This Day, November 16, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
November
16
42
BCE: Birthdate of Tiberius, 2nd Roman emperor. The stepson of Augustus reigned
from 14 to 37 C.E. A competent general with a sour disposition, Tiberius came
to the thrown through the efforts of his pushy mother. Tiberius treatment of
the Jews did not spring from some early form of anti-Semitism. Rather, he was a
bit of a clod who made poor decisions, some of which impacted the Jews. He
placed power in the hands of the power-hungry Sejanus who happened not to like
Jews. He appointed Pontius Pilate Procurator in Judea, a role that was a
classic mismatch between the governed and the governor. And for a period, he
banned the Jews from Rome, but this had to do with some domestic spat, not
religion. In the end the true measure of the man was his choice of heirs.
Tiberius selected Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus, better known as Caligula.
Caligula’s belief in his own divinity would create another set of problems for
the Jews of Judea and Alexandria.
534:
Publication of the second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus or
Justinian’s Code. The code reflected Justinian’s hostility towards Judaism. It
contained provisions that prohibited marriage between a Christian and a Jew
(the fear was that the marriage would lead to the Christian converting to
Judaism) and placed restrictions on the practice of circumcision. It elevated
canon law to the equal of civil law thus forcing the Jews to accept the
authority of Church officials. It also forced the Jews to use a Greek
translation of the Bible in their services, placed restrictions on public
assembly by Jews, prohibited Jews from building new synagogues and testifying
against Christians in legal matters and finally banned the celebration of
Passover in years when it came before Easter.
1272:
King Edward III who continued the predatory taxation policies towards his
Jewish subjects that had been followed by his father King John passed away
today. In addition to confiscatory tax policies, the King enacted royal decrees
inimical to the well-being of the Jewish people including one that stated, “And
that there be no synagogue of the Jews in England save in those places in which
synagogues were in the time of King John, the king’s father…and that every Jew
wear his badge conspicuously on his breast.”
1380:
Jews were killed in riots in Paris.
1384:
Jadwiga is crowned King of Poland, although she is a woman. Jadwiga would marry
Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania who took the name of Władysław II when
ascended the Polish throne. The purpose of the marriage was to unite Poland and
Lithuania. For the Jews of Poland, the results were less than optimal since the
first extensive persecutions of the Jews took place during the reign Wladislaus
II and neither the king nor his successors acted to stop these events.
1491:
Five Jews were accused of murdering a child in La Guardia (Spain). The
investigation was conducted by Tomas De Torquemada, the cleric who would later
lead the infamous Spanish Inquisition. Even though there were no witnesses nor
was a body ever found all five were found guilty. Three of them were forcibly
baptized, strangled, and then burned. The two others were just torn apart.
1491(14th
of Kislev, 5252): Converso Benito Garcia, was among the Jews and conversos who
were publicly executed today during an auto-da-fé was held outside of Ávila
which was part of yet another Blood Libel that produced yet another saint “the
Holy child of La Guardia.”
1497:
Gershon Soncino published a copy of “Talmud Babli Sanhedrin” at Barco.
1500:
In Pilsen, “Kaspar Bernášek is shown to owe 100 Meissen thalers or 50 Bohemian
coppers to the Jew Mekl and his son Turek. In the event of non-repayment, they
had the right to sell his possessions and hereby to avoid damages, although
without having the right to any interest payments”
1628:
Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham, under whose leadership a
group of Sephardic Jews migrated to Suriname in 1652 and “settled in the
Jodensavanne area” married Elizabeth Cecil today.
1694(28th
of Cheshvan): Rabbi David Lida, author of Be’er Mayim Hayyim, passed away
1745:
In Trier Rabbi Isaac Sinzheim and his wife gave birth to Joseph David Sinzheim,
the Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg.
1756
(23rd of Cheshvan): Rabbi Isaac ben Samuel Lampronti, author of Pahad Yizhak,
passed away.
1759:
The will of Reuben Adolphus, the brother of “Simon, Samuel and Dr. Joyo
Adolphus” and the nephew of Simon Adolphus which contained a bequest for
Solomon Henry and name Sir Joseph Hankey and Michael Adolphus was probated
today,
1765:
Spanishtown, Jamaica native Abraham Rodrigues de Leon and his wife gave birth
to Rebecca de Leon.
1773(1st
of Kislev, 5534): Rosh Chodesh, Kislev
1773(1st
of Kislev, 5534): Juda Etting passed away “at sea” today while “on his way to
Surinam from New York City.”
1778:
Birthdate of Joseph Etting, the son of Elijah Etting not to be confused with
Joseph Etting, the son of Solomon Etting.
1779:
Sixty-three year old naturalist and explorer Pehr Kalm who on his visit to the
United States in 1748 described the Jews of New York as forming “a considerable
portion of the population” passed away today He also said the Jews “had stores
and fine houses and ships, and a flourishing synagogue and enjoyed all the
privileges of other citizens. The young
Jews, especially when away from home, made no scruple about eating pork when
the opportunity offered.”
1780:
In Buttenhausen, Germany, Melia and Jacob Strauss gave birth to Hirsch Strauss,
the husband of Rebecca Strauss with whom he had four children.
1793:
“Jacob de Beer was employed today by the Dutch East India Company.
1794(23rd
of Cheshvan, 5555): Saul Berlin passed away in London. Born in 1740, he “was a
German Talmudist and one of the most learned Jews of the Mendelssohnian
period.”
1794: Abigail Dias, the daughter of Haham Moses Cohen d’Azevedo and Sara de
Haham Moses Cohen D’Azevedo and her husband Isaac Haim de Abraham de Jacob Dias
gave birth to Hannah Carcas, the wife of Joseph Carcas.
1803(1st
Kislev, 5564): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1803:
In Frankfurt am Main, Jacob Hirsch Kann, the “son of Miriam and Isaac Jacob
Kann” and Jetta Kahnn gave birth to Philip Kann.
1803:
Birthdate of Heinrich Ewald the German theologian and author whose works
included Complete Court on the Hebrew Language, The Poetical Books of
the Old Testament, History of the People of Israel and Antiquities
of the People of Israel.
1811:
In Amsterdam, “Abraham Juda Delmonte / van den Berg and Rebecca / Ribca Abraham
da Silva Abenatar” gave birth to Abraham Delmonte the husband of Sara Rimini.
1818:
Two days after she had passed away, 67 year old Lydia Cohen, the wife of Levi
Barent Cohen with whom she had seven children, was buried today at the Brady
Street Jewish Cemetery.
1819:
Birthdate of Wilhelm Marr, the ner-do-well who married three Jewish women,
became a leader in the modern German anti-Semitism movement and then recanted
his beliefs towards the end of his life.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/WilhelmMarr.html
1821:
Missouri trader William Becknell arrives in Santa Fe, New Mexico over a route
that became known as the Santa Fe Trail which enjoyed a Golden Era of trade
that lasted until the early 1850’s. Jews were reluctant to be identified as
such since New Mexico was still thought to be within the jurisdiction of the
Inquisition. Apparently a Prussian Jew named Albert Speyer had no such qualms
and he conducted trading operations on the Santa Fe Trail and in Mexico itself
in the early 1840’s
1825:
Jacob Abraham Wood married Hannah Simmons at the Hambro Synagogue today.
1827
OS(9th of Kislev, 5588): Fifty-four year old Dovber Schneuri, the
second Lubavitcher Rebbe also known as the Mittler Rebbe (or Middle Rebbe) who
was the son of Shneur Zalman of Liabi, the found Chabad Lubavitch and whose daughter Chaya Mushka married her
cousin Menachem Mendel Schneersohn who became the third rebbe, passed today on
his birthday, according to the Hebrew calendar.
1827:
Birthdate of Charles Eliot Norton, the Harvard professor, whose friendship with
James Loeb was so meaningful that Loeb, the Jewish banker and philanthropist
created The Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship in his honor.
1828:
In Crosby Square, London, Rebecca Montefiore and Joseph Solomon gave birth to
Matilda Solomon, the wife of Jacob Waley.
1831:
Elias and Sophia Solomons were married at the Hambro Synagogue today.
1833:
In the United Kingdom, The Dover Telegraph reported that Fanny Nathan, the
daughter of local china and fruit importer had married Mr. Abrahams of Canterbury.
1841:
Birthdate of Abraham Mendes Chumaceiro, the Amsterdam native who moved to
Curaçao in 1856, where he became a prominent member of the bar.
1841:
Birthdate of Landstuhl, Germany, native Michael Abraham, the husband of
Carolina Berg.
1842(13th
of Kislev, 5603): Hungarian rabbi Baruch (Benedict) Goitein who “occupied the
rabbinate of Högyész for many years, and wrote a work on Talmudic methodology
under the title of “Kesef Nibḥar” who was succeeded by his son
Hermann (Hirsch) Goitein and then by his grandson Elijahu Menahem passed away
today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9437-kojetein-baruch
1843:
Samuel Strauss and his wife, the former Rosalia Drucker gave birth to Sigmund
Ferdinand Strauss the brother of British MP Arthur Strauss.
1844:
Sarah Ann Hays and Alfred Mordecai, who were married in Philadelphia in 1836
gave birth to Emma Mordecai.
1845:
Israel Beer Josaphat was baptized at St. George’s German Lutheran Chapel in
London where he took the new name of Paul Julius Reuter. His name lives on today in the name of the
news service he established- Reuter’s.
Reuter may have shed his religion but his enemies would mock him as a
Jew when it suited their needs.
1849:
Hayyim Zebi Lerner, the native of Dubno who was a follower of Wolf Adesohn, a
leader of the Maskilim, “was appointed government teacher of the Jewish public
school of Berdychev.”
1850(11th
of Kislev, 5611): Aaron Alexandre, “a Bavarian trained rabbi” who became a
leading chess player after arriving in France in 1793 passed away today in
London.
1852:
An article entitled Germany: Political Movements published today reported that
in Berlin that newly empowered reactionaries are seeking to modify Article 12
of the Constitution, which had freed “the exercise of political rights from all
ddependence on the religion of the citizen…” The change is aimed at excluding
the Jews from the political process so that Prussia will be “a Christian
State.” The liberals are afraid that
once the Jews are excluded, other groups will be excluded including “the free
communists, German Catholics and other non-conformists.
1853:
The Tenth Anniversary Dinner of the German Benevolent Society was held tonight
at the Assembly Rooms in New York City. Joseph Seligman, president of the
society presided over the affair which was attended by two hundred gentlemen.
The attendees donated $2,000 to the society.
1853:
Birthdate of Victor Worms, the native of Luxembourg who was the younger brother
of Emile Worms and a prominent French lawyer.
1859:
Two days after she had passed away, 56 year old Isabella Myers, the wife of
Benjamin Myers with whom she had four children, was buried at the Exeter Jewish
Cemetery.
1859:
Prussian native Saling Schiff and Katherine Mosely gave birth to Adelaide
Schiff.
1860:
Birthdate of Jesse Houghton Metcalf, the Senator from Rhode Island, who as
early as June of 1933 “deplored” the racial and religious prejudice of the
German government in a speech on the floor of the Senate.
1861:
Birthdate of Mt. Morris NY native and U.S. Naval Academy graduate Joseph
Strauss who rose from the rank of Ensign in 1887 to Rear Admiral in 1918 and
was commander of the Asiatic Fleet from 1921 to 1920.
1864(17th
of Cheshvan, 5625): Samuel Solomon, the Lancaster, PA born son of Myer S.
Solomon and Hyah Bush passed away today in Philadelphia, PA
1866:
In Lemberg, Galicia, Samuel and Sarah Rebekah (Flecker) Maroshes gave birth to
journalist and “author of a series of Articles on ‘The Ten Lost Tribes of
Israel’,” Joseph Margoeshes who in 1898 came to the United States where he
“became a member of the staff of the Jewish Day before moving on to the staff
of Jewish Morning Journal in 1921, the year before he married Lea Rachel
Stieglitz.”
http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32706
1868:
“The will of Abraham Hirsh was probated” today.
1869:
In Jonesboro, TN, Herman and Helen (Guggenheimer) Cone gave birth to Johns
Hopkins graduate and University of Pennsylvania trained physician Sydney M.
Cohen, “a consultant in orthopedic surgery at Hebrew Hospital,: an associate
professor of pathology at the University of Maryland and a “major in the
Reserve Corps, U.S.A.” who was the husband of Bessie Skutch, vice president of
the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and and a member of the “Medical Veterans of
the World War.”
1870(22nd
of Cheshvan, 5631): Fifty-three-year-old Rosine Reele Erlanger, the German born
daughter of the daughter of Jakob Mayer Moos and Jeanette Scheinle Moos, the
wife of Simon (Schimele) Erlanger and mother
of Isidor Erlanger; Abraham Erlanger and Jeanette Erlanger passed away today
after which she was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Baden, Germany.
1871:
“Cruelties Practiced by Poultry Dealers” published today described activities
at the so-called “Jews’ Washington Market” on Essex Street which is home to a
large number of butchers and their coops of chicken.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A07E2DC1639EF34BC4E52DFB767838A669FDE
1872(15th
of Cheshvan, 5633): Parashat Vayera
1872(15th
of Cheshvan, 5633): Emanuel Levie Goldsmith, the Dutch born Son of Levie
Emanuel Goudsmit and Magdalena Hartog Goudsmit and the husband of Alijda Joseph
Joel Goldsmith who was the father of Professor Joel Emanuel Goudsmit passed
away today in New York.
1872:
George Joseph Emanuel, the London born son of Joseph and Jane Emanuel and his
wife Elizabeth Emanuel gave birth to
Arthur Emanuel.
1874:
It was reported today that Rabbi Artom officiated at the wedding of Mr. Isaac
Abecassis of Lisbon and Miss Helena Ben Sande of the Azores at the Portugese
Synagogue on Bryanstone Street. The
service included all of the Jewish traditions including the breaking of the
glass. The reception was held at the
Langham Hotel where Jewish traditions continued to prevail among a wedding
party that included many gentiles as could be seen by wearing of hats by the
Jewish men during the entire affair.
1874:
It was reported today that Carl Schurz will deliver a lecture next Wednesday
members of the Hebrew Young Men’s Association in New York.
1874:
It was reported today that Rabbi De Sola Mendez will deliver a lecture next
week at the Lyric Hall in New York City.
1874:
It was reported today that the Jews of Chicago have held a service to honor the
memory of Rabbi Abraham Geiger, the leader of Reform Judaism in Berlin who
passed away in October of 1874.
1874:
It was reported today that those who lost seats in recent Austrian elections
blame their defeat on the fact that there were two Jewish members of the
government.
1877(NS):
In Kyiv, Ukraine, David Margolin “one of the leaders of the Jewish community
and a pioneer in the steamer business” and Rosalie Margolin gave birth University of Kyiv trained
attorney and diplomat Arnold Davydovich Margolin who became famous as the
defense counsel for Mendel Belis and who was “a member of the Ukrainian
delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference after WW I after which moved to
the United States where he practiced law, lecture at university and served with
the OSS during WWII.
1878:
In Plosea, Rumania, Leon and Rachel (Rubin) Bereano gave birth to Long Island
Hospital College trained gastroenterologist Philip L. Bereano, the founder of
the Jewish Home for Convalescents and Director of the Tremont Hebrew School who
married Clara Danzis in New York City
1879:
It was reported today that “Romania positively refuses to enfranchise her dirty
Israelites, except on her own conditions” which are not those that she had
agreed to when negotiating with the Great Powers.
1879:
Four days after he had pass away, 61 year old Isaac Lindo Mocatta, the son of
Moses Mocatta and Abigail Lindo, the husband of Abigail Mocatta and the father
of Grace Mocatta, was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1880:
Birthdate of Minsk native Nissan Telushkin who “served as a congregational
rabbi in Europe until 1924 before coming to the United States where served as
Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Yitzchak in Brooklyn for over forty years.
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/04/03/archives/rabbi-telushkin-88-orthodox-scholar.html
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/telushkin-nissan
1880:
Birthdate of Cadiz, OH native and Chicago banker and Congressman Charles S.
Dewey, a cousin of naval hero Admiral George Dewey, who commissioned architect
David Adler, the Milwaukee born son Isaac David Adler and Therese Adler, to
design “the Dewey House” which was placed on the NRHP in 1985.
1880:
A patent was reissued to Michael Umstadter for “a new, and valuable Improvement
in Jacquard Attachments for Embroidering-Machines.”
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/37/ac/90/b0bcf797532c63/USRE9470.pdf
1881:
It was reported today that SS Silesia is expected to arrive soon in New York
City with 250 Jews from Russia. A total
of 5,000 Jews are expected to come during the Winter months. “Most of the Jews are farmers and will settle
in Texas and Louisiana.” The Hamburg
Line, whose ships are bringing the Jews to America, has promised to provide
Kosher food for the travelers “from the time they leave the Russian frontier
until” they arrive in the United States.
1881:
It was reported today that Julius J. Frank is planning on giving a lecture to
the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1881:
It was reported today that The Porte has told representatives of English and
German philanthropists who are promoting the migration of Jews to Turkey that
Jews will be allowed to settle “in separate communities in all parts of the
empire, except Palestine.
1883:
It was reported today that in England, Charles K. Salaman has used “words…in
the original language of the Old Testament to compose “A Hebrew Love Song.”
(Salaman is name many do not recognize today.
He was prolific 19th Anglo-Jewish composer whose career
spanned 70 years)
http://www.jewish-history.com/civilwar/default.htm
1883:
It was reported today the President of the Union Trust Company on Broadway in
New York gave David Salzman a quarter when he turned in a check in the amount
of $1,250 drawn on the company. The
Jewish boy who works as a bootblack “was somewhat surprised at the amount.”
1883:
In Chicago, Eli Benjamin Felsenthal and Nettie Felsenthal gave birth Agatha
Felsenthal who became Agatha Schoenbrun when she married Leo Schoenbrun with
whom she had three children.
1884:
The leaders of the Ladies’ Auxiliary Society hosted their annual reception at
the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.
1884:
Pope Pius X, who when he met with Herzl
in the Vatican in 1904 and said that “Jews have recognized Our Lord, therefore
we cannot recognize the Jewish people” which mean that “Jerusalem cannot be
placed in Jewish hands” was “”consecrated” today.
1884:
Rabbi Gustav Gottheil officiated at the wedding of Miss Leonitine Huebsch, the
daughter of Rabbi Adolphus Huesbsch , of blessed memory and Mrs. Joshua
Kantrowitz, associate editor of the
Hebrew Standard.
1885:
The National Rabbinical Convention, a meeting of Reform rabbis from across the
United States, opened this morning in Concordia Hall in Allegheny City, PA.
1886:
Sigmund and Julia Kohlman gave birth to Alabama resident Flossye Kohlman.
1886:
“Curious Will Suit” published today described litigation brought by the heirs
of the late Moses Issacks to try and
recover $50,000 that had been left to him as a life interest by his Uncle, the
late Sampson Simson, the noted philanthropist who helped to fund Mt. Sinai
Hospital. According to the will, upon
Isaacks death, the principle of the life estate was to revert to an
organization that would help with educational activities in Jerusalem. The
executor of the estate turned the money over to the North American Relief
Society for the Indigent Jews but the heirs claim they should get the money
because the money did not exist at the time of Simson’s death so it was not
eligible. (The court will find for the Society.)
1886:
In Glasgow, KY, Caroline Morris and Joseph Korck, gave birth to Arthur B. Krock
who was raised by his maternal grandparents Emmanuel and Henrietta Morris until
he was six and who gained fame as a conservative political journalist working
for the New York Times. According to some published reports, during the
1930’s the Jewish publisher of the Times
denied Krock who would win four Pulitzer Prizes a promotion because the paper
did not want to have Jews in prominent editorial positions.
1886(18th
of Cheshvan, 5647): Seventy-seven year old Jacob A. Felsenthal, the German born
son of Johanna Grunebaum and the husband of Freda Hart, with whom he had ten
children, passed away today in Chicago
1887:
Over two thousand men and women attended the 9th annual charity ball
hosted by the Brooklyn Orphan Asylum at the Academy of Music.
1887:
Birthdate of Rabbi Nathan Gerstein who “became ill while traveling to New York
to get approval to build a new synagogue on Main Avenue in San Antonio, TX.
1888(12th
of Kislev, 5649): Forty-two year old Arsène Darmesteter linguist and author who
served as “Professor of Old French Language and Literature” at the Sorbonne who
used the writings of Rashi in his study of Old French passed away today.
http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Talmud.html?id=HRZQfUKlTYAC
1888:
The American Israelite, published a letter from Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory
that began “It may perhaps surprise many of your readers to learn that way our
here on the frontier, as many term it ‘the other end of civilization,’ there is
an intelligent and prosperous Jewish population that bids fair to become a
creditable congregation in the very near future” as can be seen by the fact
that “a few days ago Mr. Max Idelman received a Sefer Torah which was presented
to him by his father, under whose surveillance it was executed in Europe.”
1889:
It was reported today that shots were fired into stores and homes owned by Jews
living in three towns in Louisiana’s East Carroll Parish. At the town of Alsatia “a placard was stuck
on the door” that reading “‘No Jews after the 1st of January. If you disregard this warning fire and lead
will make you leave.’”
1889:
In Pittsburgh, PA, German Jews Nettie Schamberg and Joseph Kaufman gave birth
to playwright and journalist George S. Kaufman, the husband of Beatrice Barkow,
who moved to New York where he worked as a journalist before pursuing a career
in the theatre. Kaufman almost always wrote in collaboration with somebody
else, but he was always the senior collaborator, no matter how distinguished
the other writer might have been. In their day, Kaufman’s works were almost all
theatrical successes. But most of his works are not known to today’s public.
One exception would be three plays – The Cocoanuts, A Night at the Opera and
Animal Crackers – all of which were made into hit movies by the Marx Brothers.
Kaufman passed way in 1961.
1890:
Birthdate of Roona, Russia native George Feldman, who “emigrated to Canada in
1913, joined the Jewish Legion in Saskatchewan “and served in Palestine with
the 39th Battalion of the Royal Fusilers after which he returned to
Canada where he married in 1922 and raised three children.
1890:
In Philadelphia, PA, The Society Hachnasath Orechim, or Wayfarers’ Lodge, was
organized today.
1890:
In “Alliance Colony, an agricultural community in rural southern New Jersey,
Anna Saphro and pharmacist George Sergious Seldes gave birth to Henry George
Seldes an “investigative reporter” who was part of a talented family that
included his brother, writer Gilbert Seldes, his niece, actress Marian Seldes
and his nephew, literary agent Timothy Seldes
1890:
In “One of the Persecuted Jews” published today, Herman Rosenstraus, a Russian
Jew living in the United States provided a firsthand account of the travails
that brought him to this county.
1890: Birthdate Alliance Colony, NJ native author and journalist George
Seldes. (As reported by William Dicke)
1890:
In New York, Rosa Gordon and William Kahn gave birth to NYU and Bellevue
Medical School trained medical doctor and author Isador William Kahn, the
“visiting gynecologist at the Home of the Daughters of Jacob.
1891:
In Philadelphia, found of Congregation “Dirshu Tove” which held daily service
and used Har Nebo Cemetery.
1892:
The building owned by Young Men’s Hebrew Association in Memphis hosts the
second day of the National Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union’s national
convention. The Alliance is a southern
version of the Grange, which was considered to be a “radical” agrarian
organization by the railroads and the banks.
1893:
Birthdate of St. Louis native and Rush Medical College trained physician Dr.
Louis Bothman , the husband of Anne Bothman who served as a lieutenant in the
USN during World War and was the professor of Ophthalmology at the University
of Illinois.
1893:
The Russian Jewish immigrants who arrived last week aboard the SS Roland who are still being detained
at Ellis Island will be re-examined today and if they continue not to meet the
required standards will be ordered back to Europe.
1893:
Today, when Emmeline Obermeyer turned 20, 29 year old photographer Alfred Stieglitz
succumbed to family pressure and married her in New York.
1894:
Birthdate of Jacob Samuel Potofsky, the native of Radomysl, Russia who came to
the United States where he rose to become President of the Amalgamated Clothing
Workers
1895:
Harry B. Hirsh and Minnie Hirsh gave birth to Rose Wolf, the wife of Morris
Wolf.
1895:
Rabbi Joseph Silverman delivered a sermon at Temple Emanu-El entitled “The
Charity of the Jews.”
1895:
In Luka, Czech Republic, Bertha and Hermann Ullmann gave birth to Paula Ullmann
who became Paula Lowidt when she married Leo Lowidt both of whom were killed
during the Holocaust.
1896:
Rabbi Kahn of Rodof Sholom officiated at the funeral of 84 year old Ephraim
Wolbach who was a co-founder of the congregation.
1896:
Rose Landsberg, the President of the Rochester, NY Section of the National Council of Jewish Women which had been
“organized in the summer of 1895 with a membership of 40” submitted a report
which showed the section had grown to 66 members and offered 6 study circles.
1896:
An address by Mrs. Nellie L. Miller of Memphis “stirred up a lively discussion”
at this afternoon’s “session of the National Council of Jewish Women. Many of the delegates took issue with her
declaration “that today the people of her race are lax in their religion,
careless in the faith of their fathers “ and could learn lessons from Christian
women when it comes to “strength and perseverance.
1897:
In Johannesburg, South Africa, Isidore Heyman and his wife gave birth to a son
1897(21st
of Cheshvan, 5658): Eighteen month old Sarah Rosetta “Rosie” Rabbinowicz, the
infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E.W. Rabbinowicz passed away today at
Whitechapel. UK.
1897:
“Ferdinand Forzinetti, the commandant of the Cherche-Midi military prison, and
one of the first to be convinced of Dreyfus’s innocence, was relieved of his
position when his views about the matter became public.
1897:
In London, The Relief Committee of the Board Guardians was scheduled to meet at
3:30 this afternoon.
1897:
Birthdate of Richmond native Henry Stern Raab, the realtor and leader of the
Jewish community.
1898:
“100,000 Given for Education” published today described how Jacob H. Schiff had
contributed $25,000 towards an endowment fund for the Educational Alliance that
attracted the following additional contributions: Louis Stern, $25,000; B.
Altman, $20,000; William Saloon, $10,000; Isidor Straus, $10,000; Felix
Warburg, $5,000 and Louis Marshall, $5,000.
1898:
The staff at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and public health authorities including
Dr. Dillingham, the assistant Inspector for the Health Department “discredited”
reports “of a severe outbreak of scarlet fever” at the Jewish children’s
facility.
1898:
It was reported today that Israel Zangwill had delivered a lecture on the
history of the Jewish people in which he said that “Colonel Roosevelt had said
to him that the Jews in the Rough Riders were among the bravest in his
regiment.”
1899:
Today’s review of the most recent revival of “The Merchant of Venice” praised
Henry Irving’s portrayal of Shylock as the best since that of the late Edwin
Booth because of its “expression of the Jew’s craft and malice, his implacable
disposition and the bitterness of his hatred.”
(Shylock was one of Irving’s signature roles. Portrayals of Shylock have varied over the
centuries and often reflect how Jews are viewed in a given place or time.)
1899:
In Harrison, OH, “Edward and Hannah Mary (Hart) Hannah gave birth to Harvard
Ph.D. Harold Edward Israel, a professor at Smith College, the “noteworthy
psychologist and educator” who was the husband of Elsa Siipola.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/10/10/97318148.html?pageNumber=43
1899:
“Answer to a Correspondent” published today provided a discussion of the
etymology of “Mizpah” which comes from the Hebrew word “Mitzpah” which “was the
name of several places in Palestine” but was first used in the story of Jacob
Laban where the word is used to describe “a rude heap of stones” that served as
a “witness” to the agreement they had made and served a “boundary” marker.
1900:
Lissa & Kann, the family owned bank managed by Zionist leader Jacobus
Henricus Kann makes £ 700,000 available for Herzl’s use. Born in 1872, Kann was
an aide to Theodor Herzl and was one of the founders of the Jewish Colonial
Trust in 1899. He was an active participant in the Zionist Congresses and was
elected to the Zionist Organization’s executive in 1905. Later he worked on
various projects in Palestine. He passed away in 1945.
1900(12th
of Kislev, 5649): Fifty-nine year old Moritz Rosenhaupt the cantor at Nuremberg
who is the author of “Shire Ohel Ya’akob” and who wrote a concerto using the 42nd
Psalm passed away today.
1901(5th
of Kislev, 5662): Parasha Toldot
1902:
Birthdate of Weisbaden native Wilhelm Stuckart the Nazi loyalist who attended
the Wannsee Conference as a representative of the Interior Minister.
1903:
Birthdate of Polish native Casimir Oberfeld, the French composer who was
arrested in Nice and shipped to Auschwitz where he died in January, 1945.
1904:
When police tried to force strikes from picketing today, fifteen year old Sadie
Cohen, one of the leaders in the “great east side strike” informed them in
Yiddish that “we can stand where we like; we’re American Citizens.”
1905:
“The diary of a Jewish merchant from Odessa written in the course of those
first four awful days of the month when the massacres were in progress were
received at the office of The Jewish
Morning Journal” today “impress the reader with the horrors of Odessa…far
more graphically than of the news dispatches that have reached” the United
States.
1905:
Police on the East Side of New York were informed tonight “that swindlers were
collecting money in the name of Russian Relief Fund Association and were giving
forged receipts for payments that have been made.
1905:
“At the Synagogue Beth Hamedrdash Hagadol where the Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregation of the United States and Canada” were meeting tonight Rabbi Pereia
Mendes read cablegrams from Baron Grunsberg and Professor Mandelstam of Kiev in
which it was stated that disorders in the southern provinces were still in
progress.
1906(28th
of Cheshvan, 5667): Forty-three-year-old Gustave Isidore Schorstein, the Paris
born son of Clara and Lazar Schorstein
passed away today in London after which he was buried in Golders Green.
1906:
The house physician at the Hotel St. George attributed the death of Rabbi
Raphael Benjamin to “acute indigestion” which was probably the result of the
“bad health” he had been experiencing for an extended period of time. At the time of his death “he was much
disturbed over an incident in connection with the recent unveiling of the
Washington monument at the Williamsburg Bridge Plaza. He had been invited to
speak on that occasion as a representative of the Hebrews, and the Rev. Father
Belford pastor of the Roman Catholic Church of Sts. Peter and Paul was also to
deliver an address, but before the ceremony the priest made a public
denunciation of the Jews, and invitations to both speakers were cancelled.” (As
reported by “Cyber Angel”)
1907:
The University of Tennessee football team coached by Izzy Levene defeated
Mississippi A&M today by a score of 11 to 4.
1907;
In New York, Anna Atlas and her husband gave birth Ruth Weingard Grayzel, the
wife of Harold “Harry” Gregory Grayzel with whom she had one child, Rhoda
Margaret Grayzel.
1907:
Oklahoma was established as the 46th state in the Union. In 1890 the estimated
Jewish population of Oklahoma Territory was one hundred and at statehood about
one thousand. In Oklahoma City the time lag between the founding of the mostly
German Reform congregation B’nai Israel and the mainly Eastern European
Orthodox Emanuel Synagogue was only one year (1903 and 1904). By the time
Oklahoma was granted statehood, the Jewish population had grown from an
estimated 100 living in the territory in 1890, to around a thousand. Signs of
the establishment of Jewish communities, as opposed to just individual Jewish
settlers, could be seen even before statehood was granted. In Oklahoma City,
Temple B’nai Israel was formed in 1903 by the Orthodox Emanuel Synagogue in
1904. In Muskogee, Temple Beth Ahabah, was formed in 1905. In the same year
that statehood was granted, the 100 or so Jews who had settled in Ardmore
formed a Reform congregation called Temple Emeth. Today, the small but vibrant
Jewish community is centered primarily in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
1908:
“Why Tuberculosis Doesn’t Attack Jews” published today includes the findings of
Dr. Maurice Fishberg which say that “vital statistics of various countries and
cities have shown that the number of Jews who dies from die from tuberculosis
is proportionately smaller than among the non-Jewish population around” and
which also say that “the main reason for the lower mortality rates of the Jews
is that for 2,000 years they have been city dwellers and have thus been
thoroughly urbanized and adapted to city and indoor life which is generally
inimical to people who for generations have lived in the country.”
1908
1909:
In Detroit, forty-one year old otolaryngologist Emil Amberg, the Santa Fe, NM
born son of Jacob and Minna (Lowenbein) Amberg married Cecile Siegel today.
1909:
Turkey bans all non-Muslims from holding political meetings in houses of
worship.
1909:
Alma Gluck first appeared on stage with the Metropolitan Opera in the role of
Sophie in Massenet’s Werther. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)
https://jwa.org/thisweek/nov/16/1909/alma-gluck
1910(14th
of Cheshvan, 5671): Ephraim Feldman, a “Talmudist” teaching at Hebrew Union
College passed away today in Cincinnati, OH.
1910:
In Philadelphia, Hortense Mendelsohn and Edward L. Brylawski gave birth to
their third child Jeanne Brylawski.
1910:
Birthdate of Superior, Wisconsin native Morrie “Morris” Arnonvich, nicknamed
“Snooker, the life-time observer of Kashrut who was an all-star basketball
player for Superior State Teachers Colleges before going on to a major league
baseball career that was interrupted by a four-year wartime stint in the U.S.
Army.
1911:
It is understood today in Washington that when the “newly appointed Russian
Ambassador” arrives the nation’s capital “ next week he will come charged by
his Government with authority to open negotiations for a revision of the treaty
of commerce and navigation of 1832” in part because the Russian government now
believes that American Jews entering Russia on business are “so well satisfied
with America as a place of abode” they have no desire to resettle in the Czar’s
empire.
1912(6th
of Kislev, 5673): Parashat Vayishlach
1912:
Rabbi Joseph Stolz is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Caring for the Orphan”
in honor of the dedication of the Marks Nathan Orphan’s Home during Shabbat
morning services at the Isaiah Temple in Chicago.
1912:
Joseph Wohl and his wife gave birth to Bertha Rachel Friedman, the sister of
Sam Wohl.
1912:
It was reported today that “of the 20,356 Jewish immigrants who arrived at” the
port of New York “during the last three months, some seven hundred came from
the Balkan peninsula.”
1912:
“An Epoch-Making Book” published today provided Harold Berman’s review of “a
novel treating the Jewish question written by M.A. Goldschmidt, the celebrated
Jewo-Danish novelist which has recently been issued in a German translation.”
1913:
Rabbi M.S. Margolis, Rabbi S.W. Margolis and S.I. Andron were among the
speakers at the “services marking the four days’ dedication exercises of the
new building of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School on Henry Street which began
today.
1914:
The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens. In 1930, Eugene
Meyer was the first Jew appointed to serve as the Chairman of the Fed. Two more Jews have served as Chairman of the
Fed. Alan Greenspan was appointed in
1978. When he retired, Ben Bernake was
appointed in 2006
1914:
In Germany, a small group of intellectuals whose leaders included Albert
Einstein appeals for “the prompt achievement of a just peace without
annexations and for the establishment of an international organization that
would have as its aim the prevention of future wars.”
1915(9th
of Kislev, 5676): Sixty-six year old Raphael Meldola, the Anglo-Jewish chemist
who invented Mendola Blue Dye, passed away.
1915:
Solomon Weiner and Gertrude Talesknic gave birth to Albert Weiner, the husband
of Sylvia Cooper.
1915:
The Fourteenth Convention of the Federation of Zionist Societies of Canada
ended today with “the singing of Hatikvah and God Save the King
1916: A Reuter’s dispatch from Amsterdam received in London says: “A Warsaw
telegram announces that an edict has been published recognizing Judaism as a
religion in public law.”
1917(1st
of Kislev, 5678): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1917:
Premiere of “When Four Do the Same” a “German silent comedy drama directed by
Ernst Lubitsch” who also co-authored the script and appeared in the film.
1917:
New Zealand cavalrymen entered Jaffa; next stop – Jerusalem
1917:
During World War I, British forces under General Allenby entered Tel Aviv. In
less than a month, the British Army, including Jewish contingents would
liberate Jerusalem.
1917:
In Ekaterinoslav, the militia finally restores order after anti-Semitic rioters
looted Jewish shops.
1917: It was reported today that The Joint Distribution Committee has
collected two thirds of the $10,000,000 it plans on collecting by December
including $1,000,000 that was contributed by Julius Rosenwald.
1917: In Warsaw, “Bundist delegates on the Municipal Council demand that
Jewish elementary schools applying for municipal subsidy omit Jewish religious
education and study of Hebrew from the curriculum.”
1918: In the chaos that followed the end of World War I, Hungary declared
its independence from Austria which Theodore Von Karman to leave the country
and ultimately settle in the United States where he became known as “The Father
of Supersonic Flight.”
http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.php?id=31
http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/von-karman-theodore.pdf
1918: Isaac C. Hirsch, of Company E of the 306th Infantry was
cited today for showing “great heroism, determination and courage” when acting
as a stretcher bearer on August 27 he carried the wounded to safety “in an area
which was swept by shell, machine gun and rifle fire.”
1918: Private Bernard Teitelbaum who was temporarily attached to the Third
and Fourth Platoons, Company D, 306th Infantry was cited today for
showing “extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty” when he gave first aide
“to five wounded men” while under heavy fire from shrapnel and “high
explosives” “until he was himself hit by shrapnel and severely wounded.”
1918: Over seven thousand dollars was collected at the Central Synagogue for
the United War Work Campaign after an appeal by Dr. Nathan Krass.
1918: Today, Major Solomon Lowenstein “who was with the Palestinian
Commission headed by Dr. Finley urged the need of large reconstruction work
Palestine and told how utterly helpless large sections of the Jews in the Holy
Land were.”
1919: It was reported today that ‘Fifteen hundred Jewish organizations will
take part in the parade and demonstration which is to mark the “Day of
Sorrow,” to be observed on Nov. 24 by the Jews of New York City as a
protest against the alleged massacre of 100,000 of their coreligionists in Ukraine.
1919: “The Children’s Relief Bureau of the American Relief Administration
has saved the lives of 1,000,000 children in Poland, according to Dr. Boris
Bogen of New York, Director General of Jewish relief work in that country.”
1920:
In Dresden, Germany, writer and actress Salka Viertel and the writer Berthold
Viertel gave birth to” Peter Viertel who moved to the United States with his
parents in 1928 where he grew up with his Hans and Thomas, graduated from
Dartmouth, served with the U.S. Marines and the O.S.S. during WW II before
pursuing a career as an author and screenwriter. (As reported by Douglas
Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/arts/06viertel.html?ref=obituaries
1920:
Joseph G. Shapiro of Shelton, CT was appointed judge of the City Court today.
1920:
A fund raising drive sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of
Louisville, KY is scheduled to begin today.
1920:
Dr. Judah L. Magnes and Dr. Joseph Silverman, the rabbi of Temple Emanu-El
officiated at the funeral of Jacob Wertheim after which he was buried at the
Mount Hope Cemetery in Westchester, NY.
1921:
Birthdate of Ben Weisman an American composer and pianist best known for having
written many of the songs associated with Elvis Presley. A native of
Providence, Ben Weisman was one of Elvis Presley’s chief songwriters throughout
the 1960s. He co-composed for Elvis’ movies and stage performances nearly sixty
songs that proceeded to go gold or platinum, including “First in
Line”, “Got a Lot of Living to Do”, “Follow That
Dream” and “Wooden Heart”. Weisman also wrote songs recorded by
Barbra Streisand (“Love in the Afternoon”), The Beatles (“Lend
Me Your Comb”), Johnny Mathis (“When I Am with You”), Terry
Stafford (“I’ll Touch A Star”), Bobby Vee (“The Night Has A
Thousand Eyes”) and many others. Since Weisman’s outward appearance was
atypical for a “rock ‘roll guy”, Elvis’ pet nickname for him was
“the mad professor”. Just before Weisman’s last meeting with Elvis in
1976, Elvis proudly announced to the crowd that he had recorded more of Weisman’s
songs than those of any other songwriter. Weisman’s most recent musical score
was for the 1995 movie Crossroads at Laredo: The Lost Film of Edward D. Wood
Jr.
http://archive.jewishcurrents.org/tag/ben-weisman/
1922(25th
of Cheshvan, 5683): Forty-seven year old German physicist Max Abraham passed
away today in Munich.
1922: Birthdate of Manhattan native George Neumann Spitz who played a
leading role in turning the New York City Marathon from a race to a “cultural
happening” (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1923:
It was reported today that “a special Jewish Women’s Committee of sixteen
headed by Chairman Mrs. Benedict Erstein and Secretary Mrs. Julius is part of
the “seventh annual Roll Call of the Red Cross” which has already raised
$1,000,000.
1923(7th
of Kislev, 5684): Rabbi Shlomo Elchanan Jaffe, the Vilan born rabbi and author
who in 1889 or 1890 came to the United States where he became the “Rav, of Bais
Medrash HaGadol of Norfolk Street
https://kevarim.com/rabbi-elchonon-shalom-yaffe-jaffe/
https://archives.cjh.org/agents/people/118626
1923:
At the Comedy Theatre in Manhattan, final performance of “Children of the Moon”
produced by Morris Green
1923:
It was reported today that in Dublin, “the Jewish community is greatly alarmed
by the murder of Mr. Kahn, whose assailant had stopped him and a companion and
ascertained that both were Jewish before shooting at them, especially in light
of the fact that “a few weeks ago another Jew was murdered in mysterious
circumstance.”
1923:
The biblically inspired opera “Samson et Dalila” with Mme. Matzenauer in the
role Dalila, “the Jewish patriot’s undoing” was performed tonight at the Met.
1924(19th
of Cheshvan, 5685): Fifty-eight year German born American journalist Gustav J.
Karger , the husband of Rachel Levison who was also a “member of the Republican
State Central Committee in Ohio, passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/11/17/104270059.pdf
1924:
This afternoon, five thousand persons tried to get into the auditorium of the
National Hebrew School in New York to attend the funeral services for Dr.
Menachem Mendel Scheinkin, the noted Zionist leader who was killed in a street
car accident while visiting Chicago, Illinois
1924:
In Kansas City, Goodman Ace (born Asa Goodman) and Jane Sherwood (born Jane
Epstein) were married – a union that their fans came to know as the witty Easy
Aces.
1924:
Birthdate of Haim Brotzlewsky in Vienna who made Aliyah to Palestine in 1939
where he gained fame as Haim Bar-Lev, the IDF’s Chief of General Staff from
1968 through 1971.
1925:
In Lodz, Nacha (Baran) Bawnik and Yakov Bawnik, “a baker” gave birth to Chaim
Hercko Bawnik, later known as Henry Bawnik who survived years of concentration
life including the sinking of the prison ship Cap Arcona. (As reported by
Richard Sandomir)
1925:
“The Unchastened Woman” a silent film starring Theda Bara (Theodosia Burr
Goodman) was released in the United States today.
1926:
Birthdate of Herbert “Herb” Krautblatt,, the only basketball player at Rider
University who played for an NBA team – in this case the Baltimore Bullets for
one season.
1927:
For a second day in a row, The Anderson Galleries is scheduled to hold an
auction of one of the most extensive and valuable collections of material
relating to Abraham Lincoln which was assembled by New Yorker Emanuel Hertz.
1927:
In Brooklyn, “businessman Morris Gimbel and Lottie Gimbel” gave birth to
lyricist Norman Gimbel who gave us such memorable music “The Girl from
Ipanema” and “Killing Me Softly with His Song”
1928(3rd
of Kislev, 5689): Seventy-two-year-old
Henry Aaron Guinzburg, the Baltimore born son of Caroline and Rabbi
Aaron Guinzburg and the Colonel of Cavalry, aide-de-camp and chief of staff of
Governor Stone of Missouri and the husband of Leonie B. Guinzburg with whom he
had three children – Leonore, Harold and Herminia passed away today.
1928:
A resolution adopted by the Synagogue Council of America which “profoundly
deplored the interference with Jewish worship took place at…the Wailing Wall…on
the Day of Atonement” was made public today.
1928(3rd
of Kislev, 5689): Sixty-two year old Gustav Cohn, the “son of Levi and Eva
Regina Cohn” and the husband of Paula Cohn passed away today in
“Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.”
1929:
In Coburg, German, Julius and Katy Wertheimer gave birth to photographer Alfred
Wertheimer “who for a few fleeting days in 1956 captured strikingly intimate
images of a 21-year-old Elvis Presley just as he was becoming a rock ’n’ roll
sensation…” (As reported by William
Yardley)
http://www.alfredwertheimer.com/
1931:
“The House of Connelly” starring Stella Adler, J. Edward Bromberg and Clifford
Odets which was staged by Lee Strasberg opened at the Mansfield Theatre after
having closed at the Martin Beck Theatre.
1932
Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Louis Lipsky, Nathan Straus, Jr., Robert Szold and Abraham
Goldberg are scheduled to speak at “a mass meeting” tonight “at the Hotel
Pennsylvania” which is a celebration of “the 15th anniversary of the
Balfour declaration” in which Great Britain pledged “support to the Jews in the
establishment of national home in Palestine.”
1933:
The United States recognizes the government of the Soviet Union. Maxim
Livtvinov, the Soviet Foreign Ministers led the effort that resulted in this
major foreign policy shift, Born Max Wallach, Litvinov was one of many Jews who
played a leadership role in the Bolshevik movement and the government of the
Soviet Union. Litvinov saw the opening of relations with the United States as a
key in the fight against fascism. Litvinov would lose his job in the late
1930’s when the Soviets negotiated a non-Aggression Pact with Nazi Germany. At
that point, Stalin was prepared to do anything to ingratiate himself with
Hitler.
1933:
“Little Women,” a screen version of the novel by the same name, directed by
George Cukor with music by Max Steiner was released today in the United States.
1934(9th
of Kislev, 5695): Sixty-five year old real estate agent and “authority on the
Hebrew language,” Pincus Tieger who “assisted in enlarging the Department of
Hebrew Classics in the Elizabeth Public Library” who was the husband of
Gertrude Tieger passed away today in Elizabeth, NJ.
1934:
“The White Parade” an Academy Award nominated film produced by Jesse Lasky with
a script by Jesse Lasky, Jr and Sonya Levien was released in the United States
today.
1934:
In Brooklyn, Esther Sperling and David Schapiro, the owner of a stationary
store in Rockefeller Center gave birth to “Steve Schapiro, a photojournalist
and social documentarian who bore witness to some of the most significant
political and cultural moments and movements in modern American history,
starting in the 1960s with the struggle for racial equality across the Jim Crow
South…” (As reported by Katharine Q. Seelye)
1934:
Designer George Salter, whose father had converted but who now found himself
“Jewish” according to the Nazis arrived in New York thanks in no small part to
an affidavit that had been submitted on his behalf by his brother Stefan who
had come to the United States in 1928.
1935(20th
of Cheshvan, 5696): Parashat Vayera
1935:
The University of California football team led by Guard Robert Gilbert defeated
the University of Pacific today.
1935:
“Jumbo, a musical produced by Billy Rose, with music and lyrics by Richard
Rodgers and Lorenz Hart and a book co-authored by Ben Hecht” opened on Broadway
at the Hippodrome Theatre today.
1935(20th of
Cheshvan, 5696): Fifty-nine year old Camden, SC
native Love Rosa Hirschmann who gained fame as Love Rosa Gann, the graduate of
the Medical College of South Carolina, who went on to practice medicine in the
fields of ophthalmology and otolaryngology passed away today
1936:
“The Violet of Potsdamer Platz” produced by Lothar Clark a German Jew who had
taken refuge from the Nazis in Denmark only to be one of those fortunate
“Danish” Jews who found a final refuge in Sweden.
1936: During a discussion today “regarding enforcement of the Nuremberg
decrees of 1935 against Jewish relations with non-Jewish woman, State Secretary
Heydrich “stated that the number of prosecutions on this charge was steadily
increasing.”
1936: In Jerusalem, a rabbi and his wife gave birth Isaac “Ike” Berger the
weightlifter who gold and silver medals for the United States at the 1960 and
1964 Olympics.
http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/IsaacBerger.htm
1937: Rabbi Jonah B Wise of the Central Synagogue officiated at the funeral
of businessman John David who had passed away two days ago and was buried at
Mount Hope Cemetery in Westchester.
1937:
Birthdate of Doris Bonfield who will be interred in the Agudas Achim Cemetery
in Iowa City.
1937:
Pierre Crabites, a Law School Professor at L.S.U. and for 25 years the American
Representative on the Mixed International Tribunal at Cairo of which he became
the chief judge wrote a letter to the New
York Times in which he advocated that the Haz Anim El Husseini, the Grand
Mufti be allowed to return from his self-imposed exile from Palestine without
having to fear arrest for the role he allegedly has played in the wave of Arab
violence. In the letter, Crabites states his belief that the Grand Mufti is a
key player in any attempt to bring to peace to Palestine while appearing to
support limitations on the settlement of Jews in Eretz Israel.
1938:
The fifth annual “Night of the Stars” which is seeking to raise $100,000 as an
emergency fund for the settlement of oppressed Jews in Palestine” is scheduled
to take place tonight at Madison Square Garden.
1938:
Following a conference between Mayor La Guardia and Police Commissioner
Valentine “a special squad was created today to protect German officials and
German property” which it turned was “to be manned by Jews.”
1938:
Birthdate of American philosopher Professor Robert Nozick. When he passed away
in, he was described as “ the greatest American philosopher since William
James; his influence extended far beyond the academic world, most famously with
his powerful critique of the Left-liberal moral philosophy that underpinned the
welfare state.
1938:
Radio Stations WJZ and WABC broadcast the “Catholic Protest Against Nazi
Persecution of Jews” featuring several Church leaders and former Governor
Alfred E. Smith” from 9:00 to 9:30 p.m.
1939:
At Lodz, the Nazis ordered all Jews to wear a Star of David
1939(4th
of Kislev, 5700): Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz, Rosh Yeshiva of the Kamenetz
Yeshiva, passed away
1939(4th
of Kislev, 5700): Sixty-five year Edward Max Chase,the Alytaus, Lithuania born
son of “Jacob and Rebecca Fritz Chase” and
Lewiston, ME educated president of E.M. Chase Company of Manchester
where his civic activities included founding the “Chase Memorial and Manchester
Hebrew Free Loan Association,” serving as “state treasurer of all drives for
Jewish war sufferers and state chairman of the Jewish Welfare Board” while
being married to Dora Samplin Chase with whom he had four children – Jasper,
Eleanor, Helene and Clara Chase passed away today.
1940:
The Warsaw ghetto was permanently closed. Officially Jews no longer had access
to anything, or business, outside of the ghetto.
1940:
Leon Blum “was transferred to the Château de Bourrassol in the Massif Central
near Riom, where he was to be tried.”
1940:
“South of Suez,” a murder mystery co-starring George Tobias was released in the
United States by Warner Bros.
1941:
“All phonograph records with music composed or recorded by Jews, still
available in Rumanian stores have been ordered confiscated by the Bucharest
Propaganda Ministry, D.N.B, official German news agency, reported tonight.”
1941:
“Completion of the formation of a National Council of American Veteran
Organizations, having as member groups the Disabled American Veteran of the
World War, the Jewish War Veterans of the United States, Catholic War Veterans
Incorporated, the Fleet Reserve Association, the Army and Navy Unions and the
National Association of Regulars was announced today.
1941(26th
of Cheshvan, 5702): Eighty-five-year-old Jessica David Oberndoffer, the
Manhattan born daughter of Isabella and Benjamin Hayman Seixas and the wife of
Israel Oberndorfer passed away today in New York City.
1942:
Leopold Pick was transported from Tabor to Terezin
1942:
Today, during the darkest days of World War II, a proclamation was
published over the signatures of 1,521
outstanding Americans, declaring the moral right of the stateless Jews of
Europe and of the Jews of Palestine “to fight — as they ask to fight —
under the ancient banner of David the King, as the Jewish Army…They renewed the
appeal that has been made ineffectively in the last eighteen months against
Arab opposition for he separate arming of 200,00 Jews or more in the Middle
East.” The declaration read, in part
“The first victims of Hitler’s aggression cannot conceive democracy denying to
them participation…in this crusade against barbarism.”
1943:
In Manhattan, Edith Hillman Boxill and Dr. Nathan Epstein gave birth to Dr.
Paul Epstein, “a public health expert who was among the first to warn of a link
between the spread of infectious disease and extreme weather events, adding a
new dimension to research into the potential impact of global climate change”
(As reported by Paul Vitello)
1943:
In Brookline, MA, Mrs. Leah Carey gave birth to Yiddish theatre actor and
producer David Carey, “a co-founder with Raymond Ariel of the Shalom Yiddish
Musical Theatre.”
1943:
Ill Jewish slave laborers at the Skarzysko-Kamienna, Poland, ammunition
factory, who are lured from their barracks by Ukrainian guards and SS men
promising soup, are gunned down or loaded onto trucks and taken to an execution
site elsewhere in the camp. The Ukrainians killed all those they thought were
too weak to continue working.
1943:
In an example of the law of unintended consequences a planned attempt to
assassinate Hitler by a group known as the “Black Band” did not take place
today because of the impact of an Allied air attack,
1943(18th
of Cheshvan, 5704): British forces carried out a search at for arms at Ramat
Hakovesh. When members of the kibbutz resisted, the situation erupted in
violence. The British killed one kibbutznik wounded 35 others and arrested an
additional 35 Jews.
1944:
“Warfare raging throughout the world has intensified rather than mitigated
racial prejudice and sharpened the edge of anti-Semitism, Dr. James G. Heller
of Cincinnati, chairman of the United Palestine Appeal, told delegates at
today’s closing session of Hadassah, Women’s Zionist Organization of America.”
1945:
Premiere of “The Lost Weekend” the film about an alcoholic directed by Billy
Wilder.
1945:
A delegation representing the American League for Free Palestine, a Zionist
organization, took off from New York today bound for a meeting of the UN in
London.
1945:
Yeshiva University came into existence (as a university), making it the first
American university under Jewish auspices.
1946(22nd
of Cheshvan, 5707): Parashat Toldot
1946(22nd
of Cheshvan, 5707): Ukraine native Minnie Balaban Kapitanoff, the wife of
Samuel Wolf Kapitnoff whom she married in 1908 and the mother of Arthur Wolf
Kapitanoff passed away today after which she buried at Waldheim Cemetery in
suburban Chicago.
1946:
“The Chase,” a film noir produced by Seymour Nebenzal, with a screenplay by
Phillip Yordan and music by Michel Michelet was released in the United States
today.
1946:
At the Music Box Theatre, the curtain comes down on the final performance of “A
Flag Is Born.”
1947:
Speaking today on her “World Security Workshop Program” broadcast by ABC, “Mrs.
Franklin D. Roosevelt said today the United States’ support of the partition of
Palestine into Jewish and Arab states ‘is fair and correct as you look back on
history.’”
1947:
The British seized the SS Kadima, one of several ships filled with Jews that
tried to run the British blockade of Palestine.
The ship, which was equipped to carry 400 passengers, left Italy filled
with 800 Jews desperate to get out of the European DP camps. The British took control of the ship at Haifa
and deported the Jews to the camps at Cyprus where they remained for a year and
three months. Mira (Miriam) Shefer was one of the passengers on the ship. She met her future husband Efriam while on Cyprus.
1948:
The Arabs continue to insist on not recognizing Israel.
1948:
The UN Security Council demands that Israel and Egypt negotiate Negev armistice
directly or through UN mediator Ralph Bunche. This demand does not alter
previous order calling for demilitarization of Negev.
1948(14th
of Cheshvan, 5709): Former California Congresswomen Florence Prag Kahn passed
away in San Francisco. Elected as a Republican to the Sixty-ninth Congress, by
special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of her husband,
United States Representative-elect Julius Kahn, and reelected to the five
succeeding Congresses (February 17, 1925-January 3, 1937), she was unsuccessful
candidate for reelection to the Seventy-fifth Congress in 1936.
1949:
As the Middle East adjusted to the reality of Israel, Syria, held elections for
a Constitutional Assembly.
1949:
The Commandant of the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point,
L.I. is scheduled to address the members of the Israel Maritime League,
including “Commander Joshua L. Goldberg, USNR; Ed Sullivan, Joseph Greenleaf,
Roger Starr and Dan Trotsky, at “their first annual dinner at the Waldorf
Astoria Hotel.
1950:
The last of the 500 sets of the The Survivors’ Talmud (also known as the U.S.
Army Talmud) was an edition of the Talmud published in the U.S. Zone of
Allied-occupied Germany on behalf of Holocaust survivors housed in displaced
persons (DP) camps” were printed today.
1950(7th
of Kislev, 5711): Rochester raised graduate of the Hebrew Union College Louis
Witt, the author of Judaism and Healing who served as the rabbi at
Congregation B’nai Israel in Little Rock and Temple Shaare Emeth in St. Louis
before assuming the pulpit at Congregation Temple Israel in Dayton, OH in 1921
passed away today.
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0159/ms0159.html
https://www.amazon.com/Judaism-healing-Louis-Witt/dp/B0052TP428
1952:
Eighty-four year old Charles Maurras the French leader whose anti-Semitism
stretched from Dreyfus to Leon Blum to supporting Vichy passed away today.
1953:
It was reported today that Norman Salit, president of the Synagogue Council of
America, “who has just completed a month’s visit in Germany was guest of the
Board of Deputies of British Jews at a remembrance parade of Jewish former
servicemen at Horse Guards Parade…”
1954:
“There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays” a popular song played incessantly
in the United States from Thanksgiving to Christmas with lyrics by Al Stillman
was recorded today.
1954:
“Désirée,” a biopic directed by Henry Kostler with a script by Daniel Taradash
was released in San Francisco today. (Editor’s note: Where else but in the United States would you
find two Jews making a moving about the love affair of a French emperor?)
1955(1st
of Kislev, 5716): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1957(22nd
of Cheshvan, 5718): Parashat Chaei Sara
1957(22nd
of Cheshvan, 5718): Sixty-five year old architect Maurice Courland who was
responsible for designing several Jewish buildings including Temple Beth El in
Rockaway Park and the Flatbush Jewish Center and who was the husband of Rebecca
Graff Courland and the father of Raphael and Nehama Courland passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/11/18/90854339.html?pageNumber=31
1958:
Birthdate of actress Marg Helgenberger, the Catholic wife of the Jewish actor
Alan Rosenberg who was President of the Screen Actors’ Guild. Helgenberger is
credited with the following quip: “I’m Catholic, he’s Jewish, and it was just
easier to elope.”
1959:
David Susskind produced “The Waltz of the Toreadors” on “The Play of the Week.”
1959:
The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ”The Sound of Music” opened on Broadway.
Two Jewish writers created a Broadway (and later cinematic) box office hit
about a failed Catholic Nun who married an Austrian nobleman and then escaped
the Nazis. Theodore Bikel played the lead role as Baron von Trapp. Many of you
remember Bikel for his portrayal of Tevya in “Fiddler on the Roof” and for his
numerous recordings of a wide variety of folk music including authentic
melodies from Russia and Israel. Bikel was born in Vienna. His family moved to
Palestine in the 1930’s to escape the rising tide of European anti-Semitism. So
his portrayal of von Trapp struck a responsive personal chord. And all of the
action in the played happened while everybody was singing a raft of very
memorable tunes. Only in America!
1961:
“Summer and Smoke” a film adaptation of the play by the same name produced by
Hal Wallis, starring Laurence Harvey with music by Elmer Bernstein was released
in the United States today.
1962
It was reported today that “a proposal to eliminate from the Catholic liturgy
those Psalms which have specific reference to the history of the Jewish people
has been put forward during the deliberations of the Ecumenical Council on
public worship…” (As reported by JTA)
1963(29th
of Cheshvan, 5724): Parashat Tolodot: Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1967:
Two days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to held for
seventy-two year old Lemberg, Austria, native, Harry Salpeter, “an art deal and
critic” and the husband of Betty Berkowitz followed by “burial at Mount Hebron
Cemetery.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/11/14/90417644.pdf
https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/harry-salpeter-papers-9052
1965(21st
of Cheshvan, 5726): Fifty-year old chess master Albert Charles Simonson who
“was part of the American team which won the gold medals at the 1933 Chess
Olympiad” passed away today.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=24137
1968:
“The Legend of Lylah Clare” featuring Milton Selzer as “Bart Langer” was
released in the United States today by MGM.
1969:
The New York Times features a review
of the novel, “Phoenix Over the Galilee” by Ka-tzetnik 134633; translated from
the Hebrew by Nina de-Nur. “Ka-tzetnik was the slang used to designate a
prisoner in a Nazi death camp.
Ka-tzetnik 135633 was an inmate of Auschwitz.” (As reported by John
Reed)
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FB0D10FB345D13728DDDAF0994D9415B898AF1D3
1970:
At a board meeting of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim of Montreal Dr. Solomon
reported on meeting with Lazarus Phillips and Jack Shacter as the congregation
grappled with a financial shortfall.
1971: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for Paris native and
Sorbonne attendee Dr. Nathan Edlemean, the CCNY undergrad and hold of a Ph.D.
from Columbia, who taught French at two colleges and wrote Attitudes of 17th
Century France Toward the Middle Ages.
1972:
“Applause,” a musical with a book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and a score
by Charles Strouse opened in the West End at Her Majesty’s Theatre today and
ran for 382 performances with Lauren Bacall in the lead role.
1972:
Today “some 200 members of the Israeli Labor Party” broke up the annual general
meeting of the International League for Human Right which led to the Israeli
League for Human and Civil Rights being suspended from the organization in
1973.
1972:
“I and Albert” a musical based on the lives of Victoria and Albert by Charles
Strouse “debuted in the West End at the Piccadilly Theatre” today.
1973:
Today, “The New York Review of Books
published a long article by Mikhail Agursky, a cybernetic engineer and Moscow
activist reviewing the anti-Semitic novel Beware – Zionism.”
1977:
U.S. premiere of Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of a Third Kind” produced
by Julia Phillips co-starring Richard Dreyfus.
1977:
In Manhattan, “filmmakers Stephen Gyllenhaal and Naomi Achs” gave birth to
“actress and producer” Margalit Ruth “Maggie” Gyllenhaal, “the older
sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal.”
1977:
Menachem Begin met with his cabinet to discuss developments since the dramatic
announcement in the Egyptian parliament the week before by President Anwar
Sadat that he was to speak before the Knesset to achieve peace. General Ephraim
Poran, and aide to Begin told Colonel Menachem Milson that he had been chosen
to serve as aide-de-camp to Sadat should he actually make the trip to Israel.
1977:
Arnold Wesker’s “The Merchant” with Joseph Leon playing Shylock and Marian
Seldes as Shylock’s sister opened at New York’s Plymouth Theatre. Zero Mostel had originally been casted in the
role but he passed away before the Broadway production opened.
1978(16th
of Cheshvan, 5739): Eighty-year old Yale and New York Medical College trained
ophthalmologist Dr. Samuel L. Saltzman who fought for Israel during the 1948
War for Independence and the husband of Rose Salzman with whom he had two
children – Suzanne and Jonathan – passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/18/archives/dr-samuel-saltzman-eye-surgeon-historian.html
1978:
Jacob Landau delivered the convocation address at Colby College entitled “The
State of the First Amendment.”
http://www.colby.edu/academics_cs/goldfarb/lovejoy/recipients/jack-landau.cfm
1979:
It was reported today, that according to Jonathan Braun of the Jewish Week,
when John Connally “was about his connection with Arab oil interests” while in
the New York office of the American Jewish Committee he responded, “Isn’t it
better to have somebody in the White House who these people from the inside…”
1979:
Yale trained attorney Richard Ravitch, the Brooklyn born son of Sylvia Lerner
and Saul Ravitch began serving as his term as 4th Chairman of the
Metropolitan Authority of New York.
1979:
It was reported today that Sol Linowitz, who successfully negotiated the Panama
Canal Treaty and who is “taking over from Robert Strauss as President Carter’s
Ambassador at Large for Middle Negotiations is also a leader of the Jewish
community.”
1980(8th
of Kislev, 5741): Eighty-two year old six-time Tony Award winning scenic
designer Boris Aronson passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/03/theater/the-stage-worlds-of-boris-aronson.html
1980(8th
of Kislev, 5741): Sixty-seven year old Philadelphia native and Harvard and U of
Pennsylvania alum Morris Pfaelzer, the son Frank and Elsie Pfaelzer a WW II
veteran and California lawyer passed away today.
1981(19th
of Cheshvan, 5742): Eighty-four year old Ukrainian born and University of
Toronto trained mental health specialist Herschel Alt passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/18/obituaries/herschel-alt-84-expert-on-young.html
1982(30th
of Cheshvan, 5743) Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1982:
In Lake Wales, FL Hazell and Carrie (nee Palmron) Stoudemire gave birth to
American-Israeli basketball player and Olympian Amar’e Carsares Stoudemire,
1984(21st
of Cheshvan, 5745): Seventy-nine year old Croatian Zionist Arnold Kohn, “the
longtime President of the Jewish community of Osijek who was the only member of
his immediate family to survive Auschwitz passed away today.
1984(21st
of Cheshvan, 5745) Sixty-six year old Washington, DC born cellist Leonard Rose
passed away today. (As reported by Tim Page)
1985:
“My Beautiful Launderette” a comedy starring Daniel Day-Lewis with music by
Hans Zimmer was released today in the United Kingdom.
1988: ABC broadcast the third episode of “War and Remembrance,” “an American
miniseries based on the novel of the same name written by Herman Wouk”
1996:
“Jingle All the Way” a Christmas comedy featuring Laraine Newman and Harvey
Korman with music by David Newman premiered today at the Mall of America.
1997:
The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or
about topics of Jewish interest including The Illustrated History of the
Jewish People, edited by Nicholas de Lange and A Director Calls by
Wendy Lesser
1997:
Three days after she had passed away, Ruth Fischman, the sister of Jacob H.
Fischman and the aunt of Mark B. Fischman, Elaine Zekind, Lois Halpern and
Barbara Klibanoff was scheduled to interred at Beth David cemetery in Elmont,
NY.
1999:
Martin Indyk was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1999:
Premiere of “End of Days” directed by Peter Hyams who also served as the
cinematographer.
1999:
The meeting of the General Assembly Of United Jewish Communities opens today in
Atlanta, GA.
2000:
It was reported today that during Senator-elect Hillary Clinton’s visit to the
Knesset she could hear Palestinian gunman firing into the Jerusalem
neighborhood of Gilonow.
2001:
Ronald Lauder opened the Neue Galerie in New York, an art museum a few blocks
away from the Metropolitan Museum, dedicated to art from Germany and Austria
from the early 20th century.
2002(11th
of Kislev, 5763): Parashat Vayetzei
2002:
“Iraqi President Saddam Hussein says that he had to accept UN Resolution 1441
because the United States and Israel had shown their “claws and
teeth” and declared unitlateral war on the Iraqi people.”
2003:
The New York Times book section features reviews of books by Jewish
authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interest including Desire and
Delusion: Three Novellas by Arthur Schnitzler, selected and translated by
Margret Schaefer
2004:
Publication of Robert J. Avrech’s The Hebrew Kid and The Apache Maiden, a
paperback novel that tells the story of
“Ariel Isaacson, who having migrated
westward with his family following the Civil War, is determined to have his Bar
Mitzvah, while he also forms a deep friendship with Lozen, an Apache warrior
girl.”
2005:
The Geffen Playhouse, “which was named for donor David Geffen” re-opened today
in Los Angeles.
2005:
The Jerusalem Post reported that “in a move meant to pave the way for
its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), Saudi Arabia cancelled its
economic embargo against Israel
2005:
In “A shy wunderkind, Stephen Feinberg” Eytan Avriel described the business
workings of the CEO of Cerberus.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/a-shy-wunderkind-stephen-feinberg-1.174285
2006:
Nathan Cooper auditions for Chair Placement at the 60th annual All-State Music
Festival Nathan Cooper of Cedar Rapids Jefferson and a stalwart member of the
Cedar Rapids Jewish community, is one of a thousand outstanding high school
musicians who have been chosen to participate in this major cultural event at
Iowa State University
2006:
Ross Posnock appeared at the Columbia University Bookstore for a discussion and
signing of his new book, Philip Roth’s Rude Truth: The Art of Immaturity
2006:
British religious and architectural charities appealed for help saving the
country’s struggling synagogues as they marked the 350th anniversary of the
resettlement of Jews in England after they were expelled by King Edward I.
2006(25th
of Cheshvan, 5767): Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman passed away
at the age of 94.(As reported by Holcomb Noble)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/16/business/17friedmancnd.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.economist.com/node/8313925
2006:
After a month of previews, “Mary Poppins, a musical with music and lyrics by
Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman (the Sherman Brothers, opened at the
Amsterdam Theatre today.
2006:
National Jewish Book Month begins.
2007(6th
of Kislev, 5768): Ninety-six year old Victor Rabinowitz, “a leftist lawyer
whose causes and clients over nearly three-quarters of a century ranged from
labor unions to Black Panthers to Cuba to Dashiell Hammett to Dr. Benjamin
Spock to his own daughter” passed away today.(As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/nyregion/20rabinowitz.html
2007:
Guest Conductor Roni Porat leads the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra an all-Mozart
program, including Abduction from the Seraglio Overture, Symphony No. 35 in D
Major (Haffner), Serenade no. 6 in D Major and Serenata Notturna.
2007:
After premiering at the Telluride Film Festival, “Margot at the Wedding”
written and directed by Noah Baumbach and co-starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and
Jack Black was released today in the United States.
2007:
Adi Shamir, a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and one
of the world’s most prominent cryptographers issued a warning about a
hypothetical scenario in which a math error in a widely used computing chip
places the security of the global electronic commerce system at risk.
2007(16th
of Kislev, 5768): Maine native Harold Alfond, philanthropist and Dexter Shoe
founder passes away at the age of 93.
2007:
It is time for another round of Dueling Jewish Economists. While on a trip to
London, Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist said the U.S. economy
risks tumbling into recession because of the “mess” left by former Federal
Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Greenspan defended his record and said that
Stiglitz’s criticisms are “inaccurate or incomplete.”
2007:
The Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign affairs announced that Reb Nachman’s grave in
Uman is a cultural site and cannot be sold. The announcement provides comfort
to the followers of Breslov Chasidism that the grave site would sold to private
parties for commercial exploitation.
2008:
Today’s issue of Makor Rishon contains Ya’akov Bar-On’s interview with
former Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau who recently became Chairman of the Board of
Yad Vashem
2008:
The Jewish Reconstructionist (JRF) Biennial Convention comes to a close in
Boston, Mass.
2008:
Final performance by the Inbal Dance Company of “Shaker.”
2008:
The 32nd annual Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show which featured 23 Israeli
artists comes to an end.
2008:
Congregation Beth Judea’s Family Education Weekend comes to a close in Long
Grove, Il.
2008:
In Chicago, the Spertus presents a lecture entitled “What Is Literary
Archaeology?”
during
which Yair Zakovitch, Professor of Bible at the Hebrew University, discusses
“how biblical narratives are designed to deliver messages” and explores “how
these accounts may reflect only one version of a complex and multifaceted
story.” Zakovitch’s most recent book is entitled That’s Not What the Good Book
Says written with Avigdor Shinan.
2008:
The New York Times book section features reviews of books by Jewish
authors and/or on topics concerning Jews or Judaism including Friendly Fire:
A Duet by A. B. Yehoshua; translated by Stuart Schoffman and Chagall: A
Biography by Jackie Wullschlager.
2008(18th
of Cheshvan, 5769): The emotional legal battle over whether to keep a
12-year-old New York boy on life support at Children’s National Medical Center
ended early today after the boy’s heart stopped beating, a lawyer for the boy’s
family said today.
2008:
Ami Ayalon announced he would be leaving the Labor Party for the left-wing
religious Meimad party
2009:
Columbia University’s Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies and American
Studies Program together with The Library of America present an evening with
Meir Shalev Israeli Novelist, Essayist and Columnist who will discuss “The
State of Israeli Literature.”
2009:
Letters of Conscience: Raphael Lemkin and the Quest to End Genocide opens at
Yeshiva University Museum.
2009:
Noralee Frankel discusses and signs Stripping Gypsy: The Life of Gypsy Rose
Lee at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C.
2009:
Journalist Ariel Sabar discusses and signs his memoir, My Father’s Paradise:
A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq as part of the Schapiro
Lecture Series held at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Central Branch, Baltimore,
Md.,
2009:
After the revival of his play “Brighton Beach Memoirs” closed a week after it
opened, Time magazine quotes Neil Simon as saying “After all these
years, I still don’t get how Broadway Works.”
2009(29th
of Cheshvan, 5770): Sixty-eight year old “Bobby Frankel, one of the most
successful American thoroughbred trainers of the last 40 years, whose horses
included the champions Bertrando, Ghostzapper and Empire Maker, the winner of
the 2003 Belmont Stakes, died today. (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/sports/17frankel.html
2009: Excerpts of the diaries kept by Claretta petacci,
Benito Mussolini’s mistress, were published today that showed the Italian
dictator to be “a fierce anti-Semite who proudly said that his hatred for
Jews preceded Adolf Hitler’s and vowed to ‘destroy them all.'”
2010:
Dr. Laurie Ann Levin author of God, The Universe: Where I Fit and Rebecca
Rosen author of Spirited are scheduled to speak at the 19th Annual
Book Festival of the MJCAA in Atlanta, GA
2010:
The New York Times featured a review of Cynthia Ozick sixth novel, Foreign
Bodies.
2010(9th
of Kislev, 5771): Ronni Chasen was murdered today. Born in 1946 she was called “Hollywood’s
ultimate old-school publicist” by Los Angeles Times film critic
Patrick Goldstein in an article posted about Ms. Chasen’s murder.
2010:
Montclair philanthropist Josh Weston was named an honorary fellow of the
Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo as part of today’s ceremony dedicating the
institution’s Josh and Judy Weston School of Management and Economics Building.
2011:
Martin Fletcher, author of “The List” and David Javerbaum, author of “The Last
Testament” are scheduled to appear at the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival.
2011:
David Amram was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame and given their
Jay McShann Lifetime Achievement Award for his sixty year career as one of the
first jazz French hornists, a multi-instrumentalist, a pioneer of world music,
a scat singer, the creator with author Jack Kerouac of Jazz Poetry in 1957, and
one of the first conductors to bring the worlds of jazz and classical music
together during the past fifty years.
2011:
“Max Schmeling,” a film about the German boxer that includes tales of how he
worked to save Jews, is scheduled to be shown at the Jewish Eye World Jewish
Film Festival.
2011: The
meeting of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Board of Governors is scheduled to
come to an end in Argentina.
2011: Joshua Maroof the rabbi at Magen David Sephardic
Congregation in Rockville, Maryland is scheduled to give the first in a series of lectures
entitled “Ezekiel: Prophet of Majesty, Mystery, and Hope.”
2011: A trio featuring Liza Stepanova –
piano; Michael Katz – cello; Balazs Rumy – Clarinet is scheduled to perform
this evening at Agudas Achim in Iowa City, Iowa.
2011: Iran today denied
press speculation that Israel was behind the explosion at a military base near
Tehran which killed 17 members of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC)..
2011: Thousands of aging
Holocaust survivors in the U.S. ¬want Congress to clear a path for them to sue
European insurance companies they contend illegally confiscated Jewish life
insurance policies during the Nazi era and have refused to pay an estimated $20
billion still owed.
2011: For the fourth time
in the past month, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor wrote a
letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the UN Security Council
condemning the continuing rocket fire emanating from the Gaza Strip.
2011(19th of
Cheshvan, 5772): Eighty-eight year old “Irwin Schneiderman, a lawyer and a
philanthropic leader who guided the New York City Opera through a decade of ups
and downs” passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2012: Dr. Jenny Carson of
the University of Manchester is scheduled to a lecture entitled “Quaker
Service: The Friends Relief Service in Post-War Europe” at the Weiner Library
in London. “Friends Relief Service (FRSO
‘Team 100’ was one of the first relief teams
to enter the newly liberated “Camp of Bergen Belsen.”
2012(2nd
of Kislev): On the Hebrew calendar in ancient Israel today would be proclaimed
as a fast day if the rains had not begun to fall
2012:
As Operation Pillar of Defense continues, Israeli officials have placed
limitations on those who can attend services at the mosque on the Temple Mount
as a pro-active measure to avoid outbreaks of violence.
2012:
Kathe & Gary Goldstein, pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community
celebrate the birth of their second grandchild, the daughter of Chava and
Stephen Rosenbaum.
2012:
As Jews around the world prepare to observe Shabbat, their hopes and prayers
are with their co-religionists in Israel who have been subjected to rockets
attacks for several weeks by Hamas which is dedicated to the destruction of the
Jewish state and have been forced to take military measures to defend
themselves.
2012:
Councilors selected Michael Mark Applebaum to serve as interim Mayor of
Montreal.
2012:
“An Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system” was “placed in the Dan region” today.
2012:
Two rockets landed outside of Jerusalem this evening as sirens rang out,
causing no injuries or damage. Police reported there was “no
indication” that rockets landed in the city, stating that “most
likely, the rockets landed in an open area outside of Jerusalem.”
2012:
Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved the IDF’s request this evening to increase
the maximum number of reservists it could enlist, seeking cabinet approval to
mobilize up to 75,000 troops ahead of a possible Gaza ground operation.
2013:
In Olney, MD, Shaare Tefila is scheduled to host is annual Chanukah Celebration
and Talent Show.
2013:
In Herndon, VA, Congregation Beth Emeth hosts an evening with Stacey Beyer,
“one of TIME Magazine’s Top 10 Starts of New Jewish Music.
2013:
“Arabani” and “Dancing In Jaffa” are scheduled to be shown at the 7th
annual Other Israel Film Festival.
2013:
Provincial governor Hilario David III visited the the hospital in Bogo where he
thanked “Israel for sending the medical
team to the Philippines which was hammered by Typhoon Heiyan last week.” (As
reported by Tova Dvorin)
2013:
Members of the IDF met with Phillipine officials to determine the best way to
get aid to the devasted resident of Cebu in the wake Typhoon Heiyan.
2013(13th
of Kislev, 5774): Ninety year old Yehiel Kadishai, a confidant and ally of
Menachem Begin, passed away today.
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Yehiel-Kadishai-longtime-Begin-aide-dies-at-90-331955
2013(13th
of Kislev, 5774: Eighty-nine year old Louis D. Rubin, Jr. “a champion of
Southern Literature” passed away today.
2014:
The New York Times features books by
Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including William
Wells Brown: An African American Life by Ezra Greenspan and the recently
released paperback edition of The Kraus Project: Essays by Karl Kraus
translated and annotated by Jonathan Franzen with Paul Reitter and Daniel
Kehlmann.
2014:
The Skirball is scheduled to present “The People vs. Abraham” where prosecutor
Eliot Spitzer will charge the patriarch defended by Alan Dershowitz with
“attempted murder and child endangerment.”
2014:
In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin
Wall, the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Jews and the
Berlin Wall.”
2014:
Global Day of Jewish Learning, a project of the Aleph Society is scheduled to
take place today.
http://www.theglobalday.org/24x14xrabins/
2014:
The Beth El Women of Reform Judaism (BE-WRJ) and the Brandeis National
Committee Northern Virginia Chapter are scheduled to host an afternoon with
Rabbi Roger Herst author of Rabbi Gabrielle’s Scandal, Dr. Stanton
Samenow author of Inside the Criminal Mind, Chervis Isom author of The
Newspaper Boy, Leslie Maitland author of Crossing the Borders of Time
and Beyhan Cargi author of The Ottoman Turk and the Pretty Jewish Girl.
2014:
A thirty-two year old member of the Breslov Hassidic sect was stabbed in the
back by an Arab man wielding a screw driver as he walked along a street in
Jerusalem this evening.
2014: Israel
defeated Bosnia-Herzegovina 3-0 tonight in the UEFA 2016 European Championship
qualifying group B soccer match.
2014(23rd of Cheshvan): Sixty-two
year old Charley J. Levine, founder and CEO of Lone Star Commuincaitions who
traded in the Lone Star State for living under the Star of David passed away today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/pr-leader-charley-levine-dies-at-62/
2015(4t
of Kislev, 5776): Eight-eight year old Seymour Lipkin, whose breakthrough came
when at the age of 20, “he won first prize in the Rachmaninoff Fund Piano
Contest” passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2015: “Labyrinth of Lies” and “To Life!” are
scheduled to be shown in Sydney during the Jewish International Film Festival.
2015: “Director Steven Spielberg, Israeli
violinist Itzhak Perlman, singer Barbra Streisand, and playwright Stephen
Sondheim were among the 17 recipients of the 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom
announced” today.
2015: “HAGIGA – The Story of Israeli Cinema”
is scheduled to be shown in Los Angeles at the 29th Israel Film
Festival.
2015: “Poland’s last Yiddish feature film, Our
Children” is scheduled to be shown today as part of the program “First
Response: Postwar Cinema and the Holocaust”
2016: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present “Out
of the Ghetto: Struggle, Resistance, and the Human Spirit, The Ringelblum
Archive Publication Project” during which “historian Eleonora Bergman (Jewish
Historical Institute in Warsaw) will discuss the monumental project to publish
the entire Oyneg-Shabes
Archive, secretly gathered in the Warsaw Ghetto by Emanuel Ringelblum and
colleagues.”
2016: The Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center is scheduled to “what Is Israel’s
Story Really About?” – a conversation with Dr. Daniel Gordis and Jonathan
Greenblatt.
2016” Curator Bonni-Dara Michaels is scheduled to lead a tour Yeshiva
University Museum’s newest exhibition – “Uncommon Threads: Clothing and
Textiles.”
2016: Historic Congregation Or VeShalom is the scheduled destination for
today’s Historic Jewish Atlanta Tours.
2016: “A delegation led by US Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel, chief of the
National Guard Bureau, is in Israel through this evening to witness latest
local developments in emergency responsiveness.
2016: “The world’s earliest-know complete stone inscription of the Ten
Commandments, described as a ‘national treasure’ of Israel sold at auction
today in Beverly Hills for $850,000.”
2016: Leonard Cohen’s manager, Robert B. Kory “offered more details about
his client’s death today saying that he “died during this sleep following a
fall in the middle of the night on November 7” and that “the death was sudden,
unexpected and peaceful.”
2016: “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “Fever At Dawn” are scheduled to be
shown at Melbourne as part of the Jewish International Film Festival.
2016: Neshama Carlbach is scheduled to host a concert in commemoration of
the 22nd Yahrzeit of her Father, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, ZT”L featuring the
singing of Abbie Strauss.
2016: Today Eva “Moskowitz met with United States President-Elect Donald
Trump” to discuss “a possible appointment in the Trump administration as United
States Secretary of Education.”
2016: Gloria Steinem and Annie Leibovitz are scheduled to “lead a discussion
on women’s rights and female incarceration in a public gathering” today
2017: “When a delegation of Reform movement leaders tried to hold a
Torah-reading service” at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, “Rabbi Rick Jacobs,
president of the Union for Reform Judaism was roughed up by security guard, one
of whom threated to spray him with mace” and “Anat Hoffman, chairwoman of Women
of the Wall, the feminist prayer group, was accosted by an ultra-Orthodox man,
who tried to pull a Torah scroll out of her hands” “while “Rabbi Gilad Kariv,
executive director of the Reform movement in Israel, was detained for
questioning by police…” (As reported by Forwards and Haaretz)
2017:
“Leeann Tweeden, a Los Angeles-based news anchor and former model, wrote today
in an article that Al Franken, a Democrat who has served as a senator for
Minnesota since 2009, groped her during a tour in the Middle East in 2006 when
Franken was a comedian and a writer
2017:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host an “in-depth
text-based Gemara learning” session today “before the weekday meal.”
2017:
Ashe Salah is scheduled to lecture on the 18th century travels of
two Jews who left the Roman Ghetto – Amadio Abbina and Sabato Isacco Ambron at
the Center for Jewish History.
2017:
“Remember Baghdad” and “My Mother’s Lost Children” are scheduled to be shown at
the 21st UK International Jewish Film Festival today.
2017:
After the resounding success of last season’s concerts, St. Luke’s Chamber
Ensemble is scheduled to come back to Temple Emanu-El in New York this evening.
2017:
Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to
contemplate the lives of Jewish authors such as Chaim Potok, whose works
included The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev,
and Jewish books for the next thirty days is scheduled to continue for a
fifth day.
2018:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Shabbat Dinner
following Kabbalat Shabbat services.
2018:
In Des Moines, IA, author Dori Weinstein is scheduled to deliver “the dvar
Torah about being an author at Tirfereth Israel” followed by a community
dinner.
2018:
The Gershman Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening
of “The Waldheim Waltz.”
2019:
The UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host screenings of “When Harry Met
Sally,” “The Human Factor” and “How About Adolf?”
2019:
In Los Gatos, CA, Congregation Shir Hades scheduled to host author Michael
David Lukas as he discusses The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, his novel
which won the “2019 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.’
2019:
At Congregation Beth David, “The Addison-Penzak JCC and Silicon Valley
Federation are scheduled to co-host a service for a program that aims to
strengthen local synagogues and Jewish agencies.”
2019:
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host an evening in
the museum is scheduled to “recognize a group of Holocaust survivors who
volunteer at the Museum, sharing their personal testimonies, serving as tour
guides, translating historic materials, and more.”
2019:
The Rutgers Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of “Tel Aviv
on Fire.”
2019(18th
of Cheshvan, 5719): Parashat Va-ayra;
2020:
The Documentary Film Festival at the National Library is scheduled to host a Q
& A with filmmaker Danae Elon, the director and screenwriter for “A
Sister’s Song.”
2020:
As if they need it, following yesterday’s rocket attacks from Gaza, Israelis
awake to a world where they face the twin threats of death from the pandemic
and death from terrorist.
2020:
The Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of two
documentaries – “Shared Legacies” and “In Your Eyes, I See My Country.”
2020:
The UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host, online, the comedy “A Matter
of Size.”
2020:
The Columbus Jewish Festival is scheduled to host the final screening of “The
World Without You.”
2020:
The JCC Literary Consortium is scheduled to co-present a “virtual book fest in
your living room” where “journalist Ariel Sabar talks about his book Veritas:
A Harvard Professor, A Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife.
2020:
The Maine Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host the last screening of
“Latter Day Jew” and the first screening of “Last Stop Coney Island.”
2020:
The Peninsula JCC is scheduled to host a virtual presentation by “longtime Bay
Area social worker and Jewish community professional Rachel Biale as she talks
about her memoir Growing Up Below Sea Level: A Kibbutz Childhood, about
her life in Israel in the 1950s and ’60s.”
2020:
The Long Beach Jewish Festival is scheduled to host the final screening,
on-line of “The Spy Behind Home Plate.”
2021:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present “Why Am I Bukharian If
I Am Not From Bukhara?” during which Manashe Khaimov will “explore important
parts of Bukharian Jewish culture…”
2021:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a virtual book talk with
Danny M. Cohen, author of Train, a novel based on an attempt by six teenagers
trying to escape the Nazi round-up in Berlin in 1943.
2021:
The Jewish Arts Collaborative is scheduled to present, online, “You Will Not
Play Wagner,” a play that
2021:
The Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to present a virtual panel discussion on
“Holocaust History in the 21st Century.”
2021:
The Chicago Jewish Historical Society and the Illinois Holocaust Museum are
scheduled to present Eric Benjaminson at a virtual lunch and learn lecturing on
“My Family’s History: Jewish Victims and Fighters During the Holocaust in the
East.”
2022:
The New York Library is scheduled to host an in-person and livestreamed exploration of
A.B. Yehoshua’s legacy and the role of Hebrew literature and language
in Israel and America with authors Joshua Cohen, Rivka Galchen, and Ruby Namdar.
2022: In New Jersey, JHMOMC is scheduled to present “An
Afternoon with Artist David Levy.”
2022: In partnership with
the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation the Streicker center is scheduled to
host a discussion centering around Feeding the Wil to Endure: Recipes from
the Old World by The Auschwitz-Birkenau Survivors featuring “the team
behind this moving story of resilience, including survivors Tova Friedman,
Michael Bornstein, Eugene Ginter and Rosalie Simon.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/13/dining/honey-cake-latkes-auschwitz-birkenau.html
2022: Funeral services are scheduled to be held at Agudas Achim
for ninety-two-year old University of Chicago graduate and University of Iowa
faculty member Helen T. Goldstein, the widow of Professor Jonathan Goldstein
with whom she raised two daughters Rise and Rachel.
https://www.lensingfuneral.com/obituaries/Helen-T.-Goldstein?obId=26338126#/celebrationWall
2022: Based on previous published reports, French authorities
are seeking extradition of Vincent Reynouard
who had been convicted of Holocaust denial, a criminal offense in
France, multiple times and has so far escaped serving a four-month jail term in
November 2020 and a further six-month spell in January 2021.
2022: YIVO and the Yiddish Book Center for the New York are
scheduled to present the premiere screening of Ver Vet Blaybn? (Who Will
Remain?), a film about Yiddish poet Avrom Sutzkever.
2022:
UK Jewish Film is scheduled to host a screening “Back In Berlin” and “Perfect
Strangers.”
2022: Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture on Yohanan Plesner on Elections
2022 in Israel: What Happened and What Lies Ahead?
2022:
Civilized people everywhere mourn the death of Tamir Avihai, 50, was from
settlement of Kiryat Netafim; Michael Ladygin, 36, immigrated 5 years ago,
lived in Bat Yam with his family and Motti Ashkenazi, 59, had two grandchildren who
were murdered in a terrorist attack on November 15.
2023:
The final screening of Aviva Kempner’s “A Pocketful of Miracles” is scheduled
to take place at the Avalon Theatre in Washington, DC.
2023:
The Jerusalem Biennale in New York is scheduled to come to an end today.
2023:
As part of the Cleveland Jewish Book Festival, Mitch Albom is scheduled to appear
at the Parma-Snow branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library
2023:
In Coralville, IA, at Agudas Achim Synagogue Seniors member David Schapira,
born in
Iowa
City to one of the synagogue’s founding families, is scheduled to talk about
his Vietnam experiences recounted in his book, The Storyteller: Live for
Today and Look Toward the Future.
2023”
The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host a luncheon with
author and journalist Julie Salamon and NYT reporter and columnist Adam
Nagourney.
2023:
In Marblehead, MA, JCCNS is scheduled to host an evening with Steven Hartov,
author of The Last of the Seven.”
2023:
As part of JWA’s “Jewish Women in the Medieval World” program Sara Gardner is
scheduled to lecture on “Women’s Domestic Culture in Iberia.”
2023:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host an evening with Judy Collins as she
returns “to sing her way through her musical time machine and to share her
memories of Greenwich Village back in the days when she and the other penniless
denizens of Gerde’s Folk City and the Gaslight jammed on Sundays in Washington
Square Park; when Bob was emerging from Zimmerman to Dylan;”
2023:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture on Jacob Schiff: A Case
Study.
2023:
The Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host an encore screening
of “Remembering Marrakech.”
2023:
As November 16, begins in Israel, the IDF pays a price in lives loss as it
continues its efforts to fight the terrorists in Gaza, the possibility of a
three-front war takes on a new reality after yesterday’s statement by
Abdul-Malek al-Houthi head of the Iranian backed Houthis who have already been
firing rockets and drones into Israel, “calling on the nations located between
Yemen and Israel to open a corridor to allow the group’s considerable military
force fight Israeli troops directly, and warning that Israeli ships in the Red
Sea between the two countries would also be targeted” while the Hamas held
hostages begin day 41 in captivity.
(Editor’s
note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are just
providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time)
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