This Day, July 3, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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July 3 

324:  Constantine the Great defeated Licinius at
the Battle of Adrianople. Constantine ruled the western half of the Roman
Empire.  Licinius ruled the eastern
half.  In 313 the two rulers had issued
the Edict of Milan which…

July 3 

324:  Constantine the Great defeated Licinius at the Battle of Adrianople. Constantine ruled the western half of the Roman Empire.  Licinius ruled the eastern half.  In 313 the two rulers had issued the Edict of Milan which opened the Roman Empire to Christianity.  In 320, Licinius reject the edict.  These led to a clash of political and religious power that was settled at the Battle of Adrianople.  When the war ended, Constantine and Christianity were secure in their respective positions of power and the history of the Jews of Europe would take a turn for the worse.

353: Emperor Constantius II issues a decree to confiscate all of the property anyone who converts from Christianity to Judaism. Christians worked hard to convert Jews, and they absolutely rejected conversion back to Judaism. Being Jewish is apparently something that one should be ashamed of. (As reported by Austin Cline)

987:  Hugh Capet is crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty. “The Capetian dynasty lasted for more than 300 years. Capetian rule was weak, especially during the first hundred years. Thus each duchy decided for itself how to treat its Jews. The Church gained enormous influence over local affairs and promoted the idea that the Jews were in league with the Devil - declaring them the antichrist".

1187: As the conflict between the Crusaders and Saladin comes closer to a climax, the King of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan leads his army on a forced march under the broiling sun of the Galilee

1247: Pope Innocent IV issues the encyclical Lacrimabilem Judaeorum condemning blood libels against Jews.(As reported by Austin Cline)

1431: Queen Violante, the second wife of Juan I of Aragon passed away. Unlike other Catholic monarchs of her time, Violante showed herself to be a friend of the Jews.  When she found out that Christian mobs had attacked the Jewish community of Majorca, killing at least three hundred of them, she order that “inhabitants of the islands to pay a fine of 150,000 florins (or, according to some authorities, 104,000 florins).”

1475: Meshullam Cusi Rafa ben Moses Jacob established the first Hebrew press in Italy at Piove di Sacco near Padua and printed Jacob ben Asher's Arbah Turim. The same year he also printed a Slichot

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=344&letter=P

1608: Quebec City was founded by French explorer Samuel Champlain.  Prior to 1760, when the British took Canada from France, officially there were no Jews living in Quebec or any other part of the French colony.  The King of France had decreed that only Roman Catholics could settle in the colony.  This declaration was aimed at potential Protestant colonists, but it hit Jews as well.  The first known Jew settled in Quebec in 1767.

1642: Sixty-seven year old Marie de’Medici,  the daughter of Francesco I de’Medici, the 2nd grand duke of Tuscany who “invited Jewish merchants to settle in Livorno, granting them free residence, unlimited access to trade and extensive self-government in this new Medicean free-port on the Mediterranean” and the  queen consort of  Henry IV of France and the mother of King Louis XIII who “signed letters patent renewing the expulsion order "against not only Jews but also those who profess and practice Judaism” passed away today.

1744(5th of Av, 5504): Jacob Louzada passed away today in New York City. (This appears to be a common name so dates can get confusing.)

1749: Seventy-year old Menahem Man ben Aryeh Löb of Visun, who had tortured was executed in Vilna

1759(19th of Tammuz, 5519): Forty-eight-year-old Samuel de Lucena, the New York born son of Abraham Haim de Lucena “became a freeman” today after which he was a merchant in Philadelphia and supporter of the American Revoltuion.

1762: Birthdate of Moses Abrahams, the New York born son of Abraham Isaac Abrahams, became a freeman today after which he became a merchant who among other things supplied sulphur which was as gunpowder by the Americans during the Revolution.

1767(18th of Tammuz, 5528): Tzom Tammuz observed.

1772: Birthdate of New York native Rachel Judah, the daughter of Hillel Judah and the wife of Alma Rehine whom she married in 1800.

1778(8th of Tammuz, 5538): Fifty-three-year-old German born American “American merchant and Indian trader” Elijah Etting who in 1758 came to the United States where a year later her married Shinah Solomn and was “naturalized in 1765 passed away today in York, PA.

1785(25th of Tammuz, 5645): Ninety-year old Lithuanian rabbi and Talmudist Aryeh Leib Gunzberg (As reported by Abraham Bloch)

http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Gintsburg_Aryeh_Leib_ben_Asher

1799: Dutch jurist Carel Asser, the son of Moses Salomon Asser “obtained a doctor’s degree” degree following which “he devoted himself to the practice of law in Amsterdam” making him one of the first Jewis lawyers in the Batavian republic.

1800: Following Napoleon’s return to France following his failed Egyptian campaign which took him to Palestine where he met many un-kept promises to the local Jewish population, General Menou took command of the French army in Egypt which would eventually surrender to the British and lead to a cessation of hostilities between France and the Turks.

1803: Today Bavarian born Leser Lazarus Oschsenhorn married Nanette Wexler with whom he had eight children.

1806(17th of Tammuz, 5566): Tzom Tammuz as Lewis and Clark “split their force in order to scout more of the mountainous country and look for an easier pass over the Rockies.”

1814: Birthdate of Helen Moos, the wife of Abraham Einstein and the mother of Herman Einstein.

1816(7th of Tammuz, 5576): Forty one year old Samuel Elias, the London born boxer known as Dutch Sam who carried the sobriquet “The Terrible Jew” and was the father of Welterweight Champion Young Dutch Sam passed away today.

1819: At the age of 5 years and 7 months Charles-Valentin Alkan has his solfège audition during which the examiners noted that he had “a pretty little voice.”

1822(14th of Tammuz, 5582): Isaac F. Cohen, the infant son of Rebecca Benjamin Sheftall and Isaac Cohen passed away today in Savannah, GA.

1822: Joseph ben Moses married Esther bat Mordecai at the Western Synagogue.

1825(17th of Tammuz, 5585): Tzom Tammuz observed on the same day that former President James Monroe wrote to future President Andrew Jackson

1830: In Natzungen, Prussia. Jacob and Betty Spiegelberg gave to Levi Spiegelberg, the husband of Bertha Spiegelberg who moved to New York where he passed away in 1905 at the age of 74.

1832: Mortimer Salmon the son of John Salmon and Catherine Polack was circumcised today in London.

1832(5th of Tammuz, 5592): Forty-eight-year-old Uriah Lyons, the son of Hannah Levy and Eleazer Lyons who had been married in Harrisburg, PA two days after the end of Passover, and husband of Surinam native Mary Ann Alexander with whom he had three children passed away today.

1833: A day after he had passed away, 67 year old Godfrey Harris was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.

1835: Birthdate of Daniel Spitzer, the native of Vienna who gained fame as a lawyer, author and journalist.

1837: In Ermreuth, German, Loeb and Bunte Babett Munker gave birth to Miriam Marianne Rothschild, the wife of Baruch Rothschild

1844: Birthdate of Joseph Chayyim Mendes Chumaceiro who studied “under his father at Curaçao” before serving as the rabbi in a series of congregations including “from 1867 to 1874 Beth-El congregation, Charleston, South Carolina; from 1874 to 1880, of Nefashot Yebudah, New Orleans, Louisiana; from 1884 to 1887, of Beth-El Emeth, Philadelphia; from 1889 to 1891, of Mikwe, Yisrael, Curaçao; and from 1892 to 1898, of Children of Israel, Augusta, Georgia;

1844: In Stadtlengsfeld, Germany, Rabbi Liebman Adler and his wife gave to Dankmar Adler, American architect and engineer. Adler’sname is first name is a combination of the German word for thanks –‘dank’- and the Hebrew word for bitter – ‘mar’. Adler’s father created the name since Adler’s mother died in childbirth. The Adler family moved to Chicago where young Adler learned his trade as a draftsman. He enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War fighting his way across Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia. After the war, Adler designed or helped build a variety of buildings including The Stock Exchange in Chicago and Carnegie Hall in New York. He also built Temples and Synagogues in Chicago. Frank Lloyd Wright, one of America’s most famous architects trained in Adler’s offices. Adler passed away in 1900 after having just completed Temple Isaiah in Chicago

1849: The French entered Rome in order to restore Pope Pius IX to power. After his return to power Pius re-instituted the Ghetto for the Jews of Rome 1850.  In 1858, he would gain greater fame (or infamy) during the Mortara Affair during which Pius refused to return young Edgardo to his Jewish family.

1850 In New Orleans, Henry and Mary Levy Florance  gave birth to Alfred Florance.

1851: Birthdate of Isaac de Camondo, the French banker who had been born in Constantinople and whose “noteworthy” art collection was bequeathed to the Louve

1852: Birthdate of Hungarian pianist and composer Rafael Joseffy

1855(17th of Tammuz, 5615): Tzom Tammuz

1855: “Jewing the Jews” published today reported that “Lord John Russell who is notorious for great promises and abundant non-performance” has backed out on his promise to remove the legal obstructions preventing Jews from serving in Parliament.  The article goes on to trace Lord Russell’s history of involvement in the issued beginning in 1847 when he needed the financial support of the Rothschilds to win the election.  While the Rothschilds provided the funds need by Lord Russell, Lord Russell, for some mysterious reason, avoided the easy route that would have it possible for Rothschild to take his seat in the Commons and opted instead for a broader reform that was sure to fail because it needed the support of the House of Lords.  It would seem that Lord Russell really never wanted a Jew to sit in Parliament.

1857: It was reported today that a Jewish boy named Isaac Jackson was robbed and murdered in Russell, MA by a man named Charles Jones from Blanford.  Jones had recently been released from prison and had been arrested for this latest criminal act.

1860: Birthdate of Théodore Reinach “a French archaeologist, mathematician, lawyer, papyrologist, philologist, epigrapher, historian, numismatist, musicologist, professor, and politician.”

1863: In New York City Sophie and Abram J. Dittenhoefer gave birth to Irving Meade Dittenhoefer.  Dittenhoefer was the grandson of Isaac Dittenhoefer a native of Germany who came to the United States in 1834 settling first in Baltimore and then Charleston, SC where he became a successful merchant.  Irving followed his father into the legal arena graduating from Columbia Law School in 1885.  He and his wife Fannie have one son, Newman Erb Dittenhoefer.

1863: In New York City, Solomon and Emma Blogg Unger gave birth to Municipal Court Judge Henry W. Unger, “one of the thirteen sachems of Tammany Hall and the husband of Isabella Peyser Unger with whom he had two sons Albert and Herbert.

1863: Birthdate of Samuel Bernard, the London born, New York educated son of Benjamin Bernard, who went on to pursue a career as a stage manager and comedian. (other sources show his dob as June 5)

1863: Union forces decisively defeated the Rebels on the third and climactic day of the Battle of Gettysburg.  The war would last for almost two years, but the tide had been turned.  The “last best hope of man” would survive. The United States, with all of its freedom, would become home to one of the largest and most dynamic Jewish communities in the four thousand year history of the Chosen People.  Edward S. Salomon, a German-Jewish immigrant who had settled in Chicago, “became a hero during the Battle of Gettysburg.”  Lt. Colonel Salmon had two horses shot out from under him and assumed command of his regiment when the commanding officer was wounded.  The regiment was the 82nd Illinois which had over a hundred Jewish members in its ranks. Major General Carl Schurz, his corps commander, described him during the battle: "He was the only soldier at Gettysburg who did not dodge when Lee's guns thundered; he stood up, smoked his cigar and faced the cannon balls with the sang froid of a Saladin ...” Apparently the irony of comparing this brave Jewish officer to a Moslem military hero was lost on Schurz.  Such was Salomon’s skill and bravery that he would be promoted to the rank of Brigadier General before the end of the war when the Confederate and Union armies collided and battled at the Battle of Gettysburg July 1–3, 1863. His ability to lead men was quickly recognized and he rapidly rose through the ranks. Salomon received a brevet promotion to brigadier general in March 1865. After the Battle of Atlanta, Colonel John Cleveland Robinson recognized the feats of Colonel Salomon when he wrote: "I consider Colonel Salomon one of the most deserving officers. His regiment is deserving of high praise. In a point of discipline, it is second to none in the corps.  Among other Jewish soldiers who fought at this climactic battle were Elias Leon Hyneman who had volunteered to serve in Company C, Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry at the start of the conflict; Captain Joseph B. Greenhut who had enlisted in the 12th Illinois Infantry at the start of the war and served with the 82nd Illinois Infantry at Gettysburg.

1863: The 59th New York which had been organized by Philip J. Joachimsen was one of the regiments that held the line on Cemetery Ridge against Pickett’s charge.

1863: As the Battle of Gettysburg came to a close, Major Rafael Jacob Moses of Columbus, GA, shared the battlefield with his friend, Robert E. Lee

1863: The Tullahoma or Middle Tennessee Campaign a military action in which Confederate forces were defeated by Union Forces that included 79th Indiana under the command of Frederick Knefler came to an end.

1863: In “Plymouth, Devon,” Nathaniel Hart and Dinah Nathan gave birth to Benjamin Hart.

1863(16th of Tammuz, 5623): Among the dead at Gettysburg was Philadelphian Simon Arnold who had been serving since 1862 with Company G of the 140th Regiment, reminding us that preservation of the United States of America from those who wanted to destroy her was paid for in human blood.

1866: Prussia defeats Austria at the Battle of Königgratz. The victory seals the victory of the Prussians over the Austrians during Austro-Prussian War which lasted as scant six weeks.  This little known battle is one of the most decisive in modern history because of all the major events that flowed from it.  The victory removed Austria as a power among Germanic states.  This opened the way for German unification under Prussian dominance which lead to the Franco-Prussian War, which led to World War I which led to the Shoah.  The defeat of Austria led the Austrians to turn to the rest of the empire  and create the Austro-Hungarian Empire which gave empowered the Hungarian nationalist which led to granting of full rights to the Jews of the empire who gave the world everybody from Freud to Herzl and a whole lot more.  And this only scratches the surface of the impact of this one brief battle.   

1867: In Bar, near Kamenetz Podolsk (modern Ukraine). Rabbi Judah Samuel Baronedess and his wife gave birth to New York political and labor leader Joseph Barondess.

http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2014/11/yoysef-barondes-joseph-barondess.html

http://archives.nypl.org/mss/216

http://americanjewisharchives.org/collections/ms0507/

1867: Fifty-four year old Lazarus Powell the Senator from Kentucky who was anti-Lincoln, pro-slavery and who feigned indignation over General Order No. 11 as a way of attacking the President and General Grant passed away today.

1869: In Germany (Prussia), all restrictions against Jews were lifted. After the war of 1866 Prussia increased its territory to include Hanover, Hesse-Kassel Saxony, and other territory that became part of the North German Confederation. Under the initiative of the Liberal party, full rights were extended to Jews including serving in public positions. By April 16, 1871 it became Imperial Law and was extended to the entire empire. Although later reaction revoked most of this freedom, the discrimination never returned to the level existing in the "Middle Ages" - until the rise of Hitler.

1869: Founding of the Union of Judæo-German Congregations" during a synod that was held at Leipzig.

1870: Members of Beth Jacob consecrated their house of worship in Brooklyn this afternoon.  After a procession from the local Masonic Hall to the new edifice, Rabbi Samuel M. Issacs addressed the congregation, speaking proudly of the advances that had been made recently in religious thought and strongly endorsing reforms that were being adopted by many congregations. He also addressed the wonderful climate of freedom that Jews enjoyed in the United States.  Rabbi Adolph Huebsch of Brooklyn also addressed the crowd after which a total of $1,000 was contributed by the attendees.  The new building had cost $8,000 and was fully paid for without this additional sum.

1872: An English version of La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein a Jacques Offenbach operetta, opened at the Union Square Theatre in New York City.

1874: In Chicago, “Henry and Rose (Swart) Sincere gave birth to banker and broker Charles Sincere, the husband of “Mayme W Wershinksi” and member of the Illinois National Guard who was a member of the International Order of B’nai B’rith and the North Shore Congregation.

1874: Starting with this issue The Israelite, an English language weekly founded by Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise was renamed The American Israelite

1874: Among those who were arriving at Saratoga Springs at the beginning of the Summer Social Season were “Mrs. Joseph Seligman wife of the wealthy banker” and her two daughters, Miss Bella Seligamn and “Mrs. Hellman whose husband is a Director of the Bank of New Orleans.”

1875: The Foreign Notes column reported that “a new invention by Sir David Salomons for preventing railway accidents by an improved system of signaling” has been exhibited to “a large number of engineers and inventors” in London.  The invention “consists of an insulated rail laid beneath the four way, by means of which station-masts can telegraph to a train while in motion.”  Also this makes it possible for people on one train to communicate with people on another train. Salomons is best known for his several attempts to assume political office to which he had been elected with taking the oath that called for an affirmation of Christian beliefs.

1875: The Foreign Notes column reported that the Russian government is going back to its past practice of persecuting Jews.  Many Jews have moved their homes and businesses to take advantage of new opportunities created by the developing railroad system.  Authorities are now enforcing an old law and forcing the Jews to return to their former homes, leaving behind their new businesses and homes.

1877: Two Jews named David Milstein and Isaac Goldstein were tried today in New York and found guilty of first degree burglary.  They had broken into the home of a butcher named Meyer Freeman, robbing him of money and jewelry.  They were sentenced to 12 years in the state prison.  Milstein has spent 21 of his 28 years in prison while Goldstein has served one term in the state penitentiary.

1877: In Earlville, Illinois, Morris Levy and Isabelle Baker gave birth to Martha Levy the future wife Maurice Steinfeld the son of Jacob Steinfeld and Caroline Stern.

1878: Erik Weisz, who would gain fame as Houdini, arrived today in the United States “on the SS Fresia with his mother (who was pregnant) and his four brothers” after which the family changed their name to the German spelling Weiss, and settled in Appleton, Wisconsin “where his father served as Rabbi of the Zion Reform Jewish Congregation.”

1879: In London, a formal announcement was made that the three sons of the recently deceased Baron Lionel de Rothschild will carry on their father’s business activities.

1881: Birthdate of Dov Ber Borochov, the son of Russian school teachers who in his brief life left his imprint on “the study of Yiddish” and the Labor Zionist movement.

http://www.freepaperz.com/biographies/Dov-Ber-Borochov-28565.html

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ber-borochov

http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Borokhov_Ber

1882: As boatloads of Italian and Russian Jewish workers who had replaced the striking freight handlers returned from New Jersey, they were set upon and beaten by gangs of local thugs.  The strikers claimed that they were not involved and that this was merely the work of young toughs. 

1882: A Russian Jew employed on the Pennsylvania pier, No.1 North River tore a piece of his scalp that was two inches in diameter from his forehead when a heavy bale that he was putting on a truck broke free and hit an obstruction. The Russian Jews was one of the strikebreakers who were plentiful in number but inept at doing the work.

1883: In Prague, “Hermann Kafka the fourth child of Jakob Kafka, a shochet or ritual slaughterer in Osek, a Czech village with a large Jewish population located near Strakonice in southern Bohemia” NS and his wife “Julie, the daughter of Jakob Löwy, a prosperous retail merchant in Poděbrady” gave birth to author Franz Kafka. The famous Czech born author gained his real fame after his death. After many false starts Kafka earned a Doctorate of Laws and then took a mind-numbing job with an insurance company. Ill health finally enabled him to work shorter hours, which gave him time to pursue his writings. Three of his best known works are the Trial, The Castle and America. Kafka became famous in spite of himself. He had left word that at the time of his death all of his manuscripts were to be destroyed. Fortunately, his friend Max Brod disobeyed him and had the works published. Kafka had planned to immigrate to Palestine before his untimely death in 1924 hastened by the effects of tuberculosis. On being Jewish Kafka wrote, "Not one calm second is granted to the Western Jew. Everything has to be earned, not only the present and the future but also the past…",

1884: The attorney for Gustave Jean Jacquet defended the painter from charges by Alexandre Dumas fils that he had defamed him by caricaturing the French author and dramatist as Baghdad Jew by arguing that the author’s features were public property.  In making his argument he cited the precedent of Horace Vernet “who depicted a well-known Jew running away with the cashbox.” Dumas was the illegitimate son of the more famous author of the same name.  He was also the maternal grandfather of Alexander Lippman the French Olympic fencer whose father was Jewish.

1885: In Palestine, Ezekiel and Tamar Melamed gave birth to NYU grad and JTS ordained rabbi, Raphael Hai Melamed, the holder of a Ph.D. from Dropsie College and husband Deborah Marcus  who severed several congregations including the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation in Montreal before becomes the leader B’nai Israel Congregation  in Elizabeth, NJ.

1885: “Sending Back French Paupers” published today described the situation of indigent Jewish immigrants who had been sent to the United States  by the Hebrew Aid Society of Paris last season and been returned to their place of origin because of their lack of funds and financial sponsors.

1886: Birthdate of Jerusalem native Israel Porath, the husband of Miriam Titktin with whom he “had 7 children - Shoshana, Samuel, Tzve, Benjamin, Ben Zion, Joseph, and David – and “for almost five decades,” “the ‘dean’ of Cleveland, Ohio’s Orthodox rabbis.”

https://case.edu/ech/articles/p/porath-israel

1887: “The Goethe-Zelter Letters” published today provides a detailed review of Goethe’s Letters to Zelter With Extracts From Those Of Zelter To Goethe, selected, translated and annotated by A.D. Coleridge. The book includes a description of the strange relationship between Carl Zeller, who did not like Jews, and his favorite pupil Felix Mendeslohn, whose family was Jewish.

1887: In St. Louis, MO, Nicholas Scharff and Carrie Bernheimer gave birth to their sixth child, Aurelia S. Scharff.

1888: The Sanitarium for Hebrew Children conducted the first of its ten summer excursions for poor Jewish children and their mothers.

1888: Four days after she had passed away, Sarah Salomons, (nee Hurwitz), the native of Highgate, London and daughter of Hyman Hurwitz and Hester Levy was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1889: “Dramatic poet and writer” Josef von Weilen passed away today.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Weil_von_Weilen,_Josef&prev=search

1889: In Brooklyn, Dr. Henry M. Leipzieger of the Hebrew Technical School presented a paper entitled “Manual Training in Relation to Public School Work” at a meeting of the New York State Teacher’s Association.

1890: The striking cloakmakers and tailors, most of whom are Polish and Russian Jews, resorted to violence after have peacefully endured the lockout for several weeks. Groups of strikers attacked scabs working at the Mercantile Cloak Company and Meyer Jonason & Co.

1890: Idaho joins the Union becoming the 43rd star on the Star Spangled Banner.  Despite a comparatively small Jewish population, Idaho was the first state to elect a Jew as Governor. On his second try for the top spot Moses Alexander was elected in 1914.  He served from 1915 until 1919.  A  German immigrant, Alexander had previously been elected Mayor of Boise. Alexander was not casual about his Jewish identity.  His wife was a Jew by choice, having converted when she married Alexander.

1891:Reports published today describing the recent death of  Prince Vladimir Andreyevich Dolgorukov, governor-general (mayor) of Moscow include a description of the positive relationship he enjoyed with the Jews of that city which ran contrary to the policy of the Czar. The Czar finally became so upset with him over this that he replaced him with the Grand Duke Sergius and forced him into virtual exile.

1892: In Kensington, London Samuel Octavius Lazarus and Mary Sara Jane Hallenstein gave birth to Kenneth Michaelis Lazarus, the husband of Mary Rebecca Lazarus and the father of Sir Peter Esmond Lazarus, K.C.B.; Norman Arthur Lazarus and Margaret Hilda Rigal

1893: In New York, “the Baron Hirsch Fund Schools held their ‘English Day’ exercise today during which the students’ songs and recitation showed their “undying allegiance to the flag of their adopted country.”

1893: “Growth of the Feeling Against the Jews in Germany” published today that by having elected sixteen members to the Reichstag, the anti-Semites have exceeded by one the number need to claim the privileges of a Party including the right to introduce legislation.  Herman Ahlwardt, who has just been released from prison and is the group’s leader, plans on introducing “special taxes on Jew bankers and traders. “Anti-Semitism in Germany has ceased to be a sporadic local phenomenon.” In 1887 one anti-Semite was elected to Reichstag; in 1890, it was five; and now it is 16 who “have almost 500,000 voters behind them. Nor do these figures tell all” since “the Conservative Party…pledged by its platform…to any decent and practicable measures against the Jews.”  (Editor’s Note – I realize this is a long entry but it challenges the notion that anti-Semitism in Germany was the product of the Versailles Treaty, the Great Depression or intimidation by a handful of brown-shirted thugs.)

1893: Today’s London Times is scheduled to publish a “startling photographic glimpse of what Russia is really like” which has been prepared by Sir Julian Goldsmid.

1894: Dr. Adolph Radin, Isidor D. Morrison and Julius Harburger addressed those attending tonight’s exercise hosted tonight by the Russian American Hebrew Association in honor of the Fourth of July. The program also included music and a benediction by Rabbi Moses of Port Gibson.

1894: Rabbi Levy of New Haven, CT officiated at the wedding of Sadie Bentschner to Isadore Israel at the home of the bride’s parents in Charleston, SC.

1895: Maria Moses, the daughter of Emanuel and Ann Moses, was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1895: The will of the late Lewis S. Levy was filed for probate in the Surrogate’s office today.

1896:” Gathered About Town” published today provided further indication of the large number of foreign born Jews living in New York.  Notices posted in the main corridor of the General Post Office are printed in Hebrew letters providing “instruction for the many Russian Polish Jews who have business with the postal authorities.” Similar notices have been printed in German and Italian for years.

1896: The body of the man found floating in New York’s Clyde River on June 25 has been identified as 25 year old Simon Mischel, a member of well-to-do family living on Delancey Street.  Apparently, he was shoved into the water after having been robbed an strangled by a gang of robbers who have been operating in the area.

1896: In Vienna, the Diet took up the question of extending the franchise.  An amendment, which seems to have great support, was proposed that would exclude Jews and Converts from exercising the franchise. 

1896: According to a report to be published in today’s Daily News, the attacks on the Jews at Mizalbisch were orchestrated by a Russian officer who was seeking “revenge against a Jewish” tavern keeper who had rescued a peasant whom the officer “was thrashing.”

1896: In Russia, Local administrators arbitrarily reclassified certain “townlets” as “villages” which caused havoc for Jewish merchants due to the restrictive nature of the May Laws.

1896: “Death of Jules S. Abecasis” published today described the fatal collision between the “well known rubber broker” and active member of the Jewish community who was riding his bicycle when it was struck by an express wagon.

1896: Twenty-two year old Mary Colar was fined five dollars on a charge of disorderly conduct based on the claim of 2 police officers “that she had made improper proposals to them” -  a claim that she denied and which appeared questionable since the officers “can speak no Hebrew and she can speak no English.”

1897: A summary of the acquisitions made by the New York Public Library during May published today show that of the institution had acquired, by various means, 1,600 books and pamphlets written in Hebrew and 360 works in Yiddish. In additions to the Bible and Commentaries, Talmud, Midrash, Cabala and Jewish History books, the library now owns “165 photographs of prominent Jews.”

1897: According to figures released yesterday when his will was filed for probated Mayer Lehman “left an estate valued at $450,000 in real and $500,000 in personal property.  In addition to bequeathing thousands of dollars to a variety of Jewish and Gentile charities, Lehman left $20,000 for the executors to use as they see fit to assist family members and “for such employees of Lehman brothers as may be in need of aid.

1897: “Jewish Pupils Celebrate” published today described the exercises at the Baron de Hirsch English Day School in which children of Jewish immigrants demonstrated their patriotism and fluency in English as they prepare to observe Independence Day.

1897: “Americans in Babylonia” published today provided a review of Nippur or Explorations and Adventures by Dr. John Punnett Peters in which the author describes the Jewish community that originated during the period of “Captivity” which created to great centers – Sura near Babylonia and Nehardea or Nearda which is not far from Anabar.  The latter was a prominent Jewish center, he says for 800 years until it was replaced by Baghdad.

1898: “Jewish Chautauqua Society” published today described plans for the Second Assembly of the society which will be held at Atlantic City later this month with headquarters at Congregation Beth Israel on Pennsylvania Avenue.

1899: Birthdate of Atlanta native and Peabody College graduate Hattye Raphael Bubis, the wife of David Stcklar Bubo and mother of WW II Naval veteran and Dallas marketing executive Ralph Bubis who was a member of the National Council of Jewish Women.

1899: Birthdate of German native and “British neurologist, Ludwig Guttman, the founder of the Paralymics.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ludwig-Guttmann

1900: It was reported today that while being interviewed by The Herald, Oscar Straus, the American Minister to Turkey gave “a forcible statement on the impossibility of partitioning China.

1901: Today’s sessions of the Central Conference of American Rabbis meeting in Philadelphia “were devoted principally to routine business” which included the treasurer report by Charles S. Levi and a report “on Summer schools non-affiliated with congregations.”

1902: Birthdate anthropologist Melville Jacobs a long-time member of the faculty of the University of Washington and the husband of fellow anthropologist Elizabeth Jacobs.

https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/jacobs_melville_1902_1971_/#.Wzrrn_ZFx9A

1903: In Dusseldorf, Gustav Cohn, the German born son of “Levi and Eva Regina Cohn” and his wife Paul Cohen gave birth to Leo Ernst Cohen.

1903: Today, as the meeting of the Central Conference of American Rabbis in Detroit, a motion made by Dr. J.M. Margolis that a committee be appointed to draw up a reform creed” which will be submitted to the organization at their meeting in 1905 is scheduled to be discussed today.

1903: Pogrom began in Bialystok.

1904(20th of Tammuz, 5664): Theodor Herzl passed away at the age of 44. One person can make a difference.  “If you will it, it is no dream!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CdfCZa2XOI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO88cy4YgHU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWi3pV8_XQY

1904: In Manhattan Mollie (Isaacs) Lefkowitz and Samuel Lefkowitz gave birth to Louis J. Lefkowitz the Republican lawyer who served the state’s Attorney General for 22 years.

1904(20th of Tammuz, 5664): Sixty-four year old Charles Wessolowsky, the husband of Johanna Wessolowsky passed away today.

http://www.jewishsouth.org/resources/reflections-southern-jewry-letters-charles-wessolowsky

http://www.amazon.com/Reflections-Southern-Jewry-Wessolowsky-1878-1879/dp/0865540209

1905: Today, “while the general situation in Odessa has improved “those best knowing the conditions in the city are of the opinion that the graves danger now lies in a possible anti-Jewish rising” because the Jews who number about 175,000 are “deeply hated for a variety of reasons.

1906: As the seventh annual convention of the Federation of Zionists in Canada continues to meet in Toronto could take satisfaction in yesterday’s announcement by President De Sola of Montreal “that the Sultan of Turkey had revoked the laws forbidding Jews to settle in Palestine” which meant
that it was no possible for Jews to inhabit the country and enjoy the protection of its laws.

1907: Rabbi Joseph Stotlz delivered the “President’s Message” at the annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

1907: This evening, at the convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbi Max Heller led the Round Table on the “Compatibility of Zionism and Reform Judaism” and Rabbi William S. Friedman led the Round Table on “The Rabbi and Public Activities.”

1907: Birthdate of Felix Solomon Cohen, the New Deal lawyer who re-shaped the legal status of Native Americans.

1908: On the Western calendar, seventy-six year old Count Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev, the prime mover behind the anti-Semitic May Laws passed away today.

1909(14th of Tammuz, 5669): Parashat Balak was chanted on the same day that “Federal charges were filed against the manufacturers of Koca Nola, the third most popular cola after Coke and Pepsi, after a one-gallon jug of the syrup was found to include cocaine.”

1910: Dr. Harry Friedenwald of Baltimore, the out-going President was among those who address the three hundred delegation of the American Federation of Zionists who were attending the organizations 13th annual convention in Pittsburgh.

1911: “Zionist Discuss Plans” published today described “a plan to buy one hundred thousand acres of land annually in Palestine in order to established colonies of Jews” which presented at the fourteenth annual convention of the Federation of American Zionist” meeting at Tannersville, NY>

1912(18th of Tammuz, 5672): Seventy year old Abraham Boehm, the German born son of Sara and Hirsch Bohm passed away today in Mt. Vernon, NY.

1912:  Harvard trained surgeon and Harvard Medical School instructor Albert Ehrenfried, the Lewiston, ME born son of George and Rachel Ehremfroed who was instructor for army surgeons during WW I and the chairman of the health committee of the Federation of Jewish Charities of Boston married Grace Waterman today in Bangor, ME.

1913: The factional trouble that had been predicted broke out today on the second day of the 24th annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis which split over several matters including “publication of a special prayer book for Sunday services” for “those congregations that must have a Sunday service” and which found a tearful Rabbi Isaac S. Moses of New York, one of the oldest members of the conference asking “that either new methods be adopted by the Conference or that his name be stricken from the membership roll” since he objected to the “defaming of rabbis anywhere.

1913: Two after she had passed away at the Home for Aged Jews in Chicago, 78 year old Nanette Flesch, the aunt of “Walter J, Eugene, Edwin and Rose Flesch was scheduled to be buried at Rosehill today.

1913(28th of Sivan, 5673): Printer Solomon Geisenberg passed away today in Memphis, TN.

1913: In Manhattan, Rene and Samuel Hoffman gave birth to art collection Janice H. Levin, the widow of attorney and real estate developer Philip J. Levin (As reported by Enid Nemy)

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/27/nyregion/janice-levin-87-philanthropist-of-the-arts.html

1914: As the “winds of world war” begin to blow across Europe, today” a state funeral was held for Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Vienna, with Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and other members of the imperial family in attendance.”

1914(5th of Tevet, 5674): Parashat Vayigash

1914: Rabbi David Lefkowitz of Dayton, OH, led Sabbath morning services at the “25th anniversary conference of the Central Conference of American Rabbis” being held “at Temple Beth El in Detroit, Michigan.”

1915: Frank Flint, the former U.S. Senator from California who supported efforts have Georgia Governor Slaton commute of Leo Frank’s sentence was quoted as saying “We want to honor Slaton for the manly thing he did in giving Frank the benefit of the doubt and saving his life.”

1916: In Philadelphia, Zionists continued their convention for a third day.

1916(2nd of Tammuz, 5676): Twenty-two year old Lance Corporal Hyman Baum the son of Leah and Nathan Baum died today while serving with the “1st Battalion, Border Regiment” after which he was buried at Louvencourt Military Cemetery.

1917(13th of Tammuz, 5677):  Twenty-six year old Lieutenant Benjamin Cohen of South Africa became a casualty of war today.

1917: In Asbury Park, NJ, delegates at the Ninth Annual Convention of Young Judaea were scheduled to attend a business session this morning.

1917: “Because of various conflicting reports, Ira Nelson Morris, the American Minister has requested the Swedish Foreign Office to use its best efforts to ascertain the truth about the condition of the Jews in Palestine.”

1917: It was reported to that “the Jewish Teachers’ Congress, which is now meeting in Petrograd, has appointed a committee to see the Minister of Education in order to obtain the abolition of certain restrictions which still attach to the education of Jewish children.”

1917: Ex-Ambassador Abram I. Elkus who is traveling aboard a French steamer, did not arrive in New York City as originally planned.

1918: According to reports received today by the Jewish Corresponded Bureau in Amsterdam, “anti-Semitic outbreaks have occurred in Jaroslau and other Galician towns” where it is said “Jewish residents have been made the victims of excesses and their shops have been plundered” while the authorities refused “to interfere” with the attacks.

1918: In the South Bronx, clothing store owner Henry Adelson and seamstress Rose (Zagor) Adelson, gave birth Yale trained attorney Shirley Adelson, the wife of filmmaker Elwood Seigel  who gained fame as leading civil rights attorney Shirley Siegel who had personal experience with discrimination when no law firm would hire because she was Jewish and a female

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/nyregion/shirley-siegel-leading-new-york-civil-rights-lawyer-dies-at-101.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

https://www.nycbar.org/shirley-adelson-siegel

1918: Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire passed away at the age of 73.  He had been the titular head of the empire that sided with the Central Powers during World War I.  Among the Jews who died fighting under the Sultan’s banner were Major Isaac Adjubel, Captain Albert Cohen, Captin Izidor Shalom, Captain Zavarro, Captain Albert Menashe, Captain Pepo Akshiote, Captain Siyaves, Captain Albagli, Captain Asa, Captain David Feder and Captain Pharmacist Behor Alfandar.

1919: Birthdate of Orange Free State native Colin Legume, the journalist and ant-Apartheid activist.

http://spartacus-educational.com/JOUlegum.htm

1920(17th of Tammuz, 5680)

1920: In Manhattan, attorney Selig Seligman and his wife, concert pianist Selma Edelman, gave birth to Columbia University trained journalist and WW II U.S. Army veteran Daniel Joseph Edelman, the founder of Edelman, one of the world’s largest P.R. firms  and the husband of Ruth Ann Rozumoff with whom he raised Richard Eedelman who took over as head of the firm in 1985.

https://www.edelman.com/about-us/our-history

1920: Columbia University College of Dental and Oral Surgery trained orthodontist Samuel Abraham, the Budapest born son of Fannie Gottesman and Jehuda Abraham and author of “Conservative Treatment of Pulpless Teeth” who was a member of both Ohab Zedek and Temple Israel in Long Branch married Stella Lillia Kronovet today.

1921: Solomon Lozovsky ended his service as Chairman of the International Trade Union Council and began serving as General Secretary of the Red International of Labor Unions.

1921: Birthdate of Levi Yitzchak Horowitz, the second Rebbe of the Boston Hasidic dynasty founded by his father, Rabbi Pinchas Horowitz.

http://www.haaretz.com/the-bostoner-rebbe-the-first-american-born-hasidic-leader-1.2308

1922: Harvard's reputed attitude toward Jews was criticised today by Rabbi Louis L. Mann of New Haven, a lecturer at Yale, in a report on "The Relation of Judaism to Democracy," which was presented at a meeting of the National Council of Education.

1923: In Paris, Béatrice de Camondo and Léon Reinach the son of Théodore Reinach gave birth to their second child, Bertrand.  He would die a t Auschwitz in 1944.

1923: Mayer Dizengoff, the Mayor of Tel Aviv, sails from New York City aboard the Aquitania.

1924: In Syracuse, NY, Bessie and Harry Israel gave birth to Marvin Israel “a painter and editorial art director and a teacher of graphics and photography.”

1924: Birthdate of Jiri Drillich who, in 1942, was transported from Prague to Ujazdow where she was murdered.

1924: In the Bronx, “Hyman Bassen, a writer and labor activist, and Ida (Orland) Bassen” gave birth to Nancy Bassen who gained fame as Nancy B. Reich, the author of Clara Schumann: The Artist and the Woman.  (As reported by Corinna de Fonseca-Wollheim)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/obituaries/nancy-b-reich-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1924: Ted "Kid" Lewis (born Gershon Mendeloff) “won his last two titles, the British and European Welterweight crowns, today — again at London's Royal Albert Hall — by defeating Johnny Brown.

1925: In the Bronx, birthdate of Bernard Schwartz who gained fame as Tony Curtis and who was sometimes referred to as "a poor man's Cary Grant."  One of his biggest hits came when he played opposite Grant in the film "The Pink Submarine."  Other famous roles were in "Some Like It Hot" with costars Jack Lemmon and that famous Jewess, Marilyn Monroe and as the wisecracking New York born orderly in "Dr. Newman, M.D."

1925: In Baltimore, MD, Gerson and Dorah (Steinbach) Grollman gave birth to HUC trained rabbi Earl Alan Grollman  a prolific writer on grief who became widely known for ministering to those mourning the death of loved ones in the 9/11 attacks, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and other times of loss…” (As reported by Annabelle Williams)

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/08/us/rabbi-earl-grollman-grollman.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1926(21st of Tammuz, 5686): Parashat Pinchas

1926(21st of Tammuz, 5686): Sir Adolph Tuck, 1st Baronet more commonly known as Adolph Tuck, a British fine art publisher and chairman of Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd who was the Prussian born son of Raphael Tuck and husband of Jeanetta Flatau with whom he had five children, the elest of whom was Major Reginald Tuck passed away today.

1926: Birthdate of Meyer Kupferman, the New York born clarinet player and composer.

http://www.milkenarchive.org/people/view/all/594/Kupferman,+Meyer

http://www.meyerkupferman.com/

1926: In Providence, RI, Samuel Goldberg and the former Elsie Hamburger gave birth to Elsie Marie Goldberg who gained fame as Elena Doria, “the longtime director of the Metropolitan Opera’s children’s chorus. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/arts/music/elena-doria-beloved-and-strict-as-hell-director-of-met-childrens-chorus-dies-at-90.html?_r=0

1927: It was announced today that “the Jewish community in Baltimore pledged itself to raise one hundred thousand dollars to go to the five million campaign being waged to raised fund for the creation of “Yeshiva College for American Jewry” whose building will be “erected at Amsterdam Avenue and 186th Street.

1928: Michael Mindlin, the President of Mindreyer Productions said today “he had a sent a representative to Albany to see James Wingate, Director of the State Board of Censors concerning the banned film ‘The City Without Jews’”. a 1924 Austrian Expressionist film by Hans Karl Breslauer, based on the novel of the same title by Hugo Bettauer.

1929: At the opening meeting of the Assembly of the Elected, “the national body which elects the National Council of Palestine Jews, a dispute broke out between Dr. Ton, the presiding officer and revisionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky.  The dispute revolved around revisionist claims that several of their delegates were attacked by Labor delegates and was so intense the meeting was adjourned.

1929: Two days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held for sixty year old Boris D. Bogen, a “teacher at the Baron de Hirsch Trade School in New York and “the principal of the Baron de Hirsch Agricultural School in Woodbine, NJ” and author of Psychology of Teaching Foreign Languages and Born a Jew who was the husband of Elisabeth Scholtz.

http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0003/ms0003.html

https://www.amazon.com/Born-Alfred-Segal-Boris-Bogen/dp/B00COBYN3S

1930: “Holiday,” a “romantic comedy with music by Josiah Zuro was released today in the United States.

1931: Today, in Philadelphia, “a resolution urging that World War veterans refrain from borrowing on their adjusted compensation certificates except in case of emergency was offered at the tenth national encampment of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States.

1932: “Fortified by optimistic reports of economic conditions in Palestine and by a belief that the spirit of defeatism had been banished by Zionism, leaders of the Zionist Organization of America at the opening of its annual convention here today appealed for continued support to the upbuilding of a Jewish national home in spite of the world-wide depression.”

1933: The 8th annual convention of Junior Hadassah is scheduled to come to an end today in Cleveland, OH.

1933: In Chicago, the convention of the ZOA comes to a close.

1933: Birthdate of Harvard trained attorney Herbert Elish, a New York City Sanitation Commissioner, the husband of the former Leslies Jane Rubin and the father of Harry and Daniel Ellish.

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/27/archives/zealous-sanitation-commissioner-herbert-elish.html

1934: Rebbetzin Renee Schick who founded the Schick's Bakery in Boro Park in 1941, and her husband gave birth to Professor Marvin Schick “an expert on Jewish Day Schools who served “as liaison to the Jewish Community” for John Lindsay during his second term as Mayor of NYC and his twin brother Allen.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/nyregion/marvin-schick-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1934: “The annual convention of District Grand Lodge No. 4 of B’nai B’rith is scheduled to begin today in Vancouver, BC.

1935(2nd of Tammuz, 5695): Ed Sachs, the “pioneer merchant” who may have been the owner of the Ed Sachs Curio Store in San Antonio, passed away today.

1935(2nd of Tammuz, 5695):  Fifty-seven year old André-Gustave Citroën, the son of “diamond merchant Levie Citroen from the Netherlands and Masza Amelia Kleinman from Warsaw, Poland” the automobile manfacture best known for the car that bears his name passed away today in his native Paris.

http://www.citroenet.org.uk/miscellaneous/history/history01.html

1935: Sir Francis Montefiore, grandnephew of the noted philanthropist, who had served for several years President of the Board of Elders of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue in London; a position to which he was first elected in 1904 was buried today at the Spanish & Portuguese Jews Cemetery at Mile End Road in London.

1936(13th of Tammuz, 5696): German Jew Stefan Lux kills himself in the assembly room of the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The suicide is in protest of Germany's persecution of Jews. He was an early supporter of Theodore Herzl and Zionism but curtailed his efforts following the Great War.

1936 The Palestine Post reported from London that the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Ormsby Gore, told the House of Commons that "there were no provisions in the Covenant or Peace Treaties or the Mandate regarding the withdrawal of the Mandate from the Power entrusted with it."

1936: Sir Sidney Abrahams became the 26th Chief Justice of Ceylon, a post he would hold until 1939.

1936 The Palestine Post reported that Hebron was fined a collective fine of £2,000 for ambushing an army patrol. Two British soldiers were hurt in this encounter.

1936: The Palestine Post reported that ten suspected Jewish communists were rounded up by police in Tel Aviv and interned at the army's Sarafand detention camp.

1936 The Palestine Post reported that when questioned about a news item which appeared in an Arab newspaper, the management of the Jerusalem YMCA declared that it offered a platform on which young men, irrespective of their race, creed and religion could cooperate and meet in an atmosphere of congeniality and goodwill.

1936: Jewish stores were sacked and several Jews were wounded by Moslems in Gafsa and Sousse Tunisia which led the Jewish merchants in Sousse to barricade “themselves in their shops” and fight “off attacking Moslems with rifle and pistol fire” while they awaited the arrival troops who were supposed to restore order.

1937(24th of Tammuz, 5697): Parashat Pinchas

1937(24th of Tammuz, 5697): Fannie Hoffner Lainer, the wife of Samuel Lainer passed away today in Worcester.

1937: In Buffalo, NY Esther Miriam (née Sheinberg) and Buffalo society band leader and piano teacher Irving Daniel Shire gave birth to David Lee Shire the songwriter and composer whose work included the soundtracks for “The Taking of Phelham One Two Three” and “The Conversation.”

1937: Twenty-nine year old Brooklynite Moe Schultz returned today on the President Roosevelt from Palestine, where he said he had driven a truck for three years between the towns of Haifa and Tel-Aviv, a distance of ninety miles, and had many thrilling escapes from Arab snipers.

1938: The unveiling of a memorial in memory of Sarah Leah Broadwin is scheduled to take place this morning at the Mt. Zion Cemetery on Long Island.

1938: Today “hundreds of house owners in the fashionable suburbs” of Vienna “have been ordered by National Socialist organizations to give notice immediately to Jewish tenants to vacate their apartments within a fortnight” with the purpose of keeping “the fashionable districts ‘clear.’”

1939: A sailboat of unknown nationality arrived in Haifa flying the blue and white colors of the Zionist cause.  British police boarded the boat “where they found 697 Jewish immigrants including 192 women and 37 children.”  The immigrants are classified as “illegal” and their total will be deducted from the pitifully small allotment of Jews allowed to enter Palestine under the White Paper.

1939(16th of Tammuz, 5699): Tonight, Arabs attacked Tel Hayim, a settlement near Tel Aviv, killing one Jewish supernumerary.

1940: Following yesterday’s request by the OKW, the German military were working on the plans for the invasion of England code named Operation Sea Lion.

1941: Associate Justice Harlan Fisk Stone began serving as Chief Just of the U.S Supreme Court. From 1932 until 1937, Stone, the New England Protestant joined the two Jewish Justices – Cardozo and Brandeis – as the 3 Musketeers, the liberal faction of the Supreme.

1941(8th of Tammuz, 5701): At Nowogrodek, the Nazis sought fifty "volunteers" to be members of the Jewish council there. They are taken away and never seen again. Fifty more were shot in the town square.

1941(8th of Tammuz, 5701): Sixty-nine-year-old theatrical producer Sam Harris passed away today after suffering a relapse following his operation for appendicitis.

1941: In Vilna, all the Jews were required to wear identity badges.

1941: In Liepāja, SS-Obersturmbannführer Reichert’s EK 1a men began their roundup of and began marching to trenches in Rainis Park where they will begin massacring them.

1941(8th of Tammuz, 5701): One hundred Jews are murdered at Bialystok, Poland.

1941(8th of Tammuz, 5701): In the Ukraine, 3500 Jews are killed at Zloczow and hundreds die at Drohobycz.

1941(8th of Tammuz, 5701): Fifty Jews in Novogroduk, Belorussia, who volunteer for a German-organized Jewish council, "disappear." Another 50, selected at random, are shot in the town square to the accompaniment of music played by a German band.

1941: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin orders the establishment of partisan units to harass German troops in occupied Soviet territory. Jews would play an active role in these units. There were also units made up exclusively of Jewish partisans.

1941: Birthdate of American contractor Warren Weinstein who was kidnapped by al-Qaeda in 2011.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/warren-weinstein-abduction-pakistan-police-release-kidnapping-suspect/story?id=14332931#.TtD8_mN4MjU

1941: Birthdate of Gloria Rachel Bloom, who gained fame as Gloria Allred, the publicity seeking lawyer.

1942: In Manhattan, the United Palestine Appeal reported today that “The Palestine Government granted 1,500 immigration certificates in Palestine in the three months ending on June 30.”

1943: Birthdate of self-promoting television news personality Geraldo Rivera.  Rivera’s father was from Puerto Rico.  After moving to New York he married a Jewish woman named Lily Friedman.  Contrary to popular urban legend, Rivera’s original name was not Gerry Rivers.  And he did not change his name to appeal to Hispanic audiences.

1944: Minsk was liberated from Nazi control by Soviet troops during Operation Bagration

1944: The British War Cabinet agrees to examine Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann's request for the formation of a Jewish Brigade to fight in the British Army, with the white and blue Star of David as its standard.

1945: In Jerusalem, Israeli poet and political activist Yonatan Ratosh and his wife gave birth to award winning mathematician Saharon who splits his time between Hebrew University and Rutgers in New Jersey.

1946: Theodore Levin was nominated by President Harry S. Truman to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan vacated by Edward Julien Moinet.

1946:  Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis met for the first time in Atlantic City.  They would become one of the leading comedy teams of their time.  The Italian Crooner played straight man to the Jewish clown.

1946: After having been “missing” for two days, 8 year old Henryk Blaszcyk returned to his family at Kielce having gone to his hometown to visit friends which led his father to file a second report with the local police “claiming his son had been kidnapped by the Jews” but had managed to escape.”  This false report would result in a police investigation that would provide the excuse for another round of Poles murdering Jews.

1947: Birthdate of brilliant attorney, Renaissance man and all-around great guy, David Robert Levin- a real Mensh. He is also one heck of a great brother!

1948(26th of Sivan, 5708): Parashat Sh’lach

1948: A double celebration marking Shabbat and the first birthday of David Levin

1948: Rumors abound in besieged Jerusalem that a new road was being built that would bring supplies to the embattled city.

1949: Birthdate of world traveling computer whiz and pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community, Bill Hurwitz

1949 David Ben-Gurion issued a public exoneration of Meir Tubiansky and restitution of his rank and rights. Four days later his body was re-buried on Mount Herzl. In November 1949, after a trial at which Binyamin Gibli appeared as a witness for the prosecution, Isser Be'eri was found guilty of manslaughter.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the first reading of the Women's Equal Rights Bill was passed by the Knesset. The Knesset had also passed a bill empowering the government to float loans up to IL5m. from financial institutions to be applied to the defense budget. 128,223 new immigrants entered the country during the first six months of 1951. Since the state was established in 1948, 638,597 immigrants arrived.

1951(29th of Sivan, 5711): Sixty-one-year-old Russian born and New York Homeopathic Medical College trained radiologist and roentgenologist Dr. Abraham Ossip  who was the husband of Ida Ossip with he raised a son, Seymour, and two children passed away today at Beth Israel Hospital.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/07/05/82105865.html?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0&pageNumber=25

1952: NBC broadcast the first episode of “Mr. Peepers” in which Walter Matthau using the name “Leonard Elliot” portrayed “the gym teacher Mr. Wall.

1953(20th of Tammuz, 5713): Forty-seven year old New York native Irving Reis, the creator of the radio anthology Columbia Worship who turned his skill to screenwriting and movie director and the husband of Meta Arenson with whom he had three children passed away today after which he was “buried in the Jewish Cemetery Hillside Memorial Park.

1953: Today, in Portland, Oregon, at the “94th annual convention of the National Education Association” “the delegation of New York State teachers…opened fire on the NEA’s sponsorship of travel tours to Arab countries in the Middle East from which American Jewish teachers are barred. (JTA)

1956: Seventy-nine year old Lithuanian native Kalman Marmor who in 1906 came to the United States where he pursued a career in journalism with such publications as “the Jewish daily Morning Freiheit” and the Daily Forward.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/marmor-kalman

http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32584

1956: Release date for “Somebody Up There Likes Me” starring Paul Newman, with a script by Ernest Lehman and filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg.

1957(4th of Tammuz, 5717): Sixty-five year old Benjamin Daniels, the husband of Gertrude Daniels and father of Doris Kaufman who risen from being a clerk to the Presidency of the A.S. Beck Shoe Corporation passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/07/04/96954602.pdf

1957(4th of Tammuz, 5717): Seventy-year-old Russian born Joseph Breslaw who came to the United States in 1907 who was simultaneously vice president of the ILGU, manager of Local 35 of the Cloak and Pressers Union and chairman of the Trade Union Division  of the National Committee for Labor Israel and was the husband of Rosa Breslaw wit whom he raised three sons – Alfred, Bernard and Leon --- passed away today at Mt. Sinai Hospital.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/07/04/96954605.html?pageNumber=19

1958(15th of Tammuz, 5718): Fifty-four year old Dr. Samuel T. Yuster, a “Professor of Engineering at U.C.L.A.” and “an authority on petroleum engineering” who was the husband of Rose Yuster and the father of Frances and Louis Yuster passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/07/05/82210353.pdf

http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb7q2nb431;NAAN=13030&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00021&toc.depth=1&toc.id=&brand=calisphere

1958: Slightly after 4:00am a fire destroyed all the sets and costumes putting an end to the planned dress-rehearsal the movie version of Gershwin’s “Porgy Bess” directed by Otto Preminger, produced by Samuel Goldwyn and co-starring Sammy Davis, Jr.

1959: Birthdate of Julie Burchill, “a defender of Israel, The Jewish Chronicle described … in 2008 as "Israel's staunchest supporter in the UK media"; who has two Israeli flags in her home.”

http://www.thejc.com/arts/arts-interviews/julie-burchill-brash-outspoken-and-wishing-she-was-jewish

http://www.timesofisrael.com/playing-hatikvah-on-a-desert-island/

1959: Birthdate of David Shore the Canadian lawyer turned writer, who is “best known for his work writing and producing television shows including Family Law, NYPD Blue, Due South and House.

1962: The Algerian War for Independence ends with Algeria gaining its independence from France.  The end of the war with the Algerians marked a shift in French attitudes and policies in the Middle East.  Under De Gaulle’s leadership, the French government sought to develop a power base among the Moslem nations of North Africa and the Near East.  This meant a growing policy of hostility towards Israel that would ultimately lead the French government to attempt to block the delivery of patrol boats to Israel later in the decade.  The naval craft had already been paid for when the French refused to deliver them so Israeli agents seized them and brought them to Haifa.

1963:Today funeral services are scheduled to be held for builder Harry Lefrak, who “will be honored as leader of Judaism” are scheduled to be held today in Queens and which Counsel General Katriel Katz will attend as a representative of the government of Israel.

1963(11th of Tammuz, 5725): Fifty-nine year old “Mrs. Rosa Brown Eisendrath” the Bonham, TX born wife “Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath, the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations who gave up her career as a concert pianist to help her husband fulfill his calling passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/07/04/86712588.pdf

1963(11th of Tammuz, 5725): Eighty-two year old Isaac Feinstein, the husband of Jennie Avent Feinstein passed away today after which he was buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, NY.

1964: In Scarsdale, NY, this afternoon, Rabbi Joachim Prinz officiated at the marriage of Herbert Horn to Mrs. Carol Coan Petergorsky, the associate director of the National Federation of Temple Young and the “widow of David W. Petegorsky, national execu­tive director of the American Jewish Congress:

1965: On Long Island, at Temple Israel of Great Neck, Rabbi Harold Kushner and Cantor Benjamin Siegel officiated as the wedding Susan Hope Rieder and Dr. Cyrus Ira Kahn.

1966: Ten rabbis, led by Rabbi Aaron Solveicik, officiated at the marriage of Golda Reena Shatz and Henry Isaac Rothman.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/07/04/121727549.html?pageNumber=8

1967(25th of Sivan, 5727): Seventy-one year old Hymen Alpern, the long-time New York City high school principal and “author of books on Spanish literature” whose education included a BA from CCNY, an MA from Columbia and PH.D from NYU and as the husband “of the former Belle Kopperman” with whom he had three children – Stanley, Dorothy and Rosylyn – passed away today.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/people/785994?c=people

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/07/07/90367291.pdf

1967: After two days of fighting in and around Ras el 'Ish, neither Egyptians nor Israeli forces move against the other.

1968: Birthdate of Alan Schwartz, the White Plains, NY native “Pulitzer Prize-nominated National Correspondent at The New York Times best known for writing more than 100 articles[1] that exposed the seriousness of concussions among football players of all ages.

1969(17th of Tammuz, 5729): Tzom Tammuz

1969(17th of Tammuz, 5729): Fifty-six year old Elizabeth H. Friedman passed away today.

1969: Two days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held today for eighty-four year old Grodno born American “calligrapher, designer and artist Joseph B. Abrahams, the husband of “the former Mrs. Lillian Manning” whose creations included “the bronze doors of Temple Emanu-El” in New York  and “the interior décor for the Ziegfeld Follies.”

1970: ITV broadcast the final episode of “Doctor in the House” in which Jonathan Lynn played the Irish medical student Danny Hooley.

1971(10th of Tammuz, 5731): Parashat Chukat

1971 (10th of Tammuz, 5731): Charles B. Edison, the Clayton, MO born son of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel B. Edison who survived being shot down while serving as a navigator with the 15th Air Force and an executive in the family Edison Brothers Stores passed away today.

1971(10th of Tammuz, 5731): Sixty-four year old David “Cy” Kaselman the native of Philadelphia who played basketball for the “Sphas from 1928 to 1940” passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/04/archives/cy-kaselman.html

http://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2018/01/cy-kaselman.html

1974: Authorities began releasing Jewish activists held in prisons at Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa and Kiev during the visit of President Nixon. Estimates of number of Jews detained in Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa and Kiev and other cities vary from 50 to 100.

1975(24th of Tammuz, 5735): Seventy-six-year-old “Wolf Ladejinsky, a leading American agricultural technician who played a key role in agrarian reform in Asia, died today in George Washington University Hospital in Washington.”

https://www.nytimes.com/1975/07/04/archives/wolf-ladejinsky-land-reformer-dies-helped-to-break-feudal-system-in.html

1975(24th of Tammuz, 5735): Eighty-year old South Carolina born, suffragette and aunt by marriage of folk singer Pete Seeger Anta Pollitzer passed away today in New York City.

http://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/content/anita-pollitzer-family-papers

http://americancivilwar.com/women/Womens_Suffrage/Anita_Pollistzer.html

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/pollitzer-anita

 1976: “At 2:30” this “afternoon, Prime Minister Rabin told the security for the first time since hostage situation developed on June 27 that he was in favor of the military option” saying that “Not out of an idealization, far from that, but with knowledge toward what we are heading, toward wounded, toward dead… nonetheless, I recommend that the government to authorize this,” (As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)

1976: By the end of Day 7 the rescue mission portion of Operation Thunderbolt had been completed as Hercules Four flown Amnon Halivni took off from Entebbe and headed for Kenya carrying all of the hostages with the exception of Dora Bloch who was in a Ugandan hospital.

1976: At 8 pm EDT in Washington, DC, an aide to President Gerald Ford responded to a telephone call from Amos Erian telling of the rescue by saying “Tell Mr. Rabin I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the Bicentennial” – a reference to the celebrations marking the two hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

1978(28th of Sivan, 5738): Seventy-seven year old Hungarian born economist and philosopher László Radványi whose academic odyssey including from Nazi Germany to stops in Paris and Mexico before a return to West Germany passed away today.

1979: Edward Graham Lee completed his service as Canada’s Ambassador to Israel.

1979: Thirty-four years after the end of World War II, the West German government voted to continue prosecution of Nazi war criminals by removing the statute of limitations on murder.

1980: One person was injured in Gaza from a terrorist bombing.

1980(19th of Tammuz, 5740): Anatoli (Tankhum) Lvovich Kaplan “a Russian painter, sculptor and printmaker, whose works often reflect his Jewish origins” passed away. One of his most noted works was “The Musicians” painted in 1968. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Lvovich_Kaplan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kaplanmusicians.jpg

1982: Uri Avnery, the Israeli writer and Knesset member who has traveled from the Irgun to the leftist peace movement   met Yasser Arafat on during the "Battle of Beirut" — said to have been the first time an Israeli met personally with Arafat.

1983: In Los Angeles, Catherine (Noriega) and Michael D. Silber who is Jewish gave birth to multi-talented actress and author Alexandra Silber who appeared as “Tzeitel” and “Hodel” in different productions of “Fiddler on the Roof” while also writing the debut novel After Anatevka (chronicling what happens to the characters of Hodel and Perchik made famous by the Sholem Aleichem stories and in the musical Fiddler on the Roof.”

1985:Back to the Future: directed by Robert Zemeckis was released today, “and became the most successful film of the year, grossing more than $383 million worldwide and receiving critical acclaim.”

1987: ''Furniture Making in East London: 1830 to 1980,'' an exhibition that is part of this summer's Jewish East End Celebration opened at Geffrye Museum,

1989: Opening of the Thirteenth Maccabiah.

1991(21st of Tammuz, 5751): Seventy-seven-year old Sir Bernard Nathaniel Waley-Cohen the 633rd Lord Mayor of London who was  the son of Ali Beddington and Sir Robert Waley Cohen, the husband of Joyce Constance Ina and son-in-law of Harry Louis Nathan passed away today.

1991: “Problem Child 2” a sequel comedy co-starring Laraine Newman and featuring Gilbert Gottfried was released in the United States today.

1991(21st of Tammuz, 5751): Seventy-nine Ephraim Elimelech Urbach, the native of Bialystok who made Aliyah in 1937 and was a Professor of Talmud at Hebrew University passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/03/obituaries/ephraim-e-urbach-hebrew-scholar-79.html

1992: The curtain came down on a revival performance of It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman is a musical composed by Charles Strouse” at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut.

1993(14th of Tammuz, 5753): Parashat Balak

1993(14th of Tammuz, 5753): Ninety-one year old Holocaust survivor Joseph Gruss who used the fortune he amassed from the oil and gas industry to support various philanthropies including the Be’er Hagolah Institute passed away this evening in Manhattan. (As reported by Eric Pace)

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/05/obituaries/joseph-gruss-91-philanthropist-who-supported-jewish-schools.html

1996(16th of Tammuz, 5756): Seventy-nine-year-old U.S Army and  NYU educated  financier Bernard Gerald Cantor, the Bronx born son of Belarus immigrants Rose Delson and Julius Cantor who was the founder of the securities firm Cantor Fitzgerald and co-owner of the Kansas City Kings passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/06/arts/b-gerald-cantor-philanthropist-and-owner-of-rodin-collection-isdead-at-79.html

1997: Poet Adrienne Rich made headlines today by refusing to accept the National Medal for the Arts. “Ms Rich informed Jane Alexander, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, that she would not accept the National Medal for the Arts. To accept the award, she felt, would be hypocritical in view of the country's widening socio-economic gap. In her typical hard-hitting style, Rich wrote that, "art—in my own case the art of poetry—means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it hostage." Both the national recognition and Rich's principled refusal were emblematic of the place this poet has come to occupy in American culture.”

1998(9th of Tammuz, 5758: Eighty-six year old architect Albert Carl Koch whose firm help design the building for Temple Israel in Sawmpsoctt, MA and WW II Navy veteran who was one of the Monuments Men, passed away today.

https://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/the-heroes/the-monuments-men/koch-lt.-albert-c.-usnr

1999: Janet Rosenberg Jagan was released from the hospital in Georgetown after being treated for a heart condition.

2000: C.K. Williams wrote today in the New Republic that “If there really is such a thing as wisdom, it might well reside in the character a master such as Yehuda Amichai can fashion for himself and so for us.”

2001: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at Temple Sinai in Washington, D.C. for Brooklyn born attorney and WW II Army veteran Julius Dankin, the President of Rutha Rales Jewish Family Service of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County who was the husband of Jeanne Sankin Z”L with whom he had three children – Marilyn, Andrew and Steven Z”L – after which “he will be buried at King David Cemetery in Falls Church, VA.

2001(12th of Tammuz, 5761): Mordecai Richler passed away. Born in 1931, Richler was a prolific prize winning author. One of his most famous books was the “Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” which was later made into a movie starring Richard Dreyfus.

2001: The body of Yair Har Sinai, 51, of Susiya in the Hebron hills, missing since yesterday was found early Tuesday morning shot in the head and chest

2002: Vandals attacked a synagogue and a memorial to Holocaust victims in the western spa town of Karlovy Vary, daubing red paint on the synagogue and the memorial, and leaving  posters and leaflets calling for a pogrom against Jews and labeling them the founders of capitalism. (As reported by Peter S. Green)

2003: In a brief hearing today Judge Shira A. Scheindlin of Federal District Court in Manhattan refused a request that she immediately order the city prison to provide vegan diets to the three Jewish inmates at Rikers Island who have filed a federal lawsuit saying their constitutional rights were violated by prison officials' refusal to provide them a vegan diet, which the inmates say is required by their religious beliefs.”

2004: In “Meanwhile: Theodor Herzl’s Dream 100 Years After His Death,” Geoffrey Wheatcroft, concluded that  “anyone can see by visiting Israel, Montefiore and others who disparaged Zionism were wrong in saying that the Jews could not become a nation. That part of Herzl's dream has come true.”

2004: Ninety-six year old “actress and acting teacher” Phoebe Brand Carnovsky who worked with the legendary Clifford Odets passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/12/theater/phoebe-brand-96-actress-and-group-theater-co-founder.html

2005: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback editions of The Missing Peace: The Inside Store of the Fight for Middle East Peace by Dennis Ross and Codex by Lev Grossman

2006: In “Entebbe’s Unsung Hero,” Eyal Ben described the fate of 19 year old Jean Jacques Maimoni, one of the hostages who did not survive.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3270314,00.html

2006: In the following review of “Up, Up and Oy Vey!” by Simcha Weinstein, Louis Parks describes “the obvious parallels” between the origins of Superman and Biblical depiction of Moses.

A loving parent tries to save the life of a child by placing him in a basket—or space capsule—and sending him floating/blasting to safety. Found and adopted into a new family in his new world, Moses/Superman is still guided by the wisdom and counsel of his parent. He lives a double life with a secret identity. Moses eventually leads people from abuse to freedom. Superman rescues people from disasters and crime. Superman's creators, Jewish immigrant sons Jerry Siegel and Joel Shuster, invented the superhero in 1938 Cleveland, Ohio. They never declared Superman was Jewish and their ambiguity was probably intentional. Though they didn't give their hero a specific ethnicity or religion, there are hints at his Jewishness. In some of his earliest stories, Superman sometimes foiled the plans of thinly disguised German Nazis, whose persecution of Jews already was infamous. Americans may not have noticed, but apparently the Nazis snapped to the implications, quickly blasting the new comic. Weinstein writes that in 1940, Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels denounced Superman as Jewish. Weinstein also "recounts the Jewish influence on superheroes such as Batman, Captain America, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and X-Men, most of whom were created by Jewish artists."

2007: Friendship: An Expose by Joseph Epstein goes on sale to the general public today.

2007:  Much to the delight of all who know him, David Levin, a mensch in the truest sense of that word, celebrates his sixtieth birthday.

2007: In Jerusalem, The Israeli Ballet, featuring Yevegenia Oberzatsuba and Vladimir Shaklerov, will perform the famous, romantic ballet, "Giselle," in the Sherover Theater at the Jerusalem Theater.

2007: As of today, Ryan Kalish led with New-York Penn League with 12 stolen bases.

2008: Rosh Chodesh Tammuz (First Day)

2008: Birthday celebration of David Levin, a grand gabbai and, like his Biblical namesake, a sweet singer of song.

2008: Yehudit Ravitz performed her first Caesarea Amphitheatre show in a decade to a sold-out crowd

2008: A foundation created by Steven Spielberg is giving $1 million to the National Museum of American Jewish History.

2008: Today, Saudi Arabia invited an Israeli rabbi to attend an interfaith conference to be held in Madrid. Rabbi David Rosen, president of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, is the only rabbi who lives in Israel who was invited by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and the World Muslim League to the conference that is slated for July 16 to 18.

2008: During the ceasefire with Hamas a Kassam rocket fired from Gaza struck near a kibbutz in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council. No casualties or damage was reported.

2009: Bill Hurwitz, world traveling computer whiz pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community, and a Zeda twice over celebrates the BIG Six-O.

2009: Israeli celebrity Dudu Topaz attempted to commit suicide at the Abu Kabir Detention Center in Tel Aviv.

2009: The family and friends celebrate the anniversary of the natal day of David Levin whose accomplishments are so numerous that we would have to start a separate blog just to cover them. יום הולדת שמח   

2010: The United States Holocaust Museum is scheduled to present a special program entitled France Pruitt "Faith, Courage, and Survival in a Time of Trouble."

2010: The joy of Shabbat is doubled as it coincides with the celebration of the birthday of David Levin, a hamesha mensch par excellence and a great brother.

2010: In Cedar Rapids, the traditional Shabbat minyan at Temple Judah celebrated the holiday weekend with a “Red, White and Blue.” 

2010: Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat categorically denied today a report that the PA told George Mitchell it would allow or accept Israeli sovereignty over the Western Wall in a new Arab state.

2011: The family and friends of David Levin are glad to be able to share in celebrating the natal day of this hamesha mensch.

2011: The wedding ceremony joining Abbie Silber and Rabbi Feivel Strauss is scheduled to take place in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  A sweet singer of song joins a budding sage!

2011: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “To End All Wars” by Adam Hochschild.

2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Manstein: Hitler’s Greatest General” by Mungo Melvin and the recently released paperback editions of  “Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media, and the Rule of Law” by Gabriel Schoenfeld and “Spies of the Balkans Alan Furst’s that centers around “Costa Zannis, a police official and fixer who has taken to helping Jewish refugees from Berlin complete the difficult route to safety.”

2011(1st of Tammuz, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2011: Terrorists in Hamas-controlled Gaza resumed rocket fire on the western Negev this morning.

2011: Hundreds of people demonstrated in Jerusalem today in support of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, who was arrested that morning for questioning over incitement to racism and violence, and released in less than one hour

2011(1st of Tammuz, 5771: Seventy-six year old Fred Newman whose “influential role in New York life and politics defied easy description” passed away. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/nyregion/fred-newman-76-anti-party-advocate-in-new-york-city-politics-dies.html?pagewanted=all   

 2012: The European Union of Jewish Students is scheduled to sponsor “Sharing Our Common Past: Christian and Jewish students” where young Jews and Catholics come together in Krakow to look for answers to the following questions: What divides us? What do we have in common? How can we work together? What are our roles and niches in contemporary Europe?

2012: After having premiered four days ago in Tokyo, “The Amazing Spider-Man” based on the Stan Lee created character and co-produced by Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin was released today in the United States.

 2012:  American hard rockers Guns 'N Roses who are heading back to Israel for the first time since 1993 are scheduled to perform at Hayarkon Park along with support acts Ugly Joe Kid and local favorites Hayehudim

2012: In the midst of a record-breaking heat wave, friends and family of David Levin prepare to celebrate the birthday of one “cool dude.”

2012: Kadima party chairman Shaul Mofaz, angered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dissolution of a Kadima-led panel tasked with drafting new universal draft legislation yesterday, refused to meet with Netanyahu on today to try to solve a crisis that threatens the stability of the national unity government.

2012: Today the state prosecutor filed an indictment against an ultra-Orthodox man for defacing the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and two IDF war memorials.

2013: “Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait” which “was co-curated with Winehouse's brother Alex and sister-in-law Riva” is scheduled to open at the Jewish Museum London.

2013: Friends and family are thrilled to be able to celebrate another birthday of David Levin whose many stellar qualities have outstripped my list of superlatives

2013: In Tel Aviv, the U.S. Embassy is scheduled to host the July 4th Celebration which will include remarks by the U.S. Ambassador, the Israeli President and the Israeli Prime Minister.

http://israel.usembassy.gov/4july2012.html

2013(25th of Tammuz, 5773): At Camp Tawonga, a Jewish summer camp in Northern California Annais Rosenberg, a counselor, was killed today when a tree fell through the dinning hall. Twenty campers were also injured (As reported by JTA and the Jewish Press)

2013: Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, a candidate for Sephardi chief rabbi, was due to be summoned today by Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein for a hearing, following a request by MK Eitan Cabel (Labor) earlier this week that the rabbi be disqualified from running due to “racist” comments he’d made about Arab citizens of Israel. (As reported by The Times of Israel)

2013: The Administrator General announced today that a group led by businessman Ori Allon has purchased a 60 percent stake of Hapoel Jerusalem previously owned by Guma Aguiar. As reported by Allon Sinai)

2014: Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism in partnership with the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology is scheduled to host  Dr Becky Taylor, Dr Matt Cook and Dr Jessica Reinisch speaking on “Histories of Prejudice: Persecuting Others.”

2014: As “Arthur” threatens to “rain on the holiday weekend,” nothing can dampen the enthusiasm of those celebrating the birthday of David Levin whose wit and wisdom would lighten even the darkest storm.

2014: “While some in the right are calling for revenge for the kidnapping and murder of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel, hundreds of protesters gathered at HaBima Square in Tel Aviv this evening urging "No to Escalation, No to Revenge." (As reported by Itay Blumenthal)

2014: “Around 100 residents of the rocket-battered Sderot located just west of Gaza protested on today at the entrance to the city, in response to the rapidly deteriorating security situation and after two direct hits on buildings were recorded since last night.” (As reported by Yoni Kempinski and Ari Yashar)

2014: “Over 15 rockets, part of the roughly 40 that have been fired from Gaza in the last two days, were fired at southern Israel in a salvo this afternoon that, causing two fires to break out.” (As reported by Ari Yashar)

2014: “In one of the first responses from Israel’s Jewish religious leadership to the violent aftermath of the deaths of Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-ad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach, former Sephardi chief rabbi Shlomo Amar on Thursday issued a fervent plea to Jewish youths to trust in God and the country’s political leadership and avoid taking the law into their own hands.” (As reported by Yifa Yaakov)

2014(5th of Tammuz, 5774): Eighty-nine year old Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi passed away today.

http://www.jta.org/2014/07/03/news-opinion/united-states/rabbi-zalman-schachter-shalomi-father-of-jewish-renewal-dies

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_26084358/zalman-schachter-shalomi-dies-jewish-renewal

2014: “Palestinian terrorists fired eight rockets and mortar shells into Israel tonight, bringing to over 20 the number of projectiles launched from the Gaza Strip throughout the day. The rockets fell in open areas and did not cause damage or injuries. :

2014: In response to attacks from Gaza, the IAF hit three Hamas targets which have yet to be further identified by the government.

2014: “A tense calm descended upon the capital this evening after a day of heavy rioting and emotionally charged demonstrations, as an Arab teenager allegedly murdered by Jews was laid to rest in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat.” (As reported by Advi Sterman)

2015: In Washington, DC, the historic 6th & I Synagogue is scheduled to host the “6th Street Minyan, laid-back Friday night service led by David Goldstein and Jenn Queen.”

2015: “A group of Islamic State supporters in Gaza claimed responsibility” for launching the “two rockets that exploded in Israeli near the Gaza Strip this afternoon.” (As reported by Itamar Sharon)

2015: The first ever Tel Aviv Blues Festival is scheduled to open today.

2015(16th of Tammuz, 5775): Seventy-year old Kathe Goldstein, an award winning Spanish Teacher and pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community passed away today.

http://www.thegazette.com/obituaries/kathe-goldstein-20150707-0001072351-01

2015: Friends and family of David Levin begin the Holiday Weekend by celebrating the most important holiday of all – David’s natal day.

2016(27th of Sivan, 577 6):  Ninety-four year old Rabbi Max Ticktin, the former associate director of Hillel and Professor at George Washington University passed away today.

http://forward.com/opinion/national/344212/the-torah-of-max-ticktin-will-not-be-forgotten/?utm_source=In+Memoriam&utm_campaign=Wiesel%2FTicktin&utm_medium=email

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/rabbi-max-ticktin-yiddish-and-hebrew-literature-professor-at-gwu-dies-at-94/2016/07/06/198fe5ce-42f0-11e6-8856-f26de2537a9d_story.html?utm_term=.27b9983cfbbc

2016: In Washington, DC, “District Merchants” playwright/director Aaron Posner’s version of The Merchant of the Venice is scheduled to be performed for the last time.

2016: As threatening weather closes in on Washington, DC, there is one ray of sunshine – the celebration of the birthday of David Levin

2016: “Soldiers in the IDF Home Front Command’s search and rescue units clear debris during a large-scale exercise in Zikim near the Gaza border” today

2016: The New York Times reviews books written by Jews and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Extra by A. B. Yehoshua, The Sun in Your Eyes by Deborah Shapiro and Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer by Arthur Lubow

2017: Friends and family of David Levin celebrate his reaching the Biblically mentioned tally of three score plus ten and wish many, many more years of life, happiness and health for this hamisheh mensch, tzadek and chacham who is always the world’s best brother.

2017: In Brooklyn, Congregation Shevas Achim is scheduled to host “Celebratin Jewish Women!” with Marcy Katz, CEO and Business Coach.

2017: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Alone in Berlin.”

2018(20th of Tammuz, 5778): Ninety six year old D-Day veteran Max Fuchs, who in 1944 led “fifty fellow Jewish Soldiers in reciting the Jewish Sabbath service which was “the first Jewish service to be broadcast from German soil since the rise of Hitler” passed away today. (As reported by Richard Goldstein)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/04/obituaries/max-fuchs-gi-cantor-dead.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2018: Having reached that moment when there are no superlatives to describe him, all we can say is Best Birthday Wishes to David Levin – who truly is the world’s best brother.

2018: 155th anniversary of the day at Gettysburg, when, against all reason, a determined group of Union soldiers including Sergeant Elias Leon Hyman of Company C of the Fifth Calvary who volunteered to serve as one of the skirmishers and who would eventually die in the hell-hold of Andersonville Prison, threw back an army whose leaders were committed to ending what Lincoln called “the last best hope of man” which has provided a welcoming home to an untold number of Jews.

2018: In Durham, NC, the American Dance Festival is scheduled to present “L-E-V” which “is the culmination of years of momentum, choreographed by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, accompanied by the original music of Ori Lichtik”

2018: With the passage of the “new IDF draft legislation” by a vote of 63 to 39, supporters begin preparing to clear the next hurdle, approval of the second reading during this session of the Knesset.

2018(20st of Tammuz, 5778): Seventy-nine year old “convicted drug dealer Herbert Sperling passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/obituaries/herbert-sperling-drug-boss-tied-to-french-connection-case-dies-at-79.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2019: In San Francisco, the JCCSF is scheduled to host a concert by “Bay Area musician and guitar teacher” Kurt Huget this afternoon.

2019: Friends and family prepare to celebrate the birthday of Washingtonian David Robert Levin, who is proof that you do not need the fanfare of tanks and planes to celebrate the natal day of real mensch.

2019: In Alberta, Canada, the first session of Camp BB Riback which for almost 60 years has given Canadian a chance to connect with their Jewish roots and nature at the same time is scheduled to begin today.

2019: “The Great Jewish Bake Day,” an event that helps to “to fund the Jewish Care buses” is scheduled to take place today in the UK.

https://www.jewishcare.org/about-us/campaigns/the-great-jewish-bake-day

2020: Andrew Polk is scheduled to narrate “the Cape Cod Theatre Project’s live-streamed debut of “Moses” by veteran playwright Michele Lowe.”

2020: Shabbat Stream is scheduled to co-sponsor online “SoulVey! Shabbat Experinee, a “celebration of the relationship between Black and Jewish communities featuring music, comedy and civil rights, with rapper Kosha Dillz,”

2020: Friends and family of David Levin, the embodiment of the terms mensch and Renaissance man’ are awaiting to see how he his birthday celebration will overcome the current pandemic

2020: The Eden Tamar Music Center is scheduled to host “Excellence” – Pianists, Pedagouges and Young Artists in Concert” with the winners of the 2019 Kan Voice of Music Young Artists Competition, Tom Zalmanov and Nabil Haik.

2021(23rd of Tammuz, 5781): Parashat Pinchas;

2021: As a sign of improved times, in Columbus, OH, Tifereth Israel is scheduled to hold Shabbat morning services, live, with signup required in advance.

2021: The Eden Tamir Center in Jerusalem is scheduled to host a chamber music concert with Orit Orbach – Clarinet; Zvi Carmeli – Viola; Ariel Halevy – Piano.

2021: Double Simcha – The celebration of the natal day of David Levin and Shabbat.

2022: The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host “All-of-a-Kind Family Walking Tour” in participants “follow in the footsteps of the beloved sisters depicted in Sydney Taylor’s All-of-a-Kind Family” and “stroll through the story and into the streets to learn about the real-life people and Lower East Side places that inspired this children's classic.”

2022: In Jerusalem Dynasty is scheduled to host an auction of “Eretz Israel, Holocaust, Judaica, Maps and travel books.”

2022: A chance to celebrate two great moments in history – the Union victory at Gettysburg which turned the tide in the battle against those who sought to destroy the United States and the birthday of David Levin, a renaissance man in the truest sense of that term and an all around great guy whom I am lucky enough to have for a brother.

2022: The Pardes Learning Seminar which brings together community leaders, professionals and lifelong learners, who wish to study classical Jewish sources either online or within the landscape of Israel and this year will focus on the topics of Shabbat and Shmittah is scheduled to open today in Jerusalem.

2022: The “bar mitzvah of Austin Morris” is scheduled to take place this morning at the Egalitarian Kotel

2022: As part of Hebrew Book Month, the National Library of Israel is scheduled to host a conversation with former army intelligence officer and Hebrew University trained attorney Yishai Sarid, the Tel Aviv born son of Israeli politician Yossi Sarid Z”L.

https://www.nli.org.il/en/visit/events/yishai-sarid

2023: As Americans prepare to celebrate Independence Day, friends and family of David Levin, for whom we have run out of superlatives to describe and who is the best brother, celebrate his natal day.

2023: In Israel, protestors are scheduled to stage a blockade of Ben Gurion airport today.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/protest-leaders-vow-to-ramp-up-anti-government-demonstrations-blockade-airport/

2023: Quinn Levin is scheduled to become a licensed driver today in Bexley, OH.

2023: Graveside services are scheduled to be held this afternoon at Shalom Memorial Park in Arlington Heights, IL for Jerry Naylor, longtime member of Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids where he served as President and showed the utmost kindness to so many for so many years as can be seen by his having received a Governor’s Volunteer Award in 2013.

https://www.southeastiowaunion.com/news/naylor-receives-award-for-child-advocacy/

 

 

 

 

 

 

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