JUNE 30
713 CE: In Spain, Visigoth nobility which had held out against the invading Moslem forces, throughout the winter of 712 finally surrendered to the Arabs. A majority of the remaining Goths and Hispano-Roman people who lived in the newly acquired areas eventually converted to Islam. The Jews, who had been persecuted by the ruling Goths, proved to be the exception. They kept their religious identity and flourished under the new rulers.
1270: In Germany, Rabbenu Asher and his wife gave birth to Talmudist Judah ben Asher, the rabbi at Toledo who was the brother of Jacob be Asher.
1294: The Jewish community of Berne, Switzerland forfeited all financial claims against non-Jews, and then was expelled from the country.
1298: The Jewish community of Morgentheim, Austria was massacred.
1470: Birthdate of Charles VIII, King of France. In 1494, Charles invaded Italy leading to the occupation of the Kingdom of Naples in 1495. Charles conquest led to increased persecutions of the Jewish population which lead to their expulsion in 1510, two years after his death.
1487: At Faro, Portugal, the printing of a Pentateuch was completed on the printing pressed located in the house of Don Samuel Giacon. According to Konrad Haebler's Typographie Ibèrique, “this was the first Hebrew book printed with vowel-points.”
1503: Birthdate of John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony who in August of 1536 “issued a mandate that prohibited Jews from inhabiting, engaging in business in, or passing through his realm.
1522:Johann Reuchlin “a German humanist and a scholar of Greek and Hebrew” who “for much of his life… was the real centre of all Greek and Hebrew teaching in Germany, passed away. “In 1510, Reuchlin was drawn into a bitter controversy with the Jewish-Dominican convert Johannes Pfefferkorn, who had convinced the emperor to confiscate and burn copies of the Talmud and other Jewish books. Asked for his opinion on the issue, Reuchlin urged the preservation of this literature and recommended the establishment of a chair of Hebrew in each of the major universities. As a result of his efforts, the order to destroy the Jewish books was rescinded. However, his enemies persisted, and Reuchlin had to face charges from the Inquisition. He was able to deflect the accusations for a time and returned to teaching …. Reuchlin is considered a hero in the history of European Judaism.”
1651: During the Khmelnytsky Uprising, Polish forces prevailed at the Battle of Beresteczko. The victory only provided a brief respite. The Cossack Revolt would continue with thousands of more Jews dying in what would be the worst loss of life until the Holocaust.
1680: In Madrid, an Auto de Fe was held in honor of the marriage of Carlos II to Louis Marie d’Orleans. It took place in the Plaza Mayor and lasted 14 hours. Over 50,000 spectators came to see 118 accused sentenced to prison or burned. It marked the last time that a "royal" auto was held since Carlos’ successor, Philip V, refused the "honor." took place in the Plaza Mayor
1713:Nehemiah Chiya Chayun arrived at Amsterdam and requested permission of the Portuguese congregation to circulate his writings, which had been published at Berlin.
1739: Birthdate of Moses Ben Abraham Frankel the Berlin born rabbi who was the father of David Frankel.
1762: In New York, 31 year old Uriah Henricks, a native of the Netherlands married Eva Henricks.
1781: In Danbury, CT, Solomon Simson and his wife gave birth to Sampson Simosn the first Jewish graduate of Columbia who went on to become a lawyer in New York. (As reported by Dr. Yitzchok Levin)
1782(18thof Tammuz, 5542): Because the 17 fell on Shabbat, observance of Tzom Tammuz
1784: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Abraham Alexander officiated at the wedding of 16 year old Rachel de la Motta, a native of St. Croix to Abraham de Pass of Jamaica.
1785: James Oglethorpe, the founder of the colony (and later the state) of Georgia passed away. Georgia had been created by Oglethorpe as an alternative to Debtor’s Prison. However, when a boatload of Sephardic Jews arrived in the colony a month after its founding, Oglethorpe welcomed them as he did a subsequent arrival of German Jews who came a year later. Oglethorpe did this despite the opposition of the trustees which surely endeared him to this remnant of the House of Israel.
1821(30th of Sivan, 5581): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1821: Birthdate of Sigmund von Henle, a descendant of Löb Berlin, the district rabbi of Bamberg a lawyer who was held in high esteem by King Ludwig II.
1824: Fishes Moses married Rachel Depass in Charleston, SC.
1840: Major Alfred Mordecai and Sara Ann “Hays” Mordecai gave birth to Alfred Mordecai, Jr. the West Point Graduate who served with distinction during the Civil War and Rose to the rank of Brigadier General.
1838: The Swedish government abolished discrimination against Jews. Unfortunately due to public objections it was repealed. Another 30 years were to pass before Jews were given the right to vote.
1862: At Glendale, VA, seventeen year old Private Benjamin Bennett Levy, a drummer-boy in the Union Army, picked up the “colors” when the color bearers and carried them during the battle. He saved them from capture by the Rebels and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery under fire. [Nothing was of greater value to a regiment than its colors. Defeat in battle was one thing; losing the colors to the enemy was a point of great disgrace. Color bearers were an easy target for enemy soldiers so it was a high risk job.]
1863(13thof Tammuz, 5623): Mordecai Ze'eb Ettinger passed away today at Lemberg. Born in 1804, he was the father of Rabbi Isaac Aaron Ettinger, the nephew of Rabbi Moses Joshua Heschel and the brother-in-law of Joseph Saul Nathanson witho whom he co-authored "Mefareshe ha-Yam"
1864: During the Civil War at the Battle of Petersburg, Abraham Cohn, a Sergeant Major with the 6th New Hampshire Infantry “bravely and coolly carried orders to the advanced Union line while under severe fire from Confederate troops” behavior for which he earned the Medal of Honor.
1866:Today, in Romania, Jews were attacked maimed and robbed. The Bucharest Synagogue was desecrated and demolished. As a result of the violence Article 6 of the 1866 Constitution was replaced by Article 7. Article 6 declared that "religion is no obstacle to citizenship"; but, "with regard to the Jews, a special law will have to be framed in order to regulate their admission to naturalization and also to civil rights". Article 7 read that "only such aliens as are of the Christian faith may obtain citizenship". All this came to pass when Charles von Hohenzollern took the throne as Carol I and was forced to deal with a riot against the Jews in his capital city.
1870(1st of Tammuz, 5630): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1874: “Partial Destruction of a Town by Fire” published today described the two days of fires in Berditchev, a Ukrainian city in the Russian “inhabited most by Jews” have destroyed over 600 houses and left thousands homeless. [Berditichev was a major center of Jewish life in the Ukraine, home to Mittnagdim and Chasidim, the famous of which were the Berditchiver Hasidim and their Rebbe, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev
1876: Esther Hellman Wallenstein, the founding president of the Hebrew Infant Asylum and Solomon Wallenstein gave birth to the youngest child Milton H. Wallenstein.
1878: According to today’s Foreign Notes column, before departing for the meeting of heads of state in Berlin, the Earl of Beaconsfield received a letter from Lionel de Rothschild in which he asked Disraeli to do everything he could to get them to endorse measures that would put all religions on an equal footing in each of their countries. Rothschild made a special point of asking Disraeli to intervene on behalf of the suffering Jews of Romania and Serbia. Disraeli replied that he would do all that he could in this matter.
1882: Between now and April, 1881, “no less than 225,000 Jewish families – comprising over a million souls – have fled from Russia.”
1885(17thof Tammuz, 5645): Tzom Tammuz
1889(1st of Tammuz, 5649): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1890: It was reported today that the Romsey Abbey “founded more than nine centuries ago” by Benedictine monks included a library “that was celebrated for its collection of Hebrew books.”
1891: “The first of the weekly excursions” sponsored by the “Sanitarium for Hebrew Children took place” today.
1891: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Max and Sarah Hexter gave birth to Maurice Beck Hexter the husband of Marguerite Hexter.
1891: During the fiscal year ending today, Russia sent 33,504 immigrants to the United States, “the majority of whom were Jews.”
1891: “The Nautch Girl,” a two-act comic opera with music by Edward Solomon opened at the Savoy Theatre.
1891: “To The Land Of Midian” published today described the plan of Dr. Paul Friedman, a native of Berlin who lived in London before settling in New York, to settle Russian Jews in “the land of Midian which extends from 26 degrees to 30 degrees north latitude and is situated on the Gulf of Akaba near the head of the Red Sea. Friedman had originally sought to use Somalia for this purpose but after visiting there “he concluded that it was not suitable.
1891: Over four hundred people sailed up the Hudson as far as Yonkers today during the first of the weekly excursions sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children.
1892: In an example of the problems with transliteration “The Holy Land Colonies” published today described the activities of “Showey Zion meaning Returners to Zion.” The author probably meant “Shavei Tzion” - שבי ציון (Zion Returneees)
1892: It was reported today that New York layer Adam Rosenberg is the Presdeint of “Returners to Zion” a recently incorporated society “whose main object” is to send Russian Jews to the Palestine “as colonists.”
1892: Marriage broker or ‘Shatchen” Martin Klein brought suit in a Brooklyn court today in an attempt to collect a $25 commission he claimed cigar maker Mauritz Grauer owed him for having secured a husband for Miss Paulie Grauer. Klein also claimed that Grauer had promised the groom, liquor dealer Joseph Ritter an additional $500.
1892: An explosion at 26 Willet Street, a tenement that was home to Polish and Russian Jews “wrecked the lower part of the hous and injured half a dozen tenants.”
1892: Rabbi Levy officiated at the marriage of Jacob Rosenstein of St. Louis and Florence A. Belitzer which took place at the home of the bride’s mother in Charleston, SC.
1893: Birthdate of Harold Joseph Laski “an English political theorist, economist, author, and lecturer, who served as the chairman of the Labour Party during 1945-1946.”
1894: It was announced today that the Hebrew Institute will be hosting a series of lectures by prominent doctors on the “Care and Feeding of Infants during the Warm Weather.”
1894: Representatives of the United Hebrew Trades Association spoke at tonight’s meeting held in Union Square to support the proposed “under-ground rapid transit system.
1894: “Isaac Jacobs, a middle-aged Jew…was arrested” today “on a larceny warrant.” (More to come)
1895: “A troupe of German-speaking peasants are performing a passion play similar to the one presented at Ober-Ammergau” at the “village of Selzach in the Swiss canton of Solothurun.” A large number of Berliners are expected to attend the performance.
1895: It was reported today that “a recent examination” of the books of the B’nai B’rith Society in San Francisco showed that the shortage was actually $17,000 and not $13,000 as originally alleged. The discovery of the original shortage led to the suicide of Louis Blanc, the Society’s former treasurer. He had not been prosecuted for taking the money, but the community obviously failed he was responsible when they failed to re-elect him as treasurer.
1895: Annie Silverman, the wife of Wolf Silverman was buried today at Washington Cemetery in New York.
1897: A list of the graduates of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls published today included the names of Mary Wiener, Esther Freed, Celia Levin and Sadie Pearlman.
1900(3rdof Tammuz, 5660): Chaya Chana Ettinger (nee Kluger), the wife of Yonah Ettinger, passed away today.
1902: Herzl began a journey to London seeking support for his plans for a Jewish homeland. The journey lasted until July 17.
1904(17thof Tammuz, 5564): Tzom Tammuz
1904: On a day connected with the loss of the second Jewish commonwealth, Herzl, the man trying to connect a modern Jewish commonwealth, suffers a severe bronchial catarrh, which turns into pneumonia. Oskar Marmorek proceeds to Edlac with two doctors.
1905: Albert Einstein publishes the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" where he introduces special relativity.
1911: A Jew, Abraham Benrubi, former President of the Tribunal of Commerce at Cavalla (Turkey) was appointed Judge of the Court of Appeal in Jerusalem.
1912: A few weeks after serving as valedictorian for her high school graduation, Bertha Alexander who would change her name to Beatrice and gain fame as “Madame Alexander”, married Philip Behrman (Jewish Women’s Archives)
1913: Eighty-three year old Victor Henri Rochefort, the editor of La Patrie who joined with people like Edoouard Drumont and Hubert Joseph Henry to promote the campaign against Dreyfus passed away today.
1915:The convention of the Federation of American Zionists came to a close this evening with the election of national officers. Dr. Harry Friedenwald of Baltimore was elected President. Other officers chosen were Chairman of Executive Committee, Louis Lipsky of New York; Honorary Secretary, Bernard A. Rosenblatt of New York, and Treasurer, Louis Robison of New York. The delegates to the convention received a pleasant surprise at this closing session when it was announced that Nathan Starus, the famed philanthropist had turned over his private yacht, valued at between $35,000 and $50,000, to the Zionists to help them deal with the looming financial shortfall.
1915: “Rabbi Hertz At Front” published today described the chief rabbi’s visit to the Western Front where when holding services he discussed the peril facing the British Empire and said that the “Jews of the empire had fully realized the duty of the hour and nobly responded to the country’s call.
1916: Seventy year old French Egyptologist Gaston Camille Charles Maspero passed away. He was the author of The Struggles of the Nations which provided an account of “the first Egyptian mention of the Hebrews ever found on an Egyptian monument.”
1917: Birthdate of Bernard “Buddy” Rich. Born in Brooklyn, Rich is best remembered as one of the greatest drummers of all times. Later in his career he was the leader of his own group – The Buddy Rich Band. According to one legend, when on his deathbed a nurse asked him if anything was bothering him, Rich replied, “Yes, country music.
1917: “The Ninth Annual Convention of Young Judaea” is scheduled to open this evening at Asbury Park, N.J.
1917: Nathaniel E. Harris, who was the governor when Leo Frank was lynched, completed his terms as Georgia’s chief executive.
1920:Sir Herbert Samuel the first high commissioner for Palestine arrives in Jaffa and is received with a military ceremony. Samuel served in the position for five years. He was the son of Edwin Louis Samuel, a successful Anglo-Jewish banker. Samuel had been raised as an Orthodox Jew and although according to at least one source, he ceased to be a practicing Jew but remained active in Jewish affairs.
1920: Birthdate of science fiction author Sam Moskowitz.
1921:Jonas and Pauline Bernanke arrived at Ellis Island today. The 30 year old Bernake listed his occupation as “clerk.” The Bernakes eventually moved to Dillon, South Carolina, where they ran a drug store and raised a son named Ben.
1922: The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), the Reform movement's professional organization, meeting in Cape May, N.J., voted 56 to 11 to affirm in principle the right ofwomen to become rabbis.
1922: A joint resolution of both Houses of Congress of the United States unanimously endorsed the "Mandate for Palestine," confirming the irrevocable right of Jews to settle in the area of Palestine - anywhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea:
" Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That the United States of America favors the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which should prejudice the civil and religious rights of Christian and all other non-Jewish communities in Palestine, and that the holy places and religious buildings and sites in Palestine shall be adequately protected." (As described by Dr. Yitzchok Levine)
1924(28th of Sivan, 5684): Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael De Haan, a Dutch born Jew who was a leader of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community opposed to Zionism was shot outside of the synagogue moments after finishing his evening prayers. De Haan was scheduled to lead a delegation of ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist Jews to London where he planned to make their case to the British government. His killer was rumored to be a fellow Jew. The Jewish community of Jerusalem, regardless of political affiliation was shocked by the killing and 20,000 people turned out for his funeral. Forty years after the crime took place a 1970 broadcast on Israeli radio revealed that the killer had been a member of Haganah who had killed De Haan because he was viewed as a traitor.
1924: AvrahamTehomi allegedly shot and killed the Dutch Jewish poet, novelist and diplomat Jacob Israel de Haan, who was living in Jerusalem as a journalist.
1925: Viscount Herbert Samuel completed his service as High Commissioner of Palestine. He was the first person to hold the position.
1925: Birthdate of Samuel M. Ehrenhalt, “a poet of percentages who for 15 years as a regional commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics transformed colorless wage and employment figures into small, brightly lighted windows onto New Yorkers’ daily lives.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1926: Birthdate of Paul Berg, co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1980.
1926: Governor Moore of New Jersey is scheduled to deliver the welcoming remark at the opening session the annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Professor Louis Ginzberg and Rabbi Max Drob are scheduled to address the meeting of North American rabbis being held at the Scarboro Hotel in Long Branch, NJ.
1927: Henry Ford retracted and apologized for the publication of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
1927: In Chicago, Marion (née Weil) and Maurice Clarence Goldman, gave birth today to playwright and screenwriter James Adolf Goldman the old brother of novelist William Goldman.
1932: Chaim Arolsoroff “wrote a long letter to Chaim Weizmann” in which he estimated that the Zionist movement had only a short period of time at its disposal” because within five to ten ears Europe would be engulfed in war and the Yishuv would likely find itself facing wither an Arab-British alliance or an Arab revolt and because cut off from the Jewish world, its people and resources.”
1934: Night of the Long Knives: Hitler ordered the execution of some of the SA (Sturm Abteilungen) leaders of whose absolute loyalty he questioned including Ernst Roehm. Until then the SS under Himmler was subordinate to the SA. The SS now became independent and was given charge of the concentration camps.
1936:Gretel Bergmann matched a German high jump record today. Two weeks later the young Jewess would be kicked off the German Olympic Team.
1936: Polish Jews strike to protest anti-Semitism
1937: Birthdate of Gideon Ezra, the native of Jerusalem who served as an MK and led several government ministeries.
1937: “A tower and stockade kibbutz was established at Tirat Zevi (Zevi’s Castle) 6 miles south-east of Beisan and less than a mile from the Jordan border.” [As the debate rages about the borders of the state of Israel and settlements on the “West Bank,” please note the location of this kibbutz. Obviously the Zionist pioneers assumed that all territory west of the Jordan River was open to them.]
1937: Under the auspices of the Bialiki Association, Chiam Nachman Bialik’s house was opened to the public. The public display included: the archives of Bialik’s manuscripts and that of other writers, Bialik’s private library and a museum with the poet’s personal possessions.
1939: Tel Aviv attorney M. Seligman was released on bail, pending his appeal of a conviction on charges of conspiring to assist in the illegal immigration of Jews into Palestine which carried a six month term of imprisonment. “He was acquitted of 18 other charges including brigery and corruption of Palestine Government officials.”
1939: Premiere of “Bachelor Mother” directed by Garson Kanin.
1941: Ninety Jews are murdered at Dobromil, Ukraine.
1941: German troops enter Lvov, Ukraine, and beat hundreds of Jews to death after running them ragged at gunpoint.
1941: Two death trains left Iasi, Romania after a pogrom. One of them stopped in Podu Iloaiei and the 1,194 Jews who died along the way from thirst and heat exhaustion were buried there in a mass grave.
1941 Three hundred young Jews are deported from Amsterdam, Holland, to stone quarries at the Mauthausen, Austria, concentration camp. All will eventually perish.
1941: American radio commentator Father Charles Coughlin celebrates Hitler's invasion of Russia as "the first strike in the holy war on communism" and attacks "the British-Jewish-Roosevelt war on Germany and Italy."
1941: The Germans entered Lvov, Soviet Union, cite of the third largest Jewish Community after Warsaw and Lodz. Thousands of Jews would be tortured and slaughtered at the hands of rampaging mobs.
1941: In Amsterdam, 300 Jews were deported to work camps.
1941: In Denmark, a collaborationist SS organization, Freikorps Danmark (Danish Free Corps), is established.
1941: In Belorussia, a guerrilla collaborationist organization, Belaruskaya Narodnaya Partizanka(Belorussian National Guerrillas), is established.
1941: In Latvia, Viktor Arajs establishes the Perkonkrusts(Thunder Cross), a collaborationist paramilitary unit.
1941: Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, tells Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, that Hitler has ordered that the "Jewish question" be solved once and for all and that the SS is to implement that order. Auschwitz is the death camp that is to carry out the greater part of the Jewish extermination. Mass gassings, not shootings, are determined to be the most effective means to exterminate the large numbers of Jews.
1942: A headline in the London Daily Telegraph reads: "MORE THAN 1,000,000 JEWS KILLED IN EUROPE." [Sort of puts the “lie” the statement that people did not know what was happening to the Jews in the clutches of Hitler.]
1942: Three-year-old Jewish twins in Sosnowiec, Poland, Ida and Adam Paluch, are spirited away from Gestapo agents by their aunt and sent to live with separate Catholic families
1943: After almost 8 years, the New Deal agency known as The Federal Art Project (FAP) whose artists included Leon Bibel, Adolph Gottlieb, Harry Gottlieb, Isaac Soyer, Moses Soyer. Raphael Soyer and Lee Krasner came to an end
1944: By now, more than 500 Jews are being secretly protected by industrialist Oskar Schindler.
1944: Joel Brand and Rudolf Kasztner working together with the Jewish Agency and the War Refugee board concluded a deal with and Adolph Eichmann. It became known as “Blut fuer Ware” ("Blood for Goods"). This date marked the first of three transports from Hungary to Switzerland. A total of 3344 Jews were sent on a special transport at a price of $1,000 per head. The deal was the subject of a great amount of controversy and later even resulted in a defamation trial, which reached the Israeli Supreme Court in June of 1955.
1944: One thousand, seven hundred, ninety-five Jews arrived from Corfu arrived at Birkenau.
1944: The crematoria at Auschwitz are working at full capacity when 2044 Jews from Corfu and Athens, Greece, arrive. At day's end, lightning rods on crematoria chimneys are warped from the heat generated by the furnaces.
1944: The 461st Bombardment Group under the command of Frederick E. Glantzberg bombed Blechhammer an area home to a synthetic oil plant whose workers included inmates from Theresienstadt concentration camp who probably lived in fear of the Taschenofen (mobile pocket furnace) located there.
1945:"Lest We Forget," an exhibition of death-camp photography organized by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Washington Evening Star began a tour in Boston, Massachusetts, and then on into Midwest. By tours end nearly 90,000 Americans will have viewed this testament of the Holocaust.
1946: “Irgun Zvai Leumi…issued an ultimatum tonight saying it would kill three British hostages if the British executed two Irgun members condemned to death.”
1946: British soldiers and police officers rushed into the Tel Aviv business district when pamphlet bombs exploded in this predominately Jewish city. They snatched the pamphlets from “the hands of the jeering populace. “The pamphlets, signed by Irgun, said, ‘All this, and what will follow, will not change our dtetermination to take the lives of these three if our two die.’ The pamphlets referred to the three of the five British soldiers kidnapped by Irgun two weeks ago. Two of the British soldiers have already been released in response to pressure from the Haganah.
1946: “Despite the detention of 2,000 “ Jews “in the largest mass arrest ever made in Palestine, the secreted radio of the Jewish resistance movement announced tonight that its leadership and general staff had not been ‘silenced’ by the campaign that British forces opened against’ Jewish forces “yesterday morning.
1946: As the British continued to wage war against the Jews of Palestine, the city of Haifa was placed under a curfew tonight following a spontaneous demonstration that had taken place earlier in the day. According to unofficial reports, four people were wounded when the British fired on the demonstrators.
1946: As the British crack down on the Yishuv, there are reports that the Mandatory Government will cease to recognize the Jewish Agency and replace it a variety of local councils. Moshe Shertok had already expressed the view that withdrawal would not mean the end of the Jewish Agency since it was supported the community in Palestine.
1947: Birthdate of Major General Yedidya Ya’ari, the native of kibbutz Merhavia “who was the commander of the Israeli Navy from 2000-2004.” Ya’ari is one of at least prominent Israelis from Merhavia the others being Golda Meir and Yaakov Shabtal, the novelist, playwright and translator who is the brother of Aharon Shabtai who is also a poet.
1947: U.S. premiere of “Brute Force” a “film noir” directed by Jules Dassin, produced by Mark Hellinger with a screenplay by Richard Brooks.
1948: U.S. premiere of “A Foreign Affair” a comedy directed by Billy Wilder who also co-authored the screenplay.
1948: The last British armed forces left Israel.
1948: An Israeli convoy led by commandos arrives at the isolated settlement of Kfar Darom, south of Gaza. The convoy brought food for the Jews and was supposed to evacuate the wounded and the women. The Egyptians were able to prevent the convoy from departing which meant that the commandos and the defenders would now be forced to share the meager supplies as they wait for relief from the outside.
1948: Shai was disbanded as part of a reorganization of the Israeli secret service. Shai, “an acronym for Sherut Yediot” was established in 1940 as “the intelligence and counter-espionage arm of the Haganah.”
1948, Meir “Tobianski was taken into custody and interrogated by Isser Be'eri, David Kron, Binyamin Gibli and Avraham Kidron during a drumhead court-martial. Be'eri had already prepared a firing squad consisting of six soldiers from the Palmach Yiftach Brigade, which was in control of the Jerusalem corridor zone. Tobianski was found guilty and executed in Bayt Jiz, where his body was buried. Tobianski had received neither a lawyer nor a right to appeal, and his case was not reviewed by a higher court. Be'eri knew of his innocence, but still ordered his execution. In 1949, Be'eri was tried and found guilty of manslaughter. At the trial the court found that as there was a ceasefire in effect at the time, any information supposedly passed by Tobianski could not have served the Jordanian artillery. Be'eri received one day of prison time due to his extensive service to Israel. He was pardoned on the same day by the president, Chaim Weizmann.”
1949: Birthdate of Alain Finkielkraut the French author and intellectual the son of manufacture of fine leather goods who survived Auschwitz, whose works include “In the Name of the Other: Reflections on the Coming Anti-Semitism.”
1949: U.S. premiere of “The Queen of Spades” filmed by cinematographer Otto Heller.
1949: “Stand Against Zionism” published today summarized the anti-Zionist views of the late Dr. David Philipson, a leading Reform Rabbi who supported the American Council of Judaism.
1952: Guiding Light, a soap opera created by Irna Phillips, debuted on television on. It is one of the longest-running daily television programs.
1953(17th of Tammuz, 5713): Tzom Tammuz
1953: Between May 15, 1948 and June 30, 1953, the Jewish population of Israel doubled from 640,000 to 1.3 million.
1955: Final broadcast of “Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator” an NCB radio detective drama directed by Himan “Hi” Brown who began his broadcasting career at the age of 18 reading newspapers with a Yiddish dialect on WEAF.
1956: Between May 15, 1948 and June 30, 1956, the Jewish population of Israel tripled from 640,000 to 2.1 million.
1957: Allied Artists released “Love in the Afternoon” a romantic comedy that owed its existence to two Jews since it was directed and produced by Billy Wilder with a screenplay co-written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond.
1959(24th of Sivan, 5719): American composerLazare Saminsky passed away at Port Chester, NY. Born in Russian in 1882hewas a pupil of Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov at the St Petersburg and Moscow conservatories from 1906 until 1910. He moved in 1920 to New York, where in 1923 he was a founder of the League of Composers. He was musical director of Temple Emanu-El from 1924 until 1956 and author of several books. Saminsky wrote Jewish liturgical music and drew on Jewish sources for his five symphonies, choral music and songs.1962: LA Dodger Sandy Koufax pitches another no-hitter. This time he beat the Mets 5-0.
1965: The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 proposed by New York Congressman Emanuel Celler which abolished the National Origins Formula became effective today.
1966: The National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded at a meeting in Betty Friedan's hotel room.
1970: “Steambath,” the second play by American author Bruce Jay Friedman was first performed Off-Broadway at the Truck and Warehouse Theater today.
1970: During the War of Attrition Yitzhak Peer was taken prisoner when his F-4E II Phantom was shot down by an Egyptian SAM.
1970: During the War of Attrition, Rami Harpaz and Eyal “Los” Ahikar were taken prisoner when their F-4E II Phantom was shot down by an Egyptian SAM. (Israel’s existence comes at a very high price.)
1971(7th of Tammuz, 5731): Herbert Biberman, screenwriter, director and part of the Hollywood Ten, passed away
1971: “The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the New York Times voting 6 to 3 allow resumption of the publication of the Pentagon Papers, a project overseen for the Timesby Gerald Gold.
1971: U.S. premiere of “They Might Be Giants” the cinematic version of the play by James Goldman who wrote the script for the movie which co-starred Jack Gilford.
1972: After three years Charles Eustace McGaughey completed his service as Canada’s Ambassador to Israel.
1976: Catcher Jeff Newman made his major league debut with the Oakland Athletics.
1978(29thof Sivan, 5638): While shooting his last film, “Avalanche” 64 year old director Mark Robson died of a heart attack.
1983(19thof Tammuz, 5743): Seventy-seven year old Mary Livingston, born Sadye Marks, the wife and comedic foil of Jack Benny passed away today.
1984(30thof Sivan, 5744): Seventy-seven year old playwright Lillian Hellman a New Orleans born Jewess passed away.
1984(30thof Sivan, 5744): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1985: In “Yuppies with Fetlocks” published today Jean Franco reviews “The Centaur in the Garden by Moacyr Scliar.; translated by Margaret A. Neves. “This novel…is reminiscent of the Chagall paintings in which the scenes of everyday Jewish life are tenderly and oddly transmuted into fantasy. ''The Centaur in the Garden'' is set..on a farm in southern Brazil, in one of the colonies of Jewish immigrants established there at the beginning of this century by the German-Jewish philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch…One Jewish family's struggle to make a living in these unfamiliar and lonely surroundings is thwarted by the birth of the youngest child, Guedali, who is a centaur.
1992:Prosecution of East European Nazi collaborators who had gained entry to the country posing as innocent refugees from Communism by Australia's "Special Investigations Unit" met with failure and the prosecution effort for all practical purposes was shut down on this date.
1994: Catcher Mike Lieberthal made his major league debut with the Philadelphia Phillies.
1996: IN “New Museum Traces 2 Paths Into Jewish History in Atlanta” published today, Ronald Smothers provides a snapshot of a Jewish culture captured south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
1996: In “A Question of Conscience” published today Eugen Weber reviewed The Statement in which Brian Moore uses the German occupation of France and its factious fallout as the raw material to produce a powerful new novel.
1999: U.S. premiere of “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut” co-starring Mary Kay Bergman with a score by Marc Shaiman.
2000: Release date for “The Perfect Storm” a product executive producer Barry Levinson.
2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including 'Masters of Death': Himmler's Willing Executioners” by Richard Rhodes and ''Trains of Thought,'' by Victor Brombert
2003(30th of Sivan, 5763): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
2003: Krastyu Radkov, 46, a construction worker from Bulgaria, was killed in a shooting attack on the Yabed bypass road in northern Samaria, west of Jenin, while driving a truck. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack, in opposition to the declared ceasefire.
2003(30th of Sivan, 5763): Comedian Buddy Hackett passes away at the age of 78 (As reported by Richard Severo)
2005: Sir James David Wolfensohn completed his service as the 9thPresident of the World Bank.
2006: In the evening, Jonathan Michael Kerbis participates in Friday Night services as part of becoming a Bar Mitzvah.
2006: Release date of “The Devil Wore Prada” a cinema treatment of the novel by Lauren Weisberger directed by David Frankel and produced by Wendy Finerman.
2006: Ismar Schorsch, the sixth Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, retired.For more information about the life of this famed Jewish scholar and author see the following JTS sponsored website. http://www.jtsa.edu/progs/his/isschorsch/index.shtml
2007: Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, officially resigns his position.
2008: In New York, the 92nd Street Y presents “Debra Winger in Conversation with Arliss Howard” during which Arliss Howard interviews his actress wife who was raised as an Orthodox Jew in Cleveland Heights, spent time on a Kibbutz in Israel and was called to the Torah during her son’s Bar Mitzvah in 2000.
2008: James B. Cunningham was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
2009: In New York, Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman of Presidents Major American Jewish Organizations delivers the Fourth Annual Gershon Jacobson Memorial Lecture, with an address entitled “The Media and Silencing the Support for Israel.”
2009: In the Czech Republic the Holocaust Era Assets Conference comes to an end.
2009:Phoebus Energy is scheduled to unveil its first hybrid water heating system at the Gilo community center in Jerusalem today.
2009: Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak is scheduled to meet with George Mitchell, the special envoy to the Middle East, in Washington, D.C. today.
2009: A concert featuring 100 cantors from the world is scheduled to take place in Warsaw at The Grand Opera which is less than a kilometer from Tlomackie Synagogue which the Nazi blew up during World War II.
2009: Al Frankin was declared winner of the U.S. Senate election in Minnesota. The number of Jewish senators does not change since he defeated Norm Coleman who was also Jewish.
2009:Six weeks after authorities foiled an alleged bomb plot against two Bronx synagogues, the Department of Homeland Security has allocated $1.83 million to boost safety at Jewish institutions in another part of the city.
2009: Haim Ramon announced that he was resigning from the Knesset.
2010:Humanity in Action: Resistance and Rescue in Denmark, a powerful photography exhibition that explores the history of the rescue of Danish Jewry in 1943 and provides a striking narrative of individual and collective resistance, has its final showing in Washington, D.C.
2010:Gaza terrorists attacked the Western Negev this morning with a Kassam rocket before workers arrived, but it heavily damaged a packing house that was knocked out of operation
2010:American Eagle Outfitters Inc. has signed a multiyear franchise agreement to open a series of stores in Israel by the spring of 2012. The teen retailer signed a franchise agreement on today with Fox-Wizel Ltd., which operates more than 170 FOX stores in Israel as well as 250 outlets outside of Israel
2010: “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector,” directed by Vikram Jayanti, opens at Film Forum on West Houston Street.
2011: The Galilee Music Festival is scheduled to open.
2011: It was reported that the case again Dominque Strauss Kahn was on the verge of collapse because of problems with the credibility of the alleged victim, who had, according to sources within the NYPD, repeatedly lied since making her first statement.”
2011:YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present a lecture by Rebecca Margolis entitled “ Yiddish Culture in Montreal: Yesterday and Today” that “ will examine the origins and development of Yiddish culture in Montreal and discuss the changing place of Yiddish from the era of mass Jewish immigration in the early 1900s through today. The lecture is scheduled to be followed by a book-signing of Margolis' new book, “Jewish Roots, Canadian Soil: Yiddish Culture in Montreal, 1905-1945.”
2011:Tel Aviv “the city that never sleeps,” is scheduled to host its annual White Night (Layla Lavan).
2011:Justice Minister Yaakov Ne'eman was attacked while praying at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron today, apparently by right-wing religious extremists protesting the arrest of Hebron-Kiryat Arba Chief Rabbi Dov Lior.
2011:Israel's U.S. ambassador, Michael Oren, outlined for Jewish leaders his country's list of priorities in framing peace talks with the Palestinians.
2011:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the United States as a champion of freedom and a great ally of Israel in his address to the annual Fourth of July celebration at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Tel Aviv tonight.
2011: Mark Halperin was suspended from his duties at MSNBC for "slurring" President Barack Obama on the program Morning Joe, saying the President came off as "kind of a dick" during the previous day's press conference
2011(28thof Sivan, 5771): Eighty-four year old songwriter Ruth Roberts, the creator of “Meet The Mets” passed away today. (As reported by Peter Keepnews)
2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at the Rock Werchter Festival in Rock Werchter, Belgium.
2012(10thof Tammuz, 5772): Ninety-six year old Yitchak Shamir passed away today.
2012: Close associates of the prime minister prompted the cancelation today of a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz, government sources said.
2012:A week after protests resulted in violent clashes with the police, demonstrators were set to return to the streets of Tel Aviv on tonight. Protesters in Tel Aviv were scheduled to gather at the Habima Theater around 8 pm and march to the plaza facing the Tel Aviv Art Museum, where a rally was to be held.
2012:Egypt’s newly elected president sent an implicit message of reassurance to Israel in his first major address after taking office, but he also pledged support for the “legitimate rights” of the Palestinians.
2013: As part of the Jewish Plays Project, “Estelle Singerman” is scheduled to be performed at the 14th Street Y.
2013: The mandate creating the UN peacekeeping force on the border between Israel and Syria which has been renewed every six months for the past thirty-nine years is scheduled to expire to end today. (As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)
2013: “It's a Thin Line: The Eruv and Jewish Community in New York and Beyond” is scheduled to come to a close today at the Yeshiva University Museum
2013: Bank of Israel Gov. Stanley Fischer is scheduled to step down as Israel’s central banker today two years before the end of his second five-year term. (As reported by Niv Elis)
2013: “Shabbat – Inside and Out” is scheduled to come to a close today at the Yeshiva University Museum
2013:“The Mexican Suitcase: Rediscovered Spanish Civil War Negatives by Capa, Taro and Chim” is scheduled to close at Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme
2013: The Ministerial Committee for Legislation is schedule to vote today on a bill that would enable the burial of non-Jewish soldiers alongside their Jewish comrades (As reported by Haviv Rettig Gur)
2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers Life including Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center by Ray Monk
2013: The Ministerial Committee on Legislation passed an electoral reform bill proposed by MK Ronen Hoffman today, clearing the way for legislation that will change the electoral system to pass into law by the time the Knesset begins its extended summer recess at the end of the month (As reported by Gil Hoffman)
2013:US Secretary of State John Kerry wound up his whirlwind 72-hours of shuttle diplomacy by announcing at Ben-Gurion airport this afternoon that "real progress" was achieved, and that with a little more work Israeli-Palestinian talks could be re-started. (As reported by Herb Keinon)
2014: “By Dawn’s Early Light: Jewish Contributions to American Culture from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War” an exhibition presented by the Center for Jewish History and American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to come to an end.
2014: A special 2 DVD edition of Gaylen Ross’s “critically acclaimed documentary “Killing Kasztner” is scheduled to be released today in “commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the departure of Kasztner’s dramatic rescue train from wartime Budapest.” For more see the website www.killingkasztner.com
2014(2ndof Tammuz, 5774): Eighty-four year old director and screenwriter Paul Mazursky passed away today.
2014: “Hamas operatives were behind a large volley of rockets which slammed into Israel this morning, the first time in years the Islamist group has directly challenged the Jewish state, according to Israeli defense officials. (As reported by Avi Issacharoff)
2014: “Israeli searchers discovered the bodies of Naftali Fraenkel, 16, Gil-ad Shaar, 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19, the three teenagers kidnapped on June 12 bound an partially buried in an open field at Wadi Tellem.”
2015: In Atlanta, the Mid-Year Fund Drive of the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum with a goal of raising $15,000 is scheduled to come to an end. For more see
2015: Through today, all gifts to the 92nd Street Y will be matched 100%
2015: As part of “Light! Camera! Great German and Austrian Jewish Filmmakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age” program the 92ndSt Y is scheduled to host a screening of “Imitation of Life”