July 5
1247: Pope Innocent IV, semi-retired by Emperor Frederick II, issued a Bull refuting blood libels and sent it throughout Germany and France.
1247: Today, Innocent IV dispatched a bull from Lyons to the Church dignitaries of France and Germany in which for the first time, the repeated baseless and fiendish imputations against the Jews were officially contradicted. "Certain of the clergy and princes and nobles and great lords of your dioceses have falsely devised certain godless plans against the Jews, unjustly depriving them by force of their property and appropriating it themselves; they falsely charge them with dividing up among themselves on the Passover the heart of a murdered boy. Christians believe that the Law of the Jews prescribes this to them, whilst in their Law the very reverse is ordained. In the face of their malice, they ascribe every murder, wherever it chance to occur, to Jews. And on the ground of these and other fabrications, they are filled with rage against them, rob them of their possessions, without any formal accusation without confession and without legal trial and conviction. Contrary to the privileges graciously granted to them from the Apostolic chair, and opposed to god and his justice, they oppress the Jews by starvation, imprisonment and by other tortures and sufferings; they afflict them with all kinds of punishments, and sometimes even condemn them to death, so that the Jews, although living under Christian prices are in a worse plight than were their ancestors in Egypt under the Pharaohs...Since it is our pleasure that they shall not be distressed, we ordain that ye behave towards them in a friendly and kind manner. Whenever any unjust attacks upon them come under your notice, redress their injuries and do not suffer them to be visited in the future by similar tribulations." Anti-Semitism and belief and in the blood libel were so much a part of European culture that the Pope's bull was ignored.
1345: Pope Clement VI banned forced baptism of Jews. Subsequent Popes overturned this decree in 1597 and 1747.
1532: In a letter dated today, Erasmu derided the Theatre of Memory, the seminal work of Guilio Camillo who had “labored at building a seven level ‘memory theatre’ representing the seven sefiort (in Kabbalah, divine emanations) seven planets and plethora of Kabbalistic language imagery.”
1629: Jacob Bassevi von Treuenberg “a Bohemian Court Jews and financier” “was a warm friend of Rabbi Lipmann Heller, and befriended him during the latter's arrest today.
1687: Sir Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. Newton was also a millenarian and a theologian who thought the world would end in 2060. A treatise he wrote contains a diagram is of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The Jewish National and University Library at Hebrew University has an exhibit of these more unusual aspects of Newton's career, and Ha'aretz has a story on the exhibit (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/871575.html). For more about Newton and the Jewish religion seeJudaismin the Theology of Sir Isaac Newton by Matt Goldish.
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1687:Isaac Newton published “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica,” the ground breaking three volume work that included Newton’s Laws of motions and revolutionized the field of physics. Based on documents from the Jewish National and University Library first shown to the general public in 2007, we know that we that Newton “found time to write on Jewish law” and used the Book of Daniel “for clues about the” date for the end of the world. “In one manuscript from the early 1700s, Newton used the cryptic Book of Daniel to calculate the date for the Apocalypse, reaching the conclusion that the world would end no earlier than 2060. ‘It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner,’ Newton wrote. However, he added, ‘This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail.’ In another document, Newton interpreted biblical prophecies to mean that the Jews would return to the Holy Land before the world ends. The end of days will see ‘the ruin of the wicked nations, the end of weeping and of all troubles, the return of the Jews captivity and their setting up a flourishing and everlasting Kingdom,’ he posited.” Newton also wrote “treatises on daily practice in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. In one document, Newton discussed the exact dimensions of the temple — its plans mirrored the arrangement of the cosmos, he believed — and sketched it. Another paper contains words in Hebrew, including a sentence taken from the Jewish prayerbook. For more about Newton and the Jewish religion seeJudaismin the Theology of Sir Isaac Newton by Matt GoldishFor more on the exhibit of his papers see:
1712(1stof Tammuz, 5472): Esther de Castro, the wife of Issac Orbio de Castro, the Portuguese marrano physician and philosopher who reclaimed in his Jewish heritage when he moved to Amsterdam, passed away today.
1719(14thTammuz, 5479): Rabbi Shmuel Schotten known as the Mharsheishoch, passed away. Born at Schotten in 1644, he was appointed Rosh Yeshiva of the yeshiva in Frankfurt am Main and Rabbi of the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1685.
1742: During “The War of Jenkins' Ear between Spain and the Kingdom of Great Britain, Spanish troops landed on St. Simons Island as part of their Invasion of Georgia. Most of the Sephardi Jews abandoned Savannah, fearing that if captured they would be treated as apostates and burnt at the stake. The Minis and Sheftall families of Ashkenazi Jews were the only ones to remain” This quaintly named conflict between the Spain and Great Britain would become part of a larger conflict that engulfed most of Europe – The War of the Austrian Succession – which would come to a close with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. This would lead in turn to the French-Indian War which would lead to the American Revolution.
1764: Birthdate of Daniel Mendoza ((often known as Dan Mendoza) an English prizefighter, who was boxing champion of England 1792-95. He is sometimes called the father of scientific boxing. Mendoza's style consisted of more than simply battering opponents into submission; his "scientific style" included much movement. His ability to overcome much heavier adversaries was a consequence of this. In 1789 he published The Art of Boxing. Mendoza was so popular that the London press reported news of one of his bouts ahead of the storming of the Bastille which marked the start of the French Revolution. He transformed the English stereotype of a Jew from a weak, indefensible person into someone deserving of respect. He is said to have been the first Jew to talk to the King, George III. His early boxing career was defined by three bouts with his former mentor Richard Humphries between 1788 and 1790. The first of these was lost due to Humphries’s second (the former Champion, Tom Johnson) blocking a blow. The second two bouts were won by Mendoza. The third bout was the first time spectators were charged an entry payment to a sporting event. The fights were hyped by a series of combative letters in the press between Humphries and Mendoza. Mendoza's "Memoirs" report that he got involved in three fights whilst on his way to watch a boxing match. The reasons were: (a) someone's cart cut in; (b) he felt a shopkeeper was trying to cheat him; (c) he didn't like how a man was looking at him. In 1795 Mendoza fought "Gentleman" John Jackson for the Championship at Hornchurch in Essex. Jackson was five years younger, 4 inches taller, and 42 lbs. heavier. The bigger man won in nine rounds, paving the way to victory by seizing Mendoza by his long hair and holding him with one hand while he pounded his head with the other. Mendoza was pummeled into submission in around ten minutes. Since this date boxers have worn their hair short. After 1795 Mendoza began to seek other sources of income, becoming the landlord of the "Admiral Nelson" pub in Whitechapel. He turned down a number of offers for re-matches and in 1807 wrote a letter to The Times in which he said he was devoting himself chiefly to teaching the art. In 1809 he and some associates were hired by the theatre manager Kemble in an attempt to suppress the OP Riots; the resulting poor publicity probably cost Mendoza much of his popular support, as he was seen to be fighting on the side of the privileged. Mendoza made and spent a fortune. His Memoirs (written in 1808 but not published until 1816) report that he tried a number of ventures, including touring the British Isles giving boxing demonstrations; appeared in a pantomime entitled Robinson Crusoe or Friday Turned Boxer; opening a boxing academy at the Lyceum in the Strand; working as a recruiting sergeant for the army; printing his own paper money; and being a pub landlord. Mendoza made his last public appearance as a boxer in 1820 at Banstead Downs in a grudge match against Tom Owen; he was defeated after 12 rounds. Intelligent, charismatic but chaotic, he died leaving his family in poverty. In 1954 Mendoza was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame. In 1990 he was inducted into the inaugural class of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Mendoza, who was Jewish, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1981. The actor Peter Sellers was a descendant of Dan Mendoza. Prints of the boxer can be seen on Inspector Clouseau’s wall in the Pink Panther films.
1777: During the American Revolution, the Supreme Council of Pennsylvania appoint Solomon Bush, the son of Matthias Bush, Deputy Adjutant-General of the State Militia
1778: Abraham Furtado, the President of the Assemblee des Notables and his wife Sara Rodrigues Alvares gave birth to their first child Joseph Elie.
1784: Birthdate of Abraham Sutro, the native of Brück who served as a "Landesrabbiner" and wrote protests “against religious reforms, especially the use of the organ in the synagogue.”
1792: Francis II who relied on Bernhard von Eskeles the founder of the Austrian National Bank for financial advice began his reign as Holy Roman Emperor and King in Germany.
1796: In Philadelphia, PA, Samuel and Richea (Gratz) Hays gave birth to their second child and eldest son Isaac Hays, “a nephew of Rebecca Gratz, the alleged model for Sir Walter Scott’s “Rebecca” in Ivanhoe,” who chose to pursue a career as an ophthalmologist instead of entering the family business.
1797: “Naphtali Moses Taylor Phillips, generally known as N. Taylor Phillips” “married Rachel Hannah, daughter of Moses Mendez Seixas, a prominent Newport, RI, merchant and banker and a brother of Gershom Mendez Seixas…
1811: Venezuela declares its independence from Spain. According to the “Virtual Jewish History Tour,” Simon Bolivar, considered Venezuela's liberator, found refuge and material support for his army in the homes of Jews from Curaçao. Jews such as Mordejai Ricardo, Ricardo Meza and his brother Abraham Meza offered hospitality to Bolivar as he fought against the Spanish, thus establishing brotherly relations between Jews and the newly independent Venezuelan republic. Several Jews even fought in the ranks of Bolivar's army during the war.”
1814: Lyon De Symons, the husband of Mary Goldsmid with whom he had seven children was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1826: Michael Emanuel married Hannah Levy at the Great Synagogue today.
1832(7thof Tammuz, 5592): Fifty three year old Ernst Friedrich Ludwig Robert author of “Die Macht der Verhältnisse” the 1819 play that ‘deals with the position of Jews in society.” Born Liepmann Levin, he was the brother Rahel Varnhagen, one of the most unusual women of her time who was the subject of Hannah Arend’ts biography, Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewess.
1838: The Jews of the city of Safed came under attack from the Druze, who also had sacked an Ottoman caravan capturing 300 fully loaded camels of the Sultan. "While it was still night, the entire city was suddenly and terrified because unknown men were seen walking around the streets, and there were signs of malice on their faces." The attack on the Jews was by a group men armed with rifles, knives, axes and clubs.
1843: Simon Bennett married Leah Solis today.
1848: Birthdate of Leone Bolaffia, the native of Padua, who became a lawyer in Venice and who became the editor of the judicial paper "Temi Veneta," in 1876.
1848: Philip Hanau married Maria Van Goor at the Great Synagogue.
1853: Birthdate of Cecil Rhodes one of the two dates that his Jewish rival Barney Barnato gave as his birthdate – the other being July 5, 1852. His birth certificate showed the date as February 21, 1851. (And you wonder why this is not always easy to do)
1853: At the Wentworth Street Synagogue, Rabbi Solomon Jacobs officiated at the wedding of Levy Drucker and Rebecca Cohen, the youngest daughter of Aaron N. Cohen of Charlotte, NC
1853(29thof Sivan, 5613): Sixty-two year old Isaac Levin Auerbach the German-Jewish education and reformer who was the son of Rabbi Levin Isaac Auerbach and the brother of Baruch Auerbach, the founder of the Jewish Orphan Asylum in Berlin, passed away at Dessau.
1857: In the Russian Empire, Baron Horace Günzburg, the son of Baron Joseph Günzburg, and his wife gave birth to Baron David Günzburg, a Jewish intellectual who had one of the best private libraries in Europe and who was a major leader of the Jewish community.
1858: The Hebrew Benevolent Society which “attend to the sick, assists members and buries the dead in the cemetery owned by the Society, was founded today in Alexandria, VA.
1861: Armed only with hunting-whip Sir Lawrence Oliphant fought off a Japanese attacker who was trying to kill them. If the attack had succeeded, Oliphant would not have lived to promote his project for colonizing the northern section of Palestine with Jewish settlers; a plan that he did not begin to pursue until the 1870’s
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/de-philippe-edis
1862(7thof Tammuz, 5622): Parashat Balak
1862: According to reports in Hanover, Germany, an un-named Jewish banker in banker plans to present a proposal to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to raise the necessary revenue to fight the Civil War by adopting the same lottery system that the Austrians and Russians use.
1867: Two days after he passed away, 23 year old Emanuel Israel Brandon, “the young son of Abraham Israel Brandon” was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1870(6thof Tammuz, 5630): Moses Sachs, the German rabbi who settled in Jerusalem in 1830 and “married Rachel, daughter of Rabbi Zadok HaLevi Cruiz” in 1832 passed away today after spending almost four decades trying to settle “Jews as farmers in the Land of Israel under Austrian protection.”
1870: The New York Times published a summary of reviews from English publication of Disraeli’s “Loathair.”
1871: Two days after she passed away, fifty-six year old Julia (nee Hyman) Phillips, the wife of Isaac Phillips with whom she had ten children was buried today at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.
1872: Today’s Foreign News Notes column cited a report by the Jewish Chronicle that the Jews of Smyrna are being persecuted by the Greeks as a way to gain the release of a group of “Greek ruffians now in prison.” The Greek mob has threatened to burn the city and massacre the Jews if their demands are not met.
1873: “Cosas D’Austria” published today provides a potpourris of information about various aspects of life in the Hapsburg Empire including a disparaging portrait of the Jews. According to the author, “the Jews have not invented anything” but they exploit in the inventions of others to their own advantage. For example, the Jews did not invent the telegraph, but Reuters profits from it by supplying all the news to British newspapers and the Wolff Agency, founded by Berhnard Wolff does the same by supplying news to the newspapers of Central Europe. The Agence Havas which is not owned by Jews but is indebted to them because they control the money, does the same in France. The article contend that there are more Jews of Vienna are more numerous in number than the band that crossed the Jordan with Joshua and that there as many Jews in the Austrian Empire today as there Jews in Judea at the time of Titus’ victory. The Jews own the best of everything. But their wealth comes not from leading in combat but from being “gleaners who gather the fruits of victory. [This article demonstrates how anti-Semitism rose at the same time as Jewish Emancipation became more of a reality. ]
1874: Birthdate of Dr. Eugene Fischer, the professor of eugenics who was a member of the Nazi Party and “was appointed rector of the Frederick William University of Berlin by Adolf Hitler.”
1874(20th of Tammuz, 5634): Rabbi Julius Eckman passed away. Born in Rawicz, which was then part of Prussia, in 1805, he studied at Berlin before moving to the United States where held pulpits in a variety of cities including in New Orleans, Charleston, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon and then back to San Francisco. During his first stay in San Francisco Eckman was the first rabbi employed by Temple Emanu-El and the published of a new Jewish weekly, The Gleaner, which merged into the Hebrew Messenger. When he returned to San Francisco from Portland, Eckman served as the Superintendent of the Sabbath School at Congregation Shearith.
1875: Marcus Jastrow, the Rabbi at Rodef Shalom and Lewis Abrahams addressed the members of B’nai Brith who had gathered in Philadelphia for ground breaking ceremonies that marked the start of the building of a statute to religious liberty. The statue should be ready for next year’s centennial observance. Rabbi George Jacobs presided over the ceremonies and Moses Elbrigh of New York assisted him.
1877: Birthdate of Rabbi Judah Leib Magnes. Born in San Francisco and educated at Hebrew Union College, Magnes was a life-long maverick. He was an early and ardent Zionist, which was unusual among the Reform movement since it was largely anti-Zionist at the time. He was named Rabbi at New York’s prestigious Temple Emanu-el in 1906 but left four years later because he found it "too assimilationist", another unusual stance for a Reform Rabbi. He was an outspoken pacifist during World War I. (He would change his views during World War II.) In 1925, he became the first Chancellor of the brand new Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He held the post for ten years. He was ousted as Chancellor as a result of an academic squabble and "kicked upstairs to the Presidency. . Although he was a Zionist, Magnes believed in a binational Arab-Jewish state. While there were other Jews including the famous philosopher Martin Buber who supported Magnes, none of the "Moderate" Arabs would join his efforts. This did not stop Magnes from pursuing what became his Quixotic Quest. He passed away in 1948.
1877: It was reported today that the war between the Turks and the Russian has caused an “appalling” amount of misery as can be seen by the way Jews in Romania have been beaten, stabbed and “outraged in various ways.”
1878: It was reported today that the leaders of the Romanian government are holding secret meetings to determine how they will respond to the Congress of Berlin’s demands that the Romanians improve the treatment of their Jewish countryman. The Congress wants the Jews to be grant full emancipation making them citizens in the true sense of the word.
1879: Birthdate of Wanda Landowska whose performances, teaching, recordings and writings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century.
1880: It was reported today that “Alfred Simpson, alias ‘Jew Al,’ a German, and a notorious …bank thief…was arrested” in Boston. [Was Simpson really Jewish or was this a case of a tendency of some journalists and others to deal in catchy stereotypes]
1880: “A Rush to Long Branch” published today described the great popularity enjoyed by the New Jersey resort. All of the hotels and cottages are filled with a cross section of the nation’s “high society” including W.W.(William Waldorf) Astor and family, the Hartman Kuhn family of Philadelphia and former New Jersey Governor J.D. Bedle and family. The fact that Joseph Seligman occupied one of the private cottages attested to the fact that the innkeepers in Long Branch had not succumbed to the anti-Semitic policies being followed in Saratoga and this fact had not harmed business.
1882: At the Pennsylvania Railroad’s piers No. 35 and 38, Hungarian and Austrian Jewish freight handlers were fired because the company could hire German workers. This took place during the Freight Handler’s Strike which was an example of how companies pitted native-born workers against immigrants and then immigrants against immigrants to keep wages low and working conditions miserable.
1882: “A Spanish Novel” published today provided a review of Gloria, a novel by Perez Galdos that incorporates themes of modern day anti-Jewish attitudes with the harsh reality of the persecution of the Jews completed with auto-de-fes and the Expulsion of 1492. [This was an unusual topic for its time and even more unusual one for a Spanish author to tackle.]
1883(30thof Sivan, 5643): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1884: It was reported today that in the matter of the Parisian court found in favor of the author and ordered the painter not display a picture that depicted Dumas as a “Baghdad Jew.” The ruling was based on the fact that the painter had not gotten the consent of the author to use his visage and that portraying him in this manner (as a Jew) was “very uncomplimentary.”
1884: It was reported today that last month in southern Russia, the Cossacks had to intervene in a conflict between the Armenians and Jews in Titlis. [Attacks against Russian Jews were not unusual. But all too often the Cossacks (part of the government’s “police authority” sat by and let the Jews be brutalized.]
1887: The Board of Directors of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews held a special meeting where they adopted a resolution praising and expressing their condolences at the passing of their colleague Jonas Heller.
1887: Grace (Colbert) Weinschenk, the wife of Albert Weischenk gave birth to a baby boy today in New York. The father is a young German Jew whose Christian in-laws had originally opposed the marriage. But they became reconciled to the fact and the couple was living with their in-laws at the time of the birth. [Why does this matter? You will have to come back and the next installment]
1888: Birthdate of Herbert Spencer Gasser, the Wisconsin born doctor who won the 1944 Noble Prize In Medicine and became the director of the Rockefeller Institute.
1888: In Suwalki which at that time was part of the Russian Empire, Alexander and Sonia Daneilewicz Banov gave birth to Leon Banov who came to Charleston, SC at the age, earned a Ph.G. and an M.D. from the Medical College of South Carolina after which he “served as the public health officer for both the county and the city of Charleston which time he married Minnie Monash with whom he had three children. (As reported by Patricia Evridge Hill)
1891: The New York Times published a review of Dr. Mendlesonn’s Hebrew Jurisprudence: The Criminal Jurisprudence of the Ancient Hebrews.
1891: A meeting was held in St. Louis, MO to address the needs of the increasing number of Russian Jews arriving in the city. The attendees decided to establish a school with daytime and night sessions that would make the new immigrants “thorough American citizens.” They would first be taught the English langue which the key to learning about government, politics and the “social economy” of their new home. Over one hundred of the attendees signed up to support such an endeavor and each paid three dollars in dues to support the project.
1893: The 1,800 people who attended the Kra Kauer Charity and Aid Society Summer-night’s festival at Sulzer’s Harlem River Park were entertained by the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Military Band and the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society Drum and Fife Corps.
1894(1stof Tammuz, 5654): Seventy-nine year old Barbara Elisabeth Gluck whose father’s death when she was very young which forced her to turn to writing poetry to earn a living, where she used the name Betty Paoli passed away today.
1894: Two days after he passed away “in his 71st year, Joseph Schloss was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1894: Seventy-seven year old British political leader and archaeologist Sir Austen Henry Layard, whose family had been close friends with Benjamin Disraeli in his youth and whose discoveries at Niniveh helped to provide proof for the portions of the TaNaCh that dealt with the Assyrians passed away today.
1896: Herzl met with Claude Montefiore and Frederic Mocotta of the Anglo-Jewish Association who are anti-Zionist.
1897: Birthdate of Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim. Born Paul Frankenburger in Munich, “he trained at the Munich Academy of Arts from 1915 to 1920. He was assistant conductor in Walter and Knappersbusch, 1920 to 1924, and then conductor at Augsburg from 1924 until 1931. He then abandoned conducting and devoted himself to teaching and composition. In 1933, he emigrated to Tel Aviv and changed his name to Paul Ben-Haim. Some of his works include the Concerto Grosso (1931), Symphony No. 1 (1940) and Symphony No. 2 (1945). In 1953, he won the Israeli State Prize for the composition Sweet Psalmist of Israel, scored for harp, harpsichord and orchestra. According to the critics, Ben-Haim’s music can best be described as late romantic with an Oriental/Mediterranean overtone. He embodies the general tendencies of this group of composers who were trained in the classic late romanticism of the late 19th and early 20th century. Ben-Haim died in 1984.”
1898: The first convention of the FAZ came to a close.
1898: Birthdate of New York native and author Zelda F. Popkin, (née Feinberg) the wife of Louis Popkin and “the first woman general-assignment reporter on The Wilkes Barre Times Leader whose novels on Jewish subjects included Quiet Street“based on the siege of Jerusalem during the Israeli War of Independence.”
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/27/obituaries/zelda-f-popkin-84-author-of-14-books-had-been-reporter.html
1898: Two days after he passed away, 54 year old Phillip Uri Felsenthal was buried today at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.
1898: Wisconsin native Louis C. Wolf began serving was promoted to the rank of 2ndLieutenant today.
1899: Birthdate of Israel Goldblatt, the native of Manchester who gained famed as cinema and television actor Harold Goldblatt.
1899: Major B. Albert Lieberman was appointed as the Surgeon for the 33rd U.S. Volunteer Infantry.
1899: Philip S. Golderman named a 1st Lt. in 26th U.S. Infantry.
1899: Louis C. Wolf of Wisconsin who had begun his military service as a Cadet at West Point in 1893, was made a 2nd Lieutenant.”
1900: Birthdate of Detroit native Bernard Zieger, the U of Michigan and Hebrew Union College graduate who while serving as the Hillel Rabbi at the University of North Carolina recited Kaddish at Duke Chapel after learning of the death of “Louis Stern, the director of the Psychological Institute of Hamburg who had coined the term ‘intelligence quotient’” who was the rabbi at Temple Beth Israel in Jackson, Michigan.
1901: The Conference of American Rabbis opened its annual meeting today in Philadelphia. The major business of the day was resolving the question “Whether or not the religion of Jesus should be taught in the Jewish theological Schools.” The conference unanimously adopted the conclusions of a report prepared by Rabbis Philipson, Deutsch, Kraus Kopf that stated that while some of Jesus’ message contained “beautiful more teachings” they “cannot form part of, nor be incorporated in any official statement of declaration of Jewish belief.” This was defining moment for setting boundaries of the Reform Movement.
1903: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Simenhoff officiated at the wedding of George Osterman and Rosa Pearlman.
1905: This morning’s session of the 18th annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis began with a prayer by Rabbi Jacob Mielziner followed by Rabbi Julian Morgenstern’s reading of “History and Functions of Ceremonies in Judaism” by Rabbi Kaufman Kohler
1906: The Executive Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis held its first post Conference meeting today in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1907: Today’s session of the meeting of the Central Conference of American Rabbis opened with a prayer by Rabbi Jacob Mielziner of Cincinnati, Ohio and in the afternoon sessions heard the Report on the Geiger Centenary prepared by Rabbi Kaufman Kohler and the Report of the Committee on Uniform Pronunciation of Hebrew
1913: The National Conference of Charities and Correction which Simon I. Blum is attending as a delegate from Illinois is scheduled to open today in Seattle, WA.
1913: Staring today, “and until further notice Congregation B’nai Sholom Temple Israel will hold services on Saturday morning at the new Sinai Temple” in Chicago.
1913: Since today was Shabbat, the Conference of American Rabbis which had begun meeting in Atlantic City since July 2, did not have any business sessions today.
1914: Birthdate of Yitzhak Rafael, a native of Galicia who made Aliyah in 1935 and eventually became an Israeli political leader who served in the Knesset and as Minister of Religion.
1915: In the “Jewish neighborhood” on the Lower East Side, a part of Henry Street has been roped off for an “impromptu jollification” that included a “great neighborhood dance” as part of the two day celebration of Independence Day.
1916: It was reported today that the Central Conference of American Rabbis has authorized “its committee on national cooperation to ascertain the character and purposed of the National Federation of Religious Liberals with a view of joining this body” next year “if deemed advisable.”
1916: In Philadelphia, PA, at its closing session The Federation of American Zionists “endorsed the plan of the Palestine Committee of the Federation to undertake the organization of a corporation with capital stock of one million dollars for the purpose of aiding Jewish settlements in Palestine and developing its resources,” voted to spend $25,000 annually for the maintenance of a hospital unit in Palestine” and heard Hadassah President Henrietta Szold describe the need the war in Europe had created for doctors and nurses.
1916: In Wildwood, NJ, “A special commission on ‘Jews of Other Lands’” chaired by Rabbi Louis Grossman of Cincinnati, “reported to the central Conference of American Rabbis today that conditions arising due to the war in Europe had prevent the commission from proceeding with its work” because “it had been impossible to maintain correspondence” so “there had been no access to sources of information which ordinarily would available.”
1917: Political philosopher, Leo Strauss who would be forced to flee his country when the Nazis came to power, began serving in the German Army during WW I today.
1917: Former Ambassador Abram I. Elkus was honored with a formal reception at City Hall in New York City.
1918: It was reported today that the members of the Executive Committee of the Central Conference led by Rabbi Louis Grossman of Cincinnati includes, G.G. Fox, Fort Worth, TX; E.N. Callisch, Richmond, VA; Ephraim Frisch, New York; Max J. Singer, Evansville, Indiana; Jacob Singer, Lincoln, Nebraska; W. H. Fineshriber, Memphis, TN; Joseph Stolz, Chicago, Illinois and David Lefkovits, Dayton, Ohio.
1919(7thof Tammuz, 5679): Thirty-six year old Eugen Leviné was executed in Munich after it was retaken by the German Army and the right-wing Freikorps.
1920: At today’s session of the Central Conference of American meeting in Rochester, the attendees “overwhelmingly rejected political Zionism” and elected officers including President, Leo M. Franklin of Detroit: Vice President, Edward N. Calisch of Richmond, VA; Treasurer, Louis Wolsey, Cleveland, OH; Recording Secretary, Isaac E. Marcuson of Macon, GA and Corresponding Secretary, Felix A. Levy of Chicago.
1920: In New York, Charles Polakoff, the son of Louis and Annie Polakoff and his wife Rebecca Polakoff gave birth to Leah Goldman
1923: In Fischhausen, Germany, “Herman Motulsky, a shopkeeper, and the former Rena Sass” gave birth Arno Gunther Motulsky, the “refugee from Nazi Germany who became a founder of medical genetics” and a mentor to at least one Nobel Prize winner. (As reported by Denise Grady)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/obituaries/arno-motulsky-dies-medical-genetics-founder.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
1923: Third baseman Joe Bennett made his major league debut with the Philadelphia Phillies.
1928(17thof Tammuz, 5688): Tzom Tammuz observed for the last time under President Calvin Coolidge.
1932: In New York City “Esther (Goldberg) Navasky and Macy Navasky gave birth to Victor Saul Navasky youthful Zionist and “a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism” who held a variety of positions at the Nation from 1978 to 2005 when “he became the publisher emeritus” and was married to Anne (Strongin) Navasky with whom he had three children.
1933: An agricultural settlement, Kadima, was founded on the initiative of Yehoshua Hankin. In 2003, it merged with Tzoran to become Tzoran-Kadima
1933: Heinrich Brüning who served as Chancellor from 1930 t0 1932 during the Weimar Republic dissolved his Centre Party to pre-empt the Nazis from banning the party.
1934: In Vienna, The body of Chaim Nachman Biliak, the great Hebrew poet who died last night of a heart attack lay in state in the ceremonial hall of the Central Jewish Cemetery surrounded by an honor guard of Jewish students from the University of Vienna.
1934: In announcing plans for U.S. memorial services honoring the late Chaim Nachman Bialik, Morris Rothenberg, President of the ZOA, described him “the foremost Hebrew Poet of the last 500 years.
1935: The Bialik Institute invited authors throughout the world to compete for eight prizes with a total value of 900 pounds which will be awarded in January, 1936. The winners will be determined based on their contributions to Hebrew literature. Submission may include original Hebrew works as well as efforts translated from the original into Hebrew.
1935: Konrad von Presying, who became “one of the strongest and most vocal opponents of the Nazis and their anti-Semitic policies among Germany's Catholic hierarchy” was made Bishop of Berlin today. (As reported by Austin Cline)
1936: A Czechoslovak press photographer, Stephan Lux, shot himself in Geneva, during the League of Nations Assembly meeting, in protest against the treatment of Jews in Germany. He died in hospital the following night.
1936: “An increase of 300 per cent since 1934 in sums raised through Jewish welfare funds in the United States for non-local relief and other philanthropic activities were reported today in Notes and Newsthe publication of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds,
1936: The Palestine Post reported that in spite of the six-week-long general Arab strike, work was still going on the Jaffa Port improvement. A Czechoslovak press photographer, Stephan Lux, shot himself in Geneva, during the League of Nations Assembly meeting, in protest against the treatment of Jews in Germany. He died in hospital the following night. Four cars belonging to Jews were set on fire in Jerusalem. The shooting, bomb throwing and tree uprooting by Arab terrorists continued throughout the country.
1936: In Providence, RI, “Morris Rothenberg announced at a caucus of his followers at 12:30 o’clock this morning that he had accepted the compromise proposal that will Rabbi Stephen S. Wise head of “the Zionist Organization of America.”
1936: In Jerusalem, an Arab was arrested after three Jews were wounded, two of them critically, as they were passing the new Public Works Department as they walked to work.
1936: As of today, more than 260 of food poisoning due to the consumption of tainted fruits and fish have been reported, most of them among the Jews living in the Old City of Jerusalem.
1936: Delegates to the 39th annual convention of the Zionist Organization of America meeting in Providence, RI, upset this afternoon’s schedule to provide a final opportunity to settle the issue of who will serve as the organization’s President.
1936: “The Montag, a sports paper, carried a German government news service dispatch charge that ‘Jews were conspicuous’ in the group of journalists who are asserted to have molested Arthur Karl Greiser” after he gave a speech in Geneva “attacking the control of the League of Nations over the Free City of Danzig.”
1937: During the Spanish Civil, New Yorker Moe Fishman, a volunteer with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, was wounded while fighting in a battle west of Madrid.
1937: “Reform Judaism’s prospects in America are exceedingly favorable, Rabbi Joseph Ruach of Louisville, KY, concluded today in a paper he read before the Fourth Congress of the World Union Progressive Judaism” which is meeting in Amsterdam
1937: Birthdate of New York Congresswoman Nita Melnikoff Lowey.
1938: Herb Caen's first column appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. Caen’s father was Jewish, but his mother was not.
1938: In an action by the Nazi controlled government that affects several hundreds of poor Jewish families, “Jewish tenants in Vienna’s municipal dwellings have received a notice” ordering them to move within a fortnight.
1939: “Despite demands from all parts of the House of Lords for a more liberal policy toward refugees, a government spokesman today reiterated its refusal either to loosen existing restrictions on immigration or to provide public funds to aid the proposed settlement of German Jews in British Guiana” while the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Colonies announced “that the Home office was discussing…the possibility of permitting some of the 7,000 Jewish children brought” to the United Kingdom “from German to remain here after they become 18 years old, instead of being required to emigrate.”
1940: In Rumania, “the press resumed Jew-baiting which had been forsaken for the past several days” and “the State censor refused to permit publication of a statement of loyal by the Grand Rabbi, which he had intended to make in the Senate while “the bodies of seven Jews were found along the railway line running between Bucharest and Lespezile.”
1941: After 54 Jews were shot the prior day, 93 more were killed in Vilna by members of the Einsatzkommando unit. The Einsatzkommando were the SS killing squads that followed the Nazi Army into eastern Poland, the Baltic States and the Soviet Union. They were to round up the Jews and other undesirables and kill them. But special emphasis was placed on the Jews in this next phase of the Final Solution.
1941: InLiepāja, Latvia, Korvettenkapitan Brückner, of the Kriegsmarine, “issued a set of anti-Jewish regulations including:
1. All Jews must wear the yellow star on the front and back of their clothing;
2. Shopping hours for Jews were restricted to 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Jews were only allowed out of their residences for these hours and from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.;
3. Jews were barred from public events and transportation and were not to walk on the beach;
4. Jews were required to leave the sidewalk if they encountered a German in uniform;
5. Jewish shops were required to display the sign "A Jewish-owned business" in the window;
6. Jews were to surrender all radios, typewriters, uniforms, arms and means of transportation
1941: In Lvov, the local Ukrainians continued to take Jews from their homes and murder them. Among the victims were a 49-year-old ophthalmologist, Kornelia Graf-Weisenberg, and her daughter.
1941: The Nuremberg Race Law was extended to include Czech citizens.
1941: In the Ukraine, 3000 Jews are murdered at Chernovtsy; 600 are killed at Skalat.
1942: Margot Frank, the sister of Anne Frank, received a notice to report to a labor camp
1942(20th of Tammuz, 5702): Sixty-eight year old Rabbi Chaim Fishel Epstein who “served as Chief Rabbi in St. Louis, MO for the Vaad Hoeir of the United Orthodox Community for 12 years from 1930 to 1942 passed away today.
1943: Heinrich Himmler orders that Sobibór, a death camp, be made a concentration camp.
1943: Today authorities put an end to the special status granted to personnel at the Westerbork section of the Jewish Council. Half of the personnel had to return to Amsterdam, while the other half became camp internees. Etty Hillesum joined the latter group: she wished to remain with her father, mother and brother Mischa, who had meanwhile been brought to Westerbork.
1943: U.S. premiere of “Thumbs Up” a musical with a score by Walter Scharf, produced by Albert J. Cohen.
1944: Additional deportations of Jews from Budapest which had been planned to take place today did not take place today because Regent Miklos Horthy cancelled them, in part because of pressure from the Pope, the King of Sweden and President Roosevelt.
1945: Great Britain holds its first general election since 1935. The election pits Churchill and his Conservative Party against Atlee and the Laborites. Churchill and the Conservatives will go down to defeat. Unfortunately for the Jews, the new Laborite government will enforce the White Paper and support the Arab cause with even more tenacity than the Churchill government had.
1945: After a ten year absence, Barnett Janner, the future Baron Janner, returned to Parliament when was elected at the 1945 general election as Labour MP for Leicester West.
1950: The Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, passed the “Law of Return” which “granted all Jews the right to live in and become a citizen of Israel.” (Editor’s note - at the time most Jews did not know that a group of Orthodox in Israel would determine that a large number of people who thought they were Jews and had lived their lives as Jews really weren’t Jewish; something that certainly was not part of the Zionist dream)
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that registration began of all the Israeli-occupied houses in Jerusalem's no-man's-land by the joint subcommittee of the Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission. It was hoped that the registration would eliminate the neutral areas and all the trouble spots in which many lives were lost during the past three years. Israeli seamen demanded a large share in their foreign currency earnings.
1959: Birthdate of Daniel Gordis, a rabbi ordained at JTS who is the President of the Shalem Foundation and the founding dean of the Ziegler Rabbinical School
1959: In Israel, the 8th government “collapsed when David Ben Gurion resigned after Labor Unit and Mapam had voted against the government on the issue of selling arms to West German and refused to leave the coalition.
1959: After being first shown to a limited audience at New York in June, a film version of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” directed by Otto Preminger and produced by Samuel Goldwyn opened at the Carthay Circle Theatre”
1959: “The Big Circus” a mystery “produced and co-written by Irwin Allen” was released in the United States today.
1960: The then 50-year old Jewish community of the Belgian Congo, consisting of 2500 Jews fled in the wake of riots that followed independence of that former Belgian colony.
1961: In Beersheba, Yitzhak Banai and his wife gave birth to “Israeli musician, singer and songwriter” Meir Banai, the brother of “comedian Orna Bania and singer Evitar Banai
http://www.timesofisrael.com/meir-banai-55-led-israeli-music-into-a-more-soulful-space/
1962: “Yossel Schumacher” the central figure in a case involving his “abduction by his Haredi Jewish grandparents” was reunited today for the first time in two years with his parents.
1965: In the U.K., premiere of “Darling” directed by John Schlesinger, produced Joseph Janni, written by Frederick Raphael and starring Laurence Harvey, born Laruschka Mischa Skikne
1968: In Long Beach, CA, Susan and Mort Stuhlbarg gave birth to American Michael S. Stahlberg who played Arnold Rothstein in “Boardwalk Empire.”
1969: In Los Angeles, novelist Rhea Kohan (née Arnold), and writer, producer, and composer, Alan W. "Buz" Kohan gave birth to television writer and producer Jenji Leslie Kohan the creator of “Weeds” and “Orange Is the New Black” and sister of David and Jono Kohan.
1970: Amos Zamir and Amos Levitov were captured when their FE4 Phantom was shot down by Egyptian SAM’s during the War of Attrition.
1974:“Leonard Cohen: Bird on the Wire,” Tony Palmer’s documentary about the singer, songwriter, novelist and poet was shown for the first and only time at the Rainbow Theatre in north London today. (As repored by Cathryn J. Prince)
1975: Sixty-seven year old Otto Skorzeny, the Austrian born German Waffen-SS Lieutenant Colonel who may have been the only person to be decorated by Hitler with the Iron Cross and to have worked for Mossad, passed away today.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/03/29/hitlers-commando-lt-col-otto-skorzeny-worked-as-an-assassin-for/
1975(25th of Tammuz, 5735): In Jerusalem, a refrigerator that had five kilograms of explosives packed into its sides exploded on Zion Square, a main square leading to Ben Yehuda Street and to Jaffa Street. Fifteen people were killed and 77 were injured. After the attack, Yitzhak Rabin, then prime minister, said: "The murder serves as a warning not to get caught up in illusions about the intentions of the terror organizations ... Therefore we must follow a strict policy of not negotiating with them. We must speak to them only in the language they understand, the language of the sword." Ahmad El-Sukar, the terrorist responsible for placing the bomb, was released from Israeli prison in 2003 as a gesture to Arafat.
1975: “A 57 page new edition of the dissident “Chronicles of Current Events” began to circulate in Moscow.
1976: Birthdate of New York native Benjamin David “Jamie” Elman the Canadian born actor “who taught four graders at synagogue religious school in Southern California.” (Editor’s note – having taught Jewish youngsters in more than religious school, I can attest to the fact that all Jewish teachers don’t end up as famous thespians.)
1976:The Jerusalem Post reported on the successful completion of the Entebbe rescue operation, the joy at the freeing of hostages who arrived home to a jubilant Israel. Four Israelis - the commander of the rescue team, Yonatan Netanyahu, and three other soldiers - were killed during the operation. A number of wounded Israelis were still under treatment in Nairobi hospital. Idi Amin, Uganda's ruler was working together with Palestinian gunmen, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told the Knesset.
1976: The Associated Press published an interview with “Muki” Betser, one of the organizers of the Entebbe Rescue Operation. According to the interview, the raid was so successful, in part, because of information supplied to the Israelis by the hostages who had been released by the terrorists.
1976: In an attempt to cover up the savage murder of Dora Bloch, Idi Amin instructed his Health Minister respond to any “inquiries about the sick hostage” by saying “she had been returned to the airport one hour before the Israeli commandos had arrived and that the commandos had taken her with them.”
1976: In an attempt to thwart an attack on Kenya by Idi Amin who had been warring with his neighbor and might know had provided a landing site to the Israelis, The United States Seventh Fleet “including the aircraft carrier USS Ranger” sailed toward East Africa, a naval frigate docked at Mombassa and US naval patrol aircraft flew o Nairobi’s Embakasi Airport.
1978: Production of “Taxi” co-starring Judd Hirsh and Andy Kaufman began on Stage 23 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.
1979(10th of Tammuz, 5739): Ninety-one year old Rose Alice Alschuler the daughter of Charles and Mary Haas and the wife of Alfred Samuel Alschuler, Sr. passed away today in Chicago.
1979: Sixty-seven year old Edis De Philippe, who founded the Israel National Opera Company in 1947 passed away today. (As reported by Shabtai Benaroyo)
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/de-philippe-edis
1983: Menachem Begin appointed Sarah Doron Minister without Portfolio.
1988: “Ben Briscoe Follows Father to Become Dublin’s 2nd Jewish Mayor” published today described the father-son relationship to the ceremonial position of Lord Mayor.
http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1988/Ben-Briscoe-Follows-Father-to-Become-Dublin-s-2nd-Jewish-Mayor/id-f8628cd5a99251a6eed44d7d963006a5
1989:An exhibition entitled ''Robert Capa: Photographs From Israel, 1948-1950,'' appearing at the Jewish Museum in Manhattan comes to a close. The following review entitled “Slices of Time, Preserved in Deft Images” describes the exhibition and its importance.
A photograph, whether intended to or not, speaks of the time in which it was made. This is obvious in the case of images taken years ago -pictures from the first days of Israel's independence, for example, or from the tumultuous decade of the 1960's. But it is also true of contemporary art photographs of the sort one finds displayed in SoHo galleries. This weekend affords an unusually rich opportunity to look at photographs of the past and present, and to assess how much the world has changed in the last 40 years. Robert Capa's photographs of the first years of the State of Israel were taken at a time - 1948 to 1950 - when photojournalism was in full flower. Not only was this genre the most visible and provocative manifestation of photography, but it was also the primary means by which the events of the world were conveyed. Capa, considered by many the quintessential photojournalist, made a considerable reputation by photographing the Spanish Civil War and World War II. His images of those conflicts have become so well known that they could be considered among the lasting monuments of war. With relatively few exceptions, however, Capa's pictures of Israel did not achieve wide currency during his lifetime (he died, the victim of a land mine in Vietnam, in 1954). Curiously, given the potential interest in their subject matter, they have rarely been published or seen in exhibitions. Thus the show ''Robert Capa: Photographs From Israel, 1948-1950,'' which has opened this week at the Jewish Museum has an unusual fascination. The 107 black-and-white images in the exhibition, which was organized by the Tel Aviv Museum of Art from the archives of the Capa estate, depict an Israel in the throes of self-definition. There are pictures of immigrants in transient camps, of politicians electioneering, of soldiers mobilizing. We see the first meeting of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) as well as the unloading of mattresses beside rows of tents pitched in the desert. There are pictures of combat as well, but they do not seem as vivid or vital as Capa's earlier war work. Perhaps that is because Capa, a Jew born in Hungary, had his heart elsewhere. The most affecting images in the show are filled with human interest, not action. For a picture called ''Funeral,'' 1949, Capa framed a grieving elderly woman in the foreground, but the camera focuses behind her, on the beautiful and stoic face of a young girl. In his pictures of the transient camps, Capa concentrated on faces that bespeak optimism and pride. Children, especially, seemed to catch his eye. In addition to depicting farmers, construction workers, soldiers and shopkeepers, he photographed a couple dancing to the music of an accordion, a painter, several musicians - with the apparent aim of bearing witness to the perseverance of the nobler aspects of the human spirit. In appreciating these images as historical artifacts, however, one might also wonder why it is that they have lain in such desuetude all these years. Is it that once their news value had faded, they became no more than relics? That doesn't seem likely, since none of Capa's other work has remained unseen for so long. A more reasonable speculation would be that Capa's attempt to put a good face on what was happening in Israel was not sufficiently convincing to the editorial tastes of his day, and that consequently the pictures never acquired the aura of news. One could also wonder whether the photographs' focus on human interest, rather than on combat or other action, made them seem dispensable. But human interest is one of photojournalism's perennial staples, as can be gleaned from ''Life: Through the 60's,'' an exhibition at the International Center of Photography (1130 Fifth Avenue, at 94th Street, through May 21). The show consists of more than 100 photographers' pictures taken between 1956 and 1972 and culled from the archive of Life magazine. ''Life: Through the 60's'' has its fair share of bedrock photojournalism, including such ''hard news'' specimens as a view of James Meredith being shot during a civil-rights march, a frame from the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination, and a score of examples of first-rate war photography from Vietnam. But Life's editors, and Doris C. O'Neil, who selected the images in the exhibition, were savvy enough to know that the 60's could not be encapsulated solely by cataclysmic events. So the show also includes pictures of women in mini-skirts, communal-living hippies, sports figures and, of course, movie, television and rock stars like the Beatles. Compared with Capa's view of Israel at the end of the 40's, Life's retrospective of the 60's seems well balanced to a point close to blandness. But the period itself gives the show a flavor that is even more pronounced than the magazine's two previous forays into the past, ''Life: The First Decade'' and ''Life: The Second Decade.'' Any review of the 60's comes complete with a hearty helping of nostalgia to enrich its already complex, confounding texture, and the images here are no exception.
1989: The sitcom “Seinfeld” aired its first episode. Much to everybody’s surprise, this sitcom built around the life of a New York Jewish comedian becomes a smash hit.
1991(23rd of Tammuz, 5751): Seventy-one year old Pulitzer Prize winning, poet laureate of the United States Howard Nemerov passed away today. (As reported by Eric Pace)
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/07/obituaries/howard-nemerov-poet-laureate-and-pulitzer-recipient-dies-at-71.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/howard-nemerov
1993: Opening of the 14th Maccabiah
1995: Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind completed his term as Secretary State for Defense.
1995: With his party in the opposition, Sir Malcolm becomes the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in the United Kingdom.
1997(30th of Sivan, 5757): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1998(11th of Tammuz, 5758): Football great Sid Luckman passed away. Luckman gained fame as quarterback with Columbia and then with the Chicago Bear. His success earned him a spot in the NFL Hall of Fame.
1998: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Nineteen to the Dozens: Monologues and Bits and Bobs of Other Things by Sholem Aleichem.
1999(21stof Tammuz, 5759): Eighty-six year old Rabbi and Civil Rights leader Aaron Wise passed away today. (As reported by Myrna Oliver)
http://articles.latimes.com/1999/jul/08/news/mn-53994
2000: “Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel and Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, have agreed to meet at Camp David next week for a summit conference intended to help them frame the peace agreement they hope to reach by September, President Clinton announced today.”
2001:“Israel's security cabinet decided today to press ahead with a policy of assassinating suspected Palestinian militants in an effort to stop persistent killings of Israelis, officials said.”
2002: Opening of the Imperial War Museum which was designed by Daniel Libeskind
2002(25thof Tammuz, 5762): Just eight days before his 79th birthday Brazilian economist Samuel Isaac Benchimol whom the Brazilian government memorialized with the creation of the Benchimol Prize, passed away today.
2003: As of the first anniversary of the opening of the Imperial War Museum designed by Daniel Libeskind 470,000 people had visited the building.
2004: In one of those cross-cultural mixtures that is uniquely America Takeru Kobayashi, a native of Japan won the “Mustard Yellow Belt at Nathan’s Famous hot-dog eating contest, an event meant to sell more of sausages originally by Nathan Handwerker.
2005: Two undercover police officers in Torrance, California, noticed a car nosing slowly past a Chevron station. Two men wearing ski masks jumped from the car, one brandished a shotgun, and they stole $252 from the night clerk. Police arrested the two men without incident, but a search of their shared apartment yielded jihadist literature and plans to bomb synagogues in Los Angeles.
2007: The 24th Jerusalem International Film Festival opens. This is one of the world’s premier film festivals, featuring dozens of films from Israel and around the world. The 2007 festival will inaugurate the renovated Jerusalem Cinematheque.
2007:It was announced that Ken Feinberg would work pro bono as the chief administrator to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund (HSMF) which was set up by the Virginia Tech Foundation in the aftermath of the massacre of students and faculty by a lone gun man on the Virginia Tech Campus
2007(19th of Tammuz, 5767):Sylvan R. Shemitz, whose lighting designs warmed the facade of Grand Central Terminal and flooded the Jefferson Memorial, passed away at the age of 82.
2007(19th of Tammuz, 5767): Ninety-five year old “David Hilberman, whose union activities at Walt Disney Studios and brief membership in the Communist Party led to his blacklisting and shadowed a long career that included founding the innovative United Productions of America studio” passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/21/local/me-hilberman21
2008: At the Joyce Theatre in New York City, the Pilobolus Dance Theater, in collaboration with Inbal Pinto Dance Theater, performs “Rushes.” The Inbal Pinto Dance Company was founded by Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak in 1992. “Together, they have been involved in a variety of artistic endeavors - mainly the creation, direction, choreography and design of unique and award winning, dance performances for their Company. The Israeli company consists of 12 dancer/actors working together and motivated by the collective wish to make connections among various artistic disciplines to convey new stage creations informed by memories, longings, ideas and imagination.”
Zichrona Livracha - May Her Memory Be A Blessing
2009: The Sixth Australian Israel Film Festival, sponsored by AICE, the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange comes to an end today.
2009(13thof Tammuz, 5769): Ninety-seven year old poet and “renowned authority on Hans Christian Andersen” Naomi Lewis passed away today.
2009: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including American Radical:The Life and Times of I. F. Stone by D. D. Guttenplan.
2009: The Washington Post featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Sweet Science and Other Writings: The Sweet Science, The Earl of Louisiana, The Jollity Building, Between Meals, The Pressby A.J. Liebling and The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works by Henry Waxman and Joshua Green.
2010:Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to present "Truly Very Strange People!": The heroes of the Second Aliyah
2010: Firefighters succeeded in bringing a fire in the Yehudiah nature reserve in the Golan Heights under control this afternoon. Firefighters on the ground and in the air were still trying to control the giant fire burning out of control in the Bar'am forest north of Tzfat and the Meitzar stream. Additional crews are fighting a blaze that broke out in the area of Alonei Habashan in the Golan Heights. Firefighters are also at work on a brush fire in the city of Nesher near Haifa.
2011(3rdof Tammuz): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Bernard (Dov) Illoway, a leader of American Orthodox Judaism, who passed away in Cincinnati on 3rd of Tamuz, 5631 (June 22, 1871).
2011(3rdof Tammuz): Yahrzeit of The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson who passed away on 3rd of Tammuz, 5754 from creation (June 12, 1994)
2011: The Milwaukee Jewish Community Chorale Board of Directors is scheduled to meet at Fox Point, Wisconsin.
2011:Two bills aimed at alleviating the woes of women whose husbands refuse them divorces passed the Knesset Law Committee today, ahead of votes in the plenum. The proposed law put forth by MK Othniel Schneller of Kadima, initiated by the Mavoi Satum (Dead End) NGO, determines that rabbinic courts will have to hold a hearing on a recalcitrant husband within maximum 45 days from when the court ordered he afford his wife with a Jewish divorce (get).
2011:The Israel Air Force targeted a terror cell in Gaza today, after it was identified as attempting to fire projectiles at Israel.
2011: Israeli professional basketball player Gal Mekel signed a two-year contract with Italian team Benetton Treviso
2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at the Trianon in Paris
2012:Funeral services for Lauren Reece Flaum (z"l) conducted by Rabbi Jeff Portman, are scheduled to be held this morning at Agudas Achim Congregation with the burial at the Agudas Achim Cemetery in Iowa City. Zichrona Livracha - May Her Memory Be A Blessing
2012:Woody Allen's romantic comedy, "To Rome With Love," is scheduled to open the 29th Jerusalem Film Festival.
2012:Israel will launch a brutal war against Lebanon if provoked by Hezbollah, senior Israel Defense Forces officers warned today. Though the northern border has remained mostly quiet since the end of the Second Lebanon War six years ago, Northern Command officers remain leery of hostilities breaking out again, especially as tensions with Iran remain high and Syria continues to spiral out of control.
2012: A Tel Aviv-bound El Al plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Heathrow Airport early today morning after one of its engines caught fire. No injuries were reported
2013: Pope Francis was scheduled to meet today at the Vatican with a delegation of relatives of victims of the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community building in Buenos Aires.The meeting between the Argentinean pope and the relatives takes place two weeks before the anniversary of the attack that killed 85 people (As reported by JTA and Jersualem Post)
2013: Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren announced today that he would conclude his term as envoy to Washington in the fall, after four years on the job. Oren wrote on his Facebook page today, "I am grateful for the opportunity to represent the State of Israel and its Government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to the United States, President Barack Obama, the Congress, and the American people." (As reported by JPost)
2013: Jonathan Yardley, reviewed My New Orleans, Gone Away by New Orleans native Peter Michael Wolf, “a sixth-generation member of the Godchaux-Weis clan.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-my-new-orleans-gone-away-by-peter-m-wolf/2013/07/05/a9e54afe-dccf-11e2-85de-c03ca84cb4ef_story.html?utm_term=.ae9a0c918060
2014: In Cedar Rapids, the Traditional Minyan is scheduled to celebrate Red, White & Blue Shabbat with a Sundaes On Saturday Kiddush featuring that all-American treat – Kosher Ice Cream thanks to the efforts of Deb Levin.
2014: Clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein, he founder of the Zimor Project a unique ensemble dedicated to incorporating Jewish art music into chamber music programs, is scheduled to perform works by Chausson, Messian, Weinberg, Yedidia and Weber at Bargemuisc, “New York City’s floating concert hall.”
2014: “The True Story of Curious George --- The Wartime Escape: Margret and H.A. Rey’s Journey From France” an exhibition that tells how “the Jewish Couple fled Paris in June 1940, starting a five-month odyssey by bike, train and boat that eventually would bring them to American shores” opens today at The Carl & Mary Koehler History Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2014: Three rockets fired from Gaza struck at Beersheba, the largest city in southern Israel. (As reported by Itmar Sharon)
2014: Arabs continue to riot in Israel in response to the murder of a teenager in what was supposedly a revenge killing.
2014: This evening Hamas threatened to reach “all” of Israel’s cities with its rockets, several hours after targeting the city of Beersheba. (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion and Itamar Sharon)
2015: “Trained Oregon Holocaust Memorial docents” many of whom are Holocaust survivors are scheduled to host tours that “will focus on Holocaust history and the stories of Holocaust survivors and their families whose hard work and dedication is largely responsible for the conception, design, and construction of the Memorial.”
2015: The curtain is scheduled to come down on the final performance of “The Tale of the Allergist Wife” at Theatre J, sponsored by the Washington DCJCC.
2015: In Atlanta, GA, the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum is scheduled to host a “theater workshop for Jewish girls ages 11-14 developed in collaboration with Out of Hand Theater!”
2015: “From Shtetl to Swing” is scheduled to be shown at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA.
2015: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Seven Good Years: A Memoir by Etgar Keret and Book of Numbers by Joshua Cohen.
2015(18thof Tammuz, 5775): Fast of the 17th Tammuz observed since the 17thof Tammuz fell on Shabbat.
2015(18thof Tammuz, 5775): Eighty-year old Ingram Berg “Burt” Shavitz, the Manhattan born Main beekeeper the co-founder of “Burt’s Bees” passed away today.
2015(18thof Tammuz, 5775): Eighty-five year old James Marcus the Goldman Sachs partner and managing director of the Metropolitan Opera passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2016: “Natural Resistance, an exhibition at the Y Gallery featuring the works of Israelis Shay Arick and Tamara Kostianovsky, is scheduled to close today.
2016: Jonathan Tobin is scheduled to moderate “a panel discussion about the Entebbe rescue with one of the hostages and a former Mossad officer at Congregation Mikveh Israel and then directly after emcee the 40th anniversary Commemoration ceremony at the Yoni Netanyahu Memorial off of Philadelphia's Independence Mall.”
2017: Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, Center for Jewish History and American Sephardi Federation are scheduled to present the first session of “Al-Andalus: Tolerance, Culture and Violence in Medieval Spain.”
2017: In Memphis, TN at Temple Israel, Rabbi Feivel Strauss is scheduled to lead a discussion on “Abraham Isaac Kook: From Child Prodigy to Mystic and Beloved First Chief of Rabbi of Israel” which is part the Greatest Jewish Thinkers of All Time series
2017(5thof Tammuz, 5777): Sixty-eight Bracha Garber, the Tel Aviv native who was a driving force behind the “overhaul” of “New York City’s foster care system” passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2017: “The Ministry of Antiquities’ Project Sector today approved the funds for restoring and developing the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue, according to the head of the Islamic and Coptic Monuments Department, al-Saeed Helmy Ezzat,”
2017: Daniel Polisar is scheduled to present the first session “The Zionist Vision: A New Look at Theodor Herzl.”
2017: In Haifa, the HUB, “the Maccabiah version of an ‘Olympic Village” is scheduled to open today.
2017: Jewish Care’s 5th annual Bake Day is scheduled to take place in the United Kingdom today.
2018: The Jerusalem Festival of Light is scheduled to come to an end tonight.
2018: “A special screening of ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ with a live shadow cast is scheduled to take place at the Cinematheque Tel Aviv.”
2018: “Batsheva – The Young Ensemble is scheduled to perform Ohad Naharin's Bessie Award-winning dance, Naharin's Virus, inspired by the great Austrian writer Peter Handke's play” at Jacobs Pillow today for the second time.
2018: Following yesterday’s “4.5 earthquake and 4.1 earthquake” that sent tremors from the Golan Heights to Tel Aviv, Israel’s have been cautioned “to listen only to official updates and instructions and to ignore unconfirmed reports.”