March 26
1027: Coronation of Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor, whose court was the site of religious disputation between Bishop Wazon “the overlord of” Liege and an unnamed Jewish physician. (As reported by the Jewish Virtual Library)
1147: Jews of Cologne, Germany, fasted to commemorate anti-Jewish violence.
1369: King Pedro of Castile who employed Abraham ibn Zaral as his physician was beheaded by his rival and brother, Henry of Trastamara marking the end of their civil war for control of the kingdom. . Henry “was as hostile to the Jews as Pedro had been friendly. His long-cherished hatred of his brother burst forth when a Jew named Jacob, an intimate of the king, praised the latter excessively to Henry. In his fury he stabbed the Jew with a dagger. Pedro would have revenged himself on Henry forthwith, but his courtiers restrained him by force. Henry saved himself by a hasty flight. This was the immediate cause of the civil war which brought untold suffering upon the Jews of the country. . He was as hostile to the Jews as Pedro had been friendly. His long-cherished hatred of his brother burst forth when a Jew named Jacob, an intimate of the king, praised the latter excessively to Henry. In his fury he stabbed the Jew with a dagger. Pedro would have revenged himself on Henry forthwith, but his courtiers restrained him by force. Henry saved himself by a hasty flight. This was the immediate cause of the civil war which brought untold suffering upon the Jews of the country. During their struggle for control, Henry continuously depicted Peter as "King of the Jews," and had some success in taking advantage of popular Castilian resentment towards the Jews. During his reign, “Henry of Trastamara instigated pogroms beginning a period of anti-Jewish riots and forced conversion] in Castile that lasted approximately from 1370 to 1390.”
1481: “Seventeen Marranos perished at the stake on the Quemadero (place of burning) in Seville, Spain followed by enough other similar killings that by the end of November, “300 had perished at the stake” while another 79 were spared but sentenced to life imprisonment. (As reported by Abraham Bloch)
1671(15th of Nisan 5431): In Amsterdam, the Great Synagogue was consecrated on the first day of Pesach (Passover).
1692(9th of Nissan, 5452): The Jewish community of Carpentras, France escaped from a rioting mob causing this date to be celebrated as a Private Purim
1780: Birthdate of Isaac Elias Itzig, who as Julius Eduard Hitzig served Prussia as a civil servant before gaining fame as a German author.
1796: Carel Asser was among those who signed a petition to the States General seeking the emancipation of the Dutch Jews.
1801(12th of Nissan, 5561): Fast of the First Born observed since the 14th falls on Shabbat.
1808: Sephardic Jewish leader and MP Ralph Bernal and his wife Ann Elizabeth gave birth to Ralph Bernal Osborne
1831: Rabbi David de Aaron de Sola preached the first sermon in English at Bevis Marks Synagogue in London. Born in Amsterdam in 1796, de Sola was the son of Aaron de Sola. He began serving at Bevis Marks in 1818. A prolific author he published his first work, The Blessings, in 1829 followed by his six volume translation The Forms of Prayer According to the Custom of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in 1836. De Sola was also a musician whose accomplishments included musical rendition of Adon Olam which is still used in both Sephardi and Ashkenazi synagogues in the United Kingdom. He passed away in 1860.
1832: Birthdate of Michel Jules Alfred Bréal, the native of Bavria who became a leading French philologist and “is identified as the father of modern semantics.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0004_0_03483.html
1840: Birthdate of George Smith, the Englishman who provided some of the first and most meaningful investigation into the civilization of ancient Mesopotamia, with an emphasis on Assyria. His work provided historic context for, and proof of, the ancient Israelites including his discovery in 1866 of the date when Jehu, king of Israel, made a tribute payment to Assyrian King Shalmaneser III
1851: Louis Kyezor married Julia Joseph today.
1851: Birthdate of “German art historian”Julius Langbehn who attacked “Jews as corrupters of German culture” saying that they “no place in Germany” – a position that would later be part of the Nazi movement.
1852: It was reported today that an Imperial Ukase has been issued in Russia that classifies Jews into two categories, “those who have a fixed residence and a trade and those who have neither. The latter are to be employed in the public mines and fortresses.”
1852: In a sign of the crumbling power of the Sultan and the commensurate growth of European power, in Palestine, it was reported today that the Ottomans had agreed to grant France the right to build a church in a suburb of Bethlehem and to allow Catholic priests the right to repair their church in Jerusalem.
1852: The congregation of Ohabei Shalom dedicated its own synagogue building on Warren Street, the first synagogue in Boston and the second in New England.
1853: Birthdate of Hugo Rheinhold the Prussian born businessman turned sculptor whose most famous work maybe “Ape with Skull.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affe_mit_Sch%C3%A4del#/media/File:Affe_mit_Sch%C3%A4del.jpg
1855: Nahum Steiner, a Jew who converted to Christianity, delivered a speech at the Knickerbocker Hall in New York entitled “Our Present Christianity Compared With Primitive Discipleship or Judaism Again.” During his presentation he attempted to answer questions regarding the destiny of the United States when compared to Jewish History.
1859: In Hildesheim, Hanover, Elise Wertheimer and Salomon Hurwritz gave birth to mathematician Adolf Hurwitz.
http://www.numbertheory.org/obituaries/LMS/hurwitz/page1.html
1860: The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution offered by Ohio Congressman Clement Vallandigham “calling for the correspondence relative to the Swiss Treaty” including the limitations that this treaty placed “upon Hebrew citizens of the United States.” This is the same Congressman Vallandgiham who would be labeled as a Copperhead during the Civil War. The issue of the discriminatory nature of the Swiss treaty as it affected the Jews was one of the first times that the civil society moved to protect its Jewish citizens.
1861(15thof Nisan, 5621): Pesach
1861(15th of Nisan, 5621): The New York Times reported that “The Jewish Passover, a festival commemorative of the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, commenced last evening, and will continue for eight days. The origin of the festival is given in the 12th Chapter of Exodus, and the Bible prediction that it should be forever observed by the Israelites throughout the world, has this far been strikingly fulfilled. The duties imposed upon the Jews during the Passover are, total abstinence from all kinds of leaven and leavened bread attendance of the males at the Tabernacle, and cessation of business on the first two and last two days of the festival. On the evenings of the first two days, the reading of the Seder takes place in every Jewish family, the members, meanwhile, sitting round a table, on which are placed the bone of a lamb, representing the sacrifice of the "paschal lamb," and some bitter herbs, symbolical of the bitterness of the Egyptian bondage. After the reading of the Seder, the family chants a service reciting their bondage and deliverance. Previous to the Passover, every Jewish household undergoes a thorough renovation, corresponding to the house-cleaning process customary among Christians.”
1861: Birthdate of Uchimura Kanzō, the philo-Semitic Japanese minister.
https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/4136
1862(20th of Adar II, 5622): Uriah Phillips Levy, Commodore of the United States Navy, passed away in Philadelphia. Levy was a descendant of the original 23 Jews who settled in New Amsterdam in 1654. He was buried in the Cypress Hill Cemetery in the Congregation Shearith Israel portion. On his stone was written, "He was the father of the law for the abolition of the barbarous practice of corporal punishment in the United States Navy."
http://www.fau.edu/library/brody8.htm
1863: According to a report published today, during the month of February, there 7 Jewish children staying at the Howard Mission and Home for Little Wanderers in New York City.
1866: “On the initiative” of fifty-three year old “Dutch physician and economist” Samuel Sarphati “the Amstel Hostel was built today in the street later named after him.”
1867: In Opava, Czech Republic, Charlotte and Samuel David Kaluber gave birth to Dr. Arnold Klauber
1868: The Orphans' Guardians or Familien Waisen Erziehungs Verein was organized in Philadelphia “chiefly through the efforts of R. Samuel Hirsch of the Congregation Keneseth Israel. Instead of keeping the children together in one institution, this society endeavored to find homes for them among respectable Jewish families.
1869(14th of Nisan, 5629): Erev Pesach
1870: Birthdate of Isaac Elias Itzig as Julius Eduard Hitzig worked as a civil servant and author in Germany.
1871:Leó Frankel “was elected as a member of the Paris Commune.”
1872: In New York, Hirsh Bernstein came to the D.A.’s office where he posted bail after having been indicted on charges of libeling Rabbi Ahrenson. The dispute revolves around a dispute about the sale of wine which may or not be considered “kosher.”
1873: William F. Nast and he former Esther A. Benoist gave birth to Conde Nast, who while serving as publisher of Vogue in 1938 forced British photographer Cecil Beaton to resign because of comments made by him “that were critical of the Jewish race.”
1875: In Danzig,Moritz Abraham and Selma Moritzsohn gave birth to German physicist, Max Abraham
1875: E.G. Holland delivered his lecture on “The Hebrew Race” this evening at a meeting of the Liberal Club in Plimpton Hall.
1876(1st of Nisan, 5636): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1877: In Grodno, Russia, Judah Judson and Hannah Rosenberg gave birth to New York resident Solomon Judson the editor of Me’et Le’et and author of Agadot ve-Dimyonot who married Minnie Shapiro,
1880(14th of Nissan, 5640): Ta’anit Bechorot
1882(6thof Nisan, 5642): Seventy-nine year old German born dramatist Leopold Feldman passed away today in Vienna.
1884: Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. Bloch were married today.
1888(14th of Nisan, 5648): The New York Times reported that “the Jewish feast of Pesach, or the Passover, will begin at sunset this evening, and continue for eight days. This feast was ordained to commemorate the departure of the Children of Israel from Egypt, under the leadership of Moses after they had been held in bondage for upward of 400 years…There is a peculiar observance connected with the first evening of the festival on which occasion the head of the household gathers about him at the table all the members of the family, including servants if they be Hebrews, and with ancient rites and ceremonies he recounts the story of the deliverance of his forefathers from the bondage under which they had been held by the Egyptian Pharaohs for so many years.”
1891: It was reported today that Joseph Abrahamson had changed his name to Joseph Abraham Edson because he was getting ready to marry a young Christian girl “and that both…were desirous that his surname should have every semblance of a Jewish named removed.”
1892: The Brooklyn Chess Club will host Willliam Steinitz, the Prague born Jewish chess champion.
1892: The Oratorio Society presented the Biblical opera “Samson and Delilah” under the direction of Walter Damrosch the German born conductor whose paternal grandfather was Jewish.
1893: Arthur Reichow of New York notified Louis Hahn that a check for $800 would be sent to him to meet the needs of the Jews living in Chesterfield, Connecticut.
1893: The Central Union of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith was organized today
1893: “Suffers in Russia” published today described the worsening conditions of the Jews living in the Pale. They cannot find work in the Pale and the government will not allow them to leave the Pale to find jobs. Only the charity of English Jews has prevented a larger number of deaths. The Minister of the Interior is waiting for a report from the Governor of the Pale on the possibility of further Jewish immigration. (This is further evident of the infamous 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 Policy of the Czarist governments)
1893: Members of the Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York heard a presentation by Reverand Hermann Warazawiak on the origins, customs and practices of Passover. Warazawiak spoke with an air of authority since he had been raised as an Orthodox Jew in Poland before converting in 1889.
1894: “Of The Jews and Their State” published today provided a detailed review of The Jewish question and the Mission of the Jews, an anonymous work published by Harper & Brothers.
1895: “Russia’s New Business Rules” published today described the additional restrictions placed on “Foreign commercial travelers of the Jewish persuasion” which do not apply to non-Jewish businessmen.
1896(12th of Nisan, 5656): Fast of the First Born observed since the 14th of Nisan falls on Shabbat
1896: The "Sion" society in Sofia adopted an enthusiastic resolution proclaiming Herzl as their leader.
1896(12thof Nisan, 5656): Fifty-two year old Hungarian communist Leó Frankel passed away today in Paris.
1896: Among the books on art sold by Bangs & Co in New York was The Gentile and the Jew, a two volume work by J.J. Dollinger published in London in 1862 that included 113 engravings by Bartolozzie which cost $10.
1896: In “Persecution Under Nero” published today L.D. Burdick questions the reliability of the Roman historian Seutonius who incorrectly identified Chrestus, who had been crucified in Judea by Tiberius as the leader of rebellion by the Jews of Rome that took place later of who was a leader of the New Christians.
1897: Birthdate of Polish-born, French movie director Jean Epstein
1898: Birthdate of Henri Palacci who was deported from Istanbul to France in 1942.
1898: Isaac Blond went to the Barge Office to greet his wife Liebe and their four children who arrived today aboard the SS St. Paul but was told by authorities that he could not see them and that they would probably be sent back to Europe because “two of the children had a contagious disease and could not land.”
1898: In Albany, New York, the Assembly passed a bill introduced by Senator Cantor that exempted the real estate of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association from assessments and water rates.
1898: New York State Senator Jacob A. Cantor addressed a meeting organized by the Merchant’s Association of New York where he spoke against transferring the control of the canal system of the State to the Federal Government and in favor of a passage of the seven million dollar appropriation bill, known as the Cantor-Hill bill, which would preserve the states control over its canal properties which are estimated to exceed a hundred million dollars in value,
1899(15th of Nisan, 5659): Last Pesach of the 19th century.
1899: It was reported today that Ferdinand Blumenthal “recently described to the Academie des Sciences of Paris a process of making sugar from albumen which throw light on the obscure disease known as diabetes.”
1899: It was reported today that “the Jewish Feast of the Passover began with sundown last evening. Services were held in all synagogues and also many private residences the festival will last one week, during which time services will be held daily.”
1900(25th of Adar II, 5660): Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise passed away at the age of 80. The German born Wise is remembered as the father of Reform Judaism in the United States. He was instrumental in founding the three basic organization of the movement: Union of American Hebrew Congregations in 1873, Hebrew Union College in 1875 and the Central Conference of American Rabbis in1889.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/IWise.html
1900: Today’s passing of Rabbi Wise marked “the beginning” of a drive “to raise an Isaac M. Wise Memorial Fund” in the amount $500,000 “to endow the Hebrew Union college and the other activities ofhte Union of American Hebrew Congregations.”
1902: Zalman Shapira and Rosa Krupnik gave birth to Israeli political leader Haim-Moshe Shapira
1902: The Rumanian government prohibited Jews from engaging in handicrafts or trade.
1902: “Mayor Low, Borough President Cantor and Jacob H. Schiff spoke” tonight” at the dedication exercises of the Luas A. Steinam School of Metal Working, at 225 East Ninth Street which has been erected for the Hebrew Technical Institute by Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Steinam in memory of their son Lucas.
1904: Funk and Wagnalls published the sixth volume of the Jewish Encyclopedia, a compendium of knowledge that will eventually consist of twelve volumes. The volume includes articles ranging from “God” to “Istria.”
1904: The New York Times featured a review of "The Seder Service" a new Haggadah by Lillie Goldsmith Cowen which was published by her husband Philip Cowen. This edition of the Haggadah contains the Hebrew text, a revised English translation and notes by Dr. Solomon Schechter, the President of the Jewish Theological Seminary. The Haggadah is decorated with reproduction of pages from older Haggadot some which were printed four hundred years ago.
1905: Eveline Bethsabée Lattès ép. Mayrargue the daughter of Israël-Vita Lattès and Marie ép. Lattès and her husband Henri Danie Marague gave birth to Jeanne Mayrargue ép. Kunian
1905: Birthdate of Viktor E. Frankl, famed psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor and author of one of the greatest books ever written, Man’s Search For Meaning. What makes Frankl’s work and philosophy so powerful is that he took them with him into the camps and came out with his philosophy intact. There would be no better way to celebrate this centennial than read or re-read this slender tome. Viktor Frankl in his own words: “The best of us did not return.” “Life is like being at the dentist. You always think that the worst is still to come, and yet it is over already.” Quoting Nietzsche he wrote, “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.” “Man, however is able to live and even to die for the sake of his ideals and values!” “Man needs something for the sake of which to live. The first goal of most people “was finding a purpose and meaning to their lives.” “Don’t aim at success – the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success; you have to let it happen by not caring about it…Success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.”
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/frankl.html
1906: As unrest gripped Russia, it was reported that “Count Witte’s steadfast friendship for the Jews has subjected him to constant attacks” including accusations that he was a Jew and/or “bought by the Jews”
1906: It was reported today that in Russia, “the Government cannot assume responsibility for promulgating a law of equality” and that it must be left to Parliament to “decide the question of the status of the Jews.’
1906: It was reported today that Count Witte, who is serving as Premier, is taking every precaution from not allowing “anti-Semitic manifestations this Easter” turned to violent attacks on the Jews.
1907: Today marked the last day of this year’s distribution of free Matzoth and Matzah flour by the East Side Business Men’s Protective Business Association the poor Jews of the lower east side.
1907: Colonel Ernest Albert Rose married Julia Eda Lewis the daughter of Annette and Samuel Eleazer Lewis were married today at the Princess Road Synagogue in Liverpool, England.
1908: Birthdate of Samuel Bronshtein, the Bessarabian born nephew of Leon Trotsky who gained fame movie producer Samuel Bronston.
1911: Birthdate of Sir Bernard Katz who shared in the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
1911: In London, two actions are to be heard before Justice Darling in a libel suit "in which Baron de Forest, adopted son of the late Baron Hirsch and Lady Gerard are principals."
1912: Osip Brik married Lila Kagan
1913(17thof Adar II, 5673): Forty seven year old Rabbi Joseph Chuckrow passed away in Troy, NY.
1913: In Budapest, Jewish mathematics teachers Anna and Lajos Erdős (formerly Engländer) gave birth to mathematician Paul Erdos who was one of the century's greatest mathematicians, who posed and solved thorny problems in number theory and other areas and who founded the field of discrete mathematics, which is the foundation of computer science. He was also one of the most prolific mathematicians in history, with more than 1,500 papers to his name. And, his friends say, he was also one of the most unusual.”. “Never, mathematicians say, has there been an individual like Paul Erdös.” (I make no claim to understand anything about any of his work.)
1913: On the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City Nathan and Sophie Riesel gave birth to crusading journalist Victor Riesel.
1914: The siege of Adrianople which had begun in October, 1913, came to an end. Both poor and middle class Jews were affected with three thousand seeking shelter in schools and 9,200 being left “completely helpless.”
1915: According to reports published today the Russian forces that have taken the town of Przemysl from the Austrians are calling up the “panic stricken Jews” who have fled the town to return and are reassuring the civilian population that remained, most of whom were Jews, that they have nothing to fear.
1915: “Ex-President Taft delivered a lecture before members of the National Geographic Society in Washington on the subject of his mission to the Vatican in 1902” where he conducted delicate negotiaons with Leo XIII, the Pope whose papers in France and the Vatican assured readers that Dreyfus was guilty because he was Jewish.
1915: The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the officers of Congregation Ahev Zedak in Camden, NJ were Bernard Levin, President; Jacob Tarter, Vice President; Louis Levin, Secretary and Max Greenberg, Treasurer.
1915: Dr. Nathan Blaustein who delivered the infant of Mrs. Sadie Mager, a widow who died of a heart attack last December is now seeking a family to adopt the girl saying tonight “that the only thing he demanded was those who would adopt her would prove to him they were in a position to give her a good home and that they should be Jews.”
1916: Birthdate of Christian Anfinsen winner of the 1972 Nobel Prize for Chemistry
1916: In New York, 20,000 people attended the great bazar that opened tonight “in the Grand Central Palace” which was a fund raiser sponsored by the People’s Relief Committee for Jewish War Sufferers.
1916: In Johannesburg, Eva, née Kirkel and Israel Rabinowitz gave birth to composer and conductor Harry Rabinowitz whose most famous score may be the one he wrote for “Chariots of Fire.”
1916: Birthdate of bandleader Vic Schoen. There is no evidence that Schoen was Jewish but he played a key role in the creation of the era of Yiddish Swing. Schoen was the bandleader whose featured singers were the Andrews Sisters. Lyricist Sammy Cahn gave the Yiddish song “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” English lyrics and turned it over to the singing sisters. Schoen had a notion of how to swing it. The Andrews Sisters' debut 78 rpm for the Decca label hit almost immediately. The era of Yiddish swing had begun.
1916: Birthdate of Mort Abrahams who gained famed as the producer of Dr. Doolittle and Planet of the Apes.
1916: Louis D. Brandeis was scheduled to speak today on “Jewish Rights and Congress at the opening session today of the American Jewish Congress in Philadelphia, PA whose delegates included Rabbi Wolf Gold, Samuel Lippman and Henry Eiser.
1916: According to “advices received at the Russian Embassy” in Washington, DC, “absolute equality of Jews in Russia with all others to own property, to reside in any place, to serve in the army and navy, to participate in educational advantages and at the polls has been officially proclaimed” by the new government.
1917:Abraham Isaac "Abe" Shiplacoff, a Socialist New York assemblyman won a temporary victory when he objected, on procedural grounds, to a resolution that had been introduced “urging the United States Congress to a pass a measure known as the Chamberlain bill, requiring the United States to prepare for entry into” the World War.
1917: Plans for the upcoming patriotic mass meeting of the Independent Order of Free Sons, which “has plans for raising a regiment in case of war” were published today.’ (Editor’s note – this outburst of patriotism came at a time when the United States was strongly considering entering WW I on the side of the Allies; something that would become a reality in less than a month.)
1917: One of the advantages of the Russian Revolution was seen today when it was reported that the publication of the second volume of Simon Dubnow’s History of the Jews in Russia and Poland would soon be a reality thanks to the disappearance of the censors who had been part of the Czar’s government. (The brilliant mind of Dubnow would perish in 1941 when he was murdered by the Nazi in Riga.Yidn, shraybt un farshraybt "Jews, write and record’)
1917: In World War I, British troops are halted after 17,000 Turks blocked their advance at the First Battle of Gaza. The setback would prove to be temporary and the British would later resume their drive to take Palestine from the Ottomans.
1918: “A message from the representatives of the Jewish colonies in Palestine was received at the Zionist headquarters” in New York today which “said that the Jewish Administrative Commission organized by the International Zionist Organization” were expected to arrive in Palestine this week.
1920: Eugen Schiffer completed his term as Minister of Justice in Germany.
1920: In Vienna, the Jewish community made a “public appeal for help” in re-building “the communal synagogue in Leopold Strasse” which had been destroyed by fire two years ago.
1920: In Göttingen, Germany, mathematician Richard Courant and Nerina Runge Courant gave birth to American physicist Ernest Courant
http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/bulletin/2007/bb051807.pdf
1920: Shabelsky-Bork, a “supporter” of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" tried to assassinate Pavel Milyukov (former leader of the Cadets, who fled Russia in 1918) at a meeting of Russian refugees. Instead, he killed Vladimir Nabokov and was sentenced to fourteen years in prison. After only staying in prison for a short time, he was released and befriended by Alfred Rosenberg, the "Nazi philosopher".
1921(16thof Adar II, 5681): Parashat Tzav
1921: In the Bronx, the Montefiore hosted a “Purim entertainment” that included a Purim play and a Hebrew sketch.
1923(9th of Nisan, 5683): Actress Sarah Bernhardt passed away. She was born in Paris as Henriette Rosine Bernard, the eldest surviving illegitimate daughter of Judith van Hard, a Dutch Jewish courtesan known as "Youle."
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Museum/Posters/Entertainers/Bernhardt/
1925(1st of Nisan, 5685): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1925: Lord Balfour visited Rishon L”Zion where he said “he rejoiced at this opportunity to visit the oldest Jewish settlement in Palestine.
1926: Today when Harvard announced plans for the incoming freshman class it issued a denial that religion or race would be a considered which “was in answer to a report that members of recent entering classes at Harvard were 25 per cent Jewish” and 150 Jews “would not be admitted to Harvard in the three years who otherwise would have been enrolled…”
1926: Premiere of “The Fiddler of Florence,” a German silent film directed and written by Paul Czinner.
1927: Colonel Herbert H. Lehman, the acting chairman of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee announced today that “the Jewish community of Salonica, Greece has issued an appeal for relief” that was sent to Dr. Bernard Khan, the European Director of the Committee.
1928: Cellist Gdal Saleski, the author of Famous Musicians of Jewish Origins performed a concert at Steinway Hall that included Joseph “Achron’s ‘Fragment Mystique’ which “is based on a Hebrew theme.”
1929(14thof Adar II, 5689): Last Purim before the Great Depression
1929: The dirigible Graf Zeppelin appeared over three cities in Palestine. At five in the afternoon it circled Jaffa where the large colony of German settlers waved flags of welcome. At six, the airship appeared over Tel Aviv where it became a welcome partner in the city’s Purim celebrations. As night descended the German craft circled Jerusalem for an hour before heading north towards Syria.
1930 In London, Lord Melchett, Chaim Weizmann, Oscar Wasserman, Felix Warburg and Max Warburg will meet this afternoon in an “attempt to reach a settlement regarding the functions of the Administrative Committee and the Jewish Agency's Executive, the immediate raising of an internal loan of $5,000,000, and Lord Melchett's demand that before any larger colonization scheme be undertaken in Palestine, the 1,500 Chalutzim in Palestine for many years be settled on the land.” (As reported by JTA)
1931: In Boston, MA, Dora (née Spinner) and Max Nimoy gave birth to Leonard Simon Nimony, Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame. Do you remember the hand gesture that went with the Vulcan credo - Live long and prosper? In case you missed it, it is the same gesture as that made by the High Priest when giving his benediction. And now you know why.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/arts/television/leonard-nimoy-spock-of-star-trek-dies-at-83.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad&_r=1
1931: Arab leaders in Palestine urged Moslems not to participate in the celebration Maier Dizengoff’s seventieth birthday. Dizengooff is the Mayor of Tel Aviv.
1934: Twenty-eight year old Nathan N. Rosen was officially installed as the Rabbi at Temple Petach Tikva in Brooklyn. (As reported by JTA)
1934: Hitler agreed to a nationwide boycott of Jewish businessmen and professionals to be known as “Boycott Day” which would take place on April 1. The boycott is designed to last indefinitely or until the Jews have been completely eliminated from the German economy.
1934: In Brooklyn Beatrice (Wortis) and David I. Arkin gave birth to actor Alan Arkin who has played a myriad of roles during his long career including the lead in the famed anti-establishment film “Catch-22.”
1936: According to reports published today of the 61,541 Jews who entered Palestine in 1935, 27,291 came from Poland; 3,596 came from Rumania; 2,122 came from Greece, 1,967 from Lithuania; 1,638 from the United States; 1,425 from Southwestern Arabia; 1,397 from Czechoslovakia; 1,042 from Latvia; 1, 021 from France; 961 from Austria, 764 from Turkey and 7,747 from Germany.
1936: In Warsaw, “the Senate enacted today a law prohibiting Jews from selling vegetables and dairy products” which had been passed by the Sejm (lower house) last week.”
1936: In New York, at a luncheon of the New York chapter of Hadassah, Eddie Cantor “announced that if the members of Hadassah would raise sufficient funds to provide for five hundred children” who were refugees from journey and part of the Youth Aliyah movement “he would provide for an equal number.”
1936: In Poland, “the Jewish community’s offices in the town of Nowysacz were bombed today.”
1936: In Poland, a synagogue was damaged at Wilno as anti-Semitic disorders gripped the country.
1937(14thof Nisan, 5697): Ta’anit Bechorot; Erev Pesach
1937: The Palestine Post reported that a Jewish Ghaffir (supernumerary policeman) was wounded, an Arab brigand killed and a number of Arabs taken prisoner during a battle with a terrorist gang which attacked Jewish settlers plowing their fields at the foot of Mount Tabor. Jewish settlers were assisted by police reinforcements which arrived from Afula and Nazareth.
1938: “Archaeological discoveries expected to shed light on the life, customs and general history of the Holy Land of 2,000 years ago were listed today by Edward M. M. Warburg of the executive committee of the American Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem” “in a report prepared in connection with the thirteenth anniversary of the founding of Hebrew University” which “cites the finding of the long missing Third Wall of Jerusalem and…certain important Jewish cemeteries.”
1938: “Speaking at the opening session of the second annual convention of the United Galician Jews of America at Mecca Temple,” “May La Guardia told 3,000 Jews of Eastern European origin tonight that recent events in Europe had brought more misery than civilization had ever previously experienced.”
1939: At Atlantic City, NJ, “Reginald T. Kennedy, the executive director of the New York roundtable of the National Christians and Jews today declared that all religions must cooperate in teaching faith in democracy and present a united front to propagandists who are attempting to align one against the other” and who are trying to convince the public that “a Catholic is probably a Fascist, a Jew is a Communist” and “that the Protestant majority is indifferent to the minority rights” of Jews and Catholics.
1939: Dr. Samuel Goldenson is scheduled to lecture on “Racialism and Humanity” at Temple Emanu-El.
1939: Louis Lipsky, Robert Szold, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and Dr. Solomon Goldman, the president of the ZOA are scheduled to lecture on “The Jewish National Home: Is the London Palestine Conference Ended?” at the Free Synagogue in Carnegie Hall.
1940: In the Bronx the former Sophie Falkenstein and Arthur Caan, refugees from Nazi Germany gave birth to James Langston Michael Caan known to American audiences as the movie and television actor James Caan
https://www.biography.com/people/james-caan-9542410
1942(8thof Nisan, 5702): At Jungfernhof concentration camp, Rudolf Seck, the commander sent 1,840 to be “resettled” today which meant they were shot to death at the Bikernieki forest.
1942(8thof Nisan, 5702): Fifty-nine year old Rabbi Joseph Hirsch Carlbach was murdered near Riga today.
http://www.jci.co.il/?cmd=aboutus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Carlebach#/media/File:Carlebach_in_Altona.jpeg
1942: The Second Dünamünde Action, part of a murderous assault designed “to execute Jews who had recently been deported to Latvia from Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Moravia” conducted by the Nazis and their Latvian collaborators began today in the Biķernieki forest, near Riga, Latvia.
1942: Birthdate of Erica Jong, author of Fear of Flying
1942: The first "Eichmann transport" began moving to the camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau
1942: The first of 700 Jews from Polish Lvov-district reached the concentration camp at Belzec
1942 The first Jewish transportation arrived at Auschwitz under the command of Rudolf Hoss, containing 1000 Jews from Slovakia and 1000 women from Ravensbruk. According to a conservative estimate from March 1942 until the liberation on January 27 1945 over 750,000 Jews were gassed within its gates. Hoss himself estimated it at 1,135,000
1943: Wilfrid B. Israel, a German born Jew and ardent Zionist departed London for Lisbon. Once in Portugal he stayed in the Iberian Peninsula for two months, where he found over 1,500 stateless Jews in Spain. He issued 200 of them certificates to go live in Palestine, and did what he could to intervene on the other's behalf.
1944: The twenty-third Beth El Ball was held this evening at the Walt Whitman Hotel in Camden, NJ. It was dedicated "to our fighting allies".
1944: The New York Times includes a review of Dangling Man by Saul Bellow
1945: General Patton sent 307 officers and men in tanks, half-tracks and support vehicles under the command of Captain Abraham J. Baum on a mission to liberate approximately 1,300 POWS being held at a camp near Hammelburg, Germany. The group of POWs included Patton’s son-in-law who had been captured during fighting in North Africa. In the words of historian Stanley Weintraub, “Nine GIs in Baum’s small column were killed and 31 others were wounded and captured – a hairy business for Baum as his dog tag identified him as Jewish.”
1946: “Millionaire businessman and philanthropist Sir Charles Clore and the former Francine Halphen gave birth to philanthropist Dame Vivien Louise Duffield, the sister of Alan Evelyn Clore and the wife of ‘British financier John Duffield” with whom she had “two children, Arabella and George.
http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/meet-dame-vivien-duffield-londons-super-philanthropist-and-step-granny-to-that-wild-beauty-cara-8699777.html
1946: In Cleveland, Judge and Mrs. Joseph C. Bloch celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary.
1946(23rdof Adar II, 5706):“Phineas Horowitz, veteran Zionist leader, and vice-president of the British Zionist Federation, passed away today in London.” (As reported by JTA)
1948(15thof Adar II, 5708): Shushan Purim
1948: “Alleging that the Arabs intended to try to seize Jerusalem after the British withdrawal, spokesman for the Jewish Agency for Palestine confirmed today that the Agency had proposed that 10,000 Norwegian and Danish troops be brought from Germany to maintain order in the city.” (Considering the fact that the city was already under siege with Arabs blocking convoys from the coast and attacking the Old City, this was not Paranoia but a response to a real threat.)
1948: Before leaving the United States today with his wife Lou, Austrian born composer Hanns Eisler who had fallen afoul of HUAC read a statement that included: “I leave this country not without bitterness and infuriation. I could well understand it when in 1933 the Hitler bandits put a price on my head and drove me out. They were the evil of the period; I was proud at being driven out. But I feel heart-broken over being driven out of this beautiful country in this ridiculous way.”
1949: Birthdate of Helene Middleweek who as Valerie Hayman, Baroness Hayman, became the Lord Speaker of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
1950: Lafayette College in Easton, PA announced that its round the world student tour this summer which is designed to increase their “intellectual, cultural and spiritual horizons” will include a stop in Tel Aviv.
1950: It was reported today that the government of Israel is using the Israel Institute of Applied Social Research under the direction of Dr. Uriel G. Foa to deal with a variety of problems facing the infant Jewish state including assisting immigrants in adjusting to life in “their new homeland.”
1951: Final broadcast of the ABC panel show “Can You Top This?” co-starring Harry Hershfield.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the anti-reparations demonstration in Tel Aviv, organized by the Herut political party, lasted two hours and passed off quietly after a week of general tension. At The Hague the Conference on Reparations started discussing the respective Jewish claims on Germany. The German delegation contested the Jewish claim for $500 million as "exaggerated," while the Jewish delegation claimed that the sum was "only a fraction" of the heirless property actually remaining in German hands.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Knesset debated the final reading of the Nationality Bill and the principle of dual nationality, held by a number of Israeli citizens.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Israeli-Jordanian Mixed Armistice Commission reaffirmed the Israel-Jordan demarcation line in the Kalkilya area. The line was marked by a deep ditch, dug by a tractor to prevent further infiltration and other incidents.
1953: “The Story of Three Loves,” a romantic anthology film with a script co-authored by George Froeschel and co-starring Kirk Douglas was released in the United States today.
1956: In Sweden, premiere of “The Rose Tatoo” with a script adapted by Hal Kanter and directed by Daniel Mann.
1957(23rdof Adar II, 5717): Fifty-four year old Max Ophüls, the German Jewish movie director who spent the war in France and the United States passed away today in Hamburg.
http://biography.yourdictionary.com/max-ophuls
1960: Birthdate of actress Jennifer Gray, star of Dirty Dancing who is the daughter of actor Joel Gray and the granddaughter of comedian and musician Mickey Katz.
1960: Birthdate of Steve Feinberg the Princeton graduate who is the co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management.
1961: “The Hoodlum Priest” directed by Irvin Kershner and filmed by cinematographer Haskell Wexler was released today in the United States.
1961: Birthdate of Mitchell Simpson, who gained fame as Amanda Simpson.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/amanda-simpson-test-pilot-mitchell-simpson-senior-post-commerce-department-article-1.460198
1961: “Dondi” a movie based on the comic strip co-created by Irwin Hansen was released in the United States today.
1964: Birthdate of comedian Todd Barry
1964: Two days after opening in the UK, “Fall of the Roman Empire” produced by Samuel Bronston, with a script co-authored by Philip Yordan and music by Dimitri Tiomkin was released in the United States today.
1964: "Funny Girl" with Barbra Streisand opens at Winter Garden Theater in New York City for the first of 1,348 performances
1967(14thof Adar II, 5727): Purim
1967: Production of “Ciao! Manhattan” co-directed, produced and written by David Weisman began today.
1967(14th of Adar II, 5727): Joseph Jacobs, president and founder of Joseph Jacobs Organization, a merchandizing and advertising organization that specializes in the Jewish mark and “has been credited with being responsible for the wide currency of kosher symbols on food labels” passed away today at the age of 75. A 1911 graduate of City College, Mr. Jacobs taught school while doing graduate work at Columbia before going to work as an advertising salesman for the Daily Forward in 1919, the same year that he founded his own company. Mr. Jacobs’ most lasting contribution to American Jewry is the famous Maxwell House Hagaddah.
1970: "Minnie's Boys" opened at the Imperial Theater. Minnie’s boys were better known as the Marx Brothers.
1970: Seventy-seven year old artist Fritz Ascher passed away today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/if-not-for-the-nazis-he-may-have-been-the-next-leonardo/
1971: NBC aired “Gideon,” a play by Paddy Chayefsky based on the Biblical Judge with Peter Ustinov in the title role.
1971: Outbreak of the nine month long Bangladesh Liberation War. A Jewish military leader, Lieutenant General JFR (Jacob-Farj-Rafael) Jacob gained fame in his homeland when he headed the Indian armed forces that vanquished the Pakistani army in the war that broke out between the two countries over East Pakistan which after the war became the independent state of Bangladesh).
1973: It was reported today that Arthur Hertzberg, “head of the American Jewish Congress” had called “for providing American Jews with a basic Jewish education and a deep sense of identification with the Jewish People.”
1973: In East Lansing, Michigan Dr. Carl Page and Computer Professor Gloria Page, who was Jewish, gave birth to Lawrence “Larry” Page who along with Sergey Brin co-founded Google.
1974: Birthdate of Rockford, Illinois actress and comedian Natasha Leggro, the graduate of the Stella Adler Conservatory who “converted to Judaism as an adult.”
1976: In Chicago, the Dearborn Station, which has been designed by Cyrus L.W. Eidlitz to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) today.
1979: Nineteen people were injured today during a terrorist bombing in a market at Lod.
1979: Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty at the White House. This historic event ended three decades of fighting including three major wars. It took Sadat to break the “Gordian Knot” and come to Jerusalem. It took Begin to gamble that the Egyptians would keep their word and not turn the Sinai into a springboard for another war. And it took Carter's tenacity to keep the talks on track. All Arabs are not the same. Likud, right wingers, are willing to make peace. And American Presidents can provide the leverage for agreement. Critics say it has been a cold peace. But the border between the two has comparatively remained tranquil and the armed forces of the two nations have not clashed in a quarter of century. Hatikvah - hope.
1982: “I Ought To Be In Pictures” a film based on the Neil Simon play of the same name directed and produced by Herbert Ross, starring Walter Matthau and with music by Marvin Hamlisch was released in the United States today.
1984(22ndof Adar II, 5744): Seventy-one year old Bora Laskin passed away while serving as the 14th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Canada.
http://www.ottawajewishbulletin.com/2017/04/canada-150-bora-laskin/
http://www.cjnews.com/culture/canada-150/remembering-bora-laskin-giant-supreme-court
1985: “Anna Karenina,” a made-for-television adaption of the famous novel with a script by James Goldman was released today in the United States.
1987: U.S. President Jimmy Carter visited Jerusalem. Former Prime Minister Begin who has been living in virtual seclusion for years declined Carter’s request for a meeting. Begin did visit with the President by phone.
1991: David Wolfson who as knighted in 1984 was “created a life peer with the title Baron Wolfson of Sunningdale, of Trevose in the County of Cornwall” today.
1995: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture, 1880-1950 by Jenna Weissman Joselit and Jews and the New America Scene by Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab.
1997: In Stockholm, Budapest native Eva Löwenthal was interviewed by the USC Shoah Foundation Institute.
2000: U.S. President Bill Clinton meets with Syrian President Hafez Assad.
2000: Pope John Paul II ended his trip to Israel by visiting the Western Wall and, in keeping with a centuries-old tradition left a message in one of its cracks.
2000: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood by Tom King and The Genesis of Justice: Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice That Led to the Ten Commandments and Modern Law by Alan M. Dershowitz
2001: Dalia Rabin-Pelossof became the only member of New Way to remain in the Knesset when two other New Members resigned from the Israeli Parliament.
2001(2ndof Nisan, 5761): Ten month old Shalevet Pass was murder this afternoon by a Palestinian sniper belong to the Tanzim terrorist group while sitting in his stroller.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Shalhevet_Pass#/media/File:Shalhevet_Pass.jpg
2002(12th of Nisan, 5762): Chaike Belchatowska Spiegel, one of the last surviving combatants of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis, died in Montreal at the age of 81. She had been hospitalized for about two years, her family said. Probably no more than 10 other combatants from the uprising are still alive, said her son-in-law, Eugene Orenstein, who teaches modern Jewish history at McGill University in Montreal. In January 1943, Chaike Belchatowska joined the Jewish Fighting Organization, known by its Polish acronym ZOB, which had been formed the previous year to resist the deportation of Jews from the ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp by the Nazi forces that had overrun Poland in 1939. On April 19, the first night of the Jewish feast of Passover on the secular calendar, a Nazi force, equipped with tanks and artillery and under the command of Col.Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, entered the ghetto to resume the deportations, which had been suspended in January after running into stiff resistance. This time the Nazis were repulsed from the ghetto altogether, suffering heavy losses at the hands of the ZOB and other resistance groups, all of them poorly armed with only a few smuggled guns, little ammunition and homemade gasoline bombs. Colonel Sammern-Frankenegg was relieved of his command and replaced by Gen. Jürgen Stroop, who attacked again. But the Nazi forces found themselves blocked once more by fierce Jewish resistance after several days of vicious street fighting. The Germans then changed tactics and, using flame throwers, began systematically burning down the houses of the ghetto. The ZOB headquarters fell on May 8, but sporadic resistance continued into June and July. Meanwhile, Ms. Belchatowska, together with her husband-to-be, Boruch Spiegel, the leader of a ZOB fighting unit, and some 50 other Jewish resistance fighters, managed to escape from the ghetto to the forests outside Warsaw; from there, they continued to harass the Germans until the end of the war. After the Germans were driven from Poland by Soviet troops, Ms. Belchatowska and Mr. Spiegel moved to Sweden, where they married and where their son Chil, or Julius, was born. In late 1948 they went to Montreal after failing to obtain a visa for the United States. Chaike Belchatowska Spiegel, who was often known in English as Helen, was born in Warsaw. Her parents separated shortly afterward, and she was raised by her mother, who was an active Jewish socialist. She inherited much of her mother's political philosophy, becoming a member of the Jewish Labor Bund, an organization founded in Czarist Russia to promote a brand of Marxist socialism that would provide cultural autonomy for Jews. After the first mass deportations from the Warsaw ghetto in the summer of 1942, she encouraged Jews to resist being moved by every means possible. She helped circulate a Yiddish-language paper warning that their real destination would be Treblinka and that the Nazis were lying when they encouraged volunteers by promising them more food and greater freedom. In November of that year, she herself was herded onto a train bound for Treblinka but managed to break out of a cattle car and escape back to the ghetto. After moving to Montreal, Mrs. Spiegel and her husband ran a business making purses and other leather goods. She is survived by her husband; their son, Julius, who is the Brooklyn parks commissioner, and their daughter, Mindy Spiegel of Montreal.
2003: Rabbi Janet Marder was named president of the Reform Movement's Central Conference of American Rabbis. This meant that she had become the first woman to lead a major rabbinical organization.
2005: Robert Iger reassigned Disney’s chief strategic officer, pledged to disband the company's strategic planning division and also vowed to restore much of the decision-making authority that the division had assumed to the company's individual business units.
2006: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) strongly condemned the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, for remarks urging two leading Jewish property developers to "go back to Iran and try their luck with the ayatollahs, if they don't like the planning regime or my approach." The two property developers, brothers Simon and David Reuben, are of Iraqi Jewish origin and were born in India. Both are British citizens. Mr. Livingstone has refused calls for an apology. Instead, he stated: "I would offer a complete apology to the people of Iran to the suggestion that they may be linked in any way to the Reuben brothers. I wasn't meaning to be offensive to the people of Iran."
2006: The New York Times featured a review of "My Father is a Book: A Memoir of Bernard Malamud" by Janna Malamud Smith.
2008: In Jerusalem, The Bible Lands Museum English lecture series presents: "The Classical Islamic Attitude to Jerusalem," by Professor Moshe Sharon of Hebrew University
2008: Haaretz reported that in a rare departure from government practice, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is planning to convene an interfaith conference for Muslims, Christians and Jews, according to the Saudi-owned Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper. The call for religious dialog to include Jews is the first by the monarch, whose country's regulations prohibit the importation of non-Muslim religious objects including crucifixes and stars of David.
2008: Two people were lightly wounded and nine were in shock after Palestinians fired a volley of Kassam rockets at Sderot. Six rockets were lobbed at Sderot, two of them landing inside the town. Security forces were trying to locate the other four rockets.
2008:Richard Anderson Falk began serving as “a United Nations Special Rapporteur on "the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967."
2008: The Israel Defense Forces captured a senior Hamas terrorist who helped mastermind the 2002 suicide bombing at a Passover Seder at Park Hotel in Netanya, in which 29 people were killed and nearly 150 others wounded. Omar Jabar, who headed Hamas' military wing in the West Bank city of Tul Karm, was among seven wanted Palestinians already detained by the IDF.
2008: Students at Haifa University expressed their anger today after the university decided to schedule tests on the Holocaust Memorial Day. The students, many which have family members who died in the holocaust, are demanding that the tests be Canceled. The University said in response that the decision was made for lack of any other options, in the wake of the lengthy lecturer's strike earlier this year.
2008:Double Sextet" a composition by Steve Reich was performed for the time in Richmond.
2009 (1st of Nisan 5769): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
2009: Israeli culinary writer Janna Gur gave a lecture on the Cuisine of Israel at the College of Technology in New York City accompanied by a cooking demonstration by students
2010: Keren Ann Zeidel is scheduled to perform at The City Winery in New York City.
2010: In Washington, D.C., Robyn Helzner, one of the leading interpreters of world Jewish music, and Cantor Larry Paul are scheduled to lead a Carlebach-inspired service at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue.
2010(11th of Nisan,5770): Major Eliraz Peretz 31, from Kiryat Arba, who was the deputy commander of the Golani battalion and Staff Sergeant Ilan Sviatkovsky, 21, from Rishon Letzion were killed during fighting on the Gaza border today. Peretz’s brother had been killed while fighting in Lebanon.
2011: In Rockville, MD, Tikvat Israel Congregation is scheduled to sponsor an old fashioned Sock Hop.
2011: “The Infidel” and “Vidal Sasoon: The Movie” are scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2011: “Berlin '36” is scheduled to be shown on opening night of the Hartford Jewish Film Festival.
2011(20th of Adar II): Eighty-six year old “Stanley Bleifeld, a figurative sculptor whose bronzes adorn the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Navy Memorial in Washington and museums including the Museum of the City of New York” passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/arts/design/stanley-bleifeld-sculptor-for-navy-and-baseball-hall-of-fame-dies-at-86.html
2011(20th of Adar II): Ninety-four year old internet pioneer Paul Baran passed away. (As reported by Katie Hafner)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/technology/28baran.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Paul%20Baran&st=cse
2012: The 16th Annual Hartford Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a “Book and Film” event commemorating the Kindertransport.
2013(15thof Nisan, 5773): First Day of Pesach
2013: “At dawn this morning, a large group gathered on a mountain in the Negev desert to reenact the moments leading up to the Israelites exodus from Egypt.” (As reported by Andrew Esentein)
2013:In the evening numerous congregations are scheduled to host community Seders including Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Agudas Achim in Iowa City and Kol Ami in Arlington, VA
2013: Bahrain’s lawmakers voted today to label the Lebanese militia Hezbollah a terrorist organization, the Lebanon-based news outlet Now Lebanon reported.
2013: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s telephone conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the start of the process of improving Israeli-Turkish ties, not the end of it, a government official said today.
2014: In Fairfax, VA, Gesher Jewish Day School is scheduled to open its 6th annual Used Book Sale.
2014: “Igor and the Cranes' Journey” is scheduled to be shown at the Northern Virginia Jewish Film Festival.
2014: In Portland, the Oregon Jewish Museum is scheduled to host “Night of the Maggidim” when real life becomes a Chassidic Tale.
2014: Bowing to pressure from Arab states UN Human Rights Council President Remigiusz Henczel rejected the candidacy of Georgetown Law lecturer Christina Cerna as the of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories choosing instead Indonesian Makarim Wibisono, “an outspoken critic of Israel.” (As reported by Times of Israel)
2014: The Israeli Navy fired on two Palestinian boats this morning and a third one tonight that were thought to be involved in smuggling operations between Egypt and Gaza.
2015: In Turkey, the Grand Synagogue of Edrine which had first been used Erev Pesach, 1909 and which was abandoned in 1983 “after most of the Jewish community left the city, emigrating to Israel, Europe, or North America” was re-opened under the leadership of Rabbi David Azuz who oversaw the “celebration and a Shacharit, morning prayer service, attended by a large number of Jews including Ishak Ibrahimzadeh, leader of the Jewish Community in Turkey, Rav Naftali Haleva, deputy to Hakham Bashi (Chief Rabbi) Ishak Haleva, Bülent Arınç, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, and some other Turkish high officials.”
2015: Holocaust survivor Halina Peabody is scheduled to speak at the Unites States Holocaust Memorial Museum today as part of its “First Person Series.”
2015: “The human rights group Amnesty International said in a report issued today that armed Palestinian organizations committed war crimes during the 2014 Gaza-Israel conflict, by killing both Israeli and Palestinian civilians using indiscriminate projectiles.”
2015(6thof Nisan, 5775): Naomi Weisstein whose "Kuche, Kirche, Kinder: Psychology Constructions the Female" is part of the Women's Liberation canon as was her path- breaking research on visual perception” passed away today and is mourned by “loving husband Jesse Lemisch” and the members of “History in Action, an intergenerational network of feminist writers and activists.”
2015: The Jewish Film Festival of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host a screening of “24 Days” which “offers a gripping and carefully-plotted thriller that tells the true story of the kidnapping of Ilan Halimi in a Paris suburb by The Gang of Barbarians, who expect a huge ransom as they assume that all Jews have money.”
2015: In New York, Eléonore Biezunski is scheduled to deliver a lecture on Creating Songs in Boiberik: Singing Peace at "Felker Yontev" in which she “examines the structure of these pageants and how they continue to impact the music scene in Yiddish today.”
2016: “Tikkun” a prizewinning film at the Jerusalem and Locarno Film Festivals directed by Avishai Sivan is scheduled to be shown at the Museum of Modern Art this evening.
2016: The Jews in the American South is scheduled to come to an end in Savannah, Georgia where the Jewish community dates at back to 1733.
2016: During his weekly Saturday night lecture, “Israel Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef “said non-Jews could live in Israel only if they observe the seven Noahide Laws, which include prohibitions against idolatry, blaspheming God, murder, forbidden sexual relations, stealing and eating the limb off a live animal, and which proscribe the establishment of a legal system” and that “Non-Jews, Yosef are in Israel only to serve Jews.”
2016: “Baba Joon” is scheduled to be shown at the 20th annual Israeli Film Festival in Philadelphia, PA.
2017: The Seattle Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a brunch featuring Matzoh Momma's delicious spread of Jewish soul food, klezmer music by The Klez Katz!, and coffee by Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters of Olympia before a screening of the “Last Laugh.”
2017: The AIPAC Policy Conference is scheduled to begin today in Washington, D.C.
2017: “Hundreds of teen singers from the U.S. and Israel” are scheduled to perform on the stage of the “Metropolitan Opera House when HaZamir holds its gala concert.
2017: Friends and family send best birthday wishes to Joan Thaler, one of the grand ladies of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community is contributions are too numerous to recount.
2018: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host a performance of Chilean-American writer and human rights activist Ariel Dorfman's “Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark.”
2018: The Center for Jewish History, Jewish Studies Program of Cornell University and American Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to host the “Triangle Fire: See You in the Streets” featuring Cornell University Professor Nick Salvatore and author/artist Ruth Sergel in a lively discussion of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
2018: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “An Wit Chef Alon Shaya” the Tel Aviv-born, Philly-raised chef moved to New Orleans and won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in America.
2018: “Red Trees” and “In the Land of Pomegranates” are scheduled to be shown at the Jacob Burns Film Center during the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2018: “Bal Ej: the hidden Jews of Ethiopia” is scheduled to be shown at the Eli Cohen Center in Nahariya, Israel.
2018(10thof Nisan, 5778): On the Hebrew Calendar, observance of “Aliyah Day,” “an official day of national celebration in which Jewish immigration to Israel is honored and noteworthy immigrants are recognized for their contributions to the nation.” (As reported by Debra Kamin)