This Day, May 18, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z’L
May 18
323BCE:
Alexander dies at the age of 32. Despite
the legend, there is no proof that Alexander ever came to Jerusalem. He did pass through Judea on his way to
conquer Egypt and on his way from the victory.
He left the Jews in peace to practice their religion and to live in a
semi-independent status. This was his
standard treatment for all those who did not oppose him. He and his subordinates encouraged Jews to
settle in Egypt and throughout Asia Minor.
The Jews were allowed to live in their own communities where they were
governed by their own councils and courts.
Alexander was viewed as an enlightened monarch in much the way that
Cyrus the Great had been.
363:
The first of a series of earthquakes that would last for two days rocked the
Galilee.
576:
Over 500 Jews were forcibly baptized in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
1096(4856):
Jews of Worms (Germany) were massacred by Crusaders. The survivors hid in the
Bishop’s palace for one week, after which they were either murdered or forcibly
baptized.
1152:
Henry II, King of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine. This marriage produced
two future Kings of England – Richard I (known as the Lionhearted) and King
John, the monarch who signed the Magna Charta.
For the Jews, Henry’s reign was an improvement over that of his
predecessor, King Stephen. While Richard
was semi-protective of his Jewish subjects, they suffered at the hands of those
who wielded power while he was off crusading or fighting to protect his lands
in France. In the first part of his reign,
John maintained a positive relationship with his Jewish subjects, but as time
went on he turned on them and made unrealistic financial demands on the
community.
1268:
Following the Battle of Antioch the Principality of Antioch, a crusader state,
falls to Baibars I the Mamluk Sultan. During the Mamluk Sultanate, there was an
upswing in anti- dhimmī feeling although much of this was really aimed at the
Christians who held positions in the government and the Jews were just
“tangential beneficiaries” of this attitude.
1291:
A year after the Jews were expelled from England, after a two month siege, the
fortress at Acre (Israel) falls to the Fatimid Egyptians, thus bringing about
the end of the Crusades. Subsequently, the various crusading armies never
succeeded in uniting as a cohesive force. The infighting and separate treaties
defeated them as well as the Fatimid armies. “The founder of the Fatimid
dynasty was Ubeidullah, known as the Mahdi. He was accused of Jewish ancestry
by his adversaries the Abbasids, who declared him the grandson of Abdullah ibn
Maymun, by a Jewess.”
1418:
Representatives from the Jewish communities of central and northern Italy met
to discuss raising funds for self-defense as well as instituting sumptuary
regulations so as “not to show off in the presence of Gentiles.” It
is plausible that the issuing of these sumptuary regulations, influenced Pope
Martin V to issue a protective Bull the following year.
1429:
In Pamplona, the coronation of Queen Bianca, who in
1415 expelled the Jews from Vizzini came to an end
1530:
The Edict of Innsbruck issued today confirmed a charter of protection for the
Jews of Germany that Josel of Rosheim had obtained from Charles V shortly after
he had “ascended the throne at Accehn in 1520.”
1721:
In Madrid, 96-year-old Maria Barbara Carillo was burned alive making her the
oldest known victim of the Inquisition.
1729(19th
of Iyar, 5489): Mordeccai Mokiach, the father of Judah Lob Mokiach and the
grandfather of David Berline Mokiach and Isaiah Berlin Mokiach who preached
that Sabbatai Zevi, the “False Messiah” would return in three years to finish
his work, passed away today in Pressburg.
1753(14th
of Iyar): Pesach Sheni is obserbed four days before the House of Commons passed
The Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753
1756(18th
of Iyar, 5516): Lag B’Omer
1756:
Abigail Franks, the wife of Jacob Franks who had married her in 1712 was buried
today.
1762:
At East Hampton, Long Island, Aaron Isaacs and his wife gave birth to Esther
Isaacs.
1771(5th
of Sivan, 5531): Parashat Bamidbar; erev Shavuot
1775((18th
of Iyar, 5535): Lag B’Omer is celebrated on the same day that Second
Continental Congress learns that British forces are on their way from England
to North America which means King George and Parliament are not going to talk
but are going to put down the Resolution by force of arms.
1790(5th
of Sivan, 5550): Erev Shavuot
1792(26th
of Iyar): Canadian Jewish leader Levy Solomons passed away.
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/solomons_lucius_levy_4E.html
1792:
Start of the Polish-Russian War which lead to further partition of Poland and
Lithuania with all of the negative consequences that would have for the Jews of
that region.
1793:
Aaron Lazarus and Sophia Lehman were married at the Great Synagogue in London.
1794(18th
of Iyar, 5554): Lag B’Omer
1794:
Betty Hart, the first American female convert to Judaism, married Moses Nathans
1803;
The Napoleonic Wars with all that would mean for the Jews of Europe began, when
the United Kingdom declares war on France, after France refuses to withdraw
from Dutch territory.
1810(14th
of Iyar, 5570): Pesach Sheni observed on the first day of the May Revolution in
Buenos Aires, which marked the start of the first successful South American
revolt against Spain.
1812(7th
of Sivan, 5572): Second Day of Shavuot
1813(18th
of Iyar, 5573: Lag B’Omer observed as can be seen by the following two items.
1813:
Nathan Benjamin and Catherine Moses were married today at the Great Synagogue
in London.
1813:
Myer Marks married Elizabeth Davis today at the Great Synagogue.
1817:
Henry Naphtali Solomon and Fanny Phillips were married at the Great Synagogue
in London.
1820(5th
of Sivan, 5580): Erev Shavuot
1825(1st
of Sivan, 5585): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1825:
Joseph Levy and the former Bluma Jacobs gave birth to Nery Levy
1829:
Birthdate Leipsic trained physician Adolph Klein who practiced at Konigsberg
from 1859 to 1870 before pursuing a career as journalist who sometime used the
penname “Dr. Nielk Floda.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9371-klein-adolph
1832:
Eliakim Carmoly, a French-born Talmudist and author, was named to serve as a
rabbi in Brussels.
1830:
In Keszthely, Hungary Chazan Ruben Goldmark and his wife gave birth to
violinist and composer Karl Godmark.
1837:
In Saxony, the Jews “were empowered to organize themselves into communities
with chapels of their own, and were granted citizenship, with the exception of
municipal and political rights.
1839(5th
of Sivan,5599): Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot
1839:
In the Netherlands Jacob Hirschel Kann and Amalie de Jonge gave birth to Henrik
Jacob Kann
1842:
Chilo Myers and Caroline Medex were married today at the Great Synagogue in
London.
1843(18th
of Iyar, 5603): Lag B’Omer
1843:
After having observed Rosh Hashanah in September of 1842, today a minyan
gathered at the home of Peter Spitz in Roxbury, MA for the B’rit of Spitz’s
first-born son after which they “decided to form a congregation which they
named Ohabei Shalom (Lovers of Peace), “and hired a man from Albany to serve as
their cantor, teacher, ritual slaughterer, and circumciser.”
https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/boston-jews-petition-for-first-cemetery.html
1846(22nd
of Iyar, 5606): Fifty-nine-year-old Esther Lyons, the Baltimore born daughter
of Eleazar Lyons and the wife of Isaac Lazarus whom she married in Philadelphia
in 1805 passed away tody.
1847(3rd
of Sivan, 5607): Moses Calmus Lissa passed away
1847:
Mark George Simmons married Caroline Lazarus at 32 Finsbury Square in London.
(As reported by Cemetery Scribes)
1850:
In Krotoschin, Germany, Simon Gienenstock, the Berlin born son of Robert
Bienenstock and his wife Helena gave birth to Emma Lowewen, the wife of David
Loewen.
1852:
In Amsterdam, Jacob and Rebecca Mozes Gans gave birth to Isaac Jacob Gans, “the
husband of Vogeltje Dooseman” and the “father of Rebecca Gans; Jacob Gans;
Betje ‘Isaac’ Gans and Anna Frank.”
1852:
“’In Zamość, in Lublin Governorate, Congress Poland, a city known as an
important center of the Haskalah, a merchant name Yude Perezt and his wife Rivke gave birth Isaac Leib Peretz,
known to the world as I.L. Peretz who along with Mendele Mokher Seforim and
Sholem Aleichem was one of the three “big guns” of Yiddish literature.
https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Peretz_Yitskhok_Leybush
1854:
District Rabbi Jonas Wiesner and his wife Estra gave birth to Rosa Wiesner
Lowi.
1854:
Fifty-two-year-old French journalist Samuel Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy “the son
of Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy” “was elected to the Académie française”
today.
1856:
In Baltimore, MD Abraham and Sophia Rider Einstein gave birth to Sarah Einstein
Weil the wife of Goldsboro, NC resident Solomon Weil.
1857:
“The constitution of the Hebrew Indigent, Sick and Burial Society was adopted”
today in La Crosse, WI.
1859: In Great Britain, the General Elections which saw David
Salomons re-elected as the MP for Greenwich came to an end.
1860:
In Chicago, Illinois, the Republican Party nominates Abraham Lincoln for
President of the United States. Lewis Naphtali Dembitz, a 28-year-old lawyer
from Louisville, Kentucky, was one of the three delegates who put Lincoln’s
name in nomination. Dembitz was the uncle of Louis Dembitz Brandeis, who would
emulate his uncle’s legal career and then excel it as the first Jewish Supreme
Court Justice.
1862(18th
of Iyar, 5622): Lag B’Omeer
1862(18th
of Iyar, 5622): Sixty-six-year-old Samuel Etting, the Maryland born son of
Rachel Gratz and Solomon Etting who were married in 1791 and the husband of
Ellen Hays whom he married in 1828 and with whom he had two children, Josephine
and Solomon, passed away today.
1863(29th
of Iyar, 5623): Evan Davis who rose from the rank of Sergeant to First Lieutenant
in Company of the 115th Regiment died today “at Potomac Creek,
Virigina from wounds suffered while fighting the Rebels at Chancellorsville on
May 3.
1863:
Birthdate of Danville, VA native J. Hamilton “Ham” Lewis who as a Congressman
from Illinois supported a “proviso in the Balfour Declaration that Jews going
to Palestine to live could retain their original citizenship instead of
automatically becoming British subjects” and who as U.S. Senator led “a
protest against the possible transfer of American Jews from their present homes
in Palestine to other parts of the country.”
1863:
“The Battle of Vicksburg” in which Marcus M. Speigel, the son of Rabbi Moses
Speigel and the brother of Joseph Spiegel, the founder of Speigel Catalog led
the 120th Ohio Volunteer Infantry began today.
1865(22nd
of Iyar): David ben Moses Frankel, editor of Sulamith, passed away.
1865:
In San Francisco, Joseph M. Brandenstein and his wife Jane gave birth to
Manfred Bransten
1868:
As the United States entered into a Presidential election year, The New York
Times published excerpts an article from the Jewish Messenger describing
the role of “Hebrews” in the political life of Europe and the United
States. In the United States, Jews are
not “a compact body for political purposes…In the coming campaign, Hebrews will
work, and talk, and vote precisely according to their convictions as citizens
and in no respect will their political action be dependent upon their religious
character as a body. There is no
national Hebrew vote.”
1869:
Birthdate of Henriette Moses, who was shipped from Berlin to Terezin in 1942
and from Terezin to Auschwitz, where she died in May of 1944.
1870:
Birthdate of Polish native and insurance executive Jay Arthur Feffer who was
the “president of the Federation of Charities in St. Joseph, MO.
1870:
“Mount Sinai Hospital” published today reported that the New York Times was wrong when it said that Mount Sinai Hospital was
maintained by Jews for use by Jews. “The
institution is supported by Jewish contribution and its directors” are Jewish
“but it has always opened its doors to patients without the slightest regard to
creed.” [In fact the hospital had been
started before the Civil War to serve the needs of immigrants and indigent
Jews. During the Civil War that role
definitely changed as it became a treatment cite for thousands of Union wounded
beginning with McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign in 1862.]
1872: Birthdate of Lord Bertrand Russell, British
mathematician and philosopher. Lord
Russell was pro-Palestinian describing them as innocent refugees and describing
Israel as occupying land ‘given’ by a foreign power
to the Jewish people for the creation of a new state.
1873: Two days after he had passed away, 49-year-old Henry Levy,
the son of Joseph Levy and Hannah Isaacs was buried today at the “Brompton
(Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1873: An informal reception was held today the recently opened
home for aged and infirmed Hebrews at 63rd street and Lexington
Avenue. The building, which can accommodate 50 individuals, is currently home
to 26 women and 2 men. They range in age from 70 to 95. Mrs. P.J. Joachimsen is President of the
Board of Directors.
1876:
Wyatt Earp starts work as a lawman in Dodge City, Kansas. When he died, Earp’s
ashes were buried in a Jewish cemetery in Colma, California. No, the famous marshal was not Jewish but his
wife Josie was and her family had enough power and influence to wriggle around
the laws forbidding such burials.
1876:
In Ogdensburg, NY, Rabbi Mordecai Joseph Brill and Lottie (Tumim) Brill gave
birth to Abram Brill, a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and Hebrew
Union College and husband of Edna Goldstein who led congregations in Helena,
AR, Greenville, MI, Wheeling, W.Va, and Meridian, MI before beginning his
tenure as rabbi at B’nai Zion Temple in Shreveport, home of Centenary College
which honored him with an “Honorary Degree of Doctor Of Laws.”
1876:
The New York Times featured a review of “Stray Studies From England and
Italy” a collection of essays by John Richard Green. “Mr. Green shows how mistaken the modern
conception” is when it comes to understanding the treatment of English Jews
during the Middle Ages. “That conception
is accurately represented by Scott’s picture of Isaac of York in “Ivanhoe,”
timid, silent crouching under oppression.
The Jew was really…the favorite ‘chattel’ of the king was protected by
the crown not only against the people but against the law. Each Hebrew
settlement in England was secured from the common taxation, the common justice,
the common obligations of Englishman.
The Jewry was a town within a town, with its own language, its peculiar
dress, commerce, law and religion. No
bailiff could penetrate it; the Church itself was even powerless against the
synagogue which it contained. In
England, at least, the attitude of the Jew was to the end, one of haughty
defiance. His extortion was sheltered
from the common law. His bonds were kept
under the royal seal. Heavy penalties
were enforced against outbreaks of popular violence upon the Jews. Mentioning the story of the Red King’s
forbidding the conversion of a Jew, because a valuable property would be lost
to him.” [Editor’s note – The Red King may refer to the third son of William
the Conqueror, William II who was known as William Rufus. Green was an English clergyman who turned to
writing histories when his health forced him to leave the pulpit. His description stands in stark contrast to
the exploitation that English Jews suffered and makes no mention of their
expulsion.
1877(6th
of Sivan, 5637): Shavuot observed for the first time during the Presidency of
Rutherford B. Hayes.
1878(15th of Iyar, 5638): Parashat Behar
1879: “The Family Sentiment in Americans” published today claims that people in the
United States are changing their views about family history and genealogy
saying that “next to the Jews, we are becoming the genealogical nation on
the face of the earth.”
1879: A prominent New York banker who is a member of
Temple Emanu-El said today that Lewis May, one of the most outspoken advocates
for replacing Saturday morning services with Sunday morning serves has just
been re-elected as the congregation’s President. In his acceptance address, Mr. May expressed
a personal distaste for the change but
said he recognized it as a necessity since many of the younger men belonging to
the Temple could not attend services on Saturday for commercial reasons.
1879: Three days after she had passed away, Clairette
Bensadoun, the “daughter of Roubin and Marion Bensadoun” was buried today at
the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1879: “Some Old Graveyards” published today describes
early burial sites in New York City including one on the east side of the New
Bowery below Chatham square known as the Olivers Street Burying Ground which
was the original cemetery belonging to Shearith Israel, also known as the
Nineteenth Street Congregation. The plot
was conveyed to the congregation by Noyes Willey of London who received thirty
English Pounds for the land. The Jews had been using the land for burials since
the 17th century since there are tombstones there bearing the dates
of 1669 and 1684. The congregation formally stopped using this cemetery in 1820
when a city ordinance banned burials in that part of the city.
1880: Rosa Sonneschein read “The Pioneers: An Historical
Esssay” at a meeting of the Society of Pioneers.
1880: In Szczecin, Heinemann Vogelstein and his wife gave
birth to their third son banker and industrialist Theodor Vogelstein.
1881: Raizel (Ruth) Miller and Harry (Hillel) Miller, a
peddler in Poland gave birth to future Rhode Island resident Sarah Miller Fishbein,
the wife of Louis Fishbein and the mother of Morris, Jay, Nathan, Ralph,
Mathew, Joseph, Samuel and Arthur Fishbeing
1884: In Suwalki, Poland Hashel Lena Trilling and Louis Lazur Lewison
gave birth to Northwestern University Medical School graduate and Professor of
Physical Diagnois at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Dr. Maurice
Lewison who came to the United
States at the age of five where he raised two children Ethel Mae Lewison and
Edward Lewison who served as captain in Army Medical Corps during WW II.
1885: In Bleckede, Germany, clothing shop owner Bernhard
Lowenstein and the former Jeanette Blumenthal gave birth rabbi turned Socialist
political leader Kurt Lowenstein, the husband of chemist Mara Kerwel.
1889: In Milwaukee, WI, Elizabeth Schapiro and Herman
Schlomovitz gave birth Rush Medical trained medical doctor and WW I U.S. Army
Medical Corps veteran Benjamin Herman Schlomotvitz, the director of department
of Physiology at Marquette University and director of Clinical Research Laboratory of U.S. Hospitals.
1890: Today’s “Amusements” column includes a review of
“The Shatchen” which opened at the Star Theatre last week. M.B. Curtis dominates the comedy with his
“droll caricature” of the German Jewish businessman.
1890(28th of Iyar, 5650): Fifty-eight-year-old
Kate Frances Cohen the daughter of Kitty Etting and Benjamin Cohen who were
married in 1819 passed away today.
1890: “For An Educational Fund” published today described
the successful Strawberry Festival sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew
Association during which three thousand attendees raising $3,500 that will go
to the association’s educational department.
1891: “Oriental Records” published today contains a
detailed review of Records of the Past, an English translation of the
Ancient Monuments of Egypt and Western Asia, edited by A. H. Sayce
1891(10th of Iyar): Rabbi Hillel Lichtenstein,
leader of Hungarian Jewry, passed away
1893: “Hardships of Russian Jews” published today
described the benefits of efforts by the United States to lessen the suffering
Jews living under the Czar. Doing so
would cut down on the number of immigrants coming to the United States and at
the same time would lessen the burden on those Americans trying to find jobs
and homes for immigrants from Poland and Russia.
1893(3rd of Sivan, 5653): In Pennsylvania,
Isaac Rosenwig and Harris Blank “the only people of the Jewish faith ever
executed for murder in this country” were hug after being found guilty of
murdering eighteen-year-old Jacob Marks, a peddler whom they had robbed of his
goods.
1894: Members of the Board of Trustees of the Hebrew
Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society were those who attended the funeral of
Sigmund J. Bach as requested by Myer Stern and the Board of Trustees.
1895: In Chicago, the Young Men’s Hebrew Relief
Association whose members included Charles Herron and Paul Pogarelsky was
organized today to served “as loan association.”
1895: Justice Ingram gave the managers of the Home for
Aged and Infirm Hebrews of New York City to mortgage its property at 106th
Street and Columbus Avenue to the Bowery Savings Bank for $75, 000.
1896(6th
of Sivan, 5656): Shavuot
1896:
The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy
v. Ferguson that “separate but equal” is constitutional. This decision marked the legal nadir in the
field of civil rights in general and race relations in particular. It was from this pit that several
organizations, many of them funded by Jews and/or with a statistically
disproportionate Jewish involvement, had to climb until the High Court would
declare in 1954 that separate but equal was inherently unequal.
1896:
Based on information supplied by The
London Times, the New York Times
reported today that the work of the Jewish Colonization Association will
continue despite the recent death of its founder and benefactor, Baron
Hirsch. Dr. S.H. Goldschmidt of Paris
will now service as President of the Association with assistance from Herbert
G. Lousade of the Anglo-Jewish Association of London. Currently, 1,222 families occupy the 225,000
acres in Argentina under the association’s control.
1896:
Birthdate of Tampa, FL native David Archer Falk, the Washington and Lee trained
lawyer who had earned his bachelor’s degree from the same institution.
1897:
Today, William W. Morrow, who championed the cause of Adolph Kutner, a Jew who
was afraid to return to his native land because of the Czar’s policies “was
nominated by President William McKinley to a joint seat on the United States
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the United States Circuit Courts for
the Ninth Circuit.”
1897:
Anti-Semitic violence broke out in Algeria when “the main synagogue of
Nestaganem, Algeria was sacked by anti-Jewish rioters.”
1898:
During the Spanish American War, 2nd Lt. Charles Wolf, Sergeant
Charles Olschefskie and Privates Simon J. Bush, Simon Freund and Samuel Shapiro
were among those in Company A of the 1st Connecticut Volunteer
Infantry who were mustered into the United States Army.
1898:
One day after he had passed away, 32-year-old Leon Ziff was buried in London at
the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”
1898:
During the Spanish American War, Corporal John Fehliman of Kansas City and
Privates Samuel Marolis, Philip Steinman, Wlater Gans, Levi Cubine, Adolph
Rubel and Charles B. Solomon (the last two from Mexico, MO) were among those
who part of the 5th Missouri Volunteer Infantry which was mustered
into federal service at Jefferson Barracks, MO.
1899:
Randolph Guggenheimer, President of the Municipal Council will the deliver the
address at this afternoon’s ceremonies dedicated the new Hebrew Charities
Building at 21st Street and Second Avenue.
1899(9th
of Sivan, 5659): Fifty-year-old Julius Hirsch , native of Mannheim, Germany who
came to New York In 1870 where he became “a prominent member of the Produce
Exchange” passed away today.
1900:
In “Topical Study” published today in Die
Welt Isaac Rulf warned Jews of the danger presented by an increase in
anti-Semitism in Germany, including the possibility of murder by the millions.
Ruif died a year later but his children did not escape the Holocaust. One son
died at Auschwitz and the other committed suicide before he could be shipped to
the camps.
1900
In Pilsen, “journalist and theatre director Julius Hirsch and his wife Camilla
gave birth to David Hirsch the actor and director known as Wolfgang Heinz.
1901:
Herzl is called to the palace again. He is presented with a tie-pin with yellow
stones. Herzl hands out the sum of 40.000 francs to Nouri Bey and Crespi for
having brought the audience about.
1901(29th
of Iyar, 5661): Parashat Bamidbar
1901:
The celebration marking the golden jubilee of Temple Beth Elohim, “the oldest
synagogue in Brooklyn” continued for a second day.
1902:
Herzl receives a letter from Constantinople that his letter concerning a
request for the creation of an Israelite University in Jerusalem was submitted
to the Sultan.
1902”
“East Side Boycotters Meet and Organize” published in the New York Times
described the formation of The Ladies’ Anti-Beef Trust Association which plans
to establish co-operative stores if the price of beef being sold on the Lower
East Side is not lowered
1903:
The Times of London published a
letter from Vyacheslav von Plehve, the Russian Minister of the Interior to the
district’s governor, dated 12 days before the riots known as the Kishinev
Pogroms, advising the governor not to act against rioters. “The Russian
government asserted that it was a forgery and provided a bogus claim that the
pogroms had started when a Jewish carousel owner hit a Christian woman.
Christians defended themselves and then the Jews attacked them, killing one
gentile.”
1903:
Arthur Paul Nicholas Cassini, the Russian Ambassador to the United States
justified the Pogrom at Kishinev during an interview given today.
There is in Russia, as
in Germany and Austria, a feeling against certain of the Jews. The reason for
this unfriendly attitude is found in the fact that the Jews will not work in
the field or engage in agriculture. They prefer to be money lenders. … The
situation in Russia, so far as the Jews are concerned is just this: It is the
peasant against the money lender, and not the Russians against the Jews. There
is no feeling against the Jew in Russia because of religion. It is as I have
said—the Jew ruins the peasants, with the result that conflicts occur when the
latter have lost all their worldly possessions and have nothing to live upon.
There are many good Jews in Russia, and they are respected. Jewish genius is
appreciated in Russia, and the Jewish artist honored. Jews also appear in the
financial world in Russia. The Russian Government affords the same protection
to the Jews that it does to any other of its citizens, and when a riot occurs
and Jews are attacked the officials immediately take steps to apprehend those
who began the riot, and visit severe punishement upon them.”
1904:
Birthdate of Senator Jacob K Javits. Born in New York,
Javits graduated from NYU Law School. He served in the Army during
World II. Following the war he became active in Republican politics in
New York. Before coming to the Senate, Javits served in the House of
Representatives and as Attorney-General for the state of New York. Javits
was a leader of the liberal wing of the Republican Party and staunch supporter
of the Civil Rights movement. Javits served until January,
1981. Having been defeated he resumed his law practice and lectured at
Columbia. He passed away in 1986.
1905:
In Vienna, Kamilla (Feitler) and Siegmund Zeisl gave birth to composer Erich
Zeisl.
1905:
Frederick Kerry arrived in the United States. Now a Roman Catholic, at
birth Kerry was a Jew named Fritz Kohn. He and his Jewish wife Ida were
baptized in 1901 to avoid the stigma associated with being Jewish in
Austria. Frederick Kerry is the grandfather of Senator John Kerry, the
Democratic candidate for President of the United States. At least two of
his relatives perished in the Holocaust.
1906:
Birthdate of New York City native and JTS ordained Rabbi Joseph Zeitlin, the
holder of degrees from CCNY, Dropsie College and Columbia who became the leader
of Ansche Chesed in Manhattan.
1907(5th
of Sivan, 5667): Parashat Bamidbar, erev of Shavuot
1907:
Shabbat morning services are held for the first time in the office new home of
Temple Israel in Harlem
1907:
Dr. Felix Mottl, the Austrian conductor and composer whom many erroneously believed
was Jewish because of his name was completely vindicated today in a libel suit
brought against in Munich today.
1908:
It was reported today that Isidore Isaacs, the Grand Marshall of the Grand Army
of the Republic had attended the memorial service conducted by the Hebrew Union
Veteran Association and the Hebrew Veterans of the War with Spain at Temple
Rodeph Sholom to honor fallen soldiers and sailors.
1908:
It as reported today that at the 16th annual meeting of the Jewish-American
Historical Society, Isidor Straus’
motion to spend $250 “to carry on the work of indexing the articles which have appeared
in various periodicals’ was approved after
which Leon Huelmer presented a paper on “Jewish Privateering in the Eighteenth
Century” and Walter H. Liebman presented a paper on ‘some hitherto unpublished
correspondence between Solomon Etting, the prominent Jewish merchant of
Baltimore and Henry Clay, on the occasion of Clay’s introducing the expression ‘the
Jew’ in a debate in the Senate of the United States…”
1909:
It was reported today that at meeting of a committee appointed by the Jewish
Communal Council whose members included State Supreme Court Justice Samuel
Greenbaum, Cyrus L. Sulzberger, Edward Lauterbach, Leopold Stern, Marcus Marks,
Jonas Weil, Charles Dittman, Nathaniel Myers and Mortimer L. Schiff the
Institution for the Improvement and Instruction of Deaf Mutes will be
re-organized under Jewish control and “that $30,000 has been raised” for this
project.
1910:
Turkish Minister of Education advocates adoption of Hebrew as national language
of Turkish Jews.
1910:
The Sixth Biennial Session of the National Conference of Jewish Charities in
the United States continued to meet for a second day in St. Louis, MO.
1910: Franz Kafka and a few of his friends gathered to observe Halley’s Comet.
1911:
Bruno Walter was at the deathbed of Gustav Mahler who died today at the
age of 50. Born Jewish, Mahler converted to Catholicism, so he could
become head of the court opera in Austria. His conversion did not spare
him the contempt of his enemies.
1912:
Hans Kelsen, “the son of middle-class German speaking Jews, who had converted
to Catholicism while working on his dissertation married Margaret Bondi today,
just days after converted Lutheranism.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kelsen-hans
1912:
In Philadelphia, PA, Russian Jewish immigrants gave birth to Richard Saxs who
as Richard
Brooks
gained fame as film writer, director and producer. Brooks received Oscar
nominations for the screenplays for Blackboard
Jungle, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, In Cold Blood and The Professionals. He won an
Academy Award in 1960 for Elmer Gantry.
1913:
In Hawthorne, NY, dedication of the “Brooklyn Cottage of Jewish Protectory.”
1913:
In Peabody, MA, founding of Anshe Sfard synagogue.
1913:
Birthdate Philadelphia native and Temple University graduate Martin Levey, the
chemist who earned a doctorate in the history of science from Dropsie College,
was member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and a member of the
faculty at SUNY, Albany.
http://acshist.scs.illinois.edu/awards/Dexter%20Papers/LeveyDexterBioJJB.pdf
1914:
It was reported today that five hundred people had attended the “memorial
services of the Hebrew Union Veterans Association and the Hebrew Veterans of
the War with Spain” at Temple Rodeph Sholomo where the speakers included
Congressman Abraham Blum and Colonel Samuel H. Mildenberg.
1915(5th
of Sivan, 5675): Erev Shavuot
1915:
A day after Sir Edgar Speyer wrote to Prime Minister Asquith him to revoke his
baronetcy and Privy Council Membership in response to chauvinistic assaults on
his patriotism, the Globe published an editorial demanding “that Anglo-German
publish ‘loyalty letters.’”
1915:
“A number of the most prominent business men of Paterson, NJ, who have
interested themselves in the nation-wide campaign to secure clemency for Leo M.
Frank of Atlanta, GA met today and passed resolutions to add their pleadings to
those of the great multitude who are endeavoring to influence Governor Slaton.
1915:
Twenty-year-old Boston native Henry Landers Bostick the University of Denver
student and right-handed infielder made his major league debut with the
Philadelphia Athletics (now the Oakland A’s)
1915:
In Worcester, MA, Benjamin and Mary Meltzer gave birth to “Milton Meltzer, a
historian and prolific author of nonfiction books for young people who helped
start a movement away from the arid textbook style of the past.” (As reported by Dennis Heveis)
1915:
It was reported today that the Governor of Georgia has received “more than
75,000 letters and telegrams all parts of the United States urging that Leo
Frank be saved from death” while “fewer than twenty letters” have been received
suggesting “that the death sentence be executed.”
1916:
“The Chicago committee for the Relief of Jewish War Sufferers raised $350,000
tonight at a meeting in the Auditorium, attended by 5,000 persons.”
1916:
Senator Boise Penrose who in 1911 described “discrimination by the Russian
Government against American Hebrews as an assault on American principles and
traditions” and assured a delegation of Jews from Philadelphia “that he agreed
with their contention that the violation of their treaty rights as American
citizens was not a proper subject for an arbitration tribunal but should result
in the passing of a resolution by Congress denouncing the present treaty” with
Russia began serving as a Member of the Republican National Committee from
Pennsylvania.
1916:
“In today’s issue of The American Hebrew, edited by Herman Bernstein, a
statement appears in which Mr. Bernstein comments on the Russian Premier and
the proposal for a new commercial treaty between the United States and Russia.”
1917(26th
of Iyar, 5677): Seven-year-old Stanley Bernstein, the son of Ike and Jean
Bernstein passed away at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago.
1917(26th
of Iyar, 5677): Sixty-seven-year-old Charles Pearlman passed away today in
South Shields, UK.
1917:
According to “official advices received in Washington” today, “Turkish military
authorities in Palestine are in engaged in driving the Jews into the hinterland
and away from the Mediterranean Coast”
1918(7th
of Sivan, 5678): Second Day of Shavuot; Yizkor
1918:
“The Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs announced”
today “that the Italian Government through its Ambassador at the Court of St.
James has officially signified its approval of the English and French
declarations in favor of the Zionist movement and of a Jewish national homeland
in Palestine.”
1918:
Birthdate of Lillian Napsky Ableman, the wife of Max Ableman
1918:
“The Neighborhood House and Talmud Torah” recently consecrated by the
Sisterhood of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue which started as the Ladies’
Sewing Circle in 1847, announced that will offer special activities designed to
meet the needs of “Oriental Jews” many of whom are poor but “decline to accept
charity” which being eager to gain employment “and the education that will
prepare them for citizenship.”
1918:
Georg Nicolai writes to Albert Einstein telling him that he should not reproach
himself for not taking an even more active role in protests against the war.
1919(18th
of Iyar, 5679): Lag B’Omer
1919:
Hortense Adamsky and Lester B. Yates are among those scheduled to be confirmed
this morning at Sinai Congregation, on the south side of Chicago.
1920:
Birthdate of Manhattan native Isabelle Charlotte Weinstein who gained fames as
Isabelle Goldenson, “the wife of American Broadcasting Company founder and
chairman Leonard Goldenson, and a co-founder of the charity United Cerebral
Palsy (UCP).”
1921:
In Philadelphia, “Lester Waas and the former Alice Maybaum gave birth to Lester
Morton “Les” the man responsible for creating the Mister Softee jingle.
1921:
Ra’anana, an agricultural settlement is founded in the Sharon region.
1921:
The Nation included an essay by Lily
Winner entitled “American Emigrés.” http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/18/1921/lily-winner
1922:
In Revere, MA, Mollie (née Friedopfer) and Michael Garber, a manufacturer gave
birth to Wolf Martin Garber who gained fame as actor Bill Macy best known for
his role of Walter Findlay in the sitcom “Maude.”
1922:
“Financial men are not opposed to a bonus for deserving soldiers, but are
opposed to the bonus measure in its present form in Congress, S. Stanwood
Menken, President of the National Security” and Jewish born son of Memphis dry goods
store owner Nathan Menken who stopped using his first name of Solomon when he
converted to Christianity “declared in the course of an address before the closing
session of the annual convention of the Maryland Bankers’ Association.’
1923:
It was reported today that at a dinner for French Ambassador Jules, J.
Jusserand, Oscar S. Straus, the former Ambassador to Turkey told the tale of
how the Ambassador had been forced to strip so he could take a surprise swim in Rock Creek with then
President Theodore Roosevelt.
1924(14th
of Iyar, 5684): Pesach Sheni
1924:
“What is said to the largest and finest Young Men’s Hebrew Association building
in the country which was said to have cost $750,000 is scheduled to be
dedicated today in Newark, NJ.
1924(14th
of Iyar, 5684): Seventy-eight-year-old Esther Anna Phillips, a native of
Liverpool passed away today after which she was buried in the Jewish cemetery
at Natchitoches, LA “adjacent to Harold Phillips.”
1924:
After two years of “being sickly,” Albert H. Loeb, the Vice President of Sears,
Roebuck and Company displayed symptoms of heart trouble.
1925:
In New York City, “Samuel David and Anna Robins (Block) Kasindorf” gave birth
to Hunter College and NYU educated public school teacher Blanche Robins
Kasindort who rose through the administrative ranks become a public school
principal in Brooklyn starting in 1965.
1926(5th
of Sivan, 5686) Erev Shavuot
1926:
In the Bronx, “Leon and Ida (Granowski) Bregman” gave birth to producer Martin
Leon Bregman whose body of work included “Serpico” and “Scarface.” (As reported
by Anita Gates)
1926:
In Chicago, Professor James H. Breasted announced that Julius and William
Rosenwald have donated $30,000 to be used in building a library near Luxor,
Egypt that will be used by the veritable army of visiting scholars and
scientist who come to the area each year.
The Rosenwald’s general philanthropy was evident in a variety of secular
and Jewish charitable activities.
1926:
At the Brooklyn Hebrew Maternity Hospital, “a sultry dancer named Mollie
Charleston who went by the name of Mollie Charleston” gave birth to Albert
Schneider who claimed to be Alan Gershwin “the long-lost son of George
Gershwin.” (As reported by Margolick)
1927:
Mayor Walker and more than 1,000 women welcomed Nathan Straus and Mrs. Straus
on their return from a pilgrimage to Palestine at a tea given today at the
Hotel Commodore by the Brooklyn Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization.
During his address to the group, Mr. Straus officially presented Hadassah with
the $250,000 health centre which is being built in Jerusalem.
1928:
Today a project for a municipal milk supply in Warsaw was defeated in the City
Council by the combined vote of the Polish Nationalist and the Jewish
middle-class Alderman. The municipal plan was backed by Pilsudski Party and
Jewish Socialists.
1929(8th
of Iyar, 5689): Parashat Emor
1929(8th
of Iyar, 5689): Albany, NY, native Edward Henry Bendel, the son of Henry and
Mary Bendel and the husband of Caroline Goldman Bendel passed away today in
Indianapolis, Indiana.
1929(8th
of Iyar, 5689): Ukraine born Elias Dubin, the husband of Edit Dubin and father
of Abraham and William Dubin passed away today in Kings County, NY and as then
buried at the Mount Zion Cemetery in Queens County, NY.
1930:
Birthdate of Senator Warren B Rudman. Born in Massachusetts, Rudman grew
up in New Hampshire. A Korean War Era Veteran, Rudman practiced law in New
Hampshire before being elected to the Senate as a Republican in 1980. He
served until January 1993, having chosen not to run for re-election.
He is best known for the Graham-Rudman-Hollings Act, also referred to as the
Balanced Budget and Deficit Control Act.
1930:
Birthdate of Barbara Goldsmith, author of “Little Gloria:
Happy At Last.”
1930: “Sunny Skies,” a musical directed by Norman
Taurog and starring Benny Rubin was released today in the United States.
1931: In New York City, Leon and Ida Bregman gave
birth to Martin Bergman who went from entertainment agent to movie producer.
1932: In Prague, Czech-Jewish architect Otto Kohn and
his wife gave birth to MIT and Princeton educated professor of mathematics
Joseph John Kohn, the half-brother of movie director Milos Foreman.
https://dof.princeton.edu/people/joseph-john-kohn
https://www.bths.edu/apps/events/event.jsp?eREC_ID=231316&d=2227-10-20&id=20
1932(12th of Iyar, 5692): Seventy-three-year-old
Pauline Heilbronner Hirschfeld, the wife of Leopold Hirschfeld with she had two
children – Laura and Bella – passed away today after which she was buried at
the Laupheim Jewish Cemetery in Stuttgart, Germany.
1933: As part of the New Deal, Franklin Roosevelt
signs the law creating the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). David Lilienthal,
the son Jewish immigrants from Czechoslovakia, was the Director of TVA
responsible for its early success and its ability to participate in the
Manhattan Project during World War II.
1934:
The Academy Award is called Oscar in print for the first time by Sidney
Skolsky. Skolsky was a close friend of
Al Jolson and was responsible for the movie biography of the man who made the
first “talkie
1934:
It was reported today that “Leaping Lena” Levy has been Chicago
sportswriter “that King Levinsky, the Windy City Walloper, otherwise known as
the Chicago Assassin, the Personality Kid, and as plain Harry Krakow, is
reported to be suffering from a nervous breakdown.” Levinsky was one of a
veritable army of Jewish pugilists who fought during the 1920’s and 1930’s when
the fight game was a Jewish game.
1935:
In Chicago, civil engineer Solomon Kupperman and the former Sara Fischer gave
birth to Joel Jay Kupperman, the holder of a Ph.D. in philosophy from Cambridge
and the long time Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut who
was best known as one of the original Quiz Kids. (As reported by Penelope
Green)
1936:
It was announced in the House of Commons that a Royal Commission of Inquiry
would be set up to investigate the cause of unrest in Palestine. The Commission became known as the Peel
Commission because its chairman was Lord Peel.
1936:
“All Jewish national institutions in Palestine closed at noon today in mourning
for Dr. Nahum Sokolow who died yesterday in London” and memorial services were
held in the Jewish Agency Building with Menahem M. Ussishkin, president of the
Jewish National Fund…and David Ben Gurion chairman of the Jewish Agency
Executive as the principal speakers.”
1936:
“Occupants of a speeding automobile fired shots into a Jewish barber shop in
the Rehavia quarter of Jerusalem.”
1936:
It was reported today that “A curfew order, forbidding residents of Jerusalem
to leave their homes at night, was issued by Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, the
High Commissioner of Palestine following the killing of three Jews at a
motion-picture theatre.”
1936:
The British government responded to a request by the Jewish Public Works asking
for police protection for its workers by advising “the department to give its
employees their annual vacations.
1936:
In London, “the Colonial Secretary informed the House of Commons today that the
Cabinet had made its decision” “to appoint a royal commission to investigate
Arab and Jewish grievances on the spot” “without having consulted Arab or
Jewish leaders.”
1936:
According to reports published today, the United Palestine Appeal is seeking to
raise $3, 500,000 in the United States “to finance Jewish colonization and land
purchase in” Palestine after the Palestine Foundation Fund, the Jewish National
Fund and the German Settlement Bureau of the Jewish Agency for Palestine had
spent $2,061,720 “from October 1, 1935 to April 1, 1936 to aid the settlement
in Plaestine of Jews from German, Poland and other lands.”
1937:
Archbishop George Mundelein spoke out against the Nazi Party and Nazi Germany
1937: In
Brooklyn, NY, Dewey and Adeline Weissfeld Albert gave birth to Jerome Lewis
Albert “who with his father…created and operated Astroland, the space
age-themed amusement park that breathed new life into the Coney Island
Boardwalk in the 1960s, a time when it was losing its lure.” As reported by
Dennis Hevesi)
1938(16th
of Iyar, 5698): Seventy-two-year-old Polish born, and Boston College of
Physicians and Surgeons trained physician Dr. Jacob Oshlag who “specialized in
general diagnosis and psychiatry and who raised two sons, Harold Oshlag and Dr.
Julius A. Oshlag, M.D. with his wife Dr. Ida Oshlag, M.D. passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/05/19/98137875.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1938:
As Arab violence continued to escalate,
The Palestine Post reported that Arab terrorists killed an Arab constable
in Hebron. Arab farmers were robbed by Arab terrorists in villages around
Jenin. The Public Works Department property was set on fire in Nablus and
Jewish settlers near Hadera found their tractors and other machinery severely
damaged.
1939:
A gathering of members of the Hashomer Ha’tzair movement took place at
Wieliczka, Poland.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/may/05.asp
1939:
As Jews throughout Palestine protested against the White Paper with its limit
of 75,000 Jews allowed to enter the country each year and the creation of a
state that condemn the Jews to permanent minority status in violation of the
Balfour Declaration and the Mandate, a resolution for Palestine Jewry was read
aloud at the three hour long demonstration in Tel Aviv that stated in part:
“Palestine Jewry declares the betrayal policy will never materialize…Palestine
Jewry does not recognize the arbitrary restriction of immigration. No power in the world can deter the
natural right of our people to come home…
Palestine Jewry will not consent to leave the land of the country
desolate, but undauntedly will continue reviving it.”
1940(10th
of Iyar, 5700): Parashat Behard
1940:
Today, in Florida, Fred Bergman is scheduled to be Bar Mitzvahed at Beth David
Synagogue.
1940:
Bernard Baruch ate lunch today with President Roosevelt at the White House.
1940:
In Brooklyn, soda shop owner Samuel Leonard Lipschitz and Carrie Hibel gave
birth to Leonard Lipschitz who gained fame as Lenny Lipton the author of lyrics
“Puff the Magic Dragon” the royalties of which he sued “to fund years of
pioneering research in 3-D filmmaking.(As reported by Clay Risen)
1941:
Bernard Zell, his wife and first-born daughter who had fled east after Bernard
Zell had learned that the Nazis and Soviets had signed a treaty “clearing the
way for the German invasion of Poland, landed in Seattle today. “after a
railroad journey across Siberia and ocean voyage from Japan” which was “four
months before businessman Samuel Zell was born.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-07-25-0407250445-story.html
1941:
Jewish veterans honor their dead.
1941:
Seventy-three year old German Werner Sombart author of Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben (The Jews and Modern
Capitalism) in which he documented “Jewish involvement in historic
capitalist development” in which “he argued that Jewish traders and
manufacturers, excluded from the guilds developed a distinctive antipathy to
the fundamental of medieval commerce” and Deutscher
Sozialismus in which he contended
that “the antithesis of the German spirit is the Jewish spirit, which is not a
matter of being born Jewish or believing in Judaism but is a capitalistic
spirit” and the “chief task” of the German people and National
Socialism is to destroy the Jewish spirit.”
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-jews-and-modern-capitalism-by-werner-sombart/
1941:
Lee Shubert and Harry Hershfield are scheduled to be among the honorary
pallbearers at today’s funeral for 61-year-old “theatrical producer Morris
Gest” “in the Central Synagogue” at which Rabbi Jonah B. Wise will lead the
service.
1942: During
a public protest of Nazi anti-Semitism staged in Berlin by Herbert Baum and his
followers, portions of “The Soviet Paradise,” a government-sponsored
anti-Bolshevik exhibition, are set afire. Most members of Baum’s group, as well
as approximately 500 other Berlin Jews, are arrested.
1942:
The New York Times carried a report
by a United Press International correspondent who had been trapped in Berlin at
the outbreak of the war in December of 1941 and who reached Lisbon after being
traded as part of a swap for Axis nationals in Allied hands. According to
the story 100,000 Jews had been slaughtered by the Nazis in the Baltic States,
almost that many in Poland and twice as many in western Russia.
1942:
Another 1,420 Jews arrived in the Lodz ghetto from Brzeziny. Like the Jews who
arrived the day before, their children were taken away from them. They were
sent to Chelmno to be gassed.
1943:
In the Shanghai Ghetto today was the deadline for complying with the Japanese
declaration of a “Designated Area for Stateless Rights” which resulted in
“about 18,000 Jews” being forced to relocate to a 3/4
square mile area of Shanghai’s Hongkou district, where many lived in group
homes called “Heime” or “Little Vienna”.[
1943:
Nearly every resident of the Polish farming village of Szarajowka is shot or
burned alive by the SS, Wehrmacht troops, and Gestapo agents. After the
massacre, the village is razed. What was the crime for which the villagers were
being punished? Sheltering Jews
1944(25th
of Iyar, 5704: Bertha Fisher, the Czech born daughter of Julie and Jose Kahn,
the wife of Dr. Emilian Fischer and the mother of Ottokar an Jriri Josef Gustav
Fischer died some after day having been shipped to Auschwitz.
1944 (25th of Iyar, 5704): Jewish partisan
leader Aleksander Skotnicki was killed as his unit battled the armored SS
Viking Division near the Parczew Forest in Poland.
1944:
Deportations from Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, to Auschwitz end with the
transport of 2500 Jews.
1944:
Paul Alfred Cullen, who would reach the rank of Major General in the Australian
Army began serving with “Headquarters 16th Brigade.”
1944:
In Hungary deportations of Jews to Auschwitz would begin today with a total of
437,000 being shipped to the death camp through July 7, 1944.
1944:
The Battle of Monte Cassino which Michał Waszyński filmed “as a member of the
army film unit” attached to the 2nd Corps of the Polish Army came to
an end today.
1945(6th
of Sivan, 5705): First observance of Shavuot after VE Day
1945:
“In the East New York section of Brooklyn cabdriver Morris Finkelstein and
“former Zella Ordanski” gave birth to Arthur Jay Finkelstein” a conservative
political operative who has supported such candidates as “President Ronald
Reagan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1945:
In Minneapolis, MN, Jewish mobster Davie Berman and Betty Ewald gave birth to
journalist Susan Jane Berman who would be brutally murdered by Robert Durst.
1946:
“Laughing on the Outside (Crying on the Inside)” by Dinah Shore,” the
Tennessee born daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants “hit #1 on the Billboard
Honor Roll of Hits”
1947:
The unveiling “of a monument in memory of William Eisenberg is scheduled to
take place this afternoon Mount Judah Cemetery.
1947:
Wrigley Field in Chicago recorded the largest regular season paid attendance in
its history when 46,572 people came out to see Jackie Robinson make his first
appearance at the ballpark for the Brooklyn Dodgers, a team with a
disproportionately large number of Jewish fans including the author of this
blog.
1948:
Moshe Dayan, who had been born in Degania, was given command of all forces in
the area, including the settlements in the Kinarot Valley, after having been
charged without creating a commando battalion in the 8th Brigade just a day
before. A company of reinforcements from the Gadna program was allocated, along
with 3 PIATs (a bazooka-like weapon). Other reinforcements came in the form of
a company from the Yiftach Brigade and another company of paramilitaries from
villages in the Lower Galilee and the Jezreel Valley. The Palmach counterattack
on the police station on the night of May 18 gave the Israeli forces an
additional day to prepare defense and attack plans
1948:
Syrian aircraft bombed the Israeli village Kinneret and the regional school
Beit Yerah, on the southwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
1948:
After two days of fierce fighting a Syrian brigade including tanks overran
Zemach, killing all forty-two of the Jewish defenders.
1948:
Poland, Czechoslovakia, Uruguay, and Nicaragua recognized Israel.
1948: The Arab Legion captured the police fort on
Mt. Scopus. The illegal occupation of Mt. Scopus would end with the June
War in 1967.
1948: Between today and May 20, a unit of the Etzioni
Brigade made repeated attempts to fight their way into the Old City at the
Jaffa Gate. Despite taking heavy casualties, the Jewish fighters failed
in their effort. The brigade was fighting the Arab Legion, the name given to
the Jordanian Army which was trained and led by British officers.
1948:
Fighting under Egyptian command Saudi Arabia joined the other Arab armies in
their invasion of Israel.
1948:
Winnipegger Harvey Sirlin and his group of volunteers who were on their way to fight
for Israel “landed in Cannes” today after which they took a train to Marseilles
where they billeted at a DP (displaced persons) camp on the outskirts of
Marseilles called “Grande Arénas” where they would begin their military
training.
1948:
“At midnight, Egyptian police” ransacked the home of Levan Zamir in
Helwan.
1948:
While at school today in Egypt, Levana Zamir’s teacher told her that her uncle
had been taken to prison allegedly because he was a Zionist. The uncle was freed two years later and
placed on a ship bound for France.
1948:
“According to Israeli historian Benny Morris” Kibbutz Bror Hayil was founded
today. (The founders themselves claim the date should be May 5)
1948:
“Another Part of the Forest” based on the play by Lillian Hellman directed by
Michael Gordon was released in the United States today.
1949:
“Miss Mary Antin Wrote Noted Book” published today described the career of the
late Jewish author.
http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=352
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00C13F93B5F177B93CAA8178ED85F4D8485F9
1949:
Birthdate of Appleton, Wisconsin native Terry Zwigoff, the son of Jewish dairy
farmers who was raised in Chicago before pursuing his musical and film-making
passions.
1950:
As a result of Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, 120,000 Jews fleeing Iraq were
brought to Israel over the course of a year’s time.
1950:
Israel has released the eight crewmen of an RAF flying-boat that had been
forced down yesterday by Israeli fighter planes. According to the pilot, the plan was flying
from Bahrain to the Suez Canal when it wandered off course due to a
navigational error.
1950:
Colonel Harry D. Henshel and Charles L. Orenstein announced that the United
States will be represented in the third World Maccabiah Games opening in Tel
Aviv on September 27. Henshel and
Orenstein are co-chairman of the national committee for United States
participation and Orenstein will chair the committee that will select the
athletes.
1952:
After discussing the oil situation in Israel today “in light of Britain’s
refusal to grant the Jewish State credits for the purchase of crude oil stocks”
the Israeli Cabinet set up “a special Ministerial committee…to prepare
regulations for a fuel economy program.
1952:
Funeral services are schedule to be held today for Professor Theodore Goodman,
CCNY graduate class of 1915 and the husband of Lillia Goodman.
1953:
The Jerusalem Post reported that Abu
Eliahu, 40, and Eliahu Ephraim, 45, two watchmen in the Jerusalem
“corridor” were murdered by infiltrators.
1953:
The Jerusalem Post reported that The
Government approved the special unemployment relief tax scale and hoped to
collect IL15m compulsory advance payment on account of future taxes.
1953:
In Haifa, Oskar and Tikva Deutsch gave birth to David Deutsch the British
physicist whose doctoral advisor was Dennis Sciama and was awarded the Dirac
Prize in 1998.
1954(15th
of Iyar, 5714): Rose Fischel Wald, the New York born wife of Albert Wald, the
mother of Judith Wald and leader of the “women’s division of the Union of
Orthodox Jewish Congregations passed away today in NYC.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1954/05/19/83333985.html?pageNumber=32
1954(15th
of Iyar, 5714): Sixty-six-year-old Selig Brodetsky, the Ukraine born son of
Adel and Akiva Brodetsky, the beadle of the local Synagogue, and a “British
Professor of Mathematics, a member of the World Zionist Executive, who served
as the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and was the second
president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem” passed away today.
1956:
“In the prosperous suburbs of south Manchester,” “barrister Benet Hytner and
his wife, Joyce” gave birth to their eldest child, theatre and film director
Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner.
1957(17th
of Iyar, 5717): Parashat Bechukota
1958(28th
of Iyar, 5718): Seventy-six-year-old Jacob “Yakov” Fichman who “received the
Bialik Prize for his book of poetry Peat
Sadeh (“A Corner of a Field”)” passed away today.
1958:
The 11th Cannes Film Festival where one of the entrants was “The
Brothers Karamazov” directed by Richard Brooks, produced by Pandro S. Berman,
with a script by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Richard Brooks and
featuring William Shatner in his film debut came to an end today.
1958(28th
of Iyar, 5718): In Cleveland, seventy-eight-year Samuel Phillipson, the father
of Mrs. Louis Becker of Elyria, OH passed away today at the Highland View
Hospital.
1961:
“The original London production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘The Sound of
Music’” opened today.
1961:
It was reported today that Harry Weinberg, Roy M. Cohn and Lawrence I. Weisman
“urchased portions of their Fifth Avenue Coach stock on margin” and that “their
total indebtedness is about $72,300.
1962(14th
of Iyar, 5722): Pesach Sheni
1962(14th
of Iyar, 5722): Seventy-two year old Hebrew Union College graduate and St.
John’s University trained attorney, Sidney Saul Tedesche, the son of Alexander
Tedeshe and Jeanette Greenfield and the holder of Ph.D. from Yale who served as
a rabbi at Brith Sholom in Springfield, Beth El in Providence, Bethel El in San
Antonio, Mishkan Israel in New Haven and Union Temple in Brooklyn while raising
two daughters – Carol and Jeanne – with his wife “the former Irma Goldman
passed away today
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/05/19/140578272.pdf
1962:
Two off-duty police detectives, Luke J. Fallon and John P. Finnegan, were
killed today in a botched robbery of the Boro Park Tobacco Company. Jerry Rosenberg, whose jailhouse nickname was
Jerry the Jew and Anthony Portelli would be found guilty of the first double
homicide of New York City police officers since 1927 and sentenced to death.
Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller would later commute their sentences to life in
prison. At the time of his death in
2009, Rosenberg would be the longest serving convict in the New York State
prison system.
1962(14th
of Iyar, 5722): Fifty-seven-year-old P. Wolf Winer, the Harvard trained
attorney and “instructor of law at the School of Business at City College who
“was the first president of the Great Neck Chapter of the American Jewish
Congress, the husband of Penina Winer and the father of Jaqueline, Lucy and
Thomas Winer suffered a fatal heart attack today in New York’s Pennsylvania
Station today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/05/19/140578362.pdf
1963(24th
of Iyar, 5723): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai read for the lst time during the
Presidency of John Kenney.
1964(7th
of Sivan, 5724): Second Day of Shavuot; Yizkor observed for the first time
during the President of Lyndon Johnson.
1965
(16th of Iyar, 5725): Israeli spy Eli Cohen was publicly executed by the
Syrians. This execution was aired on national Syrian television. After his
execution, a sign with Anti-Zionist messages was placed on his hanging body.
His body was left to hang for six hours. Eli
was born in Alexandria, Egypt on
26, 19
a strong Jewish and Zionist educational environment. True to their Zionist
ideals, the Cohen family moved to Israel in 1949. However, Eli stayed behind to
organize Zionist and Jewish activities in Egypt. Eventually, Eli moved to
Israel and began training with the Israeli intelligence organization. His
preparation was extensive and exhaustive. From weapons to Arab customs to
espionage technology, he was trained to know everything about the craft of
being a spy. In 1961, the Chief of Military Intelligence, Chaim Herzog,
authorized Eli Cohen to be used as a spy for the State of Israel. Soon after,
he was escorted to the airport with a ticket for Argentina where he would begin
to establish his portfolio under his new assumed identity, Kamal Amin Ta’abet.
While in Argentina, he established his cover as a Syrian émigré and began to
make inroads within the Syrian community of Buenos Aries. In time, he
established himself as a successful businessman and began to establish
relationships among the Syrian diplomatic corps in Argentina. It was during
this time that Eli met Col. Amin al-Hafez. Through his extravagant hosting of
his diplomatic contacts, he was eventually invited to visit Syria to set up
business operations. Late in 1961, Eli returned to Israel for a short visit
with his wife. It was during this visit that he finalized requirements for his
mission in Syria. There was no question that Eli was already making impressive
progress within the Syrian political and social circuits. Staring in 1961, the
Syrian Ba’ath Party was beginning its rise to power within the Syrian
government. It was important to Eli that he travel to Syria as the party began to
gain power and influence. Eli arrived in Damascus in 1962, acting as an
Argentinean entrepreneur returning home to Syria. It was during this time in
Syria that Eli was very careful to develop his relationships with members of
the Ba’ath party. True to his style in Argentina, Eli hosted parties and
hob-nobbed in the highest social and political circles. As Eli gained the trust
of these high officials, they openly discussed matters of military and
political importance with him. Between 1962 and 1965, Eli made three secret
trips home to be with his wife and children. When the Ba’ath party seized power
in 1963, Eli Cohen was well established and entrenched within the social elites
of Syria. He became a “trusted friend” of the highest-ranking members of the
Ba’ath party, all the while transmitting vital information home to Israel via a
transmitter that was hidden in his home. His ability to pierce the highest
ranks of the government continued the longer he stayed in Syria. He was invited
to discussions regarding Syria’s intentions to divert water from the headwaters
of the Jordan River. In 1963, Eli transmitted the details regarding the
diversion of the waters back to the Israelis. As a result, the IDF Air Force
was able to effectively destroy Syrian plans for this project. Cohen exhibited
another example of his daring espionage when he visited the Syrian-held Golan
Heights, bordering Israel. The Golan was a “strategic asset” for Syria, which
allowed them the ability to facilitate acts of aggression against the northern
Israeli towns. The Golan was considered a top secret area open only to the top
members of the Syrian military. Cohen, skilled in his craft, was able to not
only get a tour of the area, but able to get a comprehensive military briefing
of the Golan and all its positions. It was during this trip that the “famous”
eucalyptus trees were planted. As Eli was being briefed as to the Syrian
fortifications of the Golan, he suggested that they plant eucalyptus trees to
give the Israelis the impression that the locations were not fortified, and
also to offer shade for the Syrian soldiers. As the story goes, his ideas were
implemented, and as a result, the Israelis knew where every single
fortification was located as a result of the eucalyptus trees. His old contact
from Argentina, Col. Amin al-Hafez had risen in the Ba’ath party and eventually
became Prime Minster of Syria. After Col. Hafez came to power, he even
considered appointing Cohen the Deputy Minister of Defense for Syria. In
November, 1964, Eli made another visit back to Israel. During this trip he
expressed his desire to end this assignment since changes were taking place in
Syria that were not favorable to his cover. After much debate, Eli agreed to
return for one more tour of Syria. The intelligence that Eli had provided was
too valuable. During his final stay in Syria, Eli was less careful of his
espionage transmissions. Alarmed that information was leaking out of the
country, the Syrians, with the help of their Soviet advisors, conducted a
comprehensive probe to find the intelligence leak. During January 1961,
transmissions were pinpointed to Eli’s home. Syrian intelligence caught Eli in
the act, transmitting information back to Israel. He was apprehended and
tortured, but didn’t release any information of real value to the Syrians.
Syria staged a public show and Eli Cohen was found guilty of espionage.
Attempts were made to save Eli Cohen. World leaders and prominent businessmen,
along with the Israeli government and the Pope attempted to arbitrate a solution
for Eli, but with no success. Clearly, Eli’s espionage contributions toward the
security of the State of Israel were unmatched most. He was so skilled at his
craft that he was easily able to assimilate into the day-to-day life within
Damascus. He was able to achieve the unthinkable and befriended the highest
echelons of the Syrian government and military. Not only was he able to gain
access where others could not, he was in the position to provide input that
allowed him to influence government and military decisions. There is no
question that the intelligence that he compiled was highly instrumental in
allowing Israel to quickly and effectively defeat the Syrians and gain the
Golan Heights during the Six Day War. For his heroism and skill, Eli Cohen is
known as Israel’s greatest spy. But in all actuality, he might be a contender
for the greatest secret agent of the 20th century.
1966;
Eighty-eight-year-old WW I veteran Abraham Dubin, the Ukraine born son of Elias
and Edith Dubin and the husband of Philippine native Sinforosa R. Reyes
Magistrado passed away today exactly 37 years after the death of his father.
1967(8th
of Iyar, 5727): Seventy-eight-year-old Allen Gundersheimer, the Columbus, OH born
son of Amelia Gumble and Max Gundersheimer and the husband of Frances Joan Levy
passed away today in Columbus.
1968(20th
of Iyar, 5728): Parashat Emo
1968(20th
of Iyar, 5728): Seventy-three-year-old Samuel Haft, the son of Jennie and Max
H. Haft passed away today in New York.
1969:
In Detroit, Michigan, Rhoda Yura and Dan Glickman, the former Kansas
Congressman, Secretary of Agriculture, and president of the MPAA gave birth to
producer and MGM President Jonathan Glickman.
1970:
In “Centenarian Recalls Suffragette Days” published today Mrs. Sigmund
Pollitzer, the widow dermatologist Sigmund Pollitzer, a mother of two daughters
and at this time the “only living member of the first graduating class at
Barnard College” provided insights into the fight for the vote and equal right
for women.
1968:
Sixty-eight-year-old Josiah Wedgwood V the Managing director of the Wedgwood
pottery firm and son of British Liberal and Labour Party Josiah Wedgwood IV who
early on identified the threat of Nazi Germany, “worked tirelessly to help
European Jewry” and was an ardent Zionist.
1971(23rd
of Iyar, 5731): Eighty-three-year-old WW I veteran, University of Minnesota
graduate and Harvard Law School trained attorney Max Lowenthal, “the
Minneapolis born son of Nathan (Naphtali) Lowenthal and Gertrude (Nahamah)
Gitel, both Orthodox Jewish, emigrated from Kovno (now Kaunas), Lithuania, to
Minnesota” and husband of Eleanor Mack with whom he had three children – David,
John and Betty” – whose law career touched all three branches and who was a
confidant of Harry Truman as well as a target of HUAC passed away today.
1972(5th
of Sivan, 5732): Erev Shavuot
1973:
Having been denied the right to read from the Torah on a Saturday morning, 13
year old Elena Kagan read from the Book of Ruth tonight, on Friday night.
1973(16th
of Iyar, 5733): Israeli poet and Editor Avraham Shlonsky passed away. A native
of Russia, he was a driving force in the creation of Modern Hebrew literature.
Among other accomplishments he won both the Bialk and Israel prizes.
http://www.haaretz.com/life/books/biography-the-founding-father-1.361063
http://poemsintranslation.blogspot.com/2011/02/abraham-shlonsky-toil-from-hebrew.html\
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avraham_Shlonsky
1975(7th
of Iyar, 5735): Eight-seven-year-old University of Michigan chemistry professor
Dr. Kasimir Fajans the holder of a Ph.D. from Heidelberg University who raised
two sons – Stefan and Edgar – with his wife Salome passed away today in Ann
Arbor, Michigan.
https://lsa.umich.edu/chem/about/department-history/kasimir-j–fajans—1887-1975-.html
1976(18th
of Iyar, 5736): Lag B’Omer
1976:
“Missouri Breaks” a western movie produced by Elliot Kastner and featuring
Steve Franken as “Lonesome Kid” was released today in the United States.
1976:
Seventy year Washington, D.C. grocer Cecil David Kaufman, the Detroit born of
Cora and Saul Kaufmann and the husband of Isabelle Kaufmann passed away in
Washington.
1977:
Menachem Begin became Israel’s Prime Minister. Begin’s election marked a
major shift in Israeli politics. Begin was a disciple of Jabotinsky,
leader of the Irgun, and the polar opposite of the Labor Zionists who had
dominated Israeli politics even before the state had been created.
Begin proved to be more of a pragmatist than had been expected. He met
with Sadat and signed the Camp David Accords which led to the swapping of the
Sinai for a peace treaty with Egypt. Despite international furor, Begin
bombed an Iraqi reactor, an action that people came to appreciate after
the first Gulf War. Begin resigned after the death of his wife and
went into a state of semi-seclusion. He passed away in 1992.
1977(1st
of Sivan, 5737): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1977:
Samuel Lewis, the new U.S. Ambassador to Israel, arrived today to take up his
ambassadorial post.
1978:
The Jerusalem Post reported the
UNIFIL’s admission that it had allowed the terrorists to move, together with
their arms, into South Lebanon.
1978:
The Jerusalem Post reported that the
Israeli Government and the Jewish Agency were considering steps how to stop
HIAS (the Hebrew Immigrants Aid Society), from helping Russian Jewish emigrants
to go to destinations other than Israel. Only 72 out of the 1,086 Jews who left
Russia in April, 1978, made their way to Israel.
1978:
The Jerusalem Post reported that the
Mifal Hapayis designated IL7m. for education and health in the West Bank and
Gaza.
1980:
In Israel, a stone marker was unveiled in a memorial forest of 3,500 trees
which had been created to honor Major Noel S. Jacobs who had commanded the
Jewish Company of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps.
1981(14th
of Iyar, 5741) Pesach Sheni observed for the first time during the Presidency
of Ronald Reagan.
1983(6th
of Sivan, 5743): Shavuot
1984:
“Under the Volcano” with music by Alex North premiered at the Cannes Film
Festival.
1985(27th
of Iyar, 5745): Parsha Behar-Buchukotai
1985(27th
of Iyar, 5745: Eighty-five-year-old Dr. Abraham Gerson Carmel, the husband of
Cyrilla Wallace Carmel, his soulmate for 58 years and the son in law of Penny
F. Wallace passed away today after which he was buried in the Montgomery United
Jewish Cemetery in Montgomery, OH.
1986:
Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir “demanded to prosecute Avraham Shalom, head of
the GSS” (General Security Service) as part of his investigation into
allegations that two terrorists had been murdered by the GSS.
1986:
Richard Edelman, President and CEO of Edelman married Rosalind Ann Walrath at
the Harvard Club of New York.
1987:
Final broadcast of “Fame” a television series based on the movie of the same
name co-starring Valerie Landsburg
1988:
Braving a steady rain, 750 supporters of Shimon Peres attended a rally for the
Israeli foreign minister at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan today.
1990:
“Bird On A Wire” a comedy produced by Rob Cohn, with a script by David Seltzer,
co-starring Gold Hawn and with music by Hans Zimmer was released today in the
United States.
1991(5th
of Sivan, 5751): Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot
1991:
“Barton Fink” directed, produced and written by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring Michael
Lerner premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
1991:
The Associated Press reported that the B. Manischewitz Company was given a $1
million fine by United States District Judge Harold Ackerman for conspiring to
fix the price of Passover matzoth. Manischewitz had pleaded no contest to a
criminal indictment last month, saying it could not defend charges it conspired
to fix prices from 1981 to at least April 1986. The indictment said
Manischewitz, based in Jersey City, had conspired to raise the price of $25
million worth of Passover matzoth in cooperation with Horowitz Brothers &
Margareten and with Aron Streit Inc., both of New York. Horowitz has since been
taken over by Manischewitz. The Government has not said why Horowitz and Aron
Striet were not indicted. The merchant banking firm of Kohlberg & Company
acquired Manischewitz in January and had nothing to do with the scheme.
1993: “Cup Final” an Israeli movie directed by Eran
Riklis was released in the United Kingdom today
1994:
Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in what was supposed to have been one step
along the road to peace with the Palestinians.
1995:
Simone Veil “born Simone Annie Liline Jacob, the daughter of a Jewish
architect” completed her second term as French Minister of Health.
1996(29th
of Iyar, 5756): English businessman and racehorse owner Simon Weinstock passes
away at the age of 44
1996(29th
of Iyar, 5756): Eighty-seven-year-old Prague born Charles University graduate
Dr. Arthur Katz who “served as rabbi to two communities near the Austrian
border before fleeing when the Germans “marched in” and made his way to England
where he served as assistant Rabbi at West London Synagogue and “first minister
at the Hendon Reform Synagogue” where his successor was his son Rabbi Stephen
Katz.
1997:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Jacob Two-Two’s First Spy Case by Mordecai Richler.
1997:
Today actor and comedian Michael David Rapaport, the New York born son of June
Brody and David Rapaport and “an Ashkenazi Jew whose family came from Poland
and Russia” ‘was arrested for harassing ex-girlfriend Lili Taylor and charged
with two counts of aggravated harassment” after which he ‘pleaded guilty to the
charges in court and New York Supreme Court Justice Arlene Goldberg issued a
protection order to keep the actor from contacting Taylor, as well as mandating
that he undergo counseling sessions.’
1997:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at Frank E. Campbell for Diana
Gertz Radin, the mother of Joan Gertz Wilner and Benjamin Ira Gertz ad the
widow of Louis Simon Gertz, one of the five brothers who along with his father
Benjamin Gertz founded Gertz department store in 1918 and later sold it to
Allied Stores in 1941.
1997:
Today, the Chicago Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to “present a film
about the first hundred years of Jewish history in Chicago.”
1998:
This evening Angela Landsburg is scheduled “to host the 92nd Street
Y Tribute to Maurice Levine” the “founder of the 92nd Street YMHA’s
Lyrics and Lyricist Series.”
2000:
Israeli troops began evacuating southern Lebanon “preparation for an overall
pullout from the area which is to be completed by the end of July.
2000:
Despite denials by Greek and Israeli officials “a Palestinian legislator said eggs were thrown at President
Costas Stephanopoulos of Greece as he toured the walled Old City, to protest
his position on Jerusalem.”
2001(25th
of Iyar, 5761): Tirza Polonsky, 66, of Moshav Kfar Haim; Miriam Waxman, 51, of
Hadera; David Yarkoni, 53, of Netanya; Yulia Tratiakova, 21, of Netanya; and
Vladislav Sorokin, 34, of Netanya were killed in a suicide bombing at Hasharon
Mall in the seaside city of Netanya, in which over 100 were wounded. Hamas
claimed responsibility for the attack (Jewish Virtual Library)
2001(25th
of Iyar, 5761): Lt. Yair Nebenzahl, 22, of Neve Tzuf (Halamish), was killed and
his mother seriously wounded, in a Palestinian roadside ambush north of
Jerusalem.
2002(7th
of Sivan, 5762): Second Day of Shavuot
2002(7th
of Sivan, 5762): Zypora Spaisman, Polish born American actress and longtime
supporter of the Yiddish theatre, passed away at the age of 86.
2003:
The New York Times featured books by
Jewish writers and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Heart,
You Bully, You Bully, You Punk” by Leah Hager Cohen.
2003(16th
of Iyar, 5763): “Seven people were killed and 20 wounded in a suicide bombing
on Egged bus #6 near French Hill in Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for
the attack. Half an hour later, a second suicide bomber was killed when he was
intercepted by police at a roadblock in northern Jerusalem. The victims: Olga
Brenner, 52, of Jerusalem; Yitzhak Moyal, 64, of Jerusalem; Nelly Perov, 55, of
Jerusalem; Ghalab Tawil, 42, of Shuafat; Marina Tsahivershvili, 44, of
Jerusalem; Shimon Ustinsky, 68, of Jerusalem; and Roni Yisraeli, 34, of
Jerusalem.”
2003:
Steve Averbach “was on a bus heading to work when a Palestinian terrorist
dressed as a fervently Orthodox Jew got on board. Averbach realized immediately
that he was a suicide bomber. As he reached for his handgun, the terrorist blew
himself up, killing seven people and seriously injuring 20, including Averbach.
Israel’s internal security ministry later wrote Averbach a letter saying, “An
investigation of the incident revealed that you were courageous, brave, and
selfless in attempting to prevent a mortal attack.” It said the bomber had
planned to blow himself up in the crowded center of town or in the bus station,
where the death toll would have been far higher.”
2004:
American Jewish Heritage Torah Day as proclaimed by Albany, NY Mayor Kathy
Sheehan
2004: The IDF launched Operation Rainbow in response to
the deaths of 13 soldiers, the majority of whom were killed after their armored
personnel carriers were blown up in the southern Gazan town of Rafah. The goal
of the eight-day operation was to uncover weapons-smuggling tunnels along the
Philadelphi Corridor, and to prevent the smuggling of Strella shoulder-to-air
anti-aircraft missiles from the Sinai into Gaza.
2005:
In Belgium, premiere of “Or” (My Treasure) an Israeli-French production that
had won five awards at the Cannes Film Festival.
2006:
Ex-Movie Exec Isn’t Silent About Films published today provides Jean Hersholt
Humanitarian Oscar Winner Roger Mayer’s view of the industry to which he
devoted 53 years of his life.
2006:
The daughter of the late Ruth Laredo, the classical pianist who had passed away
in 2005, organized a concert to honor the memory of Ruth Laredo at “the Grace
Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.”
2008:
After eight years, FOX broadcast the final episode of “That ’70s Show,” a
sitcom co-starring Mila Kunis.
2006: A
Sarajevo publisher announced that The Sarajevo Haggadah, a centuries-old Jewish holy book
that survived the Spanish inquisition, the Nazi Holocaust and Bosnia’s
1992-1995 war has been reprinted in limited editions. “The Sarajevo Haggadah”
was made into 613 copies on hand-made paper that recreates the appearance of
the 14th century original by 95 percent, the head of the Rabic publishing
house, Goran Mikulic, told Agence France Presse. The number of copies was
chosen to symbolize the number
of commandments, or mitzvoth,
that Jews are obliged to observe. “The edition was printed in Italy and
almost everything was done by hand,” Mikulic said. The original
handwritten manuscript on bleached calfskin illuminated in copper and gold is
the world’s oldest Sephardic Haggadah, containing the text recited by Jews on
the Passover holiday.
2006:
“The White House announced that Donald Kohn had been nominated by President
George W. Bush to serve a four year term as the vice chairman of the Federal
Reserve System.
2006:
Rabbi Ada Zavidov is declared the new chairwoman of the Reform Movement’s
Rabbinic Council at the opening of the Israel Movement for Progressive
Judaism’s 18th Biennial Convention.
About 1,000 rabbis and movement members, including Rabbi Elliott
Kleinman, vice president of the Union for Reform Judaism in America attend the
conference, which focuses on the Jewish family. Zavidov, granddaughter of Aba
Achimeir – one of the founding fathers of the Revisionist Party in pre-state
Israel – is the first female Israeli native to chair the rabbinic council.
2007: Rosh
Chodesh Sivan, 5767
2007: The
fifth season of Kokhav Nolad, the popular Israeli television show, began today.
2007: The five
candidates for the leadership of the Labor Party face off in a Labor central
committee meeting in Tel Aviv that will decide whether Labor should leave Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert’s government.
2007: The
University of Teramo closed one of its campuses to prevent a planned lecture by
Robert Faurisson, a retired French professor who denies gas chambers were used
in Nazi concentration camps.
2008: Phoenix
Mayor Phil Gordon declared today, “Jewish News of Greater Phoenix
Day” in honor of the newspaper’s “exemplary service to the community
and the Jewish people”.
2008: Veteran
journalist Jane Eisner was appointed to be the first female editor of the Forward.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/may/18/2008/jane-eisner
2008: The Jewish Historical Society of
Greater Washington marks the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel with a
series of book talks by Laura Cohen
Apelbaum on Jewish Washington:
Scrapbook of an American Community (the companion to the award-winning
exhibit of the same name) the third of which is held at Barnes & Noble in
Rockville, Md.
2008:
The New York Times book section
featured a review of Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey D. Sachs.
2008:
The Washington Post book section
featured a review of Ellen Feldman’s novel entitled Scottsboro which
“painstakingly recreates the infamous Scottsboro case, complete with all the
twists and turns and society-exposing foibles.”
Two Jewish lawyers, Samuel Leibowitz and Joseph Brodsky, saved the lives
of the defendants in this infamous case.
2008:
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Temple Judah hosts it’s Temple Wide Picnic marking the
close of the Religious School year; farewell until Fall.
2008:
The appointment of Jane R. Eisner, former editorial page editor of the
Philadelphia Inquirer as editor of The
Forward is officially approved at today’s meeting of The Forward
Association
2008: The Quad City Jewish Federation hosts Israeli
Yom Ha’Azma’ut Rally in
Bettendorf, Iowa featuring Sasha Grishkov,
finalist from the Israeli television series A
Star is Born (Israeli version of American
Idol) who will perform with her Israeli band.
2008:
“Pamela’s First Musical,” written with Cy Coleman and David Zippel, based on
Wendy Wasserstein’s children’s book, received its world premiere in a concert
staging at Town Hall in New York City today.
2008(13th
of Iyar, 5768): Ninety-six year old actor and director Joseph Pevney “the son
of a Jewish watchmaker” passed away today. (As reported by Ronald Bergan)
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/may/31/television
2009;
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman address the Class of 2009 at
Grinnell
College’s
commencement exercises where he receives
an honorary degree along with
Jodie
Levin-Epstein, deputy director of the Center for Law and Social Policy in
Washington, D.C.
2009:
The Arizona Chapter of the American Jewish Committee presented the Greater Phoenix Jewish News with the
RosaLee Shluker Community Service Award in honor of its 60th anniversary.
2009: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with
President Barak Obama in Washington, D.C.
2009: In an article about The Tribeca/ESPN Sports
film festival, Sports Illustrated singles out “A Matter of Size,” an
Israeli film about Herzl Musiker, a middle-aged fat Israel waiter, who
discovers his salvation in the world of Sumo Wrestling.
2009: In a Lecture on Nazi Propaganda at the Library
of Congress, Dr.
Gabriel Weimann, a Professor of Communication at Haifa University, Israel and
at the American University, Washington, D.C., examines the social and
psychological mechanisms activated by the sophisticated and powerful Nazi
propaganda. The multi-media presentation includes posters, movies, speeches,
public events, books, cartoons and other media used by the Nazis.
2009:
In the best tradition of genteel British anti-Semitism, movie director Ken
Loach called for people to boycott the Edinburgh Film Festival if festival’s
sponsors accept a 300 pound grant from the Israeli embassy that will enable
“Tel Aviv University graduate Tali Shalom Ezer to travel to Scotland for a
screening of her film, ‘Surrogate.’”
2009:
Michael Sandel gave the 2009 Reith Lectures on “A New Citizenship” in
London
2009,
American money manager and Bernard Madoff association Jacob Ezra Merkin’s
control of Ascot, Gabriel and Ariel hedge funds are to be placed into
receivership for liquidation by Guidepost Partners
2010(5th
of Sivan, 5770): Erev Shavuot
2010:
Founding editor of DoubleX Hanna Rosin and Slate editor David Plotz are
scheduled to let loose on the Bible while Alyssa Shelasky of Apron Anxiety is
scheduled to whip up a dairy dish and Shavuotini for all to taste as part of
“The Ten: An Alternative Shavuot Experience” in Washington, D.C.
2011:
Convicted white-collar crook, Andrew Fastow was released to a Houston halfway
house for the remainder of his sentence.
2011:
The YIVO Institute is scheduled to present a special evening with acclaimed
novelist Philip Roth during which Roth will read excerpts from his new novel,
“Nemesis” which tells the story of a terrifying polio epidemic raging in
Newark, New Jersey in the summer of 1944 and its devastating effect on the
closely knit, family-oriented community and its children.
2011:
Charlotte Dubin, award-winning writer and editor for many publications,
including Michigan Jewish History and the Detroit Jewish News is scheduled to
receive the Leonard N. Simons History Award at
the
Jewish
Historical Society of Michigan’s Annual Meeting
2011:
Shelomo Alfassá, a writer, author, editor, curator and historian, whose focus
has been on Iberian and Ottoman Jewish history, culture and Jewish law, is
scheduled to deliver an illustrated lecture that “will give an overview of the
history of Sephardic Jews – from Spain and Portugal to New York City” sponsored
by the Derfner Judaica Museum at The Hebrew Home at Riverdale, New York City.
2011:
David McKenzie is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Jewish Life in Mr.
Lincoln’s City” sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater
Washington
2011:
The “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign stolen from Auschwitz and cut into three
pieces has been repaired.
The
iron sign was unveiled today in the laboratory of the camp museum. Repairs to
the sign, which measures 16 feet across and means “Work makes you
free,” took several months. It was stolen from the former Nazi
concentration camp on Dec. 18, 2009 and recovered elsewhere in the country 72
hours later. It was found cut into three pieces.A copy of the sign has been
placed above the entrance gate. The repaired sign will likely become part of a
new exhibition, the BBC reported. Five Polish men were convicted of carrying
out the theft on behalf of a Swedish citizen, Anders Hogstrom, who acted as a
middleman for a neo-Nazi buyer. Hogstrom founded the far-right National
Socialist Front party in Sweden in 1994.
2011:
Philip Roth, the much-lauded author of “Portnoy’s Complaint”, won the
biennial Man Booker International Prize today, adding to a collection of prizes
that includes two National Book Awards.
Roth,
whose work includes his noted 1959 debut “Goodbye, Columbus”, has
also won the Pulitzer Prize for “American Pastoral”, featuring
favored narrator Nathan Zuckerman.In October, he told Reuters that he disliked
e-books and the distracting influences of modern technology, which he felt
diminish the ability to appreciate the aesthetic experience of reading books on
paper..”It is a shame. It is also what is happening, and there is nothing
at all to do about it,” he said. The prize, announced during the Sydney
Writers’ Festival, is worth 60,000 pounds for the winner, and living authors
whose works of fiction are either originally in English or generally available
in English translation are eligible. It honors a writer’s body of work as
opposed to the annual Man Booker Prize for Fiction, which is awarded for a
single book.
Other
nominees for the award included Rohinton Mistry, Philip Pullman and Anne Tyler.
British author John LeCarre, known for spy classics including “The Spy Who
Came in From the Cold”, had rejected his nomination, saying he did not
compete for literary prizes, but the judges kept him on the shortlist anyway,
citing their admiration for his work. Chinese writers featured in the 2011
shortlist for the first time in the form of Wang Anyi, who wrote “The Song
of Everlasting Sorrow” published in 1996, and Su Tong, whose novella
“Wives and Concubines” was the basis of the screenplay for the
Oscar-nominated movie “Raise the Red Lantern”. Previous winners of
the award were Canadian writer Alice Munro (2009), Nigeria’s Chinua Achebe
(2007), and Albanian Ismail Kadare, who scooped the inaugural prize in 2005.
The prize will be awarded at a ceremony in London on June 28.
2012:
Facebook, the creation of Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to have it initial
public offering (IPO)
2012:
Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital, Partnership for Jewish Life
and Learning, Temple Micah, Temple Sinai Nursery School and Washington Hebrew
Congregation are scheduled to sponsor ShirLaLa Family Shabbat Service and
Dinner featuring Shira Klein.
2013:
The 721 general assembly commissioners representing the Church of Scotland are
scheduled to vote on “The Inheritance of Abraham,” a report which says
scripture” provides no basis for Jewish claims to Israel” (As reported by JTA)
2013:
The IPO String Trio is scheduled to perform two musicales in the San Francisco
Bay area.
2013:
In Israel the Indigo Festival on the Sea of Galilee and the Abu Gosh Festival
are scheduled to come to an end.
2013:
“Bezalel on Tour” will be on view for the first time at G91 Loft in New York
City.
2013:
Cantor Joel Caplan of Agudath Israel in Caldwell, NJ, will lead Shabbat morning
service at Agudas Achim, as the Iowa City congregation dedicates its new
facility in suburban Coralville. Cantor
Caplan is the son of Dick and Ellen Caplan, pillars of the Iowa City Jewish
community. Cantor Caplan began his Jewish odyssey at Augdas Achim under the
guidance of Rabbi Jeff Portman and began his musical odyssey at West High in
Iowa City.
2013:
The advanced S-300 Russian air defense system, which Moscow has pledged to
deliver to Syria, could be transferred to
Hezbollah and beyond, a senior defense official warned today. Amos
Gilad, head of the security-diplomatic branch of the Defense Ministry, told
Channel 2, “These weapons are dangerous. If Hezbollah and Iran support
Syria, why shouldn’t they [the Syrians] transfer these weapons to Hezbollah?
It’s a threat to us, a threat to the Americans, and a threat to the Persian
Gulf.”
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Amos-Gilad-S-300-can-reach-Hezbollah-via-Syria-313554
2013:
There is no chance that Israel could reach a peace agreement with Hamas,
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said this evening in an interview with Army Radio.
2014:
The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including American Innovations by
Rivka Galchen and To Rise at a Decent Hour by University of Iowa
graduate Joshua Ferris
2014(18th
of Iyar, 5774): Lag B’Omer
2014:
“The Sturgeon Queens” is scheduled to be shown at the Rockland County JCC.
2014:
In Rockville, MD, as part of the B’nai Israel Distinguished Scholar Series,
Mark Smith and Elizabeth Bloch-Smith are scheduled to speak on “Roots of
Israelite Monotheism: Evidence from Archaeology & Texts.”
2014:
“Jewish reggae star Matisyahu” is scheduled to perform with cantor Jessica
Hutchings at Temple Menorah in Redondo Beach, CA.(As reported by Renee
Ghert-Zand)
2014:
“The “Holocaust Cellar” is scheduled to open today, as part of the Holocaust
museum located in Wiesel’s pre-World War II home, which sits in the old Jewish
Ghetto of Sighet in Maramures County.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/elie-wiesels-childhood-home-to-become-education-center/
2014:
The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington is scheduled to host “Israel@66”
celebrating Israel’s 66th birthday
2014:
“Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv won the Euroleague basketball final 96-86 tonight
against Real Madrid in Milan in an overtime victory.”
2014:
“Israel’s tourism ministry said today it expects the papal visit later this
month to give a sharp boost to tourism by Christians, who already account for a
majority of tourism to the Holy Land.”
2014:
New Jersey Governor and Republican presidential hopeful “gives the keynote
address today at the Champions of Jewish Values International awards gala in
New York.”
2015:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a screening of Wing and a
Prayer followed by a panel discussion of the documentary that describes the
role of a handful of mostly foreign pilots in the creation of the State of
Israel.
2015:
“In a historic decision” Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, the head of the IDF General
Staff today “decided to disband the IDF’s homogeneous Druze battalion, a
storied unit that no longer drew the top recruits from within the community and
seemed to symbolize a segregation whose time had long since passed.”
2015:
“Reform and Conservative rabbis blasted the Orthodox rabbinical group Tzohar
today for its decision to veto their participation in an upcoming Shavuot
all-night learning program in Tel Aviv.”
2015:
Alicia Jo Rabins is scheduled to “examine the Book of Ruth through midrash and
art” as part of JWA’s first-ever on-line lunch and learn.
2015:
A special screening of “A Wing and a Prayer” was held in New York.
2015:
In partnership with the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington and the
Library’s Hebraic Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division Historian
and storyteller Tammy Hepps is scheduled to present “In Search of a Usable
Past: Reconstructing the Jewish History of Homestead, Pennsylvania.”
2015(29th
of Iyar, 5775): Eighty-year-old “quiz kid” Ruth Duskin Feldman passed away
today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2015:
Charles Philip “Chuck” Rosenberg began serving as the Administrator of the Drug
Enforcement Administration.
2015(29th
of Iyar, 5775): Recitation of Tefillat HaShlah – the Shelah’s Prayer since
Rabbi Isaac Horowitz wrote that the eve of the first day of the Hebrew month of
Sivan is the most auspicious time to pray for the physical and spiritual
welfare of one’s children and grandchildren, since Sivan was the month that the
Torah was given to the Jewish people.
http://www.shemayisrael.co.il/orgs/key/shlokey.htm#english
2016(10th
of Iyar, 5776): Seventy-five-year-old political scientist and author Susan J.
Tolchin passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)
2016:
The Shekel, The Journal of Israel and Jewish History and Numismatics, published
since 1968, is scheduled to publish its first special issue–dedicated to
Jewish American Heritage Month today.
2016:
In Baltimore, MD, the JCCs of North America Biennial Convention is scheduled to
come to an end.
2016:
In Philadelphia, Rabbi Lance J. Sussman is scheduled to present “Suburban
Frontiers: Jewish Life in Philadelphia Since 1960.”
2016:
In Cedar Rapids, IA, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to discuss Helga’s
Diary by Helga Weiss.
2016:
The Jewish Book Council is scheduled to presentRabbi David Wolpe in
conversation with the 2016 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature Authors;Winner
Lisa Moses Leff, Choice Award Recipient Yehudah Mirsky and Fellows Dan Ephron,
Aviya Kushner, and Adam D. Mendelsohn.
2017:
Today, “one of Ehud Olmert’s attornies was caught by prison officers with
classified material belonging to the former prime minister after a visit to his
jail” triggering “a search of the cell” during which “security officers found
additional classified documents.”
2017:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Six Days and Fifty Years: Military
Miracle and Political Dilemma” featuring Ambassador Dennis Ross and journalist
Yossi Klein Halevi.
2017:
After six days, JW3 is scheduled to host the final screening of “The
Zookeeper’s Wife.”
2017:
Holocaust survivor Julius Menn is scheduled to speak at the USHMM in
Washington, DC.
2018:
“Choreographer Andrea Miller and Gallim (Hebrew for “waves”) are scheduled to
perform at the Met Breuer with new works designed to engage with the Museum’s
galleries and great spaces” this evening.
2018:
In response to suit for breach of contract filed by conductor James Levine who
has been fired “by the Metropolitan Opera for sexual misconduct” the Met has
sued him “arguing in court papers filed today “that Mr. Levine harmed the
company and detailing previously unreported accusations of sexual harassment
and abuse against him.” (As reported by Michael Cooper)
2018:
In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host its third “Unplugged
Shabbat” featuring Dan Nichols.
2018:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to hold elections for
President and Vice President after the Friday Night Dinner.
2019(13th
of Iyar, 5779): Parashat Emor; Pirke Avot Chapter 3;
2019:
As Jews observe Shabbat, they are coping with yesterday’s news of the death of
author Herman Wouk and the report that over a twenty year period Dr. Richard
Strauss, a physician at Ohio State University had abused “at least 177
students” most of whom were athletes and that the University which prides
itself on its athletic program did not report the abuse to authorities as
required by law and let me him “retire voluntarily with emeritus status.
2019:
Adam Burstain, the son of Todd and Jen Burstain, a smart and caring young man,
is scheduled to become an alum today as he graduates from Tulane University
today.
2019:
In Tel Aviv, the final session of “the Eurovision Song Contest 2019” is
scheduled to begin today “at 22:00 IDT.”
2019:
In Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts is scheduled to host a screening of “Cairo
to the Cloud: The World of the Cairo Geniza.”
2020:
Stanford’s Taube Center for Jewish Studies is scheduled to host a virtual
presentation by “Emory professor Miriam Urdel talking about the ideology behind
Yiddish books for children and how they cultivated resilience”
2020:
The Virtual Sonoma County JCC Israeli Film is scheduled to host a screening of
“The Dove Flyer,” “a 2014 historical drama about a 16-year old Zionist activist
in 1950’s Baghdad.
2020:
The Jewish Community of the North Shore is scheduled to present Ariela HaLevi
“for an online evening of hope and healing.
2020:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Takin on the NRA” during which a
panel led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg will answer the question “Will Federal gun
legislation ever pass?”
2020:
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled to present “Values and
Consequences in the Halakhic Process: A Sephardi Perspective” with Bar-Ilan
University Professor Zvi Zohar
2020:
LSJS is scheduled to host Rabbi Joseph Dweck and Rabbi Dr Zarum in another
‘Epic’ shiur, during which they look at the book of Vayikra, “discuss the
‘guts’ of the Torah and put the book in a whole new light.”
2021:
This evening the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the Jewish Federation of Greater
Des Monies are scheduled to present information about high-quality virtual
resources for Holocaust education that encourage students to stand up against
injustice in their community.
2021:
Based on previously published reports, Israelis can expect more rocket attacks
from Gaza as well as Lebanon today, but they can also take “comfort” in the
reports that “President Joe Biden’s administration approved the potential sale
of $735 million in precision-guided weapons to Israel.”
2021(16th
of Sivan 5781): Second Day of Shavuot; Yizkor
2022:
As part of its 2022 First Person Series, the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum is scheduled to host a presentation by Allan Firestone who will
described “traumatic losses and his miraculous survival.”
2022:
LBI International President and acclaimed historian Prof. Michael
Brenner(American University/University of Munich) is scheduled to discuss his
new book, Hitler’s Munich: The Revolution and the Rise of Nazism, an
account of how Bavaria’s capital city became the testing ground for Nazism and
the Final Solution.
2022:
“Tens of thousands of people are expected to flock to Mount Meron to night to
celebrate Lag Ba’omer, exactly one year after 45 people died there in a
stampede.”(As reported by the Jerusalem Post)
2023(27th
of Iyar, 5783): Eighty-one-year-old billionaire real estate investor and one
time owner of the Chicago Tribune, Samuel Zell first known as Shmuel Zielonka when
born in Chicago to refugees from Nazi occupied Poland Ruchla (Rochelle) and
Berek (Bernard) Zielonka and a member of AEPi while attending University of
Michigan where he earned a BA and JD passed away today.
https://www.forbes.com/profile/sam-zell/?sh=4a5aa76219df
https://michiganross.umich.edu/news/remembering-visionary-donor-and-entrepreneur-sam-zell
2023:
The Lockdown University is scheduled to host online Lyn Julius’ lecture on
Nazis in the Middle East.
2023:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host the Exhibition Opening of
“The Girl in the Diary.”
2023:
Jerusalem Police have made “intensive preparations” for the Jerusalem Day Flag
March scheduled to take place today.
2023:
The Sir Martin Gilbert Center is scheduled to host a lecture by Elliot Clark on
“The Shadowed Advisor: The Role of Clementine Churchill.”
2023:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a webinar in which Trudy Gold
discusses the “Growth of Antisemitism in the Communist East.”
2024(10th
of Iyar, 5784): Parashat Emor; Pirke Avot Chapter Three
for
more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2024:
In Israel, the Edem-Tamir Center is scheduled to host “Ensemble
Millennium/Toscanini Quartet, Ensemble in Residence and Friends.
2024:
As Jews observe Shabbat, they mourn the loss Itzhak Gelerenter, Amit Buskila,
and Shani Louk whose bodies were recovered after they had been murdered “by Hamas
terrorists who kidnapped their bodies.”
2024:
JWI’s “I Believe
Israeli Women initiative” is scheduled to be on the ground in Israel beginning
today.
2024:
As May 18th begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps the
United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day
225 in captivity. (Editor’s
note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are just
providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time.)
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