August 20
430: The Vandals, a Germanic tribe, established a kingdom in North Africa. The Jews lived there peacefully and flourished until the Almohad conquest in the 11th century.
636: Arab forces defeat the Byzantine Christians at the Battle of Yarmuk. This battle fought only four years after the death of Mohammed opened the road the road to Damascus. After seizing Syria, the Arabs under Khalid bin Walid turned south and took Jerusalem and all of the territory that is now Jordan and Israel. This area had been under control of the Christian Byzantine Empire. The victory at Yarmuk led to the first great wave of Moslem conquest that would sweep across Egypt, North Africa and across the Mediterranean to Spain. Conditions for the Jews improved compared to life under the Byzantines. The Golden Age of Spain was the ultimate high point of this change. But life under Islam was uneven for Jews and they suffered in many different areas depending upon which group of Islamists was in control.
917: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria decisively defeated a Byzantine army at the Battle of Acheloos. This was a plus for the Jews since Jews had been moving to the Bulgarian Empire since the 7th century to avoid the persecution they were enduring under the Byzantines.
1000: The foundation of the Hungarian state, Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary. Archaeological evidence indicates the existence of Jews in Pannonia and Dacia, who came there in the wake of the Roman legions. Jewish historical tradition, however, only mentions the Jews in Hungary from the second half of the 11th century, when Jews from Germany, Bohemia, and Moravia settled there. In 1092, at the council of Szabolcs, the Church prohibited marriages between Jews and Christians, work on Christian festivals, and the purchase of slaves. King Koloman protected the Jews in his territory at the end of the 11th century.
1086: Prince Władysław I Herman and his first wife Judith, daughter of Vratislaus II of Bohemia gave birth to Bolesław III Wrymouth who “recognized the utility of the Jewish in the development of the commercial interests of” Poland and whose “tolerant regime” encouraged them to settle as far east as Kiev passed away today.
1100: Using the Venetian fleet, Tancred and Daimbert conquer Haifa during the first crusade.
1153: Bernard of Clairvaux, the monk known as St. Bernard who laid down principles in how to deal with Jews at the time of the Second Crusade passed away today. He believed that Jews should not physically attacked but were to be punished by being forced to wander the world until they were ultimately converted. At the same time, he followed the party line when it came to “stealing from the Jews” by agreeing that those who went on Crusade did not have to pay their debts.
1559: Coronation of Frederick as King of Denmark and Norway who barred Jews from his realm when in 1569 he “ordered that all foreigners in Denmark had to affirm their commitment to 25 articles of faith central to Lutheranism on pain of deportation, forfeiture of all property, and death.”
1626: Urban VIII who had issued a Bull a year ago dealing with “heretical Portuguese Jews” today issued Injuncti Nobis a Bull dealing with the privileges granted to the monastery for catechumens, which would have been Jews who had converted to Christianity.
1642: The ashes of Ferdiand Francis, a converted Bohemian Jew whose original name was Chaim or Joachim, were cast into the Danuabe at Vienna. He was alledged to have been the author of “Toldoth Jeshu” for which he was condemned to be hung. Just before he was to die, Francis renounced his conversion to Christianity for which he was horribly tortured before he finally died.
1656: Parliamentary diarist Thomas Burton was re-elected to the House of Commons. Burton’s diary which provided a record of Parliamentary proceedings for three years (1656-1659) includes an entry on the relationship between Cromwell and Jewish merchants including Antonio Fernandez Carvajal
“The Jews, those able and general intelligencers whose intercourse with the Continent Cromwell had before turned to profitable account, he now conciliated by a seasonable benefaction to their principal agent [Carvajal] resident in England.”
1661: The Will of Jacob Atten, a resident of Barbados was dated today.
1671: Leopold I revoked the decree he had issued in April expelling the Jews from the portion Hungary controlled by the Habsburgs.
1684: A riotous mob attacked the ghetto of Buda (that's the half of Budapest that is on the right bank of the Danube, which was joined with Pest on the left bank in 1873). During the war between Venice and Turkey, the Jews were accused of praying for the Turks in their attack on Budapest. In actuality, it was the 9th of Av and all the Jews were in the synagogue mourning the destruction of the temple. Soon after, the attack on the Jewish ghetto began. When the gates were opened to allow for an emissary to the duke to leave, the crowd of attackers rushed in. As soon as the authorities heard about the disturbances, an order to forcibly curb them was given. That day of the order became a day of thanksgiving. In gratitude to G-d for being spared serious injury, the Jews celebrated Buda Purim on the 10th of Elul. This date became known as Purim Buda – Buda as in Budapest.
1771: Birthdate of Schonche Rothschild, first child of A.M. Rothschild.
1806: The Assembly of Notables presented their collective response to Napoleon’s questions.
1807: Rothschild writes to his son Nathan in England that he has sold all the English goods sent to him at a considerable profit.
1820: Birthdate of Dr. Ferdinand Falkson who “in 1844 was appointed physician to the poor of the Jewish community, a position which he held until his death.
1826: “A new edict from Pope Leo XII forbids Jews from leaving their ghetto in Rome without a written permit from the Criminal Tribunal. While outside the ghetto, Jews are forbidden from speaking in a ‘familiar way’ with Christians.” (As reported by Austin Cline)
1833: Birthdate of Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States. As President, Harrison had Secretary of State James G. Blaine issue instructions to the American minister to Russia to “exert his influence” to stop Czar Alexander III from implementing his draconian anti-Jewish regulations. In 1891, a Christian minster from Illinois named William E. Blackstone “presented a Memorial to” President Benjamin and his Secretary of State “which called upon them to exert their influence with the powers of Europe ‘to secure the holding, at any early date, of an international conference to consider the condition of the Israelites and their claims to Palestine as their ancient home.’”
1834: Lewis Benjamin married Rosetta Meyer at the Western Synagogue today.
1834: Joseph Lamert married Eliza Barnett at the Great Synagogue today.
1839 While relaxing at Boulogne, Giacomo Meyerbeer met for the first time with Richard Wagner for the first time at which time Wagner read to Meyerbeer from the libretto of “Rienzi” and Meyerbeer agreed to look through the score which he subsequently recommended for performance at Dresden
1840: David Pollock married Isabella Hyams at the New Synagogue today.
1845: Thirty three year old author and editor Rufus Wilmot Griswold married Charlotte Myers, a 45 year old Jewess from Charleston, South Carolina.
1845: Michael Aaron married Elizabeth Phillips at the Great Synagogue today.
1845: Henry Benjamin married Hannah Isaacs at the Great Synagogue today.
18j48: Benjamin Woolf Phillips married Dinah Levy today.
1852: It was reported today that "the French counsel is still prosecuting a demand for the satisfaction for the murder of a Roman Catholic priest at Aleppo. It was believed for a long time he was murdered by Jews, but it is now said that the Counsel has evidence that he was murdered by members of the city police for his success in building a Christian church.” The police were Moslems. The Jews were convenient by-standers. During the notorious Damascus Affair, Isaac de Picciotto, was accused of having offered to sell the priest’s blood to Jews living in Aleppo. He was the nephew of Elias de Picciotto, a prominent member of the Aleppo Jewish community and the Austrian counsel. This would be the last involvement of Aleppo with a Blood Libel. In 1875, an Armenian boy went missing and the charge surfaced again. Fortunately, he was found in a nearby village.
1852: It is reported that Lionel de Rothschild is planning to resign from the House of Commons since he has not been permitted to take his seat.
1856: John Davis married Rachel Adelaide Moses at the Great Synagogue today.
1856: In "English Celebrities" a column published today, the author provides a description of Benjamin Disraeli which includes the following, "Nor is his faithfulness to his friendships less remarkable than his devoted attention to his old and silly wife...as Disraeli says 'I owe her everything. But some men forget these things. Not so Disraeli...at no party is he to be found without fat, middle-age, gray-haired lady, hanging on his arm. But this domestic love is an essentially Jewish trait."
1856: George Jesse married Amelia Moses at the Great Synagogue today.
1860: Birthdate of Carrollton, Illinois native and future Speaker of the House of Repesentaive Henry Thomas Rainey who in 1906 attended a mass meeting held to protest the “atrocities in Russia” and told the audience that the Romanoffs “are inflaming the populace against the helpless Jews – and already the blood of 100,000 Jews cries out for vengeance”
1860: Birthdate of Raymond Poincaré, the philo-Semitic French political leader who served as President of France during World War I.
1862: David S. Bloom began serving with Company I of the 137th Regiment.
1862: Three days after he had passed away, Moise Brunswick, the husband of the former “Fanny Meyer” with whom he had two children – Annette and Clara – was buried today the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery” today.
1863 Two days after he had passed away, 27 year old John Nathan Raphael, the husband of Hamburg native Josephine Raphael was buried to in the “West Ham Jewish Cemetry.”
1863: The Keystone Battery of the Pennsylvania Light Artillery of which Leon da Silva Solis-Cohen was a member was mustered out of service after having fought at the Battle of Gettysburg.
1864: In Austria, Abraham and Rosa Wohlgemuth Printz gave birth to Fanny Printz,the sister of Emma, Minnie, David, Harry, Bert and Leo Printz who would make her way to America and settle in Ohio before her death 1922.
1871: It was reported today that Rabbi Raphael D.C. Lewin who has served as spiritual leader for Mikveh Israel in Savannah and Temple Israel in Brooklyn, has expressed his displeasure with some of his colleagues in The New Eramagazine. According to Lewin, there is more to being a rabbi than “sermonizing…performing marriages, burying the dead and receiving large salaries and handsome presents. Rabbis have a duty to educate their congregants about Jewish literature and beliefs.
1871: According to reports published today the Jewish Times contends that that the Chicago synagogue that fired Rabbi Herzman for eating ice cream had every right to do so. Herzman had been engaged to lead an Orthodox congregation. It was obvious from his behavior that he did not respect these views and the synagogue was well within its rights to remove the hypocrite.
1872: William Moultrie Moses and Penina Septima Robison gave birth to Captain Stanford E Moses, USN the husband of Agnes Moses
1872: A review panning “The Bells” was published today. “The Bells” is a one act play imported from France that centers around the consequences suffered by the protagonist for having murdered a Polish Jew.
1874: In Indianapolis, Indiana, George C. Harding, editor and proprietor of the Indianapolis Herald fired five shots at Sol Mortiz a prominent Jewish merchant in broad daylight this afternoon. One of the shots shattered his left elbow and another passed through his lung and lodged in his chest. The shooting took place after Harding found out that Mortiz had taken advantage of his 18 year old daughter.
1875: Birthdate of Shaul Tchernichovsky a Russian-born Hebrew poet considered one of the great Hebrew poets, identified with nature poetry, and as a poet greatly influenced by the culture of ancient Greece.
1879(1st of Elul, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1880: It was reported today that there “an ugly rumor” in England that “a now well-known firm of Hebrew jewelers emerged mysteriously from obscurity to importance in the trade within twelve months” of Lady Ellesmere being robbed while she en route visit the Queen at Windsor Castle. The loss totaled $150,000. (Unsubstantiated claims like this were often more inidicative of ant-Semitism, envy or both)
1882: It was reported today that the Hebrew Union of Raleigh, NC, had contributed five dollars to the fund for the Garfield Memorial Hospital.
1884: Unidentified hooligans tried to burn down a building on Clinton Street that housed the grocery story own by Solomon Ellison. The five story tenement was home to countless Jewish families.
1885: In Greater Poland Jacobi and Thelka Bornstein gave birth to Gertrude Bornstein who became Gertrude Koeppler when she married Friedrich Koeppler..
1887(30thof Av, 5647): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1887: Abraham Reiter of Greensburg, Indiana and A.B. Frank of San Antonio, TX each contributed $10.00 to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
1887: It was reported today that “there was tumult” among those who think they have a claim to Julius Weisbaden, the miser who died in Bellevue and was buried without any service. The estate was thought to be worth $40,000 but it may be only worth $2,800.
1888: In Kansas City, MO, Felix and Matilda Epstein Kander gave birth to newspaperman Allen Kander.
1890: Isadore Loeb, Michel Erlanger, Dr. W. Lowenthal, C.E. Cullen, Colonel Vanivkeroy and Dr. E. Schwarzfeld attended a conference in the Paris residence of Baron de Hirsch to discuss the settlement of Jewish refugees in Argentina at the end of which Cullen, Lowenthall and Vanikeroy were appointed as a commission to visit the country with the expectation that they would submit a report within six months on the feasibility of the project.
1890: The Sanitarium for the Hebrew Children is scheduled to host their next free excursion today.
1890: In Little Rock, AR, Miss Dora Vorminsky, a prominent Jewish socialite beat Louis Englander a Jew who worked as a clerk at Lasker Brothers’ with a cowhide whip because she had been told that he had made statements damaging to her reputation.
1891: Somebody known only as “E.S.W.” has sent $2 to the New York Times “for destitute Jews.”
1891: “The Socialist Congress” published today described the meeting in Brussels where the delegates discussed labor’s attitude toward the “Jewish question” and anti-Semitism. The Congress was ready to condemn anti-Semitism but it also deplored the fact that several of the oppressors of labor were Jews and Jewish bankers.
1892: Birthdate of Sir Godfrey Rolles Driver, one of a cadre of English Christians who specialized in Semitic languages including Hebrew which led to his taking the lead in translating the “Old Testament for the New English Bible.”
1893: In St. Louis, MO, Joseph Lazarus Kranson and Caroline Kranson gave birth to Harry Kranson
1893: Sh'chita was banned in Switzerland. In those cantons where there is a small Jewish population, “the Swiss Hebrews” have “unanimously” agreed to “abandon eating meat” and have “put themselves on a vegetarian and poultry diet.”(The ban is still in place and the Jewish community gets its meat from several different countries.)
1893: Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor opened today’s meeting of delegates from 30 labor organizations who looking for means to “relieve the distress among the unemployed workingmen” of New York who were enduring the Depression of 1893.
1893: Joseph Peel was arrested today on charges that he had poisoned the horses of Max Cooper and G. Feinberg, two Orthodox Jewish peddlers with whom he had been partners.
1893: It was reported that a mass meeting of the unemployed, socialists and anarchist Joseph Barondees called for “the abolishment of prison labor” and Mayer Schoenfeld said “that the Jews would have to join with the other trade unions if they wanted to accomplish anything.”
1893: Between 1,500 and 1,800 people responded to the call of the Chicago Tailors’ Union for a mass meeting of the unemployed at Metropolitan Hall. “The majority of the gathering was composed of Jews” with the rest being “Germans, Poles and Italians, with a few Americans.”
1894: It was reported today that Miss Maria V. Lawrence is the sole survivor of the late Eugene Lawrence, the historian whose work included The Jews and Their Persecutors and who was unmarried.
1895: Two days after she had passed away, 36 year old Helen Micholls, the daughter of “Horatio Micholls” and the former “Rebecca Montefiore” was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Cemetery.
1895: The will of the late Joseph Lewis was filled in the Surrogate’s office today. According to the document, the residue of the estate valued at $20,000 is given to his widow for life and that upon her death the residue will go to his nieces including Julia D. Davis and Leontine Hepner and to his nephews including O.A. Lithauer.
1896: Birthdate of Jacob Glatstein, the Polish born American Yiddish poet and literary critic.
1896: The Summernight’s festival hosted by District Grand Lodge No.1, Independent Order Free Sons of Israel will take place today at Harlem River Park.
1897: Disturbances were begun today “by the fanatical opponents of the Jews in Pilsen, Boehmia.
1897: In New York, Myer S. Isaacs, the Secretary of the Palestine Society said “that he was sure there had been…no misappropriation of funds by Rabbi Salant” in the distribution of funds sent by American Jews to help their co-religionists in Jerusalem because he “is a man of the highest character.”
1898: In Krakow, “Salomon and Ester Keile Infeld” gave birth to physicist and colleague of Albert Einstin, Leopold Infeld
https://www.amazon.com/Books-Leopold-Infeld/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ALeopold%20Infeld
1899: “The Chuetas of Majorca” published today traced the history of the Chuetas, a 15th century group of persecuted Jewish refugees who had fled to Majorca for protection” and who appeared to embrace Catholicism. Calling them Chuetas was a term of derision since that word is the diminutive for ’chuya’ the Majorcan word for bacon. (Reminds one of the term marrano which means pig)
1899: “Zionists’ Congress Votes Down the Proposal of New York Delegates” published today described the decision of the Third Congress of Zionist to reject a proposal to by two delegates from New York that Island of Cyprus should be the site of colonization by the Jews.
1900: Birthdate of Ernst Papenek, the native of Vienna who came to the United States in 1940 where he earned a Doctorate in Education from Columbia, served on the faculty of CUNY and served as Director of the Children’s Home and School for Refugee Children.
1901: The First Congress of Caucasus Zionists was held in Tbilisi. Rabbi David Baazov led Georgian Zionism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1903, Baazov attended the Sixth Zionist Congress in Basel.
1903: Herzl arrives in Basel
1903: Maurice Leon and Jacob de Haas got off the train “in Basle, raised our hats to the Zionist flags waving in front of the Stadt Casino” before setting out to find their hotel.
1903: Barney Pelty pitched his first major league game as a member of the St. Louis Brown
1904: Birthdate of Judikje Simons, later Judikje Themans- Simons, one the Jewish members of the Dutch ladies’ gymnastic team which won the Gold at the 1928 Olympics. She and her husband, as well as her two children were murdered at Sobibor in 1943.
1905: In New York, Abraham Isaac Shiplacoff, the son of Naphthalia Hertz Shiplacoff and Chana Tshipliacov and his wife Yetta Ettel Itta "Henrietta" Shiplacoff gave birth to Frederick Engels Shiplacoff
1906(29th of Av, 5666): Simeon Singer, the rabbi at the New West Synagogue since 1878 where he had also created a new translation of the prayer book and who had married Charlotte Pyke in 1867 with whom he had six children - Jules, Samuel, David, Richard, Freda and historian Charles Singer – passed away today “in the prime of manhood.”
1907: Birthdate of New York City native Herbert Theodore Bergman who gained fame as actor Alan Reed, “the voice of Fred Flinstone.”
1908: Birthdate of Dr. Herbert Kaiser of Breslau who was murder at Terezin at the age of 35.
1911: “The Juvenile Band of the Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans” is scheduled to give an “open air band concert at the Chicago Hebrew Institute” this afternnon.
1911 Ceremonies marking the opening of the Annex for the Orthodox Home for the Aged in Cleveland, Ohio began today.
1912(7th of Elul, 5672): Seventy-four year old Walter Goodman, British painter, illustrator and author who was the son of portrait painter Julia Salaman and Louis Goodman passed away today.
1914: During World War I, the Germans occupied Brussels which would lead to a series of depredations that would be visited on the civilian population – both Jewish and non-Jewish.
1914: Copies of a resolution endorsing President Wilson’s “stand on the European War” was taken to Washington by Dr. Carroll of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America and “Dr. H. Pereira Mendes, Chairman of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations in America.”
1914: Seventy-nine year old Pope Pius X, who had met with Herzl in the Vatican in 1904 and said that “Jews have recognized Our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people” which mean that “Jerusalem cannot be placed in Jewish hands” passed away today.
1915(9th of Elul, 5675): Sixty one year old Nobel Prize winner Paul Ehrlich, the man who discovered the treatment for syphilis, passed away.
1915: It was reported today that at the mass meeting held at Cooper Union to consider the plight of the Jews of Russia and the need for the establishment of Zionist State in Palestine after the war “at the suggestion of Joseph Baroness all in the hall rose to their feet as an expression of sympathy for the family of Leo Frank.
1915(10thof Elul, 5675): Seventy-five year old “Yitzchak Yaakov Reines (Isaac Jacob Reines) the Orthodox rabbi whose belief in Zionism led him to found the Mizrachi Religious Zionist Movement” passed away today.
1915: Leo Frank “was buried” today “in the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Glendale, Queens, New York.
1916: Among the contributions reported today to have been received by the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War was $50 from Congregation Share Torah, $14 from Congregation Emunah Israel and $38 from Congregation Ahavath Chesed.
1916: It was reported today the Joint Distribution Committee has sent $1,800,000 to Russia, $1,454,500 to German Poland, $1,065,000 to Austro-Hungary including Galicia, $403,788 to Palestine, $132,325 to Greece and Turkey, $21,000 to Alexandria, Egypt, $5,000 to Jewish students in Swiss universities, $5,000 to Tunis, Algiers and Morocco and $5,000 to destitute families of Russian Jews in France.
1916: The Independent Western Star Order which had been founded in 1894 and now has 148 Lodges under the leadership of Grand Master Max Levy of Cincinnati, Ohio, held its fourth biennial convention today at Buffalo, NY.
1917: “The Secretary of the Joint Distribution Committee for Jewish Relief Funds announced” tonight “that the committee of which Felix M. Warburg is the Chairman has solved the problem of the distribution of relief money in the war zones, and that a commission which has been accredited by the United States Government has sailed for Europe to put the plan into effect.” (Editor’s note – the entrance of the United States into the World War meant that the country was no longer a neutral so aid coming from the United States was no seen as part of the Allied war effort.)
1917(2nd of Elul, 5677):Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer, known as Adolph von Baeyer, the first Jew to ever receive the Nobel Prize, passed away today. “Baeyer was a German chemist, acknowledged in 1905 for synthesizing dye indigo. He was also awarded the Davie Medal by the Royal Society of London in 1881, for his work with indigo. Baeyer was born on October 31, 1835, in Berlin, Germany. Initially, at the Berlin University, Baeyer studied mathematics and physics. Nevertheless, he soon discovered his passion for chemistry and transferred to Heidelberg to study with Robert Bunsen in 1856. Bunsen was a famous chemist, who is best known for perfecting the burner. In Heidelberg, Baeyer studied in the laboratory of August Kekule, a famous organic chemist. In 1858, Baeyer received his doctorate in chemistry from Berlin University. In 1871, he became a Professor at Strasbourg and, in 1875, Baeyer became the Chemistry Professor at the University of Munich. In addition to synthesizing dye indigo, some of Baeyer’s other achievements include the discovery of the phthanein dyes, investigation of polyacetylenes, oxonium salts, and uric acid derivatives. Bayer synthesized barbituic acid in 1864. This acid is used in surgery as a sedative or hypnotic. Baeyer is also renowned for his work in theoretical chemistry, developing the ‘strain’ (Spannung) theory of triple bonds and the strain theory in small carbon rings. Baeyer was also the founder of Baeyer Chemical Co”.
1918: Dr. Solf, the German Colonial Secretary delivered a talk today in which he reputed Lord Balfour’s claim to the colonies held by the Central Powers on the ground of superior morality – a claim that took on additional weight due to the success of the Allies and held special meaning for the Jews seeking a commonwealth in Palestine.
1918:Birthdate of Hanna Poznanskia, who as British psychoanalyst Hanna Segal,Hanna Segal, “helped change child psychology in the United States by explaining and popularizing the play therapy techniques developed by her mentor, the seminal psychoanalytic thinker Melanie Klein.:
1918: In Philadelphia, “portrait painter Robert Susan” and “public schoolteacher Rose Jans” gave birth to novelist Jacqueline Susann who produced such bestselling pot-boilers as Valley of the Dolls and The Love Machine,
1919: In Brooklyn, Hannah (née Bistrong) and Louis Bernstein, a teacher gave birth to Walter Bernstein an American screenwriter and film producer who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s.
1919(25thof Av, 5679): Sixteen year old Yechiel Bernhard passed away today.
1919(25thof Av, 5679): Mrs. Lttle Lewenstein passed away today.
1920: Israel publishes its first medical journal, "Ha-Refuah."
1920: It was reported today that “10,000 Jews have already been expelled from” Hungary and that orders are being issued for more deportations.
1920: It was reported today that “the Jewish War Memorial Fund in England has now reached £150,000.”
1920: Birthdate of Melvin Wallace “Mel” Bleekr the Los Angeles born quarterback and track star at USC during the 1940’d who went to play in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams.
1920: “Jews Expelled from Hungary” published today described the expulsion of 100,000 Jews from that country and the warm welcome extended to “a group of Russian officers from General Denikin’s army who are believed to be experts at conducting pogroms.”
1921:Leo "Lindy" Lindermann and his wife Clara opened “Lindy’s”, the iconoclastic New York restaurant, at1626 Broadway, between 49th and 50th Streets
1921: In Philadelphia, portrait artist Robert Susann and public school teacher Rose Susann gave birth to author Jacqueline Susann, the creator of a what, at their team, were a series of “torrid” novels beginning with Valley of the Dolls. (As reported by Laurie Johnston)
Editor’s Note – Some sources show her birthdate as 1918 but we’ll go with the NYT version.
1922: Maude Rosenbaum, of the United States won the Bronze Medal in the two-handed shot put at the 1922 Women’s World Games held today at the Pershing Stadium in Paris.
1922: Birthdate of Bernard Sahlins, “a founder of the Second City, the Chicago nightclub that helped to establish improvisational sketch comedy as a rudiment of American entertainment and created a resident troupe that propelled the careers of myriad funnymen and women.” (As reported by Bruce Weber)
1922: Birthdate of Judith Craner Protas the native of Brooklyn with degrees from Barnard and Yale who became a leading advertising executive with Doyle Dane Bernbach and told the world that you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy “Levy’s real Jewish rye.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1923: Birthdate of Chicago native Sheldon Bernard Keller, an Emmy-winning comedy writer whose work included “Caesar’s Hour,” one of the jewels of 1950s television” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1924: Birthdate of Eugene D. “Gene” Alexander the native of Orange New Jersey who was one of the American volunteers who manned the refugee ships that ran the British blockade of Palestine.
1925: Two days after he had passed away, 42 year old Sydney Lipkin was buried today at the “Willesden Jewish Cemetery.”
1925: “In Birkenhead,” Joe and May Makin gave birth to “celebrity solicitor” Elkan Rex Makin, whose work with Brian Epstein led to his close association with the Beatles
1926: Middle Augie Ratner ended his ten year long professional ring career by winning his last bout in Long Beach on points.
1927(22nd of Av, 5687): Parashat Ekev
1927(22nd of Av, 5687): Sixty-four year old Austrian born concert pianist Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler, the wife of Sigmund Zeisler passed away today in Chicago.
1927: Birthdate of Stanley Anselm Bosworth a self-described “old wizard” who shaped his own Hogwarts in Brooklyn in the form of Saint Ann’s School, which rapidly gained national prominence for its free-form approach to education and its success in sending graduates to top colleges. Born in Manhattan he was the child of Jewish immigrants from Russia who had changed their name from Boscovitz to better assimilate. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1927: Birthdate of Shraga Feivel Gruberger, the Brooklyn native who gained fame as Rabbi Philip S. Berg, “dean of the worldwide Kabbalah Centre Origination.”
1927: “Underworld,” “silent crime film directed by Josef von Stemberg, co-produced by B.P. Shulberg with a script co-authored by Ben Hecht was released today in the United States by Paramount Pictures.
1928: State Supreme Court Alfred Frankenthaler officiated at the marriage of Jascha Heiftiz and Florence Vidor. The private ceremony uniting the 28 year old violinist and the motion picture actress took place the Mayfair House on Park Avenue in Manhattan. This is his first marriage and her second.
1929: As the Arab riots continued a late-night meeting initiated by the Jewish leadership, at which acting high commissioner Harry Luke, Jamal al-Husayni, and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi were present, failed to produce a call for an end to the violence.
1929: Premiere of Irving Thalberg’s “Hallelujah!” “One of the first all-black films by a major studio featuring the music of Irving Berlin.
1929:Haganah leaders proposed to provide defense for 600 Jews of the Old Yishuv in Hebron, or to help them evacuate. However, the leaders of the Hebron community declined these offers, insisting that they trusted the A'yan (Arab notables) to protect them.
1930: Dr. Jacob Levitsky, a math teacher in Jerusalem, has won Yale’s annual $2000 prize Sterling Fund. Levitsky is a graduate of Tel Aviv High School and the University of Goettingen
1930: The General Executive Committee of RSFSR accepted the decree that led to the creation of a Jewish administrative territorial unit in the Asiatic portion of the Soviet Union that would come to be known as The Jewish Autonomous Oblast.
1933: Gabriel Terra, President of Uruguay issued a special decree, permitting 500 Jewish families, fleeing from Germany, to enter the country. The Jewish Immigrant Aid Society had petitioned the President on behalf of the country’s Jewish community.
1933: In Montevideo, Vos Hebres (The Hebrew Voice), defended the Jews against attacks which followed permission being given for the immigration of 500 German-Jewish families.
1933:The Jewish National Fund announced that it has reclaimed 300,000 dunams of land (75,000 acres) in the Emek since 1923, and that 10,000 people are settled on it.
1933:The Keren Hayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund) reported that it has collected in the past two years £400,077; of which the United States contributed one-third (£133,545); during the 12 years of its existence, the Fund has raised £4,821,510 of which the United States contributed one-half (£2,409,392).
1933: American Jewish Congress declared a boycott against Nazi Germany
1935: “A conference of ministers was held today to discuss the negative economic effects of Party actions against Jews during which Hitler argued that such effects would cease once the government decided on a firm policy against the Jews.”
1935: The world Zionist leader, Dr. Nahum Sokolow, with almost the first words of his presidential speech tonight shattered reports that the nineteenth biennial Zionist congress would sidestep the situation of German Jews, out of deference to delegates from the Reich, who were among the representatives from forty-three nations.
1936: “Germany succeeded in showing the world a well-trained army and a strictly disciplined people during the Olympic Games but did not hesitate to break most of the Olympic commandments, according to four members of the International Committee for the Preservation of the Olympic Ideal who arrived” in Paris today.
1936: It was reported today that “mystery surrounds the death of…Captain Fuerstner, the constructor and organizer of the Olympic village and its officer in command and its administrative official” and the “one of the last ‘non-Aryan’ officers to retain his active rank in the new Germany” who has variously been reported to have died in an automobile accident or in “an accident with a pistol.” (Editor’s Note – in reality he had shot himself after he realized that under the Nuremberg Laws that would go into effect after the Olympics, he would be classified as a Jew and would be expelled from the Army.)
1936: “Benny Leonard, the former lightweight champion announced” today that “an all-star combination made up of the leading players from the New York State Football Association” will play the Maccabee Palestine champion team in a benefit soccer contest at Yankee Stadium in September.
1936: Premiere of “Romeo and Juliet’ a cinematic version of Shakespeare’s drama directed by George Cukor, produced by Irving Thalberg and starring Leslie Howard (Leslie Howard Steiner) as Romeo and Norma Shearer as Juliet.
1937: At Zurich, “in a calmer atmosphere and with more hope of success, the negotiations continued today for a compromise to prevent a split between Zionists and American non-Zionists in the Jewish Agency on issues raised by the Palestine partition.”
1937: “Broadway Melody of 1938” a musical with lyrics by Arthur Freed, known in his native Charleston, SC, as Arthur Grossman, was released today in the United States.
1938(23rd of Av, 5698): Communist Party loyalist Semyon Dimanstein fell victim to one of Stalin’s purges today. After six months in prison, he was sentenced to death today and then executed. He was rehabilitated two years after Stalin died.
1938: “Book Notes” published today described plans by Knopf to publish a second collection of short stories entitled The River Breaks Up by I.J. Singer, which likes its predecessor The Brothers Ashkenazi tells tales about Polish Jews “during the period of transition from the beginning of the present century trough the” World War and the Russian Revolution.
1938: Hank Greenberg hits three homers, bringing his total to 41 which puts him ahead of Babe Ruth’s record breaking 1927 pace.
1939: General debate in the twenty-first World Zionist Congress had to be suspended today after an announcement at the morning's meeting of a decision by the court of the congress to reduce the number of mandates allotted to the Palestine delegations from 133 to 127.
1940: Leon Trotsky is attacked by an assassin in Mexico City. Trotsky is hiding from Stalin who has ordered Trotsky’s execution. Trotsky will die of his wounds the following day. According to one version of the story, had moved from a fortress like villa to an unguarded homes because of a dispute over a woman.
1940: “Boomtown” a comedy-adventure film co-starring Hedy Lamar, produced by Sam Zimbalist with music by Franz Waxman was released in the United States today by MGM.
1941:A low-rent United States Housing' Authority development in East St. Louis, Il, has been named in memory of Samuel Gompers, longtime president of the American Federation of Labor.
1941: For the next 48 hours about 4300 Jews are sent from Paris to Drancy, a transit camp in France. These are the first of 70,000 Jews who will be deported to Drancy and then to extermination camps, primarily Auschwitz-Birkenau
1941(26th of Av, 5701): Several Jews were pulled from their homes in Sabac by the Germans, then brought into the street and shot. The Germans made other Jews come carry the dead bodies through the town, and then hang them from electricity poles. This attacked was the beginning of a series of attacks which lasted for 2 months and resulted in several thousands of Jewish murders.
1942: “The Talk of the Town” a comedy with a screenplay by Irwin Shaw and Sidney Buchman with music by Friedrich Hollaender was released in the United Sates today by Columbia Pictures.
1942: Today, ‘the Council of Protestant Federation, under the signature of its president, Pastor Marc Boegner, wrote to Marsh Petain protesting against the deportation of Jews and the inhuman manner in which orders for these deportations were being carried out.”
1942 The ZOB (Jewish Fighting Organization) attempts to assassinate Joseph Szerynski, commander of the Jewish police in the Warsaw Ghetto. Later in the day, other ZOB members set fire to several Warsaw warehouses.
1942(6th of Elul, 5702): The Jewish community from Falenica, Poland, is liquidated at the Treblinka death camp.
1942: The Nazis began deporting the Jews of Kielce, Poland to Treblinka,
1942: For the next four days, nineteen thousand Jews of Kielce, Poland, are deported to the Treblinka death camp.
1942: For the next four days gas/disinfectant expert Kurt Gerstein observes gas executions at the Treblinka, one day after witnessing similar deaths at Belzec.
1943: Pvt. Ed Koch writes in his diary today complaining “about an inspection he called a huge waste of time. “It took about an hour to get everything ready for display and then the (colonel) merely walked swiftly up and down the aisles and glanced at the tents once in a while,” he wrote. “It was the biggest example of a waste of time that I have ever seen in the Army.” (As reported by Forwards staff)
1943(18th of Av, 5703): Three thousand Jews are executed during a revolt at Glebokie, Belorussia.
1944: During World War II, Soviet forces “made an all-out attack” on Nazi forces in Romania – an attack that would be successful and help to save a significant percentage of the Jewish population.
1944: The United States Army Air Force bombs Auschwitz III (oil and rubber plant), three miles from Auschwitz I (main camp) and five miles from Birkenau, the Auschwitz death camp. 127 bombers escorted by 100 fighters (who face only 19 German planes) drop more than 1300 500-pound bombs. Only one bomber is shot down. This puts the lie to the claim that allied airpower could not have knocked out the rails leading to the death camps or to the crematorium. This had been the plea of many Jewish leaders. The facts of the matter are that allied leaders were not willing to risk planes or men to save Jews. On the morning of August 20, 1944, a group 127 US B-17 bombers, called Flying Fortresses, approached Auschwitz. They were escorted by 100 P-51 Mustang fighter planes. Most of the Mustangs were piloted by Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group. The attacking force dropped more than 1,000 500-pound bombs on German oil factories less than five miles from the gas chambers. Despite German anti-aircraft fire and a squadron of German fighter planes, none of the Mustangs was hit and only one of the US planes was shot down. All of the units reported successfully hitting their targets. On the ground below, Jewish slave laborers, including 15 year-old Elie Wiesel, cheered the bombing. In his best-selling memoir, Night, Wiesel described their reaction: "We were not afraid. And yet, if a bomb had fallen on the blocks [the prisoners' barracks], it alone would have claimed hundreds of victims on the spot. But we were no longer afraid of death; at any rate, not of that death. Every bomb that exploded filled us with joy and gave us new confidence in life. The raid lasted over an hour. If it could only have lasted ten times ten hours!" But it did not. Even though there were additional US bombing raids on German industrial sites in the Auschwitz region in the weeks and month to follow, the gas chambers and crematoria were never targeted. The Roosevelt administration knew about the mass murder going on in Auschwitz, and even possessed diagrams of the camp that were prepared by two escapees. But when Jewish organizations asked the Roosevelt administration to order the bombing of the camp and the railways leading to it, the requests were rejected. US officials claimed such raids were "impracticable" because they would require "considerable diversion" of planes needed for the war effort. But the Tuskegee veterans know that claim was false. They were right there in the skies above Auschwitz. No "diversion" was necessary to drop a few bombs on the mass-murder machinery or the railways leading into the camp. Sadly, those orders were never given. The decision to refrain from bombing Auschwitz was part of a broader policy by the Roosevelt administration to refrain from taking action to rescue Jews from the Nazis or provide havens for them. The US did not want to deal with the burden of caring for large numbers of refugees. And its ally, Great Britain, would not open the doors to Palestine to the Jews, for fear of angering Arab opinion. The result was that the Allies failed to confront one of history's most compelling moral challenges.
1944: In an unusual move even for the Nazis, 168 aviates from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica arrived at Buchenwald Concentration Camp today.
1947: In Englewood, NJ, the former Ruth Grodnick and Irving Howard Kudlow, gave birth “media economist” Larry Kudlow the recovering drug and alcohol addict who converted to Catholicism in the 1990’s and replaced Gary Cohn as President Trump’s Director of the National Economic Council.
1948: “In testimony under subpoena before the HUAC, Lee Pressman declined to answer questions regarding Communist Party membership, citing grounds of potential self-incrimination.”
1948: “After an hour in D-117 today, Michael Flint, WW II naval pilot serving with the IAF, had to make a wheels-up landing when his gear wouldn't descend.”
1948: Re-release today of “Dick Tracy Returns” a film based on the comic strip cop featuring Ned Glass (born Nusyn Glass) as “Kid Stark”
1950(7th of Elul, 5710): Aaron Parsonnet, the Newark, NJ physician who received his M.D. degree from Loyola University and was the husband of the former Julia Lifson passed away today at West Orange, NJ.
1952(28th of Av, 5712): Yitzhak Sadeh, the founder of the Palmach and a hero of the War of Independence passed away at the age of 62. While a name unknown to most non-Israelis. Yitzhak Sadeh was a brave man who played a key role in the founding of the state of Israel. He was the commander for the Palmach units, a soldier, a writer, an educator, and was one of the founders of Tshal. He originally lived in Russia, but he moved to Israel later in his life. Yitzhak was born in Lubin, Poland in 1890. He began his military career, by fighting for the Russian army in World War One. Later, he was honored for his bravery in the war. During 1917, 1918, and 1919, Yitzhak Sadeh, with the help of Joseph Trumpeldor, established the foundation of “Ha- Halutz”. “Ha- Halutz”, in 1920, made an aliyah to the land of Israel. He moved as soon as he heard of his friend, Joseph Trumpeldor’s death. When Yitzhak arrived in Israel, he became one of the founders of the “Gdud-Ha-Avoda”. In 1929, Sadeh joined the Hagganah. He was made commander in the Hagganah, in Jerusalem, shortly after he joined. During the 1929 riots, he took part in defending the city of Haifa. When the 1936 riots started, Sadeh established the “Nodedt” in Jerusalem. This organization was the one that confronted the enemy in their villages and in the army bases. Yitzhak introduced a policy for defending settlements by going out to attack the Arab bands, instead of staying behind the fences of their settlements to await the raids. In the summer of 1937, Sadeh founded the “Fosh”. He also commanded the kibbutz of Hanitah. One of the things that Yitzhak Sadeh is most famous for is founding the Palmach. He served as chief commander for the Palmach until 1945. During 1945, he was appointed to be Hagganah’s Chief of General staff. He was also in charge of planning operations against the British forces. Yitzhak planned many operations involving bringing Jewish immigrants to the Promised Land, Israel. In the beginning of the Independence War in 1948, Yitzhak Sadeh commanded the defense of the kibbutz, Mishmar Ha-Emek. Kibbutz Mishmar Ha-Emek was attacked by Syrian forces, which were trying to divide the country into two parts. After this, Sadeh was promoted to the job of “Aluf”. When he was promoted, he was able to establish the first armored brigade in the IDF. The Israeli Defense Forces, later, led critical battles for the state of Israel. After the War of Independence, Yitzhak participated in the operation, “Khorev”. Also, the Palmach was disconnected. Sadeh left the military services in 1949. After retiring from the army, he wrote many books, essays, and even plays. He would write with the pen name, Y. Noded. Sadeh promoted a lot of sports. He was the wrestling champion of St. Petersburg and featured in wrestling performances. He thought of sports being an important part of life and it held important cultural and educational value. He created Hapoel’s slogan, “Alafim and not Alufim”. They wanted many people to take part in sports. Thousands of sports figures and soldiers, to this day, take part in the Run around Mount Tavor, in honor of Yitzhak Sadeh. Yitzhak Sadeh died in Tel-Aviv in August 1952, and was buried in Kibbutz Givat Brenner. He was a very brave man. Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak and kibbutz Mashabey Sadeh were named after Yitzhak Sadeh
1952: Work started on a number of concrete dams, expected to hold back the rainwater accumulating in the Negev wadis during the winter. This was part of the Zionist dream to make the Negev green.
1952: Birthdate of American singer-song writer Doug Fieger, the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the band the Knack, whose enduring 1979 hit “My Sharona” has become an emblem of the new wave era in rock and a prime example of the brevity of pop fame.” His father was Jewish.
1960: Larry Sherry pitches the Dodgers past the Cards for his 12th win of the season.
1964:Atentát is a 1964 black-and-white Czech film directed that “depicts events before and after the assassination of top German leader Reinhard Heydrich in Prague (Operation Anthropoid) which was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a Golden Prize” was released today/
1964: President Lyndon Johnson signed an anti-poverty bill that would commit almost one billion dollars to the “War on Poverty.” The measure had the support of numerous Jewish political leaders and Jewish voters. This was an era when Jewish voters were drawn to politicians who supported a society that sought to care for the “widow, the orphan and the stranger in your midst.”
1966(4th of Elul, 5726): Parashat Shoftim
1966(4th of Elul, 5726): Eighty-two year old New York native and graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University Dr. David John Kaliski, the husband of Kate Mountjoy Kaliski passed away today
1966(4th of Elul, 5726): Seventy-seven year old Polish native, Simon Federbush, the former Chief Rabbi of Finland, the principal of several yeshivas in the United States and “a founder of the Religious Zionist Labor Movement” who married “the former Miriam Horowitz” with whom he had “two sons, Urieland and Emanuel—passed away today.
1969: After having been released in Italy earlier in the year, “Orgasmo” starring Carroll Baker was released today in New York City.
1971: FBI begins covert investigation of journalist Daniel Schorr who would become a member of Richard Nixon’s infamous enemies list. Earlier in his career, Schoor had been thrown out of the Soviet Union for his news broadcasts. This makes him one of the few people to be declared an enemy by both the Soviet Communists and right-wing American Anti-Communists.
1971:The Brighton Regency Synagogue was “designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.”
1974: Forty “British radiologists protested the treatment by the Soviets of radiologist Dr. Victoria Poltinikova in Novosibirsk, who had applied for emigration to Israel in 1972 with her parents.”
1975: “Isaac Yilyulitin, a 35 year old Doctor of Mathematics, was sentenced to one year in prison on charges of attempted smuggling, having been arrested at Leningrad airport en route to Israel.”
1976: It was reported today that Uganda President Idi Amin has “set a seven day deadline for a personal reply” from Prime Minister Rabin on his demand for compensation from the Israelis for the raid on Entebbe.
1976: Seventy-five year old Sid Silvers whose career spanned vaudeville, Broadway and the silver screen passed away today.
1976: “The Shootist” a film about an aging, dying gunfighter directed by Don Siegel, co-starring Lauren Bacall and with music by Elmer Bernstein which was the final movie for the legendary John Wayne (who was not Jewish) was released to in the United States.
1977: Despite the initial rejection by both Israel and Jordan, US officials were still hopeful that their idea of establishing a joint Israeli-Jordanian temporary trusteeship over the West Bank could yet get off the ground.
1977: The French government appeared to be reconciled to a new period of chilly relations after Israel rejected its contention that the three new settlements in administered areas hampered peace prospects.
1977: The US Central Intelligence Agency told Congressional investigators that enriched uranium, designed to build atomic bombs, was mysteriously diverted from the privately owned American plant to Israel in the middle 1960s
1979: It was reported today that Yigal Yadin, Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister rejected Andrew Young’s characterization his government as “stubborn and intransigent” and “pursuing and expansionist policy” when he appeared on ABC’s “Issue and Answers.”
1980: The UN Security Council condemns (14-0, US abstains) Israeli declaration that all of Jerusalem is its capital. The UN Security Council never said or did anything about the illegal occupation of the eastern section of Jerusalem by Jordan that lasted for almost twenty years. During that same time, the UN was equally silent when it came to the fact that Jews were not allowed to enter the Old City or that the Jordanians had systematically dismembered the physical remains of the ancient Jewish Quarter. This lack of equivalent concern is but one of a long list of reasons by why many Israelis and as well as others have lost respect for the United Nations.
1981: “An American Werewolf in London,” a “horror comedy film” directed by John Landis, with music by Elmer Bernstein was released in the United States by Universal Pictures.
1982: During the Lebanese Civil War a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the PLO withdrawal from Lebanon. The Lebanese Civil War was conflict between Christian and Moslem Arabs. It was part of centuries old struggle for power that flared up periodically. The PLO had come to Lebanon after having been thrown out of Jordan where it had attempted to overthrow the government. The PLO was a destabilizing force in Lebanon as its fighters took the side of the Moslems and tried to use Lebanon as a base for terrorist attacks against Israel. The PLO had to go because of its role in destroying the social fabric of Lebanon which had been an oasis of Western progress and civility in among the violent Arab dictatorships of the Middle East.
1982(1stof Elul, 5742): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1982(1stof Elul, 5742): Sixty-six year old Alfred S. Bloomingdale, the grandson of the founder of Bloomingdale’s department store passed away today in Santa Monica, CA. (As reported by David W. Dunlap)
(Wiki shows the date as August 23 but I will take the word of the NYT Obit writers, a marvelous and trustworthy group of writers.)
1983: In Los Angeles, Lynn and Richard Garfield gave birth to actor Andrew Garfield whose “paternal grandparents were from Jewish immigrant families who had moved to London from Eastern Europe (Poland, Russia, and Romania), and whose family surname was originally "Garfinkel".
1985: Israel ships 96 TOWs to Iran on behalf of the US. The TOW missiles were shipped as part of an arms deal that became known as Iran Contra.
1985: The New York Timesfeatures a review (see below) of Jerusalem: Rebirth of a City by Martin Gilbert, a first rate book by a first rate author and historian. There is no such thing as “a bad” Martin Gilbert book since the works of this author range from very good to great.
No city in the world can have captured more imaginations and stirred more hearts over the centuries than Jerusalem. No city, in the 19th century, was more liable to provoke comments on the dismal contrast between past and present, between the image and the reality. A stream of visitors recorded their impressions of the prevailing torpor, the poverty, the filth, the squalid squabbles between different races and religious communities. In 1838, the year Martin Gilbert chooses to open his chronicle of Jerusalem's reviving fortunes, the American biblical scholar Edward Robinson, one of the earliest archeologists to work in the city, lamented - with good reason - that ''the glory of Jerusalem has indeed departed.'' From its ''ancient high estate'' it had declined into ''the neglected capital of a petty Turkish province,'' with a population of fewer than 16,000 (5,000 Muslim Arabs, 3,000 Christian Arabs, 6,000 Jews, a Turkish garrison, a small colony of European traders and missionaries). At the end of the century, which is where Mr. Gilbert closes his account, guidebooks were still stressing the stagnation and decay, and most travelers were still recording their disappointment or distaste. Theodor Herzl, visiting the city for the first time in 1898, wrote in his diary that ''when I remember thee in days to come, O Jerusalem, it will not be with delight.'' He wished that it were possible to tear down everything except the sacred sites and begin all over again. Yet for over half a century important changes had in fact been taking place in the city, changes that were gradually to draw it back into the mainstream of history. While Mr. Gilbert bases much of his survey on the rich range of literature in which visitors recorded their impressions, his central theme is the slow transformation that was already in progress, but which most visitors underestimated or failed to appreciate. In some ways 1839 would have made a more appropriate starting point. In that year a British vice consul took up residence - the only foreign diplomat in the city, though before long the appointment prompted other powers to show the flag. Russian and French consulates were established in 1841; an Anglican bishopric was created the same year; in due course Germans, Austrians and Italians made their presence felt, the Germans in particular. An American consul was appointed in 1857 and promptly found himself embroiled in a dispute with the local Turkish commander, who refused to arrange a 21-gun salute on the Fourth of July on the grounds that such honors ought to be reserved for monarchies, not mere republics. (The consul eventually carried the day.) The diplomatic campaigns were generally accompanied by an increase in missionary work, which inevitably became a fresh cause of dissension in a city already riven by conflicts - often violent ones - not only between Christian, Moslem and Jew but between a multitude of subgroups and separate denominations. The religious life of the city was both colorful and intense, but it all too often reminds you of Jonathan Swift's remark that we have just enough religion to make us hate, but not to love one another. Of the major religious groupings, it was the Jews who recorded the largest gain in numbers during the period Mr. Gilbert covers. By 1896 Jerusalem had a population of 45,000, of whom 28,000 were Jewish and the rest divided almost equally between Moslems and Christians. Although Sephardi immigrants from many different parts of the world, including Yemen and Bukhara, had settled in the city, the Ashkenazim, who had been in a minority 60 years earlier, now predominated. Most Ashkenazim came from Eastern Europe, most of them were still rigidly orthodox, and heavily dependent on charity from Jews living abroad. But since the days of Sir Moses Montefiore (who had paid his first visit to Palestine in 1827) there had been attempts to introduce social and educational reforms, and by the 1880's change - though it met with bitter resistance - was increasingly in the air. The Alliance Israelite Universelle of Paris played a particularly important part in sponsoring secular education and technical training. Meanwhile modern institutions and inventions had belatedly taken root in the city. The first printing press was established in 1840, the first hotel in 1843, the first bank in 1848. An overland telegraph was opened in 1865 (an Arab who threw his spear at it was sentenced to death for damaging Ottoman property and hanged from one of the posts). In 1892, the railroad finally made its appearance: a narrow-gauge, single-track line that wound its way up from Jaffa. By normal 19th-century standards, none of this progress was exactly spectacular, and contemporaries can surely be forgiven for emphasizing the unchanging, even the apparently moribund aspects of Jerusalem. It is only in retrospect that it is easy to discern in fairly modest developments the shape of major achievements and far-reaching conflicts to come. At the very end of the century, however, two interconnected events should have made it clear, even without the benefit of hindsight that history wasn't standing still. In 1898 Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Jerusalem, riding into the city through a triumphal arch on a black charger, in full ceremonial uniform. Theodor Herzl was there at the same time; he had come specially to meet him. A new and uncertain future was at hand. Mr. Gilbert has written a lively book, full of excellent quotations -roundly outspoken and often eloquent in the 19th-century manner - and providing glimpses of figures as diverse as Herman Melville and the future Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, along with many curious minor characters. It is also a handsome book, decked out with a large number of striking photographs 1988: In Chicago, The pastor of a black church told members of a Jewish congregation Friday night that the common backgrounds of the two groups should be remembered as the two communities reach toward common ground. "We forgot our histories," the Rev. George Riddick, executive vice president of Operation PUSH, told members of Congregation Kol Ami in the first-of-its-kind pulpit exchange.
1991(9th of Elul, 5751): Lenore Strunsky Gershwin widow of Ira Gershwin passed away. She was 90 years old at the time of her death.
1991(9th of Elul, 5751):About three hours after the riots began, early on the morning of August 20, a group of approximately 20 young black men surrounded 29-year-old Australian Jew, Yankel Rosenbaum, a University of Melbourne student in the United States conducting research for his doctorate. They stabbed him several times in the back and beat him severely, fracturing his skull. Before being taken to the hospital, Rosenbaum was able to identify 16-year-old Lemrick Nelson, Jr. as his assailant in a line-up shown to him by the police. Rosenbaum died later that night. Nelson was charged as an adult with murder and acquitted. Later he was convicted in federal court of violating Rosenbaum's civil rights; Nelson eventually admitted that he had stabbed Rosenbaum
1991:“Approximately 500 mostly young blacks returned to the scene” of the accident in Crown Heights where Gavin Cato had died. “Vehicles were set ablaze, a shoe store was ransacked, and reporters and photographers were beaten.
1993: After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Peace Accords were signed. A more public signing ceremony would take place in Washington in September of 1993.
1998: Journalist Seymour “Hersh strongly criticized the destruction of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory, the largest pharmaceutical factory in Sudan—providing about half the medicines produced in Sudan—by United States cruise missiles during Bill Clinton's presidency.”
1998(28th of Av, 5758): Eighty-eight year old Fred Sington, an All-American Tackle at Alabama where he was a member of ZBT and an outfielder for the Washington Senators and Brooklyn Dodgers passed away today.
http://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Fred_Sington
http://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Fred_Sington
1999: The 7th World Championships in Athletics in which Aleksandr Valeryevich Averbukh placed third in the Pole Vault representing Israel opened today in Seville, Spain.
2000: The New York Timesbook section featured reviews of Touching Peace: From the Oslo Accord to a Final Agreement by Yossi Beilin, Cruel Banquet: The Life and Loves of Frida Strindberg by Monica Strauss and Dream Stuff, a collection of nine short stories by David Malouf, the Australian author with the Lebanese Christian father and the Sephardic Jewish mother.
2001(1st of Elul, 5761): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2002: The Jerusalem Postreported that the Hebrew University archeologist Dr. Eila Mazar's 120-page The Complete Guide to the Temple Mount Excavations has just been translated into English. The new comprehensive guide describes the site's 3,000 years of history.
2002(12th of Elul, 5762): Nineteen year old Staff Sargent Kevin Cohen of Petah Tikva was murdered by a Palestinian sniper.
2002(12th of Elul, 5762): Eighty-year old philanthropist Lillian Goldman, the widow of Sol Goldman passed away today. (As reported by Paul Lewis)
2004: The initial public offering by Google which was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin took place today.
2004(3rd of Elul, 5764): Eighty-two year old Safed born prize winning Israeli author and MK Moshe Shamir passed away today. (Editor’s note – The NYT would appear to have been in error. Shamir died about a month before his 83rdbirthday.
2004:A Walking tour today styled ''Emma Lazarus and the Jewish Heritage of Washington Square'' passes the former home of Emma Lazarus, the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory and the Hanging Elm of Washington Square Park.
2005(14th of Av, 5765): Abraham S. Goldstein, an influential scholar of criminal law and former dean of the Yale Law School, died of a heart attack at his home in Woodbridge, Connecticut. Goldstein taught at the Law School for almost 50 years and was, at the time of his death, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and Professorial Lecturer in Law. He was 80.
2005: The evacuation of settlers and their supporters from Gaza halted because of the Shabbat. The evacuations which are part of a bold move by Prime Minister Sharon to bring peace to the region while improving the geo-political position of Israel is slated to end on Tuesday.
2006(26th of Av, 5766): Eighty-four year old labor economist and Holocaust survivor Jacob Mincer passed away today. (As reported by Louis Uchitelle)
2006: The Sunday New York Times book section includes a review of I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron.
2006: The Chicago Tribune reported that Clara Ambrus-Baire, a woman whose family shielded Jews in Budapest hadreceived a “Righteous Among the Nations Award.” The award is presented to people who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. It is the highest honor bestowed on non-Jews by Israel, with 21,310 recipients as of January 2006. Ambrus-Baer was 19 when the Germans invaded Budapest in 1944. Her family turned its home into a haven for Jews hiding from the Nazis. "I never expected this," said Ambrus-Baer, 81 and living in Buffalo. "I didn't want to get praised for what I did. I took it for normal that somebody saves people's lives."
2006: Kohenet, the Hebrew Priestess Institute launched its first training institute in Accord, NY. (As reported by Jewish Women’s Archives)
2007: “The Facebook Effect” is Newsweek Magazine’s cover story. The story describes how 23 year old “Mark Zuckerberg has already changed the way millions of us connect. How he’s facing a challenge; how to turn an online obsession into a fixture of he digital age” If the pundits and prophets are correct, Zuckerberg will join the likes of Einstein and Freud as one who has brought a sea change in the course of Western, if not world, Civilization.
2007: In an article favorably evaluating the performance of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, The New York Times included the following. “But to understand Mr. Bernanke’s worldview, one must go back to his hometown, Dillon, S.C., which sits athwart Interstate 95 about halfway between North Jersey and South Florida. Dillon is known as the home of South of the Border, the Tijuana-themed tourist stop and a Mecca of American roadside kitsch. Mr. Bernanke, 53, grew up in Dillon in the 1950s and ’60s, the son of the local pharmacist and a member of one of the few Jewish families in the largely agricultural region. He says his home was the only kosher household in a 50-mile radius. His mother had meat delivered from a butcher in Charlotte, N.C., where his parents live now. Being a member of a minority taught him about discrimination and prejudice. “There was more than one request to see my horns,” he said years later. He also watched the struggles of small farmers, who drove mule-drawn carts down the main street of town and had trouble paying their bills even in good years. His father granted credit for purchases at the drugstore, keeping records on small cards he kept in a drawer. Many of the debts were never repaid. As Mr. Bernanke grew older, the textile mills that had supported the area closed and moved overseas in search of cheap labor. Mr. Bernanke worked construction jobs and waited on tables at South of the Border during the summer while an undergraduate at Harvard University. “I was impressed by these experiences,” Mr. Bernanke said last fall at a ceremony in his honor on the steps of the neoclassical courthouse in Dillon, “and I think they were an important reason I went into economics, which a great economist once called the study of people in the ordinary business of life.”
2007:A database with millions of documents from more than 50 concentration camps and prisons - which include books recording Jewish deaths, transportation lists and medical reports - was handed over to Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority and Washington's Holocaust Memorial Museum. "These documents reflect the most despicable operations of the Nazi era and constitute an essential part of our archive," said International Tracing Service (ITS) director Reto Meister during the official handover at the Washington museum.
2008:After a disappointing run for Israel in the Beijing Olympics, windsurfer Shahar Zubari finally gave Israelis a reason to cheer. Zubari won the bronze medal at today's Neil Pryde finals, Israel's first medal at the 2008 games, after arriving in second place in the final race.
2008: The New York Times included a review of The Grift by Debra Ginsberg.
2008:About 50 rabbis in charge of supervising the kosher slaughter and processing of meat at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville walked off the job today to protest recent pay cuts.
2008: A former Agriprocessors Inc. supervisor pleaded guilty today to helping his employer hire illegal immigrants.
2008:The decision by Perth Magistrate Barbara Lane today to allow the extradition of Karoly (Charles) Zentai to Hungary to stand trial for the murder of Jewish teenager Peter Balazs in Budapest on November 8, 19 44, paves the way for an unprecedented, historic victory for Holocaust justice in Australia. 2009: Rosh Chodesh Elul (First Day)
2009: The final of a 3 part series of security briefings for leaders of Jewish institutions in Northern Virginia sponsored by ADL, JCRC & the Jewish Federation Learn featuring presentations y Local Police District Commanders, FBI Senior Personnel, and national Jewish security experts about the latest threats to Jewish communal security and how to be prepared takes place at Congregation Ahavat Israel (Fairfax Chabad) in Fairfax, VA.
2009:In a video-taped message to be screened today at a rally to be held at Rabbi Reuven Elbaz's Or Hachaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Shas mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef lashes out at the Supreme Court for rejecting former minister Shlomo Benizri's appeal to shorten his four-year prison sentence for corruption charges. In the taped message which can be described as somewhere between inflammatory and incendiary, the rabbi declares, "The courts are twisted and the judges don't believe in anything. They are apostates."
2009:Today the High Court of Justice rejected a petition accusing the Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims Assets of breaking the law by allocating funds to organizations that were not solely dedicated to the welfare of Holocaust survivors.
2009(30th of Av, 5769): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2009(30th of Av, 5769): Controversial Israeli entertainment personality Dudu Topaz took his own life today.
2010: U.S. premiere of “The Switch” a comedy by Allan Loeb and co-starring Jeff Goldblum
2010: "A Film Unfinished" Directed by Yael Harsonski is scheduled to premiere at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema in New York City.
2010: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have been invited to Washington to begin direct peace talks on Sept. 2, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a press conference today. The meeting will serve to "re-launch direct negotiations to resolve all final status issues which we believe we can complete in one year," Clinton said.
2010:Harvard University said Friday that it had found a prominent researcher, Marc Hauser, “solely responsible” for eight instances of scientific misconduct. Hauser is the son of French Jew who survived the Holocaust.
2011: Senator Joe Lieberman is scheduled to attend Glen Beck’s Restoring Courage rally in Jerusalem. A self-proclaimed supporter of Israel, Beck has also compared Reform Rabbis to Islamic radicals.
2011(20th of Av, 5771): Eighty-seven year old, Dr. William B. Kannel, the cardiologist was the director of the Framingham Heart Study, passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2011(20th of Av, 5771): Eighty-seven year old Rafael Halperin who gained fame as “The Rasslin Rabbi” before founding Optica Halperin, “the largest eyeglass store chain In Israel.”
2011: Gabriella Elizabeth Thalblum (Gavriella Elisheva) was called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA. This very intelligent and poised young Jewess is the daughter of Rabbi Todd and Sabrina Thalblum. A lover of music and dance, this seventh grader speaks English with that charming drawl she acquired while living in Texas. She did a marvelous job.
2011: A musical Havdalah service followed by a performance by Emilio Estevez is scheduled to take place at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC.
2011: Hamas announced early today they were no longer committed to a more than two-year de facto truce with Israel since the end of a war in early 2009.
2011: A Grad rocket directly struck a home in the southern city of Be'er Sheva tonight, killing one person and seriously wounding four. A number of others are being treated for shock. Another Grad rocket fired at Be'er Sheva was intercepted by the Iron Dome system. Also this evening, two children were lightly wounded when four Grad rockets landed in Ofakim. The Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the Be'er Sheva rocket attacks while Hamas claimed responsibility for the Ofakim rocket attacks. Rocket and mortar attacks took place throughout southern Israel on Saturday. Overall, around 50 Qassam rockets, Grad missiles and mortar shells have been fired at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip since Thursday evening, wounding 16 people. Earlier today, one person was lightly wounded by a rocket that landed in an open area near Be'er Sheva, while seven others received medical attention either for sustaining wounds while seeking shelter, or for shock. Throughout the day, a number of rockets and mortar shells landed in the Eshkol and Sha'ar Hanegev regions.Two rockets also fell in the Be'er Tuvia Regional Council, and another near the city of Ashkelon. No injuries or damage were reported.
2011: Egypt's ambassador to Israel will remain in the country, Foreign Ministry officials said this evening, as the diplomatic crisis vis-à-vis Cairo in the wake of Thursday's terror attacks appeared to be waning.
2012: The KlezKanada Laurentian Retreat, which this year will be dedicated to the memory of Adrienne Cooper z”l is scheduled to begin today.
2012: The Nazareth Orchestra is scheduled to perform at Hazan Hall this evening. The orchestra, “conducted by Dr. Nizar Raduwan, will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Egyptian diva Asmahane with the beloved songs of Umm Kulthum, Asmahane and Layla Morad performed by orchestra soloist Hiba Battihish and Rula Azar, who will be performing with the orchestra for the first time.”
2012: University heads are seeking the reversal of a July decision in favor of granting university status to Ariel’s academic institute, filing a petition with the High Court of Justice to that effect Monday.
2012: The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and IDF, uncovered and indicted a cell of four terrorists belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Shin Bet released for publication today.
2013: German Chancellor Angela Merkeil is scheduled to visit Dachau today “making her Berlin’s first leader to travel to the former Nazi concentration camp. (As reported Lazar Berman)
2013: The Kraemer and Ciment clans gather in Little Rock, AR as they prepare to celebrate a simcha that will unite two of their young adults in marriage.
2013: Israeli officials criticized UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon today for backtracking on his admission last week in Jerusalem that “there was bias and discrimination against Israel at the UN.”(As reported by Herb Keinon)
2013: The United States said today it "strongly condemns" comments from Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan blaming Israel for the military coup and ensuing crisis gripping Egypt (As reported by Michael Wilner)
2013: Tzipi Livini, Israel’s chief negotiator predicted today that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians “will result in dramatic Israeli decisions.” (As reported by Herb Keinon and khaled Abu Toameh)
2014: “Young Israeli clarinetist and saxophonist, Anat Cohen, celebrated in Brazil as a virtuoso player of "choro" music is scheduled perform at the New York premiere of her "Choro Aventoroso" band at 54 Below.
2014: Hamas's "military wing" warned foreign airlines today against flying into Tel Aviv, threatening to step up its six-week conflict with Israel after firing more than 100 rockets on Israeli civilians and pulling out of peace talks. "We are warning international airlines and press them to stop flying into Ben Gurion airport from 6 am (0300 GMT) Thursday," Al Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida stated today, in a televised speech.” (As reported byAFP and Arutz Sheva Staff)
2014: “As a result of the renewed rocket fire, the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon announced new-borns would be transferred to sheltered areas for their protection.”
2014: Shortly after 11:00 p.m., sirens were heard in the vicinity of Ashdod as well as in Sderot and the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council in response to the on-going rocket barrage from Gaza which earlier in the day had included an attack on the Israeli gas installation in the Mediterranean.
2015: Today, “the IDF deployed the Iron Dome missile defense system near the port city of Ashdod.”
2015: At The Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center, Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, the editor of the multi-volume series “Prayers of Awe” is scheduled to “the fascinating history of Avinu Malkeinu, one of the best known prayers of the High Holiday liturgy.
2015: Four rockets fired from Syrian “hit Israel this afternoon in the Upper Galilee region in the north near the Lebanese bored after ‘color red’ warning sires were sounded in the area.”
2015: In “Israel’s Other Existential Threat Comes From Within” published today Hilik Bar a deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset and the secretary general of the Labor Party provided his view of political conditions in his country.
2015: The Women’s Leadership Committee of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host the “Intimate Illusions Summer Benefit” in Chicago, Illinois.
2015: A visitation is scheduled to take place at Temple Judah in memory of Joan Lipsky.
2016(16th of Av, 5776): Parashat Vaetchanan – Shabbat Nachamu;
2016(16th of Av, 5776): One hundred one year old composer Irving Fields passed away today.(As reported by Joseph Berger)
2016: “Murmurs and Incantations” which “tells the story of a gay New York performance artist with creative block who fatefully travels to Poland in an attempt to revive his art career, only to be further confounded by the disapproving ghost of his grandfather, a rabbi killed in the Holocaust” is scheduled to open in New York City.
2016: In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host a “Pancakes and Prayer Shabbat Service and Breakfast.
2016: In New Orleans, LA, Gates of Prayer is scheduled to mark the end of Shabbat with a Brotherhood Havdalah and Saints Pre-season game watch.
2017(28th of Av): Yarhrzeit for Larry Rosenstein, of blessed memory, husband of Judy Levin Rosenstein, of blessed memory. Gone to soon but always remembered!
2017(28th of Av, 5777): Ninety-one year old multi-talented funny man Jerry Lewis passed away today.
2017: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Wrestling With His Angel: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, Volume II, 1849-1856 by Sidney Blumenthal, Freud: The Making of an Illusion by Frederick Crews, The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II by Svetlana Alexievich and the recently released paperback edition of The Chosen Ones by Steve Sem-Sandberg.
2017: Cantor Jennifer Bern-Vogel and singer-songwriter Dan Bern along with friends Karla Goettel, soprano, Steve Vosatka, piano; singer-songwriter Sam Weis, Lena Gilbert, actors Megan and Steve Ginsberg and others are scheduled to present a memorial concert featuring music and poetry in memory of Marianne Bern, pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community.
2017: As the school year beings at the University of Iowa, Hillel is scheduled to host a Bagel Brunch.
2018: “The Guy Mintus Tiro,” led by the Israeli band leader…who will mix his originals with Israeli classics” is scheduled to perform at the Rockwood Music Hall.
2018: As part of “The Lunar Legends series” Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to host a performance of “The Tale of Two Cats.”
2018: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Damascus Cover,” a film centering around Mossad agents.