July 12
1191: The armies of the Third Crusade (1189-92), led by England's King Richard ('The Lionhearted'), captured the Syrian seaport of Acre. The Third Crusade would end in failure for the Christian forces. King Richard would be taken prisoner by the Austrians on his way home. The Jews of England would be called upon to help pay the ransom of their monarch, who had left the kingdom under the control of his brother Prince John.
1216: Pope Innocent III who issued a Letter on the Jews in 1199 which prohibited the forced conversion of Jews passed away today.
http://www.ccjr.us/dialogika-resources/primary-texts-from-the-history-of-the-relationship/263-pope-innocent-iii-on-the-jews-and-forced-baptisms-1199-and-1201
1290: The Jews were expelled from England by order of King Edward I. Edward gets reasonably high marks for setting up the "Model Parliament." American moviegoers know him as "Longshanks" the King who was the villain in the film "Braveheart." The banishment of the Jews from the kingdom was part of slow decline engineered by the English king for a variety of reasons. Before the final edict he found one more way to extract money from his Jewish subjects. In 1287, he arrested several prominent Jewish leaders and demanded the community produce a 12,000-pound ransom for their freedom. The date for the actual order of expulsion is given by some as July 12 and by others as July 18. Regardless, Edward gave the Jews three months to leave. After All-Saints Day, any Jew found in the realm was subject to death. The Jews would not officially return to England until 17th century and the era of Cromwell.
1555: In his Bull Cum Nimis Absurdum, Pope Paul IV renewed all previous anti-Jewish legislation and installed a ghetto in Rome. Jews were forced to wear a given cap and forbidden to own real estate or practice medicine on Christians. Communities weren't allowed to have more than one synagogue and Jews in all the Papal States were forced to lock themselves into the confines of the ghettos each night.
1536: Desiderius Erasmus, the Dutch writer and philosopher passed away. According to Elliot Rosenberg, Erasmus’ relations with the Jews presented a mixed bag. Unlike Thomas More, “Erasmus spoke out in defense of the Jews and Judaism. ‘If it is Christian to hate the Jews, all of us are only too Christians.’ On the other hand he also write “Jews are very numerous in Italy; in Spain there are hardly any…I am afraid that when the occasion arises, that pest, formerly suppressed, will raise its head again. Finally, Erasmus only provided lukewarm support when Johann Reuchlin took on “dogmatic Talmud-burners in Central Europe.”
1567(25thof Tammuz, 5327): Latest date on which Meir Ashkenzai was killed on a voyage from Gava to Dakhel while service as an envoy of the Tartar Kahan.
1630: A Dutch man, Michael Paauw, acquires Gull Island from the Mohegan Indians renames it Oyster Island. At the time of the American Revolution, a New York merchant named Samuel Ellis purchased the island and renames it in honor of his family. This is how the famous point of entry for millions of immigrants included an untold number of Jews came to be known as Ellis Island.
1753: Birthdate of Moses Dobruška, a cousin of Jacob Frank, who convert to Catholicism and was guillotined in Paris on charges of treason and espionage.
1796: French Revolutionary troops under Jean Baptiste Kléber besieged Frankfurt by shelling the city that including its Judengasse.
1804: Former United States Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton dies a day after being shot in a duel.
1824: In Frankfurt-am-Main Zerline (Worms) Beyfus and Meyer (Mayer) Levin Beyfus gave birth to Wilhelm Beyfus.
1828: Birthdate of Count Iosif Gurko, who as military commander of the districts of Warsaw, Wilna and Kovno would seek royal permission to expel all of the population most of whom were Jews 60 versts or 40 miles from the border.
1840: Birthdate of merchant Benjamin Altman, founder of B. Altman & Co. He was the son of Bavarian Jews, who immigrated to America in 1835 and soon opened a small store. Altman opened his first store in 1865 and, after thirty years of acquisition and growth formed B. Altman & Co. Altman was one of a whole series of Jewish merchants and department store moguls who were tied to such famous American emporiums as Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Sears & Roebuck and Home Depot. B. Altman met its corporate demise in 1989. Altman, like so many other Jewish merchants, both large and small, was noted for his philanthropy. Shortly before his death in 1913, he established the Altman Foundation, of which $20,000,000 represented by his art collection, was given to the Metropolitan Museum, New York.
1841: The London & Brighton Railway began passenger service through the East Croydon Station which was designed by Anglo-Jewish architect David Mocatta.
1841: Joseph L. Friedlander who was salesman and a “dealer in second-hand clothes” was buried today at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Dresden, Saxony, Germany.
1845: Thirty seven year old Norwegian author Henrik Wergeland who supported the ban on Jews settling in Norway passed away today.
1846: In Upper Austria, Simon and Regina Fuchs gave birth to Solomon Fox the husband of Caroline Fox.
1848: Archduke John, who helped in the presentation of the plan of Moses Sachs to settle “Jews as farmers in Palestine under Austrian protection to the Austrian government” was appointed Imperial Vicar today.
1859: Today “the cornerstone of the first Ashkenazic synagogue in British North America, Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, was laid at 41 St. Constant (now de Bullion Street), just below de la Gauchetière. It accommodated 150 men and 50 women. The building was 48 by 111 feet. The services were modeled after the Bayswater Synagogue in London, England.
1860: Commodore Uriah P. Levy saluted the Stars and Stripes and walked down the gangplank for the last time. Yet his country had use for him: President Lincoln apparently suggested to Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy, that Levy's unique experience of the military justice system should not be wasted. The old sailor's last assignment has a distinctly Lincolnesque humor: President of the Naval Court-Martial Board.
1862: The Medal of Honor was authorized by the United States Congress. The Medal of Honor is popularly known as the Congressional Medal of Honor. It is the highest decoration military service personnel can earn. From the Civil War through the Vietnam War, 18 Jews have won this honor.
1872: Maurice and Johanna Kahn gave birth to Jacobus Henricus Kann the Dutch banker and partner of the banking house Lissa & Kann who was the co-founder of the Jewish Colonial Trust. He died at Theresienstadt in 1944.
1873: Shah Nasr-ed-Din and Adolphe Cremieux met in Persia to discuss the problems of oppressive social and economic discrimination against the Jews. The shah agreed to encourage Jewish schools, and work to improve the Jewish condition. Unfortunately, despite his intentions, the government did little to prevent attacks against the Jewish population or to rescind many of the anti-Jewish regulations. 1876: Birthdate of Max Jacob, French painter, poet and writer. Jacob converted to Catholicism before World War I. Unfortunately for Jacob, the Nazis and Vichy still saw him as a Jew. His brothers, sister and brother-in-law died at Auschwitz. Jacob was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944. However, he died at the French concentration camp called Drancy before he could be shipped east for the Final Solution 1876: At the City Republican Meeting at Cooper Institute in New York, Judge Abraham Jesse Dittenhoefter read the letters of those regretting that they could not attend
1879: Rabbi David Einhorn gave his final sermon at Congregation Beth-El in New York. Einhorn proudly recalled his role in speaking out against slavery while serving as a rabbi in Baltimore at the outbreak of the Civil War. He was equally proud of his role in the Reform movement although he said he remained staunchly opposed to replacing Saturday with Sunday as the day for Jews to celebrate the Sabbath. He also urged Jews to continue using German in their sermons and teachings because this was a key in remaining connected to the best in Jewish learning.
1879: According to reports published today, Rabbi Gustav Koehler of Chicago will replace Rabbi David Einhorn as the leader of Congregation in Beth-El in New York. These same reports contend that Koehler plans on holding services on Sunday and will be delivering sermons in English.
1880(4th of Av, 5640): French financier Isaac Pereire passed away. Pereire and his brother were rivals of the House of Rothschild. However, the Pereire brothers were Sephardic Jews while the Rothschilds were Ashkenazim. Born in 1806, Piereire and his brother Emile built the first railroad in France in 1835. For a brief period he owned the Paris daily "La Liberté" and he was named a knight of the Legion of Honor for his many philanthropic efforts.
1880: It was reported today that a memoir written by Professor Daniel Chwolson the Jewish professor at the University of St. Petersburg which contains information about the newly discovered Hebrew eptipahs found in the Crimea is in the hands of the printers.
1881: The 8thannual conference of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations is scheduled to begin today in Chicago, Illinois.
1882: As the Freight Handlers’ Strike continued in New York Polish Jews were working in place of the Italians most of whom had been arrested by the police.
1882: The attacks on the Jews and Italians who have replaced the striking freight handlers are reported to have become much more frequent. It is reported that the attacks are the works of ruffians who are robbing the Jews and then blaming it on the strikers.
1883: The first free excursion of the season sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children will leave from a pier at the foot of 5th Street at nine o’clock this morning
1883: At the third day’s meeting of the Hebrew Union Council the delegates will vote on the recommendation of the Committee on Agricultural Pursuits the Jewish organization work with the Cincinnati Agricultural Society which has already establish established a successful colony in Kansas.
1884: Birthdate of Italian painter and sculptor, Amedeo Modigliani. In 1906, Modigliani went to Paris to study where he was confronted with the anti-Semitism connected with retrial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. Modigliani signed his sketches "Modigliani - Jew." Modigliani lived his life as the typical starving artist. His paintings began to gain in financial worth in shows starting in 1919. In November of that year Modigliani's health began to rapidly decline. According to legend he sang the Kaddish for himself when he began spitting blood. He died two months later. Since his death his paintings have soared in value. In 1989 one of his paintings was sold for over eight million dollars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Amedeo_Modigliani_Photo.jpg
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/modigliani/
1884: In Prague, gave Jakob and Barbara Bondy gave birth to Anna Fischl
1884: In Minsk, Jacob Meir and Sarah Meltzer gave birth to Lazar Meir who gained fame as movie mogul Louis B. Meyer
1885: It was reported today that the Hebrew Standard has said “The meanest class of Jewish merchants are those who refuse to close half a day on the Jewish Sabbath.”
1886: The children in the care of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society will leave for an excursion on the East River at 8 o’clock this morning.
1887: The 14thannual council of the Hebrew Congregations holds its opening meeting in Pittsburgh where Josiah Cohen was chosen Chairman of the Council, Adolph Freund of Detroit is chosen Vice President and Levi Lipman of Cincinnati is chosen as Secretary. Dr. Stephen Wise gave the opening address where he reported on conditions at the Hebrew Union College.
1890: “City and Suburban News” published today provides a list of upcoming events in the New York area including plans for Rabbi Sabito Morais to deliver a talk at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
1891: Israel Pimkus, a sixty year old Russian Jew who has just arrived in the United States announced his intentions “of going West” and sending for his five brothers to join him once he gets settled. Pimkus had escaped Russia with $17,500 that the Czar’s police had failed to find when they ransacked his family’s home
1891: “To Celebrate a Centennial” published today described upcoming plans to observe the 102nd anniversary of the fall of the Bastille and the 100thanniversary of the emancipation of the Jews of France which will take place in New York’s Lion Park.
1892: Birthdate of Bruno Schulz, Polish author and painter. Schulz will be killed by a Gestapo officer in 1942 under unusual circumstances. A mural that he painted just before his death would become a point of contention between Ukrainian authorities and the officials at Yad Vashem in 2001
1892: An old Jewish peddler named Gustave Berkowitz was clubbed by a group of Italians who had been fighting among themselves on Thompson Street.
1893: Mrs. Sarah Goldstein a widow with six children who lives at 181 Orchard Street “was served with a notice to vacate her apartments” because she had not paid her rent. She had used her rent money to pay for medicine for five of her children who had contracted measles.
1894: Concerns about a general strike in New York City seem to have been unfounded as could be seen “at the headquarters of the American Federation of Labor on Clinton” where “there was nothing to indicate that there were even rumors of strikes”
1894: In New York, labor leader Patrick Murphy obtained a parade permit that will enable 15,000 union members including those belong to the United Hebrew Trades Union to take part in a parade tomorrow night.
1894: The members of the United Hebrew Trade Unions are scheduled to form up at Rutgers Square before joining up with members of other labor unions for a mass meeting at Union Square.
1894: Abram Cahan is scheduled to be one of the speakers at tonight’s mass meeting at Union Square sponsored by several labor unions in New York.
1894: In Plymouth, MA, The School of Applied Ethics with Felix Adler as Dean, opened its third annual session today.
1895: Birthdate of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. He is the Hammerstein of the team (Richard) Rogers and Hammerstein that produced a string of Broadway Musicals including "Oklahoma" and "Carousal." Hammerstein passed away in 1960.
1895: This evening, Dr. Joseph Adolph Moses of Louisville, KY is scheduled to address the annual Central Conference of American Rabbis meeting in Rochester, NY.
1895: In Rochester the most important subject discussed at this morning’s session of the Rabbinical Conference “was that touch upon by President Wise in his annual address – “What Is Our Relation in All Religious Matters to Our Post Biblical, our Patriotic Literature Including Talmud!”
1896: “About the Ancients” published today described Mr. Maspero’s confirmation of Mr. Flanders Petrie’s discovery of the work “Yisraal” on the Merenptah inscriptionand believes it to be the earliest mention of Israel so far found in Egypt…”
1896: “About the Ancients” published today described the work of Chabas who in 1864 when “studying the records of Ramses found the word ‘Apouriou’ and came to the hasty conclusion that ‘Apouriou’ meant Hebrew.”
1896(2ndof Av, 5656): Moritz Kirstein, the native of Filehne who earned his M.D. in 1885 and was a member of the Berlin Board of Health, passed away today.
1896: “Art And Utility Linked” published today described The International Art Exhibition in Berlin which includes “Summer Evening In the Ghetto” by Ludwig Knaus that depicts “a centenary Hebrew…seated in a big armchair…attended by his granddaughter.”
1896: Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet (Ribash) whose remains had been removed from his grave by orders of the government of Algiers was reinterred today. Sheshet was a Spanish Talmudic authority who had been born in 1326 and who had fled to Algeria in 1391 when the persecution of the Jews increased under the spell of the preaching of Fernandes Martinez. He passed away in 1408. [For more about this sage see Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet and his times by Abraham Moses Hershman]
1896: Herzl attends a mass meeting at the workings-men's Club in the East End of London. Working men’s clubs were designed to bring education and recreation for the members of Britain’s emerging working class at the end of the 19thcentury
1896: “An East Sided Romance” published today provides a detailed reviews of Yekl – A Tale of the New York Ghetto by Abraham Cahan.
1896: “New Plans for a Jewish State” published today described the creation of a chartered company to create a “Jewish autonomous state in Palestine” which the Turks “are to look favorably upon.”
1897: Forty Jewish families who arrived from Poland are being deported because it has been determined that “they are in a destitute condition” which means they are likely to become “public charges” which makes them ineligible for entry into the United States under the law.
1899 (5th of Av): Seventy-nine year old German born Rabbi Israel Hildesheimer, the son of Rabbi Löb Glee Hildesheime and one of the founders of Modern Orthodox Judaism passed away.
1899: Maitre Demange, the counsel for Captain Alfred Dreyfus met with the President of the Court Martial regarding setting a date for the hearing and discussing the procedures to be followed.
1899: Attorney Maitre Demange met with Captain Dreyfus for two hours today.
1901: Birthdate of Benjamin Sonnenberg, the native of Brest-Litovsk whose “first work in the public relations field was writing stories for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/books/26sonnenberg.html
1902: Herzl submits a written outline of his plans and the need for financial support to Rothschild. “Aware of Rothschild’s aversion to settlement in Palestine, Herzl also told Rothschild about the settlement of European Jews in Mesopotamia proposed by the Sultan.
1903(17th of Tammuz, 5663): Tzom Tammuz
1904: Birthdate of Pinchas Lavon, the native of Galicia who made Aliyah in 1929 who is best known for his role in the Lavon Affair that occurred while he was serving as Minister of Defense.
1906: Colonel Alfred Dreyfus was finally pardoned, restored to his rank and returned to his regiment. The effects of the Dreyfus Affair did not end with the return of Dreyfus to active duty. The Dreyfus Affair produced the modern Zionist political movement which in turn gave birth to the state of Israel. The Dreyfus Affair also provided another dividing between the Left and the Right in both the French political and social scene and put another arrow in the quiver of right wing anti-Semites. This would find full flower in the government at Vichy during World War II.
1906: The Central Conference of American Rabbis described today as “a day preceding closely the annual celebration of the victory of liberty in France” as “a red letter day in the history of Israel” because “it marks the triumph of righteousness in a cause which affected not just the individual (Dreyfus) but our whole people, the martyr people to which was assigned the mission ‘to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and them that sit in darkness, out of the prison house.’”
1908: Birthdate of Milton Berle. Born in the Harlem section of New York City, Berle was a moderately successful vaudeville comedian who gained fame as Uncle Miltie, the first television star.
1908: It was reported that Dr. Moses Gaster has obtained an ancient copy of the Book of Joshua in Samaria.
1912: Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth (The Loves of Queen Elizabeth) a French silent film starring Sarah Bernhardt which was completed with funds from Adolph Zukor who “brought it to New York where it was released” today.
1913: During the Second Balkan War, DimitriI Auguelov, a wine merchant from Serres, who had been arrested on July 7 and was shut up in the school, escaped with a Jewish prisoner today and was concealed by Jews of the town.
1914(18thof Tammuz, 5674): Tzom Tammuz observed because the 17th fell on Shabbat
1913: Birthdate of Mildred Cohn an American biochemist winner of the Garvan-Olin Medal the National Medal of Science and the first woman to become president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
1915: Opening of the Summer Session the Teacher’s Institute of the Hebrew Union College.
1915: In New York City, “the summer course in social service conducted by the Jewish Chautauqua Society opened today at the Free Synagogue House” with introductory remarks by Abram I. Elkus, President of the Society, followed by a speech by Dr. Henry Berkowitz, “the Chancellor of the Society.”
1915: There were approximately 125 delegates scheduled to attend the second day of convention of the United Synagogue of America being held at the Hotel Nautilus at Arverne, Long Island where they were expected to respond to Dr. Cyrus Adler’s call for the Jews of the United States “and Canada” to “make further efforts to help those of their race who were suffering in the countries at war.”
1919: Birthdate of George Weissman, “who helped transform Philip Morris from a midlevel tobacco company to a diversified conglomerate known for contributions to the arts, and who then led Lincoln Center for nearly a decade.” “Baruch College's Weissman School of Arts and Sciences is named after him, and his wife Mildred.” Weissman had graduated from Baruch when it was the business school of the City College of New York
1920: The Lithuanian Wars of Independence with the signing of the Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty in which the Soviet Union recognized the independence of Lithuania. Over 3,000 Jews fought with the Lithuanian Army during the fight for independence. Jewish support would be rewarded with a certain amount of autonomy and acceptance which erode with the growth of anti-Semitism in the 1930’s.
1921: “New York banker Joseph L. Seligman, also known as J.L. Seligman reported the theft of his wife's jewels, valued at $25,000, while the couple was sailing from Europe to New York as first class passengers aboard the White Star Line, Olympic.”
1923: On Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Louis Berger, a furrier, and his wife Rebecca gave birth to Seymour “Sy” Perry Berger, “the father of the modern-day baseball trading card.” (As reported by Richard Goldstein)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/sports/baseball/sy-berger-91-dies-created-the-modern-baseball-trading-card.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
1923: In Ferndale, NY, Jack Feldman who “ran a Catskill resort known as the Queen Mountain House” and his wife gave birth to Fred Feldman who gained fame movie producer Freddie Fields, the brother of bandleader of Shep Fields. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/arts/13fields.html
1923: The New York Times publishes a letter from Meyer Dizengoff, Mayor of Tel Aviv thanking everybody from the Mayor on down for the hospitality shown to him during his recent trip to New York. He expressed his hope that the “first Jewish city” would benefit from the things shown him including the city’s public utility system.
1927: According to reports by the correspondent for the Daily Mail, Palestine is in shambles following the recent earthquake. He reports riots, failed businesses and the plans for departure by many of the Jewish immigrants. His description is at odds with those of Jewish leaders and agencies including Hadassah.
1932: Helen Menken, who had divorced Humphrey Bogart married Dr. Henry T. Smith.
1933: Founding of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) whose early success was due in part to the friendship of its second President, Eddie Cantor with FDR.
1934: Memorial services are held at Carnegie Hall in honor of the late Hebrew poet laureate, Chaim Nachman Bialik whom Mrs. Samuel Halprin, President of Hadassah described as “the embodiment of Jewish life” whose “gifts were the apotheosis of Jewish creative life.”
1935(11th of Tammuz, 5695): Three decades after being exonerated of all charges, Colonel Alfred Dreyfus passed away at the age of 75.
http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Dreyfus_Affair.htm
1935: U.S. premiere of “Mad Love” a horror film directed by Karl Fruend, starring Peter Lorre with music by Dimitri Z. Tiomkin.
1936: The Palestine Post reported that a Jewish mechanic, Dov Ben-Ammi, 30, was killed and several persons were injured when a bus overturned into a ditch as the result of an Arab ambush near Jenin. Four Arabs were killed in this incident and in an attempt to derail a train in the same neighborhood. Two watchmen, Zvi Lichtenberg and Dov Deitler, were injured in two separate Arab attacks on Jewish settlements
1937: “Abbie an’ Slats” initially written by Al Capp appeared for the first time..
1940(6th of Tammuz, 5700): Sixty-nine year old Victor Rosewater, former editor of the Omaha (Nebraska) Bee and Republican political powerhouse, passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F10B11F7395A11728DDDAA0994DF405B8088F1D3
1941: Relase date for “The Bride Came C.O.D.” a comedy featuring George Tobias with a script co-authored by Julius and Philip G. Epstein and music by Max Steiner.
1942: The SS President Warfield, a ship belonging to the Baltimore Steam Pack Company that had been sailing between Baltimore, MD and Norfolk, VA since 1928 was acquired by the War Shipping Administration today. The ship was converted into a military transport and was turned over to the British. The irony of this is that the Warfield would morph into the SS Exodus five years later in an attempt to run the British blockade of Palestine.
1944: In New York City, Phoebe and Henry Ephron gave birth to Delia Ephron the multi-talented writer whose work includes a marvelous off-beat film, “Michael” which gave John Travolta a chance to literally and figuratively spread his comedic wings.
1944: Many of the 8000 Jews remaining in the Kovno (Lithuania) Ghetto are killed, and the ghetto is burned. Nearby, a Lithuanian carpenter named Jan Pauvlavicius shields at least eight Kovno Jews in a hiding place he has constructed in his cellar.
1944: In Baltimore, MD, bartender Joseph Rubin and Annette Rubin gave birth to Arlene Rubin who gained fame as Arlene Raven “a co-founder of numerous feminist art organizations in Los Angeles in the 1970s.”
1944: Birthdate of Michael Abraham Levy, “a Labour member of the House of Lords who was the chief fundraiser for the UK Labour Party and long-standing friend of former Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
1948(5thof Tammuz, 5708): Ninety-one year old Dr. Solomon Solis Cohen, the son of Myer David Cohen and Judith Simha Solis who graduated from Jefferson Medical College and taught at Philadelphia Polyclinic and Dartmouth College while helping to found the YMHA of Philadelphia, the Jewish Publication Society of America and attending the Third Zionist Congress at Basel passed away today.
http://www.jta.org/1948/07/14/archive/dr-solomon-solis-cohen-dies-at-90-member-of-family-that-settled-here-in-colonial-days
1948: During the War of Independence, Israeli forces took Ramle. With the end of the truce, Israeli forces sought to strengthen their position in the area between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The victory at Ramle, which had been preceded by the successfully seizure of the airport at Lod, was part of that plan which forced the Israelis to fight the Arab Legion, the name of the Jordanian Army which was an elite military force.
1948: Israeli forces defeated Iraqi troops at Rosh Ha-Ayin. This village controlled the headwaters of the Yarkon River, the source of much of Jerusalem’s water supply. Continued control of the Yarkon would have left Jerusalem at the mercy of the Arabs.
1948: As part of Operation Danny, the Palmach began an attack on the village of Suba.
1948: As they renewed their drive on Tel Aviv, Egyptian forces attacked the settlement of Negba in the northern Negev. The Egyptians opened the attack with air attacks and artillery barrages. The battle lasted for over seven hours with at least four thousand shells falling on Negba. In the end, the 150 defenders hung on and the Egyptians withdrew.
1948: Les Shagam of 101 Squadron north from the field at Herzliya to provide air cover over Mishmar HaYardan where he would Syrian AT-6s.
1950: Syrian forces killed “one Israeli today and wounded another as they went to the aide of an Israeli police patrol boat whose propeller had become enmeshed in submerged nets along the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Israel has lodged a strong complaint with the United Nations…”
1950: The Israeli Government clarified its position today on the proposed establishment of a new oil refinery in Haifa and the allocation of exploratory oil rights to independent American oil companies as recently reported. Bartley Crum is representing the interests of American companies while Finance Minister Kaplan and his Under-Secretary David Horowitz are negotiating on behalf of the Israelis.
1950: U.S. premiere of “Three Little Words” a musical biography based on the lives of Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar with a score by André Previn.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that seven marauders were killed and several others wounded in an engagement with an Israeli patrol on Jordanian border. Tel Aviv set up ice rationing to a fourth of a block per consumer daily. It was hoped that this ration would be increased to the third of a block on weekends.
1953: The Foreign Ministry of Israel transferred its offices from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
1964: In France premiere of “Joy House” a mystery film with music by Lalo Schifrin
1967: As the sun rose this morning sailors aboard the INS Eilat and their comrades aboard two torpedo boats savored their victory over the Egyptian off the Rumani coast where they sank two enemy vessels without suffering any casualties.
1969: First broadcast of “Doctor in the House” a British comedy series featuring Anglo-Jewish actor Jonathan Lynn as “medical student Danny Hooley.”
1974: Confrontation: The Middle East and World Politics by Walter Laqueur, The Jews in Their Land, conceived and edited by David Ben-Gurion, translated by Mordechai Nurock and MIsha Louvish and Kabbalah by Gershom Scholem were on the “New Books” list published today.
1976: It was reported today that Idi Amin, President of Uganda had called Baruch Bar-Lev, a retired Israeli Lt. Col. who had served in Uganda. Reportedly Amin asked Bar-Lev to tell Prime Minister Rabin that “he was finished with terrorists” which apparently meant that he would no longer deal with groups like the pro-Palestinian terrorists who had held Jewish hostages at Entebbe. Amin also asked Bar-Lev if the Israelis would spare parts for his military equipment as it had when the two nations had diplomatic relations.
1976:The Jerusalem Post reported from Washington that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said that Israel considered Idi Amin and his Ugandan government responsible for the fate of Mrs. Dora Bloch, the 75-year-old woman of dual British and Israeli citizenship, left behind in a Ugandan hospital, following the rescue of more than 100 hostages at Entebbe airport. The Israeli Embassy in London expressed surprise that Britain sent condolences to Idi Amin on the death of the seven Ugandan soldiers killed during the raid.
1976:The Jerusalem Post reported that while fierce fighting went on in Lebanon between PLO leftist groups and Christians, over 1,700 Lebanese received medical attention at the Israeli army clinics set up on the border.
1977: The 12thMaccabiah opens
1981: “Prime Minister Menachem Begin today compared the June 7 attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor to the Israeli mission that recued more than 100 hostages in Entebbe, Uganda, on July 4, 1976” saying at a ceremony commemorating the fifth anniversary of the death of Lieut. Col. Yehonatan Netanyah,the commander of the Entebbe raid “that both were "rescue operations."
1982(21st of Tammuz, 5742): Radical, activist Clara Lemlich Shavelson passed away.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/shavelson-clara-lemlich
1985: Thomas R. Pickering appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1985: Lawrence Kasdan’s western “Silverado” co-starring Kevin Kline and Jeff Goldblum premiered in the United States.
1988: Due to his disappointment with Mapam's policy towards the First Intifada, Muhammed Wattad left Mapam to join Hadash
1989: "When Harry Met Sally," with a screenplay by Nora Ephron, was released for its first run. The screenplay was later nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.
1989(9thof Tammuz, 5749): Eighty-six year old conservative political philosopher Sidney Hook passed away today. (As reported by Richard Bernstein)
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/14/obituaries/sidney-hook-political-philosopher-is-dead-at-86.html
1991(1stof Av, 5751): Rosh Chodesh Av
1991: Release date for “Regarding Henry” directed by Mike Nichols, co-produced by Mike Nichols with a script by J.J. Abrams.
1996:Amschel Rothschild, the man who many people believed was in line to lead the Rothschild family's legendary banking dynasty, committed suicide this week, the company said today. Relatives of the 41-year-old Mr. Rothschild refused to give any details of his death, which was originally reported as having resulted from a heart attack. Amschel's grandfather Charles committed suicide in 1923 while suffering from encephalitis, a brain illness. "One has to realize the kind of pressure that someone who belongs to a family with that much money and that much in the public eye comes under," said Derek Wilson, author of "Rothschild: A Story of Wealth and Power." "Some members thrive on it, and others don't. Some want to be quiet people, but as a Rothschild you can never be that." Mr. Rothschild, who is a member of the sixth generation of the family, entered the family business in 1988, rising to chairman of Rothschild Asset Management in 1990. Many experts said that put him in line to succeed Sir Evelyn, who is 64, as chairman of the entire bank. The most likely candidate to succeed Sir Evelyn now appears to be a French cousin, David Rothschild, though there is some question as to whether the City's British banking establishment would react well to working with a member of the French branch of the family. Amschel's brother, Lionel, is said to be a "gentleman farmer" who is not interested in being part of the banking business. Sir Evelyn's oldest son is considered too young for the job and is reported to have shown little interest in finance.
1996: Hazel Josephine Cosgrove (Lady Cosgrove) began serving as a Senator of the College of Justice making her the first woman to be appointed as a judge of Scotland’s Supreme Court.
1998: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness by Edward K. Kaplan and Samuel H. Dresner and Mrs. Einsteinby Anna McGrail.
2001: Daniel C. Kurtzer appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
2002: U.S. premiere of “Road to Perdition” starring Paul Newman with music by Thomas Newman the son of composer Alfred Newman.
2004(23rd of Tammuz, 5764): Sergeant Maayan Naim, 19, was killed by terrorists in Israel.
2006: Baron Michael Levy was arrested and questioned in connection with the "Cash for Honours" inquiry by the Metropolitan Police today, concerning the allegation that monies were paid to political parties in return for peerages. It would take a year for authorities to decide not to prosecute due to lack of evidence.
2006:Jerusalem's Confederation House, one of the premier venues for ethnic music in Israel, presents the first in a series of three concerts based on bakashot (requests), songs of supplication traditionally sung during the early hours of Shabbat morning in Middle Eastern Jewish communities
2006: The July War or Second Lebanon War began when Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon attacked IDF forces in Israel with rockets and mortars. Besides killing IDF soldiers, Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.
2006: The following were among a total of 43 Israeli civilians (including four who died of heart attacks during rocket barrages) and 116 IDF soldiers who were killed in the Israel-Hizbullah war: Sgt.-Maj. Shani Turgeman, 24, of Beit She'an; Sgt.-Maj Eyal Benin, 22, of Omer; Wasim Nazal, 27, of Yanuh-Jat; St.-Sgt. Alexei Kushnirski, 21, of Ness Ziona; Sgt. Yaniv Bar-On, 19, of Maccabim; Sgt. Nimrod Cohen, 19, of Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem; Sgt.-Maj. St.-Sgt. Gadi Musiev, 20; St.-Sgt. Shlomi Yirmiyahu, 20
2007: In Rochester, N.Y., a screening of “The Cantor’s Son” at the Rochester Jewish Film Festival.
2007: In Jerusalem, at a concert"Libi Er," my heart is awake, performs songs, ballads, prayers, and original ethnic music at the Confederation House.
2007: The Conference on the Future of the Jewish People meeting in Jerusalem comes to a close.
2008: Day Two of The 25th annual Jerusalem Film Festival, which offers screenings of 200 local and international films highlighting a wide range of genres within categories such as new features, acclaimed documentaries, avant garde films, shorts, animation, retrospectives and classics.
2008: In Melbourne, opening of the first Australian production of the Stephen Schwartz musical “Wicked.”
2009: As of today Brad Ausmus “was third all-time among catchers in fielding percentage.”
2009: After over a century of being in business, all of the Gottschalks stores were closed for good today. Emil Gottschalk, an immigrant Jew from Germany had opened the first of the stores to bear his name in 1904 in Fresno, California. One of the Gottschalk stores had been located at Wasilla, Alaska, the town that Sarah Pallin would make famous.
2009: In Tel Aviv, Israel faces Russia in Day 3 of the Davis Cup Quarterfinals.
2009: The Washington Post features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship by James Scott.
2010: Israeli born cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at Bargemusic in Brooklyn, NY.
2010(1st of Av, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Av
2010: Major General (res) Giora Eiland presented the report of his committee which had examined the preparations for and actual boarding of, the Pro-Palestinian Gaza Flotilla.
2010: The chairperson of the Women of the Wall prayer group Anat Hoffman was released from police custody this afternoon, after being taken in for questioning for allegedly defying the High Court ruling outlawing women from reading from the Torah at the Western Wall.
2010: Carmen Weinstein, the head of Egypt’s tiny Jewish community, was convicted of fraud by an Egyptian court today and may face time behind bars.
2010(1st of Av, 5770): Seventy-year old Harvey Pekar, whose autobiographical comic book “American Splendor” attracted a cult following for its unvarnished stories of a depressed, aggrieved Everyman negotiating daily life in Cleveland and became the basis for a critically acclaimed 2003 film, died today at his home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/arts/design/13pekar.html?_r=0
2010(1stof Av, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Av
2010(1st of Av, 5770): Eighty-eight year old Tuli Kupferberg, a poet and singer who went from being a noted Beat to becoming, in his words, “the world’s oldest rock star” when he helped found the Fugs, the bawdy and politically pugnacious rock group, died today in Manhattan. (As reported by Ben Sisario)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/arts/music/13kupferberg.html?_r=0
2010: As of today Israeli professional tennis player Shahar Pe’er is ranked No. 16 in singles and No. 39 in doubles.
2011: Hadassah is scheduled to open its 2011 Business Meeting in Las Vegas.
2011: Israel's most crucial tie to Egypt, an economic one, is deteriorating, National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau told Army Radio this morning.
2011: Saboteurs blew up an Egyptian gas pipeline distribution station in northern Sinai that supplies natural gas to Israel, the official MENA news agency reported. The explosion was the fourth attack this year on pipelines in Sinai that supply gas to Israel and Jordan.
2011: Fifth anniversary of the war with Lebanon that began with a Hezbollah attacked that killed Lt. Col. Dov (Berry) Harari.
2011: Days after Berlin announced plans to sell tanks to Saudi Arabia, German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere will arrive for his first visit to Israel today, during which he will meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak for talks expected to focus on the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East and the Iranian nuclear threat.
2012: The Washington DCJCC is scheduled to present “Meghan McCain with America, You Sexy B**ch”
2012: Catherine Howell of the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood is scheduled to lead the interactive workshop “Playing at war: an up-close look at childhood games of battle and conflict” at the Wiener Library on Russell Square in London, UK.
2012: In “The Reading Life: Harvey Pekar's Jewish question” published today David L. Ulin examines the contradictory legacy of the late Jewish author.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/07/the-reading-life-harvey-pekars-jewish-question.html
2013: “In Bloom” and “Our Nixon” are two of the films scheduled to be shown today at the Jerusalem Film Festival.”
2013: Rena Sherel Sofer appeared for the first time “in a newly created role of Quinn Fuller” on “the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.
2013: “Fill the Void” a film which “tells the story of an Orthodox Chassidic Family from Tel Aviv” is scheduled to open at the Drexel East 3 in Columbus, Ohio
2013: Ido Akov and Itai Meir, “two outstanding soloists from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance are schedule to perform at the Eden-Tamir Music Center.
2013: “Der Purimspieler” - a romantic comedy about a drifter who wanders from shtetl to shtetl. He finds brief happiness when he falls in love with a shoemaker’s daughter in a small Galician town. A likeable fantasy about s love triangle and man’s quest for the unobtainable – is scheduled to be shown as the first offering in the July Yiddish Film Festival at Agudas Achim following Shabbat eve services.
2013: In “Echoes From the Roman Ghetto” published today, David Laskin takes readers back to the Portico d’Ottavia which “half a millennium…has been the heart of Rome’s Jewish ghetto” but which 70 years ago became the scene in yet one more act in the Axis plan to create a Jew-Free World.
2014: A Czech film festival that earned the ire of the local Jewish community because it honored Mel Gibson who gained infamy with his “2006 drunken anti-Semitic rant” and created “The Passion of the Christ” “which some critics have called anti-Semitic.” (As reported by JTA)
2014: Illumination Music & Arts Festival, the creation of two Jewish students Dustin Stern and Jaime Rosenberg, is scheduled to come to an end “at a private campground in southwestern Ontario’s Grey County
2014: Israeli’s brace for another round of rocket attacks from terrorists in Gaza.
2014(14thof Tammuz. 5774): Ninety three old Louis Herman “Red” Klotz who according to Dr. Ron Reider scored the final basket as a member of the Washington Generals the last team to beat the Harlem Globetrotters passed away today.
2014: “Sirens sounded in Nahariya, Rosh Hanikra, Shlomi, Kabri and Hanita, along the border with Lebanon as rockets were fired from Lebanon by a Palestinian Lebanese terror group. (As reported by Gil Ronen)
2014: Chloe Valadry a senior at the University of New Orleans, who was one of the students assaulted by a pro-Palestinian mob calling Jews “Christ Killers”, pressed charges with the Boston Police Department against “a woman related to the incident.”
2014: Hamas fired dozens of rockets at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv
2015: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide by Michael Oren and KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps by Nikolaus Wachsmann
2015: The YIVO Institute for Jewish History and the Yiddish League are scheduled to host Annual Memorial in Honor of Mordkhe Schaechter during which Kenneth (Binyomen) Moss will deliver a talk in Yiddish on "Nationalism, the State and the New Antisemitism in Zionist, Diasporist and Territorialist Thought, 1929-1939,” followed by a musical program by Zhenya Lopatnik.
2015: The Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America/ DC Department is scheduled to host a memorial ceremony in honor of British General Orde Wingate who “was a great soldier, lover of Zion and an admirer of the Jewish people” known during the days of the Mandate as “YaYedid – The Friend.”
2015: “Vita Activa, The Spirit of Hannah Arendt” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Film Festival.