September 17
1183: As Christians and Muslims jockey for control of what is really the homeland of the Jews, Saladin left Damascus with a large army today with the intention of driving the Crusaders out of Jerusalem.
1375: In Pilsen it was recorded today that ‘Dominus Zyfridus habet potestatem eandem pecuniam inter Judeos sive Christianos con quirerere’. (‘The Lord Zyfridus - a Knight of the Cross from the German order of knights has the right to gather this money among Jews or Christians’) which is a variant on the more common statement that ‘inter Christianos vel judeos obligandi vel vendendi’ (‘of distraint or sale among Christians or Jews’).
1394: The Jews were expelled from France by order of King Charles VI. He used the pretense that a Jewish convert in Paris, Denis Machuit, returned to Judaism, to once again expel the Jews. The order was signed on Yom Kippur and was used as excuse for plundering the Jewish. It was actually enforced on November 3. Jews continued to live in Lyons and papal possessions such as Pugnon.
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1394: Charles VI suddenly published an ordinance in which he declared, in substance, that for a long time he had been taking note of the many complaints provoked by the excesses and misdemeanors which the Jews committed against Christians; and that the prosecutors, having made several investigations, had discovered many violations by the Jews of the agreement they had made with him. Therefore he decreed as an irrevocable law and statute that thenceforth no Jew should dwell in his domains ("Ordonnances", vii. 675). According to the "Religieux de St. Denis", the king signed this decree at the instance of the queen ("Chron. de Charles VI." ii. 119). The decree was not immediately enforced, a respite being granted to the Jews in order that they might sell their property and pay their debts. Those indebted to them were enjoined to redeem their obligations within a set time; otherwise their pledges held in pawn were to be sold by the Jews. The provost was to escort the Jews to the frontier of the kingdom. Subsequently the king released the Christians from their debts.
1480: Two Dominican friars, Miguel de Morillo, Master of Theology, and Juan de San Martin, Bachelor of Theology were commissioned to go to Seville and seek out heresy of the Jews.
1482: William III of Luxembourg passed away. During his reign, William, who ruled Thuringia and Luxemburg, minted a silver gorschen (coin) “known as the Judenkopf Groschen. Its obverse portrait shows a man with a pointed beard wearing a Jewish hat, which the populace took as depicting a typical Jew.” [I cannot find a reason for him doing this.]
1485: Pedro Arbues, the inquisitor for Aragon, was murdered in church by a group of Marranos in retaliation for his activities. The perpetrators were caught, had their hands cut off, and were then beheaded and quartered. Arbues was canonized.
1553(9thof Tishrei): The chanting of Kol Nidre took on an even more solemn than usual since Jews were mourning the burning of copies of the Talmuda
1609(18thof Elul, 5369): According to the Gregorian calendar Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the “MaHaRal” "Moreinu ha-Rav Loew," ("Our Teacher, Rabbi Loew") who according to legend created the Golem of Prague, passed away today.
1630: Founding of Boston, Massachusetts. The Puritan colony and its major city were effectively a theocracy. As such, they were not hospitable to any religious group that deviated from their beliefs. The Jewish community in Boston would not reach critical mass until the 19th century when the first synagogue was formed in 1842 and the second, Adath Israel was formed in 1853. The atmosphere has obviously changed. According to the Boston Globe, the Jewish community in metropolitan Boston has been growing to the point where that it numbers more than 200,000 and makes up over seven percent of the population.
1676(10th of Tishrei, 5437): Sabbatai Zevi, one of the most famous of the False Messiahs passed away. Born in 1626, his antics would develop a huge popular following. Their hopes would be dashed when he chose Islam over death at the hands of the Ottomans. For many, many decades accusing a Jew of being a Sabbatean was onerous as accusing an American of being a member of the Communist Party during the McCarthy Period. There are those who saw the rise of the Chasidic movement with its message of joy and hope as the anti-dote to the disillusionment that had come with the failure of Sabbatai Zevi and the slaughter of the Jews during the Cossack uprising.
1727(2nd of Tishrei, 5488): Glückel of Hameln passed away. Born in 1646, she was a Jewish mother, successful mother, German businesswoman and diarist. It was in this latter category that she gained lasting fame. Her writings provided an eyewitness account life in central Europe three and a half centuries ago. In addition to providing a portrait of the daily life of our European forbearers, she also gave us a front seat view of the survivors of the Chmielnicki massacres and the followers of Sabbati Z’vi. Her memories were passed down from generation to generation until they were first published in 1896. Copies of The life of Gluckel of Hamelin Written by Herself and the Memoirs of Gluckel of Hamelin were published in English during the second half of the 20th century.
1764: Birthdate of Berek Joselewicz Polish Jew who was a successful merchant and a colonel in the Polish Army during the Kosciuszko Uprising during which Poles tried to throw off the yoke of Russian occupation. Joselewicz commanded the first Jewish military formation in modern history
1769: Birthdate of New Yorker Benjamin Gomez. The Gomez family was one of the most prominent families of all early Sephardim in America. Benjamin traced his family’s roots to Isaac Gomez who fled Spain in 1660. In New York the family members were wealthy ship owners and merchants, as well as leaders in the Jewish community. Benjamin was the first Jewish bookseller in America.
1787: The Constitutional Convention meeting in Philadelphia, PA, adopted the United States Constitution. It would not become the “law of the land” until it is ratified by the various states. The organic document of American governance was a critical factor in the development of the Jewish community in the United States. The Bill of Rights, which includes the guarantees the separation of church and state, was not part of the organic document. But ratification of the Constitution was predicated on the promise that the document known as the Bill Rights would be added by the amending process as the first matter of business for the newly formed federal government.
1788: In Portsmouth, Hamphsire, UK, Solomon Lyon, a native of Bohemia and Rachel Hart gave birth to Emma Lyon.
1792(1stof Tishrei, 5553): Rosh Hashana
1794: Polish General Thaddeus Koscuisco who was leading a revolt against the Russians granted Joseph Aronowicz and Berek Joselowicz permission to form a Jewish legion. Five hundred men volunteered in response to the call to arms that was issued in Yiddish.
1800(27th of Elul, 5560): Fifty-eight year old German Kabbalist Nathan Adler and author of Mishnat Rabbi Nathanhttp://www.hebrewbooks.org/22433 passed away.
Born in 1741, he was a German kabbalist born in Frankfurt, December 16, 1741. As a precocious child he won the admiration of Chaim Joseph David Azulai (Chida), who, in 1752, came to Frankfurt to solicit contributions for the poor of Palestine. Adler attended the rabbinical school of Jacob Joshua, author of Pene Yehoshua, who was at that time rabbi at Frankfurt, but his principal teacher was David Tevele Schiff, afterward chief rabbi of the United Kingdom. In 1761 he established a yeshivah himself, in which several prominent rabbis received their early teachings, notable among whom were Abraham Auerbach, Abraham Bing, rabbi in Würzburg, and especially Moses Sofer (Schreiber), rabbi in Presburg. Nathan Adler was mystically inclined. He had devoted himself to the study of the Kabbala, and adopted the liturgical system of Isaac Luria, assembling about himself a select community of kabbalistic adepts. He was one of the first Ashkenazim to adopt the Sephardi pronunciation of Hebrew, and gave hospitality to a Sephardi scholar for several months to ensure that he learnt that pronunciation accurately. He prayed according to the Halebi ritual, pronounced the priestly blessing every day, and in other ways approached the school of the Hasidim, who had at that time provoked the strongest censures on the part of the Talmudists of the old school. His followers claimed that he had performed miracles (Moses Sofer, Chatam Sofer, Orah Chayyim, 197), and turned visionaries themselves, frightening many persons with predictions of misfortunes which would befall them. Finally, the rabbis and congregational leaders intervened in 1779 and prohibited, under penalty of excommunication, the assemblies in Nathan Adler's house.Rabbi Nathan, however, paid no attention to these orders, but continued in his ecstatic piety. He even excommunicated a man who had disregarded his orders, although this was contrary to the laws of the congregation. His doors remained open day and night, and he declared all his possessions to be common property, that thus he might prevent the punishment of those who might carry away by mistake anything with them. Moreover, he commanded Moses Sofer, who had quarreled with his father, never to speak to his parent again. When the same disciple reported to him that he had gone through the whole Talmud, he advised him to celebrate that event by a fast of three days. In spite of the continued conflict with the congregational authorities, the fame of Rabbi Nathan's piety and scholarship grew, and in 1782 he was elected rabbi of Boskowitz in Moravia. But his excessive and mystical piety having made enemies for him, he was forced to leave his congregation, and in 1785 returned to Frankfurt. As he still persisted in his former ways, the threat of excommunication was renewed in 1789, which act was not repealed until shortly before his death at Frankfurt.His wife, Rachel, daughter of Feist Cohen of Giessen, survived him. He left no children, though Nathan Marcus Adler, chief rabbi of London, was named after him. His mysticism seems to have been the cause of his repugnance to literary publications. The kabbalists claimed that real esoteric theology should never be published, but should only be orally transmitted to worthy disciples. In his copy of the Mishnah he wrote brief marginal notes, mostly cross-references. Some of them were collected and explained ingeniously by B. H. Auerbach under the title Mishnat Rabbi Natan. One responsum is found among those of Moses Sofer on Yoreh De'ah, 261
1803(1stof Tishrei, 5564): Rosh Hashanah
1805: In London Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid and Lady Goldsmid gave birth to Anna Maria Goldsmid who gained fame for her translation of the sermons of Dr. Gotthold Salomon and her role as a social worker.
1812: Rothschild signed his revised will.
1819: Birthdate of Jacob Lagowitz, the native of Frankfort-on-the-Oder who came to the United States in 1849 where he made his fortune in the manufacture of traveling trunks and bags before he passed away in 1889.
1825(5thof Tishrei, 5568): Sabbath of Return
1831(10thof Tishrei, 5592): Yom Kippur
1835: Sixty-six year old Ernst Friedrich Karl Rosenmüller whose Scholia in Vetus Testamentum formed the basis of most of the exegetical work on the Old Testament in the nineteenth century and who published “a pocket edition of the Hebrew Bible in 1822” passed away today.
1836(6thof Tishrei, 5597): Shabbat Shuva is observed for the last time during the Presidency of Andrew Jackson.
1837: Alexander Jones married Sarah Moses at the New Synagogue.
1839(9thof Tishrei, 5600): Erev Yom Kippur; Kol Niddre
1841(2ndof Tishrei, 5602): 2nd Day of Rosh Hashanah
1849(1st of Tishrei, 5610): Rosh Hashanah is observed in San Francisco for the first time in a wood-framed tent.
1849: In an unusual move, 33 year Simon Heymann who had passed away today was buried at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1851: Birthdate of Rabbi Dávid Leimdörfer who served as “a military chaplain in the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1875 to 1883” when he became the rabbi at Hamburg Temple.
1855: When Joseph Moses Levy “re-launched” the Daily Telegraph he sold it for one-penny as opposed to The Times which cost sevenpence giving rise to his slogan for the paper “the largest, best, and cheapest newspaper in the world".
1856: A story published today entitled The Last Island Calamity reported that 33 bodies have been recovered following the storms that racked the Louisiana island last month of which 18 have been identified including that of a German Jew named Gimble.
1856: In Bucharest, “Chevailier Abraham Emanuel Gaster, the son of community leader Asriel Gaster and his Phina Judith Rubenstein, the daughter of Isaac Rubenstein gave birth to Moses Gaster, the Romanian born Anglo-Jewish scholar who served as the leader of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in London and was the brother of Ecaterina Gaster Revici the wife of Tulius Revici.
1860(1stof Tishrei, 5621): As the United States teeters on the brink of Civil War, Jews observe Rosh Hashanah
1861: Judah P. Benjamin completed his service as the Attorney General for the Confederacy.
1861: Judah P. Benjamin began serving as the Secretary of War in the cabinet of Jefferson Davis, the President of the CSA.
1862: Union and Rebel armies clash near Sharpsburg, Maryland in what history has come to call the Battle of Antietam. Up to that point, Antietam was the bloodiest day of the war with over 22,000 dead Union and Rebel troops. Since Lee retreated back into Virginia after the battle, Lincoln saw it as a victory. He had promised that he would issue the Emancipation Proclamation following the next Union victory. Lincoln proved to be a man of his words. In general Jews were pleased with the issuance of the proclamation since they were opposed to slavery. One of the heroes of Antietam was General Leopold Blumenberg, of Baltimore. Blumberg was born in Prussia where he enlisted in the military. After a rapid rise to the rank of lieutenant, Blumenberg saw his career stymied by anti-Semitism so he moved to the United States. He joined the Union Army in 1861. At the time of the battle he was a major of his regiment. He was severely wounded at the battle of Antietam and crippled for life and was subsequently brevetted for his meritorious services. His battlefield bravery earned him appointment as Provost Marshall in Washington. He left the Army in 1865 and died as a result of his wounds in 1876. He was buried at Baltimore’s Har Sinai Cemetery. Blumenberg is but one example of the many brave Jewish volunteers who fought for the Union. For example over half of the soldiers in the famed 11th New York Regiment, known as "Ellsworth's Zouaves" in honor of the founder James Ellsworth, were Jewish. The 59th Regiment which had been organized by Philip J. Joachimsen who served as a Lt. Colonel lost over 200 men and 8 officers during the carnage in the West Woods near the Dunker Church.
1862: While serving with Company A of the 72nd Regiment Nathan Roenfelt was “wounded and captured” at the Battle of Antietam.
1862: When he enrolled at Virginia Military Institute (VMI) today, Moses Ezekiel became the first Jew to attend that state’s military college.
1862(22ndof Elul, 5622): William Lazarus, who had been serving with Company E of the 132ndRegiment since August 13 was killed today at the Battle of Antietam.
1863: One day after he had passed away, 24 year old William Meyers was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1863: At its meeting today, the Board of Alderman rejected the Report-of Committee on Finance, in favor of adopting resolution that the Comptroller be directed to dispose of the following ground belonging to the Corporation, and located adjoining the Orphan Asylum of the Hebrew Benevolent Society: On Seventy seventh-street and extending from the westerly line or side of said Orphan Asylum to the easterly line or side of Lexington-avenue, being in extent one hundred and thirty-five feet front and rear, by one hundred feet deep, to the said Hebrew Benevolent Society, to be held by the said Society upon the same tenure or conditions as the twelve lots of ground heretofore grunted to the said Society; the grant hereby made to said Society to be sanctioned by the Legislature of the State, at its next or any subsequent session, in order to perfect the title thereto in the aforesaid Society, and to obviate the prohibition contained in the forty-first section of the amended charter of one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in respect to disposing of the property or franchises of the City.
1865: Today's Foreign Items column reported that a synagogue is about to be opened in St. Petersburg. A Jewish Banker named Gusburg the Jewish banker, has given 70,000 rubles towards the completion of the projection.
1865: Today's "City News" column described preparations in New York City for the upcoming observance of “The Jewish New Year.” “Thursday will be the first day of Tishri, the commencement of the year 5,626, according to Jewish chronology. The event will be celebrated by the Jews throughout the world Extensive preparations are being made for its observance in this city. There will be services in the various synagogues, to be followed by festivals, social gatherings, and general merry-makings.”
1867: In New York, the Board of Aldermen accepted an invitation to visit the Hebrew Orphan Asylum today at 1 p.m.
1868(1st of Tishrei, 5629): Rosh Hashanah
1868: Sigmund Shlesinger was among the U.S. soldiers facing force of Arapaho, Cheyenne and Sioux on the first day of the Battle of Beecher Island
1871:An article that had originally appeared in the Jewish Messenger was published today which provided a summary Benjamin Franklin Peixotto’s service as the U.S. Consul in Bucharest. The mere fact that America’s senior diplomat in Romania is Jewish has given heart to the Jews of Bucharest, Jassy and other towns in their fight against the government’s harsh treatment. Peixotto has effectively represented the position of many in the West that Romania must emancipate its Jewish citizens.
1871(2nd of Tishrei, 5632): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1871: In McGregor, Iowa, Louis R Rowe and his wife gave birth to Leo S Rowe, the Wharton graduate and Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania who president of the American Academy of Political Science and a member of President McKinley’s Commission to Revise and Compile the Law of Porto Rico.
1872: In Iberville Parish, LA, “Perry J. Moses and Rosalie Levy Moses “gave birth to the daughter Rosalie Virginia Moses who became Rosalie Phelps when she married Aaron Cohen Phelps.
1873: Two days after have passed way, 72 year old Samuel Jacobs, the second oldest of Eliezer Jacobs five children was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1873: One day after he had passed away, 61 year old Henry Jacobs was buried at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1875(17th of Elul, 5635): Abraham Weisberg, a Jewish peddler was murdered today in Westchester County, NY leaving behind an “estate” valued at $290.
1876: Mrs. Leopold Weil’s English, German and French Boarding and Day School for Young Ladies of the Jewish Faith is scheduled to open today in New York.
1876: “The Jewish Holidays” published today provides an amazingly detailed account of the origins and customs related to the High Holidays.
1877: During the Russo-Turkish War, it was reported today that “an enterprising Jew from Vienna” has opened an office in the Balkan city of Nikopolis from which he sells newspapers which means that the Russian officers are only 36 hours behind their comrades in arms serving in Bucharest. The sale is limited to newspapers that are not critical of the policies of the Russian government. This means he cannot sale papers from London or Vienna but his customers are happy to read such French and Italian papers as Gaulois and Figaro.
1877(10th of Tishrei, 5638): Yom Kippur
1877: “Ten Fires in Two Hours” published today described the impact of ten fires set between 6 pm and 8 pm in a series of tenements primarily occupied by Jews or that housed businesses owned by Jews including Isaac Cohen’s Crockery Store which sustained $50.00 in damages.
1877: Rabbi De Sola Mendes is scheduled to deliver the Yom Kippur sermon at the Forty-fourth street synagogue in Manhattan.
1877: At Temple Emanu-El in New York City, Rabbi Gustav Gottheil preached a sermon in which he contended that the objection some Israelites have to be called “Jews is an unfounded one, and that the name Jew is one which any person might be glad to bear.”
1877: It was reported today that Harper & Brothers will be offering The Jews and Their Persecutors by Eugene Lawrence which is the latest publication in their popular "Half Hour Series."
1877: At Romny, Poltava, Russia, Abraham Myer Krichefski, the son of David and Rebbeca Kricefski married Mashe Cohen, the daughter of Rachel Cohen.
1878: As the Yellow Fever Epidemic continues to grip the Deep South, New Orleans Mayor Pillsbury received a telegram from Mark Moses, the former Rabbi of the Jackson Street Synagogue who is now living in Providence, Rhode Island, asking for information about his family that lives on Magazine Street. He is worried because he has not received any letters from them in the past several days and has had no reply to telegrams that he has sent.
1878: As the nation responds to the financial needs of Southerners fighting Yellow Fever, the Young Ladies’ Charitable Union has instructed that 40 of the 100 dollars it has collected should be sent to the Hebrew Relief Society of Memphis.
1879(29th of Elul, 5639): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1882(4th of Tishrei, 5643): Since the third of Tishrei fell on Shabbat Tzom Gedaliah is observed today.
1882: “Pass Judgment on Judaism” published today contends that “those who are interested in the so-called Jewish question” (a euphemism for excluding Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe) should examine “the temper and teaching of current and contemporary Judaism and not its consistency with the past.”
1883: It was reported that Charles Scribner’s and Sons has published East of the Jordan by Selah Merrill
1884: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Lester David Volk, the lawyer and physician turned Congressman from New York’s 10th District who served the Army during WW I and whose married to Florence S. Volk with whom he had one child - Alan M. Volk.
1884: In New Haven, Connecticut, the Register published a story that included a remark by Henry B. Harrison in 1857 when, during a trial, he asked the judge, “Your Honor, will you not take the evidence given by 11 Americans in preference to that given by four Jews?” Harrison is running for Governor on the Republican ticket.
1885: In Lithuania, Rabbi and Mrs. Nachum Shraga Revel gave birth to Rabbi Bernard Dov Revel, the first President of Yeshiva College in NYC.
1885: Eighty-five year old Henry Neuwahl, a resident of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews in New York was severely injured today when he was run over by a U.S. mail wagon while crossing at the corner of Broadway and Houston. In his earlier days, he was a successful merchant whose love of fast horse earned him the nickname “Sporting Charlie.”
1886: In Germany, Lewis and Ida Mayer Arnheim gave birth to Leonard Arnheim who would move to the United States in 1868 and eventually represent Doughtery County in the Georgia State Legislature.
1887: In Valdosta, GA. Jacob and Basheva Pearlman Lazarus gave birth to businessman Sam Lazarus the husband of Anna (Stein) Lazurs with whom he had five sons – Mendel, Leon Sidney, Milton and Ralph Lazarus – and one daughter Francis Lazrus Simon.
1888: In New York City, the audience at Koster and Biali’s Concert Hall laughed like lunatics as they were entertained by Frank Bush “whose imitations of the Hebrew gentlemen of impolite fiction are known from Harlem to Los Angeles.
1890(3rd of Tishrei, 5651): Fast of Gedaliah
1890(3rd of Tishrei, 5651): Sixty year old Rabbi T.A. Moses of New York passed away in Huntingdon, PA after being stricken with apoplexy.
1892: In London, Professor Hechler, the Chaplain of the British Embassy at Vienna, presented a paper at the Internationalist Congress that described a papyrus manuscript discovered a few months ago in Egypt that is supposed “to be the oldest copy…of portions of the…books of Zechariah and Malachi.”
1893: Bernard Weinberger, the banker and steamship agent who had suffered major business reversals, was alive today after surviving an attempt to take his own life by sucking on gas filled tube in his hotel room last night.
1893: Two days after she had passed away, 73 year old Alice Levy, the daughter of Abraham Moses was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1894: In Prague Jakob and Barbara Bondy gave birth to Karel Bondy
1895: A meeting of anti-Semites held in the Hopfenbluhe Hall tonight “passed a resolution amid cheers asking the Prince Regent of Bavaria not to” show “any clemency to the Jew,” Louis Stern of New York.
1896(10th of Tishrei, 5657): Yom Kippur
1896: Nathan Fischer is locked up in the East 67thStreet Police Station after he attacked Abraham Pollack, an usher at Mount Sinai Temple in a dispute over Fischer’s admission ticket.
1896: Birthdate of Dr. Sheldon Blank, the native of Mt. Carmel, Illinois and graduate of the University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College who after being ordained as a rabbi in 1923 earned a Ph.D at the University of Jena before pursuing a career at HUC.
1897: Today, The Hebrew Standard of New York gave its unqualified support to Seth Low for Mayor of Greater New York (what we now call New York City)
1897: In Glasgow, Scotland, Nechi Surah Wilamowski and Solomon Wolfson and his wife gave birth to Sir Isaac Wolfson, the Scottish businessman and philanthropist.
1897: “Their Second Marriage” published today described the romantic ups and downs of Mathew Sterling Borden, Yale ’95, the son of a Chicago millionaire and Mildred N. Nerbaur, the daughter of a Jewish tailor in New Haven, CT
1898(1st of Tishrei, 5659): Rosh Hashanah
1898: At Temple B’nai Jeshurun, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise delivered a sermon that included references to “the triumphant war against Spain” that was a fight “against injustice and unrighteousness; the hope that the wrong done to Captain Dreyfus would soon be righted; and the view that Zionism would prove to be “a unifying and inspiring force among the ten million” Jews scattered around the world.
1898: At Temple Beth-El, Rabbi Kaufman Kohler delivered a sermon entitled “The Larger Life and Larger Visions.”
1898: At Temple Israel in Harlem, Rabbi Harris delivered a sermon entitled “The Jewish Question.”
1898: At Shearith Israel, Rabbi Pereira Mendez delivered a sermon entitled “The Good and the Evil” based on the words of Amos “Seek ye the Lord”
1898: At Temple Emanu-El Rabbi Gustav Gottheil delivered a sermon entitled “The New Era.”
1898: Jewish soldiers, many of them veterans of the recent war with Spain including Alfred Levi of Cincinnati who served with the 17th Infantry in Cuba, attended services at many of the congregations in New York including Temple Emanu-El where fifty seats had been reserved for their use.
1898: The wealthy Jews living in Hempstead, Long Island and its surrounding villages are planning holding New Year’s services for the first time as part of their long-term plan to build a permanent synagogue.
1898: Herzl meets with the German minister Bernhard von Bülow
1899: “Two thousand residents of Chicago” nearly half of whom were women “assembled at Metropolitan Hall…this afternoon and protested against the verdict of the court-martial in the Dreyfus case.”
1899: In his review published today, Edward Dithmar writes tha “from a strictly critical point of view ‘The Ghetto’ is not much of play. It is slow moving and wordy…It throws no new light on Jewish character while its implied moral is neither very clear nor very valuable.” It will draw because its name will lead people to confuse it with Zangwill’s “Children of the Ghetto.”
1899: “Sunday Labor Legislation” published today traces the history of Sunday labor laws in Massachusetts including the fact that “in 1895 the law as to labor on Sunday was…modified to accord with the religious ideas of the Jews. A statute provided that ‘whoever conscientiously believes that the seventh day of the week ought be observed as the Sabbath and actually refrains from secular business and labor on that day, shall not be liable to the penalties of this section for performing secular business and labor on the Lord’s day, if he disturbs no other person.’”
1899: Reverend W. S. Crowe, the past of the Church of the Eternal Hope delivered a sermon on “The Religious Aspects of the Dreyfus Case” in which he condemned the verdict.
1899: In London’s Hyde Park, a few thousand people stood around the seven platforms and hear the speakers condemn the Dreyfus verdict.
1899: In the prelude to his sermon tonight, Reverend Madison C. Peters of the Bloomingdale Reformed Church spoke out against the Dreyfus verdict saying that Dreyfus “was condemned, the innocent for the guilty on the General Staff, and he was condemned solely because he was a Jew.”
1902: Annie Krichefski of Jersey married Robert Katz.
1904: In Rozwadow, Poland Meir Katz and his wife Hinda Garten gave birth to Abraham Garten Katz.
1905: Birthdate of Dutch mathematician Hans Freudenthal.
1904(8th of Tishrei, 5665): Shabbat Shuvah
1904: In Rozwadow, Meir Katz and the former Hinda Gartnen gave birth to Abraham Katz-Garten.
1904: Birthdate of Edgar Georg Ulmer, the Moravian born American film director whose films included “The Black Cat” and “Detour.”
1907(9th of Tishrei, 5668): In the evening, Kol Nidre.
1907(9th of Tishrei, 5668): Sixty-year old pianist and composer Ignaz Brüll, whose works would be banned by the Nazis passed away today in Viennal
1908: Birthdate of Russian born violin virtuoso David Oistrakh
1909: Louis Waldman, a founding member of the Social Democratic Federation, and a prominent New York labor lawyer, having left the Ukraine, arrived in New York today where he joined his sisters who were already living there.
1909(2nd of Tishrei, 5670): Second day of Rosh Hashanah
1909(2nd of Tishrei, 5670): Max Lewy passed away.
1910(13th of Elul, 5670):Mrs. Golde Schilling passed away.
1910(13th of Elul, 5670): Mrs. Jette Trembe passed away.
1913: Forty-year old Chicago attorney and member of B’nai B’rith founded the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) which aimed to halt anti-Semitism by all legal means and at a broader level to fight against injustice and inequality without regard to the origins of the group being attacked.
1914: During WW I which saw Jews fighting in all of the armies of the Great Powers, today the German and Austrian general staffs were trying to gather “a force of between one and two million men to stem the Russian advance in the East” while on the Western Front, the 6th German Army failed to outflank Allied troops in Belgium which made the cry of Home by Christmas seem less and less likely.
1915(9th of Tishrei, 5675): In the evening, Kol Nidre
1915: “The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, the oldest congregation in New York” held two services at the same time under the direction of Louis Napoleon Levy with “Dr. H. Pereira Menes preaching in the upper auditorium and Assistant Rabbi David De Sola Pool preaching downstairs
1915: At Rodoph Sholom on Lexington Avenue, Rabbi Rudolph Grossman delivered a sermon entitled “The Moral Failure of Our Civilization.”
1915: At Temple Israel on Lenox Avenue, Dr. Maurice H. Harris delivered a sermon entitled “The Sanctification of the Name.”
1915: At Temple Emanu-El, Dr. Joseph Silverman delivered a sermon entitled “The Perfect Man vs. the Superman” in which he spoke favorably about “ex-Governor Slaton of Georgia” who “rose above the clamor of the crowd and rescued Leo M. Frank from the jaws of death” while condemning the “frenzie move that wreaked vengeance and violated the laws of its own State” by lynching Frank.
1915: In the wake of the “twenty-four accidental fires” started by candles being burned on Rosh Hashanah the New York Fire Commissioners hopes that with candles burning in every Jewish home in the city “the heads of these families” will place “candles in a remote spot” preferably “in a pan of earth or vessel of water.”
1915: It was reported today that the decision to remove the Grand Duke from his position of commanding all Russian military forces was in part, a response to “domestic difficulties” brought on by his extreme reactionary views including his failure to the keep the promise “of better treatment of the Jews.”
1916: In New York “steps to raise one million dollars for the relief of Romanian Jews” and for the establishment of a campaign to obtain “equal rights and emancipation” for them “were taken at two meeting attended” by “two hundred delegates representing 35 organizations”
1916: It was reported today that the Joint Distribution Committee chaired by Felix M Warburg has raised $5,797, 280.36.
1916: Dr. Samuel Landau, the cantor at B’nai Israel, an Orthodox synagogue was “the principal speaker” at the dedication of the congregation’s new facility at Bedford Avenue and Hewes Street in Williamsburg.
1916: “Dr. Samuel Schulman, a member of the original sub-committee of the Conference of National Jewish Organizations” said this afternoon that “It is deplorable that” “the peace plan for an American Jewish Congress to demand equal for Jews in other countries” “was voted down” because the “agreement had been reach after much labor and thought and had been assented to by men on both sides who understood every phase of the Jewish problem.”
1916: It was reported today that among the contributions received by the Central committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War were $24 from the Daughter of Jacob in Amsterdam, NY, $81 from Rabbi J.N. Rosenberg and $20 from Rabbi I.P Wolkowitz.
1917(1st of Tishrei, 5678): Rosh Hashanah
1917: “More than 300 soldiers in uniform attended the services at the Institutional Synagogue at 110th Street and Fifth Avenue.”
1917: Abram I. Elkus, the former Ambassador to Turkey “spoke at the Community Building…at service conducted under the direction of the Free Synagogue” where he said that “every citizen of this country is expected to do his duty regardless of how he may feel toward warfare in general and the motives and principles involved.
1917: At Temple Beth-El, Rabbi Samuel Schulman told his congregants that “the only sane opinion today” is the one “which urges us to give ourselves single mindedly to our nation until America has its influence felt and has won a real victory.
1917: Today marks the official start of special campaign by the American Jewish Relief Committee chaired by Louis Marshall “to raise $1,000,000 toward the $10,000,000 Jewish War Relief Fund.”
1918: Birthdate of Leah Lenke Roth the native of Sajoszentpeter in northeast Hungary who gained fame as Leah Gottlieb, the woman “who started with a single sewing machine in a refugee camp in the new nation-state of Israel and rose to become one of the world’s most renowned designers of women’s bathing suits.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1918: During WW I, as General Allenby prepares to resume his offensive north of Jerusalem an Indian sergeant crosses into the Turkish lines where he warns them that the British are about to attack. The Turks believe him, but the German general in command does not which means that Allenby will have the element of surprise as he continues the offensive that will ultimately lead to British control over Palestine.
1918: On the day after Yom Kippur, Sergeant Abraham Blaustein of the 165thregiment (formerly the fabled 69th regiment) headed left St. Benoit after a three day stay and headed for La March, another French town that had to be taken on the road to Berlin.
1918: Birthdate of Chaim Herzog(חיים הרצוג) sixth President of Israel. Herzog was born in 1918 in Belfast, where his father, Dr Isaac Herzog, was rabbi. While Chaim was still a child, Isaac was appointed Chief Rabbi of Ireland and the family moved to Dublin. Chaim is remembered there as a former bantam-weight boxing champion. After college, he moved to Palestine in 1935. He joined the Palmach and defended Jewish settlements during the Arab Uprising that lasted from 1936 until 1938. Herzog returned to England where he studied to become a lawyer. He fought with the British forces in Europe during World War II where his forte was intelligence. After the war, he returned to Palestine where he took an active role in the fighting to create the new state of Israel. After the war, the new state made use of Herzog’s knowledge of Intelligence work. He enjoyed a successful career filling several military, civilian and private sector positions. He passed away in 1997. Chaim Herzog in his own words: "I do not bring forgiveness with me, nor forgetfulness. The only ones who can forgive are dead; the living have no right to forget.”
1918: Birthdate of Chaim Herzog(חיים הרצוג) sixth President of Israel. Herzog was born in 1918 in Belfast, where his father, Dr Isaac Herzog, was rabbi. While Chaim was still a child, Isaac was appointed Chief Rabbi of Ireland and the family moved to Dublin. Chaim is remembered there as a former bantam-weight boxing champion. After college, he moved to Palestine in 1935. He joined the Palmach and defended Jewish settlements during the Arab Uprising that lasted from 1936 until 1938. Herzog returned to England where he studied to become a lawyer. He fought with the British forces in Europe during World War II where his forte was intelligence. After the war, he returned to Palestine where he took an active role in the fighting to create the new state of Israel. After the war, the new state made use of Herzog’s knowledge of Intelligence work. He enjoyed a successful career filling several military, civilian and private sector positions. He passed away in 1997. Chaim Herzog in his own words: "I do not bring forgiveness with me, nor forgetfulness. The only ones who can forgive are dead; the living have no right to forget.”
1920: In Toronto, David and Lillian gave birth to Harold Levy who gained fame as Peter Allen, “the radio voice of the Metropolitan Opera’s Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts. (As reported by James Barron)
1920: It was reported today that B’nai Abram Congregation of Minneapolis has dedicated a new synagogue at Thirteenth Avenue and 9thStreet.
1920: It was reported today that “Rabbi Harry of Congregation B’nai Israel in Cleveland” has accepted a similar position with Congregation B’rith Sholom in Bethlehem, PA.
1920: It was reported today that violinist Mischa Elman “has been decorated by the King of the Belgians.”
1920: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Justice Abram I. Elkus and Joseph M. Levine are scheduled to address a meeting in the Prospect Avenue Macy Place Methodist Church, the temporary home of the Bronx Free Synagogue where they will appeal to attendees to help contributed to the drive to raise $125,000 for purchase of the church as the Bronx Free Synagogue Community Center.”
1921: Mr. and Mrs. Julius Rosenwald announced the engagement tonight of their daughter Miss Marion Rosenwald to Alfred K. Stern, the son of Mrs. Max Stern. Mr. Stern had been living in Fargo, North Dakota. No date has been set for the wedding. [Stern would later divorce the Sears & Roebuck heiress and eventually marry Martha Dodd, the daughter William E. Dodd, the first U.S. Ambassador to Germany to serve after Hitler came to power. For more about the Dodds see In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson]
1922: In Canada, Shaar Hashomayim dedicated its new synagogue at the corner of Kensington Avenue and Côte St. Antoine in Westmount. The congregation had acquired the ground in 1920. In 1921, Lyon Cohen, the president of the congregation had laid the cornerstone which had come from Eretz Israel.
1925: Sir Mathew Nathan completed his service as Governor of Queensland.
1925: In Berlin, mathematicians Richard Brauer and Ilse Karger were married today six years before Brauer fled the country and began teaching at the University of Kentucky and seven years before Ilse was able to escape to the United States.
1926(9th of Tishrei, 5687): Erev Yom Kippur
1926: Charles and Gisèle Lustiger gave birth to Aaron Lustiger who converted to Catholicism in 1940, became the Archbishop of Paris and was ultimately name a Cardinal as Aaron Jean-Marie Lustiger
1927: In suburban Philadelphia, PA Rabbi Philip Reis Alstat spoke at the dedication ceremonies of Ohev Shalom Synagogue Center.
1927: Annie Krichefski and Robert Katz celebrated their silver anniversary in Jersey.
1927: Abraham Myer Krichefski and Mashe Cohen celebrated their golden anniversary in Jersey.
1927: Fanny Brice divorced Nicky Arnstein today.
1928(3rd of Tishrei, 5689): Tzom Gedaliah is observed for the last time during the Presidency of Calvin Coolidge.
1929: The Jewish community in Palestine is feeling a sense of increasing anxiety over the fact that 45 of 51 Jews arrested in Haifa have been charged with attempted or premeditated murder under the direction public prosecutors in Haifa who are Arabs. In addition to which bail has been denied. The arrest comes on the heels of a wave of Arab violence that included massacres at Hebron and Safed.
1930: Shortstop Jim Levey made his major league debut with the St. Louis Browns.
1933: The National Representation of German Jews (Reichsvertretung der Dutschen Juden) was established "to come to grips with the troubled times..." Rabbi Leo Baeck would be its president.
1934: U.S. premiere of “Young and Beautiful,” a comedy produced by Nat Levine with a script by Dore Schary.
1936(1stof Tishrei, 5697): As FDR prepares to face Alf Landon in the Presidential election, Jews observe Rosh Hashanah
1936: “Nazi Penalties Heavier” published today described the decision of the Reich Justice Ministry to instruct “public prosecutors to demand more severe punish for Jewish ‘race defilers’ – Jews convicted of having had relations with ‘German women.’”
1936: “Dr. Samuel H. Goldenson of Temple of Temple Emanu-El who had chosen ‘Micha’s Creed for the Troubles of 1936” as “the theme for this morning’ service” included the quote “What does the Lord require of Thee? To do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.”
1936: In his sermon today, Rabbi Jonah B. Wise of Central Synagogue “said that humility was the need of our time and that the Jew must learn to walk humbly with his God.”
1936: At Shaaray Tefila on West 82nd Street, Rabbi Nathan Stern delivered a sermon entitled “One Step Further in which he said “the dictatorship of God alone give security and has endurance.”
1936: At Temple Israel, Rabbi William F. Rosenblum congregants that their mission was “to get together and to make the world what was intended to be.”
1936: At the Free Synagogue in Carnegie Hall Rabbi Stephen S. Wise delivered a sermon entitled “Not Without Hope” saying “that the Jew suffered because he hoped and that he hoped despite his sufferings.”
1936: At Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan Dr. Israel Goldstein delivered a sermon entitled “Can the Evil Decree Be Averted?”
1936: “Charges of an Italian plot to stir up Arab unrest in Palestine were made by a special correspondent of the London Daily Herald now” working “in Jerusalem.”
1936: During his sermon at Ohab Zedek, Rabbi William Margolis “assailed dictatorships as enemies of civilization.”
1936: Rabbi Joseph Zeitlin led Rosh Hashanah services at Temple Ansche Chesed in New York.
1936: Rabbi Joseph Hager led Rosh Hashanah services at the Wall Street Synagogue on Maiden Lane.
1936: At the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Dr. David de Sola Pool delivered a sermon entitled “Can We Make This a Better World?”
1936: “As is customary, Yiddish theatres began seasons” with “four playhouses opening in Manhattan, two in the Bronx, three in Brooklyn” and several others opening Newark and Philadelphia.
1936: Colonel Josef Beck, the Foreign Minister of Poland left today for Geneva for a meeting of the League of Nations where “the problem of mass emigration of Polish Jews to Palestine will be raised.”
1936: The United States must accept a share of blame in the "horrible record of murders and destructive acts" in Palestine, in the opinion of Senators Royal S. Copeland of New York and Warren R. Austin of Vermont, who returned today on the Italian liner Conte di Savoia after an unofficial study of conditions in the Holy Land. In a jointly issued statement the senators said that the United States “government cannot be held blameless until it calls sharply to the attention of Great retain our feeling that the mandate is not being administered as it should be. No matter how pressing may be the demands of a Presidential election, time out must be taken to have the atrocities in Palestine stopped.” The senators descried the security measures as being “lax” and expressed the view that a New York police official backed by 1,000 officers and 200 detectives could reestablish law and order in the wake of Arab violence.
1936: “Blum Finds Jews Are Good Patriots” published today provided a summary of “an article published in the current issue of the American Hebrew” in which the Premier of France asserted “that loyalty to Judaism need not impair the patriotism of Jews” but also make “a plea for Zionism to provide a refuge for victims of intolerance and persecution.”
1936: In his New Year’s greeting published today, President Roosevelt said “Mindful of the signal part taken by the Jewish people of America in upholding the traditions and aims of our country, it gives me special pleasure to extend cordial greetings to all those of the Jewish faith on this Rosh Hashanah.”
1937: The Palestine Post reported that the League of Nations Council, meeting in Geneva, unanimously adopted British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden's plan and decided to send a new Special Commission to Palestine, to consult with Jews and Arabs how best to implement the Royal (Peel) Commission Report's recommendations on the country's partition and fix the future boundaries of both states and of the British enclaves. In the meanwhile the Palestine Mandate of July 24, 19 22
1938(21stof Elul, 5698): Parashat Ki Tavo; Leil Selichot
1938: In Pittsburg, 80 year old Keysville, VA born, U.VA educated Pittsburgh attorney A. Leo Weil passed way today.
1938: Hank Greenberg hits his fifty first home run of the season which kept him even with Babe Ruth’s 1927 record breaking pace.
1939(4th of Tishrei, 5700): Tzom Gedaliah
1939(4th of Tishrei, 5700): Nineteen Jews were killed and many more were injured when a train struck a bus halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
1939: The Soviet Union invaded Poland during WW II. This invasion was part of the terms of the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact that made it possible for the Germans to invade Poland. The Nazis traded half of Poland to ensure that the Germans would have a free hand in fighting the British and the French without having to worry about fighting the Soviets at the same time.
1941: The Nazis took several thousand Jews taken from their homes in Kovno and locked them in synagogues for three days. They then brought them to prepared ditches and shot them all.
1941: A general deportation of German Jews remaining in the Fatherland began. For those interested in the topic you might want to read The Last Jews in Berlin by Leonard Gross, which depicts the life of 18 Jews living in the capital of Nazi Germany.
1941: “At Wuerzburg, Germany, the Jews were marched through the town carrying their meagre belongings and forced on to trains headed for Nuremberg which would be joined to longer trains headed for “The East” a euphemism for the death camps.
1942(6th of Tishrei, 5703): Forty-two year old Dutch businessman Abraham Icek Tuschinski and owner of the famous Tuschiniski Movie Theatre in Amsterdam was murdered today at Auschwitz having been shipped there from the infamous Westerbork concentration camp.
1943: The Russian city of Bryansk was liberated from Nazis. Bryansk was occupied by the Nazis for over seven hundred days. It was the scene of on-going partisan activity. Jews played an active part in this resistance. Before the Nazis left the areas, Jews hiding in the forest around Bryansk were attacked and killed by local forces loyal to the Nazis. The excuse for killing them was that they were “pro-Soviet.”
1943: In Lyon, Fritz Freund, a Jewish veteran of the French Army, went out to buy food for his wife Mathilde and himself. He never returned. Mathilde searched for her husband in vain. She was told by on-lookers that her husband was probably one of those who were shoved into cattle cars by employees of the French national railway company. The cars went from Lyon, to a holding camp in Compiegne before depositing their human cargo at Buchenwald. Yes, the French were willing accomplices to the Nazi final solution. This is the Compiegne where the Armistice was signed in 1918 and where the French cravenly surrendered to the Nazis in 1940
1943(17th of Elul, 5703): Estella Blits- Agsterribe, her six-year old daughter Nanny and two-year old son Alfred were murdered today at Auschwitz. Before marrying Samuel Blits, she was known as Estella Agsterribe, one of the members of the 1928 gold medal winning Dutch ladies Olympic Gymnastics Team.
1943: “Revenge of the Zombies,” a horror film directed by Steve Sekely was released today in the United States.
1944(29th of Elul, 5704): Erev Rosh Hashanah 5705
1944: During WW II, the start of the disastrous operation known as Market-Garden the British part of which was the “Battle of Arnhem” and whose participants included a significant number of Anglo-Jewish Paratroopers as well as Jews fighting with Polish Parachute Brigade.
1944: While serving as a Chaplain in the United States Army, Rabbi Harold I. Saperstein delivered a sermon “The Call of the Shofar” at Grenoble, France.
1944: “Russia Fears Reich May Win Soft Peace” published today described “a growing feeling among the Soviets that the Americans and British may take too easy an attitude toward the Germans after the war.”
1944: As the Red Army approached, the Germans started the evacuation of the Bor labor camp. The first Hungarian death march began. Five thousand people would set off, only 9 would survive.
1944(29th of Elul, 5704): Near Verona, Italy, 23-year-old Rita Rosani, the Jewish leader of an Italian partisan group, is killed in a battle with German troops.
1944: Moseh Pinchasovich, the son of Yosef and Rivka Pinchasovich and husband of Rivka Pinchasovich passed away today.
194510th of Tishrei, 5706) Yom Kippur: Jews fast on the first Yom Kippur after the end of World War II and the Holocaust.
1945(10th of Tishrei, 5706) as Jews observed Yom Kippur for the first time since the end of WW II, rabbis grappled with the Shoah and its aftermath offering different ways to deal with the future that ranged from the very practical to the spiritual. At Rodeph Shalom, Rabbi Louis Newman told congregants that “six million Jews have died a martyr’s death and their blood cries up from the ground. The least America and Britain can do is to open the doors of Palestine to Jewish immigration and to enable the homeless and wandering to come at last to security and peace. At B’nai Jeshurun Rabbi Israel Goldstein confronted the reality that the culture of European Jewry had been destroyed when he told his congregants that “American Jewry will be called upon for a long time to be the big brother of Jewish Communities the world over. It must prepare itself for this responsibility by matching it philanthropic endeavors with its education and religious activities.” At Pelham Parkway Jewish Center, Rabbi Jacob Katz reminded his congregants that “Before we may properly pray for forgiveness from God, we must obtain reconciliation from our fellowmen” which provides a natural segue to Rabbi Joseph Lookstein’s call for “mankind’s penitence to be expressed through a universal resolution that wheresoever and against whomsoever evil will raise its ugly head it will become the concern of all decent man and nations to stamp it out. Anti-Semitism, anti-Negroism and anti-Catholicism and all of the many manifestations of bigotry will be recognized for what they are – destructive forces that will be dealt with accordingly.
1945: Birthdate of “American video artist” Beryl Korot who has collaborated with Steve Reich on at least two projects.
1947: In the past two years, since August 1945, 347 people had been killed in Palestine under British occupation including 169 Englishmen, 88 Jews, 85 Arabs and 5 listed as “unidentified.”
1948(13th of Elul, 5708): Sixty-seven year old Emil Ludwig (born Emil Cohn) the journalist whose work included interviews with Mussolini, Ataturk and Stalin died today in Switzerland.
1948(13th of Elul, 5708): Fifty-nine year old Hungarian born “painter and caricaturist” Henry Major who came to the United States and settled in New York passed away today in Provincetown, MA.
1948: Acting in a manner that brought shame to the Jewish people, the Stern Gang assassinated Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the UN to mediate between the Arabs and Jews during the War for Independence. Bernadotte’s position was viewed as pro-Arab and that was the rational offered for this act. Bernadotte was eventually by Ralph Bunche who would win the Nobel Peace Prize for ending the conflict in 1949.
1948: Today, “in Bad Reichenall, Anton Piëch a member of Nazi Party and the SS and son-in-law of Ferdianand Porsche who manufactured Volkswagens and parts for weapons including the V-1 flying bomb, “participated in the signing of the agreement between Volkswagenwerk GmbH (under the leadership of new CEO Heinrich Nordhoff) and Porsche Kommanditgesellschaft.”
1949(23rd of Elul, 5709): Parashat Nitzavim-Vayeilech’ Leil Selichot
1949: Clothing manufacturer Abraham Marcus passed away today in his native Baltimore.
1950: It was learned today that the Jordanian Government has asked the United Nations to suspend Security Council action on its complaint against Israel's occupation of a disputed strip of land at the confluence of the Jordan and Yarmuk Rivers.
1950(6th of Tishrei, 5711): Sixty-five year old New York City Magistrate Morris Rothenberg, the general chairman of the United Palestine Appeal passed away to at the Biltmore Hotel after suffering a heart attack following a meeting of the National Executive Committee of the Zionist Organization of America.
1950: In a single sentence communiqué issued in New Delhi by the Ministry of External Affairs, India announced that it was recognizing the Government of Israel effective on this date. The Indians made it clear that the recognition should not be seen as a change in its policy supporting the Arabs in their conflicts with the Jewish state. India has no intention of sending a diplomat to take up residence in Israel. The Israelis will not be sending anybody to Delhi because of a lack of funds and trained personnel.
1951: “Negotiations of a new five-point plan aimed at establishing peace between Israel and the Arab states were delayed while Israeli representative awaited their government’s reaction to the plan” which is the handiwork of the United Nations Palestine Conciliation Commission. Under the terms of the plan, among other things, Israel would pay the 850,000 Arab refugees for the property they had left behind in what is now Israel, funds would be made available to those countries in which the refugees were now living for economic development, borders would draw “to avoid friction” and “both sides would renounce all warlike methods and ‘respect the rights of neighbors to security.’”
1953: In Greenwich, London, Cecil Day-Lewis who was not Jewish and actress Jill Balcon who was gave birth to actress Lydia Tamasin Day-Lewis, the sister of actor Daniel Day-Lewis.
1955(1st of Tishrei, 5716): Rosh Hashanah
1955: Birthdate of comedienne Rita Rudner
1956: U.S. premiere of “Lust for Life” the movie version of the novel by Irving Stone with a script by Norman Corwin starring Kirk Douglas.
1957: In Tel Aviv, American athletes scored two more victories when “Martin Engel tossed the hammer 192 feet” and 41 year old Henry Laskau won the 3,000-meter walk marking the third time he has won the event.
1958: Seventy one year old Austrian born British Chemist Friedrich Paneth, whose parents were Jewish but who was raised as a Protestant, passed away today.
1959: ITV broadcast the first episode of “The Four Just Men” with music by Francis Chagin.
1961: NBC broadcast the first episode of “Car 54 Where Are You?” created by Nate Hiken who also served as director, producer and wrote the theme music for the police themed sitcom.
1962: “The Days and Nights of BeeBee Fenstermaker” directed by Ulu Grosbard premiered tonight at the Sheridan Square Playhouse.
1964(11th of Tishrei, 5725): Sixty-nine year old Samuel Randolph Parnes, the husband of Rose Meyerson Parnes passed away today after which he was buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery.
1964(11thof Tishrei, 5725): Twenty-four year old Merry Abel Barge, the wife of Dr. Peter Barg and daught of Lionel and Sherry Abel passed away today in San Francisco.
1966: CBS television broadcast the first episode of Bruce Geller’s “Mission Impossible” starring Steven Hill, “the Orthodox Jew who had to leave the set on Fridays at 4 p.m., Barbara Bain and Martin Landau with a theme song by Lalo Schifrin.
1969: “A Place for Lovers” produced by Arthur Cohn with music by Lee Konitz was released in France today by MGM.
1969(5thof Tishrei, 5730): A month before her 69th birthday, Ida Klein Clurman , the widow of Sam Clurman, passed away today after which she interred at Montefiore Cemetery in Queens.
1969: Birthdate of Kobi Oz, the native of Sderot “who is he lead singer of Teapacks.”
1971: U.S. premiere of “Kotch” starring Walter Matthau with music by Marvin Hamlisch.
1972(9th of Tishrei, 5733): Erev Yom Kippur
1972: “In a pre-Yom Kippur message, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson said that only after self-analysis ‘can one positively influence fellow Jews for improvement.”
1972: First episode of “M*A*S*H” appeared on CBS. The hit show was created by Chicago native Larry Gelbart.
1972: In his Yom Kippur message delivered today, Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath, the President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations “urged American Jews ‘to campaign vigorously for Jewish rights, safeguarding of Israel, and freedom of Soviet Jews’” while playing “a strong role in fighting ‘for the rights all minority groups.’”
1972: “Rabbi Ala. W. Miller at the Society for Advancement of Judaism…said a crucial problem confronting Jews and non-Jews was overcoming ‘violence in the streets, violence in the air, violence in every part of the globe.’”
1972: In his Yom Kippur message published today, Rabbi Louis Bernstein, President of the Rabbinical Council of America “cited world peace as ‘the most urgent problem which humanity faces today.’”
1972: “Rabbi Joseph Karasik, President of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregation of America said Jews must dedicated themselves ‘to the principles which our sacred Torah expresses’” while recognizing “any danger to Israel…as a danger to the survival of civilization as we known it.”
1972: In Crown Heights, “150 Jews from Russia who have settled in Israel and are visiting” in the United States” tonight have “their first opportunity to observe Yom Kippur under the guidance of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, lead of the worldwide Lubavitcher movement…”
1974(1stof Tishrei, 5735): Rosh Hashanah
1976: “The Front,” a comedic look at “the notorious Hollywood blacklist” written by Walter Bernstein, directed by Martin Rift and co-starring Woody Allen, Zero Mostel and Herschel Bernardi was released today in the United States by Columbia Pictures.
1978: Conclusion of the first Camp David summit talks hosted by President Carter and attended by Begin and Sadat. The Camp David Accords were signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
1980: In New York at The Jewish Museumopening of Andy Warhol: Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century
1982(29th of Elul, 5742): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1982(29th of Elul, 5742): Sam H. Toubin, a merchant in Brenham, Texas, who owned stores in nine different towns and was the husband of Rosa Levin Toubin, the historian for the local Jewish community, passed away.
1982(29thof Elul, 5742): Ninety year old David Dubinsky, former president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and an influential labor leader for more than three decades, died today in Manhattan after a long illness.
1983(10thof Tishrei, 5744): Yom Kippur
1984: B'nai Brith Women denounced a B'nai Brith International resolution to begin admitting women to the previously all-male organization. BBW declared full independence from B'nai B'rith in 1995 and changed its name to Jewish Women International. Today, Jewish Women International focuses on three main issues: domestic violence, the emotional well-being of children, and the expression of Jewish life and values. JWI also still supports many of the organizations that it did while a part of B'nai Brith such as Hillel, The B'nai B’rith Youth Organization, and the Children's Home and Group House in Jerusalem. (JWA) 1988(6thof Tishrei, 5749): Seventy-seven year old New Jersey native Albert “Reds” Weinger who was “four sport” (football, basketball, baseball and track) at Muhlenberg College before playing one year with Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL passed away today.
1985(2ndof Tishrei, 5746): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1985(2ndof Tishrei, 5746): Seventy-eight year Fred Polak, the Dutch futurist and author of The Image of the Future, passed away today.
1987: The first episode of “Out of this World” a fantasy sitcom starring Donna Prescow aired today.
1988(6thof Tishrei, 5749): Parsashat Vayeilech; Shabbat Shuva
1989: “New Jewish Group Formed for Interfaith Ties” published today described the formation of “the Jewish Council for International Interreligious Relations.”
1990(27thof Elul, 5750): Ninety-one year old poet and authoress Amy K. Blank passed away today.
1990: CBS broadcast the first episode of “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill” a legal drama produced by Barney Rosenzweig that starred his wife in the title role.
1991(9thof Tishrei, 5752): Erev Yom Kippur – As Jews hear the strains the Kol Nidre, the Soviet Union which had been a prison house for so many is officially coming to an end.
1993(2nd of Tishrei, 5754): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1993: “The Age of Innocence,” the film version of the novel by the same name starring Winona Ryder with music by Elmer Bernstein was released in the United States today by Columbia Pictures.
1994: Ninety two year old Sir Karl Popper, “one of the greatest philosophers of science of the twentieth century passed away today.
1995: The New York Times book section includes a review of An Obsession With Anne Frank: Meyer Levin and the Diary by Lawrence Graver.
1998: At the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of “I’m Losing You” featuring Lisa Edelstein, Gina Gershon and Laraine Newman.
1999(7thof Tishrei, 5760): Eighty-four year old English actress Joan Korda, the widow of director Zoltan Korda lost her battle with cancer and passed away today in Beverly Hills.
1999: A year after premiering at the Toronto Intentional Film Festival, “L.A. Without a Map” featuring Lisa Edelstein as “Sandra” was released today in the United Kingdom.
2000: The New York Times included reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including No Good-Byesby Elaine Kagan and From Herzl to Rabin: The Changing Image of Zionismby Amnon Rubinstein
2003(20th of Elul, 5763): Eighty-two year old Rumanian Holocaust survivor and MK Yithak Artzi passed away today.
2005: “Mayor Thomas Menino proclaimed today Curious George Day in Boston.”
2005: “The Washington Post reported that Judith Miller had received a "parade of prominent government and media officials" during her first 11 weeks in prison” where she was serving time for civil contempt.
2005: Haaretz reported that construction would begin next year on the first synagogue to be built in Estonia since World War II. President Moshe Ktsav will attend the cornerstone laying ceremony which will be held on the 61stanniversary of the murder of 2000 Estonian Jews.
2006: The New York Times Book Section featured a review of The Greatest Story Ever Sold by the Jewish author and columnist Frank Rich. According to the review Rich “examines the ways the Bush administration has blurred the lines between politics and show business.”
2006: The Washington Post Book Section featured a review of Fritz Stern’s The Persistence of Memoir in which “a great historian offers a memoir about a life marked by the shadow of Nazism.” This is not Stern’s first book about Jews and Germany. Previously he wroteGold and Iron a book on the close relationship between the 19th-century German chancellor Otto von Bismarck and the Jewish banker Gerson von Bleichröder. This book is different because it is a personal account of Germans including Frtiz’s family, whose parents and/or grandparents had converted to Christianity and did not consider themselves Jews.
2006: The Chicago Tribune Book Section included a review of The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn.
2007: Channel 2 Television Station in St. Louis, MO broadcasts a story about the Jewish Musical Revolution spearheaded by Rich Recht who is ably assisted by Abbe Silber, daughter of Cedar Rapidians Dr. Bob Silber and his wife Laurie Silber, President of Temple Judah.
2007: Publication of The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by former Federal
Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in which he “describes the Bush administration as so captive to its own political operation that it paid little attention to fiscal discipline, and he described Mr. Bush’s first two Treasury secretaries, Paul O’Neil and John Snow as essentially powerless.” Greenspan also questions the reason for the war against Iraq saying it was caused by Bush’s interest in Iraqi oil.
2007: Sport Illustrated Magazine features an article entitled “Toasting Toots” a new film that celebrates the life of Toots Shore and “celebrates a sports bar where real athletes hung out.”
2007: U.S. News & World Report featured an article entitled “The ‘Israel Lobby’ Myth” by former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz in which he debunks the myth of a conspiratorial Israel Lobby that acts in a way that is inimical to the best interests of the United States. In part he writes, “questioning Israel for its actions is legitimate, but lies are something else….The catalog of lies about Jews is long and astonishingly crude, matched only by the suffering that has followed their promulgation.”
2007: The Tenth Annual Israeli Music Celebration opens in Haifa.
2008: James B. Cunnigham presented his credentials as the U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
2008: “City’s Basketball Hall Welcomes 98-Year-Old Inductee” published today described the basketball career of Lou Bender.
2008: Today, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni won Kadima’s leadership primary over Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit.
2008: At The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary, Ilan Stavans discusses Resurrecting Hebrewas part of Schocken's "Jewish Encounters" series.
2008:The owner and a former manager of Agriprocessors Inc. and three other employees pleaded not guilty in Allamakee County District Court to charges of 9,311 child labor law violations.
2009: The National Archives hosts a discussion of the new anthology, The Constitution in 2020, with Jack M. Balkin and Reva B. Siegel, both professors at Yale Law School and co-editors of the book, Robert C. Post, dean of the law school, and moderator Linda Greenhouse, a journalist-in-residence and senior fellow in law, in the William G. McGowan Theater
2009: Beer Sheva Theatre presents "A Comedy of Errors," starring Eyal Rosales and Ron Bitterman. This production is set in Havana, the capital of Cuba, where the comic mishaps of this Shakespeare comedy come to life.
2009: “Wolf Blitzer competed on an episode of Celebrity Jeopardy!, finishing the Double Jeopardy round with −$4,600.”
2009: The 92nd Street Y presents “Ron Arad: Dialogues with Design Legends” moderated by Daniella Ohad Smith.
2009: In “A Soldiers Voice Rediscovered” published today Paul Vitello described the “The first Jewish religious service broadcast from Germany since the advent of Hitler” and the role Private Max Fuchs played in this momentous event.
2009: As of today Barnet Hospital which was named for Nathan Barnet, the mayor of Paterson, NJ, who founded the institution “is at over 90% capacity with tenants that include pharmacists, hospice care, an adult day-care center, a sub-acute rehabilitation center and group practices that provide primary care.
2010: As Jews prepare to begin their Yom Kippur fast this experts in Israel have prepared a list of do’s and don’ts to help people prepare for the fast and/or fast at all.
2010: Today, Freedom by Jonthan Franzen was named as the news Oprah’s Book Club Selection.
2010: Russia still intends to go through with an arms deal with Syria including the sale of advance anti-ship rockets, despite recent attempts by Israeli and US officials to thwart the planned deal, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said today according to state news agency RIA Novosti. The deal includes the sale of advanced P-800 Yakhont supersonic cruise missiles to the Syrian military. Israel considers this weaponry capable of posing a significant threat to its navy vessels in the Mediterranean Sea. The Russian defense minister indicated that Russia would go ahead with the contract that was formulated in 2007, saying that "the matter of missile sales to Syria was raised during the talks with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and undoubtedly, the Russian side of the contract would be fulfilled." Sergei Prikhodko, a senior adviser to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, told RIA Novosti that Moscow would fulfill all agreements it had made with foreign countries and would not halt the deal. Israel has expressed concern over the deal to supply Syria with advanced supersonic P-800 Yakhont cruise missiles, which would pose a major threat to Israel Navy ships if transferred to Hizbullah. During the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Hizbullah hit the Israel Navy missile corvette ‘Hanit’ with an Iranian-supplied surface-to-sea missile, killing four sailors. [Editor’s Note – It sounds as if somebody needs to write a sequel to Foxbats Over Dimona.]
2010(9th of Tishrei, 5771): Erev Yom Kippur
2010(9th of Tishrei, 5771): Joyce Beber, Creator of Ads for Leona Helmsley, passed away today at the age of 80 (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2011: True to his word Jason Marquis of the Washington Nationals pitched erev Yom Kippur retiring “just one batter against the Phillies, giving up six hits and six runs on the way to his ninth loss of the season.”
2011: The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to sponsor its Annual Trivia Night.
2011: The Israeli Folk Dance Rosh Hashanah Marathon is scheduled to take place this evening at Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street in Manhattan.
2011: A ribbon of more than 2,000 cyclists stretched out along Highway 3 on today, as thousands gathered for a memorial ride to mark the week anniversary of the death of two cyclists, Shalom Grossman and Yitzhak Simon, who were hit and killed during a ride on August 13.
2011: Taking part in world-renowned artist Spencer Tunick’s “Naked Sea” art installation early this morning of more than 1,000 nude models from ages 20 to 77 in the Dead Sea was both exhilarating and strangely natural.
2012: The Alexandria Kleztet is scheduled to perform this evening at The Jefferson in Arlington, VA.
2012(1stof Tishrei, 5773): Rosh Hashanah (and that says it all)
2012: Some 150,000 people took advantage of the first day of the new Jewish year to visit Israel's parks, forests and nature reserves today, according to the Jewish National Fund and the Nature and Parks Authority.
2013: The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to sponsor a program of “Israeli Dance,” that incorporates Jewish and Israeli culture through choreographed dances set to modern Israeli music.”
2013: Genealogist Sharon Hodges is scheduled to present the first session of “Coming to America in the Early 1900’s: The Immigrant Experience: at the JCC of Northern Virginia.
2013: The Botticelli’s fresco “The Annunciation of San Martino alla Scala” is scheduled to go on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem
2013: The United States said today an Arab push to single out Israel for criticism over its assumed nuclear arsenal would hurt diplomatic efforts to ban weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. 2013: The IDF announced today that by the end of next month, it would stop deploying soldiers to protect 22 border communities along the Lebanese and the Gaza-Sinai borders. However, the decision would not affect West Bank settlements, which fall under the Central Command’s jurisdiction, Israel Radio reported. (As reported by Michal Smulovich)
2014: “The World Knew: Jan Karski’s Mission for Human” an “exhibition that illustrates his mission of courage during WW II and his subsequent life” is scheduled to open at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
2014: The Hebrew Language Table (LCPA) is one of the cosponsors of today’s scheduled screening of “The Trials” with Director Martin Smok.
2014(22ndof Elul): Yarhrzeit Joseph B. Levin, husband of Deborah Levin z”tzl, father of Judy z”tzl, Mitchell and David without whom literally, this blog would never exist and who prophetically told me that someday somebody would pay me write “a simple declarative sentence.”
2014: Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced today that he was taking “a time-out from politics, joining Benny Begin, Dan Meridor and Moshe Kahlon as Likud leaders who have left the party
2014: According to an Israeli study released to “artificial sweeteners maybe boosting the risk of diabetes.” (As reported by Richard Ingham)
2014: Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf, the son of Holocaust survivors told reporters today that the team has changed its mind again and, after re-activating Andrian Peterson, they have decided to suspend him with pay while he deals with his indictment for child abuse.
2015: Annie Cohen-Solal is scheduled to lecture on the life “iconic artist” Mark Rothko at the University of Scranton in Scranton, PA.
2015: The Center for Jewish History and American Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to present a discussion of race, religious identity, gender and the legacies of the black/Jewish relationship during the Civil Rights Movement featuring authors Letty Cotin Pogrebin and Marcia Ann Gillespie.
2016: In New York, the 16th Annual National Conference of the Jewish National Fund is scheduled to continue for a second day.
2016: “London’s first Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan” is schedule to join “Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel at Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel, a modern Orthodox synagogue in the northern part of the city” for Shabbat morning services.
2016: “Two projectiles fired from Syria were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system” this afternoon.
2016: “A Palestinian assailant,” Hatem Abdel-Hafiz al-Shaloudi “attacked Israeli soldiers with in Hebron” this morning “wounding one of them before being shot and killed.
2016(14thof Elul, 5776): Parashat Ki Taytzay
2017: In Atlanta, the Bremen is scheduled to host a visit to Westview Cemetery as part of its Historic Jewish Atlanta Tours.
2017: Today, The New York Times published a controversial review of Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power and Consent on Campus by Buffalo born columnist and critic Michelle Goldberg
2017: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Everything is Copy,” a tribute to writer and filmmaker Nora Ephron “directed by son Jacob Bernstein.”
2017: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Bloomberg: A Billionaire’s Ambition by Chris McNickle, Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss and Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander.
2017: Jeffrey Tambor, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Live Schreiber are among those awaiting the outcome of the Emmy Awards presentation scheduled for tonight.’
2018: Professor Macaulay-Lewis, an active archaeologist and architectural historian and the author of Bayt Farhi and the Sephardic Palaces of Ottoman Damascus in the Late 18th and 19th Centuries is scheduled to deliver a lecture at the Center For Jewish History in which she “will present new research on the remarkable courtyard houses of the Farhi and other important Sephardic families in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Damascus.”
2018: Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to host a production “The Woman and the Wind: A play for the month of Tishrei.”
2018: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of the Silver Lion award winning film “Paradise.”