This Day, May 15, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
May 15
392:
Theodosius I, who had been emperor of the eastern half of the Roman Empire
became the last ruler of the entire Roman Empire (east and west) “A general of
Spanish origin, and the son of another general, was chosen to replace Valens
who had …
May 15
392:
Theodosius I, who had been emperor of the eastern half of the Roman Empire
became the last ruler of the entire Roman Empire (east and west) “A general of
Spanish origin, and the son of another general, was chosen to replace Valens
who had been killed fighting the Visigoths. He refused to condemn Judaism
believing that it was a legitimate religion. Theodosius prohibited the
destruction of synagogues by zealot Christians.
756
CE: Abd Al-Rahman won the battle against his co-religionist outside the city
walls of Cordoba. He entered the city as victor. After he set up
his Umayyad administration, Abd Al-Rahman mandated all Jews and Christians pay
a jizya, a discriminatory mandated tax in accordance with the Koran for
their "protected" status as dhimmis.
1004:
In Pavia, Henry II, who as Holy Roman Emperor would expel Jews from various
German cities, was crowned King of Italy today.
1248:
Odo of Chateaubroux "investigated" the Talmud and then condemned it.
This was the second condemnation of the Talmud after an appeal was made by the
Jewish community of France.
1252: Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull Ad
Exstirpanda, which authorizes the torture of heretics as part of the
Inquisition. Torture quickly gains widespread usage across Catholic Europe. There would be several Inquisitions during
the Middle Ages and on into the Renaissance. The primary aim was to destroy
Christians who did not accept the doctrine as commanded by the Popes at Rome. Of course if you were going to rack or dunk
or flay Christians, certainly there were those who would think that it would be
alright to do the same to Jews.
Interestingly, there were some Popes who disagreed saying that it was
alright to treat the Jews badly, but not to actually do them physical harm.
1648: The Treaty of Westphalia was signed as part
of series of treaties that brought an end to the Thirty Years War and the
Eighty Years War between Spain and the Netherlands. The treaty officially recognized the independence
of the Dutch from the Spanish Empire.
This guaranteed the independence of a European nation that had give Jews
a place to grow and prosper. Ironically,
many of these were Sephardic descendants of those who had been expelled by the
Spanish in 1492 or were Morrano refugees who had grown weary of the ever
present Inquisition. The end of the Thirty Years provided a respite to Jews
living in Central Europe including the communities of Frankfort, Worms and Jena
each of which was the scene of at least one pogroms.
1664: Because of the on-going attempts by the French and the Portuguese to control
Guiana, the Jewish community there carried out their plan to Suriname today.
1725: The foundation stoned was laid today by R.
Zeeb, the son of Isaac Bimas of Prague
for the sanctuary of the Hambro Synagogue.
1742: In Westphalia, Judah Zuntz and his wife gave
birth to Alexander Zuntz, the husband of Rachel Zuntz with whom he had seven
children, the Loyalist who worked with the Prussians during the Revolution and
remained in his adopted homeland where he helped found the New York Stock
Exchange.
1745:
In Prague, after many appeals and petitions, Empress Maria Theresa revoked her
decree banishing all Jews in Moravia and Bohemia, allowing Jews to live there
for an unlimited time. Only the Jews in Prague itself who were actually
banished 3 years earlier were still under the order, but they were soon
permitted to return on a restricted basis.
1755:
Villa de San Agustin de Laredo which is now known as Laredo, Texas, was founded
by Don Tomás Sánchez while the area was part of the Nuevo Santander region in
the Spanish colony of New Spain. According to the Society for Crypto Judaic
Studies, Sanchez came from a family with Jewish origins. For about this and
other facets of Jewish life in this Texas border town see “Tomas Sanchez,
founder of Laredo” by Carlos M. Larralde, PhD and “History of Laredo's Jewish
Community” by Stan Green.
1756: The Seven Years War begins when England
declares war on France. In America, the
war is known as the French-Indian War. Officially there were no Jews living in
Canada at the start of the war since Canada was a French colony and Jews were
forbidden by law to live there. This changed as a result of the war. The first Jews entered Canada with the forces
of Lord Jeffrey Amherst, the English military leader who conquered
Montreal. There were several serving in
his regiments including four officers.
One of them, Aron Hart, remained, settled at Three Rivers where he
became a large landowner and the father of four sons who helped to form the
nucleus of the Jewish community in Montreal.
On the other side of the line, some sources contend that a Converso was
in the Commissary General for the French forces.
1759:
Manuel Josephson, one of the
original members of Congregation Mikveh Israel at the time of the construction
of the first synagogue building in 1782 married
Rachel (Ritzel) Judah, daughter of Baruch and Sarah Helbert Judah in New
York City.
https://mikvehisraelhistory.com/2013/01/25/manuel-josephson-1729-1796/
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/josephson-manuel
1767:
In Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Dorthea Judah and Canadian businessman Aron gave
birth
entrepreneur and politician, Ezekiel Hart
Jewish who “served as a colonel in the militia during the American War of
Indeipendence,” established the M and E Company, a brewery with his brothers
Moses and Benjamin and who fought to maintain his Jewish identity when he took
his seat in the Canadian legislature.
1773:
Birthdate of Klemens Wenzel, Prince von Metternich, known to history simply as
Metternich, a supporter of Jewish rights in the Jewish confederation but not in
Austria itself.
http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_r/rothschilds.htm
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/metternich-prince-klemens-wenzel-von-x00b0
1774(5th
of Sivan, 5534): Erev Shavuot is observed five days into the reign of King
Louis XVI who had assumed the throne five days earlier when King Louis XV passed away and at the same
time that British troops are sailing to Massachusetts to close the port of
Boston. (All three of these events would have their effect on the American
Revlution)
1778(18th
of Iyar, 5538): Lag B’Omer is observed 11 days after the U.S. Congress ratified
the two treaties with France that ensured the Americans would have the
financial, military and diplomatic support that would lead to victory over the
British.
1785(6th
of Sivan, 5545): Shavuot
1792:
At Frankfurt-am-Main, Mayer Amschel Rothschild and Guttle Schnapper gave birth
to their fifth and youngest son James Rothschild who established the French
banking house for the family.
1798:
In Edmonton, Greater London the London born son of Rabbi Zalman Solomon and his
wife Betsy Solomon gave birth to Maurice Solomon, the husband of Louisa
Solomon.
1799:
Birthdate of Adolf B. Marx, composer and educator. Marx
was supposed to be a lawyer but changed his mind after graduation and
moved to Berlin to begin his musical studies. While composing, he
also served as a lecturer on Music at the famed University of Berlin and
started the Stern Music Conservatory which became one of the leading musical
schools of its time. Marx died in 1866, two days after his 67th birthday.
1800:
An English Jew named D.M. Dyte saved the life of King George III when he
thwarted an assassin’s attempt to shoot the monarch. “George III. attended the
Drury Lane Theater to witness a comedy by Colley Cibber; and while the monarch
was acknowledging the loyal greetings of the audience, a lunatic named Hadfield
fired a horsepistol pointblank at his Majesty. Two slugs passed over the king's
head, and lodged in the wainscot of the royal box. The king escaped unhurt; but
it was only subsequently realized that Hadfield had missed his aim because some
man near him had struck his arm while in the act of pulling the trigger. This
individual was Dyte, father of Henry Dyte, at one time honorary secretary to
the Blind Society. It is said that Dyte asked as his sole reward the
"patent" of selling opera-tickets, then a monopoly at the royal disposal.
(As reported by James Picciotto in Sketches of Anglo Jewish History)
1800:
A community of Jewish slaves, captured over a period of two centuries and held
for ransom by the Knights of St. John on the island of Malta, was officially
dissolved.
1804(5th
of Sivan, 5564): Erev Shavuot observed as Thomas Jefferson prepares to run for
re-election.
1808(18th
of Iyar, 5568) Lag B’Omer
1808:
Birthdate of Irish composer and conductor Michael Balfe who took the unusual
step of hiring a Jew, Max Maretzk as his assistant at Her Majesty’s Theatre in
London which was a critical step on his road to success as an impresario and
musician in Europe and the United States.
1817:
In Bavaria, Nanette Wexler, and Leser Lazarus Oschsenhorn, who were married in
1803 gave birth to Jechiel Ochsenhorn
1817:
Jean Lafitte, moved from Matagorda Bay to Galveston today, after having
purchased supplies from João da Porta.
João da Porta (also José da Porta or Joseph de la Porta was a Portuguese
Jewish merchant, who along with his older brother, Morin, “played an important
in the early settlement of the Texan coast. João was born in Portugal but
attended school in Paris, France, before moving to Brazil, the British West
Indies, and finally New Orleans, Louisiana. Along with his brother, João
provided the financing for the privateer Louis Michel Aury, who established his
base at the site of the future Galveston, Texas, in 1816. The same year,
Mexican revolutionary general Francisco Javier Mina visited and successfully
encouraged Aury to join him in an invasion, which failed. Morim left Galveston
and soon died, and João sold Aury's camp and supplies to Jean Lafitte, In 1818,
João was appointed supercargo for trade with the Karankawa Indians. João later
returned to New Orleans after Lafitte had left Galveston.
1818:
Birthdate of Bogumil Dawison, the native of Warsaw who became a leading actor
on the German stage noted for his portrayals of Mark Antony, Richard III and
King Lear, amongst others.
1822:
Birthdate of Bohemian-Jewish author Leopold Kompert.
1827(18th
of Iyar, 5587): Lag B’Omer
1827:
Joseph Harris married Elizabeth Levy today at the Great Synagogue.
1827:
Alexander Levi married Esther Asher today at the Great Synagogue.
1829:
Daniel O’Connell whose fight for Catholic Emancipation paralleled the fight of
the Jews for the same rights tried to take his seat in the House of Commons
“without taking the oath of Supremacy.”
1831:
Birthdate of Scarborough native Sir Edward J. Harland who in 1861 joined with
Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, the nephew of German Jewish financier and merchant Gustav
Christian Schwabe, to form the ship building company Harland and Wolff whose
most famous vessel was the ill-fated RMS Titantic.
1832:
Seventy-three year old German music teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter whose pupils
included Giacomo Mayerbeer, Fanny Mendelssohn and Felix Mendelssohn, who was
such a favorite of his that he “wrote to Goethe boasting of the 12 year old’s
abilities.”
1833(26th
of Iyar, 5593): Anna Virginia Nones, the two week old daughter of Anna and
Henry Benjamin Nones passed away today at East River, VA.
1833:
Forty-five year old English actor Edmund Kean whose portrayal of Shylock which
first took place in 1824 was described as the personification of a character in
“a chapter out of the Book of Genesis” passed away today.
1834:
Birthdate of German native Herman Felsenthal who in 1852 came to the United
States, where he was a banker and school board member in Chicago and the father
of nine children that he raise with his wife Gertrude Hyman Felsenthal.
1842(6th
of Sivan, 5602) Shavuot
1845:
In Ivanovka which is now part of Ukraine, “lya Ivanovich Mechnikov, a Russian
officer of the Imperial Guard” and “Emilia Lvovna (Nevakhovich), the daughter
of the Jewish writer Leo Nevakhovich gave birth to Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov who
gained fame as Nobel Prize winning immunologist
Élie Metchnikoff
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1908/mechnikov-bio.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/elie-metchnikoff
1847:
Seventy-one year old Daniel O’Connell whose “Catholic Emancipation campaign
served as the precedent and model for the emancipation of British Jews, the
subsequent Jews Relief Act 1858 allowing Jewish MPs to omit the words in the
Oath of Allegiance "and I make this Declaration upon the true Faith of a Christian"
passed away today.
1853:
One day she had passed away, 87 year old Hannah Ralph, the husband of Judah
Ralph and the mother of Samuel, Frederick, Amelia and Abraham Ralph was buried
today at the “Plymouth Hoe Burial Ground.”
1855:
In Baltimore, MD, Theresa (née Hutzler) and Elkan Bamberge gave birth to
Newark, NJ merchant and philanthropist Louis Bamberger who when he sold L.
Bamberger and Company split one million dollars among his employees and who was
the brother of Caroline Bamberger and brother-in-law of fellow businessman
Felix Fuld.
https://www.brandeis.edu/press/books/brandeis-series-american-history/louis-bamberger.html
1857(21st
of 5617): Eleanor Moses Cohen, the daughter of Myer Moses and Rachel Andrews
Woolf and the wife of Philip Cohen passed away today after which she was buried
at the Coming Street Cemetery in Charleston, SC.
1858(2nd
of Sivan, 5618): Marcus Durloch, a member of the Independent Order of Free Sons
of Israel passed away today. His widow
was the person to received benefits from the organizations Widows and Orders
Fund that had been incorporated earlier in the year.
1859:
Levi Goldsmith, the German born son of Seligmann Falcke Goldschmidt and
Schönchen Hinka Alexander and his wife Henrietta Goldsmith gave birth to
Estelle Goldsmith who became Estelle Rothschild when she married Solomon
Rothschild with whom she had four children
1861(6th
of Sivan, 5621): Shavuot is observed for the first time during the Civil War.
1861:
During the Civil War, Philadelphian Sergeant Oscar H. Benjamin began serving in
Company B of the 41st Regiment
1862:
In Vienna, Hungarian laryngologist Johann Schnitzler and Luise Markbreiter gave
birth to playwright and novelist Arthur Schnitzler who was a central figure in
the Viennese literary community that spanned the last decades of the 19th
century and the first three decades of the twentieth century. Schnitzler
was a contemporary of Herzl and used him as a character in one of his
novels. Schnitzler passed away in 1931. His works were later
banned by German and Austrian Nazis.
1864:
Moses Jacob Ezekiel fought at the Battle of New Market at as a member of the
VMA Cadet Battalion.
1864: Emma Mordecai apologized to her sister-in-law for
their quarrel over whether or not reports of General Lee's victory were
accurate. Mordecai's apology pointed up the precarious position of this
unmarried Jewess who had sought refuge from the war at her relative's farm in
rural Virginia.
1865: Captain Alfred A. Rinehard who had been wounded at
Po River, Virginia while serving with Company D of the 148th
Regiment completed his service in the Union Army today.
1867: In a letter written to his wife today, abolitionist
William Lloyd Garrison described his shipboard encounter "with three
Jewish former slaveholders. "Sitting opposite me at the table, are
three German Jews, Louisiana planters, who have lost all their slaves, now that
they are free, will be unable to take care of themselves! Of these
Israelites it cannot be said that they are without guile; ("Jews of the
Civil War: A Reader")
1868: Birthdate of
Vilna native Leon Zolotkoff, the “editor of the Jewish Daily News of New York,
one time assistant district of Cook County and founder of the Chicago Jewish
Courier” who was an early and ardent Zionist and the husband of Fannie
Zolotkoff with whom he had four children, “Julia, Sydney, Hyman and Albert.”
1869(5th of Sivan, 5629) Parashat Bamidbar;
Erev Shavuot observed for the first time during the Presidency of U.S. Grant.
1872: “Jews in Romania” published today described the
decision of the Grant Administration, as conveyed Secretary of State Hamilton
Fish, to have its representative in Bucharest work with the other powers to
alleviate the suffering being inflicted on the Jews living in Romania.
1873(18th of Iyar, 5633): Lag BaOmer
1873: Birthdate of Romania native and New York state
resident Samuel Zukerman, the husband of Ida Greenberg Zuckerman and the father
of Max H. Zuckerman
1873: Birthdate of Paris native, Victor David Hecht, the
modernist watercolorist who studied at the
Académie Julian-Student, Art Students League of New York and passed away
in New York in 1931.
1873: Birthdate of Romania native and resident of Albany,
NY Samuel Zuckerman who was the husband of Ida Greenberg Zuckerman and the
father of Max H. Zuckerman.
1876: Professor Felix Adler delivered the opening address
at the first meeting of the Ethical Culture Society.
1877: In the Swiss Canton Aargau, the Grand Council
granted citizens' rights to the members of the Jewish communities of Endigen
and Lengnau, giving them charters under the names of New Endingen and New
Lengnau
1878: In Kletzk, Russia, “Solomon and Goldie (Helfand)
Adler gave to Rabbi turned businessman Joseph Adler, the husband of Jennie
Resnick who in 1909 came to the United States where he returned to the
rabbinate leading several congregations including the New People’s Synagogue in
New York City while serving as director of the Downtown Keren Hayesod and the
Jewish Sabbath Alliance.
1879: Seventy-five year old German architect Gottfried
Semper who designed a synagogue built in Dresden between 1838 and 1840 that “is
noted for its Moorish Revival interior style” known as the Semper Synagogue
passed away today.
1879: Lewis Myer Myers and his cousin Ephraim Laman Zox
dissolved their partnership in a warehouse business after which Zox “set up his
own” business “as a financial agent and arbitrator” on Collins Street West in
Melbourne, Australia.
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/zox-ephraim-laman-4912
1880(5th
of Sivan, 5640): Parashat Bamidbar; erev of Shavuot
1880:
In Charleston, Rabbi Levy officiated at the marriage of Adolf Lederberger and
Albertine Levy.
1880:
Birthdate of Bessarabia native and American labor union leader Morris Sigman who in 1903 came to the United
States where he was one of the founders of the Industrial Workers of the Word
and became president of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union.
https://ilgwu.ilr.cornell.edu/presidents/MorrisSigman.html
1881:
Anti-Jewish riots break out in Odessa, Russia.
1882(NS):
The May Laws, a series of anti-Semitic regulations proposed by Minister of
Internal Affairs Nikolai Ignatyev were signed into law today by Czar Alexander
III.
1882:
In Bialystok, “Jacob and Guth (Segal) Rosenbuam, gave birth to the Hebrew Union
College trained rabbi and hold of a Ph.D from the University of Chicago, David
Rosenbaum, the husband of Ida Adelman who led Reform congregations in Waco, TX,
Amsterdam, NY and Austin, TX before settling in at Temple Judea in Chicago and
also served as an “instructors in Semitics at the University of Texas.”
1882:
Alexander
1883:
Birthdate of Russian-American painter, illustrator and WW I veteran Alfred
Feinberg
1885:
In Budapest, “Herman and Bertha (Atlas) Ungerleider gave birth to “Samuel
Ungerleider, the husband of Selma Dallet” who was the owner of Wheeling Liquor
Company in Wheeling, W. Va., the Aeon Liquor Company in Bridgeport, OH and
founder of an investment firm in Cleveland while serving as the “U.S. Asst.
Fuel Administrator” in Ohio during WW I.
1885:
In New Zealand, Samuel Shrimski was appointed to the Legislative Council today.
1886:
Birthdate of Pinsk native Isidore Theodore Feingold, the husband of Sonia
Feingold and father of Eugene and Henretta Feingold who in 1902 came to the
United States where he attended the University of Chicago, and served as a
director of the Hebrew Theological Seminary.
1887:
Birthdate of Wilno native Dovid Leibowitz, a leading pre-war European rabbi who
came to the United States where he found “the Rabbinical Seminary of America.”
1887(21st
of Iyar, 5647): Seventy-eight year old German philanthropist, Wilhelm
Königswarter a native of Furth passed away at Meran.
1888(5th
of Sivan, 5648): Erev Shavuot
1889:
Birthdate Bessie Abramowitz, known as Bessie Hillman who was active in the
labor movement designed to alleviate the sweatshop conditions in the garment
industry. She was active in the 1910 strike against Hart-Shaftner and
Marx. The strike paid two dividends - the creation of the Amalgamated
Clothing Workers of America and the first meeting with her future husband,
labor leader Sidney Hillman. An early role model for feminists, Hillman
continued her labor work even after giving birth to her two daughters.
1889:
Rabbi Mendelsohn of Wilmington, NC officiated at the wedding of William Fatman
and
Fannie
Mantoue, the “daughter of Benjamin Mantoue of Charleston, SC.
1889:
President Benjamin Harrison named Solomon Hirsch to serve as Minister to
Turkey, making him “the third Jew to hold that diplomatic rank” – the other two
being Benjamin Franklin Piexotto appointed by President Grant and Isidor Straus
appointed by President Cleveland.
1890:
Birthdate of Menasah Skulnik, the seventh of nine children who began his
theatre career “by carrying drinks to actors” in a Warsaw theatre specializing
in Shakespeare” and became a star in the Yiddish Theatre and on Broadway. (The
NYT shows his birthdate as 1892. I have
not been able to resolve this discrepancy.)
1890:
Birthdate of author Katherine Anne Porter whose novel Ship of Fools
portrays the rise of Nazism who described herself as “in direct, legitimate
line” of the English language accused Jewish writers of “trying to destroy it
and all other living things they touch.”
1891:
The will of Nathan Littauer, a benefactor of many Jewish charities, was filed
in the Surrogate’s office today.
1891:
Birthdate of David Vogel, the native of the Pale of Settlement who used Hebrew
in his poetry Lifney Hasha'ar Ha'afel
("Before the Dark Gate"), novels and diaries and who died at
Auschwitz in 1944 after having been interred at Drancy.
1892(18th
of Iyar, 5652): Lag B’Omer
1892:
Birthdate of Nashville native and WW I veteran Julius Arky Haiman, the graduate
of Peabody College and Vanderbilt University Medical School and WW I veteran
who pursued a career as an Otolaryngologist serving as an “adjunct professor
for ear, nose and throat at Polyclinic Hospital and an associate attending
physician at the Hospital for Joint Diseases during the 1920's and 1930's.”
1892:
“The Israelite Alliance has sent the Sultan of Turkey an address in
commemoration of the admission of the exiled Spanish Jews to the Turkish Empire
in 1492.”
1892:
“Germany’s War On Jews” published today
1893:
“Mission Work Among Jews” published today described a potential conflict
between the New York Presbytery and the Presbyterian Home Board. The New York wants to begin a program to
aggressively convert Jews. Up until now the national organization has not
endorsed such an effort aimed directly at the Jews.
1893:
Birthdate of Harry Rosenthal, the Belfast (Ireland) native who gained fame in
London and the United States as an actor, composer and pianist.
1893:
It was reported today the Jews have been coming to the United States from
Poland every month this year “in gradually increasing numbers.” Twenty –one came in January, seventeen in
February and 316 in March, 306 of whom had less than $30 when they arrived.
1893:
“Jews of Poland” published today refutes claims from correspondents in Berlin
“that there is no movement for the expulsion of Jews from Poland based on
eyewitness accounts of the arrival in London of scores of Jews who have been
expelled from Poland. They carry copies
of orders of expulsion some of which show that the movement against the Jews
began in January. “Russian officers will say that they are expelling no one but
merely moving subjects about inside of the empire.” However, “the ‘moved’
subject stripped of his possessions and deprived of this home, must starve or
get out of the country.”
1894:
A policeman discovered that crockery store owned by the Rosenblatts on 10th
Avenue was on fire. The officer entered
the building which was also home to the Rosneblatts and dragged them to safety.
1894:
A picture of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum was found in the studio of Henry
Alexander who took his life today. The
picture was one “that he prized dearly.”
1894:
Francis Bedford passed away. Born in
1816, he was a noted artist and photographer who helped to found the Royal
Photographic Society in 1853. He
accompanied the Prince of Wales on his tour of the Middle East. His photographs of Palestine were some of the
earliest and best of those taken in the 19th century. They were
published in 1865 providing many with their first real look at the Holy Land as
it actually was.
1894(9th
of Iyar, 5654): Seventy-two-year old Cecilia Marks, the Charleston, SC born
daughter of Catherine and Elias Abraham and the wife of Joseph Hart Marks
passed today in New Orleans after which she was buried at the Judah Cemetery.
1894:
Birthdate of Abraham Samuel Samuels, the native of Woltzin Poland who came to
the United States in 1922 where he served as Rabbi in Elmira, NY and was active
in a number of Jewish organizations including the United Charities for
Palestine.
1895:
Birthdate of Polish native and Brooklyn Law School trained attorney Edward
Manuel Kahn who in 1905 came to the United States where he settled in Atlanta,
GA serving as the executive director of the Atlanta Federation for Jewish
Social Services and the executive secretary of the South Regional Conference of
Jewish Welfare Agencies.
1895:
Birthdate of Fanny Goldstein, a librarian and the founder of Jewish Book Week.
1896:
Today, Lazar Adler, the native of Austria Hungary and husband of Edith Rosa
Simsaretch came to Wilkes-Barre, PA where he eventual “opened a junk yard which
developed into a larger firm operating under his name” while contributing to
the Denver Hospital, several Yeshivas and serving as a member of “Congregation
Habra Anshe Hungarian Order of B’rith Abraham.”
1898:
Two days after he had passed 39 year old Joseph Shapsowitz was buried today in
London at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”
1898:
In Harlem, Temple Israel completed its three day celebration of the 25th
anniversary of the congregation and the 10th anniversary of
occupying its current facility.
1899(6th
of Sivan, 5659): Final observance of Shavuot in the 19th century.
1899:
The Sanitarium for Hebrew Children of the City of New York which helps “sick
and destitute” Jews as well as providing free summer excursions has released
its annual report. It showed that last
summer the sanitarium provide nine boat excursions and 24 trains excursions
while aiding a total of 15,445 people.
1899:
According to an article by Leopold Sanders, Jews are “the most anciently
cultured people” since in the Book of Genesis they were the first to give the
world various prehistoric legends of Babylonian origin.
1900:
At the Speedway, today Malacca driven by Nathan Straus defeated Waco in hotly
contested race.
1901:
At the Speedway, today “the famous trotting gelding Cobwebs driven by Nathan
Straus defeated Chance “by half a length” after which Struas “took the reins
over the spotted trotter Malacca.
1902:
Rosa Strauss, the husband of Joseph Strauss and the mother of Otto, Augusta,
Edward and Charles Strauss was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.”
1902:
Jewish housewives on the Lower East Side poured into the streets, breaking
windows and throwing meat. The women were protesting a jump in the price of
kosher meat from 12 to 18 cents a pound http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/15/1902/kosher-beef-boycott-of-1902
1903:
“Twenty-five thousand rubles were sent to Kishineff, Russia, by cable today for
the relief of the sufferers in the antiSemitic riots which raged throughout
that city on April 19, 20, and 21, in which Jewish men, women, and children
were butchered by the Russian mob, and the entire Jewish quarter looted.”
1904(29th
of Iyar, 5664): Hayyim Selig Slonimski passed away in Warsaw. Born in Poland in
1810 when it was part of the Russian empire, his accomplishments included the
invention of a calculating machine for which the Russian Academy of Sciences
awarded him the Demidov Prize in 1844 and the establishment of Ha-Tsefirah, a
weekly paper published in Hebrew.
1904:
In Brooklyn pharmacist Isidore Michael and Grace Elizabeth Fadiman,
Russian-Jewish immigrants gave birth to super-intellectual who gained fame
during the golden age of radio.
1905:
Birthdate of businessman Abraham Zapruder, whose famed home movie documented
the assassination of JFK
1905:
Founding of Las Vegas, Nevada. According to an article in Hadassah Magazine there is little documented proof concerning the
first Jewish families living in Las Vegas.
Names like Bergman and Berman appear in the 1910 census In the 1920’s a
family named Goldring served kosher food and proudly announced that they had
produced the first Jewish baby born in the town. Other sources provide a replica of cattle
brand found on bovines belonging to a Las Vegas Jew named Charles Field. The brand consisted of a diagonal “I” with
the letter “C” superimposed over it. Of
course the first two Jewish names that come to mind when mentioning Las Vegas
are Meyer Lansky and his protégé Ben “Bugsy” Siegel. Today Las Vegas has one of the fastest
growing Jewish communities in the United States.
1906:
Kuhn, Loeb and Company as brokers for the sale of the $50,000,000 in notes that
would provide the Pennsylvania Railroad with the fund for “the company to meet
expenses in connection with the extensive improvement work with the company has
under way” including the New York tunnel and “additions to the terminal yards.
1907:
Twenty-three-year-old George I. Dobsevage, the Russian born son of Sarah and
Abraham Dosevage who worked on the Jewish Encyclopedia and the “abridge
editions of the Standard Dictionary” married Elizabeth Breslow today in New
York City.
1907:
In Berlin, “Economist and Demographer Robert René Kuczynski and his wife Berta
Gradenwitz/Kuczynski, who was a painter” gave birth to their second child
Ursula Maria Kuczynski who gained fame as author and WW II Soviet spy Ruth
Werner.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/jul/11/guardianobituaries.richardnortontaylor
1907:
Birthdate of Philip “Phil” Piratin the son of a small Jewish businessman who
became active in the Communist Party and was one of the leaders in the “Battle
of Cable Street” --
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-phil-piratin-1526400.html
1907:
In San Francisco, political boss Abraham “Abe” Reuf pled guilty to charges of
bribery, the day before he appeared a grand jury looking into corruption in the
city.
1908:
Birthdate of Frank Glassman who “played college ball at Wilmington and Bliss
College and then played guard and tackle in the NFL with the Buffalo Bisons in
1929.”
1909:
The cornerstone for a new building to be used by the Hebrew Infant Asylum is
scheduled to be laid today.
1910:
“Dr. Felix Adler, head of the Ethical Culture Society, occupied the pulpit of
the Free Synagogue in Eighty-first Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam
Avenues, this morning, the occasion being the centenary of Abraham Geiger, the
pathfinder of the Reform Judaism of Germany; or, as Dr. Adler put it, "the
geologist of Judaism.”
1910:
“Mayor Gaynor opened the twenty-fourth annual convention of the Independent
Order Brith Abraham, the largest Jewish fraternal organization in the world,
this morning at 10 o'clock, at Cooper Union, with a speech that called forth
great applause from the audience
1910:
“Declaring that the American Reformed Judaism as exemplified in the Hebrew
Union College of Cincinnati was really only "deformed Judaism," some
200 members of that faith pledged financial support tonight to an institution
whose purpose should be to counteract the influence of the Cincinnati school.”
1911:
In Poland, Yiddish theatre personalities Yakov and Ruzha Fuchs gave birth to
actor Leo Fuchs who came to the United States and began his career in the
Yiddish Theatre. Fuchs appeared in "Broadway Plays" in New
York and in London. He was seen on the television hit Mr. Ed.
His film credits include The Frisco
Kid and Avalon. He
passed away in 1994.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaries-leo-fuchs-1568528.html
1912
Morris Lasker and Nettie Heidenheimer Davis Lasker gave birth to film producer
Edward Lasker.
1912(28th
of Iyar, 5672): Eighty-two year old merchant Aaron Ullman, the son of Sophia
Schatz Ullman, the husband of Mina Rothschild Ullman and Clarence Aaron Ullman
passed away today after which he was buried in the “Mt. Zion” plot of the
Springdale Cemetery in Peoria, IL.
1912:
In Lower Saxony, Frantz Seligmann and Erna Seligmann gave birth to Werner
Julius Seligmann, the husband of Irma Seligmann.
1912:
Birthdate of composer Arthur Victor Berger, the Bronx native and graduate of NYU and Harvard who was well
known in his native America as a composer, teacher and music critic, but was
better known in Britain as a writer on music, particularly on the academic,
musicological side. He passed away in 2003 at the age of 91.
1913:
It was reported today that East Side
Evening High School for Men which has a seventy percent Jewish student body was
closed closed for the recent Jewish holidays which fell on April 22 and April
28.
1914:
In Lower Saxony Frantz and Erna Seligman gave birth to Werner Julius Seligman,
the husband of Irma Seligman
1914:
Premiere in Germany of The Miracle a British color silent film based on the
play by Max Reinhardt.
1914:
Konrad von Preysing, who would become a leading anti-Nazi prelate was made
Honorary Chamberlain of His Holiness today.
1914:
Architect Louis Isadore Kahn, who had been born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky in
Estonia in 1901, became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
1914(19th
of Iyar, 5674): Sixty-six year old Yitzhak Isaac Halevy Rabinowitz, a rabbi,
Jewish historian, and founder of the Agudath Israel organization whose works
included Dorot Harishonim or Dorot Harischonim passed away today.
1915(2nd
of Sivan, 5675): Parashat Bamidbar
1915(2nd
of Sivan, 5675): Jeweler Abraham Price passed away today in Washington, DC.
1915:
Birthdate of American economist Paul Samuelson who won the Nobel
Prize in Economics in 1970. Jews account for 40% of all
winners of the Nobel Prize for Economics. Fifty-four percent of the
Americans who have won the award are Jewish.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1970/samuelson/biographical/
1915:
As the United States wrestles with a decision to go to war with Germany
following the sinking of the RMS Lusitania it was reported that A. I.
Shiplikoff, Secretary of the United Hebrew Trades has said his members “are in
favor of the abolition of war and the permanent establishment of international
peace..”
1915:
It was reported today that Dr. S. N. Deinard is scheduled to preside over the
upcoming meeting in Minneapolis designed to pressure the Governor of Georgia to
grant clemency in the case of Leo M. Frank.
1916:
In Solano County, CA Otto Oscar Dannenberg and Iceophine Elsie Dannenberg gave
birth to Iceophine Roberta Goepfert
1916:
Five days after Charles E. Klein who was Jewish was told that there were no
openings in Battery D of the New York National Guard, Frank J. Conaton, who was
not Jewish, was given an application blank by Captain Sullivan and told to go
home and have his mother sign it since he was underage and could only be
accepted with her consent.
1916:
“Rabbi Stephen S. Wise drew a parallel between the Armenians and the Jews in
Russia” saying that “My fellow Jews in Russia could gain relief by forsaking of
their fathers” and “the Armenians could obtain surcease from sorrow by becoming
Moslems.”
1916:
It was reported today that Congressman Goldfogle, Rabbi Leventhal, Harry
Fischel and Leon Kamisky were among those who had spoken at a meeting of The
Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War in
Philadelphia.
1916:
Shalom Aleicheim was buried today at Old Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens, NY.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sholem_Aleichem_funeral.jpg
1917:
Today, in London, “official sources” confirmed the rumors “that whole Jewish
population of Jaffa” had been expelled from Jaffa during Passover and forced to
leave in a northerly direction.
1918:
Birthdate of Saul Laskin, the native of Fort William who was the first mayor of
Thunder Bay, Ontario.
1918:
Two Jewish journalists – Landau and Goldsky – were among those who had worked
for the Bonnet Rouge newspaper who
were sentenced to prison today after being convicted of treason in Paris.
1918:
In Montreal, Louis and Pearl Rubin (née Ruchwarger)
gave birth to Joseph Wiseman, the American trained actor who played “Dr.
No.”
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-joseph-wiseman21-2009oct21-story.html
1919:
“The Jewish sports club Maccabi București was founded in Bucharest.”
1919:
In the Winnipeg General Strike “virtually the entire working population of
Winnipeg had walked off the job. 30,000 to 35,000 people were on strike in a
city of 200,000. Even essential public employees such as fire fighters went on
strike, but returned midway through the strike with the approval of the Strike
Committee. The Winnipeg Police were technically on strike but remained on
patrol in practice.” Opponents of the strike, especially those in the press
including The New York Times
demonized the strikers as Bolsheviks and Jews.
Cartoons were produced depicting the strikers as hooked nosed Jews. In 2005, this historic event would become
part of the popular entertainment world through a musical called “Strike” by Danny Schur. The hit play (in Canada) focused on the
treatment of the Jewish and Ukrainian workers and carried a message of
universal brotherhood.
1919:
Birthdate of Samuel Abraham Goldblith a food scientist who studied malnutrition
while after having been taken prisoner by the Japanese at Corregidor and who
developed the techniques for preserving food that were critical to the U.S.
manned space program.
1919(15th
of Iyar, 5679): Aaron Aaronsohn…”one of the most extraordinary figures of the
20th century — a world-renowned scientist, a diplomat and a spy whose daring
exploits enabled British General Edmund Allenby to capture Jerusalem, a turning
point in WWI vanished without a trace
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/aaron-aaronsohn
https://jewoughtaknow.com/aaron-aaronsohn
http://www.patriciagoldstone.com/?page_id=12
1920:
It was reported that the funeral for Yiddish actor David Kessler who passed
away yesterday will take place tomorrow since today is the Sabbath – a day of
rest when Jews do not bury their dead.
1920:
In address this afternoon “before a conference of the Keren Hayesod” being held
at the Stuyvesant High School, Chaim Weizmann issued “a challenge to the
leaders of the American Zionist Organization, who recently split with the World
Zionist Organization, to specify their objections to the program of World
Zionist Organization.
1921:
“Jews assert that” Anti-Semitic League’s call for one “Gentile resident of
every house in Vienna draw up a complete list of all the Jews residing in the
house” is being done as part of plan for pogrom this autumn.
1922:
The German-Polish Convention signed today guaranteed all minorities in Upper
Silesia, including the Jews, equal civil and political rights.
1923: In New York City, Jacob Israel Avedon, was a
Russian-born immigrant who advanced from menial work to starting his own
successful retail dress business on Fifth Avenue, called Avedon’s Fifth Avenue
and his wife Anna gave birth to “fashion and portrait photographer” Richard Avedon.
1924:
“The Jewish Publication Society of America, which has distributed more than
1,500,000 volumes of the best available literature of Jewish interest in
English, celebrated its thirty-fifth anniversary tonight with a dinner at the
Ritz-Carlton. Laboring under a large deficit and desirous of publishing a
number of noteworthy contributions to the Jewish literature of this country,
including English commentaries on the Bible, the society made an appeal for
$250,000.”
1925:
“An appeal for books for the Palestine Workmen’s Organization, which “has a
membership of 20,000, many of whom have universities in” the United States “and
other countries to do pioneer work in Palestine” was made from the local
offices on second avenue in New York City.
1926:
Leopold Damrosch Mannes was appointed a Guggenheim Fellow today for creative
work in musical composition and a study of musical literature.
1926:
Today, Herman Price, the Kovno born son Beer and Judith Price and the husband
of Ida Schneider who had been ordained at JTS began serving as the rabbi of the
Beth El Congregation in Sunbury, PA
1926:
In Liverpool, Reka (née Fredman) and Jack Shaffer, an estate agent gave birth
to twins Sir Peter Levin Shaffer and Anthony Shaffer both of whom became
playwrights.
1927:
Judge Julian W. Mack is scheduled to be the principle speaker at the banquet
this evening that will mark the start of Philadelphia’s United Palestine Appeal
drive.
1927:
Birthdate of Bezalel Rakow “an orthodox rabbi who headed Gateshead’s Jewish
community and was the chair of the Council of Torah Sages of Agudas Yisroel of
Great Britain.”
1928:
Julius Rosenwald admitted today that he has given away so much money that he
does not the dollar value of his philanthropies.
1928(25th
of Iyar, 5688): Sixty-six year old Herione May, social worker and founder of
the Jewish Women’s Federation passed away.
1928:
Samuel Goldwyn hosted a testimonial dinner at Hollywood’s Roosevelt Hotel in
honor of Al Lichtman, General Manager of Distribution in the United States and
Canada for United Artists Corporation.
1928:
Birthdate of a French–born American “novelist and academic, known also for
poetry, essays, translations, and criticism who taught at the University at
Buffalo, wrote in “the experimental style, that sought to deconstruct
traditional prose” and whose books included “Double or Nothing.”
1929:
David Wuntch of Tyler, TX, was elected president of the
Texas Zionist Association which concluded its silver anniversary convention
today.
1930:
It was announced today that “a request for an audience
with the Roumanian Regency in connection with continuing attacks on Jews in
various parts of the country will be made by the Union of Roumanian Jews” Dr.
William Filderman is President of the Union.
1930: “Eliel Loefgren, former foreign minister of Sweden;
Charles Barde, a Swiss jurist, and A. Van Kempen, a former Dutch colonial
official, were today announced as members of the international Wailing Wall
Commission to investigate the Moslem and Jewish claims to the Wailing Wall. The
names were submitted to the Council of the League of Nations by Arthur
Henderson, British foreign secretary.”
1930:
The High Commissioner’s office has announced that, effective today, all
immigration into Palestine is suspended pending the completion of a report
being compiled by Sir John Simpson dealing with immigration and land settlement
problems.
1931:
Birthdate Norma Diane Fox who gained fame as award winning author Norma Fox
Mazer.
1931:
Italian born Giorgio Polacco, the conductor at the Met from 1915 to 1917, the Chicago
Civic Opera from 1921 to 1930 “remarried Edith Mason” today.
1932:
Hitler’s "Voelkischer Beobachter" advised the Jews of Germany to
leave the country because “we National Socialists
will certainly clear all Jews out of every position they occupy in Germany.
1933:
The Secretariat of the League of Nations rejected petitions protesting the
treatment of the Jews of Silesia because the treaty guaranteeing them their
political and civil rights requires that the citizens of Silesia file the
grievance and representatives of member nations. The League chose to ignore the reality of the
claims.
1933:
In Germany, “a plan to expel Jewish barbers and tobacconists from their
positions was initiated here today.”
1933
(19th of Iyar, 5693): Dr. Alfred Strauss, a Jewish lawyer, was killed in
Dachau.
1934(1st
of Sivan, 5694): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1934:
Jewish candidates are running in both the Democratic and Republican primaries
being held in New Jersey today. Among
the candidates are Samuel Raff, a Republican seeking a seat in the General
Assembly and four candidates for the Justice of Peace Passaic County - David Ehrlich, Democrat, and Benjamin
Rosenfelt, Toby Schneider, and Morris Rosenberg, Republicans.
1935:
“The Italian Crown Prince Umberto and the Crown Princess Maria, who are now on
an official visit to Tripolitana, today visited the Jewish quarter in the town
of Tripoli”.
1935:
Representatives of several Jewish communities in Poland were considering taking
part in a project to plant a forest in Palestine in honor of Marshal Josef
Pilsudski
1935:
Birthdate of Ingram Berg Shavitz, the Manhattan native who gained fame as Burt
Shavitz, the creator of a line of personal care products.
http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/311468/burt-shavitz-jewish-burts-bees-founder-dies-at-80/
1935:
The Gazeta Warszawska, organ of the
anti-Semitic National Democratic Party, was expelled today from the Press
Association of the Polish Republic for its "tactless attitude" while
the nation was mourning the death of Marshal Pilsudski. The Press Association
comprises all newspapers in Poland. The expulsion was decided on at a special
session called for this purpose (JTA)
1936:
The Italian consul denied today in a statement to the press that Italian agents
are responsible for disorders in Palestine. London newspapers had charged
Italian agents with fomenting the outbreak in an attempt to embarrass Great
Britain in the Italo-Ethiopian situation. (JTA)
1936:
As Arabs gather in their mosques for prayers today, “the curfew in the Old
City…was extended to a large outside the Old City Walls” due to the threat of
increased violence.
1936:
On the first day of the official Arab campaign of civil disobedience aimed at
ending Jewish immigration violence breaks out forcing the British to cordon off
Tel Aviv from Jaffa.
1937(5th
of Sivan, 5697): Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot
1937:
In Cincinnati, Ohio, Richard Jacob Mack, the son of Jacob William Mack and
Bertha Mack and Elizabeth Mack gave birth to Alan Richard Mack
1937: In Prague gave Josef Korbel, a Czech
diplomat, and Anna Korbel (née Spieglová) gave birth to Marie Jana Korbelova
who gained fame Madeline Albright, the first woman to be name U.S. Secretary of State.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/us/madeleine-albright-dead.htm
1938:
The Palestine Post reported that
while the armed Arab gangs continued to carry out robberies, commit arson, blow
up culverts, dig holes in the roads and set up mines throughout the country, at
least one such gang suffered heavy casualties when engaged by British forces
near Acre. Many arrests were carried out in Tamra and the neighboring villages.
Two British officers were wounded in this operation. An Arab mukhtar, village
elder, was murdered near Nablus after he refused to pay ransom
1939:
Giorgio Polacco, the conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and Chicago Civic
Opera re-married Edith Mason today.
1939:
Wilfrid Israel “an Anglo-German businessman whose father was the founder of
Israel’s Department Store which was “one of the largest and oldest stores in
pre-World War II Germany” and who was active in the rescue of Jews from Nazi
Germany “left Berlin for London” today where he would live until 1943 when his
flight was shot down by a Luftwaffe fighter while he was returning from Lisbon,
where had been on a mission for the Jewish Agency for Palestine arranging entry
certificates for refugees.
1939
The SS St. Louis leaves Hamburg. Most
of the thousand or so passengers are Jewish escapees from Nazi Germany. They
have landing passes for Cuba as well as quota numbers that could allow them
entry into the United States three years hence;
1939
A women's concentration camp opens at Ravensbrück, 50 miles north of Berlin.
1940:
Thousands of refugee Jews from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia are trapped
behind German lines as Nazi forces push through Holland. The Dutch Army
surrenders
1941(18th of Iyar, 5701): On Lag B’Omer, 12
Polish Jews who have traveled by sealed train from the Biala Podlaska Jewish
POW camp to Konskowola are murdered after the train's Nazi overseers discover
that four of the POWs have escaped.
1941:
Paul and Irving Unger, brothers, who, through their bogus "Lester
Plan" to solve the financial difficulties of small tradesmen, city and
Federal employes and others, stole $75,000 or more, were sentenced today by
Judge Saul S. Streit in General Sessions to penitentiary terms of one year each
amid the shrieks of six women relatives.
1941:
Nazi occupiers in Netherlands forbid the playing Jewish music
1942:
As of today, an additional 11,000 more Jews had been to Chelmno bringing the
total shipped to the death camp from Lodz to approximately 55,000.
1943:
In Rohatyn, Jewish ghetto police secretly plan to buy weapons and form escape
parties to the nearby woods. Three weeks later the plan is foiled and all 1,000
Jews of the ghetto are killed.
1943:
The Warsaw ghetto was reduced to ashes and the uprising came to an end after an
active resistance of four weeks.
1943(10th
of Iyar, 5703): After days of being crammed in a box car, Salamo Arouch, a
Greek-born Jewish boxer, his parents, three younger sisters and his brother
arrived at Auschwitz at 6 p.m. His mother and sisters were immediately taken to
the gas chambers.
1943:
The first issue of Liberal Judaism, a
new illustrated monthly journal of opinion and letters appeared today.
1943:
The Adelaide Advertiser published
excerpts from the pamphlet “Let My People Go” published in 1942 in which Victor
Gollancz wrote “that between one and two million Jews had already been murdered
in Nazi controlled Europe and "unless something effective is done, within
a very few months these six million Jews will all be dead.”
1944:
In a letter, dated today, addressed to the Zionist leadership in Palestine
(under British rule) Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl called on the Zionist
leadership to take stronger action on behalf of European Jewry which was
systematically being destroyed by the Nazi lead genocide:
And
you - our brothers in Palestine, in all the countries of freedom, and you,
ministers of all the kingdom — how do you keep silent in the face of this great
murder ? Silent while thousand on thousands, reaching now to six million Jews,
were murdered. And silent now while tens of thousands are still being murdered
and waiting to be murdered? Their destroyed hearts cry to you for help as they
bewail your cruelty. Brutal you are and murderers too you are, because of the
cold-bloodedness of the silence in which you watch
1944:
Nazi deportation of Jews from greater Hungary began with the deportation of
14,000 Jews from Munkacs to Auschwitz. The roundup is directed by Eichman
with “the full cooperation of the Hungarian police.”
1944:
“Joseph Pulvermacher, president of the Sterling National Bank and leader in
Jewish communal and philanthropic work” is scheduled to take office this at the
annual meeting of the congregation as president of Temple Rodeph Sholom” and
“Jacob S. Manheimer, an attorney” is scheduled to be installed as vice
president.
1944:
As part of the Nazi proposal to swap Jews for supplies including ten thousand
trucks, Joel Brand is flown from Budapest to Istanbul to meet with two
representatives of the Jewish Agency for Palestine. The two will listen to Brand and take the
offer back to Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv.
1944:
On the eve of the Allied invasion of Europe, 878 Jews are deported from Drancy,
France, to the Reval, Estonia, slave-labor camp. At the very time when Rommel,
the Nazi General who is in charge of preparing to face the Allied onslaught, is
bemoaning the lack of men and equipment, the Germans are busy shipping Jews to
their death. This provides further proof
that the creation of a Jew-Free Europe was an integral part of the German
effort and not some tangential activity.
1944:
Dr. Salomon Gluck, the brother of Rose Warfman, was deported on convoy 73 which
left Drancy today. He would reportedly
die five days later.
1945:
Reb David Werdyger was liberated today
at the Linz Labor Camp
1945:
The Soviet NKWD arrested Otto Armster, a German intelligence officer who took
part in the July 20 to kill Hitler and subsequently took him back to the
U.S.S.R.
1945:
Birthdate of Gail J. Koff, who would be considered the silent partner in the
national law firm Jacoby & Meyers after she opened their New York offices
six years after the firm, began operations in Los Angeles, California.
1945:
In Yugoslavia, fighting between 30,000 Nazi soldiers and a group of Yugoslav
partisans known as the Battle of Poljana came to end when the Axis surrendered
in what may have been the last formal combat operation in the European Theatre
during WW II.
1946(14th
of Iyar, 5706): Pesach Sheni
1946:”
The Austrian Parliament disclosed today that it had discovered a close
relationship between Austria's future treatment of Jewish restitution claims
and the treatment that Austria herself could expect to receive.”
1946:
“Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld, director of the Community on Unit for Palestine of
the ZOA criticized the American Council of Judaism” tonight “in an address at
the East Midwood Jewish Center for it announced support of the Anglo American
inquiry in the Near East” which “would delay the transfer of 100,000 European
Jews to Palestine…”
1947:
The government in Palestine is scheduled to publish “the new immigration quota
for the month ending June 14” which will allow “for the admission of 1,500
Jews, 200 Arabs and others.”
1947:
It was reported today that the United States has refused to grant a visa “Razim
Khalidi” because of his activities in Germany during the war “that have been
regarded as pro-Nazi.
1947:
“Jewish farming communities, the Jewish Agricultural Society and trustees of
the Baron de Hirsch Fund paid tribute” today to Dr. Gabriel Davidson in what
was “a testimonial meeting to honor him for having served forty years as an
executive of the society.”
1947:
Today “the UN General Assembly formally established an 11-nation committee of
inquiry into the Palestine questions” while urging the “Palestinians” (Jews and
Arabs) to refrain from violence pending a decision” this autumn.
1948(6th
of Iyar, 5708): Parashat Kedoshim
1948:
Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade the state of
Israel on its second day of existence. As soon as the Mandate ended, the
Arab armies attacked with the aim of driving the Jews into the sea.
1948:
As the first day dawned on the new Jewish state, the Israeli military force had
grown from 4.500 to 36,600 in the six months since the partition vote. This
seemingly impressive total includes everybody not just combat troops. And it pales in comparison to the size (not
to mention the equipment) of the invading Arab armies. At least 1,200 Jews had
fallen in fighting during the same period and this does not count civilian
casualties.
1948:
On Cyprus, the British open the gates of the detention camps. Thousands of Jews who had been imprisoned in
their attempt to reach Eretz Israel, would now be free to leave for the new
national Jewish home. Within days, many
of those released would be fighting in the front lines against the invading
Arab armies.
1948:
Mordechai Ruttenberg took part in one of those small actions, described below,
which helped to change history.
In Jerusalem, a young
teenager and a member of Gadna (Gedudei Noar--Israeli youth corps offering
pre-military training of teenagers) helping to defend Jerusalem “found a crate
of Molotov cocktails in the Notre Dame Monastery, got really scared, and hid
it. The Jordanians tried every possible way to break into the city, and on that
day armored vehicles arrived via Damascus Gate and took up positions below the
windows of the monastery. Someone shouted from the street, 'Hey, kid, where are
the cocktails?' I didn't know what to do, so he explained to me how to throw
them. From the window I threw one of the bottles onto the first armored
vehicle, which immediately started to burn, and the Jordanians beat a hasty
retreat. Afterward people wrote that the Molotov cocktails saved Jerusalem,
because otherwise the Jordanians would have entered the city. I pretty much
forgot the whole thing, but one day I heard a tour guide telling about the boy
with the bottle, and I came out of the closet and said, 'I am that
boy.'" That boy was the future
Professor Mordechai Rotenberg who Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who taught at
Hebrew University in the social work school, the criminology institute and the
department of psychology.
1948:
The American office of Magen David Adom (the Israeli equivalent of the Red
Cross) opened a blood bank for Israel in New York City that was soon packed
with donors.
1948:
Voice of Israel (Kol Israel) was born simultaneously with the birth of the
State of Israel. Operations for Kol Israel were in the old Palestine
Broadcasting Service facilities left behind when the British left Palestine.
The first Kol Israel broadcast was made from Tel Aviv as David Ben-Gurion read
the Declaration of Independence for the Jewish State.
1948:
In a radio Broadcast Menachem Began said today "It is Hebrew arms which
decide the boundaries of the Hebrew State; so it now in this battle; so it will
be in the future."
1948:
On the day after Israel declared its independence Jews in Baghdad "walked
liked shadows, terrified about their own destiny and that of their brothers in
the Land of Israel."
1948:
The Battles of the Kinarot Valley began tonight when Israeli observers reported
that “many vehicles with full lights” were “moving along the Golan ridge east
of the Sea of Galilee.” The observers were describing the movement of a Syrian
infantry brigade accompanied by at least one tank battalion and one artillery
battalion that was on its way to attack Kibbutz Ein Gev. Among the Jewish forces facing the Syrians
were elements of the Golani Brigade.
Thanks to an arms embargo, the Israelis had no artillery, tanks or
combat aircraft to face this onslaught.
1948:
Moshe Sharett became Israel’s first Foreign Minister.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/sharett.html
1948:
Etan Liivni who had been freed from Acre Prison in 1947 during the great prison
break, returned to Israel today from his hiding place in Europe so he could
fight in the War for Independence.
1948:
An Iraqi brigade invaded at Naharayim on May 15, 1948, in an unsuccessful
attempt to take the kibbutz and fort but the Arabs were able to occupy and loot
the power plant which was the creation of Pinhas Rutenberg.
1948:
On the first day of the invasion of Israel by five Arab Armies, the Egyptian 6th
Battalion, “backed by armored vehicles, mortars, cannons and aircraft, attacked
Kibbutz Nirm which was defended by a force of forty Jewish fighters who after
seven hours drove the attackers who retread “leaving behind somewhere between
30 and 35 dead.”
1948(6th
of Iyar, 5708): Holocaust survivor Rivka Salzman died today during the crucial
Battle of Nirim – the only woman to die in the successful thwarting of Egypt’s
initial attempt to destroy the state of Israel.
http://www.izkor.gov.il/HalalKorot.aspx?id=23546
1948:
Mr. Ben-Star, the Israeli actor and director” who “developed his one-man acting
technique while serving the Jewish Brigade during WWII” is scheduled to perform
in “a one-man presentation of Othello in Hebrew at Times Hall.
1949:
In Philadelphia, PA, opening of “3rd Sculpture International” which includes
the works of Chaim Gross, Jacob Epstein, Jacques Lipschitz and William Zorach.
1949(16th
of Iyar): Seventy-eight year old Lithuanian born founder and editor of the
American Hebrew monthly Rabbi Chaim Tchernowitz, author of “Toledot
haHalakah” and father of five children -
Saul, Maurice, Emanuel, Myriam and Rachel – passed away today.
1949:
Sixty-seven year old Mary Antin, a champion of immigrant rights and author
whose work included The Promised Land, the 1912 autobiographical tome
about her “Americanization “ passed away today.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/antin-mary
1950:
The remains of Oscar Grusenberg, the Russian Jewish lawyer who defended Mendel
Beilis against blood-ritual charges were interred in Israel
1951: Birthdate of Frank Wilczek winner of the 1973
Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of
the strong interaction.
1951:
Pitcher Saul Rogovin is traded from the Tigers to the White Sox and still
compiled a league leading 2.78 Earned Run Average.
1952:
Abba Khoushy, Mayor of Haifa, attended the United States Conference of Mayors
at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.
1952(20th
of Iyar, 5712): Fifty-three year old Brooklyn born Maurice D. “Red” Kann, the
“original editor of Motion Picture Daily and the husband of Frances Kann passed
away today in Los Angeles.
1952:
Founding of Sde Boker (Cattle Rancher's Field) in the central Negev
hills. Sde Boker began as a horse-breeding community. Later sheep
were added to the breeding activity. As the desert was reclaimed orchards
were planted by the settlers. Sde Boker's most famous settler was David
Ben-Gurion who first moved there in 1952 when he resigned as Prime Minister in
1952. Ben Gurion saw Sde Boker as a key to reclaiming the Negev. In
turn Ben Gurion saw reclamation of the Negev - making the desert bloom - as a
key to the ultimate success of the new Jewish state.
1952:
“A resolution proposing the establishment of a small body in the United States
with full authority to bring about co-ordination between the United Jewish
Appeal and the Israel Bond Drive was presented to the Zionist Actions Committee
by Nahum Goldmann on behalf of the Jewish Agency executive.” (JTA)1953(1st of
Sivan, 5713): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1953:
The Jerusalem Post reported that a
new railway line linked Hadera with Tel Aviv. The entire new track was
constructed out of the French-manufactured material acquired with the aid of
French railways. The funds came from the Development Budget.
1953:
The Jerusalem Post reported that the
Bavarian Cabinet had decided to ban the return to Bavaria of Jewish Displaced
Persons who left Germany for Israel after World War II and now decided to
return to Germany.
1953:
The Jerusalem Post reported that Kfar
Saba celebrated its 50th anniversary.
1956(5th
of Sivan, 5716): Erev Shavuot
1956:
Those living in the Jewish quarter of Constantine, Algeria are spending their
first full day living behind an Army cordon put up yesterday on orders from
Maj. Gen. Jean Noiret, commandant of French troops in eastern Algeria in an
attempt to “prevent any repetition of the violence that occurred on May 12 and
May 14.
1957(14th
of Iyar, 5717): Pesach Sheni
1957:
“Prime Minister Harold Macmillan said today Israel’s right of free passage
through the Suez Canal ‘must be assured’” and “he pledged that Britain will do
everything possible to see that this happens.” (JTA)
1958:
Premiere of the film version of the Lerner and Loewe musical “Gigi’ produced by
Arthur Freed and filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg.
1959:
The movie version of the Broadway comedy “the Tunnel of Love” produced by
Martin Meclcher and Joseph Fields who also wrote the script was released today
in Germany.
1959(7th
of Iyar, 5719): Charlotte Lipsky passed away today at the age eighty.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/lipsky-charlotte
1960(18th
of Iyar, 5720): Lag B’Omer is celebrated for the last time during the
Presidency of Dwight David Eisenhower.
1960:
“The Swiss post office” is scheduled to “issue a special Herzl Day stamp” which
“will have seven start within a Star of David and a Lion of Judah” today “to
commemorate the 100th birth of the founder of political Zionism.”
1960:
Dr. Nahum Goldman the president of the World Zionist Organization and Pinchas
Rosen, the Israel Minister of Justice are scheduled to address “a central
memorial meeting organized by the Jewish Agency and the Israel Government in
Basel’s historic Casino Hall.” (JTA)
1962:
NBC broadcast the final episode of “Cain’s Hundred,” a crime series with
scripts by Eliot Asinof, Fred Freiberg, directed by Irvin Kershner, Sydney
Pollack and Boris Sagal, and featuring appearances by Edward Asner, Martin
Balsam, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jack Klugman, Leonard Nimoy, Norman Fell and Don
Rickles.
1964(21st
of Iyar, 5723): Fifty-nine year old Brooklyn Law School trained attorney Moses
A. Feuer a partner in a firm whose other named partners were his wife Gertrude
Caesar Feuer and his son-in-law Milton Fischel passed away today.
1965(13th
of Iyar, 5725): Parashat Emor
1965(13th
of Iyar, 5725): Forty-eight-year old David Boroff, an assistant professor of
English at NYU and “a contributor to several magazines” suffered a fatal heart
attack tonight.
1967:
Israel holds the Independence Day parade in Jerusalem without the usual numbers
of heavy artillery and tanks. The full parade is not held because of an agreed
limitation of tanks in the city, as laid down in the armistice agreement with
Jordan. Egypt accuses Israel of having sent the "missing tanks and other
weaponry to the north." Egypt names May 17 as the day on which Israel will
invade Syria. A new song is born: "Yerushalayim shel Zahav" -
"Jerusalem of Gold" by Naomi Shemer is performed for the first time
on Independence Day. It soon becomes a kind of second national anthem.
1967:
During a parade in Jerusalem marking the 19th anniversary of Israeli
independence, a messenger brings word to Prime Minister Eshkol that “large
Egyptian forces were moving into Sinai and advancing westward.” The message
continued that in Cairo rumored reports had Nasser ordering the removal of the
UN Emergency Forces from the Sinai and the Straits of Tiran.
1967:
“While on a photo assignment in London, Linda Eastman met Beatle Paul McCartney
at the Bag O’Nails.
1968:
U.S. premiere of “The Swimmer” for which Sydney Pollack provided uncredited
directorial work and for which producer Sam Spiegel hired Marvin Hamlisch to
write the music.
1969:
Associate Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas resigned over a controversy
concerning past legal fees.
1969:
“Thirty five Arabs were injured by terrorist grenade attacks in Gaza, Jabaliya,
Kahn Yunis, Rafa, and Deir el Balah,”
1970:
“(They Long to Be) Close to You,” a Billboard topper by Burt Bacharach and Hal
David was released today.
1973(13th
of Iyar, 5733): Seventy-three year old Ralph Kahn, the son Baruch Kahn and
Constance Kenendel Lang and the husband of Edith Sommer passed away today in
Montpellier, France.
1973:
President Richard Nixon awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor to Air Force
Sergeant John L. Levitow, the only enlisted airman to be so honored during the
Viet Nam War. The citation reads as
follows: “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his
own life above and beyond the call of duty. Sergeant John L. Levitow (then
Airman First Class), U.S. Air Force, distinguished himself by exceptional
heroism on
1974(23rd
of Iyar, 5734): A cell from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
infiltrated into Israel from Lebanon. They entered an apartment in Ma’a lot,
killing the Cohen family including their four year old son. The terrorist then
stormed Netiv Meir School. “They took
105 students and 10 of their teachers hostage.
They were from a religious high school in Safed and who were staying the
school during a class trip.” The
terrorists killed 22 students and three of the teachers before the IDF could
mount an effective rescue mission.
1975(5th
of Sivan, 5735): Erev Shavuot
1978:
In Queens, “Michael Krumholtz, a postal worker and his wife Judy, a dental
assistant gave birth to actor David Krumholtz whose portrayal of math wizard
“Charlie Epps” in the crime-comedy series “Numbers” might be seen as a bit of
ethnic stereotyping.
1978:
The Jerusalem Post reported that the
Israeli Embassy in Washington reiterated that "the supply of advanced
weapons to Saudi Arabia and Egypt creates a serious threat to the security of
Israel." President Sadat of Egypt, in a major policy speech, threatened
domestic critics of his policy of negotiating with Israel, and took great pains
in explaining why he had deposited one million pounds, received from Katar, in
his personal account.
1978:
The Jerusalem Post reported that the
Israeli Cabinet, by a vote of 14 to three, backed the Chief of Staff, Raphael
Eitan's declaration that Israel cannot defend itself without Judea, Samaria,
and the Golan.
1979(18th
of Iyar, 5739): Lag BaOmer
1979:
ABC broadcast the last episode of the first season of “Taxi” the sit com
created by James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels and Ed Weinberger and starring Judd
Hirsch.
1981:
President Anwar el-Sadat called on Syria and Israel today to adopt a policy of
''hands off Lebanon'' and urged the Palestinians to form a provisional
government because ''the day will come when Israel will sit with you.'' Mr.
Sadat's remarks came in a two-and-a-half-hour address to Parliament, which was
devoted in large measure to a scathing denunciation of Egypt's small opposition
Socialist Labor Party. The President dealt only briefly with the Lebanese
crisis and did not address himself to a question that has been arising with
some frequency here - What would Egypt do if Syria and Israel went to war?
1982(22nd
of Iyar, 5742): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
1982(22nd
of Iyar, 5742): Eight-eight year old Yale Law School graduate and worker’s comp
specialist who was survived by his wife Jessie passed away today in New Haven,
CT.
1983:
Rabbi Charles Kroloff of Temple Emanu-El in Westfield officiated at the wedding
of Lisa Ehrich and Robert Bernstein. He
was assisted by cantorial student Jill Spasser.
1983:
In “Psychological and Moral Dilemmas” published today, Robert Alter reviews
Eight Great
1983:
In “New Life For A Prescient Novel About Nazism” published today Frederick S.
Roffman described the film being made based on The Oppermanns by Lion
Feuchtwanger.
1986:
NBC broadcast the final episode of season 2 of the “Cosby Show” co-created by
Ed Weinberger which was the number sitcom for the 1985-1986 season
1986(6th
of Iyar, 5746): Seventy one year old
author and journalist Theodore White passed away. White first gained fame covering China during
World War II for the Time/Life media empire.
His honest reporting got him in trouble with Right Wing Americans and he
ended up coming back to the States after the war. White had been so effective as a reporter
because he spoke Chinese, a language he learned quite by accident while
studying at Harvard. A whole new
generation of Americans came to know him for his prize winning popular
political science treatise, The Making in President which told the story
of the Nixon-Kennedy campaign in 1960.
It provided many Americans with their first insight as to how the
American electoral system really worked.
Although he was to write several “making of a President” books, none
would come close to the original effort which spawned a whole new genre of
political reporting.
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-05-16/news/mn-5696_1_white-house
1988(28th
of Iyar, 5748): Yom Yerushalayim
1989:
French premiere of “Brenda Starr” a film based on the comic strip reporter with
a script by “Jenny Wolkind,” better known as Delia Ephron.
1990:
The Cemetery Club produced by Philip Rose opened on Broadway at the Brooks
Atkinson Theatre.
1994(5th
of Sivan, 5754): Erev Shavuot
1994(5th
of Sivan, 5754): Seventy-eight year old Russian born British economist
Alexander Nove whom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher described as “one of the
most significant scholars of 'Soviet' studies in its widest sense and beyond”
passed away today.
http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH0168&type=P
1995:
The Chicago Sun Times reports that
Eddie Schwartz has left WLUP after having failed to obtain the same success he
had enjoyed with WGN.
1995(15th
of Iyar, 5755): Eighty-one year old “American real estate investor” Seymour B.
Durst, “a philanthropist and the inventor of the National Debt Clock” passed
away today.
1995:
“My so-called Life” a teen drama created by Winnie Hotlzman and produced by
Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz was officially canceled today.
1997:
NBC broadcast the final episode of season seven of “Seinfeld.”
1998:
“The Horse Whisperer” a movie version of the novel of the same name with a
script by Eric Roth and featuring Jessalyn Gilsig.
1998:
“Quest for Camelot” an animated musical fantasy with a script by David Seidler
and starring Jessalyn Gilsig and Don Rickles was released in the United States
today.
1998:
“Clockwatchers” a comedy co-starring Lisa Kudrow was released in the United
States today.
1999:
In the West End at the Lyric Theatre final performance of a revival of “Animal
Crackers” a musical with lyrics and music by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby and the
book by George S. Kaurfman and Morrie Ryskind.
2000:
Israel and Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) reestablished diplomatic relations.
2000:
By decree of the French Republic President, Israeli diplomat, Dr Meir Rosenne,
has been made Commander in the National Order of the Legion of Honour.
2001(22nd
of Iyar, 5761): Twenty year old Idit Mizrahi of Rimonim was murdered today when
terrorists fired bullets at car carrying her, her father and her brother who
were traveling to attend a family wedding.
2001:
One Israel, a party formed by Ehud Barak in 1999 ceased to exist today.
2001:
The BBC broadcast “Revolutions” the 9th episode of “A History of
Britain a documentary series written and presented by Simon Schama” which began
its second season earlier this month.
2001:
In “Let the Circle Be Unbroken,” published today Mimi Sheraton laments the
latest assault on “The Bagel” – Pillsbury’s Toaster Filled Bagels.
Bagel purists have had
a lot to swallow as their favorite nosh has come in for its share of creative
rethinking. The basic flour-water-salt-yeast-malt dough that should be shaped
and then boiled before being baked is now often steamed or not moistened at all,
so that it lacks the inimitable yeasty, chewy inner texture. Pizza or
pumpernickel doughs are often used now, and the traditional crust that should
be plain, with a golden, shiny finish, may be pockmarked with poppy or sesame
seeds, garlic or onions, while the correctly neutral, cool interior is
adulterated with cinnamon and raisins, nuts and berries. Economic
considerations, like high labor costs, have fostered mammoth bagels that fetch
mammoth prices even though they resemble inner tubes more than they do the
compact, true bagel that ideally measures about 3.5 inches in diameter. It's a
wonder we permit these versions to be called bagels at all. But the single
characteristic of the bagel that has always been honored, no matter what other
attributes go by the board, is its shape. A bagel is ring-shaped -- round with
a hole in the center. At least until now;
The Pillsbury Company’s
''filled bagels'' -- described in the advertising copy as ''highly evolved'' --
are more like Pop-Tarts than bagels. Each 3- by 4-inch rectangle of ''tasty
bagel crust'' is filled with cream cheese and, of all things, strawberry jelly.
Although sweetness is antithetical to true bagel connoisseurship, the jelly and
the cheese suggest the red-and-white color combination (visible through three
slashes on the top crust) of cream cheese and smoked salmon. Real fish, of
course, would not work, being too perishable for both freezer and toaster. The
greatest attribute of these ''filled bagels,'' promises the ad copy, is: ''No
gloppy mess. Next breakfast, it's freezer, toaster, done.'' Following
Pillsbury's instructions, this highly evolved taster found the crust (neither
baked nor steamed, I bet) to have the flavor and texture one might expect from
a dampened, heated manila folder enclosing a crowd-pleasing, sweet and creamy
filling. But please, Pillsbury Doughboy, go back to your creative copywriters
and marketing talents and come up with another name. The new product you so
proudly hail may not be totally terrible, but it is totally not a bagel. Where
is the circle? Where is the hole?
2002:
President Bush welcomes forty-five leaders from the United Jewish Communities
to the White House.
2003:
Today, a Paris court rejected a lawsuit brought by Kurt Werner Schaechter, 82,
an Austrian-born French Jew, charging France's national railroad company with
the equivalent of complicity in crimes against humanity for deporting Jews to
Nazi death camps during Germany's wartime occupation of France.”
2004:
After being called up from Triple-A Pawtucket today Kevin Edmund Youkilis “went
2 for 4 in his major league debut” with the Boston Red Sox.
2005(6th
of Iyar, 5765): Alan B. Gold, Chief
Justice of the Quebec Superior Court passed away at the age of 87.
2005:
“Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” co-starring Natalie Portman and
Frank Oz premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
2005: The New York Times
included reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to
Jewish readers including the recently released paperback editions of “After
Such Knowledge: Memory, History, and the Legacy of the Holocaust,” Eva
Hoffman’s essay that “thoughtfully conveys the conflicted inner lives of a
generation of children of Holocaust survivors” and “The Sea House” Esther Freud’s “intricate English novel,
inspired by the letters of Esther Freud's grandfather (Sigmund's son), which is
set along the Suffolk coast and tells two stories separated by half a century.”
2006:
Over 150,000 people attended the celebrations at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar
Yochai on Mount Meron in the Galilee, where a large feast is traditionally
held.
2006:
Daniel Barenboim was named principal guest conductor of La Scala opera house,
in Milan,
2006:
Daniel Barenboim was named principal guest conductor of La Scala opera house,
in Milan, after Riccardo Muti's resignation
2007:
In Washington, D.C. Theater J presents the last of performances of Arnold
Wesker's “Shylock,” a landmark re-imagining of the three stories which inspired
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Featuring beloved international
performer Theodore Bikel in the title role and Edward Gero as Antonio, this
staged concert reading is presented
in conjunction with the Shakespeare in Washington Festival.
2007:
In London, the ZF presents “A Special Commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of
the Reunification of Jerusalem” featuring a speech by Moshe Arens, former
Israeli Ambassador to the United States who also served as the Israeli Defense
Minister and Foreign Minister.
2007:
Four people were wounded by a barrage of at last 19 Qassam Rockets fired by
Hamas terrorists at the western Negev town of Sderot. Palestinian leaders said that Hamas was
trying to divert attention from internecine fighting in the Gaza Strip by
renewing hostilities between Israel and the Palestine Authority.
2007(27th
of Iyar, 5767): Ninety-five year old
Italian-Jewish architect Giorgio Cavaglieri, passed away today. (As reported by
Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/18/arts/design/18cavaglieri.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print
2008:
In Mishkenot Sha'ananim in Jerusalem, The First International Writers Festival
comes to a close.
2008: The Jewish Historical Society of
Greater Washington marks the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel with a
series of book talks by Laura Cohen Apelbaum on “Jewish Washington: Scrapbook
of an American Community” (the companion to the award-winning exhibit of the
same name) beginning at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.
2008:
A conference is held at the Beit Chail Haavir in Herzlia by the National Road
Safety Authority, Or Yarok, and the Institute of Technological Studies in order
to promote new technological advances to improve road safety in Israel.
2008:
Lindsay Gottlieb was named head coach of the University of California, Santa
Barbara.
2008:
Google co-founder Sergey Brin lauded Israeli innovations in technology and
environmental efforts, saying Israel "takes our climate challenges very
seriously." Brin, visiting as a delegate to President Shimon Peres'
Presidential Conference, told Haaretz
that these challenges have "great geopolitical ramifications on this
country, in addition to environmental ones."
2008:
Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch told a panel in Jerusalem that promoting
technology throughout the Middle East could help advance peace.
2008:
"Waltz With Bashir” a daring new animated documentary which follows
Israeli director Ari Folman as he tries to piece together memories of the 1982
massacre of Palestinians in Beirut's Sabra and Shatila camps is screened at the
Cannes Film Festival.
2009:
Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four
Meals,” discusses his most recent book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's
Manifesto, at the Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Md., in an event sponsored
by Politics and Prose Bookstore.
2009: Rabbi
Shefa Gold, a leader in Aleph, The Alliance for Jewish Renewal leads Friday
night services for Congregation Bet Mishpachah at the Jewish Community Center
in Washington, D.C.
2009(21st
of Iyar): Ninety-one year old Edwin S. Shneidman, a psychologist who gave new
direction to the study of suicide and was a founder of the nation’s first
comprehensive suicide prevention center, passed away today at his home in Los
Angeles. (As reported by William Dicke)
2010:
Before Shabbat morning services start at Temple Emanuel in Denver, Rabbi Steven
Foster is scheduled to discuss "Reform Responsa: Applying Jewish Text to
Modern Day Questions."
2010(2nd
of Sivan, 5770): Moshe Greenberg, one of the most influential Jewish biblical
scholars of the 20th century, died today at his home in Jerusalem at the age of
81. As reported by Dennis Hevesi
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/arts/20greenberg.html?pagewanted=print
2011:
Joel and Ethan Coen, the Oscar award-winning producer-director team that
created films like The Big Lebowski and A Serious Man are expected to attend
the ceremony in Israel today at which they will be formally awarded The Dan
David Prize “for their contribution in film making.”
2011: A Brazilian production of the musical “Baby” with
music by David Shire opened today.
2011: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to
present a symposium entitled: “2,000 Years of Jewish Life in Morocco: An Epic
Journey.”
2011: In what would prove to be a case of “rush to judgment” the New York Police
Department arrested Dominique Strauss-Kahn at 2:15 a.m. today “on charges of
criminal sexual act, attempted rape, and an unlawful imprisonment in connection
with a sexual assault on a 32-year-old chambermaid in the luxury suite of a
Midtown Manhattan hotel yesterday” about 1 p.m., Deputy Commissioner Paul J.
Browne, the department’s chief spokesman, said.
(As reported by Al Baker and Steven Erlanger)
2011: Young Jewish Professionals are scheduled to take
part in The Lox, Stock & Bagel Scavenger Hunter where they will “explore
the heart of the Lower East Side that is changing right before your eyes.
Highlights include Russ & Daughters, Katz's Deli, the birthplace of B'nai
B'rith, Economy Candy, and much more.”
2011: Avraham Granted was fired today as Manager of West
Ham United “after the club was relegated to the Football League Championship
2011: In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month, the
Mizel Museum will open its doors free of charge” today “for visitors to tour
its new permanent exhibit 4,000 Year Road Trip: Gathering Sparks,” which offers
“a dynamic journey through art, artifacts and digital media that narrates and
celebrates Jewish culture and history.”
2011: The New York Times features reviews of books
by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The
Wizards of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust” by Diana B. Henriques
and the recently released paperback edition of “The Sabbath World: Glimpses
of a Different Order of Time” by Judith Shulevitz
2011: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including
'Say Her Name' by Francisco Goldman.
2011: Four people were reportedly shot dead by Israel Defense
Forces troops today as they opened fire on large numbers of infiltrators trying
to breach Syria's southern border with Israel. Another four people were said to
have been killed on the Lebanese side of its shared frontier with Israel, as
Palestinian protests for the annual Nakba Day, which mourns the creation of the
State of Israel, took hold across the region.
2011: Cedar Rapids native, John Lipsky, brother of Temple
Judah congregant Ann Lipsky is named as acting managing director of the IMF.
2011(11th of Iyar, 5771): Eighty year old Rebbetzin Hesa
Halberstam, the widow of Grand Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Halberstam passed away today.
2011: Dozens of Im Tirtzu activists gathered outside the
offices of UNRWA in Jerusalem holding signs and chanting, "They expelled,
they attacked, they lost.” Im Tirtzu takes its name from the saying of Theodor
Herzl "If you will it, it is no dream."
2012: The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession,
Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Book by Matti Friedman went on sale
today.
http://www.workman.com/products/9781616200404/
2012: Basya Schecter is scheduled to perform “Songs of
Wonder” which sets the Yiddish poetry of the civil rights activist and Jewish
philosopher Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel to music at the Washington DCJCC.
2012: Cellist Yoed NIr is scheduled to join Regina
Spektor in tonight’s performance at the United Palace Theatre.
2012: Ellen Cassedy is scheduled to read from and sign her new
book, We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust at the National
Museum of American Jewish Military History
2012: Jill Abramson, the executive editor of the New York
Times will receive an honorary degree to at Farleigh Dickinson University’s 69th
commencement exercises.
2012: Arab terrorists attacked southern Israel with a Kassam
rocket early today and attacked Jews in the Hevron area with two firebombs
overnight as “Nakba Day” began
2012: Twenty-four year old Majid Jamali Fashi was hung
today by Iran after having been “convicted for Israel and assassinating an
Iranian nuclear scientist.”
2012: “Sisters Joined by Tumult, Grown Apart in Time”
published today provides a details review of I Am Forbidden, a noble by
Anouk Markovits.
2012(23rd
of Iyar, 5772): Eighty-eight year old Holocaust survivor and scholar Arno
Lustiger passed away today.
http://www.northjersey.com/obituaries/Holocaust_survivor_and_scholar_Arno_Lustiger_dies_at_88.html
2013(6th
of Sivan, 5773): First Day of Shavuot
2013:
Scheduled opening of the Ein Gev Shavuot Festival
2013:
“Pedro Hernandez, Charged With Murder Of Etan Patz, To Face Trial”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/15/pedro-hernandez-etan-patz-murder-case-trial_n_3278117.html
2013:
For the first time since the outbreak of the Syrian uprising, two mortar shells
exploded in the Mount Hermon area this morning.
2013:
Israel will continue to take military action to prevent the transfer of
advanced weaponry to Syria, The New York Times quoted a senior Israeli official
as saying today, a day after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met Russian
President Vladimir Putin in Sochi to discuss the troubled situation.
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/If-Assad-reacts-to-Syria-strike-Israel-will-retaliate-313265
2014: The Oregon Jewish Museum is scheduled to
host Peter Zisa in program celebrating the music of two Jewish composers –
Alexandre Tansman and Mario Castlenuovo-Tedesco.
2014:
The Israel Action Center at the JCRC is scheduled to present “Israel at 66:
Spies and Defenders” with CBS News correspondent Dan Raviv and Israeli
journalist Yossi Melman.
2014:
Today, “in the wake of outcry from the public, gay rights organizations and
politicians, Yaakov Ariel, the rabbi of Ramat Gan who “advised a landlord not
to rent…an apartment to a lesbian couple” was “summoned by Ramat Gan Mayro
Israel Singer to explain his remarks.”(As reported by Gavriel Fiske)
2014:
“A Jewish woman was attacked at a bus stop in Paris’ Montmartre district by a
man who shook her baby carriage and said, “Dirty Jewess, enough with your
children already, you Jews have too many children, screw you.” (Tablet)
2014:
“Two IDF soldiers from the 50th Battalion of the Nahal Brigade have been
dismissed from their unit for campaigning on Facebook against orders to evict
Jewish settlers on the West Bank, the army said today”
2014:
Tatiana Maslany was cast in a principal role as the younger version of Helen
Mirren's character, “Maria Altmann” in the upcoming film “Woman in Gold.”
2014:
The Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism is scheduled to host a
lecture by Professor Maud Mandel of Brown University entitled “Muslims and Jews
in France: History of a Conflict.”
2015:
Lewis Black is scheduled to perform at the Paramount Theatre in
Charlottesville, VA.
2015:
“The Kindergarten Teacher” is scheduled to be shown on the final day of the 18th
Annual Film Festival sponsored by the National Center for Jewish Film’s.
2015:
Centenarian Elisabeth Bing, whose parents fled Nazi Germany because they had
been Jewish before converting to Christianity and was leader in the natural
childbirth movement, passed away today.
2015:
Today “at an art storage facility in southern Germany “more than 70 years after
its disappearance and after a year and a half of hard-nosed negotiations,”
"Femme Assise," was handed over to Christopher A. Marinello, an
attorney representing the descendants of Paul Rosenberg, “one of the world’s
leading dealers in Modern art…whose collection was looted by the Nazis.”
2015:
In “Ayelet Shaked, Israel’s New Justice Minister, Shrugs Off Critics in Her
Path” Jodi Rudoren provided a profile of a rising political star.
2015:
Rabbi Barry Fruendal is scheduled to be sentenced to after “pleading guilty to
52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism for installing secret cameras in the shower
room of the mikvah adjacent to Kesher Israel, the prominent Washington Orthodox
synagogue he led for some 25 years”
2016:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Little Labors by Rivka Galchen, The Secret War: Spies,
Cyphers and Guerrillas 1939-1945 by Max Hastings, A Self-Made Man” The
Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1849 by Sidney Blumenthal and We
Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to Covergirl, the Buying and Selling of a
Political Movement by Andi Zeisler
2016:
Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to host the first
annual city-wide 5K Race for Humanity.
2016:
The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to sponsor an Israel
Independence Day Celebration Lunch featuring Israeli falafel followed by a
screening of the Mickey Marcus biopic “Cast a Giant Shadow” starring Kirk
Douglas.
2016:
In New York, B’nai Jeshurun is scheduled to host “an interactive performance of
Lea Goldberg’s Israeli children’s book “Dira Lehaskir -Apartment to Let”!
narrated by actress Shira Averbuch”
2016:
Ari Shavit, author of A Promised Land , Georgetown Hillel Rabbi Rachel Gartner,
and emerging leader Harry Reis are scheduled to participate in “Israel Forum:
Zionism and Liberalism
for
a New Generation” at JCC Manhattan.
2016:
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to
host “Gala 2016.”
2016:
At the Jewish Women’s Circle in Malta, NY, the Chabads of Saratoga County is
scheduled to “Finding Your Small Miracles” featuring, Yitta Halberstam
Co-author of the Small Miracles Series: Heartwarming stories of
Extraordinary Coincidences from everyday Life
2017: The
Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to co-sponsor a weekly interfaith
discussion, this week's topic
TBC, from the perspectives of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,
looked at in a variety of texts and scriptures “at the Harold Wilson Room,
Jesus College.”
2017: (19th
of Iyar, 5777): In Los Angeles, graduation ceremonies are scheduled to take
place at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion
2017: As
part of the lecture series “Israel: The Land and its People” Henry Abramson is
scheduled to lecture on “Theodore Herzl: Father of Zionism” at the Avenue J
campus of Touro College
2017:
MJE is scheduled to host “Conversations Remix” with Rabbi Mark Wildes.
2017:
Joan Nathan is scheduled to talk about her new book King Solomon’s Table
which “explores Jewish cooking from around the world.”
2017:
The Association for Jewish Studies and Center for Jewish History is scheduled
to host a lecture by Yael Landman on “Is There a Biblical "Law"? Law
in the World of the Bible.”
2017:
The exhibit “Menorah: Worship, History, Legend” is scheduled to open
simultaneously at both the Jewish Museum and the Braccio de Carlo Magno Museum
in the Vatican.
2017:
Obituary writer Margalit Fox is among those scheduled to speak at a symposium
describing how the Times Obituary Team “captures a life in 500 words.” (Editor’s note- this is one time I wish I
lived in New York. The Times obits are
not only literary gems, they are an invaluable tool for historical research. In addition to which, the writers are very
patent people who take their time to respond to inquiries even when they come
from an “am ha’aretz in eastern Iowa.)
2017:
“MGM Television and Daniel Silva announced today that MGM had acquired the
adaption rights for the Allon series, a series of spy novel whose “main focus
is Gabriel Allon, an Israeli art restorer, spy and assassin” whose executive
producers would be Silva and his Jewish wife Jamie Gangel, the television
journalist.
2017:
At the start of the weekly Yisrael Beytenu meeting today, Defense Minister
Avigdor Liberman rebuked “his fellow ministers for publicly going head-to-head
with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the upcoming Trump visit, in an
apparent reference to Education Minister Naftali Bennett.”
2017:
“Eliran Saada, the owner of Express Target Marketing, which has operated the binary
options companies InsideOption and SecuredOptions, was arrested in Tel Aviv on
suspicion of fraud, false accounting, forgery, extortion and blackmail.”
2018:
Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to host Gettysburg College professor Kerry
Wallach discussing her latest work Passing Illusions: Jewish Visibility in
Weimar Germany in which she “challenges the notion that Jews in Weimar-era
Germany sought to be invisible or indistinguishable from other Germans by
“passing” as non-Jews.”
2018:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host another session of
“Shtisel Watch and Learn” where the chaplains lead a discussion after viewing
an episode of “the award winning Israeli Television series” about a “haredi
family” living “in Jerusalem’s religious neighborhood of Geula.”
2018(1st
of Sivan, 5778): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
2019:
“The Orthodox Jewish of Commerce Committee and JBNF are scheduled to host the
2nd OJC Jerusalem Annual Anglo Israeli American -Expo and Conference today at
the Jerusalem Gardens Hotel.
2019:
In South Bend, IN, at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center at the University of
Notre Dame, the Michiana Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening
of “From Cairo to the Cloud” this evening.
2019:
In London, the Phoenix is scheduled to host “a special preview screening of
‘Rory's Way,’ a new film from Israeli directors Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun.”
2019:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a presentation by
“architectural historian and author Anthony W. Robins” on “Urban Genealogy –
Researching New York City’s Buildings.”
2019:
The East Bronx History is scheduled to host “a presentation by Joan Adler about Nathan Straus, Jr. and his
role in the creation of Hillside Homes, one of the first subsidized housing
projects in the United States.”
2019: In Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is
scheduled to host its “first monthly Bereavement Support Group” and its first
gathering of the “Anti-Semitism Discussion Group.”
2020: In keeping with the sentiments expressed
by Rabbi David Kaufman when Vice President Pence was in Iowa peddling plans for
“re-opening” in Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host virtual Friday
night services.
2020: Temple Israel of Boston is scheduled to
present on-line “Qabbalat Shabbat.”
2020: The Batsheva Dancers are scheduled to
host the opening of their Online Festival.
2020: The Streicker Center is scheduled to
present, on-line Dr. Mark Weisstuch as he lectures on “The Trial of Jesus – A
Jewish Perspective.”
2020: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled
to a host a piano recital with Malachi Rozenbaum.
2020: As part of its “Online Speaker Series,”
the Breman Museum is scheduled to present “Jews of the American South” during
which Jeremy Katz, Director of the Cuba Family Archives, delves into Southern
Jewish History” and describes how families, culture, and life succeeded and
persevered in The American South”
2021: Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto is
scheduled to present an in-person, small-group Shavuot event to rekindle
community connections.
2021: As the CDC issues new guidelines, in
Columbus, OH, Congregation Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host in person and
ZOOM Shabbat Services.
2021: JCC
Contra Costa is scheduled to host an in-person hike at a local park in
Danville, followed by ice cream and refreshments.
2021: As Gaza terrorists continue raining rockets
on Israeli civilians, over half of the homes in the country don't have a
residential secure space in which to take cover in case of an attack” including
Jerusalem with some 180,000 apartments without shelter, followed by Tel Aviv
with 160,000, Haifa with over 98,000, Petah Tikva with close to 50,000 and
Rishon Lezion with some 46,000 apartments that do not have a bomb shelter
2021: Jessica Herren, who is the real
embodiment of what is the best in Judaism, is scheduled to have her virtual
graduation from the University of Iowa.
2021: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled
to host a “Mostly Mozart” concert.
2021(4th of Sivan, 5781): Parashat
Bamidbar; Perkei Avot- Chapter 6; for more see
2021: Based on previously published today
during the second week of May approximately 2,000 rockets have been fired into
Israel from terrorists in Gaza, including Hamas, and Lebanon.
2022: LBI is scheduled to present a lecture by
Karina Urbach on “Alice’s Book: How the Nazis Stole My Grandmother’s Cookbook.
2022(14th
of Iyar, 5782): Pesach Sheini
2022:
JHMOC is scheduled to present “A Night of Cake and Comedy with Comedian Larry
Donsky.”
2022:
The Alliance for Jewish Theatre is scheduled to present “Strengthening Your
Artistic Voice” with Emma Goldman-Sherman
2022:
The Edlavitch JCC is scheduled to host a screening of “Picking Up the Pieces,”
which is a work in progress that tells the story of director Aviva Kempner’s
mother, Hanka Ciesla, who survived the Holocaust as a Polish Catholic and her
uncle, Dudek Ciesla, who survived Auschwitz” and how “they miraculously found
each other after liberation in Berlin.
2022:
“The Hare with Amber Eyes,” an exhibition at the Jewish Museum that “tells the
story of the Ephrussi family celebrated in the bestselling memoir of the same name
by Edmund de Waal” is scheduled to come to an end today.
2022:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to the English language premier
of “The Ten Commandments, The Musical.”
2022:
The Baltimore Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host the final screenings of
“Wet Dog” and “Greener Pastures.”
2022:
Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum is scheduled to present The Seventh
Annual Greek Jewish Festival.
2022:
In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host a “tree planting party at
Eben Israel Cemetery” during which 28 trees will be planted to replace those
destroy by the derecho.
2022:
The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including the recently issued paperback
edition of Monkey Boy by Francisco Goldman.
2023:
As part of Jewish American Heritage Month, the Lappin Foundation is scheduled
to present “an informative, entertaining and colorful program during which
attendees will “learn about Rube Goldberg, iconic Jewish American illustrator,
cartoonist, author, inventor and sculptor.”
2023:
In Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is scheduled to host the “Silicon
Valley Jewish Playwriting Contest” during which attendees will “watch three
Jewish-themed plays then vote for your favorite as part of a competition that
spans U.S., Israel and beyond.”
2023:
The Israeli American Council – Boston is scheduled to present “Act and Impact
Session” during which attendees will “learn all about the importance of
storytelling and narratives.”
2023:
Since Palestinian terrorists launched rockets yesterday six hours after a cease
fire went into effect, Israelis awake today wondering if “it is really over.”
