This Day, December 20, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
December 20
69: General Vespasianus occupied Rome on
the same day that the Emperor Vitellius was murdered. Vespasianus is better known as Vespasian, the
Roman general who was in charge of putting down the Great Revolt in Judea. He broke off his military action to come back
to Rome and seize power. His son Titus
would destroy the Temple in 70. Before
leaving for Rome, Vespasian gave permission for the establishment of what would
become the community of scholars at Yavneh.
629: The reign of King Chintilla who had
effectively banned Jews from living in his realm when he decreed that only
Catholics could live in Spain came to an end today.
1192: Richard the Lionhearted was captured in Vienna. Richard was
returning home after the Third Crusade when he was taken prisoner by Leopold,
duke of Austria. Leopold then sold him
to the Henry VI, the Holy Roman Emperor.
Henry offered to return Richard to his homeland if his brother Prince
John paid the ransom. The Jews of
England paid 5,000 marks towards the ransom.
This was three times the rate paid by the Christian citizens of the
realm.
1497: Isaac Abravanel completed the “Yeshu’ot Meshiḥo” (The Salvation of His Anointed).
1522:
Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights
of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate the Isle of Rhodes. Based on references
in the Book of the Maccabees, Jews had lived on Rhodes since the second century
BCE. However, in 1500, The Grand Master
of the Knights of Rhodes “expelled all the Jews who did not choose to convert
to Christianity” making the Island “Jew Free” for a couple of decades. Suleiman
the Magnificent conquered the island “he invited Jews from various parts of his
empire to come to Rhodes and start a new community. The Jews that came were
Sephardim, the ones who had found refuge in the Ottoman Empire following the
expulsion from Spain in 1492. These Jews brought with them their culture, their
customs and traditions, one of the cultural aspects was linguistic, the
language they spoke was Espanyol, as they called it, also known as a
“Ladino” and “Judeo-Spanish” The Jewish Quarter of the city
was affectionately known as “La Juderia”. Suleiman is also the Sultan who rebuilt the
walls of Jerusalem and was the patron of Dona Gracia and Joseph Nassi.
1629: Edward Pococke, the Hebrew scholar
who wrote Porta Mosis, extracts from the Arabic commentary of Maimonides on the
Mishnah, was ordained as a priest in the Church of England today.
1673: Sir Thomas Raymond and his wife
gave birth to Robert Raymond, who while serving as Attorney General “was asked
to decide whether a Jew born in England but of foreign parentage could purchase
and enjoy an estate in fee” ruled that such a Jew “was fully capable of
purchasing and enjoying the land and that the law had put no disability upon
him account of his religion.”
1704: Johann Andreas Eisenmenger “the
most dangerous libeler of the Talmud who wrote a two-volume, two-thousand-page
book on the “wickedness of the Talmud” entitled Endecktes Judenthum” passed away today.
1718(27th of Kislev, 5479):
Rabbi Naphtali Cohen, the son of Rabbi Isaac Cohen and the great-great-great
grandson of Rabbi Judah Loew Ben Bezalel died in Constantinople today as he was
trying to make his to “the Holy Land.
1750: Twenty-nine-year Hayman Levy, the
Hanover, Germany born son of Moses Levy who became an “outstanding merchant,”
Revolutionary War patriot and President of Sherith Israel, “became a freeman”
today in New York City.
1764 (26th of Kislev, 5525):
Second Day of Chanukah celebrated in Poland and Lithuania for the first time
under the reign of Stanislaw August Poniatowski, the newly crowned of Poland
and Grand Duke of Lithuania
1767(29th of Kislev, 5528): Fifth
Day of Chanukah
1772(24th of Kislev, 5533):
In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah candle
1780(22nd of Kislev, 5541):
Naphtali Cohen the Ukrainian born rabbi who was the son of Isaac Cohen
great-great-grandson of the Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, died in
Constantinople today as he made his way to the Holy Land
1775(27th of Kislev, 5536):
Third Day of Chanukah celebrated on the same day that the Continental Congress
meeting in Philadelphia “urges the “contending parties” in the border dispute
between Connecticut and Pennsylvania to cease hostilities, return to the status
quo ante, and resolve the dispute in a court of law.”
1778(1st of Tevet, 5539):
Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1783(25th of Kislev, 5544):
As Jews in America observe Chanukah, the holiday that celebrates the defeat of
a tyrant takes on a special meaning since this is the time the holiday is
celebrated after the close of the American Revolution.
1780, Benedict Arnold, the traitor to
the American cause who compromised Colonel David S. Franks in his treason,
sailed from New York with 1,500 British troops to Portsmouth,
1786: In Charleston, SC, Rebecca De
Pass, the daughter of Doctor Raphael De Pass who was originally from Jamaica
married Joseph Da Costa.
1788: In Philadelphia, Miriam Simon and
Michael Gratz gave birth to Jacob Grata, the father of Robert Henry Gratz.
1791(24th of Kislev, 5551):
In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1791(24th of Kislev, 5551):
Rabbi David Tevele Schiff was buried today in the Alderney Road (Globe Rd)
Jewish Cemetery.
1794(28th of Kislev, 5555):
Shabbat shel Chanukah; Parashat Miketz
1794: New York native Moses Myers and
Eliza Judah gave birth to Moses Myers.
1796: The first printing of the “Book of the Intermediates” – Tanya –
was completed today in Slavita, including Part I – Sefer Shel Benonim, – Part
II – Chinuch Katan – and Shaar Hayichud Veha’emunah.
1803: The Louisiana
Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans as huge swath of land
stretching from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains became part of the
United States. Jewish settlement in the
region had been hampered by the anti-Semitic codes and practices of the
European powers – Spain and France – that had owned the land. Now that it was the hands of the United
States, the territory Jews could settle and thrive in a land that would come to
include cities like New Orleans, St. Louis, and Denver each with their own
thriving Jewish communities.
1808(1st of Tevet, 5569): Seventh Day of
Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1808(1st of Tevet, 5569): “Elchanon ben Solomon” was buried
today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1816(1st of Tevet, 5577): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of
Chanukah
1816(1st of Tevet, 5577): Simon Bondi who wrote, together with
his brother Mordecai, the “Or Ester” (Light of Esther), a Hebrew
dictionary of the Latin words occurring in the Talmud, passed away today in his
native Dresden.
1818(22nd of Kislev, 5579): Forty-three-year-old Sarah
Solomon, the wife of Barnet Solomon passed away today.
1821(26th of Kislev, 5582): Second Day of Chanukah
1821: Birthdate of Michel Levy, the native of Phalsbourg who became a
prominent French publisher.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C04E5D81E39EF34BC4B51DFB366838E669FDE
1824(29th of Kislev, 5585): Fifth Day of Chanukah observed for
the last time during the Presidency of James Monroe.
1825(10th of Tevet, 5586): Asara B’Tevet
1826: Woolf Levy married Catherine Lazarus today at the Great Synagogue.
1826: Meir ben Gedaliah married Rachel bat Phineas today at the Western
Synagogue.
1827(2nd of Tevet, 5588): Seventh Day of Chanukah
1827: In New Orleans, a group of Jews with Germanic roots led by Jacob
Solis formed Shaarei Chesed, an Orthodox Synagogue. In 1881, the congregation merged with
Neufutzot Yehuda to form what would become Touro Synagogue, one of the Crescent
City’s leading Reform congregations.
1828: Birthdate of Friedrich Korányi “Hungarian physician and medical
writer who earned his doctor’s degree at Budapest in 1851.
1831(16th of Tevet, 5592): Eighty-six-year-old Eliezer ben
Isaac Levi passed away today after which he was buried in the Ipswich Old
Jewish Cemetery.
1834: In Saxony during the reign of King John, “affairs of Jewish culture
and instruction were placed under the Ministry of Education.”
1836: In Baltimore, MD, Merle Baer and Jonas Friedenwald gave birth to
Aaron Friedenwald , a “professor of otology and ophthalmology at the College of
Physicians and Surgeons who was the husband of Bertha Bamberger and the father
of Harry, Julius,, Bernard, Norman and Edgar Friedenwald
1838: Twenty-seven-year-old Samuel Lyons Moss, the Philadelphia born son
of Rebecca Lyons and Johns Moss marred Isabelle Harris today in New Orleans,
after which they had seven children.
1843(27th of Kislev, 5604): Third Day of Chanukah
1843: Birthdate of Heves, Hungary native Ludwig Hevesi, the medical
student turned journalist who wrote for “Pester Lloyd,” the Breslauer
Zeitung and the Fremden Blatt.
1844(10th of Tevet, 5605): Fast of the Tenth of Tevet
1844(10th of Tevet, 5605): Sixty-four-year-old Nathan of
Brselov, “the chief disciple and scribe of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, founder of
the Breslov Hasidic dynasty who is credited with preserving, promoting and
expanding the Breslov movement after the Rebbe’s death” passed away today.
1844: The Jewish Chronicle challenged Nathan Marcus Adler, the new chief
rabbi, to handle the controversy between “those who wished to move ahead
quickly, too quickly, and those who would rather not move at all” in a
“temperate” way.
1846(1st of Tevet, 5607): Seventh Day of Chanukah; Rosh
Chodesh Tevet
1848(25th of Kislev, 5609): As Jews observe Chanukah, the term
Chanukah Gelt takes on a special meaning as this is the first time the holiday
is celebrated after the start of the California Gold Rush.
1849: Birthdate of Jacob Samuel Speyer, the native of Amsterdam who
earned his Ph.D. at Leyden in 1872 and became a leading philologist.
1857: In Russia, Alexander Vineberg and his wife Anna who died in
childbirth gave birth to Hiram Nahum Vineberg, the husband of Lena Bernheimer
and graduate of McGill University who went on to become the attending
gynecologist at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital and the Montefiore
Home for Chronic Invalids.
1858 In Cincinnati, Ohio, Julius and Duffie Freiberg gave birth to Julius
Walter Freiberg, who was also known as Jacob Walter Freiberg, the husband of
Stella Freibeg.
1859(24th of Kislev, 5620): Kindle the first Chanukah Candle
1859: In New York City, Celia and Alexader Josephi gave birth to Isaac A.
Josephi “one of the founders of the American Society of Miniature Painters” and
the husband of Sylvia Hammersalugh.
https://www.askart.com/artist/Isaac_A_Josephi/115725/Isaac_A_Josephi.aspx
1860: Two days after he had passed away, 51-year-old Naphtali Hart, the
husband of Elizabeth Solomon with whom he had had four children, was buried
today in the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1860: South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the United
States. Jews had been living in South Carolina since colonial times. It was in
South Carolina that a Jew was for the first time elected to serve in the
legislature. The Jews of South Carolina served with distinction in the American
Revolution and Beth Elohim has been a part of Charleston since the beginning of
the 19th century. When war the Civil War began Benjamin Mordecai
donated $10,000 to “The Cause” and at least 182 Jews from South Carolina fought
with the CSA. [During the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, Charleston will be
site of a symposium on the role of Jews, Slavery and the Civil in 2011.]
1861:
In the U.S. House of
Representatives Congressman Williams S. Holman’s of Indiana “resolution,
instructing the Committee on Military Affairs to report a bill amendatory of
the present laws, so as not to exclude in the appointment of chaplains any
religious societies, was adopted. Mr. Holman mentioned that at present Jewish
Rabbis were excluded, notwithstanding there were large numbers of Hebrews in
the army.
1861: Arnold Fischel, a Rabbi from New York City who had gone to
Washington, DC to seek President Lincoln’s help in changing the law so that
Rabbis could serve as chaplains in the Union Army wrote a letter to Henry Hart
describing his visit to the city, the fruits of his labor and a detailed
description of his visits to the camps and hospitals of the Army of the Potomac
which, according to him the number of Jews is very large.
1861: During the Civil War, Philadelphian C.D. Goldenberg began serving
with Company F of the 110th Regiment.
1861: In Iowa, Abraham Meyers, who show “marked courage” during the
Battle of Shiloh, enlisted today in company D of the 16th Infantry
Regiment.
1862(28th of Kislev, 5623): Parashat Miketz; Fourth Day of
Chanukah
1862: In Cleveland, OH, “Aaron and Sarah (Newman) Schanfarber gave birth
to University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College trained Rabbi and husband
of Carrie Phillipson who served congregations in Toledo, Fort Wayne, Baltimore
and Mobile before settling in as the leader of “Kehilath Anshe Maariv” in
Chicago for quarter of century.
1863(10th of Tevet, 5624): Asara B’Tevet
1863: Seventy-four-year-old Anglo-Jewish aristocrat Sarah Goldsmid, the
“daughter of Joseph Elias-Eliahu Montefiore and Rachel Abraham Montefiore” who
was first married to Solomon Ben Masud Ben Abraham Sebag with whom she had two
children, Sir Joseph Sebag-Montefiore and Jemima Sebag-Montifore and then
married Moses Asher Goldsmid
1863: Hevrat Mefizei ha-Haskalah (Society for the Promotion of Culture
Among the Jews of Russia) was founded was founded in Russia
1865(2nd of Tevet, 5626): The Eighth Day of Chanukah is
observed for the first time without the sound of booming canon and soldiers
dying in anguish.
1867: Austrian laryngologist Johann Schnitzler and Luis Markbreitr, his
wife, gave birth to their third child and first daughter Gisela.
1870(26th of Kislev, 5631): Second Day of Chanukah
1870: The Executive Committee in charge of the Hebrew Charity Fair voted
to donate an assortment of items valued at $1,000 to the Soldier’s Orphan Fair
taking place at the armory on Broadway.
The donation is the committee’s way of thanking the non-Jewish community
for their support of the Jewish fundraising event.
1871: In Galicia Leah and David Goldner gave birth to wholesale grocer
Joseph Goldner, the business partner of his brother of his brother Benjamin and
the husband of Ida Weise who had begun his business career in America by
working in the fur trade and had briefly worked in Cuba after the Spanish
American War.
1872: In the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna, Samuel Schonberg, a native
of Bratislava who was a shopkeeper, and his wife Pauline gave birth to their
daughter Adele the older sister of composer Arnold Schonberg.
1872: Birthdate of Mitau, Latvia native and Cornel Medical College
trained “serologist and pathologist” David M. Kaplan who had come to the United
States in 1889 and served in the “Army Medical Corps during WW I” while raising
a son, Stanley and a daughter with his wife.
1874: In Bad Konig, Regina and Moses Herzfeld gave birth to Joseph
Herzfeld.
1877: Birthdate of Latvian native and Cornell Medical College trained
serologist and pathologist David M. Kaplan, a WW I veteran who “was one of the
early experimenters in the use of penicillin.”
1878(24th of Kislev, 5639): In the evening, kindle the first
light of Chanukah
1880: In Berditchev, Annie Slavutsky and David Kahn gave birth to Harry
J. Kahn, who in 1902 came to the United States where he married Sophie Begun,
organized the first branch of Poale Zion Organization of America and became the
director of the Boro Park Bureau of Karen Hayesod.
1880(18th of Tevet, 5641): Sixty-six-year-old Rebecca Cohen
Isaacks Hart, the “daughter of American Revolutionary War veteran Sampson Means
and Catherine (Cohen) Isaaks and the wife of Abraham Hart who was an active
member of “Synagogue Mickveh Israel” in Philadelphia where she served for
thirty years as “President of the Female Hebrew Benevolent Society” and helped
to manage the Jewish Foster Home passed away today.
1880: It was reported today that 2,000 people attended a meeting in
Berlin during which a resolution “was passed in favor of the suppression of the
liberty of the Jews.” They also passed resolution to oppose the return of any
Liberal to Parliament who would not vote “for such suppression and to buy
nothing from Jewish shops or firms.”
1881(28th of Kislev, 5642): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1881: Edward Elias Sassoon and his wife gave birth to Sir Ellice Victor
Sassoon
1882: It was reported today that former New York Assemblyman Charles W.
Dayton is representing Abraham Meyer, a Jewish merchant who did business on
Sunday. In his opening remarks, Dayton
said that while there should be a “day of rest” the Jews, under the
Constitution, had a right to choose on which day they should rest. Too force him to stay closed for two days
would work an undue hardship on Meyer.
1882: Henry Phillips, a leading member of the Sephardic (Spanish and
Portuguese) Congregation Mickvé Israel of Philadelphia, presided at the
“bar dinner” given to Chief Justice Sharswood on the retirement of
the latter. This was the last public occasion in which he participated as a
member of the Philadelphia bar, of which he had become a leader.
1882(10th of Tevet, 5643): Asara B’Tevet
1882(10th of Tevet, 5643): Seventy-two-year-old Philipp
Ehrenberg, the second son of Henriette and Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg who
“succeeded his father as principal of the Samsonschule in Wolfenbuettel” passed
away today.
1883: In New York, Mary and Henry Sidenberg gave birth to Joseph William
“Joe” Sidenberg, the husband of Mildred Babette Sidenberg.
1884: “The executive board of the Israelite congregation of Lübeck wrote
to the Chief Rabbi of Hamburg, Anschel Stern, officially appointing him as an
honorary member.”
1885: Through its first five days, the Ladies Fair has brought in $21,196
which will go to support the Hebrew Free School Association.
1886: It was reported today that 185 young Jewish men have “signified
their intention of joining” the newly organized Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1887: The reported that an attempt has been on the life of Czar Nicholas
III, the anti-Semitic Russian ruler known for the “May Laws” has “officially
been contradicted” today.
1887: Birthdate of Petrikov, Russia native Chaim Gutman “he Yiddish
humorist and theatre critic who came to the United States in 1905.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/gutman-chaim
1887: Birthdate of Chaim Gutman, famous Yiddish writer and satirist,
known under his nom de plume of “Der Lebediger” who “had been a member of the
editorial staff of the Day-Morning Journal in New York since 1953” who passed
away in Miami Beach. (As reported by JTA)
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/gutman-chaim
1888: Birthdate of Yitzhak Baer a German-born Israeli historian whose
expertise was medieval Spanish Jewish history and whose works include Land
of Israel and Exile to the Medieval Ages and History of Jews in
Christian Spain.
1888: Birthdate of Newark, NJ native and early professional bowler Mort
Lindsey.
http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/MortimerLindsey.htm
1888: In Tukums, Latvia, “Herman Magidsohn, a merchant born in Russia in
July 1863, and Bessie Magidsohn, born in August 1864 in Russia” gave birth to
Joseph “Joe” Magidoshnm, the All-American halfback at the University of
Michigan where he was the first Jew to earn a letter for athletic performance
before going on to a career was a civil engineer in Chicago where he lived with
his wife Jennie Gold and two children.
1889(27th of Kislev, 5650): Third Day of Chanukah
1889: A revival of Halevy’s “La Juive” starring Paul Kalisch as “The Jew”
will be featured tonight at the Steinway Music Hall in New York.
1890: Birthdate of Bella Fromm the German journalist who covered the rise
of Hitler until she fled to the United States where she published “Blood and
Banquets. A Berlin Social Diary: A Berlin Social Diary.”
1890: “Coroner Levy” is scheduled to deliver a “lecture today at the
Eldridge Street Synagogue for the benefit of the Hebrew Sheltering House on
Madison Street” entitled “The Condition of Jews in Russia.”
1890: “Judas Maccabaeus,” a five-act dramatic presentation of the Jewish
war with Antiochus by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is scheduled to “presented by
the Edwin Forrest Amateur Dramatic Society this evening at Turn Hall in New
York City.
1891: “Among the Philadelphians” published today described civic
activities in the City of Brotherly Love including the $100,000 offer made by
the Mercantile Club, a Jewish social and business organization to by the
building on North Broad Street that had been the home to the now defunct
Delaware Club.
1891: The summary of the annual report by the President of Johns Hopkins
included among the school’s accomplishments a lecture by Dr Herbert B. Adams at
the Young Men’s Hebrew Association on Confucius.
1892(1st of Tevet, 5653): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of
Chanukah
1892: Members of the State Board of Arbitration are in Woodbine, NJ, the
Jewish colony to “see what they can do to settle the differences between the
cloakmakers and the New York ‘sweater’ contractors who have become an evil in
the settlement.”
1893: Birthdate of Hamburg native and WW I fighter ace Wilhelm Frankl,
the holder of the Iron Cross who was killed in action while engaging in aerial
combat with British pilot.
1894(22nd of Kislev, 5655): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit
“Rabbi Elizer b. Elijah Ashkenazi of Cairo, author of Yosef Lekah,
commentary on the Book of Esther who died in 1585.”
1895: In Vitebsk, Elke and Herschel Gitlow gave birth to Samuel Gitlow,
the husband of Esther Gitlow.
1895: In Berlin, architect Hermann Malachowski, and his wife Rose (née
Kristeller) gave birth Charlotte Malachowski who after marrying Karl Buhler
gained fame as developmental psychologist Charlotte Buhler, a graduate of the
Universities of Freiburg, Berlin and Munich who during the Nazi rise to power
saved her husband’s like by getting him released from an Austrian prison and
finding him a refuge in Norway before the family was able to find sanctuary in
the United States where she became a citizen and continued her career.
https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/charlotte-buhler.html
http://faculty.webster.edu/woolflm/charlottebuhler.html
1895: A.M. Palmer, Agustin Daly, Daniel and Charles Frohman, Tony Pastor,
Kirke La Schelle and W.A. Brady are among those who will participate in benefit
performance at Palmer’s Theatre that will provide additional funds for the
charity fair being held at Madison Square to raise money for the Hebrew
Technical Institute and the Educational Alliance.
1895(3rd of Tevet, 5656): Fifty-year-old Leopold Jacob, the son of Cantor
the German born Socialist, and Poet passed away today in Zurich.
1896: Birthdate of Alfred Henry Sachs, the native of Poland who came to
the U.S. in 1910 where he attended JTS, CCNY and Columbia before practicing law
and becoming a leader in Jewish communal as can be seen by his service as the
Executive Director of the Board of Jewish Education and as an officer with ZOA.
1896: In Hoboken, NJ, “Morris and Julia (Greenwald) Eichler gave birth to
NYU trained lawyer George M. Eichler, “a state deputy attorney general in New
Jersey” and “general counsel for the New Jersey Motor Bus Association” who was
the husband of “former Sally Jacobs,” with whom he had one son and daughter.
1897(25th of Kislev, 5658): Chanukah celebrated for the first
time during the Presidency of William McKinley.
1897: In Ukraine, “Reuben Wolf Hassman and Bertha Beila Hausman” gave
birth to Louis Hausman.
1898: Jacob H. Schiff the donated a new building to the Young Men’s
Hebrew Association located at Ninety-Second Street and Lexington Avenue in New
York City.
1898: Following the end of the Spanish –American War, Sergeant George M.
Klein and Private Sydney Frank, both form Vicksburg, were among those mustered
out of the 1st Mississippi Volunteer Infantry.
1898: Following the end of the Spanish-American War, Private Hans Meyers
was mustered out of the 2nd Mississippi Volunteer Infantry.
1898: Following the end of the
Spanish-American War Jacob Schrob and Bernard Schwarzenberg were mustered out
with the other members of Battery B of the 1st Regiment Connecticut
Volunteer Artillery at Bridgeport, CT.
1898: Following the end of the Spanish-American War Corporal Nathan
Bernstein and Privates Harry Bernstein and Isidore Cohen all of Richmond were
mustered out with the other members of Company A of the 2nd Virginia
Volunteer Infantry.
1899: “The retired British priest and die-hard Egyptophile Greville
Chester” wrote a letter today describing the destruction of the Ben Ezra
building in Cairo
1900(28th of Kislev, 5661): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1900: “Oscar S. Straus, ex-United States Minister to Turkey, addressed
the students of Harvard University in Sanders Theatre to-night on ‘The United
States Doctrine of Citizenship and Expatriation.’”
1901(10th of Tevet, 5662): Asar B’Tevet
1901: Birthdate of Louis I Kahn,
the world-famous architect who had trouble getting commissions early in his
career because he was Jewish and whose work can be found from the Yale Campus,
to the Salk Institute, to Fort Worth to Bangladesh. He passed away in 1974.
1902: Birthdate of columnist Max Lerner whose
famous quotes include “When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember
that it is still an evil.” “Either men will learn to live like brothers, or
they will die like beasts.”
1902: In
Brooklyn, Austrian Jewish immigrants Jennie and Isaac Hook gave birth to
philosopher and author Sidney Hook.
1903(1st
of Tevet, 5664): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1903:
Today, the Seventh Day of Chanukah has been designated as “Shekel Day” a
Zionist fund raising event which its supporters hope will become an annual
event.
1904: At a
meeting of the Council of Jewish Women Mrs. Solomon Schechter presented a paper
entitled “The Problem of Religious Observance” which contended that
congregational singing is an important factor in the religious services of the Jews
and pleaded for a return to the use of beautiful ancient melodies, which at
present are sadly neglected and almost disappearing.
1905:
Forty-four-year-old Henry Harland who, early in his career wrote the “Jewish
Tribology” – As It Was Written, Mrs. Peixada and The Yoke of
the Torah – under the penname of Sidney Luska passed away today.
1906: Dr.
Solomon Schechter, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary presided over a
mass meeting in Cooper Union which was sponsored by the Zionist Council of
Greater New York. When Dr. Schmarja Levin, a member of the recently dissolved
Russian Duma, was introduced the crowd waved small Zionist flags in the pattern
adopted by the Zionist Convention held in Basle, Switzerland in 1897. Speaking in Yiddish, Levin presented the
Zionist argument that Jews would always be treated as outsiders and needed to
establish their own nation in their historic homeland.
1907(15th
of Tevet, 5668): British educator and communal leader Abraham Levy who had been
born in 1848 passed away today.
1907:
Albert Abraham Michelson wins the Nobel Prize for Physics. The physicist was
the first American to win a Noble Prize in a field of science.
1908: Today
University of Pittsburgh and Cornell trained chemist, Dr. Alexander Silverman,
the Pittsburgh born son of Hannah Schamberg and Philip Silverman the header of
the Chemistry Department at the University of Pittsburg and a member of Rodef
Shalom married Elrose Rezenstein today.
1908: Ossip
Gabrilowitsch was injured today in Danbury, Connecticut, when he rescued Clara
Clemens from run-away sleigh that overturned when the horse pulling the sleigh
bolted. Clemens is the daughter of
Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain, the famous American author. [Gabrilowitsch was a
Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and orchestra conduct who had settled in the
United States. He would marry Clara in 1909 and would be the father of Samuel
Clemens’ only grandchild.]
1909(8th
of Tevet, 5670): Mendel Tostowsky passed away today.
1909: It
was reported today that that the presence of “about 25 policemen at the
dedication exercises of the new building of the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum
did not meeting with the approval of Mayor-elect Gaynor” who in his speech said
he was “glad to come here” and continued by saying the Jews “have provided for”
their poor, their sick and their orphans.
1910: The
Railway Securities Commission before which Jacob Schiff had been a witness
yesterday complaining “of the situation which makes the railroads subject to
both State and Federal railroad commissions” is scheduled to continue holding
hearings today.
1911(29th
of Kislev, 5672): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1911(29th
of Kislev, 5672): Seventy-seven-year-old CSA veteran Benjamin F. Jonas, the
Kentucky born son of Abraham Jonas and the former Louisa Block whom Lincoln
named as the successor to the role of Postmaster after her husband’s death and
who was the second Jew to serve as U.S. Senator from Louisiana passed away
today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/benjamin-franklin-jonas
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/benjamin-franklin-jonas
1911: Birthdate of New York
native Hortense Calisher, the daughter of a Southern
Jewish perfume-maker and a German immigrant, who has written about her own
family in three memoirs. The most recent, Tattoo for a Slave (2004),
traces the history of her father’s family from before the Civil War to her own
lifetime. A 1932 graduate of Barnard College, Calisher published her first
short story, “The Middle Drawer,” in 1948. She did all of this while
raising two young sons. Like much of her later work, this O. Henry
Award-winning story drew upon themes of Calisher’s own life. Most of Calisher’s
fiction features Jewish characters, but their ethnic identity is usually
background rather than a dramatic element. Calisher has been a Guggenheim
fellow twice and a National Book Award finalist three times. Though popular
fame has eluded her, she has been lauded as a “writer’s writer” with
a wide imaginative and formal range and has been praised for both intricate
plot and rich character development. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s
Archives)
1911:
Birthdate of Harry C. Friedman
1911(29th
of Kislev, 5672): Seventy-six-year-old popular and financially successful
actress Rose Eytinge, the Philadelphia born daughter of Rebecca and David
Eytinge and the sister of actor Samuel Eytinge passed away today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/eytinge-rose
1912(10th of Tevet, 5673): Asara B’Tevet
1912(10th of Tevet, 5673): Sixty-two-year-old Texas
businessman Isaac Gordon passed away in Beaumont today.
1912(10th of Tevet, 5673): Seventy-five-year-old Rabbi
Abraham Werner passed away today in London.
1913: “More than 2,500 friends and admirers” of Solomon
Bloomgarden, the poet who writes under the name of “Yehoash” “attended a
farewell reception at Carnegie Hall tonight” for the man known as the
“Yiddish Milton” who will be leaving for
Palestine in the first month of 1914.
1914(3rd of Tevet, 5675): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1914: “The American Jewish Relief Committee for War Suffers of
which Felix M. Warburg is Treasurer raised and additional $18,000 today
bringing the fund’s total to $222,122.
1914: The Jewish Emancipation Committee received this statement
tonight; “Advices from Jerusalem and Jaffa indicate that close 50 000 Jews are
on the verge of starvation there and that relief is need immediately to save
hundreds from perishing.”
1914:
During WW I, opening of the Battle of Champagne in which a large number of
“Oriental Sephardim,” many of whom had lived in the Ottoman Empire where they
were educated by the Alliance Israelite Universelle schools fought and died
because they “felt they owed a debt to France
1915: Louis Marshall, Chairman of the American Jewish Relief Committee
said today that a fund of $5,000,000 must be raised immediately in order to
bring effective relief to the thousands of Jews” suffering from the effects of
the war in Europe.
1915: During World War I the last ANZAC troops evacuated Gallipoli. If Gallipoli had succeeded, the Allies would
have been able to open a supply route to Russia and end the stalemate on the
Western Front. This would have meant no
Russian Revolution and no humiliating peace that would give the Nazis a road to
power. The Zion Mule Corps served at
Gallipoli. The Jewish unit acquitted itself
with distinction and help. This helped to convince the British to create
regiments of Jewish troops that would help to liberate Palestine under General
Allenby. The Zion Mule Corps is one of
the progenitors of the modern IDF.
1915: Birthdate of Anaheim, CA, native Delmer Elsey Daniel Berg who at
the time of his death, would “the last living veteran of the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)
http://www.albavolunteer.org/2010/06/book-review-the-spanish-right-and-the-jews/
1915: Louis Lipsky is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “The Organization
and Institutions of Zionism” sponsored by the University Zionist Society.
1916(25th of Kislev, 5677): Chanukah is observed for the first time with Lloyd George as Prime Minister of Great
Britain.
1916: In New York City, Charlie Scwhartz, an immigrant who left Russia to
escape serving in the Czar’s army and his wife gave birth to Morris “Morrie” S.
Schwartz, “a sociology professor at Brandeis University and author” who was the
subject of the best-selling book Tuesdays with Morrie, which was written
by Mitch Albom
1916: Today, “the passage across the Russian frontier of thousands of
Rumanians who have abandoned their houses and property in the face of the
invading Germans and Bulgarians cast the shadow of a new refugee problem on the
Russian Empire” which “has only partially succeeded in…assimilating the
millions of homeless…Jews and members of other races who fled” there during the
first year and a half of the World War.
1917(1st of Tevet, 5664): Rosh Codesh Tevet; Seventh Day of
Chanukah
1917: This afternoon, during an address during a ceremony that involved
the “presentation of a service flag in honor of the boys of Public School 129
in Brooklyn” where 80 percent of the population is Jewish Samuel H. Cragg, a
member of Local Draft Board 24 said that “there ae three epochs in the life of
the Jewish boy’ first at birth, circumcision; second, at 13, confirmation;
third at 21, exemption.” (Editor’s note – this canard implying that Jews were
draft dodgers which flew in the face of statistical reality, cost Cragg his
position)
1917: Cheka, the first Soviet secret police, which eventually become the
feared NKVD is founded. Regardless of its various names, Jews could be counted
among the members of, and victims of the Secret Police. For example, Genrikh Grigor’evich Yagoda
whose father was a Jewish watchmaker (his mother was a Russian) was head of the
NKVD during the 1930’s where he oversaw the show trials and murders of such Old
Bolsheviks as Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev both of whom were born Jewish
before giving up Moses for Marx and Lenin. Yagoda himself would fall victim to
Stalin’s wrath and would arrested and executed by the same NKVD.
1917: Colonel Sir Ronald Storrs, the newly appointed British Military
Governor for Jerusalem, arrived in the City of David.
1917: Despite a heavy rain tonight British forces used pontoon bridges
and boats to cross the Auju River at Jaffa and taking advantage of the element
surprise and using their bayonets instead of bullets forced the Ottomans to
retreat five miles to the west.
1917: Birthdate David Bohm, American-born physicist, philosopher, and
neuropsychologist. Bohm worked on the
Manhattan project. Like many others who
worked with Oppenheimer, Bohm fell afoul of the spirit of McCarthyism in the
1950’s
1917: “According to a cable message from Petrograd received by Zionists”
in New York 36 year old David Ben Borochow (Dov Ber Borochov) “founder of the
Jewish Social Democratic Labor Party Poale Zion (Workers of Zion) of Russia”
who worked in the United States from 1914 to 1917 while in exile from his
native land has passed away.
1918: During Senate Committee hearings today, Kuhn, Loeb & Co. was
defended against charges that it had ever taken part in the German plan to use
it as a conduit for financing German propaganda when the war broke out in 1914.
1919(28th of Kislev, 5680): Parashat Miketz and the Fourth Day
of Chanukah
1919: Rabbi Schulman is scheduled to lead services this morning at Temple
Beth-El in New York.
1919: Rabbi Enelow is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Need Jews Become
Ethical Culturist” at services this morning at Temple Emanu-El.
1919: Birthdate of Everett Grennbaum, the Buffalo native who the script
writer whose span of creativity went from the banal – The Love Boat—to the
sophisticated – MASH.
1920(9th of Tevet, 5681): Seventy-one-year-old Samuel
Fleischer, the German born the son of Aron Fleischer and Pauline Fleischer and
husband of Emilie Fleischer passed way today at Goppingen, Germany.
1920: Birthdate of Aharon “Aharale” Rabinovich Yariv, the
native of Moscow who made Aliyah at the age of 15 and became a key member of
the Israeli intelligence service and advisor on counterterrorism.
1920: Rabbi H. G. Enlow is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Patriarchs
to Saul” and Rabbi Max Reichler is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “How To
Teach Hebrew” at this evenings meeting of the Association of Religious School
Teachers of New York.
1920: Columbia University graduate Lewis Einstein, the New York born son
of David and the former Caroline Fatman began serving U.S. Minister to
Czechoslovakia
1921: It was reported today “several hundred Jewish businessmen” have
pledged $380,000 to support the work of the American Palestine Corporation.
1921: In Czechoslovakia, Lewis David Einstein presented his credentials
as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.
1922(1st of Tevet, 5683): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of
Chanukah
1922: The New York Times reported that “A rumor is
circulating here that Henry Ford is financing Adolf Hitler’s nationalist and
anti-Semitic movement in Munich.”
1922: In Bucharest, Romania, “Lajos and Eszter (Katz) Abraham” gave birth
to Adolf Abraham who gained fame as American professor Randolph L. Braham, the
author of The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary and the
foremost expert on the genocide of the Jews in his home country.
1922(1st of Tevet, 5683): Eighty-five year old French banker
Louis Raphaël Cahen d’Anvers the son of
Meyer Joseph Cahen d’Anvers and Clara Bischoffsheim both of whom were
members of prominent French banking families passed away today.
1923: Birthdate of New York native Dr. Irving Geschwind, “a member of the
faculty in the Department of Animal Husbandry at UC Davis” passed away today.
https://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/about/alumni-and-friends/memorial-book/geschwind-irving
https://academic.oup.com/endo/article-abstract/104/1/276/2592160
1924: Adolf Hitler freed from jail before completing his full
sentence. This attests to his growing
political power and popularity. Hitler had spent 8 months in Landsberg Prison
for his role in the famed, failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. The term was a slap on the wrist and presaged
the anarchy that would envelop the Weimar Republic. While in prison, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, his
“literary masterpiece” that was a blueprint for the havoc he would unleash on
the world.
1924: Spanish newspapers published a signed decree from the king of Spain
saying Sephardic Jews dispersed along the Mediterranean coast and in other
countries, which “in one way or another” claim descent from families,
which once lived in Spain can apply for full Spanish citizenship.
1925: Fifteen-year-old Rudi Ball, a future Olympic medal winner “decided
to become a hockey player” tonight after “a friend of his took him to a game at
the Berliner Sportpalast between two of Europe’s top teams at that time,
Berliner SC against Wiener EV.”
1925: One day after he had passed away, 55-year-old James Henry Oxberry,
the husband of Hannah Oxberry and the “leader and founder of Buffaloism (The
Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes) in the Far East” was buried today at the
“Happy Valley Jewish Cemetery in Hong Kong.”
1926: Birthdate of David Levine,
painter and artist who is famous for his caricatures.
1927(26th of Kislev, 5688): Second Day of Chanukah
1927: Federal Judge Grover M. Moscowitz who “has accepted the
chairmanship of the Brookly Division of the 1928 United Palestine Appeal” is
scheduled to speak tonight at the organizations “annual Brooklyn Conference.”
1928: Tel Aviv Mayor, David Bloch, is scheduled to arrive in New York
today aboard the SS Leviathan. Mayor
Bloch is coming to the United States to seek financial support for the
development of Zionist programs in Palestine.
A delegation of “Jewish and labor leaders headed by Abraham Shiplacoff
the former Assemblyman of Brooklyn” is scheduled to greet the Mayor and his
associated including Dr. C.H. Arlasaroff and Miss Goldie Meyerson. Miss
Meyerson would gain lasting fame as Golda Meir, Israel’s first female prime
minister.
1928: Ernest Bloch’s “America: An Epic Rhapsody in Three Parts for
Orchestra,” has its first performance at today’s matinee performance of the New
York Philharmonic.
1929: Today Rabbi Jacob Slonim of Hebron provided explicit details of the
murder of five his relatives during last summer’s Arab riots to the British
commission investigating this matter.
1930(30th of Kislev, 5691):
Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1930: At services this morning, Rabbi Louis Newman will deliver a sermon
on “Compassionate Marriage and Other Marriage Problems” at Rodeph Shalom in New
York City
1930: At services this morning, Rabbi Israel Goldstein will deliver a
sermon on “Compassionate Marriage: What is wrong with it?” at B’nai Jeshurun in
New York City.
1930: Cleveland’s Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver will deliver a sermon on “The
Role of Religion in a Changing World” at the Free Synagogue which is meeting in
Carnegie Hall.
1930: Rabbi Nathan Krass is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “If I Were a
Jew” at Temple Emanu-El.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F60713FF3D5F11738DDDA80A94DA415B808FF1D3
1931(10th of Tevet, 5692): Asara B’Tevet
1931(10th of Tevet, 5692): Eighty-four-year-old Carl Edvard
Cohen Brandes Danish politician, critic and author, and the younger brother of
Georg Brandes and Ernst Brandes as well as the father-in-law of Norwegian
chemist George Dedichen passed away today in Copenhagen.
1932: “The Blue of Heaven,” produced by Gabriel Levy and with a
screenplay by Max Kolpe and Billy Wilder was released today in Germany.
1933: Funeral services are scheduled to be held this afternoon at the
Riverside Memorial Chapel for John J. Bockar, the husband of Iva K Bockar and
the brother of the former Anna Bockar, Isaac Bockar and Aaron Bockar
1934(14th of Tevet, 5695): Ninety-year-old Caroline Meyer
Mehrbach, the widow of Moses Mehrbach, passed away at White Plains, NY.
1934(14th of Tevet, 5695): Eighty-year-old Alice HannahTeller
Fleisher, the daughter of David and Rebecca Teller and the wife of Moyer
Fleisher passed away after which she was buried in the Mount Sinai Cemetery in
Philadelphia.
1935: In the Bronx, Sidonie Abraham and small grocery store owner
Benjamin Feuerstein gave birth to Baruch School of Business graduate Arthur
William Feuerstein, the husband of Alice Rapprich “who was once one of the best
young chess players in the United States, even managing to hold his own against
Bobby Fischer, and who survived a horrific head injury to once again become a
top player…” (As reported by Dylan Loeb McClain)
1936: “The Truth About Christopher Columbus” published today provides a
review The Truth About Columbus and the Discovery of America by Charles
Duff who “emphasizes the Jewish contribution in encouragement, court influence
and money to Columbus’s success and the tragic irony of that contribution at
the time of the persecution and expulsion of the Jews in Spain
1936: “Three Smart Girls” a musical comedy produced by Joe Pasternak and
directed by Henry Koster was released in the United States today.
1936: State Supreme Court Justice Albert Cohn served as toastmaster for
the dinner tonight at the Hotel Commodore attended by “more than 400 members of
B’nai B’rith” were celebrating the 93rd anniversary of the founding
of Jewish fraternal organization.
1936: Details of the pressure being brought to bear on the Jews of
Tripoli by the Governors, Marshal Italo Balbo to vacate their shops and move
back into the city’s old quarter which have resulted in the flogging of at
least two Jews “were revealed today with the arrival in Rome of the Jewish
newspaper Nostra Bandiera of Turin which printed extracts from a local Tripoli
newspaper, Avvenire di Tripoli.”
1936: This morning, during a service led by Rabbi Jonah Wise that was
part of the celebration of the 19th anniversary of the Central
Synagogue, “James G. McDonald of the New York Times and the former League of
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees” delivered a talk in which he said “the
supreme tragedy of the present threats to freedom lies in the fact that they
menace the true things that give mankind hope for the future.”
1936: An appeal signed by several prominent clergyman seeking to raise
money for Christians suffering under the Nazi regime noted that “the response
of the Jews in America to the needs of their brethren sets a heroic example for
us to follow.”
1936: Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. “told a joint
meeting of the brotherhoods of sixteen Baltimore synagogues tonight that only
under a democratic system of government can the welfare and liberties of
minority groups be preserved.”
1936: “Arturo Toscanini and his wife arrived by plane today from
Alexandria, Egypt and then drove to Tel Aviv where he will conduct the
Palestine Symphony Orchestra.
1937:
The Palestine Post reported that
Simon Less, 24, a milkman, was killed near the Jerusalem quarter of Beit
Hakerem. Shlomo Ben-Nun, 27, a policeman, was kidnapped and later murdered by
armed Arabs near Kfar Hittin. A police squad killed one Arab terrorist and
jailed another. Jewish buses were shot at and a number of passengers were
wounded. In Berlin, Herr von Schwabach, a prominent half-Jewish banker,
committed suicide when refused permission to marry his Aryan fiancée. The Lwow
University closed owing to renewed anti-Jewish violence.
1938:
After waiting for two months, Madison, Wisconsin native, George Rublee,
American executive director of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees
today was invited to go to Berlin discuss plans for “taking almost 700,000 Jews
out of Germany.”
1938:
After having fought with the Lincoln Brigade 26-year-old Edward Isaac Lending
returned to the United States aboard Ausonia, after which he would put his
military training to go use while serving with the U.S. Army as part of an
anti-aircraft united the European Theatre of Operations.
1939:
Miss Sophia Harris daughter of Mrs. Louis I. Harris and the late Dr. Harris,
one-time Health Commissioner of New York was married tonight at the Hotel
Whitehald to Rabbi Leo Geiger of Congregation Sha’arey Israel in Macon GA. Rabbi Nachman Arnoff performed the ceremony.
1940:
Bing Crosby (who was not Jewish) turned “A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square”
a British song with lyrics by Eric Maschwitz into an instant “standard” when he
recorded it today.
1940:
Starting today, “various humanitarian aid organizations” including “Jewish
French organizations tolerated by the Vichy Regime” “intervened to lend their
services to the inmates at Gurs by setting up “posts” inside the French fascist
concentration camp.
1940(20th
of Kislev, 5701): Seventy-year-old “Mrs. Isabella Peyster Unger” the wife of
Tammany Hall political power and Municipal Court Judge Henry W. Unger and the
mother of Albert Unger and Herbert Unger, of blessed memory, passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/12/21/96212435.pdf
1940:
A group of Zionist met today in Bendzin, Poland.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/december/03.asp
1940:
Captain America Comics #1 — cover-dated March 1941 went on sale today. Captain America was the creation of Joe Simon
(born Hymie Simon) and Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg)
1941(30th
of Kislev, 5702): Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1941:
At Temple Emanu-El in New York, Rabbi S.H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a
sermon on “The Maccabees and Religious Freedom.”
1941:
In New York, at Temple Rodeph Sholom, Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to
deliver a sermon on “No. 2, Red, White and blue Herring, A Maccabean Answer.”
1941:
In New York, at Temple Israel, Rabbi William F. Rosenblum is scheduled to
deliver a sermon on “Now It Is Our Battle.”
1941:
In New York, at the West End Synagogue, Rabbi Hyman J. Schachtel is scheduled
to deliver a sermon on “The Maccabees Defeated Hitler.”
1941:
In New York, at the West Side Jewish Center, Rabbi Leo Ginsburg is scheduled to
deliver a sermon on “Our Fathers’ Triumphant Wars and Now.”
1941:
In New York, at the Fort Washington Synagogue, Rabbi Alexander Segel is
scheduled to deliver a sermon on “A Maccabee in This Generation.”
1942: The Nazis shot 560 Jews in the Rakow forest. “The story of the
massacres that took place at the Rakow forest is typical of the Nazi atrocities
during the WWII. The Nazis liquidated the ghetto of Piotrokov, the first ghetto
built by the Germans in Poland. While most of the inhabitants of the ghetto
were deported to be murdered at Treblinka, one group of 560 Jews was shot to
death in the forest outside of town.”
1943: The
United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved a
resolution sponsored by Iowa’s Senator Guy Gillette and 11 of his colleagues
proposing “that President Roosevelt set up a commission of diplomatic, economic
and military experts to devise ways ‘to save the surviving Jewish people of
Europe from extinction at the hands of Nazi Germany.’ The Nazis were charged in
the resolution with having ‘exterminated close to two million’ Jewish men,
women and children in Europe.”
1944:
During negotiations with the Germans to save Hungarian Jews, Dr. Rudolf Kastner
arrived in Switzerland.
1944: In response to the activities of Lechi (the
Stern Gang), Churchill “dropped all discussion of the Jewish state proposal
that had been scheduled for promulgation on this date.”
1944:
Lazar Kaganovich ended his term as People’s Commissar for Transport in the
Soviet Union.
1945:
Fifty-two Palestinian Jews detained at a camp at Latrun halfway between
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv…were transferred to military custody today and deported
to Eriterea.” The British believe that
the Jews are part of an “underground terrorist organization” but have not
formally charged them with any crimes.
The 52 join 300 Jews already imprisoned at Eriterea under similar
conditions. When other prisoners at
Latrun found out about the deportations they began a hunger strike.
1945:
In “Baghdad Worried by Zionist Issue and the Russian’s Activity,” published
today,Clifton Daniel reported that “Iraq is probably the fountainhead of the
pan-Arab movement and hotly anti-Zionist.”
1945: Council Law No. 10 was signed by 23 countries establishing the
war crimes commission at Nuremburg. Approximately 5000 people were tried with
600 receiving the death sentence.
1945: The
British deport 52 suspected Jewish terrorists who have been held at Latrun to
Eritrea.
1945: The
Minnesota Starvation Experiment, for which Max Kampelman served as a voluntary
subject because he was a conscious objector came to an end today.
1946: Birthdate of Romanian born
author and poet Andrei Codrescu.
Codrescu is a naturalized American who teaches at LSU and is a regular
contributor on National Public Radio.
1946: Today the Jewish Agency for Palestine announced establishment of an
annual grant to the Children’s Foundation of the Holy Land in memory of Miss
Henrietta Szold founder of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of
America, on what was the 86th anniversary of her birth.
1946: In Tel Aiv Itzhaak Geller
(Gellér Izsák), a retired army sergeant major, and Manzy Freud a distant
relative of Sigmund Freud gave birth to Israeli psychic Uri Geller.
1947: “Dr. Emanuel Neumann, president of the Zionist Organization of
America, and a member of the American Section of the Jewish Agency Executive,
announced today that he had called a special meeting of Zionist leaders of
Greater New York for next Tuesday night at the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel to review
the latest developments in Palestine.”
1948: Canada recognized the state of Israel.
1948(18th
of Kislev, 5709): Seventy-seven-year-old French born and educated Felix Weill,
a French professor at City College since 1901 and the chairman of the Romance
Language from 1935 to 1939 who with his wife Else raised their daughter Ellen,
passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/12/22/94652300.pdf
1948:
Laurence Duggan (who was not Jewish) jumped to his death after having been
“named” (as a Communist spy) by Isaac Don Levine.
1948: As
Israel began to grow its air force, Jack Cohen led six Spitfires from Kunovice
today
1948: King Abdullah of Palestine appoints Sheikh Hussan Medin Jarallah as
mufti of Jerusalem. Haj Amin el Husseini is recognized as mufti of Jerusalem by
other Arab states.
1949(29th of Kislev, 5710): Fifth day of Chanukah
1949(29th of Kislev, 5710): Sixty-two-year-old Russian born
American sculptor and painter Alexander Portnoff whose models included Shalom
Aleichem “died suddenly today in Philadelphia, PA.”
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=130465487&PIpi=102323431
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9A01EEDE1F3BE23BBC4951DFB4678382659EDE
1949: The UN Trusteeship Council asks Israel to call off transfer of its
government to Jerusalem.
1949: The UN Economic Survey Mission plans several projects to be covered
by the aid program for Arab refugees including irrigation and hydroelectric
development in Arab Palestine and Arab countries. No funds are allotted for
Israel which is absorbing thousands of Jewish refugees who have been forced to
flee from the Arab and/or Moslem countries in which they have been living.
1950: “Ten short-wave diathermy machines and other medical equipment were
donated to Israel today by the American Committee for the National Sick of
Palestine as special ceremonies held in the offices of the J. Beeber Company,”
the manufacturers of medical equipment responsible for the donation.
1951: “Death of Salesman” the cinematic treatment of the play by Arthur
Miller directed by László Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer was released
in the United States.
1952(2nd of
Tevet, 5713): 8th day of Chanukah
1953:
Thirty-year-old CPA and investor Bertram Frankenberger, the son of Bertram and
Thelma Frankenberger married Marjorie Green with whom he had two daughters,
Linda Sue Reason and Wendy Beth Goldstein.
1953(14th
of Tevet, 5714): Fifty-five year old William B. Ziff, the advertising agency
owner turned publisher who founded and chaired Ziff-Davis Publishing company,
whose service “as an aviator in World War I with 202nd Aero Squadron
led him to become an advocate for military airpower as can be seen in his
best-seller The Coming Battle of Germany and whose support for Zionism
was the inspiration for The Rape of Palestine, passed away today living his son
William Ziff, Jr. to run his publishing enterprises.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/12/21/84090141.pdf
1954(25th
of Kislev, 5715): Chanukah
1954: U.S.
premiere of “The Silver Chalice” which much to his later shame marked the debut
of Paul Newman with music by Franz Waxman.
1956(16th
of Tevet, 5717): Sixty-one-year-old Columbia University trained pediatrician
Dr. Moses A Bluestone, the Manhattan born son of Dr. Joseph I Bluestone who had
served as President of the Coney Island Hospital Alumni Association and
Secretary of the Coney Island Medical Society passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/12/21/84947914.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1956(16th
of Tevet, 5717): Seventy-seven-year-old
CCNY grad and JTS ordained rabbi, Dr Elias L. Solomon of Congregation Shaare
Zedek, the Vilna born son of Jacob and Chaye Hinde Frankfort Solomon who lived
in England, Cyprus and Jerusalem before coming to the United States in 1888
where among other accomplishments he founded
the United Synagogue of America and serviced as president of the
Synagogue Council of America while raising two daughters with his wife, the
former Libbie Katz, passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/solomon-elias-louis
https://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/when-history-is-in-your-house/
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/12/21/84947911.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1956: In
New York City Jack Garfein, “a Czech Jew and Holocaust survivor” and actress
Carroll Baker who had converted to Judaism gave birth to Blanche Garfein who
gained fame as actress Blanche Baker.
1957: “The Pride and
The Passion” a big screen epic sent during the Napoleonic wars in Spain
directed and produced by Stanley Kramer, co-starring Theodore Bikel as “General
Jouvet” and with an opening title sequence designed by Saul Bass was released
today in Finland a day after having had its Swedish premiere.
1957: The comedy shorts
unit closed today marking the end of Jack White’s (Jacob Weiss) career with
Columbia where he had made so many films with the Three Stooges.
1959: ABC broadcast
“The Vagrants” one of the many episodes of “The Rebel” directed by Irvin
Kershner.
1960: Auschwitz-commandant Richard Bär was arrested in German Federal
Republic.
1961: “Lover Come Back produced by Martin Melcher and Stanley Shapiro who
also co-authored the script and co-starring Tony Randall was released in the
United States today.
1961(13th of Tevet, 5722): Dramatist Moss Heart passed away.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F50C16FE345912738DDDA80A94DA415B818AF1D3
1963: Birthdate of Tal Friedman, the native of Kiryat Ata who served in
the Israeli Sea Corps and went on to become a popular comedian, actor and a
musician.
1963: “Contempt” a satire
produced by Joseph Levine was released today in France.
1963(4th of Tevet, 5724): Eighty-three-year-old Franciska
(Franzi) Schwimmer, the daughter of Max and Bertha Schwimmer who “graduated
from the National Music Academy in Budapest and became a piano and music
teacher” passed away today in New York City.
1963: Guy de “Rothschild was on the cover of TIME magazine in a story
that said he took “over the family’s French bank during the disorder of
war and defeat, changed its character from stewardship of the family fortune to
expansive modern banking.”
1963: “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” a song from the album “Funny Girl,” was
recorded today at Barbra Streisand.
1964: Rachel Rubin became Rachel Adler today when she married Rabbi Moshe
Adler.
1964: “An Evening with Fred Astaire” with music by David Rose and his
Orchestra and produced by Bud Yorkin was re-broadcast this evening.
1964: Prime Minister Levi Eshkol formed his cabinet and became head of
the Israeli government. Eshkol was a
compromise candidate of whom little was expected. In one of the irony of history, Eshkol would
be Prime Minister when Israel was faced with its greatest military challenge in
May and June of 1967. Under Eshkol’s
leadership, the Israeli forces won the Six Days War, which among other things,
resulted in the re-unification of the city of Jerusalem.
1966(7th of Tevet, 5727): Seventy-two-year-old Amram Aburteh
the native of Morocco who became “the Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic congregation
in Petah Tikva, Israel and author of Netivei Am, a collection of responsa,
sermons, and Torah teachings” passed away today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amram_Aburbeh#/media/File:Rabbi_Amram_Aburbeh_photo_En.jpg
1966(7th of Tevet, 5727): Sixty-eight-year-old NYU trained
attorney Joseph H. Wasserman, a specialist in tax law, the husband of the
“former Leah Chayes” and the father of Dr. Norman Wasserman, died of a heart
attack while driving his car in Brooklyn.
1966: Albert Günther Göring, the younger brother of Nazi leader Hermann
Göring who worked to save Jews from Hitler and was an anti-Nazi, passed away.
http://www.auschwitz.dk/albert.htm
http://www.timesofisrael.com/yad-vashem-prize-for-top-nazis-brother/
1966: Gene Klein and business associate Sam Schulman, plus a group of
minority investors, obtained the National Basketball Association franchise for
the city of Seattle, Washington
1966: A Chanukah Festival for Israel featuring Sophie Maslow and company
is scheduled to be held at Madison Square Garden.
1967(18th of Kislev, 5728): Sixty-three-year-old Boston native
Alfred Henry “Truck” Miller who played in the backfield for Harvard in the late
1920’s before spending one year as a player with professional Boston Bulldogs
passed away today in Detroit, Michigan.
1968(29th of Kislev, 5759): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1968(29th of Kislev, 5759): Eighty-four-year-old
Israeli author and Editor Max Brod, the editor of the works of Franz Kafka of
whose estate he was executor and whose most work was The Redemption of Tyco
Brahe passed away today.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-2587503572/brod-max.html
1969: “New Journalism Dean” published
today described the life and career of Elie Abel, whom the trustees of Columbia
University have just named “as the new dean of its Graduate School of
Journalism.”
1969: Peter, Paul & Mary’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane” reaches
#1
1969: In Zurich, Jacqueline (née Burgauer) and Gilbert de Botton gave
birth to author, philosopher and television personality Alain de Botton. De
Botton’s father was part of a prominent Egyptian Jewish family that was
expelled by Nasser along with most of the rest of the Jews living in
Egypt. (This part of the Middle East
refugee problem that you did not hear about)
1970: The 6th Asian Games in which Esther
Roth-Shachamorov won golds in 100m hurdles and pentathlon and a silver in long
jump came to an end today in Bangkok.
1971(2nd
of Tevet, 5732): 8th Day of Chanukah
1971(2nd
of Tevet, 5732): Eighty-six-year-old Columbia and Harvard trained biochemist
Sergius Morgulis, the Russian born son of Hannah Speigel and Samuel
Morgulis and husband of Fannie
Bashkirtzeva who in 1904 came to the United States where he became Associate in
biochemistry, College Physicians and Surgeons (Columbia), and Professor
physiology and biochemistry, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, before
becoming a Professor biochemistry, University of Nebraska College of Medicine,
from 1921 passed away today.
1971:
Larry King “was dismissed by both WIOD and television station WTVJ as a
late-night radio host and sports commentator today when he was arrested after
being accused of grand larceny by a former business partner, Louis Wolfson.”
1971(2nd
of Tevet, 5732): Sixty-eight-year-old West Hoboken, NJ native and NYU Law
School trained attorney Walter Leichter, a president of the New Jersey Bar
Association and president of the North Hudson Jewish Community Center who was
the husband of “the former Irma Cohen” passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/12/21/archives/walter-leichter-68-led-jersey-bar-association.html
1972:
In Oakland, CA, Sharon and Lawrence Slutzker gave birth to New Jersey raised
tight end Scott Slutzker who played at the University of Iowa before going on
to pro career with the Colts, Saints and Jets.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/scott-slutzker
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/S/SlutSc00.htm
1972: Neil Simon’s “Sunshine
Boys” premiered in New York.
1973(25th of Kislev, 5734): First Day of Chanukah
1973(25th of Kislev, 5734): Sixty-seven-year-old San Francisco
born, U.C. Berkley grad Frederick L. Ehrman, the “former chairman of the board
of Lehman Brothers” and the husband of “the former Edith Koshland with whom he
had one daughter – Edith—passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/12/21/91062489.pdf
1973: A terrorist attack was thwarted when authorities arrested “10
Turks, 1 Palestinian and 1 Algerian…in a villa near Paris.”
1973: “The Laughing Policeman” directed and produced by Stuart Rosenberg
and starring Walter Matthau was released in the United States today.
1974: After having premiered in New York City a week ago, “The Godfather
Part II” featuring Less Strasberg, James Caan and Abe Vigoda and edited by
Peter Zinner opened in theatres throughout the United States tdoay
1974: Thirteen people were injured in Jerusalem when terrorists exploded
a bomb “on a crowded street.”
1974: “The Jackson-Vanik Amendment was overwhelmingly approved by the
U.S. Congress, making U.S. trade concessions and low-interest loans to any
“non-market economy” (communist) conditional on “respect for the right to
emigrate.”
1975: Seven months after having opened in France, “Seven Beauties,”
co-starring Shirley Stoler was released today in Italy.
1976(28th of Kislev, 5737): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1976: Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin resigned. Rabin was forced to resign over a financial
indiscretion that took place while he had been Ambassador in Washington. His resignation opened the way for the
election of the Likud and Menachem Begin.
Up until then, Labor had controlled the Israeli governments chosen since
1948. This opening for the Right wing
changed the political equation in Israel both in foreign and domestic affairs.
1977: “The Water Engine,” “a play by David Mamet that centers on the
violent suppression of a disruptive alternative energy technology” opened today
at The Public Theatre.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported from Cairo
that Egypt and Israel agreed to incorporate all principles of UN Resolution 242
on their agenda. In the Knesset a number of members of Likud, Labor and the
National Religious Party expressed fears about Menachem Begin’s peace plans for
Judea and Samaria and asked for explanations. It became evident that the prime
minister faced a serious challenge from many of his own ardent supporters. The
chief editor and political analyst of the Egyptian influential daily al-Ahram,
Ali Hamdi el-Gammal, welcomed Begin’s peace proposals as “very promising
and encouraging.”
1978: In a strange
multi-cultural twist “Steam Heat” the show tune by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross
was sung by the African American cast of “Good Times.”
1979(30th of Kislev,
5740): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1980(13th of
Tevet, 5741): Parashat Vayehci read for the last time during the Presidency of
Jimmy Carter
1981(24th of
Kislev, 5742): Kindle the first Chanukah candle
1981(24th of
Kislev, 5742): Eighty-one-year-old Warsaw born Columbia trained attorney and WW
I veteran Joseph Zaretzki , the husband of Helen Zaretzki and “the first
Democrat to be a majority leader when the Democratic party gained control of
the New York State Senate passed away today.
https://archives.albany.edu/description/catalog/apap283
1981: Today “the
Cabinet of Israel convened for a weekly meeting, in which Defense Minister
Ariel Sharon and the Chief of Staff (Ramatkal) Rafael Eitan presented the
“Big Plan” for an invasion of Lebanon, which included seizure of the
Beirut-Damascus Highway” which was cancel due to Cabinet opposition despite
Prime Minister’s Begin support of the plan,
1982(4th of
Tevet, 5743): Ninety-five-year-old pianist Arthur Rubinstein passed away.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0128.html
1983: In Los Angeles,
“Sharon Lyn (née Chalkin), a costume designer and fashion stylist, and Richard
Feldstein, a tour accountant for Guns N’ Roses” Jonah Hill, the multi-talented
brother of Jordan and Beanie Feldstein, two of whose most memorable performances
were as the “geek” in “Moneyball” and as one of the money crazed “brokers” in
the “Wolf of Wall Street.”
1984(26th
of Kislev, 5745): Fifty-one-year-old Dr. Stanley Milgram, the noted
psychologist, passed away today. (As reported by Daniel Coleman)
1985: Howard Cosell retired from television sports after 20 years with
ABC.
1986(18th of Kislev, 5747: Parashat Vayishlach
1986(18th of Kislev, 5747): Forty-year-old Rabbi Michael
Goulston who was ordained in 1963 passed away today while “as assistant
minister of the West London Synagogue.”
1986(18th of Kislev, 5747): Sixty-eight-year-old Connecticut
born lightweight and featherweight contender Julius “Julie” Kogon who wore a
Star of David on his boxing trunks passed away today after which he was buried
in the Garden of Sinai Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
1987: “Nuts” with Barbra Streisand premieres.
1987:
Today, Egypt summoned the
Israeli Ambassador, Moshe Sasson, to the Foreign Ministry to express concern
over what it called ”the brutal, oppressive measures taken by Israel against
the Palestinian people.” It was the fifth protest statement issued by Egypt in
the eight days.
1989:
On the day of the American
invasion, Mike Harari, a 62-year-old retired agent of the Israeli intelligence
service, Mossad, rumored to have been an Israeli spy, a gun-runner, and a
military adviser to General Manuel Antonio Noriega vanished from Panama
1990: “Godfather Part III” featuring Eli Wallach premiered today in
Beverly Hills.
1991: “Father of the Bride” co-produced by Howard Rosenman and Nancy
Meyers who also co-authored the script and featuring Eugene Levy was released
in the United States today.
1992(25th of Kislev, 5753): First Day of Chanukah
1992(25th of Kislev, 5753): Eight-eighty-year-old Brooklyn
born Max Hodesblatt, the graduate of Boys High whose basketball and baseball
skill earned him membership in CCNY Athletic Hall of Fame as well as a
successful coaching career at Jefferson High Schoo.
1992(25th of Kislev, 5753): Eighty-eight-year-old Nathan Milstein, the Russian-born violin virtuoso,
died yesterday at his home in London. (As reported by Harold C. Schonberg)
1992(25th of Kislev, 5753): Ninety-one-year-old “Stella Adler, an exponent of Method acting whom many
considered the leading American teacher of her craft, died today at her home in
Los Angeles. (As reported by Peter B. Flint)
1994(17th of Tevet, 5755): Eighty-four year old Warsaw born
and University of California trained plant physiologist Daniel I. Arnon the
winner, in 1973 of National Medal of Science for “his fundamental research into
the mechanism of green plant utilization of light to produce chemical energy
and oxygen and for contributions to our understanding of plant nutrition” who
was the husband of Lucile Soule with whom he had five children – Stephen,
Dennis, Ann, Ruth and Nancy- passed away today.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-12-24-mn-12580-story.html
1995(27th of Kislev, 5756): Third Day of Chanukah
1995:
The trial of Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin’s confessed assassin opened today only to be postponed for a
month, while Israelis received an unexpected replay of the killing in an
amateur video not made public before.
1996(10th of Tevet, 5757): Astronomer and science celebrity Carl Sagan
passed away at the age of 62. (As reported by William Dicke)
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1109.html
1996(10th of Tevet, 5757): Asara B’Tevet
1997(21st of Kislev, 5758): Parashat Vayeshev
1997: In “The Celebration of Hanukkah, Then and Now” published today
Steven R. Weisman describes the rift in the Jewish community in the days of the
Macabees and compares it to the challenge facing the state of Israel in the
clash between its Orthodox and non-Orthodox citizens.
1998(1st of Tevet, 5759): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of
Chanukah
1998: The New York Times
features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to
Jewish readers including The House of Rothschild Money’s Prophets, 1798-1848
by Niall Ferguson and The Lord Will Gather Me In: My Journey to Jewish
Orthodoxy by David Klinghoffer
1999(11th of Tevet, 5760): One hundred one year old British
born American director Irving Rapper whose career began in 1941 with “Shining
Victory” and ended with “Born Again” in 1978 passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/1999/dec/29/local/me-48573
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/30/arts/irving-rapper-101-film-director-dies.html
2000: As of today, “Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, the Likud
Party leader, are the sole contestants for the Feb. 6 elections for prime
minister.”
2001: “As Israeli military pressure on Yasir Arafat eased slightly
today…Dr. Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, a top political leader of Hamas, said today
that Hamas’s military wing intended to continue sending suicidal attackers
against Israel.”
2002(15th of Tevet, 5763): An Israeli rabbi was shot and killed on the Kissufim corridor road in the
Gaza Strip while driving with his wife and six children to attend a pre-wedding
Sabbath celebration in Afula. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the
attack.
2003(25th of Kislev, 5764): Parashat Vayeshev; First Day of
Chanukah
2003: “In a first for the Kremlin, President Vladimir V. Putin officially
observed Hanukkah with invitations to Russia’s chief rabbi, Berl Lazar, and
Aleksandr Boroda, a local Jewish leader.”
2003: The Klezmatics perform “Holy Ground: The Jewish Songs of Woody
Guthrie,” at the 92nd Street Y, featuring songs inspired or written by
Guthrie’s mother-in-law, Aliza Greenblatt.
2004: Paula Abdul the daughter of Syrian born Jew Harry Abdul and
Canadian born Jew Lorraine Rykiss was involved in an automobile accident today
in Los Angeles.
2005: New York native and Columbia Law School graduate Stephen Friedman,
a long-time partner of Goldman Sachs became the Chair of the President’s
Intelligence Advisory Board.
2005(19th of Kislev, 5766): Eighty-two-year-old Hyman Morris
who served as Lord Mayor of Leeds from 1941 to 1942 passed away today.
2005: The Jerusalem Post
reported on clean-up efforts at Beth El Synagogue in New Orleans. The work is being done by college students
who are using their winter break to help clean up damage left in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina. Beth El was covered
by ten feet of water and was the only synagogue in New Orleans completely
destroyed by the storm.
2006: The Inspector General reported today that Sandy Berger, a high-ranking
foreign policy advisor to President Clinton had removed four classified
documents from the National Archives reading room” in 2003.
2006: “Cantors in Concerto” featuring Eliezer Kepecs, Yehuda Rossler,
Davide Montefiore, Alex Stein and Michael Trachtenberg will take place at 8
o’clock this evening at Merkin Concert Hall.
2006: Haaretz reported on a
case of technology, academia and physical courage converging to protect the
history of the Jewish people. Emory University is planning to translate a
professor’s Web site on Holocaust denial into Arabic, Farsi and other languages
common to countries where anti-Semitic views are widespread.
2006(29th of Kislev, 5767): Fifth Day of Chanukah
2006(29th of Kislev, 5767): Rabbi Dovid Barkin the son-in-law
of Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch and former Rosh Yeshiva of the Telshe Yeshiva
passed away today.
2007: In the afternoon, Palestinian terrorists fired three rockets toward
southern Israel with one hitting about forty yards from a school in downtown
Sderot forcing twelve students to seek treatment for shock.
2007: Basell, a company created by Leonard “Len” Blavatnik,
completed its acquisition of the Lyondell Chemical Company for an enterprise
value of approximately $19 billion. The resulting company, LyondellBasell
Industries then became the world’s eighth largest chemical company based on net
sales.
2007: In the evening five Palestinian terrorist were killed and Israeli
soldier was badly wounded in fighting in Gaza about a mile from the border with
Israel as forces of the IDF sought to put an end to the continuous missle
attacks on southern Israel including the town of Sderot.
2007: According to an unnamed
source in Los Angeles, the Spinka Rebbe has hired top criminal defense Attorney
Donald Etra to defend him.
2007: In “Keeping the Peace” published today Yehuda Lev described what it
was like to be married to his wife Rosie, woman with strong beliefs who was not
afraid to share them.
http://www.jewishjournal.com/lifecycles/article/keeping_the_peace_20071221
2008(23rd of Kislev, 5769): Twenty-three-year-old Emma Bee
Bernstein the first born child of poet and college professor Charles Bernstein
passed away today.
2008:” Imagine This!,” a five million Pound West End production depicting the tragic story of
the Warshowsky Family theater group who defy the oppressors and the ghetto’s
meager resources to put on a musical on the siege of Masada and warn their
audience of the fate awaiting them in Treblinka, closes only a month after its
official opening at the Drury Lane New London Theatre.
2008: In New York, as part the
facilitates a presentation entitled, “Why
Do I Write? (Zionism as an Anti-depressant)” Poet, playwright, author of 20
books, translator, lyricist and satiric performer, Yehonatan Geffen has been a
correspondent for Maariv since 1992 and his column appears there every Friday.
2008: The slender Saturday edition of
the Cedar Rapids Gazette reads like a Jewish newspaper with articles entitled
‘Israeli election hopefuls seek the Obama touch” (complete with a picture of
the President-elect at the Western Wall), “Hamas declares end of truce with
Israel,” “Jewish Festival of Lights begins Sunday” and “Potential buyers
showing interest in Agriprocessors.”
2009: The New York Times features
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including the recently released paperback editions of Hot, Flat and Crowed:
Why We Need a Green Revolution — And How It Can Renew America by Thomas L.
Friedman and A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005 by Annie Leibovitz.
2009: The Washington Post
features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to
Jewish readers including Herblock: The Life and Work of the Great Political
Cartoonist by Haynes Johnson and Harry Katz.
2009: Mathieu David Schneider left the
Vancouver Canucks “due to a reported dispute about his playing” which led to
his being waived and being shipped down the AHL in January,
2010: The 92nd Street Y is
scheduled to present a program entitled “The Chosen Peoples and Their Enemies”
featuring Michael Walzer and Jackson Lears, Todd Gitlin and Liel Leibovitz.
2010: “Some 1,200 new species and varieties have been discovered during the
just-concluded first world “census” of marine life. The director of the census,
Jesse Ausubel, will participate in a conference today at the Israel Academy of
Sciences and the Humanities in Jerusalem.
2010: The Los Angeles Times featured a review of The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt, of blessed
memory.
2010: An IDF soldier reported that three individuals attempted to stab him near
a gas station in Givat Ze’ev in Jerusalem. According to the soldier, the three
individuals exited their vehicle with one holding a knife. After the soldier
loaded and aimed his personal weapon at the three, they returned to their red
Toyota and fled.
2010: Three days after he had passed
away funeral services are scheduled to be held this morning for 67 real estate
executive Stuart Arthur Arnheim at Rodef Shalom Temple at Shadyside.
2010: Seven mortar shells were fired
from the Gaza Strip into the Eshkol regional council today.
2010: Nearly 50
Conservative (Masorti) rabbis have signed a halachic statement allowing home
rentals or sales to non- Jews in Israel, in a move to counter the statement
recently signed by nearly 50 city rabbis that prohibited just that.
2010:
Roni Daloomi released her debut album titled
“Ktzat Acheret” (A Little Different)
2010(13th of Tevet, 5771): Seventy-four-year-old “Steve
Landesberg, an actor and comedian with a friendly and often deadpan manner who
was best known for his role on the long-running sitcom ”Barney Miller,” died
in Los Angeles today. (As reported by
Hamilton Boardman)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/arts/television/21landesberg.html?_r=0
2011(24th of Kislev, 5772): In the evening, kindle the
first light of Chanukah
2011(24th of Kislev, 5772): Ninety-year-old “Jacob E.
Goldman, a physicist who as Xerox’s chief scientist founded the company’s
vaunted Palo Alto Research Center, which invented the modern personal computer”
passed away today.” (As reported by John Markoff)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/business/jacob-e-goldman-founder-of-xerox-lab-dies-at-90.html?_r=0
2011: The Mobile Menorah Parade is scheduled to roll through
uptown, downtown, and the French Quarter as Chabad celebrates Chanukah
2011: The Sephardic Music Festival is scheduled to open in NYC
2011:
Girl-power aficionado Gloria Steinem is scheduled to
join the activism-inclined five-piece pop rock band Betty for their late show.
2011:
A jazz ensemble, featuring David Freeman, Oren
Neiman, Doug Drewes and Ivan Barenboim, is scheduled to perform original
compositions inspired by Chanukah, as well as new arrangements of music from
the YU Museum’s “Jews on Vinyl” exhibition.
2011:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense
Minister Ehud Barak condemned violence by right-wing extremists today, vowing
to use all means to eradicate the phenomenon.
2011: A State Comptroller report released today
revealed significant gaps in coordination for a possible emergency scenario
between local and state authorities.
2011: “The ‘Iranian Schindler’ who saved
Jews from the Nazis” published today described the exploits of Abdol-Hossein
Sardari who risked his life to saved thousands of Iranian Jews from the
Holocaust.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16190541
2012: Following a screening of “Roman
Holiday” at the 92nd Street Y, Andrew Dickos is scheduled to lead a
presentation on “Hollywood’s Blacklisted Filmmaker,” a disproportionate number
of whom were Jewish.
2012: Today, Peter Madoff, the brother of
Bernie Madoff and the “Chief Compliance
Officer” who “ran the daily operations for the past 20 years” “was sentenced to
10 years for” for his role in what may have been the world’s biggest Ponzi
scheme./
2012: “Martha Marcy May Marlene” is
scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2012(7th of Tevet, 5773): Eighty-eight-year-old
WW II veteran Bernard G. Palitz, the brother of Clarence Y. Palitz with whom he
founded the Financial Federation corporation passed away today.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?pid=162032993
2012: It was announced today that stating
in January, Jake Tapper would join CNN where he “would anchor a weekday program
and serve as the network’s Chief Washington correspondent.”
2012: Israeli Ambassador to the United
Nations Ron Prosor today called on Europe to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist
organization.
2012: Former IDF
chief of staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Amnon Lipkin-Shahak was “a true hero,”
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at his funeral this afternoon.
2013:
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is scheduled to tour Jerusalem’s Old City and
visit the Western Wall before leaving Israel for Algeria. (As reported by
Raphael Ahren)
2013:
“A program of the best Israeli songs from all time from Argov through Naomi
Shemer: is scheduled to be performed by “the soloists of the Israeli Opera’s
Meitar Opera Studio.
2013:
In Coralville, Iowa, Agudas Achim under the leadership of Rabbi Jeff Portman is
scheduled to host a complimentary Shabbat Dinner followed by a musical service
welcoming the Sabbath Queen.
2013:
“Washington Square,” the cinematic version of the novel by Henry James, is
scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013:
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree today to pardon jailed Jewish
tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky (As reported by Nataliya Vasilyeva)
2013:
“The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah warned today that the Israelis would be
“punished” for killing a leader of the Shiite party, an assassination
in which Israel has denied any involvement.”
2013:
The U.S. Senate voted 59–34 for cloture on Janet Yellen’s nomination
2013(17th
of Tevet, 5774): Seventy-year-old Marjorie Katz passed it way.
http://articles.philly.com/2013-12-24/news/45512931_1_lewis-katz-oprah-winfrey-margie
2014: The Kol Ami Community Chanukah Party
is scheduled to take place in Arlington, Va.
2014: “The War of the Buttons” and “Jadoo”
are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014: In Rockville, MD, the Magen David
Sephardic Congregation is scheduled host “Light it Up” it’s annual Chanukah
Party.
2014: In another example of the strange
logic of terrorists, Hamas today threatened to attack Israel after her jets
struck several targets belong to the group which came after a rocket had been
fired into the Eshkol region from Gaza.
2014(28th of Kislev, 5774):
Eight-five-year-old Louise Goldblatt, the mother of Dr. Fred Goldblatt and
Laurie Silber, wife of Dr. Bob Silber passed away today in Cedar Rapids, IA.
2015: The
New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Art of Grace: On Moving
Well Through Life by Sarah L. Kaufman and the recently released paperback
editions of How About Never – Is Never Good For You?: My Life in Cartoons
by Bob Mankoff, The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and
Launched a Revolution by Jonathan Eig, Living the Secular Life: New
Answers to Old Questions by Phil Zuckerman and The Country of Ice Cream
Star by Sandra Newman.
2015: The Broadway revival of “Fiddler on
the Roof” co-sponsored by the Challah Connection is scheduled to begin tonight
in New York City the Broadway Theatre in New York City.
2015: Miss Israel,
19-year-old Avigail Alfatov, is scheduled to compete in the Miss Universe
Pageant airing tonight on U.S. television.
2015: Veteran Likud politician Silvan
Shalom resigned from political life today, as pressure mounted over an
increasing number of allegations of sexual harassment by women who had worked
with him.
2015: Jewish film director J.J. Abrams,
whose Star Wars reboot had the biggest North American debut of all time today,
initially turned down the request to direct the film.
2015: Israel Defense Forces artillery units
shelled targets in South Lebanon this evening, shortly after at least three
rockets were fired from across the border into Israeli territory.
2016(20th of Kislev, 5777):
Eighty-nine-year-old Vienna born American cartoonist Paul Peter Porges passed
away today.
http://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2016/12/22/paul-peter-porges-mad-writer-and-artist-rip
http://michaelmaslin.com/peter-porges-new-yorker-mad-graphic-raconteur-has-died/
2016: “According to a letter that emerged”
today “the Jerusalem rabbinate has called on hotels in the city not to erect
Christmas trees or host New Year’s Eve parties.”
2016: “A ship carrying 450 kilograms of
cannabis set sail for Tel Aviv” today which activists claimed was part of a
protest against “the government’s refusal to decriminalize marijuana.”
2016: “A bronze penny minted by the Greek
tyrant from the Hanukkah story was recently stumbled upon by archaeologists
amid the ruins of Jerusalem’s Tower of David during routine cleaning of the
site, the museum said in a statement” issued today.
2016: The 92nd Street Y is
scheduled to host “Jim J’s Jukebox,” providing a look at the music and lyrics
of “Vaudeville, Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and Hollywood.”
2016: “The Band’s Visit” a musical based on
the screenplay by Eran Kolorin is scheduled to be performed at the Linda Gross
Theatre where its run has been extended by another week into January, 2017
2017:
Naida Michal Brandl, PhD, an Assistant Professor at the Chair of Judaic
Studies, Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Zagreb in Croatia and the
recipient of the 2017 Fred and Ellen Lewis/JDC Archives Fellowship, is
scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Jewish Life in Croatia 1945-1952” at the
Center for Jewish History in New York.
2017
The American Jewish Historical Society and the American Society for Jewish
Music are scheduled to host The Annual Chanukah Concert “with Zalmen Mlotek,
Artistic Director, National Yiddish Theater-Folksbiene; Yiddish folk and
theater songs, with singers and piano and klezmer clarinet plus a Chanukah
sing-along and special story for the holiday.”
2017(2nd
of Tevet, 5778): Eighth Day of Chanukah.
https://jeopardylabs.com/play/chanukah10
2018:
In Washington, DC, Professionals in the City is scheduled to host a “Jewish
Dating Event” at Finn and Porter in the Embassy Suites Hotel.
2018:
Chabad of the South Hills is scheduled to sponsor “Kids in the Kitchen” where
children learn the joys of “international kosher cooking.”
2018:
The Squirrel Hill JCC is scheduled to host an evening of Israeli Dancing
2018:
In Albany, NY, Congregation Ohav Shalom is scheduled to host “the Noodle
Pudding Players performing Jeffrey Sweet’s ‘The Value of Names’” a play that
“described the impact of the Hollywood blacklisting” on those working in the
entertainment industry
2019:
Deadline for submitting applications “for the first-ever Sephardic trip for
Jewish young professionals to Germany.”
2019:
In Atlanta, the Breman Museum, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is scheduled to
play a medley of Chanukah music “and other selections by Jewish
Composers.”
2019:
Cultural activist/musician & composer Raul Rothblatt is scheduled to host a
neighborhood tour of Brownsville, “New York’s largest historic Jewish
neighborhood.”
2019:
It was reported today that “New York State has awarded $10 million for the
protection of “religious-based institutions and non-public schools from hate
crimes…”
2019:
It was reported today that “newly reelected British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson pledged to fulfill an election campaign promise to introduce
legislation aimed at undermining the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)
campaign against Israel.”
2020:
American Friends of the Hebrew University is scheduled to present online “High
Tech Jerusalem,” which is “journey through Israel’s tech transformation and the
ways in which Hebrew University is contributing “to advancement and evolution
our world today.”
2020:
Action for Post-Soviet Jewry is scheduled to present “a virtual retirement
tribute celebrating Judy Patkin’s 45 years in action at Action for
Soviet/Post-Soviet Jewry (APSJ
2020:
In Columbus, OH, Congregation Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host via Zoom,
Tom Sudow, the International President of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs
as he talks about the “Jewish Community in Post COVID World – What will be the
new normal?”
2020:
LSJS is scheduled to celebrate “Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks zt”l by
launching his new book “Judaism’s Life-Changing Ideas” in partnership with
Koren Publishing and the Jewish News.”
2020:
In Australia, Shalom is scheduled to host a St. Almas Pickles using cucumbers
from the “soils of Adamama Urban
Farm.”
2020:
William Kolbrener, Professor, Dept of English, Bar Ilan University is scheduled
to present “Midrash of the Northern Renaissance:Rembrandt’s Readers – Reading
Rembrandt”
2020:
Yiddish New is scheduled to present Fieldwork in Focus: A Roundtable on
Research Into East European Jewish Music with the Klezmer Institute’s Christina
Crowder.
2021:
The Asiyah Jewish Community is scheduled to present, online “Oseh Feleh:
Exploring Myth Magic and Wonder in Judaism” with rabbinic intern Sam Tygiel.
2021:
Based on remarks made yesterday, Israelis are now confronting “the fifth wave
of COVID-19 morbidity…as the Omicron coronavirus spreads throughout the
country.”
2021:
Since the Israeli Consul General to New York, Asaf Zaimr, and several aides
have tested positive for coronavirus, “those working in the building that
houses the consulate “will now work in a capsule format for at least a week in
order to prevent further infections.”
2022(26th
of Kislev, 5783): Second Day of Chanukah.
2022:
In Cedar Rapids, IA, Chabad of N.E. Iowa is scheduled to host a public Chanukah
Menorah Lighting Celebration in front of Ginsberg Jewelers on First Avenue.
2022:
The Americans and the Holocaust traveling exhibition is scheduled to come an
end at
Juneau
Public Libraries (Juneau, AK), University of Louisiana at Lafayette (Lafayette,
LA), University of Arkansas Libraries (Fayetteville, AR) and Billings Public
Library (Billings, MT).
2022:
The Annual International Holocaust Survivors Night: Worldwide Chanukah
Celebration is scheduled to take place this afternoon.
2022:
Dirah, a “spiritual start-up” Chabad initiative that offers Jewish experiences
for people of all affiliations and backgrounds, is scheduled to host a
community menorah lighting, live music and latkes at Carroll Park (291
President St.) in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
2023:
In another
lecture in the “Emmanuel Levinas with Beloved Poets and Writers”
lecture series, to be held at Yedidya Synagogue in Jerusalem, Rabbi Daniel
Epstein is scheduled to discuss the long and deep relationship between Emmanuel
Levinas and Maurice Blanchot, and with its help continue the discussion on the
connection between philosophy and literature.
2023:
The Museum at Eldridge is scheduled to host “Aging Well: Wise Aging,” a virtual
seminar, during which “Rabbi Paula Drill will provide the spiritual approach to
aging by analyzing Jewish texts and values that lead us toward an uplifting
perspective rather than a declinist view on aging.”
2023:
Netflix is scheduled to begin screening “Maestro,” a biopic about Leonard
Bernstein today.
2023:
As December 20 begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 75 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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