This Day, April 21, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
April 21
753
BCE: According to tradition, on this date Romulus and Remus founded Rome. Considering the impact that Rome would have
on the Jewish people this date is worth noting.
586:
Ricard I became King the Visigoth King of Hispania.&n…
April 21
753
BCE: According to tradition, on this date Romulus and Remus founded Rome. Considering the impact that Rome would have
on the Jewish people this date is worth noting.
586:
Ricard I became King the Visigoth King of Hispania. “A year later converted from Arianism to Catholicism,
which changed the nature of life in Iberia in the same way that Constantine's
conversion had changed things in the Roman Empire. Recared approved the Third
Council of Toledo's move in 589 to forcibly baptize the children of mixed
marriages between Jews and Christians. Toledo III also forbade Jews from holding
public office, from having intercourse with Christian women, and from
performing circumcisions on slaves or Christians. Still, Recared was not
entirely successful in his campaigns: not all Visigoth Arians had converted to
Catholicism; the unconverted were true allies of the Jews, oppressed like
themselves, and Jews received some protection from Arian bishops and the
independent Visigothic nobility.”
629:
Emperor Heraclius marched into Jerusalem at the head of his army. Heraclius was
head of the Eastern Roman Empire. During the fifth and sixth centuries
the Christian rulers tried to make life for Jews in Palestine as difficult as
possible. Heraclius was defeated by the Persians and the Jews sided with
the Persians who were viewed as liberators. The joy was short lived as
the Christians re-took the land from the Persians and punished the Jews
severely. Ultimately all of this matter very little since the Arabs would
soon appear in Palestine and Islam would become the dominate force.
1073:
Pope Alexander II passed away. In 1063, Pope Alexander II had given his
blessing to Iberian Christians in their wars against the Muslims, granting both
a papal standard and an indulgence to those who were killed in battle. This was
another act in the battle between Moslems and Christians for control of
Spain. The Jews were caught in the
middle and their fortunes fluctuated over the centuries. In hindsight, this was really just one more
step in the long path that led to the expulsion in 1492.
1142:
Theologian and philosopher Peter Abelard “who had written dialogues that, while
insisting that Christianity was superior to Judaism showed scholarly respect
for Jewish sources.”
1481(13th
of Iyar, 5241): Jews of Seville burned at the stake
1499:
The New Christians, including those who had been forcibly baptized, are
forbidden to leave Portugal.
1500:
Today “seaweed was spotted by sailors serving in the fleet under the command of
Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral who was accompanied by Gaspar da Gama,
a Polish born Jew whose slave name had been Yusuf ‘Adil before being forcibly
converted to Christianity, which led them to believe they were near land.
1506:
Three days of anti-Semitic rioting ends in Lisbon, Portugal where two thousand
Jews were killed by the mobs.
1509:
Henry VII, King of England passed away.
Henry negotiated the marriage between his son, the Catherine of Aragon,
daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain (the monarchs who had expelled the
Jews from Spain). One of the terms of
the marriage was that the Jews would never be allowed to return to
England. If Henry had not agreed to this
term, the marriage would not have taken place.
1564 Thomas Lorkin the father-in-law of Edward
Lively, the Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge and considered “the greatest
of Hebraist, was created Regius Professor of Physic.”
1574:
Fifty-four year old Cosimo de’ Medici whose record regarding the Jews was a
mixed bag passed away today. On the one hand in “1551 he had issued an
invitation to merchants from the Levant, including Jews, to settle in Tuscany
and do business there and in 1557 he gave asylum to Jewish refugees from the
Papal States while refusing to implement the anti-Jewish restrictions issued by
Pope Paul IV “or to hand over the Jews to the Inquisition. On the other hand, “he yielded to Papal
pressure” ordering the burning of the Talmud and “rigorously applying the
requirement the Jews wear the distinctive ‘Jews Badge.’” (Jewish Virtual
Library)
1585(22nd of Nisan, 5345):
Sixteenth century Salonica born Rabbi Moses ben Joseph di Trani (Mabit) passed
away in Safed.
http://www.zissil.com/topics/Rabbi-Moshe-ben-Yosef-di-Trani
1619: Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz, who was born at Lenczyk in 1550 and
who studied with Solomon Luria in Lublin before being appointed rabbi of Prague
in 1604 passed away today
1649: The Toleration Act was
passed by the Maryland Assembly. It protected Roman Catholics within the
American colony against Protestant harassment, which had been rising as Oliver
Cromwell's power in England increased.
Maryland had been founded under the Catholic Calvert family. They were trying to create a refuge for
English Catholics. The Jews benefited
from what was a clash between different branches of Christianity.
1729: Birthdate of Catherine the Great,
Tsarina of Russia from 1762 to 1796.
Under Catherine, Russia took part in the three-way partition of Poland
which gave Russia its large Jewish population.
At first, her treatment of her new Jewish subjects was fairly
tolerant. She saw them as an economic
asset. But in her later years she
succumbed to the demands of Christian merchants and began to tighten the noose
around the neck of the Jews. In the end,
she laid the groundwork for the creation of what came to be known as The Pale
of Settlement.
1767(22nd of Nisan, 5527):
Eighth Day of Pesach
1769(14th of Nisan, 5529:
Ta’anit Bechorot; erev Pesach
1769: The group of Spanish soldiers and
priests continues their northward trek towards California bring the Inquisition
to the Pacific Coasts.
1772(18th of Nisan, 5532):
Fourth Day of Pesach observed on the same day as the Yahrzeit of Rabbi Meir
Abulfaya, Ha Levi who passed away in 1244 observed.
1775(21st of Nisan, 5535):
Seventh Day of Pesach
1775: Rebel forces, now serving under
General Artemas Ward, began to extend their lines around Boston in what would
become the eleven month siege of Boston.
1778: In Savannah, GA, Sarah De La Motta
and Levi Sheftall who were married in 1768 at St. Croix, the bride’s home
island, gave birth to Rachel Sheftall.
1783(19th of Nisan 5543):
Fifth Day of Pesach
1787: In Georgetown, SC, Bella Moses and
Samuel Cohen who had been wed in 1786 in the bride’s hometown of Charleston
gave birth to Divinah Cohen, the wife of Isaac Minis with whom she had sixteen
children.
1791(17th of Nisan, 5551):
Third Day of Pesach
1797: Birthdate of Joseph Defflis who
passed away at the age of 13 months after which he was buried at the Bray
Street Jewish Cemetery.
1799(16th of Nissan, 5559):
Second Day of Pesach
1799: Having defeated an Ottoman Army
five days ago, French forces continued their siege of Acre while waiting for
field guns that could breach the walls.
1800: In Amsterdam, Eva Gompertz and
Abraham Benjamin Cohen gave birth to Charles Cohen.
1805(22nd of Nisan, 5565):
Eighth Day of Pesach; Yizkor
1805: Birthdate of Sir Culling Eardley
Eardley, 3rd baronet, a Christian evangelical who was, on his mother’s side of
the family, the great-grandson of Jewish financier Sampson Gideon and a
financial support of the Jaffa-Jerusalem railway.
1808: The name of Raphael Bischoffsheim was included on a
list dated today that “included…the twenty-five foremost Jews” in the city of
Mayence. The authorities were to chose the representatives for Napoleon’s
Sanhedrin from the names on that list.
Born in 1773, at Bischofsheim-on-the-Tauber, he went to Mayence during
the French Revolution, and from a small merchant became a purveyor to the army.
Bischoffsheim was president of the Jewish community of Mayence prior to his
death in 1814.
1813(21st of Nisan, 5573):
Seventh Day of Pesach
1813(21st of Nisan, 5573):
Pinkus Landau, the Polish born son of Wolf and Estera Landau, the husband of
Rozla Landau and the father of Icek Lanau passed away today.
1814: Birthdate of Brigitte Simon, the
husband of Hartvig Abraham Von Essen the mother of Ferdinand and Ida Frederikke
Von Essen.
1818(15th of Nisan, 5578):
Pesach
1821(19th of Nisan, 5581):
Shabbat shel Pesach
1821(19th of Nisan, 5581):
Frances Lazarus, the wife Ezekiel Hart the Canadian Jewish businessman and
political leader whom she married in 1794 passed away today at Trois-Rivieres.
1822(30th of Nisan, 5582):
Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1822: Abraham ben Simon married Beila
bat Simhah HaLevi at the Western Synagogue.
1822: Two days after he had passed away
Abrahm Hart, the father of Hyman Hart, was buried today at the “Lauriston Road
Jewish Cemetery.”
1823: At “Old Change, Cheapside,” Rose
and Barnet Salomons gave birth to Julia Salomons who passed away two months
after her third birthday.
1826(14th of Nisan, 5585):
Ta’anit Bechorot; erev Pesach
1827: Esther Gabriel Nunes Da Costa and
Jacob Samuel Suhami gave birth to Rachel Jacob Suhami.
1833: In London James Graham Lewis and
his wife gave birth to George Lewis who would become a successful lawyer known
to posterity as Sir George Henry Lewis, 1st Baronet, whose first
wife Victorine Kahn, the daughter of Philip Kahn of Frankfort, passed away his
32nd birthday after which he married Elizabeth Eberstadt, the
daughter of Ferdinand Eberstadt of Manheim Germany.
1835(22nd of Nisan, 5595):
Eighth Day of Pesach; Yizkor
1836: Three days after he had passed
away, 7 year old John Cohen, the son of Isaac and Sara Cohen was buried today
at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1836: Texans under the command of
General Sam Houston defeated the Mexican Army at the Battle of San Jacinto
which resulted in Mexican recognition of the Republic of Texas. Among the Jews
who served with Houston was Dr. Albert Moses Levy, the Surgeon in Chief for
this fledgling force. Adolphus Sterne was
a friend of Houston from their days in Tennessee and he helped raise funds for
the Texans.
1840(18th of Nisan, 5600):
Fourth Day of Pesach
1840: Birthdate of Asher (Arthurd)
Simhah Weissmann, the native of Galicia who served as director of two different
Jewish schools before settling in Vienna where he pursued a literary career
that included workds on “cremation according to the Bible and Talmud” and “the
canonization of the of the Books of the TaNach.”
1843(21st of Nisan, 5603):
Seventh Day of Pesach
1843: Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, the sixth son of George III
(the one who lost the 13 colonies) who “became a Patron of the Jews'
Hospital and Orphan Asylum, later to become the charity known as Norwood” and
who supported legislation to remove “the civil liabilities of Jews” passed away
today.
1845(14th
of Nisan, 5605): Fast of the First Born and erev Pesach
1846: Formation of the United Order of
True Sisters
1848(18th of Nisan, 5608):
Fourth Day of Pesach observed on the birthdate of Carl Stumpf, the psychologist
and musicologist whose students included Wolgang Kohler who protested again the
dismissal of Jewish professors during the Nazi regime and Kurt Lewin
1849: In Paris, of Nathé Weil and Adèle
Weil gave birth to Jeanne Clemence Weil who became Jeanne Clemence Proust when
she married Dr. Adrien Proust with whom she had two children, Marcel Proust and
Robert Proust.
1851(19th of Nisan, 5611):
Fifth Day of Pesach
1853: In London, Ann Davis and Solomon
Hyman Cohen gave birth to Louisa Cohen
1856(16th of Nisan, 5616): On
the same day Jews observed the Second Day of Pesach, in Melbourne, “building
workers agitated for the eight-hour day.”
1858: As of this date, records show that the Association for the Free
Distribution of Matzos to the Poor had spent a grand total of $691.87 to ensure
that indigent Jews would have unleavened bread to celebrate the recently
completed Passover holiday.
1860: In “From Southern Africa”
published today it was reported that “The Jews of the Cape had subscribed £183
for the benefit of their suffering brethren in Morocco. Where is the place in
the wide world to which the Jew does not penetrate?”
1860: A letter to the editor published
today from a former prizefighter recounts the history of pugilism in England
and the United. It included the following positive description of Jewish skill
in the ring. ‘”In spite of their muscle, their undoubted courage, and admitted
pugnacity, no Irishman has ever long held a distinguished place in the Ring.
The Jews, on the other hand, not famous for any of these qualities, have
always, from the days of Menodoza and Aby Belasco, had a good position, and
like their great countryman, Judas Maccabeus, have "made battles and been
renowned in the uttermost part of the earth." [Mendoza is the 18th
century British fighter Daniel Mendoza.
Belasco was a well-known fighter in “the post Mendoza era.”]
1861: It was reported today that in his
study of the synchronisms of ancient Assyrian and Egyptian History, Sir Henry
Rawlinson has discovered “the
first clear account of a conflict between the Egyptians and the Assyrians
occurs in the reign of Sargon, (B.C. 721- 702,) who was, as we know from the
Bible, the King who carried away the Jews captives from Samaria.”
1848(18th of Nisan, 5608):
Fourth Day of Pesach observed on the birthdate of Carl Stumpf, the psychologist
and musicologist whose students included Wolgang Kohler who protested again the
dismissal of Jewish professors during the Nazi regime and Kurt Lewin.
1863: Hooker finalized his plan of
attack. He hoped to fool the South into thinking that Fredericksburg was his
main target while moving three corps of troops against Lee’s left flank. 2000
mules were acquired by Hooker to speed up the movement of his army.
1864(15th
of Nisan, 5624); First day of Pesach
1864:
Today at Chicago Johanna Haas, the German born daughter Levy and Helena Haas became Johanna Haas Westheimer when she
married St. Joseph, MO merchant Samuel Westheimer after which she moved to St.
Joseph where she served as the treasurer of the Jewish Ladies’ Benevolent
Society of St. Joseph and raised eight children.
1864:
Isaac J. Levy, a Confederate Soldier serving with the 46th Virginia Infantry
participated in a Seder at Adams Run South Carolina. Levy would later admit that he was confused
as to the date of the start of the holiday.
(As an example of the confusion that can take place in reporting events,
Abraham Bloch described Levy as being a Union soldier)
1864:
Birthdate of Max Weber. Born in Germany, Weber was one of the fathers of modern
sociology. He was also a noted economist and historian. "Weber
was among those who believed that modern capitalism was the product of
religious notions, variously termed the Protestant work ethic and the Calvinist
salvation panic...He also believed that Jewish businessmen, like Calvinist
ones, tended to operate most successfully when they had left their traditional
religious environment." Obviously, some of his ideas are
open to debate based on historical evidence. But he was an intellectual
giant regardless of whether or not you agree with his theories. He passed
away in 1920.
1865(21st
of Nisan, 5625): Seventh Day of Pesach
1865(21st
of Nisan, 5626: The former Victorine Kahn, the daughter of Philip Kahn, the
wife of Sir George Henry Lewis and
mother of Alice Victorine Kahn, the wife of Abraham Lionel Hart, passed away
today on her husband’s thirty-second birthday.
1865:
In Albany, NY, the Argus published an account of Rabbi Max Schlesinger’s talk
at Temple Anshe Emeth expressing his feelings about the assassination of
President Lincoln and the decision of Congregation to hold services three times
on the day of Lincoln’s funeral, “first at 6 a.m. for morning prayers, at 10
a.m. for a sermon by Rabbi Gotthold and at 6 p.m. for evening prayers.”
1865(21st
of Nisan, 5625): Twenty-five year old Victorine Kann, the first wife of Sir
George Lewis died today shortly after having given birth to their daughter
Alice Victorine Lewis.
1866:
Birthdate of San Francisco native and University of California graduate Julius
Wangenheim, “a bridge engineer for the Southern Pacific Railroad and San Diego
wholesale grocer who was instrumental in developing Balboa Park and other civic
endeavors in San Diego.
https://www.sandiego.gov/public-library/locations/wangenheim/juliuswangenheim
https://pancalarchive.org/wangenheimjulius/
1866:
Birthdate of Prussian Army officer and American and German journalist Eduard
Golbeck, the husband of Lina Abarbanell, the German soprano who was a
descendent of Sephardic Jews from Bulgaria and the father-in-law of composer
Marc Blitzstein.
1868:
Birthdate of Bella (Epstein) Unterberg, the wife of philanthropist Israel
Unterberg who founded the Young Women’s Hebrew Association in her home in
September of 1902 passed away today.
https://jwa.org/media/ywha-bella-unterberg-still-image
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/young-womens-hebrew-association
https://www.jta.org/1935/12/12/archive/rites-held-for-mrs-unterberg-dead-at-67
1868:
Birthdate of Vilna native Rabbi Louis Lazerow, the “founder of Congregation
Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol on Rutgers Street in New York” and author of “32
religious works” including “The Voice of Judea” and “The Jewish Speaker” who
was the husband of “the former Sarah Kaplan” and the father of three daughters
and two sons – Samuel and Elihu, “a high school teacher in Brooklyn” passed
away today
1869:
In Rohrheim, Germany, Hirsh and Jette (Schloss) Gutman gave birth to Joseph
Guman who in 1884 came to New York where he founded Pacific Novelty Company, married
Emma A Haas and served as member of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropic
Society of New York City.
1870(20th
of Nisan, 5630): Sixth day of Pesach
1870:
Birthdate of University of North Carolina trained lawyer Angus W. McClean who
in 1926 while serving as Governor “issued a proclamation urging all the leaders
of public thought, non-Jews as well as Jews, throughout the State to volunteer
their services to help raise North Carolina’s quota of $200,000 which is the
state’s part in the national United Jewish Campaign.
1871(30th
of Nisan, 5631): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1871:
In New York, Bernard Werner and his wife gave birth to lithographer Simon
Werner, the Paris trained artist whose “drawings and illustrations” appeared in
many popular magazines including Harper’s and Ladies’ Home Journal and whose
paintings were “exhibited at the National Academy of Design.”
1875(16th
of Nisan, 5635): Second Day of Pesach
1878:
In Podrovnah, Russia, Rabbi Baruch Schneur and Zelda Rachel Schneerson gave
birth to Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, the father of the seventh and last
Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
https://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/117515/jewish/Biography-of-Rabbi-Levi-Yitzchak.htm
1880:
In New York, Matilde (de Perkiewicz) and Max Liebling gave birth to soprano Estelle
Liebling, one of the most influential teachers of singing in America
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/liebling-estelle
1880:
For the fiscal year that ended today, the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum had
receipts totaling a little more than $35,000 and had made expenditures of $12,
327.34.
1880:
In Prague, Barbara / Babette Bondy and Jakob Bondy gave birth to Bertha Fried
1880:
In New York City Matilde Perkiewicz and composer Max Liebling gave birth to
soprano Estelle Liebling, “one of the most influential teachers of singing in
America…”
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/liebling-estelle
1880:
Benjamin Disraeli completed his second and final term as Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom.
1881(22nd
of Nisan, 5641): 8th day of Pesach
1881:
John J. and Sophie Rosenthal gave birth to College of Pharmacy graduate Louis
J. Rosenthal the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore, MD trained
surgeon and husband of Beatrice L. Lauchheimer
who was an associate professor of proctology at the University of
Maryland and attending surgeon at Hebrew Hospital while also rising to the rank
of Lt. Col. in the United States Army Medical Corps during WWI where he saw
action in the Battle of Verdun and the Argonne Forest.
1881(22nd
of Nisan, 5641): “Jurist, publicist and scholar, Wolfgang Wessely who had been
born in Moravia in 1801 passed away today in Vienna.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Wessely_Wolfgang
1882:
Based on information first published in The Allegemeine
Zeitung, it was reported today that troops in the Russian city of Balte
joined in the plundering of the Jewish population instead of protecting it.
Forty Jews were injured in the riots, an unknown number of which later
died. A thousand homes were destroyed
and damage is estimated to be in excess of 4,500,000 rubles.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B01E0DB113EE433A25752C2A9629C94639FD7CF
1883:
Birthdate of Russian native Arnold K. Isreeli, the editor of newspapers in St.
Petersburg and Constantinople who in 1911 came to the United States where he
continued working as a newspaper editor before becoming the advertising manager
for General Motors and an active Zionist while raising a family with his wife,
“the former Sara Weitz Rubinstein.”
1883(14th
of Nisan, 5643): Shabbat HaGadol; Erev Pesach
1883:In
Birmingham, AL, the Phoenix Club, whose members who included M.V. Joseph and
Joe Slaughter which “meets the second Monday in April, July, October and
January, was foundedtoday.
1884:
In London, novelist Julia Davis who wrote under the pen name of Frank Danby and
Arthur Frankau, the Bavarian born son of Jewish merchant Joseph Frankau gave
birth to Conservative politician and novelist Gilbert Frankau who wrote for The
Wiper Times during WW I and who converted to the Anglican Church at the age of
13.
1884:
Three men were arrested tonight in Nashville, TN on charges that they took part
in the assault that left a Jewish citizen named Meyer Friedman beaten to death.
1884:
The Board of Estimate and Apportionment met today and awarded funds to a
variety of charitable institutions including the United Hebrew Charities of the
City of New York ($8,500), Mount Sinai
Hospital and Dispensary (4,250) and the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews
(1,820).
1884:
The New York Times reported on the plans being developed by the Jewish
community to celebrate the 100th birthday of Sir Moses Montefiore
which will take place in October.
Leaders of the community are calling for the establishment of Home for
Chronic Invalids named in the philanthropist’s honor. In addition to raising funds to construct the
building, the community will have to raise $20,000 a year to operate the home.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9900E7DB173FE533A25752C2A9629C94659FD7CF
1885:
In Romania. “Joseph and Yetta (Berman) Zingher gave birth to Cornell trained
physician and bacteriologist Abraham Zingher, the WW I Medical Corps Veteran
who died prematurely under unusual circumstances
1886:
It was reported today that oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller has gone to New York
to meet with those holding the mortgage on the University of Chicago. Rockefeller has taken an interest in creating
a course that will lead to solvency for the school provided that Professor H.L.
Harper would be named President of the school. Harper’s area of academic expertise
is the Hebrew language of which he is a professor. At this point in America, the only people
interested in Hebrew were a handful of Jews and academics teaching Biblical
topics at Protestant dominated colleges.
1886(16th
of Nisan, 5646): Second Day of Pesach; 1st day of the Omer
1889:
A report published today described the transformation of a German Jewish
intellectual named Emin Bey into Emin Pasha a Moslem leader ruling over a large
swath of central Africa. Much of the
information was supplied by Henry Stanley, the same man who “found” Dr.
Livingston.
1890(1st
of Iyar, 5650): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1890:
Lucie Hadamard, married Alfred Dreyfus.
1890:
Alfred Dreyfus is accepted at the Ecole Superiore de Guerre (Superior War
College), the prestigious French military school designed to train the elite
members of the French officer corps.
Dreyfus will graduate 9th in his class but his final
evaluation will be marred by the entries of an anti-Semitic French general.
1890:
Birthdate of Silesian native and decorated member of Austria’s World War I
Army, Benno Landsberger, a leading Assyriologist who like so many of his
generation had his career “interrupted by the rise of the Nazis
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcm4fww
1891:
Rosa Gombesky a young Russian Jewish immigrant who jumped from a fires-escape
to the street when the tenement at 194 Henry Street caught fire is being
treated at Gouverneur Hospital for the serious injuries she has suffered.
1892:
In New York City, Israel and Bella Epstein Unterbert gave birth to Doris
Epstein Unterberg who became Dore Epstein Unterberg Powell when she married
Milton J. Powell.
1892:
“A Moorish Jew, Joseph MIzrachee” was sentenced to 10 years for shooting Henry
Pereira Mendes, the rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel.
1892:
“Typhus Among the Russian Jews” published today described efforts by the
Germans from preventing infected Russians from crossing the border.
1893:
The Austrian Premier has informed the American government that it will not
grant diplomatic recognition to Max Judd, the St. Louis Jew, whom President
Grover Cleveland appointed as Counsel General for the United States at Vienna.
1893:
“Jewish Ministers Aroused” published today described the action being taken by
Christian organizations to convert Jews and the response of the Jewish
community including that of Temple Beth Israel’s Rabbi Lustiwig who said “The
trouble is that we have provided sufficient instruction for our people in the
Jewish faith. The introduction of Friday night and Sunday night lectures to
take the pace of Saturday services has done no good to Judaism. While it may be well enough to have lectures
at other times than Saturdays, we should above all other things observe
Saturday and all of our synagogues should be supplied with minsters who will
impress upon the people the importance of Bible subjects.” (Editor’s note –
This was from a reform rabbi at a Reform Temple)
1894(15th
of Nisan, 5654): Pesach
1894(15th
of Nisan, 5654): Twenty-four year old Jessie Fraley, the son of Moses and Rose
Harsch Fraley and the brother of Sadie and Edward Fraley passed away today
after which he was buried at the New Mount Sinai Cemetery and Mausoleum in
Afton, MO.
1894:
Today as Jews munch on their matzah the bituminous coal strike that had come
during the four year-long Panic of 1893 came to an end and Norway formally
adopted the Krag–Jørgensen bolt-action rifle as the main arm of its armed
forces, a weapon that would remain in service for almost 50 years
1895:
Professor Felix Adler delivered a lecture on “The Ten Commandments: at Carnegie
Hall” this morning
1895:
“The Trustees of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, which is controlled by the Hebrew
Benevolent Society, held their annual meeting” this morning.
1895:
“Care of Hebrew Orphans” published today described the origins and growth of
Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum which opened its doors fifteen years ago.
1895:
Birthdate of Alexander Raymond Katz, the Hungarian born “painter and muralist’
who in 1910 came to the United States where he studied at the Art Institute in
Chicago and gained fame as being “among the first Jewish artists to receive the
approval of Orthodox rabbis for his interpretive handling of such subjects as
the Ten Commandments” while raising two children, Joan and Donald, with his
wife “the former Elsie Engel.”
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/alexander-raymond-katz-shabbat
1896(7th
of Iyar, 5656): Baron Maurice de Hirsch passed away at his estate in Pressburg,
Hungary. While the name of Baron Hirsch
may be unfamiliar to many living in the 21st century, he was one of
the great philanthropists his time. The
Baron (and he really was a Baron) was part of an established, extremely wealthy
family. The Baron funded a variety of
charities many of which were designed to provide relief for the sufferings Jews
of Russia and Eastern Europe. He donated
great sums to establish agricultural communities in North and South America
including Argentina, Canada and rural areas of the United States.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Baronhirsch.html
1896:
Oscar S. Straus, who had served as U.S. Minister to Turkey told a reporter from
the New York Times that “It was my good fortune to enjoy the personal
acquaintance of Baron de Hirsch and my recollections of him, while tinged with
sorrow at his sudden death, are of the pleasantest kind.
1896:
Léon Say, who had worked on the on the Northern Railway Company which was owned
by his friend Alphonse de Rothschild and who had supported Rothschild’s fight
to maintain bimetallism while serving as Minister of Finance passed away today.
1897(19th
of Nisan, 5657): Fifth Day of Pesach
1897:
Three days after war broke between the Ottoman Empire, today the Jews of
Salonika which was still a part of the Ottoman domain munched on their Matzah,
heavy fighting began in Thessaly
1898: As the United States and
Spain drifted into war after the sinking of the Maine, “Spain severed
diplomatic relations with the United States and the U.S. Navy began a blockade
of Cuba.” Fifteen of the sailors who died on the Battleship Maine were
Jewish. Approximately 5,000 Jews served
as volunteers in the military during the war.
A sixteen year old Jewish trooper was the first casualty among Teddy
Roosevelt’s Rough Riders
1899: “Dreyfus Case Evidence” published today summarized the 24
columns of coverage The Figaro devoted to the coverage of “testimony offered
before the Court of Cassation in the Dreyfus revision inquiry” including the
statement by Major Forzinetti who was the Director of the Chereche-Midi Prison
in 1894 that “Dreyfus consistently and persistently protested his innocence”
and declared “that his only crime was in having been born a Jew.”
1900(22nd of Nisan, 5660): Eighth Day of Pesach and
Shabbat; Yizkor recited for the first time in the 20th century.
1900: It was reported today that Cobwebs “the famous Chestnut
gelding” driven by Nathan Straus was
in prime condition” but was carrying “a trifle too much flesh for speeding”
when last seen at “the Speedway.”
1901” “The Jewish King Lear,” published described plans for “a
performance of the Jewish ‘King Lear’ and his company which will be give at the
People’s Theatre…for the benefact of the Seward Park Playground.”
1902(14th of Nisan, 5662): Ta’anit Bechorot; Erev
Pesach
1902: In New York, as Jews sit down to their Seders, they do not
have to worry about being able to buy supplies during the hoiday because Mayor
Low has told the authorities not to enforce the Sunday closing laws during the
holiday.
1903: Herzl arrived in London as he continued to his quest to get
support from leading British political leaders and prominent English Jews for a
Jewish homeland.
1904: “The resolution by Representative Goldfogle of New York to
secure the recognition of United States passports when presented by American
citizens in Russia without regard to their religious faith was adopted by the
House to-day without dissent, having been unanimously recommended by the
Foreign Affairs Committee.”
1905(16th of Nisan, 5665): Second Day of Pesach
1905(16th of Nisan, 5665): Meyer
Kayserling a German-born rabbi who held pulpits in Switzerland and Hungary
passed away in Budapest. Born in 1829, Kayersling was a noted historian and
prolific author.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Kayserling_Meir
1906(26th of Nisan, 5666):Parashat Shmini
1906: In Moscow, at the Congress of Monarchists publisher Valdimir
Gringmuth…”declared that ‘Holy Russia’ must be saved from the Revolutions”
whose “chief conspirators” include “Jewish rabbis.”
1907: Birthdate of Zuromin, Poland native and Hebrew scholar
Elchanan Indelman who in 1947 came to the United States where he continued to
write Hebrew and Yiddish poetry while raising his two daughter Alta and Esther
with his wife Leah.
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/28/obituaries/elchanan-indelman.html
1907: The invitations to the wedding of Abram Bijur and Angelita
Wertheim which was to have taken place tomorrow were “withdrawn today” because
Isaac Bijur, the father of the bridegroom” had died of apoplexy yesterday.
1908: Birthdate of Berlin native Alfred Loew who gained fame as
the American record executive and co-founder
with Max Margulis of Blue Note
Records
https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=112
1909(30th of Nisan, 5669): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1909(30th of Nisan, 5669): Eighty year old Edward
Salomon, the 8th governor of the state of Wisconsin passed away
today.
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=5243
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&keyword=Edward+Salomon&term_id=2686
1910(12th of Nisan, 5670): Ta’anit Bechorot
1910: Tonight, Reverend Thomas M. Chalmers of the Jewish
Evangelical Society of New York City refused to discuss the Mayor’s rejection
of his request “for a license to preach for the conversion of Jews to
Christianity…in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn.”
1911: In New York City, cigar maker Barnett Hart and the former
Lillian Solomon gave birth to producer and stage manager Bernard Hart, the
younger brother of playwright Moss Hart.
1911: Birthdate of Bronx born Leonard Warenoff, the son of Russian
Jewish immigrants who gained fame as Leonard Warren, a leading baritone with
the Met who died suddenly while singing with his Richard Tucker another of the
Jewish immigrants who was a giant in the world of opera.
https://operawire.com/artist-profile-baritone-leonard-warren-legendary-verdi-interpreter/
1912: “The year-old Wager Earners’ League for Woman Suffrage”
whose co-founders included Clara Lemlich and Rose Schneiderman “held its first
mass rally today at New York’s Cooper Union’s Great Hall of the People.”
1912: Rabbi Stephen Wise, assisted by Rabbi Emil Hirsch of
Chicago, is scheduled to lead a memorial service at Carnegie Hall this morning
honoring those who lost their lives when the Titanic sank.
1912: In Minneapolis, “Isadore and Molly (Edelman) Davis” gave
birth to University of Minnesota trained attorney and WW II veteran Julius E.
Davis, the husband of Lillian Stacia Kropman and father of Lawrence and Stephen
Davis.
1912: In speaking about the sinking of the Titanic, Rabbi Joseph
Silverman says, “"Not God was responsible for this great disaster but the
imperfection of human knowledge and judgment."
1913: Tonight, Reverend Thomas M. Chalmers of the Jewish
Evangelical Society refused to comment on his application “for a license to
preach for the conversion of Jews to Christianity” on street corners in the
sections of Manhattan, Brownsville and Brooklyn that have large Jewish
populations or on Mayor William J. Gaynor’s letter rejecting his request. In his letter rejecting the petition Gaynor
wrote, “Do you not think the Jews have a good religion? Have not the Christians appropriated the
entire Jewish sacred scriptures? Was not
the New Testament also written entirely written by Jews? Was not Jesus also born of the Jewish race,
if I may speak of it with due reverence?
Did not we Christians get much or the most of what we have from the
Jews? Why should anyone work so hard to
proselytize the Jew? His pure belief in
the one true living God …is one of the unbroken lineages and traditions of the
world. I do not think I should give you
a license to preach for the conversion of the Jews in the streets in the
thickly settled Jewish neighborhoods which you designate. Would you not annoy them and do more harm
than good?” Gaynor had studied in a seminary as a young man. He was a pillar of the community who
surprised everybody by standing up to the corruption of Tammany Hall.
1913(14th of Nisan, 5673):
Fast of the First Born
1913:
“Feast of Passover Begins This Evening” published in the New York Times
reports that “at sunset this evening, the celebration
of Pesach, the Feast of the Passover, will begin in the Jewish households
throughout the world. Pesach is the Spring festival of the Jews and was
specially ordained to commemorate the providential deliverance of the children
of Israel from the bondage in which they had been held for many years under the
Pharaohs of Egypt.”
1913(14th of Nisan, 5673): The Young Men’s Hebrew Association will
be holding a seder tonight beginning at 7 o’clock which will be attended by
many of the soldiers and sailors stationed at nearby forts and naval yards.
1913(14th of Nisan, 5673): Sixty-nine year old Isaac Aronwitz was
the youngest person and 109 year old Ettel Polansky was the oldest person at
the seder held at the Home of the Daughters of Jacob on East Broadway.
1914: The second annual track and field championships of the
Metropolitan League of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association to plan tonight at
the 69th Regiment armory where Edward Lindebaum failed to break the
world’s record for the 35 foot rope climb.
1914: Gompers (as in Samuel Gompers) versus the United States is
reargued for the second and final day today before the U.S. Supreme Court.
1915: “Professor David G. Lyon of Harvard University gave an
illustrated lecture on ‘The Samarian Excavations’ at the Menorah Society of
Brown University.
1915(7th of Iyar, 5675): Eighty-one year old Abraham
Berliner who served as professor of Jewish history and literature at Israel
Hildesheimer’s Yeshiva in Berlin while publishing an acclaimed edition of
Rashi’s commentary on the Pentateuch and bringing new life to the Mikitze
Nirdamin, “a society for the publication of old Hebrew books and manuscripts
that were either never published or long out of print” passed away today.
1915: In London, Sarah and Abraham Goodman Jacobs gave birth to
Henry Jacobs
1915: Seventy Jews from Palestine
arrived in Alexandria. They described the conditions in Jerusalem as terrible,
with many people dying from starvation. An eyewitness account from the village
of Mea She’arim in Jerusalem tells of the conditions:
"My
God…I never imagined that such wretched poverty really exists and that there
really are such dark and filthy corners…. old men and women bloated with
hunger. Children with an expression of horror, the devastation of hunger written
on their faces…" This is an example of how the fate of the Jewish homeland
was tied up in the game of international power politics. Palestine was part of the Turkish Empire. The Turks were at war with the Allies
including the British who sought to take Palestine as a way to defend the Suez
Canal; the French who wanted colonies in that part of the Turkish Empire that
is now Syria and Lebanon; and the Russians who wanted to take control of the
Dardanelles and the Black Sea away from the Turks. A large percentage of the
Jewish population in Palestine had Russian origins. While many of the Jews in Palestine were
willing to fight on the side of the Turks, the Turks viewed the Jews as
Russians or English sympathizers. There
was more than a little truth to the Turkish view of things. At any rate, as the war dragged on, the Turks
worked to make life miserable for the Jews and the Jews became more sympathetic
to the Allied cause.
1916(18th of Nisan, 5676): Fourth Day of
Pesach
1916: Dr. S. M. Melamed said today that The American Jewish Chronicle, a soon to
published new publication, said today it “would not in any sense be pro-German,
but that it would give all the news of Jewry without reference to race or
religious differences.”
1916: It was reported today that one women in Kansas
City have each pledged “to donate a dollar a month to the Women’s Division of
the Central Jewish Relief Committee” for as longs the World War lasts.
1916: Today, in New York, “County Clerk Schneider
received a letter from Louis Schaffer, manager of the Naturalization Aid
League” in which he wrote “Permit us to thank you for the very splendid
arrangements your office made for the Passover week in order to accommodate the
hundreds of Jews in this city who applied for naturalization papers.”
1917(29th of Nisan, 5677): Parashat
Shmini
1917: Rabbi M.H. Harris is scheduled to deliver a
sermon on “The Work That Is Blessed” at Temple of Israel Harlem.
1917: Dr. Enelow is scheduled to deliver a sermon on
“God’s Dwelling Place” at Temple Emanu-El
1917: Birthdate of Emanuel Vardi. Born in Jerusalem Israel, Vardi became a world-class
violist who was featured with the San Diego Symphony from 1978 to 1982.
1917:
In a memorandum bearing today’s date (April 21, 1917) Lord Cecil, who was
deputizing for Lord Balfour as Foreign Secretary during the Balfour Mission to
America, wrote that:
‘I
quite recognize the very great difficult of carrying out the Zionist policy
involving as it does a strong preference for a British protectorate over
Palestine. That seems to me to make it the more desirable to get France to join
us in an expression of sympathy for Jewish Nationalist aspirations.’”
1917:
A report published today from the Central Committee of the Bund in St.
Petersburg concluded by saying “With one blow the Russian revolution has
conquered Czarism, abolished all restrictions and opened a new page in Jewish
history. The liberation of the Jewish
nation is in the faithful hands of the revolutionary Russian nation.”
1918(9th
of Iyar, 5678): Lt. Frederick Adolphus Arron who had attended Uppingham and
then Cambridge before enlisting died today while serving with the Royal Field
Artillery.
1918:
World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as "The Red
Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France. Despite
rumors to the contrary, the Red Baron was not Jewish. According to film based on his life, one of
his close friends was a Jewish pilot named Friedrich Sternberg who was shot
down and killed during the war. This
would have made Sternberg one of over a hundred pilots who flew for the Kaiser
during the Great War. Ironically, Richtofen’s death would result in Herman
Goering, the future Nazi Number Two and head of the Luftwaffe, taking command
of what was left of the famed Flying Circus.
1918:
Dr. Schulman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The War and American Ideals”
at Temple Bethel.
1918:
Dr. Isaac Alcalay, the Chief Rabbi of Serbia, is scheduled to deliver a talk on
“The Jews of Serbia and of the Allied Countries” at Temple Emanu-El.
1918:
At the Free Synagogue in Carnegie Hall, Dr. Wise is scheduled to speak on “Why
the World’s Woe, Where the World’s Comfort? The Answer of Job.”
1918:
Dr. Lissman is scheduled to serve as the Master of Ceremonies at the installation
ceremony of Maxwell Sacks as Rabbi at Temple Israel of Washington Heights
1918:
Birthdate of Stephen Theodore Norman, the only grandchild of Theodore Herzl.
1919(21st
of Nisan, 5679): Seventh Day of Pesach
1919:
In New York, the East Side is expected “secure $100,000,000 in subscriptions
during the Victory Liberty Loan campaign opening today.
1919:
Professor William E. Dodd of the University of Chicago History Department is
scheduled to discuss “The Value of the League of Nations” during an open forum
at the Sinai Social Center in Chicago.
1920: One of two dates in FSB archives for the death of Alexander
Dubrovin, the founder of the anti-Semitic journal Russkoye Znamya who
helped organized “the pogroms of the Black Hundreds.”
1920(3rd
of Iyar, 5680): Seventy-eight year old Silesian born American artist Henry
Mosler best known for his illustrations and the paintings of the Civil War
passed away today in New York City.
http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=3435
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=940CE4D9133FE432A25751C2A9629C946195D6CF
1921:
“The Keren Yaseod Bureau was open for the first time” today “at 50 Union Square
and it was filled all day with Jews offering their saving the” Zionist cause
“in which they believe.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/04/22/issue.html
1921:
As the government in New York State moved to enforce the prohibition laws,
First Deputy Police Commissioner Johan A Leach “received a call this afternoon
from a delegation of rabies who said they were short of wines for Passover”
which begins tomorrow evening.
1922:
Final publication of The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger.
1922(23rd
of Nisan, 5682): Seventy year old Philadelphia pawnbroker Abraham Henry Marcus
the husband of Sophia Marcus and father of Bertha, Retta and Henry Marcus, the
vaudevillian and “Pulp publisher” passed away today.
1923(5th
of Iyar, 5683): Parashat Tazria-Metzora
1923:
“Forty Jewish students were seriously wounded to in clashes with Rumanian
students on the grounds of the University of Bucharest, despite the posting of
military guards to prevent a recurrence of the disorders which started” on
April 20.
1924(17th
of Nisan, 5684): Third Day of Pesach
1924:
In Berlin, Johanna (Marcuse) Rothman and Max Rothman gave birth to Hans
Rothman, who gained fame as John Rothman, the developer of the New York Times
Information Bank, “a revolutionary system “that let computer users easily find
journalism by The Times and dozens of other publications” and who raised two
children with his Gertrude (Ullman) Rotham. (As reported by Richard Sandomir)
1924:
In Berlin, Hanna Wiernik and Egon Gluecksman gave birth to Syracuse alum and
Cornell trained attorney J.D. (Joe Dave) Gluecksman, the WW II veteran who
settled in Los Angeles.
1924: Birthdate of MGM executive Daniel
Melnick, who was producer of the television comedy hit, Get Smart
1925: In Vienna, Leontine and Moses Pollak, who perished during
the Holocaust gave birth to Siegfried Pollak who survived thanks to the
Kindertransport program and who gained fame as Sidney Pollard, the “British
economic and labor historian and Professor at the University of Sheffield” who
“pioneered the study of the role of economic management in the process of
industrilialization.”
1925: In Little Rock, AR, Jesse Heiman and his wife gave birth to
Max Adolph Heiman, the brother of Rose Heiman and Robert Jesse Heiman.
1926: Zeta Beta Tau fraternity announced today that “Rabbi Stephen
S. Wise has been awarded the Gottheil medal ‘for distinguished service to the
cause of Judaism.
1926: In Manhattan, Laurence Mayer and the former Mildred Miller
gave birth to Roger Laurance Mayer a film executive who was instrumental in
preserving and restoring countless classic movies and who owed his career, in a
strange twist to anti-Semitism since he turned to movie production work only
after having been turned down by several L.A. law firms because he was Jewish.
1927(19th of Nisan, 5687): Fifth Day of Pesach
1927: In Manhattan, Isidor Brokaw, a lawyer who was wiped out in
the Great Depression and the former Marie Hyde gave birth to Norman Robert
Brokaw, the head of William Morris and driving force in the entertainment
industry.
1927: Birthdate of Robert Brustein, Dean
of the Yale School of Drama.
1928; :Dos Heymishe Shtetl” directed by David Vardi was performed today in New York City.
https://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/lex/V/vardi-david.htm
1928: “The Passion of Joan of Arc” a silent biopic based on the
Joan’s trial filmed by cinematographer Rudolph Maté was released in Denmark
today.
1929: Mark Eisner presided over a dinner tonight at the Biltmore
which “marked the opening of campaign to raise one million dollars to be used
for assistance to impoverished Jews of Eastern Europe” where attendees heard
“messages from President Hoover, Professor Albert Einstein and former Governor
Al Smith” as well as speeches by Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the wife of the
Governor and Lieutenant Governor Lehman.
1929: “To Honor Rabbi Loew” published today described the decision
of “the Prague City Council…to name a street in the former Jewish quart of the
city for Rabbi Jehuda Lowe-Bezalel, who is buried in the ancient Jewish
cemetery” and who “was known to thousands of Americans through the film ‘The
Golem; based on the novel by Gustav Maybrink.”
1930: Hank Greenberg made his major league baseball debut.
1930: “Ceremonies inaugurating the planting of two forests in
honor the late King Peter of Serbia and President Masaryk of Czechoslovakia”
are scheduled to take place today “in the ‘Ginegar Emek’ near the Balfour
Forest on land owned by the Jewish National Fund.”
1931: Brooklyn outfielder Max Rosenfeld made his major league
baseball debut.
1932:
In Philadelphia, PA, “theater director/actor Jack Berlin and actress Ida
(Aaron) Berlin” gave birth to Elaine Iva Berlin who gained fame as writer,
director and comedian Elaine May.
1932:
In New York City, Russian Jewish immigrant “Celia and Benjamin Melnick,” gave
birth to “Daniel Melnick, a producer and studio executive who brought an
innovative and often unconventional sensibility to films that included “Straw
Dogs,” “All That Jazz” and “Altered States.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/movies/17melnick.html
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/21/daniel-melnick-obituary
1932(15th
of Nisan, 5692): Pesach
1932:
On the first day of Pesach Rabbi Rosenbaum of Temple Israel and Rabbi Katz of
Montefiore Hebrew Congregation tied the current economic crisis to the themes
of Passover. Katz said that today, the
entire social and economic structure is falling and that a return to the Mosaic
system offers a source of salvation.
After gaining their freedom, the Jews were taught that periodically
“they must emancipate those elements in the population who, because of lack of
foresight or ability lose their status as self-supporting and self-respecting
men, who, in other words relinquish their freedom because of economic
compulsion.” We must adopt a modern
version of the Mosaic codes which in ancient times called for periodic redistribution
of the land and those who sold themselves because of debt were freed.
1933:
The slaughter of animals according to the rules of Kashrut was banned by the
Nazis in Germany. Nazi propaganda portrayed Jewish slaughtering customs
as treating animals in an inhumane way. Yes, the people who would butcher
six million of our co-religionists actually hid behind the animal rights’
movement. There were many Jewish butchers who defied the law as long as
possible and continued to supply kosher meat to their observant customers.
1933:
King Christian X of Denmark attended the celebration of the 100th anniversary
of the Crystal Synagogue in Copenhagen to demonstrate his sympathy for the
Jews. This is the same King Christian who is the hero of a famous "urban
legend." According to the story he wore a Yellow Star during the war
in support of his Jewish subjects. While Christian showed great fortitude
by staying with his people during the war and while the Danes protected their
Jewish fellow citizens, the story of the star is a myth. In fact, most of
the Jews were not required to wear the star. The important thing is the
lengths to which the Danes went to protect the Jews. If others had done
as much, the Shoah would not have happened.
1933:
“According to a cable message received today by The Jewish Morning Journal”
in New York, “Baruch Schwartz, noted Jewish educator passed away at the age of
72 in Tel Aviv. Born in the Ukraine,
Schwartz was an early member of the Zionist movement. His greatest contribution was his work to
modernize the Hebrew language and the development of simplified methods of
teaching what had been considered to be a “dead language.” Schwartz made Aliyah in 1923 and had
completed three volumes of his memoirs before he passed away.
1934: In Vienna, Emmanuel and Lilly (Hillel) gave birth to Michael
Shinagel who “grew up to be the longest-serving dean in Harvard’s 380-year
history.
1934: Moe Berg, catcher for the Washington
Senators, played his 117th consecutive game without an error, setting a record
for his position. Moe Berg is one of the strangest and most fascinating
of all baseball players. Born to Russian immigrant parents on the Lower
East Side in 1902, Berg graduated from Princeton magna cum laude with the
ability to speak seven languages. He also played shortstop for the
Tigers. Berg played for five teams during a fifteen year career. He
was labeled good field, no hit and was considered a good journeyman
player. What made him unique were his intellectual feats and the legends
that surrounded them. He bought numerous papers each day which insisted on
being the first to read. If you grabbed a section of one of his papers
before he had read it, he cast the paper aside because it was dead. In
the 1930's, Berg joined an All Star baseball team that made a barnstorming trip
to Japan. Berg was a strange choice since he certainly was not a
star. Beg did not join in the carousing and went off to be by
himself. It was only later, during World War II that people found out
what Beg had been doing. He spoke Japanese. He wondered around
taking pictures of Japan and some of these photographs were used by the
Doolittle Raiders in 1942 to help them find their targets when America bombed
Japan for the first time. And this is only the tip of the iceberg or
should I say Moe Berg.
1935:
It was reported today that New York Governor Lehman has issued an appeal for
contribution “to a fund for the relief and rehabilitation of European Jewry”
which collecting $3,250,000 nationwide “to help the Jews from Germany and other
lands to settle in Palestine.”
1935:
In Pittsburgh, PA, “Lena (née Singer), who worked in the family store and
volunteered for disabled veterans, and Theodore I. Grodin, who sold wholesale
supplies” gave birth to actor and talk show host Charles Grodin.
1936: In Tel Aviv and Jaffa, Arabs riot to protest
Jewish immigration to Palestine. This
was the beginning of two years of violence that would not end until 1939.
Contrary to popular misconception, these riots were not a spontaneous
expression of Arab feelings. Arab
leaders called for a general strike and a rebellion against the Mandate and in
an effort to prevent Jewish immigration. Initially 80 Jews were murdered and
308 wounded. By fall of 1939, over one
hundred Jews had been killed in Arab attacks. The official Zionist policy at
the time was “Havlagah”
(self-restraint). In other words, the Jewish forces acted in self-defense. They did not go out after their attackers nor
did they stage attacks on Arab villages or centers of population. The Arabs would succeed in their
efforts. In 1939, just prior to the
start of World War II, the British government violated the terms of the Mandate
and the Balfour Declaration by all but putting and end to Jewish immigration to
Palestine and ending the purchase of land by Jews. The British zealously enforced the ban on
immigration which played a helpful role in the success of the Final Solution.
1936: The funeral for six Jews who were murdered by
Arab rioters in Tel Aviv yesterday was held at 6 o’clock this morning at the
end of which all were buried in a common grave including one of the victims who
was never identified.
1936:
“The newspaper the Journal said in an
editorial today that the disordered in Palestine between Jews and Arabs were
Great Britain’s penalty ‘for supporting the Ethiopians against Italy.’”
1936:
“Former Governor Alfred E. Smith, Postmaster General James A. Farley and
Senator Royal S. Copeland joined today in an appeal for support for the drive
of the Greater New York campaign of the Joint Distribution Committee which is
seeking $1,500,000 as this New York City’s share of a $3,500,000 nation-wide
fund for the aid of Jews in Germany and Central and Eastern Europe.
1936:
Five Arab leaders who met with the British High Commissioner today said, “the
rioting had been caused by the government’s refusal to forbid Jewish
immigration and by the sale of land to Jews.”
1936:
The Jews of Hebron who lived through the riots of 1929 when sixty-two Jews were
murdered are now “safely sheltered in the Hadassah Hospital.”
1937:
“Rabbi William F. Rosenblum of New York urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to
reject” President Roosevelt’s court program saying “that the supreme judiciary
is the rock of ages against which demagoguery and dictatorship alike will be
dashed to pieces.”
1937:
In Chicago, costume jeweler Sidney Kass and the former Celia Gorman gave birth
to Jerome Kass, the author best known for the Emmy nominated “Queen of the
Stardust Ballroom.”
1937:
“The Second Hurricane,” Aaron Copland's first attempt at composing opera which was
commissioned by the Henry Street Settlement in New York City where it premiered
today, at the settlement's playhouse and was performed by students at its music
school.
1938: Germany issued a decree that effectively eliminated
Jews from the nation's economy and provides for the seizure of Jewish assets.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that five
Arab terrorists were killed when they attacked the Tel Amal police post and the
neighboring Jewish settlement. One Arab constable was killed during the attack.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that
Switzerland demanded that all foreign nationals and in particular Austrian
refugees leave the country. The acquisition of land, or even a substantial
financial investment could not any more serve as a reason to obtain a permit to
remain on the Swiss soil. (This was aimed at Jewish refugees who sought safe
haven in supposedly neutral Switzerland.
It is only one example of how the Swiss betrayed the much touted moral
high ground of neutrality to ingratiate themselves with the Nazis at the
expense of the Jews of Europe.)
1939:
In a letter written from Germany to Max Marx in Palestine, Jenny Marx described
the family’s desperate condition including Siegmund Mayer’s internment in a
concentration, while thanking him for sending a picture of his new fiancée – a
measure that seemed to fill her with hope for the future.
1940: “An assertion that America could learn from
the lesson taught by the tragedy of Europe only if people were wise enough,
patriotic enough, and united enough, was made by Governor Lehman in an address
tonight at a dinner of the State Conference of the National Council of Jewish
Women.”
1940: “In the cities of the Free Zone, especially in
Marseille, which continues to harbor a very large number of refugees from all
parts of Europe, it is understood that steps are being taken to take a census
of all Jews. Identity papers are being examined in all instances and it seems
clear that it is desired to prepare lists of various classes of Jews.”
1941
(24th of Nisan, 5701): A mentally ill
woman was forced by the sentries to dance by the barbed entrance to the Lodz
Ghetto. When she was done they shot her dead. This unfortunate soul perished
with no record of her name. By mentioning the episode, she may remain
nameless, but not unremembered.
1942:
Tonight, as part of “Operation Delay II,” the leader of a unit of British
commandos that included Jewish wireless operation Edward Zeff and Captain
Isidore Newman landed off the coast of the French Rivera and mad it
successfully to #31 Avenue Marechal Foch, “the home of the Jewish Restiance
leader Dr. Louis Levy (Louis of Antibes).
1942:
“Nazis Concentrate All Dutch Jews in Amsterdam Ghetto” published today
described how “Nazi officials in occupied Holland ae now moving the Jews from
Dutch provincial towns into the Amsterdam ghetto under the pretext that they
intend to make Amsterdam “a port of exodus for Jews from Europe” and that the
“Supervision of these Dutch Jews has been entrusted to the German police only,
since the Nazis have found the Ductich police to be ‘overly-sympathetic’ to the
Jews.”
1943(16th
of Nisan, 5703): Second Day of Pesach
1943:
Sixty-eight year old Austrian biologist Hans Leo Prizbram and his wife who had
fled to “Amsterdam in December 1939” were deported today to Theresienstadt
where he died in 1944.
1944:It
was reported today that Max Zaritsky, the president of the United Hatters, Caps
and Millinery Workers Union of America and Chairman of the Palestine union
committee released a letter from Philip Murray, the President of the CIO
expressing his support for the American Jewish Trade Union Committee of which
he is now serving as honorary co-chairman.
1945:
In St. Louis, MO, Nathan and Bluma (Rubin) Schwartz gave birth author Howard
Schwartz whose efforts have him the Koret Jewish Book Award and the National
Jewish Book Award.
1945:
Birthdate of director and screenwriter Nadav Levitan, a native of Kibbutz Kfar
Masayrk
https://human-knowledge.online/en/persons/nadav-levitan-2830302/
1945: In Montreal, Abe Wainberg, a glassware company
employee and his wife Fay gave birth to Mark Arnold Wainberg, the
microbiologist who played a key role in developing treatment for AID’s
patients.
1945: Robert Limpert who had been brutally hung in
the Bavarian town of Ansbach for courageously trying to sabotage the Nazis in
the waning days of WW II was buried today.
1946 (20th of Nisan, 5706): On the 6th
Day of Pesach, five
Jews, each of them a concentration-camp survivor, motoring near Nowy Targ,
Poland, were stopped at a mock police checkpoint and shot to death. The oldest
victim was 35, one was 25, and the remaining three were 22.
1946:
The Palestine civil service strike gained new support when “municipal workers
in Nazareth and employees of the Trans-Jordan railways walked out in sympathy
with the other strikers.”
1946:
Thirty-five year old Wisconsin native Morrie “Snooker” Aronvich the outfielder
who “kept kosher for his whole life” ended his seven year major league baseball
career today as a player with the New York Giants.
1947(1st
of Iyar, 5707): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1947(1st
of Iyar, 5707): Nineteen year old British Army veteran and Irgun member Meir
Feinstein and twenty year old Moshe Barazani blew themselves up with a
handgrenade hours before they were scheduled to be hung in the Jerusalem
Central Prison.
1948(12th
of Nisan, 5708): Seventy-three year old Gomel born, Columbia educated physician
Nicholas Dobkin passed away today in Brooklyn
1948:
In “Big Convoy Fights Way To Jerusalem” Dana Adams Schmidt described the attack
by the Arabs at Deir Ayoub on the 260 vehicles bring food and other supplies to
the besieged Jewish community which last for a full day claiming the lives of
five members of the Haganah leaving another twenty four wounded.”
1948:
It was reported today “Trans-Jordan’s Arab Legion and other Arab regular armies
would soon invade Palestine” and that “the Arab League’s Political Committee
had decided to set up a government claiming sovereignty over all of Palestine.”
1948:
The British government in Palestine denied that any promises had been made
guaranteeing “Jews access to the Wailing Wall…during the” upcoming “Passover
festival” – a claim disputed by the Zionists.
1949(22nd
of Nisan, 5709): 8th day of Pesach
1951(15th of Nisan, 5711): As UN
Forces fight the Chinese and the North Korean forces trying to conquer South
Korea, the Jews observe Pesach and Shabbat.
1953:
Roy Cohn and G. David Schine, two of Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief aides,
recommend the removal of 30,000 books from the libraries of the United States
Information Service posts in Europe, including works by Dashiell Hammett, W. E.
B. Du Bois, Herman Melville, John Steinbeck and Henry David Thoreau, calling
them "pro-Communist.” Not all Jews,
even ones who were New York born lawyers, were liberals. This also puts the lie to the notion that all
Jews were Communists.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that on the
occasion of Israel's sixth birthday, the President, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, ordered
the release of eight prisoners and reduced the sentences of about a hundred
others. Nazareth and Arab villages in Galilee were richly decorated with flags
of the State. Arab and Druze notables participated in the Haifa march-past army
parade and other celebrations.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that
diplomatic steps were taken in an urgent effort to improve the deteriorating
conditions on Israeli borders, troubled by a continued infiltration, murder,
theft and sabotage.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel
accused Egypt of an act of piracy when three Israeli fishing smacks were
stopped and searched, in international waters, by an Egyptian corvette.
1954(18th
of Nisan, 5714): Fourth Day of Pesach
1954:
In Chicago, Dr. Karl E. Ettinger presented a reported today at the 51st
annual convention of the National Catholic Educational Association that claimed
“a dangerous monopoly, amount to a virtual academic ‘cartel’ exists in the
granting of research funds to colleges and unviersities by the Federal
Government.”
1954:
Danny Kaye was appointed UNICEF's Ambassador at Large, and made a 40,000 mile
good-will trip, which resulted in the short, Assignment Children.
1956(10th
of Iyar, 5716): Seventy-one year David Samuel Gottesman, the son of Sarah and
Mendel Gottesman and “husband of Jeanne Regina Gottesman” passed away today.
1956(10th
of Iyar, 5716): Samuel Gottesman, the “Hungarian-born, American pulp-paper
merchant, financier and philanthropist” who best known for “the donation of the
so-called Dead Sea Scrolls to the State of Israel, where they are housed in the
Shrine of the Book” passed away today.
1957(20th of Nisan, 5717):Sixth Day
of Pesach
1958(1st of Iyar, 5718): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1958: At Treblinka, the construction of a
monument 8 metres (26 ft) tall was inaugurated today with the laying of the
cornerstone at the site of the former gas chambers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franciszek_Duszeńko#/media/File:Treblinka_memorial.jpg
1961: “On his 50th birthday, more
than 200 persons attended a party for” Bernard Hart, the younger brother of
Moss Hart, “at Sardis” where “Bernie heard himself roasted and eulogized in
songs and skits…”
1961:
“Israel: The Man in the Cage, an article published” by Time magazine
described the events at the Eichmann Trial
http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,895278,00.html
1962:
“The Century 21 Exposition” also known as the Seattle World’s Fair for which
Lawrence Halprin provided the “master landscaping plan” opened today
1962(17th
of Nisan, 5722): Shabbat shel Pesach
1962(17th of
Nisan, 5722): Fifty-one year old Philadelphia native Jeannette Orleans Gayl,
the husband of Joseph Gayl and President of the Women’s Division of ORT passed
away today.
1964:
Houston Third Baseman Steve Hertz appeared in his first major league baseball game.
1964:
“The appointment of Leonard Kaufman as general counsel of the Paramount
Pictures Corporation was announced today by Barney Balaban, president of the
motion‐picture producer. Mr. Kaufman was formerly
house counsel for the company in New York.”
1964:
“Funeral services” are scheduled “to be held at Temple Rodeph Sholom” today “for
Ben Hecht, American-Jewish author, journalist, playwright, and stormy petrel in
the Zionist movement, who died suddenly at the age of 70.” (As reported by JTA)
1968:
Bernard Gersten, a man who served in many theatrical capacities married a
dancer named Cora Cahan.
1968(23rd
of Nisan, 5728): Seventy-four-year-old Chicago native and Tufts Medical School
graduate Dr. Benjamin Sachs, the ophthalmologist and member of the faculty of
Tufts and Harvard who was the husband of Bessie Cushing Sachs and father of
Baruch J. Sachs and Tikvah Sachs Portnoi passed away today after which he was
buried in Beth El Cemetery at West Roxbury, MA.
1969:
“The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail” co-authored by Jerome Lawrence (born Jerome
Lawrence Schwartz) opened today for the first time at Ohio State University.
1970(15th
of Nisan, 5730): Pesach
1971:
Publication of The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, ‘a book by
the American pianist and author Charles Rosen” that “analyses the evolution of
style during the Classical period of classical music as it was developed
through the works of Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van
Beethoven.
1972(7th
of Iyar, 5732): Seventy-two-year-old Mrs. Dorothy Silberman Hartman, the Albany
Law School trained attorney and law partner of her father Louis Silberman who
was the widow of real-estate executive Jesse Hartman passed away today at her
home on Fifth Avenue.
1974:
After 538 performances and “two previews” the curtain came down on the original
Broadway production of Neil Simon’s “The Sunshine Boys” produced by Emanuel
Azenberg, directed by Alan Arkin and co-starring Sam Levene as “Lewis” and Jack
Albertson as “Clark.”
1974(29th
of Nisan, 5734): Seventy-one-year-old Vienna native Dr. Dora Karplus Hartmann,
a psychoanalyst long associated with the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and
the widow of Dr. Heinz Hartmann passed away today.
1976(21st
of Nisan, 5736): Seventh Day of Pesach
1976(21st
of Nisan, 5736): Seventy-six year old Odessa born Léonide Moguy “French director and
screenwriter” whose birth name was Leonid Mohylevskyi passed away today in Paris.
1977(3rd
of Iyar, 5737): Yom HaAtzma'ut
1977(3rd
of Iyar, 5737): Eighty-four year old Gummo [Milton] Marx passed away fifth son
Minnie and Sam Marx. Born in either October 1892 or 18993, he is the Marx
brother most people do not remember. Although he and Groucho were the
original performers in the family, Gummo left show business to join the Army.
He was replaced by Zeppo. After the war, Gummo sold dresses and
cloth. He came back to show business, but not as a performer. He
was the agent for his famous brothers.
1977:
The original Broadway production of “Annie” with music by Charles Strouse,
lyrics by Martin Charmin opened at the Alvin Theatre today.
1978: The
Jerusalem Post
reported that the Government and the Histadrut reached a mini-package
anti-inflation deal, providing for a six-month freeze on taxes, prices and
service charges, with an option to be extended for another six months.
1978: The
Jerusalem Post
reported that Israeli authorities had recently been looking into the
possibility of curbing what was termed as an increased partisan activity by the
too inquisitive foreign diplomats in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
1979(24th
of Nisan, 5739): On Shabbat, in Nahariya, terrorists attacked an apartment
building killing four people including two children and injuring four others.
1981(17th
of Nisan, 5741): Third Day of Pesach
1983:
“The Anti-Zionist Committed of the Soviet Public was formed in Moscow to combat
Jewish cultural and emigration activities.”
1984(19th
of Iyar, 5744): Marcel Janco, Romanian and Israeli visual artist, architect,
art theorist and cultural promoter, known as the co-inventor of Dadaism and a
leading exponent of Constructivism in Eastern Europe passed away.
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/23/obituaries/marcel-janco-a-dada-founder.html
1985(30th
of Nisan, 5745): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1985(30th
of Nisan, 5745): Ninety-one year old
songwriter and music scout Irving Mills passed away.
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/23/arts/irving-mills-dies-at-91-jazz-music-publisher.html
1985(30th
of Nisan, 5745): Sixty-two year old fashion designer Rudi Gernreich passed
away.
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/22/nyregion/rudi-gernreich-avant-garde-designer-dies.html
http://www.fashionencyclopedia.com/Fr-Gu/Gernreich-Rudi.html
1985:
“The Normal Heart,” a largely autobiographical play by Larry Kramer” premiered
at The Public Theatre in New York City.
1986:
“Act of Vengance” an HBO film featuring Ellen Barkin as “Annette Gilly” and
Maury Chaykin as “Claude Vealey” was broadcast for the first time.
1987:
In today’s “Postscript” German historian Joachim Fest wrote "In its
substance, the dispute was initiated by Ernst Nolte's question whether Hitler's
monstrous will to annihilate the Jews, judging from its origin, came from early
Viennese impressions or, what is more likely, from later Munich experiences,
that is, whether Hitler was an originator or simply being reactive. Despite all
the consequences that arouse from his answer, Nolte's question was in fact a purely
academic exercise. The conclusions would probably not have caused as much
controversy if they had been accompanied by special circumstances"
1988(4th
of Iyar, 5748) Yom HaAtzma’ut
1988:
Five days after he was killed in Tunis, terrorist leader Khalil al-Wazir was
buried today in Damascus on the same day that the Washington Post reported
“that the Israeli cabinet” had approved his “assassination.”
1988(4th
of Iyar, 5748): Sixty-seven year old I.A.L. Diamond screenwriter whose work
included “The Apartment” and “Some Like It Hot” passed away today.
1989(16th
of Nisan, 5749): Second Day of Pesach; First Day of the Omer
1989:
The Price Center, named for Sol Price, the founder of COSTCO who “donated two
million dollars for the construction of this student center” at the University
of California, San Diego, opened today.
1992(18th
of Nisan, 5652): Fourth Day of Pesach
1992(18th
of Nisan, 5652): Eighty-one year old Chicago born and University of Chicago
trained attorney Morris I Leibman, the husband of Mary Leibman with whom he
raised two sons and recipient of the Freedom Medal passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/29/obituaries/morris-i-leibman-81-a-senior-law-partner.html
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-04-22-9202050616-story.html
1993:
Yiddish theater producer and advocate Dora Wasserman received the Order of
Canada, the highest honor bestowed on civilians by the Canadian government. Born
in Ukraine in 1920 [some sources say 1919], Wasserman studied at Moscow's
Yiddish Art Theatre and acted with the Kiev State Theatre and Kazakhstan State
Theatre before Stalinist repression closed down most Yiddish theatres in the
Soviet Union. In 1950, she fled the U.S.S.R. with her husband and two young
daughters. After stints in Poland and a displaced persons camp in Vienna,
Austria, Wasserman and her family arrived in Montreal where she would spend the
rest of her life. In Montreal, Wasserman at first taught drama to Jewish
schoolchildren, many of them Yiddish-speaking refugees like her, and performed
as a singer, pianist, and guitarist. After six years, she formed the Yiddish
Drama Group, an adult amateur ensemble that later became the Yiddish Theatre
and then was renamed the Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre. The Group's first
production, The Innkeeper, was staged in 1957. Although her troupe was
not made up of professional actors, Wasserman insisted on a high level of both
performance and dedication and was rewarded with the loyalty of her actors and
the high praise of critics and fans. The more than 70 plays she directed over
four decades earned her the title of grande dame of the Yiddish theatre. Among
the Yiddish Theatre's productions were classics by well-known Yiddish writers
like Sholom Aleichem and Sholem Asch; modern works translated into Yiddish for
her company, like Montreal playwright Michel Tremblay's classic Les Belles
Soeurs (the Sisters-in-Law); and new works written especially for her troupe.
The most successful of these was A Bintel Brief, based on immigrants'
letters to the advice column of the Jewish Daily Forward. Tremblay
called her production of Les Belles Soeurs the best interpretation in
any foreign language. Wasserman's theatre reached an audience beyond the
population of native Yiddish-speakers, which grew smaller with each passing
decade. She believed that, "if [a play] is good, you will feel it. You
don't need to understand the language on the stage." Still by providing
supertitles in English and French, the Theatre's works became accessible to a
wide audience in Quebec, and on tours in Israel, the United States, Austria,
and Russia. In addition, Wasserman traveled frequently to Jewish schools to
lead extracurricular programs designed to instill a love of both theatre and
Yiddish. These programs reached some 3,000 students each year. In 1973, the
troupe moved to the Saidye Bronfman Centre in Montreal, where it is now the
only permanent resident Yiddish theatre in North America. It is also one of
only four Yiddish theatres in the world – the others are in New York, Warsaw,
and Tel Aviv. Wasserman passed leadership of the theatre to her daughter, Bryna
Wasserman, in 1996, after a disabling stroke. The elder Wasserman died in 2003.
Her headstone in a Montreal cemetery reads, "with love and magic, Dora
founded the miracle of Yiddish Theatre in Montreal, a bridge to the Jewish
people's continuity."
1994(10th
of Iyar, 5754): Officer cadet Shahar Simani , age 20, of Ashkelon, was found
stabbed to death near the roadside at the village of Beit Hanina , north of
Jerusalem . He had been kidnapped while hitchhiking in the south.
1995(21st
of Nisan, 5755): Seventh Day of Pesach
1995:
“While You Were Sleeping” a comedy directed by Jon Turteltaub, produced by
Roger Birnbaum and Joe Roth and with music by Randy Edelman was released today
in the United States.
1996:
The New York Times published an
article entitled “Modern Holocaust
Memorial: Thesis of Victim on Internet” that tells the story of Esther
Hautzig’s very personal, very innovative efforts to insure that the life of her
Uncle Ela-Chaim Cuzner will be remembered.
1997(14th of Nisan, 5757): Ta’anit
Bechorot; Erev Pesach
1997(14th of Nisan, 5757): Ninety-two
year old Herbert Zipper, the composer and conductor who survived Dachau and
co-composed “the Dachau Song” passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/23/arts/herbert-zipper-92-founder-of-secret-orchestra-at-dachau.html
1998: “We’ve Never Heard of You, Either” the first
major album for Evan and Jaron was released today.
1999(5th
of Iyar, 5759): Final Yom HaAtzma’ut celebration of the 20th
century.
2000:
“President Clinton met at the White House tonight with the Palestinian leader,
Yasir Arafat, to begin a last-stage American effort to work out a final
agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians.”
2001(28th
of Nisan, 5761): Dr. Mario Goldin, 53, of Kfar Sava, was killed when a
terrorist detonated a powerful bomb he was carrying near a group of people
waiting at a bus stop on the corner of Weizman and Tchernichovsky streets.
About 60 people were injured in the blast. Hamas claimed responsibility.
2001:
“Varian’s War,’ a movie based on the exploits Varian Frey was released in the
United States.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245540/
2001(28th
of Nisan, 5761): Thirty-eight year old Stanislav Sandomirsky was murdered by an
unknown terrorist north of Ramallah today following which his body was
“mutilated.”
2001:
The 2001 NFL Draft in which Sage Rosenfels was drafted by the Washington Redskins began today.
2002:
The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including the recently published paperback
edition of “Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American
Consensus” by Rick “The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the
Temple Mount” by Gershom Gorenberg in which the “ senior editor and columnist
for The Jerusalem Post examines the incendiary mix of religious groups
-- Arab, Jewish and fundamentalist Christians -- that view the destiny of the
sacred Temple Mount as crucial to their apocalyptic faith.”
2002:
Official end of Operation Defensive Shield, the Israeli response to a wave Arab
terrorism that included the murder of 30 people during a Seder.
2003:
Seventy year old singer/song stylists and civil rights activist Nina Simone,who
brought her own unique style to the singing of “Eretz Zavat Halav” and who
recorded “Strange Fruit” written by a Jewish songwriter about lynchings in the
South on her 1965 album Pastel Blues” passed away today
2003:
An Israeli intelligence officer identified only as “Colonel K” gave a lecture
today predicting that Hezbollah had shore-to-sea missiles in its possession.
2003:
In the United Kingdom, “Rififi” directed by Jules Dassin was released on DVD by
Arrow Films.
2004:
Today “the Israeli Army sent tanks into the northern Gaza Strip to try to halt
repeated Palestinian rocket fire coming from the tense territory…”
2005:
Ivri Lider performed in Tel Aviv where he was joined by Rita, Berry Sakharof,
and Assaf Amdursky.
2005(12th
of Nisan, 5765): Fast of the Firstborn.
2005:
“A Lot Like Love” co-starring Amanda Peet premiered in Israel today.
2005:
Premiere of “Fathers and Sons” featuring Linda Edelstein and Mordecai Finley.
2006(23rd
of Nisan, 5766): The Brit of Joshua Larry Rosenstein, son of Mr. and Mrs. David
Rosenstein and the grandson of Larry and Judy Rosenstein (of blessed memory)
takes place in New York City.
2006:
President Bush proclaims May as Jewish American Heritage Month.
2007:
Sara Paretsky, creator of the V.I. Warshawski novels, takes part in a book
reading and book signing in Forest Park, Illinois. Ms. Paretsky is an outspoken critic of the
powers the Patriot Act. Despite threats
from a variety of sources, she reported that she found the courage to speak out
because of her Jewish heritage. Silence
had enabled those who made the Holocaust and she was not going to be threatened
into silence.
2007: An exhibition entitled “Otot” featuring the
works of Yosef Halevi opens at the Meirov Municipal Art Gallery in Holon. Halevi
won the then-coveted Diezengoff Prize in 1962.
2008(16th
of Nisan, 5768): Second Day of Pesach, First Day of the Omer – 5768.
2009(27th
of Nisan, 5769): Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day
2009:
In Cedar Rapids, Holocaust Survivor Irene Furst speaks at Mt. Mercy College.
Irene Furst, at 87, still travels the country to tell her story because
it’s one she doesn’t want to be forgotten. Furst is a Holocaust survivor. She
fears that as the survivors die, so, too, will their stories.
2009:
A Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) ceremony takes place this
evening at the Waterloo Center for the Arts.
2009:
Today, for the first time, Israel Kasztner, the man, who organized a train that
saved 1,682 Hungarian Jews from death at the hands of the Nazis will be honored
in a ceremony near the scene of the murder.
2009:
Saleh Bahman, a Kuwaiti journalist who will be running for parliament in next
month's general election today called on the Gulf state to establish full
diplomatic ties with Israel. "Israel is a reality and has international
influence... Kuwait would benefit from Israel's influence if we establish
relations with them."
2009:
In a statement issued in the House of Commons today, Foreign Secretary David
Miliband announced that “in light of Operation Cast Lead and in line with” the
British governments “obligations after a conflict” there would be “a review of
extant export licenses for Israel”
2009:
“The government filed a motion with the Sixth Circuit asking for the stay
against deportation to be lifted, arguing that accused war criminal John Demjanjuk
had sought the stay in order to provide an opportunity for the BIA to rule upon
his motion to reopen the deportation order.
2009:
After over 14 years Leonard Hoffman, Baron Hoffman completed his service as
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, a senior position in the British judiciary.
2009:
Eighty-three year old Vivian Dorothy Maier the creator of a photographic record
of “Jewish Chicago” passed away today.
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/113385/vivian-maier-jewish-chicago
2010: Centro Primo Levi and the Center for
Jewish History are scheduled to present a Panel Discussion with Moshe Idel
about his Book Old Worlds, New Mirrors: On Jewish Mysticism and 20th-Century
Thought
2010:Nevin
Shapiro, the crooked University of Miami booster who orchestrated a $930
million Ponzi scheme “was charged in New
Jersey with securities fraud and money laundering” today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franciszek_Duszeńko#/media/File:Treblinka_memorial.jpg
2010:
Israeli authors Assaf Gavron and Eshkol Nevo are scheduled to read from their
newest novels at Cornell University as part of a program entitled “Israeli
Literature Today.”
2010:
Whitney Harris, one of the last of the prosecutors who brought high-ranking
Nazi war criminals to justice at the Nuremberg trials and who, a half-century
later, was a significant voice in the creation of the International Criminal
Court, died today at the age of 97. (As
reported by Dennis Hevesi)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/world/europe/29harris.html
2011:
“Rabies” an Israeli film about a psychotic serial killer, is scheduled to be
shown today at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
2011:
Ten thousand Jewish worshipers gathered at the Western Wall Plaza today take
part in the bi-annual Priestly Blessing, which usually occurs on the second
intermediate days of Sukkot and Pesach.
2011:
Joining the likes of US President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas
Sarkozy, UK Prime Minister David Cameron and teen pop sensation Justin Bieber,
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was named by Time Magazine today as one of
the 100 most influential people of 2011
2011:
The Haggadah Fair sponsored by the Kol HaOt organization and the Inbal Hotel
featuring “the magnificent Haggadot of such internationally renowned artists as
Avner Moriah, Maty Grünberg, David Moss, Eliyahu Sidi, Matt Berkowitz, Ya’akov
Daniel and Ilya Gefter” came to an end today.
2012:
Former Ambassador Richard Schifter is scheduled to speak about Israel's
relations with the international community, the United Nations, the U.S.
Congress and the American Rabbinate at Tifereth Israel Congregation in
Washington, DC.
2012:
“Jewish Luck” is scheduled to be shown at the Columbia Jewish Congregation’s
(CJC) 2012 - Twentieth Season of Movies.
2012:
“Retoration” and “Mabul” (The Flood) are scheduled to be shown at the
Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2012: “Avigdor
Arikha: Works from the Estate” an exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery is
scheduled to come to an end.
http://www.marlboroughgallery.com/exhibitions/avigdor-arikha
2013:
The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Interestings by Meg
Wolitzer and the recently released
paperback edition of Exorcising Hitler: The Occupation and Denazification of
Germany by Frederick Taylor.
2013:
Today, Stephan A. Schwarzman, the Chairman and CEO of The Blackstone Group “announced
a $100 million personal gift to establish and endow a scholarship program in
China, Schwarzman Scholars, modeled after the Rhodes Scholarship program.”
2013:
“Microcosms: Ruth Abrams, Abstract Expressionist” which opened in August, 2012
is scheduled to come to an end at Yeshiva University Museum.
2013:
Consultation on Conscience, Reform Judaism’s flagship social justice
conference, is scheduled to open in Washington, D.C.
2013:
International conference “Being witness to the Holocaust. 70th anniversary of
the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising” is scheduled to open in Warsaw.
2013:
An exhibition of the work of Holocaust survivor Israel Bernbaum at the George
Segal Gallery at Montclair State University is scheduled to come to an end.
2013:
Tiftereth Israel in Des Moines is scheduled to host a giant Israel Festival
called “A Taste of Israel.”
2013:
Today the cabinet approved an Open Skies Agreement with the European Union,
even as Israeli carriers grounded their fleets and hundreds of airline workers
gathered outside the meeting in protest.
2013:
U.S. Secretary of Defense of Chuck Hegel arrived in Israel today vowing to
provide Israel “with advanced weapons that will enhance its abilities to strike
at Israel.
2014(21st
of Nisan, 5774): Seventh Day of Pesach
2014:
Today the Supreme Court granted Nathan Lewin's certiorari petition in the
follow-up case of Zivotofsky v. Kerry, which concerns the question whether a
federal statute that directs the Secretary of State, on request, to record the
birthplace of an American citizen born in Jerusalem as born in
"Israel" on a Consular Report of Birth Abroad and on a United States
passport is unconstitutional on the ground that the statute "impermissibly
infringes on the President's exercise of the recognition power reposing
exclusively in him.”
2014
(21st of Nisan, 5774): Eighty-two year old Herb Gray who
“represented Windsor West for almost 40 years” and was “Canada’s first Jewish
federal cabinet minister” passed away today.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/herb-gray-former-mp-and-deputy-prime-minister-dead-at-82-1.2617214
2014:
In Marionville, MO, a special meeting of the Board of Alderman is scheduled to
be held to accepting the resignation of Jessica Wilson, an alderwoman who is
giving up her position in response to the endorsement of Mayor Daniel
Clevenger’s endorsement of the views of Frazier Glen Miller, the anti-Semitic
gunman who murdered three people when he attacked a Jewish community center and
assisted living facility in Kansas City.
2015:
SS guard Oskar Groening is scheduled to go trial for his role in the murder of
Hungarian Jews at Auschwitz.
2015:
The Jewish Historical Society of England is scheduled to sponsor Simon Anglim’s
lecture on “Major General Orde Wingate: Unconventional Warrior.”
2015:
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to
host a bilingual poetry reading from the works Russian born poet Boris Slutsky
followed by a Q & A session with
“Marat Grinberg, Associate Professor of Russian and Humanities at Reed College,
and Judith Pulman, poet and translator, who have been collaborating to
translate a selection of Slutsky’s unpublished poetry.”
Whether
I grow wiser or I grow older—
I
grasp myself clearly to be a Jew.
I thought that I had made it.
And I thought I’d broken through—
I
didn’t make it, I unmade myself,
I didn’t break through, I broke down,
I am not to be read from left to right,
but in Jewish, from right to left.
-Boris Slutsky, translated by Judith
Pulman and Marat Grinberg
2015:
Israel is scheduled to “come to a standstill this evening at 8 p.m. for a
minute long memorial sired to commemorate the country’s fallen soldiers and terror victims…followed
by the lighting of a memorial flame for the fall at the Western Wall, the site
of the official state commemoration ceremony.” (As reported by Times of Israel)
2015:
The Consulate General of Israel in New York is scheduled to host The Official
Memorial Day Service “honoring the soldiers who gave their lives in defense of
the State of Israel and the victims of terrorist attacks” at the 92nd
Street Y.
2015:
Flight 2521 to Prague by El Al’s budget carrier UP! “made an emergency landing
at Ben Gurion Airport shortly after having taken off amid fears that one of its
tires had been been damaged durin take-off. (As reported by Stuart Winer)
2015(2nd
of Iyar, 5775: One-hundred two year old literary critic M.H. Abrams passed away
today. (As reported by William Grimes)
2015:
Today “Abu Khdeir’s name showed up on the government’s online database of
terror victims, next to an Israeli flag overlaid with a picture of the Blood of
the Maccabees flower, which has come to symbolize the country’s fallen.” (As
reported by Judah Ari Gross)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/slain-arab-teen-added-to-terror-victims-monument/
2016:
Magda Brown, who was 17 years old in 1944 when she and her family were deported
on one of the final transports to Auschwitz-Birkenau spoke at Washington High
School as part of the “annual Yom HaShaoh sponsored in Cedar Rapids, IA by Iowa
The Thaler Holocaust Memorial Fund under the leadership of Dr. Robert Silber
and the Inter-Religious Council of Linn County.
2016:
As part of The Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project the Oregon Jewish Museum
and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to present a lecture by Dr.
Heather Ohaneson on “The Syrian Crisis in Terms of the Trauma of the Armenian
Genocide.”
2017(24th
of Nisan, 5777): Seventy-six year old Albert Samuel “Sandy” Gallin the General
Artists mailroom employee who worked his up to a vice presidency and booked the
Beatles for the first time on the Ed Sullivan television show passed away
today.
2017:
In Iowa City, the University of Iowa Chapter Of AEPhi Sorority in act of
“gemilut chasadim” so appropriate to this time of the year, is scheduled to
sponsor “Jazz on the Rocks” – a fund raiser of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric
AIDS Foundation
2017:
In the United Kingdom, after Kabbalat Shabbat, The Oxford Jewish Society is
scheduled to host “Oth Week” Friday Night Dinner
2018(6th
Iyar, 5778): Parashat Tazria and Metzora; Pirke Avot Chapter 2;
2018:
In Metairie, LA, as part of the celebration of Israel at 70, Ambassador Yoram
Ettinger is scheduled to speak at Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation
following Shabbat morning services.
2018:
In the United Kingdom, The Oxford Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Seudah
on Pirke Avot following Mincha services.
2018:
The Jewish Lake Alliance is scheduled to host Havdalah this evening at the
Bottlehouse Brewery.
2018:
At Agudas Achim in Coralville, IA, Rabbi Jackie Tabick is scheduled to
officiate at the Installation of Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz between Mincha and
Havdalah.
2018:
The Be’er Sheva Theatre House is scheduled to perform “Lost in Yonkers.”
2019:
An exhibition of the work of the Israeli artist Shay Arick is scheduled to come
an end today at the Compère Collective
2019:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures by Adina Hoffman, The
Notorious Ben Hecht: Iconoclastic Writer and Militant Zionist by Julien
Gorbach, Working: Researching, Interviewing and Writing by Robert A.
Caro and Naamah by Sarah Blake.
2019(16th
of Nissan, 5779): Second Day of Pesach; First Day of the Omer
2020(27th
of Nisan, 5780): Yom HaShoah
2020:
MK Mansour “Abbas delivered a
historic speech on the Holocaust in the Knesset in which he spoke of the
suffering of the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis.”
2020:
The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York is scheduled to host a Zoom
presentation “about Heroines of the Holocaust, focusing on women who fought as
members of resistance movements.”
2020:
In observance of Yom HaShoah (Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day), the ASF IJE,
Diarna Geo-Museum, and an international team of researchers for Sephardim in
the Shoah are scheduled to provide a survey of how Sephardic communities
experienced the Holocaust.
2020:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a virtual presentation by Anat Hoffman
on “Women of the Wall – Resilience and Resistance.”
2020:
“HaMaqom|The Place and the JFCS Holocaust Center are scheduled tolead daylong,
virtual Holocaust Remembrance Day event, with talks by survivors, survivors’
children, authors and historians.
2020:
Public Holocaust Memorial Day activities scheduled for today have been canceled
due to the Pandemic but thanks to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
each self-quarantined individual can conduct memorial of their own by “reading
aloud at ten names of victims and survivors.”
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/landing/en/id-cards
2020:
At 11 a.m ET, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to
present its “virtual Days of Remembrance
commemoration” featuring “Holocaust survivors’ tributes to family members they
lost, a stirring message from Benjamin Ferencz (the last living Nuremberg
prosecutor), and timeless words from the late Elie Wiesel.”
2020:
The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to host, on-line “a
brief memorial prayers and songs” as part of its Yom HaShoah observance.
2020:
Today, thanks to a list provided by the Jewish Board of Deputies, people can
follow a series of Yom HaShoah events which are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.
with “two minutes of silence to coincide with the siren from Israel to “Saving
A Life, Saving the World, Searching for Hope” presented by “Learning from the
Righteous” starting at 9:15 p.m.
https://www.yomhashoah.org.uk/live
2021:
The East Bay International Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present SFSU
professor Eran Kaplan talking about immigration and economic/societal
challenges in Israel in the 1940s following a screening of “Ma’abarot”
2021:
ONEINFORTY is sched to present, online, “Understanding the Jewish-Cancer
Connection” where attendees can learn “about Ashkenazi Jews’ one-in-40 risk of
inheriting a BRCA gene mutation which significantly increases one’s risk of
developing breast, ovarian, prostate and other cancers.”
2021:
Taube Center for Jewish Studies is scheduled to present UC Santa Cruz professor
Alma Heckman discussing The Sultan’s Communists, her book about Moroccan
Jews.
2021:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present “Global Nacao: How the
Unique Confluence of Culture Can Benefit Modern Jewry.”
2021:
YIVO and the American Society for Jewish Music are scheduled to present a
digital premiere performance of 5 new compositions engaging with Yiddish folksongs
as part of “Yiddish Folksong in Classical Music.”
2021:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host Tovah Feldshuh as she
talks about “The Mother, Daughter and Other Roles She’s Played.”
2021:
The National Museum of American Jewish History, for which Mitchell Levin is an
official content provider, is scheduled to present “The Color of Law: A
Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, a virtual book talk
with Richard Rothstein and Lila Corwin Berman.
2021:
In Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Temple Judea is scheduled to host, online, a “discussion
of the movie American Muslim with Rabbi Yaron and filmmaker, Adam Zucker.”
2021:
The Jewish Community Center of the North Shore is scheduled to present, online,
a live discussion with “Code Name Ayalon” producer Laurel Fairworth.
2021: Rabbi Ramon Widmont is scheduled to begin his
course introducing the visionaries and dreamers of Zionism, their writings and
teachings and how they saw and shaped the future at the London School of Jewish
Studies
2021:
Israel’s parliamentary paralysis appears to be ready to continue today
following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement yesterday, that “he
sees no option of forming a government backed by the Islamist Ra’am, after the
Arab Israeli party voted against his bloc Monday in a key Knesset vote.”
2022(20th
of Nisan, 5782): Sixth Day of Pesach
2022:
Based on yesterday’s report by the BfV, Germany’s domestic intelligence “that
antisemitic offensies are continuing to rise and those that come to light are
only ‘the tip of the iceberg,’” Jews in Germany join t their co-religionists in
other European countries and the United States in feeling less secure in their
safety in societies where among other things “the internet has served as
fertile ground for antisemitism.”
2022:
In Boston, The Jewish Climate Action Network is scheduled to present a Passover
Rally calling for an end to the funding of fossil fuels outside of the
Prudential branch of Chase Bank.
2022:
The Alliance for Jewish Theatre is scheduled to host a lecture on “The Artist’s
Mindset” during which Jesse Bernstein will examine such issues as how do
“artist measure success when so many professional outcomes are out of their
control” and how do artists “avoid allowing the subjective views of others
(producers, agents, critics, directors, audiences) be the guide for their
achievements?”
2023:
Temple Emanuel of Newton, MA is scheduled to present “Shabbat Alive.”
2023:
Temple Emanu-El and Temple Israel of the City of New York are scheduled to proudly
welcome Achinoam “Noa” Nini and Gil Dor to pay musical tribute to the creation
of the State of Israel.
2023:
At the Hotel Kirkwood in Cedar Rapids, IA, “Olympic medalist and sexual assault
survivor” Aly Raisman is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the Luncheon of
Light today.
2023:
In Beverley, MA, Temple B’nai Abraham is scheduled to present Havurah Shabbat.
2023:
“A special World Zionist Congress” which has been meeting in Jerusalem to mark
the 75th anniversary of the State of Israel is scheduled to come to
an end today.
