This Day, May 11, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
May
11
330:
Roman Emperor Constantine I changed the name of the ancient city of Byzantium
to Nova Roma (New Rome) as it becomes
the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.
The city will be known as Constantinople (the city of Constantine). The
move is indicative of the growing power of Constantine, the emperor who redefined relations between Jews and Christians
that exists into modern times. The name
New Rome also helped to the schism between the Western (Catholic) Christians and their Eastern
(Orthodox) co-religionists since the Christian leader of New Rome thought his
powers should be equal to the Christian leader (the Pope) at old Rome.
1175:
Thirteen assassins were foiled in their attempt to murder Saladin. Thirteen
years later Saladin would drive the Crusaders from Jerusalem and allow the Jews
to return. Maimonides provided medial services to the great Muslim leader.
1189:
Frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor set off on the Third Crusade. He would drown before he reached the Holy
Land. On balance, Barbarossa’s reign was
a positive one for the Jews since he viewed the Jews as his special subjects,
which means he afforded them protection because they were a source of financial
benefit to the monarch.
1304:
Mahmud Ghazan who had converted to Islam in 1295 marking the start of a
downgrading of the conditions of the Jews in Persia because they were forced
back into the role of “dhimmis” – official second class citizens—passed away
today.
1415: Edict of Benedict XIII was issued today because he was
enraged by the lack of voluntary conversions after the Christian
“victory” at the Tortosa disputation. As a result, he banned the
study of the Talmud in any form, instituted forced Christian sermons, and tried
to restrict Jewish life completely.
1415: Today,
“in the hope of mass-conversions, Benedict issued a bull consisting of twelve
articles, which, in the main, corresponded with the decree
(“Pragmática”) issued by Catalina, and which had been placed on the
statutes of Aragon by Fernando. By this bull Jews and neophytes were forbidden
to study the Talmud, to read anti-Catholic writings, in particular the work
“Macellum” (“Mar Jesu”), to pronounce the names of Jesus,
Maria, or the saints, to manufacture communion-cups or other church vessels or
accept such as pledges, or to build new synagogues or ornament old ones. Each
community might have only one synagogue. Jews were denied all rights of
selfjurisdiction, nor might they proceed against “malsines”
(accusers). They might hold no public offices, nor might they follow any
handicrafts, or act as brokers, matrimonial agents, physicians, apothecaries,
or druggists. They were forbidden to bake or sell matzot, or to give them away;
neither might they dispose of meat which they were prohibited from eating. They
might have no intercourse (sex) with Catholics, nor might they disinherit their
baptized children. They should wear the badge at all times, and thrice a year
all Jews over twelve, of both sexes, were required to listen to a Catholic
sermon.”
1421: At Styria, Austria, a large number of Jews
were burned. Those who were not killed were expelled from the country.
1572(18th of
Iyar, 5332): Moses Isserles, “the Rema” passed away today in Cracow, Poland.
Moses Isserles, also spelled Moshe Isserlis, who had been born at Cracow in
1520, “was an eminent Ashkenazic rabbi, Talmudist, and posek, renowned for his
fundamental work of Halachah (entitled ha-Mapah (lit., “the
tablecloth”), an inline commentary on the Shulkhan Aruch ( “the set
table”). His work opened up this Sephardic work to the Ashkenazim. “He is
also well known for his Darkhei Moshe commentary on the Tur. Isserles is also
referred to as the Rema, (or Remo, Rama) (רמ״א), the Hebrew
acronym for Rabbi Moses Isserle.” [This
brief entry cannot do justice to the life and work of this sage.]
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111847/jewish/Rabbi-Moshe-Isserles-The-Remo.htm
1593: Sir
Sidney Montague, who is apparently not an ancestor of Samuel Sydney Montague,
the 19th century Jewish author who “wrote a comedy, ‘A Quiet Pipe’
and interesting book of travels under the title Jewish Life in the East” was
admitted at Middle Temple today.
1610: Fifty-seven-year-old
Father Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary living in China whose manuscripts
described the existence of ten or twelve Jewish families in Kaifeng that may
have been living there for five or six hundred years, passed away today.
1647: Peter
Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam to replace Willem Kieft as Director-General
of New Netherland, the Dutch colonial settlement in present-day New York City.
Seven years later, Stuyvesant will be the governor of New Amsterdam when the
first Jews arrive in 1654. He will do everything in his power to keep the Jews
from settling there and enjoying the full rights of citizenship.
1660: English
preacher and political leader Hugh Peters who supported the ideas of Roger
Williams which included “writing on behalf of the toleration of Jews” was
arrested today as the restoration of the House of Stuart was taking place
following the end of the Cromwell era.
1685: Isaac
Benjamin Wolf Liebmann began serving as rabbi for the Jews of Berlin although
he reportedly lived at Landsberg-on-the-Warthe.
1764: A letter
written today from Empress Catherine II opened the way for limited settlement
of Jews in Riga.
1766: In
Enfield, Middlesex, England Benjamin D’Israeli, “a Jewish merchant who had
emigrated from Cento in 1784 and his second wife,
Sarah Syprut de Gabay Villa Real” gave birth to author and “man of letters”
Isaac D’Israeli, the father of the future Prime Minister Benjamin D’Israeli,
the Earl of Beaconsfield.
1772:
Birthdate of New York City native, Rachel Judah, the daughter of Samuel Judah,
1773(18th
of Iyar, 5533): Lag B’Omer is observed just three days after Parliament passed
the Tea Act which, unbeknownst to any one, was one of the steps on the road to
the Revolution and the creation of the United States of America.
1778(14th
of Iyar, 5538): Pesach Sheni was observed seven days after Congress ratified
the Treaty of Alliance and the
Treaty of Amity and Commerce which guaranteed French financial and military
support for the Americans which was critical to defeating the British and
securing the independence of the 13 colonies.
1784:
Birthdate of G.B. Depping, the German born French historian author of Les Juifs dans le moyen âge, essai
historique sur leur état civil, commercial et littéraire a history of the Jews he wrote in response to
a competition sponsored by the Royal Academy in 1821 to write a history
describing the life of the Jews living in France during the Middle Ages.
1795(22nd
of Iyar, 5555) Seventy-two-year-old Austrian banker Joachim Edler von Popper
who was “Court Jew” to the Habsburgs and who was the second Jew to be
“ennobled” by the Emperor passed away today.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Popper_Family
1800(16th
of Iyar, 5560): Asher Anshel Weiner, the
“son of Shimon Wiener and Mrs. Simon Winer and the husband of Slava Viener with
whom he had four children passed away today after which he was buried in
“Miskolc, Hungary.
1806:
According to the date on his tombstone, in Germany Simon and Johanetta Levy
native Meyer Levy, “ who changed his name to Jakob Mayer” then to John Mayer,
the name on his tombstone in Natchez, Mississippi, who was the husband of
Janette Ries Mayer.
1808(14th
of Iyar, 5568): Pesach Sheni observed for the last time during the Presidency
of Thomas Jefferson.
1814:
Birthdate of Wolf Pascheles, the native of Prague who went from selling Jewish
books to printing them in a publishing house that he began, and which produced
everything from prayer books for women to popular annotated calendars.
1820(27th
of Iyar, 5580): Jessica Moss, the Philadelphia, PA born daughter of Rebecca
Lyons and John Moss who were married in 1797, passed away today in her
hometown.
1820: “In
Halberstadt, Province of Saxony, Kingdom of Prussia, the son of Rabbi Löb Glee
Hildesheimer, a native of Hildesheim, Electorate of Hanover and his wife gave
birth to Azriel Hildesheimer one the leading rabbis of the 19th
century who is considered to be one of the founders of “Modern Orthodox
Judaism,
http://israelphilately.org.il/en/catalog/articles/2228/Rabbi%20Azriel%20Hildesheimer
1822: In
London, Rabbi David Aaron de Sola, the Dutch born son of Rafael Aron (v. Haim
David) de Sola and Sara v. Isaac Namias Torres
who was the leader of Bevis Marks and his wife Rebecca (Rica) de Sola
gave birth to Rosetta Pinto, the wife of Henry (Haim) Pinto.
1823(1st
of Sivan, 5583): Rosh Chodesh Sivan observed as President Monroe and Secretary
Adams were working on a policy, that became known as the Monroe Doctrine.
1827(14th
of Iyar,5587): Pesach Sheni
1830(18th
of Iyar, 5590): Lag B’Omer observed four days after the United States signed a
treaty of commerce and navigation with the Ottoman Empire” which at that time
may have still had the largest Jewish
population of any single political entity.
1836:
Alexander Levi advertised in today’s issue of the Dubuque Visitor, one of
Iowa’s first newspapers. Levi may have been the first Jew to settle Iowa. He settled in Dubuque, shortly after its
founding, and played an active role in its commercial, civic and Jewish life
until his death in 1893.
1838: In
London English portrait painter Julia Salaman and London linen draper and town councilor,
Louis Goodman gave birth to British painter, illustrator and author Walter
Goodman.
1841: Birthdate
of Berlin native Ernst von Possart, the actor and author who “in 1861, made his
début at the Urania amateur theater, Berlin, as Riccaut in “Minna von
Barnhelm” and lago in “Othello,” and who was so successful that
he was “knighted by the crown of Bavaria.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12312-possart-ernst-von
1844:
Birthdate of Krakow native Joseph Chotzner, the Breslau rabbinical assembly and
University of Breslau trained rabbi and first rabbi of the Jewish community in
Belfast, Ireland where he twice served
as the lead of the Belfast Synagogue who “was a lecturer at Montefiore College,
Ramsgate, established by Moses Montefiore” and the father Alfred James
Chotzner, “a High Court Judge in Calcutta and a Member of Parliament in the UK.”
1846: “In Shossmaken,
Courland, Russia, Jekuthiel Gerson Deinard and Leah Cohn” gave birth to Ephraim
Deinard , a bookseller and bibliographer, the husband of Margolia Jaffe and the
driving force to establish a failed “Jewish agricultural colony in Nevada in
1897.”
http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9780631187288_chunk_g97806311872889_ss1-74
https://www.kedem-auctions.com/content/collection-letters-ephraim-deinard-elkan-nathan-adler
1847: Adolphus Simeon Solomons received a
certificate of discharge from Third Regiment of the Washington Grays, which was
part of the New York State Militia. Born in 1826, he had joined the Grays when
he was 14 and was promoted to the rank of Sergeant five years later. After
leaving the military, he would pursue a successful career in business and
politics including playing an active role in the inaugurations of all the
Presidents from Lincoln to McKinley. He would also serve in a number of
important roles in Jewish communal affairs including serving as acting
President of the Jewish Theological Seminary Association.
1852: In the
House of Lords, the first reading of a bill designed to remove the disabilities
imposed upon persons refusing to take the “oaths of abjuration.” Lord Lyndhurst
cited the recent case of David Salomons, the Jew who had refused to take the
standard oath and sought to be seated in the House of Commons, nonetheless.
1853(3rd
of Iyar, 5613): Rabbi Isaac Farhi, author of Marpe la-Ezem, passed away today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6019-farhi-isaac
1853: A
theatre critic for the New York Times pained the performance of “The
Merchant of Venice” at Wallack’s Theatre saying that “there is no delineation
of internal passion; no metaphysical reading of the Jew’s revengeful soul…”
1854(13th
of Iyar, 5614): Fifty-four-year-old Salomon Oppenheimer, the Saarland born son
of Jakob Oppenheimer and Johanetta Jacob, the husband of Johanna Cahn
Oppenheimer and the father of Mayer, Gottfried, Charles, David and Isaac Oppenheimer
passed away today after which he was
buried in New Orleans, LA.
1855:
Birthdate of Carbondale, PA, native and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Williams
College, Emanuel Cohen the Philadelphia and Minneapolis lawyer who was the
husband of Nina Morais.
1856:
Birthdate of Whitechapel, UK native Herbert Bentwich, the British Zionist
leader and copywrite law expert who was the husband os Susannah Bentwich, the
brother-in-law of Solomon J. Solomon and founder of the British Zionist
Federation…..
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/bentwich
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3010-bentwich-herbert
1857: In the
Catherine Palace, Czar Alexander II and his wife Maria Alexandrovna gave birth
to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia the influential, reactionary
advisor to his brother Alexander III and his nephew Nicholas II and Governor of
Moscow who zealously oversaw the violent expulsion of that city’s Jewish
population starting in 1891.
1858: Minnesota is admitted to the Union as the 32nd
state in the United States. The
establishment of the Mount Sinai Hebrew Association of St. Paul, in 1857 means
that the first synagogue was established before Minnesota achieved statehood.
The founding of Har Tzion (Mt. Zion) marks the start of the Jewish community in
Minnesota.
1859: Seventy-seven-year-old
Archduke John of Austria who helped Moses Sachs submit his “program for the
settling of Jews as farmers in the land of Israel under Austrian protection” to
the Austrian government which in turn submitted it the Ottomans who rejected it
passed away today.
1859: Wolf
Alois Meisel who had been serving as the rabbi at Stettin since 1848 moved to
Budapest where he took up a similar position today.
1859: At Wien,
Professor Dr. Simon Spitzer and Marie Spitzer gave birth to Dr. of
Jurisprudence Leopold Spitzer
1860: Sir
George Jessel, and Amelia Moses gave birth to British barrister and businessman
Sir Charles James Jessel, 1st Baronet, Ladham House.
1861: Today, Virginia
born William and Mary graduate William Mallory Levy, the veteran of the Mexican
American War and practicing attorney living in Natchitoches, LA was “commissioned
captain of Company A, Second Louisiana Infantry.”
1863: Two days
after she had passed away, Elizabeth (Lazarus) Davis, the wife of David Davis
and the mother of Helen, Louise and Sarah Davis was buried today at the “Balls
Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1863: Otto von
Bismarck, Minister President of Prussia, initiated written correspondence with
socialist and reform leader Ferdinand Lassalle. (Lassalle was Jewish; Bismarck
was not)
1863: Two days
after he had passed away, 44-year-old Angelo Bennett, the son of Solomon and
Elizabeth Bennett and the husband of Gertrude Sarah Emanuel with whom he had
had seven children was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish
Cemetery.”
1864: In San
Francisco, Leopold Seligmann and Julia Levi gave birth to David Emil Seligman
1865: General
Jeremiah Cutler Sullivan resigned from the Union Army. In 1862, Sullivan was serving under General
Grant in Tennessee. He “refused to
execute Grant’s Order 11 on the grounds that he thought he was an officer of
the army and not of a church.” Sarna 20
1867: The
independence of Luxembourg which was originally granted in 1839 is finally
recognized by all of the European great powers including Prussia and France.
The Grand Duchy’s first rabbi had served from 1843 until 1866 when Luxembourg
had just one synagogue. By 1880, there
were approximately 140 Jewish families throughout the Grand Duchy and there
were three synagogues in Luxembourg by the end of the 19th century.
1869(1st of
Sivan, 5629): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1869: In
Charleston, SC, J.D. Harby of Galveston, TX, married Leah Cohen, “the fourth
daughter of Marx E. Cohen.
1869: In New
York City, Shaaray Tefila (Gates of Prayer) dedicated its new sanctuary located
on 44th Street, between Broadway and 6th Avenue. During the ceremony Leopold Cohn, chairman of
the Building Committee gave the keys for the building to Barnet Solomon, the
President of the Congregation. Rabbi
Samuel Isaacs officiated at the impressive ceremony. The building, which cost
$125,000 is smaller than Temple Emanu-El but compares favorably to it in terms
of richness and architectural quality.
1869:
Birthdate of Henrich Lowe, a German born Zionist who was known as a journalist,
linguist and student of folklore.
1871: In
Natchez, Mississippi, Samuel Ullman, the author of the poem “Youth” and his
wife gave birth to Sidney Ullman who worked as an architect in Birmingham,
Alabama from 1899 until 1916 after which he moved to Los Angeles, where he
continued to practice as an architect from 1917 until 1922 when he began
working as a set designer.
1872: Today, in
Allegheny City, PA, Daniel and Amelia Stein gave birth to “American art
collector and critic Leo Stein, the brother of Gertrude Stein” t
1873(14th
of Iyar, 5633): Pesach Sheni
1873:
Birthdate of Russia native Morris Bank, the husband of Ida Bank and a member of
“Anshe Emunah Hebrew Congregation” in Baltimore, MD.
1873(14th
of Iyar, 5633): Seventy-four old Marx Oppenheimer, the son of Zacharias
Oppenheimer and Fratel Oppenheimer passed away today.
1875:
Birthdate of novelist and screenplay writer Leroy Scott who married Russian
Jewish writer Miriam Finn in 1904.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/scott-miriam-finn
1876: In New
York, Joseph M. Lichtenauer and Rebecca Deutsch gave birth Joseph Mortimer
Lichtenauer, the husband of Irma Lena Kaufrman Lichetenauer who “received the
President’s prize for design for mural decorations and whose “portraits and
decorative pictures were exhibited at the St. Louis Exposition.”
1877: In
Kozlov, Czech Republic, Adolf Neubauer, the son of Karl and Theresia Neubauer,
and his wife Klara Neubauer gave birth to Emilie Hoffer
1878: The
Young Men’s Hebrew Association met for the first time in their new facility at
110 West 42nd Street in New York City. Most of the members were in attendance at
this all male affair. Mayor Ely was the guest of honor. I.S. Isaacs, the association’s president,
opening remarks included a brief history of the association. The association, which was formed in 1874,
has almost a thousand members and boasts a healthy back account. Rabbis Gottheil, Henry Jacobs and H.B. Mendez
all addressed the group briefly.
1879: “The Old
Pessimists” published today notes that while there was a strongly pessimistic
tone in a few books of the Bible – Job and Ecclesiastes – the “national
religion of the Hebrews was optimistic in a high degree.” This stands in stark
contrast to the deeply pessimistic religious utterances and literature of the
ancient of the Greeks and the Romans While the Jews said “The earth is full of
the goodness of the Lord” they were
declaring that “the land and the sea are full of evils”
1879:
“Assyrian and Biblical History” published today described unresolved conflicts
in the dating used by these two ancient civilizations. While both seem to agree
as to the date of the eclipse that took place in the 8th century
BCE, there is disagreement for the dates of subsequent events. For example, the Assyrians say that the
invasion of Judea took place in 701 BCE while the Jewish version would have set
the date at 713 BCE. Some research indicate that the discrepancies are the
result of a propensity among Assyrian monarchs who had a propensity for not
reporting defeats and unsuccessful campaigns.
This was left to their successors.
1879: Eighty-year-old
Samuel Gobat, who had been serving as the Protestant Bishop of Jerusalem since
1846, passed away. Unlike his
predecessor, Gobat refrained from trying to convert Jews and Moslems and worked
among Christians. He and his wife who
had also died while living in Jerusalem are buried in Mount Zion Cemetery.
1879(18th of
Iyar, 5639): Lag B’Omer
1879(18th
of Iyar, 5639): Seventy-five-year-old Benzion Judah Ben Eliahu Berkowitz who
devoted much of his literary efforts to works related to Targum Onkelos passed
away today in Wilna.
1879(18th of
Iyar, 5639): Bernhard Wolff the editor of the Vossische Zeitung, founder of the
National Zeitung and founder of Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau one of the first
press agencies in Europe and one of the three great European telegraph
monopolies until the World War II-era, the other two being the English Reuters
and the French Havas, passed away today in his native Berlin. (Editor’s note
– All three of these famous
wire-services had a Jewish connection.)
1879: Eighty-year-old
Samuel Gobat, the Protestant Bishop of Jerusalem who ended his predecessor’s
policy of trying to convert Jews, passed away today and following his funeral
was buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery in Jerusalem.
1880(1st
of Sivan, 5640): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1880(1st
of Sivan, 5640): Nordsteden, Germany, native
and realtor John Ochs who in 1854 came to Davenport, IA where he
purchased the land used as cemetery for the Jews of that city and who resigned
as president of B’nai Israel when the congregation decided to join the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations passed away today.
1881: In
Budapest, “Helen Kohn, who was from a leading Bohemian family, and Mór Kármán
who was a leading professor of philosophy and education” gave birth to Theodore
von Kármán the Hungarian-American engineer and physicist who was a descendant
of Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel and who responsible for many key advances in
aerodynamics, notably his work on supersonic and hypersonic airflow
characterization.
https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/aerospace-defense/theodore-von-karman
http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.php?id=31
http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/von-karman-theodore.pdf
1881: Herzl
fights his only duel in the fraternity Albia.
1881: As a
wave of pogroms race across Russia Czar Alexander III receives a delegation of
Jews led by Baron Horace de Gunzburg. He
assures them that the government is opposed to the violence which he blames on
socialists and elements following the anti-Christ.
1882: In Luka,
Hermann Ullmann and Bertha Ullmann gave birth Berthold Ullman who was murdered
at Auschwitz.
1884: In
Bucharest, Zara and Leon Feinsohn gave birth to Reba Fesinsohn who gained fame
as the American soprano and recording artist, Alma Gluck.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/gluck-alma
1884: In
Russian, Benjamin and Bessie (Reichberg) Rosenblatt, gave birth to Columbia
Ph.D. and sociologist Frank F. Rosenblatt, the husband of Katherine Golding who
published works included “The Chartist Movement, in Is Social and Economic
Aspects” and who was a member of the Jewish Social Association and the
Workmen’s Circle Club.
1884:
Birthdate of Samuel B. Peiper, the native of Philadelphia who was ordained at
JTS and served as a rabbi in Brooklyn.
1885(26th
of Iyar, 5645): Seventy-three-year-old “composer, conductor and writer”
Ferdinand von Hiller who students included Max Bruch the non-Jewish “composer
of the cello elegy Kol Nidrei, based on the synagogue hymn sung at Yom Kippur”
passed away today.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_International_Encyclop%C3%A6dia/Hiller,_Ferdinand
1886(6
Iyar, 5646): Sixty-nine year old Isidor Kalish the German educated Reform Rabbi
who came to the United States where he led several Reform congregations
starting with Tifereth Israel in Cleveland and was a driving force behind
creating the Reform Movement in his adopted country passed away http://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=KI1
1887: Birthdate of Paul Wittgenstein. The Austrian-born pianist lost his right arm
fighting for Austria during World War I.
After the war he gained fame for arranging and playing numerous pieces
with his left hand. After fleeing the
Nazis during the 1930’s he came to the United States where he became a citizen
and continued his career.
1888: In Poland,
Golde Bialesewsky and Issac Belsky gave birth to Charles Eizia Belsky, the husband
of Esther Cohen Belsy and the father of Gloria, Abraham, Frederick, Robert and
Theodore Belsky who in 1949 “died in an automobile accident with his son
Abraham, while returning from vacation in Florida” after which he was buried at
the Rodeph Sholom Cemetery in Chicopee, MA.
1888:
In the Russian Empire Lena Lipkin Beilin and Cantor Moses Beilin gave birth
Isadore Beilin who gained fame as composer Irving Berlin whose works included
“White Christmas” which is reportedly “the all-time leader in the holiday music
category.”
http://www.irvingberlin.com/biography
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/irving-berlin
1889:
Zadoc Kahn the Chief Rabbi of France who helped to found Société des Études Juives in 1879 delivered an address to entitled
“La Révolution Française et le Judaïsme” to help mark the centenary
of the French Revolution.
1889:
In San Francisco, grocery store chain owner Abraham Haas and Fanny Koshland
gave birth to Walter A. Haas, Sr. the chairman of the board of Levi Strauss and
Company.
http://www.jmaw.org/hass-jewish-los-angeles/
http://www.jmaw.org/hass-jewish-san-francisco/
http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/haas/about/WHaas.html
1890:
It was reported today that former President Grover Cleveland and his wife have
accepted an invitation to attend the upcoming Strawberry Festival, a
fund-raiser sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1890:
Charles Bernheim was re-elected as President during the annual meeting of the
Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews which began at 10 o’clock this morning.
1890:
“Barons Alphonse and Nathaniel Rothschild have warned Emperor Franz Joseph and
…the Minister of the Interior, that if oppression of the Jews is continued at
Vienna, they will be forced to transfer their business” to Budapest. They claim that the leadings banks will
follow them in moving their business.
1891:
A fire, which was allegedly set by a Jewish immigrant from Poland name Solomon
Crizar, broke out at 222 Johnson Avenue in Brooklyn.
1891:
In Romania, Rebecca and Morris Lazarus gave birth to Clara Rose Lazarus who
became Clara Snyder when she married Benjamin Snyder with whom she had three
children – Sylvia, Ruth and Milton.
1891:
M. Frank Sons and Company founder and clothing manufacturer Frank Meyer, the Bialystok
born son Moses Frank Zuckerman and Fannie Zuckerman who “engaged in business”
in Augusta, GA and Columbia, SC before coming to New York in 1908 where he was
active in numerous Jewish organizations including the American Jewish
Community, the Jewish Theological Seminary and HIAS married Celia Goldstein
today in Augusta, GA.
1891:
In New York City Henry Morgenthau, Sr., a real estate mogul and diplomat, and
Josephine Sykes gave birth to Henry Morgenthau Jr. a neighbor
of FDR. It was this friendship rather than his financial
wizardry that led to his appointment as US Secretary of the Treasury in
1934. He held that post until 1945, when Harry Truman took
office. Morgenthau was the author of the so-called Morgenthau Plan which,
according to critics, sought to turn Germany into one large farm after World
War II. After two world wars in less than fifty years, Morgenthau was not
alone in thinking that the only way to avoid another German Reich was to
demilitarize and de-industrialize the country. The realities of the
looming Cold War, among other concerns, derailed any such notions.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007408
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Morgenthau.html
http://www.jta.org/1967/02/08/archive/henry-morgenthau-jr-ex-secretary-of-treasury-dead-at-age-of-75
1892(14th
of Iyar, 5652): Pesach Sheini
1892(14th
of Iyar, 5652): Yosef Dov Soloveitchik the great-grandson of Rabbi Chaim
Volozhin and author of Beis Halevi passed
away today.
1892:
Leaders of several congregations met tonight to discuss the possibility of
establishing a school that would train men and women to serve as teachers at
Jewish Sunday Schools.
1892:
“Vaccination Day” published today described the annual springtime program
designed to provide vaccination for hundreds of Jewish, Polish and Italian
children that takes place at the Health Office on Mulberry Street.
1892:
In “Turov, Polyesy, Ayzik-Ber Goldin, author of the religious work, Otiyot
maḥkimot (Enlightening letters)” and his wife gave birth to Osher-Arye Goldin
who worked as an author and translator before moving to the United States in
1913 where he gained fame a Yiddishist Leon Goldin.
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2015/05/osher-arye-goldin-leon-goldin.html
1893: There were a dozen Polish Jews aboard the Majestic when it
arrived today in England.
1893: In New South Wales, Australia, Sarah and Harris Weingott
gave birth to Samuel “Sam” Weingott” who was killed while fighting at Gallipoli
during WW I.
1893:
Acting at the behest of Josef Deckert, an anti-Semitic Austrian priest, Paulus
Meyer, a baptized Jew, declared in the Vaterland “that a number of Russian
rabbis from Lentschna had performed a ritual murder in his presence.”
1894:
The Pullman Strike began in Chicago under the leadership of Eugene Debs “whose
Socialist views found support among the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe
working in the Garment industry.”
1895:
Sir Matthew Nathan began serving as secretary to the Colonial Defense Committee
today.
1895:
The Young Men’s Hebrew Association hosted a strawberry festival to mark the end
of this season’s programs of study and entertainment.
1895:
Several Polish Jews were arrested in Kingston, NY on charges of being
counterfeiters.
1897:
Birthdate of Kurt Gerson the native of Berlin whose medical studies ended with
his service in WW I and who gained fame as actor and director Kurt Gerron –
none of which kept him from being killed at Auschwitz.
http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/places/camps/western-europe/westerbork/gerronkurt/
1898:
Two days after she had passed away, 76 year old Annie Myers, the “widow of
Eliezer Myers” was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1898:
Rabbi Leucht of Newark, NJ, officiated at the wedding of Moses Schloss and Miss
Minnie Krieger of Philadelphia. Schloss
is the manager of S. Scheurer & Co of Plainfield, NJ.
1898:
On day after she had passed away, 28 year old Sarah Perse was buried today at
the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1899:
“De Hirsch Memorial Service” published today described the services held at
Temple Emanu-El in honor of the late Baroness Clara de-Hirsch-Gereuth, the
widow of the late Baron Hirsch. Among those who address the packed sanctuary
were Myer S Isaacs, President of the Baron de Hirsch Fund and William
Rhinelander Stewart, President of the State Board of Charities. The service
began with Mendelssohn’s Funeral March and ended with a recitation of the
Kaddish led by Rabbi William Sparger and a benediction by Rabbi De Sola Menes
1900:
It was reported today that family of 55 year old Benjamin F. Houseman, a
“prominent Jew” living in Philadelphia claims that his death “was due to the
accidental discharge of pistol” and not a suicide as reported by the police
1901:
Birthdate of Rosalie Beatrice Scherzer who gained fame as the poet Rose
Auslander.
1902(4th
of Iyar, 5662): Asher Isaac Myer, the managing editor of the Jewish Chronicle passed away today.
(This is the date supplied by the Jewish Encyclopedia)
1902:
In Chişinău, Bessarabia Governorate Eliezer Dimant and Lena Klein gave birth Louis
K. Diamond, the Harvard trained pediatrician
known
as “the father of pediatric hematology.”
https://fa.hms.harvard.edu/files/hmsofa/files/memorialminute_diamond_louis_k.pdf
1903:
Birthdate of Victor Candell, the native of the Budapest “the award-winning
painter” “who works included a mural on the outside of the Iraqi pavilion at
the 1939 New York World’s Fair.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/02/20/archives/victor-candell-73-painter-muralist-at-iraq-pavilion.html
1903:
The El-Arish project fails. Herzl writes in his diary: “I thought the
Sinai plan was such a sure thing that I no longer wanted to buy a family vault
in the Döbling cemetery, where my father is provisionally laid to rest. Now I
consider the affair so wrecked that I have already been to the district court
and am acquiring vault No. 28.”
1904:
Prime Minister Balfour responded to charges that the Aliens Bill was a sign
that ant-Semitism had come to England by writing today that “Aliens bill was
designed to protect the country not against the Jew but against the undesirable
alien quite irrespective of nationality or creed” and that he “should regard
the or the grown of any anti-Semitic feeling in this country as a most serious
national misfortune.”
1905:
The Jewish Chronicle is quoted as saying that in Russia, “a measure is more
than just under consideration which will give unhoped-for relief to the Jews”
and that “absolute freedom of movement and residence will granted” to the Jews
“in all cities and towns but not in villages” out of fear for of more violence
such as that which took place in Kishineff.
1906:
Boston archeologist William Copely Winslow announced that “Professor Flinders
Petrie, the well-known Egyptologist” has discovered the remains of the Temple
Onias at Tel-el-Yahudich (the Mound of the Jews) 18 miles north of Cairo” and
“that in all probability the professor has identified the treasure city of
Ramses built by the Israelites” the construction of which “is referred to in
the first chapter of the Book of Exodus
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/05/12/101778081.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1907(27th
of Iyar, 5667): Parashat Behar Bechokotai
1907:
“Salome Divides Paris” published today described a campaign led by “The Libre Parole which is notoriously
anti-Semitic” against the performance of Richard Strauss’s opera saying that it
is decadent and “places a large share of
the responsibility for the production on the Jews “two of whom organized the
production of the work of a third.”
1908:
The U.S. Consular Agency at Aleppo which contained one of the oldest Jewish
communities in the world and was the home of the famous Aleppo Codex, was
upgraded to a Consulate.
1909:
A dinner is scheduled to be given today in honor of Alexander Harkavy, who,
much to the consternation of Jews living on the East Side, has resigned as
“head of the Hebrew Aid Society of Ellis Island.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/04/28/101878507.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1909:
Hungarian born con-artist Ignatius Timothy Trebitsch-Lincoln who “secured
British Naturalization today” under the name of I.T.T. Lincoln which led to his
being elected to Parliament in 1910.
1909:
The results of the election held on May 1 became public in Finland and showed
that the Socialist Democrats and Constitutional Democrats had tripled the
number of seats they held in the Landtag which means “the recently drafted laws
against the Jews will be considerably amended, if not rejected” and Jews may
gain the right to vote since both parties had this as a plank in their
platforms.
1910:
It was reported today that in Virginia “practically the entire Jewish
population of Richmond is indignant over the ejection of two prominent Jewish
young men from the dormitories of the Young Men’s Christian Association by
order of the Board of Directors.”
1910:
“A special meeting of the Board of Trustees of Temple Emanu-El was held tonight
to consider action by the board as a result of a widespread discussion aroused
throughout the congregation by a recent Passover sermon of the Rev. Dr. J.L.
Magnes, associate rabbi with the Rev. Dr. Joseph Silverman, advocating a change
in the reformed ritual and service now in vogue.”
1911:
In Brooklyn, Saul and Sarah (née Handler) Silver gave birth to their “eighth
and youngest child” Philip Silversmith who gained fame as comedian Phil
Silvers, best known to many for his role as Sgt. Ernie Bilko.
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/02/arts/phil-silvers-tv-s-sergeant-bilko-dead-at-73.html
1911:
Conservative Young Turks blame Zionists for desecration of the Mosque of Omar.
1912:
In London, engineer Mortiz Kahn and his wife gave birth to journalist and
photographer Albert Eugene Kahn.
http://brandeisspecialcollections.blogspot.com/2012/11/albert-eugene-kahn-papers.html
1912(24th
of Iyar, 5672): Parashat Behar-Buchukotai
1912:
“The original production” of “Princess Caprice, a musical theatre work
described as a “comedy with music”, in three acts, with music by Leo
Fall,” the son of Mortiz Fall opened today “at the Shaftesbury Theatre in
London.”
1912:
Samuel and Edith Bass gave birth to Dr. Bernard Brass, the husband of Pearl L
Hochman Brass.
1912(24th
of Iyar, 5672): Seventy-eight year old Rabbi Samuel Baeck, the father of Rabbi
Leo Baeck, the son of Rabbi Nathan Baeck, the grandson of Rabbi Abraham Baeck
who was the husband of Eva Placzek, the daughter of Rabbi Abraham Placzek
passed away today in Lissa.
1913:
It has been reported that “after having promised” for several years “the
telephone system has at last been installed at Jerusalem.”
1913:
It has been reported that “the Nationalist have introduced a bill into the Duma
which contains a clause to the effect that Jews should only be allowed to edit
newspapers in the Pale” the purposed of which “is to banish Jewish influence
from the most influential organs in St. Petersburg and Moscow.”
1913:
Mrs. Ella Flagg Young is scheduled to address the Chicago Hebrew Institute at
its “Annual Meeting and Supper” this evening
1913:
In Chicago, at the Isaiah, Rabbi Joseph Stolz is scheduled to deliver a sermon
on “The Mother In Israel” at the congregation’s “concluding Sunday service of
this season.”
1914:
University of Vienna trained dermatologist Maurice Oppenheim, married Lilly
Oppenheim today after which they had two children – Emmy and Maria.
1914:
Gompers v. United States, 233 U.S. 604 (1914),
a contempt of court case decided by the Supreme Court of the United
States today.
1914(15th
of Iyar, 5674): Sixty-one-year-old Daniel De Leon, the native of Curacao who
became a champion of the rights of the working man and leader of the Socialist
Labor Party of America passed away today.
http://www.slp.org/De_Leon.htm
1915: In “Jews With Wilson, Says the Warheit” published
today the American Yiddish language newspaper took issue with a statement in
the Frankfurter Zeitung saying “that the United States cannot declare war” on
Germany “because of the millions of German, Irish and Jews being in the way”
saying that “the Jews should very much like the” German newspaper “and other to
refrain from mentioning them in their discussions of a war between the United
States and Germany. If mentioned they must be, then let it be said in their
name: ‘The Jews of the United States will all, to the last man, stand behind
President Wilson and the United States Government.” (Editor’s note: While many
Jews were Socialists and wanted to stay out of the war because of their
pacifism, and others did not want to fight on the side of the Russians whom
they saw as oppressor of Jews, there was a handful of Jews from Germany who did
not want to take up arms against what they saw as their enlightened
fatherland. In the end, the Germans
overplayed their hand and misread American Jewry as badly as they did other others
and American Jews flocked to support their newfound home in what they saw as an
American fight for freedom)
1915: “Dr. Perry M. Lichtenstein, a physician at the Tombs
prison,’ is scheduled to “speak tonight before the Harlem Jewish League at the
Belvedere on the “Dope Fiend.” (Yes, 100
years ago there was “the war on drugs” debate)
1915: “In his
sermon at the Tabernacle tonight, the Reverend Billy Sunday expressed himself
strongly in favor “of freeing Leo M. Frank.
1915: “With the death date for Leo M. Frank fixed for June
22” “fifteen thousand petitions for clemency for Frank were brought to the
Capitol “at Atlanta “today which are to be delivered to Governor Staton.”
1916:
Isador Herschfield, an agent of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society
is currently on board the steamship New Amsterdam which left Rotterdam and is
making its way to New York.
1917:
Birthdate of Irving Jay Cohen “who was known as King Cupid of the Catskills for
his canny ability to seat just the right nice Jewish boy next to just the right
nice Jewish girl during his half-century as the maître d’ of the Concord
Hotel…” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1917:
Two days after she had passed away, 74 year old Dinah Saunders, “the widow of
the late Harris Saunders” and mother of Isaac, Simon and Moses Saunders was buried
today in London’s “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”
1917:
It was reported today from Amsterdam that “an appeal” has been “made to Jews to
participate in the struggle aiming at national autonomy and the securing of
Palestine for the Jews.”
1917(19th
of Iyar, 5677): Seventy year old L.G Pape, a native of Philadelphia who most
recently has been working with the Memphis Agency of the Equitable Life
Assurance Society in Memphis and who has been President of the Young Men’s
Hebrew Association and the driving force behind the construction of the new
Temple at Popular Avenue and Montgomery Street passed away today at Memphis
leaving behind a wife the former Miss Florie Bloom of Memphis.
1917:
It was reported today that Julius Rosenwald of Chicago has promised to
contribute ten percent of the total contributions made by those in Illinois to
the Jewish Relief Committee in Behalf of the Jewish War Sufferers in Europe
which is trying to raise a total of four million dollars.
1918:
It was reported today that the Jewish Welfare Board, “is cooperating with
British and French organizations in Paris and back of the western front to care
for the” Jewish soldiers and sailors serving abroad.
1919:
The first Estonian Congress of Jewish congregations held its opening session
today. The organization was going to
have deal with the new realities of living in an independent Estonia that was
no longer part of the old Czarist Russian Empire or its Bolshevik successor.
1919:
Birthdate of Polish native Rubin Partel, the Holocaust survivor who began a new
life in the United States in 1947.
https://archive.nytimes.com/query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage-9503E7D7173AF937A35751C0A96E9C8B63.html
1920:
Today, “approximately 40,000 men, women and children took part in the
“Jeulah” or “Redemption” parade that marked the close of
the extraordinary convention of the Zionist Organization of America in Atlantic
City/
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1920/05/12/96890113.html?pageNumber=7
1921:
One day after he had passed away Melville Samson Toplitz was buried today
1921: Tel Aviv became the first all-Jewish
municipality under the Mandatory Government.
1922:
Birthdate of Tawfik Toubi a Christian Arab politician and who was elected to
the Knesset in 1949 when Israel held its first parliamentary elections. Toubi would serve until he retired in 1991. His death in 2011 marked the end of an era
since he was the last surviving member of Israel’s First Knesset.
1923:
It was announced today that “a ban on wine for sacramental purposes has been
declared by the Jewish synagogues of Los Angeles,” with Dr. Mayer Winkler,
rabbi of Sinai congregation stating “that according to Jewish laws, there was
no need for wine for religious purposes.
1924: The first conference of the General
Zionist movement begins in Jerusalem. It decides to establish a General Zionist
Federation to amalgamate all centrist factions in Palestine.
1924:
Birthdate of Leonard Garment who served as White House Counsel during the
Watergate Scandal.
1924:
Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merge their companies to form
Mercedes-Benz. The “Mercedes” in
Mercedes Benz comes from the daughter of Jewish businessman Emil Jellinek who
was known as Mercedes.
1925(17th
of Iyar, 5685): Sixty-nine-year-old “Isak Isaac Itzig Speier, the German born
son of “Leiser and Tels Delza Speyer, the “husband of Flora Speier” and “father
of Leo Speyer” passed away today.
1925:
In Cleveland, Ohio, Betty and Ben Glasser gave birth to William Glasser, the
psychiatrist who was also a successful author on books about mental health.
1926:
According to figures released today, 1,650 Jewish immigrants arrived in Palestine
during the month of April
1926:
The list of the newly elected members of the Executive Committee District No.
1, Independent Order B’nai Brith published today included “Maurice Bloch of New
York, first vice-president; David Ruslander of Buffalo, second vice-president;
Joshua Kantrowitz of New York, president of the Home; Joseph Rosenzweig of New
York, treasurer; Max Levy of New York, Secretary; Louis Lorence of New York,
chairman of the Committee on Finance; Judge Albert Cohen of New York, chairman
of the Committee on Law; Isidore H. Fox of Boston, Chairman of the Committee on
Religious Activities; Wilfred B. Feiga of Worcester, chairman of the Committee
on Intellectual Advancement; Ely Rosenberg of New York, chairman of the
Committee on Endowment Reserve Fund; Herbert T. Rosenfeld of New York, chairman
of the Committee on Social Service; Max L. Pinansky of Portland, Maine, Chief
Justice of District Court; Morris B. Moskowitz of New York, chairman on
Committee on Membership; Nestor Dreyfus of New London, Conn., chairman of
Committee on General Fund and Charitable Objects, Abraham K. Cohen of Boston,
chairman on Committee on Anti-Defamation; Henry Lasker of Springfield, Mass.,
chairman of Committee on Women’s Auxiliaries; Leo J. Lyons of Boston, chairman
of the Committee on Exemplification of Degree; Nathan H. Friedman of Taunton,
Mass., chairman of Committee on Publicity; Nathan E. Goldstein of Springfield,
Mass., Chairman of Committee on District Deputies; and Louis M. Singer of
Toronto, Can., chairman of Committee on Canadian Activities.” (As reported by
JTA)
1927: Birthdate of Mort Sahl. Born in
Montréal Canada, Sahl was one of a new breed of comedians that appeared in the
late 1950’s. Many of them were more cerebral than slapstick; more
likely to have started in coffee houses like the Hungry Eye in San
Francisco than burlesque theatres. Sahl would come on stage in his
trademark orange sweater, newspaper under his arm and sitting on a stool, begin
to take potshots at the political and social leaders of the day.
1927:
A cross section of thirty-six leaders in the infant movie industry founded the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy is responsible for
honoring the accomplishments of the film industry through the annual Oscar
ceremonies. Many of the original 36 were
Jewish including Cecil B. DeMille, Louis Mayer, Joseph Schenk, Jake Lasky,
Irving Thalberg, George Cohen, Edwin Loeb, Jack Warner and Harry Warner Yes, do
the math. The Jewish representation is
definitely statistically disproportional.
1928:
Morris “Moshe” Baran and his family arrived in the United States. Amongst the three children in the family was
Paul Baran, who as an engineer working at RAND Corporation “outlined the basic
idea for what has become the Internet.
1928:
Birthdate of Joe Schlesinger the Austrian born refugee from Nazi Europe who
gained fame as a Canadian television journalist and author.
1928: Birthdate Yaacov Agam. Israeli-born Yaacov
Agam was educated at the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem and the Atelier
d’Art Abstrait in Paris. Agam has had exhibitions at the Tel Aviv Museum, the
Musee National d’Art Moderne in Paris, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
His work is in the collections of many museums, including the Museum of Modern
Art in New York and the Joseph Hirshhorn Collection in Washington, D.C. (editorial comment – I am no art critic
or student of art so I will not even pretend to fake it on this subject.
But I happened to have seen some of his work and there is something really
interesting about. There are several websites where you can see his work.)
1929(1st
of Iyar, 5689): Parashat Kedoshim; Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1929:
Birthdate of Samuel Charles Cohn. This
native of Altoona, PA, would gain fame as Sam Cohn “the powerful talent broker”
who founded International Creative Management (ICM) and represented a panoply
of top talent including Woody Allen, Robin Williams, Arthur Miller, E.L.
Doctorow and Whoopi Goldberg to name but a few.
He died in May of 2009 at the age of 79. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
1929:
“Eternal Love” a silent romantic film directed by Ernst Lubitsch and produced
by Joseph Schenck was released in the United States today.
1930:
A Zionist youth group gathered in Berehovo, Carpatho-Russia, Czechoslovakia
today.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/may/01.asp
1931:
The Creditanstalt which was founded in 1855 by Salomon Mayer von Rothschild’s
son Anselm declared bankruptcy today after having been forced by the Austrian
government to assume the debts of another institution in 1929 “making it one of
the first major bank failures that initiated the Great Depression.”
1932:
During today’s session of the annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly of
the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the assembly’s President, Rabbi
Israel Levinthal of Brooklyn, delivered his annual address in which he said
many members were suffering financially and serious thought needed to be given
to establishing a permanent relief fund.
As further proof of the impact of the Great Depression on Jews and
Jewish organization, the seminary is expanding its placement service to help
its graduates find work.
1932:
Professor Louis Finkelstein, President of JTS, Sol M. Stroock, Chairman of the
JTS Board of Directors, Professor Louis Ginzberg, and Rabbi Israel Goldstein of
Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, were among those who spoke at tonight’s dinner at
the Jewish Theological Seminary.
1933:
“Zeppo Marz and his wife left” Los Angeles “by train tonight to his father’s
body back to New York for burial” where their arrival is awaited by Groucho,
Harpo and Chico Marx.
1934(26th
of Iyar, 5694): Seventy-five-year-old Lazăr Şăineanu “a Romanian-born
philologist, linguist, folklorist and cultural historian: who was “a specialist
in Oriental and Romance studies, as well as a Hebraist and a Germanist, known
for his contribution to Yiddish and Romanian philology” passed away today in
Paris.
1934:
Birthdate of Guinter Kahn, the native of Trier who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska
and development a “remedy for baldness.”
http://www.omaha.com/obits/kahn-m-d-guinter/article_3968bda0-21f4-5fa6-bc45-f98c4fe8aacb.html
1935(8th
of Iyar, 5695): Parashat Emor
1935: “In
response to an appeal from Lord Marley, chairman of the World Committee to Aid
the Victims of German Fascism” today is the first of two Tag Days designated by
the Washington Heights Child Aid Committee as part of its drive to raise funds
to build a home for children to replace the one destroyed by the Nazis when
they took over the Saar.”
1936(19th
of Iyar, 5696): Sixty-two-year-old Judge Otto Rosalsky, “the dean of the
General Sessions bench passed away this morning at Mount Sinai Hospital where
his family including his wife Mamie Rosalsky, his brothers Justice Joseph S.
Rosalsky, Dr. Harry W. Rosalsky and Alexander Rosalsky and his sisters Mrs.
Joseph Morrison and Mrs. Bella Shapira were at his bedside.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1936/05/12/85392893.html?pageNumber=23
https://www.jta.org/archive/judge-rosalsky-62-dies-after-operation-on-bench-30-years
1937(1st
of Sivan, 5697): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1937: “A
“state of mourning” banning the celebration of the coronation by
order of the Arab High Committee was decreed today as a protest against the new
immigration schedule permitting 770 Jews, to enter Palestine during the four
months ending July 31.”
1938: “I
Married An Angel,” a Rodgers and Hart musical comedy opened at the Shubert
Theatre today.
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that Hanita beat off another heavy terrorist
attack. Arab terrorist gangs continued to enter Arab villages demanding ransom
money and valuables. Those villagers who refused such demands were usually
kidnapped and their bodies were later found in the neighboring fields. A forest
neighboring the Tiberias Hot Springs was set on fire. The Dutch border was
closed to refugees after about 2,000 Austrian and 15,000 German Jews succeeded
to get in. Holland claimed that despite the fact that it suffered from a heavy
unemployment, it had offered residence to over 26,000 refugees. During the 1930’s the Jews were caught in two
pronged anti-Semitic orgy. In Europe
they were condemned because they were permanent outsiders even though they
desperately tried to fit into the social fabric of the various nations in which
they lived. In Palestine, the Jews were
under attack because they were trying to establish a national home where Jews
could live as Jews. The point of this is
that anti-Semitism is irrational and those who hate Jews will grab any excuse
and those looking for a scapegoat will grab any Jew.
1939: Jews
are prohibited from working in travel agencies by Nazi Germany
1939:
Premiere of crime drama “Blind Alley” directed by Charles Vidor with a script
co-authored by Michael Blankfort
1940(3rd
of Iyar, 5700): Parashat Emor
1940:
“Contraband, “a spy film with a screenplay by Emeric Pressburger was released
in the United Kingdom today/
1940: One
day after Germany invaded the Low Countries and France, President Roosevelt
issued a proclamation reasserting “the neutrality of the United States in the
war between Germany, Belgium Luxembourg and the Netherlands.” (In six weeks the all of these countries
would fall to the Nazis sealing the fate of the Jews trapped in the Final
Solution.)
1941(14th
of Iyar, 5701): Pesach Sheni
1941: In the Warsaw ghetto, children are seen
playing with a corpse in a courtyard. In each of the prior two months, 500 –
600 more Jews died of starvation.
1941:
During the Blitz, The Great Synagogue on Dukes Place in London is destroyed in
an air raid.
1942:
Alter Dworetsky, a member of the Jewish Council at Diatlovo, Belorussia,
escapes to a nearby forest, only to be shot to death by Soviet partisans after
refusing to hand over his pistol.
1942: One day
after he had passed away funeral services were held today for seventy-four-year-old
Joseph M. (Joe) Weber, the Weber in the burlesque team of Weber and Fields, the
husband of the former Lily Friedman, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry
Friedman after which, per his request, he was cremated.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1942/05/11/85536919.pdf
1942: “Native
Land” a documentary about the trade union movement directed and produced by Leo
Hurwitz who also co-authored the script and with music by Marc Blitzstein was
released in the United States today.
1942: Damon
Runyon published “Sam Dreben’s Spirit Marches On” a column that uses the career
of this Jewish career soldier who won the Distinguished Service Cross to dispel
notions of Jewish cowardliness and lack of patriotism. The column was written “on the occasion of
the posthumous conferring of the DSC on Lt. Henry D. Mark of Los Angeles. (As
reported by Abraham Bloch)
1942: The
Biltmore Program is adopted in an emergency meeting (at the Biltmore Hotel in
New York) of the Conference of American Zionists. The program proposed by Ben
Gurion and Abba Hillel Silver totally rejected the British White paper and
called for the establishment of a Jewish state. There was opposition to the
proposal by the “non- Zionists” and those who believed in a
bi-national state (HaShomer HaZair).
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-biltmore-conference-1942
http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Biltmore_Conference.htm
1942: “Go Down
Moses,” the collection of short stories by William Faulkner is published
today. The title is based on the
spiritual that compares the slavery experience of African-Americans in the
United States with the enslavement of the Jews by Pharao1943: Birthdate of Thomas Buergenthal, the native of Ľubochňa,
Czechoslovakia, who survived Aushwitz and Sachsenhausen to become an American
attorney and a Judge serving on the International Court of Justice.
1943: During
WW II, the Battle of Attu began when American forces that included Dr. Abraham
Koransky confronted Japanese forces in the only WW II battle fought on the
American mainland.
1944: HMCS
Beauharnois, a Canadian corvette, was launched today. She would be acquired by the Israelis and was
renamed Josiah Wedgwood, in honor of Colonel Josiah Wedgwood, the British M.P.
who wanted to remove the obstacles to Jewish immigration to Palestine and
opposed the British appeasement of Hitler during the 1930’s.
1944: Anne
Frank writes in her diary, “I’d like to publish a book called ‘The Secret
Annex.’ It remains to be seen whether I’ll succeed, but my diary can serve as
the basis.
1944: Dr.
Salomon Gluck, a French Army veteran who had been honored with the Croix de
Guerre for bravery in facing the Nazis on the Maginot Line and a member of the
Resistance was deported from Drancy aboard convoy 73. He was number 21530 and the convoy was
unusual in that all of the almost 900 prisoners were men. The men did not know
that they would meet an ignominious end.
1944: Allied
forces begin their final assault on the German lines at Monte Casino, the
seizure of which will open the Road to Rome with the concomitant saving of the
lives of Italian Jews hiding in and around the eternal city.
1945:
“Asserting that Palestine will offer one of the best markets for American
exports after the war, Julius Simon, president of the Palestine Economic
Corporation disclosed today that he had been authorized to arrange for the
purchase of $60,000,000 worth of industrial and agricultural machinery for
various enterprises in that country.”
1946:
Fifty-eight of the 61 defendants in “The Mauthausen Camp Trials” were found
sentenced to death today.
1947:”Speaking
at a dinner sponsored by the United Zionist-Revisionists of America at the
Hotel Biltmore” Senator Claude Pepper of Florida “declared that the United
States should take a firm stand against any proposal by Great Britain and the
Arab states to end the Palestine mandate” and “characterized the policy of
Great Britain in Palestine as ‘a long, sad story of inaction, vacillation and
violation of the mandate” while asserting “that the only solution to the
Palestine problem was ‘an immediate transfer to Palestine under the auspices of
a Jewish national authority.’”
1948: “In an
interview” given today “in his apartment at the Ansonia Hotel Al Shean of the
famous comedy team of Gallagher and Shean “said he had nothing special planned
to mark” his eightieth birthday which falls on May 12.
1948: Haganah took control of the port of Haifa.
Haifa is Israel’s northern port. In 1948, it had enough of a
Jewish majority to have elected the town’s mayor. But the city also
had a considerable Arab population. The fighting during April to control
the city was fierce. However, the three major Arab leaders left the
city when they realized they were not going to any more help from the King of
Jordan. This demoralized the local Arab
population. Despite being urged by the Jews to stay and remain calm, the
majority left by sea for Lebanon and by land for Nazareth.
Matters were not helped by the Arab Higher Committee which urged the Arabs to
leave, in part, because the committee was sure that Haifa would be bombed by
Arab air forces thus ending the Jewish presence in Haifa.
1949: Today Israel is admitted as the 59th member
of the U.N., on the anniversary of Turkey’s declaration, in 1917, of its
intention to free Eretz Israel of the entire Jewish population.
1949: Today, Zero Mostel appeared on “Toast of the
Town” hosted by Ed Sullivan.
1950: In a
speech given tonight at Madison Square Garden, Governor Dewey declared that
Israel must be armed to defend its frontiers against aggression because a
strong Israel “is the surest guarantee to peace in the Near East.”
1950: It was
reported to that Feti’s “Moses and the Burning Bush” was one of the most
popular paintings among experts at the “Vienna Masterpieces Exhbition” now
taking place at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
1953: The
Jerusalem Post reported that restitution negotiations were expected to
begin shortly between the Austrian government and various Jewish Community
representatives. The Israeli Cabinet decided to impose a “special
unemployment relief tax” after the number of jobless reached 16,000. The
Jerusalem Labor Exchange, which had been closed for a week, following an attack
by a mob of unemployed, reopened and offered forestation jobs to 30 workers.
Over 550 workers were already employed in forestation projects carried out by
Keren Kayemet, the Jewish National Fun.
In the first decade of the 21st century people see Israel as
a place of lush vegetation with a vibrant western style economy. It is quickly forgotten that in the early
days of Israel’s existence the economy was quite shaky with high unemployment,
large numbers of immigrants with limited skills and a land that had been
denuded and neglected for centuries.
1954(8th
of Iyar, 5714): Fifty-seven year old Newark native and WW I Navy veteran Jacob
Kay Lasser, the NYU and Penn St. University educated tax expert who became
famous with the publication of the 1939 handbook “Your Income Tax Guide” and
who raised two children – Barbara and Donald – with his wife Terese Reuben
Lasser passed away today after which his eyes were donated “to the Eye-bank for
Sight Restoration, Inc. per his wish.
1954:In
Brookline, MA, Carol Rabb an Avram Jacob Goldberg gave birth Boston University and Harvard graduate Deborah
Beth Goldberg, the attorney and the Treasurer and Receiver-General of Massachusetts
who worked in the family-owned business which had become the Stop and Shop convenience
store chain.
1955: Israel attacked Gaza. In 1955,
Gaza was under control of Egypt. It was a base for fedayeen (from
Israel’s point of view, terrorists) who would cross into Israel planting
roadside bombs and shooting up passing vehicles. Israel’s move into Gaza
was temporary, lasting only long enough to destroy the bases from which these
people operated. David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, was
always adamant that Israel should never want to hold on to Gaza.
1959: Tonight “fifty
ambassadors from foreign countries, many of the delegates to the United Nations
and numerous distinguished Americans attended a farewell dinner in honor of
Israel Ambassador Abba Eban
who has been Israel’s permanent UN
representative for the last 11 years.
1959(3rd of
Iyar 5719): Seventy-three-year-old Louise Silberman Langsdorf, a leader of the
National Council of Jewish Women, the
daughter of Jennie and Benjamin Teller and the mother of Benjamin Franklin
Teller Langsdorf and Blanche Loeb Sundheim passed on the same day of the death
of her husband Jacob Loeb Langsdorf.
1959(3rd of
Iyar, 5719): Seventy-four-year-old Jacob Loeb Langsdorf, the son of Blanche and
Isadore Langsdorft, husband Louise Silberman Langsdorf with whom he raised two
children Blanche and Benjamin passed away today.
1959: The original
production of “Once Upon a Mattress” “a musical comedy with music by Richard
Rodgers and lyrics by Marshall Barer” “opened at the off-Broadway Phoenix
Theatre” today.
1960(14th
of Iyar, 5720): Pesach Sheni
1960: Adolf Eichmann, charged with the
implementation of the “final solution”, was captured in Buenos Aires,
Argentina. Eichmann was in charge of all transportation required for the
shipment of Jews to the extermination camps. The height of his career was
reached in Hungary in 1944, when he managed to transport 400,000 Jews to the
gas chambers in less than five weeks. Eichmann was found guilty and
is the only person who ever executed by the Israeli the government.
1961:
President John F. Kennedy appointed Walworth Barbour as U.S. Ambassador to
Israel.
1962(7th
of Iyar, 5722): Seventy-two-year-old Long Island College of Medicine graduate Dr.
Charles Goldman, a long-time “senior assistant, house physician and surgeon for
the New York City hospital and school systems” and the father of Mrs. Milton
Seligson and Mrs. Bernard Horrow who had “received a service award from the
Menorah Home and Hospital for the Aged and Infirm in recognition of his devoted
and humanitarian services” passe away today at his office in Brooklyn
1962(7th
of Iyar, 5722): Sixty-five-year-old Hunter graduate and member of the National
Hospitals National Executive Board, Mrs. Beatrice Freeze Joseph, the wife of
Barnett Joseph and the founder and longtime preside of the Junior League of
Deborah Tubercular Sanitorium in Brown Mills, NJ passed away today.
1963:
Today Martha Elisabeth Lawler married Yale University graduate and “managing
director of Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb incorporated David Tevlee Schiff, the New
York born son of “John Mortimer and Edith Brevoort (Baker) Schiff” after which
she gave birth to Ashley, David and Andrew Schiff.
1963:
Lesley Gore’s recording of “It’s My Party” “entered the Billboard Hot 100”
today.
1963(17th
of Iyar, 5723): Seventy-four-year-old Dr. Herbert S. Gasser, winner of the 1944
Nobel Prize for Medicine passed away tonight in New York City.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FA0E1EFC3858137A93C1A8178ED85F478685F9
1965(9th
of Iyar, 5725): Seventy-eight-year-old
Conservative Party leader and MP, Major Sir Benn Jack Brunel Cohen,
whose family-owned Lewis’s department store and who was he husband of Vera
Eveln Samuel as well as the son-in-law of Sir Stuart Samuel passed away today
in London.
1966:
“Dr. Samuel Ruben, an inventor, who is a Jew, who perfected the mercury battery
used in the life-saving heart pacemaker, has been designated “Inventor of
the Year for 1965,” it was announced here by the Patent, Trademarks, and
Copyright Institute of George Washington University, he was recognized for his
many achievements in electronics. The mercury battery is out one of some 300
inventions patented by Dr. Ruben.”
1966(21st
of Iyar, 5726): Sixty-year-old “Monument Man” James Joseph Rorimer, a Jew from
Cleveland who was a director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art where he helped
create the Cloisters passed away today after suffering a heart attack. (For more see Survival: The Salvage and
Protection of Art in War by James Joseph Rorimer http://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/the-heroes/the-monuments-men/rorimer-lt.-cdr.-james-j.http://chronicle.augusta.com/life/2014-02-08/look-real-man-portrayed-monuments-men
http://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/the-heroes/the-monuments-men/rorimer-lt.-cdr.-james-j.
http://chronicle.augusta.com/life/2014-02-08/look-real-man-portrayed-monuments-men
1966:
In New York City, “Ronnie I. (née Posner) and Lawrence David Ackman, the
chairman of a New York real estate financing firm, Ackman-Ziff Real Estate
Group” gave birth to “William Albert “Bill” Ackman an American
investor, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist who was the founder and CEO of
Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund management company.”
1967:
Abba Eban and his wife tour Israel’s northern border area with General David
Elazar, commander of the region.
1968: Rolling Stone magazine featured a
photograph of Eric Clapton taken by Linda McCartney today making it the first
time that a photograph by a woman “was featured on a front cover.”
1968:
It was reported today that Max Perlman who has been “absent from the Second
Avenue scene for two seasons” is scheduled to return to New York from Tel Aviv
“to star in the perennial fall production at of Jacob Jacobs at the Anderson
Yiddish Theatre.”
1969:
In “Jean Rosenthal 1912-1969” published today Leo Lerman provided a portrait of
the lighting genius who “lit up” the Broadway productions of “Hello Dolly,”
“Plaza Suite,” “Cabaret” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”
1969:
Sir Harry Charles Luke who served as assistant Governor of Jerusalem in 1921
and was a member of the Haycraft Commission that investigated the May riots in
Jaffa and who served as acting High Commissioner to the Government of Palestine
for six months during 1928 passed away today
1969:
“Singapore officially recognized the State of Israel and diplomatic relations
were established between the two countries.” (As reported by
JewishVirtualLibrary)
1970(5th
of Iyar, 5730): Yom HaAtzma’ut
1970:
“Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon” a comedy directed and produced by Otto
Preminger and filmed by cinematographer Boris Kaufman was released in the
United States today.
1970:
“The election of Seymour Graubard, a lawyer in New York, as national chairman
of the Anti‐Defamation League of B’nai B’rith was announced
today at the 57th annual meeting of the league at the Waldorf‐Astoria
Hotel.
1970:
“Leo the Last,” a British drama produced by Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler
and starring George Tabori whose “father Cornelius died at Auschwitz in 1944,
was released today in the United Kingdom.
1971:
“The Second Leningrad trial, with “Hillel Butman, Mikhail Korenblit, Lassal
Kaminsky, Lev Yagman, Vladimir Mogilever, Solomon Dreisner, Lev Korenblit,
Viktor Boguslavsky, Victor Shtilbans” as defemdmts begam tpdau/
1973: Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg
has his charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times dismissed. Contrary to a popular misconception, Ellsberg
was not Jewish. His parents had been
Jewish but they raised their son as a Christian Scientist. However, the following list of people
involved with the Pentagon Papers reads like a who’s-who of Jews during the
1970’s. How many of these names ring a
bell? “To name just a few, we have Leslie Gelb, the chief author of the
Pentagon Papers; Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s national security advisor and
Ellsberg’s former Harvard colleague; Leonard Weinglass and William Kunstler,
two of Ellsberg’s attorneys; Max Frankel and Arthur O. Sulzberger of The New
York Times which first published the secret papers; Sidney Zion, the maverick
reporter who named Ellsberg as the leaker; Seymour Hirsh, the investigative
journalist and one of Ellsberg’s few close friends; Barbra Streisand, who sang
to raise money for Ellsberg’s legal defense fund; Louis Marx, the toy tycoon
and Ellsberg’s father-in- law; Bernard Barker, the Watergate burglar; Noam
Chomsky, the hard-Left Ellsberg defender; and Ellsberg’s countless Jewish
colleagues and acquaintances at Harvard, at the
Corporation, in the government and in the anti-Vietnam War movement.”
1975:
Israel signed an agreement with European Economic Market. This helped the
Israelis to increase their involvement in what was then a new and burgeoning
market for its products including fresh flowers and fresh produce. At a
time when Israel was being isolated in the U.N., this agreement served as a
tonic for the besieged state.
1975:
Saboteurs derailed a freight train near Jerusalem.
1976:
Three people were injured when terrorist set off a bomb in a Tel Aviv movie
theatre.
1977(23rd
of Iyar, 5737): Seventy-one-year-old Polish born journalist, Yiddish author and
Labor Zions Pinhus Sztejnwaks, who in 1941 came to the United States where he a
“UN correspondent and the editor of Tzion Neiss.
1978(4th
of Iyar, 5738): Yom HaAtzma’ut
1978(4th
of Iyar, 5738): Ninety-three-year-old Edgar Raphael Meyer Spielman, the London
born son of Sir Meyer Adam Spielman and Gertrude EmilySpielman, the husband of
Mozelle Spielman and the father of Nancy Louise Lank; Bryan Edgar Spielman;
Anna Weill and Bryan Edgar Spielmann who was president of the Jewish Bread,
Meat and Coal Society, one of the oldest Jewish charities, for 20 years, from
1946 to 1966 and veteran of the British Army passed away toay.
1981:
ABC broadcast “Best Little Girl In the World” starring Jennifer Jason Leigh as
“Casey Powell” for the first time.
1982(18th
of Iyar, 5742): Lag B’Omer
1982:
Birthdate of Evan Goldberg, the native of Vancouver, who has collaborated with
his fellow Canadian Jewish boyhood friend Seth Rogen to produce several films
“including Superbad.”
1982:
The High Court of Australia decided Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen in which
barrister Aaron Ronald “Ron” Castan “played a leading role.”
1982:
The initial one-hour installment of ‘‘Oppenheimer,” a seven-part dramatized
biography of the American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer; it stars Sam
Waterston as ”the father of the atomic bomb” will be broadcast tonight as
part of the ”American Playhouse” series. (As reported by Michael Billington)
1983(28th of Iyar, 5743: Yom Yerushalayim
1983: In Miami, Arthur and Shirley Sotfloff
gave birth to Steven Joel Sotloff the journalist beheaded by ISIS.
1984: “The Natural,” the feel-good cinematic
treatment of Bernard Malamud’s 1952 novel of the same name directed by Berry
Levinson with music by Randy Newman was released today in the United States.
1985: Amy Eilberg was ordained today by the
Jewish Theological Seminary making her the first female rabbi in the
Conservative Movement.
1986:
Anatoly B. Shcharansky was the featured “speaker at the annual Solidarity
Sunday for Soviet Jewry, a rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in Manhattan.” Sharansky, who has taken the Hebrew name of
Natan was released from a Soviet prison in February thanks to a massive,
long-term campaign led by his wife Avital.
”My K.G.B. interrogators, my prison guards, they tried to convince me
that I was alone, powerless in their hands,” Mr. Shcharansky told the crowd,
some of whom had marched to the plaza near the United Nations along a parade
route that began at Fifth Avenue and 64th Street. The police estimated the
audience at 300,000. ‘All of You Were With Me’
”But I knew I was never alone,” he added. ”I knew my wife, my people
and all of you were with me. They tried their best to find a place where I was
isolated. But all the resources of a superpower cannot isolate a man who hears
the voice of freedom, a voice I heard from the very chamber of my soul.” (As
reported by Jane Gross)
1987: Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war
crimes committed during World War II. In
1941, Barbie was posted to the Bureau of Jewish Affairs and sent to Amsterdam
and later, in May 1942, to Lyon – there, he earned the sobriquet “Butcher
of Lyon” as head of the local Gestapo. He was accused of a number of
crimes, including the capture and deportation of forty-four Jewish children
hidden in the village of Izieu and the torturing to death of Jean Moulin, the highest-ranking
member of the French Resistance ever captured. All told, the deportation of
7,500 people, 4,342 murders, and the arrest and torture of 14,311 resistance
fighters were in some way attributed to his actions or commands. For several years after the war, Barbie was
protected by British and American intelligence agencies because they thought he
could provide information to help fight the Cold War. In the end, Barbie would be found guilty and
die in prison from cancer of the pancreas.
1987:
Time magazine published “Essay: Was He Normal? Human? Poor Humanity” by
Elie Wiesel.
http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,964332,00.html
1989:
NBC broadcast the final episode of season five of the “Cosby Show,” a sitcom
co-developed by Ed Weinberger.
1989:
“Going Overboard,” a comedy written by Adam Sandler who made his “film debut”
in this film was released today in the United States.
1991(27th
of Iyar, 5751): Parashat Behar- Bechukotai
1991:
“Amen,” a sitcom created by Ed Weinberger which included two years of Elsa Raven playing “Inga” was
broadcast on NBC for the last time.
1993:
Yithak Rabin replaced Aryeh Deri as Minister of Internal Affairs.
1994(1st
of Sivan, 5754): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1994(1st
of Sivan, 5754): Violinist Leonard Friedman passed away. Friedman was born in
London’s East End, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. He was the
father of another generation of performers, Sonia, Maria and Richard
Friedman. Richard Friedman is the second generation of violinists in the
family.
1995:
Birthdate of Tel Aviv native and the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors Shira
Haas, the first Israeli to be nominated for an Emmy Award.
1995:
NBC broadcast the final episode of season 6 of “Seinfeld” which was the number
1 rated show according to Nielsen.
1996(22nd
of Iyar, 5756): Parashat Behar-Bechukota
1996(22nd of Iyar, 5756): James Joseph
Rorimer, the Cleveland born son of Edith and Louis Rormer, and the director of
the Metropolitan Museum of Art who was the driving force behind the creation of
“the cloisters” and would have remained unknown to most people were it not for
his role as a member of U.S. Army’s Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section
making him one the “Monuments Men” who was the character portrayed by Matt
Damon in the film of the same name passed away today.
1997(4th
of Iyar, 5757): Yom HaZikaron
1997:
Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to
beat a world-champion chess player. Kasparov claims to be half Armenian and
half Jewish. Regardless of his chess
playing skills, Kasparov literally embodies the victims of the two most famous
cases of genocide in the 20th century.
1997: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interst to Jewish readers including “The American Century” by Norman F.
Cantor.
1998: In
his column for the Weekly Standard, Charles Krauthammer wrote:
“Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity:
It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same
name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000
years ago. You dig the soil, and you find pottery from Davidic times, coins
from Bar Kokhba, and 2,000-year-old scrolls written in a script remarkably like
the one that today advertises ice cream at the corner candy store.”
2000: The
lawyer for said Shlomo Helbrans, “a Hasidic rabbi on parole in Rockland County
after serving a prison term for kidnapping a teenager under his tutelage was
deported to Israel today, even as his conviction was being appealed…”
2001(18th
of Iyar, 5761): Lag B’Omer
2001: The Austin Chronicle reviews “Silent
Heritage: The Sephardim and the Colonization of the Spanish North American
Frontier, 1492-1600” by Richard Santos
2002: “The
city of Rochester” declared today “Hyam Plutzik Day in recognition of his
contributions to the community.”
2002: Robert
Kraft’s New England Patriots open their brand-new stadium, Gillette Stadium.
2003: The
New York Times featured books by Jewish writers and/or of special interest
to Jewish readers including “The God of Old: Recovering Theological Imaginings”
by James Kugel
2003: Three
days after she had passed away funeral services are scheduled to be held at in
Wilmington, DE for 64 year old Barbara Tavel-Lipnick the daughter of Rabbi
Henry Tavel and Charlotte Tavel
2004: Today,
“friends and family of Nicholas Berg, who was killed by his captors in Iraq as
generous, remembered him as outgoing and funny.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2004/05/12/friends-kin-mourn-berg/
2004: The Village Voice publishes “The Jesus
Landing Pad” in which author Rick Pearlstein describes the here-to-for
undocumented role of certain Christian groups in forming the Bush
Administration’s Middle East Policy. According to Pearlstein, the American
people “we’re not supposed to know the National
Security Council’s top Middle East aide consults with apocalyptic Christians
eager to ensure American policy on Israel conforms with their sectarian
doomsday scenarios.”
2005:
It was reported today that an official from the village of Malakhova and Berl
Lazar, “Russia’s chief rabbi believe that “a fire that gutted historic
synagogue in the village just outside of Moscow may have been arson.”
2005:
Four days after he had passed away, a memorial service was held for CCNY
graduate Harry Minkoff the veteran of the Battle of the Bulge and founder and
president of Gift-Pax who raised three children – Jane, Larry and George – with
his wife Ruth.
2005: Observance of יום הזכרון לחללי מערכות ישראל – ד‘ באייר Yom Hazikaron – Israel
Remembrance Day or Israel Fallen Soldiers Remembrance Day. This is a day to remember all those who have
fallen in the defense of the Jewish homeland including those who have died at
the hand of terrorist. This national day
of remembrance always comes one day before Israel Independence Day, which is
the fifth of Iyar. However, according to
Israeli law, when the fifth of Iyar falls on a Friday or Saturday, as is the
case in 2005, the observance of Independence Day is always moved to
Thursday. This means that Yom Hazikaron
is moved to Wednesday.
2006: At The 92nd Street Y Joseph Telushkin delivers a lecture on his
book “A Code of Jewish Ethics“,
followed by a book signing.
2006:
According to “Hevesi’s Advice Stirs Questions On the Coast” published in the New York Sun, New York State Comptroller
Alan Hevesi “faced a conflict of interest allegation in relation to a private
capital fund named ‘Markstone’”.
2006(13th of Iyar, 5766): Writer, actor and singer Yossi Banai, one of Israel’s
most beloved and admired artists passed away at the age of 74 after a serious
illness.
2007:
Jennifer Bleyer is the featured speaker at the Shabbat dinner sponsored by the
founded Heeb Magazine, and became its
first editor and publisher. She is currently writing for the City section of The New York Times, and has written
about her own personal Jewish journey in Yentl’s Revenge and The Modern Jewish Girl’s Guide
to Guilt.
2007:
In Postville, Iowa, 200 workers walked off the job at Agriprocessors, the
largest kosher slaughtering operation in the United States.
2007(23rd
of Iyar, 5767): The attempt to bury Joseph Chuckrow who had passed away today
touched off a legal dispute between the Chuckrow family and Temple Beth El in
Troy, NY.
2007(23rd
of Iyar, 5767): Robert Gordon, the blacklisted writer who was the son of Jewish
immigrants from Russia passed away. One
of his best-known quality screen efforts was 55 Days at Peking. During his
“black list” period, Gordon served as one of the writers on “Hellcats of the
Navy” starring Ronald Reagan and his future wife, Nancy Davis
2008:
Leonard Cohen began his first tour in 15 years at Fredericton, New Brunswick.
2008:
As part of Israel Independence Celebrations, The First International Writers
Festival opens in Mishkenot Sha’ananim in Jerusalem. The festival, which is the
first of its type here, provides a common meeting ground for Israeli writers
and prominent international colleagues. The festival is the site of roundtable
discussions and encounters with readers, in a variety of languages, as well as
a number of events for children. Among the guests at the first festival are
Jewish-American writers Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss and Nathan
Englander.
2008:
“One of a Kind,” a play that Yossi Vassa co-wrote with Shai Ben Attar about his
family’s flight from Ethiopia in the mid-1980s ends its weeklong run at The New
Victory Theater in New York City.
2008:
The Sunday New York Times section
features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of Jewish interest
including How I Learned Geography, a children’s book written and
illustrated by Uri Shulevitz, Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to
Designer Babies, How the World and I Found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene by
Masha Gessen, Nixonland by Rick Perlstein, The Ten Year Nap by
Meg Wolitzer, The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of
a Lost Journal by Lily Koppel and Peace by Richard Bausch of
which the reviewer writes, “ One senses some inherited autobiography here.
Robert Marson, the novel’s central character is the grandson of German
immigrants; his comrade, Asch, is the grandson of a German Jew who fought for
the Kaiser in World War I. Bausch has dedicated the book to a father who
“served bravely in Africa, Sicily and Italy.”
2008:
The Washington Post book section
features reviews of Reflections of a Wine Merchant by Neal I. Rosenthal
and Audition: A Memoir by Barbara Walters.
2009:
Rabbi Denise Eger assumes the leadership of the Board of Rabbis of Southern
California. She is the first woman and
the firs lesbian to head this organization.
2009:
The Pope arrives in Israel for a
four-day stay, which will include visits to the Palestinian Authority and the
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem as
well as meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President
Shimon Peres, who will be his official host.
2009: Sports Illustrated reports on the
recent death of Salamo Arouch, the Greek born Jewish boxer who survived
Auschwitz by winning fights staged by the camp guards. After the war, he moved to Palestine where he
fought in the War of Independence. He
was 86 when he died.
2009: Final performance of “The Man That Got Away: After Ira
George” at the 92nd Street Y in New York.
2010: David Cameron who describes 16th century as Elia Levita “a
Renaissance Hebrew grammarian, scholar, and poet” as
“my forefather Elijah Levita who wrote what is thought to
have been the first ever Yiddish novel” began serving as Prime Minister of
the UK today.
2010: Andy Christie’s The Liar Show featuring Ophira Eisenberg, Mark
Katz, Michaela Murphy and Andy Christie is scheduled to appear at the DCJCC.
2010:
Yom Yerushalayim, “For the sake of
Jerusalem I will not be silent,” a night of activism on behalf of Israel is
scheduled to take place at the Mt. Kisco Hebrew Congregation.
2010:
A Prague court has recognized an
artist’s right to the image he designed of the Golem. Today the Prague
Municipal court recognized the right of the daughter of the late sculptor
Jaroslav Horejc, who created an image of a burly clay giant for the Czech film
“The Emperor’s Baker/The Baker’s Emperor,” to the image of the
character, according to Radio Prague. According to legend, the Prague Golem was
created by Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the chief rabbi of Prague in the late
16th century, to defend the Prague ghetto from pogroms. Horejc’s image was the
first time that the Golem was shown as a giant, inhuman figure and not a human
figure, according to the report.
2010: David Miliband completed his term of office as Secretary of State
for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs under Prime Minster Gordon Brown.
2010: Peter Mandelson completed his service as First Secretary of State
and Lord President of the Council in Great Britain.
2011:
Rachel Gordan is scheduled to lead a
conversation, entitled “Post-World War II American Judaism: How Judaism Became
an American Religion,” at the Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture in
Boston, MA.
2011:
The Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati,
Ohio, is scheduled to hold an informal
10-minute conversation on “Jozef Israëls, The Sewing School at Katwijk which
provide more information about this masterpiece painted by the Jewish artist
dubbed the 19th-century Rembrandt.
2011: Katherine Scharhon is scheduled to lead the first part of a two
part series “A Taste of Sephardic Foods” in which participants will learn to make (and eat) borekas, those divine
filled pies and biscochos, the lovely simple cookies that can be sweet or
savory and shaped for a variety of occasions in Seattle, Washington, home to
the third largest Sephardic community in the United States.
2011:
Hundreds of Jewish World War II
veterans marched in the streets of Jerusalem today on the 66th anniversary of
the Allied victory over Nazi Germany.
2011: Following the attack on Moshe Cohen, director of Heichal Hatora, in
Buenos Aires,
Dr. Angel Schindel, vice president of the DAIA Jewish political umbrella
organization, plans to file a lawsuit today in the federal justice department
based on a violation of Argentina’s anti-discrimination law, which penalizes
with jail time attacks motivated by racial or religious hatred. (As reported by
JTA)
2011(7th
of Iyar, 5771): Ninety-four-year-old Leo Kahn, the founder of Staples, passed
away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/business/13kahn.html
2011: In “At
100, Still a Teacher and Quite a Character,” Joseph Berger describes the
remarkable life of Bel Kaufman, the granddaughter of Shalom Aleichem who gained
fame as an author in her own right.
2011(7th
of Iyar, 5771): Centenarian Maurice Goldhaber, the physicist who as Director of
the Brookhaven National Laboratory oversaw experiments that led to 3 Nobel
Prizes passed away today. (As reported by Kenneth Chang) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/18/science/18goldhaber.html?_r=1
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/25/local/la-me-maurice-goldhaber-20110525
2012: Amos Kollek’s “Chronicles of a Chrisis” a documentary that includes
an examination between the writer/director and his father who was Jerusalem’s
most famous mayor finishes its opening week debut at the Quad Cinema in New
York City.
2012: In “Holocaust documents reveal story behind Obama’s tailor”
published today Ned Martel tells the story of Washington tailor and Shoah
survivor Martin Greenfield.
2012:
In the Western Galilee the Matte Asher
and Maale Yosef regional councils are scheduled to host a jeep trip from Lake
Monfort to the Tzuriel Crater, Alkosh Forest and Goren Park
2012: Israeli President Shimon
underwent surgery for a hernia at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer.
2013: Israeli born pianist Shai Wosner is scheduled to perform at the
Kenned Center Terrace Theatre as the Washington Jewish Music Festival comes to
an end.
2013: Several thousand people marched around central Tel Aviv tonight to
protest the budget plan presented earlier this week by Finance Minister Yair
Lapid. (As reported by Ben Hartman)
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Thousands-turn-out-in-TA-to-protest-Lapid-budget-312850
2013: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced heavy criticism today after
it was revealed he spent $127,000 (over 450,000 shekels) of taxpayers’ money
having an El Al plane fitted out with a double-bed in an enclosed bedroom for
his five-hour flight to London last month to attend the funeral of British
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
2014: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Exodus:
A Memoir by Deborah Feldman and Daughter of the King by Sandra
Lansky (daughter of Myer Lansky) and William Stadiem.
2014: The 22nd annual Toronto Jewish
Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end.
2014:
The National Center for Jewish Film’s 17th annual film festival is
scheduled to come to an end.
2014:
“Twenty IDF reservist commanders sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu today, in which they stressed that over 100 soldiers under their
command hadn’t undergone any training exercises for three-and-a-half years, and
therefore were unprepared for any military conflict the country may face.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4518624,00.html
2014:
“A settlers’ group filed a police complaint against iconic Israeli author Amos
Oz today, even as the writer doubled down on widely publicized weekend
statements in which he called the perpetrators of the recent wave of so-called
”price tag” hate crimes throughout the country neo-Nazis, and accused the
country’s leadership of being cowed by “settler rabbis.”
2015:
The Jewish Historical Society of England is scheduled to host Yanky Franchler
delivering a lecture on “1000 Years of Jewish Blood Libels.”
2015:
Michael Walzer, author of The Paradox of Liberation: Secular Revolutions and
Religious Counterrevolutions and Paul Berman are scheduled to explore India and
its Hindu militants, the ultra-Orthodox and messianic Zionists of Israel, and
Algerian Islamic radicals” at the Center for Jewish History.
2015:
“Felix & Meira” and “A la Vie” are scheduled to be shown at the 18th
annual Jewish Film Festival.
2015:
The Jewish Historical Society of England is scheduled to host Saul Sapir
delivering a lecture on “The Heritage of the Jews of Mumbai (Bombay).”
2015:
In Tel Aviv, at The Israel Museum birthday which is scheduled to take place
today, “There will be no charge to enter the museum and anyone turning 50 on
the same day will receive a free lifetime membership to the museum.”
2016(3rd
of Iyar, 5776): Yom Hazikaron – The Day of Remembrance
(Yom
Hazikaron l’Chalalei Ma’arachot Yisrael ul’Nifge’ei Pe’ulot. “The Day of
Remembrance for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism” is
on the 4th of Iyar, but is observed this year on the 3rd
to avoid a conflict with Shabbat)
2016;
‘Rachel Aaron won the Best Fantasy Audie Award for her work, Nice Dragons
Finish Last, as narrated by Vikas Adam.”
2016:
“Teens and adults from Hashomer Hatzair Youth Group and Stephen Wise Free
Synagogue Religious School are scheduled to participate in “Mizikaron
Le’atzmaut: From Remembrance to Independence” – a commemoration of the memory
of Israeli soldiers followed by “a concert Israeli songs by the a\ Afro-Hebrew
band Milk and Honeys.”
2016:
California born outfielder Ryan Michael Kalish who began his career in 2010
with the Boston Red Sox played his last game major league game today with the
Chicago Cubs.
2016:
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education and the Portland
Symphonic Choir are scheduled to present “A Child of Our Time” – Michael
Tippett’s work written in response to Kristallnacht and performed for the first
time in 1944.
2017:
Three days after he had passed away funeral services were held at Temple Israel
for eighty-seven year old Harvard graduate Julian I. Edison, the St. Louis born
son of Mark and Ida Edison and husband of Hope Rabb Edison with whom he raised
two sons Mark and Aaron who was Chairman of Edison Brothers Stores, Inc.
2017:
Dr. Scott Gottlieb began serving as the 23rd Commissioner of Food
and Drugs today.
2017:
Alesssio Assontis and Gabriele Mancuso are scheduled to lecture on “Like the
Medici: Jewish Dynasties in Renaissance Florence” at the Streicker Center.
2017:
Authors Matti Friedman and Nicole Strauss are scheduled to present “Writing
Between Two Jewish Worlds” at the Central Synagogue.
2017:
In “Songs of the Nation” Maskilic Readings of the Psalms After Moses
Mendelssohn” Dr. Yael Sela-Teichler is scheduled to discuss “the 1791 edition
of Moses Mendelssohn’s German translation of Psalms, The Book of the Songs
of Israel, exploring maskilic renderings of the music of the Hebrews that
reclaim biblical poetry as Jewish musical heritage and challenge traditional
notions of exile.”
2018:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host and interfaith Friday
night with its “Baha’I friends.”
2018(26th
of Iyar, 5778): Eighty-two-year-old publisher Peter Mayer who most popular
claim to fame was the publication The Satanic Verses, whose author Salman
Rushdie was fair game for anybody who wanted to murder him. (As reported by
Neil Genzlinger)
2018:
Today, “a jury found” former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon “Silver guilty
of corruption charges convicting him on counts of extortion and honest services
fraud…”
2018:
“The Live Feed Creative residency program” at the New York Live Art Studios is
scheduled to present Netta Yerushalmy’s “Paradmodernites.”
2018:
The UK Jewish Film is scheduled to sponsor two screenings today in London of
“Entebbe.”
2018
(26th of Iyar, 5778): Ninety-year-old “Oscar-nominated screenwriter” Josh
Greenfield passed away today. (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)
2019:
The D.C. Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of “Cairo to the
Cloud: The World of the Cairo Geniza” followed by a Q and A with Filmmaker
Michelle Paymar.
2019:
In New Orleans, this evening Gates of Prayer is scheduled to host its “Gala
Fundraiser.”
2019(6th
of Iyar, 5779): Parashat Kedoshim; Pirke Avot Chapter Two
2020:
As part of the Modern Jewish Literature series at LSJS, Dr. Aviva is scheduled
to present a virtual exploration of Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy
Brodesser-Akner.
2020:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host, on-line, “Artists’ Beit Midrash –
Jewish Artists in Post-War Art” with Tobi Kahn and Rabba Wendy Amsellem
2020:
Jay and Shira Ruderman are scheduled to host Isaac (Bougie) Herzog, chairman of
the Jewish Agency for Israel, to discuss Israel’s role and responsibilities
when Jewish communities face crisis.
2020:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present, live on Zoom
Professor Zvi Zohar as he discusses “Value and Consequences in the Halakhic
Process: A Sephardi Perspective.”
2020:
The Virtual Sonoma County JCC Israeli Film Festival is scheduled to host a
“live streaming” of “Love in Suspenders,” a Hebrew language film with English
subtitles.
2021:
Pew Research Center, The Jewish Federations of North America and The Neubauer
Family Foundation are scheduled to host a virtual presentation and conversation
about findings from the Center’s new 2020 survey of Jewish Americans which is
scheduled to be released today.
2021:
ADL New England, the Center for
Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Israel of Boston and the Jewish Community
Relations Council are scheduled to host “an important discussion on the
intersection of white supremacy and antisemitism and what we can do to combat
extremism and hate.”
2021: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is
scheduled to host a discussion of How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X.
Kend
2021: In New Orleans, The Tulane Hillel
Chapter, home of the Green Wave Jews is scheduled to hold its board meeting
this evening.
2021: School kids in Rishon Lezion, Rehovot,
Ness Ziona, Holon, and Bat Yam are scheduled not to go to school over fears
that they could be the target of Gazan rockets.
https://streicker.nyc/current-season/eitan
2022: The Wiener Holocaust Library is scheduled
to host its first event in its Fighting Anti-Semitism exhibition series during
which historian and author Daniel Sonabend will tell the story of the militant
Jewish anti-fascist organization the 43 Group.
2022: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host
“Chef Eiten Bernath in conversation with Gail Simmons.
2022: YIVO is scheduled to present a lecture by
Jeffrey Heft, the author of Israel’s Moment: International Support for and
Opposition to Establishing the Jewish State, 1945–1949 which explores the political realities
that underpinned support for and opposition to Zionist aspirations in Palestine
in the wake of the Holocaust and during the onset of the Cold War.
2022:
The Taube Center for Jewish Peoplehood is scheduled to present a discussion by
Zack Bodner of his new book Why Do Jewish? A Manifesto for 21st
Century Jewish Peoplehood.
2022:
The Association of Jewish Libraries is scheduled to co-sponsor “Uncovering
Jewish Collections” “a fascinating conversation on uncovering world-class
Jewish collection as public institutions across America.”
https://theweitzman.org/events/uncovering-jewish-collections/
2023: The Jerusalem Writers Festival is
scheduled to come to a close.
2023: At Temple Judea in Palm Beach Gardens,
davening is a “family affair” since it is led by Rabbi Feivel Strauss and
Cantor Abbie Strauss.
2023: A two day symposium on
“New Directions in the Study of the Roma Genocide” organized by the Weiner
Library and the University of Cambridge is scheduled to come to a close today.
2023: The Center for Jewish
History is scheduled to present a lecture by Princeton University Professor and
award winning author Esther Schor on “Horace M. Kalllen’s Frontiers of Hope
(1929): A Journey to Palestine and Eastern Europe Between the World Wars.”
2023: The 25th
Anniversary Edition of the New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival is scheduled
to come to an end today.
2023: Israelis wait to see
if last night’s reports of a deal to end the fighting between the Palestinian
terrorists and Israel will hold.
2023:
The Iowa Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host an online discussion of
Saved by Schindler: The Life of Celina Karp Biniaz by William B.
Fredericks.
https://icecubepress.com/2022/06/19/saved-by-schindler-2/
2024:
At Temple Judea, Cooper Wolowitz is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a
Bar Mitzvah.
2024:
The Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum is scheduled to host special
member preview of the exhibition ““I’ll Have What She’s Having”: The Jewish
Deli”
2024:
In Jerusalem, Agnon House is scheduled to host “another joint reading of Agnon’s
readings” during which Uri Greenspun will examine “The Documentation” and “try
to shed some light on its meaning.
2024:
Israel’s Eden Golan advances to the Eurovision grand final which is scheduled
to take place today.
2024(3rd
of Iyar, 5784): Parashat Kedoshim; Pirke Avot Chapter Two
for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2024:
As May 11th begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps the
United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day
218 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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