This Day, November 5, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
November
5
1271: Birthdate of Mahmud Ghazan, the Mongol ruler whose
conversion to Islam in 1295 led to the “Persian Jews in Tabriz” being relegated
“once again to the status of dhimmis” which was followed by his successors
destruction of several synag…
November 5
1271: Birthdate of Mahmud Ghazan, the Mongol ruler whose
conversion to Islam in 1295 led to the “Persian Jews in Tabriz” being relegated
“once again to the status of dhimmis” which was followed by his successors
destruction of several synagogues and enforcement of laws requiring to wear “a
distinctive mark on their head.
1370: King Casimir
1597: Sir Henry Finch, the author of a book calling for “the
restoration of the Jews to the promised land” addressed Parliament on the need
to create a committee to examine “the extreme and miserable estate of the godly
honest sort of the poor subjects of this realm.”
1605: The Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to blow up the House of Lords
which would be the first move in putting a Catholic on throne, was thwarted
today. This event which is tied in the
popular mind to Guy Fawkes could have had a negative impact on the small,
concealed Jewish population of the British Isles since a Catholic on the throne
at this time might have tied the kingdom to Spain the home of the Inquisition.
1615: Birthdate of Ibrahim I, another of the Sultans who reigned
during the seventeenth century, a period of decline for the Ottoman
Empire. He did employ at least one Jew
in close capacity, Doctor Moshe Raphael Abravanel who changed his name to
Hayati Zade.
1655: In New Amsterdam, the government refused to allow Jews to
stand guard, requiring them to pay a tax instead. In effect, this made Jews
“second class citizens.” Jacob Barsimon
and Asser Levy refused to pay the tax petitioned to stand guard. At first they were met with resistance, but
Asser Levy performed the guard duties anyway just like any other burgher of the
town. He would later be granted full citizenship rights in New Amsterdam, the
first for a Jew in North America.
1685:
In Surinam, Congregation Bracha V'Shalom, one of the oldest congregations in
the Americas was dedicated at Jodensvanne
or “Jewish Savanna.” Built “on a hill in accordance with Talmudic
interpretation” and one the bank of the Suriname River which provided
“naturally flowing water purification rituals,” the 90 by 40 by 33 structure
was used as a Beit Knesset, Beit Din and Beit Midrash for over 180 years at
which time it was abandoned due to the shrinking Jewish population which had
been declining since the first decades of the 18th century following
an invasion by a French fleet.
1688: William of Orange lands at Brixham marking the start of the
Glorious Revolution which was financed, in part, “by the Jewish banker
Francisco Lopes Suasso who lent two million guilder and when asked what
security he desired, Suasso answered: ‘If you are victorious, you will surely
repay me; if not, the loss is mine.’” As King William III
he would be the English monarch who knighted a Jew - Solomon de Medina,
1732: Jacob de Beer, who was serving as “ship gunner” set sail
from Amsterdam about the “Prattenburg bound for Batavia.
1735: In Mantua, a
town in the Italian province of Lombardy, a pact between the Jewish community
and the local high school was mediated by the Secretary of State. In return for
the Jewish community providing liquor, and other gifts to the school on St.
Catherine's day, the students would not press their right to throw objects at
any Jew who passes the school.
1758: In Philadelphia, PA, Tabitha Mears and Mathias Bush gave
birth to Rachel Bush.
1763: Nathan Barnett and his wife gave birth to Isaac Barnett
1785:
the council of Pennsylvania, under the presidency of
Benjamin Franklin, ordered that a pension be paid to Colonel Solomon Bush, the
brother of fellow solider Jonas Bush, for his meritorious services during the
American Revolution.
1785: Birthdate of Dutch teacher and author Moses Leman whose
works included Spirit of Talmudic Lord and Test of Talmudic
Mathematics.
1779(26th of Cheshvan, 5540): Isaac Simon Cohen
Kats-Shamash who had been born at Amsterdam in 1701 passed away today in his
native city.
1796: In Georgetown, SC, Bella Moses and Solomon Cohen gave birth
to Jacob Cohen the husband of Rachel Lopez and the father of Solomon, Jacob,
Jr, David, Priscilla, Rosa Ellen, Abram and Septima Cohen
1796: Newport native Hannah Isaacks and London born Jacob Phillips
gave birth to Philip Phillips.
1816: Birthdate of historian Siegfried Hirsch who “published an
award winning essay on King Henry I” but who died before he could finish “his
treatise on Holy Roman Emperor Henry II and whose cousin, the historian Theodor
Hirsch had converted to Christianity.
1819: In Lemberg, Solomon Judah Löb Rapoport and Franziska Freide
Rapoport gave birth to Guttel Katharina Rapaport who was known as Katharina
Busch after she married Simon Busch.
1823: Benjamin ben Chaim HaLevi married Eve bat Solomon today at
the Western Synagogue.
1824: In Frankfurt am Main Malchen and David Philipp Schloss gave
birth to Daniel Hirsch Schloss.
1824: In Frankfurt am Main Malchen and David Philipp Schloss gave
birth to Leopold Schloss the husband of Annie Montefiore, the daughter of
Horatio J. Montefiore, who was a “member of the Council and Past Warden of the
West London Synagogue as well as Vice President of the Anglo-Jewish
Association.
1825: In London, Hester Levy and Daniel Meyers gave birth to
Elizabeth Meyers
1825: Birthdate of Leopold Schloss, the husband of London born
Annie Horatia Montefiore.
1826(5th of Cheshvan, 5587): Élie Halévy, a French Hebrew poet and
author who was the father of Fromental and Léon Halévy passed away. Born in
1760 at Fürth in Bavaria, Halévy moved to Paris, where he became cantor and
secretary to the Jewish Consistoire of Paris. His knowledge of the Talmud and
his poetical talent earned him the esteem of many French scholars, particularly
the well-known Orientalist Sylvestre de Sacy. His first poem was
"Ha-Shalom", a hymn composed on the occasion of the treaty of Amiens;
it was sung in the synagogue of Paris, in both Hebrew and French, on the 17th
Brumaire (8 November) 1801. The poem was praised in Latin verses by Protestant
pastor Marron. In 1808 Halévy composed a prayer to be recited on the
anniversary of the battle of Wagram; in 1817, with the help of some of his
co-religionists, he founded the French weekly "L'Israélite Français",
which, however, expired within two years. To this periodical he contributed a
remarkable dialogue entitled "Socrate et Spinosa" (ii. 73). His
"Limmude Dat u-Musar" (Metz, 1820) is a text-book of religious
instruction compiled from the Bible, with notes, a French translation, and the
decisions of the Sanhedrin instituted by Napoleon. Halévy left two unpublished
works, a Hebrew-French dictionary and an essay on Æsop's fables. He attributes
the fables to Solomon (comp. I Kings v. 12-13 [A. V. iv. 32-33]), and thinks
the name "Æsop" to be a form of "Asaph".
1828: Thirty-two year old Samuel Etting, son of Solomon Etting and
veteran of the War of 1812 who “was the first president of Congregation Beth
Israel in Baltimore married Ellen Hays today.
1828(28th of Cheshvan, 5589): Berr Isaac Beer a
French manufacture passed away. Born at Nancy in 1744, he came from “a rich and
estimable family; received an excellent education, especially in Hebrew and
rabbinical literature—in the latter from Jacob Perle, chief rabbi of Nancy.
Inheriting the title of syndic of the Jewish community of Nancy, bestowed upon
his father in 1753 by King Stanislaus, he took an active part in the direction
of the affairs of the community.
In 1789 he was elected by the Jews of Alsace deputy to the
States-General, where he was admitted to plead for Jewish emancipation before
the Assembly. At about that time he published a pamphlet in which he refuted
the anti-Jewish discourse delivered by De la Farre, bishop of Nancy. Berr was
appointed successively member of the Assembly of Notables and member of the
Sanhedrin; and he cooperated effectively in the organization of Jewish worship
in France and in Italy. In his old age he retired, pensioned by the king, to
one of his estates called "Turique"—the name of which he added to his
own with the royal permission.”
1829(9th Cheshvan, 5590): Judith Seixas, the daughter
of Jochabed Levy and Moses Menes Seixas and the husband of Samuel Lopez passed
away today.
1834: At Angenrod in the grand duchy of Hesse- Darmstadt, Mayer
Bamberger and his wife gave birth to Isaac Bamberger, the German Rabbi who made
a great effort to aid the Russian Jews who took refuge in Germany after 1882
when the Czar’s anti-Jewish laws began to have their most pernicious effect.
1835: In Busk, Galicia, Fannie and Dr. Leo Szeps gave birth to Moritz Szeps, the journalist who was editor-in-chief of the Vienna Morgenpost , a friend of Crown
Prince Rudolf and the husband of Amalie Szeps with whom he had five children.
http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.s/s997378.htm;internal&action=_setlanguage.action?LANGUAGE=en
1845: Abraham Alexander married Louisa Reuben at the West
London Synagogue today.
1845: In Szeged, Bernát (Bernhard) Schwimmer and his first wife
gave birth to Max (Miksa or Maximilian) Bernát Schwimmer who along with his
grandfather, father and brothers bought and sold horses in Turkey and the
Balkans while also earing income from their farm, orchards, flour mills and
distillery.
1849(20th of Cheshvan): Rabbi Elijah ben Jacob Raoler of Kalisz,
author of Yad Eliyahu passed away today
1852: The New York Times correspondent sent a report to from Constantinople
ten years ago Smyrna had had a population of 130,000 which included 13,000
Jews. Today the population has grown to
160,000 with percentage of Jews remaining about the same.
1852: The New York Times reported that “the Senate of
Frankfort, supported by a resolution of the German Diet, has cancelled the
article of the law of 1849 securing equality of political rights to citizens of
all persuasions, thus excluding Jews from all share in the elections. New elections will take place immediately,”
at which time only Christians will be allowed to vote.
1853: "Australia" published today reported
on the wonders of the land down under including a description of Melbourne, a
town with streets that were broader than those of New York and filled with a
strange medley of people that including Jews, among others.
1853: In London, Marcus Samuel, a member of an Iraqi Jewish family
who “ran a successful import-export business” and his wife gave birth to Sir
Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted, “the founder of the Shell
Transport and Trading Company, which later became a part of Royal Dutch Shell”
and holder of several public offices including Alderman of the City of London,
Sherriff and Lord Mayor.
https://www.jta.org/1927/01/20/archive/lord-bearsted-dies-within-24-hours-of-lady-bearsted
1855: Birthdate of Eugene V. Debs, labor activist, reformer and Socialist
Candidate for President of the United States.
From the Civil War until the Great Depression a majority of Jews tended
to vote for Republican Presidential candidates.
Debs helped to break that trend.
His Socialist views found support among the immigrants from Eastern
Europe, many of whom were working in the garment industry. When Debs ran for President against the
Republican Harding and Democrat Davis he gained 38% of the Jewish vote. This almost matched Harding’s 43% and far
exceeded Davis’ 19%. The real shift in
Jewish voting patterns would be seen in the election of 1928 when Al Smith was
the Democratic standard bearer.
1860(20th of Cheshvan, 5621): Birthdate of Sholom Dovber
Schneersohn, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe. There is no way this blog can do
justice to this Rebbe who provided leadership through the difficult days of the
May Laws and World War I.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/272209/jewish/Rabbi-Sholom-DovBer-Schneersohn.htm
1862: Simon J. Arnold of Company K of the 151st
Regiment which served as bodyguard for President Lincoln who would reach the
rank of Sergeant and would be wounded at Gettysburg, enlisted today.
1863: In New York, the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum under
the leadership of President Benjamin I. Hart and Superintendent Herman Baar
“dedicated its orphan asylum on East 77th Street.
1867: Birthdate of Chicago merchant and philanthropist Benjamin
Jefferson Rosenthal, the author of The need of the hour, an American
merchant marine https://www.amazon.com/need-hour-American-merchant-marine/dp/B0067M8HAA
1870: Horatio Simon Samuel, the husband of the former Henrietta
Montefiore and father of Harry Simon Samuel, was buried today at the “Balls
Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1871: It was reported today that the Jewish Messenger has
expressed its opposition to the attempt by some Jews to stop observing the
Hebrew Sabbath and shift to observing the Christian Sunday. The Messenger takes
issue with those who claim that change is allowed since the observance of the
Sabbath was intended for a specific place (ancient Israel) and/or that it was
to political measure intended to curry favor with the laborers of ancient time.
The Messenger claims that there is no basis in fact for these claims. It quotes the commandment to prove its point
that the Jewish Sabbath is a blessing to be observed on the seventh day. ”The
children of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to keep it throughout their
generations for a permanent covenant; it is a sign between me and the children
of Israel forever.”
1872: In Syracuse, NY, Harris Garfinckel, “a peddler and dry goods
merchant” and Hannah Rachel Harrzon gave birth to Julius Garfnckel the founder
of Garfinkcel’s Department Store, which in its day was the epitome of
fashionable shopping in the Nation’s Capital.
1873: An article published today described the origins and current
status of the various religious groups found in New York City. The unnamed
author reported that the while the exact date of the arrival of the first Jews
is not known, the date usually used is 1660 which is four years before the
English took control of the city from the Dutch. Regardless of the exact date,
the Jews were here before the Roman Catholics or the Episcopalians. The early Jews had to deal with various forms
of “persecution” but are now successful members of the community who build not
only beautiful houses of worship but have established numerous institutions for
the care of the sick, the aged and the helpless. There are approximately 40,000
Jews living in New York, most of whom who have come in the last 25 years. The
city has 26 synagogues valued at $2,500,000. The average salary for a Rabbi is
$2,200. The lowest paid makes $500 and
the highest paid makes $6,000. For a point reference Unitarians earn an average
of $5,000 and Lutherans earn an average of $1,800.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F0DE7DB1E3DE53BBC4D53DFB7678388669FDE
1874: Birthdate of Joe Gustave Dreyfus, who in 1885 came to New
York City where he attended Columbia and worked as an investment and securities
broker.
1874: Birthdate of Antopol,
Russia native Isaac Kahanowitz, the resident of “Greensburg, Pennsylvania…who
in the early twentieth century amassed the greatest private collection of
Yiddish and Hebrew books and periodicals in western Pennsylvania, meaning that
his library surpassed anything that could be found even in Pittsburgh, with a
Jewish population of over 50,000”
1875: Based on information that had appeared in the Times of
London, it was reported today that Czar has given a young Jew named Frehmann a
commission in the Russian Army. If so,
this would make him the first Jew to ever serve as an officer in the forces of
the Czar. [This would seem to contradict claims that Joseph Trumpeldor was the
first Jewish officer in the Russian Army.]
http://www.saveisrael.com/martyred/trumpeldor.htm
1876: In Antopol, Louis M. and Libbie (Wolinsky) Kahanowitz gave
birth to Isaac Kahanwoitz, “one of the organizers pf B’nai Zion in Greensburg,
PA and one of he organizers and the first president of the Jewish Colonial
Trusts who served as a delegate at several of the American Zionist Conventions
and three World Zionist Congresses.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/03/08/93754356.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1877: It was reported today that supporters of Thomas C.E.
Ecclesine, a candidate for the New York State Senate have taken advantage of
his German sounding name to pass him off as being Jewish in those part of the
district that have a large Jewish vote. However, they have also claimed that he
is an Irish Catholic in an attempt to garner that segment of the vote. (Since
he was married at St. Ann’s Church by Father William Jackson, it is fair to say
that his attempt to gain the Jewish vote was not based on fact. The ruse
attests to the growing importance of the Jewish Vote.)
1880: Seventy-three year old Louis Félicien Joseph Caignart de
Saulcy the French nobleman and amateur archeologist who first visited Palestine
in 1850, toured the Dead Sea, made the first map of Masada and “identified Tell
es-Sultain as the site of ancient Jericho passed away today.
1880: Birthdate of Vienna native Richard W. Ornstein who gained
fame as German
director Richard Oswald who was forced to flee when the Nazis came to power and
who “made a number of films about sexuality and prostitution in collaboration
with Magnus Hirschfeld.”
1881: It was reported today that the Deutsch Tagblatt, an
anti-Semitic newspaper has announced that the Conservative Committee has sent a
telegram to Bismarck declaring their continued opposition to the Progressives
in the Reichstag.
1881: In Philadelphia, German-Jewish immigrants Sophie and Abraham
Henry Marcus gave birth to their first child, publisher Henry Marcus.
https://www.pulpartists.com/Marcus.html
1881: Based on information that first appeared in the National Zeitung, it was reported today
that Chancellor Bismarck has declared that he “would never entertain a proposal
to curtail the rights of Jews.”
1881: In response to a request by a an interdenominational
committee, rabbis throughout the United States are expected to address their
congregations during Shabbat services about the creation of James Garfield
Hospital in Washington, DC and solicit their financial support for the creation
of this memorial to the late U.S. President.
Christian ministers will address their congregations on the subject
tomorrow.
1882: “Not Prejudiced Against Jews” published today contains a
list of prominent citizens including Dr. Abraham Jacobi, Felix Adler and the
Seligmans attesting to the fact that ex-Governor Edward Salomon “does not
entertain any prejudices against the Jewish race.” (Salomon is not to be confused with Edward
Selig Salomon who was a German Jewish immigrant and who also served as a
governor)
1883: In New York City, Louis W. and Annie (Kubie) Levy gave birth
to Columbia trained attorney Edward Benjamin Levy the husband of Helen Barnet
and Director of the Barnet Leather Company who was a member of the Menorah
Society, Temple Beth-El and The Judeans.
1883: It was reported today that the preparations for celebrating
the centennial of Moses Montefiore which will take place next year have the
added proof of putting to rest doubts among some Englishman that any person has
attained the age of 100.
1884: In Rumania, Morris and Rebecca Lazarus gave birth to Louis
Lazarus, the husband of Rose Lazarus and father of Anna Weiner.
1885(27th of Cheshvan, 5646): Jonas Strauss, the head of the dry
goods firm of J. Strauss, Brother & Company passed away today in New
York. He was also a partner in Levi
Strauss & Co. in San Francisco. The
San Francisco company was started in 1851 by Jonas, Louis and Levi Strauss (the
man who gave us Levi jeans). Twenty-one
year old Jonas Strauss stayed in New York and shipped material “around the
Horn” to his brothers in California. His
prosperity could be measured by his generous contributions to various Jewish
charities and not by his life-style which was so simple that he refused to
purchase his own horse and carriage.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9504E7DC1E3EEF33A25754C0A9679D94649FD7CF
1885: Birthdate of famed historian Will Durant. Unlike other historians of world civilization
like Arnold Toynbee he did not view the Jews in a negative manner. In his volume of The Story
of Civilization – The Reformation, Durant wrote, "So prominent was the
Jewish role in the foreign commerce of Europe that those nations that received
the Jews gained and the countries that excluded them lost in the volume of
international trade."
1886(7th of Cheshvan, 5647): Josef Kahn, the Czech born
son of “Jacob Kohn and Franziska Kahn” and husband of Julie Kahn passed away
today.
1887: It was reported today that the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian
Society for Children will be hosting a benefit performance next week.
1887: Birthdate of Paul Wittgenstein “an Austrian-born concert
pianist, who became known for his ability to play with just his left hand,
after he lost his right arm during the First World War. He devised novel
techniques, including pedal and hand-movement combinations that allowed him to
play chords previously regarded as impossible for a five-fingered pianist. The Wittgenstein family had converted to Christianity three
generations before his birth on the paternal side and two generations before on
the maternal side; nonetheless they were of mainly Jewish descent, and under
the Nuremberg laws they were classed as Jews. Following the rise of the Nazi
Party and the annexation of Austria, Paul tried to persuade his sisters Helene
and Hermine to leave Vienna, but they demurred: they were attached to their
homes there, and could not believe such a distinguished family as theirs was in
real danger. Ludwig had already been living in England for some years, and
Margaret (Gretl) was married to an American. Paul himself, who was no longer
permitted to perform in public concerts under the Nazis, departed for the
United States in 1938. From there he and Gretl…managed to use family finances
(mostly held abroad) and legal connections to attain non-Jewish status for
their sisters. The family finances supposedly consisted of the voluntary
surrender of all properties and assets in Germany and occupied lands with a
total value of about US$6 billion at the time, which may have been the largest
private fortune in Europe. Essentially all family assets were surrendered to
the Nazis in return for protection afforded the two sisters under exceptional
interpretations of racial law, allowing them to continue to live in their
family palace in Vienna.” He died in New York City in 1961
1888(1st of Kislev, 5649): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1888(1st of Kislev, 5649): Seventy-nine year old
orientalist Louis Lowe who traveled to Palestine where he studied the practices
of the Samaritans and the works of the Karaites and who headed two different
Jewish schools in England passed away today.
1888: It was reported today that among the books now available in
New York are Idylls of Israel and Other Poems by D. J. Donahue and The
Wandering Jew, a three volume work by Eugene Sue.
1888: “Government By The People” published today summarized a
lecture by Dr. Gustav Gottheil in which he contended that the concept of
popular government has its origins in Biblical Judaism. According to the rabbi, “The whole idea of
popular government pervaded the law of god and the sentiments of the Jews.”
1892: Birthdate of Rochester, NY native Ralph Eugene Samuel, the husband of Florence
Samuel with whom he had three children – Ralph, Donald and Howard – “who played
a central role in the founding of Commentary magazine.
1891:
In New York, Lithuanian Jewish immigrants Celia Freedman and Mose Fromowtiz gave
birth to WW I veteran and Houston banker
and civic leader Fred Farrel Florence, the husband of Helen Lefkowitz.
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/florence-fred-farrel
1893: “Candidates of the Parties” published today provided
profiles of those running on Democratic State ticket in New York including
Simon W. Rosendale, native of Albany who is running for Attorney General and
who a trustee of Congregation Anshe-Emeth, President of the Jewish Home Society
and a leader of B’nai B’rith
1893: Tammany Hall closed the campaign tonight with three mass
meetings including one at the Hebrew Institute.
1893: “Work of the Reichstag” published today described activities
at the current session of the German parliament including the introduction of
bills designed to “counteract the dismemberment of the large estates and to
regulate interest on loans and mortgages” which are both said to have an
“anti-Semitic flavor” because the landed gentry who borrow from Jewish bankers
pay off their debts by selling portions of their landed holdings.
1893: According to the annual report delivered by Morris Goodhart,
President of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian a summary of which was published
today, the society is caring for 2,339 children, 974 of whom were born in the
United States, 521 of whom were born in Poland, 367 of whom were born in the
Austro-Hungarian Empire with balance coming from places as disparate as
Britain, Germany, France, Holland, Spain, Sweden and Jerusalem.
1893: Five Polish Jews continued to be held in jail at Hudson, NY
as they await Grand Jury action on charges of “illegal registration”
1893: Birthdate of Newark, NJ native and NYU trained attorney
Louis A. Fast, a two-term “assistant corporation council and President of the
Newark Tax Board who was the father of Joan Fast and Lt.Cmdr. Edwin J. Fast.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/05/07/issue.html
1894: Max H. Haft, the Russian born son of Eva and Levi Isaac Haft
and his wife Jennie Hafter gave birth to New Yorker Samuel Haft.
1894: The speeches at the rally for Congressman Timothy J.
Campbell were delivered in a variety of foreign languages including Russian and
Hebrew which would provide some indication as to the importance of the Jewish
immigrant vote in the upcoming election.
1894: Birthdate of Josef Floch “one out of many Austrian artists
who left Vienna in the twenties and went to Paris, the center of the
avant-garde at this time” and who “n 1941 moved on to New York, where he and
his family found a new home.
https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/5/resources/14365
1895: A list of the bequests left by the late Julius Lipman
published today including $500 to be given to each of the following: Mount
Sinai Hospital, the Montefiore Home, the United Hebrew Charities and
Congregation B’nai Jeshurun.
1895: Frank and Rose Klein Wirtschafter gave birth to Yetta A.
Wirtschaftter Salzman the wife of Samuel A. Salzman.
1895: At 8 o’clock this evening Isaac Klein and M.D. Rothschild
were the only two leaders of Confederated Good Government Clubs to be found at
its headquarters on Broadway where reports of a Tammany victory were being
received with the expected dismay and disappointment.
1895: In the response of Dr. Maurice H. Harris to Israel
Zangwill’s views on Reform Judaism published today the rabbi at Temple Israel
said, “It may be easy for critics to formulate a rational Judaism, or a poetic
Judaism, a Judaism conservative or a Judaism radical. It is not a better Judaism that we want but
better Jews.”
1896: Twenty-four year old NYU trained physician Maurice Fishberg,
the Russian born son of Philip and Kate (Moverman) Fishberg married Bertha
Cantor today in New York City.
1896(29th of Cheshvan, 5657): Eighty-year old Rachel,
Countess d’Avigdor second daughter of Sir Isaac Lyon and Isabel Goldsmid and
wife of Count Salamon Henri d'Avigdor who “was at one time president of the
Ladies' Committee of the Jews' Deaf and Dumb Home, and honorary secretary of
the West End Charity; also a member of the committees of the Jewish
Convalescent Home, of the workhouse committee of the Jewish Board of Guardians,
and of the West End Sabbath School” passed away today.
1897: It was reported today that the essay on Voltaire’s “Candide”
written by Herman L. Pass has won the “annual essay of St. John’s College,
Cambridge.”
1897: It was reported today “that an attempt is being made to
federate the Western Synagogue and the West End Talmud Torah” in London.
1897: “The Dreyfus Scandal” published today described “Bernard
Lazare’s self-appointed mission to rouse European opinion and obtain a fresh
trial for ex-Captain Dreyfus” which “is being rewarded by some slight measure
of success.
1898: “Books and Authors” published today included a review of
several works translated by Dr. Samuel A. Binion the native of Suwalki who was
educated in both Hebrew and the Talmud before he moved to England in the 1860’s
where he converted to Christianity. He
also exposed a manuscript reputed to have been written by Maimonides which had
been purchased by Adolph Sutro, the first Jewish mayor of San Francisco as
being a forgery.
1898: Among the soldiers who completed their service today when
the 3rd Virginia Volunteer Infantry was “was mustered out of the
U.S. Service were Private, Lewis M. Moses from Charlottesville, Corporal
Abraham Cohen of Petersburg, Private William Goldsmith from Fredericksburg,
Hiram C. Rosenbaum of Abingdon and Private August Hahn of Baltimore, MD.
1899: The twentieth annual meeting of the Directors of the
Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society was held today. Samuel D. Levy, President of
the Board of Trustees, read his annual report, which included the report of the
Treasurer for the fiscal year just ended. The income from bequests and
membership fees was $102,911.19, and the disbursements $102,725.52.
1899: Rabbi Samuel Schulman delivered a talk today entitled
“Zangwill’s Children of the Ghetto, an Incomplete Picture of Jews and Judaism.”
1900: In Red Bank, NJ, “Jennie Elizabeth (née Tim) and Charles
Emanual Schafer” gave birth to the eldest of their three children, Natalie
Schafer whose most famous role was that of Eunice Howell who, along with her
husband Thurston Howell, made up the snobby rich couple on the sit-com
“Gilligan’s Island.”
1900: Birthdate of St. Paul resident Bernhard Goldman, the husband
of Henrietta Siegel Goldman and the father of Helen, Caroline, Sara and
Jeannette Goldman.
1900: Oscar Straus will join several other dignitaries included a
member of the cabinet and the mayor of New York in serving as a pall bearer at
today’s funeral for William L. Strong, the city’s former mayor
1901: Birthdate of Fort Wayne IN, native and University of
Michigan trained Chemical Engineer Ralph Frederick Cohn. (According to some his
birthdate was 1911)
1901: In New York City, Ada Young and Louis Gold gave birth to sports
write and cartoonist William M Gould who worked for King Features and
“Asparagus Tipps.”
1902: Herzl's London representative, Leopold Greenberg, met Lord
Cromer, British Counsel-General in Egypt, and Egyptian prime minister Boutros
Ghali Pasha. He succeeded in winning them over to the Zionist cause.
1902: Thirty year old Emanuel Phillip (E.P) Adler, the Chicago
born son of Philip Emanuel Adler and Bertha Blade Adler, who had been promoted
from business manager to publisher of the Davenport Times and Lena Rothschild gave birth to Philip David
Adler who followed in the publishing footsteps of his father while becoming a
community leader in Davenport, IA.
1902: “In the small town of Lagow,in the Opatow district of Radom
in what is now Poland” Abraham and Sara Gitel Salesburg gave birth to Joseph
Baruch (J.B.) Salesberg who at the age of 11 settled in Toronto with his family
where he eventually pursued a political career that included serving as being a
member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
1902: Birthdate of Boruch
Minewitz the native of the Ukraine who gained fame as harmonica great and actor
Borrah Minevitch, leader of The Harmonic Rascals.
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,755866-1,00.html
1903: It was reported today that the arbitration committee of
which Oscar S. Straus was the only “independent” member has made public the
terms for settle the labor strife between “street railway companies of San
Francisco and the Amalgamated Street Railway Employees’ Association.
1904(27th of Chesvan, 5665): Parashat Cahyei Sara
1904: The “disturbances among the reservists in Russian Poland”
which are often tied to anti-Semitism are reported today to be more a matter
of the ability of the Russian
authorities to provided them with such basics as money, food supplies and
shelter.
1905: As violence continues to rock Russia and Jews throughout the
Empire from Moscow, to Odessa to Bessarabia continue to live in fear off
further attack by mobs many of whom are egged on the police and the army,
twenty people were killed and another eighty were injured in Kremechug.
1905: From Riga, United States Consul Bornholdt telegraphed the
U.S. Chargé d'affaires in St. Petersburg saying “that the situation was
extremely serious” and “demanding military protection”
1905: An appeal arrived from George R. Martin, the American
Consular Agent at Rostoff-on-Don asking for military protection due to the
detonating situation.
1905: “A private telegram from St. Petersburg” arrived in Berlin
saying there have been massacres of Jews in Odessa, Kiev, Kishinev, Saratoff,
Kazan, Minsk, Tomsk, Theodosia, Jaroslav, Mariupol, Elizabethgrad “and many
other city” with an “enormous numbers of persons murdered” and “incalculable
property loss.”
1905: Birthdate of Cincinnati native Henry Tavel, the HUC trained
rabbi who served as chaplain during WW II winning the Bronze Star and entered
civilian life in 1960 as congregational rabbi in Houston while raising a
daughter Barbara with his wife Charlotte passed away today.
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0209/ms0209.html
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/04/28/90099871.pdf
1905: A tour today of Odessa today showed that “the poorer Jewish
quarters suffered the worst” damage while with few exception the Russian shops
painted with crosses and ikons “were untouched.”
1905: At an overflow meeting held on the third floor of Clinton
Hall, Joseph Barondess paid tribute to the memory of the Secretary of State Hay
who had stopped the first outbreak of violence against the Jews of Kiev while
the attendees “decided that working people all over the United States should,
on a day yet to be selected, cease their work and gather to listen to addresses
and pass resolutions of protects in order to call the attention of the
civilized world to the wholesale killing of Jews in Russia.”
1905: Tonight, “at the Sixty-seventh Street Synagogue, a large
gathering of Jews denounced the massacres in Russia” and made plans “to take
definite steps to protest in the name of the Jews of America and civilization
against conditions prevailing in Russia and to raise contributions for the
widows and orphans of those slain.”
1906: Birthdate of Russian born
NYU trained physician arthritis
researcher Dr. Joseph Jay Bunim who in 1910 came to the United States where his
work led him to become “clinical director of the National Institute of
Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases in Bethesda, MD while raising a son, Michael
and two daughters with his wife Miriam Schild Bunim.
https://ard.bmj.com/content/annrheumdis/23/6/510.full.pdf
1906: Following the publication of a letter in the Brooklyn Eagle
in which Nathan Straus endorsed the Democratic candidate for governor and
mention that he was a member of the firm of Abraham and Straus, today the
Brooklyn Eagle printed a letter from Abraham Abraham that began “During the
forty years or more of the existences of this establishment, the name of
Abraham and Straus has never been used in any political advertisement or
controversy , as the firm has studiously avoid
influence or even seeming to see to influence the opinion or vote of any
employee.”
1907:A conference was held at Bremen was held to ensure that
special arrangements have been made for Jewish passengers on the transatlantic
lines of the North German Lloyd that will include “a kosher kitchen” and
“prayer room.”
1908: It was reported today that Oscar Straus had congratulated
President Taft on his electoral victory saying “that the country was safe.”
1909: The Turkish Ministry of Interior asked the Council of State
to accelerate the passage of immigration laws. On the same day several hundred
Jewish recruits presented themselves for enrollment in the Turkish Army.
1910(3rd of Cheshvan 5671): Parashat Noach
1910: Led by Center Albert Lorch “Al” Loe, known as the Yiddish
Wildcat, George Tech defeated Auburn today.
1910: It was reported today that Alfred M. Heinsheimer has donated
one million dollars to the New York Foundation, a non-sectarian organization he
founded “to promote charitable, educational and philanthropic enterprises. The one million dollars had been a bequest
from the late Louis A. Heinsheimer, which, according to his will, was supposed
to be left to 6 existing Jewish charities if they could come together and form
one common federation within two years.
When they failed to do so, under the terms of the will, the money then
went to Alfred. Alfred was so intent on
fulfilling his brother’s wish of creating a Jewish Federation, that he said he
would waive his claim to the money if five of the charities would come together. They failed to do so and Alfred acted in a
manner consistent with his brother’s generosity.
1910: “Mr. Boris Hambourg, violinist and cellist, made his first American
appearance this afternoon, at a recital
in Mendelssohn Hall.”
1911: After declaring war on the Ottoman Empire on September 29,
1911, Italy annexed Tripoli and Cyrenaica marking the end of 350 years of
Ottoman rule. There were approximately 20,000 Jews living there at the
time. Over the next twenty years, the
Jewish population would increase as Italian Jews made their way to this area
which is known as Libya. While one
source describes this “as a golden age for Libya’s Jews” others note the
clashes that took place between the native population and their co-religionists
who came with the Italian conquerors.
1912: Woodrow Wilson was elected President, defeating Progressive Republican
Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent Republican William Howard Taft. Wilson appointed Louis Brandeis to the
Supreme Court. Brandeis was the first
Jew appointed to the high court.
1912: Oscar Straus who was running on both the Progressive and
Independence League tickets lost his bid to be elected Governor of New York.
1912: Maxim Birnkraut was elected to the New York State
Legislature.
1912: Simon L. Adler of Rochester, NY was re-elected as a member
of the State Legislature.
1912: Morris J. Speiser of Philadelphia, PA, was elected to the
State Legislature today.
1912: Joseph Rabinowitz was elected Mayor of Woodbine, NJ.
1912: Sigmund J. Gans of Philadelphia, PA, was elected to the
State Legislature today.
1912: Jacob Frohlich of New Haven, CT, was elected to the State
Legislature today.
1912: Mark Goldberg of New York City was re-elected to the State
Legislature.
1912: Henry M. Goldfogle, of New York City was re-elected to the
State Legislature.
1912: Isaac Gordon of Boston, Mass, was elected to the State
Legislature.
1912: Abraham Greenberg of New York City was elected to the State
Legislature.
1912: Maurice Caro of Boston, MA was elected to the State
Legislature.
1912: Morris Bernstein of Cleveland, Ohio, was elected State
Senator today.
1912: P.C. Cohn of Sacramento, CA was elected to the State
Legislature
1912: In Pittsburgh, PA. Adolph Edlis was re-elected Treasure of
the School Board.
1912: Mark Eisner of New York City was elected to the State
Assembly.
1912: Henry Elgart of Colchester, CT was elected to the State
Legislature.
1912: In Rhode Island, Jacob A. Eaton was elected to the State
Legislature.
1912: Sam B. Bradner of Benson, AZ was elected as member of the
State Constitutional Convention and the State Legislature.
1912: Aaron J. Levy and Jefferson M. Levy both of New York City
were re-elected to the State Legislature.
1912: Max Levy of Newport, R.I., was elected to the State
Legislature.
1912: Joseph Leonard of Boston, Mass, was elected to the State
Legislature.
1912: Sim Leopold of Phoenix, LA, was elected to the State
Legislature.
1912: Max M. Neuman of Spokane, Washington, was elected to serve
in the State Legislature.
1912: Robert Robinson of Boston, MA, was elected to the State
Legislature.
1912(25th of Cheshvan, 5673): Fifty-nine year old
Mississippi native Lazarus “Lazar” Schwartz, the son of Jacob Schwartz and
Judith Morritz and husband of Sophie Weyl who moved to Texas in the 1880’s
before settling in Los Angeles where he owned a grocery store passed away
today.
1913: Today during the trial of Mendel Bellis, on
cross-examination “Father Pranites, the Cathloic priest from Turkestan, formely
a Jews, who is the principal witness for the prosecution, showed that he could
not even translate the titles of the treatises he himself had quoted as the
sources of his anti-Semitic allegations.”
1914: Great Britain declared war on the Ottoman Empire
1914: Birthdate of Alexander Abramovich the native of Moscow who
gained fame as Israeli composer Alexander “Sasha” Argov.
1914: Publication of Der Tog
(The Day) a Yiddish language
newspaper began in New York City with Herman Bernstein as editor and David
Shapiro as Publisher
1914: Reverend George Blyth, the
Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem who shifted his attempts at conversion from fellow
Christians to Jews and Muslims passed away today.
1914: Birthdate of Salomon Gluck, the Swiss born French physician
who served in the Resistance and who was murdered by the Nazis along with the
other victims aboard the infamous Convoy 73.
1915: “A Munich dispatch to the Vossische Zeitung says that the
regulation against Jews becoming officer in the Bavarian Army has been
modified.”
1915: Birthdate of Martin Dannenberg the native of Baltimore, MD
who served as chairman of the Sun Life Insurance Company and who, while serving
with Patton’s Third Army who “discovered an original copy of the Nuremberg Laws
signed by Adolf Hitler.”
1916: At Carnegie Hall, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise delivered an address
entitled “How Ought I To Vote” in which he “denounced hyphenism in all its
phases”
1916: “Rabbi Samuel Schulman delivered a pre-election nonpartisan
sermon” this “morning at Temple Beth-El called “Before the Ark of the American
Covenant” in which he “likened the act of voting to the annual visit made by
the high priest into the innermost sanctuary of the Jewish temple to the
presence of the Ark which contained the tablets of testimony” but also decried
the political activity of ministers in partisan politics which meant he would
not tell anybody for whom he was going to vote.
1916: “Rabbi J.L. Magnes, who was sent to the occupied portions of
Poland and Lithuania to study the condition of the Jews” in those countries
“and the distribution of relief sent from America told a graphic story of the
hardships he had seen at meeting” tonight “of representatives of the American
Jewish Relief Committee, the Central Relief Committee and the People’s Relief
Committee” during which he predicted that if the war last three or four years,
“the Jewish race” will waste away and “there will be very few left.” (Editor’s
Note: With all of the emphasis on the Holocaust, we tend to lose sight of the
desperate conditions faced by the Jews of Eastern Europe during WW I.)
1917: In Buchanan v. Warley, The Supreme Court unanimously
agreed to strike down as unconstitutional a Louisville KY ordinance that made
it unlawful for any white or black person to move into and occupy as a
residence any house upon any block upon which a greater number of houses were
occupied by persons of the opposite color. A white property owner challenged
the statute on the ground that it impaired his ability to sell his house, which
was situated in an exclusively white neighborhood, to a prospective black
buyer. The court held that the statute deprived the white homeowner of his
right to dispose of his property without due process of law. The Court reasoned
that he should be able to dispose of his property to any prospective purchaser,
regardless of race. This was the first race case in which the
newly-appointed Justice Brandeis participated and it was perceived by the
public at the time to represent a fairly dramatic victory for the cause of
Civil Right. While African Americans and
their supporters were pleased with the outcome, it drew the ire of many whites.
1917: Thirty-one year old Rabbi David Goldberg of Corsicana was
named today by Secretary Josephus Daniels as “the first Jewish Chaplain of the
U.S. Navy” with the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade.
1918: John Marshal Law School trained attorney and banker Max
Schulman the Latvian born son of Esther Bernstein and Abraham Shulman married
Jennie Leibsohn today in Chicago.
1918: “Fires On Italy’s Hills Told of Trieste’s Fall” published
described the Italian reaction to the occupation of Trieste which fell “on the
feast day of San Juste, the patron saint of Trieste, that all of the population
including the Jews, used to celebrate under Austrian rule as a patriotic
demonstration of their Italian nationality. (Editor’s note – the idea of Jews
recognizing a saint’s day does have a strange sound to it.)
1919(12th of Cheshvan, 5680): Seventy-one year old
Polish born, American rabbi and Bible translator Arnold B. Ehrlich who was
rumored to have converted to Christianity and then returning to Judaism
(something he denied) and of whom the Nation News Archive wrote, “his life
work, represented by eleven substantial volumes dedicated to the elucidation of
the Scriptures, merits the grateful appreciation of all those to whom the Bible
is an integral part of human civilization passed away today.
:http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1971_23_01_00_stern.pdf
1920: Rabbi I. Mortimer Bloom is scheduled to deliver a sermon
this evening on “The Wandering Jew – Fact and Fiction” at the Hebrew Tabernacle
at Broadway.
1920: Dr. M.H. Harris is scheduled to deliver a sermon this
evening on “Pilgrim’s Landing Tercentenary – Puritan and Jew” at Temple Israel
in Harlem.
1921(4th of Cheshvan, 5682): Parashat Noach read for
the first time during the Presidency of Warren Harding
1921: It was reported today that “a large audience” heard Boris
Hambourg’s cello recital in the Aeolian Hall which include “some unfamiliar and
interesting numbers.”
1922: Birthdate of Munich, Germany native Nissan Notowicz, who
made alyiah in 1937 where as Nissan Nativ he served in the Armor Corps Jewish
Brigade during WW II and commander in the War for Independence before going on
to an entertainment career that included founding the Nissan Nativ Acting
Studio and being awarded the Israel Prize for theatre in 2008.
1923: Following the collapse of the German mark, several thousand
impoverished German descended upon Berlin’s Scheunenviertel district, inhabited
principally by Ostjudent (Eastern Jews) and for two days beat hundreds of Jews
and ransacked nearly a thousand Jewish shops before police managed to put an
end to the violence.
1923(26th of Cheshvan, 5684): Pittsburgh, PA attorney
and Spanish American War veteran Alfred Cahen passed away today.
1923: Twenty-six year old Cambridge trained mathematician and
code-breaker Max Newman, London born son of Herman Alexander Neumann and Sarah
Ann Pike, “was elected a Fellow of St. John’s” today.
1924: “Dr. Emanuel de Mornay Baruch, professor of bacteriology,
returned on the S.S. “Majestic” from Austria and Germany, where he studied and
lectured in the clinics on the treatment of cancer and tuberculosis.” (JTA(
1924: Jesse H. Metcalf who as early as June of 1933 would join in
the attack on the Nazi treatment of the Jews when he declared “We as a nation
can only declare the existence of racial or religious prejudice to be untenable
as a national ideal” was elected to the United States from Rhode Island, a
position he would hold until 1937.
1925(18th of Cheshvan, 5686): Sidney George Reilly, the
so-called Ace of Spies and “a secret agent employed by the British who was
reported Sigmund Georgievich Rosenblum “the son of Pauline and Gregory
Rosenblum, a wealthy Polish-Jewish family was executed today by Soviets while
on a mission to the U.S.S.R.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Reilly
1926: A month after having premiered in Berlin, “The Queen of
Moulin Rouge” directed by Robert Wiene was released today in Vienna.
1926: In London, Stanley Berger, “a non-observant Jew and winner
of the Military Cross in WW I who
converted to Catholicism” and his wife Miriam gave birth to multi-talented John
Peter Berge, the author of the novel G which won the Man Booker Prize
for Fiction in 1972.
1927(10th of Cheshvan 5688): Parashat Lech-Lecha
1927: It was reported that Rabbi Mitchell S. Fisher has told his
congregation at Temple Israel on W. 185th Street “that prohibition
was unJewish and a ‘national curse’” while “declaring that Judaism must take an
active stand against prohibition, under which, he charged, a speakeasy was
operating in open violation of the law two doors from the synagogue in which he
was speaking…”
1928: In “Gangsters Shoot Arnold Rothstein” published today in The
Atlanta Constitution reported that the “notorious gangster” is “in serious
condition after an attack on a New York Street.”
1928: “An exhibition of paintings, etchings and sculptures by
Jewish artists” including works by Joseph Hecht, Hermann N. Struck and Joseph
Topper opened tonight “under the auspices of the Women’s Committee of the
Central Synagogue at the Community House on East 62nd Street.”
1929: “Police were obliged to draw their truncheons outside of
Vienna University toady to protect Jewish and Socialist students who were being
driven from the university by Heimwher students.
1930: In Marburg, Germany, historian Wilhelm Mommsen and his wife
gave birth to historians Theodor and Hans Mommsen, the latter of which has
specialized in studies of the role of Hitler, the Nazis and the German people
in the Holocaust.
1930: In New York, Jay Irving, a cover artist for Collier’s
magazine and “the creator of the syndicated comic strip Potts and his wife gave
birth to Clifford Irving who was best known for his creation of a phony
auto-biography of Howard Hughes.
1930: At the third annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, California,
Norma Shearer won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The
Divorcee, a film about a love triangle in a posh New York inner circle making
her the first Jewish actress to bring home the Oscar.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/nov/05/1930/norma-shearer-becomes-first-jewish-woman-win-academy-award
1931: In the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, former Ann Seidlitz and
William Herzenberg gave birth to Leonard Arthur Herzenberg, the Nobel Prize
winning immunologist. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1931: Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading completed his service
as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
1932(6th of Cheshvan, 5693): Parashat Noach
1932: According to a report issued to by Mrs. Felix M. Warburg and
Mrs. Sidney C. Borg “contributions totaling $60,227 have been given through the
Women’s Division since the campaign to complete a $3,923,000 budget for the
upkeeping of the ninety-one institutions affiliated with the Federation for the
Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies opened on October 16.
1933:
Dr. Judah L. Magnes, Chancellor of the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem announced a program of expansion which will provide
fourteen posts for former German scholars including Professors Torczyner,
Guttman, Koebner, Lewy and Fraenkel
1933: Birthdate of Brooklyn born actor Herbert Edelman who
appeared on stage, in movies and in television with such skill that he “was
twice nominated for and Emmy.”
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/27/nyregion/herb-edelman-62-a-character-actor.html
1934: “The Gumps” a radio comedy written by Irwin Shaw and
directed by Himan Brown was broadcast for the last time on WGN after which it
was broadcast by CBS until the summer of 1937.
1934: “In response to complaints of price gouging,” Carl Friedrich
Goerdeler, who “opposed some of the anti-Jewish policies while he held office and
was opposed to the Holocaust” and was hanged by the Nazis for his role in the
plot to assassinate Hitler, was appointed Price Commissioner.
1935: In response to Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia, it was reported
to that Palestine has “adopted drastic sanctions against Italy equivalent to a
complete cessation of trade relations between the two countries.”
1935: Birthdate of Polish born Holocaust survivor and educator Sol
Nayman.
file:///C:/Users/Owner/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/IQOWH9MS/Sol%20Nayman%20January%2026%20Webinar%20Publicity%20Flyer%20(003).pdf
1936: “A few hours after” Earl Peel and the members of the Royal
Commission left for Jerusalem, “W. G. A. Ormsby-Gore, Secretary of State for
Colonies announced one of the most sweeping reductions ever made in the number
of Jewish labor immigrants to Palestine” sayings “that for the next six months
a maximum of only 1,800 labor certificated would be issued” as compared with
the 4,500 issued in April before the Arab riots began.
1936: In Bucharest, King Carol received a memorandum from Corneliu
Zelea Cordeanu, the leader of the fascist Iron Guard, who had assassinated
Premier Ion Duce and other liberal politicians threatening the King with death
while declaring that Rumanian youths are opposed to the Little Entente because
it is “drenched in the spirit of world Jewry” (The Little Entente was an
alliance that was aimed at blocking Hitler’s advances in Central Europe.)
1937(1st of Kislev, 5698): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1937: CBS
radio broadcast the last episode of “The Gumps” a radio sitcom based on the
comic strip with scripts written by Irwin Shaw.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that an Egged bus driver
and two his passengers were wounded when their vehicle was fired on, at the
infamous Kilometer 5 of the Jerusalem-Jaffa road. A lone Jewish lorry driver
was shot there and wounded. The Egged Bus Company was founded in 1933. The Hebrew word Egged means “union.” The
company was so named because it was formed from the merger of four smaller bus
companies. Today, the Egged Bus Company
is the second largest transportation company in the world.
1937: The Palestine Post
reported that the Arab terror continued when the Iraqi petroleum pipeline was
punctured and set on fire. Shots were fired and a bomb was thrown at the Beisan
police station
1937: Hitler chairs a secret
conference in which he informs the High Command and others of his racial,
geopolitical, and military plans to dominate Europe. The conference is recorded
by Colonel Friedrich Hossbach and called after him. Hitler lays out the core of
his policy to his military leaders. "The aim of the German policy was to
make secure and to preserve the racial community and to enlarge it. It was a
question of SPACE." "Germany had the right to greater living
space...and its future was whole conditional upon the solving of the need for
space." Two countries stood in Germany's way: Britain and France. Hitler
details a broad plan for war and preparedness against France, Britain, Italy,
and Russia, and analysis each country's military and political position. Note
that Italy, which would become a willing ally of Hitler, was considered as a
possible enemy only two years prior to the start of WW II. On the one hand Hitler thought that he could
gain most of his goals by bluffing the weak, decadent western powers. At the
same time, he knew that he would have to defeat England and France so that he
could then fight the ultimate war against the Soviets without fear of a two
front war.
1938(11th of Cheshvan): Yiddish poet Abraham Liessin passed away.
http://archive.jta.org/article/1938/11/07/2844004/abraham-liessin-yiddish-poet-and-editor-dead-at-68
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0012_0_12518.html
1938: Walter Krivitsky (“real name Samuel Goldberg) “NKVD agent,
defected to the United States.
1938: Gershom Bader’s seventieth birthday is scheduled to
celebrate this evening with a dinner hosted by the Federation of Polish Jews in
America at Central Plaza.
1938: In Cairo, at the Egyptian University 2,000 students gathered
to denounce “America’s pro-Zionist sympathies” and express their support of
“their Moslem brethren in Palestine.”
1939: “The convention of the National Labor Committee for
Palestine, meeting at the Hotel Pennsylvania today, was told by speakers that
from 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 Jews in Central and Eastern Europe in Central and
Eastern Europe were face starvation because of economic dislocations arising
from the war” and the failure of other counties to accept them as emigrants.
1940(4th of Cheshvan, 5701): Eighty-six year old Benno
or Beno Straucher, a Bukovina-born Austro-Hungarian lawyer, politician and
Jewish community representative, who spent the final part of his career in
Romania passed away today.
1940(4th of Cheshvan, 5701): During World War II, as the Greeks
fought against the invading Italians Haham Raphael Joseph Antzelou was killed
in the Battle of Kalpaki on the Albanian front. Many Jews of Ioannina, a city
in northwest Greece, fought on the Albanian front. The chief of staff of the
Greek forces said of them, "The Greek Jews fulfilled their duty in full
measure."
1941: Birthdate of Kay Leipzig, an ayshis chayel in the truest
sense of the word.
1941: “Blithe Spirit” opened today at the Morosco Theatre, five
days before a special benefit performance for the scholarship fund of the
Neighborhood Playhouse of the Theatre founded by Irene Lewisohn in 1928.
1941: Birthdate of singer and songwriter Art Garfunkel.
1941(15th of
Cheshvan, 5702): Seventeen thousand Jews are killed outside Rovno, Ukraine.
1942(25th of Cheshvan, 5703): The Nazis deported the last 1,800
Jews from Ciechanow, Poland. Jews had
lived in the town since the middle of the sixteenth century. During the deportation an SS man
politely asks a Jewish woman to hand him her baby. When she complies, the
trooper smashes the baby to the street headfirst, killing it. Some of the
deportees took part in the uprising at Auschwitz. Approximately 100 people from the town
survived the war but they did not try to restore their community.
1942: Jewish men from Stopnica,
Poland, are sent to a slave-labor camp at Skarzysko-Kamienna, while 400 old
people and children are shot in the town cemetery. Three thousand others are
put on a forced march; many are shot along the way, and survivors are sent to
Treblinka.
1942: Peasants in Siedliszcze,
Poland, gather scythes in anticipation of the day's roundup of Jews, for which
they'll be paid for each Jew caught.
1942: Six hundred Jews from Borislav, Poland, are deported
naked to prevent resistance.
1942: In France, 745 Jews,
including 35 residents of the Rothschild Old Age Home, are deported from Paris
to Auschwitz. After arrival, Jews awaiting entry into the gas chamber spy a
truck loaded with corpses but continue on to their deaths.
1942: Over the next six days, 1060
Greece-born Jews in and around Paris are seized and deported to Auschwitz
Bernhard Lichtenberg, the anti-Nazi priest whom among other things prayed daily from
his pulpit in the St Hedwig Cathedral for the both Jews and Jewish Christians
as well as other victims of the regime.
1942: Manfred Silberwasser, Leo
Bretholz and a thousand others were deported on convoy 42, operated by the
state-owned railway, the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français, or
S.N.C.F which was headed for Auschwitz and from which the two escaped by prying
loose the bars of a small window and jumping while on a curved stretch of rail
somewhere in eastern France.
1942: The Gestapo arrested Regina Jonas, the first woman
ordained as a rabbi and deported her to Theresienstadt
1942: Birthdate of Richie Scheinblum Bronx-born
outfielder for the Kansas City Royals. Scheinblum became the only Jewish
switch-hitter (and 7th switch-hitter total) to bat .300 during a full season.
1942: In Williamsport, PA, Helen and Charles Ziman, “a furniture
manufacturer who donated the materials to build a new synagogue in his hometown”
gave birth to University of Southern California trained attorney Richard
Stephen Ziman, the real estate mogul, “philanthropist and Democratic party
donor.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/movies/awardsseason/06holly.html?scp=2&sq=richard+ziman&st=nyt
1943: While waiting to be deported to
Dachau, 67 year old Bernhard Lichtenberg, the anti-Nazi priest whom among other things
prayed daily from his pulpit in the St Hedwig Cathedral for the both
Jews and Jewish Christians as well as other victims of the regime died today.
1943: Gertrude Luckner, a Christian social worker
involved in the German resistance to Nazism, was arrested by the Gestapo before
she could transfer funds destined for the last Jews of Berlin and imprisoned at
Ravensbruck concentration camp.
1943(7th of Cheshvan, 5704): Operation
"Harvest Festival" continued at Poniatowa as 15,000 Jews were killed
in one day. The children of the Siaulia
Ghetto in Lithuania were deported to Birkenau and perished. The Nazis murdered
17,000 prisoners at Majdanek.
1944: In Manhattan, columnist Leonard Lyons and his wife Sylvia
gave birth movie and t.v. critic Jeffrey Lyons
http://premierespeakers.com/jeffrey_lyons/bio
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/personality/jeffrey-lyons/
1945: This evening, following a second of anti-Jewish rioting in
several Libyan cities, “the British authorities, who had been in control of
Libya since the defeat of the German-Italian forces there in 1943, imposed a
curfew.” The curfew failed to halt the
violence which would continue unabated for at least two more days.
1946: “Eight Jewish Agency leaders, detained since the British
authorities searched the Jewish Agency offices on June 29, were told at the
Latrun detention camp tonight that they were free men.”
1947: In Manhattan, Dr. Max Zimmer, a family practitioner in the
West Village, and Harriet (Brokaw) Zimmer, who managed her husband’s medical
office gave birth to Brandeis and Harvard educated mathematician Robert J.
Zimmer, a mathematician who as president of the University of Chicago
championed diversity not only quantitatively, in the recruitment of students
and faculty, but also by protecting free expression on campus with a protocol
that was later embraced by dozens of colleges across the country who was the
husband of classics professor Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer. (As reported by Sam
Roberts)
1947: It was learned today that “with prolonged debate, and
possibly a deadlock, threatening in the Palestine question, plans are being
prepared to keep the Special Palestine Committee of the United Nations General
Assembly in session, if necessary, after the other delegates go home.”
1948: “Ben Gurion reported his cabinet: Jerusalem has as yet
hardly enjoyed one night of quiet.’”
1948: Israeli forces retake Yad Mordecai from the Egyptians.
1948: The Provisional State Council, the body that temporarily
governed Israel until January of 1949, decided that the Constituent Assembly
(later called the Knesset) would have 120 members.
1948: In Béni Saf, French Algeria, millionaire businessman André
Lévy and his wife gave birth to Bernard-Henri Levy author of Who Killed
Daniel Pearl?
http://www.momentmag.com/bernard-henri-levy/
1949(13th of Cheshvan, 5710) Parashat Lech Lecha
1949: “Five and ten dollar bills are coming in from scores of the
country's "little people" to help Jefferson Military College, the
school in Natchez, Miss., that turned down an endowment fortune rather than bar
Jews.”
1950: NBC broadcast the first episode of the popular radio program
“The Big Show” which owed much of its success to the scripts of Goodman Ace and
Selma Diamond.
1950: Chaya and Yehezkel Bornstien, have found refuge in the Rosh
Pina ma'abara immigrant transit camp. Both are natives of Lodz, Poland; both
escaped to the Soviet Union before the Nazis entered their hometown, and
managed to survive the Holocaust. Now they are on a quest to find their
daughter Lusia whom they had sent the Zionist Coordination for the Redemption
of Jewish Children when they were still living in post-war Poland because of
economic duress and the outbreak of anti-Semitic violence as typified by the
pogrom at Kielce.
1951(6th of Cheshvan, 5712): Forty-eight year old
Estonia born and Yale University Law School trained attorney Michael Wofsey, a
leader of the Republican party in Connecticut, a founder of the Stamford Good
Government Association and president of the Stamford Jewish Community Council
who was the husband of the former Frieda Nomitin with whom he had two daughter
– Linda and Susan – passed a way today in the New Haven Hospital.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/11/06/82118797.html?pageNumber=29
1951: Yaakov Hazan of Mapam said in the Knesset: "Nazism is
rearing its ugly head again in Germany, and our so-called Western 'friends' are
nurturing that Nazism; they are resurrecting Nazi Germany.... Our army, the
Israel Defense Forces, will be in the same camp as the Nazi army, and the Nazis
will begin infiltrating here not as our most terrible enemies, but rather as
our allies
1953: Armed Jordanians murdered a guard in a nighttime attack upon
a post along the railway track north of Hadera in the coastal plain.
1953 U.S. premiere of “How To Marry A Millionaire,” a comedy
co-starring Lauren Bacall, a cousin of Shimon Peres and future convert to
Judaism Marilyn Monroe featuring a score conducted by Alfred Newman.
1954: In Oak Park, MI, a
Detroit suburb, “Joan (née Abrams) and Theodore Sachs, a labor lawyer” gavie
birth to Harvard trained economist and Columbia Professor Sachs who along with
his wife, pediatrician Sonia Ehrlich Sachs raised Lisa, Adam and Hannah Sachs
and received the “the first World Sustainability Award in 2005.”
1955: “Man with the Gun” a Western produced by Samuel Goldwyn, Jr.
was released in the United States today.
1956: During the Sinai
Campaign, British and French troops land at the Suez Canal and move south under
the pretext of protecting the canal from the warring Egyptians and
Israelis. The Anglo-French force meets a
political defeat when the Eisenhower Administration immediately pressures its
two NATO allies to promise to remove the troops without delay. At the same time, the Soviets remind the
Israelis that they have missiles capable of hitting the Jewish state with
nuclear warheads. In trying to evaluate
the situation Ben Gurion dispatches Golda Meir and Shimon Peres to see if the
French will stand by the Israelis if the Soviets move to intervene. This is another example of Jewish history
being played out against a much larger tapestry of world events; in this case
the Cold War between the East and the West and the conflict between third world
nationalism and European colonialism.
1959: Paddy Chayefsky’s “The Tenth Man” opened on Broadway.
1960: “The Plunderers” a cowboy movie directed and produced by
Joseph Pevney, starring Jeff Chandler and with music by Leonard Rosenman was
released in the United States today.
1962: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for A.J.
Balaban, one of the founders of Balban and Katz and the husband of “the former
Carrie Stump” with whom he had two daughters.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19429343/aj_balaban_balaban_katz/
1963: In Tel Aviv journalist and politician Yosef
"Tommy" Lapid, who served as Justice Minister, and novelist and
playwright Shulamit (Giladi) Lapid gave birth to Yair Lapid, the 14th
Prime Minister of Israel, the father of three and the husband of Lihi Lapid.
1967: The last of Aden's Jews arrived in Israel marking the end of
this ancient Jewish community.
1967: Igal Pazi who lost “his right leg below the knee” when he
“stepped on a foot mine” while fighting on the Golan during the Six Days War
and Judith Cohen-Aloro who was his nurse while he was being treated at the
Rambam hospital at Haifa, were married today.
1967: “The Incident” a thriller directed by Larry Peerce, the son
of opera singer Jan Peerce and featuring Jack Gilford was released today in the
United States.
1968: Six people, including 2 Jews and 4 Arabs, three of whom were
children were injured today at the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
1968: Republican Richard M. Nixon won
the presidency, defeating Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and third-party
candidate George C. Wallace. From the
perspective of Jewish history, Nixon’s shining moment came when he ordered the
re-supply of Israeli forces during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. According to some experts, without this, the
Israelis well might have been defeated and the state of Israel destroyed. Of
course, it was the Nixon Administration that had told the Israelis they could
not mount a pre-emptive strike or mobilize their forces when intelligence
reports provided unquestionable evidence that the Egyptians were on the verge
of attack. The massive re-supply effort
would not have been needed because the Egyptians would have been crushed before
the crossing the Canal and the Syrians would never have acted on their own. On
the other hand, Nixon had made begun his rise to political power as part of the
right wing of the Republican Party which hid a streak of anti-Semitism behind
its domestic Red Hunting policies. Also,
Nixon’s voice as captured on his White House tapes portrayed a man haunted by
anti-Semitism and a belief in Jewish conspiracies.
1974: Richard Stone was elected to the U.S. Senate from Florida
1975(1st of Kislev, 5736): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1975(1st of Kislev, 5736): American author and critic Lionel
Trilling passed away at the age of 70.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1975/dec/11/lionel-trilling-19051975/
1975: In Jerusalem, Meira Diskin and Jacob Shaham gave birth
pianist Orli Shaham, the sister of violinist Gil Shaham and the wife of
conductor David Robertson.
https://www.nae.edu/189499/SAMUEL-SILVER-19151976
1976(12th of Cheshvan, 5737): Seventy-one-year-old
Abraham Albert Kramer, the Ukraine born son of Victor (Avigdor) Kramer and Anna
(Elka) Kramer and the husband of Blanche Kramer passed away to in Palm Beach,
FL after which he was buried in Sharon, MA.
1977(24th of Cheshvan, 5738): Parashat Chayei Sara
1977(24th of Cheshvan, 5738): Fifty-one year old
cartoonist René Goscinny, the co-creator of Astérix,
passed away today in his native Paris.
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/g/goscinny.htm
https://www.asterix.com/en/the-creators/rene-goscinny/
1979: “Caricaturist Al Hirschfeld and
the late S. J. Perelman are among the recipients of the Mayor’s Awards of Honor
for Arts and Culture” scheduled to be honored tonight at the American Museum of
Natural History.
1979(15th of Cheshvan, 5740): Al Capp
the cartoonist who created the comic strip Lil' Abner passed away at
the age of 70. The eastern Jew created
the imaginary hillbilly community of Dog Patch complete with Ma and Pa Yokum,
Daisy Mae, Marryin’ Sam, and the ever popular Schmoos (rhymes with Schmooze and
reminds one of the descriptions of manna in the Bible).
http://deniskitchen.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=bios.capp
1981: “Eighty Hebrew teachers in Moscow, some of whom were under
constant surveillance, were individually ordered to stop teaching.
1981(8th of Cheshvan, 5742): Eighty-year old Irving J.
Pozen, the husband of Berte Pozen and the father of Walter Pozen and Marilyn
Krinzman who “was an executive for the B.V.D. Corporation and International
Ship Suppliers of Hoboken, NJ” before serving “as director of procurement for the
Job Corps from 1961 to 1968” passed away today Suburban Hospital in Bethesda,
MD.
1984(10th of Cheshvan, 5745): The Hon. Ivor
Goldsmid Samuel Montagu (23 April 1904, London, a British filmmaker,
screenwriter, producer, film critic, writer, table tennis player and apparent
Soviet spy passed away.
http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/IvorGoldsmidMontagu.htm
1987(13th of Cheshvan, 5748): Elimelekh Rimalt passed away. A
native of Galicia, he was an ordained Rabbi who earned a PhD in
psychology. He made Aliyah in 13. A member of the Knesset fro Likud, he served
as Minister of the Postal Services in 1969 and 1970.
1989 (7th of Cheshvan, 5750):
Pianist Vladimir Horowitz passed away at the age of 85. (As reported by
Bernard Holland)
1989: In “The Legends of
Kibbutz Country,” published today Mathew Nevisky describes the role that the
Jezreel Valley has played in Jewish History and the efforts that have been made
to preserve the history of this unique part of ancient and modern Israel. The article reads in part, “Overseen by
the brooding heights of Mount Tabor and Mount Gilboa, the Jezreel Valley
resonates with memories of ancient Israelite kings and warrior-judges. In
modern times, the same area was the scene of the Zionist movement's pioneering
efforts in land reclamation, agriculture and self-defense. To Israelis these
achievements, and the people of the Jezreel, like Moshe Dayan, have almost
mythic significance. Accordingly, the Jezreel is dotted with almost as many
museums devoted to the founding of modern Israel as it is with archeological
sites revealing the biblical past. To the foreign visitor, who too often is
shunted around the valley to the flashier tourist sites in Galilee or along the
coast, the Jezreel heartland offers insight into another aspect of Israel.”
1990 (17th of Cheshvan, 5751): Meir Kahane was murdered by an Arab
terrorist.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/kahane.html
1991(28th of Cheshvan, 5752): Robert Maxwell passed away at the
age of 68. Born Ján Ludvík Hoch in
pre-war Czechoslovakia, Maxwell became a British media magnate.
http://www.theguardian.com/fromthearchive/story/0,,1078193,00.html
1993: “Flesh and Bone” produced by
Mark Rosenberg and Paula Weinstein and co-starring James Caan and Gwyneth
Paltrow was released in the United States today.
1993: The family of Hannah Szenes living
in Israel was informed today that a Hungarian military court convened after the
fall of the Communist regime had officially exonerated her.
1995: “Book on Philosopher's Life Stirs
Scholarly Debate Over Her Legacy” published today provide a review of Hannah
Arendt/Martin Heidegger (Yale University Press) by Elzbieta Ettinger, which
has, among other things, “has revealed that their affair was not evanescent but
burned with white-hot intensity for four years” and that “after the war Arendt
and Heidegger resumed their friendship.”
1995: President Clinton is scheduled to
leave today for Jerusalem where he will attend the funeral of Prime Minister Rabin.
1995(12th of Cheshvan, 5756):
Eighty-eight year old “percussionist and drum teacher” Max Abrams, the Glasgow
native who was “regarded as one of Britain’s foremost drum teachers” and the
author of “50 jazz tutor books” passed away today.
1995: “Assassination In Israel”
published today described the reaction of American leaders including President
Clinton and former Secretary of State Warren Christopher to the murder of Prime
Minister Rabin.
1996: United States President Bill
Clinton defeats Republican challenger Robert J. Dole and Reform party candidate
H. Ross Perot to become the first democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt
to win a second term in office. Three of the major events of Clinton’s second
term centered around Jews. The first was
the Monica Lewinsky Scandal. The second
was the Camp David Peace initiative that Clinton mounted in 2000. The meetings between Ehud Barak and Yassar
Arafat failed to produce a peace treaty; a failure for which Clinton blamed
Arafat. The third was the pardon of Marc
Rich issued on Clinton’s last day in office.
In one of those ironies of life, Rich was represented by Lewis “Scooter”
Libby. Libby, who was Jewish would end
up being denied a pardon by President Bush for his role in the case of Valier
Plame; a denial that would cause a public split between Bush and Dick Cheney.
1996: The Coming Street Cemetery, the
Charleston South Carolina burial site that is one of the oldest in the United
States having been founded in 1762 was listed on the National Register of
Historic Places today.
1997(5th of Cheshvan, 5758):
Isaiah Berlin passed away at the age of 88 (As reported by Marilyn Berger)
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/29/specials/berlin-obit.html
http://www.rjgeib.com/heroes/berlin/berlin.html
1999(26th of Cheshvan, 5760): Sixty-seven year old
collapsed today in the House of Lords and “was pronounced dead in the
ambulance” taking him to the hospital.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-lord-montague-of-oxford-1124327.html
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/nov/06/lordreform.constitution
1999: A.M. Rosenthal wrote the last of his twice-weekly “On My
Mind” columns today entitle “Please Read This Column” which was the name of the
first of these columns written in 1987.
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/05/opinion/on-my-mind-please-read-this-column.html
1999: “The Insider” a film based on The Man Who Knew Too Much
by Marie Brenner, directed and produced by Michael Mann who wrote the
screenplay with Eric Roth was released in the United States today.
1999: “The Bone Collector” a thriller produced by Martin and
Michael Bregman was released in the United States today.
2000: The New York Times featured reviews of books
by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including The Bialy Eaters: The Story of a Bread and a
Lost World by Mimi Sheraton
2000: Susa Berman, the daughter of Las
Vegas David Berman wrote to Robert Durst (who would later be charged with her
murder) “expressing the hope that her financial entreaties would not ruin their
friendship.”
2001: Israeli forces began pulling out
early this morning from Qalqilya despite an attack yesterday by a Palestinian
gunman who emptied a semiautomatic rifle into a city bus here, killing two
teenagers and wounding dozens of other Israelis.
2002: After over 20 years in elected public life, Linda Lingle was
elected as Hawaii’s first female and first Jewish governor.
2003: At a Jewish forum in New York City, George Soros “partially
attributed a resurgence in anti-Semitism to the policies of the Bush
administration and the Sharon administration” as well as the perception that
“Jews rule the world” based on his role in affairs.
2004: Two days after she had passed away funeral services are
scheduled to be held today for ninety-four year old Selma B. Grossman, the
widow of Joseph Grossman and daughter of Israel and Hannah Bloch at the
Riverside Memorial Chapel.
2005: Haaretz and The Jerusalem
Post reported that the Secretary General of the United Nations had canceled
his upcoming trip to Iran. The canceled
trip was another manifestation of the international community’s disgust with
Iran’s call for the destruction of the state of Israel. How long this expression of goodwill towards
the Jewish state will last is unknown.
But for now, at least, Israel bashing is not a “cool” thing to do.
2006: The New York Times
Sunday book section features a review of David Mamet’s, The Wicked Son:
Anti-Semitism, Self-Hatred, and the Jews.
2006: Under the title “His
devils made him do it,” Jeffrey Meyers reviewed Isaac B. Singer: A Life by Florence Noiville, translated from
the French by Catherine Temerson.
2006: Under the title “The
Altered States,” The Times of London reviewed American Vertigo: On the
Road from Newport to Guantanamo by Bernard-Henri Levy, the biographer of
Daniel Pearl.
2006: Opening
of the 10th Annual Dayton Jewish Book Fair.
2006: Yuli Tamir named acting Science and Technology
Minister.
2007: Jerome
Groopman, a physician at Harvard Medical School, discusses How Doctors Think at the Sixth
& I Historic Synagogue (formerly Adas Israel Synagogue) in Washington, D.C.
2007: In a Time magazine
article entitled “The Genius Who Wanted to Be a Hack” Lev Grossman reviews Gentlemen
of the Road by Michael Chabon.
2007(24th of Cheshvan, 5768): Eighty-eight year Dr.
Michael Solomons “a distinguished
gynecologist, a pioneer of family planning in Ireland and a veteran of the 1983
constitutional amendment campaign” who was the second son of Gertrude Levy and
Dr. Bethel Solomons passed away today.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/pioneer-of-family-planning-1.987726
2007: In Canada, the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal decided that a Jewish hospital must pay $15,000 to female
workers denied shifts.
2008: New York premiere of “The Little Traitor.” Which is “based on Panther in the Basement by
world-renowned novelist, Amos Oz, this beautiful story of an implausible
friendship between an amiable British soldier and a spirited, 11-year-old
Israeli militant who wants the occupying imperialists off his land takes place
just a few months before Israel achieves independent statehood. When Proffy
Liebowitz meets British officer Sergeant Dunlop, he's reprimanded for roaming
the streets after dark and breaking curfew. They later become friends, but town
officials soon learn of their secret and accuse the boy of being a traitor. The
ensuing events will forever change their respective outlook on life.”
2008: Following a successful run on Broadway, Jake Ehrenreich’s “A
Jew Grows in Brooklyn has its Chicagoland” premier at the North Shore Center
for the Performing Arts.
2008: English author Michael Rosen “was presented with an Honorary
master’s degree at the University of Worcester.”
2008: The New Republic
magazine includes reviews of The Life and Thought of Hans Jonas: Jewish
Dimensions by Christian Wiese and Memoirs by Hans Jonas; edited by
Christian Wiese and translated by Krishna Winston.
2008: Today, one day after the Presidential elections ABC named
Jake Tapper “Senior White House Correspondent.”
2009: “Ambassadors and diplomats from 44 countries, military
attaches from 27 armies in the world, and the international media were invited
by the IDF and the Foreign Ministry to show them the weapons and munitions
seized from the Francop ship.”
2009: The 40th Annual Book Festival sponsored by the
JCC of Greater Washington opens with presentations by Steve Roberts, author of From
Every End of This Earth and Peter Yarrow author of Day is Done.
2010:
A Free Tour of Herodian in Honor/Memory of Ehud
Netzer z"l the famous archeologist who passed away on October 28 is
scheduled to take place in Jerusalem
2010:
A new documentary, “Jews and Baseball, an American
Love Story,” which opened today in New York, is a film that largely succeeds at
telling the story of a great American people (the Jews that is) via the tale of
a great American pastime. It may not be a grand slam, but it’s at least a
double. (As reported by Jordana Horn)
http://www.forward.com/articles/133023/
2010: Agudas Achim in Iowa City is scheduled to host its annual
New Comers’ Shabbat Dinner
2010: Friends and family
share in the joy of Kay Leipzig’s birthday.
2010:
It was reported today that “new findings contradict the conventional belief
that Italians began to enforce anti-Semitic laws only after German troops
occupied the country in 1943, and then reluctantly. In a spate of studies, many
of them based on a little-publicized Italian government report commissioned in
1999, researchers have uncovered a vast wartime record detailing a systematic
disenfranchisement of Italy’s Jews, beginning in the summer of 1938, shortly
before the Kristallnacht attacks in November....Ilaria Pavan, a scholar at the
Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, said a series of incrementally more onerous
laws in 1939 and 1940 revoked peddlers’ permits and shopkeepers’ licenses, and
required Jewish owners of businesses — as well as stock or bond holders — to
sell those assets to “Aryans.” Bank accounts were ordered turned over to
government authorities, ostensibly to prevent the transfer of money out of the
country. There is little record of the sums involved in the confiscations and
forced sales of Jewish-held property between 1938 and 1943, said Ms. Pavan, who
was a member of the official government commission charged with investigating
the anti-Semitic plundering. But between 1943 and 1945, when the Italian
government was under the direct supervision of German overseers, the looting of
property of Jewish Italian citizens and Jewish refugees who had fled to Italy
in hopes of sanctuary, she said, totaled almost $1 billion in today’s
values....
2010:
The New York Times featured a review of “I Remember Nothing And Other
Reflections: by Nora Ephron.
2011:
Nadina Wintraub (piano), Yelena Tishin (violin), Avraham Leventhal (viola) and
Dmitry Golderman (cello) are scheduled to perform “Favorite Piano Quarters” as
part of The Best of Chamber Music program at Edin-Tamar Music Center.
2011:
Opening night of the 6th Annual JCC of Northern Virginia Book
Festival
2011: Remembrance Shabbat is observed at
Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids commemorating three major November Events: The
Balfour Declaration, Kristallnacht and the UN vote approving partition which
created the Jewish State.
2011(8th of Cheshvan):
Yahrzeit of Avraham Elimelch ben Yosef Dov, whose nickname was Melech and whose
English name was Abraham Levin, of blessed memory.
2011: As Jews read Lech-Lecha, will any
Rabbi deliver a sermon tying the ancient words from Bereshit with the
anniversary of the Balfour Declaration which was observed 3 days ago?
2011: Israel Defense Forces aircraft struck targets in the southern Gaza Strip
this evening, thwarting an attempt by Islamic Jihad to launch a rocket into
Israel.
2011: "It will take a year, two years, but I will return. I will never
leave you again." These words were written by missing IAF navigator Ron
Arad, whose plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986, to his wife Tami and his
daughter Yuval. Arad's diaries were obtained by Channel 2 and shown today. He
most likely wrote them during his first weeks in captivity. The notes were
written on pages ripped from books Arad's captors gave him. "To my dearest
of all, Tami and Yuval, I am trying to forget you because I get a lump on my
throat with every memory," he wrote. "I love you, and you are the
only reason keeping me from thinking about the worst of all. I promise you this
at least: I will return. A year, two years – I will never leave you again, even
if I have to stop flying. We will have a warm and loving and good home like we
never had." Arad writes to his wife Tami: "I had a dream about you
last night. It was wonderful. We both met on the grass after a long workday and
talked as usual, and I was with you again. I woke up in a sweat, but it gave me
a few minutes of happiness." Arad's letters remained in Lebanon for 20
years. They were returned to Israel three years ago as part of a swap deal with
Hezbollah (in which Israel received the bodies Eldad Regev and Ehud
Goldwasser). In some of the letters Arad wrote the address of his parents'
house in Hod Hasharon, suggesting he believed his captors would mail them to
his loved ones,
2012: The Palestinians will press ahead
with a bid to upgrade their status at the United Nations, a senior official
said today, brushing off a request by Israel to halt the initiative.Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has renewed his call for an immediate resumption of
peace talks and has warned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
against making any unilateral moves in the UN General Assembly. (Jerusalem
Post)
2012: The UJA-Federation of New York
released $10 million in Hurricane Sandy emergency relief aid to its network
agencies and synagogues this morning (As reported by JTA)
2012: Microsoft launched its Windows 8
smartphones in Israel today
2012: At the University of Chicago, Professor Hanna
Holbron Gray is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “European Émigré
Scholars and the American Academy After 1933."
2012: “Coffee and Conversation for Holocaust
Survivors” is scheduled to take place the Illinois Holocaust Museum and
Education Center in Skokie, Illinois.
2012: The Jewish
Genealogical Society of the Conejo Valley and Ventura County (JGSCV) is
scheduled to present: "From the Spanish Inquisition to the Present: A Search
for Jewish Roots"
2013:
The five day bike ride sponsored by the Arava Institute Hazon that began in
Jerusalem is scheduled to end today in Eilat.
2013:
Retire Ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer, the S. Daniel Abraham Professor in Middle
East Policy Studies at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University is
scheduled to talk about the conflicts in the Middle East at the San Diego
Jewish Book Fair.
2013:
In London, the Pears Institute For The Study Of Anti-Semitism is scheduled to
sponsor by Professor Philip Spencer on “The Recurrence of Genocide Since the
Holocaust.”
2013:
US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Israel this evening and visited
Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, the location of Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin's murder
on November 4, 1995. "I can promise Israelis that America will stand by
the side of Israel every step of the way," Kerry said. (As reported by
Gilad Morag)
2013:
Residents in 38 municipalities – from the tiny town of Migdal, near Tiberias,
to Petah Tikva – voted today in second-round elections for mayor. (As reported
by Henry Rome and Lahav Harkov)
2014:
For the first time ever “Cats” is scheduled to be performed in Israel starting
today at Tel Aviv’s Charles Bronfman Auditorium.
2014:
In Sydney, “Night Will Fall” and “Regarding Susan Sontag” are scheduled to be
shown at the Jewish International Film Festival.
2014:
Christie’s is scheduled to sell Schiele’s 1910 watercolor “Town on the Blue
River,” today in conjunction with a restitution agreement that treats the work
as looted art and provides compensation to the heirs of “Fritz Grünbaum, a
Viennese cabaret performer whose large art collection was inventoried by Nazi
agents after he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp, where he died.”
2014:
The Skirball Center is scheduled to host “Israel in the Eyes of the Media: From
Menachem Begin to Today.”
2014:
“Arsonist
responsible for setting fire to a kosher supermarket during July 20 riot in
Sarcelles was sentenced to four years in prison.” (As reported by Stephanie
Butnick)
2014:
“Border Police officer Jedan Assad, 38, from Beit Jann, a Druze village the
father to a three-year-old boy whose wife is five months pregnant was murdered
this moring and 14 others injured when a Hamas terrorist “plowed his vehicle
into a crowd of people at a light rail station along the seam-line between East
and West Jerusalem” this morning. (As reported by Spencer Ho
2014:
This evening, three soldiers were injured when a vehicle driven by a Hamas
terrorist deliberately struck them. (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)
2014:
Results early today showed that Lee Zeldin, a New York State Senator has been
elected to the House of Representatives from a district in Long Island making
him the only Republican to have been accomplished such a feat, making him Eric
Cantor’s replacement for this singular honor.
2015:
“Blood” an exhibition that explores this subject through “manuscripts, prints,
Jewish ritual and ceremonial objects, art, film, literature and cultural
ephemera to present a rich exploration of how blood can unite and divide,
reflecting on over 2,000 years of history” is scheduled to open at the Jewish
Museum of London.
2015:
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at
“Rising Hatred: Confronting Global & Local Anti-Semitism” hosted by the
Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.
2015:
“Bringing a message of peace through music, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra”
is scheduled to perform this evening at Carnegie Hall/
2015:
“A Borrowed Identity” and “Dough” are scheduled to be shown at the Rutgers
Jewish Film Festival.
2015:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held in South Bend, Indiana for Harry
Portman, the father of Rabbi Jeff Portman.
2016:
The 20th UK International Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to open
tonight in London with a screening of “Indignation” which will be attended by
director James Schamus.
2016:
“Big: The Musical” featuring music by David Shire and with a book by John
Weidman, the son of Jerome Weidman is scheduled to open at the Theatre Royal
Plymouth.
2016:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education is scheduled tours of its “Karkomi
Holocaust Exhibition.”
2016(4th
of Cheshvan, 5777): Parahat Noach
2016:
“Thousands of Israelis were set to gather in central Tel Aviv” this evening
‘for the 21st anniversary marking the assassination of Yitzhak
Rabin.”
2016(4th of Cheshvan, 5777): Ninety-three year
painter and subject of F.B.I. surveillance Arnold Mesches passed away today.
(As reported by William Grimes)
2016:
In Toronto, as part of Holocaust Education Week, Jennifer Teege is scheduled to
discuss her book, My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers
Her Family's Nazi Past
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24347798
2017:
Eighty-four year old author Nancy Friday, the third wife of Norman Pearlstein
(he was her second husband) passed away today.
2017:
The New York Times featured books by
Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including All
The Dirty Parts by Daniel Handler and the recently released paperback
editions of Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939 by Volker Ullrich as well as a
special interview with Walter Isaacson whose biographies included Einstein.
2017:
Today, “Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman called on President Reuven Rivlin to
pardon Elor Azaria, a former IDF soldier imprisoned for killing an
incapacitated Palestinian assailant in the West Bank” (As reported by Alexander
Fulbright and Judah Ari Gross)
2017:
Rabbi James Rudin is scheduled to be the guest speaker at the Kristallnacht
Commemoration at St. William Catholic Church in Naples, FL.
2017:
This morning “police detained two confidants of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu for interrogation in the investigation into suspected corruption in
the purchase of naval vessels from a German shipbuilder.”(As reported by
Alexander Fulbright)
2017:
Joan and Dr. Gerald Berenson are scheduled to be honored at the Jewish
Community Day School gala which is fundraiser for the school in suburban
Metairie, LA.
2017(16th
of Cheshvan, 5778): One hundred and eight year old Dr. Vera Shlakman, the CCNY
professor who lost her job during the right-wing Red Scare passed away today.
(As reported by Sam Roberts)
2017:
The 27th Conference of the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies “Crypto-Judaism in
the Americas” is scheduled to open today in Philadelphia, PA.
2018(27th
of Cheshvan, 5779): Yahrzeit of Deborah D. Levin, wife of Joseph B. Levin with
whom she had three children – Judy, Mitchell and David.
2018:
"New Perspectives on Kristallnacht: After 80 Years, the Nazi Pogrom in
Global Comparison," a conference “co-organized by the USC Shoah Foundation
Center for Advanced Genocide Research and the USC Casden Institute for the
Study of the Jewish Role in American Life, and presented in cooperation with
the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the
US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., and the Center for Research on
Antisemitism at the Technical University Berlin, Germany” is scheduled to
continue for a second day with topics including “Kristallnacht – Pogrom or
State Terror? A Terminological Reflection.”
2018:
The U.S. premiere of “Looking for Zion” a documentary in which Tamara Erde
embarks on a journey through the photographs of her grandfather, a Zionist
photographer from the 1930s” is scheduled to take place this evening at the 12th
Annual Other Israel Film Festival.
2018:
In Ames, IA, a speaker from the U.S Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to
deliver two presentations at Iowa State University and one at the Ames Public
Library on the topic of “what the American population knew about Nazi Germany
and the Holocaust, particularly through newspapers.”
2018:
Dr. David Kraemer is scheduled to teach the first class on “Maimonides, The Man
and His Genius” at the Streicker Center
2018:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host a screening of “The
Hippocratic Oath,” the first in the film series “Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah: Four
Sisters.”
2018:
As the Jewish community continues to grapple with “Shabbat Slaughter, in
Somerville, MA, Havurat Shalom is scheduled to offer a timely program “Ephemeral
Meets Eternal: The God/Human Bond.”
2019:
The Board Meeting of the Council of Jewish Women is scheduled to be held in New
Orleans, LA.
2019(7th
of Cheshvan, 5780): Yom HaAliyah
2019:
In Sonoma, CA, the Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host two screenings of
“Fiddler on the Roof.”
2019:
In Pepper Pike, OH, Park Synagogue East is scheduled to host “Dr. Rebecca
Erbelding, Historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum” as she
lectures on “Americans’ Responses to Jewish Refugees: Wrestling with Fear and
Moral Responsbility.”
2019:
At Oxford, Florence Butterfield is scheduled to host an exploration into the
“Declarations of Faith in the Abrahamic traditions,” including what “these mean
in liturgy and scripture” while attendees can enjoy a “free kosher or halal
lunch.”
2019:
In Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is scheduled to host Israeli
singer-songwriter Keren Peles “in concert, singing her all-time greatest hits
and sharing the stories behind the songs.”
2020:
Center for the Advancement of Jewish Education and Melton & More
institution are scheduled to host the first session of “Rhythm and Jews: Jews
in American Popular Music” taught by Emanuel Abramovitx.
2020:
Yoseph Haddad an Israeli Christian Arab who served as an IDF commander is
scheduled to give a virtual about Israeli multiculturalism, the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and integrating Arabs into Israeli society
2020:
The UK Jewish Filmi which is taking place entirely online this year is
scheduled to begin today.
2020:
The National Council of Jewish Women is scheduled to meet today in New Orleans.
2020
At the Columbus Jewish Film Festival Screening window for “They Ain’t Ready For
Me” is scheduled to end this evening when there will be a Q&A with director
Brad Rothschild and star Tamar Manasseh.
2020:
The JFCS Holocaust Center is scheduled to host Aaron Tartakovsky, “the grandson
of a Holocaust survivor shares his grandfather’s story” as part of the virtual
“Voices from the Third Generation.”
2021(1st
of Kislev, 5782): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
2021:
The 25th anniversary edition of the UK Jewish Film Festival is
scheduled to continue for a second day.
2022:
Based on previously published reports the Jews of New Jersey are scheduled to
spend their Shabbat with a little less to worry about because the US Federal
Bureau of Investigation has informed local Jewish leaders that the threats to
New Jersey synagogues, which sparked a rare public warning a day earlier, had
been “mitigated” and a suspect was in custody.”
2022:
The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host a “Brahms Concert” with Elina
Gurevich, violin;Yoni Gotlibovitch, cello; and Ilan Levin, piano.
2022:
The 34th Annual Boston Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a
screening of “Repairing the World: Stories From the Tree of Light” which “documents
the incredible community response of Pittsburgh, PA, over the three years that
followed the devastating Tree of Life Synagogue massacre that killed eleven
people.”
2022
(11th of Cheshvan, 5783): Lech-Lecha (Get thee out) 12:2 - 17:27 Bereshit
(Genesis)
2023:
The NYT “16 New Books Coming in November” list includes the following works by
Jewish authors: My Name is Barbra
by Barbra Streisand, Baumgarten by Paul Auster, and The Future by
Naomi Alderman.
2023:
In another lecture in the online lecture series “Human Encounters” the S.Y.
Agnon House is scheduled to host a lecture by Professor Adamiel Kosman on “the
story of Elazar ben Shemu and the naked Roman.
2023:
The Museum at Eldridge is scheduled to host “A World of Jewish Humor” with
Steve Zeitlin and Peninnah Schram.
2023:
As part of the “Jewish Values and Strategy in Wartime” series Tikvah online
Academy is scheduled to host lectures by Benjamin Gottesman on “Martyrdom and
Heroism: A Jewish Reflection, Dr. Daniel Polisar on “Great Zionist Leaders:
Menachem Begin” and Elliot Abrams on America’s Role in the Middle East.”
2023:
The Ben Katz Post #580 of the Jewish War Veterans is expected to place scores
of small American flags this Sunday, today at 1:00 p.m. CST on the graves of
those who served the nation in advance of the observance of Veterans Day on
November 11.
2023:
Week 8 in the NFL is scheduled feature the Jewish matchup of A.J. Dillon and
the Green Bay Packers being hosted by Greg Joseph and the Minnesota Vikings.
2023:
The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County is scheduled to closed today, in
celebration of the wedding of its Executive Director, Jessica Solomon.
2023:
The Alliance for Jewish Theatre is scheduled to hold its “first-ever
fundraiser.”
2023:
As November 5, begins in Israel, the IDF continues to respond the cannonade from
Hezbollah which has forced the evacuation of a large swath of land along the
northern border, the “IDF carries out ‘targeted’ incursion into south Gaza as
troops push deeper into Strip,” based on statements by “a senior Biden administration
the threat level has risen as Hamas has tried to “sneak its fighters out of the
Gaza Strip in ambulances that evacuated dozens of wounded Palestinians to Egypt
and the Hamas hostages begin day 30 in captivity. (As reported by Jacob Magid)
(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)
