This Day, May 5, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
May 5
1028: King Alfonso V of Castile passed away. In
1020, Alfonso had presided over the Council of Leon which adopted laws that
created a certain amount of equality between Christians and Jews. The
legislation was in response to the thre…
May 5
1109:
The Moors recaptured Valencia from the Christians. “During the period of Muslim
rule… the Jewish quarter was situated on the eastern side of the Rahbat el-qadi
and in its vicinity, on the site where the Santa Catalina church stands at
present” (Jewish Virtual Library)
1210:
Birthdate of King Alfonso III of Portugal whose reign was a period of
comparative benevolence for his Jewish subjects. Jews were “exempt from the
canonical decrees which compelled the wearing of a distinctive sign and the
payment of tithes to the Church.” Also,
Jews were appointed to positions of governmental responsibility. These policies were continued by his
successor, King Diniz who appointed Judah, the Chief Rabbi of Portugal to serve
as finance minister.
1260:
Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire. “Arab and European travelers,
including Marco Polo in the 13th century, spoke of meeting Jews or hearing
about them during their travels in China (then called the Middle Kingdom). Polo
recorded that Kublai Khan himself celebrated the festivals of the Muslims,
Christians and Jews alike, indicating a large enough number of Jews in the
country to warrant attention by its rulers. Historical sources also describe
Jewish communities at various trade ports, including Hangzhou, Guangzhou,
Ningbo, and Yangzhou. Only the community in Kaifeng survived.”
1400:
The privilege of the city of Worms to extend protection to the Jews in return
for the payment of 20,000 gulden was renewed today by King Wenceslaus
1435:
Jewish residents of Speyer, Germany, were expelled.
1588:
The Council of Hanover ordered the severance of all business connections between
Jews and Christians.
1624(16th
of Iyar): Elias Lipiner was sentenced to death at an auto-de-fe by the
Portuguese Inquisition. He was accused of committing the crime of using Jewish
names and writing in Hebrew. On this same day Dr. Antonio Honem was sentenced
to death for observing Jewish ceremonies.
1646: King Charles I surrendered to the
Presbyterian forces paving the way for the rise to power of Oliver
Cromwell. Cromwell would play a critical
role in the return of the Jewish community to the British Isles.
1664(10th
of Iyar): Rabbi Zebi Hirsch ben Abraham Katz murdered in Lemberg
1719:
Fifty-three year old Samuel Zanvil Levy, the third child of Beila and Isaac
Levy passed away today in New York City.
1705:
After succeeding his father as Holy Roman Emperor today, Joseph I confirmed
Samuel Wertheimer’s title and privileges.
1731(29th
of Nisan, 5491): The grandmother of Moses Sofer, Reizchen, a daughter of the
Gaon of Frankfurt Rabbi Shmuel Schotten, known as the Marsheishoch passed away.
1735:
Birthdate of Jonas Mischel Jeittles, the native of Prague who studied medicine
in Leipzig and Halle, became the public health officer of the Jewish community,
was nominated chief supervisor of the guild of Jewish healers in Prague and in
1784 obtained from the emperor Joseph in Vienna permission that not only he
himself but also other Jewish doctors could pursue unrestricted medical
practice.(U.S. National Library of Medicine)
1759:
Twenty-eight year old Vienna native Liebman Liepman Elieser Arnsteiner, the son
of Aron Isak Arnstein and Ella Elsa Eleonora Arnsteiner and husband of Machteld
Mathilda Michela Jochem Mozes Hannover passed away today in Frankfurt am Main
1763(4th
of Sivan, 5523): Sara Hays Levy, the daughter of Hayman Levy passed away in New
York City.
1764:
The "Jews' decree" issued today permitted any Jew to live in Vienna
“who could prove that he possessed a certain sum of ready money and
"acceptable" papers, or that he had established a factory. According
to this decree no Jew could buy a house; a married Jew had to let his beard
grow, that he might be readily distinguished; and no synagogue or other place
for common worship was permitted.
1766:
Eighty-two year old Professor of Medicine Jean Austric the Protestant convert
to Catholicism who family was reported to have been Jewish during the Middle
Ages and who “was the first to try to demonstrate, by using the techniques of
textual analysis that were commonplace in studying the secular classics, the
theory that Genesis was composed based on several sources or manuscript
traditions, an approach now called the documentary hypothesis” passed away
today.
1767(Iyar
6): Rabbi Isaac Ha-Levi Horowitz of Brody passed away.
1768(18th
of Iyar, 5528): Lag BaOmer observed on the same day that George Washington
stopped at Christiana Campbell’s tavern in Williamsburg, VA.
1772:
In Westchester County David Hay and Esther Hetting gave birth Jacob Hays,
“known throughout his career as Old Hays,” whom many consider “the first real
detective in New York” because “in 1802 Mayor Edward Livingston appointed him
chief of the day police force” and “gave him the title of High Constable of the
City of New York.
https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-2001601
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1932/04/23/old-hays
1777(28th
of Nisan, 5537): Forty-three year old Raphael Hayyim Isaac Carregal passed away
today at Barbados. Born in Hebron and ordained at 17, Carregal travels
eventually took him to the American Colonies just before the start of the
American Revolution. He struck up a
friendship with Edgar Stiles, the future President of Yale University. Stiles benefited from this chance to improve
his Hebrew and study scripture with a Rabbi.
1789: Honoré Gabriel
Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, an early leader of the French Revolution who came
to be a defender of Judaism and Jews began serving as a member of the Estates-General
for the Third Estate.
1789: In France, the Estates General convenes for
the first time in 150 years. This is the
first act in what would become the French Revolution; a revolution that would
result in Jews being granted full citizenship in any European continental
political entity.
1795:
One day after she had passed away, Rachel Harris, the three-year old daughter
of Abraham Harris, was buried today at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish
Cemetery.”
1809:
Right of citizenship was denied to Jews of the canton of Aargau, Switzerland.
Emancipation was delayed until 1879.
1809(19th
of Iyar, 5669): “Berek Yoselovich, founder and commander of a Jewish light
cavalry regiment, was killed in action in the war between the Duchy of Warsaw
and Austria
1813:
Birthdate of Søren Kierkegaard
http://www.thedodo.info/The%20Dodo/The_Dodo1_Antisemitism_in_Denmark_Soeren_Kierkegaaard.htm#jews
http://pietyonkierkegaard.com/category/kierkegaard-and-the-jews
1818:
Birthdate of Karl Marx, author of the Communist Manifesto and Das
Kapital. Only the ignorant and the anti-Semitic insist that Marx was
a Jew.
1821:
Napoleon Bonaparte passed away. There is
not enough space in this brief guide to discuss the impact of Napoleon, both
pro and con, on the Jewish people.
1822(14th
of Iyar, 5582): Pesach Sheni
1822:
As Jews celebrated a “second Pesach” rebel forces prepared to meet Royalist in
the battle that would lead to the independence of Ecuador from Spain.
1837:
A dedication of new synagogue in Surinam took place.
1839:
Forty-two year old jurist Eduard Ganz who like so many of his contemporaries
found his way to the Baptismal font as he climbed the ladder of German society
passed away today.
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Eduard-Gans
1839:
In the small town of Unsleben, Bavaria, “a group of 19 emigrants led by Moses
Alsbacher departed for America, seeking escape from political unrest and
economic and personal discrimination. They chose Cleveland as their final
destination because a fellow townsman, Simson Thorman, had two years earlier
made this thriving village on Lake Erie the base for his fur trading business.
Arriving in late 1839, they found their first homes in the Terminal
Tower-Central Market area. A Torah scroll was among the belongings of this
group of settlers, and soon after they arrived, they formed the Israelitic
Society for worship.”
1839:
Birthdate of Breslau, Meyer Elkin, the German trained rabbi who served severed
congregations in Liverpool, UK and Philadelphia before taking the pulpit at
Congregation Beth Israel in Hartford, CT.
1840: Birthdate of Budapest native Josef Braun, “the Austrian
journalist, dramatist and librettist” who had abandoned his medical studies at
the University of Vienna to pursue a literary career.
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” was buried today at Kensal Green Cemetery without
the pomp of state funeral per his request.
1844: In Maryland, Fanny Sarlouis and Jacob Umstadter
gave birth to Norfolk, VA resident Michael Umstadter, the husband of Esther
Cohen with whom he had four children.
1848: In Vienna, Moritz Moses Jacob von Goldschmidt and
Nanette von Goldschmidt gave birth to Jacob Adalbert von Goldschmidt.
1858: Fifteen year old Jacob Affelder, the Bavarian born
son of Loew Affelder and Rosalia Regine Rosenberg arrived in the United States
where he eventually settled in Pittsburgh, PA and married Kate Fleishman.
1859: Birthdate of lyric poet Mordecai Zebi Mane who was
part of the Haskalah movement in Russia.
1859:
“Another Mrtara Case with a More Honorable Termination” published today tells
the story of Alice Levy, a Jewish orphan living in New Orleans. Before her death, the mother had left instructions
that Alice should be “educated in the Jewish faith.” Somehow the child ended up
in the custody “of a charitable lady in New Orleans” who was going to raise her
as a Catholic. Alice’s grandmother
appealed to the French Consul in New Orleans for help. After determining that attempts to have the
child returned had been thwarted, he interceded on her behalf and the child was
turned over to a Jewish orphanage.
1860:
In his lecture on the "Lost Arts," Wendell Phillips states that the
earliest mention of precious stones is in the Bible, and that "the Hebrews
borrowed the names of their gems from the Egyptians."
1861:
In Washington, DC, Colonel Ripley, the Chief of Ordinance received Major Alfred
Mordecai’s letter of resignation and a personal letter from Mordecai in which
he thanked Colonel Ripley and assured him that he had no need to doubt the
Major’s continued loyalty to the nation.
1861:
Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt discovered his fortieth and final Asteroid,
70 Panopaea.
1861:
The members of the 27th Regiment, originally a part of the
‘Washington Brigade,’” which was commanded by Max Einstein “were enrolled” for
service in the United States military during the Civil War.
1862:
Mexican forces loyal to Juarez defeat the French Army loyal to the Emperor
Maximilian. Because of the heavy hand of the Catholic Church only a handful of
Jews were living in Mexico at the start of the 19th century. The Jewish population actually grew during
the rule by the Austrian usurper as he “imported many Jews from Belgium,
France, Austria and Alsatia.” In one of
those quirks of history the Jewish population actually benefited when Benito
Juarez overthrew Maximilian in 1867. Under Juarez, the Church lost much of its
authority and Jews found a secularized Mexico a hospitable place to settle.
1863:
Birthdate of Alexander Harkavy the native of Minsk and husband of Bella
Segalowski, who came to the United States in 1882 after pogroms in Russia who
later went to Canada where published that country’s first Yiddish newspaper
before return to the United States where he published the Jewish Progress in
Baltimore before working on translations of several books of the Bible
including “The Twenty-Four Books of the Holy Scriptures According to the
Masoretic Text.”
1864:
During the U.S. Civil War, start of the Battle of the Wilderness during which
Sergeant Leopold Karpleles and Private Abraham Cohen served with such
distinction that they each earned the Congressional Medal of Honor.
1864:
Aaron Miller and Levi Myers completed their three year enlistment with Company
I of the Thrity-Sixth Regiment.
1864:
During the Battle of the Wilderness, Private Louis Leon (CSA) was taken
prisoner and shipped to Point Lookout.
1864:
Baroness Fannie de Worms and Baron Henry de Worms were married in Vienna. The
marriage would end in 1886 in a notorious divorce case with the Baron proving
she had committed adultery with Moritz von Leon.
1865:
Major Raphael Moses, “the chief supply officer for General James Longstreet,
attended the last meeting of the Confederate government, at the Bank of the
State of Georgia (later the Heard House), in Washington in Wilkes County where
he was ordered by Confederate president Jefferson Davis to take possession of
$40,000 in gold and silver bullion from the Confederate treasury and deliver it
to help feed and supply the defeated soldiers straggling home after the
war—weary, hungry, often sick, shoeless, and in tattered uniforms. With a small
group of determined armed guards, Moses successfully carried out his duty,
despite repeated attempts by mobs to take the bullion forcibly.”
1865(9th
of Iyar, 5625): Two days before his 80th birthday Benjamin Wolf
Liepman de Vries, the son of Liepman Benjamin de Vries and Henderina
Miejer|Meijers Bons Reindorp passed away today in the Netherlands.
1865(9th
of Iyar, 5625): French Rabbi Salomon Ulmann passed away. Born at Saverne,
Bas-Rhin in 1806 he began his rabbinical studies at Strasburg under Moïse Bloch
(better known as Rabbi Mosche Utenheim), and was the first pupil enrolled at
the initial competitive examination of candidates for the Ecole Centrale
Rabbinique, inaugurated in July, 1830. He was also the first in his class at
this institution to receive the diploma of chief rabbi. In 1834 he was
appointed rabbi of Lauterbourg, Alsace; in 1844 he became chief rabbi of Nancy,
in Lorraine; and in 1853 he succeeded Marchand Ennery as chief rabbi of the
Central Consistory of the Israelites of France. Ulmann published a limited
number of sermons and pastoral letters, and was the author also of
"Catéchisme, ou Eléments d'Instruction Religieuse et Morale à l'Usage des
Jeunes Israélites" which is considered a classic.” The most important act
in Ulmann's rabbinical career was the organization of the Central Conference of
the Chief Rabbis of France, over whose deliberations he presided at Paris in
May, 1856. In that year Ulmann addressed a "Pastoral Letter to the
Faithful of the Jewish Religion," in which he set forth the result of the
deliberations of the conference, which were as follows: (1) revision and
abbreviation of the piyyutim; (2) the introduction of a regular system of
preaching; (3) the introduction of the organ into synagogues; (4) the
organization of religious instruction; (5) the institution of the rite of confirmation
for the Jewish youth of both sexes; (6) a resolution for the transfer of the
Ecole Centrale Rabbinique from Metz to Paris.
1866:
In Lida, Russia, Isaiah Blaustein and Sarah Natzkowsky gavie to David
Blaustein, who was educated in Germany and came to the United States where his
varied activities and career included three years at Harvard, serving as a
rabbi in Providence, RI for three years before eventually becoming
Superintendent of the Educational Alliance of New York.
1866:
In Berdychiv, Ukraine, Wolf and Sura Beile Kaminka gave birth to Dr. Armand
Ahron Noach Kaminka “the renowned rabbi, Hebrew scholar and secretary of
Alliance Israelite Universelle in Vienna” who was arrested by the Nazis in 1938
and eventually settled in Israel and the husband of Klara Kaminka.
1867:
In California, Baruch and Louisa Montag Rothschild gave birth to Leonore
Rothschild who beame Leonore Rothschild Tauszky after she married Edmond
Tausky.
1869(24th
of Iyar): Joseph Jonas, who arrived in Cincinnati in 1817 possibly making him
the first Jew to settle in that part of Ohio passed away today
1870:
In Washington, C. Matilda Michael and Jacob Lyon gave birth to Georgetown
University trained attorney Simon Lyon, the husband of Minnie Rose Kirschbaum
and member of the law firm of Lyon and Lyon who “engaged in general practice
before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Court of Claims who was a member of
Washington Hebrew Congregation and the American Jewish Historical Society.
1871:
In Cleveland, OH, Morris Morris Ullman, the German born son of Judith and
Leopold Ullman and Lenche Ullman gave birth to Jeanette Ullman the younger
sister of Cleveland educated businessman Monroe Ullman who became Jeanette
Friedenburg when she married Solomon Friedenburg.
1872:
Two days after she had passed away, 78 year old Julia Solomon, “the widow of
Samuel Solomon” was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish
Cemetery.”
1874(18th
of Iyar, 5634): Lag BaOmer
1876:
Two days after he had passed away, 50 year old Emanuel Sampson, the Sony of
Mary and Isaac Sampson was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.”
1878:
“Murder of an American Lady” published today described how the sister of the
American Vice Consul in Bucharest, Dr. Stern, was stabbed by a suitor her
family had rejected three years earlier. The young woman was 20 years old and
had only been married for four months.
1878:
“A Mean Thief Punished” published today described how “Philip Leon, a
well-dressed Hebrew” was tried and found guilty of having stolen a pawn ticket and
a dollar from Julia McLoughlin. Leon was
sentenced to pay a fine of $50 and to serve a sentence of one month in the New
York’s city jail.
1879: According to the Rochester Express, J.B. Hoyt and J.B. Trevor are donating the funds
to endow Chair of Hebrew Language and Literature at the Rochester Theological
Seminary.
1879: In Russia, Aryeh Leib Yaakov Sadowsky and Fayga
Rivka Sadowsky gave birth to RabbiSolomon Sadowsky who in 1902 came to the
United States where served “a congregation in Albany for eight years before
coming to Rochesterwhere he led Congregation Beth Israel and Congregation
Agudas Achim Nusach Ari, “organized the “Orthodox Orphans Home Rochester,
became an active Zionist a and authored several books including Necromancy in
Hebrew Literature while raising five sons with his wife Celia.
1881:
Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Kiev, Russia. The Russian pogroms of 1881 led to
the spread of Zionist ideas in Eastern Europe and the formation, in 1882, of
Hovevei Zion, the first organized modern Zionist movement in the world.
1881:
Following the assassination a month earlier of Tzar Alexander II of Russia, and
the subsequent rumors that the Jews were behind the assassination, anti-Jewish
riots broke out today. The riots and pogroms lasted for four years, during
which time thousands of Jewish homes and synagogues were destroyed, and
countless Jews were injured and impoverished. The unrest started out in
Southern Russia, and quickly spread throughout the entire country. Tzar
Alexander III actually blamed the riots on the Jews(!) and punished them by
enacting new laws which further restricted their freedoms. Among these
devastating laws were legislation which restricted Jews from residing in towns
with fewer than 10,000 citizens and limiting their professional employment and
education opportunities. These oppressive laws, known as the "May
Laws," compelled many Jews to emigrate. They are said to have caused more
than two million Jews to leave Russia, many of them opting
1881:
In St. Louis, founding of the Home for Aged and Infirm Israelites on 1132
Washington Avenue whose leadership including S.A. Rider and Mrs. Lissette Baum.
1883:
In Colchester, Essex, General Archibald Graham Wavell and Lillie(nee Percival)
Wavell gave birth to Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, who “in August,
1937, was transferred to Palestine, during the Arab Revolt to be General
Officer Commanding (GOC) British Forces in Palestine and Trans-Jordan.”
1884:
In Boston, birthdate of Augusta Schon Holzman, the Wellesley educated wife of
George A. Holzman who organized the New England Council of Christians and Jews
and active member of the League of Jewish Women’s Organizations.
1885:
Birthdate of Kiev native Samuel Ostrowsky, the artist who in 1906 came to
Chicago where he studied at the Chicago Art Institute after which he became a
scene designer of the Yiddish Art Theatre.
https://schwartzcollection.com/artist/sam-ostrowsky/
https://www.illinoisart.org/samuel-ostrowsky
1886: Birthdate of
Russian native Edward S. Siskin, “the first known Jew to participate in
athletics at Fordham, a Jesuit university” where he played end from 1905 to
1908 before serving as the head coach in 1918.
https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Edward_Siskind.html
1887(11th of
Iyar, 5647): Sixty-four year old Simon Biensenstok, the husband of Helena
Biensenstok and the father of Charles, Rachel, Sigfried and Herman Bienenstok passed away after which
he was buried at the United Hebrew Cemetery in University City, a suburb of St.
Louis.
1887: In the United
Kingdom, several Brethren who were also Secret Monitors met at the home of Dr.
Issachar Zacaharie where it was resolved to from the Alfred Meadows Conclave
with Dr. Zacharie as its first Supreme Ruler. Secret Monitors refers to The
Order of the Secret Monitor and Brethren refers to Freemasons. Zacharie was
born in Kent (England) in 1827. As a
small boy he moved to the United States where he became a foot doctor describes
variously as an orthopedist or a chiropodist. During the
Civil War he became President Lincoln’s foot doctor. Their relationship transcended that which
normally existed between doctor and patient.
Lincoln used him as an unofficial advisor and source of information. At
one point he went to New Orleans to assess the situation there for the
President. ‘Due in part to Zacharie's
influence, Lincoln became an early proponent of establishing a Jewish state in
the Holy Land. ‘I myself have regard for the Jews,’ the president is reported
to have once said. ‘My chiropodist is a Jew, and he has so many times 'put me
on my feet' that I would have no objection to giving his countrymen 'a leg up.'
" Zacharie returned to England
“from America in 1875 and built up a thriving orthopedic practice in Brook
Street, London. He became a member of a Bon Accord Mark Lodge in 1882 where he
met other Brethren who were also Secret Monitors, having received their degree
in various places. These Brethren were also members of Alfred Meadows Lodge
named after a distinguished surgeon.”
1889:
Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs is scheduled to deliver an address to the adult members
of B’nai Jeshurun on the significant role of George Washington as part of the
events celebrating the centennial of his first inauguration which took place in
New York City on April 30, 1789.
1890:
In Lincoln, IL, The Ladies’ Hebrews Benevolent Society who members included Rae
Rosenthal and Lena Kahn and which aided the Cleveland Orphan Asylum and
contributed to the maintenance of the Jewish Cemetery in Lincoln was founded
today.
1891:
“Jewish Prisoners” published today described the work of Rabbi Adolph M. Radin
with Jewish prisoners in New York jails and prisons. New York City’s association of rabbis had
designated him as “the visiting Chaplain” to fill this need.
1892:
William Ambrose Shedd, a Persian received the George S. Green Fellowship in
Hebrew at Princeton University. The theology student’s efforts gained him $600.
Ivy League schools had an interest in the language of the Jews but no desire to
have them on their campuses.
1892:
Emanuel Lehman, the Treasurer of Transportation Fund for the Relief of Russian
(Jewish) Refugees acknowledged the following contributions: Sigmund Robertson -
$2,000; Lazarus Levy - $100; Seligman Solomon Society - $25; Mrs. G.M. Raphael
- $10. This brings the total contributions to $97, 545.49.
1892:
In Oxford, UK, Sir Archibald Garrod and Laura Elizabeth Smith gave birth to
British archaeologist Dorothy Garrod who in 1929 led an all-female team to a
dig in Israeli’s Carmel mountain range where they discovered the skeleton of a
Neanderthal woman – “the first-ever to be discovered outside of Europe.”
1892:
The Hebrew Orphan Asylum Band will supply the music this afternoon at the
Actors’ Fund Fair in Madison Square Garden.
1893:
“More Affidavits By Jews” published today described the aggressive attempts by
some Christian denominations to convert Jews.
1894:
In Crimea, Ilia and Clara (Sabsay) Stassevitch gave birth to violinist and
pianist Paul Stassevitch who in 1919 came to the United States where debuted
“with the State Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 1924, taught violin at
the Mannes Music School and married J. Marzrethe Somme.
1894:
In Pennsylvana, incorporation of the town of Barnesboro one of whose earliest
mayors was Kovono native Louis H. Luxenherg who had come to the United States
in 1891.
1895:
Police will begin an investigation into a tale told by Bernard Zuckerman, a
self-confessed thief, that he had been led into his life of crime by an unnamed
Polish Jewish woman. She came to the United
States about four years ago, and behaving like a female Fagan, teaches young
Jewish Polish boys how to steal and then disposes of their goods.
1895:
“Art Notes” published today described the paintings with a Jewish Biblical
theme that John S. Sargent has done to decorate the New Public Library in
Boston. The wall space over the door depicts the delivery of the Israelites
from Egyptian bondage. Below this “are a series of panels” that depict the
“growth of the Hebrew religion” “In the
center, immediately over the door, is a colored bas-relief of Moses.”
1895:
Robert College in Constantinople which was created with an endowment by
Christopher R. Robert of New York currently provides a western style education
to a multi-ethnic student body of 200, five of whom are Jews.
1896:
In New York, Matilda (Metzger) and Dr. Herman J. Schiff gave birth to Esther
Schiff who gained fame as anthropologist Esther Schiff Goldfrank the wife
of Walter S. Goldfrank and the author
the 1927 tome The Social and Ceremonial Organization of Cochiti
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/goldfrank-esther-schiff
1896:
Dreyfus wrote in his diary, "I
have no longer anything to say; everything is alike in its horrible
cruelty."
1898:
“A Jewish Warship” published today described plans by Jews in Ohio to raise the
money to pay for a warship to be used in the war against giving as their
reasons “The Jews all over the world have a grudge against Spain” (remember the
expulsion of 1492) and the fact that Jews “have had trials and tribulations in
every country in the world except in America.”
1899: Birthdate of Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro, a
partner of Louis “Lepke” Buchalter who helped establish Murder Incorporated.
1899:
“Some interesting facts concerning the lot of the average physician working on
the east side,” a predominately “Hebrew District” “were brought out at a
meeting of the New York County Medico-Pharmaceutical League” tonight as part of
an attempt to improve “the condition of the physicians and druggists.”
1899:
Today, Rabbi De Sola Mendes said, “The condition of the Jewish populations west
of Eighth Avenue and east of the Bowery in this city is not understood even by
old New Yorker” and the Union of Jewish Congregations was formed to improve the
welfare of the Jews living in this area.
1900: David Wolffsohn
offers to resign his position with the Colonial Bank, also known as the Jewish
Colonial Trust. The Bank was established
to buy land for the Jewish people in Eretz Israel.
1900:
Birthdate of Nacha Rivkin, the founder of Shulamith School for Girls, the first
girl's yeshiva in the U.S.
1901:
President Percival S. Menken presided over the annual meeting of the Young
Men’s Hebrew Association. Attendees
listened to the group’s 27th annual report, elected a board of
directors and listened to a brief speech by the organization’s major
benefactor, Jacob Schiff.
1901:
President Simon Borg presided over the annual meeting of the Home for Aged and
Infirmed Hebrews. Based on the report of
the Finance Committee, the Home’s financial condition was quite solid. Jacob Schiff, President of the Montefiore
Home for Chronicle Invalids addressed the group, congratulating the group for
the quality of management at the Home.
1902:
American author Bret Harte whose father was an Orthodox Jew named Bernard Hart,
passed away never having practiced the faith of his father or “fathers.”
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bret-Harte
1902:
In “Presburg, Hungary,” “Rabbi Josef and Taube (Kaufman) Rosenblatt gave birth
CCNY graduate and JTS ordained rabbi, Samuel Rosenblatt the hold of a Ph.D.
from Columbia who several congregations including Adath Israel in Trenton, NJ,
with the support of his wife, “the former Clara Woloch.”
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/rosenblatt-samuel
https://jewishmuseummd.pastperfectonline.com/byperson?keyword=Rosenblatt%2C+Samuel+%28Rabbi%29
1903:
“Jews Flee From Kieff” published today described conditions in the city of Kiev
where “richer Jews have left their houses and have sought refuge in hotels”
while “thousands of poor Jews have fled the city’ because of well-founded reports
“that anti-Semitic crusade is imminent.” (Editor’s note: The fears were fanned
by the Easter Pogrom at Kishinev. Kiev
would actually be spared until the wave of violence in 1905)
1904:
“Jacob Goell and Mary Samowitz gave birth St. John’s University trained
attorney Milton J. Goell, the holder of a BA from Harvard and Ph.D. from
Yeshiva University who raised two children – James and Martha – with his wife
Amy.
1905:
Maurice Arnold de Forest, who had been adopted by the millionaire Baroness
Clara de Hirsch, née Bischoffsheim, wife of Jewish banker and philanthropist
Baron Maurice de Hirsch de Gereuth, and given the surname de
Forest-Bischoffsheim, resigned this commission on 5 May 1906, by which time he
was also an Honorary Second Lieutenant in the Army
1906:
Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte, whose career had suffered because his second
wife, Matilda Ivanovna (Isaakovna) Lisanevich, was a converted Jew, completed
his service as 1st Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the
Russian Empire
1907:
As violence gripped Russia it was reported today that Premier Stolypn feels
that the
demands of the Jewish League presented are just, he is postponing taking action
because if he did so the peasants would rise up and lynch the Jews.
1908:
Akron, Ohio, department store owner Bert A. Polsky and his wife the former
Hazel Steiner gave birth to the oldest child and only son Thomas E. Polsky.
1909(14th
of Iyar, 5669): Pesach Sheni
1909:
Birthdate of Hungarian poet Miklós Radnóti, whose life was shaped by the fact
that his mother and his twin brother died during his birth,
1909:
Three days after she had passed away, Mary Ada Mocatta, the daughter of
Frederick David Gloldsmid and the former Caroline Samuel and the wife of
Frederick David Mocatta, the scion of a prominent Jewish family who wrote The
Jews of Spain and Portugal and the Inquisition was buried today at the
“Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1909:
Henri Daniel Mayrargue and Eveline Bethsabée Lattès, the daughter of
Israël-Vita Lattès and Marie Lattès gave birth to Jean Mayrargue.
1910:
Birthdate of Josef Karlenboim who made Aliyah in 1930 and gained fame as Yosef
Almogi, Israeli military, labor and political leaders.
1910:
Birthdate of Leo Lionni who along with David Wiesner was one of the two most
“influential children’s book illustrators of the twentieth century.” The
Amsterdam native’s father was a Sephardic Jewish who worked in the diamond
business. His mother was a Christian.
1911:
Birthdate of “Andor Lilienthal, the last of the original 27 chess grandmasters,
who played 10 world champions and beat 6 of them…”
1912(18th
of Iyar, 5672): Lag B’Omer
1912:
A week before his 27th birthday, Brooklyn Law School trained
attorney Nathan Sweedler the son of Samuel and Ada Sweddler, the director of
the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities and founder of the Brooklyn
Jewish Chronicle married Ada L.
Meyer
1912: The Summer Olympics in which Abel Kiviat “won
a silver medal in the 1500 meter race” opened today in Stockholm.
1913:
Miss Ella Hartman was elected President of the Junior Auxilliary of the
Mother’s Aid of the Chicago Lying-in Hospital and Dispensary which met at
Temple Isaiah.
1913:
The Chicago Association of Jewish Women is scheduled to meet in the Sinai
Social Center where Mrs. Israel Cowen will be elected President.
1913:
Miss Biefeld’s Young Ladies Band is scheduled to provide the music at today’s
meeting of the Chicago Association of Jewish Women in the Sinai Social Center
where attendees can vote for new officers between one and three in the
afternoon.
1914:
“There were strong indications today that Detective Will J. Burns will be
detained under heavy bond as a material witness before the Grand Jury in its
investigation of bribery charged made by the prosecution in the Leo Frank case
against the defense whose method of obtaining affidavits to exonerate Frank of
the murder of Mary Phagan and to convict Jim Conley of the crime have been
called into question.”
1915:
Today, Isidore Hershfield, the Director of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant
Aid Society of America declared that “every Jew, man, woman and child in the
Province of Kovno was expelled on twenty-four hours’ notice” with all of them
fleeing west toward the battle front controlled by the Germans
1915:
Birthdate of Emanuel Litvinoff, an English-born Jewish poet known for his
scathing verse indictment of T. S. Eliot’s anti-Semitism — and for reading it
before an audience that happened to include Eliot. (As reported by Margalit
Fox)
1915: H.A. Alexander, Leo Frank’s local attorney
said Louis Marshall’s decision to ask “the United States Supreme court to hand
down without further delay the mandate in the Leo M. Frank case” was “a
surprise” to him.
1915:
During the Gallipoli campaign, during the fighting at Kritihia, Private
Groushkowksy of the Zion Mule Corps “prevented his mules from stampeding under
heavy bombardment and despite being wounded in both arms, delivered his load of
ammunition for which he was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal.
1915:
It was reported today from Constantinople, that “the most curious feature is
the attitude of the Jews” in Turkey “who are in many ways the
intellectuals. Jewish influence has been
enormous in Turkey and it has been said their Zionist aims had seriously
undermined the loyalty of the Arabs.
Apparently however, Enver Pasha has decided Arab support is worth a
great deal more than that of the Jews and various steps have been taken to
force the Jews into a Turkish mold.
Jewish disaffection is no slight matter and it is more significant as
Jewish influence had hitherto worked powerfully for Germany.”
1916:
It was announced today “that $900 had been contributed by Bronx businessman
towards that borough’s campaign to raise funds for the aid of “Jewish war
sufferers.”
1917(13th
of Iyar, 5677): Parashat Achrei Mot-Kedoshim
1917(13th
of Iyar, 5677): Seventy-two-year-old
Isidor Frankenberg, an alderman serving Liverpool, England, passed away today
1916:
President Wilson appointed Jacob Jerome Steinfelder the inspiration for the
book Family Doctor by Richard and Dorothy Williams to serve as a lieutenant in
the United States Army Medical Reserve Corps.
1917:
At a mass meeting of Zionists held this evening, “Nathan Straus offered to
defray the traveling expenses of all wishing to move to Palestine” but lack
“means to do so.”
1917:
In Cleveland, OH, Harry Fleishman Affelder, the Pittsburgh, PA born son of
Jacob Isadore Affelder and Catherine “Kate Affelder, and his wife Rhoda
Affelder gave birth to Ruther Jane
Affelder, the future wife of Lois H. Hexter and Jerome “Jerry” Bennet
Goodfriend.
1917:
At Cooper Union, during the first of a series of meetings “planned for the
principal cities” in the United States “to crystalize Jewish sentiment on the
subject of Zionism” Rabbi Stephen S. Wise declared that “the Jewish problem
could be solved only Jews in a Jewish way, by the Jewish soul on Jewish soil.”
1917:
“Jews in Palestine are threatened with a massacre, according to a cablegram
received” in Chicago today “by Adolph Kraus, International President of the
Order of B’nai B’rith from President Gilbert of the London” B’nai B’rith Lodge
who appealed to Kraus to intervene with the American government.
1918:
“The Bride’s Awakening” a silent drama directed by Robert Z. Leonard and
produced by Carl Laemmle was released in the United States today.
1918:
Jacob Schiff and Julius Rosenwald were among the speakers at the Belvedere in
Baltimore where that city’s Jews were “launching a drive to raise its quote of
$350,000 which was part of the $15,000,000 general war relief fund.”
1919:
Birthdate of Samuel Abraham Goldblith, “an American food scientist” who studied
malnutrition during World War II “and later was involved in food research
important for space exploration.” He
died in 2001.
1919:
Mrs. Joseph Hevesh is scheduled to read the prize winning story “My Father and
I” at the annual meeting of the Council of Jewish Women at the Sinai Center in
Chicago.
1920: Birthdate of Charles Hirsch Schneer, a
native of Norfolk, Virginia who gained fame as a film producer most widely
known for working with special effects pioneer, Ray Harryhausen. (As reported
by Margalit Fox)
1921:
Birthdate of Poet and liturgist Ruth Brin
1921: Birthdate of Arthur Leonard Schawlow winner
of the 1981 Nobel Prize for Physics.
1921
(27th of Nisan, 5681): Fifty-six year old Austrian born Alfred
Hermann Fried a leading pacifist,
author, co-founder of the German peace movement one of the recipients of the
Nobel Prize for Peace in 1911 passed away today
1921:
Demobilized Jewish soldiers under the command of a Jewish officer were assigned
to patrol duty in Tel Aviv as part of today’s efforts by General Deeds and
Judge Norman Bentwich to restore order in Palestine. Arabs, including Arab policemen, began
rioting on May 1. So far 27 Jews have
been killed during the violence and another 150 have been wounded.
1922:
Birthdate of Polish nurse Irene Gut who was honored as a Righteous Among the
Nations by Yad Vashem for risking her life to save twelve Jews from certain
death.
http://polish-jewish-heritage.org/eng/june_03_Irene_Opdyke_Washington_Post.htm
1922:
“Morris J. Clurman” and “Lena Shimshak” gave birth to Herman Clurman, the
husband of “Gloria A. Glick Clurman.
1922:
Fifty-two year old Judge Joseph Sabath, the Bohemian born son of Joachim and
Barbara (Eisenschimmel) Sabath applied and husband of Regina Mayer applied for
a U.S. passport today and his brother Congress Adolph J. Sabath attested as to
his identity.
1923:
The 31st annual meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society
opened today in Washington, D.C.
1924:
In Berlin, dermatologist Dr. Joseph Cassel and Edith (Basch) Cassel gave birth
to Lili Cassel who gained gamed as illustrator and calligrapher Lili Wronker.
(As reported by Richard Sandomir)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/obituaries/lili-wronker-dead.html
1925:
Birthdate of Polish native and Holocaust survivor Simon Kohn, founder of Simon
Kohn’s Kosher Restaurant and Deli where they make great kishka and meat
knishes. (Editor’s note – I am not neutral in this. For years Kohn’s filled all of my late wife’s
meat orders shipping to Cedar Rapids on time and fresh.
1926:
Funeral rites are held at Temple Beth-El for businessman, philanthropist and
diplomat Oscar Straus.
1926:
In Manhattan, attorney Max Hirson and Hazel (Adlowich) Hirson gave birth to WW
II Army veteran and Yale University graduate Roger Overholt Hirson a prominent
writer for live television in the 1950s and ’60s who collaborated with the
composer Stephen Schwartz on the hit Broadway musical “Pippin” (As reported by
Richard Sandomir)
1927:
In Manhattan, Anita Gerber and Irwin Rosen gave birth to Charles Welles Rosen “the pianist, polymath and author whose National Book
Award-winning volume “The Classical Style” illuminated the enduring language of
Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1928(15th of Iyar, 5688): Parashat
Emor
1928: It was reported today that Louis
Marshal and the other member of the Palestine Survey commission would hold
their first meeting in London next month to consider the reports or experts who
have been investigating conditions in Palestine and to make recommendations for
the development of the land.
1929: In spite of a steady drizzle, several
hundred people watched Mayor Jimmy Walker lay the cornerstone for the new two
million dollar Rodeph Sholom Temple at 83rd Street, near Central
Park West.
1930: Birthdate of Barry M. Farber, the
native of Baltimore who grew up in Greensboro, NC, attended the University of
North Carolina before beginning a career as a conservative radio talk show “who Talkers magazine ranked as the 9th
greatest radio talk show host of all time.”
1930: In St. Paul, MN, Belle and Albert Shaw
gave birth to Stanford J. Shaw whose works include The Jews of the Ottoman
Empire and the Turkish Republic and Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey's
role in rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi persecution, 1933-1945
1931(18th
of Iyar, 5691): Lag BaOmer
1931:
In Brooklyn, accountant Max Greenberg and Bertha (Rosenberg) Greenberg gave
birth to Columbia graduate and Navy veteran Daniel Sheldon Greenberg, the
younger brother civil rights attorney Jack Greenberg and husband of Wanda Reif
whose coverage of science could only be described as “ground breaking.” (As
reported by Cornelia Green)
1931:
Senator William E. Borah is scheduled to “be the principal speaker tonight at a
meeting in Carnegie Hall at which the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee will start its New York drive” to raise one million dollars.
1932:
It was reported today that Julius Simon “has announced that “long-term credits
of about $400,000 to enable five hundred families of Jewish agricultural
laborers in Palestine to become independent home and orchard owners this year
have been made available by the Palestine Economic Corporation.”
1933:
In Budapest, Donald and Ilona Sass gave birth to Evelyn Erika Sass who as
Evelyn Handler gained gamed as a cell biologist and the first women to serve as
President of Brandeis University. (As reported by Paul Vitello)
1933:
In New York, Abraham Schneider, the President of Columbia Pictures, and his
wife gave birth to Berton “Bert” Schneider the movie executive who “in 1975,
received an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for producing Hearts and
Minds, a documentary film about the Vietnam War.”
1933:
Ludwig Kaas, who was in Rome at the behest of Cardinal Pacelli to negotiate a
Concordat between Hitler and the Vatican, resigned his post as Chairman of the
Centre Party one of the last political institution standing in the way of the
Nazi’s complete control of Germany.
1934(20th
of Iyar, 5694): Parashat Emor
1934”
The United Anti-Nazi Conference is scheduled to begin at noon today in the Irving Plaza Hall in New York
City.
1934:
In Cologne, Germany, Friedrich Carol von Oppenheim, a Righteous Among the
Nations and his wife gave birth to Alfred Paul Ernst Freiherr von Oppenheim the
“German billionaire and banker” “known in Americas Alfred Oppenheim, the
husband of Jeanne von Oppenheim “with whom he had three children Victoria,
Alexander and Christopher.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/08/local/me-passings8.1
1935:
“Leading Christians, headed by former Governor Alfred E. Smith, called upon all
Americans today to aid the United Jewish Appeal in its effort to raise
$3,250,000 in the United States for the relief and rehabilitation of Jews in
Germany and Eastern Europe and the settlement of Jews in Palestine
1936:
“A big fire” which was presumably started by arsonists “broke out today in
Balfour Forest in northern Palestine destroying more than a thousand trees
planted by the Jews.
1936:
“The British High Commissioner, Sir Arthur G. Wauchope today met the Arab High
Council and told them he was ‘confident none of you gentlemen associate
yourself with…any illegal act” and advised them “that they immediately make it
known that there not connected with” the violence surrounding the strike.
1936:
Birthdate of Sanford Irving Beresofsky the native of Brooklyn who gained fame
as comedian Sandy Baron.
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 third day
in Atlantic City, NJ.
1938:
The Palestine Post reported that a
Jewish farmer, Haim Sober, 40, was attacked by Arabs while on his way home to
Karkur and beaten with sticks to death.
1938: As
Sigmund Freud's family members continued their departure from Vienna, his
“sister-in-law, Minna Bernays, left for London” today a week before Martin
Freud left for the British capital.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that an Arab
watchmen employed by the Iraqi Petroleum Company was shot and killed in a
Tiberias cafe, apparently because he was to serve as a witness in the court
case against the Izza ed Din el Kassam Arab terrorist gang which murdered a Jew
at Nahalal.
1939: U.S.
premiere of “Lucky Night” a comedy directed by Norman Taurog.
1939:
Birthdate of photographer Ryszard Horowitz, the native of Krakow who was
shipped to a Nazi concentration at the age of four months, and at the age of
five was one of the survivors of Auschwitz liberated by the Soviets.
http://www.ryszardhorowitz.com/analog.html
1939:
“Lucky Night,” a comedy directed by Norman Taurog was released in the United
States today.
1939: “Rose
of Washington” a musical “inspired by” the lives and marriage of Fanny Brice
and Nicky Arnstein” directed by Gregory Ratoff featuring Al Jolson was released
in the United States today.
1939: Sara
Kucikowicz, the author of “The Cruel Winter” gave her tutor Shlomo Achituv “a
photograph of herself, and on the back inscribed the following: “Shlomka, so
you’ll remember me. Sara.” The portrait was made at the M. Glouberman photo
studio at 12 Pilsudskiego St.” (As reported by JTA)
1939:
The Nuremberg anti-Jewish laws went into effect in Hungary
1939: Under newly enacted legislation first presented by ex-Prime Minister
Bella Imredy two thirds of Hungary's Jews were denaturalized because they
became citizens after 1914. Jews had to leave all government-related positions
before the end of the year.
1940(27th
of Nisan, 5700): Rabbi Ely Dunsker passed away today in Cincinnati, OH.
1940:
“Dead Man’s Shoes” a British drama featuring Ludwig Stössel as “Doctor
Breithaut” was released in the United Kingdom today.
1941:
Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia after a five
year exile brought about the Italian conquest of his kingdom. This marked one of the early victories of the
Allies over the fascists and thus was a turning point in World War II. The
Emperor had spent part of his exile in Palestine where he was greeted warmly by
the Jewish population
1942
(18th of Iyar, 5702): Lag B’Omer
1942
(18th of Iyar, 5702): Jewish teachers and educators in the Warsaw Ghetto
created a special day for children, during which they were treated to games,
plays, and special rations of sweets.
1942
(18th of Iyar, 5702): Prof. Jakob Edmund Speyer, a Jew from Frankfurt, Germany,
who invented an important painkiller called Eukodal, died of exhaustion in the
ghetto at Lodz, Poland
1943:
The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto continued to hold out against the Nazis.
1943:
Himmler visited Zagreb, Yugoslavia. Soon
thereafter 1,400 Jews were deported.
1944:
Birthdate of journalist and author Richard Bernstein
http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/03/25/reviews/010325.25fratert.html
http://richardbernstein.net/About-Me.html
1944:
Bruce Sundlun whose B-17 had been shot down on its 13th mission
entered Switzerland after having made his way across France where he worked
with the Maquis and where he would be recruited by spymaster Allen Dulles to
work for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) the forerunner of the CIA.
1944:
Jacob Shapiro was sentenced to serve a sentence of 15 years to life after
having been convicted of conspiracy and extortion. He only served three years of the sentence
since he died of a heart attack while in prison in 1947.
1944:
The Jewish Exponent “was purchased by the Allied Jewish Appeal, a precursor of
the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
http://www.jewishexponent.com/
1945:
Seventy-nine year old oriental language professor and amateur archeologist who
climbed Mount Ararat “in search of Noah’s Ark” and who sold the clay tablet
that became known as Plimpton 322 which provided a window into the world of
Babylonian mathematics and linguistics passed away today.
1945: The presiding bishop of the
German-Catholic bishops' conference instructs his priests to say a mass in
Hitler's memory
1945:
After the commander of the bunker at Ebensee (prison) murdered all
prisoners who had worked at the crematorium and the bunker, prisoners
transported from Mauthausen, Austria, and Warsaw revolted at the labor camp at
Ebensee, Austria. When they were ordered into a tunnel packed with explosives,
they refused to budge, confusing the SS and Volksdeutsche
guards, all of whom were mindful of the advancing Allies and the likelihood of
war-crimes trials. The prisoners' defiance was successful and they were left
unharmed. In the face of this defiance and out of fear for what might happen
when the Allies arrive the Germans fled. As U.S. troops entered the camp, a
brutal German Kapo (foreman) pleaded
with inmates not to turn him over to the Americans as a war criminal. He was
attacked by three Jewish boys and killed. Other Germans at Ebensee met similar
fates.
1945:
Victor Kugler, “one of the people who helped to hide Anne Frank and her family”
came out hiding today after the Netherlands were liberated today.
1945:
At 11:30 a.m. two American armored vehicles approached the camp gate Mauthansan
and were admitted by the prisoners. The troops were from the U.S. 11th Armored
Division the force that had liberated the concentration camp at Mauthausen,
Austria. 110,000 survivors were found, including 28,000 Jews. Bodies of 10,000
inmates were discovered in a mass grave. In the days following liberation, more
than 3000 inmates will die. The Americans did not have enough supplies to offer
a fraction of these numbers. Foods such as candy, chocolate, milk and jams were
too rich for the starving who still died as a result of malnutrition. One
survivor, Sidney Fahn, weighed 80 pounds.
1945:
Hollywood producer George Stevens who was working for the United States Army,
filmed the first Jewish service at Dachau which was conducted Rabbi David Max
Eichhorn, who was a chaplain with the United States Army.
1945:
Louise Lawrence-Israëls was three years old when “Canadian forces liberated
Amsterdam” today.
http://www.ushmm.org/remember/office-of-survivor-affairs/survivor-volunteer/louise-lawrence-israels
1945:
Private Hershel Wright of the US Army gave oranges to starving survivors of the
Wöbbelin concentration camp which had been liberated by the GI’s on May 2nd.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/may/13.asp
1945: The camp at Gusen, Austria, near
Mauthausen, is liberated by the U.S. Army; 2000 inmates remain alive.
1945: The
U.S. 71st Infantry Division liberates the camp at Gunskirchen, Austria, where
18,000 inmates remain alive. Hungarian author and journalist Geza Havas,
force-marched to the camp from Mauthausen, died a few hours before the
Americans arrive.
1945:
“After a total of 12 months of imprisonment, including two months in the Melk
an der Donau camp, Miklós Nyiszli and his fellow
prisoners were liberated” today
1946:
Birthdate of Chicago radio personality Eddie Schwartz.
1947:
Members of Kibbutz Yakum (He Shall Rise) met to consider a name change. They decided to keep the name
1948:
A group of Jewish immigrant from Egypt founded Bror Hayil (selection of
soldiers) a kibbuz in southern Israel near Sderot.
1949(6th
of Iyar, 5709): Fifty year old Samuel Pesin, “an assistant corporation counsel”
in Jersey City for the past 11 years, “a member of the John Marshall Law
College,” a former President of Congregation Mount Sinai in Jersey City Heights
and husband of Libby Pesin with whom he had two children – Edward and Ada –
passed away today in Christ Hospital.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/05/06/84562507.pdf
1950(18th
of Iyar, 5710): Lag B’Omer
1950:
“The Reformer and the Redhead” a comedy co-directed and co-produced by Melvin
Frank who also co-authored the screenplay, featuring Marvin Kaplan and with music
by David Raskin was released in the United States today.
1951(29th
of Nisan, 5711): Parashat Achrei Mot
1951:
It was reported today that Louis B. Mayer may leave Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and go
to work at Warner Brother once a syndicated headed by Louis R. Lurie and Sol
Lesser has purchased a 24 per cent interest in Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc.
1952:
The Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Herman Wouk for the Caine Mutiny.
Herman Wouk was born in New York City in 1915 into a Jewish family that had
emigrated from Russia, and received an A.B. from Columbia University. During
World War II, then joined the United States Navy and served in the Pacific
Theater. This experience would provide
the background material for The Caine Mutiny. If you ever see the film version of the book,
there is a scene at the end where the officers of the U.S.S. Caine are
celebrating during which one of the characters gives a speech that show real
villain of the piece was an author who spent his time on the ship writing the
great American War novel while it is a Jewish lawyer who champions the cause of
the unsuspecting dupe who is being court-martialed From a Jewish perspective, two of his most
important works were This is My God: The Jewish Way of Life published in
1959 and The Will to Live on: The Resurgence of Jewish Heritage published
in 2000. According to at least one
source Wouk decided that he would be an Observant Jew when he joined the
Navy. Reportedly, while he was in the
service, Wouk donned tefillin daily before he davened on a daily basis. The crew members thought that Mr. Wouk’s
little black boxes gave them the edge during enemy attacks. After the war, Wouk was something of an
anomaly among Jewish intellectuals – a successful Jewish author who did not
turn his back on being Jewish.
1952:
Aba Houshy, Mayor of Haifa, leaves Israel to fly to New York City to makes
speeches as part of the annual Israel Bond Drive.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the
Treasury expressed satisfaction at the public response to the compulsory
property loan which could be converted into a tax. Out of 10,500 property
owners, 7,700 choose to pay the tax.
1953: “The
Juggler” a movie based on Michael Blankfort’s novel about a Holocaust who comes
to Israel where it was filmed, produced by Stanley Kramer and starring Kirk
Douglas was released in the United States today.
1954(2nd
of Iyar, 5714): Yom HaZikaron
1954:
Birthdate of David Azulai, the native of Morocco who made Aliyah in 1963 and
developed a career in Israeli politics that climax with service as an MK.
Azulai is an “alumnus” Zion Blumenthal Orphanage which founded near the
Bukharim Quarter in 1900 by Rabbi Yochanan Blumenthal
1954:
Birthdate of Dave Spector, the Chicago native who is one of the more visible foreign personalities (gaijin tarento)
in Japan.
1955: In a
move which frightened many of those who remembered the atrocities of Nazi
German, “the full authority of a sovereign state was granted to the Federal
Republic of Germany” which lead to the rebuilding of the Germany Army as a part
of NATO.
1955: U.S.
premiere of “Daddy Long-Legs” with a script by Henry and Phoebe Ephron.
1956(24th
of Iyar, 5716): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
1956(24th
of Iyar, 5716): Sixty-eight year old Russian born Fannie Abramowitz Shapiro,
the “honorary president of the women’s auxiliary of the Hebrew Home for the
Aged at Riverdale,” “the wife of Philip Shapiro, a fruit and vegetable
wholesaler and the mother Emil Chiron and Jeannette Steinman passed away today
in the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital.
1956(24th
of Iyar, 5716): Fifty-four year old Miklós Nyiszli, the Jewish physician forced
to work at Auschwitz passed away today in Romania.
http://www.auschwitz.dk/Nyiszli.htm
1957: “He’s
the Dean of Southern Rabbi’s “by William Hammack published in today’s Atlanta
Constitution recounts the life of Rabbi Tobia Geffen, “the Coca Cola Rabbi.” "He's
the Dean of Southern Rabbis
1958:
Birthdate of “Lieutenant Colonel Ron Arad…an IAF fighter pilot and an Israeli
Air Force weapon systems officer (WSO) who is officially classified as missing
in action since October 1986, but widely presumed dead. Hezbollah claimed that
Arad died during an escape attempt in May 1988. An Israeli secret military
commission report claimed that Arad died of illness in 1995, and was buried in
the Beqaa Valley.”
1959(27th
of Nisan, 5719): Yom HaShoah
1959:
Today, Arab leader Dr. Charles Malik “visited the opening of the Israeli
Pavilion at World Trade Fair and drank champagne at the exhibit with the
Israeli Consul General, Simcha Pratt…”
1960(8th
of Iyar, 5720): Sixty-six year old NYU trained attorney and WW I Samuel H.
Kaufman, the federal judge best known for his role in the trial of Alger Hiss
who was the husband of “Mrs. Ann E. Delaney Kaufman,” and the brother of
Goldie, Julius and David Kaufman passed away today.
1964: In
Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine Professor Roland Copé, a surgeon of
Romanian Jewish origin, and Monique Ghanassia, of Algerian Jewish origin gave
birth to French political leader Jean-François Copé
1964: “An
Air Force neurosurgeon” and a woman who had “survived as a hidden child in
France during WW II” while her grandparents had been murdered at Auschwitz gave
birth to Harvard educated historian and author Tom Reiss who wrote The
Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life, a
biography about Lev Nussimbaum and the Pulitzer prize winning The Black
Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal and the Real Count of Monte Cristo.
1965(3rd
of Iyar, 5725): Yom HaZikaron
1965: In
Washington, DC, “Jennifer Cafritz (née Stats) and real estate developer, Conrad
Cafritz gave birth to punk rocker Julia Cafrtiz.
1967(25th
of Nisan, 5727): Eighty-four year old “Albert Goldman, who had been Postmaster
of New York and before that Commissioner of the city's Department of Plant and
Structures, died of a stroke today in the Fairfield Nursing Home, at 3220 Henry
Hudson Parkway East, after an illness of two months.
1967: In
Sweden, Karin Tegmark and mathematician Harold Shaprio gave birth to
cosmologist Max Erk Tegmark.
1969: Pulitzer Prize
awarded to Norman Mailer for Armies of the Night, a recollection of his
own experiences at the Washington peace rallies of 1968, during which he was
jailed.
1970: Due to the ill
health of the accused, the trial of Helmut Bischoff, the chief of security for
the Nazi V-Weapons Program was suspended today and would not resume until 1974.
1972(21st of
Iyar, 5732): Ninety-year old archaeologist Hetty Goldman passed away today.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/goldman-hetty
1973: “There Goes
Rhymin’ Simon,” “the third studio album by Paul Simon was released today.
1973: "Something
So Right" a song by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon was released
today.
1975: In “Responsa: The
Law as Seen by Rabbis for 1,000 years” Israel Shenker describes the role of
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein whom he describes as “a court of last resort” for
Orthodox Jews.
1976(5th
of Iyar, 5736): Yom HaAtzma’ut
1976: “Baby
Blue Marine” a WW II movie produced by Leonard Goldberg and Aaron Spelling was
released in the United States.
1978:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today in Brooklyn for Solomon Berman,
a C.P.A. who was the husband of Florence Berman with whom he had two children –
Glenda and Robert.
1978:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for Bertha Hamada, the widow of
the late Sam Hamada and the mother of Miriam Skolnik and Irving Hamada.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the
Foreign Minister, Moshe Dayan said that Israeli Defense Forces must remain
permanently in Judea and Samaria; Israelis should reserve the right to buy land
and to settle in these territories and should reserve the right of an
unrestricted movement in the whole area.
1979(8th
of Iyar, 5739): Parasha t Achrei Mot- Kedoshim
1979(8th
of Iyar, 5739): Henry Edward Schultz, the former General counsel for J.B.
Williams, Company and Honorary National Chairman of the ADL who raised two
children – Michael and Jane Ellen – with his wife Rose Jane passed away today
in Miami Beach.
1980(19th
of Iyar, 5740): Seventy-year-old New York City native and University of Chicago
trained lawyer who served on the faculty of Rutgers University passed away
today.
1980:
Funeral services are scheduled to held today Helen Werner of West Palm Beach,
FL, the sister of Adolph M. Werner.
1981(1st
of Iyar, 5741): Rosh Chodesh Iyar is celebrated for the first during the
Presidency of Ronald Reagan.
1983: Chaim
Herzog began serving as President of Israel, a position he would hold until the
election of Ezer Weizman in 1993.
1984: Billy
Cyrstal hosted Saturday Night Live’s ninth season finale tonight prior to
joining “the regular cast for the 1984-85 season.”
1985:
Following a visit to the former Nazi concentration camp at Belsen, President
Ronald Regan visits the Bitburg cemetery which contains the graves of 49 SS
soldiers.
1985: An
additional 2,000-foot section of the ramparts of the Old City of Jerusalem
gained modern lighting. The segment may now be walked at night, in a leisurely
half-hour, starting at the Zion Gate and ending at the Citadel of David. There,
a small amphitheater has been constructed for a sound-and-light display.
1987: Henry
Heinz Schwarz, the longtime opponent of apartheid and member of the opposition
completed his service Shadow Minister of Finance.
1988(18th
of Iyar, 5748): Lag BaOmer
1990:
Eighty-nine year old screenwriter and producer Endre Bohem passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-05-08/news/mn-96_1_endre-bohem
1990: NBC
broadcast the final episode of season 5 of Golden Girls a sitcom created by
Susan Harris, starring Beatrice Arthur and Estelle Getty, with music by Andrew
Gold.
1991(21st
of Iyar, 5751): Yuval Glick and Moshe Leshem were killed when their F-4 Phantom
Jet crashed into Lake Tiberius.
1991(21st of Iyar, 5751):
Eighty-seven year old Chaim Gross an Austrian born American sculptor passed
away. (As reported by John T. McQuiston)
1993(14th
of Iyar, 5753): Pesach Sheni
1994(24th
of Iyar, 5754): Dutch architect Hein Salomonson architect passes away at the
age of 83.
1994(24th
of Iyar, 5754): Sixty-four year old Joe Layton, the dancer turned Choreographer
and Director passed away today.
1995(5th of
Iyar, 5755): Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik passed away. Born in 1911, this Russian Jew was an
International Chess Grandmaster and a long time World Champion.
1995: NBC
broadcast the final episode for season number three of “Homicide: Life on the
Street” co-starring Richard Belzer and Yaphet Kotto directed by Barry Levinson.
1996(16th
of Iyar 5756): Ninety-four year old David Lasser, a socialist activist and
driving force behind the drive to create rockets passed away today in
California.
http://library.ucsd.edu/speccoll/findingaids/mss0322.html
1997(28th
of Nisan, 5757): Yom HaShoah
1997(28th
of Nisan, 5757): Eighty-one year old photojournalist David Scherman passed away
today. (As reported by Holcomb b. Noble)
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/07/arts/david-scherman-81-editor-whose-photos-sank-a-ship.html
1998: This
1960 production of Peter Pan, a musical created by Mark "Moose"
Charlap, Jule Styne, Carolyn Leigh, Betty Comden and Adolph Green was released
on VHS home video
1999: The National Science
Board (NSB) has named Maxine Frank Singer, Ph.D., president of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington, D.C. to receive the 1999 Vannevar Bush Award for
lifetime contributions to science and engineering. Singer will receive the Bush
Award on May 5 in Washington, D.C. at a National Science Board awards ceremony.
2000:
The Times of London features a review
of Righteous Victims: A history of the Zionist-Arab conflict, 1881-1999
by Benny Morris and The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab world since 1948
by Avi Shlaim.
2000:
ABC broadcast the final episode of “Boy meets World” a sitcom starring Ben
Savage.
2000:
“Gladiator” a Roman Empire epic co-starring Joaquin Phoenix with music by Hans
Zimmer was released in the United States today.
2001(12th
of Iyar, 5661): Parashat Achrei Mot-Kedoshim
2001:
This evening Shiva for 84 year old Professor Eliezer A. Mishkin, the husband of
Esther Mishkin, the father of Susan Jonathan and Arnon Mishkin, a “dedicated
supporter of Israel and pioneer in electrical engineering and physics, who
“after earning his bachelor's degree from the Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology, persuaded the university to start a doctoral program” which led to
him earning the Technion's first such degree in electrical engineering in 1952;
2002(23rd
of Iyar, 5762): Eighty-five year old child actor turned movie director George
Sidney passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/07/arts/george-sidney-85-director-of-many-movie-musicals.html
2002:
Lewis Eisenberg, a financier who had been appointed by President Trump to
served U.S. Ambassador to Italy today was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane
Letters Degree from the Rabbinical College of America.
2002: The New York Times featured books by
Jewish writers and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The
Collected Stories of Joseph Roth: Funerals for the Old World and the recently released paperback edition of Paradise
Park by Allegra Goodman.
2002: Jack
Lang completed his service as Education Minister of France.
2003:
“Lashing out at rivals within his own faction, Amram Mitzna quit today as the
leader of Israel's left-of-center Labor Party -- a sign of the disarray
hobbling Israel's left as the Bush administration presses a new Middle East
peace plan.” (As reported by James Bennet)
2004(14th
of Iyar, 5764): Pesach Sheni
2004: In
“That Old Feeling: Hail, Harvey!” Richard Corliss remembers Harvey Kurtzman of
Mad magazine fame who died in 1993.
http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,633658,00.html
2005:
British Laborite Barbara Maureen Roche lost her seat as a Member of Parliament
for Hornsey and Wood Green
2005: David Wright
Miliband, the son of Jewish immigrants, is named Minister of State for
Communities and Local Government by Prime Minister Tony Blair.
2006: “Hoot” a comedy
based on a book of the same name starring Logan Lerman as “Roy A. Eberhardt”
was released today in the United States.
2006:
The Hebrew Cemetery in Richmond, VA “aka Hebrew Burying Ground” founded in 1816
was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
https://www.bethahabah.org/heritage/hebrew-cemetery/
2006: David Wright
Miliband, the son of Jewish immigrants, named Secretary of State for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs by Prime Minister Tony Blair.
2006: The New-York Historical Society named Doris Kearns Goodwin
its American history laureate and
presented her with its inaugural $50,000 Book Prize for American history
for Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln a biography
of the 16th president and his cabinet.
2006: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah celebrates the
Confirmation of Vanessa Levi, daughter of Elizabeth and Shlomo Levi and Daniel
DeClue, son of Carolyn and Rick DeClue.
These two bright, intelligent youngsters are living proof of the
resiliency of the Jewish spirit in communities both large and small. But more important than their intellectual
accomplishments is the fact that these two are decent, caring human beings. It
is fitting that their ceremony falls on the Shabbat when the Torah portion is
Kedoshim since it reminds us that in the world of Jewish values “nice guys
finish first.”
2007:
“The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson: Constructing a Legend” opened at the Jewish
Museum in New York City.
2007:
As part of Jewish Heritage Month, The National Archives in Washington, D.C.
presented a screening of An American Tail. The film is the story of the Mousekewitz family’s journey to America
and of their young son, Fievel, who gets lost along the way. Landing in a
bottle, Fievel washes ashore in New York Harbor where, determined to find his
family, he comes face to face with the perils and opportunities of the New
World. The film features the voices of Dom DeLuise, Christopher Plummer, and
Madeline Kahn and is directed by Don Bluth.
2007:
Running of the Kentucky Derby. While
it's not a well-known part of our Western mythology, the Jewish Hart brothers
of Kentucky formed the Transylvania Company, bartering ten thousand pounds of
merchandise with the Cherokee nation, in exchange for 20 million acres of land
in Kentucky, according to Howard M. Sachar's "A History of the Jews in
America." Yes, the Jews did give America most of Kentucky, with the help
of their hired explorers Daniel Boone and his adopted Jewish son, Samuel
Sanders. Another oddity is that in 1936 the Kentucky Derby was, in effect, a
Jewish "sweep." Bold Venture was the winner, owned by Morton
Schwartz, trained by Max Hirsch and ridden by Ira Hanford. All the human beings
involved in this horse racing victory were Jews. Sometimes we suspect that Bold
Venture was Jewish that day, too
2007(17th
of Iyar, 5767): Seventy-nine year old Theodore Maimen, who demonstrated the
first laser in 1960, passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/obituaries/11maiman.html?_r=1&
2008(30th
of Nisan, 5768): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2008:
“At approximately 2 a.m. Arizona time, the Hersh family’s original documents”
which included documentation of the role that Hungarian immigrant and grocery
store owner Joseph Abraham Hersh had in the creation of the Kosher Wine
Industry, were destroyed and lost forever
2008(30th
of Nisan, 5768): Irv Robbins, the co-founder of Baskin-Robbins, passed away.
Robbins reportedly cashed in a $6,000 insurance policy given him for his bar
Mitzvah in 1945 to start his first ice cream store.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-robbins7-2008may07,0,3080340.story
2008:
The 92nd Street Y presents “Growing Up Jewish in Baghdad” in which
acclaimed novelist, essayist and critic Naim Kattan shares his personal history
of growing up Jewish in Baghdad in the 1940s. Kattan draws a portrait of a
cosmopolitan place where the Jewish community had flourished for more than
2,500 years, alongside Christians and Muslims—a sharp contrast to the
present-day city whose uncertain future is now intricately tied to our own.
2008:
Time magazine published excerpts from the diary of Rutka Laskier in article
entitled “Poland’s Anne Frank.” Rutka Laskier lived in Bedzin, Poland, with her
parents, grandmother and brother. Her journal, covering four months in 1943,
provides a rare glimpse of the daily life of Jews under Nazi rule. The diary
was found after World War II by a friend--who kept it to herself for 60 years
before allowing it to be published, initially in Polish, in 2006. The English language version of the diary is
being published under the title Rutka’s Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust.
2008:
Israel's Reform Jews dedicated the first non-Orthodox synagogue to receive
state funding on Monday, after a long court battle that accented the rift among
streams of Judaism in Israel. The Reform Yozma congregation fought for the
better part of a decade for state funding equivalent to what Orthodox
congregations receive. After arguing their case twice before the Supreme Court,
they got what they wanted: a prefabricated, two-room building on a plot of land
in the center of Modiin, a new town between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. "This
is a substantial step in recognizing different streams of Judaism in the state
of Israel," said Rabbi Kinneret Shiryon, who leads the 240-family
congregation.
2008:
The Jerusalem Center for Ethics hosts a conference on The Limits of the
Autonomy of a Patient at Mishkenot Sha'ananim in Jerusalem.
2009:
Leora Tanenbaum, author of “Taking Back God: American Women Rising Up for
Religious Equality,” takes part in an interfaith dialogue at the D.C. Jewish
Community Center.
2009:
As part of his first U.S. tour in 15 years, famed Canadian Jewish
singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen performs in Chicago.
2009:
Just in time for today’s Cinco de Mayo celebrations Martin Silver, a New York businessman, is
launching Agave 99 the new kosher tequila. Silver, president of Long
Island-based Star Industries, says he wants to satisfy the craze for high-end
tequila with one that observant Jews can drink. Silver says a half million
cases of the 99-proof kosher tequila are being produced at a Mexican plant
using methods certified by a rabbi. It will retail for $41.95 a bottle.
Although the official product launch - with Mexican songs sung in both Yiddish
and Spanish - is set for May 5, it was already on sale at Passover time.
2009:
The Annual AIPAC Policy Conference comes to an end in Washington, D.C.
2009:
Today, the Transportation Ministry sent a letter to British airline BMI’s chief
executive officer in Britain demanding an explanation as to why the only
reference to Israel on the map is the Arabic word for Haifa.
2009:
During his visit to the United States, President Peres is scheduled to meet
with President Obama at the White House.
2010:
Nathan J. Brown, a professor of political science and international affairs at
George Washington University is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled The
Impact of the Breakup of the Ottoman Empire and Future Middle East Politics at
the Historic 6th & I Synagogue co-sponsored by the United
Nations Association of the Capitol Area and Am Kolel Jewish Renewal Center.
2010:
A documentary entitled “9 Years Later” is scheduled to be shown at the Sheba
Festival at the JCC in Manhattan.
2010:
The Limmud FSU Nobel 2010 festival this week honored 26 Jewish scientists and
political leaders who originated in Israel, the Russian Empire and the Soviet
Union and who were awarded the Nobel Prize..
2010: The Schechter
Institute of Jewish Studies dedicated its Legacy Heritage Building in south Tel
Aviv’s picturesque Neveh Zedek neighborhood. The Schechter Institute is a
non-profit organization of the Conservative Movement dedicated to the
advancement of pluralistic Jewish education in Israel.
2011:
The Leo Baeck Institute and the recently founded Jewish Studies Center at
Baruch College are scheduled to present a panel on German-Jewish immigration to
New York City.
2011: “Barbara Dobkin, Jewish feminist philanthropist and the
Founding Chair of the Jewish Women’s Archive, received an honorary degree of
Doctor of Humane Letters at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s
Graduation at Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York”.
2011:
American actor Liev Schreiber will be honored with the Achievement in Film
Award, at the 25th Israel Film Festival (IFF) which begins tonight in New York
City
2011:
B’nai B’rith will award its first accolade honoring Jews who risked their lives
to save their brethren during World War II today.
2011:
Today is the deadline for the world’s first green-certified synagogue,
Congregation Beth David in San Luis Obispo, Calif., to raise $1.3 million if it
is to avoid foreclosure by the bank to which it owes the money.
2011:
Seth Front is scheduled to present “A Culinary History of the Jews in America”
a “45-minute interactive presentation that tells the history of the Jewish deli
in America, from its origins on the Lower East Side to the turn of the 20th
century, its adaptation to American tastes, its assimilation into mainstream
American culture and finally to the challenges facing delis for survival in the
21st century’” at the Mayerson JCC in Cincinnati, Ohio.
2011;
Editor and author Benjamin Taylor is scheduled to offer a first-hand
perspective on "Saul Bellows: Letters" (Viking, 2010), a never-before
published collection of letters by the Nobel Prize in Literature winner, that
spans eight decades and has been called "magnificent" by the New
York Times at the National Museum of American Jewish History in
Philadelphia, PA.
2011: As part
of the Jewish Perspectives on Social Justice
Seminar Dr. Claire Katz is scheduled to facilitate a program entitled
"...for they know precisely what they do...": Memory, Forgiveness and
the Stranger” at the University of Denver in Denver, CO.
2011(1st of Iyar, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
2011: The Nazi war crimes trial of a 97-year-old man
began in Hungary today. Sandor Kepiro, listed by the Simon Wiesenthal Center as
the world's most wanted Nazi, was charged with taking part in raids on the
Serbian town of Novi Sad in 1942, in which 1,200 Jews, Serbs and Roma were
killed.
2011: All flights leaving Ben Gurion Airport were
stopped today, due to a problem with the airport's gas supply. The gas was
found to be contaminated. The airports authority said: "We have instructed
the manager of Ben Gurion airport to stop filling gas in the airport's
planes." Some incoming flights from foreign airlines stopped in airports
in Cyrus and Greece.
2011(1st of Iyar 5771): Arthur Laurents, the
director, playwright and screenwriter who wrote such enduring stage musicals as
“West Side Story” and “Gypsy,” as well as the movie classics “Rope” and “The
Way We Were,” died today from complications of pneumonia at the age of 93. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/arts/arthur-laurents-playwright-and-director-dies-at-93.html?pagewanted=print
2012: Israeli author Etgar Keret is scheduled to appear
at the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature
2012: Temple Judah continues a weekend long celebration
of its 90th Anniversary with a congregation-wide gala dinner-dance.
2012: “In Movies, specifically Hollywood movies, are the
greatest machinery of propaganda the world has ever known” published today Emmy
award winning Yeshiva graduate Robert J. Avrech provided his view of the role
of cinema in American society.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2012/05/05/ingrid-bergman-breaks-image/
2013: The curtain came down on “Big Fish,” Andrew Lippa’s
“newest musical” which had premiered in April at the Oriental Theatre in
Chicago the month before.
2013: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Leo
Baeck Institute is scheduled to present the Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert
Series: Spring Concert 2013
2013: Hadassah sponsors “Walks To Defeat Neuromuscular
Diseases” in Wheaton, Maryland.
2013: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington
is scheduled to host a Walking Tour of Arlington National Cemetery that will
include a visit to the new Jewish Chaplains Memorial.
2013: The New York
Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special
interest to Jewish readers including Vera Gran: The Accused by Agata
Tusznska and Beyond War: Reimagining American Influence in a New Middle East
by David Rohde.
2013: Israel decided this afternoon to close its airspace
in the North to civilian air traffic following alleged Israeli air strikes on
Syria in the past 48 hours.
2013: Syria has stationed missile batteries aimed at
Israel in the aftermath of alleged Israeli air strikes in the country, the
website of Lebanon's Al Mayadeen TV, considered close to the regime of
President Bashar Assad, quoted a top Syrian official as saying today
2013: Israel is working on joining an anti-Iran defense
alliance with a number of moderate Arab states that would involve sharing
Jerusalem’s newly developed anti-missile technologies, a British newspaper
reported today.
2014(5th of Iyar) Yom HaZikaron (Israeli Memorial Day)
2014: Forty-eight year old Jeremy Nemerov, the son of
“former poet laureate Howard Nemerov” and brother of David and Alexander
Nemerov, died today at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, MO.
2014 “The Ceremony” and “No Place on Earth” are scheduled
to be shown at the 16th annual Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival
2014: “The Garden of Eden / Gan Eden” is scheduled to be
shown at the 22nd Toronto Jewish Film Festival.
2014: The Jewish Woman’s Archives is scheduled to
celebrate its 18th anniversary by honoring Gail Twersky Reimer and
other Jewish Troublemakers.
2014: In Rotterdam, “an exhibit called ‘The Second World
War in 100 Objects’ which marbles that Anne Frank had given to her friend
Toosje Kupers in 1942, is scheduled to come to a close at the Kunsthal Art
Gallery.
2014: The 2014 Open Jewish Houses initiative in the
Netherlands is scheduled to come to an end today.
2014:Outfielder and future major leaguer Kevin Pillar
“was named International Player of the Week” today.
2014: “Millions of Israelis stood still in solemn silence
this morning as sirens wailed throughout the country for two full minutes to
mark Memorial Day and to commemorate the 23,169 fallen soldiers and 2,495
terror victims who have fallen throughout the history of the State of Israel
and the Zionist movement. (As reported by Adiv Sterman)
2014; “Hadas Ragolsky, an executive producer at Channel 2
news, spends Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron) where many of her fellow Israelis do:
at the cemetery.
2014: A U.S. Congressional delegation that includes US
Reps. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, Sam Farr and Barbara Lee of California and
Gregory Meeks of New York met with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez after
having met with Alan Gross a Jewish- American government subcontractor who is
serving a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba.
2014: “Israel crossed over from mourning to celebration
tonight, as Memorial Day came to a close at sundown and Israel’s 66th
Independence Day began.
2015: Dr. Lee R. Mandel is scheduled to present “The
Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli Wrath of God Campaign” at the Jewish
Community Center of Northern Virginia.
2015: A memorial service for David Goldberg, the founder
of Survey Monkey and husband of Sheryl Sandberg, “was held at Stanford Memorial
Auditorium on the campus of Stanford University.
2015: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host
a panel of historians including the daughter of James G. McDonald are scheduled
to discuss the materials found in To the Gates of Jerusalem: The Diaries and
Papers of James G. McDonald, “a member of the Anglo-American Committee of
Inquiry, charged with finding solutions to both the problems of Jewish refugees
at the end of World War II and to the resolution of British Mandate Palestine.”
2015: The exhibition “Three Years, Eight Months, and
Twenty Days: The Cambodian Atrocities and the Search for Justice” co-sponsored
by The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to open
today.
2015: “The body of Or Asraf, the Israeli backpacker
killed in the earthquake in Nepal last month, landed in Israel today after
being discovered in the Langtang district of the Himalayas.
2015: Today “the James Beard Foundation awarded
Israeli-born chef Alon Shaya with America’s top food prize, naming him Best
Chef in the southern region for 2015, following three consecutive years he had
been nominated as a finalist in the category but ultimately failed to win the
prestigious award.”
2015: The Jewish Children’s Regional Service is scheduled
to take part in today’s Greater New Orleans Foundation’s 2015 GiveNOLA Day
2015: Professor Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon is scheduled
to present “It’s a Family Affari – Yours, Mine, Ours!” at the National Museum
of American Jewish History.
2015: “Baghdad Twist,” a documentary about the
disappearance of the Iraq Jewish Community, is scheduled to be shown at the
Library of Congress as part of Jewish American Heritage Month.
2016(27th
of Nisan, 5776): Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG'vurah; "Holocaust and
Heroism Remembrance Day"), known colloquially in Israel and abroad as Yom
HaShoah and in English as Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Holocaust Day.
2016:
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education and the Intergroup
Outreach Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland are scheduled
to sponsor s special program at Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland
where leaders from throughout the region will read from a list of names
provided by Yad Vashem of Israel’s Holocaust Research Center
2016:
After having debuted at the Berlin Film Festival in February, today “Junction
48 an Israeli drama film directed by Udi Aloni, co-written by Oren Moverman and
the film's star Tamer Nafar” was released today in Israel.
2016:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host a Yom
HaShoah commemoration program that “will include a candle lighting by Survivors
and their descendants, Kaddish, and El Malei Rachamim chanted by cantorial
soloist Adam Davis of Congregation Sukkat Shalom.”
2016:
The Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to host a conversation between Marion
Kaplan and Peter Schrag about the latter’s last work, When Europe Was a
Prison Camp – Father and Son Memoirs, 1940-1941.
2017:
In a cross cultural experience, the 92nd Street is scheduled to host
a Cico de Mayo celebration.
2017:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Shabbat dinner
follow Kabbalat Shabbat.
2018:
The publication of The East End in Color 1960 by David Granick is
scheduled to coincide with the end of “an exhibition of previously unseen
photographs by David Granick which depict Stepney, Mile End, Whitechapel,
Spitalfields, Limehouse and the Thames riverside in the warm hues of Kodachrome
film.”
http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/the-east-end-life-we-left-behind/
2018(20th
of Iyar, 5778): Parashat Emor
2018(20th
of Iyar, 5778): Fifty-three year old “Rabbi Aaron Panken, the President of
Hebrew Union College was killed while piloting a small aircraft in the Hudson
area of New York state.”
2018:
Shlomo Bar and HaBreira HaTivit are scheduled to
perform at the Noctorno Café in Jerusalem this evening.
2018: “Promise at Dawn” and “Simon and Theodore” are scheduled
to be shown at the 26th Toronto Jewish Film Festival this evening.
2018:
“Itzhak” a biopic about the world famous violinist is scheduled to open at the
Avon Cinema in Stamford, CT.
2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled Shacrit
followed by Lunch and Seudah.
2019:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Flight Portfolio, a “novel based “the real-life journalist
Varian Fry, who helped thousands of Jews escaped from the Nazis” by Julie
Orringer, Firefighting: The Financial Crisis and Its Lessons co-authored
by Ben S. Bernanke, Everything In Its Place: First Loves and Last Tales
by Oliver Sacks, The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz and a Village Caught in
Between by Michael Dobbs, The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of
One Book’s Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey by Margaret Leslie Davis and the
recently released paperback edition of In the Enemy’s House: The Secret Saga
of the FBI Agent and the Code Breaker Who Caught the Russian Spies by Howard
Blum
2019:
In Atlanta, the 54th Annual Community-Wide Holocaust Commemoration
event is scheduled to take place at the Green Wood Cemetery
2019:
In New Orleans, the Jewish Community Center is scheduled to host its Yom
Ha’Shoah Event
2019:
In a wave of violence that actually began with a rocket launched from Gaza on
Yom Ha’Shoah, Israelis are awakening to the aftermath of 200 rockets fired
yesterday and threats from Hamas that more violence is on the way if the IAF
strikes back at those launching these airborne terror attacks.
2019(30th
of Nisan, 5779): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2020:
In “Multiple Women, Three Centuries, One Far-Reaching New Novel,” published
today provides a complete review of The Book of V, Anna Solomon’s novel
that “interweaves the story of Esther and Vashti with those of two other women:
Lily, a 40-something wife and mother in contemporary Brooklyn, and Vee, a young
senator’s wife in Watergate-era Washington.”
2020:
“Led by celebrated teaching poets and contributors to the 92nd Street Y's
#ANewColossus poetry festival” this virtual poetry workshop” scheduled to be
presented by the American Jewish Historical Society “will delve into the
construction and techniques used in writing “The New Colossus,” and place Emma
Lazarus' poem side by side with work by contemporary poets that is “descended”
from, or inspired by, the original poem.
2020:
In Cedar Rapids, the Coe College from your Couch programs is scheduled to host
a webinar led by B.D. Silliman Professor of Physics Steve Feller, where
attendees hear stories and see photos showcasing student trips that Feller was
a part of over the past few decades” and along the way hear him describe some
of their discoveries in glass science and talk about the labs that they've been
privileged to work at.
2020:
An untold number of organizations including those supporting Jewish American
Heritage Month are scheduled to make their pitches for donations today,
#GivingTuesdayNow, a Global Day of Giving
2020:
The Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to host a
virtual presentation on “Life Stories From the Pen of a 17th Century
Jewish Working Mother” which examines the life of 17th century
businesswoman and widow Glikl bas Judah Leib.
2020:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host on line author Laura Zigman as she
discusses her new novel, Separation Anxiety.
2020:
It was reported today that “Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said yesterday he
was presented with a significant breakthrough in finding a cure for coronavirus
during a visit to the Israeli Institute for Biological Research in Ness Ziona.”
(As reported by Yoav Zitun)
2021:
S.F. Congregation Sherith Israel’s “Conversation from the Front Line” series is
scheduled to present Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund, talking about
various issues in Israel: Covid, equality, elections and the impact of the
Biden presidency
2021:
The Israeli Consulate and Jewish Silicon Valley are scheduled to present
Yehonatan Indursky, the creator of “Shtisel”, who also writes for the show,
talking “about the hit Israel series and his own experiences within Israel’s
ultra-Orthodox community.
2021:
The Combined Jewish Philanthropies are scheduled to present, online, “A
Conversation with Ambassador Meron Reuben.”
2021:
Following the failure of Prime Minister Netanyahu to form a new government,
President Reuven Rivlin, who now has three days to decide how best to proceed”
is scheduled to contact other party representatives “regarding the process of
forming a government” this morning.
2021:
Yair Lapid began talks with other parties to try to form a coalition government.
2021:
As part of New Works Wednesday, the American Sephardi Foundation is scheduled
to present Editor José Alberto R. Silva Tavim as he shares his insights into
“The Diasporas of Jews and New Christians of Iberian Origin between the
Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.”
2021:
The Ninth International Festival in Jerusalem is scheduled to continue for a
third day.
2022:
The British Association for Holocaust Studies is scheduled to host a lecture by
Professor Rebecca Clifford on “Impossible Reconstructions: Families After the
Holocaust.”
2022:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present an off-Broadway
production of one of France’s most successful musicals “The Ten Commandments.”
2022:
The London School of Jewish Studies is scheduled to present a lecture by Rabbanit
Yafit Clymer on “Holiness - Separation or aspiration? Divine or human?”
2022:
The JWA’s Book Club is scheduled to host Riva Lehrer, author of Golem Girl:
A Memoir
2022:
Lockdown University is scheduled to present a lecture by Trudy Gold on “Jewish
Migrations, the Black Death and a New Resting Place.”
2022:
As part of the Independence Day celebration, the annual International Bible
Quiz is scheduled be held in Jerusalem with the participation of the president,
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, as well as other dignitaries” after which the
annual IAF flyover across the entire country, a popular event that sees
Israelis flock to the beach and other open areas to enjoy the yearly sight is
scheduled to take place. (YNET)
2022(4th
of Iyar,5782): Yom Ha’atzma’ut https://www.officeholidays.com/holidays/israel/israel-independence-day
2023:
In Columbus, OH, Congregation Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host the “Book
Group "Well of Living Insight: Comments on the Siddur" by Rabbi
Arthur Green.”
2023:
Temple Shalom of Newton is scheduled to present Shabbat B’Yachad, an
intergenerational Shabbat.
2023:
PJ Library Bay area is scheduled to present Cinco De Mayo Shabbat Dinner y
Dance Party, a “Shabbat dinner and dance party celebrating multi-ethnic Jewish
families” complete with tamales and horchata.
2023:
As part of his graduation weekend in Athens, OH at Ohio University Jacob Levin
is scheduled to take his grandfather to Chabad for Shabbat services.
2023:
Lech-Lecha is scheduled to present an Appalachian Trail Journey through the
Berkshire Mounts that will include “a relaxing and joyous Shabbat overlooking
the green ravine.”
2023(14th
of Iyar, 5783): Pesach Sheni
.
