This Day, August 11, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
August 11
1492: Alexander VI is
elected Pope. Alexander was one of the
Borgia popes. He had reputation for
“moral depravity” and was more politician than prelate. He defied Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain by
allowing large numbers of Marranos who were fleeing the Inquisition to take
refuge in Rome. He did reduce the size
of the badge worn by the Jews under his rule but raised their taxes by five per
cent. He also lengthened the course that
the Jews of Rome were forced to run each year so that he could view it from the
comfort of his castle. The Jews were
forced to run naked much to the amusement of the Christian population of Rome –
the home of Catholicism. Everything is
relative and for all of his shortcomings, Alexander VI’s treatment of the Jews
was a lot better than that of the other Catholic strongman of the day, The
Grand Inquisitor – Torquemada.
1634: Seventeen arrests
were made by the Inquisition after a man turned another man in for being
“unwilling to make a sale on Saturday,” and for not wanting to eat
bacon.
1667(21st of
Av, 5427): Jonah Abravanel, a Dutch Jewish poet and author, passed away today
at Amsterdam. “He was the son of the
physician Joseph Abravanel, and a nephew of Manasseh ben Israel.”
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=631&letter=A#1475
1762: In Philadelphia,
PA, Elizabeth (Esther) Whitlock and Moses Mordecai who were married in England
gave birth to Jacob Mordecai, the husband of Rebecca Mears Myers whom he
married in 1798, the father of Major Alfred Mordecai and the grandfather of General
Alfred Mordecai who served heroically while fighting for the United States
during the Civil War.
1770: Moses Mendelssohn
and his wife the former Fromet (Frumet) Guggenheim gave birth to Joseph
Mendelssohn, their oldest son, founder of the bank Mendelssohn & Co. and
along with his sister Recha were the only two of the couple’s six children to
remain Jewish.
1772: Following the
partition of Poland which gave the Russians a large, unwanted population,
Catherine II whom the Boyars call “Great,” issued an order that read, “Jewish
communities residing in the towns, cities and territories now incorporated in
the Russian Empire shall be left in the enjoyment of all those liberties with
regard to their religion and property which they at present possess.”
1775(15th of
Av. 5535): Tu B’Av observed during the American Revolution on the same day General
George Washington wrote Lt. General Thomas Gage, the commander of British
forces in Boston complaining about the mistreatment of captured American
soldiers at the hands of troops under the command of Gage.
1777(8th of
Av, 5537): Erev Tish’a B’Av observed on the same day that John Adams, the
second President of the United States wrote to his John Quincy Adams the 6th
President of the United States telling him to read “The History of the
Peloponnesian War, translated from the Greek of Thucydides in two Volumes
Quarto, by William Smith A.M. Rector of the Parish of the holy Trinity in
Chester, and Chaplain to the Right Honorable the Earl of Derby” to prepare him
for dealing with future wars which will face the United States of America.
1778: Birthdate of
Prussian native Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, the German nationalist whose statement
in 1810 that “Poles, French, priests, aristocrats and Jews are Germany’s
misfortune” are an example of views that Peter Vierck among others claimed made him “the spiritual founder of
Nazism” – a claim challenged by the highly respected Jacques Barzun who
“observed that Viereck’s portrait of cultural trends supposedly leading to
Nazism was “a caricature without resemblance” relying on
“misleading shortcuts.”
1786: Captain Francis
Light establishes the British colony of Penang in Malaysia. The Penang Jewish
Cemetery, established in 1805, is believed to be the oldest single Jewish
cemetery in Malaysia. According to
legend, the first Jews may have actually come to Malaysia as far back as the 11th
century.
1793: Thirty-four-year-old
Jacob Aaron who had passed away on Shabbat, was buried today at the Alderney
Road Jewish Cemetery in the UK.
1799(10th of
Av, 5559): Tish’a B’Av observed for the last time in the 18th
century
1800: Today, “Benjamin
Nones,” who had come to the United States from Bordeaux in 1777 “published a
reply to an anonymous anti-Semitic letter which had been printed on August 5 in
the Gazette of the United States.
1804: Francis II
assumed the title of first Emperor of Austria. When it came to his Jewish
subjects, Francis and his chief minister, Metternich followed in the footsteps
Maria Theresa and not the more liberal Joseph II. During his reign ghettos were set up in
Austria. Jews were not allowed to settle
in the province of Tyrol. Stringent
restrictions were placed on where Jews could live in Bohemia and Moravia. In
Vienna, a special tax was placed on all Jews who entered the capital. While the Emperor “ennobled a few Jews” he
“humiliated” the remainder of the population. Jewish marriages were restricted
to the eldest son or those who had enough money to pay large bribes to the
appropriate officials.
1810: In Oberdöbling
near Vienna, banker Joseph von Henikstein and his wife, the former Elisabeth
von Sonnenstein gave birth to Alfred von Henikstein who was baptized as a child
making him the highest ranking officer
of Jewish parentage in the Austrian army and chief of staff before the battle
of Königgrätz in the Austro-Prussian War.
1813(15th of
Av, 5573): Tu B’Av celebrated as Lewis and Clark were encamped with the
Shoshoni, the tribe of Sacagawea who would serve as their guide on the mission
of exploration that would lead to the Pacific Ocean.
1816: In the
Netherlands, Rosa and Simon Hartog Cohen gave birth to future New Yorker Moses
Simon Cohen, the husband of Elizabeth Cohen.
1820(1st of
Elul, 5580): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1823(4th of Elul,
5583): Nine days after her 60th birthday, Sarah Hart, the daughter
of Rachel de Lyon and Myer Hart Texeirade, the wife of Isaac Nunez Cardozo and
the mother of Michael, Rachel, Abigail, Esther and Judith Cardozo passed away
today.
1824: Yitzhak ben
Sampson married Perla bat Benjamin today.
1827: Birthdate of
Jesse Seligman, the German born American banker and philanthropist whose career
began in Alabama and ended in San Francisco, CA.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=454&letter=S
1828: Birthdate of
Edward Salomon a native of Saxony who served as Lieutenant Governor of
Wisconsin from 1860 to 1862 at which time he became the state’s 8th
Governor when Louis P Harvey drowned in the Tennessee River.
1828: In Fuerth,
Bavaria. Nanette Wexler and Leser Lazarus Ochsenhorn who married in 1803 gave
birth to Jette Ochsenhorn who would live for only 13 months.
1830(22nd of Av, 5590):
Dr. Philip Moses Russell, a native of England who began serving as a medical
officer for various units in the Revolutionary War starting in 1775 passed away
today. In addition to his medical work
for which he was commended by George Washington, Russell and six other Jews
“volunteered as guides to lead the American forces through the woods and swamps
in a surprise attempt to recapture British-held Savannah, GA.”
1831(2nd of
Elul, 5591): Thirty-four-year-old “Elie ben Abraham Laard the Frauenberg, France
born “son of Abraham Lazard and Leyen Lazard, the husband of Esther Cahn –
Lazard and father of Lazare Lazard; Alexandre Lazard; Maurice Lazard; Lisa
Bloch; Simon Lazard; Rosalie Rachel Aron and Elie Lazard, II” passed away today.
1833: Birthdate of
Robert G. Ingersoll, Civil war soldier, orator and defender of
agnosticism. He was the author of “Some
Mistakes Moses Made” which begins “For many years I have regarded the
Pentateuch simply as a record of a barbarous people, in which are found a great
number of the ceremonies of savagery, many absurd and unjust laws, and
thousands of ideas inconsistent with known and demonstrated facts. To me it
seemed almost a crime to teach that this record was written by inspired men;
that slavery, polygamy, wars of conquest and extermination were right, and that
there was a time when men could win the approbation of infinite Intelligence,
Justice, and Mercy, by violating maidens and by butchering babes.” Ingersoll
was not an anti-Semite. He had a “low
opinion” of other religions as well.
1840: Lord Palmerston
the British Foreign Secretary wrote a letter to the ambassador in
Constantinople that said, “There exists…among the Jews…a strong notion that the
time is approaching when their nation is to return to Palestine…. I instruct
you… to strongly recommend that the Turkish Government … encourage the Jews of
Europe to return to Palestine.”
Palmerston was not philo-Semite or a proto-Zionist. Rather, he was an English statesmen looking
to bring what he considered Western civilization to the Orient.
1843(15th of
Av, 5603): Tu B’Av
1844: Birthdate of
Wilhelm Stern the son of a rabbi in Posen who became a German physician.
1844: Just days before
his death, Rabbi Aron Chorin sent an address to the conference of Hungarian
rabbis meeting at Páks.
1845(8th of
Av, 5605): Tish’a B’Av observed for the first time during the Presidency of
James K. Polk who “briefly met the father of Reform Judaism in the United
States, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise.” (The Elected and the Chosen)
1848: Establishment of
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to which
Amy Totenberg would be appointed in 2011 making her the first Jewish woman to
serve in such a capacity.
1849: Louis Kossuth,
the Hungarian political leader and journalist who was sympathetic to Jewish
hopes for emancipation and the right to become full-fledged citizens of the
newly independent Hungry was forced to abdicate as Governor-President of
Hungary today as the forces of repression undid the work of the Revolutions of
1848.
1851: In Vienna,
Eleanor and Josef Pick gave birth to Leopold Pick.
1852: In Bielostok,
Russia, Noah Brodsky and his wife gave birth to Hyman Brodsky who “was
instrumental in establishing Sheltering Homes, Talmud Torah Schools, Free
Schools, Free Libraries, Building Associations, Loan Associations, Chevra
Kadisha and Zionist Societies in New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Providence,
RI, Troy, NY and Newark, NJ where since 1899 he has served as the rabbi of
Congregation Anshe Russia.
1852: One day after he
had passed away, Simon Simmons, the son of Joseph of Rosa Simmons and the
husband of Catherine Davis with whom he had seven children – Rosetta, Esther,
Israel, Caroline, Joseph, Mary Ann and Elizabeth – was buried today at the “Brompton
(Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1853: It was reported
today that an unnamed Jew owns a house at Table Rock adjacent to the Great
Horse Shoe Falls where visitors can buy brandy and cigars and seek protection
from the spray of the cataract.
1854:
Birthdate of old Benno or Beno Straucher, a Bukovina-born Austro-Hungarian
lawyer, politician and Jewish community representative, who spent the final
part of his career in Romania
1856: Isle Dernière (Last Island), a barrier island
southwest of New Orleans which has served as a resort was destroyed today by
the Last Island Hurricane whose victims included more than one unnamed Jewish
resident.
1857:
During a debate on India, Benjamin Disraeli reiterated his conviction that the
mutiny in India was more than just a military matter and that the government
was not taking the correct measures in the matter. He also repudiated the
government’s faith in European alliances declaring that could not be depended
upon.
1858(1st of Elul,
5618): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1859: In Deal, Kent,
Amalia Monies, and Charles Kahn gave birth to Jenny Kahn the wife of Arthur
Rothenborg
1860: The Jewish
Messenger cautions “the public against an impostor, who calls himself
Nelton and Abramowitsch, according to circumstances,” who writes his name with
Hebrew letters “which may mean saint or sinner, as far as the knowledge of the
common crowd goes. He dresses in priestly attire, so the Messenger says,
with a white cravat and black cassock. While asking the Editor for charity, he
appropriated an article of silver-ware from the mantelpiece”.
1862: In a letter
written today addressed to the Adjutant General of the United States Army,
General William Tecumseh Sherman warned that “the country will swarm with
dishonest Jews” if continued trade in cotton is encouraged. (In a letter
written in 1858, Sherman had described Jews as “…without pity, soul,
heart, or bowels of compassion…”
During the Civil War Sherman had numerous Jews serving in the various
armies under his command with no whiff of anti-Semitism attached to his
decisions. This included the 82nd
Illinois Regiment that included a large contingent of Chicago Jews and was
commanded by Edward S. Salomon. The
regiment fought under his command during Sherman’s brilliant Atlanta Campaign
and rose to the rank of General as Sherman’s forces bravely marched north from
Savannah to help trap the remaining Confederate forces.
1862: During the Civil
War, Philadelphian Jacob Benedict a Corporal in Company H of the 122nd
Regiment began serving in the Union Army.
1862: During the Civil
War, Philadelphians Elias Bear, Lewis Cohen, Isaac Davidson, Henry Myers and
David Fellenbaum began their nine-month enlistment in the 122nd
Regiment.
1862: Sarah Bernhardt
made her acting debut at the Comédie
Française in the title role of Racine’s Iphigénie.
1863: Charles and Larua
Levy gave birth to South Carolinian Rosalie Levy Hart, the wife of Israel Hart.
1864(9th of
Av,5624): Tish’a B’Av (Did the Jewish soldiers fighting in the Union’s
multi-prong offensive against the Rebels fast as they made their way across
Northern Virginia and Georgia.
1865(19th of
Av, 5625): Fifty-year-old Abraham Mordka Alter, the son of Yitzchak Alter and
Feigele Lipschitz passed away today in Warszawa, Poland.
1866: Ernest Abraham
Hart “was appointed editor of the British
Medical Journal” today.
1867: In Cincinnati,
OH, Leopold Pappenheimer, the German born son “of Salomon Pappenheimer and
Zerla Pappenheimer (Wormser) and his wife Marie Pappenheimer” to future Georgia
resident Sigmund Pappenheimer the husband of Edith Waxelbaum and the father of
Louise P. Finsterwald.
1867: In New York, Abraham and
Gertrude (Enoch) Weber gave birth to Joseph Maurice Weber, the husband of
Lillian Friedman and one half of the vaudeville comedy act of Weber and Fields.
Playing Jews was not a key to show biz success when this team started out. Some of their early success came playing
Dutch (German characters) and Irishmen, something their audiences really
enjoyed.
1872: In Baltimore, MD,
“Charles and Caroline (Frank) Adler gave birth to Johns Hopkins alum and
University of Maryland trained physician Harry Adler, the husband of Carrie F.
Adler who “founded and endowed the dental clinic at the Hebrew Hospital where he
was an “attending physician” for ten years.
1873: Philadelphian
Jonathan Manly Emanuel, the son of London born physician Manly Emanuel, who had
joined the U.S. Navy as an engineer during the Civil War completed a month tour
at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia today after which he was assigned to the “Tuscarora.”
1877: Birthdate of
Brooklyn native and NYU trained physician Joseph Leben, the “chief of clinic at
the Hospital for Joint Diseases” and husband of Addie Lebenstein.
1879: It was reported
today that there are parts of Coney Island, New York’s popular resort, where
“Jews are not tolerated.”
1879: The New York
Times featured a review of Somebody’s Ned by Mrs. A.M. Freeman. This
is a work of romantic fiction combined with a murder mystery. In this case the star-crossed lovers are a
French Catholic named Danton Roland and French Jewess named Rachel Rosenthal as
well David Dudley and Jessica-Rachel.
The plot thickens when Solomon Rosenthal is found dead. To find “who
done it” go to
1879: In White Plains,
New York, Justice C.W. Cochrane heard a case in which the Osmond C Lyon had
filed a complaint against a Jewish merchant – Adolph D. Pollack – for selling
cigars and neckties on Sunday in violation of the “blue laws.” The defendant responded
that he had not violated the law because he had not “exposed” his goods “for
sale” and had only sold them quietly when requested. He also said that as a
Jew, he observed the Sabbath on Saturday and the enforcement of the law in this
manner was a violation of the New York Constitution which prohibits
interference with his religious views.
1879: “A Cool Day At
Coney Island” published today shows that prejudice against Jews is now becoming
prevalent at the popular resort. “For Coney Island is miniature New York and
has its German quarter, its American quarter and its quarter where Jews are not
tolerated.”
1881: It was reported
today that the new Home for the Aged and Infirmed being built in Yonkers will
cost more than $60,000.
1881: During a period
of on-going Pogroms,” a dozen of the wealthiest Jews in Tsarist Russi filed
into the palatial St. Petersburg home of Baron Horace de Gunzberg” to discuss their concern that a mass exodus
of Jews from Russia would convince the authorities to continue their program of
violence as a way of dealing with “the Jewish problem.”
1882: Mr. Lazarus
Silverman, a Chicago banker, appeared at the office of the Clerk of Circuit
Court with 12 Russians Jews who had arrived in the Windy City with their
families. After following all of the
legal requirements, the men took the oath and became citizens of the United
States. Since their knowledge of English
was limited, they signed the documents in Hebrew.
1882: In Silesia, Rabbi
Jacob David Kallen and Esther Rebecca Glazier gave birth to Horace M. Kallen,
one of seven children all of whom, in 1887, came to the United States where
Kallen would graduate from Harvard, become the first Jewish professor at Princeton
while maintaining a leadership role in the American Jewish Community.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kallen-horace-meyer
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0001/ms0001.html
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/02/17/archives/dr-horace-kallen-philosopher-dies.html
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/422
1883((8th of
Av, 5643): Parashat Devarim; Erev Tish’a B’Av
1883: Police fired on a
mob that had resumed its attacks on the home of Joseph Scharf one of the
defendants who had been acquitted of charges of having killed a Christian girl
as part of a Jewish ritual murder.
1883: “The Demands on
Charity” published today described a change in the assistance that will be
rendered to the needy by New York’s charitable organizations. In the future,
they will provide assistance to the needy who are trying to establish
themselves in gainful occupations and trades. The United Hebrew Charities will
help Jewish immigrants establish themselves in almost any occupation with the
exception of street peddler, a calling that is now considered to be a public
nuisance.
1884: “Persecuted By
His Family” published today described the plight of Walter Gerson a young Jew
born in 1858 at Bradford England who moved to London, Ontario and then to
Chicago where he converted to
Christianity and married a non-Jewish woman, a fact which his family first
accepted but now seems to be determined to undue.
1884(20th of
Av, 5644): Israel Blatchky, a young Jew who has been working in Des Moines,
Iowa for the past three years passed away today.
1884: “The remaining
members of the ill-fated “Lady Franklin Bay Polar Expedition returned the body
of Edward Israel who had died on May 27 to is home in Kalamazoo where he was
buried with full honors “in the Jewish Cemetery next to Mountain Home Cemetery.
1885: Dr. of Law Alois
Eisler and Emilie Eisler gave birth to Otto Eisler.
1888(4th of
Elul, 5648): Parashat Shoftim
1888: Birthdate of
Pottsville, PA native Abraham Benjamin Cohen, the husband of Hattie Rose Cohn
with whom he had two children, Floryne and Malcom.
1888: Oliver Hazard
Peary married Josephine Diebitsch who would join Angelo Heilprin , the
Hungarian born Jewish explorer on the expedition to Greenland in 1891
1888: “Something More
About European Pauper Labor” published today included a summary of the
testimony of the Director of the Jewish Emigration Protective Society before
the Immigration Committee holding hearings at the Westminster Hotel in which he
explained the reason for the impoverishment for Jewish workers coming to
American and the tendency of them to settle among their co-religionists who
provide them with support.
1889: “The Russian
Emancipation” published today described the freeing of the serfs, which took
place a quarter of a century ago, as a total failure. The peasants are in perpetual debt due to
their inability to re-pay the government for their land and the failed
agricultural system. This forces them to
borrow money from the Jews who seize the land when they are unable to repay the
loan. (Yet another reason for treating
the Jews badly – they are the moneylenders despoiling the noble serfs)
1890: “Geographical
Palestine” published today provides a detailed review of Palestine by Major
C.R. Conder. Claude Reignier Conder
served in the Corps of Royal Engineers and served two tours with the Palestine
Exploration Fund providing him with invaluable first-hand knowledge of the
future Jewish homeland.
1890: “Against Jews In
Russia” published today provided a summary of the repressive edicts that the
Czar has imposed on four million of his subjects which has led to their
impoverishment and are intended to force them to leave the country and/or give
up being Jewish.
1890: Sixty-four-year-old
philanthropist and social reformer Charles Loring Brace passed away today. In
his book The Unknown God Or Inspiration Among Pre-Christian Races Brace
points out that there is little “evidence of Egyptian found in the Hebrew
faith.” According to him “the thinkers
and teachers of the Jews were visited by those higher and purer inspirations
which have made them the greatest benefactors of mankind in ancient history…The
Jews of modern days ought to be forever honored for such progenitors; a race
which could such men deserves the lasting respect of mankind.”
1890: Birthdate of Hartford,
CT native Samuel Bischoff, the husband of Harriette “Yetta Wiegel
Bischoff and graduate of Boston University who produced movies from 1922 to
1964.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0083900/
1891: “The seventh free
excursion” sponsored by “the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children” takes place today
with the boat leaving from the foot of East Third Street at nine o’clock this
morning.
1891: Three days after
she had passed away, 52-year-old Frederika Myers, the wife of Morris Myers was
buried at the Stockton Jewish Cemetery.
1892: In Stanislau,
Austria Clara Horodner and Hyman Lichtenberg gave birth New York University educated
advertising director and author Bernard Lichtenberg the husband of Minerva Kahn
and the recipient in 1924 of Gold Medal “awarded by the Advertising Club of New
York who was a member of the Executive Concil of the Intercollegiate Menorah
Association and a vice president of the Shaaray Tefila Brother as well as the
co-author of “Advertising Principles” and “Advertising Campaigns.”
1892: The Third
Marquess of Salisbury, Lord Robert Cecil, who as Prime Minister has reassured
the House of Lords that regardless of the Czar’s policies “there were no
grounds for dreading a wholesale invasion of Great Britain by pauper Jews from
Russia” left office today and became the leader of “the loyal opposition.”
1893: In Brooklyn,
Justice Walsh sentence William Davison to ten days in jail for his part in
robbing a Jewish peddler named Burns.
1894(9th of
Av, 5654): Parashat Devarim; Erev Tish’a B’Av
1894: Birthdate of
Ernst Angel the Viennese born man of letters who wrote the script for “Love on
Wheels, a British musical comedy before morphing into an American psychologist
1895: Five Jews were
arrested by the police from the Elizabeth Street Station for violating the
Sunday Closing Laws. One of those
arrested, Morris Cohn “pleaded that he was a strict observer of the Hebrew
Sabbath” and he was released by the Magistrate.
1895: “Sympathy For Hat
And Cap Makers” published today described a mass meeting held at Union Square
by several Jewish organizations in support of the workers who have been locked
out by the manufacturers.
1895: Based on
instructions provided by Meyer Schoenfeld and Herman Robinson the striking
tailors, most of whom were Jewish and who were returning to work were not
worried that they were being locked out today by the contractors since it was
Sunday and the bosses observed the Sunday closing laws.
1895: During July, it
was reported today, the United Hebrew Charities “responded to the applications
for relief from 3,304” people on behalf of 11,013 individuals.
1896: Populist leader
Mary Elizabeth Lease was quoted today as saying “Redemption money and
interest-bearing bonds are the curse of civilization. We are paying tribute to
the Rothchilds of England, who are but the agent of the Jews.”
1898: “Nevada Colonists
Despoiled” published today described how a group of Russian Jews who had been
building a new life in Lyon County, Nevada, were swindled by two of their
co-religionists Daniel Schwartz who mortgaged the groups crop to get $1,500 from
a bank in Carson City and then ran off with money. The penniless Jews are now faced with the
prospect of losing their newly built homes.
1898: L’Anti-Juif,
“a weekly organ of the Anti-Semitic League” was published today for the first
time in Paris.
1899: “Joseph Haworth’s
New Role” published today described Jacob Litt’s decision to cast Joseph
Haworth in the role of Raphael, the leading character in Israel Zangwill’s “The
Ghetto.”
1899: The officers
presiding over the court marital of Captain Dreyfus announced that the next
four sittings of the court would be held behind closed doors.
1899: In Mitau, Latvia,
merchant Lazar Hirshhorn and his wife Amelia gave birth to their 12th
child, Joseph Herman Hirshhorn, the self-made financier and prospector best
known for his role in establishing the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture
Garden in Washington, D.C.
1899: The great Jewish
actor Jacob Adler fell and seriously injured himself today while riding his
bicycle at Long Branch, NJ.
1900: Today, Rabbi
Alexander S. Kleinfeld, the Hungarian born son of Rabbi Jacob Kleinfeld and
Esther Freud, the niece of Dr. Sigmund Freud who eventually became the
spiritual leader of Temple Emanuel of Patterson, NJ married Clara Gordon.
1900: Mass meeting of
the English Zionist Federation was held in East End.
1902: “The hearing
before Inspector Brooks at police headquarters on the conduction of certain
policeman at the riot on July 30 between employees of Hoe and Company and Jews
attending the funeral of Rabbi Joseph” continued today.
1903: Birthdate of
Polish born American Yiddish theatre actor and Union leader Herman Yablokoff,
the husband of Bella Yablokoff and the father of Jack Yablokoff.
http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=33552
https://www.milkenarchive.org/artists/view/herman-yablokoff/
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/04/obituaries/herman-yablokoff-yiddish-actor.html
1903: Herzl meets Jews
from all circles in St. Petersburg and a banquet is arranged by the Russian
Zionists.
1904(30th of
Av, 5664): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1904: In New York City,
Adolf Berkelhammer and Friedel Berkelhammer gave birth to NYU trained attorney
Irving Berkelhammer, the husband of Phyllis Berkelhammer, who was involved in
various Jewish organizations including the UJA and the Federation of Jewish
Philanthropies.
1904(30th of
Av, 5664): The month of Av, which
“Zionist Societies have been observing as a “period of mourning” for Theodor
Herzl came to an end today.
1904: In Pennsylvania,
Rebecca and Morris Lazarus gave birth to Samuel Lazarus, who had four siblings
– Louis, Clara, Celia and Sarah.
1905: Birthdate of Erwin Chargaff, the Austrian born
American biochemist who discovered two rules that led to the discovery of
double helical structure of
1905: The British
Aliens Act, which reflected anti-Jewish bias, became a law. The anti-Jewish
bias was aimed at the Jews fleeing Rumania and Russia who were seeking a safe
haven in England. This was manifestation
of lingering anti-Jewish sentiment in an English society that was increasingly
accepting of its Jewish population.
1906(20th of
Av, 5666) Parashat Ekev
1906: It was reported
today that “M. Friedlander of Jews’ College England has translated into English
the original Arabic text of Guide to the Perplexed which appears in
volume printed by E.P. Dutton and Company that contains a brief biography of
Maimonides and a full explanation of his Guide.”
1907: Birthdate of Max
Abrams, the native of Glasgow who played drums for several bands in the 1930’s
and 1940’s who wrote “50 jazz tutor books.”
1908: Rabbi and medical
doctor Mendel Silber the Lithuanian born son of Rabbi Jacob and
Esther Silber who was a graduate of HUC and Physicians and Surgeons College in
St. Louis married Ida Deinard after which he eventually became the rabbi of
Gates of Prayer in New Orleans.
1908: Nathan Solity
married Miriam Mendie today at the New Briggate Synagogue in Leeds, UK
1909: The Chief Rabbi
of Adrianople was forced to resign by Jews of Demotica for failing to take
action and not protesting against the change in market day at Demotica, from
Thursday to Saturday.
1910: In Philadelphia,
PA, Max Leopold Margolis and his wife, the former Evelyn Kate Aronson gave
birth to Catherine A. Margolis.
1911(17th of
Av, 5671): One hundred seventeen-year-old Rabbi Isaac Reich passed away at
Szamos Hungary.
1911: Funeral services
are scheduled to be held today for “Mrs. Alice Stoll, the sister of Hattie
Summerfield.
1911: Birthdate of
Giorgio Cavagliere, an American Jewish architect who fled Mussolini’s Italy and
became a leader of the urban preservation movement.
1911: Jews suffer the
impoverishing effect of fires in Russian communities including Tulishkoff,
Mlava and Konskavola.
1911: As the Turks
recover from the effects of the fires at Constantinople, the Chief Rabbi forms
a Relief Committee and Grand Vizier Hakki Bey sent a telegram to the 10th
Zionist Congress meeting at Basle, Switzerland thanking the Jewish organization
for the contributins to relieve the suffering of fire victims.
1911: In Copenhagen,
Denmark, attacks are made on Shechitah at the Animal Protection Congress.
1912: In Westfield, MA,
founding of Ahavas Achim synagogue.
1912: In Providence,
Rhode, Island, found of Beth Israel synagogue.
1912: In Kenosha,
Wisconsin founding of B’nai Zedek synagogue.
1913The London
ambassadors conference, of Europe’s six “Great Powers”
(Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United Kingdom), settled
on the boundaries of the new Principality of Albania, created from former
Turkish territory that had been the scene nationalist revolts during the Turks
had accused the small Jewish population “of colluding with the Albanian
rebels.”
1914: Jews are expelled
from Mitchenick, Poland
1914: In a move that
showed the British navy did not understand the strategic consequences of its
mission, two German warships entered the Dardanelles – a move that would push
the Ottoman Empire into the arms of the Central Powers. (Editor’s note – one can only wonder what
would have happened to the Middle East, including Palestine if the Ottomans had
remained neutral or joined the Allies.)
1915: As the Cossack
and Dragoons continued their attack on the Jews of Lokachi in the Province of
Volinski a gendarme found the blood covered coat of Gershon Pfeffer, a Jew who
had been dragged off into the woods three days earlier when he resisted being
lined up with the other Jews who were then robbed “of all their money and
valuables.”
1915: Today in San
Francisco., Attorney Edwin R.A. Seligman delivered “The Next Step in Tax
Reform,” the Presidential Address at the “Ninth Annual Conference of the
National Tax Association”
1916(12th of
Av, 5676): Eighty-eight-year-old Rabb Abraham Levy passed away today in London.
1916: It was reported
today that Oscar Straus, the former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, “assailed Jews
who sought to forget their ancestors and their Jewish inheritance” saying “that
if the present fashion in Jewish families of giving their children names as
remote as possible from those with a Jewish sound continued, within a short
time only Americans of Puritan ancestry would have names of Abraham and Jacob,
Ruth and Esther.”
1917: It was reported
today that the British Labour Party has adopted a memorandum on issues that
will be part of a peace settlement that stated “in behalf of the Jews equal
citizenship rights with other inhabitants is demanded from all countries and it
is hoped that Palestine will be free from Turkish domination and become a free
state under international guarantees to which such Jews as desire my return to
work out their own salivation free from interference from nations and
religions.”
1917: Turkish
representative at The Hague, Netherlands denies that negotiations took place
between Turkey and former United States ambassador, Henry Morgenthau regarding
the sale of Palestine to the Jews
1917:
Birthdate of Algerian born, French-Israeli writer Andre Chouraqui, known for
his French-language translation of the Bible and his work for the government in
Israel. A poet, Chouraqui was best known for translating religious texts,
including La Bible hebraique et le Nouveau Testament (The Hebrew
Bible and New Testament), published in 26 volumes between 1974 and 1977.
Chouraqui studied law in Paris. During World War II, he joined the French
Resistance and hid out in the Haute-Loire region of central France. After
moving to Israel in 1958, he became an adviser to Israel’s first Prime
Minister, David Ben-Gurion, from 1959 to 1963. He also served as deputy mayor
of Jerusalem. He passed away at the age of 89 at his home in Jerusalem in 2007.
1918: It was
reported today that in a recent speech given by Dr. von Seidler, the Austrian
Premier to the Lower House of the Austrian Reichstag, he said that “most of the
Jews” in Austria “are counted as Germans unlike all of the other groups like
the Poles, Czechs and Italians who are counted separately. (Editor’s note –
considering what would happen twenty years later, this method might have come
as a shock to those caught up in the Anschluss)
1919: The Weimar
Republic’s first Reichspräsident (“Reich President”),
Friedrich Ebert of the SPD, signed the new German constitution into law. The
Weimar Republic marked Germany’s first experience with a truly democratic
government. It failed for lack of
popular support and would give way to Hitler’s Third Reich. One of the excuses offered for German support
the Holocaust was that Jews were associated with the founding of the Weimar
Republic and the Weimar Republic was viewed as a humiliation saddled on the
Germans by the Allies at the end of World War I. The logic is tortured, but it is neither the
first time that people would rationalize and justify their anti-Semitism.
1920: Samuel Gompers is
one of several labor leaders who attend a dinner honoring T.J. Healy before he
departs for Europe where he will represent the American Federation of Labor at
an international labor conference.
1920: The Joint
Distribution Committee in New York has sent 150,000 to Danzig in response to a
request from that community which is being overwhelmed with war refugees from
Poland and which has been cut off from the Joint Distribution in Warsaw.
1921: Birthdate of
Amsterdam native Ellen Danby the survivor of Theresienstadt who gained fame as
Ellen Burka the Canadian figure skater, member of the Order of Canada and a
member Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
1921: Today, University
of Cincinnati and Harvard educated social worker Maurice Beck Hexter the Cincinnati
born son of Max and Sarah Hexter and since 1919, the executive director of the
Federated Jewish Charities married
Marguerite Mock, whom he met in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after which they had one
daughter, Marjorie Hexter Cohen, born in 1930.
1921: In Haifa,
“agronomist Yechiel Weizman and his wife gave birth to Yael Weizman, who as
Yael Allingham, the wife of Conal Wolsey Allingham, invented “polymeric mulch
sheets and mulch films for use in agriculture.”
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5138792.html
1922: “A financial
re-organization of R.H. Mercy Co., merchants in New York since 1858, is under
way, to make possible the, program of expansion which will go into effect with
the completion of the firm’s proposed new nineteen story annex to the present structure,
at Thirty-fourth street and Broadway. Common but will not change the management
led by Jesse Straus, President, Percy Straus, Vice President and Herbert N.
Straus, the Secretary and Treasurer.
1923: In the Bronx,
Benjamin Meschess and the former Anna Grosse gave birth to Arnold Mesches,, a
scenic designer who was tracked by the F.B.I. for a quarter of a century. (As
reported by William Grimes)
1923: At a session of
the World Zionist Congress meeting in in Carslbad, Czechoslovakia, that
continued until
this morning, Dr. Chaim Weizmann and Nabum Sokolow, heads of the World Zionist
Organization, defended their administration from the attacks to which it has
been subjected during the last few days.
1924: Julius R. Jarcho,
the New York born son of Naum and Bertha Jaraco and Ohio State and Syracuse
alum married Dorothy E. Rambar after which he became the editor and publisher
of the Brooklyn Jewish Chronicle.
1925: Birthdate of
Philadelphia native Arnold Schulman the University of North Carolina trained
screenwriter whose work on such films as “Love With A Proper Stranger” and “A
Hole in the Head” have earned him Writers Guild and Oscar nominations.
1925(21st of Av, 5685):
Sixty-eight-year-old Abraham Trost, the Ohio born son of Wolf and Hannah Kahn
Trost who is not to be confused with a person of the same name who was sued for
child support in New Jersey, passed away today after which he was interred at
the Walnut Hills Jewish Cemetery in Evanston, Ohio.
1926(1st of Elul,
5686): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1926: In “Zelva,
Lithuania, “Lazar, a cattleman, and Bella (née Silin) Klug gave birth to Dr.
Aaron Klug, the South African trained winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry
in 1982.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07702-5
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/nov/26/sir-aaron-klug-obituary
1926: Birthdate of
Brooklyn native Saul Fredericks Rabiner, the Tulane trained doctor and WW II
veteran who served on the faculty at the Prtzker Medical School.
1927: Birthdate of
Gustav Bermel a member of the Ehrenfield anti-Nazi resistance Group who was
murdered at the age of 17.
1927: In
Brooklyn, Sara (née Kaminsky) and David Rosenberg gave birth to Stuart
Rosenberg, director of Cool Hand Luke.
1928: “Four Walls” a
silent film co-starring Carmel Myers, the San Francisco born daughter of
“daughter of an Australian rabbi and Austrian Jewish mother” was released in
the United States today by MGM.
1929: Birthdate of
Frankfurt, Germany native Geoffrey H. Hartmann one of “the Jewish children
evacuated from Nazi Germany as part of a Kindertransport” who became a
Professor of English and comparative literature at Yale, co-founder of the
Judaic studies program at Yale and the “first director of what is now the
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale.”
1929: The Jewish Agency
was created at the 16th Zionist Congress in Zurich. It was intended to include
non-Zionists such as Louis Marshall, Leon Blum and Felix Warburg to take a
leading role among those working to create a Jewish state.
1929: Florence Wolfson
Howlett turned 14 and made her first entry in the diary she received as a
birthday present. The diary would
provide the basis for The Red Leather Diary by Lily Koppel
1930: In New York City
Yiddish poet Ber Lapin and his wife gave birth CCNY and Columbia alum Shmuel
Lapin, the director of “the youth department of the Farband,” and
“excutive director of the Canadian Labor Zionist Movement” who hit
his stride as the executive secretary of YIVO while raising three children –
Dov, Avrum and Hayim – with his wife Khave.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shmuel-lapin-on-yivo-1968/id724785918?i=1000385571654
1930: At the second
session of the fourth world congress of the Zionist Revisionist, Dr. Robert
Lichtheim delivered a speech in which he said that the organization “would
conduct its own political activities, particularly in pleading the Zionist
cause before governments and statesmen, independently of the Zionist executive
and the Jewish agency.
1930(17th of
Av, 5690): Sixty-five-year-old Hungarian native, Rudolph Farbert, the father of
Lillie, Bertrum, Leona, Arnold and Nettye who served as Rabbi at Congregation
Gates of Heaven from 1885 to 1887 and
Mt. Saini in Texarkana, TX passed away today in Chicago after which he was
buried at Waldehim Jewish Cemetery.
1930: In New York City,
an announcement was made at the headquarters of the Allied Jewish Campaign that
more than $1,214,000 was spent in the development of the economic and cultural program of the Jewish Agency in Palestine
during the half year” that ended on May 1.
1931: Today, “the War
Department authorized the granting of furloughs in the army to members of the
Jewish faith to permit to participate in the celebration of the high holy days”
which take place in September.
1932(9th of
Av, 5692): Tisha B’Av
1932: Birthdate of
American architect Peter Eisenman whose creations included the Wexner Center
for the Arts at Ohio State University which was “named in honor of the father
of Limited Brands founder, and friend of Jeffery Epstein, Leslie Wexner, who
was a major donor to the Center” and “The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of
Europe” in Berlin.
1932: Birthdate of
Israel Harold “Izzy” Asper, Canadian tax attorney and media magnate. A native
of Minnedosa, Manitoba, Asper “was the founder of CanWest Global Communications
Corp and father to Leonard, Gail and David Asper, each of whom served as officers
of CanWest.
1933: The Supreme
Representative Committee of German Jews established a farm near Rathenow, in
Prussia, to train unemployed Jews as agricultural workers.
1933: Judah Bergman,
the World Light Welterweight Champion, who boxed under the name of Jack kid
Berg, “married Bunty Pain, a dancer at the Trocadero, today at Prince’s Row
register office in London.”
1933: Nineteen-year-old
actress Heddy Lamar, the daughter of Viennese Jewish parents married Austrian
arms dealer and fascist Friedrich Mandl.
1933: In response to
what is described as an “epidemic of suicides among German Jews of the
Rhineland,” the Jewish community of Cologne has issued an appeal signed by the
lay leaders and the Rabbinate, urging Jews not to despair.
1933: The Hamburg
Federation of Grain Merchants, which had a large Jewish membership, was
dissolved. Its funds and property were turned over to the “Aryanized”
All-German Federation of Commerce.
1933: In Warsaw, an
edict was issued forbidding Jewish bakers, who observe the Sabbath, to bake
bread on Sundays. The edict affected over 50,000 Jewish bakers.
1933: In Cracow,
Thirty-one of the forty-two arrested persons, charged with organizing riots
against Jews in a nearby town received sentences of imprisonment of from four
months to three years.
1934(30th of
Av, 5694): Parashat Re’eh and Rosh Chodesh Elul
1934: “An appeal to
Jewish athletes to refrain from participating in the 1936 Olympic Games in
Berlin was issued today by Samuel Untermyer as president of the Non-Sectarian
Anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights.”
1935(12th of Av, 5695):
Sixty-five-year-old portrait artist Leo Mielziner passed away today.
http://www.askart.com/askart/m/leo_mielziner/leo_mielziner.aspx
1936: Condemning
British proposals to partition Palestine as “outrageous,” Senator
Royal S. Copeland (Dem., NY) introduced in the Senate today a resolution asking
the Senate’s “forthright indication of unwillingness to accept
modification in the mandate without Senate consent.” Senator Copeland
declared that the territory allotted the Jews in the proposed partition was
insufficient to maintain even a small number of Jews and that establishment of
a small Jewish state might result in a war between the Jews and the Arabs. The Jews are having a “terrible
time” in Germany, Poland and Rumania…. At the same time he noted a
“distinct animosity” on the part of American consuls abroad in
granting visas to Jews, which, he said, showed discrimination. (As reported by
JTA)
1936: “The Polish
delegation to the World Jewish Congress charged early today…that Poland’s
3,500,000 Jews were being terrorized and made paupers” and that “anti-Semitic
agitation is making the Jews the scapegoats for” Poland’s “ills” which “has led
to the loss of Jewish life and property.”
1936: In Geneva,
tonight, at the meeting of the World Jewish Congress, Rabbi M.L. Perlsweig,
head of the World Zionist Organization’s political information department,
accused the British authorities in Palestine of “political ineptitude so
gross as to be almost unbelievable” while “Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of New York
paid tribute to the self-restraint of the Palestine Jews…”
1937: By a vote of 304 to 158, the 20th Zionist
Congress, held in Zurich, endorsed Chaim Weizmann¹s proposal and empowered the
Zionist Executive to negotiate with the British government the terms of the
Royal (Peel) Report, according to which the partition of Palestine would be implemented,
and the Jewish state was to be established. Dr. Weizmann¹s proposal was
denounced by Dr. Stephen Wise, on behalf of American Jewry and many other
delegates, including Menachem Ussishkin. A revised version of the partition
plan was also supported by David Ben-Gurion.
1937: In Santa Monica, CA, Harry Herschel and Shirley (née Weissman)
Cohen gave birth to Iris Margo Cohen who gained fame as ballet dancer and
actress Allegra Kent.
1937: In Zurich roving bands of Nazis assaulted
and molested a number of Zionist delegates.
1937(4th of Elul, 5697): Detective Isidore Astel, the
patrolman who shot a killed a hold-up man during a gun battle last December in
Manhattan for which he was decorated with “the gold Police Combat Cross” died
today “in the Hospital for Joint Diseases.
1937: New York Mayor La Guardia is scheduled to attend today’s outing
sponsored by the Brooklyn Division of the American Jewish Congress which
consisted of “a boat rid up the Hudson River on the steamship Delaware.”
1938: “The Osservatore Romano, the authoritative Vatican organ, today
protested strongly against the Italian press boycott of the speeches in which
Pope Pius has denounced the new racial theories” in words that included “Where
Hebrewism means suffering, pain and a target for persecution, it cannot hope
for a better defender than the Catholic Church.”
1938: After returning from a trip to Palestine, “Malcolm MacDonald,
Dominions Secretary” delivered a radio talk today in which he said the
“pacification of Palestine will not be accomplished quickly” but that in the
meantime “the British Government will administer its trust on the basis of
justice between the Jews…and Arabs. (Editor’s note – in less than a year, the
infamous White Paper would make a lie of this as far as the Jews were
concerned.)
1939: “When Tomorrow Comes,” a “romantic comedy” directed and produced by
John M. Stahl was released today in the United States.
1939: Laurence Steinhardt begins serving as U.S. Ambassador to the
U.S.S.R.
1939(26th of Av, 5699): Having received a summons from the
Gestapo and fearing that he would be tortured like others who had received such
a summons, 68-year-old mathematicians Paul Epstein “took a lethal dose of
Veronal.
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Epstein.html
1941: As of today,
Stanley M. Isaacs is “unchanged…in his determination seek both the Republican
and Labor party nominations in the primaries” which will pit him against Edgar
J. Nathan who “was recently chosen by the New York County Republican organization
as its candidate for Borough President of Manhattan…”
1941: Birthdate of
Brooklyn political figure, Elizabeth Holtzman.
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Holtzman began serving in Congress in
1973 just in time to be part of the Watergate investigation. After leaving the House, she held various
political positions but missed out on her biggest prize, a seat in the U.S.
Senate.
1941: Vichy adopted an
ordinance excluding Jews from working as doctors.
1941: Het Parool, “an
Amsterdam-based daily newspaper” was published for the first time “as a
resistance paper during the Nazi occupation” by a staff that included Jaap
Nunes Vaz who would be sent to Sobibor in 1942.
1942: Today “Hollywood
actress Hedy Lamarr (called “the most beautiful woman in Hollywood”) received a
patent with composer George Antheil for a “frequency hopping, spread-spectrum
communication system” designed to make radio-guided torpedoes harder to detect
or jam.”
http://jwa.org/thisweek/aug/11/1942/actress-hedy-lamarr-patents-basis-for-wifi
1942: Fifty-six-year-old
Brandenberg native William Chaskel Flatow was deported from Drancy and shipped
to Aushwitz today.
1942(28th of Av, 5702):
The Nazis murdered 13,000 Jews at Rostov-On-Don, a deadly total that would be
added to a few days later when another two to five thousand Jews were murdered.
1943: “Herman Hoffman,
Grand Master of the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham announced today that he
had proclaimed a thirty-day mourning period among the members in protest of the
ruthless murder of Jews in Nazi-dominated Europe” and that he had sent a
telegram to President Roosevelt “urging him to make a special broadcast to the
world if these ruthless murders do not cease.”
1944: Joop Westerweel,
Dutch poet and educator was executed by the Nazis, for helping Jews escape. In
late February 1944 Joop Westerweel traveled to the foot of the Pyrenees to say
farewell to the group about to cross into Spain, which included Joseph Heinrich
and thirteen other young people Joop and his underground group had helped to
escape from Holland. His memorable speech was later vividly recalled by many
who were present. He wished them well and that they should build Palestine into
a place where there would be no war, only food and work for everyone. As the
young pioneers left for Spain, Joop turned back to Holland. On March 11, he was
arrested by border police while helping two young Jewish girls cross illegally
from Holland to France. Five months later he was executed in prison in Vught
Concentration Camp. The sacrifice of Joop Westerweel and those like him must
never be forgotten. The challenge for
the living is to be worthy of the proof of such virtue.
1945: A ‘small pogrom’
took place in Krakow, Poland, three months after the end of World War II in
Europe.
1945: Collier’s
magazine published “Terror in Palestine” by Frank Gervasi which provides a
contemporary look at events following the death of Lord Moyne.
1946: “Unusual British
troop movements around the port of Haifa and the arrival of four British Navy
landing craft converted into cages with supplies of barbed wire gave rise today
to rumors that “floating detention camps” might have been brought
here to transfer Jewish illegal immigrants to Cyprus.”
1947: Today in the wake
of an “attack by an Arab band that killed person, four Jewish and an Arab, in a
café on the outskirts of Tela Aviv,” “today Haganah warned the Jewish community
against demands that it ‘revenge this manslaughter’ and to be calm while
organized plans were prepared” while “Vaad Leumi has asked for a meeting of all
municipal councils in Palestine to formulae plans for tightening measures for
the defense of the Jewish community.
1948(8th of Av, 5708):
Elaine Hammerstein, the daughter of opera producer Arthur Hammerstein, who
gained fame as an American silent film and stage actress, passed away.
1949: Birthdate of
David Rubenstein, the son of a Baltimore postal worker, who co-founded the
Carlyle Group and whose philanthropies included serving as Chairman of both
Kennedy Center and the Duke University board of Trustees.
1950: In Riga, Frieda
and Zalman Baskin gave birth to Ilya Zalmanovich Baskin who came to the United
States in 1976 where he gained fame as actor Elya Baskin whose first film
appearance was in “The World’s Greatest Lover”
1950: Ethel Rosenberg
was arrested today.
1950: In Chicago,
Gustave Barshefsky, “a Polish immigrant and chemical engineer” and his wife
Miriam gave birth to University of Wisconsin graduate and Catholic University
of America trained attorney Charlene Barshefsky who served as the 12th
United States Trade Representative from 1996 to 2001.
1951(9th of
Av, 5711): Parashat Devarim; Shabbat Chazon; Erev Tish’a B’Av
1951(9th of Av):
Yiddish playwright and journalist David Pinsky passed away.
1951(9th of Av, 5711):
Rebekah Bettelheim Kohut passed away
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F70B12FD395A137A93C0A81783D85F458585F9
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/kohut-rebecca
1951: Today thirty-nine
year old actress Sara Berner married theatrical agent Milton Rosner with whom
she had a daughter Eugenie before divorcing in 1958.
1952: The ailing Talal¹s son, Hussein II, was
proclaimed the King of Jordan, but a Regency Council was appointed to rule the
country, since he was a minor. In 1952 three Middle Eastern monarchs’ Hussein
II of Jordan, Ahmed Fuad of Egypt and Faisal of Iraq were minors. King
Hussein had seen his grandfather assassinated by an Arab fanatic who thought he
was too friendly with the Jews.
Hussein’s goal was to stay alive and remain king. He wisely did not take part in the Sinai
Campaign of 1956. He foolishly attacked
Israel in 1967 and lost the West Bank and east Jerusalem. In the end, he signed a peace treaty with
Israel but without gaining any territory west of the Jordan River. Fuad would be ousted by a revolt masterminded
by Colonel Nasser, the Pan-Arabist who had a secular version of Osama’s
vision. Faisal would die in a revolt in
1958 that would eventually bring Hussein (the dictator not the king) to power
in Iraq.
1953: Birthdate of Stephen M. Katz, the native of Jericho, NY and Doctor
of Veterinary Medicine who worked at several overseas locations including the
Yotvata Hai-Bar Nature Reserve in Israel before pursuing a political career as
a Republican member of the New York States Assembly.
1953: CBS broadcast the last episode of “Steve Randall” “a television
series starring Melvyn Douglas.”
1955: “More than one third of a $50,000 fund to restore historic Touro
Synagogue here has been raised, it was reported today at the eighth annual
meeting of the synagogue’s Society of Friends.”
1955: Leonard Bernstein led premiere of Symphonic Suite from “On the
Waterfront”, BSO, Tanglewood
1955: After premiering
in the United Kingdom last year, “The Divided Heart” featuring Theodore Bikel
and John Schlesinger was released in the United States today by Ealing Studios.
1956(4th of
Elul, 5716): Parashat Shoftim
1959(6th of
Av, 5719): Eighty-seven-year-old Yiddish author and playwright David Pinski
passed away today, five months after his wife Adele had passed away.
1959(6th of
Av, 5719): Eighty-three-year-old Bertram Joseph Cahn, the son of “Joseph and
Miriam Cahn,” the “husband of Irma Cahn” with whom he had three children and
the Northwestern educated lawyer who served on the Crime Commission and
belonged to the Urban League, passed away today in his native Chicago
1961: Birthdate of Toronto native David Brooks, the award winning New
York Times columnist and author whose “oldest son” reportedly served in the IDF
https://www.nytimes.com/by/david-brooks
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/01/opinion/college-admissions-affirmative-action.html
1961: In Palo Alto, CA, Tola Fay Minkoff (née Stebel) and Jack Robert
Minkoff gave birth to Academy Award winning director Robert Ralph Minkoff,
whose most famous work to date is “The Lion King.”
1962: “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” “a song recorded by Neil
Sedaka, and co-written by Sedaka and Howard Greenfield” “hit number one on the
Billboard Hot 100” today.
1964(3rd of Elul, 5724): Sixty-four-year-old Leopold Mannes,
the creator of Kodachrome, passed away today.
http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/223.html
1964: The Avnet Electronics Corporation announced today the election of
Lester Avnet, to the post of Chairman, succeeding his last brother Robert H.
Avnet.
1965:
Rolf Friedemann Pauls, the man chosen
to be Bonn’s first Ambassador to Israel arrived today at a “heavily guarded
Lydda Airport.”
1968: In London, Nigerian native Henry Okonedo and his wife Joan Allman
the Jewish Pilates teacher gave birth to Tony Award winning actress Sophia
Okonedo who was raised in the faith of her mother.
1969(27th of Av, 5769): Bea Adelman who is memorialized at
B’Nai Israel in Spartanburg, SC, passed away today.
1970(9th of Av, 5730): Tish’a B’Av
1970(9th of Av, 5730): Portsmouth, VA native Moses Abraham
Jacobson, the 1916 graduate of Virginian Polytechnic Institute, the holder of
an M.S. in Agriculture from Purdue University and a medical degree from the
University of Chicago where he pursued a career as a bacteriologist passed away
today.
1971(20th of Av, 5731): “Talented painter and mosaicist” Stella
Drabkin, the New York born daughter of Francesca Seandel and Carlman Friedman
and the wife of “Dr. David L. Drabkin, l chair of the department of
biochemistry, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania” who was an
innovator in the field of printmaking passed awa today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/drabkin-stella
https://www.cwamericanmodernism.com/post/stella-drabkin-1906-1971
1972(1st of Elul, 5732): Rose
Schneiderman passed away. Born in Poland
in 1884, Miss Schneiderman was brought to the United States by her father who
worked as a tailor on the lower East Side.
She gained first-hand experience on life in the garment industry when
she went to work as a cap maker. She earned eight dollars a week. But she had to buy her own sewing machine
with a cash $25 cash down payment and an additional $45 paid in
installments. In addition to this, she
had to pay for power and thread. Miss
Schneiderman helped to organize the Women’s Trade Union League, an organization
that she served as President for several terms.
In 1909 she took part in a strike of waistmakers that began the
unionization of the garment industry. In New York, she served as Secretary of
the State Labor Department from 1937 to 1944.
During the Great Depression, she served as an official of the National
Recovery Administration and was considered to be a member of F.D.R.’s “brain
trust.”
http://www.amazingwomeninhistory.com/rose-schneiderman-labour-union-pioneer/
https://www.biography.com/people/rose-schneiderman-9475012
1975: Birthdate of Edina, MN native Alex Bernstein the
6’3”, 325 pound guard who played three years of college ball at Amherst before
pursuing a brief NFL career with the Raven, Jets and Browns.
1975: “Prisoner of Zion David Chernoglaz received an exit visa to
Israel.”
1976(15th of Av, 5736): Tu B’Av
1976: Seventy-one-year-old department store executive Robert L. May, the
creator of Christmas icon Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and convert to
Catholicism who married Claire Newton Sims after the death of his first wife
Evelyn Ruth Heyman and the death of his second wife Virginia Newton and who was
the father of six children passed aay today in Evanston, IL.
1976(15th of Av, 5736): Twenty-nine-year-old Harold W.
Rosenthal of Philadelphia was an aide to Senator Jacob Javits, Japanese tourist
guide, Yutako Hirano and two Israelis – Solomon Weisbeck and Ernest Elias –
were murdered and thirty others were by
two Palestinian terrorists who unsuccessfully attempted to hijack an El Al
plane at the Istanbul airport.
1977: West Bank mayors and notables submitted separate views to US
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. The mayors acknowledged that the PLO was the
³sole² representative of the Palestine Arabs and claimed that no settlement was
possible without PLO participation. But other West Bank notables had different
ideas. They advocated an immediate mutual recognition of the national rights of
Palestinians and Israelis in the area. They claimed that their two homelands
must be mutually exclusive and advocated the establishment of a
³peace-promoting force² acceptable to both nations. These West Bank notables
advocated the holding of a plebiscite during the interim period so that
Palestinians could decide freely whether to join Jordan or establish an
independent, democratic state. Unfortunately, these talks led to the same place
as those that had come before and after – nowhere.
1977: Jordan and Egypt informed the US that they were prepared to sign
formal peace treaties with Israel, but at the conclusion of the Arab-Israeli
peace negotiations.
1980: Entertainment lawyer turned movie producer Jack Schwartzman and
Judith Deborah Feldman, the parents of John and Stephanie were divorced today.
1982(22nd of Av, 5742): Worcester native and “publisher” James Kahn
passed away today in Brookline, MA.
1982: A file picture dated August 11,1982 shows people standing in front
of the Chez Jo Goldenberg restaurant in Paris, two days after it was devastated
in an attack by Palestinian gunmen (AFP/ JOEL ROBINE)
1983: Today,
Joseph Hochstein wrote an Op-Ed titled
“Not goodbye, but l’hitraot,” in which he said, “I love
newspapering, and I have a special love for this paper, since I helped start it
in 1965 with my father. … What happens each week at The Jewish Week is
achieved with greater difficulty than the work done in the newsrooms of great
metropolitan dailies, and it is more profoundly needed. Knowing that I played a
central role in making this happen helps offset the regret of leaving, as does
the joy of realizing a long-held dream of living in Israel.” He wrote this
just before making Aliyah.
1983: “Phar Lap” a biopic about a racehorse co-starring Ron Leibman was
released in Australia today by 20th Century Fox.
1983: Birthdate of Rochester, NY, native Adam Podlesh the outstanding
punter for University of Maryland Terrapins who has played for the
Jacksonville, Chicago and Pittsburgh NFL teams.
1984(13th of Av, 5744): Ninety-one-year-old American published Alfred
Abraham Knopf, Sr. founder of Alfred A Knopf, Inc passed away today. (As
reported by Herbert Mitgang)
1987(16th of Av, 5747): Eighty-six-year-old Clara Peller who
gained fame as the “Where’s the beef” lady passed away today in Chicago.
http://articles.latimes.com/1987-08-12/news/mn-440_1_clara-peller
1987: Alan Greenspan becomes Chairman of the United
States Federal Reserve. Another Jewish economist hits the top spot.
1988: Meir Kahane renounced his US citizenship to stay in the Israeli
Parliament. Kahane and his virulent
anti-Arab views have been rejected by the Israeli mainstream. Kahane himself was gunned down by Arab
terrorists.
1991:
In
“The Felix Warburg Mansion; A
Window to the Past in the Present,” published today Christopher Gray describes
the past, present and future of the building that was home to one of New York’s
most influential and famous Jewish families.
1991(1st of
Elul, 5751): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1991: Israel
said today “that it was prepared to discuss a large-scale release of Arab
prisoners, insisting only that it first be supplied with information on the
fate of seven Israeli servicemen listed as missing in action in Lebanon” which
is a departure from previous policy statements in which ‘the Israeli Government
had demanded the return of those still alive before it would talk of releasing
any of the estimated 375 Arabs whose freedom the kidnappers seek.”
1992: “MY Sam Simon the fourth vessel of
the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society fleet, named after American television
producer and writer Sam Simon, who donated the money to purchase the vessel”
was launched today.
1993:
“Searching for Bobby Fischer,” a movie version of the book by Fred Waitzkin the
father of Jewish chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin co-starring Max Pomeranc was
released in the United States today.
1994: “Trying
to allay Palestinian concerns over Israel’s reconciliation with Jordan, Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin met today with Yasir Arafat, the chairman of the P.L.O.,
and announced stepped-up talks to expand Palestinian self-rule and hold
elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
1995(15th
of Av,5755); Tu B’Av
1995: “A
Walk in the Clouds” produced by David and Jerry Zucker, co-starring Debra
Messing and filmed by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki was released in the
United States today 20th Century Fox.
1995: “A
Kid in King Arthur’s Court” a film based on a Mark Twain novel co-starring Ron
Moody as “Merlin” was released in the United States today.
1996: In “An
English Obsession,” published today, Stephen Greenblatt reviewed Shakespeare
and the Jews by James Shapiro.
1996: In
action which stood in sharp contrast not to try former Nazi officer Erich
Priebke (a decision that “met with protest from Jews and the relative of
victims) the Italian Government said today that it had reopened an
investigation — shelved inexplicably more than three decades ago — of two
former Nazi officers, Karl Titho, a former Nazi lieutenant, and his aide, Hans
Haage, who are suspected of killing
civilian and military prisoners during mass deportations of Italians to German
prison camps during World War II
1997:
Baltimore born Washington lawyer Alfred H. Moses completed his service as U.S.
Ambassador to Romania. Five years later the President of Romania awarded him
the Marc Cruce Medal.
1997(8th
of Av, 5757): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1997(8th
of Av, 5757): Forty-nine-year-old Eli Adourian of Kfar Adumim died of the
wounds he sustained when a Hamas suicide bomber struck at the Mahane Yehuda
Market on July 30th where the death toll would reach sixteen with an
additional 178 injured.
1997: “The
View,” which co-host Barbara Walters described as a forum for women of
“different generations, backgrounds, and views” premiered today.
1997: Eighty-six-year-old
Monument’s Man Walter Farmer passed away today. (Editor’s note – some but not
all of the Monument’s Men were Jewish.
Regardless of their origins, this unit played an invaluable role in
trying to return looted art to the Jews who owned it and of course, played an
invaluable role in trying to preserve the treasures of Western Civilization)
https://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/the-heroes/the-monuments-men/farmer-capt.-walter-i.
1998(19th
of Av, 5758): Roslyn Singer Gumbinner, the widow of Paul Gumbinner and the
mother of “late Mark N. Finston, and the late Joan Finston” passed away today.
1998:
The
Israeli Army Radio said investigators suspect Semtex, a powerful plastic
explosive was used in the bombing of the American embassy in Kenya by a group
of Islamic terrorists who delivered a manifesto “in Cairo that praised Osama
Bin Laden, a Saudi financier whom American officials have identified as a
possible suspect…”
1999: Sheila Finestone began serving as Senator for Montarville,
Quebec.
1999: Max Kampelman
was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
1999: Janet
Jagan, the Chicago born Jewess completed her service as President of Guyana
when Bharrat Jagdeo was sworn as President
1999:
Michael Dougall Bell began serving as Canada’s Ambassador to Israel.
2000:
Today, Daniel Singer “Dan” Bricklin the co-creator of “the VisiCalc spreadsheet
program known also as “The Father of the Spreadsheet” introduced the term
“friend-to-friend networking”
http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/BRICKLIN.Fleming.HTML
2001(22nd
of Av, 5761): Parashat Ekev
2001(22nd
of Av, 5761): Ninety-year-old Canadian journalist, dedicated Zionist and
founder of The Canadian Jewish News passed away today.
https://web.archive.org/web/20041226103905/http://www.cjnews.com/pastissues/01/aug23-01/front5.asp
2002: The Sunday New York Times featured
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including ‘F E G: Ridiculous Poems for Intelligent Children by Robin
Hirsch Fireweed: A Political
Autobiography by Gerda Lerner, the Austrian born Jewish
American political activist.
2004: Seventy-three-year-old
German historian Wolfgang Mommsen who fought attempts to whitewash the
Holocaust made by some other German historians passed away today.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/17/guardianobituaries.obituaries
2005: A
memorial service was held today at Temple Beth David in Temple, CA for Nathan
“Fred” Asher a graduate of the Naval Academy who took command U.S.S. Blue since
the skipper was ashore and in a harrowing trip lasting one and half hours
guided the ship out to open waters and safety while Ensign Milton Moldane, a
graduate of Washington University Law School “took charge of the forward
machine guns” fighting off the attacking Japanese aircraft.
2005: While the front pages of the paper carried
news of Sharon’s attempts to bring peace to the Middle East with the withdrawal
from Gaza, the back pages of Haaretz
carried a reminder of Sharon’s warrior past.
According to a story in Haaretz, “The bloodstained bandage that wrapped Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon’s head after he was injured in fighting during the 1973 Yom Kippur War
has been offered for sale on e-Bay with the bidding starting at $10,000.” Sharon sustained the head wound when he was
leading Israeli forces across the Suez Canal.
2006: First
day of the New York International Fringe Festival which will include a
performance of “The Cheerleader and the Rabbi” featuring Sandy Wolshin. “A former cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders
she later immersed herself in a mikveh as part of an orthodox conversion.”
2006: The
Jerusalem Post reported that Maj. Nimrod Hallel, 42, from Rosh Ha’ayin, was
killed in the town of Leboneh in the western sector of southern Lebanon when an
anti-tank missile was fired at his vehicle.
2006: A reported 120 rockets rained down on
northern Israel striking Haifa, Safed and Kiryat Shimona.
2006:
“Jules Feiffer: If You Really Loved Me, You’d Find Me, The Strips 1960 – 2000”
a collection of over 60 cartoon strips by the Pulitzer Prize winning author,
cartoonist and playwright which has been on display at the Adam Baumgold
Gallery is scheduled to come to an end today.
http://adambaumgoldgallery.com/feiffer_jules/feiffer.htm
2006: Conflicting reports abound concerning the terms of a
proposed cease fire intended to stop the fighting in Lebanon. Some of the major points of contention
include the robustness of the mandate of the international force and the
willingness of the Lebanese army to confront and disarm Hezbollah fighters.
2007: On the “Jewish Jock Front,” The San Diego Union-Tribune
reported that San Diego Charger Igor
Olshansky may not get to play in an upcoming exhibition game with
the Seattle SeaHawks while John
Grabow of the Pittsburgh Pirates won a game on just 13 pitches, which
was all he needed to complete a one inning relief stint against the San
Francisco Giants.
2008: Yuli
Tamir announced plans to remove Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s
work from the national education curriculum
2008
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Finance Minister
Ronnie Bar-On decided to implement all of the
recommendations of the State Commission of Inquiry into the government’s
handling of Holocaust survivors. One of the
key recommendations was to increase the monthly stipend of about 43,000
survivors to the level of 75 percent of the stipend given by the German
government to recipients of its restitution payments.
2008: Palestinian terrorists in Gaza violated a truce agreement
with Israel, firing a Kassam rocket at the western Negev town of Sderot.
2008: Iowa native, James Hoyt passed away at the age of
83. As one of the first four American soldiers to discover the Buchenwald labor
camp in 1945, James Hoyt rarely slept well. “He’s finally getting the rest he’s
never had all these years,” his daughter, Theresa Stewart, 51, of Oxford said.
When he closed his eyes, he’d see images of the Nazi concentration camp, which
he thought was a mannequin factory when he first saw it before its liberation
April 11, 1945, Stewart said. His daughters remembered him as a reserved man
who put others first and loved reading, rebuilding cars and solving crossword
puzzles.“He had time to listen to anyone and would hear everybody’s story,”
Stewart said. For years, Hoyt did not share his own story. He later learned
from doctors at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City that he was
suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Hoyt of Oxford, Iowa graduated
from high school in 1943 and became a private first class after he was drafted
in early 1944 to serve in World War II. He was a member of the 6th Armored
Division’s 9th Infantry Battalion and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. On
April 11, 1945, Hoyt was the radio operator and driver for a four-man
reconnaissance team when two Buchenwald escapees flagged them down. The team
went to the camp, which was hidden in a forested area. “When the people saw our
vehicle with the American markings on it, they really went wild. They tore a
part of the fence down. They threw us up in the air,” Hoyt told The Gazette 10
years ago. “It was a very sorry sight all the way. They were skin and bones,
the living ones. Of course, there were all kinds of dead ones there.” In all,
about 238,500 prisoners were held at the camp. As the years passed, Hoyt became
more willing to talk about his experience, helping him to heal, his daughter,
Pat Hatcher, said. “We didn’t know what he was fighting,” Hatcher said of the
emotional memories. “It helps us understand him better.” After the war in 1949,
Hoyt married Doris Hipp. He worked with his brothers in construction before
joining the United States Postal Service in Oxford, where he served more than
30 years.
2009(21st of
Av, 5769): Robert William LeVine passed away to at the age of 71.(As reported
by Emma Stickgold)
2009: Three books about
Bernie Madoff – Too Good to Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff,
Madoff with the Money, Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff
– all hit the bookstores today.
2009: The National
Jewish Retreat open at Greenwich, Connecticut.
Featured presenters and performers for this event that ends on August 16
include Rabbi Manis Friedman, Rabbi Immanuel Schochet, Rabbi Yossi Jacobson,
Professor Jonathan Sarna, Mrs. Rivka Slonim and recording star Arvram Fried.
2009: Barnes &
Noble announces that Rashi by Elie Weisel and Blindman’s Bluff by
Faye Kellerman are available at their stores and on-line.
2009: Releases of
“Saints & Tzadiks” a CD on which Irish chanteuse Susan McKeown and Lexatics
bandleader Lorin Skalmerg sing Yiddish, Irish and blends of Yiddish and Irish
songs that highlight “the traditions and similarities as well as the different
ways each tradition tells a musical tale.”
2010(1st of Elul,
5770): Rosh Chodesh Elul:
2010: Anat Hoffman
leader of the Women of the Wall Prayer group is scheduled to blow the shofar on
behalf of the group as she has done for the past 21 years.
2010: US envoy George
Mitchell met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to discuss advancing direct
talks with the Palestinians. “We see eye to eye on the need open up direct
talks with the Palestinians,” Mitchell said about Netanyahu in comments made
before the meeting.
2010: IDF Chief of
General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi told the Turkel Committee today that the
IDF made a crucial mistake when it did not resort to accurate fire against
those blocking entry to the Mavi Marmara Turkish aid ship as IDF Shayetet 13
commandos rappelled onto the ship from helicopters.
2011: Another session
of “Hebrew Literacy: Aleph, Bet, and Beyond” is scheduled to take place at
Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.
2011: The Eleventh
Memorial for Yiddish Poets is scheduled to take place tonight at the amphitheater
in Tekoa. The event memorializes “the
victims of the ‘Night of the Murdered Poets’ who were thirteen prominent Jewish
figures in the USSR who were secretly executed at Stalin’s order on the night
between August 12th and August 13th, 1952. These were the most outstanding and
renowned Jewish writers, intellectuals, poets, musicians and actors of their
time.”
2011: At the Off the
Wall Comedy Club, Jerusalem funny man David Kilimnick whose funny bone was born
in Little Rock, Arkansas, is scheduled to performTu BAv Comedy Special ‘Jewish
Singles’ from The ‘Find Me A Wife’ Show.
2011: Israel’s interior
minister gave final authorization to build 1,600 apartments in disputed east
Jerusalem and will approve 2,700 more in days, officials said today.
2011: Eighty-two-year-old
Juergen Corleis passed away.
2011: Interior Minister
Eli Yishai (Shas) said today during a meeting with that the “time is ripe for
an upheaval in the coalition” in order to solve the ongoing social crisis that
has rocked the country over the past month.
2011(11th
of Av, 5771): Noach Flug, a Holocaust survivor who
dedicated his life to fighting for the rights of other survivors is remembered
as “a towering figure” passed away today in Jerusalem at the age of
86.
http://sdjewishjournal.com/site/2516/holocaust-survivor-noach-flug-dies-at-age-86/
2012: Ben Sarsin in
scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah at Temple Judah in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa.
2012: “Avenue Q,” the
musical creation of Jeff Marx is scheduled to have its final performance at the
Barter Theatre.
2012: The International
Arts and Crafts Fair also known as Hutzot Hayozer is scheduled to open one
after the end of Shabbat in Jerusalem.
2012: A fire broke out
near the town of Kiryat Tivon, near Haifa, this morning, a few days after
firefighters battled repeated blazes in the area believed to have been set by
arsonists. Eight firefighting crews supported by two aircraft brought the fire under
control. No injuries were reported.
2012: Israeli rhythmic
gymnast Neta Rivkin performed well in all four routines at the London Games
today, to secure a best-ever Israeli finish in the event. Rivkin, 21, finished
seventh overall, making her the most successful rhythmic gymnast in Israeli Olympic
history. Evgenia Kanaeva of Russia won the gold.
2013:
“The Last White Knight” Paul Saltzman’s documentary about his personal
encounter with Mississippi Racism is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco
Jewish Film Festival.
2013:
The San Diego Jewish Film Festival, PJ Library, Shalom Baby, and Jewish Family
Service are scheduled to sponsor “Learn About the Jewish New Year with Elmo” an
event designed to prepare youngsters for the upcoming holidays.
2013:
“Passages through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War,” an exhibit co-presented by
the American Historical Society and Yeshiva University is scheduled to come to
an end today.
2013:
Harriet Rochlin, the leading expert on Western Jewish History recommends that
those who can attend this evening’s opening of “American Jerusalem: Jews and
the Making of San Francisco” a film that tells the epic story of pioneer Jews
in San Francisco, a number of whom played a significant role in the
transformation of a tiny village to California’s first metropolis.
2013:
In Cedar Rapids, friends and family are scheduled to celebrate the graduation
from Nursing School and Pinning of Rebbitzin Sabrina Thalblum.
2013: “Passages through
the Fire: Jews and the Civil War,” a new exhibition presented by the American
Jewish Historical Society and Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to come to
an end today.
http://yumuseum.tumblr.com/CivilWar
http://yumuseum.tumblr.com/post/53439310935/kaddish-for-lincoln-in-the-days-following
2013: Just three days
before Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are set to resume in Jerusalem. “Housing
and Construction Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) announced today that 793 new
apartments would be built in Jerusalem, and 394 in large settlement blocs in
the West Bank.” (As reported by Lazar Berman)
2013: Finance Minister
Yair Lapid lashed out today at the decision to build more than one thousand new
homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, calling it “a double
mistake.” (As reported by JPost Staff)
2014:”Marvin Hamlisch,
What He Did for Love” and “The Jewish Cardinal” are scheduled to be shown at
the Berkshire Jewish Film Festival.
2014: Israel will send
its team of negotiators back to Cairo today if Hamas honors the 72-hour
cease-fire that went into effect at midnight, diplomatic officials said
yesterday evening. (As reported by Herb Keinon)
2014: “Former Israeli
ambassador to the US Michael Oren denied today that he was fired as a CNN
analyst, saying that he asked to suspend his contract, which obligates him to
interview exclusively to that network, so he could accept more requests from
other media as well.” (As reported by Raphael Ahren)
2014(15th of
Av, 5774): “Three Israelis were killed when a train collided with their minibus
at a level crossing in the canton of Nidwalden in Switzerland this morning.”
(As reported by Stuart Winer)
2014(15th of
Av, 5774): Celebration of Tu B’Av, a day devoted to love with no particular
ritual but with a long tradition dating back, according to some, to the days
when Shiloh was the site of religious observance for the 12 tribes
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/The-love-festival-Tu-Beav-370593
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3756891,00.html
2015: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust
Education is scheduled to present “The Car in Contemporary Israeli Cinema” featuring “excerpts from Metallic Blues, Broken
Wings and Lost Islands (all of which are Israeli movies from the
2000s) followed by informal discussion with Dr. Moshe Rachmuth, who
teaches Modern Hebrew and Israeli cinema at Portland State University.
2015: At a time when “an estimated 47,000 African
migrants, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, have managed to illegally enter Israel
via Egypt, seeking jobs or asylum” “Residents of south Tel Aviv demonstrated
tonight against a High Court of Justice ruling that would limit to 12 months
the detention time for migrants in holding facilities” because they feel that
their neighborhood has “the State of Israel’s warehouse” for these individuals.
(As reported by the Times of Israel)
2015: Julie Azous is scheduled to provide Maj-Johngg
training for players at all levels at the 92nd Street Y.
2015: “Inside Out/
Outside In” an exhibition of three women artists including Isa Lousie Levy
opened today.
2015: “Hours after Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon warned
that Palestinian terror group were seeking to carry out attacks” “members of
the IDF, Border Police and Israel Police arrested 15 wanted Palestinians in a
series of operations” tonight.(As reported by Stuart Winer)
2016: Comedian Gary Gulman is scheduled to appear at the
summer benefit fund raiser sponsored by the Illinois Holocaust Museum and
Educational Center.
2016: “In a world awash in religious and sectarian
tensions, the three Olympic victors in the women’s all-around gymnastics
competition delivered a multi-faith mosaic on the medals podium today in Rio,
with a Christian, a Jew and a Muslim taking gold, silver and bronze
respectively.”
2016: In New Orleans, Congregation Gates of Prayer is
scheduled to host the first meeting of PFLAG which “promotes the health and
well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, their families
and friends through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education, to
enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end discrimination and to
secure equal civil rights.”
2016: Madeline Isenberg is scheduled to lecture on
“Different Traditions Even In Death: Ashkenazi vs. Sephardi Tombstones” and
Brooke Ganz is scheduled to lecture on “Using the Gesher Galicia Website and
All Galicia Database to Research Towns and Families” at the 36th
IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Seattle, Washington.
2017(19th of Av, 5777): “Yisrael Kristal, a
Holocaust survivor who was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records to
be the world’s oldest man and one of the ten oldest men who ever lived, passed
away today in his home in Haifa. He was one month shy of his 114th birthday.”
(As reported by Liel Leibovitz)
2017: Israeli born Canadian tennis player Denis
Shapovalob defeated Adrian Mannarion of France today “in day eight of the
Rogers Cup.”
2017(19th of Av, 5777): Seventy-eight-year-old
attorney and radio personality Neil Chayet passed away today. (As reported by
Richard Sandomir)
2017: “Menashe” a film that “marks the feature debut of
documentary-trained director Joshua Z. Weinstein, who shot his movie, partially
under wraps across a two-year period, in the Hasidim community of Brooklyn,
N.Y.’s Borough Park district” opened in Chicago.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-mov-menashe-rev-0811-2017-story.html#
2017: In Weimar, the YSW is scheduled to host “a
Shabes-inspired, audience participation evening of song, stories and dance,
directed by Alan Bern and Yiddish Summer Weimar artists.”
2017: The Jerusalem Arts and Crafts Fair which started on
August 7 and runs until August 19 is closed today because of Shabbat.
2018(30th of Av, 5778): First Day Rosh Chodesh
Elul
2018(30th of Av, 5778): Parsashat Re’ay;
2018:
“Classical Bridge, an international musical festival, academy and conference
designed to build bridges through music” featuring “Israeli musicians Pinchas
Zuckerman and Alexander Fiterstein” is scheduled to come to an end today.
2018:
As a sign of the vitality of small community Judaism, in Coralville, IA, Pam
Hills is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah at Congregation
Agudas Achim.
2019:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including the recently released paperback editions of The Perfect Weapon:
War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age by David E. Sager and Conan
Doyle for the Defense: How Sherlock Holmes’s Creator Turned Real-Life Detective
and Freed a Man Wrongly Imprisoned for Murder by Margalit Fox, the “queen
of the obituary writers.”
2019:
The American Sephardi Federation and the Sousa Mendes Foundation are scheduled
to host “Eleanor Roosevelt and the Jewish Refugees She Save: The Story of the
S.S. Quanza which will include a screening the documentary “Nobody Wants Us”
followed by a panel discussion “featuring Blanche Wiesen Cook, the leading
world expert on Eleanor Roosevelt and the author of her three-volume biography;
Michael Dobbs of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and author of The
Unwanted (2019), and other experts and eyewitnesses, including a passenger who
was on the ship in 1940.”
2019:
At the Breman Museum in Atlanta, final showing of the exhibition “Inescapable:
The Life and Legacy of Harry Houdini.”
2019(10
of Av, 5779): Fast of Tish’a B’Av observed.
2020:
For the first time since its creation, there is no posting for This Day…In
Jewish History due to the Derecho that struck Cedar Rapids leaving the author
without internet, a hole in the roof filled with a fallen tree, broken windows
and other assorted damage.
2021:
The Jewish Studio Project is scheduled to facilitate a “discussion of the
week’s Torah portion and a creative writing session.”
2021:
Israel is scheduled to place “the U.S. and 17 other countries under severe
travel restrictions” starting today which means that “all travelers from these
specified destinations will be required to quarantine for a minimum of seven
days, regardless of whether they had been vaccinated for or recovered from
coronavirus.”
2021:
Value Culture is scheduled to present Gili Yalo the Ethiopian Israeli musician
who blends traditional Ethiopian music with funk, jazz, R&B in an even
co-sponsored by the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco.
2022:
S.F.-based JCRC is scheduled to host a talk by state Assemblymember Rebecca
Bauer-Kahan and Xochitl Lopez-Ayala of ACCESS Reproductive Justice on various
issues and California’s role as a sanctuary state.
2022:
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is scheduled to hold a
virtual discussion on Facebook to mark five years since the infamous Unite the
Right rally by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 11,
2017
2022:
The Indiana Jewish Historical Society, in association with the Delaware County
Historical Society and Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, are
scheduled to unveil an Indiana
historical marker for James G. McDonald to recognize his tremendous
contribution to the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust. McDonald later served
as America’s first Ambassador to Israel.
2022:
JWA is scheduled to host a book talk with “Sam Cohen, author of Sarahland,
which brilliantly and often hilariously explores the ways in which traditional
stories have failed us, both demanding and providing new origin stories for its
cast of Sarahs, new ways to love the planet and those inhabiting it, and new
possibilities for life itself.
2022:
The results of Likud primary are expected to be made public this morning. (As
reported by Amy Spiro)
2023:
In California, Congregation Beth Am is scheduled to host an “Outdoor Shabbat.”
2023:
In Washington, DC, the Sixth and I Synagogue is scheduled to host an “inclusive
service led by Rabbi Nora and musicians Sarah Fredrick and Jeff Geld blends
contemporary and traditional elements for an experience that feels both
familiar and fresh.”
2023:
ILTV is scheduled to host program that will focus on the subject of the
normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rj2wobznh#autoplay
2023(25th
of Av, 5783): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit Deb (Devorah Elisheva) Levin – a
true woman of valor
2024:
In Cedar Rapids, IA, Kathryn Levin is scheduled to put the varnish on “Seven
Ages of A City,” a mural by Edwin J. Bruns which will mark the final stage in the
complicated restoration of this major piece of art work.
2024:
The Congress for Jewish Culture together with the Jewish Labor Committee and
the Workers Circle are scheduled to host “a solemn gathering “In Memory of the
Soviet Yiddish Writers and Artists Murdered on August 12, 1952 in Moscow’s
Lubyanka Prison.”
2024:
The Simma and Michael Stein Des Moines Jewish Film Series is scheduled to host a viewing and discussion of the 2021 film “Legend
of Destruction” at the Des Moines Art Center today.
2024:
The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater New
Orleans is scheduled to present “Navigating Jewish Life on Campus: A Guide for
College Students, an “event centered
around equipping students with the toolkit for navigating Jewish life on
college campuses,”
2024:
In a sign of the times in which we live “world-renowned instructor Steve Harris”
is scheduled to lead the first session of a Firearm Training Course for the San
Francisco Jewish Community.
2024:
As August 11th begins in Israel, an
unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism that has included Hamas supporters calling
for Zionist passengers on a New York subway to raise their hands, sweeps the
United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day 310 in captivity. (Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid
for this blog to cover so we are just providing a snapshot as of the posting at
midnight Israeli time
Leave a Reply