JUNE 9
68: The Emperor Nero died in Rome. Nero had appointed four governors of Judea each of whom was crueler and greedier than his predecessor. The Jewish Revolt in 66 was caused, in part, by this succession of disastrous appointments by Nero. Nero had ordered Vespasian to invade the Galilee and suppress the revolt of the Jews. The political unrest that followed Nero's death as various parties vied for the throne slowed down the final defeat of the Jews. In the end, Vespasian was made Emperor thanks to the support of his legions and he sent his son Titus to conquer Jerusalem.423: Emperors Honorius and Theodosius II forbid Jews from building any new synagogues
721: At the Battle of Toulouse, Odo of Aquitaine defeated the Moors led by Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani, the governor of Al-Andalus. Al-Andalus refers to that part of the Iberian Peninsula which was under the control of the Moslems. While the defeat at Toulouse (in modern day France) helped to confine the forces of Islam to territory south of the Pyrenees mountains, it served to reinforce the fact that Spain would not be ruled by Christians. For a limited period of time, this created what some called a Golden Age for the Jews of Spain. The reality is a little more complicated. It would more than seven centuries for the Christians to dislodge the Moslems from the Iberian Peninsula. Depending on the whims and needs of various rulers (both Christian and Moslem), Jewish fortunes waxed and waned. It would all end with the expulsion of 1492.
1171(4th of Tammuz): A few days after decreeing that the 20th of Sivan should henceforth be a day of fasting and mourning in honor of the 51 Jews burned at the stake Blois, Rabbi Jacob Ben MeirTam, the grandson of Rashi passed away
1493: Jewish astronomer Abraham Zacut “was in Lisbon” today “working for Juan II of Portugal.”
1595: Birthdate of King Wladislaus IV who was King of Poland at the outbreak of The Khmelnitsky Uprising and failed to check it at its inception. This failure contributed to the worst massacre of Jews until the 20th century and the Holocaust.
1672: Birthdate Tsar Peter I of Russia, known as Peter the Great. He may have been “great” to the worst of the world but not so great as far as the Jews were concerned since he banned Jews from his domain even as he sought to modernize it.
1693(5th of Sivan): Rabbi Gershom Ashkenazi author of Avodat ha-Gershuni passed away.
1732: James Oglethorpe was granted a charter to establish the colony of Georgia. The colony was settled in June of 1733. In July of 1733, “forty Sephardic Jews arrived in Savannah” marking the beginning of the Jewish community in Georgia.
1753(7th of Sivan, 5513): Just a month (July 7) before royal assent is given to the Jewish Naturalization Act in Great Britain, the Second Day of Shavuot is observed
1763: Joseph Simon Magnus married Bele Eliaser Cohen today in the United Kingdom.
1768: Birthdate of Samuel Levin Egers, the native of Halberstadt who served as the rabbi at Brunswick from 1809 until 1842.
1787: Birthdate of Sarah (nee Dias Fernandes) Aguilar the wife of Emanuel Aguilar and the mother of author Grace Aguilar.
1790(27th of Sivan, 5550): Purim of Florence is celebrated by Florentine Jews because on the 27th of Sivan, 1790 they were saved from a mob by the efforts of the bishop. The festival is preceded by a fast on the 26th of Sivan. The details of the occurrence are related in full by Daniel Terni in a Hebrew pamphlet entitled "Ketab ha-DaṬ," published in Florence in 1791.
1794: Birthdate of Julius Rubo, the native of Halberstadat who served as volunteer in the war against Napoleon before pursuing a legal career and serving as leader of the Jewish community in Berlin.
1799(6th of Sivan, 5559): Shavuot observed for the last time in the 19th century
1803: Jacob David Goldschmidt, zum grunen Lowen and Edel (Adelheid) Goldschmidt gave birth to Moritz Moses Jacob von Goldschmidt.
1810(7th of Sivan, 5570): Jews observe the Second Day of Shavuot on the birthdate of Otto Nicolai the German born musician who succeeded Felix Mendelssohn (the grandson of Moses Mendelssohn) as Kapellmeister at the Berlin Cathedral
1815: The Congress of Vienna came to an end. Europe enters into a period of political reaction following the defeat of Napoleon. “After Napoleon's defeat and the Congress of Vienna, the Germans took their revenge on the French and the Jews. The Congress of Vienna had provided for full civil and political rights "to differing parties of the Christian religion," but the "civil betterment" of the Jews was put off for further study. The Congress stated that Jews could retain such rights as they already had, but nearly everywhere in Germany the rights that the Jews had won were disavowed and rescinded. (Prussia was an exception: only some Jewish rights were abolished; most were retained.) A period of reaction set in, in which anti-Semitism was a major component.” Surprisingly enough, Prince Metternich, the reactionary Austrian Foreign Minister played a positive role for Jews living in the German cities of Frankfurt, Lubeck and Bremen while the Congress was in session. When the ruling bodies of those cities attempted to take away rights previously granted to the Jewish communities, the Jews appealed to Metternich for help. Metternich interceded on behalf of the Jews because depriving them of their rights would have been a violation of the guarantees made by the Congress of Vienna. Metternich was not a philo-Semite. Rather he was aware of the economic power of these Jewish leaders and he knew that they would be a force for stability. Also, Metternich based Austria’s foreign policy on the decisions of the Congress and he was opposed to anything that would undermine the agreements reached there.
1817: Birthdate of General Busac who in 1912 was reported to be the “oldest officer serving in the French Army.”
1832: In Covent Garden, Eleanor Levy and Simon Marcus gave birth to their sixth and youngest child, Matilda Marcus.
1837(6th of Sivan, 5597) Shavuot is observed for the first time during the Presidency of Martin Van Buren.
1838(16th of Sivan, 5598): Thirty-eight year old Amalie Friedlander (nee Heine) a cousin of the famous poet Heinrich Heine and the object of his unrequited love passed away today in Berlin.
1841: Samson Wetheimer married Helena Cohen at the Great Synagogue in London.
1843: The Voice of Jacob reported that Mr. Woolfson and Mr. Marks laid the foundation for the new synagogue on St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands
1849: /Edward Angel married Julia Isaacs at the West London Synagogue
1852: Henry Berkowitz married Rosetta Poland at the Great Synagogue in London.
1854: It was reported today “that there is not a single Jew in the United States engaged in agriculture.”
1856(6th of Sivan, 5616): Shavuot
1856: Birthdate of Aaron David (A.D.) Gordon, the founder of Hapoel Hatzair.
1859(7th of Sivan, 5619): Second Day of Shavuot
1863: During the Civil War, Jacob Ezekiel Hyneman, a native of Richmond, VA serving with the Union Army was wounded at the Battle of Brandy Station, the most important clash of cavalry in the east which help to set the stage for the Battle of Gettysburg.
1865(15th of Sivan, 5625): In the Hague 52 year old Jacob Hirschel Kann, the husband of Amalie de Jonge passed away today.
1867(6th of Sivan, 5627): Shavuot
1867: “Edward Kirstein, an immigrant from Germany who first worked as a peddler and eventually owned an optics store in Rochester” and the former Jeanette Leiter gave birth to Louis E. Kirstein the businessman who was chairman of Filene’s and philanthropist who was the husband of Rose Stein.
1869: Rabbi J.H. Chumaceiro officiated at the wedding of David Bentschner and Hanne Jacobi
1869(28th of Iyar, 5629): Solomon ben Judah Aaron Kluger, Polish born rabbi and chief dayyan passed away today at Brody, Galicia
1870: Author Charles Dickens passed away. Dickens was considered an anti-Semite by some because of his character Fagin in Oliver Twist. Dickens defended himself against what he considered a false claim. In a later work, Our Mutual Friend, Dickens created the sympathetic Jewish character Mr. Riah who is the victim of a Christian moneylender. "The Jewish people are a people for whom I have a real regard and to whom I would not willingly have given an offense...for any worldly consideration."
1871: It was reported today that French Banker Jules Mires has passed away.
1871: The three-day long Rabbinical Conference, a meeting of leaders of the Reform Movement, came to an end in Cincinnati, Ohio. Twenty-three congregations were represented at the meeting. The Conference agreed to provide “a modern prayer book” which would not contain any references to a return of the Jews to Jerusalem, the offering of sacrifices or a personal messiah. It was also agreed that services would be conducted primarily in English instead of Hebrew. In the field of education, the Conference approved the establishment of seminary to train rabbis and the development of a uniform course of study for congregational Sabbath Schools.
1872: At Papa Hungary, Carl Ellinger and Marie Deutsch gave birth to Emil Ellinger who served as a Rabbi at Mount Vernon, Indiana and Sioux City, Iowa, before taking the pulpit at “Congregation Gemilas Hasodim” in Alexandria, LA.
1875(6th of Sivan, 5635): Shavuot
1875: In New York, a large number of Jews met at Adath Israel to memorialize the passing of the James Gordon Bennett., the founder editor and publisher of the New York Herald. Those in attendance adopted a series of memorial resolutions that were to be sent to his widow and son which described Bennett as “an honest supporter and true friend” of the Jewish people who “always gave firm and true support to our creed.”
1876: President U.S. Grant and Thomas Ferry, the President Pro Tempore of the United State attended the consecration services of Adas Israel, the new orthodox synagogue in Washington, DC. The service was bilingual with prayers in Hebrew and an address by Rabbi George Jacobs of Philadelphia in English. Adas Israel has moved twice since this event but still remains located in the District of Columbia; its members under the leadership of Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz, having made the courageous decision not to move to the suburbs. It is one of the leading Conservative Congregations in the United States.
1876: Eighteen year old Helene Goldschmidt married Leon Yehudah Tedesco, the son of Giacomo Tedesco and Therese Cerf.
1878: In Paris, 34 year old Adolphe Bloch married Noémie Bloch
1880: In New York City, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association is scheduled to host a strawberry festival and concert at Lyric Hall tonight to raise funds for its library.
1880(30thof Sivan, 5640): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1881: It was reported today that the government is conducting a census among the Jews living in Kiev with the goal of expelling those from the city who do not have a right to live their under the restrictive residency laws applied to them.
1882: “Death After Fasting Seven Month” published today described the death of a Polish Jew named Adolph Schomger who stopped eating after having been sentenced to the penitentiary in Nebraska after having been convicted of stealing. Schmoger was transferred to “an insane asylum” but his starvation tactics continued causing his weight to fall from 150 to 80 pounds to his death.
1886(6th of Sivan, 5646): Shavuot
1886: Birthdate Posen native Dr. Julius Brodnitz, “the attorney and president of the Central Union of Jews in Germany.”
1886: Final exams are scheduled to be given at Central High School in Philadelphia, PA despite the fact that it is Shavuot. The principal has refused to make any accommodation for the Jewish students despite pleas from the city’s Rabbis.
1887: Dr. Sabato Morais, the rabbi at Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia, became the first Jew recognized by the University of Pennsylvania with an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
1887: In New York, Adolph Reich was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to death. Court officials said that it was rare for Jews to be charged with murder since they were “as a rule orderly, law-abiding citizen” and they could not remember one ever being executed.
1889: Rabbi J.L. Kadushin officiated at the marriage of Otto Pierre Siegelstein and Mary Bubis.
1890: It was predicted today that Edmund Gosse’s biography of his father Philip Henry Gosse whose works include The History of the Jews from the Christian Era to the Dawn of the Reformation“will secure a place of importance among forthcoming biographies
1891: I.S. Isaacs of the United Hebrew Charities was among those who will be attending a special meeting of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment where the United Charities Association will present a proposal to establish a “free lodging house” in New York.
1891(3rd of Sivan, 5651): Eighty-one year old Samuel Adler “a leading German-American Reform rabbi, Talmudist, and author” passed away. He was also the father of Felix Adler, the well-known founder of the Society for Ethical Culture.” Born at Worms in 1809, he came to the United States to serve as Rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in New York; a position he held for seventeen years before accepting the position as Rabbi Emeritus. He was an outspoken opponent of slavery and a staunch supporter of Abraham Lincoln. One of the happiest moments of his life came when saw Major Anderson, the Union officer who had defended Fort Sumter, in his congregation. After service “he laid his hands on the soldier’s head and pronounced…the anciently priestly blessing…”
1892: “Emin’s Death Confirmed” published today described the demise of Emin Pasha, who had been born Isaak Eduard Schnitzer to a Jewish family in Silesia. (The only problem is that Emin Pasha did not die until October of 1892)
1892: Birthdate of Aix-en-Provence native of Armand Lunel, “the last known speaker of Shuadit” “also called Judeo-Occitan or less accurately Judæo-Provençal or Judeo-Comtadin, is the Occitan language as it was historically spoken by French Jews.”
1893: Birthdate of Samuel Nathaniel Behrman, the Worcester, Massachusetts native, who gained success writing scripts of stage and screen as well as doing profiles for the New Yorker. Among his subjects were Chaim Weizman, George Gershwin, Max Beernbohm, Joseph Duveen and Eddie Cantor. The Worcester Account is an account of his childhood from 1893 to shortly after he moved to New York City in 1917.
1895: The closing exercises of the Louis Downtown Sabbath and Daily Technical Schools took place this afternoon at Temple Emanu-El.
1895: It was reported today that the “anti-Semitic craze” that “has been making such wild headway lately in Vienna” and the rest of Austria is not only not losing strength “in several other great Continental states” but is growing in Germany. A congress of a newly formed anti-Semitic party that just met in Berlin has adopted a program which regards any family that has one Jewish member during the last three generations is Jewish. Furthermore, all such “Jewish families” must be “excluded from the army, journalism, the legal, medical and educational professons and prohibited from owning land or taking public contracts (Shades of the Nazis)
1895: The Sunday Closing laws were strictly enforced today in New York City as police arrested any Jews or gentiles found in violation of the strictures which included closing all stores by ten in the morning and all barber shops at one in the afternoon.
1895: Practical Benevolence” published today provided a history of the Mt. Sinai Training School for Nurses which is funded by generous New York benefactors but whose student body is only one quarter Jewish while the rest are Christians. The officers who administer the school are: President – Leopold Weil; Vice President – Isaac Stern; Treasurer – Samuel Stiefel; Secretary – George Blumenthal; Directors – Human Blum, Isaac Wallach, David Wile, Julius Ehrman, Myer Lehman and Max Nathan.
1895: “Napoleon’s Times Pictured” provided a review George Duval’s The Romance of the Sword a novel whose plot revolves around a mythic blade that the Count d’Artois sold to Samuel the Jew
1896: Birthdate of Nathaniel Lawrence Goldstein whose service as New York State Attorney General paralleled the gubernatorial of Thomas E. Dewey
1896: Birthdate of German jurist Karl Sack who was executed for his role in the plot to kill Hitler on July 20, 1944.
1896: Just days before his 38thbirthday the Marquis de Morès, a French anti-Semitic politician, was killed as he journeyed to meet the Mahdi, the Muslim leader responsible for the death of General Charles “Chinese” Gordon. De Morès was a member of The Antisemitic League of France who challenged Ferdinand-Camille Dreyfus, a Jewish member of the Chamber of Deputies, to a duel after Dreyfus wrote an article about him with which he disagreed.
1898: Today on what would prove to be the day before his death Rabbi Samuel “Mohilewer wrote a circular letter to all friends of Zion, recommending the foundation of the Jewish Colonial Bank and the colonization of Palestine, and at the same time urging again the idea of unity.”
1898: A conference of Jews from the United States and Canada meeting at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue adopted a constitution which “provided that the name” of the new organization “should be the Orthodox Jewish Congregational Union of America.
1898: In New York, at Clark’s the annual meeting of the Judeans, “an organization composed of gentlemen interested in literature, science and the arts” was followed by a reception in honor of Oscar S. Straus who has just been appointed U.S. Minister to Turkey.
1898: Mr. and Mrs. I. Bierman hosted a garden party for the residence of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews.
1898: During the Spanish American War, 1stLt. Albert B. Frankel, Corporal Sigamund Rochild, and Private Charles L. Reitz of Company A, from West Point, Mississippi of the 2nd Mississippi Volunteer Infantry were among those mustered into federal service today.
1899(1st of Tammuz, 5659): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1899: Prompt action today avoided a clash between those acting on behalf of Congregation Sheavith Israel of New York and Jews living in Newport each of whom are trying to assert control over the famous Rhode Island synagogue.
1899: “Garden Party for Aged Hebrews” published today described the annual social event held at the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews which was attended by 230 residents who ranged in age from 60 to 90. In addition to enjoying refreshment attendees enjoyed the music of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Band.
1899: In Albany, NY, a certificate of consolidation was filed with the Secretary of State which join the Educational Alliance and the Hebrew Free School Association under the name of The Educational Alliance.
1899: The French cruiser Sfax arrived at Devil’s Island. The ship’s mission was to bring Dreyfus home after four years and three months of being imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.
1902(4th of Sivan. 5662): Sixty-seven year old Jacob Herzl, Theodore Herzl's father dies in Vienna. Herzl goes back to Vienna for the funeral.
1903: In New York, Bernard Glick and opera singer gave birth to Marcia Glick who gained fame as author and critic Marcia Davenport.
1903: The Six Annual Convention of the Federation of American Zionist came to an in Pittsburgh, PA.
1905(6th of Sivan, 5665): Shavuot
1905: Pogrom began in Lodz, Poland
1907: President H. Pereira Mendes presided over the Fourth Biennial Convention of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of the United States and Canada/
1911: The Jewish community of St. Thomas, Danish West Indies, publishes a protest against the appeal of the Anglican Church to raise funds designed to “gather Jews into the fold” i.e. create proselytes
1912: In Tucson, AZ, Clara Ferrin a thirty-year old school teacher “married a local merchant, David W. Bloom.”
1913: Dedication of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in Washington, DC.
1913: Adolph Greenhut, a native of Bohemia who became a naturalized citizen in 1874 was elected Mayor of Pensacola, FL, a position he would hold until 1916.
1915: Mrs. Nina Formby who moved to New York City in February of 1914 was identified in print today as being the only woman to have offered an affidavit showing that Leo Frank was a degenerate which she later recanted “asserting that she made it under duress.” (Editor’s note – Nina Formby may also have been known as Mrs. Nina Stevens who had claimed that she had filed and recanted such an affidavit.)
1915: This morning, the Prison Commission of Georgia submitted a report to Governor Slaton in which “it declined to recommend that the death sentence imposed on Leo Frank be commuted to life imprisonment. R.E. Davison and E.L. Rainey voted for the report and Judge T.E. Robinson voted against the report meaning that clemency was denied by a two to one vote.
1915: A friend of Leo Frank, Milton Klein, went to Frank’s cell in the Tower and in the presence of his father and his wife told the prisoner of the decision not to commute his sentence.
1915: “Leo M. Frank said tonight that he believed even yet that his life would be spared.”
1916: “Jews Defended in Russian Duma” published today described the speech delivered by Deputy A.I. Shingarev in the Duma in which he defended the Jews from attacks by government ministers in which, among other things, they were blamed for collaborating with the German Army,
1916: Birthdate of Louis Werfel who gained fame as “The Flying Rabbi” when he served as a chaplain during World War II. Werfel was one of only six Jewish chaplains who died during WW II. He died while returning from conducting Chanukah services at Casablanca in 1943.
1917: In Alexandria, Egypt, Leopold Percy Hobsbaum and Nelly Hobsbaum (née Grün) gave birth to British Marxist historian Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm.
1917: Two thousand Jews, including 200 rabbis from cities across the United attended a celebration marking the 60thbirthday of Hirsch Masliansky, the rabbi at the Synagogue of Educational Alliance where he was praised by a wide variety of speakers including prominent lawyer Louis Marshall, Rabbi Judah L. Magnes and Commissioner of Education John Barondess.
1917: Graduation Day at the Teacher’s Institute of the Hebrew Union College.
1917: It was reported that the Karaites, who under the Czar “held themselves aloof from Jewry from fear of…being subjected to anti-Semitic restrictions” held a conference at Eupatoria where “the opinion gained ground that now” following the overthrow of the old regime “there was nothing in the way of a closer” relationship “between them and the general body of Jews.”
1918[ML1] : Led by Louis Brenner, the Jews in Camden, NJ, will start a drive today to raise the money necessary to complete the new facility to be shared by the Y.M.H.A. and the Y.W.H.A.
1918: Seven hundred delegates representing 55,000 Jews from all over the United States are scheduled to attend “the thirteenth annual convention of the Independent Order of B’rith Shlom” opening today in Baltimore, MD.
1918: In a speech at Washington Irving High School attended by representatives from “more than 400 Jewish organization, Professor Thomas G. Masaryk, “urged the Jews to give all their energies in support of the Allied cause” so that co-religionists in Eastern Europe might “be liberated from the German heel.”
1918: Morris Peltz, the son of Brooklyn residents Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Peltz, who had enlisted in the U.S. Army four years ago was suffered wounds today in France while serving with Company C of the 16th Infantry that would result in his death.
1919: Captain Montgomery Schuyler sent a telegram from the Headquarters of the American Expeditionary Forces, Siberia at Vladivostock in which he said of the “384 commissars” in Russia “more than 300 were Jews” of whom “264 had come to Russia from the United States since the downfall of the Imperial Government.”
1920: “Nathaniel Phillis, President of the League of Foreign Born Citizens delivered an address before the Asssoicated Lodges of the Independent Order B’nai B’rith” today “on the subject of ‘Am I My Brother’s Keeper --- The Duty of the Native Born to the Foreign Born.’”
1921: Birthdate of Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, leading Jewish author, philosopher and fighter for civil rights of all who passed away in 2006.
1921(3rd of Sivan, 5681): Sixty-two year old Julius Walter Freiberg, the son of Julius and Duffie Freiberg and the husband of Stella Freiberg passed a way today in his hometown, Cincinnati, Ohio.
1922: Silent film star Beatrice Carpenter and Herman Axelrod gave birth to George Axelrod. Axelrod’s father was a Russian Jew while his mother was not Jewish. His breakout work was “The Seven Year Itch” which was a successful play and film.
1924(7th of Sivan, 5684): On the same day that Mallory and Irvine reportedly died in their quest to reach the top of Mt. Everest, Jews observe the Second Day of Shavuot
1926: Congressman Meyer London’s funeral was held in New York City with tens of thousands filling the streets in his honor.
1927: “In Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary), a spa town in the then German-speaking Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia,’ Arnold Stein who “had a small shop in the town selling ladies' coats and dresses” and the former Erna Eisenberger who “owned a knitwear business” gave birth to Gerda Kamilla Mayer the English poet who had “escaped to England from Prague in 1939 on a Kindertransport.”
1928: Delegates representing 400 organizations are expected to attend today’s’ convention The Hebrew Religious Protective Association at the Broadway Central Hotel
1930: Thirty-eight year old Chicago Tribune journalist Alfred Lingle whose parents converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism when he was eight years old was shot and killed in a Chicago train station in what was assumed to be a mob related murder
1930: Birthdate newscaster, author and educator, Marvin Kalb. Kalb first gained fame as a correspondent with CBS Television News. Kalb has an equally famous brother, Bernard, with whom he sometimes shares the lecture circuit much to the delight and enlightenment of the attendees.
1931: Birthdate of Yacov Moseh Maza the native of Sheboygan, Wisconsin who grew up on the Lower East Side where he followed in the footsteps of three generations of the men in his family when “he received semikah from Moshe Feinstein but who left the rabbinate to gain fame and fortune as comedian Jackie Mason.
1933: “Professional Sweetheart,” a romantic comedy featuring Gregory Ratoff as “Sam Ipswich” was released in the United States today.
1935(8th of Sivan): Dr. Shermaryahu Levine passed away
1935: Anti-Jewish riots occur in Grodno, Poland.
1936: It was reported today The Jews of Germany, the new book by Marvin Lowenthal, the author of A World Passed By that described the surviving monuments and life of the Jew in Europe and North America, will be published at the end of this month.
1936: “Robert Edward Edmondson, publisher of anti-Semitic leaflets, lashed back at Mayor La Guardia for having instigated the criminal proceedings against him” calling the mayor “a radical Jew.”
1936: In Buffalo, NY, Maxwell and Rose Ruttenstein, the owners of three clothing shops gave birth to Kalman Ruttenstein the fashion director for Bloomingdale’s.
1936: John F. Kennedy, future President of the United States left Jerusalem for Lebanon and Syria.
1936: Arabs attempted to attack Kfar Yeheskiel, a Jewish workmen’s settlement in the Jezreel Valley. Jospeh Tavory, a Jewish truck driver was wounded during the unsuccessful attack.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that according to French press reports the British government was expected to propose, at the June 18 session of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations in Geneva, the establishment of a Jewish republic and a joint Arab Palestinian-Jordanian state under Emir Abdullah.
1937: Chaim Weizmann gave an account of his dinner of the previous night where he had dined with Winston Churchill and other Zionist supporters in Parliament to a number of leading Zionists then visiting London including David Ben-Gurion
1937: “The Christian Century, a Protestant weekly magazine, publishes an editorial entitled ‘Jewry and Democracy’ which questions the ability of a democracy to include a minority like the Jews.
1937(30th of Sivan, 5697): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1937(30th of Sivan, 5697): Thirty-seven year old Italian political leader Carlo Rosselli and his brother Nello were beaten to death at “the French resort town of Bagnoles-de-l'Orne” were beaten to death by French fascists alleged to have been acting on orders from Benito Musssolini.
1938: The Main Synagogue in Munich was burned down. Two thousand Jews throughout Germany were arrested and were sent to concentration camps to do hard labor.
1939: Birthdate of Letty Cottin Pogrebin, who has become one of the most well-known figures in both the Jewish and secular feminist movements.
1939: “Against the pennant-winning Cincinnati Reds at the Polo Grounds, Harry Danning was one of five Giants to hit a home run in the fourth inning, breaking the prior record of four home runs by a team in one inning.
1939: “Canadian immigration officials hostile to Jewish immigration persuaded Prime Minister” William Lyon Mackenzie King not to provide sanctuary for the passengers aboard the SS St. Louis.
1940: In a newspaper article published today, Vice Admiral Joseph K. “Taussig was referred to as ‘the star scholar and strategist of the U.S Navy.”
1941: Abraham Pais obtained his doctoral degree in theoretical physics today, just five days before the deadline. His was the last Ph.D. issued to a Dutch Jew until after the war. Abraham Pais
1941: Kaiser Wilhelm II was laid to rest in the Mausoleum at Huis Doorn , Netherlands.
1941: When the village of Lidice was destroyed today in reprisal for the assassination of SS commander and Hitler favorite Reinhard Heydrich 199 men were executed, 195 women were immediately deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp, and 95 children taken prisoner. Of the children, 81 were later killed in gas vans at the Chełmno extermination camp, while eight others were taken for adoption by German families. All adults were murdered in the village of Ležák, men and women alike. Both towns were burned, and the ruins of Lidice leveled
1942: Lord Wedgwood opened the debate in the British House of Lords by urging that the mandate over Palestine be transferred to the United States, since Britain had reneged on its commitments. He stated with bitterness: "I hope yet to live to see those who sent the Struma cargo back to the Nazis hung as high as Haman cheek by jowl with their prototype and Führer, Adolf Hitler
1942(23rd of Sivan, 5702): When a Jewish mother at Pabianice, Poland, fights fiercely for her baby during a deportation, the baby is taken from her and thrown out a window.
1942: A gassing van is sent to Riga, Latvia, for the execution of Jews.
1942: German criminal police in the Lodz Ghetto reported that 95 Jews ‘have been hung publicly here.
1943(6th of Sivan, 5703): First Day of Shavuot
1944: Jewish-Hungarian poet and Jewish-Palestinian paratrooper Hannah Szenes is arrested in Hungary after completing her mission for the British in Yugoslavia. She was attempting to help the Hungarian Jews who were being transported to Auschwitz. Born in Hungary in 1921, Szenes witnessed the rise of anti-Semitism in pre-World War II Hungary. She became a Zionist and moved to Palestine in 1938. By 1941 she had joined a kibbutz and the Haganah. She was one of many European born Jews living in Palestine who joined the British Army and agreed to be dropped behind enemy lines. Their purpose was two-fold - to add anti-Nazi partisan forces and to help the Jews facing extermination. Just before her death at the hands of her Hungarian captors Szenes wrote the following poem: “One-two-three... eight feet long, Two strides across, the rest is dark... Life hangs over me like a question mark. One-two-three... maybe another week, Or next month may still find me here, But death, I feel, is very near. I could have been twenty-three next July; I gambled on what mattered most; The dice were cast. I lost." Most Israelis can recite the following lines, "Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame. Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart." Her most famous work is one that is often sung in Hebrew and English.
"Lord, my God,
I pray that these things never end:
The sand and the sea,
The rush of the waters,
The crash of the heavens,
The human prayer
1944: During the trucks for Jews negotiations, Adolf Eichmann (who probably was never serious about saving the Hungarians) said: “If I do not receive a positive reply within three days, I shall operate the mill at Auschwitz.”
1944: Lew Lehr “was heard on the radio show “You Asked for It.”
1945: Prime Minister Winston Churchill rejects a written request by Chaim Weizmann for an end to all restrictions on Jewish entry into Palestine now that the war with Germany is over saying “”There can I fear be no possibility of the question being effectively considered until the victorious Allies are definitely seated at the Peace table.” This statement effectively ended Weizmann’s leadership role. Many Zionists viewed this as a betrayal by the British in general and by the supposedly pro-Zionist Churchill in particular.
1946: In “Wholesale Rescue” published today Julian Meltzer described how “nearly twenty thousand children were spirited away from Hitler’s Europe.”
1947(21st of Sivan, 5707): Jacob Shapiro, one of the organizers of Murder, Inc. died of a heart attack at Sing Sing.
1948: The INS Wedgewood was commissioned today. A Flower class corvette, it was named after Josiah Wedgewood.
1948: INS HaTikvah (K-22) was commissioned today.
1949(12th of Sivan, 5709): Eighty-six year old Dr. Moses Hyamon, the native of Russia and distinguished scholar who served as Chief Rabbi of the British Empire before World War I and who had been Rabbi of New York’s Orach Chaim passed away
1949: Mira (Miriam) Shefer left Cyprus on the SS Sha’ar Yishuv. After having survived the Holocaust, she traveled from Poalnd, crossed the Alps into Austria before arriving in Italy where she boarded the SS Kadima. Although the ship was equipped for 400 passengers, this desperate voyage took 800 Jews through the British blockade to Haifa. Unfortunately for Mira and the rest of the passengers, the British sent them all to Cyprus where she endured life in an internment camp until the creation of the Jewish state.
1950: Jefferson Caffery, the United States Ambassador to Egypt, said that “last month’s declaration by the United States, Britain and France on the Middle East was not intended to picture the present frontiers between Israel and her Arab neighbors as permanent borders.”
1950: Israel responded to charges of mistreatment of infiltrators from Jordan by telling the Arabs to “keep on your own side of the border.” The Israelis claim that there only responsibility is to “escort the infiltrators to a point near the border and send them on their way.” According to the agreement signed at Rhodes in 1949 that ended hostilities between Israel and Jordan, “neither troops nor civilians could pass into each other’s territory.”
1951: The last group of Nazis convicted of war crimes during World War II is hanged in Nuremberg.
1951(5th of Sivan, 5711): Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot
1951(5th of Sivan, 5711): Esther (nee Rosengrass) Hyman who had been Esther Libbert, the widow of Abraham Libbert when she married Titanic survivor Abraham Joseph Hyman passed away today.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that banknotes issued in 1948 by the Anglo-Palestine bank as Israel’s legal tender had to be exchanged for new notes, in different colors, issued by Bank Leumi L’Israel. A 10 percent compulsory deduction for a 15-year loan, at 4%, was to accompany each exchange of the old notes for the new, and a similar deduction was to be carried out automatically on all bank deposits. The loan was expected to bring IL 25 million for the Treasury. Three hundred new immigrants marched in Tel Aviv demanding better housing.
1952: Birthdate of Uzi Hitman, Israeli singer, songwriter, composer and television personality who died of a heart attack in 2004 at the age of 52
1953: A day after Israel and Jordan signed an agreement, with UN mediation, in which Jordan undertook to prevent terrorists from crossing into Israel from Jordanian territory” gunmen attacked a farming community near Lod, by throwing hand grenades and spraying gunfire in all directions killed one of the residents. The gunmen threw hand grenades and sprayed gunfire in all directions.
1953: Tonight, “another group of terrorists attacked a house in the town of Hadera.”
1955(19th of Sivan, 5715): Seventy-three year old Pesach Liebmann Hersch the son of Hannah-Dvorah Hersch (née Blumberg) and Meyer Dovid Hersch who gained fame as the pioneering demographer and statistician Liebmann Hersch, the husband of Liba Lichetenbaum with whom he had three children Irene, Joseph and philosopher Jeanne Hersch passed away today.
1956: Thirty-two year old Cal Abrams played his last major league as an outfielder with the Chicago White Sox.
1961: Birthdate of Aaron Sorkin producer and writer for television hit, “The West Wing
1962(7th of Sivan, 5722): Second Day of Shavuot
1962: In Tel Aviv, Yossi and Ilana Banai gave birth to Israel pop rock start Yuval Banay.
1962(7th of Sivan, 5722): Madame and bordello owner, Polly Adler, passed away.
1963: Barbra Streisand appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
1963: After 304 performances at the Sheridan Square Playhouse, the curtain came down “The Days and Nights of BeeBee Fenstermaker” directed by Ulu Grosbard.
1963: Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz of Adas Israel attended the ground breaking ceremonies for the Abraham S. Kay Spiritual Life Center, the American University in Washington, D.C.
1964(29th of Sivan, 5724): Just weeks before his 80th birthday, Russian born American pianist and composer Louis Gruenberg passed away
1967(1st of Sivan, 5727): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1967(1st of Sivan, 5727): Fifty-nine year old “English author Pamela Frankau,” the daughter of “the novelist Gilbert Frankau” and granddaughter of Julia Frankau who wrote under the “pseudonym Frank Danby” passed away today.
1967: In a change of mind and policy, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan told Chief of Staff Yitzchak Rabin that the IDF would take the Golan Heights after all. Rabin began moving forces from the Central Command to the North. The fighting was tough as the IDF advanced against the well-fortified Syrian positions. By nightfall, the IDF seemed to be taking control of the battlefield and there was already talk about advancing on the Syrian capital of Damascus. The Israelis were concerned about the fate of the 15,000 Jews living in Syria. For years the Syrian government had held them under virtual arrest, denying any of them the right to leave the country.
1967: While fighting on the Golan as part of the 78th patrol platoon of the Alexandroni reserve infantry brigade 27 year old Igal Pazi “stepped on a foot mine on the platoon's way to Dabashia” costing him “his right leg below the knee.” In a display of indomitable will, Pazi turned himself into Gold Medal winning member of the Israeli Paralympic volleyball team.
1968: In an article entitled “This Piece of Earth,” Chaim Potok reviewed “Light on Israel” by Maurice Samuel, “The Road to Jerusalem: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1967” by Walter Laqueur, “Under Fire: Israel’s 20 Year Struggle for Survival”, edited by Donald Robinson, “The Resurrection of Israel” by Ann Latour; translated by Maragaret S. Summers and “The Hand of Mordechai” by Margaret Larkin.
1969: Charles Eustace McGaughey began serving as Canada’s Ambassador to Israel.
1970:”Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx” a comedy starring Gene Wilder was released today in the United States.
1971: U.S. premiere of “They Might Be Giants” the film version of James Goldman’s play of the same name for which Goldman wrote the screenplay, co-starring Jack Gilford.
1975: Malcolm Toon is appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1977: President Gerald Ford received the first annual Yonatan Netanyahu Memorial Award.
1977: “Fire Sale,” a comedy directed by Alan Arkin who also starred in the film along with Rob Reiner and Sid Caesar and with music by Dave Grusin was released in the United States today.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that, according to US Assistant Secretary of State Alfred Atherton, it would be "perfectly reasonable" for Israel to seek compensation from the Arab states for the property left behind by Jewish refugees who came to Israel after 1948. The Prime Minister designate, Menachem Begin, assured the press that his election wouldn't affect Israeli relations with Germany
1981(7th of Sivan, 5741): Two days after the IAF destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor Jews celebrate the Second Day of Shavuot
1981: Birthdate of actress Natalie Portman. Born Natalie Hershberg, in Jerusalem, Portman took her grandmother’s maiden name for her stage name. A 2003 graduate of Harvard she has Queen Amidala in “Star Wars” and appeared in other major productions including “Cold Mountain” and “Garden State.”
1982: Today, the IAF launch “Operation Mole Cricket 19” an air campaign designed to suppress Syrian air defenses in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley.
1982: Units of the Golani Brigade and the Barak Armored Brigade began their attack on Doha and Kafr Sil, two villages on the outskirts of Beirut.
1983: Leo Abse began serving as a Member of Parliament for Torfaen.
1983: Julia “Neuberger,the Social Democratic Party candidate for Tooting” finished third in today’s General Election , coming in third with 8,317 votes (18.1%).
1985: Abraham David Sofaer completed his service as Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
1987: Gad Yaacobi began serving as Minister of Communications today
1987: The trial of Klaus Barbie took a new turn today as historians, led by the niece of Charles de Gaulle, began testifying over the objections of Mr. Barbie's attorney. Genevieve de Gaulle, 66 years old, a survivor of the Nazi Ravensbruck camp, told how gypsy girls were sterilized by X-ray and Polish girls were mutilated in experiments. A historian, Leon Poliakov, 76, said the killing of Jews, gypsies and mentally ill Germans was the cornerstone of Hitler's drive to conquer the world. Countering claims that SS officers such as Mr. Barbie were unaware of the fate awaiting Jews in the camps, Mr. Poliakov quoted Heinrich Himmler, the SS leader, as telling officers in 1943: ''The Jews will be exterminated. It is clear. It is part of our program.'' (As reported by Reuters)
1989(6th of Sivan, 5749): Shavuot
1989: Rabbi Eugene J. Sack of Mountain View, CA, presided over the marriage of his son Robert D. Sack and Anne Katherine Hilker who are “associates at the New York law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.”
1992: In Toronto, Stuart Hyman, “the Chairman and Governor of the Markham Royals, and Vice Chairman of the Ontario Junior Hockey League” and his wife Vicky gave birth to Zachary Martin "Zach" Hyman, the Left Wing for the Toronto Maple Leafs and “award winning” author of children’s books.
1992: On the 25 anniversary of the 1967 Middle East War, an article, entitled “Voices of Israel: To Many, the Fruits of the '67 War Taste Bitter,” The New York Times reported on how some Israelis view the road their country has traveled since that June.
1994(30th of Sivan, 5754): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1996(22nd of Sivan, 5756): Twenty-six year old Yaron Unger and 25 year old Erfat “Unger of Kiryat Arba, were killed when terrorists fired on their car near Beit Shemesh.”
1999: Haaretz reported that Israel and the U.S. are both demanding the immediate release of 13 Jews arrested in Iran on charges of espionage, saying the charges are trumped-up and may be motivated by anti-Semitism. The 13 Jews, from Shiran and Isfahan in southern Iran, were arrested on the eve of Passover and accused of spying for the "Zionist regime" and "world arrogance" - references to Israel and the United States respectively. However, the arrests only became public knowledge on Monday. Those arrested include a rabbi, a ritual slaughterer and teachers.
2000(6th of Sivan, 5760): First Day of Shavuot
2001(18th of Sivan, 5761): Parashat Beha’alotcha
2001(18th of Sivan, 5671): Eighty-seven year old New York native Martin Meltsner, the son of Morris Meltsner and Rose Klarman passed away today in West Palm Beach, FL.
2001(18th of Sivan, 5671): Social activist and “avid golfer” Louise Sulzberger, “the widow of stockbroker David Hays Sulzberger” and sister-in-law of New York Times publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger passed away today at the age of 103.
2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Back Then” by Anne Bernays and Justin Kaplan and “Nuremberg: The Real Trial of the Century” by William F. Buckley Jr.
2005: Yisrael Meir Lau reinstalled as Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv
2005: “Free Zone,” “second film of Amos Giai’s Border Trilogy, co-starring Natalie Portman was released in Israel today.
2005: Richard and Robert B. Sherman were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
2006: Congressman Timothy V. Johnson delivered a speech in the House of Representatives honoring and recognizing “Joel M. Carp upon the occasion of his retirement after 28 years of service with the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.”
2007: In Cedar Rapids, Jonathan Chadick becomes a Bar Mitzvah at Temple Judah.
2007: In an effort to encourage people to get out of their cars and start riding bikes instead, municipal authority packed Tel Aviv's Rabin Square with bicycles for riders who wish to spend part of their day on an urban bicycle trek. A total of 600 street bicycles and 100 bikesfor children above age 6, are offered free of charge to those who want to get to know Tel Aviv on two wheels and use this opportunity to learn about bike-riding as an alternate means of transportation. Dr. Moshe Tiomkin, head of the Tel Aviv Authority for Traffic, Transportation and Parking, explained that the municipality plans to create a web of paths connecting the entire city, so residents may ride bicycles from one point to another, "to work and class, and to run errands on bicycles."
2007: “Stan Lee Media sued Stan Lee; his newer company, POW! Entertainment; POW! subsidiary QED Entertainment; and other former Stan Lee Media staff at POW.”2007(23rd of Sivan, 5767): Centenarian plus two Rudolf Arnheim, a refugee from Nazi German whose knowledge of psychology, philosophy and critical skills were the mark of what used to be called an “educated man” and also made him an outstanding professor of the psychology of art at Harvard, passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2008(6th of Sivan, 5768): First Day Shavuot
2008: MSNBC newscaster Andria Mitchell apologized on air today for having “referred to the voters of southwest Virginia region, including Bristol, as rednecks” saying that what she had said was “stupid.”
2008: U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates nominated General Norton Schwartz a Jewish 35-year-old veteran with a background in Air Force special operations, as the new Air Force chief of staff. Schwartz, a pilot with more than 4,200 flying hours, served as Commander of the Special Operations Command-Pacific, as well as Alaskan Command, Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region, and the 11th Air Force. Prior to assuming his current position, Schwartz was Director, the Joint Staff, in Washington, DC. He attended the Air Force Academy and the National War College, and he participated as a crew member in the 1975 airlift evacuation of Saigon. In 1991, he served as chief of staff of the Joint Special Operations Task Force for Northern Iraq in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. When the Jewish Community Centers Armed Forces and Veteran's Committee presented its Military Leadership Award to Schwartz in 2004, he said he was "Proud to be identified as Jewish as well as an American military leader."
2009(17th of Sivan, 5769): Sixty-two year old Ralph Lazarus the husband of Barbara (Ullian) Lazarus who split his time between Lake Worth, FL and Chestnut Hill, MA passed away today.
2009: The Foundation for Jewish Studies Northern Virginia Lunch & Learn presents Paul Forbes, teaching “Traditional Biblical Stories: Fact or Fiction?” (The archeological evidence available about the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark and Sodom & Gomorrah) at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia
2009: U.S. special Mideast envoy George Mitchell assured Israel today that Washington would remain its close ally despite differences over West Bank settlements and peacemaking with the Palestinians. Mitchell said the U.S. commitment to Israeli security is unshakable, adding, "We come here to talk not as adversaries and in disagreement, but as friends in discussion." The envoy made the comments with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side before a meeting with the premier Tuesday evening.
2009: Jody Wagner won the Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor in Virginia.
2010: The Uri Gurvich Quartet is scheduled to perform at the Washington Jewish Music Festival.
2010: Gilad Hekselman Quartet is scheduled to perform at the Jazz Standard in New York City.
2011(7th of Sivan, 5771): Second Day of Shavuot
2011: The Ivri Lider Electronic Trio, featuring Ivri Lider – “one of Israel’s biggest selling artists of all time” – is scheduled to perform at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City.
2011: Carolyn Fine, the valedictorian at a northern California high school is planning to deliver her graduation address via a pre-recorded audio message in order to observe Shavuot. Carolyn Fine worked out the arrangement with Vacaville High School officials, according to The Reporter, Vacaville’s local newspaper. "They really took good care of me,” Fine told the paper, regarding her school's administrators. “They've been very understanding." She decided to have her address recorded so as not to have to use a microphone. Fine intends to walk to the ceremony on the Second Day of Shavuot to avoid riding on the holiday. Fine, who says she has gradually become more religiously observant, plans to attend Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women in New York in the fall and study math. This summer she plans to study at Machon Alte, a Chabad-run women’s seminary in Safed, Israel. (JTA)
2011: Today was the 135th anniversary of the dedication of the oldest synagogue in the national capital city. On June 9, 1876, less than the month before the nation's centennial, Adas Israel Congregation dedicated its first synagogue. Flowers and "festoons of evergreens" decorated the sanctuary and American flags "drooped gracefully" over the Ark. The room was filled to capacity and several latecomers were turned away. President Ulysses S. Grant, the first U.S. president to attend synagogue services, sat at the front of the sanctuary on a sofa rented especially for the occasion. He donated $10 to the synagogue's building fund, the equivalent of $200 today.Grant's attendance reflects the unique relationship between the Washington, D.C, Jewish community and national leaders. His presence also held special meaning because, as a Union Army general during the Civil War, Grant issued General Orders No. 11, expelling Jews "as a class" from the areas under his command. Grant dodged charges of anti-Semitism throughout his political career and perhaps attending this dedication was an overture to the Jewish community.The three-hour dedication ceremony was covered in several local and national newspapers, including The National Republican, The Jewish Messenger, and the Washington Chronicle. In fine detail, the articles described the decorations, prayers, and sermon given by visiting Rabbi George Jacobs of Philadephia's Congregation Beth El Emeth. [As reported by The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington]
2012: Ufruf of Jacob Kline and Alice Baker is scheduled to take place at Aguas Achim in Iowa City, IA.
2012: Ambassador Princeton N. Lyman is scheduled to deliver a talk entitled “Sudan Twenty Seven Years after Operation Moses” which will begin with a reminder of the “evacuation of 9,000 Jewish Ethiopian refugees from Sudan in 1984.”
2012(19th of Sivan, 5772): Eighty-two year old “Israel Shenker, a scholar trapped in a newsman’s body who was known to readers of The New York Times for his vast erudition and sly, subversive wit,” passed away today at Kibbutz Shoval in southern Israel (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2012: Today, Shabbat, approximately 200 people rode buses commissioned by the Meretz Party as part of a campaign calling for public transportation on the Shabbat.
2012: Speaking in Tel Aviv, Israeli political leader Shelly Yechimovich called on the international community impose a complete embargo on Assad’s Syria.
2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Slippage by Ben Greenman
2013: The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington is scheduled to host “Israel@65”
2013: The Maccabeats are scheduled to perform at Temple Oheb Shalom in Baltimore, MD
2013: This year’s Dan Prize Awards Ceremony is scheduled to take place at Tel Aviv University. Among the winners is Leon Wieseltier the literary editor of The New Republic who wrote the must readKaddish
2013: The Hillel Milwaukee is scheduled to receive “a Torah scroll owned by the former Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue before it combined with Congregation Beth Israel to form Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid.
2013: When Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, holds its congregational meeting this evening, Laurie Silber will complete her tenure as President of the Congregation which will mark the end of an era. For decades, Laurie has served the Cedar Rapids Jewish community in ways too numerous to count. These include Sunday School Teacher (second and third grade for 26 years), Sisterhood President and two terms as President of the Congregation. She was the driving force behind several initiatives that enriched the community including the quarterly Musical Shabbats and the Shabbat Alive appearances by Rick Recht. Laurie joins a group of unique Jewish women that includes Jochebed, Tzipporah and the daughters of Zelophehad all of whom were more concerned about getting things done right instead of getting to stand in the limelight. We will miss her steady hand, her iron-willed determination, her passion for her people and the joy she brought to Judaism. Others may follow in her footsteps, but none will be able to fill her shoes.
2013: As he completes 34 years of service Rabbi Harold Berman is honored with a dinner at Congregation Tifereth Israel in Columbus, Ohiol
2013: Despite predictions of ten thousand demonstrators, only several hundred ultra-Orthodox men turned this morning at Jerusalem’s Western Wall to protest the Women of the Wall’s monthly prayer gathering.
2013: Several months before the 1973 Yom Kippur War, then-Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir used West German diplomatic channels to offer Egypt most of the Sinai Peninsula in exchange for peace, according to documents released today by the state archives.
2014: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host an evening with Jewish feminist and broadcast journalist Lynn Sheer author of Sally Ride, “the definitive biography of America’s first woman in space.
2014: Today “Dov Ben-Shimon, an executive with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, was named the executive vice president/CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ. (JTA)
2014: “The Knesset authorized in second and third reading today a bill which allocated some one billion shekel to holocaust survivors. The bill was sponsored by Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Welfare Minister Meir Cohen and is the legal cornerstone of a national program to aid survivors.”
2014: “Two Jewish teenagers and their grandfather are chased by an ax-wielding man and three accomplices as they walk to their synagogue in the Paris suburb of Romainville on Shavuot.”
2014: “President Shimon Peres is scheduled to award Italian President Giorgio Napolitano with the Presidential Medal of Distinction, Israel’s highest civilian honor” today. (As reported Marissa Newman)
2015: Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck, University of London in collaboration with the SOAS Centre for Jewish Studies is scheduled to present “Paupers and Bankers: Modern Representation of Jews and Money.”
2015: “Arab Movie” is scheduled to be shown at the Cinema South Festival at Sderot.
2015: “Is That You” and “Youth” are scheduled to be shown at the Israel Film Center Festival hosted by JCC Manhattan.
2015: Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport who “wasn’t allowed to defend her doctoral thesis in 1938 under the Nazis because she was part-Jewish” today became Germany’s oldest recipient of a doctorate at when she received the degree today at the age 102.
2015: The Center for Jewish History and American Sephardi Federation are scheduled to present a screening of “Price for Freedom,” a film “dedicated to telling the harrowing history of terror, torture, and triumph of author Dr. Marc Benhuri”
2015: Today “a long list of major American Jewish organizations, many of which had filed amicus briefs supporting the inclusion of the word “Israel” on passports for US citizens born in Jerusalem, expressed dismay at yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling that American citizens born in Jerusalem may only list their birthplace as Jerusalem, rather than as Jerusalem, Israel
2016: The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to hold its annual meeting this evening.
2016: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host the “Inaugural Evelyn Greenberg Preservation Awards”
2016: “Zion80 which “explores Jewish music – from Carlebach to Zorn and everything in between – through the lens of the Afrobeat funk master Fela Anikulapo Kuti” is scheduled to perform at the 17thAnnual Washington Jewish Music Festival.”2016: “A Tale of Love and Darkness” based on the novel by Amos Oz is scheduled to shown on the closing night of the 4thAnnual Israel Film Center.
2016: The Center for Jewish History and the Leo Baeck Institute are scheduled to host “From Vienna to New York” Jewish Exiles Remember ‘Austria’ in the Aftermath of Holocaust” – “a discussion between scholars of Jewish –Austrian culture and former Jewish-Austrian exiles on how ‘Old Austria’ is remembered in the United States today.”
2016: All decent human beings are in mourning over those killed in yesterday’s terrorist that took place “at the restaurant-laden Sarona compound, across from the Kirya military headquarters” in Tel Aviv and pray for the full recovery of those who were wounded during the shooting spree.
2017: “Leonid Slutsky will look to become the first Russian coach to manage in the English Premier League after taking charge of second-tier Hull today.
2017: “A proposed budget cut by President Donald Trump of $3 million to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum has sparked a bipartisan backlash in the nation’s capital” which led “sixty-four members of Congress to send a letter to the president today demanding the budget proposal be amended to maintain the museum’s current funding levels, while Anti-Defamation League chief Jonathan Greenblatt issued a statement calling the cuts “a mistake.”
2017: “The Women’s Balcony,” the “number one film of the year in Israel” is scheduled to open Kew Gardens and Malverne, NY.
2017: “¿Que haré yo con esta espada?” (“And what will I do with this sword?”), “a 4.5 hour performance with two intermissions” is scheduled to be performed today, at Sherover Hall, Jerusalem Theater.
2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host an after presentation by Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield speaking on 'Between radical acceptance and Tikkun olam: Rabbi Akiva's journey through an imperfect world.'
2017: “Letters from Baghdad,” “the true story of Gertrude Bell and Iraq” is scheduled to premiere in Metropolitan Washington.
2017: In New York, Town and Village Synagogue is scheduled to host “20s & 30s Broadway Shabbat.”
2018(26th of Sivan, 5778): Parashat Shelach-Lecha; for more seehttp://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2018: “Don’t Forget Me” is scheduled to be shown at the International Film Festival at Long Beach Island, NJ.
2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to hold Shabbat services this morning after which “freshers are invited to the Chaplain’s house for a hot, home cooked lunch,” while sharing their stories from their first year at Oxford.
2018: Lovers of Literature are scheduled to “celebrate” the ninth anniversary of the founding of Tablet magazine