This Day, May 8, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
May 8
336:
Emperor Constantine prohibits Jews from negatively interacting with their
co-religionists who have converted to Christianity. “Jews
are not allowed to disturb any man one has converted from Judaism.
to Christianity, nor may they assail him…
May 8
336:
Emperor Constantine prohibits Jews from negatively interacting with their
co-religionists who have converted to Christianity. "Jews
are not allowed to disturb any man one has converted from Judaism.
to Christianity, nor may they assail him with any outrage.
Such behaviour will be punished according to the nature of the act [CT
16.8.5]"
336: In a further move to secure the primacy of
Christianity over Judaism Constantine decreed "If a Jew should purchase
and circumcise a Christian slave or a slave of any other sect, he shall not
keep that circumcised person in slavery. The slave who endured such treatment
will receive the privilege of freedom." [CT 16.9.1]
589:
Reccared summoned the Third Council of Toledo. Reccared or Recared I was
Visigoth King of Hispania (think modern day Spain). His reign marked a
climactic shift in history, with the king's renunciation of traditional
Aryanism in favor of Catholic Christianity in 587. He was a favorite of Pope
Gregory for submitting to the papal see and for promulgating an edict of
intolerance that included limiting the freedom and daily activities of the
Jewish community. He zealously followed
the promulgations of the Council of Toledo which included “restrictions on
Jews, and the conversion of the country to orthodox Christianity led to
repeated persecutions of Jews.” Of the 23 cannons adopted by the
Council of Toledo, the fourteenth canon “forbade Jews to have Christian wives,
concubines, or slaves, ordered the children of such unions to be baptized, and
disqualified Jews from any office in which they might have to punish
Christians. Christian slaves whom they had circumcised, or made to share in
their rites, were ipso facto freed.”
1147:
Encouraged by Peter the Hermit, a mob attacked the Jews on the second day of
Shavuot in Ramerupt, France. Rabbenu Tam was one of its victims. After being
stabbed five times (to match the five wounds of Jesus) he was saved by a
passing knight. His house was ransacked, and a Torah scroll was destroyed.
1435:
The Jews were expelled “forever” from Speyer by decree that said, “The council
is compelled to banish the Jews; but it has no designs upon their lives or
their property: it only revokes their rights of citizenship and of settlement.
Until November 11 they are at liberty to go whither they please with all their
property, and in the meantime they may make final disposition of their business
affairs.
1492:
The first printed edition of Mishnayot with
commentary by Maimonides was published in Naples. The term Mishnayot is
plural form of the word Mishna, which part of the Oral Law. By appearing
in printed form, the commentaries of one of Judaism greatest teachers on one of
its core text was available to what today we would be called, "the mass
market." This is an event worth nothing since it goes to prove that
even in the worst of years, something good can happen.
1612
“Dr. Eliua da Luna Montalto, a Marrano who had” returned “to Judaism wrote…to
his wife’s sister, Isabella de Fonseca, and her husband, Dr. Pedro Rodrigues,
imploring them to return to” the faith of their fathers. He wrote, in part,
“There are so many arguments which prove the truth of biblical prophecy…nobody
has an excuse for not understanding it…I protest against your following a road
which leads to the brink and the undoing of your soul.” Montalto was a
distinguished physician whose patients included Queen Marie de Medicis of
France. (As reported by Abraham Bloch)
1705:
Birthdate of António José da Silva, a Portuguese-Brazilian dramatist, known as
"the Jew" (O Judeu). His parents were descended from Portuguese Jews
and they became targets of the Inquisition when it turned its attention to
Marranos living in Brazil. Eventually he would be found guilty of “judaizing”
and would be strangled deather following which his body was burnt as part of
“auto de fe.”
1733(5th
of Sivan, 5493): Fifty-nine-year-old “French
designer and engraver” Bernard Picard, the Parisian born son of Etienne Picart
who was also his mentor, passed away today in Amsterdam just a month before his
60th birthday.
1737:
Birthdate of English historian, Edward Gibbon, author of The Rise and Fall
of the Roman Empire. Gibbon wrote
authoritatively about the Jewish origins of Christianity. “The history of the
church of Jerusalem affords a lively proof …of the deep impression which the
Jewish religion had made on the minds of its sectaries. The first fifteen
bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised Jews; and the congregation over which
they presided united the Law of Moses with the doctrine of Christ.”
1762:
In New York, Myer and Elkaleh Cohen Myers gave birth to Judith “Judy” Myers
Mordecai, the wife of Jacob Mordecai whom she married in 1874.
1773(14th
of Iyar, 5533): Pesach Sheni
1773:
In Egypt, Ottoman rebels revolt, killing Ali Bey, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt.
1794:
English playwright Richard Cumberland's The Jew; or the Benevolent Hebrew, the
first English language play to feature a Jewish moneylender as the benevolent
hero of a stage comedy premiered today at the Drury Lane Theatre in London.
1794:
“Sheva, the Benevolent” an adaptation of English playwright Richard
Cumberland's “The Jew; or the Benevolent Hebrew,” the first English language
play to feature a Jewish moneylender as the benevolent hero of a stage comedy
premiered at the Drury Lane Theatre in London.
1796:
Joseph Cohen married Mariane Joachim today at the Great Synagogue.
1800(Iyar
13)): Rabbi Joseph of Piltz, author of “Maaseh Choshev” passed away today.
1800:
In Hamburg, banker Salomon Heine and his wife gave birth to their third
daughter Amalie Friedlander, who was the cousin of poet Heinrich Heine.
1806(20th
of Iyar): Rabbi Feibus Cohen passed away.
1808:
Financier Carl Friedrich Buderus, a friend of Wilhelm and Rothschild, was
arrested as French officials attempted to establish a connection between plots
against French rule and the exiled Landgrave and his Jewish financier.
1809(22nd of Iyar, 5569): Strasburgh, Germany native
Moise Abrams who came to Charleston, SC in the last decade of the 18th
century with his and nine children passed away today in Charleston.
1827:
In Cardiff, Wales, Ann Michael and Mark Lyon Marks, “a watchmaker, auctioneer
and leader of the Cardiff Jewish community gave birth to London portrait
painter Barnett Samuel (B.S.) Marks
1827(11th
of Iyar, 5587): Fourteen days before his 67th birthday Rabbi Naftali
Zvi Horowitz of Ropshitz who “was born on the day that the Baal Shem Tov died,
“who was reputed to have had tens of thousands of followers” and was “a crucial
figure in the development of Galician Hassidism” passed away today after which
he was buried in Łańcut, Poland.
1829:
In New Orleans, London born Ashkenazi business Edward Gottschalk and Aimée
Marie Bruslé, a French Creole gave birth to Louis Moreau Gottschalk an American
composer and pianist
1831:
One day after he had passed away, 79 year old Henry Naftali Isaacs, the husband
of Ellen Isaacs and the father of Isaac Isaacs was buried today at the Brady
Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1837:
Having been prevented from moving to Prague by immigration authorities,
historian Heinrich Graetz arrived at Oldenburg where he spent three years with
his patron Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, “as a pupil, companion, and
amanuensis.”
1838:
Birthdate of Alsace native Solomon Haff, the Texas husband of Fannie Levi Halff
with whom he had two children.
1841:
In New York Rabbi and Mrs. Myer Samuel Isaacs gave birth to Judge Myer S.
Isaacs who co-founded the Jewish
Messenger and who served as President of the Baron de Hirsch Fund.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F50D1FFE3A5913738DDDAC0A94DD405B848CF1D3
1843:
In Grätz, Grand Duchy of Posen, Dr. Markus Moses, a noted physician and his
wife gave birth to German publisher and philanthropist” Rudolf Mosse.
1846:
In Stetin, which at that time was in Prussia, Abraham and Berthe Hammerstein
gave birth to New York “theatrical and operatic manager Oscar Hammerstein who
after having a falling out with his family, arrived in the United States in
1864 and parlayed his success in the cigar and tobacco business into a career
that included producing grand opera at the Met but his best known by most as
the grandfather of Broadway composer Oscar Hammerstein II.
1847:
Birthdate of Oscar Hammerstein, businessman, theater impresario, composer in
New York City and the grandfather of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.
1847:
“In Obernbreit am Main in present-day Germany,” “Elias and Babette (Mandelbaum
Heller) Sanger” gave birth to Alexander Sanger, who in 1865, came to the United
Sates” where he became a leading Texas merchant who was part of Sanger Brothers
and the founder of what became Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, TX.
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsa54
1851:
In Georgia, Emanuel and Jane L. Theiss Sheftall gave birth to Sarah Florence
Sheftall, the wife of James Evan Creameer.
1852:
The New York Times reported that
following the fining of MP David Salomons for his attempt to take his seat in
the House of Commons all the work of “emancipation” that has been done on
behalf of the Jews will have to be done over again because given the hereditary
nature of the House of Lords and the life expectancy of the members nothing
will change for at least 20 years.
1855:
The Prussian Bankruptcy Code adopted today” provided Hermann Makower with him
with topic for his legal study which was published in 1861.
1857(14th
of Iyar, 5617): Pesach Sheni
1857:
In Manchester, England the Art Treasurers of Great Britain, one of the largest
art exhibition held in the U.K. opened for a third day.
1858:
Henry Lewis Raphael and Henrietta Raphael gave birth to Arthur Lewis Raphael, the
husband of Marianna Floretta Raphael.
1859:
Birthdate of Ukrainian native Isaac Piroshnikof, “the founder of the Warsaw
Conservatory” and “military bandleader at Vilna” who in 1912 came to the United
States where “he organized the Workmen’s Circle chorus…and several children’s
choruses”
https://www.jta.org/1933/06/16/archive/isaac-piroshnikoff-dies-popular-concertina-artist
1864: Major Adolph Proskauer of the 12th Alabama was
wounded so severely at Spotsylvania Courthouse that he could no longer
serve. A native of Germany, Proskauer "was among the few Jewish
immigrants who became a high-ranking Confederate Officer. ("Jews of the
Civil War")
1866:
In Lockport, NY, Abraham Higham and Hanna (Barnett) Aaron gave birth to
University of Buffalo trained physician Charles Dettie AArpm who married Winifred Comstock at Detroit and
who was the professor of gastro-enterology and dietetics at the Detroit college
of Medicine and Surgery
1870:
The Hebrew Leader, a weekly newspaper; published in New York city by
Jonas Bondy, cautioned its readers about the possible success to be enjoyed as
a result of the upcoming meeting of the Conference of Evangelical Alliance.
1870: Richea Hart and Abraham Mendes Seixas who were
married at Charleston, SC in 1777 gave birth to Rebecca M. Seixas.
1870: According to today's Religious Items column "
The Hebrew Leader referring to the coming Conference of the Evangelical
Alliance says: 'No fear; what these gentlemen achieved in London, Paris,
Berlin, Geneva and Amsterdam they will achieve in New York: Nihil.'"
1871: In Temple Emanu-El “abolished the ceremony of Bar
Mitzvah” and “the custom of publicly blessing a mother on her first appearance
in a synagogue after giving birth to a child.”
1871: The Omaha Bee was a pioneer newspaper in Omaha,
Nebraska founded today, by Edward Rosewater, a Bohemian Jewish immigrant who
supported abolition and fought in the Union Army.
1873:
British philosopher John Stuart Mill whose views on the Jewish people were
explored by Professor Edward Alexander in an article entitled “John Stuart Mill
and the Jews” passed away.
1874:
Today’s Jewish Times quoted Judge Charles P. Daly as saying that “the history
of his own race has taught him to practice charity in the widest sense, and if
the country had been the first to extend the full privileges of freedom to the
Jews, they, in their turn, have richly returned the precious gift by their
efforts, their labors, their examples of frugality, thrift and industry, which
have helped lift this country to the proud position which it occupies today.
1874:
Birthdate of Austrian native and owner of a “family laundry business in
Michigan” Barnet “Bernard Dalitz, the husband of Anna Cohen the father of
“American gangster, businessman and casino operator referred to by some “Mr.
Las Vegas and the grandfather of Suzanne Dalitz.
http://dalitzinvegas.com/suzanne-dalitz/
http://digital.library.unlv.edu/jewishheritage/people/moe-dalitz
1874: Special letter of administration were granted with
the consent of the Earl of Beaconsfield who is the executor of the of the
estate of Mary Anne Disraeli, Viscountess of Beaconsfield, that would allow
stocks belonging her to be passed on to the Reverend William Lewis Price when
she passed away.
1876(14th of Iyar, 5636): Peach Sheni
1876: Birthdate of Reinhold Quaatz, the German political
leader who espoused anti-Semitic positions despite having a Jewish mother but
avoided being shipped to a concentration camp.
1876:
It was reported today that a part of the French Mediterranean fleet has
received orders to set sail for Salonica, formerly known as Thessalonica. The fleet is being sent to in response to fighting
in the city between Christians and Moslems.
The city’s population includes approximately 20,000 Jews who have lived
there for centuries. Unfortunately,
attacks based on the religious differences between Moslems and Christians have
a way of spilling over to harm the Jewish population. (The ancient Jewish
community of Salonica would be a casualty of the Shoah).
1877:
In Wensberg, Sweden, Sarah Levine and Marcus Levin gave birth to University of
Michigan trained surgeon Simon Levin, the husband of Laura Schroder and
beginning in 1922, the chief surgeon of Isle Royal Mining Company who also
maintains a private practice in Houghton, Michigan.
1877:
“The Jews in Roumania” published today reported the Turkish Legation in
Washington, DC has been told by its government that there are no Turkish troops
or inhabitants on the west bank of the Danube River, where the Jews living in
Giurgevo (have been attacked. According to the Turks, this area is controlled
by the government at Bucharest. Furthermore, “Israelites” have “equal rights in
Turkey with all other Ottoman subjects of whatever religion” and the government
is determined to protect them. As “new
proof of the …impartiality of his Majesty the Sultan” and Israelite named
“David-chon Effendi” has been nominated as a Senator of the Empire. [Today all of this sounds like meaningless
gibberish. The treatment of the Jews of Romania was a grave matter in the
second half of the 19th century.
Sometimes it got caught up in the on-going Balkan crises and the slow
demise of the Ottoman Empire. On top of
that newspaper reports of the time were not always accurate when it came to
names leaving us to guess. Giurgevo
probably refers to Giurgiu which was an ancient fortress town on the
Danube. Effendi may refer to a prominent
Turkish Jew of the time who was an admiral in the Sultan’s navy.]
1878(5th
of Iyar, 5638): Kowel native Meir
Auberach, part of the Rabbinic Auerbach family, who “was president of the
Jewish court at Koło”, and after immigrating to Palestine “was appointed the
first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem and headed the Poland Kollel” passed
away today.
https://www.rabbimeirbaalhaneis.com/Rabbi%20Meir%20Auerbach.asp
1879:
Birthdate of Russian native, NYU trained attorney and New York City municipal
judge Abraham Harawitz.
1879:
“Revolutionary Papers In Russia” published today described discoveries made by
government officials regarding “an anonymous revolutionary organ called “Semla
i Schwaboda” (Land and Liberty.” Three
days after the police successfully found the printing presses that produced the
paper, a Polish Jews was found murdered in a Moscow tavern “with a paper on his
breast containing the words ‘Death to Traitors.’” The Polish Jew was reported
to be the informer who guided the authorities to the presses. [Once again Jews
are bad guys on both sides of the street.
They were portrayed as anti-Czarist revolutionaries and as betrayers of
the revolutionaries. Ah, anti-Semitism!]
1880:
In Chicago. Rosa Flora Eisendrath, the German born daughter of Moses Samson
Eisendrath and Bertha Braunchen Eisendrath and her husband Emanuel Raphael Weil gave birth to Leon
Eisendrath Weil
1881:
Two days after she had passed, 35 year old Ida Schlosser wife Of Ernest
Schlosser was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1882: Edward J. King’s Will which was dated today includes
bequests to Mount Sinai Hospital, the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum,
Congregation B’Nai Jeshrun, the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews of New York
and the United Hebrew Charities.
1883: Birthdate of German native Richard B. Feibelmann the holder
of a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Munich who went from
teaching to research chemist to chemical company manager before, in 1935,
coming to the United States where “he developed starch solubilization processes
for use in the textile and paper finishing industries” while raising his
daughter with his wife Carla.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/03/26/93792659.pdf
1884: Birthdate of Harry S. Truman, the 33rd President of the
United States. If David Ben-Gurion is the "father of the state of
Israel" then Truman might be considered the godfather-the one who held the
baby at the moment of birth. Standing up against pressure from the British
and his own top advisors, Truman helped garner the votes that led to the
U.N. resolution that created Israel in 1947. Standing up to even stronger
pressure, Truman gave the new state the aura of legitimacy by being the
first to recognize. At
1885(23rd of Iyar, 5645): Six days before his 65th
birthday, Morris Rosenbach, the husband of Isabella H. Polock and the father of
Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach, the creator of the Rosenbach Museum and Library passed
away today.
1885: In Chicago, the Dearborn Station designed by Cyrus L.W.
Eidlitz opened today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dearborn_Station#/media/File:Dearborn_Station_from_west.jpg
1885: Birthdate of Georg Abrahamsohn who was transported from
Berlin to Terezin in 1942 and in 1944 from Terezin to Auschwitz where he was
murdered.
1886: Dr. John S. Pemberton
sells the first Coca-Cola at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia. Jacob’s Pharmacy was owned by Joseph Jacobs,
the son of Gabriel and Ernestine Hyman Jacobs.
The Georgia native opened the Athens Pharmaceutical Company in
Athens. He later bought out his
competition in the Five Points section of Atlanta. The first Coke was served at the Five Points
location.
1886: Twenty-eight year old Richmond (VA) High School graduate
Laurence Eugene “Lon” Myers, the Jewish “sprinter and middle distance
runner” “beat W.G. George of England by
six yards in a 1,160 yard match at Madison Square Garden today. (As reported by
Bob Wechsler)
1888(27th of Iyar, 5648): Professor Leone Levi, “an
economic writer” passed away today.
1888: Birthdate of Polish born, Maine-raised producer Phil Rosen
the co-founder of the American Society of Cinematographers whose career spanned
35 years.
1888: In Galveston, TX,
Emma Schornstein, the New York born daughter of Bertha and Hertzel Ber Bonart
and her husband Samuel Zigmund Schornstein, gave birth to Gertrude S. Levy.
1890(18th of Iyar, 5650): Lag B’Omer
1891: “The Karlsbrucke” published today described the history of
Prague’s historic bridge including the fact that the oldest of the figures on
its buttresses was “a large stone crucifix..which was built with money wrung
from the Jews.”
1891: Rabbi Levy officiated at the wedding of Selig Behrman and
Sarah Saundinsky at the Hasell Street Synagogue.
1892: Dr. G. Stockston Burroughs, the Samuel Green Professor of
Biblical History and Interpretation will conduct classes in the Semitic and
Hebrew languages at Amherst College.
1892: “Johns Hopkins University” published today described
activities at the Baltimore school including the decisions of Dr. Cyrus Adler
to lead a group that “are organizing an America-Jewish historical association
to collect and preserve records and memorials of the Jews of America.”
1892: Most of the 3,000 people attending tonight’s lecture at
Cooper Union which had been called by various Socialist groups were young Jews
from Russian and Poland.
1893: “Jews Might Be Kept Afloat: Expelled by Russian and Excluded
by this Country” published today describes the plight of the millions of
Russian and Polish Jews who are being expelled by the Czar’s government. The new situation is even more catastrophic
than the Passover Edicts of 1891 that resulted in the expulsion of 400,000
Jews. The changes in American
immigration laws and the attitude of various European governments limit the
options of where these Jews might settle.
The article goes to describe the efforts – financial, political, and
communal – to provide havens for their coreligionists.
1893: The five-story double tenement house at 33 and 35 Suffolk
Street which “is inhabited by more than twenty families” most of whom are Jews
from Poland was the scene of fire that started in the apartment of Abraham
Barnett.
1893: The Hartford (CT) Courant provided an account of
“documentary evidence that the Russian government has begun a wholesale
expulsion of the Jews from Poland” where 1,500,000 of them live.
1894:”Anti-Jew Riot In Poland” published today described how
troops fired on a mob that was attacking Jews in Grajewo
1895(14th of Iyar, 5655): Pesach Sheni
1895: Two days after he has passed away, Henry Rothschild, the
husband of Rebecca Rothschild with whom he had eight children was buried today
at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1895: The third East Side Free Art Exhibition sponsored by the
University Settlement Society and the Hebrew Educational Alliance will open
today at the Hebrew Institute at East Broadway and Jefferson Street.
1896: In New York, Samuel Goldstein, a butcher, and the former
Beckie Schaffer gave birth to Yiddish “child star, singer, melodrama queen,
comedienne, lyricist, composer, recording artist, theater proprietor, and world
traveler—Jennie Goldstein.”
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/goldstein-jennie
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2019/02/08/yiddish-drama-actor-writer-jennie-goldstein
1898(16th of Iyar, 5658): Zvi Hermann Schapira, the
mathematician born in Lithuania in 1840
who attended the First Zionist Congress and was the first to suggest the
creation of what became the Jewish National Fund passed away today in Cologne.
1898: Private Roy Wiseman of Minneapolis and Private Charles
Markowitz became U.S. soldiers today when the 14th Minnesota
Voluntary Infantry was mustered into the United States Army.
1898: “The Triumph of Titus” published today provides a summary of
information that first appeared in Open
Court, a magazine specializing in philosophy, science and religion
describing the celebration at Rome of the victory over Judea that included a
display of “the sacred vessels of the temple,” the scourging and throttling “of
Simon, the real leader” of the revolt and imprisonment for life of John.”
1899: George M. Appel began serving as Second Lieutenant in the
Second U.S. Volunteer Engineers.
1899: “Jews True Patriots” published today described a speech
given by Dr. Madison C. Peters which says that “history does not tell of braver
men. After describing the leading role of European Jews in the military
including Napoleon’s Marshal Massena and Albert Goldsmid, Sir Jacob Adolphus
and Sir David Ximines of the British Army, he described the leading role of the
Jews in the American military including Isaac Franks and Benjamin Moses in the
Revolutionary War, Moses Albert Levy, Leon Dyer and Henry Seligson in the
Mexican War, and a long list in the Civil War including Edward S. Soloon,
Leopold Blumberg and Simon Levy and his three sons to name but a few. According
to Dr. Peters, four thousand Jews served in the military during the just
completed war with Spain including Sergeant Maurice Justh of the First
California Jews, a regiment that included 100 Jews and seven Jewish Rough
Riders whom Theodore Roosevelt praised for their “most astonishing courage.”
1899: According to a list
published today the leadership of the Hebrew Infant Asylum includes President
Ester Wallenstein, Solomon Japha, Maurice Untermyer, S.F. Bleyer, Robert J.
Gerstler and A.N. Steinhart.
1900: Mandelbaum and Levine bought “three six-story flats on 8th
Avenue between 57th and 58th Streets.
1901: In New York, “Israel Unterberg” and “Bella E. Epstein” gave
birth Clarence Ephraim Unterberg the “textile engineer” and husband of Marjorie
K. Unterberg.
1901: The Order of Ancient Maccabeans (also Maccabaeans), an
Anglo-Jewish charity which was established in 1894 was registered today under
the ‘Friendly Societies’ Act.”
1902: In Ainay-le-Château, Allier Marie (Siminovitch), an artist,
and Solomon Lwoff, a psychiatrist gave birth to Andre Michael Lwoff, French
microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He passed away in 1994.
1903: New York Mayor Low is scheduled to attend tonight’s
performance “The Destruction of Kishinieff” which is part of the effort to
raise funds for the Jews of Kishineff who, along with their non-Jewish
sympathizers have been under attack by mobs starting in late April.
1904: Five hundred forty-eight delegates, including “8 female
delegates” attended “the Eighteenth Annual Convention of the Independent Order
of Brith Abraham” which took place today in New York City.
1905(3rd of Iyar, 5665): After two days of rioting in
Zhitomir (Russia) twenty Jews have been killed by the mob and an untold number
have been injured while an additional ten Jews were killed in the village of
Troyanov as they tried to come to the aid of their co-religionists.
1905(3rd of Iyar, 5665): Yaakov Shlomo Margalit, the
son of Moshe Dov Ber Margalit and Taibe (Yona) Margalit passed away today in
his native Petach Tikva.
1905: In a move that presaged the Righteous Gentiles of the Shoah,
Nicholas Blinov, a Christian student, was killed when he came to the aid of the
Jews of Zhitomir.
1906: “Trade School’s New Home” published described the opening of
the new home of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls described as “The House
Beautiful” which is a five story building
with “a gymnasium, auditorium for stage performances, a counting room
and a dressmaking and millinery room.
1906: “The congregation of Temple Emanu-El unanimously extended a
call tonight to the Rev. Dr. Judah Leon Magnes, rabbi of Temple Israel, to be
associate rabbi of their temple with the Rev. Dr. Joseph Silverman.”
1907: “Immigration Commissioner R o b e r t Watchorn caused a stir
at the eighty-second annual meeting of the American Tract Society by criticizing
the work of Dr. Shearers missionaries on Ellis Island, where they distributed
tracts to Jew, Christian, and heathen immigrants alike immediately on their
landing” saying that “a great many of our
immigrants are Hebrews who are on their way from persecution by one
style of Christians and when they have Christian tracts – print in Hebrew – put
in their hands, apparently with the approval of the United States government,
they wonder what is going to happen to them here.”
1908: “An anti-Semitic demonstration” broke our during a debate in
the Duma where Zamislovsky delivered “a rabid speech urging the immediate
exclusion of Jews from the army”
1908: Today in the Duma, Delegate Roditcheff, the Constitutional
Democratic leader defended the Jews saying that the congestion in the ghettos
and inhuman of the Jews for centuries were the criminal causes for Jewish
bodily defects” and that “the sole remedy was to lift the disabilities of the Jews.’
1909(17th of Iyar, 5669): Parashat Emor
1909: “New Light Cast Upon Old Egypt” published today provides a
review of Professor Steindorff’s Baedericker guide book that includes a chapter
which “discusses the record which alone of all the multitudes in the
hieroglyphic character contains the name of ‘Israel’”
1910: “The eighty-seventh annual meeting of the Hebrew Orphan
Asylum Society was held today, and the report submitted by its President, Louis
Stern, showed that the society is in better condition than at any time in its
history.”
1911: Birthdate of Vienna native and refugee from Nazi Europe
Rudolf Flesh, the holder of a PhD from Columbia and husband of Elizabeth
Terpenning best known for his popular work Why Johnny Can’t Read.
https://www.thenewamerican.com/reviews/opinion/item/19903-the-legacy-of-rudolf-flesch
1912: In London, Baron
Heyking, the Russian Consul-General published a letter in the Times “protesting against British
denunciation” of ritual murder reportedly taking place in Russia.
1912: Founding
of The Paramount Company. This giant of the motion picture industry
began
as a merger of 11 film rental bureaus. Among those involved were
Jesse Lasky and Adolph Zukor. Zukor would go on to become a dominant
figure in the direction and production of movies. He would eventually
become the top executive of Paramount, another of the Jews "present at the
birth" of the American film industry.
1913:
Birthdate of Solomon Joel Cohen, the Johannesburg native who went from being a
hairdresser to an English actor and comedian known as Sid James.
1913: Today
Iowa State Normal School (University of Northern Iowa) graduate Tom Taubman,
the Cedar Falls, IA born son of William and Mary Taubman and the husband of
Minnie Samuels began serving as the United States Marshal “for the district of
South Dakota.”
1913: Dr.
Moses Hyamson, Senior Dayan, or Chief Judge, of the Ecclesiastical Court of the
United Synagogue of London, has been elected rabbi of the Congregation Orach
Chaim, at Lexington Avenue and Ninety-Fifth Street. The new rabbi will receive
a salary of $5,000. Hyamson succeeds Dr. Joseph Hertz who was chosen over Dr.
Hyamson as the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain.
1914: Eleanor,
the daughter of Woodrow Wilson – the President who appointed the first Jew to
serve as a Supreme Court Justice and was a supporter of Zionism- was married
today in the White House
1915:
At their convention in Memphis, Tennessee, the National Conference on Jewish
Charities adopted a resolution creating a committee to conduct a survey of
Oriental Jews in the United States.
1915:
In Worcester, MA, Benjamin and Mary Meltzer gave birth to historian and author
Milton Meltzer. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1915:
“The Exchange Telegraph Company” today “received the following telegram from
Copenhagen: ‘Berlin newspapers print the news of the sinking of the Lusitania
in colossal type and hail the successful torpedoing of the ship as a new
triumph for Germany’s naval policy.”
1916:
It was reported today that Hugh Dorsay, one of the prosecutors in the Leo Frank
case has announced his candidacy for Governor of Georgia.
1916:
It was reported today that Henry Morgenthau, the former U.S. Ambassador to
Turkey was unable to speak at the dinner sponsored by the Jewish Charities of
Brooklyn so Supreme Court Justice of Hugo Pan of Illinois filled in for him
speaking on “Preparedness and the Jews.”
1916:
During an investigation into allegations that Jews were being discriminated
against when they tried to enlist in certain units of the New York National
Guard Charles E. Klein testified today when “he had applied for membership in
Battery D, Lieutenant Charles J. McCronan asked the nationality of his father
and when Klein said he was Russian McCronan then asked if he was a Jew to which
he replied “I am” and then asked what difference it made.
1917:
It was reported today that during the forced deportation of Jews from Palestine
“two Jews were hanged at the entrance to Tel Aviv, the object being, it was
explained to indicate the fate in store for any Jews who might be so foolish as
to resist the Turkish order for evacuation.”
1917:
It was reported today the young men from the Jewish settlements who had
organized to protect refugees from bands of robbers were arrested by Turkish
authorities and imprisoned “after suffering considerable maltreatment.”
1918: Vilmos Vázsonyi, who championed the recognition of the
Jewish religion by the state completed his second and final term in office as
Minister of Justice for Hungary.
1918:
It was reported today that “the peace treaty signed by Germany and her allies
with Rumania consists of eight clauses” one of which provides for “equality of
all religions in Rumania” and incudes a provision that Jews will have the same
rights as all other Rumanian subjects.
1919:
In Tel Aviv, David Remez (born David Drabkin), one of those who signed the
Israeli Declaration of independence and his wife gave birth to Aharon Remez,
who flew combat missions with the RAF in World War II before becoming the second commander of Israel’s fledgling
Air Force serving from 1948 through 1950.
He went on to a successful career as a “civil servant, politician and
diplomat.
1919:
Mrs. M.M. Straus, pianist Mrs. Sidney Pollak and violinist Elinor Rose Isaacs
are scheduled to provide musical entertainment at the meeting of the Deborah
and Deborah Juniors in the Sinai Social Center.
1920:
Birthdate of Saul Bass the New York native who designed motion picture title
sequences for films such “The Man with the Golden Arm” and “North by Northwest”
and corporate logs for Bell Telephone System and United Airlines and was the
husband of fellow artist Elaine Makatura Bass
1921(30th
of Nisan, 5681): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1921:
High
Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel agrees to the appointment of Haj Amin al Husseini,
a leading Arab nationalist, as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and head of the Supreme
Muslim Council. Samuel rejects protests by the Jewish leadership.
1921:
Birthdate of Allard Roen, the native of Cleveland, Duke University baseball
player and WW II Navy veteran who was the husband of Evelyn Roen and “Managing
Director of the Desert Inn and the Stardust Resort and Casino in Paradise,
Nevada.”
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2008/sep/01/desert-inn-stardust-chief-helped-integrate-las-veg/
1922: Louis
Stern, President of Stern Brothers, which became the largest retail store in
the United States in 1910, underwent a major operation at Mt. Sinai Hospital
just prior to leaving for Paris.
1922: In
Blackpool, England, Cyril and Ann Constant Levy gave birth to Reginald Levy,
the Sabena pilot who would play a key role in thwarting an Arab attempt to
hijack his aircraft.
1923: In his
address to the opening session of the United States Chamber of Commerce, Julius
Barnes, president of the organization, including a summary of the report made
by a delegation of fifty members of the chamber who had visited numerous
countries during February including Palestine.
1923: Today,
the Board of Trustees of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of the City New York met and
adopted a resolution expressing their sense of loss at the death of Marx
Ottinger, who supported the institution whole-heartedly for more than twenty
five years.
1924(4th
of Iyar, 5684): Seventy-five year old Prague born photographer Leopold Adler
passed away today.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/58646687@N08/11952366745
1924: In
Beilsko, Poland, business executive Julius Weissmann and his wife Helene (nee
Mueckenbrunn) Weissmann gave birth to Gerda Weissmann who gained fame as Gerda
Weissmann Klein, author of the autobiographical account of the Holocaust All
but My Life which “was adapted for the 1995 short film, One Survivor
Remembers, which received an Academy Award and an Emmy Award, and was selected
for the National Film Registry.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/klein-gerda-weissmann
1925(14th
of Iyar, 5685): Pesach Sheni
1925: The
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld “a decision by Justice Joseph
Morschauser denying a writ of mandamus
to Joseph Schwartz to compel the Board of Elections to postpone the municipal
election in the City of Yonkers from May 29 (which is the first day of Shavuot)
to June 1 “so that Jewish voters might
participate” in the election.
1926: In
Brooklyn, Sophie and Jack Birenberg gave birth to Marcia Birenberg, the wife of Mort Nasatir, the president of
MGM Record who gained fame as Marcia Nasatir,
the first woman to become a vice president of a major Hollywood studio
and the mother of two sons, Mark and Seth.
1926:
In Queens, New York, insurance and clothes sales man Max Rickles and the former
Etta Feldman gave birth to Donald Jay “Don Rickles. After graduating from
high school, Rickles served in the United States Navy. After World War II
he began working as a comic in a variety of venues. Eventually, he turned
to the "insult comedic" mode which has become his stock and
trade. His big break came in 1957 when Frank Sinatra caught his act and
loved it. Rickles also has numerous film and television appearances to
his credit. According to his semi-official biography, one of his proudest
accomplishments was the construction of a gym named in his honor (he raised the
money) at Temple Sinai in Los Angeles.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/06/arts/television/don-rickles-dead-comedian.html?_r=1
1927:
In Philadelphia, Nacham Lerner and “the former Goldie Levine” gave birth to
documentarian Murray Lerner. (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)
1928(18th
of Iyar, 5688): Lag BaOmer
1928: Birthdate of Theodore “Ted” Sorensen, speech writer for John
F. Kennedy who “helped” to write Profiles In Courage. Sorensen’s mother was a Russian Jew. His was father was Christian.
1929: “The Jewish Big Brothers” is scheduled to “celebrate twenty
years’ service in the prevention of juvenile delinquency, at the annual meeting
of the organization at the Community Center of Congregation Temple Eamanu-El”
today.
1929:
Today “through an agreement signed with Albert Kahn
by President of Amtorg Saul G. Bron, the Soviet government contracted the
Albert Kahn firm to design the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, the first tractor
plant in the USSR
1930: The Allied Jewish Campaign to raise $2,500,000 in New York
City for their suffering co-religionists in Palestine and Eastern Europe was
opened unofficially at a luncheon given by Felix M. Warburg for James N.
Rosenberg, chairman of the drive.
1931: Today, Cardinal Hayes sent a letter to Albert Ottinger,
chairman of the campaign of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee,
expressing his approval and “best wishes for the success of the efforts of the
committee which is seeking to raising one million dollars in New York and
$2,500,000 through the United States for the relief of the Jews in Eastern and
Central European.
1932: According to speakers at the tenth annual meeting of the
Jewish Education Association including Israel Unterberg, president of the
Association, Jacob Wener, Mark Eisner and Joseph H. Cohen “nearl all of the
Jewish religious schools in New York City have been successful in holding their
pupils and maintaining their teachers despite the Depress and “other
difficulties.”
1932: In a speech given today, Rabbi Louis I Newman of Temple
Rodeph Sholom said that “Jewish life in American should be defended gain the
unrepresentative description furnish by man Jewish novelists and essayists.”
1933: Lucienne Bolch took the pictures which “are the sole visual
record of the great Diego Rivera's ill-fated Rockefeller Center fresco with its
doomed depiction of Lenin” known as “Man at the Crossroads.”
(As reported by Robert. Thomas, Jr.)
1933: Birthdate of Alfred “Al” Lerner the New York born son of
Russian-Jewish immigrants who became Chairman of the Board of MBNA and the
owner of the Cleveland (football) Browns.
1934: Eleanor Neyens was born in Dubuque County, Iowa. As Eleanor Schueller she became the mother of
Deb Schueller who as Deb Levin is responsible for the technology and patience
that makes these daily offerings possible.
1934(23rd of Iyar, 5694): Forty-eight year old Harry
Louis Falk, the Cincinnati born son of Louis and Hattie Falk and husband of
“Miriam Martha Danziger Falk” passed away today after which he was buried in
the Metairie Cemetery in Orleans Parish, LA.
1934: Birthdate of Leonard Hubert “Lennie” Hoffman, the South
African born British barrister who became a leading Jurist.
1935(5th of Iyar, 5695): Sixty-eight year old Vilna
born American journalist I. Leon Dalidansky who in 1906 came to the United
States where wrote for the Jewish Daily News while raising two children –
Cecilia and Ezra – with his wife Mary passed away today.
1935: “The plight of thousands of young women refugees arriving in
Palestine from Germany and other countries was outlined today at luncheon of
the Women’s League for Palestine” held at the Hotel Astor. The speakers appealed for additional funds to
provide homes for these refugees. Mrs.
Albert Einstein and Mrs. Elisheeva Kaplan, Chairman of the Working Women’s
Council of Palestine were guests of honor.
1936: Brooklyn District Attorney William F.X. Geoghan said that
“nearly $2,000,000 in funds may have passed through the hands of” of Rabbi
Zeida Schmellner’s 36 year old secretary Mary Berd who has been charged with
grand larceny.”
1936: In Washington, DC celebration of the 80th
anniversary of the founding of Washington Hebrew Congregation, the city’s
oldest Jewish congregation.
1936: Emperor Hailie Selassie of Ethiopia, who has been forced to
flee his native land because Italy has conquered it, arrived in Haifa aboard
the British cruiser Enterprise. The Emperor whose official title includes the
appellation “Lion of Judah” and his royal household then took the train to
Jerusalem where they were greeted by a cheering crowd. When he heard the crowds
chanting “Long Live Ethiopia” and “Long Live Haile Selassie” the exiled monarch
broke into tears. [Editor’s Note: Ethiopia and the Jewish people each shared
the dubious honor of being early victims of the Axis and the world turned a
deaf ear and a blind eye to both of them.
Also, the British officer Orde Wingate played a role in the lives of the
Jews and the Ethiopians. Wingate served
a tour in Palestine where he helped the Zionists self-defense forces in their
fight against the rioting Arabs. During
World War II, Wingate played a leading role in liberating Ethiopia from its
Axis occupiers.]
1936: “Emergency measures were invoked to preserve order following
the decision of 150 Arab leaders to launch a campaign of civil disobedience,
including a rigid boycott of everything Jewish.
1936: As Arab violence continued “a Jewish-owned envelope factory
at Atlith was set on fire” today “and Jewish officials who work in the city of
Jaffa were instructed not to report to work.”
1936: Today in Geneva, “the first Jewish world was convoked
officially for August 8th.”
1936: In Cairo, “authoritative sources said tonight that two
companies of British infantry totally 300 men had been sent to Palestine as
reinforcements for troops at Jerusalem and other cities” as Arab unrest and
violence continued.
1936: Otto A. Rosalsky, a senior judge of the court of General
Sessions and an active member of the Jewish community has an operation today
for a minor ailment at Mt. Sinai Hospital – an operation that would not prevent
his death a few days later.
1936: In Warsaw, “police said they had seized a quantity of
powerful explosives” after arresting 100 “anti-Semitic extremists today for an
alleged plot to bomb Jewish restaurants and night clubs.”
1937: Mrs. Edward Jacobs who had returned from a fact finding tour
in Palestine last week said today that Jewish settlers felt that British should
be doing a better job of protecting them from Arab attackers since they had
entered the country under the terms of the Mandate which included the terms of
the Balfour Declaration. She said that
the vast majority of the 400,000 Jewish settlers were neither discouraged nor
willing to abandon their efforts. Finally, she said that it might be necessary
to divide the country into Jewish and Arab “zones of influence to minimize
friction.”
1937: Several Jews were beaten today during riots at Grabow.
1938(7th of Iyar, 5698): Sixty-six year old Birmingham born
architect turned set designer Sidney Ullman passed away today in Los Angeles.
1938: The Jerusalem Post
reported that one of the top Arab terrorist leaders in the Hebron area, Issa
Battat, was shot and killed by police near Beit Govrin.
1938: In Port Chester, NY, Dorothy and James Stewart gave birth to
Alice Stewart who gained fame as Alice Stewart Trillin, the wife of author
Calvin Trillin
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/13/us/alice-trillin-63-educator-author-and-muse-is-dead.html
1939(19th of Iyar, 5699): Ten days before his 54th
birthday, former Reichstag member Kurt Löwenstein who had founded the German
socialist organization the Falcons and the husband of chemist Mara Kerwel
passed away today in Paris.
1939: In St. Louis, “Alma Weil Michaels (née Weil), a playwright
and theatrical producer and Ephraim London, a civil rights attorney” gave birth
to “feminist” Sheila Babs Michaels. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/us/sheila-michaels-ms-title-dies-at-78.html
1939: Admiral Sir Barry Edward Domville the famous British naval
officer who was among those who expressed pro-German and anti-Semitic views
during the 1930’s wrote an endorsement for The Case For Germany by Dr.
Arthur Pillans which praises Hitler and National Socialist while attacking the
Jewish people. (Editor’s Note – Seven decades after WW II, many are unaware of
the pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic views held among many in the upper-echelon of
British society)
1940: Broadway producer Julian Goldman, the inventor of contract
bridge and a confidant of FDR met with the President in the White House today.
1940: Birthdate of Canadian political leader Irwin Cotler who has
proven to be a proponent of human rights and a staunch foe of “the new
anti-Semitism.”
1941: In response to the pro-Nazi coup led by Rashid Ali which
would include a Pogrom in June, British forces “began their assault on Rutbah
Fort” today.
1942: The Battle of the Coral Sea, which was the first naval
battle in which airpower was responsible for the outcome and which stopped the
Japanese advance towards Australia came to an end today.
1942: Muriel Rukeyser was among the recipients of awards presented
by The National Institute of Arts and Letters http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/08/1942/muriel-rukeyser
1942: “In This Our Life,” the movie adaptation of the novel with a
screenplay by Howard Koch and music by Max Steiner was released today in the
United States.
1942: “Sunday Punch” a comedy with a script co-authored by Fay
Kanin and featuring Sam Levene as “Roscoe” and Leo Gorcey as “Biff” was
released today in the United States.
1943
(3rd of Iyar, 5703): On Shabbat, The Leaders of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising meet
death as the flame of resistance flickers out. The massive German forces that
had been brought into the former Warsaw Ghetto to fight the Jewish rebels
burned the ghetto street by street. Only by torching the buildings could the
fighters be flushed out and forced to seek another place to hide and fight.
Terror and inferno raged in the improvised underground bunkers as the Germans
made the fighters come out in the only way possible-by hurling grenades into
the bunkers or by pumping in tear gas. The ZOB command bunker, staffed by Mordechai Anielewicz and other leaders of the
resistance, fell on May 8. Mordecai Anielewicz
had been born in 1919. He had accomplished the seemingly impossible
twice. First, he united the various factions in the ghetto and then
conducted an armed resistance against what had been the world's greatest
killing machine. Anielewicz was an
ardent Zionist and his memory lives on at a Kibbutz established by survivors of
the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. With the destruction of the Great Synagogue on
Tlomackie Street, outside the confines of the ghetto the German commander
General Juergen Stroop bragged that "there is no longer a Jewish quarter
in Warsaw." On May 19, Warsaw was declared Judenrein. But this handful of
rabble had actually engaged in armed combat with the Nazis for a longer period
of time than some of the professional armies of Europe.
1944: An internal memo of this week from the United States
Government War Refugee Board states that it would not be wise to transport
Jewish refugees to Afghanistan, as it is a "fanatically Moslem
country" with a "primitive economy and low standard of living."
Though Jews live in Afghanistan, they are "not popular".
1944: Keel was laid down for the HMS Springer, a submarine which
be sold to Israel in 1958 and be renamed “Tanin” which Hebrew for Crocodile
1945: Birthdate of Bruce Mark Cohen one of three children of Emil
Cohen a New York State Supreme Court Justice. Cohen became a rabbi serving
Mishkan Israel in New Haven, Connecticut. He worked to promote peace through
better understanding of ordinary Jews and Arabs. Along with Farhat Agbaria he founded
Interns for Peace.
1945: As of today an additional 53 of those who revolted at
Sobibor “had died of other causes between October 14, 1943, the day of the
revolt” and today.
1945: Hilde Nathan “was freed from” Theresienstadat “after it was
liberated by the Soviet Army today.”
1945:
V.E. (Victory in Europe) Day; the surrender Germany signed on May 7, 1945, goes
into effect. Unfortunately, this did mean an immediate end to the
fighting. Units of the SS continued to
resist and German U-Boats, once they got the order to surface, were often
scuttled by their crews instead of making for the ports designated by the
victorious allies.
1945:
“Dutch teacher and child psychologist Bloeme Evers-Emden was liberated by the
Soviets at Liebau”
1945:
“In a pastoral letter” Conrad Gröber,
the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Freiburg “declared that no one should
succumb to any extreme anti-Semitism. In his eyes the Holocaust was wrong
because it forced the Jews into a defensive position from which they could
cause the State greater harm than many a powerful enemy army.”
1945:
The U.S. Army competed an investigation into allegations that soldiers under
the Command of Colonel Felix L Sparks
had killed Nazi guards at Dachau after they had surrendered came to an
end.
1945:
With the end of World War II, the question of what do with the refugees at Fort
Ontario most of whom were Jewish – repatriation or settlement in the United
States – became a pressing matter that had to be resolved.
1945:
“Sixty million Americans tuned in to hear ‘On A Note of Triumph,’ narrated by
Martin Gabel, Norman Corwin's radio masterpiece marking the end of World War II
in Europe” which was “lauded by Carl Sandburg as "one of the all-time
great American poems," it was the most listened-to radio drama in U.S.
history.”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4668028
1946:
The Dov Hoz, carrying 675 Ma’apilim and the Eliahu Golomb carrying 339
Ma’apillim left La Spezia bound for Palestine.”
1946:
“The Dark Corner,” a film “based on a story in Good Housekeeping by Leo Rosten”
with music by Emil Newman was released today in the United States.
1946:
U.N. Assistant Secretary General Benjamin Cohen of Chile was among the speakers
who participated at Hunter College’s World Friendship exercises which were
designed to mark the first anniversary of the end of WW II in Europe.
1947(18th of Iyar, 5707): Lag B’Omer
1947: Birthdate of H. Robert Horvitz, American
biologist on the faculty of M.I.T. who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in in
Physiology or Medicine.
1947:
Leonard Bernstein has been invited to conduct the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
at the second International Music Festival which is scheduled to begin today in
Prague.
1947: As the international
community began its deliberations that Jews hoped would lead to the creation of
their state, Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, a Reform Rabbi
from Cleveland Ohio, “appeared before the United Nations as a spokesman for the
Jewish Agency and formally voiced the demands of his people for national
recognition and for the right to reestablish a national state in the ancestral
home.” Silver had worked “closely with
David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Shertok in preparing the presentation of the Jewish
Agency.” Silver, who was head of the American section of the Jewish agency
“spoke first because the plane bringing Ben-Gurion from Palestine was delayed.
According to David Geffen, Silver concluded his speech with these words. “The
Jewish people places great hope upon the outcome of the deliberations of this
great body. It has faith in its collective sense of justice and fairness; and
in the high ideals which inspire it.“We are an ancient people, and though we
have often, on the long, hard road which we have travelled, been disillusioned,
we have never been disheartened... The Jewish people belongs in this society of
nations. The representatives of the Jewish people of Palestine should sit in
your midst – the representatives of the people and of the land which gave to
mankind spiritual and ethical values, inspiring human personalities, and sacred
texts which are your treasured possessions.” “Twenty-five
years ago a similar international organization [League of Nations] recognized
the historic claims of the Jewish people, sanctioned our program and set us
firmly on the road of realization... The Jewish people was confirmed in its
right to rebuild its national life in its historic home. It eagerly seized the
long-hoped-for opportunity and proceeded to rebuild that ancient land of Israel
in a manner which evoked the admiration of the whole world. It has made the
wilderness blossom as a rose.”
1947(18th
of Iyar, 5707): “A Jewish settler named Joel Drubin, 21 years old, was shot
dead today” when he and two other settlers were attacked by 8 Arabs in an area
between Kfar Uriah and Hulda “two Jewish settlements southeast of Tel
Aviv. The Arabs got away and the British
were unable to find them.
1948(29th
of Nisan, 5708): Parsahsat Achrei Mot
1948 Nazi
collaborator V-Mann Antonius van de Waals sentenced to death.
1949: “The
Rev. Theodore Lewis of Dublin, Ireland, was formally installed today as Rabbi
of the Congregation Jeshuat Israel at Newport, R.I.in the historic 186-year-old
synagogue.
1950: An
announcement was made today at Geneva that “Israel has accepted the proposal of
the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine to proceed with direct
negotiations with the Arab states while the commission acts as mediator for the
settlement of all outstanding issues.”
However, this announcement by Israel may not immediately lead to
negotiations since the Arabs have pre-conditioned their participation on the
demand that Jewish state must recognize the right of Palestinian refugees to
return to Israel.
1951:
Today, the concert at New York Town Hall was “devoted exclusively” to the music
of Marion Bauer.
1952:
Birthdate of New York born British academic Anna Brechta Sapir Abulafia, the
Professor of the Study of the Abrahamic Religions in the Faculty of Theology
and Religion at University of Oxford and a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall,
Oxford.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that, the
Histadrut Executive unanimously to accept Arab workers into its Trade Unions
starting on May 15, 1953.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that jobs
for 40,000 workers were envisaged following the approval, by the Knesset
Finance Committee, of a special IL70m “Development Budget.”
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that,
approximately 800 persons were killed in traffic accidents during the past four
years.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that, Syria
had appealed to all Arab States to tighten the economic blockade of Israel as
"the best way to kill Israel peacefully."
1954: In
Amsterdam Hans Ever and Bloeme Evers-Emden gave birth to Rabbi Raphael Evers,
exactly nine years to the day after Bloeme had been liberated from a
concentration camp by the Soviets.
1955: “Make
Me an Offer,” the movie version Wolf Nankowitz’s novel of the same name was
released today in the United Kingdom.
1956: Aaron
Albert “Al” Silvera played his last game as an outfielder with the Cincinnati
Reds.
1957:
“Saint Joan” the movie version of the play by the same name directed and
produced by Otto Preminger with music by Mischa Spoliansky and title sequences
and theatrical posters by Saul Bass was released today in the United States.
1958(18th
of Iyar, 5718): Lag BaOmer
1958: In
Westport, CT, Howard Newmark and Gilda Gourlay (née Rames) gave birth to Brooks
Phillip Victor Newmark, the Conservative MP and Cabinet member and son-in-law
of historian John Keegan who left Parliament under a cloud of personal scandal.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-29585203
1959(30th
of Nisan, 5719): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1959(30th
of Nisan, 5719): Fifty-eight year old Lithuanian born Yeshiva University
professor Dr. Julius B. Maller the holder of doctorates from Columbia and the
Jewish Theological Seminary and husband of Rose Ruth Aronowitz with whom he
raised three children – Julie, Jeanne and Michael – passed away today while
serving as the “director of research and statistics in the New York State
Department of Audit and Control.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/maller-julius-bernard
1960(11th
of Iyar, 5720): Seventy-four-year-old “Dr. Bernhard Wolf Weinberger an
orthodontist and an authority on dental history and literature” who had earned
his dental degree from the University of Pennsylvania and raised two children,
Bernard and Suzaane, with his wife Louise, passed away today in New Orleans.
1960: While
exploring caves in the Judean desert an archaeological expedition led Yigael
Yadin discovers fourteen letters written by Simon Bar-Kokhba, leader of the
Jewish revolt against the Romans in 132 - 135 CE. One letter is written on wood
and the rest are written on papyrus. Bar Kokhba is called Shimon Ben Kossiba in
the letters. Once again, archeology helps to establish another of what some had
called the “myths of Jewish history.”
1960:
Gideon Hausner is appointed attorney general in Israel.
1960: ABC
broadcast “In a Memory of a Son” an episode of “The Rebel” directed by Irvin
Kershner.
1960: Gertrude
Berg, better known as “Molly Goldberg” appeared for the second time as the
“mystery guess” on “What’s My Line?”
1960(11th
of Iyar, 5720): Sixty-two year old Sir Hersch Lauterpacht passed away.
1962(4th
of Iyar, 5722): Yom HaZikaron
1962: During
his address to the nation today, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion will discuss
the plans for “a special compulsory savings plan that will absorb some
60,000,000 Israeli providing for repayment over a five to seven year period.”
(JTA)
1962: “A Funny
Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum,” a Stephen Sondheim musical with a
“book” co-authored by Larry Gelbart starring Zero Mostel and featuring Jack
Gilford and Ruth Kobart with lighting design by Jean Rosenthal opened today at
the Alvin Theatre.
1964:
Birthdate of Melissa Gilbert, child star on “Little House on the Prairie.”
1965(6th
of Iyar, 5725): Parashat Kedoshim
1965: Gary
Lewis’ “Count Me In” reached number two on Hot 100’s list today.
1966(18th
of Iyar, 5726): Lag BaOmer
1966: CBS
broadcast a television adaptation of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”
produced by Daniel Melnick and David Susskind, co-starring Lee J. Cobb and
George Segal and featuring Bernie Kopell and Gene Wilder.
1967(28th
of Nisan, 5727): Yom HaShoah
1970: In
Montreal, documentary film-maker Bonnie Sherr Klein, who is best known for her
anti-pornography film Not a Love Story and Michael Klein, is a physician and a
member of Physicians for Social Responsibility gave birth to Naomi Klein
Canadian journalist, author and activist known for her political analyses and
criticism of corporate globalization.
1972 Four
Palestinian terrorists from Black September boarded Sabena Flight 571 from
Vienna to Tel Aviv. Twenty minutes after taking off from a scheduled stop, the
hijackers took control of the flight and instructed the captain to continue as
planned to Israel’s Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion International Airport). Less than 24 hours later, Israeli commandos,
among them today’s most prominent Israeli leaders launched a daring operation
to rescue the flight’s passengers and retake the plane.
1972: Fiftieth
birthday of airline pilot Reginald Levy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/world/europe/05levy.html
1973(6th of
Iyar, 5733): Eighty-two-year-old retired
State Supreme Court Justice Isadore Bookstein, the Albany trained attorney and
husband of Edith Friedman passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1973/05/09/archives/isadore-bookstein-exstate-justice-82.html
1974: ITV
broadcast the 26th and final episode of The World at War” a
documentary about WW II “created by Jeremy Isaacs” and “directed by David
Elstein.”
1974:
“Kazablan” an “Israeli musical film directed by Menahem Golan and written by
Menahem Golan and Haim Hefer starring Yehoram Gaon, Efrat Lavie, Arieh Elias,
Etti Grotes and Yehuda Efroni was released today in the United States by MGM.
1976(8th
of Iyar, 5736): Parashat Emor
1976(8th
of Iyar, 5736): Eighty-two-year old Marc Slonim, “the Russian born American
critic and author who enjoyed an international reputation as an expert on
European literature who the Nogorod born
son of Leo and Indian Aikhevald Slonim and “the youngest member of the Russian
Constituent Assembly” during the Russian revolution passed away today. (As
reported by Albin Krebs)
https://www.nytimes.com/1976/05/13/archives/marc-slonim-82-is-dead-europeanletters-critic.html
1976: After
only seven performances, the curtain came down on “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue” a
musical created by Leonard Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner at the Mark Hellinger
Theatre.
1978(1st of
Iyar, 5738): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that in New
York, the Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, appealed to the Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat, to "renew the spirit of our talks in Jerusalem"
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the New
York police estimated that a crowd of 750,000, gathered in and around the
Central Park, at an event which marked Israel's 30th anniversary, and listened
to a 20 minute address by the Prime Minister.
1978:
1980: Friends
and family, including Elsa Leibler and Max Stern are scheduled to mark the
passing of Sue Freedman Mintz, the wife of Jack Mintz and the mother of Terry
Scharf and Dr. David Mintz at a pre-funeral gathering this evening.
1980: Three
months after being released in the United States, “Saturn 3” a sci-fi film
directed and produced by Stanley Donen, starring Kirk Douglas and Harvey Keitel
and with music by Elmer Bernstein was released in the United Kingdom
1981:
“Second-Hand Hearts” a comedy filmed by cinematographer Haskell Wexler was
released in the United States today.
1981:
Sixty-one year old Hamburg, Germany native George Saloman who in 1937 came to
the United States where he was a member of the American Jewish Committee and
wrote “on Jewish subjects” passed away today in Great Neck, NY.
1981(4th of Iyar, 5741): Eighty-three year old
Uri Zvi Greenberg, a Hebrew and Yiddish poet, fighter for the independence of
Israel and a member of the Knesset passed away today. “A representative of the
new wave of 20th-century Jewish poetry, Mr. Greenberg drew on the tradition of
biblical prophecy to write poems combining personal experience with an
impersonal Jewish messianic destiny. Born in 1898 in Galicia, he served in the
Austro-Hungarian Army in World War I and later emigrated to Palestine. He
published his first volume of poetry in Yiddish in 1912. Mr. Greenberg served in the Irgun Zvai Leumi, a and as a member of
Israel’s parliament for one term.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/uzgreenberg.html
1981: In
“Efforts To Rehabilitate Crown Heights Apartment Houses,” Alan Oser described
efforts to dealing with challenge of providing affordable housing in a
neighborhood so closely connected with the Chabad movement.
1982: Shimon
Peres meets with a dozen leaders of the Labor Party to report on a plan
conceived by Defense Minister Arik Sharon for a massive military operation in
Lebanon aimed eliminating the PLO presence and influence from that country.
1982: The
original London production of They're Playing Our Song a musical with a book by
Neil Simon, lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager, and music by Marvin Hamlischwhich
which had opened in October, 1980 closed today
1982(15th
of Iyar, 5742): Forty-nine Sue Pritzker, the widow of Donald Pritzker who had
died ten years ago, passed away today.
1983: Mr. and
Mrs. Harry M. Rosenfeld of Albany have announced the engagement of their
daughter, Susan Margot Rosenfeld, to Dr. Stuart Wachter, son of Mr. and Mrs.
Irving Wachter of Flushing, Queens
1984(6th
of Iyar, 5744): Eighty-five year old CCNY basketball star Nathan “Nat”
Krinsky the “father of Paul L. Krinsky,
former superintendent of the United States Merchant Marine Academy, and Edward
M. Krinsky, former Director of Operations for the United States Basketball
League” passed away today.
1985(23rd
of Iyar, 5645): Seventy-seven year old Notre Dame, U of Wisconsin and Brooklyn
Dodgers football player Robert Sherman Halperin, a decorated WW II Naval
officer, Bronze Medal sailor and CEO of Commercial Light Company passed away
today after which he was buried next to his wife at Arlington National
Cemetery.
https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ha/bob-halperin-1.html
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-05-09/news/8501290068_1_mr-halperin-palm-springs-landing
1985: “The
Dewey House, also referred to as Building 29, North Chicago VA Medical Center,
an historic building” designed by David Adler was added to the National
Register of Historic Places today.
1986: NBC
broadcast the final episode of season 4 of Family Ties, a sitcom created by
Gary David Goldberg.
1986(29th
of Nisan, 5746): Emanuel “Manny” Shinwell, the trade unionist who was elevated
to the peerage as Lord Shinwell passed away today at the age of 101.
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-05-10/sports/sp-5046_1_lord-shinwell
http://spartacus-educational.com/TUshinwell.htm
1986(29th
of Nisan, 5746): Eighty-five year Ukrainian born American sculptor and
watercolorist Eugenie Gershoy passed away today.
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-eugenie-gershoy-13135
1988: Today,
on Mother’s Day the Feminist Taskforce (FTF) convened a conference in
Philadelphia on Women and Poverty” during which a “panel discussion led by
Adrienne Rich addressed the reality of high poverty rates among all women and
discussed how stereotypes of Jewish wealth work to hide the poverty many Jewish
women struggle with.”
1991(25th of
Iyar, 5751): Rudolf Serkin, one of
the world's great concert pianists passed away at the age of 88. The cause of
death was cancer. A lanky man once described as looking "like a benign and
slightly befuddled chemistry professor," Mr. Serkin performed for much of
the 20th century. He made his concert debut in 1915, at age 12, and had his
last major concert in 1988.
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/10/obituaries/rudolf-serkin-88-concert-pianist-dies.html
1992: After
having premiered last year in Portugal, “Wild Orchid II: Two Shades of Blue”
directed by Zalman King who also wrote the script, was released today in the
United States.
1993(17th
of Iyar, 5753): Parashat Emor
1993(17th
of Iyar, 5753: Eighty-six year old Brooklyn native Irving Philip Kartell the
St. John’s University trained lawyer, “an Assistant United States Attorney for
the Eastern District of New York from 1947 to 1953” and the Justice of the
State of Supreme Court in Brooklyn who “ruled in favor of women bus drivers in
a landmark discrimination case while raising two children –James and Karren –
with his wife, the former Leonore Sweedler” passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/10/obituaries/irving-p-kartell-86-new-york-state-justice.html
1993(17th
of Iyar, 5753): Avram Davidson passed away. Born in 1923, Avram Davidson
is considered by some to be "one of the most original, charming,
neglected and undervalued writers of our time.” A self-taught, bearded Orthodox
Jewish, Davidson's work started with science fiction and then moved into
more extreme areas of fantasy. Readers who like him compare his works to
Rudyard Kipling, Isaac B Singer and S.J. Perelman.
1995:
According to reports published today stamps portraying the comic strips “Lil’l
Abner” and Rube Goldberg Inventions” were two of the twenty classic strips being
issued by the U.S. Postal Service “in commemoration of the 100th
anniversary of the American comic strip.”
1996(19th of Iyar, 5756): Ninety-five year old Serge Chermayeff,
the only Jew to chair the architecture departments at both Yale and Harvard passed
away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/10/arts/serge-chermayeff-95-architect-taught-at-harvard-and-yale.html
1999:
“Rabbi Admits Theft Charge” published today described a “massive fraud” in
which Rabbi Jacob Lustig of Cincinnati’s Kneseth Israel Congregation reported
that their bingo game had brought in half a million dollars between 1996 and
1997 when in fact the games had earned two million dollars.
2000:
“The national labor federation staged a one-hour warning strike today to
protest provisions in the proposed tax package, which will be submitted to the
parliament next month” “but in a rare show of cohesion, Prime Minister Ehud
Barak's coalition cabinet endorsed the long-awaited tax plan with a 17-0 vote
with two ministers abstaining.”
2001: The
BBC broadcast “The British Wars” the 8th episode of “A History of
Britain a documentary series written and presented by Simon Schama” which began
its second season tonight.
2001:
Chandra Levy’s aunt, Linda Zamsky calls D.C. police Detective Durant and tells
him that her niece had been having an affair with Congressman Gary Condit.
2001:
Thirteen year old Yaakov “Koby” Mandell and fourteen year old Yosef Ishran were
kidnapped while hiking near their village and subsequently brutally murdered.
2002:
In a column entitled “The Politics of Victimhood,” Todd Gitlin makes the argument that “victimhood has become a
default position for Jews and Palestinians alike – with bloody consequences for
both peoples.”
2002(26th
of Iyar, 5762):
A Palestinian terrorist detonated a suitcase packed
with explosives in a crowded gambling and billiards club near Tel Aviv, killing
at least 15 people and wounding 58. The attack apparently was timed to coincide
with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to the United States, where he met
with President George W. Bush and other administration officials to discuss a
new proposal for ending the conflict.
2003:
The 19th Israel Film Festival opens in Chicago with the premiere of A Trumpet in the Wadi
2003:
“According to testimony gathered by journalist Philippe Broussard for today’s
issue of Le Monde” Saddam Hussein’s
“regime removed most the discriminatory anti-Jewish laws.”
2004(17th
of Iyar, 5764): Parashat Emor
2004:
At Congregation Beth Israel, in West Hartford, CT. Rabbi Stephen Fuchs
officiated at the wedding 31 year old Syracuse graduate Marisa Blake Pearlman,
the daughter of Nancy and Robert Pearlman and 39 year old Syracuse grad Scot
Benjamin Lerner, a real estate leasing and marketing specialist at the Max
Capital Management Corporation in New York.
2005:
The New York Times included reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including “Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950”
by Mark Mazower and a 75th anniversary edition of “Civilization and
its Discontents by Sigmund Freud.
2006,
Pulitzer prize winning author David
Remnick gave an interview on The Daily Show to promote his book
“Reporting: Writings from The New Yorker.”
2006:
“The Communists Who Saved The Jewish
State” published today describes a little known aspect (at least in the West)
of the “miracle” that made it possible for the Jewish David to defeat the
Arab Goliath.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/the-communists-who-saved-the-jewish-state-1.187221
2006:
Germany's national Holocaust memorial has drawn an estimated 3.5 million
visitors in the year since it was inaugurated according to figures made public
today.
2007:
Dr. Tamara Levitz presents "Kurt Weill's Kol Nidre and Jewish Memory"
at New York’s Center for Jewish History. Tamara Levitz, associate professor at
UCLA, and currently a visiting professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, explores Kurt
Weill's use of the Kol Nidre melody in three Jewish works composed in American
exile: The Eternal Road; We Will Never Die; and A Flag is Born.
2007:
“Paula Abdul's second greatest-hits CD, Greatest Hits: Straight Up!, was
released by Virgin Records” today.
2007:
“The J.A.P. Show, Jewish American princesses of Comedy” is performed at Actors
Temple Theatre in New York City.
2007:
Belgian Prime Minster Guy Verhofstadt publicly apologized for Belgian
authorities’ involvement in the deportation of Jews to Nazi extermination camps
during World War II. The apology came on
the day that the government-backed report “Submissive Beligium was
published. It lays bare the
responsibility of high-ranking officials and municipalities in collaborating
with the Nazi persecution of the Jews.
2007:
The Associated Press reported today that researchers claim they’ve found
Herod’s tomb, a find that could provide insights into one of the Bible's most
reviled figures.
“Under a baking sun,
pieces of limestone carved with borders of rosettes and geometrical designs lay
in three excavated pits Tuesday — a desert site Israeli archaeologists say is
the tomb of King Herod, who ruled the Holy Land when Christ was born. The find, which could provide
insights into one of the Bible's most reviled yet influential figures, includes
hundreds of pieces of an ornate sarcophagus, but no bones and no inscription
that would seal the identification. Although
the tomb was shattered and empty, leaders of the Israeli team that unearthed it
said Tuesday they will dig on in the hope of finding jewelry, other artifacts
or even the biblical monarch's remains. Hebrew University archaeologist Ehud
Netzer said he has been leading the search for Herod's tomb at the king's
winter palace in the Judean desert, in an Israeli-controlled part of the West
Bank south of Jerusalem, for 35 years.
Last month, his team started unearthing limestone fragments, from which
emerged the picture of an ornately carved sarcophagus with decorative urns of a
type never before found in the Holy Land."It's a sarcophagus we don't just
see anywhere," Netzer told reporters at the university. "It is
something very special."The complete sarcophagus would have been about
nine feet long, the university said. Herod was the Jewish proxy ruler of the
Holy Land under imperial Roman occupation from 37 B.C. His most famous
construction project was expanding the Jewish Second Temple in Jerusalem.
Remnants of his extensive building work in Jerusalem are still visible in
Jerusalem's Old City, and he undertook major construction projects in Caesaria,
Jericho, the hilltop fortress of Masada and elsewhere. At the excavation site,
on the steep, rocky slopes of a cone-shaped hill 2,230 feet high, Netzer's
assistant, Yaakov Kalmar, said that an account of Herod's funeral by the
first-century historian Josephus Flavius left little doubt that it took place
at Herodium. The newly discovered tomb was regal in its opulence. "We have
here all the attributes of a royal funeral," Kalmar said. "We didn't
find inscriptions so far... The work is not finished." The site sits
halfway up the hill, atop a warren of tunnels and water cisterns built to serve
the palace at the summit. Stephen Pfann, an American expert in the Second
Temple period at the University of the Holy Land, called the find a "major
discovery by all means," but said the lack of an inscription hindered full
verification. "We're moving in the right direction. It will be clinched
once we have an inscription that bears his name," said Pfann, who did not
participate in Netzer's dig. Eric Myers of Duke University, who has excavated
in the Holy Land, said initial descriptions of the tomb pointed to its
authenticity as belonging to Herod. "We know he was buried at
Herodium," he said by telephone. "It's a significant find after a long
search. "Myers said that among key clues were that the sarcophagus was
placed on a raised platform rather than in the underground tombs used for those
of lesser rank, and that in accordance with Jewish religious law, it was not
decorated with any human image. "It sounds as if Herod was respectful of
his Jewish tradition right up to the end," he said. David Owen, a biblical
historian and archaeologist at Cornell University who has done extensive field
work in Israel, was not surprised by the find."That's where Josephus says
he was buried," said Owen. "He built that entire palatial complex and
there are few doubts that his tomb would be there." The Herod of the Bible
and of Christian tradition was a bloodthirsty megalomaniac, who flew into a
paranoid frenzy when he encountered the three wise men on their way to
Bethlehem with gifts for the baby Jesus, and telling of the birth of a new king
of Israel. "Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men,
was exceedingly wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in
Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under..."
(Matthew 2:16). The biblical massacre figures in paintings such as Peter Paul
Rubens' 17th-century "Massacre of the Innocents." However the
account, does not appear in other Gospels, and experts are not convinced of its
accuracy, especially the implications of mass infanticide. Some believe the
decree applied only to Bethlehem, a small town at the time, where there may
have been as few as 15 toddlers. Historians do agree that toward the end of his
reign Herod slaughtered many political rivals and perceived plotters against
him, among them one of his 10 wives and three of his sons. Josephus says that
as the elderly Herod lay riddled with disease, he ordered the cream of the
local Jewish aristocracy to be executed on his demise, so that his passing
would bring widespread and genuine mourning. After Herod's death, Herodium
became a stronghold for Jewish rebels fighting Roman occupation, and the site
suffered significant battle damage before it was conquered and finally
destroyed by Roman forces in A.D. 71, a year after they destroyed the Jewish
temple in Jerusalem. Kalmar said the sarcophagus could have been destroyed
during Roman attacks or smashed by the rebels, who reviled the memory of Herod
as a Roman puppet. "We know that Herod had a lot of enemies," he
said. Roi Porat, another of Netzer's assistants on the digs, said it was
possible that the Jews removed Herod's remains after his tomb was reduced to rubble.
2007: Tight-end Michael Andrew "Mike"
Seidman signed with Indianapolis Colts after having been cut by the Carolina
Panthers.
2008: In an ongoing program designed to share
Jewish culinary traditions Hillel offers another cooking class taught by Cordell
Braverman of Cooking Cottage
2008: In
Rockville, Maryland Joyce
Antler, a professor of Jewish history and culture discusses You Never Call!
You Never Write!: A History of the Jewish Mother (recently published in
paperback) at a luncheon event at the Jewish Community Center of Greater
Washington
2008(3rd of Iyar, 5768): Yom Ha”Atzmaut –
Israeli Independence Day
2008: On Israel's 60th Independence Day, eight
organizations are awarded the Israel Prize for a lifetime contribution to the
state and society. The recipients are the Perah work-study mentoring program at
universities, the Jewish Agency, the Manufacturers Association of Israel, the
Youth Movements Council incorporating 14 movements, Ezer Mizion - Israel's
largest paramedic support organization, and the three major women’s
organizations that have been active since pre-state days: WIZO, Na'amat, and
Emunah.
2008: Italian President Giorgio Napolitano opened the prestigious Turin book
fair in the northern Italian city, despite international Muslim anger over the
choice of Israel as the event's guest of honor.
2009: Pope Benedict XVI began
his eight day pilgrimage which will take him to Jordan, Israel and the
Palestinian territories.
2010: “The Portuguese gave us fried fish, the
Belgians invented chips but 150 years ago an East End boy united them to create
The World’s Greatest Double Act” published today described the role Joseph
Malin, a 13 year old Jewish boy in created the delicacy known as “Fish &
Chips.”
2010: The Yom HaAtzmaut Spring Marathon 2010,
an evening of dancing, ushering in the delights of spring in celebration of
Israel’s independence is scheduled to begin tonight at 8:45 this evening at the
92nd St Y.
2010: “Giants of Jazz on Film - Benny Goodman
and the Kings of Swing” is scheduled to begin at 8 pm at the Jewish Community
Center of San Francisco.
2010:
Hamas or another group fired a rocket, which landed in open ground near
Ashkelon today. Approximately 50 rockets have landed in Israeli territory since
the beginning of 2010.
2010: The fans
of a Polish professional soccer team displayed an anti-Semitic banner during a
match. Fans of Resovia Rzeszow at a May 8 match put up a large banner showing a
caricatured hook-nosed Jew with a blue and white yarmulke -- the colors of the
opposing team -- and the phrase “Death to the Crooked Noses.”
2010(24th
of Iyar, 5770): Andor Lilienthal, the last of the original 27 chess
grandmasters, who played 10 world champions and beat 6 of them, passed away
today at his home in Budapest at the age of 99 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/crosswords/chess/12lilienthal.html
2011: Rabbi
Kenneth Ehrlich, Dean, Cincinnati campus of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion is scheduled to facilitate “The People of the Book” a
lecture/discussion designed to review the rich and varied experience of the
Jewish people in America in words and images created by American Jewish
literary artists
2011: Roman
Arkadyevich Baranovichi was ranked # 3 on the Sunday Times Rich List 2011 which
was published today. Shlomo Moussaieff and his wife and business partner,
Alisa, were ranked #315
2011: The Jewish Historical
Society of Delaware is scheduled to hold its Annual Meeting, featuring a
presentation by the Delaware Art Museum’s Executive Director and noted art
historian Dr. Danielle Rice. In her lecture, “The Jewish Contribution to Art in
Delaware,” Dr. Rice will highlight the Delaware Art Museum’s holdings by Jewish
artists and the worlds from which they come.
2011: In honor
of Yom Hazikaron (Israeli Remembrance Day) and Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli Independence
Day) Yeshiva University Museum and Center for Jewish History with American
Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute
and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research are scheduled to present: “Remembering
1948 - In Color” featuring “I Was There In Color,” Avishai Kfir’s documentary that uses recently discovered
footage, shot by Fred Monosson, a Jewish-American businessman to show the birth
of the Jewish state in living color.
2011: The Los Angeles Times
featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to
Jewish readers including “Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag” by Sigrid
Nunez
2012: Mr. David McKenzie,
Interpretive Programs Manager of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater
Washington will discuss, the award winning exhibit “Jewish Washington:
Scrapbook of an American Community” an “exhibit created by the Jewish
Historical society of Greater Washington that tells stories about the Jewish
community in Washington from 1795 to the present.”
2011(4th of Iyar, 5771): On Mother’s
Day, 97 year-old Holocaust survivor Rose Linder passed away. As a young woman she had clerked for Raphael
Lemkin, the Polish born attorney credited with coning the term “genocide.” After fleeing Poland, Mrs. Linder worked as a
teacher and employment counselor in the Chicago metropolitan area.
2012(16th of Iyar, 5772):
One-hundred one year old Polish born American violinist Roman Totenberg, the
husband of Melanie (Shroder) Totenberg who was his business manager for 50
years and father of NPR Correspondent Nina Totenberg and Judge Amy Totenberg
passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/arts/music/roman-totenberg-violinist-and-teacher-dies-at-101.html
2012(16th of Iyar, 5772):
Eighty-nine year old “Louis H. Pollak, a federal judge and former dean of two
prestigious law schools who played a significant role in major civil rights
cases before the Supreme Court, including the landmark Brown v. Board of
Education desegregation case” passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
2012: The 18th annual World of Hope
Charity Golf Classic for the benefit of The Rabbi Itzhaq M. Klirs Adult
Education Fund & Caring Capital is scheduled to take place at the Twin
Lakes Golf Course in Centerville, VA.
2012(16th of Iyar, 5772):
Eighty-three year old “Maurice Sendak, widely considered the most important
children’s book artist of the 20th century, who wrenched the picture book out
of the safe, sanitized world of the nursery and plunged it into the dark,
terrifying and hauntingly beautiful recesses of the human psyche” passed away
today (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/books/maurice-sendak-childrens-author-dies-at-83.html?ref=books
2012: Alon Yavnai Big Band with special guest
Dave Liebman is scheduled to perform at Joe’s Pub in New York City.
2013(28th of Iyar, 5773): Yom
Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Reunification Day
2013: “Settling In,” an exhibition that
“examines the experience and acculturation of immigrants to Oregon through the
lens of Jewish experience” is scheduled to open at the Oregon Jewish Museum.http://ojmexhibitmedia.weebly.com/
2013: University of Iowa Professor Dr. Robert
Cargill, biblical studies scholar, classicist, archeologist, author and digital
humanist is scheduled to a lecture entitled "The Five Defenders of
Jerusalem: A Study of Cities (not people) that defended Jerusalem from attacks
including Hazor, Meggido, Gezer, Lachish and Azekah."
2013(28th of Iyar, 5773): One
hundred one year old violin virtuoso Roman Totenberg passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/arts/music/roman-totenberg-violinist-and-teacher-dies-at-101.html
2013: American Society for Jewish Music and
American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to present “A Living
Connection: The Musical Lives and Legacies of Morris Hollender, Sonia Victor,
and Marty Levitt.”
2013: Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to
present “It’s a Thin Line: The Eruv and the Jewish Community in New York and
Beyond”
2013: Stephen Hawking, the noted British
physicist, has reportedly opted to endorse the academic boycott of Israel and
withdraw from the fifth annual Presidential Conference in Jerusalem in June,
where he was slated to give a talk, the British daily Guardian reported today.
2013: Today the Jordanian Parliament voted unanimously
in favor of petitioning the government to expel Israel’s ambassador in Amman
and recall Jordan’s ambassador in Tel Aviv in protest of alleged Israeli
desecration of holy sites in Jerusalem
2013: Eighty-eight year old “Geza Vermes, a
religious scholar who argued that Jesus as a historical figure could be
understood only through the Jewish tradition from which he emerged, and who
helped expand that understanding through his widely read English translations
of the Dead Sea Scrolls” passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)
2013: President Shimon Peres delivered remarks
at the state memorial ceremony for the Jews of Ethiopia who died on their
journey to Israel
2014:
Observance of “Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust” a memorial day championed by director Steven
Spielberg.
2014:
“Circus Palestina” is scheduled to be shown at the Israel Film Festival hosted
by Agudas Achim under the leadership of Rabbi Jeff Portman.
2014:
“A new Anne Frank play premieres in Amsterdam today, promising to bring the
troubled teenage girl’s identity out from behind the shadow of the Holocaust’s
most famous victim.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/new-anne-frank-play-attempts-to-wrest-girl-from-symbol/
2014:
“Closer to the Moon” is scheduled to be shown at the National Center for Jewish
Films 17th annual film festival.
2014:
Tzvi Arieli told JTA today that “Ukrainian Jewish with combat skills have a
rapid intervention force” which he leads “to stop anti-Semitic attacks.”
2014:
“Schools near the Dead Sea were shut and several roads in the area were blocked
by authorities this morning as a rare tropical storm dumped rain across the
country causing flash floods and wreaking havoc in the south of the country.”
2014:
As part of Jewish American Heritage Month, in Philadelphia, PA, the National
Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled
to host a presentation by the official Historian of the Major League
Baseball, John Thorn on “Jackie Robinson: Outside Hero.”
2014(8th
of Iyar, 5774): Ninety-six energy economist Morris A. Adelman passed away
today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2014:
Richard A. Flak completed his service as United Nations Special Rapporteur on
the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since
1967
2014:
Closing night of The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival.
2015(19th
of Iyar, 5775): Eighty-two year old “Israeli painter and sculptor Menashe
Kadishman passed away today in Ramat Gan.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/15/menashe-kadishman-obituary
http://new.menashekadishman.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menashe_Kadishman#/media/File:Kadishman1.jpg
2015:
“A judge declared a mistrial in the Etan Patz case today after jurors said for
a third time that they could not reach a verdict despite three weeks of
deliberation, leaving unresolved a missing-child case that vexed New York City
for decades and led to a sea change in the way Americans view the security of
their children.”
2015:
In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host its final Musical Shabbat
for 5775
2015:
Ruth David “a former Tel Aviv district attorney” who was arrested in a
corruption scandal “fainted on the steps of the Jerusalem District Court” today
“ahead of a hearing for the extension of her remand.”
2015:
“Dancing Arabs” is scheduled to be shown at the 18th Annual Film
Festival sponsored by the National Center for Jewish Film’s
2015:
A day after the general election. Ed Miliband, the leader of the Britain’s
Labour Party offered to resign today.
2015:
The Cultural Services of the Israeli Embassy is scheduled to co-sponsor “A
Literary Quest” at the Westbeth Center for the Arts that includes Assaf Gavron
and Carlos Fraenkel
2015:
Susan Veronica Kramer complete her service as the Minister of State for
Transport in the United Kingdom.
2015:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to co-host a
“Community Wide Commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of Victory
Day” “honoring the victory of Soviet and Allied forces in World War II and
Holocaust Survivors.”
2015:
The Washington Jewish Music Festival is scheduled to host Shabbat In Song.
http://www.wjmf.org/shabbatinsong
2015:
Juliana Maio is scheduled to speak on “When Cairo Was Paris” at the 92nd
Street Y where she will described Egypt in the first half of the 20th
century when “Jews, Christians and Muslims lived together harmoniously and
Cairo and Alexandria were among the most cosmopolitan, glamorous and
pluralistic cities in the world.
http://us6.campaign-archive2.com/?u=94315597763486b9c71e83935&id=dfe5d7e1c6&e=f43f6f1665
2016(30th
of Nisan, 5776): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2016:
“The Women of the Wall organization proceeded with its plan to hold a priestly
blessing at Jerusalem’s Western Wall today, despite a ruling from the attorney
general barring the group from doing so.
2016:
The New York Times features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including
Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story by Matti Friedman and the recently issued
paperback editions of Frank: A Life
in Politics From the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage by Barney Frank and
Book of Numbers by Joshua Cohen
2016:
The Illinois and Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host a
speech by Zev Rogalin who survived the Siauliai Ghetto and the Stutthof
Concentration Camp.
2016:
The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host a
Spring Walking Tour where participants will “learn what Jewish life and worship
was like in the historic Seventh Street, NW, neighborhood from 1850 to 1950.”
2016:
In Philadelphia, the National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to
celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month by opening its doors without charge
today, Mother’s Day.
2016:
CBS television broadcast the last episode of “The Good Wife” starring Julianna
Margulies today.
2016:
The American Society for Jewish Music is scheduled to host “Music in Our Time”
2016:
After seven very successful seasons, CBS broadcast the final episode of “The
Good Wife” starring Julianna Margulies.
2016:
The Center for Jewish History and the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
are scheduled to host Dr. Samantha Hill on “Eichmann in Jerusalem: Hannah
Arendt and the Banality of Evil.”
2017:
“The Wonders” is scheduled to be shown today at the Vancouver Jewish Film
Center.
2017:
NEH Senior Scholar Naomi Seidman is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “My
Unconscious Speaks Yiddish at the Center for Jewish History in New York.
2017:
Genealogist Daniel Horowitz of MyHeritage is scheduled to share techniques,
resources and repositories in the US and in the world that helped him discover
the US branch of his family in a lecture at the Library of Congress.
2017(12th
of Iyar, 5777): Eighty-seven year old Harvard graduate Julian I. Edison, the
St. Louis born son of Mark and Ida Edison and husband of Hope Rabb Edison with
whom he raised two sons Mark and Aaron who was Chairman of Edison Brothers
Stores, Inc. passed away today.
2017:
“The "Immortal Regiment" march was held in the Israeli city of Ashdod
today.
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201705091053400888-israeli-ashdod-immortal-regiment/
2017(12th
of Iyar, 5777): Seventy-seven year old
author Judith Stein passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/books/judith-stein-dead-historian-author-on-marcus-garvey.html
2017:
Today “President Donald Trump directed the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney
General Rod Rosenstein to make a case against FBI Director James Comey in
writing.
2017:
For the first time Senior Sephardi Rabbi Joseph Dweck reportedly said “the LGBT
revolution had been a “fantastic” development for humanity” for which he would
be condemned by Rabbi Shraga Feivel Zimmerman, the Rov of Gateshead.
2017:
Susan Kramer completed her service as the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for the
Treasury.
2018:
The “Out with the Old” and “Tevye’s Daughters” are scheduled to be shown at the
Washington Jewish Film Festival today.
2018:
“Saving Auschwitz?” and “The Invisibles” are scheduled to be shown at the 26th
Toronto Jewish Film Festival.
2018:
The Yeshiva University Museum, Commentary Magazine and The Straus Center for
Torah and Western Thought are scheduled to present “Moses on Film – from Ten
Commandments to the Prince of Egypt.”
2018:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Israel: A Conversation Across
Generations with Professor Jonathan Sarna, Leah Sarna, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
and Naomi Telushkin.”
2019:
In London, JW3 is scheduled to host screenings of “Ben Gurion, Epilogue” and
“The Red House” which tells the story of the Tel Aviv edifice built in 1924
that “was first used as a textile factory” before becoming in turns a synagogue
and an art gallery.
2019:
In South Bend, IN, the Michiana Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a
screening of “From Cairo to the Cloud”
https://www.cairotothecloud.com/about-the-film
2019:
The Jewish Museum in London is scheduled to host “Money and Daddy: Social
Responsibility and Hollywood's 'Jewish American Princess'” this evening during
which “Dr. Julia Wagner explores representations of Jewish women on screen,
focusing on young protagonists from wealthy families who use their privileged
positions for social good, including Private Benjamin, Dirty Dancing and
Clueless.”
2019(3rd
of Iyar, 5779): Yom Hazikaron
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/yom-hazikaron-israels-memorial-day/
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/yom-hazikaron-israeli-memorial-day
2019:
In Pleasanton, CA, Congregation Beth Emek is scheduled host an Israel
Independence Day Program where Lt. Col. Amos Guiroa (IDF, retired) will deliver
the keynote address on “Post-Election Israel: Will the Peace Process Move
Forward?”
2019:
“Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away” is scheduled to open today at the
Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York
2019:
In New Orleans, “the Clergy Council and the Jewish Community Center” are
scheduled to host “a service marking Yom
Hazikaron, Israel's Official Memorial Day for her fallen soldiers and victims
of terrorism” followed immediately by
“the community dinner celebrating Israel's 71st birthday!!”
2020(14th
of Iyar, 5780): Pesach Sheni
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/470865/jewish/Pesach-Sheni.htm
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/pesach-sheni
2020:
The Contemporary Jewish Museum is scheduled to host a virtual presentation of “The
Man Who Captured Time” during which “Contemporary Jewish Museum school program
manager Cara Buchalter talks about Eadweard Muybridge, a Victorian
photographer, murderer and inventor of the motion picture” who was also an
inspiration for Phillip Glass’s opera, “The Photographer.”
2020:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum, together with The Peter Polsky Freedom Fund and
The Chicago Association of Veterans of WWII is scheduled to host a special
virtual event commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII.
2020:
The Steicker Center is scheduled a virtual presentation on “The Jewish
Tradition of Protest” with Dr. David Kraemer.
2020:
The Breman Museum is scheduled to host the “third installment of its partnered
virtual series with the Jewish Educational Alliance and Savannah Jewish
Federation, featuring guest speaker Mark K. Bauman retired as professor of
history at Atlanta Metropolitan College.
2020:
OneTable is scheduled to host on line “Welcoming Sacred Time With Song”
featuring “reflection, ritual and joyful song led by Kohenet Keshira haLev
Fife, executive director of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute.”
2020:
In Pepper Pike, OH, via, Zoom B’nai Jeshurun Congregation is scheduled to host
Cantor Aaron Shifrman as he talks about “The How and Why of Jewish Ritual.”
2020:
As the world prepares to celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE Day,
“Jewish Care residents and volunteers recall celebratory scenes in Paris and
Trafalgar Square – as well as memories of narrowly escaping bombing raids on
London and enduring evacuations and rationing.”
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/ve-day-was-the-best-day-of-our-lives/
2021:
Based on previously published reports, as of today Israel’s progress in
fighting COVID19 can be seen in the decision of the EU to add the country to
its “safe list” while the on-going threat against its physical survival can be
seen in Iran’s Supreme Commander declaration on a Muslim holy day that Israel
is “a terrorist base” and not a country.
2021:
Congregation Beth Am is scheduled to present a screening of the 2019
documentary, “The Rabbi Goes West” about a Chabad rabbi who moves from N.Y. to
Montana.
2021:
In Columbus, OH, Congregation Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host “In-Person”
Shabbat Morning Services that will include “7th Grade and Hebrew
High School Graduation.”
2021:
The Marsh is scheduled to present Josh Kornbluth, the actor-writer in a live,
solo, streaming performance about the Trump presidency, becoming a fellow at
the Global Brain Health Institute, his unrepentant Stalinist mother and his
stepfather’s dementia.
2021:
The Eden Tamir Music Center is Jerusalem is scheduled to host “The Glorious
Sound of the Piano, a piano recital by Shir Semmel.
2021(26th
of Iyar, 5781): Final two portions of Viykra (Leviticus) - Behar and
Bechukotai;
2022:
As part of Mother’s Day celebrations, In Atlanta, GA , The Breman Museum is
scheduled to remember “the Moms with Chutzphah” featured in the History with
Chutzpah exhibition.
2022:
Hadassah of Greater Kansas City is scheduled to celebrating the 20th
anniversary of it Nurses Council Walk for Health.
2021:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present off-Broadway The Ten Commandments, “one of France’s most
successful musicals.”
2022:
The 34th Annual William and Irene Weinberg Family Baltimore Jewish
Film Festival is scheduled to host the final screens of “Rose” and “Kiss Me
Kosher.”
2022:
In Iowa City Rabbi Avremel and Chaya Blesofky are scheduled to host the Bar
Mitzvah Celebration for their son Menachem Mendel Sheyichye.
2022:
In Cedar Rapids, IA, in an event sponsored by the Thaler Holocaust Memorial
Fund,the National Czech and Slovak Museum is scheduled to host a screening of
“In the Shadow of Memory” which describes the massacre at Lidice and its
aftermath.
2022:
Based on previously published reports, as doctors fight to save the lives of
three victims of the terrorist attack Elad in which three others were hacked to
death, police are searching for the two individuals allegedly responsible for
murders that so far have left sixteen children without fathers.(As reported by
Meir Torgeman)
2022:
In Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is scheduled to host “Israel’s 74th
Independence Day Community Celebration,” a Yom HaAtzmaut event designed for
children and their families.
2022:
The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Left on Tenth: A Second Chance
at Life by Delia Ephron and the recently released paperback editions of Three
Rings: A Tale of Exile, Narrative and Fate by Daniel Mendelsohn and I
Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg.
2023:
The New York Sephardic Film Festival is scheduled to host the world premiere of
“The Guards of Memory.
2023:
The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to present Art History Though a
Jewish Lens: Nazi Looted Art , a Virtual Program during which “Ellaine Rosen
will analyze ten of the most well-known pieces of stolen artworks - nine of
which were returned to their original owners or countries of origin, and one
that is still lost.”
2023:
JAHM is scheduled to present “Behind the Screen: Standing Up Against
Antisemitism.”
