JUNE 18
1155: In Rome, the coronation of Frederick Barbarossa makes him the Holy Roman Emperor. Compared to other medieval monarchs, Frederick’s treatment of his Jewish subjects was comparatively benign. Frederick viewed the Jews as “his subjects” which meant he offered them special protection but at that same time they were a financial resource for his imperial use. The former did not sit well with Catholic leaders and the latter did not sit well with some nobles who wanted to tax the Jews for their own benefit. As can be seen by edict he issued concerning the Jews of Ratushon Frederick was willing to provide protection for his Jews as long as they filled his treasury.
1291: King Alfonso III of Aragon passed away. Alfonso was supposed to marry Princess Eleanor of England but he died before the marriage could take place. Eleanor was the daughter of Edward I, the King of England who had expelled the Jews from his realm. One can only wonder if the marriage had been consummated, would the son-in-law have followed the example of the father-in-law and expelled the Jews from his domain which would have meant Jews would have been expelled two centuries earlier than it actually happened.
1321 21 Sivan): In response to threats of expulsion from Rome instigated by Sangisa a sister of Pope John XXII, the Jews instituted a day of fasting a prayer. At a more practical level the Jews of Rome sent a messenger to Avignon to the papal court of King Robert of Naples, “the patron of the Jews” who interceded on their behalf. The twenty thousand ducats given to the King may have helped to sway his sympathy as well.
1389: Based on the “privlige” issued today by the Grand Duke Vitold of Lithuania at Lutsk, the Jews” Grodno occupied at that time a considerable area in the city of Grodno, that they owned land and houses and had a synagogue and a cemetery.
1492: A Sicilian version the Edict of Expulsion issued by the Spanish monarchs was published today in Palermo.
1541(13thof Sivan, 5301): Jacob Pollak, the Rabbi who popularized the use of “pilpul” in Polish Talmudic academies passed away today in Lublin. Pollak had begun his career in Prague but was forced to leave there when over a dispute about the laws of marriage. After a thirty year career in Cracow, he moved to Palestine where he lived for ten years before returning to Poland.
1643(1stof Tammuz, 5403?): Aaron Abba ben Johanan ha-Levi, the “president of the rabbinical college in Lemberg” who was a contemporary of Abraham Rapoport, Joel Särkes, and Meir Lublin passed away today.
1750: Birthdate of Johann Jahn a German orientalist who was interested in Biblical archeology and who got into trouble with the Catholic Church “by asserting Job and Jonah” were really “didactic poems.”
1768: The Haidamak Massacres (Ukraine) reached Uman. The peasant serfs and Cossacks rioted much in the same vein as Chemielnicki one hundred and twenty years earlier. At Uman the Poles and Jews defended the city together under the Polish commander Ivan Gonta. The next day, convinced by Zheleznyak the Polish revolutionary, that only the Jews would be attacked, Gonta allowed the fortified city to be entered without a fight. (This would not be the last time that the Poles sold out the Jews in an attempt to save their own skins. And it was not the last time that those who murdered the Jews would in turn slaughter them.) Approximately 8000 Jews were killed, many of them trying to defend themselves near the synagogue. As soon as the Jews were all massacred the Haidamaks (the paramilitary bands) began to kill the Poles. Although the Haidamaks began in the 1730's the main rioting was during the years 1734, 1750 and 1768 .It is estimated that during these years 20,000 Jews were killed. The Haidamaks became part of the Ukrainian national movement and are celebrated in folklore and literature.
1772: During the conflict between various Moslem leaders over who would rule Palestine, one of whom was advised by Haim Farhi whose father as a Jewish banker in Damascus, the Russian fleet began and ended a one day bombardment of Beirut
1778: During the American Revolutionary War, today’s departure of British troops from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania must have been met with mixed emotions by the Jewish community. A minority, as represented by David Franks and his daughter Rebecca were Tories would miss their British patrons. The majority of the city’s Jews, including Colonel David Salisbury Franks, the nephew of David Franks, supported the Revolutionary cause and took heart at the departure of their British occupiers.
1798: As of today, both Jacob Lyon and Mordecai Marks had arrived in the United States from Pozen.
1800: In Berlin, Amalie Beer and Jacob Herz Beer gave birth to Michael Beer.
1808: Abraham Quixano Henriques and Leah Rachel De Leon gave birth to Rebecca Henriques who did not live to celebrate her second birthday.
1809: John Salmon and Catherine Polack were married today at the Western Synagogue in the United Kingdom.
1812: In Dusseldorf, textile merchant Samson Heine and Peira “Betty” nee van Geldern, the daughter of a physician gave birth to Gustav Heine von Geldern, the brother of Heinrich Heine and the father of “Maximillian Heine author of the libretto to the operetta ‘Mirolan.’”
1812: The War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain formally began today when President James Madison signed the Declaration of War passed by Congress into law today. This conflict is referred the Second War For American Independence, since the victory in the War of 1812 meant that the United States would survive. If England had prevailed, the country that has provided so much opportunity for its Jewish population would have ceased to exist. Despite their small number, Jews were active participants in the defense of the young Republic. The most colorful was a privateer named John Ordronaux. The French born Ordronaux captured several British prize ships during the war. His most famous action came when his ship, the Prince de Neufchatel captured the British frigate Endymion. In a scene that would do credit to a Russell Crowe naval epic, Ordronaux ordered his men to board the British fighting ship. When his men appeared to be losing heart and prepared to retreat, Ordronaux grab a lighted match and threatened to blow up the magazine if his men did not return to the fight. They took him at his word and turned the tide against the better armed and trained British seaman. Uriah P. Levy, who as Commodore Levy would end the use of the lash for punishing sailors and would save Monticello for posterity, saw his first fighting as a member of the U.S. Navy during this war. Last, but not least, Judah Turo fought in the Battle of New Orleans where he was wounded. Turo would live for the next forty years with Rezon Davis Shephered. He was the one who took the wounded Turo from the battlefield and saw to it that his wounds were treated. Turo became a successful businessman whose philanthropy included everything from the Bunker Hill Monument to several New Orleans Jewish organizations and institutions.
1813: In Frankfurt am Main Malchen Schloos and David Philip (Feist) Schloss gave birth to Sigismund Schloss
1814: In Aarhus, Thamar (Terese) Ree and Hartvig Philip Ree gave birth to Frederikke Levinsen.
1815: Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. According to one account, fifty-two French Jews lost their lives in the battle. “The duke of Wellington is reported to have said, in 1833, that not less than fifteen Jewish officers had served under him at Waterloo. Among these was Cornet Albert Goldsmid (1794-1861), who afterward rose to the rank of major-general in the British service.” This defeat marked a return of the reactionaries to power in Europe. The laws of emancipation that had benefited the Jews of Europe were rolled back. It would take many decades for the Jews of Europe to win them back. On the other hand, Nathan Rothschild, head of the London branch if the famous family bank was, like all Englishman, pleased with the victory of his country. According to some sources, he had actually provided the funds for the army of the Iron Duke. There is an anti-Semitic legend that Nathan manipulated the Stock Exchange and by deception, made a fortune as a result of the victory. At the Vienna Congress which was the peace conference intended to create a new order in Europe in the wake of two decades of almost non-stop war, the Jews sent a Christian attorney, Carl Buchortz, to act on their behalf. An agreement was reached whereby "Jews were given rights in proportion to accepting the duties of citizenship." This was the first time that Jewish rights became a European political issue.
1815: Among those serving with the Prussian troops who played a critical role in the Battle of Waterloo was George Hartog Gerson who was the Assistant Surgeon for the 5th Line Battalion of the King’s German Legion and “Lehmann Cohn, a sergeant of the Second Cuirassiers, who had earned the Iron Cross at Leipsic.”
1823: In Berolzheim, Germany, gave Malka and Lob Moses Gutmann gave birth to Sussman Low Gutmann
1828: Israel Russell and Elizabeth Alexander were married today at the Western Synagogue in the United Kingdom.
1831: Birthdate of Geheimer Baurat Edwin Oppler the German architect who designed the synagogues in Hannover and Mamel and whose legacy would be carried on by great-grandson Arnold Oppler, AIA.
1834: In Darmstadt, thirty-three year old Lob Oppenheimer Bina Kahn who became Bina Oppenheimer.
1836: Birthdate of Bavarian born French jurist and author Frederick Reitlinger, who studied Talmud with Abraham Geiger and was named an Officer of the Legion of Honor.
1843: With Isaac Lesser serving as the Rabbi, Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia accepts the weekly sermon in English as part of its practices.
1852(1stof Tammuz, 5612): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1854: Henry Meyers and Julia Davis were married today at the Great Synagogue in the United Kingdom.
1854: In New York, Isaac Meyer and Mathilda Langenbach gave birth to Columbia University graduate Alfred Meyer, an “attending physician at Mt. Sinai Hospital, a “consulting physician at the Bedford Sanitarium for Consumptives of the Montefiore Home and a director of the United Hebrew Charities who was the husband of Annie Florence Nathan.
1860: Thanks to the efforts of the pro-Secessionist forces, the Democratic Convention which Henry Myer Phillips attended as a delegate, reconvened in Baltimore today.
1863: During the American Civil War, ten companies of the 11th regient of the New York State Militia under the command of Colonel Joachim Maidhof left the state and began marching to Harrisburg, PA which was a possible target for the invading Rebel Army.
1864: Isaac Goodman, an enlisted man who had been serving with Company of the 91stRegiment since 1861 was wounded while fighting the Rebels at Petersburg, VA.
1868: Morris Davidson and Sarah Russell were married today in the United Kingdom.
1873: Illinois native Simon Cook who was appointed to the Naval Academy from Missouri began serving as a Midshipman.
1875: In Allegheny, PA, Rabbi Lippman Mayer and Elise Hecht gave birth to Dr. Edward Everett Mayer, an “Associate Professor of Mental and Nervous Diseases at his alma mater Western University of Pennsylvania who was affiliated with the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives in Denver and was the husband of Rose Mae Lamm.
1875: Following the death of Michael Henry, Dr. A. Benish, the author of Travels of Rabbi Petachia of Ratison, resumed serving as editor The Jewish Chronicle and Hebrew Observer.
1876: Birthdate of Syracuse native and graduate of Columbia Medical School Maurice Packard, the author of Shylock Not A Jew.
1877: The friends of Joseph Seligman held an informal meeting to discuss recent events at Saratoga Springs, NY. The meeting was chaired by Edward Lauterbach, Mr. Seligman’s lawyer. Lauterbach provided a summary of the episode in which Mr. Seligman was informed that the Grand Union Hotel would no longer rent rooms to Jewish guest. The decision had been made by the hotel owner, Judge Henry Hilton. Lauterbach then read a letter that Seligman had written, but not sent, to Judge Hilton. In the letter, Seligman described the insult that had been done to the Jewish people and wondered if Hilton would be sending a circular to Jews telling them not to shop at his Broadway stores. Those in attendance applauded when Lauterbach finished reading the letter. Lauterbach said that the Jews of New York and the United States “could not afford to let the matter rest.” At a time when laws prohibiting Jewish involvement in society were being removed in many other countries it would be wrong to let this happen here. While there had been some anti-Jewish feeling expressed in the United States, it had been limited “to ignorant people –to the small vipers…but now the big snakes have attacked and it is time that” Jews “awaken and defend” themselves. The attendees debated on how best to respond. It was agreed that the letter should be released to the newspapers, if Seligman agreed. It was also agreed that a “mass meeting of the Jewish citizens” of New York should be held to protest Hilton’s ban. Furthermore, “leading citizens and clergyman should be invited to attend and express their support for the Jewish population.
1877: Judge Henry Hilton offered a reporter a series of seemingly contradictory explanations for the refusal of the management of the Grand Union to rent rooms to Joseph Seligman. At various points in the interview Judge Hilton said that Seligman was using the episode because he and other Jews were upset with the widow of the late Alexander Stewart because she had failed to make contributions to Jewish charities. At another point, he said that Seligman was not a Hebrew because he had joined the Reform Movement and was instead a Jew. Therefore Seligman had no right to complain about discrimination based on religion. Judge Hilton also said that it was staying at the Grand Union was very expensive and that only a limited number of people could afford to do so. Therefore he had to cater to their desires and it was these wealthy patrons who had complained about Jews staying at the hotel. Hilton predicted that other fancy hotels would follow his lead in banning Jews; a ban which he earlier denied existed.
1881: It was reported today that 60,000 Jews are expected to immigrate to Spain following a decision by the Madrid government to allow entrance by Jews expelled from Russia.
1881: It was reported that in light of decision by authorities to take a census of the Jews of Kiev, a large number of them have left the area.
1881: In Leadville, Colorado, Eva Schloss “recited at the closing exercise at the Spruce Street Schoolhouse.”
1881(21stof Sivan, 5641): “Bohemian Talmudist, Samuel Ben Issachar Bar Freund, the chief dayan of Prague passed away today.
1882(1st of Tammuz, 5642): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1882: In Tisza- Eszlar, Hungary, during a “blood-libel” frenzy, a gamekeeper recovers the body of a girl from the Nyiregyhaza River. Although the body was probably not the body of the girl for whom the authorities were looking, they would decide that this corpse was really part of a Jewish conspiracy and would use it as an excuse to arrest three more Jews from whom confessions would be obtained by force.
1886: The Times of London reported today that Flinders Petrie, the noted English Egyptologist, has discovered the ancient ruins the Biblical “Tahpanhes” described in Chapter 43 in the Book of Jeremiah as the site where Jews fleeing the Babylonians found refuge in 586 BCE. The Pharaoh welcomed them and distributed tracts of land for them to settle and develop. [This is another example of archeology supporting the stories in the Bible. The Pharaoh’s generosity stands in sharp contrast to the Egyptians to fight with the Judeans against the Babylonians as they had promised.]
1887: “The Hornthal Prize Contests” published today described the elocution competition funded by L.M. Hornthal. Miss Una Westing won the girl’s prize for a recitation entitled “How the Station Clock Saw and Heard It. She is a student at Grammar School No. 77 where Julia Richman, who is a leading secular and Jewish educator, serves as principal.
1889(19th of Sivan, 5649): Seventy-two year old Charles University alum Abraham Hochmuth, the Hungarian rabbi who “was a prominent member of the Hungarian Jewish Congress” passed away today at Veszprim.
1889: A list of the trustees of the Talmud Torah Benevolent Association of New York published today included Chaim, Herschdorfer, Moses Moses, Jacob Saltpeler, Bernard Wienberger, Joseph Siegel, Leib Rubenstein and Chaim Fertig.
1891(12thof Sivan, 5651): Seventy-four year old Calmann Levy (Kalmus Calmann Levy) the husband of Pauline Levy passed away today in Paris
1891: The Hebrew Technical Institute held its seventh annual commencement exercises this afternoon at Arlington Hall in St. Mark’s Place. The 18 boys in the graduating classed presented the director Dr. Henry M. Leipziger with a framed portrait created by one of their classmate Rudolph Shack.
1891: Martin Engel, the Tammany leader in the Eighth Assembly District had his nose broken today when an assailant hit him with a beer keg. (Engel would later refuse to pay the surgeon who worked on his nose because “he was no longer recognized as a Jew” forcing the surgeon to sue to collect for services rendered.)
1891: On “New York’s Lower East Side, David and Sarah Rubin Jacobson, Jewish immigrants from Lithuania gave birth to Edward “Eddie” Jacobson, American businessman and friend of Harry Truman who interceded with him to help gain his support for the creation of the modern state of Israel.
1891: On “New York’s Lower East Side, Polish immigrants Malya Molly Goldfarb and Nesanel Dovid Bryer, a cantor and small merchant” gave birth to “Samuel E. Goldberg, ‘the father of Jewish music in America.’”
1893(4thof Tammuz, 5653): After being treated by Dr. M.S. Kakeles this evening for the effects of nervous prostration, Samuel Adler, the proprietor of the Nineteenth Marble and Granite Works slipped away from the watchful eye of his son and took his own life this evening.
1893: As competition heats up between different unions representing Jewish printers, today the Hebrew Typographical Union No.317 joined the Central Labor Union and the Hebrew-American Typographical Union joined the Central Labor Federation
1893: “Passover Ceremonies” published today described the home observance of Pesach including the use of the Hagadah, “of which the first edition printed in London is dated 1709; the first edition with an English translation” is dated 1770.
1894: Three days after she had passed away, Middlesex native Sarah Bauman was buried today the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1895: In Portland, Oregon, found of Congregation Talmud Torah which holds services every Friday evening at seven and every Saturday at 9; provides Religious School sessions three times a week and used Mount Zion Cemetery which is “four miles from the city.
1896: Birthdate of Israel Goldstein, the native of Philadelphia who served as rabbi for Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York and one of the founders of Brandeis University.
1896: The Hebrew Technical Institute is scheduled to hold its commencement exercises at Cooper Union beginning at 8 pm.
1896: French newspapers announced the Marquise de Mores, a prominent anti-Semite, “had been murdered by some tribesman on the Tripolitan frontier” – a claim that would later be disputed by his widow.
1896(7th of Tammuz, 5656): Twenty-five year old Simon Mischel an unmarried Jew living on Delancey Street was strangled at Clyde, near Buffalo, by “road agents” who threw his body into the river after robbing him of “a large amount of money.”
1896: Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler delivered the opening prayer at the tenth annual commencement exercise of the Hebrew Technical Institute which took place this evening at Cooper Institute.
1898: It was reported today the nine people have been killed in Austrian Galicia during an outbreak of anti-Semitic violence which has required the dispatch of troops to the area to quell the peasant mobs.
1898: In Cincinnati, Ohio, actors Joseph and Bessie Jacobson gave birth to Irving Jacobson star of Yiddish and American theatre who played Sancho Panza in the original Broadway run of “Man of La Mancha.”
1899: “Firecrackers, eggs, watermelon rinds and stones were thrown” at Wilson W. Dunlap and his aids when “they attempted to hold services” on the lower east side designed to convert Jews to Christianity.
1899: “Recent German Events” published today described the speeches given by Count Walter Puckler “a prominent Jew baiter” in a Silesian village “in which he incited his audience to violence against the Jews.” Following attacks on the Jews, Puckler was prosecuted “for stirring up ‘hatred between the classes.’” The local tribunal dismissed the charges but the Public Prosecutor appealed the case to the Supreme Court which has yet to rule.
1899: It was reported today that fines have been levied on two Berlin anti-Semitic papers, the Stasstsburger Zeitung and the Deutsche General-Anzeiger for publishing the speeches of Count Puckler.
1899: In Saint-Petersburg, “Jewish-Russian lawyer, national politician and Jewish community leader Maxim Vinaver, who emigrated to France in 1919, and his wife birth to Eugène Vinaver “a literary scholar who is best known today for his edition of the works of Sir Thomas Malory” and who as a deputy in the pre-war Duma sought to gain full rights for Jews in Russia.
http://www.jta.org/1926/10/12/archive/maxim-vinaver-famous-russian-jewish-leader-dies-in-paris-at-63
1899: During a six day meeting inParis. Herzl, Max Nordau and Alexander Marmorek meet Narcisse Leven who assures them that the Jewish Colonization Association will cooperate when it comes to practical colonization.
1899: In Baltimore, MD, Dr. Richard Gottheil chaired the opening session of the second annual conference of the Federation of American Zionists.
1899: A summary of the United Hebrew Charities report for May described the 2,021 applications for assistance that covered the needs of 6,737 individuals. The monthly cash receipts of $10, 816.08 went to cover the expenses that totaled $10,808.21. These included everything from $2,514.12 for local relief to $282.00 to cover the burials for the indigent
1901(1stof Tammuz, 5661): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1901: Birthdate of Major Wellesley Aron the English Jew who founded Habonim and risked his military career during WW II by rescuing Jews in Italy.
1901, Gertrude Weil became the first North Carolina resident to graduate from Smith College.
1904: Birthdate of French composer Manuel Rosenthal
1905: Graduation exercises are scheduled to be held today at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
1909(29th of Sivan, 5669): Sixty-eight year old Deborah Cohn, the daughter of Dr. Marcus Mosse and Ulrike Mosse and the wife of Emil Cohn with whom she had five children passed away today.
1911: Sarah Berhnhardt finishes a thirty-five week theatrical tour of the U.S. and Canada
1912: In Chicago, “Lillian Marks, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Simon L. Marks” married “Herbert M. Berg, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Morris Berg.”
1913: In Philadelphia, S. L. Nusbaum, a bookbinder, and his wife Jenny (née Singer) gave birth to Nathan Richard Nusbaum better known as writer and dramatist N. Richard Nash whose most successful work was “The Rainmaker” which went from being a television production, to a full length motion picture to a musical known as “110 in the Shade.
1913: In New York, a day school for adult Oriental Jews opened on the East Side.
1913: In Cincinnati, Ohio, the Federation of American Zionist adopted resolutions endorsing “the work of the Ahuzot, establishing “a Nahum Sokolow fund to be used for building a workingmen’s settlement in Palestine,” recommending to the Zionist Congress the creation of a Jewish National University in Palestine” and reaffirming “the political character of the Zionist organization.”
1913: Birthdate of Samuel Cohen, who gained fame as Sammy Cahn the violin and piano player best known a musical composer who provided the tunes for Broadway and Hollywood.
1914: Day school for adult Oriental Jews opened on the New York’s East Side.
1915: “It is considered probable that Governor Slaton might reach decision today” regarding the fate of Leo Frank.
1915: “So strong is the feeling” that the governor will commute Frank’s sentence “that offer to wage 3 to1 in favor commutation found few takers this afternoon.”
1915(6thof Tammuz, 5675): Eighty-one year old Bernhard Bettmann passed away today. A native of Bavaria, he came to the United States in 1850 and settled in Cincinnati. He became a successful businessman, bank president and leading member of the local Republican Party as well as a pillar of the Jewish community.
1916: The American Jewish Relief Committee of which Felix M. Warburg is the Treasurer reported today have collect gifts that total more than $4,100,000.
1916: “The newly organized Woodrow Wilson Independent League gave out statements from eleven prominent men” including Jacob H. Schiff, President of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. and Isidor Jacobs, President of the California Canneries Company and the Napa Canning Company, “setting forth their reasons for supporting the President for re-election” the most important of which was his success in keeping the country out of war.
1916: As the British fought to dislodge the Ottomans from the Sinai, Palestine and points beyond “11 aircraft of the 5th Wing under Colonel W. G. H. Salmond” attacked El Arish destroying two Turkish planes on the ground and destroying ten hangars.”
1916: “The cornerstone for a new synagogue to be known as the Mount Neboh Congregation of Washington Heights was laid” this afternoon by Abram I. Elkus after which speeches were delivered by Rabbi A.S. Anspacher, Adolf Lewisohn, Dr. Nathan Stern and David E. Goldfarb.
1916: “Plans for the enlargement of the Beth David Hospital at Lexington Avenue and 113th Street were formulated” today “at the opening of the eighth annual convention of the Federation of Russian-Polish Jews of American” following which several members immediately responded by giving checks to toward the $50,000 President Jacob Garlinger said was need for the building fund.
1916: The Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War of which Harry Fischel is Treasurer reported today the receipt of an additional $8,440.61 in contributions.
1916: The Turkish military governor, Djemal Pasha, banned Jews from praying at the Kotel. (In 1917, he reportedly offered to rescind the ban if he was paid 100,000 Francs)
1917: Following the February Revolution Julius Martov, a leader of the Mensheviks attended a conference where “he failed to gain the support of the delegates for a policy of immediate peace negotiations with the Central Powers.”
1917: During World War I, reports from London state that Zionist activity in Turkey has been prohibited by the government.
1917: Five days after he was killed in a German air raid on London, 15 year old Nathan Cohen the son of Joseph and Sarah Cohen was buried at “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” today.
1917: According to Captain Isaac Frank of the Brownsville Police Station 1,500 tickets have been sold for tonight’s benefit performance at the Liberty Theatre which is a fundraiser of the Junior Police which is “composed almost exclusively of Jewish boys.”
1917: Starting today, there will be no collections by Jewish groups for war relief because today marks the start of the week when the Red Cross is scheduled to begin it fundraising week.
1918: In New York, Sadie Helen (Kun) and Louis Karfunkle gave birth to Jerome Karfunkle who gained fame as Jerome Karle the co-winner of the 1985 Nobel Prize for Chemistry and husband of chemist Isabella Karle with whom he had three “scientist daughters” – Louise, Jean and Madeleine Karle.
1918: Birthdate of Jerome Karle, the Brooklyn native who shared the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (As reported by Kenneth Chang)
1918: The Ziegfeld Follies of 1918 featuring songs by Eddie Cantor opened today.
1918: Birthdate Franco Modigliani, Italian born American winner of the Nobel Prize for economics in 1985.
1919: The publication of Haaretz, a Hebrew daily newspaper, begins in Jerusalem. It will move to Tel Aviv in 1923. It is independent and liberal in orientation. Its literary supplement features the best Hebrew writers and scholars both from Palestine and the Diaspora.
1920: Birthdate of Joseph Bau, the native of Krakow who survived the Shoah thanks to “Schindler’s List.”
1920: It was reported today that “Dr. David F. Markus, the Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazic Jewish Community of Constantinople and the President of the Joint Distribution Committee for Turkey and Mr. Henry G. Reisner, President of the Jewish Immigration Aid Society of Constantinople and President of the Ashkenazi Community of Constantinople” have come to the United States “to confer with the executive heads of the Joint Distribution Committee” and to emphasize the need for more funds to be provided due to the overwhelming suffering of the Jews in Turkey.
1921: Winston Churchill “informed his officials at the Colonial Office that he believed it was impossible for Britain to grant any form of representation to the Arabs that would give them the power to halt Jewish immigration.”
1923: In Baltimore, a report read at tonight's session of the Zionist convention by Emanuel Newmann, General Secretary of the Palestine Foundation states that six million dollars has been raised In the past two years by Jewish organizations in the United States devoted to the rebuilding of Palestine, and of this sum $4,250,000, amounting to 70 per cent, of the total, has been raised by the Palestine Foundation Fund (Keren Hayesod).
1923: Checker Cab puts its first taxi on the streets. Originally a Checker Cab was a taxicab built by the Checker Cab Company. The Checker Cab Company had been formed by Morris Markin a Russian Jewish immigrant. Markin was so poor when he arrived in the United States that he had to borrow the $25 for the bond necessary for those entering the country from a porter working at Ellis Island. Beginning as a tailor, Markin amassed enough of a fortune to own his own garment business and to bring the rest of his family from Russia to Chicago. After starting the Checker Cab Company, he bought the Yellow Cab Company. He passed away in 1970.
1923: In Newark, NJ, Meyer Ellenstein, the dentist who became that city’s Mayor, and his wife gave birth to “character actor” Robert “Bob” Ellenstein.
1925: In Camden, NJ, the “Camden Talmud Torah, Inc. purchase land at 621 Kaighn Avenue from David Jentis & Co., Inc. for $10,000,
1929: Jacob Goldman a former student at New York University living in Tel Aviv writes a letter on this date “telling of demonstrations by young Aras and the circulation of songs calling Moslems to ‘take up the sword’ against the foreign ruler and the Jews.’”
1929: In Paszto, a Hungarian shtetl with a reported 120 Jewish families, to Ferenc and Rosa Rubin gave birth to Tibor "Ted" Rubin “a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the United States in 1948 and received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Korean War by President George W. Bush in 2005.”
1929: Birthdate of Albert Morris Bendich, the native of New York “who successfully defended the right to free speech in two landmark midcentury obscenity cases — involving Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” and Lenny Bruce’s nightclub act.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1933: Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, the 34 year old Zionist leader gunned down by two unknown assassins was buried this afternoon. About 70,000 persons marched in the funeral procession, with delegations attending from all parts of the country. Beryl Katzenellenson, editor of Davar, Meir Dizengoff, Mayor of Tel Aviv and Menachem Ussishkin, head of the Jewish National Fund all delivered eulogies.
1933: Birthdate of Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-born American author. During the Holocaust, Kosinski was hidden by a Polish family using a false Baptismal certificate. After the war, he was reunited with his parents. He came to the United States in 1957. The Painted Bird and Being There are two of his most famous efforts. He passed away in 1991.
1936: The Palestine Post reported that a commission had been appointed by the government to replace the Haifa's Municipal Council which since the beginning of the Arab boycott was no longer able to discharge its duties. The government began to demolish the condemned buildings in the Old City of Jaffa. The quarter looked like a nightmare with furniture, bedding and odds and ends being dragged out of condemned houses.
1936: Paul Baerwald, chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee presided over a meeting today in New York where “the necessity for rehabilitation activities in behalf of Jews in Germany and Eastern Europe” was discussed by “a group of Jewish leaders from various parts of the United States” including Joseph C. Hyman, Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, Felix M. Warburg and Carl J. Austrian.
1936: In New York City Sidney and Frances Wimmer gave birth to Richard Samuel Wimmer who would finally achieve his goal of being a published author with the appearance of Irish Wine in 1989. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1936 (28th of Sivan, 5696): “Two more Jews died today as a result of Arab terrorism…Abraham Benyehuda died from wounds received in a recent ambush of a bus belonging to the Jewish colony of Ataroth, north of Jerusalem…Joseph Shefter, proprietor of the Leviathan tannery located on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, died as a result of an attack this afternoon on a bus which he and nine of his employees were returning to Tel Aviv.
1936: “A symposium on ‘Proposed Roads for American Jewry’ was conducted at the afternoon session of the third annual conference of the Institute on Contemporary Jewish Affairs held” today “under the auspices of the National Council of Jewish Women” during which more than 150 delegations “heard three speakers” – Marvin Lowenthal, Dr. Erick Gutkind and Dr. Morris R. Cohen – “express widely divergent views on the survival of the Jewish people.
1937: David Sarnoff is scheduled to be the guest of honor at today’s luncheon sponsored by the Circus Saints and Sinners.
1937: P.L. Goodman is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Jews and Arabs in Palestine” at the Bronx House in New York.
1937(9th of Tammuz, 5697): Forty-four year old Al Boasberg, who helped to create the comedic persona of Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, among others passed away today.
1938: Winston Churchill wrote to Sir Alexander Maxwell, the Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office asking him for assistance in making Vic Oliver’s wish to become a naturalized British subject a reality. Vic Oliver was an Austrian born Jewish actor, radio comedian and pianist who had married Churchill’s daughter Sarah. Churchill had opposed the marriage at first because Oliver was sixteen years old than his daughter and twice-divorced. Later, he came to “like and esteem him greatly.”
1939: Seven hundred delegates attending “annual convention of the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham” at Saratoga Springs, NY, heard Rabbi Stephen S. Wise make “a plea for a united Jewrty to solve the refugee and Palestine problems.”
1940:Members of the Etzel command who were imprisoned in the summer 1of 939 are released.
1940(12th of Sivan, 5700): Sixty-eight Russian-born American actor Maurice Moscovitch whose last appearance was “Mr. Jaecekl” the Jewish neighbor in Charlie Chaplin’s satire of Hitler, “The Great Dictator.”
1940: Charles De Gaulle issued L'Appel du 18 Juin (the Appeal of 18 June) over the BBC radio service in which he called upon the French to resist the Vichy regime and to fight on against the Nazis despite the signing of the armistice. This is considered to the start of the French Resistance. While many Frenchmen heeded his call, a large number actually supported Vichy and collaborated with the Nazis. The Myth of the Resistance grew in proportion to Allied successes following Normandy.
1941: “Members of the Jewish Writers Union picketed the offices of the New York and national Guilds during the lunch hour” today “with placards denouncing the New York Newspaper Guild’s strike against The Jewish Day as an example of ‘dual unionism’ and ‘union wrecking.’”
1942: Today is the deadline given by the German government to the Czechs for the surrender of those who killed Reinhard Heydrich or suffer further reprisals.
1944: Rabbi Philip Lipis, who was serving as a Chaplain in the United States Navy, spoke at the installation service at Congregation Beth El in Camden, NJ where Morris LIebman began his fourth term as President of the Congregation and Mrs. Max PIncus became Sisterhood President. Lipis had taken leave from his position as the congregation’s rabbi to serve during World War II.
1945: U.S. premiere of “G.I. Joe” a gritty film about the infantry in WW II with a scored by Louis Applebaum and Ann Ronnell
1947: Ben-Gurion published a long memorandum addressed to the Haganah command. He outlined a three-fold structure for the organization: an excellent attack force for special purposes; a driving force in the form of a regular army; and a territorial defense force. The most urgent goal: training commanders up through the battalion level; establishing a high school for commanders to prepare battalion commanders and staff officers. This was necessary because up until this time, the Haganah’s platoon commander’s course was the highest level of training.
1947: John Henry Patterson, who attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Essex Yeomanry before retiring passed away today. Many know Patterson as the British officer portrayed by Val Kilmer in “The Ghost and the Darkness,” a film based on Patterson’s building of a bridge in Kenya before WW I. Jews remember him as the commander of the Zion Mule Corps and the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers which was popularly known as the Jewish Legion of the British Army. Patterson sacrificed his own career to fight the anti-Semitism that was so rife among many British officers of that time. He wrote two books about his experiences – With the Zionists at Gallipoli and With the Judeans in Palestine. Patterson’s close relationship with Zionist leaders can be seen in the fact that he was the Godfather of Benzion Netanyahu’s oldest son, Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu, the hero of Entebbe and the brother of the current Prime Minister of Israel.
1947: Ben-Gurion appointed Yaakov Dori as the chief of staff and Yisrael Galili as the new national command head as part of his plan to revamp the Yishuv’s military forces.
1948: A truce which was to be overseen by the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization was supposed to go into effect in the Middle East today.
1948: In a move that the Soviets would use as one of their excuses for blockading Berlin, he United States, Britain and France announced that on 21 June the Deutsche Mark would be introduced. (These entries about the Berlin Blockade are intended to show that the Israel’s fight for independence was part of the mosaic that came to be known as the Cold War)
1950:Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett asked Israeli newspaper editors today to go slow in attacking Eastern bloc Governments and particularly their representatives. His plea followed protests by diplomatic representatives to the Government against press attacks.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Negev rejoiced when water spurted several meters high in the yellow wilderness when Avraham Hartzfeld, the gray-haired patron of the settlers, turned the tap of the new pipeline and pumping station.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel's first steel-pipe factory was opened south of Acre by the Middle East Tube Co. Ltd.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the new freighter Eilat called at Haifa with a cargo of 9,000 tons of wheat and 2,000 tons of machinery.
1952: In Cleveland, Ohio, “jazz singer, teacher, dancer, and pianist” Joy Kane and architect Michael Kane gave birth to actress Carolyn Laurie “Carol” Kane best known for her Emmy Award winning Simka Dahblitz-Gravas, wife of Latka Gravas on the sitcom “Taxi.”
1952: Eight days after the Israeli government imposed a forced loan of 10 percent on currency holdings and bank accounts, the deflationary effect has been so sharp “that Government officials are uncertain whether to be jubilant or worried. Newspapers have experience an unexpected decline in revenue due to a loss of circulation at time when they had just negotiated a new labor contract increasing wages of workers. A round trip ticket from Tel Aviv to Paris has jumped in the past year from 175 Israeli pounds to 500 Israeli pounds. Shops of all kind are doing less business and nightclubs report that their earnings on Saturday night (their busiest time) are less now than they were for an average week night a year ago.
1954: Pierre Mendes-France became Premier of France. Born in 1907 in Paris, Mendes-France’s came from a family of Sephardic Jews. He was trained as a lawyer and fought with the Free French during World War II. After the war, Mendes-France served in numerous governments in the revolving door of the Fourth Republic. Mendes-France was an anti-colonialist. He served as Premier after the fall of Dien Bien Phu, and negotiated the end to the French Indo-China War. Several Catholic political leaders attacked him for this and the attack quickly became anti-Semitic. Mendes-France also began the negotiations that would lead to independence for the French colonies in North Africa. Mendes-France political signature was a glass of milk. After the war, some French leaders were concerned that French people were drinking too much wine and starting to drink at too early an age. When Mendes-France would appear in public, there invariably was a glass of milk on the lectern, which he made a point of sipping some time during the presentation. Mendes-France passed away in 1982.
1956: Golda Meir replaced Moshe Sharett as Foreign Minister. Sharett had held the position since the creation of the state, even when he was serving as Prime Minister. Meir’s colorful career had already included clandestine negotiations with the King of Jordan and a stint as the first Ambassador to the Soviet Union. Eventually she would rise to the position of Prime Minister.
1957(19th of Sivan, 5717): Fifty-four year old David “Dave” Berman the Russian born WW II veteran and crime boss whose territory included Iowa and Minnesota and later Las Vegas suffered a fatal heart attack in the midst of a glandular operation at a Las Vegas hospital.
1959: A federal court overturned Arkansas state laws that allowed schools faced with integration to be closed. Harry Ehrenberg, Sr., of blessed memory, was one of those unsung heroes who literally risked his as he carried a petition seeking support to keep the Little Rock schools open despite the race baiting efforts of Governor Faubus to defy school integration.
1959: “The Five Pennies” a biopic directed by Melville Shavelson, starring Danny Kaye and including an Oscar nominated song by Sylvia Fine was released in the United States today.
1971: ABC broadcast the last episode of “The Rebel” an off-beat western television series “developed and created by” Irvin Kershner which featured appearances by Ned Glass and Soupy Sales.
1966(30th of Sivan, 5726): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1969: U.S. premiere of “The Wild Bunch” for which Jerry Fielding provided the music which was so good that it “was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Score.
1970:Greville Ewan Janner began serving as a Member of Parliament from Leicester North West.
1973(18th of Sivan, 5733): Seventy-one year old Viennese born composer Fritz Mahler whose father was a cousin of Gustav Mahler and whose wife was dance Pauline Koner passed away today in Winston-Salem, NC
1974: In the Soviet Union, the Goldstein brothers began a hunger strike to protest the government’s crackdown prior to the upcoming visiting of President Richard Nixon.
1975(9thof Tammuz, 5735): Ninety-one year old award winning philosopher Samuel Hugo Bermann, the native of Prague who made Aliyah in 1920 where he founded the Brit Shalom movement with Martin Buber passed away today.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Treasury and the Histadrut had jointly decided that Value Added Tax would be levied at 8 percent, as of July 1.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that two Israeli missile boats sailed for the US to take part in the July 4 Bicentennial salute on the Hudson River.
1984(18th of Sivan, 5744): Denver-based radio talk show host Alan Berg was gunned by Christian White Supremacists whose Christianity did not include the teachings of Jesus.
1989: “Legal Eagles” a comedy directed, co-produced and co-written by Ivan Reitman, with music by Elmer Bernstein and co-starring Debra Winger and Steven Hill was released today in the United States.
1987: Daniel Barenboim began 9 days of conducting the IPO in a series of partially staged operas - ''Don Giovanni,''''The Marriage of Figaro'' and ''Cosi Fan Tutte''– that included performers from the Paris Opera.
1992(17th of Sivan, 5752): Famed Israeli painter, Mordecai Ardon, passed away His works included an effort from 1944 entitled “Ein Karem.” In English Ein Karem means “Spring of the Vineyard.” It is located on the southwest edge of Jerusalem.
1993: In Colorado, the District Court award title to Leadville’s Hebrew Cemetery to The Temple Israel Foundation.
1996(1stof Tammuz, 5756): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1996(1stof Tammuz, 5756): Kesari Yisrael passed away. Born in Yemen in 1933, he came to Palestine at the age of two. After studying at Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University he became a leader of Histadrut before being elected to the Knesset and serving as a cabinet minister.
1996: Limor Livnat succeeds Shulamit Aloni as Minister of Communications
1996: Benny Begin begins serving as The Science and Technology Minister of Israel
1996: Eli Suissa succeeds Haim Ramon as Internal Affairs Minister
1996: Israel Kessar completes his term as Minister of Transport, National Infrastructure and Road Safety.
1996: David Levy succeeds Ehud Barak as foreign minister.
1996: Binyamin Ben-Eliezer completes his term as Minister of Housing and Construction
1996: Binyamin Netanyahu succeeds Shimon Sheetrit as Minister of Religious Services
1996: Gonen Segev completed his service as Minister of Energy and Water Resources.
1996: Avigdor Kahalani replaced Moshe Shahal as Minister of Public Security
1996: Ehud Barak competed his service as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
1997: In “Nazis and Their Allies in Art Theft” published today Richard Bernstein provided a detailed review of The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World’s Greatest Works of Art by Hector Feliciano.
1997(13th of Sivan, 5757): Lev Kopelev the Russian born idealist and a committed Bolshevik who over time would become a dissident and ended up having to live out his days in Cologne, Germany passed away today.
1997(13thof Sivan, 5757): Ninety-five year Benjamin Zemach, who with his brother Nathan, was a “dance pioneer” passed away today. (As reported by Anna Kisselgoff)
1999: The Times of London reviewed “Israel and the Bomb” by Avner Cohen.
2000:The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Groucho:The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx by Stefan Kanfer, Monkey Business:The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers: Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo With Added Gummo by Simon Louvish, The Essential Groucho:Writings by, for, and About Groucho Marx Edited by Stefan Kanfer, How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom, King David:A Biography by Steven L. McKenzie and The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soulby Yoram Hazony
2001(27th of Sivan, 5761): Palestinian terrorists murdered 35 year old Dan Yehuda in “a drive-by shooting.”
2001: Fatah gunman shot 38 year old Doron Zisserman.
2002: BBC One broadcast the last episode of “A History of Britain,” “a documentary series written and presented by” Jewish historian and author Simon Schama.
2002: In “Edelman Savors Nearly 50 Years of Independence,” Jim Kirk provides a snapshot of the career of Daniel Edelman the PR man who came to Chicago from New York and founded the agency that bears his name.
2002(8th of Tammuz, 5762): Nineteen people, including two children, were killed and 74 were injured – six seriously – in a suicide bombing at the Patt junction in Egged bus #32A traveling from Gilo to the center of Jerusalem. The bus, which was completely destroyed, was carrying a number of students on their way to school. The victims: Boaz Aluf, 54, of Jerusalem; Shani Avi-Zedek, 15, of Jerusalem; Leah Baruch, 59, of Jerusalem; Mendel Bereson, 72, of Jerusalem; Rafael Berger, 28, of Jerusalem; Michal Biazi, 24, of Jerusalem; Tatiana Braslavsky, 41, of Jerusalem; Galila Bugala, 11, of Jerusalem; Raisa Dikstein, 67, of Jerusalem; Dr. Moshe Gottlieb, 70, of Jerusalem; Baruch Gruani, 60, of Jerusalem; Orit Hayla, 21, of Jerusalem; Helena Ivan, 63, of Jerusalem; Iman Kabha, 26, of Barta; Shiri Negari, 21, of Jerusalem; Gila Nakav, 55, of Jerusalem; Yelena Plagov, 42, of Jerusalem; Liat Yagen, 24 of Jerusalem; Rahamim Zidkiyahu, 51, of Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
2003(18th of Sivan, 5763): A Palestinian terrorist killed 19 passengers when he detonated a bomb on a bus in Jerusalem.
2004: U.S. premiere of The Terminal directed and produced by Steven Spielberg which provides a comedic twist to issues of immigration and survival in an airport.
2004: Bernard J. Wohl, Executive Director of the Goddard Riverside Community Center addresses the 20th annual conference of the “International Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers” in Toronto. "You can’t just focus on your own agency. You need to work with other agencies to affect change because all the agencies are experiencing the same problems to different extents. When agencies get together, the city listens much more to them. Community is about doing things together."
2005(11th of Sivan, 5765): Sixty-six year old Gerald Davis a prominent artist and leader of the Irish Jewish community passed away.
2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Betraying Spinozaby Rebecca Goldstein and recently released paperback editions of 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos by Jennet Coant, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimerby Kai Bird and Martin Sherman and The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank by Ellen Feldman
2006: Student groups at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee rallied today calling for the prosecution of a local man who claims to be a former Waffen-SS officer and announced last week that he planned to set up a public shrine in his backyard to commemorate the life of Adolf Hitler.
2006:Ronald S. Lauder purchased the painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt for $135 million from Maria Altman
2006(22ndof Sivan, 5766): Ninety-nine year old director Vincent Sherman, the small town Georgia boy who grew into a Hollywood giant who created classics like The Young Philadelphians and Mr. Skeffington.
2007: Efraim Sneh left the office of Deputy Defense Minister and wasreplaced by Matan Vilnai.
2007: Funeral services were held at Am Shalom, in Glencoe, Illinois for Shirlee Mages, of blessed memory.
2007: Ehud Barak began serving as Minister of Defense.
2007: Newsweek magazine features an article by Robert W. Morgenthau and Frank Tuerkheimer entitled “From Midway to the Mideast: How a victory in the Pacific 65 years ago helped defeat Hitler and found Israel.” The article includes the information that “just after the fall of Tobruk, an SS killing squad…was created to operate behind Rommel’s front line…for the express purpose of killing Jews in occupied territory.” Had Rommel been successful that occupied territory would have included Palestine and the Jews of the Yishuv.
2007: In the “Verbatim” section Time magazinefeatured the following quote by Rutka Laskier, “'If only I could say, It's over, you only die once ... but I can't, because despite all these atrocities, I want to live, and wait for the following day.'” Rutka Laskier has been described as the Polish Anne Frank. Like Frank, she wrote a Holocaust-era diary, at the age of 14. Like Frank, Laskier perished during the Holocaust. Apparently, the Nazis killed her at Auschwitz.
2007: Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz squares off in a friendly dispute with Michael Steinhardt at the annual dinner of the Aleph Society in New York City.
2007: On the secular calendar, the fifteenth anniversary of the death of Mordecai Ardon. It happens to fall on the 2ndof Tammuz which is appropriate since one of his works was called “Tammuz.”
2008: As the waters recede from the 500 Year Flood of 2008, The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that Smulekoff's, one of the oldest businesses in downtown Cedar Rapids, said it will be opening in temporary quarters and plans to rebuild its landmark store at 97 Third Ave. SE. Ann Lipsky, president of Smulekoff's Home Store, told managers that the 119-year-old business will be reopening in the near term at its warehouse, 411 Sixth Ave. SE. The warehouse received a small amount of water in the basement where no merchandise was stored. Smulekoff's has been in downtown Cedar Rapids since 1889 when it was established by Henry Smulekoff on May's Island. The store moved to the current location of Wells Fargo Bank on Third Avenue SW during the flood of 1929 and was located at 97 Third Ave. SE during the flood of 1993."In all that time, the devastation has never been as bad as the current situation," Lipsky said. "We will come back and continue to provide the area with fine home furnishings, floor coverings and more."
2008: UNICEF met with officials of Adalah, a coalition of pro-Palestinian groups to inform them that the agency would no longer have any relationship with Lev Leviev, an Orthodox Jewish diamond mogul who has financed construction projects in the West Bank.
2008: The Jewish Film Festival of Croatia host a first time one day event in Belgrade.
2009: In Deal New Jersey, Avi Hoffman opens a three night run of "Too Jewish?", "Too Jewish, Too" and “Still Jewish After All These Years: A Life in the Theater” at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center.
2009: David Adjmi makes his professional New York theater debut when his play “Stunning” opens at the Duke on 42nd Street today. “Stunning” is set in the Syrian-Jewish enclave where Mr. Adjmi grew up, has been rewritten many times during previews this month. “Stunning” is a three-act play about the relationship between a Syrian-Jewish couple in present-day Midwood and their black housekeeper.
2009:Espousing a dream of harmony that may stretch credibility among even the most fervent believers in dialogue among the great religions, clerics in Jerusalem launched a project today aimed at finding a way to share the city's holiest, and most fought over, site. Even the Jewish religious scholar promoting it acknowledges it might need divine intervention before a peaceful remapping of the area where Muslims built the 7th century Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque on the site of the biblical Jewish Temple.
2010: Simon Wolfson was created Baron Wolfson of Aspley Guise, of Aspley Guise in the County of Bedfordshire,
2010: The Elvis and 50's Rock'n'Roll Concert is scheduled to take place at midrechov Ben Yehuda in Jerusalem.
2010: Abbie Silber the lovely and multi-talented daughter of Dr. Bob and Laurie Silber provided a special musical interlude for Shabbat Services at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA
2010(5th of Tammuz, 5770): Eighty-one year old Holocaust survivor George Brown passed away today. (As reported by Keith Thursby)
2011:Naama Shafir, an Israeli point guard and a player on the University of Toledo's women's basketball team who normally wears a T-shirt under her jersey for modesty reasons, will not be playing in a European basketball tournament scheduled to start today because FIBA Europe-- the Munich-based organization that governs basketball in Europe -- decided to stick with its usual policy: All players must wear the same uniform.
.2011:Erika Brooks Adickman is scheduled to host “Troop Beverly Hills: The Experience” at the Historic Sixth & I Synagogue in Washington, DC.
2011: A wildfire raging in the Golan today was under control by late afternoon. The fire erupted this morning near Moshav Had Nes in the southern Golan Heights. Route 888, which had been closed while workers battled the blazed, was reopened to traffic and hikers were told they could return to the area..
2011(16th of Sivan, 5771): Morris Pollard, the 95 year old father of Jonathan Pollard, passed away today. Pollard was an internationally recognized prostate cancer researcher who was professor emeritus of biological sciences at Notre Dame University
2011(16th of Sivan, 5771): Eighty-eight year old Elena Boner, the Soviet dissident and human-rights campaigner who endured banishment and exile along with her husband, the dissident nuclear physicist Andrei D. Sakharov, passed away today. Her father was an Armenia. Her mother, Ruth Bonner was a Jewess born in Siberia who disappeared into the Gulag in 1938.(As reported by Alessandra Stanley and Michael Schwirtz)
2012: The Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning is scheduled to have its annual meeting at Ohr Kodesh in Chevy Chase, MD.
2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to appear with Judy Collins at the Metropolitan Museum of Art-PBS Show.
2012: On the Civil Calendar, 20thanniversary of the death of Michael Ardon.
2012: An Israeli citizen and two terrorists were killed this morning during clashes between Israel Defense Forces soldiers and gunmen who infiltrated the southern border with Egypt.
2012: “A group of 20 veterans, mostly-high ranking Jordanian and Israeli retired officers, met in Jerusalem today, and toured the sites of battles that pitted them against each other nearly half a century ago. (As reported by Elhanan Miller)
2012: In a letter published today by www.magyarnarncs.hu“Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel renounced a Hungarian state award he received in 2004 in protest against what he said was a "whitewashing" of the role of former Hungarian governments in the deportation of Jews during World War Two.
2012: “Friday Night Lights” published today provides a snapshot of “Jewish boys in the NFL.”
2012: An Israeli citizen and two terrorists were killed this morning during clashes between Israel Defense Forces soldiers and gunmen who infiltrated the southern border with Egypt. An initial investigation reveals that three terrorists penetrated the fence along the Gaza-Sinai border this morning, placed an explosive device on Philadelphia strip near Be'er Milka, and waited for Israeli vehicles to pass by.
2012(28thof Sivan, 5772): Ninety-year old “Judith S. Wallerstein, a psychologist who touched off a national debate about the consequences of divorce by reporting that it hurt children more than previously thought, with the pain continuing well into adulthood” passed away today. (As reported by Denise Grady)
2013: Barbra Streisand is scheduled to perform in Israel today at the opening ceremony of Shimon Peres’s annual Presidential Conference, which will also honor his 90th birthday. (As reported by Gabe Fisher)
2013: Russ & Daughter’s is scheduled to host its Herring Celebration where “the wonders of herring” will be explored. (An event to make a true Litvak drool)
2013: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host “a conversation with creators Peter Gethers and Dan Okrent and cast members from off-Broadway’s “Old Jews Telling Jokes” in which they will explore the hit revue that pays tribute to classic jokes of the past and present
2013: Today, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu condemned last night's "price tag" attack in Abu Ghosh, saying that it is contradictory to the values and people of Israel and Judaism.
2013: Hungarian prosecutors today charged Laszlo Csatary, 98, with war crimes committed during World War Two, saying he helped deport Jews to Auschwitz. "He is charged with the unlawful execution and torturing of people thus committing war crimes partly as a culprit, partly as an accomplice," Bettina Bagoly, a spokeswoman for the Budapest Chief Prosecutor's Office said. She said Csatary's case would go to trial within three months. (As reported by Reuters)
2013: After have been arrested yesterday on charges of fraud, conspiracy, breach of trust and corruption, Michael Applebaum resigned as Mayor of Montreal while maintaining that he was innocent of all charges.
2014: International Consortium for Research on Antisemitism and Racism, hosted by the Jewish Studies Program at Central European University is scheduled to come to an end in Budapest.
2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a panel discussion on “Ancestors from AllOver the World.”
2014: “A Place in Heaven” is scheduled to be shown at the JCC in Manhattan as part of the Israel Film Center Festival.
2014: “The parents of the three teens kindapped last week “got their first listen to a tape of one of the students reporting the abduction in an emotional meeting with defense officials today.” (As reported by Yifa Yaakov)
2014: In response to rocket attacks from Gaza, the IAF launched several attacks on Hamas installations in Gaza.
2014: In Philadelphia, 89 year old retired toolmaker Johann “Hans” Beyer was ordered held without bail today “on a German arrest warrant charging him with aiding and abetting the killing of 216,000 Jewish men, women and children while he was a guard at the Auschwitz death camp.”
2014: In London, The Weiner Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide is scheduled to host a special film festival and reception marking Refugee Week
2015: ISRAMERICA is scheduled to host the first night of “I Heart Music Festival.”
2015: Agudas Achim, in Coralville, Iowa is scheduled to hold its annual meeting where it will learn to cope with the reality that after over four decades, the congregation will have to move forward without the leadership of Rabbi Jeff Portman.
2015: “Bonjour Monsieur Chagall” “a colorful musical performance based on poetic works and painting by Marc Chagall” is scheduled to be performed at Kulturfest in NYC,
2015: The Center for Jewish History, YIVO Institute and Center for Traditional Music and Dance are scheduled to present “Night Songs from a Neighboring Village: Ballads of the Ukrainian & Yiddish Heartland” during which “musicians Michael Alpert and Julian Kytasty draw on Ukrainian folk and liturgical music, klezmer, Yiddish folk song, and Hasidic music to create a performance that illustrates the centuries-long mutual influence Ukrainian and East European Jewish musical traditions have had on one another.”
2015(1st of Tammuz, 5775): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
2015(1st of Tammuz, 5775): Centenarian producer and talent agent Jack Rollins passed away today.
2015(1st of Tammuz, 5775): Seventy-seven year old historian Allen Weinstein passed away today.
2016: Violinist Vera Vaidman and pianist Emanuel Krasovsky are scheduled to perform in the Best of Chamber Music concert at the Eden-Tamir Music Center.
2016: Gon Halevi, “a singer, pianist, actor and composer and who has recently debuted "The Great Israeli American Songbook," is scheduled to perform at Joe’s Pub in New York City.
2016: “A Tale of Love and Darkness” based on the novel by Amos Oz and directed by Natalie Portman is scheduled to be shown at the Portland Oregon Jewish Film Festival.
2016: As part of its Father’s Day Weekend observance the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to let all Dads in for free.
2016((12th of Sivan, 5776): Shabbat Naso
2017: The New York Times features book reviews by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently published paperback edition of Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer as well as the essay “How to Live With Critics (Whether You’re an Artist or the President)” by Adam Kirsch.
2017: “Operation Finale: The Capture & Trial of Adolf Eichmann” is scheduled to come to an end at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
2017: Professor Peter Hayes, author of Why? – Explaining the Holocaust is scheduled to discuss such questions as “Why the Jews? Why murder? Why didn’t more Jews fight back more often” during his presentation at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
2017: “Dough,” a film about a Jewish baker and a young assistant who also sells dope is scheduled to open at Reel Borehamwood in London.
2018: The Jerusalem Municipality sports department is scheduled to host a Zumba class at the First Station Compound.
2018: In Atlanta, GA, the Bremen Museum is scheduled to host “MVP Monday.”
2018: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Studio 54,” which tells the story of the” NY Watering-hole” founded by Ian Schrader and Steve Rubell, two Jews from Brooklyn.
2018: Following yesterday’s attempt by terrorists to burn homes in Beit HaGadi Moshav and the “suburbs surrounding Sderot,” Israel braces for another of round of incendiary balloons launched from Gaza today.