This Day, April 19, In Jewish History, by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
April
19
According to one
web-site, April 19th is one of the blackest days on the Jewish calendar. From
the 11th century (1014) through the 20th century (1943) this
date is remembered for the atrocities which took place. Below are a few: )
1014:
During a civil war that had broken out between Arabs and Berbers in 1013, the
Jews of Cordoba experienced their first massacre today.
1283:
Following an accusation of ritual murder (the blood libel) thirty-six Jews were
murdered in Mayence (Mainz), Germany,
1283: On the second day of Easter which coincided
with the penultimate day of Passover, a Christian mob attacked the Jews of
Mayence (Germany) killing ten and pillaging their homes. The mob was responding to the discovery of
the body of a Christian child and acting out the consequence of the blood
libel. Archbishop Werner tried to stop
the mob before they attacked. His
intervention kept the blood bath from being even worse. The Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolph, conducted an
investigation into the affair, confirmed the judgment the mob had passed on the
Jews and acquitted the citizens of Mayence of all blame.
1306(4th
of Iyar, 5066): The body of Rabbi Meir Ben Baruch was released by the
authorities 13 years after his death so that he could receive a Jewish burial
Maharam of Rothenburg
1343:
A massacre of the Jews in Wachenheim, Germany which had begun before Easter
spread to surrounding communities.
1506:
During a service at St. Dominic’s Church in Lisbon, Portugal, some of the
people thought they saw a vision on one of the statues. Outside, a newly
converted Jew-turned-Christian raises doubts about the “miracle.” He
was literally torn to pieces and then burnt. The crowd led by two Dominican
monks proceeded to ransack Jewish houses and kill any Jews they could find.
During the next few days, countrymen hearing about the massacre came to Lisbon
to join in. Over two thousand Jews were killed during a period of three days
ending on April 21.
1541:
Ignatius of Loyola took office as the first Superior General of the Society of
Jesus.
1566: Pius V issued “Romanus Pontifex. After being in office for three months, Pope
Pious rejected the lenience’s of his predecessor and reinstated all the
restrictions that Paul IV had placed on the Jews. These included being forced
to wear a special cap, the prohibitions against owning real estate and
practicing medicine on Christians. Communities were not allowed to have more
than one synagogue and Jews were confined to a cramped ghetto.
http://www.jewishhistory.org.il/history.php?startyear=1530&endyear=1539
1539:
Eighty-year-old Catherine Zaleshovska was burned at the stake on the order of
Bishop Gamrat and with the approval of Queen Bona Sforza for having denied the
basic tenants of Christianity after having converted to Judaism. She had been held as a prisoner for ten years
before being murdered. (As reported by The History of the Jewish People)
1654:
“Haham Jacob Sasportas” the Oran born rabbi accepted the offer to lead the
Sephardic community of London
1658:
Robert Rich, 2nd
earl of Warwick, Baron Rich, the English colonial administrator and advocate of
religious toleration in the North American Colonies who supported the repeal of
the Act of Expulsion because it would help to make it possible for the Jews to
return to the United Kingdom passed away today
1664:
In London, “Moses Athias ceased to be Rabbi of the synagogue.”
1664:
“Haham Jacob Sasportas of Amsterdam consented today “to take spiritual charge
of the London Sephardi Community” and accepted the post of Chief Rabbi
replacing Moses Athias
1670(29th
of Nisan, 5430): Moses Samson Bacharach, the son of Samuel and Eva Bacharach
who married “Fiege, the widow of Moses Ha-Kohen Nerol” after the death of his
first wife” Dobrusch, a daughter of Isaac ben Phœbus, of Ungarisch-Brod,
Moravia” and who was the chief rabbi at Worms passed away.
1670(29th
of Nisan, 5430): Solomon Ben Isaac Marini, “the only rabbi at Padua who
survived the plague of 1631” and who wrote a commentary to Isaiah entitled
Tikkun Olam in 1652 and who was the brother of Dr. Shabbethai ben Isaac Marini,
passed away today.
1689:
Sixty-two-year-old Augusta Christian, the Queen of Sweden who studied Hebrew
literature and was philo-Semitic as could be seen by her friendship with
Menassaeh ben Israel and “other Hebrew Scholars” but who was unable “to prevent
the banishment of the Jews of Vienna, decreed by Emperor Leopold in 1670”
passed away today.
1707:
Emperor Joseph, I confirmed an arrangement reached by the Council of Worms on
June 7,1699, which granted “certain concessions” to the Jews of that city.
1753(15th
of Nisan, 5513): Jews in Great Britain observed the first day of Pesach as they
waited for the House of Lords to act on a bill approved by the House of Commons
that would provide them with full civil rights.
1761(15th
of Nisan, 5521): Pesach
1762(26th
of Nisan, 5522): In South Carolina, “Moses Cohen or as he is described on his
tombstone ‘The R.R. Moses Cohen, D.D.’” passed away today after which he buried
“in the Coming Street cemetery in Charleston” which would remain the private
burial ground of Isaac Da Costa until it was “transferred to the Congregation
Beth Elohim in 1764.”
1764(17th
of Nisan, 5524): Third Day of Pesach celebrated on the same day of the
enactment of The Currency Act of 1764 which was designed “to protect British
merchants and creditors from depreciated colonial currency, this act regulated
currency, abolishing the colonies’ paper currency in favor of a system based on
the pound sterling.”
1767(20th
of Nisan, 5527): Sixth Day of Pesach observed for the last time Charles
Townsend, of “Townsend Act” served as British Chancellor of the Exchequer.
1771:
Maria Theresa granted two Sovereign Licenses to the Jews of Trieste, licenses
that constitute real improvement in their economic conditions.
1772(16th
of Nisan, 5532): Second Day of Pesach
1772: Birthdate of economist David Ricardo. Raised as a Sephardic Jew, Ricardo eloped
with a woman who was a Quaker. He later
converted and became a Unitarian.
1775(19th of Nisan, 5535): Fifth Day of Pesach
1775:
The Battles of Lexington and Concord with the “Shot heard round the
world” marked the start of the American Revolution. Besides the famous Hyam
Solomon, “there were hundreds of Jewish soldiers and sailors who fought in
the Revolution and patriots who supported it. There was Phillip Russell, a
surgeon at Valley Forge; Col. David Franks an aide to George Washington; a “Jew
Company, ” which fought in South Carolina; Moses Myers, who fought in
Virginia; the Sheftall family, which fought and were captured in Savannah. In
Manhattan’s Chatham Square cemetery, 22 Revolutionary Jewish soldiers lie. Many
had sacrificed their lives for their new country. Just like the approximately
500 Americans who were killed or wounded during the three British assaults at Bunker
Hill in 1775. (New evidence has surfaced that a Jewish soldier, Abraham
Solomon, participated in the Battle of Bunker Hill as a member of Colonel John
Glover’s 21st Regiment from Gloucester.)”
1776(30th
of Nisan, 5536): Seventy-eight-year-old Rabbi Jacob Israel Emden [Jacob ben
Tswi] passed away. Born at Altona, Germany in 1697 was a scholar and when
it came to technology, a modernist since he owned a printing press which
he used to print Jewish texts. For a while he earned a living by
deal in jewelry. He finally agreed to become Rabbi for the community
in Emden. The town supplied his last name in the secular world.
Emden’s real claim to fame has to with an inter-communal conflict that seems
quite trivial by modern standards.
1776:
Birthdate of London native Joseph Moses Martin who married Abigail Aron Martin
five years and two days after the death of his first wife, Dinah Elimaleh
Mudahi, the mother of his son, Moses Joseph Martin.
1778(22nd
of Nisan, 5538): Eighth Day of Pesach
1778:
In Georgia, where the first Torah scroll had been brought to Savannah in 1733, three
row galleys of the Georgia Navy engaged, defeated, and captured a Royal Navy
brigantine, an armed British East Florida provincial sloop, and an armed brig.
1780(14th
of Nisan 5540): Ta’anit Bechorot; erev Pesah
1780:
During the American Revolution, British forces under Lord Cornwallis tighten
their siege of Charleston which had one of the oldest, and for its time,
largest Jewish communities in the thirteen colonies.
1783(17th
of Nisan, 5543): Shabbat shel Pesach
1784:
Rebecca Franks, and English native Lucius Levy Solomons who died in Montreal
eight years after the birth of his daughter gave birth to Esther Solomons
today.
1791(15th
of Nissan, 5551): First Day of Pesach.
1793: In
Savannah, GA, Sarah Sheftall and Abraham De Lyon, who had been married in their
home town in 1785 gave birth to Abraham De Lyon, Jr, the husband of Esther
Nunes Ribeiro.
1794(19th
of Nisan, 5554): Fifth Day of Pesach; Shabbat Chol Hamoed
1794:
Birthdate of Breindel Blumenfeld, the wife of Wurtemberg, Germany native Mihael
Amson Oberndoefrer with whom she had two children.
1796:
Birthdate of Louisa Country, VA native Ann Overton Fontaine, the wife of
Baltimore born John Jeremiah Jacob and the mother of lifelong Louisville, KY
resident John Jerimiah Jacob
1799(14th
of Nisan, 5559): Final Fast of the First Born in the 18th century
1807:
David Braham married Sarah Abrahams today at the Western Synagogue.
1808(22nd
of Nisan, 5568): Eight Day of Pesach; Yizkor recite for the last time during
the Presidency of Thomas Jefferson
1810(15th
of Nisan, 5570): Pesach
1813(19th
of Nisan, 5573): Fifth Day of Pesach
1818:
Thirty-four-year-old Sarah Joseph, the wife of Raphael Joseph was buried today
at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1819:
Birthdate of S.L. Schwabacher, the future Rabbi of Odessa, Russia.
1824:
Lord Byron, the English poet, passed away. Byron and Isaac Nathan produced Hebrew
Melodies, “a
both book of songs with lyrics written by Lord Byron set to Jewish tunes by
Isaac Nathan as well as a book of poetry containing Byron’s lyrics alone. It
was published in April 1815 with musical settings; though expensive at a cost
of one guinea, over 10,000 copies sold. In the summer of the same year Byron’s
lyrics were published as a book of poems. The melodies include the famous poems
She Walks in Beauty, The Destruction of Sennacherib and Vision of Belshazzar.”
1825(1st
of Iyar, 5585): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1826:
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, today, in The Hague, Leonardus Levy
Abraham Verveer and Caroline Elkan gave birth to Dutch painter and engraver
Elchanan Verveer whose paintings included “The First Pipe” and
“Winter,” both in the museum at Rotterdam, and “The Widow”
and “Sufferers from Sea-Sickness,” which belong to the Stadtmuseum in
The Hague.”
1827(22nd
of Nisan, 5587): Eighth and final day of Pesach
1828(5th
of Iyar, 5588): Parashat Tariza-Metzora
1828(5th
of Iyar, 5588): Rachel Aarons, the daughter of Jacob Aarons and the husband of
Joseph Tobias whom she married in 1785, passed away today in Charleston.
1835(20th
of Nisan, 5595): Sixth Day of Pesach
1837(14th
of Nisan, 5597): Fast of the First Born observed for the first time during the
Presidency of Martin Van Buren, the first Chief Executive to be born in the
independent United States of America.
1839:
The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom. Jews reportedly had
first come to Belgium with the Roman Legions in the first century of the Common
Era. Written evidence dates backs to the
13th century. The community disappeared in the 14th
century during the Black Death, only to return again in the 16th
century when those fleeing from the Spanish Inquisition found refuge
there. Brussels and Antwerp were the
main centers of Jewish settlement when Belgium gained its independence. The guarantee of an independent Belgium was a
given among European powers. It would be
the Kaiser’s disregard for Belgium’s independence that would seal British entry
into World War I which…well we all know where that led.
1840(16th
of Nisan, 5600): Second Day of Pesach; first day of the Omer
1841:
After Jacob Ezekiel wrote to President John Tyler challenging Tyler’s reference
“to the American nation as a ‘Christian people’” President Tyler wrote back to
Ezekiel today explaining his reason for the statement and assuring him that he
meant no disrespect to Jews in the United States.
1843(19th
of Nisan, 5603): Fifth Day of Pesach
1845(12th
of Nisan, 5605): Shabbat Hagadol
1848(16th
of Nisan, 5608): Second day of Pesach
1848:
Anti-Jewish violence broke out in Budapest, Hungary.
1851(17th
of Nisan, 5611): Shabbat shel Pesach
1851:
In Germany, Harris Loewenthal and Hannah Myers gave birth to their daughter
Hattie, who became Hattie Weindhandler when she married Solomon Weindhandler
after which she served as Vice president of the Federation of Sisterhoods and
organizer of the Sisterhood at Rodeph Shalom in New York.
1854(21st
of Nisan, 5614): Seventh Day of Pesach
1854(21st
of Nisan, 5614): Ninety-year-old Isaac Levy, the New York City born son of
Hayman Levy passed away.
1855:
In New York, Solomon Belais, the son of Rabbi Abraham and Naomi Belais and Jael
Belais gave birth to Julia Ascher
1856(14th
of Nisan, 5616): Shabbat HaGadol observed for the last time during the
Presidency of Franklin Pierce.
1856:
The town of Nevada, where the Nevada Hebrew City Society had been organized in
1855 was incorporated today.
1856:
In Cincinnati, OH, Louis Stix, the Dusseldorf, Germany born son of Deborah and
Solomon Stix and his wife Yetta Stix gave birth to Robert Louis Stix.
1856(14th
of Nisan, 5616): In the evening, first Seder.
1859(15th
of Nisan, 5619): Five weeks after the Dred Scott Decision strengthened the
stranglehold of slavery in the United States, Jews observed Pesach.
1860:
One day after she had passed away, Laura Henrietta Symons, the daughter of
George Symons and Rachel Elizabeth was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road
Jewish Cemetery.”
1860:
At Madison, Indiana, Raphael Sulzer and Rachel Meimendinger gave birth to
attorney Marcus R. Sulzer, the husband of Lida Griffith who was active in
Republican politics and served as President of District Grand Lodge, No.2 of
B’nai B’rth.
1861:
A week after the Civil War began
with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, “Joseph Friedenwald, a member
of a leading Jewish family in” Baltimore, MD was among the six people
arrested for attacking Union troops marching through the city on their way to
Washington, DC. Baltimore was a hot-bead of Southern supporters whose
attacks on the troops verged on being a riot.
1861: The 26th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment
whose members included Dr. Jacob da Silva Solis Cohen was attacked by a group
of Rebel sympathizers as it went through Baltimore, MD on its way to
Washington, DC.
1861: Colonel Henry K. Craig wrote to Major Alfred
Mordecai that he ” ‘thought well’ of his request for a
transfer.” Mordecai was a prominent
Jewish officer serving in the U.S. Army who was born in the South. He was seeking a way to stay in the Army
without having to fight against his family and friends. Before Craig could act, he fell ill and
Mordecai’s chance for a transfer would go no further.
1862(19th of Nisan,5662): Pesach shel Shabbat
celebrated as Union Forces under Farragut and Porter continue their bombardment
on Forts Jackson and St. Philip which are the keys to New Orleans.
1864: Before recessing, the New York Assembly passed a
bill “relative to the New-York Hebrew Benevolent Society.”
1865:
The Sephardim in New York held a special prayer for President Abraham Lincoln
who was assassinated as he watched a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington DC
just five days earlier.
1865:
Rabbi Sabato Morais delivered an address at Mikve Israel in Philadelphia
following the death of President Abraham Lincoln. “The stillness of the grave
reigns abroad. Where is the joyous throng that enlivened this city of loyalty?
Seek it now, my friends, in the shrines of holiness. There, it lies prostrate;
there, it tearfully bemoans an irretrievable loss, Oh! tell it not in the
country of the Gauls; publish it not in the streets of Albion, lest the
children of iniquity rejoice, lest the son of Belial triumph. For the heart
which abhorred wickedness has ceased to throb; the hand which had stemmed a
flood of unrighteousness, is withered in death. ´ (As reported by the Jewish
Virtual Library)
1865:
Birthdate of Chaim Zhitlowsky, Russian born Jewish nationalist, author, critic
and champion of Yiddish language and culture.
1866:
Jacob and Amalia Freud give birth to Alexander Gotthold Ephraim Freud, a
younger brother of Sigmund Freud.
1866:
“Laying the Corner Stone of a New Jewish Synagogue in Thirty-ninth Street”
published today described the ceremonies that took place at the future home
Adas Jeshurun, an 80-member congregation which will be housed on a lot
measuring 99 feet by 75 feet.
1867(14th
of Nisan, 5627): Ta’anit Bechorot; erev Pesach
1867(14th
of Nisan, 5627): Thirty-five-year-old Solmon Sexas, the son of Hayman Levy
Seixas and Abigail Seixas passed away today.
1868:
At the suggestion
of Chief Rabbi N. M. Adler, the three city synagogues—the Great, the Hambro’,
and the New—with their western branches at Portland Street and Bayswater agreed
to a scheme today which was submitted to the Charity Commissioners of England
and embodied by them in an Act of Parliament in 1870.
1868(27th
of Nisan, 5628): Seventy-two-year-old Judith Russell Nathans, the native of
Baltimore who was the second wife of Isaiah Nathans with whom she had seven
children passed away today in Philadelphia, PA.
1869:
Theodore Minis Etting who had volunteered to serve in the U.S. Navy during the
Civil War was promoted from the rank of Midshipman to Ensign today.
1870:
German native Adolph Marix who had joined the Navy in 1864 while living in Iowa
became an Ensign today.
1871: In New York, the Assembly passed an appropriations
bill tonight designed to assist a variety of charitable organizations
throughout the state including allocations of five hundred dollars each to
the Hebrew Benevolent Society of Albany and the Hebrew Benevolent Society
of Brooklyn
1872:
In Germany, Albert and Anna Salomon gave birth to Alice Salomon the pioneer
social worker, who was forced to flee her native land because of her “Jewish
origins” which overrode the fact that she had become a Lutheran in 1914.
1872(11th
of Nisan, 5632): Herman Frenkel, who served in the Galician Diet, passed away
today.
1872:
Today Francis Goldsmid started a debate in the House of Commons on the
persecution of the Jews of Romania which resulted in the formation of a
parliamentary committee which “watched the activities of the illiberal
government of that country.”
1872:
Benjamin Franklin
Peixotto, the U.S. Counsel wrote to the Secretary of State “that all the
foreign representatives at Bucharest, except the Russians, had signed an
address to the government of Prince Charles” expressing their displeasure with
the fact that the several Jews had been severely punished while those “who were
charged with the gravest excesses and crimes against the Jewish population of
Vilcoon” had been acquitted. “We see in
this double verdict an indication of the dangers to which the Israelites are
exposed in Romania.”
1873(22nd
of Nisan, 5633): Eighth day of Pesach; Yizkor
1874:
Three days after he had passed away, 38-year-old Louis Goldschmidt, the husband
of Hannah Moses and the father of Therese and Annette Goldschmidt was buried
today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1875(14th
of Nisan, 5635): Fast of the First Born; erev Pesach
1875:
In Lunny (near Grodno) Russia, Max Rubinow and Esther Shereshewsky, the husband
of Sophie Himowich, father of Raymond and Olga Rubinow and graduate of Columbia
Medical College who became an actuary and author of The Quest of Security
which “established him as the most recognized theorist on social insurance in
the first three decades of the twentieth century.”
1876(25th
of Nisan): Rabbi Chaim Halberstam of Zanz, author of “Divrei Chaim” passed away
today.
1877:
In Jacksonville, Florida, David Levy officiated at the wedding of Martha
Ritzwoller of Berlin and Mr. Furchgott of Charleston, S.C.
1877:
In Cincinnati, Hamilton Blatt and Bernard Dreyfoos gave birth to University of
Cincinnati and Medical College of Ohio trained pediatrician Max Dreyfoos. The
husband of Belinda Levy and starting in 1919 an assistant professor off
pediatrics at the Medical College of the University of Cincinnati who was an
attending physician and member of the board at the Jewish Hospital and a member of K.K.
B’nai Yeshurun in Cincinnati, OH.
1877:
In Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Julie Judith Bamberger and Isaac Seckel
Bamberger, the son of Kela Bamberger and Rav Yitschak Dov Halevi Bambergerg,
gave birth to Nathan Bamberger
1878(16th
of Nisan, 5638): Second Day of Pesach
1878:
In Bellaire, Ohio, Alexander Schoenfeld and Rose Hartman gave birth to Julia
Schoefeld, a graduate of Allegheny (PA) College who worked as a probation
officer and schoolteacher while also serving as a “a member of the State
Committee of Federated Women’s Clubs of Pennsylvania” which worked “to effect
improvement in child labor legislation and in conditions of working women.”
1880:
In Russia, Isaac and Jennie (Samson) Marks gave birth of John Marshall Law
School trained Phoenix, AZ attorney Barnett Ellis Marks the husband of Freeda
Lewis who a legal advisor for the Board of Supervisors in Maricopa County, AZ
and President of the Board of Trustees of Congregation Beth Israel
1880:
It was reported today that the Rabbi Morias has published a paper in the April
edition of Penn Monthly about the
Falashas, “a small nation of Jews in Abyssinia who do not speak Hebrew.”
1880:
Birthdate of Julius G. Feit, the native of Galicia who in 1898 came to the
United States where he worked as an insurance broker and was the financial and corresponding
secretary of the Men’s Club at Tempe Emanu-El of Borough Park.
1880:
Jacob Ezekiel Hyneman was elected first lieutenant in the Veteran Corps of the
First Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard was formed, Hyneman. Three years later he would be promoted to the
rank of Captain and serve as the quartermaster.
1881(20th
of Nisan, 5641): Sixth Day of Pesach
1881:
“His Strange and Great Career” published today traces the life of Benjamin
D’Israeli starting with the Inquisition and Expulsion from Spain in the 15th
century.
1881: Benjamin Disraeli, former Prime
Minster, 1st Earl Beaconsfield and famous novelist passed away. Born Jewish, Disraeli was converted to
Christianity by his father. The elder
Disraeli was angry with the Jewish community and marched his children to the
baptismal font in protest. The elder
Disraeli did not convert. Disraeli was
proud of his Jewish heritage and certainly suffered many anti-Semitic attacks
during his career. In one exchange, he
reminded a political opponent that while his ancestors had been drinking blood
out skulls, Disraeli’s ancestors had been singing the Psalms of David in the
Temple of Solomon.
1882(30th of Nisan, 5642): Rosh Chodesh
Iyar
1882: Sarah Lavanburg, the daughter of
Hannah (Seller) Lavanburg and Louis Lavenburg married Oscar Solomon Straus who
as Sarah Straus would be the life companion of one of the great leaders of
pre-War Jewish community.
1882 Rabbi Dr. Henry W. Schneeberger
married Sarah Nussbaum in New York City. The couple had six children – Fannie,
Sigmund, Charles, Philip, Josephine, and Irvin. Sigmund, Charles, Fannie and
Josephine never married and were buried in plots adjoining their parents.
1882: In response to a suggestion from
the Morning Post, large numbers of
English men and women wore Primroses today as a way of marking the anniversary
of the death of the Earl of Beaconsfield, better known as Benjamin
Disraeli. The flower was a favorite of
the famous author and Prime Minister, and it was a fitting way of paying
tribute to his many contributions.
1882: A private meeting in Berlin raised
70,000 marks which will provide assistance to Jews seeking to leave
Russia. The attendees were urged to show
a sense of moderation in the resolutions they adopted on the subject since it
appeared that meetings in New York and London held to support the Russian Jews
had done “more harm than good.”
1884: In Leadville, CO, Lottie, Eva and
Abe Schloss participated in a production of “Patience” at the Tabor Opera
House.
1884: Birthdate of Harvard trained
attorney, Israel Noah Thurman, the native of Russia who in 1892 came to the
United States where he supported the work of Margaret Sanger in the cause of
birth control and women’s suffrage and joined Louis D. Brandeis as an early
supporter of the Zionist movement, and marrying twice, the second time to
“Stephanie Robicsek.”
1885(4th of Iyar, 5645):
“Russian educator and author, Jacob Lazar Epstein who wrote the first Hebrew
language account of Abraham Lincoln’s life and who at the government school in
Shavil passed away today.
1885: “Afghans and Their Home” published
today asks if these Asiatic mountain warriors are descendants of the ancient
Israelites.
1886(14th of Nisan, 5646): Fast of the
first born
1886: Russian native and future
Phialdelpia resident Isaac Aronoff and his wife Dora Aronoff gave birth to Dr.
Joseph A. Aronoff.
1886: In Russia, Leo and Sarah Cohn,
gave birth to Meyer Solomon Cohn, the husband of Sadie Cohn and Bertha Cohn,
who liked to claim that Maryland, where he passed away, was the place of his
birth as well.
1886 (14th of Nisan, 5646): The City and
Suburban News column reports that “the Jewish community throughout the world
will this evening begin the celebration of Pesach, or the Feast of the
Passover. This festival is also known as
the Feast of Unleavened Bread…”
1887: Birthdate of Russian native Boris
Fingerdhood who in 1907 came to the United States where he graduated from NYU,
became superintendent of the Israel Zion Hospital and married twice, the second
time to the “former Mrs. Sylvia Golden.
1888: Birthdate of Savannah, GA native and Bryn Mawr
College graduate Zipporah “Zip” Szold, the fourth president of Hadassah and
wife of labor lawyer and Zionist Robert Szold passed away today in New York
City.
1888: Birthdate of New York native
William Axt, the holder of Doctorate in Musical Arts from the University of
Chicago “who organized the musical department of MGM” and wrote the scores for
numerous motion pictures.
1889:
Birthdate of Austrian native Herman Ausubel who in 1905 came to the United States
where he trained as a dentist at NYU and an oral surgeon at Columbia who should
not be confused with the historian with the same name.
1889:
In London, UK, Sir Meyer Adam Speilman and Gertrude Emily Spielman gave birth
to Claude Myer Spielman
1890:
Immigrants, including thousands of Jews from Eastern Europe, arriving in New
York began using the Barge Office as a processing center today
1891:
Abraham Shapiro married Sarah Jacobs at the East London Synagogue today
1891:
Ira Leo Bamberger defeated Ernst Nathan in an election for the presidency of
the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society of Brooklyn
1891:
It was reported today that the Hartford Theological Seminary has issued the new
Practical Hebrew Grammar by Professor E.C. Bissell.
1891:
It was reported today that the Russian government is planning “a fresh campaign
against the Jews.”
1891:
Birthdate of Hartford, CT native George Fine, the husband of Charlotte S.
Friedman Fine and the father of Irving Fine.
1891:
Based on material that first appeared in the Fortnightly Review, E.B. Lanin
described the crumbling economic conditions in Russia. In response to claims that Jews are at fault
for the usurious rates paid by peasants, he writes “Who are the usurers? The Jews?
They are not for the misery of the peasants is not with the accursed
pale.” The usurer “is not a Jew; he is
as orthodox as the Metropolitan Isidore; as loyal as an official of the secret
police.” (The fact that the Jews were
not responsible for the suffering of the peasants did not keep the Czar and his
cadres from using them as scapegoats.)
1892(22nd
of Nisan, 5652): Eighth and final day of Pesach
1892:
As of today, the city of New York is legally bound to furnish water to the
Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society free of charge.
1893(3rd
of Iyar, 5653): Sixty-three year old Bailey Gatzert, the first only Jewish
mayor of Seattle passed away today.
1893:
In Hungary, Judah and Marjem Grunwald gave birth to Samuel Greenwald the
husband of Szeri Greenwald.
1893:
“Converting The Jews” published today provided editorial comment on “the
procedure adopted by certain crude and violent evangelists to ‘convert the
Jews’” saying that to convert “an educated Chinaman or an educated Hebrew to
‘convert’ him must strike him in the first place as a piece of appalling
impudence.”
1895:
According to remarks published today made by Rabbi Maurice H. Harris of Temple
Israel in Harlem Shakespeare did not want Shylock to be seen as “a selfish
monster who lived for gain” but as the victim of persecution who “if he had
been treated justly and not gibed and sneered at…would not have wanted his
pound of flesh.”
1895(25th
of Nisan, 5655): Sixty-three-year-old Philadelphia philanthropist Lucien Moss,
the son of Eleazer Moss and Mary and “a machinist for
the firm of Morris & Taws, Philadelphia, for whom he superintended the
erection of sugar-mills in Porto Rico” and the founder firm of Wiler &
Moss, brass-workers who “left the bulk of his moderate fortune to the Jewish
Hospital Association of Philadelphia, for the founding and endowing of the
Lucien Moss Home for Incurables of the Jewish Faith” passed away today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11171-moss-lucien
1895:
“Banker, philanthropist and Liberal MP” Sydney James Stern was raised to the
peerage as Baron Wandsworth, of Wandsworth in the County of London” today.
1896:
Herzl’s The Jewish State was published. This is the seminal
piece of literature for the modern Zionist Movement. Known to
many by its more famous German title, Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), is one
of the seminal pieces of literature for the modern
Jewish Zionist Movement. “We are a people — one
people.” “Palestine is our unforgettable historic homeland. . .
Let me repeat once more my opening words: The Jews who will it shall achieve
their State. We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and in our own
homes peacefully die. The world will be liberated by our freedom, enriched by
our wealth, magnified by our greatness. And whatever we attempt there for our
own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind.
1896:
As of today, most of the tickets for the upcoming concert being held for the
benefit of the United Hebrew Charities at the Metropolitan Opera House have
been sold.
1896:
The Union Hebrew Veterans’ Association met at the Grand Opera House in New York
City.
1897(17th of Nisan, 5657): Third Day of
Pesach
1897: Running of the first Boston Marathon. While
many Jews have run in the race, none is more famous than the team from the
Jewish Special Education Cooperative. Team JSEC ran in the 108th Boston
Marathon. Runners included Dan Rosen, Amira Rosenberg, Josh Rosenberg,
and David Katz.
1897:
The Civil Service Commission is scheduled to conduct tests for foreign language
interpreters including those fluent in Hebrew.
1898:
The new temple that is to be built by Congregation of Adath Israel of West
Harlem will used plans drawn by Solomon D. Cohen.
1900(20th
of Nisan,5660): Sixth Day of Pesach
1900:
In Leeds, U.K., Annie Morris and Hyman Morris, the son of Fanny Sapira Morris
and Jacob Samuel Morris, gave birth to Albert Morris.
1901:
“Nathan Straus, the head of …R.H. Macy and Company declined” this “evening to
say anything regarding the prospective removal of their establishment from
Fourteenth to Thirty-fourth Street” and he sent “his nephew to a reported who
called at this house, that the reports to the effect that the Macy concern is
buying the property at Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Streets are without
foundation.”
1902(12th
of Nisan, 5662): Shabbat HaGadol
1902:
The second annual exhibition that includes “the work of east side artists” and
featuring “an exhibition of Jewish antiquities relating to Jewish rites and
customs” is scheduled to begin this evening at the Education Alliance on East
Broadway and Jefferson Street.
1902:
Birthdate of Newark, NJ native Phil “K.O.” Kaplan a leading middleweight who
fought most of the great boxers of the 1920 including his co-religionist Maxie
Rosnebloom
1903(22nd
of Nisan, 5663): 8th day of Pesach
1903: Birthdate of David Silverman who rose from being an office
boy at the Minneapolis Star to serving as the assistant editor of the Minneapolis
Star and the Minneapolis Tribune while also serving as an officer and
member of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/07/29/89228189.html?pageNumber=29
1903: Riots
broke out after a Christian child is found murdered in Kishinev (Bessarabia).
The mobs were incited by Pavolachi Krusheven, the editor of the
anti-Semitic Newspaper Bessarabetz and the vice governor Ustrugov. Vyacheslav
Von Plehev, the Minister of Interior supposedly gave orders not to stop the
rioters. The Jews were accused of ritual murder. During the three days of
rioting, 47 Jews were killed, 92 severely wounded, 500 slightly wounded
and over 700 houses destroyed. Despite a world outcry, only two men were
sentenced to seven and five years in prison, and twenty-two were sentenced
for one or two years. This pogrom was instrumental in convincing tens of
thousands of Russian Jews to leave to the West and to Eretz-Israel. The child
was later discovered to have been killed by a relative.
1904: Twenty-two-year-old
Florence Bachman, the Pennsylvania born daughter of Bertha Joseph and Max Maier
Bachman married Nathau Mayer Hartzell today in Allegheny, PA after which she
had one daughter and later moved to Youngstown, OH.
1904: Vice
Admiral Skrydloff, who is married to a Jewess” arrived at St Petersburg today
on his way to Far East and was greeted with “an enthusiastic reception from
people who thronged the streets” including a “number of prominent Jews” which
would normally not be expected to have happened.
1905: It was
reported today that Magistrate Steinert has announced in the Essex Market Court
“that no summonses or warrants would be issued to Jews except in the most
urgent cases until the Jewish holidays were brought to a close” and that “a
number of Jews who were in court” on April 18 “were told to return in eight
days.
1905(14th
of Nisan, 5665): Fast of the First Born
1906:
A young man with a high forehead and piercing, black eyes, and describing
himself as Gregory Maxime of St. Petersburg, arrived today in New York as the
representative of the parent bund in Russia having been “sent for by the
Revolutionary Bund of New York, an organization of Jewish citizens helping the
Jewish revolutionary movement in Russia.
1907:
“Five hundred little Jewish boys and girls, most of them new arrivals in
America, all of them proteges of the Baron and Baroness de Hirsch Educational
Fund, crowded into the auditorium of the Educational Alliance on East Broadway”
today “at the Yahrzeit services held to commemorate the death of Baron de
Hirsch…”
1907:
Benedict Gimbel of Philadelphia who had been arrested on charges that he had
attempted to bribe two of the District Attorney’s detectives attempted suicide
this afternoon by slashing his throat and left wrist with pieces of broken
glass while staying at the Palace Hotel in Hoboken, NJ.
1907:
Isaac Gimbel, the brother of Benedict Gimbel and Mrs. Benedict Gimbel arrived
at St. Mary’s hospital this evening where they went to the beside of Benedict
Gimbel who Charles Gimble said, “had been poor health for the last few weeks.”
1908(18th
of Nisan, 5668): Sixty-nine-year-old Charles Hallgarten, one of the four
principle partners at Hallgarten & Company passed away.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/04/21/105004782.pdf
1908:
The New York Times reported that the observance of Holy Week and
Passover had cut into the city’s social season.
Activities had been limited to “affairs for charity, and some private
bridges and luncheons.”
1908:
Today, Samuel B. Hamburger was elected President “Temple Ahavath Chesed Shar
Hashomayim” at Lexington and 55th Street following the death of
Marcus Kohner
1908:
Organization of the Sons of Zion fraternal order whose members included Jacob
S. Strahl, Nathan Chasan and Solomon Neuman
1908:
“Ceremonies and Customs of the Easter Season” published today examines the
origins and customs of Easter reminding its readers that “our Easter is a
successor to the Jewish Passover.” The
article pointed out that “the two are the same in their root; but the
opposition of the Christians to the Jews led to a change” in the Christian
celebrations.
1909:
“Criticizes the Jews” published today described a sermon on Sunday evening by
Reverend Frederick Lynch, past of the Pilgrim Church entitled “Christians and
Jews in New York City: A Warning” in which he characterized Jews as being
“ungrateful for American privileges.”
1910:
Nellie Levinson Hirsch and Ferdinand Kilsheimer Hirsch gave birth to Harriet
Carolyn Hirsch Kern, the wife of Joseph Kern.
1910:
For the third day in a row, the United Hebrew Community gave out supplies for
the upcoming Passover holiday to the poor people living on the east side.
1910:
Rensselaer Poly Tech and Columbia trained mining engineer Lucius Mayer, the New
York City born son of Rosa Wolf and Gerson Mayer married Mildred Mack today.
1911:
On the day on which the completed portions of the Cathedral of St. John the
Divine were consecrated The Board of Jewish Ministers sent a congratulatory
telegram to Episcopal Bishop Grier.
1911:
Birthdate of Podiatrist Benjamin W. Pushkin, the husband of Ann Pushkin and
father of Judy and Robert Pushkin
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?n=benjamin-w-pushkin&pid=847947
1912:
In New York events scheduled for tonight celebrating the fifth anniversary of
the Free Synagogue were canceled as a sign of mourning for those who were died
when the Titanic sank.
1912:
James Etches, an assistant steward in the first cabin of the Titanic appeared
at the St. Regis Hotel” this morning and delivered a
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1912/04/20/100361986.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1913(12th
of Nisan, 5673): Parashat Achrei Mot and Shabbat HaGadol
1913(12th
of Nisan, 5673): Fifty-five-year-old Sigmund Kohlman, the husband of Julia H.
Kolman passed away today after which he was interred in the Springhill Avenue
Temple Cemetery in Mobile, Alabama.
1913:
It was reported today that based on information from Beirut Baron Edmond Rothschild
has been granted permission from the government in Constantinople “to undertake
excavations in Palestine” and that he “intends to establish a museum in
Jerusalem in which all the objects that have historic tic bearing upon the
Jewish in Palest will be collected.”
1913:
It was reported today that Emperor Franz Joseph “has conferred the title of
nobility upon the Jewish bank, Dr. Neuman of Budapest” which makes him a member
of the Upper House of Hungary.
1913:
It was reported today that “The Jewish
World of London has been acquired by the proprietors of The Jewish Chronicle of London and will
be published from the offices of the
Chronicle.
1914:
Rabbi Samuel Schulman “of the Temple Beth-El delivered a sermon this morning on
“Reform Judaism, Zionism and the New Palestine” in which he said “it is a great
pleasure to known that men like Jacob Schiff and Nathan Straus…are doing good
work in Palestine giving to young men in the Orient various posts of activity”
and that they are doing philanthropic work in Palestine as they have been doing
in the United States.
1914:
It was reported today that four-fifths of the population of Atlanta favor a new
trial for Leo Frank.
1914:
“Calling the execution of the four gunmen at Sing Sing a ‘barbarous
illustration of the working out of system that is wholly wrong’ Dr. Stephen S.
Wise denounced capital punished in a sermon at the Free Synagogue” this morning
while denying that “the fact that three of young men killed were Jews” had
anything to do with his attitude.
1915:
In the case of “Frank v. Mangum” “the Supreme Court denied Leo Frank’s appeal”
by a seven to two vote with Oliver Wendell Holmes, one of the dissenters
writing “It is our duty to declare lynch law as little valid when
practiced by a regularly drawn jury as when administered by one elected by a
mob intent on death.”
1915:
Elisa and Clairce Lispector gave birth to their middle daughter Tania.
1915:
Approximately 800 people filled in the Educational Alliance building in New
York with an overflow crowd in the streets heard Rabbi Stephen S. Wise speak at
“a mass meeting in honor of Baron Nathan Rothschild who died recently in
London” where he praised him for “his efforts to give education to the Jews of
the world over.”
1916(16th
of Nisan, 5676): Second Day of Pesach; 1st Day of the Omer
1916:
Because today is the second day of Passover, “the collection of bundles and
bags for the United Hebrew Charities Bundle Day” did not take place today but
is scheduled to be resumed tomorrow.
1917:
During World War I, as the maneuvering continued to try and gain British
support for a Jewish homeland, Sir Ronald Graham wrote to Mark Sykes expressing
his concern that the Zionist movement was relying too heavily on the hope that
British would be annexing Palestine and making it part of the British Empire
after the War.
1917(27th
of Nisan, 5677): Lt. Joshua Levy, who had been a “clothier” before enlisting in
the British Army in 1914 died today while serving with the Norfolk Regiment.
1917:
Founding of the Jewish Welfare Board which was designed “to meet the religious
and cultural needs of Jewish personnel in the U.S. military.
1917:
On the same day that the Russian Foreign Minister offered reassurances that his
country would not make a separate peace and that Lenin was criticized for
having accepted German assistance to return to Russia, reports continued to
circulate that attempts were being made to “organize a massacre of the Jews and
intelligent classes” in Kishinev.
1918(7th
of Iyar, 5678): Lt. Lawrence Braham Rosenbaum one of the sons of Solomon
Rosenbaum, a Russian-born pawnbroker, died today while serving with the
Monmouthshire Regiment.
1919:
On the fifth day of Pesach which was also Shabbat Chol Hamoed, the Polish army
occupied Vilna and attacked its Jewish community.
1919:
Eugene Schiffer completed his term as Minister of Finance in Germany.
1919:
The Hebrew Scouts Movement is founded.
1919:
In Cedar Rapids, IA, John and Ruth Miller gave birth to Joan Miller Lipsky, the
widow of Abbot Lipsky.
http://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2015/Aug/Joan-M-Lipsky/
1919:
Birthdate of Philadelphia Sol Kaplan the successful concert pianist and concert
business who was blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
1920:
At Gomel The Twelfth Conference of Bund “where the party was split into two
separate parties, the majority Communist Bund and the minority Social
Democratic Bund, came to an end today. (Editor’s note: Yes, strange as it may
seem to us looking at events from 98 years ago, this sort of philosophic
wrangling went in in deadly earnest even as post-War Europe was racked with
revolution and privation.)
1920:
In New York City, Harry and Beatrice Kaplan Reinhardt gave birth to Sheldon
Reinhardt and his twin brother, Burton “who as the detail-minded, taciturn
television executive behind his more extroverted boss, Ted Turner, played a
crucial role in the formative years of CNN and the 24-hour cable news cycle.
(As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1920:
Birthdate of Kazimierz Smolen, a Roman Catholic Pole who survived Auschwitz
survivor and who after World War II became director of a memorial museum at the
site.
1920:
Associated Justice Louis Brandeis voted with the majority today in deciding State
of Missouri v. Holland, United States Game Warden a case in which Louis Marshall, Esq. submitted an amicus curae brief
to the U.S. Supreme Court on Missouri v. Holland on behalf of the Association
for the Protection of the Adirondacks was decided today.
1920:
Birthdate of Furth native Gerda Liselotte Hirsch-Reis who was murdered at
Auschwitz in 1942.
1920:
Birthdate of Marvin Mandel, the 56th Governor of Maryland.
1921:
The General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia was dissolved
today.
1922(21st
of Nisan, 5682): Seventh Day of Pesach
1922:
Birthdate of New York born American actress Marian Winters
1923:
Frances (Fanny) Wolf, the New York born daughter of Lillian Hendricks Levy and
Louis Napoleon Levy and her first husband Harold Lewis gave birth to Philip
Lewis.
1923:
In Manhattan, Jacob and Regina (Rothenberg) Hymes gave birth to Philip
Frederick Hymes the WW II veteran and hold of an M.A. from the Teachers College
at Columbia best known for his backstage work with “Saturday Night Live.” (As
reported by Richard Sandomir)
1924(15th
of Nisan, 5684): Pesach and Shabbat
1924(15th
of Nisan, 5684): In the evening, some of Harvard’s Jewish students are
scheduled to attend a seder at the home of Greek and Latin Professor Harry K.
Messenger, who along with his converted to Judaism.
1925(25th
of Nisan, 5685): Sir
David Lionel Goldsmid-Stern-Salomons passed away. Born in 1851 he “was a scientific author and
barrister.” The son of Philip Salomons of Brighton, and Emma, daughter of Jacob
Montefiore of Sydney, he succeeded to the Baronetcy originally granted to his
uncle David Salomons in 1873. He married Laura, daughter of Hermann Stern, 1st
Baron de Stern and Julia, daughter of Aaron Asher Goldsmid, brother of Sir
Isaac Lyon Goldsmid by which he had one son and three daughters. He assumed the
additional surnames and arms of Goldsmid and Stern in 1899. He studied at
University College, London and at Caius College, Cambridge, gaining a B.A. in
1874. In the same year he was called to the bar at the Middle Temple. He went
on to produce several scientific works and pamphlets. He was a J.P., D.L. and
High Sheriff of Kent, mayor and alderman of Tunbridge Wells, County Councilor
for the Tunbridge division of Kent for 15 years and J.P. for London, Middlesex,
Sussex, and Westminster. His home north of Tunbridge Wells, Broomhill, is
preserved as the Salomons Museum. It is also a part of Canterbury Christ Church
University, and is a center for postgraduate training, research and consultancy.”
1925:
Dr. Phillip Klein, who “is aid to be the dean of American orthodox Jewish
rabbis,” is scheduled “to be honored at a public meeting this year at the First
Hungarian Congregation, Ohab Zedek, where he has served for the last
thirty-five years.
1926:
Birthdate of Manhattan native and son of Jewish immigrants William Klein “one
of his generation’s most celebrated photographers, represented in museums
across Europe and the United States” who “began his career as a restless
postwar American in Paris who took a studio on the Left Bank, defied traditions
and plunged into his anarchic visions of painting, sculpture, street and
fashion photography, feature films and documentaries.”
https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/william-klein?all/all/all/all/0
1926:
“A group of prominent real estate men met tonight at the Park Lane Hotel” and
“announced their contribution of $200,000 to the United Jewish Campaign which
formally opens later this week in the presence of Mayor James Walker who had
defied doctor’s orders to attend the event.
1927:
‘At the dedication ceremonies of the new Temple Beth Mordecai today, at which
Rabbi J. Gerson Brenner presided, Rabbi Nathan Brenner pleaded with the Jewish
people to continue to practice the Jewish traditions and customs” while Louis
Marshall “who was the principal speaker on that occasion, delivered a fiery
address during the course of which he said, “The Jews have to live their
Judaism. It should be on their lips three hundred and sixty-five days in the
year and it should be taught to their children in the homes.” (JTA)
1927(17th
of Nisan, 5687): Third Day of Pesach
1927:
“King of Kings” a Biblical epic silent film starring Joseph Schildkraut and
Rudolph Schildkraut with music by Hugo Riesenfeld and Joseph Zuro and including
an appearance by Ayn Rand as an extra was released today in the United States.
1928:
Birthdate of William Klein, the New York of “an impoverished Jewish family” who
gained fame as French photographer and filmmaker.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/master-of-the-close-up-william-klein-launched-a-genre/
http://www.masters-of-photography.com/K/klein/klein_articles1.html
1929:
“Dinner Aids Salomon Fund” published today described inauguration of the Haym
Salomon monument campaign which begin with a dinner at the Hotel Biltmore where
attendees heard a speech by “Benjamin Winter, President of the Federation of
Polish Jews, which is sponsoring the Salomon memorial.”
1930(21st
of Nisan, 5690): Shabbat Shel Pesach
1930:
In The Bronx, “operatic tenor Jan Peerce and talent agent Alice (Kalmanowitz)
Peerce” gave birth to director Lawrence “Larry” Peerce whose most famous film
may “Goodbye, Columbus.”
1930:
“End of the Rainbow,” a musical directed by Max Reichman was released today in
Germany.
1930:
New York Yankee 2nd baseman Jimmie Reese played in his first major
league baseball game.
1931:
After having premiered in New York City two week ago, “Crack Nuts” a comedy with
music by Max Steiner was released to the rest of the United States
1931:
The Washington, D.C. campaign of the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee which is scheduled to raise $60,000 began today.
1932:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for thirty-eight-year old University of Illinois College of Medicine
educated gynecologist and surgeon, Dr. Goldye L. Hoffman, the Chicago born
daughter of Ida Louis La Pook and Jacob Hoffman and a “member of the Volunteer
Medical Service Corps during World War I” who “a the time o her death was an
associate in gynecology at her alma mater,” president of the Medical Woman’s
Club of Chicago and a member of Hadassah
1932:
“Max Klein, a restaurant owner of 34 Sutter Avenue, Brooklyn, testified today
as the State’s principal witness in the General Sessions trial of the Rev.
Samuel Buchler, lawyer and former Jewish chaplain at Sing Sing, on a grand
larceny indictment.”
1933:
As an expression of Nazi anger over Churchill’s speech warning that the Jews of
Poland could suffer the same fate as the Jews of Germany, “a correspondent of
the Birmingham Post reported from Berlin that ‘today newspapers are full with
‘sharp warnings for England’ with one headline referring to ‘Mr. Winston
Churchill’s Impudence.’”
1933:
“Campaign of English Nazis Taken Up in Rome During Mosely Parleys” published
today described a meeting in Rome attended by Sir Oswald Mosley, Herman Goering
“and other Fascist leaders in which methods for growing a Fascist movement that
would number more than a million in England were discussed. (JTA)
1934:
According to a report by Morton Rotehnberg, President of the Zionist
Organization of America, 11,000 German Jewish refugees had entered Palestine
from April 1, 1933 through January 1, 1934.
As co-chair of the United Jewish Appeal, Rothenberg is contributions
totaling three million dollars to aid the refugees from Germany.” At the same time, Dr. Arthur Hantke, director
of the Palestine Foundation Fund reported that “there is no unemployment.” There is an “insistent demand for workers”
throughout the country meaning that the influx of immigrants will be a net
economic gain.
1935(16th
of Nisan, 5695): Second Day of Pesach
1935:
It was reported today that the project to settle 1,600 Jewish children from
Germany to Palestine by February 1936 “is among those supported by American
Jewry through the United Jewish Appeal which is conducting a nationwide drive”
to raise $3,250,000.
1936:
Carl J. Austrian made public telegrams “Presidents and chancellors of several
colleges and university in” the United States sent to Rabbi Jonah B. Wise in
which they deplored “a decree promulgated shortly after Easter excluding Jewish
children from German public schools.”
1936
(27th of Nisan, 5696): As Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Palestine Arabs killed
nine Jews in Jaffa. Among the victims was Eliezer Bugitsky who was murdered by
Sales Hassan and Abu Aabahi. The riots lasted until 1939. The end product is the White Paper which was
intended to put an end Jewish immigration and new land purchases.
1936:
Arabs attacked Jews in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa district this morning leaving nine
Jews dead and another fifty seriously wounded.
1936:
“The economic plight of Jews in Poland suffering anti-Semitism was described at
a mass meeting at the Hotel Pennsylvania today called by the Federation of
Polish Jews in America in behalf of the American Committee Appeals for Polish
Jews” which is trying to raise one million dollars to help the Poles.
1937: Time magazine publishes an
article about the origins and growth of Hart, Schaffner and Marx as the
clothing firm marks its fiftieth anniversary.
1937:
Birthdate of New York native and Colgate, University of Chicago and University of
Paris diplomate Peter Tarnoff, the husband of Mathea Falco and the father of
Nicholas, Alexander and Benjamin Tarnoff who rose to the rank of Under
Secretary of State for Political Affairs in 1993 and earned “the Department of
State’s highest award, the Distinguished Service Award for extraordinary
service in advancing American interests through creative and effective
diplomacy.”
https://www.cfr.org/news-releases/memoriam-peter-tarnoff
1937:
Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge a project on which Joseph Strauss served
as Chief Engineer was completed today.
1938(18th
of Nisan, 5698) Fourth Day of Pesach
1938:
In Providence, RI, a Polish born immigrant who “worked as a plumber and
contractor” gave birth to controversial academic Stanley Fish the holder of a
B.A. from Penn and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale who began his career as an
expert on poet John Milton.
https://cardozo.yu.edu/directory/stanley-fish
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/169331
1938:
Birthdate of “American orchestrator, musical director, and composer” Jonathan
Tunick, “one of nineteen of the “EGOT” – people to have won all four
major American show business awards: the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.”
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0876642/
https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/jonathan-tunick-12646
1938:
Two hundred eighty prisoners attended a Passover service tonight at Sing Sing
Prison where were led by Rabbi Jacob Katz, the Jewish chaplain and Zalman
Yavneh the cantor at the West Side Institute Synagogue
1939(30th
of Nisan, 5699): Isaac Carasso passed away today in France. Born in 1874, in what is now Thessaloniki but
was then part of the Ottoman Empire, Carasso was part of a prominent Sephardic
family. He practiced medicine in Spain
before beginning his studies of the effects of Yogurt on digestion. In 1919 he founded the company that many
Americans recognize as Danon Yogurt
1939:
Birthdate of St. Louis and Washington
University trained attorney Ervin Harold Pollack, the member of the Ohio State
University Law School Faculty and “founder and first president of the Ohio
Association of Law Libraries” who passed away in 1972.
https://www.aallnet.org/inductee/ervinpollack/
https://www.librarything.com/author/pollackervinharold
1939:
The Mizrachi Women’s Organization of America raised $20,000 at a luncheon at
the Waldorf Astoria
1939(30th
of Nisan, 5699): Henry Levi Leavitt the Chicago born husband of Lena Gertrude
Baer and father of Melbourne, Ruth, Adelaide and Margaret Leavitt who opened
The Horseshoe Store in Hoquaim, Washington with his brother-in-law Julius Baer
and “served as the first vice-president of Temple Beth Israel in Aberdeen,
Washington, passed away today in Los Angeles.
http://www.jmaw.org/henry-leavitt-hoquiam-washington/
1939:
The Women’s League of Palestine raised $30,000 at a luncheon at the Hotel
Astor.
1940:
In Sofia, Bulgaria, the governments of Bulgaria and Romania signed an agreement
creating an airline which will operate between Sofia and Bucharest with
connecting flights to Tel Aviv.
1941(22nd
of Nisan, 5701): 8th Day of Pesach; Shabbat Shel Pesach
1941: Robert
F. Wagner, Sr. introduced a resolution in the U.S. Senate stating that U.S.
policy should favor the “restoration of the Jews in Palestine.” The
resolution was supported by 68 Senators.
1942: “Chief
Judge Irving Lehman of the Court of Appeals, who is honorary president of the
National Jewish Welfare Board, paid tribute to the organization’s services in
war and peace during a quarter of a century at a founder’s dinner at the Hotel
Commodore” tonight.
1942: “The
National committee for a Louis D. Brandeis Colony in Palestine announced today
“the formation of an national committee of labor leaders and prominent citizens
for the purpose of establishing a new labor settlement as a living tributed to
the late Associate Justice of the United States Supreme court.”
1942: The
Career of Henrietta Szold published today provides a lengthy review of Henrietta
Szold: Life and Letters by Marvin Lowenthal in which the author describes
“the life of the dauntless woman whose name is linked with Palestine.
1943:
Members of Belgium Jewish underground aided by Christian railroad men derailed
a train filled with Jewish deportees bound for the extermination camps. Several
hundred Jews were saved.
1943(14th
of Nisan, 5703 ) – PASSOVER, WARSAW Ghetto UPRISING; The Jews were
determined not to be moved without giving up a fight. 2,100 Germans, fully
armed, enter the Ghetto. The Jews fighting force consisted of about 700 men and
women. They were armed with 17 rifles,
50 pistols and several thousand grenades and Molotov cocktails. A small group of Jewish fighters open fire on
the entering German troops. After an hour of skirmishing, the Germans
retreated. The final liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto began on the Eve of
Passover, April 19, 1943. The deportation did not come as a surprise. The
Germans had amassed a military force to carry it out, but did not expect to
engage in a confrontation that included street battles. Armed German forces
ringed the ghetto at 3:00 a.m. The unit that entered the ghetto encountered
armed resistance and retreated. The main ghetto, with its population of 30,000
Jews, was deserted. The Jews could not be rounded up for the transport; the
railroad cars at the deportation point remained empty. After Germans and rebels
fought in the streets for three days, the Germans began to torch the ghetto,
street by street, building by building. The entire ghetto became a sizzling,
smoke-swathed conflagration. Most of the Jews who emerged from their hideouts,
including entire families, were murdered by the Germans on the spot. The ghetto
Jews gradually lost the strength to resist. On April 23, Mordecai Anielewicz
the ZOB commander wrote the following to Yitzhak Zuckerman, a member of the ZOB
command who was stationed on the “Aryan” side: “I cannot
describe the conditions in which the Jews are living. Only a special few will
hold out; all the others will perish sooner or later. Their fate is sealed.
None of the bunkers where our comrades are hiding has enough air to light a
candle at night…. Be well, my dear, perhaps we shall yet meet. The dream of
my life has risen to become fact. Self – defense in the ghetto will have been a
reality. I have been a witness to the magnificent, heroic fighting of Jewish
men of battle”. The rebels pursued their cause, even though they knew from
the outset that they could not win. The Jewish underground would continue to
fight the Nazis until the middle of May. The Polish underground only gave
minimal help because of anti-Semitism prevalent among many. Although the Allies
will neither publicize events nor try to help, even before the war ended, the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising became a symbol of Jewish resistance.
1943:
Chaike Belchatowska who had joined he ZOB (Jewish Fighting Organization) in January
1943, and her future husband Boruch Spiegel, a commander of a ZOB fighting unit
were among those who took part in the uprising that began today and we among
the handful of fighters who survived.
1943: The Bermuda Conference of Great Britain
and the U.S., held in Hamilton, Bermuda, takes no meaningful action to help
Jews in Europe. Before the meeting, representatives of both countries had
agreed not to discuss immigration of Jews to their nations nor to ship food to
Jewish refugees in German-occupied Europe.
1943:
A year and a half after having been “to the predominately Jewish district of
Sophienstreasse in Berlin,” “Arthur Schmidt was sent on Transport 37 from Gleis
(Track) 17 of Berlin-Grunewald Station to Auschwitz” after which he was never
heard from again.
1943:
“Richard Law, the senior British representative at today’s Bermuda Conference
wrote to his boss, foreign secretary Anthony Eden, ‘Sorry to bother you about
Jews. I know what a bore it is.’”
1943(14th
of Nisan, 5703): Rabbi Menachem Ziemba conducted a Seder tonight in the Warsaw
Ghetto days before he would be gunned down the Wehrmacht.
1943(14th
of Nisan, 5703): Members of the military
attended a Seder at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C.
1944:
Birthdate of Tel Aviv native, Yehuda Weinstein, who became the Attorney General
of Israel.
1944(26th
of Nisan, 5704): Eva Levin Altfeld, the Russian born daughter of Sima and Aba
Ascher Levin and the wife of Solomon Altfeld passed away today after which she
was buried at the B’nai Israel Congregation Cemetery in Baltimore, MD.
1945:
General Bedell Smith, Ike’s Chief of Staff, telephones Churchill to describe
the horror that American troops found when they liberated Buchenwald. Smith assures Churchill that it was worse
than the scenes Ike had described in his telegraph of the previous day.
1945:
A “tommy” was photographed using his bulldozer to push the corpses found at
Bergen-Belsen into a mass grave.” (Editor’s note – the British were not being
insensitive. They were trying to avoid
an epidemic that would have wiped out more the survivors, most of whom were
little more than walking skeletons with no resistance to disease.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Hardman#/media/File:Bergen_Belsen_Liberation_03.jpg
1945:
For a second
time, General Eisenhower cabled Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, with a request
to bring members of Congress and journalists to the newly liberated camps so
that they could bring the horrible truth about Nazi atrocities to the American
public.
1945:
General Marshall received permission from the Secretary of War, Henry Lewis
Stimson, and President Harry S. Truman for these delegations to visit the
liberated camps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohrdruf_forced_labor_camp
1945:
During an afternoon speech in the House of Commons, Churchill describes the
horrors discovered by Allied troops at places like Buchenwald and calls for
Parliament to send eight representatives to view the camps as the first step in
bringing those responsible for these atrocities to justices.
1945:
U.S. Army troops captured Leipzig, Germany today where they found a general of
the Volksstrum who had committed suicide lying in the floor of city “with a
torn picture of His feuhrer beside his clenched fist.”
https://www.archives.gov/files/research/military/ww2/photos/images/ww2-187.jpg
1945:
The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Carousel” opened on Broadway.
1945:
Dr. Rudolf Kastner crossed the Swiss border today.
1946(18th
of Nisan, 5706): Fourth Day of Pesach
1946:
Bouquets of gladioluses and other flowers from Palestine were present to
wounded American soldiers at Halloran General Hospital in Staten Island as a
gift of Palestine war veterans in appreciation of the aid the American military
gave in the liberation of Europe’s Jews.
The gift was timed to coincide with the Festival of Passover.” The
flowers were grown in Mishmar Hasharon, a settlement midway between Tel Aviv
and Haifa.
1946:
New York Yankees Pitcher Herb Karpel appeared in his first major league
baseball game.
1947: This evening, The Shanghai Jewish Youth
Community Center opened its Warsaw Ghetto Commemoration week with a Yizkor
service.
1947:
Comedian Shelly Berman married Sarah Berman
1948:
Twenty-four armored trucks filled with Jewish veterans who had served with the
British Army during WW II, drove to a hilltop “situated less than a mile from
the Arab village of Bureir” where the Jews disembarked and established a new
settlement called Brur Hayal.
1948:
Haganah captured Tiberias
1948:
Dr. Maurice Finkelstein was appointed chairman of New York City’s Temporary
Housing Rent Commission which had been “set up to administer the local freezing
rents for permanent guests of hotels, apartment hotels and rooming and lodging
houses” while aiding tenants threatened with eviction.
1948:
A Palmach unit used Al-Kafrayn for a training base before blowing it up
1949(20th
of Nisan, 5709): Reform Rabbi and Zionist leader Stephen Samuel Wise who in
1942 had met with U.S. Under-secretary of State Sumner Wells and that held “a
press conference where he announced that the Nazis had a plan for the
extermination of all European Jews, and had already killed 2 million” passed away passed
away today. (Editor’s note – Guess the World really did know and the world just
did not care)
1950(2nd
of Iyar, 5710): Yom Hazikaron
1950:
At speech given to the Commerce and Industry Association in New York City,
Harry A. Shadmon, director of the export division of the Chamber of Commerce of
Tel Aviv and Jaffa said that “Israel stands a good chance this year of doubling
the $4,500,000 in exports which it sent to the United States in 1949.” The
figure for 1949 is especially impressive considering the military challenges
the Jewish state was facing for the first six months of that year.
1951:
CBS broadcast the first episode of “Casey, Crime Photographer” produced by
Martin Manulis, with music by Morton Gould.
1951(13th
of Nisan, 5711): Benjamin Jacobs, the London bon son of Amelia and Barnett Jacobs
a tailor who served with the Royal Engineers, the Northern Cyclists Battalion
an the Labour Corps during WW I passed away today after which he was buried in
the Rainham Jewish Cemetery.
1951:
“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” with lyrics by Dorothy Fields and music by Arthur
Schwartz, based on the novel with the same name opened at the Alvin Theatre
1952:
Herb “Gorman appeared for the St. Louis Cardinals against the Chicago Cubs today
pinch-hitting in the 7th inning and grounding out” in what “was his only game
in the majors.”
1951(13th
of Nisan 5711): Benjamin Jacobs, the London born son of Amelia and Barnett
Jacobs who served with the Royal Engineers during WW I passed away after which
he was buried at the Rainham Jewish Cemetery.
1952(24th
of Nisan): Yiddish poet Moses David Gisser passed away in Santiago, Chile.
1952:
The German song “Mutterlein” which became known as “Answer Me” with English
lyrics by Crown Heights native Carl Sigman was published today.
1953(4th
of Iyar, 5713): Yom HaZikaron
1953:
Hermann Merkin
and Ursula Merkin (née Ursula Sara Breuer) gave birth Jacob Ezra Merkin the
financier who was a friend and business associate of Bernard Madoff with whom
he colluded in the one of the worst Ponzi Schemes of the 21st
century.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that torches
and ceremonies on Mount Herzl had signaled the start of Israel’s sixth year of
independence.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Yasha
Heifetz, the world-famous violinist, whose countrywide concerts schedule
included a Richard Strauss violin sonata, cancelled his next recital, as his
right hand, struck by an unknown person who opposed playing Strauss and Wagner
in Israel, had become painful. Prime minister, David Ben-Gurion expressed his
deep regret over this unfortunate incident.
1953:
The Jewish Labor Committee adopted a comprehensive program for this year that
included a greater effort to obtain fair employment legislation in states and
cities, as well as intensified activity to achieve drastic revisions of the
McCarran-Walter Immigration Act.
1954(16th
of Nisan, 5714): Second Day of Pesach; first day of the Omer
1955:
Ten months after having premiered in the United Kingdom, “The Young Lovers”
with a screenplay by George Tabori, a score by Benjamin Frankel and featuring
David Kossoff who would a British Film Academy Award as “most promising
newcomer to film” was released in the United States today.
1957(18th
of Nisan, 5717): Third Day of Pesach
1958:
Former Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, Goodman A. Sarachan and his
wife have announced the engage of the daughter Naomi, a senior at the
University of Michigan and a niece of Sir Leon Simon of London to Warren Singer
of Brooklyn and graduate of the University of Michigan College of Engineering.
1960(22nd
of Nisan, 5720): Eighth Day of Pesach marking the last observance of the
holiday during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower.
1960(22nd
of Nisan, 5720): Sixty-five-year-old New York born WW I veteran Al Posen, the award-winning
cartoonist who created several comic strips, the most famous of which is
“Sweeny and Son” passed away today.
https://library.syracuse.edu/digital/guides/p/posen_a.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Posen#/media/File:Sweeneyandson5855.jpg
1961(3rd
of Iyar, 5721): Yom HaZikaron
1961:
In Manhattan, Borscht Belt comedian Freddie Roman and his wife gave birth to
Alan Kirschenbaum a television producer and comedy writer who worked on such
shows as “Raising Hope,” “My Name is Earl” and “Yes,
Dear” (As reported by the LA Times obit staff)
1961(13th
of Nisan, 5730): Sixty-five-year-old actress Rose Wallerstein, the wife Los
Angeles theatre owner Oscar Ostroff passed away way today in California.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/04/21/118907978.pdf
1962(15th
of Nisan, 5722): Pesach
1962:
“Five Finger Exercise” the film version of the play by Peter Shaffer, directed
by Daniel Mann with music by Jerome Moross. Was released today in in the United
States today.
1965:
Funeral services for the 78 year old Russian born author and member of the
editorial statt of the Jewish Daily Forward Mendel Osherowitch who in 1910 came
to the United States where he wrote a biography of Moses Motefiore that was
published in 1941 and as well as David Kessler and Muni Weisenfreund, Two
Generations in the History of the Yiddish Theater in Americaare scheduled
to take place this morning at 11 am in Manhattan.
https://www.jta.org/archive/mendel-osherowitch-noted-yiddish-author-dead-funeral-today
1966(29th
of Nisan, 5726): Eighty-year old “prize-winning poet, author, translator,
historian, and communal leader Emily Solis-Cohen” passed away. (As reported by
Arthur Kiron)
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/solis-cohen-emily
1966: Eighty-nine-year-old Russian born American opera
impresario Max Rabinoff passed away today.
http://archives.nypl.org/mus/20361
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/archives/rbml/Rabinoff/
1967:
In Jerusalem, State Controller Y.E. Nebenzahl accused the Government of waste
in a number of in his annual report today.”
1967: The head of the Zionist Organization of America
declared today that Israel’s hope for increased Western immigration,
particularly a large influx of technically skilled young American Jews, could
be realized only if Israel “creates the social and economic
conditions” to attract it.
1967:
Konrad Adenauer former Chancellor of West Germany passed away. Born in 1876, Adenauer remained in Germany
during the war. He was imprisoned by the government for his anti-Nazi
sentiments. In 1949, he was named
Chancellor of the democratically elected West German Government. Adenauer worked to reshape the role of Germany
which included accepting responsibility for de-Nazfication and the role that
Germany had played during the war. He
agreed to a program of reparations for the Jewish people and worked to
establish harmonious relations with the state of
Israel. He did this in the face of
pressure from Arab governments that had a lot more to offer the struggling
German economy.
1968(21st
of Nisan, 5728): Seventh Day of Pesach
1970(13th
of Nisan, 5730): Sixty-three-year-old Theodore Yudain, the Russian born son of
Morris and Bertha Yudain and Connecticut newspaperman Theodore Yudain who was
editor of the Greenwich News Graphic,
political editor of the Bridgeport Herald
and editor of the Stamford Advocate
passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/04/20/archives/theodore-yudain-stamford-editor.html
1971: In
Casablanca, Moroccan Sephardic JewsDavid and Régine Elmaleh gave birth to
“French stand-up comedian and actor” Gad Elmaleh.
1972:
The late Diane Arbus’s photographs were chosen to appear in the Venice
Biennale, marking the first time an American photographer was honored at the
event.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/apr/19/1972/diane-arbus
1973(17th
of Nisan, 5733): Third Day of Pesach
1973(17th
of Nisan, 5753): Ninety-one-year-old Hans Kelsen, the main author of Austria’s
new constitution after the First World War” and the Pure Theory of Law passed
away today at Berkley, CA.
https://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2577&context=californialawreview
1973(17th
of Nisan, 5733): Sixty-seven-year-old realtor Ida (Menter) Arffa, the widow of
Emanuel Arffa and mother of Gerald, David and Marvin passed away today in New
York state
1973: Barbra Streisand recorded “Between
Yesterday & Tomorrow.”
1973: “Soylent
Greent,’ a science fiction cliff hanger directed by Richard Fleishcer and
co-starring Edward G. Robinson was released today in the United States.
1973:
Birthdate of Israeli professional tennis player Tzipora “Tzipi” Obziler who
represented Israel at the 2008 Summer Olympics in China.”
1974(27th of
Nisan, 5734): Yom HaShoah
1974(27th of
Nisan, 5734): Yigal Stavi was killed today when his F-4E Phantom II was shot
down today by the Syrians.
1974: Benny
Kiryati was taken prisoner when his F-4E Phantom II was shot down today by the
Syrians.
1975(8th
of Iyar, 5735): Seventy-six-year-old French author and historian Robert Aron
passed away on the night before he was scheduled to be formally inducted into Académie Française
1976:
Professor of Meteorology Tzvi Gal-Chen and his wife gave birth to Rivka Galchen
“a Canadian-American writer and physician whose first novel, Atmospheric
Disturbances, was published in 2008.” She has served as an adjunct
professor in the writing division of Columbia University’s School of Art
1978: Yitzhak
Navron was elected 5th President of Israel.
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael/state/pages/yitzhak%20navon.aspx
1978: NBC
broadcast “The Saving Remnant,” the fourth and final episode of the mini-series
“Holocaust”
1978:
Following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon after Operation Litani,
the South Lebanon Army (SLA) shelled NIFIL headquarters.
1978: In Palo
Alto, CA, Betsy Lou (née Verne), a writer and occasional actress, and Douglas
Eugene “Doug” Franco a Silicon Valley businessman who met while they
were students at Stanford gave birth to James Franco “an American actor,
director, screenwriter, producer, teacher, author and poet.”
1979(22nd
of Nisan, 5739): Eighth Day of Pesach and Yizkor
1979: Five Prisoners of Zion
– Boris Penson, Anatoly Altman, Leib Khnokh, Hillel Butman and Wolf Zalmanson –
were “pardoned by the Soviet authorities and left for Israel.
1981(15th
of Nisan, 5741): Pesach is observed for the first time under President Ronald
Reagan.
1982: Aharon
Abuhatzira was convicted today “of larceny, breach of trust and fraud.”
1984(17th
of Nisan, 5774): Third day of Pesach
1984: In
“Ernie Cobb Keeps Chasing a Dream” published today Dave Anderson described how
Ernie Cobb, who played basketball in Israel when nobody else would give him a
chance, overcame false charges that he had taken point in a point-fixing
conspiracy during while playing for Boston College.
1985: In a
joint ceremony, President Ronald Reagan presented the Congressional Gold Medal
to Elie Wiesel and on signed the Jewish Heritage Week Proclamation at the same
time that Wiesel “stirred deep emotions
when he tried to dissuade President Ronald Reagan from taking time from a
planned trip to West Germany to visit a military cemetery there, in Bitburg,
where members of Hitler’s elite Waffen SS were buried” saying “That place, Mr.
President, is not your place…Your place is with the victims of the SS.’
1987: Lieutenant
General Levi ended his term as IDF Chief of Staff. The Tel Aviv native joined the army in 1954
and took part in the parachute drop into the Mitla Pass during the 1956 Sinai
Campaign. He passed away on January 8,
2008 (Shevat 1) at the age of 72.
1987: Today a
series of shorts that would become the Simpsons became a regular feature of the
Tracey Ullman Show, a creation of James. L. Brooks.
1989(14th
of Nisan, 5749): Ta’anit Bechroto; erev Pesach
1989: One day
after he had passed way, 63 year old Brooklyn born Melvin Annenberg, a loan
office with Merchants Bank in Syracuse was buried in Temple Adath Yeshurun
Cemetery.
1990(24th
of Nisan, 5750): Eighty-two-year-old Goldie (Peromsik) Arguss, the wife of
Arthur Arguss passed away today.
1991: “Drop
Dead Fred” a comedy starring Phoebe Cates was released today in the United
States.
1993(28th
of Nisan, 5753): Yom HaShoah observed for the first time during the Presidency
of Bill Clinton.
1993: Fifty
years after the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Lillian Lazar describes
the fight against the Nazis.
1994: In Riverside Park, as a
small group gathered to remember the 51st anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto
uprising, Ruth W. Messinger’s thoughts turned to what was happening in Gorazde.
“Remembering what happened in Warsaw helps us express our outrage at what
is now happening in Bosnia,” said the Manhattan Borough President,
referring to the siege of the Bosnian town.
1994: A Tenement
Building at 97 Orchard Street, New York City, NY was designated as a National
Historic Landmark. “Built between the years 1863-1864, the tenement building at
97 Orchard Street is representative of the first surge in tenement construction
in New York City propelled by the need to accommodate the large influx of
immigrants that were settling in the Lower East Side during this period. The
late nineteenth century saw a precipitous increase in Jewish immigration from
Eastern Europe, many of whom settled in the Lower East Side. The building at 97
Orchard Street housed numerous ethnic groups including Germans, Irish, Greek
and Spanish, however, the ethnic make-up of the tenement building between 1890
and well into the 1920s consisted entirely of Eastern European Jews. With its
upper four floors remaining virtually untouched for sixty years, the building
readily conveys to the present-day observer the harsh and confining living
conditions experienced by many immigrants in New York City during the latter
part of the nineteenth century, and Eastern European Jews in particular. During
its period of highest use, as many as 10,000 people may have inhabited the
tenement building at 97 Orchard Street.”
1996: Boļeslavs
Maikovskis, the Latvian Nazi collaborator who lived undetected in New York for
36 before fleeing back to Europe died today without ever answering for his
crimes.
1997: Amid a
ballroom filled with local notables, and political dignitaries, the Jewish Chautauqua Society
honored former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford with its National Champion of
Interfaith Award. For the Jewish
Chautauquans, who promote public service and interfaith dialogue, the award was
especially relevant. Wofford, a Democrat who represented Pennsylvania in the
Senate, is the Clinton administration’s standard-bearer for volunteerism, the
chief executive officer of the Corporation for National Service.
1998: In “The World; 50 Years
Ago in Israel: Trying to Imagine the Future,” Marc D. Charney traces the
history of the Jewish state.
1998: The New York Times
featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of interest to Jewish
readers including “The
Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision” by Henry Kamen, ”The Discipline of Hope,” by
Herbert Kohl, and “Bitch:
In Praise of Difficult Women” by
Elizabeth Wurtzel.
2000(14th of Nisan, 5760): Fast of the First Born observed for
the last time during the Presidency of Bill Clinton
2000(14th of Nisan, 5760: As Jews sat down for the Seder,
based on the number of sales, thousands of Jews had their first chance to use
the Reconstruction A Night of Questions: A Passover Haggadah by Rabbis
Joy Levitt and Michael Strassfeld
2001(27th of Nisan, 5761): Ninety-year-old Obie award winning
playwright Lionel Abel “the son of Alter Abelson, a rabbi and poet, and of Anna
Schwartz Abelson, a writer of short stories” passed away today.
2001(27th of Nisan, 5761): Forty-five Ornan Yekutieli, a
sixth-generation Israeli on his father’s side and a second generation Holocaust
survivor on his mother’s side who was born in Haifa in 1955 and was head of
Jerusalem Now faction in the Jerusalem City Council, passed away in New York
while waiting for a liver transplant.
2001: President and Mrs. Bush participated in the “Days of Remembrance”
Observance in the U.S. Capitol. The President declared, “We are bound by
conscience to remember what happened, and to whom it happened.” Mrs. Bush
participated in the lighting of candles with a Holocaust survivor.
2001: At Colgate University’s Saperstein Jewish
center Barry Strauss, director of peace studies and a professor of history at
Cornell University, delivers a talk entitled “Massacre and Memory,”
followed by a discussion of the 1914 massacre in a small Russian-Polish
village, and its after-effects.
2002: This afternoon 250
Jews and 350 Palestinians shouted at each other across Michigan Avenue in
Chicago as the Arab-Israel conflict comes to the Windy City.
2003(17th of Nisan, 5763): Third Day of
Pesach and Shabbat Chol HaMoed
2003: “Israel said today that it was willing to pull
back troops, release some Palestinian prisoners and ease travel restrictions if
an emerging Palestinian government made a serious effort to halt violence.”
2004(28th of Nisan, 5764): Yom HaShoah
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/61109#.U1CvjJtOWpp
2004(28th of Nisan, 5764): Samuel Ralph
“Subway Sam” Nahem a journey-man pitcher who began his career with
Brooklyn in 1938 and finished it with the Phillies in 1948 passed away today at
the age of 88. Nahem came from a Jewish
baseball family since his uncle was outfielder Al Silvera.
2004: The Jewish Theological Seminary Board of
Overseers organizes a fund raiser that features a rare exhibition of original copies of the
United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, owned by Dorothy Tapper Goldman.
Proceeds from the event will enable JTS to make new acquisitions.
2005:
A new mikvah designed by an Israeli architect was dedicated at the Grand Choral
Synagogue in St. Petersburg, Russia.
2005(10th
of Nisan, 5765): Seventy-nine pioneering jazz drummer Stan Levey passed away
today.
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/nyregion/stan-levey-bebop-drummer-dies-at-79.html
https://jazztimes.com/news/drummer-stan-levey-dies/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1488901/Stan-Levey.html
2006: Haaretz reported that a sixteen-year-old tourist from the
United States who sustained critical wounds in Monday’s suicide bombing was
still in serious condition.The teenager was fighting for his life after doctors
operated on him most of the night. His injuries were mostly to his stomach and
internal organs and his aorta was torn, she said. The American boy’s family did not want any details about him
released to the media.
2006(21st of
Nisan, 5766): Members of Portugal’s Jewish community said prayers in a downtown
Lisbon square to mark the 500th anniversary of a massacre of thousands of Jews
in the Portuguese capital’s streets. Chronicles from the time recount that when
Catholic crowds, incited by a small group of priests, ran amok for three days
in 1506 at least 2,000 Jews were butchered and burnt alive. The violence was
said to have broken out after a local Jew questioned the validity of a supposed
miracle. Lisbon at the time was gripped by hunger amid a prolonged drought and
was threatened by an outbreak of the plague. Locals, encouraged by the
Inquisition, sought divine help. About 50 members of Lisbon’s Jewish community,
estimated to number around 1,000, gathered at dusk in a square next to the
Maria II National Theater, which was built on the site of an old Inquisition
court. Participants declined to speak to reporters, citing a religious
prohibition. Portugal’s King Manuel I forced all Jews in his country to convert
to Catholicism in 1496. Some fled, but those who stayed were subjected to
humiliating public baptisms. They were designated “New Christians” or
“Marranos,” Iberian slang for pigs. Even then, they remained at risk
from religious persecution and lived in designated Jewish quarters. In 1988,
Portugal’s then-president Mario Soares formally apologized to Jews for the
persecution.
2007: The
Israel Opera presents the season’s first performance of Richard Strauss’
“Ariadne auf Naxos.”
2007: A four
day long International Conference entitled “Children Hidden in Belgium during
the Holocaust meeting in Israel comes to an end.
2007: Paul “Kurtz
appeared on Penn & Teller’s television show Bullshit! arguing that exorcism
and Satanic cults are merely “hype and paranoia.”
2007(1st
of Iyar): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2007: The Jerusalem Post reported that A Bible
that a condemned member of the pre-state underground gave to his British prison
guard minutes before he and a fellow Zionist fighter killed themselves is to be
returned by the guard’s son in Jerusalem today, six decades later
2008: Diversity
of Devotion: Celebrating New York’s Spiritual Harmony, an exhibit of
photographs on display at the Brooklyn Public Library celebrating Faith in its
many forms comes to a close. The Brooklyn Public Library show includes a
photograph of Rabbi Levy and Rabbi Eliyahu of Congregation Beth Elohim in
Queens taken by photographer and Forward contributor Julian Voloj. The work was
drawn from Voloj’s series of photos on black Jews in America.
2008: Palestinian
suicide bombers from Gaza drove three explosives-laden vehicles into the Kerem
Shalom goods crossing on the border with Israel early today.
2008(14th of
Nisan, 5768): Just as it did 65 years ago, the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising falls on the same day on both the secular and Jewish calendars.
2008(14th of
Nisan, 5768): In the evening, the first Seder marks the start of Pesach.
2008: The last surviving leader of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto
uprising paid silent tribute to the young Jews who launched the doomed revolt
against Nazi troops 65 years ago. Marek Edelman, 89, handed yellow tulips and
daffodils to his grandchildren, Liza and Tomek. He watched as they placed them
at the foot of the gray-and-black Monument to the Heroes of the Ghetto, located
in a barren square at the heart of the former ghetto.
2009: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readings including “Shadow and Light” by Jonathan
Rabbn, “How Free Is Free? The Long Death of Jim Crow” by Leon F. Litwack and
the recently released paperback edition of “Maps and Legends: Reading and
Writing Along the Borderlands” by Michael Chabon.
2009: At
NYU’s Bronfman Center for Jewish life people from all over New York City join
in “Sing Out Israel,” an event featuring familiar Israeli and Jewish tunes.
2009: A.B. Yehoshua, the
award-winning Israeli author, reads from and discusses his most recent novel, “Friendly
Fire,” and chats about his life as a writer and his thoughts on Israel in a
conversation with Leon Wieseltier, at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in
Washington, D.C.
2009: The Illinois
Holocaust Museum & Education Center opened today under rainy skies, with
several thousand people seated beneath large tents, their enthusiasm shown in a
standing ovation for survivors.
2010: As part of its
Graduate Seminar Program, The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present
a program entitled “‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ and ‘Crossfire’: Anti-Semitism at the Movies.”
2010: Terminal 5 is scheduled to host New York’s community-wide
Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebration honoring Israel’s fallen and celebrating 62 years of
independence at what is described as the largest Yom Ha’Zikaron/Yom Ha’Atzmaut
gathering in the world outside of Israel!
2010(5th of Iyar, 5770): Yom Hazikaron
2010(5th of Iyar, 5770): Felicia Haberfeld, a native
of Poland who fought to reclaim her husband’s ancestral home in Auschwitz
decades after it was seized by the Nazis, died today at the age of 98 in Los
Angeles. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/01/local/la-me-felicia-haberfeld-20100501
2010: The State Department summoned the senior Syrian diplomat in
Washington to accuse his government of “provocative behavior” in
supplying scud ballistic missiles to Hezbollah.
2011(15 Nisan, 5711): First Day of Pesach
2011: “Adnan Dameery, spokesperson for the Palestinian Security
Forces, reported DNA tests had exonerated a detained suspect and that the masked
gunman who had murdered Juliano Mer-Khamis, the former IDF paratrooper and
filmmaker, was still at large.
2011: In the evening Second Seder.
Somewhere a person with roots in the Gibraltar Jewish Community will say
“Todo el que tenga hambre, venga y coma, todo el que tenga menester, venga y
pascue” (Anyone who is hungry come and eat; all who have need, come and
celebrate) as they follow that community’s custom of reciting the Haggdah in
Ladino for the Second Seder.
2011: In the third such attack in Greece in less than 2 years,
arsonists broke into Corfu island synagogue and damage at least 30 prayer
books. Arsonists set fire to a synagogue on the Greek island of Corfu early today,
damaging prayer books but causing no injuries, in the third such attack in
Greece in less than two years, police said.
2011: Steve Soboroff was hired by Frank McCourt to be the Vice
Chairman of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. (Soboroff was Jewish)
2011: A revival performance of Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart”
opened today
2011:
“Venerable Art Dealer Is Enmeshed in Lawsuits”
published today looks at the challenges facing 65-year-old Guy Wildenstein, the
leader of “a discreet dynasty of Jewish art dealers.”
2012(27th of Nisan, 5772): Yom Hashoah
2012: “Spoken Word and Music Performance” a Holocaust Remembrance
Day observance co-sponsored by La Maison Francaise is scheduled to take place
at the Embassy of France in Washington, D.C.
2012: Holocaust survivor and Director of the ADL, Abraham Foxman
is scheduled to appear at the Illinois Holocaust Museum’s Yom Hashoah memorial
event.
2012: Yad Vashem will publish thousands of new documents today gleaned
from national and KGB archives from the former Soviet Union on this year’s
Holocaust Remembrance Day.
2012:” Remembrance” a film that depicts a love story between a
German Jew and a
Polish Catholic that blossomed amid the terror of Auschwitz in
1944 is scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2012: The world’s most wanted living Nazi collaborator is Laszlo
Csatary, the Simon Wiesenthal Center said in its annual report today (As
reported by Gil Shefler)
2012: Left-wing extremists defaced three monuments to Israeli terror
victims and fallen members of the security services in the Jordan Valley,
police discovered today, just one week before Israel honors its war dead.
2012: Irwin M. Jacobs “was named the W. P. Carey School of
Business Dean’s Council of 100 Executive of the Year, which honors
change-making business leaders who serve as models for today’s business
students”
2012: Yad Vashem is scheduled to publish “thousands of new
documents gleaned from national and KGB archives from the former Soviet Union
on this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. The new archival material – totaling
approximately one million new documents – is available following several
international agreements made in the past four years with national archives and
those with the KGB from the former USSR.”
2013: The Maccabeats are scheduled to perform at a Shabbat Event
at the University of Illinois sponsored by Chabad.
2013: “No Place on Earth” is scheduled to premiere in Portland,
Oregon and Chicago, Illinois.
2013(9th of Iyar, 5773): Ninety-two-year-old Francois
Jacob, the recipient of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Medicine passed away today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Francois_Jacob.html
2013(9th of Iyar, 5773): Eighty-year-old computer and
math wizard Kenneth I. Appel passed away today.
2013(9th of Iyar, 5773): Ninety-five-year photographer
turned actor Allan Arbus best known for his role as the quirky psychiatrist on “M*A*S*H,”
passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/23/local/la-me-allan-arbus-20130424
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/arts/television/allan-arbus-mash-actor-dies-at-95.html?hpw&_r=1&
2013(9th of Iyar, 5773): Eighty-three-year-old children
author and illustration E. L. Konigsburg passed away today.
2013: A dinner to help raise funds for research on treating
Glycogen Storage Disease, a rare Ashkenazi Jewish liver disorder is scheduled
to be held at the Coral Springs Marriott.
2013: On the secular calendar, 70th anniversary of the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005188
2013: A complex $10 billion arms deal in its final stages would
strengthen two key Arab allies – the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia –
while maintaining Israel’s military edge, US defense officials said today.
2013: Following the public outrage over a debt arrangement between
Bank Leumi and tycoon Nochi Dankner’s Ganden Holdings Ltd., the bank announced this
afternoon that it was backing out of the arrangement.
2014:
“The Last Act of Lilka Kadison” is scheduled to have its final performance
today at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank
2014:
In Poland, observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day which coincides with the
anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
2014:
The main
synagogue in Nikolayev, located in the southeast of Ukraine, was firebombed
today when two Molotov cocktails were thrown at the synagogue’s door and
window. (As reported by JTA)
2014:
“Paris-Manhattan” is scheduled to be shown at the JCC Rockland International
Jewish Film Festival.
2014:
Premiere of “5 to 7” directed by Victor Levin at the Tribeca Film Festival.
2015:
“The Art Dealer” is scheduled to be shown as part of the UK Jewish Film
Festival.
2015:
“G-D’s Honest Truth” is scheduled to be performed for the last time at Theatre
J in Washington, D.C.
2015:
In Washington, D.C. Dr. Samuel Gruber is scheduled to deliver a lecture
entitled “ Before Modernism: American Synagogue Architecture Before WW II.”
2015(30th
of Nisan, 5775): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2015:
“American Jewish comedian Amy Schumer” talked about her “new film ‘Trainwreck’”
today “at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival.”
2015(30th
of Nisan 5775): Eleven days before his one hundredth birthday Elio Toaff who
served as Chief Rabbi of Rome from 1951 to 2002 passed away today.
2015:
The New York Times features books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest
to Jewish readers including The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the
Middle East by Eugene Rogan and the recently released paperback edition of Mad
As Hell: The
Making of “Network” and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies by Dave Itzkoff
2015: In
commemoration of Yom HaShoah the Guy Mendilow Ensemble and the Philadelphia
Girls’ Choir are scheduled to a perform a concert that includes compositions in
English and Ladino that takes us “musical trek from bustling Mediterranean
ports and resplendent Balkan capitals to communities shattered in the Second World
War and all but forgotten” at the National Museum of Jewish History in
Philadelphia.
2015: Today’s
Yom Hashoah observance at the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta,
GA is scheduled to include a speech by Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat and the
Atlanta Boy Choir performing “I Never Saw Another Butterfly.”
2015: The
President’s Residence announced today that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
will meet with President Reuven Rivlin tomorrow “to request an extension in
forming” a new government. (Times of Israel)
2015:
“Hundreds of people commemorated the 72nd anniversary of the
outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising” this afternoon in the Polish capital
city.
2015: “Hungarian
Holocaust survivors rescued 70 years ago from a train taking them from one concentration
camp to another today paid tribute to the American soldiers who helped liberate
them.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hungarian-holocaust-survivors-thank-american-rescuers/
2015: The 12th
annual “March of Good Will” a demonstration against anti-Semitism took place
today in Prague.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hundreds-march-in-prague-against-anti-semitism/
2016(11th
of Nisan, 5576): Ninety-three-year-old Nobel Prize laureate Walter Kohn passed
away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/26/science/walter-kohn-nobel-winning-scientist-dies-at-93.html
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1998/kohn-bio.html
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1998/kohn-bio.html
2016:
The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to present “Kosher USA: How
Coca-Cola Came to the Passover Seder and Other Tales of Modern Kosher Food”
which “follows the journey of kosher foods through the modern industrial food
system, traces how iconic products such as Coca Cola tried to become kosher,
what made Manischewitz wine the very first kosher name brand to gain an African
American audience, and more.
2016:
In “Stretis Matzo, a New York Tale of a Lost Love” published today Nicolas
Rapold provided a review of a documentary about the Big Apple and the Bread of
Affliction.
2016:
Future Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, “an early Trump supporter” attended
Trump’s victory party “after the New York Republican primary” today.
2016:
In an appearance sponsored by the Thaler Holocaust Memorial Fund, “Magda Brown,
who was 17 years old in 1944 when she and her family were deported on one of
the final transports to Auschwitz-Birkenau” is scheduled to speak at Kennedy
Sr. High School.
2016(11th of
Nisan, 5776): Hungarian native and Holocaust survivor
Joseph Altman, the award winning NYU trained biologist and neurobiologist
Joseph Altmaan the husband, successively of Elizabeth Altman and Shirley A.
Bayer passed away today.
2016:
“Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You” is scheduled to be shown at the
Westchester Jewish Film Festival.”
2016(11th
of Nisan, 5776): Fifty-one-year-old Israeli movie star Ronit Elkabetz passed
away today.
2016:
All decent human beings pray for the recovery of 15 year old Eden Dadon and all
of the other victims of yesterday’s terrorist bus bombing in Jerusalem as they
fight to recover from their wounds and burns.
2017(23rd
of Nisan, 5777): Ninety-six-year-old Ruth Sulzberger Holmberg, the former
publisher of The Chattanooga Times, the Sulzberger paper before the New York
Times, passed away today.
2017:
The UK Jewish Film Organization is scheduled to sponsor a screening of “The
Pickle Recipe” in Glasgow, Scotland
2017:
The UK Jewish Film Organization is scheduled to host a special preview
screening of “The Zookeeper’s Wife” at the Phoenix Cinema.
2017:
“Barney’s Version” and “Weirdos” are scheduled to be shown at the Vancouver
Jewish Film Centre. 2017: “An Israeli computer scientist,” “Adi, Sahmir, a
professor at the Weizmann Institute” is scheduled to receive a Japan Prize
today as recognition “for his contribution to information security through
pioneering research on cryptography.”
2017:
Poland’s chief
Rabbi Michael Schudrich led “the burial ceremony of Torah Scrolls in the Warsaw
Jewish Cemetery” today.
2017:
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced harsh criticism from bereaved parents
today over his management of the 2014 Gaza war during an emotional
three-and-a-half-hour-long hearing, including a series of heated back and
forths between politicians and families of those killed in battle.”
2017:
“Holocaust Escape Tunnel,” a “Nova” production shown this evening, sheds new
light on the attempt by 80 imprisoned men and women — mostly Lithuanian Jews —
to make a break for freedom in the face of Nazi bullets.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/science-helped-verify-this-unbelievable-holocaust-escape-story/
2018(4th
of Iyar): Israel Independence Day observed since the fifth of Iyar falls on
erev Shabbat;
2018:
The Jewish Federation of Cleveland is scheduled to host Israeli
singer-songwriter David Broza at its Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration at Landerhaven,
2018:
“Pioneer Women,” a statue created by Leo Friedlander, that “was commissioned as
part of the Texas Centenary celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of Texas
Independence from Mexico” and is on the campus of Texas Woman’s College in Denton,
TX “was added to the National Register of Historic Places” today.
2018:
“Ina Lancman, daughter of Naftali Herts Kon, well-known Yiddish poet and
writer, are scheduled to give a presentation together with Polish attorney
Tomasz T. Koncewicz. Lancman that will focus on Naftali Herts Kon’s literary
career and the stirring story of his persecution and the confiscations of his
papers under the Soviet and communist Poland regimes”
https://www.yivo.org/Naftali-Herts-Kon
2018:
Natan Sharansky is scheduled to receive his Israel Prize for promoting
immigration today as part of Israel’s Independence Day celebrations
2019:
Volodymyr Zelenskyy participated in the presidential debates at Olimpiysky
National Sports Complex.
2019:
On the 76th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, it has been
reported that “Hamburg prosecutors have charged a 92 year old former
concentration camp guard” “identified
only as Bruno D. of aiding and abetting 5,230 case of murder during the almost
nine months he spent on duty at” Stutthof Concentration Camp as a member of the
SS.
2019:
In one of those Calendar Coincidences, on the Gregorian calendar, Good Friday,
which marks one of the most famous Passover related events in history coincides
with the start of Passover in the evening.
For more see The Trial and Death of Jesus by Haim Cohn.
2019(14th
of Nissan, 5779): Ta’anit Bechorot; Erev Pesach;
14th of Nisan, 5622(1862): In the evening, during
the Civil War, Pesach begins with 21 Union soldiers of the 23rd Ohio Volunteer
Regiment celebrating with a Seder in Fayette, West Virginia.
14th of Nisan, 5660(
1900):
Poor Jews living on the Lower East Side were relieved to find that free matzoth
were being distributed at Charles “Silver Dollar” Smith’s “old place on Essex
Street.” There was concern that the distribution would end since Smith
had passed away last year. Before he had changed his name, Smith was
known as variously as Charles Goldschmidt or Charles Solomon. A New York
alderman who was part of the Tammany Hall machine, he was called “Silver
Dollar” because of the “2,400 silver dollars used as a studded inlay in his
saloon…”
14th
of Nisan, 5671(1911):
This evening, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association host a public Seder in New
York and “special services” for the Jewish immigrants currently detained at
Ellis Island.
14th of Nisan, 5631(1871): As the Jews of Newark,
New Jersey, begin the celebration of Passover this evening, it is estimated
that they will consume 10,000 to 15,000 pounds of matzoth during the eight days
of the holiday
14th
of Nisan, 5671(1911):
This evening, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association host a public Seder in New
York and “special services” for the Jewish immigrants currently detained at
Ellis Island.
14th
of Nisan, 5674(1914):
Four hundred and fifty Jewish servicemen including sailors from the battleships
Texas, North Dakota, Washington, Ohio, Wyoming and Louisiana are scheduled to
take part in a seder specifically for military personnel at Tuxedo Hall in
Manhattan.
14th
of Nisan, 5700(1940):
The Sommer family sit down to their first Seder in Liechtenstiein. How
this family of German Jewish refugees from Munich came to be there was
chronicled by Susi Pugatsch-Sommer in an article entitled “A Pesach Miracle in
Nazi Germany.”
14th
of Nisan, 5703(1943):
Members of Belgium Jewish underground aided by Christian railroad men derailed
a train filled with Jewish deportees bound for the extermination camps. Several
hundred Jews were saved.
14th
of Nisan, 5703(1943): PASSOVER, WARSAW Ghetto UPRISING; The Jews were
determined not to be moved without giving up a fight. 2,100 Germans, fully
armed, enter the Ghetto. The Jews fighting force consisted of about 700 men and
women. They were armed with 17 rifles, 50 pistols and several thousand
grenades and Molotov cocktails. A small group of Jewish fighters open
fire on the entering German troops. After an hour of skirmishing, the Germans
retreated. The final liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto began on the Eve of
Passover, April 19, 1943. The deportation did not come as a surprise. The
Germans had amassed a military force to carry it out, but did not expect to
engage in a confrontation that included street battles. Armed German forces
ringed the ghetto at 3:00 a.m. The unit that entered the ghetto encountered
armed resistance and retreated. The main ghetto, with its population of 30,000
Jews, was deserted. The Jews could not be rounded up for the transport; the
railroad cars at the deportation point remained empty. After Germans and rebels
fought in the streets for three days, the Germans began to torch the ghetto,
street by street, building by building. The entire ghetto became a sizzling,
smoke-swathed conflagration. Most of the Jews who emerged from their hideouts,
including entire families, were murdered by the Germans on the spot. The ghetto
Jews gradually lost the strength to resist. On April 23, Mordecai Anielewicz
the ZOB commander wrote the following to Yitzhak Zuckerman, a member of the ZOB
command who was stationed on the “Aryan” side: “I cannot
describe the conditions in which the Jews are living. Only a special few will
hold out; all the others will perish sooner or later. Their fate is sealed.
None of the bunkers where our comrades are hiding has enough air to light a
candle at night…. Be well, my dear, perhaps we shall yet meet. The dream of
my life has risen to become fact. Self – defense in the ghetto will have been a
reality. I have been a witness to the magnificent, heroic fighting of Jewish
men of battle”. The rebels pursued their cause, even though they knew from
the outset that they could not win. The Jewish underground would continue to
fight the Nazis until the middle of May. The Polish underground only gave
minimal help because of anti-Semitism prevalent among many. Although the Allies
will neither publicize events nor try to help, even before the war ended, the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising became a symbol of Jewish resistance
14th
of Nisan, 5708(1948):
Erev Pesach the rations given out in Jerusalem for the observance of Passover
included 2 lbs. of potatoes, ½ lb of fish, 4 lb. of matzo, 1 ½ oz. dried fruit,
½ lb. meat, and ½ lb. of matzo flour. As one who was there later wrote, “For
the trapped citizens of Jerusalem, who had become accustomed to privation, the
Passover provisions seemed like a banquet. However, for the citizens of
Jerusalem, it was not a particularly merry affair. On the verge of their
national freedom, the inhabitants of Jerusalem sat somberly around their
tables. This was the first time since the nightly shellings that the city’s
citizens had come together in assembly in the various homes throughout the city
that had been the dream of two thousand years’ Seders. Tonight is a holiday,
but tomorrow the struggle will go on. As they sat to begin the Seder, they
heard the beginning of the snipers bullets looking for a straggler in the
streets. But tonight was different. As they opened the door, as they had done for
scores of generations, to welcome in Elijah, there was no fear. Tonight is a
night of divine protection. As the Holy One protected the Jews in Egypt, so
shall he protect us here in the war torn city of Jerusalem. “Once we were
slaves, but today we are free men” recited in the Haggadah, took on new
meaning. The British are leaving, the Arabs are attacking, and we are beginning
our new national lives as free men in our own country. “Next year in
Jerusalem” had a meaning that we never before understood. We meant it; we
would not relinquish our dream to return to our homeland, to the city that has
been in our hearts throughout the two thousand year exile. Now we are free men,
tomorrow we must continue the fight to remain free.
2020(25th
of Nisan, 5780):
2020:
In Coralville, IA, the pandemic does not halt the learning as Kathy Jacobs is
scheduled to lead an introductory y session about Mussar, thanks to the wonders
of Zoom.
2020:
In Atlanta, GA, the Breman Museum is scheduled to broadcast “a very special Yom
HaShoah message online and through social media” featuring Ilse Eichner Reiner,
Holocaust survivor, and a Anat Sultan-Dadon, Consul General of Israel to the
Southeastern United States.
2020:
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston is scheduled to host “Virtual
Yom HaShoah Remembrance & Reflection”
2020:
Since Jews only eat two times – when they are sad and when they are happy – in
Cleveland, “Nathan, Seth, Eric and Angie are standing by for your orders as
“Kantina” is scheduled to open today with curbside pickup and home delivery.
https://www.kantinakatering.com/
2020:
The New York Times features reviews
by Jewish author and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including When
Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father’s War and What Remains by Ariana
Neumann, Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America by Gerald Posner, The
Toddler in Chief: What Donald Trump Teaches Us About the Modern Presidency
by Daniel W. Drezner and Wayside School Beneaeth the Cloud of Doom by
Louis Sachar
2020:
Today, Israelis are scheduled to feel the first full day of the government’s
plan to open the economy which were announced last and will be reviewed in two
weeks.
2020:
““A Slippery Slope: Jews, Schmaltz and Crisco” during which Rachel Gross,
American Jewish studies chair at SFSU, talks about how Crisco began in 1913
with intense marketing toward Jewish women, who in turn began relinquishing authority
to corporate “experts” is scheduled to be “organized on Zoom by Jewish
LearningWorks” this afternoon.
2020:
Yom HaShoah Commemoration at Beth Hillel Bnai Emunah, in Wilmette, Illinois,
scheduled for today has been canceled due to the Pandemic.
2021:
S.F. Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society is scheduled to offer a class on
organizing your boxes of photos, with tips on getting started, setting goals
and not getting stressed out led by photographer Susan Gerbic.
2021:
Taube Center for Jewish Studies is scheduled to present Penn State professor
Lior Sternfeld talking about his book, Iran and Zion, on the Jewish
history of 20th-century Iran.
2021:
Temple Emanuel (Wakefield) is scheduled to present online “Jewish Wisdom for
Growing Older.”
2021:
In conjunction with East Bay Int’l Jewish Film Festival streaming this 2020
documentary “Holy Silence,” historian Fred Rosenbaum is scheduled to talk about
the controversial role of the Vatican and Pope Pius XII during World War II.
2022(18th
of Nisan, 5782): Fourth Day of Pesach
2022:
On the secular calendar, 247th anniversary of Lexington and Concord
which, on the Jewish calendar, fell on the 5th day of Pesach
2022:
On the secular calendar, 79th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising
2022:
In New Orleans Touro Synagogue is scheduled to host its Board Meeting
2022:
The Virtual Passover Film Festival, presented by the Marlene Meyerson JCC
Manhattan scheduled to continue for a fifth day.
2022:
“Leket Israel’s Passover Family Open Picking Days” is scheduled to come to an
end today.
2022:
The London School of Jewish Studies is scheduled to offer in person the
“British Museum Matazah Ramble” with Rabbi Raphael Zaru,
2022:
In Walnut Creek, CA, Chabad of Contra Coast is schedule to host a seder led in
Russian by Ukrainian-born Rabbi Yitzchok Tsap.
2022:
In Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is scheduled to host “Roses and
Almonds: Songs of the Sephardim” during “Bay Area trio Aquila will perform a
concert of Sephardic music celebrating life, love, food, drink, nature,
spirituality, adventure and humor.”
2023:
The Walnut Street Synagogue is scheduled to host on-line an online exploration
of Jewish food traditions and the historical connections between Jews and food
with Jewish food researcher Joel Haber.
2023:
The Jewish Community is scheduled to present “The Secret Symmetry of Maimonides
and Freud” during which Nathan Szajnberg will discuss his soon-to-be-published
book comparing Maimonides’ “The Guide for the Perplexed” and Freud’s “The
Interpretation of Dreams,” and how the former could be be perceived as
anticipating that latter.
2023:
The Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to present on online
lecture, “The Jewish Deli Revival: Consuming American Jewish Nostalgia,” in
which professor Rachel Gross will examine how restaurateurs are making American
Jewish food fit for the 21st century, emphasizing sustainability and local
produce.
2023:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host the first session of Naomi Miller
Beginners’ Yiddish: Shopping, Cooking Inviting and Easting for the Jewish
Holidays.”
2024:
All Jewish Theatre is scheduled to host “Prompt/ ‘ingredients’ go out for
Bake-Off, plus actor and director sign-up sheet.”
2024:
The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host a Walking Tour of the Jewish
Lower East Side where participants can “explore an era of unparalleled growth
as waves of immigrants settled, prayed, played, worked, shopped, and attended
school in this neighborhood as they built their new lives in a new land.”
2024:
At Temple Judea, an Oneg is scheduled to be held before Shabbat Worship with
Rabbi Yaron and Cantor Abbie – Freedom Shabbat – featuring the Tabernacle
Baptist Choir.
2024:
The Lexington Venue in Lexington, MA, The Circle Cinema in Tulsa, OK and the
Manor Theatre are scheduled to host screening of “Farewell Mister Hafman,” a
film that tells the story of a Jewish jeweler trying to survive the Nazi
occupation of Paris.
2024:
As April 19th begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 196 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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