March 14
1181: King Philip Augustus of France ordered the seizure of all Jews of Paris attending synagogue and had them detained for ransom
1473(14th of Adar): Marranos massacred in Cordova, Spain
1489: The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice. Jews had been living on this Mediterranean island since Roman time. At the time of the Venetian acquisition, a considerable number of Jews were leading merchants in the port of Famagusta.
1492: Queen Isabella of Castile orders her 150,000 Jewish subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.
1535: David dei Rossi a Jewish merchant from Italy, who set out for the Orient in 1534, writes his wife Sarah the following observation of life in Ottoman Palestine, "Hatred of the Jew is, in contrast to our homeland, unknown here, and the Turks hold the Jews in esteem. In this country and in Egypt, Jews are the chief officers and administrators of the customs.
1543: During the Counter Reformation, Paul III issued entitled “Injunctum nobis,” a papal bull that affirmed certain Catholic teachings, including the authority of the Pope, in the face of Protestant challenges. This came a year after Paul III had launched an Inquisition that was designed to stamp the Protestant revolution begun by Luther. “Judaizing” was one of the crimes that the Inquisition was empowered to investigated and punish.
1630: In Przemysl, Poland, Moses the Braider, a Jewish merchant, was accused of conspiring to desecrate the host and was burned alive.
1647: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm during the Thirty Years War. The Thirty Years War coincided with the great Cossack Uprising. Jewish refugees from these two calamities reversed the eastward migration of Jews. A trickle that would eventual became a comparative “torrent” began moving Westward settling in Holland and England.
1682: Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael, the Dutch landscape painter whose works include “The Jewish Cemetery” passed away today.
1750: In New Amsterdam (New York City), Isaac Mendes Seixas, a native of Lisbon and Rachel Franks Levy, a native of London gave birth to Abraham Mendes Seixas who would be buried in Charleston, SC when he passed away at the end of the 18th century.
1774(2nd of Nisan, 5534): The Jews of Basra, Persia celebrated a special Purim, Yom Ha Nes
1791: Sixty-five year old Johann Salomon Semler the Lutheran historian and biblical commentator who “was the first to take due note of and use for critical purposes the opposition between the Judaic and anti-Judaic parties of the early church” passed away today.
1794(12 of Adar II, 5554): Elias Issak Wetheim, who had moved to Frankfurt in 1769 and was the husband of Merle Cahn passed away today.
1799: The French Army under Napoleon leaves Jaffa after conquering the city and “continued its march northwards towards its goal, Acre.”
1808(15th of Adar, 5568): Shushan Purim
1820: Birthdate of Victor Emmanuel II, the first King of a unified Italian state. He reigned from 1861 until 1878. How big a difference did the emergence of the modern Italian nation make to the Jewish people? “Historian Howard Morley Sacher puts it this way: ‘In 1848 there had been no European country save Spain where the restrictions placed upon Jews were more galling and more humiliating than in Italy. After 1860, there was no country on the continent of Europe where conditions were better for Jews.’”
1821: Thirty-two year old Sarah Marks, the daughter of Michael Marks married Samuel Lyons today.
1827(15th of Adar, 5587): Shushan Purim
1832: In Edinburgh, Helen and Sir Charles Fergusson gave birth to Sir James Fergusson who during a Parliamentary debate in 1890 “said that the British Charge d’Affiares at St. Petersburg had telegraphed the Foreign Office that no fresh measures were under consideration by the Government aiming to deprive the Jews of any of the privileges they now enjoy.”
1841: Birthdate of Moritz Rosenhaupt, whose father was the rabbi at Offenbach on the Glan (Prussia) who served as a cantor at Speyer and Nuremberg.
1851: While traveling from London to Philadelphia, Rabbi Sabato Morais arrived in New York
1853: British Parliament debates a Jewish Disabilities Bill. Lord John Russell said that “his object was to complete the edifice of religious toleration by permitting the Jewish subjects of Britain the same rights and privileges of British subjects as were a presented enjoyed by Protestants, Dissenters and Roman Catholics.” He could see no danger to Christian institutions to allow “a small number of believers in a different faith and who were otherwise good citizens and not given to proselytizing” to hold civil office. Among the opponents, the famed Robert Peel claimed that “it was incompatible with the dignity of Christians to admit Jews into almost every office.” One member of the House called for a definition of Parliamentary Christianity because “he could not understand what doctrine of the Christian religion was involved in Parliamentary Christianity. While another opponent said that Jews were as bad as atheist, Mr. O’Connell came to the defense of the Jews. As a Roman Catholic he had suffered discrimination and felt it was his duty to speak up on behalf of another group suffering the same fate. The Bill would be defeated. Victory would not come until 1848.
1853: Sixty-six year old Julius Jacob von Haynau, the Austrian general who pardoned Judah Leib "Leopold" Löw after he had been arrested following the Revolutions of 1848.
1854(14th of Adar, 5614): Purim
1854: Birthdate of Nobel Prize Winner and medical scientist, Paul Ehrlich. Ehrlich discovered a treatment for syphilis. He died in 1915 at the age of 61. How does a Jew become a German scientist? - By winning the Nobel Prize. Interestingly, the obituaries of both of these men (see Einstein below) identify them as Germans even though in the case of Einstein he was forced to flee by the Germans just before the Brown Shirts ransacked his home and office.
1855: Four years after protesting “against the ratification of a treaty between Switzerland and the United States on the ground that the former government discriminated against his co-religionists,” Jacob Ezekiel, a prominent Richmond, VA Jew and the brother-in-law of Jacob A. Levy wrote to Dr. Isaac M. Wise suggesting “the establishment of a Zion Collegiate Institute in Cincinnati and a Union of the Israelites in America in which all could co-operate in matters of religion.”
1859: Birthdate of Adolf Cardinal Bertram the archbishop of Breslau and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who in 1933 refused the request of an inter-faith group to take part in the protest of the boycott of Jewish businesses organized by the Nazis and who “ordered Church celebrations upon Nazi Germany's victory over Poland and France, with order to ring bells all across Reich upon the news of Nazi capture of Warsaw in 1939.”
1860(20th of Adar, 5620): Lewis Charles Levin passed away. Levin was the first Jew elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He was the American Party candidate from Pennsylvania in 1844. He was born in Charleston South Carolina, on November 10, 1808. He graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) with a law degree. He was a founder of the Native American Party and published and edited the Philadelphia Daily Sun. Levin was reelected twice before being defeated in 1850. He then returned to the practice of law in Philadelphia.
1861: It was announced at today’s meeting of the Board of Charities and Corrections that the Hebrew Orphan and Half orphan Asylum was among the organizations that received a portion of the $645 dollars recently raised at benefit held to raise funds for the benefit of New York’s widows and orphans.
1865:The fourth annual masquerade ball of the Purim Association took place this evening at the Academy of Music. The society is composed exclusively of Jews, and the proceeds are to be devoted to charitable purposes.
1862: Aaron Katz, a native of Philadelphia, PA who had been working as a clerk in Mecklenburg County, NC, enlisted in the Confederate Army today
1865: “The Hebrew Purim Ball” one of the highlights of the New York social season was held this evening at the Academy of Music.
1866: Seventy-six year old American historian and former President of Harvard Jared Sparks who had taken an interest in the life of Haym Solomon passed away. When others were attempting to denigrate Solomon’s role, Professor Sparks “wrote to the effect that Solomon’s association with Robert Morris ‘were very close and intimate and that a great part of the success that Mr. Morris attained in his financial schemes was due to skill and ability of Hyam Solomon.”
1868(20th of Adar, 5628): Shabbat Parah
1868(20th of Adar, 5628): Solomon Ben Baruch Salkind, the Lithuanian born poet who wrote in Hebrew passed away today.
1871: The group that would eventually become the Personal Rights Association in which “English author and economist’ Joseph Hiam Levy played a major role, met for the first time today in Manchester, UK.
1871: In a lecture delivered tonight at Rutgers Female College entitled “The Bible in the Rocks,” Professor Egleston said that the Bible was written for “Hebrew bondsman, so all of the illustrations are of a simple nature and can be comprehended by the most unenlightened. Yet these illustrations are perfectly consistent with the latest discoveries of modern science.”
1873(15th of Adar, 5633): Shushan Purim
1874: “The History of Hats” published today traces the men’s headgear from ancient Tibet to modern day France. According to the author, Jews have not made any contribution to what he calls “hatology” claiming that he cannot find a Hebrew word hat and that Jews have “entirely discarded that useful article of dress.”
1876: A full dress reception sponsored by the Purim Association will be held at Delmonico’s this evening in New York City. This event marks the fifth and final day of receptions, suppers and other festivities marking the celebration of Purim.
1879: In Ulm, Hermann Einstein, a salesman and engineer, and Pauline Koch gave birth to Albert Einstein. Forced to flee Germany during the Nazi era, Einstein continued his career at Princeton where he died in 1955. He published four scientific papers in his spare time while he worked as an examiner in the Swiss Patents Office. Each one had revolutionary implications for the field of physics. Among them was his special theory of relativity. Einstein said, "If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y plus Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut." It was Einstein who warned Roosevelt of the dangers of Nazi Germany building the Atomic Bomb - a warning headed by the United States. Einstein's views on religion were not exactly Jewish, but he was Jewish enough to be offered the Presidency of the infant state of Israel - a position he reluctantly declined.
1881: According to Mrs. Berthold Riese, she was married to Berthold Riese, a Jewish clairvoyant on this date. During a trial in 1887, in which he faced charges of having abandoned his wife, Riese would deny the validity of the document which said the he, a Jew, was married to Catholic by a Lutheran minister.
1883: Karl Marx passed away.
1884: Birthdate of Maxwell Zwerbach the American gangster known as Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach who led the Eastman Gang.
1888: This morning, at Coosaw, SC, Rabbi David Levy officiated at the wedding of Maurice Emanuel of St. Augustine, FL and Mary E. Seixas at the home of A.M. Lopez.
1892(15th of Adar, 5652): Shushan Purim
1892: Police Recorder dismissed the charges that had been lodged against two Jewish grocers who had been arrested last week for doing business on Sunday.
1893: Two members of a gang in Kansas City, MO that uses a Jewish fence named Morantz were captured this morning.
1894: In Vienna, burial of eighty-four year Bohemian born medical doctor Ludwig August Ritter von Frankl-Hochwart, the student of Zecharias Frankel who served as secretary and archivist of the Vienna Jewish community where he practiced medicine and was active in the Revolution of 1848. (As reported by Singer and Mannheimer)
1894: Among the charities that received money from the Mayor’s Committee of Five which was distributing funds that had been raised to aid those who have lost their jobs during the current economic distribution was the United Hebrew Charities which was given $2,700.
1896: The Hovevei Zion in Vienna decides to call on Herzl to work for the fulfillment of the program of a Jewish state.
1896: The Jewish children whose families live on the upper east side of New York City gave a ball and carnival tonight at the Central Opera House.
1896: The Sutro Baths, the “largest indoor swimming pool establishment” which were built by Adolph Sutro, opened “on the western side of San Francisco” today.
1897: “The Old Dutch Records” published today described the impact of “the city of New York” to publish “the records of its municipal ancestor, Nieuw Amsterdam. Included in the documents is a report of the arrival of 23 Jews in 1654 who “were ordered to depart March 1, 1655. The Patroons of the West India Company decide, however that as the Jews owned most of the stock in that organization, they would be let alone.”
1897: “Austria’s Extraordinary Politics” described the electoral climate in the polyglot empire where “the Clerical Party” which “style themselves as Christian Socialites but are better known as anti-Semites” “is led by the lower clergy in defiance” of the Bishops “but which has the benediction of the Vatican” has again won victory in Vienna.
1897: In Brooklyn, Father Sylvester Malone of the Church Saint Peter and Saint Paul spoke in praise of “Mrs. Nannette Marks, a Jewish lady who has become famous throughout Brooklyn for her benevolent acts” irrespective of the creed of those in need.
1897: Emma Frohman was in charge of the entertainment presented by the Hebrew Institute on East Broadway this evening.
1897: A service was held in memory of Morris Goodhart, the late President of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society who passed away in February.
1897: Seventieth anniversary of the birth of Mrs. Philip J. Joachimsen, the native of Bristol, who fund the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.
1898: Felix Adler addresses the Mother’s Congress this afternoon.
1899(3rd of Nisan, 5659): Seventy-five year old Ludwig Bamberger who was a revolutionary in 1848, a patriot during the Franco-Prussian War who was elected to the first German Reichstag that met in 1873
1899(3rd of Nisan, 5659): Seventy five year old Hyman Steinthal, the brother-in-law of Moritz Lazarus, who was “a German philologist and philosopher” passed away today.
1899: In Albany, Edward Lauterbach appeared before the state Senate Cities Committee to voice his opposition to a bill that would establish St. Nicholas Park because the park would encompass grounds on Amsterdam Avenue that had been previously granted to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1899: “Certain Phases of Zionism” published today described the view of Professor Thomas Davidson that the Jewish return to Palestine because of selection by “a Supreme Being” is “illogical and unfair.” “Jew must cast off the swaddling clothes of supernatural and superstition” for “the new Zion of religious freedom.”
1899(3rd of Nisan, 5659): Émile Erckmann, co-author of the 1869 play “Le Jeuf Polonais” (The Polish Jew) passed away today.
1899(3rd of Nisan, 5659): Seventy-five year old “German philologist and philosopher” Heymann Steinthal, the brother-in-law of Moritz Lazarus and “privat-dozent in critical history of the Old Testament and in religious philosophy at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, or Higher Institute for Jewish Studies” passed away today.
1899: “Topics of the Times” published today described the career of Dr. Isaac Mayer Wise, “the oldest American rabbi now in active service and generally and cordially recognized as the most eminent of them” who will be honored at the upcoming session of the Central of American Rabbis. According to the article he was born on March 14 while other sources show his birthdate as March 29, 1819.
1899: The member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis presented Dr. Isaac M. Wise with an ivory gavel mounted in gold as part of the celebrations honoring his 80th birthday which included a dinner at the Phoenix Club in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1899: Birthdate of Des Moines, IA native and Yale University graduate Elliot E. Cohen the founding editor of Commentary magazine.
1900: Morris and Rose Gershwin gave birth to future stock broker and composer Arthur Gershwin
1900: In Philadelphia, Joseph and Eva Biberman gave birth to blacklisted screenwriter and director Herbert J. Biberman, the brother of Edward Biberman
1903: Birthdate of American painter Adolph Gottlieb an original member of “The Ten” a group of mostly expressionist and mostly Jewish avant garde artists. Gottlieb abandoned figuration for a new style, “abstract expressionism.”
1904: Pope Pius X accepted the resignation of Theodor Kohn as Archbishop of Olomous who had been forced to resign according to some because his grandfather was Jewish.
1905: Birthdate of Raymond-Claude-Ferdinand Aron, “a French philosopher, sociologist and political scientist, well known for his lifelong, often critical friendship with Jean-Paul Sartre, and for his skepticism of the post-war vogue in France for ideologies that largely took their inspiration from a Marxist tradition.” The son of a Jewish lawyer who witnessed Nazi book burnings, he passed away in 1983.
1906: In St. Petersburg, “the government announced that it will take measures to stop the incitement to murder Jews” which has given rise to a rumor that the government plans to abolish all of the reactionary organizations.
1906: Flora Krichefski the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Krichefski of Jersey married Hyman Appleberg, the son of Mr. and Mrs. A.L. Appleberg at the Great Synagogue.
1906: In St. Petersburg, the Police Prefect to Premier Witte that he did not know how a “proclamation calling for the extermination of the Jews was printed in the official printing office attached to his department.”
1906: Beth Israel Hospital is scheduled to host its annual ball tonight at Madison Square Garden.
1909: In “Rabbi Lyons Urges Reform Judaism,” published today Rabbi Alexander Lyons of Temple Beth Elohim in State Street, Brooklyn expressed his opposition to the formation of a Jewish federation in New York City. His opposition is based, in part, on his strongly held belief that Reformed Judaism is “the religion of the Jewish future” and that Orthodox Judaism is doomed. Furthermore he believes that such a federation would be futile attempt to paper over the social, economic and ideological differences in the Jewish community and that such an organization would separate the Jewish people from their fellow Americans.
1910: Birthdate of Harry Blitman, the featherweight boxer from Philadelphia who began his boxing career at the age of 16.
1911(14th of Adar, 5671): Purim
1913: According to Dr. Maurice H. Harris who spoke tonight at Congregation Temple Israel, “the Jewish citizens of America were caricatured unjustly by Burton J. Hendrick in his article ‘The Jewish Invasion of America” published in the March issue of McClure’s Magazine>.
1913: The Annual Conference on Child Labor to which Leon Schwarz of Mobile, Alabama had been appointed as a delegate continued for a second day in Jacksonville, Florida.
1913: The funeral was held today in Chicago for Victor B. Strelitz, a member of the firm of Strelitz Brothers – David I., Isaac D., Maurice and Arthur V. – who had died suddenly in New York City at the age of forty two.
1914: In Asbury Park, New Jersey, Ethel and Mores Hess, a kosher butcher, gave birth to Leon Hess, “the founder of the Hess Corporation and owner of the New York Jets professional football team.
1914: “While the extraordinary motion hearing was pending, the Journal called for a new trial, saying that to execute Frank based on the atmosphere both within and outside the courtroom would "amount to judicial murder". Other newspapers in the state followed suit and many ministers spoke from the pulpit supporting a new trial.
1915: Birthdate of L.B. Stein, the native of Chatham, Mississippi, the “first cousin once removed” of Greenville, MS, born and Tulane University educated Rabbi Fred Victor Davidow and “historian” who ministered to the spiritual needs of many members of the Jewish community in Philadelphia, PA.
1915: A benefit performance sponsored by the Krakauer Charity and Aid Society is scheduled to take place tonight at the Lyric Theatre. The money raised by this event will used to buy Matzoth which will be distributed among the city’s poor Jews for their use during the upcoming celebration of Passover. The famous singer and actress, Lillian Russell has volunteered to serve as the announcer for the event. [The Krakauer Charity and Aid Society was one of the many organizations established by Jews from Cracow, Poland. No reason is given for Lillian Russell’s having volunteered her services for the event. However, she was married to Edward Solomon, the English composer whose family was Jewish.]
1915: “Nearly 3,000 delegates assembled” today at “the sixth annual meeting of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aide Society” which “was held” this “afternoon in the auditorium of Public School 62” at the corner of Hester and Essex Streets.
1915: The United States collier Vulcan set sail today from Philadelphia bound for Jaffa carrying supplies for “the relief of the needy of the Holy Land” as well as supplies for the United States battleships North Carolina and Tennessee.
1915: “About 250 persons” attended “a rally of the Bronx Young Men’s Hebrew Association” that was held this afternoon at Morris High School chaired by Assemblyman M. M. Fertig.
1916: “An enthusiastic demonstrations for preparedness was made” in Philadelphia “tonight when the Maccabean Regiment, the first Jewish military corps in the United States was formed preparatory to any call that might arise for the nation’s defense.”
1916: “Representatives of the Union of Orthodox Congregations and of the New York Board of Jewish Ministers appeared at Albany” today to express “opposition to the pending bill providing for the compulsory reading from the Bible in the public schools” of New York.
1917: Fifty-six year old Fernand-Gustave-Gaston Labori, French attorney who defended Émile Zola in 1898 in the Dreyfus trial and Captain Alfred Dreyfus at the court martial in Rennes in 1899 passed away today.
1917: “Turn Flowers To Charity” published today described Henry Morgenthau and Louis Marshall’s support for the suggestion of I. Edwin Goldwasser, the Director of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies that people stop sending flowers for funerals and contribute the money in the name of the deceased to a charity of their choice.
1918: Rabbi Hyman Gerson Enelow who served “as a member of the Overseas Commission of the Jewish Welfare Board, which went to France in July, 1918” wrote today that it was his “good fortune” be in Paris after the signing of the Armistice and that “the People don’t seem to be able to find a way to express their joy” over the “marvelous victory of the Allies.”
1918: The first edition of the New York Weekly Jewish News edited by P.M. Raskin and Saul J. Cohen complete with “brief and authoritative articles, lively fiction, a woman’s page, children’s’ sections and cartoon” is scheduled to makes it appearance it today.
1918: In keeping with orders issued by the U.S. Army last week, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniel has instructed all naval commanders that it is within in their discretion “to give forty-two hours leave being with the evening of March 27 to men of the Jewish faith in the navy so that they may observe Passover.”
1918: A dinner hosted by Judges Otto A, Rosalsky and Moses H. Grossman was held tonight at New York’s Savoy Hotel in honor of Judge Julian W. Mack of Chicago during which sixty thousand dollars was raised to go to a fund for establishing a Jewish State in Palestine.
1919: Birthdate of St. Paul, MN native Maximillian Shulman the humor writer who gave us loads of off-beat laughs in the tales of Dobie Gillies, “The Tender Trap” and Rally Round the Flag Boys and was married to Mary Goodman Shulman, the mother of Martha Rose Shulman.
1920: Hayyah and Zevi Kempner gave birth to Vitka Kempner the Jewish resistance fighter who married famed poet Abba Kovner.
1921: In New York, Leah Rosenthal Landman and Dr. Michael Louis Landman gave birth to Ada Louise Landman who as “Ada Louise Huxtable, pioneered modern architectural criticism in the pages of The New York Times, celebrating buildings that respected human dignity and civic history — and memorably scalding those that did not…” (As reported by David Dunlap)
1921: Arthur Shelby Levinsohn who had been serving as lieutenant in Quartermaster Corps since January was promoted to the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army today.
1921: Alice Edith Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading (née Alice Edith Cohen) was appointed Companion of the Order of the Crown of India today.
1921: Lionel Leopold Meyer was promoted to the rank of Captain in the United States Army today.
1921: Eustace Maduro Piexotto who had been serving a lieutenant in the Infantry was promoted to the rank of Captain in the United States Army today.
1921: Ralph Hirsch was promoted to the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army today.
1921: Lester Abraham Harris was promoted to the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army today.
1921: Nathaniel L. Simmonds was promoted to the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army today.
1921: Joseph Philip Kohn was promoted to the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army today.
1921: Charles Wells Jacobson was promoted to the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army today.
1921: Milton Lowenberg was promoted to the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army today.
1922(14th of Adar, 5682): Purim
1922: In London, Joe Pole “a refugee from the Ukraine who was Head of Publicity for the United Arts and Phoebe Louise Pole (nee Rickards) a suffragette, school-teach and Labor Party member of Finchley Council gave birth to historian Jack Richon Pole whose works included Political Representation in England and the Origins of the American Republic and The Pursuit of Equality in American History.
1923: In New York, David Nemerov and Gertrude Russek Nemerov, the owners of Russek’s department store gave birth to Diane Nemerov who gained famed as photographer Diane Arbus.
1923: Birthdate of Meyer Zarodinsky the Bessarabian native who made Aliyah in 1925 and gained fame Meir “Zarro” Zorea an IDF general and member of the Knesset
1926: At the Hotel Astor, Judge Otto Rosalsky was among the speakers during a dinner that raised $25,000 as the opening event for a fund to build the Jewish Center of University Heights which will require at least $150,000.
1926: During “an executive meeting of the American Jewish Congress held today at the Hotel Biltmore, William Filderman described the anti-Semitic conditions in his home country of Romania including a measure which “disenfranchise 15,000 Jews.
1930(14th of Adar, 5690): First Purim of the Great Depression
1930: Racecar driver Woolf Barnato, the son of Barney Barnato, “reached Dale Bourne's club (the Conservative) in St James's,” thus making good on his boast that he could reach London before the French “Blue Train” reached Calais
1930: Premiere of Die letzte Kompagnie (The Last Company) a German War movie directed by Curtis Bernhardt and produced by Joe May.
1932(6th of Adar II, 5692): Benjamin N. Cardozo joins his fellow Jew Louis Brandeis as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
1935: Birthdate of “Jack Keil Wolf, an engineer and computer theorist whose mathematical reasoning about how best to transmit and store information helped shape the digital innards of computers and other devices that power modern society.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1936: The campaign for contributions to an “Albert Einstein Fund for Palestine” that began today on Dr. Einstein’s birthday has the unique rule that “no one will be permitted to more than one dollar” which is designed to encourage a massive outpouring affection for the scientist.
1936: Members of Mount Neboh Temple, which last night heard speeches from “former Judge Jeremiah T. Mahoney, Rabbi Israel Goldstein of B’nai Jershurun and Dr. Robert A. Ashworth, educational secretary of the National Conference of Jews and Christians continued celebrating the congregation’s Silver Jubilee today.
1936: According to reports published today, “an appeal to relatives in the United States and Canada for assistance in emigration from the district” where anti-Semitic riots are taking place “ was made by the 700 Jewish families of Przytyk where” the violence has left three dead and at least 22 people with serious injuries.
1937: Pope Pious XI issued an encyclical condemning racism. This was one of the few times the Vatican made a public statement against the Nazi regime. The next pope, Pious XII, did even less.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that Shlomo Gafni, 28, and Hanoch Metz, 24, of Kfar Hahoresh were stabbed to death and their flock of 320 sheep and 70 goats stolen by Arab murderers. A bomb was thrown in Tiberias and there were various shooting incidents in Galilee. In Safed, a self-constituted Arab "National Committee" confined Jews to their quarter, subject to a rigid boycott. "We are like prisoners over whom hangs an indeterminate sentence," one Safed Jew complained. In London the Royal (Peel) Commission on Palestine heard further evidence from Sir Winston Churchill and other important British personalities.
1938: In its first response the “German conquest of Austria” Prime Minster Chamberlain today “foreshadowed a new kind of national service” which was voluntary for now but which later might become “compulsory” which “would make Britain a nation in arms for the first time since 1918.”
1938: “William Ormsby-Gore, Secretary of State for. Colonies, today announced another stop-gap quota for Jewish immigration into Palestine, which probably will maintain the flow at about the same reduced level as at present for another six months instead the approximate figure of 8,000 Jews permitted to enter Palestine during the eight months from August through the present month.”
1938: Time published “GERMANY: Vivid Satisfaction!”
1939: “Emil Hácha, the apolitical jurist who unluckily became president of Czechoslovakia shortly before the German occupation” “was placidly having lunch with a bishop when he was ordered to Berlin to meet with Adolf Hitler” to learn of Hitler’s decision send German troops to occupy the rest of his country in direct violation of the agreements reached at Munich.
1939: Sara Adler’s fifty years of work on the stage were celebrated in a gala event at the National Theater during which she performed the third act of Tolstoy's Resurrection.
1939: “Slovakia seceded from Czechoslovakia and became a separate pro-Nazi state”
1939: German troops fully occupy the Czechoslovak provinces of Bohemia and Moravia. This was a gross violation of the Munich Agreement that Chamberlain had negotiated. This was the last step on the road to war in Europe and the Final Solution.
1939: “Hours before Hitler dismembered the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia as a German “Protectorate,” the first 20 children left Prague on a train” that had been arranged for by Nicholas Winton.
1939: As the Nazis advance on Prague, Martha and Waitstill Sharp decided to remain in the Czech capital and continue their work of rescuing refugees from Hitler’s murder machine.
1941: The Nazi occupiers of Holland forbade Jewish owned companies.
1942: Lehmann (Leo) Katzenberger, a Jewish businessman and leading member of the Nuremberg Jewish community who was accused of having an affair with a young "Aryan" woman was sentenced to death during a “notorious show trial” known as the Katzenberger Trial.
1943: In Krakow the deportation of Jews continued. Children younger than three years were flung into baskets and emptied like trash into ditches. They were buried alive. One child, Shachne Hiller, who survived due to the efforts of a Polish couple, was taken by them to a Polish priest for baptism. The Priest refused, thinking that it would be unfair to the wishes of the child's parents. The child survived. The Priest went on to become Pope John Paul II.
1943: Aaron Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man” was played for the first time in New York City with George Szell conducting
1944: Australian Lt. Col. Paul Alfred Cullen arrived at Port Morseby today.
1944: Hanna Szenes Yoel Palgi and Peretz Goldstein were parachuted into Yugoslavia and joined a partisan group.
1945: Winston Churchill wrote to Laura Wingate, widow of Orde Wingate the British officer who had helped trained Jewish fighters during the 1930’s telling of her plans to build a memorial to her late husband on the grounds of Hebrew University. Wingate had been killed while fighting the Japanese in Burma during the war. At a time when the British officer corps ranged from pro Arab to anti-Semitic Wingate stood out as a “chever” (friend) to the Jewish people in the truest sense of the term.
1945: Special services were held in many American synagogues today as Jews here and abroad marked the end of a week-long period of mourning for the millions of Jews who had been murdered by Hitler and his cohorts.
1945(29th of Adar, 5705): Fifty-one year old German born actor Alexander Granach who fled from Hitler and then Stalin before settling in the United States where his first screen appearance was in the comedy “Ninotchka” passed away today.
1945: Palestine’s 600,000 Jews ended their week of mourning for the millions of their co-religionist who have been murdered in what would come to be known as the Holocaust or the Shoah by observing a solemn day of fasting where they abstained from normal commercial and social activities. Among other things, “factories, workshops, schools, restaurants and places of entertainment were closed for hours beginning at 9 o’clock this morning.”
1946(11th of Adar II, 5706): Ta’anit Esther
1946: “As part of the illegal immigration to Eretz Israel ("Aliya Bet"), the “Wingate” sailed from Italy with 238 maapilim ("illegal immigrants") on board, mostly from Eastern Europe.”
1947: Birthdate of Judith Plaskow, “the first Jewish feminist to identify herself as a theologian.”
1947: At Doctor’s Hospital in Manhattan “Helen (née Gabler), a housewife, and Jack Crystal, who owned and operated the Commodore Music Store, founded by Helen's father, Julius Gabler” gave birth to William Edward Crystal who gained fame as the multi-talented “Billy” Crystal who has made us smile and laugh in several different venues.
1947: According to reports received in Jerusalem, today’s attacks on oil pipelines at Haifa were the work of the Stern Gang and not the Irgun.
1947: U.S. premiere of “The Lost Moment directed by Martin Gabel and produced by Walter Wagner
1947: Canadian actress Frances Bay and her husband Charles gave birth to their only so Josh (Eli Joshua) today.
1947: In an interview today that expressed frustration with both terrorism and the British government, Moshe Shertok, a leader of the Jewish Agency said that “terrorist groups and White Paper government are vying with each other in ruining the Yishuv.”
1947: A photo the SS Ben Hecht appeared on the front page of today’s edition of the Bergson Group’s newspaper, The Answer.
1948: Today, “at Doctors Hospital on the Upper East Side of Manhattan,” “Helen (née Gabler), a housewife, and Jack Crystal, who owned and operated the Commodore Music Store, founded by Helen's father, Julius Gable” gave birth to the William Edward Crystal who gained fame as the multi-talented funny man Billy Crystal.
1948: “Jewish witnesses failed to identify three absentee British police constables at an identity parade at Jerusalem police headquarters today as being connected with the recent Ben Yehuda Street Bombing in Jerusalem.”
1948: In Cairo, the Foreign Ministers of the Arab countries said tonight that they would meet in Lebanon to “act on the Palestine question.”
1949: The IAF flight school graduated its first class. Among the graduates was Mordechai "Mottie" Hod, the commander of Israel’s Air Force during the Six Day War.
1950: It was announced today that “Dr. Walter Clay Lowdermilk, American expert on soil erosion and pioneer of the Tennessee Valley Authority,” has been appointed to serve as an adviser to the Israeli government.
1950: The burial of Dr. Mordecai Eliash, who was serving as Israel’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom when he passed away, is scheduled to take place today in Jerusalem.
1950: Dr. Serge Koussevitzky, the 75 year old conduct emeritus conduct of the Boston Symphony who is currently on a sixteen concert tour in Israel has donated “his entire music library to Hebrew University.”
1951: “Bird of Paradise” starring Jeff Chandler and featuring Maurice Schwartz was released in the United States today.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported from the US that President Harry Truman¹s $7,000m. Mutual Security Program listed $196m for the Middle East, $76m.for Jewish refugees in Israel and $65m for Palestine refugees. .
1952: U.S. premiere of “Deadline – U.S.A.” produced by Sol C. Siegel and directed by Richard Brooks who also wrote the script.
1953(27th of Adar): Essayist and journalist Chaim Greenberg passed away.
1954: “Salt of the Earth” directed by Herbert J. Biberman and produced by Paul Jarrico both of whom were blacklisted and with music by Sol Kaplan who was fired after his appeared before HUAC was released in the United States.
1957: Edgar D'Arcy McGreer began serving as Canada’s Ambassador to isreal.
1960(15th of Adar, 5720): Shushan Purim
1960: Walter Mathau appeared in the role of James Hyland and Jacob Ben-Ami appeared in the role of Dr. Jacobson in tonight’s Play of the Week – “The Rope Dances” – produced by David Susskind.
. 1960: Israel's Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and West Germany's Chancellor Konrad Adenauer met to discuss mutual problems. Adenauer was trying to build a "new Germany" and his work to establish a positive relationship with the state of Israel was part of an attempt to remove the Nazi Stain. Ben-Gurion, ever the realist, saw West Germany as a source of financial support (war reparations and other aid) as well as political support in a world in which the new Jewish state had few friends. Ben-Gurion was criticized by many Jews both in and out of Israel for his work with West German and Adenauer.
1961(26th of Adar, 5721): Akiba Rubinstein world famous chess player passed away at the age of 78.
1964: A jury in Dallas, Texas finds Jack Ruby guilty of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of John F. Kennedy. The man who shot JFK was not Jewish. The man who shot the man who shot JFK was Jewish.
1968(14th of Adar, 5728): Last Purim celebration during the administration of Lyndon Johnson, a true friend of Israel and a supporter of Civil Rights.
1968(14th of Adar, 5728): Seventy-five year old art historian Erwin Panofsky who came to the U.S. from Germany in 1934 passed away today.
1969(24th of Adar, 5729): Painter Ben Shahn passed away at the age of 70.
1970: In Italy, premiere of I girasoli (Sunflower) co-produced by Arthur Cohn and Joseph Levine
1970: In Malibu, CA, Gary Salenger, DDS and his wife Dorothy, an interior designer gave birth to actress Meredith Dawn Salinger.
1971: Barbra Streisand appears on "The Burt Bacharach Special" on CBS TV
1972: A small New York study group using the name "Ezrat Nashim", founded in 1971 to study the status of women in Judaism, presented Conservative rabbis with a manifesto for change at the Rabbinical Assembly convention.
1977: The New York Times reported that Ezrat Nashim (part of the Conservative movement) was about to publish a booklet entitled "Blessing the Birth of a Daughter: Jewish Naming Ceremonies for Girls."
1977:The Jerusalem Post reported that upon his return from the US, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin declared that President Jimmy Carter said nothing to indicate a reversal of his pre-election stand, which said that Israel ought not to withdraw from Jerusalem or Golan Heights. Israel made it clear to the US that it would never return to the 1967 lines and was sufficiently strong to accept Carter¹s opinion, or to disagree with him on this issue.
1977: Asher “Yadlin pleaded guilty to some of the charges, involving bribes totaling I£ 124,000, but claimed that he had handed over I£ 80,000 of the money to Labor party funds, adding that he had raised "millions" for the party” – a claim the judge did not accept so he “sentenced him to five years' imprisonment and a fine of I£ 250,000. “
1978: The Israeli Defense Force, in retaliation for a terrorist attack three days earlier, invades and occupies southern Lebanon, under codename Operation Litani, resulting in the evacuation of at least 100,000 Lebanese, approximately 2,000 deaths, as well as the creation of United Nations Interim Forces In Lebanon (UNIFIL)
1979(15th of Adar, 5739): Shushan Purim
1979: Birthdate of actor Chris Klein
1980(26th of Adar, 5740): Politician Allard Lowenstein passed away at the age of 51. He was the Democratic Congressman from New York’s Fifth District.
1982: The New York premiere of ''Genocide,'' a film about the Holocaust narrated by Elizabeth Taylor and Orson Welles, opened at the Ziegfeld Theater preceded by a cocktail party given by Samuel and Frances Belzberg in the Parker Meridien and followed by a wine and cheese reception at the theater honoring Simon Wiesenthal the guest of honor at this fundraising benefit for the Simon Wiesenthal Center of Yeshiva University of Los Angeles. (As reported by Ruth RobinsonP
1986: U.S. premiere of “Gung Ho!” based on a story by Edwin Blum and Lowell Ganz with a screenplay co-authored by Lowell Ganz.
1991: In Boston, MA, “Elazer Edelman (a notable biomedical engineer, physician, professor, and inventor)” and attorney Cheryl Edelman gave birth to Adam (AJ) Edelman the MIT graduate and skeleton competitor who “competed for Israel at the 2018 Winter Olympics.”
1991(28th of Adar, 5751): Forty year old lyricist Howard Ashman passed away. Born Howard Elliot German in 1950 in Baltimore, Maryland, Ashman teamed with Alan Menken on several scores for Disney movies including Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. He won two Grammies, and two Oscars for Best Song.
1993: “After 402 performances and 30 previews” the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of “Conversations With My Father,” a play that “presents the saga of a first generation of American Jews who came of age in the Depression and were assimilated at a high price during and after World War II.”
1996(23rd of Adar, 5756): Seventy-seven year old philanthropist and successful businessman Alfred P. Slaner passed away today. (As reported by Robert Thomas, Jr)
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/15/nyregion/alfred-p-slaner-77-developer-of-supp-hose-hosiery-is-dead.html
1996: An exhibition, Synagogue for the Arts, featuring the works of Fritz Ascher, opened today.
1997(5thof Adar II, 5757): Fifty-nine year old Jurek Becker, the survivor of the Lodz Ghetto and two concentration camps who was the author of Jakob the Liar which was the basis for a film of the same name that was one of the most improbable and yet “must-see” Holocaust movies.
1997: A decision was reached by the Israelis to begin work on a building project at Har Homa in southern Jerusalem.
1997: Sandy Berger completed his services United States Deputy National Security Advisor and began serving as the 19th United States National Security Advisor.
1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man by Howard Pollack and Sex and Social Justice by Martha Nussbaum.
2000: “Israel deployed the first battery of Arrow missiles.”
2000: “Susan’s Plan,” a dark comedy directed and written by John Landis who also co-produced the film co-starring Rob Schneider and featuring Lisa Edelstein “was released straight to video” today.
2001: President George Bush issued an Executive Order adding the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade to the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organization.
2002: Avigdor Lieberman completed his service as National Infrastructure Minister
2003(10th of Adar II, 5763): Jack Goldstein passed away at the age of 57. Born in 1945, he was one of the first graduates of the California School of Fine Arts; Jack Goldstein was known for his experiments in film, sound and performance art. In 1974, he moved to New York where he had his first show in 1981. He often made use of commercial production techniques or isolated bits of Hollywood films such as creating a continuous loop of the roaring MGM lion. In the late 1970s, he focused on painting and did works ranging from images of lightning storms, volcano eruptions and World War II battles to abstractions based on astronomy.
2004: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of interest to Jewish readers including A Sportswriter’s Life: From the Desk of a New York Times Reporter
by Gerald Eskenazi.
by Gerald Eskenazi.
2005: During the Cedar Revolution hundreds of thousands of Lebanese went into the streets of Beirut to demonstrate against the Syrian military presence in Lebanon and against the government. This entry serves as a reminder that there is a lot of violence in the Middle East that has nothing to do with Israel. It also serves as a reminder that the late President Assad wanted to create “Greater Syria” which included territory now known as Lebanon, Jordan and much of Israel.
2006(14th of Adar 5766): Purim
2006(14th of Adar, 5766): Ninety-two year old Nathan “Nat” Frankel who played college basketball for Brooklyn College before turning pro with the Pittsburgh Ironman of the Basketball Association of America passed away today.
2006: National Public Radio profiled Allan Sherman on “All Things Considered.”
2006: The IDF launched Operation Bringing Home the Goods to prevent Hamas from making good on their threats to release terrorists held in a Jericho prison.
2006: “People & Politics” published today described the switch of Mark Leibovich from the Washington Post to the New York Times.
2006: Eric Lichtblau was a co-winner of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting for coverage of the Bush administration’s domestic eavesdropping program.
2006: Haaretzreported that Rome's chief rabbi paid a landmark visit to the capital's mosque yesterday, calling for greater dialogue between Jews and Muslims to promote peace. Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni's visit to the sprawling mosque on Rome's outskirts, one of the largest in Europe, was the first by a chief rabbi of Rome since it opened in 1995. "We must contribute to creating the conditions for peace," he said in an address to Muslim leaders. "We have a duty to promote dialogue and this is what we are trying to do." The visit took place less than two weeks after Roman Catholic and Jewish leaders met at the Vatican and agreed that they should widen their dialogue to involve Muslims in the wake of tension over the publication of newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Di Segni encouraged Muslims, who have overtaken Jews as the second-largest religious group in Italy after Roman Catholics, to become full members of the community. "As Italian Jews who have been here for 20 centuries, we had a very long relationship with Italian authorities and we have managed to find solutions and models of coexistence," he said. "We think our experience can be very useful to you in this very difficult process of integration." Abdellah Redouane, head of the Islamic cultural institute based in the mosque complex, said the cartoon controversy was an example of how Jews and Muslims could work together. "I want to thank the Jewish community for the solidarity they showed toward Muslims when, recently, the Prophet Mohammed was ridiculed and insulted with offensive cartoons that were simply not funny," Redouane said.
2007(24th of Adar, 5767): Lucie Samuel (Bernard) Aubrac, French history teacher and member of the French Resistance passed away. In 1939, Lucie Bernard married a French Jew named Raymond Samuel. After WW II began, Samuel changed the family name to Aubrac in response to the anti-Semitism so prevalent at the time. Lucie and Raymond were both active in the Free French Resistance and kept the name Aubrac even after hostilities came to an end in 1945.
2007: The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) ended its annual meeting which was held in Atlanta, Georgia.
2007: Israel Singer, one of the heads of the World Jewish Congress and a leading figure in the Jewish world for the past 30 years, was dismissed in an unexpected move from all his posts in the WJC.
2007: An exhibition styled “Notes from the Underground, Subway Portraits by Joseph Solman” opened at the Danforth Museum in Framingham, MA.
2008: At the Newberry Library in Chicago, NextBook presents A Gateway to Jewish Literature, Culture, and Ideas featuring author Sara Paretsky. Sara Paretsky published her first story in The American Girl at the age of 11, but didn't turn to detective fiction until her 30s. Troubled by the way women were traditionally portrayed in that genre, Paretsky created V. I. Warshawski, a tough, independent female private eye, now one of the best-known characters in crime fiction. Growing up in a small eastern Kansas town, where she and her brothers were the only Jewish kids in school, Paretsky discusses how her Jewish upbringing has informed her life and her writing. Sara Paretsky's papers are in the collections of the Newberry Library. Chicago Illinois,
2008 The Paris book fair, one of the major events on the European literary calendar opens with Israel as the ‘guest of honor.”Several Arab countries are boycotting the prestigious annual fair, because it honors Israeli writers. Each year the international fair puts the spotlight on one country. This year it is inviting 39 writers from Israel, including David Grossman, Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua and Aharon Appelfeld. A similar controversy is brewing about the May book fair in Turin, which is also highlighting Israeli works."It's sad and a shame," said Martine Heissler, who was helping to run a stand at the fair for Tribune Juive, a monthly for the French Jewish community. "We're not talking about Kalashnikovs here. Ironically, the 39 Israeli writers being honored were mainly from the political left and supported Palestinian statehood.
2008: Austria honored the work of the kinder transport and those who helped with the rescue mission that took place in the months leading to the outbreak of World War II, with a special ceremony on at the Westbahnhoff, Vienna railway station. Austrian Minister of Transport Werner Faymann will unveil a statue to commemorate the kinder transport and a plaque to honor Britain, which took in nearly 10,000 Jewish children from Europe. The commemoration honors the different rescuers, including Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld, a British rabbi who personally rescued thousands of Jews, and the role of the Quakers and the Christadelphians. The statue is the work of Flor Kent, a Jewish Venezuelan artist living in London. Following the unveiling ceremony and speeches, a kosher celebratory meal will be served on the station platform.
2008: The commemoration of the kinder transport and those who helped with the rescue mission continues at the Vienna Synagogue with special Friday evening services led by Austrian Chief Rabbi Chaim Eisenberg. The Vienna Synagogue was built in 1824 and was the only synagogue to survive the Nazis,
2009: Shabbat Parah
2009: In Little Rock, AR, a special Kiddush is given by Rabbi Pinchus and Estie Ciment in honor of the most recent addition to the family of these august Lamplighters who joined the Ciment Clan in the evening between Purim and Shushan Purim.
2009: Opening night of the Hartford Jewish Film Festival featuring the Connecticut premiere of “The Little Traitor, the beautiful story of an implausible 1947 friendship between amiable British Sergeant Dunlop and spirited 12 year old Proffy Liebowitz, starring Alfred Molina, Ido Port and Theodore Bikel.
2010: HBO broadcast the first episode of the mini-series “The Pacific” featuring theme music by Hans Zimmer, over-seen by executive producer Steven Spielberg and featuring Ashley Zukerman and Jon Bernthal.
2010: Israeli forces caught Maher Udda, the Hamas terrorist who participated in several attacks “including the Café Hillel bombing”
2010: Congregation Adat Reyim is scheduled to host a Community Women’s Seder (age 13+) using a Haggadah honoring the role of women in the Passover tradition while giving the participants a chance to lead a reading, join in the singing and discussion and share favorite recipes at a pot-luck dairy dinner of Passover foods.
2010: Magen David Sephardic Congregation is scheduled to host special afternoon of Israeli Art & Culture featuring the works of Ilan Hasson and Avi Biran. Ilan’s artistic themes are based on Jewish subjects from the Torah, Talmud, Passover Haggadah, Kabbalah, and landscapes of Israel. Avi has produced a large array of Judaica using a broad variety of materials.
2010(28th of Adar, 5770): Ninety-three year old Chimen Abramsky, the Professor of Jewish Studies at University College London passed away today.
2010: More than 70 years after its synagogue was destroyed by Nazi rioters, the German town of Herford dedicated a new Jewish house of worship. In a ceremony today, local and national Jewish leaders and clergy joined to unveil the new structure, which will serve the 106-member community -- 90 percent are immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Four rabbis carried a Torah scroll into the sanctuary as Cantor Jacow Zelewitsch chanted "Ma Tovu" and Rabbi Shimon Grossberg of Osnabruck lit the eternal light. The community does not yet have its own rabbi. Among the guests were Charlotte Knobloch, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany; Jurgen Rüttgers, minister president of North Rhine-Westphalia; Rabbi Julian Chaim Soussan of Düsseldorf; Harry Roth, president of the Jewish community; and Rainer Heller, mayor of Detmold. The new synagogue cost about $2.7 million, a third of which was borne by the German government. Another $137,000 is needed, community member Ruben Heinemann, head of the building fund, told JTA. Heinemann, 47, said his late father and uncles had spoken often of the old synagogue of Herford, which was burned down in 1938, where they had their bar mitzvahs. For decades after World War II, the tiny community used an old Jewish school building and the former rabbi's residence as a synagogue. "But it only had 28 seats, which became too small," Heinemann said, adding that he expects the larger synagogue to draw more members to the community from the region. Ten new synagogues have been built in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in the past 15 years. The Jewish population in Germany has quadrupled since 1990 with the influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union. An estimated 200,000 Jews live in Germany today, but only about half are affiliated with Jewish communities. There are 82 active Jewish communities in the country.
2010: The LA Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power “by James McGrath Morris.
2011: Fallen Heroes – Remembering the Jewish casualties of Iraq and Afghanistan published today.
2011: Zemer Chai (Living Song), “The Jewish Community of Chorus” is scheduled to perform at the National Theatre as part of the Washington Sings: Festival of Song.
2011:The Commonwealth Club's Middle Eastern Forum and JIMENA are scheduled to present “Last Jews of Yemen” with linguist, journalist and blogger, Josh Berer.
2011: Next Year in Bombay, a documentary about the Bene Israel, is one of the films scheduled to be shown today at the 15thNew York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.
2011: Albert Einstein will go digital in the coming months, as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem begins a project to digitize the German-Jewish physicist's archives. The digitization is expected to take around one year and then the over 80,000 documents will be available on the Albert Einstein Archives website. News of the initiative, which will be made possible by a $500,000 grant from the Polonsky Foundation of London, was announced today; the 131st anniversary of Einstein's birth in the town of Ulm in what is today Southern Germany. The university said today that the project will safeguard and provide access to more than 80,000 documents in Einstein's archives for future generations. Einstein was one of the founders of Hebrew University in 1918 and sat on its first board of governors. He left his entire archives to the university in his will. Since 182, the archives have been kept in the Jewish National Library on the Edmond J. Safra Campus of the Hebrew University. Professor Hanoch Gutfreund, director of the Einstein Center at the Hebrew University, said the archives are "an asset whose worth is very difficult to gauge. All of the 80,000 documents shed light on Einstein's scientific work, but also his political ideas. He was someone who spoke up about all of the public and political issues of his time." Gutfreund said that the archives also paint a picture of Einstein's personal life, including his musings on his family, relationships, and day-to-day life as well as issues of politics and science.
2011:The Jewish New Media Innovation Fund announced over half a million dollars in grants today for nine digital media projects intended to engage people between the ages of 18 and 40 with Jewish life. The fund is a pilot program of the Jim Joseph, Righteous Persons, and Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family foundations, and the projects were selected from over 300 applicants in eight countries. The projects include an interactive Haggada creator, a mobile application focused on Jewish campus life, and online cartoon videos teaching Jewish families how to incorporate Jewish rituals into their homes.
2011: Sixty-nine year old Neil Diamond was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tonight during a ceremony at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria. The Jewish Diamond was introduced by another Jewish musical icon – Paul Simon. Two other Jews were among the evening’s honorees –Art Rupe founder of Specialty Records and Jac Holtzman, founder of Elektra Records, the label that recorded numerous LP’s by Theodore Bikel.
2011(8th of Adar II): Seventy-six year old Canadian Larry Zolf, who was a popular CBC journalist, passed away. Zolf was a self-described product of the Jewish ghetto of North Winnipeg. He is the father of famous poet Rachel Zolf.
2012: In Washington, DC, Theatre J is scheduled to a Backstage Discussion entitled “A Spinozian Sense of Justice: Crime and Punishment in a World According to Spinoza.”
2012: “The Pioneer Jewish Film Festival” which is held in Amherst and Springfield, MA is scheduled to open today.
2012(20th of Adar, 5772): On the Hebrew calendar, Yahrzeit of Yoel Sirkes Rabbi of Krakow and author of the Bayit Chadash ("Bach"), a commentary on the great Halachic work, the Arba'ah Turim. (As reported by Chabad Lubavitch)
2012(20th of Adar, 5772): Ninety-five year old Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager, the leader of the Viznitz Hasidim pass away today.(As reported by Joseph Berger)
2012: TIP's Alan Elsner is scheduled to host Dr. Emily Landau who will be speaking about "Iran's Nuclear Challenge and Israel's Possible Responses.”
2012: Marbin, an improvised music duo consisting of Israeli-American guitarist Dani Rabin and Israeli saxophonist Danny Markovitch. is scheduled to perform at the Newton Theatre at Newton, NJ.
2012: Azerbaijan authorities have arrested 22 people suspected of plotting to attack the Israeli and American embassies in the capital Baku, AFP reported today.
2012: A Jerusalem Court acquitted an antiquities collector on most counts of forgery today eleven years after the case was first opened.
2013: The Wiener Library is scheduled to present “I'll Never See You Again: A Story of Survival and Reconciliation” featuring 92 year old Holocaust survivor Margot Barnard.
2013: “Melting Away, “ an Israeli film that “follows the story of a Tel Aviv family drawn into crisis after the parents discover their son is secretly a cross-dresser and expel him from home” is scheduled to have its Minnesota Premiere at the Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival..
2013: LABAlive is scheduled to present “Drunk,” an evening of learning, art and performances on the heavens and hells of intoxication in ancient Jewish tradition.
2013: Alast-minute glitch delayed final completion of coalition negotiations today, with the prime minister’s wife reportedly at its center. Still, most insiders remained confident that a deal would be done, and the new government sworn-in next Monday. According to Army Radio, Sara Netanyahu demanded that Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett — with whom she reportedly fell out when he served as her husband’s chief of staff from 2006-08 — not be given the largely symbolic title of deputy prime minister in the new government, and that the same title also therefore be denied to fellow putative coalition partner Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid.
2013: The white smoke had barely dispersed from over the Vatican this morning when President Shimon Peres invited the new pope for a visit to Israel, asking him to contribute to peace as a spiritual, rather than a political, leader.
2013: Today the Israel-based Shem Olam Holocaust and Faith Institute showcased items that may have been used for Passover rituals at the Chelmno death camp in western Poland. The items were discovered during excavations of the site in pits containing prisoners’ belongings
2014: Rebecca Kushner is scheduled to lead Musical Shabbat at Augdas Achim in Coralville, Iowa.
2014: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host a Purim themed Shabbat Dinner complete with costumes.
2014: Rabbi Hillel Cohen, the head of Hatzallah emergency services in Ukraine was recovering from the wounds suffered yesterday when he was beaten and stabbed in Kiev by Russian speaking youths. (As reported by Times of Israel)
2014: The Israeli Air Force struck seven targets in the Gaza Strip early this morning in response to another day of rocket fire on southern Israel.
2014: Michael Hiltzik reviews The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words 1000 BC – 1492 AD by Simon Schama
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-simon-schama-20140313,0,7848250.story#axzz2vzMF7E66
2014(12thof Adar II, 5774): Eighty year old courageous and controversial Israeli war hero Meir Har-Zion, a man Moshe Dayan once called “the greatest Jewish warrior since Bar Kochba,” passed away today.
2014: After three days of rocket attacks in the region, Chief Askenazi Rabbi David Lau and Mayor Alon Davidi visited several centers in Sderot including the Sderot Yeshiva after which they distributed Purim baskets to the IDF soldiers manning the Iron Dome defense system. (As reported by Ari Yashar)
2014: Benjamin Schwarz review of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy by Shlomo Ben Ami published today.
2015: Following services at Shaare Tefila, Laura Apelbaum is scheduled to deliver a lecture “Candlesticks, Charm Bracelets & Protest Signs.”
2015: “God’s Slave” is scheduled to be shown at the 18th Annual New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival
2015: A peace ring created by Danish Muslims is scheduled to formed today “at the central Copenhagen shul, or Krystalgade Synagogue.” (As reported by JTA and Times of Israel)
2015: As negotiations designed to halt the Iranaina nuclear program appear to be reaching a climax, “Iran today formally inaugurated what it said was mass production of a long range anti-ship missile.” (As reported by Justin Jalil)
2015(23rdof Adar, 5775): Ninety year old Lia Van Leer, “the founder of the Haifa Cinematheque, the Jerusalem Cinematheque, the Israel Film Archive and the Jerusalem Film Festival” passed away today
2015: Seventy-one year old Robert Durst was arrested today in New Orleans by the FBI which claimed to have new evidence linking him to the murder of Susan Berman in 2000.
http://www.onlinenevada.org/articles/susan-berman
2015: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Kirkwood Community College is scheduled to host “Voices of the Generations: Stories from the Holocaust” with Julie Kohner, whose mother Hanna was Holocaust survivor.
2016(4th of Adar II, 5776): Eighty-six year old “Geoffrey H. Hartman, a literary critic whose work took in the Romantic poets, Judaic sacred texts, Holocaust studies, deconstruction and the workings of memory” passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2016: Migdalei haYam haTichon is scheduled to host “Around the World, At the Speed of Sound” with guitarist Jean-Robert Ben Danan and pianist Eliah Zabaly
2016: “Very Semi-Serious” and “To Life” are scheduled to be shown at the Houston Jewish Film Festival.
2017: The Lysander Piano Trio - Itamar Zorman, Violin; Michael Katz, Cello; Liza Stepanova, Piano – is scheduled to perform at Carnegie Hall.
2017: Catherine Hickley examined how German art collectors answer the question “Do I Own Nazi Loot?
2017: Former Arizona Wildcats basketball player Josh Pastner, the ACC coach of the year, led his Georgia Tech against Indiana in the first round of the NIT.
2017: “The La Hora newspaper reported” today that “the Guatemalan government partnered with the local Jewish community to launch an educational project to study the Holocaust” as part of a project design “to promote the values of tolerance and respect.” (As reported by TOI and JTA)
2017: The YIVO Institute, The Center for Jewish History and the Leo Baeck Institute are scheduled to sponsor a presentation by András Koerner and Victor Karady on “How They Lived: The Everyday Lives of Hungarian Jews 1867-1940.
2018: Chef Alon Shaya is scheduled to “speak about his newly released memoir/cookbook” Shaya: An Odyssey of Food, My Journey back to Israelthis evening at the JCC in New Orleans
2018: “Bye, Bye Germany is scheduled to be shown today at the Houston Jewish Film Festival.
2018: “Two Zions: The Living Legacy of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon” is scheduled to be shown at the 21st New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.