously wounded. (Jewish Virtual Library)
2005: IDF soldier Majde Halabi was reported missing. He was assumed to have been taken hostage or killed by Arab terrorist.
2005: Opening session of Biotech-Israel 2005
2006: An exhibit entitled “Dear Dr. Janzow” opened at the Sydney Australia Dear Dr. Adelaide Flinders University Australia
2006: The U.S. Postal Service began selling “Distinguished American Diplomats’ stamps and first day covers today. The six diplomats honored included Hiram Bingham IV who risked his career and his life to issue “live-saving visas” to Jews and non-Jews fleeing Hitler’s Europe.
2007(7th of Sivan, 5767): Second Day of Shavuot – Yizkor
2007: The Hekhal Haness Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Geneva was severely damaged by a fire today. Nessim Gaon, the Sudanese born Swiss financier who created the Noga Company, and has served as President of the World Sephardi Federation is one of the congregation’s most prominent members.
2007: The three day Metula Poetry Festival comes to an end.
2007(7th of Sivan, 5767): Ninety-three year old Philip M. Kaiser, a retired diplomat and high-ranking Labor Department official who served as an ambassador to four nations passed away today.
2007: At Cannes, first showing of “Ocean’s Thirteen” co-starring Elliot Gould and Carl Reiner, featuring Ellen Barkin, Bob Einstein, Jerry Weintraub and Scott L. Schwartz, with a script by Brian Koppelman and produced by Jerry Weintraub.
2007: In Ireland, Alan Joseph Shatter began serving his second term as a member of Teachata Dala.
2008: Bradlee Birchansky celebrates his Bar Mitzvah at Shabbat Morning Services at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2008 (5768): Finish Vayikra, Book of Leviticus
2008: The Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School
2009(1st of Sivan, 5769): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
2009: Seventh season of “A Star is Born” begins on Israeli television.
2009: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict” by Benny Morris, “The American Future: A History” by Simon Schama, “Rhyming Life and Death” by Amos Oz; translated by Nicholas de Lange and “The Amos Oz Reader”selected and edited y Nitza Ben-Dov; translated by Nicholas de Lange and others.
2009: As he ended a four-day trip to Israel today, Canada's minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism warned against a "new anti-Semitism" that emanates from an alliance of Western leftists and Islamic extremists is more dangerous than the "old European" form of Jew-hatred
2010: Fifth anniversary of Majdi Halabi, the druse IDF soldier who disappeared while hitchhiking from his home at Daliyat al-Karmel to the military base where he was serving on active duty.
2010: Shami Leibowitz, the grandson of Yeshayahu Leibowitz, was sentenced to 20 months in prison today after having “pleaded guilty…to knowingly and willfully disclosing five Secret level FBI documents to a blogger who then published information derived from those documents on the blog.”
2010: In New York, the YIVO is scheduled to present a lecture entitled “Coming to America? Max Weinreich and the Making of YIVO in New York, 1939-41.”
2011:The AIPAC Policy Conference is scheduled to come to a close in Washington, DC.
2011:In celebration of Jewish-American Heritage Month, the Frequency String Quartet is scheduled to perform a program entitled “Different Trains: Stories From the Holocaust Told Through Music” at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, OH.
2011:YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present a lecture by Lecture Natan M. Meir, Lorry I. Lokey Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies, Portland State University entitled "A ‘Russian Zion,’ or a Jewish Nightmare?: Jewish Life in Tsarist Kiev.”
2011: "Jews, Slavery, and the Civil War" a program sponsored by The Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program, The Center for Southern Jewish History at the College of Charleston and The Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina is scheduled to open this evening with a screening of “Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray.”
2011:"Marseille Port", “a work by Romanian born artist Marcel Janco, one of the founders of Dadaism who later in life moved here and established the Ein Hod artist village, is the top lot in Bonhams Israeli Art & Judaica auction in London which is scheduled to take place today
2011: “Jerusalem, City Center” a work painted by Israel Hershberg in 1989-1990 is scheduled to go on sale at Bonham’s in London. It is expected to sell for anywhere from £100,000 to £150,000.
2011(20th of Iyar, 5771): Eighty-two year old Arthur Goldreich, a native of South Africa who was an ally of Nelson Mandela in the fight to end apartheid, passed away today in Tel Aviv. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2011: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress this morning.
2012: Israeli composer Guy Barash’s musical series “Eavesdropping” is scheduled to return to The Tank in NYC.
2012: As his mother Debbie looked on with pride, Josh Rosenbloom graduated from medical school today.
2012: NYC Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced that man was in custody who had implicated himself in the disappearance of Etan Patz.
2012: Anouk Markovits, the author of I Am Forbidden, is scheduled to do a reading at Corner Bookstore in New York.
2012(3rdof Sivan, 5772): Sixty-three year old Kathi Kamen Goldmark passed away today.
2013: In London, The Wiener Library is scheduled to host a presentation by Dr. Helen Roche entitled “Why we knew nothing about Auschwitz” in which she will explore the diverse reactions to the trouble legacy of the Holocaust demonstrated by those who had attended an elite Nazi school.
2013: The IPO Patron Trip to Israel is scheduled to begin today.
2013: In Portugal, the Lisbon Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end
2013: Opening of “No Place On Earth” in Coral Gables, FL and Tulsa, OK
2013: A Carlebach-inspired service honoring the Jewish Fallen Heroes of Iraq and Afghanistan is scheduled to be held at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC.
2013: The landmine of the type that exploded in the Golan Heights killing Cpl. Roi Alphi, was known to be faulty and susceptible to heat, Hebrew media reports said today.
2013: The time has come for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to take difficult steps in pursuit of peace, US Secretary of State John Kerry said as he spoke with reporters in Ben-Gurion International Airport today at the end of a two-day visit.
2014: Zohar Hodis is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah at Lubavitch of Iowa City under the leadership of Rabbi Avrohom Blesofsky.
2014: Pope Francis is scheduled to begin his trip to “the holy land”
2014: “Pope Francis sent his good wishes to President Shimon Peres and to the Israeli people via his pilot as he flew to neighboring Jordan to kick off his regional “pilgrimage of prayer” tour.Peres reciprocated with a message of his own, telling the pope that Israel will receive him “with love and appreciation, as a pope who builds bridges of peace between religions.”
2014:Belgium stands “united” against the “abhorrent” attack today at the Brussels Jewish Museum that killed three people and critically injured one, Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo said hours after the shooting
2015(6th of Sivan, 5775): Shavuot
2015: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including another Holocaust novel, The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard andThe Daemon Knows: Literary Greatness and the American Sublime by Harold Bloom.