May 31
1279 BCE: Ramses II (The Great) (19th dynasty) becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. If you accept the contention that Moses lived from 1391–1271 BCE, Ramses would be the Pharaoh who came to power after the Exodus. During his reign he reasserted Egyptian power over the area that would have included Canaan during the period of the Judges. However, the Bible talks about the Canaanite tribes and Philistines as being the Israelites’ enemies and not the Egyptians.
70 C.E.: The Jewish defenders of Jerusalem surrendered the first wall of the city to the Romans.
942 (26 Iyar 4702): Sa'adia ben Joseph (Rav Saadia Gaon) passed away. Born in Egypt in 882, he moved to Babylon in 928 to head the Academy at Sura. He revived the waning influence of the Academy and wrote on many subjects including grammar, Halachah and philosophy. As one of the foremost opponents of Karaism, he wrote the exposition "Emunot Vedeot", which became very popular. A grave conflict arose between Sa'adia and the Exilarch, David ben Zaccai when he refused to endorse a judgment of the Exilarch's court in which Ben Zaccai was an interested party. The issue was not settled for many years and demonstrated S'aadia's unyielding defense of his principles. He was subsequently expelled and moved to Baghdad. On Purim 937, the opponents were reconciled, and a few years later Sa'adia adopted Ben Zaccai's orphan grandchildren.
1469: Birthdate of Manuel I of Portugal who gave up his positive relationship with his Jewish subjects when agreed to expel them as the price of Infanta Isabella of Aragon, the daughter those implacable anti-Semites Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.
1492: “Isaac Abrabanel…left Spain for Naples after his unsuccessful intervention with King Ferdinand to revoke the decree of expulsion of the Jews.”http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Abravanel.html
1593: The Jews were barred from living in Riga and Livonia.
1630: The Puritan leader William Prynne, who would oppose the return of Jews to the British Isles obtained a license to print a book expressing opposition to stage plays, one of the many “pleasures opposed” by his sect.
1665: Sabbeti Zevi proclaimed himself Messiah. The most famous of all the False Messiahs, Sabbeti Zevi enthralled tens of thousands of Jews. His message was accepted across all social and economic classes. His followers were to be found throughout Jewish communities in Europe and the Orient. Turkish authorities became alarmed at his growing popularity and had him arrested. The Sultan gave him the choice of proving his claims or suffering the death penalty. The would-be Messiah gave up the game, accepted a minor governmental position in Turkey and converted to Islam. The whole episode might be written off as a farce if it were not for the fact that so many had believed in him and were disillusioned by the outcome. In addition, charges of being a secret supporter of his beliefs would tear at the fabric of Jewish society for decades to come.
1666: One of the dates given for the death of Jacob Lumbrozo, the Portuguese born physician who became the first Jewish resident of Maryland when he moved there in 1656.
1689: Following today’s invasion of the city of Worms by French forces under Comte de Melac, the synagogue was burned including “the so-called Rashi Chapel” and the ruins were used for a stable and a storehouse.
1740: Frederick William I who was served by Veitel-Heine Ephraim as Jeweler and Mint Master passed away today. As a result of his death, recently passed legislation that would have led to the end of the Jewish community in Berlin were not enforced.
1747 (26 Iyar 5507): Moses Hayyim Luzzattopassed away. Born in 1707 at Paua, Italy, this great poet and mystic became an unfortunate victim of the reaction to Shabbetaianism. His writings were burned and he tragically died soon after his arrival to Eretz-Israel. His most lasting achievements were his use of Hebrew in secular poetry and his ethical work, Mesilat Yesharim (Path of Righteous). Luzzatto also wrote two Hebrew dramas, Migdal Oz (tower of Strength) and La-Yisharim (Praise to the Righteous).
1750: Birthdate of Karl August von Hardenberg the Prussian statesman and reformer who supported full emancipation for the Jews of Germany.
1776(13th of Sivan, 5536): At a wedding celebration on an upper floor of a building in the Jewish Ghetto of Venice, 65 people, including the bride, were killed when the building collapsed under the strain of the celebration.
1776(13th of Sivan, 5536): Two weddings were held today in the same building in Mantua, Italy. During the celebration, the building collapsed killing 28 women, including one of the brides, and 3 men. The Jews of Mantua were not allowed to expand their housing beyond the ghetto walls. This forced them to build vertically, resulting in unstable buildings which led to deaths like these.
1789(6thof Sivan, 5549): Shavuot
1800(7th of Sivan, 5560): Second Day of Shavuot
1846(6thof Sivan, 5606): Shavuot
1847: Birthdate of Leopoldo Franchetti the native of Livonro, Italy whose family had come from Tunisia in the 18th century and who became a an Italian reformer and political leader who served in the Chamber of Deputies before becoming a Senator.
http://www.comunecittadicastello.it/en/art/leopoldo_franchetti.asp
1855: Sixty-three year old Austrian ophthalmologist Anton Von Rosas who was also the author of Anti-Semitic literature that decried Jews “taking over and “jewifying” Austrian culture. (As described by David Aberbach
1862: In today's issue of The Israelite, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise responded to criticism by Reverend Moncure D. Conway that the Israelite had not spoken out on the importance of preserving the Union. Wise said that "he never preached on politics." He said that this would be "a misapplication of the Sabbath and the pulpit" and that there were plenty of other opportunities for patriotic speeches.
1865(6th of Sivan, 5625): Jews celebrate the first Shavuot since the end of the Civil War.
1872: An article entitled “Turkey” described the bloody anti-Jewish riots that have been taking place in Smyrna. The riots began after reports that a Greek child was lying in the morgue, having been killed by Jews who need its blood for their annual Passover sacrifice.
1870: John Motley, the U.S. Minister to the Court of St. James had dinner with former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.
1873: The New York Times published an article appealing for money to be sent to the“Children’s Fund” which would be used to provide summer time excursions for poor Jewish youngsters living in New York City.
1874: According to reports published today a Jew from Chicago named Henry Greenbaum donated five hundred dollars to a Chicago church whose pastor is Professor Swing, the controversial Presbyterian minister who has been labeled as a heretic by his co-religionists
1879(9thof Sivan, 5639): J.I. De Lissa Cohen the founder “of the Mercantile Record and Commercial Gazetteof Mauritius” passed away today at Curepipe.
1880: It was reported today that in the last six months, the Board of Relief of the United Hebrew Charities has provided 1,235 pairs of shoes, 407 dresses, 425 pairs of stockings, 252 skirts, 123 coats and almost one thousand, five hundred tons of goals to those in need. In the past year, assistance has been provided to 1,481 families which is a decrease of 162 for the year ending with May, 1879. However, there was increase in the number needing assistance in April which may indicate that there will be an increase in demand.
1882: In Paris, Victor Hugo presided over a rally held to protest Russian persecution of the Jews.
1884(7th of Sivan, 5644): Second Day of Shavuot
1884(7thof Sivan, 5644): Sixty year old “Jewish industrialist and German railway entrepreneur” passe away today.http://www.docutren.com/archivos/semmering/pdf/05.pdf
1885: The 20thanniversary of the Hebrew Free School Association was celebrated this morning at the Lexington Avenue Opera House in New York City. The event was attended by 2,000 students and 500 adults including the association’s president, M.S. Isaacs and secretary, Henry S. May, and Rabbis, Jacobs, Kohut and Wise.
1889(1stof Sivan, 5649): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1890: A group of Polish Jews are scheduled to present their claim that a banker William S. Wolf defrauded them out of money that they had given him with a promise that it would be sent back to Europe to the New York District Attorney. Wolf has disappeared.
1891: Birthdate of Erich Walter Sternberg the Berlin-born Israeli composer who was one of the founders of Israeli art music, Sternberg had a profound impact on the musical life of Palestine and Israel during the 1930s and 1940s. He passed away in 1974.
1891: Breaking with tradition, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened today despite opposition from those who viewed Sunday as the Sabbath.
1892: In response to misleading claims by German anti-Semites, “the Prussian Minister of War says that the rifles furnished to the army by Ludwig Loewe & Co are perfectly satisfactory.” Ludwig Loewe the late founder of the company was Jewish as was his brother Isidor who followed him as President.
1892: “Baron Hirsch Very Ill” published today described the deteriorating health of the Jewish philanthropist who “is suffering from an attack of influenza and congestion of the lungs.”
1892: At today’s meeting of the Yale Corporation F.K. Saunders, the instructor in Hebrew at Yale Theological Seminary was named Assistant Professor of Biblical Literature.
1892: “Mercy For Russian Jews” published today immunities that the Czar’s government has decided to grant to Jews who wish to emigrate including not having to serve in the army.
1892: It was reported today that of the 390 children enrolled in the Baron de Hirsch Fund School, 107 had been admitted since May 1st. The first of the students had arrived in February. All of the children were fluent enough in English to take part in the recent Memorial Day celebrations.
1892(5thof Sivan, 5652) Erev Shavuot
1892: One of two possible birthdates give for Russian born American historian Solomon Zeitlin author of The Rise and Fall of the Judean State.
1892: “The Festival of Shebnoth” published today described the importance of the Jewish holiday of Pentecost or Feast of Weeks which begins this evening.
1893: This morning, “agent Louis Steen of the Gerry Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children arrested Herman Engel of the Ladies’ Deborah Nursery” following what he was charged at the Essex Street Police Court of “having brutally assaulted” thirteen year old Israel Schwartz who has been living at the institution for nine years.
1894: “In Memory of Jesse Seligman” published today described the memorial services that were held for the late Jesse Seligman which were held at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and addressed by several prominent officials including Oscar S. Straus, General Carl Schurz and Charles Fleischer, “ a graduate of the asylum and rabbi-elect of a prominent congregation in Boston.”
1896: In New York, the highlight of the annual reception of B’nai Jeshurun was “the presentation of a handsome silk flag” by Miss Sophie Arnheim “and a “facsimile of the Liberty Bell to the pupils of the religious school attached to the congregation.”
1896:An excerpt from an article the British Quarterly Review, published today compared the accomplishments of Disraeli and Gladstone in the field of foreign affairs. The author is cautiously optimistic when describing Disraeli’s policy designed to thwart Russian attempts to expand at the expense of the Ottoman Empire. He gives Disraeli high marks for his performance during the conference held at Berlin and for his purchase of the shares in the Suez Canal. In the end, regardless of how things play out, “this much is certain…Disraeli upheld the traditions of his …country at a time when a foreign critic of our policy uttered the well-known sneer that the only persons left who cared for the honor of England were an old woman and a Jew.” The old woman is Queen Victoria. The Jew is Disraeli proving that the nature of his birth out-weighed the impact of his forced youthful trip to the baptismal font.
1897: Arthur Strauss, an MP for Camborne is among the members of the British team playing a trans-Atlantic chess match with their American counterparts, using the telegraph which was “the real-time of that era.
1898: The Brooklyn Eagle reported that Oscar S. Straus has been named to succeed James B. Angell as United States Minister to Turkey. Among his most ardent supporters are “the boards of all the denominations that have missionaries in Turkey” because when he served in this position under President Cleveland, he “did more to get just treatment for missionaries and all other American citizens than any other man had done before him.”
1901: Herzl travels to Paris to begin the raising of the money, which is to be the first step toward the obtaining of the Charter. The negotiations in Paris are fruitless.
1901: Bella Weretnikow, who became the first Jewish woman lawyer in Washington State, graduated from the University of Washington Law School.
1906(7th of Sivan, 5666): Second Day of Shavuot
1907: Sixty-one year old Moritz Litten the Berlin born physician who was the son-in-law of pathologist Ludwig Traube, the son of a Jewish wine merchant.
1911:Birthdate of multi-talented Ruth Hagy Brod.Born in New York and raised in Chicago, Ruth Hagy Brod had a varied career that took her from the newsroom to Latin America and from the mainstream press to offbeat publishing. As a child, Brod excelled in music, giving public recitals at age six and earning a bachelor's degree in music at age 18. She soon left music behind, however, and turned to journalism, going first to Hollywood, where she worked as an editor for movie and radio magazines. Moving to Philadelphiain 1938, she wrote features for the Philadelphia Ledger. Later, she would write for newspapers in Chicagoand New York Cityas well. During the 1930s, she also worked as a radio reporter and documentary filmmaker. A decade later, she became women's editor of the Philadelphia Bulletin; while at the Bulletin she developed a program that became the "College News Conference," a weekly show where college students questioned prominent political figures. In the 1960s, she began to travel widely, producing a Peace Corps documentary on Colombia and a television series on Asian women. She worked as a newspaper correspondent in Southeast Asia and a Far East correspondent for NBC Radio, at a time when it was unusual for women to hold such roles. While making the Peace Corps documentary, she also served as an educational television advisor to the Colombian government. Brod first entered public service during World War II, when she served as publicity director for the United War Chest campaigns and as a member of the women's advisory board executive committee for the U.S. Savings Bond division of the U.S. Treasury. Upon returning to New Yorkfrom her overseas travels, she became involved in New York City politics. In the mid-1960s, she was appointed as director of public information for JOIN (Job Orientation in Neighborhoods), which worked with the U.S. Department of Labor to provide job training and placement services to young high school drop-outs. Later that decade, Brod served as a special assistant to Mayor Robert Wagner, and in 1967 she was the founder-director of the Mayor's Coordinating Council under Mayor John Lindsay. The Council functioned as a central volunteer coordinator for the city, recruiting some 6,000 volunteers in its first year. In the 1970s, Brod embarked on yet another career, turning to publishing. She published two books of her own (both co-authored), Ena Twigg, Medium (1972) and The Edgar Cayce Handbook of Health Through Drugless Therapy (1975). She also worked as a literary agent, with clients that included Allard Lowenstein, a civil rights activist who was later assassinated, and James Hoffa, the Teamsters Union leader. Brod died of cancer in 1980.
1912: Birthdate of Senator Henry M "Scoop" Jackson. Jacksonwas not Jewish, but he was a man of character of principle, a liberal in the best sense of the term. A Democrat from the state of Washington, Jackson supported legislation intended to force the Soviets to improve the treatment of their Jewish citizens and to allow them to leave the country if they so desired.
1914(6thof Sivan, 5674): Shavuot
1915: Rabbi J. Leonard Levy, Victor Rosewater, the editor of the Omaha Bee, Jacob Schiff, Isaac N. Seligman, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch were among those who received invitations today “urging their attendance at the conference to held in Independence Hall to consider the adoption of proposals for a League of Peace and to decide upon steps to be taken for obtaining the support of public opinion…”
1915: The Committee on Resolutions will place a proposal before the eighth convention of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America concerning the possibility of forming “a Hebrew national congress for the purpose of looking after the interests of persons of the Jewish faith in the European war zone.”
1915: Former Governor Eugene N. Foss will lead the Massachusetts delegation that is scheduled to appear before the Georgia Prison Commission in Atlanta “to argue for the commutation for Leo M. Frank and present clemency petitions bearing the signatures of 20,000 persons.”
1915: “A strong delegation from Savannah” which “will be headed by Samuel B. Adams, ex-Justice of the State Supreme Court, A.A. Lawrence, State Senator-elect and T. Mayhew Cunningham, a prominent jurist” is scheduled to appeal to the Prison Board today on behalf of clemency for Leo Frank.
1915: Leo Frank, who had been sentenced to hang, appealed to the Georgia State Prison Commission that his sentence be commuted to life imprisonment.
1915: “The seventh annual convention of the Federation of Russian Polish Hebrews of America” “which represent 30,000 Russian Polish Jews in the United States, passed a resolution favoring the sending of a petition to the State Prison Commission at Atlanta, GA asking that the sentence of Leo M. Frank be commuted.”
1915: “President Wilson received a telegram today from the Independent Order of Sons of Israel telling him that ex-Governor Foss of Massachusetts and a delegation had left for Atlanta, GA to ask the Governor to commute the sentence of Leo M. Frank” and asking him “to intercede in the case.”
1915: The American Jewish, Central and Peoples' Relief Committees gave $190,282 to Jews living in Palestine, $4,000 to Jews living in Alexandria and $59,500 to Jews living in Greece and Turkey.
1915: “The hearing on the petition of Leo M. Franks for a commutation of sentence from death to life imprisonment was begun before the State Prison Commission this morning at 10 o’clock and was concluded this afternoon shortly before 5. The Commission took the case under advisement. Frank, who was represent by former Congressman W. M Howard did not appear at the hearing.
1916: Birthdate of Bernard Lewis, the English born American Orientalist. There is no way that this blog can do justice to this intellectual giant.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703712504576234601480205330.html
http://www.npr.org/2012/05/15/152764539/at-96-historian-lewis-reflects-on-a-century
1917: Birthdate of Morris Albert Adelman, “an energy economist who marshaled free-market principles and hard data in arguing that the world’s oil supply was not running out.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/business/morris-a-adelman-dies-at-96-saw-oil-as-inexhaustible.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&_r=0
1919: The partly decomposed corpse of Rosa Luxemburg was found in oneof the locks of Berlin’s Landwehr Canal.
1921: Churchill explains to the members of the Cabinet that he “had decided to suspend the development of representative institutions in Palestine ‘owing to the fact that any elected body would undoubtedly prohibit further immigration of the Jews.’”
1925(8thof Sivan, 5685): Seventy-eight year old Albert Mosse, the German jurist who advised the Japanese during the creation of the Meiji Constitution passed away today in Berlin.
1925: In Washington Heights, Mabel Lucille (née Blum), a teacher, and Irving Beck, a businessman gave birth to “American actor, director, poet, and painter” Julian Beck
1926: The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition which Victor Rosewater helped to plan opened today in Philadelphia, PA
1926: In Kittery, Maine, a war memorial sculpted by Bashka Peff was dedicated today.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/31/1926/bashka-paeff
1926: In Brooklyn Eliah and Sarah Schulman gave birth to Seymour Jerome Schulman a civil engineer who pursued a career in public planning for which he was known as “a straight guy who did things based on their merits” and who served four years as Mayor of White Plains. (As reported by Leslie Kaufman)
1926: The entire Jewish Sejm delegation voted for Josef Pilsudski for President of Poland.
1928: Official birthdate of Jacob Lateiner, “a Cuban/US pianist. He was actually born on March 31, 1928, but his father did not get around to registering his birth until May 31 the same year. He is the brother of violinist Isidor Lateiner.”
1929: Birthdate of Menham Globus, the native of Tiberias and veteran of the Israeli War of Independence who gained fame as filmmaker Menahem Golan. (As reported by Anita Gates)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/11/arts/menahem-golan-passionate-auteur-of-the-b-movie-is-dead-at-85.html?hpw&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4556652,00.html
1933(6th of Sivan, 5693): First Day of Shavuot
1935 Jews are banned from the German Armed Forces.
1936: The New York Times reported that the proceeds of the upcoming annual “Give or Get Luncheon” sponsored by the Mizrachi Women’s Organization will be used to provide for the needs of young girls in Palestine, including both the native-born and refugees from Europe.
1938: German legislation outlaws "decadent art." All decadent artists weren’t Jewish but all Jewish artists were decadent.
1938: Birthdate of Peter Yarrow, “The Peter” in Peter, Paul and Mary
1939: As violence aimed at Arabs in response to the White Paper, increased, British authorities in Palestine began arresting Revisionists including Dr. Bukshpan, chairman of the Revisionist Palestine Executive Committee. At the same, at least one Jewish newspaper in Palestine published a report from Warsaw, Poland “that Dr. Vladimir Jabotinsky, head of the Revisionist party was openly opposed to any Jewish rebellion on the ground that in the present state of international affairs the Jews must and cannot fight against Britain when all democracies are grouping themselves” for a fight with Nazi Germany.
1939: Even though it placed strict limitations on Jewish immigration, Arab leaders rejected the White Paper today because it allowed for Jewish immigration and for the possibility of a Jewish home in Palestine. The Arab High Committee rejected any role for Jews in Palestine and asserted that the creation of an Arab state is the solution to the problem.
1942: AuschwitzIII opened up. It was a massive labor camp for the construction of synthetic oil and rubber.
1942: In the Warsaw Ghetto, 3,650 Jews had died of starvation since the first of May. The Germans opened a new death camp on the outskirts of Minsk, in the village of Maly Trostenets. Spring brought on soft ground which meant it was easy to dig massive graves again.
1943: At a Meeting of the General Government ministers in Cracow, Lieutenant General Kruger noted that "on the Fuhrer's orders it is necessary for the (slaughter of the Jews) from the standpoint of European interests."
1943 A Nazi prison administrator in Minsk, Byelorussia, reports that 516 German and Russian Jews have been killed in late May, their gold crowns and fillings taken from their mouths before their deaths.
1943(26th of Iyyar, 5703): Today, the Nazis murdered Berta and Munio Kremnitzer, the parents of Rama Reis-Kremnitzer and the grandparents of Brig. Gen. Itai Reis, the commander of Palmahim air force.
1944: In Budapest, German representative, SS General Edmund Veesnmayer reported that 60,000 more Hungarian Jews had been deported in the last six days. The total for the past 16 days stood at 204,312. This day 42 dead bodies were removed from the Berkenau bound trains.
1944 (9th of Sivan, 5704): The Jewish community of Khonia, Crete,which traced its history back toRoman times, came to an end when the ship Danai, into which all the Jews had been herded, was towed out to sea and sunk
1944: A Hungarian deportation train stops near the German border so 42 corpses could be removed.
1944: At the Auschwitz rail junction, German soldiers who encounter a sealed deportation train carrying Hungarian Jews to the Birkenau death camp defy threats of SS guards and give water and food to pleading prisoners. (Could this be a reference to scene in the film “Schinlder’s List” where Schindler provides water for a group of Jews trapped in box cars?)
1944: An SS man and a Jewish girl with whom he has fallen in love are executed. The German has hidden the girl for months, keeping her from the gas chambers.
1944: Having not heard a response from the telegram he had sent on May 27, Joel Brand sent another telegram to his wife telling her the he intended to leave for Budapest on June 4. Unbeknownst to him, his wife was being held by the Arrow Cross.
1944: The Bielski brothers continued their fight against the Nazis while providing safe haven to over a thousand Jews.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/may/11.asp
1945(19thof Sivan, 5705): Russian born impressionist painter Leonid Pasternak passed away today at Oxford where he had gone to live to escape the Nazis and the Soviets. He was the father of Boris Pasternak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pasternakuoknaosen.jpg
1946(1stof Sivan, 5706): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1948: Birthdate of Rhea Perlman. The Brooklyn born actress, created the character of Carla on Cheers and Zena in the television comedy “Taxi. “
1948: Representatives of the Protestant and Catholic faiths joined more than 500 Reform Jewish leaders from a score of States at a testimonial dinner at the Netherlands Plaza Hotel in honor or Dr. Julian Morgenstern, who is retiring as president of Hebrew Union College.
1948: “In further moves to relieve pressures on the coastal strip and to ward off disaster two columns of Israeli armored cars were advancing to on Jenin.” One column was advancing from Afula while the other was coming from Megiddo which was the scene of a counter-attack by Trans-Jordan’s Arab Legion. In the south, the Arab Legion was reported to have massed two hundred armored vehicles at Rameleh which will be used in the fight to keep the road from Jerusalem to the Coast Plain from being opened to Jewish convoys. At the same time the Egyptians have amassed 500 armored vehicles twenty miles south of Jaffa as part of what appears to be another move against Tel Aviv.
1948: Moti Alon took off in the only undamaged S-199 this “morning to escort a Tel Aviv Squadron Dragon Rapide to support the Seventh Brigade at Latrun. He flew several sorties and by the time he called it a day, one mechanic said, "his machine was so full of holes, we didn't know how he kept it flying."
1948: An Order of the Day, signed by David Ben Gurion, which included the following statement, was issued.“On the establishment of the State of Israel, the Haganah has emerged from the underground and has become a regular army…Without the Haganah’s experience, plan, skill in operation and command, its devotion and valor, the Yishuv could not have held it ground on the dreadful trial of arms it had to face during these six months and we would not have attained the State of Israel.”
1949: Birthdate of Methodist minister Wallace S. Wade who became Asher Wade when he converted to Judaism and pursued a career as an Orthodox Rabbi and psychotherapist.
1952(7thof Sivan, 5712): Second Day of Shavuot is observed for the last time during the Presidency of Harry Truman, “the godfather of Israeli independence.
1952: Birthdate of Marina Gershman who made Aliyah in 1991 where as Marina Solodkin she fashioned a successful political career including serving in the Knesset.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/former-mk-marina-solodkin-dies-of-stroke-in-latvia/
1955: The final episode of Danger an American anthology series on CBS which included performances by Walter Matthau and shows produced by Sidney Lumet was broadcast today.
1955: A revival of Frank Loesser’s “Guys Dolls” opened today at the New York City Center starring Walter Matthau as Nathan Detroit.
1955: In New York City, Dr. Leonard Essman and his wife Zora who “taught Russian at Sarah Lawrence” gave birth to comedian, actress and producer Susan “Susie” Essman
1957: Playwright Arthur Miller is convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to denounce writers with alleged Communist views to the House Un-American Activities Committee
1957: Anshe Chesed’s new facility known as Fairmount Temple was dedicated today in Beachwood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. The building was designed by Percival Goodman and cemented the reform congregation’s move to suburbia.
1962: Adolf Eichmann, head of the Jewish department of the Gestapo, the first Nazi to be condemned by the Jewish state, was hanged.
1963: Birthdate of Canadian comedian Jeremy Hotz.
1964: Birthdate of Canadian lawyer and media magnate, Leonard Asper, Brandeis U. alum and son of the late Isadore Asper.
1965: Jordanian Legionnaires fired on the neighborhood of Musrara in Jerusalem, killing two civilians and wounding four.
1967: With the announcement of the alliance between Egyptand Jordan,Israelwas faced with the possibility of having to fight a war on three fronts – the Sinai, the Golan and the West Bank – Egypt, Syria and Jordan
1967: Contingents of the Iraqi Army arrived in Egypt with plans to join in the upcoming war with Israel.
1967: The government of Egypt declared that Eilat, Israel’s southern port, had been illegally occupied by Israel. With Egyptian troops stationed a few miles away at Taba, the Israel felt even more threatened.
1967: At Nasser’s insistence, Ahmed Shukeiry, head of the PLO, flew back to Jordan with King Hussein. He then went to Jordanian occupied portion of Jerusalem where he promises the Jews of Israel that after the war they will either have not survived or will be ‘repatriated.’
1969: After 45 previews and 132 performances at the Mark Hellinger Theatre the curtain comes down “Dear World,” a Broadway musical with a “book” co-authored by Jerome Lawrence with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman.
1974: Harry Meyer Archibald Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery the son of Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery and Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery the only child of Baron Mayer de Rothschild who served as General Allenby’s Military Secretary in Palestine, passed away today.
1974: The involvement of the Golani forces in the war of attrition against Syria came to an end with the signing of the disengagement agreement.
1974: After Henry Kissinger conducted a feverish round of shuttle diplomacy between Damascus and Jerusalem, the separation of forces agreement between Israel and Syria was signed in Geneva. This marked the formal end the hostilities known as the Yom Kippur War.
1975: While driving to Tan-Tan, Morocco, Larry Blyden’s was knocked unconscious and hospitalized after his car went off the road and overturned.
1976: “1600: Anatomy of a Turkey” published today probed the question of a how a musical created by Leonard Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner could turn out to be such a flop.
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/printout/0,8816,947691,00.html#
1979: In the UK, premier of “The Muppet Movie” co-produced by Lew Grade with Frank Oz as the voices of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle, Marvin Suggs
1983: In “200 Singers in Jewish Festival” Edward Rothstein provides a summary of the recently completed American Jewish Choral Festival.
1985: Samuel Lewis completed his service as U.S. Ambassador to Israel
1990(7th of Sivan, 5750): Second Day of Shavuot
1993: Marshall Brickman's "Who's Who in the Cast," a parody of a Playbill cast list, which was published in the July 26, 1976, issue of The New Yorker, drew so much attention that it was republished in today’s special theatre issue.
1994(21st of Sivan, 5754): Trumpeter Emmanuel "Manny" Klein passed away.
1998: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Commissioners: Baseball's Midlife Crisisby Jerome Holtzman and Two Lucky People: Memoirsby Milton Friedman and Rose D. Friedman
1998(6th of Sivan, 5758): First Day of Shavuot
2000: U.S. President Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak met at Clinton's Lisbon hotel in the latest effort to jump-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
2001: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon comes under increasing pressure to end a unilateral cease-fire with the Palestinians, as violence continues in the Middle East.
2002: Israeli troops enter the West Bank city of Nablus, while the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is reported to have signed a law reform package which is a framework for a Palestinian constitution.
2003: While visiting Auschwitz today, President Bush said, ““This site is a sobering reminder that when we find anti-Semitism, whether it be in Europe or anywhere else, mankind must come together to fight such dark impulses. And this site is also a strong reminder that the civilized world must never forget what took place on this site. May God bless the victims and the families of the victims, and may we always remember.”
2004: In “Laugh Fist, Think Later,” published today Marc Abrahams described his improbably successful career.
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2004/jun/01/highereducation.research
2004: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Sontag & Kael by Craig Seligman,Teammates by David Halberstam and Amerika (The Man Who Disappeared), by Franz Kafka; translated by Michael Hofmann, a new translation of Kafka's novel about a young man's humiliations after being banished for his part in a scandal strives to stay close to the author's rough drafts.
2005: Jean-François Copé began serving as the Minister of the Budget in France.
2005: Israeli TV Channel 2 starts broadcasting "Yoman Masa" - "Diary of a Journey" ("Land of the Settlers") filmed by Channel 1 news anchorman Chaim Yavin.
2005: Mikhail Khodorkovsky was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to nine years in prison. The sentence was later reduced to 8 years.
2006: In Jerusalem, closing session of Biomed 2006.
2007: The JCC of Manhattan presents “Tizmoret’s Spring Sing.”Tizmoret is the Queens College Hillel chapter’s Professional A Cappella Choir.
2007: Andrew Speaker, an individual suspected to have XDR-TB under federal quarantine, was moved to the National Jewish Health for treatment today where the Mycobacteriology Laboratory determined that Speaker did not have the Extensive Drug resistant form of TB (XDR-TB), but rather the Multi-Drug Resistant form of TB (MDR-TB).
2007: David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and co-chief executive officer of The Carlyle Group, was elected to the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago.
2008 (5768): Begin Book of Numbers.
2009: In New York City, the annual Salute to Israel Parade swings down famed 5thAvenue. The main theme of this year's parade is "Past, Present, Future – Tel Aviv Celebrates 100 Years."http://salutetoisrael.com/parade/
2009: Ben Stiller received the MTV Generation Award, at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards
2009: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball From Itselfby Michael Shapiro and the recently released paperback edition of Dictation by Cynthia Ozick.
2009: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Alger Hiss and the Battle For History by Susan Jacoby
2009: A five-day civil defense exercise, simulating an attack on the country, started today. Named Turning Point 3, the drills will be the most extensive ever held and practice new measures to safeguard civilians.
2009(8thof Sivan, 5769): Eighty-three year old Samuel M. Ehrenhalt, the “grand old man”of labor statistics passed away. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/nyregion/03ehrenhalt.html?_r=1
2010: Israeli Shayetet 13 naval commandos boarded six ships trying to end the blockade of Gaza from speedboats and helicopters in order to force the ships to the Israeli port of Ashdod
2010: An exhibition entitled “One Foot in America: The Jewish Emigrants of the Red Star Line and Eugeen Van Mieghem” at the YIVO Institute is scheduled to come to a close. This exhibit tells the story of the Red Star shipping line, focusing on the lives of emigrants--the reasons they fled, their arrival in Antwerp and their experience with the city's Jewish community, their living conditions onboard the ships, and their hopes and dreams. The exhibit also features the Flemish artist and Antwerp native Eugeen Van Mieghem (1875-1930), whose work depicts the emigrants and the life of the port.
2011: Final day of Jewish American heritage Month
2011: At a time when some are calling for an artistic boycott of Israel, Marty Friedman, who played guitar with Megadeth is scheduled to perform in Tel Aviv today
2011: The 2011 award ceremony for the Sami Rohr Prize in fiction for Jewish Literature is scheduled to be held in New York City today.
2011: World Policy Journal Editor David A. Andelman is scheduled to moderate a town-meeting style conversation entitled “Beyond the Stage: On Henry Kissinger” at the 92ndStreet Y in New York City.
2011: The Israel Defense Forces will ask the state to increase its defense budget significantly to contend with the growing terror threats in the region, Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said today.
2011: The Finance and Health ministries petitioned the Tel Aviv Labor Court today asking for injunctions to be issued against the Israel Medical Association, demanding the end to the doctors' strike which has been ongoing for over two months.
2011: The Jewish Book Council is scheduled to host its annual award ceremony today in NYC.
2011: Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert began testifying today at the Jerusalem District Court, opening the defense phase of the ongoing corruption trial against him.
2011(27thof Iyar, 5771): Eighty-nine year old Broadway producer Philip Rose whose works included “A Raisin in the Sun” passed away today. (As produced by Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/theater/philip-rose-broadway-producer-dies-at-89.html
2011(27thof Iyar, 5771): Dutch holocaust survivor, author and psychoanalyst Hans Keilson passed away today at the age of 101. (As reported by the Eulogizer/JTA and William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/books/hans-keilson-novelist-of-life-in-nazi-run-europe-dies-at-101.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/8723373/Hans-Keilson.html
2012:“City Sounds,” an exhibit of Jewish musicians and Jewish venues in Columbus Ohio, is scheduled to come to an end at the Bexley Public Library in Bexley, Ohio.
2012: Dr. Nir Cohen is scheduled to lecture on “Love and Surveillance: Politicised Romance in Peter Kosminsky’s The Promise” at the Weiner Library in London.
2012:“The Jewish Woman In America: 1654-2012” a course covering the vital contributions that Jewish women have made to American Jewish life, from the time of the first Sephardic arrivals to New Amsterdam in 1654, down to the present sponsored by the Board of Jewish Education of Atlantic and Cape May (NJ) Counties is scheduled to come to an end.
2012: Entertainment Weekly announced todt that Lauren Weisberger is working on a sequel to The Devil Wears Prada entitled Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns
2012: International Ladino singer Sarah Aroeste and music collaborator and producer Shai Bachar are scheduled to come to Joe’s Pub to celebrate the release of Aroeste’s third album, Gracia.2013: “Hyam Plutzik: American Poet,” an exhibit of letters, manuscripts, images and objects about the life and career of this three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist at Trinity College Watkinson Library in Hartford, CT is scheduled to come to an end.
2013: The South Cobb Regional Library in Mableton, GA, is scheduled to a special program in celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month.
2013: Deadline for apply for College Aid through the Jewish Children’s Regional Service, an outstanding organization located in New Orleans, LA.
2013: Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids is scheduled to host the final musical Shabbat Friday Evening Services of this season
2013: Tomer Lev, Berenika Glixman, Daniel Borovitzky, Raviv Leibzirer – Two Pianos, Four Pianists, Twenty to Forty Fingers – are scheduled to perform at two boutique concerts in Jerusalem.
2013: “No Place On Earth” is scheduled to open in Santa Rosa, CA and Wilmington, DE.
2013: Marty Goldberg is scheduled to determine whether or not there will be a new print version of the Canadian Jewish News.
2013: R&B singer Alicia Keys said today that she will go ahead with her planned July performance in Israel, despite calls from other artists and the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) movement for her to cancel the event.
2013: Staff at the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem reported the spraying of offensive graffiti in Hebrew and the destruction of the church property in a suspected attack by radical Jewish settler sympathizers today
Perpetrators spray-painted “the Christians are apes” and “the Christians are slaves” on two cars parked outside the abbey
2014(2ndof Sivan, 5774): Eighty-eight year old television critic Steven H. Scheuer, the brother of Congressman James H. Scheuer and the husband of social critic Alida Brill, passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)
2014(2ndof Sivan, 5774): Seventy year old “Lewis Katz, co-owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer and a philanthropist, died in a plane crash in Massachusetts.” (As reported by JTA and Rachel Abrams)
2014(2ndof Sivan, 5774): Eighty-nine year old Edward S. Finkelstein who led Macy’s in good times and bad passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2014: The Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival is scheduled to begin today.(As reported by Debra Kamin)
2014: Considering the role of Jews in the world of the Broadway musical, the 92ndStreet Y is scheduled to present “Panning for Gold: Great Songs from Flop Shows.
2014: American Jewish Heritage Month comes to an end.
2014: “Senior Gaza official and deputy Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk said” “Hamas will not agree to the continuation of Palestinian security cooperation with Israel once it teams up with the Fatah movement led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to form a unity government.”
2014: “Today, top Hamas official Muhammad Nazal was quoted by the organization’s official organ as saying that Hamas would not abandon the path of “resistance,” or violence against Israel — a path the Islamist group shares with the Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist organization Hezbollah.” (As reported by Yifa Yaakov)
2014: Today Strategic Affairs and Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) harshly berated the defense establishment for using “undemocratic” means and “manipulating” the public to try to pressure the government into allotting it a larger budget. (As reported by Yifa Yaakov)
2015: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including They Told Me Not To Take That Job: Tumult, Betrayal, Heroics, and the Transformation of Lincoln Center by Reynold Levy, Keepers by Richard Schickel and Orson Welles’s Last Movie: The Making of “The Other Side of the Wind” by Josh Karp.
2015: After two months, “Joy of Life: Paintings by Dolorosa Margulis” whose family survived the war “by hiding in a village near Eindhoven is scheduled to come to an end at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.
2015: Final performance of The Call is scheduled to take place as part of Theater J sponsored by the Washington DC JCC.
2015: “For Richer For Poorer: Weddings Unveiled” which showcase “a rich and evocativecollection of material related to weddings within the immigrant Jewish community from the 1880’s to the mid-20th century” is scheduled to come to an at the Jewish Museum in London.
2015: In Chicago, Congregation Emmanuel is scheduled to host the “The Schaalman Centenary Celebration” marking the 100th birthday of Herman Schaalman who was the rabbi at Temple Judah from 1941 to 1949.
2015: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to “Music in Our Time: 2015.”
2015: The IAC is scheduled to host Israel Festival ’15” in New York City.
2015: In Boston, Julian Edelman is scheduled to appear at “Celebrate Israel”
2015: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host “Israel Fest: Israel@67.”
2015: “Mak’hela,” a Jewish choral group founded in 2003 is scheduled to perform at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA.
2015: Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum is scheduled to present the First Greek Jewish Festival on the Lower East Side.