June 1
987: Hugh Capet was elected King of France making him the first of the Capetians. During this period, power lay with the nobles and the leaders of the Church. Among other things this meant that the kings were unable to do anything to protect the Jews against the anti-Semitic teachings of the clergy and the resulting hostile actions of the ordinary people against the Jews. To make matters worse, when Hugh Capet was stricken with a mystery malady a Jewish physician was summoned to treat him. Unfortunately, the King died and the Jews were accused of killing him.
1204: King Philip Augustus of France conquered Rouen, the historic capital of Normandy which had been operating under a charter that allowed for self-government. Considering how poorly the French king treated his Jewish subjects, his seizure of Rouen could not have been good news for the city’s Jewish population which numbered 6,000 and was strong enough to support its own Yeshiva.During the second half of the twelfth century, when Rouen was governed under the terms of a charter that allowed for self-government, the town was home to 6,000 Jews (approximately 20% of the population) and was the site of yeshiva. The site of a yeshiva. At that time, about 6,000 Jews lived in the town, comprising about 20% of the population. In addition, there were a large number of Jews scattered about another 100 communities in Normandy. The well-preserved remains of the yeshiva were discovered in the 1970s under the Rouen Law Courts and the community has begun a project to restore them. In 1215, Rouen would be the site of the Fourth Lateran Council which adopted a panoply of ant-Semitic measures.
1252: Alfonso X is elected King of Castile and León. Known as El Sabio (The Learned One) the well-educated Christian monarch set out to “to create a Christian culture in the north of Spain that as equal in glory to Moorish culture in the South…He ordered both the Koran and the Talmud to be translated into Latin.” One of the most prominent scientists in his realm was the Jewish astronomer, Yehuda ben Moses Cohen.
1424: Benedict XIII the “antipope” who was zealous in his drive to force Jews to convert in an effort to gain legitimacy passed away today.
1434: King Wladislaus II of Poland passed away. During his reign, persecution of the Jews intensified and Wladislaus did nothing to protect them or reinforce the rights that had been granted to them by his predecessors Instead he actually took steps to limit their business activities by issuing an edict limiting their right to lend money.
1571: As a result of a command by the Duke of Alba, the Spanish governor, “a commission at Antwerp compiled the first Index Expurgatorius, a list of passages in Hebrew books which were to be expurgated because they were considered heretical by the church.”
1581 Gregory XII issued Antiqua Judaeorum Improbitas, the Papal Bull that gave the Inquisition full jurisdiction over the Jews of Rome in all matters including heresy, possession of forbidden books and the employment of Christian servants or nurses.
1582: The Municipal Council of Pressburg “decreed that no one should harbor Jews, or even transact business with them.”
1635: Today the widow of William Leake, the publisher who reissued the “Merchant of Venice” – an act that “did no Jews no good turn” “transferred her late husband’s copyrights to William Leake II also known as “William Leake, the younger.”
1656: The Jews of New Amsterdam are allowed to practice their religion, after reminding the Dutch West India Company that Jews "in quietness" were allowed to practice in Holland and other Dutch colonies.
1764: The Sejm abolished the Council of the Four Lands. Supposedly this was not an act aimed to harm the Jews. Rather it was part of a plan to re-organize the tax system.
1778(6thof Sivan, 5538): Shavuot
1775: Abraham Solomon “enlisted in Col. John Glover’s Regiment, known as the Marbleheaders, to take part in the glorious Battle of Bunker Hill. Later he was shifted with his company to Cambridge. When the soldiers received their pay, they had to sign for it on the company’s muster roll. Solomon’s fellow soldiers, many of whom could not write, were allowed to make their Xs. But Solomon could write — just not in English — so he was allowed to sign his name in Hebrew. It is believed that this is the only Revolutionary War muster roll to be signed in Hebrew.”
1786: In Lemberg, Aharon Chaim Rapoport and his wife gave birth to “Galician rabbi and Jewish scholar” Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport, the husband of Franziska Freide Heller and son-in-law of Areyh Leib Heller, who switched from a career in business to serving as a rabbi in Tarnopol and Prague.
1789(7thof Sivan, 5549): 2nd day of Shavuot
1790: Birthdate of Rabbi Solomon Judah Löb Rapoport, the native of Lemberg who was one of the founders of the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement and author of several biographies including one Saadia Gaon.
1792: Kentucky admitted as the 15th state of the United States. Benjamin Gratz, one of the son’s of the famous Michael Gratz family of Philadelphia, who was a lawyer and veteran of the American Revolution was one of the earliest Jewish settlers of Kentucky, Louisville, Kentucky would become home to the state’s first congregation, Adath Israel which was incorporated in 1842. While serving as a delegate from Kentucky at the Republican Convention, Louis Naphtali Dembitz was one three who placed Lincoln’s name in nomination. He was the uncle of Kentucky’s most famous Jew, Supreme Court Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis.
1796: Tennessee admitted as the 16th state of the United States. The first Jews settled in upper East Tennessee in the 1770s and to Middle Tennessee by the 1820s. The Nashville Jewish community dates from the 1790’s with enough Jews living there to hold services in the 1840’s and establish a burial society in the decade before the Civil War.
1798(6thof Sivan): Fourteen month old Joseph Defflis, the son of Solomon Defflis passed away today in the United Kingdom.
1803: Nathan Hyams married Rebecca Barnet at the Great Synagogue in London.
1808(6thof Sivan, 5568): Shavuot
1817: In Denmark Hartvig Philip Rée and Thamar (Terese) Rée gave birth to Julius Rée>
1817: In Safed, Rabbi Eliezer Yeruham Elyashar, who was also a shochet and his wife gave birth to Yaakov Shaul Elyashar who backed the Chief Sephardi Rabbi in Palestine in 1893.
1819:ViolinistJoseph Böhm was appointed to serve as a professor at the Vienna Conservatory.
1828(19th of Sivan, 5588): Raphael Meldola passed away. Born in Leghorn in 1754, he was one of the most prominent members of the Meldola family. He received a thorough university training, both in theological and in secular branches, and displayed such remarkable talents that when only fifteen years old he was permitted to take his seat in the rabbinical college. He was preacher in Leghorn for some years, and in 1803 he obtained the title of rabbi. In 1805 Meldola was elected haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews of Great Britain, and proved a worthy successor of Sasportas and Nieto. His name will ever be indissolubly associated with that of Bevis Marks Synagogue. Possessed of a remarkably virile mind, he was a dominant factor in the British Jewry of his generation. He was the author of Korban Minhah, Kuppat Hatanim (1796), and Derekh Emunah, published by his son after his death. He left several other works in manuscript. His scholarship attracted around him a circle in which were many of the most distinguished men of his day, including Benjamin Disraeli and Isaac Disraeli and it is noteworthy that he opposed the policy which produced the famous rupture between the latter and the mahamad. He maintained a literary correspondence with many of the most prominent Christian clergymen and scholars of his time; and his acquaintance with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Canon of Windsor led to his being received by King George III. Meldola married Stella Bolaffi (Abulafia), by whom he had four sons and four daughters.
1833: The “Jews’ Law” enacted today “conferred citizenship on the wealthy and educated classes” Jews of Posen.
1835: Nineteen year old Giuseppe / Joseph Baron von Morpurgo married Elisa Parente.
1836: Henry Lyons married Rachel Hart at the Hambro Synagogue in London.
1843: In Amsterdam, Johannes Jonas Wertheim and Maria Rosenik gave birth to Karel Abraham Wertheim
1845: Birthdate of Caroline von Gomperz-Bettelheim “a Hungarian-Austrian court singer and member of the Royal Opera, Vienna” who was the older sister of Anton Bettelheim.
1846(7thof Sivan, 5606): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1847: At St. Helier, Maurice S. Mawson of Pernambuco married Rose Phillips, the second daughter of Michael Phillips of Jersey (As reported by the Jewish Chronicle.
1853: A description of an attack by Greeks on the Jews of Smyrna during Easter which may have been started by Russian agents and which was put down by the Turks was published today.
1853: It wasreported today that the issue of Jewish Disabilities continues to be a problem in Parliament. In response to a question from Mr. Milner Gibson on this topic, Lord Russell responded that he did not think a measure that dealt only with this and that he would be submitting a measure that would dealt with the general question of Oaths to be taken by Members of Parliament.
1854: Fourteen year old Louis Barnett, a “Welsh-born English Jew” “became a student-teacher at the Jews’ Free School” after which he “entered the University of London” where he earned a bachelor’s of arts degree nine years later.
1857: Isaac Jackson who was either 17 or 18 years old was shot and killed today by Charles Jones. Jackson is one of four Jewish brothers who own a stored in Westfield, MA. Young Jackson was driving a wagon of merchandize on the road between Westfield and Russell when he was attacked.
1861: Philadelphian Nathan Rosenfelt who would die of wounds suffered at Gettysburg, began serving as a Sergeant in Company D of the 26th Regiment.
1861: Philadelphian Maurice Rosenberg who would be wounded at Lookout Mountain and Leon Moser each began serving as Sergeants in Company C of the 27th Regiment today.
1861: Philadelphian Daniel Epstein began serving as a Second Lieutenant in Company D of the 27th Regiment on the same day that John Ulman began serving as a Sergeant in the same unit
1865(7th of Sivan, 5625): President Andrew Johnson designated today, the second day of Shavuot when Jews recite Yizkor, as a national day for memorial services to be held in honor of Abraham Lincoln.
1865: In Kalvaria, Poland (then part of the Russian Empire), Phillip and Sarah Rachel Phillipson gave birth to Bryant and Stratton Business College graduate and husband of Rachel Burton Samuel Phillipson, the father of Emmanuel, Sidney, Libbie and Silvian Phillipson and the owner of Samuel Phillipson and Company, the Chicago wholesale and general merchandise company who was also the director of the Chicago Hebrew Institute and the Jewish Home for the Aged.
1865: Rabbi Sabato Morais delivered a special sermon at Mikve Israel in Philadelphia on “the day appoint appointed for fasting, humiliation and prayer for the untimely death of the late lamented President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln” in which he said :
If the essence of religion is what the great Hillel taught us, then I unhesitatingly say that the breast of our lamented President was ever kindled with that divine spark. "To forbear doing unto others what would displease us" . . . is the maxim he illustrated in the immortal document of emancipation that bears his honorable signature. It is that which he exemplified by his numerous acts of clemency ...We must bear his name with a blessing upon our lips. (As reported by the Jewish Virtual Library)
1869:Isidore Loeb“was appointed secretary of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, a position he held until his death.”
1870: As a sign of his improving health, Prime Minister Disraeli was able to visit the Foreign Ministry today.
1873(6th of Sivan, 5633): Shavuot
1873: Dr. Aaron J. Messing, who had been serving as Rabbi of Sherith Israel since 1870 retired today and “was succeeded by Dr. Henry Vdaver.
1873: In “Whitsuntide: A Hebrew and a Christian Festival - Curious Customs and Interesting Ceremonies” published today the author compares the Jewish festival of Pentecost with the Christian Whitsuntide. Pentecost, signifying the fiftieth, is the second of the great festivals of the Hebrews, held fifty days after the Passover, or feast of the unleavened bread. The time of the festival is calculated from the second day of the Passover, the 16th of Nisan.
1875: Four days after she passed away, Emma Jacobs was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1876:Francis Mary Paul Libermann, who was known as Jacob Liberman before he converted to Catholicism “was declared venerable in the Roman Catholic Church” today “by Pope Pious IX.”
1879: “Can’t You Wait?” published today reminds the reader of two famous examples of” hasty identification” that turned out be erroneous. First was the case of a papyrus that surfaced at Leyden which contained a “report of a scribe” sent to his superior serving King Ramses II that said “he had ‘distributed the rations among the soldiers and likewise among the Apuirui, or Aperiu, who carry the stones to the great city of King Ramses.’” While most Egyptologists thought this referred to “the Hebrews who built…the City of Ramses” Dr. Heinrich Brugsh, showed “clearly that these Aperiu were not Hebrews but an “Erythraean people…mentioned long before in an inscription of Thutmes III as cavalry in the Kings Service.” The second example took place when a picture found in one of the tombs at Beni-Hassan (an ancient Egyptian cemetery) was first identified as being representional “of the arrival of the children of Israel” until the same Dr. Brugsh set the record straight. [Were these really errors or was this an example of a German Egyptologist who had difficulty acknowledging the antiquity of the Jewish people?]
1881: It was reported today that according to a recent study conducted by the Opthamological Society in Great Britain, “Jew are more color-blid than any other nationality, and their defects are usually of the most pronounced kind.” Oddly, the Quakers also show the same propensity for this malady.
1881: In “Birthday of Old Rome” published today it was reported that no Jewish will pass under the Arch of Titus with its depiction of the seven-branched candle labrum being carried in triumph by those who have sacked the Temple because it is a monument of shame.
1882: Birthdate of Jacob Billikopf the native of Vilna who gained fame in the United States for his career in social work, “Jewish philanthropy and labor arbitration.”
1883: It was reported today that an anti-Semitic riot that had begun in Rostov has been quelled. Violence broke out when Jew was accused of killing a Russian. Fifteen rioters were arrested after they had destroyed 130 homes belonging to the Jews of the town.
1884(8thof Sivan, 5644): Aaron Moses (A.M.) Pollak, the Austrian philanthropist who made his fortune manufacturing matches in Prague London, New York and Sydney who was ennobled by the emperor in 1869 which allowed him to be called Ritter Von Rudin passed away today.
1885: It was reported to today that a Hebrew manuscript that appears to be quite old has been found in the Sutro Library in San Francisco CA. Copies are being sent to scholars in the United States and Europe to ascertain its importance.
1885: Anti-Semitic riots have broken out again in Vienna. At least forty Jews have been injured in the attacks which have led to the destruction of several Jewish businesses. The riots appear to have been brought on by the current elections which have seen the defeat of Leopoldstadt Schnieder the anti-Semitic candidate who lost by six thousand votes.
1885: It was reported that Benjamin Hirschberg delivered the opening address at yesterday’s celebration of the 20thanniversary of the Hebrew Free School Association. Other youthful speakers included Michael Schaap, Annie Nathelson and “ten year old Simon Noot” who “referred to General Grant as the ‘Winner off battles and the savior of civilization.’”
1886: Deadline for Jewish troops who had served in Finland to leave the Grand Duchy, by order of the Czar.
1899: Today marks the end of the 23 year tenure of Dr. Herman Baar as superintendent of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. Dr. Baar had tendered his resignation which was due to “old age” at the May meeting of the officers but had stayed on until the first of June so that a suitable replacement might be found.
1889: It was reported today that the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children has just issued its 11th annual report. The primary mission of the organization has been to provide summer-time excursions for Jewish children and their parents. Last year the organization hosted ten outings that served a total of almost seven thousand babies and children as well as over 3,600 mothers. The society is seeking contributions for the purchase of a barge that will allow it to provide daily trips.
1890: In “Meytshet (Molchad), Slonim district, Byelorussia” Noyekh Meytsheter, a cantor known as “Reb Noyekh Lider and his wife gave birth to Elias Zaludkowski held posts as Hazzan in Warsaw, Vilna, and Liverpool, England, and in 1926 went to the U.S. where he officiated as Hazzan in New York and Detroit.”
1890: Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler will officiate at the confirmation exercises for the students of the Hebrew Free Schools which will be held this afternoon at Temple Beth El.
1890: The Ladies of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society host their second “annual reception” the first one having been held on Decoration Day.
1890: Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs, Morris S. Wise, Joseph Jacobs, and Julius Lipman were among the dignitaries who attended today’s annual reception for the Religious School of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun.
1890: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil presided over today’s closing exercises of the Temple Emanu-El Sabbath School for Religious Instruction
1890: The two Jewish congregations at Rondout, NY, will hold meetings today for the purpose of rasing money to bring to justice the murders of Samuel Hotz, a Jewish peddler whose body was found on the first day of Shavuot in an old mining shaft at Wurtsborough, NY
1891: It was reported today that the in Russia, “the government is about to subject Hebrew elementary and religious schools to more stringent control.”
1891: “Jewish Exodus From Russia” published today described the movement of Jewish immigrants from Russia through Germany to Paris, London and/or the United States. According to the Jewish Relief Committee in Berlin, about 600 Jews pass through Charlottenburg Station every day. The Russian Jews are not permitted to enter Berlin and must spend the night in the station before taking the trains to the West.
1891: The Viedmosti reported today that the Jewish Emigration Society has hired four Baltic steamers for the sole purposed of providing transportation for Russian Jews who have been forced to leave the country. The 60,000 immigrants are primarily Lithuanian and Polish Jews.
1892: “The Festival of ‘Shebnoth’” published today described the celebration of the “festival…also known as Pentecost and the Feast of Weeks, the latter designation having its origin in the fact that the festival is celebrated just seven weeks after the first of the Passover feast.”
1892(6th of Sivan, 5652): Shavuot, “which is also the season chosen for the confirmation of the pupils attending the religious schools attach to the” synagogues and temples of the Jews.
1892: In Clinton, NY, students at Hamilton College will compete for the Clark Prize for original oratory including Gregory Rosenblum from Novgorod, Russia whose topic is “The Jews of Russia.”
1892: A duel was fought today between Monsieur Drumont, the editor of La Libre Parol and Captain Cremieuz Foa, a Jewish officer in the French Army.
1893: Birthdate of Czech architect Otto Eisler who survived both Auschwitz and the “death march to Buchenwald” in 1945.
1893: The U.S. Senate Committee which is investigating the immigrant station on Ellis Island, which seems to be showing a special interest in the arrival of Jewish immigrants from Russia is scheduled to resume its meetings today.
1893: In Superior Court Judge McAdam heard the case of Schwab v Schwab in which the wife of Moritz Schwab, “a prosperous butcher” sought to force her husband who may have been a bigamist but who apparently had wanted to keep his marriage a secret from his family since he was Jewish and she was not, to provide financial for her and their two sons – William and Joseph.
1893: “Mr. Engel Must Explain” published today described charges of excessive force being used to discipline children at the Ladies’ Deborah Nursery.”
1893: “Jews Driven From Poland” published today provides confirmation of reports that the Russian persecution of the Jews has been extended to Poland. In the Ronda-Gonzowski district 480 families have been expelled in a manner where they were forced to abandon all of their real estate and businesses.
1894: In Rochester, NY, Congregation Berith Kodesh dedicated its new house of worship. The building which cost $130,000 “was designed by Leon Stern, a member of the congregation and was built on the corner of Gibbs and Grove streets
1894: Starting today, Moritz Schwab is scheduled to begin paying the mother of his children $25 a month – payments that will last for four years.
1896: A number of Hebrew manuscripts were presented to Columbia at today’s meeting of the college trustees “which, with those already in its possession makes Columbia’s collection the largest in the country.”
1897(1st of Sivan, 5657): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1897: Between now and October 1 the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children of the City of New York will provide 35 excursions for underprivileged Jewish children and their mothers at no charge.1898: In New York City, Polish born Louis Picon and his wife gave birth to Molly Picon, two of whose more famous roles were in “Milk & Honey” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”
1899: Birthdate of Mary Phagan whose murder in 1913 would lead to the lynching of Leo Frank.
1899: Mr. Karl Blind wrote from Hempstead, UK, today that “In the appreciative biographical notice concerning Eduard Simson, the fact of his Jewish origin has not been mentioned. The days of his political activity were, fortunately, days when no man of any intellectual value would have disgrace himself by taking part in an ‘anti-Semitic’ movement.
1899: Today is scheduled to Dr. Hermann Barr’s last day as Superintendent of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, a position he has held for 23 years and is vacating due to his concerns about his health.1899: Just weeks before his 78thbirthday, French poet and political leader who was a founder of Alliance Israelite Universelle passed away today.
1901(14thof Sivan, 5661):
1903(6th of Sivan, 5663): First Day of Shavuot
1903(6th of Sivan, 5663): Montifore Isaacs, “one of the best known and most popular bachelors in New York Society” and the nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore passed away.
1904: Three French Army Officers are arrested in connection with the Dreyfus Affair. However, the verdict would not be overturned for two more years when Dreyfus would finally be released from prison.
1905: Carl Jung discharged Sabina Spielrein, who had been his first patient, today.
1905(27th of Iyar): Isaac Hirsch Weiss, author of Dor Dor Ve-Dorshav passed away
1906: In Trier, Italy, after the Jews were attacked by a mob and threatened with death, Bishop Egelbert offered to save those who were willing to be baptized. Most chose to drown themselves instead.
1906: A pogrom broke out in Bialystok, Russia.
1906: The Jewish Herald reported today that “in Sydney, Australia, rabbis are not permitted to receive proselytes on the board of congregation passes on them.”
1907(19thof Sivan, 5667): Sixty-seven year old Jacob Freudenthal, the Professor of Philosophy at the University of Breslau who was sent to England in 1888 where he developed an expertise on the philosophy of Spinoza passed away today.
1907: IN the Yorkville section of NYC, building contractor “Joseph Hecht and Rose (née Loewy) Hecht” gave birth to Oscar award winning producer Harold Hecht.
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/28/movies/harold-hecht-film-producer-and-a-burt-lancaster-partner.html
1908(2ndof Sivan, 5668): Sixty-year old Auguste Seligman, the wife of Theobald Epstein and the mother of German mathematician Paul Epstein passed away today.
1908: The Cantors’ Association of America, the “successor to the Society of American Cantors” was organized today.
1909: Birthdate of Polish-American violinist and conductor Szymon Goldberg.
1909:Dorothy Montefiore (Micholls) and Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted gave birth to Army Major Marcus Richard Samuel, 3rd Viscount Bearsted, the Oxford graduate and wounded veteran of WW II who served as a director of several companies and corporations including Lloyds Bank.
1909: Birthdate of Yechezkel Kutscher, the native of Slovaki who made Aliyah in 1931 where he became a philologist and linguist.
1910: During a debate Turkish Minister of Interior Talaat Bey stated, "Some deputies have spoken on behalf of Muslim, Greek and Armenian hospitals, but I note with regret no one has a word for the Jewish hospital, which renders great services. It admits all persons sent to it by the police without distinction of race and religion."
1911: Birthdate of Bernard Rothman better known as Benny Rothman a UK political activist, most famous for his leading role in the Mass trespass of Kinder Scout in 1932 who passed away in 2002.
1913: Sylvia Annenberg, Beatrice Brown and Ruth Cohen are among those scheduled to be confirmed this morning at Temple Sholom in Chicago.
1913: Leopold Kessler opened the English Zionist Federation’s conference today.
1914(7thof Sivan, 5674): 2nd day of Shavuot
1915: As of today, President Wilson has not responded to a telegram from the Independent Order of Sons of Israel asking him to intercede on behalf of Leo Frank and his appeal for clemency.
1915: Today, “at the final session of the meeting of the United States Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of B’rith Sholom…a resolution was unanimously adopted advising Governor John M. Slaton of George that 50,000 members of the society join with other bodies in asking him to commute the sentence of Leo M. Frank to imprisonment, so that if his innocence is later established the fair name of Georgia may remain unstained.”
1915: Today, the United States Grand Lodge of the Order of B’rith Sholom adopted a resolution presented by Judge Aaron J. Levy of New York” that “provides for the establishment of a Jewish National Congress to which all Jewish societies shall send delegates for the discussion and improvement of conditions affect the Jews in this country?
1915: Although the George Prison Commission had announced yesterday afternoon that the hearing concerning the sentencing of Leo M. Frank was closed, it “decided today to reopen” the case “to hear opponents of commutation.”
1915: Today, Herbert Clay of Marietta, GA, Solicitor General of Blue Ridge Circuit head a party of fifty of his fellow-townsmen” that included ex-Governor Joseph M. Brown and Elmer Phagan the uncle of Mary Phagan “who filed into the audience chamber of the Georgia Prison and asked that the death sentence again Leo M. Frank be carried out.
1915: It was reported today that Jim “Conley, who was sentenced to twelve months as accessory to the murder of Mary Phagan” is scheduled to “go free tomorrow getting two months off for good conduct.”
1915: Leo Frank and Jim Conley are scheduled to meet tomorrow afternoon at a hearing “to be held in the jail in the case of Mrs. Coleman, mother of Mary Phagan against the National Pencil Factory” which she is suing for $10,000 in damages for the death of her daughter.”
1915: As of today the new officers of the Federation of Polish Hebrews of American published today including President Jacob Carlinger, Secretary David Troutman and Treasurer Morris Kaufman.
1915: The resolutions adopted by the Federation of Polish Hebrews of America published today included an expression of opposition “to laws further restricting immigration” and a call for “the holding of an American Jewish congress as soon as possible to help the Jews in war-ridden Europe and protesting against mistreatment of such Jews.”
1916:The nomination of Louis D. Brandeis of Boston to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States was confirmed by the Senate in executive session this afternoon by a vote of 47 to 22 with only one Democrat voting against confirmation.
1917: Henri Bergson who would later become a member of the Clemenceau Cabinet was “elected vice president of the France-Norway Committee” today.
1917: Herbert Merton Jessel, who would receive the Order of St. Michael and St. George in January of 1918, was created a baronet today in the United Kingdom.
1917: Sir Philip Magnus was created a baronet today in the United Kingdom.
1917: Princeton University All-American football player, Arthur “Bluey” Bluenthal who had joined the French Foreign Legion in 1916 and “served at the Battle of Verdun with the French 129th Infantry Division” with such distinction that he was award the Croix de Guerre with Star joined “the Escadrille Breguet 227 of the Lafayette Flying Corps” today.
1917: Charles Rosenthal and Philp Sassoon received the Order of St. Michael and St. George today.
1917: Premiere of “The Princess of Neutralia” a German silent comedy filmed by cinematographer Karl Freund featuring Julius Falkenstein.
1917: According to Henry Morgenthau of the American Jewish Relief Committee “$10,000,000 must be raised in the United States” by today “if the millions of Jews in the eastern war zone” are “to be saved from starvation.”
1917: It was reported today that reform Jews had agreed “that Orthodox dietary laws” would be observed “in all Jewish charitable institutions and hospitals” as part of the agreement that has led to “the unifications of all Jewish charities” in Brooklyn.
1917: The campaign by the American Jewish Relief Committee to raise $10,000,000 “for the benefits of Jews suffering from the war” to which Julius Rosenwald, President of Sears, Roebuck & Co. has promised to contribute $100,000 for each $1,000,000 collected, is scheduled to come to an end today.
1917: A memorandum is published describing the distress of the Jews in Belgrade. According to the document, “communities are destroyed, thousands are ruined and compelled to leave their homes.”
1918(21stof Sivan, 5678): Parashat Beha’aloctcha
1918(21stof Sivan, 5678): Teacher and author Arye-Kahyim Godldin the son of a Latvian shochet and mohel passed away today in Lodz.
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2015/05/arye-khayim-goldin.html
1918: The Ninth annual convention of the Kehillah opens at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan.
1919: The National Conference of Jewish Charities ended today with a business meeting at the Hotel Breakers in Atlantic City, NJ.
1919: In Queens, NY, “Nellie (Baron) Graham, a schoolteacher, and Leon Graham, a stockbroker” gave birth to “Judith Graham Pool, a physiologist whose scientific discoveries revolutionized the treatment of hemophilia.”
http://biography.yourdictionary.com/judith-graham-pool
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/pool-judith-graham
1920: Birthdate of David Samuilovich Kaufman, “one of the most important Russian poets of the post-World War II era.”
1926:Benny Leonard is the chairman of a committee sponsoring tonight’s scheduled testimonial dinner being given in honor of the Hakoah Soccer team at the Pennsylvania Hotel, on the eve of the team's departure from the United States. (As reported by JTA)
1926:Bernard Flexner, President of the Palestine Economic Corporation, announced that the organization’s primary activity will be to help provide financing for the hydroelectric station on the Jordan River and the necessary transmission lines to connect the existing Diesel engine power stations at Tel-Aviv, Haifa and Tiberias. The Palestine Economic Corporation was organized in February, 1925.
1926: Bertha Solomon “was admitted to the Johannesburg Bar, becoming one of the first practicing women advocates in South Africa and the first woman to plead a case before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in Bloemfontein.”
1926: In Portsmouth, UK, Morry and Becky Morris gave birth to Aubrey Jack Steinberg who gained fame as actor Aubrey Morris.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/16/aubrey-morris?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=dlvr.it
1926: Birthdate of Norma Jean Baker, who gained fame as Marilyn Monroe, the actress who converted to Judaism before she married playwright Arthur Miller.
1926(19thof Sivan, 5686):Hungarian political leader and government official Vilmos Vázsonyi died today after being assaulted “notorious anti-Semite Laszlo Vannay.”
1927: Hugo and Mathilde Gutmann gave birth to Helen Eakley
1927: Winifred “Winnie” Mark and Victory Aubrey Lownes, Jr, the “parents of Playboy executive Victor Lownes III” were married today.
1927: Rabbi Arthur S. Montaz gave the invocation this evening before dinner at this evening’s session of the Fourth Western Interstate Conference in Spokane, Washington.
1928: Birthdate of Lazarus “Larry” Ziedel the Montreal native who played hockey for the 1952 Stanley Cup winning Detroit Red Wings, the Chicago Black Hawks and the Philadelphia Flyers.
1928: Attorney General Albert Ottinger’s investigation of complaints by the Hebrew Religious Protective Association against certain cemeteries was resumed today when Assistant Attorney General Robert S. Conklin questioned Philip Gresner, Superintendent of the Baron Hirsch Cemetery at Port Richmond, Staten Island, about complaints by plot owners that charges were increased without warning and that even “funeral processions had been halted to demand payment in arrears.
1929: Twenty-five year old Baltimore native Bernard Jacob Bamberger received his Doctor of Divinity degree from Hebrew Union College today.
1929(22ndof Iyar, 5689): Seventy-three year old New York political leader and former U.S. Congressman Henry Mayer Goldfogle passed away.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=G000260
1930(5thof Sivan, 5690): Erev Shavuot
1930: The funeral Judge Hugo Pam of the Superior Court in Chicago who is survived by his sisters Miss Carrie Pam and Mrs. Walter Blumenthal is scheduled to take place today followed by burial in Rose Hill Cemetery
1930: Birthdate of Jo Amar.Jo Amar, a Moroccan-born Jewish singer whose melding of Andalusian and Israeli musical influences would make him a star in Israel and a popular performer in Jewish communities around the world. He passed away in 2009 at the age of 79.
1931: Birthdate of Ira Pastan, the husband of poet Linda Pastan who “was awarded the International Antonio Feltrinelli Prize for Medicine.”
1933(7th of Sivan, 5693): Second Day of Shavuot
1933: The League of Nations approves The Bernheim petition which is a protest aimed at Nazi anti-Jewish legislation in German Upper Silesia.
1933: Martin Riesenburger began serving ‘the Jewish Community in Berlin” where he served as the rabbi “in the Jewish old people's home in Grosse Hamburger Strasse and in the Jewish Hospital.”
1933:Germany introduces the Law for Reduction of Unemployment, which provides for marriage loans and other incentives to genetically “fit” Germans. (Jewish Virtual Library)
1933:American modernist writer Gertrude Stein published her autobiography, ironically titled The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas,
1936(11th of Sivan, 5696): As Arab attacks continue, snipers fired on two buses near Jerusalem, killing one Jewish rider and wounding two others. In the evening, a Jewish constable in Givat Shaoul was shot at by unknown assailants. This is the same district of Jerusalem where another Jews was killed yesterday.
1936: Leaders of the current Arab uprising reportedly have sent letters to wealthy Arabs “threatening their lives and homes unless they” provide economic support for the uprising. In response, the targets of the demands are “fleeing to Egypt, Lebanon and Europe.
1936: “A 50 year old Jewish merchant Moszek Laufer, his wife and three other customers were wounded this morning when a bomb exploded in a baker at Milsona” which is near Warsaw and “has long be a center of the anti-Semitic National Radicals.”
1936: “H.H. Trusted, speaking for the mandatory power assured the League of Nations permanent mandates commission this afternoon” that “the British Government regards the establishment of order in Palestine as of first importance and will not be deflected from its policy by riots or threats.”
1936: Alexander Kowalskis was sentenced to “two months in prison for singing anti-Semitic songs in Warsaw’s streets and courtyards” which were intended to stir up racial hatreds.
1936: Arab snipers fired on Jewish motor vehicles in Palestine including two buses outside of Jerusalem which one Jew dead and two more wounded.
1936: At the conclusion of its conference today, “the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland…expressed the opinion that no useful purpose would be “served by the appointment of a royal commission to investigate the grievance of Arabs and Jews in Palestine” and that the cause of peace would be better served by the government taking “steps to make possible greatly accelerated immigration of Jews in Palestine and Trans-Jordan.
1937: Birthdate of Muhammed Wattad, “an Israeli Arab politician who served as an MK between 1981 and 1988.
1937: Birthdate of Yisrael Meir Lau, the Polish born rabbi whose father died at Treblinka, who became the Chairman of Yad Vashem and Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv.
1938: Superman created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian artist Joe Shuster made his first appearance in D.C. Comics’ Action Comics Series issue #1 which sold for 10 cents.
1940: It was reported today that the Jewish Institute of Religion plans on conferring an honorary degree of Doctor Hebrew Letters on Rabbi Moses Schorr who is currently being held in a Soviet prison
1941(6th of Sivan, 5701): Shavuot
1941: German mathematician Kurt Hensel, the grandson of Fanny Mendelssohn and therefore a descendant of Moses Mendelssohn passed away.
1941: In Baghdad, Pro Axis Rashid Ali, began his revolution against the British by attacking the Jewish community. Approximately 150 Jews were murdered and 800 injured during two day of rioting. British troops stationed outside the city did not intervene. The pogrom is known as the Farhood.
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=16275
1941: The Battle of Crete comes to an end with German victory. There were fewer than four hundred Jews living in Crete at this time. “It was not until June of 1944, and almost as an afterthought, that the Jews of Crete were arrested and sent to Herakleion, where they were put on the ship Tanais, together with some 600 Greek and Italian prisoners. For some years the details of the last hours of the Tanais and the fate of its crew and human cargo was not clear. What was known is that the ship had been sunk and that all had perished. Evidence has now appeared through the Foreign Office in London that in fact the Tanais had been sighted by a British U-Boat and was given two torpedo broadsides and sank within 15 minutes.”
1941: The deportation of Bosnian Jews to regional concentration camps begins. By November, 14,000 Jews will have been deported to these camps.
1941: Birthdate of Dr. Stanley I. Greenspan, a psychiatrist who invented an influential approach to teaching children with autism and other developmental problems. (As reported by David Corcoran)
1942: The story of a young Jew, Emanuel Ringelblum, (who escaped from the Chelmno death camp after being forced to bury bodies as they were thrown out of the gas vans), was published in the underground Polish Socialist newspaper Liberty Brigade. The West now knew the "bloodcurdling news ... about the slaughter of Jews," and it had a name-Chelmno.
1942: The World Jewish Congress, based in New York, announces at a press conference that Eastern Europe is being turned into "a vast slaughterhouse for Jews." As with the Sudan and Dafur sixty years later, the world “does not hear.”
1942: Between June 1 and June 30 more than 23,000 Jews are gassed at the Belzec and Sobibór death camps
1942: During June, Auschwitz is ravaged by an epidemic of typhus.
1942(16th of Sivan, 5702): Germans invade Jewish hospitals in Sosnowiec, Poland, murdering newborns and tearing patients from operating tables. Ambulatory patients are sent to Auschwitz and gassed.
1942: A young Sosnowiec Jew named Harry Blumenfrucht is captured and endures two weeks of Nazi torture. He refuses to name his co-conspirators in a scheme to steal weapons. His suffering ends when he is hanged.
1942 (16th of Sivan, 5702 Jews from Dabrowa Tarnowska, Poland, led by Rabbi Isaac and gathered in a Jewish cemetery, defy their Nazi captors when they hold hands, dance, and drink "to life." The enraged Germans shoot and disembowel the entire group.
1942: At Lutsk, Ukraine, Jewish resistance is led by Joel Szczerbat
1942: Starting in the first week of June, three thousand Jews at Pilica, Poland, are deported to Belzec, but several hundred manage to escape before the journey is complete
1942: In Norway, Jews are given identity cards stamped with the letter "J."
1942(16th of Sivan, 5702): Mordecai Gebirtig, a Kraków carpenter whose songs of freedom are sung throughout Poland, is executed at Belzec.
1942: During the first week in June, Polish Jews are deported from Hrubieszów to the Sobibór death camp. Another 500 will be deported the following week
1942: Starting in June, Warsaw's underground newspaper, Liberty Barricade, published by the Polish Socialist Party, reveals Nazi gassing activity at the Chelmno death camp
1942: I.G. Farben's Buna-Monowitz synthetic-rubber and oil works opens near Auschwitz
1942(16th of Sivan, 5702): Between today and the 7thof June seven thousand Jews from Kraków, Poland, are murdered at the Belzec extermination camp.1942: First mention ever in the press, in this case the underground Warsaw newspaper "Liberty", of the ‘bloodcurdling news coming out of Chelmno.' Seven Thousand Jews were sent from Cracow to Belzec. On this day tracks began to be built connecting to a new death camp, Treblinka. Treblinka had been prepared for the Jews of central Poland.
1943(27th of Iyyar, 5703): Jews of Dalmatia, Serbia, are transferred to the island of Rab, which is off the coast of Croatia.
1943(27th of Iyar, 5703): Starting today and lasting throughout the first two weeks in June 10,000 Jews from Lvov lose their lives in a combination of street assaults and killings at Janówska, Ukraine,
1943(27th of Iyar, 5703): During liquidation of the ghetto at Sosnowiec, Poland, which began on June 1 and ended on June 6, a spirited resistance is led by Zvi Dunski. Ill-armed Jews fight back as deportations proceed
1943(27th of Iyar, 5703): The liquidation of the Jewish ghetto at Buczacz, Ukraine begins. It will end on June 6. Some Jews resist and escape
1943(27th of Iyar, 5703): Actor Leslie Howard dies when the civilian plane he is flying on from Lisbon to England is shot down by German fighters. The reason for the attack remains shrouded in the cloak and dagger world of W.W.II. Born Leslie Howard Stainer in 1893, Howard’s parents were Hungarian Jews. He served in WW I and gained fame in both English and American films. He is best remembered for his portrayal of Ashley Wilkes, the classic cavalier in “Gone With the Wind.”
1943(27th of Iyar: Just five weeks short of his 44th birthday, Wilfrid B. Israel, a Berlin born businessman who worked to rescue children from the Nazis, died aboard BOAC Flight 777, the same plane that was carrying Leslie Howard.
1944: An American public opinion poll indicates that 57 percent of Americans anticipate "a widespread campaign in this country" against Jews.
1944: From today through June 30, 13,500 Jews are deported from Miskolc, Hungary, to Auschwitz.
1944: With 55,000 unused United States quota slots from Occupied Europe, President Franklin Roosevelt agrees to allow only 1000 Jewish refugees into the United States. They will be housed at Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York
1944: After having been arrested on May 27, Mrs. Joel Brand and Rudolf Kastner are released by the Arrow Cross.
1945: Birthdate of Rabbi Menachem Froman, the sabra who as paratrooper helped reunify Jerusalem in 1967 and then went on to help found Gush Emunim after which he worked to develop a peace accord with Hamas “known as the Froman-Amayreh Agreement.”
1945: In Switzerland David Frankfurter was granted a pardon for having assassinated the “Swiss branch leader of the German NSDAP Wilhelm Gustloff in 1936 in Davos, Switzerland.
1945: Displaced Jews at Buchenwald, Germany establish Kibbutz Buchenwald, an agricultural training center designed to help young Jews succeed at kibbutz (communal) life
1945: Public-opinion polls taken during June indicate that Americans consider Jews a far greater threat to America than they consider German or Japanese Americans.
1945(20thof Sivan, 5705): Seventy-three year old Eduard Bloch who treated Adolf Hitler and hismother Klara before WW I passed away today.
1945: Kibbutz Nili is established on the former estate of Nazi big-wig Julius Streicher, near Pleikershof, Germany, to train Jewish displaced persons in agriculture and provide schooling for Jewish boys and girls.
1946: “Somewhere in the Night” directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz who also co-authored the script was released in the United States today.
1946: Following the murder of two Jews in Biala Podlaska, Poland, the town's remaining Jews began leaving the country during June.
1946: Ion Antonescu, the anti-Semitic former dictator of Romania, is executed after being convicted of war crimes.
1947: “James G. McDonald, former member of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry for Palestine who returned last week from a visit to that country, said tonight that its arid southern area the Negeve could be restored to cultivation by irrigation and take care of tens of thousands of Jewish families now in camps in Europe.
1948: The Arab states and Israel agreed to a cease-fire. After two weeks of fighting, the Arabs realized that pushing the Jews into the sea would not be such an easy matter after all.
1948: According to today’s Scotsman, 'After the Jewish surrender over 1000 non-combatant residents were evacuated to Katamon, south-west of Jerusalem.”
1949: Today marks the start of “UJA Month” a major fundraising event for the United Jewish Appeal.
1951: “Sirocco” a film based on Coup de Grace written by Joseph Kessel, directed by Curtis Bernhardt and co-starring Lee J. Cobb was released in the United Kingdom today.
1951: In Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, Nicole (née Raffel) and Serge Dassault gave birth to French political leader Olivier Dassault, the grandson on Marcel Dassault.
1953(18th of Sivan, 5713):Rabbi Shmuel Yitzchak Hillman, a native of Kovno who served as Dayan of the London Beth Din for 20 years, passed away today in Jerusalem.
1958: “The Lineup” a police movie directed by Don Siegel and starring Eli Wallach was released today in the United States.
1960(6thof Sivan, 5720): As JFK tries to nail down enough delegates to win the Democratic Party nomination for President, Jews observe Shavuot.
1961: In San Francisco, Doris Feigenbaum Fisher and Don Fisher, the co-founders of Gap, Inc. gave birth to John J. Fisher who owns several athletic teams including the Oakland Athletics baseball team.
1962: Leo Frederick Rayfiel, who has served on the federal bench for the last 15 years, appeared as witness today in the trial of State Supreme court Justice J. Vincent Keogh and former assistant U.S. attorney Elliot Kahaner who are charged with having attempted to fix a case being heard by Judge Rayfiel.
1963: Birthdate of Belarus native Arkadi Duchin who made Aliyah at the age of 15 where he a popular “singer-song writer, musical producer and the husband of Sima Duchin.
1964: U.S. release date of “Kapò” an award winning Italian moved about the Holocuast co-starring Susan Strasberg, the American Jewish actress who created the role of Anne Frank on Broadwa.
1964: Estelle Sommers got her start in the dance world when she transformed her first husband's Cincinnati piece-goods retail store into a dancewear specialty shop.
1965: Militants attack a house in Kibbutz Yiftah.
1967: Having seen its plans to organize an international flotilla to break the blockade of the Straits of Tiran come to naught, the United States government shifts its policy. Previously, President Johnson cautioned Israel not to fire the first shot in even of war. On this day, when Secretary of State Rusk was asked if the U.S. would restrain Israel from taking precipitate actions, he replied, “ I do not think it is our business to restrain anybody.” On this same date, Abba Eban realized that diplomacy would not work and that war looked like the only viable option. However, the months of diplomatic negotiation had earned Israel the support of the U.S. government, support it would need in the coming weeks when the Soviet Union sought to reverse Israel’s military successes.
1967: In response to the mounting tensions and popular demand, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol forms a government of national unity with membership from the total spectrum of Israeli political. Moshe Dyan is named Defense Minister and meets with Chief of Staff Rabin who outlines the military’s plans. Dyan approves that which had already been prepared.
1968: Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson", theme for the hit movie “The Graduate,” was number one on the charts.
1971: The Broadway production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” a musical based on the popular cartoon co-starring Bob Balaban as the blanket-hold Linus opened today at the John Golden Theatre.
1972: U.S. premiere of “The War Between Men and Women” directed by Melville Shavelson, produced by Danny Arnold with music by Marvin Hamlisch and featuring Herb Edelman as “Howard Mann.”
1974: Soviet authorities thwarted plans for an international symposium “on the basis of scientific seminar of physics of scientist-refusenik Professor Alexander Voronel.
1974: Seventeen Jewish activists, including Joseph Beilin, Anatoly Novikov and Lev Gendin staged a demonstration outside of the Moscow Intourist Hotel today.
1975: Refusenik Sender Levinson of Bendery, Moldavis was sentenced to six years in a labor camp for ‘speculation.’”
1978: Broadway premier of “Tribute” directed by Arthur Storch and produced by Morton Gottleb.
1979(6th of Sivan, 5739): First Day of Shavuot
1979: A week after being released in the United States, “The Brood” a sci-fi thriller directed and written by David Cronenberg and music by Howard Shore was released today in Canada.
1980: Actress and singer Barbra Streisand appeared at an ACLU Benefit in California
1981(28thof Iyar, 5741): As Israelis celebrate Yom Yerushalayim they contemplate what kind of friend the newly inaugurated Ronal Regan will make for Israel.
1981(28thof Iyar, 5741): Ninety year old “Tamar de Sola Pool, an author and educator and a former president of Hadassah, the women's Zionist organization, died today at Lenox Hill Hospital.” (As reported by Walter H. Waggoner)
1981: Filming of “The King of Comedy” co-starring Jerry Lewis, Tony Randall and Sandra Bernhard began today.
1981: Naim Khader, the PLO representative in Belgium, was assassinated in Brussels.
1983(20thof Sivan, 5743): Eighty-two year old novelist Anna Seghers who told the tales of the victims of Nazi Germany in such novels as The Seventh Cross and Transit passed away today in Berlin.
1983: After six years, Wilem Polak completed his service as mayor of Amsterdam.
1984: A week after premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, “Once Upon a Time America” a film that “chronicles the lives of Jewish ghetto youths who rise to prominence in New York City's world of organized crime” based on The Hoodsby Harry Grey was released today in the United States.
1984: “Streets of Fire” co-produced by Joel Silver and co-starring Rick Moranis was released in the United States today.
1984: Susan Weidman Schneider published Jewish and Female: Choices and Changes in Our Lives Today
1986(23rd of Iyar, 5746): Eighty-seven year old Rudolf Sonneborn an American businessman whose support of the Zionist cause dates back to 1919 when as a 20 year old he visited Palestine for the first time.(As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)
1987: Meir Rosenne ends his term as Israeli Ambassador to Washington.
1994: Premiere of “The Patriots’ a French film that provides a fictionalized account of Mossad operations starring Yvan Attal as “Ariel Brenner.”
1994: Today marked the final performance of the first West End rival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”
1997: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Rothschild Gardens by Miriam Rothschild, Kate Garton and Lionel de Rothschild, and the recently released paperback edition of Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen.
1997: For the second time Jack Lang began representing Loir-et-Cher in the French National Assembly.
1998(7thof Sivan, 5758): Second Day of Shavuot
1999: Brooksly E. Born, the wife of Jack Landau resigned as chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
2001: Rapper Shyne, whose legal name is Moses Michael Levi, was sentenced to ten years in prison after having been “convicted of, attempted murder, assault, and reckless endangerment.”
2001(10thof Sivan, 5761): Twenty-one Israelis were killed and another 132 were injured, most of whom were high school students when a suicide bomber blew himself up in Tel Aviv at the Dolphinarium.
Maria Tagiltsiva (14), Raisa Nimrovsky (15), Ana Kazachkova (15), Katherine Kastaniyada-Talkir (15), Irena Nepomnyashchi (16), Mariana Medvedenko (16), Yulia Nelimov (16), Liana Saakyan (16), Marina Berkovizki (17), Simona Rodin (18), Aleksei Lupalu (16), Yelena Nelimov (18), Irena Usdachi (18), Ilya Gutman (19), Roman Dezanshvili (21), Diez Normanov (21), Ori Shahar (32), Yael-Yulia Sklianik (15), Sergei Panchenko (20), Jan Bloom (25), Yevgeniya Dorfman (15
2001: Authors Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon to their third child Ida-Rose or “Rosie.”2004(12th of Sivan, 5764): Seventy-four year old ophthalmologist Charles Kelman passed away today. (As reported by Eric Nagourney)
2005: "Celebrated Piano Instructor Kaplinsky Counts Student as Cliburn Finalist".
2005: United States premier of the Israeli film “Or” (my treasure starring Dana Igvy.
2005: U.S. premiere of “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” with a script by Delia Ephron.
2005: Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon completed his term as Chief of Staff of the IDF.
2005:Dan Halutz “was officially appointed the eighteenth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and was awarded the rank of Rav-Aluf (Lieutenant General). It is the second time in the history of the Israel Defense Forces that a former IAF commander became the head of the entire military.”
2005:The Jewish Family Service (JFS) of Los Angeles holds its annual gala. The honorees are CAA agent Rick Kurtzman; his brother, Fox business affairs executive Howard Kurtzman; and their brother-in-law, William Morris Agent David Lonner (married to their sister Janet).
2005: In “Sarah Aaronsohn's Heroic Silence” published today, Seth Lipsky provides a review of A Strange Death by Hillel Halkin which provides a look at this little known piece of Jewish history from WW I.
2005: “After 39 previews, the Manhattan Theatre Club production” of “After the Night and the Music” a one-act play in three parts, written by Elaine May opened today at the Biltmore Theatre where it “ran for only 38 performances.
2006: The Minnesota Twins drafted Danny Valencia.
2006: The Kennedy Center production “Mame,” a musical with a book by Jerome Lawrence and lyrics and music by Jerry Herman opened today.
2006:At a commencement address he delivered at Queens College today, Alan “Hevesi told his audience that Senator Charles Schumer was so tough he would "put a bullet between the President's eyes if he could get away with it." Several hours after his remarks, Hevesi apologized for his comments, calling them "beyond dumb,""remarkably stupid," and "incredibly moronic\.”
2006: Archaeologists Ofer Bar-Yosef of Harvard University and Mordechai E. Kislev and Anat Hartmann of Bar-Ilan University report that they have found evidence that ancient people grew fig trees some 11,400 years ago, making the fruit the earliest domesticated crop.Remains of the ancient fruits were found at Gilgal I, a village site in the Jordan Valley north of ancient Jericho,. Gilgal was abandoned more than 11,000 years ago. Figs that are edible do not produce seeds and are propagated by planting shoots.Bar-Yosef said that ''In this intentional act of planting a specific variant of fig tree, we can see the beginnings of agriculture. This edible fig would not have survived if not for human intervention.''
2006: The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, in conjunction with the Instituto Cervantes and the Spanish Consulate in New York paid tribute to Diplomat and Savior of the Holocaust, Eduardo Propper de Callejón at the Instituto Cervantes in New York City. The event had a tremendous turnout with approximately 180 people in attendance. Propper's son, Felipe Propper de Callejón, spoke about how his father used his diplomatic office to administer special visas that would enable Jews and other persecuted people to escape the Nazi regime under the protection of the Spanish flag. Despite his father's heroism, he was stripped of his title and transferred to Consulate of Larache in the Spanish protectorate in Morocco and was never able to regain his title or attain recognition for his heroic acts before his death. Ana Salomon, the Special Ambassador for Relations with Jewish Organizations of the Foreign Ministry of Spain, and Abigail Tenembaum, the Vice President of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation also spoke at the event. The tribute featured an exhibition of photos, legal documents, and Propper's own notes and correspondences written while serving as First Secretary. This was the IRWF's second tribute to Spanish diplomat saviors. The first honored eight saviors in Argentina in 2004. The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote solidarity and civic courage, which are ethical cornerstones of the saviors of the Holocaust
2007: The Metropoline Company joined the Egged Bus Cooperative in providing bus service to Arad.
2007:Hadassah national president June Walker’s appointment to head the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations goes into effect. The Presidents' Conference is the umbrella group that represents 50 American Jewish organizations on issues of national and international concern.
2007:Michel Graber, the magistrate who has been overseeing the investigation into the fire that damaged Geneva’s largest synagogue on May 24 said that it was a criminal act which he described as arson. But he said there had been no indication that it was set by extremists. The May 24 blaze raised fears among Geneva's Jewish community that the fire might have been an anti-Semitic attack.
2007: On the same day when three more Kassam rockets struck Israel, the IAF killed a member of an Islamic Jihad Kassam cell in an air strike.
2007: “Knocked Up” a comedy directed, produced and written by Judd Aptow, starring Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd and featuring Jason Segal, Iris Apatow, Maude Apatow, Harold Ramis and James Franco was released in the United States today.
2007: British historian Geoffrey Alderman “joined the University of Buckingham” today.
2007: “Flyboys” a film about WW I allied pilots starring James Franco and David Ellison, the son of Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, and with music by Trevor Rabin was released in the United Kingdom today.
2008: Washington, D.C, Manhattan, NYC and Boston all host celebrations honoring Israel at Sixty.
2008: Mrs. Jacob (Betty) Levin gathers with her family and friends for the unveiling of the Matzevah of Dr. Jacob Levin (of blessed memory). Of course, his real Matzevah is impact he made on the lives of his loving family and devoted friends.
2008: “Israeli President Shimon Peres honored David Littman for his role in Operation Mural which was designed to save the Jewish children of Morocco, at a Presidential residence special commemorative event with his wife and family and former key Mossad agents in attendance.”
2008: In Chicago, the Spertus sponsors a book signing for “Louis Zukofsky The Modernist Poet as Jew” by Dr. Mark Scroggins. As the unbelieving child of immigrants, Louis Zukofsky (1904 – 1978) sought to study his way out of his father’s Lower East Side sweatshop and to write his way into Western literary history. He did so by placing himself among the "high modernist" poets, whose conception of culture was often covertly or explicitly anti-Semitic. Dr. Mark Scroggins’ new book explores Zukofsky’s growth into one of his century’s most fascinating and complex poets, growth paralleled by his navigation of poetry and Jewishness, and his discovery of Jewish-inflected modernist poetics, which continue to influence and inspire contemporary poets. Mark Scroggins holds an MFA and PhD from Cornell University and teaches literature and creative writing at Florida Atlantic University. A widely published author of poetry, essays and reviews, he has written on a broad range of writers, including extensive writing on poet Louis Zukofsky.
2008: The Chicago Sun Times features a review of “The Dream” by ninety-eight year old Harry Bernstein. “The Dream”follows “The Invisible Wall” as the second in a trilogy that traces the life of the immigrant son of Yankel and Ada Bernstein.
2008: The Washington Post features a review of “1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War” by Benny Morris as well as listings for “Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy”, by Natan Sharansky, “Golda” by Elinor Burkett,” A History of Palestine: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel” by Gudrun Krämer, “Jerusalem: City of Longing” by Simon Goldhill and The Story of Israel: From Theodor Herzl to the Roadmap for Peace” by Martin Gilbert.
2008(27th of Iyar, 5768):Yosef (Tommy) Lapid passed away at the age of 76. Born in Yugoslavia in 1931, Lapid and his mother (his father died in the Holocaust) made Aliyah in 1948 where he became a successful journalist and political leader.
2008(27th of Iyar, 5768):In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Penny Binger a student of Chasidic Judaism and devote of Shlomo Carlbach passed away.
2008: In front page article entitled “Baghdad Jews Have Become a Fearful Few” The New York Times describes the plight of one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities.
2009: Final showing of Sol LeWitt’s “Wall Drawing #260(1975)” at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
2009: Sports Illustrated magazine features a review of Bill Russell’s “Red and Me” which focuses on the close, unique relationship between the all-star center and coach and Red Auerbach, Russell’s coach and mentor. Between the two of them, they changed the game and made a unique social statement. “Russell writes that they were drawn together by a mutual hardheadedness, united y the ‘tribulation of our tribes’: Russell was an African American who grew up in the Jim Crow South and the Oakland projects, Auerbach a street-savvy urban Jews.” While everybody knows about the alliance between African-Americans and Jews that helped to make the Civil Rights Revolution, fewer people are aware of this unique Black-Jewish Alliance which created its own revolution.
2009: The Washington Nationals drafted Danny Rosenbaum.
2009: During “Turning Point 3” the government’s emergency headquarters will discuss coordination measures
2009:Security forces uprooted the outpost of Nahalat Yosef today and arrested several activists who protested the destruction. Among those arrested was MK Michael Ben-Ari. Following those events, security forces converged on Ramat Gilad, where residents are concerned at the prospect of a confrontation but say they will resist any attempts to evict them from the area.
2009:Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak began a round of meetings with top U.S. officials today in a bid to head off an increasingly sharp dispute between the United States and Israel over the expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory.
2009: The Saul Steinberg: Illuminations travelling exhibition, which displays original Steinberg works comes to a close in Hamburg, Germany.
2010: Mothers Circle, an education and support group for non-Jewish women raising Jewish children is scheduled to have its first meeting for the summer at the Historic Sixth & I Street Synagogue.
2010: Peter Stansky review of The Spanish Right and the Jews, 1898-1945: Anti-Semitism and Opportunism by Isabelle Rohr was published today.
2010: In the wake of naval action off the coast of Gaza, Prime Minister Netanyahu does not meet with President Obama as originally scheduled.
2010:An Islamic militant group in the Gaza Strip said three of its members had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza. The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad group said its fighters were killed shortly after firing two rockets into southern Israel. Israeli authorities said the rockets landed in open areas and caused no injuries.
2011: The Masada, Dead Sea and Jerusalem Opera Festival is scheduled to begin.
2011: Final session of Hebrew Literacy: Aleph, Bet, and Beyond is scheduled to take place today at the Historic Sixth & Synagogue in Washington, DC
2011: In Washington, DC, Adas Israel is scheduled to hold its Annual Meeting and honor the 2011 Yad Kakavod recipient, David Bickart.
2011(28th of Iyar, 5771): Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Reunification Day
2011:President Shimon Peres said today that peace could be achieved in Jerusalem in "our time", declaring that Israel has replaced the divisions that once wracked the holy city by offering freedom to all faiths and creeds.
2011: The American Jewish Committee lauded the Obama administration today for its decision not to take part in the upcoming United Nations’ Commemoration of the Durban World Conference Against Racism, set to take place in September in New York.
2011: In Helsinki, Ben Zyskowicz, a member of the National Coalition Party who was recently appointed speaker of the Finnish parliament, was attacked by a middle-aged man shouting a racial epithet against Jews.
2011:Attorneys for Howard Ackerman, an Orthodox Jewish prisoner in Carson City, Nev., filed a lawsuit against the state. The suit claimed that the state's corrections department intended to stop serving kosher meals to inmates within a week, thus violating their client’s freedom to practice his religion. Attorneys representing the state prison system filed court papers saying new menus are being considered, but that there are no plans to discontinue the kosher meal program.
2012: Cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform tonight at Town Hall in New York
2012: Larry and Mindy Fogel are scheduled to perform a musical salute to the Carpenters in Kfar Vradim.
2012: The Kühn Choir of Prague is scheduled to give an a-capella concert at the Henry Crown Concert Hall as part of the Israel Festival being held in Jerusalem.
2012: Jennifer Herren is scheduled to begin her Bat Mitzvah weekend in Cedar Rapids, Iowa by helping to lead Shabbat Eve services which will include a special appearance by singers and musicians of Shir Yehuda.
2012: Early this morning members of the 12thBattalion of the famed Golani Brigade thwarted a border crossing which appears to have been the prelude to a major terrorist infiltration. Planes from the IAF followed up with targeted attacks on Gaza.
2012(11th of Sivan, 5772): Eighty-one year Marion Sandler, the wife of Herbert Sandler, passed away today. (As reported by Michael J. De La Merced
2012: Andy Samberg’s spokesperson announced that he had left SNL
2012(11th of Sivan, 5772): Twenty-one year old Golani Staff-Sergeant Netanel Moshiashvil, from Ashkelon, was killed today while stopping a terrorist infiltrator attempting to cross into Israel from Gaza.
2013: A children’s adaption of “As You Like It “ is scheduled to be performed as part of the Israel Festival in Jerusalem.
2013: Professor Krzysztof Jasiewicz , a Polish Historian, is scheduled to lose his position as head of the Department of Analysis of Eastern Issues following an interview in which he partly blamed the Jews for the Holocaust. (As reported by JTA and Times of Israel)
2013:“For its first pavilion at the prestigious Venice Biennale international art festival which is scheduled to open today, the Vatican is presenting an exhibit inspired by the first book of the Torah, rather than by a New Testament theme. Called “Creation, Un-Creation, Re-Creation,” the three-part show in the Vatican’s pavilion will draw on the first 11 chapters of Genesis, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, told reporters Tuesday at a news conference presenting the concept.”
(As reported by JTA)
2013: Eilat residents were slightly unsettled this afternoon as a mild earthquake shook the southern city’s streets and buildings. There were no reports of injury or serious damage (As reported by Adiv Sterman)
2013: Today a French judge put under formal investigation a 31-year-old man suspected of helping an al-Qaida-inspired gunman prepare a shooting spree in the southern France city of Toulouse last year, a judicial source said.
2014: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Delicious by Ruth Reichl and Here Comes the Night The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm & Blues by Joel Selvin.
2014:”The Sturgeon Queens” is scheduled to be shown at the Allentown Jewish Film Festival
2014: A revival of “Driving Miss Daisy” is scheduled to be performed at The Bayou Playhouse in Lockport, LA.
2014: “The 10th Annual Matzohball 5K and 1 Mile Fun Run!” sponsored by Temple Isaiah in Fulton, MD, is scheduled to take place at Centennial Park in Howard County.
2014: “Palestinians in Gaza fired a rocket early this morning at the Eshkol region in southern Israel.” (Times of Israel)
2014:“Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, head of COGAT, the IDF’s civil administration in the West Bank, personally denied travel permission to Ramallah for three Palestinian leaders from Gaza slated to be appointed ministers in the expected Fatah-Hamas unity government.” (Times of Israel)
2014: Today, “European Jewish leaders on Sunday praised the arrest of a suspect in the Brussels Jewish Museum attack and called for preemptive measures to protect Europe’s Jewish communities from additional attacks.” (As reported by Marissa Newman)
2014: Samuel L. Jackson, who has appeared in over 100 films, was a joyful participant in today’s annual Celebrate Israel parade in New York City. (As reported by Lazar Berman)
2014: With Lewis Katz's sudden death yesterdat, his son, Drew, is expected to assume a large role in the ownership and management of the Philadelphia Inquirer and other organizations owned or influenced by his father.
2014: “Ahead of Time: The Extraordinary Journey of Ruth Gruber is scheduled to come to an end at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
2015: Today “Israel accused the United Nations of granting "UN non-governmental organization status" to an association linked to militant Palestinian group Hamas that it said promotes "anti-Israel propaganda in Europe."
2015: Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. will preside over the bench trial scheduled to begin today which will decide the ownership of “a set of silver Torah bells known as rimonim, thought to be worth more than $7 million.” (As reported by Paul Berger)
2015: The funeral and interment of Rochelle Shoretz whose own breast cancer diagnosis “led to her founding of Sharsheret” was scheduled to take place today.
2015: Daniel Kahneman “was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Arts at McGill University in Montreal”
2016: Dr. Gary Zola is scheduled to “share insights about his work as Executive Director of the Jacob Radar Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives” which houses “over ten million pages of documentation and 8,000 linear feet of archives, manuscripts, nearprint materials, photographs, audio and video tape, microfilm, and genealogical materials” at luncheon at the Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum in Washington, DC.
2016(24th of Iyar, 5776): Ninety-seven year old cartoonist Anatol Kovarsky passed away today, (As reported by William Grimes)
2016: In Portland, Oregon, Barnes & Noble is scheduled to host barbeque maven Steven Raichlen who will discuss his new book Project Smoke.
2016: “The landmark compromise over the future of the Western Wall remains unresolved following a tense meeting today between Reform and Conservative leaders and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
2017(7th of Sivan, 5777): Second Day of Shavuot;
2017: Today, “the State Prosecutor’s Office won the postponement of hearing scheduled for the following week into shortening the sentence of Ehud Olmert.” (As reported by Raoul Wootliff)
2017: “The Israel Festival, an annual three-week Jerusalem-based celebration of local and international music, dance, theater and performance art” is scheduled to begin today.
2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host Shavuot services, followed by lunch and dinner.
2017: “Two men tied to Hezbollah” – Samuel El Debek and Ali Kourani – “who had been plotting attacks against Americans and Israelis in the US and Panama were arrested today.”
2018: In Jerusalem those craving the “real thing” can find it at Joseph Burger and Diner Bar from 11 a.m. until the start of Shabbat.
2018: At 12 noon, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of Entebbe in London.
2018: As Israelis prepare for Shabbat, they “digest” the statement by Tamir Pardo, who served as head of Mossad from 2011 to 2016 that Prime Minister Netanyahu had given “the order in 2011 for the military to prepare to attack Iran within 15 days.”