This Day, May 4, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
May 4
1008:
Birthdate of King Henry I of France who reigned from 1031 until his death in
1060 which means that he was on the throne when a future wine maker, Shlomo
Yitzhaki, was born at Troyes in 1040.
[But today, who remembers the French monar…
May 4
1008:
Birthdate of King Henry I of France who reigned from 1031 until his death in
1060 which means that he was on the throne when a future wine maker, Shlomo
Yitzhaki, was born at Troyes in 1040.
[But today, who remembers the French monarch and who remembers Rashi?]
1287:
Jews were arrested and accused of "clipping" the coinage in England.
Although there was no evidence, the community as a whole was convicted and ordered
to be expelled. A ransom of 4,000 (some say 12,000) pounds of silver were paid
in ransom. This was the penultimate act in the story of the medieval
English Community. For a century or more they had been drained of their
wealth by Richard the Lionhearted, his brother King John and his son Henry
1415(24th
of Iyar, 5175): Jan Hus, who saw himself as a religious reformer was declared a
heretic by the Roman Catholics at the Council of Constance. The followers of Hus were called Hussites.
The fight between the Hussites and the Catholic Church turned violent and the
Jews of Central Europe would get caught in the crossfire. After all, if you were busy killing Hussites,
why not kill another group of “non-believers” living in your midst?
1493:
Pope Alexander VI divided the New World including parts of east Asia between
Portugal and Spain along the so-called Demarcation Line. In other words the Western Hemisphere was
divided between two Catholic Kingdoms both of which had or would soon expel
their Jewish subjects. Alexander VI was one of the so-called Renaissance Popes,
a group of papal leaders who left much to be desired in matters related to
religion. Alexander VI was the Borgia
pope. And he was the father of the notorious Cesare and Lucretzia Borgia. Alexander VI presented a mix bag when it came
to his dealings with the Jews. Alexander
allowed so many Marranos fleeing Spain’s Inquisition in to Rome that the city’s
refugee population doubled his ten year reign.
While he decreased the size of the badge worn by professing Jews, he
added an additional five per cent tax to their already heavy tax burden. In an act of additional depravity, Alexander
“extended the distance of the annual race in which humiliated Jews ran naked
through the city so that he could view it from his Castel Sant’Angelo
residence.”
1515:
An edict was issued ordering the expulsion of the Jews from Ragussa. The expulsion was another instance of
economics hiding behind religious doctrine.
There were exceptions to the order including physicians and merchants
operating in the country on a temporary basis.
1680:
Birthdate of Johann Gerhard Meuschen, the anti- Jesuit Lutheran theologian. In
1736 he “Novum Testamentum ex Talmude et antiquitatibus Hebraeorum
illustratum,” which was a collection of studies that examined the relationship
between the New Testament and the Talmud and other Jewish writings.
1689:
Christian Knorr von Rosenroth passed away.
Born in Silesia in 1636, this Christian scholar became an accomplished
Hebraist who became an avid student of the Kabbalah and the Zohar who authored
several books on the topic.
1758:
Solomon Lipschitz who was born at Furth in 1675 and served as a cantor in
Prague and
Frankfurt
passed away today leaving behind Te'udat
Shelomo as a guide for future generations of Jewish musicians.
http://www.hebrewbooks.org/6533
1765:
In Charlestown, SC, Hillel Judah and his gave birth to Judah Jacob.
1774:
Birthdate of Maryland resident John Gettinger, the husband of Margaret
Gettinger with whom she had five children – Catherine, Elizabeth, Maria, Susan
and Daniel.
1779(18th
of Iyar, 5539): Lag BaOmer
1789:
Birthdate of author Angelo Paggi, the native of Sienna who served as the
principal of the Jewish school at Florence from 1836 to 1846 before being
forced to retire due to poor health.
1789:
As France hurtles towards Revolution, Come de Mirabeau whose advocacy for the
rights of the Jews included the call to “”confer upon them the enjoyment of
civil rights and they will enter the ranks of useful citizens’ began serving as
a deputy for the National Constituent Assembly.
1808:
Bella Hart, the London born daughter of Mary and Mordecai Levy and her husband
Daniel Hart gave birth to Caroline E. Hart
1809:
Abraham Lazarus married Mary Wilks today at the Great Synagogue.
1798:
In Switzerland, the town council of Schwyz which in 2011 hosted “a special
exhibition ‘Did you see my Alps? A Jewish Love story’” surrendered to French
Troops.
1810:
Birthdate of Alexandre Colonna-WalewskiAlexandre Colonna-Walewski the
European noble and diplomat who was reported to be the illegitimate son of
Napoleon and who was the paramour of the French-Jewish actress Rachel Felix
with whom he had a son - Alexandre-Antoine Colonna-Walewski – whom he
adopted in 1860.
1814:
Ferdinand
1816:
Birthdate of violinist Joseph Franco
1817(18th
of Iyar, 5577): Lag BaOmer
1818:
In Charleston, SC, Rebecca Lopez and Mordecai Hendricks De Leon, a doctor from
Philadelphia and mayor of the southern city gave birth to Edwin de Leon, the
brother of Thomas Cooper, David Camden, Agnes, Maria Louisa and Adeline Mary de
Leon.
1827:
Birthdate of Jacob Judah, the son of Hillel Judah and the brother of Richmond,
VA Isaac Judah
who
“was probably the first reader at Congregation Beth Shalom in Richmond.
1838:
In Budapest Jozsef Lob Lipot Oppenheim and Katalin Oppenheimer gave birth to
Abraham Oppenheim.
1840:
In “Ketchevo, Prussian, Poland, Israel Baruch Moses and his wife gave birth to
rabbi, author and physician Adolph Moses, a veteran of Garibaldi’s
revolutionary served as leader of the Jewish communities in Montgomery, AL and
Mobile, AL before settling in Louisville, KY in 1881 where he served as rabbi
for the rest of his life while also earning a medical degree from the
University of Louisville.
1843:
Louis Loewe delivered “a discourse” today on the day of the funeral of H.R.H. Prince
Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex.
http://www.ochjs.ac.uk/mullerlibrary/images/Loewe%20exhibition/LL/LL4/discourse1.jpg
1844:
Birthdate of Russia native Elchanan Harkavy, who in 1891 came to the United
States where he was a businessman in Brooklyn.
1847(18th
of Iyar 5607): Lag B’Omer
1847:
David Solomon married Sarah Hart at 63, Quadrant Regent St, St James Westminster,
London today.
1848:
A bill which would have altered the oath office making it possible for Lionel
de Rothschild to take the seat in Parliament to which he had been elected was
“passed on its third reading in the Commons” today “by a majority of 62 votes”
but was later rejected by the Lords thus thwarting the will of the electorate.
1849:
Birthdate of Gustave Pollak the native of Vienna who came to the United States
in 1866 where he pursed a career as a journalist with the Saturday Evening Post
and author of several works including Fifty Years of American Idealism
1850:
Birthdate of St. Petersburg native Emanuel Schiffers, the son of German parents
who became a leading mathematician and chess master.
1851:
A major fire broke out in San Francisco, destroying among other things, the
“canvassed roof store” that had been opened up by newly arrived Pomeranian
immigrant Abraham Abrahamsohn. The loss
of his “store” after only a month of being in the United States, forced him to
head for the gold fields and try his luck as a miner. Unfortunately, this effort did not pan out.
(Sorry for the horrible pun.)
1852:
In Cincinnati, Yetta Hackes and Louis Stix gave birth to Joseph Louis Stikx
1852(16th
of Iyar 5612): Seventy-three year old “Austrian printer, publisher, and
lexicographer” Moses Landau who created “a new edition of the "'Aruk"
of R. Nathan of Rome, to which he added Benjamin Mussafia's "Mussaf
he-'Aruk" passed away today.
1853:
In England, Nathaniel Montefiore and his wife gave birth to British author and
philanthropist Leonard Montefiore, the brother of Claude Montefiore, the
grand-nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore, and the nephew of Sir Anthony Rothschild
even before leaving college had contributed articles to periodicals at The
Nineteenth Century and The Fortnightly Review.
1854:
Fromental Halevy’s five-act grand opera “Charles VI” was performed in Buenos
Aires for the first time.
1856:
Two days after she had passed away, 22 year old Elizabeth (Joel) Jacobs, “the
wife of Edward Jacobs” was buried today at “Bury Street, Bevis Marks” in
London.
1859:
Judah Norden married Sarah Lazarus today.
1859:
Birthdate of Buffalo native A.L. (Abraham Lincoln) “Abe” Erlanger the partner
of Marc Klaw in Klaw and Erlanger that gave Broadway a slew of productions
including the first Ziegfeld Follies and built several of the theatres on the
Great White Way including the New Amsterdam.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0259531/
1861:
In Liverpool, England, Harriet and Walter Samuel gave birth to Samuel Edgar the
husband of Ethel Julia Edgar.
1862:
The New York Times reviewed books by Jewish authors and/or of special
interest to Jewish readers including The Spirit of the Hebrew Poetry by
Isaac Taylor in which the author described the “historic personality of God,
the reality of Revelation and the…certainty of Man’s Salvation as deduced from
the Hebrew Psalmists and Prophets…”
1862:
Birthdate of Schepsel Schaffer, the native of Courland who became rabbi of
Shearith Israel in Baltimore Maryland, where he also served as president the
city’s Zionist association starting in 1895.
1864:
Birthdate of Slavita, Russia native Joseph Zeff in who in 1900 came to the
United States where he was an active Zionist.
1864(28th
of Nisan, 5624): Thirty-four year old Major Marcus M. Speigel, the German born
son of Rabbi Moses Spiegel and the former Regina Greenebaum and older brother
of Joseph Spiegel, “the founder of Spiegel Catalog” who had commanded the 120th
Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Vicksburg campaing was fatally wounded today
“near Snaggy Point” during the Red River Campaign which was part of Grant’s
multi-pronged offensive that successfully defeated the Confederates and saved
the Union.
1864:
Grant crosses into Virginia as the commander of a coordinated effort including
Union armies all the way to Texas that will lead to the destruction of the
Confederacy, a fact that will please the majority of American Jews since most
of them favor the cause of the United States over the Confederate States.
1866:
In Dixon, Illinois, Samson Rosenthal and Mina Cahn gave birth to Mortiz
Rosenthal the University of Michigan graduate and husband of Virginia Moses who
served as the Assistant State’s Attorney in Cook County, Illinois and United
States Attorney for Northern Illinois.
1866:
Birthdate of Galicia native Judah Leo Landau, the grandson of the Rabbi of
Grabowitz who as a rabbi in Vienna and North Manchester before becoming a
professor of Hebrew at Witwatersrand University and Chief Rabbi in Johannesburg
where he passed away in 1942.
1871:
In London, Hyam Solomon Levy-Yuly, the London born son of Mr. and Mrs. Judah
Levy-Yuly and his wife Hannah Levy-Yuly, gave birth to Clara Levy-Yuly
1872:
A Times correspondent writing from Smyrna
today described a blood libel that had taken place in that Greek city. Despite the efforts of local medical
authorities and clergy to convince the populace that a Christrian child had
died in accidental drowning and not as part of Jewish plot tied to the Passover
ritual, mobs attacked the Jewish quarter converting into a place of
“pandemonium, pillage, rape and murder.”
1873:
Julius Judah Lyons, the New York born son of Grace and Jacques Judah Lyons and
his wife Constance Lyons gave birth to Edwin Jacques Lyons.
1875(29th
of Nisan, 5635): Publisher Michael Levi passed away in Paris.
1875(29th
of Nisan, 5635): Seventy-one year old Heinrich Ewald the author The Poetical
Books of the Old Testament, History of the People of Israel, Antiquities
of the People of Israel and Complete Course on the Hebrew Language –
the book which led him to be described as “the second founder of the science of
the Hebrew Language – passed away today
1875:
In Latvia, Behr Moses and Rasya Bernstein gave birth to Columbia Ph.D Ludwig
Behr Bernstein and the husband of Sophia Kivman who was the Superintendent of
the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Orphan Asylum of New York before organizing the
Cottage Home plan of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Asylum of Pleasantville, NY
and starting in 1921 serving as the Executive Director of the Federation of
Jewish Philanthropies in Pittsburgh.
1876:
Emile Berliner starts work that leads to the invention of the gramophone.
http://www.soundrecordinghistory.net/inventors-of-sound-recording-devices/emile-berliner/
1877(21st
of Iyar, 5637): Seventy-four-year-old Rebecca Hays Myers, the daughter of
Samuel and Judith Moses Myers and the sister of Dr. Henry Myers passed away
today.
1878(1st
of Iyar, 5638): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1878: According to today's Literary Notes column,
"Prof. Goldwin Smith who is said to be a cordial Jew-hater is preparing a
reply to an article in the April Nineteenth Century in which it is
maintained that Jews are good patriots."
1878: “Philip Leon, a well-dressed Hebrew was arraigned
in the Court of Special Session on a charge of having stolen a pawn ticket and
a dollar from Julia McCloughlin.”
Although he denied the larceny, which was took the form of a swindle, he
was found guilty and sentenced to a month in New York’s city jail and ordered
to pay a fine of $50.
1878: “Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society”, a
column published today provides information about the Hebrew Benevolent and
Orphan Asylum Society based on its recently released 55th annual
report. Currently the asylum provides service to 301 boys and girls. The children attend local primary and grammar
schools where, according to letters from school officials, they are doing quite
well. The asylum teaches Hebrew and
other Jewish studies. The asylum houses an industrial school where boys “are
taught to be printers and shoemakers.”
1879:
The New York Times featured a review of "Moses the Lawgiver"
by Rev. William M. Taylor in which the author writes favorably about the Jewish
leader and the customs and ceremonies of his time. This is the first in a series of that is to
include "Daniel, the Beloved", "David, King of Israel" and
“Elijah the Prophet.”
1879:
“Matacong” an article published today reported on the activities of Nathaniel
Isaac, a Jew, who was the only English resident of this island off the coast of
Sierra Leone. In 1856, Isaac accompanied a French merchant named Milon on a
visit to the King of Forécariah where he served as an intermediary to assure
that the Frenchman could contact his commercial operations on the island.
1879:
Dr. Szold, the Rabbi of the Hanover Street Synagogue in Baltimore delivered a
lecture on Abraham Lincoln. The talk was sponsored by the Hebrew Young Men’s
Association and included “a number of short anecdotes concerning the great
man. Dr. Szold said that Mr. Lincoln had
the most remarkable faculty for solving difficult problems by tell little
stories or parables.” Alexander the
Great used a sword to cut the Gordian knot.
Lincoln used his “sharp, keen incisive wit “to unravel the most”
difficult and intricate questions.
1880:
Birthdate of Cincinnati, OH native Dr. Elmore Tauber, the “internationally
known dermatologist”.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/519923
1881:
Birthdate of Olga Aldorova who was deported from Prague, the first step on the
way to the death camps.
1882:
During the blood libel known as the Tiszaeszlár Affair, the mother of 14 year
old Eszter Solymosi appeared before a judge where she accused the Jews of
having murdered her daughter.
1884:
Samuel and Blume (Teitzlin) Skoss birth to American “Arabist” and author,
Professor Soleomon Leon Skoss, the husband of Irene C. Panek.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/skoss-solomon-leon
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/skoss-solomon-leon
1884(9th
of Iyar, 5644): Baer Ben Alexander Goldberg passed away in Paris. Born at
Soludna near Warsaw in 1799 he eventually moved to Berlin where he began a
career as an author and translator; a career he continued after moving to
London in 1847 and Paris in 1852. One of his first works was "Ḳonṭres
mi-Sod Ḥakamim," a commentary on the Jewish calendar, with chronological
tables published 1845 was one the first works by this prolific author. "Ma'aseh Nissim," a translation
from the Arabic into Hebrew of Daniel the Babylonian's critical work on
Maimonides is an example of the many translations he produced while living in
Paris.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view_friendly.jsp?artid=297&letter=G#ixzz10XwHrAwA
1885:
Birthdate of Russian born pianist Leo Sirota who taught in Japan for 15 years
where his daughter Beate Sirota Gordon was born before settling in the United
States.
1886:
Birthdate of Vilna native and Brooklyn resident Leon Goldapple a member of the
Executive Committee of the Zionist Organization of America whose publications
including The New Palestine an
English language weekly and the Young
Judean, an English language monthly for “Jewish Youth.”
1886:
In Philadelphia, Rebecca Schoenbrun and Ignatz Kline gave birth to Swarthmore
College graduate and Johns Hopkins trained medical doctor Benjamin Schoenbrun
Kline the husband of Edith Madeline Moysey who was instructor in pathology at
Western Reserve University and chief of the laboratory department at the Mt.
Sinai Hospital in Cleveland OH.
1886:
At Haymarket Square a peaceful rally by workers seeking the 8 hour day turned
violent that led to Illinois vs. August Spies et al in which Sigmund Zeisler
represented the defendants.
1887:
The funeral of Isaac Henricks, the prominent businessman and member of the
Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society, is scheduled to take place at his
brother-in-law’s home this morning.
1889:
In Prestwich Lancashire, Ephraim Sieff, a Lithuanian born Jewish businessman
and his wife gave birth to Israel Moses Sieff, Baron Sieff the chairman of
Marks & Spencer from 1964 to 1967 who was the father of Marcus Joseph
Sieff, Lord Sieff of Brimpton.
1890(14th
of Iyar, 5650): Pesach Sheini
1890:
Four new trustees are scheduled to be appointed a meeting of the Hebrew
Benevolent and Orphan Asylum.
1890:
It was reported today that Russia is preparing to adopt more stringent passport
regulations, requiring that the documents of all those entering the country
must show their religion. Anyone who
does not show a religion will be registered as a Jew and will only be able to
visit “localities where Jews are permitted to reside.”
1891:
In San Francisco, “wholesale wine merchant, Frederick Jacobi Sr. and Flora
Brandenstein (daughter of tobacco wholesaler Joseph Brandenstein), whom Frederick
Sr. had married in 1876” gave birth to
WW I Army veteran and noted composer Frederick Jacobi the husband of
Irene Schwarcz who was “also known and best remembered as a composer of works
with Judaic themes” whose “interest in this genre began with a 1930 commission
from Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York for a Sabbath evening
service.”
https://www.milkenarchive.org/artists/view/frederick-jacobi/
1892:
The funeral of Abraham L. Grabfeelder, the General Southern Agent of Manhattan
Life Insurance Company a director of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children will be
held this morning at 9:30
1892:
Six Jews and Jewesses were convicted at Vilna of murdering babies that had been
left in their care.
1892:
It was reported today that David Boody, the Mayor of Brooklyn, Joseph C.
Hendrix, President of the Board of Education and Oscar S. Straus, the former
minister to Turkey, addressed those attending the cornerstone laying ceremonies
of the new building belong to the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1893:
Simon Goodheart, one of the leaders of the aggressive movement to convert Jews
living on the lower east side denied accusations contained in affidavits signed
by those whom his group had converted and who have now renounced their
conversion that financial inducements are used to gain converts and that most
of those who are supposed to be converts have taken the step for financial
gain.
1894:
Birthdate of Archibald Maul Ramsay, a British army officer, out spoken
anti-Semite and the only MP to ever be interred on suspicions that he was a spy
for the Axis
1895(10th
of Iyar, 5655): Parashat Achrei-Mot Kedoshim
1895:
A nameless seven year old deaf mute Jewish boy whose mother had passed away and
whose father “was unable to provide for him” has been taken to Randall’s
1895:
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Zuckerman of 71 East 109th Street appeared
before the justice at the Harlem Police Court and charged their 20 year old son
of burglary – specifically of stealing tree silver candlesticks worth $100 and
a gold watch worth $75.
1896:
Today, The New York Times published
“Peculiarities of Baron Hirsch” which had first appeared in the London Chronicle which described a man of great personal wealth who was, at heart, a
populist who sided with the working classes in their conflicts with
“cosmopolitan financiers” and other power brokers including those inhabiting the
British House of Lords.
1898:
One day after she had passed away, Leah Davis, the wife of Morris Davis, with
whom she had had six children was buried today in the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery”
in London.
1900:
“B’nai B’rith Convention” an article published today reported on the recently
adjourned convention of the Jewish fraternal organization which has been held
in Chicago, Illinois.
1901(15th of Iyar, 5661): Parashat
Emor
1901:
The Books and Authors column included Israel Zangwill’s comments about “Robert
Annys, Poor Priest” by Annie Nathan Myer. “Zangwill writes, ‘You are to be
heartily congratulated. The book is full of color, spirituality and drama.
There is a fine sense of the early commerce of early English history…You score
in so many ways. Your pure use of words shows you have the true artist’s joy in
them for their own sake.”
1902:
Herzl began a three day trip in Berlin. Herzl talked to the director of the
Deutsche Bank through which the Zionist movement would like to buy the Deutsche
Palästinabank. For the first time Herzl met Franz Oppenheimer.
1902(27th
of Nisan, 5662): Fifty-six year old French physician Theodore Klein who served
for 18 years as president of the Société de l'Etude Talmudique passed away
today.
1903:
Birthdate of actor Luther Adler. Born in New York, Adler was the
brother of two other famous thespians, Jay and Stella Adler. Adler began
his career at the age of 13 appearing in his father's Yiddish theater. Luther Adler was born in 1903. His theatre debut began as a 13-year in
his father's Yiddish Theatre. In the 1930's he was part of the Group Theatre
where he worked with such well-known names as John Garfield, Elia Kazan, Less
Strasberg and Howard Da Saliva. He appeared in over thirty movies and as
many television programs. Some of his film credits include The Last Angry Man; Cast a Giant Shadow and Voyage
of the Damned. He passed away in 1984.
1904: The United States began the construction of
the Panama Canal. The first Panamanian
Jewish community, Kol Shearith Israel, was founded in 1876 when Panama was
still part of Columbia. By 1911, when
the Canal was all but completed the Jewish community numbered approximately
500.
1904:
Dispatches sent to the Times of London today from Vienna contained additional
descriptions of the anti-Jewish rioting in the town of Bender, near Kishinev
where the “outcries of a drunken fanatic started the mob on its rush to the
Jewish quarter” where “all the scenes of the Kishinev massacre were repeated on
a small scale” with among other things the wife of a pregnant furniture dealer
being “thrown from an upper window of her house into the street.”
1905:
Birthdate of Mátyás György Seiber, the Hungarian composer who worked in Germany
until the rise of the Nazis forced him to leave for Great Britain where he spent
the rest of his career.
http://www.schott-music.com/shop/persons/featured/matyas-seiber/
1906:
It as reported today that Jacob H. Schiff, acting as the treasurer for the Red
Cross and the committee raising funds for the victims of the San Francisco earthquake
has received an additional $35,000 in contributions.
1907:
Birthdate of Milton Galatzer the native of Chicago and all-Star outfielder at
Crane Tech who played the outfield and first base for the Cleveland Indians and
Cincinnati Reds during the 1930’s
1907:
In Rochester, Rose Stein and Louis E. Kirstein gave birth to Monument Man and
co-founder of the New York City Ballet Lincoln Edward Kirstein.
http://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/the-heroes/the-monuments-men/kirstein-pfc.-lincoln-e.
1908:
“The Fifth Biennial Session of the National Conference of Jewish Charities
began” today in Richmond at Beth Ahabah Temple.
1909:
One day after he had passed away, Louis Bernstein, the 34 year old son of Elias
and Sarah Bernstein was buried today at the “Belfast Jewish Cemetery” in
Northern Ireland.
1909: In
Cleveland, “Yiddish speaking Russian immigrants” “Bertha (née Sen) and Benjamin
Silverblatt,” gave birth to Howard Silverblatt who gained fame as actor Howard
Da Silva, a large man with a distinctive
voice who worked in steel mill to pays his way through Carnegie Institute. His
early stage work includes stints with Orson Wells as well as playing the
original Judd in Oklahoma. In the late 1930's and 1940's he had a
successful career in movies playing in such varied films as Sergeant York and
The Lost Weekend. Da Salvia's left wing politics got him in trouble with
the House Un-American Activities Committee. Da Silva was blacklisted for
many years. His fortunes began to rise in the late 1960's and 1970's when
he played Ben Franklin 1776 as well as a film about (of all
people), J. Edgar Hoover. He passed away in 1986.
https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/43087%7C71228/Howard-Da-Silva/
https://spartacus-educational.com/USAsilva.htm
1910(25th
of Nisan 5670): Miriam Patchunski, the wife of Abraham Patuchunski passed away
today after which she was buried at the “Belfast Jewish Cemetery” in Northern
Ireland
1910:
According to some sources this was the date on which Tel Aviv was founded. The
confusion stems from the fact that the land company to purchase the acreage for
Tel Aviv was formed in 1909. In 1909 a
number of Jewish residents decided to move to a healthier environment, outside
the crowded and noisy city of Jaffa. They established a company called
Ahuzat-Bayit and with the financial assistance of the Jewish National Fund
purchased some twelve acres of sand dunes, north of Jaffa. In 1910, the suburb
was named Tel Aviv after Nahum Sokolow's translation of Altneuland, Herzl's fictional depiction of the Jewish State.
1911: It was
reported today that while Dr. Solomon Schechter, the President of the Jewish
Theological Seminary was on “an eleven months’ vacation” that included time in
Africa and Baghdad, Cambridge University “issued his translation of the
remarkable manuscript containing a contemporary record of persons and events
described in the New Testament entitled ‘Fragments of a Zadokite Work’”
1912(17th
of Iyar, 5672): Parashat Emor; as the Jews observe Shabbat, an Italian Army
lands on the Isle of Rhodes during a war between the Ottomans and the Italians
– one of the many small wars that set the stage for WW I.
1912:
Birthdate of Aron B. Landauer, the husband of Elizabeth Laura Landauer
1913: The
Temple Sholom Alliance is scheduled to host a performance of “A Woman’s
Intrusion,” a one act play by Tillie Becker this evening at Assembly Hall in
Chicago.
1913: In
Sacramento, CA, rededication of B’Nai Israel Synagogue.
1913:
Birthdate of Irving Broome who gained fame as John Broome the writer for DC
Comics whose creations included “The Flash.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-john-broome-1096133.html
1913: “A Woman’s
Intrusion” a one act playlet was scheduled to be a featured attraction at this
evenings “entertainment” sponsored by The Temple Sholom Alliance at the
Assembly Hall in Chicago.
1914: “Credits
America’s Freedom to Jews” published today described a speech delivered by
Oscar S. Straus, the former cabinet member and U.S. Ambassador to Turkey in
which he described the relationship of Christopher Columbus with “Gabriel
Sanctus” who had raised money for one of the explorer’s ships and Luis
Santangel to whom Columbus “wrote his first letter describing the wonders of
the New World.”
1915: “Chicago
Plea for Frank” published today included the announcement of the those who were
willing to speak out on behalf of Leo Frank who has been wrongly convicted of
married Mary Phagan included the famous defense attorney Clarence Darrow,
Bishop Samuel Fallows and Frank and Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout, President of the
Illinois Equal Suffrage Society.
1915: “The
Illinois Legislature was asked today to pass resolutions asking for the
suspension of the death sentence on Leo M. Frank” who has been “sentenced to
death at Atlanta for the murder of Mary Phagan.”
1915: It was
reported today that “the resentencing of Leo Frank at this time would mean the
hastening of the hearing before the Prison Commission of his petition for a
commutation of the death sentence to life imprisonment” which “would mean that
the case would reach Governor Slaton before the expiration of his term in the
latter part of June.”
1915: As of
today Judge Samuel Greenbaum is the President of the Educational Alliance which
as of June 30, 1914 had 2,692 members.
1916:
Birthdate of sociologist Rose Laub Coser who “made contributions to medical
sociology, refined major concepts of role theory, and analyzed contemporary
gender issues in the family and in the occupational world.”
1916:
Bronx County Registrar Edward I. Pollak presided over a meeting tonight at the
Spooner Theatre organized by the Jewish Relief Committee, the Central Relief
Committee and the People’s Relief Committee for Jewish War Sufferers which
marked the start of “a campaign to raise $100,000 in the Bronx for the aid of
Jewish war suffers.”
1916:
“The American Jewish Chronicle, a weekly publication devoted, according to its
management” which included Isidor Straus as President and S.M. Melamed as
Secretary, “to the advocacy of the rights of Jews after the close of the
European war” is scheduled to make its first appearance today.
1916:
As Jewish leaders becoming increasingly concerned about the fate of Jews in
Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing wrote to Simon Wolf that the
State “Department has cabled the Embassy in Petrograd making inquiry” “as to
the authenticity of a report that there is to be an outbreak against the Jews
of Russia at the coming Russian Easter.”
1917: At the
request of the government of Salonika, the rabbis approve burial of bodies in
shrouds made of paper, because linen was scarce and expensive.
1917: It was
reported today that “Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein has resigned as director of the
Central Jewish Institute to lead a Jewish revival movement” in New York – an
effort to which he will devote the next year of his life.
1917: Tel Aviv
was sacked by Arabs. Djemal Pasha announced that it was the intention of the
Turkish government to purge Eretz Yisrael of its Jewish population. Tel Aviv
was sacked by the Arabs on the anniversary of the official adoption of the name
"Tel Aviv". That same year the British attacked the Turks in
Palestine and the Jews reclaimed Tel Aviv which is often called the "New
York of Israel."
1917: Djemal
Pasha of the Ottoman Army declared that the intention of authorities was to
"wipe out Jewish population of Palestine."
1918(22nd
of Iyar, 5678): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
1918(22nd
of Iyar, 5678: Dr. Isaac Adler, the German born Professor Clinical Pathology at
the New York Polyclinic Medal School who had “who had studied medicine at the
universities of Heidelberg, Vienna, Prague and Berlin” after graduating from
Columbia and who was the “brother of Dr. Felix Adler, head of the Ethical
Culture Society of New York” passed away today.
1918: “Plan
New Hebrew Club” published in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer described plans to
build a $20,000 facility that will included an 500 seat auditorium which will a
home for the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and the Young Women’s Hebrew
Association in Camden, NJ.
1918: “John L.
Bernstein, President of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of
America” received a cable from Samuel Mason who had gone to Japan “straighten
out affairs among the thousands of Jews who been stranded there after fleeing
Russia” “announcing that the 200 Jewish refugees who had been stranded in
Harbin” are now on their way to the United States.
1918: Today,
the Jewish Welfare Board sent an order to Chief Rabbi Hertz, “who is working
among the Jewish soldiers in England” “an order of 10,000 psalms book” which
will then “be forwarded to Rabbi Levi in Paris and to Chaplain Elkin C.
Voorsanger” who will distribute them to American soldiers in France.
1919: In
Chicago, Illinois, the dedication of the Mt. Sinai Hospital on South California
Avenue is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.
1919: In
Pittsburgh, five days a group of Jews met at the home of Ben Cohen where they
“organized what was charted as the Beechview Hebrew Congregation Beth El” which
is now Beth El Congregation of the South Hills
“the men of the congregation” met today “and elected their first
officers : President, Jacob Rosenson; Vice President, Harry Ruderman;
Secretary, Isidore Marmorstein; Treasurer, Abraham Zober.”
1919(4th
of Iyar, 5679): Seventy-three year old Julius Reach, “the husband of the late
Rosa Reach” with whom he had four children passed away today.
1920: In
Lithuania, Rabbi Moses Etter (Yuter) the son of Mere and Shmuel Yuter and his
wife Sophie gave birth Louis Etter.
1920:
Birthdate of Brooklyn native Harold “Hal” Judenfriend the star CCNY basketball
player.
http://probasketballencyclopedia.com/player/hal-judenfriend/
1921(26th of
Nisan, 5681): Jonas Kuppenheimer, president of the clothing manufacturing
company that bears his family name passed away today in Lake Forest,
Illinois. Born at Terre Haute, Indiana
in 1854, Kuppenheimer came to Chicago fifty years ago with his father Bernard,
and his brothers Louis and Albert where they opened a clothing store that grew
into a major producer of menswear.
1922:It was
reported today that “a declaration favoring establishment of a national home
for Jewish people in Palestine as urged by many prominent American Jewish organization
is made in a resolution by Senator Lodge, reported yesterday by the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/05/04/99019525.html?pageNumber=15
1922: Mr. and
Mrs. Oscar Straus are staying at the Ambassador while visiting Atlantic City,
NJ.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/05/04/99019512.html?pageNumber=15
1923(18th
of Iyar, 5683): Lag B’Omer
1923: The 146th
session of the New York State Legislature in which Philip M. Kleinfeld had
served his first time as the State Senator from 4th District came to
a close.
1924: Tonight,
“more than one thousand people attended a dinner in honor of Joseph L.
Buttenwieser, President of the Federation for the Support of Jewish
Philanthropic Societies, in the grand ballroom of the Hotel Pennsylvania”
1924:
“Congratulations on the progress made in the drive for raising funds to restore
Palestine were exented to American Jewry by Dr. Chaim Weizmann at a meeting
this afternoon at Temple B’nai Israel which was attended by Samuel Untermyer,
Bernard Rosenblatt and Dr. Maurice Eisenberg wherea check for $40,000 was Dr.
Weizmann, the president of the World’s Zionist Organization.
1925:
Birthdate of Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, former
1925: In
Constantine, Algeria, Albert and Diamantine Abarzel gave birth to Avraham
Abarzel, the oldest of the their ten children who died while serving in the IDF
in 1948 during “battle for the capture of Beersheba.”
1925: In
Johannesburg, South Africa Julius First and Matilda Levetan gave birth to
anti-Apartheid activist Ruth First.
1925: U.S.
premiere of “Any Woman,” a silent film produced by Jesse Lasky and Adolph
Zukor.
1926: In
Palestine, “all work in Jewish office, factories and institutions…stopped at
1:30 today as thousands of mourners paid tribute to the late Dr. Max Nordau…whose
body was brought to Palestine from France.
As the body was being carried to Tel Aviv’s town hall, the procession
stopped at the Great Synagogue where special religious services were held.
1926: On the
Lower East Side of Manhattan, garment cutter Benjamin Ratzer and Clara Bendel
gave birth to Harry Ratzer who gained fame as “Harry Lorayne, who parlayed a
childhood reading disability and the brutal punishment it engendered into an
international career as a memory expert, summoning the names of roomfuls of
strangers in a single sitting, rattling off entire small-town telephone books
and telling astonished audiences what was written on any page of a given issue
of Time magazine.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1927: In New
York, Harry and Ida Sotsky gave birth to Abraham S. Adler the husband of Mimi
Adler
1928(14th
of Iyar, 5688): Pesach Sheni
1928: In Brno,
Czechoslovakia, Aron and Ruth Dershowitz gave birth Rabbi Zvi Dershowtiz who
came to the United States at the age of ten and served several Reform
Congregations including Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, CA.
1929(24th
of Nisan, 5689): Parashat Achrei Mot
1929: While
“official figures as to the number of the Jewish population in Palestine are
not available, Major Ormsby-Gore, the Under-Secretary for the Colonies
estimated that the number had reach 149,554 by the end of 1928, up from an
estimated population of 55,000 at the time of the armistice in 1918.
1930: In the
Bronx, “the former Ruth Hirsch, a milliner” and Solomon Peterman, “a shoe
salesman” gave birth to their only child Roberta Peterman who as Robert Peters
“achieved the longest tenure of any soprano in the history of the Metropolitan
Opera.”
1931: L.D.
Dover, the general secretary of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity announced today that
Lt. Gov. Herbert H. Lehman will award the Gottheil Medal as the person who has done the most for
Jewry and Judaism in the preceding year at a banquet on May 9th
1932: In Hungary,
Professor Louis Mehly, a biologist who had previously said that the Jews have
different blood than other races, and who has been sentenced to two weeks for
publicly calling the Jews a “parasitic race” is appealing his conviction.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/05/04/100730663.html?pageNumber=9
1933: “A
demand for a united front In the American Jewish protest against German
anti-Semitism was voiced today by the rabbinical assembly of the Jewish
Theological Seminary at the closing session of its annual convention at the
seminary, 122d Street and Broadway.
1934:
“Manhattan Melodrama” produced by David O. Selznick with a script co-authored
by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and, in what some might say was type-casting, featuring
George Sidney in the role of Poppa Rosen, a Russian Jew was released today in
the United States.
1935: In San
Francisco, the former Alma Loew a Jewish immigrant from Germany and Edward
Friedman, a Jewish refugee from Lithuania gave birth to jazz pianist Donald
Ernest Friedman.”
1935: A court
in Berne, Switzerland is scheduled to deliver a verdict in the civil suit
brought by The Union of Jewish Communities of Switzerland and the Jewish community
of Bene “against Swiss Nazis and others demanding the confiscation of a
pamphlet in the Protocols of Zion were published because “the publication
violated the Swiss law prohibiting the printing of literature ‘calculate to
excite vile instincts or to cause brutal offense.’”
1936 “Nine
charitable organizations received bequests totaling $56,000 in the will of the
late stock broker Albert Stieglitz which was filed in Surrogate’s Court today”
and which “named his widow, Hannah Stieglitz as the principal beneficiary.
1936: Voters
are expected to accept or reject the recommendation of the nominating committee
chaired by Mrs. Edward Josephy naming the new slate of officers for the
National Council of Jewish Women.
1936: In
Atlantic City, celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of New
York City merchant Aaron Blumenthal.
1936: It was
reported today that “one of the steamship companies subsidized by the Federal
Government through mail contracts employs seamen who place allegiance to the
Nazi flag above that of the United States.”
1937: The
convention of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis in the United States and Canada, an
“organization that includes in its membership about 98 per cent of all the
orthodox rabbis in the United States” is scheduled to continue for a second day
in Atlantic City, NJ.
1937: It was
announced today that Arturo Toscanini will again conduct the Palestine Symphony
Orchestra in a series of concerts that will include a November 10 in Tel Aviv
as well as performances in Jerusalem and Haifa.
1938: In an
address to 500 newly married couples at Castel Gandolfo, Pope Pius XI
criticizes Adolf Hitler, currently visiting Mussolini in Rome, and the Nazi
Party. Pope Pius XI says that these couples deserve a papal benediction because
"such sad things are happening, sad things, very sad, both near to us and
far away. Certainly among these sad things is that on the feast day of the Holy
Cross of Christ, the banners of another cross which certainly is not that of
Christ should have been hoisted in Rome. This was out of place and time. We
tell you this so that you may understand how necessary it is to pray, pray, and
pray for the mercy of the Almighty in all its largeness." (Editor’s Note –
this was not the only time that Pius XI would publicly criticize Hitler or
speak up in defense of the Jews. Any
discussion of the role of the Catholic Church in events leading up to the Shoah
must include an examination of this brave cleric)
1938: A
picture was taken of the teachers and students at a Jewish school in Sirvintos,
Lithuania.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/may/03.asp
1938: In Los
Angeles, Oscar winning screen writer Phillip G. Epstein and his wife gave birth to American author
Leslie Donald Epstein whose novels includes King of the Jews. Epstein was the nephew of screenwriter Julius
Epstein and the father of baseball mogul Theo Epstein.
1938:
Carl von Ossietzky, an anti-Nazi German journalist and winner of the 1935 Nobel
Peace Prize, dies at age 50 after five years' captivity in concentration camps.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that Arab
gangs murdered Hassan Darfil, a prominent Arab notable representing the Wadi
Salib quarter of Haifa. Arab gangs continued to abduct and rob villagers and
spread terror across the country.
1939:
According to the diary of Jay Pierrepont Moffat, a State Department official,
President Roosevelt met at the White House with Jewish leaders where the
President seemed to be convinced that the warnings given by the U.S. Embassy in
Berlin “were sound and not exaggerated.”
1939:
Birthdate of Israeli author Amos Oz. To understand the works of Oz, you
must realize that he is Jewish, but a sabra, a person who never has known the
Diaspora. Born in Jerusalem, Oz was a city boy until he went to live on a
kibbutz at the age of 15. "He studied philosophy and literature at the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and was visiting fellow at Oxford University,
author-in- residence at the Hebrew University and writer-in-residence at
Colorado College. He has been named Officer of Arts and Letters of France. An
author of prose for children and adults, as well as an essayist, he has been
widely translated and is internationally acclaimed. He has been honored with
the French Prix Femina and the 1992 Frankfurt Peace Prize. He lives in the
southern town Arad and teaches literature at Ben Gurion University of the
Negev." In describing his literary efforts, a reviewer in Newsweek wrote,
“Eloquent, humane, even religious in the deepest sense, [Oz] emerges as a kind
of Zionist Orwell: a complex man obsessed with simple decency and determined
above all to tell the truth, regardless of whom it offends.” Oz is extremely
prolific and only some of his works have been translated into English.
These include such recent efforts as My Michael, A Perfect Peace
and Don't Call It Night.
1939: In
Hungary, Miklos Horthy signs “The Second Jewish Bill” which had been introduced
into the Hungarian Parliament in December of 1938 and was laughingly called
“the Christmas present for the Jews.”
The bill was the Hungarian version of Hitler’s Nuremberg Laws and proved
to almost immediately ruinous for much of Hungary’s Jewish population.
1940(26th
of Nisan, 5700): Seventy-eight year old “German numismatist” and former
Professor of the University of Jena Behrendt Pick took his life today in Berlin
after having been forced into retirement because he was Jewish.
1940: Today,
future Reform Rabbi Robert Lehman, whose family had arrived in the United
States from Nazi Germany in 1938 “celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at the Hebrew
Tabernacle of Washington Heights, a Reform congregation made up largely of
fellow German-Jewish immigrants that leaned toward traditional or conservative
practices.”
1941: “The
Zagreb radio announced today that severe laws against Jews would be carried out
throughout Croatia,” including one that would allow Jewish property to “be
confiscated by the State without compensation and Jewish employees of the
government to be expelled by June 1.”
1941: “Five
hundred Jewish leaders, attending a conference of the United Palestine Appeal,
sent a telegram to President Roosevelt today urging him to intercede with Great
Britain to permit the formation at once of a Jewish Army in Palestine and to
equip it with adequate material.”
1942: Japanese
ships supporting the invasion of Tulagi were attacked by planes from the
American aircraft carrier Yorktown marking the start of what would become the
Battle of the Coral Sea, which marked the first time that the Japanese were
stopped during the war in the Pacific and the first time that American planes
sank a Japanese aircraft carrier
1942: Birthdate of Michael Dray. His family had
moved from Casablanca to Paris. He was the youngest of the Moroccan-born
Jews who would be deported from Paris to Auschwitz - an event that took place
when he was twenty months old.
1942: The
first day of an eleven day deportation of 10,000 Jews from Lodz ghetto to
the Chelmno Death Camp. They were part of 145,000 people who were gassed
between December, 1941 and September 1942.
1942:
Starting on this date and lasting until May 8, six Jews in Lódz, Poland,
fearing deportation, commit suicide.
1942:
Starting on this date and lasting until May 15, more than 10,000 Jews are
deported from the Lódz (Poland) Ghetto to Chelmno.
1943(29th
of Nisan, 5703): Eighty-five year old Russian born, Canadian trained American
gynecologist Hiram Nahum Vineberg, the husband of Lena Bernheim and the
namesake for the Hiram N. Vineberg Research Fund passed away today in New York.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Diary_of_Dr_Hiram_N_Vineberg_M_D_McGill.html?id=_s6PGwAACAAJ
1943:
Against all odds, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which began on April 19
continues.
1943:
An advertisement condemning the recently completed Bermuda Conference appeared
on page 17 of the New York Times under the headline of To 5,000,000 Jews
in the Nazi Death-Trap Bermuda was a Cruel Mockery,”
1943:
The Committee for an Army of Stateless and Palestinian Jews published an
advertisement today in the New York Times which included the “unauthorized use
of the names of several members of Congress – including Harry S. Truman, Robert
A. Taft and Edwin C. Johnson.”
1943:
U.S. premiere of “Five Graves to Cairo” a war movie set in North Africa
directed by Billy Wilder who co-authored the script
1944(11th
of Iyar): Author Yehoshua Hana Rawnitzki passed away today.
1944:
“Gaslight” the film adaptation of the mystery Broadway play directed by George
Cukor and filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was released today in the
United States.
1945(21st of
Iyar, 5705): Eighty-seven year old, Hiram Nahum Vineberg, the Russian born son
of Alexander and Anna Vineberg, the husband of Lena
Bernheimer and graduate of McGill University who went on to become the
attending gynecologist at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital and the
Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids passed away today.
1945: Red
Army troops liberate the camp at Oranienburg, Germany, where 5000 inmates
remain alive.
1945:
The U.S. 82nd Airborne Division liberates the concentration camp at Wöbbelin,
Germany.
1945:
At Mauthausan the prisoners were not taken out to work and SS men were observed
leaving the camp.
1945: The
International Red Cross took over the administration of the camp/ghetto at
Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia. The last of the camp's SS men flee.
1946(3rd
of Iyar, 5706): Parashat Kedoshim
1946(3rd
of Iyar, 5706): Seventy-eight-year-old Samuel Bettelheim, the Hungarian born
son of Philipp Bettelheim and Johanna Buchsbaum and the husband of Julia
Deutsch, who should not be confused with the Zionist leader with the same name,
passed away today.
1946:
“Lindsley B. Kimball, president of United Service Organizations, paid tribute
today to "the role of American Jewry" in the country's war effort
through the National Jewish Welfare Board, a member of the USO…”
1947(14th
of Iyar, 5707): Pesach Sheni
1947:
Today marked the start of the fifth annual nation-wide observance of Religious
Book Week, sponsored by The National Conference of Christians and Jews and
designed to stimulate the reading of books of spiritual value, is being held
this week. The Conference was established in 1928 "to demonstrate that
those who differ deeply in religious beliefs may work together in the American
way toward mutual goals."
1947: The
Irgun Zeva'l Le'umi, known in Hebrew by the abbreviation as Etzel or the Irgun,
staged the famous prison break at Acre Prison. In April, 1947, the
British had hung members of the Irgun so Menachem Begin felt it was imperative
to try and rescue at least some of those held in the aging fortress. In a
act of daring-do worthy of any adventure novel, the Irgun entered the prison
and freed 41 Etzel and Lehi (Stern Gang) prisoners. They could not free
more because of the lack of hiding places. This escape is one of the
climactic scenes in Leon Uris's novel (and movie by the same name) Exodus.
1947:
More than 2,000 people filled Temple Emanu-El this afternoon at a special
memorial service for Henry Monsky, international president of B'nai B'rith and
chairman of the interim committee of the American Jewish Congress. Mr. Monsky
died on Friday in the Hotel Biltmore at the age of 57, while attending a
meeting of the future organization committee of the conference.
1948:
In direct violation of international law the Arab Legion which was the
Jordanian army that included a compliment of British officers attacked Kfar
Etzion and was driven back by the poorly armed Jewish fighters.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/background-and-overview-israel-war-of-independence
1948: With
only five days left until the end of the British Mandate, the Jewish forces
were working feverishly to develop a military posture that would enable them to
avoid annihilation by Arab military forces operating illegally in
Palestine. At the same time they were
trying to prepare a defensive posture that would enable them to face the
invading armies they would face within the next week. To that end, the Palmach launched Operation
Broom. Operation Broom was intended to
“sweep away” Arab bases so that Jewish settlements in the lower and upper
Galilee could be joined together with a wide, safe strip of Jewish territory.
Large numbers of Arabs departed the Galilee for safe haven across the Jordan
River. Their departure was a result of
rumors of that a large Jewish force was on its way and the belief that once the
Arab armies had had their way with the Jews, they could return and reap the
spoils of victory.
1948:
Norman Mailer's first novel, The Naked and the Dead, was published.
1949:
Led by Mayor O’Dwyer and Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the President of Israel, the Jews
of New York city are scheduled to gather at public rallies and concerts to
observe the “first anniversary of Israel’s independence.
1949: U.S. premiere of “The Barkley’s of Broadway”
produced by Arthur Freed, written by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Sidney
Sheldon with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin and featuring Oscar
Levant as “Ezra Miller” and Hans Conried as “Ladislaus Ladi”
1950(17th
of Iyar, 5710):Seventy-eight year old Viennese born American psychoanalysis
Paul Fedem who was one of the early supporters of Sigmund Freud passed away
today
1951:
“Sol Lesser, independent film producer, financier and theatre operator, has
joined the syndicate headed by Louis R. Lurie of San Francisco which is
negotiating the purchase of the Warner Brothers' 24 per cent interest in Warner
Brothers Pictures, Inc., Mr. Lesser disclosed today.”
1952:
In an interview given on the eve of his departure for the United States, Abba
Khoushy, Mayor of Haifa declared “that this is going to be THE city of the
country.” In outlining the many virtues
of this major seaport, the mayor noted that the population has grown from
63,000 in 1949 to 200,000 in 1952. He
has four major projects on the drawing board, which, if funded, will “bring
greatness to Haifa.”
1952:
Birthdate of Harry Ehrenberg, Jr., a pillar of the Little Rock, Arkansas Jewish
Community and a mensch in the truest sense of that term.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the
Treasury doubled the exchange rate for leather and textiles to IL2 per dollar.
The Histadrut banned all overtime and double jobs in order to ease the current
heavy unemployment.
1953(19th
of Iyar, 5713): Seventy-one-year-old solo clarinetist Simeon Bellison, the
Russian born son of Andrus Bellison, “a bandmaster in the Russian Army” who had
1920 came to the United States where he pursued a varied musical career while
raising “a daughter, Lillian, a member of the staff of the New York Times with
his wife Etta passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/05/05/96618782.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1955: “A
fund of $100,000 was presented tonight to the Israelis Federation of Labor to
build a cold storage plant in Israel.”
1955(12th
of Iyar, 5715): Sixty-four year old Odessa born and NYU-Bellevue College of
Medicine trained “roentgenologist and diagnostician Dr. Isaac Glassman, “a
member of the staff of Beth David Hospital” and husband of “the former Celia
Margolin” who was the brother of Anna, Manya, Juliette, Nathan, Jacob, Simon
and Leo Glassman passed away today after suffering a fatal heart attack.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1955/05/05/83356817.pdf
1955(12th
of Iyar, 5715): Eighty-nine year old Rose Sheuerman Shloss, the daughter of
Abraham and Bronette Sheuerman, and the wife of Max Shloss passed away today
after which she was buried at the Emanuel Cemetery in Des Moines, IA.
1956: Birthdate of author David Guterson, the
author of the novel Snow Falling
on Cedars which won many awards, including the 1995 PEN/Faulkner
Award. The son of Jewish parents,
Guterson is a self-described agnostic.
1957:
The Anne Frank Foundation was formed in Amsterdam. This is one of
the organizations dedicated to preserving the memory of this tragic Jewish
figure whose diary has captured and continues to capture the hearts and
imagination of millions around the world.
1958(14th
of Iyar, 5718: Pesach Sheni
1959(26th
of 5719): Seventy-five year old Kovno born leading antique dealer Israel Sack,
the founder and head of Israel Sack, Inc which is now being run by his sons
“Albert, Harry and Robert” that he raised with his wife “Mrs. Ann Goodman
Sacks” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/05/05/89192543.pdf
1961(18th
of Iyar, 5721): Lag B’Omer was celebrated for the first time during the
Presidency of JFK.
1964:
NBC broadcast the first episode of “Another World” a daily soap opera in which
Doris Belack played three different roles “during the shows 35-year run.”
1965:
Israel Bar-Yehuda completes his term as Minister of Transport and Road Safety
1966(14th
of Iyar, 5726): Pesach sheni
1970: In deciding the legal case "Walz v. Tax Commission of
New York," the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of
a New York statute exempting church-owned property from taxation. This decision
included all religious buildings i.e.Synagogues and Temples
1970(28th of Nisan, 5730): Yom HaShoah
1970(28th of Nisan, 5730): Allison Krause, a student at Kent State
University, was one of four students killed by the Ohio National Guard. The
Guard fired on a nonviolent demonstration against the Vietnam War. Krause was a
committed Jew, the daughter of a Reform Jewish family, who opposed the US war
against Vietnam out of a sense of the meaning of Judaism
1971(9th of Iyar, 5731): Sixty-seven year old Cleveland
born and stock and commodity broker Robert Pollak the holder of a Ph.B from the
University of Chicago who “wrote columns about theatre and music for several
Chicago newspapers” passed away today.
https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.POLLAK
1972(20th of Iyar, 5732): Ninety year old Hetty
Goldman, “one of the first female archaeologists who was a member of the
Goldman-Sachs banking family” passed away today.
http://www.ias.edu/people/goldman
http://www.brynmawr.edu/library/exhibits/BreakingGround/goldman.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/hgoldman.html
1973:
Initial release of Steambath, the film treatment of the play by Bruce Jay
Friedman who wrote the script featuring Herb Edelman.
1974:
Power hitting first baseman Mike Epstein was released by the California Angels
today.
1975(23rd
of Iyar, 5735): Comedian Moe Howard passed away. Born Moses
Horowitz in 1897, Howard was "Moe" of the famous comedy group
called the Three Stooges. All of the Stooges were Jewish.
Another example of how Jews were successful in the entertainment field by being
"All American" as opposed to ethnic.
1975:
Terrorists set off a bomb in a Jerusalem apartment building.
1975:
“Seven Beauties,” a WW II prison camp movie co-starring Shirley Stoler was
released In France today.
1975:
The New York Times featured a review of Jacob Two-Two Meets the
Hooded Fang by Mordecai Richler.
1976(4th
of Iyar, 5736): Yom HaZikaron
1976:
The musical “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue” with lyrics and book by Alan Jay Lerner
and music by Leonard Bernstein opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre.
1977:
“Andy Warhol's Bad” a comedy with music composed by Mike Bloomfield and
starring Carroll Baker premiered in New York City today.
1977:
The first of David Frost’s interviews with Richard Nixon which were produced by
Marvin Mintoff, the husband of Bonnie Franklin, was broadcast today.
1978: The Jerusalem Post
reported from Lebanon that Arab terrorists murdered four French UNIFIL
paratroopers, wounded seven and abducted five. France avoided condemning the
P.L.O. responsible for this attack and claimed that the troops were attacked by
"irresponsible elements." The Security Council deplored the incident,
boosted UNIFIL to the strength of 6,000 men and called on Israel "to
complete the withdrawal."
1978(27th of Nisan, 5738): Yom HaShoah
1978(27th of Nisan, 5738): In New Jersey, Maurice L.
Sobol, the husband of the late Shrley Sobol and father of Richard Sobol, Linda
Thaler and Judith Sobol passed away today.
1979: Nigel Lawson, the scion of prominent Anglo-Jewish financial
family began serving as Financial Secretary to the Treasury.
1979: Robert Strauss began serving as the first “Special Envoy for
the Middle East” a newly created position created during the administration of
Jimmy Carter.
1981(30th of Nisan, 5741): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1981: “At $25,000-Plus for a Portrait, Painter Aaron Shikler Can
Give Critics the Brush” published today described the success of “the Gilbert
Stuart of the jet set.”
1982(11th
of Iyar, 5742): Just 6 weeks before his 90th birthday, Barnett
Janner, who had been made a life peer which meant he was recognized as Baron
Janner, passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/06/obituaries/baron-janner.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_09983.html
1983:
Phillip Dougherty reported that “Geers, Gross Advertising has been named agency
for Hebrew National Kosher Foods, which has also named Levy, Flaxman &
Associates to handle its recently acquired fresh chicken and turkey operation.
The main account should be billing $3 million, and fresh fowl, $1 million. The
former agency is Scali, McCabe, Sloves, whose account list includes Frank
Perdue and all his little chicks. Since Perdue is already in fresh fowl and is
eyeing franks made with chicken, it is easy to see why S.M.S. is no longer the
Hebrew National agency.”
1984: U.S.
premiere of “The Bounty” featuring Daniel Day Lewis as “Sailing Master John
Freyer.”
1985: Michael A. Ledeen, an
informal envoy of Robert C. McFarlane, the U.S. national security adviser, met
with Shimon Peres in Jerusalem and inquired whether Israel had ideas about how
to open contacts with Teheran. This is meeting that the Israelis have always
cited as the American request for help that brought Israel into what became
known as the Iran-Contra affair.
1991: CBS broadcast the
final episode of the sixth season of the “Golden Girls” a sitcom created by
Susan Harris and starring Beatrice Arthur and Estelle Getty with music by
Andrew Gold.
1991(20th of Iyar,
5751): Eighty-seven year old master wood sculptor Chaim Gross passed away
today. (As reported by John T. McQuiston)
1993: The Final Episode
of “TriBeCa” entitled “Stepping Back” starring Adam Arkin, Richard Lewis,
Melanie Mayron and Eli Wallach was broadcast today.
1994: In a letter
published today entitled Jews Have Reason to Fear Italian Fascism, Susan
Zucotti traces the history of Mussolini et al to explain “why Jews and other
Italians are wary of Gianfranco Fini’s resurgent neo-Fascist party.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/04/opinion/l-jews-have-reason-to-fear-italian-fascism-986445.html
1994:
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat signed an
according that granted the Palestinians the right of self-rule in the Gaza
Strip and Jericho.
1994:
In Los Angeles, Tom And Valarie Gould gave birth to Alexander Jerome Gould a
USY president turned actor who made his “feature film debut in ‘They’.”
1995(4th
of Iyar, 5755): Yom HaAtzma’ut
1997(27th
of Nisan, 5757): Yom Hashoah; Rabbi Erwin Herman told the story of the
"Yanov Torah" to 500 people at San Diego's community Yom HaShoah
services today causing many of them to cry.
http://www.jewishsightseeing.com/usa/california/san_diego/lawrence_family_jcc/sd5-9yanov_torah.htm
1997:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Gospel According to the Son by Norman Mailer.
1997:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held at Sinai Chapels for Henry Joseph
Glass, the husband of Ruth Glass with whom he had two children – Linda and
Howard.
1997:
Barb Feller, executive director of the Granger House in Marion, Iowa, traveled
to England to interview John Granger, last surviving grandson of the home’s
original owner. Mrs. Feller is an active
member of the Temple Judah community serving as a Hebrew teacher and
co-President of the congregation.
1999(18th
of Iyar, 5759): Lag B’Omer
1999(18th
of Iyar, 5759): Seventy-nine career civil servant Sir Leo Plitatzky passed away
today.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-sir-leo-pliatzky-1095958.html
1999:
NBC broadcast the final episode of “NewsRadio,” a sitcom featuring Jon Lovitz ,
Phil Harman and Steve Susskin.
2000:
Shiite Muslim terrorists “fired five barrages of Katyusha rockets into northern
Israel, killing one Israeli soldier and sowing panic in the northern border
town of Qiryat Shemona” in what was the fiercest cross border attack since last
June.
2001:
The Mitchell Report (named for Maine Senator George Mitchell) “that examined the cause of violence that
began in 2000 and gave rise to the so-called Al-Aqsa Intifada was submitted
today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/Mitchellrep.html
2002:
Eighty-six year old Wehrmacht veteran Rolf Friedemann Pauls, “the first
ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Israel” passed away today.
2002:
The exhibit “Tea House Suite” consisting of “eight new collages by Elaine
Lustig Cohen” came to a close at the Julie Saul Gallery in New York
2003:
The New York Times featured books by
Jewish writers and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the
recently released paperback edition of Master of the Senate: The Years of
Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro.
2004:
Publication of Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who
Raided the Asian Markets for Millions by Ben Mezrich
2005:
Natan Sharansky completed his term as Minister Without Portfolio.
2005:
“Henry IV” directed by Nicholas Hytner opened at the National Theatre.
2005:
The premiere of the ballet “An American in Paris” using the “eponymous music by
George Gershwin from 1928.”
2006:
The American Jewish Committee's centennial events culminates with a gala event
attended by US President George W. Bush, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
2006(6th
of Iyar, 5766): Luba Kadison, the last
surviving member of the Vilna Troupe, an influential Yiddish theater company
founded in Europe during World War I, passed away at the age of 99. Caraid
O'Brien, a scholar of Yiddish theater and a friend of Kadison announced that
she had died at her home in Manhattan. Kadison, whose married name was Luba
Kaison Buloff, toured extensively in Europe before becoming a leading actress
in Yiddish theater during its heyday on New York's Lower East Side. She was
part of a golden age of Yiddish theater that saw serious and satirical plays
challenge the dominance of popular musicals. "They did experimental
things. They were doing stuff in the style of German expressionists before most
English-speaking theaters," said O'Brien, who called Kadison an
"incredible inspirational artistic figure." Born in Lithuania in
1906, Kadison began performing in Europe as a child. Her father, Leib Kadison,
was a founder of the Vilna Troupe, which performed modernist works by Yiddish
writers S. Ansky and Sholom Aleichem, and translations of plays by others,
including Maxim Gorky and Henrik Ibsen. In 1923 she married another member of
the troupe, Joseph Buloff. The couple came to America in the late 1920s and
performed in Lower East Side theaters packed with Jewish immigrants. Kadison
had roles in Sholem Asch's "God of Vengeance," I.J. Singer's
"Brothers Ashkenazi" and Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman."
The Holocaust devastated Yiddish culture, and declining use of the language
worldwide was eventually mirrored in New York's theater scene. Kadison
performed around the globe, and later in life became an interpreter, a teacher
and a painter. She wrote a memoir with her husband, "On Stage, Off Stage:
Memories of a Lifetime in the Yiddish Theater," which was published in
1992. Buloff, who moved on to a successful career on Broadway, died in 1985.
2006:
Ehud Olmert went from Interim Prime Minister to Prime Minister after he
established his own government in the wake of Ariel Sharon’s second stroke.
2006:
Avraham Hirschson began serving Minister of Finance today “as part of the
Kadima –led 31st governemtn.”
2006:
Yael "Yuli" Tamir began serving as Minister of Education.
2006:
Yaakov Edri began serving as Jerusalem Affairs Minister of Israel.
2006:
Meir Sheetrit replaced Ze’ev Boim as Minister of Housing and Construction
2006:
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer replaced Roni Bar-On as the Energy and Water Resources
Minister of Israel.
2006:
Shaul Mofaz was named Minister of Transport
2006:
Ariel Atias replaced Avraham Hirschson as Minister of Communications.
2006:
Roni Bar-On replaced Ariel Sharon Internal Affairs Minister.
2006:
Amir Peretz replaced Shaul Mofaz as Minister of Defense.
2006:
Avi Dichter replaced Gideon Ezra as Minister of Public Security.
2006:
Ruhama Avraham Balila completed her term as Deputy Internal Affairs Minister.
2007:
This year's Jacob's Ladder Festival opened for the first of two days at Nof
Ginasar along the Kinneret. A Cajun dance
workshop, fiddle classes and bluegrass gospel music from the Abrams Brothers, a
teenage duo from Canada were just a few of the 35 acts featured at this year’s
event.
2008:
In Chicago, The Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies presented a Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day)
Program entitled “Poetry of the Holocaust: New Texts and Enduring Debates.” In this special Yom
HaShoah conversation, poet Joy Ladin and DePaul University professor Eric
Selinger explored Holocaust poetry, including Ladin’s own remarkable work, The
Book of Anna, a collection of narrative poems and diary entries written in
the voice of a fictional Czech-German Jewish concentration camp survivor.
2008:
Secret government documents from post-World War II stored in Britain’s National
Archives opened today “show that British diplomatic and military officials were
concerned that sending Jews to German military camps so soon after the
Holocaust would spark anger and protests around the world.”
2008:
A 2008 U.S. touring production of Marvin Hamlisch’s “A Chorus Line” opened at
the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
2008
The Sunday New York Times book
section featured reviews of A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horowitz, The
Mayor’s Tongue by Nathaniel Rich son of Frank Rich and 1948: A History
of the First Arab-Israeli War by Benny Morris.
2009:
As part of the PEN World Voices Festival
of International Literature the 92nd Street Y presented the
second Critics Voice program, “David Grossman on Bruno Schulz” during which
Israeli novelist David Grossman, who wrote See Under: Love which stands as a lasting tribute to Schulz
discusses the work of this Ukrainian born author who perished in the Holocaust. “Born in Drohobycz, Galicia (now Ukraine) in 1892,
Bruno Schulz, a drawing teacher by trade, wrote two story collections—Cinnamon Shops (1934) and Sanatorium Under the Sign of Hourglass (1937)—before
he was killed by the Gestapo in 1942. His novel-in-progress, The Messiah, has never been
found.”
2009: “Spots
of Light: To Be a Woman in the Holocaust,”, an exhibition recently opened by
Yad Vashem had its last showing at the Royal Palace in Dresden, Germany.
2009:
The miniseries based on Sidney Sheldon’s Master of the Game and staring Dyan
Cannon “was released on DVD” otoday.
2010: In New York, Manuel Forcano, Professor of
Semitic Studies and Vice President of the Catalan Council for the Arts is
scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Traces of Esther: The Jewish Presence
in Contemporary Catalan Literature.”
2010: A screening of “I had a Dream- The Story of
Yona Bogale, Leader of Ethiopian Jewry” is scheduled for the opening of the
Sheba Film Festival at the JCC in Manhattan. The Sheba Film festival highlights
the legacy of Ethiopian Jewry.
2010: Jewish
community leaders, Democratic Party officials and others gathered at a dinner
in honor of DNC Chairman Governor Tim Kaine, hosted by Ambassador Michael Oren
at his Washington home. National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) leadership
including Chairman Marc Stanley, Executive Committee member and DNC At-Large
member Sunita Leeds, CEO Ira Forman, and President David Harris were among
those in attendance. Ambassador Oren made strong and candid comments praising
President Barack Obama and his administration, as well as the administration’s
powerful support for the State of Israel.
2010: The
Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies dedicated the first building of its new
campus next to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The Schechter Institute is a
non-profit organization of the Conservative Movement dedicated to the
advancement of pluralistic Jewish education in Israel.
2011: Alexandria, VA is scheduled to host its 24th
annual Holocaust Yom Ha’Shoah observance which will be attended by the Polish
ambassador to the United States and Holocaust Survivor Charlene Schiff who will
read an excerpt from her biography, “Don’t Ask For Soap.”
2011: The Tolerance Education Center in Rancho
Mirage, CA, is scheduled to present “Fiddlers on MY Roof” featuring Stanley
Walden.
2011: The
American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to present the 2011 Emma
Lazarus Statue of Liberty Award Dinner honoring Machal and Aliyah Bet, all
North American women and men who volunteered in Israel's War of Independence
between 1947 and 1949, and Ralph Lowenstein, Ph.D., founder of the
Machal/Aliyah Bet Archives; Machalnik; Dean Emeritus, College of Journalism and
Communications, University of Florida.
2011: The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage is
scheduled to present “Flight to Freedom – A Tribute Jewish Artists” during
which “Joan Chesterton, Art historian and Professor Emerita at Purdue
University, offers a fascinating illustrated presentation that pays tribute to
the incredible contributions of four European artists who fled the Holocaust
and immensely enriched American art—architect Mies van der Rohe, painter Hans
Hoffmann, composer Kurt Weill and filmmaker, Billy Wilder.”
2011: Jewish song leader Mark Levy is schooled to
lead a workshop on “Jews 'n' Jazz!” at the Reutlinger Community for Jewish
Living. “The workshop will trace the development
of America's notable Jewish jazz artists and composers beginning with their
immigration to the U.S.”
2011: The Cutler Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center is
scheduled to present “Jewish Identity in Pioneer Arizona: Anna and Lillian
Solomon and Suitable Love” As part of the Arizona Jewish Centennial Series,
Emily Jacobson, M.A., will speak about the Solomon family of Solomonville in
Graham County. Anna Solomon, the family matriarch was a remarkable woman who
raised all six of her children to marry Jews in a region where there were
barely enough to form a minyan.
2011(30th of Iyar, 5771): Rosh Chodesh
Iyar
2011: UK
Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks slammed the notion of making peace with Hamas
in a speech he gave to the House of Lords today.
2012: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is scheduled to
participate in the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Illinois
Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie, Illinois.
2012: As Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, kicks-off a
week-end of events marking its 90th anniversary, David Neuman, the
son of former Rabbi Isaac Neuman is scheduled to address the congregation
during Shabbat Eve Services.
2012: For the first time a production Marvin
Hamlisch’s “A Chorus Line” opened at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
2012(12th of Iyar, 5772): Eighty-eight
year old Dr. Sidney Katz, the graduate of Western Reserve University Medical
school “who developed the Index of Independence of Activities for Daily Living”
passed away today.
http://obits.cleveland.com/obituaries/cleveland/obituary.aspx?pid=157486571
2012(12th of Iyar, 5772): Forty-seven
year old Adam Yauch, a founding member of the “Beastie Boys” passed away today.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beastie-boys-co-founder-adam-yauch-dead-at-48-20120504
2013: Friends and family of Harry L. Ehrenberg, Jr.
gather to celebrate the natal day of this mensch who is a pillar of the
Arkansas Jewish community
2013: A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff by Alicia Jo
Rabins is scheduled to be performed at the Washington Jewish Music Festival.
2013: The winner of the 2nd Annual Jewish
Playwriting Contest is scheduled to be chosen today at New Haven, CT.
2013: The Courier-Journal published “A Memorable
Derby.”
2013: “Three to Max” a creation of Ohad Naharin, the
artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company is scheduled to be performed at
The Joyce Theatre.
2013: The 15th annual Felicja Blumental Chamber
Music Festival is scheduled to come to an end.
2013: Planes from the IDF fly missions in Syria
2013: Israeli tightens defenses long her northern
border as the situation in Syria deteriorates.
2013:
The airstrike
that Israeli warplanes carried out in Syria overnight on Thursday was directed
at a shipment of advanced surface-to-surface missiles from Iran that Israel
believed was intended for Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese organization,
American officials said today
2014: The New York
Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special
interest to Jewsh readers including Love and Treasure by Ayelet Waldman
and John Qunicy Adams: American Visionary by Fred Kaplan
2014: The Jewish Historical Sociey of Greater Washington is
scheduled to conduct a tour of “Jewish Sites in Arlington National Cemetery
including the Confederate Memorial by Sir Moses Ezekiel and the Challenger and
Columbia Space Shuttle Memorials.
2014: Jewish education is scheduled to come to an end in the
corriodor for the year as Agudas Achim and Temple Judah close their religious
schools until the fall.
2014: “The Seder: Meanings, Rituals & Sprituality” is
scheduled to close at the Oregon Jewish Museum.
2014: In the Netherlands, Nationale
Herdenkingsdag (National Memorial Day
2014: The Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington and
the JCC of Greater Washington are scheduled to host author, David Laskin, who
will talk about the research that went into the writing of his book, "The
Family: Three Journeys into the Heart of the Twentieth Century."
2014: As part of Jewish American Heritage Month, Dr. Ted
Merwin is scheduled to lecutre on “The Delectable History of the Jewish Deli at
the Jewish Museum in Miami Beach.
2014: Authorities opened an investiagtion today in “anti-Arab
graffiti…found spray painted…at a construction site in Kiryant Ye’arim also
known as Telz Sonte” which was “another incident in a spate of race-hate
‘price-tag’ attacks by suspected Jewish extremists.” (As reported by Times of
Israel Staff)
2014: In Washington, DC, final performance of “Camp David” a
play based on the 1978 peace negotations at Camp David.
2014(4th of Iyar, 5774): Seventy-one year old Alan
J. Friedman passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
2014: “Right wing actvists…threw rocks at ploice and damaged
a Border Police vehicle” when they “came to Yitzhar to search the home of a
copule that had been arrested on suspicion of participating in a ‘price tag’
attack” in the norther norhtern city of Umm al-Fahm.
2014: “A group of 19 Ukranian Jews were immigrating to Israel
today ami an escalating crisis that has seen a rising tide of anti-Semitic
attacks.”
2015: The Jewish Community Center of Northern
Virginia is scheduled to host Dana Kalshov’s presentation “The Israel Defense
Forces: A Window on Modern Israeli Society.”
2015: “In the Community: Raise the Roof” is scheduled
to be shown at the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival.
2015: Security personnel shot a 35 year old
Palestinian who “attacked one of the guards today at a light rail train stop in
Jerusalem.”
2015: Israeli pianist Roman Rabinovich is one of
three “young accomplished pianists” chosen by Sir Andras Schiff to perform with
the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.
2015: “The mortar round that killed four-year-old
Daniel Tragerman on the second to last day of the war in and around Gaza
last summer was fired from a United Nations installation, Lt. Gen. (res)
Benny Gantz, the commander of the army during the 50-day war, said” today.
2016: In Philadelphia, PA, Rabbi Lance Sussman is
scheduled to deliver a lecture on “South Philly: An American Shtetl” are part
of American Jewish Heritage Month.
2016: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is
scheduled to present a screening of “Persona Non Grata,” “a Japanese film
depicting the life of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara who saved the lives of
6,000 Jewish refugees during World War II by issuing transit visas for them to
Japan.”
2016: In Portland, Oregon, Congregation Neveh Shalom
is scheduled to host the annual community-wide memorial service erev Yom
Hashoah which has been planned by Rabbi Ariel Stone and Rabbi David Kosak.
2016: In Des Moines, Iowa, Tifereth Israel Synagogue
is scheduled to host the community “Holocaust Memorial Commemoration.”
2016: Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) 2016
begins this evening.
2017:
At the National Archives in Washington, DC, David Dalin is scheduled to deliver
a lecture on “The Jewish Justices of the Supreme Court: From Brandeis to Kagan.”
2017(8th
of Iyar, 5777): Ninety-five year old economist William J. Baumol and the author
of The Cost of Disease: Why Computers Get Cheaper and Health Care Doesn’t
passed away today. (As reported by Patricia Cohen)
https://www.vox.com/new-money/2017/5/4/15547364/baumol-cost-disease-explained
2017:
The YIVO Institute is scheduled to host a concert that “will explore music of
composer Annie Gosfield that takes its inspiration from Jewish culture,
history, and the New York immigrant experience.”
2017:
“Beneath the Helmet” is scheduled to be shown at the Annual East Bay
International Jewish Film Festival.
2017(8th
of Iyar, 5777): Eighty-seven year old Edwin Sherin the “producer and executive
producer of” the one of the most popular crime series ever, “Law and Order”
passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)
2018:
“Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman today rejected an apology from Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas over a speech blaming Jews’ behavior for the
Holocaust, and not anti-Semitism, calling the Palestinian leader “a pathetic
Holocaust denier.”
2018:
“The Last Goldfish” and “Kishon” are scheduled to be shown this afternoon at
the 26th Toronto Jewish Film Festival.
2018:
“Dozens of Palestinians broke into the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom border
crossing between Israel and the Hamas-run Strip this evening, setting fire to
the gas pipeline that supplies fuel to the Strip…” (As reported by Judah Ari
Gross)
2018:
In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to honor the Temple Israel
confirmands this evening.
2018:
In Cedar Rapids, IA, as the first part of her Bat Mitzvah weekend, Eleanor
Dillon and her family are scheduled to participate in Erev Shabbat services at
Temple Judah.
2019(29th
of Nisan, 5779): Parashat Achrei Mot;
2019(29th
of Nisan, 5779): Begin weekly study of Pirke Avot – Chapter One
2019:
Shabbat takes on a double portion of joy with the celebration of the birthday
Harry Ehrenberg, a mensch in the truest sense of that term.
2019:
One week after the murderous shooting at Chabad of Poway as rabbis deal with
how to continue to make their congregations as welcoming institutions while
dealing with the reality of the need to increase security Rabbi Yosef Levin Bay
is scheduled to host a Solidarity Shabbat and dinner at Chabad of Great South
Bay” where he hopes to raise “$50,000 to finance armed security at Chabad
centers” which are normally raising funds for educational and spiritual
programs including those Shabbat meals which are warm hallmark of Chabad Houses
across the world.
2020:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present, Live on Zoom, “War
Orphans Find Home: Child Holocaust Survivors,” a program sponsored by the “Hear
Their Cry: Understanding the Jewish Orphan Experience” Scholars Working Group,
which has been meeting at the Center for Jewish History since September 2019.
2020:
The Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to host a
virtual “discussion with writer/producer Karen Goldfarb about her 2016 film
‘Fascination: Helena’s Story,’”
2020:
Dr. Aviva Dautch is scheduled to discuss My Russian Grandmother and her
American Vacuum Cleaner by Meir Shalev the first in her virtual series on
Modern Jewish Literature.
2020
In the darkest moments of the Pandemic, the friends and family get to share in
a moment of light as they celebrate the natal day of Harry Ehrenberg, a mensch
par excellent.
2020:
In Coralville, IA, via Zoom Agudas Achim is scheduled to host “Introduction to
Judaism”
2020:
Israel’s Supreme Court is scheduled to continue for a second day a two-day
hearing that began yesterday to determine whether Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, who has been indicted for corruption, will be allowed to form a new
government.(As reported by Reuters)
2020:
Temple Israel of Boston is scheduled to host “Modern Couples, Big Jewish
Questions. an informative and social opportunity for engaged, partnered, and
married couples in their 20s and 30s.
2020:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host Dr. Eric Goldman who is scheduled to
host a virtue presentation of “French Cinema Tackles the Shoah.”
2021:
Urban Adamah is scheduled to present the first in a two-part series on
connecting with the physical and spiritual dimensions of “rest and release”
during the shmita year. Includes movement, breath work and connecting to the
natural world.
2021:
GiveNOLA Day/Federation-Clean Up Phonathon, the Jewish community’s major fund
raising event is scheduled to take place today in New Orleans.
2021:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a virtual Lunch and Learn
during which Anne Harris, the wife of the late Rabbi Cyril Harris is scheduled
to share memorable anecdotes about her husband and his “dear friend Nelson
Mandela “that will illuminate the personal and special
relationship between these two extraordinary leaders.”
2021: The Jerusalem Writers’ Festival is
scheduled to continue for a second day.
2021:
Fuel For Truth is scheduled to present online “Israel Education Class for Young
Professionals.”
2021:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a conversation with Letty Cottin
Pogrebin and her daughter Abigail Pogrebein on the “State of American Feminism.”
2021:
The S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation is scheduled to present the first of
three straight days of talks and small-group discussions designed to forge
community connections among the diverse population (473,000) of people who live
in Bay Area Jewish households.
2021:
While Israel continues to cope with the aftermath of the Meron tragedy, the
political infighting continues which has led to an impasse over “plans to
reform the Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department so that it can provide better
care for wounded veterans. (As reported by Judah Ari Gross)
2022:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Zabar’s: A Family Story”
which features “three generations in conversation.”
2022:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen on
“Study the Bible; Know What is in it and What is Not.”
2022:(3rd
of Iyar, 5782): Yom HaZikaron
2022:
A double simcha this evening as we prepare to celebrate Israeli Independence
Day and the birthday of Harry Ehrenberg,
Jr., a pillar of the Little Rock, Arkansas Jewish Community and a mensch in the
truest sense of that term.
2022:
This evening Yamam commander "H."
is scheduled to light a torch in the annual Independence Day ceremony
while his identity will be protected. (As reported by Itamar Eichner)
2022:
Edan Kleiman, chairman of the IDF Disabled Veterans Organization, is scheduled
to light a flame at the official Independence Day ceremony on Mount Herzl.
2023:
In Cedar Rapids, the Hadassah Book Club under the leadership of Nancy Margulis
is scheduled to discuss The Matzah Ball by Jean Maltzer.
2023:
The Illinois Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host a lecture by
Professor Michael Bar-Zohar on “Light Among Darkness: 80th Anniversary of the
Rescue of Bulgarian Jews.”
2023:
Etgar Keret, perhaps the most influential Israeli writer of his generation, who
has been an outspoken member of the protest movement is scheduled to join
Forward editor in chief, Jodi Rudoren, and opinion editor, Laura E. Adkins, for
a thoughtful and provocative conversation on “Israel@75: How did we get here?”
2023:
The Jewish National Fund-USA’s Breakfast for Israel is scheduled to celebrate
75 years of Israel’s independence today and feature Alon Ben-Gurion as he
speaks about his grandfather, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister.
2023:
In Columbus, OH, Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host a Rashi study group.
2023:
As part of Jewish American Heritage Month, the Weitzman Museum is scheduled to
host the “JAHM Kickoff Concert featuring Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars
with Joshua Nelson, the Prince of Kosher Gospel.”
2023:
In Newton, MA, Temple Emanuel is scheduled to present the second in the series
“Taste of Israel,” with Israeli chef Gal Reshef.
2023:
J Street is scheduled to present “Israel’s Crisis of Democracy” during which Nadav
Tamir, executive director of J Street Israel and career Israeli diplomat, will discuss
what the current situation in Israel means for Israel, the Palestine people and
the U.S. Jewish community.
2023:
In Newton Mass, Hebrew College is scheduled to present “Opening the Gates:
Hebrew College Gala and Dedication.”
2023:
Friends and family of Harry Ehrenberg, Jr., are looking forward to celebrating
the birthday of a mensch in the truest sense of that term who has served the
Little Rock Jewish Community for decades.
