This Day, April 3, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
April 3
309 B.C.E.: Traditional date for the start of the Seleucid
Dynasty. The Seleucid dynasty was one of the dynasties founded after the death
of Alexander the Great. Its territory included Syria and Babylonia. In 198
B.C.E. the Seleucids took cont…
April 3
309 B.C.E.: Traditional date for the start of the Seleucid
Dynasty. The Seleucid dynasty was one of the dynasties founded after the death
of Alexander the Great. Its territory included Syria and Babylonia. In 198
B.C.E. the Seleucids took control of Palestine from the Egyptian based Ptolemy
dynasty. This change in dynastic role would lead to the uprising thirty years
later that we celebrate as part of the Chanukah Story.
33: According to some scholars, the actual date when a Jewish
carpenter was crucified by the Romans for inciting rebellion.
1287: Honorius IV, the Pope who played a key role in the expulsion
of the Jews from England passed away. “In November 1286 Pope Honorius wrote to
the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, reaffirming the decision of the Lateran
Councils. He enlarged on the evils of relations between Christians and Jews and
warned of the pernicious consequences of the study of the Jews' Talmud. The
King joined in the dialogue and condemnation by reviving the crimes of ritual
murder. Jewish writers use the word "allegation" with regard to
ritual murder with boring regularity.”
1367: During the Castilian Civil War Peter I defeated his
half-brother at Nájera, the hometown of a clan of rabbis and writers who fanned
out across North Africa and Palestine.
1473: Sixty-three year Italian noble man Alessandro Sforza, the
patron of “Jewish Italian dancer and dancing master Guglielmo Ebreo da Pesaro”
who converted to Roman Catholicism under his influence passed away today.
1544: Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire confirmed the
privileges of Austrian Jews. The Emperor was anti-Jewish and a persecutor of
the Marranos. But he was convinced by Josel of Rosheim to condemn the
accusations of ritual murder. The fate of Jews under Charles appeared to have
been a matter of geography. In 1541 he expelled the Jews from Naples and
Flanders he instituted the Inquisition in Portugal in 1543. But in his Germanic
holdings, Charles found the Jews to be useful and confirmed their rights in Augsburg,
Speyer and Regensburg as well as Austria. As we will see when we study the
Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, Charles treatment of the Jews must be
viewed in terms of the clash between the Catholics and the Protestants and not
just in terms of Jews versus Christians.
1546(21st of Nisan, 5306): “Rabbi Jacob Berab, leader of a
movement to restore the ancient rite of semichah died today at the age of
seventy-two.” (As reported by Abraham Bloch)
http://www.safed.co.il/rabbi-jacob-barab-beirav.html
1637(9th of Nisan): Rabbi Joseph ben Phinnehas Haan of Cracow
author of Yosef Ometz passed away today.
1637(9th of Nisan): Rabbi Yosef Hahn, author of “Yosef
Ometz”, passed away.
1673(17th of Nisan): Rabbi Reuben Hoeshke Katz of
Prague passed away
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0017_0_16671.html
1681(15th of Nisan): Rabbi Abraham Kalmansk of Lemberg, author of “Eshel
Avraham” passed away
1714: Italian rabbi David ben Solomon Altaras the author of a
Hebrew grammar and editor of daily prayer book passed away today in Venice.
1722: In New York City, Abraham Pinto and his wife gave birth to
Rachel Pinto “one of the chief benefactors of Polonies Talmud Torah at
Congregation Shearith Israel.”
1742: In South Carolina, today, the Gazette reported that Moses at
the half yearly festival of the “Right Worthy and Amicable Order of Ubiquarian”
Moses Solomon who had been member of St. Andrew’s Society since 1740 “was on of
the AEdilis.”
1751(19th of Nisan, 5511): Twenty-seven year old Hannah
Levy, the daughter of Moses Raphael Levy and Grace Mears passed away today.
1764(1st of Nisan, 5524): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1764: Meyer Hart, one of the founders of Easton, PA took the oath
of allegiance to the colonial government today.
1768(16th of Nisan, 5528): Second Day of Pesach; First
Day of the Omter
1771(19th of Nisan, 5531): Fifth Day of Pesach
1774(22nd of Nisan, 5534) Eighth Day of Pesach is
celebrated for the last time in peace in the thirteen colonies because a year
from now the British and the Americans would have clashed at Lexington and
Concord on the Fifth Day of Pesach, marking the start of the Revolutionary War.
1777: Ester Alvares and Bordeaux, France native Daniel Nones gave
birth to Sipora Nones.
1778: In Easton, PA, Reyna Levy and Isaac Moses gave birth to
Rebecca Moses.
1779(17th of Nisan, 5539): Shabbat Shel Pesach; 2nd
day of Omer.
1780: Birthdate of Holland native David Cromelien, who had six
children with his first wife, Henriette Nathan and six children with his second
wife with Adeline Cromelien.
1787: In Portsmouth, UK, Bohemia native Solomon Lyon and Rachel
Hart gave birth to Isaac Leo Lyon today.
1787: Birthdate of Baden, Germany, native Sara Baer, the wife of
Moses Lemle Heinsheimer and mother of Karoline, Regina and Julius Heinsheimer.
1790(19th of Nissan, 5550): Shabbat Shel Pesach
1790(19th of Nisan, 5550): Ephraim Moses Kuh, the
nephew of Veitel Ephraim, Frederick the Great’s jeweler, whose poetry “vividly
expresses his patriotism and his reverence for Frederick the Great; but also
expresses his resentment at the bad treatment of Jews in Germany and scorn at
his own and others' failures and weaknesses” passed away today in his hometown
of Breslau.
1804: In Philadelphia, PA, Miriam Marks and Bordeaux, France
native Benjamin Abraham Nones gave birth to Henry Benjamin Nones, the husband
of Anna M. Nones, with whom he had nine children.
1806(15th of Nisan, 5566): Frist Day of Pesach
1806: Jochabed Isaacks and Michael Marks who were married at
Newport gave birth to Leah Marks.
1812(21st of Nisan, 5572): Seventh Day of Pesach
observed on the same day that President James Madison wrote to former President
Thomas Jefferson providing “him with news of the political situation in Great
Britain” including the fact there has
been no change in the British policy concerning the Orders in Council and that
Prime Minister Percival would
"prefer war with us, to a repeal of their Orders in Council."
(Editor’s Note – This is a prelude to the War of 1812)
1817(17th of Nisan, 5577): Third Day of Pesach
1818: In Silesia, Schiee Jaffé and his wife gave birth to Samuel
Jaffé.
1821: Birthdate of Prussian born composer Louis Lewandowski, the
music direct at the Neue Synagogue in Berlin who had a daughter Martha who was
murder at Terezin by the Nazis with his wife Helene.
1822: In Surrey, Deborah and Solomon Bennett gave birth to Gabriel
Bennett.
1823: Birthdate of Galicia native Solomon Rubin, the rabbi whose
attraction for the Haskalah movement led him to become a school principle and
tutor as well as “a prolific author ‘ who produced more than twenty-five works
including “a Hebrew translation of Spinoza’s ‘Ethics’” which is considered to
be his “most important contribution to Neo-Hebrew literature.”
1825(15th of Nisan, 5585): Pesach is observed for the first time
during the Presidency of John Q. Adams.
1830(10th of Nisan, 5590): Parashat Tzav; Shabbat
HaGadol is celebrated for the last time before Mexico acting out of fear of
annexation forces in the United States, banned “any additional American
colonist from settling in Mexican territory which included parts of the whole
of the states of California, Texas, Arizona Colorado, Nevada, Utah and New
Mexico.
1833(14th of Nisan, 5593): Ta’anit Bechorot is observed for the
first time while Martin Van Buren was Vice President.
1834: Nathan Baeck, a Rabbi in Kromau, Moravia and his wife gave
birth to Rabbi Samuel Baeck the father of Leo Baeck.
1841: Birthdate of German native Wolf Landau, who served as the
Rabbi at several U.S. congregations before finally settling in Bay City, MI,
where he led Anshe Chesed, a Reform congregation founded in September of 1879
that met on Adams Street and offered Sunday School classes as well as regular
Saturday morning services.
1844(14th of Nisan, 5604): Ta’anit Bechorot; Erev
Pesach
1844: A newspaper report states that a census was conducted at
Constantinople and there were 900,000 people living in the city including
100,000 Jews.
1847(17th of Nisan, 5607): Shabbat Shel Pesach; Third
Day of Pesach
1847(17th of Nisan, 5607): Sixty-four year old Tobias
Asser died in his native Amsterdam today.
1850: In Durbach, Germany, “Herman (Hirschel) Bodenheimer,” a
baker and Elka Hirschfelder gave birth to Pauline Bodenheimer who would pass
away before her second birthday.
1857: Löw Schwab, the rabbi at Budapest passed away today and
would ultimately be replaced by Dr. W. Alois Meisel.
1862: Fifty-eight year old Annie Schlesinger, the wife of Michael
Samuel Schlesinger with she had had seven children, including one set of twins
was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1863(14th of Nisan, 5623): Fast of the First Born and
Erev Pesach observed on the same day that President Lincoln met with General
Hooker, the commander of the Army of the Potomac and “pressured him to attack
Richmond.”
https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-american-civil-war/american-civil-war-april-1863/
1865: In Philadelphia, PA, “Laemmlein Buttenweiser and Leah
Buttenweiser” gave birth to CCNY grad and NYU trained attorney Joseph L.
Buttenweiser, the President of the Federation for Support of Jewish
Philanthropic Society, the President of the Hebrew Technical Institute and a
member of both Temple Israel and the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue who with
his wife Caroline raised five children.
1865: Eighty-two year old Lydia Lyons, the wife of Sampson Samuel
and the mother of Fanny, Lewis and Saul Samuel was buried today at the “West
Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1866: In Chicago, Elias E. Greenbaum, the Palantine, Germany born
son of Sarah Esther Greenebaum and Jacob Israel Greenebaum and his wife Rosine
Greenebaum gave birth to James Eugene
Greenebaum.
1866(18th of Nisan, 5626): Fourth Day of Pesach
observed on the same day that in Ex
Parte Milligan, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase handed down the Court's decision,
which decreed that the writ of habeas corpus could be issued based on the
congressional act of March 3, 1863; the military commission did not have the
jurisdiction to try and sentence Milligan; and he was entitled to a discharge.”
1869(22nd of Nisan, 5629): Eighth Day of Pesach and
Shabbat observed for the first time during the Presidency of U.S. Grant.
1870:
Fifty-one year old Philipp Jaffé, “one of the most
important German medievalists of the 19th century” who “was appointed assistant
professor of history at Humboldt University of Berlin” in 1862 and who
converted to Christianity in 1868 passed away today.
1870: “Reformed Judaism: Advanced ideas in the Ancient
Religion--Doctrines and Tenets of the Reformers--The New Temples in Brooklyn” published
today reports on the growth of the Reform movement. It describes the activities
of New York’s well-established Temple Emanuel including its purchase of the
cemetery at Cypress Hill as well as the birth of Temple Israel, Brooklyn’s
first Reform congregation. The Temple is led by Raphael Lewin who had served as
Rabbi for the Reform Temple in Savannah, Georgia. The article also discusses
the doctrines of Reform Judaism based on Lewin’s book, “What is Judaism; Or a
Few Words to the Jews.
1871: The New York Times reported that “the Jewish people of
Newark are preparing for the celebration of the Feast of Passover, which begins
on the 6th of April and last eight days It is calculated that during the feast
more than 15,000 pounds of unleavened bread will be consumed.”
1873(6th of Nisan, 5633): Lewin Aron (`Libesch') Pinner passed
away today.
1873: Birthdate of Philadelphia native Benjamin De Casseres, the
“journalist, critic, essayist and poet and husband of author Bio De
Casseres “who spent most of his
professional career in New York City, where he wrote for various newspapers
including The New York Times, The Sun and The New York Herald.”
https://neglectedbooks.com/?p=7648
1873: In London, Blema Blumenthal and Prussian native Salomon Albu
gave birth to Henry Martin Albu.
1874(16th of Nisan, 5634): Second Day of Pesach
observed for the first time since Morrison Waite began serving as Chief Justice
of the United States, a position he had been appointed to just one month before
by President Grant.
1875: Two days after she had passed away, 53 year old Elia Esther
Hart, the wife of Frederic Baruch Barnett and the mother of Joel Barnett who
had passed away in infancy, was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road)
Jewish Cemetery.”
1878: Irish-American playwright James A. Herne whose first
successful play, “Hearts of Oaks” was written with and produced by David
Belasco married Katherine Corcoran today.
1880(22nd of Nisan, 5640: 8th day of Pesach
1880: Birthdate of Austrian philosopher Otto Weininger, the author
of Sex and Character.
1882(14th of Nisan, 5642): Fast of the first born and
erev Pesach
1882(14th of Nisan, 5642): The New York Times reported that
“the Jewish festival of ‘Pesach,’ or the Passover, commences at sundown this
evening and will continue for eight days…The festival was instituted to
commemorate the miraculous deliverance of the Children of Israel from the
bondage to which they had been subjected in Egypt.”
1884(8th of Nisan, 5644): Less than a month before his
72nd birthday Ignaz Karunda, the son and grandson of Czech
second-hand book dealers who became a successful writer and Austrian
parliamentarian passed away today in Vienna.
1884: Birthdate of Donaldsonville, LA native and Tulane undergrad
Monte Lemann, the Harvard trained lawyer, the Tulane University Law School
professor who in 1931 was the only member of President Hoover’s Wickersham
Commission to refuse to sign the report recommending “further and stricter
efforts to enforce prohibition” and who with his wife Mildred raised two sons
Thomas and Stephen Lemann.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/09/23/88824954.pdf
1884: German painter Gustave Karl Ludwig Richter whose works
included a portrait of his wife Cornelie Meyerbeer, daughter of composer
Giacomo Meyerbeer and their son passed away.
1886: Today, in Philadelphia, one week before his 30th
birthday Lee Levy, the New York City born son of Meyer and Caroline Levy, who
was a wholesale liquor distributor, married Zetta Sproesser with whom he had
three children – Irene, Beebe and Milton.
1888(22nd of Nisan, 5648): Eighth Day of Pesach is
observed on the day when Emma Elizabeth Smith was murdered in what would be the
first killing by the legendary “Jack the Ripper
1890: It was reported today that “Count Dleianoff, Minister of
Public Instruction, has refused to receive the petition recently prepared by”
university students “asking for…the unrestricted admission of Jews.”
1890(13th of Nisan): Aron Arnaud, chief rabbi of Strasbourg, Alsace,
author of “Prieres d’un Coeur Israelite passed away”
1890: In Bavaria Karoline and Leopold (Lehmann) Schloss gave birth
to Isidor Schloss
1890(13th of Nisan, 5650): Eighty-thee year Arnaud
Aron, the Grand Rabbi of Strasbourg, passed away today. (According to some
sources he was born in March and not May which means he would have been
82. I have not been able to resolve the
dispute)
http://opensiddur.org/by/arnaud-aron/
1890: Almost two years after its founding the Leopold Morse Home
for Infirm Hebrews and Orphanage was dedicated today in Mattapan,
Massachusettes.
1890(13th of Nisan, 5650): On the day before Jews are scheduled
sit down to their Seders on the first night of Passover, hundreds of people
received free meat today thanks to the generosity of Mrs. Paulina Rosendorff.
While most of the recipients were poor Polish Jews, several poor gentiles also
lined up to get the free meat. Mrs. Rosendorff said she did not care because
poverty knows no religious boundaries.
1892: Birthdate of Frantisek Klein who was transported from Prague
in 1942 to Ujazdow where he was murdered.
1892: It was reported today that while Jewish refugees have been
prevented from crossing the border between Russia and German, 5,000 Russian
Christians have been allowed to cross into Germany in the last two weeks.
1892: It was reported today that there “there is a growing belief that”
Russian Jewish exiles are not “desirable as immigrants” to United States
because “many of the immigrants have been shown to accept a permanent state of
dependence and pauperism as a consequence of the immediate relief and help that
were…extended to them.” (Editor’s Note – For those following the immigration
debate in the United States, these comments have an eerily familiar ring; the
only change is in the name of the immigrant group)
1892: It was reported today that “the opinion of Baron Hirsch that
the proportion of the Hebrew population of the United States was already as
great as was desirable will be shared by most thoughtful Americans, Hebrews or
otherwise. In truth the only solution of
the problem raised by the persecution of the Russian Jews is that of Baron
Hirsch of a Hebrew colony which might ultimately become a Hebrew state.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F50816FD3F5C17738DDDAA0894DC405B8285F0D3
1893(17th of Nisan, 5653): Third Day of Pesach
1893: Birthdate of Bernard Fay, a French historian of
Franco-American relations,[1] an anti-Masonic polemicist who believed in a
worldwide Jewish-Freemason conspiracy
1893: In Forest Hill, London, Lilian Blumberg and Ferdinand
Steiner gave birth to Leslie Howard Steiner, who gained fame as actor Leslie
Howard. Yes, the blue-eyed blond who played the quintessential Southern
gentlemen Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind was Jewish. Lelies Steinner was
born in England, the son of a Hungarian Jewish father, Ferdinand Steiner, and
Lilian Blumberg daughter of a barrister named Charles Blumberg. The middle
class Blumbergs did not approve of the marriage. However, they mellowed after
the birth of young Leslie who was an officer in the cavalry during World War I.
After the war, Steiner, now Howard built a career on the stage and later in
films. He changed his name to avoid ant-Semitism, a not uncommon need among
theatrical people of the time. Howard's death in June of 1943 is still shrouded
in mystery. German fighters shot down the civilian plane, which was carrying
him from neutral Portugal back to England. According to some, Howard was a
British spy and the target of the attack. The mystery may be solved until 2025
when papers concerning the matter will finally be declassified
1895: Percy Benedict Lewis, the son Regine and Frederick Hy Lewis
was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1895: In Albany, state Senator Wolf introduced a bill “empowering
the Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Asylum Society of the City of New York to convey
certain property transferred to the society by the city.”
1896: Among the institutions named to receive bequests from the
late Charles S. Friedlander are Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews, $1,600;
Society of Shevet Juda, $600; Hospital of Beth Israel, $600; Mount Sinai
Hospital, $600; Hebrew Technical Institute, $600; Ladies Deborah Nursery
Sanitarium for Hebrew Children, $600; Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids,
$600 and the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum, $600.
1896: In describing the virtues of Rabbi Aaron Wise who was buried
yesterday, Rabbi Gustav Gottheil said “The spirit of his words cannot die. The influence of the teacher has no limits as
to time or space.”
1897(1st of Nisan, 5657): Parashat Tazria; Rosh Chodesh
Nisan; Shabbat HaChodesh
1897: It was said today that Jewish philanthropist and Republican
politician Edward Lauterbach “would have been pleased if Colonel George Bliss
had been selected by the Governor” to serve as a member of the State Board of
Charities.
1897: Rabbi Rudolph Grossman of Temple Beth-El delivered an
address on ‘The Talmud’ “at a meeting of the Alumni Association of the Hebrew
Technical Institute.”
1898: Birthdate of George Jessel, the self- proclaimed toastmaster
general. Jessel gained early fame as the star in the Broadway production of the
Jazz Singer. The movie version was the first talking motion picture but it
starred Al Jolson. As he aged and survived his contemporaries, Jessel became
famous for his eulogies. During the Viet Nam War, he "wrapped himself in
the flag" going so far as to equate the New York Times with Pravda and
provoking the normally mild-mannered Ed Neuman to literally pull the plug on an
interview on a live broadcast. Jessel died in 1981.
1898: Birthdate of Harry Ferman, the native of Ukraine who came to
Canada in 1912 where he worked as a farmer and retail trader before joining the
Jewish Legion in 1918.
1898: The New York Times published a lengthy, laudatory article
about Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise on the 90th anniversary of his birth.
1899: It was reported today that Jesse Lewisohn had presented a
check for one thousand dollars to the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society Asylum
in memory of his late brother Samuel.
1899: “Judaism and Christianity” published today contain the views
of Dr. John Hall on the relationship of these two faiths including that “it
would be almost impossible for us to understand” the Epistle to the Hebrews”
unless we had the books of Leviticus to refer to.”
1899: “The third of the series of model lessons conducted by Isaac
C. Noot, Principal of the Hebrew Schools of New York will be held this
afternoon in the vestry of Temple Beth-El.”
1900: In Upper Franconia, Germany Dr. Eduard Goitein and his wife
gave birth to Shelomo Dov Goitein, “a German-Jewish ethnographer, historian and
Arabist known for his research on Jewish life in the Islamic Middle Ages and
author of the five volume A Mediterranean Society.
1901(14th of Nisan, 5661): Ta’anit Bechorot; Erev
Pesach observed for the last time during the Presidency of William McKinley who
was assassinated in September.
1902: It was reported today that “Moses Blau has old sold a three
story dwelling at 103 East 81st Street.
1903(6th of Nisan, 5663): Seventy-five year old Moses
Ha-Kohen Reicherson, the Polish born Hebrew grammarian and teacher who moved to
New York in 1890 passed away today leaving behind a number of unpublished works
including commentaries on the Pentateuch, on the books of Samuel, Kings,
Isaiah, Ezekiel, the Twelve Prophets, Psalms, Job, and Proverbs; and a prayer-book,
"Tefillah le-Mosheh."
1904(18th of Nisan, 5664): Fourth Day of Pesach
1904: “Warn Anti-Jew Agitators” published today said that
“although the authorities do not believe there is a danger of a recurrence of
the anti-Jewish riots of last year, reports of impending trouble circulated at
Odessa, Kieff, Kishineff, and other centers where there is a large Jewish
population, have somewhat alarmed the Jews and Minister of the Interior Plehve
has adopted most rigorous precautionary measures.”
1904: “Buying Slow Last Week on Account of the Jewish Holidays”
published today said that :all the auction houses reported dull business in the
last week because of the Jewish religious observances.”
1904: A thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her mother arrived at
the White House with a supply of Matzoth. While her mother waited in anteroom,
the young girl went into the President’s office and presented the unleavened
bread to a thankful Theodore Roosevelt. The President thanked the girl for the
gift and complimented her on her tact and courtesy.
1905(27th of Adar II, 5665): Seventy-four year old Levi
Spiegelberg, the native of Prussia and husband of Bertha Spiegelberg passed
away today in New York City.
1906: Today, in the House of Lords, “Lord Northbourne asked the
Government if would lay on the table any consular or other reports concerning
the anti-Jewish outrages in Russia” because “he said that the publication of
such reports might indirectly have some effect inducing the Russian Government
to do its best to remedy conditions that outraged the civilization of the 20th
century.
1906: Today, in the House of Lords, Lord Fitzmaurice, speaking on
behalf of the Foreign Office said the Government could not grant Lord
Northbourne’s request to make reports of anti-Semitic activities in Russia
public “without committing a grave impropriety” and besides which “Great
Britain could not interfere in the internal affairs of Russia.
1906: At Algeciras, at the Conference on Moroccan Reforms,
unanimous support was obtained for the resolution that U.S. Ambassador White
had introduced “on behalf of the Jews in Morocco.”
1907: Today, Alois Grossman, the chairman of the Committee on
Synagogue Music of the Central Conference of American Rabbis addressed a letter
to the individual members of the committee – Rudoph Grossman, I.L. Leucht, I.S.
Moses, J.L. Magnes, William Loewenberg, A.M. Radin and Nathan Stern – on the
issue of the role of traditional music in Reform services which elicited
responses all of which were favorable to “the employment of more traditional
music in the reform service” with one respondent going so far as to say “I hate
church music in the synagogue” while another said that “I am heartily in favor
of traditional music…”
1907: Birthdate of Isaac Deutscher, the native of Galicia who left
Poland in 1939 to work as newspaper in London and who wrote biographies of
Trotsky and Stalin.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/deutscher/index.htm
http://spartacus-educational.com/RUSdeutscher.htm
1908: In Georgia, Secretary of Commerce and Labor Oscar spoke at
the banquet tonight which was a celebration of the 25th anniversary
of the Savannah Board of Trade.
1909: District Superintendent Julia Richman was among the group
who inspect the new Stuyvesant High School which is in the “very hear of the
lower east side.”
1909(12th of Nisan, 5669): Parashat Tzav; Shabbat
HaGadol
1909: “History of the Jews” published today described a circular
letter that has been by Rabbi Frederick de Sola to Rabbis and Jewish scholars
that explains the reason for creating “The History of the in Monographs,” a
multi-volume work that will serve “as a literary supplement to the Jewish
Encyclopedia” and which will be overseen by an editorial committee consisting
of himself, as chairman, and Dr. David Phillipson and Dr. Isidore Singer.
1910: The Ninth Quinquennial Convention of the Independent Order
of B’nai B’rith took place at Washington, D.C.
1911: After have been introduced by Isidore Blum, as the “honorary
president of the Harvard Menorah Society,’ Jacob H. Schiff delivered a speech
to about “200 Jewish students from Columbia University” at tonight’s meeting of
the Columbia Menorah Society in which he “declared that the first duty of Jews
is to work for the weal of the community in which they live, and that, despite
insistence in some quarters that the Jews are more than a people and still a
nation, he could not emphasize too strongly the fact that those who have come
here belong to the American Nation, and never will politely seek or hope for a
future in another.”
1912: Birthdate of Willie Rubenstein, who in 1934 led the
undefeated NYU Violets to victory over the undefeated CCNY Lavenders.
http://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2018/02/willie-rubenstein.html
1913: Two days after he had passed away, Marcus Israel Landau who
had had five children with his first wife Hannah and thirteen children
including Annie Edith Landau, the principal of the Evelina D. Rothschild School
in Jerusalem with his second wife of 40 years, Chaja Kohn and the inventor of
the Landau Miner’s Safety Lamp was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish
Cemetery” in London.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Landau%27s_safety_lamp.jpeg
1914(7th of Nisan, 5674): William Gallich passed away
today in Butte, Montana.
1914: Henry Berlin, Chairman of the Arrangements Committee for the
Passover celebrations to be held in this city under the auspices of the Jewish
Soldiers and Sailors Passover Committee, reported today that with Capt. Lewis
Landes of the committee he had called on Commander Moses of the United States
battleship Texas and Commander Jackson of the United States battleship North
Dakota. They extended invitations to attend the Passover dinner at Tuexedo Hall
on April following the regular Passover services. The commanders of the two
battleships promised to lend their aid in making the celebrations a success.
1915(19th of Nisan, 5675): Shabbat Shel Pesach; Fifth
Day of Passover
1915(19th of Nisan, 5675): Sixty-two year old I.L.
Peretz the failed whiskey distiller who became a leading poet, playwright and
author passed away today in Warsaw.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Peretz_Yitskhok_Leybush
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/i-l-peretz/
1915: Birthdate of Paul Claude Marie Touvier the French
collaborator whose crimes included murdering seven Jewish hostages near Lyon.
http://articles.latimes.com/1994-04-20/news/mn-48236_1_war-crimes
1916: The bazaar and fair sponsored by the People’s Relief
Committee for the Jews suffering in the war zone which is being held at the
Grand Central Palace is scheduled to come to an end today.
1916: Birthdate of Ralph Glasser the Scottish psychologist,
economist, advisor to developing countries and author of an autobiographical
trilogy
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1389641/Ralph-Glasser.html
1917: Louis Marshall was reported to have said that the cable
message from Baron Gunzburg confirmed that all of the restrictions that have
been placed on the Jews “are to be repealed with the result that full, equal
rights will be guaranteed to the Jews of Russia.”
1917: CCNY graduate Louis Maurice Josephthal, the New York born
son of Theresa Wise and Mortiz Josephthal and husband of Edyth Guggenheim who
was “one of the organizers of the Naval Militia of the State of New York in
which he enlisted as an Ordinary Seaman in 1891” began serving today as
Paymaster General with the rank of Commodore.
1917: Twenty-three year old editor Lester Markel, the New York
born son of Jacob and Lillian Markel and a graduate of the Columbia School of
Journalism who eventually became the Sunday editor of the New York Times,
married Meta Edman today in New York City.
1918(21st of Nisan, 5678): Seventh Day of Pesach; Final
Day of the holiday for Reform Jews
1918: “In view of the Government’s suspension of wheatless
regulations in is relation to the consumption of matzoths during the Passover
season, Rabbi Isaac Landman of Temple Israel of Far Rockaway suggested that the
Jews” of the United States “make up for the amount of wheat which they consumed
in their matzoth during the festival season by imposing a ‘wheatless week’ upon
themselves.”
1919: In Cincinnati, at the Hebrew Union College Rabbi Julian
Morgenstern delivered an address on “Were Isaac M. Wise Alive Today” at the
afternoon session of the Central Conference of American Rabbis in which he made
“a plea for the maintenance of American Judaism, devoid of all foreign
elements” and that “for the Jews, the goal should the inculcation of the
American element thoroughly into the Jew’s religion,” making “American ethics
and Jewish ideals inseparable” while understanding that “no Palestinian Judaism
will answer this purpose.”
1920(15th of Nisan, 5680): First Pesach of “the roaring
twenties” and the last Pesach of the presidency of Woodrow Wilson
1920: At Temple Israel of Harlem, Rabbi Maurice delivered a sermon
on “Liberty” in which he “said that each Passover Jews should be reminded not
only their ancestors escaped bondage, but that those of today should be
inspired to reach yet higher stages of liberty.”
1920: At Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, Rabbi Israel Goldstein
delivered a sermon on “Freedom Then What?”
1920: At the Institutional Synagogue, Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein
delivered a sermon on “The Need of a Religious Revival” in which that “our only
hope for the future to bring back our young people to the faith of our fathers
rests in the creation of institutional synagogues.
1921: Birthdate of David Arguete, the native of Aydin, Turkey who
gained fame as Turkish “composer, lyricist and guitarist” Dario Moreno who was
buried in Holon, Israel when he died suddenly in December, 1968.
1922: Joseph Stalin became the first General Secretary of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Stalin’s anti-Semitism would prove to be
stronger than his sense of brotherhood for his fellow Socialist brethren. From
his attacks on Trotsky to the Doctors’ Plot that came at the end of his life,
Stalin displayed an attitude towards the Jewish people that would have made the
Czars proud.
1923: Yale University graduate Ira Nelson Morris, the Chicago born
son of Sarah Vogel and Nelson Morris and husband of Constance Rothschild with
whom he had two children – Constance and author Ira Victor Morris -- completed
his service as U.S. Minster to Sweden.
1923: In Cincinnati, OH, William Jacob Mack, Sr. the son of Lydia and
Millard Mack and Henriette Segal gave birth to William Jacob Mack, Jr.
1924: Birthdate of Marlon Brando. See below for Louis Kemp’s
account of attending a Seder with the great American method actor.
http://www.jewishmag.com/89mag/brandoseder/brandoseder.htm
1924: It was reported today the German General Ludendorff who had
not concealed his hatred and contempt for the Weimar Republic which he described
as a republic of “Communists, Jews and Catholics” was acquitted of charges that
he had tried to overthrow the German government.
1924:
Today, Dr.
Abraham Isaac Kook, chief rabbi of Jerusalem began delivering the first in a a
series of lectures at the Rabbi Isaac Eschanan Theological Seminary which are
designed “to interest America Jews in the cultural activities in Palestine.”
1925: Today
“there was staged in the National Theatre through Lebedeff and Rosenstein,
"A Wedding in Palestine, a comedy in three acts by Israel Rosenberg, music
by Peretz Sandler."
1925: In Nuremberg, a member of a minor German political group,
Julius Streicher, gave a speech calling for the annihilation of the Jews. Eight
years leader he would join his mentor Adolf Hitler in making this seeming empty
threat a reality.
1926(19th of Nisan, 5686): Shabbat Shel Pesach
1926(19th of Nisan, 5686): Eighty-four year Benedikt
“Bernhard” Cohn, the Dusseldorf born son of Caroline and Lazarus Joseph Cohen
and the husband of Dorothea Cohn passed away to today.
1926: Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading, completed his
service as the Viceroy and Governor-General of India.
1927: At the Free Synagogue meeting today in Carnegie Hall, Dr.
Stephen S. Wise delivered a sermon on “The Jew In American Colleges in which he
declared that “few institutions in existence today are more hostile toward the
spirit of true American democracy than Greek letter fraternities and
sororities” and that “no one thing has been so damaging to the morale of the
young Jews as the mere raising of the quota system question at Harvard.”
1927: “Plans for a conference of a representatives of the two
million Orthodox Jews in the United States for form an organization to prevent
reform Jewry from deciding Jewish religious matters…were discussed” today “by
representatives of more than 200 0rthodox Congregations of Greater New York at
the Central Jewish Institute.”
1927: The new home for Temple of Israel of Washington Heights, a neo-Georgian
synagogue at 560-66 West 185th Street, designed by Sommerfeld & Steckler
that cost $400,000 was dedicated today.
1927: “The Carousel of Death” a silent drama produced by Lothar Stark
was released today in Germany.
1928: “Halt Deportation Of Jews” published today described the
promise that the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigration Aid Society “had obtained
from the immigration officials that the 150 Jews now on Ellis Island will be permitted
to remain until the” Passover “holiday season ends.
1929: According to today’s dispatch from Casablanca, “Zionism
remains an illegal movement in French Morocco in spite of protest made to the
authorities at Rabat and Paris.
1929: In New York City, “Daniel Lefkowitz and Estelle (Cohn)
Lefkowitz, a beautician” gave birth to Maxwell Lefkowitz who gained fame as Lee
Leonard, one of those responsible for the debut of ESPN
1930: According to Census records, on this date Joseph Gelman was
an architect living and working in Hartford, CT.
1930: Birthdate of Max Frankel the native of Gera, Germany who
came to the United States in 1940 and became “one of America’s preeminent
journalists. He worked for The New York
Times for fifty years, rising from college correspondent to reporter,
Washington bureau chief, editorial page editor, and ultimately executive editor
1986—1994. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of President Nixon’s trip
to China in 1972 and is the author of a nationally bestselling memoir, “The
Times of My Life and My Life with the Times.” He lives in New York City.
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-times-of-my-life-by-max-frankel/
1931(16th of Nisan, 5691): Second Day of Pesach; First
Day of Omer
1931: “An emergency fund of $50,000 to aid needy Jewish authors
and to subsidize their works was decided upon” tonight “by 600 delegates to the
annual conference of Yiddish writers which opened” tonight “at the Broadway
Central Hotel.”
1932: Birthdate of Chicago native and noted American Architect
Norman Jaffe.
1933: In the wake of the Reichstag Fire, Time published “Germany:
Hitler Enabled.”
Before Berlin's Kroll Opera House swarmed a crowd of young Nazis
last week. "Give us the Enabling Act!" they chanted, "give us
the Enabling Act or there will be another fire!" The Reichstag was meeting
in the Opera House because the central hall of the Reichstag building had been
gutted by incendiary fire, a fire that despite popular murmurings the Nazis
have persistently blamed on Communists. Because of the fire every Communist
deputy was in jail. So the young Nazis' cry was easily answered : The Reichstag
passed the Enabling Act 441-94. Adolf Hitler became Dictator of Germany for
four years to come. Socialists did not let the bill go through without one word
of protest. Cried Deputy Otto Wels: "Take our liberty, take our lives, but
leave us our honor! If you really want social reconstruction you would need no
such law as this." In full Nazi uniform Chancellor Hitler popped from his
seat, his little mustache twitching with excitement. "You're too
late!" he roared. "We don't need you any longer in molding the fate
of the nation!" Not a few U. S. editors, rapidly scanning the Enabling Act
for early editions, headlined their stories END OF THE REPUBLIC. Well they
might, for the Enabling Act contained the following provisions
1) Emergency decrees no longer need be signed by President von
Hindenburg. Chancellor Hitler will proclaim them on the authority of his own
Cabinet.
2) Emergency laws need the approval of neither the Reichstag nor
the Reichsrat (Federal Council of States). The right of popular referendum on
them, expressed in the Weimar Constitution, is specifically set aside.
3) Treaties with foreign powers no longer need Reichstag or
Reichsrat approval.
4) The Cabinet can decree the annual budget and borrow money on
its own authority.
5) Any law proclaimed by the Chancellor may deviate from the
Constitution, becomes effective 24 hours after its publication in the Federal
Gazette.
Since the rights of free speech, public assembly and inviolability
of the home have long been suppressed, here was more power in the Chancellery
than even Bismarck dreamed of, but careful investigation showed that canny old
Paul von Hindenburg still held two aces up his detachable cuffs: The President still
has power to dismiss any or all members of the Cabinet including Handsome Adolf
himself. He still remains Commander-in-Chief of the Reichswehr, with sole power
to proclaim martial law. The Reichswehr is not yet a Nazi organization. If told
to turn Adolf Hitler out of office it could theoretically do so. Observers
agreed that these two cards had been shoved up the President's sleeve by Vice
Chancellor von Papen. At the week's end lean-jawed Lieut.-Colonel von Papen was
fighting hard for yet another check on the Nazis: the vital post of Prussian
Premier. He was holding his own at the week's end. Chancellor Hitler let it be
known that the Premiership would not be definitely awarded for some time yet;
possibly until after May 1. Before the vote on the Enabling Act, Chancellor
Hitler read a declaration of policy to the Reichstag that was mild as
buttermilk compared with his former utterances. There was the old insistence on
"rooting out Communism to the last vestige" but on the other hand
"the Government regards the question of monarchistic restoration as
indiscussible at present." Germany was pledged to refrain from arming if
other nations disarmed radically. Hitler welcomed the Mussolini-MacDonald peace
projects. To the general surprise he announced that Germany "looks forward
to friendly relations with Soviet Russia." Despite world protests over
anti-Semitic outrages in Germany and boycott murmurings that offer grave
threats to German commerce and industry (see below), German business seemed to approve
the Nazi dictatorship last week. In Berlin tycoons of the Reichs Federation of
Industry signed a manifesto promising the Government their fullest support. Led
by chemical and brewing stocks, the Berlin Bourse continued a boom that had
been three weeks under way. carrying some stocks 300% to 400%, above their
crisis lows.
1933: Time magazine
published “Prayers & Atrocities” which includes a description of the
British reaction to the rise to power of the Nazis in Germany
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,753626,00.html
1934: In the Bronx, Benjamin and Esther Hanft gave birth to
actress Helen Hanft, "the Ethel Merman of off-off Broadway"
1935: At the Maccabiah in Tel Aviv, American Syd Koff finished
first in the 60 meter dash and second in the broad jump. New York prize fighter
Solly Hornstein won his first round test while A. Horowitz of South Africa won
the 10,000 meter race.
1936: “Support to the Greater New York campaign of the American
Jewish Joint Distribution Committee was pledged by representatives of 200
Jewish women’s organizations have a membership of 100,000 in the five boroughs”
of New York City “and Westchester at a breakfast meeting” today “at the home of
Mrs. Roger W. Straus” where attendees heard from several speakers including
Mrs. Milton Wyle, Mrs. David Goldfarb and Carl J. Austrian..
1936: After almost a year of being on the air, the Blue Network
and NBC broadcast the last of Al Pearce’s radio shows sponsored by Pepsodent
Toothpaste.
1936: Dr. Hjalmar Schact, the German Minister of Economics
advanced the argument that “whether Germany devalues” its currency “or not, she
would still have to maintain rigid control of capital movements because of the
’12,000,000,000 to 20,000,000,000 marks of Jewish capital that would otherwise
strive to leave the country.”
1937: According to a report received in New York today by Dr.
Stephen S. Wise from the Jewish Agency for Palestine, “a total of 34,500 German
Jews settled in Palestine during the four year period since” Hitler came to
power.
1937(22nd of Nisan): Author and folklorist Judah Loeb
Cahan passed away.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Cahan_Yehudah_Leib
1938: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Joel Adelberg who as Jeff Barry
wrote such “immortal” hits as "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", "Da Doo Ron
Ron", "Then He Kissed Me", "Be My Baby", "Chapel
of Love", "River Deep -
Mountain High", "Leader of the Pack" and "Sugar, Sugar"
http://lpintop.tripod.com/jeffbarry/
1939(14th of Nisan 5699): Fast of the First Born; erev
Pesach
1939: Dr. Chaim Weizmann and David Ben Gurion were greeted by
cheering crowds when they returned to Tel Aviv from the Palestine Conference
that had been held in London. Of the negotiations, Weizmann told the crowd, “We
did not return victors, but neither were we vanquished.”
1939: In Brooklyn, Abraham and Mildred Gralnick gave birth to
Jeffrey Charles Gralnick “a blunt, gravel-voiced television news executive who
got his start in the days of the 15-minute, black-and-white evening newscast
and went on to play leading roles in the news divisions of three major
broadcast networks.” (As reported by Dennis Heveisi)
1939: Rosie Goldschmidt Waldeck author of Prelude To The Past became
a naturalized U.S. Citizen today.
1940: Birthdate of Tel Aviv native and Ophir Award winning
cinematographer “Amnon Salomon” a “disciple of cinematographer David Gurfinkel”
https://www.haaretz.com/1.5202870
1940: Ernst Heilmann, German jurist and political leader was
murdered at Buchenwald.
1941: “Nazis Put New Curbs on Jewish Workers” published today
described “a rule that Jewish laborers must not be paid for time spent in
air-raid shelters” and another rule stating that “Jews are not entitled to
compensation for damage suffered in air raids.”
1942: This day's deportations from Augsburg, Germany, emptied the
town of Jews, ending a Jewish presence that was established in 1212. They were
deported to the Belzec death camp.
1942(16th of Nisan, 5702): The Final Solution came to Tlumacz also
called Tlumach on the second day of Pesach. Tlumach was a town of about seven
or eight thousand people, about a third of whom were Jewish. It was one of
those places that changed hands several times including being part of the
Soviet Union and Hungary. The Germans took control in 1941 and immediately
killed off the leading Jews of the area. On April 3, twelve hundred Jews are
taken to Belzac Extermination Camp and the remaining three thousand were placed
in a ghetto. Later in the war another two thousand Jews were sent to Belzac.
The Jewish community was not reconfigured after the war and is now only a page
in the book of Jewish memory. Sad as this event is, it would be sadder still if
we did not note their fate and remember (Yizkor) them.
1943: Maria Różanski, Wiktoria Paduch and several others were
sentenced to death today by the German Sondergericht special court for helping
two Jewish women Elsa Szwarcman and Sala Rubinowicz escape from the Radom Ghetto
1943(27th of Adar II, 5703): Actor Conrad Veidt who played Major
Strasser in Casablanca passed away at the age of 50.
http://conradveidt.wordpress.com/
1943: Birthdate of British director Jonathan Lynn, a nephew of
Abba Eban.
1944: As an indication that “the backbone of Jewish extremist
gangs” may have been broken, British authorities suddenly lifted the rigid
curfew in Palestine today.
1944: Moshe Shertok reported to Jerusalem that his negotiations
with Oliver Stanley, the British Colonial Secretary had succeeded in creating a
breakthrough in the search for a safe haven for Romanian Jews fleeing the
Nazis. Henceforth, for an all too brief period of time, “any Jews who reached
Istanbul could continue on to Palestine irrespective of Palestine Certificates
and quotas in effect because of the 1939 White Paper.
1944: An internal memo of this week from the United States
Government War Refugee Board states that it did understand the
"attitude" of the Turkish government. On one hand it was
"professing a desire to cooperate with the refugee program," while on
the other it would not let the United States nor other countries use its ships
to transport refugees from Romania to Turkey without formal contracts in place.
1945(20th of Nisan 5705): On the 6th day of Pesach the Fourth
Armored Division and the 355th Infantry Regiment of the 89th Infantry Division,
part of General George Patton's famed Third U.S. Army, liberated the first
death camp, Ohrdruf or North Stalag III, a sub camp of Buchenwald, located near
Weimar.
1945: Würzburg, which had had a population that included 2,000
Jews in 1930 most of which was shipped to the death camps between November 1941
and June 1943, was occupied by the U.S. 12th Armored Division and U.S. 42nd
Infantry Division in a series of frontal assaults masked by smokescreens
1946: In the United States, premiere of “Deadline At Dawn”
directed Harold Cluman, with a script by Clifford Odets and music by Hanns
Eislter.
1947: The HMT Ocean Vigour was damaged by a bomb planted by the
Haganah’s Palyam forces while docked at the port of Famagusta. She was a
British freighter which had been converted into a caged prison ship used to
deport illegal Jewish immigrants who had attempted to enter the Mandate
Palestine back to Europe and to prison camps in Cyprus. “The Ocean Vigour was
one of 3 ships used by the British authorities in “Operation Oasis” to deport
the refugees from the Exodus 1947, most of whom were Holocaust survivors, to
Germany. The Haganah commander on the Ocean Vigour was Meier Schwarz. The ship
carried 1,464 deportees to Port-de-Bouc near Marseilles and, when they refused
to disembark there, on to Hamburg, Germany, where they were forced off by
club-wielding British troops.”
1948: In another act of daring, a ship from Yugoslavia docked at
Tel Aviv. Hidden in the ship’s cargo of potatoes and onions were 500 rifles,
200 machine guns and a large quantity of ammunition. Jewish dock workers
unloaded the vital supply of munitions and shipped them to the Haganah without
being caught by the British.
1948: During the fighting that resulted from Arab attempts to
abort the Partition Plan of the United Nations, a unit of Palmach fighters
captured Al –Qastal, after Mordechai Gazit led a Haganah unit that killed the
commander of the Army of the Holy War in their attempt to hold this strategic
point.
1949: In “Beginnings of Italian Music” published today Howard
Taubman provided a complete review of The Italian Madrigal, a three
volume history of the beginnings of Italian national music by Alfred Einstein.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/04/03/85358291.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1949: Israel and Jordan signed an armistice agreement. This
agreement was part of the negotiations held on the island of Rhodes under the
auspices of the U.N. and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Dr. Ralph Bunche. The
agreement left the Jordanians in control of the eastern part of Jerusalem and
the West Bank. When people speak today of Arab East Jerusalem, they are
speaking of a result caused by the Arab Armies forcibly removing the ancient
Jewish community from that section of the city; a condition that was in
violation of the U.N. resolutions, but which were made a reality by this
armistice agreement. The Jordanians never honored the agreements for free,
unfettered access to the Hadassah Hospital and Hebrew University Campus on Mt.
Scopus.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/arm03.asp
1950: In Brooklyn, the former Toby Fassman and Max Cohen gave
birth to Columbia trained sociologist Steven M. Cohen, the husband of Marion
Lev-Cohen with whom he had two children
1950(16th of Nisan, 5710): Second Day of Pesach; 1st day of the
Omer
1950(16th of Nisan, 5710): Kurt Julian Weill, German born composer
and socialist passed away in New York City.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FA0D1EFD385F177A93C6A9178FD85F448585F9
1952: The Jerusalem Post
reported on satisfactory economic talks held in Great Britain where Israel sought,
in addition to the Haifa Oil Refineries¹ deliveries agreement, more trade and
credits, and genuinely modern military equipment.
1952: The Jerusalem Post
reported that 5 members of the family of Yehoshua Arya, a Tel Aviv municipal
employee, slept on the pavement outside the Jewish Agency building after they
had been evicted from their one-room apartment in the Hatikvah quarter.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that owing to last-minute red
tape, only 324 immigrants arrived aboard the S.S. Transylvania from Romania,
instead of the expected 1,000. In Hamburg police arrested a neo-Nazi who mailed
a letter-bomb to the head of the German reparations team at The Hague.
1953: “Desert Legion,” another Hollywood version of the French
Foreign Legion with a screenplay by Irving Wallace and Lewis Metzler and
featuring Leon Askin was released in Los Angeles today.
1954(29th of Adar II, 5714): Parashat Tazria
1954(29th of Adar II, 5714): Seventy-one year old
Israel Mattuck one of the three "M"s who shaped Liberal Judaism in
the UK (alongside Claude Montefiore and Lily Montagu) passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/mattuck-israel-i
https://www.thejc.com/judaism/books/booklog-israel-mattuck-1.55572
1954: Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese diplomat who
risked his life and career to help Jews escape from Hitler’s Europe, passed
away
http://sousamendesfoundation.org/aristides-de-sousa-mendes-his-life-and-legacy/
1955: The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend
Jewish author Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges.
1955: At Jewish Science on 150 West 85th Street which
was founded by Rabbi Morris Lichetenstein, Mrs. Lictenstein is scheduled to
speak on “Emotion Versus Emotionalism.”
1958(13th of Nisan, 5718): Sixty one year old Theodor
Kramer whom Thomas Mann called “one of the greatest poets of the young
generation” but whose career in Austria was short-circuited by the Anschluss
and an escape to the United Kingdom passed away today.
1958: U.S. premiere of “The Long Hot Summer” produced by Jerry
Wald and starring Paul Newman.
1960: George Lincoln Rockwell, the leader of the newly formed
American Nazi Party held his first public rally on the National Mall in
Washington, D.C.
1960: Rabbi Harry Halpern officiated at the wedding of Judith
Helen Jacobi, the daughter of Brooklyn residents Dr. and Mrs. Mendel Jacobi and
Sydney Phillip Levine, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Max Levine.
1961(17th of Nisan, 5721): Third Day of Pesach
1961(17th of Nisan, 5721): Forty six year old Maurice
Howard “Babe” Patt, the Carnegie Tech line who played five seasons in the NFL
and served in the U.S. Navy during WW II passed away today.
http://blaircountysportshof.com/wp-content/uploads/1989-Maurice-Patt.pdf
http://www.jewsinsports.org/profile.asp?sport=football&ID=225
1961: “The Happiest Girl in the World” a musical with E.Y. Harburg
opened today at the Martin Beck Theatre.
1964(21st of Nisan, 5724): Seventh Day of Pesach
observed for the first time during the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson.
1966: “The festival of Passover, commemorating the liberation of
the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, begins tomorrow at sundown.”
1966: It was reported that “a rare Seder dish from Spain, dating
to the years before the Jewish expulsion in 1492, has been acquired by the
Israel Museum.”
1967: The original version of “I’ve Got a Secret” a popular panel
game show co-produced by Mark Goods and created by Allan Sherman was broadcast
for the last time today.
1967:
Robert Brustein, head of the Yale Drama School and playwright Robert Anderson
are scheduled to deliver the eulogies at today’s funeral for Sziget, Hungary native
and Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Columbia University John W. Gassner, the
theatre critic, playwright and author whose twenty books included Theatre at
the Crossroads and Masters of the Drama who was the husband of “the
former of Mollie Kern” and whose academic career led him to becoming the
Sterling Professor of Playwriting and Dramatic Literature at Yale University.
https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w68d0q21
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/04/03/90308089.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1969(15th of Nisan, 5729): First Day of Pesach observed
for the first time during the Presidency of Richard Nixon.
1970(26th of Adar II, 5730): Seventy-one year old New
York native and World War I Navy veteran Ralph G. Engelsman, a long-time
“leader in the life insurance sales industry” and noted amateur water-color
painter who had two sons Ralph and Alan with his wife Naomi passed away today.
1971(9th of Nisan, 5731):Eighty-eight-year-old French
born Belgian artist and Olympic fencer Jacques Ochs who won a Gold Medal at the
1912 Olympic Games passed away today.
1972(20th of Nisan, 5732): Fifth Day of Pesach
1973(1st of Nisan, 5733): Aaron Rabinowitz, a pioneer in public
and private house as well as real estate development passed away at the age of
93. The son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, Rabinowitz’s work in the field of
public housing began in 1926 when he began serving on the New York State Board
of Housing created by Governor Al Smith. He then worked closely with Lieutenant
Governor (and later Governor) Herbert Lehman.
1974(11th of Nisan, 5734): Fifty-nine-year-old New York City
native and and realtor Sidney Joseph Ungar who supported several Jewish
organizations including “Boys Town Jerusalem” and served as the “state chairman
of the Israel Bond Organization” passed away today.
1975(22nd of Nisan, 5735): Eighth Day of Pesach; Yizkor
1975(22nd of Nisan, 5735): Fifty-six-year-old Tulane
trained attorney Label Katz, the New Orleans born son of Matilda and Ralph Katz
and “former president of the 500,0O0‐member B'nai B'rith organization and lifelong activist in Jewish
affairs” passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/katz-label-a
https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/resources/18289
1975: Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against
Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default.
1977(15th of Nisan, 5737): Pesach
1977: The Jerusalem Post
reported that HIAS (the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) urged Soviet immigrants
to bring their relatives from the Soviet Union directly to the US in order to
"reduce the growing phenomenon of dropouts in Vienna." Max Fisher,
chairman of the Jewish Agency¹s Board of Governors, did not think that this
would be at the expense of Jews who wished to come on Aliyah. He believed that
if more Jews could be got out from Russia, more will come to Israel
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that US experts hailed the new Israeli
tank, the Chariot.
1978: CBS broadcast the final show for the third season of “One
Day At A Time” starring Bonnie Franklin.
1979(6th of Nisan, 5739): Seventy-eight year leader of
the Arkansas Jewish community Adele Bluthenthal Heiman passed away today.
1980(17th of Nisan, 5740): Third Day of Pesach
1980: In one of those moments when you would think that “the
theatre” could not exist without Jews Neil Simon’s “I Ought To Be In Pictures”
starring Ron Liebman as “Herb” and Dinah Manoff as “Libby” which had first been
produced by Emanuel Azenberg in Los Angeles with Tony Curtis as “Herb” opened
tonight at the Eugene O’Neil Theatre. (Eugene O’Neil is the only non-Jew in
this list)
1981(28th of Adar II, 5741): Seventy-seven year old
Polish born American Yiddish theatre actor and union leader Herman Yablokoff
passed away today at Mt. Sinai Hospital.
http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=33552
https://www.milkenarchive.org/artists/view/herman-yablokoff/
1981(28th of Adar II, 5741): Seventy-nine year old film
critic Cecilia Ager, the wife the composer of “Happy Days Are Here Again,”
Milton Ager passed away today.
1982(10th of Nisan, 5742): Parashat Tzav; Shabbat
HaGadol
1982(10th of Nisan, 5742): Eighty-six year old Tillie
Klausner, the Polish born daughter of Miriam and Aaron Wolf Bienenstock and
wife of Josef Klausner passed away today in Denver, CO.
1982: Following the end of her romantic relationship with Marvin
Hamlisch, today Carol Sager married Burt Bacharach “after over a year’s
co-habitation.”
1984(1st of Nisan, 5744): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1984: Milton Coleman, a reporter with the Washington Post who
happens to Black, said that did not “have any comment to make on” Minister Lois
Farrakhan vow to “make an example of him” because he disclosed the fact that
Reverend Jesse Jackson “had referred to Jews as ‘Hymies’ and to New York as
‘Hymmietown.’”
1986: Birthdate of actress Amada Bynes.
1986(23rd of Adar II, 5746): Israeli mathematician Elisha
Netanyahu passed away.
http://blms.oxfordjournals.org/content/20/6/613.extract
http://www.math.technion.ac.il/newmath/netanyahu.html
1987: Bob McAdoo, former National Basketball Association scoring
champion, scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half today as Tracer Milan
won the European Champions Cup by edging Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel, 71-69, in
the final.
1987: The New York Antiquarian Book Fair comes to a close. Among
the items offered at the fair was The ''Twenty Four Books of the Holy
Scriptures,'' the first edition in English of what was for generations the
standard Jewish-American Bible, translated and annotated by Rabbi Isaac Leeser
and published in Philadelphia in 1853 which was valued at $1,750.
1988(16th of Nisan, 5748) Second Day of Pesach; First
day of the Omer
1988(16th of Nisan, 5748): Eighty-one year old OSU grad
and cartoonist Milton Caniff, the Hillsboro, OH born son of John and Elizabeth
Caniff and the husband of Esther Parsons Caniff who created “Terry and the
Pirates” and “Steve Canyon” passed away today.
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Milton_Caniff
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/04/obituaries/milton-caniff-81-creator-of-steve-canyon-dies.html
https://www.amazon.com/Meanwhile-Biography-Milton-Creator-Pirates/dp/1560977825
1990: Gilbert and Sullivan Yield To Gershwin and Ryskind
1991(19th of Nisan, 5751): Fifth Day of Pesach
1991(19th of Nisan, 5751): Ninety-year-old Charles Henry Goren,
the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants who became “a world champion American
bridge player and bestselling author who contributed significantly to the
development and popularization of the game” passed away.
https://www.biography.com/people/charles-goren-9316113
1992: Richard Schifter completed his term as Assistant Secretary
of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs.
1992(29th of Adar II, 5752): Eighty-four year old painter Aaron
Bohrod passed away today.
http://www.wisconsinart.org/archives/artist/aaron-bohrod/profile-23.aspx
1992: “The Player” a satirical film featuring appearances by
Sydney Pollack, Peter Falk, Jeff Goldblum and Gina Gershon premiered in
Cleveland, Ohio today.
1992: Jack Lang began serving as Education Minister of France for
the first time.
1992: “Beethoven,” the first in a series of dog comedy films
co-produced by Ivan Reitman, starring Charles Grodin and with music by Randy
Edelman was released today in the United States.
1993(12th of Nisan, 5753): Parashat Tzav; Shabbat
HaGadol
1993(12th of Nisan, 5753): Eighty-two year old
philanthropist Ludwig Jesselson passed away today in Jerusalem. (As reported by
Eric Pace)
https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/05/obituaries/ludwig-jesselson-82-commodity-trade-executive.html
1993(12th of Nisan, 5753): Pinky Lee kiddy host (Pinky Lee Show),
died of a heart attack at 85. Born Pincus Leff, in 1916, Lee was a big star in
the early days of television. His signature line was "Ha Ha Hee Hee."
He was well known as a host of children's shows including the Pinky Lee Show.
Lee ran into trouble with the Black List. One of his last programs was the
Gumby Show in 1957. (Yes, there was Gumby before SNL.)
https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/07/obituaries/pinky-lee-85-host-of-children-s-tv-shows-dies.html
1994(22nd of Nisan, 5754): Seventy-five year old Maj. Gen. Aharon
Remez, the first commander of the Israeli Air Force, passed away today at the
age of 75. General Remez had also served as a Labor Party Member of Parliament,
Transport Minister and Israeli Ambassador to Britain. He was buried with full
military honors on Monday in Jerusalem's military cemetery. Born in Tel Aviv in
British-ruled Palestine, General Remez joined the Haganah underground in 1936.
The Jewish Agency, then the governing body of Jewish settlement in what later
became Israel, sent him to New Jersey in 1939 to learn how to fly. He flew a
Spitfire for Britain in combat against the Germans. In 1947 he helped establish
Haganah’s flying service, the predecessor to the Israeli Air Force, and Prime
Minister David Ben-Gurion appointed him commander shortly after Israel's
statehood was declared in 1948. General Remez stepped down three years later in
a dispute over attempts to incorporate the Israeli Air Force into the general
command. The air force is under separate command today. He served as Ambassador
to Britain in the late 1960's.
1996(14th of Nisan, 5756): Ta’anit Bechorot; Erev
Pesach
1996: Today, with the Jewish celebration of Passover set to begin at
sundown, one New York synagogue will push the religious use of a new technology
a little further, placing on the Internet what it calls a "cyber
seder," the liturgical text and images for a Passover meal. Beginning at 4
A.M. (to reach Jews at sundown in Australia) and repeating every hour for the
next 36 hours, Temple Emanu-El will transmit a reading of the Haggadah. The
text is recited and discussed at seders, the home rituals held on the first one
or two nights of Passover, commemorating the exodus of the biblical Israelites
from slavery in Egypt. The transmission will be available to people with
personal computers with Internet links and, to hear the reading, audio capability.
1997: A revival of Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes” which uses
a verse from Chapter 2, Verse 15 of the Song of Solomon which reads, "Take
us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender
grapes" as the inspiration for its title opens today at the Vivian
Beaumont.
1997: “Dogtown” a drama co-starring Jon Favreau and filmed by
cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau was released today at the Los Angeles
International Film Festival.
1997(25th of Adar II, 5757): Seventy-five year old Los Angeles
Judge Jerry Pacht “died of a cerebral hemorrhage today.”
http://articles.latimes.com/1997-04-04/news/mn-45393_1_jerry-pacht
1999(17th of Nisan, 5759): Shabbat Shel Peach; 2nd
day of the Omer
1999(17th of Nisan, 5759): Sixty-eight year old Lionel
Bart, the London born son of Galician Jewish refugees Yetta (née Darumstundler)
and Morris Begleiter, a master tailor and creator of the hit musical “Oliver”
passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/05/theater/lionel-bart-68-songwriter-created-the-musical-oliver.html
2000: The New York Times featured a review of a book of
special interest to Jewish readers, Circumcision: A History of the World’s
Most Controversial Surgery by David Gollaher.
2001: “President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt urged President Bush today
to increase the United States' involvement in the Middle East, but Mr. Bush
used their White House meeting to defend his policy of allowing the Israelis
and Palestinians to take the lead in seeking peace.
2001: “The Pestilence That Left Not Just Death Behind It”
published today provides a review of In the Wake of the Plague: The Black
and Death and the World It Made by Canadian-American Jewish historian
Norman F. Cantor.
2002(21st of Nisan, 5762): Seventh day of Pesach and 6th
day of the Omer
2002: During Operation Defensive Shield, IDF troops secured Jenin
but the fight for the terrorists’ stronghold still loomed ahead.
2002(21st of Nisan, 5762) IDF reservist Maj. Moshe
Gerstner, 29, of Rishon Lezion was killed in Jenin during anti-terrorist action
(Operation Defensive Shield).
2003: Release date for the Hebrew Language Israeli film “Bonjour
Monsieur Shlomi.”
2004: At the Rainbow Room in NYC, Rabbi Mark S. Golub officiated
at the wedding of Anna Chloe Hoffman, a daughter of Dale and Stephen Hoffman
and David Russ Steinhardt, a son of Judy and Michael Steinhardt, founder of
“Makor, a cultural center which is part of the 92nd Street Y.
2005: Official induction Pretorian born Warren Goldstein, as Chief
Rabbi of South Africa making him the first native of South Africa and the
youngest person to hold the post.
2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by
Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Omaha
Blues: A Memory Loop” by Joseph Lelyveld, “Inside the List by Rachel Donadio”
and “Return to Greatness: How America Lost Its Sense of Purpose and What It
Needs to Do to Recover It” by Alan Wolfe as well as the following monograph
about ''Runny Babbit,'' Shel Silverstein's silly tale of a rabbit with a
penchant for inverting his consonants that just made its debut at No. 1 on the
children's picture book best-seller list. Silverstein, the much loved poet and
author of idiosyncratic and often bittersweet books like ''The Giving Tree,''
''Where the Sidewalk Ends'' and other children's classics of the past four
decades, worked on ''Runny Babbit'' on and off for 20 years, before his death
in 1999. Silverstein was a constant reviser. ''He had mountains of poems and
stories, in bits and pieces, and in different versions, written on stray pieces
of paper,'' his friend and former editor, Joan Robins, told Publishers Weekly.
Robins and Toni Markiet, the executive editor of HarperCollins Children's
Books, both helped shepherd ''Runny Babbit'' into print. Written in jolly
inverse verse, the book recounts the adventures of a kindhearted, rather
hapless rabbit, from restaurant to bath to library (''A bience scook? A boetry
pook? / Oh, no -- a bomic cook!''). HarperCollins has done a first printing of
500,000 copies, betting that deprived Silverstein fans will be eager to snap it
up. A good bet: The Times Magazine reported after his death that Silverstein --
who in the course of his career was a playwright, a regular cartoonist for
Playboy and a country-western songwriter -- left an estate worth $20 million,
so he clearly knew a thing or two about what people want.
2006: Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz announced that he
was closing the Yona Metzger investigation and would not seek an indictment
against him, citing a lack of sufficient evidence. He added, however, that in
light of various "disturbing" information that came to light during
the investigation, including contradictory statements given to the police that
the Chief Rabbi should resign
2007(15th of Nissan, 5767): First Day of Pesach
2007: In “For Shtetl by the
Sea, Only a Few Fading Signs Remain” published today Abby Goodnough provides a
portrait of the changing face of “Jewish Miami Beach.”
The
synagogue at 1415 Euclid Avenue had only a few members left when Daniel
Davidson, a New Yorker seeking a standout South Beach retreat, bought it in
2003. “I thought the space magical,” he said of the spare, white
16,000-square-foot building — now back on the market for $9,950,000 —
“irrespective of religion. And so the Orthodox synagogue, Kneseth Israel,
became Temple House, where Mr. Davidson has not only lived but also allowed
Budweiser to film a commercial, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida and Al Gore to
hold a Democratic fund-raising event and Jennifer Lopez to stage a listening
party for her latest album, belting out love songs near where the Torah ark
used to be. Like so many buildings that served a thriving Jewish population
here for decades — synagogues, delicatessens, kosher markets and hotels, even
Yiddish theaters — Temple House’s history is all but imperceptible now. The
community that earned Miami Beach nicknames like Little Jerusalem and Shtetl by
the Sea is largely gone, and many of today’s residents know nothing of it.
Miami Beach had roughly 60,000 people in Jewish households, 62 percent of the
total population, in 1982, but only 16,500, or 19 percent of the population, in
2004, said Ira Sheskin, a demographer at the University of Miami who conducts
surveys once a decade. The decline — due mostly to elderly Jews dying or
getting priced out after the city’s Art Deco revival, but also to the migration
of others to Broward and Palm Beach Counties as greater Miami became more
Hispanic — has forced old-timers to scour for hints of their past. A few
remain, like the Hebrew-inscribed doors of a deserted Orthodox shul being
converted to condominiums and the old entryway to Wolfie’s, a beloved coffee
shop demolished for a condo building that will keep the faded front as a relic.
But Miami Beach’s last kosher resort hotel, the Saxony, closed in 2005 to make
way for condominiums. Its oldest synagogue, Beth Jacob, also closed that year
after membership dropped to 22, from 1,200 in the 1950s. Its domed building is
now the Jewish Museum of Florida, housing memorabilia like mah-jongg boards and
anti-Semitic real estate ads promising “always a view, never a Jew.” (Residents
with “Hebrew or Syrian blood” generally could not rent or buy north of Fifth
Street until the 1950s.) On Lincoln Road, the pedestrian thoroughfare at the
heart of South Beach, Temple King Solomon has given way to Touch, a restaurant
and lounge with occasional belly dancers and flame throwers. On Washington
Avenue, the Cinema Theater, home to one of the longest-running Yiddish
vaudeville shows in the world, is now Mansion, a club favored by Paris Hilton
types. Farther north, in Sunny Isles Beach, Wolfie Cohen’s Rascal House —
Miami’s version of Katz’s Deli in New York, famous for “mile-high” corned beef
sandwiches — will soon be demolished and replaced with yet another condo tower.
This is not to say all Yiddishkeit is lost here: Talmudic University, which
opened in Miami Beach in 1974, remains on Alton Road, along with a Lubavitch
center that runs a day school and a rabbinical college. A few miles north of
blingy South Beach, beachfront resorts like the Fontainebleau and the Eden Roc
still fill up at Passover, and an Orthodox Jewish community is flourishing
around 41st Street. But in South Beach alone, the number of people in Jewish
households dropped by 53 percent between 1994 and 2004, to 4,171 from 8,775.
Charlotte Cooper, who came to Miami Beach from New York to perform Yiddish
theater in the 1960s and stayed until she was priced out in 1999, said she
could hardly stand to return these days.“It’s an entirely different story now,”
said Mrs. Cooper, a Holocaust survivor who moved to a condominium in Pembroke
Pines but still performs here now and then. “People from Hollywood, movie
stars, come to stay in those hotels now. It has nothing to do with the Jewish
people anymore.” At Temple Emanu-El in South Beach, Rabbi Kliel Rose is
striving to attract young Jews while keeping older, second- and
third-generation members. The cavernous stone synagogue drew 1,200 families in
the 1980s; it claims about 260 now. Rabbi Rose’s tactics include regular
outings to South Beach bars and clubs, lectures on Kabbalah and a recent
Havdalah ceremony, marking the end of Sabbath at sundown Saturday, with
cocktails at Temple House. Rabbi Rose has added drums, guitar and an element of
mysticism to Shabbat services. Still, to ensure the requisite 10 people for
morning minyans, or prayer sessions, Temple Emanu-El teams up with the Cuban
Hebrew Congregation, one of the neighborhood’s only other surviving synagogues.
“We are truly experimenting,” said Rabbi Rose, 36, who wears an earring and was
recruited from Congregation B’Nai Jeshurun, a booming conservative synagogue on
the Upper West Side of Manhattan. “We are trying to think outside the box.”
When his congregants started shifting in their seats toward the end of Shabbat
services one recent Friday night, Rabbi Rose asked them not to leave just yet,
admonishing, “Lincoln Road can wait.” David Weintraub, who directed “Where Neon
Goes to Die,” a film about the Jewish retirees who flocked to Miami Beach from
the 1920s through the 1980s, said his research was frustrated by an astonishing
lack of documentation. “This legacy went on for over 60 years, and yet there is
almost no memory that it even happened,” Mr. Weintraub said. “At the Miami
Beach archives, I went through their file drawers for two weeks. There were
drawers and drawers of cheesecake on the beach but not one photograph of
Yiddish culture.” Now, Mr. Weintraub is thinking of organizing “ghost tours” of
Jewish Miami Beach. But he does not want a tourist clientele. “We would target
the folks who already live in Miami in the hopes that if people get a better
sense of who and what came before,” he said, “they might be more pro-active
when city planners destroy another piece of Miami’s past.” Marcia Zerivitz,
founding executive director of the Jewish Museum of Florida, said that while
the decline of the Jewish population is an old story here, the rest of the
country is surprisingly unaware. Filmmakers and writers still call her to say
they want to document Jewish culture in Miami Beach, Ms. Zerivitz said. “I get
calls like that all the time, especially from California and up east,” she
said. “I say: ‘Sorry, you’re many, many years too late. There’s nothing left.’
”
2008: Don Hewitt was honored with Washington State University's
Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcast Journalism.
2008: As part of the Israel at 60 Celebration the 92nd Street Y
hosts Israeli “Culture: Past and Present: Examining Pre-1948 Israeli Culture:
Art and Literature.” Professor Uri Cohen examines the formation of Israeli
culture from its inception to the creation of the state.
2008: Israeli-European economic ties are growing as the parties
seek to speedily integrate the strong and expanding Israeli economy into the
huge European market, according to statement made by EU officials today
2009: Richard Stoltzman presents “A Salute to Benny Goodman” at
the Englert Theatre in Iowa City. Originally scheduled for Hancher Auditorium,
the program was shifted to the smaller venue because of the Floods of 2008.
2009: At Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Vanderbilt University
Professor Amy-Jill Levine delivers a lecture entitled “Hearing the Parables in
their Jewish Contexts.”
2009: “Fast and Furious” featuring Gal Gadot as “Gisele Yashar”
was released in North America today.
2010: Violinist Joseph Lin is scheduled to perform at the Sixth
& I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.
2010(19th of Nisan, 5770): Fifth Day of Pesach; Shabbat
Chol HaMoed
2010(19th of Nisan, 5770): Ninety-one year Stamford
born and New Canaan, CT raised journalist Bernie Yudain, the long-time editor
and columnist for the Greenwich (CT) Times passed away today.
https://www.greenwichtime.com/local/article/Bernie-Yudain-beloved-newspaperman-and-Mr-434316.php
2010: On Shabbat Chol Hamoed Pesach, Temple Judah holds its
monthly traditional Saturday morning service complete with a Kosher for
Passover Kiddush, a one of a kind event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa thanks to the
culinary skills and creativity of Deb Levin.
2010: Nili Shamrat “was sentenced to 300 hours of community
service and given a five-year suspended sentence for possession of stolen
property” for his role in the 1983 burglary of the L.A. Mayer Institute for
Islamic Art.
2011(27th of Adar II, 5771): Moshe V. Goldblum, rabbi of
Pittsburgh’s Beth Shalom Congregation for 24 years, passed away today in
Israel. “Goldblum was a 1949 graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary and
came to Pittsburgh from Jacksonville, Fla. He also served congregations in
Columbus and Mansfield, Ohio, New York and Baltimore. He was a U.S. Army
chaplain from 1945 to 1947.”
2011(27th of Adar II, 5771): Twenty three year old Yale hockey
player Mandi Schwartz passed away today. (As reported by Thomas Kaplan)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/sports/hockey/05schwartz.html
2011: The Annual Used Book Sale is scheduled to begin at Gesher
Jewish Day School in Fairfax, VA.
2011: The Center for Jewish History in conjunction with the Jewish
Book Council, the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York
University and the Columbia University Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies
are scheduled to present a program entitled “The Jewish Book: Past, Present,
Future” which deals with the questions of What makes a Jewish book?, Who are
the People of the Book? How have Jewish books changed with changes in
technology?
2011: “Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story” is scheduled to
be shown at The Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2011: Agudas Achim Synagogue is scheduled to host the Iowa City
Jewish Community’s 3rd Annual Mitzvah Day - A Day of Community Service.
2011: The New York Times
features books by Jewish writers and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including ‘All the Time in the World’ by E.L. Doctorow and ‘The Free World’,
David Bezmozgis’s first novel, set in Rome in 1978, which “follows three
generations of Soviet Jews as they wait for visas to North America.”
2011: President Shimon Peres is scheduled to leave for Washington,
DC where he will meet with several US leaders including President Obama.
2011: The Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs
announced the names of people chosen to light beacons at this year's
Independence Day ceremony.
2012: “The Kid With a Bike” and “The Mill and the Cross” are
scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival
2012: A Concert of Russian and Jewish Music featuring Metropolitan
Klezmer is scheduled to take place in New York City.
2013: “The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said a
lower court had erred in dismissing fraud-based claims by” Steven A. Cohen’s “former
spouse” Patricia Cohen and revived the lawsuit” while also reviving “claims of
racketeering and breach of fiduciary duty, while upholding the dismissal of an
unjust enrichment claim.”
2012: The Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, with the
endorsement of the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council, is scheduled to
present a performance by the Yuval Ron Ensemble.
2013: “Numbered,” a film that explores the relationship some
Auschwitz survivors have with their tattoos, is scheduled to be shown at the
Museum of Jewish Heritage at Battery Place in New York City.
2013: Today “it was announced that Lorne Michaels will be taking
over as the executive producer for The Tonight Show.”
2013(23rd of Nisan, 5773): Ninety-five year old,
Dorothy Taubman, the developer of the Taubman Technique for rehabilitating
musicians passed away today. (As reported by Vivian Schweitzer)
http://www.wellbalancedpianist.com/bptaubman.htm
2013(23rd of Nisan, 5773): Eighty-six year old
cartoonist Ed Fisher passed away today.
http://edfischer.com/cartoons.html
2013: Palestinian terrorists fired two rockets at the southern
Israeli city of Sderot this morning. The intermittent rocket attacks began
while President Obama was touring the region before Pesach.
2013: Today, A three-judge panel of the Tel Aviv District
Court ordered Bank Hapoalim and three pension funds to pay around NIS 2.1
million to the estate of an elderly Holocaust survivor for liability in
allowing the illegal withdrawal of her money by her home caregiver.
2013:
First baseman Nate Freiman made his major league debut with the Oakland A’s
2014:
In Israel, Channel 2 broadcast the last episode of “Yellow Peppers,” a series
about a family raising an autistic child.
2014:
The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host Jews
and Baseball: D.C. and Beyond with Phil Hochberg, Jean Leavy and Aviva Kempler
2014:
A French court fines a 28-year-old Moroccan man $4,130 for posting photos
online of himself giving the quenelle salute in front of Grand Synagogue in
Bordeaux
2014:
“The Sturgeon Queens” is scheduled to be shown at the Austin Jewish Film
Festival.
2014:
The Oregon Jewish Museum is scheduled to host the opening reception for an
exhibit styled “The Seder: Meanings, Ritual & Spirituality” featuring the
work of Samuel Eisen-Meyers.
2014:
Friends and family gather to celebrate the birthday of Elizabeth Levin,
“daughter extraordinaire” of David Levin.
2015:
“President Obama issued Passover greetings” today “to those celebrating
Passover in the United States, in the state of Israel and throughout the world.
2015:
President Obama and his hosted their seventh White House Seder where the menu
included, “Moroccan charoset balls, savory holiday brisket and carrot soufflé.”
2015:
Francis J. Pruitt, the author of Faith and Courage in a Time of Trouble,
“a memoir of a Belgian-Jewish girl and her family who were saved during the
Nazi occupation of France through the compassion and heroism of French peasants
from the southern part of the country” is scheduled to appear at the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
2015:
A year after having been shown at the Tribeca Film Festival “5 to 7” directed
and written by Victor Levin was released in the United States today.
2015:
The friends and family of Elizabeth Levin will have to get her that birthday
cake today before the last crumbs of Chametz are swept away.
2015(14th
of Nisan, 5775): Ninety-two year old English actor Robert Rietti, born Lucio
Herbert Rietti, passed away today.
2015(14th of Nisan, 5775): Fast of the First Born
2015(14th of Nisan, 5575: In the evening first Seder.
2016: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Don’t
Let My Baby Do Rodeo by Boris Fishman and Spain in our Hearts: American
in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 by Adam Hochschild
2016:
In Fairfax, VA, Temple Beth El is scheduled to host a “sneak preview of Sabena
Hijacking” one of the films to be shown later at the JCCNV’s Annual Film
Festival.
2016:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host a panel
discussion on “The Forgotten Genocide: The Destruction of Cultural Heritage in
Armenia, Bosnia and Syria.”
2016:
HaZamir: The International Jewish High School Choir is scheduled to perform at
Carnegie Hall.
2016:
“Wedding Doll” is scheduled to be shown on the final night of the Israeli Film
Festival in Philadelphia, PA.
2016:
Radio Kol Hamusica is scheduled to broadcast the works of Israeli composer
Emanuel Vahl.
2016:
The Breman Museum, the Center for Civil and Human Rights and the Atlanta Jewish
Film Festival, are scheduled to offer a free screening of the award winning
film, “50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr.& Mrs. Kraus”
2016:
Leo Baeck
Institute and Center for Jewish History are scheduled to host “Burning Words: A
History Play by Peter Wortsman”
2016:
Unlike last year, Elizabeth Levin gets a break and she and her friends a family
can enjoy plenty of cake as they celebrate her natal day.
2017:
The JTA Centennial Gala featuring Bernard-Henri Levy as the keynote speak and
honoring Brian Sterling, Mark Wilf and Jane Weitzman is scheduled to take place
this evening at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.
2017:
“State of Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel said today he will purchase an unmatched
$61 million in Israel bonds to hit back at the boycott movement against the
Jewish state, and because the bonds are a good investment.” (As reported by
Stuart Winer)
2017:
Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, “was appointed a National Deputy
Finance Chairman of the Republican National Committee” today.
2017:
In Cedar Rapids, a sad moment as the
community gathers for the funeral of Amy Barnum, wife of Joel Barnum,
mother of Emma (Sam), Sasha (Lance), Gail and grandmother of Dean and Henry. A
friend to so many – positive, upbeat woman of valor whose optimism was so
contagious.
https://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2017/Apr/Amy-M-Barnum/
2018(18th
of Nisan, 5778): Fourth Day of Pesach
2018:
A real simcha for friends and family of Dr. Elizabeth Levin as they celebrate
her natal day and acceptance into a prestigious fellowship program.
2018:
In New Orleans, Temple Sinai and the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans
are scheduled to cost a LGBTQ Interfaith Seder this evening.
2018:
In Jerusalem, The Tower of David is scheduled to host a performance “A Lion of
the Streets of Jerusalem”—a “story about Rabbi Aryeh.”
2018:
The Swann Auction Galleries is scheduled to a screening of selections from the
feature documentary Rosenwald, followed by a conversation with director Aviva
Kempner, hosted by Nigel Freeman.
2019:
Second anniversary of the funeral of Amy Barnum. Gone – but never forgotten
https://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2017/Apr/Amy-M-Barnum/
2019:
In Des Moines, IA, Ambassador Ron Dermer is scheduled to “deliver an address to
the Jewish Community.” (Editor’s note – Will he tell the non-Orthodox attendees
while Israel does not recognize the validity of the Judaism or explain why
those who have a non-Orthodox convert in their family tree are not Jews.)
2019:
In London, the Jewish Museum is scheduled to host a curator’s tour of its
newest exhibition “Jews, Money, Myth.”
2019(27th
of Adar II, 5779): Seventy-seven year old New Heaven, CT native and Belz School
of Jewish Music graduate Sherwood,
Sherwood Goffin, the long-time cantor at the Lincoln Square Synagogue
and faculty member at Yeshiva University’s Belz School of Music who raised
three children with his wife Batya, passed away today.(As reported by Benjamin
Koslowe)
http://sherwoodgoffin.com/about-me/cantorial-biography
2019:
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host Holocaust
survivor David Bayer as part of its “First Person Series.”
2019:
As The Kinneret experienced record rises in the last few days, the forecast for
today calls for local rains in the afternoon which will “mostly” in the
southern part of the country
2019:
The Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to present “Israel and Eurovision
1973-2019: “featuring Israeli singers Ariella Edv and Omer Shaish” in a concert
that “celebrates Israel’s participation in Europe’s iconic song competition.”
2019:
The Jewish Study Center and Adas Israel are scheduled to a lecture by “Karin
Olofsdotter, Sweden’s Ambassador to the United Sates” on “The Work Must Be
Done: Raoul Wallenberg’s Mission to Rescue Hungary’s Jews.”
2019:
David R. Levin, is button-busting proud to be celebrating the birthday of his
accomplished daughter Elizabeth.
2020(9th
of Nisan, 5780): On the Hebrew calendar, Yahrtzeit of the fifty-seven Jews
killed in Bury St. Edmunds, England during the reign of King Richard I.
(Abraham P. Bloch)
2020:
Rabbi Heath Watenmaker of Beth Am in Los Altos offers stories, a bedtime Shema
and Shabbat blessings for kids on Zoom or by phone. Zoom requires registration.
2020:
In a virtual presentation on “Was Christopher Columbus Jewish” Jason Harris is
scheduled to look at the circumstantial evidence surrounding this including the
fact so many Jews were involved in his voyage.
2020:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host Abigail Pogrebin’s virtual lecture on
“How to Guarantee and Un-Boring Passover.”
2020:
As they prepare for Shabbat, residents of Kiryat Joel deal with competing
claims by their village officials and Dr. Zev Zelenko, who claims to have found
a treatment for coronavirus, on just how many sick people there are and the
validity of his claims
2021(21st
of Nisan): Seventh Day of Pesach and Shabbat
2021:
The JCC of Greater Boston is scheduled to present online, the first in a series
of session on “Wudang 13 Tai Chi Movement Form.”
2021:
Yamina Chairman Naftali Bennett is scheduled to meet with both Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid today or tomorrow as Israeli
political leaders try to avoid a fifth election in two years.
2021:
In Tel Aviv-Yafo, Chabad on the Coast is scheduled to host The Freedom Feast
this evening.
2022:
In San Francisco, the
“Jewish Baby Network and Rabbi Katie Mizrahi of Or Shalom Jewish Community are
scheduled to host Matzah Baby Boogie, a Passover celebration with songs,
crafts, dancing, snacking and shmoozing.”
2022:
The National Library of Israel is scheduled to host online Dr. Bishara Ebeid
lecturing on the “House of Wisdom: Ameeting place for Christian, Jewish and
Muslim Scholars and Thinkers in the Abbasid Golden Age.”
2022:
At Beth Tikvah in Toronto, Canadian-Israeli award-winning author and journalist Matti
Friedman is scheduled “to launch his newest book Who By Fire: War, Atonement
and the Resurrection of Leonard Cohen.
2022:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host online “The Rabbi of
Buchenwald: A Conversation With Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter and Dr. Rafael Medoff”
during which Rabbi Schacter will discuss the role his father Rabbi Herschel
Schacter “a chaplain in the unit that liberated Buchenwald “immersed himself in
the world the Survivors and helped them rebuild their shattered lives.”
2022:
The New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to begin today.
2022:
As Jews begin serious preparation for Pesach, friends and family of Elizabeth
Levin, the daughter of David Levin celebrate her natal day.
2022:
Dayton Hadassah is scheduled to join The Jewish Museum of Florida, as they
present a virtual curator-led exhibition tour of “Hello Gorgeous," an “eclectic exhibition of costumes, photos,
videos,
record
album covers, and other objects, celebrates the life and work of Barbra
Streisand. “
2022:
San Francisco Congregation Beth Sholom is scheduled to continue its centennial
celebration with a talk about its 13-year-old campus and building, its unique
design, and the costs and decisions behind it.
2022:
Guitarist Gilad Hekselman weeks-long residency at the legendary Village
Vanguard with a stellar band feat. pianist Shai Maestro, bassist Larry
Grenadier & drummer Eric Harland during which they'll be celebrating the
release of Gilad's 10th album 'Far Star' is scheduled to come to an end today.
2022: The New York Times features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Scoundrel:
How a
Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative
Establishment and the Courts to Set Him Free by Sarah Weinman.
2023:
In Coralville, IA, Congregation Agudas Achim is scheduled to host a pre-Pesach
Pizza Party.
2023:
The Jewish Federations are scheduled to co-present “Passover Partnership Toast”
during “new Olim and immigrants from for
Soviet countries” tell their personal
exodus stories.
2023:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present “Sephardic Culinary
History with Chef Hélène Jawhara-Piñer”
2023:
YIVO is scheduled to present Sarah Abrevaya Stern and Professor David Biale
discussing his new anthology Jewish Culture Between Canon and Heresy.
2023:
TriBeCa Synagogue is scheduled to host the second day of the Mexican Jewish
Film Festival 2023.
2023:
As a result of yesterday’s decision by the cabinet, as of today Israel ill have
a national guard under the command of
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir funded by “major budget cuts across
all ministries.” (As reported by Michael Bachner)
