This Day, June 5, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
JUNE 5
70: Titus and his Roman legions breach the middle
wall of Jerusalem.
1191 After conquering Cyprus, Richard the Lionheart
and his Crusaders set sail for “the Holy Land.” This crusading left England in
the control of Prince John who, amongst other things, exploited the Jewish
subjects in a way that the King would not have approved of.
1257: Kraków,
Poland receives city rights. Jews were probably among the earliest settlers of
Krakow which was settled by traders from Germany. Jews had been moving to Poland from Germany
since the days of the Crusades.
Certainly, there was a Jewish population in the town by the middle of
the 14th century since the oldest synagogue in the town dates from a
visit from Casimir the Great.
1249: French King Louis IX who had burned 24
cartloads of Jewish books in 1242, and who had made plans to expel the Jews
after confiscating their property and ordering them to wear a “Jew’s badge” and
“to listen to missionary sermons” landed in Egypt, the first stop in his
ill-fated Seventh Crusade, which along with his treatment of the Jews helped to
earn him canonization by the Church.
1305: Raymond Bertrand de Got is elected Pope under
the name Clement V who according to Elizabeth D. Malissa, “is the first pope to
threaten Jews with an economic boycott in an attempt to force them to stop
charging Christians interest on loans.”
1316: The reign of Louis X who reluctantly permitted
the Jews to France after he found out that their confiscated property had less
value than the taxes that they were paying and that the Christians who had
replaced the Jews were charging higher rates of interest when lending money,
came to an end today.
1349: Following the massacre of the Jews of
Strasbourg, the people of the German city who were worried that they might have
to share some of their loot with the monarch, or even give it back to the
survivors made an alliance today with the bishop and the Alsatian rural
nobility: the city would offer aid in times of war and promised to give back
all bonds, and received the assurance that the bishop and nobles would support
Strasbourg against anyone wanting to hold it to account for the murder of the
Jews and confiscation of their assets.”
1443: Ten years before the Jews were expelled from
Wroclaw in 1453, the capital city of the province of Lower Silesian in Poland
was struck by an earthquake that registered 6 on the Richter Scale.
1507: In Pilsen, today marked the fourth and final
in a series of fires that burned down all of the homes belonging to the Jews
“burned down.”
1632: Albrecth Wallenstein bought the estate at
Reichenberg and then looked to Jews, particularly Jacob Bassewi, the “former
Prague banker and merchant” to help “develop the economy of his territory.”
1705(13th of Sivan, 5465): Manuel (Isaac Hayyim)
Teixeira de Sampaio, the Lisbon born son of Diego Teixeira and Sara d”Andrade,
who married Esther Gomez de Mesquita after the death of his first wife who the
financial agent for Queen Cristian of Sweden, passed away today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14351-texeira
1717 Sephardic Jews Abraham and Esther da Costa gave
birth to Emanuel Mendez da Costa, husband of Leah del Prado who went from being
a notary to a scientist of such repute that he was one of the fist Jewish
Fellows of the Royal Society of London before gaining infamy for his embezzlement.
https://blogs.royalsociety.org/history-of-science/2018/10/16/face-from-archives/
https://www.lindahall.org/emanuel-mendes-da-costa/
1725: Today, Jacob de Beer was employed by the Dutch
East India Company.
1734: Prince Carl, the Duke of Württemberg and
Joseph Suss Oppenheimer signed an agreement that would allow Oppenheimer to
take control of the mint with a guarantee of increased revenue to the Duke.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11740-oppenheimer-joseph-suss
1772: In London, the Board denied the petition of
Asher del Banco that would have allowed him to marry a “Tudesca.”
1740(10th of Sivan)” Rabbi Eliezer Rokeah of
Amsterdam, author Maaseh Rokeah passed away
1756(7th of Sivan, 5515): Second Day of
Shavuot observed as the French besieged Minorca during the Seven Years.
1764(5th of Sivan, 5524): Erev Shavuot
observed on the Birthdate of James Smithson, the British benefactor who was the
posthumous founder of the Smithsonian Institution.
1775(7th of Sivan, 5535): Second Day of
Shavuot observed today as the Rebels continue to tighten their siege of British
troops in Boston that will lead to the Battle of Bunker Hill twelve days later.
1788: As the newly formed United States groped for a
form of government that would be an improvement over the Articles of
Confederation, former Harvard President and leading clergyman “Samuel Langdon
addressed the New Hampshire state legislature on the subject of “The Republic
of the Israelites an Example to the American States.” Langdon was one of those who saw the ancient
Israelite society as providing the prototype for an American republic. For example, he saw the Seventy Elders
selected by Moses as a “Senate” and proof that the Israelites had a voice in
the government, something he desired for the emerging United States of America.
1791: Baruch
(Barrak) Hays and his first wife Prudence gave birth to Jacob Hays.
1793: Joel Emanuel and Julia Lazarus were married
today at the Great Synagogue in London.
1793: Henry Jacobs and Kitty Moses were married
today at the Great Synagogue in London.
1803(15th of Sivan, 5563): Dr. Abraham
Kisch, the native of Prague who tutored Moses Mendelsohn in Latin and was
director of the Meisel Hospital passed away today.
1805(8th of Sivan, 5565):
Seventeen-year-old Philadelphia Cohen, the daughter of Gershom who had married
Aaron Moise in April of 1805 passed away today in Charleston, SC.
1805: Lisa & Kahn one of the oldest banking
houses in the Netherlands was founded today by two Polish Jews – Hirschel
Eliazer Kahn and Moses Calmus Lissa.
1806: Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, the brother of
Napoleon Bonaparte, began his reign as King of Holland. Louis was supportive of his Jewish subjects
and sought to make them full-fledged citizens of his Dutch kingdom. He “changed
the market-day in some cities (Utrecht and Rotterdam) from Saturday to Monday”
and abolished the use of the “Oath More Judaico” Henceforth, Jews and
Christians would swear to the same oath when testifying. in the courts of
justice, and administered the same formula to both Christians and Jews. In an
attempt to improve their skills in the art of war, ‘’he formed two battalions
of 803 men and 60 officers, all Jews.” Prior to his reign, the Jews had been
until then excluded from military service. [Editor’s Note – It may seem strange
to westerners living in the 21st century, but at that time, serving
in the military was considered a sign of full-citizenship. If you will remember
the story of Asser Levy and his fight to serve in the militia in New Amsterdam,
you will understand the importance of what Louis did.]
1807: In New Haven, CT, Isaac Pinto, the son of
Jacob and Abigail Pinto and his wife Maria PInto gave birth to Henry Marshall
Pinto
1813(7th of Sivan, 5573): Second Day of
Shavuot and Shabbat observed as American forces continue, what at the time,
looked like their successful foray into Canada during the War of 1812.
1818: “Loeb Baruch went to Rödelheim and was
baptized by Pastor Bertuch as a convert to the Lutheran Church; assuming the
name of “Karl Ludwig Börne.”
1819: In London, Solomon Ben Masud Ben Abraham Sebag
and Sarah Goldsmid gave birth to Jemima Sebag-Montefiore the sister of Sir
Joseph Sebag-Montefiore.
1822: Abraham Davis and Catherine Harris were
married today at the Great Synagogue in London.
1828: Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler “received a
doctorate from the University of Erlangen for a dissertation on a philosophical
subject.”
1828: In Durbach, Germany, Emanuel and Johanna
Bodenheimer gave birth to Jakob Bodenheimer.
1829: Birthdate of Marcus Jastrow, the Polish born
Talmudist who would become the Rabbi at Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia, PA.
http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/cajs/jastrow/01.html
1830: Saarland, Germany. Johanna Cahn Oppenheimer gave
birth to future Vancouver, BC, resident Gottfried “Godfrey” Oppenheimer.
1832(7th of Sivan, 5592): Second Day of Shavuot;
Yizkor
1832: Thanks to the work of the late Ezekiel Hart who had
been denied his seat in the legislature in 1809 and his son Samuel Hart, the
Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, passed the 1832 Emancipation Act that
ultimately guaranteed full rights to people practicing the Jewish faith. Canada was a trend setter since it would be
27 years before such a measure was passed any place in the British Empire.
1835(8th
of Sivan, 5595): Rabbi Mattathias di Moses Zacuto and 47 other people including
Rabbi Raphael Amar died today when a building collapsed during a wedding
celebration in Alessandra, Italy.
1837:
Houston, Texas is incorporated by the Republic of Texas. By 1854, there were
enough Jews living in Houston for the establishment of cemetery and by 1859 the
Jewish community was large enough to get a charter for what was the first
congregation in Texas in 1859. The Congregation, Beth Israel, began as an
Orthodox synagogue, but became a Reform congregation some fifteen years later.
1837:
Sarah Ann Hays and West Point graduate Alfred Mordecai, the U.S. Army officer
who commanded the arsenal at Washington, DC during the war with Mexico gave
birth to Lauara Mordecai, the older sister of Civil War hero, Alfred Mordecai,
Jr.
1838:
Jacob Kann married Amalie de Jonge.
1843(7th
of Sivan, 5603): Second Day of Shavuot
1847:
In Baltimore, MD, “Helena and William Saks” gave birth to Andrew Saks who with
his brother Isadore opened Saks and Company which came to be known as Sakes
Fifth Avenue.
1848: In Breslau, Silesia, Rabbi Abraham Geiger and his
wife gave birth to author and historian Ludwig Geiger.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6562-geiger-ludwig
1849: In Denmark, article 84 of the new constitution
negated discrimination of “any person on the basis of religious
grounds.” This removed the last restriction on the Jews making them full
citizens.
1850: Hyman Davis and Isabella Davis were married today at
the Great Synagogue in London.
1851(5th of Sivan, 5611): Erev Shavuot
1854: In Marisfeld, Germany, Abraham Friedman and his wife
gave birth to Meyer Friedman, the husband of Carrie Fist who was a director of
the Daniels Bank, United States National Bank and Denver Credit Men’s
Association as well as the national trustee and vice-chairman of the Local
Board of Managers of the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives in Denver,
Colorado.
1854: Today the Rochester Daily Democrat carried the announcement
that “The Jewish Worship — Darrow & Bros. have issued a volume of
fifty pages entitled ‘The Stranger In The Synagogue; Or The Rites and
Ceremonies of the Jewish Worship, described and explained.’ It is compiled ‘by
Simon Tuska, a son of the Rabbi of the Congregation Berith Kodesh, of the City
of Rochester.’ For sale by the publishers.”
1855: In New York City, “The Jews’ Hospital” opened for
patients today. While the hospital may
have been intended to serve destitute and newly arrived Jews, its mission soon
changed. During the Civil War it treated
untold number of Union casualties beginning with those who were wounded during
McClellan’s Peninsular Campaign. It was originally located on West 28th Street
in Manhattan. It changed its name to Mt. Sinai Hospital in 1866.
1860: Emily Jane Mires, the daughter of Franco-Jewish financier
Jules Mires, married Prince Alphonse de Polignac the second son of President of
the Council of Ministers. In 1861 the couple had a daughter named Jeanne
1861: During the American Civil War, Frederick Knefler was
promoted from the rank of lieutenant to captain in the 11th Indiana
Infantry. Knefler would eventually work
his way up to the chain of command to become a Brigadier General. His commanding officer in the 11th
Indiana was Lew Wallace, author of Ben Hur, the 19th century
classic set in Judea with a Jewish hero.
Wallace and Knefler were friends before the war.
1862(7th of Sivan, 5622): As Union forces under
General Grant lay siege to Vicksburg, Jews on both sides of the Mason and Dixon
line observed the second day of Shavuot.
1863: In Birmingham, England, Benjamin and Charlotta
Bernard gave birth to American actor and vaudevillian Sam Bernard the husband of Florence
Deutsch who began his career at the age of 13 in “the Grand Duke’s Theatre”
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=J28tAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-4sFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5728%2C2804723
1865(5th of Sivan, 5657): Parashat Bamidbar;
erev Shavuot
1867: Today in London, Middlesex native Rebecca Henriques
Valentine married David Moss with whom she had six children.
1870: Today’s “Foreign Items” column reported
that Warsaw, Poland, has a population of 254,561 of which 67,584 are Jews.
1870: Birthdate of German born oncologist Ferdinand
Blumenthal.
1870(6th of Sivan, 5630): First Day of Shavuot
1870: During Shavuot Services, seven young ladies and four
young men took part in Temple Israel’s first ever Confirmation Ceremony. Services were led by Rabbi Raphael D.C Lewis
of Brooklyn, NY. The service began at ten in the morning with the hymn Adon
Olom which was sung to the accompaniment of organist Morris Abrahams.
1870: Members of the
Temple Israel confirmation class and their parents visited the home of Rabbi
D.C. Lewin this evening where they presented him with a pair of engraved silver
goblets as a token of their appreciation for his work with them.
1870: In New York City, “Maurice and Henrietta (Bucky)
Simon gave birth to “Denver-Gross Medical College” trained physician “Saling
Simon, the World War I U.S Army Captain and the husband of Memphis, TN native
Sara Lowenstein, who specialized in the treatment of tuberculosis which led him
to serve on the Board of the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives while
practicing in Denver, CO.
1870: According to reports published today, Temple Emanuel
located on New York’s Fifth Avenue had a total income of $97, 627.70 this past
fiscal year with expenses of $38,179.52 that included such items as salary for
the staff (21,500); choir and organ (5,425.76); school (1,708.44) and insurance
(2,301.39). The income included payments
for pews in the amount of 34,425.92 and 17,344.70 from “the charity collection
for the year. As to membership, the
Temple “has 3059 pew owners and 61 seat holders.”
1870: “The New Persecution of the Jews” published today described
the persecution of Jews at the hand of Romanian Christians as being “so savage
and so causeless, the civilized world can be one sentiment – that of
immeasurable indignation.” After providing a succinct, sympathetic picture of
Jewish history while drawing a picture of Jewish suffering at the hands of
Christians the article describes the positive nature of the American Jew. “Not one of all the multitude of
nationalities which we have received among us can boast of so large a
proportion of peaceful and law-abiding members.
A Jew in prison is a thing almost unheard of; a Jew soliciting public
charity has yet to be found; a Jew who boast of his caste, grows noisy over his
religion or reviles that of his neighbors, if he exist at all, has become known
to the general community…It is only bigotry which represents a Jew as an object
of hatred or aversion. To that race we
owe much of our civilizations, and all the religion we possess. It has endured persecution through generation
after generation and has never evinced any disposition to retaliate….It is to
be hoped that the United States Government will do all in its power to check
the hideous massacre lately begun in Rumania.”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D07EFDF1F3CE13BBC4D53DFB066838B669FDE
1871: In Cleveland, OH, “Ranks Kusman Syman and Rebecca
(Goldsmith) Syman gave birth to Wittenberg educated and Ohio State University
trained physician Louis Syman, a specialist in the practice of internal
medicine and husband of Bertha M. Reihnhiemr who served as the “regimental
surgeon of the 362nd Infantry, U.S. Army during WW I before
continuing his practice in Springfield, OH.
1873: Birthdate of Russia native Israel Cass, who came to
the United States in the last decade of the 19th century and started
Cass and Rosenthal, a manufacturer of infants and children’s coats with German
Jewish immigrant Max Rosenthal.
1873: In San Francisco, Meyer and Bertha Solon gave birth
to California School of Design graduate Harry Solon the painter whose works
were exhibited in numerous places including the Sala des Artistes Francais in
Paris and who was a member of the Society of American Artists and the Society
of Western Artists.
1874: Birthdate of Chicago native and Minneapolis
businessman Arthur Mayer Harris, the owner of Harris Machinery Compay and the
director of the Talmud Torah.
1875: In Louisana, Prague natives Ferdinand and Lizzie
Sicher Fishell gave birth to Daniel S. Fishell.
1876: “A Moor stabbed eleven Jews” today at Alcassar, a
Moroccan city in the Province of Fez.
Among the wounded are Moses Abecasis.
1877: Reports reaching Bucharest that American Jews have
petitioned Secretary of State W.M. Evarts on behalf of their co-religionists in
Romania and Turkey “has created a considerable amount of astonishment” among
Jews and non-Jews alike.
1877: Four days after he had passed away, 48 year old
Julius Calisher, the Birmingham born son of Phoebe and Nathan Jacob Calisher
and the husband of Julia Calisher was buried today at “Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.”
1877: Jacob and Therese Schiff gave birth to Mortimer Leo
Schiff, banker, philanthropist and early supporter of the Boy Scouts of
America.
1878: Today “Johan A, Kasson, the U.S. Minister to Austria”
became “the first diplomatic representative to officially recommend action at
the Congress of Berlin on the subject of the removal of Jewish disabilities.”
1880: Birthdate of Vilnius native Mikhail Ussakovich Liber the
son of “a poet and office clerk” also
known Mark a leader of the Bund” and leader of the Mensheviks who played a
leading role in the February Revolution
but was opposed to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 that brought the Communists
to power.
1881: A group of Polish Jews fought back today on Hester
Street when two members of the “border gang” –John Reilly and Thomas Sinclair –
began torment them. Reilly responded to
the Jewish resistance by drawing his revolver and shooting indiscriminately at
the Jews. Louis Wolf was wounded by one of the shots which was heard by two 7th
Precinct Detectives who chased down the fleeing thugs and arrested them.
1881: In “An Eastern Story,” a reviewer examines the
recently published Rabbi Jeshua, a book that is described as “peculiar”
because of the “parallelism which exists between the history of Rabbi Jeshua
and the founder of Christianity.
1882: It was reported today that an Austrian physician had
seen more than 125 “mutilated Jews” at a hospital in Odessa. He described the wounds as being “of a very
dangerous character.” The attackers
showed a spirit of cruelty by pouring spirits and petroleum into the wounds.
One woman had her breast cut off while her one year old child had its eyes put
out with a red hot iron. At this time
there are 3,000 homeless orphans wandering the area. (Editor’s note – You can
draw a straight line from these reports to the meetings being held in the
United States on how to cope with the rising tide of Jews fleeing Russia)
1882: It was reported today that “a colonization society”
with a capitalization of a million dollar is to be formed to implement plans to
settle Russian Jews in homesteads and other agricultural settlements in the
American West.
1882 (18th of Sivan, 5642): Fifty six year old Alexander
Abraham de Sola passed away. Born in 1825, he was a Canadian Rabbi, author,
Orientalist, and scientist. Originating from a large renowned family of Rabbis
and scholars, De Sola was recognized there as one of the most powerful leaders
of Orthodox Judaism in the United States during the latter half of the
nineteenth century. Born in London, England, the sixth child of David Aaron de
Sola and Rebecca Meldola, his maternal grandfather was Haham Raphael Meldola, a
prominent English Rabbi. His sister Eliza, married Rabbi Abraham Pereira
Mendes, and was the mother of Dr. Frederick de Sola Mendes. In 1873, by
invitation of President Ulysses S. Grant’s administration, De Sola opened the
United States Congress with prayer. This invitation might have had a double
significance at the time. By asking a
rabbi to provide the opening prayer, Grant was once against providing evidence
that he was not an anti-Semite. By
asking a British rabbi to provide an opening prayer, the administration might
have been signaling its desire to improve relations with Great Britain.
1882: The Musée Grévin, opened today in Paris. Arthur Meyer
was the co-founder of what has become a very popular waxwork museum. The grandson of a Rabbi, he was born in Le
Harve in 1844 and became a major publisher in the French newspaper
business. His role as “press baron”
reminds one of that played by Jews in other countries. Like other Jewish moguls of journalism, he
converted, in his case to Catholicism and he was a member of the anti-Dreyfus
forces.
1883: In Paris Béatrice de Rothschild married Maurice
Ephrussi in what some might have considered more of banking merger than a
love-match.
1883: Birthdate of English economist John Maynard Keynes,
whom most people know as the father of Keynesian Economics but do not know as
“a
venomous
anti-Semite who could have given Richard Wagner a run for his money” who said the Jews “have in them
deep-rooted instincts that are antagonistic and therefore repulsive to the
European, and their presence among us is a living example of the insurmountable
difficulties that exist in merging race characteristics, in making cats love
dogs …It is not agreeable to see civilization so under the ugly thumbs of its
impure Jews who have all the money and the power and brains.”
http://www.allbusiness.com/europe/7362692-1.html
1885: Birthdate of French journalist and political leader
Geroges Mandel who served in the Chamber of Deputies where he warned of the
danger presented by the Nazis and Fascists.
He joined the Resistance and was cruelly murdered by the Vichy
paramilitary forces.
1885(22nd of Sivan, 5645): Eighty-year old Sir
Julius Benedict the German born composer and conductor who “conducted Felix
Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Exeter Hall, for the first appearance of Jenny Lind in
oratorio” and “wrote a march for the wedding of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales
and Alexandra of Denmark in 1863” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/05/09/105432055.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1886(2nd of Sivan, 5646): Parashat Nasso
1886: On Shabbat most of the Rabbis in Philadelphia spoke
to their congregations about the unwillingness of the school superintendent to
allow the Jewish students to make-up the final exams which are scheduled to be
given on Shavuot. The superintendent has
refused to make any accommodation and failure to take the exams could result in
failing for the school year. The Rabbis
“cautioned the young of their congregations against attending school on the
upcoming festival.”
1886: William Eugene Blackstone, the author of the Blackstone
Memorial, a petition signed by many prominent Americans calling for the return
of the Jews to Palestine which was sent to President Benjamin Harrison, married
Sarah Lee Smith today
1887: It was reported
today that rumors are circulating concerning a proposal to make Pope Leo XIII
King of Palestine under a protection of all the Catholic powers. Some see this is a way to compensate the Pope
for having lost his temporal powers in Italy at the time of the
reunification. The proposal does not
take into consideration the fact that the Russians, who are Orthodox, feel they
have a special role to play in the Holy Land as do the Anglican British. The
report concedes that nobody has taken into consideration how the Jews and
Moslems would feel about governance under a Papal monarch.
1888: Birthdate of attorney and Democratic Party member
Benjamin Charles Ribman, “a leader in the civic and Jewish communities” of
Brooklyn NY
1889(6th of Sivan, 5649): Shavuot
1889: In Vienna, Hugo Thimig and his wife gave birth to
actress Helen Thimig who was married to Max Reinhardt from 1935 until his death
in 1943 who “went into exile in the United States during the Nazi era.”
1890:Twenty-four-year old
Leon Hartmena the Baltimore born son of Henry and Mary Hartman who was
the organizer of Hartman Furniture and Carpet Company and a trustee of the
Jewish Charities of Chicago married Ellen Greenebaum today in Chicago.
1892: Founding of the Jewish community of Oslo, Norway.
1892: Professor Edward North of Hamilton College is scheduled
to deliver a lecture “The Inter-Correspondences of Hebrew and Greek.”
1892: Congregation B’nai Jeshurun hosted its annual
reception for its religious school this afternoon.
1893: The Jewish shirtmakers expect that five hundred of
them will be “locked out” by the Shirt Contractors’ Association today as the
association moves to “break” the union.
1894: In Bucharest, Adolph and Louise Glassburg
gave birth to Long Island College Hospital trained surgeon John Adam
Glassbury.a specialist in “speech disorders, the husband of “poet and collector
of Asian Art Betty Blanc Glassbury” and the father of Eunice Glassbury Dombroff
1895: Samuel Castin is being held by authorities on charges
that he sold $4,500 worth of jewelry that did not belong to him and kept the
money for himself. Castin is known as
“Jew Sam.” (Everybody was not a Talmud student)
1897: “Books on Many Themes” published today provides a
series of brief reviews including one on The Prophets of Israel by
Professor C. H. Cornhill who “having studied the history of Assyria, Babylon
and Egypt shows the true origins of the religion.”
1897: Publication of a review of The Myths of Israel by
Amos Kidder Fiske, which is a sequel to his previous work, The Jewish
Scriptures.
https://www.amazon.com/Myths-Israel-Analysis-Explanation-Composition/dp/B002Q0WAFK
1898: Twenty-four year old Elgin, Illinois born Benjamin
Charles Bachrach, the holder of an A.B. from Notre Dame and an LL. B from Kent
College of Law in Chicago married Martha Hartman today in Chicago.
1898: Approximately “sixty young girls arrayed in white and
a quarter of as many boys” from the Hebrew Free Schools took part in the
Confirmation ceremonies at the Educational Alliance Building
1898: “Society Notes” published today described plans for
an upcoming “patriotic tea in commemoration of Alexander Hamilton” sponsored by
St. Luke’s Church which include a performance by the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Band.
(Ed. Note – You have to wonder if the people at St. Luke’s Church appreciated
the irony of a band made up of Jewish orphans playing in honor of Alexander
Hamilton)
1899: Two days after she had passed away, 50 year old Emma
Esther Harris, the wife of Reuben Harris, was buried today in London at the
“Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”
1899(27th of Sivan, 5659): German printer, publisher and
bookseller, Hirsch Fishl passed away in Berlin. Sometime after 1860, while
living in Halberstadt, Hirsch developed a specialty of buying and selling
Hebrew books and manuscripts. Hirsch
provided Joseph Zender with many of the incunabula and rare books that were
part of the first collection of Hebrew Books created for the British
Museum. He also provided assistance for The Bodleian Library
and the Rosenthal Library at Amsterdam when they sought to acquire Jewish and
Hebrew Books. (As reported by Singer and
Van Straalen)
1899:
In New York City, the Health Board “established a quarantine in the grammar
department of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society” following the discovery
of three cases of diphtheria.
1899:
Today Alfred Dreyfus was “notified of the decision of the Supreme Court” that
would lead to his being shipped back from Devil’s Island where his case would
be reheard.
1899:
“A meeting of the members of the Educational Alliance and the Hebrew Free
School Association of the City of New York was held” tonight at Temple Emanu-El
“to ratify the agreement for the consolidation of the two institutions as
provided for by a recent act of the Legislature.”
1900:
Birthdate of Victor Kluger who worked with Miep Gies and others to hide eight
people including Anne Frank for two years.
1901:
“Hebrew Aid Societies in Competition” published today provided a report by
the Kreuz Zietung, about a recently formed German Hebrew Aid Society
that plans on competing with the French Alliance Israelite Universelle in
providing add to the distressed Jews in Southeastern Europe.
1902”
It was reported today that “Dr. Emil Hirsch, the rabbi of the Temple Israel
Congregation” in Chicago “is not at all disturbed by a story from New York that
the Rabbincal Association of that city has adopted resolutions declaring him no
long a follower of the faith” and that he has “openly ridiculed” their action
saying that for him it is “totally without effect.”
1903:
“A mass meeting, attended by about 1.200 representative citizens of Washington,
was held in the Columbia Theatre this afternoon to consider the recent outrages
perpetrated on the Jews of Kishineff, Russia.”
1904:
Max Meyerhardt and Dora Meyerhardt gave birth to Julius Max Meyerhardt.
1904:
“The Seventh Annual Convention of the Federation of American Zionists” which
was attended by 188 authorized delegates continued to meet for a third day at
Germania Hall in Cleveland, OH.
1905:
In Dusseldorf, Germany, Gustav Cohn the German born son of “Levi and Eva Regina
Cohn” and his wife Paula Cohn gave birth to “Luise (Lissy) Cohn” the wife of
Bernard Kaufmann
1906:
Delegates to a meeting working to establish a Southern States Immigration
Commission who heard a speech by Rabbi Joseph Silverman on the function of the
Jewish “Removal Office” are scheduled to
visit Ellis Island today.
1906:
“Six hundred members of the Congregation of Temple Israel of Harlem saw the
laying of the corner stone of their new temple, at 120th Street and Lenox
Avenue, this afternoon.
1907:
“In the Berlin suburb of Oberschöneweide, Heinrich Peierls an electrical
engineer, from a family of Jewish Merchants, who was the managing director of a
cable factory of Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG), and his first
wife Elisabeth née Weigert” gave birth to Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, the award
winning “Jewish German-born British physicist who played a major role in the
Manhattan Project and Tube Alloys, Britain’s nuclear program” who was described
as “a major player in the drama of the eruption of nuclear physics into
world affairs
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Peierls.html
https://www.atomicheritage.org/profile/rudolf-peierls
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sir-rudolf-peierls-1602308.html
1908(6th
of Sivan, 5668) Shavuot
1908:
Abraham and Sarah Eckstein Fishman gave birth to Colorado resident Benard “Ben”
Fishman the husband of Jeanette Felsen Fishman
1908:
In White Plains, NY, Felix and Frieda Warburg give birth to their fifth and
youngest child Edward Mortimer Morris Warburg, the philanthropist who was among
other things “a founding father of the American Ballet Company, the precursor
of the New York City Ballet.
1909:
Birthdate of actor and director Henry Levin.
1910:
“Jews Going To Turkey” published today reported that the expulsion of Jews from
Russia is increasing day by day” and that up to 30,000 Jewish throughout Russia
have been expelled from where they have been living forcing to emigrate to the
United States, Canada, Argentina and to Turkey “where the Jewish leadrs are
making arrangements for them to establish colonies.’
1911:
“President Taft to-day directed the Secretary of War to administer a severe
reprimand to Col. Joseph Garrard, commanding the cavalry post at For Myer, near
Washington, because he had made a recommendation against the advancement of an
enlisted man on the express grounds that he was of Jewish parents who are
engaged in the tailoring trade.”
1912: Birthdate of Arnold Forster, an American Jewish
leader, lawyer and writer who became a longtime executive of the
Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
1913: Dora Margolyn, the daughter of Harry and Rebecca
Margolyn and older sister of Becy Maroglin, the prominent Tulane trained labor
lawyer entered the Jewish Orphans’ Home in New Orleans which at that time was
run by Arkansan Leon Volmer who had previously “served as a rabbi on a Reform
Congregation Charleston, W.VA, where he had earned a reputation as a lovable
and compassionate man.”
1913: Twenty-eight-year-old
Arthur K. Stern, the Philadelphia born son of Moses H. and Carrie Stern
who was a member of Philadelphia’s Rodeph Sholom married Henrietta Berkowitz.
1913: Two days after he had passed away, funeral services
were scheduled to be held in Chicago for Charles K. Markman, the “husband of
Julia Virginia Markman and the father of Eva, Samuel, Henry, Baubian, Milton
and Simeon Markman.”
1914: The last issue Di Tsayt, a Yiddish language weekly
newspaper, was published today just before the start of World War I.
1914: Barely a year after it was launched, the Russian
Yiddish weekly newspaper Di Tsayt (The Times) was shut down by the Russian
government” was shut down when the last paper was delivered today.
1914: Birthdate of Estelle Lebost, the native of the Bronx
who gained fame as Estelle Reiner, the wife of
multi-talented Carl Reiner and mother of Rob Reiner, “Meathead” on “All
In the Family.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/movies/30reiner.html?_r=0
1915: It was a reported today estimated that there were
“about 100,000 homeless people” in the region around Lodz with about 22,000
living at Lomza.
1915: It was reported today that at a recent conference of
the Jewish Aid Society in Moscow “it was decided to appeal to Jews throughout
Russia for aid” for the homeless “and a plan was discussing for taxing wealthy
Jews for the benefit” of those suffering the privations of the World War.
1915: As of today, copies of the resolution adopted by the
citizens of Rochester, NY calling for the commutation of Leo Frank’s sentence
are on their way to the Georgia Prison Commission and the Governor of Georgia.
1915: According to reports published today “the more than
3,000 Galician Jews living in Jerusalem “are on the verge of destitution”
because of they no longer received support from the Jews of Galicia due to the
World War.
1915: It was reported today that Dr. A.S. Blumenthal, a
rabbi from Palestine, has arrived in New York bearing “letters of introduced to
Nathan Straus” asking for his help in raising money for the Jews of Palestine
who have been impoverished by the war – an effort that has been endorsed by
Austro-Hungarian Consuls in both New York and Jerusalem.
1915: “Russian distrust of the Jews is shown by an alleged
secret order issued by the General of the Russian Army and distributed to the
commanding officers in Poland and Galicia” published in New York today which
claims that Jews provide food and shelter for the German Army while serving as
spies. “To remedy this alleged
condition, it is ordered that when the Russians enter a town…the leaders of the
Jewish community be taken and held as hostages” and that “at the same time a
warning should be given to all Jews that if any one of them should in any way
help the enemy even after we have left the town, these Jewish leaders will
killed.”
1915: Atlanta Mayor James G. Woodward is awaiting
reinforcements from the Governor because he is afraid that the police force
will not be able to control the demonstrators gathering in the city to express
their support for the execution of Leo Frank.
1915: The Colonization Committee of Petrograd sent a cable
today to the American Jewish Relief Committee describing the “acute and
indescribable distress” the Jews are suffering and stating that “sums
collected” for their relief have been “completely exhausted.”
1915: In Atlanta, over 4,000 people attended a mass meeting
held tonight on the grounds of the State Capitol where “resolutions protesting
against the commutation of the death sentence imposed upon Leo M. Fran for the
murder of Mary Phagan were adopted.
1915: “Hollins N. Randolph, one of the leading lawyers of
Atlanta and the counsel for the Federal Reserve Board…sent a letter to the
Prison Commission expressing his doubts about the guilt of Leo Frank and urging
clemency.
1916: Harvard Law School trained attorney Marc Justin
Grossman, the Cleveland, OH born son of Lillie Meyers and Louis J. Grossman who
was the a trustee of the Council Educational Alliance of the Jewish Social
Service Bureau married Carolyn Kahn today in Cincinnati, OH.
1916: “Former Judge Leon Sanders, President of the Hebrew
Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society said” tonight “that C.L. Marcus a
financial agent of the society had gone to Europe about two weeks ago in order
to see that the persons to whom relief funds had been sent go their money.”
1916: President Wilson responded positively to a request by
Representative London of New York that he “take every opportunity to assist the
Jews in Russia to obtain relief from oppressive conditions.”
1916: Rabbi de Sola Mendes is scheduled to officiate at the
marriage of Dorothy H. Bronner, “ daughter of Mrs. William H. Bronner and
Arthur M. Levy, a son of former Tax Commissioner Ferdinand Levy and Mrs. Levy”
which will be followed by a wedding breakfast at the St. Regis Hotel.
1916: Today, twenty-four year old Dr. Joseph Herman
Isenstead, the West Prussian born son of Herman and Jenny (Eisack) Eisenstadt
and a holder of the Iron Cross for his years of service in the Medical Corps of
the German Army in WW I married the former Elly Neuman, the mother of their
children Eric and Ruth, all of whom in 1936, came to the United States where
Dr. Isenstead practiced “medicine specializing in the treatment of liver
disease.”
1916: Sixty-five year old Field Marshal Horatio Herbert
Kitchener, simply known as Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War (the
top military post in the UK) died today when the HMS Hampshire which was taking
him to Russia was sunk by a German U-boat. The first major event in his storied
career was his participation at the age of 24 in came to known as the Survey of
Western Palestine a major mapping expedition that covered what is today Israel,
Gaza, and Judea/Samaria. The survey had provided the basis for many later
archaeological and geographic expeditions and even provided the coordinates
that would set the modern border between Lebanon and Israel.
1916: After a bruising confirmation process laced with
anti-Semitism that lasted for more than four Louis Brandeis became the first
Jewish Justice of the United States Supreme Court when he took the oath of
office in the courtroom of the United States Supreme Court. The chamber was filled to capacity with
family members, well-wishers and government officials including Secretary of
War Baker, Attorney General Gregory, Senator Nelson of Colorado and Senator
Martin of Virginia. “The oath was administered to Mr. Brandeis today by virtue
of the action of the Senate in waiving its three-day notification rule
providing that a person confirmed by the Senate shall not assume office until
three days after he is notified of his appointment.”
1917: During World War I, in the United States registration
began under the Selective Draft Act covering all men between the ages of twenty
one and thirty. According to historian
Martin Gilbert, the New York Times declared that this act gave “’gave a long and
sorely needed means of disciplining a certain insolent foreign element in this
nation.’ The reference was to America’s Jews, whose pacifist elements were no
greater, by proportion than those of other Americans. Universal military service, one American rabbi
insisted, was an institution deriving from the time of Moses. In support of this pro-war view there was
also a verse in the Psalms which British Jews had cited two years earlier as a
religious justification for to war: ‘Blessed be the Lord, my Rock, Who teaches
my hands to war and my fingers to fight.’ Within two months of the passage of
the Selective Draft Act, Jews made up 6 per cent of the American armed forces,
though they were only 2 per cent of the population.” The most of those Jews in uniform would be
Irving Berlin.
1917: This afternoon, the Women’s Club of the Jewish
Educational Alliance is scheduled to give a whist party to raise money for a
children’s playground in Chicago.
1917: In Pittsburg, PA, Dr. Lee L. Frankel of New York City
presided over the evening session of the annual convention of the National
Association of Jewish Social Workers.
1918(25th of Sivan, 5678): Twenty-six year old North
Carolinian,Arthur Bluethenthal an All American Center and Princeton graduate
who had been a member of the French Lafayette Escadrille since 1917 was shot
down “in aerial combat with four German planes while directing artillery fire
today near Maignelay, France, 50 miles north of Paris
1919(7th of Sivan 5679) Second Day of Shavuot
1919(7th of Sivan 5679): After passing away
today, 22 year old Tilly Brown, the wife of Harris Brown, was buried today at
the Belfast Jewish Cemetery in Northern Ireland.
1920: The “monster fair and bazaar” sponsored by Temple
Emanu-el at Boro Park is scheduled to open today at the Y.M.H.A. building in
Brooklyn.
1920: Today, Hebrew Union College Awarded an honorary
degree of Doctor of Hebrew Laws to Jacob H. Schiff of New York City.
1921: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for
Dr. Simon Baruch, father of Bernard Baruch, at the West End Synagogue in New
York City.
1921: Graduation exercise for students attending the Jewish
Theological Seminary and the Teachers’ Institute are scheduled to begin at
three o’clock this afternoon in Aeolian Hall.
1922: Today, “in response to recommendation by President
Abbot L. Lowell, the Harvard Board of Overseers created a committee to examine
the ‘principles and methods for mere effectively sifting candidates for
admission’” which Jewish alumni suspected was “a strategy for the imminent
limitation of Jewish enrollment.”
1922: Liebman-Philipson and Wolf, manufacturers of
Cambridge Clothes for men and young men
is scheduled to move their cutting rooms and offices to their news plant at
Canton and Cromwell Streets in Chicago today.
1923: Sam and Annie Stein Lazarus gave birth to Ralph
Lazarus, the fourth of their five children.
1924: In Wiener Nestadt, Austria, Max and Ida Zimmer, both
of whom died in “concentration camps during the Holocaust” gave birth to
Margarete Zimmer who came to United States at the age of 15 and gained fame as
Greta Zimmer Friedman, the girl who was photographed being kissed by a
stranger—a Navy sailor—on V-J Day 1945 by Life photographer Alfred
Eisenstaedt.”
1925: Mrs.Bertha Phillip Dworsky, the founder in 1896, of
the Daughters of Jacob, “the first Orthodox Jewish home in New York City and
the mother of Harold and Moses Dworsky and Blanche Dworsky Ratner, the
President of the Daughters of Jacob Geriatric Center passed away today in New
York City.
1925: Mr. and Mrs. Herman Luwish of Brooklyn announced the
engage of their daughter Miriam to Mr. Louis B. Seidman.
1925(13th of Sivan, 5685): Seventy-seven year
old “Isaac Minis Hays. a Philadelphia physician and author and editor of books
on medicine and Benjamin Franklin who was Librarian of American Philosophical
Society from 1897-1922 passed away today.
https://snaccooperative.org/view/72573446
1926(23rd of Sivan, 5686): Parashat Sh’lach
1926(23rd of Sivan, 5686): Fifty-eight-year-old
Julius Baldauf, the Louisville, KY born son of Morris and Lina Kahn Baldauf and
the husband of Gertrude Flexner Baldauf passed away today in Henderson, KY
after which he was buried at The Temple Cemetery in Louisville.
1926: In Budapest, “Tivadar Schwartz, a well-connected
Jewish lawyer, publisher, investor and former officer in the Austro-Hungarian
Army, and the former Erzebet Szucz, the daughter of a well-to-do fabric store
owner” gave birth to Paul Schwartz who gained fame as Paul Soros. (As reported
by Robert D. Hershey, Jr.)
1927(5TH of Sivan, 5687): Erev Shavuot
1927(5th of Sivan, 5687): Cornell trained
physician and bacteriologist Abraham Zingher, the Romanian born son of “Joseph
and Yetta (Berman) Zingher and WW I
Medical Corps Veteran died prematurely under unusual circumstances today.
1928:
It was reported today that “Palestine and American Jewry” will be the subject
for tomorrows Young Judea National Oratorical Contest that will take place at
the Montefiore Synagogue Auditorium.
1929: “Sir Boyd Merriman, who had served as counsel for the
Jewish case before the British Commission of Inquiry” meeting in Jerusalem
completed his first terms as Solicitor General for England and Wales.
1930: Birthdate of Jerome Howard Abrams who, as Jerry Ames,
became a major force in the field of American Tap Dance. The 2006 recipient of
the Flo Bert Award for his lifetime contribution to tap dance changed his name,
like many other performers of his era, because his “Jewishness” could hinder
his career.
1930 Manny Shinwell completed his service as Financial
Secretary to the War Office and began serving in the Cabinet as the Secretary
for Mines.
1931: Eighty-one year old John Lawson Stoddard, the
American author whose support for “the restoration of the Jews in Israel” was
encapsulated in his statement “You are a people without a country; there is a
country without a people. Be united. Fulfill the dreams of your old poets and
patriarchs. Go back, go back to the land of Abraham.”
1932: Dr. Cyrus Adler announced that Dr. Morris D. Levine
has been appointed to a full professorship at the Jewish Theological Seminary
of America.
1932: Dr. Cyrus Adler was honored today during the
commencement exercises at the Jewish Theological Seminary for his thirty years
of service to this flagship institution of the Jewish community.
1932: Ten new rabbis will be ordained today at the 7th
annual commencement exercises of the Jewish Institute of Religion. The chairman
of the board of Trustees, Judge Julian W. Mack will preside at the event being
held at Carnegie Hall and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, President of the Institute
will confer the degrees on the newly minted clergyman.
1933: “Irving Wexler, better known as Waxey Gordon, wealthy
beer distributer and racketeer who has pleaded not guilty to charge of income
tax evasion is scheduled to appear in court today when the judge will set a
trial date.
1933(11th of Sivan, 5693): Seventy-year old
David Belais, who had formed the firm of Belais and Cohn with metallurgical
chemist Sigmund Cohn, passed away today.
1933: It was reported today that Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of
the Jewish Institute of Religion conferred, in absentia, “the honorary degree
of Doctor of Hebrew Letters on Professor David Yellin for his contributions in
the field of Hebrew grammar and etymology, biblical exegesis and interpretation
of modern Hebrew poetry in the Judeo Arabic epoch.”
1933: Arturo Toscaninii boycotts a German music festival to
protest Nazi repression of what the regime classified as “degenerate artists.”
1934: “The Most Precious Thing in Life” a romantic drama
with a script co-authored by Dore Schary was released today in the United
States.
1934: Tensions began to rise today in Eastern Thrace
that would lead to full blown violence during June and July known as the Thrace
Pogroms which was the name given to a series of violent attacks on the Jews by
Moslem Turks in the “cities of Tekirdağ, Edirne, Kırklareli, and Çanakkale.” The
violence began with boycotts of Jewish shops and products which “was followed
by vandalizing of Jewish houses and shops.”
There is a dispute as to who caused the violence. Some attribute it to leaders who were
pro-Nazi while others attribute it to members of Atatürk’s Republican People’s
Party. Who started the violence may be a
matter of dispute, but the effects are a matter of record. “Over 15,000 Jews
had to flee from the region.”
1935: The Metropolitan League of Jewish Community
Associations honored The American Jewish Olympic team which recently competed
in the Maccabiah games held in Tel Aviv at a reception held at the 92nd
Street Y.M.H.A. The three hundred attendees included E.J. Londow, the chairman,
Judge Jonah Goldstein and Rabbi Louis I. Newman. Among the honorees were Jance
Lifson, Dores Kelm, William Steiner and Martin Weintraub.
1935(4th of Sivan, 5695): Sixty-nine year old
Menshevik and supporter of the Communist International Aleksandr Martynov, the
native of Pinks, passed away today in Moscow.
1936: It was reported today that 77 year old Miss Bertha
Pappenheim the “writer, Jewish feminist leaders, crusader against white slave
traffic” whose literary works including a translation from Yiddish to German
the memoirs of Gluckel von Hameln, the noted Jewish writer from whom she was
descended” has passed away in New Isenberg.
1936: “Private Number,” a drama co-starring Joe E. Lewis
was released in the United States today.
1937: Birthdate of Benjamin Jerry Cohen the native of Ossining, New York who I”s the Louis G.
Lancaster Professor of International Political Economy at the University of
California, Santa Barbara.… where he has been a member of the faculty since
1991” and “teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on international
political economy.”
1937: In Oran, Algeria, Eve (nee Klein) and George Cixous
gave birth to Hélène Cixous “a professor, French feminist writer, poet,
playwright, philosopher, literary critic and rhetorician.”
1937: It was reported today that “all Jews except those who
renounced Judaism are excluded from” The Camp of National Unity which “is
designed to be the organization of the Polish nation” and “intends to dominate
the policy of the government” in much the same way that the Nazi Party
dominates the policy of the German government.
1938(6th of Sivan, 5698) Shavuot
1938: Sigmund Freud, his wife Martha and daughter Anna
arrived in Paris from Vienna on their way to seek refuge in London.
1939: Governor Lehman delivered the commencement address
today at Russell Sage College where he said that “the three most important
principles of democracy are tolerance, loyalty and service.”
1940: “With the ever-increasing threat of war in the
Eastern Mediterranean” the New York Times described preparations being made to
defend Palestine from attacks by Axis forces.
Palestine is an attractive target because Haifa is the terminus of the
oil pipeline from Iraq and has become one of the busiest ports in this part of
the world. Additionally, Palestine has become “one of the largest manufacturing
centers in the Near East” thanks in large part to the influx of Jewish settlers
from Germany and other parts of Europe over the last seven years. The Jews of
Palestine are committed to the defense of area and are determined to stay put
and deal with any invasion.
1940: Birthdate of David Brudnoy, Boston talkshow radio
host.
1940: “Deputy Chief Gertrude D.T. Schimmel, the second
highest ranking woman ever in the New York City Police Department began her
career as a policewoman” today.
1941: Rabbi Zerach Warhaftig and his family left
Yokohama on the Japanese ocean liner Hikawa Maru bound for Canada having
escaped from Lithuania thanks to the super-human efforts of Japanese
Vice-Consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara.
1941: In Brookline, MA, “Harry Kraft, a dress manufacturer
in Boston’s Chinatown and a respected Jewish lay leader at Congregation
Kehillath Israel in Brookline who wanted his son to become a rabbi and his wife
gave birth to businessman and philanthropist Robert Kenneth Kraft, the
billionaire owner of the New England Patriots NFL Team
https://www.forbes.com/profile/robert-kraft/
1942: In Newark, NJ, Frank Shapiro “a manufacturer of
novelty hats” and “the former Leona Glickstein” gave birth to Kenneth Roy
Shapiro the creator of “The Groove Tube.” (As reported by Richard Sandomir)
1942: In Cracow; Poland, thousands of Jews were rounded up
for deportation.
1942: Eisengruppen report stating efficiency of Gas vans;
“Since 1941, 97,000 have been processed in the three vehicles in operation
without any malfunctions in the vehicles.”
1942: The SS
reports that 97,000 persons have been “processed” in mobile gas vans.
1942: During
a roundup of Jews in Kraków, Poland, SS men brutally torment two men–one who
has just one leg and another who had lost his eyesight while fighting for
Germany in World War I.
1943: The
Nazis deported 1266 Jewish children under the age of 16 from Vught,
Holland to the Sobibór death camp where they are gassed upon arrival.
1943(2nd of
Sivan, 5703): In Minsk Mazowiecki, Poland, more than 100 Jewish workers at
the Rudzki factory are shot.
1943: When the National Headliners’ Club included
women in its ranks of prizewinning journalists for the first time in 1943, Sylvia
Porter was one of just two women to receive a Headliners’ award. Today she was
honored for “outstanding” work in financial and business reporting.
By then, Porter had been working in journalism for a decade, but the award was
only the first of many Porter would earn over a career that spanned half a
century.
1943: Etty
Hillesum voluntarily returned to Westerbork where she “continued to provide a
bit of support for the people as they were preparing themselves for transport.
It was for this reason that Etty Hillesum consistently turned down offers to go
into hiding. She said that she wished to “share her people’s fate”.
1944: Joel Brand was arrested by the British as he tried to
get to Palestine during negotiations which he thought would help save the Jews
of Hungary from the Final Solution.
1944: The Allies marched into Rome, 1944. Jews emerged from
their hiding places and the gate of the great synagogue was opened. There has
been a great deal written about the Pope’s failure to come to the aid of the Jews
during the war. But we must not lose sight of the heroic efforts on the
part of many individual Italians many of whom were priests and nuns who risked
their lives to hide the Jews of Italy. The stories of people being hidden
in monasteries, nunneries and in Catholic cemeteries are tales of courage and
daring do that even Tom Clancy or Ian Fleming could not have invented.
1944: In the
weekly internal report of the War Refugee Board, it states that notice was
recently sent to Algeria about the evacuation of 1,000 refugees now in southern
Italy to be accepted by the United States. Among the countries which refugees
originated from were Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, Turkey and Yugoslavia.
1945: At
moshav Herut, Mendi and Drora Kayla Shulman gave birth to their daughter
Nechama who would become famous as Nechama Rivlin when she married Reuven
Rivilin the speaker of the Knesset and President of Israel.
1945: Binem
Wrzonsk “joined a group of boys and young teenagers, known as the “The
Buchenwald Boys” who were brought to France in a special convey under the
sponsorship of the O.S.E” Among the boys were Elie Wiesel and Kalman
Kaliksztajn.
1945: J.E.
Meyers photographed three children – a girl from Poland, a boy from Latvia and
girl from Hungary – who had just been released from Buchenwald on a train that
is taking them to Palestine.
https://www.archives.gov/files/research/military/ww2/photos/images/ww2-200.jpg
1945: The Four
Allied Powers – US, USSR, UK and France signed the Declaration Regarding the
Defeat of Germany and the Assumption of Supreme Authority by Allied Powers
1945(26th
of Sivan, 5705): Sixty year old Maurice Lewis Phillips, “the son of Simeon and
Rosetta Phillips passed away today.
1946(6th
of Sivan, 5706): Shavuot
1946: “Her
Adventurous Night,” a comedy produced by Charles Hass was released today in the
United States.
1946: Jews
from Palestine visited the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/june/16.asp
1947: “Dr.
Chaim Weismann, former president of the World Zionist Organization was invited
by the National Council of Palestine Jews today to appear before the United
Nations Committee on Palestine which will arrive here next week.”
1948: American
pilot Stan Andrews began serving with the Israeli Air Force today.
1948: Israeli armed forces captured Yavneh.
1949: It was reported today that Mrs. Golda Myerson,
Israeli Minister of Labor, Social Insurance and Housing, emphasized the critical
housing shortage in Israel” terming “it
the major problem of her country, and asserted that 160,000 housing units were
needed immediately to take care of the heavy influx of immigrants.”
1950(20th of Sivan, 5710: Seventy-year-old Hyman
Aaron who in 1900 came to the United States where he established his own
construction firm in Brooklyn, became a director the Stone Avenue Talum Torah
and of the Beth El Hospital and married Mollie Spille and had two sons,
“Bernard J. and Dr. Jules Aaron” and “a daughter, Mrs. Mendel Berman, passed
away today at his home in Brooklyn.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/06/06/89408960.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1950: European diamond manger, Jacques Torczyner, warns
that unfair labor practices by the West German diamond industry will have a
negative impact on other diamond cutting centers including the one at Tel Aviv.
1950: Eliahu Elath flies to London to begin serving as
Israel’s first ambassador to Great Britain “which has recently accorded Israel
full recognition…”
1951(1st of Sivan, 5711): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1952: CBS broadcast the last episode of “Casey, Crime
Photographer,” that featured music by Morton Gould.
1954: Birthdate of New York native and leading fashion
photographer Steven Meisel.
https://032c.com/2008/who-is-steven-meisel/
1954: The last
new episode of the hit comic variety program, Your Show of Shows, airs.
The show co-starred Sid Caesar and included Carl Reiner and Howie Morris as
“second bananas.” Writers for the show
included Mel Brooks, Woody Allen and Neil Simon.
1955: “The Big
Bluff,” a film noire directed and produced by W. Lee Wilder with a script by
Fred Freiberger was released today in the United States.
1955(15th of
Sivan, 5715): Eighty-year old CCNY
graduate and HUC ordained rabbi, David Lefkowiz,, the Hungarian born son of
Lena Lefkowitz, the leader of Dayton’s Temple B’nai Jeshurun and Dallas’ Temple
Emanu-El where he opposed the rising Ku Klux Klan and husband of Sadie Braham
with whom he had four children including David, Jr. who followed his father
into the rabbinate passed away today
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0195/ms0195.html
1956: It was
reported today that the Mizrachi Women’s Organization of American has
$1,165,000 in the past year to support projects in Israel including “several
children’s villages, vocational high schools, nurseries and settlement houses.”
1956: In
Seattle, WA, Canadian native Evelyn Ruth Gorelick and her husband gave birth to
Kenneth Bruce Gorelick better known as one of America’s biggest selling
instrumental musicians Kenny G.
1956: In the
UK premiere of “Jacqueline” featuring Harold Goldblatt as “the Schoolmaster.”
1957(6th of
Sivan, 5717): First Day of Shavuot
1958:
“Exhibition of the Decade” an art exhibition created to celebrate Israel’s
tenth anniversary opened today in Binyanei Hauma in Jerusalem featuring “Might”
a work by Yosef Zaritsk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Zaritsky#/media/File:Might_by_Yosef_zaritsky.jpg
1959: Dr.
Bernard Mandelbaum was appointed provost of the Jewish Theological Seminary of
America.
1959: Ogden
Rogers Reid was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1961:
Birthdate of Onno Hoes, the Dutch political leader whose mother was Jewish
which is the explanation given for his support of Zionism.
1962: In
Chicago, Gene Carlin, the owner of “a plumbing supply business called Bilko” in
suburban Morton Grove and his wife the former Carole Crafton gave birth to
“comedian, actor, author and Emmy Award winning producer” Jeffrey Todd “Jeff” Garlin.
1963: U.S.
premiere of “Irma la Douce” a comedy directed by Billy Wilder who along with
I.A.L. Diamond wrote the script for the film they co-produced that featured
music by Andre Previn.
1963: “Come
Blow Your Horn,” the movie version of the Neil Simon play, directed by Bud
Yorkin who shared the role of producer with Norman, the author of the
screenplay was released in the United States today.
1963: CBS
broadcast the final episode of “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” created by Max
Shulman.
1965(5th
of Sivan, 5725) Erev Shavuot
1965(5th
of Sivan, 5725): Eighty-four year old English author Eleanor Farjeon, the
daughter of author Benjamin Farjeon passed away today.
1966: “The
five-day annual convention of the American Jewish Press Association” came to an
end today in Washington, DC “with the election of Adolph Rosenberg,
editor-publisher of the Southern Israelite
of Atlanta as president. (as reported by JTA
1967: Moshe
Dayan replaced Prime Minister Levi Eshkol as Minister of defense.
1967: Zvi
Dinstein completed his term as Deputy Minister of Defense
1967:
Operation Focus (Mivtza Moked) began at 07:45
1967:
Mordechai “Hod took a calculated risk by committing all but 12 of his combat
aircraft to the pre-emptive strike. At 7.10 am, he dispatched a first wave of
183 aircraft and, soon after, a second wave of 164. Flying out to sea, they
descended to avoid detection by radar, and made for the Egyptian coast. It took
45 minutes for the first wave to reach its targets. “These were,” Hod
later recalled, “the longest 45 minutes of my life.” At exactly 7.55
am, Hod’s pilots struck. The Defense Minister, Moshe Dayan, recalled:
“Mottie [Hod] and his senior staff officers sat in the front row facing a
glass partition, and I sat just behind them . . . I was watching Mottie drink
jugful after jugful of water, as he followed his pilots with deep
anxiety.”After two hours and 50 minutes the Egyptian Air Force was in
ruins, and Hod needed only another hour to finish off the Jordanian and Syrian
Air Forces. By midday of June 5, he had total control of the skies. (As
reported by the Telegraph – We have included this detailed description to
remind those revisionist historians that in war, the only sure victories are
the ones viewed in hindsight)
1967: War broke out between Israel and the Arab nations. This day
marks the first of six of the most momentous days in Jewish history. In
May of 1967, Egypt ordered the U.N. peacekeeping force out of the Sinai and
sent Egyptian forces into the Sinai Peninsula. Both of these acts were
violations of the agreements that had ended the Suez Crisis of 1956-57.
Egypt also closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping effectively
blockading the port of Elath. Such a blockade is an act of war under
international law. The Egyptians also formed a joint military command
with the Syrians and the Jordanians. For a month, Israel heeded the
voices of caution from the international community. However, nothing was
done to relieve the desperate situation. So on the morning of June
5, 1967, the Israeli Air Force struck the Egyptian Air Force, destroying much
of it on the ground. This was an act of real daring since the Israelis
had left only 12 fighters to cover the rest of the country in case of air
attack. Following the successful air action, Israeli troops entered the
Sinai and engaged the larger Egyptian forces. The world waited and held
its breath. At the same time, the Israelis used three different channels
to try and convince the Jordanians not to enter the fight. The Jordanian
response was to begin shelling the western section of Jerusalem and to
begin to move troops forward. Reluctantly, Israeli forces moved into the
eastern section of Jerusalem. Two days later, the city would be united as
the capital of the Jewish state and the Western Wall would once again be open
to the Jews from throughout the world. (For more details on the war you might
want to read Six Days of War by Oren, Israel’s Fight for Survival
by Donovan, or Israel by Martin Gilbert.
As these accounts, all written in different eras after the war confirm,
Israel had no grand strategy to conquer the Sinai, the West Bank and the Golan.
The attacks aimed at the Egyptians were part of a grand design, but the fight
against the other states was in response to unfolding events on the
ground. For example, the destruction of
the Egyptian Air Force was a strategic move.
The destruction of the Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi air forces was a
tactical move that took place when the planes from these three Arab nations
crossed into Israeli air space in mid-morning of June 5.)
1967(26th of
Iyar, 5727): Arthur Yitzhak Biram, Israeli philosopher, philologist, and
educator, passed away in Haifa. Born in
Bischofswerda in Saxony in 1878, the son of a modest, but successful
businessman Biram attended school in Hirschberg, Silesia. His sister Else
Bodenheimer became a well-known art sociologist. He studied languages,
including Arabic, at University of Berlin and at University of Leipzig and
earned a doctorate Dr. phil. at the University of Leipzig in 1902, discussing
the philosophy of Abu-Rasid al-Nisaburi.[1] In 1904 he concluded the rabbi
seminar at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums. Afterwards he
taught languages and literature at the Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen
Kloster. Biram was one of the founders of the Bar-Kochba club, and a member of
the German liberal religious stream ‘Ezra’, which recognized the importance of
high school education. In 1913, he emigrated to Ottoman Palestine. Dr. Arthur
Biram was appointed the first principal of the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa but
a few months later, World War I broke out, and Dr. Biram was drafted by the
German army and stationed in Afula. In 1919, he returned to school. He married
Hannah Tomeshevsky, and they had two sons. Both sons were killed: Aharon died
in an accident while on reserve duty, and Binyamin, an engineer at the Dead Sea
Works, was killed by a mine. As part of Dr. Biram’s philosophy of education, in
1937, he implemented compulsory Hagam
training for girls in the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa, laying the
foundation for recruitment of women in the Haganah, and later the Israel
Defence Forces. In 1948, he resigned his post as principal, and on his 75th
birthday, he authored a collection of essays on the Bible. Altogether, he wrote
about 50 publications in Hebrew, German, English, and Arabic.
1967: The Israeli army captured the city of Gaza.
Gaza had been occupied by the Egyptians since 1948 and was a base for
terrorists.
1967: The town of Latrun, overlooking the old road to
Jerusalem was captured. Latrun dominated the road to Jerusalem and had
been the cite of great deal of hard fighting during the War For
Independence in 1948. The city of Qalqilya was also captured
on the same day.
1967: The U.N. Security Council unanimously ordered a
cease-fire in the Middle East War. This was the same U.N. that had
betrayed the Israelis by removing its forces from the Sinai and had sat
silently while the Arab states tightened the noose around Israel’s neck.
1967: In Cairo, Dr. Fraouk Shabtai and two of his brothers
were taken to Abu Zaabal prison and later transferred to an internment camp at
Tourah where they would spend the next two years. They were part of at least “425 Jewish males
– the vast majority of the Jewish community’s men – who were detained in Egypt
during the Six Day War.”
1967: Avraham
“Avi” Lanir flew his plane the “Black Mirage” in an attack on the
Egyptian air base at Fayid. The plane
earned its nickname when it was scorched during Lanir’s dogfight with the Syrians
in April of 1967.
1967: Mob violence broke out in Tunis. One hundred shops
were systematically looted and burnt; cars belonging to Jews were overturned
and set ablaze; forty scrolls of the Law were taken out of the main synagogue
by the pillagers and were desecrated before they were burnt; the main synagogue
was itself set on fire until it lay a smoldering ruin, the police having stood
by and watched. President Bourguiba made an impassioned plea on radio and
television to stop the rioting, apologizing to the Jewish community and
promising to punish the perpetrators. The Jews had little confidence in the
government’s ability to protect them.
The population went from 105,000 to 23,000 by the end of 1967 and 9,000 by
1900. In the 21st century, terrorists would burn an ancient Tunisian
synagogue.
1967: Today, on the first day of war, Yonatan
“Yoni” Netanyahu’s battalion fought the battle of Um Katef in Sinai,
then reinforced the Golan Heights. During the battle, Yonatan received a wound
to his elbow while helping rescue a fellow soldier who lay wounded deep behind
enemy lines.
1967: “At 22:30, Ariel Sharon orders the artillery to begin
shelling the Egyptian forces in Um-Katef and Um-Shihan. The targets are
illuminated with enormous searchlights, and within twenty minutes 6,000 shells
land on the Egyptian forces. After the artillery softening-up, an infantry
brigade begins to clear the Egyptian posts in face to face battles. At the same
time paratroopers are dropped from helicopters near Egyptian artillery units
and hit them. Armored forces block roads to prevent the arrival of
reinforcements. Even though some units encounter difficulties, the campaign as
a whole is executed according to the plan that was designed by Sharon and the
heavily defended Abu-Ageila region is penetrated and captured. Casualties:
About 1,000 Egyptian soldiers are dead. On the Israeli side: 40 dead, and about
120 wounded. Penetrating the defenses of Abu Ageila enables the Israeli armored
divisions to go through it and attack the Egyptian armored formation
1967: A line of Sherman M-50 tanks and trucks full of
soldiers rode towards East Jerusalem to confront the Jordanians
http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2017/05/34.jpg
1968: Sirhan Sirhan shot Bobby Kennedy, who died the next
day. Kennedy was the Senator from New York and a candidate for the Democratic
nomination for President. At one point,
this Arab assassin claimed that he shot Kennedy because he supported Israel.
Regardless of the reason (mental health problems were also given as a defense),
long before 9/11 Arabs violently intruded their way into the American political
scene and had a defining effect on altering history.
1969: Dr. Shabtai and his wife Laila were married in Paris
two years to the day after Dr. Shabtai had been seized by Egyptian authorities
at the start of the Six Days War.
1969: The University
of Texas at San Antonio was founded.
Today there are approximately 150 Jewish students UTSA. The Hillel House serves students at UTSA as
well those at other colleges and universities in San Antonio.
1970: Birthdate of Ilene Prusher American born graduate of
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism who moved to Jerusalem where
she has written for Haaretz and Jerusalem Vivendi while writing her first novel
Baghdad Fixer.
1972(23rd of Sivan, 5732): Fifty-five year old
Columbus, Ohio native Samuel Ungerleider, Jr., the senior vice president of
Gottesman & Co., Inc., and the Central National Corporation and “president
of the 92d Street Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association” who was
married to the “former Joy Gottesman” with he had four children – Peter ,
Steven, Andrew and Jeane – passed away today.
1973(5th of Sivan, 5733): Ervev Shavuot
1974: Dr. Henry Kissinger told Senators Jackson, Javits and
Ribicoff of Soviet readiness to guarantee in writing emigration of 45,000 Jews
per year and to deal with problems of harassment of emigration applicants.
1974: “In a major policy address at the Naval Academy in
Annapolis,” President Richard Nixon “blasted those who want to use détente to
extract policy changes in the Soviet Union (i.e. improved treatment of the
country’s Jews and an end to attacks on those seeking to move to Israel.)
1975: The Suez Canal opened for the first time since the
Six Day War of 1967.
1975: Terrorist attacked a bus in Jerusalem using grenades.
1975: Terrorist fired rockets at Qiryat Shemona.
1976(7th of Sivan, 5756): Last observance of
Shavuot Shel Shabbat during the Presidency of Gerald Ford.
1979(10th of Sivan, 5739): Ninety-one year old
HUC trained rabbi Morris Samuel Lazaron the Savanah, GA born son of “Samuel L.
and Alice (deCastro) Lazaron and husband of Pauline Horkheimer with whom he had
had three children – Morris, Jr, Arnold and Clementine who was a leader of the
“anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism passed away today in London.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/lazaron-morris-samuel
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0071/ms0071.html
1980: Dr. Jerzy Borysowicz, “director of the mental
hospital in Radom located at Warszawska Street who provided “daily help” to the
Jews during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and who treated Mordechai Anielewicz
passed away today four years before he was awarded the title of Righteous among
the Nations posthumously,
1981(3rd of Sivan, 5741): Ninety-three year old
Romanian native and American trained attorney Oscar Lazarus, who founded a
watch repair shop with his brother that became the Benrus Watch Company passed
away today.
1982: Israel launched Operation Peace for Galilee against
the PLO and other hostile forces after the assassination attempt on the life of
Shlomo Argov, Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom.
1983: Eighty-five year old August W. Bennet, a
Republican who while serving in the
House of Representatives in 1945 presented a joint resolution in the House of
Representative “asking for United States recognition of ‘the Hebrew Nation’ as
an intergovernmental agency to repatriate Jews surviving in Europe to Palestine
and for an administration to facilitate the establishment of a free state there
guaranteeing civil, political and religious rights of all its inhabitants”
passed away today in Concord, MA leaving behind no explanation for this
courageous act for which there was little or no political gain.
1983: The funeral for Charles Zimmerman a “former chairman
of the civil-rights committee of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and president of the Jewish
Labor Committee” is scheduled to take placed at Riverside Chapel on Amsterdam
Avenue.
1984: In Cairo, Egypt, the “security officer of the Israeli
Embassy, Zvi Kedar, was wounded in the hand by a shot fired from a moving
vehicle” (Jewish Virtual Library)
1984: In New York City, Gail Winston and Frank Rich gave
birth to American author Simon Rich, the brother of Nathaniel Rich.
1984(5th of Sivan, 5744): Erev of Shavuot
1984(5th of Sivan, 5744): Ninety-three year old
Nehemiah, the rabbi turned merchant who co-founded Giant food stores, the first
Washington, DC grocery chain to sell Challah in its bakery, passed away today.
1985: Today, President Reagan nominated 35 year old Alex
Kozinski “to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.”
1986(27th
of Iyar, 5746) : Eighty-four-old Alexandria, native Joseph Elie Mizrahi who
gained fame as Togo Mizrahi, the Egyptian director, actor, producer, and
screenwriter passed away today in Rome.
1986: Two people were injured during a bombing at
supermarket in Jerusalem.
1987: Ted
Koppel hosts a “National Town Meeting on AIDS” on a special four-hour
long live broadcast of Nightline.
1988: An exhibition at the
Historical Museum of the City of Vienna that presents a large private collection
illustrating Jewish life in that city is scheduled to come to an end. The exhibition includes “historic objects
from Jewish homes and houses of worship in Vienna, as well as books,
parchments, charts, artworks and handicrafts, all assembled over the last three
decades by the collector Max Berger.”
1991(23rd of Sivan, 5751): Sixty-year old Larry
Kert, the American entertainer best known for his award winning portrayal of
“Tony” in “West Side Story” passed away today.
1993(16th of Sivan, 5753): Parashat Beha’alotcha
1993: Cantor Harold Levy co-officiated at the wedding of
Stephanie Friedman the daughter Dr. Melvin Friedman and Thomas Nicholas
Kushner.
1993(16th of Sivan, 5753): Ninety-one year old
Baron George Russell Strauss passed away today.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-lord-strauss-1490546.html
1995(7th of Nisan, 5755) Second Day of Shavuot
1995:
Bose-Einstein condensate is first created for the first time. The collapse of
the atoms into a single quantum state is known as Bose condensation or
Bose-Einstein condensation. This phenomenon was predicted in the 1920s by
Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein, based on Bose’s work on the
statistical mechanics of photons, which was then formalized and generalized by
Einstein. (And you thought he stopped
with the E= MC squared.)
1995(7th
of Sivan, 5755): Second Day of Shavuot
1997: In New
York Rabbi Amy B. Ehrlich officiated at the wedding of novelist Dani Shapiro
whose latest work was Picturing the Wreck and Michael Paul Maren, a
contributing editor at New York
magazine and the author of The Road
to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity.
1998(11th
of Sivan, 5758): Author and literary critic Alfred Kazin passed away today on
his 83rd birthday.
1998: U.S.
premiere of “The Truman Show” a comedy produced by Scott Rudin and Edwin
Feldman, co-starring Noah Emmerich with music by Philip Glass.
1998: After
premiering last year at the Toronto International Film Festival, “Mr. Jealousy”
a comedy written and directed by Noah Baumbach was released in the United States
today.
1998: Author
and commentator Alfred Kazin passed away on his 83rd birthday. His
last published work was God and the American Writer which appeared in
1997.
1999(21st of
Sivan, 5759): Melvin Howard “Mel” Tormé nicknamed The Velvet Fog, “an American
musician, known for his jazz singing” passed away. “He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a
drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books.
He co-wrote the classic holiday song “The Christmas Song” (also known
as “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”) with Bob Wells. [And you thought that Irving Berlin was the
only Jew writing Christmas songs.] (As reported by Stephen Holden)
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/06/us/mel-torme-velvet-voice-of-pop-and-jazz-dies-at-73.html
1999: At
Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA, Aufruf for Deb and Mitchell Levin.
2000(2nd
of Sivan, 5760): Eighty-nine-year old Swiss philosopher and Einstein Medal winner
Jeanne Hersch passed away today in Geneva.
http://articles.latimes.com/2000/jun/08/local/me-38976
2001: “Rabbi
David Ellenson, a scholar of Jewish religious thought at Reform Judaism’s
seminary and professional school, has been chosen as the institution’s new
president, its board of governors announced today.”
2002(25th of
Sivan, 5762): Of the 17 Israelis who were killed this morning when a stolen car
packed with explosives pulled alongside a public bus and exploded near the
northern town of Megiddo, 13 were soldiers, most of them conscripts.
2003(5th of
Sivan, 5763): Erev Shavuot
2003: The
bodies of David Shambik, 26, and Moran Menachem, 17, both of Jerusalem, were
found near Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem, brutally beaten and
stabbed to death.
2003(5th
of Sivan, 5763): Meir Vilner “an Israeli communist politician and Jewish leader
of the Communist Party of Israel (Maki), which consisted primarily of Israeli
Arabs” passed away. “He was the youngest and longest surviving signatory of the
Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948.” He was the cousin of Abba Kovner
who certainly did not share his views.
2004: At the
Lancaster City Museum and Art Gallery the touring exhibition “Hannah Frank: A
Glasgow Artist” came to a close.
2004: Rabbi
Julia Babbette Sarah Neubererg, the unsuccessful Social Democratic Party
candidate for Parliament, “was created a life peer as Baroness Neuberger today.
2005(25th
of Sivan, 5762): Cpl. Dennis Bleuman was one of 17 Israeli soldiers murdered
today by an Arab terrorist.
2005: “The
Comeback” starring Lisa Kudrow as “Valerie Cherish” premiered on HBO today.
2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish
authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Luckiest
Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig by
Jonathan Eig.
2005:
Acclaimed historian Gerda Lerner received an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem. In granting the degree, the president and rector of
the Hebrew University noted, “For many young people, your remarkable
academic career, achieved despite the harrowing experiences suffered during the
Nazi era in Europe, provides a model of what may be accomplished in the face of
adversity.” The following day, as part of a conference in her honor, she
gave a keynote address titled, “What Is Women’s History and Why Should We Study
It?” Lerner is widely regarded as uniquely positioned to answer that
question, having shaped the field of women’s history from its earliest
beginnings.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/jun/05/2005/gerda-lerner
2006: In
“Daniel Handler Interview” published today Caroline Westrbook looks at the
author who “has found famed as the man behind Lemony Snickect.”
http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/1914_daniel_handler_inter.htm
2007: Michael
Oren appeared on “Worldview, a daily global affairs program produced by Chicago
Public Radio station WBEZ (91.5).”
2007: In
London, the Zionist Federation and St. John Wood’s Synagogue present “The Six
Day War 40 Years On: Where Next for Israel?” with David Horovitz,
Editor-In-Chief of the Jerusalem Post.
2007: In a
court case tied to the Bush Administration’s behavior that led to the war in
Iraq, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to Vice
President Cheney, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000
for lying to investigators about his role in leaking the identity of an
undercover CIA officer named Valery Plame.
Both Libby and Plame are Jewish.
2007:
Publication The Harp and the Shield of David: Ireland, Zionism and the State of
Israel in which author Shulamit “Eliash examines the relationship between
Ireland and the Zionist movement, and the state of Israel from the context of
Palestine’s partition and the delay in Ireland’s recognition of the State of
Israel until 1963.”
2008: Pinchas
Zukerman returns as a soloist playing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under
the direction of Leonard Slatkin.
2008(2nd of
Sivan, 5768): Amnon Rosenberg a 51 year old father of three from Nirim lost his
life during a noontime mortar attack on the Kibbutz Nir Oz factory where he was
working. Two others were seriously
wounded and a fourth suffered light wounds in the noontime attack.
2008: During
an appearance on MSNBC today, Andrea Mitchell, set off a minor “firestorm” when
she “referred to the voters of the southwest Virginia region as rednecks.”
2009: The
Tenth Annual Washington Jewish Music Festival presents “ShirLaLa: Family
Shabbat Service and Dinner” featuring Shira Kline whose “creative songs delight
children, parents and grandparents alike, making Shabbat a fun, interactive
experience.”
2009: U.S.
President Barack Obama toured the Buchenwald concentration camp in Buchenwald,
Germany. with Holocaust survivor Bertrand Herz, German Chancellor Angela Merkel
and Elie Wiesel.
2009: At
Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Sophie Shiffman and her family begin her
Bat Mitzvah Shabbat by participating in Friday evening services.
2009:
President Obama toured Buchenwald concentration camp today with Chancellor
Merkel, Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and survivor Bertrand
Herz.
2010: During
Shabbat services at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA, Jonathan Kerbis, son of
Esther and Sergio Kerbis, is scheduled to be called to the Torah for his last
Aliyah before making Aliyah and beginning his training with the IDF.
2010: Scott
Ballan, the son of the lead bond lawyer for the financing of the $1.5 billion
new Yankee stadium is scheduled to celebrate his Bart Mitzvah today.
2010: After
Shabbat had ended, Orthodox boxer Yuri Foreman’sd defended his title in a bout
with former welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (34-2). Foreman lost the fight for the WBA junior
middleweight crown at Yankee Stadium in a TKO in the 9th round ending a streak
of 29 undefeated fights..
2010: An
Egyptian appeals court today upheld a ruling that orders the country’s Interior
Ministry to strip the citizenship from Egyptians married to Israeli women..
2011: The
Annual Cantor’s Concert is scheduled to take place at Tikvat Israel featuring
Cantor Rochelle Helzner and Rabbi Joshua Maroof
2011: “Uzi
Landau spoke at the inauguration of Ketura Sun, Israel’s first commercial solar
field built by Arava Power Company, located at Kibbutz Ketura.”
2011: The Gold
Coast Film Festival is scheduled to present “Homecoming” a documentary about
“three teenagers who were born in Israel to foreign workers who came to Israel
in search of a better life.”
2011: The
New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish author and/or of special
interest to Jewish readers including “The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait” by
Daniel Mark Epstein and “Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn’t Want to Be One” by
Mark Kurlansky
2011: The
Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish author and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including “The Secret Knowledge: On the
Dismantling of American Culture” by David Mamet.
2011: An
estimated 30,000 people marched up New York’s Fifth Avenue in the annual
Celebrate Israel Parade amid a sea of blue-and-white flags.
2011: Two
Palestinian teenagers were indicted in the murder of five members of the Fogel
family from the West Bank settlement of Itamar. Amjad Awad, 19, who worked as a
laborer in Israel, and Hakim Awad 18, a high school student, were indicted
today in a West Bank military court for the murders of Udi Fogel, 36, Ruth
Fogel, 35, and their children Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, 3 months.
2012: “Mary
Lou”, a cinematic creation of Israeli director Eytan Fox, is scheduled to be
shown at the JCC in Manhattan
2012: The
opening reception for “Equus Ambiguity -The Emergence of Maturity,” Moshe
Givati’s solo exhibition is scheduled to take place at the Jadite Galleries in
New York.
2012: The
Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning is scheduled to present the “He &
She” the 10th Annual Exhibition of Works of The Artists’ Beit
Midrash
2012: “With
his bill to legalize West Bank outposts facing defeat in the Knesset, National
Union MK Ya’acov Katz … slammed a government plan to carry out the Supreme
Court’s orders to evacuate houses in the Ulpana outpost outside of the Beit El
settlement, dubbing it “destruction for the sake of destruction.” (As
reported by Lahav Harkov)
2012(15th
of Sivan, 5772): Ninety-one year old “Eugene Ferkauf the founder of the E. J.
Korvette chain of discount department stores, whose 1950s strategy of low
prices, quick turnover and high volume helped shape today’s retail landscape”
passed away today.(As reported by Douglas Martin)
2013: Dr.
Sanjay Subrahmayan is scheduled to present a lecture styled Jews And “New
Christians” In Portuguese Asia, 1500-1500 at the Library of Congress
2013: Zemer
Chai, “DC’s Premier Jewish Choir” is scheduled to present ‘Sing Halleluyah’ at
Ohr Kodesh in Chevy Chase, MD.
2013: The
Tenement Museum celebrated its 25th anniversary, and the 150th anniversary of
the restored building at 97 Orchard Street, which housed over 7,000 people from
more than 20 countries from 1863 to 1935. (As reported by Anne Cohen)
2013: In
Wisconsin, Tikkun Ha-Ir’s Glean Machine, which collects clothing, household items
toiletries, books toys, art supplies and nonperishable food, ends its spring
and summer supply drive.
2013: A judge
in Tel Aviv sparked outrage today after he reportedly remarked, during an
appeals hearing on a rape case several days ago, that some women enjoy rape.
2013: Park
Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan was the site of the funeral for New Jersey U.S.
Senator Frank Lautenberg.
2013: Today,
Glenn “Greenwald was first to report on the top-secret United States Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court order requiring Verizon to provide the National
Security Agency with telephone metadata for all calls between the US and
abroad, as well as all domestic calls.
2014(7th
of Sivan, 5774): 2nd day of Shavuot/ Yizkor
2014:
National Hebrew Book Week is scheduled to being at Liberty Bell Park in
Jerusalem.
2014:
“Paradise Cruise,” a film about a woman who photographs Israeli military
funerals and her lover Yossi is scheduled to be shown in Manhattan.
2014:
In the UK, the Wiener Library is scheduled to host “Through a Child’s Eyes:
Holocaust Literature for Young People.”
2014:
The International Olympic Committee today confirmed a reported that it will
contributed $250,000 toward a memorial for the 11 Israeli athletes and
officials who were murdered by Palestinian terrorist at the Munich Olympics in
1972.
2014:
“The Australian government will not refer to East Jerusalem as “occupied,
territory” the government said in a statement issued today, in what one
legislator called a “massive shift” in foreign policy.” (As reported by Stuart
Winer)
2015:
“Tuvianksy,” a documentary about an Israeli officer who was wrongly executed on
charges of treason during Israel’s War for Independence is scheduled to be
shown at the Israel Film Center Festival hosted by the JCC Manhattan.
2015:
Today, Agnieszka Kurant who was raised a Catholic and who found out at the age
of 14 that her mother’s family were Polish Jews, “became one of only a handful
of artists to have their work adorn the famous curved facade of the Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum.”
2015:
“Gender, Memory and Genocide,” an international conference marking the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide co-sponsored by the Pears Institute for
the Study of Anti-Semitism in London is scheduled to continue for a second day.
2015:
The funeral for Rabbi Benjamin Klein, of blessed memory was held today in New
York. A native of Jerusalem who came to
New York at the age of woo to study at the Central Lubavitch Yeshiva, Rabbi
Klein was best known “as a personal secretary of the Rebbe, dealing especially
with the Hebrew speaking Jews as well the Rebbe’s liaison to the numerous on-goings
between the Israeli government and the Rebbe.”
Rabbi Klein is survived by his wife, the former Laya Shusterman, ten
children including Estie Ciment, the wife or Rabbi Pinchas Ciment, who has
carried on her father’s work in the best possible way as the Rebbetzen for
Chabad Lubavitch of Arkansas as well as “many grandchildren and great
grandchildren.”
2016(28th
of Iyar, 5776): Yom Yerushalayim
2016: The New York Times features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A
Hero of France by Alan Furst, Labor of Love: The Invention of Love
by Moira Weigel and Federer and Me: A Story of Obsession by William
Skidelsky
2016:
“Sabena Hijacking – My Version” and “Shiva (Seven Days)” are scheduled to be
shown this evening at the Israel Film Center Festival.
2016:
The Hadar Noiberg Trio is scheduled to perform this evening at the 17th
Annual Washington Jewish Music Festival.
2016:
The Cinema South Film Festival is scheduled to begin at the Sedrot Cinemateque.
2017:
A one-day conference on “Migration Past and Present” 19th Century
Jewish Migrations to Current Issues” which is “the product of a collaboration
between the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History at New York
University, the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University,
and HIAS” is scheduled to take place at the King Juan Carlos Center in
Manhattan.
2017:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to sponsor an Interfaith
Ramaden Break – fast” – its second interfaith event of the term.
2017:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to Floyd Abrams, the author
of The Soul of the First Amendment: Why Freedom of Speech Matters, in a
discussion of the dangers posed by attacks on the freedom of Speech.
2017(11th
of Sivan, 5777): Eighty-eight year old Vic Gold Republican “wordsmith” and
publicist who worked with Barry Gold and Spiro Agnew passed away today. (As
reported by Sam Roberts)
2017:
“The US Senate unanimously passed a resolution today that commemorates the 50th
anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.” (As reported by Eric
Cortellesa)
2017(11th
of Sivan, 5777): Ninety-two year old architect William Krisel passed away
today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
http://jewishjournal.com/culture/arts/182597/jewish-architect-william-krisel-built-desert-oasis/
2017:
Dr. Lauren B. Strauss of American University is scheduled to present “The
‘Queen’ of All Migrations: Jewish Immigration in the Early 20th
Century” at Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, VA.
2018:
Fifty-first anniversary of the Six Day War in which Israel thwarted yet another
Arab attempt to destroy the Jewish state.
2018(22nd
of Sivan, 5778): Seventy-seven year old Ira Berlin, the chemistry undergrad who
changed fields, got a PhD in History from the University of Wisconsin and went
to develop an expertise in “the complexities of American slavery and its
aftermath” passed away today in Washington. (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)
2018:
Aviv Kempner, the director, producer and writer who created “Rosenwald” is
scheduled to speak at event honoring “Langston Hughes and his contribution to
African American art and culture” at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C.
2018:
In New York, “The Yemenite Conference: Shared Jewish and Muslim Cultural
Values” presented by the American Sephardi Federation and the Institute of
Semitic Studies is scheduled to come to an end today.
2018:
“The 6th Annual Israel Film Center Festival” is scheduled to open
“at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan” today.
2019:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host “Anne
Frank Remembered: 90th Birthday Anniversary” during which “Ronald
Leopold, Executive Director, will describe how his museum serves as a window to
the past and mirror to the present.”
2019:
Book launch for The JDC at 100: A Century of Humanitarianism.
2019:
Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies, the World Zionist Organization
Department for Diaspora Activities, and The Israeli House – Consulate General
of Israel are scheduled to host “Songs of Jerusalem” a concert in honor of
Jerusalem Day, during which Israeli singer Judah Gavra and the MusicTalks
ensemble offer a musical tribute to the City of David.
2019:
Fifty-two years ago today, “a line of Sherman M-50 tanks and trucks full of
soldiers rode towards East Jerusalem” rode towards East Jerusalem to confront
the Jordanians who had illegally occupied the area for nineteen years.
https://www.militaryimages.net/threads/the-six-day-war-1967.7909/#lg=attachment165394&slide=0
2019:
Today, one day after she had passed away, on what would have been her
seventieth birthday, Nechama Rivlin, the wife of Reuven Rivlin, the President
of Israel is scheduled to be buried today in Jerusalem at the Mount Herzl
national cemetery.
2020:
The Combined Jewish Philanthropies are scheduled to host “Friday Night Lights:
Welcoming Shabbat Together Online.”
2020:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. Is scheduled to host a
virtual Lunch and Learn: The Legacy of Winston of Churchill: A Conversation
with Dr. Rob Havers, the President and CEO of the Pritzker Military Museum and
Library, in honor of the 76th anniversary of D-Day.
2020:
The Maine Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to begin online today.
2021:
In Brookline, MA, Congregation Kehillath Israel is scheduled morning services
in the sanctuary followed by a free lunch and the chance to schmooze and talk a
bit of Torah with friends.
2021:
In Columbus, OH, at Tifereth Israel Congregation, Allison Lefkowitz is
scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah.
2021:
In Boulder, CO, Congregation Bonai Shalom is scheduled to livestream Shabbat
morning services.
2021:
Temple Emanuel of Newton is scheduled to present “Gesher 30s and 40s: Whiskey
Tasting.”
2021(25th
of Sivan, 5781): Parashat Shelach-Lecha (Send forth)
2022:
From midnight to dawn, the rabbis and rabbinic fellows from B’nai Jeshurun are
scheduled to “host learning sessions on the rooftop terrace, ending in a
sunrise Shacharit service.”
2022:
In New Orleans, Touro Synagogue is scheduled to hold its annual meeting.
2022:
In Akron, OH, Anshe Sfard is scheduled to hold morning services celebrating the
giving of the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai, with a traditional reading of the
Ten Commandments in which children will be invited to take their place on
stage.
2022:
In Little Rock, AR “Shavuos at Chabad” is scheduled to include a “delicious
dairy kiddush with an ice cream bar and cheesecake party.
2022:
The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including This Time Tomorrow by Emma
Straub, The Apartment on Calle Uruguay by Zachary Lazar, The Mind and
the Moon: My Brother’s Story, the Science of Our Brains, and the Search for Our
Psyches by Daniel Bergner and The Puzzlers: One Man’s Quest to
Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, From Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning
of Life
by A.J. Jacobs
2022(6th
of Sivan, 5782): Shavuot
2023:
The San Francisco Documentary Festival is scheduled to host a screening of “Nafkot:
Yearning,” a 70-minute
Israeli film that follows an Israeli anthropologist and activist who travels to
meet the isolated Jewish community of north Ethiopia.
2023:
The Boston Synagogue is scheduled to present “Not Your Bubbe’s Book Club” a
monthly discussion of a different book from the Jewish Book Council’s list of
hottest new reads hosted by Richelle Gewertz that includes a sipping of “good
wines.”
2023:
The Jerusalem Post is scheduled to host its annual conference today at Gotham
Hall in New York City.
2023:
B’nai Tikvah Fathers’ Day diaper drive is scheduled to take place today.
2023:
One day after Staff Sgt. Ohad Dahan, 20, Sgt. Lia Ben Nun, 19 , and Staff Sgt.
Ori Yitzhak Iluz, 20, combat soldiers in the IDF’s Bardelas and Caracal
battalions who were shot dead on the Egyptian border on June 3, 2023. (Israel
Defense Forces) were laid to rest, Maj. Gen. Nimrod Aloni, who is set to enter
the position of head of the IDF’s Depth Corps and Military Colleges in the
coming months, is scheduled to begin an investigation into the “systemic”
failures that contributed to the deadly attack, the IDF.
2023:
Fifty-sixth anniversary of the outbreak of the June War, the third time that
the Arab states took up arms to destroy the state of Israel.
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