This Day, October 31, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
OCTOBER 31
445 BCE: In Jerusalem Ezra, the Scribe reads the Scroll
of the Law, the Torah, to the Jews of Judea as described in Nehemiah 9:1.
475: Twenty five years
after the redaction of the Jerusalem Talmud, Orestes refused to “wear
the Purpl…
OCTOBER 31
445
475: Twenty five years
after the redaction of the Jerusalem Talmud, Orestes refused to “wear
the Purple” and named his son Romulus Augustus as Western Roman Emperor. Romulus Augustus would be the last person to
hold this job and when he was deposed in 476 it marked the end of the Roman
Empire, at least in the West. This
period of chaos combined with the rise of Christianity as the state religion in
Europe was not conducive to the well-being of the Jews who had settled in what
once had been the Roman Empire.
1345: Birthdate King
Fernando I of Portugal. During his reign
Jews not only enjoyed a certain amount of self-government through the position
of a Chief Rabbi or Ar-Rabbi Mor. The
King trusted Jews so much that Don Judah served as his chief treasurer and Don
David Negro served as “his confidant and counselor.”
1391: Birthdate of King
Duarte of Portugal who during his reign enacted laws prohibiting Jews from
employing Christians.
1497: Last date given
by King Manuel for Jews to leave
Portugal. Four years after the
expulsion of Jews from
1514: Birthdate of Viennese
cartographer Wolfgang Lazius who “suggested that after Babel the earliest
Hebrews had migrated from Mesopotamia to German” and who found evidence of
Hebrew in European languages
1517: Luther posted 95
theses on
1558: In a document
bearing today’s date, “it is stated that the customs, inns, breweries and
ferries of Pinsk, which had been leased to Nahum and Israel Pesakhovich for 450
kop groschen were now awarded to Khaim Rubinovich for the annual sum of 550 groschen.
1617: Heny Marten, the
son of Sir Henry Martin and member of the House of Commons who called for
Parliament to repeal the Act of Expulsion which would have led to the admission
to Jews in the United Kingdom “matriculated” today “as a gentleman commoner from
University College” from which he graduated in 1620 with a BA.
1630: Birthdate of
English lawyer and MP Sir Peter Pett who along with the Bishop of Langley and
Lord Anglesey drew up a plan shortly after King Charles II returned to the
throne that would have placed the Jews in a ghetto like environment and
subjected them to special taxes…”
1655: As the weeklong Tishrei festivals come to an end,
Manassah Ben Israel prepared to make his voyage where is to meet with Oliver
Cromwell whom he hopes will allow the Jews to return to the British Isles.
1655: A “humble address” is sent from Manasseh ben Israel to Oliver
Cromwell, The Lord Protector. A fortnight later on 13 November he submitted a
petition for the readmission of Jews to England.
1705:
Birthdate of Clement XIV, the Pope who declared the Jews “innocent of the
slanderous blood accusation” and who moved the Jews from the jurisdiction of
the Inquisition to the “Viciariato di Roma.” (The Vicar of Rome who is the
Pope)
1759(10th of Cheshvan,
5520): An earthquake killed several hundred Jews in Safed. Safed is the town most people connect with
Jewish mystics and the famous Shabbat Eve hymn, Lecha Dodi. Prior to the
earthquake, Safed had been a thriving city.
The first printing presses in the
1768: Birthdate of
Penzance native and co-owner of the ships Nancy and Betsy, Lemon Hart, the
grandson of Rhineland native Abraham Hart whose birth coincided with the town’s
“first purpose-built synagogue” and who married Mary Solomon after his first
wife Letita died in fire and eventually passed away in Brighton in 1845.
1778: Today, Philip
Minis, the Savannah born Jewish son of Abraham Minis and successful businessman
who was “an ardent patriot” who would act as guide for the Americans during the
siege of Savannah gave a receipt to Treasurer Michael Helligard for “six thousand
nine hundred and nineteen and a half dollars’ which may have been part of the
payment that Congress had directed he should receive from the "acting
paymaster and commissary to the Virginia and North Carolina troops in the State
of Georgia.
1784(16th of Cheshvan,
5545): Couronna, the wife of Lion Acher ou Shaagat Arie and the mother of
Asser, Juda and Wolf Lion passed away today in Metz, Lorraine, France.
1761: Birthdate of Sir
Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninckthe who in 1802 as the Batavian (Dutch) Ambassador to France
delivered a note to the French foreign minister on behalf of the Jews of
Germany.
1793: “Marx Berr,
another member of the Cerfberr family, who had been a Jacobin until the purge
during the Terror was taxed 25, 000 livres today.
1806: In Philadelphia,
PA, John Moss and Rebecca Lyons gave birth to Eleazer (Eugene) Moss
1810: Philip Raphael
married Grace Simmons at the Great Synagogue today.
1811: In Spitafields,
London, Rose and Barnet Salomons gave birth to Reuben Salomons, the husband of
Sarah Hurwitz and the father of Rosa, Albert, Julia, Emily and Constance
Salomons.
1817: Birthdate of Tzvi
Hirsch Graetz who gained fame as historian Heinrich Graetz.
1821: Samuel Jacobs
married Phoebe Levy at the Great Synagogue today
1821: Mordecai ben
Joseph married Mata bat Simon at the Western Synagogue today.
1824: Birthdate of
Galician author Fabius Mieses whose works including “a history of modern
philosophy from Kant to his own time” published in 1887.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0014_0_13860.html
1826: Birthdate of
Agnes (nee Lewin) Byk, the native of Pinsk who was the wife of Samuel Alexander
Byk.
1827: Jacob ben Moses married
Shifra bat Joel at the New Synagogue today.
1827: Isaac Cohen
married Sarah Samuel at the Great Synagogue today.
1830: Solomon ben
Nathaniel Ha-Levi married Beila bat David at the Western Synagogue today.
1831: Samuel Hyam
married Phoebe Levy at the New Synagogue today.
1832: Moses Levin
married Sarah Nannette Joseph at the Great Synagogue today.
1832: In Hamburg, Moses
Nathan Levy, the Hamburg born son of Jette and Nathan Levy and his wife gave
birth to Levin Levy who did not live to celebrate his second birthday.
1833: The so-called law
of October 31,,1833 which Jacob Pinhas was instrumental in drafting “gave full
citizenship to such Jews who were willing
to abandon petty trading” in Hesse-Cassel.
1834(28th of
Tishrei, 5595): Samuel Landau, the chief dayan of Prague who was the son of
Rabbi Yechezkel ben Yehuda Landau passed away today.
1835: Birthdate of Johann
Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer, known as Adolph von Baeyer, the first Jew
to ever receive the Nobel Prize. A native of Berlin, this German chemist was acknowledged
in 1905 for synthesizing dye indigo and was awarded the Davie Medal by the
Royal Society of London in 1881, for his work with indigo. He passed away in
1917.
1837: Birthdate of
Bertha Eppstein, the husband of Max Eppstein and the mother of Seraphine
Eppstein Pisko.
1838:
Birthdate of Luis I of Portugal who in 1869 conferred the noble title of viscond on
David de Ster in recognition of the work of Stern's bank in floating Portuguese
loans
1841: In the first
Jewish marriage in
1842(27th of Cheshvan,
5603): Eighty
year old Rabbi Solomon Hirschell passed away. Born in 1761, he was the Chief
Rabbi of Great Britain, from 1802 until his death. He is best remembered for his unsuccessful
attempt to stop the spread of Reform Judaism in Britain by excommunicating its
leaders. His father was a Polish Jew from Galicia Hirschel Levin, Chief Rabbi
of London and Berlin and a friend of Moses Mendelssohn. His older brother was
Talmudist Saul Berlin.
http://www.oztorah.com/2010/06/solomon-hirschel-high-priest-of-the-jews/
1842(27th of
Cheshvan, 5603): Joseph Simson, the son of Solomon and Sarah Simon and the
husband Francs (Frumet) Simons passed away in New York City.
1842: Birthdate of
Bagdad native Manasseh Abdulla Joseph who was buried in the Hong Kong at the
Happy Valley Jewish Cemetery when he passed away in 1903.
1843: In Philadelphia,
PA, Benvenida Valentina Nathans, the Wilmington, Delaware born daughter of
Sarah Helen Solis and Daniel da Silva Solis and her husband Moses Nathans gave
birth to Orlando Daniel Nathans.
1847(21st of
Cheshvan, 5608): Seventy-three year old Alexander Mack, the German born of
Getta Sender and Moses Mack, the husband of Sara Aub and the father of Wolfgang
Mack passed away today.
1848: Birthdate of
Andrew Rosewater, the native of Bohemia, husband of Frances Meinerath and
graduate of the Cleveland, Ohio public schools who became a civil and sanitary
engineer as well as the editor of the Omaha
(Neb) Bee.
1849; Mordecai Manuel
Noah wrote to Daniel Webster today inviting him to attend the Hebrew Benevolent
and German Hebrew Benevolent Society banquet to be held in New York on November
13. In the letter, Noah informs Webster
that there are 13,000 Jews living in New York City and that number is
continuing to rise daily.
1851: “Hebrew Customs –
Interesting Case” published today described a case being heard in the Court of
Common Pleas in Philadelphia where P.S. Rowland, a Jewish plaintiff has filed
suit against the widow of his brother and her new husband contesting the distribution
of the will based on the Biblical concept of the Levirate Marriage .
1856:
Birthdate of Julia Raphael the mother of Dorothy Elizabeth Levitt a pioneer
female automobile and motor boat racer
1856:
Eighty-year old Fogel Solomon was buried today at the “Exeter Jewish Cemetery.”
1856: In
Philadelphia, PA, Abraham Kahn and the former Rebecca Ezekiel gave birth to
Florence Kahn Liveright, the wife of Simon Livewright and Jewish community
leader who serve as a Director of the Hebrew Education Society and was active
in the Jewish Hospital Auxiliary and the Personal Interest Section of the
United Hebrew Charities.
1857:
Birthdate of Austrian composer and pianist Robert Fischhof who “took piano
lessons from composer Franz Liszt” and who played in public for the first time
when he was only seven years old.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6155-fischhof-robert
1857: In a letter to
the editor published in today's New York Times, "Grace, a farmer's
wife" expresses her indignation of having the farmer classed with
"the Wall-street gamblers or Chatham-street Jews." In New York, Chatham Street was the center of
the second-hand clothing business, an industry dominated by immigrant Jews who
allegedly took advantage of their Christian costumers.
1860: In Leavenworth,
KS, Henry/Hartog Bernard Haas, the
Arnhem born of Christina and Benjamin Philip Haas and his wife Sarah Haas gave
birth to Christina Johanna Fredericka Haas who passed away before her second
birthday.
1860: The News of the
Day Column published today reported that “a ball and banquet in aid of the
‘Jews Hospital in New-York’ was given at the City Assembly Rooms last evening,
which was largely attended by members of the Jewish faith and others. Donations
in aid of the Hospital were received from those present, and from absent
persons, by letter, amounting to $14,000. Among the donors was Gov. Morgan, who
sent a complimentary letter in closing $100.”
1861: The General News
column published today reported that “A murder of a most atrocious nature has
been committed in New-Jersey, on the body of a German Jew named Sigismund Felluer.
Deceased had only been in this country a few days, and had property in jewels
and diamonds to the amount of $50,000. A man with whom Felluer left the
Prescott House, and a Jewess in whose company Felluer was seen, are suspected,
and the police are diligently searching for them. A reward of $500 for the
discovery of the murderer or murderers has been offered by the friends of Felluer.
1864: Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state. It was a series of silver strikes, the most
famous of which was the Comstock Lode that attracted large numbers of early
settlers to Nevada including Jews as well as Gentiles. For example, when Eureka, Nevada experienced
its silver strike the town’s population reached four thousand including more
than one hundred Jews. Among these Jews
was Ben C. Levy a native of France who became superintendent of two mines and
who, along with his wife, was a leader of the Jewish community. David H. Cohen was typical of these early
Jewish settlers. He began as a “49er” in
California, moved on to Virginia City, Nevada before “striking it reach” with a
liquor business in Austin, Nevada. Adoph
Sutro left the most lasting monument to the intrepid Jewish population of
Nevada’s early days. This placer panner
turned entrepreneur raised the money for the construction of the four mile long
Sutro Tunnel designed to drain water from the mines thus making them safer and
more protective. The man who made the modern Nevada was Jewish gangster Bugsy
Siegel, the man behind Las Vegas. As of
2000, there were an estimated 77,100 Jews living in Nevada, representing an
increase of 277% from 1990.
1864: Birthdate of
Albert Henry Jessel, a London –born “communal worker.”
1865: James Goldsmith,
who had risen from the rank of Corporal to Sergeant since joining Company H of
the 163rd Regiment of the 18th Cavalry in 1862 completed
his “term of service today.”
1866: On the Isle of
Wight, Read Admiral John Bourmaster Dickson and his wife gave birth to John
Dickson-Poynder, the first Baron Islington who in 1922 and 1930 condemned the
mandate in Palestine because he said it favored the Jews whom he described as “undesirable.”
1868: In New York,
Sarah Naar Cardozo, the New York born daughter of Dr. Daniel Moses Levy Maduro
Peixotto and Rachel Lopes Mendes Peixotto and her husband Abraham Hart Cardozo
gave birth to Algernon Jarvis Cardozo
1869: Birthdate of
David Pollock, the native of Lida, Russia who became the Superintendent of the
Zion Hebrew Sabbath Schools in Chicago and the editor of the Zion Messenger.
1870: Major Louis
Alexander Gratz, the son of Henrietta and Salomon Gratz, and his wife Elisabeth
Trigg Gratz gave birth to Louis Alexander Gratz, Jr., the husband of Maggie
Gratz.
1872(29th of
Tishrei, 5633): Edward Henry Beddington, the “chairman of the Building
Committee of the United Synagogue and treasurer of Jew’s College who played a
key role in “connection with the erection of the Central Synagogue” and the
creation “of a new Jewish cemetery at Willesden” passed away today. (As
reported by Joseph Jacobs and Goodman Lipkind)
1873: “A later
ordinance” promulgated today, “stipulated that the issue of marriages between
members of the Swedish State Church and Jews should be brought up in the
Lutheran faith.”
1873: Birthdate of Rudolf
Lubinski the Croatian architect whose projects included the synagogue in
Sarajevo, Il Kal Grandi.
1873: Heungseon Daewongun, the whom German Jewish businessman
Ernst Jakob Oppert attempted to blackmail in an attempt to remove “Korean trading barriers” completed
his service today as Regent in Korea.
1875: It was reported
today that “eight Jews and Jewesses were recently baptized in London.
1875: It was reported
today that in England, a revision of the Book of Isaiah has been completed and
work on a revision of the translation of the Book of Jeremiah has reach the
midpoint of that book of the Bible.
1875: It was reported
today that the Jewish messenger said of Moody and Sankey, “We give the two
enterprising gentlemen the credit of being honest in their intentions, earnest
in their work and as the past has proved, disinterested in the pecuniary results
of their vast undertakings. Would that
we could say the same of all our Deacons and Trustees, Pastors and Rabbis” [
Moody is Dwight Moody, the famous evangelist.
Sankey is Ira David Sankey, “The Sweet Singer of Methodism” who was
known for his composition and singing of gospel music. During a trip to the
United Kingdom, the two raised tens of thousands of dollars for the use of
missionaries.
1875: In Los Angeles, Harriet
(née Newmark) and Marc Eugene Meyer gave birth to Eugene Meyer, a Yale
graduate, who established his own very successful banking firm and did not
choose to continue identifying as a Jews.
Starting with World War I, he served actively on numerous government
boards and committees. He gained lasting
fame when he bought the bankrupt Washington
Post at public auction. As published
of the Post until 1946 and then as chairman of the board of the Washington Post & Times Herald, Meyer
was instrumentally in making the Post a leading American newspaper and creating
a media empire that included the Washington outlet of CBS and Newsweek Magazine. He passed away in
1959. His daughter, Katherine Graham
would continue his work and take the Post to levels of which he only dreamed.
1877: Sara Louise the
daughter of Edward Isaacs of Auckland, NZ was married today.
1879: According to
reports published today from Berlin, Romania is seeking to gain formal
recognition of her independence in light of her government’s recent action
concerning the emancipation of the Jews.
1880: Simon Sterne was
among those who attended a reception this evening for President and Mrs. Grant
at Parlor No. 81 in New York City.
1880 Birthdate of New
York City native and NYU trained attorney Nathan Raymond Leavitt, the founder
of the Central Home and Trust Company and a resident of Elizabeth, NJ.
1880: Reverend J.P.
Newman delivered a sermon this morning at New York’s Central Methodist Church
on “The Impending Danger to Our Public Schools
in which he contended “that the public schools were sectarian” because
all children including Jewish children “meet there on an equal footing…without
undergoing sectarian instruction.” (This benign view of the public schools was
one that many Jews showed they favored by sending their children to them. This was especially true among the Russian
and Polish Jews who saw the schools as the pathway to “Americanization.’)
1881: It was reported
today that “the Turkish Governor of Jerusalem has recently received orders from
Sultan Abdul Hamid to resume the work” on “restoration of Solomon’s Temple”
that had stopped five years ago. The first
order of business is to remove “all the rubbish and …vegetation” that has
filled the area. The original restoration work had begun “at the instance of”
Franz Joseph and the Austrian imperial family.
1881: It was reported
today a fair being held in Cincinnati, Ohio, will raise $50,000 for the Jewish
Orphan Asylum in Cleveland, Ohio.
1881: “Reformed
Judaism” published today described the change in Jewish observance that took
place at Temple Beth-El where Dr. Kaufmann Kohler delivered a lecture entitled
“Our Religious and Social State” as part of a Sunday morning service that will
now replace the traditional Saturday Sabbath observance.
1884: “The Clergymen
and Mr. Blaine” published today took “Rabbi Brown” task for the manner in which
he expressed his support for the Republican candidate for President.
1885: Rabbi de Sola
Mendes responded approvingly today to plans to create a prayer book with
selections in Hebrew and English “for the home use of women and children” Rabbi
Mendes said there is nothing new about such tomes but that for some reason
those that exist are all written in German.
1885: In Lemberg,
Bernhard Sobelsohn, a postal worker and his wife gave birth to Karl Sobelsohn
who gained fame as Communist revolutionary Karl Radek who was murdered while
serving a ten year sentence after being convicted in one of Stalin’s notorious
Show Trials.
1885: One day after he
had passed away, “George Henry Morris, the infant son of Henry Martin Morris”
and the former “Julie Pollitzer” was buried today at “Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.”
1885: It was reported
today that the Hebrew Journal has
endorsed Walter Howe to serve in the New York State representing the 10th
District. Howe was active in the
protesting the treatment of Russian Jews and has worked to have the penal code
changed so that Jews who observed Shabbat can work on Sunday.
1885: In Zitomar,
Russia Rebecca and Israel Jacob Wainer gave birth to Colonel Max Robert Wainer,
who was presented with the “French Legion of Honor, Chevalier” by Marshal Foch
for his “service on General John J. Pershing’s General Staff and who served as
“Chairman of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Board at Fort Lee, Virginia during WW
II” while being married to “Amy Elivin Shephard Wainter with whom he had two
children – Amos and Max.”
1886: It was reported
today that, in a rare display of 19th ecumenical harmony, English
Jews and Protestants joined with Catholics in celebrating the 50th
anniversary of the ordination of János Cardinal Simor
1887: The annual
meeting of the United Hebrew Charities was held this evening at Temple Emanu-El
where the following officers were elected: President – Henry Rice, Vice
President – Morris Tuska, Treasurer – James H Hoffman, Secretary – J.S. Isaacs
1887(13th of
Cheshvan, 5648): Two weeks before his 77th birthday, “educator and
author” Jacob Auerbach author of “Lessing and Mendelssohn” and a “History of
the Jewish Community of Vienna from 1784” passed away today.
1888: In Birzai,
Lithuanian Rabbi Pinchas HaKoen Lintup and his wife gave birth to “rabbi,
author and historian” Harry Sebee Linfield, who in 1905 came to the United
States where he earned a Ph.D from the University of Chicago, wrote a
dissertation on “The Relation of the Jewish Law on Interest to Babylonian Law”
and became a demographer and statistician who studied the Jewish people.
https://archives.cjh.org//repositories/3/resources/2751
1888: Based on
information supplied by Mrs. Philip J. Joachimsen, the Hebrew Sheltering
Guardian Society has taken 1,339 Jewish children since it began providing
service. Currently there are 585
children living in the institution, 278 of whom are girls and 307 are
boys. 207 of the children were born in
the Austro-Hungarian Empire and 242 came from Russia or Poland.
1889: Mr. Rosenthal,
the leader of the Republicans in the Fourth District and the head of the
Hebrew-American Republic Party sent a letter to the leader of the district
today stating that he is leaving the party because of its “ingratitude” and
“disregard for sacred promises.”
1889: Elise Hausch and
Major General Erwin Von Heimerdinger gave birth to Gertrud von Heimerdinger
who was employed
in the German Foreign Office as assistant Chief of the Diplomatic Courier
Section but as an anti-Nazi, secretly arranged for special passes to enable
diplomat Fritz Kolbe (the main Allied source of intelligence) to make frequent
trips to Switzerland to pass on information to Allen Dulles, head of American
O.S.S. (Jewish Virtual Library)
1889: “Lore of the
East” published today described the recent meeting of the American Oriental
Society during which Professor Isaac Hall read from “The Colloquy of Moses on
Mount Sinai, the Martyrdom of St. Geroge and the Story of the Letters which
Fell from Heaven” and attendees examined “a scroll of the Law in Hebrew which”
had been found “in China.
1889: “Marriage or
Betrothal” published today described events surrounding claims that David
Harfeld is a serial bigamist. Miss Julia
Harlan testified that after nine years of marriage, Harfield had disappeared
without a trace. Last year she heard that that Harfeld had been wed to Sarah
Marx in a traditional Jewish ceremony.
The defendant’s brother, who is a rabbi, testified that it was a
betrothal ceremony, a claim that Miss Marx repeated on the stand. However, Rabbi DeSola Mendes testified that
the ceremony described was a wedding ceremony.
However, Mendes is a Sephardic Jew and the contract submitted by the
defense was identified as what Polish Jews consider a betrothal contract. The
confused Judge has not rendered a verdict.
1890: Two days after
she had passed away, 60 year old Sarah Joseph, “the wife of Samuel Joseph” was
buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.”
1890: In Zutphen,
Holland, Philip Cohen who died at Auschwitz and the former Betje Brook gave
birth to Sabiena Cohen who died at Sobibor, the wife of Levie Van Praage who
died at Sobibor.
1890: In Bialystok,
Hannah Freedman and Oscar H. Slone gave birth to University of Pittsburgh
trained attorney Victor Slone the husband of Ella J. Weiner who returned to the
practice of law in Kansas City, MO after serving in the Army from 1917 to 1918
and who was active in the United Jewish Charities of Kansas City.
1892: The eighty-six
Russian and Polish workers arrested yesterday at the cloakmaking firm of S.M.
Levi & Co on charges that they were violating the “Sunday law” claimed that
they did not work on Saturday which meant that they could work on Sunday according
to the law. Labor leader Joseph
Barondess claimed that this was not so and that they along with thousands of
other cloakmakers in the city worked seven days a week. The Judge released them with a warning that
if they were ever brought before him on these charges again “he would fine them
heavily.”
1892: In Lower Saxony,
German, Ida Bach, the Bunde, Germany born daughter of Hermann Rosenwald and
Jeanette David and her husband David Bach gave birth to Alfred Bach the American husband of Betty Bach.
1893: “Mr.
Hammerstein’s Work” published today described a speech given by Oscar
Hammerstein at the premiere of “Koh-i-Noor” in which he said he had made “a bet
of $100” with himself “that he could write an operetta, words and music, design
the scenery and costumes, engage the company and get 300 columns of advance
notices in the newspaper, all in forty-eight hours” and that he was pleased to
say he had won the bet.
1894: Governor Roswell
P. Flower delivered speeches today at Niagara Falls and Suspension in which he
warned of an alliance between the Republicans and the American Protective
Association (A.P.A.) a secret Protestant organization that promotes “hostility
to Jews and Catholics” and would keep “men from employment and pubic office on
account of their religious belief.” (Compare this to the anti-immigrant stance
taken in the 21st century)
1894: Major Du Paty de
Clam “finished his inquiry, and handed in his report, which accused Dreyfus but
left it to the minister to decide what further steps should be taken.”
1894: Jacob H. Schiff
chaired this evening’s meeting at Cooper Union where “German-American Citizen”
enthusiastically endorsed the anti-Tammany ticket. Among those on the platform were Aaron Levy,
Hy Hyman, Magnus Levy and Dr. Felix Adler.
1894: Max Nordeau’s
“drama Die Kugel was presented at the Lessing Theatre” today.
1894: In Charleston,
SC, Gustave Pollitzer and his wife, the former Clara Guinzberg gave birth to
suffragette Anita Pollitzer who was also a protégé of Alfred Stieglitz.
(Another Jew with a camera!)
http://americancivilwar.com/women/Womens_Suffrage/Anita_Pollistzer.html
http://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/pollitzer_family_sc/anita_pollitzer
1894: A summary of the
annual report for the United Hebrew Charities in New York published today
showed that the organization had responded to 37,097 applications for relief.
The new applications for relief included 623 from people over sixty and 1,107 widows.
In responding to all requests for assistance, the society spent $225, 063.73
while bringing in $227, 244.82 from all sources.
1895: “Annie Silverman
of 105 Allen Street was arrested” today “on a warrant sworn out by Max
Sanftman, an agent for the Hebrew Anti-Vice Society, charging her with being a
disorderly woman.”
1895: In Lachva,
Russia, Maurice Glass and Pearl Chafters gave birth John Judah Glass who came
to Canada in 1907, served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in WW I, began
practicing law in 1920 before going into politics where he represented St.
Andrew in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
1896(24th of Cheshvan,
5657): Sixty year old Ernestine Fox died from consumption 2 days after her son
Abraham passed away from the same cause.
1896: The University of
Wisconsin football team led by first year head coach Philip King, a Jewish
native of Washington, DC won its fifth straight game today.
1896: Joseph Jacobs,
“the distinguished Jewish scholar” arrived in New York from London aboard the
SS St. Louis. The President of the
British Folklore Association, some of Jacobs best known works are Jews of
Angevin England, Sources of Spanish History and the recently published Jewish
Year Book.
1897(5th of
Cheshvan, 5658): In London, Lizzie Emanuel, the wife of Emanuel Emanuel passed
away today.
1897: “The eleventh
session of the Board of the Federation of Synagogues” of which Sir Samuel
Montagu is president opened this evening at the Jewish Working Men’s Club in
London.
1897: Mr. B.A. Elkin
presided over a debate at the West Central Institute on the subject of “Is
Happiness the Aim of Life.”
1898: George Jessel
Jones, Morris Conheim and Carly Meyer who were serving with the 1st
Missouri Volunteer Infantry were mustered out today at St. Louis, the city
where all three men lived before the war.
1898: Second Lt.
Charles F. Wolf, Sergeant Charles Olschefskie and Privates Simon J. Bush and
Simon Freund all of whom were serving with Company A from Hartford were among
those whose military service came to an end when the 1st Regiment
Connecticut Volunteer Infantry was mustered out today.
1898: Detective
Connelly arrested Leopold Lederer and Abraham Zucker on charges of arson in the
first and second degrees. Zucker is the
brother of Isaac Zucker who is serving 36 years in prison for burning down his
own store.
1898: Private Louis W.
Cahn of New Haven, who had been serving with Battery C of the 1st
Regiment of the Connecticut Volunteer Artillery was mustered out of service
today.
1898: Solomon Loeb was
elected honorary vice president at tonight’s annual meeting of the Society of
United Hebrew Charities which was held at Temple Emanu-El
1898: Their Majesties,
the Emperor and Empress of Germany attended the consecration of the Church of
the Redeemer in Jerusalem, which is part of the trip where the Herzl will meet
with the Kaiser to promote his Zionist dream.
1898: Theodor Herzl
wrote in his diary today “When I remember thee in days to come, O, Jerusalem,
it will not be with pleasure” which some say is proof that “the founder of
modern Zionism had no particular affection for the holy city.” (As reported by
Mitch Ginsburg)
1899: Birthdate of
Cincinnati native and Ohio State graduate Herbert Byer, the WW I veteran known
both as an “advertising agent and novelist.”
1900: In New York Hugo
Piesen married Annie Piesen the daughter of Abraham and Sarah Abrahamowitz.
1900: In Poland,
“Benjamin and Shaine (Kumok) Feder gave birth to Sara Feder, the Milwaukee
school girl who was friends with Golda Mabovitch, (Golda Meir) and who after
marrying Professor Isidore Keyfitz became known as Sara Feder-Keyfitz, an
early, ardent Zionist, sociologist and champion for the right’s of women.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/feder-keyfitz-sara-rivka
1901: Eduard Bernstein,
the son of a “locomotive driver” who was active in the Reform Temple on the
Johannistrasse” and a leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany began serving his first term in office as a Member
of the Imperial Reichstag from Silesia.
1902: It was reported
today that The Staakburger Zeitgun, an
anti-Semitic paper whose “editor was recently sentenced to two years
imprisonment fo alleging that the authorities protected Jews in the celebrated
murder case in Konitz” “avers that Sarah Bernhardt is German claiming that she
was born at Frankfort-on-the-Oder” to a horse dealer named “Feibel.”
1902: Twenty-four year
old pianist Ossip Gabrilowitsch, the Saint Petersburg born son of Salomon
Gabrilowitsch and Rose Segall “will be unable to appear as the soloist at the
first public rehearsal of the Philadelphia Orchestra in the Academy of Music”
this afternoon after having bruised “the little finger of his right hand”
yesterday.”
1903(10th of
Cheshvan, 5664): Parashat Lech-Lecha
1903: “The last
chapter…in the history of the agitation resulting from the Kishineff massacre
was written today when Simon Wolf” of Washington, D.C., “representing the
Executive Committee of the B’nai B’rith…presented Secretary of State Hay the
petition which has been in circulation through the United States for several
months…which the Russian government” which the Russian government has declined
to receive and which will remain permanently at the U.S. State Department.
1904: “Honor M.S.
Isaacs’s Memory” published described the memorial service at the Educational
Alliance for Myer S. Issacs who had died on May 24 and whom Jacob H. Schiff
praised for “his untiring efforts to benefit immigrant Jewish children”
1905: Twenty-seven year
old Nathan Trivers, the Russian born son of Peter and Taube Trivers who in 1902
came to the United States where he eventually became president of Trivers
Clothes Stores and serving on the board of trustees of Sinai Temple in Mt. Vernon,
NY married Anna Lillian Lipschitz today.
1905(2nd of Cheshvan,
5666): Three hundred Jews were killed in a Pogrom in Odessa, Russia.
1905: Rabbi Moses and
Tamara Shorr were married at Königsberg
1905: Constantine
Petrovitch Pobiedonostzeff , Chief Procurator of the Holy Synagogue “who has
persecuted the Jews, Lutherans and Catholics….with unswerving zeal” and who
“from 1890 to 1902 caused 6,000,000 Jewish families to be expelled from Russia”
resigned.
1906: “In views of the
various difficulties which Jews at present encounter in emigrating to America,
a special conference of local Jews” in Odessa, “decided to apply to Oscar
Straus upon his entrance into the United States Cabinet as Secretary of Commerce
and Labor to obtain additional facilities for Jewish immigration.”
1906: “The Grand Street
Theatre was crowded tonight by residents of the east side, who were there to
extend to Sholem Aleichem, the Jewish "Mark Twain," a welcome to the
United States.”
1907: The apartment
building at 67 Riverside Drive in Riverdale, designed by architect George F.
Pelham who also designed the synagogue for Beth Jacob Anshe Sholom in Brooklyn,
opened today.
1907: Birthdate of
Helen Brook, the daughter of a London furrier who gained fame as Helen Lessore,
the director of the Beaux Arts Gallery.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-helen-lessore-1434653.html
1908(6th of
Cheshvan, 5669): Parashat Noach
1908: “Fully 2,000
persons, among whom were many Democrats and Socialists, attended the Republican
rally tonight at Cooper Union to hear Oscar S. Straus, Secretary of Commerce
and Labor, and Senator Thurston of Nebraska speak in behalf of the Republican
ticket.
1909: It was reported
today that The Gompers family had gathered in force at the Yorkville Casino, in
East Eighty-sixth Street, where a reunion was held to celebrate the
eighty-second birthday of Solomon Gompers, father of Samuel Gompers, President
of the American Federation of Labor. Two hundred members of the family,
representing four generations, were there.
1910: Birthdate of
Philadelphia native Jeannette Orleans Gayl, the husband of Joseph Gayl and
President of the Women’s Division of ORT.
1911: In Brooklyn
Edward and Martha Esther Cahn gave birth Ruth Cahn who became Ruth Marshall
when she married Harold Marshall
1911(9th of Cheshvan,
5672): At Constantinople Daoud Effendi Molho, a member of the Ottoman
Diplomatic Staff, passed away at the age of 67.
1912: Birthdate of
Oscar Dystel “who combined sharp
editorial judgments, shrewd marketing and attention-grabbing covers to propel
Bantam Books from the brink of collapse to pre-eminence in paperback publishing
after World War II.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1912: In Lancaster, PA, Laurence B. Myers and Edith Hirsh
Myers gave birth to Robert Julius Myers the actuary who helped to
create the Social Security program and to set America’s official retirement age
at 65
1913: Birthdate of Milton Green, the world class hurdler,
Harvard graduate and WW II veteran who refused to participate in the Nazi 1936
Olympics.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9500EED81E3EE63BBC4153DFB3668389669EDE
1913: After thirty-five years as head of the Cleveland
Jewish Orphan Home, Dr. Samuel Wolfenstein was forced to retire today “due to
failing health.”
1913: Fifteen year-old Chaya Kaufman, the Ukraine born
daughter of Joseph and Ethel Appel Kaufman became Ariel Durant today when she
married Will Durant and went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
in 1968 for Rousseau and Revolution, the tenth volume of The Story of
Civilization.
1913: A motion granting Leo Frank a new trial “was
brought” today “but after a bitter fight was denied with Judge Roan adding,
"Gentlemen, I have thought about this case more than any other I have ever
tried. With all the thought I have put on this case, I am not thoroughly
convinced that Frank is guilty or innocent. But I do not have to be convinced.
The jury was convinced. There is no room to doubt that."
1914: Birthdate of Palestine native and future New Jersey
native Ovid Shifriss the husband of Shoshana Shifriss.
1914: Lodz native Louis DeWitt Gibbs, the 1906 graduate of New York
University Law and state legislator who led the battle to make the Bronx into a
separate country before going to serve as “a member of the New York State
Supreme Court and who was the husband of Anna White Gibbs with whom he had
three children – Howard, Harriet and Isadora – “survived an assassination
attempt, when a bomb intended to kill him exploded at the Bronx Court House”
today.
1914: As charges of bigotry come to dominate the New York
gubernatorial race, former President Theodore Roosevelt, the leader of the
Progressive Party delivered a speech tonight in which said that his party
treats “with absolute equality all me, whether they are Catholics, Protestants
or Jews.”
1914: Charles H.
Sherrill, the former American Minister to Argentina, reported on “the
patriotism of Russian Jews” who are “rallying to the Russian flag in the
present war.”
1915:
Reverend Anthony Maliauskis, a Lithuanian priest is scheduled to speak to in
New York and Newark on the plight of the Lithuanian and Jewish refugees fleeing
in the wake of the Russian army’s withdrawal and to try and raise funds for
these people who are face with starvation and death.
1915: “Sisterhood Wants
Help” published today described the appeals of the Sisterhood of the Spanish
and Portuguese Synagogue for help in continuing activities this winter at “the
neighborhood house at 88 Orchard Street which houses “Talmud Torah schools, an
advice and information bureau” and provides classes, lectures and relief for
the poor.
1915: The final session
of the triennial convention of the 124 lodges of the Independent Order Free
Sons of Israel came to a close today at the Free Sons Hall in New York with the
installation of new officers.
1915: In London,
Leopold de Rothschild presided over a meeting “held in behalf of the fund for
the relief of Jewish victims of the war in Russia” where “it was announced that
1,500,000 Russian Jews were starving.”
1915: “Rabbi Stephen S.
Wise, addressing an audience of 2,500 person who filled Carnegie Hall” tonight
“to hear his sermon on woman suffrage before the Free Synagogue said that war
would never end before women have the vote and that if the vote continued to be
withheld and wars continue he would wish to see women make a united protest by
refusing to bear children.”
1915: It was reported
today that “during the past week the American Jewish Relief Committee of which
Felix M. Warburg is the Treasurer” will use all of the money it has collected
“for the relief of Jewish sufferers in the war zones of Europe – Russia, Poland
and Galicia – with the exception of $1,000 which was sent to Crete.”
1916: A letter which
was triggered by the anti-Semitic writings that appeared in Psychology of
War by U.S. Army Captain LeRoy indicating the favorable attitude of the War
Department as it pertains to the quality of Jewish soldiers “was given out at
the White House executive offices today.”
1916: In his annual
report to the Board of Managers the Sinai Congregation of the Bronx, Rabbi Max
Reicher wrote today that “the year 1916 was a banner year in the history of
Sinai Congregation” as can be seen by the dedication of the new facility, the doubling
of membership which is now approaching 300 families and the growth in
attendance at Friday evening and Saturday morning services.
1917: Jacob Schiff,
Louis Marshall, Adolph Lewisohnn, Oscar S. Straus, Joseph Barondess, Isaac
Allen, Bernard G. Richards, Louis Lipsky, Daniel Guggenheim, Samuel Strauss and
Henry Morgenthau were the “prominent Jews” who signed a statement addressed to the
citizens of New York “urging the re-election of Mayor Mitchel.”
1917: During World War I, the “last successful
cavalry charge in history” took place at the Battle of Beersheba. The Battle of Beersheba was part of the
British campaign against the Ottoman Turks. In an era dominated by machine
guns, barbed wire and massed heavy artillery, the Australian 4th
Light Horse Brigade charged four miles of Turkish trenches, overran them and
captured the wells at Beersheba. The British needed to take
1917: In
1918: Following the
armistice with Turkey today, the 38th Battalion under the command of Colonel
John Henry Patterson (the Jewish Legion) was sent to Raf.
1918: After having been
appointed a first lieutenant in the reserves in February and then placed on
leave from military service in March so that he work on the Arbeiter -Zietung,
Otto Bauer, “left-socialist Austromarxist” and son of Jewish textile manufacturer
Philipp Bauer and Katherine Bauer ended his formal military service today.
1918: As WW I wound
down, The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 that established the dual
monarchy and re-established the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Hungary which
emancipated its Jews in1867, was formally terminated today – a move that would
prove detrimental to the Jews of Central Europe.
1918: Six days after he
had passed away, Jack Berge was buried today in the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery in
London.”
1918: Birthdate of
Massachusetts native Jack Rotman who earned All-New England honors while
playing basketball for Boston University from 1938 through 1940.
1919: “The Crucifixion
of Jews Must Stop!” published today written by Marin Henry Glynn, the former of
governor of New York appeared in today’s issue of The American Hebrew.
Glynn lamented the poor conditions for European Jews after World War I. He “referred
to these conditions as a potential ‘holocaust’ and asserted that ‘six million
Jewish men and women are starving across the seas’. Because of these
coincidences, the article has been exploited by Holocaust-denial groups.
Others, while in no way intending to deny the Holocaust, nonetheless
acknowledge that the commonly-quoted figure of six million deaths is an
estimate, that the actual number may have been less, that not all of the
victims were Jewish, and that there is a wide margin of error.”
1920: The Directors of
the Jewish Theological Seminary decided to name a professorship in memory of
Jacob H. Schiff.
1920: Attorney John
Levy is scheduled to give the opening address at the public forum at the Bronx
Free Synagogue where attendees will discuss the League of Ntionals.
1920: “The formal
dedication of the new building of the Bronx Maternity Hospital is scheduled to
take places this afternoon under the auspices of President Elias Bayer and
Secretary Barnett E. Koppelman.
1920: In Berlin Klara
"Claire" (née Marquis) and Max Neustädter, a button factory owner
gave birth to photographer Helmut Newton.
1921: Jewish leader Samuel
Untermyer, who had previously announced his support of Senator Charles C.
Lockwood, Coalition candidate for Controller, came out last night for Henry H.
Curran, Coalition candidate for Mayor, and against Mayor Hylan in a speech at
Public School 84.
1922: Funeral services
are scheduled to be held today at the Jewish Hospital Chapel in Brooklyn for
Esther Neiman who had passed away on October 29, the wife Michael Neiman and
the mother of Harry and Jerome Neiman after which she will be buried at Mount
Hebron Cemetery.
1923: “Arabs digging
the Valley of Kidron sometimes known as the Valley of Jehoshaphat between
Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives accidentally discovered three chambers and
family vault, the contents of which had not been disturbed.”
1923: “New York
business men subscribed $150,000 in the first fortnight of the campaign to
raise funds to the $700,000 deficit of the Jewish Philanthropic Societies”
President Arthur Lehman announced today at the federations 5th
Avenue Headquarters.
1924: “Clubs Are Trumps” a three-act play produced by Walter Hast
has its final performance on Broadway at the Bijou Theatre.
1924: Birthdate of
Yehuda Klien who as Yehuda Amital would become an Orthodox rabbi, the Rosh
Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion and a member of the Israeli cabinet.
1924: The Civil
Tribunal of the Seine granted a divorce to Mrs. Hart O. Berg, the wife of
Jewish business manager of the Wright Brothers.
1925(13th of
Cheshvan, 5686): Parashat Lech-Lecha
1925(13th of Cheshvan,
5686): Max Linder, French actor, director and screenwriter, passed away.
1925: It was reported
today that Frank D. Waterman, the Republican nominee for Mayor of New York has
denounced the publication of letter claiming that the Fountain Inn in Florida
of which he is president does not admit Jews as last minute trick by Tammany
Hall.
1926: “Habima Theatre
Steeped In Romance” published today provides a history of the Habima Theatre
which was “a troubadour company founded in 1905 by the ardor of young actor
N.L. Zemach” which is coming to the United States this Autumn.
1926(23rd of Cheshvan,
5687): Erich Weiss better known as magician Harry Houdini, died in Detroit of
gangrene and peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix thought to have
been brought on by interaction at an earlier performance.
http://www.thegreatharryhoudini.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0324.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/houdini/
1926: Following his
recent arrival in the United States Dr. Chaim Weismann, President of the ZOA
announced that “he had come to work with his friends on behalf of the Jewish
National Home in Palestine. He said that he feld confident that this time, as
on earlier occasions, his pleading would find a sympathetic response among the
great Jewish Community of America.
1927: In New York, Witia
(née Haskell), an actress and teacher, and Abraham W. Rosenthal, a realtor and
educator gave birth to their only child Lyova Haskell Rosenthal who gained fame
as actress Lee Grant.
1927: “The Strange Case
of Captain Ramper,” a silent film directed by Max Reichman was released today
in Germany
1927(5th of
Cheshvan, 5688): Sixty-eight year old Russian born Benjamin Davidson who in
1911 came to the United States where he became “the founder and president of
Davidson Brothers Company, one of Iowa’s leading department stores passed away
today in Sioux City, IA.
https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/davidson/6114/
1928: Lord Allenby
called on Dr. Chaim Weizmann at the Hotel Commodore where he “expressed his
satisfaction with the results of the Non-Zionist Conference on Palestine, which
will unite American Jews for the rebuilding of Palestine.”
1928: “The Power of the
Press” a silent newspaper movie written by Sonya Levien was released in the
United States by Columbia Pictures.
1929: It was reported
today that when Acting Police Commandant Saunders completed his “testimony
before the Parliamentary Commission” in Jerusalem “he made the startling
statement that in the of a massacre the Palestine police cannot be counted
upon, inasmuch as they are for the most part Arabs.”
1929: In New York, Mr.
and Mrs. William Zeckendorf, Sr. gave birth to William Zeckendorf, Jr. who “transformed
New York City by making big bets on big projects that helped refashion
neighborhoods from the Upper West Side to Union Square.” (As reported by
Douglas Martin)
1930: Dr. Karl
Landsteiner, who was just named as the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine
talked today “of his research that led to the discovery of a serum for
infantile paralysis; of his studies of human blood groups, which have opened a
new field in the establishment of the paternity of children…and of his work in
immunology…” His work in the classification of blood into thirty subdivisions
has improved the selection of blood donors transforming transfusions from a
“dangerous operation” to “a safe and frequently used procedure.”
1930: General Wilhelm
Adam succeeded General Baron Kurt von Hammerstein as head of the The Truppenamt
or 'Troop Office' which was a cover for the German General Staff which had been
outlawed by the Versailles Treaty. The
existence of the organization was proof that Germany’s violation of the treaty
began in 1919 and not in 1933.
1930: Tonight
approximately eight thousand “Jews gathered in Tel Aviv to celebrate the
fiftieth birthday of Vladimir Jabotinsky”
and to protest against the White Paper on the British Policy in
Palestine.
1931: U.S. premiere of
“Platinum Blonde,” a romantic comedy produced Harry Cohn and a script by Robert
Riskin and future Tony Award winner Jo Swerling.
1931: Professor Otto Warburg’s
explanation of “how respiration takes place in the cell” and proof that “a
living cell can breathe only in the presence of the iron carried by a specific
enzyme” was published today. This is the
work for which Warburg won this year’s Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine.
Warburg explained that his conclusion had differed from Dr. Heinrich Wieland’s
because he had used living cells and Wieland, who had won the Nobel Prize in
1928, used dead cell material.
1932: In Chicago, Fanny
(née Doppelt) and A.N. Pritzker gave birth to entrepreneur Donald Pritzker,
part of the legendary Pritzker clan.
1932: In Cleveland, the
National Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds was formed today and
elected officers including William J. Shroder of Cincinnati, President; Dr.
Solomon Lowenstein, Edward M. Baker, Vice Presidents; Irwin Bettman, Secretary;
Eugene Warner of Buffalo, Treasurer and George W. Rabbinoff, Executive
Director.
1933: “The new port of
Haifa, the first modern port in Palestine” which had been chosen by the
Mandatory government “because of its natural harbor and its proximity to
important shipping lanes, to rail transport to the rest of Palestine and Egypt,
and to the Hejaz railway to Jordan and Syria” was opened today.
1934: U.S. premiere of
“Broadway Bill,” a comedy with a script by Mark Hellinger and Robert Riskin.
1935(4th of
Cheshvan, 5696): According to the New York Times, Professor Sylvain Levy, the
President of the Alliance Isarelite Universelle passed away today. (Other
sources show October 30)
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9505E6D6153FEE3BBC4A53DFB566838D629EDE
1935: Under orders from
the German government, SS Albert Balin was re-named the SS Hansa because Ballin
was Jewish.
1936(15th of
Cheshvan, 5697): Parashat Vayera
1936: At Temple
Emanu-El, Rabbi B. Benedict Glazer is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The
Social Significance of a Righteous Minority.”
1936: At the West End
Synagogue, Rabbi Hyman Judah Schachtel is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The
Call for Sacrifice.”
1936: At Temple Rodeph
Sholom, Rabbi Wendell A. Phillips is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Respect
for the Individual in Religion.”
1936: On Halloween,
Bess Houdini, the widow of the Harry Houdini and his manager Edward Saint conducted
a "Final Houdini Séance" on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel in
Hollywood at the conclusion of which she put out the candle beside a photograph
of Houdini that was said to have burned for ten years.”
1936: Birthdate of Eugene Orowitz, better-known as
Michael Landon, the actor and director who first gained fame playing the part
of Little Joe on the hit western Bonanza. Pa Cartwright was played by Jewish actor
Lorene Greene. Later he played the
father on another television hit, Little
House on the Prairie. Once again
Jewish artists helped to create the cultural American myth. He died of cancer in 1991.
1937: Funeral services
are scheduled to be held at Central Synagogue on Lexington Avenue for Mrs.
Hannah Leerburger, the former President of the Sisterhood of Central Synagogue
and active member of the Federation of Jewish Women’s Organizations and “widow
of the late Benjamin Leerburger.”
1938: As of this date
the Polish government would no long allow Jews of Polish origins “whom it no
longer considered to be Polish citizens” to enter the country. (Editor’s note –
Jews from Poland living in Germany had been forced to leave Germany by the Nazis. Now the Poles were saying that these Jews
could not enter Poland. Gives a whole
new meaning to the term stateless.
1938: As of today between five and ten thousand
Jewish refugees are trapped in the Polish border town of Zbaszyn. The Germans have expelled them and the Poles
will not let them enter Poland hoping that somehow pressure will be brought to
bear on Hitler’s government and the Jews will be allowed to return to the
Reich.
1938: “You Can’t Take
It With You” written by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman and directed by Kaufman
continued its Broadway run with it opened at the Ambassador Theatre.
1939: Psychologist Otto Rank passed away. Born Otto Rosenfeld in
1939: In New York,
Miriam and Herman Rifkin gave birth to the first of their three children Saul
M. Rifkin who gained fame as actor Ron Rifkin.
1939:
In what is
now central Israel, Kfar Warburg or Warburg Village was founded by members of
the "Menachem" organization. It was named after Felix M. Warburg, one
of the leaders of the Jewish community in the United States and a founder of
the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
1940: The French
authorities in Morocco imposed the Vichy racial laws on its own Jewish
population of over 150,000.
1940: During World War II, the Nazi air attacks
against the British Isles known as the Battle of Britain ended. The good news was that the victory of the RAF
(Royal Air Force) meant there would be no invasion of England. The British would live on to fight another
day. The bad news was that the end of
the Battle of Britain meant that Hitler was working to put his plan to invade
the Soviet Union into effect. The
invasion of the Soviet Union would lead to the murder of millions of Jews.
1940: “Władysław
Szpilman and his family, along with all other Jews living in Warsaw, were
forced to move into the Warsaw Ghetto.
1941: Eighty year old James
Joseph Speyer, the German educated banker who was part of “The House of Speyer”
which before WW I was the “third largest investment banking firm” and whose
philanthropies included founding the Museum of the City of New York and the
University Settlement Society of New, “the first settlement house in the United
States” passed away today.
http://archives.nypl.org/mss/2845
https://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/archivalcollections/pdf/speyer.pdf
1941(10th of Cheshvan,
5702): The Nazis murdered 200 Jews in Kleck (Byelorussia) when its council
members tried to make contact with non-Jews from outside the ghetto. Jews had lived in Kleck since 1529. At the start of the war, there were more than
4000 Jews living in the town. After
putting most of the Jews in a ghetto, the ghetto was set on fire and most of
the Jews perished. The community was not
rebuilt after the war.
1941(10th of
Cheshvan, 5702): Sixty-two year old Herwarth Walden died in Stalin’s Gulag.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0020_0_20567.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Emil_Orlik_Portrait_of_Herwarth_Walden.jpg
1942: “Now, Voyager,” a
psychological melodrama directed by Irving Rapper, produced by Hal B. Wallis,
with music by Max Steiner was released in the United States today.
1942:
“Three Men on a Horse,” produced by Alexander Yokel was performed for the last
time today on Broadway at the Forrest
Theatre.
1942: Local peasants betray six members of the
Jewish Fighting Organization near Kraków, Poland, alerting German troops to the
Jews' presence.
1942: Three
thousand Jews readied for deportation from eastern
1943: “Thirty-seven
national Jewish organizations are affiliated and cooperating with the National
Jewish Welfare Board in welfare activities among Jewish men and women in the
armed services, Frank L. Weil, president of the board, announced today.”
1943: The Allied
governments are guilty of moral cowardice in failing to meet "the major
political weapon of Nazi bestiality," that is, extermination of the Jews,
Leon Henderson declared tonight.”
1944: Birthdate of
Kinky Friedman, musician and candidate for governor of the state of
1944: By the end of
October, the Jewish brigade under the command of Brigadier General Ernest F.
Benjamin had been shipped to Italy where it joined the British Eighth Army.
1944: The gas chambers
at Birkenau were silenced and ceased operating. The Germans began to dismantle
them in a futile attempt to hide their evil deeds.
1944: Days before his
own death, Hungarian poet Miklós Radnóti wrote “Postcard 4” which “describes
the horror of seeing ‘his friend, the violinist Miklós Lorsi" executed.”
http://www.ohio.com/blogs/education/education-1.286050/poem-of-the-day-miklos-radnoti-1.286679
"Postcard 4"
I fell next to him.His
body rolled over.
It was tight as a
string before it snaps.
Shot in the back of the
head- "This is how
you'll end."
"Just lie quietly," I said to myself.
Patience flowers into
death now.
"Der springt noch
auf," I heard above me.
Dark filthy blood was
drying on my ear.
Szentkiralyszabadja
October 31, 1944
1945: Birthdate of
Iraqi born Israeli historian Avi Shalim who is “emeritus professor of
International Relations at the University of Oxford” and author of several
works including The Cold War and the Middle East.
1945: In the wake of
the British government’s decision to continue enforcing the White Paper of
1939, “Palmach sank three British patrol boats, 2 in Haifa and one in Jaffa,
and were involved in 153 bomb attacks on bridges and culverts of the railway
system.”
1945: “Spellbound,” a
murder mystery with a strange twist produced by David O. Selznick, written by
Ben Hecht and with music by Miklós Rózsa premiered in New York City.
1946(6th
of Cheshvan, 5707): Sixty-seven year old Rabbi Solomon Sadowsky who in 1902
came to the United States where served “a congregation in Albany for eight
years before coming to Rochester where he led Congregation Beth Israel and
Congregation Agudas Achim Nusach Ari, “organized the “Orthodox Orphans Home
Rochester, became an active Zionist a and authored several books including
Necromancy in Hebrew Literature while raising five sons with his wife Celia
passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/11/01/121626032.pdf
1946: Two bombs
exploded at a Jerusalem railway station killing a British constable. Meir Feinstein, a British army veteran,
Daniel Azulai, Massoud Bouton and Moshe Horowitz were captured afterwards and
charged with the bombing.
1947(17th of
Cheshvan, 5708): Seventy-two year old electrical engineer Sandor I
Oesterreicher, the Budapest born son of Maurus and Sally Oesterreicher and
husband of Anna Newman Oesterricher passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/11/01/104360908.html?pageNumber=15
1947: Following a
request by Major Leon B. Poullada, Milton Crook joined the lawyers defending
the accused during the Dora-Mittelbau War Crimes Trial.
1948: Herbert Bayard
Swope delivered the eulogy today at the funeral services of 77 year old
philanthropist Henry Ittelson whose importance in the community could be seen
by the honorary pallbearers – Bernard Baruch, Herbert Lehman and David Sarnoff.
(JTA)
1948(28th of
Tishrei, 5709): Seventy-one year old Emilie (Mimi) Borchardt (Cohen) the
daughter of Eduard and Ida Cohen and the wife of Dr. Ludwig Borchardt passed
away today at Basel.
1948: The United
Nations observers in
1948: Despite their lack of modern equipment,
Israeli forces liberated the Galilee panhandle and actually took the land all
the way to the Litani River in Lebanon at the end of Operation Hiram.
1948: During the Israel
War of Independence a ceasefire was scheduled to go into effect today at eleven
o’clock
1948: As October came
to an end, “the Egyptian paper, El-Ahram, estimated that as a result of
arrests, trials and sequestration of property, the Iraqi treasury collected
some 20 million dinars or the equivalent of 80 million U.S. dollars.”
1949: “Regina,” an
opera by Marc Blitzstein, based on the play “The Little Foxes” by Lillian
Hellman “with choreography by Anna Sokolow” “premiered on Broadway at the 46th
Street Theatre under the baton of conductor Maurice Abravanel.
1949: Today Lux Radio
Theatre “presented an long adaption the movie version of Robert Nathan’s 1940
novel Portrait of Jennie.”
1950: During the Korean
War, Tibor Rubin “manned
a .30 caliber machine gun at the south end of the unit's line after three
previous gunners became casualties. He continued to man his machine gun until
his ammunition was exhausted. His determined stand slowed the pace of the enemy
advance in his sector, permitting the remnants of his unit to retreat
southward.” (From his Medal of Honor citation)
1950(20th of
Cheshvan, 5711): Seventy-two year old attorney and former “Democratic co-leader
of the Twenty-second Assembly District Cecile Scheuer, the “widow of leather
goods manufacturer William Scheuer” and the mother of Arthur and Sidney Scheuer
passed away today.
1952: The Stratford
Shakespearian Festival where Marcel Marceau made “his North American debut”
became a legal entity today.
1954: The Algerian
Revolution against the French begins.
The French were sure that President of Nasser was a driving force behind
the Arab uprising in
1954: It was reported
today that “Senator Herbert H. Lehman, Democrat of New York, and Rear Admiral
Lewis L. Strauss, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, are among laymen
and spiritual leaders who will take part in Sunday morning lectures at the
Washington Hebrew Congregation.”
1956:
1956: An Egyptian
frigate began shelling
1956: The rest of the
paratroop brigade joins Rafael Eitan’s regiment and completed its missional
1956: In what would be part of a pattern for his
career,
1956: The Egyptians put up a stubborn defense at
Abu Agelia. This would be the start of a
two day battle for this key piece of real estate that
1957: “Jamaica, a
musical with a book by Yip Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music
by Harold Arlen” “opened on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre.
1957: Birthdate of
Philadelphia native and Cornell educated
“cultural theorist” Lauren Gail Berlant the George M. Pullman
Distinguished Service Professor of English at the University of Chicago” “who
is regarded as "one of the most esteemed and influential literary and
cultural critics in the United States.:
1958: “Dreaming Lips,”
a Germany film written by Paul Czinner and Carl Mayer was released in the
United States today.
1958: "Two
Concepts of Liberty" was the
inaugural lecture delivered by the liberal philosopher Isaiah Berlin before the
University of Oxford today” after which it was “published as a 57-page pamphlet
by Oxford at the Clarendon Press.”
1963(13th of
Cheshvan, 5724): Fifty nine year old “screenwriter and art director” Hans
Jacoby who was forced to flee from Germany to the United States when the Nazis
came to power and who returned to his native land during the 1950’s passed away
today in Zurich.
1963: Birthdate of
comedic actor Rob Schneider.
1964: Birthdate of
Yoram Marciano, the native of Lod who is Labor MK.
1964: Barbra Streisand's album "People,"
began a five week stint at the top of music charts.
1965: Arthur Gelb, the
managing editor of the New York Times phoned McCandlish Phillips to tell
him that that Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Daniel Burros whose Jewish origins he
had exposed had shot himself to which Phillips replied, “What I think we’ve
seen here, Arthur is the God of Israel acting in judgment.” (As reported by
Margalit Fox)
1966: Birthdate of
entertainer Adam Keefe Horovitz, a.k.a. King
Ad-Rock.
1966(17th of Cheshvan,5727): Ninety-
three -year-old Simon E. Osserman, the Polish born son of Tabue and Chaim and
Aharon Osserman who was “ a founder in
1917 of the Federation of the Jewish Philanthropies of New York, the President
of both the Jewish Society for the Deaf and the Hebrew Free Loan Society and
the husband of Dorothy Osserman with whom he had tw0 children Beatrice Glenn
and Ethel Coleman passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/11/02/82935893.html?pageNumber=45
1967: NBC broadcast “Stranger on the Run” a made-for-television directed
by Don Siegel t0day.
1967(27th of Tishrei, 5728): Seventy year old German born
American award winning book cover designer George Salter passed away today
http://academics.wellesley.edu/German/GeorgeSalter/Documents/bio.html
1967: In New York, “Barbara "Bobbi" (Bernthal), a publicist,
and Stephen Schlesinger” gave birth to Adam Lyons Schlesinger, the composer,
musician, and producer who has performed on bass guitar in the indie pop band
Ivy and the power pop band Fountains of Wayne while also earning an Academy
Award nomination for best original song for the title song to That Thing You Do! “ and tragically
proving that it is not only old people with health problems who die from
coronavirus.
1968(9th of
Cheshvan, 5729): Sixty-eight year old producer William Perlberg who teamed with
George Seaton to create such movie classics as “The Song of Bernadette” and
“Miracle on 34th Street” passed away today.
1968: “In response to
two heavy artillery bombings conducted by the Egyptian army on IDF positions
along the Suez Canal, which killed 25 soldiers,” Israeli paratroopers conducted
“Operation Schock,” a raid on the new Qena bridge 280 miles south of Cairo, the
Nag Hammadi bridge 35 miles west of Qena span and the Nag Hammadi transformer
station near the bridge” that “provided electricity to the area and was
described as a switching station on a high tension line between Cairo and the
Aswan Dam.”
1969: Birthdate of
“stage magician and escapologist” Dorothy Dietrich who now holds the “yearly
tribute” held yearly at the Houdini Museum in Scranton, PA.
1972: “Escape to the
Sun,” a film about people fleeing the anti-Semitism of the USSR directed,
produced and written by Menahem Goland and starring Laurence Harvey and Yehuda
Barkin was released today in the United States.
1973: ITV broadcast the
first episode of The World at War” a documentary about WW II “created by Jeremy
Isaacs” and “directed by David Elstein.”
1974(15th
of Cheshvan, 5735): Seventy-five year old Mordecai Joseph Brill Ezekiel, the
Richmond, VA born son of Rachel and Jacob Levy Ezekiel, and to “agrarian
economist” who holds of a BA from U. of MD, an MA from the University of MN and
a Ph.D from Brookings Institute and who was instrumental in creating the New
Deal’s Agriculture Adjustment Administration passed away today.
https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/mordecai-ezekiel/
1974(15th of
Cheshvan, 5735): Seventy-four year old Charles Solomon “Buddy” Meyer the
Washington Senator’s Second Baseman who won the American League batting crown
in 1935 passed away today.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/myerbu01.shtml
1975: “One hundred
nineteen Soviet Jews signed a protest against the UN Third Committee draft
resolution equating Zionism with racism claiming it is ‘essentially
anti-Semitic’.”
1975: “Boris Penson,
sentenced to 10 years imprisonment at the first Leningrad trial, declared a
hunger strike to “mark political prisoner day” in the USSR.”.
1975: “The Night That
Panicked America” a made-for-television movie written by Nicholas Meyer and
co-starring Tom Bosley and Vic Morrow was broadcast for the first time on ABC.
1975(26th of
Cheshvan, 5736): Seventy-three year old Bernard Irvin Greenhut who served as
Mayor of Pensacola, FL from 1965 to 1967 passed away today in Pensacola.
1978: The West End
production of “Bar Mitzvah Boy,” a musical by Jule Styne, Don Black and Jack
Rosenthal opened at Her Majesty’s Theater.
1978: “Stranger in Our
House,” a horror film featuring Fran Drescher premiered on NBC tonight.
1979: Birthdate of
“American D.J, producer, composer and director” Sam Spiegel, known as Sami is
the brother of Spike Jonze and a descendant of the Joseph Spiegel and Arthur
Spiegel of Spiegel catalogue fame.
1980: The Soviets
arrested refusnik “Isaac Moschcowtiz in Kharko.”
1980: The dedication of
the Altheimer Laboratory Agricultural Experiment State, named in honor of Ben
J. Altheimer, took place at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
1982: A revival
performance of Abraham Goldfaden’s “Shulamith” takes place at the
Norman Thomas Theater in New York City.
1982:
In Monmouth County, NH, Temple Beth Miriam “a ceremony was held for the
Religious School in which a Time Capsule designed by Joseph Bergman was filled
with items made by the children and deposited at the entrance of the Temple.”
1984: The Mapleton Park
Hebrew Institute, which houses a synagogue and a yeshiva, at
1985: Richard Schifter,
an American lawyer who was one of the Ritchie Boys, began serving as Assistant
Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs
1986(28th of
Tishrei, 5747): Fifty-eight year old University of Chicago educated novelist,
publisher and author of many works on the history of modern Jewish
thought Arthur A. Cohen, the son of Isidore Meyer and Bess Junger Cohen
and husband of painter Elaine Lustig Cohen passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/01/obituaries/arthur-a-cohen-author-dies-at-58.html
1987: “The Man Who
Broke 1,000 Chains” directed by Daniel Mann and co-produced by Yoram Ben Ami
was released in the United States today
1988(20th of
Cheshvan, 5749): Eighty-six year old actor and producer John Houseman whose
mother was a English Christian and whose father was an Alsatian born Jew passed
away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0922.html
1989: “The US Court of
Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of Bette Midler, deciding that a
voice is as distinctive and personal as a face and awarding Ms. Midler
$400,000” leaving her lawyer Peter Laird, to say he hoped ''national
advertisers and advertising agencies will think twice in the future before they
disregard the rights of artists.''
http://jwa.org/thisweek/oct/31/1989/this-week-in-history-bette-midler-owns-her-own-voice
1991(23rd of Cheshvan,
5752): Seventy year old Joseph Papp, American theatrical producer, passed away.
http://www.filmreference.com/film/63/Joseph-Papp.html
1991: Geula Cohen
completed her service as Deputy Minister of Science and Technology.
1992(4th of
Cheshvan, 5753): Parashat Noach
1992(4th of
Cheshvan, 5753): Eighty-two year old Mt. Pleasant, PA native Henry
Wineberg the Duquesne lineman who led
his team to victory in the precursor of the Orange Bowl in 1934 and went to
play for one season in 1934 with the Pittsburgh Pirates (now known as the
Steelers) passed away today.
1993: Galgalatz an Israeli
radio station operated by Israel Defense Forces Radio began broadcasting this
morning
1993: BBC 1 broadcast
the first episode of “Scarlet and Black” featuring Rachel Weisz as “Mathilde de
la Mole.”
1995(7th of Cheshvan,
5756): Austrian born violinist, Erika Morini passed away in New York at the age
of 91. She had retired in 1976, and passed away soon after the theft of her
Stradivari violin.
1995: Doctors Jennifer
and Todd Burstain give birth to their second son Jonathan, who like his
Biblical namesake, is fine and virtuous young man.
1996(18th of Cheshvan,
5757): Ninety-three
year old businessman, philanthropist and founder of the UJA, William Rosenwald,
passed away today. (As reported by Lawrence Van Gelder)
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/01/us/william-rosenwald-dies-benefactor-to-many-was-93.html
1997: Publication of
“POPE JOHN PAUL II TO A SYMPOSIUM ON THE ROOTS OF ANTI-JUDAISM.”
1999: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special
Jewish interesting including Rebellion by
Joseph Roth, translated by Michael Hofmann, Ice Fire Water: A
Leib Goldkorn Cocktail by Leslie Epstein and A Flame of Pure
Fire: Jack Dempsey and the Roaring '20s by
Roger Kahn.
1999 (21st of Cheshvan, 5760):
Seventy-eight year old Lord Immanuel Jakobovits, Britain's emeritus chief
rabbi, died unexpectedly early this
morning at his London home after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/nov/01/guardianobituaries1
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lord-jakobovits-743117.html
1999:
After playing the role of the Phantom for a month, Stanley Bert Eisen bowed out
of the Toronto production of The Phantom of the Opera.
2000:
“Prime Minister Ehud Barak told returning legislators that he had ''left no
stone unturned'' in pursuit of peace, but that Yasir Arafat had proved not to
be a ''partner for peace'' and that Israelis must unite in a time of crisis”.
2000:
Prime Minister Barak “ordered missile attacks on Palestinian leadership offices
after an Israeli man's bound and mutilated body was found at the edge of East
Jerusalem, and a Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli security guard and
wounded another in the city itself.”
2001:
Ninety-two year old Indian diplomate Braj Kumar Nehru, the husband of Holocaust
Survivor Magdolna Friedman passed away.
2002:
As the scandal surrounding Enron continues to grow Andrew “Fastow was indicted
by a federal grand jury in Houston, Texas on 78 counts including fraud, money
laundering, and conspiracy.”
2003:
As part of the government’s ongoing battle with Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky
u Vladimir Putin froze shares of Yukos, his petroleum company, because of tax
charges
2003: In Tel Aviv, the
first ever
2003: “Mazel Tov Y'all!
The South as a Melting Pot,” Pam Kingsbury’s interview with Roy Hoffman, author
of Chicken Dreaming Corn was published today.
http://www.southernscribe.com/zine/authors/Hoffman_Roy.htm
2004: The New York Times features a review of
The Story of a Life by
Aharon Appelfeld. Translated by Aloma Halter
2004: The Founders and Builders and Charter Members of
the Jewish Historical Society were honored at the Double Chai (36th)
anniversary banquet held at Etz Chaim Synagogue.
2005: There are numerous signs today that Israel is
breaking out of its diplomatic and cultural isolation since the UN has
scheduled a vote on the establishment of an international Holocaust Remembrance
Day.
2006: For the first
time ever, one of the largest and most prestigious music festivals in New York,
the “Cmj Music Marathon” dedicates an entire evening to Israeli artists who
sing in English. The festival which lasts through November 5, invited three
Israeli artists to participate in this first time event.
2007: The Jerusalem
Symphony Orchestra performs Gershwin’s American in Paris, Hindemith’s
Kammermusik No. 6 and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1 at the Jerusalem Theater in
2007: At the Israel
Museum in Jerusalem an exhibition entitled “Beliefs and Believers: Ancient Art
from the Israel Museum” comes to an end.
2007:
The
seventh Alex Rider novel, Snakehead by Anglo-Jewish author Anthony
Horowitz was released today.
2007: Halloween -
Should Jews participate in holiday celebrations. See, Rabbi Michael Broyde’s “Collecting Candy on Halloween: Harmless
Pastime or Halachic Prohibition?” for one view on this topic. http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/About_Jewish_Holidays/Secular_Holidays/HalloweenBroyde.htm.
2008: At the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, premier of “One Day You’ll
Understand,” Ameditation on loss, memory, identity and family legacy, directed
by acclaimed Israeli director Amos Gitai.
2008: The BBC broadcast “What is An American” the fourth and final
episode of “The American Future: A History” “a four-part documentary series
written and presented by Simon Schama.
2008: Suits were violated today relating to allegations that Deep Marine
Technology (DMT) had illegally funneled campaign contributions to Norm Coleman
through Hays Companies the employer of his wife Laurie.
2008(2nd of Cheshvan, 5769): Studs Terkel, 96, the preeminent oral historian of 20th-century America
who described the major events of his time through the experiences and
observations of the ordinary men and women who lived them, died today at his
home in Chicago after a fall. (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/books/01terkel.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
2009: In Jerusalem the Camery Theater presents
"Amadeus," with Itzhak Hezkiah, Itai Tiran, Chani Firstenberg, Ezra
Daggan, Eran Mor, Ori Ravitz, Ohad Shahar/Moti Katz/Amir Kriaf, Eran Sarel, and
ten dancers. The play tells the incredible story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
told in flashback mode by Antonio Salieri, the mediocre composer who envies
Mozart's natural, outstanding talent. The story takes place in 18th century
Vienna
2010: Theodore C. Sorensen,
who was a close adviser and counselor to John F. Kennedy for 11 years, writing
words and giving voice to ideas that shaped the president’s image and legacy, passed
away today at the age of 82. The Nebraska native was the daughter Annis
Chaikin, a Russian Jew. However, he was
raised as a Unitarian. In reality, he was best known as Kennedy’s Ghost Writer
and the real author of “Profiles in Courage.” (As reported by Tim Weiner)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/us/01sorensen.html
2009: Today, novelist and college professor Lauren Grodstein “wrote a New
York Times article, entitled "Take Me to the Election" in which she talks about New Jersey's
upcoming gubernatorial election and the challenges of discussing it with her
class.”
2010: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish
authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Finishing the
Hat by Stephen Sondheim and Adam and Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund.
2010: The Ruth Spector Memorial Mah Jongg Tournament is
scheduled to take place at the JCC of Northern Virginia
2010: AMC broadcast the first episode of “The Waling Dead” starring
Jonathan Edward “Jon” Bernthal as “Shane Walsh.”
2010: The Israeli film, Intimate Grammar, won the
Tokyo Sakura Grand Prize Film Award at the 23rd Tokyo International Film
Festival today. The film directed by Nir Bergman and starring actress Orly
Zibershatz, was based on a novel by Israeli author David Grossman.
2010: Susan Jacoby reviewed Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends
by Tom Segev.
2011: Israeli violinist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador told a masterclass
today “don’t be so polite with music, its’ like being love!”
2011(3rd of Cheshvan, 5772): Seventy-seven year old “director
and producer) Gilbert “Gil” Cates (born Gilbert Katz) passed away today. (As
reported by Michael Cieply)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/movies/gilbert-cates-producer-of-oscar-shows-dies-at-77.html
2011: The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish
Literary Festival is scheduled to present a program based on “Precious Objects:
A Story of Diamonds, Family, and a Way of Life” by Alicia Oltuski.
2011: An exhibition on the Mamilla Mall in Jerusalem
featuring sculptures of stone, bronze and other materials, depicting Biblical
scenes and characters, which were created by some of Israel’s top artists
is scheduled to come to an end today.
2011: The David Posnack Jewish Day School in south Florida's Broward County, known as “the Rams” is scheduled to
begin its Basketball Season today.
2011: IAF targeted the squad responsible for
launching the rockets early this morning.
2011: Finance
Minister Yuval Steinitz said he’s “very worried” about Israel’s economy in 2012
at a Knesset Finance Committee meeting today. “Our economic ship did not sink
like most of the West’s ships did,” he explained, “but black storm clouds are
gathering around us, and we have yet to steer the ship to shore safely.
2011: Defense Minister Ehud Barak
said the IDF does not pay attention to empty calls for cease fires from various
terrorist groups, in an interview today with Army Radio. If they want a cease
fire, Islamic Jihad and Hamas will need to actually stop their attacks, he
explained.
2012: In “Holocaust survivor tailors an American success story” published
today Ned Martel tells the story of Buchenwald inmate Martin Greenfield.
2012: Before the arrival of Hurricane Sandy, the Center for Jewish
History had been scheduled to present “The Circumcision Debates, Then and Now:
Religious Ritual in Historic Perspective.”
2012: Labor Party chairwoman Shelly Yachimovich said today that Israel
should take more concrete steps to accommodate non-Orthodox
http://www.timesofisrael.com/shelly-yachimovich-calls-for-recognition-of-non-orthodox-judaism/
2012:
Interior Minister Eli Yishai called on
the public to boycott Israel’s largest supermarket chain after it announced it
would be raising prices today. The Shufersal chain announced earlier today it
will bump up the prices of thousands of products by 4 percent on average, the
latest in a wave of unpopular price hikes.
2012:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won pledges from France’s president to push
harder for new sanctions against Iran to keep it from developing nuclear
weapons — but no empathy for any possible Israeli military strike against Iran.
In a visit to Paris today, Netanyahu praised French pressure on Iran and called
for tougher sanctions.”The sanctions are taking a bite out of Iran’s economy …
unfortunately they have not stopped the Iranian program,” Netanyahu said.
2013:
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra String Quarter is scheduled to perform in
Sonoma County, marking the first time the quartet has performed in this
California County.
2013:
“The Jewish Film Festival of Sonoma County is scheduled to present a special
screening of ‘Orchestra of Exiles’ at the Rialto Cinemas in Sebastopol, CA.” “Orchestra
of Exiles is the suspenseful chronicle of how one man helped save Europe’s
premiere Jewish musicians from obliteration by the Nazis during WWII!”
2013:
Halloween – See below for the Jewish Connection to the American Candy Orgy
centered on good-natured ghosts and ghouls!
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/About_Holidays/Non
Jewish_Holidays/Halloween.shtml
2013:
The European Union’s foreign policy chief today condemned Israel’s announcement
of expansion plans in East Jerusalem neighborhoods, calling on the government
to desist even from construction intended to accommodate “natural growth.” (As
reported by Raphael Ahren)
2013:
While Israel has remained tight-lipped over an alleged strike in Syria, an
Obama administration official confirmed today that Israeli warplanes had in
fact attacked an airbase in Latakia yesterday. The target was “missiles and
related equipment” the Israeli government assessed might be transferred to the
Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, the report said. (As reported by Yifa Yaakov,
Lazar Berman and Ilan Ben Zion)
2013:
“Former Yale Standout Breslow, Boston Red Sox Win World Series” published today
described the role of Craig Breslow in defeating the St. Louis Cardinals.
2014:
The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host a piano recital by Dana
Vakhustinsky as part of their Future Generation Series.
2014:
Lewis Black is scheduled to appear at the Arlene Schnitzer Hall in Portland,
OR.
2014:
Before Shabbat, “Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem is scheduled
to be shown at the Jewish International Film Festival in Sydney, Australia.
2014:
The site called the Temple Mount by Jews and the Noble Sanctuary by Muslims
which had been closed following a wave of Arab violence is scheduled to be
re-opened today.
2014:
As children are scheduled to participate in Halloween, Rabbi Regina
Sandle-Phillips shares her views on whether Jews should participate in “Zombies, Vampires, and Things That Come Back
to Life: A Rabbi’s Take on Halloween and Beyond.”
http://tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/149661/jewish-halloween-undead?all=1
http://www.timesofisrael.com/shabbat-on-halloween-horror-of-horrors-or-wonder-of-wonders/
2014: “The National Post reported”
today “that the 1944 comic book ‘Jewish War Heroes’ turned up in a box of books
donated to the Kelly Library…”
2014(7th of Cheshvan,
5775): Eighty-nine year old Russian born Australian cancer researcher Sir Henry
Harris passed away today.
2014: “In Jerusalem a group of
young East Jerusalem Palestinians attempted to storm a police cordon around the
Temple Mount but were repelled” while on the same day “Public
Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch was saying he did not believe
Palestinian rioting in Jerusalem and the West Bank would develop into an
all-out intifada, or popular uprising, as violent incidents
2014: “Police arrested a man who they said may have assisted the
alleged shooter of right-wing activist Rabbi Yehudah Glick, Mu’taz Hijazi,
Channel 2 reported.”
2015: Jonathan Alpeyrie’s series “Last Jews of Cuba” is scheduled
to come to an end today at Anastasia’s New York Gallery.
2015: “Dough” is scheduled to be shown this evening at Jewish Arts
& Film Festival of Fairfield County.
2015: “To Life/The Train” and “The Farewell Party” are scheduled
to be shown this evening at the Rutgers Jewish Film Fesitval.
2015: “Fauda” “Sabena” and “10% My Child” are scheduled to be
shown at the 29th Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles.
2015: Agudas Achim is scheduled to sponsor “An Intimate Evening
with Matisyahu: featuring an evening of “Reggae-Flavored Rap, Jewish Style” at
the Englert Theatre in Iowa City
2015: Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh owned by Ahmed Zayat,
an American Jew born in Cairo is scheduled to race for the last time in today’s
American Breeder’s Cup Race.
2015: Mark Schapiro formally began working as the President and
CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team.
2015(18th of Cheshvan, 5776): Shabbat Va-yayra
2015(18th of Cheshvan, 5776): Eighty-eight year old
Thomas Blatt, one of the few who survived the uprising at Sobibor in 1943
passed away today.
2015(18th of Cheshvan, 5776): Eighty-four year old
composer Michael Leonard passed away today. (As reported by Robert Simonson)
http://www.playbill.com/article/michael-leonard-broadway-composer-dead-at-84-com-371319
2016: Those preparing to greet the costumed kids on Halloween can
spend the time reading “For Halloween, 5 Spooky Tales of Haunted Synagogues.
2016: On the secular calendar, 90th anniversary of the
death of Houdini.
2016: The New York Times Company announced today that the
company’s vice chairman, 67 year old Michael Golden “a member of the fourth
generation of the Ochs/Sulzberger family that has controlled The Times since
1896, who has been at the company for 32 years and has been its vice chairman
since 1997” will step down from his potion at the end of 2016.
2016: After a three month break, the Knesset opened its winter
session today. (As reported by Marissa Newman)
2016: “Three Israeli soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously,
in a shooting attack when a Palestinian police officer opened fire on them at a
checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Ramallah” today. (As reported by Judah
Ari Gross)
2016: In Washington, “the 1876 synagogue” is scheduled to be cut
and lifted three feet from its base in preparation of the move to its new
location.
2016: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is
scheduled to host a “special author even with Leslie Rupley, author of Beyond
the Silk Mills, an historically rich Jewish immigrant sage of love,
obsession and regret.”
2017: One hundredth anniversary of the charge of the Australian
Light Horse at Beersheba during Allenby’s campaign to defeat the Ottomans
during WW I.
2017(11th of Cheshvan, 5778): Forty-eight year old
Ariel Erlij, “a Jewish steel mill owner from the city of Rosario in central
Argentina” was among eight people killed in a terrorist truck-ramming attack
today in New York City.
2017(11th of Cheshvan, 5778): Ninety year old Holocaust
survivor Solomon David “Sam” Kimelman passed away today.
https://passages.winnipegfreepress.com/passage-details/id-250778/KIMELMAN_SOLOMON
2017: “Following the screening of The Bloom of Yesterday,
German-Australian historian and Holocaust researcher Professor Dr. Konrad Kwiet
and University of Sydney’s Dr Michael Robertson are scheduled to discuss trauma
through the generations and the frailty and malleability of memory.”
2017: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Have I Got A
Story For You: Exploring the Jewish Oral Tradition” in which Pennah Schram “will
explore the need for folktales, the types of tales in our heritage, the
dominant values and themes of these stories and, above all, the imperative to
keep telling these tales.”
2017: Halloween – for Jews, who seem to have a penchant for making
everything complicated, to celebrate or not to celebrate?
http://forward.com/opinion/352859/why-all-jews-should-hate-halloween-and-so-should-everybody-else/
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/434666/jewish/Do-Jews-Celebrate-Halloween.htm
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/collecting-candy-on-halloween/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/do-jews-celebrate-halloween
2018:
Following yesterday’s funerals for 66-year old Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 71-year
old Daniel Stein and for the brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal which was
attended by members of the Pittsburgh Steelers, an additional “visitation” is
scheduled to be held this evening “due to the large number of people wanting to
see the Rosenthal family.”
2018:
Today marks the deadline for submitting entries in “Jewish News and Wizo UK’s
completion for budding author” for which “novelist and children’s author Santa
Montefiore…is serving as the guest judge.”
2018:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host “Jewbilation”
2018:
As part of the “Legends from the Dawn of Humanity” series, the Bible Lands
Museum is scheduled to host “Isis and King Ra” which tells the tale of Egyptian
goddess who attempted to save the monarch from a deadly snake bite.
2018:
Services were held today at Beth Shalom on Beacon Street in Squirrel Hill for
75 year old Joyce Feinberg of Oakland, one of the eleven people murdered during
the Shabbat Slaughter at the Tree of Life Synagogue.
2018:
Services were held today at Congregation Rodef Shalom in Shadyside for 69 year
old Irving Younger of Mount Washington, one of the eleven people murdered
during the Shabbat Slaughter at the Tree of Life Synagogue.
2018:
Services were held today at Ralph Schugar Chapel in Shadyside for 87 year old
Melvin Wax of Squirrel Hill, one of the eleven people murdered during the
Shabbat Slaughter at the Tree of Life Synagogue.
2018(22nd
of Cheshvan, 5779): Ninety-six year old Wolfgang Zuckerman, the Berlin born son
of Aron and Gittel Zuckerman whose name is synonymous with the term
“harpsichord” passed away today in Avignon. (As reported by Richard Sandomir)
2018:
In London, those visiting the Jewish Museum are scheduled to “take part in an
alternative Halloween experience in celebration of the bicentennial of Mary
Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein.’”
2019:
Tonight, the following dinner at the
OJC,“Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum, the Dean of LSJS (London School of Jewish
Studies) and a renowned Jewish educator” is scheduled to discuss "An
Indecent Proposal: Did Abraham treat Sarah well?”
2019:
As part of the Stone Series, a monthly music series cured by John Zorn, Russ
and Daughters Café is scheduled to host a return performance by Laurie
Anderson.
2019:
In Forest City, CA, the Peninsula JCC is scheduled to host “Mindful Meditation”
during which “Rabbi Lavey Derby leads a session with four individuals in mind: ourselves,
someone who loves us, a neutral person and someone we’re having difficulties
with.”
2019:
In London, General Lord Dannatt, the former Chief of Staff of the British Army
is scheduled to participate in the Annual ZF Balfour Lecture, “celebrating 102
years since the signing of the Balfour Declaration.
http://forward.com/opinion/352859/why-all-jews-should-hate-halloween-and-so-should-everybody-else/
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/434666/jewish/Do-Jews-Celebrate-Halloween.htm
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/collecting-candy-on-halloween/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/do-jews-celebrate-halloween
2020(13th
of Cheshvan, 5781): Parashat Lech-Lecha;
2020:
In Pepper Pike, OH, B'nai
Jeshurun Congregation is scheduled to host “Starbucks, Bread and Torah Online.’
2020:
In Columbus, OH, Cantor Jack Chomsky is scheduled to lead his final Shabbat
service “before he transitions to being the Cantor Emeritus of Tifereth
Israel.”
2020:
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, 2,511
Israelis have died due to complications of COVID-19”
2020:
Temple Israel of Boston is scheduled to present online “Clergy Havdalah,
Cocktails and Mocktails.
2021:
The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing reports suggesting the
coronavirus vaccine made by Moderna can cause heart problems in some
adolescents, the company said” today at a time when “in studies from Israel and
the United States, the incidence of heart problems among people who had
received Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine is highest in males aged 16 to 29
years.”
2021:
Today marks the closing of the exhibit “Kindertransport-Rescuing Children on
the Brink of War” at the American Swedish Institute in Minnesota.
https://www.lbi.org/news/kindertransport-exhibit-travels-to-minneapolis/
2021: “What Happens
When Everyone Is Writing the Same Book You Are?” recounts tales of a British
expedition that in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire set out for Jerusalem
to find the ark of the covenant, only to fail, spectacularly, in 1911, in an eruption
of political turmoil and religious animosity” and the attempts of various
others to capture the tale on paper
2022:
The Streicker Center is scheduled in-person the first lecture by Martin Kaufman
on “Maimonides’ Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Scripture.”
2022:The
Consulates General of Germany and Israel in New York are scheduled to
present a Halloween Special: Nosferatu
(the holy grail of all silent films) followed by a life performance by Tel Aviv
DJ and musician Ellyott.
2022:
The YIVO Institute is scheduled to present YIVO archivist Hallel Yadin as he
provides an overview of how to access YIVO’s digitized holdings.
2022:
The Asian Jewish Business Network is scheduled to provide a forum for figures
from a wide range of corporate businesses to come together at the Queen
Elizabeth II Center in Westminster, UK.
2022:
As kids (and now a growing number of adults) are scheduled to head out trick or
treating, the ridiculous perennial
debate about Jews and Halloween goes on for another year since in they should
be able to participate in a non-religious day devoted to just plain fun.
(Editor’s note: Prior to COVID, Americans spent more money on Halloween than
they did on any other holiday, except for one, and that money was not all for
children)
http://forward.com/opinion/352859/why-all-jews-should-hate-halloween-and-so-should-everybody-else/
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/434666/jewish/Do-Jews-Celebrate-Halloween.htm
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/collecting-candy-on-halloween/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/do-jews-celebrate-halloween
2023:
As part of the Women on the Move program, the Streicker Center is scheduled to
host a presentation by novelist Curtis Sittenfeld, “a chronicler of the modern
age.”
2023:
As part of the Jewish Values and Strategy in Wartime series, Tikvah online
Academy is scheduled to host a lecture by Vance Serchuk on “The Yom Kippur War
in 1973: Lessons for Today.”
2023:
The Skirball Academy is scheduled to host the third lecture by Martin Kaufman
on “How to Read the Guide for the Perplexed.”
2023:
YESOD is scheduled to host a lecture on Postbiblical History: The Shape of
Modern Judaism given by Rabbi Bradley
Shavit Artson, Dean, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, and Vice President,
American Jewish University
2023:
As Americans are scheduled to celebrate Halloween, there are those who ask the
question, “should Jews observe this Autumnal event.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/do-jews-celebrate-halloween
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/collecting-candy-on-halloween/
https://www.hadassahmagazine.org/2020/10/26/jews-celebrate-halloween/
2023:
As October 31 begins in Israel, Pvt. Ori
Megidish has been reunited with her family after being freed in IDF mission, rocket
barrages continue to be fired into central Israel from Gaza, The White House has “outlined a slew of
actions intended to address what it called an “alarming” rise in reported
antisemitic incidents at schools and on college campuses” while over 200
hostages begin their 25th day in captivity.
(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)
