This Day, May 29, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
May 29
363: A good
day for the Romans and bad day for the Jews. Roman Emperor Julian defeats the
Sassanid army in the Battle of Ctesiphon, under the walls of the Sassanid
capital, but is impossible to conquer it. But Julian is killed at the end of
the battle, some claiming that he was assassinated by a Christian Arab. Julian was the nephew and successor of
Constantine. Julian repealed his Uncle’s
pro-Christian promulgations allowing the old pagan cults to reappear. This earned him the title Julian the
Apostate. Julian also repealed the
special taxes that had been levied on the Jews.
He announced that the Jews would be allowed to return to Jerusalem and
rebuild the Temple. Jews actually built
a synagogue near the Temple Mount in anticipation of the rebuilding of the
Temple. Unfortunately, the favorable
treatment of the Jews died with Julian’s demise. Rome returned to path of Constantine and the
Jews returned to the road of exile and expulsion.
1096: The Jews
of Bacharach, Germany, were massacred by the Crusaders.
1108: The
forces of the Muslim Almoravids under Tamim ibn-Yusuf defeated the Christian
forces of Castile and León under Alfonso VI at the Battle of Uclésv. The battle was a disaster for the Christians
who lost 30,000 men including seven high-ranking nobles and the heir-apparent,
Sancho Alfónsez. The Muslims were not able to capitalize on the victory and
conquer the city of Toledo. The
Christians of Toledo “celebrated” their deliverance by murderously attacking
the Jews and burning their homes and synagogues. Alfonso died before he could punish the
murderers. Following his death, the people of Carrion followed the example of
their co-religionists in Toledo and attacked the Jews in an orgy of murderous
pillaging.
1167: A Roman army supporting Pope Alexander III is
defeated at the Battle of Monte Porzio by the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa and the local princes of Tusculum and Albano. Jehiel Anav
reportedly “supervised the finances of Pope Alexander.” Jeheil Anva would
appear to be one in the same with Jehiel ben Jekutheil Anav who is believed to
be the author of Tanya Rabbati which discusses Shabbat and the Jewish
Holidays. He was related to the Italian born scholar and linguist Nathan ben Jehiel.
Frederick Barbarossa would be one of the three kings to lead the Third
Crusades. Unlike other Crusaders, the
German Barbarossa was protective of his Jewish subjects causing “a Jewish
chronicler, Ephraim be-Jacob of Bonna to write ‘Frederick defended us with all
his might and enabled us to live among our enemies, so that no harmed the
Jews.’”
1453: The
Ottomans under Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople marking the end of
Byzantine (or the Eastern Roman) Empire.
(The shift from Christian to Moslem control reverberates into the 21st
century)(According to at least one source, the Jews were spared when the
Moslems slaughtered the inhabitants – Jewish Virtual Library)
1453: Sultan
Mohammed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, granted equal rights to Jews and
other non-Muslim subjects of the Ottoman Empire. The oppressed Jews were
relieved to see him occupy the city. He allowed Jews from today’s Greek Islands
and Crete to settle in Istanbul. The Sultan’s declaration contained the
following words: “Listen sons of the Hebrew who live in my country…May
all of you who desire come to Constantinople and may the rest of your people
find here a shelter”.
1507: The
third of four fires broke out in Pilsen today burning down more of the houses
belonging to the Jews.
1554: Pope
Paul IV issued a bull ordering Jews to surrender all books containing alleged
anti-Christian blasphemies. The sweeping
terms of the bull covered all rabbinic work relating to the Talmud. In effect, Paul IV nullified a bull issued by
Pope X in 1518 which permitted the publication of codes of Jewish law upon the
approval of church censors.
1630: At St.
James Palace, Charles I, king of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his wife
Henrietta Maria gave birth to Charles II the husband of Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese who brought Portuguese native
Fernando Mendes to serve as her personal physician which made it possible for
him to begin living openly as a Jew.
1647(24th
of Iyar, 5407): “Poet and translator” Moses Belmonte, the eighth child of Jacob
Belmont, who works included a Spanish translation of the “Song of Songs” passed
away today in Amsterdam.
1660: Charles II
who “supported the Jews, legally accepting them in 1684” began his reign today as
King of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1686: Jews of
New Amsterdam were allowed to openly practice their religion.
1724:
Beginning of the Papacy Benedict XIII, a papal leader who issued a series of
anti-Semitic bulls and writings that reached a level of literary or theological
compulsion. In 1727, Benedict wrote Emanavit numer, which stated the conditions
under which Jews could be forcibly baptized. In Alias emanarunt, “Benedict
forbade selling of goods by Jews. In
1749 he issued Singulari noblis consoldtioni which dealt with the issue of
Christians and Jews getting married. In
1751, he issued Elapso proxime anno which dealt with Jewish heresy and Probe te
meinisse which laid down the rules for baptizing Jewish children. Finally, in 1755, he issued Beatus Andres
which beatified Andreas von Ronn who had alledgedly been by Jews in 1462 as
part of their religious ritual. “The
pope declared that such ritual murders were fact and were part of Jewish
practice, not exceptions.” (page 119)
1750: Abraham
Lyon, a baker in New York City, “became a freeman” today.
1751: In
Chester County, PA, Abraham Lewis and Rebekah Davis gave birth to Abraham Lewis
II, the husband of Esther Todd.
1763: In
Berline Jewish reformer daughter of Moses Mendelssohn and Fromet (Frumet)
Mendelssohn gave birth to Sarah Mendelssohn who would only live to the age of
10 months.
1773(7th
of Sivan, 5533): Second Day of Shavuot
1776: Eleazar
Lyons, a young Dutch Jew who had begun his own business in 1772 and Hannah
Levy, the parents of Baltimore native Uriah Lyons and the grandparents of Ellis and Alexander
Lyons were married today at Harrisburg,
PA.
1781(5th
of Sivan, 5541): Erev Shavuot was observed 19 days after the King George III
gave his royal assent to the Tea Act, which led to the Boston Tea Party, which
led to the British Closure of the port of Boston which led to the American
Revolution. (Editor’s note – Bet nobody eating their blintzes today knew what earth-shattering
events were afoot.)
1781: As Jews
on both sides of the American Revolution prepare to observe Shavuot, word was
sent to Comte de Rochambeau, the commander of French forces that the French
fleet under Comte De Grasse had scored a rare victory over the British fleet
off the coast of Martinique.
1790: Rhode
Island becomes the last of the original United States colonies to ratify the
Constitution and is admitted as the 13th U.S. state. According to Rufus Learsi,
at the outbreak of the American Revolution Rhode Island was one of only five
the original thirteen colonies to have had an organized Jewish community.
Newport reportedly had 1,200 Jewish habits, half the Jews living in all of the
thirteen colonies at that time. Congregation Jeshuat Israel (Salvation of
Israel) had erected its own synagogue and Rabbi Isaac Touro was so well known
that he was visited by rabbis from Europe and Eretz Israel including Raphael
Cahim Isaac Corregal from Hebron who formed a lasting friendship with Pastor
Ezra Stiles, President of Yale. Newport
may be best remembered for the famous letter that President Washington wrote to
the Jews of Newport in 1790 in which he endorsed the full participation of the
Jewish people in all aspects of American life.
Unfortunately, the Newport Jewish community had already lost its dominant
role. The British occupation during the
American Revolution had marked the beginning of the end of the commercial
primacy of Newport and many of the Jews who had fled during the occupation
simply did not return. The loss of
prominence of the Jewish community is highlighted by the fact that the state of
Rhode Island did not get around to removing religious tests for office until
1842. For more about this see http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/rhode.html
1794(29th
of Iyar, 5554): Samuel Yoal passed away today in London after which he was
buried at the Alderney Road Jewish Cemetery.
1800(5th
of Sivan, 5560): Erev Shavuot observed for the last time during the Presidency
of John Adams.
1805(1st
of Sivan, 5565): Rosh Chodesh Sivan observed on the same day that Lewis and
Clark were encountering herds of buffalo as they made their away across the
“Louisiana Purchase” bound for the Pacific Ocean.
1810: In
London, Hanna Barnet Cohen and Anthony de Rothschild gave birth to Sir Anthony
de Rothschild
1815(19th
of Iyar, 5575): Menachem Mendel of Rimanov, the native of Neustadat who was
“one of the five principal disciples of Elimelech of Lizhensk” who was a major
Polish Chasidic Rebbe passed away today.
https://books.google.com/books?id=qZTOaahj92IC&pg=PA7&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
1819: In
Paris, “Élie, duc Decazes and his second wife, Wilhelmine de Beaupoil de
Saint-Aulaire” gave birth to Louis, duc Decazes who while serving as Foreign
Minister in 1875 “informed Henri Blowitz, the Bohemian Jew who was the Paris
correspondent of The Times of a confidential dispatch from the French
ambassador to Berlin, discussing German plans to attack France” which he asked
Blowitz to publish as part of an effective plan to prevent the Germans from
carrying out their plans.
1820:
Sixty-eight year “German historian and political” Christian Wilhelm von Dohm,
the son of a Lutheran minister, “staunch advocate for Jewish emancipation” and
personal friend of Moses Mendelssohn passed away at his estate “near
Nordhausen.”
1825:
Coronation of French King Charles X whose consul in Algiers was Jacob Cohen
Bakri,
1826(22nd
of Iyar): Rabbi Judah Leib, author of “Likkutei Maharil” passed away.
1831: In
Philadelphia, Juliet Moss, the New York born daughter of Solomon Hayman Levy
and Rebecca Eve Levy and her husband Joseph Lyons Moss “a partner of Messrs. R.
& I. Phillips, who first represented in this country the renowned banking
house of Rothschild, of London, England” gave birth to Estelle Moss
1836:
Birthdate of Emil Breslaur or Breslauer, the native of Cottbus who studied at
the Julius Stern Conservatory which led him to a career as a musician and
writer.
1838(5th
of Sivan, 5598): Erev Shavuot
1839: Joshua
Hands and Hannah Mitchell were married today at the New Synagogue.
1842: Lewis
Collins and Julie Isaacs were married today in the United Kingdom.
1847:
Birthdate of Isaac Weil, the husband of Hannah Weil with whom he had six
children.
1848: Wisconsin admitted to the Union. According to Rufus Learsi, “there was no
Jewish community in Wisconsin when it became a state, but not long afterwards
the Forty-eighters began to arrive and a congregation was organized in
Milwaukee.” The forty-eighters were Jews
who left Germany and Bohemia after losing faith in the possibility meaningful
emancipation and democratic reform following the unsuccessful revolutions of
1848.
1850: In New
York, Robert and Dinah Lyon gave birth to Edmund Robert Lyon, the husband of
Charity Lyon with whom he had three children – Elvira, Augusta and Walter.
1854:Solomon
Nunes Carvalho “wrote in his log that he
and his party had ‘camped on a narrow stream of deliciously cool water, which
distrubtes itself about half a mile further down in a verdant meadow bott,
covered with good grass. This camp
ground is called by the Mexicans, Las Vegas.’” This meant that Carvalho was the
first Jews to visit what is now Las Vegas, Neveda. A native of Charleston, South Carolina,
Carvalho was a Sephard who had had joined the expedition led by John C. Fremont
as a photographer and artist. Reportedly, Carvalho refused to eat porcupine
because “it looked like pork” even though this meant he went hungry. It would take a century for Las Vegas to open
an establishment that sold kosher food.
1855: Rabbi
Isaac Mayer Wise of Cincinnati was reported today to have begun a tour of the
United States to gain support for the creation of for the establishment of “a
Collegiate Institute for the education of Jewish theologians and other
scholastic attainments.
1857(6th
of Sivan, 5617): Shavuot observed as India is gripped by the Sepoy Rebellion
1861: Rabbi David Einhorn, a leading abolitionist,
rejected the request of his former Congregation, Har Sinai, to return to
Baltimore because he would have been required to remain silent on the subjects
of slavery and preserving the union.
1865: Philadelphian Corporal James E. Arnold who had enlisted
in August of 1862 completed his service today as a member of Company E of the
114th Regimet.
1867:
Following the defeat of the Austrian Empire by the Prussians, Emperor Franz
Josef authorizes an agreement called Ausgleich (“the Compromise”),
which established the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The document extended the rights
of full citizenship to all those living in the Hapsburg Empire including the
Jews. With the stroke of a pen, 350,000
Jews were freed to live wherever they please and follow whatever occupation or
trade they so desired. The Empire would
benefit from a burst of Jewish creativity from its Hungarian and Austrian
Jewish subjects as well as loyalty and devotion beyond compare.
1868: In
Allegheny, PA, Pauline (Bernhard) Stein and Solomon Stein, “a prosperous woolen
merchant gave birth their eldest child Bird Stein, who “received her education
at Columbia, the New School for Social Research and NYU and became Bird Stein
Gans when she married her second husband Howard Gans with whom she had two
children Marian and Robert and who worked to advance the cause of women as can
be seen by her leadership role in the National Council of Jewish Women.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/bird-stein-gans
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/gans-bird-stein
1868: Three
days after he had passed away, Frank Lawrence Simeon, the one year and eleven-month-old
son of “Michael and Augusta Simeon” was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham
Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1869: In what
is now the Czech Republic , Daniel Low, the son of David Low and his wife
Helene Low gave birth to Adolf Low,
1870: In the
Turkish province of Rumania, thousands of Jews were killed and injured when
they were attacked by Christians in cities throughout this section of Southern
Europe.
1872: The
inauguration services of the new Mount Sinai Hospital building were held this
afternoon. The hospital is located on Lexington Avenue between 66th
and 67th Avenues. Appropriate prayers were offered by the Jewish
clergy and E.B. Hart delivered an address during which he traced the history of
Mount Sinai which goes back to January, 1852.
Governor Hoffman also addressed the throng.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9906E0DF1439EF34BC4850DFB3668389669FDE
1873: Adolph
Marx Oppenheimer and Julie Oppenheimer gave birth to Henry Oppenheimer.
1876(6h of
Sivan, 5636): Shavuot
1876: A
can-can dancer named Katie Forrest sued a Jew named Solomon Care in the Marine
Court over jewelry which she said he stole from her. Care claimed that he had given her the
jewelry and had pawned some of it to pay for her hotel bills. Both sides rested
today but no decision was rendered by the end of the day.
1876: The
New York Times reported that “the Jewish feast of ‘Shevuoth,’ or the
Pentecost, the Spring-tide festival of the Hebraic calendar was inaugurated
last evening with the joyous ceremonies incident to the occasion. This festival also called the Feast of Weeks
because it occurs seven weeks after the Passover, under the Mosaic dispensation
was one of the three imporantant festivals on which it was customary for the
Jews in Palestine to assemble at Jerusalem and bring up to the Temple as
offerings the first fruits of the seasons.”
1876(6th of
Sivan, 5636): Shavuot
1876: On
Shavuot, Confirmation Services were held at Temple Emanu-El conducted by Rabbi
Gottheil, at Temple Beth-El conducted by Rabbi Einhorn at Temple Ahavat Chesed
by Rabbi Huebsch and at Bnai Jeshurun by Rabbi Jacobs.
1877: The New York Times published a report from
its London correspondent describing “the influence of the Jewish race in
European politics” especially as it pertains to the clash between the Turks and
the Russians. Regardless of his nationality,
“the Jew is…pro-Turkish” “for perfectly intelligible reasons.” The Jews feel
that they are less oppressed in Moslem lands than they are in Christian
countries. Furthermore, the Serbian and
Rumanian “Christians have in very recent times, persecuted the Jew with a
fanatical fury worthy of the Middle Ages.”
Finally, any advance of “Holy Russia” means an enlargement of the area
where the Jews will suffer from the government’s “intolerance.”
1877: It was reported today that a Jew named Solomons who
owned the general store at Union Bridges, SC testified that he had listed the
names of the various armed people he had seen and that he had written their
names phonetically in Hebrew because he did not know how to spell them in
English. The trial was racially charged as it involved gangs of whites and
African-Americans.
1877: At Temple Emanuel, in New York City Myer S.
Isaacs presided over the annual meeting of the Board of Delegates of the
American Israelites which came to a close this evening.
1877:”The Jews
and the War in Europe,” a column published today described the contentions of
famed historian Edward A. Freeman that the Jews are responsible for the British
support being given to the Ottomans in their war with Russia. Freeman sees this as a failure to support
Christian values (Russia) in the war against Islam. “He is under the impression
that the policy of England and the welfare of Europe may be sacrificed to
Hebrew sentiment. “If money is the key that opens all locks, the Jew is the
master of Europe for he is our principal banker.” “Mr. Freeman points out that the union of the
Jew and the Turk against the Christian” was strengthened “when Sultan Mahmoud
gave the body of the martyred Patriarch to be by the Jews through the streets
of Constantinople.” Freeman blames the Jews for the outbreak of the war. He contends that throughout Europe, the part
of the press that is pro-Turkish is controlled by Jews. He does differentiate between “the degraded
Jews of the East and the cultivated and honorable Jews of the East” but in the
hand “blood is stronger than water” and “Hebrew rule is sure to lead to Hebrew
policy.”
1878: The
annual meeting of the Board of Delegates of the American Israelites which was
being held in New York at Temple Emanuel with William B. Hockenberg of
Philadelphia presiding came to a close today. The Executive Committee
recommended that “immediate action” be taken to alleviate the suffering of the
Jews living in Jerusalem and that steps should be taken to develop “a system of
higher education among the Hebrews” living in the United States. The Committee
on Statistics reported that “there were 223 Hebrews congregations in this
country, with 12,030 members, having property valued at $4,607,110. A proposal
was put forward to hold a conference in Paris that would completed “the work of
the International Jewish Conference of 1876.
The officers elected to serve in the upcoming year included: Myer S.
Isaacs, President; Simon Wolf of Washington, Vice President; William B.
Hockenburg of Philadelphia
1879(7th
of Sivan, 5639): Second Day of Shavuot
1879: Benjamin
Mayer, a member of the firm of Hirsch and Mayer, who had been found guilty of
swindling numerous New York merchants, was sentenced today to serve two years
and six months of hard labor in the State Penitentiary. He was also fined $6,000, a sum which must be
paid before he can be released.
1880(19th
of Sivan, 5640): Forty-year-old Maximilian Steiner the “Austrian actor and
theatre manager” who was the father of Franz and Gabor Steiner who also worked
as theatre manager and the grandfather of composer Max Steiner passed away
today.
1880: In
Blankenburg which was part of the German Empire Bernhard and Pauline Spengler
gave birth to their second child Oswald Spengler, the historian and author of The
Decline of the West who on his mother’s side was a descendant of “a Jewish
woman named Bräunchen Moses, the daughter of Abraham and Riele Moses who was
baptized shortly before her marriage.
1881(1st of
Sivan, 5641): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1881: In
Budapest, Hermine Breuer and Gabriel Neuwelt gave birth CCNY graduate and
Columbia trained surgeon Louis Neuwelt the husband of Dorothy Lambert whom he
married in 1921 and a member of the Free Synagouge who was “the attending
genito-urinary surgeon at Jewish Memorial Hospital in New York” and the “Director
of the Urologic Clinic at the Jewish Memorial Hospital Dispensary.’
1882: In New
York, Bernhard and Gertrude Ulamann gave birth to American photographer Doris
Ulmann
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ulmann-doris-may
http://blog.nyhistory.org/doris-ullman/
1882: Thomas Timayenis a professor of languages at the University of Athens
passed away. He was the father of Telemachus Timayenis, the founder of Minerva
Publishing Company in New York City, “the first company in America to published
books critical of Jews.” These included The Original Mr. Jacobs: A Startling
Exposé, The American Jew: An Expose of His Career, and Judas
Iscariot: An Old Type in a New Form. The works were intended to expose “the real
Jew.” There is no evidence to show that
the father was responsible for the son’s anti-Semitism.
1883: Birthdate of Waldemar Holberg, the native of
Copenhagen, “who competed in the 1908 Olympics for Denmark as a lightweight”
and who “was world welterweight champion for 23 days in 1914.”
1883: Based on
certification of two doctors 20-year-old Pauline (Moses) Holz, the wife of
David Holz was committed to an asylum
“as a suffer from chronic mania.” Only
after his wife had been committed did Holz find out that her father, whom he
had been told had passed away, had been in an asylum since 1872.
1883: As an
example of his communal good works, Dr. Wolfgang Strassman joined the Society
of Friends, a Jewish organization founded in 1792 to help the less fortunate
members of the community that would survived until the Nazis shut it down in
1935.
1884(5th
of Sivan, 5644): Erev Shavuto
1884: In
Berlin, Albert Mosse, a Doctor of Jurisprudence and Caroline (Lina) Mosse gave
birth to Martha Mosse, who followed in her father’s footsteps and became a
lawyer.
1884: Two days
after he had passed away, 61-year-old Adolph Blumenthal, the husband of Matilda
Abraham and the father of Arthur and Walter Blumenthal, was buried today at the
“Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1885: Ahmed
Ziwar Pashah, Mutasarrif Acca wrote to Jacob Schumacher, the U.S. Vice-Counsel
in Haifa, in a correspondence that may have expressed concern about the
expulsion about one or more Romanian Jews.
1887(6th
of Sivan, 5647): Shavuot observed three days after the birth of
Hungarian-American Academy Award winning actor Paul Lukas
1888: In New
York the General Term of the Supreme Court delivered a decision that meant the
North American Relief Society for Indigent Jews In Jerusalem, Palestine, will
receive $50,000 and the interest thereon for 30 years as directed by the will
of the last Samson Sampson.
1889:
Birthdate of Wilkes-Barre, PA native and Zionist Harry Goldberg, the husband of
Lee Goldberg and father of Richard Goldberg.
1890: Twenty-nine-year-old
Jacob Epstein, a Russian Jew shot his wife Flora today and then turned the gun
on himself.
1890: Mayor
Grant appointed Isidor Straus “a member of the firm of R.H. Macy & Co” who
is a anti-Tammany Hall Democrat and the brother of Oscar Straus to serve as “an
additional commission to locate the proposed bridged across the North River,
somewhere between Tenth and One Hundred and Eighty-first Street.”
1891(20th
of Iyar, 5651): Fifty-eight-year-old Rosalie Esther Ann Spann, the daughter of
Franklin J. Moses, Sr. and Jane Dorcas Moses and the wife Samuel Robert Spann
passed away today.
1892: It was
reported today that the Honorary Staff of the Veteran Zouaves’ Association have
made plans to present a flag to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1892: Eva
Cohen and Theodore Keppler each delivered a prayer during this afternoon’s
confirmation exercises of the Hebrew Free Schools. Augusta Cohen and Sarah
Rabinowitch sang “I Will Praise Thee, O Lord” and Miss Lilie Levy won the fifty-dollar
Schiff Prize which went to the student who was most distinguished in “all
studies and deportment.”
1892: In Los
Angeles, Samuel Ricket Chamlee and Clarissa Elizabeth Chamlee gave birth to
lyric tenor Mario Chamlee the husband of Ruth Miller Chamless and the father of
Archer Mario Chamlee, who sang “the style of the Great Caruso”
https://library.stanford.edu/collections/ruth-and-mario-chamlee-collection
1893: “The
Unpopularity of Jews” published today described a speech given by Professor
Felix Adler, the President of the Ethical Culture Society of New York before
the Russian-American Hebrew Association in which he described the causes of
anti-Semitism in which he said that he did not deem “opposition to the Jews in
United States” as being serious and that the “while a great majority of the
Jews may be modest, the failings of one” — “a tendency to loudness in speech,
to showiness in dress and to put themselves forward” – “the failings of the one
will counterbalance in publication estimation the modesty of the many.
1894: At a
meeting of the Temple Emanu-El’s council of women, Mrs. Esther Ruskay read a
paper who is an “an Orthodox Jewess” read a paper that declared “that among the
Jews of America there was no family life because parents had allowed themselves
to drift away from the time-honored observances of their faith…Jewish young
people were become indifferent to teachings of the Hebrew faith and that
Christmas and Easter had practically taken the place of the Hebrew
Festivals.” She concluded her remarks
which Rabbi Gottheil contested but which were greeted by applause with a stated
desire to see a reawakening of the old spirit of Judaism.
1894: In
Vienna Moses (Morris) Sternberg and his wife gave birth to Jonas Sternberg who
gained fame as Austrian-American film writer and director Josef Von Sternberg
whose most famous work was actually two versions of the same movie, The Blue Angel. One was in German, the
other in English. Von Sternberg made his way to the United States where he
lived and worked until his death at the age of 75.
1894: At
today’s session of the New York State Constitutional Convention Mr. Jacobs from
Brooklyn submitted a proposal that would provide for a State Senate of 19 that
would be elected at large by all New Yorkers.
1895(6th
of Sivan, 5655): Shavuot
1895: Dr.
Joseph Silverman, the junior rabbi at Temple Emuanu-El, purported to America’s
oldest reform congregation, gave today’s holiday sermon. Among those attending
today’s services were the members of the confirmation class.
1896: In
Montgomery, MO, “Joseph and Rosa (Brown) Rosenberg gave birth to Leo Henry
Rosenberg, the Amour Institute of Technology graduate, one the first announcers
best known for his groundbreaking broadcast of the Harding-Cox election in 1920
which was followed by a successful career in advertising.
1897(27th
of Iyar, 5657): Sixty-four-year-old German botanist Julius von Sachs passed
away today.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC440044/
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Sachs,_Julius_von
1897: In
Brunn, Moravia “eminent music critic (Leopold) Julius Korngold” and his wife
gave birth Oscar winning composer Erich Wolfgang who “along with Max Steiner and
Alfred Newman is considered one of the founders of film music.
http://www.korngold-society.org/index1.html
http://www.musicweb-international.com/film/2003/Nov03/korngold_piano_music.html
1898: At today’s
opening session of the League of Zionist Societies of the United States, Dr.
Michael Singer delivered an address on “What Zionism Means” and Davis Trietsch
delivered an address on “The First Congress At Basle.”
1898: Mrs.
M.D. Louis, President of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls presided over
the institutions graduation ceremonies that were held today at Temple Emanu-El
1898: Rabbi De
Sola Mendes presided over the first annual confirmation ceremonies held at the
Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Orphan Asylum.
1898: As the
patriotic fervor the Spanish-American grips the United States, the Benjamin
Harrison Lodge of the Order Birth Abraham will waive the membership dues for
any of its members serving in the military.
Families of members serving as soldiers will be given $5 a week and the
beneficiaries of any members who die in battle will be given an endowment of
$500.
1898: It was
reported today that Oscar S. Straus has agreed to accept reappointment as the
United States Minister to Turkey. Straus
had been appointed to the position in 1887 by President Grover Cleveland, a
Democrat. Straus’s success and the high
esteem in which he has held can be seen the fact this time he is being
appointed by President McKinley, a Republican.
1898: It was
reported today that the demands on the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children of the
City of New York have been so great that the institution has purchased
additional land at Rockaway, Long Island.
It is an ocean front piece of real estate which should help provide
meaningful summer excursions for underprivileged children and their mothers.
1899: Seattle
(Washington’s “liberal Jews” formed Temple de Hirsch, a Reform congregation
founded when Ohaveth Shaolum disbanded due to financial hardships.
1899: “The
Semitic Question of Algiers In The French Chamber” published today described
the debate that has taken place on the treatment of Jews in the North African
colony. The Algerian anti-Semites claim
they attack the Jews because they are wealthy, but their attacks strike at the
many poor Jews living there. The “battle
cry” of the anti-Semites is “La France
aux Francais” (France for the French) which is odd since most of the Algerian
anti-Semites are Spaniards.
1899: At this
morning’s session of the “13th convention of the United States Grand
Lodge, Independent Sons of Benjamin which was being held at the Murray Hill
Lyceum D.J. Zinner was elected Deputy Grand Marshall following a contentious
race between four candidates and Grand Marshal Ferdiand Levy delivered a speech
on the Dreyfus affair.
1899: Nearly
400 people attended this evening’s banquet sponsored by the Independent Sons of
Benjamin including Isaac Abrams, the former chief of Police in Quincy, Illinois
and Rabbis J.B. Solomon who listened to Rabbi S. S. Wise speaking on “The
Future of Judaism.”
1900(1st
of Sivan, 5660): Rosh Chodesh Sivan observed on the same that “the word
‘escalator’ was introduced into the English language” when a patent was granted
for “a moving stairway.”
1901: The
English Zionist Federation congratulates Herzl and assures him loyalty.
1902: The
Judeans, an organization composed of representative Jews of New York, gave a
reception, followed by a dinner, this evening at the Tuxedo, Fifty-ninth Street
and Madison Avenue, in honor of Prof. Solomon Schechter, the eminent Hebrew
scholar, who was induced to leave Cambridge University in England to become the
Dean of the new Jewish theological seminary which is to be established on
Morningside Heights through the munificence of Jacob H. Schiff and others.
1902: In
Vienna, movie director Joe May and his wife Mia May gave birth to actress Eva
May.
1902: In
Teplitz-Schönau, Austria-Hungary, “Julius “Kino” Kohner, who managed
the local movie theater and published a film industry newspaper and his wife
was Helene Kohner (née Beamt)” gave birth to Paul Kohner, “an Austrian-American
talent agent and producer” who was the brother of novelist Frederick Kohner and
father of actress Susan Kohner and “who managed the careers of many stars”
including Bill Wilder.
1902:
It was reported today that newly elected officers of the National Conference of
Jewish Charities are President – Max Herzberg; Vice Presidents – Mrs. S. Pisko
and Nathan Bijur; Secretary – Hannah Marks; Treasurer – O.H. Rosenbaum.
1902: Samuel
Marks, a Russian born Jew, used his relationships with Boer and English leaders
– President Krüger, Generals Botha, De Wett, and Delarey; Earl Roberts, Lord
Kitchener, and Lord Milner – to help set up the negotiations for the end of
Anglo-Boer War which took place today at Vereeniging.
1903: The S.S.
Deutschalnd arrived in the United States carrying Rabbi Tobias Geffen, who
would gain fame as the Coca Cola Rabbi, Mrs. Gefen and their two oldest
children.
1903: A
delegation from Camden, NJ visited Dr. Aaron Brav today in Philadelphia to
assure him that the citizens from that New Jersey city, including non-Jews
would be attending the upcoming meeting being held “to protest against the
Russian atrocities.”
1904: “Diamond
Under This House” published today described the measures to which Sol Emanuel
has gone to ensure “good luck when he moves into his new house” because he has
followed all of the steps which according to Portuguese-Jewish will bring him
to that end.
1904: “Nathan
Straus, the bay pacing gelding with a record of 2:03 1/2 who will make an
attempt to capture the world’s pacing record in the Grand Circuit this season,
scored a notable victory on the Harlem River Speedway this morning, when he
defeated the 1903 Speedway champion Don Derby, 2:04 1/2 two heats out of three.”
1905:
Pogroms began in Brisk, Lithuania.
At this time Lithuania was part of the Russian Empire. The pogrom was one of a series that was
sweeping the land of the Tsars
1906: Sidney
Sonnino, the son of Isacco Saul Sonnino who converted from Judaism to
Anglicanism, completed his first term as Prime Minister of Italy.
1906: Venetian
born Jewish financier Luigi Luzzatti completed his second term as Minister of
the Treasury in Italy..
1907: Riva
(Rebecca) Hillesum-Bernstein’s brother, Jacob, a diamond cutter moved in with
the Montagnu family in Amsterdam. Like
his sister, he was fleeing his village in Russia where there had been pogrom. Jacob was the uncle of diarist Esther
“Etty” Hillesum
1908: In
Seattle, Washington Temple de Hirsch dedicated its new facility at the corner
of Union Street and 15th Avenue.
1908(28th
of Iyar, 5668): Rosa Kaufman, the first wife of Russian born Judah Aaron
Kaufaman, and mother of their daughters Tillie and Sophie passed away
unexpectedly in Dover, NJ and was buried at Mt. Sinai Cemetery
1909(9th
of Sivan, 5669): Parasaht Nasso
1909(9th
of Sivan, 5669): Duma Member and attorney “Ossip Y. Pergament of Odessa,” “one
of the most noted leaders of the Jewish and authority on the Hebrew question in
Russia” who “was a leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party” “died today
from heart-failure.”
1910: It was
reported today that “one thousand and two Jewish families have not received
official notification that they must leave Kiev” and that they are in effect
being driving back “into the Pales” and that another 198 families face
expulsion on June 18.
1911:
Birthdate of Konigsberg native Leah Goldberg, who “settled in Tel Aviv where
she worked as a literary adviser to Habimah, the national theater, and an
editor for the publishing company Sifriyat HaPoalim (Workers’ Library).”
This was the first step on road that would led to a career as a “prolific Hebrew
poet, author, playwright, literary translator, and researcher of Hebrew
literature.”
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/goldberg-lea
1911:
Birthdate of South African chess champion Wolfgang Heidenfeld who was forced to
move from his native Germany because he was Jewish.
1912: In New
York Arnold Levitas and author Anzia Yeziersk gave birth to her only child
Louise.
1913:
“Bijou Theatre Foreclosure” published today reported that proceedings
have been instituted in the Supreme Court by Felix M. Warburg, Isaac N.
Seligman, Paul Warburg and Mortimer L. Schiff, as trustees of Alfred M.
Heinsheimer, against the Bijou Real State company and other to foreclose a
mortgage of $420,000 on the old Bijou Theatre in New York City.
1913: Jim
Conley was interviewed again today concerning the murder of Mary Phagan.
Thefour hour interviews produced yet a different version of the facts. In this
version Conley said that Frank had confessed to him that he had killed the girl
and that the two of them hid the corpse in the basement of the pencil factory.
1913: The
Independent Order Sons of Israel whose members included Henry H. Levenson,
Hyman J. Danzig and Isadore Kronstein with offices in Boston, MA, was organized
today.
1913: In
Philadelphia, activities related to the dedication of the Philmont Country Club
which was founded by department store owner and philanthropist Ellis Gimbel
came to an end.
1914(4th
of Sivan, 5674): Eighty-six-year-old Brooklyn born merchant Simon Biederman
passed away today.
1914: Minister of the Interior Sviatopolk-Mirsky who had
“received a deputation of Zionists” in 1904 and
whom “he informed that he sympathized with the movement they represented
and would withdraw the Governmental opposition hitherto existing in Russia”
passed away today.
1914: Alice
Beddington and Sir Robert Waley gave birth to Sir Bernard Nathaniel
Waley-Cohen, “the 633rd Lord Mayor London.
1914: Montague
Maurice Burton, the Lithuanian born son of “Hyman and Rachel Oskinsky” who was
the founder of Burton, the large chain of UK clothing stores and his wife
Sophia gave birth to Stanley Howard Burton.
1915: “Bearing
a petition signed by 600,000 persons and resolutions passed by numerous
societies protesting against the execution of Leo M. Frank, the Chicago
Committee departed tonight for Atlanta, GA” where they plan to present their
prayer for commutation to life imprisonment to Governor John M. Slaton.
1915:
According to a report made public today Georgia Governor Frank M. Slaton and
handwriting expert Albert S. Osborn, Osborn has concluded “that the murder
notes which played an important part in the conviction of Leo M. Frank for the
slaying of Mary Phagan were not dictated by Frank and written by Jim Conley, as
Conley testified, but were written by Conley on his own initiative for the
purpose of shielding himself.”
1915: The
delegation headed by Eugene N. Foss, the former Governor of Massachusetts, that
will appeal to the Governor of Georgia to commute Leo Frank’s sentence is
scheduled to leave from Boston today.
1916: Tonight,
Mrs. Mary Watkin of Borough Park who has spent most of the past year in the
eastern war zone in Russian Poland told the members of the Kalvarian Synagogue
about “the suffering and desolation of the little town of Kalwarya” after which
almost $1,000 was collected to aid the suffering Jews.
1916: At today’s session of the thirteenth annual
convention of the Federation of Galician and Bukovinian Jews of America being
held at Tammany Hall “a resolution was passed providing for the sending of a
commissioner to Europe to look after the interests of the Jewish was sufferers
in Galicia and Bukovira.”
1916: As Simon
Wolf and leaders of the U.S. government exchanged letters concerning protecting
the Jews of Europe at any peace conference that will end the World War, Woodrow
Wilson wrote to him, “I hope that it is not necessary for me to state again my determination
to do the right and possible thing at the right and feasible time with regard
to the great interests you so eloquently allude to in your letter.
1917: “Samuel
Dorf, for twenty-five years Grand Master of the Order of B’rith Abraham was the
guest of honor at a reception and dinner given tonight in the celebration of
his anniversary which was attended by more than 300 people.
1917: Seven
days after he had passed away, Harry J. Daniler, a “sapper” serving with the
South African Engineers in World War I was buried today in London at the
“Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”
1917:
Birthdate of John F. Kennedy. “Kennedy named two Jews to his cabinet – Abraham
Ribicoff as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, and Arthur Goldberg as
Secretary of Labor. Kennedy was the only President for whom a national Jewish
Award was named. The annual peace award of the Synagogue Council of America was
re-named the John F. Kennedy Peace Award after his assassination in 1963.”
1917(8th of
Sivan, 5677): Seventy-one-year-old banker and thoroughbred horse breeder
Leopold de Rothschild, “the third son and youngest of the five children of
Lionel de Rothschild and Charlotte von Rothschild” whose married to Marie
Perugia at London’s Central Synagogue was attended by his friend the Prince of
Wales, the son of Queen Victoria and the future King Edward VII.
1917:
According to reports published today from Petrograd, “several hundred Jews who
had been converted to Christianity under the old regime have returned to
Judaism.”
1918: It was
reported today that “the Hebrew Association for Blind” is raising a fund of
$25,000 “to be used in opening new fields of usefulness for civilians and
soldiers blinded in the war” including Jews as well as non-Jews.
1918: It was
reported today that “in the opinion of Viscount Bryce, Palestine, which now has
a population of somewhat less than 650,000 can support by agriculture and
additional population of 300,000 under present conditions and a second addition
of 300,000 after irrigation dams and other construction works have been built.”
1919: In
Atlantic City, NJ, at the National Conference of Jewish Charities, Felix M.
Warburg is scheduled to deliver a report on the work of the Joint Distribution
Committee and Dr. Alexander M. Dushkin is scheduled to deliver a report on the
“Survey of Jewish Education in America.”
1919: Arthur
Eddington confirmed Einstein’s light-bending prediction
1920(12th
of Sivan, 5680): Parashat Naso
1920(12th
of Sivan, 5680): Forty-four-year-old Solomon Lawrence “Sol” Cohn the Newellton,
LA born son of Alexander and Lena Cohn, passed away today after which he was
buried in the “Dispersed of Judah Cemetery” in New Orleans.
1921: Samuel
Marcus Gup who served as rabbi at Temple Beth El in Providence, RI and Temple
Israel in Columbus, OH and his wife Ruth Gup gave birth to Jean Gup who became
Jean Monett when she married Harold Lee Monett
1921:
Birthdate of Dancer and choreographer Pearl Lang.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/29/1921/pearl-lang
1922: “Judge Levy
Honored” published today described the biennial meeting of the Directors of the
Hebrew Sheltering Guardian during “Judge Samuel D. Levy of the Children’s Court
and Vice President” of the society was presented with a silver tea service” and
“a desk set” for his quarter of century service to the organization.
1922: In Los
Angeles, Rabbi Edgar Magnin and his wife gave birth to Mae Magnin, the
great-granddaughter of Isaac Magnin, the founder I. Magnin department store who
gained fame as Mae Magnin Brussell, best known for her radio broadcast and
involvement in conspiracy theories
http://www.maebrussell.com/Mae%20Brussell%20Articles/Monterey%20Herald%20Obituary.html
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/01/22/mae-brussell-a-forgotten-superhero/
1923: At a
meeting in Town Hall tonight, it was announced that the Jews of New York City
had raised $1,800,000 for Keren Hayesod of which $600,000 was in donations of
cash, the rest being pledges. Bernard
Rosenblatt, who chaired the fund drive, also announced that thanks to the
successful activities in other cities, Dr. Chaim Weizmann would be returning to
Palestine with $1,500,000 in actual cash payments in addition to pledges from
Jews across America. The evening was
also marked by a speech given by Samuel Untermeyer expressed Jewish
appreciation to Great Britain for accepting the Palestine Mandate since the
British had expressed sympathy for the goal of creating a Jewish homeland in
Palestine.
1924:
Birthdate Philadelphia native Irv Homer who gained fame as a local of radio
talk show host.
1924: Leopold
and Loeb “were summoned for questioning” today during the investigation into
the murder of Bobby Franks and “asserted that on the night of the murder, they
had picked up two women, Edna and May, in Chicago, using Leopold’s car, then
dropped them off sometime later near a golf course without learning their last
names.”
1924: Albert
Loeb who was bedridden due to a heart condition “saw his son” Richard “for the
last time” today “when detectives came to his home” to arrest him.
1925(6th
of Sivan, 5685): Shavuot
1925: In St.
Gallen, Switzerland, Richard Pollage and Irma Levy gave birth to WW II U.S.
Navy veteran Fred Jules Pollag who gained fame as Fred Hayman the “fashion
retailer and entrepreneur” who founded Giogor Beverly Hill and who was so tied
to that high end world of the super-rich that his nickname was “Mr. Rodeo
Drive.”
1926: “New
contributions of $35,000 have increased to $6,690,000 the total raised by the
United Jewish Campaign of New York toward the $25,000,000 national fund for the
relief of Jewish sufferers in Central Europe, according to an announcement today
by David M. Bressler, Vice Chairman in charge of the campaign here”
1927: “The
function of the Jewish minority in world civilization should be to make others
think, according to Rabbi Israel L. Mattuck of London, who delivered the
baccalaureate address today at the Hebrew Union College commencement.”
1929: Birthdate
of Langhorne, PA native David Bernard
Stern the resident of home for unwed mothers who became Johns Hopkins educated philosopher
and Princeton University professor Harry Gordon
Frankfurt when he was adopted by piano teacher
Bertha Gordon and bookkeeper Nathan Frankfurt.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/17/books/harry-g-frankfurt-dead.html
1928: In
Vienna, “Alexander and Edith (Knoll) Rohatyn gave birth to American financer
and public servant Felix Rohatyn.
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/books/chapters/0527-1st-coha.html
1929: In
Paterson, NJ, Morris Taub, “a junk dealer” and “the former Sylvia Sievitz” gave
birth to Joseph Albert Taub, one of the driving forces behind payroll processor
ADP and a part owner of the NBA New Jersey Nets. (As reported by Richard
Sandomir)
1930(2nd
of Sivan, 5690): Sixty year old Judge Hugo Pam the University of Michigan alum
who had been a member of the Superior Court in Chicago for than 18 years and
who had served as vice president of the Zionist Organization of America and
headed the Palestine Restoration Fund in Chicago passed away today while
visiting New York City.
http://www.jta.org/1930/06/01/archive/judge-hugo-pam-of-chicago-dies-suddenly-at-sixty
1930: In
Manhattan, Luise and Arthur Schulte who was a partner at Lehman Brothers, gave
birth to Anthony Martin Schulte, “a publishing executive who was an early
proponent of audiobooks and among the first to tap the ready-made audience for
books written by trusted television personalities like Alistair Cooke, Carl
Sagan and Walter Cronkite.” (As reported by Paul Vitello)
1931: Manasseh
Miller, President of the Trustees of Congregation Beth Elohim, announced today
that “Rabbi Isaac Landman, editor of The American Hebrew and editor-in-chief of
the Standard Jewish Encyclopedia” will return to the position of rabbi of the
Congregation in September.
1931: Manasseh
Miller, President of the Trustees of Congregation Beth Elohim, announced today
that Dr. Alexander Lyons will begin serving as the congregation’s associate
rabbi in September.
1932:
“Everyday Chemistry” published today provided a review of The Story of Common
Things by Louis Ehrenfeld,, the curator of chemistry of the Museum of Science
and Industry of Chicago which “may be recommended as a pleasant elementary
introduction of a very difficult subject.”
1933:
Birthdate of historian Norman Pollack the Harvard PhD and Michigan State
University history professor who campaigned for Adlai Stevenson and was the
husband of Nancy Pollack with whom he had a son, Peter, the husband of Sallie
Pollack.
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/166339
1933 (4th of
Sivan, 5693): Willi Aron a lawyer was murdered in Dachau.
1933: Louis T.
McFadden, congressman from Pennsylvania, attacked the Jews in Congress.
[Editor’s Note – McFadden was an outspoken foe the Federal Reserve Board. He blamed the board for the Great Depression
and saw it as part of a Jewish conspiracy to control the economy. McFadden also wanted to impeach President
Hoover.] http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Louis_Thomas_McFadden
1933:
Discussion of the petition of Franz Bernheim on the violation of Jewish rights
in Upper Silesia, which was to have been on the agenda of the League of Nations
Council last week, is scheduled to take place today. Joseph Paul-Boncour,
French Minister of Foreign Affairs, and representatives of some of the smaller
powers are expected to take a leading role in the discussion of Jewish rights.
Sir John Simon, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs will also take
part in the debated if he can return here in time to do so.
1934: Today,
“the Schwarze Korps, the official
organ of the SS carried an article criticizing the fact that in Berlin a
woman’s team representing an Aryan sport club had competed with a team of
Jewish women.”
1935: A
“testimonial dinner” is scheduled to be held this evening “at Broadway Central
Hotel honoring historian Peter Wiernick, the “editor-in-chief of the Jewish Morning Journal.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-morning-journale
1936:
Birthdate of Ephraim Isaac, the native of Ethiopia who became “a scholar of
ancient Semitic Language & Civilization and African/Ethiopian Languages and
Religion.”
1936: “Squads
of Syrian youths destroyed 5,400 eggs en route to Jews in Palestine” after
which Jewish produce dealers asked for police protection.
1936: In
Hamburg, “Julius Hollander, a 64-year old Jew, was sentenced tonight to two
years’ penal servitude on charges of ‘race defilement’’ after having been
“accused of intimacy with a German maid employed in his household.”
1936: “Hans
Hirschfeld, a 42-year-old baptized Jew was sentenced today to one year’s
imprisonment on charges of ‘race defilement’ after the court rejected his
argument that he was a Christian and not subject to the Nuremberg “ghetto
laws.”
1936: As Arab
violence continued today, a Jewish policeman as stabbed and Jewish crops were
burned.”
1937(19th
of Sivan, 5697): Parashat Beha’alotcha
1937: “Describing
a failure of courage as the chief threat to liberalism today, Rabbi Maurice
Eisendrath of Toronto, in a sermon to the annual meeting of the Central
Conference of American Rabbis, today attacked a tendency to reaction which he
declared to be present in modern Jewish religious life.”
1938: As the
Arab uprising continued, the British began construction of the Taggart Wall
along the border with Syria and Lebanon. The wall was barbed wire fence
interspersed with small forts. The wall
was an attempt to stop Arab terrorists from crossing into Palestine from Syria
and Lebanon. 1938:
As Arab violence continued to escalate, The
Palestine Post reported that Arab terrorist gangs, searching for money and
valuables, murdered eight Arab villagers, including three women, in the Tulkarm
district. One woman who refused to pay was badly injured. Shots were fired at
the Jewish quarters in Jerusalem, Haifa and Safed. “The Times” of
London deplored the continued Arab terror in Palestine, “which led to some
Jewish reprisals.”
1938: The Palestine Post reported that the
Tel Aviv Port celebrated its second anniversary by a swimming meet and a
sailing review.
1938: Hungary
restricted the proportion of Jews who could hold jobs in commerce, industry,
the liberal professions, and the Hungarian government to 20 percent.
1939:
“Five Arabs were killed by a mine detonated at the Rex Cinema in Jerusalem.
1939:
“Twenty-five members of the Irgun led by Moshe Moldovsky attacked Biyar ‘Adas.”
1940:
Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau attended a meeting in the White House with
FDR and three leaders of the U.S. Army.
1941:
Birthdate of Bronx native Robert David Simon who gained fame as CBS
correspondent Bob Simon. (As reported by Ashley Southall)
1941: In Princeton, NJ, “civilian mathematician Arthur
Brown” and his wife Margaret gave birth to Rachel Ann Brown who gained fame as
Rabbi Rachel Cowan. (As reported by Joseph Berger)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/01/obituaries/rabbi-rachel-cowan-dead.html
1941: Fearing capture by the British, Rashid Ali, leader
of the pro-Nazi forces in Iraq and the Grand Mufti of Palestine, fled to Iran
under the cover of darkness.
1941: Radio broadcasts were planned for today, “informing
Iraqi Nazis to murder Jews in their homes, and a red hamsa was placed on the
homes of Jews so that gangs could easily identify Jewish homes, killing the
inhabitants.”
1942: In
France, the family of Helene Berr began wearing yellow stars as the government
implemented an edict ordering all Jews to wear this “Jew badge” on their
clothing.
1942: Vichy
France forbids Jews access to all restaurants and cafes, libraries, sports
grounds, squares, and other public places.
1942: At
Radziwillow, Ukraine, the Germans rounded up three thousand Jews with the
intention of slaughtering them. Asher Czerkaski led the resistance against the
Germans. While 1500 were killed another 1,500 found temporary safety in the
forests.
1942 (13th of
Sivan, 5702): In Warsaw, a Jew named Wilner, too weak to move from his
chair was thrown out of the window and shot at as he fell.
1942: Bing
Crosby’s recording of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” was released by Decca
Records. The biggest selling single of
all times is still one of the most popular Christmas songs ever written. Okay, so now we know of at least two Jews who
responsible for Christmas as we know it.
1943(24th
of Iyar, 5703): Parashat Bechukotai
1943(24th
of Iyar, 5703): Seventy-six-year-old Morris Aaron passed away today after which
he was buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Natchitoches, LA.
1944(7th of
Sivan, 5704): Last Shavuot during the Shoah
1944(7th
of Sivan, 5704): Seventy-seven-year-old Hiram J. Halle, the Cleveland born son
of Joseph and Regina Schwab Hall who was “president of the Universal Oil
Products” and a “philanthropist” and “a patriot” who funded a program to bring
“167 scholars and their families” to the United States during the rise of
Hitler passed away tonight “at his country home” in Poundridge, NY.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1944/05/31/83981727.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/02/garden/washington-slept-here-when-he-was-very-old.html
1944: The
weekly internal report of the War Refugee Board stated that Turkey had not
refused admission to any Jews from Greece or any of the Greek Islands. “On
the contrary, thus far Turkish authorities have promptly provided
transportation from Izmir to Palestine for those refugees who have reached
Turkish soil.”
1944:
Birthdate of David B. Ruderman is the Joseph Meyerhoff Professor of Modern
Jewish History and the Ella Darivoff Director of the Herbert D. Katz Center for
Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
https://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jwst/people/david-b-ruderman
1944:
Birthdate of Robert Herman Benmosche, the Brooklyn native and grandson of a
Lithuanian rabbi, who chaired MetLife and saved AIG. (As reported by Jonathan
Kandell)
1944: After a three-and-a-half-day
journey in cattle cars, the doors were opened for the first time for a
train of thousands of packed Hungarian Jews. Fifty five of them were found
dead.
1945: Theodore Hardeen who “billed himself as the
‘brother of Houdini’” performed his final show in Ridgeway, Queens today.
1945: Mobster
and casino owner Moe Dalitz who had enlisted in the Army in 1942 was discharged
today having risen from the rank of private to first lieutenant.
1945: Today’s
meeting of the World Conference of Polish Jewry “opened with a memorial
ceremony for the Jews of Europe who had died under Nazism” that included the
recitation of the Kaddish by “Grand Rabbi Dr. Isaac Alicalay, the chief rabbi
of Yugoslavia.”
1945: In a
letter to the World Conference of Polish Jewry meeting at the Hotel Roosevelt
“made public tonight at a special panel ‘Nazi War Crimes and Their Punishment’”
“Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, United States chairman on the Allied
Crimes Commission called for” the rounding up of “every scrap of documentary
evidence against German war criminals for presentation to him.
1946:
SS-Obersturmführer, Dr. Fritz Hintermayer was executed by the Allies for his
work at Dachau.
1947: It was
announced today that “Joseph Pulvermach, president of the Sterling National
Bank Trust company was re-elected president of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in
Manhattan.
1947: At a
meeting of the Mapai Party secretariat, Ben Gurion declared “It has become
clear to me that we had very important achievements: I do not know whether any
nation other than ours could have had such achievements. But if you think we have the power to defend
the Yishuv, you are deceiving yourself.
We had a public that is devoted to the Haganah and that is prepared to
give up its life to defend Zionism, but we do have a talented public that is
trained and equipped for that.”
1947: “Dear
Murder,” a British murder mystery with music by Benjamin Frankel was released
today in the United Kingdom.
1948: The
Israeli army crossed into Lebanon and scattered the Arab forces on the border.
1948: As a
result of Jewish forces capturing Acre, Nahariya was reunited with the rest of
the Jewish State. Under the terms of the
partition, Nahariya had been excluded from what would become the nation of
Israel.
1948: Israeli settlers established Shomrat, a new
Kibbutz just north of Acre. Shomrat is
variation of the Hebrew word Shomer,
meaning “to watch” or “one who watches.”
Given Shomrat’s proximity to the Northern border and Mediterranean Sea,
the name has more than a poetic significance.
1948: During the War of Independence, the Israeli
Air Force went into action as a combat force for the first time. The force was made up of four Messerschmitts
(ME-109’s). The planes had been bought
in Czechoslovakia and shipped to Israel by sea.
There was no time test the hastily assembled aircraft before sending
them into combat. The Israelis did allow
themselves the luxury of painting the Star of David on the planes before they
took flight. The four planes were sent
to attack the Egyptian armored column at Ashdod, which was only twenty miles
from Tel Aviv. One of the four planes
was flown by Ezer Weizman, the father of the Israeli Air Force and later
President of Israel. Following a series
of bombing and strafing runs, the Egyptian forces broke off their advance. But as with all “successes” the Israelis paid
a heavy price. One of the four planes
was shot down reducing the Air Force by 25%.
Eddie Cohen, a volunteer from South Africa was the first combat pilot to
give his life defending the Jewish state.
In one of the minor ironies, the ME-109, the first combat aircraft of
the Israeli Air Force, had been the pride of the German Air Force during World
War II. The other two pilots were Lou Lenart and Mordechai “Modi” Alon.
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-lou-lenart-20150722-story.html
1948(20th
of Iyar, 5708): Twenty-two year old British-born school teacher Esther
Cailingold who had been one of the last defenders of the Old City during the
War for Independence passed away today after having been shot in the spine
three days ago.
http://www.zionism-israel.com/bio/Esther_Cailingold.htm
http://zionism-israel.com/ezine/Esther_Cailingold_encounter.htm
1948(20th
of Iyar, 5708): Eddie Cohen was killed in combat flying for the IAF today.
http://101squadron.com/101real/people/ecohen.html
1948: The IAF
had five pilots and only four combat aircraft which meant that Milton
Rubenfield did not fly and fight today.
1948: The
commander of the Egyptian armored column advancing toward Tel Aviv “was
apparently so shaken by the IAF’s unexpected attack” that “he order his troops
to hold their positions” which, although not known at the time, marked the end
of the Egyptian advance on Tel Aviv.
1948: The
British halted Jewish immigration from the DP camps on Cyprus to Israel. Under the terms of the UN cease fire
agreement then being negotiated, no person of military age was to be allowed to
immigrate to Palestine. This presented
no problem for the Arabs, since their attacking armies were not
immigrants. Once again, the
even-handedness of the international community turned out to be a fist punching
the Jews.
1948: In an
article published in the British Medical
Journal Aaron Valero was the first to recognize and describe the outbreak
of Bubonic Plague in Palestine
1948: Andrei
Gromyko, the Soviet representative to the U.N. attacks the five Arab nations
that have invaded Israel expressing his dismay that the invading Arab armies
are “carrying out military operations aimed at the suppression of the National
Liberation Movement in Palestine.”
1948: Lehi,
the Irgun and the Palmach were dissolved with most of these groups members
joining the IDF.
1948: The
Choir Hazamir under the direction of Hymen Riegelhaupt is scheduled to present
a program of Yiddish, Hebrew and English music at the Royal Ontario Museum
Theatre.
1949(1st
of Sivan, 5709): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1949(1st
of Sivan, 5706): Sixty-one year old Dutch pianist Rosy Wertheim who ‘gave
secret concerts in Amsterdam cellars” during the German occupation passed away
today in Laren, the Netherlands.
1949: Today,
upon his arrival in New York aboard the liner General Henry Taylor, “Dr. Hans
Erich Fabian, a member of the Supreme Court of Western Berlin and concentration
camp survivor” who was accompanied by 180 Jews including his wife and three
children Joel 9, Judith 7 and Reha 5” said that “the Germans are still Nazis at
heart and they have not learned anything nor have they forgotten the Hitler
ideology.”
1949: In
“Histories of the Jews” published today, Alfred Weiner, an “associate editor of
The Chicago Jewish Forum” reviewed Israel: A History of the Jewish People
by Rufus Learsi and Story Without End: An Informal History of the Jewish
People by Solomon Landman and Benjamin Efron.
1950: His
Wife’s Lover which was billed as the “first Jewish musical comedy talking
picture” was re-released today.
1950: Jacob
Rosenheim, president and founder of Agudath Israel World Organization arrived
in Israel today so that he can take up residence in Tel Aviv. Many of the activities of the organization
which has 200,000 followers are now being directed from Israel.
1950: It was
announced today that Israeli actress Nechama Davidit will come to New York
during June to study at the summer school of the Neighborhood Playhouse.
1951(13th
of Sivan, 5710): Sixty-sixty-year-old Comintern agent Mikhail Borodin who had
been arrested in 1949 during a post-war Russian wave of anti-Semitism died in Lefortovo Prison today after another
round of torture.
http://spartacus-educational.com/Mikhail_Borodin.htm
1951(13th of
Sivan, 5710): Fifty-nine-year-old Fanny Brice, American singer, comedienne, and
actress passed away. Born Fania Borach, in New York in 1891,
Brice gained fame playing in the Ziegfeld Follies and later as the radio
character Baby Snooks.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1029.html
1952(5th
of Sivan,5712): Erev Shavuot observed for the last time during the Presidency
of Harry Truman.
1952(5th
of Sivan, 5712): Seventy-seven-year-old Louis B. Boudin, the Ukrainian born son
of Peter Boudinoff, a merchant, and Frome Feld Boudinoff. who married Anna
Pavit after the death of Leah Kanefsky and who was an “American Marxist
theoretician, writer, politician, and lawyer best remembered as the author of a
two volume history of the Supreme Court’s influence on American government,
first published in 1932” passed away today.
https://jwa.org/media/louis-b-boudin
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2014/11/louis-b-boudin.html
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that two
Israeli soldiers were wounded in another confrontation with Jordanians in the
Hebron area. A large number of month-old locusts were destroyed in the Negev.
The hoppers came from the Sinai Desert where they laid their eggs.
1953: U.K.
premiere of “Stalag 17” one of the best movies ever made directed and produced
by Billy Wilder who co-authored the screenplay, co-starring Otto Preminger with
music by Franz Waxman.
1953: Birthdate of composer Danny Elfman, best
known for his collaboration with director Tim Burton for whom he has composed
most of the scores for Burton’s many hits including Bettlejuice.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/05/29/100750099.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1955: “Israel
Gets U.S. Art” published today reported that the twelve American paintings
present to the “Bazalel, Israel’s national museum” by Mrs. Rebecca Shulman
“would be the basis of a hall of American art dedicated to Herman Shulman, her
late husband.
1955: Mrs.
Jascha Heifitz and William L. Spiegelberg announced the engagement of their daughter
Janet Carol Spiegelberg, the stepdaughter of the famous violinist Jascha
Heifetz to Florida Southern University
Steven Hyman
1956: In New
York, Joshua J. Nasaw and Beatrice “Bea” Kaplan Nasaw gave birth to Elizabeth
Perl Nasaw “who as “Elizabeth
Was” (later “Lys Was” and finally “Lyx Ish”) was a
poet and publisher of avant-garde magazines, and the cofounder of Xexoxial
Editions and Dreamtime Village in West Lima, Wisconsin.”
1957(28th
of Iyar, 5717): “A tractor driver was killed, and two others wounded, when the
vehicle struck a landmine, next to kibbutz Kissufim”
1957(28th
of Iyar, 5717): Seventy-year-old U. of Pennsylvania alum and State Supreme
Court Judge Joseph Bruce Perskie who was active in the B’nai B’rith, Joint
Distribution Committee and the Federation of Jewish Charities passed away
today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/05/30/90813220.pdf
1957: “Joe
Butterfly” a comedy produced by Aaron Rosenberg, with a screenplay co-authored
by Sy Gomberg and filmed by cinematographer Irving Glassberg premiered today in
New York City.
1957: In
Japan, premiere of “Godzilla, King of Monsters!” produced by Joseph E. Levine.
1958: Winston
Churchill’s daughter, Sarah, represented the former Prime Minister at the
opening ceremony unveiling the Churchill Auditorium of the Technion in Haifa.
1958:
Birthdate of Juliano Mer-Khamis “an Israeli actor, director, filmmaker and
political activist of Jewish and Christian Arab parentage.”
1959: “I
Married A Woman” directed by Hal Kanter and written Goodman Ace premiered in
Finland.
1959: U.S
premiere of “Pork Chop Hill” a Korean War moved directed by Lewis Milestone,
produced by Sy Barlett with music by Leonard Rosenman and featuring Martin
Landau as “Lt. Marshall and Norman Fell as “Sergeant Coleman.”
1960: ABC
broadcast “Night on a Rainbow” an episode of “The Rebel” directed by Irvin
Kershner.
1961: “Raisin
in the Sun” a groundbreaking film produced by Philip Rose with a score by
Laurence Rosenthal was released in the United States today.
1963(6th of
Sivan, 5723): Shavuot
1963: “The
List of Adrian Messenger” a slick mystery co-starring Kirk Douglas and with
music by Jerry Goldsmith was released in the United States today.
1963: In
Munich, Buddy Bregman, the American born Jewish “musical arranger, record
producer and composer” and Canadian actress Suzanne Lloyd gave birth to actress
Tracy Elizabeth Bregman
1964: A
meeting of The Arab League in east Jerusalem to discuss the Palestinian
situation leads to the formation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
The eastern portion of Jerusalem had been annexed by the conquering Jordanian
army and there was no talk of turning that over to the Palestinians. Also, since the meeting took place in 1964
(three years before the June War) it is obvious that the Palestine that was to
be liberated is what is called the state of Israel.
1966: Today,
“at their annual fundraising banquet, members of the Twin City Merkos
L’Inoyonei Chincuch, an Orthodox Jewish organization honored William and Jennie
Guttman for their dedication and hard work in the community.”
1967: Israel
began the period known as the “Hamtana” or “Waiting.” At the time, this period of waiting increased
the anxieties and fears of many Israelis as they saw the Arabs forging an ever
more threatening military vice around their country. But as Rabin wrote later, it was this Waiting
that gave Israel the political leverage it needed with the international
community during and after the war that would come in June of 1967.
1967: CBS
broadcast the first episode of “Coronet Blue” created by Larry Cohen.
1967: In a speech to the Egyptian National
Assembly, President Nasser exacerbated the crisis by declaring, “’The issue is
not the question of Akaba, the Straits of Tiran or the United Nations Emergency
Force.’” He continued that the issue was
the existence of Israel and that the he was not afraid of the United States,
Great Britain or “’the entire Western World.’”
1968: “Wild in
the Streets,” a counter-culture “cult classic, co-produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff,
starring Shelly Winters and featuring a “cameo appearance” by Walter Winchell
was released today in the United States.
1971(5th
of Sivan, 5731): Parashat Bamidbar; erev Shavuot
1971(5th
of Sivan, 5731): Seventy-one-year-old director, producer and screenwriter
Herbert Joseph Biberman, one those blacklisted as a member of the “Hollywood
Ten” passed away today.
http://spartacus-educational.com/USAbiberman.htm
1972:
“Morag, the southernmost settlement in Gush Katif was established” today “as a
non-religious pioneer Nahal military outpost, and demilitarized when turned
over to residential purposes in 1982.”
1972(16th
of Sivan, 5732): Seventy-year-old Princeton grad and Columbia trained attorney
Morris “Moe” Berg, the major league catcher who doubled as an American spy
passed away. For more see The Catcher Was A Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe
Berg by Nicholas Dawidoff
https://www.espn.com/classic/biography/s/Berg_Moe.html
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/moe-berg
1973: The West
End production of “Gypsy” with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
and a book by Arthur Laurents opened at the Piccadilly Theatre today.
1974: A
disengagement agreement was reached between Israel and Syria.
1974: Michael
Stern, a doctor from Vinnista was arrested today on “official charges of
bribery” but in reality “because he did not condemn the desire of his children
to leave for Israel.”
1974: In an
attempt to break the stalemate following the Yom Kippur War, Syrian and Israeli
officers meet in Geneva under the chairmanship of the UN Chief of Staff, Ensio
Siilasvuo
1975: In
Manhattan, Zach Lonstein, chief executive officer of Infocrossing and his wife
gave birth to Shoshanna Lonstein who gained fame as Shoshanna Lostein Gruss the
“first-ever Style Director of Elizabeth Arden, Inc” and the wife, “Joshua
Gruss, son of financier Martin D. Gruss and grandson of financier and
philanthropist Joseph S. Gruss
1978: Yitzhak Navon assumed office today as
the fifth President of Israel and “the first president with small children to
move into Beit HaNassi” where he will lived with his wife Ofira.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that
Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat, warned Israel that the Sinai disengagement
agreement with Israel will expire next October, and “only God knows what
will happen then.” But he added that he still stood by his promise that
the 1973 war should be the last.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the
Palestine Liberation Organization warned from Lebanon that it will soon operate
from the Golan Heights, Jordan, as well as from Sinai.
1978(22nd
of Iyar, 5738): Seventy-seven-year-old screenwriter and producer Sy Bartlett
who co-authored the novel Twelve O’Clock High which was turned into one
of the most famous movies about WW II.
1979(3rd of
Sivan, 5739): Habib Elghanian,
President of the Council of federations of Iranian Jewish communities, who he
had been arrested and convicted for Zionist spying was summarily executed by
the new Iranian government.
1979: In
New York, “Stephen A. Schwarzman, the founder, chairman and CEO of The
Blackstone Group, and Ellen Katz (née Philips), a trustee of Northwestern
University and the Mount Sinai Medical Center” gave birth to Edward Frank
“Teddy Schwarzman, the graduate of Penn and Duke Law School and “the
founder, president and chief executive of Black Bear Pictures” who married
fellow Blue Devil Ellen Marie Zajac, the New York lawyer and mother of his
three children.
1981:
Israeli jets attacked “Libyan antiaircraft missile batteries guarding
Palestinian guerrilla positions south of Beirut” after an IAF reconnaissance
plane had been attacked by enemy missiles.
1981: U.S.
premiere of “Polyester” a comedy co-starring Tab Hunter (Andrew Arthur Klem)
with music by Michael Kamen and Christ Stein.
1982(7th
of Sivan, 5742): Second Day of Shavuot
1982:
Leonard Maltin began working as “the movie reviewer on the syndicated
television series Entertainment Tonight.”
http://www.filmreference.com/film/95/Leonard-Maltin.html
1983: It
was reported today that the Board of Elections has announced that Brooklyn District
Attorney Elizabeth Holtzman the daughter of Russian immigrants attorney Sidney
Hotlzman and “Fila Ravitz the head of the Russian department at Hunter College”
was investigating possible ‘ballot stuffing’ in six Brooklyn districts.”
1983: The
audience stood and joined more than 200 singers from 7 Jewish choruses from
Washington, Philadelphia, Connecticut, New York, Long Island and Boston in
singing ”Hatikva” at the end of the American Jewish Choral Festival concert
in Merkin Hall
1984(27th
of Iyar, 5744): Eighty-one year old Philip David Adler, the Davenport born son
of Lena Rothschild and newspaper published Emanuel Phillip Adler and the
husband of “the former Henrietta Carol Bondi” who was “an undergraduate editor
of the Daily Iowan” which was the first steep along following in his father’s
footsteps passed away today after which he was buried iin the Mount Nebo Hebrew
Cemetery in Davenport, IA.
1987:
Daniel Barenboim is scheduled to conduct the IPO in an anniversary program that
will include concertos by Mozart.
1987(1st of
Sivan, 5747): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1987(1st
of Sivan, 5747): Eighty-five year old Irene Jonas, the Bronx born “daughter of
Mortiz and Fannie Kahn” and wife of Dr. Joseph Quincy Joanas passed away today
in New York.
1989: In
“Unmeeting Minds In Zion,” published today Karl Meyer defended Secretary of
State James Baker’s call for “Israelis to abandon grandiose claims to a greater
Israel” because it balances previous American demands that Yasser Arafat give
up his claims to all of Israel which is part of the PLO’s charter document.
1990(5th of Sivan,
5750): Erev of Shavuot
1991(16th of
Sivan, 5751): Seventy-eight-year-old Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge
graduate Henry David Leonard George Walston, Baron Walston the son of Sir
Charles Waldstein and the former Florence Einstein who was “a British farmer,
agricultural researcher and politician, firstly for the Liberal Party, then for
Labour and then for the Social Democratic Party” who married Elizabeth Scott
after the death of his first wife passed away today.
1992: “The Finest
Hour,” a movie about U.S. Navy Seals directed by Shimon Dotan whose five years
as Seal in the Israeli Navy may have helped him write the script for this film
and produced by Menahem Golan was released today in Portugal after premiering in
the United States.
1992(15th of
Sivan, 5751): Just weeks before his 79th birthday Henry David
Leonard George Walston, Baron Walston the only son of Florence (nee Einstein)
and Anglo-American archaeologist Sir Charles Waldstein who was agricultural
researcher and failed candidate for the House of Commons passed away today. His mother was the widow of Theodore Seligman,
and his father was the one who changed the family from Waldstein to Walston.
1993(9th of
Sivan, 5753): Pararshat Nasso
1993(9th of
Sivan, 5753): Eight-sixty-year-old Chicago and University of Illinois and
University of Chicago alum “Sidney Ralph Bernstein, chairman of the executive
committee of Crain Communications Inc. and the former editor and publisher of
Advertising Age magazine” who decried the growth of television commercials
featuring rock stars instead of information of help to consumers and who was
the husband of Adele Bernstein with whom he had one son, Henry, passed away
today.
1994(19th of
Sivan, 5754): Literary scholar Harry Levin passes away at the age of 81. Levin (pronounced
luh-VINN) was considered to be the first Jew to receive tenure in Harvard’s
English Department. Harry Levin’s father had been Jewish, but his mother was not,
and he married a Russian Orthodox writer named Elena, who translated Trotsky.
1994(19th
of Sivan, 5754): Seventy-eight-year-old Joseph Janni, the Italian born Jewish
movie producer who moved to England in 1939 where he spent the rest of his life
passed away today.
1996: Israeli voters
confirmed their country’s yawning divisions in elections today by splitting
their ballots almost evenly between the candidates for Prime Minister and, in
the separate balloting for Parliament, abandoning the two major parties in
droves for small religious, ethnic and other groupings.
1997(22nd of
Iyar, 5757): Seventy-four-year-old Russian born American expert on the
Byzantine Empire Alexander Petrovich Kazhdan passed away today in Washington,
DC having on completed the first volume of his History of Byzantine
Literature.
1998: A group
of American rabbis and educators belonging to the three main streams of Judaism
issued a call for there to be no violent opposition if mixed prayer groups
appear at the Western Wall during the Shavuot holiday. Last year, there were
violent confrontations between fervently Orthodox Jews and liberal Jews seeking
to pray at the Western Wall on Shavuot and Tisha B’Av.
1998: Barry M.
Goldwater passes away. Born in 1909, Goldwater was a U.S. Senator from Arizona
and unsuccessful Republican Presidential candidate in 1964. Goldwater’s father was Jewish. Goldwater was raised as an Episcopalian. This did not keep bigots from disparaging the
Republican ticket as “The Arizona Israelite and his fellow traveler from
the Vatican.” His running mate
Congressman William Miller of New York really was a Roman Catholic.
1999: In
Jerusalem, Israel, Charlotte Nilsson won the forty-fourth Eurovision Song
Contest for Sweden singing “Take Me To Your Heaven”.
1999:Kerstin
Emhoff and Doug Emhoff gave birth to Ella Emhoff, the stepdaughter of Kamala
Harris for whom she designed her inauguration day dress with Batsheva Hay.
2000: An
Israeli court postpones a decision on whether to release two Lebanese
guerrillas held without trial for years.
2000: Settlers
warn Prime Minister Ehud Barak he could be killed if he uproots settlements.
2001(7th of
Sivan, 5761: Second Day Shavuot
2001: The BBC
broadcast “The Wrong Empire” the 11th episode of “A History of
Britain a documentary series written and presented by Simon Schama” which began
its second season tonight.
2001(7th
of Sivan, 5761): Fifty-three year old Sara Blaustein and 20 year old Esther
Alvan were murdered by a Tanzim terrorist.
2001: Forty-one-year-old
Gilad Zar was shot by a Tanzim terrorist as he traveled between Kedumim and
Yitzhar.
2002(18th
of Sivan, 5762): Seventy-year-old novelist Lois Gould, author of Such Good
Friends lost her battle with cancer today and passed away at Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/31/arts/lois-gould-a-writer-on-women-s-inner-lives-dies-at-70.html
2002: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held today at the Riverside Chapel for 93 year-old
Pearl Oppenheim the wife of the late William Oppenheim who was “the matriarch
of her family for over 60 years.
2002: A
program is launched to integrate Ethiopian immigrants into Israeli society. The
National Ethiopian Absorption Project is initiated by the Jewish Agency for
Israel and is planned to last nine years.
2003: Today
marks the 100th anniversary of the day Rabbi Tobias and Mrs. Geffen, along with
their two eldest children arrived in America. The family arrived on board the
Deutschland which departed from Cuxhaven, Hamburg, Germany. Geffen is the Coca Cola Rabbi, having been
responsible for seeing to it that formula was both kosher and kosher for
Passover.
2004(9th
of Sivan, 5764): Twenty-five-year-old Major Shachar Ben-Yishai, 25, of
Menahemia was killed by Palestinian gunfire near Nablus today
2004 (9th of
Sivan, 5764): Seventy-two-year-old Jack Morris Rosenthal passed away. Born in
1931, he was an English playwright, who wrote 129 early episodes of the ITV
soap opera Coronation Street and over 150 screenplays, including original TV
plays, feature films, and adaptations
2004 (9th of
Sivan, 5764): Sam Dash passed away. Born in 1925, Dash was a long time
Professor at the Georgetown University Law School. He gained fame as the Chi
2005: The
Cedar Rapids Jewish Community remembers Dr. Robert Handler, husband of Diane
Handler and father of Nathan, Daniel and Benjamin Handler Memorial Stone and
Unveiling Ceremony. A righteous man will
always be missed and will always be remembered.
2005(20th of
Iyar, 5765): Composer George Rochberg passed away at the age of 86.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806E5DF1638F932A35755C0A9639C8B63
2005(20th of
Iyar, 5765): Gershon Jacobson passed away. Born in 1934, Jacobson was a veteran
journalist and commentator for some of the most eminent newspapers, including
the New York Herald Tribune, the Yiddish Day Jewish Journal and
Israel’s largest daily Yediot Acharonot, “Gershon used his powerful
writing and analytical skills to faithfully document the destruction, rebirth
and renaissance of Jews and Judaism.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/02/nyregion/02jacobson.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print
2005:
The New York Times included reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including A Matter of Opinion by Victor S. Navasky and the recently released paperback editions of Birth of the
Chess Queen: A History by Marilyn Yalom and Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s
America in which Laura Shapiro “revisits a
dark decade in culinary history, when the food industry elbowed its way into
the kitchen promoting Nescafé, Bisquick and Jell-O.”
2006(2nd
of Sivan, 5766): Ninety-two-year-old men’s clothing merchant and co-owner of
Witty Brothers passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/05/business/05witty.html
2006: In Jerusalem, Opening session of “Biomed Israel –
2006” a conference focusing on Respiratory disorders, Central Nervous
System disorders, metabolic disorders and Cancer
2007: As
reported in Haaretz, Ami Ayalon
surged ahead of his main rival for the leadership of the Labor Party with 46
percent of the votes counted early today, winning 37.3 percent to Ehud Barak’s
30.3 percent.
2007: In Ledbetter
v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg took
the unusual stance of reading a dissent from the bench, a usually rare practice
that she has now employed twice in the past six weeks to criticize the majority
for opinions that she said undermine women’s rights. Justice Ginsburg’s dissent
which was supported by Justice Souter, showed them to stand in the best
tradition of the first Jewish Supreme Court jurist, Louis D. Brandeis.
2008: Klara
Silverstein (Mrs. Larry Silverstein) and her daughter Lisa received the
Philanthropy Award at today’s UJA-Federation of New York’s Women’s Philanthropy
inaugural luncheon.
2008: In
Chicago, Spertus Museum and Lawndale Community Academy (LCA) celebrate the
launch of Poetic Integrity and Truth: Youth Culture and Leadership in North
Lawndale. Marking the third year of a Spertus/Lawndale partnership
highlighting the Jewish and African American impact on the North Lawndale
community, the book was written and illustrated by LCA students and explores
their lives, interests, and aspirations.
2008: Klara
Silverstein, the wife of real estate mogul Larry Silverstein and his daughter
Lisa received the Philanthropy Award at the UJA-Federation of New York’s
Women’s Philanthropy inaugural luncheon.
2008(24th of
Iyar, 5768): Comedian Harvey Korman, comedic sidekick to Carol Burnett and
winner of four Emmys, passed away.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/arts/television/30korman.html?pagewanted=print
2008: The
Chicago Tribune reports on status of the Jews of Cuba in an article
entitled “Cuba’s Jewish community enjoys remarkable rebirth.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/religion/chi-cubanjews-fill-0529may29,0,648731.story
2009(6th of
Sivan, 5769): First Day Shavuot
2010: Paula
Valstein, singer/songwriter/pianist, an Israeli army veteran and a graduate of
the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music near Tel Aviv is scheduled to
perform tonight at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City.
2010:
Gaza-based terrorists continued to attack Israel firing two rockets to night
one of which exploded in an open area south of Ashkelon. “More than 50 rockets
have exploded in the Negev since the beginning of 2010, and more than 350
rockets were fired from Hamas-controlled Gaza into Israel since the end of
Operation Cast Lead last year.”’
2011: In the
borough of Queens several Jewish Bukharin an Uzbek artist performed at concert
honoring the late Ilyas Malayev who would have been 75 years old this year.
2011: Two days
after his death, in Bozman, MD, a private service was held at the home of
philanthropist Louis S. Sachs.
2011: The
leadership of the Maccabi World Union is scheduled to hold the opening session
of its annual three day conference today.
2011: “A
Motorcycle Ride for Gilad Shalit” designed to advance the freeing of this
Israeli soldier by his Arab captors is scheduled to begin today at the Israeli
Embassy in Washington, DC.
2011:
Playwright and actor David Greenspan is scheduled to present his one-man show
Plays, a word-for-word performance of the Gertrude Stein essay of the same name
at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco
2011:
The New York Times features reviews books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including ‘Sacred Trash: The Lost and
Found World of the Cairo Geniza’ by Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole, “Reckless
Endagerment” by Gretchen Morgenson & Joshua Rosner and “Alfred Kazin’s
Journals,” selected and edited by Richard M. Cook.
2011(25th
of Iyar, 5771): Ninety-six year old Albert M. Sack, the Massachusetts born son
of Ann Sack and Israel Sack, a Lithuanian born cabinetmaker, who went from
being a university dropout to a career in antiques passed away today. (As
reported by Paul Vitello)
http://www.themagazineantiques.com/article/albertsack/
https://web.library.yale.edu/collection/israel-sack-inc-archive
2011:
The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or
of special interest to Jewish readers including ‘On China’ by Henry Kissinger.
2011:
Giora Eiland “said on Kol Yisrael Radio that in his view it would be better for
Israel to let the next flotilla – expected to set out in late June 2011 – get
through to Gaza, provided that the Government of Turkey would be willing to
take responsibility for the flotilla, inspect all ships and make sure they were
not carrying arms.” Born in 1952 at moshav Kfar Hess, Eiland is a former
national security advisor who reited from the IDF with the rank of Major
General.
2011:
Israel’s efforts to alleviate poverty and develop local economies in Africa is
noble yet it needs to do more, Irish singer-activist Bob Geldof said at a
conference on Israel and Africa held in Herzliya today.
2011: Opening
day of Field of Dreams, “JNF’s hardball mission to the holy land.”
2011(25th
of Iyar, 5771): Ninety-six-year-old antique maven Albert M. Sack passed away
today in Durham, NC. (As reported by Paul Vitello)
2012: “What We
Saw From the Cheap Seats, Regina Spektor’s” latest album is due out today.
2012: Dennis
Ross and David Makovsky are scheduled to “offer their perspective on recent
events in the Middle East, the peace process and the future of Israel” at the
92nd Street Y.
2012:
Among those President Obama presented the Medal of Freedom to were Shimon Peres – President of Israel; Madeleine
Albright – the first woman to serve as Secretary of State; Bob Dylan – the
American musical icon who began life as Robert Allen Zimmerman ; and Jan Karski
– a resistance fighter against the Nazi occupation of Poland during World War
II. He carried the first eye-witness accounts of the Holocaust to the world. As
a courier to the Warsaw ghetto and the Izbica transit camp, he saw the atrocities
first-hand. He became a U.S. citizen in 1954 and died in 2000.
2012:
The Attorney-General’s Office announced today that in accordance with a
recommendation from the High Court of Justice, the state has agreed to pay the
wages of non-Orthodox rabbis serving in regional councils, just as it does for
Orthodox rabbis.
2013:
In Milwaukee, WI, Tikkun Ha-Air’s Glean Machine which collects spring and
summer clothing, household items, toiletries, books, toys, art supplies, and
nonperishable food, is scheduled to begin today.
2013:
The Peri Committee’s approval of the draft version of a new military
conscription law was a “historic moment,” Finance Minister Yair Lapid said
hours after ministers cast their final vote today. The Israeli public needs the
ultra-Orthodox, “with gun in hand, alongside us,” he said.
2013:
Swastikas were painted onto the walls of a synagogue in the coastal city of Bat
Yam in the latest in a series of attacks on synagogues across the country. The
warden of the Ha’Ohel synagogue, Miki Moshkovitz, found the offensive symbols
today morning and immediately called the police. (As reported by Stuart Winer)
2013(20th
of Sivan, 5773): Ninety-year-old Auschwitz survivor and controversial Canadian
physician Henry Morgentaler passed away today.
(As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
2013:
Today, “at their 46th annual meeting, the Victorian Society of New
York presented a Preservation and Rehabilitation for the exterior” of
Congregation Tifereth Israel which was constructed in 1911 making it “the
oldest synagogue in Queens.”
2013: The Argentinian prosecutor in charge of
investigating the bombing at the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA)
in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, has accused Iran of infiltrating several
South American countries and building intelligence stations from which
terrorist attacks could be planned and carried out. Alberto Nisman issued a
502-page indictment today placing responsibility for the bombing, which killed
85 people, on the highest authorities in the Islamic Republic.
2014:
Magen David Sephardic Congregation is scheduled the Maryland premiere of “The J
Street Challenge: The Seductive Allure of Peace in our Time.”
2014:
Marv “Albert stepped down from calling The NFL on CBS and focus on basketball
duties for TNT and CBS.”
2014:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host Norway’s Ullern Kammerkor presenting music dedicated to the victims of the
Holocaust—“Bøner for medfangar” (“Prayers for Fellow Prisoners”) by Kristian
Hernes with a text by Dietrich Bonhoeffer—and music by Gideon Klein and Viktor
Ullmann, composers active during imprisonment in Theresienstadt
2014:
“Donald Sterling is prepared to sue the NBA if it goes ahead with action to
strip him of his ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers, his attorney said
today.”
2014:
In a case of Jew versus Jew, today Steve
“Ballmer placed a bid of $2 billion to purchase the NBA’s Los Angeles
Clippers after NBA commissioner Adam Silver forced Donald Sterling to sell the
team.”
2014(29th
of Iyar, 5774): In the evening, erev Rosh Chodesh Sivan. According to the 17th
century sage Isaiah Horovitz “the eve of the first day of the Hebrew month of
Sivan is the most auspicious time to pray for the physical and spiritual
welfare of one’s children and grandchildren, since Sivan was the month that the
Torah was given to the Jewish people” and this belief insipired him to compose
a special prayer for the occasion “known as the Tefillat HaShlah.”
2014:
“Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi confirmed” today that “Israeli
President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will
join Pope Francis in a prayer for peace at the Vatican” on June 8.
2014:
Katie Holmes joined the cast of “Woman in Gold” where she will play the role of
“Pam Schoenberg.”
2014:
“Thousands of Jewish Red Sox fans packed America’s oldest ballpark tonight for
the legendary franchise’s first Jewish Heritage Night.”
2014:
The cornerstone for a new Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue, which would replace the
centuries old structure that had been deliberately destroyed by Arab armies in
1948, was laid today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiferet_Yisrael_Synagogue#/media/File:Ruzhiner_yeshiva,_Jerusalem.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiferet_Yisrael_Synagogue#/media/File:Tiferesyisrael48b.jpg
2015(11th
of Sivan, 5775): Sixty-five-year-old Moses Samuel, the “long-time leader” of
Myanmar’s Jewish community passed away today in Yangon.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/leader-of-myanmars-jewish-community-dies/
2015:
Palestine is scheduled to “seek Israel’s expulsion from world soccer’s
governing body at today’s meeting of the FIFA Congress.
2015:
Lewis Black is scheduled to perform at the Riverside Casino & Golf Resort
at Riverside, IA.
205:
Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor are scheduled to “return to Abrons” with a
performance “Ship of Fools.”
2015:
The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host a concert as part of the
Israel Festival.
2016(21st
of Iyar, 5776): Ninety-three year old
Mordechai Gazit, the native of Istanbul, older brother of Shlomo Gait, Haganah
veteran and “an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir., ambassador to
France, and as Director-General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry” passed away
today.
2016:
UK Jewish Film is scheduled to host a screening of “Remember”
2016:
Today, “The Israel Police concluded its investigation into financial
impropriety at the Prime Minister’s Residence and recommended that Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife Sara Netanyahu stand trial on graft
allegations.”
2016:
“Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett today threatened to quit the coalition over
his demands for greater intelligence-sharing in the high-level security
cabinet, as Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein urged the Likud and Jewish Home
parties to cut a deal quickly to avoid new elections.”
2016:
“Israeli security forces arrested six alleged members of a Hamas terror cell
accused of planning and carrying out a suicide bombing in Jerusalem last month,
the Shin Bet security service announced today.”
2016:
The “Roman Vishniac Rediscovered” exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum
in San Francisco, California is scheduled to come to an end today.
2016: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Capture:
Unraveling the Mystery of Mental Suffering by David A. Kessler East West
Street: On the Origins of “Genocide” and “Crimes Against Humanity by
Philippe Sands and Anatomy of Malice: The Enigma of the Nazi War Criminals
by Joel E. Dimsdale.
2017:
In the United States Memorial Day, which really is May 30 is observed today.
https://kaplancenter.org/memorial-day-and-united-jewish-people
http://forward.com/news/135331/profiles-of-our-fallen/#ixzz1DeAMPaIh
http://www.algemeiner.com/2011/07/18/jews-in-the-military/
2017:
The Manhattan Jewish Experience is scheduled to host a dinner and discussion of
the weekly Torah portion followed by a presented by Rabbi Mark Wildes, founder
and director of MJE
2017:
In honor of Memorial Day, the Illinois Holocaust Museum is schooled offer free
admission to all military personnel and their families
2018:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present “Travels in Jewish
History” during which Irene Shaland, an internationally-published art and
travel writer, educator, and lecturer, talks about her travels through Jewish
history in Burma, India, China, Cuba, and Cambodia.”
2018:
Following tonight’s weekday dinner, the Oxford University Jewish Society is
scheduled to host a discussion led by Rabbi Mark Goldsmith in which “tough
questions” will be raised about how Jews, based on their laws and tradition
“should behave as buyers and sellers, employers and employees and owners and
customers.” (Editor’s note – Could there be a more timely topic to discuss? Makes you wish you were in Oxford tonight)
2018:
“Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens,” a Jewish and “ sometimes brash political
outsider whose unconventional resume as a Rhodes Scholar and Navy SEAL officer
made him a rising star in the Republican Party, abruptly resigned today amid a
widening investigation that arose from an affair with his former hairdresser.”
2018:
“Israel’s armed forces struck more than 60 Palestinian targets after more than
100 rockets rained down on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip today, in the
heaviest fighting seen since 2014.”
2019:
The Veterans Games are scheduled to continue for a fourth day in “Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem at rehabilitation centers run by Beit Halochem.”
2019:
In Canada, the Edmonton Jewish Festival is scheduled to host a screening of
“Between Worlds,” directed by Miya Hatav.
2019:
In Cedar Rapids, IA, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to discuss Heather
Morris’ novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz
2019:
At the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, The JDC
Archives, the American Jewish Historical Society and the Jewish Historical
Society are scheduled to host a reception marking the launch of The JDC at
100: A Century of Humanitarianism “a pathbreaking collection of scholarly
essays that focus on the history of the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee (JDC) — the organization founded in 1914 to help victims of World War
I, which has played a key role in preserving and sustaining Jewish life across
the globe.”
2019:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host a lecture by bible
scholar Avivah Zornberg followed by a screening of “In the Beginning Was
Desire.”
2020:
The Reboot and the Jewish Emergent Network all-night Shavuot cultural arts
festival featuring comedy, music, food, learning and conversation is scheduled
to come to an end this morning at five in the morning.
2020:
OneTable along with Julia Weiss, head writer of Cards Against Humanity, Caleb
Heron, Shelby Wolstein, Gianmarco Soresi are scheduled to host a comedy
Shabbat!
2020:
JIMENA and JDC Entwine are scheduled to host a gathering to celebrate Shavuot
and Shabbat, led by Rabbi Tsipi Gabai, with percussionist Katja Cooper where
worshippers can learn Sephardic songs and Moroccan Jewish traditions
2020(6th
of Sivan, 5780): Shavuot.
2021(18th
of Sivan, 5781) Parashat Beha’alotcha (“When you light” or “When you kindle”)
For
more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2021:
In Columbus, OH, Benjamin Pesetsky is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a
Bar Mitzvah at Congregation Tifereth Israel.
2021:
In New York, The Village East is scheduled to host a screening of “Shepherd:
The Story of a Jewish Dog” “based on the award-winning and bestselling Israeli
novel, The Jewish Dog by Asher Kravitz.
2021:
In Cedar Rapids, IA, at Temple Judah Rory DeSotel is scheduled to be called to
the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah in a ceremony which will be shared via Zoom.
2021:
Based on previously published Israelis may be celebrating the first Shabbat in
years where Benjamin Netanyahu will not be serving as Prime Minister.
2022(28th
of Iyar, 5782) Yom Yerushalayim
2022:
The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host a walking tour that will
include visits to “the oldest Jewish Cemetery in the United States and
“Historic Chatham Square.
2022:
The ten day long Israel Culinary trip sponsored by the Streicker Center is
scheduled to come to an end today.
2022:
The Baltimore Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end today with
screenings of “The Conductor” and “A Radiant Girl.”
2022:
The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback
edition of The Engagement: America’s Quarter-Century Struggle Over Same-Sex
Marriage by Sasha Issenberg.
2023:
Chabad of the East Bay is scheduled to
present an event with kosher catering, hamburgers, hot dogs, relay races, drum
circle and performance by the Ferris Wheels band.
2023:
The Jerusalem Pride Day March is scheduled to take place today.
2023:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a webinar with Dr. Helen Fry lecturing
on “Marilyn Monroe: Icon and Mystery.”
2023:
Memorial Day observed as Americans remember those who made the supreme
sacrifice for the United States and her citizens as American veterans including
approximately 40,000 Jewish veterans wait to see if Congress will honor its
commitment to pay them their benefits.
https://kaplancenter.org/memorial-day-and-united-jewish-people
http://forward.com/news/135331/profiles-of-our-fallen/#ixzz1DeAMPaIh
http://www.algemeiner.com/2011/07/18/jews-in-the-military/
2024:
Chabad North Peninsula is scheduled to host “A Hostage Mother’s Odyssey” during
which “Iris Haim will speak about her experiences losing her son, Yotam Haim
z”l, who was taken hostage on Oct. 7 and accidentally killed by the IDF in
December.”
2024;
At Zinman Community Theater, The Koby Mandell Foundation is scheduled to host
fundraiser featuring Jann Karam, Buddy Lewis and John Roy – hosted by Avi
Liberman.
2024:
Museum at Eldridge Street’s scheduled celebrate executive director, Holocaust
educator, media scholar, and author Dr. Maria Zalewska’s newest book, Honey
Cake & Latkes: Recipes from the Old World by the Auschwitz-Birkenau
Survivors (Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation 2022) with photographs by
acclaimed photographer, Ellen Silverman.
2024:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by Trudy Gold on “What is
Zionism?”
2024:
As May 29th begins in Israel,
an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps the United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day 236 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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