This Day, January 6, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z:L
January 6
548: This was the last year the Church
in Jerusalem observed the birth of
Jesus on this date. (Celebrating Christmas on December 25th began in the late
300s in the Western
Church.)
1300: Following the conquest of the City of Damascus by th…
January 6
548: This was the last year the Church
in
1300: Following the conquest of the City of Damascus by the forces
of Mahmud Ghazan who had converted to Islam, today, the Jews were forced back
into the role of “dhimmis” – official second-class citizens.
1275: Raymond of Penyafort, the Spanish Dominican Friar who
convinced King James to order a public (and one-side) debate “between Moshe ben
Nahman, a rabbi in Girona, and Paulus Christiani, a baptized Jew of Montpellier
who belonged to the Dominicans” the purpose of which was to prove the
superiority of Christianity and get the Jews to convert.
1309: Henry VII, the future Holy Roman Emperor was crowned King of
the Romans today in Aachen which had a Jewish community since the days of the
Roman Empire which would mean it began sometime around the beginning of the
second century of the common era.
1311: Henry VII, who was presented with a scroll of the law by a
delegation of Jews in Rome, was crowned King of Italy today in Milan.
1387: John I begins his reign as King of Aragon. In 1375, the
future king assigned Abraham Cresques and his son Yehuda “to make a set of
nautical charts which would go beyond the normal geographic range of
contemporary portolan charts to cover the "East and the West, and
everything that, from the Strait (of Gibraltar) leads to the West". For
this job, Cresques and Jehuda would be paid 150 Aragonese golden florins and 60
Mallorcan pounds, respectively…”
1432: The Jewish aldermen and the Jewish community in Pilsen
bought from the Town Council a piece of land for which they paid “12 schock of
Prague coppers” in the škvrner suburb on which to establish a cemetery.
1449: In an unusual move, Constantine XI is crowned Byzantine
Emperor at Mistra instead of at Constantinople. His reign would be a short
one. He would lose his throne in 1453
when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans under Mehmed II. Constantine was the last Emperor and the last
Christian ruler of what was left of the Roman Empire. The Moslem Ottoman Empire would prove to be a
haven for Jews fleeing from persecution in Christian Europe. Also, Mehmed worked to ensure that a
significant portion of the population of Istanbul (the new name for
Constantinople) would be Jewish.
Cresques was a 14th century Jewish cartographer “who is
credit with the authorship of the Catalan Atlas.
1481: In
1497: Jews were expelled from
1537: Cosimo I de’Medici took control of Tuscany when he became
Duke of Florence today following which he sought to improve the economic
conditions in his realm by “recruiting affluent Spanish and Portuguese Jews for
resettlement in Florence and his chief port city of Pisa” which led “many
displaced Italian Jews who were neither bankers nor wealthy merchants coming to
Tuscany as well, particularly after the final expulsion of the Neapolitan
community in 1540 and the creation of ghettos in the Papal cities of Rome and
Ancona in 1555.”
1560: Giovanni Medici who had been elected Pope on Christmas Day
1559 was installed as Pope Pius IV. According to Gordon Thomas, author of The
Pope’s Jews, “Pope Pius IV …relaxed a variety of restrictions on Jewish
life that had been imposed by his predecessor, Paul IV, but… does not point out
that the restrictions were restored by Pius V.”
1656: At todays’ meeting of the committee on trade, Sir
Christopher Packe, the supporter of Cromwell who disappointed his leader with
his opposition to allowing the Jews to return to England, spoke in favor of the
Merchants Adventurers being able to keep its monopoly on the woolen trade.
1567: Birthdate of Richard Burbage the 16th century
English actor noted for his portrayal of Shylock – no mean accomplishment
considering the fact that he and most of those in his audiences had never met a
Jew.
1663(5423): Italian rabbi Simeon (Simḥah) ben Isaac Luzzatto
passed away in Venice.
1666(10th of Shevat, 5426) Portuguese Marrano Abraham
Senior Teixria who openly professed his Judaism after settling in Hamburg and
who got King Frederick III to grant privileges to the Jews of Denmark while
serving as a confidant and host for Queen Christina of Sweden passed away
today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14351-texeira
1693: Mehmed IV, the Ottoman Sultan passed away. During his reign,
Moses Beberi was appointed ambassador to Sweden. After his death in 1674 his
son Yehuda was appointed to the position ambassador. When the Jews of the
Ukraine were looking for a place of refuge during the Cossack Uprising Mehmet
IV, allowed them to settle on the banks of the Danube in Morea, Kavala,
Istanbul and Salonica. The second event happens in 1666. Rabbi Sabetay Sevi
declares himself messiah and causes turmoil. Mehmed was also the sultan who had
to deal with Sabbati Zevi, the famous
false messiah.
1706: Birthdate of Benjamin Franklin, printer, publisher,
scientist, statesmen and a man who was far greater than his parts. “
1772: On the day after his demise, Yaacov Ze’ev ben Yisrael was
buried at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.
1753(1st of Shevat, 5513): As it had for the last 13
years, on the first of Shevat the Great Synagogue in London levied a tax of two
shillings on each of its members “for the purpose of providing Unleavened Bread
for the poor on Passover.”
1761: Jacob Henry of New York wrote a letter addressed to
Barnard Gratz in which he discussed plans to build a synagogue in Philadelphia.
1785 (24th
of Tevet, 5545): Haym Salomon passed
away in Philadelphia at the age of 44.
Born in
1793: Less than a year after they were married in Philadelphia,
the former Nellie Bush and Moses Sheftal gave birth to Mordecai Sheftal, a
member of that Savannah Georgia “clan.”
1803:
Birthdate of Austrian native and French pianist and
composer Henri Herz who owned his own piano factory and built a concert hall in
Paris.
1806: Maryland born John Gettinger and his wife Margaret Gettinger
gave birth to Maria Ketrow
1805: Countess Ewelina Hanska, who married French novelist Honore
de Balzac making her the most person to ever live in Pohrebyschche, a Polish
town with a substantial Jewish population whose “large synagogue was converted
into a Workman’s Club in 1928 and whose Jews “were murdered by the Nazis and
local fascists.
1811(10th of Tevet, 5571): Asara B’Tevet
1811: Birthdate of Charles Sumner who served as U.S. Senator from
Massachusetts. While serving as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, Sumner supported efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Jews of
Romania.
1813: Solomon Sebag married Sarah Montefiore today. (Ever wonder about those authors whose last
name in “Sebag-Montefiore.”).
1813:
Wirt und Gast, the second opera by German-Jewish composer Giacomo Meyerbeer was performed for the first time in
Stuttgart, Germany. Unlike his first
opera, Jephtas Gelübde, which was a Biblical
drama, Wirt und Gast is “the colorful Arabian Nights tale of the man who
becomes caliph for a day.”
1814(14th
of Tevet, 5574): Jacob Abraham Rabbie who had taken the family name Rabbie in
1812 in response to a requirement that “all Dutch citizens had to take a
surname’ passed away today in Amsterdam.
1814(14th
of Tevet, 5574): Catherine Aaron, the daughter of A. Aaron of Russel Courts,
passed away today after which she was buried in the Brady Street Jewish
Cemetery.
1838:
Birthdate of German composer, Max Bruch who was not Jewish but who is most
famous for his composition “Kol Nidrei,” written
for cello and orchestra which is based on the traditional chant associated with
that most holy of Jewish holidays
1839(20th
of Tevet, 5599): Don Judah Ben-Oliel, the Gibraltar born son of Solomon
Ben-Oliel and Judith Benoliel, the husband of Esther Ben-Oliel and father of
Solomon Ben-Oliel; Rachel Pariente; Joshua Benoliel; Isaac Benoliel; Judith
Abudarham; and Moses Benoliel passed away today
1840(1st
of Shevat, 5600): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1840(1st
of Shevat, 5600): New York native Sarah Rodgrigues, the daughter of Jacob r.
Rivera and the second wife of Aaron Lopez passed away today in her hometown.
1840:
Sultan Abdul Mejid, under pressure from the Montefiore delegation, issued a
Firman against blood libels. He also unconditionally released nine survivors of
the
1846:
Birthdate of Henriette Hertz, the native of Cologne, Germany, the noted
philanthropist and art collect who converted to Protestantism in 1871.
1846(8th
of Tevet, 5606): Lewis Goldsmith passed
away in Paris. Born at Richmond, Surrey,
he played an active, if marginal role, in the conflict between Napoleon and the
British, among other things, he “published The Crimes of Cabinets, or a Review
of the Plans and Aggressions for Annihilating the Liberties of France and the
Dismemberment of her Territories, an attack on the military policy of” William
Pitt.
https://theodora.com/encyclopedia/g2/lewis_goldsmith.html
1850:
Birthdate of Eduard Bernstein, a leading German social democrat whose “Jewish
parents, who were active in the Reform Temple on the Johannistrasse where
services were performed on Sunday.”
http://spartacus-educational.com/GERbernstein.htm
1852:
Birthdate of Prague native Leopold Pick, the husband of Betty Pick.
1853:
Elias David Sassoon and his wife gave birth to Sir Edward Elias Sassoon, 2nd
Baronet “who was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son Victor.”
1854:
The will of Judah Touro dated this day appoints four executors, three of whom
are to each receive $10,000. R.D.
Shepperd, the fourth legatee is the residuary legatee. The will bequeathed nearly $450,000 to
various public institutions for charitable purposes, including the following:
$80,000 for the establishment of an Almshouse in New-Orleans; $5,000 to the
Hebrew Congregation in Boston.
1854:
Judah Touro signed his last will and testament.
1857(10th
of Tevet, 5617): Asara B’Tevet is observed for the first time during the
ill-fate presidency of James Buchannan.
1858:
Babette and Joseph Seligman give birth to George Seligman
1858:
The Court of Common Pleas heard the case of Mark Isaacs vs The Beth Hamedrash
Society which “grew out of a claim by the plaintiff for baking” Matzah “for
this religious corporation. The matter
was to be settled by arbitration, but the plaintiff contended the arbitration
was invalid because the arbiters met on Sunday which was a violation of state
law. But the respondents contended that
since they observed Saturday as a day of rest they were not bound by this
restriction. While agreeing with respondents’
contention, the Court found their claim to be immaterial since the final
document of arbitration was signed on Monday which meant that the issue of
Sabbath observance was moot. Decision for the Respondent.
1859:
Birthdate of Samuel Alexander, the Australian-born British philosopher who was
the first Jewish fellow of an “Oxbridge” college.
1859:
In Philadelphia, Jacob Joseph and Eve (Chuts) Peres gave birth to Memphis
resident Hardwig Peres, a member of the firm of Jacob J. Peres and Company who
served as President of the Memphis Board of Education and was a member of
congregations, Childdren of Israel, Baron Hirsh, Beth El Emeth and Anshe Sphard
1859:
It was reported today that a
journal printed in Hebrew called Cammagia (The Orator) which has just
appeared in Lyk, a city in northern Prussia has been well received in Poland as
well as in Prussia.
1859:
Birthdate of Odessa native Michael Zametkin, who in 1877 “fled political
persecution in his homeland” and came to the United where he worked in the
needle trades, became a leader in “the Jewish labor and Socialist movements
while becoming a contributor to several Yiddish and Socialist newswires”
including “The Jewish Daily Forward
which he helped to found.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1935/03/08/118647977.pdf
1861:
In Sydney, Australia, Sir Saul Samuel, and “Henritetta Matilda, th daughter of
Benjamin Goldsmid Levien gave birth Louis Samuel, an engineer and husband of
“Mary Ruth, the daughter of Silas Fowler with whom he had two daughters – Vera
and Lilly.
1861(24th
of Tevet, 5621): Major General Albert Goldsmid passed away. Born in 1794, this
son of Benjamin Goldsmid entered the British Army in 1811 and served at the
Battle of Waterloo. Much of his career
was spent in the cavalry where he earned several decorations for his service.
1863:
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported
that General Order 11 had been rescinded.
1863:
General Grant sent several telegrams to General Halleck acknowledging the
revocation of General Order 11. “By
direction of the General in Chief of the Army at Washington¸ the General Order
from these Head Quarters expelling Jews from this Department is hereby
revoked.”
1863(15th
of Tevet, 5623): Seventeen-year-old Philadelphian Albert Leopold Snowberger,
the old son of Leopold and Brina Snowberger passed away in Washington, DC today
after having been mortally wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg.
1865:
In what became the Czech Republic, Daniel Low, the son of David Low and his
wife Helene Low gave birth to Emma Doktor, the wife of Siegmund Doktor and mother
of Helene Adler; Frieda Doktor; Erwin Doktor and Norbert Doktor
1867:
In Cincinnati, OH, Jacob and Johanna (Goldsmith) Loeb gave birth to Belle Loeb
Hanauer, the wife of Sam Hanauer, an active member of the Spokane, WA Jewish
community who was a member of the Temple Emanu-El Siter, the Jewish Free Loan
Society and the Jewish Helping Hand Society while serving as the vice president
of the Jewish Welfare Association.
1871:
Birthdate of Eugen Hirschburg, who gained fame as German movie actor Eugen Burg
and who found out the hard way that his conversion to Protestantism did not
save him from being banished from the film industry when the Nazis came to
power or to dying at Theresienstadt.
1871:
German nationals Fanny Ottenheimer and Elias Marx gave Moses Marx who passed
away in 1884 at the age of 12
1871:
U.S. Vice President Schyler Colfax sent a letter today expressing his regret at
not being able to attend an upcoming celebration of the newly unified nation of
Italy. Colfax expressed his hope that
when Victor Emanuel said that Italy is free and one, he meant that the newly
united nation would follow the example of the United States of guaranteeing
religious freedom to “Jew and Gentile” alike.
Colfax saw this guarantee of religious freedom as critical to the current
success of the American Republic and as a critical to the future success of the
Italian Republic. [Declarations like this are another example of what separates
the experience of the Jews in the United States from that in European, Asian or
African political entity.]
1872:
In Kiev, Henry and Frieda Berg gave birth to NYU trained attorney Simon Berg, a
specialist “in all phases of real estate work who married Rose Berliner in 1894
and was an active member of the Brooklyn Jewish Center and the Brooklyn
Federation of Jewish Charities.
1873:
Birthdate of Galicia native Jacob Z. Lauterbach, the graduate of Gottingen
University and the Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin who earned a Ph.D from Berlin
University before coming to the United States in 1903 “where he was a rabbi in
Peoria, Il, Rochester, NY and Huntsville, AL” before becoming a Professor of
Talmud at HUC in 1911.”
1876:
In Buffalo, NY, the clothing firm of Friedman & Co made an assignment to
Henry Cone, a retired Jewish merchant to cover their liabilities of $5,000.
1876:
In Russia, Sara and Elias Bernstein gave birth to Louis Bernstein who
eventually settled in Northern Ireland.
1877:
Birthdate of Jacob Mazer, who “for years was Detroit’s best basketball player”
whose Mazer Cigar Mfg. Co. produced 150,000,000 cigars a year in 1923.
1878;
It was reported today that “a thrilling tale of a brave young Jew” is going to
appear in the Number 10 issued of the New York Weekly.
1878:
It was reported today that “a Jewish paper” has called for a national meeting
to revise Jewish ritual. The papers say
that “there is much in the ritual to which many Jews no longer give assent.” Also, there are sections which an even larger
number do not understand.
1879(11th of Tevet, 5639) Rabbi Benjamin Artom
passed away today at 3 Marine Parade, Brighton,(UK).He was the Haham of the
Spanish and Portuguese Jews of Great Britain.
Born in 1835 at Asti, Piedmont, Italy, he was the first person to hold
the post of rabbi of Naples. In 1866 he accepted a call to become the spiritual
leader, or Haham, of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Britain, and held the
post until his death. He composed a prayer for boys on the occasion of their
Bar Mitzvah that was at one time used in most orthodox synagogues in Britain,
and is still used in the Spanish and Portuguese ones.
1880: In Cleveland, Rebecca Klein and Isaac
Alsbacher gave birth to life-long-bachelor Sidney Alsbacher.
1882: Birthdate of Moscow native and American
modernists painter Abraham Solomon Baylinson who in 1892 came to the United
States where he studied “at the Art Students League of New York the National
Academy of Design and the New York School of Art.”
https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Abraham-S--Baylinson/ABFFB3C6A7039A0C
1883: In Gorky, Russia, “Hyman and Esther
(Mogilev) Zeitlin gave birth to Columbia educated English teacher and author
Dr. Jacob Zeitlin who became a full professor at the University Illinois three
years after marrying Lois Gild and who wrote for a number of publications
including the Nation, the Herald Tribune and the Menorah Journal while being an
active member of several organizations including B’nai B’rith.
1887(10th of Tevet, 5647): Asara
B’Tevet
1890: Dora Albertina Model, the daughter of
Albert and Jenny Model, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.”
1890(14TH
of Tevet, 5650): Former Judge Philip J. Joachimsen passed away today at 4
o’clock this afternoon at his home on 54th Street in New York City.
The American jurist and communal worker was born in 1817 at Breslau Germany. He
emigrated to New York in 1827, and was admitted to the bar there in 1840.
During the Civil war, he organized and commanded the Fifty-ninth New York
Volunteer Regiment, and was injured at New Orleans. For his services he was
made brigadier-general by brevet. After the war he practiced law until he was
elected judge of the New York Marine Court in 1870. In 1877, he returned to
private practice. In 1859, he was elected to serve as the first president of
the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. In 1879 he organized the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian
Society for Children in New York. (As reported by Adler & Friedenberg and
the NYT)
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F07EEDD143BE533A25754C0A9679C94619ED7CF
1891:
In New York City, Wolf and Dora (Berger) Bomzon gave birth to Samuel Bomzon,
the husband of Etta Petigor and vice president of the National Safety Bank who
was a registrant in “the Old Man’s Draft” during WW II which got is name from
the fact it registered those between the ages of 45 and 64.
1892:
It was reported today that thirty adult Russian Jews and 12 of their children
are living at J. Syren’s Hotel on Madison Street where conditions are so
unsanitary that officials are worried about an outbreak of smallpox.
1893:
Birthdate of Offenberg native Claris Hirsch-Weil who died at Auschwitz in 1942.
1893:
“The Outbreak of Typhus Fever” published today described the outbreak of the
epidemic in New York City which had its greatest impact among the immigrant
population.
1893:
The Libre Parole sponsored “a great
anti-Semitic meeting” at the Tivoli Vauxhall in Paris.
1894:
Among the charities receiving funds from the Brooklyn Board of Estimate were
the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society - $294.88; Hebrew Benevolent Society, Eastern
Division - $121.42; Hebrew Benevolent Society, Western Division - $72.32. This means that the Jewish charities received
$488.62 of the $85,000 distributed by the Board.
1894:
In Constantinople, Milbah Johnson and Charles Charnaud, “a director of the
tobacco monopoly of the Ottoman Empire gave birth to Grace Stella Charnaud who
at the age of 37 married 71 year old Rufus Isaacs, 1st Earl of
Reading which made her Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading, Baroness
Swanborough who championed an increase role for women both before and during
the WW II.
1895:
Israel Monk, the Russian born resident of London and husband of Nellie Monk was
buried today in the United Kingdom.
1895:
For the first time since its founding in 1863, the Union League does not have
any Jewish members because Edwin Einstien resigned from the club today. He resigned because the league had taken no
action to remedy the effect of the blackballing of the son of Jesse Seligman
which had taken place two years ago.
1895:
“Will of Eugene Kelly” published today explained that “the famous banker” had
not left money to Catholic and Jewish charities as an “expression in favor” in
favor of either these religions but because “other denominations are wealthier
and better able to care for their poor.”
1895:
“The Late Czar” published today provided a review of Alexander III of Russia
by Charles Lowe which included a description of Russian persecution of its
Jewish population.
1896:
Birthdate of Nathan Pritzker, the highly successful investor and real estate
mogul best known for his ownership of
the Hyatt Hotel chain. At one time or
another he has also controlled the Hammond Organ Company and Continental Air
Lines. According to one estimate his
holdings were valued at 700 million dollars during the 1980’s.
1896:
Mrs. Freda Silverman and her two daughters (Rachel,9 and Sarah, 3) were forced
to leave their room at 185 Division Street tonight by their landlord because
they could not pay the $6 in rent they owed him.
1897:
George James Graham and the former Marie Hirsch, the daughter of Emil Hirsch of
Mannheim gave birth to the first of their two daughters, Elizabeth Bertha
1897:
“The twenty-third annual lecture course of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association
opened tonight at the Musical Hall of the Carnegie Building with a recitation
by Mrs. Aida Kaufman and a lecture on ‘Modern Popular Delusions’ by Simon
Sterne.”
1898:
State Supreme Court Judge William N. Cohen is scheduled to deliver a lecture
entitled “The Profession of the Law and Its Demands” at Temple Emanu-El
sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1898:
Herzl travels to
1898:
In Lithuania, Gittel Rabinowitz and David Higger gave birth to JTS ordained
rabbi Michael Higger, a graduate of NYU and the holder of doctorate from
Columbia who was a member of committee on education of the United Synagogues of
America who was the author of several works including The Jewish Utopia,
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/higger-michael
https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Utopia-Michael-Higger/dp/B006578LT4
1898:
In a case of Jew versus Jew “representatives of the Auxiliary Relief Branch of
the Russian and Polish Jewish Central Committee at Jerusalem… expressed
indignation at the charges made of misuses of the money collected in the United
States for the relief of poor American Jews in…Palestine” made by the President
of the newly formed American Congregation, the Pride of Jerusalem.
1899:
A list of the bequests left by the late David Marks published today includes
instruction that $250 be given to each of the following: the Hebrew Technical
School; the Montefiore Home, the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews; Hebrew
Benevolent and Orphan Asylum, Mount Sinai Hospital, Educational Alliance, Young
Men’s Hebrew Association and $100 each to the Hebrew Free School and the Hebrew
Sheltering Guardian Society. (This represents panoply of the institutions
supported by New York Jewry at the turn of the century.)
1899:
“The Honorable Lionel Walter Rothschild has been elected a member of Parliament
for the Aylesburgy Division of Buckinghamshire without opposition, succeeding
his uncle, the late Baron Ferdinand James De Rothschild, who died
1899:
Mathew N. Levy, Jr. of Norfolk was one of those eligible to become a civilian
those serving in the 6th Virginia Volunteer Infantry became eligible
for being mustered out of U.S. Service.
1900(6th
of Shevat, 5660): Parashat Bo
1900:
In Norfolk, VA, “Herman and Sophie (Sheffield) Waggenheim gave birth to
University of Virginia trained attorney and Zeta Beta Tau brother Michael
Benjamin Wagenheim, a memberof Phi Beta Kappa who practiced law in his hometown
for fifty years while also serving with a number of civic organizations
including Goodwill Industries and the Hampton Roads Sanitation Commission.
http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv78515
1902:
Birthdate of Wilhelm Kraus a member of the anti-Nazi resistance group known as
The Ehrenfeld or Steinbruck Group.
1903: Birthdate of composer and conductor Maurice
Abravanel. Abravanel was born in Saloniki Greece when it was still part of the
Ottoman Empire. A descendant of Isaac Abravanel, he came from an illustrious
Sephardic Jewish family, which was expelled from Spain in 1492. Abravanel's
ancestors settled in Saloniki in 1517, and his parents were both born there. In
1909, they moved to Switzerland, where his father Edouard de Abravanel was a
very successful pharmacist.
In
1934, anti-German sentiment forced Abravanel to leave Europe. After enjoying a triumph in Austraalia,
Abravanel came to the United States to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera. He
became the long-time conductor of the Utah Symphony Orchestra (1947-1979,
building it from a part-time community orchestra into a well-respected,
professional ensemble with recording contracts with Vanguard, Vox, Angel, and
CBS. He lobbied for years for a permanent home for the orchestra, which then
performed in the Mormon Tabernacle on Temple Square. He saw his dream come true
when Symphony Hall was built, but not until the season after he retired. It has
now been renamed Abravanel Hall in his honour. Only in America could the a
major musical venue in the heart of “Mormon Country” be named for a Sephardic
Jew from Salonika. Abravanel passed
away at the age of 90 in Salt Lake City.
1903(7th
of Tevet, 5663): Henry de Worms, 1st Baron Pirbright, the third son of Solomon
Benedict de Worms and leading Conservative politician passed away today.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12182-pirbright-henry-de-worms-bar-on
1903:
Herzl begins a trip that would take him to Paris and London.
1904(18th
of Tevet, 5664): Michael Levi Rodkinson, the “son of Alexander Sender Frumkin
and half-brother of Israel Dov Bär Frumkin, the editor of The Havatzeleth newspaper in Jerusalem, Arieh Tzvi Hirsch Frumkin
and Guishe Frumkin-Navon, the American publisher who was produced the first
English translation of the Babylonian Talmud, passed away.
1904:
Although the government continues to inform the Jews that peace in Kishinev is
assured and that preparation has been for any attempt at disorder,” the Jews,
who can are leaving the city during the holiday season.
1905:
Prince Bilokoff, the Minister of Railroads called upon his countrymen to be
patient while the Czar I “striving earnestly to accomplish the reforms which
the country needs” which means dealing with the “special laws” that have been
created to deal with empire’s various nationalities including the Jews.
(Editor’s note – the Minister made it sound as these special laws had been
created to benefit these nationalities when quite the opposite was true.)
1906:
It was reported today that of the 90,000 Jews who have left Russia since the
massacres began, only 7,325 arrived in the United States in November of 1905
which is the last month for which figures are available.
1906:
It was reported today that Senators Kuzminksy and Taurau who investigated the
massacres at Odessa and Kiev have issued “almost identical statements” saying
that “the authorities were guilty of gross negligence and could easily have
prevented the bloodshed, but that the charge they deliberately planned the
massacres is not substantiated by the evidence.”
1906:
It was reported today that Count Sergei Witte, the Chairman of the council of
Ministers of the Russian Empire “has expressed compete confidence” in the
Russo-Jewish Relief Committee” over which Baron Gunzberg presides and has asked
him to convey to Lord Rothschild thanks for the help he and his colleagues have
rendered for the relief of the sufferers in Russia.”
1906:
“Charities Report On Jewish Immigration” published today provides highlights of
the “soon to be distributed” “thirty-first annual report of the United Hebrews
Charities of the City of New York” which “point out that owed to the rigid
immigration laws, the Jewish immigrants are of a high class and that many good
citizens have to the United States owing to the war between Russian and Japan
and the outrages in Russia.”
1907:
“Emma Goldman, who has been arrested many times in New York and other cities
for uttering anarchistic sentiments, was taken into custody late this afternoon
while in the midst of an address before an audience of 600 persons at Clinton
Hall, 151 Clinton Street.”
1907:
Birthdate of University of Pennsylvania graduate and WW II veteran Irving J.
Feist, the “president of the real estate concern of Feist and Feist and the Boy
Scouts of America who was the husband of Dorothy Feist with whom he had two
children, John and Margaret.
1908:
Birthdate of Russian native, and Columbia trained physician Dr. Sidney
Tarachow, the former member of the faculty of Iowa State University and
director of the division of psychoanalytic education of the Downstate Medical
Center in Brooklyn and clinical professor of psychiatry passed away today.
1908:
Following its premiere in Vienna, an English language version of Oscar Straus’
operetta “A Waltz Dream” premiered in Philadelphia at the Chestnut Street Opera
House.
1908: Birthdate of composer Menahem
Avidom. Born in
1909:
“The Finnish loan of $10,000,000, destined for the construction of railroads in
the Grand Duchy, which has been offered in the London market, is meeting with a
storm of opposition on the part of Jewish bankers and investors here” because
of the continued massive persecution of Jews in Russia.
1910: In Duluth, MN, Isaac and Lena (Batonik) Alpert gave birth
Duluth Central High School graduate and husband of Lillian Steinberg who
engaged in numerous business enterprises including the establishing of the
“first discount in Northern Minnesota” and the creation of ZMC Hotels which
operates properties throughout the United States while being an active member
of Temple Israel and Tifereth Israel and chairing the Jewish Federation.
1911: Birthdate of Brooklyn native
Joseph Abramowitz who gained fame as comedian Joey Adams, the husband of gossip
columnist Cindy Adams.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1999-12-05-9912050304-story.html
1911: In Bergen, NY, John F. and Dana
Alice (nee Warboys) Sands gave birth to character actor Billy Sands who may be
best known for his continuing role as one of the G.I.’s in “The Phil Silvers
Show” which brought to life the hi-jinx of Sgt. Ernie Bilko.
1911: In Philadelphia, Morris and
Rebecca (Tecker) Mandell gave birth to Samuel Phillip Mandell, the President of
Samuel P. Mandell and Company, the founder of the Samuel P. Mandel Foundation
and husband of Ida Slustsky with whom he had five children, including two sets
of twins.
1912:
In 1990, the 6,400 Jews living in
Between 1750 and 1850, many German Jews came to
1912: It was reported today “the Society of American Cantors has
elected Simon Schlager, the cantor at Temple Emanu-El as its new president.
1912(16th of Tevet, 5672): Parashat Vayechi
1912: In Chicago, Dr. Gerson B. Levi is scheduled to deliver the
sermon B’nai Sholom-Temple Israel
1912: In Chicago, Rabbi Abram Hirshberg officiated at services at
Temple Sholom.
1912: In Chicago, Rabbi Tobias Schanfarber is scheduled to the
sermon K.A.M
1913: The Jewish National Workers Alliance (Farband) received its
official charter, licensing it to sell various insurance and medical plans,
from the State of New York (Jewish Virtual Library)
1913: It was reported today that Joel Blau a native of Hungary and
a graduate of Hebrew Union College who has served as the rabbi at several
smaller congregations in Brooklyn has been chosen to succeed Dr. L. Leon Magnes
as the rabbi at B’nai Jeshurum.
1914: Birthdate of Heinz Berggruen,
collector and gallery owner. One of the world’s most important patrons and
collectors of 20th century masters, Heinz Berggruen’s life was something of a
work of art in itself. He escaped from the Third Reich, studied in France,
emigrated to San Francisco, became the lover of the painter Frida Kahlo,
amassed an unparalleled collection of the works of Picasso and other modern
artists and finally effected an act of reconciliation with the Germany that had
persecuted him and his family, bringing home his collection of “degenerate” art
to the former capital of the Third Reich once and for all. Heinz Berggruen was
born in the prosperous Berlin borough of Wilmersdorf in 1914. Both his father,
Ludwig, and his mother, Antonie, née Zadek, were from West Prussia. They had a
stationery shop on the Olivaerplatz, just off the Kurförstendamm and Heinz grew
up in the world of assimilated Berlin Jewry. He attended the Goethe-Gymnasium
in Wilmersdorf and graduated to the Friedrich-Wilhelms (now Humboldt) University
in 1932 where he read literature and art history. After 1933 he continued his
studies at the universities of Grenoble and Toulouse, returning briefly to
Germany to work as a journalist, even if his articles could not appear under
his name, which was seen as being too provocative to the National Socialists.
He emigrated to the US in 1936 and studied briefly at Ber-keley before becoming
an assistant curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He married
three years later while he was working as an art critic on the San Francisco
Chronicle. It was at this time that he had a brief but stormy affair with
the painter Frida Kahlo. In 1940 he bought his first picture for $100. It was a
watercolour by Paul Klee. In 1942 he persuaded his parents to come to New York.
They had in May 1939 been on the liner Saint Louisfrom Hamburg, which
was not allowed to land its Jewish refugees in America. As their names began
with “B” they were allowed to disembark in England, on the ship’s return to
Europe. Others were not so lucky and perished in the camps in the East.
Berggruen returned to Europe in American uniform in 1945 and worked briefly
with the novelist Erich Kästner on an American-sponsored paper in Munich. He
moved on to Unesco before starting his art gallery in the rue de l’Univer-sité
in Paris in 1947. The gallery brought him into contact with Picasso, who became
his friend and the core of his collection.
It was said that as a gallery owner, Berggruen was
his own best customer: he did not like to let the best pieces go. He once
swapped Van Gogh’s Le Jardin Publiquefor eight Matisses. In 1980 he gave
up the gallery to concentrate on his own collection. The main theme was
Picasso, but there was more besides: Matisse, Braque, Klee, Giacometti and
Cézanne. He was an early champion of Matisse’s late collages. He was generous
to a fault. He sold part of his collection to the National Gallery in London,
but the sale contained a large bequest. He made similar donations to the
Metropolitan Museum in New York. In 1991 he met Wolf-Dieter Dube, the director
of the Berlin museums. Dube persuaded him to make a visit to Berlin. It was the
beginning of the process that would bring Berggruen home, together with 113
canvases from his collection which Dube installed in a classical building by
Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s pupil August Stöler opposite the royal palace in
Charlottenburg. This was to be the Berggruen Museum. In 2000 the collection of
165 works (including 85 Picassos) was sold to the museum at about a quarter of
its value. This was Berggruen’s famous “gesture of reconciliation”: the Nazis
had impoverished Germany by their attitude to nonfigurative Modern art.
Berggruen had decided to reverse the process. Paris, he said, was already rich
enough in such works.
He was granted a flat “above the shop” and said he
felt entirely at home. He also encouraged his friends to donate to the museum,
adding a further five Cézannes and two Van Goghs. He talked his fellow Berliner
Helmut Newton into giving his photographic collection to the city. At the end
of his life he was proud that Berlin had finally become a place of pilgrimage
for 20th-century art lovers. Berggruen’s ability to forgive the Germans came as
a surprise to many. He always said that he felt at home in Berlin, although it
did not look much like the city he had left 60 years before. He said he was a
European and hoped with time that many more people would feel the same. He had
two homes: one near the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris and the other above the
museum that bore his name in Charlottenburg. He liked to be close to his
collection and was happy to show people round. In 2004 he was given the freedom
of the city of Berlin.
He married first Lillian Zeller-bach, the daughter
of a paper manufacturer in San Francisco, and had a son and a daughter by her.
In 1959 he married Betti-na, the daughter of the actor Alexander Moissi and had
two further sons. He died in Neuil-ly-sur-Seine in 2007 at the age of 93. At
his own wish he is buried in the forest cemetery in Dahlem, in Berlin.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/may/23/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/arts/design/27berggruen.html?_r=0
1914: It was reported today that “according to the
forthcoming issues of the Jewish Year Book, there are now “13,052,846 Jews in
the world” based on the tabulations of Rabbi Isidore Harris.
1915: It was determined at a conference between
Georgia State Attorney General and Warren Grice and Solicitor Dorsey who
prosecuted the Leo Frank case that Grice and not Dorsey will make “the formal
motion in behalf of the State before the United States Supreme Court in
Washington for the advancement of the Leo M. Frank case on the docket for an
early hearing.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/01/06/101912032.html?pageNumber=2
1915: “Facts Never Appealed” published today
included the view of Tom Lovless the editor the Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle who
believes that Leo Frank “committed the crime, but says “We do not know it. We are not absolutely certain of it. There is in our own mind as there is in the
minds of thousands of others that shadow of a doubt which would not permit us
to see Leo Frank or any other man go to his death as long as that doubt
exists.”
1916:
President Woodrow Wilson responded to Simon Wolf’s request that the State
Department help facilitate the shipment of wheat for making matzah to the war
zone in Europe by saying that he “would be very pleased to take up the
matter…with the State Department to ascertain if it is possible to do anything”
1916:
It was reported today that “the Bath Beach division of the Brooklyn Jewish
Volunteer Committee has announced that it had collected $1,343 which sum is
already on its way” to Europe to aide those suffering from the World War.
1916:
Starting this evening a series of “important conferences” are scheduled to take
place establishing the relationship between the Knights of Zion and other
“established organizations.”
1916:
In Vienna, Else Reis and economist Hans Simon gave birth to Hedwig Magdalena
Simon whose father had her baptized to avoid anti-Semitism caused by the misery
of World War I and who gained fame as Hedi Stadlen.
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2004/07/11/fea02.html
1916:
New Jersey’s “Senator Martine’s resolution asking the President to set aside a
day as Jewish relief for Jewish war sufferers was adopted today after Chairman
Stone of the Foreign Relations Committee had said that while he approved such a
course in relation to the Poles and the Jews, who he said were without a
Government of their own, he hoped it would not extend to any of the organized
nations.”
1917(6th
of Tevet, 5677): Parashat Vahyechi
1917:
“The Daily Jewish Warheit began its publication of the "disclosures"
of Illodor," the Mad Monk," in its issue this afternoon.”
1918:
“Dr. John Haynes Holmes, pastor of the Church of the Messiah was applauded”
today “by the congregation of the Free Synagogue in Carnegie Hall…when he
declared that the orthodox Christian theology was based on a ‘momentous
superstition’ and that these doctrines were the invention of ‘Paul, a converted
Jew,’ who brought the ‘exclusiveness’ of old Jewish orthodoxy with him and
planted it in the Christian religion.”
1918:
“At a frugal fish supper at the Hotel Biltmore,” Felix M. Warburg provided “the
tactical plans for the campaign to obtain from $4,500,000 to $5,000,000 for the
support of the ninety federated philanthropic societies of New York City” to
“the twenty colonels and the two hundred captains who are to lead the
soliciting forces.”
1918:
Tonight, at the Free Synagogue Dr. Richard Gottheil, a professor of Semitic
languages at Columbia University delivered a speech on “The English in
Palestine” in which he “discussed some of the principal features of the aims
and hopes of leaders of the Zionist movement for the establishment and
development of Jewish national life in Palestine.”
1918(22nd
of Tevet, 5678): Georg Cantor passed away.
Born in 1845, Georg Ferdinand
Ludwig Philipp Cantor was a mathematician who was born in
1918(22nd
of Tevet, 5678): Eighty-year-old Adolf Wolf the former mayor of Silverton,
Oregon passed away today. Wolf Building
was one of the most prominent and impressive buildings in Silverton. Adolph
Wolf was an Austrian immigrant who arrived in Silverton in 1884 from the town
of Independence, Oregon and commissioned the building in 1891 to house his
hardware store. It later became known as Wolf & Son and was sold in 1899 to
the Ames family where it remained for two generations. After selling the
property, Wolfe entered the hop growing business. Many of its original cast
iron details remain. The facade is a pressed metal and cast iron building front
manufactured by the Mesker Brothers in St. Louis, MO. Wolf served the City of
Silverton as mayor and city councilman and was instrumental in bringing the
railroad to the city.
1919:
Chinda Sutemi, the Japanese ambassador in London, “who was about to join the
Japanese delegation” at the Paris Peace conference wrote to Chaim Weizman that
“the Japanese Government gladly takes note of the Zionist aspirations to
establish in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people and they look
forward with a sympathetic interest to the realization of such desire upon the
basic proposal
1919: Theodore Roosevelt 26th President of the United States
passed away. While President, Roosevelt
intervened with the governments of Rumania and Russia on behalf of their Jewish
populations. This was an unusual event
for Jews and earned Roosevelt and the Republicans support among Jewish
voters. T.R.’s finest moment, from a
Jewish point of view, may have come in 1895 when he was serving as New York
City Police Commissioner. Pastor Hermann
Ahlwardt, a noted German anti-Semite came to New York to give a speech. In an attempt to gain publicity for himself
and his cause, he demanded police protection from what he was sure would be
hostile demonstration by New York Jews.
Roosevelt gave him his police protection. All of his protectors were Jewish
policemen.
1919(5th of Shevat, 5679): Chicagoan, J/410061 AB Isaac
Shadbrisky who served with Royal Navy passed away today.
1919:
As 100,000 German Marxists gathered in
1919(5th
of Shevat, 5679): Isaac Shadbrisky, a native of Chicago who served with Royal
Navy under the name of Kelly passed away today.
1920(14th
of Tevet, 5680): Seventy-year-old Cecilia Solomons Abrahams, the daughter of
Lizar and Perla Sheftall Solomons and the wife of Edmund H. Abrahams with whom
she had a son, Edmund H. Abrahams, “a collateral descendant of Benjamin
Sheftall” passed away today and was buried at the Laurel Grover Cemetery in
Savannah, Ga.
1920:
“Figures of the Night” a silent horror film directed, produced and written by
Richard Oswald was released in the United States.
1921:
In Mannheim, Germany, Hans Lotz and his Jewish wife Helen gave birth to Wolfgang
Lotz wo gaie fame as the Israel spy Z’ev Gur-Aire who took on the persona of
German businessman and supplied valuable information to Israel until his arrest
by the Egyptians in 1965.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/wolfgang-lotz
1921:
At a reception given tonight by the members of the New York County Lawyers
Association Julius Henry Cohen, Chairman of a special committee of the
Association on Housing, opposed the resolution that was later adopted “favoring
the widening of the scope of the Lockwood committee to include an inquiry into
the shortage of offices” and the exorbitant rate being charged for rent
1922(6th
of Tevet, 5682): Eighty-year-old Jakob Rosanes the native of Brody who became a
leading German mathematician and chess master.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=16031
1923:
Birthdate of Argentine born writer and social protestor Jacobo Timerman who
after his release from an Argentine prison he moved to Israel where he died in
1999.
1924:
Dr. Bela Fabian, a member of the Hungarian Parliament who would survive four
concentration camps married Ilona Schwarz Fabian who during WW II worked with
the Jewish War Veterans of Hungary “to supply clothing and medicine to Jewish
force laborers on the Russian front” and who after coming to the U.S. after the
war was a vocal supporter of the Hungarian freedom movement.
1925(10th
of Tevet, 5685): Asara B'Tevet
1925:
As Stalin worked to consolidate his control over the Communist Party, Leon
Trotsky was removed “from his ministerial post” today.
1925:
Birthdate of Austrian born Israeli journalist and writer who went from being a
13 year old rescued by the Kindertransport to joining Shimon Peres and Yitzhak
Rabin as a member of David Ben-Gurion’s inner circle.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/former-jerusalem-post-editor-ari-rath-dies-at-92/
1925:
Birthdate of Israel Shenker, the Philadelphia native who served as “a reported
on the metropolitan staff of the New York
Times” from 1968 to 1979. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1926:
Birthdate of Monroe “Mon” Levinson “who used plexiglass and other
nontraditional materials in becoming a prominent Op Art sculptor, creating work
that actively affects the viewer’s perception.” (As reported by Roberta Smith)
1926:
Eighty-year-old Millicent “Lily” Palmer Bandman, the English born wife of
German born actor American actor Daniel Edward Bandmann who was famous for his
portrayal of Shylock, passed away today.
1926:
In Mount Vernon, NY, Italian born trolley car conductor John Branca and the
former Kati Berger a Jewish immigrant gave birth to Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher
Ralph Branca whose “uncle Jozsef Berger
was killed at the Majdanek concentration camp, and whose maternal aunt Irma
died at the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942”
1927:
Birthdate of Jesse Leonard Steinfeld, “the son of Jewish immigrants from
Hungary” who as surgeon general in the Nixon administration spoke out against
cigarette smoking, bringing new attention to the risks it posed to women and to
people exposed to secondhand smoke.” (As reported by William Yardley)
1927:
A mass meeting is held tonight at Cooper Union to honor the memory of Asher
Ginsberg (Ahad Ha’am). Speakers at the
event include, Dr. Chaim Weismann, Louis Lipsky (President of the World Zionist
Organization), Carl Sherman (President of the Zionist Organization of America),
Abraham Goldberg (President of the American Hebrew Federation), Professor Selig
Brodetzky and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise.
1928:
It was reported today that “the New York Board of Jewish Ministers,
representing more than 100 Jewish congregations” has adopted “a reported of its
executive committee asserting that conditions in the Kings County Hospital
where ‘anti-Jewish prejudice and intolerance’ was said to have prevailed ‘have
materially improved.;”
1929:
“Several speakers at the quarterly meeting of the national executive committee
of the Zionist Organization of America…expressed disapproval of the action of
Dr. Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue in opposing participation of
non-Zionists in the activities of the Jewish Agency. The Jewish Agency is the term now applied to
the World Zionist Organization.”
Non-Zionists who will work with the Zionists in the Jewish Agency
include Louis Marshall, Felix M. Warburg, Dr. Lee K. Frankel, Herbert H. Lehman
and Judge Irving Lehman.
1929(24th
of Tevet, 5689): Seventy-two-year-old Jessie Myers, the wife of Henry Clay whom
she had married in 1894 passed away today in her native Cincinnati.
1929:
Mr. and Mrs. H.H. Butler announced the engagement of their daughter Ruth Butler
to U. of Penn trained attorney Sylvan Hirsch, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Hiram
Hirsc.
1929:
The New York Times featured a review
of How Propaganda Works by Edward L. Bernays, “father of modern public
relations and nephew of Sigmund Freud.
1930:
“Jewish women praying at the Wailing Wall today for the life of a sick
relative, were ordered by Arabs and later by British policeman to lower their
voices or leave” which “was the first attempt to enforce a demand made two
months ago on Chief Rabbi Kook by the Society for the Protection of the Mosque
of Omar that Jews worshipping at the Wall do so quietly.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1930/01/07/92053929.html?pageNumber=6
1931: Birthdate of author E. L. Doctorow.
1932(27th
of Tevet, 5692): Julius Rosenwald who is best known for turning Sears and
Roebuck into a retail giant passed away today. He was also a great
philanthropist whose efforts included everything from being the patron of chess
champion Samuel Reshevsky to endowing Tuskegee Institute to the creation of the
Rosenwald Fund which was established “for the well-being of mankind.” This brief entry cannot do justice to the
accomplishments of a man, mighty in his times, who has been forgotten by most.
http://www.searsarchives.com/people/juliusrosenwald.htm
1932:
It was announced today that “an unlimited quota of athletes will be permitted
by the Palestine government to enter the country to take part in the Maccabee
Games” to be held this spring in Tel Aviv.
1933:
Henryk Szeryng “made his solo debut” today “playing Brahms Violin Concerto with
the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.”
http://www.thirteen.org/publicarts/violin/szeryng.html
1933:
Birthdate of New York native and self-educated professor of sociology Stanley
Aronowitz known for his activism in the fields of civil rights and the rights
of the working class.
1934:
“The Big Shakedown” produced by Samuel Bischoff was released in the United
States today.
1934:
Hadassah announced that “the lowest infant mortality rate achieved in a
Palestine health district was in Tel Aviv.
“The rate was 68.03 among children under 1 year for every 1,000 live
births and represented an improvement over 1931 when the rate was 72.52.” Jerusalem “had a rate of 117.30 in 1932 and
104.28 in 1931. Bethlehem…had a rate of
341.91 in 1932, the highest health district rate in the country. The infant death rate for the whole country
was 153 in 1932, against 170 in 1931.”
1936:
University of Pennsylvania trained attorney Horace Stern, the Philadelphia born
son of Morris and Matilde Stern and the husband of Henrietta Stern began
serving as a Justice of Pennsylvania State Supreme Court.
1936:
Cartoon character Porky Pig makes his debut.
For most of his career the traif animal got his voice from the Jewish
Mel Blanc.
1937:
Birthdate of Lou Holtz who as an assistant football coach recruited Scott Cowen
to play for the University of Connecticut where he earned his first degree on
an academic road that led to his Presidency of Tulane University. (Cowen was Jewish – Holtz was not)
1937:
“A denial by Henry Ford that he had any connection with the anti-Jewish book, The
International Jew published in Germany was made public” in New York today
by Samuel Untermyer, the president of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League
1937: The Palestine Post
reported that a quarry worker, Haim Katz, 29, and a policeman, Jacob Klinger,
34, were murdered in an ambush at Givat Shaul.
1938: William Dodd, who had resigned as U.S. Ambassador to Germany
in December, arrived in New York City where he said that he
"doubted if an American envoy who held his ideals of democracy could
represent his country successfully among the Germans at the present time."
Dodd was the first U.S. Ambassador appointed after the rise of Hitler. In time he came to see the Nazi threat and
tried to do what he could to warn America about the danger.
1938(4th of Shevat, 5698): Russian born Pinchas Friedman one of
the earliest Zionist settlers and a founder of Tel Aviv passed who had made
Aliyah in 1890 passed away today.
1939: In “Interests of Britain, Jews and Arabs Are in Clash,”
published today Anne O’Hare McCormick describes conditions in Palestine which
is currently in the grip of an armed Arab uprising. She describes meetings with two different
groups of Arabs. The first group,
“composed of fervent nationalists complained” that the Jews of Palestine
“prevented Palestinians from attaining an independent status like that granted
to Iraq.” They vowed that they “would
never cease fighting” and “insisted that they spoke for every Arab in the
land.” The second group of Arabs was
found “sharing a meal in a communal dining room” on a kibbutz. These Arabs said “they wanted peace and
complained that the British neither punished the handful off rebels stirring up
their village” nor providing arms to responsible Arab leaders so they could
stand against those creating the violence.
1939: “Sir Ronald Storrs, the former Military and Civil Governor
of Jerusalem who has said that many more than the half million Jews currently
living in Palestine “could be accommodated in the territory if irrigation
systems” and who was a close friend of T.E. Lawrence arrived in the United
States where he “is to give a series of lectures on Jerusalem and the political
situation in the Near East.” (Editor’s Note – Storrs was one of those
fascinating English characters in the Middle East. He served with Allenby and in December of
1917 was the first British official to govern the City of David which he
famously walked around in Christmas of 1917)
1940: Shivering Jews in
1941: President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his State of the Union
address which became known as the Four Freedoms Speech because FDR listed them
as:
- Freedom
of speech and expression including the right to dissent
- Freedom
of every person to worship God in his own way
- Freedom
from want
- Freedom
from fear
The first two are recognizable as being part of the Bill of
Rights. Freedom #2 spoke directly to the
needs and concerns of the Jewish people and would prove strikingly ironic
considering the events surrounding the Holocaust.
1941: Sixty-year-old Franz Hessel, the son of Jewish converts to
the Lutheran Church, Fanny and Heinrich Hessel who worked with Walter Benjamin,
whose parents did not convert of the translation of works by Marcel Proust,
passed away toda.
1942:
Jacob Moshe Toledano who was born in Tiberias was installed as Sephardic Chief
Rabbi of Tel Aviv and
1942:
Victor Klemper was arrested and interrogated at the Gestapo headquarters in
1942:
Gussie Schwebel, “the Knish Queen wrote to Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt:
My
Dear Mrs. Roosevelt: I take the liberty of sending you a newspaper clipping
dealing with my humble self. The purpose of this letter is two-fold. First: It
is my most sincere hope that I may be permitted to send you a sample of my
dish, the knish, which, believe me, my dear Mrs. Roosevelt, is really worth
tasting. Also, I wonder if I may not be able to be of service to my beloved
land, by way of introducing the knish, which is very wholesome and not costly
to produce, into the diet of our armed forces. I shall be most happy to devote
all of my time and my energy to this end. Again, I pray that you may accept a
boxful of knishes from me and will let me know when and where I can send them,
I am Your most respectful servant, Mrs. Gussie Schwebel
1943:
Eighty-six-year-old Abbot Lawrence Lowell, the former President of Harvard,
passed away. He was praised by some for
being a leader in educational reforms.
But many of his policies were homophobic, racist and anti-Semitic.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/harvard.html
1943:
The Jews of Lubaczow,
1943:
Jews hiding in
1944: In Tulsa, OK, “Bessie (née Roberts) and
Raymond Kravis, a successful Tulsa oil engineer who had been a business partner
of Joseph P. Kennedy, gave birth Henry R. Kravis, the co-founder of Kolhberg
Kravis Roberts and Company who “had an estimated net worth of
$5.2 billion as of October 20” and was “ranked by Forbes as the 324th richest
man in the world.”
1944: Birthdate of Bonnie Franklin, American
actress. She once said that because of her red hair and freckles, fans have a
hard time believing that she is Jewish.
1944: Anne Frank wrote in her diary that “her image
of” Peter Schiff “was so vivid that she didn’t need a photograph” of him.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/feb/24/news.features
1945 (21st of Tevet, 5705): On Shabbat, Roza
Robota and three other Jewish women implicated in the smuggling of explosives
used in the
1945: Hungarian authorities accede to Raoul
Wallenberg's request that 5000 Jews be transferred to Swiss-sponsored safe
homes in
1945(21st of Tevet, 5705): Anne
Frank's mother, Edith, dies at
1946:
In
1947(14th
of Tevet, 5707): Fifty-seven-year-old Dr. Harry Plotz, the native of Patterson,
NJ and graduate of Columbia who became an “international authority on typhus
fever.”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9801E6DE153EEE3BBC4F53DFB766838C659EDE
1948(24th
of Tevet, 5708): Seventy-year old retail women’s wear New Jersey merchant,
Jacob Cohen the husband of Annie Halpern Cohen with whom he had two children
and “who was long active in Jewish welfare work” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/01/07/85189374.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1948:
Film noire classic “The Treasure of Sierra Madre” with music by Max Steiner was
released today in the United States.
1949:
During Operation Horev, the Israeli Air Force shot down five RAF Spitfires on
patrol in the area, killing two pilots and taking two prisoners. It is not clear if the Spitfires were being
flown by Egyptian or British pilots.
1949:
The British moved forces into the Jordanian port of Akaba.
1949:
After three days of fighting around Rafah in which its forces failed to defeat
the IDF, the Egyptian government announced, that it was willing to enter
armistice negotiations.
1950(17th
of Tevet, 5710): Just 13 days before his 69th birthday, John Nathan
“Dutch” Levine, the Yale University fullback on the undefeated 1905 team and
college coach at several schools including Davidson, Auburn, and Transylvania
College passed away today.
1950:
Birthdate of Moldavian native Boris Sandler, the Jewish writer whose language
of choice is Yiddish and who writes for the Fowerts
in the United States.
https://forward.com/news/335537/boris-sandler-retires-as-editor-of-yiddish-forward/
1951:
After almost three years, Larry Blyden finished his performance on Broadway in
“Mr. Roberts” where he played a Shore Patrol Officer and then Ensign Frank
Pulver.
1952:
Following the rape and murder of Leah Feistinger, Israeli forces reportedly
raided Beit Jalla.
1952:
Wilhelm Haspel, who was chairman of and CEO of Dailmer AG starting in 1942,
during the Nazi era, who was married to a Jewish woman, passed away today.
1953:
The Jerusalem Post reported that
according to the new and improved rationing schedule each Israeli was now able
to purchase four eggs a week. A mere fifty years ago, the Israelis were living
barely above the subsistence level. With no natural resources and faced
by enemies on all of its borders, the Jews created a modern, vibrant country. A
huge forest, named after Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, was
planted on Mount Carmel. Only five years after the founding of the state of
Israel, the Jewish state created a living monument to a Moslem leader who was
not afraid to embrace the modern world.
1954:
Moshe Sharett succeeded David Ben-Gurion as Prime Minister of Israel. Ben Gurion had been Prime Minister since the
creation of the state in 1948. Sharett
had been Foreign Minister, a post he kept in the new government. Golda Meir remained as Labor Minister and
Pinchas Lavon became Minister of Defense.
The change was in leadership; the Labor Zionist still maintained control
of the government.
1955:
In Boston, publication of the tercentenary issue of the Jewish Advocate.
1956:
Birthdate of Gonen Segev, the native of Kiryat Motzkin who has served as an MK
and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure.
1956:
In Seattle, Washington, a Friday night services is held at the U of W Hillel
House attended by 170 people who want to form a Reform congregation that will
become Temple Beth Am.
1956:
Birthdate of Justin Welby, “the first ‘Jewish’ Archbishop of Canterbury.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-first-jewish-archbishop-of-canterbury-heads-to-israel/
1957: Yeshiva Kol Ya'ackov opened
in Moscow Russia.
1958: Birthdate of Rehovot native and professional tennis players
who was “the first Israeli to a Maacbiah Tennis Championship.
1958(14th of Tevet, 5718): Seventy-one year old Fulton,
MO born mathematician Dr. Wallie Abraham Hurwitz, who received three degrees
from the University of Missouri, an A.M. from Harvard and a doctorate from the
University of Goettingen in Germany before going on to teaching career that
culminated with him being made a full professor at Cornell in 1924 passed away
today after suffering what proved to be a fatal attack.
1959: “The Captain’s Table” a comedy produced by Joseph Janni was
released today in the United Kingdom.
1959(26th of Tevet, 5719): Sixty-two-year-old Ukraine
native, WW I veteran and NYU trained attorney Bernard Austin, the New York
Assemblyman who had been represented the Fourth Assembly District since 1934
dropped dead after having “just taken a seat in the jury box in the courtroom
of King’s County Judge Hyman Barshay.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/01/07/83433630.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1960: In Wandsworth, London Vanessa (née Salmon) “the heiress to
the J.Lyons and Co. fortune: and Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby gave birth
to “English journalist, broadcaster, television personality, gourmet, and food
writer” Nigella Lawson.
1963(10th of Tevet, 5723): Asara B’Tevet
1963(10th of Tevet, 5723): Eighty-four-year-old German
born American soprano Lina Abaranell passed away today at the Montefiore
Hospital in New York City
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/Abarbanell-Lina
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/lina-abarbanell
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/01/08/89907647.pdf
1964: Pope Paul VI completed his first visit to the “Holy Land”
where he visited sites in Jordan and Israel and began his return flight to
Rome.
1966(14th of Tevet, 5726): Sixty-six-year-old Polish
born Yiddish poet Kalman Heisler who in 1921 came to the United States where he
owned a dress shop passed away today.
http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32887
1967: Jewish pianist Jacob Lateiner, accompanied by the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, performed at the premier of Elliot Carter’s piano concerto
and the third piano sonata of Roger Sessions.
1967: "Milton Berle
Show" aired for the last time on
1968(5th of Tevet, 5728): Parashat Vayigash
1968(5th of Tevet, 5728): Fifty-seven-year-old Benami
Bendor, the Braga, Poland son of Esther Ben Dor, the husband of Ruth Bendor and
brother of Emory University biblical archaeologist Immanuel Ben-Dor,
passed away today.
1968: It was reported today that during a New Year’s conversation
French President Charles de Gaulle had assured Jacob Kaplan, the Grand Rabbi of
France “that it was far from his intention to insult the Jews when he called
them an ‘elite people, sure of itself and domineering’ during a news conference
in November of 1967. Speaking at a time
when France was repositioning itself following the Six Days War de Gaulle also said,
“that while the Jews though the centuries had ‘provoked, more precisely
aroused’ antagonism in various countries, they had received great sympathy from
Christians because of their sufferings.” (Editor’s Note – these words have a
hollow sound coming from the land of Drancy.
They also show that French anti-Semitism in the 21st century
is not just a produce of Moslem radicals)
1969: “The Fig Leaves Are Falling” a musical with script and
lyrics by Allan Sherman closed after only 4 performances
1969: In his review of “The Birthday Party,” film based on an
unpublished screenplay by Harold Pinter, published in The Nation, “critic Harold Clurman described the film as "a
fantasia of fear and prosecution,"
1972(19th of Tevet, 5732): Newark, NJ native Bernard
Shaw Pully the nightclub comedian who created the role of Big Jule, the Chicago
gangster, in the musical “Guys and Doll” passed away today.
1975: Ninety-two-year-old Burton K. Wheeler, the U.S. Senator from
Montana who in 1936 “said that anti-Semitism has not only gained a foothold in
European countries like Germany, Poland, Rumania, Austria and Hungary, but has
been imported in the Western Hemisphere by Mexico, Brazil and Ecuador” and that
the “capacity for persecution” as embodied in anti-Semitism is not “foreign to
American soil passed away today.
1975(23rd of Tevet, 5735): Seventy-seven-year-old
actor, producer and director Noel Madison, who was born Noel Nathaniel
Moscovitch, “the son of actor Maurice Moscovitch and his wife Rose” and who was
the husband of “the former Joyce Nathan with whom he had one son – Toby --
passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/01/07/archives/noel-madison.html
1976: “Principal photography for “Rocky” produced by Robert
Chartoff and Irwin Winkler began today.
1977(16th of Tevet, 5737): Seventy-nine-year-old “William Gropper, the Lower East Side born son
of impoverished Jewish immigrants Harry and Jenny groper, a widely known
radical cartoonist and leading artist of the American “social realist” school
who “was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate
Academician” passed away today.
https://www.eteichertfineprints.com/searchartist.php?inartist=William%20Gropper
1977(16th of Tevet, 5737): Eighty-six-year-old Iowa
native and McGill University physician Dr. Harry Goldblatt, “a pioneer in blood
pressure research,” the long time “director of the Louis d. Beaumont Memorial
Research Laboratories of Mt. Sinai Hospital in Cleveland and emeritus professor
of experimental Pathology at the Case-Western Reserve University School of
Medicine” who was the husband of the “former Jeanne Rea” and the father of
neurologist David Goldblatt and pathologist Peter Goldblatt passed away today
in Rochester.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1977/01/08/80215944.html?pageNumber=22
1978: The Jerusalem Post
reported that
1980: On his 22nd birthday, Israeli tennis pro Shlomo
Glickstein won “a hard-court tennis tournament in Hobart, Australia.” (As
reported by Louis Hayman)
1980: Birthdate of Birmingham, MI native and Michigan State
University basketball player and President of Wholesale Mortgage.
http://www.msuspartans.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/ishbia_mat00.html
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20111002/AWARDS40/110929881/mat-ishbia-31
1981(1st of Shevat, 5741): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1981(1st of Shevat, 5741): Fifty-six-year-old Marion
Ruth Abitz, the wife of Irving Abitz passed away after which she was buried at
Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in Chesterfield, MO.
1981: Harold H. Saunders completed his service as the 12th
Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs today.
1981: “Parcels sent by post to refuseniks from Israel and the
West” were “sent back by Soviet authorities today.
1982: “In Our Water,” the documentary nominated for an Oscar and
an Emmy which was filmed by cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld was released today
in the United States.
1987: A.M. Rosenthal’s “On My Mind” column appeared for the first
time on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times.
1987(5 Tevet 5747): U.S. Federal Court issued a decision in favor
of Agudas Chassidei Chabad ("Union of Chabad Chassidim") regarding
the ownership of the priceless library of the 6th Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch,
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn. The ruling was based on the idea that a Rebbe
is not a private individual but a communal figure synonymous with the body of
Chassidim. The Lubavitcher Rebbe (Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchak's son-in-law and
successor) urged that the occasion be marked with time devoted to study from
Torah books ("sefarim") as well as the acquisition of new Torah
books.
1987:
A roadside bomb killed four members of an
Israeli-backed militia in southern Lebanon today.
1987: Yitzhak Shamir replaced Yitzhak Peretz as Internal Affairs
Minister.
1989(28th of Tevet, 5749): Seventy-nine-year-old New
York City native Hyman Goldstein, the holder of three academic degrees in
psychology from Columbia University and “former chief of the biometrics branch
of the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness” who was
preceded in death by his wife Fannie T. Goldstein with whom he raised three
children – Isadora, Robert and Donald – passed away today in Rockville, MD.
1991: Following a speech today, commemorating the 70th anniversary
of the Iraqi Army, in which Sadam Hussein said he was preparing the nation for
a great battle to liberate Palestine and defeat American "tyranny" in
the Middle East the United States once again rejected efforts to tie the gulf
crisis to the Palestinian question.
1994: “Homicide: Life on the Street” began its second season with
a show written by David Simon and co-starring Yaphet Frederick Kotto Baltimore
Police “Lieutenant Al Giardell.”
1995(5th of Shevat, 5755): Sixty-eight year old Joe Slovo (born
Yossel Mashel Slovo) a leading opponent of Apartheid who served as Minister of
Housing under President Nelson Mandela passed away today.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-joe-slovo-1566935.html
2000(27th of Tevet, 5760): Eighty-seven year old New
York native Peter “Pete” Berenson, the CCNY forward from 1932 to 1934 who went
on to a professional basketball career passed away today.
http://www.jewsinsports.org/profile.asp?sport=basketball&ID=76
2001(11th of Tevet, 5761): Parashat Vayigash
2001: “According to Theodore S. Chapin, president of The Rodgers
and Hammerstein Organization William Hammerstein, the director and producer who
was the eldest child of Oscar Hammerstein II and directed the 1979 revival of ‘Oklahoma!’
suffered a stroke today,
2001: Today Amos Oz wrote about his frustration with Palestinian
behavior saying that now that Israel is
offering the Palestinians a peace accord based on 1967 borders, with minor
mutual amendments” “the Palestinian nation is rejecting this agreement” with
its leaders now demanding a "right of return" for hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians who fled and were driven out of their homes in the
1948 war
while cynically ignoring “the fate of
hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews who fled and were driven out of their
homes in Arab countries during the same war.”
2002:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish author and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including newly released paperback versions of
Amy Wilentz’s Martyrs' Crossing,
the first novel by a former Israel correspondent for The New Yorker and
Bob Woodward’s Maestro: Greenspan's Fed and the American Boom, an
admiring portrait of the Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan.
2002:
Sheila Finestone completed her service as Senator for Montarville, Quebec, when
she reached the mandatory retirement age of 75.
2002:
Among the 200 works of art and artifacts are illuminated ketubot -- Jewish
marriage contracts -- from the 17th to the 20th century. There are also
folk-art textiles, sheet music, photographs, postcards, portraits celebrating
long marriages, and wedding clothes from 19th- and 20th-century America, as
well as from Morocco, Iraq and Iran. Reflecting customs and rites of different
times and places, all these are part of ''Romance and Ritual: Celebrating the
Jewish Wedding,'' which continues through Jan. 6 at the Skirball Cultural
Center and Museum in Los Angeles.
2003:
“Suicide Bombings Kill 23 in Tel Aviv” published today.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/01/05/israel.explosions/
2003:
Police said tonight that that they suspected the suicide bombers who struck in
Tel Aviv on Sunday used backpacks containing more than 20kg of explosives
instead of suicide belts.
2004: “In the southern Gaza Strip, the army said, it uncovered two
Palestinian tunnels in Rafah, along the border with Egypt” one of which “was
used to smuggle weapons across the border” and the other of which traveled under a road used by military
vehicles, which the Palestinians were presumably planning to attack, the
Israeli Army said.”
2004(12th of Tevet, 5764): Victor Shalom, the husband
of Doris Shalom and a member of Temple Israel of Great Neck passed away today.
2005:
: Edgar Ray Killen is arrested as a suspect for the 1964 murders of three Civil
Rights workers James Chaney, a 21-year-old black man from Meridian, Mississippi
and two Jewish voting rights organizers from New York, Andrew Goodman and
Michael Schwerner.
2005:
The First World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace begins in Brussels,
Belgium. “The Permanent Committee for Jewish-Muslim Dialogue was created
after the First World Congress as an institution which would reflect and act in
domains and on problematic issues in which Islam and Judaism are implicated.
The committee is composed on nine founder members, four international Jewish
personalities, four international Muslim personalities and a neutral
president.”
2006:
“Jackie Hoffman: Chanukah At Joe’s Pub” and “Walking in Memphis: The Life of A
Southern Jew,” a semi-autobiographical piece by Jonathan Ross are now playing
“Off, Off Broadway” in New York City.
2006:
“Fateless” a movie based on the novel by the same name written by Imre Kertesz
opens at the Film Forum in New York. Fateless
was a biographical novel for which Kertesz won the Nobel Prize in 2002.
2006:
Ariel “Sharon underwent a five-hour operation to halt bleeding in his brain,
following which Sharon was returned to the neurological intensive care unit.”
2007:
As part of its “Jewish Season” The Theater for a New Audience in New York City
presents The Merchant of Venice.
2008:
An exhibition entitled Morris Louis Now: An American Master Revisited at
the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. comes to a close.
2008(28th
of Tevet, 5768): Rabbi Shmuel Berenbaum, a Talmudic scholar who for more than
50 years led a major Orthodox yeshiva in Brooklyn, known as the Mir Yeshiva,
died today. He was 87. His death followed a long struggle with cancer, said
Rabbi Pinchos Hecht, executive director of the yeshiva, also called the Mirrer
Yeshiva Central Institute. The Mir
Yeshiva is exclusively devoted to the study of the Torah: the Old Testament,
commentaries upon it and the oral tradition known as the Talmud. It has 1,200 members.
Another branch is in Jerusalem, with an estimated 4,000 students. Rabbi Berenbaum was born in 1920 in Poland
and studied in a yeshiva in Mir before World War II. As the Nazis rolled across
Eastern Europe, he and other yeshiva students fled to the Soviet Union and
resettled in Shanghai. From there, they eventually emigrated to the United
States. Steven Bayme, national director of contemporary Jewish life at the
American Jewish Committee, said the yeshiva helped preserve “a world that was
otherwise lost.” “The rescue of the institution during the Holocaust by going
to Shanghai was an act of incredible daring,” Mr. Bayme said. “It took enormous
courage and perseverance.” Jonathan Rosenblum, director of Am Echad, an
advocacy group in Israel that works to build bridges between ultra-Orthodox
Jews and others, said that while Rabbi Berenbaum had no public position in
America, “he was the one who was consulted on anything connected to Torah
learning in the Torah world,” adding, “He taught Torah for over 50 years, and
he never repeated himself.” Leadership of the Brooklyn yeshiva will pass to
Rabbi Berenbaum’s nephew, Rabbi Osher Kalmanowitz. (As reported by AP)
2008:
The Matzo Show on Rivington Street by Deborah Kolben
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/nyregion/thecity/06matz.html
2008:
The Washington Post featured a review
of People of the Book a work of historic fiction by Geraldine
Brooks. “The Book” in the title is the
famous Sarajevo Haggadah, created in medieval
2008:
The Sunday New York Times featured a
review of, and excerpt from, Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism,
Nazism and the Roots of 9/11
by Matthias Küntzel and translated by Colin Meade, a review of, and an
excerpt from, Islamophobia: Making
Muslims the Enemy by Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg
and a review of Peace Be Upon You: The Story of Muslim, Christian and Jewish
Coexistence by Zacharcy Karabell.
2008
(28 Tevet 5768): Rabbi Shmuel Berenbaum,
the Rosh yeshiva of the Mir yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York City which includes
an elementary school and a high school, as well as its post-graduate Talmudical
Academy passed away. The original Mirrer yeshiva was founded in 1815, in Mir,
Belarus, and remained in operation there until 1914. With the outbreak of World
War I the yeshiva moved to Poltava, Ukraine, under the leadership of Rabbi
Eliezer Yehudah Finkel, son of the legendary Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel (the Alter
of Slabodka), and son-in-law of Rabbi Elya Boruch Kamai, his renowned
predecessor. In 1921, the yeshiva moved back to its original facilities in Mir,
where it remained until Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939 marking the
beginning of the Holocaust. Although many of the foreign-born students left
when the Soviet army invaded from the east, the yeshiva continued to operate,
albeit on a reduced scale, until the approaching Nazi armies caused the leaders
of the yeshiva to move the entire yeshiva community to Keidan, Lithuania. As
the Nazi armies continued to push to the east, the yeshiva as a whole
eventually fled across Siberia by train to the Far East, and finally reopened
in Kobe, Japan in 1941. Several smaller yeshivos managed to escape alongside
the Mir, and, despite the difficulties involved, the overseers of the Mirrer
yeshiva undertook full responsibility for their support, distributing funds and
securing quarters and food for all the students. A short time later, the
yeshiva relocated again, to (Japanese-controlled) Shanghai, China, where they
remained until the end of World War II. The heroism of the Japanese
consul-general in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, who issued several thousand
travel visas to Jews, permitting them to flee to the east, has been the subject
of several books. Following the end of the war, the majority of the Jewish
refugees from Shanghai ghetto left for Palestine and the United States. Among
them were the survivors from the Mir yeshiva, who re-established the yeshiva,
this time with two campuses, one in Jerusalem, Israel and this one in Brooklyn,
New York.
2009: The National Jewish Democratic Council
recognizes the Jewish Democratic Members of the 111th Congress at a reception
at Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC
2009:
Fast of the 10th of Tevet and Yahrzeit of Judy Rosenstein (nee
Levin).
2009: Today, on the Christian observance known as the Feast of
the Epiphany, the Ra'anana Symphonette (RS) conducted by Omer Wellber,
will play Irena's Song - a Ray of Light through the Darkness by Kobi
Oshrat. The composition and the performance were inspired by Irene Sendler, who
along with her intrepid band of helpers from Zegota, the Polish underground,
rescued 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto between 1942 and 1943. “Between
these dates grows a story no less wonderful than the life, deeds and soul of a
Polish Catholic social worker who risked her life that Jewish children might
live. "Every child saved with my help, and the help of all the wonderful
secret messengers… is the justification of my existence on earth, and not a
title to glory," Sendler said to the Polish Senate when it honored her in
2007. In January 2008, RS general director Orit Fogel saw the portrait of a
woman (pictured) in a
2009:
Barack Obama has nominated Elena Kagan to serve as his solicitor general. If
the nomination is confirmed by the United States Senate, Kagan who is the dean
of the
2010: The Bronx House Jewish Community Center
presents “Klezmer Party” with Matan Chapnizka (Saxophone), Daniel Ori (Bass)
and Dan Pugach (Drums) as part of the 2010 Bronx House Concert Series.
2010:
At around 1 a.m. this morning the Etz-Hayyim Synagogue in the Greek city of
Hania on the island of Crete was set on fire by an unkown arsonist. The fire
was started on wooden staircase that led to the second-story women's section of
the main sanctuary in the small seaside complex.
2010:
Israel inched a step closer to deploying a missile defense system along the
border with the Gaza Strip today after the Iron Dome successfully intercepted a
number of missile barrages in tests held in southern Israel this week.
2010:
American Jewish youth movement Young Judaea and its long-running sponsor,
Hadassah Women's Organization, suffered another blow today following the
resignation of key staff member, YJ/FZY Year Course Director Keith Berman.
2010:
James von Brunn, who shot and killed museum guard Stephen Tyrone Johns on June
10 during an attempted raid on the U.S. Holocaust Museum, died in a prison
hospital today.
2011(1st
of Shevat, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Shevat.
2011:
The 92nd St Y is scheduled to present a program entitled “Democracy,
Power Politics and the New Middle East” which will “delve into the shifting
tectonic plates of Middle East politics, Iran's embattled regime and its
nuclear ambitions, Iraq's fledgling democracy, new realities for Persian Gulf
monarchies and the longer-term challenges facing Israelis and Palestinians.
2011:
Aaron Hillel Swartz “was arrested near the Harvard campus by MIT police and a
U.S. Secret Service agent” after which he “was arraigned in Cambridge District
Court on two state charges of breaking and entering with intent to commit a
felony.”
2011:
The Red Sea Classical Festival is scheduled to open in Eilat.
2011:
Birthday of Brian Cohen, shofar blower par excellence, and a man whose life is
worthy of his patronymic.
2011:
The High Court of Justice ruled today that public bus companies could continue
the practice of gender segregation on dozens of lines serving the
ultra-Orthodox sector, as long as there is no coercion or violence involved.
"
2011:
Kenyan runner Stephen Chemlany won the 34th annual Tiberias Marathon today,
making it across the finish line after 2:10:02. Frenchman Patrick Tambe Ngoie
captured second place, finishing seven seconds behind the leader.
2012:
In New Orleans, LA, Touro Synagogue is scheduled to host a Shabbat Family
Dinner.
2012:
Think Different – Original Israeli Rock is scheduled to take place at the
Blaze Sports and Rock Bar on Rechov
Hillel
2012:
Excerpts from works by LeeSaar The Company Lior Shneior (Sea Songs), Michal
Samama (Under the Skin), Neta Dance Company and Netta Yerushalmy are scheduled
to be performed at the 92nd St Y in Manhattan.
2012: The Judges Selection Committee announced the
nomination of four new Supreme Court judges today. The four are: Jerusalem
District Court Judge Noam Sohlberg (50), Deputy President of the Jerusalem
District Court Zvi Zylbertal (60), Tel Aviv District Court Judge Uri Shoham
(64) and Professor Dafna Barak-Erez (47), who serves as Dean of Law at the Tel
Aviv University.
2012:
Gabriel Cadis, a senior figure in Jaffa’s Christian community was stabbed to
death today evening, during festivities at the St George Church in Jaffa.
Cadis, who served as head of the Orthodox Church Association in Jaffa, was
taken to Wolfson Medical
2012:
A third file containing hacked credit card details of Israelis was posted on
the internet today.
2013:
The Klezmer Jam Session and Dance is scheduled to take place at The Talking
Stick in Venice, CA.
2013:
Tim Burton’s “Frankenweenie” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish
Film Festival.
2013:
The New York Times features reviews
of books written by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Love Song: The Lives of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya and the
recently released paperback editions of Man Seeks God: My Flirtations With
the Divine by Eric Weinter and The
Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman
2013:
Family and friends of Brian Cohen, master latke maker and shofar blower par
excellence, wish him the happiest of birthdays in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2013:
Public Television is scheduled to broadcast “Broadway Musicals: A Jewish
Legacy, featuring interviews and performance footage that provides insight as
to why Broadway “is fertile territory for Jewish artists.”
2013:
A report released by the State Comptroller today finds that former Israel
Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Gabi Ashkenazi was not directly
complicit in the production of a document aimed at discrediting Defense
Minister Ehud Barak's choice to succeed him as army chief, Maj.-Gen. (res.)
Yoav Galant.
2013:
Flooded tracks brought train traffic between Tel Aviv and Haifa to a halt for a
few hours on Sunday, as stuck automobiles caused traffic jams in many places
across the country.
2013(24th
of Tevet, 5733): 200th Yarhrzeit of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi,
founder of the Chabad Lubavitch Movement. We cannot do justice to the career of
this Jewish leader who “created” a form of Judaism that harmonized the need for
spirituality, ecstasy and education.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/77049/jewish/Rabbi-Schneur-Zalman-of-Liadi.htm
2014:
Professor Steven is scheduled to deliver a lecture “Leonard Bernstein: From
Jewish Roots to Broadway” in Carlsbad, CA.
2014:
Today, “it was announced that Julius Genachowski returned to the corporate
world to take a post at The Carlyle Group” where “he will reportedly
concentrate on global technology, media, and telecommunications investments.”
2014:
“12 Years a Slave” is among the films scheduled to shown at the Jerusalem
Jewish Film Festival.
2014:
In a case of Jew follows Jew, the United States voted today to confirm Janet
Yellen as the next Chair of the Federal Reserve following Ben Bernake who
completes his term at the end of this month.
2014:
An unknown assailant lobbed a small pipe bomb into the Rachel’s Tomb complex
near Bethlehem tonight, causing an explosion “lightly injuring” one passer-by.
(As reported by Times of Israel Staff)
2014:
Jane Yellin “was confirmed as Chai of the Federal Reserve” making her the first
woman and the first Jewish woman to hold the post.
2014:
“Amid mounting criticism from international organizations and protests by
African migrants outside several Tel Aviv embassies, Israeli officials tonight
tried to reframe the debate over the fate of the 50,000-60,000 migrants here by
reiterating the official government position in a more conciliatory manner
while emphasizing the unique challenges that Israel faces.” (As reported by
Marissa Newman)
2015:
In the UK, the University of Kent is scheduled to mark the 70th
anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by hosting a conference that “seeks
to examine the significance of the topography of the Nazi concentration camps
--- from historical, sociological and artistic perspectives.”
2015:
Forty-year-old Hussam Kawasme, “the mastermind behind the kidnapping and murder
of three Israeli teenagers in June 2014 was sentenced today to three life terms
in prison and order to pay the families of Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Fraenkel, and
Gil-ad Shaar NIS 250,000 ($63,000) apiece in compensation for their murders.”
2015:
Some supermarkets in Jerusalem “saw their supply of water and fresh meat run
out today” as “Israel braced for a major winter storm.” (As reported by Lazar
Berman)
2015:
“Why Bess Myerson still matters” published today examines the significance of
the first Jewish Miss America” who recently passed away at the age of 90.
2016(25th
of Tevet, 5776): On the Jewish calendar
Yahrzeit Rabbi Moses Levi Ehrenreich, the chief rabbi of Rome.
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tevet_25.html
2016:
“The first of the two-part annual exhibition Illustrators 58 is scheduled to be
held at the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators
where a Gold Medal will awarded to Merav Salomon.
2016:
“The remains of a 3,400-year-old Canaanite citadel, which were recently
unearthed in the middle of the coastal city Nahariya, are to be preserved and
incorporated in an apartment high-rise, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA)
announced today.”
2016:
Three ultra-Orthodox Jews were attacked in London by a group of anti-Semites
this evening, who threw gas cylinders at them and shouted "Hitler is on
the way." (YNET)
2017:
The City of Tiberias is scheduled to host the annual Sea of Galilee Marathon.
2017:
In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host a Shabbat dinner prepared by
chef Marisa Baggett which is unique because attendees are encouraged to “leave
the kids at home” for this “adult only activity.”
2018:
“Data released by the IDF tonight revealed that from 99 terrorist attacks over
2017, 20 Israelis were killed, with 169 wounded. The attacks, which originated
in the West Bank, are an increase on the numbers from 2016, where from 269
attacks, 17 Israelis were, with 263 injured.”
2018(19th
of Tevet, 5778): A new year marks the first reading from a new book – Parshat
Shemot;
2018:
“Tapes Reveal Egyptian Leader’s Tacit Acceptance of Jerusalem Move” published
today provided background to President Trump’s decision to move the U.S.
embassy to Jerusalem.
2018:
Jewish History Society of Greater Washington “program Samantha Abramson” is
scheduled to lead a special downtown tour with a focus on the impacts of 1968
events on the Jewish community and downtown landscape” which take place indoor
depending on the possibility of extreme winter weather.
2018:
As a mid-winter storm continues to lash Israel, “the Kinneret Authority
welcomed the downpours” because the rain helped to replenish streams in the
north.
2018:
Thanks to the leadership skills of Lena Gilbert, in Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah
is scheduled to host the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre’s Seventh Annual Preview
Concert featuring “the principal singers from ‘Turandot,’ Puccini’s final
opera.
2019:
“Israeli artists Igal Perry of Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, Ido
Tadmor, founder of Dance Arts, Koresh Dance Company, and Keren Anavy and
Valerie Green's UTOPIA collaborative work are scheduled to be among the 20
innovative artists whose companies will be featured at the Salvatore Capezio
Theater.”
2019:
“In response to the mass shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue, the Jewish
community of Atlanta is scheduled to come together at Temple Sinai in Sandy
Springs for “Anti-Semitism Summit: Navigate Communicate, Advocate.”
2019:
A special preview of “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” based on the life of forger Lee
Israel is scheduled to be shown at the London Phoenix Cinema.
2019:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Flame: Poems, Notebooks, Lyrics, Drawings by Leonard
Cohen, Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974
co-authored ty Julian E Zeilzer and the recently released paperback edition of The
Wine Lover’s Daughter: A Memoir by Anne Fadiman, the daughter of Clifton
Fadiman
2019:
In Amherst, MA, The Yiddish Book Center is scheduled to host a screening of
“Joe’s Violin” and “Mandela Beats.”
http://support.yiddishbookcenter.org/site/Calendar?id=7768&view=Detail
2019:
“A planned exhibition celebrating Muslim Albanians who helped, protected and
rescued their Jewish neighbors during the Holocaust” which was to take place at
the Golders Green Mosque” will not take place today due “to pressure by
opponents of the exhibit including Roshan Salih, editor of British Muslim News
site 5 Pillas who urged a boycott.”
2019(29th
of Tevet, 5779): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Don Yitzhak Abravanel
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tishrei_29.html
2020:
In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Jojo Rabbit.”
2020:
The National Library of Israel is scheduled to host “Be Strong and of Good
Courage:
A
Conversation with Ambassador Dennis Ross and David Makovsky on Lessons of
Leadership for Israel and America”
2020:
In the wake of the recent violent anti-Semitic attacks, this evening the
“entire Atlanta Jewish community is scheduled to come together at Byers Theatre
at City Springs in a show of communal solidarity.
2020:
Ron Gal-Ed is scheduled to be playing the first of two concerts with Jupiter ‘’
a chamber music series to acknowledge and perpetuate the legacy of conductor
Jens Nygaard.”
2020:
Harvey Weinstein’s criminal trial is scheduled to begin today in New York’s
Supreme Court.
2020:
In San Francisco, the Sydney Goldstein Theatre is schedule to host an evening
with “novelist, screen writer and cultural critic Adam Mansbach and comedian W.
Kamau Bell.
2021:
East Bay Jewish
film fest, Contra Costa JCC and several local congregations are scheduled to
host a virtual screening of “Joachim Prinz: I Shall not be Silent,” a “2014
documentary about a German rabbi who stood up to Nazis and later witnessed
racism in the U.S.”
2021:
JBC, Natan Fund, and Shalom Hartman Institute of North America are scheduled to
present a “conversation between Natan Notable Books Fall 2020 Winner Dr. Nancy
Sinkoff and Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer
2021:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present a lecture by Ruben
Shimonov on “The Rich Cultural Heritage of the Bukharin Jews” which is follow
up to the 2 part lecture on the history of the B
2021: Simone Gold spoke at a rally in
Washington D.C. to a crowd of people gathering in the city for the following
day's "Stop the Steal" rally. She opposed the COVID-19 vaccines,
claimed COVID-19 was non-fatal, and made additional unfounded claims about the
vaccines,
2021:
The Oshman Family JCC is scheduled to present “Steve Lipman talking about his
trip with other Peninsula Sinai congregants to return a 200-year-old Torah
scroll back to its old home in Czech Republic.”
2021:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is schedule to host a virtual “coffee with a
survivor.”
2021:
The Jewish Museum of London is scheduled to present, on Facebook “an object
talk on the Voyage of the St. Louis” during which attendees can “discover the
stories of individuals on board the ill-fated ship.
2021:
Based on reports first published yesterday, “the Foreign Ministry is set to
announce the opening of two temporary missions in the United Arab Emirates - an
embassy in Abu Dhabi and a general consulate in Dubai.”
2021:
A mob, including people belonging to anti-Semitic organizations and/or wearing
anti-Semitic clothing stormed and temporarily occupied the U.S. Capital
building in a failed attempt to prevent Congress from fulfilling its obligation
regarding the election of the President of the United States.
2021:
Urban Adamah is scheduled to present “Shmita: What Will We East in the Seventh
Year,” a virtual discussion of Jewish agriculture that focuses on celebrating
abundance rather than fearing scarcity.
2022:
As the United States marks the first anniversary of the seizure of the U.S.
Capital building, the congressional committee investigating the event claims to
have “firsthand testimony” that his Jewish daughter, Ivanka, twice went to the
dining room at the White House to ask President “to please stop this violence.”
2022:
As part of the online “Sharing Our Favorite Biblical Characters” series Rabbi
Laura Abrasley is scheduled to lead a class on “Hannah: Misbehaving For All the
Right Reasons.”
2022:
As part of it’s “Fighting Hate from Home webinar series,” the ADL is scheduled
to host Homeland Security Secretary
Alejandro Mayorkas and Washington DC Attorney General Karl A. Racine who will
join ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and SVP of Policy Eileen Hershenov for an
important conversation reflecting on the events of last year’s insurrection,
the scope of the threats posed by domestic extremism as we begin 2022 and what
government officials and civil society can do to disrupt these threats going
forward.”
2022:
This morning, Israeli’s are left to wonder if the approach by “suspects who
were seen nearing the frontier” with Syrian which necessitated a response by
IDF tanks was an isolated incident or part of a larger threat that could be
tied back to the IAF attack on a Syrian port city.
2022:
Jodi Ruth Eichler-Levine is scheduled to present, online, an illustrated Jewish
Book Council author talk about her study, Painted Pomegranates and
Needlepoint Rabbis: How Jews Craft Resilience and Create Community which
was organized by the Falmouth Jewish Congregation.
2023:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by Rabbi Shippel, via zoom,
on the weekly torah portion.
2023:
In New Orleans, the Btesh Family Chabad House on Freret Street is scheduled to
host its monthly Friday night Shabbat social with a meaningful Kabbalat Shabbat
service, kiddush, appetizers, and friends old and new.
2023:
The “Excellence” Young Artists in Concert is scheduled to be broadcast on Kan
Kol Hamusika.
2023:
As Jews kindle their Shabbat candles, the friends and family of Brian Cohen, a
leader of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community and a shofar blower who hits in on
the first note every time, light the candles on his birthday cake.
2024(25th
of Tevet, 5784): Parashat Shemot; for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2024:
The Eden Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host “The Glorious Sound of the
Piano,” a “Fortepiano from Mozart's Time.”
2024: As January 6th begins in Israel,
the Hamas held hostages begin day 92 in captivity. (Editor’s note: this
situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are just providing a
snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time.)
