This Day, May 20, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
May 20
68(3rd
of Sivan, 3828): During the Great Revolt, Vespasian captured Jericho and
slaughtered the Jewish inhabitants.
325: The First Council of Nicaea, convoked by
Emperor Constantine, opens. Among other
things, the Council dealt with the issue of setting the date for Easter. Going forward, Easter would never again be
celebrated on the same day as the first day of Pesach.
526:
An earthquake, with an epicenter in Syria that reportedly killed 300,000
people, is felt throughout much of the Near East including at least two towns
now located in the modern state of Israel – Acre and Beit Jann.
1092:
During the reign of St. Ladislaus the Synod of Szabolcs decreed that Jews in
Hungary should not be permitted to have Christian wives or to keep Christian
slaves. This decree had been promulgated in the Christian countries of Europe
since the fifth century, and St. Ladislaus merely introduced it into Hungary.
1217:
At the age of 70 (or close to it) William Marshal the English lead who had
regarded King John’s policy towards the Jews …as harmful to the state” led the
forces loyal to King Henry III to victory over the French at the Battle of
Linocln which led to their expulsion
from country
1285:
Henry II, the second surviving son of Hugh III succeeded his brother John I who
may have been poisoned, as “the last ruling and first titular King of
Jerusalem” a meaningless title from the point of Jews.
1285:
Consecration of Honorius IV, the Pope who played a
key role in the expulsion of the Jews from England.“In November 1286 Pope
Honorius wrote to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, reaffirming the
decision of the Lateran Councils. He enlarged on the evils of relations between
Christians and Jews and warned of the pernicious consequences of the study of
the Jews’ Talmud. The King joined in the dialogue and condemnation by reviving
the crimes of ritual murder. Jewish writers use the word “allegation”
with regard to ritual murder with boring regularity.”
1293:
King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Study of General Schools of Alcalá which
would become one Spain’s oldest and finest universities. During the 1930’s the school would prove to
be haven for Jewish intellectuals fleeing anti-Semitism in other parts of
Europe. The school would cease to be a
haven when Franco led his coup in 1936 that became the Spanish Civil War and
brought facism to the Iberian Peninsula.
1530:
Ninety year old Avraham HaLevi Mintz the husband of Livo Minz and Chief Rabbi
of Padua,passed away today at Padua, Italy.
1444:
Sixty-three-year-old Italian priest and Franiscan missionary Bernadino of Siena
who depicted “Jewish lenders as bloodsuckers depleting the city and countryside
of its money in his sermon 43 on usury” died today.
1549:
In a decision rendered by Queen Bona (sforza), bearing today’s date, the
following regulations, modifying and defining the rights of the Jewish
community of Grodno, are introduced: (1)
Jews are to pay 17 percent of the taxes the government assessed against the
city; (2) they are freed from some
special taxes paid in kind; (3) houses
and lands formerly bought by Jews from citizens are freed from citizens’ taxes;
those bought by citizens from Jews are freed from Jewish taxes. But thenceforth no Jew may buy a house from a
citizen without royal permission
1631:
The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire
and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the
Thirty Years’ War. For once, there were probably no Jews among the dead. The Jews had been explled from the town in
1493 and would not be readmitted until 1671 during the reign of the great
elector, Frederick William.
1648:
King Wladislaus IV of Poland passed away. Wladislaus was the king of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth when the Chmielnicki, Uprising began in January
of 1648. According to some, the King and
his advisors underestimated the size and the strength of the uprising. They suffered to major defeats as the
Cossacks moved westward. His death left
the Poles leaderless at a crucial time in their history and may have been a
contributing factor to the success of the uprising which brought death and
destructions to hundreds of thousands of Jews living throughout the area.
1663:
Lawyer and MP Sir Peter Pett who along with the Bishop of Langley and Lord
Anglesey drew up a plan shortly after King Charles II returned to the throne
that would have placed the Jews in a ghetto like environment and subjected them
to special taxes, was elected to the Royal Society today, as one of its
original fellow.
1671:
Frederick William of Prussia permitted 50 Jewish families who had been expelled
from Vienna to settle in his dominion.
1764(18th
of Iyar, 5524): Lag B’Omer was observed Indian raids continued the Virginia frontier
in the wake of what was known as “Pontiac’s War.”
1769(13th
of Iyar): Rabbi Nethanel Weil of Prague, author of “Korban Nethanel” passed
away.
1771(7th
of Sivan, 5531): Second day of Shavuot: Yizkor
1779(5th
of Sivan,5539) Erev Shavuot
1783(18th
of Iyar, 5543: Lag BaOmer
1790(7th
of Sivan, 5550): Second day of Shavuot; Yizkor
1794:
A day after he passed away, Hyam Simon was buried today at the Alderney Road
Jewish Cemetery.
1799:
Birthdate of Baltimore native and American naval officer Henry Etting who
reached the rank of captain in 1861.
1806:
Birthdate of British philosopher John Stuart Mill
http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs12115-000-1008-z.pdf#page-1
1806(3rd
of Sivan, 5566): Talmudist and author Samuel ben Nathan Ha-Levi Loew, who had
been born in Bohemia in 1720 and who “presided over a yeshiva at Boskovice,
Moravia for almost 60 years” passed away today.
1809(5th
of Sivan, 5569): Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot
1813:
Isaac Samuel Wormser, the German born son of Samuel Isaac Wormser and Elkele
Simon Wormser and his Scheinle Ephraim gave birth to their second “stillborn”
Child.
1816:
The Common Council of the City Richmond,
approved an “Ordinance Concerning the Hebrew Society of Richmond” which had
been proposed by council member and leader of the Jewish community Benjamin
Wolfe that allowed the “Congregation of the House of Peace” to a acquire a plot
of hill on Shockoe Hill to be used for a burial ground.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/43057456.pdf
1817(5th
of Sivan, 5577): Erev Shavuot
1818(14th
of Iyar, 5578); Pesach Sheini
1819(25th
of Iyar, 5579): Rosey Aaron, the wife of Sander bar Aharon passed away today in
England.
1819:
Rica Meldola, the eldest daughter of Raphael Meldola married David Aaron de
Sola, the senior rabbi at Bevis Marks Synagogue in London.
1820(7th
of Sivan, 5580): Second Day of Shavuot; Yizkor
1820:
In Warsaw, Gabriel Berekson, the son of Berek and Temerl Bergson and his wife
gave birth to composer and pianist Michal Bergson.
1820:
Rabbi Löb Glee Hildesheimer, a native of Hildesheim and his wife gave birth to
Esriel or Azriel Hildesheimer, a German rabbi who was a leader in the formation
of Modern Orthodox Judaism.
1821(18th
of Iyar, 5581): Lag BaOmer
1822:
Birthdate of author Emile Erckmann who along with Alexandre Chatrian co-authored
the 1869 play “Le Jeuf Polonais” (The Polish Jew) which was the basis for “The
Bells.”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F50915FA3E541B728DDDAC0994DB405B8985F0D3
1835:
Michael Rose, the Great Synagogue’s first Rabbi, arrived in Sydney, Australia.
1839(7th
of Sivan, 5599): Second Day of Shavuot; Yizkor
1842:
Arch abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison wrote an article in his newspaper the
Liberator, referring to Mordecai Noah, one of the most prominent Jews of the
period as “a Jewish unbeliever, the enemy of Christ and
Liberty.” Garrison felt that Noah
had expressed sentiments that were hostile to the abolitionists when, as a
Judge, he was delivering a charge to a Grand Jury. Garrison would continue his attacks on Noah
describing him as “the miscreant Jew”, that lineal descendant of the
monsters who nailed Jesus to the Cross” and as a “Shylock” who
“will have his pound of flesh at any cost.”
1842:
One day after he had passed away, Jacob Abraham Wood, the husband of Hannah
Simmons was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1845:
in Luna, a shtetl in the province of Grodno, Russia, Eliezer Dov Liebermann, a
maskilic author and scholar and his wife gave birth to Aaron Samuel Liebermann,
“a pioneer of Jewish socialism and the Jewish labor movement, who was described
by Rudolf Rocker and Ber Borochov as the “father of Jewish socialism”
(Some sources show his birth year as 1843 or 1840)
https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Lieberman_Aharon_Shemuel
1846:
In London, Alfonse Hartog and Marion Moss gave birth to Numa Edward Hartog, a
Jewish British mathematician who attracted attention in 1869 for graduating
from Cambridge University as Senior Wrangler and Smith’s Prizeman but as a Jew
had not been admitted to a fellowship which “led to the passage of the
Universities Tests Act of 1871, which removed religious barriers to holding
fellowships at Oxford and Cambridge.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7292-hartog-numa-edward
1847(5th
of Sivan, 5607): Erev Shavuot
1847:
Consecration of the New Netherdutch Synagogue took place in New York. The
congregation was organized so they could, “have a Synagogue where they can
worship according to the Amsterdam Minchag. They number about sixty members.
The service was performed by the S. E. C. Noot, the Chazan of the congregation,
assisted by several young men.”
1848:
An article written by Simon Szanto published today “gave a brief account of the
account of a committee that have formed to encourage “immigration to America so
that the Jews of Austria Hungary might” be able to “acquire true political
freedom.”
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43057990?seq=2
1851(18th
of Iyar, 5611): Lag BaOmer
1851:
Birthdate of inventor Emile Berliner. Born in Germany, Berliner came to
the United States in 1870. His most famous invention was the flat
phonograph record which replaced the cylinder that had been invented by Thomas
Edison. Berliner made many other contributions through his work at
the Bell Labs. He also was an early developer of the
helicopter. At the end of his life, he supported the rebuilding of
Palestine and was very active on behalf of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He died in 1929.
1852:
Birthdate of Dr. Immanuel Munk, the native of Posen and brother of Hermann Munk
who became a leading physiologist.
1855:
Birthdate of Saul Frank. A Dutch Jew,
whose parents were Sephardic, he was a successful businessman who settled in
California and married Sarah Vasen the Iowa educated physician who became the
first Jewish woman doctor in Los Angeles.
1856:
A meeting was organized with the Ottoman Grand Vizier Aali Pasha upon his visit
to London today where an agreement on the principles to establish a railway
between Jaffa and Jerusalem was signed today
1857:
In Philadelphia, PA, “Mayer and Fanny Rice” gave birth to Columbia trained
physician Joseph Mayer Rice, the husband of Deborah Levinson, who after
practicing medicine in New York, studied psychology at the Universities of Jena
and Leipzig, served as the editor The
Forum and founded the Society of Education Research.
1858(7th
of Nisan, 5618): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1864(14th
of Iyar, 5624): Pesach Sheni observed on the same day that Confederates were
defeating Union Forces under the incompetent political General Benjamin Butler
at the Battle of Ware Bottom Church which thwarted part of Grant’s plan to
squeeze Lee’s army today.
1866(6th
of Nisan, 5626): Shavuot
1866(6th
of Nisan, 5626): Philip Jacob Cohen, who married Eleanor Moses in 1799 passed
away today in Charleston, SC.
1867(18th
of Iyar, 5657): Lag B’Omer
1867:
A fair was held today at the Concordia Opera House in Baltimore, MD. Proceeds from the event are to be used for
the building of the Hebrew Hospital which, when completed, will offer services
to all indigent citizens without regard to religious affiliation.
1868:
Birthdate of Bavaria native Louis A. Behr who in 1890 settled in Pittsburgh
where he became president of the Rosenbaum Company, Chairman of the Board of
the National Department Stores and a leader of the Jewish community as can be
seen by his service as “a director of the Jewish Federation of Philanthropies,
the Jewish Home for the Aged and the Hebrew Instate while being married to the
former Elsie Rosenbaum, the daughter of Max Rosenbaum.
1873:
Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis, a tailor from Reno, received patent 139,121 which
protected their invention of blue jeans with copper rivets in areas of stress
including the pocket corners and the button fly.
1874: Levi Strauss marketed blue jeans with copper rivets charging $13.50 per
dozen. Strauss arrived in San Francisco with canvas that he thought he
could use for making tents to sell to the miners. But what the miners
needed were stout pants, which Strauss gave them using the canvas. He
later changed to heavy blue denim called genes in French which became jeans in
to the people of California. The copper rivets were used because the
miners put nuggets in their pants pockets and regular stitching would not hold
them.
1875:
Birthdate of Petrograd native Aaron Potruch who in 1883 came to the United States
where he was a builder in Bethlehem, PA
1876:
In Cologne, Germany, “Simon Van den Berg and Catherine Van Stratum” gave birth
Brahm van den Berg, the child prodigy pianist who gained fame in Europe “as an
operatic conductor and served on the faculty of the Cincinnati Conservatory.
1877:
Thirty year old Dr. Ignatz Kornfeld married 24 year old Harriet Singer today.
1879:
Joseph H. De Meza a young Cuban Jew pleaded guilty to charges that he had tried
to steal clothing from Mrs. Charles A. Lillie by swindling her. He was held over because he could not raise
$3,000 in bail. During the proceedings,
De Meza told the court of various swindles he had taken part since his family
left Cuba six years ago. According to De
Meza, his family had been forced to flee from their home in Matanzas because
they were part of the insurgency aimed at overthrowing the Spanish rulers of
Cuba.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30916FA385A137B93C3AB178ED85F4D8784F9
1880:
Birthdate of University of Georgia undergrad and Columbia trained attorney
Leonard Hass, the defense attorney for Leo Frank and “the first representative
of the ACLU in Georgia” who was the father of John and Leonard Haas, Jr.
1881:
In “Posvol, Lithuania, Wolf and Chaija Esther (Shalowitz) Bernstein gave birth
to Johns Hopkins undergrad and U. of California Ph.D. Benjamin Abram Bernstein,
the husband of Rose Davidson, brother-in-law of sculptor Jo Davidson and
longtime Professor of Mathematics at the Cal, Berkley.
https://dpg.lib.berkeley.edu/webdb/hstc/search?author=&item=77
1882:
After a night-long interrogation, five year old Samuel Scharf “confessed to
police” describing the role that his father and several other Jews has played
in the ritual murder of Andreas Huri at Tisza-Eszlar.
1884:
Birthdate of Philadelphia, PA native Leon Schlesinger, motion picture producer
“behind Warner Bros. cartoons of the 1930’s and 1940’s” who “oversaw the
creation of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd” and who was the
husband of Bernice Schlesinger.
https://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/leon-schlesingers-obituary-6088.html
1885(6th
of Sivan, 5645): Shavuot
1885:
NYU trained physician, Zionist and “American patriot” Joseph Isaac Bluestone,
the Lithuanian born son of Chaim (Hyman) Bluestone and Golde Chaya Bluestone
and his wife Sarah Rachel Bluestone gave birth to Rose Celia Bluestone
1886:
Birthdate of Jake Guzik, the native of Cracow who became the “Treasurer”
responsible for the financial well-being for Al Capone which did not preclude
him from taking part in a myriad of other criminal activities.
1887:
In Poland, Solomon and Rose Goldstock Kolko gave birth to Nathan Kolo, the
husband of Sara Alpert Kolko with whom he had six children.
1888(10th
of Sivan, 5648): Sixty-five-year-old Cerinna
[Selena} Hendricks,
the daughter of Frances Isaacs, the Lancaster, PA born daughter of Joshua
Isaacs and Harmon Hendricks the “prominent manufacturer of copper and
granddaughter of Uriah Hendricks one of the founders of Congregation Shearith
Israel, passed away today.
1888:
At Cologne, Rudolf Mosse, the son of Dr. Marcus Mosse and Ulrike Mosse and his
wife Emilie gave birth to Felicia Lachmann-Moses
1888:
Birthdate of Rabbi Moses Aaron Poleyeff, the native of Minsk who came to the
United States in 1920 where he served on the faculty of Yeshiva College.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Rebbi.html?id=MvpGGwAACAAJ
1889(19th
of Iyar): Italian Jewish leader Samuel Altari passed away
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Alatri
1890(1st
of Sivan, 5650): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1890:
Kentucky native Frank Lyon, who during the Spanish American War served on board
the USS Oregon as an Assistant Engineer “with the rank of Ensign” joined the
U.S. Navy today.
1891:
“He Wants to go Home” published today described the plight of Barney Greenman
who came to United States with his parents a year ago. The teenager who has received help from the
United Hebrew Charities, wants to go back to Rotterdam where he can rejoin his
parents who went back because they “did not succeed in make a fortune…”
1891:
In London, as the number of destitute Russian Jews seeking refuge in Great
Britain, The Evening News “warns authorities that if the Hebrew ‘invasion’ is
not checked…an anti-Hebrew movement…will grow up in England.”
1891:
Louis Raphael shot his fiancée, Rachel Weinberg this evening and then turned
the gun on himself.
1890:
It is alleged that two or more unidentified individuals threw the body of
Samuel Hutch, a Jewish peddler, down an abandoned mine shaft near Wurtsborough,
NY.
1891:
Dr. Henry M. Leipziger was unanimously elected Assistant Superintendent of
Schools in New York City.
1892:
Mathilde Blumenthal and Berthold Hochschild gave birth to Yale graduate and
president of the American Metal Company Harold K. Hochschild the husband of
Mary Marquand with whom he had one son, author Adam Hochschild.
https://www.mininghalloffame.org/hall-of-fame/harold-k-hochschild
1893:
As the condition of Jews in Russia worsened it was reported today those living
in the Asiatic part of the empire are to be expelled in the same manner as
their co-religionist in the Polish part of the empire.
1893:
Birth of Herzl’s daughter Margarethe Gertrude (always known as
“Trude”).
1894(14th
of Iyar, 5654): Pesach Sheini
1894:
Birthdate of “middleweight boxer August “Augie” Ratner, the Minneapolis
“gangster and owner of Augie’s Theatre Lounge.
https://www.amazon.com/Augies-Secrets-Minneapolis-Hennepin-Strip-ebook/dp/B01N9OWCZ7
http://www.hazelandwren.com/2013/what-were-reading-augies-secrets/
1895:
In Brooklyn, a judgment in the amount of twelve dollars was awarded to the
landlord who owned the building at 116 Seigel Street to be paid by Congregation
Havercham which had failed to pay rent for the month of May.
1896:
In New York, the laying of the cornerstone took place for the new Synagogue of
Congregation Shearith Israel at 70th Street and Central Park West. At the
entrance to the synagogue, there are two millstones that were from Mill Street,
the location of the town miller during the early colonial period.
1896:
Max Bodenheimer, leader of the Cologne Zionists, invites Herzl to speak.
Bodenheimer was a lawyer in Cologne and one of the main figures in German
Zionism. Close to Theodor Herzl, he was the first president of the Zionist Federation
of Germany and one of the founders of the Jewish National Fund. After his
flight in 1933 from Nazi Germany, and a short sojourn in Holland, he settled in
Palestine in 1935. He passed away in 1940.
1897(18th
of Iyar, 5657): Lag B’Omer
1897:
According to a compilation of the May Laws published today, the right of Jews
“to become shareholders in stock companies, or directors, managers, or
superintendents of real property belonging to corporations and situated outside
of towns or townlets in the Pale” was severely limited.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10508-may-laws
1898:
District of Columbia native Franklin Hart the future paymaster of the “Celtic”
joined the U.S. Navy today.
1898:
The Jewish Messenger reported that
Congregation Orach Chaim had resolved to purchase its first building at 221
East 51st Street. The edifice was formerly used as a church. Prior to this, the
congregants had been worshipping in rented space, reportedly above a beer
saloon. During the meeting at which the decision to make the purchase was
reached, long-term president Meyer Dannenberg “…arose and surprised
members by giving toward the new edifice $5,000 in behalf of his son, Hon.
Isaac Dannenberg.”
1898:
One day after she had passed away, 38 year old Elizabeth “Bloomah” Van Gelder,
the daughter of Louis Van Gelder and Lydia Park, was today buried in London at
the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”
1898(28
of Iyar, 5658: Sixty-two year old Rabbi Herman Phillips, a teacher at the
Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society for the last six years passed away at his
home on 3rd Avenue. A native of Germany, he served as cantor at the
synagogue on west 44th Street in Manhattan before serving as a rabbi
at congregations in Boston and Toronto
1899:
“French Cheers for Dreyfus” published today described the reaction in Paris to
the acquittal of the notorious Jew baiter, Max Regis on charges of inciting to
murder. An angry mob followed him to the
train station and the marched to the Officers’ Club where they cheered for
Dreyfus and Picquart. When the French
officers turned a water hose on the crowd, they were pelted with stones some of
which injured the anti-Dreyfus military men.
1899:
It was reported today that police arrested fifty rioters who attacked the
Jewish quarter in Algiers where they wrecked several houses.
1900:
The 48th Convention of District No.2 of the Independent Order of
B’nai B’rith opened today in St. Louis.
1901:
The celebration marking the golden jubilee of Temple Beth Elohim, “the oldest
synagogue in Brooklyn” came to an end today.
1902:
Today Frank Maximilian Steinhardt, the Munich born son of Simon and Regina
Steinhardt, the husband of Alice Florence Ledden, who joined the U.S Army in
1882, completed his service in Cuba as chief clerk of the military government
under General Leonard Wood.
1903:
Miss Anita Sutherland discovered the unconscious body of Washington Seligman,
the son of James Seligman, at the Hotel Rossmore, where he had used a safety
razor blade to cut the left side of his throat in a failed attempt at suicide
and rushed him to Roosevelt Hospital where his life was saved.
1904(6th
of Sivan, 5664): Shavuot
1904:
Birthdate of Kiev native Frank Philip Cohen who in 1911 came to the United
States where he went on to practice law after graduating from Boston
University.
1904:
Birthdate of Meir Tobianski
http://israelsdocuments.blogspot.com/2013/01/killing-meir-tobianski.html
1905:
Birthdate of Washington, DC and George Washington University graduate Joseph
Henry Abel, the architect who designed such buildings The Broadmoor and The
Shoreham Hotel
1906:
Birthdate of Helen Fixler, the Sighet native who was the husband of Al Irom and
the mother of Barbara Irom.
1906(25th
of Iyar, 5666): Raphael Louis Bischoffsheim, a Dutch-born French banker,
politician, philanthropist and founder of the Nice Observatory passed away
today.
1907:
Incorporation of Dropsie College in Philadelphia, PA
1907(7th
of Sivan, 5667): Second day of Shavuot, Yizkor.
1908:
The newly formed Hebrew Theatrical Musical Club which has declared that it has
arranged with the theatre management” at Yiddish theatres “that none but
Hebrews shall be employed as musicians” delivered an ultimatum today “to the
non-Hebrew musicians that they must abandon their places.”
1909:
The famine prices in the east side kosher bread market were broken yesterday by
the arrival of bread in large quantities from kosher bakeries in the Bronx,
Brooklyn, and Brownsville, which are not affected by the strike and lockout.
Kosher bread in some cases sold as high as 18 cents for an eight-cent loaf
before the price broke.
1910:
Today, the American Jewish Committee received a cablegram that said “Forcible
expulsions from Kieff are now taking place in a most brutal manner and many new
expulsions of those hitherto exempted are occurring” while “expulsions from
Moscow are also on the increase” creating “addition hardships.
1911:
Birthdate of Buffalo, NY native and Stanford educated agricultural economist
Dr. Sidney Samuel Hoos.
1911:
In Chicago, birthdate of Jerome Morton Comar “the chairman of the executive of
the Maremont Corporation and leader of the Jewish community as can be seen by
his service as “director of the Chicago
Young Men’s Jewish council and president of the Jewish Federation and Jewish
United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago
https://www.jta.org/1975/09/23/archive/jerome-m-comar-dead-at-64
1912:
In New York, Nathan Finkelstein and Anna Katzenellenbogen gave birth to Moses
Isaac Finkelstein, who gained fame as Sir Moses I. Finley
1912:
The Independent Order of True Sisters which had been organized in 1846 and now
has 20 lodges and 4,815 members including Biana B. Robitscher heled 122nd
Semi-Annal or 63rd Annual session of the Grand Lodge today in New
York City.
1913:
In Bryan, TX, founding of Frieda Temple
1913:
Mrs. M.L. Rothschild is among those scheduled to be considered for a three year
directorship at the annual meeting of the Chicago-Winfeld Tuberculosis
Sanatorium tonight.
1914:
In Jerusalem, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Shapira gave birth to Avraham Elkanah Shapira
who served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1983 to 1993.
1914:
“Henry Siegel, the indicted dry goods merchant and banker is scheduled to set
sail from London on the White Star liner Olympic” for his return to New York
after claiming that he had not intended to escape the long arm of the law by
going to England.
1915(7th
of Sivan, 5675): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1915: In the famous kibbutz Deganya, Shmuel
and Devorah Dayan, Ukrainian Jewish immigrants from Zhashkiv gave birth to
Moshe Dayan who as a teenager joined the Haganah, lost an eye in an attack on
Lebanon with an Australian Division and who during the War for Independence,
Dayan played a key role in the relief of Deganya. He rose in the ranks of the
Israeli army becoming Chief of Staff and Minister of Defense and then resigning
after the Yom Kippur War because he was criticized for Israel’s lack of
preparedness. In 1977 he joined the Begin government.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/moshe-dayan
https://www.idf.il/en/minisites/past-chiefs-of-staff/lt-gen-moshe-dayan-1953-1958/
1915:
The Ottoman government allowed Hebrew to be used once again as a written
language for letters, although it will be censored by the military.
1915: The
Philadelphia Inquirer described the function of the Hebrew Free School in
Camden as being “to teach the Hebrew language and to translate it into to
English.”
1915: As of
today, “thousands of Atlanta businessmen, including practically every banker in
the city, a Basil Stockbridge, a former assistant to Solicitor General Hugh M.
Dorsey, have signed their names to petitions pleading for a commutation of Leo
M. Frank’s death sentence.”
1916(17th
of Iyar, 5676): Parashat Bechukotai
1916: As of today subscriptions to the Central Committee
for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War should be addressed to Harry
Fischel, the organization’s treasurer.
1917: The
Ottomans allowed the Jews to return to Jaffa and Tel Aviv reversing the order
expelling them from their homes.
1917: The
Sisters of Fidelity are scheduled to hold an informal dancing party this
evening at the new ballroom of the Auditorium Hotel.
1917: Joseph
Fienberg will represent Congregation Ohavo Emuno Beth Hamedrosh Hachocesh, the
oldest Jewish Orthodox congregation in Chicago founded in 1859 as a delegate to
the American Jewish Congress meeting today at Chicago and S. M. Jess will
represent the congregation as an alternate.
1917: The
Hebrew Union Veteran Association and the Hebrew Veterans of the War with Spain
are scheduled to hold their annual joint memorial services today at Temple
Ansche Chesed in Harlem.
1917: In
Chicago a mass meeting tonight raised over $500,000 for the Jewish Relief
Committee for War Sufferers with largest contribution coming from Mr. and Mrs.
Julius Rosenwald who contributed $150,000.
1917: The Jews
of Chicago are scheduled to celebrate the emancipation of Russian Jews with a
series of mass meetings to be held throughout the city this afternoon concluding
with a banquet at the Hotel La Salle.
1918: Today,
Vizefeldwebel Fritz Beckhardt a German Jewish fighter ace in World War I,
completed three months of service with Jagdstaffel which he had joined after
upgrading “to fighter pilot status.
1918: It was
reported today that Benjamin Berinstein, Leo Wolfson and Herbert S. Goldstein
are leaders of the movement to raise funds for blind soldiers returning from
France that is being spearheaded by the Hebrew Association for the Blind.
1919 Today,
the board of directors of Weinstock, Lubin and Company, a Sacramento, CA
department store founded in 1874, “decided to recognize more fully the right of
the employees to take their part, definitely and consciously, in the management
of the affairs of the store” and took the first step by placing “the actual
carrying on the business into the hands of the Board of Managers, composed
entirely of employees of the store.”
1920:
Henry Ford’s newspaper, the Dearborn
Independent, with a circulation of seven hundred thousand, “discussed”
the Jewish problem. Ford was an anti-Semite and his paper followed his
lead.
1921:
It was reported today that “Captain Elkan Voorsanger, the former senior
chaplain of the 77th Division” who spent two years after the World
War working to aid Jews in the famine wracked parts of Europe has begun working
to raise funds for 150 bed hospital on Dyckman service which will serve as a
memorial “the boy in the Army, Navy and Marine Corps who died in the World
War.”
1922:
“The first Jewish municipal bond issue in history, amount of 80,000 pounds has
been authorized by the Palestine Government for the township of Tel-Aviv…The
obligations are secured by taxation, the bonds being used at 6 per cent,
repayable in twenty years.
1922:
Birthdate of Lithuania native Sarah Doron who made Aliyah in 1933 and
eventually pursued a political career that including serving as a member of the
Knesset and Minister without Portfolio.
1923(5th
of Sivan, 5683): Erev Shavuot
1923:
Birthdate of Brooklynite, Columbia graduate and USAAF second Lieutenant Stephen
Falk Krantz, the writer and producer whose greatest accomplishment may have
been encouraging his wife Judith to became a successful writer.
1923:
Birthdate of Israel Gutman the native of Warsaw “who took part in the Warsaw
ghetto uprising, survived three Nazi concentration camps and became a prominent
historian of the Holocaust.” (As reported by Isabel Kershner)
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/ringelbum/ringelblum_gutman.asp
1924:
Today, at Budapest University “while Professor Burgarszky was lecturing on
general anatomy some of the students arose and demanded that four of his Jewish
auditors be killed on the spot in order to furnish material for dissections”
because they had “rarely…seen Jewish corpses.”
1925:
In Chicago, Morton David Cahn, the son of Joseph and Miriam Cahn and his wife
Julia Elizabeth Cahn gave birth to Morton David Cahn, Jr.
1925:
Founding of Davar, the Hebrew language newspaper of the labor movement in
Palestine.
1926(7th
of Sivan, 5686): Second Day of Shavuot
1926:
Actress Helen Menken, the daughter of Frederick and Katherine Menken married
Humphrey Bogart (who was not Jewish) today.
1926:
In Brooklyn, businessman and community activist Harry Plissner and his wife
Charlotte gave birth to Marty Plissner, the “longtime political director for
CBS News who helped expand the role of television in covering elections.” (As
reported by William Yardley)
1927:
According to published reports, today John D. Rockefeller sent the United
Jewish campaign a check for $100,000 “with a letter expressing the opinion that
the drive should receive the support of people of all creeds and all races.”
1928:
In Camden, NJ, “The Junior League is” scheduled to give “a Concert and Dance at
the Beth El Synagogue.
1928:
In Manhattan, hematologist Carl Reich and school administrator Eleanor
(Lesinsky) Reich gave birth to Yale University trained attorney Charles Alan
Reich the author of The Greening of America. (As reported by Sam
Roberts)
1928:
Birthdate of Alfred Gilbert Aronowitz “an American rock journalist best known
for introducing Bob Dylan and The Beatles in 1964.”
1929:
Speakers including Rabbi Israel Rosenberg of Brooklyn discussed education and
obedience to dietary laws at the openings session of the annual convention of
the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada which was attended
by two hundred members.
1930:
Sir John Hope-Simpson arrives in Palestine. “Upon the recommendation of
the Shaw Commission the British authorities conducted an investigation into the
possibilities for future immigration to and settlement of Palestine. The
investigation was headed by Sir John Hope-Simpson, who spent a relatively short
amount of time in Palestine reviewing the situation. Hope-Simpson’s main
concern was that there was not sufficient land to support continued
immigration. According to his report, Arab farmers were suffering from severe economic
difficulties. Many were tenant farmers who owed large amounts of money and
lacked the means to ensure successful agricultural endeavors. Others were
simply unemployed. The report indicated that the Jewish policy of hiring only
Jews was responsible for the deplorable conditions in which the Arabs found
themselves. Due to these conditions, Hope-Simpson
recommended the cessation of Jewish immigration. Only after new agricultural
methods would be introduced in Palestine, would room be made for an additional
number of immigrants. In response, Jewish leaders in the Yishuv argued that
Hope-Simpson had ignored the capacity for growth in the industrial sector.
Stimulating economic growth through increased demand would most likely benefit
the Arab economy as well. Hope-Simpson disagreed, seeing the future of
Palestine in agriculture, not in industry. Jews also claimed that since they
had made a principle of using Jewish labor only, the cessation of immigration
would in fact have no effect on Arab unemployment. The Hope-Simpson Report was
published in October, 1930. At the same time, the Passfield White Paper was
issued, clarifying British intentions in Palestine.”
1930: “The Chief Rabbinate of the Jewish Community of Palestine
has joined in the call for a general strike of protest against the suspension
of immigration.”
1931: Birthdate of Israeli political leader Yisrael Kessar. Born in Yemen, he made aliyah at the age of
two. His service in the military was
followed by course work in economics and sociology at Hebrew University and Tel
Aviv University. Following an active
career with Histadruit, he was elected to the Knesset and served Minister of
Transportation from 1992 to 1996.
1931: It was reported today that 48 Jewish hospitals in Poland,
which represent one tenth of all of that country’s hospital and which will be
compelled to close for lacks funds, “have a total bed capacity of 3,5552” which
was used to treat fifty thousand patients in 1930, half of whom where not
Jewish.
1931: “Up Pops the Devil,” the movie version of the play by the
same name with a script co-authored by Arthur Kober was released today in the
United States.
1932: Birthdate of Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, a groundbreaking and
wide-ranging scholar of Jewish history whose meditation on the tension between
collective memory of a people and the more prosaic factual record of the past
would influence a generation of thinkers.
(As reported by Joseph Berger)
1933: The speech that Representative Celler had given at the
memorial service sponsored by the Jewish War Veterans was entered into the
Congressional Record today.
1933: “In the Lawndale neighborhood on the west side of Chicago,
Illinois, to Joseph Finfer, a rabbi and kosher shohet butcher, and Elizabeth
Finfer (née Bassman), a cook” gave birth to Sydel Finfer who gained fame as Sydel
Silverman was a distinguished anthropologist who became a chronicler of and
influential advocate for the discipline of anthropology.
1934:
Jack Benny is among those who will be featured at the
“Friars Frolic” which is scheduled to take place tonight at New York’s
Forty-fourth Street Theatre.
1934(6th of Sivan, 5694): First Day of Shavuot
1934: Rabbi William F. Rosenblum is scheduled to lead Confirmation
Services at Temple Israel.
1934:
Rabbi Samuel J. Levinson is scheduled to lead
Confirmation Services at Temple Beth Emeth of Flatbush (Brooklyn).
1934: Rabbi Israel Goldstein is scheduled to lead Confirmation
Services at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun on 257 West Eighty-Eighth Street.
1934:
Rabbi Samuel Buchler is scheduled to deliver a sermon
entitled “The Ten Commandments in Our Generation;” at New People’s
Synagogue on Clinton Street.
1934:
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise is scheduled to deliver a
sermon entitled “Young Israel and the Undying Jew;” at the Free
Synagogue meeting at Carnegie Hall.
1934: The 1934 edition of the “Friars Frolic” will be
presented at the Forty-fourth Street Theatre this evening. It will be staged
under the direction of Lou Holtz, Jack Benny and Nat Burns. The show, which
will offer a series of original and intimate sketches and playlets, which have
been presented at private “Frolics,” will also enlist the services of
more than one hundred stars of the stage, screen and radio. With his plain
vanilla looks, bland speech pattern and neutral name, Benny was the most
“un-Jewish” of Jewish comedians.
1934: Birthdate of Moshe Shahal the Baghdad native who made Aliyah
in 1950 and pursued a political career that included serving Deputy Speaker of
the Knesset.
1935: Birthdate of Michael Rose, the native of Bedford-Stuyvesant
who gained fame as screen writer Mickey Rose
1936: Miguel
Mariano Gómez began his service as President of Cuba during which he negotiated
with Congressman William I Sirovich about the possibility of “Cuba opening her
doors to at least 100,000 persecuted German Jews”
1936: J. H. Hertz, chief rabbi of the British Empire is scheduled
to deliver an oration at the Willesden cemetery during the funeral services for
Dr. Nahum Sokolow, one of the founders of political Zionism.” (As reported by
JTA)
1936: A memorial service is scheduled to be held this evening at
the Great Synagogue in London in honor of Dr. Nahum Sokolow of blessed memory.
1936: It was reported today that “the Solingen Tageblatt revealed
a case in which the Nuremberg racial laws had been used in an attempt to blackmail
a wealthy Jew” – a case which resulted in the man being imprisoned for three
months and “the woman was sent to prison for two months.”
1936: “Today all Palestine railways were placed under rigid curfew
regulations” and Christians have “joined Jews in evacuating the Old City of
Jerusalem” where “only 200 Jewish remains out of a former total Jewish
population of 5,000.”
1936: “You Can’t Fool Antoinette” a comedy filmed by
cinematographer Boris Kaufman and with music by Casmir Oberfeld who will die at
Auschwtiz, was released today in France.
1936:
As Arab violence continued, all railways in Palestine
were placed under rigid curfew regulations.
“Christians joined Jews in evacuating the Old ‘City of Jerusalem.” As of today, only “200 Jewish families out of
a former total of 5,000 remained in the Old City.”
1937: In Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, Jacob Eli Solomon and Belle
Brechner gave birth to solicitor Henry Solomon, the husband of Judith Dian
Manuel with whom he had three children who “co-founded Hillsdown Holdings that
he turned into on the largest food businesses in the UK for which he was
knighted and who was the co-founder of the Portland Trust which works to
improve relations between Israelis and Palestinians.
1938:
The Palestine Post reported that Arab
terrorists set on fire a special experimental agricultural farm, set up by the
government, for the benefit of Palestinian Arab farmers.
1939: Despite
the recent outbreaks of violence in response to the White Paper, as the Sabbath
came to an end, Jews peacefully “paraded in their customary fashion on the main
streets of Jerusalem.” In an attempt to
bridge the gap between Jews and Arabs, the Sephardic community issued a
statement that expressed solidarity with the rest of the Jews of Palestine in
the struggle to annul the betrayal of the White Paper appealed to the Arabs
saying “Brethren in race, our hand is outstretched today as ever for a true
peace, for collaboration in an honorable and lasting peace. The mandatory proposals will lead to the ruin
of the country and the impoverishment of both Jews and Arabs instead of
construction and revival.
1939: “Sons of
Liberty, a short drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, which tells the story
of Haym Solomon” and winner of “an Academy Award for Best Short Subject” was
released today in the United States.
1940: It was reported
today the Jacob Ruthstein, Isaac Siegmeister and Harry Weinberg was among the
speakers at the 17th annual dinner of the Beth-El Hospital which was
a fund raiser designed to reduce the $74,000 deficit left over from 1939.
1940:
A concentration camp begins functioning at Auschwitz in Poland. Because most of
Europe’s Jews live in Poland and Eastern Europe, the six concentration camps
called death camps will be established there: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Chelmno,
Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibór, and Majdanek.
1940:
This morning FDR met with labor leader David Lasser in the White House and this
afternoon he ate lunch Treasure Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
1941(23rd
of Iyar, 5701): Thirty year old David Raziel, a founder of Irgun, was killed
today. Raziel was serving with the
British in Iraq in their fight against the pro-Axis government when a bomb from
a German aircraft kill him and the British officer with whom he was serving.
1941(23rd of
Iyar, 5701): Dutch physicist Leonard Salomon Ornstein passed away. Born in
1880, he studied theoretical physics with Hendrik Antoon Lorentz at University
of Leiden. He subsequently carried out Ph.D. research under the supervision of
Lorentz, concerning an application of the statistical mechanics of Gibbs to
molecular problems. In 1914 he was appointed professor of physics, as successor
of Peter Debye, at University of Utrecht. In 1922 he became director of
Physical Laboratory (Fysisch Laboratorium) and extended his research interests
to experimental subjects. His measurements concerning intensities of spectral
lines brought Physical Laboratory in the international limelight. He is also
remembered for the Ornstein-Zernike theory (named after Ornstein and Frederik
Zernike) concerning correlation functions. Together with Gilles Holst, director
of Philips Research Laboratories (Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium), he was
the driving force behind establishing the Dutch Physical Society (Nederlands
Natuurkundig Vereniging, NNV) in 1921. From 1939 until November 1940 he was
Chairman of this Society. From 1918 until 1922 Ornstein was Chairman of the
Dutch Zionist Society (Nederlandse Zionistische Vereniging). Immediately after
the involvement of the Netherlands in the World War II (see Battle of the
Netherlands), a friend from the United States of America, the astronomer Peter
van de Kamp, offered to bring Ornstein and his family to America. However,
Ornstein did not accept this offer, since, as he put it, he would not leave his
laboratory in Utrecht. Owing to his Jewish heritage, Ornstein was summarily
dismissed from University in September 1940; he was even barred from entering
his own laboratory. In November 1940, he was officially dismissed from
University. On his own initiative, in 1940, Ornstein withdrew his membership of
the Dutch Physical Society. During this period he increasingly distanced
himself from public life, to the degree that he no longer wished to receive
guests at home. Ornstein died six months after being barred from University.
One of the five buildings of Department of Physics of University of Utrecht,
Ornstein Laboratorium, is named in his honor.
1941: In
France, more laws were put into place restricting Jewish movements in all
aspects of life. Jews are prohibited from engaging in wholesale and retail
trade. They cannot own banks, hotels, or restaurants
1941:
Goering commanded that no Jew would be allowed to emigrate from any occupied
territory…”in view of the imminent final solution”. This was the
first official reference of THE FINAL SOLUTION.
1942:
Three hundred train cars of clothing taken from those who had been killed
Chelmo arrived in Lodz for sorting by Jewish workers. Ironically this meant
that the death of Jews gave the Lodz Jews work which meant they got to
live.
1943:
As the Allies begin to win the Battle of the Atlantic which was critical to
winning WW II and ending the Shoah, an RAF B-24 sunk the U-258.
1944
“Russian Rhapsody” an animated short subject featuring the voice of Mel Blanc
“was released to theatres” today.
1944(27th
of Iyar, 5704): Reportedly the day on which Salomon Gluck, a French doctor and
leader of the French Resistance was assassinated in Kaunaus. He had been shipped from Drancy on convoy 73
along with 878 other men all of whom were murdered.
1944(27th
of Iyar, 5704): Sixty-nine year old Dr. Hans Leo Przibram, the son of Gustav
and Charlotte Przibram and Austrian zoologist who was barred from the
institution he had founded after the Anschluss because he was Jewish died today
at Theresienstadt.
1944:
In Jerusalem, Zev and Esther Vilnay gave birth to Matan Vilnai. Zev had been born in Kishinev and moved with
his parents to Haifa at age 6. He worked
as a topographer for the Haganah and the IDF.
He pursued a career as leading geographer, author and lecturer. Mata
joined the IDF where he served with the paratroopers, the Sayeret Matkal and
deputy commander of the assault force for the Entebbe Raid. He rose to the rank
of Major General and served as Deputy Chief of Staff before retiring to
civilian life where he served in the Knesset and as Minister for Home Front
Defense.
1945:
Between today and May 27, four Polish Jews who return to their hometown of
Dzialoszyce are murdered by Poles.
1946:
In what would appear to be an ideological self-contradiction, Britain’s Labour
government which was trying to hold on to the Empire, including Palestine
successfully passed a bill nationalized the UK’s coal industry, part of the
plan to bring socialism to the British Isles.
1947:
The Palmach “blew up a coffee house in Fajja, specifically in retaliation for
the murder of two Jews in nearby Petah Tikva.”
1948:
Twenty-six year old George Frederick “Buzz Beurling, “Canada’s most famous WW
II fighter pilot” who had been recruited to fly for the IAF, “fatally crashed
his Noorduyn Norseman transport aircraft while landing at Aeroporto dell’Urbe
in Rome” while on his way to Israel.
1948:
First appearance of the Israeli Air Force. Real combat aircraft
bearing the Star of David would not appear until later in the week.
1948:
Heavy Syrian shelling of Degania Alef started at about 04:00 this morning from
the Tzemah police station, by means of 75 mm cannons, and 60 and 81 mm mortars.
The barrage lasted about half an hour. At 04:30 the Syrian army began its
advance on the Deganias and the bridge over the Jordan River north of Degania
Alef. Unlike the attack on Tzemah, this action saw the participation of nearly
all of the Syrian forces stationed at Tel al-Qasr, including infantry, armor
and artillery. The Israeli defenders numbered about 70 persons (67 according to
Aharon Israeli’s head count), most of them not regular fighters, with some Haganah
and Palmach members. Their orders were to fight to the death. They had support
from three 20 mm guns at Beit Yerah, deployed along the road from Samakh to
Degania Alef. They also had a Davidka mortar, which exploded during the battle,
and a PIAT with fifteen projectiles. At night, a Syrian expeditionary force
attempted to infiltrate Degania Bet, but was caught and warded off, which
caused the main Syrian force to attack Degania Alef first. At 06:00, the
Syrians started a frontal armored attack, consisting of 5 tanks, a number of
armored vehicles and an infantry company.[5] The Syrians pierced the Israeli
defense, but their infantry was at some distance behind the tanks. The Israelis
knocked out four Syrian tanks and four armored cars with 20 mm cannons, PIATs
and Molotov cocktails.[33] Meanwhile, other defenders kept small arms fire on
the Syrian infantry, who stopped in citrus groves a few hundred meters from the
settlements. The surviving Syrian tanks withdrew back to the Golan.At 07:45,
the Syrians halted their assault and dug in, still holding most of the
territory between Degania Alef’s fence and Samakh’s police fort. They left
behind a number of lightly damaged or otherwise inoperable tanks that the
Israelis managed to repair.
1948: Jewish fighters scored their first victory
over the Syrians at Deganya. At
in the morning, Syrian troops crossed the Jordan and attacked the Kibbutz with
tanks and flamethrowers. By
the tanks were inside the perimeter of Deganya when two 65 mm. howitzers and
additional fighters under the command of Moshe Dyan arrived. When they went
into action, the Syrians were so startled that they retreated. One of the
Syrian tanks that had penetrated the kibbutz and was destroyed remains to this
day at Deganya as a memorial to the bravery of the defenders. What seemed
like a miracle was the result of a bold gamble by Yigal Yadin, the man who sent
the guns in the first place.
1948:
The siege of Gesher ended when the two field pieces that had saved Deganya from
the Syrians were rushed southwards. The guns opened fire on the Iraqi
forces besieging the Jewish fighters. Faced with modern weapons, the
Iraqis fled rather than fight.
1948:
Foreign Minister Moshe Sharet informed Secretary-General Trygve Lie that Abba
Eban was Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations.
1948:
Mordechai “Modi” Alon and the rest of the Jewish pilots who have been
training in Czechoslovakia board a DC-54 transport plane and begin their flight
back to Israel. Although they have not
completed their training, the pilots are anxious to get home since they have
heard that the Egyptian Air Force has been attacking the newly created Jewish
state.
1948:
Operation Balak officially begins with its first flight from a Czech airfield
code named ‘Etzion.’ Operation Balak was the name given to secret program for
purchasing and shipping arms to the infant Jewish state.
1948:
The United Nations named Count Folke Bernadotte to serve as mediator between
the Jewish and Arab states.
1948:
“The River Lady,” a western filmed by cinematographer Irving Glassberg
premiered in New York City today.
1949:
Today the leader of Umm al-Fahm “signed on oath of allegiance to the State of
Israel, which was in the “Little Triangle,” which had been awarded to Israel by
the Lausanne Conference of 1949.
1949:
“The Lady Gambles” in which Tony Curtis, appearing in only his third motion
picture, plays the “bellboy” who has four lines and 10 seconds of screen time,
was released in the United States today.
1950:
Hedda Sterne signed a letter to President of The Metropolitan Museum of Art on
May 20 to protest aesthetically conservative group-exhibition juries. Born into
a Jewish home in Bucharest, she was the “only woman in a group of Abstract
Expressionists known as “The Irascibles.”
https://jwa.org/thisweek/may/20/1950/hedda-sterne-protests-monster-national-exhibition
1950:
Birthdate of Brooklyn native Alan Zweibel who has worked on several television
shows starting with writing skits for “Saturday Night Live” and won the 2006
Thurber Prize for American Human for his novel The Other Shulman.
1951(14th
of Iyar, 5771): Pesach Sheni
1951:
In Manhattan, Bill Schwartz, a professor of social work at Columbia University,
and social worker Ruth (Efron) Schwartz gave birth to Brandeis grad Gil David
Schwartz, the CBS executive who wrote under the name of “Stanley Bing.” (As
reported by Richard Sandomir)
1951(14th
of Iyar, 5771): Fifty five year old Solomon Landman, the Cincinnati born “son
of Louis H. and Ada Gedalish Landman, the husband of “the former Rita Boehm,”
father of Doris, Joan, Louis and Nathan Landman and graduate of the University
Cincinnati and Hebrew College who began his rabbinic career B’rith Sholom
Temple in Springfield, Il, founded the Hillel Chapter at the University of
Wisconsin and was leading Temple Isaiah in Kew Gardens, Queens when he passed
away today.
1951:
One day after he had passed away, funeral services were held “this afternoon in
the village of Zichron Yaakov, near Haifa, for 64 year old David Remez, the
Israeli Education who had begun his life in he village working as a laborer
thirty-seven years ago and whose body had lain in state all night in Jerusalem
where mourners including President Chaim Weizmann paid their respects.
1953(6th
of Sivan, 5713) First Day of Shavuot
1953(6th
of Sivan, 5713): Seventy eight year old University of Pennsylvania trained oral
surgeon and Spanish American War veteran Dr. Morris I. Schamberg, the founder
of “the division of oral surgery at the Vanderbilt Clinic” and the “head of oral
surgery at the New York Post Graduate Hospital who was the husband of Jean M.
Chamber and the father of John Schamberg passed away today in Great Neck, NY.
1953(6th
of Sivan, 5713): Sixty-seven year old Austrian native Nettie Kinsbruner, the
daughter of Shmuel and Rachel Stettner and the wife of David Kinsbruner passed
away today in Miami Beach.
1954(7th
of Iyar, 5714): Selig Brodetsky, “a British Professor of Mathematics, a member
of the World Zionist Executive, the president of the Board of Deputies of
British Jews and the second president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem”
passed away today.
1954:
Release date for “Three Coins in A Fountain,” produced by Sol C. Siegel with
music by Victor Young
1955(28th
of Iyar, 5715): Seventy year old Russian born American artist Charles
Polowetski passed away today.
http://www.askart.com/artist/Charles_Ezekiel_Polowetski/117580/Charles_Ezekiel_Polowetski.aspx#
1957(19th
of Iyar, 5717): One worker was killed when a terrorist “opened fire in the
Arava region.”
1957:
Birthdate of Steven Leiber, a San Francisco art dealer and collector who became
an expert in artists’ ephemera and built an archive that became an important
resource for scholars and curators. (As reported by Roberta Smith)
1958(1st
of Sivan, 5718) Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1958(1st
of Sivan, 5718: Leah Tarshish Gudelsky, the wife of Harry Gudelsky, the mother
of Erwin and Judah Gudelsky and the sister of Allan and Rabbi Jacob Tarshish
passed awa today after which she was buried at the Ohel Yakov Beth Israel
Cemetery in Baltimore, MD.
1958:
In Savannah, GA, a fire broke out at Adler’s Department Store which had been
founded by Leopold Adler and subsequently run by his son Sam G. Adler, the
husband of Elinor Grunsfeld Adler and his grandson Lee Adler, the husband of
Emma Morel Adler.
1960:
In Atlanta, GA, “the remodeled and expand facilities” of the Temple which had
been bombed by segregationists following an appearance by Reverend Martin
Luther King, Jr. in 1958 are scheduled to be dedicate today.
1960:
Birthdate of actor Tony Goldwyn
1961(5th
of Sivan, 5721): Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot
1961(5th
of Sivan, 5721): Seventy-five year old Myer Solomon Cohn, the Russian born son
of Leo Cohn and the husband of Sadie Cohn passed away today in Hyattsville, MD.
1962(16th
of Iyar, 5722): Fifty-six year old German born journalist turned American
Social Worker Dr. Kurt Pine who came to the United States in 1940 where he
eventually became “executive director of the Shorefront Young Men’s and Young
Women’s Hebrew Association” in Brooklyn and raised two children – Alfred and
Annie – with his wife, “the former Bessie Halder” passed away today.
1962: Two days
after he had passed away funeral services are scheduled to be held in
Brooklyn’s Union Temple for Hebrew Union College graduate and St. John’s
University trained attorney, Sidney Saul Tedesche the Elmwood, Ohio born son of
Alexander Tedesche and Jeanette Greenfield and the holder of Ph.D. from Yale
who served as a rabbi at Brith Sholom in Springfield, Beth El in Providence,
Bethel El in San Antonio, Mishkan Israel in New Haven and Union Temple in
Brooklyn while raising two daughters – Carol and Jeanne – with his wife “the
former Irma Goldman.”
https://www.geni.com/people/Sidney-Tedesche/6000000002717858029
1962:
An Orchestra Hall Concert of the Halevi Choral Society with Hyman Reznick
conducting and featuring Cantor Jacob Barkin as guest soloist was recorded live
today.
http://faujsa.fau.edu/music-data/301854/301854.pdf
1963(26th
of Iyar, 5723): Seventy-three-year-old former theatrical agent “Morris Green, vice president of Sound Studios,
producers of radio programs” who began his career producing the original
edition of the “Greenwich Village Follies” in 1919 passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/05/23/90532844.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1964:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for seventy-year-old award
cancer and authority on breast tumors Dr. Norman Treves, the native of Crawfordsville,
IN and graduate of Johns Hopkins University Medical School who is survived by
his brother Max Tannenbaum.
1965(18th
of Iyar, 5725): Lag B’Omer
1966:
Birthdate of actress Mindy Cohn, who played Natalie on the sitcom “Facts of
Life.”
1966:
In Manhattan, Erfat and attorney Floyd Abrams gave birth Columbia trained
attorney Daniel Abrams who gave up the law for a career in televiosn.
1967(10th
of Iyar, 5727): Parashat Behar
1967(10th
of Iyar, 5727): Eighty-one-year-old
“Samuel Mitchell, the husband of Stella Ratkowsky and “a founder of Mitchell
Brothers, Inc, a manufacturer of ladies’ sleepwear and a leader of both the
American Jewish Congress and the Jewish Board of Guardians, passed away today.
1968(22nd
of Iyar, 5728): Fifty-six year old concert pianist Ray Lev, the Rostov-on-Don
born daughter of Cantor Moses whose last performance was on April 28 “when she
played the Schuman concerto” passed away today.
https://broadcast41.com/biography/lev-ray
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/05/21/77089120.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1969(3rd
of Sivan, 5729; Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Friedman, the Rosh Yeshiva, Nachlas Tzvi,
Munkacz, Hungary passed away today.
1970(14th
of Iyar, 5730): Pesach Sheni
1970:
U.S. premiere of “Too Late the Hero,” a WW II film with a script by Lukas
Heller.
1971:
The Second Leningrad anti-Zionist trials in which Hillel Butman and Lev Yagman
were two of the defendants came to an end today.
1972(7th
of Sivan, 5732): Second Day of Shavuot
1972(7th
of Sivan, 5732): Forty-three year old Irvin Milton “Bootsy” Lazarus, the son of
Sam and Annie Lazarus passed away today.
1973(18th
of Iyar, 5733): Lag B’Omer
1973:
“Letter bombs were sent to Jewish and Israeli addresses in Britain and Holland”
after which two Arabs were arrested by police and expelled from Great Britain.
1973(18th
of Iyar, 5733): Sixty-three year old Charles Brasch, “a New Zealand poet,
literary editor and arts patron who was the founding editor of the literary
journal Landfall passed away today.
http://jewishonlinemuseum.org/charles-brasch
http://www.otago.ac.nz/press/landfall/index.html
1974(28th
of Iyar, 5734): Leontine Sagan, Austrian born actress and founder of the
National Theatre of Johannesburg passed away at the age of 85.
1974(28th
of Iyar, 5734): Yom Yerushalayim
1977:
JTA reported that “The Senate has confirmed President Carter’s appointment of
Manuel Plotkin, 53, a marketing research expert and executive of Sears Roebuck
and Co., to be director of the Census Bureau. He will be the first Jew to hold
that office of which Thomas Jefferson was the original incumbent in 1790.
Senate approval of the appointment was without dissent. Plotkin, who was born
in Irkutsk, Siberia, was taken by his parents to Mexico City at the age of
three. The family moved to Chicago in 1929 where they have lived ever since.
Plotkin and his wife, the former Dianne Weiss, are members of Temple Sholom in
that city. As head of the Census Bureau, which is part of the Department of
Commerce, Plotkin will oversee about 8000 employees, more than half in
Washington and the rest in various points around the U.S. They comprise the
field force for monthly population surveys including employment figures for the
Department of Labor. Plotkin had been for two years the price economist for the
Bureau of Labor Statistics at its Chicago regional office and a year as survey
coordinator in the Bureou’s Washington office.”
1978:
Three members of the PFLP (Peoples Front for the Liberation of
Palestine) a terrorist organization, killed a policeman near El Al
airlines at Orly Airport outside of Paris, France.
1979:
After 857 performances at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, the curtain came down
today on the original Broadway production of “I Love My Wife,” the Cy Coleman
and Michael Stewart musical.
1980(5th
of Sivan, 5740): Erev Shavuot observed for the last time during the Presidency
of Jimmy Carter.
1981: The Israeli Cabinet reportedly will meet today to discuss
proposals made by Philip C. Habib, President Reagan’s envoy who has been
meeting with the President of Syria over the threat posed by his missiles
located in Lebanon.
1983:
“Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone” a sci-fi film starring Peter
Strauss and with a score by Elmer Bernstein was released today in the United
States.
1983:
Journalism professor and author Nicholas Lemann was married today in a union
that produced his two sons Alexander and Theodore.
1983:
Due to being in a coma that followed an attack of pneumonia, Jan Peerce was not
able to perform at was to have been his “comeback” concert scheduled for today.
1984(18th
of Iyar, 5744): Lag B’Omer
1985:
Israel exchanges 1150 Palestinian prisoners for 3 Israeli soldiers
1988:
Leonard Cohen performed a show in San Sebastian, which “Spanish TV station RTE
televised” in its entireity.
1988:
“Willow” a fantasy film featuring Kevin Pollak, was released in the United
States today.
1989(15th
of Iyar, 5749): Forty-two year old Comedienne Gilda Radner famed for her roles
on “Saturday Night” Live died of ovarian cancer today.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/20/1989/gilda-radner
1991(7th
of Sivan, 5751): Second Day of Shavuot; Yizkor
1992:
Poet and college professor Charles Bernstein and artist Susan Bee gave birth to
their second child, Felix Bernstein
http://felixbernstein.com/bio.html
1993:
NBC broadcast the final episode of season four of “Seinfeld” tonight.
1993: The Jerusalem Post reported that in her
43rd State Comptroller’s Annual Report, the State Comptroller, Dr. Miriam
Porat, warned that pension funds may soon begin defaulting on payments, if
urgent steps are not taken to reduce their huge actuarial deficits. The
problem, she disclosed, was compounded by the abuses of the Histadrut, whose
funds represented 93 per cent of all fund members. The Histadrut, she pointed
out, often forces workers to sign up for its funds via collective wage
agreements, and then assigns them to these with large actuarial deficits.
1994(10th
of Sivan, 5754): Staff Sgt. Moshe Bukra, age 30 and Cpl. Erez Ben-Baruch, age 24
were shot dead by HAMAS terrorists at a roadblock one kilometer south of the
Erez checkpoint in the Gaza Strip
1994(10th
of Sivan, 5754): Eighty-nine year old Meer Parodenck “the founder and president
of the Parodneck Foundation for Self-Help Housing and Community Development,
and president of the board of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board” passed
away today. (As reported by Richard D.
Lyons)
1997:
“Roseanne,” a sitcom creating by, and starring Roseanne Barr ended its final
season.
1998(24th
of Iyar, 5758): Ninety-three-year-old Hungarian native and “Jewish historian
and educator Jacob Katz who began teaching in Palestine in 1936 and became a
full professor at Hebrew University in 1962 passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/katz-jacob
1998(24th
of Iyar, 5758): Seventy-three year old author Cyril Wolf Mankowitz passed away
today in County Cork.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-wolf-mankowitz-1158253.html
2000(15th
of Iyar, 5760): Parashat Behar
2000: “A week
that began in violence ended violently here, with bloody clashes in the West
Bank and Gaza and intensified fighting in southern Lebanon.”
2001: The New York Times featured books by Jewish writers and/or of special
interest to Jewish readers including “Tell Me A Story: Fifty Years and 60
Minutes in Television” by Don Hewitt the son of German Jewish and Russian
Jewish immigrant who transformed television journalism.
2002(9th
of Sivan, 5762):
Sixty-year old Stephen Jay Gould an American
paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and historian of science who was also
one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his
generation” passed away today. (As reported by Carol Kaesuk Yoon)
2002, today,
two years after being released in the United States “Escape: Human Cargo,”
co-starring Sasson Gabai was broadcast for the first time in Finland.
2002: Yitzhak Vaknin
left the position of Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Welfare.
2002(9th
of Sivan, 5762): Brooklyn born and Brooklyn College and NYU alum Dr. Samuel
Baskin, the husband of Florence Baskin and the father of Robert and David
Baskin who “spent his entire professional life in the education field, and was
a pioneer in creating and developing alternative life study programs” passed
away today.
2002: Hamas
claimed credit for the highway bombing at Afula.
2003(18th
of Iyar, 5763): Lag B’Omer
2003: Today on
C-Span, author and historian Robert Caro, the son of Yiddish speaking Jewish
refugee from Warsaw, talked about Master of the Senate, the third in his
planned five volume biography of Lyndon Johnson.
2004: “An
Israeli court today convicted Marwan Barghouti, a top aide to the Palestinian
leader Yasir Arafat and an emblem of resistance, on murder charges relating to
attacks that killed five Israelis, brushing aside his protests that Israel had
no right to try him.
2005: “Tamar
Schwartz and her daughter, Hadas, 4, were sleeping when the mortar, grenade and
rifle attack came early this morning” at Kfar Darom.
2006: “’It’s
Your Birthday, Clifford Odets! A Centennial Exhibition’ at Michael Rosenfeld
Gallery” published today provides a window into the artistic side of man whom
most of us think of as a playwright.
2007: The New York Times published an op-ed
piece by novelist and commentator Mark Helprin arguing “that intellectual
property rights should be assigned to an author or artist as far as Congress
could practically extend them>”
2007: In New
York City, rededication of Kehila Kedosha Janina. Eighty years ago, Kehila
Kedosha Janina opened its doors to serve the small Romaniote Jewish community
on the Lower East Side joining hundreds of other Jewish houses of worship in
the neighborhood. By the 1940’s there would be other Romaniote synagogues in
the New York area. Today this is the only Romaniote synagogue in the Western
Hemisphere and one of only five original Jewish houses of worship on the Lower
East Side that still functions as an active synagogue.
2007: The
Upper Mid-West Region of Hadassah presents “Zay Gesunt – You Should Live and Be
Well” in Bloomington, Minnesota.
2007: The New York Times features reviews of
books written by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson and Einstein:
A Biography by Jürgen Neffep; translated by Shelley Frisch.
2007: The Los Angeles Times and The Sunday Washington Post each feature
a review of Shakespeare’s Kitchen by Lore Segal. “The protagonist of Shakespeare’s
Kitchen is Ilka Weisz, a scrappy, opinionated Jewish refugee who has
appeared in slightly different guises in Segal’s earlier novels, Her First
American and Other People’s Houses.
2007:
Herzalyia Mayor Yael German presented Eliahu Hacohen with the Herzl Award, “the
high priest of research into Israeli songs, who has dedicated his life to
strengthening the link with our cultural heritage.”
2007(3rd of
Sivan, 5767): Ben Wiesman a classically trained pianist, who helped write
nearly 60 songs for Elvis Presley, passed away at the age of 85.
2007(3rd of
Sivan, 5767): Barcuh Kimmerling, Professor of Sociology at Hebrew University
and author of The Invention and Decline of Israeliness: State, Society and
the Military, passed away.
2007: In
Cleveland, Ohio, Case Western Reserve University confers an honorary Doctor of
Humanities on Morton Mandel who served as a Case Western Reserve University
trustee from 1977 through 1992, and is now an honorary trustee. In addition, he
is a recipient of the university’s Newton D. Baker Distinguished Alumni Award.
Mandel has been involved in numerous national and international activities, the
Council of Jewish Federations, the Mandel Leadership Institute, and the World
Conference of Jewish Community Centers.
2008: Mashina,
one of Israel’s most influential pop rock bands plays at Webster Hall in New
York.
2008:
At Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, Michael Levin successfully defends
his dissertation. “A Doctor Is Born.”
2009:
Kevin Youkilis, “the first baseman and cleanup hitter for the Red Sox returned
from the 15-day disabled list today night and promptly went 3-for-5 to raise
his average to .404.”
2009: John Simon Bercow officially announced that he was seeking
the Speakership of the House of Commons.
Victory would make him the first Jew to serve in this position
2009: Final day for The Tel Aviv Centennial
Multimedia Exhibit at Vanderbilt Hall, Grand Central Station, NY
2009: In New York, City
Winery celebrates Israel’s 61st Year of Independence with a tasting
featuring wines from over 15 Israeli Wineries paired with Israeli singing
sensation David Broza for the post-tasting entertainment. The event would appear to show tjat Jews have
gained their independence from the syrupy taste of the Concord grape concoction
that was the staple of Jewish homes for decades.
2009: For the last
time Lt. Col. Shawn M. Pine mailed a box of scarves to his sister Michelle
Lefkowitz. He purchased the scarves on a weekly basis from a little girl in
Afghanistan who sold them to support her family.
2009(26th of
Iyar, 5769): Fifty-one year old Army Lt. Colonel Shawn M. Pine was killed today
when a vehicle in which he was riding in was struck by an explosive device near
Kabul, Afghanistan. A second generation
soldier, Pine served six years in the IDF before graduating from Georgetown
University and pursuing a career in the U.S. Army. He is buried next to his father at Arlington
National Cemetery. (As reported by Maia Efrem)
2009(26th of
Iyar, 5769): Twenty-one year old USAF First Lieutenant Roslyn L. Schulte was killed today when a vehicle in which she
was riding in was struck by an explosive device near Kabul, Afghanistan. An
intelligence officer, she was the first female USAF Academy graduate to have
died in combat. She was killed in the
same attack that took the life of Lt. Col. Pine. (As reported by Maia Efrem)
2009: Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced today that Iran has successfully
test-fired a new advanced missile with a range of about 1,200 miles, far enough
to strike Israel and southeastern Europe as well as U.S. bases in the Gulf.
2009: As
described in the articled archaeologists from Israel’s Antiquities Authority
(IAA) have revealed two important artifacts recently discovered in Jerusalem,
both dating from the First Temple Period.
The
first, a bone seal engraved with the name “Shaul” was found in an excavation
being conducted under the auspices of the IAA, in cooperation with the Nature
and Parks Authority in the Walls Around Jerusalem National Park, located in the
City of David. The dig, which is underwritten by the “Ir David Foundation”
(City of David) is being carried out under the direction of Professor
Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the IAA.The seal,
which is made of bone, was found broken and is missing a piece from its upper
right side. Two parallel lines divide the surface of the seal into two
registers in which Hebrew letters are engraved. A period followed by a floral
image or a tiny fruit appear at the end of the bottom name. The name of the
seal’s owner was completely preserved and it is written in the shortened form
of the name, Shaul, which is known from both the Bible (Genesis 36:37; 1 Samuel
9:2; 1 Chronicles 4:24 and 6:9) and from other Hebrew seals. Another Hebrew
seal and three Hebrew bullae (pieces of clay stamped with seal impressions)
were previously discovered nearby. The second artifact, an ancient jar handle
bearing the Hebrew name “Menachem” was uncovered in the neighborhood of Ras el
‘Amud during an excavation prior to construction of a girls’ school by the
Jerusalem municipality. The jar handle, inscribed with the name
“Menachem” carved in Hebrew, was found among settlement
remains dating to different phases of the Middle Canaanite period (2200 – 1900
BCE), and the last years of the First Temple period (8-7 BCE) that were
recently uncovered during the excavation. The name Menachem Ben Gadi is noted
in the Bible as that of a king of Israel who reigned for 10 years in Samaria,
as one of the last kings of the Kingdom of Israel. According to Kings II,
Menachem Ben Gadi ascended the throne in the 39th year of Uzziah, King of Judah
(Judea). The names Menachem and Yinachem both are expressions of condolence,
noted excavation director Dr. Ron Be’eri, who speculated they might be related
to the death of family members. The archaeologist added that such names already
appeared earlier in the Canaanite period, on Egyptian pottery sherds and a
document about an Egyptian governor on the Lebanese coast. This is the first
time that a handle with the name “Menachem” has been found in Jerusalem.
2009: Four men arrested
were arrested tonight, shortly after planting a 16.78-kilogram mock explosive
device in the trunk of a car outside the Riverdale Temple and two mock bombs in
the backseat of a car outside the Riverdale Jewish Center, another synagogue a
few blocks away, authorities said. Police blocked their escape with an 18-wheel
truck, smashing their tinted Sport Utility Vehicle windows and apprehending the
unarmed suspects. Authorities said the men also plotted to shoot down a
military plane. James Cromitie, 55; David Williams, 28; Onta Williams, 32; and
Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh, were charged with conspiracy to use weapons of
mass destruction within the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use
anti-aircraft missiles. An official told The Associated Press that three of the
men are converts to Islam. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because
the person was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation.
2010(7th
of Sivan, 5770): Second Day of Shavuot
2010(7th
of Sivan, 5770): Eighty-two year old Leonard Wolfson (Baron Wolfson) passed
away today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/17/lord-wolfson-obituary
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/finance-obituaries/7750834/Lord-Wolfson.html
2010: The First
Festival of Israeli Jazz NY is scheduled to open at The Stone in the East
Village.
2010: The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum reopened parts of its
grounds to visitors on today after floodwaters from the nearby Vistula and Sola
rivers seemed to peak and begin to recede.
2010: Hedy Lamarr was chosen from 150 IT people to be
featured in a short film launched by the British Computer Society
2011: Cedar Village in Mason, Ohio is schedule to host an event
entitled “Memory and Jewish Identity” during which Dr. Adrian Parr, associate
professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and
affiliate faculty, Department of Philosophy and Judaic Studies at the
University of Cincinnati will use the narrative of her grandmother’s survival
of the Holocaust and her own subsequent discovery of her Jewish identity to
explore the importance of Jewish cultural memory for keeping Jewish identity
alive amidst adversity.
2011: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with President
Obama the White House today.
2011: Violin virtuoso Gil Shaham is scheduled to play “Walton’s
sublime and rarely performed Violin Concerto, a masterpiece of the violin
literature commissioned and debuted by Jascha Heifetz in 1936, with one of the
world’s greatest ensembles, The Philadelphia Orchestra.”
2011: In “Perched in Berlin With Hitler Rising,” Janet
Maslin reviewed In The Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American
Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson.
Just when you thought you knew all you needed to know about the Hitler
era, along comes Larson who provides a fascinating, informative snapshot of the
pre-war world focusing on the life of William E. Dodd, FDR’s first ambassador
to Hitler’s Berlin and his exotic daughter.
2011: Despite political unrest, pilgrims are scheduled to
celebrate Lag B’Omer at the El Ghriba synagogue. The normally vibrant celebrations will take a
more muted form because of the unstable conditions in Tunisia.
2011(16th of Iyar, 57771): Just a week before
his 96th birthday, Arieh Handler, on the founders of the Religious
Zionist movement and the last living person to have present at when Israel
declared her independence passed away today.
http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/49280/arieh-handler-dies-israel
2012: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the family and friends of
Dr. Todd Burstain, a hameshah mensch who has raised four fantastic sons, are
looking forward to celebrating his birthday today.
2012: Eirc Greitens was awarded an honorary Doctor of
Humane Letters degree from Tufts University when he gave the commencement
speech at the school’s 156th commencement
2012: In Flushing, NY, the Free Synagogue is scheduled to
host the Second Annual Sacred Sites Open House organized by The New York
Landmarks Conservancy
2012: Dr. Hal Lewis, President and CEO of Spertus Institute
of Jewish Studies in Chicago, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address as
part of Let My People Know, an afternoon of Jewish education at the Mayerson
JCC in Cincinnati, Ohio.
2012: A Jerusalem Day family celebration featuring a
concert by Peter Himmelman is scheduled to take place at Ohev Shalom in
Washington, D.C.
2012: Schmekel, “Brooklyn’s only 100% transgender, 100%
Jewish, schtick-rock sensation” is scheduled to appear at Chief Ike’s Mambo
Room in Washington, DC
2012: JSSA (Jewish Social Service Agency) is scheduled to hold
its largest annual fundraiser, Gala 2012, in Washington, DC. JSSA Gala 2012 – An Evening of Passion and
Purpose – will feature performance artist, David Garibaldi.
2012: The NMAJMH and the JSC are scheduled to devote a special
afternoon to “Family Stories: Daughters, Mothers and Bubbes.”
2012: In Cleveland Ohio, the Hadassah chapter will host a
celebratory Centennial Birthday brunch to honor the accomplishments of the
largest Jewish volunteer organization in America and present the Centennial
Award to life member, Moreland Hills resident Roz Abraham.
2012: The New York
Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special
interest to Jewish readers including The Cause co-authored by Eric
Alterman and Farther Away by Jonathan Franzen
2012: Security forces intercepted a Palestinian squad
that attempted to kidnap Israeli citizens in the West Bank, the Shin Bet
indicated today, adding that the squad’s purpose was to negotiate the release
of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jail.
2012(28th of Iyar, 5772): Celebration of Yom
Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Reunification Day – 45 years of Jerusalem
being undivided and under control of the rightful owners.
2012(28th of Iyar, 5772): Seventy-eight year
old London born human rights activist David Gerald Littman passed away today.
http://www.dhimmitude.org/littman-biography.html
2013:
Dr/ Ted Merwin, associate professor and director, Religion and Judaic Studies
at Dickinson College will speak on the topic “American Jews in
Entertainment” at JFK Airport as part of the US Customs and Border
Protection service’s celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month.
2013:
Friends and family of Dr. Todd Burstain gather in Cedar Rapids to celebrate
this father of four of the finest young men imaginable – a real credit to the
Jewish community
2013:
Ira Forman, who led President Obama’s reelection campaign in the Jewish
community, was appointed as the State Department’s envoy to combat
anti-Semitism today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-jewish-dems-chief-tapped-for-anti-semitism-post/
2013:
Grafitti reading ‘Torah tag’ and ‘Women of the Wall are wicked’ that had been painted
on a wall leading up to the apartment of Peggy Cidor, a longstanding member of
the board of Women of the Wall was discovered this morning.
2014:
Today’s session of the 4th International Writers Festival begins “with a poetry
encounter for high school students with the works of Yehuda Amichai, and ends
with singing the songs of Amichai.” (As reported by Jessica Steinberg)
2014:
“The US called on Israel today to open an investigation into the deaths of two
Palestinian teenagers shot during clashes with the IDF in the West Bank last
week, after video emerged showing them unarmed during the incident” even though
the Israeli government has already said that the video was heavily “doctored”
and did not show the level of threat facing the Israelis.
2014:
“Bulgaria is making progress in hunting down the terrorists responsible for a
July 2012 bombing in the resort city of Burgas that killed five Israelis, the
country’s leader said today in Jerusalem.”
2014:
“An IDF raid on the Jenin refugee neighborhood in Samaria today exposed weapons
and improvised explosive devices, as well as knives and various kinds of
ammunition. In the course of the raid, local terrorists fired live rounds at
the soldiers but no members of the IDF were hit.”
2014:
“The Sturgeon Queens” is scheduled to be shown at the JCC in Manhattan
2014(20th
of Iyar, 5774): Ninety-year old Arthur Gelb, one of those “Times Men” who
shaped the national culture and helped set the national agenda passed away
today.
2015: Ten Jewish Baltimoreans are scheduled to be inducted
into the Baltimore Jewish Hall of Fame at the JCC “for their contributions to
the arts, business, education, philanthropy and community building.”
http://jewishtimes.com/36994/hall-of-fame/
2015:
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to
host a screening of “Iraq N’ Roll.”
2015:
Jean Naggar is scheduled to discuss her memoir Sipping from the Nile: My
Exodus from Egypt at the Center for Jewish History.
2015(2nd
of Sivan, 5775): Ninety-two year old “Julia Hartman, one of the last surviving
fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during WWII passed away” this morning.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4659808,00.html
2015:
“Two Border Police officers – a man and a woman – were wounded” this morning
“in a vehicular terror attack in Jerusalem on the ascent to the Mount of
Olives.”
2015:
In Philadelphia, PA, the National Museum of American Jewish History is
scheduled to host “Portraits & Politics: The Resonance of ‘Family
Affairs.’”
http://www.nmajh.org/CalendarEvent.aspx?eventid=316
2015:
“Ten Jewish Baltimoreans” including Lois Blum Feiblatt and television executive
Barry Levinson were “inducted into the Baltimore Jewish Hall of Fame at the
JCC.
2016:
The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host the Chamber Music Ensembles –
Competition Winners – of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.
2016:
The Israeli Consulate is scheduled to host the 2016 “Beyond Conference.”
2016:
In the United Kingdom, the Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to
host “Bring A Friend Shabbat Dinner” this evening.
2016:”Israel’s
defense minister,” Moshe Alone,” abruptly announced his resignation today,
saying he had lost faith in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was “fearful
for Israel’s future” after his job had apparently been offered to a rival in a
far-right party.”
2016:
In Coralville, Iowa, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host is annual
“Mediterranean-style Family Shabbat Dinner.”
2017(24th
of Iyar, 5777): Finish Vayikra with the
reading of Behar and Bechukotai
2017(24th
of Iyar, 5777): In Cincinnati, ordination ceremonies are scheduled to take
place at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion.
2017:
“Open House Tel Aviv, or Batim Mibifnim, an urban festival of architecture and
design — now in it’s 11th year — showcasing the city’s chic urban style” is
scheduled to come to an end today.
2017:
Holocaust survivor Sonia Kaplan, the author of My Endless War is
scheduled to appear at the USHMM as part of the “meet the author” program.
2018:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including White Houses by Amy Bloom, Fascism: A Warning by
Madeline Albright with Bill Woodward, Can Democracy Survive Global
Capitalism? by Robert Kuttner and Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal
World by Samuel Moyn
2018(6th
of Sivan, 5778): Shavuot
2018(6th
of Sivan, 5778):Ninety-seven year old Bill Gold, the Brooklyn born son of “Paul
and Rose (Sachs) Gold, whose name you might not know but whose posters for such
movies as “Casablanca” are classics passed away today in Greenwich, CT. (As
reported by Robert D. McFadden)
2018:
In Little Rock, AR, the Chabad Jewish Center under the leadership of Rabbi
Pinchas Ciment, the quintessential “Lamplighter” is scheduled to host “a
special reading of the Ten Commandments followed by a dairy Kiddush featuring
cheesecake and ice cream”
2018
In Iowa City, a scheduled double header includes a Shavuot Service at the
Chabad House followed by “a Kiddush in honor of Yasha Leba” the daughter of
Chaya and Rabbi Avrohom Blesofsky.
2019:
As charges of corruption swirled around Prime Minister Netanyahu tonight
“Israel’s parliament announced that an “immunity bill,” filed by a Netanyahu
loyalist, was among 200 measures slated for votes in the current session.”
2019:
In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “The Testament,” a Holocaust
film with a strange twist.
2019:
The Center for Jewish History, the American Jewish Historical Society, Yeshiva
University and the Museum of the Jewish People are scheduled to host Alfred H.
Moses, “President Clinton’s first ambassador to Romania” and the author of Bucharest
Diary: Romania’s Journey from Darkness to Light and former Senator Joe
Lieberman “as they discuss Moses’s historic work and key diplomatic role in
Romania’s transition from its Communist past to democracy – and from “darkness
to light.”
2019: The Marlene Meyerson
JCC in Manhattan is scheduled to host “Israel Story Live, an evening of magical
live radio with the creators of Israel Story—the award winning radio show and
podcast that public radio icon Ira Glass calls ‘the Israeli This American
Life’.”
2019: At Tifereth Israel
Synagogue in Des Moines, IA, the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is
scheduled to “Ethiopian-born diplomat Ariella Rada” as she speaks about “The
People of Israel: A Study in Diversity.”
2019:Volodymyr Zelenskyy became
the sixth president of Ukraine
2019: The Temple Emanu-El
Streicker Center is scheduled to host Dan Abrams as his talks with Chris Cuomo
about Abrams’ latest book, Theodore Roosevelt for the Defense.
2019: “Lest We Forget” which
has been on display outside of the City Hall in San Francisco since April 15 is
scheduled to come to a close today. 2020
https://www.jccmanhattan.org/arts-ideas/conversations/israel-story-live/
2020: Via Zoom, the
Streicker Center is scheduled to present “Becoming Ruth” with Dr. Avivah
Zornberg
2020: The Vilna Shul,
Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to host on “Behind
‘Unorthodox’: Debunking Myths of Ultra-Orthodoxy.”
2020: Chabad in Iowa City,
is scheduled to celebrate the birthday of Chaya Blesoksky, the wife of Rabbi
Abrohom Blesofsky in honor of which 42 women will be lighting Shabbat candles
in her honor on May 22.
2020: Via Zoom, the Oxford
University Jewish Society is scheduled to a shiur on Abraham and Jonah” where
will “be looking at the implications of poor communications in the Tanakh, and
how we relate this to our everyday lives.”
2020: Via Zoom, from San
Francisco Sherit Israel is scheduled to host “The victims of COVID-19: A
discussion on how the virus affects its oldest and youngest patients with Dr.
Bennett Zier & Dr. Valerie Flaherman will be interviewed by Dr. Jonathan
Graf.
https://www.sherithisrael.org/event/covid-19-a-conversation-from-the-front-line3.html
2021: The Streicker Center
is scheduled to present Dr. Michael Marmur and Rabbi David Ellenson, editors of
American Jewish Thought Since 1934: Writings on Identity, Engagement, &
Belief, published one year ago, who will delve into the shifting soundscape
around questions of loyalty and belonging, religious practice, secular
discontents and the creative American recasting of Jewish peoplehood.
2021: The Silicon Valley
Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host screenings of “They Ain’t Ready For
Me” and “Thou Shalt Not Hate.”
2021: The American Sephardi
Federation is scheduled to present via Zoom, “Sephardi Thought and Modernity:
Rabbi Yosef Knafo’s Struggle for Democratization of Knowledge in Fin de Siècle
Essaouira.”
https://programs.cjh.org/event/sephardi-thought-2021-05-20
2021: The American Jewish
Historical Society is scheduled to host lunchtime “conversation with Muzzy
Rosenblatt, CEO and President of the Bowery Residents’ Committee.”
https://programs.cjh.org/event/at-lunch-2021-05-20
2021: In Palm Beach, FL,
Temple Judea is scheduled to present a virtual “Tour of Morocco with an
emphasis the history of Jewish Morocco led by Professor
Roy Mittleman – Directory of Jewish Studies at CCNY, BA from Univ. of
Pennsylvania, Masters in Religion from Temple University, graduate of
Reconstructionist Rabbinic College in Philadelphia.
2021: Case Western Reserve University’s Siegal Lifelong Learning
Program is scheduled to host a remote lecture on “Budgets, Boycotts, And
Babies: Jewish Women in the Great Depression.”
2021: In Columbus, OH, Congregation Tifereth
Israel is scheduled to host “Who Knows One?” Jewish Geography Zoom Racing.”
2021: Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County
is scheduled to present via Zoom, Chair Yoga with Sheri Glick.
2021: Based on previously published reports, as
of today Israelis will be dealing with mixed messages including President Biden
prodding Prime Minister Netanyahu to “de-escalate” tensions at a time when more
rockets are being fired from Lebanon and Israeli military intelligence is
predicting the possibility of some sort of cross-border incursion by terrorists
coming from Gaza.
2022: The Americans and the Holocaust traveling
exhibition is scheduled to open at Pendleton Public Library (Pendleton, OR),Saint
Peter Public Library (Saint Peter, MN), Braswell Memorial Public Library (Rocky
Mount, NC) and Bozeman Public Library (Bozeman, MT).
2022: At noon today a live broadcast on Kan Kol
Hamusika is scheduled to show the Ensemble Phoenix with David Shemer , on the
grand fortepiano.
2022: “Beautiful – The Carole King Musical” which
tells the story of her rise to stardom is scheduled to open at the Fox Theatre
in Atlanta, GA.
2022:The adaptation of Sarit Yishai-Levi’s The
Beauty Queen of Jerusalem is scheduled to be making its way to Netflix.
2023: Lockdown University is scheduled to host a
webinar consisting of a lecture by Professor David Peimer on “The Great
Director Fritz Lang: In Germany and Hollywood.”
2023: Temple Judea is scheduled to a Torah
Study webinar with Rabbi Feivel Strauss.
2023: The Eden Tamir Music Center is scheduled to
host a concert cellist Simcha Held and “Friends,” violinist Polina Yehudin and
pianist Michael Zartsekel.
2023 (29th of Iyar, 5783): Parashat Bamidbar and Pirke Avot Chapter 6; for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
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