December 27
1904: Charles Frohman produced “Peter Pan or the Boy Wouldn’t Grow Up” which debuted today at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London.
175 BCE (Tevet 3585): This day marked the completion of the Septuagint translation of the Bible into the Greek language. According to a letter from Aristeas to Philocrates, 72 sages, (six from each Israelite tribe) were brought to by Ptolemy II Alexandria to translate the Bible into Greek. Based on the legend, each sage was isolated and wrote a separate translation, but when all 72 were compared, they were all identical. The text of the Septuagint and the Tanach are not the same. Some viewed this translation as a positive event because it showed an interest of Greek intellectuals in Jewish thought and philosophy. Others contend that this translation was necessary because the Jews of Alexandria had such limited knowledge of Hebrew that they could no longer read the text in the original.
1350: Birthdate of King Juan I of Aragon. In 1392, Juan granted amnesty to those who had attacked the Jews of Majorca and the Christians who sheltered them in 1391. At least 300 Jews were murdered. Juan granted the amnesty“because they had done it for the welfare of king and state; and he further declared all debts of the Christians to the Jews to be null and void.”
1459: Birthdate of John I Albert the Polish monarch also known as King Jan I Olbracht. In 1495, he transferred the Jews Cracow to the nearby royal city of Kazimierz, which helped to create a major European center for Diaspora Jewry. “With time it turned into a virtually separate and self-governed 34-acre Jewish Town, a model of every East European shtetl, within the limits of the gentile city of Kazimierz. As it developed into a safe haven for European Jewry, its population increased reaching a total of 4,500 Jews by 1630.
1480: In Spain, a second royal decree was issued directing the Mayor and other officials of Seville to assist the inquisitors in their work since they had shown an inclination to protect the converted Jews with to whom they were drawn either because of reasons of kinships or friendship.
1503: Followers of Zechariah of Kiev were burned in Moscow
1504: "Proselytizing" Jews in Moscow Kiev
1657: Three years after the first Jews arrived in New Amsterdam and dealt with the bigotry of Peter Stuyvesant, a group Englishman living in the Dutch colony submitted a petition to the Governor-General requesting the lifting of the ban on Quaker worship. Known as the Flushing Remonstrance, they were greeted with even greater hostility by “Peg-leg Pete” than he had shown to the Jews.
1797: In New York, 34 year old Richa (Rachel) Hendricks, the daughter of Uriah Hendricks, marred Abraham Gomez
1812(24th of Tevet, 5573): Shneur Zalman of Liadi founder of Chabad Hasidism passed away (date based on adjusted secular calendar). Born in 1745, Shneur Zalman of Liadi was a descendant of the mystic and philosopher Rabbi Judah Loew (known as the "Maharal of Prague"). He was a prominent disciple of Rabbi Dovber of Mezeritch, the "Great Maggid" who was in turn a major disciple of the founder of Hasidism Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer known as the Baal Shem Tov ("Master [of the] Good Name"). After the death of Rabbi Dovber of Mezeritch, his students dispersed over Europe. Rabbi Shneur Zalman became the leader of Hasidism in Lithuania, and is accepted as one of the great Hasidic leaders. The movement he founded was moved to the town of Lubavitch in present-day Belarus by his son and successor Rabbi Dovber Schneersohn. In 1940 the Chabad Lubavitch movement moved its headquarters to Brooklyn, New York in the United States with branches all over the world staffed by its own Lubavitch-trained, and ordained, rabbis with their wives and children. He involved himself in opposing Napoleon's advance on Russia and supporting the Jewish settlements in the Land of Israel, then under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Due to false charges from his Misnagdim opponents in Vilna, he was imprisoned by the Czar on charges of supporting the Ottoman Empire, since he advocated sending charity to the Ottoman territory of Palestine. The day of his acquittal and release, the 19th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar, is celebrated as the "Hasidic New Year" by Lubavitch Hasidim, who have a festive meal and communal pledges to learn the whole of the Talmud known as "Chalukat Ha'Shas." Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi is well known for his systematic exposition of Hasidic Jewish philosophy, entitled Likkutei Amarim, and more popularly known as the Tanya, first published in 1797. (The fuller and more authoritative version of this work dates from 1814.) Due to the popularity of this book, Hasidic Jews often refer to Shneur Zalman as the Baal HaTanya.He is also well known for his work Shulchan Aruch HaRav, his version of the classic Shulkhan Arukh, an authoritative code of Jewish law and custom. The work states the decided halakha, as well as the underlying reasoning. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav is used by Lubavitch Hasidism. However, citations to this work are sometimes found in non-Lubavitch sources such as the Mishnah Berurah and the Ben Ish Chai. Rabbi Zalman is one of three authorities on whom Shlomo Ganzfried based his Kitzur Shulkhan Arukh.Descendants of Rabbi Shneur Zalman adopted the names Schneersohn or Schneersonto accommodate Napoleonic edicts that required all subjects to take permanent surnames. (Prior to Napoleon's conquests and the winds of Enlightenment he brought in his wake, Jews only had their traditional names such as Shneur ben (son of) Boruch.) The last two Rebbes of Chabad Lubavitch, Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn (1880-1950) and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994), adhered strictly to their family surnames.
1851: Birthdate of Max Judd, the Polish native, who founded the St. Louis Chess Club and served as U.S. Counsul to Austria during the 2nd administration of President Grover Cleveland.
1854: An article entitled “Coming Events” published today reported on the prominent role that Benjamin Disraeli will be playing in the upcoming session of Parliament as the lead of “the loyal opposition.” Among other things, he is expected to join with Lord Derby in support Parliamentary reform along the lines of the Chartist Movement. This will set him on a collision course with Lord John Russell who talks more about reform than he delivers. “Disraeli will probably propose that every householder shall have the elective franchise and that representation shall be based upon population. If he he goes to this extent Russell will be ‘nowhere’ in the race and Disraeli will become champion of popular rights.” [Did Disraeli’s Jewish roots explain the fact that a leader of the Conservative Party was a leading proponent for this most liberal reform? Is there a connection between social justice and Judaism that a trip to the baptismal font cannot wash away?]
1855: An article published today entitled “Do You Eat Pork?” reported that “physicians have just discovered that the tape worm only troubles those who eat pork” According to The Gazette Medicale “ the Hebrews are never troubled with it” while pork butchers are “peculiarly liable to it and dogs that are fed Pork “are universally so afflicted.”
1861: Rabbi Abraham Fischel wrote a letter to Henry I. Hart describing the conditions of the troops encamped around Washington, DC which he has visited while waiting to hear from Congressional leaders about his efforts to get the law changed so that Jews can serve as Chaplains in the Union Army.
1868: Rumanian Jews were excluded from the medical profession in their native country
1874: It was reported today that Rabbi Moses Dimant who had been jailed for failing to provide the four dollars in court ordered support for his wife Liebe was released today on a writ of habeas corpus. The writ was obtained by the wife who said she no desire to see her husband in jail.
1874(19th of Tevet, 5635): Asher Jacob Covo, Chief Rabbi of Salonica who was born in 1797, passed away.
1878(1stof Tevet, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1879: In New York City, as part of Hospital Saturday, Jewish congregations collected pledges estimated to total more than $20,000. In years gone by, this money would have gone exclusively to Mt. Sinai Hospital. This year the money will go to a city-wide fundraising effort for all participating hospitals. The total raised yesterday does not count contributions by individual Jewish donors or donations made by businesses owned by Jews.
1880: Birthdate of Emil Kiesler, the father of Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler who gained fame as film star Heddy Lamar.
1880: It was reported today that Lawrence Oliphant’s new book, The Land of Gilead, includes a plan for “colonizing on of the rich and unoccupied districts in Turkey with Jews, to whom the Ottoman authorities can have no possible objection on political grounds.”
1882: It was reported today that “Grand Master Julius Harburger” has delivered $606 to the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society which was collected by the lodges of the Independent Order of the Sons of Israel. This brings the total collected for aid to the Jewish refugees from Russia to $3, 836.15
1884: It was reported today that the Jews living in the western Russian province of Volhynia are refusing to serve in the army.
1885: It was reported today that Rabbi S.M. Morais and Rabbi Henry P. Mendes are among those calling for the establishment of a new seminary in the East to train rabbis. This is a reflection of the dissatisfaction with the changes being advocated by the Reform Movement lead by Rabbi Isaac M. Wise and being taught at Hebrew Union College.
1885: It was reported today that there 2,064 students attending the schools supported by the Hebrew Free School Association in New York City.
1887: The Ladies’ Bikur Cholim Society hosted a fundraiser tonight “for the benefit of the Industrial School for Poor Girls.”
1888: In New York, the City Court Judges heard an appeal by representatives of the Ladies’ Deborah Nursery and the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society and Orphan Asylum ask that they overturn their decision to allow only the Police Justices to hear applications for the commitment of children to charitable institutions.
1888: A piano solo and a presentation by Elliot F. Shepard were part of the entertainment at this evening’s program presented by the Young Men’s Association of Temple Beth-El.
1889: Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler of Temple Beth-El is scheduled to officiate at the funeral of Valentine Koon. Born at Stuttgart, German in 1810, he came to the United States where he found success in the manufacture of shoes for the army and New York real estate. As an elector in the national election he voted for Abraham Lincoln and was one of the founders of the New York chapter of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith.
1890: Birthdate of Hungarian Communist Tibor Szamuely who would help form the short lived Hungarian Soviet Republic formed by Bela Kun in 1919.
1890: In New York City, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment presented the budget for 1891 which included an allocation of $60,000 for the Hebrew Benevolent Society and $70,000 for the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.
1891(26thof Kislev, 5652): Second day of Chanukah; in the evening kindle three candles
1891: The Hebrew Free School Association of Brooklyn held its fourth annual examinations at Weber’s Washington where the students were tested “and showed great proficiency in translating Hebrew into English” as well as demonstrating “an accurate knowledge of Jewish History. Following the distribution of prizes and recitations by the students, three candles were lit as part of the celebration of Chanukah.
1891: Based on information that first appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette it was reported today that “Notes of a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land” in which F.R. Oliphant describes his visit to Palestine has recently been published in Great Britain. Oliphant recorded the final years of Laurence Oliphant which included a variety of anecdotes involving Germans, Druses and Romanian Jews whom the older Oliphant had rescued from economic distress when he found living on the streets of Haifa.
1891: It was reported today that “Galician newspapers are filled with articles advocating the renewed enforcement of repressive measures against the Jews of Russia and Poland”
1891: It was reported today that the arrest of large numbers of Jews in and around Russia has been done in complete secrecy “with people suddenly disappearing.”
1892: Plans were published today for the upcoming dedication of the new Hebrew Orphan Asylum in Brooklyn.
1893:The American Jewish Historical Society opens its second annual meeting at the Columbia College Library Building in New York City
1894: The third annual convention of the American Jewish Society which began yesterday came to an end today, having heard numerous papers including “The Jewish Soldier” presented by Simon Wolf and having decided to hold next year’s meeting in Philadelphia.
1894: The final budget figures for 1895 presented today at the meeting of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment included $80,000 for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, $90,000 for the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society and $5,000 for the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children
1894: “Irritation About Dreyfus” published today described start of a “Jew-baiting campaign” by the revolutionary and anti-Semitic newspapers.” “La Parole predicts that the Jews by presuming to consider themselves equals with Frenchmen and competing with them are preparing the most fearful disaster that ever marked the tragic history of the race.” (The first steps on the road to Drancy?)
1895: “The Brooklyn Hebrew Aid Society has officially been incorporated.”
1895: At least 23 people died today in Baltimore when a fire broke out at the Front Street Theatre where a 2,500 people most of whom were Jewish had gathered to see the “Jewish opera, Alexander.”
1896: Birthdate of German writer and playwright Carl Zuckmayer. Zuckmayer did not think of himself as being Jewish until the rise of Hitler. His mother was the daughter of Protestant church councilor who had converted from Judaism. This made him Jewish in the eyes of the Nazis and no doubt accounted for his fleeing to the United States where he spent World War II.
1904: Charles Frohman produced “Peter Pan or the Boy Wouldn’t Grow Up” which debuted today at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London.
1906: Birthdate of actor Oscar Levant
1907: Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia (Ethiopia), granted letters of protection to Rabbi Haim Nahoum and his team who were sent by the Alliance Israelite Universelle to study the condition of the Falashim (Ethiopian Jews).
1908: Dr. Herbert Friedenwald, Secretary of the American Jewish Committee said today that Russian newspapers he had just received showed that Czarist state had resumed the persecution of its Jewish citizens.
1908: Based on a letter whose contents were made public today in London , Israel United States
1913: The Sisterhood of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue will hold its annual Chanukah celebration at the Astor Hotel.
1916(2ndof Tevet, 5677): 8th& final day of Chanukah
1916: In New York City, the packing companies which slaughter cattle in accord with the laws of Kashrut met with representatives of the Federation of Retail Kosher Butchers and agreed to sell them kosher meat for 15 cents a pound. Last week, they had been charging 18 cents a pound which led to a boycott by the kosher butchers. The packing companies further promised that before they raised prices again, they would meet with the butchers and explain the reason for the increase.
1917: Colonel Ronald Storrs, the newly appointed British Military Governor of Jerusalem Moab Jerusalem Palestine
1919(5th of Tevet, 5680):Sir Charles Solomon Henry passed away. Born in 1860, he “was an Australian merchant and businessman who lived mostly in Britain and sat as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons from 1906-1918.”
1921: Birthdate of Judith Hannah Saretsky who gained fame as “Judith S. Wallerstein, a psychologist who touched off a national debate about the consequences of divorce by reporting that it hurt children more than previously thought, with the pain continuing well into adulthood…” (As reported by Denise Grady)
1921: In Atlanta, GA, Alan and Edith Gavronski Lipshutz, gave birth to Robert J. Lipshutz, the White House Counsel for President Jimmy Carter “who played an important behind-the-scenes role in negotiations leading to the Camp David peace accords.”
1923: Arthur Hays and Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger to their third child, Judith Peixotto Sulzberger, who gained fame as “Dr. Judith P. Sulzberger, a physician whose philanthropy led to the creation of a center for genome studies in her name at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons..” (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
1925: Birthdate of Moshe Arens, the native Kaunas who made Aliyah in 1939 and whose career has included service as Minister of Defense, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to the US.
1926: Latkin Square Bronx was named for the first US
1927: At the behest of Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, born Lev Davidovich Bronstein, is expelled from the Communist Party.
1927: Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern’s “Show Boat" premiered at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City. If you need more of a Jewish connection than Kern and Hammerstein, this Broadway hit was based on the novel of the same name written by Edna Ferber. When Edna Ferber published Show Boat in 1926, she was already an established writer, with eleven books, two stage plays, and a Pulitzer Prize (for So Big, 1925) to her credit. But when the musical adaptation of the novel opened on Broadway with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and music by Jerome Kern, it was unlike any earlier production. Combining music and dance with fully formed characters and serious themes, “Show Boat” departed from both operetta and the musical comedy revue, establishing a new style of American musical. Ferber's work in Show Boat and in later novels grew from a keen eye and a gift for observation of the world around her. Raised in often precarious economic circumstances in small towns in Iowa Wisconsin
1929(25th of Kislev, 5690): Jews observe Chanukah, in what will be the first winter of the Great Depression.
1930(7th of Tevet, 5691): Alfred Moritz Mond, 1st Baron Melchett, son of German born Anglo-Jewish chemist Ludwig Mund and Frieda, née Löwenthal Mund passed away.
1932: Radio City Music Hall opened in New York City. This American cultural landmark was a project produced by three people – multi-millionaire John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and two Jews, Samuel Roxy Rothafel, who previously opened the Roxy Theatre in 1927 and RCA chairman David Sarnoff.
1935: Birthdate of Rabbi Raymond Apple who served as the Senior Rabbi of the Great Synagogue of Sydney between 1972 and 2005]. In this role, he was one of Australia's highest profile rabbis and the leading spokesman for Judaism in Australia
1935: Birthdate of Dr Victor Brailovsky a native of Moscow, a computer scientist and MK who served as Minister of Science and Technology. Bailovsky was a refusnik who spent three years in a Soviet prison because he wanted to make Aliyah. He finally was allowed to leave for Israel in 1987.
1936: Birthdate of Doctor Lee Salk.
1937: The Palestine Post reported two British army casualties: an officer and a private, both of whom fell while searching for arms in Arab villages in Galilee . Rafael Yavneh, 26, was shot and badly wounded at km. 16 of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road in the fourth Arab attack on Jewish transport within a week. The Arab Defense Party met at the house of Bisharra Debbas, a Christian and the former governor of Acre , and appealed to stop terror and to consider a new Arab representative body - an Arab Higher Council - as the alternative to the radical Husseini Arab Higher Committee.
1937:The Haganah decides to establish Field Companies under the command of Itzhak Sadeh.
1938(5th of Tevet, 5699: Poet Osip Mandelstam died in one of the labor camps of Stalin’s Gulag.
1943:The keel of theSS Meyer London, a “liberty ship” was laid today. The ship was named in honor of Meyer London, a Jewish political leader and reformer who was one of only two Socialists to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Ironically, London had voted against the declaration of war that led to American involvement in World War I.
1944: Dr. Rudolf Kastner left Switzerland for Budapest, but could get only as far as Vienna because “the Red Army had encircled “ the Hungarian capital
1944:Arrow Cross members came to the shelter run by Sister Sara Salkahazi's. The Hungarian nun was active in hiding Jews from the Arrow Cross and the Nazis. Salkahazi and four Jewish women who did not manage to either hide or flee were taken to the bank of the Danube , where the Arrow Cross men stripped them, shot them and threw their bodies into the river.At the site where Salkahazi and those who shared her fate were executed, not far from the tourist mecca of Budapest Jerusalem
1945: The World Bank was created with the signing of an agreement by 28 nations. Among Jews associated with the bank were Eugene Meyer, the first president, James Wolfensohn and Paul Wolfowitz, both of whom served as Presidents between 1995 and 2007 and Stanley Fischer, Lawrence Summers and Joseph E. Stiglitz who served as Chief Economist from 1988 to 2000.
1945: The British authorities in Palestine blame the Haganah for bomb blasts and gun battles in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Tel Aviv, including an attack on a Tel Aviv arms depot.
1945: “Terrorists struck tonight in the heart of Jerusalem, blowing up the Civil Investigation Department building in the Russian compound near the main post office. At least three policemen are dead and six injured.” Other attacks were reported on a police station in Jaffa and installation of the Royal Engineers Workshops in Tel Aviv.
1945: “In the greatest mass arrests in the history of Palestine more than 1,500 people were taken into custody tonight” after unidentified people blew up the British police station in the center of Jerusalem.
1947: It was reported today that the British police in policed had revealed that the headmaster of the government school in Ramallah had received a warned that the Irgun would blow up the school.
194714thof Tevet, 5708): A convoy that counted Gold Meir (future Prime Minister of Israel) as one of its passengers came under attack. Seven Jews were killed by the Arab attackers.
1947(14th of Tevet, 5708): Hans Beyth, a central figure in welcoming newly arrived immigrant children to Eretz Israel, was one of seven Jews killed by Arab snipers as they traveled in convey coming from the coast up to Jerusalem. Beyth had just completed arrangements for the care of 20,000 young survivors of the Holocaust and other youngsters from Europe.
1947: Houses belonging to Jews and Arabs were set on fire today in the Jaffa-Tel Aviv region.
1947: As communal strife continued to intensify, troops had to be used to end a six hour between Jews and Arabs near Tulkarm.
1947: A private source in Haifa said tonight that in the last 48 hours the verified deaths included nine Jews, eight Arab and two Britons. Forty-three people were reported to have been wounded during the same period.
1948(25th of Kislev, 5709): Chanukah
1948: Members of the Moslem Brotherhood assassinated Egyptian Prime Minister Fahmy Norashy Pashy because of Egypt’s failure to win the war in Palestine.
1948: Israel bombs Arab forces in Gaza.
1948: Fighting between Israeli and Egyptians in Fallujah.
1948: During Operation Horev, an Israeli armored brigade attack al-Auja. The successful attack led to the surrender of Egyptian forces in the area.
1948: Birthdate of actress Tovah Feldshuh
1950(18th of Tevet, 5711): Max Beckmann German-born painter/graphic artist passed away at the age of 66.
1951: Birthdate of Henryk Halkowski historian, journalist, essayist and translator of Jewish origin, scholar of Hasidism and the history of Krakow's Kazimierz.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel Rokach, mayor of Tel Aviv for the past 17 years, had relinquished his post to Haim Levanon, the Deputy Mayor.
1952: Birthdate of David KnopflerScottish-born guitarist, singer and songwriter. David and his brother Mark were part of Dire Straits.
1953(21st of Tevet, 5714)Poet Julian Tuwim passed away. Born in 1894 in Łódź, “he studied law and philosophy at Warsaw University. In 1919 Tuwim co-founded the Skamander group of experimental poets with Antoni Słonimski and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. He was a major figure in Polish literature, and was also known for his contribution to children's literature.”
1964: Elinor Bluemnthal married John Muir Gold.
1966: Birthdate of former professional football player and wrestler, Bill Goldberg. In 1998, Goldberg did a Koufax when he refused to wrestle on Rosh Hashanah.
1969: By 2 a.m., during Operation Rooster 53, when the paratroops had taken apart the radar station and prepared the various parts for the CH-53's, the two helicopters were called in from across the Red Sea. One CH-53 carried the communications caravan and the radar antenna, while the other took the heavier, four-ton radar itself. The two helicopters made their way back across the Red Sea to Israeli controlled territory.
1970: After 2,844 performances at the St. James Theatre, David Merrick’s “Holly Dolly” came to a close.
1970: The Golani Brigade took part in a retaliatory strike came against the village Yatar, a major guerrilla base.
1973: Bora Laskin takes office as the 14th Chief Justice of Canada
1974: The Dear Abby Show ended its run on CBS radio after 11 years. Dear Abby is the pen name for a Jewess from Iowa
1976: Malcom Toon left his post as U.S Ambassador to Israel.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported from Ismailia US
1981: In this excerpt from his “Travel Advisory,” Robert J. Dunphy describes the “dig” at Bet Shean and provides historic perspective for what is being unearthed in modern day Israel.
The trumpets sound as the gladiator enters the arena. The crowd roars and cries for blood as the man-eating beasts are unleashed and the contest is about to begin. The scene is easy to envision in Bet Shean, Israel, where a Roman amphitheater is being unearthed. Built around 200 A.D., the arena served as the site for gladiatorial combat, circuses and sports contests for more than two centuries. The first-century historian Josephus, whose writings also detailed the dramatic story of Masada, also in present-day Israel, mentioned the existence of several amphitheaters in the area but that in Bet Shean is the only one that has been found to date.The elliptical structure is 120 yards long and 73 yards wide. The arena floor was below ground level, and a high wall protected spectators from the wild animals in the gladiatorial contests. The three front rows of seats were hewn from white limestone and above them were wooden seats. The outer wall was made of black basalt. The dig is situated several hundred yards from a Roman theater, which for years has been one of Israel's most impressive tourist attractions. With the discovery of the amphitheater, the entire area will be converted into a giant antiquities park. Bet Shean, about two hours by car from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, was the site of a Roman garrison and the principal city in the north of the country.
1982: Frank Lautenberg was sworn in as a U.S Senator representing the state of New Jersey.
1985: Abu Nida, the Palestinian terrorist organization, kill eighteen people during attacks inside the airports in Rome and Vienna. According to some, the attack was a fallback. The terrorists had really wanted to hijack El Al planes and destroy them over Tel Aviv (this is 16 years before 9/11).
1987:Three Palestinian guerrillas infiltrated a short distance into Israel from Jordan Friday night and were captured alive by Israeli troops after a shootout, the Israeli Army spokesman announced today. One of the guerrillas was wounded during the clash in a wheat field of an Israeli border settlement, but no Israeli soldiers or civilians were hurt, said the army spokesman, who released the account this afternoon.
1987: ''Furniture Making in East London: 1830 to 1980 '' an exhibition which is part of a celelebration of London’s East End’s Jewish heritage comes to a close at Geffrye Museum
1988: Yossi Ahimeir, an aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, said today that the Prime Minister may ask the United States and the Soviet Union to sponsor Middle East peace talks. Mr. Ahimeir said in a telephone interview that Mr. Shamir would make Moscow's renewal of diplomatic relations a condition of his proposal. The Soviet Union broke ties with Israel during the 1967 Middle East war.
1991(20th of Tevet, 5752): Seventy-two year old Eitan Livini, a member of the Irgun, member of the Knesset and father of Tzipi Livini passed away today.
1992(3rdof Tevet, 5753): 8th and final day of Chanukah
1992:The standoff between Lebanon and Israel over the fate of 415 Palestinian deportees trapped in a snow-covered valley in southern Lebanon, continued today as both sides again rejected appeals to allow relief agencies to deliver food or medicine.
1995(4th of Tevet, 5756):Shura Cherkassky passed away. Born in the Ukraine in 1909, his family found refuge in the United States during the Russian Revolution. The brilliant classical pianist performed almost until the end of his life.
1998: The New York Times Book Section includes a review of On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilderby Ed Sikov which tells the story of how a Jew born in a town south of Kracow became one Hollywood’s leading writers and directors.
1999(18th of Tevet, 5760):Leonard Goldstein passed away. Born in 1905, he became President of ABC . He orchestrated the merger of his United Paramount Theatres with ABC in 1953 and he headed the merged company called American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres. The company was renamed American Broadcasting Companies in 1968. In 1974, Mr. Goldenson received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York." The Leonard H. Goldenson Theater at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences building in North Hollywood, California is named in his honor.
2000: Release date for “Confusion of Genders” directed by Ilan Duran Cohen, the French born (1963) author who studied at the New York Film School
2005: The New York Times carried a feature on Siegfried Sassoon, “A Wounded Poet Who Sang the Crucible of a Generation.” Sassoon’s father was part of the wealthy Sephardic Sassoon clan. Siegfried’s mother was a member of the Church of England. After his father deserted the family at the when he was four, Siegfried was raised in the faith of his mother, even acquiring that twinge of genteel anti-Semitism that was part and parcel of the upper reaches of English society.
2005: Under the title “Quantum Trickery: Testing Einstein’s Strangest Theory,” the New York Timesreported on the impact of the paper published seventy years ago by Einstein, Boris Podlosky and Nathan Rosen that provided the cornerstone for the new field of quantum information.
2006: The exhibition of Jerusalem Jaffa
2006: Heavy snow fell on Jerusalem Golan Heights in the early morning hours and by evening reach as far south as Mitzpe Ramon in the Negev . Although it was technically too late, many Israelis began humming that old standard “I’m Dreaming of Chanukah Ch-e-vair.” (The last sentence is mean to be funny.)
2006(6thof Tevet, 5767): One hundred two year old “Itche Goldberg, a champion of Yiddish who wrote and edited and taught his beloved language in the face of all those who said keeping Yiddish alive was a lost cause “ passed away today. (As reported by Ari Goldman)
2007: In Anaheim , California
2008: In a ritual rarity, three Torah scrolls are used because of Shabbat, Chanukah and Rosh Chodesh Tevet. The Prophetic readings are equally unusual due to Shabbat Chanukah, Machor Chodesh and Rosh Chodesh.
2008:Just days after the cabinet gave the military final approval to counter ongoing Palestinian rocket fire against communities in the western Negev, t he IDF launched a massive operation, striking Hamas installations throughout the Gaza Strip. The wide-scale offensive in the Gaza Strip was codenamed 'Operation Cast Lead,' after a Hanukkah poem by H.N. Bialik referring to a "dreidel cast from solid lead."
2008:The publisher of a disputed Holocaust memoir has canceled the book, adding the name Herman Rosenblat to an increasingly long line of literary fakers and bringing down with a crash his story - embraced by Oprah Winfrey, among others - of meeting his future wife at a Nazi concentration camp."I wanted to bring happiness to people," Rosenblat said in a statement issued today through his agent, Andrea Hurst. "I brought hope to a lot of people. My motivation was to make good in this world." Rosenblat's Angel at the Fence had been scheduled to come out in February, but Berkley Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), withdrew the memoir Saturday following allegations by scholars, friends and family members that his tale was untrue.
2008 (30 Kislev 5769)Beber Vaknin, aged 57, was killed by missile in his hometown Netivot when he went out of his house on Saturday morning.
2009(10th of Tevet, 5770):Joan Rodker, a longtime left-wing activist in Great Britain who had contact over decades with writers such as Doris Lessing, Jessica Mitford and others passed away today at the age of 95. Rodker “was seen as a ‘go‑to’ person among the London antifascist left,” the Guardian wrote, and the “convivial hostess” of London’s radicals, according to the Telegraph. Rodker was born in London to poet John Rodker, one of the Whitechapel Boys, a group of avant-garde Jewish artists and writers who helped define British Modernism, and Sonia Cohen, a dancer and artist’s model. Her parents sent her to an orphanage and she was raised in institutional settings, including a school in Prague, where she became influenced by left-wing and communist ideals. She traveled in a theater company throughout the Soviet Union during the years of collectivization. After World War II, Rodker campaigned on behalf of blacklisted singer Paul Robeson to travel outside the United States, and against the execution of American communist spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. She worked in British television as a producer and writer, including the popular series “Armchair Thriller,” and directed a film about Mexico. Screenwriter Clancy Sigal said Bodker “had a talent for triggering creativity in others that often eluded her own literary work,” and said she was the model for Molly Jacobs, in Lessing's award-winning 1962 novel “The Golden Notebook.” Rodker’s papers, in the University of Texas archives, document her relationships with Lessing and many other literary and political figures, including those associated with her father’s generation, as well.
2009(10th of Tevet, 5770: Fast of the Tenth of Tevet
2009(10th of Tevet, 5770: Yahrzeit of Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin)
2009: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacci, Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth, and Power — A Dispatch From the Beach by Gerald Posner and Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic by Michael Scammell.
2009: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish authors including Goddess of the Market:Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns and Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne Heller
2009:Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz is expected to deliver his recommendations to the Supreme Court about "mehadrin" bus lines - which designate separate seating for men and women - some residents of the capital plan to make their voices heard on the subject.
2009: The Yerushalmim movement, along with members of the New Israel Fund and Meretz, is scheduled to lead a demonstration against the continued existence of the “hehadrin” bus lines. The demonstration, which is scheduled to start at 8:30 a.m. in the capital's Government Quarter, is meant to pressure the transportation minister to reverse what protesters have labeled "gender segregation" and "religious coercion" on the buses.
2009: The United Synagogue Youth (USY) International Convention opens in Chicago, IL.
2009: In “Sigmund Freud saved by Nazi admirer,” Richard Woods reviews The Escape of Sigmund Freud by David Cohen.
2010: The USY International Convention is scheduled to open today in Orlando, FL.
2010: Today marks the second anniversary of the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, the IDF’s operation in Gaza which was aimed at stopping the daily rocket attacks by Gaza-based terrorists towards southern Israel.
2010: In King County (Seattle), twelve buses were scheduled to hit the streets carrying an ad reading “Israeli War Crimes: Your tax dollars at work” with an image of a group of children next to it, showing one little boy staring out at the viewer while the others gawk at a demolished building. The ads were paid for by the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign. The ads did not run because King County Executive Dow Constantine said that the proposed ads may be a potential source of disruption to local public transit and implemented an interim policy that bans the Seattle transit service from accepting any new advertising that is non-commercial.
2010:An Israeli activist was sentenced to three months in jail today for his part in a 2008 protest by Tel Aviv cyclists opposed to the blockade of Gaza. The activist, Jonathan Pollak, is a 28-year-old leader of Anarchists Against the Wall, an Israeli group that joins Palestinian protesters in weekly demonstrations against the security barrier Israel is building on West Bank land it has occupied since 1967.
2010:Israeli archaeologists said today they may have found the earliest evidence yet for the existence of modern man, and if so, it could upset theories of the origin of humans. A Tel Aviv University team excavating a cave in central Israel said teeth found in the cave are about 400,000 years old and resemble those of other remains of modern man, known scientifically as Homo sapiens, found in Israel.
2010: An article entitled “Disaster Relief Group Still Finding A Need” published in today’s Cedar Rapids Gazette described the efforts to help the needy residents of Cedar Rapids who were displaced by the Floods of 2008. Jeff Schneider, a member of Temple Judah, has played a leading role in the effort which has “delivered 10 semi-trailer loads of furnuiture” to people who literally lost everything. Jeff started Temple Judah Disaster Relief which after two years of work is now faced with meeting the challenge as sources of funding in the community have dried up. While Jeff and three of the volunteers who inspired him – Tom Hill, Marie Hill and Rob Hill – continue to look for in-kind donations of old furniture, etc. they have not made any appeal for funds although volunteer contributions would be greatly appreciated.
2010: A two-day symposium on the history of the Jews in Indonesia being held at the University of Haifa came to an end to today. “The gathering included many firsthand accounts by former community members…who spoke about what it was like being part of a tiny Jewish minority in what is now the most populous Muslim country in the world.”
2010(27thof Tevet, 5771): Ninety-three year old “Alfred E. Kahn, a Cornell University economist best known as the chief architect and promoter of deregulating the nation’s airlines, despite opposition from industry executives and unions alike” passed away today. (As reported by Robert D. Hershey, Jr.)
2011(1stof Tevet, 5772): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
2011(1stof Tevet, 5772): Eighty-three year old “Helen Frankenthaler the lyrically abstract painter whose technique of staining pigment into raw canvas helped shape an influential art movement in the mid-20th century and who became one of the most admired artists of her generation” passed away today. (As reported by Grace Glueck)
2011: In Iowa City. Agudas Achim is scheduled to host its annual Chanukah party this evening.
2011: The Sephardic Music Festival in NYC is scheduled to come to an end.
2011: “Women Unchained” is scheduled to be shown at the Limmud Conference in London, UK
2011:Today, President Shimon Peres called on Israelis to attend a demonstration against religious fanaticism, after two days of rioting by ultra-Orthodox extremists in Beit Shemesh.
2011:Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said today that the Israeli army will not excuse religious soldiers from official army events that feature female soldiers singing.
2012: “Babylon Blues” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2012: The JCC in Manhattan is scheduled to host “Israeli Dance with Tamar.”
2012: "In a fierce excoriation that brought Israel’s subterranean racial tension to the surface for the first time in this election season, Aryeh Deri of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party today lashed out at the Yisrael Beytenu party’s chief, Avigdor Liberman, claiming that he and his Likud-Yisrael Beytenu list were on a crusade against Sephardi politicians."
2012:Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who replaces the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, was sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden at 2:36pm ET.
2013: “Hunting Elephants” and “The Killing of Sister George” are scheduled to be shown today at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.