This Day, December 17, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
December 17
520 BCE (24th of Kislev): “The
foundation-stone of the Temple was laid” (As reported by Jewish Encyclopedia)
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4902-darius-i
630: Modestus of Jerusalem who replaced Zacharias as
Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem when the latter was killed following
destruction of Jerusalem by Chosroes II passed away today. (Editor’s note – the conquerors come and go
but Jerusalem remains the City of Daivd)
1141 (Tevet, 4902): After leaving Cairo, Jehuda
Halevi arrived at the port of Damietta where he was warmly received by his old
friend Abu Said Chalfon.
1261: Pope Clement IV, who in 1264 “renewed the
prohibition of the Talmud promulgated by Gregory IX, who had it publicly burnt
in France and in Italy” and who “ordered that the Jews of Aragon submit their
books to Dominican censors for expurgation” was “created” as a Cardinal by
Urban IV
1187: Gregory VIII, the Pope who called for the
disastrous Third Crusade, passed away. Each of the crusades was a disaster for
the Jewish people in way or another. On
top of everything else, the Third Crusade removed the protective hand of King
Richard from England and left the Jews to suffer under the anti-Semitic Prince
John.
1398: Tamerlane, also known as Timur, defeated the
armies of Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud’s in Delhi. This battle was part of the war between the Persians
and the Mongols. According to one
source, Timur brought Persian Jews to his kingdom so that they could help
develop the textile industry. For more
on this subject see Tamerlane and the Jews by Michael Shterenshis
https://www.amazon.com/Tamerlane-Jews-Michael-Shterenshis/dp/1138010693
1489: Today Italian rabbi, Obadiah ben Abraham
Bartenura wrote that “he had moved to Hebron where he found the atmosphere much
more conducive, and a small Jewish community numbering some twenty households
who were of a better temperament than those in Jerusalem, and where they lived
along one alleyway.”
1490: Yucef Franco went on trial today charged with
“trying to attract conversos to Judaism as well as having participated in the
ritual crucifixion of a Christian child on Good Friday.”
1531: A Bull was issued by Pope Clement
Diogo da Silva was made Inquisitor General.
1538: Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of
England. Henry had reportedly sought support from Italian rabbis in making the
Biblical case for his annulment. The
Italian Jews were fearful of the Pope among whom they lived than they were of a
distant monarch who did not let Jews live in his kingdom. The excommunication led to a weakening of the
Church and the strengthening of the Protestant Reformation which helped to
contribute to the Jews return to England in the 17th century.
1595: In Lima, Peru, ten people were accused of
violating the law by practicing the Jewish religion including Francisco
Rodriguez who was later burned at the stake.
1600: King Henry IV of France married Marie de’
Medici. She is most famous as the mother of Louis XIII in whose name she
reigned for seven years as Queen Mother and regent. During that time she defied the ban on Jews
living in France by retaining Elijah Montalto as court physician. To gain his
services Marie agreed to let him practice his religion and not to have to work
on Shabbat. When Louis came of age he
reverted to the practice of his predecessors and reaffirmed the ban on Jews
living in his kingdom.
1651: “A forced of more than 1,000 Barbadian
militia” under the command Francis Willoughby, under whose leadership a group
of Sephardic Jews migrated to Suriname” were defeated in clash with
pro-Parliament forces.
1651: When a seven-ship fleet arrived off the coast
of Barbados today and demanded it surrender, the island’s governor, Francis
Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham, under whose leadership a group of
Sephardic Jews migrated to Suriname in 1652 and “settled in the Jodensavanne
area” refused saying “he knew of no supreme authority over Englishman except
the King” and announced his plans to resist.
1660: Today “Mr. Hollis presented to this House, an
Order made by the Lords of His Majesty’s Privy Council, and specially recommend
to this House for their advice therein touch protection for the Jews was read.”
1728: Congregation Shearith Israel
purchased a lot on Mill Street in lower Manhattan, to build New York’s first
synagogue.
1762(1st of Tevet, 5523): Rosh Chodesh
Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah observed on the birthdate of American inventor
Pliny Earle
1767(26th of Kislev, 5528): Second Day of
Chanukah
1771(10th of Tevet, 5532): Asara B’Tevet
1773(3rd
of Tevet, 5534): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1775(24th
of Kislev, 5536): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light for the first
time during the American Revolution.
1775:
Moses Dobruška a cousin of Jacob Frank, the founder of the Frankist sect,
“converted from Judaism to the Catholic faith and took the name of Franz Thomas
Schönfeld.”
1778(28th
of Kislev, 5539): Fourth Day of Chanukah observed on the birthdate of famous
English chemist Sir Humphry Davy.
1784(4th
of Tevet, 5545): Liefmann Calmer, the Aurich, Hanover native whose “full
synagogal name was Moses Eliezer Lipmann ben Kalonymus” and who “obtained
French letters of naturalization” after having become the “official purveyor to
King Louis XV” passed away today in Paris.
1787:
Birthdate of Amsterdam native Roseanna Linderman, the wife of Levi Abrahams and
the mother of their Philadelphia born children, Hester and Maria Abrahams.
1789:
Birthdate of Bavaria native Isaac Nordlinger, the husband of Eugenie Schweizer
and the father of Wolf, Rosali, Fredricka, Bernhard and Marie Nordlinger, all
of whom were born in Alsace.
1790(10th
of Tevet, 5551): Asara B’Teveet
1791(21st
of Kislev, 5552): Chief
Rabbi David Tevele Schiff passed away. He was the chief rabbi of the United
Kingdom and the rabbi of the Great Synagogue of London from 1765 until his death.
He was the son of Solomon Schiff, member of a famous and learned family from
Frankfurt am Main. Tevele Schiff was educated in the schools of Rabbis Jacob
Poper and Jacob Joshua Falk. He served as maggid in Vienna. He also was head of
the Beth Midrash in Worms, and later Dayan in Frankfurt.
1792(2nd
of Tevet, 5553): Eighth day of Chanukah
1792:
Lilie Marx and Samuel Strauss gave birth to their daughter Sprinz Strauss.
1792(2nd
of Tevet, 5553): According to Gotthard Deutsch, this was the day on which
“Teble Schiff, the rabbi of London” passed away. (Editor’s note – any help will be greatly
appreciated in resolving the discrepancy)
1794(25th
of Kislev, 5555): First day of Chanukah
1794: William Moultrie who n 1794, during his
final year in office, Moultrie attended the consecration of Congregation Beth
Elohim in Charleston, SC, completed his second term in office as Governor of
South Carolina.
1796:
Birthdate of Charleston, SC native Judith Hyams, the wife of London native
Henry Hyams with whom she had eight children and who, like her husband, was
buried in New Orleans.
1797:
Birthdate of Prussian native and London resident Helena Horn, the wife of
Lehman Meyer Gluckstein, with whom she had nine children
1800(1st
of Tevet, 5561): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet is observed for the
first time in the 19th century.
1803(2nd
of Tevet, 5564): Shabbat shel Chanukah; Parashat Miketz
1806:
Birthdate of German historian Theodor Hirsch who like a certain segment of
Jewish society at this time converted to Christianity in order to further his
career and/or gain greater social acceptance.
1807:
In Charleston, SC, Caroline Lazarus and Aaron Phillips gave birth to Philip
Phillips a lawyer who served as Representative from Alabama’s First
Congressional District before the American Civil War.
1808(28th
of Kislev, 5569): Shabbat shel Pesach; Parashat Miketz
1808:
Today,
“a central consistory for the Jews in Holland was authorized by royal decree.”
1809(10th
of Tevet, 5570): Asara B’Tevet
1809:
In Columbia, SC, Rebecca Phillips and Isaiah Moses gave birth to Hannah Moeses.
1816(27th
of Kislev, 5577): Third Day of Chanukah observed on the same day that former
President John Adams wrote a letter of reference to President James Madison on
behalf of the children of the late governor of Massachusetts.
1819:
Simón Bolívar declared the independence of the Republic of Gran Colombia in
Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela). Jews served in Bolivar’s army and
provided him with the financial backing that was necessary for his ultimate
success.
1821:
Birthdate of Dutch Journalist Isaac Jacob Lion, the editor of the “Handelsbad,”
and owner/publisher of the “Dagblad van ‘sGravenhage en
Zuid-Holland.”
1821(23rd
of Kislev 5582): Thirty-six-year-old Grace Mendes Seixas, the daughter or
Richea Hart and Abraham Seixas who were married in Charleston in 1777, passed
away today.
1822(3rd
of Tevet, 5583): Joseph Aguilar the husband of his first cousin Grace Aguilar
and the grandfather of author Grace Aguilar passed away today.
1823:
Solomon Levitt married Ann Isaacs at the Great Synagogue today.
1824(26th
of Kislev, 5585): Second Day of Chanukah
1824:
Birthdate of Parisian native Adolphe Hatzfeld, the son of a goldsmith who
obtained a Doctorate in Letters after which he was professor of foreign
literature in Grenoble and a professor of rhetoric at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand
in Paris.
1827(28th
of Kislev, 5588) Fourth Day of Chanukah observed on what would have been
Beethoven’s 57th birthday had he not passed away in March.
1830:
Simon Bolivar, the liberator of Venezuela and Columbia known as the “George
Washington of South America” passed away. “Simon Bolivar found refuge and
material support for his army in the homes of Jews from Curaçao. Jews such as
Mordejai Ricardo and the brothers Ricardo and Abraham Meza offered hospitality
to Bolivar as he fought against the Spanish, thus establishing brotherly
relations between Jews and the newly independent Venezuelan republic. Several
Jews even fought in the ranks of Bolivar’s army during the war.” “The Jews of
Curacao became involved with Simon Bolivar and his fight for the independence
of Venezuela and Colombia from their Spanish colonizers. Two Jewish men from
while another supplied moral and material support to Bolivar, as well as refuge
for him and his family.”
1832(25th
of Kislev, 5593): Chanukah
1833:
In Philadelphia, PA, Benjamin and Harriet Marx Etting gave birth to Frank Marx
Etting who became Paymaster of the United States Army during the Civil War.
1833:
Henry Etting and his wife gave birth to Frank Marx Etting who gave up his law
practice in Philadelphia to join the U.S. Army serving as paymaster with the
rank of major in 1861 and eventually serving as chief paymaster under General
Irwin McDowell in 1868.
1836:
In Bavaria, Seligman Ben Schemmel Landauer, the Bavarian born son of Samuel
Joseph Arjeh Landauer and Rebecca Breindl Landauer, and his wife of Zirle
(Cilli) Landauer gave birth to Isaac Landauer.
1836:
In Dover, UK, the Dover Telegraph reported that “Mr. Danofsky, of King
Street, St James, Westminster, has married Mrs. Hughes, widow of the late Mr.
Moses Hughes formerly of Albion Hotel, Dover.”
1837:
Three days after he had passed away, Jacob Abrahams, the father of Abraham,
Joel, Henry and Naphtali Abrahams, was buried today at the “Canterbury Jewish
Cemetery.”
1839(10th of Tevet, 5600): Asarah BeTevet
1839(10th
of Tevet, 5600): Joseph Flesch, the son of Abraham Flesch, whose
accomplishments included translating the works of Philo into Hebrew, passed
away today in his native Moravia.
1839:
In Paris, Baron Anselm von Rothschild and Charlotte von Rothschild gave birth
to their second son, Ferdinand James
Anselm von Rothschild an English politician and art collector, and a
member of the prominent Rothschild family of bankers who would pass away
exactly 59 years later on his birthday.
1843(24th
of Kislev, 5604): The first Chanukah candle was kindled in the evening of the
day when, according to some sources A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
was published.
1844:
In Poland, Abraham Jacob Morris and his wife gave birth to Benjamin Morris who
began his cantorial career in London before taking the position with
Congregation Beth Miriam in Long Branch, NJ.
1846:
In Vienna, Moritz Pollak and Julia Benjamin gave birth to Emile Pollak, the
husband of Carrie Benjamin who “came to Cincinnati in 1865” where he became
President of the Block-Pollak Iron Company, and a leader of the Jewish
community as can be seen by his membership on the board of directors of Hebrew
Union College and the United Jewish Charities.
1846:
Jeaneta Mallan and Kent, England native Joseph Davis gave birth to Rosetta
Davis.
1847(10th
of Tevet, 5608): Asara B’Tevet
1849:
In Washington, D.C. Sarah Ann Hays and Major Alfred Mordecai, the West Point
graduate who had commanded the arsenal at Washington, D.C. during the
Mexican-American War gave birth to Mordecai Gratz the husband of Frances
Kingsland Gifford and author whose works included “Notice of Jacob Mordecai,
Found and Proprietor From 1809 to 1818 of the Warrenton, NC Female Seminary” and
A Report on the Terminal Facilities for Handling Freight of the Railroads
Entering the Port of New York: Especially of Those Railroads Having Direct
Western Connections
1851:
In Baltimore, MD, Members of the Kaschurn Lodge, No. 3, a Jewish fraternal
organization, met with Lajos Kossuth, the exiled Hungarian leader. They gave him seventy-five dollars. They also gave him three banners. The largest one had three full length
pictures of Moses, Washington and Kossuth.
Moses represented Asia; Washington represented America and Kossuth
represented Europe. The two smaller
banners contained the statement, in both Hebrew and English, “Thy enemies shall
come against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. In thee shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed.”
1852:
Benjamin Disraeli finished serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He will be replaced by Gladstone. This is the first of three times that
Disraeli will hold this office in the English government.
1852(6th
of Tevet, 5613): Jacob Prince was buried in the “Lauriston Road Jewish
Cemetery” after he has passed away today.
1854(26th
of Kislev, 5615): Second Day of Chanukah celebrated as America feels the full
effects of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
1857(30th
of Kislev, 5618): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth day of Chanukah
1857:
Iranistan, a Moorish Revival mansion in Bridgeport, Connecticut designed by the
Austrian American architect Leopold Eidlitz caught on fire tonight.
1859(21st
of Kislev, 5620): Parashat Vayeshev
1859:
British political leader Henry Fitzroy, the husband of Hannah Rothschild and
the son-in-law of Nathan Mayer Rothschild passed away.
1859:
During his sermon at the Greene Street Synagogue, Rabbi Raphall delivered “a
fervent appeal on behalf” of the Jews who had been forced to seek refuge at
Gibraltar because of the war between Spain and Morocco. The Jews fled because of their justified fear
of attacks by the enraged native population.
Several thousand had been forced to leave all of their possessions
behind and were now living in tents provided by the British colonial government
and eating food provided by funds from the Jews of England. The congregation responded by immediately
raising several hundred dollars to aid their suffering co-religionists.
1859:
It was reported today that “From Austria, amid the echoes of Hungarian
dissatisfaction, and Tyrolese boldness, come the reports of promised reform. It
is stated as a certain fact that in a few days the Emperor will issue a decree,
relieving the Jews from many disabilities under which they now lie. The law
which forbade a Jew to have a Christian servant is already repealed; and the
emancipated Israelite can now rejoice in the possession of a cook who hasn’t a
conscientious objection to getting up and making a fire, of a Saturday morning.
The expected decree will abolish the old law, by which no one of the three
witnesses required for a Christian’s will could be a Jew — a blind provision,
which has been the source of more trouble to Christians than Jews. Then the
rule, still on the statute-books in Austria, that a Jew’s evidence in a civil
case against a Christian should be considered as “doubtful,” will be
done away; as also the present prohibition, which prevents any but a Christian
from filling the office of Notary. This last provision is no older than 1855.
Before that year Jews were allowed to be Notaries, and it is said that there is
a Jewish Notary in Prague, who was appointed under the old law, and holds his
office still. It is proper that the Government should concede these rights to
an oppressed class; but one cannot but notice how, through these reforms, it
hopes to escape more pressing and important demands from its subjects. Hungary
demands her constitutional rights, and the Emperor grants a couple of reforms
to Venice. Tyrol desires her ancient and guaranteed privileges, and he
emancipates the Jews at Prague! No matter — the day is coming.
1860(4th
of Tevet, 5654): Seventy-year-old Hanna Bodenheimer, the widow of Emanuel
Bodenheimer passed away today after which she was at the Durbach Jewish
Cemetery in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
1860(4th
of Tevet, 5654): Seventy-nine-year-old Bella Seixas, the Newport, RI born
daughter o Johabed Levy and Moses Mendes Seixas passed away today.
1860:
In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Henry S. Jacob officiated at the weeding of Daniel S.
Hart and Priscilla Lopez, “the only daughter of David Lopez.”
1860:
“Affairs in France” published today described the conflict between the French
Empress and Achille Fould, the Jewish financier and political leader whom she
used to value as an advisor. The Empress
has changed her view of Fould due to the influence of the Catholic clergy. Fould is not bothered by the possible loss of
the Pope’s temporal power while the clergy and the Empress are greatly
distressed by such a possibility. It is rumored that the Empress has said she
will not return from England until Fould has been dismissed from office.
1861:
In Iowa, Jacob Lehman who would be wounded at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862,
enlisted today in Company D of the 16th Infantry Regiment.
1862(25th
of Kislev, 5623): Chanukah
1862:
Birthdate of Bagdad native Madelien Ellis, the wife of Ellis Ezekiel Isaac
Ellis, who, like her husband would be buried in China.
1862:
Birthdate of Moriz Reosenthal, the native of Lemberg who became a world
renowned pianist and composer.
https://www.amazon.com/Moriz-Rosenthal-Word-Music-Nineteenth/dp/0253346606
1862: General Grant, in issuing his infamous
Order 11, ordered all “Jews as a class” expelled from his lines. In
marched in protest against his decision.
rescinded his order. Grant never
explained the order. Grant had shown
something of a nativist streak in the 1850’s when he reportedly supported the
Know Nothing Party. As President, Grant
maintained cordial relations with Jewish leaders. After leaving the Presidency, Grant lent his
name to petitions protesting the treatment of Russian Jews and he made a
contribution to the newly formed Adas Israel Congregation in its formative
years! (For more see When General Grant Expelled the Jews by Jonathan D.
Sarna , a “must read” and Jews and the Civil War edited by Johnathan
Sarna and Adam Mendelsohn)
1863:
Eleven year old Frederic Hymen Cowen gave “his first genuine public recital at
the Bijou Theatre of the old Her Majesty’s Opera House.
1864(18th
of Kislev, 5625): Parashat Vayishlach
1864: La
belle Hélène (The Beautiful Helen), an operetta by Jacques Offenbach to
an original French libretto co-authored Ludovic Halévy “was first performed at
Paris’s Théâtre des Variétés” today.
1865(29th
of Kislev, 5626): Fifth day of Chanukah
1868:
Three days after he has passed away, Joshua Israel Brandon, the son of Abraham
Israel Brandon and Emily Ascoli and the husband of Jesse De Symons, was buried
today as the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1870:
This evening will mark the close of the Hebrew Fair which has been held for
several days at the 22nd Regiment Armory in New York City.
1871:
Birthdate of Lazarus Goldschmidt, the Lithuanian trained Rabbi who “in 1888
went to Germy and in 1890 entered the /Berlin University…where he devoted
himself to the sudsy of Oriental languages” with an emphasis on “Ethiopic.”
1872:
In Lebro, Sweden, “architect Emil Victor Langlet and his wife author Clara
Mathilda Ulrika Clementine Söderén” gave birth to Swedish publish Valdemar
Langlet, who along with his Nina Borovko-Langlet “is credit with saving many Jews”
living in Budapest “from the Holocaust by providing Swedish documents saying
that these people were waiting for Swedish nationality.”
1873:
Birthdate of Vilnius native Hyman Elias Goldstein who gained fame as British
magician Horace Goldin.
https://www.lybrary.com/horace-goldin-m-579495.html
1874:
At today’s meeting of the Board of Alderman in New York, the resolution
submitted a t a previous meeting in favor of permitting the Hebrew Benevolent
Orphan Society to sublet their premises” which is property own by the city “was
called up and laid over.”
1875:
The three men convicted of killing a Jewish peddler named Abraham Weissburg are
scheduled to be executed today in New York.
1875:
It was reported today that in the Hebrew Charity Fair’s contest for most
popular minister Dr. Einhorn is in first place with 43 votes followed by Dr.
Isaacs with 37 votes. This is just part
of the many activities connected with this pre-Chanukah fundraising fair.
1875:
P. Nathan Rubenstein was identified as the man who had bought the knife that
was used in the murder of Sarah Alexander. The same witness said she had not
sold this unique item to Lewis Rubenstein, Nathan’s brother. Both of the young men are Jewish.
1876(1st
of Tevet, 5637): Seventh Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1876:
Today’s edition of The Sunday School Helper focuses on Acts xii. 1-11 which
described how King Herod killed James “and because he saw it pleased the Jews,
he proceeded further to take Peter also.” (Editor’s Note – these depictions of
the evil Jews persecuting Christians provided the soil from which ant-Semitism
has grown.)
1877:
In Germany, Joseph and Rosalie Kahn gave birth to Mollie Kahn who in 1906
became Mollie Kahn Fuchs when she married University of Michigan trained civil engineer
Walter Mortiz Fuchs, the mother Miriam, Elizabeth and Walter Paul Fuchs.
1878(21st
of Kislev, 5639): Fifty-six year old Solomon Eting Cohen, the son of Kitty
Etting and Benjamin I. Cohen who married anna Maria Denny in 1842 and who was
the father of Solomon, Jr., Benjamin, George, Anna Maria and Herbert Cohen
passed away today.
1878:
Garnier and Schaefer were schooled to play tonight at the Hebrew Fair in
Tammany Hill.[ Garnier and Schaefer were locally famous billiard players and
this match must have been part of the fair’s fundraising activities.]
1880:
Ernst Henrici delivered a speech propagating his anti-Semitic ideas at the
Imperial Hall.
1881(25th
of Kislev, 5642): Chanukah
1882:
It was reported today that Herr Belchman has come to the conclusion that there
are both blond- and dark-haired people among the Jews living in Western
Russia. Furthermore, they have “narrower
chests” and “shorter heads” than their non-Jewish counterparts.
1882:
It was reported today that Rabbi Gustav Gottheil had testified before Senators
Boy and Browning who are investigating “corner and futures and the effect… they
have on commerce and public morals.” The Rabbi said he could not speak about
the business aspect of the topic. But as
to the moral implication he cited the Jewish prohibitions against allowing a
man who engaged in gambling to serve as a Judge as a witness. Furthermore, the lure of gambling misled
young man and was comparable to putting a stumbling block before the blind.
1883:
Madame Fanny Janauschek will appear in tonight’s production of “Zillah, the
Hebrew Mother” at the Third Avenue Theatre in New York
1883:
A Jewish peddler named Simon Holzman was assaulted and nearly killed near
Eatontown, NJ.
1885:
Julius C. Koosher, a Russian Jew who came to this country after his business
was destroyed in his native land because of his religion and who worked in the
United States worked as a land agent but was cheated out the money owed to him
by the railroad tycoon Henry Villard, was being held by authorities after
having been arrested yesterday for trying to murder 20 prominent Californians
and blow up Chinatown
1886:
20th of Kislev, 5647): According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, seventy-one-year-old
fighter for Italian independence and member of the Italian Parliament Giuseppe Finzi,
the Mantua born son of Rosa and Abraham Finizi passed away today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6126-finzi-giuseppe
1887(2nd
of Tevet, 5648): Shabbat shel Chanukah; Parashat Miketz
1887:
In Chicago, Charles and Mary Haas, gave birth to Rose Alice Alschuler, the
child educator and Zionist who was the wife of Alfred Samuel Alschuler, Sr.
https://jwa.org/people/alschuler-rose
1887:
Simplicius, a story of the Thirty Years’ War, with a libretto by Victor Léon
was produced at the Theater an der Wien today.
1888:
In Philadelphia, PA, Mat Goldberger went to trail today for the murder last
April of Mrs. Annie Schuleberg
1888:
The Republican Club of 450 5th Avenue blackballed Benjamin F.
Peixotto and James W. Moses this evening
1889(24th
of Kislev, 5650): Kindle the first Chanukah Candle
1889:
Mrs. Martin M. Lewis took a leading part in the activities at today’s Hebrew
Fair.
1889:
A fire broke in a tenement on Eldridge Street that housed several Jewish owned
businesses as well as a synagogue and school used by Jewish immigrants from
Russia.
1889:
Anton Solki, an itinerant Jewish dentist will be arraigned today in Yorkville
for having attacked Dr. C.H. de Lamater, after the latter had treated him for a
dental problem. The accused does not
remember the attack and can give no reason for having done what he is accused
of doing.
1890(6th
of Tevet, 5651): English writer Philip Abraham, the husband of Harriet Boss and
the father of opera singer Leonora Braham who was Headmaster at the National Hebrew
School in Birmingham whose works included The Autobiography of a Jewish Gentleman
and Autumn Gatherings passed away today in London after which he was buried at
the Balls Pond Road Cemetery.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/550-abraham-philip
1890:
The Auxiliary Society of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society is scheduled to
host a reception at Terrace Garden this evening.
1891:
“Under Cover Of Her Child’s Right” published today described the case of Hannah
Bocks a Russian Jewess who will be allowed to stay in the United States because
her child was born here and “the law will not permit her to be separated from
her child” who is an American by birth.
1891:
Alexander Becce, a Russian Jew living in San Antonio, TX filed suit today in
Federal court against the Hamburg-American Packet Company for $5,000 in damages
after the company refused to honor the tickets it had sold him or to refund his
money.
1891(16th
of Kislev, 5652): Benedict Zuckermann, an observant German-Jewish mathematician
and astronomer passed away today. He was
a colleague of Henrich Graetz and a supporter of Zacharis Frankel.
1892(28th
of Kislev, 5663): Parashat Miketz; Fourth Day of Chanukah
1892:
Birthdate of American biochemist Edwin Cohn.
In
1940 the hard-driving Harvard biochemist Edwin Cohn broke plasma down into its
different proteins — and saved millions of soldiers’ lives Most
fatalities in World War I occurred not from the direct physical damage of
bullet wounds but from loss of blood. In the spring of 1940, as another war
seemed inevitable, finding a way to replace lost blood became a medical
priority. Edwin Cohn, a Harvard biochemist, took on the problem of breaking
down blood plasma to isolate a protein called albumin that could be stored for
long periods without spoiling, shipped efficiently and used easily on a
battlefield to save lives. Patriotic blood drives yielded whole blood from
which a small inventory of albumin had been accumulated by
first battlefield setting. Cohn headed
up a government effort to oversee the production of albumin. His work
throughout the war to improve the process and the consequent successes of blood
products on the battlefield were one of the keys to victory for the Americans
in World War II. He passed away in 1953.
1892:
Rabbi David Cahn conducted services this morning as Rodeph Shalom continued the
celebration of its fiftieth anniversary which included a sermon, delivered in
German, by Rabbi Wise entitled “Retrospective Glances” that traced the history
of the congregation
1892:
In an attempt to exercise better control over the Jews, “the Russian Senate has
promulgated a law requiring that Jewish artisans shall only reside in places
where official boards of trade exist.”
1892:
Samuel Muhr a leading Philadelphia Jewish merchant and Mayer Sulzberger a
prominent Jewish Philadelphia lawyer were among the dignitaries who attended a
dinner at the Art Club in Philadelphia honoring the Secretary of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania who was also the Chairman of the National
Democratic Committee.
1892:
The celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of Rodeph
Sholom continues today with services starting at 9:30 a.m.
1893:
Birthdate of German native Erwin Piscator who has been described as one of
the most renowned figures of modern theater famous for his avant-garde
productions at the Epic Theater in Weimar Berlin and his innovative
contributions to the American stage.
1893:
Rabbi Joseph Silverman delivered a sermon on “Shall We Give State Aid to
Denominational Schools?” this morning at Temple Emanu-El
1893:
In “France and Autocracy” published today Gabriel Monod of The Contemporary
Reviews writes “we cannot go on feigning ignorance” of the persecution of the
Jews by the “Russian autocratic government.”
1894:
Birthdate of Arthur Fiedler.
Fiedler gained fame as the conductor of the Boston Pops which he turned
into an American institution. He passed
away in 1979.
1895:
“The Sweat-Shop Problem” published today described the growth of the clothing
industry which “has been built up…largely on the cheap labor of poor Jews who
have sought refuge here from oppression in other countries.
1895:
The New York Life Insurance Company made a donation of $500 to the Hebrew
Educational Fair which was conveyed to Oscar Straus in the form of a check from
its president, John A. McCall.
1895:
Max Schindler was injured today when he tried to stop a fight between Italian
and Jewish pushcart peddlers on Essex Street which was being repaved.
1895:
In Cincinnati, Louis H. and Ada Landman gave birth to Solomon
Landman, the husband of “the former Rita Boehm,” father of Doris, Joan, Louis
and Nathan Landman and graduate of the University Cincinnati and Hebrew College
who began his rabbinic career B’rith Sholom Temple in Springfield, Il, founded
the Hillel Chapter at the University of Wisconsin and was leading Temple Isaiah
in Kew Gardens, Queens at the time of his death.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/05/21/87260846.pdf
1896:
Twenty-four-year-old Louis A. Strauss, the Chicago born son of Abraham and
Ernstina (Leopold) Strauss and holder of Ph.D.
from the University of Michigan where he rose to be the Chairman of the
English Department married Elsa Riegelman today in New York City.
1897:
New Yorkers were contributing to American kolel “incorporated today as ‘The
American Congregation, Pride of Jerusalem.’”
1898(4th
of Tevet, 5659): On his 59th birthday, Liberal MP Ferdinand James
Anselm, Freiherr von Rothschild who had become a British citizen, endowed the
Evelina Hospital for Sick Children in Southwark, south London in memory of his
wife who had died in childbirth and held leadership position in the
Anglo-Jewish community including Warden of the Central Synagogue and Treasurer
of the Jewish Board of Guardians passed away today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Baron_Ferdinand_de_Rothschild.png
1900(25th
of Kislev, 5661): First Chanukah of the 20th century
1900:
Birthdate of Henry Calechman, who would be buried at B’nai Jacob Memorial Park
seventy-seven years later.
1900:
British soldier and diplomat Sir Matthew Nathan began serving as the Governor
of the Gold Coast.
1900:
New buildings were opened on Ellis Island as it returned to operation following
fire which had meant that immigrants, including tens of thousands of Jewish
immigrants, had been processed at the Barge Office.
1901:
Clara and Emil Worms gave birth to Bella Worms who became Bella Adler when she
married Leo Adler with whom she had three children – Milton, Gunther and Greta.
1902(17th
of Kislev, 5663): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of Louis de Carabajal and
his mother Francisca Nuenez “who were burned at the stake in an auto-de-fe in
Mexico City in 1596.
1903 (28th Kislev, 5664): On the fourth day of
Chanukah The Wright Brothers made their first powered and heavier-than-air
flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. According to
some, the success of the Dayton bicycle men was based on early work by Otto
Lielenthal who died during a flight test seven years before. Arthur L.
Welsh, a young Jew from Dayton, was one of the early pilots who were taught to
fly by the Wright brothers. When Welsh died in 1912 during a test flight, he
was the only pilot employed by Wrights who were close friends as well as his
mentors. Finally, Hart O. Berg played a critical role in helping the Wright
Brothers promote their aircraft on their first European tour and his wife was
one of their first, if not the first woman to fly with the Wrights
1904: T.C. Evans reviewed “he
Life of Lord Beaconsfield” by Walter Sichel, a “biographical study of the
remarkable man, wit, statesman, novelist, the celebration of whose centenary is
now at hand.”
1905: “After weeks of anxious
waiting the national committee which is raising the relief fund for the victims
of the Russian massacres” today received from “Sir Samuel Montague and Lord
Rothschild the first reports concerning the distribution of the $1,000,000
already sent” from the United States and Jews in western Europe.
1905: It was reported today the
relief fund for the Jews suffering from the massacres in Russia totaled
$1,172,639 including $424 from the “Orthodox Hebrews of Jacksonville, Fla.”
1905: A map published today
“shows at a glance where…massacres of the Jews have occurred “in Russia.
1906(30th of Kislev,
5667): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1906: Oscar Straus became the
third U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Labor.
1906: It was reported today that
as part of the Czar’s crackdown on revolutionaries, in Ceznestochowa, a Polish
town with “a population of about 50,000, including many Jews” “seven so-called
terrorists have been by tried by drumhead courts-martial and executed during
the last two weeks.”
1907: Thirty-one-year-old Armour
Institute of Technology trained architect, Alfred Samuel Alschuler, the Chicago
born son of Samuel and Fannie Alschuler “who was the first architect to used
reinforced concrete in the City of Chicago” and who was a member of North Shore
Temple Israel married Rose Haas today.
1907: Over one hundred people who
had received invitations from Mrs. Samuel Guggenheim, Mrs. Solomon Schecther,
Rabbi J.L. Magnes, Jacob Feschwar, Louis Loeb and Bernard G. Richard attended a
meeting tonight at Temple Beth-El where it was decided to form a Society of
Jewish Art the purposed of “will be the promotion of all forms of Jewish art.
1908: it was reported today that
Oscar S. Straus, the Secretary of Commerce and Labor was among those seated at
“the President’s Table” at the Twenty-third Annual Banquet of the Society of
New York which was also attended by Otto Kahn and Daniel Guggenheim.
1909: Muslims in Tunis protested
when Jews were going to be put under French jurisdiction. Muslims stated that
this was discriminatory and a violation of treaties, even though it was the
Muslims the French were going to protect the Jews from.
1910(16th of Kislev,
5671): Parashat Vayislach
1910: Dr. H. Pereira Mendes, the
rabbi of the Synagogue of Spanish and Portuguese Jews is seriously ill at him having
developed blood clots in his legs.
1910: According to a report today
from St. Petersburg, “forty Jewish families will be expelled from Moscow on
January 14” because “they do not come with the provisions of the new law
recently passed by the Czar permitting Jewish merchants of the first guild and
their families to reside in the city and province of Moscow.”
1911(26th of Kislev,
5672): Second Day of Chanukah
1911: Rabbi Joseph Silverman
delivered an address at Temple Eman-El today in the wake of the abrogation by
the United States of the Treaty of 1832 with Russia which subjected Jewish
Americans visiting Russia to the same discriminatory laws to which Russian Jews
were subjected.
1911: “A bronze memorial tablet
to the late Abraham Abraham, the Brooklyn merchant and philanthropist, was
unveiled today at the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum at the close of the annual
meeting.
1912: In Chicago, Sinai Temple is
scheduled to host the Chicago Woman’s Aid for Opera Day this afternoon.
1912: The funeral for Ernest J.D.
Rappaport, the eighteen year old son of Rabbi and Mrs. Julius Rappaport is
scheduled to take place this afternoon.
1913: Birthdate of American businessman
Sol Linowitz who served as Chairman of the Board of Xerox Corp and negotiated
the return of the Panama Canal.
1913: It was reported today that
Judge Leonard S. Roan who had presided over the original Leo Frank trial and
refused to grant a new trial “said that he personally was not absolutely
convinced of the accused’s guilt or innocence.”
1914(29th of Kislev,
5675): Fifth day of Chanukah
1914: Tulane Medical School
graduate Dr. Sidney K. Simon, the New Orleans born son of Charles and Dora
(Kohn) Simon and Professor of Gastroenterology married Emma Roos Dreyfous today
in New Orleans.
1914: At Clark University, the
school’s president gave the after-dinner address at the first banquet of the
Menorah Society.
1914: “Albert Lucas, Secretary of
the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America announced today that he
had received a letter from the Secretary of the Jews’ Temporary Shelter in
London saying ‘If you can see your way of further assisting us in our extremely
heavy outlay by making a grant to our funds you can be sure that the money will
be put to the best possible purpose, especially for food and lodging for the
Yiddish-speaking and refugees from Belgium.’”
1914: It was reported today that
Senator Ellison Smith the South Carolina bigot and racist who was Chairman of
the Committee on Immigration expressed his opposition to any change to the
immigration laws that might be of benefit of Jews Russia.
1914: In New York, Herbert L.
Satterlee “announced that he had completed arrangements with Felix Warburg who
was at the head of the committee for the relief of the Jews in Poland, whereby
the Polish American Relief Committee and the Polish American Relief Committee
and Mr. Warburg’s committee would work in unison in relieving the distress of
the Poles.”
1914: The Turks expelled the Jews of Tel Aviv,
sending them to Egypt Russia Turkey
enemies during World War I, the Turks saw these Russian Jews as potential enemy
agents or worse.
1914: This “afternoon Bedouin
police raided the Ghetto at Jaffa, arrested 1,600 persons and drove them at the
point of the bayonet” While being forced aboard the already overcrowded Florio,
“sever of the men resenting the brutalities to their wives were thrown
overboard by boatmen and drowned before the eyes of the women.” (Editor’s note
– these Jews were transported to Alexandria where they found temporary refuge
at the Hotel Metropole)
1915(10th of Tevet,
5676): Asara B’Tevet
1915(10th of Tevet,
5676): Seventy-one-year-old Imperial Councilor Adolf Schrmack passed away today
in Vienna.
1915: Today “The National
Workmen’s Committee on Jewish Rights, a body representing 500,000 Jewish
workers organized ‘to assist in obtaining rights for Jews in countries of the
present war zone where they are deprived of their rights,’ received a letter
…from Samuel Gompers which included a set of resolutions adopted by the
American Federation of Labor at its recent convention in San Francisco in which
the federation took steps to co-operate with the committee.”
1916: “The Joint Distribution
Committee which is led by Chairman Felix M. Warburg and Treasurer Herbert H.
Lehman continued to receive “large contributions from all parts of the country”
including $5,500 from the Baltimore Committee and $2,000 from the Omaha
Committee.
1916: It was reported today that
the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War of which
Harry Fischel is the Treasurer received $225 from the committee in Sioux City,
Iowa, $124 from Rokeach and Sons and $35 from the committee in Marshalltown,
Iowa.
1916: At tonight’s annual meet of
the Brooklyn Federated Jewish Charities, Edward Lazansky the former Secretary
of the State for New York was President of the organization succeeding Benjamin
H. Namm who had held the job for the past four years.
1916: Tonight, “a recommendation
that the Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis representing more than 1,000,000
Jewish in the Eastern and New England States, officially indorse the German
peace proposals and a pleas that a federation of synagogues be formed at once
to check the spread of Jewish religious indifference were made…by Rabbi Joseph
Silverman at Temple Emanu-El in his Presidential message to eighty rabbis
assembled for the Autumn conference of the council” which was chaired by
Justice Irving Lehman.
1916: Today, 750 people heard a
sermon delivered by Rabbi Jesse Bienfeld at the dedication of “Judah Halevi
Temple, a $30,000 white brick structure at 106th Street and Morris
Avenue” which was atteneded by Judge Otto Rosalsky and Charles Eno.
1916: Felix M. Warburg, the
President of the Manhattan Federated Jewish Charities and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise
expressed their support for the “amalgamation” of the Brooklyn and Manhattan
federations.
1917(2nd of Tevet, 5678): Eighth
Day of Chanukah
1917(2nd of Tevet,
5678): Sixty-four-year-old Julia Matilda Cohen, the daughter of Jacob and
Matilda Waley and the wife of Nathaniel Cohen who was the longtime president of
the Union of Jewish Women and author whose works included The Children’s Prayer
Book…with a Prayer Book for Home Use in Jewish Families, Infants’ Bible Reader
and Addresses to Children, passed away today.
1917(2nd of Tevet, 5678): Thirty-six-year-old
Dov Ber Borochov, one of the founding fathers of the
Labor Zionist movement, passed away.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Borokhov_Ber
http://streetsofisrael.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-dovberborochov/
http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/this-day-in-jewish-history-a-great-zionist-mind-dies-young.premium-1.485342?trailingPath=2.169%2C2.216%2C2.221%2C2.489%2C
1917: Birthdate of Jacob Landau,
the native of Philadelphia who gained fame as an artist “known for his
evocative works on the human condition and whose works can be found in in the
permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Library of
Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, and the National Gallery.
https://www.davidsongalleries.com/collections/jacob-landau
1917: A newly independent Finland
moved to make Jews full-fledged today when “Parliament approved an act
concerning ‘Mosaic Confessors’” that made Jews “Finnish nationals.”
1917: “According to the
Messaggero, the Pope has addressed a circular to all Bishops in the belligerent
countries declaring that if any Christian State aids the Turks in an attempt to
retake Jerusalem it will be condemned by the Hoy See.”
1918(14th of Tevet,
5679): Vilna born “Rabbi Isaac Zev Vendrovksky, the author of many works on
Jewish law and literature” who in 1895 “went to South America where he was
placed in charge of a division of the Baron de Hirsch colonies” before moving
to New York in 1900 where became “consulting editor for religious work on the
Jewish Daily News” passed away today.
1918: Release date for “Carmen” a
1918 German silent drama film directed by Ernst Lubitsch
1919(25th of Kislev,
5680): Chanukah
1919: In Berlin, “the government
is taking measures to prevent any violent outbreak of anti-Semitism” which are
opposed by “the Pan German press.”
1920: It was reported today ant one-eighth
of the 2,000 students attending the University of Chicago are Jewish.
1920(6th of Tevet,
5681): Seventy-five year old Louise Herschman Mannheimer, the Prague born
daughter Joseph Hershman and Katherine Urbach and wife of Professor Sigmund
Mannheimer who gained fame as the
author, contralto and “founder of the Cincinnati Jewish Industrial School for
Boys while raising Eugene, Leo, Jennie and Edna Mannheimer
1921(16th of Kislev,
5682): Parashat Miketz
1921: In Chicago, Morton David
Cahn, the son of Joseph and Miriam Cahn, and Julia Elizabeth Cahn gave birth to
Alan Hofeller Cahn.
1921: Nathan Weiner, the Russian
born son of Rebecca Selzer and Samuel Weiner, the Columbia School of Pharmacy
graduate who in 1907 came to the United States where he was member of the ZOA
and Chevra Anshe Mir and who in 1921 went into the dress manufacturing business
married Rebeca Polovnick today.
1922(27th of Kislev,
5683: Third Day of Chanukah
1922: In “Blindness Waning in
Palestine” published today Rabbi Stephen S. Wise described how the British,
with the help of the Hadassah society have successful waged war against
trachoma.
1923: Early in his career, Sid
Terris fought a future Lightweight Boxing Champion “to a ten round draw at
Madison Square Garden” in New York City.
1924: Birthdate of Yohai Ben-Nun,
the sixth commander of the Israeli Navy.
1924: In Krefeld, Germany,
women’s department store owner Eugene Frank and classical singer Luise
(Wallerstein) Franks gave birth Sosanna Frank who gained fame as Susan Feingold
whose “Bloomingdale Family Program provided preschoolers with a haven” and which
became a model for the Head Start Program. (As reported by Alex Vadukul)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/education/susan-feingold-dead.html
1925: Having been appointed by President
Coolidge “to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of New York” Grover M. Moscowitz, the Hot Springs, AR born son of
Bertha Less and Morris Moscowitz and the husband of Miriam Greenbaum awaited
confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
1925: “An important discovery was
made near Jaffa” when “archaeologist unearthed a mausoleum containing a hall,
two chambers and a small niche
1926: “Dig Up Jerusalem Walls”
published today described the ongoing excavation of “the course of the third
wall of the City of Jerusalem” “undertaken by the Hebrew University and the
Jewish Archaeological Society under the supervision of Dr. Sukenik.”
1927(23rd of Kislev,
5658): Parashat Vayeshev
1927: “The Spider,” for which
Alex Yokel served as General Press Representative was performed for the last
time on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre.
1927: It was reported today that
Rabbi Edward Lissman of the Riverside Synagogue has said that “Christianity and
Judaism traditionally run parallel in the latitudes of human experience and if
the ethics of civilization are to be save, let the ideals of the two beliefs
predominate in the interests of perpetual righteousness.”
1927: “Abraham Krotoshinsky, the
savior of the “Lost Battalion,” who won many war medals, has become a
postal clerk in the New York postoffice through an Executive order issued today
by President Coolidge waiving civil service status.”19
1927: Final performance of “The
Spider” at the Music Box Theatre which was
owned and operatied by Sam Harris and Irving Berlin and was leased by
Schubert Organization and for which Alex Yokel served as “General Press
Representative.
1928: Aaron Copland was part of a
group participating in a musical event at the New School for Social Work today.
1928: New York Municipal Court
Justice Panken presided over a meeting of the American Ort tonight at the
Pennsylvania Hotel where he said today “anti-Semitism runs rampant” in Russia
and Nathan Chanin of the Jewish Socialist Federation said, “Jewish children
were discriminated against in Russian vocational schools” while “Jews were
prohibited from buying food in the Soviet cooperatives” which meant they “were
obliged to deal directly with farmers who exacted exorbitant prices.”
1929: In New
York City, Oliver C. and Ida Panish Safir gave birth to William Safire. Unique among the Jews of his generation,
Safire was a conservative Republican who was a speech writer for President
Nixon. He spent almost three decades as
a political columnist for The New York
Times.
1929: In Pensacola, FL, the two-story brick building
on East Chase Street which was the home to Temple Beth El whose original
building had burned down in 1895 was struck by a devastating fire that “almost
completely destroyed the structure.”
1930: “The recent charge by the Hitlerite organ in
Berlin, the Voelkische Boebachter that 80 percent of the judges in
Chicago were Jews was refuted by figures obtain today in Chicago which showed
that only 13 of the 100 jurists in all courts are Jews.
1930: According to reports published today, Arabs
have failed to stop Jewish settlers from plowing their land at Hedera after
they lost a lawsuit designed to keep the land from the Jews. After the police intervened, the Arabs agreed
to await the outcome of the appeal before taking any further action. The Arabs said that they understood the
recently issued White Paper to mean that all land in Palestine belonged to
them.
1931: “Tonight or Never,” a comedy directed by
Mervyn LeRoy, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, with music by Alfred Newman and
co-starring Melvyn Douglas was released in the United States today.
1931: In Manhattan, Blanche and Milton Frankfurt
gave birth to Stephen Owen Frankfurt “an advertising executive who helped lead
the transformation of television commercials from straightforward sales pitches
in the 1950s to sophisticated, art-designed productions” (As reported by Leslie
Kaufman)
1931: The meeting of the World Islamic conference
came to an end in
the al-Aksa Mosque as a first step to undermining efforts of the Zionists to
live peacefully side by side with their Arab neighbors.
1932:
In response “to an inquiry by Paul Felix Warburg and Ira M. Younker, chairmen
of the campaign of the Federation of the Support of Jewish Philanthropic
Societies,” Dr. Shirley W. Wynne “warned today that epidemics and ill health
surely would result from prolonged malnutrition.”
1932:
In Warsaw, the Bund continues its three-day celebration of the jubilee
celebrating its 35 years of existence.
1933: In today’s Advent sermon Michael von
Faulhaber, the Cardinal Archbishop of Munich “spoke to the “People of
Israel” about the “Old Testament” and declared “This
treasure did not grow in your own garden… this condemnation of usurious
land-grabbing; this war against the oppression of the farmer by debt, this
prohibition of usury, is certainly not the product of your spirit!”.
(Editor’s Note: Guenter Lewy concludes: “It, therefore, is little short of
falsification of history when Faulhaber’s sermons in 1933 are hailed by one
recent Catholic writer [Yves Congar] as a ‘condemnation of the persecution of
Jews)
1934:
In Chicago Samuel Petlin, who went from being a cantor to Poland to working in
a cleaning plant in the United States and “Rose (Cohen) Petlin” gave birth to
painter Irving Petlin who lost at least 49 members of his family in the
Holocaust. (As reported by Richard Sanomir)
1935:
Based on votes counted so far, Meier Dizengoff trails Laborite Joseph Aronowitz
in the Tel Aviv mayoral election held on Sunday.
1936:
Governor Herbert H. Lehman is scheduled to deliver the opening address at the
Jewish Theological Seminary in what will be the first in a series of programs
designed to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the institution.
1936:
The death of Aaron Solomon Bakestein, a New York City rabbi was “announced”
today.
1937:
Temple
Shaaray Tefila began a weekend of services dedicating their reconstructed
sanctuary. The Temple had been the victim of an arsonist’s fire in March
necessitating this rebuilding project.
1937:
The Palestine Post reported that
three Arabs were killed when British troops and police fought a large Arab gang
near Tulkarm.
1937:
The Palestine Post reported that a
Jewish boy of 16 was killed when a Polish hooligan shot him and threw a bomb at
a shop in the village of Czarna, near Warsaw, completely demolishing it. Polish
officials were reported to be planning to deport, with French approval, some 30,000
Jewish families, 120,000 persons to
years. France demanded that the refugees be supplied with sufficient capital to
make their planned farms profitable.
1938:
After almost two weeks of terrorist activities in Haifa during which three
Arabs and four Jews have been killed, Haifa enjoyed a third day “of
tranquility.”
1939(5th
of Tevet, 5700): Fifty-seven-year-old Congressman William Irving Sirovich
passed away today.
http://history.house.gov/People/Detail/21701
1940:
Thanks to the efforts of Marge Iverson, the wife of Phillip Iverson, The St,
Johnsbury Jewish Woman’s Club held its first meeting in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.
1940: Drunken SS guards at the
Sachsenhausen labor camp awaken Jews during a frigid night and order them to
roll in the snow.
1941(27th
of Kislev, 5702): Third Day of Chanukah
1941:
Fifty-six-year-old Oskar Blumentahl was transported today from Prague to
Terezin, the first step on a journey that would lead to his murder in the first
month of the New Year.
1941:
Presidential Executive Order 8982 created the Board of Economic Warfare among
whose employees was Raphael Lemkin the Polish lawyer who created the term
“genocide” in 1944.
1941:
The slaughter of the Jews of Skede, which began on December 15, came to an end.
German security police and Latvian police marched almost three thousand Jews to
a ditch, forced them to strip and then shot them in groups of ten. For those who doubt the truth, Yad Vashem has
a photograph that was taken by one of the German or Latvian killers.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/december/06.asp
1941:
German Christian church leaders of Saxony, Nassau-Hesse, Mecklenburg,
Schleswig-Holstei, Anhalt, Thuringia and Lubeck announced that the “severest
measures” should be taken against the Jews, who should be expelled from German
territories.
1941(27th of Kislev, 5702): Dr. David
Dubslo and two of his colleagues died of spotted typhus while treating Gypsies
who had been sent to the
ghetto. The Gypsies lived in a special section of the ghetto
and had no doctors of their own.
1942:
Celebration of the 80th birthday of Moriz Rosenthal.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9C0CE2D6173FE33BBC4B52DFB4678389659EDE
1942:
“Random Harvest,” the film version of the novel with the same name directed by
Mervyn LeRoy, with a screenplay co-authored by George Foreschel and filmed by
Joseph Ruttenberg was released today United States.
1942:
Dr. Samuel Goldenson is scheduled to officiate at the funeral services for
David M. Bressler at Temple Emanu-El
1942:
The Yishuv announces a 30-day period of mourning to commemorate the tragedy of
the Jews in
1942: Pressure from members of
Parliament, from Jewish groups in
from the British press, and from the Polish government-in-exile persuades the
Allied governments to publish their first official recognition of atrocities in
The Allied nations–
Britain
Committee–officially condemn the Nazis’ “bestial policy of cold-blooded
extermination.” They vow to punish those responsible. Several U.S. State
Department officials try to block this declaration. All previous and following
declarations neglect to mention Jews.
1942: Accepting the United States
government’s position that the Jews being massacred by the Germans can be
helped only by a total and unconditional Allied victory over Germany, the
American press continues to treat the Holocaust as just another war story and
is unwilling to discuss the systematic annihilation of the Jews. Given the
Allied governments’ knowledge of the Holocaust at this time, waiting until the
Allied Armed Forces have achieved a total victory over the Germans indicates
that the Allied governments have accepted the probability that the majority of
European Jews will be killed before the Germans can be stopped.
1942: Jewish inmates at the labor
camp at
Six prisoners are killed and four escape.
1942: The Allies
issued a statement saying Jews were being taken to tBirkenau, the part of
Auschwitz devoted to extermination and killed.
1943
Sixty-year-old German actress who was forced to divorce her Jewish husband
actor Fritz Spira by the Nazis and was the mother of Camilla Spira whom she
saved from the Weterbork transit camp (a first stop on the trip to death in the
East) and actress Steffie Spira passed away soon after hearing that Fritz had
died in a concentration camp in Yugoslavia.
1943: Transport 63 departed with a cargo
of French Jews being sent to Nazi-Germany
1943: Jews are executed at
as reprisal for an escape of several Jews from the ghetto.
1943:
Birthdate of Barbara Berman who as Barbara Berman Dobkin, the wife of Eric
Dobkin became “the pre-eminent Jewish feminist philanthropist of the end of the
twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century.”
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/dobkin-barbara
1944(1st
of Tevet, 5705): Rosh Chodesh Tevet coincides with the 2nd day of
the Battle of the Bulge.
1944:
On the second day of the Battle of the Bulge Sergeant Roddie Edmonds who
refused to tell the Germans which of his troops were Jewish saying definitely
that “We are all Jews here” ate his last meal.
1945(13th
of Tevet, 5706): Eighty-year-old music publisher, Edward Bennet Marks, the son
of Bennet and Pauline (Spero) Marks, the husband of Miriam Chuck with whom he
had three children who was a “member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s
Council for Coordination Industry” and the President of the highly successful
Edward B Marks Music Corporation whose works included “Kaddish of My Ancestry”
passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/12/18/88322520.pdf
1945:
U.S. Senate votes for Wagner-Taft resolution calling for free entry of Jews
into Palestine and establishment of Jewish commonwealth. Wagner is Senator
Robert Wagner, a New York liberal Democrat. Taft is Senator Robert Taft a
conservative Republican from Ohio. This
shows the bipartisan support the measure had.
1945:
Birthdate of Novisibrsk native Ariye (Arik) Paz (Feingold) who parents Zelda
and Simcha immigrated to Israel in 1948 where he served on the Submarine Dakar
which was lost on January 25, 1968 at the age of 22.
1946:
With the assistance of Rabbi Louis Gerstein, Rabbi David de Sola Pool of the
Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue conducted the funeral service for 84-year-old
“American social worker, labor activist and suffragist” Maud Nathan whose
prominent relations included Emma Lazarus and Justice Benjamin Cardozo”
followed by a burial at the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Queens.
1946:
Sylvia Fine and Danny Kaye gave birth to their daughter Dena, https://parade.com/234327/scottneumyer/dena-kaye-remembers-her-father-during-danny-kayes-centennial-celebration/
1946:
Land purchases and budgetary matters were discussed at a meeting of the World
Zionist Congress.
1946: Birthdate of Hamilton, Canada native Eugene
Levy the writer and comedic actor is best known to Americans for his role
in “American Pie.”
1947:
Birthdate of Russian violinist Zakhar Bron.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_and_Out_in_Beverly_Hills
1947:
Dorothy Fuldheim became television’s first female news anchor.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/17/1947/dorothy-fuldheim-becomes-televisions-first-female-news-anchor
1947:
Birthdate of Eddie Antar who was the cofounder of the electronics retail chain
Crazy Eddie, Inc. He fled to Israel in February 1990 to avoid. Later, he was
extradited and convicted of securities fraud and racketeering.
1947:
Birthdate of New York City native and holder of Ph.D. in linguistics from
Harvard, Alan Jeffrey “Jerry” Nussbaum, the professor of Indo-European
linguistics, and the Greek and Latin languages at Cornell University and
husband of philosopher Professor Martha Nussbaum.
1947:
In the face of mounting violence and fearing that worse was to come, the Jewish
leaders of Jerusalem opened a blood bank with goal of producing 1000 doses of
plasma.
1947:
The U.S. State Department expressed its fears that the Soviet Union is
supplying arms to both sides of the Palestine conflict.
1947:
The Arab League Council announced it will stop the proposed partition of
Palestine by force and begins raids on the Jewish communities in Palestine.
1947:
The State Department reported that the Arab League Council had begun buying
weapons to implement its policy of thwarting the partition of Palestine.
1947:
Moshe Shertok, Jewish Agency political head, charges that British are obstructing
partition and that British administration does not protect Jews from Arab
attacks, yet they prevent Jews from defending themselves. Dr. Nahum Goldmann,
1947:
The Jewish Agency executive reports Jewish plans for Swiss-like neutrality.
1947:
Pinchas Ben-Porat, a pilot with Sherut Avir, the air arm of Haganah, boarded
his single engine RWD-13 and flew a medical doctor to the small town of Beit
Eshel.
1947:
After completing his flight to Beit Eshel, “Ben-Porat was assigned a support
role to Nevatim, a Jewish settlement in the Negev desert. When Nevatim came
under attack by Arab irregulars, Ben-Porat flew an RWD 13 or Auster to Nevatim.
Upon arriving, he removed the right door of the plane and set up a Bren gun and
gunner with several hand grenades. Ben-Porat and his gunner flew a half-hour of
close air support. The tactic was emulated by many Jewish pilots and crew in
the Israeli War of Independence.” Once he completed that leg of the mission
Ben-Porat was supposed to fly to Nevatim, but learning that 200 Arabs were
assaulting it, he removed the doors of his aircraft to install a Bren Gun, and
with a volunteer gunner and some hand grenades, took off for the village.
1948:
Four thousand, one hundred Jews set sail from Yugoslavia for Israel.
1949:
Today marked the final performance of the original Broadway production of
“Regina” a Mrc Blitzstein opera based Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes”
conducted by Maurice Abravanel, choreographed by Anna Sokolow and starring
Brenda Lewis “Birdie.”
1950:
Actress Ruth Roman, the daughter of Lithuanian-Jewish parents, married Mortimer
Hall.
1951:
In Chicago, Bernard Meltzer, “a former prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes
trials” and his wife gave birth to Daniel Julius Meltzer, the Harvard Law
School Professor who was an adviser to President Obama.
1952: According
to a report issued today by Moshe Kol, co-treasurer of the Jewish Agency for
Palestine, and chairman of the Youth Aliyah management committee in Israel
twenty million dollars has been expended by Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist
Organization of America, on its Youth Aliyah (youth immigration) activities in
Israel in the last eighteen and a half years.
1952:
The Jerusalem Post reported that the
new Mapai-General Zionists coalition won 73 seats in the Knesset.
1952:
The Jerusalem Post reported that in
19,000 persons, attending the Hanukkah Festival of Lights, at the
purchased $2,575,000 worth of Israel Bonds.
1952:
The Jerusalem Post reported that
officers and men of the Jerusalem Area Police Force contributed IL 136 to the
Post’s Hanukkah Toy Fund, the largest amount given by any organized group of workers
and assisted the newspaper’s volunteers in the distribution of toys and sweets
in the Jerusalem Corridor’s outlying ma’abarot.
1953(11th
of Tevet, 5714): Seventy-four-year-old Carrie Davidson, “a founder of the
National Women’s League of the United Synagogue of America,” “the editor for 24
years of The Women’s League Outlook” and the widow of “Dr. Israel Davidson, the
Professor of Medieval Hebrew Literature at JTS” with whom she raised two
daughters passed away today after a week long illness.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/12/19/83742253.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/davidson-carrie-dreyfuss
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/12/19/83742253.pdf
1955(2nd
of Tevet, 5716): Eighth Day of Chanukah; Parashat Miketz
1955:
This morning, Rabbi Leo Y. Goldman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “When
Dreams Come True” at Northwest Israel Synagogue in Detroit.
1956:
In London, Conservative politician Nigel Lawson, and his first wife socialite
Vanessa Salmon gave birth to journalist Dominic Lawson
1956:
Time magazine “panned” Jewish playwright’s “Night of the Auk”
saying “that a good case of actors…were unhappily squandered on a pudding of a
script…that sounded like cosmic advertising copy.”
1958:
In Cedar Rapids, IA, George and Joyce Skinner gave birth to Kevin Skinner, a
loyal member of Temple Judah.
1959:
“The fourth Knesset started with David Ben-Gurion’s Mapai party forming the
ninth government” today.
1959:
Haim-Moshe
Shapira replaced Israel Bar-Yehuda as Internal Affairs Minister.
1959:
Yisrael
Barzilai completed his term in office as Communications Minister.
1959:
Rabbi Ya’akov Moshe Toledano returned to his position as Minister of Religions.
1959:
Violinist Isaac Stern and his wife gave birth to symphony conductor Michael
Stern.
1960(28th
of Kislev, 5721): Parashat Miketz; Fourth Day of Chanukah
1960(28th
of Kislev, 5721): Fifty-nine-year-old Bella Weretnikow Rosenbaum, the first
Jewish female attorney in the state of Washington, passed away today.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/jun/06/1901/bella-weretnikow
1960:
After 488 performances the curtain came down on “Take Me Long” a musical whose
book was co-authored by Joseph Stein and with lighting by Jean Rosenthal.
1961(10th
of Tevet, 5722) Asara B’Tevet observed for the first time during the Presidency
of John Kennedy.
1962(20th
of Kislev, 5723): Latvian born “Hebrew and Yiddish author,” Simon Gerson
Bernsteinn, the holder of Ph.D. from the University of Berne who came to the
United States in the early 1920’s where he was an active Zionist and a member
of the National Executive Committee of the American Jewish Congress passed away
today in NYC.
1963(1st
of Tevet, 5724): Seventh Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet observed for the
first time during the Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson
1964:
At the Terrace Room of the Plaza, “Rabbi Moshay Mann” officiated at the
marriage Miss Elissa Pamela Landau, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Gustave J. Laudau”
and “Barry Steven Glassman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Glassman.”
1964:
Nobel Prize winner Victor Francis Hess passed away. A native of
his native country because his wife was Jewish.
1964:
Dr.
Luther L. Terry, Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, announced today
the Dr. Stanley F. Yolles, the husband of Dr. Tamarath K. Yoles, has been named
director of the National Institute of Mental Health and Assistant Surgeon
General of the Public Health Service.
1965:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held at the Riverside Memorial Chapel on
Amsterdam Avenue for 60 year old Columbia University trained attorney Thomas
Charnas, “a leader in efforts to ease the problems of the aged” and husband of
Juliette Schoenbrun Charnas with whom he raised two sons – Stephen and Jonathan
– who president of the Hebrew Convalescent Home in the Bronx and “an active
director of Beth Abraham Hospital” which was also located in the Bronx.
1965(23rd
of Kislev, 5726): Seventy-three-year-old Louis Cohen, the acting Postmaster of
the Bronx who made a career as functionary in the Democratic party starting
with Mayoral election of 1913 and the husband of “the former Belle Lazarus and
father of Robert and Joseph Lazarus, passed away today.
1965: Astronomer David H.
Levy began his search for comets.
1966:
“El Dorado” a western co-starring James Caan was released today in Japan.
1966:
Birthdate of Aryeh Judah Schoen Nusbacher, the New York native who “became a
Senior Lecturer at Sandhurst, a captain in the Territorial Guard and Baal Koreh
at the Guilford Synagogue” and who has been Lynette Nusbacher “since her gender
change in 2007.”
1967(15th
of Kislev, 5728): Seventy-nine-year-old University of Berlin trained economist
and health educator Savel Simand the Rumanian born son of Morris and Marie
Kauffman who in 1913 came to the United States where he wrote for the New York
Times, lectured at Yale, Harvard and Columbia while serving as the
“administrative director of the Bellevue-Yorkville Health Demonstration and
director of public education for the New York City Health Department passed
away today,
1968(26th
of Kislev, 5729): Second day of Chanukah
1968:
It was reported today that the announcement of the rescinding of the order of
expulsion of the Jews by Ferdinand and Isabella took on an additional
significance because it also marked “the opening of the first synagogue built
in Spain in 600 years.
1969:
A planned attack by two British national on an El Al plane in London was
“forestalled” today.
1970:
“Alex in Wonderland” a comedy directed and written by Paul Mazursky and
featuring future Oscar winner Michael Lerner was released today in the United
States.
1970(19th
of Kislev, 5731): Seventy-two-year-old Aiken, SC native and University of South
Carolina trained attorney Benet Polikoff, Sr, “a partner in the New York law
firm of Polikoff and Clareman” passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/12/18/archives/benet-polikoff-sr-counsel-to-actors.html
1972:
Release date for “Avanti!” a comedy produced and directed by Billy Wilder with
a screenplay by Billy Wilder and I.A. L. Diamond.
1972:
“The chairman of the Jewish Agency, Louis A. Pincus, said today that this year
56,000 new settlers arrived in Israel, 30,000 of whom came from the Soviet
Union.”
1972:
“The Heartbreak Kid” a comedy directed by Elaine May, written by Neil Simon and
Bruce Jay Friedman and co-starring Charles Grodin and Jeannie Berlin was
released in the United States today.
1973:
Arab terrorist killed 32 passengers when they tried to attack a Pan American
jet at the Rome airport.
1973(22nd
of Kislev, 5734): Ninety-two-year-old Belle May Loewenstein, the Cleveland born
daughter Ameilia and Nahum Hexter and the wife of Moses Lowenstein and Solomon
Emanuel Ullman (not at the same time) passed away today in Richmond, VA.
1973:
At the Rome airport Arab terrorist hijacked a Lufthansa jet and flew to Kuwait
12 live and one dead hostage were released and the Kuwaitis released the
terrorist to the PLO after refusing to extradite them to Italy.
1974(3rd
of Tevet, 5735): Seventy-three-year-old Estonian born award winning of
University of Pennsylvania trained architect Louis Isadore Kahn, passed away
today.
https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/21829
1974:
Birthdate of super chef Duff Goldman.
1974:
Release date for “Front Page,” the cinematic adaptation of Ben Hecht’s play
made possible by the writing team of I.A.L. Diamond and Billy Wilder who also
served as the director, starring Walter Matthau and featuring Harold Gould as
“The Mayor” and Allen Garfield as “Kruger.”
1975:
Irene Shubik produced “Rumpole of the Bailey” broadcast today on “Play for
Today.”
1975:
It was reported today that E. Manning Rubin, a senior vice president of Grey
Advertising has “received the Samuel Dalsimer Human Relations award for his
work in behalf of the A.D.L.”
1976(25th
of Kislev, 5737): First Day Chanukah celebrated for the last time during the
Presidency of Gerald Ford
1977:
“Capricorn One” a Mars based mystery directed by Peter Hyams, with music by
Jerry Goldsmith and starring Elliot Gould was released in Japan today.
1978:
Channel 2 (WCBS) broadcasts “Lamp Unto My Feet – Chanukah in Romania” at ten
o’clock this morning.
1978(17th
of Kislev, 5739): Ninety-two-year-old University of Pittsburgh trained lawyer
Louis Kaplan. the “11th national President of the American Jewish
Committee” passed away today.
1978(17th
of Kislev, 5739: Eighty-year-old Irving Jacobson, a star of the Yiddish theatre
who made the successfully transition to the world of American film and
legitimate theatre passed away today.
1979:
CBS broadcast the first episode of “House Calls,” a sit com that included
Richard Lewis playing Dr. Leon Promethesu.
1980(10th
of Tevet, 5741): Asar B’Tevet
1982:
“Tootsie,” starring Dustin Hoffman, with a script by Larry Gelbart, Murray
Schisgal, Barry Levinson and Elaine May was released today in the United
States.
1982:
In the U.K. and U.S. opening of Frank Oz’s “The Dark Crystal.”
1982:
“Best Friends” with a script by Barry Levinson and co-starring Goldie Hawn and
Ron Silver was released in the United States today by Warner Brothers.
1982:
Israeli born cellist Ofra Harnoy, a winner of the 1982 Concert Artists Guild
Award, made her debut this evening at the Carnegie Recital Hall at the age of
17.
1984:
Three people were injured when terrorists hurled grenades at a Tel Aviv bus
stop.
1985:
Yale Laws School graduate Stanley Sporkin, the Philadelphia born son of the
former Ethel Weiner and Judge Maurice Sporkin, began serving as a Judge of the
United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
1986:
“The Name of the Rose” a medieval murder mystery featuring Ron Perlman as
“Salvatore” and Elya Baskin as “Severinus” was released in France today.
1987:
“Synagogue Looks Back on 125 Years” published today provides a history of the
Wilshire Boulevard Temple Israel “the oldest synagogue in Los Angelese.”
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-12-17-vw-29522-story.html
1988:
Abdeen Jabara, the 45-year-old president of the Arab-American
Anti-Discrimination Committee, an American citizen, was barred from entering
Israel today. According to a spokesman
for the Foreign Ministry the decision was based on Jabara’s record which
includes “activities as a lawyer defending terrorists, attempts to prevent the
collection of money for Israel, trying to legally prevent the entry of Prime
Minister Shamir into the U.S., and an F.B.I. investigation against him.”
1989:
The New York Times reviewed “Birth Power: The Case for Surrogacy” by
Israeli lawyer Carmel Shalev.
1989:
The first episode of “The Simpsons” whose developers included James L. Brooks
and Sam Simon was broadcast today.
1991(10th
of Tevet, 5752): Asara B’Tevet
1992:
As violence from Palestinian terrorist escalated 415 terrorist leaders of Hamas
and Islamic Jihad were flown to Israel’s northern border and deported to
Lebanon.
1992:
At the Apollo Theater in Harlem, another screening of “Liberators,” directed by
Williams Miles and Nina Rosenblum, was held before an audience of 1,200
prominent Jews and blacks, hosted by three influential politicians: Congressman
Charles Rangel, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and Jesse Jackson.
Elie Wiesel, who didn’t appear in the film, sent a videotaped message of
support, and the event was broadcast on WNET. (As reported by Mark Schulte)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/ceremony-marks-20-years-since-oscar-nominated-sham/
1993:
Today Judith Rodin became the first graduate of the University of Pennsylvania
to serve as the president of that school and she became the first woman to
serve as president of an Ivy League university.
1993(3rd
of Tevet, 5754): Fifty-year-old actress Janet Margolin lost her battle with
ovarian cancer and passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/18/obituaries/janet-margolin-film-and-tv-actress-50.html?_r=0
1993:
“Robin Hood: Men in Tights” a comedy directed, produced and written by Mel
Brooks and co-starring Richard Lewis was released in France today.
1994:
In Los Angeles, “jazz pianist Michael Wolff and actress Poll Draper” gave birth
to actor and music Nathaniel Marvin Wolff, the older brother of
singer/songwriter Alex Wolff.
1995(24th
of Kislev, 5756): Kindle the First Chanukah Candle
1995:
“Vatican Reaffirms Its Policy on Jerusalem” published today takes issue with
Leah Rabin’s description of the Pope’s comments about the Israeli capital city.
1995:
The New York Times featured a review of the recently published paperback
edition of Yehoshua Kenaz’s The Way To The Cats, an “Israeli novel that
presents old age with all its ravages” as seen through the life of its
protagonist “Yolanda Moscowitz, 76, who is recuperating from a broken leg in a
rehabilitation center in Tel Aviv, where she hopes that her dignity won’t go
the way of her beauty.
1996(7th
of Tevet, 5757): Song writer Irving Caesar passed away. Born in 1895, he was originally known as
Isidor Caesar. He wrote lyrics for
“Swanee,” “Sometimes I’m Happy,” “Crazy Rhythm,”
and “Tea for Two,” one of the most frequently recorded tunes ever
written.
1996:
“Unlike Agnel” a Christmas made-for-television movie featuring Eli Marienthal
as “Matthew” was broadcast for the first time by CBS.
1997:
“Wag the Dog,” a dark, political satire directed and co-produced by Barry
Levinson, with a screenplay co-authored by David Mamet and starring Dustin
Hoffman premiered today at Century City.
1998(28th
of Kislev, 5759): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1998:
“Parade,”
“a musical with a book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert
Brown” “premiered on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.”
1999:
“Sunshine” a marvelous film that traces a Hungarian Jewish family for five generations
from the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution
began a limited opening in three Canadian cities.
1999:
“Stuart Little” a film version of the novel by the same name directed by Rob
Minkoff was released today in the United States.
2000:
Three days after his death funeral services are scheduled to be held this
morning at the Riverside of seventy-seven-year-old Justine Sable Oppenheim, a
member of Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue
and the husband Joyce Oppenheim with whom he had three children – Janet, Judith
and Jeffrey.
2000:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including Maestro: Greenspan’s Fed and the American Boom
by Bob Woodward, Freud: Darkness
in the Midst of Vision by Louis Breger, Schmidt Delivered by
Holocaust survivor Louis Begley and Sex and Power by Susan Estrich.
2000:
In entitled “A Haunting Legacy in Provence” published today Michael Frank provides
a brief informative view of the history of a French Jewry.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/17/travel/a-haunting-legacy-in-provence.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
2001(2nd of Tevet, 5762):
Ninety-four year old Jeanne Mandello the Jewish photographer who fled from
Germany and France to escape the Nazis and who finally found refuge in Uruguay
passed away today.
http://jeannemandello.com/about-part-10-her-work/
2002:
The money that South African businessman Cyril Kern had lent to the campaign of
Ariel Sharon was returned to him today.
2003:
It was reported today that “Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters” will honor “Mark
Canton with the Sydney J. Rosenberg Lifetime Achievement Award at the 12th
Annual Dinner & Auction Gala” being held at the Century Plaza Hotel next
month.
2004:
“Prime Minister Ariel Sharon struck a deal today with the opposition Labor
Party to join his Likud government, which is likely to ensure that Mr. Sharon
can carry out his plan to dismantle all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip
and four small ones in the West Bank.”
2005:
On SNL, Andy Samberg co-starred in the Digital Short “Lazy Sunday”, a
nerdcore hip hop song performed by two Manhattanites on a quest to see the film
The Chronicles of Narnia.
2006:
Sir Arnold Wesker, the Jewish dramatist was the castaway on Desert Island
Discs, BBC Radio 4
2006:
The Times of London names Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky (translated by Sandra
Smith) as number one on its list of “The Best Books of 2006.” This recently
discovered volume written by a French Jewish author describes life in
early days of World War II. The book was
written as Nemirovsky fled from the Nazis.
She perished in the death camps before she had a chance to complete the
work or edit it.
2006: The Jewish people should develop a long-term
strategic planning mechanism to address the threats that endanger all Jews,
according to recommendations submitted at today’s cabinet meeting. According to
former US envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross “The nature of the threats
to the Jewish people put a premium on better planning,” Ross is chairman
of the board of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, a Jewish Agency
think tank presenting the recommendations to the cabinet in the framework of
its third annual assessment of the state of the Jewish people.
2006: In
WGBH-FM (89.7) airs “Chanukah: A Time for Superheroes” The
radio special is about the connection between superheroes and Judaism. It has
input from Stan Lee, “Spiderman” director Sam Raimi,
Chabon, an author who dissects comics and Judaism in his book “The Amazing
Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.”
2006: The Association for Jewish Studies (AJS)
opened its 38th Annual Conference,
Diego
2006(26th of Kislev, 5767): Dodger Pitcher Larry
Sherry, who with his brother Norm formed the only all brother, all Jewish
battery in baseball history that led a team (the 1959 Dodgers) to a World
Series Championship, passed away.
2007: After only 3 months with the team, punter Josh
Miller was released by the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League.
2007: In
Chase
recent book, Einstein: His Life and
Universe, at the
2007: The
Jerusalem Post reported that for the first time since the 1917
Bolshevik Revolution, a chief rabbinical chaplain is servicing the spiritual and
religious needs of Jewish soldiers in
security services. The position is
currently being filled by thirty-four-year-old Rabbi Aharon Gurevich.
2007: The owners of the
Avenue
officially welcomed hungry patrons to its new address on
Lebewohl, the nephew of its founder, is the new proprietor. Once again, we can
savor the best tongue sandwich and meat knishes in the known world.
2008: “The Wrestler,” a sports movie directed and co-produced by
Darren Aronofsky and with a screenplay by Robert Siegel “was released in a
limited capacity” today in the United States.
2008:
In New York, Chamber Music at the Y features acclaimed Jerusalem born pianist,
Benjamin Hochman
2008: The rocket that shattered
the front windshield of Pinchas Cohen’s bright yellow hatchback this evening
narrowly missed his wife and son..
2008:
Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, announced today that it
had invested $90 million with Bernard Madoff, who has been charged with
securities fraud. This means that “The Madoff Scam” may cost Hadassah the
entire ninety million dollars.
2009:
The Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation and the Potomac Chapter offer a
program entitled “Harry Truman and the Founding of Israel” featuring Allis and
Ronald Radosh, authors of A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of
Israel.
2009(30
Kislev, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Kislev.
2009:
The third annual Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism comes to a close
today in Jerusalem.
2009:
Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, an American lawyer and blogger also known as Samuel
Shamai Leibowitz, who is the grandson of Yeshayahu Leibowitz also known as
Samuel Shamai Leibowitz, “pleaded guilty to knowingly and willfully disclosing
five Secret level FBI documents in April 2009, to a blogger, who then published
information derived from those documents on the blog.”
2009:
Germany announced today that it was donating 87 million dollars to a new
endowment for Auschwitz-Birkenau to preserve barracks, gas chambers and other
evidence of Nazi crimes at the former death camp.
2010(10th
of Tevet, 5771): Yarhtzeit of Judy
Rosenstein (nee Levin)
2010(10th of Tevet,
5771): Fast of the Tenth of Tevet
2010: “A Day in the Warsaw Ghetto: A Birthday Trip in Hell” is
scheduled to open at Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan
2010: A traditional Friday Night Shabbat services with MesorahDC
complete “with soulful melodies, contemporary insights, and stories followed by
a three-course dinner is scheduled to take place at the Historic 6th
& I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.
2010: The Los Angeles Times published David Ulin’s list of
the ten top books of 2010 which included three works by Jewish authors – Almost
Dead by by Assaf Gavron, Freedom by by Jonathan Franzen and The
Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg by Deborah Eisenberg.
2010(10th of Tevet, 5771: Mary Jane “M.J.” Bear, a
journalist and Internet pioneer who built websites around the world, died today
at the age of 48.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/desmoinesregister/obituary.aspx?n=mary-jane-bear-mj&pid=147307984
2010: In “Beneath the Dead Sea, Scientists Are Drilling for
Natural History,” published today, Isabel Kershner, describes how “an an
international team of scientists has been drilling beneath the seabed to
extract a record of climate change and earthquake history stretching back half
a million years.”
2011: “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” is scheduled to be shown at
Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos, CA.
2011: The third weekend of Hamshoushalayim is scheduled to come to
an end.
2011: Havdalah, Board Installation and Centennial are scheduled to
take place this evening at the Union Of Reform Judaism Biennial.
2011: Opening night of the 13th annual Jerusalem Jewish
Film Festival
2012: The Conservative Synagogue of Fifth Avenue is scheduled to
host “Living A Serious Jewish Life” which will examine what it mean to be an
“observant Jew’ using The Observant Life as the basis for the
presentation.
2012: Director Mariano Wainsztein is scheduled to discuss his film
“The Mitzvah makers which premieres tonight at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.
2012: “Jud Süss” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish
Film Festival.
2012: Dorit Beinisch, the first female President of the Supreme
Court of Israel became an Officer at The French “National Order of the
Legion of Honour
2012: A memorial service was held today for director, writer,
actor and impresario Isaiah Sheffer
http://forward.com/articles/167976/isaiah-sheffer-remembered-for-lullaby-voice-and-en/?p=all
2012: Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, the spiritual leader of one of the
largest congregations in London and a former chief rabbi of Ireland, was named
Britain’s chief rabbi-designate today.
2012: The state informed the High Court of Justice today that it will
evacuate the two Jewish families living in four rooms in Hebron’s Beit Ezra
building.
2012: Funeral Services were held today for six-year-old Noah
Pozner, the youngest victim of the slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School
and the only Jew who was killed
2013:
The UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to sponsor a screening of “David”
directed by Joel Fendelman and “Don’t Tell Santa You’re Jewish.”
2013:
Weather permitting, the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to show
“Jews for Sale” which tells the story of “the sale of Jews of Romania to the
State Israel starting with WW II and climaxing during the rule of Nicolai
Ceausescu.
2013:
After having been indicted on charges of “obstruction of justice, child
endangerment, failure to report child abuse and conspiracy” the Dauphin County
Judge ruled that Graham Spanier’s attorneys “would not be allowed to call to
the stand Cynthia Baldwin” the attorney for Penn State who had testified
against him before the Grand Jury as part of a guarantee for immunity. (Spanier
was the child of Holocuast survivors who served as the head of Penn State who
was charged with not fulfilling his duties during the Jerry Sandusky child
molestation investigation.)
2013:
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is due to arrive in Israel tonight for a
high-profile visit, which is expected, for the first time, to focus on
political issues such as Iran and the peace process in addition to efforts to
foster economic cooperation. (As reported by Raphael Ahren)
2013:
Today Shia LaBeouf released his short film Howard Cantour.com to the Internet”
following which “bloggers noted itsclose similarity to Justin M. Damiano, a
2007 comic by Ghost World creator Dan Clowes” which led to charges of
plagiarism.
2013(3rd
of Tevet. 5583): Eighty-year-old Dr. Robert Neuwirth, “a pioneering
gynecologist” passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)
2014:
“Tito’s Glasses” and “Closer to the Moon” are scheduled to be shown at the
Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014(25th
of Kislev, 5775): Chanukah – one hundred years ago Jews in Vienna provided
provisions for Jewish refugees who fled the battlefields held by the Russians
to help them celebrate the holiday.
2014:
“Canada and Australia announced that they would not attend a Geneva Convention
conference hosted by Switzerland on the situation in Gaza, the West Bank, and
East Jerusalem today.’ (As reported by Lazar Berman)
2014:
“O live
oil was used in the Land of Israel as early as 8,000 years ago, archaeologists
working at an antiquities site in the Lower Galilee said today, heralding the
earliest evidence for use of the staple in the country and possibly the entire
Middle East.”
2014:
“American Alan Gross has been released from a Cuban prison after five years, as
part of an agreement that also includes the release of three Cubans jailed in
the United States.”
2015:
The Skirball Center is scheduled to host Jeffery Gorsky, author of Exiles in
Sepharad: The Jewish Millennium in Spain as he talks about “the incredible
arc of the dramatic 1,000-year history of Spanish Jewry.
2015:
Andy Sandberg served as host at the Emmy Awards
2016(17th
of Kislev, 5777): Parashat Vayishlach
2016: The Brotherhood Synagogue is scheduled to
host is “Annual Eyal Vilner Big Band Concert followed by continuous vodka and
latkes.”
2016:
The 14th Street Y is scheduled to host the penultimate performances
of “Hannah and the Moonlit Dress.”
2016:
In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host “Pankcakes and Prayer.”
2017:
The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, Iowa, is scheduled to host a
screening of “I’m Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas” a comedy “set entirely in a
Chinese restaurant.”
2017:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Promise at Dawn: A Memoir by Romain Gary, The Kites by
Romain Gary, Girls Trip by Tiffany Haddish, a former “energy producer at
Bar Mitzvahs” and the recently released paperback edition of Judas by
Amos Oz.
2017:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a special Chanukah party
that includes events for history buffs, artists and music lovers of all ages.
2017:
Matisyahu, Neshama Carlebach and Eli Schwebel are among the artists scheduled
to perform at today’s concert at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York which
is “a benefit concert to support JQY or Jewish Queer Youth.”
2017:
In London, JWE3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Menashe,” the first
Yiddish-language feature film that has been made in several years.
2017:
Kosher Cajun restaurant is scheduled to “be frying up tons of fried chicken and
latkes” for this afternoon’s annual community Chanukah celebration at the
Jewish Community Center on St Charles Avenue in New Orleans.
2017(28th
of Kislev, 5778): Fifth Day of Chanukah
2018:
In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Three Identical Strangers.”
2018:
In Columbus, OH, the Tifereth Israel Men’s Club is scheduled to host “Hockey
with Tifereth” at Nationwide Arena as the Blue Jackets play the N.Y. Rangers.
2018:
In Chevy Chase, MD, Ohr Kodesh is scheduled to host a lecture on “Russian Jewry
in 2018: What’s New?” in which Harvey Leifer provides an update on the life of
the “million refusniks” who made Aliyah after the Soviet Union changed its
immigration policy.
2018:
The International Academy for Russian Music, Arts, and Culture (IARMAC) and
Agudas Achim Congregation are scheduled to present pianist Polina Shepherd
performing “Songs of the Steppes.”
2018:
In response to the recent wave of violence, Israelis now use hitchhiking and
bus stops that are more like fortifications completed with a compliment of
armed soldiers.
2019:
Following earlier reports that “Israel’s famed Mossad intelligence agency
recently helped bust a major terrorist cell in Denmark as part of an ongoing
policy of collaboration with Western intelligence agencies, it was reported today
that Austrian authorities have thwarted what appear to be ISIS inspired
Christmas season attacks.
2019:
In Walnut Creek, CA, the National Council of Jewish Women is scheduled to host
its “Hanukah Party,” the annual fundraiser that includes “a silent auction,
raffles, bake sale, lunch and entertainment.”
2019:
In Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is scheduled to host “Yiddishe Khanike”
a “trio including vocalist-accordionist Jeanette Lewicki performs Yiddish songs
and klezmer music.”
2019:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host Drs. Jay Berkovitz, Lisa Leff and
Maurice Samuels as they discus “Jews and Judaism After the French Revolution.”
2019(19th
of Kislev): On the Jewish calendar, The “New Year” of Chassidism.
2019(19th
of Kislev): On the Jewish calendar, 75th birthday of Avraham
Elimelech ben Yosef Dov
2019(19th
of Kislev): On the Jewish calendar Yahrtzeit of the “Maggid of Mezrech
(1710-1772), the successor of the Baal Shem Tov.”
https://www.aish.com/dijh/Kislev_19.html
2020(2nd of Tevet, 7801): Seventh Day of
Chanukah
2020: Temple Emanuel of Newton is scheduled to present
online “Doughnut-Baking With Stephanie Weitzman
2020: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to
provide a chance to “spend the last night of Chanukah with The Shitisel
Mishpacha!”
2020: San Francisco based JIMINA is scheduled to host
online “Chag Habanot: A North African Chanukah Celebration of Women” during
which attendees will celebrate and learn about the Mizrachi holiday that honors
women and the heroine Judith” and hear the music by Israeli singer Lala Tamar
and local musician Hind Ennaira, plus dance instruction.
2020: ADL Cleveland is scheduled to host “an event featuring
Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto, who have led their
communities through mass tragedies and incidents of hate.”
2020:
Despite the surge in coronavirus case and a talk about another nationwide
lockdown, Israelis can look forward to go the library following yesterday’s
approval of “the immediate reopening of all public libraries” (As reported by
Yuval Plotkin)
2021:
Temple Sinai of Brookline is scheduled to host a Bluegrass Shabbat complete “with
banjo, mandolin, guitars, bass, fiddle and more!”
2021:
Lloyd Schwartz, “an American poet, professor laureate at the University of
Massachusetts-Boston and Pulitzer Prize winner for his work as classical music
editor of the old Boston Phoenix and Somerville poet laureate” is scheduled to join
JLive for the final segment of the Fall 2021 season.
2021:
“Israel’s Green Pass mandate for
shopping malls — which was set to go into effect today— has been delayed until
further notice after the government failed to reach an agreement on the outline.
(As reported by Tamar Eichner and Adir Yanko)
2022: The Eden-Tamir Center is scheduled to
present “Ensemble Millennium/Toscanini Quartet, Ensemble in Residence and
Friends with Noam Buchman and Dror Semmel The Father, the Son and the Concerto
Spirit.”
2022: In New York, The City Winery is scheduled
to present a matinee show with Aviv Geffen, one of the biggest Israeli
musicians and creators in the rock music industry
2022: In Waterloo, IA, Rabbi Kushner is scheduled
to lead services at Congregation Sons of Jacob.
2022: In Lexington, MA, Temple Emunah is
scheduled to host an where attendees try to build the world’s tallest
hanukkiyah out of Lego bricks.
2022:
In Berkley, CA, Peet’s Theatre is scheduled to host a second performance of
“Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski,” “a play in which actor David
Strathairn portrays a Polish World War II hero and Holocaust witness who risked
his life to report about the Warsaw Ghetto, only to be met with inaction and
disbelief.”
2022: Schechter Boston is scheduled to present
its “Hanukkah Kickoff Event “ that includes Havdalah and sports and games by
Knucklebones Entertainment.
2022(23rd of Kislev, 5783) :
Va-yayshev (“And he dwelt” or “settled”)
2023: As part of the Atlanta Jewish Music
Festival, Joe Alterman is scheduled to “team up with Dara Starr Tucker for an
exploration of the synthesis of the African American and the Jewish experiences
in popular music.”
2023: In the last lecture in the series of online
lectures “On the Anchored State of the Soul”, participants are
scheduled read together with the writer and psychologist Esther Peledin the
story “Twice as much” and examine the deep layers of the soul from
which Agnon writes.
2023: In Washington, DC, as part of the URJ 150
weekend, Israeli musician David Broza is scheduled to perform in concert in an
evening of solidarity.
2023: The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Collected Poems: Including Late and Uncollected Work by
Anthony Hecht, the son of German Jewish parents and Late Romance: Anthony
Hecht – A Poet’s Life by David Yezzi.
2023:
Hadassah New Orleans is scheduled to host a virtual event with Israeli Tova
Korczyn live from Israel.
2023:
Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to its “2023 All-in-One
Fundraiser Event Featuring YidLife Crisis.”
2023:
As December 17 begins in Israel, more information becomes public Yotam Haim,
Samar Fouad Talalka and Alon Shamriz who were mistakenly killed by IDF forces in a part of Gaza that
has seen heavy fighting in the last couple of days, the threat from Hezbollah
increases as can be seen by death yesterday of 53 year-old IDF solider Yehezkel
Azaria during drone attack and the threat from the Houthis continues to
expand as can be seen from the barrage of drones they fired toward Eilat
yesterday, while the Hamas held hostages begin day 72
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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