This Day, May 17, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
May 17
142
BCE: “Simon the Hasmonean captured the citadel of Jerusalem and expelled its
Syrian garrison ad the Hellenized Jews” who had fought with them. Simon was the
last surviving Hasmonean brother. His
victories completed the fight begun by …
May 17
142
BCE: “Simon the Hasmonean captured the citadel of Jerusalem and expelled its
Syrian garrison ad the Hellenized Jews” who had fought with them. Simon was the
last surviving Hasmonean brother. His
victories completed the fight begun by the more famous Judah who had taken
possession of Jerusalem in 165 BCE but had not been able to take control of the
citadel.
1012:
Benedict VIII began his papacy. During his reign, “a number of Roman Jews were
executed on Cecil Roth has called the ‘improbable charge of mocking a
crucifix.’ The accuracy of this is open
to debate since a contemporary chronicler, Ademar of Chabannes, “this occurred
after an earthquake accompanied by a severe storm erupted on Good Friday, prompting
a Roman Jews to inform the papal palace that some of his coreligionist had
mocked a crucifix in their synagogue. After those found guilty were beheaded
the earthquake ceased.
1220:
Second coronation of King Henry III in Westminster Abbey which was ordered by
Pope Honorius III who did not consider that the first had been carried out in
accordance with church rites. In 1253, King Henry established The Domus
Conversorum (House of Conversion) which was a building and institution in
London for Jews who had converted to Christianity. It provided a communal home
and low wages.
1257:
Coronation of Richard Earl of Cornwall to whom Abraham of Berkhampstead “was
very dear” and on whose behalf the Earl intervened to get Abraham released after being charged with desecrating
an image of the Virgin Mary.
1315:
Today, during the reign of Louis X, “an ordinance was issued” concerning the
rights and treatment of the Jews when and if they were allowed to return to
France.
1338:
The Bishop of Strasbourg formed an alliance for the pursuit of the Armleder
assassins who were responsible for the massacring of Jews in Alsace.
1594:
Today “The Jew of Malta” was entered in the Stationer's Register, a record book
maintained by the Stationers' Company of London which a held monopoly over the
printing industry in England.
1500:
In Mantua, “Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua and Isabella d'Este” gave
birth to “Federico II of Gonzaga, the ruler of the Italian city of Mantua at
the time of the birth of Leone de' Sommi, the first “unapologetically Jewish
playwright and poet” and a ruler who enjoyed Jewish comedians enough to hire
“Solly and Jacob,” two “ebrei istrioni” (ham actors) for a wedding celebration
in 1520.” (As reported by Simon Schama)
1607:
Today for the third time the Inquisition took action against “Jorge de Almedia,
a Portuguese residing in Mexico, the prosecuting attorney renewed the motion
that he be adjudged in contumaciam (in contempt) “but the Inquisitors
upon consideration of the antecedents of the case and wising to give the said
Jorge de Almeida a further proof of kindness and benignity, decided to grant
him sixty days more, during which he may come and appear in obedience to the
summons.”
1617(12th
of Iyar, 5377): Rabbi Judah Löb Saraval passed away He translated Saadia’s
commentary on “Canitcles” into Hebrew. [Canticles is another name for the Song
of Songs.] “He is quoted in the ritual work "Mashbit Milḥamot," in
connection with a question in regard to the ritual bath. Although he was
reported to have died in Venice, Filosseno Luzzato found his tombstone in Padua.
1660:
As the aftermath of Civil War raged across England the library of the
Archbishop of Canterbury was taken from English preacher and political leader
Hugh Peters who supported the ideas of Roger Williams which included “writing
on behalf of the toleration of Jews.”
1714:
Michael Hasid who had “succeeded to the rabbinate of Frankfort after the death
of Aaron Benjamin Wolf” was appointed chief rabbi of Berlin.
1716:The
Jews of Prague held a procession today in honor of the birthday of Archduke
Leopold.
1727:
Catherine I of Russia second wife of Peter the Great who ruled for two years
after Peter’s death during which she issued an edict expelling the Jews from
the Ukraine and the rest of Russia and denying them the right to ever return
passed away today.
1756:
On the day before Lag B’Omer Britain declared war on France marking the start
of the Seven Years War from which you can draw a line to the American
Revolution, The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars all of which had major
impacts on Jews in Europe, the New World and the lands of the Ottoman Empire.
1767(18th
of Iyar, 5527): Lag B’Omer observed on day after Ahmed al-Ghazzal, the emissary
from Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah of Morocco to the Spanish Empire, had made a
triumphant return to Marrakesh with almost 300 Muslims who had been held
captive in Spain, as well as sacred Islamic manuscripts that had been seized by
the Spanish in 1612.
1772(14th
of Iyar, 5532): Pesach Sheni observed for the last time before Austria, Prussia
and Russia begin carving up Poland-Lithuania in a series of three partitions
with all that that would mean for the Jews living in what had become one of the
largest Jewish communities in Europe.
1774(7th
of Sivan, 5534): Second Day of Shavuot observed on the same day that “the
colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations issued the first call for an
"Intercolonial Congress" that eventually met as the First Continental
Congress
1779(2nd
of Sivan, 5539): Raphael Levi Hannover the native of Franconia who was so
skilled in mathematics and astronomy that he served as the secretary for
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz and whose works included "Luḥot ha-'Ibbur,”
passed away today.
1784:
The Jewish public school was opened in Hungary
1786(19th
of Iyar, 5546): Moses Zarah Eilitz, who taught Talmud without accepting
compensation even though he was impoverished himself, passed away today.
1795:
Rabbi Isaiah Berlin led a special service in the synagogue at Breslau in honor
of the recently signed Peace of Basel that ended the War of the First
Coalition. From a Jewish point of view,
the service was unusual because Berlin permitted the use of instrumental music.
1776:
During the American revolution the U.S. Congress called on Americans to raise
their voices in prayer, and among the verses read by the "anxious"
Jews of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation of New York was, "…And
they shall beat their swords into plow-shares."
1786(19th
of Iyar): Moses Eidlitz, author of “Melehet Mah-shevet” passed away.
1792:
The New York Stock Exchange is founded when the Buttonwood Agreement was signed
by 24 stockbrokers outside of 68 Wall Street in New York under a buttonwood
tree on Wall Street. Benjamin Seixas, brother of Gershom Seixas, was one of the
five Jews included in the list of the twenty-four founders of the New York
Stock Exchange
1795:
Rabbi Isaiah Berlin officiated at service celebrating the Peace of Basel where
he allowed instrumental music to be played in the synagogue.
1799(12th
of Iyar, 5559): Seventy-six year old Daniel Itzig, the husband of Miriam Wulff,
the grandfather of Lea Solomon, the mother of Felix Mendelson and Fanny Hensel,
the father-in-law of David Friedlander who was “court Jew” Frederick II, the
Great and Frederick William II of Prussia and one of the very few Jews in
Prussia to receive full citizenship privileges, as a "Useful Jew"
passed away today.
1805(18th
of Iyar, 5565): Lag B'Omer observed as Lewis and Clark were traveling through
modern day Montana as they made their way west towards the Pacific.
1812(6th
of Sivan, 5572): First Day of Shavuot observed for the last time before the
outbreak of hostilities between the United States and the United Kingdom known
as The War of 1812.
1814:
The Constitution of Norway is signed and the Danish Crown Prince Christian
Frederik is elected King of Norway by the Constitutional assembly. The first
Jews arrived in what is now Norway in the last decade of the 15th century. They
were Sephardim escaping the Inquisition and were referred to as “the Portuguese
Jews.” This constitution included in its second paragraph a general ban against
Jews and Jesuits entering the country. In principle, Portuguese Jews were
exempt from this ban, but it appears that few applied for a letter of free
passage. When Norway entered into the personal union of Sweden-Norway, the ban
against Jews was upheld, though Sweden at that point had several Jewish
communities. In 1844, the Norwegian Ministry of Justice declared: "... it
is assumed that the so-called Portuguese Jews are, regardless of the
Constitution’s §2, entitled to dwell in this country, which is also, to [our]
knowledge, what has hitherto been assumed. “After tireless efforts by the poet
Henrik Wergeland, the Norwegian parliament lifted the ban against Jews in 1851
and they were awarded religious rights on par with Christian
"dissenters." In 1852, the first Jew landed in Norway to settle, but
it wasn't until 1892 that there were enough Jews to form a synagogue in Oslo.
1817:
In Wilmington, Delaware, Charity Hays and Jacob da silva Solis who were married
in 1811 gave birth to Judith Simha da silva Solis, the husband of Myer David
Cohen with whom she had eight children/
1826:
In Nice, Rabbi Abraham Belais and Naomi Belais gave birth to Solomon Belais.
1829(14th
of Iyar, 5589): Pesach Sheni observed on the same day that John Jay, the first
Chief Justice of the United States passed away.
1830:
The second reading of bill designed to free the Jews from their “civil
disabilities” “was rejected” in the House Commons by a vote of 265 to 228
despite the presentation of “a sizable petition it its favour from 14,000
citizens of London.”
1830:
In Kosiv, Rabbi Chaim Hager of Kosiv and his wife, the daughter of Rabbi Israel
Friedman of Ruzhyn gave birth to Menachem Mendel Hager who was named as Rebbe
at the age of 24.
1835(18th
of Iyar, 5595): Lag BaOmer
1835:
Lewis Isaacs married Phoebe Davis today at the Great Synagogue.
1835:
Samuel Magnus married Rose Cohen today at the Hambro Synagogue.
1836:
Birthdate Prague native Wilhelm Steinitz the first official World Champion of
Chess holding the title from 1886 to 1894. He suffered from a variety of mental
problems after losing his championship. At one point he claimed to have played
a game of Chess with God. He passed away in 1900 while living in Brooklyn.
1836:
In Karlsruhe, German, Caroline and David Aron Rothschild gave birth to Wilhelm
Benjamin Rothschild, the husband of Stella Rothschild
1840(14th
of Iyar, 5600): Pesach Sheni
1844:
Warder Cresson became the first person commissioned to serve as Consul at
Jerusalem by the United States State Department. Cresson would convert to
Judaism while serving in Jerusalem and take the name Michael Boaz Israel ben
Abraham
http://www.jewish-history.com/cresson/warderc.html
1844: Birthdate of Julius Wellhausen, the German biblical scholar who, in his
1878 "History of Israel," first advanced the JEDP Hypothesis,
claiming that the Torah was a compilation of four earlier, literary sources.
1848(14th of Iyar, 5608): Pesach Sheni is observed as the
Revolutions of 1848 swirl across Europe with the revolutionaries gaining grants
in Austria and parts of modern day German and Italy.
1849:
In St, Louis, The Great Fire occurred when at 10 p.m. a fire broke out on the
steamboat "White Cloud". Within 30 minutes, 23 steamboats were
engulfed in flames. The fire swept up the levee, destroying tons of freight and
15 blocks of residences, warehouses, and stores. Businesses destroyed that were
owned in whole or in part by Jews include: Isaac Jacobs, Abraham Jacobs, Lewis
M. Levy, Simon Lewis, Raborg & Shaffner, Helfenstein & Co., Charles
Roderman, Weil & Bros., L. Newman, Helfenstein, Gore & Co., Levy &
Bros., H. Cohen, and Simon Abeles.
1850(6th
of Sivan, 5610): Shavuot
1850:
Rabbi Jacobs delivered a sermon at the Shavuot service using the text –
Deuteronomy XVI 9.
1851:
Birthdate of Bavaria native and future resident of St. Louis, Moritz Hellman,
the husband of Beulah Hellman with whom he had two children – Jessie and Inez.
1852:
The New York Times reported that the first reading of a bill designed to
remove the disabilities imposed upon persons refusing to take the “oaths of
abjuration” (known as the Jews Bill) had taken place in the House of Lords.
During the debate, Lord Lyndhurst cited the recent case of David Salomons, the
Jew who had refused to take the standard oath and sought to be seated in the
House of Commons nonetheless. In what was seen as a turn for the better, Lord
Derby had not offered any opposition to the measure.
1852:
Birthdate of Cincinnati native and 1870 Ohio University graduate Dr. Philip
Zenner who “received his license to practice medicine in 1896” and who “was a
charter the Jewish Hospital medical staff” and a Professor Neurology at the
University of Cincinnati.
1855:
In New York ceremonies were held today marking the official opening first
hospital building in the United States devoted solely to alleviate the
suffering of poor Jews. The ceremonies
featured uniquely Jewish liturgical motifs including a display of Torah
Scrolls. In addition to all of the modern conveniences one would expect to find
in a new hospital, there is a synagogue on the 2nd floor. John Hart is president of the board of
directors and Benjamin Hart is the vice president.
1855:
Over five hundred ladies and gentlemen attended a banquet at Niblo’s Saloon
that was intended to raise funds for the newly opened Jew’s Hospital. The Grace before and after dinner were
chanted in Hebrew by Rabbi J.J. Lyons and Anthony Leo.
1857:
In Vienna, Josef and Eleanor Pick gave birth to Julia Pick who became Julia
Heller when she married Jakob Heller.
1860: Alliance Israelite Universelle was launched by a group of French Jews
under the direction of Adolphe Cremieux. It was designed to defend Jewish
rights and to establish world-wide Jewish educational facilities. Charles
Netter was one of the six founders of the organization which had been formed in
response to anti-Semitic incidents such as the abduction of Edgardo Mortara and
the Damascus affair. The Franco-Prussian War diminished its universality and
separate organizations were formed in Germany and England.
1865:
Sergeant Levi Arnold who had begun his service in the Union Army in 1862 and
transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps in 1863 completed his military service
today.
1866(3rd of Sivan, 5626): Composer Adolf
Bernhard Marx passed away at the age of 70.
1868(25th
of Iyar, 5628): Sixty-six-year old Coswig-on-the-Elbe native and art critic
Manasse Unger who trained as an architect who was best known for his sketches
and his role as a captain of the artists' corps which protected the museums in
Berlin during the Revolutions of 1848 passed away today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14583-unger-manasse
1869(7th
of Sivan, 5629): Second Day of Shavuot; Yizkor
1872:
Moss Ansell who had been born at London in 1823 to Hyam and Fanny Answell was
buried today at West Ham Jewish Cemetery, eight days after he had passed away.
1872:
Birthdate of Polish born “Dr. Dr. Ludwick Silberstein, the internationally
known physicist and an authority on the theory of relativity” who was the
husband of Rose Silberstein and the father of George and Hannah Silberstein.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/01/18/96584849.html?pageNumber=60
1872:
In Hungary, Rabbi Joel Margareten and Julia Yetta Margareten gave birth to
Frederick Fred Margareten, the husband of Regina Margareten and father of Julia
Ellenbogen; Samuel Margaretten; Selma Margaretten; May Weiss and Lilian Rose
Sokolow
1872:
"The Jews in Romania” published today reported that the Italian government
has sent a communication to to the government of Prince Charles of Romania
protesting against the persecution and oppression of the Jews in that country.
1873:
Birthdate of “French novelist, French Communist Party member” and “lifelong
friend of Albert Einstein” who suffered the indignity of having his books
burned and blacklisted by the Nazis even though ye was not Jewish.
1874: In Lemberg, Galicia, “Solomon Klakah, a poor brush manufacturer and
amateur violinist” and “Babette Halber Kalakh, a seamstress who often made
costumes for local theaters” gave birth to Beylke Kalakh who gained famed as
Bertha Kalich the wife of Leopold Spachner and the star of American Yiddish
theatre http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/17/1874/bertha-kalich
1875:
Birthdate of New York native and Columbia educated adjunct professor of comparative
literature at Columbia Joel Elias Spingarn, the author of A History of
Literary Criticism in the Renaissance and an early fighter in cause for
racial justice.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/joel-spingarn
1876(23rd
of Iyar): Aaron Zevi Friedman, the author of “Tuv Ta’am” passed away
1876:
In Buel, Germany, Maurice and Bertha Gernsback gave birth Sidney Gernsback, the
husband of Lottie C. Auerbach who was the editor of the Radio Review and Call
Book and the author of S. Gernsback’s Radio Encyclopedia.
https://www.amazon.com/Sidney-Gernsback/e/B001KMJNQ4/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
1877(5th
of Sivan, 5637): Erev Shavuot
1877: Haemet was published for the first time
in Vienna under the leadership of publisher Aaron Samuel Liebermann.
1877:
In Lithuania, “Abraham and Sarah Malz” gave birth to Bernard M. Maltz who in
1890 came to the United States where he married Lena Sherry and worked as a
salesman for “National Biscuit Company and Standard Oil” before going into real
estate development and the construction in Brooklyn while also serving as a
director with numerous organizations including the Federation of Jewish
Charities in Brooklyn, the Pride of Judea and Yeshiva College.
1877:
An American Jewish couple living in England were parties to litigation
surrounding their marriage. Benjamin
Levy sued his wife Deborah Isaacs Levy and her alleged lover on grounds that
the two were partners in an adulterous relationship. After a few minutes of
deliberation, the jury found that they had been guilty of adultery but also
found that Levy “had contributed to his wife’s misconduct. Therefore, they declined to assess any
damages against either the respondent or the co-respondent.
1878(14th
of Iyar, 5638): Pesach Sheni
1879:
The third annual meeting of Felix Adler’s Society for Ethical Culture had its
final meeting in New York City.
1880(7th
of Sivan, 5640): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1880(7th
of Sivan, 5640): Seventy-four year old Amsterdam born French “numismatist and
bibliographer” Henry Cohen passed away today in Paris.
http://www.virtualcohen.com/henry-cohen-s-work
1881:
Today, Lazard Kahn, the brother and business partner of Felix, Saul and Samuel
Kahn, all of whom played an active role in the Estate Stove Company of
Hamilton, OH, “married Coralie Alice Lemann of Donaldsonville, LA with whom he
raised five children – Marie, Milton, Bertram, Lucian and Jerome.
1882:
Birthdate of New York native and NYU trained real estate lawyer Alexander
Pfeiffer who “was a founder and boarch
chairman of the United Home for Aged Hebrews in New Rochelle and the husband of
the “former Lilie Lowenfield” with whom he had three children – Fred, Paul and
Roslyn.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/04/28/356684532.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1885:
In New York City, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Guggenheim gave birth to Meyer Robert
Guggenheim, a member of the famous Guggenheim family who served as U.S.
Ambassador to Portugal at the beginning of the Eisenhower Administration
1885:
Birthdate of Frederic Zelnik, a native of Czernowitz which was part of the
Austro-Hungarian at the time who was a leading German movie producer and
director until Hitler came to power and he moved to the United Kingdom.
1885:
A week after she had passed away, Miriam bat Avraham was buried today at the
Brompton Jewish Cemetery.
1888(7th
of Sivan, 5648): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1890:
C.J. Schwab is scheduled to conduct a 24-piece orchestra today at the 13th
annual Strawberry Festival sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association at
the Lenox Lyceum a fundraising event for which E.B. Levy is in charge.
1890:
In Helena, Montana, founding of the Ladies’ Auxiliary Society of Temple
Emanu-El.
1891:
It was reported today that contrary to official government announcement “Greek
troops” in the Ionian Islands, are not “suppressing disturbances and punishing
ringleaders” but instead are “openly exhibiting sympathy with the Jew-baiters”
and that the condition of the Jews “will be worse before they are better.”
1891:
It was reported today that “all the latest news” from Russia regarding the Jews
“is of the extension of edicts of expulsion to numerous districts hitherto
unmentioned and fresh cruelties and hardships” used “everywhere in the
merciless enforcement of these dark-age decrees.”
1893:
A delegation from New York led by Oscar S Straus met with Secretary of State
Gresham in Washington, D.C. to discuss the situation of the Jews in
Russia. They asked him to intervene on
their behalf with Czar with the hope that he would take action mitigating the
“severe edicts and penalties” that have been imposed upon them in the last few
years.
1893:
According to Dr. Joseph Senner, the Superintendent of Immigration at Ellis
Island the SS Didam which arrived today “had brought the worst set of men,
women and children he had ever seen” and that “many of them were Russian or
Polish Jews.
1893:
Explorer, journalist and advocate for democratic reform in Russia, George
Kennan and his wife are sailing for England today. Before leaving he expressed his firm belief
that an influx of Russian Jews will be coming to the United States; forced to
do so because of the Czar’s edicts. In
response to a question about aid for these immigrants he said that the Baron de
Hirsch Fund has a definite, major role to play in assisting Russian Jewish
immigrants.
1893:
It was reported today that Myer S. Isaacs, Chairman of the Trustee of the Baron
Hirsh Fund expects that the only Jews who will immigrate to the United States
from Russia will come of their own volition , will have money to take them to
where they desire to settle “or will have friends who can help them.” “They
will not be a burden to anybody and…they will make very good citizens. He said
that the fund is still experimenting with its trade schools and industrial farm
which all the help they can offer for the foreseeable future. (This is neither
the first, nor the last time that Jews in America would underestimate the
desperation of their European co-religionist)
1893:
“A rich Jewish banker, who desired” to remain anonymous “for the present” was
reported to have said that if there should be an unusual increase in Jewish
immigration from Poland and Russia, he would be interested in meeting with
fellow Jews “to devise ways and means of caring for all refugees that might
come.
1893(2nd
of Sivan, 5653): Jacob Reinowitz, affectionately known as Reb Yankele, the
native of Wilkowisk, Poland who served his home town as rabbi for 30 years
before moving to England in 1876 where he became the “Preacher” for a Talmud
Torah “established by Eastern European immigrants at Whitechapel and a member
of the London Beth Din under the leadership of Chief Rabbi N. M. Adler, passed
away today.
1894:
In Philadelphia, PA, Anne Behrend and Leo Bamberger gave birth to the University of Pennsylvania trained Civil
Engineer and Chairman of the Engineering Department of the Pennsylvania
Railroad System who during WW I “fought overseas with Company B, 103rd
Engineers, 28th Division of the AEF.”
1895:
“Rubinstein’s Religion” published today discussed the religious beliefs of the
late Anton Rubinstein, the Russian pianist, composer and conductor. Although
born a Jew, he “was baptized when a mere infant…and was forced…to follow the
prescribed” religious “forms once a year.”
“It is worthy of notice and stands greatly to his credit, that in
Russia, where it is better to be born a dog than a Jew, Rubinstein, despite his
baptism, never sought to deny his Jewish origin. In a certain way he was proud of it, and
always boldly acknowledged it.”
1895(23rd
of Iyar, 5655): Sixty-eight year old Wilhelm von Gutman who founded the largest
coal company in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and served as President of the
Jewish Community of Vienna passed away today.
1895:
“W.W. Wilson Becomes a Convert to Judaism” published today described the
decision of Brooklyn lawyer Wayne W. Wilson to join the Jewish faith. The ceremony took place at Temple Israel in
Brooklyn. Wilson said that he “joined Temple Israel because the doctrine of the
Reformed Jew my views exactly.”
1895:
Birthdate of Saul Adler, the Russian born Israeli who helped find a cure for
malaria.
1896(5th
of Sivan, 5656): Erev Shavuot observed for the last time during the Presidency
Grover Cleveland, a supporter of the rights for Jews living in Russia.
1897:
Birthdate of Oswald Rothaug, the Nazi Jurist who eagerly “presided over the
trial of Leo Katzenberger in March 1942, ordering his execution for
"racial defilement" in May 1943.”
1898:
In New York City, “a Yiddish-speaking animal skinner who had fled Russia in
1889 to escape the pogroms” and his wife gave birth to Abraham Isaac “Abe”
Lasfogel who began with the William Morris Agency in 1912 and worked his to the
presidency of the world’s leading talent agency.
1898:
During the Spanish American War Jacob Schrob and Bernard Schwarzenberg were
mustered into federal service along with the other members of Battery B of the
1st Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Artillery.
1899:
Sixty-one year old Bessarabia native Joseph Rabinowitz who had been baptized in
Berlin in 1885 and was the founder of a sect called Novy Israel which was
thinly veiled disguise for getting Jews to convert passed away today
http://www.jewsforjesus.org/publications/messianic-book-review/v04-n01/kjaer
1899:
Following his conversion to Christianity earlier in the year German architect
Alfred Messel “received the Order of the Red Eagle, 4th Class.”
1899:
Private Nathan Levy began serving with Company F, 18th Infantry
today following which he would fight in the Philippines for 3 months.
1900(18th
of Iyar, 5660): Lag B’Omer
1900:
Birthdate of Herberts Cukurs, the Latvian aviator who was never punished for
his crimes during the Holocaust.
1901:
Temple Beth Elohim, “the oldest synagogue in Brooklyn” began today began the
celebration of “its golden jubilee.
1901:
Birthdate of Hugh Joseph Schonfied a London born Bible expert and one of the
first people to work on the Dead Scrolls who was “a liberal Hebrew Christian”
and who “was expelled from the Executive Committee of the International Hebrew
Christian Alliance.”
1901:
Herzl met with the Sultan of Turkey to discuss the establishment of a Jewish
state and the obtaining of a charter. He failed in both attempts. However, The
Sultan bestows on Herzl the Grand Cordon of the Mejidiye and authorized Hertzl
to declare that the ruling Khalif was a friend and protector of the Jewish
people. Herzl believed that a Jewish homeland could be created by getting
approval of the venture from the political leaders of the day. That is why he
sought out the support of the Kaiser. The state of Israel would eventually be a
product of changed realities on the ground – the settling of the land by the
Zionists – and political support from various political leaders such as Harry
Truman in 1948.
1902:
“During Shabbat Torah services women interrupted prayers with a call to support
the boycott” of kosher butcher shops on the Lower East Side. “Women left their seats in the balcony to persuade men to
back their cause and gain communal support.” (As reported by Jewish Women’s
Archives)
1903: In Brooklyn, Sophie and Morris H. Levine, “a clothing
manufacturer, gave birth to Hunter graduate and University and Bellevue
Hospital Medical College trained physician Lena Levine the gynecologist, psychiatrist, and pioneer of the
birth control movement, who married Dr. Louis Ferber in 1929.
1903:
Birthdate of Arthur “Artie” Auerbach, the newspaper photographer “who became
famous as ‘Mr. Kitzel’ on the Al Pearce and Jacky Benny radio shows.”
http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2014/11/he-didnt-like-mr-kitzel.html
1904:
“Dinner To Leroy-Beaulie” published today described the dinner given at
Delmonico’s in honor M. Anatole
Leroy-Beaulie which was held under the direction of Oscar S. Straus, the
Chairman of the Dinner Committee who delivered the address welcoming the
distinguished French leader
was the guest of honor at a dinner held last
night at Delmonico's, where a silver loving cup was presented to him on behalf
of his friends in New York. Oscar S. Straus, as Chairman of the Dinner
Committee, delivered the address of welcome and Nathan Bijur delivered prior to
the presentation of a silver loving cup to “one of the foremost champions in
all of Europe of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity.’”
1904:
In New York, William Spiegelberg, Sr, the Santa Fe, NM born son of Bertha and
Levi Spiegelberg and his wife Beulah V. Barnard gave birth to William
Spiegelberg, Jr.
1905:
Wolf Perelberg, who gained famed as movie producer William Perlberg, the son of
Israel Jakob Perelberg, came to the United States today “with his mother and
three siblings.”
1905:
The Pall Mall Gazette published “A Street in the East End” today by M.J. Landa
1906:
Dr. Felix Adler and Dr. Abraham Jacobi delivered addresses at funeral reformer
and Republican leader Carl Schurz who had spoken at the dedication of the
Montefiore Home in New York City in 1888.
1907:
Rabbi Maurice Harris officiated at tonight’s services dedicating the new
sanctuary at Temple Israel of Harlem which began with the officers and trustees
of the congregation placing the Torah scrolls in the ark followed by the
kindling of the Eternal Light “by one of the young women of the congregation.
1907:
Birthdate of Austrian native Murray Gross the vice president of the
International Ladies Garment Workers Union, a member of New York City's Human
Rights Commission from 1962 through 1978 and the husband of “the former Anne
Rahal-Kouri.
1908:
The Jewish American Historical Society held its 16th annual meeting
today at the Hotel Astor. During the
morning session, Leon Huelmer presented a paper on “Jewish Privaterring in the
Eighteenth Century.” During the
afternoon session Dr. Herbert Friedenwald presented a paper on “Why This Is Not
a Christian Country.” At the evening session, the attendees approved a measure
championed by Cyrus Adler, the society’s President to amend the constitution
allowing the society to study “Jewish history in general instead of limiting it
to” the study of American Jewish history.
1908:
Charles Towne and Daniel P. Hays were the principle speakers at tonight’s
memorial service sponsored by the Hebrew Union Veteran Association and the
Hebrew Veterans of the War with Spain to honor the soldiers and sailors who had
died in the service of their country.
The service was held at New York’s Rodeph Shalom and guest included Rear
Admiral Joseph B. Coghlan and Grand Marshal Isidore Isaacs of the Grand Army of
the Republic and his staff. The Grand
Army of the Republic was large national Civil War veterans association that was
a forerunner to the American Legion formed after WW I.
1908(16th
of Iyar, 5668): Percival Menken the eldest son of Jules and Cornelia Menken and
husband of Getrude Davies Menkien, who was born at Philadelphia, PA in 1865,
passed away today in New York City where he was a member of the bar, President
of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and a director of the Jewish Theological
Seminary. He was laid to rest at Beth Olom Cemetery in Queens, NY.
1908:
“Charles Louis-Dreyfus a merchant and ship-owner, and Sarah Germaine Hément”
gave birth French Resistance fighter and businessman Pierre Louis-Dreyfus the
grandson of Leopold Dreyfus, the founder of the Louis Dreyfus Group.
1909:
The Jewish Communal Council “of which Supreme Court Justice Samuel Greenbaum is
Chairman is responsible for the settling “the differences between Mrs. William
Einstein who recently formed the Widow Mothers’ Fund and the United Hebrew
Charities which she served as Vice President until her recent resignation.
1910:
Sir Charles Walston, the Anglo-American archaeologist married Florcence Walston
1910:
The Sixth Biennial Session of the National Conference of Jewish Charities in
the United States opened today in St. Louis, MO.
1911:
The Vice Director of the Imperial Department of Police and some of the chief
detectives of the department are in Kieff today endeavoring to solve the
mystery of the murder of the boy Yushchinsky, a Christian and a student at the
local Orthodox seminary, whose body, horribly mutilated, was found on Feb. 28
in a cave near the Jewish quarter of the city” which has given rise to claims
that he was the victim of “ritual murder” by the Jews.
1911:
“It became known today” that General Clarence R. Edwards of the Bureau of
Insular Affairs resigned from the Board of Governors of the Metropolitan Club
after President Taft had delivered a speech at meeting of B’nai B’rith in
“which he bitterly assailed clubs which excluded from their membership men of
superior mold simply because of racial or social prejudice.”
1912:
“Merchants in southern Russia” protested to the “Premier and Minister of
Commerce against the expulsion” of the Jews and the confiscation of their
property.
1912:
The Governor of Kiev, declared that he “will expel and confiscate the property
of every Jewish merchant “who is unable to produce a certificate of
uninterrupted payment of the First Guild fee for fifteen years.”
1913(10th
of Iyar, 5673): Parashat Behar
1913:
The Annual Meeting of the Associated Jewish Charities of Chicago is scheduled
to take place this evening at the Auditorium Hotel where attendees will among
other things, vote on those who will serve as directors for the next three
years.
1914:
" We should remember that the Mexicans are not worth fighting when we
consider all this war talk of upholding the honor of our flag," Nathan
Straus said tonight in an impromptu address at the joint memorial services of
the Hebrew Union Veteran Association and the Hebrew Veterans of the War with
Spain at the Temple Rodeph Sholomo, Sixty-third Street and Lexington Avenue.”
1915:
In response to a request from Leo Frank’s attorneys “members of the State
Prison Commission” is scheduled to “hold a conference” this “morning to decide
on the date for hearing arguments on the petition of Leo M. Frank for a
commutation of his sentence to life imprisonment.”
1915:
In Pittsburgh, PA, “Oscar William Oppenheimer and Claude Siesel” gave birth to
James Siesel Oppenheimer the father of Thomas James Oppenheimer.
1915:
A tribute in praise of Woodrow Wilson’s “peaceful policies” offered by the Jews
attending the cornerstone laying ceremony for the Yorkville Jewish Institute
and Talmud Torah were published today.
1915:
The last British government formed by the Liberal Party fell from power. The
party of reform, the Liberal Party produced the first openly Jewish Member of
Parliament. Lionel Nathan de Rothschild was first elected in 1847. However,
Rothschild would not take his seat until 1858 since it took 11 years to pass
the Jewish Disabilities Bill that made it possible for Jews to swear an oath
that was not Christian. After World War I, the Labour Party would supplant the
Liberal Party as the chief opposition to the Conservatives.
1915:
Birthdate of Joseph Liegbott who was a Tech Sergeant with the 101st
Airborne during WW II. Although he was
the Catholic son of Austrian immigrants many of his comrades assumed he was
Jewish because of his name, his appearance and his hatred of Germans. (What’s worse than being Jewish – not being
Jewish but having people think you are.)
1915:
Today, following yesterday’s Leo M. Frank Day, petitions will be circulated
among the citizens of Chicago calling for the commutation of Frank’s sentence.
1915:
“Today’s early mail brought…more than 3,000 letters seeking clemency for Leo Frank”
to the office of Georgia Governor Slaton, including ones from Philander C.
Knox, ex-Senator and Secretary of State, Myron T. Herrick the former Governor
of Ohio and Ambassador to France, Frank Walsh, Chairman of the United States
Industrial Relations Commission; Fred A. Delano of the Federal Reserve Board
and Senators Borah, Thomas, Reed and Newlands.
1915:
It was reported today 5,000 men would go on strike because “at present there is
no limit on the hours” which kosher butchers must work and that “many of them
had to work ninety-six hours a week
1915:
David Ben Gurian and Yitahak Ben Tzvi: arrived in New York today from Egypt and
were allowed to enter the U.S. as immigrants even though they lacked the proper
papers.
1916(14th
of Iyar, 5676): Pesach Sheni
1916:
Birthdate of Frances Kroll Ring, the last secretary of F. Scott Fitzgerald who
told her tale in Against the Current: As
I Remember F. Scott Fitzgerald which was turned into a really slick little
film, “Last Call.” (Editor’s note -
double bias since I am intrigued by Fitzgerald and I like the movie)
1917:
The 1916-1917 academic year for The Teacher’s Institute of the Hebrew Union
College is scheduled to come to an end today.
1917:
In Wilson, NC, Morris and Nessie Barker Popkin gave birth to future New Jersey
resident Abraham Popkin, the husband of Ann Matlin Popkin.
1917:
Based on information dispatch sent from Amsterdam, it was reported today that
Reichstag Deputy Cohn, an Independent Socialist, said that at the end of March
Djemal Pasha, commander of the Turkish forces in in Syria had ordered all Jews
removed from Jaffa saying that this was required by “military conditions” even
though “his German Chief of Staff said” such a move “was unnecessary.”
1917:
Twenty-two year old featherweight box Danny Frush (born David Frush, Jr) made
his boxing debut at the Clermont Avenue Rink in Brooklyn, NY.
1918(6th
of Sivan, 5678): Last Shavuot of World War I
1918:
According to reports published today, the American Jewish Relief Committee for
Suffers from the War has raised $2,786,400 for its 1918 fund but that the
committee will have to raise an additional fifteen million dollars in the
coming year to deal with the increased suffering among the Jews of Poland and
Russia.
1918:
“While speaking at an official dinner for the Governor of Jerusalem, Dr. Chaim
Weizmann said Jewry was returning to Palestine to build up a great moral and
intellectual center which would not be a determent to any of the communities
already established in Palestine and that Arab fears that they would ousted
from their present position were unfounded.
1919:
It was reported today that Dr. Joseph Merzbach, the heart and throat specialist
at the Jewish Hospital in Brooklyn has passed away – ironically a victim of
heart disease.
1919:
It was reported today that Dr. Haim I. Davis of Chicago “who is the first
American to return to New York with a personal account of conditions” in Poland
said Jews “in Warsaw, Pinsk, Brest-Litovsk and other parts of the new Poland”
are “dying like flies” having in many cases “neither seen or eaten bread for
months.”
1920:
Today, “Herbert Cooper Thompson” who just returned to the United States after
spending two months in the Ukraine and Poland, “reported to Judge otto A
rosalsky, chairman of the campaign to raise more than seven million dollars in
New York for the Jewish was sufferers that in no part of the world is suffering
among Jews so acute or the ne for relief so great as in the territory east and
south of Poland.”
1920:
More than one hundred patrolmen were needed to manage the crowd that had
gathered for the burial of famed Yiddish actor David Kessler.
1921:
Fannie Hurst was among the first to join the Lucy Stone League, an organization
that fought for women to preserve their maiden names which had its initial
meeting today at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City.
1921:
In Atlantic City, NJ, Sadie Abrahams and James Arthur Levan gave birth to Henry
Robert Merrill Levan who gained fame as songwriter Bob Merrill
https://www.songhall.org/profile/Bob_Merrill
1921:
Birthdate of New York native and NYU and University of Florida trained attorney
Philip Ephraim Heckerling, who raised two children – Dale and Ruth – with his
wife Ruth.
1921:
Birthdate of Judith Coplon, the native of Brooklyn and former Justice
Department employee who became a sensation in 1949 when she was accused of
being a Soviet spy.
1922:
Birthdate of Irene Gut Opdyke, “a Polish nurse who gained international
recognition for aiding Polish Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany during World War
II” and “was honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for risking
her life to save twelve Jews from certain death.”
1922:
The USS Celtic, a navy supply ship on which Lt. Jr. Grade Stanford Moses had
served during the Spanish American War was “taken out of service today.”
1922(19th
of Iyar, 5682): Forty-year old motor car pioneer Dorothy Levitt passed
away today.
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Dorothy_Levitt
1923:
The Wiener Morgenzeitung (The Vienna
Morning Newspaper) was highly critical of The London house of Rothschild and
the Paris representatives of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. ‘for what the paper regards
as excessive cordiality shown towards the representatives of the Horthy regime,
who are negotiating a loan in European capitals. Heinrich Margulies edited the
paper before he moved to Palestine in 1925 where he became a Director of the Anglo-Palestine
Bank.
1923:
Sir Wyndham Deedes, who has just resigned as the Civil Secretary of the
Palestine Administration, addressed a meeting at the Grand Central Hotel called
by the English Zionist Federation. Declaring that he favored Zionism because by
enabling Jews to return to Palestine the world was righting a wrong committed
by Christians 2,000 years ago, Sir Wyndham said only lack of money was
hampering Zionist progress in all directions. (JTA)
1924(13th
of Iyar, 5684): Parashat Emor
1924:
It was reported today that “the Jewish neighborhood of Teheran” was attacked
erev Shabbat “by a Mohammedan mob” that intended to massacre and plunder the
population.
1925:
“Garrick Gaieties, a revue with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz
Hart” who were creating their first Broadway hit, opened at the Garrick Theatre
toda.
1926(4th
of Sivan, 5685) Sixty-four year old Isaac Aaron passed away today after which
he was buried at the Scholemoor Jewish Cemetery Bradford.
1926:
David M Bressler announced that nearly $6,000,000
was raised in New York toward the $25,000,000 United Jewish Campaign at a rally
of 1,500 workers.
1926:
Leading Jews of the East Side were guests at dinner tonight of Max Bernstein,
proprietor of Libby's Hotel, the first modern Jewish hotel on the East Side,
which was opened to the public yesterday. The hotel is at Delancey and Chrystie
Streets. The hotel will serve kosher food. It was built at a cost of
$3,000,000. (JTA)
1927:
It was reported today that Louis Levy, Adolph S. Ochs, George Blumenthal and Abram I. Elkus were among the new
contributors to the funded is being raised to build an 11 story annex to the
Y.M.H.A. building at 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue.
1927(15th
Iyar, 5687): “Sam Rernard, for fifty years a favorite comedian, who worked his
way from a Coney Island music hall to the stages of foremost New York and
London theaters, died of apoplexy tonight on board the North German Lloyd
steamship Columbus, which had left New york for Plymouth. Cherbourg and Bremen
the preceding night. He was on his way to Carlsbad to take the baths for
rheumatism. (JTA)
1928(27th
of Iyar, 5688): Belarus native Jacob “Yankel” Butler, the husband of Menuchah
Butler with whom he had four children – Hode, Isaac, Anna and Rose – passed
away today after which he was buried in the Chevra Kadusha of Chelsea Cemetery
in Wobum, MA.
1928:
“Seventy-five men and women assembled at” the New York home of Aaron Kheel this
“evening to bid farewell to Dr. Chaim Weizmann who is returning to Europe next
week.
1929:
In Manhattan, attorney Frederick Weinberg and the firmer Lillian Hyman gave
birth to George Henry Weinberg, the psychotherapist who invented the word
“homophobia.” (As reported by William Grimes)
1930: Today Hadassah announced that a new hospital
will be opened in Tiberias on May 25.
The hospital will be named in honor of Peter J. Schweitzer and his widow
will be going to Palestine to attend the dedication ceremonies
1930)19th of Iyar, 5690): On Shabbat, 73
year old Florence Liveright the daughter Abraham and Rebeccah Kahn and the wife
of Simon Liveright passed away today in Philadelphia.
1931(1st of Sivan, 5691): Rosh Chodesh
Sivan
1931: “Dr. P.A. Levene Wins Honor” published today
described plans to present Dr. Phoebus A. Leven of the Rockefeller Institute
for Medical Research with the Willard Gibbs Medical at the Steuben Club on May
22.
1931(1st of Sivan, 5691: Seventy year old
Frances Corinne “Fannie” Peixotto Bloom, the Cleveland, OH born daughter of
Benjamin and Hannah Straus Peixotto and the wife of Isadore Nathan Bloom passed
away today after which she was buried in The Temple Cemetery in Louisville, KY.
1933:
In Norway, Vidkun Quisling establishes the Norwegian Fascist Party as well as
the Hirdmen (King's Men), a collaborationist organization that's modeled on the
Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA). When the Nazis invade Norway during World War II
Quisling will become the head of the Norwegian government. Quisling was such a
notorious traitor that his name has now become a word in the English language
that means “traitor.”
1933(21st
of Iyar, 5693): Communal worker George W. Patke passed away today in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin.
1933: A petition is submitted to the
League of Nations by representatives of the Comite des Delegations Juives
protesting Germany’s anti-Jewish legislation, called the Bernheim Petition,
named for imprisoned Silesian Jew Franz Bernheim.
1934:
Today Mrs. Edgar Lowell was elected chairman of the Women’s Auxiliary Council
of the Jewish Braille Institute of America at the inaugural meeting of an
organization that “will solicit support for the Jewish Braille Review, the only Anglo-Jewish magazine in Braille
which is distributed without charge to English reading Jewish blind persons
throughout the world.”
1934: At New York's Madison Square Garden,
thousands attend a pro-Nazi rally sponsored by the German-American Bund.
Critics of Roosevelt’s policy towards Jewish refugees often overlook the
reality of anti-Semitism in the United States. The Bund rally was merely the
most public venue for this reality of the pre-war American landscape.
1935:
Birthdate of Avraham Heffner, the native of Haifa who went to be an award
winning director and screenwriter
http://tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/185197/avraham-hefner-israeli-cinema
1936(25th
of Iyar): Seventy-seven year old Zionist leader Nachum Sokolow passed away
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Sokolow.html
1936: A curfew order, forbidding residents of
Jerusalem to leave their homes at night, was issued today by Sir Arthur
Grenfell Wauchope, the High Commissioner of Palestine, following the killing of
three Jews last night at a motion-picture theatre.
1936: This morning in Jerusalem, more than 30,000 Jews
marched in the funeral procession for three Jews murdered the night before at a
local move theatre. Isaac Ben Zvi,
President of the National Jewish Council, told the mourners that he held the
British government responsible for this because it was the duty of the
government to protect its citizens. An
editorial published in today’s Palestine Post said that “ if this is a war of
extermination declared by the Arabs on Jews, the Arabs had better know that the
shooting down of 400,000 Jews will not alter the course of history and will not
shake the Jews’ determination to resettle the land of their fathers…This
movement of the Arab Supreme Council seeks tnot only to terrorize the
Jews. It aims to throw the land back to
the Dark Ages.”
1936: This morning, at the Free Synagogue in
Carnegie Hall, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise is scheduled to deliver a sermon
“President Roosevelt’s Leadership of American: Is It Good or Bad?
1936(25th of Iyar, 5695): Twenty-seven
year old Isaac Jalowski who was married six weeks ago, Dr. Svi Spachowski a
recent arrival from Poland whose wife is an expectant mother and Alexander
Polonski, “a student at the School of Oriental
Studies at Hebrew University” were all killed by Arabs today in
Jerusalem.
1936: Oswald Garrison Villar, associate editor of
The Nation delivered a speech tonight at a dinner of the American Committee
Appeal for the Relief of Jews of Poland at the Hotel Commodore in which he
asked the United States “to protest to the Polish Government about the
persecution of the Jews in Poland.
1936: This evening, Temple Adath Israel, on the
Grand Concourse in the Bronx is scheduled to celebrate its fortieth anniversary
with a concert of liturgical music presented by the Cantors’ Association of
America.
1936: In Cleveland, OH, a celebration was held marking
the 25th anniversary of the establishment of Jewish Star, a
Yiddish weekly which was the forerunner of the Yiddish daily, Jewish World.
1936: Two thousand people filled the pews at Temple
Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue for the 41st annual memorial services of
the Jewish War Veterans of the United States.
1937(7th of Sivan, 5697) Second Day of
Shavuot, Yizkor
1937: Hundreds of Jews were injured during riots at
Brest-Litovsk which is now located in Poland
1938: In Newark, NJ, union organizer Phillip Prince
and Anne Silver gave birth to NYU graduate Marcia Judith Prince, the husband of
Bill Freedman who gained fame as Marcia Freedman, “ a radical gay feminist” who
was the “first American woman to serve in the Knesset.” (As reported by
Katharine Q. Seelye)
1938: A. H. Skinner, organizer and manager of the
“newly organized American Palestine Securities Company which was registered
with the SEC last week” and is designed “to deal in securities originating in
the Holy Land” descried “the rapid growth of large-scale undertakings in
Palestine in the last five years. In
reporting on the economic conditions in Palestine, Skinner said that there were
twelve companies with capital of more than $500,000 and that population had
grown from 40,000 in 1920 to 400,000 in 1938.
1938: Arthur
Sweetser, a director of the secretariat of the League of Nations wrote in his diary, “The President’s proposal
took a large place in the League’s refugee deliberations this past week.” By
the “President’s proposal” Sweetser was referencing Roosevelt’s plan to “get
all the democracies to unite” in an effort to settle all of the Jewish refugees
from Europe in their respective territories.”
1938(16th of Iyar, 5698): Sixty-year old
Jakob Ehrlich, the Viennese Zionist leader who was deported after the Anschluss
passed away today at Dachau.
1939:
The British government issues a White Paper (commonly called the MacDonald
White Paper) that limits Jewish immigration to 10,000 a year for five years.
The White Paper allows 75,000 Jewish immigrants (up to 10,000 per year, plus an
additional 25,000 if certain conditions are met) to enter Palestine. The White
Paper also restricts Jewish land purchases in Palestine. British government
policy will succeed in keeping the actual numbers of Jewish immigrants far
below the quotas for settlement in England and Palestine. The White Paper was
issued after two years of orchestrated Arab violence. Recognizing the White
Paper as a death sentence for a Jewish homeland, the leaders of the Yishuv
prepare to bring “illegal immigrants” into Palestine. The White Paper also
sealed the fate for Europe’s Jews as it closed the last place of refuge. When
World War II broke out Jewish leaders were caught on the horns of a dilemma. In
true Jewish fashion when confronted with two choices, the Zionists came up with
a third solution. “We will fight the war as if there is no White Paper and we
will fight the White Paper as if there is no war.” The Arabs had no such
problems as the fact that the Grand Mufti spent the war in Berlin proves.
1939:
There were only 679 Jews still living in Magdeburg. Eleven years earlier, there
were more than three thousand Jews living in this ancient German city in which
Jews had been living since the 10th century.
1939:
Fighting broke out in Jerusalem as police sought to disperse 5,000
demonstrators who had gathered to protest the White Paper.
1940
“My Favorite Wife” with a script by Samuel and Bella Spewack and filmed by
cinematographer Rudolph Mate was released today in the United States.
1940:
Today, Portugal's Premier Antonio de Oliveira Salazar issued an order that
"Under no circumstances" was any visa to be granted, unless
previously authorized by Lisbon on a case-by-case basis which meant he was
currying favor with the Axis powers but leaving the Jews trapped north of the
Pyrenees with one less hope of escape
1940:
In New York, “Composer Eric Zeisl and his wife Dr. Gertrud S Zeisl (Jellinek)
gave birth to Barbara Zeisl Schoenberg, the wife of Ronald R. Schoenberg and
the mother of E. Randol Schoenberg who “received her PhD in German Language and
Literature from University of California, Los Angeles and taught at Pomona
College.”
http://zeisl.home.mindspring.com/pomona1.html
1940:
Birthdate of Tama Gottlob, the younger sister of Salomon Gottlob. At age 2 she
joined her 7 year old brother on Convoy 25 that left Drancy with 285 children
all of whom were going to Auschwitz.
1940:
“Waterloo Bridge,” based on 1930 play of the same name directed by Mervin
Leory, with a script by S.N. Behrman and George Froseschel and filmed by
cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was released in the United States today.
1941(20th
of Iyar, 5701): In cooperation with British Army intelligence, David Raziel,
the commander of the I.Z.L. (Irgun Zva-i Leumi) led a group to sabotage the oil
depots on the outskirts of Baghdad. Raziels car was bombed and both he and the
liaison British officer were killed. Yes, this is Menachem Begin’s Irgun, the
same Irgun that will attack the British in Palestine after the war is over; the
same Irgun that blew up the British headquarters in the King David Hotel in
1947
1942(1st
of Sivan, 5702): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1942:
“Whispering Ghosts” a mystery produced by Sol Wurtzel, starring Mitlton Berle
and with music by Emil Newman was released today in the United States.
1942: Two thousand Jews were deported from Theresienstadt to Sobibor, 500 miles
away. Also, 2,000 Jews from Pabianice reached the Lodz Ghetto. All children
under 10 were torn away from their parents and sent "elsewhere."
1942:
Liane Berkowitz, and Otto Gollnow, two members of the anti-Nazi Resistance were
given the task of putting up about 100 posters in the Kurfürstendamm-Uhlandstraße
section of west-central Berlin which protested against the Nazi "Soviet
Paradise" propaganda exhibition being held in the city. Six months later,
Berkowitz would be arrested for the act. Despite attempts to gain clemency for
her because she was pregnant, Berkowitz would ultimately be executed.
1943:
The United States Army contracted with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore
School to develop the ENIAC. Herman Heine Goldstine who passed away in 2004 at
the age of 90 was one of the orginial developers of ENIAC. Adele Goldstine, his
wife, wrote the technical description for ENICA.
1943: The Nazis deport 395 Jews from Berlin to the extermination camp at
Auschwitz.
1944: Joel Brand was flown in a German courier plane from Budapest to Istanbul
where he met with two representatives from the Jewish “agency for Palestine,
Wnja Pomeranz and Menahem Bader. Brand was a Hungarian Jew active in Va’adah
(Vadat Ezra Vehatzala), the Jewish Rescue Agency in Hungary who was carrying
the terms of Eichmann’s offer to trade a million European Jews for 10,000
trucks, 1,000 tons of coffee or tea and 1,000 tons of soap. Eichmann assured
Brand that the trucks would only be used on the Eastern Front. At the same
time, he told Brand that the Jews could go anywhere except Palestine because Hitler
“had promised his friend the Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini” that he would not
permit that. Pomeranz and Bader took the proposal back to Ben Gurion who then
informed the British of the proposal. British Foreign Minster Eden and
Secretary of State Hull would not pursue the offer because they feared that if
the Russians got wind of the negotiations, they would become even more
suspicious of the western Allies (remember this was before the Second Front had
opened) and might still make their own peace with Hitler. To ensure that nobody
else heard about the negotiations, the British sent Brand to Syria for
“temporary internment.” Of course, the Soviets might have already known about
the negotiations since Brand had been a Communist agent working in Berlin
during the 1930’s.
1945:
U.S. Army Corporal Edward Belfer photographed “a German girl who is overcome as
she walks past the exhumed bodies of some of the 800 slave workers murdered by
SS guards near Namering, Germany, and laid here so that townspeople may view
the work of their Nazi leaders."
https://www.archives.gov/files/research/military/ww2/photos/images/ww2-183.jpg
1946(16th
of Iyar, 5706):Eighty-six year old Lewiston, Maine “clothing merchant” and
former state legislator Isaac B. Isaacson, the father of Harriet M. Joseph and
the brother of Anna Klein passed away
today
1947:
“Hatikvah” which in a former life had been the Coast Guard cutter Tradewinds
used as an icebreaker on the St. Lawrence River, was intercepted by the British
today and taken to Haifa after which its cargo of 1,414 Jewish refugees whom
the English labeled as “illegals” were interned in Cyprus.
1947:
At the Adelphi Theatre, after 148 performances the curtain cam on “Street
Scene” an American by Kurt Weill with choreography by Anna Sokolow.
1948(8th
of Iyar 5708): Twenty-year old Private Meir Ben Bassat was killed today as the
third battalion of the Yiftach Brigade finished taking Metzudat Koach, a Tegart
fort built by Solel Boneh during the British Mandate” that “was a key
observation point on the Naftali heights, overlooking the Hula Valley” which
had been seized by the Arabs thus threatening the existence of kibbutzim in the
Upper Galilee.
1948:
Egyptian warplanes were strafing and dive-bombing Tel Aviv for the third
straight day. Arab sources were claiming
unverified as yet, the surrender of the Jews of Old Jerusalem, with claims and
counterclaims flying on both sides on the progress of the invading armies of
Egypt, Syria and Transjordan.
1948:
During the Battles of the Kanarot Valley, as the Syrians attempted to wipe out
Ein Giv, a company attacked the Israeli-held water station with heavy weapons
killing all but one of the workers.
1948: At dawn, the Syrians renewed their attack on Tzemah as they attempted to
take control of the Jordon River Valley.
In an attempt to limit damage to their tanks, the Syrian infantry
without armor to lead them, attacked the village's northern positions. Despite
a shortage of ammunition and suffering heavy casualties, the Israelis halted
the Syrian advance.
1948:
In Tel Aviv, as Battles of the Kinarot Valley rage into their third day. David Ben Gurion orders Moshe Dayan, the
Haganah commander in the area, to ‘Hold the Jordan Valley’ no matter the cost.
1948:
Russia recognized Israel. Much to Stalin’s dismay, he lost the recognition race
to the United States. Stalin had not fallen in love with the Jews. He saw
Israel as a wedge that would lead to the breakup of one his nemesis, the
British Empire. With its large population of refugees from Russia, the state of
Israel was never in danger of being seduced by Stalin or the Communists.
1948: During the War for Independence, Israeli forces liberated Acre, Nebi
Yusha, and Tel el-Kadi, Yes; this is the same Acre where Maimonides and his
family landed when they first arrived in Eretz Israel.
1948:
A convoy consisting of 12 trucks filled with military supplies arrived in
Jerusalem. It would be the last convoy to reach the city. "The siege of
Jerusalem was now complete."
1949:
In Beirut, authorities today allowed five Lebanese Jews who were suspected of
being pro-Israel to emigrate to the Jewish state so they could avoid
prosecution for their political sympathies.
1949:
For "saving the dignity and the structure of the United Nations" by
his success in restoring peace to Palestine, Dr. Ralph J. Bunche received the
thanks of Mayor O'Dwyer yesterday at City Hall.
1950:
The special committee reinvestigating the assassination of Count Bernadotte in
1948 submits its report to the Israeli cabinet today.
1950:
“Annie Get Your Gun,” the film version of the Broadway musical directed by
George Sidney, “with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and a screenplay by
Sidney Shelton” was released today in the United States.
1950:
Israeli fighter planes forced down a four-engine Royal Air Force Sunderland
that was flying outside ‘the prescribed air corridor.”
1950:
In Baltimore, MD, “Shirley Thelma (née Glass) and Raymond Albert Ashman, an ice
cream cone manufacturer” gave birth to playwright and lyricist Howard Ashman.
1951:
The Tales of Hoffmann “a British Technicolor film adaptation of Jacques
Offenbach's opera The Tales of Hoffmann,” co-directed by Emeric Pressburger was
released today in the United Kingdom.
1951:
The Prince Who Was A Thief, directed by Rudolph Mate, produced by Leonard
Goldstein, filmed by cinematography Irving Glassberg and starring Tony Curtis
premiered today in San Francisco.
1952(22nd
of Iyar, 5712): Parashat Behard-Bechukotai
1954(14th
of Iyar, 5714): Pesach Sheni
1954:
Birthdate of American lyricist David Zippel.
1954(14th
of Iyar, 5714): Sixty-three year old Latvian native, WW I Army Chaplain and
attorney Maurice Hirsh Gelfand, the son of of Isaac and Ida Gelfand and the
husband of Rachel Shapiro Gelfand passed away today in Cleveland.
1956: In Philadelphia, PA supermarket executive Benjamin Saget and his wife
Rosalyn “Dolly” Saget gave birth comedian Robert Lane “Bob” Saget.
1956(7th
of Sivan, 5716): Second Day of Shavuot
1956(7th
of Sivan, 5716): Poet and author Jacob Fichman passed away.
1956:
Sixty-seven year old Dickinson College and JTS graduate Louis Jacob Haas who
served as a rabbi for congregations in “Harrisburg and Reading, PA, Stamford,
CT and Woodside, Queens” as well a chaplain at Bellevue Hospital and as “vice
president of the National Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs” passed away today
in Gloucester, MA.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/05/20/90501336.pdf
1956(7th
of Sivan, 5716): Dr. Judah David Eisenstein, the self-educated Hebrew scholar,
writer, editor and publisher passed away today at the age of 101. In 1891, he published the first Hebrew and
Yiddish translations of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S.
Constitution. Born in Poland, he came to
the U.S. in 1872 where he became a successful businessman by day and a self-taught
scholar by night. “He was the editor and
publisher of ‘Otzar Yisrael,’ a ten volume Hebrew Encyclopedia that was
last revised in 1951.
1958(27th
of Iyar, 5718): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
1958(27th
of Iyar, 5718): Eighty-nine-year old New York City and Harvard trained
attorney Marcus C. Sloss the “former justice of the California Supreme Court”
and “a former president of the Jewish National Welfare Fund” passed away today
in San Francisco.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/05/18/91388559.html?pageNumber=86
1959:
The Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School was opened in the western section
Jerusalem. The original facility had been on Mt. Scopus. When the Jordanian
Army illegally captured the eastern section of Jerusalem, the facility on Mt.
Scopus became untenable. The Israelis would return in June, 1967.
1960:
Today at the request of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu and the Sephardic Chief Rabbi
Yithak Nissim, Chaim Yosef David Azulai known as “the hida was laid to rest at
Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem.”
1961:
“Professor Mamlock” a film about a Jewish surgeon living in the last days of
the Weimar Republic directed by Konrad Wolf who co-authored the script along
with Friedrich Wolf was released today in East (Communist) Germany.
1962
1962(13th
of Iyar, 5722): Fifty-nine year old Marcus Rayner Caro, the Polish born son of
Albert and Ernestine (Rayner) Caro who in 1912 came to the U.S where he earned
a B.S. in 1925 and a M.D. in 1927 and pursued a career in dermatology while
being married to Adeline B. Cohen with whom he raised two children – Ethel and
William – passed away today.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/527630
1964(6th
of Sivan, 5724): Shavuot is celebrated for the first time during the Presidency
of Lyndon Johnson.
1965:
In New York City, “Letty Cottin Pogrebin, the co-founder of Ms. magazine, and
Bert Pogrebin, a management-side labor lawyer” gave birth to Abigail Pogrebin,
“the author of the 2005 book Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being
Jewish.”
1965:
In New York City, “Letty Cottin Pogrebin, the co-founder of Ms. magazine, and
Bert Pogrebin, a management-side labor lawyer” gave birth to Robin Pogrebin,
the ABC producer and New York Times reporter who is the twin sister of Abigail
Pogrebin.
1966:
“And Now Miguel,” the movie version of novel by Joseph Krumgold was released
today in the United States.
1961:
“The Harry Weinberg interests were charged today “with using their suit against
Fifth Avenue Coach Lines, Inc., as a propaganda weapon in a simultaneous proxy
fight to curb or oust management. Fifth Avenue Coach made this accusation in
State Supreme Court.”
1965:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held this morning for 48 year old “author
and critic” David Boroff an assistant professor of English at NYU.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/05/17/101547309.html?pageNumber=35
1967: In what would be a prelude to the Six Day War, President Abdul Nasser of
Egypt demands dismantling of the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt. The
UN force had been established as part of the peace agreement following the Suez
War of 1956. Much to Nasser’s surprise, U Thant, the UN Secretary General
immediately gave into Nasser’s demand an removed the peace keeping force.
Israelis viewed the UN as the umbrella that closes when it starts to rain. The
departure of the UN force gave the Arabs carte blanche to move large forces
into the Sinai threatening the survival of Israel.
1968: Funeral services are scheduled to be held
this morning “in Musicants Jewish Memorial Chapel in Hackensack, NJ” for
seventy-five year old Ben Dalgin, the New York City born son of Mr. and Mrs.
Max Dalgin who worked his way up from being a teenage “printer’s apprentice” to
serving as “director of art, photography and reproduction for the New York
Times.”
1970(11th
of Iyar, 5730): Seventy-five-year old Dr. Dr. Heinz Hartmann, an in
ternationally known psycho analyst and author, the Vienna born son of historian
Ludo Hartman suffered a fatal heart attack today.
1970)11th
of Iyar, 5730): Seventy-eight year old Nobel Prize winning poet Nelly Sachs
passed away today.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1966/sachs-bio.html
1971:”
Godspell” with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz opened at the Cherry Lane
Theatre in NYC.
1971(22nd
of Iyar, 5731): Sixty-one year old “Alfred A. Tananbaum, one of three brothers
who built Yonkers Raceway into a leading harness track” passed away today after
which he was buried at Westchester Hills Cemetery at Hastings-on-Hudson, NY.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1971/05/18/81941365.pdf
1973(15th
of Iyar, 5733): Sixty-four year old ‘an Austrian-British photographer,
communist-sympathiser and spy for the Soviet Union’ passed away today.
http://spartacus-educational.com/Edith_Tudor_Hart.htm
1974:
“Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry” a car chase movie co-starring Vic Morrow was released
in the United States today.
1975(7th
of Sivan, 5735): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1975:
The anti-Zionist trial of Lev Roitburd began in Odessa today.
1975:
Terrorist bombings taking place in Ramallah and El Bira.
1975:
“The Man in the Glass Booth” directed by Arthur Hiller and produced by Ely
Abraham Landau was released in the United States today.
1975:
Twenty people were injured when a bomb hidden in a picnic box went off at Ein
Fashkha,
1976:
Birthdate of Jeremiah Luber, the grandson of Harvey and Elaine Luber, pillars
of the Little Rock Jewish community.
1978(10th
of Iyar, 5738): Eighty-seven-year old Jennie Paykel Krasnick, the daughter of
Abraham Paykel and the wife of Sam Krasnick, the Russian born American clothing
merchant who in 1906 moved to Sheboygan where he was a leader of the Jewish
community, passed away today after which she was buried in the Sheboygan Hebrew
Cemetery in Kohler, Wisconsin.
1980:
In Washington, DC, first release of “The Empire Strikes Back” directed by Irvin
Kershner, with a script co-authored by Lawrence Kasdan, filmed by cinematographer
Peter Suschitzky featuring Frank Oz as the voice of “Yoda.”
1980:
“Union City” a crime film with music by Chris Stein was released today in the
United States.
1980:
Dr. Nancy Beth Feiman, who graduated from the Columbia University College of
Physicians and Surgeons, and Dr. Jeffrey Paul Kahn, an intern at Overlook
Hospital in Summit, N.J., were married this evening at Temple Emanu-El by Rabbi
Ronald B. Sobel.
1981:
Birthdate of Shiri Maimon, the Sephardic Jewess born at Haifa and raised a
Kiryat Haim, who is a popular Israeli singer, actress and television
personality.
1981:
In “Fiddler Plays at Darien Dinner Theatre,” Haskel Frankel expresses his love
for this musical based on the life of Tevye but is less than enthusiastic about
the version now on view at the Darien Dinner Theatre in Connecticut.
1983:
Representatives of the United States, Lebanon and Israel signed an agreement
that was supposed to bring peace to the two warring Middle East nations. The government of Lebanon was not able to
honor the terms of the agreement so the peace was “still born.”
1984:
Lia van Leer inaugurated the first Jerusalem Film Festival.
1985(26th of Iyar, 5745): Abe Burrows, (Abram Solman Borowitz)
songwriter, composer, and writer passed away. Known in his own right for such
hits “How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying” Burrows was the father
of James Burrow the director of the hit sitcom “Cheers.
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/19/nyregion/abe-burrows-broadway-writer-director-is-dead.html
1985:
“Goodbye, New York,” an “Israeli-American comedy-drama produced, directed and
written by Amos Kollek, who also co-stars in his directorial debut” was
released today in the United States.
1991:
Premier of “What About Bob?” a comedy directed by Frank Oz, produced by Laura
Ziskin and co-starring Richard Dreyfus
1992(14th
of Iyar, 5752): Pesach Sheni
1992(14th
of Iyar, 5752): Ninety-one year old Canadian Olympic athlete and journalist
Sydney David Pierce who when appointed as Canada’s ambassador to Mexico became
the first Canadian Jew to such a diplomatic position passed away today.
1992:
NBC broadcast the first episode of Cruel Doubt, a two-part mini-series
co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow.
1993(26th
of Iyar, 5753): Eighty-five year old native of Brest-Litovsk, seventy year
resident of the Nation’s Capital,WW II Navy Veteran and sports reporter for the
Washington Daily News Louis Abraham Litman, the son of Jacob Litman who
converted “the family’s grocery store on Wisconsin Avenue” into Luros Carryout
Shop & Restaurant passed away today having been pre-deceased by his wife
Rose Litman with whom he had four children
1994(7th
of Sivan, 5754): Second day of Shavuot
1994(7th
of Sivan, 5754: Rafael Yairi (Klumfenbert), age 36, of Kiryat Arba and Margalit
Ruth Shohat, age 48, of Ma'ale Levona were killed when their car was fired upon
by by terrorists in a passing car near Beit Haggai, south of Hebron.
1996(28th
of Iyar, 5756): Yom Yerushalyim
1996:
NBC broadcast the final episode of season four of “Homicide: Life on the
Street” based on David Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
co-starring Richard Belzer and Yaphet Kotto
1998(21st
of Iyar, 5758): Seventy-six year old Rabbi Moshe, the long-time president of
Agudath Israel of America passed away this afternoon. (As reported by Gustav
Niebuhr)
1998:
The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including “Jews: The Essence and Character
of a People” by Arthur Hertzberg and Aron Hirt-Manheirmer and “Richard Rodgers”
by William G. Hyland
1998:
Funeral services for Harry Wagreich, the Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at
CCNY are scheduled to be held this afternoon in New York City.
1999:
Avigdor Kahalani completed his services as an MK.
1999:
Labor Party leader Ehud Barak unseated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in
Israeli elections
1999:
CBS broadcast the final episode of season 1 of “The King of Queens” co-starring
Jerry Stiller
2000:
“Stardom” featuring Benjamin David “Jamie” Elman was released today in Canada
and France.
2001:
“Late Marriage,” a film directed by Dover Kosashvili” was released today in
Israel and France.
2002(6th
of Sivan, 5762): First Day of Shavuot
2002:
Maria Grullich and Alberto Kusnier participated at a Shavuot celebration today
in Buenos Aires' Belgrano neighborhood organized by the local Tzedaka social
service organization and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
2002:
Alan Joseph Shatter completed his service as a member of Teachta Dala today
after almost eleven years.
2002(6th
of Sivan, 5762) Dave Berg passed away. Born in 1920, the cartoonist may be best
known for his work in Mad Magazine
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/may/24/local/me-berg24
2003(15th
Iyar, 5736): “A pregnant Israeli woman and her husband were killed when a
suicide bomber detonated himself next to them in a public square in Hebron.
Hamas claimed responsibility.”
2003:
Eighty-one-year-old Irene Gut Opdyke a Polish nurse who gained international
recognition for aiding Polish Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany during World War
II for which she was honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for
risking her life to save twelve Jews from certain death passed away today.
http://polish-jewish-heritage.org/eng/june_03_Irene_Opdyke_Washington_Post.htm
2004(25th of Iyar, 5764) Tony Randall passed away. Born Leonard
Rosenbeg in 1920, this native of Tulsa, Oklahoma enjoyed a successful career in
film, theatre and television. Most people know him as Felix Unger in the
television version of “The Odd Couple.”
2005:
As the Leo Baeck Institute at the Center for Jewish History marked the 50th
anniversary, an exhibition entitled “Starting Over: The Experience of German
Jews in America, 1830-1945” opened today.
The exhibit includes photos, letters, documents, sketches, paintings,
maps, medals and other rare artifacts of German-Jews who settled across the
United States, many of which are being viewed by the public for the first time.
2006:
Opening of the first Sydney Jewish Writers’ Festival
2006(19th
of Iyar, 5766): Ninety-five year old Broadway producer Cy Feuer passed away
today. (As reported by Richard Severo and Jesse McKinley)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/arts/18feuer.html?pagewanted=all
2006:
David Blaine was submerged in an 8 feet (2.4 m) diameter, water-filled sphere
(isotonic saline, 0.9% salt) in front of the Lincoln Center in New York City
for a planned seven days and seven nights, using tubes for air and nutrition.
2006:
Eliot Yamin was eliminated from American Idol” today, after the tightest race;
each of the three top contestants received an almost exactly equal percentage
of the viewer votes necessary for advancement to the remaining two spots
2006:
In Congress, Representative Daniel Lipinski rose “today to honor Joel M. Carp
of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago for his outstanding
contributions to the Federation, as well as to the community at large” who 28
years of outstanding service is retiring.
2007:
Bernard Kouchner began serving as French Minister of Foreign and European
Affairs.
2007:
As part of Jewish Heritage Month, the National Archives presents a lecture
entitled “Julius Rosenwald: The Man Who Built Sears, Roebuck and Advanced the
Cause of Black Education in the South.”
2007:
Rabbi Simon Jacobson presents “Mysteries of Sinai: Find Revelations in the
Everyday “at The Sixth Street Community Synagogue in New York City.
2007:
An exhibition opens at the Museum of Modern Art by photographer Barry
Frydlender, the first Israeli to have a solo show at the museum
2008:
The Jerusalem Cinematheque presents “A Sacred Duty \ חובה מקודשת” a major
documentary on current environmental threats and how Jewish teachings can be
applied in responding to these threats.
2008
(12th of Iyar): Anniversary of the Jews of Rome being granted additional
privileges by the head of the Catholic Church. On the 12th of Iyar, 1402, the
Jews of Rome were granted "privileges" by Pope Boniface IX. They were
given legal right to observe their Shabbat, protection from local oppressive
officials, their taxes were reduced and orders were given to treat Jews as
full-fledged Roman citizens.
2008:
At the JCC in Manhattan the international premiere of new episodes from the
Israeli comedy series “Arab Labor (Avoda Aravit)” followed by a conversation
with writer and creator Sayed Kashua. “Arab Labor” is a satirical look at the
Arab status In Israeli society, the controversy surrounding issues of identity
and the sensitivities of both populations. Through humor, the series explores
the daily conflicts that Arabs face between the desire to integrate and their
own values and traditions.
2009: An exhibition at Williams College Museum of
Art entitled “The ABCD’s of Sol LeWitt” that features artist’s drawing and
sculptures as well as items from his private art collection comes to an end.
2009: Hadassah meets in the Twin Cities where its
members celebrate Jewish Women in the Arts and recognize the Charter Member of
the Region Chai Society
2009:
The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including “The Third Reich At War” by
Richard J. Evans, “A Failure of Capitalism” by Richard A. Posner and the
recently released paperback editions of “Reappraisals: Reflections on the
Forgotten Twentieth Century” by Tony Judt and “The Dream: A Memoir” by Harry
Bernstein.2009: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by
Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Paul
Newman: A Life” by Shawn Levy and “Valkyrie” by Philipp Freiherr
von Boeselager 2009: At
least five people were arrested today after a clash between anti-Semitic
demonstrators and Jews in Argentina. “The fighting broke out when demonstrators
waving anti-Semitic signs crashed a Buenos Aires ceremony held by a Jewish
group marking Israel's 61st Independence Day, which was celebrated last month.
An anti-discrimination police unit had to escort Israeli Ambassador Daniel
Gazit away from the scuffle, AFP reported. Argentina's large Jewish community
has been targeted by two deadly terror strikes. In 1994, 85 people were killed
and 300 were wounded in a car bombing at the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos
Aires, and two years earlier, 22 people were killed and 200 were hurt in an
attack on the Israeli embassy.”
2009(23rd of Iyar), 5769: Daniel Carasso passed away today at the age
of 105. The member of a famed Sephardic family, this native of Salonica who was
the son of Isaac Carasso created the company that many of us know for one of
its most famous products, Dannon Yogurt. (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/business/21carasso.html?_r=1
2010: Professors Raanan Rein and Jeffrey Lesser are scheduled
to deliver a lecture entitled Jewish-Latin American Historiography: The
Challenges Ahead Lecture at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
2010: “The Associated Press reported today that the
synagogue in Worms had been firebombed.
2010: Elena Kagan completed her service as the 45th
United States Solicitor General.
2010: In “Reading to Recall the Father of Tevye”, Clyde
Haberman explores the life Bel Kaufman and her grandfather Shalom Aleichem.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/nyregion/18nyc.html
2010: A Facebook group called “Comedy Central – I.S.R.A.E.L.
Attack game is offensive. Remove it” had more than 1,500 members as of today.
The game, “Drawn Together,” which is currently available on Comedy Central’s website
is based on the network’s politically incorrect animated series of the same
name, depicts “Jew Producer,” a character that has a speaker for a head and is
taken to task for failing to kill certain animated characters. A robot called
“the Intelligent Smart Robot Animation Eraser Lady” (I.S.R.A.E.L.) is then sent
in to do the job, unleashing destruction and murdering children.
2011: Jenna Weissman Joselit, Charles E. Smith Professor
of Judaic Studies and Professor of History at The George Washington University
is scheduled to deliver a lecture at Beth Sholom in Potomac, MD, entitled
“Romancing the Stone: America's Embrace of the Ten Commandments” during which
she will explain “The cultural and historical processes by which a covenant
with the ancient Israelites became a covenant with America.”
2011: Sam Brylawski and Karen Lund are scheduled to
deliver a lecture entitled “Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording
Industry” under the auspices of The Hebraic Section, African and Middle Eastern
during which they will discuss the role of Emile Berliner “an unsung hero of
recorded sound …Emile who invented the gramophone.”
2011: The building housing the world’s first
green-certified synagogue Congregation Beth David in San Luis Obispo, Calif.,
is scheduled to be up for auction today to satisfy an unpaid loan of 3.3
million dollars.
2011: A course entitled “Oasis in Time: The Gift of
Shabbat in a 24/7 World” is scheduled to be held at the Center for Jewish Life,
the Chabad center in Little Rock, AR under the leadership of Rabbi Pinchas
Ciment.
2012: DeLeon, a Sephardic Indie Rock Band is scheduled to
appear at the Washington Jewish Music Festival.
2012: Premiere of Yossi an Israeli film directed by Eytan
Fox starring Ohad Knoller, Oz Zehavi and Lior Ashkenazi.
2012: A production of Neil Simon’s “The Sunshine Boys”
opened in the West End today.
2012: Elio Toaff, the former Chief Rabbi of Rome was
awarded the Prize Culturae within the Italian National Festival of Cultures in
Pisa today.
2012: The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater
Washington, The American Jewish Committee and The American Association of
Jewish Lawyers and Jurists are scheduled to sponsor a lecture by Irvin B. Nathan entitled “The Challenges of a
D.C. Attorney General
2012(25th of Iyar, 5772): Seventy-four year
old Israeli politician Gideon Ezra passed away today.
2012(25th of Iyar, 5772): Eighty-seven-year
old publicist and theatrical manager Herbert Breslin passed away today. (As
reported by Daniel Wakin)
2013; “No Place On Earth” is scheduled to premiere at
theatres in Atlanta, GA and Key West, FL.
2013: The 3rd annual Celebrating India in
Israel Festival is scheduled to come to an end.
2013: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to do
whatever it takes to protect Israelis in the unstable Middle East, following a
meeting with the German foreign minister in Jerusalem today (As reported by
Yoel Goldman)
2013: Multiple clashes broke out across the West Bank today
that involved, Palestinians, the IDF, Border Police and settlers.
2013: Today “Frances Ha,” a “comedy
–drama” directed, produced and written by Noah Baumbach which had “premiered at
the Telluride Film Festival” had a limited release in the United States
2013: Today, “the Washington Post reported that the
United States Department of Justice had monitored the activities” of
“journalist and television correspondent” James Samuel Rosen “by tracking his
visits to the State Department through phone traces, timing of calls and his
personal emails.”
2013(8th of Sivan, 5773): Ninety-four year old
Albert Seedman who served as the New York Police Department’s chief of
detectives during a time when the Black Liberation Army killed four police
officers and the gangland shooting of Joseph A. Colombo, Sr. and Joey Gallo
rocked the Big Apple and who was an anomaly – “the Jewish cop…in an Irish
universe” passed away today.
2014: Chabad is scheduled to host the second of a
three-day retreat in West Des Moines, Iowa.
2014(17th of Iyar, 5774): Eighty-four year old
biologist Gerald Edelman 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine passed away
today.
2014: According to police estimates, “hundreds of
thousands of people were headed to Mount Meron in the Gallilee to celebrate the
holiday of Lag B’Omer in a gathering which marks the passing away of Kabbalist
sage Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai who is buried at the site.
2014: “A newly revealed NSA document highlights and
corroborates allegations carried by Newsweek that Israel aggressively spies on
the US, the magazine reported today.”
2014: In Springfield, VA, Congregation Adat Reyim is
scheduled to host “Adat on the Rocks.”
2015: In Portland, Oregon, the Oregon Jewish Museum and
Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to host a gala celebrating their
one year anniversary as a combined organization.
2015: The 2015 Washington Jewish Music Festival is
scheduled to come to an end today.
2015: Dr. Robert Cargill is scheduled to lecture on “From
Shalem to Jerusalem: The Etymology and the Historiography of the Name
Jerusalem” at Agudas Achim in Coralville, Iowa.
2015: “When Comedy Went to School,” a 2013 documentary
about the Borscht Belt’s role as the birthplace of modern stand-up comedy,
featuring interviews with top comics who once performed on its stages,
including Robert Klein, Jerry Stiller, Sid Caesar, Jackie Mason, and Dick
Gregory – is scheduled to be shown this afternoon at the Borscht Belt Film
Festival.
2015:
In Dimona, a city-wide strike to show “solidarity with the striking workers of
Israel Chemicals and about 60 employees of Meteor, a local producer of
agricultural netting that is in danger of shutting down” is scheduled to take
place today.
2015:
London barrister, Jonathan Arkush was elected today to serve as Presdient of
the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
2015:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks, Goebbels: A Biography
by Peter Longerich and Voices in the Night: Stories by Steven Millhauser
2015:
The funeral session for Rabbi Moshe Levinger is scheduled to begin this morning
at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and will end “at the city’s ancient
cemetery.”
2015(28th
of Iyar, 5775): Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Day
2016:
The National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to host “God, Faith
& Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of
Holocaust Survivors.”
2016:
In New York, the Jewish Book Council and Drisha are schedule to host a lecture
and discussion with National Jewish Book Award finalist Dr. Benjamin D. Sommer
about his book Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and
Tradition.
2016:
In Seattle, the Washington State Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host
an event featuring Cynthia Flash Hemphill author of A Hug from Afar in
the new WSJHS exhibit gallery.
2017:
As a sign of the vitality of small Jewish communities, in Coralville, Iowa, the
Agudas Achim book group is scheduled to discuss Here I Am by Jonathan
Safran Foer.
2017:
Holocaust survivor Nat Shaffir is scheduled to speak in Washington as part of
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museums “First Person Series.”
2017:
“Shabtai Shavit, who led the Mossad in the 1990’s” today “fired off harsh
criticism aimed at Donald Trump aying his actions put international
information-sharing efforts at risk, in light of reports that the US president
divulged classified intelligence to Russia last week.” (As reported by Judah
Ari Gross)
2017:
The “Made in Jerusalem Festival” is scheduled to open at Beit Avi Chair.
2017:
David G. Dalin is scheduled to “introduce his new book Jewish Justices of the
Supreme Court: From Brandeis to Kagan” at lecture in the Kovno Room of the
Center for Jewish History.
2018:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host “The Annual Shavuot
Cheesecake Bake-Off this evening.
2018:
The Center for Jewish History, Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute,
and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research are scheduled to host “Searching for
Joseph Heritage with Joseph Berger” in which the “former New York Times reporter and author of Displaced Persons: Growing
Up American after the Holocaust shares stories and photos from his trip to
his parents’ hometown in Poland.
2018(3rd
of Sivan, 5778): Ninety-four year old Richard Pipes, a Jewish refugee from Nazi
Poland who specialized in the history of Russia, especially the period starting
with the Revolution in 1917 and the Communist take-over passed away today. (As
reported by William Grimes)
https://spongobongo.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/professor-richard-pipes/
2018:
In Memphis, TN, Rabbi Feivel Straus is scheduled to “lead a discussion on
Shavuot: The Holiday about Owning Your Judaism” at Temple Israel.
2018:
As part of Jewish American Heritage Month, the Jewish Historical Society of
Greater Washington is scheduled to sponsor a lecture on “Before the Freedom
Fighters: The Fight to Integrate Glen Echo Amusement Park.”
2018:
Holocaust Survivor Sam Ponczak is scheduled to lecturer at the US Holocaust
Memorial Museum.
2019:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host a performance of
“Nabucco,” “an opera
by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by and starring David Serero as Nabucco” which
builds on the Biblical accounts of the Babylonian Exile found in Jeremiah and
Daniel” and which “combines political and love intrigues with some of the
greatest songs ever written (including “Va, pensiero, The Chorus of the Hebrew
Slaves”).”
2019(12th of
Iyar, 5779): Just ten days before his 104th birthday, Pulitzer Prize
winning playwright and author Herman Wouk, the Bronx born son Abraham and
Esther Wouk and husband of Betty Wouk Z”L best known for The Caine Mutiny
(novel, Broadway play and movie) who loved his Judaism and the United States
passed away today. (Editor’s note – There is no way that this blog can do
justice to him as an author or as person.
Besides which, I am a big fan so anything more would not be “objective”
history.)
2019: In Norway, members of
the Jewish community are scheduled to follow their annual procedure of “laying
roses on the grave of Henrick Wergeland, the author of the poem “Christmas Eve”
which helped to end “Norway’s constitutional ban on Jews.”
2020: Via Zoom, Congregation Beth Am is scheduled
to present “a discussion led by Rabbi Janet Marder, of Congregation Beth Am in
Los Altos Hills, on “The New Order” by Karen Bender and New York 1,
Tel Aviv 0 by Shelly Oria.
2020: “David Wolff’s final
cantorial concert at Hebrew College is scheduled to be live-streamed on
FaceBook from Framingham’s Temple Beth Am, where David will be installed as
cantor in July.”
2020: Congregation
Shearith Israel’s Sexton Zachary Edinger is scheduled to lead a virtual tour of
the Chatham Street Cemetery.
2020: Due to the Pandemic, in, the Breman’s
“Historic Jewish Atlanta Tour: The Beltline” has been canceled.
2020: The National Public Library of Israel is
scheduled to reopen today.
2020: As part of its “Virtual Family Program
Series,” The American Jewish Historical Society” is scheduled to host “Meet
Emma Lazarus,” a “live interactive program, children have the opportunity to
engage with the famous poetess about her life and the issues of her time.”
2020: In Amsterdam, an exhibition at the Jewish
Historical Museum featuring the works of photographer and artist Sarah Mei
Herman is scheduled to come to an end today.
https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Sarah-Mei-Herman--Germano/2BD1C696A746BA41
2021(6th
of Sivan 5781): First Day of Shavuot; for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2021:
Chabad of Palo Alto is scheduled to present “an outdoor, socially distanced
Shavuot observation with a reading of the Ten Commandments and dairy desserts.”
2021:
YJP is scheduled to present “Shavuot Under the Stars,” “an evening dairy
buffet” for “Boston’s young professionals.”
2021:
Despite having a wall smashed in by a rocket fired from Gaza, Yad Michael
Synagogue in Ashkelon is scheduled to be open for the celebration of Shavuot.
2021:
Chabad of Contra Costa is scheduled to present “an in-person outdoor reading of
the Ten Commandments, followed by an ice cream party.”
2022: The Thaler Holocaust
Committee is scheduled to partner with Orchestra Iowa to present a concert that
will feature “a 50-minute piece called Quartet for the End of Time, that was
written and premiered in a German prisoner of war camp during WW2 by Olivier
Messiaen, with fellow prisoners performing.
2022: The “Jewish Rally for
Abortion” plans which had been announced last month by the National Council of
Jewish Women is scheduled to take place today in Washington, D.C.
2022: The Center for Jewish
History is scheduled to host the opening of an exhibition “Invited to Life:
Holocaust Survivors in America” featuring the photography of B.A. Van Sise.
2022: LBI is scheduled to
present a screening of “Familie Brasch: A Documentary Film About A
German-Jewish Family.”
2023: A motion is scheduled
to be put forward at today’s meeting of the Golders Green Beth Hamedrash that asked
the synagogue to clarify its position relating to the Union of Orthodox Hebrew
Congregations (UOHC), in light of the time lag on the investigation into allegations
of sexual impropriety made by another Golders Green rabbi, Chaim Halpern.”
2023: The Charles Bronfman
Auditorium in Tel Aviv is scheduled to be the venue for a very special tribute
to the late R&B legend Whitney Houston, whose songs will be performed by
Dutch songstress Glennis Grace that will take place today.
2023: Lockdown University is
scheduled to host a webinar during which Philip Rubenstein will deliver a
lecture on “Abomination of Abominations, Germany and Israel: The Repatriation
Controversy.”
2023: Following its
triumphant debut at The Joyce last season, New York's Gibney Company is
scheduled to return with a powerful program of three works, including Sharon
Eyal and Gai Behar's SARA, a minimalist work that manages to be gentle,
hardcore, and old fashioned all at the same time.
2023: At Temple Judea, Rabbi Feivel is scheduled to host a lunch and
learn featuring “Jewish innovator, Joe Shuster.
2023: Sotheby’s is scheduled
to hold a live auction of the “Codex Sassoon: The Earliest Most Complete Hebrew
Bible.”
https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/codex-sassoon-the-earliest-most-complete-hebrew-bible