This Day, July 20, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
July 20
356 BCE: In Macedonia, King Philip
II and Queen Olympia gave birth to Alexander the Great. You can draw a straight
line from Alexander’s Hellenization of Asia Minor to Chanukah to Tisha B’Av, 70
CE.
http://www.biography.com/print/profile/alexander-the-great-9180468
70: During the Siege of Jerusalem, Titus, son of emperor Vespasian,
storms the Fortress of Antonia north of the Temple Mount. The Roman army is
drawn into street fights with the Zealots.
1031: Fifty-nine year old King Robert II of France, who “conspired with
is vassals to destroy all the Jews who would not accept baptism” and inspired
mob violence against the Jews including “the learned Rabbi Senior” passed away
today.
1263: Pablo Christiani, a converted Jew, and Raymond of Penaforte,
compelled King James of Aragon to force a debate between him and Moses ben
Nachman (Nachmanides). The Jews were afraid that no matter what the outcome
they would lose, so they pleaded with Nachmanides to withdraw. The King ordered
him to continue. Although the outcome was preset (the Christians
“won”), the King was so impressed that he rewarded Nachmanides with a
present of 300 maravedis. Pablo was given permission to continue these debates
throughout Aragon with the Jews having to pay his expenses. Two years later
Nachmanides was convicted for publishing his side of the debate. Although he
was not severely punished by the King, he decided to leave Spain for good and
settled in Eretz-Israel.
1402: During the Ottoman-Timurid Wars, Timur led the forces of the
Timurid Empire to victory over the forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Sultan
Bayezid I at the Battle of Ankara. This defeat could not have been a source of
joy for the Jews living in the Ottoman Empire. Bayezid had proven to be a
friend of the Jewish people. “In 1394 Sultan Bayezid invited the French Jews
who were molested by King Charles VI, to settle in the Ottoman Empire. They
established communities in Edirne and the Balkans. The French Kings had the
habit of inviting the Jews to establish commerce and borrowing money from them.
However often, when payment was due, they expelled them; only to re-invite them
when they needed further financing.” Bayezid died a year after the defeat.
1454: The reign of King John II of Castile and León who overturned the
Valladolid laws that restricted Jewish activities and adopted “a more tolerant
attitude toward the already battered Jewish population of Castile following the
mass wave of conversions” that had taken place from 1391 to 1415, came to an
end today.
1588: As the English prepared to meet the Spanish Armada, their fleet
“tacked upwind…thus gaining the “weather gage” which would give the smaller
fleet an edge in the upcoming battle.
1624(4th of Av): Rabbi Abraham ben David of Lemberg passed away
1633 (13th of Av): Rabbi Nathan Shaprio, a leading Kabblist from Cracow
and author of Megale Amukot passed away.
1660: Miguel de Barria “the Spanish poet and historian “whose Hebrew name
was Daniel ha-Levi and who was the son of a converso Simon de Barrios (Jacob
Levi Caniso) and Sarah Valle” set sail with “152 coreligionists for West
Indies, specifically Tobago, where his wife died which led him to return to
Europe.
1706: Shabbethai ben Joseph Bass who had founded printing business in
Dyhernfurth, a small town near Breslau which produced its first book, a work by
Rabbi Samuel ben Uri of Waydyslav in 1689, was forced to leave Breslau as a
result of local hostility to Jews.
1729: In King William, VA, Captain Mordecai Abrahams married Sarah Levy
today after which they had at least two children, Mordecai and Jacob Abraham.
1774: Judith Polock and Savannah, GA native Philip Minis, the parents of
Abigail Minis were married today in Newport, RI.
1775: At the request of the Continental Congress, Jews fasted and prayed
for the success of the colonies against the British, and to be spared from the
“agony of war.”
1778: In New York City, Rachel Heilbron and Haym (Chaim) Solomon who
bankrupted himself to help finance the American Revolution gave birth to
Ezekiel Salomon
1778: In Sandersleben, Rabbi Joachim Heinemann and his wife gave birth to
Jeremiah Heinemann the German author whose secular jobs including serving as
the inspector of a teacher’s seminary in Berlin.
1789: Philadelphian Solomon Bush, a veteran of the Continental Army
during the American Revolution wrote to President Washington today whom he
addressed as “Your Excellency,” saying “Permit one who has fought and Bled in
the service of his Country, with heart felt pleasure to Congratulate Your
Excellency in your late dignified appoint [Washington’s election to the
presidency] offering up his sincere prayers to Almighty God for your health and
happiness, and the prosperity of his Country…”
1789: Solomon Bush, who was practicing medicine in London “notified
President Washing of the seizure of an American ship from New York because the
British alleged that numerous seaman aboard were natives of Britiain.”
1790(9th of Av, 5550): Tish’a B’Av observed on the same day that the
first U.S. Congress adopted “The Act for the Government and Regulation of
Seaman” which the first federal labor law.
1797: Birthdate of German native and future resident of Detroit Hannah
Bachman Butzel, the wife of Moses Leo Butzel with whom she had three children including
Fannie, Magnus and Martin.
1798: In Charleston, SC Rebecca Hyams, he daughter of Colonel David
Maysor and Sarah Sarzedas and her husband David Hyams gave birth to Moses David
Hyams
1800: Simon and Johanetta Levy gave birth to their third child Raphael
Levy.
1808: Napoleon decreed that all Jews of the French Empire must adopt
family names.
1808: Today in accordance with newly adopted law, Samuel Marx Levi, the
son of Rabbi Samuel Marx Levi became Samuel Marx when he adopted “the family
name Marx for himself and his siblings
1814: Birthdate of Maximilien Charles Alphonse Cerfberr of Medelsheim “a
French journalist, writer and governmental official.”
1817: Birthdate of Epinal, France native and journalist Maximilien
Charles Alphones Cerfberr who “was attached in 1839 to the penitentiary
administration in the Ministry of the Interior and inn 1848 held for a short
time the position of commissary of the republic in the department of Saône-et-Loire.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4187-cerfberr-maximilien-charles-alphonse-of-medelsheim
1819: Birthdate of Heinrich Bernhard Oppenheim the native of
Frankfort-on-Main who was the grandson of Gumpel, the banker of Hamburg who
became a distinguished jurist.
1820(9th of Av, 5580): Tish’a B’Av
1820(9th of Av, 5580): Judah Moses Ancona, the wife of Hannah
Montefiore Ancona and the father of Moses Montefiore Acona, who had been born
in 1760 and “was part of a Sephardic family which came to England in the 18th
century” passed away today after which he was buried the Sephardi New Cemetery
in London.
1823: Pius VII, the Pope who rebuilt the walls of the Rome Ghetto and
returned the Jews to its confines after they had been freed by Napoleon passed
away today.
1823: Achille Fould married Harriot Goldschmidt at the Great Synagogue
today.
1828(9th of Av, 5588): Tish’a B’Av observed
1829: Birthdate of Thomas Rowe one of Australia’s leading architects of
the Victorian era who designed the Great Synagogue in Sydney
1830: Birthdate of Francesca Janauschek, the Prague native who gained
fame as 19th century character actress Fanny Janauschek.
1833: In Brno, Löbl Strakosch
and Julia Schwarz to their daughter Aloisia.
1834: Birthdate of Jacques Errera, the native of Venice who was a
successful banker and the father of botanist Leo-Abram Errera.
1837(17th of Tammuz, 5597): Tzom Tammuz is observed for the
first time during the Presidency of Martin Van Buren.
1839(9th of Av, 5599): Parashat Devarim; Shabbat Chazon; Erev
Tish’a B’Av
1839(9th of Av, 5599): Fifty-nine year old Charity Hays, the
Bedford, NY born daughter of Esther Etting and David Barrack Hays and the wife
of London, England native Jacob da Silva Solis with she had seven children
passed away today in New York City.
1841: Rinah J. Ottolengui and Columbia, SC native Jacob I. Moses who had
been married in 1839 gave birth to Montefiore Jacob Moses, who married Rosa
Jonas in 1863 and with whom he had had seven children – Belle, Mary, Montrose,
Walter, Edwin, Montrose (who was apparently named for his older brother who had
already passed away) and Eva.
1842: In London, Charlotte and Lionel Nathan Rothschild gave birth to
their second son Alfred Charles Rothschild, the first Jew to serve as “a
director of the Bank England,” a position which he held for twenty years.
1845: Nathan and Catherine Levy were married at the Great Synagogue
today.
1847: Birthdate of painter and graphic artist Max Liebermann.
“Liebermann was one of the leading German impressionist painters.” He
painted in the manner of the Dutch impressionists rather than the French
impressionists. This meant “he often painted people at their everyday
tasks and explored the effect of changing sunlight on colors and shadows.”
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they included his works in their first
showing of “degenerate art.” He died in 1935 having been stripped of
all his honors and ordered not to paint. Eight years later his wife committed suicide. I must admit a
prejudice. I like his works.
http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/Liebermann/gallery
1849: In Russia, Chayim Ydel Aronin and his wife gave birth to Aryeh Leib
Aronin, the rabbi of Congregation Adath Israel in Sheboygan, Wisconsin who was
“progenitor of the” Aronin clan in the United States that included Ben Aronin,
“the Chicago Jewish community’s quintessential Renaissance Man,” a lawyer who
“wrote Jewish-themed songs and plays” and his cousin Sanford Aronin.
1852: Twenty-four-year-old Sarah Naar Cardozo the daughter of Dr. Daniel Moses Levy Maduro
Peixotto and Rachel Lopes Mendes Peixotto and her husband Abraham Hart Cardozo gave birth to Daniel
Henry Cardoza, Sr. the husband of Clara Cardozo and the father of Daniel Henry
Cardozo, Jr. his first born son.
1855: According to today’s “New by the Mail” column, “A Protestant lady
in St. Louis with seven children has joined the Hebrew congregation there.”
1856(17th of Tammuz, 5616): Tzom Tammuz is observed for the
last time during the Presidency of Franklin Pierce
1858((9th of Av, 5618): Tish’a B’Av observed on the day that
an all-star baseball team from New York played their counterparts from Brooklyn
in what would be the first game in the baseball rivalries between the teams
from Gotham and Brooklyn that only ended when the Dodgers and the Giants moved
to Los Angeles in 1958.
1859: Birthdate of German botanist and Zionist leader Otto Warburg whose
family originally came to Germany in the 16th century and who was
“one of the members of the El Arish expedition, appointed by Theodor Herzl as
the agricultural member of the team led by Leopold Kessler.”
1862: As General George B. McClellan turned into a disaster, August
Belmont wrote Thurlow Weed to express his view that the only way to effect
re-union was by negotiations if possible.
He called for a cessation to the war effort because it was too costly in
terms of human life and treasure.
1863: In describing conditions in Memphis, TN, a year after it had
surrendered to forces of the Union Army, the New York Times reported that
“There remains in the city but a portion of the old citizens, the balance are
vagabonding in Dixie, or are carrying a musket in the Southern army, or have
left their bones on the hundred battle-fields of the South. Their residences
here have been seized by the Government, and to-day the palatial dwellings of
many an old aristocrat are occupied by National officials, and the hordes of
Jews, who follow in the rear of an army, like wolves behind the hunters.”
[Anti-Semitic references like this stand in stark contrast to acceptance of
Jews as can be seen by the change in the law allowing Rabbis to serve as
chaplains and the reality of the thousands of Jews who fought for the federals,
some of whom reached the rank of general.]
1863: The 11th Regiment of the New York State which was
commanded by Colonel Joachim Maidhof when it was mustered into federal service
in 1862 was mustered out of United States service today.
1864: Colonel Frederick Knefler commanded the 79th Indiana
Infantry at the Battle of Peachtree Creek, part of Sherman’s audacious campaign
to capture Atlanta.
1864: Today, “at the battle near Peach Tree Creek” near Atlanta, GA,
“Colonel Edward S. Salomon, the commander of the 82nd Regiment,
Illinois Volunteers “performed a most gallant and meritorious part in repulsing
the repeated onslaughts made by the enemy” and “in the face of a furious raking
fire, held his line for four hours” after which “the enemy withdrew from his
front with great loss.”
1864: After three years, Aaron Lazarus who risen from the rank of Private
to that of Brevet Captain in the 28th Regiment of United States
volunteers completed his enlistment while serving as the Regimental Adjutant
1865: Leopold Hoffman who had risen from the rank of private to
Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant in the 12th Cavalry completed his
three year enlistment today.
1865: Philadelphians Lt. Anton Goldschmidt, Sergeant Ephraim Rosenthal,
Quartermaster Sergeant Abraham Weinbach, Captain Leopold Meyer, Captain Jacob
Herzog and Sergeant Elias Reubenthal completed their service with the 113th
Regiment of the Twelfth Cavalry in the Union Army.
1867: In St. Louis, MO, A.S. and Isabella Hill gave birth to Washington
University graduate and Republican party member Louis P. Aloe, the “president
of A.S. Aloe, Co, opticians” and the husband of Edith Rosenblatt with whom he
had three daughter – Clara, Viola and Louise.
1869: “The Innocents Abroad” Mark Twain’s travelogue describing his visit
to Europe and the Holy Land (including what is now the state of Israel) is
published. For more about the famed
American humorist’s attitude towards Jews see http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/twain.html
1870(21st of Tammuz, 5630): Forty year old French journalist
Lucien-Anatole Prévost-Paradol the son of Léon Halévy passed away today in
Washington, D.C.
1871: British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada. In 1858, the
first large body of Jews arrived in British Columbia along with others seeking
their fortunes in the Fraser River Gold Rush.
By 1863, there were enough Jews living in Victoria, B.C. to establish
Congregation Emanu-El, now Canada’s longest serving synagogue. Ten years after
B.C. joined the confederation, the Jewish community would receive its next
influx of settlers as refugees from Russian anti-Semitism settled in the
Canadian West.
1872: Beatrice Rachel Faudel, the daughter of Helen Levy and Sir George
Faudel and the granddaughter of Joseph Moses Levy married Phillip G. Henriques
of Grosvenor Square with whom she had one son born in 1894.
1873(25th of Tammuz, 5633): Rabbi Asron Gunizburg, the
Austrian born son of Moses Gunzburg, the husband of Caroline A. Kuh and the
father of Virginia and Clara Gunizburg passed away today in Boston.
1875(17th of Tammuz, 5635): Tzom Tammuz
1875: In New York, Emma Goodman and Israel Stone gave birth Rosetta
Stone, a teacher in the Antique Department of the New York School of Applied
Design for Women and a member of the New York Section of the Council of Jewish
Women who worked with “Jewish girls at the State Reformatory for Women and
House of Refuge.”
1875(17th of Tammuz, 5635): Thuringen, Germany native Rosina
Meyer Dreyfus, the mother of Isaac Dreyfus and mother-in-law of Bertha Simon
Dreyfus, passed away today after which she was buried in the Congregation Anshe
Emeth Cemetery in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
1876: Birthdate of German mathematician Otto Blumenthal. Blumenthal converted at the age of 18. He may have believed that he would find the
path to academic success a lot smoother as a Protestant. In the end, it did not save him from the
Nazis. Blumenthal died in concentration
camp in 1944.
1881: It was reported today that in Neu Stettin, at least 30 anti-Semitic
rioters who attacked the editor of the Neu Stettiner Zeitung, were arrested
today.
1881: Rabbi David Levy officiated at the wedding of Phil Lewinson of
Darlington, SC to Sarah Weinberg of Charleston, SC.
1881: “Jews In Spain”
published today, relied on information from the London Times to report that “In Spain, Praxedes M Sagasta the
President of the Council of Ministers wrote to a prominent European Jewish
author H. Guedalla that “article 1 of the Constitution of Spain is the most
decisive revocation of the edict of banishment against the Jews in the year
1492. Thus all of your coreligionists who wish can come to Spain without
any obstacle whatever…”
1882: “A Great Fire In Smyrna” published today described the
conflagration that left 6,000 people homeless including many of the city’s
sizable Jewish population. The Jews are
the primary agents “in the barter and sale of merchandise from Asia, Syria,
Baghdad and Persia.”
1882: During the Freight Handler’s Strike, the strikers stopped providing
food for the Jewish and Italian workers whom they had convinced to honor their
strike. Mr. Wolkawoech, the President of
the Jewish Freight Handlers’ Union reluctantly provided enough funds to cover
the cost of the evening meal. [Yes there
were Russia Jews among the striking workers as well as Russian Jews among what
would later be called scabs.]
1883: Birthdate of Bialystok native and CCNY and Long Island College
trained ophthalmologist Nathan Cohen.
1883: In Hungary, as the trial of a group of Jews charged with killing a
Christian girl continued, it was reported that a constable testified that he
had tortured one of the prisoners with thumbscrews.
1884: “Lamb and Mint Sauce” published today described John Brady’s
contention that the custom of eating tansy (bitter) puddings and cakes at
Easter was introduced by the monk as a symbolic remembrance of the bitter herbs
used by Jews at this time of year. The
monks included bacon in their dishes “to denote contempt for Judaism.” According to Brady, the Jews “have contrived
to diminish the bitter flavor” or their tansy “by making a it into pickle for
their paschal lamb.” From all of this
has come the custom of combing mint with sugar to create the mint sauce or
jelly eaten with the leg of lamb. [This was based on information provided by an
annual publication, Clavis Calendaraia.]
1885(8th of Av, 5645) Erev Tish’a B’Av
1885: “Jews in Paris” published today summarized a report by the Judische
Presse that described the growth of the Jewish population in Paris. In 1789, there were only 500 Jews living in
the French capital. The numbers have
grown: 3,000 in 1806; 12,000 in 1842; 40,000 in 1872; more than 50,000 in
1885. Jews are more active in the
general population as can be seen by the fact that the number of Jewish
generals has grown from one in 1821 to five in 1878.
1886: Farrer Herschell, 1st Baron Herschell completed his term in office
as Lord Chancellor in Great Britain.
1887: Mrs. Betty Michaelis “began mandamus proceedings” before Judge
Potter today, “in which she asks that the Henrietta Verien be commanded to
restore her to membership on the ground that her expulsion was not done
according to law.” The legal action stemmed from a fight that she had with Mrs.
Henrietta Loser, the President of the Henrietta Verein.
1887: Louis Keptlovwitch, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, who has been
arrested on charges of bigamy, was confronted by both of his wives – the one he
married in Poland and the one he married in New York – today.
1888: Isaac and Lotta Alper gave birth to Abraham Joseph Alper, the
husband of Lena Zion Alper.
1888: In Fall River, MA, founding of American Brothers of Israel, a
congregation that holds services daily at 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. that maintains a
cemetery “southeast of the city, near the Rhode Island state line.”
1889: Effective today, Coney Island’s Brighton Beach Hotel announces that
it will completely exclude members of the “Hebrew Race” as guests. The hotel was following the policy adopted by
Messers Cable and Breen the lessees of the New York establishment.
1890: The manager of the Bank and Steamship Passage at 78 Canal Street
and his soliciting agent Louis Silikowitz, were arrested on charges of having
swindling their customers, most of whom were Polish and Russian Jews out money
with which they had been entrusted to buy tickets for family members still in
members.
1890: It was reported today that Sol B. Solomon has raised $300 from the
guests at the Long Beach Hotel to pay for the excursions provided by the
Sanitarium for Hebrew Children.
1890: A portion of the 12th annual report of the Sanitarium
for Hebrew Children published today showed expenditures of $3,221 and a balance
of $7,126 “which is deposited in the seven leading savings banks” in New York
City.
1890: Birthdate of Theda Bara. Born Theodosia Burr Goodman in a wealthy
suburb of Cincinnati, Bara’s mother was Swiss and her father was a Jewish
tailor. She was known as a “vamp” and one of the first “sex
symbols” of the silver screen. She passed away in 1955.
1891: “Mercy for Russian Jews” published today described a relaxation of
“the persecution of the Jews” by the government. Decrees expelling Jewish artisans from St.
Petersburg have “been indefinitely postponed” and “and orders have been seen to
the press” to have newspapers “refrain from publishing articles like to excite
animosity against the Jews.”
1891: “The young man who had killed three Russians” during an attack on
the Jewish community near Veile, Russia” and several other Jews were scheduled
to go on trial today and when the expected guilty verdict is returned the Jews
will be shipped to Siberia.
1892(25th of Tammuz, 5652): Eighteen month old Siegfried
Bloch, the son of Leopold and Klara Bloch passed away today after which he was
buried in his hometown of Eichstetten.
1892: As of today, the coroner has not made a determination in the cause
of death of Behr Israelson. Doctors claim he died of apoplexy but his Jewish
neighbors claimed he was clubbed to death by a policeman. The Jews would not
let the coroner’s jury hear the case because there it had no Jewish members.
1893: Three men who claim to be tailors and Russian Jews were arrested
and charged with assault at the Essex Market Police Court based on evidence
gathered Alter Shapiro, the Vice President of the Hebrew Protective Society
that showed them to be part of a ring that robs and tortures Jews living on the
lower east side.
1893: The Marshall, who had arrived at the apartment of Mrs. Sarah
Goldstein at 181 Orchard to execute the order of eviction gave her an extra day
to seek relief from the courts since she said her six children who had measles
were still too sick to be moved.
1894: Birthdate of Joseph Louis Felsenfeld, the Columbia University
trained dentist who practiced in Brooklyn and who lived at 909 Driggs Avenue in
1916 and 1917.
1894: In defending the blackballing of Mr. Peixotto from the Republican
Club as being based on reasons other than his being Jewish, Chairman Joseph M.
Deuel was reported today to have said that “There are probably fifty Hebrews
who are in good and regular standing in the club…There are Hebrews on the
Executive Committee of the club and on the campaign committee.”
1895: “Hebrew Technical Institute Open” published described the school’s
unique summer course for which 200 boys ranging in age from 12 to 15 have
enrolled so that they can continue their education in the workshops,
laboratories and drawing rooms of the facilities on Stuyvesant Street.
1895: Birthdate of Samuel Randolph Parnes, the native of New York City
and WW I veteran who was a textile manufacturing executive and trustee of the
Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1895: Wolf Silverman was arrested tonight and “charged with an attempt to
swindle the Empire Life Insurance Company.”
1895: Birthdate of László Weisz, the native of Bácsborsód, Hungary, who gained fame painter
and photographer László Moholy-Nagy who like so many of his generation left his
native land with the rise of the Nazis, settling first in England before
finding final refuge in the United States where he died in 1946.
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-moholy-nagy-laszlo.htm
1896(10th of Av, 5656): Nathan Greenstein the co-owner of
clothing business on Hester Street who was taken ill last month and
hospitalized in Mt. Sinai passed away today after which his chevre chadish
Society of Human Wisdom of the City of Pinsk refused to honor its commitment
resulting in a lawsuit in the Fourth Civil District Court in New York.
1896: Birthdate of Brooklyn native and WW I veteran Samuel Salzman who
attended Columbia and was active in the Jewish community as can be seen in his
involvement with the Hebrew Orphans Asylum and the Federation of Jewish
Charities.
1896: It was reported today that an ambulance had arrived too late
yesterday to save the life of Charles Liebhaber who had been ill for weeks but
still insisted on observing the fast for the 9th of Av.
1896: Herzl meets with the Association des Etudiants Israëlites Russes.
1897: Funeral services were held today for Mrs. Julia Lauterbach, the
widow of Moses Lauterbach, at her home on East 58th Street followed
yb burial at Cypress Hills Cemetery. She
was one of those who incorporated the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society of New
York, a group which served as Vice President for 11 years.
1898: Among those serving with the 6th Missouri Volunteer
Infantry when it was mustered into service at Jefferson Barracks for service in
the Spanish-American War were Captains John H. Goldman and Adolph J. Jacobs as
well as Musicians Oscar Bennewitz and Lewis Bloch, Corporal William A Feigel
and dozens of privates.
1898: Second Lieutenant B. Albert Lieberman of Kansas City was appointed
to serve as an Assistant Surgeon in the 6th Missouri Volunteer
Infantry.
1898: Birthdate of New York native and Cornell University trained
research chemist, Nathaniel Fuchs, the husband of Jeanette Fuchs and the father
of Lucy Berkowoitz who “was credited with saving the Army millions of dollars
during World War II with the discovery of new method of manufacturing khaki
dye” for which he received a citation from the U.S. Army.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/01/27/84873805.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1899(13th of Av, 5659): Seventy-four year old Charlotte de
Rothschild, the French socialite and wife of Nathaniel de Rothschild passed
away today.
1900: New York City architect E.G. Cohen, the namesake for the E.G. Cohen
Medal, mourned the death of his father,
Jacob Cohen, the Savannah born wholesale grocer who became a leading cotton exchange
broker who passed away on July 19 at his
cottage in Sullivan County, NY.
https://www.cohenconnect.org/medalists
1901(4th of Av, 5661): Parashat Devarim; Shabbat Chazon
1901: “The Jews” published today provided a review of the Volume One of
The Jewish Encyclopedia, “prepared by more than 400 scholars and specialist”
under the leadership of managing editor Dr. Isidor Singer published The Funk
and Wagnalls Company.
1902: In “Is Yiddish A Jargon” published today, A. B. Rhine defended
Yiddish against the claim that it was a jargon and not language contending “a
language derives its importance from its literature and in this respect Yiddish
by no means inferior to any of the minor languages of Europe” such as Danish or
Norwegian while adding that “as a matter of fact, Yiddish has ‘literary
monuments’ of such lasting value that they will outlive the language itself.”
1903: Herzl writes to Leopold Greenberg (“an English Zionist and future
editor of the Jewish Chronicle”) in
London to do whatever possible to revive the Sinai enterprise. This is a
reference to offers by the British Foreign Office to allow Jews from Eastern
Europe to settle in a part of the Sinai Peninsula known as the Brook of
Egypt. Another, better known of these schemes,
was the offer to allow Jews to settle in Uganda as a temporary Jewish
homeland. These desperate proposals came
against a backdrop of Pogroms in Russia and a general worsening of conditions
for Jews in Eastern Europe. While Zionists in German, Austria and Britain were
willing to consider such alternatives, the Zionists of eastern Europe rejected
them out of hand. Those living in the
greatest physical saw the spiritual danger in accepting anything less than Eretz
Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.
In the man time Herzl wrote desperately, “We must indeed take East
Africa, or at least the Charter, but we must not deceive ourselves as to the
fact that all the non-English Jews are against East Africa. I shall have to use
a great deal of patience for it, whereas El Arish is popular.” Herzl also
prepares steps to approach Portugal for a Charter for Mozambique, Belgium for a
territory in the Congo and Italy for a section of Tripoli.
1904(8th of Av, 5664): Eighty-two year old Marcus Goldman a German-born
American businessman and entrepreneur who founded Goldman Sachs which became
one of the world’s largest global investment banks passed away.
http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=100
1905(17th of Tammuz, 5665): A month after the Russian fleet
was annihilated by the Japanese bring on a crisis which would lead to a
mini-revolution in 1906, Tzom Tammuz was observed.
1906: Antoine Louis Targe, a French officer whose investigations helped
to establish the innocence of Dreyfus was made an officer in the Legion of
Honor.
1906: Dreyfus was made a Knight in the Legion of Honor.
1907(9th of Av, 5667): Fast not observed because it is Shabbat.
1908: In a letter to the New York
Times, William Maude provides commentary on the antiquity of an ancient
copy of the Book of Joshua obtained by Dr. Moses Gaster in Samaria.
1909: George Clemenceau, who was “more cognizant of Jews that the average
politician or journalist of the Third Republic” and who carried on an “eight
year battle in his newspapers La Justice and L’Aurore to gain justice for
Alfred Dreyfus, resigned as Prime Minister of France today.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4467111?seq=1
1910: Jacob Marinoff, the Pinsk
born son of Meyer and Leah Maifnoff who
was the founder of the Yiddish weekly Der Graiser Kundes (The Big Stick)
married Esther Salkowitz today.
1910: In the Shaarei Chesed neighborhood of Jerusalem founded by Rabbi
Shlomo Zalman Porush Rabbi Chaim Yehuda Leib Auerbach, who was rosh yeshiva of
Shaar Hashamayim Yeshiva, and Rebbetzin Tzivia gave birth to Rabbi Shlomo
Zalman Auerbach, the rosh yeshiva of the Kol Torah yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel
1911: In Great Britain, the Home Secretary offered additional amendments
to the Sunday closing clauses of the Shop Hours Bill.
1911: Arthur David Samuel who would die while serving as a 2nd
Lt. in the British Army during World War I married Mary Esther Jewell today.
1911: In New York City, the Jewish Morning Journal, reported that Turkish
Government had issued “orders to the Governor of Jerusalem to facilitate
naturalization of Jews as Ottoman citizens.”
1912: Jewish immigrants Clara (Hessner) and Joseph Boudin gave birth to
St. John’s Law School trained civil liberties attorney whose clients included
baby-doctor Benjamin Spock and Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame who was
the husband of poet Jean Roisman and nephew of equally famous and controversial
attorney Louis Boudin
https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/26/obituaries/leonard-boudin-civil-liberties-lawyer-dies-at-77.html
1913: It was reported today that “an analysis of the relations existing
between the Jews and modern capitalism will be published shortly by E.P. Dutton
and Company under the title The Jews and Modern Capitalism by German
author Werner Sombert “who has devoted himself to” economic research.
1913: In Philadelphia, Norfolk native
Edward L. Brylawski, a member of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange and Hortense Mendelsohn gave birth to their
fourth child Michael Brylawski.
1914: As Europe hurdles mindlessly through a series of thoughtless
actions that will lead to WW I with all that that would mean for the world in
general and the Jewish population in particular, “Germany began mobilizing its
Navy and told shipping companies to bring their vessels back to German ports in
a move that would avoid confiscation and help enhance its supply capacities.
1915(9th of Av, 5675): Tish’a B’Av
1915: Georgia Governor Harris “announced tonight that he would accompany
the Prison Commission” when it goes “to Milledgeville to investigate the attack
on Leo M. Frank.”
1915: Today, following the attack on Leo M. Frank by a fellow prisoner,”
Rabbi David Marx and H.A. Alexander, the attorney for Frank in his final battle
in the courts” arrived at Milledgeville “to comfort Mrs. Frank who has been
under great strain since the attack on her husband.
1915: Today the Austrians conquered Russian controlled Lublin, Poland.
This would appear to be the realization of a deathbed prophecy by the Chozeh of
Lublin (Yaakov Yitzchak Horowitz) came true.
When he died on July 15, 1815 (9th of Av, 5575) he said that
100 years from the day of his death, the Russians would lose their control over
Poland.
1916(19th of Tammuz, 5676): 2nd Lt. Joel Jacobs who had been
at the Perse School, Cambridge before the war was killed today while serving
with the Yorkshire Regiment.
1916: Alexander Protopopov, the Chairman of the Russian-American Chamber
of Commerce who would express his belief that “the Jews will get equal rights
in Russia” after he became Minister of the Interior met with Czar Nicholas II
prior to his appointment to that important position.
1916(19th of Tammuz, 5676): Eighty-three-year old Algernon E.
Sydney, not be confused with the 17th English political of the same
name, passed away today in London.
1916: “Following an appropriation of $400,000 for Jewish relief in
Russia, the Joint Distribution Committee of Jewish Relief Funds, which has
distributed a total of more than $4,000,000 announced” today that a committee
of five headed by Rabbi Judah L. Magnes, Chairman of the Kehiliah, would soon
be sent abroad “to study conditions in the warring countries on the eastern
front and investigate the methods employed in the distribution of the relief
funds.”
1916(19th of Tammuz, 5676): Simon Lewis, a collector of old
Hebrew manuscripts passed away today at Spitalfields.
1917: During WW I and the Russian Revolution, in Minsk, Balta and Kherson
“provincial organizations including zemstvos, committees of soldiers and
workmen and town executives” issued a “strong appeal to soldiers to ignore all
anti-Semitic incitement to attack Jews.”
1917: The Union of Italian Rabbis was formed today in Bologna.
1917: In Warsaw, “at a meeting of the Municipal Council, anti-Jewish
members charge that Jews gave the German and Austrian governments the idea that
these two nationalities were the masters of Poland” and that “prominent Jews in
Berlin and Vienna are using their influence against the Poles.
1917: According to a statement given to the Associated Press, “the
disaster that befell the Armenian nation is now being meted out to the mixed
non-Turkish population of Syria and Palestine” including the Jews in Jerusalem.
1918: During WW I, Louis Henry Cohn of Brooklyn took part in the fighting
along the Ourcq River in France that would last for five days.
1918: Pediatrician Sophie Rabinoff who was part of the “first American
Zionist Medical” sent to Palestine by Hadassah in 1918” was photographed today
in London.
https://jwa.org/media/sophie-rabinoff-in-uniform
1918: Plans are going forward at Camp Upton on Long Island for the
consecration of “an ark donated by State Supreme Court Just Irving Lehman” in
the military camp’s non-denominational chapel.
1919: Birthdate of Shlomo Zalman Auerbach an Orthodox Jewish rabbi,
posek, and rosh yeshiva of the Kol Torah yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel.
“Auerbach was the first child to be born in the Shaarei Chesed neighborhood of
Jerusalem founded by his maternal grandfather, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Porush,
after whom he was named.”
1919: Dr. Rudolph I Coffee, the former director of the social service
department of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith in Chicago and the current
Rabbi at Temple Judea in Chicago “preached today in the Methodist Episcopal
Church” in Chicago.
1919: At a meeting of the Municipal Council in Warsaw, “anti-Jewish
members charged that Jews gave the German and Austrian Governments the idea
that two nationalities were the masters of Poland and of using the influence of
prominent Jews in Berlin and Vienna against Poles.”
1920: Birthdate of Lev Aronin the native of the Soviet Union who became
International Chess Master in 1950.
1920: Birthdate of Detroit native Byron Lester Krieger the foil, sabre
and épée fencer, first inspired “by his English teacher Beatrice Merriam who
“represented the United States in the Olympics in 1952 in Helskinki and 1956 in
Melbourne.”
1920: As the French sought establish their control over Syria, King
Faisal who had expressed the belief that Zionism was not inimical to the
interests of the Arabs, sent word that he was submitting to French General
Gouraud’s ultimatum that he disband his army and submit to French authority.
1921(14th of Tammuz, 5681): Benjamin Bennett Levy, who won the
Congressional Medal of Honor during the Civil War, passed away today.
1922: In Vilna, the administrator of the city’s Jewish Hospital, Solomon
Kagan and his wife Leah gave birth to Saul Kagan the refugee from Hitler’s
Europe who “was the founding director of the Conference on the Jewish Material
Claims Against Germany.” (As reported by Paul Vitello)
1922: In Oradea, Romania, Chaim Meir Hager, “the fourth grand rabbi of
Vyzhnytsia (Viznitz in Yiddish), the village in the Carpathian foothills in
what is today western Ukraine” and his wife gave birth to Mordechai Hager, the
rabbi who led the “Viznitz sect” which settled in Kaser, an “upstate New York
village.” (As reported by Joseph Berger)
1923: Sadie (née Schindler) and Philip Sendak, a dressmaker gave birth to
children’s author Jack Sendak the brother of Maurice Sendak.(As reported by
Wolfgang Saxon)
1924: Birthdate of Ann Gilbert. Born in Szydlowiec, Poland, Ann was a
Holocaust survivor. She spent over four years in concentration camps and was
liberated in April 1945. She married Fred Gilbert (Felek Gebotszrajber) on Jan.
2, 1946, in Scwabisch Hall, Germany. Ann was a consummate homemaker, an
accomplished seamstress, and devoted to her family. She and Fred lived in Cedar
Rapids from 1949 to 1986, where she was an active member of Temple Judah and in
the community. She was a lifetime member of Hadassah. From 1986 to 2003, Ann
and Fred lived in Los Angeles, where she was a much sought after seamstress to
film and motion picture stars. Ann and Fred were also very active in the
survivor community. They were regular speakers at the Simon Wiesenthal
Center-Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. She and Fred lectured frequently
about their experiences. In 2003, she and Fred returned to Cedar Rapids to be
near to Lena. Ann remained a constant source of inspiration until she passed
away in 2008 at the age of 84.
1925: “Dr. Joseph A. Rosen returned on the Leviathan of the United States
Lines today from an extended tour through Russia, the Ukraine and the Crimea,
after expending $800,000 for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
in settling in the Crimea and the Ukraine 20,000 Jews on farm lands since
December, 1922.”
1926(9th of Av, 5686): Tish’a B’Av
1926: Maxwell “Mordecai” Abbell, the Lodz born son of Morris and Freida
Abbell who owned a chain of hotels and office buildings, and his wife Fannie
Abbell gave birth to their daughter Nahami Abbell.
1927: Birthdate of Barbara Rose Berman, the Bronx native who gained fame
as “Barbara Bergmann, a pioneer in the study of gender in the economy who
herself overcame barriers to women in the world of academic economics.” (As
reported by Nelson D. Schwartz)
1928: In Brooklyn, Isaac Solow, a bricklayer and Jennie (Brill) Solow
gave birth to Manhattan real estate developer Sheldon Henry Solow, the husband
of Mia Fonssagrives Solow. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
1929(12th of Tammuz, 5689): Parashat Chukat-Balak
1929: Today, “Joseph Polstein, president of the Hennessy Realty Company,
a Manhattan apartment house builder is on his way to Leningrad, at the invitation
of the Soviet Government” as a representative of a group of New York builders
who are “studying conditions in the Russian city with a view to erecting a
large group of multi-family houses of the type now being constructed in New
York.”
1929: Dr. Henry Moskowitz, executive chairman of the American Ort is
scheduled to address the International Ort Conference in Berlin today.
1930: Maxim Litvinov is named the
Soviet Union’s Commissar of Foreign Affairs.
Born Meir Henoch Mojszewicz Wallach-Finkelstein in 1876, into a wealthy Jewish banking
family in Białystok in Congress Poland, he joined the Russian Social Democratic
Labour Party in 1898. The party was an illegal organization, and it was
customary to use pseudonyms. He changed his name to Maxim Litvinov, but was
also known as Papasha and Maximovich. Over the years, his
politics become more radical in response to the increasingly repressive
policies of the Russian government. He
joined the Bolsheviks where he became a confidante of Lenin. Litvinov carried out a variety of diplomatic
missions for the Soviets after the Russian Revolution. As Foreign Minister, Litvinov was a key
participant that led to recognition of the Soviet government by the United
States in 1933. Litivinov sought to
create an anti-fascist alliance with western powers during the 1930’s. When the British and French caved in at
Munich, Stalin decided to work on developing relations with Hitler’s
government. To that end, he removed
Litvinov since it would not due to have a Jew negotiating with the Nazi
government. After the Nazis attacked the
Soviet Union, Litvinov was sent to Washington to negotiate a Lend-Lease that
would provide the arms the Soviets needed to meet the Nazi onslaught.
1931: According to a report Ralph Hayes gave to Winthrop W. Aldrich, the
chairman of the distribution committee of the New York Community trust today,
the University of Jerusalem received $11,383 from the trust during the first
six months of 1931.
1932(16th of Tammuz, 5692): Sadie Strauss (nee Katz), the
widow of Erwin Katz and mother of Howard G. Strauss passed away today in New
York City.
1932: Caroline Rauschkolb, the widow of the late Frank Rauschkolb and
mother of Abe, Benny and Leo Rauschkolb passed away today in New York.
1933: Cardinal Pacelli issued a concordant known as the Hitler
Concordant. Hitler described it as” unrestricted acceptance of National
Socialism by the Vatican.” Cardinal Pacelli later became Pope Pious XII.
In its spirit all teaching priests were to greet their students with “Heil
Hitler, praised be Jesus Christ.”
(editor’s note: There is not space to review the pernicious effect of
this agreement but consider the following When Einstein was told how Pius XII
directed a Polish priest to keep silent about the murder of Jews, because of
the Concordat the Holy See had signed with Nazi Germany “obliged the
Church to tread softly”, he replied “There are cosmic laws, Dr.
Hermanns. They cannot be bribed by prayers or incense. What an insult to the
principles of creation. But remember, that for God a thousand years is a day.
This power maneuver of the Church, these Concordats through the centuries with
worldly powers… the Church has to pay for it.”)
1933: In Germany, two-hundred
Jewish merchants are arrested in Nuremberg and paraded through the streets.
1933(26th of Tammuz, 5693):
Seventy-year old Sir Harry Lawson Webster Levy-Lawson, 1st Viscount
Burnham GCMG, CH, TD, JP, DL, a British newspaper proprietor and a Liberal
Unionist politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1885 and 1916 when
he inherited his peerage passed away today.
1933: In London, 500,000 march against anti-Semitism. This may be seen as
part of companion piece to a rally held in March, 1933 at Madison Square Garden
in New York City. The demonstration in
London was certainly not representative of British public opinion or
policy. Many of the movers and shakers
in Great Britain were impressed with the
cleansing effect that the Nazis were bringing to Germany, marking them as
pro-German, anti-Semitic or both.
1934: In Rochester, NY, Ben Krasnow, “a commercial artist (sign painter),
and to the former Gertrude Goldstein from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada both of
Russian Jewish parentage” gave birth to Robert Alan “Bob” Krasnow the
music executive who re-vitalized Elektra Records. (As reported by Ben Sisario)
1934: The Court of Appeal today quashed the death sentence passed by the
District Court on Abraham Stavsky on June 8 for the murder of Dr. Chaim
Arlosoroff, prominent labor leader and member of the Jewish Agency Executive of
Palestine. The Appeal Court found that the evidence was insufficient. Thousands of supporters of Stavsky, who
dodged a date with the hangman, reportedly danced in the streets of Jerusalem
as they celebrated a victory for the Revisionist faction of the Zionist
movement.
1935(19th of Tammuz, 5695): Parashat Pinchas
1935: In Shanghai, “the Municipal Council, after an investigation, said
today that the reports of ritualistic murders in a Jewish cemetery were false.”
1935(19th of Tammuz, 5695): Ninety year old German native,
Rabbi Joseph Kahn, the husband of Rosalie Kahn and father of University of
Michigan trained civil engineer Moritz Kahn who is credited with the creation
of “pre-case reinforced concrete ships where were used by the English Admiralty
in W.W I” passed away today after which he was interred at the Woodmere
Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan.
1935(19th of Tammuz, 5696): Seventy-eight year old Minnie
Ranshohoff, the “daughter of Julius and Duffie Freiberg” and the wife of Dr.
Joseph Ranshoff with whom she had had five children, passed a way today.
1936(1st of Av, 5696): Rosh Chodesh Av
1936: Birthdate of Harvey David Luber. The Chicago native became a first
rate photographer, a leader of the Little Rock Jewish community and a great
friend.
1936: “Earl Peel, who was Secretary of State for India” has been name to
a chair “a commission that is inquiring into the unrest in Palestine” the other
members of which are Field Marshall Sir William Birdwood, Sir Horace Rumbold
“who has a fluent command of Arabic and has been Ambassador to Constantinople”
and “Reginald Coupland, Professor of Colonial History at Oxford University.
1936: The Palestine Post
reported that since according to the 1935 Official Palestinian Report on
Migration certain professions became overcrowded, the government had restricted
the admission to the country of all those belonging to the medical, legal and
engineering professions. [Editor’s note: This seemingly innocuous ruling came
at a time when educated Jews were trying to leave Germany.] Arab snipers shot
at British soldiers patrolling the Nablus road in Jerusalem. Lengths of railway
track were found removed near Tulkarm. Arab hawkers asked for police protection
in order to be able to sell their wares. They complained that the general
strike brought them ruin, starvation and death. Several more prominent members
of the Arab “National Guard” were interned at Sarafand
1937: Today, The American Citizen Members of the Arab National League and
“a group of Americans interested in the Far East question” including Professor
Elihu Grant of Haverford College and Dr. Leland W. Parr of the George
Washington Medical School urged President Roosevelt “to take no part in the
Jewish-Arab controversy.”
1937: Today, William Green, the President of the American Federation of
Labor issued “an indignant statement to the press” expressing his opposition to
the proposed portioning of Palestine and accusing the British of “cool
persecution of the Jews.”
1938(21st of Tammuz, 5698): Forty-five-year old Julius S.
Berg, the Manhattan born son of Morris and Celia (Weinstein) Berg who was
wounded at Arras, France in May of 1918 and who went to serve in both houses of
the New York state legislature while being married to Rose Schram passed away
today.
1938: “The Henlein newspaper Die Zeit” reported today “that two more
important industrial concerns owned by Jews – the Boemish-Krumau engine works
owned by Ignatz Spiro his sons and the Nestomicer sugar refinery owned by Dr.
Bloch-Bauer – are leaving the Sudeten German area for Prague which will cost
400 Germans and 199 Czechs to lose their jobs.
1939(4th of Av, 5699): Dutch sculptor Joseph Mendes da Costa
passed away. “Best known for making
sculptures and ornaments for buildings” Mendes da Costa was a member of “Ars et
Labor” which would become the Dutch version of Art Nouveau.
1939: British policy on Palestine–particularly the latest decision to
cut off legal immigration for six months, beginning Oct. 1–came under heavy
fire in the House of Commons tonight. The opposition Laborites contended that
the decision to suspend immigration was proof of failure of the government’s
new policy.
1939: Birthdate of Judy
Chicago. For over four decades Chicago
has been a leading educator, artist and shaper of the feminist movement. One of her most famous works is the
multi-media history of women in Western Civilization entitled “The Dinner
Party.”
1940: “The Breeze and I,” a popular song with English lyrics by Al
Stillman “first reached the Billboard magazine charts today and lasted 9 weeks
on the chart, peaking at #2.”
1940: Ten-year-old David Judah Lawrence, the future alpine skiing race
arrived in New York aboard the Pan Am Yankee Clipper thanks to the visas given
to him and his family by “Portuguese consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes.”
1941: A Jewish ghetto at Minsk, Belorussia, is established.
1941: Today, marked the celebration of the 50th anniversary of
City Park during which Felix J. Dreyfous “received a golden bowl filled with
fifty park-grown roses “ at a time that Dreyfous was celebrating “his 50th
consecutive year as member of the park of board of commissioners” which he now
served as President.
1942: The first detachment of the U.S. Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps
(WAC’s) begins basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. Among this group of
volunteers are twelve Jewish women: Ruth Ginns, Beatrice Berg, Carolyne Casper
and Jean Korn from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Kathryne Goldfluss, Rose Ross
and Joan Strongin from New York, New York; Bee Rosenberg and Ruth Spivak from
Chicago, Illinois; Rita Fink and Isabel Bayley of Buffalo, New York; and
Elizabeth Morgenstern of Seattle, Washington.
1942: The Jews of Kleck tried to revolt as the Germans circled their
town. Only a few hundred escaped. The 1,000 remaining Jews were shot dead.
1942: In Cologne, “Jewish children and some of their teachers including
Erich Klibanksy” were deported to Minsk today.
1942: The Germans murder 1000 Jews at Kleck, Belorussia; 400 flee
into forests. Two from the latter group, Moshe Fish and Leva Gilchik (from
nearby Kopyl), will form a partisan group.
1942: The Jews from Kowale Panskie, Poland are deported, to the Chelmno
death camp.
1942: In Warsaw, Rabbi Alexander Zusha Friedman, a “leader in Agudat
Israel, called on the people not to oppose the Germans with force.”God will not
permit his people to be destroyed. We must wait and a miracle will certainly
occur.” Agudat Israel, like many groups in the Judenrat, were afraid that
any “violent” opposition would mean the liquidation of the ghetto. http://jewishhistory.org.il/history.php?search=warsaw
1943(17th of Tammuz, 5703):Tzom Tammuz
1943(17th of Tammuz, 5703): Five hundred slave laborers are murdered at
Czestochowa, Poland.
1943: Over two thousand Jews are deported from Holland to Sobibór.
1943: Two Jews escape from Sobibór
1943: General Leslie Grove, the director of the Manhattan Project
acknowledged J. Robert Oppenheimer’s importance to the program to build the
Atomic Bomb when he issued a written order to the Manhattan Engineer District
commanding them to approve Oppie’s security clearance regardless of any
negative information that might have been gathered.
1944: “Since You Went Away” a film about the U.S. home-front in WW II,
produced by David O. Selznick who also wrote the screenplay and with music by
Max Steiner was released in the United States by United Artists.
1944: As of today, almost all of the Jews of Rhodes “had been captured
and were being held in improvised concentration camps” while they were being
robbed of their valuables and their homes were being looted by the Nazis.
(Editor’s Note: “At this point one should mention the humanitarian stance shown
by the Turkish consul, Selahettin Ulkumen, who intervened to save not only
Turkish nationals but whole families as well, even at the remotest proof of
their Turkish citizenship. He managed to save from the Nazis approximately 40
Jews who would have otherwise been led to death. For his acts, he was awarded
after the War the title of “Righteous among the Nations” by Yad
Vashem.”)
1944: The most famous plot to kill Hitler failed. This event has been
romanticized by various revisionists. The plotters realized that they could not
win the war. They thought that with Hitler gone, they could at least negotiate
a peace treaty with the West. The plotters were not only incompetent, they were
delusional as well. [For more about people who really worked to opposed Hitler
see the recently publish “Red Orchestra.”]
1945: Laurence Adolph Steinhardt began serving as the United States Ambassador
to Czechoslovakia following his service as U.S. Ambassador to Turkey.
1946: Birthdate of Israel Carmi (Weinstein) the native of Egypt who
perished in 1968 at the age of 22 when the Israeli Submarine Dakar sank.
1947: “More than 4,500 unauthorized Jewish immigrants who were deported
from Hafia, ostensibly to Cyprus, are being returned to France, informed
quarters indicated tonight.”
1947: Today a Haifa court order three Americans – Captain Bernard Marks,
the skipper of the Exodus, Arthur Ritzer the ship’s cook from Brooklyn and
Cyril Weinstein, a seaman from New York – “held under $4,000 bond each for
trial within fifteen days on two charges, ‘abetting persons to illegally
immigrate to Palestine’ and ‘being members of the crew of a Haganah ship which
carried 4,700 illegal immigrants into Palestine waters.”
1948: Samuel Rothberg, who has just returned from Palestine “where he
made a survey on the settlement of Jewish displaced persons” said that the
“extension of the truce in Palestine has proved disadvantageous to Israel”
since among other things, it has disrupted Israel’s economy because of the
country’s limited manpower.
1948: “Jewish sources said today that 1,500 Jewish men women and
children” have left Sofia, Bulgaria
1949(23rd of Tammuz, 5709): Fifty-nine year old Polish born
“trade union official Nathan Schedletzsky, a member of the “Amalgamated
Clothing Workers of America” and the “business agent for the “Pants-makers
Local No.8” passed away today in New York City.
1949: Birthdate of Jean-Louis Cohen, “a French historian of architecture
and urbanism.”
1949: Israel’s 19 month War of Independence ended. The government of
Syria signed the last of four armistices, which marked the end of open warfare.
The cessation of hostilities did not bring peace since the Arab states refused
to come to grips with the reality of the existence of Israel.
1950: Harry Gold, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia pleads guilty
to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus
Fuchs. Gold’s Jewish pedigree provided
fodder for anti-Semites who sought to make being Jewish and being Communist (or
disloyal to America) one and the same thing.
1950: “The Men” directed by Fred Zinnemann, produced by Stanley Kramer,
written by Carl Foreman, with music by Dimitri Tiomkin was released by United
Artists today in the United States.
1950: In Israel, doctors employed by the Health Ministry will go on
strike today unless their demands for increased pay are met.
1951: Abdullah Ibn Hussein Jordan’s King was assassinated in Jerusalem.
He was attending Friday prayers at a mosque when he was killed by those who
were afraid he was negotiating with Israel. His grandson, Hussein, became the
next King of Jordan. The assassination influenced the young king
1951: “The Law and the Lady” a comedy directed and produced by Edwin H.
Knopf was released by MGM today in the United States.
1953(8th of Av, 5713): Erev Tish’a B’Av observed for the first
time during the Presidency of Ike Eisenhower.
1954(19th of Tammuz, 5714): Herman Mantell, the husband of
Carrie Mantell passed away today after which he was buried at Springfield
Gardens in Queens County, NY.
1954: United States Senator Joseph
R. McCarthy accepts the resignation of his aide Roy Cohn. Roy Cohn was the chief counsel of the Senate
Committee that McCarthy used to conduct his investigations that smeared people,
ruined lives and unearthed no “Communist conspiracy among those he paraded
before the television lights. All of
those right wing anti-Semites seemed to lose sight of fact that McCarthy’s
chief henchman was one of those “New York Jews.”
1955(1st of Av, 5715): Rosh Chodesh Av
1955(1st of Av, 5715): Sixty-nine year old Edward S. Siskind,
the Russian born Jew who was the first person of his faith “to participate in athletics
at Fordham, a Jesuit university” where played baseball, football l and
basketball and coached the football team in 1918, passed away today.
https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Edward_Siskind.html
1956(12th of Av,5716): Eighty-three-year-old Jassy Rumanian
native and a partner in Aron Brothers, Elia Aron a manufacturer of hats and
caps for boys and men who at the age of 15 came to the United States where he
“was an organizer of the association
that published the Jewish Daily Forward and raised three children – Leon,
Sidney and Frieda – with his wife Molly Segal Aron passed away today
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/07/21/94299674.html?pageNumber=15
1956: Birthdate of Miami Beach, FL native and NYU educated composer and
music professor Michael Gordon, the husband of Julia Wolfe and co-founder of
the Bang on a Can music collective and festival.
https://michaelgordonmusic.com/
1957(21st of Tammuz, 5717): Parashat Matot
1957(21st of Tammuz, 5717): Seventy-eight-year-old New York
native and Columbia trained cardiologist Dr. Alfred Einstein Cohn, “an
authority on the human heart and one of the first physicians to make
electrocardiograms” who was the husband of Ruther Walker Price Cohn passed away
today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/07/23/84736623.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1959(14th of Tammuz, 5719): Forty-eight year old “Morrie
(Morris) Aronivoch, the Superior, Wisconsin major league outfielder nicknamed
“Snooker” who played six seasons with the Phillies, Reds and Giants after a
successful collegiate basketball career at U of Wisconsin-Superior and served
with the U.S. Army in the Pacific during WW II passed away today shortly before
his “his third anniversary.”
1959: Birthdate of Samuel Israel III, the New Orleans born incarcerated
hedge fund manager who was the subject of Octopus” Sam Israel, the Secret
Market and Wall Street’ Wildest Con by Guy Lawson
1960: The head of the Physics Department at the Israel Institute of
Technology, Kurt Sitte, was arrested for espionage.
1961: “Take Good Care of My Baby” a song written by the Jewish team of
Carole King and Gerry Goffin was released as a “45.” (If you know what the
number means, you probably grew up in what some called the golden age of Rock
and Rool)
1961: The West End production “Stop The World – I Want To Get Off” a
musical created by Anthony Newley who “was Jewish through his maternal
grandmother.” Opened today.
1962: Pope John XXIII sent
invitations to all ‘separated Christian churches and communities,’ asking each
to send delegate-observers to the upcoming Vatican II Ecumenical Council in
Rome. Vatican II would result in an improvement in the relationship between the
Jewish Community and the Roman Catholic Church.
Of course, there are those that would that anything would have to be an
improvement over Pope John’s predecessor, Pope Pious, the Pope of the
Holocaust.
1964: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today in Brooklyn for f
Dr. Herman Bernard, the husband of Sally Birnbuam with whom he raised four
children – Rudolph, Alfred, Beverly and Joseph Bernard and who was the
“treasurer of the Brooklyn Zionist Region.
1965: Lyndon B. Johnson nominates
Abe Fortas to the Supreme Court. Fortas was a close friend of Johnson’s; one of
the few people who could speak frankly with Johnson. Fortas was “nominally” Jewish and he warned
Johnson that the American Jewish Community would not see him as the right
person to hold what, since the days of Brandeis, had become “the Jewish chair” on
the High Court.
1966(3rd of Av, 5726): Sixty-five year old Warsaw born “Rabbi
Zvi Eisenstadt, a member of the presidium of Agudath Israel and of the Union
Orthodox Rabbis who lived in Tel Aviv during WW II and came to the United
States in 1946 where he raised his son Joseph with his wife Reisi passed away
today.
1967(12th of Tammuz, 5727): “As he was hard at work on the
final revision of his latest book,” fifty-eight year old linguist Morris
Swadesh passed away after suffering a heart attack.
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1968.70.4.02a00070
1968(24th of Tammuz, 5728): Parashat Pinchas
1968(24th of Tammuz, 5728): Eighty-six-year-old Abraham
Bitensky, “who retired in 1942 as president of the Abe Bitensky and Brothers,
rayon and silk convertors” and the brother of Isaac Bitenksy passed away today
in Far Rockaway, Queens.
1969: In an event that transcended national, religious and all such
boundaries, Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon today.
1969: In response to Nasser’s War of Attrition which was the Arab
response to Israel’s attempt to negotiate a peace after the Six Day War,
Operation Boxer began with a series of crippling air attacks.
1969: Israeli commandos successfully finish their attack on Green Island
by completely destroying the island fortress.
The press hails the attack as an Israeli Navronne, after the fictional
island in the movie “The Guns of Navronne.”
But the casualties were not fiction.
Not only were they real, they were higher than expected. The Israelis learned from the mission and
went on to improve the functionality of their units.
1971: Nessim (Max) Cohen, the Moroccan born Israeli boxer who is he
French middle weight champion, was in New York to promote his upcoming “bout
with Emile Griffith, a five-time world champion.
1971: Syria and Jordan’s armies exchange fire over the common frontier.
This would prove to be prelude to a Syrian attempt to seize Jordan, part of
Syrian President Assad’s goal to create a Greater Syria. In one of those strange twists, Israel moved
tanks towards the area of conflict which Washington’s way of letting the
Syrians know that they should back off and leave Jordan alone.
1972(9th of Av, 5732): Tish’a B’Av
1973: Palestinian terrorists hijacked a Japan Airlines jet en route from
Amsterdam to Japan and forced it down in Dubai.
1974: In Washington, DC attorney Albert Foer and Esther Safran Foer, the
daughter of Holocaust survivors gave birth to Columbia educated writer and editor of The New Republic
Franklin Foer, the brother of Jonathan and Joshua Foer.
1976: Today marked the start of what would become the Good Fence Policy
along the border with Lebanon. The hope was that the medical treatment of
Lebanese citizens in Israel and the beginning of trade between South Lebanon
and Israel would start a new era of relations between the two countries. Like
so many other peace initiatives this one died at the hand of terrorism.
1978: Birthdate of Elliott Yamin, born Efraym Elliott Yamin, who is an
American singer known for his hit single “Wait for You” and placing
third on the fifth season of American Idol.
1980: The United Nations Security
Council votes 14-0 that member states should not recognize Jerusalem as the
capital of Israel. This is another reason that Israel tends not to trust the
UN. In 1947, as part of the partition vote, the UN said Jerusalem would be
governed by an international body. When
the Jordanians attacked Jerusalem and expelled the Jewish population from the
Old City, the UN did nothing. During the
19 year occupation of the city by the Jordanians Jews, of whatever nationality,
were kept out of the city. The UN did
nothing. But now that the Israelis
controlled the whole city and it was open to Christians, Moslems and Jews, the
UN acted to support the Arab view of the City of David.
1981: The administration of newly
elected Republican President Ronald Reagan suspends sales of F-16 fighter jets
to Israel.
1981(29th of Tammuz, 5739): Seventy-nine year old Joseph N. Katz the
founder and board chairman of Empire Kosher Poultry Inc., passed away today http://www.empirekosher.com/history/
1983; The Israeli cabinet votes to withdraw troops from Beirut but to
remain in southern Lebanon. The Israelis had gone into Lebanon because the PLO
occupied the southern half of the country and was using it as base to attack
Israel. The government of Lebanon either
could not or would not remove the PLO so Israel was forced to act or accept the
fact that Arafat’s terrorists would have permanent base on Israel’s northern
border.
1987 The Los Angeles law firm of
Kadison, Pfaelzer, Woodard, Quinn & RossiThe Los Angeles law firm of
Kadison, Pfaelzer, Woodard, Quinn & Rossi which had been founded in 1967 by
“several prominent attorneys including “Morris Pfaelzer, the husband of U.S.
District Court Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer” “went out of business” today.
1988: “Midnight Run” a comedic “buddy movie” directed and produced by
Martin Brest, co-starring Charles Grodin, featuring Yaphet Kotto and with music
by Danny Elfman was released today in the United States.
1989(17th of Tammuz, 5749): Tzom Tammuz is observed for the
first time during the Presidency of George Bush.
1991(9th of Av, 5751): Parashat Devarim; Shabbat Chazon; Erev
Tish’a B’Av
1994: Israel’s Shimon Peres visits Jordan, the highest ranking Israeli
official to do so.
1994: “The Client,” the movie version of the novel with the same name
directed by Joel Schumacher, with a screenplay co-authored by Akiva Goldsman
and music composed by Howard Shore was released in the United States today.
1995(22nd of Tammuz, 5755): Seventy-two year old Ernest Ezra
Manel, the Frankfurt born son of “Henri and Rosa Mandel, were Jewish emigres
from Poland” the WW II resistance fighter who survived and escaped from
concentration camps and who identified with the ideology of Leon Trotsky passed
away today.
http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/kurenets/k_pages/mandel.html
1996: During the 1996 Summer
Olympics, the artistic gymnastic events in which Kerri Strug competed opened
today at the Georgia Dome.
1996(4th of Av, 5756): Raphael Patai passed away. Born Ervin György in 1910, Patai, was a
Hungarian-Jewish ethnographer and anthropologist.
1997: The Sunday New York Times
book section featured reviews of Egypt’s Road to Jerusalem: A Diplomat’s
Story of the Struggle for Peace in the Middle East by Boutros
Boutros-Ghali, Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast by Patrick McGilligan and Inventing Memory: A Novel of
Mothers and Daughters by Erica Jong.
1997: A conference “The Dead Sea Scrolls: Fifty
Years After Their Discovery” opened in Jersualem.
1999: Roman Bronfman and Alexander Tzinker formed
the Democratic Choice faction.
2000(17th of Tammuz, 5760): Tzom Tammuz
is observed for the first last time during the Presidency of Bill Clinton.
2001: After premiering at the Seattle International
Film Festival, “Ghost World,” with a script by Daniel Clowes who
had a Jewish mother and Terry Zwigoff, the son of dairy farmers who also served
as director was released today in the United States.
2001: “America’s Sweethearts,” a comedy directed by
Joe Roth, written, produced and co-starring Billy Crystal and featuring Alan
Arkin was released in the United States today.
2002: As a reminder that Jews were not the only
victims of the Nazis, we mark the death of concentration camp survivor and art
Jan M. Komski.
http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/Komski.htm
2003: At the Lincoln Center Festival, Israel’s
Gesher Theatre gives its opening performance of its adaptation of “The Slave.”
2003: Jewish Women International’s first-ever international conference on
domestic violence in the Jewish community held its first meeting in Baltimore.
2003(20th of Tammuz,
5763): Rabbi Bezalel Rakow, “an orthodox rabbi who headed Gateshead’s Jewish
community” and who “was the chair of the Council of Torah Sages of Agudas Yisroel
of Great Britain” passed away.
2004 (2nd of Av,
5764): Temple Judah mourned the loss of Rabbi Ed Chesman who passed away
unexpectedly while vacationing with family in Florida.
2004: Ariel “Sharon
called on French Jews to emigrate from France to Israel immediately, in light
of an increase in French anti-Semitism (94 anti-Semitic assaults were reported
in the first six months of 2004, compared to 47 in 2003). France has the
third-largest Jewish population in the world (about 600,000 people).
2005: “Israel’s
Parliament easily voted down three bills today aimed at delaying the withdrawal
of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip…”
2005: Ernst Zündel, a
66-year-old white supremacist and internationally known Holocaust denier who
was deported to his native Germany from Canada in March, has been charged with
14 counts of hate crimes, a court in Mannheim said.
2006(24th of Tammuz,
5766): Charles Bettelheim passed away. Born in 1913 he “was a French economist
and historian, founder of the Center for the Study of Modes of
Industrialization (CEMI: “Centre pour l’Étude des Modes
d’Industrialisation”) at the Sorbonne), economic advisor to the
governments of several developing countries during the period of
decolonization. He was very influential in France’s New Left, and considered
one of “the most visible Marxists in the capitalist world.”
2006(24th
of Tammuz, 5766): Ninety-year old Frank Reginald Nunes Nabarro “a leading authority on solid state physics”
who was Professor of Physics and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of
Witwatersrand passed away today.
2006: The following
were among a total of 43 Israeli civilians (including four who died of heart
attacks during rocket barrages) and 116 IDF soldiers were killed in the
Israel-Hizbullah war: Maj. Benjy Hillman, 27; St.-Sgt. Rafenael Muscal, 21, of
Mazkeret Batya; St.-Sgt. Nadav Baeloha, 21, of Karmiel; St.-Sgt. Liran
Sa’adiya, 21, of Kiryat Shmona; St.-Sgt. Yonatan (Sergei) Vlasyuk, 21, of
Kibbutz Lahav; Maj. Ran Kochva, 37, of Beit Hananya.
2007: Under the
direction of Lauren Reece, The Footlighters ACT II performs “The Diary of
Anne Frank” at the Herbert Hoover Library in West Branch, Iowa. Making this a Jewish as well as community
even, Rabbi Portman of Agudas Achim in Iowa City will conduct an outdoor
Shabbat Eve services on the grounds of what was Herbert Hoover’s boyhood home.
While Jews preferred FDR to Hoover in 1932, it must never be forgotten that
Hoover was responsible for putting Justice Cardozo on the Supreme Court when
anti-Semitism was on the rise during the Great Depression.
2007: The Crown
Prosecution Service announced that Lord Michael Levy was not to be prosecuted
in connection with the so called “Cash for Honours” affair and that
there were to be no charges against him.
2007: World premiere
of David Zellnik’s “Ariel Sharon Hovers
Between Life and Death and Dreams of Theodor Herzl” at Theatre J in Washington,
DC.
2008: Fast the 17th
Day of Tammuz, 5768
2008(17th
of Tammuz, 5768): Israeli mathematician Michael Maschler best known for his
contributions in the field of “game theory” passed away today.
https://sites.google.com/site/themichaelbmaschlerprize/arachnid-story
2008: The Washington Post book section
features a review of Debra Winger’s memoir, Undiscovered.
2008: The Sunday New York Times book section
features a review of Rapture Ready in which Jewish author Daniel Radosh
explores Christian pop culture.
2009: In upstate New
York, Marilyn and Lester Milton Bornstein gave birth to Michael Scott
Bornestein who gained fame as Michael Oren the author who served as Israel’s
ambassador.
2009: At the 18th
Maccabiah Games, the basketball competition continues as Brazil plays Germany,
the USA plays Argentina, France plays Mexico and the hometown Israelis tip off
against Canada.
2009: In an interview
given today, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of Reform Judaism said
that the vast majority of American Jews back a settlement freeze.
2009(28th of Tammuz,
5769): Mark Richard Rosenzweig an American research psychologist who found in
animal studies on neuroplasticity that the brain continues developing
anatomically, reshaping and repairing itself into adulthood based on life
experiences, overturning the conventional wisdom that the brain reached full
maturity in childhood passed away at the age of 86.
2009: Amidst the
controversy surrounding the planned screenings of “Rachel,” a film that
investigates the death of anti-Israel activist Rachel Corrie, and its
invitation to her mother, Cindy Corrie, to speak afterward, the San Francisco
Jewish Film Festival Board President Shana Penn resigned from her post, citing
“healthy differences on how to approach sensitive issues,” with five months
left on a two-year term.
2010(9th of Av,
5770): Tish’a B’Av: 1,940th anniversary of the destruction of the
Second Temple; 1,875th anniversary of the fall of Bethar.
2010: A judge at Tel
Aviv District Family Court today rejected a request for a gag order on the
contents of a box containing manuscripts written by Franz Kafka.
2010: Elena Kagan,
President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, won approval from the Senate Judiciary
Committee on a nearly party-line vote today, her next to last hurdle before
gaining a lifetime seat on the high court.
2011: Anat Cohen, an Israeli jazz clarinetist,
saxophonist and bandleader, is scheduled to appear at the Berman Center for the
Performing Arts at an event sponsored by Detroit Jazz Festival & The JCC
Stephen Gottlieb Music Festival.
2011: Medical
residents announced an indefinite strike today as they continued organizing
protests throughout the country against a deal being drafted between the Israel
Medical Association and the Finance Ministry to end the doctors’ strike.
2011: Reports that an
Israeli killed in the New Zealand earthquake in February was an intelligence
agent were wrong, Prime Minister John Key said today.
2011: An affiliate of Leonard
Blavatnik’s Access Industries “acquired Warner Music Group for $3.3 billion.”
2011(18th of Tammuz,
5771): Sixty-eight year old Myra Kraft, the wife of Patriots owner Robert Kraft
whom she married while a student at Brandeis and with whom she had four son and
whose philanthropy was one of the things that led to her being chosen as “one
of the 20 Most Powerful Women in Boston” passed away today.
2011(18th of Tammuz,
5771): Eighty-eight year old portrait artist Lucian Freud, the grandson of
Sigmund Freud and the brother of Clement Freud pass away today. (As reported by
William Grimes)
2012(1st of Av,
5772): Rosh Chodesh Av
2012(1st of Ave,
5772): Thirty year old “Ari Ephraim Rubin, vice chairman of the Jewish Defense
League died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound” today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jdl-vice-chairmans-suicide-continues-chain-of-violent-deaths/
2012: Fresh from her triumphal
performance in Des Moines, Iowa, renowned soprano Sarah Jane McMahon is
scheduled to return to Touro Synagogue in New Orleans this evening for the
fifth in a series of musical programs devoted to works by Jewish composers. [For more about this and other happenings in
“The Big Easy” see the Crescent City Jewish News http://www.crescentcityjewishnews.com/
2012: “5-Day Kosher Bike Trek”
a 420 mile bike ride that began in and offers Kosher food for all riders is
scheduled to end today at Santa Fe, NM.
2012: As it marks it last
Shabbat weekend in its downtown Washington Avenue location in Iowa City, Agudas
Achim is scheduled to host a potluck supper before Friday services.
2012: Six months after
premiering at Sundance, “The Queen of Versailles,” a documentary about David
Siegel’s private residence directed and co-produced by Lauren Greenfield was
released today in the United States.
2012: The tearful funerals of
the five Burgas airport suicide-bomb bombings were held in the course of today,
drawing hundreds — and in some cases thousands — of mourners. Two sets of
childhood friends and a newly pregnant woman, they were blown up on Wednesday
at the start of what was supposed to have been a vacation, on the bus that was
taking them from their plane to the airport terminal in the Bulgarian Black Sea
resort.(As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)
2012: After premiering in NYC
four days ago, “The Dark Knight Rises” featuring Ben Mendelsohn as “John
Daggett and Alon Abutbul as “Dr. Leonid Pavel” was released to the theatres in
North American and the United Kingdom.
2012: A suicide bombing
that killed Israeli tourists in Bulgaria this week bore hallmarks of
Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants but the U.S. Defense Department has not yet
concluded who was behind it, a Pentagon spokesman said today. The attack on a
bus carrying Israelis at a Bulgarian airport, “does bear the hallmarks of
Hezbollah,” George Little, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters.
2012(1st of Av):Moshe Silman, the homeless man who set
himself on fire at a Tel Aviv rally last weekend, died this afternoon at the
Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer after succumbing to the burns which
covered over 90 percent of his body.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/man-who-set-himself-on-fire-at-rally-succumbs-to-wounds/
2012: A Muslim husband and wife
convicted of planning a terror attack against Jews in Manchester, England, were
jailed today. Shasta Khan, who was convicted of preparing for acts of terrorism
and two counts of possessing information likely to be useful in an act of
terrorism, was sentenced to eight years in prison. The 38-year-old hairdresser,
who had pleaded not guilty, will serve four years minus the 350 days she spent
on remand. (As reported by Miriam Shaviv)
2013: “More than
Carnival,” a season ending summer concert is scheduled to take place at the
Eden-Tamir Music Center.
2013: The Maccabeats
are scheduled to perform for a second day at the Hampton Synagogue at West
Hampton Beach.
2013: “The geeky
numbers guy who turned the electoral vote counting into a national obsession
with his FIveThirtyEight blog is leaving the New York Times for the sports network” (As reported by Forward
Staff)
Read more: http://forward.com/articles/180844/geek-is-gone-nate-silver-to-dump-new-york-times-f/#ixzz2ZctSzkcr
2013: A leading
minister confirmed that Israel would
release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the renewal of peace talks, but
said that the government is not bound to a settlement freeze as a precondition
for the resumption of negotiations. (As reported by Michael Shmulovich and
Ricky Ben David)
2014: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Falling
Out of Time by David Grossman and Friendship by Emily Gould
2014: Carole Glauber
is scheduled to talk about the photographers in her exhibit “Israel in Light
and Shadow” at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocuast Education.
2014: As of 1:30 a.m.
Israeli time, network television reports on the fighting between Israel and
Hamas show pictures of Gaza but show no pictures of rockets falling in Israel
or Israelis “running for their lives”
2014(22nd
of Tammuz, 5714: Thirteen members of the Golani Brigade were killed today as
they fought the terrorirsts in Gaza including Captain Tzafrir Bar-Or, a
commander in the Golani Brigade, 32, of Holon; Major Zvi Kaplan, a commander in
the Golani Brigade, 28, from Kedumim;
Gilad Yaakobi, 21, of
Kiryat Ono; Sergeant Oz Mendelovich, 21, from Avtalion; Nissim Shon Carmeli,
21, of Ra’anana (“In life they were loved and admired; they were swifter than
eagles, they were stronger than lions.”)
2015(4th
of Av, 5775): Ninety-four year old Pennsylvania born pilot Lou Lenart whose
colorful career included “saving Tel Aviv” on May 29, 1948 when he and three
other fliers conducted “a forty minute strafing and bombing raid on a column of
Egyptian tanks, trucks and troops” that would have been in the Jewish
metropolis the following day were it not for this act of daring-do.
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-lou-lenart-20150722-story.html
2015: In Jerusalem,
the OU Israel center is scheduled to present a special lecture from Rabbi
Herschel Schachter, the Rosh Yeshiva at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological
Seminary (RIETS), Yeshiva University.
2015: Archaeologist
announced today that “thanks to a high tech solution, a charred parchment
scroll discovered by the shores of the Dead Sea bearing verses from the Book of
Leviticus” has been deciphered for the first time. (As reported by Ilan Ben
Zion)
2016: At Temple
Israel, in Memphis, TN, Rabbi Feivel Strauss is scheduled to present “When Will
We Find Peace?” in which he explores “the 17th of Tammuz – Tzom
Tammuz” as a part of the program that “explores how observing the holidays
enrich Jewish lives.”
2016: While working
at “Freedom Square, the makeshift booze and nosh area just outside the Quicken
Loans Arena” in Cleveland, 58 year old Joan Rosenthal described preparing
platters of pierogis for those attending the Republican Presidential
Convention. (As reported by Ron Kampeas)
2016: ZviDance, the
Israeli dance troupe led by choreographer Zvi Gotheiner is scheduled to perform
at the Doris Duke Theatre.
2016: UK Jewish Film
is scheduled to host the final screening of “Labyrinth of Lies” a film “based
on the investigations that led to the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials” at the
Cineworld in Manchester.
2016: Dr. Suzanne
Schneider of the Brooklyn Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to lead
another session of “Primo Levi: Memory, Meaning and the Holocaust” in which she
examines the life of the Italian chemist turned “witness to evil” whose
writings provided new perspective on the Holocaust.
2016: Eightieth
anniversary of the birth of Harvey David Luber, of blessed memory.
2017: In London, JW3
is scheduled to host the last two screenings of “Norman: The Moderate Rise and
Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer.”
2017: “A Woman’s Life”
and “The Pot and the Oak” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Film
Festival.
2017:”Sports attorney
and former Washington Senator’s broadcaster Philip Hochberg; Documentary
Filmmaker Aviva Kempner (The Life and Times of Hank
Greenberg and an upcoming film about Moe Berg); and author Frederic
J. Frommer (You Gotta Have Heart: A History of Washington Baseball from
1859 to the 2012 National League East Champions) are scheduled to take part
in “Fielding Dreams: Washington’s Jewish Ballplayers.”
2017: After five
days, the North American Jewish Choral Festival sponsored by the Zamir Choral
Foundation is scheduled to come to an end today.
2017: Today
“Britain’s National Archives released records showing Winston Churchill’s
attempts cover up a Nazi plot to collaborate with the members of the British
royal” who in this case was the Duke of Windsor, the German’s candidate for the
throne if they had been successful. (As reported by Times of Israel)
2017: “Keep the
Change,” “a documentary about a community of adults living on the autism
spectrum: is scheduled to be shown on the opening night of The San Francisco
Jewish Film Festival presented by the Jewish Film Institute.
2018: World premiere
of “Footprints” which includes a presentation of work by “Dafi Altabeb, the
recipient of the 2012, 2013, and 2016 Excellence Award for young choreographers
from the Israeli Ministry of Culture and the 2014 Rozenblum Award for
Excellence from the Municipality of Tel-Aviv…”
2018: In South
Euclid, Ohio, the Mercury Theatre Company is scheduled to host a production of
“Joseph and the Amazing Dreamcoat,” as part of the celebration of “its 50th
anniversary.”
2019(17th
of Tammuz, 5779): Parashat Balak: for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2019(17th
of Tammuz, 5779): Tzom Tammuz is postponed until tomorrow because of the rules
concerning refraining from observing minor fast days on Shabbat.
2019: In Edmonton,
Jonathan Scheinman is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah at
Beth Shalom Synagogue.
2019: The San
Francisco Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host screenings of “Before You
Know It” and “Golda.”
2020: “The first of a series of planned free
seminars on cybersecurity is scheduled to be held for the benefit of the Jewish
community under the direction of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans”
today.
2020: The United Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host the “2020
Arthur and Rochelle Belfer National Conference for Educators” which is a
“virtual event.”
2020: As part of its virtual July celebration webinars, the Streicker
Center is scheduled to host Adeena Sussan, “the Sababa Chef.”
https://www.emanuelnyc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/sababa-all-recipes.pdf
2020: The Jewish Museum of Maryland is scheduled to host a live digital
program on “Preserving Holocaust History through Artifacts, Archives and
Research.”
2020: Online, via Zoom, Dr. Shari Rabin, assistant professor of Religion
and Jewish Studies at Oberlin College, is scheduled to discuss Jewish
immigration to the United States around the turn of the 20th century and its
ramifications on contemporary American life
2020: Former Camp Newman executive director Ruben Ruben Arquilevich (now
V.P. of URJ Camps, NFTY and Immersives) is scheduled to about how to recreate
the magic of camp at home to give kids meaningful experiences this summer as
part of the Osher Marin JCC Pivot series.
2020: The 11th Annual Axelrod Jewish Film festival is
scheduled to host a screening of “The Crossing” the film that “tells the story
of the adventurous 10-year-old Gerda and her brother Otto, whose parents are in
the Norwegian resistance movement during the Second World War.”
2020: As Israelis awake, they are confronted by the reality that according
to the Health Ministry, the number of Coved cases has surpassed 50,000 which
has led the Defense Minister to commit more IDF troops to help specified
localities to cope with the pandemic.
2021: East Bay Jewish film fest teams,
Israeli Consulate and A Wider Bridge are scheduled to present “The Signe for
Love,” a 2017 Israeli documentary about a deaf gay man raising a baby with his
deaf friend.
2021: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present a workshop
“Creative Nonfiction Writing for Genealogists.”
2021: Convicted sex offender and former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was flown to Los Angeles and taken to the Twin
Towers Correctional Facility
2021: The United States Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host Piecing
Together One Family’s Holocaust History Global Film Screening and Live
Discussion.
2021: The Williams Theatre is scheduled to present a performance of
“Divorced.”
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/divorced-the-play-summer-tuesdays-in-williamsburg-tickets-158573450459
2021: The Streicker Center is scheduled to present author Joshua Greene
lecturing on “From Nazi Prisoner to Wall Street King: The Indefatigable Siggi
Wilzig.
2021: The Park Avenue Synagogue in New York is scheduled to host a
lecture by author Judy Batalion.
2021: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a discussion of
Mandela’s Way: Lessons for an Uncertain Age as part of its One Museum, One Book
Club program.
2022:LSJS is scheduled to host a lecture by Rabbi Harvey Belovski on
“Continuous Revelation,” which is part of series “Why Rabbis Argue: The Genesis
and Genius of the Oral Law.”
2022: The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County is scheduled to
present kinescopes of the sitcom “Stanley” followed by a discussion the Buddy
Hackett sitcom led by Barry Jacobsen.
2022: On National Hot Dog, the Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to
host a talk by Steve Marcus, the creator of its new exhibition “Steve Marcus:
Tog Dog of Kosher Pop Art.
2022 Boston Jewish Film is scheduled to present a screening of “Carol of
Bells” at the West Newton Cinema.
2023: Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by Trudy Gold on
“Edward VIII: A Wasted Life?”
2023: The Summer Institute “Teaching the Holocaust” sponsored by the Iowa
Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to continue today.
2023: Yeshiva University Museum’s Director Gabriel Goldstein is scheduled
lead “a guided tour of The Golden Path: Maimonides Across Eight Centuries,
illuminating the life and impact of the multifaceted luminary and great Jewish
sage across continents and cultures through rare manuscripts and books.”
2023: In Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host its next
Seniors Chavurah.
2023: A reception marking the New York premiere of Orit Ben Shitrit’s
video installations and paintings, curated by Maureen Sullivan is scheduled to
take place this evening.
2023: Hundreds of anti-government protesters are scheduled to continue
their march on Jerusalem which they plan to reach tomorrow..
2023: The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host an in-person
book talk and signing with Daniel Wolff, author of How to Become an American.
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