May 27
1096 (3rd of Sivan): Count Emicho and the Crusaders entered
1199: Coronation of John as King of England. The conditions of the Jews worsened under the hapless rule of Richard’s younger brother. He squeezed the Jewish community for funds, including the dowry for his daughter. He also signed the Magna Carta which dealt specifically with the issue of borrowing from Jews and debts owed to Jews by the survivors of deceased Englishmen.
1679: The Pope suspended the Portuguese Inquisition due to its severe treatment of Marranos.
1328: Philip VI is crowned King of France.Phillip’s attempts to take back territory that
1462: Coronation of Louis XII who “ordered the final expulsion of the Jews from Provence in 1501” and who levied a special tax on all the Jews who converted to compensate for the loss of revenue.
1529: Thirty Jews of Posing, Hungary, charged with blood-ritual, were burned at the stake.
1564: John Calvin, the religious reformer whose doctrine came to be called Calvinism passed away today. Among his writings was “Response to Questions and Objections of a Certain Jew.”
http://www.reformedinstitute.org/documents/GSPak.pdf
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0004_0_03871.html
1647: Peter Stuyvesant was inaugurated as Director-General of New Netherland. It was while serving in this position, that Stuyvesant would greet the first group of Jews to settle in what would become
1703: Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg. Given Peter’s stated views in 1698 that no Jew should live in Russia, one would assume that no Jews would live in his new capital. It is possible that two Jews named Meyer and Lups who “assisted the Tsar in his financial operations” may have at least visited Peter’s new city. By 1714, at least one Jew was known to be living in St. Petersburg. Jan da Costa “a versatile linguist descended from Portuguese Marranos” who had previously lived in Hamburg, arrived in St. Petersburg where he was appointed court Jester by Peter in 1714. Of course, by then Peter’s realm was no longer free Jews since his annexation of the Baltic territories and conquests in the Ukraine had had the unintended consequence of bring him untold number of Jewish subjects.
1724: Beginning of the papacy of Benedict XIII, the pope who issued Emanavit nuper, a Papal Bull, dealing with “the necessary conditions for imposing Baptism on a Jew.”
1730: The leaders of the Berlin community paid 4,500 marks to replace Moses Aaron of Lemberg with another rabbi which resulted in Aron being “forced” to become the rabbi at Frankfort-on-the Oder
1759: Birthdate of Isaac Franks, the New York native who fought with the Continental Army from the 1776 until he was forced to resign due to ill health in 1782.
1790: Joachim Edler von Popper, the “Court Jew” of the Habsburgs “was ennobled as the first ‘Elder von Popper’ making him the second Jew to be ennobled proving that you did not convert to attain this honor.
1799: In Paris, Cantor Élie Halfon Halévy and his wife gave birth to Fromental Halévy the French composer whose most famous work maybe the opera La Juive (The Jewess)
1804: In South Carolina, Rabbi Solomon Hart officiated at the marriage of Solomon Levy, a Charleston merchant and Mrs. Hannah Levy, the widow of the late Samuel Levy.
1808: The Polonies Talmud Torah of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York became the first Jewish day school in the United States when it modified its curriculum to include both religious and secular studies.1811: Birthdate of Abraham de Pinto, the native of the Hague who was awarded a gold medal when he earned his LL.D. in 1835, the same year in which he became editor in chief of the “Weekblad voor het Recht.”
1811: Birthdate of Abraham de Pinto, the native of The Hague who became a leading Dutch jurist.
1814: Today the Emperor of Austria “wrote to one of his ministers” complaining about reports that “Viennese Jews” had circumvented the law by buying “homes in the name of Christians” and stating that this “would not be tolerated.
1823: Birthdate of David Rosin, the German born theologian and teacher who became a professor at the Rabbinical Seminary in Breslau. He was a contemporary and friend of Rabbi Michael Sachs.
1841(7thof Sivan, 5601) 2nd day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1842: The Voice of Jacob in Sidney, Australia reported on the conflagration at Smyrna: There was an additional series of offerings to the fund in aid of the sufferers on the Day of Atonement in the Great Synagogue..."
1849(6thof Sivan, 5609): Shavuot
1849: Birthdate of Adolph Lewisohn, a German-Jewish immigrant born in Hamburg who became a New York City investment banker, mining magnate, and philanthropist.
1849: Birthdate of Moriz Benedikt, the native of Krasice, who was the editor of Neue Freie Presse.
1852: Lionel de Rothschild issued an address to the “independent electors of London” in which he thanked them for their support and for twice electing him to the House of Commons, even though he has been denied the right to assume his position. He went to thank them for supporting the effort to make it possible him to serve in Parliament and asking for their support in his third bid to be elcted to the House of Commons.
1853: The author of an article entitled “The Word ‘Selah’” which was published today sought to provide a meaning for the Hebrew word “Selah” which is used in its untranslated form throughout the Bible especially in the Book of Psalms. In searching for the meaning, he states that “the Targums and most of the Jewish commentators give the word, meaning eternally forever. Rabbi Kinchi regards it as a sign to elevate the voice.” He concludes by saying that “selah” may be an abridged version of Higgaion Selah. [Editor’s Note – what makes this amazing is that this learned article with all of these Jewish references appeared in the New York Times.]
1855: Reverend Joseph P. Thompson who has just returned from the Holy Land is scheduled to give a talk this afternoon based on his visit to Jerusalem.
1857: Hermann Goldschmidt discovered Asteroid 44 Nysa.
1860(6thof Sivan, 5620): In the United States, Jews on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line celebrate Shavuot for the last time as “brethren.”
1868(6thof Sivan, 5628): Shavuot
1864: The 79th Indiana under the command of Colonel Frederick Knefler took part in the Battle of Pickett’s Mill, one of the Union victories that marked General Sherman’s campaign that led to the capture of Atlanta, GA. The campaign was a daring military action that was a key to Union victory over the Confederacy. Knefler, who would rise to the rank of General before the end of the war, was one of the highest ranking Jews to serve in the Union Army.
1866:It wasreported today that one of the ancient aqueducts which supplies Jerusalem with water is formed of blocks of stone so keyed together as to form a perfect syphon.
1870: It was reported today that Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum has been designated by a recent act of the state legislature as one of the recipients of a pro rata share of $150,000
1877: A review of The Life, Work and Opinions of Henrich Heinea two volume work written by William Stigand was published today.
1878: It was reported today that John Bright, who ranks with Disraeli and Gladstone as a leading English statesman is reported to have Jewish ancestry. According to several publications including The Examiner, one of Bright’s Quaker forbearers married “a very pretty Jewess named Martha Jacobs…Mr. Bright’s brother, what has a seat in the House of Commons is called ‘Jacob’ after the ‘pretty Jewess.’” This report should not be construed as being informational or complimentary since it also includes the information that Jacob Bright “has a nose duly fitted to the Anglo-Jewish role.” (The hooked nose Jew was a classic staple of 19th century anti-Semitism.
1879: In New York, Judge Gildersleeve has ordered the sons of Fanny Solomon to pay $4.50 per week for her support. “Mrs. Fanny Solomon an aged and infirm Hebrew lady” had “instituted proceedings to compel her sons Leopold, Felix and Alfred to support her.” The Solomon brothers own a factory that manufactures paper-boxes. Mrs. Solomon contended that she destitute and that her sons had refused to provide with “the necessities of life” even though they were wealthy enough to have done so. The sons claimed that she was not destitute since she had savings of her own. They also said that she had refused their offers to come and live with them. Based on the decision, the Judge was not impressed by the brothers’ claims.
1879: In Montreal, Canada, Rabbis De Sola and Levy officiated at the weeding of Joseph H. Loryea of Charleston, SC and Rosabel L. Hyman, the “third daughter of William Hyman of Montreal.”
1880: Moses Bruhl set sail from New York aboard the steamship Gallia bound for Liverpool. Bruhl was a New York businessman and philanthropist who created The Betty Bruhl Prizes, awards for outstanding students at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum named in honor of his late wife.
1883: Alexander III crowned Czar of Russia. Alexander pursued some of the most anti-Semitic policies of all the Romanovs, which is saying something given their miserable track record.
1884: Birthdate of novelist Max Brod who is best known for his friendship with Franz Kafka.
1884: Josephine Sykes and Henry Morgenthau Sr. gave birth to their daughter Helen Fox.
1890: Mary Frohman, the widow of Herman Frohman, is scheduled to appear in court today to respond to a claim brought by her children that she is a “lunatic.” Frohman died without a will and since most of his property was in his wife’s name she is now in control of it; a situation that her four children seem determine to change.
1890: “The inquest by Coroner Joseph Rosesh and a jury into the murder of Samuel Hutch a Jewish peddler who is a member of the congregation at Roundout is still in progress tonight at Middletown, NY.
1890: It was reported today that Temple Beth-El will host the upcoming confirmation exercises for students enrolled by the Hebrew Free School Association.
1891: While being interviewed in Paris today Baron Hirsch said “The measures now enforced against the Hebrews in Russia are equivalent to a wholesale expulsion of the race from the Russian Empire.”
1892: “ ‘Cranks’ And The World’s Fair” an editorial published today takes issue with attempts in the U.S. House of Representatives to tie funding for the World’s Fair to a promise to close the exhibitions on Sunday so as not to violate the “Sabbath.” “It is only a very small proportion of Christians who are so rigid Sabbatarians as the Jews. The orthodox Jews in every country make considerable sacrifices, eager as for money as they are supposed to be, in order to observe the Sabbath. Yet no Jewish exhibitor at a World’s Fair that we know of has refused to allow his exhibit to be shown along with the rest on Saturdays.”
1893: While on his way to the synagogue this morning thirteen year old Israel Schwartz ran away from the a Ladies’ Deborah Nursery and went to the Gerry Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children where he was examined by Dr. Travis Gibb who found “the boy had been brutally beaten.”
1894: “Columbus and the Jews” published today provides a detailed review of Christopher Columbus and the Participation of the Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese Discoveries by Dr. Meyer Kayserling and translated by Charles Gross.
1894: “The Capital of Bosnia” published today described the “bewildering sights and sounds” of Sarajevo including the presence of “hoary Spanish Jews, any one of whom might sit as a model for a portrait of King Solomon.”
1894: It was reported today that Samuel Montagu, “the well-known banker and philanthropist” and almost the only important Jew who did not desert Prime Minister Gladstone “on the Irish Question” has been made a Baronet by Queen Victoria.
1894: “Bequests of Jesse Seligman” published today included a lengthy list of those institutions benefiting from the largesse of the late millionaire some of which were the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum, $5,000; Mount Sinai Hospital, $2,500; United Hebrew Charities the City of New York, $1,000 and the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids, $1,000. (And that was only the tip of the iceberg of his generosity)
1898(6th of Sivan, 5658): As the Spanish-American War enters into its second month, celebration of Shavuot
1898: “Montefiore Country Home” published today described plans for the upcoming “formal opening of the country sanitarium of the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids.”
1898: The members of the Hebrew Union Veterans’ Association assembled at Yorkville Court on the corner of 3rd Avenue and 57th Street and marched to Temple Emanu-El where the Civil War veterans held their annual memorial service.
1898: “Chicago’s Jewish Guardsman” published today described the formation of the “Guards of Zion” which is made up of approximately 190 of the younger members of the Zion Association of Chicago. The unit will be designated as Companies I and M of an Illinois Volunteer Regiment under the command of Colonel McGrath. (Editor’s Note – this was part of the patriotic response that was sweeping the country during the Spanish-American War)
1899(18thof Sivan, 5759): Ninety-five year old Jonas Hecht passed away in Norfolk. He moved there in 1863 after having served as a rabbi in New York for 22 years. He was one of the original ten men who found B’nai B’rith.
1899: David Wolffsohn reports that the minimum funding for the Jewish Colonial Bank has been finally assured.
1899: “New Mount Sinai Hospital” published today descried plans for the new building for which the Jews of New York have provided all of the funding even though “the institution is non-sectarian…and the appointments on the house staff, medical staff and the admission of patients are made without regard to religious faith.”
1899: Birthdate of Bernard Joseph the Montreal, Canada native who became known as Dov Yosef, the Israeli political leader who served as military governor of Jerusalem during the War for Independence in 1948.
1899: “From Russia to America” published today described the decision of Israel Zangwill to write a foreword to From Plotzk to Boston by Mary Antin. Mr. Zangwill sees this collection of letters written in Yiddish by an eleven year old Russian immigrant provides a view of the little known “inner feelings of the people themselves” and helps us understand “what magic vision of free America lures them on to face the great journey to other side of the world.
1899: W.B. Clarke Company has announced that it will print “a second and much larger edition of Mary Antin’s From Plotzk to Boston which was first produced by a printer in New York. An error was made in creating the title. Antin was from Polotsk, but in the process of translation and printing it was changed to Plotzk.
1900: Pianist Leopold Godowsky and his wife gave birth to violinist Leopold Godowsky who helped to created Kodachrome.
1903: At Carnegie Hall, New York May Seth Low presided over a mass meeting protesting the Kishinev Pogrom which was addressed by former President Grover Cleveland.
1904(13th of Sivan, 5664): Forty-four year old “Henry M. Hendricks, a junior member of the firm of Hendricks Brothers, the oldest metal house in the United States (dating back to 1764) dropped dead in the waiting room of the Christopher Street Ferry this morning” while on his way to Hoboken, NJ to meet his 19 year old daughter Aimia.
1908: Birthdate of Reform Rabbi Elmer Berger, the Cleveland, Ohio native who used the American Council for Judaism as a platform to promote his anti-Zionist beliefs.
1909(7th of Sivan, 5669) 2ndday of Shavuot, Yizkor
1911: Birthdate of Hubert Humphrey, reform mayor of Minneapolis, U.S. Senator from Minn. and Vice President of the United States Israel
1911: Birthdate of Teddy Kollek, mayor of Jerusalem from 1965 till 1993. Born Theodor Kollek to a Jewish family in Nagyvaszony near Budapest, Austria-Hungary, and named after Theodor Herzl, Kollek shared his father Alfred's enthusiasm for Zionist ideas. He grew up in Vienna. In 1935, three years before the Nazis seized power in Austria, the Kollek family immigrated to Palestine -- this was still the time of the British Mandate. Kollek was eager to help build a new society and, in 1937, was one of the co-founders of Kibbutz Ein Gev near Lake Galilee. In the same year he married Tamar Schwarz, who gave birth to two children, Amos (born 1947) and Osnat. During the Second World War, Kollek tried to represent Jewish interests in Europe on behalf of the Haganah At the outbreak of the war he succeeded in persuading Adolf Eichmann to release 3,000 young Jewish concentration camp inmates and transfer them to England. Kollek became a close ally of David Ben-Gurion; working for the latter's government from 1952 till 1965. n 1965 Teddy Kollek succeeded Mordechai Ish Shalom as Mayor of Jerusalem. He served six terms of office -- a total of 28 years, being re-elected in 1969, 1973, 1978, 1983, and 1989. It has generally been agreed that during his tenure Jerusalem was turned into a modern city, especially after its reunification in 1967. In 1993 Kollek, aged 82, again ran for Mayor but was defeated by Likud candidate Ehud Olmert who went on to become Prime Minister in 2006
1915: Birthdate of Herman Wouk. The famed novelist won a Pulitzer Prize for the Caine Mutiny. He has written several books using Jewish themes. The Language God Talks was released just before his 90th birthday.
1915: Birthdate of Arieh Handler who was one of the founders of the Religious Zionist movement in the United Kingdom
1915: “A number of women made speeches to a crowd on behalf of Leo M. Frank on the corner of 126th Street and Seventh Avenue tonight” and “obtained many signatures on a petition” asking the Governor of Georgia to show clemency in the case.
1915: Today “additional Georgia jurists” including Spencer R. Atkinson, ex-Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court and Judge E.C. Konitz of Atlanta “joined in the plea to the Prison Commission to commute the sentence” of Leo M. Frank.
1915: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and Louis Marshall are among the speakers scheduled to speak at a mass meeting sponsored by the League of Foreign Born Citizens at P.S. 91 where appeals for justice for Leo M. Frank who is sentenced to die next month will be made.
1915: It was reported today that Eugene N. Foss, the former Governor of Massachusetts, who had employed Leo Frank in 1906 “said it was very evident that the unfortunate man has not had a fair trial” and that “every gentile, as well as every Jew…was interested in this case, because it be his turn next to be the victim of ‘public sentiment.’”
1915: The partial text of a letter urging clemency for Leo Frank from Reverend Alfred K. Glover, the rector of St. James Episcopal Church and “a recognized authority on the laws and customs of the Jews” being sent to the Governor of Georgia published today said that “Neither man nor beast has ever been known to have been strangled by a Jews.”
1915: A copy of a letter from the Grand Rabbi of Turkey to the American Jewish Relief Committee in New York published today said that “nearly 5,000 individuals are without any support and this number is increasing daily. My least resource is to implore you to intervene on behalf of our community with Jews in America.” (Editor’s note: While many Jews know about the suffering of the Shoah, they are unaware of the suffering of their co-religionist during WW I especially in the Ottoman Empire and on the Eastern Front including Russia and the Autro-Hungarian Empire.)
1917(6thof Sivan, 5677): American Jews observe Shavuot for the first time as combatants in World War I.
1917: In New York, “at Temple Beth-El Dr. Samuel Schulman preached a sermon on the Russian Revolution.
1917: In New York, “at the Free Synagogue Dr. Stephen S. Wise spoke on ‘Israel’s Youth and the Youth of Israel.’”
1917: On Shavuot, in New York, “at Temple Emanu-El, Dr. Joseph Silverman delivered a patriotic” sermon.
1919: Dorothy Engel and Herman Maltz were married in New York after which they lived at the Hotel Cumberland before moving to California in 1920 where Herman went into the wholesale shoe business which led to his opening West Coast Furniture in partnership with William Weiss.
1923: Birthdate of Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Is Henry Kissinger really Jewish? Some contend that since he does not practice Judaism and since he got married on Shabbat, he is not really Jewish. The fact of the matter is that his family left Germany
1923: Birthdate of Sumner Redstone, Chairman and CEO of Viacom, Inc.
1924: Jules Stein founds Music Corporation of America in Chicago, Illinois. MCA began as a booking agency for bands. Over time it grew and eventually morphed in Universal Studios in 1996.
1927: National Jewish Book Week, which had the unanimous endorsement of the Chicago Rabbinical Association, is scheduled to come a close.
1928: In retaliation, for a vote of no confidence by Hadassah in its President, the Zionist National Executive Committee, threatened to discipline the women's organization
1928(8thof Sivan, 5688): Seventy-five year old German mathematician Arthur Moritz Schoenflies “known for his contributions to the application of group theory to crystallography” passed away today. (I won’t even pretend to try and explain what he worked on)
1930: Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Otto Meyerhoff is one of the department chairmen at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Medicine, a facility modeled after the Rockefeller Institute, which is opening today in Heidelberg, Germany.
1932: Birthdate of Linda Pastan who was Poet Laureate of Maryland from 1991 to 1995.
1933(2nd of Sivan, 5693): Karl Lehburger, a Jewish businessman, was murdered in Dachau.
1933(2nd of Sivan, 5693):James Loeb, a Jewish-German-American banker and philanthropist, passed away. Born in New York in 1867, he “was the second born son of Solomon Loeb and Betty Loeb.James Loeb joined his father at Kuhn, Loeb & Co. in 1888 and was made partner in 1894, but he retired from the bank in 1901 due to severe illnesses. In memory of his former lecturer and friend Charles Eliot Norton, in 1907 Loeb created The Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship. In 1911 he founded and endowed the Loeb Classical Library, and founded the Institute of Musical Art, which later became part of the Juilliard School of Music.”
1934: In Reisterstown, Mr. and Mrs. A. Ray Katz and Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Lansburgh, the daughters and sons-in-law of philanthropist Jacob Epstein will present a memorial bust of their father to the Mount Pleasant Jewish Tubercular Sanatorium at ceremony where Dr. Edward L. Israel, the rabbi of Temple Har Sinai will deliver the invocation “and lead in the recitation of the prayer for the dead at the close of services.” (JTA)
1935: New York City women led by activist Clara Shavelson, picketed Manhattan butcher shops to demand a reduction in the price of meat. http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/shavelson-clara-lemlich
1935: In a land mark case, The Supreme Court of the United States declares the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional in the case A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, (295 U.S. 495).The challenge to the National Industrial Recovery Act came from the most unlikely source, a Jewish chicken producer. Joseph Schechter operated Schechter Poultry Company, and Martin, Alex and Alan Schechter operated A.L.A. Schechter Company, both of which were slaughterhouses selling chickens to kosher markets in New York City
1936(6th of Sivan, 5696): First Day of Shavuot
1936(6th of Sivan, 5696): On Shavuot, the British would not allow Jews to hold services at the Western Wall because of the on-going attacks by Arabs.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that a British constable was murdered near Ramat Hakovesh (formerly Juara) in the vicinity of the spot where two American pioneers, Ephraim Tiktin, 24, formerly of Detroit, Michigan, and Eliezer Korngold, formerly of Toronto (Ontario) were murdered on April 8, 1938. Supernumerary policemen successfully defended the Arab attack on Tel Adashim and wounded several attackers. Ze'ev Alianevsky, the driver of a Hamekasher bus in Jerusalem
1939: Two weeks after 19 year old George Jellinek and the family of Peter Gay arrived in Cuba aboard the SS Iberia the SS St. Louis arrived in Havana, Cuba and was denied use of the docking areas because the Cuban government “had retroactively invalidated the land permits” of most of the Jewish passengers – a fact of which they were not aware.
1942: Three Jewish families living in the remote Ukrainian village of Chaplinka are killed.
1942: General Reinhard Heydrich was fatally shot in Prague by two Czech patriots. The man responsible for the formal initiation of Hitler's Final Solution, a man synonymous with terror, would die within the next eight days. The Holocaust still had three more years of death ahead of it. SS General Globocnik begins preparation for ‘Operation Rienhard', in honor of the slain general. Operation Reienhard was the deportation of Jews to meet immediate death at Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor. Goebbels wanted to make the Jews pay for Heydrich's death. According to at least one account, the attack on Heydrich was orchestrated by the British and had nothing to do with his role in the Final Solution
1943: The Jews of Sokal, Ukraine, are deported to the Belzec death camp.
1943: Three thousand Jews are killed at Tolstoye, Ukraine.
1943: Birthdate of actor Bruce Weitz who played Sgt. Mick Belker on the NBC television police drama Hillstreet Blues.
1944: Two Jews escaped from Birkenau. Arnost Rosin of Czechoslovakia Poland
1944: Joel Brand “sent his wife a telegram” telling her about interim agreement that had been reached to swap $4,000 for each Jewish emigrants to Palestine and one million Swiss francs for each 1,000 Jewish emigrants to Spain, “hoping she would tell Eichmann and that this might delay the deportations” of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz.
1944: Rudolf Kastner was taken into custody by the Hungarian Arrow Cross in Budapest.
1946: Concentration Camp survivor Gerda Weissmann was reunited with her “liberator” Kurt Klein whom she married and gained fame as author Gerda Weissmann Klein
1947: Ben Gurion drew up his first summary of the Yishuv’s military position. He wrote in his diary, “There is not sufficient training even in the brigade (Palmach). There is a shortage of commanders, and those we have are not adequate [in standard]. There is no attempt at action, the planning defective; the structure of the budget is not directed at the target. The most serious fault is that the experience and human military material [those demobilized from the British army] have not been utilized. The equipment has not been adapted. For many years, a central idea has been missing: What is the duty [of the Haganah organization]?
1948: The Israel Defense Army (Zahal) was established. Prior to the creation of the state there had been several armed groups including Haganah, Palmach, Irgun and the Stern Gang. Ben Gurion understood that there could only be one army and that that army had to be under the control of the national government. He acted decisively and overcame considerable opposition to achieve this goal.
1948: In Jerusalem, troops of the Arab Legion “raised their flag on the roof of the Huvra Synagogue, the main synagogue of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City and then set it on fire. The Hebrew word Huvra means ruin and the synagogue was so named because the Moslems had destroyed it twice since it was first built in 1705. The dome of Huvra had been a major landmark for almost one hundred years. The Huvra was in the same category for Jews as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was for Christians. Of course the Church remained unharmed and nobody in the international community then or since expressed any dismay over the destruction of a Jewish house of worship that was also a civic treasure.
1948:Vitka Kempner and Abba Kovner gave birth to their first son Michael. At the time of the boy’s birth, his father was fighting with the IDF during the War of Independence. Kempner had proven her martial mettle as a resistance fighter serving alongside her famous husband during WW II.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Jordanian marauders carried out three simultaneous attacks on three new immigrant villages of Beit Naballa, Beit Arif and Beit Arif Bet, all of them near Beit Shemen. At Beit Naballa they threw a grenade into the house of David Namdar, killed his wife, Tamar, 30, and wounded two of his seven children. They also looted whatever was possible. At Beit Arif they detonated three kg. of TNT under the house which was completely destroyed, and at Beit Arif Bet they did the same to three houses. Seven people were injured in both explosions.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the General Zionists had resigned from the Cabinet coalition. They resigned because the Labor majority turned down their request for the exclusive use of a National Flag and anthem in schools, to the exclusion of red flags, traditional to the Labor movement.
1955(6thof Sivan, 5715): Shavuot
1957: Thirty-seventh and final broadcast of “Producers’ Showcase” a television anthology series that featured the music of Sammy Cahn and Moose Charlap and included shows produced by Sol Hurok and Anatole Litvak.
1964: Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru dies in office. Nehru opposed the creation of the state of Israel. Given India’s large Moslem population and the conflict with Pakistan at the time of India’s re-birth, this is not surprising. What was disappointing was the lengths that Nehru went to isolate the Jewish state after its creation. In recent years, India has turned its back on Nehru’s view of Israel.
1967: “The Israeli Cabinet met to decide whether or not to take military action against Egypt” based on the continued blockade of the Straits of Tiran. The Cabinet appeared to be evenly divided between those who were ready to take action and those who were willing to wait and see if the international community would end the crisis. During the Cabinet session, Abba Eban arrived from Washington and his meetings with President Johnson. Eban reported that Johnson was working to assemble an international flotilla of warships that would open the Straits. The Cabinet decided to hold off on military action in an effort to give Johnson a chance to bring his plan to fruition. A significant segment of the Israeli populace did not understand the reason for waiting. The country had been on alert for some time and the strain was taking its toll. The fear was that waiting would only strengthen the Arabs militarily and led to defeat for the Jewish state. Furthermore, they mistrusted the United States Nasser in 1956 and 1957. The Cabinet’s decision to wait was based, in part, on a political calculation. If they waited and Johnson succeeded, then the crisis would be ended without war. If they waited and Johnson failed, then the Israelis would have the support of the United States
1967: The US production “Eh?” starring Dustin Hoffman as “Valentine Brose” which “was the first major critical success in his career, garnering him a Theatre World Award and Drama Desk Award for his performance” closed today after 233 performances.
1969:Terrorist fired a bazooka this morning at an Israeli patrol in the Beisan Valley near Kfar Ruppin,
1971: In Detroit, final performance of an “updated” version of La Périchole an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach with a libretto co-authored by Ludovic Halévy
1973: The IDF announced a state of emergency and reserve troops were called up in response to a movement of Egyptian troops. The state of emergency was cancelled when it became clear that this was only an exercise
1974: Simon Veil began her first term as French Minister of Health.
1981: The premiere performance of “Halil” took place today at the Sultan’s Pool in Jerusalem with Jean-Pierre Rampal as the soloist and Leonard Bernstein conducting the Israel Philharmonic. “Halil is a work for flute and chamber orchestra composed by Leonard Bernstein composed in 1981. The work is sixteen minutes in length. Bernstein composed Halil in honor of a young Israeli flutist Yadin Tanenbaum who was killed at the Suez Canal in during the 1973 Yom Kippur war.”
1984: Seth Mydans reviewed “The Revolt of Job,” a film that tells the story of “one Jewish couple's attempt to defeat their family's extinction in the Holocaust by adopting a non-Jewish boy, a child who would survive to carry on their line.”
1985(7th of Sivan, 5745): Second Day of Shavuot
1987(28th of Iyar, 5747): Yom Yerushalayim
1987: Daniel Barenboim is scheduled to serve as conductor for the IPO at a concert which is part of its 50th anniversary celebration.
1993(7th of Sivan, 5753): Second Day of Shavuot
1993: The official opening of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology and the Jill Sackler Sculpture Court and Garden at Peking University is scheduled to take place today.
1995: In Japan, premiere of “A Walk in the Clouds” produced by David Zucker and Jerry Zucker filmed by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki.
1999(12thof Sivan, 5759): Eighty-two year old Big Band vocalist Leah Ray Werblin, the wife of Sonny Werblin passed away today.
2000: At Brown University noted scholar and feminist Alice Shalvi speaks on the effects of feminism on Judaic life in Israel and the world beyond as part of the Stephen A. Ogden Jr. Memorial Lectureship.
2001:The New York Times featured books by Jewish writers and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Dying Animal by Philip Roth.
2001: The PFLP claimed responsibility for today’s Jerusalem Center bombing
2001: Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for today’s Jaffa Road bombing in which 30 people were injured.
2002: The Al-Aqsa Martyrs, Brigades claimed credit for today’s bombing in a mall at Petah Tivka
2003: The parents of Chandra Levy hold a private graveside for their daughter.
2004(7th of Sivan, 5764): Second Day of Shavuot
2004: On the day after the New York Times “mea culpa editorial” related to the reporting about he Iraq war by Judith Miller, an article in Salon quoted her as saying "You know what ... I was proved fucking right. That's what happened. People who disagreed with me were saying, 'There she goes again.' But I was proved fucking right.”
2005: The Washington Post reported that meetings had been held over the weekend at Yifat, Israel in which Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres announced that he would seek the top spot in Israel’s government.
2005: The Washington Post reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared from Jerusalem, “that her meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders convinced her that both sides share a commitment to ensuring Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza takes place smoothly and peacefully.” At the end of the same article the Post reported that “Coinciding with Rice’s visit, Palestinians…attacked Israelis…in the southern Gaza Strip killing one Israeli and wounding two others…The attack was the second major assault on Israeli targets in recent days.” Islamic Jihad and a group affiliated with Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement took credit for the attack. As head of the PLA , Abbas is one of those Palestinian leaders whom Secretary Rice said was committed to a smooth and peaceful Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
2005(18th of Iyar, 5765): Ninety-three year old Morris Cohen, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who helped to transform the field of metallurgy into the modern discipline of materials science and engineering, passed away at his home in Swampscott, Mass. 2005(18th of Iyar, 5765): Celebration of Lag B’Omer, Thirty-Third Day of the Omer.
2005(18th of Iyar, 5765): Observance of the Yahrzeit Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Born in 100 C.E., Shimon studied with the great Rabbi Akiva and was one of only two scholars ordained by Akiva. Shimon is quoted in the Palestinian Talmud as saying “To honor one’s parents is more important than honoring God.” This belief did keep him from openly disagreeing with his considering the Rebellion against Rome Judah
2006(29thof Iyar, 5766): Ninety-five year old actress Thelma Bernstein and mother of comedy writer Albert Brooks passed away. (As reported by Dennis McLellan)
2007: Tony Eprile, novelist and faculty member at the University of Iowa’s Writer's Workshop, discusses his prize winning novel, The Persistence of Memorythat describes apartheid in South Africa through the eyes of a shy, overweight Jewish boy from Johannesburg's wealthy northern suburbs
2007: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A Tranquil Star: Unpublished Stories by Primo Levi, translated by Ann Goldstein and Alessandra Bastagli, City of Oranges: An Intimate History of Arabs and Jews in Jaffa, by Adam LeBor, My Holocaust by Tova Reich and The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Freres & Co. by William D. Cohan.
2007 (10 Sivan 5767):Oshri Oz a 35-year-old, resident of Hod Hasharon, was killed when a Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit the car in which he was driving in the western Negev town of Sderot.
2008: In Chicago, as a prelude to the CSO's production of Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater, Spertus is proud to host Chicago music critic Andrew Patner in a discussion with Michael Tilson Thomas, who will vividly illustrate through projected images his grandparent's fascinating history, their starring roles in the American Yiddish Theater, and its enormous contribution to the American cultural life.
2008: Public sales of Chasing Harry, the third novel by Lauren Weisberger, author of The Devil Wears Prada began today.
2009:Center for Jewish History and Untitled Theater Company #61 present: Golem Stories, A staged reading retelling the legend of a clay man in 16th century Prague created by Rabbi Loew to defend the Jews.
2009 (4th of Sivan): On the Jewish calendar, 2nd Yahrzeit for Shir-El Friedman the thirty five year old woman who was killed by a Hamas rocket fired into Sderot.
2009:William Lanouette, the author of Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilard, the Man Behind the Bomb (written with Bela Silard) and Martin J. Sherwin, the author (with Kai Bird) of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer take part in a discussion entitled, Building the Bomb, Fearing Its Use: Nuclear Scientists, Social Responsibility and Arms Control,1946-1996, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
2009: As part of the Tel Aviv Centennial Celebrationa statue ofMeir Dizengoff, the first mayor of Tel Aviv, riding his horse will be placed in front of his home at 16 Rothschild Boulevard. The address has become one of the most important landmarks in Israeli history: in his will, Dizengoff designated his house to be the home of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (the museum later moved to its current address on Shaul Hamelech Boulevard). On May 14th 1948, it was the site in which David Ben Gurion and the Provisional National Council declared Israel's independence.
2009:Thousands of Israelis from far and wide flocked to Rothschild Boulevard in central Tel Aviv as the city held its annual "White Night" event, with parties, music and street theater lasting until the wee hours..
2010: In Paris, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended a ceremony marking Israel’s official joining the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
2010:Professor Menahem Milson a professor of Arabic Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a co-founder of The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Arabic and Islamic Anti-Semitism Today” at the Historic 6th& I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.
2010: The first-ever Jewish America Heritage Month celebration was held today at the White House which underscored the Obama administration's determination not to be locked into Washington's conventional notions of Jewish leadership
2011: The National Museum of American Jewish Military History, the Jewish War Veterans, and the Sixth & I Synagogue are scheduled to host the first annual national service honoring the Jewish fallen heroes of Iraq and Afghanistan. The service, which is scheduled to be conducted by Cantor Larry Paul and musician Robyn Helzner, will open with remarks by NMAJH President David Magidson and will feature the reading of the names of the more than 40 Fallen Heroes in solemn remembrance and prayer.
2011: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Rockdale Temple is scheduled honor Jewish American Heritage Month with a Rock Shabbat service highlighting American-composed liturgical music.
2011: The annual conference of the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations (CSJO) is scheduled to open at Humber College in Toronto, Canada.
2011: Limmud Colorado’s Fourth Annual Conference is scheduled to begin at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs, CO.
2011:Group of Eight leaders had to soften a statement urging Israel and the Palestinians to return to negotiations because Canada objected to a specific mention of 1967 borders, diplomats said today
Canada's Conservative government has adopted a staunchly pro-Israel position in international negotiations since coming to power in 2006, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying Canada will back Israel whatever the cost
2011:US President Barack Obama today travelled to Poland where he honored the memories of those killed in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising during the Holocaust. He was heard telling a Holocaust survivor that the US would be there for Israel. During a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw Obama told one elderly man that the memorial was a "reminder of the nightmare" of the Holocaust in which millions of Jews were killed, The Associated Press reported.
2012(6th of Sivan, 5772): First Day of Shavuot
2012(6th of Sivan, 5772): Seventy-five year old Dr. David L. Rimoin, the medical geneticist who did research into Tay-Sachs disease passed away today. (As reported by Denise Grady)
2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback editions of The Arrogant Years: One Girl’s Search for Her Lost Youth, From Cairo to Brooklyn by Lucette Lagnado and Say Her Name by Francisco Goldman.
2012:The Paul Feig Tikkun Leil Shavuot at The JCC in Manhattan which began last night is scheduled to end at 5 am.
2012: The Cedar Lake Ballet’s two week engagement at the Venue which has included the New York premiere of “Violet Kid,” by Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter is scheduled to come to a close
2013: During “The Patron Trip to Israel” the IPO is scheduled to perform a concert featuring conductor and violinist Pinchas Zuckerman.
2013:Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely married Or Alon an Israeli attorney.
2013:Egyptian-French singer-songwriter Georges Moustaki :was buried today according to Jewish rites in a family vault at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris a few meters from the grave of his former amour Édith Piaf.”
2013:US Secretary of State John Kerry held separate surprise meetings in Jordan today with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, as he intensified his efforts to revive the peace process.
2013: Amos Oz won the Franz Kafka Prize today in the Czech Republic.
2013: Memorial Day observed in the United States. Jews have fought in every war since the American Revolution and served in all branches of the military. They have served as generals and warriors who have earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. Ironically, one of the Jews who had the most effect on America’s defense was one who did not see combat – Admiral Hyman Rickover. As the “father of the nuclear navy” (and more specifically nuclear powered submarines) he provided the United States with its primary deterrent in dealing with the Soviets which kept the Cold War from turning into the hot war of World War III
2014: Father Francis Wahle, the Kindertansportee, whose father had converted but whose mother had not is scheduled to tell his story at the Weiner Library in the UK.
2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled a lecture by Meki Tate entitled “Warriors in Blue: Soldiers, Seders and Solidarity” which “explores the experiences and contributions of the 7,000 Jewish servicemen who fought in the Union Army during the Civil War.”
2014: European Parliament Speaker Martin Schultz, French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi joined Belgium’s Elio Durpo in a “paying home to the victims of last weekend’s attack at the Jewish Museum in Brussels when they met Jewish leaders outside the museum and bowed their heads in tribute to a rabbi’s prayer.
2014: Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Rabbi Zvi (Herschel) Schachter, Rabbi Yehoshua Yeshaya Neuwirth (deceased) and Rabbi Zalman Nehemiah Goldberg – the receipients of the Katz Awared which is , bestowed upon individuals and enterprises engaged in the application of Halacha, or Jewish law, to modern life -- were honored at a ceremony in Jersualem today. (Times of Israel
2014: “A rare monastic lead seal dating from the Crusader era has been positively identified, over a year after it was discovered at an archaeological site in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Bayit Vegan, the Israel Antiquities Authority said today. “ (As reported by Gavriel Fisk)
2015: The First Division Museum at Cantigny is scheduled to host “Liberation: Looking Back 70 Years” that includes a conversation between Holocaust survivor and George Brent and Arthur Sheridan who was one of the first infantrymen to enter Dachau.
2015: Following yesterday's rocket attack from Gaza on southern Israel the Gan Yavne Council order bomb shelters to be opened and “unprotected schools in Ashdod are to remain closed today.”
2015: Following yesterday's rocket attack from Gaza on southern Israel the Gan Yavne Council order bomb shelters to be opened and “unprotected schools in Ashdod are to remain closed today.”