February 23
42(16th of Adar, 3892): King Agrippa I began the construction of a gate for the of Jerusalem (pg 128)
68(4th of Adar, 3828): During the Great Revolt, Vespasian occupied the city of Gadara as the legions made their slow, inexorable march to Jerusalem.
1422: During the conflict between the Hussites and the Dominicans, Pope Martin V issued a Bull favorable to the Jews reminding Christians that their religion had been inherited from the Jews. “The pope forbade the monks to preach against intercourse between Jews and Christians.”
1443: Birthdate of Matthias Corvinus who as King Matthias I “created the office of Jewish prefect in Hungary.
1447 Pope Eugenius IV passed away. In speaking about the Jews, Eugenius declared “We decree and order that from now on, and for all time, Christians shall not eat or drink with the Jews, nor admit them to feasts, nor cohabit with them, nor bathe with them. […] They cannot live among Christians, but in a certain street, separated and segregated from Christians, and outside which they cannot under any pretext have houses.”
1455: Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type. This revolution in publishing was one of the most liberating events in Western history. Some say that it really marked the beginning of the Modern Intellectual Era of Western Civilization. Soon books would be printed Hebrew giving the People of the Book greater access to books thus further democratizing the concept of learning which is a cornerstone of Jewish civilization. The chapter and verse system finally took hold in copies of the Torah (books not the Scroll itself) as a result of the printing revolution.
1484: Over this day and the next, 30 men and women were burned alive, as well as the bones of 40 others at the Inquisitional Tribunal of Ciudad Real.
1592: Emperor Rudolph II invited Rabbi Judah ben Bezalel Lowe, known as the Maharal of Prague to his castle. The two men met for an hour and a half during with they “developed a mutual respect for each other. Rabbi Judah Lowe made use of his excellent connections with the Emperor, often intervening on behalf of his community when it was threatened by anti-Semitic attacks or oppression. (As reported by Chabad Knowledge Base)
1658: Jacob (John) Lumbrozo, the first doctor in Maryland was tried for having, "Denied Jesus of Nazareth…." Lumbrozo was convicted, sentenced to death, and was to have all his property confiscated by the government. He was later freed from these penalties. Lumbrozo was born in Portugal. He then moved to Holland and finally settled in Maryland in 1656.
1665: Emperor Maximilian II granted permission to Chrisophe Plantin to print Hebrew books in Antwerp
1685: Birthdate of composer George Frideric Handel. In 1718, he wrote the oratorio “Esther” which was based on Racine’s 1689 tragic drama of the same name. Two of his other oratorios were “Deborah” based on the life of the Biblical Judge and “Athalia,” an operatic treatment of the life of the murderous Jewish Queen.
1744: In the ghetto of Frankfurt am Main, “Amschel Moses Rothschild and his wife Schönche Rothschild (née Lechnich) gave birth to Meyer Amschel Rothschild.
1723: Birthdate of Richard Price, the non-conformist minster who held the lectureship at Old Jewry, the Presbyterian meeting house built on the site of London’s original Jewish neighborhood.
1777: Birthdate of Leopold Bettelheim, the Hungarian physician who “was the recipient of a gold medal of honor from the emperor Franz I. for distinguished services to the royal family and to the nobility.”
1807: The British Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of abolition of the slave trade. This victory was due in large measure to the decades’ long efforts of William Wilberforce. This is the same William Wilberforce who helped found Christ Church Ministries Jerusalem (CMJ) in England in 1809. Wilberforce and other leading evangelicals such as Lord Shaftesbury believed that the Jewish people had to be restored to their ancient land in order to pave the way for the return of Jesus. From the 1840s on the Society built in Jerusalem a School of Industry for training Jewish believers in basic trades; an Enquirers House, a Hebrew College, and a modern hospital for Jewish people as well as Christ Church.
1812: Birthdate of Fischel Arnheim the Baireuth lawyer and politician who “was elected by the cities of Hof and Münchberg to the Bavarian legislature.”
1813: In Leipzig, Susanna Rosina and Johann Gottfried Delitzsch, “a peddler, craftsman and day laborer” gave birth to Lutheran theologian Franz Delitzsch who “wrote many commentaries on books of the Bible, Jewish antiquities, Biblical psychology, a history of Jewish poetry, and Christian apologetics.”
1815(13th of Adar): Patriot and founder of Aaronsburg, PA, Aaron Levy passed away
1823: In Piotrkow, Poland, Phineas Mendel Heilprin and his wife gave birth to Michael Heilprin the American author, philanthropist and champion of social justice.
1825: In Baltimore, MD, Joseph Osterman married Rosanna Dyer whose older brother Major Leon Dyer would escort Santa Anna to Washington in 1836 and who as Rosanna Dyer Osterman would become “one of Texas’ earliest and most generous benefactors.”
1831: Lewis Cohen married Sophia Andrade at the Hambro Synagogue.
1831: Elias Simmons married Matilda Jones at the Great Synagogue.
1832(22ndof Adar I. 5592):Wolf Heidenheim, who was born at Heidenheim in 1757 and whose works included several editions of the Pentateuch, a Pesach Haggadah, and several siddurim passed away today at Rödelheim
1832: In Cracow, Isaac Halberstram, a wealthy merchant and his wife gave birth to Solomon Joachim Chayim Halberstam known as ShaZHaH.
1832: Birthdate of Hirsch Rabinowitz, the native of Kovno who founded a technical school for Jewish boys at Dvinsk and who became a leader of the Society for the Promotion of Culture Among the Jews of Russia after he moved to St. Petersburg.
1832: Yitzchak Alter and Feigele Lipschitz gave birth to their seventh child Ester Alter.
1834: Birthdate of Abraham Greenwalt, who won the Medal of Honor for his “bravery at the Battle of Frankilin (TN)’ during the Civil War
1835: La Juive (The Jewess) a grand opera in five acts composed by Fromental Halévy premiered today at the Opéra, Paris
1836: The Siege of the Alamo began at San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Mark Levy, a Jewish physician was reportedly one of those manning the walls of the Texas mission facing the forces of Santa Anna.
1839: In New York City “Michael and Sophia (nee Hart) Asher gave birth to Morris Asher, the resident of Philadelphia and member of Company of B of the 71st Regiment of Infantry, Pennsylvania Volunteers who fought with the Army of the Potomac in every battle until Gettysburg where his wounds were so severe that he was mustered out of service in 1864.
1846: In Poland, the National Government issued a proclamation “calling for the Jewish population to join the uprising and ensuring their full equality.”
1848: David Jacobs married Matilda Rebecca Jacobs today in the United Kingdom.
1848: John Quincy Adams, Sixth President of the United States passed away. In what seems like a strange turn of events, President Adams expressed his support for a Jewish homeland in the land of Israel. In a letter to Mordecai Manuel Noah, one of the most prominent Jews in pre-Civil War America, Adams wrote that he believed in the “rebuilding of Judea as an independent nation.”
1848: During the third French Revolution François Guizot, the reactionary Prime Minister opposed by Adolphe Cremieux was forced to resign and flee the country.
1848: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Jacob Levinson and Fannie D. Hirsch gave birth to their daughter Hannah who married Julius Newman and who as Hannah Newman was a “member of the Board for Jewish Friendless” and was a member of the committee that originated the first free kindergarten in Chicago.”
1852: Birthdate of Nathan Frank, the native of Peoria, Illinois and leader of the Republican party who founded the St. Louis Star and served in the 51stCongress.
1853: In Philadelphia, a dinner was held at the Samson Street Hall to raise funds for Jewish charities.
1855: It was today reported that the concert designed to raise funds for the Hebrew Benevolent Societies scheduled for February 27 has been moved from Dodworth's Rooms to Niblo's Saloon because of the unusually high demand for tickets.
1858: David Defries married Esther Moses today at the Great Synagogue.
1860(30th of Shevat, 5620): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1861: Birthdate of Emrich Ullmann the Austrian surgeon who was a pioneer in renal transplantation research.
1864: The United States Senate voted to confirm President Lincolns’ appointment of Rabbi Jacob Frankel to serve “as a Chaplain of United States Hospitals during the Civil War.”
1865: Birthdate of pioneer baseball executive, Barney Dreyfuss, the owner of the Pittsburg Pirates and the “father” of the World Series.
1867: Birthdate of Isaac David Broydé, the native of Grodno, in what was then part of the Russian Empire who after being educated at the Sorbonne worked in France and the UK before coming to New York in 1900 where he “joined the editorial staff of the Jewish Encyclopedia.”
1868(30th of Shevat, 5628): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1870: Professor George Bartchelor delivered a talk on education reform to the New York Liberal Club. Batchelor contended that when it came to language, Hebrew, along with Greek and Latin, were the foundation of liberal education. But the public schools were teaching German, French and Spanish. [Considering who belong to the Liberal Club, one wonders what would have happened if a Hebrew teacher from the Lower East Side had shown up at its meeting.]
1871: The official position of the Jewish community in Ghent was regulated by two decrees one of which was issued today.
1872: Mortiz Ellinger ended his term as publisher of the Jewish Times today.
1873: “The State of the Jews in Persia” published today described the conditions of those living under the rule of the “sovereign in Tehran” who “treats the Moslems” with “greater forbearance than the Jews” because the latter “are not always ready to pay when the tax gatherer calls on them which leads to the Jew being beaten until he discharges his arrears – a fate they could escape “if they offered to embrace Mohammedanism.”
1874: It was reported today that there are only ten bakers in New York who manufacture the Passover Bread” (Matzos) and that they fill orders not only for those living in New York but for those “from Brooklyn Philadelphia and many cities outside of “New York State and that matzos are sold for “eleven cents a pound.”
1874: It was reported that “some time ago” the Atlantic Monthly published an article “Our Israelitish Brethren” “which treats in a very pleasant way the religious observances of this wonderful people.
1878: “Celebrated Jews In Power” published today claims that the rise of Jewry in Europe has turned the fiction of “Coningsby” and the predictions of Sidonia into reality. One of the proof points is the leading role that Benjamin Disraeli, the author of Coningsby, plays in British politics.
1879(30th of Shevat, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1879: Birthdate of Colonel Ernest Albert Rose who married Julia Eda Lewis at the Synagogue Princes Road in Liverpool in 1907.
1879: It was reported today that unnamed Jew had scored a coup during the sale of old military stores at Edinburgh Castle. He bought 600 rusty old helmets for 6 pence a pound. After he cleaned them up, he discovered that they were made of “fine steel…adorned with Arabic inscriptions” showing that they were very old pieces of equipment. After selling a few of the helmets, an Armenian purchased the lot of them for 18 shillings per helmet. Realizing their error, the government bought the helmets from him for 2 of 3 English pounds per helmet.
1880: It was reported that in Germany, associations have been formed for the purpose of excluding Jews from serving in Parliament. In Breslau, one such group has announced that it will not support a Jew under any circumstances. [The rise of anti-Semitism paralleled the moves to emancipate German Jewry.]
1881: “At Oegeklooster, near Hartwerd, in the Province of Friesland, Netherlands, Titus Brandsma who died in 1920 and Tjitsje Postma who died in 1933 gave birth to Anno Sjoerd Brandsma, who gained famed as Titus Brandsma, a Carmelite priest arrested by German occupiers in Holland for speaking out against Nazism as a "lie" and "pagan." Brandsma had been speaking out against the Nazis since the mid 1930’s. After his arrest, he was shipped to Dachau in where he was the subject of medical experiments. He died of a lethal injection in July, 1942. Brandsma was declared “Blessed” by Pope John Paul, II in 1985. Since then, the promotion of his cause for sainthood has been in progress.
1882: The SS Illinois arrived at Philadelphia, PA at 3:20 pm carrying 325 men, women and children who were refugees from the anti-Semitic violence that had been taking place in the Russian Empire including Poland, Kiev and Odessa. The refugees were greeted by members of the committee that has been preparing for their arrival. After being examined by Dr. T. J. Elleinger and his medical staff, the refugees were taken to the old Pennsylvania Railroad station which has been remodeled to meet their needs. The refugees had harrowing tales of deprivation and violence to tell their American benefactors who included Jews and Christians.
1882: It was reported today that the Toronto Globe has received a cable from London describing a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Mansion House Fund for the Relief of Russo-Jewish Refugees presided over by Cardinal Manning. With the support of Sir A.T. Galt a sub-committee was established to select sites for the establishment of agriculture settlements in Palestine the Canadian Northwest that could provide a viable new home for the persecuted Jews. The subcommittee has a budget of ten thousand pounds. [This outpouring of support for the Jews who were the victims of a series of Pogroms following the assassination of Alexander II is laudable. Sensing that England could and New York City could inundated by a wave of refugees, plans were made to try and settle the Jews in the under-populated areas of Canada, the United States and Argentina]
1886: Lena Lillienthal married Meyer Goldberg. By August of the following year, the two would embroiled in nasty divorce case in which she sought to end the marriage.
1890: The President and Managers of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society of New York will hold a reception today between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. in honor of George Washington’s birthday. (Washington was born on February 22 which in 1890 fell on Shabbat which accounts for the delay)
1890: English dramatist Leopold Davis Lewis passed away. Born in 1828 and trained as a solicitor he began his dramatic career by translating Erckmann-Chatrian's “Le Juif Polonais,” (the Polish Jew) which he then produced as “The Bells.”
1890: It was reported today that among those charities received property tax exemptions were the Ladies’ Deborah Nursery and Child’s Protectory ($12,000) and the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews ($30,000).
1890: “Gladstone At Oxford” published today included comments by the English Prime Minister about the status of the Jews. When asked if he thought “that there is any likelihood of an anti-Semitic agitation in England” Gladstone replied “I have not the least fear of an agitation in England against the Jews. You might as well expect one against the law of gravity.”
1890: “Sir A Sassoon” published today relying on information that first appeared in The Spectatorbriefly described “this rise of this Jewish family in England” which “were till quite recently strictly Indian Jews” who were “almost natives in their manner of life.” (Sir A. Sassoon probably referred to Sir Albert Abdulah David Sassoon, the First Baronet)
1890: It was reported today that in the summer of 1875 a group of visitors from Massachusetts came to Lincoln’s Inn, London looking for Judah P. Benjamin, the Confederate leader turned British Barrister.. They were surprised that Benjamin, who was Jewish “was engaged to appear against an influential firm of Jewish money lenders.”
1891: “A Row in the Synagogue” published today described the outbreak of fight at the Grant Street synagogue in Pittsburg, PA. Ruben Miller bloodied the nose of Harris Bartniski during a meeting at which congregants were discussing a sermon by Rabbi Feinich in which he denounced Miller for renting his building “to a company of atheists.”
1893: New York State Jacob A. Cantor met with party leaders at the “Tammany Wigwam” to discuss pending legislation in Albany.
1894: In Tétouan, MoroccoRabbi Shlomo Aburbeh and Yocheved Khalfon gave birth to Amram Aburbeh the Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic congregation in Petah Tikva, Israel
1894: It was reported that among those who attended the 14th annual reception of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society included Mr. and Mrs. Selig Steinhardt, Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Seligman, Mr. and Mrs. Lyman Bloomingdale and the Honorable and Mrs. Joseph Blumenthal.
1895: It was reported today that English actor John Hare, who has played the lead in “The Old Jew” will be coming to New York City to perform in December. Among the productions in which he is expected to appear is “The Old Jew.”
1896: It was reported today that the sale of tickets and boxes for the upcoming Purim Ball are “exceeding all expectations.”
1896: “Nordau Replied To” published today contained a detailed reviews of Regeneration: A Reply to Max Nordau with an Introduction by Nicholas Murray Butler.
1896: The Tootsie Roll is introduced by Leo Hirshfield. The soft chewy candy took its name from the nickname of Hirshfield’s daughter. Hirshfield was from Austria. However, the question as to whether he was or was not Jewish is still up for grabs. Like the mystery of the Red Heifer, this one may not be answered until the coming of the Moshiach.
1896:Mihail Grigore Sturza, the voivode, (count or military governor) signed a document recognizing the Jewish community of Galatz, Romania.
1897: In Hampstead, London, American opera singer Francesca Halle and Joseph Gluckstein whose family founded J. Lyons and Co. gave birth to lawyer and Conservative politician Colonel Sir Louis Halle Gluckstein.
1898: In France Émile Zola was convicted following his trial for libel. He received the maximum sentence – one year in jail and a fine of 3000 Frances. He had written “J'accuse” which was a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully placing Alfred Dreyfus in jail.
1898: As the Dreyfus Affair reached one of its climaxes, Paul Deroulede attempted to get the troops at Neuilly to take part in a coup d’état.
1899: In France, during President Félix Faure’s state funeral Paul Déroulède, Jules Guérin and the Ligue des Patriotes attempt a coup which resulted in their arrest.
1899: The Nineteenth Century Club heard Israel Zangwill and Hamlin Garland discuss "The Novel" in Delmonico's large ballroom tonight, and both authors agreed so well upon the functions of art in fiction that the men and women present had to forego the usual argumentative entertainment which they plan for these meetings by bringing together speakers of supposedly differing views
1899: In Chicago, Anita "Annie" Taurog (née Goldsmith) and Arthur Jack Taurog gave birth director and screen writer Norman Rae Taurog who won the Academy Award for directing “Skippy” which premiered in 1931.
1902(16th of Adar I, 5662): Max Budinger, the native of Cassel German and the son of Moses Mordecai Budinger, who occupied the chair of history at the University of Vienna” starting in 1872 and who “was elected a member of the Vienna Academy of Sciences” in 1887 passed away today.
1902: The ninth meeting of the Union of Judaeo-German Congregations opened today in Berlin.
1903: Leopold Greenberg an English newspaper editor, Zionist and friend of Theodore Herzl leaves Egypt.
1904: While sailing from the Mediterranean to China, the USS Chauncey commanded by Lt. Stanford E. Moses which was part of the “First Torpedo Flotilla” was caught in a storm today.
1904: Birthdate of William L Shirer. Shirer was one of "Murrow's Boys" a group of correspondents hired by Edward R. Murrow who covered the events prior to and including World War II. Shirer's post was Berlin where he broadcast stories about the rise of the Nazis. He actually provided live coverage of the French surrendering to Hitler in 1940. His greatest claim to fame was as author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a classic on Hitler and his followers, based, in part, on Shirer's first hand observations
1904: Birthdate of Leopold Trepper, a Jewish James Bond. Born in Poland, during World War II he organized and ran one of the most famous espionage rings in history - The Red Orchestra. Operating in France in 1940, the ring penetrated German intelligence and was able to provide the Soviets with detailed information about the impending invasion of Russia by Germany. Unfortunately, Stalin refused to believe the warnings. Members of the Red Orchestra were captured in 1942. Trepper escaped and hid until the liberation of Paris in 1944. When he returned to Moscow, he was arrested along with thousands of others who had bravely fought the Nazis and spent ten years in prison. Eventually he moved to Israel where he died in 1982.
1904(7th of Adar I, 5664): Sixty-seven year old German-Jewish poet, playwright and social reformer Friederike Kempner passed away today.
1906: “The East Side Dry Goods Merchants’ Association…decided today to close all of its stores from Friday at 6 P.M. until Saturday at 6 P.M. in order to the employees a day off” since Saturday is chosen for a holiday because most patrons of these stores are Jews.”
1907: In Potsdam, Count Has von Blumenthal and his gave birth to Hans-Jürgen Graf von Blumenthal, a German officer who was part of the anti-Hitler resistance and was hung for his part in the plot to kill Hitler in July of 1944.
1910: Birthdate of Albert Philipson, the native of Ossining, NY and graduate of Columbia Law School work for the Farm Credit Administration and was active in Democratic politics.
1910: The Hahambashi proposes to convene, in summer, a conference of delegates of all Jewish communities in the Ottoman Empire to consider reform of the rabbinate and to plan a new reorganization of the community. Included in this would be the elimination of life appointments in favor of elections.
1912: A New York Ladino language newspaper called La Aguila hit the presses, but failed due to lack of support and finished running on March 22 of the same year.
1912: Jews in Kustendil, Bulgaria were attacked by a mob and nine people were injured.
1912: A bill introduced in the Portuguese Congress provides for cession of land to Jewish emigrants who move to Angola, Portuguese West Africa.
1913: In Rozwadow, Poland, Abraham Chaim Springer, the son Mamci Springer and Sara Birnbaum was circumcised by Simon Katz.
1913: Dedication of the Sabbath School Building in Erie, PA.
1913: Dr. Stephen S. Wise, the rabbi at New York’s Free Synagogue, is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “What Ails the Jew” at Sinai Temple in Chicago.
1913: Nellie Woolf and Reuben Davis are scheduled to be the soloists at the Chicago Hebrew Institute’s Sunday Afternoon Concert directed by Alexander Zukovsky.
1913: An Auxiliary of the Marks Nathan Orphan Home is scheduled to host a fund-raising ball at the First Regiment Armory in Chicago.
1913: Solomon Schechter, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary, founded the United Synagogue of America, the association of Conservative synagogues in the United States and Canada. In 1957, it organized the World Council of Synagogues with membership in 22 countries
1915: The Supreme Court of the United States is scheduled to hold a hearing today in which the state of Georgia will oppose attempts to get a writ of habeas corpus granted in the case of Leo Frank.
1916(19thof Adar I, 5676): Twenty-one year old Max Neuman, a citizen of Kleinsteinach, was killed today while serving in the German Army.
1916: Delegates from Jewish organizations in Manhattan met today “to consider plans for the proposed Jewish Congress and to elect delegates to the preliminary conference” to be held next month in Philadelphia.
1917: The Wort, a Yiddish newspaper published in Warsaw said the Overseas News Agency announced “that the Jewish administration in that city granted loans without interest, made gifts in money or distributed free food, milk and medicines” in 1916 to 148,000 people from 25,000 families.
1917(O.S.): The February Revolution began in Russia. This is the revolution that brought down the Czars and brought the Social Democrats to power. Unfortunately, they failed and the next revolution brought the Communists to power with disastrous effects for the world in general and the Jews in particular.
1917(1st of Adar, 5677): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1918: “Felix M. Warburg, Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee for the various Jewish war relief funds announced” tonight that plans had been finalized “for the transmission and distribution of American relief money to the Jews in that part of Palestine now under occupation through cooperation with the Zionist Special Committee for the Relief of Jews in Palestine, at Cairo” which has been recognized by the British military authorities.
1919: Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party in Italy. According to author Alexander Stille "What distinguished the story of Italian Jews from that of Jews elsewhere in Europe was the long coexistence between Jews and Fascists in Mussolini's Italy. Italian Fascism was in power for 16 years before it turned anti-Semitic in 1938. Until then, Jews were as likely to be members of the Fascist Party as were other conservative-minded Italians. This singular fact altered the entire moral and existential equation for Italy's Jews. In other countries, Fascism was the undisguised enemy. But the experience of Italian Jews was far more complex: a strange mixture of benevolence and betrayal, persecution and rescue."
1919(23rd of Adar I, 5679): Just weeks before his 84th birthday New York lawyer, jurist and author Abraham Jesse Dittenhoefer passed away. Ironically, this native of Charleston, SC, the cradle of Southern Secession, was the last surviving elector from the election of 1864 during which he cast his vote for Abraham Lincoln.
1921(15th of Adar I, 5681): Dermatologist Phineas Simon Abraham the native of Kingston, Jamaica, who was elected Medical Secretary of Britain’s National Leprosy Fund and President of the West London Chirurgical Society passed away today.
1921: Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and Rabbi Ya'akov Meir were elected as the first two chief Rabbis of pre-state Israel. Kook was the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi and Rabbi Ya'akov Meir was the Chief Sephardic Rabbi.
1921: As head of the Colonial Office, Winston Churchill reviews Pinchas Rutenberg’s request for a concession to harness the waters of the Jordan and Yarkon fivers for electrical power; a concession that would employ 800 Jews and Arabs.
1922(25th of Shevat, 5682): Fifty-five year old Leon Khan passed away today after which he was in the Jewish Cemetery in Morgan City, LA.
1922: “A Vanished World” a silent adventure film directed by Alexander Korda and co-starring his wife Maria Corda was released today in Austria.
1925: U.S. premiere of “Le Miracle des Loups” (The Miracle of the Wolves) “a French historical drama directed by Raymond Bernard
1925(29th of Shevat, 5685): Eighty-six year old Yitzhak Yeruham Diskin the son of Rabbi Juda Leib Diskin and Hinda Rachel Diskin passed away today.
1926: Irving Lehman and Mrs. Rebecca Kohut are scheduled to address this evening’s good-will dinner (which will be Kosher) for Jews and Christians being sponsored by the Greater New Yorker Federation of Churches
1926: David A. Brown, chairman of the United Jewish Campaign trying to raise fifteen million dollars to aid the suffering Jews of Europe, is continuing his tour of “the west” after addressing a conference of Jews in Fargo, ND that was held to set a fund-raising target to help with the national campaign.
1929(13th of Adar I, 5689): Thirty-nine year old Mercédès Jellinek, the granddaughter of Adolf Jellinek, the former chief rabbi of Vienna whose name is the Mercedes in the Mercedes-Benz automobile succumbed to bone cancer today.
1929: A recording was made today of "Wedding Bells (Are Breaking Up That Old Gang Of Mine)” a popular barbershop song composed by Sammy Fain with lyrics by Irving Kahal and Willie Raskin which number 8 on the pop charts.
1930: “Chasing Rainbows” a romantic comedy with a script co-authored by Al Boasberg with music by Milton Ager and Jack Yellen and co-starring Jack Benny was released today in the United States.
1932: “The nomination of Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo to an associate just of the Supreme Court was unanimously reported favorably by the Senate Judiciary Committee which is chaired by Republican Senator Norris of Nebraska.
1932: Premiere of “Mamsell Nitouche” a 1932 French-German operetta film directed by Carl Lamac and filmed by cinematographer Otto Heller.
1932: In the Netherlands, the Jewish Historical Museum was officially opened. It was located in a single room on the top floor of the Amsterdam Historical Museum, which was housed in the Weigh House.
1933: “Louis Marshall Memorial Hall, the second building erected at the New York State College of Forestry, was dedicated” today in honor of the Jewish jurist who “was also a conservationist, and the force behind re-establishing the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, which evolved into today's State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.”
1936(30th of Shevat, 5696): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1936: A conference to choose national officers and assign quotas for the 1936 campaign of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is scheduled to be held today in Cincinnati, Ohio, under the leadership of Felix Warburg.
1936: Birthdate of Harrison Jay Goldin the Bronx born lawyer and former New York politician who served as an attorney in the United States Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration and ran in the 1989 Democratic Primary election for Mayor of New York.
1936: Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope the High Commissioner of the British Mandate of Palestine was booed by a crowd as he left a museum in Tel Aviv where he had just given a dedicatory address. The demonstration was prompted by reports that the mandatory government is about to implement new regulations designed to limit Jewish immigration and land purchases by Jews. The High Commissioner ordered the crowd to disperse but did not order any arrests.
1937: It was reported today that author Marvin Lowenthal described the Jews Poland to be “in the same condition as those in Germany with one million absolutely dependent upon charity” and another 2,400,000 needing outside to subsist” in a country that has not passed “public legislation on the Jewish question” but has “numerous other ways to destroy the Jews.”
1938: “Assailing Hitlerism as ‘fundamentally anti-German and anti-Christian’ and picturing the Nazi regime as ‘the Antichrist’ and the enemy of Western civilization, Dr. Ernst Wilhelm Meyer” a sixteen year veteran of the German diplomatic service announced his resignation “as the first secretary of the German Embassy in Washington” where he has served for the last six years.
1938: Today is the planned date on which passengers will begin debarking at the newly refurbished port of Tel Aviv. The event is viewed as “a milestone in the rebuilding of the Jewish National Home.”
1939: Birthdate of Lester Glassner, an artist who graduated from Pratt Institute who created a “museum-size collection that included dolls and wind-up toys, plastic fruit sculptures and costume jewelry, sunglasses and makeup kits, greeting cards and matchbooks, salt and pepper shakers and Christmas ornaments, not to mention movie stills, posters, cardboard cutouts, books, magazines, records, and 8- and 16-millimeter films.”
1939: “The chief architect and designer of the Palestine Pavilion” at the New York World’s Fair, Arieh El-Hanani arrived today “on the Queen Mary to supervise “the setting up of the Palestine exhibits, which will arrive next week on the liner Excalibur.
1939: “Under a decree that Field Marshall Goering announced today, all German or Stateless Jews must surrender with a fortnight all jewels,” “knives, forks, tableware” “and other objects of gold, silver or platinum as well as all diamonds, pearls and other precious stones”
1939: At a time when “the present wave of anti-Semitism is aimed at the destruction of as a whole as well as the Jewish religion,” “ministers of a dozen Protestant denominations and non-denominational groups” met at Temple Israel to study Jewish religious forms and discuss common Jewish and Christian problems in a meeting “arranged by the Central Synagogue, Temple Israel and the Greater New York Federation of Churches.
1940(14th of Adar I, 5700): Purim Katan
1940: Al “Bummy’ Davis lost a unanimous decision at the lightweight level.
1941 Romanian born painter Marcel and Medi Janco and their two daughters who had survived the Iron Guard’s Bucharest Pogrom, arrived in Tel Aviv
1941: David Zacharin, Russian born cellist and director of the Tel Aviv Academy, gave his first New York recital tonight at the Town Hall. His program was devoted Jewish music. Of the seventeen works played 14 were his own while the remaining three were Bloch’s “Schelomo” (Hebrew for Rhapsody, Gnessin’s “Song of the Wandering Knight” and Bruch’s “Kol Nidre.” Zacharin “achieved real eloquence” when he played “If I Forget Thee Jerusalem,” a piece of his own creation. Whatever the evening lacked in artistic perfection was overcome by the fact that it gave “insight into the longings and religious aspirations of an ancient people.”
1941: A large scale pogrom in Amsterdam continued for a second day.
1942: Edward M.M. Warburg, son of the late Felix Warburg and Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, joined the army last week as a private, despite the fact that he is married and has a 6-months-old son, it was learned here today. A member of Company B, 518th Military Police Battalion, Private Warburg is in training at Governors Island, home station of the unit. Army headquarters, in disclosing Mr. Warburg's enlistment, emphasized that the battalion was a field unit subject to call to active service. Warburg himself declined to comment on his enlistment.
1942: Author Stefan Zweig and his wife Elizabeth who had died yesterday “were found dead of a barbiturate overdoes in their house in the city of Petropolis, Brazil.”
1942: Struma, a ship chartered to carry Jewish refugees from Axis-allied Romania to British-controlled Palestine during World War II, with its engine inoperable, was towed from Istanbul through the Bosporus out to the Black Sea by Turkish authorities with its refugee passengers aboard, where it was left adrift.
1943: A division of the Red Army attacked the Germans at Alexseyevka, in the Ukraine. Many of the attacking soldiers were Jews.
1943: Lydia Litvyak “was awarded the Order of the Red Star, made a junior lieutenant and selected to take part in the elite air tactic called okhotniki, or "free hunter", where pairs of experienced pilots searched for targets on their own initiative.”
1944: At Zwadka, Poland, a Polish man and his daughter were killed by Germans, along with the two Jewish women whom they had helped.
1945(10th of Adar, 5705): As the Soviet Army approached Schwarzheide, in the Dresden (Germany) area 300 Jews who had been moved from Berkenau to the Schwarzheide factories were shot. The German camps of Belsen, Dachau, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen and Ravnebruck became the destination of thousands of evacuated Jews from all the other camps
1945: Father Stefan Wincenty Frelichowski who had been arrested by the Gestapo in 1939 died today at Dachau.
1945: Joe Rosenthal takes the most famous picture of World War II, "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima."
1946: In a report issued by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, medical authorities said that there were no reports of Plague in Europe with the exception of the Mediterranean ports including Jaffa with two cases, and Haifa and Tel Aviv with one case each.
1947: General Eisenhower opened a drive to raise $170 million in aid for European Jews
1948: In Tel Aviv, Ruth and Gad Paz gave birth to their son Amnon Paz who perished aboard the Israeli Submarine Dakar on January 25, 1968.
1949(24th of Shevat, 5709): Fifty-nine year old print-maker Todros Geller who a leading Chicago artist passed away today leaving behind a treasure trove of work part of which can be seen at the Spertus Institute.
1950: Birthdate of Rebecca Newberger, the native of White Plains, NY, gained fame as author Rebebbac Goldstein.
1952: “Love is Better than Ever” a romantic comedy directed by Stanley Donen and starring Larry Parks and Elizabeth Taylor was released in the United States today.
1952: Three years after being released in the United Kingdom, “The Small Room” which Emeric Pressburger co-directed, co-produced and co-wrote was released in the United States today.
1952: In Philadelphia, Frieda (née Schreiber) and Alexander Herskovitz gave birth to Marshall Schreiber Herskowitz, the director, producer and writer who won several Emmys for “Thirtysomething” the television series he created.
1954: The first mass inoculation using the Salk Polio Vaccine began. In one of the irony of history the first polio vaccine was created by a Jewish Doctor, Jonas Salk. But the second polio vaccine was also created by a Jewish Doctor, Albert Sabin.
1955: In France, the second government led by Pierre Mendès France ended today.
1955: Marianne Winters began playing the role of “Gelda” in a production of “The Dark Is Light Enough” which opened today.
1957: “The Diary of Anne Frank” which had opened at the Cort Theatre in 1955 was performed for the last time prior to moving to the Ambassador Theatre where it would open three days later
1960(25thof Shevat, 5720): Seventy-eight year old gold medal winning Olympic fencer Alexandre Lippmann passed away.
1962: Churchill’s friend Montague Brown wrote a letter expressing his concerns about the retired Prime Minister’s plan to visit Israel on an upcoming cruise to the eastern Mediterranean. He was fearful of the effect such a visit would have on Britain’s Arab friends in the Middle East. Ultimately, Churchill’s yacht would pass the coast of Israel at night and would not make landfall.
1965: Sixty-four year old Herberts Cukurs, a member of the Arajs Kommando which slaughter thousands of Jews in Latvia died today in Uruguay.
1965: In Houston Lorraine Charlotte (née Langfan), a stockbroker and Alexander Dell, an orthodontist, gave birth to Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computers.
1965: American classic’s scholar Charles A. Robinson, the husband of Celia Sachs and son-in-law of art historian Paul J. Sachs who played a key role in saving European art from the Nazis, passed away today.
1968(24th of Shevat, 5728): Fannie Hurst passed away at the age of 78. Born in 1889 in Ohio, she graduated from Washington University (St. Louis) and then furthered her studies at Columbia in NYC. (This educational activity was unusual in and of itself for a woman of her times. Hurst was a successful author, friend of Eleanor Roosevelt and supporter of the New Deal and aid to refugees from Nazi Europe. By the time she passed away she had written seventeen novels, nine volumes of short stories, three plays, many articles, speaking engagements, a television talk show and collaborated on a number of films. One of the most amusing stories about her, which shows that she was way ahead of her times, involved her marriage. “In 1915, she had secretly married pianist Jacques Danielson and they each had their own residence. When their marriage was revealed in 1920, a New York Times editorial took them to task for having separate residences when there was a housing shortage. Hurst retaliated by stating that a married woman had the right to retain her own name, her own special life and her own personal liberty. They remained happily married until his death in 1952.” When Justice Arthur Goldberg declared in 1962, "that it is time that we evaluated Women on merit and fitness for a job," she snapped back, "Time sir! You are a half century too late.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/hurst.html
1970: One American was killed and two more injured when terrorists opened fire on a bus at Halhoul.
1971: The First World Conference on Soviet Jewry which had opened in Brussels on February 23 came to a close today.
1973(21st of Adar I, 5733): Tehilla Lichtenstein passed away. She served as leader of the Society for Jewish Science from 1938 until her death.
1974(1st of Adar, 5734): Songwriter Harry Ruby passed away.
http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C308
1977: Leonard Steinberg, Baron Steinberg of Belfast in the County of Antrim was shot by the Provisional Irish Republican Army after he refused to give in to a demand to pay “protection money.”
1979: Release date in Italy for “Christ Stopped at Eboli” (Cristo si è fermato a Eboli) a film adaptation of the book of the same name by Carlo Levi.
1981: Birthdate of actor, comedian and singer Joshua Ilan “Josh” Gad whose father “was a Jewish immigrants from Afghanistan.”
1982: Today, “Tanya Gulyaeva-Gurevich, the daughter of Minsk refusenik, Lieutenant-Colonel Lev Ovsischer, who emigrated to Israel in 1979, was allowed by the Soviet authorities to pay a month’s visit to her sick mother in Minsk.”
1983: Moshe Arens replaced Menachem Begin as Defense Minister.
1986: In “The Museums of Israel,” published today, Nitza Rosovsky, the curator of exhibits at the Harvard Semitic Museum and the author of Jerusalem Walks describes “Israel, as a crossroads of ancient civilizations in which the countryside itself is like a museum filled with the remains of those who were here before, from Canaanites to Philistines, from Romans to Crusaders. Even the present-day inhabitants -Jews from some 80 lands, Arabs from all over the Middle East, Christians of different denominations - create a living museum.” In describing the rich variety of museums to be found in Israel, she captures both the history and the efforts to capture the history of the land and cultures that are now part of the Jewish homeland.
1987: The Russian Writers Union accepts Boris Pasternak as a as member posthumously
1987: Aulcie Perry Jr., a former basketball player who became an Israeli citizen and was hailed as a sports champion there, was convicted in Brooklyn Federal Court tonight of smuggling heroin with a street value of $1.8 million into the United States
1987: “Former Soviet Prisoner of Conscience Iosif Begun” who “was pardoned last week after serving three years for ‘anti-Soviet activities’ as a result of his teaching Hebrew” arrived in Moscow this morning after his released from Chistopol Prison.
1988: Elections for the President of Israel were held today in the Knesset with Chaim Herzog, who was unopposed winning re-election.
1989: At the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Soviet émigré pianist Vladimir Feltsman is scheduled to play the music of Schubert and Mussorgsky at a benefit performance designed to raise funds for the Maimonides Research and Development Foundation.
1990(28th of Shevat, 5750): David Samuilovich Kaufman who wrote under the name of David Samoylov passed away. Born in 1920, he was a “notable poet of War generation of Russian poets, and considered one of the most important Russian poets of the post-World War II era.”
1992: In Philadelphia, Israeli tennis player Amos Mansdorf lost in the finals to American Pete Sampras.
1995: The Washington Post reported today that “Steven T. Katz, who is to become director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum here next month, was reprimanded in the early 1990's for misrepresenting his scholarly achievements and violating leave policies while on the faculty at Cornell University.”
1997: Sixty five million viewers watch the completely uncensored version of “Schindler’s List” on NBC television.
1997(16th of Adar I, 5757): Oscar Lewenstein, British producer and director, passed away at the age of 80.
1997: Palestinian Ali Abu Kamal opens fire on tourists on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, killing one and wounding another six before committing suicide.
1997: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Nazi Germany and the Jews, Volume 1: The Years of Persecution, 1933-1939 by Saul Friedlander and Conflicting Accounts: The Creation and Crash of the Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Empire by Kevin Goldman
1998: Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders. Considering what the Crusaders did to the Jews during the Middle Ages, this is a strange declaration indeed.
1999: In another example of personalization and splintering of Israeli politics, Yitzhak Mordechai quit Likud and formed the Israel in the Centre Party. Other members included David Magen and Dan Meridor from Likud, Hagai Meirom and Nissim Zvili of Labour, and Eliezer Sandberg of Tzomet.
1999: Michael Nudelman and Yuri Stern left Yisrael BaAliyahto form Aliyah, which later entered into an alliance with another Russian-immigrant party, Yisrael Beiteinu.
2000(17th of Adar I, 5760): Ofrz Haza, popular Yeminite Israeli singer, passed away. Born in 1957, she made her international debut at the Eurovision Song Contest 1983, which she very narrowly failed to win for Israel with the song "Hi". Ofra Haza had a world-wide hit in 1988 with "Im Nina'lu" from the album Fifty Gates of Wisdom. Her international hits also included "Temple of Love (Touched by the Hand of Ofra Haza)" with the Leeds-based post-punk band, The Sisters of Mercy in 1992 and "My Love is for Real" with Paula Abdul in 1995. She also sang in the animated film The Prince of Egypt in 1998. Her Israeli hits include "Shir ha-Frekha" ("The Bimbo Song", theme from the movie Shlager, in which she also acted) and "le-Orekh ha-Yam" ("Along the Shore"). Haza, who came from the poor Hatikvah neighborhood of Tel-Aviv, at one time almost a slum, was a success story and the subject of pride on behalf of many Israelis of Yemenite origin. She died of AIDS.
2001(30thof Shevat, 5761): Rosh Chodesh Adar
2003(21st of Adar I, 5763): Meyer R. Schkolnick, who became the famed sociologist Robert K. Merton, passed away at the age of 93. According to one source he is the man who coined such as phrases as “unintended consequences,” “role model” and “self-fulfilling prophecy.”
2003(21stof Adar I, 5763): Seventy-three year old Jerusalem native Shlomo Argov the confidant of David Ben Gurion and Israeli Ambassador to several countries including the United Kingdom who with his wife Hava had three children – Gideon, Yehudit and Edna – passed away today.
2003: Bruce Fleisher won the Verizon Classic.
2003: An International Conference hosted by the Dubnow Institute on “Transforming Religious and Ethnic Emblematics of Judaism and Jewishness” continued for a second day.
2005(14thof Adar I, 5765): Purim Katan
2005: The French Law on Colonialism passed to by the Union for a Popular Movement was opposed by Jewish French historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet
2005: Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz announced that Dan Halutz would be the next IDF Chief of Staff.
2005: Effi Eitam and Yitzhak Levi announced that they had officially split from the NRP to form a new party, the Renewed Religious National Zionist Party
2005: “Serenada Schizophrana,” “a series of compositions written by American film composer Danny Elfman in 2004 premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City by the American Composers Orchestra today.
2005: Chief Nazi hunter Eli Rosenbaum was the guest speaker for "Prosecuting Nazi War Criminals". Over 150 students, staff and community members crammed into the UMKC School of Law Courtroom for the lecture. Eli Rosenbaum has directed the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) for over 10 years.
2006: As reported in The Washington Post, Frederick Busch, 64, a writer whose novels and short stories were esteemed by critics but who never quite found a large following with the general public, died of a heart attack at a New York City hospital. Since 1971, Mr. Busch had written 27 books and came to be known, perhaps in sympathy with his middling sales, as the quintessential "writer's writer." Novelist Scott Spencer called him "a first-rate American storyteller," and Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley praised him as "a serious and gifted novelist" whose stories and novels "tend to be quiet, reflective and subtle."
2006: The Roundabout Theatre Company revival of “The Pajama Game,” a musical created by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross opened today.
2006: “'Maternal ambivalence' is Ayelet Waldman's baby” published today.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2006-02-23-waldman_x.htm
2007: Ben Stiller received the Hasty Pudding Man of the Year award from Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals. According to the organization, the award is given to performers who give a lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment
2007: In Amsterdam, the Jewish Historical Museum opens Retrospectives of the works of photographers Robert Capra and Eva Besnyö.
2007: In Jerusalemthe 23rd International Book Fair which is being held at the Binyanei Haooma Convention Center comes to an end.
2007(5th of Adar, 5767): Heinz Berggruen, collector and gallery owner passed away at the age of 93. (As reported by Alan Riding)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/arts/design/27berggruen.html
2008: In Washington, D.C. Susan Jacoby author of Half Jew: A Daughter's Search for Her Family's Buried Past discusses and signs her newest work, The Age of American Unreason.
2008:Joseph Cedar, director of the Oscar-nominated Israeli film Beaufort, and an Orthodox Jew, will attend a symposium sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the five finalists vying for the best foreign-language film Oscar today. Since the symposium is being held on Shabbat attending presented a unique challenge for Cedar. Cedar’s rabbi told him he could attend as long as he walked to the event and did not use a microphone. Observing Shabbat would require a two mile long walk to the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre which Cedar, New York born whose parents made Aliyah when he was five, figured he could cover in about two hours.
2008: Simon Garfield described the story of Anne Frank’s lost love.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/feb/24/news.features
2009: Manhattanville College sponsors a lecture and Q and A session with Ambassador Danny Carmon, Deputy Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations entitled "Israel and Europe: An Insider's Perspective."
2009: After undergoing surgery to remove a tumor on her pancreas, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returned to the court in time for three days of oral arguments.
2009: Sport Illustrated“remembers the life” the late Joe Goldstein, the “old-school sports public relation man” who recently passed away at the age of 81. He was known for his upbeat manner as well as his persistency which cause an NBC executive to describe him as “the Jewish equivalent of the Chinese water drip.” His clients included “Joe Frazier, Bob Hope, the New York City Marathon, Evel Knivel and the Palisades Parkway.”
2009: In Washington, D.C.,Sara Houghteling reads from and signs her new novel, Pictures at an Exhibition, at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue (formerly the home of Adas Israel, the only Conservative Synagogue still located in the District of Columbia.)
2009:The Israel Antiquities Authority announced today that a routine archeological excavation that was conducted before the scheduled start of a private construction project in an Arab neighborhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem has uncovered a series of seal impressions from the reign of the biblical King Hezekiah 2,700 years ago.
2009:IDF soldiers foiled a large-scale attack at the Kissufim border crossing against troops or a southern Israeli community.
2009: Gaza terrorists fired two Kassam rockets at southern Israeli civilian areas on Monday. One hit an open area in the Sha'ar Hanegev region, while the other landed in a field near Sderot. No one was wounded and no damage was reported.
2010: The three-day long meeting of the Jewish Agency for Israel being held in Jerusalem is scheduled to end.
2010: The Jewish Studies Program at Tulane University under the leadership of Dr. Brian Horowitz and the Center for Cultural Judaism are scheduled to present a program about Satmar Chasidism featuring Dr. David N. Myers, Professor and Director, UCLA Center for Jewish Studies.
2010: Israel said today that Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon will lead a high-level delegation next week to China, the most prominent holdout against tough sanctions on Iran. Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer will also travel with the delegation, expected to discuss issues shared by both nations.
2010: Delaware's first Jewish governor hung a mezuzah at the governor's mansion in Dover today. Among those joining Jack Markel in today’s ceremony in the capital were Rabbi Peter Grumbacher of the governor’s synagogue, Congregation Beth Emeth in Wilmington; Rabbi Steven Saks of the Rabbinical Association of Delaware; and Glenn Engelmann, president of the Jewish Federation of Delaware, according to the Sussex Countian. Markel received the mezuzah as an inauguration gift, according to the report.
2011: “Vidal Sassoon: The Movie” and “The Klezmatics: On Holy Ground” are two of the documentaries scheduled to be shown tonight at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.
2011: The 25thJerusalem International Book Fair is scheduled to present a program entitled ''The Changing Jewish Kitchen - Is Jewish food still Jewish food and what is it?''
2011: David McKenzie is scheduled to present a program entitled “Isachar Zacharie: Lincoln’s Chiropodist—and Peace Envoy” at Adas Israel in Washington, DC.
2011: Eleven Palestinians were injured today when Israeli Defense Forces fired at a group of militants on the border with Gaza, Palestinian news agencies reported. The IDF responded by saying that an explosive device was detonated toward soldiers who were performing routine activity in the area, on the northern part of the border. The IDF noted that in the past two months, "over 12 devices were laid along the security fence and exploded at IDF forces."
2011(19thof Adar I, 5771): Eighty-seven year old Joseph H. Flom, a pioneering corporate lawyer who helped build Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom into one of the nation’s leading law firms, passed away today.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/joseph-h-flom-pioneering-deal-lawyer-dead-at-87/
2011(19thof Adar I, 5771):Jack Gottlieb, a composer who brought synagogue melodies to concert halls and who worked closely with the legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein passed away today at the age of 80.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/lohud/obituary.aspx?n=jack-gottlieb&pid=149164072
2012(30thof Shevat, 5772): Rosh Chodesh Adar
2012: Dina Zvi-Riklis’s 2006 film “Three Mothers” that explores Israel’s history through the lives of three Egyptian-born sisters Triplets Rose, Flora and Yasmin who were born into “high society” over 60 years ago in Alexandria, Egypt and now live in Israel, is scheduled to be shown at The Yeshiva University Ring Family Israel Film Festival.
2012: “Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray” is scheduled to shown at the Columbus Jewish Film Festival in Columbus, GA
2012: In London, “Mordechai Richler: The Last of the Wild Jews” a film about the Canadian-Jewish author is scheduled to be shown as part of Jewish Book Week.
2012: In London, Simon Goldhill is scheduled to discuss “Freud's Couch, Scott's Buttocks, Bronte's Grave” as part of Jewish Book Week.
2012: Iran submitted a letter of protest to the United Nations Security Council today, charging Israel of attacking its nuclear scientists and coloring recent accusations of Tehran's links to attempted attacks against Israeli officials worldwide as being part of a "war game" against the Islamic Republic.
2012: Interior Minister Eli Yishai said today that "The government will have to extend Tal Law until alternative legislation regulating yeshiva students' military service is drafted, with the collaboration of the Defense, Justice and Finance ministries
2013: The Northernmost Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to open in Fairbanks, Alaska.
2013: In Iowa City, Hillel is scheduled to host its annual fundraising event in which Benjamin Coelho will join with colleagues from the University Of Iowa School Of Music to perform a program entitled “Songs without Words.”
2013: Purim in Ein Karem “More than Carnival: with the Ensemble Millennium is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. today.
2013: The Maccabeats are scheduled to perform at Temple Moses in Miami Beach, FL.
2013(13th of Adar, 5773): Shabbat Zachor Erev Purim
2013: In the evening, reading of the Megillah Esther
2013: Today’s announcement by the Pentagon it was grounding all F-35 fighter jets due to a crack found in one of the engine blades” could have an unforeseen impact on Israel’s military capabilities since the IAF has ordered 20 of the planes in a bid to maintain a qualitative edge over its vast array of actual and potential adversaries
2014: Adam Liptak, Supreme Court correspondent for the New York Times is scheduled to Hadassah Attorneys Council dinner in Washington, DC
2014: “Handle With Care,” a hilarious and heartwarming romantic comedy about an inept package deliverer who loses an Israeli grandmother’s corpse in a Virginia parking lot on a snowy Christmas Eve is scheduled to have its final performance at Westside Theatre Downstairs
2014: “Threshold to the Sacred: The Ark Door of Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue” is scheduled to close today at Yeshiva University Museum.
2014: Ruth Grumber is scheduled to appear via Skype at the event officially opening “Ahead of Time: The Extraordinary Journey of Ruth Gruber.”
2014: The annual Seforim Sale – the largest sale of Jewish books in North America – is scheduled to come to a close.
2014: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Forgiving The Angel: Four Stories for Franz Kafka by Jay Cantor
2014(23rd of Adar I, 5774): Alice Herz-Sommer, believed to be the oldest-known survivor of the Holocaust, died this morning in London at age 110, a family member said. Herz-Sommer’s devotion to the piano and to her son sustained her through two years in a Nazi prison camp, and a film about her has been nominated for best short documentary at next week’s Academy Awards.
2014: Following the death today Alice Herz-Sommer, Yisrael “Kristal became recognized as the wolrd’s oldest known Holocaust survivor.
2014(23rd of Adar I, 5774): Eighty-seven year old Rabbi Joseph Ehrenkranz who was the Executive Director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut and was the Synagogue Council of America's representative to the United Nations passed away today.
2014(23rd of Adar I, 5774): Samuel Sheinbein, an American-Israeli convicted murderer serving his sentence in Israel was shot and killed today at Rimonim Prison today after he shot three people today, all of whom were apparently prison guards.
2015: Cecile Kuntz is scheduled to “explore how Jews asserted their presence in cities by looking at buildings constructed by Yiddish-speaking communities in Poland and America” in a lecture styled “Towards a Yiddish Architecture
2015: The Winter Semester is scheduled start at the Skirball Center offering such courses as the “Golden Age of Yiddish Cinema” with Dr. Eric Goldman and “Man, Miracle and Menace – The Truth About Elijah” with Dr. Diane M. Sharon which comes just in time with Pesach only weeks away to enliven the part of the Seder when we open the proverbial door.
2015: In London, “Jewish Book Week, a unique nine day literary festival” is scheduled to open today.
2016: The Center for Jewish History and the Leo Baeck Institute hosted the opening “Burning Words: The Battle of the Books” that examines the 16th century debate among Christians as to whether or not Jews should be allowed to publish books on Jewish theology.
2016: The Jewish Book Council is scheduled to host an evening with Shulem Deen, Christopher Noxon and Sigal Samuel -- 3 authors who will “share their unorthodox perspectives on what it means to keep the faith with respect to their writing, personal lives, and the Jewish people at large.
2016: Under the terms of a settlement announced today by the University of Oklahoma,the ownership of impressionist Camille Pissarro's 1886 "Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep" will be transferred to Léone Meyer, a French Holocaust survivor whose father owned the painting when it was stolen and the painting “will split its time being displayed at the university's Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in Norman and a museum in France.” (As reported by Daniel C. Houston)
2017(27th of Shevat, 5777): Sixty-six year old Alan Colmes, “the liberal foil” that FOX used to make it “fair and balanced” and husband of Professor Jocelyn Elise Crowley passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2017: “The Jewish Community Center in New Orleans was evacuated” for two hours today “after a receiving a bomb threat this morning – the latest in a series of such threats made against centers across the United States.
2017: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to co-host “a deli supper reception and docent-led tour of the Museum’s newest special exhibition, Operation Finale: The Capture & Trial of Adolf Eichmann, followed by a screening of Faceless, a story about a teenager on trial for terrorism, pitted against a female Muslim who is brought on to prosecute.
2017: In San Francisco, Lynn Downey is scheduled to “speak about her book, Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World “at the Jewish Community Library
2017: In London, JW3 is scheduled to present past judges of the JQ Wingate Literary Prize discus “What Makes a Book Jewish?”
2017: “An Israeli Air Force fighter jet shot down” an Hamas drone today “before it managed to infiltrate Israel.” (As reported by Yoav Zitun)
2017: In Davie, FL, Nova Southeastern University is scheduled to host Holocaust survivor Alfred Munzer and Syrian immigrant Mouaz Moustafa, the Executive Director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force as they share their experiences dealing with “persecution and displacement.” (Editor’s note: One wonders how Moustafa will deal with the fate of the Syrian Jewish community and/or Syria’s decades long attempt to destroy the state of Israel – home to the largest population of Holocaust survivors.)
2017: At Coe College, Professor Steve Feller is scheduled to lead the final session of “The Conflicted World Of Chaim Potok” in which he uses the author’s novel to explore the “conflicts within Judaism.”
2018: In Coralville, Iowa, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host a Hebrew School Dinner followed by a Kabbalat Shabbat Song Fest.
2018: Following the Friday night Shabbat meal, the Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to hold Committee Elections for Trinity.
2018: The Jackson Hole Jewish Community Center is scheduled to host services with an Oneg to follow.