This Day, October 21, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
OCTOBER 21
1553 BCE
(11 Cheshvan 2207): On the civil calendar, this date marked the death of Rachel, the matriarch and wife of
Jacob, at the age of 36. She died during the childbirth of Benjamin, near
Efrat, and is buried in Beit Lechem (Bethlehem).
…
OCTOBER 21
1553
336
BCE (24th of Tishrei, 3425): According to the Book of Nechemia, Ezra
and Nechemia convened the Jewish community in Jerusalem. (As reported by Aish)
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tishrei_24.html
681: The revised laws adopted by
the Twelfth Council of Toledo including 28 anti-Jewish measures among which was
forbidding converts to Christianity from returning to Judaism went into effect
today.
686: Pope Conon was consecrated
today at a time when the Jews of Toledo were “suffering multiple persecutions.
1096: During the First Crusade, the Turks destroyed
the portion of the Crusader army led by Peter the Hermit. Peter escaped and joined the main crusader
army. The main body took Jerusalem from the
Moslems in 1099. The Crusaders
slaughtered the Jews of Europe as they made their way to the Holy Land. When they got to Jerusalem, the continued
their bloody behavior as they slaughtered the Jews living in David’s City.
1328(9th of Cheshvan,
5089): Asher ben Jehiel an leading German Rabbi who moved to Spain after Rudolf
I “instituted renewed persecution of the Jews” passed away today in Toledo.
1409: Birthdate of Italian noble man Alessandro
Sforza, the patron of “Jewish Italian dancer and dancing master Guglielmo Ebreo
da Pesaro” who converted to Roman Catholicism under his influence
1422: King Charles VI, the monarch who banished the
Jews from France in 1394, passed away.
1486: The body of one of the sons of Hieronymus de
Sancta Fide, (Jerome of the Holy Faith) who had been arrested with other
Marranos who had taken part in the rebellion against Pedro Arbucs was publicly
burned today after he had killed himself in order to escape the disgrace of
being publicly burned alive. Other members of the Santa Fe family were burned
as marranos in 1497 and 1499. Hieronymus de Sancta Fide, Jerome of the Holy
Faith was born Ibn Vives Lorki (Al-Lorqui, Joshua ben Joseph). A Jewish
Christian convert, he was a Spanish physician and writer who wrote as Gerónimo
de Santa Fe (Hieronymus de Sancta Fide, Jerome of the Holy Faith). His Jewish
name came from the name of his birthplace, Lorca, near Murcia.
1494: Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan who
“expelled all the Jews from the duchy on December 3, 1490” began his reign as
Duke of Milan today.
1512: In what may have been one
of the most far-reaching decisions in the history of academia, Martin Luther
joined the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg. It would be almost five years to the day (October 31, 1517 ) from his
appointment, that Luther would post his 95 Theses on the door of Wittenberg’s
Castle. (This gives a whole new meaning to the term “publish or perish”). Seven years after his appointment (1519)
“Luther denounced the doctrines” regarding the treatment of the Jews. His final view of the Jews would be codified
in the 1544 pamphlet “Concerning The Jews and Their Lies” that included a call
for burning synagogues and destroying the homes of Jews.
1553: Volumes of the Talmud were
burned in Venice
1718(26th of Tishrei,
5479): Edel Oppenheimer passed away today in Vienna.
1745: In Eppingen, Germany,
“Schoenle Heinsheimer” and “Moses Heinsheimer-Regensburger
gave birth to Isaack Moses Regensburger, the husband of Sara Oppenheimer and
the father of Moses and Nanette Regensburer.
1753(23rd of Tishrei,
5514): Simchat Torah
1768:
In Philadelphia, Martha Lampley and Samson Levy gave birth to Hetty Levy.
1778:
According to today’s minutes of the Continental Congress General Benedict
Arnold “should be directed to” arrest David Franks and covey him “to the goal”
in Philadelphia because his letters to Moses Franks “manifest a disposition and
intentions inimical to the safety and liberties of the United States.”
1780(22nd
of Tishrei, 5541): Shemini Atzeret
1780:
General George Washington wrote to Major David S. Franks, one of the highest
ranking Jewish officers serving in the Continental Army about the “proposed
court of inquiry into Frank’s conduct.
1781: In
Austria, Joseph II rescinded the
law forcing Jews to war a distinctive badge which had been in effect since
1267, more than 600 years.
1791(23rd
of Tishrei, 5552): Simchat Torah
1804:
Birthdate of French photographer Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey who
created one of the earliest surviving pictorial record of Palestine.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4486020,00.html
1805:
Under the command of Lord Nelson, the British won the decisive Battle of
Trafalgar where the British forces included “Benjamin da Costa, a midshipman on
the Temeraire,”
Moses
Benjamin and Joseph Moss serving aboard the Victory,
John Benjamin on the Royal Sovereign,
Henry Levi, Benjamin Solomon, Joseph Manuel and Nathan Manuel on the Britannia Philip Emanuel on the Colossus, and Thomas Brandon and James
Brandon, who was killed, on the Revenge.
(As reported by Daphne Anson)
http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2010/10/some-old-salts-of-jewish-sort.html
1807(19th
of Tishrei, 5568): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
1807:
Julia Solomon and Amsterdam native Nathan Nathan gave birth to Moses Nathan
Nathan.
1808:
In Pennsylvania, Rachel Gratz and New York native Solomon Moses gave birth to
Miriam Gratz Moses.
1809:
In Glasgow, Elizabeth Currie and William Stenhouse gave birth to noted Chemist
John Stenhouse whose assistant included Raphael Meldola, the descendant of
Sephardic Jews who had been in England since the 18th century.
1810(23rd
of Tishrei, 5571): Simchat Torah
1812:
Birthdate of Amsterdam native Abraham Salomon Van Minden, the husband of Esther
Levy and the father of Helena, Solomon and Marry Anne Van Minden.
1812:
Isaac Isaacs married Polly Solomons at the Great Synagogue today.
1816:
The will of Hyam Levy, who resided at “4 Cock Court, Jewry Street” and which
was witnessed by Abraham Marks, Naphtali Hart and Nathan Levy” was probated
today.
1817:
Twenty-eight-year-old Jacob Levy, the son of Moses Lev married Fannie Yates
today in England.
1817(11th
of Cheshvan, 5578): Meyer Abrahamson, the native of Hamburg who followed in his
father’s footsteps and became a doctor who served as “the physician to the
Jewish Hospital in Hamburg” and who also pursued a literary career passed away
today.
1820:
Birthdate of Philip Marcus Leuw, the native of Holland who was the husband of
Hanna Van Gelder and the father of Mattje Philip, Marcus and Levie Leuw.
1833: Birthdate of Alfred Bernhard Nobel, creator of
dynamite and the Nobel Prizes “Since 1901, Nobel Prizes have been awarded to
802 individuals.” While Jews account for only 0.2% of the world’s population,
180 or 22% of the recipients are classified as Jewish or of Jewish
ancestry. This anomaly has fascinated
writers and researches for decades, but so far has not been satisfactorily
explained. [Editor’s note – Claims that Jews are somehow smarter are just as
specious as are claims that they are all crooks because of the disproportionate
number of Jews involved in recent financial scandals. For more details on Jewish winners, see www.jinfo.org a very informative site that seems to be everybody’s
primary source when it comes to these matters.]
1834(18th of Tishrei, 5595): Fourth Day
of Sukkoth
1835: In Charleston, SC, Mr. Alexander Solomons
officiated at the weeding of Nathan Emanuel of Georgetown, SC and Henrietta Eugenia,
the “third daughter of the late Michael Simpson.”
1835: In Germany, Leopold Schott, the German born
son of Rachel and Aron Schott and his wife Sara Randegger gave birth to Moses
Schott
1837(22nd of Tishrei, 5598): Shmini
Atzeret
1837(22nd of Tishrei, 5598): Thirty-one
year old Michael Joseph Gusikow, a multi-talented musician who played the flute
and an early form of the Xylophone passed away at Aix la Chapelle.
http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2011/11/jewish-jimi-hendrix-of-1830s.html
1844: Birthdate of Russian native Max Idelman, the
Cheyenne, Wyoming liquor wholesaler who was the brother of Abraham Idelman, the
husband of Fannie Kaufman Idelman and the father of Samuel Idelman.
1846: Bernard Jacob married Maria Moss at the New
Synagogue today.
1847: Birthdate of Danish political leader and
author Edvard Brandes.
1853(19th of Tishrei, 5614): Sukkoth Chol
HaMoed
1853(19th of Tishrei, 5614): Eighty-year
old Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg, the Director of Wolfenbüttel Samson School, passed
away today.
1854: In Indiana, Frederick and Hannah Myerson
Nirdlinger gave birth to Caroline “Carrie” Nirdlinger Leopold, the wife of
Henry F. Lepold whom she married in 1876 and the mother of Frederic and Morton
Leopold.
1855: In Charleston, SC Rosay Hays Mordecai and
Joseph Lopez Tobias gave birth to Isabel Tobias.
1856(22nd of Tishrei, 5617): Shmini
Atzeret
1859(23rd of Tishrei, 5620): Simchat
Torah
1861: In Davenport, eleven Jewish families formed
B’nai Israel Congregation, the first Jewish congregation formed in Iowa which
morphed into Temple Emauel
1864(21st of Tishrei, 5625): Hoshanah
Rabah
1864: Two days after he had passed away, 24 year old
Jacob Stiebel, the son of Sigismund Stiebel and the former Eliza Jacob Mocatta
was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1864: “Jewish Festivals” published today reported
that “The last of the series of Autumnal Jewish festivals will commence this
evening. It is a part of the festival of Succoth tabernacles, previously
described in the Times. It is called Shemini Artzareth, and the
institution will be found in Numbers xxix, 35. Part of the liturgy of the day
is a prayer for rain and a propitious season. To-morrow evening commences the
festival of Simchas Torah, rejoicing of the law. According to the regular
service of the synagogue each Sabbath a sedrah or "section" of the
law of Torah or Pentateuch is read, so that the whole five books of Moses are
read each year, and with the new year the first book of Bereshit or Genesis is
commenced while the reading of the last section of Deuteronomy is reserved for
this festival. It is customary on the eye of this festival to take out all the
"rolls or the law" deposited in the Ark, and to carry them in
procession round the synagogue, which is brilliantly lit up. In order to pay
due honor to the law, both at the termination of its reading and at the
commencement, two persons are appointed in each synagogue to fill the offices
of Bridegroom of the Law and Bridegroom of the Beginning. The liturgy of the
day celebrates the excellence of the law and the mission of Moses, and its
festival is greeted with joyous demonstrations. With this festival the Autumnal
festivals of the Hebrews are brought to a close. According to the teachings of
the Jewish sages, the festival teaches this lesson: Rosh Hashanah (New Year)
calls the Israelite to examine his past conduct, the Arsareth Yermi Tershura,
ten days of repentance, tell him to repent and amend his conduct, the Your
Kippur (Day of Atonement) directs him to make his peace with God and his
fellow-men, and when his mind is thus properly prepared, (Succoth,) or
Tabernacles teaches him to rejoice in the belief of the Divine bounty, and
Simchas Torah seals his attachment and adherence to the law. [Editor’s
Note-This article shows an amazing comprehension of Jewish holidays, especially
when you consider that it was published in an American newspaper at a time when
the Jewish population was comparatively small.]
1865(1st of Cheshvan, 5626): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1866: Louis Israel Aaron the Prussian born American
businessman and philanthropist married today married Mina W. Lippman with whom
he had “five children” two of whom, “Marcus and Charles survived to adulthood.
1866: Two days after he had passed away, Middlesex
native Daniel Collins, the son of William Collins and the former Priscilla
Marks was buried today at “Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia.”
1867(22nd of Tishrei, 5628): Shemini Atzeret
1867: Zigmund Schlesinger, frontiersman and Indian
fighter gave up life in the Wild West and moved to New York today where he
pursued a more civilized life of commerce and business. The following monograph entitled “Zigmund Schlesinger: A Defender of the West” by Seymour
"Sy" Brody provides a glimpse of less than typical life for an
American Jew.
“General George Forsyth was delegated by General
Philip Sheridan to hire 50 first class frontiersmen to fight the attacking
Indians. One of the first to apply was a young Hungarian-Jew, Zigmund
Schlesinger, who had immigrated to America in 1864. Schlesinger came to New
York City and worked at many jobs. He heard about the opportunities that
existed in the West and left New York to go to Kansas. In Kansas, he tried his
hand at business by baking bread and cake and selling the foods under a canvas
tent. The bakery failed as did some other business ventures. When Schlesinger
applied for the frontiersman with Forsyth, they were not anxious to have him.
He was small with a high-pitched voice and had very little experience or
knowledge of firearms and horsemanship. He was told if they couldn't get 50
men, he would be hired. Schlesinger was lucky. He was hired since a 50th man
was not found. In his diary, Schlesinger wrote of his first day as a member of
the scouts in August 1868. After riding all day, Schlesinger recalled how stiff
and tired he was when it was over. His riding abilities bore the brunt of
ridicule from others. He was also reminded that he was a Jew. Schlesinger had
been involved in many minor encounters with the Indians. The encounter that
earned him the respect of the others took place at the Arikaree Fork of the
Republican River in 1868. His scouting expedition was set upon by Chief Roman
Nose with his band of Cheyenne and Sioux Indians. The scouts were pinned down
for 9 days. Their horses had been killed and they suffered 19 casualties.
Schlesinger had been wounded in both legs and the head. Yet, he managed to
shoot down any Indian who exposed himself. They held off the Indians until a
U.S. Army relief column came to their rescue. Forsyth wrote a letter to Rabbi
Henry Cohen of Texas, lauding the heroism of Schlesinger: "...He was the
equal in manly courage, steady and persistent devotion to duty, and unswerving
and tenacious pluck of any man in my command." Schlesinger left the
company and returned to New York. Eventually, he settled in Cleveland, where he
established a successful cigar store business. Active in Jewish organizations,
Schlesinger was one of the organizers of the Hebrew Free Loan Association,
vice-president of his temple, and president of the Hebrew Relief Association.
He died in 1928, leaving behind a legacy as a Jewish Indian fighter and as a
philanthropist.”
1869: Birthdate of William Edward Dodd, the first
American Ambassador to Germany appointed by Franklin Roosevelt. Dodd became an early foe of the Nazis and
tried to warn Americans of the evil that Hitler represented. For more about
Dodd see “In the Garden of the Beasts.”
1871: Birthdate of Eva Dux, the wife of Solomon
“Sol” Peyser and the mother of Philip and Theodore Peyser.
1871: Birthdate of Cambridge trained orientalist
Lionel David Barnett, “the son of a Liverpool Banker” who in 1901 married the
former Blanche Berliner with whom he had two children
1873: In Carbondale, PA, “Samuel and Dorothea
(Bergman) Singer gave birth to NYU trained attorney Henry B. Singer, the
husband of Frances Moses and a partner in the firm of Moses and Singer who was
a member of the American Jewish Committee and Temple Beth-El.
1873: “Season of Wonders” published today described
many of the unusual apparitions that can be seen at this time of the year
including “the erudite Hen that lays eggs inscribed with Hebrew characters.” The article does not say if the Hebrew is
script or block printing.
1874: Birthdate of Albert Abram Aftalion, a native
of the Ottoman Empire who taught economics at the University of Paris for 14
years before WW II.
1875(22nd of Tishrei, 5636): Shemini
Atzeret
1878: “A committee was empowered to rent the mansion
on the southeast corner of Stuyvesant Avenue and McDonough Street for a term of
five years at annual rent” to be used for the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1879: Pauline Markham (the future wife of Wyatt
Earp) arrived in Yuma, AZ with a theatrical troupe headed for Tucson.
1879: According to a report published today based on
a dispatch from Bucharest, the measure adopted by the by the Romanian
government concerning the emancipation of the Jews does not contain all that
they, the Jews want. But under its terms
they are better off than they were before. If they accept the compromise,
“there is no reason why they Jews…should not have a peaceful and prosperous
political future before them.” Support
for Romania by the Great Powers depended, in part, on granting the Jews full
rights as citizens. The Romanians did
not wish to do this, and they kept looking for ways to grant the Jews as little
as possible while hoping that the Powers would be satisfied with a minimalist
approach.
1880: In today’s review of the recently published A
History of Our Own Times: From the Accession of Queen Victoria to the Berlin
Congress by Justin McCarty includes a chapter styled “On the True Faith of
a Christian” describes the fight to remove the “disabilities of Jews in
England, who for so many years were prevented from occupying the seats in
Parliament to which they had been elected by” the words in the oath.
1882: “To Make Farmers of Hebrews” published today
described the creation of the Maccabees, an organization formed in Cincinnati,
Ohio, “to encourage and aid in the promotion of agriculture among” the Jewish
people in the United States. Moses
Krohn, Henry Stix, Joseph Abraham, Joseph Trounsine, Alexander Straus, Max Isaacs
and Henry Lowenstein are among those who will serve on the new organization’s
Executive Council.
1882: In Cardiff, Wales, Albert Cahn and the former
Matilda Lewis, the daughter of Dr. Sigismund Lewis, gave birth to “businessman,
philanthropist and cricket enthusiast” to Sir Julien Cahn, 1st
Baronet Cahn of Stanford on Soar.
1883(20th of Tishrei, 5644): Fifth Day of
Sukkoth
1883: At the Essex Market Police Court Judge Gardner
heard the facts surrounding the row that had taken place last night at Ansche
Chesed, a synagogue located on Hester Street.
After hearing the witnesses and the police officers, Gardner told Mr.
Korn, one of the congregants, that “he ought to be ashamed of himself for fighting
in a sacred place” and fined him $5 for his role in the matter.
1883: “The Jews of Wazan” published today reported
that there are 10,000 people living in this Moroccan city, 600 of whom are
Jews. Unlike in other cities like the melha, or Jewish quarter, is not “dirtier
than any other part of town” and “the well-to-do appearance of the grownups…and
pretty laughing faces of the children, show that in Wazan…the ancient race is
not subject to persecution.”
1883: “Cremated After Burial” published today
described the hassle that had taken place to ensure that the remains of the
late Marcus Kronberg were cremated as he had requested; a request that his
widow had at first tried to avoid by having him embaled and prepared for a
traditional burial. (The embalming was
necessitated by the fact that he had died of typhoid in Chicago but the
cemetery was in Washington, PA)
1884: Sara Rock, “a well-formed” 18 year old Polish
Jewess sued Kever Leiman for $40, the value of the engagement gifts she said he
had given her and that were then taken away by his father.
1884: Henry Lehr went on trial today for the murder
of John Wilson in Passaic County, New Jersey.
The Jews of Patterson, NJ, have provided financial support for their
co-religionist who claims the shooting was an accident.
1884: “Life in Tenement Houses” published today
included a report by “Dr. Simeon New Leo, Chief Sanitary Inspector for the
United Hebrew Charities” said that after inspecting numerous downtown tenement
houses the “great and crying evil was” the lack “of a proper water supply and bathing
facility.” He also said that the law
requiring each tenement dweller “to have 600 cubic feet of air space” need to
be enforced and that those buildings that could not comply should be torn down.
(Dr. Leo was active in many Jewish organizations including the Young Men’s
Hebrew Association whose first meeting was held in his home.)
1885: John Edward Moss, President of Shaar Hashomayim laid the cornerstone for a new synagogue on McGill
College Avenue. The building was consecrated in 1886. It had cost $40,000 to build.
1885: Moses G. Zalinski, who rose from the rank of
Private to the rank of Captain, began serving with the 1st Artillery
today.
1886(22nd of Tishrei, 5647): Shmini
Atzeret
1886: In Cleveland, Ohio, Anshe Chesed, laid the
cornerstone for its new temple today.
1886: In Cleveland, Ohio, a grand ball took place
this evening that was attended by city’s “Hebrew elite.”
1887: Isaac and Esther Jacob gave birth to their son
Jacob.
1887: In Belz, “Jacob Kremer, a provision master in
the army of Czar Nicholas II” and “Anna (nee Rosenbluth) Kremer gave birth to
Isabelle “Isa” Yakovlevna Kremer the multi-talented soprano who performed in
Europe, the United States and Argentina, who may have been the first woman to
bring Yiddish songs to the concert stage in Russia and whose first husband,
newspaper editor Israel Heifetz “died while a prisoner at the Nazi
concentration camp at Fort Breendonk in the Netherlands.
1887: “Claimed By Two Mothers” published today
described the custody battle between the Lees, an African-American family and
Brodsky, a family of immigrant Jews from Poland over child known as either
Nellie Lee or Yetta Brodsky.
1887: Dr. Kaufmann Kohler, the Rabbi at Temple
Beth-El met with a reported from the New York Times so that he could explain
the growing popularity of the Reform movement.
1888: Actors from Poole’s and the Oriental Theatre
met at 56 Orchard Street today where they formed the Hebrew Actor’s Union.
1889: While touring
the Middle East, Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Constantinople for the first time,
which would lead to a second visit in 1898 that would when he would meet with
Herzl.
1889: Birthdate of Russian born and Columbia trained physician Dr.
Jacob Lattman who specialized in the treatment of tuberculosis and who raised
one son Laurence and two daughters, Frances and Joy, with his wife Yetta.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/12/19/88323726.pdf
1890: “Charles
Frohman’s newly-organized company is scheduled to perform a new play ‘Men and
Women’ at the Twenty-third Street Theatre” in New York.
1891: Dr. Walter Kempster, one of the U.S.
Government Commissioners who sets sail today for the United Sates today having
completed his investigation of Russian treatment of the Jewish population “has
the highest opinion of the Jewish population…and is boiling over with
indignation and horror at the inhuman treatment they are receiving from the
Russians.”
1891: Baron and Baroness von Suttner and Professor
Nothnagel were among those who founded a society for combatting anti-Semitism
today
1892: The Hebrew Orphan Asylum Band marched in
today’s Columbus Day Parade in Harlem.
1892: German histologist and medical author Gustav
Jacob Born and Bertha Epstein Born gave birth to their son Wolfgang, the
half-brother of Max Born, the physicists who played a critical role in the
development of quantum mechanics.
Gretchen Kauffmann, the mother of Max, was Gustav’s first wife. She passed away after having given birth to
Max and his younger sister Käthe. Gustav Born was born in 1862 at Posen. By the time he passed away in 1900 he had
made several contributions in the fields of microscopy and embryology.
1893: Birthdate of Slutsk, Belarus native Abraham
Oscar Branz who in 1898 came to the United States where he attended CCNY and
worked as a broker and realtor in Fall River, MA and Providence RI
1893: “The Week at the Theatres” published today
described the upcoming revival of “The Merchant of Venice” in which famed
Shakespearian actor Richard Mansfield will play Shylock with a portrayal “that
will surely be original” but “also true to Shakespeare” and
Beatrice Cameron will play the Jew’s daughter, Portia.
1894: Jacob Siegel and a family of Polish Jews –
Hyman, Rosie, Becky and Henry Rubin – were among those injured when a stove
exploded causing a fire at the tenement at 60 Orchard Street
1895: In Petach Tikva, Avraham and Liba Rochel
Shapira gave birth to Rivka Pinchasovich
1895: In Chicago, “Leopold and Marie (Friedman)
Saltiel” gave birth to “Chicago-Kent College Law graduate and WW I U.S. Navy
veteran William David Saltiel, the “Assistant Corporate Counsel for the City of
Chicago, City Attorney and Special Assistant to the United States Attorney
General and husband of Cicely Friedman Haas
1896: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Barnett A. Elzas
officiated at the marriage of Melvin M. Israel and Corinna Florance Moses, the
daughter of Melvin Israel.
1896: Herzl is elected honorary member of "Kadimah."
1897: Mr. Herman Hart “treated two hundred fifty old
soldiers to refreshments” this afternoon while they were attending the Earl’s
Court Exhibition free of charge in honor of Trafalgar Day.
1897: In London, the Jewish Board of Guardian Relief
Committee me at 3:30 pm today followed by a meeting of the Executive Committee
at 5 pm.
1897: The members of the Musical and Dramatic
section of the East London Jewish Communal gave a concert at the Poplar Union
today.
1897: In London, the House Committee of the Home for
Aged Jews met this evening.
1899: “San Toy,” or “The Emperor's Own,” a musical
comedy with songs by Paul Alfred Rubens premiered at Daly’s Theatre in London
1900: Today the “new structure” housing the
“North-West London Synagogue” “was opened by Sir Marcus Samuel.
1901(8th of Cheshvan, 5661): Faiga Adler
passed away today in Pittsburgh, PA.
1901(8th of Cheshvan, 5661) Sixty year
old Czech native Ferdinand Fischell, the husband of Lizzie Sicher Fishell
passed away today after which he was buried at the New Mount Sinai Cemetery in
Affton, MO.
1902(20th of Tishrei, 5663): Sixth Day of
Sukkoth
1902: Birthdate of New York City native Eddy Hamel, the first Jewish players to play
for first team AFC Ajax, a leading soccer team in the Netherlands and husband
of Johanna Wijnberg, the mother of his twin sons – Paul and Robert – who was
gassed at Auschwitz in 1943.
https://www.si.com/soccer/2019/02/12/eddy-hamel-ajax-american-holocaust-victim-auschwitz
1903(30th of Tishrei, 5663): Rosh Chodesh
Cheshvan
1904: “Uriel Acosta,” “Carl Gutzkow’s five-act
tragedy of Jewish life was revived tonight at the Irving Place Theatre,” with
Max Freiburg in the title role.
1905: After much of the pogrom in Odessa had ended, D. M.
Neidhart the governor of the city and commander of the Odessa military garrison
who according to an account written by Charles Stewart Smith the British Consul
to Odessa “had ordered the police to withdraw from the streets, allowing the
mobs a free hand to murder, rape and pillage” “appeared in the streets” and
“told the rioters to get off the streets and go home.”
1905(22nd of Tishrei, 5666): Shmini
Atzeret and Shabbat
1905: Based on information provided by Boris Gorb, a
17 year old Jew from Uligania now living in New York, “massacres” began in
Ekaterinoslva today” which would claim
the lives of “thousands of Jews” including
his father Simon who “had been mortally wounding defending Dora” his 15
year old daughter.
1906: Philanthropist and businessman Joseph E.
Grossberg, the Russian born son of Joseph Grosberg and “a founder and the
president of Central Markets, a chain of grocery stores in upstate New York
that established some of the first supermarkets in the United States, and is
now known as Price Chopper” married Rachel (Rae) Kadisky Greenberg today after
which they “had three daughters: Mildred Grosberg Bellin, a food writer best
known for her influential works Modern Jewish Meals and The Jewish Cookbook;]
Rosalind Cohen; and Marian Champagne, an attorney and author.”
1906: Solomon Rabinovitch, whose penname is Sholom
Aleichem, who arrived in the United States yesterday along with his and son is
staying with his brother Bernard Rabinovitch who lives at 711 Jackson Avenue in
the Bronx while planning on writing for newspapers in the United Sates about “the true story of the troubles in
Russia” and plays for the Yiddish Theatre.
1907: Thirty-year-old University of Michigan trained
surgeon Simon Levin, the Swedish born son Sarah Levine and Marcus Levin married
Laura Schroder today in Chicago.
1907: The Tennessee Volunteers coached by Izzy
Levene recovered from their loss at Georgia Tech to defeat Clemson today bring
their record to 3 and 1.
1908: The United Hebrew Charity Association of
Lancaster, PA, contributed to the National Conference of Jewish Charities.
1908: Birthdate of Vilnius native Abram Snejder who
gained fame as violinist Alexander “Sasha” Schneider, a member of the Budapest
String Quartet and the broth of Mischa Schneider
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/04/arts/alexander-schneider-violon-virtuoso-dies-at-84.html
1909:
The United Hebrew Charity Association of Lancaster, PA donated five dollars to
the National Conference of Jewish Charities.
1910:
The Minister of the Interior takes prompt steps to suppress anti-Semitic
manifestations at Kirk-Klisse, near Adrianople (Edirne, Turkey).
1911(29th
of Tishrei, 5672): Parashat Bereshit
1911:
A great fire is raging through “Stambul, the Mohammedan part of Constantinople”
a city divided into three other separate quarters, including a Jewish quarter.
1911:
“Ex-President Roosevelt's suggestion that the Russian passport question be
referred to The Hague tribunal for settlement was rejected as a step toward the
shelving of the entire question by The
American Hebrew in an editorial article…”
1912:
In Budapest, Teréz (née Rosenbaum) and Móricz "Mor" Stern gave birth
to György Stern who gained fame as conductor Sir
Georg Solti
https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/georg-solti/7181
1913(20th
of Tishrei, 5674): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
1913:
“According to an Odessa dispatch to The
Standard, Jewish emigration from Southern and Southwestern Russia has
trebled since the opening of the Beiliss trial.”
1914:
“Threads of Destiny” a silent film about the aftermath of a massacre and exile
of thousands of Russian Jews starring Bernard Siegel as “Isaac Gruenstein” was
released today in the United States by the Lubin Manufacturing Company.
1915:
“Reports submitted” tonight “at the forty-first annual meeting of the United
Hebrew Charities at Temple Emanu-El showed that the organization, despite the
European war, had given more aid and accomplished more along constructive lines
during the past year than in 1914.”
1915(13th
of Cheshvan, 5676): Eighty year old “Eliezer Liepman Philip Prins, the Dutch
born son of “Raphael (Philip) Liepman Prins and Mietje Benjamin Schapp, the
husband of Henriette Jacobson with whom he had 8 children and a long time
worker in his “family’s famous carpet business” who moved his family to
Frankfurt in 1885 so he could pursue a life devoted to the study of Jewish
subjects and whose library “consisting of 6,000 books which was moved to
Jerusalem” passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/prins-liepman-philip
1915:
In Cincinnati, OH, Isidor Schifrin and Lillian Berman gave birth to Elaine Schifrin
1915:
It was reported today that “two hundred and eighty-six Jews in the German Army
have been promoted to be officers and 4,000 Jewish soldiers have been decorated
with Iron Crosses,” 16 of which were Iron Crosses First Class.
1916:
William M. Ingraham, the acting Secretary of War wrote to J.P. Tumulty, the
Secretary to President Wilson acknowledging that Captain Le Roy Eltinger had
included remarks in his book that were “derogatory to the Jewish race,” that he
had been ordered to ordered to go over the book and remove all such remarks and
that “the Jewish race has undoubtedly furnished many able officers and many brave
soldiers to all the armies of the world and the department is satisfied that
many such are now in our own army.”
1916:
Herman Bernstein, Rabbi Joseph Seff, Judge Leon Sanders and Bernard Edelhertz
were among the speakers who addressed a rally for Woodrow Wilson at Cooper
Union which closed with a prayer for the President’s re-lection delivered by
Henry Morgenthau, the former Ambassador to Turkey who is now serving as the
Treasurer of the National Democratic Committee.
1916:
In California, Mary Antin who was part of the women campaigning for Republican
Presidential candidate Charles Evan Hughes “said she had heard that the Jews of
the nation were going to vote for President Wilson because he had appointed
Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court.” (I guess she had not heard about Louis
Marshall and other prominent Jewish leaders who were lifelong Republicans and
were supporting Hughes.)
1917:
Four days after she had passed away, Bertha Cohen, the daughter of Phillip
Joseph Salomons and the former Cecilia Samuels was buried today at the “Balls
Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1917:
At a conference held at the Broadway Central Hotel attended by 200 delegates
representing various Rumanian Jewish organizations, “a resolution was adopted
today urging the dispatch of Jewish commissioner to supervise the distribution
of food in Rumania.”
1917:
Four days after he had passed away, Noah Simons, the husband of Fanny Simons,
was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.”
1918:
In Brooklyn, Bertha (née Lerner) and Max Himmelfarb gave birth to Milton
Himmelfarb an American scholar and brother of Gertrude Mimmelfarm who is famous
for his comment on Jewish voting patterns. "Jews earn like Episcopalians,
and vote like Puerto Ricans."
1918:
Today, after one of Corporal Louis Sorrow’s “helpers had been killed and the
other wounded by heavy shell fire” Sorrow, who was serving with Company B of
the 307th Field Signal Battalion near Fleville “continued on alone
and repaired the break in the telephones” – behavior which would be described
as a display of “unusual bravery to duty” when he was awarded the
“Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism.
1918:
Sergeant Abraham Blaustein, who had been attending Army Candidate School
rejoined his unit, the 165th Regiment, at La Vallone today.
1920:
Birthdate of Louis Herman “Red” Koltz the native Philadelphian who played
college basketball for Villanova before
turning pro where he spent most of his career playing for teams that were the
foil of the Harlem Globetrotters, including the Washington Generals.
1920:
The Temple Emanu-El Sisterhood held it semi-quarterly meeting today at 318 East
82nd Street in Manhattan.
1920:
Birthdate of Philadelphia native, Louis Herman “Red” Klotz, the Villanova and
Philadelphia Sphas basketball player who “was founder and owner of the
Washington Generals” the team that always lost to the Harlem Globetrotters.
1921:
Birthdate of Chicago native Marshall Sklare, “the founding father of American
Jewish sociology and for many years America’s premier sociologist of the Jews…”
1921:
Louis Marshall took up the role of conservationist when “in an address at the
University of the State of New York at Albany” delivered today he “argued that
‘the people of this State have been guilty of criminal recklessness in the manner
in which they have permitted their magnificent forests to be destroyed.”
1922:
Wake Forest, coached by George Levne lost to the University of Lynchburg in
Lynchburg, VA today.
1922:
The final chapters of the serialized version of Bambi written by Felix Salten
(Siegmund Salzmann) for “an adult audience” was published in the Neue Freie Presse today.
1922:
Birthdate of Prague native Peter Demetz, “an American literature scholar of
Germany and a Sterling Professor at Yale University, who was also the Craig Distinguished
Visiting Professor at Rutgers University”
1922:
Future Bantamweight Champion Charlie Phil Rosenberg (a product of the Lower
East born Charles Green) fought a second bout with Olympic Bantamweight
Champion Frankie Genaro.
1922:
In Paris, Nazi sympathizer Eugene Schueller, “the founder of L’Oreal, one of
the world’s largest cosmetics and beauty companies and Louise Madeleine Berthe
Doncieux gave birth to their only child, Lilian, the wife of another
pro-fascist, anti-Semitic politician Andre Bettencourt with whom she shared
similar views until after WW II when she tried to “cleanse” her past.
1923:
Federal Judge Julian W. Mack received an enthusiastic reception from more than
500 men and women tonight at a meeting in his honor at the Hotel Pennsylvania”
which “was held under auspices of the Palestine Development Council, of which
he is the President, in honor of his recent return from the Holy Land.
1924(23rd
of Tishrei, 5685): Simchat Torah
1924:
“Breakfast With Charity” “was the slogan adopted at a mass breakfast meeting of
men belonging to 13 trades organized by the Business Men’s Council of the
Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies held” this
“morning in the Hotel Pennsylvania.”
1925:
Birthdate of Wolf Stefan Priwin, the native of Berlin and brother of Andre
Previn who gained fame as American director and television producer Stephen
“Steve” Wolf Previn.
1925:
Preferred Pictures, a movie production company formed by B.P. Schulberg in 1919
filed for bankruptcy. This cleared the way for him to join Paramount Pictures
and its founder, Adolph Zukor.
1926:
Birthdate of Mel Simon the Brooklyn native “who helped shape suburbia
developing shopping malls” and who was the co-owner of the N.B.A. Indiana
Pacers. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1926:
In Brooklyn Henry and Bertha Sadoff gave birth to Frederick Edward Sadoff, who
gained fame as the actor Fred Sadoff whose first role was on Broadway in the
musical “South Pacific.”
1926:
“The Good Reputation” with a script by Walter Wasserman was released today in
Germany and France.
1927:
After having been arrested and later released by Soviet authorities, today,
Rabbi Schneerson, “accompanied by the eight members of his family” arrived in
Riga today along with :his entire library consisting of 10,000 books and
valuable manuscripts.
1927
Birthdate of Howard Zieff, the commercial director and ad photographer who
stuffed an actor with spicy meatballs in a memorable Alka-Seltzer spot and used
an American Indian in print ads to convince people “You don’t have to be Jewish
to love Levy’s real Jewish Rye,” and then went on to direct movie comedies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/movies/25zieff.html?ref=obituaries
1927:
“Heimweh” a silent film produced and written by Max Glass was released in
Germany today.
1928:
The annual campaign for the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic
Societies is scheduled to formally begin today.
1928:
Alfred Hugenberg, the German businessman and political leader served in
Hitler’s first cabinet was appointed chairman of the conservative German
National People’s Party of DNVP.
1929(17th
of Tishrei, 5690): Third Day of Sukkoth observed for the first time during the
Presidency of Hebert Hoover and the last time before the start of The Great Depression.
1929:
It was reported today that Judge Gustav Hartman and William Morris, the
President of the Jewish Theatrical Guild had address that organization on the
need for it to “support of child welfare work.”
1930:
The Report on Immigration, Land Settlement and Development or Hope Simpson
Report of October 1930 was released today.
The report followed the Arab Riots of 1929. Prepared by Sir John Hope Simpson, it
recommended limited Jewish immigration due to the lack of agricultural land to
support it. The report said nothing
about limiting Arab immigration into Palestine.
The Arab population had been growing since WW I thanks in no small
measure to the economic improvements brought about by the Jewish population.
1931:
After having agreed to work to overthrow the Weimar Republic, conservative
political leader Alfred Hugenberg and Adolph Hitler joined together to create a
short-lived united front. Like so many
other Hugenberg thought he could control Hitler and instead just ended up being
used by him.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/schnitz.htm
1932(21st
of Tishrei, 5693): Hoshana Raba
1932:
“Trouble in Paradise” a comedy directed and produced by Ernst Lubitsch who also
co-authored the script was released in the United States today.
1932:
In Baltimore, MD, “a five-story art deco style expansion to the downtown store,
described as "Greater Hutzlers", opened” today. “Hutzler's, or
Hutzler Brothers Company, was a department store founded in Baltimore by Abram
G. Hutzler in 1858. From its beginning as a small dry goods store at the corner
of Howard and Clay Streets in Downtown Baltimore, Hutzler's eventually grew
into a chain of 10 department stores, all of which were located in Maryland.”
1933(1st
of Cheshvan, 5694): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1933(1st
of Cheshvan, 5694): Sixty-eight year old Louis Pinansky, the Russian born son
of Moses Pinanski and the husband of Louisa Birenbaum Pinansky whom married in
1887 passed away today after which he was buried at the Tifereth Israel
Cemetery in West Roxbury, MA.
1933:
Three weeks after premiering “Footlight Parade” a musical featuring the lyrics
of Irving Kahal and the music of Sammy Fain was released in the United States
today.
1933:
“Walls of Gold” a drama produced by Sol Wurtzel and co-starring Sally Eilers
whose mother was the Jewish America Paula (née Schoenberger) Eilers.
1933:
In Ann Arbor, Ohio State led by team captain Sid Gilman lost to Michigan in
what would turn out to be its only defeat of the season.
1933:
Germany withdrew as a member of the League of Nations – a move that was in
keeping with Hitler’s contempt for the Versailles Treaty of which the League
was a creation.
1934”
“In Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, Samuel and Sarah (Chysyk) Wekselbaum gave birth to
Natan Wekselbaum” the owner of Gracious Home, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
1934(12th
of Cheshvan, 5695): Hungarian born Rabbi Morris Ungerleid, the husband of Laura
Baer Ungerlieder who led Congregation Shaarai Shomayim in Lancaster, PA from
1884 to 1889 and served as Superintendent of Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago
between 1899 and 1909 passed away today after which he was buried in Rosehill
Cemetery.
1935: Hank Greenberg was named
the American League Most Valuable Player in a unanimous vote by sportswriters.
1936: In Philadelphia, Miss Susan
Brandeis, the daughter of Louis Brandeis sat on the platform when Hadassah
members “pledged to plant 10,000 trees in Palestine as a tribute to Justice
Brandeis on his 80th birthday” which will be celebrated on November
13.
1936: Sir John Simon, the Home
Secretary told a meeting that “one remedy being considered” to deal with Oswald
Mosely and his Fascists “is the creation of special ‘danger areas’ where
political processions and demonstrations could not be held during a specified
period” “which would prevent the Fascists from concentrating in the future in
Leeds, Manchester and the East End of London, the largest centers of Jewish
population in England.”
1936: “A course on modern Palestine, for which
alertness credits will be given to teachers” which will be taught by Abraham
Revusky, author of Jews in Palestine is scheduled to meet for the first time
this evening at the Brooklyn Jewish Center.
1937(16h of Cheshvan, 5698):
Seventy-seven year old Austrian native and University of Vienna educated
journalist Eduard Pollak, the “advertising manager of the New York German
language newspaper Staats Zietung” passed away today.
1937(16th of Cheshvan, 5698): American rabbi Henry (Haim)
Pereira Mendes passed away. According to
the Jewish Encyclopedia, this son of Abraham Pereira Mendes was born in
Birmingham, England. He was educated at Northwick College (rabbinics), at
University College (London), and at the University of the City of New York,
taking the degree of M.D. He became minister of the Manchester (England)
Sephardic congregation in 1874, and in 1877 was called to the Congregation
Shearith Israel of New York, of which he is still (1904) the minister. In 1881
he was one of the founders of the New York Board of Ministers, and acted as its
secretary from its foundation up to 1901, when he became president. He joined
Dr. Morais in helping to establish the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1886, of
which he became secretary of the advisory board and professor of history. On
the death of Dr. Morais he became acting president of the faculty until the
appointment of Dr. S. Schechter. In 1884, the centennial of the birth of Sir
Moses Montefiore, he moved his congregation to convene the leading Jews of New
York to mark the event by some practical work: the outcome was the Montefiore
Home for Chronic Invalids, established in the same year. He was made
vice-president of the Gild for Crippled Children in 1896, and in 1901
established the Jewish branch of that gild. He promoted the formation of the
Union of Orthodox Congregations of the United States and Canada (1897) and was
subsequently elected its president. Mendes was one of the founders of the Young
Women's Hebrew Association of New York (1902), of whose advisory board he is
chairman. In Zionism, Mendes stands specially for its spiritual aspect; he
served as vice-president of the American Federation of Zionists and was a
member of the Actions Committee of Vienna (1898-99). The degree of D.D. was
conferred upon him by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1904. In
conjunction with his brother Frederick de Sola Mendes, and others, he was one
of the founders of "The American Hebrew” in 1879, to whose columns,
as to those of the general press, he is a frequent contributor. He is the
author of Union Primer and Reading Book (1882); Jewish History
Ethically Presented (1895); Looking Ahead, a plea for justice to the
Jew (1900); The Jewish Religion Ethically Presented (1904). Among his
other writings are: In Old Egypt, stories about, but not from, the
Bible; Esther; Judas Maccabæus; and many essays in periodical
publications.
1937: The
Palestine Post reported the death at 66 in New York of Felix Warburg, the
banker and a great philanthropist, the leader of the non-Zionist group of the
Jewish Agency. Born in Germany in 1871,
Warburg eventually became a senior partner in the firm of Kuhn, Loeber and Co
where he played an active role in the financial aspects of the industrial
development of the United States.
Warburg engaged a wide variety of philanthropic activities. “Although not a political Zionist, Warburg
was involved in a variety of projects designed to develop Eretz Israel. He was a co-founder of the Jewish Agency and
founder of Hebrew University. He
actively protested British attempts to limit Jewish immigration to Palestine. His former home on Fifth Avenue is now the
Jewish Museum.
1937:
The Palestine Post reported that a
Jewish constable, Eliahu Shitreet, was seriously wounded by an Arab terrorist
in Haifa.
1937:
The Palestine Post reported that the
new Mandatory Ordinance introduced a more limited definition of a family and
"dependants," further limiting the number of Jews eligible to
immigrate under this category.
1937:
Attendees at a dinner hosted by the New York-Brooklyn Federal of Jewish
Charities paid tribute to the memory of the late Felix Warburg. Ironically, the dinner had originally been
planned as tribute to Warburg’s son, Paul Felix Warburg, “head of the business
men’s council of the federation.”
1937:
In Jerusalem, Avinoan Yellin, inspector of the Jewish Schools in the Government
Department of Education was shot by an Arab gunman who ambushed him as walked
towards his offices. Yellin, the son of
Hebrew University Professor David Yellin, was taken to Hadassah Hospital where
his condition was described as “grave” following surgery.
1937:
“The Awful Truth” a comedy written by Viña Delmar with an uncredited assist
from Sidney Buchman was released in the United States today by Columbia
Pictures.
1938:
“In direct contravention of the recently signed Munich Agreement, Adolf Hitler
circulated among his high command a secret memorandum stating that they should
prepare for the "liquidation of the rest of Czechoslovakia" and the
occupation of Memel.”
1939:
Birthdate of James D.G. “Jimmy” Dunn, the English born New Testament Scholar
who has followed in the footsteps of E.P. Sander in working on “redefining
Palestinian Judaism in order to correct the Christian view of Judaism as a
religion of works-rightousness.”
1939: Penn State, led by their captain Sidney
“Spike” Alter were held scoreless by Cornell as they lost their first game of
the year.
1940(19th
of Tishrei, 5701): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
1940(19th
of Tishrei, 5701): Sixty-four-year-old Lithuanian born American Jewish painter
Ellis M. Silvette, the husband of Ella Cohn Silvette and the father of Herbert,
David, Marcia and Mildred Silvette “who
worked as an artist under the name ‘E. Meyer Silverberg” and who “legally
changed his name to "Ellis M. Silvette," to obscure his Jewish
heritage for business purposes. In the mid-1920s” passed away today in Richmond
after which he was buried in the Hebrew Cemetery.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/10/23/113109834.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ellis_Meyer_Silvette
https://www.askart.com/artist/E_Myer_Silverberg/100097/E_Myer_Silverberg.aspx
1940:
“It was officially announced” in Jerusalem “today that two soldiers, one an
Arab and one a Jews and five civilians, three Jews and two Arabs, had received
recognition for distinguished conduct and devotion to duty during an air raid
on Haifa on July 24.”
1941(30th
of Tishrei, 5702): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1941(30th
of Tishrei, 5702): Residents of the Jewish community at Koidanov, Belorussia,
are murdered.
1941(30th
of Tishrei, 5702): Thousands of Jews are murdered at Kraljevo, Yugoslavia.
1941:
“Though the nation’s defense program has created employment for millions of
American, before long, paradoxically, it will bring a ‘greatly augmented’ army
of unemployed as a result of the government’s policy of priorities, Ms. Cecil
B. Wiene, for judge of the Erie County Children’s Court and president of the
New York State Conference on Social Work, said tonight.”
1941:
The first transport of Jews left Cologne, Germany for the Lodz Ghetto.
1941:
Three days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held
today in Cincinnati for 45 year old labor arbitrator and president of the
Synagogue Council of America Edward L. Israel, the former rabbi of the B’rith
Sholom Congregation in Springfield and Washington Avenue Temple who was raising
two sons with his wife Amelia which will be followed by burial in Baltimore,
MD.
1942: In
Brooklyn, Dr. Murray Blum and Ethel Silverman gave birth to Judith Susan Blum
who as Judith Sheindlin gained fame as “Judge Judy.”
1942(10th of Cheshvan, 5703): At
Szczebrzeszyn, the final Jews remaining were rounded up in a night of fierce
and deadly slaughter. Those who were not shot were taken to Belzec. In
Zwierzyniec, more Jews were rounded up. The guards all carried walking sticks
that they would use to pull out Jews who lagged behind as they were marched to
the town square. Those pulled out where shot on the spot.
1942(10th
of Cheshvan, 5703): Eighty-four year old Helene (Goldschmidt) Tedesco, the
daughter of Selig Meier Goldschmidt and Clementine Goldschmidt and the wife of
Leon Yehuda Tedesco passed away today in Marseilles.
1943(22nd
of Tishrei, 5704): Shmini Atzeret
1943:
“The Naked Genius” a play produced by Mike Todd was performed for the first
time today.
1943(22nd
of Tishrei, 5704): The last surviving 2,000 residents of the Minsk ghetto were
rounded up and killed in pits outside the city.
1943:
Lucie Auerbach, who was six month pregnant, led an ambush in which five German
guards and truck drivers were killed while members of the French resistance rescued
13 of their comrades including her husband Raymond had been held by the Gestapo
at Montluc.
1943(22nd
of Tishrei, 5704): During the final Aktion in Minsk, Belorussia,
about 2000 Jews are murdered at Maly Trostinets.
1944:
Birthdate of Marilyn "Mandy" Rice-Davies, the British show girl whose
involvement in a “Sex Scandal” brought down the government of Prime Minister
Harold Macmillan and later would convert to Judaism and marry an Israeli.
1944: The retreating Nazis burned trunk loads of
files, documents and papers concerning the Jews of Birkenau. The Germans were
busy destroying the evidence of their evil. At the same time thousands of Jews
would be sent away from Birkenau. The human evidence was being moved as well.
Tens of thousands would die from hunger, cruelty and the raw elements as they
marched from the concentration camp towards central Germany. Some would
eventually find their way to Dachau and Stutthof.
1944
(4th of Cheshvan, 5705): Frances Y.
Slanger, R.N. died in Elsenborn, Belgium, a victim of a German artillery
attack. She was the first American nurse to die in Europe after the June 1944
D-Day landings in Normandy. She was 31 years old. On the night before she died,
Slanger had written a letter to the Stars and Stripes military
newspaper, on behalf of military nurses, praising American G.I.'s and thanking
the wounded for the privilege of easing their pain and sharing some of their
hardships. Featured on the newspaper's editorial page by editors who did not
know of her death, Slanger's letter evoked a deep response. When the news of
her death was published, Stars and Stripes received an unparalleled
outpouring of letters from its moved readership. Charles Sawyer, the U.S.
ambassador to Belgium speaking of Slanger, said "if there is in heaven and
in our hearts a special shrine for those who have given the most and the best,
it is held sacred for the American nurse." Born in Poland, Slanger came to
Boston, Massachusetts when she was seven years old with her family. She helped
her father, a fruit peddler, while she attended high school. She graduated from
the Boston City Hospital School of Nursing in 1937 and entered hospital work.
In 1943, she enlisted in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps and attended the first
nursing basic training program at Fort Devens. In Europe, she worked as part of
a surgical team on the front lines.In June 1945, a cruise ship, refurbished as
a hospital ship to return wounded American soldiers from Europe, was
commissioned as the Frances Y. Slanger. In November 1947, her body was returned
to Boston for reburial. More than a thousand people, including the mayor of
Boston, paid their respects.(As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archive)
1945:
“Speaking before 2,000 delegates to the 20th anniversary conference
of the United Palestine Appeal at the Hotel Commodore” Senator William J.
Fulbright who would later become a pro-Arab Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign
Relations Committee “said that the greatest obstacle to an effective United
Nations organization” would “be the ancient and antiquated concept of
sovereignty.”
1945:
Fifteen hundred delegates attended today’s 21st annual conference of
the American Jewish Congress in New York where they heard Dr. David Petegorsky,
the executive director, provide “examples of anti-Semitism and racial
intolerance” that have occurred “within recent weeks” that show “that Jews and
other minority groups must be on guard against undemocratic attacks.”
1946:
The HMS Moon, a British minesweeper
captured the SS Alma off the coast of Lebanon and towed her to Haifa. The vessel contained 800 Jewish refugees
trying to enter Palestine despite the White Paper and the British
Blockade. According to reports by the
British, the Jews “took strong but unsuccessful action” in an attempting to
prevent British sailors from boarding the Alma and tying tow ropes to the
vessel. The British claim that no Jews
were injured or killed. The Stern Gang
used rumors about harm that had come to the refugees to issue a shoot to kill
order aimed at British soldiers and sailors.
1946:
Seventy year old Norris Wilcox, the half-brother Douglas Fairbanks passed away
today.
1947:
“In the little town of Raanana on the coastal plain between Tel Aviv and
Nathanya a new children’s village and farm school was dedicated today by the
Mizrachi Women’s Organization of America.”
Initially the facility will be home to 170 holocaust survivors ranging
in age between 5 and 17 years of age who have been living in displaced persons
camps in Cyprus or at the Athlitit detention center. The village will eventually be able to house
anywhere from 300 to 500 children.
1947:
The UNSCOP majority report with its recommendation of partition was sent to the
UN General Assembly with the approval of both the United States and the Soviet
Union.
1948:
Israeli naval vessels supported by planes from the Israeli Air Force shelled
Egyptian positions in Gaza.
1948: At four in the morning, Israeli troops attack
the fortified positions of the Egyptians outside of Beersheba. The Egyptians are taken by surprise since
they did not know that the Israelis had opened the road to the Negev two days
earlier. The Egyptians surrendered and
the ancient place to which Abraham returned after “the binding of Isaac” was in
Jewish hands.
Or
1948: During Operation Moseh, which was named after
“Moshe Albert who fell defending the besieged Beit Eshel” “the Negev Brigade
and 8th Armored Brigade attacked Beersheba from the west. Another force joined
them from the north. The Egyptian army garrison consisted of 500 soldiers with
some light artillery. They put up some resistance for five hours before
surrendering.
1948: Twenty-three year old Abraham Abarzel the
native of Algeria and member of the French Commando Company of the Palmach Hanegev’s
9th Battalion evacuated to Kibbutz Dorot after being “mortally
wounded in the battle for the capture of Beersheba.”
1948: During Operation Ha-Har, “Moshe
("Morris") Ben-Dror, the commander of the Fifth Battalion, put
together a battle corps consisting of two companies of riflemen, a support
company and saboteurs, who were instructed to take Bayt Nattif and to destroy
its houses, whose inhabitants had fought against the Convoy of thirty-five
fallen soldiers who were sent to aid their beleaguered comrades in Gush Etzion
1949:
Birthdate of rightwing Israeli politician and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
1949:
Northwestern University undergrad David Lionel Bazel who began serving as a
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit.
1952:
In Beverly Hills, CA, Phoebe and Henry Ephron gave birth to Amy Ephron the
multi-dimensional author whose work includes A Cup of Tea and One
Sunday Morning.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion
met "Hazon Ish," the supreme authority on interpretation of the
Jewish law for extreme Orthodox Jewry. After an hour of animated discussion,
the area of disagreement between the two leaders remained fundamentally as wide
as ever, but they came closer on the need for the mutual understanding. “Hazon
Ish” was the appellation applied to the famed Talmud scholar Avraham Yeshayahu
Karelitz. Born in Poland in 1878, he
moved to Eretz Israel in 1933. He
settled in B’nai B’rak (yes the same
place mentioned in the Haggadah) where he severed as communal leader while
writing forty books on a variety of religious topics. Although principally an
academic scholar, he applied himself to practical problems such as the use of
milking machines on Shabbat and the cultivation of hydroponics during the
sabbatical year, when it is forbidden to cultivate land in Eretz Yisrael. He
was even once consulted by Prime Minister David Ben Gurion on the question of
drafting young women to the Israel Defense Forces. He passed away in 1953.
1953:
In Hampstead Garden Suburb, Middlesex, Norman Mandelson, the grandson of the
founder of the Harrow United Synagogue and “advertising manager of The Jewish
Chronicle and the former Mary Joyce Morrison gave birth to Peter Benjamin
Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, “a British Labour politician, president of
international think tank Policy Network and Chairman of strategic advisory firm
Global Counsel.”
1954: The
City of Hope Auxiliary of San Diego is scheduled to honor the member of its
Founder and President for 17 years, Anna Shelley, with a Memorial Fund Luncheon
at 12 noon at the Beth Jacob Center.
1954:
In Connecticut, Barbara (Freedman) Berg and film producer Dick Berg, gave birth
to guitarist and record producer Antony Rains “Tony” Berg, “an A&R exec
with Geffen records, the brother of Pulitzer Prize winning author A. Scott Berg
and business executive Jeff Berg and the
father of musician Elizabeth Anne “Z’ Berg.
1954:
“Casino Royale,” “a live 1954 television adaptation of the novel of the same name”
co-starring Peter Lorre was broadcast for the first time today.
1956:
An Off-Broadway production of “Johnny Johnson” a musical with music by Kurt
Weill directed by Stella Adler co-starring Gene Saks opened at the Little
Carnegie Playhouse at Carnegie Hall.
1956:
Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe appeared as contestants on the panel quiz
show “What’s My Line?”
1956:
Sid Gillman’s Los Angeles Rams lost their third straight game when they were
defeated by the Green Bay Packers bring their record to a miserable 1 and 3.
1958:
Following Gracie Allen’s retirement, CBS broadcast the first episode of “The
George Burns Show” the first attempt by Burns to perform without Allen since
the two hooked up in the days of Vaudeville.
1959: In New York City, the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opened to the public. It was designed by Frank
Lloyd Wright. This is yet another
example of Jewish philanthropy for the civil society.
1959: U.S. premiere of “A Bucket
of Blood” a satire with music by composer and cellist Fred Katz.
1961: Seventy-seven year old
“Walter Edward Sachs,” a “limited partner in Goldman, Scahs” married his third
wife Virginia Maitland today.
1961(11th of Cheshvan,
5722): Parashat Lech-Lecha
1961(11th of Cheshvan,
5722): Fifty nine year old Jerusalem born and John Hopkins Ph.D . Aaron Morris
Margalith the author and professor at Yeshiva University, who was the husband
of Helen Margaret Margalith, the hold of a B.A. from Hunter and Masters of
Library Science of Columbia and the father of Joan and Carol Margalith passed
away today.
1961: Birthdate of
Thessaloniki, Greece native and son of
Holocaust survivors Albert Bourla the veteran who became the chairman and chief
executive officer of Pfizer and was a recipient of the one million dollar Genesis
Prize the proceeds of which he said he would donate to the Holocaust Museum in
his native Thessaloniki.
1961: Author James Michener
purchased a painting by Morris Louis, the great Jewish Washington
abstractionist whom kingmaker-critics would anoint as the greatest painter
since Jackson Pollock.
1962(23 of Tishrei, 5723):
Simchat Torah
1962: The Observer reported today
that “during a public debate of the case for a referendum on whthere to the
European Economic Community” “British historian and Conservative peer Max
Beloff “argued that a referendum is not meaningful unless clear alternatives
are set before the electorate; in the absence of such clarity, ‘the electorate
would…be doing no more than indicating a very general bias one way or another.
1962: “The Century 21 Exposition”
also known as the Seattle World’s Fair for which Lawrence Halprin provided the
“master landscaping plan” came to a conclusion today.
1962: The Ramat-Gan Chamber
Orchestra is scheduled to begin a European concert tour today that will not
include a previously scheduled stop in West Germany.
1963: “A call to the major world
powers to safeguard peace in the Middle East was issued today by Prime Minister
Levi Eshkol in his ‘state of the nation’ addressed at the opening meeting of
the Knessett…” (As reported by JTA)
1964(15th of Cheshvan,
5725): Eighty-year-old Louis F. Costuma, the former Deputy Police Commissioner
and form New York State Parole Commissioner who when he was appointed a deputy
police inspector in 1929 was the highest ranking New York Jewish police officer
passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/23/archives/louis-f-costuma-police-aide-dead-exdeputy-commissioner80-was-state.html
1965: Professor Frank Harris, the
Dean of the Medicine of the University of Leicester and his wife gave birth to
Oxford trained physician and Liberal MP for Oxford West Evan Harris whom the
Daily Telegraph named “as one of the MPs who had allegedly made improper claims
for expense.”
1965: Helen Schucman commits the
first lines of A Course in Miracles to paper. Dr. Helen Schucman was a Jewish research psychologist who was a professor
of medical psychology at Columbia University.
1966(7th of Cheshvan,
5727): Sixty-nine year old Lewis Coleman Cohen, Baron Cohen of Brighton, the
son of a Hastings jeweler under whose leadership the Alliance Building Society
“grew into one of the largest and most successful building societies in Britain
and who “chaired the inaugural meeting of the Labour Friends of Israel” passed
away today.
1967(17th of Tishrei, 5728): Third Day
of Sukkoth
1987(17th of Tishrei,
5728: Seventy-seven-year-old attorney
and WW I veteran Herbert Uriah Feibelman, the Mobile Alabama born son of
Sarah Ashkowitz and Joseph Feibelman and the father of Herbert and Emily
Feibelman who was a member of the Jewish War Veterans passed away today in
Dade, FL.
1967 17th of Tishrei, 5728): An
Egyptian missile attack sank the Eilat an
Israeli ship 13 miles away from Port Said which meant the attack that cost the
lives of 48 Israelis, took place in international waters. Israeli artillery opened up all along the
Suez Canal setting the refineries at Suez City on firing thus forcing the
evacuation of thousands of Egyptians.
1967: First broadcast of “Twice a
Fortnight” co-starring Abba Eban’s nephew Jonathan Lynn.
1967:
“Jerusalem of Gold, Israel Festival Song, Strikes Gold” published today
descried how “a song originally commissioned by the May of Jerusalem for the
1967 Israel Song Festival in May has become, since the Six Day War, one of the
biggest hits ever.”
1970(21st
of Tishrei, 5731): Hoshana Raba
1970:
“Little Fauss and Big Halsy” a comedy produced by Albert S. Ruddy was released
today.
1971:
For the first time BBC 1 broadcast “Edna, the Inebriate Woman,” produced by
Irene Shubik and featuring June Brown.
1972:
Dark Star, the winner of 1953 Kentucky Derby, owned by Harry Frank Guggenheim
passed away today.
1973:
Yitamar Barne’a and Gil Haran ejected from their F-4E Phantom Jet after it fell
victim to a Syrian MIG-21, the most advanced Soviet aircraft of that
period. Barne’a was taken prisoner. It is unclear as to whether Haran was
captured or killed.
1973:
“Israeli forces, led by reserve Maj. Gen. Avraham Adan, encircled the Egyptian
Third Army while forces led by Sharon take up positions less than 40 miles from
Cairo.”
1973:
During the Battle of Ismailia, Egyptian forces “abandoned the Touscan strong
point” after having beat off an attack by the Israelis while other Israeli
forces who had “attacked Heneidac at dawn…captured the position before noon.”
1973: Israeli forces sustained
serious casualties as they fought to re-capture Mount Hermon from the
Syrians. The Israelis referred to the
8,200 high mountain as “the eyes of the State of Israel.” Henry Kissinger flew from Moscow to Tel Aviv
where he pressured the Israelis into accepting a cease fire. Kissinger and the Israelis knew that the
Egyptian Third Army which was on the east bank of the Suez Canal was on the
verge of annihilation. Kissinger claimed
that such a crushing defeat would weaken Sadat and keep him from making any
kind of political settlement in the future.
There are those who contend that Sadat was able to sign a peace treaty
with Israel because he felt that Arab honor had been redeemed in 1973. Others contend that Sadat also made peace
because in 1973, the Egyptians with every possible military advantage still
could not defeat Israel and that there was no point in continuing the endless
hostilities.
1973: “Summer Wishes, Winter
Dreams” a female midl-life crisis movie for which Sylvia Sidney received an
Oscar nomination for best supporting actress, co-starring Martin Balsam,
featuring Dori Brenner in her screen debut, directed by Gilbert Gates, written
by Stewart Stern and with music by Johnny Mandel was released today in the
United States.
1975: “Hadassah rededicated the rebuilt and
refurbished Hadassah University Hospital at Mount Scopus.”
1975: “Fifty-two British MPs signed a motion
condemning Soviet treatment of Professor Levich and urging the Soviet
government to honor the Helsinki agreement.”
1975: “The USSR permanent mission at the UN
protested demonstrations by ‘Zionist hooligan groups.’”
1976: Saul Bellow won the Nobel
Prize for Literature
1976: Victor Elistratov, Mikhail
Kremen, Arkady Polishchuk and Boris Chernobilsky were taken away by police
today after a demonstration in Moscow in which the protestors wore yellow stars
on their chests.
1978(20th of Tishrei,
5739): Shabbat Shel Sukkoth
1978(20th of Tishrei,
5739): Eighty-seven year old Samuel E. Goldberg, the New York born son of Malya
Molly Goldfarb and Nesanel Dovid Bryer, “known as “the father of Jewish Music
in America” whose works included “I Have a Little Driedel” passed away today.
http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ohc/id/1346
http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv49530
1979: Birthdate of Israeli jazz
guitarist and composer Assaf Kehati.
1980(11th of Cheshvan,
5741): Eighty year old Jessie Marmorston Weingarten, the Ukrainian born Buffalo
Medical college trained physician “known for her research in the field of
heart” who was the wife of producer Lawrence Weingarten and who counted MGM
movie mogul Louis B. Mayer as one of her patients, passed away today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/marmorston-jessie
1981(23rd of Tishrei,
5742): Simchat Torah
1981: Ninety-eight year old
Frances Taussig, “a past president of the American Association of Social Work”
passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/24/obituaries/frances-taussig-dead-at-98-leading-jewish-social-worker.html
1982: Following his death
yesterday, the coffin of Leib Gurwicz, the Rosh Yeshiva of the Gateshead
Yeshiva in Gateshead, England “was carried by his past and present pupils
through the streets of Gateshead, past the synagogue and kollel and taken to the
Newcastle Airport on the first league of a journey that will end with burial in
Israel tomorrow.
1982: Space epic “The Right
Stuff” directed by Philip Kaufman who also wrote the screenplay and produced by
Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff had a limited release in the United States
today.
1983: Admiral Arnold Resnicoff
arrived in Lebanon to lead a memorial service for Sgt. Allen Soifert, an
American Jewish Marine killed by Arab sniper fire.
1983: U.S. premiere of “The Dead
Zone” a horror film directed by David Cronenberg.
1984: In Hackensack, NJ, funeral
services were held today for seventy-one year old
“retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge and graduate of what is now Rutgers
Law School Morris Malech” the decorated WW II veteran and husband of “the
former Freda Lipowitz” with whom he had two sons – Harry and Edward.
1986: During “Operation Wrath of
God” Munzer Abu Ghazala, a senior PLO official and member of the Palestinian
National Council, was killed by a bomb as he drove through a suburb of Athens
1987: Former Miss America Bess
Myerson is arrested on charges of bribery, conspiracy, and mail fraud, all
involving an alimony-fixing scandal. She is later found not guilty.
1988: In Toronto, Henry Rendall,
who was Jewish and his wife Cathy, who was not gave birth to actor Mark
Rendall, youngest brother of David and Mathew Rendall
1988: Today Israeli Army
officials reported that the Palestinian arrested in the grenade assault on
Monday that wounded 67 Israelis, including 24 soldiers, confessed to several
recent terrorist incidents. The suspect, Salem Rajab al-Sarsour, 29, an Islamic
militant, admitted the assault on the Beersheba bus terminal, a similar grenade
attack late last month on an army post in Hebron, and the fatal stabbing of an
elderly rabbi, also in Hebron, in late August, the Israeli officials said. Mr.
Sarsour described the attack on the bus station, which disrupted the
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Maryland and became the subject of
international attention, as an impulsive act born of frustration, the officials
said. The grenades were intended for a terrorist attack in Jerusalem, the
Israeli officials said. But Mr. Sarsour, who had traveled to Beersheba to seek
construction work, was so frustrated by his failed search that he hurled the grenades
at the terminal, where he was to have caught a bus home. He was captured and
pummeled by a bus driver, who turned him over to the police. The Israeli
officials said Mr. Sarsour, a father of five who lives in the
Palestinian-controlled sector of Hebron, has been active for years in Hamas,
the Islamic fundamentalist group. The armed wing of Hamas claimed
responsibility for the attack today. In a fax to Reuters in Jerusalem, the
group, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigade, said, ''One of our heroic fighters carried
out a heroic operation on Monday morning in the town of Beersheba which
targeted a crowd of enemy soldiers.'' But a senior Palestinian security
official, Jibril Rajoub, said Mr. Sarsour had committed ''an individual act.''
Mr. Rajoub said the bombing should not reflect negatively on the Palestinians'
commitment to cracking down on terrorists. The Israelis say that is the
deal-breaking issue in the peace talks. In Beersheba, officials said, Mr.
Sarsour lobbed two grenades at the terminal during the morning rush hour,
wounding the soldiers, who were returning to their base, and 43 civilians. One
victim, 47, was gravely wounded and remained in critical condition today. Four
others were in serious condition, and 20 remained hospitalized for superficial
shrapnel wounds. In late August, in another act that officials said had not
been planned, Mr. Sarsour killed the rabbi, Shlomo Raanan, 67, in the Tel
Rumeida settlement. The officials added that Mr. Sarsour had told interrogators
that he had planned to throw Molotov cocktails at an army post near Tel
Rumeida, but found it vacant. Climbing the fence of the Jewish settlement, he
spied the rabbi through the window of his mobile home, broke in, stabbed Rabbi
Raanan to death and fled back to Palestinian-controlled Hebron, the Israelis
said. Days later, the Israeli officials said, Mr. Sarsour reported the killing
to Hamas officials, who inducted him into the elite military wing and taught
him grenade throwing. The Israelis have arrested four suspected accomplices. The
Palestinians said they had arrested two more. In another twist, the
Palestinians asserted that Mr. Sarsour, even if he had acted independently in
Beersheba, was a double agent for Hamas and for Israeli security, Israeli Army
Radio reported this evening. The Palestinians said two of his accomplices had
disclosed his double role in videotaped interrogation. The videos have been
flown to the peace talks in Maryland, the army radio said.
1988: “Mystic Pizza” on which
David Stern worked as a production assistant which was “one of his first gigs
in L.A.” was released in the United States today.
1990(2nd of Cheshvan,
5751): On Yair Street in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Bak’a 19 year old
terrorist Omar Said Salah Abu Sirhan stabbed Iris Azulai as she walked out of
her house after which she murdered Eli Altaretz and Shalom “Charlie” Chelouche.
1990: Jewish actor
Alan Rosenberg, the President of the Screen Actors Guild and his wife Marg
Helgenberger gave birth to their first child, Hugh Howard Rosenberg.
1992( 24th of Tishrei,
5753): Eighty-seven-year-old Arthur Agruss, the Son of Rose and Benjamin Agruss
and the husband of Goldie Agruss passed away.
1993(6th of Cheshvan,
5754): Seventy-five year old Long Island University basketball star who went on
to play in the NBA passed away today in Florida.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/25/obituaries/irving-torgoff-75-liu-star-in-30-s-and-nba-player.html
1994: “The Puppet Master” a
sci-film with a script by David S. Goyer and featuring Yaphet Kotto and Richard
Belzer was released in the United States today by Buena Vista Pictures.
1994(16th of Cheshvan,
5755): Seventy-nine-year-old Detroit born, University of Michigan trained
electrical engineer Jerome Bert Wiesner, the husband of Laya Wiesner and the
father of physicist Stephen Weisner who was chosen by President John Kenny to
serve Director of the Office of Science and Technology and chairman of the
Science Advisory Committee while later serving as President of MIT passed away
today.
https://libraries.mit.edu/mithistory/institute/offices/office-of-the-mit-president/jerome-bert-wiesner-1915-1994/
1995(27th of Tishrei,
5756): Eighty-three year old Jack Rose, the Russian immigrant who began as a
gag writer for Milton Berle and Bob Hope before pursuing a career as a
screenwriter.
1998:Sergio Mattarella, who when
he became President of Italy condemned the attack by Palestinian terrorists on
the Great Synagogue of Rome began
serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Italy today.
1999: A memorial service was held
today for Sinai Memorial Chapel for eighty-five year old San Francisco
children’s rights advocate Jean Jacobs.
https://www.jweekly.com/1999/10/22/jacobs-advocate-for-children-s-rights-dies-at-85/
2000(22nd of Tishrei,
5761): Shemini Atzeret
2000: The BBC broadcast “Nations”
part 4 of “A History of Britain” presented by Simon Schama.
2001: The Sunday New York
Times features reviews of the
following books by Jewish authors and/or that featured Jewish topics
including A History of Britain Volume II: The Wars of the British, 1603-1776 by Simon Schama, Cultivating Delight:
A Natural History of My Garden by Diane Ackerman and Too Close To
Call: TheThirty-Six-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election by Jeffrey
Toobin.
2002(15th
of Cheshvan, 5763): A car packed with explosives pulled up to a bus in northern
Israel during rush hour, igniting a massive fireball that killed 14 people
along with two suicide attackers.
2002(15th
of Cheshvan, 5763): Ninety-three year old German born Australian mathematician
Bernhard Hermann Neumann passed away today.
http://rsbm.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/roybiogmem/56/285
2003:
Exactly one year after a suicide bomber killed 14 Israeli bus riders, the U.N.
General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding that Israel
tear down a barrier being built as an anti-terrorist measure. The U.N. objects to what critics claim is the
“jutting the fence into the West Bank.”
2004:
An Israeli air strike in Gaza City killed Adnan al-Ghoul,a leading Hamas
weapons maker who was responsible for some of the group’s most powerful bombs
and its homemade rockets, Israel’s military said.
2005:
The Icon Festival comes to an end at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. The Icon Festival,
a celebration of science fiction and the imagination is held yearly during the
Chol Hamoed period of Sukkoth.
2005: As a testimony to the vibrancy and creativity
of Israeli society, Haaretz reported
that “Lumenis, the developer, manufacturer and seller of laser and light-based
devices for medical, aesthetic, ophthalmic, dental and veterinary applications,
has announced the launch of a series of new products over the past two weeks.
2005(18th
of Tishrei, 5766): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth
2005(18th
of Tishrei, 5767): Rabbi Hermann Naftali Neuberger, the President of Ner Israel
and the man who helped to save 60,000 Persian Jews. His legacy includes three sons who became
prominent rabbis in their own right and two other sons who became prominent
members of the legal profession.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_N._Neuberger
http://www.forward.com/articles/2224/
2006:
David Samson, the President of the Miami Marlins “completed the Ford Ironman
World Championship Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii” making him “the only team president
of a major U.S. sports franchise to have completed the Ironman Triathlon.”
2006(29th
of Tishrei, 5767): Eighty-eight year old Milton Selzer whose career began
during “the Golden Age of Television” passed away today.
http://alt.obituaries.narkive.com/oxsj3SgJ/milton-selzer-88-prolific-character-actor
http://sanfordandson.wikia.com/wiki/Milton_Selzer
2006:
Palestinian terrorists fired four Kassam rockets at the western Negev, a day
after several other rockets hit Israel. All of them landed in open areas,
causing no injuries or damage. Seventy year old
2007(9th
of Cheshvan, 5768): Seventy year old “R. B. Kitaj, an American artist who
became influential in Britain with figurative and Pop Art paintings that ran
against the grain of 1960s and ’70s abstraction” passed away today. (As reported by Martha Schwendener)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/arts/24kitaj.html?_r=0
2007(9th
of Cheshvan, 5768): Ninety-two year old art dealer Ileana Sonnabend passed away
today. (As reported by Robert Smith)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/arts/24sonnabend.html?pagewanted=all
2007:
A 10-day klezmer festival featuring over 100 klezmer musicians comes to an end
in New York.
2007:
In “A Counter History” published today, Alex Witchel traces the history of the
New York deli and the role of Abe Lebewohl, who started the 2nd
Avenue Deli in 1954. (Editor’s note – the 2nd Avenue Deli makes the
best tongue on pumpernickel sandwich in the world and their meat knishes are
beyond compare.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/magazine/21deli-t.html?pagewanted=all
2007:
The Sunday Washington Post book
section features Marvin Kalb’s review of Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War by Howard Kurtz and The Siege of Mecca:
The forgotten Uprising in Islam’s Holiest Shrine and the Birth of Al Qaeda by
Yaroslav Trofimov.
2007: The Sunday New York Times book section
features reviews of the following books by Jewish authors and/or that
featured Jewish topics including Harold Robbins: The Man Who Invented Sex
by Andrew Wilson, The Conscience of Liberal by Paul Krugman, Supercapitalism
by Robert Reich, Foreskin’s Lament: A Memoir by Shalom Auslander, Weimar Germany: :Promise and Tragedy by Eric D.
Weitz, The Last Chicken In America, Ellen Litman’s elegantly constructed
web of stories about Russian-Jewish immigrants living in the Squirrel Hill
section of Pittsburgh, The Sabotage Café by Joshua Furst fiction editor
of Zeek and Fire in the Blood
by Irène Némirovsky, translated by Sandra Smith.
2007:
The Chicago Tribune carried a front
page story entitled “How Holocaust heroine rescued 2,500 children” that told
the story of how four Kansas high school students “discovered” and publicized
the story of Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker an unsung Polish
heroine of the Holocaust
2007:
the State Senate voted to oppose the Elliot Spitzer plan to issue special
driver’s licenses to immigrant workers without requiring proof of legal
immigration status by a 39–19 vote
2007:
The latest adaptation of I.L. Peretz’s “A Night in the Old Marketplace” has its
last performance at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia, PA. The musical
is the creation of composer Frank London.
2007: Archeologists overseeing contested
Islamic infrastructure work on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount have
stumbled upon a sealed archeological level dating back to the First Temple
period, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Sunday. The find marks the
first time that archeological remains dating back to the First Temple period
have been found on the contested holy site, the state-run archeological body
said.
2008(22nd
of Tishrei, 5769): Shemini Atzeret,
2008:
Inside the grand Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in this
bustling seaside city, five mostly elderly women and a middle-aged man from the
Jewish community here gathered this evening to commemorate the holiday of new
beginnings: Simhat Torah. For the dwindling Jewish community of Alexandria,
where fewer than 25 members now remain, six local attendees is nearly par for
the course.
2008: The Israeli feature film Seven
Minutes in Heaven, directed by newcomer Omri Givon, took the top award in
its hotly contested category at the 24th Haifa International Film
Festival, which ended tonight.
2008:
“The National Coalition Against Censorship honored Anthony Lewish for his work
in the area of First Amendment rights and free expression.”
2009:
Closing session of the National Jewish Democratic Conference Washington
Conference.
2009: Freelance
writer David Sax discusses his new book, Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect
Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen, at the Sixth
& I Historic Synagogue, in Washington, D.C.
2009: The Hyman
S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival feature programs centered
around Morris Dickstein’s Dancing in
the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression and Shana Liebman’s Sex, Drugs and Gefilte
Fish: The Heeb Storytelling Collection
2009: The IDF and
the US military are scheduled to begin a major joint air defense exercise
today, highlighting military ties between the two allies at a time of
heightened tensions over Iran’s nuclear program.
2009: The Anti-Defamation
League said today that despite the apology of two South Carolina Republican
Party chairmen for characterizing Jews as penny-pinchers, “they need to do more
to publicly disavow their words and to understand why their remarks were so
insensitive.”
2009: The Senate plenum and executive council of Tel Aviv
University approved the appointment of Professor Joseph Klafter as the school’s
8th president.
2009(3rd
of Cheshvan, 5770: English mystery writer Lionel Davidson passed away. In 1966,
he won his second Gold Dagger for A Long Way to Shiloh which was
published in the United States as The Menorah Men, a story that revolves
around the search for a holy candelabrum rescued from the Jerusalem Temple
before its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE. The story draws from the Copper
Scroll found at Qumran in 1952, which lists buried treasure.
2010:
Samuel Heilman is scheduled to deliver The Bernard Wexler Lecture on Jewish
History based on
The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson at The Hyman
S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival in Washington, DC.
2010:
Artist Noam Braslavsky unveiled a life-sized sculpture of Sharon in a hospital
bed with an IV drip at the Kishon Gallery in Tel Aviv.
2010(13th
of Cheshvan, 5771): Ninety-one year old pianist and author Natasha Spender, the
daughter of Jewish refugees from Lithuania who was “the second wife of poet Sir
Stephen Spender” who had Jewish members in his family tree, passed away today.
http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/oct/22/natasha-spender-obituary
2010:
The Chief Rabbinical Council today formed a committee
to examine the conversion processes not only in the IDF but also in the State
Conversion Authority. Five senior rabbis will be presenting their findings to
Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Chief IDF Rabbi Rafi Peretz within four
months. The Reform and Masorti movements
slammed the rabbinate for its decision, and Kadima called on the rabbinate to
find any possible way to ease the path of those seeking to join the Jewish
nation.
2011(23rd of Tishrei, 5772): Simchat Torah
2011:
A brushfire broke out between Kibbutz Yasur and
Moshav Ahihud in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel today. 24 fire
engines and five firefighting aircraft are being used in an effort to contain
the blaze. Dozens of area residents have been evacuated from their homes. No
injuries have been reported, thus far. Highway 70 has been closed between the
Ahihud and Yavor junctions, causing heavy traffic in the region. The cause of
the blaze is as of yet unknown.
2011: The Petah
Tikva Magistrate’s Court agreed to a police request today to extend the remand
of 14 people arrested during a rally outside the Sharon prison last night.
2011: Today, as a freshman at the
University of Michigan, Zach Hyman “scored the first goal of his collegiate
career.”
2011: Theo Epstein
officially resigned as general manager of the Red Sox late Friday night to
accept the position of Cubs president of baseball operations. The announcement
was made in a joint news release after some cajoling from Major League
Baseball, which was upset the two teams’ contentious negotiations for
compensation regarding Epstein is a distraction from the World Series.
2012: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors
and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Who Could That Be at
This Hour? By Lemony Snicket (who is
really David Handler, the son of Lou Handler a Jewish accountant)
2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors
and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released
paperback edition of Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore.
2012: Carl Bernstein is scheduled to address a luncheon sponsored
by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington
2012: Jeanne Golan is scheduled to
perform the second and final, in a series of recitals featuring the complete
piano sonatas of Viktor Ullman at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education
Center
2012: The Wiener Library, “the
world’s oldest Holocaust memorial institution,” is scheduled to host an Open
Day as part of the Bloomsbury Festival, which will give a wider audience a
chance to view the new temporary exhibition, ‘Rescues of the Holocaust:
Remembering Raoul Wallenberg and Lives Saved’.
2012:
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Temple Judah is scheduled to sponsor “Yiddish Café &
Cabaret” featuring Cantor Jennifer Bern-Vogel (Temple Judah Confirmation class
of 1973), “the Java Jews” (Des Moines gift to klezmer) and Dr. Bill Carson,
director of bands at Coe College.
2012:
Former Mossad chief and Yesh Sikuy director Meir Dagan is facing the threat of
assassination by an Iranian hit squad as he recovers from a liver transplant in
Belarus, The Sunday Times reported.
2012:
Israel’s security forces are being tested rigorously in the upcoming days as
they take part in two major drills aimed to test their ability to face both
natural disasters and war. The largest-ever joint Israeli and American military
drill began today at the same time that the country’s emergency services were
participating in their first earthquake preparedness drill.
2013:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Sex, Yiddish and the
Law: Jewish Life in Metz in the 18th Century”
2013:
The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide, in partnership
with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Advanced
Holocaust Studies (CAHS), is scheduled to host a seminar, Introduction to
Holocaust Studies through the International Tracing Service (ITS) Collection at
the Wiener Library, designed for advanced undergraduate, master’s-level and
first-year PhD students.
2013(17th
of Cheshvan, 5773): Seventy-two year old New York City “budget maven” Paul
Dickstein passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2013:
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was announced today as the winner of the
first Genesis Prize, a $1 million award dubbed “the Jewish Nobel Prize.” (As
reported by Lazar Berman)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/ny-mayor-bloomberg-to-be-awarded-first-jewish-nobel/
2013:
Two mortar shells fired from Syria, likely spillover from the bloody civil war
in the country, landed on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights today near Tel
Fares. (As reported by Lazar Berman)
2013:
An Opera Fights Hungary’s Rising Anti-Semitism published today described how
Ivan Fischer’s “The Red Heifer” is being used to combat rising anti-Jewish sentiment.
2014: In Glencoe, Illinois, the
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host a screening of the
documentary “50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus.”
2014: The Hyman S. & Freda
Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival is scheduled to present Zachary Lazar,
author of I Pity the Poor Immigrant and “Art Spiegelman’s WORDLESS! With
music by Phillip Johnston.
2014: “A monumental Roman
inscription bearing the name of Emperor Hadrian, which surfaced in Jerusalem
during salvage excavations earlier this year, was displayed to the public by
the Israel Antiquities Authority today.” (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)
2014: “Former Israeli Sephardic
Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar was elected as the new Sephardic Chief Rabbi of
Jerusalem, with 28 votes, while Rabbi Aryeh Stern of the Halacha Brura
Institute was voted in as Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi with 27.” (As reported by
Hezki Ezra)
2015:
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to
present a screening of “The World Was Ours, an award-winning one-hour
documentary narrated by the award-winning actor, Mandy Patinkin that explores
the vibrant and creative life of the Jewish community of Vilna (now Vilnius,
Lithuania) between the two World Wars.”
2015:
“All 19 Jewish House lawmakers slammed UNESCO for its vote charging Israel with
changing the status quo at a Jerusalem holy site.”
2015:
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pounded today with a barrage of
condemnations after he claimed that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler only decided on
the mass extermination of Europe’s Jews after receiving input on the matter
from Jerusalem’s then-grand mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, a Palestinian
nationalist widely acknowledged as a fervent Jew-hater.” (As reported by Adiv
Sterman and Raphael Ahren)
2015(8th
of Cheshvan, 5776): Seventy-nine year old comedian Marty Ingels passed away
today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2015:
One rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in an open area in southern Israel
tonight. The code red sirens sounded in the Sha’ar HaNegev and Sdot Negev
Regional Councils next to the Gaza border, but the projectile landed in The
Sha’ar HaNegev area.
2016(19th
of Tishrei, 5777): Fifth Day of Sukkot
2016:
Leonard Cohen is scheduled “to release his 14th studio album ‘You
Want It Darker’ today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/montreal-cantor-helps-leonard-cohen-on-road-back-to-his-jewish-roots/
2016:
“American Pastoral” the movie version of Philip Roth’s award winning novel
opened in 15 theatres across the United States today.
2016:
“Keeping Up with the Jones,” a spy-spoof featuring Gal Gadot which had
premiered was released in the rest of the United States today.
2016:
“Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot” was among those who appeared at the United
Nations today, “on the 75th anniversary of the first appearance” of
the mythical female super hero.
2016:
“The Israeli-American seven-piece group Anbessa Orchestra” is scheduled to
perform at Barbes in Brooklyn, NY.
2016:
In Jerusalem, the Admaya Conference is scheduled to come to an end “with
workshops, techniques and displays of earth building” that will be of interest
to “the whole family.”
2016:
“Denial” comes to the “heartland” with the scheduled opening of the film today
at two theatres in Des Moines, Iowa.
2017(1st
Day of Cheshvan 5778): Parashat Noach and Second Day Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan; for
more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2017:
The Lincoln Center Cinema is scheduled to host a screening of “Aida’s Secrets”
followed by a Q & A with directors Alon and Shaul Schwarz.
2017:
In the United Kingdom, Trafalgar Day when Englishmen and Anglophiles pay homage
to the memory of Lord Nelson, his victory and the sailor who served with him
including those who trained by reading Sir Alexander Schomberg’s “A Sea Manual
recommended to the Young Officers of the Royal Navy as a Companion to the
Signal Book.”
2018:
Rob Snyder, author Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of
New York City, is “scheduled to lead a walking tour and panel discussion in
the northern Manhattan neighborhood once known as “Frankfurt on the Hudson” for
its large population of German-Jewish refugees.”
2018:
In Atlanta, Helen Weingarten, “who entered Auschwitz as one of five sisters” of
whom only four survived and who “narrowly escaped death when the 500 women she
was with were redirected from the entrance to the gas chambers and sent to
Germany for slave labor” is scheduled to speak at the Breman Museum this
afternoon.
2018:
Sarina Roffé, a professional genealogist, founder of the Sephardic Heritage
Project, and author of Branching Out from Sepharad: A Global Journey of
Selected Rabbinic Families with Biographies and Genealogies which outlines
the history and expulsion of Jews in Spain, their history in Syria, and
immigration to the Americas” is scheduled to “discuss the Kassin rabbinic
dynasty from the 12th century through the 50-year leadership of Rabbi Jacob S.
Kassin in Brooklyn, and to solve a Converso mystery” at the Center for Jewish
History.
2018:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “the People vs. Noah” with Prosecutor
Alan Dershowitz, Defense Attorney Joe Lieberman and Michael Mukasey, “former
Attorney General of the United States” serving as the presiding Judge.
2018
“Julia Louis-Dreyfus” received “the 21st Annual Mark Twain Prize for
American Humor at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” tonight.
2018:
The Cleveland Browns with Greg Joseph as their Placekicker is scheduled to play
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at noon today.
2018:
The New York Times published reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Poison Squad: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food
Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century by Deborah Blum and No
Property In Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding by Sean
Wilentz
2019:
In San Mateo, CA, the San Mateo Performing Arts Center is scheduledto host “A
Night of Jewish Humor,” featuring a “performance by bestselling writers Dave
Barry and Adam Mansbach, two of three authors of the comic haggadah, For This We Left Egypt?
2019:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a luncheon following
Shemini Atzertz services.
2019:
Asi Matathius, who “made his debut at the age of fourteen with the Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta,” is scheduled to perform
this with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players at the Good Shepherd
Presbyterian Church.
2019(22nd of Tishrei, 5780):
Shemini Atzeret and Yizkor
https://www.crescentcityjewishnews.com/off-the-pulpit-a-yizkor-message/
2019(22nd
of Tishrei, 5780: This evening, in Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to
host a “Family-fun Erev Simchat Torah service with Eliana Light.
2020:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to present online the lecture Reconstructing
The History of Ancient Israel: The Bible vs Archaeology.
2020:
In Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Temple Judea is scheduled to host a lunch and learn
during which Rabbi Yaron will discuss “Psalms, what they are, the role they
play and various interpretations of the known and not so known Psalms.”
2020:
The International Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center is scheduled to present an
international Zoom with professionals discussing the COVID-19 Conundrum
2020:
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston is scheduled to present
an online “Conversation with Admiral Ami Ayalon”
2020:
The Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies is scheduled to
present “Professor Samuel J. Levine discussing
Joseph, autism and his 2018 book “Was Yosef on the Spectrum?”
2020:
In New Orleans, the Anti-Defamation League is scheduled to host its “Torch of
Liberty Dinner.”
2020:
The Mandel JCC Cleveland Jewish FilmFest is scheduled to provide “The One and
Only Jewish Miss America” for a fixed 48-hour home viewing window.
2020:
As can be seen by yesterday’s reports about the resignation of Finance Ministry
Officials and the IDF’s exposure of tunnel that reached several meters into
Israel from Gaza, Israelis awake to an ongoing terrorist threat and financial
crisis related to the Pandemic.
2021:
YIVO and the Center for Jewish History are scheduled to present Pogroms: A
Documentary History
Featuring
Elissa Bemporad, Eugene Avrutin, Darius Staliunas & David Myers.
2021:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a conversation with Jeff Zucker,
president of CNN and correspondent Anderson Cooper author of Vanderbilt: The
Frise and Fall of an American Dynasty,
2021:
Poetry@TECH, The Breman Museum, Jewish Book Council are scheduled to host An
Evening of Poetry with Afaa Michael Weaver, Eleanor Wilner, and Erika Meitner
2022:
In Marshall, CA, the Straus Home Ranch is scheduled to host oping night of
“After I’m Dead, You’ll Have to Feed Everyone,”
a “play written and performed by Vivien Straus about her Jewish mother
from Amsterdam, a city girl who found love on a dairy farm and was a West Marin
environmental pioneer.”
2022:
In Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Temple Judea is scheduled to host a pre-oneg
following by shabbat worship with Rabbi Yaron and Cantor Abbie.
2022:
The Rohr Chabad Jewish Student Center at Tulane University is scheduled to host
Friday Night Live!
2022:
The San Francisco Playhouse is scheduled to host “Indecent,” a “play written by
Paula Vogel based on events surrounding the scandalous Broadway debut of Sholem
Asch’s “The God of Vengeance,” considered by some as a seminal work of early
Yiddish theater as traitorous libel by others.”
2023:
The concert “Musical Journeys” scheduled to take place today at the Eden-Tamir
has been postponed in the wake of the on-going terrorist attacks in Israel.
2023:
As October 21 begins in Israel, “Attacks by Hezbollah from Lebanon have
increased, the 22,000 residents of Kiryat Shomona have been ordered to evacuate
and the country faces a new threat from the Houthi in Yemen whose rockets have
already been shot down by an American destroyer.
(Editor’s
note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are just
providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time)
2023(6th
of Cheshvan, 5784): Parashat Noach (Noah); for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
