July 7
1274: Pope Gregory X confirmed a bull issued in 1272 banning charges of blood ritual.
1307: King Edward I, the monarch who expelled the Jews from England, died.
1320: In Pastoureaux (Southern France), an unnamed shepherd started a crusade against the Jews. It spread throughout most of southern France and northern Spain destroying one hundred and twenty communities. At Verdun, 500 Jews defended themselves from within a stone tower. When they were about to be overrun they killed themselves.
1358: Hundreds of Jews were murdered in Catalonia
1520: Cortes defeats a force of Aztecs who had chased him out of Mexico City. It would be more than a year before Cortes would be able to conquer the capital city. Among those with Cortes was a converso or crypto-Jew named Hernando Alonso who worked as a blacksmith.
1572: King Sigismund II Augustus, one of the monarchs who invited Jews to settle in Poland, passed away.
1690(1st of Av): Rabbi Hillel ben Naphta Zevi of Altona, author Bet Hillel, novella on the code passed away
1733: Forty-one Jews settled in the colony of Georgia. Among them were Spanish, Portuguese, German and English Jews.
1743(23rdof Tammuz): Chaim ben Moses ibn Attar also known as the Ohr ha-Chaim after his popular commentary on the Pentateuch. Born at Meknes, Morocco in 1696, he became a leading rabbi in his native land before leaving for Eretz Israel in 1733. He finally arrived in Jerusalem in 1742 “where he presided at the Beit Midrash Knesset Yisrael.” He is buried on the Mount of Olives where his gravestone may still be seen.
1753: The Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753 received royal assent today. It would be repealed a year later. Jews would not become full citizens with the right to sit in Parliament until the middle of the 19th century.
1754: At Geislautern, Germany, Abraham Aberle and his wife gave birth to Aaron Worms, chief rabbi of Metz
1773: Birthdate of Isaac Ben Hrisch Katzenelnbogen, the native of Deutschland who was the husband of Fanny Neuburg.
1816: Emanuel Nunes Carvalho, the rabbi at Philadelphia’s Congregation Mikveh Israel delivered a sermon on the “Occasion of the Death of Rabbi Gershom Mendes Seixas.” This “was the first Jewish sermon printed in the United States.” A native of London Carvalho had served as rabbi in Bridgetown, Barbados and Charleston, SC, before coming to Philadelphia where he would die in 1817.
1836: Joseph II of Galicia, in an alleged effort to improve the educational status of Rabbis, decreed that no Rabbis be appointed if they did not attend a University. Little came of his decree.
1853: In a letter dated today addressed to the Emperor of Japan Commodore Mathew Perry uses the phrase “pacific overtures” which will provide the title for the Stephen Sondheim musical about the “opening of Japan.”
1855: In Syracuse, NY, Abraham Stern and his wife gave birth to Samuel Stern an attorney who married Libbia Wile who served as the first assistant district attorney of Onondaga County, NY before moving to Spokane, Washington.
1857: Pinckney A. Hyams and Pauline Baum were married today in Charleston, SC.
1858: In Great Britain, Nahum Salamon and his wife gave birth to Alfred Gordon Salamon, a specialist “in the Chemistry of Fermentation” who was a “member of the Commission to Enquire in the Cause of Beer Poisoning in Manchester” and who “was instrumental along with his father in introducing ‘Saccharin” into the United Kingdom.
1860: In the Kaliště, Pelhřimov District, Vysočina Region,Bernhard Baruch Mahler and Marie Mahler gave birth to composer Gustav Mahler who converted to Catholicism to further his career, a move that earned him derision from his critics and no relief from the anti-Semites. Mahler passed away in 1911.
1860: Birthdate of Abraham Cahan. From 1903 until his death in 1951, Cahan was the editor of the "Jewish Daily Forward", the most popular and most enduring of all Yiddish newspapers.
1862: John Wood, Drummer, of Company A, Thirty-sixth Regiment N.Y.V., died in the Jews' Hospital. The Jew’s Hospital (later known as Mt. Sinai) had been built in the 1850’s to meet the health needs of New York’s burgeoning Jewish population. Its role changed during the Civil War as it became a major health care facility for treating the sick and wounded of the Union Army.
1862: Birthdate of German playwright Ludwig Fulda whose works included Der Talisman (1892), Jugendfreunde (1897) and Maskerade (1904) who committed suicide in 1939 when he was denied entrance to the United States.
1871: Daniel Joseph, the father of Sir Otto Jaffe established the Belfast Hebrew Congregation “which worshipped at the Great Victoria Street synagogue.
1873: Baruch Fränkel and Rosa Eibenschütz gave birth to Sándor Fränkel who gained fame as the Hungarian psychoanalyst and associate of Sigmund Freud, Sándor Ferenczi
1879: The Executive Board of the Council of the Union of American and Hebrew Congregations met this morning with Moritz Loth presiding and Lipman Levy acting as secretary. The board met to prepare for the upcoming meeting of the Council which was scheduled to begin on the following day.
1881: In Kentucky, Governor Blackburn has declared today to be a day of public fasting and prayer where all business is suspended so that citizens can go to churches “or other places of worship” to pray for the recovery of President Garfield who has been shot by an assassin. [For Jews, the importance of this is that the governor has acknowledged that there are other houses of worship than those used by Christians.]
1882: As the Freight Handler’s strike in New York continues cargo fails to leave the port despite the availability of large numbers of foreign born workers including Russian Jews to work the docks. According to critics, they lack the skill and knowledge to work effectively. As the strikers become more desperate, incidence of violence increase as can be seen by the stone-throwing attack on Jews at the 30th Street Yards.
1882: The current labor strife between the freight handlers and the railroad companies is described as battle between Teutonic and Celtic Races on the one hand and Russian-Semitic and Latin volunteers on the other hand. In a tactic that would become quite common during labor disputes, the owners and their supporters would try and pit worker against worker; in this case Germans and Irish against Russian Jews and Italians.
1882: It was reported today that in Russia, Count Tolstoi, the Minister of the Interior has ordered the authorities at the frontier “to do all this is possible to facilitate the return of the Jews.”
1882: The newly formed Propaganda Verein, most of whose members were Jewish, met tonight at the Golden Rule Hall on Rivington Street. The evening’s theme was “The Jewish Question” – the future of the Jewish race and the anomaly of the persecution of Jews.
1883(2ndof Tammuz, 5643): Forty-six year old Joseph Reckendorfer who was a supporter of the United Hebrew Charities and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum as well as a member of Temple Emanu-El passed away today.
1883: “The Alleged Passover Murder” published today described recent event in the trial of Jews accused of ritual murder of a Christian girl, Esther Salomossy, at Nyreghaza, Hungary. Two of the accused claimed that their confessions had been obtained by force and coercion. The defense counsel told the court that the people of Tisza-Eglar, where the alleged murder had taken place have “been taught that it was not wrong to testify falsely against the Jews” if the interests of the country required a conviction.
1884: In Boston, Isaac Jacobs, a Polish Jew who is the prime suspect in the murder of Etta G. Carleston, is expected to make his next court appearance on charges of having stolen a watch a chain.
1884: “Case of Pauper Immigrants” published today, described evidence gathered by the Emigration Commissioner that the clerks at Castle Garden were not be vigilant in seeing to it that immigrants who lacked funds or financial sponsors were kept from entering the country. Among those metntioned were Henry Brolsky, his wife and six children had arrived aboard the SS Assyrian Monarch. According to Brolsky, the Hebrew Society of London had paid for their passage. He said he had family in St. Louis, but had no funds to make the trip. Another example was an un-named family from Poland who had arrived on the SS Australia. Their passage had been paid for by the Hebrew Society of London. The immigrants claimed they had been told that the Commissioners of Emigration would provide them with funds once they had arrived. [The report cited examples of non-Jews as well. The issue of “pauper immigrants” would bedevil the immigration debate among Jews as well as the general society until World War I staunched the human flood tide.]
1884: Birthdate of Lion Feuchtwanger, German -born dramatist and narrator who escaped to the United States at the outbreak of World War II. He passed away in his California home in 1958.
1884:A review of the Universal History: The Oldest Historical Group of Nations and the Greeks by Leopold von Ranke includes the famous German historian that the laws of Moses stand in stark contrast to the Egyptians because they involve “an opposition to kingship and claim to be an emanation from the deity.” Furthermore they represent the first attack on “a national nature worship” and provide the grounds for the creation of monotheism, a principle on which “is built a civil society which is alien to every abuse of power.”
1887: Mrs. Betty Michaelis refused to attend today’s meeting of a committee that had been appointed by Mrs. Henrietta Loeser, the President of the Henrietta Verien to determine if she should be expelled from the society.
1887: The trustees of Gates of Hope suspended Rabbi E.B.M. Browne from his position as leader of the congregation after a special committee of investigation found that guilty of charges of “conduct unbecoming a minister.”
1887: J.E. Phillips presided over tonight’s meeting at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue where the Jewish citizens discussed plans for a possible celebration of the 400th anniversary of the expulsion from Spain and Columbus’ first voyage to the New World.
1887: In Lizona, which was then part of the Russian Empire, Chezkel Zachar Mordechai Chagall (Shagal) and Feige-Ite Chagall gave birth to Moishe Zakharovich Shagalov (Moishe Segal) who gained fame as March Chagall whose life lasted almost one hundred years. He developed his art against a backdrop of World War I, the Russian Revolution and its Stalinist aftermath, Paris during the thirties, the Holocaust and the birth of the state of Israel. One can only appreciate Chagall by seeing Chagall. There are numerous websites where his art may be viewed. The “Praying Jew” is my personal favorite.
http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/marc-chagall/the-praying-jew-rabbi-of-vitebsk-1914
http://www.abcgallery.com/C/chagall/chagall81.html
1888: Rabbi Jacob Charif (Jacob Sharp) arrived early this morning at Hoboken aboard the North German Lloyd steamer. Chariff, from Wilna Russia, has been brought to the United states by the United Society to serve the needs of New York’s “orthodox down-town Jews.” Charif refused to leave the boat or meet with the welcoming committee until Saturday evening, after the end of Shabbat.
1888: “On Shabbos Maatos-Maasei, the trans-Atlantic ship Allaire docked at Hoboken, on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. After Havdalah, at approximately 10 p.m., the chief rabbi was taken to a nearby hotel. The leaders of the appointing congregations and more than 100,000 people crowded the streets for an opportunity to catch a glimpse of him. Hoboken had never before seen such a large crowd.” (Jewish Press)
1888:”The Summer Corps At Work” published today described the work of fifty physicians appointed by the city to provide medical care for those living in the most crowded quarters in the city. Dr. C.W. Wolfretz, who has been assigned to cover “a district from Division to Broom Street and Bowery to Eldridge where the overcrowded tenements are primarily occupied by Polish and Hungarian Jews, has discovered that the people sleep on the roof to get relief from the heat and that the children are susceptible to measles.
1889: It was reported today that some social scientists, many of whom live in Germany, are impatiently awaiting the establishment of Jewish state in Palestine as a way of proving their theories about governance and nationalism. Since there are those who contend that the recent success of Jews has taken place in a Christian society and that Jews would not be nearly as successful living in a society where they were both the governed and the governor.
1889(8th of Tammuz, 5649): Sixty seven year old Rabbi Elias Karpeles passed away in Vienna.
1889: “Darmesteter, The Linguist” published today notes that “scant notice has been given in the United States to” the passing of Arsene Darmesteter the Jewish Sorbonne lecturer on Mediaeval French and literature” whose death means that “the world has lost one who was a Columbus in the vast eternal seas of philological discovery.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D0DE6DA133AE033A25754C0A9619C94689FD7CF
http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Talmud.html?id=HRZQfUKlTYAC
1890: In Roundout, a case of assault and battery involving Polish Jews was withdrawn from the Recorders Court after the parties agreed to pay court costs
1891: The weekly cruise for underprivileged children sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children is scheduled to take place today
1892: The business session of the third annual Central Conference of American Rabbis is scheduled to open at ten o’clock this morning. Reports will be present on conversion and cremation of the dead.
1892: Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler will read a paper entitled “Is Reformed Judaism Destructive or Constructive?” at the evening session of the Conference of American Rabbis.
1893: “Coaxing Immigration published today described the efforts of the Canadian government to recruit people from the western United States to settle in the Northwest Territories and Prairie Provinces. Including Russian Jews from Chicago some of whom the government of Calgary feels are unfit because they “know nothing about agriculture.”
1894: Barbara Elisabeth Gluck who wrote her poetry under the name of Betty Paoli was buried today at Vienna’s Central Cemetery.
1894: Seventy one year old Christian Friedrich August Dillmann a German born orientalist and Biblical scholar who wrote commentaries on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua as well as “a dissertation on the origin of the Hexateuch” passed away today.
1895: It was reported today that Lord Rosebury has raised Sydney Stern to the Peerage after the “well known Jewish financier contributed £50,000 to the Liberal Party.” According to the Jewish Chronicle Stern has spent a great deal of money on his political ambitions and little on the poor. “This is in striking to contrast of many other millionaires of his faith” like the Rothschilds, Montefiores and Goldsmids “whom the Queen has honored for their many acts of charity.
1895: It was reported today that theatre goers in London have no interest in seeing Samuel B. Curtis’s “Sam’l of Posen.” They do not have “the faintest interest in the Polish Jews or would dream of trying to understand his Yiddish Jargon.”
1895(15thof Tammuz, 5655): Twenty year old Alma Meyer passed away today in Newark, NJ.
1895: “Heine and the Germans” published today described the controversy between the Heine Memorial Committee and the Park Commissioners in New York City over the erection of a monument to the German author as well as the opposition of some German-Americans who view him as “a Napoleon worshipper, a purchased scribe of Louis Philippe and a bitter-hearted and revengeful Jew.”
1898: In Chicago, Rose (Rabinoff) and Isidore Horwitz or Horowitz gave birth to their second son Ralph who as Ralph Horween played and coached football at Harvard and played and coach for the Chicago Cardinals in the NFL.
1899: “The Straus Milk Depots Open” published today listed the three locations where “modified milk for sick children and pure pasteurized milk in bottles can be had at all times.” Thanks to the generosity of Nathan Straus a half-pint of milk can be purchased for one cent. A new formula perfected by Doctor R.G. Freeman at the Nathan Straus Pasteurized Milk Laboratory is especially useful for “very young babies who are ill.”
1899: Birthdate of movie director George Cukor. Cukor had a long and distinguished career that included two Catherine Hepburn – Spencer Tracy classics. But he may be most famous for the movie that he did not direct. Cukor was the first director for "Gone With the Wind" but he was fired before he could complete the project. He passed away in 1983
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/41936%7C58446/George-Cukor/
1901: The Summer Assembly of the Jewish Chautauqua Society began today.
1901: Birthdate of producer Sam Katzman. Katzman’s work includes a series of Superman serials and early Elvis Presley films.
1901: The New York Times reports on the popularity of Montefiore Isaacs, the Union Club Member who is a nephew .of Sir Moses Montefiore. The popular bachelor is known for his skill as magician which he freely shares for charitable events as well as his knowledge of Shakespeare.
1902: Herzl appears before the Royal Commission.
1903: The funeral of Albert F Hochstadter, prominent businessman and a Trustee of Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to take place today at this famous New York Jewish house of worship.
1904: Theodor Herzl is laid to rest at the Döblinger Friedhof. Thousands of Jews took part in the funeral procession. In his will Herzl asked that his body be buried next to his father, "to remain there until the Jewish people will carry my remains to Palestine."
1904: As a sign of the political right’s loss of power in the wake of the Dreyfus Affair, the government banned the religious orders from teaching in France. When Pope Pius X strenuously objected, the French broke diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
1905: Birthdate of Max Rostal, the Austrian born British violinists and voila player.
1907: Birthdate of Abraham "Abe" Ellstein an American composer who along with Shalom Secunda, Joseph Rumshinsky, and Alexander Olshanetsky, Ellstein was one of the "big four" composers of his era in New York City's Second Avenue Yiddish theatre scene
1907: Papers on “The Religious Influences of Childhood Upon Adolescence” and Judaism in the Nineteenth Century Illustrated by Stereopticon Views – A Lesson in Popularizing the Study of Jewish History” were presented at today’s session of the 18th Annual Convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
1915: “Rabbi Hertz At The Front” published today described the recent visit of the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire to the troops including a speech at Rouen where he reminded the soldiers “of the old Jewish legend of a second deluge, a deluge of fire that would sweep over the earth” ending with the line ‘Even our enemies will yet bless those who will have insured victory to Great Britain.’”
1915: According to a statement issued today by the Turkish Consulate in New York, the Jews in Palestine are enjoying “the best treatment” at this time since the outbreak of the World War.
1918: In the Bronx, Louis and Stella Epstein gave birth to Rose Epstein who gained fame as “Rose E. Frisch, a scientist whose influential work showed that women without enough body fat would have trouble becoming pregnant, but that they also had a lower risk of breast cancer.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/science/rose-e-frisch-scientist-who-linked-body-fat-to-fertility-dies-at-96.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
1919: In Chicago, Samuel and Sarah Braverman Polisky gave birth to Sylvia Polisky who became Sylvia Padzensky when she married Edward Padzensky and began her life as a member of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa community.
1920: In London, Rebecca Sieff, Dr. Vera Weizmann (wife of Israel's first president, Dr. Chaim Weizmann), Edith Eder, Romana Goodman and Henrietta Irwell founded Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO)
1920: Arthur Meighen, who was pro-Zionist, begins his first term as Prime Minister of Canada.
1921: Dr. Joseph H. Hertz, the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire finished his visit to Vancouver, Canada.
1928: Birthdate of Avraham Shalom Bendor, the native of Vienna who joined the Palmach in 1946 and served as head of Shin Bet from 1981 to 1986.
1933: Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Ginsburg of 21 Bialik Street in Tel Aviv are the proud parents of a newly born son. Mrs. Ginsberg is the former Ella Bach.
1935: Birthdate of Ronald Chester Picoff, the Brooklyn born graduate of Columbia Medical School who served on the faculty of the University of Vermont.
1936(17th of Tammuz, 5696): Tzom Tammuz
1937: The Peel Commission Report describing the investigation of the 1936 Arab Riots was published. The Commission recommended the partition of Mandatory Palestine into two states. The Zionist Congress would, while rejecting the actual borders, agree to consider the proposal. The Arabs rejected it out of hand.
1938: British troops clash with an armed band of Arabs trying to cross in Palestine from Trans-Jordan. This did not stop other Arab infiltrators from joining their brethren in the fight against the British and the Jewish citizens of Palestine.
1940: In an article entitled “Palestine Season Closes,” Dr. Peter Gradenwitz describes the recently ended musical season of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra. The season included thirteen concert series in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem as well as additional performances at various agricultural colonies that brought the total of performances to 80.
1940(1st of Tammuz, 5700): Five thousand Jews of Kovno executed by Nazis.
1940: Admiral Sir Barry Edward Domvile a leading British Pro-German anti-Semite in the years before the Second World War was interned starting day during World War II under Defence Regulation 18B
1941 (12th of Tammuz, 5701): Thirty-two Jews are killed in Mariampole, Lithuania.
1941: In France, a collaborationist military force, Légion des Volontaires Français(French Volunteer Legion), is established.
1941 (12th of Tammuz, 5701): Two thousand Jews are murdered at Khotin, Ukraine
1941: Birthdate of Yisrael “Poli” Poliakov the native of Jerusalem who switched from being an agricultural student to a career in a comedy which as marked by his role in the creation of HaGashash HaHiver.
1942(22nd of Tammuz, 5702): One thousand Jews from Rzeszów, Poland, are killed at the Rudna Forest. Fourteen thousand are deported to the Belzec death camp.
1942: Himmler held a meeting in Berlin with three high ranking men. It was decided that medical experiments would commence on the Jews. Emphasis would be placed on Jewish women in Auschwitz. Himmler pledged his coconspirators to secrecy.
1943: Birthdate of Joel Siegel who would become a household icon while serving as Entertainment Editor on GMA from 1981 through 2007.
1943(4th of Tammuz, 5703): Saul Kozlowski, an 18 year old Communist was arrested by the Gestapo in Vilna, Lithuania. The Gestapo wanted to the known the identity of leader of the underground known as “The Lion.” After hours of torture, Kozlowski identifies Isaac Wittenberg, a Jew living in the ghetto, as being “the Lion.” As the Germans turned away to discuss their next step, Kozlowski grabbed a knife and slit his own throat.
1944(16thof Tammuz, 5704): Fifty-eight year old photographer Erich Solomon died at Auschwitz today.
http://weimarart.blogspot.com/2010/07/erich-salomon-king-of-indiscreet.html
http://www.comesana.com/english/salomon_gallery.php
1944:Anti-Nazi resister Judith Auer (née Vallentin) who had been part of the the Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein Organization was arrested today; an action that would be followed by her being tortured and hung by her captors.
1944: Approximately 437,000 have been deported from Hungary to Auschwitz since May 18.
1944(16thof Tammuz, 5704): Fifty-nine year old Georges Mandel (born Louis George Rothschild ) theFrench journalist and member of the resistance was murdered by the French fascists controlled by Vichy.
http://spartacus-educational.com/FRmandel.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/georges-mandel-french-patriot-is-executed
1944: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill informs Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden that he is in favor of the Royal Air Force bombing Auschwitz. From July 7, 1944, to January 19, 1945, the Allies will bomb industrial targets near Auschwitz at least four times, including one resulting in the accidental bombing of Auschwitz. But they will never bomb the death camps or the railroad leading to them. To some people, Eden takes on the role of the scapegoat regarding the Jews. Churchill always wants to help but somehow his number two always thwarts him.
1944: During WW II, during the battle for Saipan, Bernard Gavrin, an American G.I. was declared missing in action. (JTA)
http://www.jta.org/2014/09/12/news-opinion/united-states/70-years-after-death-in-battle-jewish-soldier-buried-at-arlington
1944: In Lithuania, partisan forces, including the Jewish Brigade led by Abba Kovner, join the Soviets in the attack on Vilna.
1944: In a case of too little too late, Hungary’s Regent Horthy ordered an end to the transport of Jews to Auschwitz after at least a half of a million of his countrymen had been ship to the death camp.
http://skepticism.org/timeline/july-history/7519-hungarys-regent-horthy-stops-jewish-transport-auschwitz.html
1945: Chief Judge Irving Lehman of the New York State Court of Appeals “tripped over his pet boxer, Carlo and broke his ankle in two places” while walking around his country estate. (This seemingly minor mishap would be a direct cause of his death in September of 1945.
1947: Harriet Shapiro married Fred Rochlin in a “small living room…packed to capacity with relatives and friends” at the house on Sentinel Avenue in Los Angeles, California.
1947(19thof Tammuz, 5707): Seventy-year old Frank Taffel the native of Krystynopol who settled in Atlanta where he founded Fulton Auto Exchange and Congregation Beth Jacob passed away today.
1948: The settlers who were defending Kfar Darom against Egyptian attacks agreed to be evacuated. Kfar Darom had been cut off from direct military help since the end of June. Air drops of supplies failed to reach the embattled settlement because of Egyptian anti-aircraft. Their stubborn resistance helped to slow the Egyptian advance on Tel Aviv and bought time for the Israelis defending the approaches to the major Jewish population centers. The successful evacuation took place during the night of July 7-8.
1948: Abdullah el-Tell, the Military Governor of Jerusalem “signed the "Mount Scopus Agreement" by which the Israelis agreed that Mount Scopus would be demilitarized and come under United Nations supervision.”
1948: “Givati commander Shimon Avidan issued orders to the 51st Battalion to the Tall al-Safi area.”
1948: It was reported today that Bernard D. Rubin, the President of Sweets of America, the company that manufactures Tootise Roll candies is survived by “his widow, Mrs. Ray Rubin a daughter, Mrs. Natalie Jaffe; a son, Edgar Rubin; his father, Joseph; a brother, William Rubin and three sisters, Mrs. Hannah Stone, Mrs. Eleanor Messer and Mrs. Sadie Marantz, all of New York.”
1948: During the War for Independence, with the truce period about to expire the Security Council asked each side if they would extend it for ten days. The Jews accepted the proposal. The Arabs rejected it.
1949: New York City premiere of “Follow Me Quietly” the film noire directed by Richard Fleischer and Anthony Mann whose mother was Jewish and who also co-authored the story on which the film was based.
1950: MGM released “Crisis” produced by Arthur Freed and Directed by Richard Brooks in his directorial debut.
1950: U.S. premiere of “Once A Thief” a film noir directed and produced by W. Lee Wilder based on a story by Max Colpet and Hans Wilhelm.
1951: U.S. premiere of “Queen For A Day,” a comedy in which Leonard Nimoy makes his cinema debut in the role of “Chief.”
1955: U.S. premiere of “We’re No Angels” the movie version of “My Three Angels” a play written by Samuel and Bella Spewack directed Michael Curtiz.
1956(28th of Tammuz, 5716): Yiddish songstress Isa Kremer passed away http://www.jmwc.org/pdf/IsaKremer.pdf
1960: United Artists releases “Elmer Gantry” directed by Richard Brooks, with a screenplay by Richard Brooks and music by Andre Previn.
1960: Physicist Theodore Maiman demonstrated the first laser today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/obituaries/11maiman.html?_r=1&
1960: In London, world premiere of “Inherit the Wind” the film treatment of the play co-authored by Jerome Lawrence directed and produced by Stanley Kramer with music Ernest Gold who was forced to flee pre-war Austria because “his paternal grandfather was Jewish.”
1964: Tens of thousands of Israelis paid honor tonight to Zeev Jabotinsky, whose remains were flown to Tel Aviv from the United States for reburial.
1965(7th of Tammuz, 5725): Moshe Sharett, second Prime Minister of Israel, passed away. Born Moshe Shertok in Russia in 1894, Sharett grew up in an Arab village near Jerusalem. He graduated from high school in Tel Aviv and then went to Constantinople to study law. At this time Palestine was part of the Turkish Empire and Sharett enlisted in the Turkish Army during World War I. Sharett rose to prominence in the Zionist movement during the 1930’s although he found himself at odds with David Ben Gurion. Sharett was Israel’s first Foreign Minister. When Ben Gurion retired for the first time, Sharett became Prime Minister. Ben Gurion and Sharett continued to clash. When Ben Gurion returned to power in 1955, Sharett returned to the Foreign Ministry. Sharett resigned because he was opposed to the coming Sinai War in 1956. Sharret suffered from "John Adams Disease." Just as John Adams was doomed because he was following George Washington, so Sharrett was doomed because he labored in the shadow of Ben Gurion.
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael/state/pages/moshe%20sharett.aspx
http://www.sharett.org.il/cgi-webaxy/sal/sal.pl?lang=he&ID=366979_sharett&act=show&dbid=articles_eng&dataid=22
1973: Kitty Carlisle (born Catherine Conn – pronounced Cohen) performed for the last time with the Metropolitan Opera.
1973: In Israel, premiere of “Kazablan” an “Israeli musical film directed by Menahem Golan and written by Menahem Golan and Haim Hefer.”
1973(7th of Tammuz, 5733): Seventy-eight year old Max Horkheimer, the German born philosopher and sociologist who sought refuge in the U.S. during the Nazi after his academic credentials were revoked and his institute was closed. [When you read the NY Times obit, see below, you will be hard pressed to find the simple statement that he was Jewish.]
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F50E12FB385C1A7A93CBA9178CD85F478785F9
1976: U.S. premiere of “Gus” a Disney comedy featuring Harold Gould as Charles Gwynn and Tom Bosley as Spinner
1977: United Artist released “The Spy Who Loved Me,” the James Bond with a score by Marvin Hamlisch and featuring Walter Gotell the German born British actor whose family escaped from Nazi Germany, Barbara Bach whose father was Jewish and Milo Sperber the Polish born Anglo-Jewish actor who fled Nazi Germany in 1939.
1980(23rd of Tammuz, 5740): Famed writer Dore Schary passed away. Born Isadore Schary in 1905, Schary dropped the "Isa" from Isadore to create his first name. Like so many other Jews of his era, Shary helped create the cinematic version of the American Myth. He won an Oscar for the screenplay "Boys Town." He produced the canine classic "Lassie Come Home." But his greatest work came when he returned to Broadway and wrote the script for "Sunrise At Campobello." Shcary did not hide his Judaism. He was active in numerous Jewish organizations and served as the head of the Anti-Defamation League.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00A1FFB385C11728DDDA10894DF405B8084F1D3
1983: The Oklahoma Outlaws football team announced that seventy-one year old Hall of Fame Coach Sid Gillman had come out of retirement to serve as the team’s Director of OPeratios.
1986(30thof Sivan, 5746): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1986:The United StatesSupreme Court struck down Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law. Senator Warren Rudman was an apparent anomaly on two counts. First he was elected from New Hampshire, not exactly a state with a large Jewish population and second he was a conservative Republican.
1988: Seventy-seven German Latin American scholar, historian, and writer Erwin Walter Palm who escaped European anti-Semitism to which he was particularly sensitive because he was married to the Jewish poet Hilde Löwenstein passed away today.
1992: The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 rashes into the planet Jupiter. According to David Levy, one of the trio who discovered the comet, it was the most widely watched such phenomena in history. Canadian born David Levy was an English major in college. His career in astronomy began as an amateur. He sees a definite connection between his Jewish heritage and astronomy. For example, Pesach always comes at the full moon, the night sky on Yom Kippur is always the same and Shabbat does not end until three stars can be seen in the sky. His Judaism and his astronomy are so intertwined that he and his bride decided they wanted to be married under the night sky.
1994: “The body of Arye Frankenthal, 20, from Moshav Gimzo near Lod, who had left his base in the south the previous day, was found stabbed and shot near the Arab village of Kafr Akab, near Ramallah.” (Jewish Virtual Library)
1994(28th of Tammuz, 5754: Seventeen year old Sarit Prigal, was shot to death when terrorists opened fire from a passing car near the entrance to Kiryat Arba.
1996: “Star of Joyce’s Firmament” published today described the little known story of Stella Steyn, the Irish woman who was part of the life of James Joyce.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/arts--exhibitions--star-of-joyces-firmament-1327661.html
1998: In Claims for Art Collection Pose a Challenge to Hungary,” published today Judith Dobrzynski describes the efforts by the Nierenberg family to retrieve a portion of the art collection that was successively seized by the fascists and the communists.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/07/arts/claims-for-art-collection-pose-a-challenge-to-hungary.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
1999: Eighty-six year old Aaron M. Wise who had served as the rabbi at Adat Ari El Synagogue from 1947 to 1978 was buried today after services his synagogue.
2000(4thof Tammuz, 5760): Ninety-three year old Ruth Werner, a member of the Red Orchestra, pass away today.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/jul/11/guardianobituaries.richardnortontaylor
2001: At the Israel Festival in Jerusalem Conductor Daniel Barnboim startled the audience by announcing that he was going to play a piece by Wagner as second encore which sparked a half hour debate following which a few members of the audience left but most stayed to hear the performance of the Tristan and Isolde prelude.
2002: “Behind a Century of Photos, Was There a Jewish Eye?” published today explores the connection between Jews and cameras.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/arts/art-architecture-behind-a-century-of-photos-was-there-a-jewish-eye.html?pagewanted=print
2005: Outfielder Adam Greenberg made his major league debut with the Chicago Cubs.
2005: Outfielder Adam Stern made his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox.
2006(11thof Tammuz, 5766): Ninety-seven year old Dr. Israel Horowitz, who will be buried at Adath Israel Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio, passed away today in Chicago.
2007: At the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum in New York, an exhibition called “Cinema Judaica: The War Years” comes to an end. This unprecedented exhibition of iconic Hollywood film posters from 1939 to 1949 illustrates how the motion picture industry countered America's isolationism, advocated going to war against the Nazis, influenced post-war perceptions of the Jewish people and the founding of the State of Israel, and shaped the face of contemporary Jewish life. The exhibition begins with the Hollywood studios' compliance with the Nazis' control of the motion picture industry in Germany, the ban on Jews from employment within it, and their restrictions on the American distribution of films shown in Germany and throughout Europe. All but two of America's eight largest American studios, facing the loss of 30%-40% of their revenues from Europe, complied with the Nazis' restrictions. United Artists closed down its German exchanges rather than fire its Jewish employees, but accepted German content restrictions and arranged for its films to be shown in Germany through another distributor. Only one studio, Warner Brothers, refused to comply with any of Goebbel's demands and withdrew from the German market. As Jewish characters disappeared from American films, Harry Warner and his brothers committed themselves to making anti-Nazi movies to alert the nation to the Nazi threat. Lacking First Amendment protection, according to a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which allowed any state, city, or town board who objected to its content to censor a film, the Hollywood studios set up the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA) and established a Production Code of Administration (PCA) that prohibited causing affront to foreign states, including Germany. Thereafter, films required a seal of approval from the MPPDA. At the same time, the PCA worked with the U.S. State Department to ensure that American movies did not violate a series of Neutrality Laws enacted by the Roosevelt administration to keep American citizens safe in European and other war zones. Thus, anti-Nazi screenplays and clearly defined Jewish roles, which would not pass the certification process, were transformed through allegory, character name changes, and other disguises and glosses by Warner Brothers and other like-minded independent producers. By July 1938, the discovery of a Nazi spy ring that had been operating in the Northeast under the order of the German government in addition to the Nazis' annexation of Austria, the appeasement agreement in Munich signed by England's Prime Minister Chamberlain, the take-over of Czechoslovakia, and the anti-Semitic Kristalnacht pogrom throughout German-occupied Europe led to the PCA approval of the first openly anti-Nazi shooting script, "Confessions of a Nazi Spy." This exhibition chronicles the period of the "Great Debate" films of 1939-1941 during three years of vigorous public argument in the media, in open forums sponsored by political organizations, and in Congress about American intervention against the Nazis in Europe. When it began, 60% of Americans believed it had been a mistake for the U.S. to enter World War I. The exhibition reveals the role of the first anti-Nazi films within the context of the battle between Charles Lindbergh and America First Committee isolationists and the Fight for Freedom interventionists, the attempt by Ambassador Joseph Kennedy to block anti-Nazi films, and threats from isolationist Senators to regulate the motion picture industry. In addition to "Confessions of a Nazi Spy," featured films include "Sons of Liberty,""Pastor Hall," and "The Great Dictator," among others.
By August 1941, a Senate sub-committee investigated Hollywood's violation of Neutrality Laws by warmongering in such films as "Sergeant York," about a noted World War I pacifist who later became a leading advocate for intervention against the Nazis. Included in the exhibition are the documents relating to a "Freedom Rally" at Madison Square Garden, protesting the hearing, whose program cover art was contributed by Walt Disney and included anti-Nazi declarations by Roosevelt. With the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and America's declaration of war, Hollywood produced patriotic movies, in the guise of "platoon" films, which reflected on the melting pot tradition of American ethnic diversity and helped instill a unified fighting spirit. Included are posters for World War II espionage and concentration camp escape melodramas set in Germany or another Nazi-occupied country such as "To Be or Not To Be," plus films about Nazi Germany's accountability such as "Address Unknown,""Tomorrow the World," and "Hotel Berlin." Following the war, were the "Exodus" films addressing the attempt by European war refugees to rebuild their lives and cultures after the Holocaust include "My Father's House,""The Illegals,""The Search," and "Sword in the Desert." Post-war Hollywood films also addressed anti-Semitism on the home front on the part of the Christian Front and its notorious founder, Father Coughlin, and the Christian Mobilizers, who blamed the Jews for the war, called for the defeat of England, and attacked Jewish citizens, stores, and synagogues in major northeast cities. These films, in which an Italian American or Irish American authority figure condemns anti-Semitism, stops an assault, or solves a racist murder, include "The House I Live In,""Crossfire,""Open Secret," while "Gentleman's Agreement," addresses the related subject of White Anglo Saxon Protestant anti-Semitism. , NY
2007: In Jerusalem,a classical music concert entitled "Music in All the Shades" presents "Bel Canto in Ein Kerem," featureing soprano, Maria Yofa, flautist, Antoli Kogan, and pianist, Alexander Sneiderman.
2007: In an article entitled “Beyond The Myth, Art Endures,” The New York Timesreports on Mexico’s celebration of the centenary of the birth of painter Frida Kahlo, the daughter of a Jewish businessman whose work has been overshadowed by her husband, Diego Rivera.
2008: U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles ruled during a detention hearing for Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35, and Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43 that the two Agriprocessors Inc. supervisors arrested last week for aiding and abetting illegal workers at the Postville meat processing plant to possess and use fraudulent identity documents will remain in federal custody until their trials.
2008: The Washington Post reports on the arrival of Jewish pilgrims in Safi, Morroco.
It's an uncommon sight for an Arab country: hundreds of joyous Jewish pilgrims gathering without fear around a rabbi's tomb, greeted by local Muslim officials who share a prayer with them at a synagogue. Yet most of the 400 Jews who converged on the Moroccan coastal town of Safi _ some from nearby cities, others from as far as France or Israel _ at a weekend pilgrimage said they felt welcome here. While religious tensions flare in Jerusalem and beyond, in Morocco, Jews and Muslims say they nurture a legacy of tolerance and maintain common sanctuaries where adherents of both religions pray. Decades of emigration to Israel by Morocco's Jews and terrorist bombings in Casablanca that targeted Jewish sites haven't diminished the draw of these annual pilgrimages. During the festival that began Friday, visitors prayed and feasted around the shrine of Abraham Ben Zmirro, a rabbi reputed to have fled persecution in Spain in the 15th century and then lived in Safi, where he is buried with six siblings. A half-Jewish, half-Muslim band played local tunes during a banquet, including a song in French, Arabic and Hebrew with the line: "There is only one God, you worship Him sitting down and I while standing up." The pilgrims were joined Sunday by Aaron Monsenego, the great rabbi of Morocco, who prayed alongside the regional governor and several other Muslim officials at the shrine's synagogue for the good health of Morocco's King Mohammed VI and his family. "It's very important for us to pray altogether," Monsenego told The Associated Press. Regional governor Larbi Hassan Sebbari said, "We're also very proud of it: it gives a lesson to other countries of what we do together without any taboo." While several Arab states refuse to recognize the Jewish state's right to exist, reject Israeli visitors and ignore the remnants of their local Jewish heritage, Moroccans insist it is not the case in this moderate Muslim nation and U.S. ally. Once home to some 300,000 Jews, Morocco hosts the Arab world's only Jewish museum, funds Jewish institutions and frequently holds events to celebrate Judeo-Moroccan heritage. Still, the Jewish population here has dwindled to about 4,000 _ most in Casablanca. Economics, fears of living in an Arab state and sporadic discrimination drove hundreds of thousands of Moroccan Jews to Israel, Europe or America over the past few decades. Many left in 1948 when the state of Israel was created, or in 1956 when Morocco won independence from France. Other waves followed after the Israeli-Arab conflicts of 1967 and 1973 caused riots in some Moroccan towns. Jewish leaders who stayed say they practice their religion freely and that synagogues are well protected by police, especially since the 2003 bombings in Casablanca. And despite the bombings, Casablanca _ Morocco's commercial capital _ still boasts 32 active synagogues. "There was never any racism in Safi," said Haim Ohana, one of only 10 Jewish people remaining in a town where 6,000 Jews once lived. "People left from here because they were poor," said Ohana, who helped organize the pilgrimage and runs several businesses. The pilgrimage rituals are called Moussem in Arabic and Hilloula in Hebrew. Many of the pilgrims, including ultra-Orthodox Jews from Israel and French and Canadian businessmen, are émigrés who say they come to pray in Safi because of their emotional ties to Morocco. Therese Elisha, an Israeli, said she makes the pilgrimage every other year. "This is the town where I grew up, the synagogue where I prayed," she said. "I feel at home.""We're maintaining a bridge over the divide of the exodus," said Simone Merra, a human resources manager in Paris. Some of Morocco's Jews wonder how long their community will remain. Nadia Bensimon, who runs a fashion boutique in a coastal town, said she had no plans to leave. "But that could change if the Islamists become too powerful," she said. Morocco's main Islamist opposition party _ Adl wal Ihsan _ enjoys broad support, but it is banned from politics; secular parties dominate parliament. Though most of his relatives now live abroad, Ohana said his family traces its arrival in Morocco to 2,076 years ago. "As for Safi, we've been here for nine centuries," he said. "It's my town; I'd see no reason to leave."
2009: Barry “Goldberg's self-titled 1974 album was reissued with never before released tracks and a restored sound.”
2009: Starting tonight and continuing on each successive Tuesday night during July the amphitheatre in Liberty Bell Park offers a different Jerusalem performing artist each week. This Jerusalem Municipality project is made possible through cooperation with The Jerusalem Foundation and the International Cultural Center for youth.
2009: The funeral for Anita Rabinowtiz, the wife of Rabbi Stanely Rabinwoitz is scheduled to take place at Adas Israel in Washington, DC followed by interment at the congregation’s cemetery in southeast Washington.
2009: “In Bruges” is the first film shown at the film festival, Summer Movies at the Merkaz. The Merkaz describes itself as “a unique combination of an absorption center, community center and activism center located in the heart of the German Colony, one of the most beautiful, peaceful and dynamic neighborhoods in Jerusalem.”
2010: The 7th AICE Australian Film Festival is scheduled to show tense political thriller, Balibo, in Tel Aviv.
2010: This evening at Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel, the Israeli prime minister addressed a roomful of more than 300 Jews on the subjects of Iran, his government’s eagerness for direct peace talks with the Palestinians and the swell meeting he had just had with President Obama at the White House. But then, in an off-the-cuff remark to a question on Jerusalem from the audience, Benjamin Netanyahu dropped a hint that his government’s insistence on Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem might not be ironclad.
2011: “Rothschild Fine Art,” an exhibition featuring objects’ des art from Rothschild Fine Art, a premier gallery in the cultural center of Tel Aviv, is scheduled to open today at ARTHamptons Art Fair in Bridgehampton.
2011: D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells is scheduled to take part in the Jewish Community Relations Council’s noontime series at the Lillian and Albert Small Museum.
2011: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to fly to Sofia today for meetings with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and President Georgi Parvanov.
2011: An Israel Defense Forces soldier was wounded lightly by an explosive device planted near his tank in the southern Gaza Strip this morning.
2011: The Environmental Protection Ministry ordered the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Co. (EAPC) to cease their work in the Nahal Zin and surrounding nature reserve following last week's devastating jet-fuel oil spill after the ministry found that the company was not effectively carrying out the cleanup but rather exacerbating the environmental damage.
2011: In “Setting the record straight: Entebbe was not Auschwitz” published today Yossi Melman marked the 35th anniversary of the mission that rescued Jewish hostages held by Arab terrorists in Uganda.
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/setting-the-record-straight-entebbe-was-not-auschwitz-1.372131
2012: The egalitarian-traditional minyan at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids is scheduled to celebrate “Red White and Blue Shabbat” while beating Iowa’s unprecedented heat wave with “Sundaes on Saturday” where congregants will build their own Cool Kosher Concoctions.
2012: One of Israel's top contemporary troupes, Vertigo Dance Company, is scheduled to perform Mana at Jacob’s Pillow in Beckett, Maine.
2012: “The Alexander Soros Foundation presented its inaugural ASF Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Environmental and Human Rights Activism to a Liberian activist.”
2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at the Super Bock Rock Festival in Lisbon, Portugal
2012:Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in central Tel Aviv tonight to voice their demand for mandatory conscription in the army or national service, in the largest protest yet of the summer, and the biggest show of force since the “Camp Suckers” movement began six months ago.
2012:As the country is embroiled in a debate about turning haredi scholars into soldiers, the Jerusalem Municipality and the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design have launched a different venture: a haredi track at Bezalel’s prestigious art institute.
2013: “The Dead Man and Being Happy” is among the films scheduled to be shown at the 30thJerusalem Film Festival.
2013: The British Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference 2013: “Memory, Identity, and Boundaries of Jewishness” is scheduled to begin in Canterbury, UK.
2013: The Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism is scheduled to host a colloquium featuring Sham Ambiavaga, Frank Chalk, Lorenzo DiTommaso, David Feldman, John Gray, William Lamont, Paul Lay, Dame Jinty Nelson, Sir Michael Pepper, Daniel Pick and Marina Voikhanskaya
1274: Pope Gregory X confirmed a bull issued in 1272 banning charges of blood ritual.
1307: King Edward I, the monarch who expelled the Jews from England, died.
1320: In Pastoureaux (Southern France), an unnamed shepherd started a crusade against the Jews. It spread throughout most of southern France and northern Spain destroying one hundred and twenty communities. At Verdun, 500 Jews defended themselves from within a stone tower. When they were about to be overrun they killed themselves.
1358: Hundreds of Jews were murdered in Catalonia
1520: Cortes defeats a force of Aztecs who had chased him out of Mexico City. It would be more than a year before Cortes would be able to conquer the capital city. Among those with Cortes was a converso or crypto-Jew named Hernando Alonso who worked as a blacksmith.
1572: King Sigismund II Augustus, one of the monarchs who invited Jews to settle in Poland, passed away.
1690(1st of Av): Rabbi Hillel ben Naphta Zevi of Altona, author Bet Hillel, novella on the code passed away
1733: Forty-one Jews settled in the colony of Georgia. Among them were Spanish, Portuguese, German and English Jews.
1743(23rdof Tammuz): Chaim ben Moses ibn Attar also known as the Ohr ha-Chaim after his popular commentary on the Pentateuch. Born at Meknes, Morocco in 1696, he became a leading rabbi in his native land before leaving for Eretz Israel in 1733. He finally arrived in Jerusalem in 1742 “where he presided at the Beit Midrash Knesset Yisrael.” He is buried on the Mount of Olives where his gravestone may still be seen.
1753: The Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753 received royal assent today. It would be repealed a year later. Jews would not become full citizens with the right to sit in Parliament until the middle of the 19th century.
1754: At Geislautern, Germany, Abraham Aberle and his wife gave birth to Aaron Worms, chief rabbi of Metz
1773: Birthdate of Isaac Ben Hrisch Katzenelnbogen, the native of Deutschland who was the husband of Fanny Neuburg.
1816: Emanuel Nunes Carvalho, the rabbi at Philadelphia’s Congregation Mikveh Israel delivered a sermon on the “Occasion of the Death of Rabbi Gershom Mendes Seixas.” This “was the first Jewish sermon printed in the United States.” A native of London Carvalho had served as rabbi in Bridgetown, Barbados and Charleston, SC, before coming to Philadelphia where he would die in 1817.
1836: Joseph II of Galicia, in an alleged effort to improve the educational status of Rabbis, decreed that no Rabbis be appointed if they did not attend a University. Little came of his decree.
1853: In a letter dated today addressed to the Emperor of Japan Commodore Mathew Perry uses the phrase “pacific overtures” which will provide the title for the Stephen Sondheim musical about the “opening of Japan.”
1855: In Syracuse, NY, Abraham Stern and his wife gave birth to Samuel Stern an attorney who married Libbia Wile who served as the first assistant district attorney of Onondaga County, NY before moving to Spokane, Washington.
1857: Pinckney A. Hyams and Pauline Baum were married today in Charleston, SC.
1858: In Great Britain, Nahum Salamon and his wife gave birth to Alfred Gordon Salamon, a specialist “in the Chemistry of Fermentation” who was a “member of the Commission to Enquire in the Cause of Beer Poisoning in Manchester” and who “was instrumental along with his father in introducing ‘Saccharin” into the United Kingdom.
1860: In the Kaliště, Pelhřimov District, Vysočina Region,Bernhard Baruch Mahler and Marie Mahler gave birth to composer Gustav Mahler who converted to Catholicism to further his career, a move that earned him derision from his critics and no relief from the anti-Semites. Mahler passed away in 1911.
1860: Birthdate of Abraham Cahan. From 1903 until his death in 1951, Cahan was the editor of the "Jewish Daily Forward", the most popular and most enduring of all Yiddish newspapers.
1862: John Wood, Drummer, of Company A, Thirty-sixth Regiment N.Y.V., died in the Jews' Hospital. The Jew’s Hospital (later known as Mt. Sinai) had been built in the 1850’s to meet the health needs of New York’s burgeoning Jewish population. Its role changed during the Civil War as it became a major health care facility for treating the sick and wounded of the Union Army.
1862: Birthdate of German playwright Ludwig Fulda whose works included Der Talisman (1892), Jugendfreunde (1897) and Maskerade (1904) who committed suicide in 1939 when he was denied entrance to the United States.
1871: Daniel Joseph, the father of Sir Otto Jaffe established the Belfast Hebrew Congregation “which worshipped at the Great Victoria Street synagogue.
1873: Baruch Fränkel and Rosa Eibenschütz gave birth to Sándor Fränkel who gained fame as the Hungarian psychoanalyst and associate of Sigmund Freud, Sándor Ferenczi
1879: The Executive Board of the Council of the Union of American and Hebrew Congregations met this morning with Moritz Loth presiding and Lipman Levy acting as secretary. The board met to prepare for the upcoming meeting of the Council which was scheduled to begin on the following day.
1881: In Kentucky, Governor Blackburn has declared today to be a day of public fasting and prayer where all business is suspended so that citizens can go to churches “or other places of worship” to pray for the recovery of President Garfield who has been shot by an assassin. [For Jews, the importance of this is that the governor has acknowledged that there are other houses of worship than those used by Christians.]
1882: As the Freight Handler’s strike in New York continues cargo fails to leave the port despite the availability of large numbers of foreign born workers including Russian Jews to work the docks. According to critics, they lack the skill and knowledge to work effectively. As the strikers become more desperate, incidence of violence increase as can be seen by the stone-throwing attack on Jews at the 30th Street Yards.
1882: The current labor strife between the freight handlers and the railroad companies is described as battle between Teutonic and Celtic Races on the one hand and Russian-Semitic and Latin volunteers on the other hand. In a tactic that would become quite common during labor disputes, the owners and their supporters would try and pit worker against worker; in this case Germans and Irish against Russian Jews and Italians.
1882: It was reported today that in Russia, Count Tolstoi, the Minister of the Interior has ordered the authorities at the frontier “to do all this is possible to facilitate the return of the Jews.”
1882: The newly formed Propaganda Verein, most of whose members were Jewish, met tonight at the Golden Rule Hall on Rivington Street. The evening’s theme was “The Jewish Question” – the future of the Jewish race and the anomaly of the persecution of Jews.
1883(2ndof Tammuz, 5643): Forty-six year old Joseph Reckendorfer who was a supporter of the United Hebrew Charities and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum as well as a member of Temple Emanu-El passed away today.
1883: “The Alleged Passover Murder” published today described recent event in the trial of Jews accused of ritual murder of a Christian girl, Esther Salomossy, at Nyreghaza, Hungary. Two of the accused claimed that their confessions had been obtained by force and coercion. The defense counsel told the court that the people of Tisza-Eglar, where the alleged murder had taken place have “been taught that it was not wrong to testify falsely against the Jews” if the interests of the country required a conviction.
1884: In Boston, Isaac Jacobs, a Polish Jew who is the prime suspect in the murder of Etta G. Carleston, is expected to make his next court appearance on charges of having stolen a watch a chain.
1884: “Case of Pauper Immigrants” published today, described evidence gathered by the Emigration Commissioner that the clerks at Castle Garden were not be vigilant in seeing to it that immigrants who lacked funds or financial sponsors were kept from entering the country. Among those metntioned were Henry Brolsky, his wife and six children had arrived aboard the SS Assyrian Monarch. According to Brolsky, the Hebrew Society of London had paid for their passage. He said he had family in St. Louis, but had no funds to make the trip. Another example was an un-named family from Poland who had arrived on the SS Australia. Their passage had been paid for by the Hebrew Society of London. The immigrants claimed they had been told that the Commissioners of Emigration would provide them with funds once they had arrived. [The report cited examples of non-Jews as well. The issue of “pauper immigrants” would bedevil the immigration debate among Jews as well as the general society until World War I staunched the human flood tide.]
1884: Birthdate of Lion Feuchtwanger, German -born dramatist and narrator who escaped to the United States at the outbreak of World War II. He passed away in his California home in 1958.
1884:A review of the Universal History: The Oldest Historical Group of Nations and the Greeks by Leopold von Ranke includes the famous German historian that the laws of Moses stand in stark contrast to the Egyptians because they involve “an opposition to kingship and claim to be an emanation from the deity.” Furthermore they represent the first attack on “a national nature worship” and provide the grounds for the creation of monotheism, a principle on which “is built a civil society which is alien to every abuse of power.”
1887: Mrs. Betty Michaelis refused to attend today’s meeting of a committee that had been appointed by Mrs. Henrietta Loeser, the President of the Henrietta Verien to determine if she should be expelled from the society.
1887: The trustees of Gates of Hope suspended Rabbi E.B.M. Browne from his position as leader of the congregation after a special committee of investigation found that guilty of charges of “conduct unbecoming a minister.”
1887: J.E. Phillips presided over tonight’s meeting at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue where the Jewish citizens discussed plans for a possible celebration of the 400th anniversary of the expulsion from Spain and Columbus’ first voyage to the New World.
1887: In Lizona, which was then part of the Russian Empire, Chezkel Zachar Mordechai Chagall (Shagal) and Feige-Ite Chagall gave birth to Moishe Zakharovich Shagalov (Moishe Segal) who gained fame as March Chagall whose life lasted almost one hundred years. He developed his art against a backdrop of World War I, the Russian Revolution and its Stalinist aftermath, Paris during the thirties, the Holocaust and the birth of the state of Israel. One can only appreciate Chagall by seeing Chagall. There are numerous websites where his art may be viewed. The “Praying Jew” is my personal favorite.
http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/marc-chagall/the-praying-jew-rabbi-of-vitebsk-1914
http://www.abcgallery.com/C/chagall/chagall81.html
1888: Rabbi Jacob Charif (Jacob Sharp) arrived early this morning at Hoboken aboard the North German Lloyd steamer. Chariff, from Wilna Russia, has been brought to the United states by the United Society to serve the needs of New York’s “orthodox down-town Jews.” Charif refused to leave the boat or meet with the welcoming committee until Saturday evening, after the end of Shabbat.
1888: “On Shabbos Maatos-Maasei, the trans-Atlantic ship Allaire docked at Hoboken, on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. After Havdalah, at approximately 10 p.m., the chief rabbi was taken to a nearby hotel. The leaders of the appointing congregations and more than 100,000 people crowded the streets for an opportunity to catch a glimpse of him. Hoboken had never before seen such a large crowd.” (Jewish Press)
1888:”The Summer Corps At Work” published today described the work of fifty physicians appointed by the city to provide medical care for those living in the most crowded quarters in the city. Dr. C.W. Wolfretz, who has been assigned to cover “a district from Division to Broom Street and Bowery to Eldridge where the overcrowded tenements are primarily occupied by Polish and Hungarian Jews, has discovered that the people sleep on the roof to get relief from the heat and that the children are susceptible to measles.
1889: It was reported today that some social scientists, many of whom live in Germany, are impatiently awaiting the establishment of Jewish state in Palestine as a way of proving their theories about governance and nationalism. Since there are those who contend that the recent success of Jews has taken place in a Christian society and that Jews would not be nearly as successful living in a society where they were both the governed and the governor.
1889(8th of Tammuz, 5649): Sixty seven year old Rabbi Elias Karpeles passed away in Vienna.
1889: “Darmesteter, The Linguist” published today notes that “scant notice has been given in the United States to” the passing of Arsene Darmesteter the Jewish Sorbonne lecturer on Mediaeval French and literature” whose death means that “the world has lost one who was a Columbus in the vast eternal seas of philological discovery.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D0DE6DA133AE033A25754C0A9619C94689FD7CF
http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Talmud.html?id=HRZQfUKlTYAC
1890: In Roundout, a case of assault and battery involving Polish Jews was withdrawn from the Recorders Court after the parties agreed to pay court costs
1891: The weekly cruise for underprivileged children sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children is scheduled to take place today
1892: The business session of the third annual Central Conference of American Rabbis is scheduled to open at ten o’clock this morning. Reports will be present on conversion and cremation of the dead.
1892: Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler will read a paper entitled “Is Reformed Judaism Destructive or Constructive?” at the evening session of the Conference of American Rabbis.
1893: “Coaxing Immigration published today described the efforts of the Canadian government to recruit people from the western United States to settle in the Northwest Territories and Prairie Provinces. Including Russian Jews from Chicago some of whom the government of Calgary feels are unfit because they “know nothing about agriculture.”
1894: Barbara Elisabeth Gluck who wrote her poetry under the name of Betty Paoli was buried today at Vienna’s Central Cemetery.
1894: Seventy one year old Christian Friedrich August Dillmann a German born orientalist and Biblical scholar who wrote commentaries on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua as well as “a dissertation on the origin of the Hexateuch” passed away today.
1895: It was reported today that Lord Rosebury has raised Sydney Stern to the Peerage after the “well known Jewish financier contributed £50,000 to the Liberal Party.” According to the Jewish Chronicle Stern has spent a great deal of money on his political ambitions and little on the poor. “This is in striking to contrast of many other millionaires of his faith” like the Rothschilds, Montefiores and Goldsmids “whom the Queen has honored for their many acts of charity.
1895: It was reported today that theatre goers in London have no interest in seeing Samuel B. Curtis’s “Sam’l of Posen.” They do not have “the faintest interest in the Polish Jews or would dream of trying to understand his Yiddish Jargon.”
1895(15thof Tammuz, 5655): Twenty year old Alma Meyer passed away today in Newark, NJ.
1895: “Heine and the Germans” published today described the controversy between the Heine Memorial Committee and the Park Commissioners in New York City over the erection of a monument to the German author as well as the opposition of some German-Americans who view him as “a Napoleon worshipper, a purchased scribe of Louis Philippe and a bitter-hearted and revengeful Jew.”
1898: In Chicago, Rose (Rabinoff) and Isidore Horwitz or Horowitz gave birth to their second son Ralph who as Ralph Horween played and coached football at Harvard and played and coach for the Chicago Cardinals in the NFL.
1899: “The Straus Milk Depots Open” published today listed the three locations where “modified milk for sick children and pure pasteurized milk in bottles can be had at all times.” Thanks to the generosity of Nathan Straus a half-pint of milk can be purchased for one cent. A new formula perfected by Doctor R.G. Freeman at the Nathan Straus Pasteurized Milk Laboratory is especially useful for “very young babies who are ill.”
1899: Birthdate of movie director George Cukor. Cukor had a long and distinguished career that included two Catherine Hepburn – Spencer Tracy classics. But he may be most famous for the movie that he did not direct. Cukor was the first director for "Gone With the Wind" but he was fired before he could complete the project. He passed away in 1983
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/41936%7C58446/George-Cukor/
1901: The Summer Assembly of the Jewish Chautauqua Society began today.
1901: Birthdate of producer Sam Katzman. Katzman’s work includes a series of Superman serials and early Elvis Presley films.
1901: The New York Times reports on the popularity of Montefiore Isaacs, the Union Club Member who is a nephew .of Sir Moses Montefiore. The popular bachelor is known for his skill as magician which he freely shares for charitable events as well as his knowledge of Shakespeare.
1902: Herzl appears before the Royal Commission.
1903: The funeral of Albert F Hochstadter, prominent businessman and a Trustee of Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to take place today at this famous New York Jewish house of worship.
1904: Theodor Herzl is laid to rest at the Döblinger Friedhof. Thousands of Jews took part in the funeral procession. In his will Herzl asked that his body be buried next to his father, "to remain there until the Jewish people will carry my remains to Palestine."
1904: As a sign of the political right’s loss of power in the wake of the Dreyfus Affair, the government banned the religious orders from teaching in France. When Pope Pius X strenuously objected, the French broke diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
1905: Birthdate of Max Rostal, the Austrian born British violinists and voila player.
1907: Birthdate of Abraham "Abe" Ellstein an American composer who along with Shalom Secunda, Joseph Rumshinsky, and Alexander Olshanetsky, Ellstein was one of the "big four" composers of his era in New York City's Second Avenue Yiddish theatre scene
1907: Papers on “The Religious Influences of Childhood Upon Adolescence” and Judaism in the Nineteenth Century Illustrated by Stereopticon Views – A Lesson in Popularizing the Study of Jewish History” were presented at today’s session of the 18th Annual Convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
1915: “Rabbi Hertz At The Front” published today described the recent visit of the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire to the troops including a speech at Rouen where he reminded the soldiers “of the old Jewish legend of a second deluge, a deluge of fire that would sweep over the earth” ending with the line ‘Even our enemies will yet bless those who will have insured victory to Great Britain.’”
1915: According to a statement issued today by the Turkish Consulate in New York, the Jews in Palestine are enjoying “the best treatment” at this time since the outbreak of the World War.
1918: In the Bronx, Louis and Stella Epstein gave birth to Rose Epstein who gained fame as “Rose E. Frisch, a scientist whose influential work showed that women without enough body fat would have trouble becoming pregnant, but that they also had a lower risk of breast cancer.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/science/rose-e-frisch-scientist-who-linked-body-fat-to-fertility-dies-at-96.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
1919: In Chicago, Samuel and Sarah Braverman Polisky gave birth to Sylvia Polisky who became Sylvia Padzensky when she married Edward Padzensky and began her life as a member of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa community.
1920: In London, Rebecca Sieff, Dr. Vera Weizmann (wife of Israel's first president, Dr. Chaim Weizmann), Edith Eder, Romana Goodman and Henrietta Irwell founded Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO)
1920: Arthur Meighen, who was pro-Zionist, begins his first term as Prime Minister of Canada.
1921: Dr. Joseph H. Hertz, the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire finished his visit to Vancouver, Canada.
1922: Hadoar, the first daily Hebrew newspaper published in the United States was converted to a weekly
1928: Birthdate of Avraham Shalom Bendor, the native of Vienna who joined the Palmach in 1946 and served as head of Shin Bet from 1981 to 1986.
1933: Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Ginsburg of 21 Bialik Street in Tel Aviv are the proud parents of a newly born son. Mrs. Ginsberg is the former Ella Bach.
1935: Birthdate of Ronald Chester Picoff, the Brooklyn born graduate of Columbia Medical School who served on the faculty of the University of Vermont.
1936(17th of Tammuz, 5696): Tzom Tammuz
1937: The Peel Commission Report describing the investigation of the 1936 Arab Riots was published. The Commission recommended the partition of Mandatory Palestine into two states. The Zionist Congress would, while rejecting the actual borders, agree to consider the proposal. The Arabs rejected it out of hand.
1938: British troops clash with an armed band of Arabs trying to cross in Palestine from Trans-Jordan. This did not stop other Arab infiltrators from joining their brethren in the fight against the British and the Jewish citizens of Palestine.
1940: In an article entitled “Palestine Season Closes,” Dr. Peter Gradenwitz describes the recently ended musical season of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra. The season included thirteen concert series in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem as well as additional performances at various agricultural colonies that brought the total of performances to 80.
1940(1st of Tammuz, 5700): Five thousand Jews of Kovno executed by Nazis.
1940: Admiral Sir Barry Edward Domvile a leading British Pro-German anti-Semite in the years before the Second World War was interned starting day during World War II under Defence Regulation 18B
1941 (12th of Tammuz, 5701): Thirty-two Jews are killed in Mariampole, Lithuania.
1941: In France, a collaborationist military force, Légion des Volontaires Français(French Volunteer Legion), is established.
1941 (12th of Tammuz, 5701): Two thousand Jews are murdered at Khotin, Ukraine
1941: Birthdate of Yisrael “Poli” Poliakov the native of Jerusalem who switched from being an agricultural student to a career in a comedy which as marked by his role in the creation of HaGashash HaHiver.
1942(22nd of Tammuz, 5702): One thousand Jews from Rzeszów, Poland, are killed at the Rudna Forest. Fourteen thousand are deported to the Belzec death camp.
1942: Himmler held a meeting in Berlin with three high ranking men. It was decided that medical experiments would commence on the Jews. Emphasis would be placed on Jewish women in Auschwitz. Himmler pledged his coconspirators to secrecy.
1943: Birthdate of Joel Siegel who would become a household icon while serving as Entertainment Editor on GMA from 1981 through 2007.
1943(4th of Tammuz, 5703): Saul Kozlowski, an 18 year old Communist was arrested by the Gestapo in Vilna, Lithuania. The Gestapo wanted to the known the identity of leader of the underground known as “The Lion.” After hours of torture, Kozlowski identifies Isaac Wittenberg, a Jew living in the ghetto, as being “the Lion.” As the Germans turned away to discuss their next step, Kozlowski grabbed a knife and slit his own throat.
1944(16thof Tammuz, 5704): Fifty-eight year old photographer Erich Solomon died at Auschwitz today.
http://weimarart.blogspot.com/2010/07/erich-salomon-king-of-indiscreet.html
http://www.comesana.com/english/salomon_gallery.php
1944:Anti-Nazi resister Judith Auer (née Vallentin) who had been part of the the Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein Organization was arrested today; an action that would be followed by her being tortured and hung by her captors.
1944: Approximately 437,000 have been deported from Hungary to Auschwitz since May 18.
1944(16thof Tammuz, 5704): Fifty-nine year old Georges Mandel (born Louis George Rothschild ) theFrench journalist and member of the resistance was murdered by the French fascists controlled by Vichy.
http://spartacus-educational.com/FRmandel.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/georges-mandel-french-patriot-is-executed
1944: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill informs Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden that he is in favor of the Royal Air Force bombing Auschwitz. From July 7, 1944, to January 19, 1945, the Allies will bomb industrial targets near Auschwitz at least four times, including one resulting in the accidental bombing of Auschwitz. But they will never bomb the death camps or the railroad leading to them. To some people, Eden takes on the role of the scapegoat regarding the Jews. Churchill always wants to help but somehow his number two always thwarts him.
1944: During WW II, during the battle for Saipan, Bernard Gavrin, an American G.I. was declared missing in action. (JTA)
http://www.jta.org/2014/09/12/news-opinion/united-states/70-years-after-death-in-battle-jewish-soldier-buried-at-arlington
1944: In Lithuania, partisan forces, including the Jewish Brigade led by Abba Kovner, join the Soviets in the attack on Vilna.
1944: In a case of too little too late, Hungary’s Regent Horthy ordered an end to the transport of Jews to Auschwitz after at least a half of a million of his countrymen had been ship to the death camp.
http://skepticism.org/timeline/july-history/7519-hungarys-regent-horthy-stops-jewish-transport-auschwitz.html
1945: Chief Judge Irving Lehman of the New York State Court of Appeals “tripped over his pet boxer, Carlo and broke his ankle in two places” while walking around his country estate. (This seemingly minor mishap would be a direct cause of his death in September of 1945.
1947: Harriet Shapiro married Fred Rochlin in a “small living room…packed to capacity with relatives and friends” at the house on Sentinel Avenue in Los Angeles, California.
1947(19thof Tammuz, 5707): Seventy-year old Frank Taffel the native of Krystynopol who settled in Atlanta where he founded Fulton Auto Exchange and Congregation Beth Jacob passed away today.
1948: The settlers who were defending Kfar Darom against Egyptian attacks agreed to be evacuated. Kfar Darom had been cut off from direct military help since the end of June. Air drops of supplies failed to reach the embattled settlement because of Egyptian anti-aircraft. Their stubborn resistance helped to slow the Egyptian advance on Tel Aviv and bought time for the Israelis defending the approaches to the major Jewish population centers. The successful evacuation took place during the night of July 7-8.
1948: Abdullah el-Tell, the Military Governor of Jerusalem “signed the "Mount Scopus Agreement" by which the Israelis agreed that Mount Scopus would be demilitarized and come under United Nations supervision.”
1948: “Givati commander Shimon Avidan issued orders to the 51st Battalion to the Tall al-Safi area.”
1948: It was reported today that Bernard D. Rubin, the President of Sweets of America, the company that manufactures Tootise Roll candies is survived by “his widow, Mrs. Ray Rubin a daughter, Mrs. Natalie Jaffe; a son, Edgar Rubin; his father, Joseph; a brother, William Rubin and three sisters, Mrs. Hannah Stone, Mrs. Eleanor Messer and Mrs. Sadie Marantz, all of New York.”
1948: During the War for Independence, with the truce period about to expire the Security Council asked each side if they would extend it for ten days. The Jews accepted the proposal. The Arabs rejected it.
1949: New York City premiere of “Follow Me Quietly” the film noire directed by Richard Fleischer and Anthony Mann whose mother was Jewish and who also co-authored the story on which the film was based.
1950: MGM released “Crisis” produced by Arthur Freed and Directed by Richard Brooks in his directorial debut.
1950: U.S. premiere of “Once A Thief” a film noir directed and produced by W. Lee Wilder based on a story by Max Colpet and Hans Wilhelm.
1951: U.S. premiere of “Queen For A Day,” a comedy in which Leonard Nimoy makes his cinema debut in the role of “Chief.”
1955: U.S. premiere of “We’re No Angels” the movie version of “My Three Angels” a play written by Samuel and Bella Spewack directed Michael Curtiz.
1956(28th of Tammuz, 5716): Yiddish songstress Isa Kremer passed away http://www.jmwc.org/pdf/IsaKremer.pdf
1960: United Artists releases “Elmer Gantry” directed by Richard Brooks, with a screenplay by Richard Brooks and music by Andre Previn.
1960: Physicist Theodore Maiman demonstrated the first laser today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/obituaries/11maiman.html?_r=1&
1960: In London, world premiere of “Inherit the Wind” the film treatment of the play co-authored by Jerome Lawrence directed and produced by Stanley Kramer with music Ernest Gold who was forced to flee pre-war Austria because “his paternal grandfather was Jewish.”
1964: Tens of thousands of Israelis paid honor tonight to Zeev Jabotinsky, whose remains were flown to Tel Aviv from the United States for reburial.
1965(7th of Tammuz, 5725): Moshe Sharett, second Prime Minister of Israel, passed away. Born Moshe Shertok in Russia in 1894, Sharett grew up in an Arab village near Jerusalem. He graduated from high school in Tel Aviv and then went to Constantinople to study law. At this time Palestine was part of the Turkish Empire and Sharett enlisted in the Turkish Army during World War I. Sharett rose to prominence in the Zionist movement during the 1930’s although he found himself at odds with David Ben Gurion. Sharett was Israel’s first Foreign Minister. When Ben Gurion retired for the first time, Sharett became Prime Minister. Ben Gurion and Sharett continued to clash. When Ben Gurion returned to power in 1955, Sharett returned to the Foreign Ministry. Sharett resigned because he was opposed to the coming Sinai War in 1956. Sharret suffered from "John Adams Disease." Just as John Adams was doomed because he was following George Washington, so Sharrett was doomed because he labored in the shadow of Ben Gurion.
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael/state/pages/moshe%20sharett.aspx
http://www.sharett.org.il/cgi-webaxy/sal/sal.pl?lang=he&ID=366979_sharett&act=show&dbid=articles_eng&dataid=22
1973: Kitty Carlisle (born Catherine Conn – pronounced Cohen) performed for the last time with the Metropolitan Opera.
1973: In Israel, premiere of “Kazablan” an “Israeli musical film directed by Menahem Golan and written by Menahem Golan and Haim Hefer.”
1973(7th of Tammuz, 5733): Seventy-eight year old Max Horkheimer, the German born philosopher and sociologist who sought refuge in the U.S. during the Nazi after his academic credentials were revoked and his institute was closed. [When you read the NY Times obit, see below, you will be hard pressed to find the simple statement that he was Jewish.]
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F50E12FB385C1A7A93CBA9178CD85F478785F9
1976: U.S. premiere of “Gus” a Disney comedy featuring Harold Gould as Charles Gwynn and Tom Bosley as Spinner
1977: United Artist released “The Spy Who Loved Me,” the James Bond with a score by Marvin Hamlisch and featuring Walter Gotell the German born British actor whose family escaped from Nazi Germany, Barbara Bach whose father was Jewish and Milo Sperber the Polish born Anglo-Jewish actor who fled Nazi Germany in 1939.
1980(23rd of Tammuz, 5740): Famed writer Dore Schary passed away. Born Isadore Schary in 1905, Schary dropped the "Isa" from Isadore to create his first name. Like so many other Jews of his era, Shary helped create the cinematic version of the American Myth. He won an Oscar for the screenplay "Boys Town." He produced the canine classic "Lassie Come Home." But his greatest work came when he returned to Broadway and wrote the script for "Sunrise At Campobello." Shcary did not hide his Judaism. He was active in numerous Jewish organizations and served as the head of the Anti-Defamation League.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00A1FFB385C11728DDDA10894DF405B8084F1D3
1983: The Oklahoma Outlaws football team announced that seventy-one year old Hall of Fame Coach Sid Gillman had come out of retirement to serve as the team’s Director of OPeratios.
1986(30thof Sivan, 5746): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1986:The United StatesSupreme Court struck down Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law. Senator Warren Rudman was an apparent anomaly on two counts. First he was elected from New Hampshire, not exactly a state with a large Jewish population and second he was a conservative Republican.
1988: Seventy-seven German Latin American scholar, historian, and writer Erwin Walter Palm who escaped European anti-Semitism to which he was particularly sensitive because he was married to the Jewish poet Hilde Löwenstein passed away today.
1992: The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 rashes into the planet Jupiter. According to David Levy, one of the trio who discovered the comet, it was the most widely watched such phenomena in history. Canadian born David Levy was an English major in college. His career in astronomy began as an amateur. He sees a definite connection between his Jewish heritage and astronomy. For example, Pesach always comes at the full moon, the night sky on Yom Kippur is always the same and Shabbat does not end until three stars can be seen in the sky. His Judaism and his astronomy are so intertwined that he and his bride decided they wanted to be married under the night sky.
1994: “The body of Arye Frankenthal, 20, from Moshav Gimzo near Lod, who had left his base in the south the previous day, was found stabbed and shot near the Arab village of Kafr Akab, near Ramallah.” (Jewish Virtual Library)
1994(28th of Tammuz, 5754: Seventeen year old Sarit Prigal, was shot to death when terrorists opened fire from a passing car near the entrance to Kiryat Arba.
1996: “Star of Joyce’s Firmament” published today described the little known story of Stella Steyn, the Irish woman who was part of the life of James Joyce.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/arts--exhibitions--star-of-joyces-firmament-1327661.html
1998: In Claims for Art Collection Pose a Challenge to Hungary,” published today Judith Dobrzynski describes the efforts by the Nierenberg family to retrieve a portion of the art collection that was successively seized by the fascists and the communists.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/07/arts/claims-for-art-collection-pose-a-challenge-to-hungary.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
1999: Eighty-six year old Aaron M. Wise who had served as the rabbi at Adat Ari El Synagogue from 1947 to 1978 was buried today after services his synagogue.
2000(4thof Tammuz, 5760): Ninety-three year old Ruth Werner, a member of the Red Orchestra, pass away today.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/jul/11/guardianobituaries.richardnortontaylor
2001: At the Israel Festival in Jerusalem Conductor Daniel Barnboim startled the audience by announcing that he was going to play a piece by Wagner as second encore which sparked a half hour debate following which a few members of the audience left but most stayed to hear the performance of the Tristan and Isolde prelude.
2002: “Behind a Century of Photos, Was There a Jewish Eye?” published today explores the connection between Jews and cameras.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/arts/art-architecture-behind-a-century-of-photos-was-there-a-jewish-eye.html?pagewanted=print
2005: Outfielder Adam Greenberg made his major league debut with the Chicago Cubs.
2005: Outfielder Adam Stern made his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox.
2006(11thof Tammuz, 5766): Ninety-seven year old Dr. Israel Horowitz, who will be buried at Adath Israel Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio, passed away today in Chicago.
2007: At the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum in New York, an exhibition called “Cinema Judaica: The War Years” comes to an end. This unprecedented exhibition of iconic Hollywood film posters from 1939 to 1949 illustrates how the motion picture industry countered America's isolationism, advocated going to war against the Nazis, influenced post-war perceptions of the Jewish people and the founding of the State of Israel, and shaped the face of contemporary Jewish life. The exhibition begins with the Hollywood studios' compliance with the Nazis' control of the motion picture industry in Germany, the ban on Jews from employment within it, and their restrictions on the American distribution of films shown in Germany and throughout Europe. All but two of America's eight largest American studios, facing the loss of 30%-40% of their revenues from Europe, complied with the Nazis' restrictions. United Artists closed down its German exchanges rather than fire its Jewish employees, but accepted German content restrictions and arranged for its films to be shown in Germany through another distributor. Only one studio, Warner Brothers, refused to comply with any of Goebbel's demands and withdrew from the German market. As Jewish characters disappeared from American films, Harry Warner and his brothers committed themselves to making anti-Nazi movies to alert the nation to the Nazi threat. Lacking First Amendment protection, according to a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which allowed any state, city, or town board who objected to its content to censor a film, the Hollywood studios set up the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA) and established a Production Code of Administration (PCA) that prohibited causing affront to foreign states, including Germany. Thereafter, films required a seal of approval from the MPPDA. At the same time, the PCA worked with the U.S. State Department to ensure that American movies did not violate a series of Neutrality Laws enacted by the Roosevelt administration to keep American citizens safe in European and other war zones. Thus, anti-Nazi screenplays and clearly defined Jewish roles, which would not pass the certification process, were transformed through allegory, character name changes, and other disguises and glosses by Warner Brothers and other like-minded independent producers. By July 1938, the discovery of a Nazi spy ring that had been operating in the Northeast under the order of the German government in addition to the Nazis' annexation of Austria, the appeasement agreement in Munich signed by England's Prime Minister Chamberlain, the take-over of Czechoslovakia, and the anti-Semitic Kristalnacht pogrom throughout German-occupied Europe led to the PCA approval of the first openly anti-Nazi shooting script, "Confessions of a Nazi Spy." This exhibition chronicles the period of the "Great Debate" films of 1939-1941 during three years of vigorous public argument in the media, in open forums sponsored by political organizations, and in Congress about American intervention against the Nazis in Europe. When it began, 60% of Americans believed it had been a mistake for the U.S. to enter World War I. The exhibition reveals the role of the first anti-Nazi films within the context of the battle between Charles Lindbergh and America First Committee isolationists and the Fight for Freedom interventionists, the attempt by Ambassador Joseph Kennedy to block anti-Nazi films, and threats from isolationist Senators to regulate the motion picture industry. In addition to "Confessions of a Nazi Spy," featured films include "Sons of Liberty,""Pastor Hall," and "The Great Dictator," among others.
By August 1941, a Senate sub-committee investigated Hollywood's violation of Neutrality Laws by warmongering in such films as "Sergeant York," about a noted World War I pacifist who later became a leading advocate for intervention against the Nazis. Included in the exhibition are the documents relating to a "Freedom Rally" at Madison Square Garden, protesting the hearing, whose program cover art was contributed by Walt Disney and included anti-Nazi declarations by Roosevelt. With the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and America's declaration of war, Hollywood produced patriotic movies, in the guise of "platoon" films, which reflected on the melting pot tradition of American ethnic diversity and helped instill a unified fighting spirit. Included are posters for World War II espionage and concentration camp escape melodramas set in Germany or another Nazi-occupied country such as "To Be or Not To Be," plus films about Nazi Germany's accountability such as "Address Unknown,""Tomorrow the World," and "Hotel Berlin." Following the war, were the "Exodus" films addressing the attempt by European war refugees to rebuild their lives and cultures after the Holocaust include "My Father's House,""The Illegals,""The Search," and "Sword in the Desert." Post-war Hollywood films also addressed anti-Semitism on the home front on the part of the Christian Front and its notorious founder, Father Coughlin, and the Christian Mobilizers, who blamed the Jews for the war, called for the defeat of England, and attacked Jewish citizens, stores, and synagogues in major northeast cities. These films, in which an Italian American or Irish American authority figure condemns anti-Semitism, stops an assault, or solves a racist murder, include "The House I Live In,""Crossfire,""Open Secret," while "Gentleman's Agreement," addresses the related subject of White Anglo Saxon Protestant anti-Semitism. , NY
2007: In Jerusalem,a classical music concert entitled "Music in All the Shades" presents "Bel Canto in Ein Kerem," featureing soprano, Maria Yofa, flautist, Antoli Kogan, and pianist, Alexander Sneiderman.
2007: In an article entitled “Beyond The Myth, Art Endures,” The New York Timesreports on Mexico’s celebration of the centenary of the birth of painter Frida Kahlo, the daughter of a Jewish businessman whose work has been overshadowed by her husband, Diego Rivera.
2008: U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles ruled during a detention hearing for Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35, and Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43 that the two Agriprocessors Inc. supervisors arrested last week for aiding and abetting illegal workers at the Postville meat processing plant to possess and use fraudulent identity documents will remain in federal custody until their trials.
2008: The Washington Post reports on the arrival of Jewish pilgrims in Safi, Morroco.
It's an uncommon sight for an Arab country: hundreds of joyous Jewish pilgrims gathering without fear around a rabbi's tomb, greeted by local Muslim officials who share a prayer with them at a synagogue. Yet most of the 400 Jews who converged on the Moroccan coastal town of Safi _ some from nearby cities, others from as far as France or Israel _ at a weekend pilgrimage said they felt welcome here. While religious tensions flare in Jerusalem and beyond, in Morocco, Jews and Muslims say they nurture a legacy of tolerance and maintain common sanctuaries where adherents of both religions pray. Decades of emigration to Israel by Morocco's Jews and terrorist bombings in Casablanca that targeted Jewish sites haven't diminished the draw of these annual pilgrimages. During the festival that began Friday, visitors prayed and feasted around the shrine of Abraham Ben Zmirro, a rabbi reputed to have fled persecution in Spain in the 15th century and then lived in Safi, where he is buried with six siblings. A half-Jewish, half-Muslim band played local tunes during a banquet, including a song in French, Arabic and Hebrew with the line: "There is only one God, you worship Him sitting down and I while standing up." The pilgrims were joined Sunday by Aaron Monsenego, the great rabbi of Morocco, who prayed alongside the regional governor and several other Muslim officials at the shrine's synagogue for the good health of Morocco's King Mohammed VI and his family. "It's very important for us to pray altogether," Monsenego told The Associated Press. Regional governor Larbi Hassan Sebbari said, "We're also very proud of it: it gives a lesson to other countries of what we do together without any taboo." While several Arab states refuse to recognize the Jewish state's right to exist, reject Israeli visitors and ignore the remnants of their local Jewish heritage, Moroccans insist it is not the case in this moderate Muslim nation and U.S. ally. Once home to some 300,000 Jews, Morocco hosts the Arab world's only Jewish museum, funds Jewish institutions and frequently holds events to celebrate Judeo-Moroccan heritage. Still, the Jewish population here has dwindled to about 4,000 _ most in Casablanca. Economics, fears of living in an Arab state and sporadic discrimination drove hundreds of thousands of Moroccan Jews to Israel, Europe or America over the past few decades. Many left in 1948 when the state of Israel was created, or in 1956 when Morocco won independence from France. Other waves followed after the Israeli-Arab conflicts of 1967 and 1973 caused riots in some Moroccan towns. Jewish leaders who stayed say they practice their religion freely and that synagogues are well protected by police, especially since the 2003 bombings in Casablanca. And despite the bombings, Casablanca _ Morocco's commercial capital _ still boasts 32 active synagogues. "There was never any racism in Safi," said Haim Ohana, one of only 10 Jewish people remaining in a town where 6,000 Jews once lived. "People left from here because they were poor," said Ohana, who helped organize the pilgrimage and runs several businesses. The pilgrimage rituals are called Moussem in Arabic and Hilloula in Hebrew. Many of the pilgrims, including ultra-Orthodox Jews from Israel and French and Canadian businessmen, are émigrés who say they come to pray in Safi because of their emotional ties to Morocco. Therese Elisha, an Israeli, said she makes the pilgrimage every other year. "This is the town where I grew up, the synagogue where I prayed," she said. "I feel at home.""We're maintaining a bridge over the divide of the exodus," said Simone Merra, a human resources manager in Paris. Some of Morocco's Jews wonder how long their community will remain. Nadia Bensimon, who runs a fashion boutique in a coastal town, said she had no plans to leave. "But that could change if the Islamists become too powerful," she said. Morocco's main Islamist opposition party _ Adl wal Ihsan _ enjoys broad support, but it is banned from politics; secular parties dominate parliament. Though most of his relatives now live abroad, Ohana said his family traces its arrival in Morocco to 2,076 years ago. "As for Safi, we've been here for nine centuries," he said. "It's my town; I'd see no reason to leave."
2009: Barry “Goldberg's self-titled 1974 album was reissued with never before released tracks and a restored sound.”
2009: Starting tonight and continuing on each successive Tuesday night during July the amphitheatre in Liberty Bell Park offers a different Jerusalem performing artist each week. This Jerusalem Municipality project is made possible through cooperation with The Jerusalem Foundation and the International Cultural Center for youth.
2009: The funeral for Anita Rabinowtiz, the wife of Rabbi Stanely Rabinwoitz is scheduled to take place at Adas Israel in Washington, DC followed by interment at the congregation’s cemetery in southeast Washington.
2009: “In Bruges” is the first film shown at the film festival, Summer Movies at the Merkaz. The Merkaz describes itself as “a unique combination of an absorption center, community center and activism center located in the heart of the German Colony, one of the most beautiful, peaceful and dynamic neighborhoods in Jerusalem.”
2010: The 7th AICE Australian Film Festival is scheduled to show tense political thriller, Balibo, in Tel Aviv.
2010: This evening at Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel, the Israeli prime minister addressed a roomful of more than 300 Jews on the subjects of Iran, his government’s eagerness for direct peace talks with the Palestinians and the swell meeting he had just had with President Obama at the White House. But then, in an off-the-cuff remark to a question on Jerusalem from the audience, Benjamin Netanyahu dropped a hint that his government’s insistence on Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem might not be ironclad.
2011: “Rothschild Fine Art,” an exhibition featuring objects’ des art from Rothschild Fine Art, a premier gallery in the cultural center of Tel Aviv, is scheduled to open today at ARTHamptons Art Fair in Bridgehampton.
2011: D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells is scheduled to take part in the Jewish Community Relations Council’s noontime series at the Lillian and Albert Small Museum.
2011: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to fly to Sofia today for meetings with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and President Georgi Parvanov.
2011: An Israel Defense Forces soldier was wounded lightly by an explosive device planted near his tank in the southern Gaza Strip this morning.
2011: The Environmental Protection Ministry ordered the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Co. (EAPC) to cease their work in the Nahal Zin and surrounding nature reserve following last week's devastating jet-fuel oil spill after the ministry found that the company was not effectively carrying out the cleanup but rather exacerbating the environmental damage.
2011: In “Setting the record straight: Entebbe was not Auschwitz” published today Yossi Melman marked the 35th anniversary of the mission that rescued Jewish hostages held by Arab terrorists in Uganda.
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/setting-the-record-straight-entebbe-was-not-auschwitz-1.372131
2012: The egalitarian-traditional minyan at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids is scheduled to celebrate “Red White and Blue Shabbat” while beating Iowa’s unprecedented heat wave with “Sundaes on Saturday” where congregants will build their own Cool Kosher Concoctions.
2012: One of Israel's top contemporary troupes, Vertigo Dance Company, is scheduled to perform Mana at Jacob’s Pillow in Beckett, Maine.
2012: “The Alexander Soros Foundation presented its inaugural ASF Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Environmental and Human Rights Activism to a Liberian activist.”
2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at the Super Bock Rock Festival in Lisbon, Portugal
2012:Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in central Tel Aviv tonight to voice their demand for mandatory conscription in the army or national service, in the largest protest yet of the summer, and the biggest show of force since the “Camp Suckers” movement began six months ago.
2012:As the country is embroiled in a debate about turning haredi scholars into soldiers, the Jerusalem Municipality and the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design have launched a different venture: a haredi track at Bezalel’s prestigious art institute.
2013: “The Dead Man and Being Happy” is among the films scheduled to be shown at the 30thJerusalem Film Festival.
2013: The British Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference 2013: “Memory, Identity, and Boundaries of Jewishness” is scheduled to begin in Canterbury, UK.
2013: The Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism is scheduled to host a colloquium featuring Sham Ambiavaga, Frank Chalk, Lorenzo DiTommaso, David Feldman, John Gray, William Lamont, Paul Lay, Dame Jinty Nelson, Sir Michael Pepper, Daniel Pick and Marina Voikhanskaya
2013:Israel Air Force rescue crews have brought to safety the pilot and navigator of an “F-16i” training fighter jet that broke up off the coast of Gaza this afternoon after its engines mysteriously died. (As reported by Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu
2013: Alfred Le Guelllec, who together with his wife Augustine, was posthumously recognized today as a “righteous gentile” in an emotional ceremony held at his hometown of Douarnenez in the westernmost tip of France. (As reported by Elhanan Miller)
2014: In the UK, the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide is scheduled to host Dr Gábor Kádár lecturing on “Hero or War Criminal? Regent Horthy and the Destruction of Hungarian Jews.”
2014: “Igor and the Crane’s Journey” and “The Sturgeon Queens” are scheduled to be shown at the Berkshire Jewish Film Festival.
2014: As “warning sirens were heard in the cities of Sderot, Netivot, Ofakim, and Rahat, as well as further afield in Rehovot, Gan Yavne, Gadera and Beit Shemesh, in the hills outside Jerusalem” and terrorists produced a video telling citizens of Beersheba to “flee before it is too late” forty more rockets were fired from Gaza after 8 p.m. this evening.
2014: “IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the military had called up 1,500 reserves troops, mostly from the Home Front Command and Iron Dome air defense crews, and deployed two additional conscripted infantry brigades, Paratroops and Givati, to the border with the Palestinian enclave today” (As reported by Joshua Davidovich and Mitch Ginsburg)
2014: “Former Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team coach David Blatt was named today as Euroleague’s coach of the year, shortly after securing a contract with the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.
2015: In Jerusalem, Ari Sacher, “a scientist who develops missile systems in Israel” is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “The Miracle of the Iron Dome.”
2015: “Some Like It Hot” directed by Billy Wilder, costarring Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe is scheduled to be shown as part of “Lights! Camera! Great German and Austrian Filmmakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age” at the 92nd Street Y.