This Day, January 16, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
January 16
27 BCE: Gaius
Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate,
marking the beginning of the Roman Empire. Ten years earlier Augustus had
appointed Herod as King of Judea, of whom he said, “he would rather be a pig…
January 16
27 BCE: Gaius
Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate,
marking the beginning of the Roman Empire. Ten years earlier Augustus had
appointed Herod as King of Judea, of whom he said, “he would rather be a pig in
Herod’s house than one of his family.” For more about why the clash
between the Judeans and the Roman Empire did not have to lead to the
destruction of the Temple and the end of a Jewish state, see Rome and
Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations.
550: During
the Gothic War, The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long
siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison. The Ostrogoths was the name applied to
the eastern Goths. The Goths were Germanic in origin and and are often
thought of as part of the various Barbarian Hordes that destroyed the Roman
Empire. Unlike other such groups such as the Visigoths and Vandals, the
Ostrogoths, at least under their greatest leader Theodoric the Great, were
known for their religious toleration which was extended to the Jewish
people.
929: Emir
Abd-ar-Rahman III who had appointed Hasdi ibn Shaprut to serve as his
physician, established the Caliphate of Córdoba which came during what is
called the “Golden Age” and due to their treatment by the rulers, the Jews of
Cordoba supported the state and were active in commerce, industry and the study
of science.
1120: The
Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of
the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. This is the same Nablus that will be a
Fatah stronghold at the end of the 20th Century and the same
Jerusalem that is the capital of modern-day Israel.
1232: In London, The Domus Conversorum known in English as the
House of the Converts was founded by order of Henry III to provide a home and
free maintenance for Jews converted to Christianity.
1412: The
Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy. According to the Jewish Virtual Library “the organized
Jewish communities of Florence, Siena, Pisa and Livorno were political
creations of the Medici rulers. And like the Medici Grand Dukedom itself, these
communities took shape in the course of the sixteenth century. For more
about the unusual relationship between this famous
Italian family
see:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/medici.html
1547: Ivan the
Terrible was crowned Czar of Russia. From the point of view of the Jewish
people Ivan deserved to be called “the Terrible.” In 1563, he gave the
Jews of Polotsk, Lithuania, the choice of converting or dying. When the
Jews refused the cross, Ivan had his soldiers drill holes in the frozen Dvina
River and then pushed three hundred Jewish men, women and children through them
to their death.
1556: As part
of the Peace of Augusburg, Charles V, who met with David Reuben and Solomon
Molcho concerning “the alliance of the Jews of the East against the Ottoman
Empire, abdicated as the King of Spain.
1556: King
Phillip II, “who was a symbol of ‘Tyranny’ in Spinoza’s Political Writings” and
who expelled the Jews from Milan, began his reign as King of Spain today.
https://www.redalyc.org/jatsRepo/774/77455380006/html/index.html
1600:
The 400 Jews of Verona completed their synagogue after their move into the
ghetto.
This date was
actually celebrated as a "Purim" until the French Revolution, since
many felt that the ghetto provided some protection, and since in an unusual
move the keys of the ghetto were given to the Jewish leaders.
1678: In the
colony of Rhode Island, Israel and Mary (Baker) Arnold gave birth to Israel
Arnold, the son of the Deputy Governor of the colony.
1721:
Birthdate of Lithuania native Mordecai Moses Mordecai, the husband of Savannah,
GA native Zipporah De Lyon and the father of Deborah, David, Esther, Isaac and
Philp Mordecai.
1739: “Saul”
an oratorio by George Handel based on the story found in the 1st
Book of Samuel was “first performed at the King’s Theatre in London.”
1756: In
Germany, Kehle and Simon Bernheimer gave birth to Jakob Simon Berhnheimer, the
husband Lea Hajim with whom he had six children.
1756(14th
of Shevat, 5516): Rabbi Jacob Joshua Falk (Yaakov Yehoshua ben Tzvi Hirsch)
passed away today at Offenbach, born at Cracow in 1680, on his mother's side he
was a grandson of Joshua of Cracow, the author of "Maginne Shelomoh."
While a youth Jacob became examiner of the Hebrew teachers of Lemberg. In 1702
his wife, his child, and his mother were killed through an explosion of
gunpowder that wrecked the house in which they lived. Jacob himself narrowly
escaped death. He was then called to the rabbinate of Tarli and Lisko, small
Galician towns. In 1717 he replaced Ḥakam Ẓebi in the chief rabbinate of Lemberg;
and thence he was called to Berlin in 1731. Having displeased Veitel-Heine
Ephraim, one of the most influential leaders of the community, by rendering a
judgment against him, he was compelled at the expiration of his term of office
(1734) to resign. After having been for seven years rabbi of Metz he became
chief rabbi of Frankfort-on-the-Main; but the unfavorable attitude of the local
authorities toward the Jews, and the fact that the community was divided by
controversies, made his position there very precarious. Soon afterward the
quarrel between Jacob Emden and Jonathan Eybeschütz broke out. The chief rabbi,
because of his opposition to Eybeschütz, was ultimately compelled to leave the
city (1750). He wandered from town to town till he came to Worms, where he remained
for some years. He was then called back to Frankfort; but his enemies prevented
him from preaching in the synagogue, and he left the city a second time. Jacob
was one of the greatest Talmudists of his time. He wrote "Pene
Yehoshua'," novellæ on the Talmud, in four parts. Two of them were
published at Frankfort-on-the-Main (1752); the third, with his "Pesaḳ
bet-Din Ḥadash," at Fürth (1766); the fourth, which, in addition to
Talmudic novellæ, contains novellæ on the Ṭur Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ and "Liḳḳuṭim,"
also at Fürth (1780). He wrote also a commentary on the Pentateuch, which is
mentioned by the author himself, but has not appeared in print. (As reported by
Schechter and Seligsohn)
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Shevat_14.html
1761(11th
of Shevat, 5521): Reuben ben Aaron passed away today after which he interred in
the “Hoxton Old Jewish Burial Ground.”
1764: For the
next 12 months, starting from today, according to entries in the records of the
New York Custom House, there were only 4 “Jewish entries all for Sampson
Simpson. His cargoes which included iron, sugar, wine, skins and rum,
were sent to South Carolina and the Mosquito Coast. Although his name is
unknown to most, he was a highly successful businessman. During the Seven
Years, which ended in 1763, he outfitted four ships as privateers. Simpson was
the only Jewish member of the “prestigious Chamber of Commerce which was
created in 1768.”
1765(23
Tevet, 5525): Isaac Zerahiah Azulai, the father of 18th century
rabbinic scholar and author Chaim Joseph David passed away today in Jerusalem.
1774: In
London, Solomon Salmons and Shirphra Phillip Levy Salomons gave birth Levi
Salomons, “the London financier and underwriter” who lived near the Great St.
Helen’s Synagogue and who in 1795 married Matilda Mitz with whom he had six
children – Philip, David, Joseph, Sophia, Elizabeth and Esther.
and passed
away in January of 1843.
1775:
Birthdate of New York City native Samuel Abrahams, the son of Abraham Isaac
Abrahams.
1776: In
Buchau, Germany, Helen Neuberger and Heinrich Maendle gave birth to Marianna
Maendle,
1777: One day
after she had passed away, Esther Hamburger, the wife of Abraham Hamburger was
buried today at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.
1781: Abraham
Benjamin Cohen married Elizabeth Gompertz today.
1791: In
Savanah, GA, Charleston native Judith Canter and St. Croix native Emanuel De La
Motta gave birth to Isaac De La Motta who did not live to see his third
birthday.
1794: English
historian Edward Gibbon, author of The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire
passed away. Those who think that the acknowledgement of the Jewish
origins of Christianity is a twentieth century phenomenon are not acquainted
with this classic of ancient history. In chapter 15 of the first volume
of this classic, Gibbon makes it quite clear that Christianity is rooted in the
Judaism of the first century of the Common Era.
1801:
Philadelphian Benjamin Solomon began serving as a Midshipman in the United
States Navy today.
1802:
Birthdate of Joel Jolson who was baptized as a Lutheran at seventeen and gained
fame as Friedrich Julius Stahl, the German lawyer and politician.
1809: In
Charleston, SC, Priscilla Moses Lopez and David Lopez gave birth to builder
David Lopez, Jr., the tenth of their twelve children who was the brother of
Sally Lopez, the founder “of the second Jewish Sunday School in America and who
married Rebeca Moise after the death of his first wife Catherine Dobyn Hinton
who was not Jewish which did keep Lopez from being an active member of the
Charleston Jewish community.
1809: Benjamin
Solomon began serving as a Midshipman in the U.S. Navy.
1814:
Birthdate of London native Eve Beck, the daughter of Samson Beck.
1826: Four
days after he passed away, forty-seven-year-old Aharon ben Moshe was laid to
rest at the Bath Jewish Burial Ground
1827: Hannah
and Moses Collis gave birth to Jemima Collis.
1834:
Birthdate of Königsberg, Prussia, native and anti-Semitic journalist Otto
Glagau.
1839: Naphtali
Hart married Elizabeth Solomon today at the New Synagogue.
1843(15th
of Shevat, 5603): Tu B’Shevat
1844: Isaac
David Walter and Henriette Walter gave birth to their daughter Sophia who
became Sophia Beer when she married Julius Beer.
1844:In
Indiana, Moses and Sophia Neumann Amberg gave birth to Iske Amberg Fechheimer,
the wife of Morris C. Fechheimer and mother of Henry, Thekla, Mad, Reeda,
Moses, Karl and Sidney Fechheimer.
1849: In
Natchez, Mississippi, Jannette Ries and John Mayer gave birth to Melanie Meyer
Frank, the wife of Henry Frank with she had ten children – Caroline, Rosalie,
Frderick, Ernest, Herman, Edgar, Wilhelm, Ophelia, Jeannette and John.
1852(24th
of Tevet, 5612): Meir Eisenstaedter (Meir ben Judah Leib Eisenstädter) a
nineteenth-century rabbi, Talmudist, and paytan) also known as Maharam Asch (a
Hebrew acronym for "Morenu ha-Rav Meir Eisenshtadt" meaning "our
teacher, Rabbi Meir Eisenstadt") passed away today.
1852: Mt.
Sinai Hospital, known as Jews Hospital, was founded in New York City
1853: General
Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton who commanded the Mediterranean
Expeditionary Force during the Gallipoli Campaign which meant that he was the
ultimate commander of the Zion Mule Corps, the first All-Jewish force to take
the field of battle since the days of the rebellions against Rome.
1853: Adam and
Fridoline Kahnweiler Gimbel gave birth to Sallie Gimbel who became Sallie
Greenewald when she married Aaron E. Greenwald.
1853: In Terre
Haute, Indiana, Bernhardt Bischof and Sara Mathilda Wallace gave birth to
Theresa Bischof who became Theresa Ezekiel when she married Walter Ambrose
Ezekiel and who was active in a number of Cincinnati Jewish organizations
including the United Jewish Charities of Cincinnati, the Sick Poor Society and
the Council of Jewish Women.
1854: In
Horton Yorkshire, Maria Moss and Bernard Jacob gave birth to Abigail Jacob, the
wife of Lyon Samuel.
1856: In
Baltimore, MD, Charleston native Solomon Nunes Carvalho and Sarah Miriam
Carvalho gave birth to Solomon Solis Carvalho
1859: The
first wife of Joseph Wolff, the son of a rabbi who converted to Christianity
and became a “Jewish Christian missonary,” passed away today.
1862(15th
of Shevat, 5622): Tu B’Shevat
1862: During
the Civil War, Philadelphian Isaac M Brandon transferred from the Volunteers to
the Twelfth United States Regulars.
1862:
Birthdate of Baden native Elias Elkan Ries, the Cooper Union, the Maryland
Institute and Johns Hopkins trained telegraph operator who made “improvements
in telephone, telegraph and other electrical apparatus” which meant while developing 150 patents, he
“introduced the Ries regulating sock for ‘turning down’ the light of electric
lamps,” invented an “alternating current electrical system,” and a “method for
electrically welding track rails” while still finding time to marry Helen
Hirshberg in 1895.
1869:
Birthdate of Lithuania native Louis Blaustein, the husband of Baltimore native
Henrietta Gittleson and the father of Jacob Blaustin who was the founder of the
American Oil Company.
https://blaufund.org/foundation-family-tree/
1870(14th
of Shevat, 5630): Thirty-three-year-old Washington Hendricks the son Frances Isaacs and copper manufacturer Harmon Henricks and
granddaughter of Uriah Hendricks, one of the founders of New York’s
Congregation Shearith Israel, passed away today.
1871:
Birthdate of Riga native Henrietta G. Blaustein who at the age of fourteen came
to the United where she married Louis Blastein who along with their Jacob
founded the American Oil Company and whose philanthropies included the Louis
and Henrietta Blaustein Foundation.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/blaustein-henrietta-gittelson
1872: Four
days after she had passed away, 67-year-old Sarah (Levy) Slowman, the wife of
Abraham Slowman with whom she had had seven children was buried today at the
“West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1875: On her
21st birthday, Abigail Jacob, the daughter of Maria and Bernard
Jacob married Lyon Samuel
in London today.
1875: David
James played the role of “Perkyn Middlewick” in Henry James Byron’s “Our Boys”
which opened at the Vaudeville Theatre. James was the son of Agar and
Abraham Julian Belasco who was named David Belasco at birth but changed his
name so that he would not be confused with his second cousin and namesake David
Belasco.
1876(18th
of Tevet, 5636): Parshat Shemot; Start the second book of the Torah
1876(18th
of Tevet, 5636): Seventy-eight-year-old Aron Emanuel Scharf, the husband of
Magdelanna Roos, passed away in Bavaria.
1876: It was
reported today that The Alliance Israelite Universelle of Paris has just
published a pamphlet describing the discriminatory conditions under which the
Jews of Romania continue to live. The Romanians have successfully
circumvented previous attempts to improve the conditions of the Jews, including
those resolutions adopted at the Convention of Paris in 1858, by declaring that
Jews born in Romania are not Romanian citizens. Since they are not
citizens, the Romanians contend it is legal to deny them such basic rights as
the rights to own property and vote.
1876: Newman
Leopold, a “French Hebrew loan broker” shot himself this afternoon at his home
on Adelphi Street in New York. The wound did not prove immediately mortal
and the reason for the shooting was not immediately known.
1879: In
Paris, Edward de Forest and Juliette Arnold gave birth to Maurice Arnold de
Forest who, along with his younger brother Raymond were, after the death of
their parents, “were adopted by the millionaire Baroness Clara de Hirsch, née
Bischoffsheim, wife of Jewish banker and philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch
de Gereuth, and given the surname de Forest-Bischoffsheim.
1879: Mr.
Henry Bergh delivered a lecture tonight at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association
in which he said “it was astonishing” that so little attention had been paid to
the treatment of “dumb animals” in the United Sates. He felt that the
clergy had not shown sufficient interest in the topic. He expressed his
opinion that Christians might learn from the Turks and “old Jewish laws” if
they wished to improve the situation.
1881:
Birthdate of Martha Grassman who cared for painter Fritz Ascher for three years
while he hid in Berlin from the Nazis.
1881: “An
insane inmate” under the care of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society, set
the facility on fire. This unnamed individual was the only fatality.
1882(25th
of Tevet, 5642): Twenty-year-old Eugen C. Kahn, a native of Morgan City, LA,
passed away today in New Orleans after which he was buried “in the cemetery
located in” Berwick, LA.
1882(25th
of Tevet, 5642): Seventy-four German born poet and linguist Ludwig Wihl whose
“hopes for a university career were doomed to failure, because he declined to
be baptized” passed away today in Brussels where he had been living in
self-imposed political exile.
1884: In
Charleston, SC, Rabbi Levy officiated at the married of Julius Jacobson to
Johannah Hoffman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. Hoffman.
1884: The orthodox synagogue in St. Apern Straße was dedicated in Cologne
1886(10th
of Shevat, 5646): Parashat Beshalach; Shabbat Shirah
1886(10th
of Shevat, 5646): Seventy-two-year-old Bavarian attorney Leopold von Kulla “who
was an honorary member of the Jewish consistory of Wurttemberg passed away
today.
1888:
Birthdate of Osip Maksimovich Brik, a Russian Avant Garde writer and literary
critic who “was one of the most important members of the Russian formalist
school, though he also identified himself as one of the Futurists.”
1888: In
New York City, Frances Newgass and Gustav Binger gave birth to MIT trained
civil engineer and second lieutenant in the Air Service Construction Division
of the American Expeditionary Force Walter D. Binger, the husband of “Louisa
Beatrice Bronson Sorchan, with whom he had three children: Charlotte Binger
Hasen, Frances Binger Mitchell, and Bronson Binger, an architect and historic
preservationist” who in a case of Jew versus used his technical expertise to
oppose Robert Moses's sweeping plans to transform Lower Manhattan during the
1940’s.
1889(14th
of Tevet, 5649): Fifty-six-year-old “Russian scientist and publicist” Hirsch
Rabinowitz passed away today in St. Petersburg.
1889: In
Kovno, Moses Isaac and Anna (Fishman) Bettan gave birth to University of
Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College Israel Bettan, the Rabbi for Congregation
B’nai Israel in Charleston, West Virginia and Professor of Homiletics and
Midrash at Hebrew Union College.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/bettan-israel
1890: It was
reported today that in the last ten years disbursements by the United Hebrew
Charities have more than doubled going from $35,000 to $72,000.
1890: It was
reported that the past five years the Jewish immigrants arriving in New York
included, 18,535 in 1885; 27,348 in 1886; 25, 788 in 1887; 29,602 in 1888 and
23, 674 in 1889.
1890:
Birthdate of Richmond, IN native and Earlham College educated journalist Carl
William Ackerman, the first dean of the Columbia School of Journalism who
“published the first excerpts of an translation of the anti-Semitic Protocols
of the Elders of Zion.”
1890:
Birthdate of Karl Freund who was one of the most famous directors and cameramen
of his time who worked on everything from an early cinematic version of Dracula
to episodes of the television sitcom Our Miss Brooks.
1890: Oscar S.
Straus is scheduled to deliver “a few informal remarks” at a meeting of the
Young Men’s Association of Ahawatch Chesed which is being held at Steinway
Hall.
1890: As
his health worsened, the children of 87-year-old Chief Rabbi Nathan Marcus
Adler were called to his bedside for one more visit.
1891: Lazarus
Solomon, the son of Moses and Sarah Solomon was buried today at the “Canterbury
Jewish Cemetery.”
1891(7th
of Shevat, 5651): Isaac Aaron Ettinger, Reb Itzsche, passed away today.
Born at Lemberg in 1827, he followed Zebi Hirsch Ornstein as the rabbi of
Lemberg in 1888, a position he held until the day he passed away.
1892: “The
Nautch Girl,” a comic opera that featured the music of Anglo-Jewish theatre man
Edward Solomon closed today after two hundred performances at the Savoy
Theatre.
1893: Theodor
Kohn, the cleric with Jewish grandparents, began serving as Archbishop of
Olomouc. He would eventually be forced to resign from the post.
1893:
Three days after she passed away, eighty-eight year old Alice Aarons, the
daughter of Aron Aarons who had passed away in 1849 at the age of 78, was
buried at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1893: It was
reported today that Joseph Barondess is leading a move to reorganize the
Cloakmaker’s Union following its unsuccessful strike against Meyer Jonasson
& Co. (Barondess was the son of Rabbi Samuel Barondess and a distant
relative of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. His connection with the
cloakmakers was so strong that he was as the “King of the Cloakmakers.”
1893:
Four days after she had passed away, 52 years old Bloom Cohen, the daughter of
Benjamin Woolf and Isabella Phillips and the wife of Levi Cohen, was buried
today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1894: In New
York City, at the meeting of the Board of Police Superintendent reported that
Roundsman Michael Downs and Patrolmen John Kenny and Kerwin Larkin have been
suspended from duty and arrested on charges that they extorted money from
Jewish peddlers.
1894: As the
general economic conditions worsen It was reported today that New York Mayor
Gilroy’s Relief Committee had made disbursements to various charities aiding
the needy including two thousand dollars to the United Hebrew Charities.
1894: It was
reported today that the East Side Relief Work has paid $4, 496.26 “for street
sweeping and manufacturing” – work which is done primarily by Austrian and
Russian Jews.
1894: It was
reported today that R.H Macy & Co, which is owned by the Straus family
donated another $1,346.26 to the Mayor’s Relief Committee
1894: Dr. C.F.
Valentine was defeated in his bid to be elected President of the New York
County Medical Association. It had been “hinted” that he was defeated because
he was Jewish.
1895:
Following the resignation of Casimir-Perier in the wake of the Dreyfus affair,
General August Mercier who had led the fight to condemn the Jewish officer only
got three votes in his quest to lead the next government.
1896: It was
reported today that last year’s Hebrew Charity Ball raised $12,000 for the
Montefiore Home and it is hoped that this year’s ball will raised even more
money.
1896: It was
reported today that 70 per cent of the population living at the settlement area
at 26 Delancy Street is made up of Jewish immigrants from Russia. The area
which has been inhabited by successive groups of immigrants, the last of which
the Irish, is one of the most difficult in which the University Settlement
Society has ever worked because of the over-crowding and lack of opportunity.
1897: In New
York City Jacob and Julia (Jaffe) Oppenheim gave birth to Columbia University
graduate and University of Michigan trained attorney Saul Chesterfield
Oppenheim, the WW I army veteran who was
a Professor of Law at George Washington University from 1927 until 1952 at
which time he accepted a similar position at the University of Michigan while
raising one child, Daniel, with his wife Morgery Ho. Heiman.
1898:
Birthdate of Irving Rapper, the British born movie director who moved to
Hollywood in the 1930’s where “he made his directing debut with the 1941 film
“Shining Victory.”
1898: In
Talsen, Latvia, Liebe (Lemkus) Davidoff and Israel Davidoff, a shoemaker, gave
birth Harvard trained physician Dr. Leo Davidoff, “a founder of the Albert
Einstein College of Medicine” and the husband of Ida (Fisher) Davidoff.”
1898: It was
reported today that Anatole France and Emile Zola are among a group of
“prominent doctors, lawyers’ and writers” who “have signed a petition in favor”
of having the Dreyfus decision reviewed because of the “violation of judicial
forms and the mysteries surrounding it.”
1898:
“The annual meeting of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls was held” this
“afternoon at the school headquarters” on Henry Street.
1898:
Birthdate of Irving Rapper, the British born American director Irving Rapper
whose career began in 1941 with “Shining Victory” and ended with “Born Again”
in 1978.
http://articles.latimes.com/1999/dec/29/local/me-48573
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/30/arts/irving-rapper-101-film-director-dies.html
1898: Paris
was the scene of another night of violence as “bands of students paraded”
denouncing Emile Zola, “shouting…death to the Jews,” smashing café windows, and
in a case of mistaken identity, smashing the windows of a house they thought
belonged to Zola.
1898:
“France At Its Worst” published today described the current crisis over Alfred
Dreyfus as demonstrating the “degeneracy” of the French people.
1898: It
was reported today that there are two factions arrayed against Emile Zola, the
editor and author who has taken the lead in defending Alfred Dreyfus. One is
made of “those who would support the so-called ‘honor of the army’ at any
sacrifice against individual justice.” (In other words, Dreyfus may be
innocent but to overturn the verdict would hurt the military.) The other
groups are the anti-Semites which including the students rioting in the street
a number of those serving as Deputies in the French legislature.
1899: It was
reported today that “the few attempts made to incited the populace” of Hungary
“against the Jews have been fruitless, which is in marked contrast to the
success of the anti-Jewish campaign in Austria. (More for 2014)
1899: Herzl
writes to Bertha von Suttner, famous Austrian peace activist, to request an
audience with the Czar.
1899: It was a
reported today that in Duluth, a mob of 150 Jews attacked the Coroner when he
went to open the grave of Mrs. Wlfound, whom it was claimed was buried
alive. The Jews did not approve of what they considered was a desecration
of the remains of a co-religionists.
1900: In
Aachen, Germany, Rosa Stern and Abraham Holländer gave birth to their youngest
child Edith, who would become Edith Frank when she married Otto Frank – a union
that would produce the diarist Anne Frank.
1901: “The
seventh council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which had
adopted “memorial resolution in memory of the late Dr. I. M. Wise, came to a
close tonight in Cincinnatti and will meeting again in St. Louis in 1903.
1902: It was
reported today that Senator Nathaniel Elsberg has introduced a bill to
incorporate the Jewish Theological Seminary for which “Jacob H. Schiff, Leonard
Lewisohn and David Guggenheim have created a trust fund of $100,000” and which
will be led by Solomon Schechter servings as Dean and Dr. Cyrus Adler serving
as President.
1903: Herzl
ate lunch with Lord Rothschild and had a meeting with Sir Thomas Sanderson,
Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs in Downing Street. Herzl submits the
itinerary of the Commission and the membership. Sanderson recommends Sir
Benjamin Baker, builder of the Aswan Dam, as irrigation engineer. Herzl is
concerned about each and every detail.
1903:
Birthdate of David Shaltiel, the native of Berlin who was “the district
commander of the Haganah in Jerusalem” during the 1948 War for Independence.
1903: In
Odessa, Russia, David and Clara Berman gave birth to Las Vegas mob boss Donald
“Davie” Berman.
1903:
Following the death of Henry de Worms seven days ago, The Jewish Chronicle
wrote “Lord Pirbright was for several years president of the Anglo-Jewish
Association, but resigned in 1886 owing to objections raised to his having
attended the nuptials of his eldest daughter in a church. During his
parliamentary career he was a warm advocate of the cause of Jews in lands of
oppression, especially Rumania.”
1904(28th
of Tevet, 5664): Henrietta Cahn, the native of Wittgenborn, Germany passed away
today in Port Gibson, Mississippi.
1904: In
Hesse, Germany, Salomon and Julie Adler gave birth to Berthold (Bert) Adler,
the husband of Ruth Adler.
1905(10th
of Shevat, 5665): Frederick David Mocatta , the son of Miriam Bradon and
Abraham Mocatta and husband of Ada Goldsmid, who “was a partner of the London
bullion broker, Mocatta & Goldsmid” and philanthropist noted for his role
in the creation of Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition and development of the
Jewish Historical Society of England.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Mocatta,_Frederick_David
1906: Opening
of the Algeciras Conference during which “the US representatives ensured that
the Conference documents praised the Sultan's Government for improvements in
conditions of Jews and asked it to guarantee to treat all Moroccans equally.
1906: Bezalel,
The Academy of Arts and Design, was founded in Jerusalem by Boris Schatz.
Born in 1867, Schatz was a painter and court sculptor to King Ferdinand of
Bulgaria. He died in 1932. The school was named after biblical artisan Bezalel,
son of Uri, who was one of the main architects of the Tabernacle. It has well
over 1000 students and offers degrees in art, architecture, and design.
1907:
Two days before his 15th birthday Ukrainian born composer Samuel
Kaylin “immigrated to the United States…aboard the steamship Neckar.
1907: In
Atlanta, the two-day convention of the Union of Hebrew Congregations came to an
end.
1908: Tonight,
during the 23rd annual dinner of the Holland Society which was held
at the Waldorf Astoria, President Charles W. Eliot of Harvard delivered a
speech in which he “made a powerful plea for the Jews and the Jewish people,
saying: We may depend upon it that in this country which has given him at last
a real liberty” and “the Jews were a great people” who “had a free government
centuries before other people thought of having it.” (Editor’s note: Eliot had
a close, personal relationship with Justice Brandeis while it was his
successor, President Lowell who supported quotas to limit Jewish enrollment at
Harvard.)
1909:
Birthdate of Clement Greenberg the most famous American art critic since
Bernard Berenson, who was born “to a Yiddish-speaking socialist family and was
brought up in Brooklyn and the Bronx.”
1910:
The Jewish Agricultural and Colonial Association, the purpose of which was
helping Jews to settle on farms, was organized today.
1910: Volume No1,
Issue 18, of The Jewish Record, “a weekly magazine for Jewish interests”
was published today at Richmond, VA.
1910: In Richmond,
VA, “the regular meeting of Study Circle No. 3 of the Council of Jewish Juniors”
which had been postponed from January 2nd is scheduled to meet this
evening.
1911: The 22nd
council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations which will be attended by
rabbis and laymen from “seventy cities and towns” “representing 187
congregations” is scheduled to begin today at the Hotel Astor.
1911: William
A. Purrington is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Perjury” which is the
second of a series of lectures being held at the Educational Alliance in
Manhattan
1912: “The New
York Section of the Council of Jewish Women, a National organization with
sections in fifty-three of the leading cities, heard today from its returning
delegates to the recent triennial convention of the organization at
Philadelphia that the sections in Washington, Baltimore, Boston, and Chicago
have seceded from the National organization, and that there is likelihood of
several smaller sections following suit.”
1913(8th
of Shevat, 5673): Seventy-three Abraham Israel Mendoza the Whitechapel born son
of Israel Mordechai Mendoza and the husband of Maria (Miriam) Mendoza passed
away at Mile End Old Town, London.
1913: A
meeting of the Lenora Sewing Circle under the leadership of Carrie Metz took
place this afternoon at Isiah Temple in Chicago.
1914: Governor
Martin Glynn of New York has appointed “Dr. Adolph Speigel, the Rabbi of
Congregation Shaari Zedek of Harlem to attend the Congress in Berlin to protest
against the violation of the Berlin Treat of 1879 which guaranteed full rights
of citizenship to all Jewish subjects” or Romania.
1915(1st of
Shevat, 5675): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1915: “Oppose
Immigration Bill” published today told of Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid
Society to host a series of mass meetings in Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore,
Chicago, Cleveland, Providence, Newark and New York to designed to help defeat
the Smith Burnett Immigration Bill which contains a literacy test that would
hamper Jewish immigration from Russia because the Czar’s government restricts
their efforts to gain an education.
1915(1st
of Shevat, 5676): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1915(1st
of Shevat, 5676): Seventy-year-old Rabbi Benny Goldman, the son of Wolf and
Rachel Goldman lost his battle with bronchial pneumonia and passed away in St.
Louis today.
1916: It was
reported today that starting next semester, Dr. Elias Margolis will teach the
first ever offered course in Yiddish offered by Columbia University which has
been added to the curriculum, in part “to encourage non-Jews to learn the
language in order that they might teach the numerous night classes in New
York.”
1916: The
American Jewish Relief Committee is scheduled to host a fund-raising concert
this evening at the Fourteenth Street Armory in New York City.
1916: “The
Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society opened a branch office at the
Sackman Street Synagogue near Belmont Avenue, Brownsville,” tonight “to enable
Jews to find their relatives lost in the war zone and to help in sending aid to
them.
1916: “An
appeal to all Jews to forget partisanship and differences of doctrine in an
effort to conditions of their ‘brethren in the oppressed lands’ was made” today
“by Rabbi Samuel Schulman in a sermon on ‘The War and the Rights of the Jews’
which he delivered at Temple Beth-El” at Fifth Avenue and Seventy-sixth Street.
1917:
Eighty-six-year-old Solomon Ullman, the former president of the Western
Synagogue was buried today at the Edmonton Western Jewish Cemetery.
1917:
Seventy-nine-year-old Admiral George Dewey the Spanish American War Naval hero
passed away today which led the Council of the Union of American Congregations
which was meeting in Baltimore at the time to send a telegram to President
Wilson expressing their “profound sorrow” and “deep felt sympathy.”
1917:
Birthdate of Szerena Abrahamova who was murder at Auschwitz after having been
transported there from Terezin in April of 1944.
1917: “Between
400 and 500 delegates are expected to attend the 25th council of the
Union of American Hebrew Congregations which opens in Baltimore with Henry
Morgenthau, former Ambassador to Turkey and Jacob H. Schiff scheduled to speak
at the gathering.
1917: The
National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods which was created in 1913 and now has
groups at 150 congregations is scheduled to begin its national convention today
in Baltimore, MD.
1917: J.
Walter Freiburg, President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations
announces a gift of $100,000 from Jacob H. Schiff for the establishment of a
fund to provide for pensioning superannuated rabbis.
1917:
“Following an appeal by Adolph S. Ochs, Chairman of the Committee on Ways and
Means, fifty-seven Jews pledged over $140,000 in a few hours at the convention
of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations to meet expenses of the Hebrew
Union College of Cincinnati and synagogue and school extension work.”
1917: German
Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sends the Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico,
proposing a German-Mexican alliance against the United States. The Zimmerman
Telegram by Jewish historian Barbara Tuchman provides one of the best
descriptions and explanations of this little-known episode in American history
that helped lead the United States into World War I.
1918: The
American Consul in Yokohama reported that Jewish refugees including 1 man, 156
women and 170 children who are “awaiting transportation to the United States”
are “poorly fed and living in crowded quarters.”
1918:
University of Buffalo and Columbia University trained dermatologist Joseph
Bromberg, the Buffalo born son of Mary Cohen and Samuel Bromberg who served as
a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during WW I and who served as
an instructor in dermatology at the University of Buffalo married Sabina Grace
Medias today.
1919(15th
of Shevat, 5679) Tu BiShvat / טו בשבט
1919” In
Detroit, MI, Louis and Belle Horwitz gave birth to Jerome Phillip Horwitz “a
scientific researcher who created AZT in 1964 in the hope that it would cure
cancer but who entered the medical pantheon decades later when AZT became the
first successful drug treatment for people with AIDS…” )As reported by Paul
Vitello)
1920:
Birthdate of Lodz native and Rutgers Ph.D. Arcadius Kahan the economic
historian and U of Chicago professor.
1920: In
Berlin, “at sessions of the Prussian Provincial Diet, the Minister for Public
Worshp and Education declared that Germans and Jews are obliged to work
together for the welfare of the country” and asked that “students of the higher
schools not insult the Jews.”
1920: The 18th
Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified today. Its ban
on the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors would
present a set of unique problem for Jews who wished to observe the law of the
land yet needed wine for Shabbat, Pesach (and other holidays) weddings and
circumcision ceremonies.
http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1991_43_02_00_sprecher.pdf
1921: In
Winnipeg, Canada, “Meyer Thompson, a Jewish baker of bagels from Hull England
and the former Annette Berman” gave birth to Abraham Thomas Thompson, the man
who brought automation to the field of
bagel baking.
1921: Salo
Stein, who had been serving as rabbi in Jacksonville, FL, today began serving
as the rabbi for Anshe Sholem Yehuda Congregation in Middletown, Ohio.
1921: “The
ninth annual convention of the United Synagogue of America and the fouth annual
convention of the Women’s League of the United Synagogue is scheduled to open
today at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
1921: “The
Devil,” a screen adaptation of Ferenc Molinar’s play “The Devil,” was released
in the United States today.
1921 Today,
Maximillian Cohen, the member of Socialist Labor Party and the Socialist Party
of America was stripped of his editorship and expelled
from the Communist Party.
1921: “The
Period of Racial Prejudice,” a protest prepared under the initiative of John
Spargo and signed by 119 distinguished American Christians from every walk of
life” that began with “The undersigned citizens of Gentile birth and Christian
faith view with profound regret and disapproval the appearance in this country
of what is apparently an organized campaign of anti-Semitism, conducted in
close conformity to and co-operation with similar campaigns in Europe” was made
public today.
http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/1922_1923_8_AJCAnnualReport.pdf
1922: In Port
Jervis, NY, Russian immigrants Gussie and David Levinson gave birth to Harry
Levinson “a psychologist who helped change corporate America’s thinking about
the workplace by demonstrating a link between job conditions and emotional
health — a progressive notion when he began developing his ideas in the 1950s…”
(As reported by Claudia Deutsch)
1922: In New
York City, Frederick Margareten, the Manhattan born son of Regina Horowitz,
“the Matzah Queen,” and Ignatz Margareten and his wife Mary Margareten gave
birth to Jerome Margareten
1923:
Birthdate of poet Anthony Hecht. Hecht won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
in 1968 for “The Harder Hours.” He passed away in 2004.
1924: “The
Miracle” directed and written by Max Reinhardt opened today the Century
Theatre.
1925: Leon
Trotsky was dismissed from the Russian Revolution Military Council as he lost
the battle for power with Stalin.
1926(1st
of Shevat, 5686): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1926: London
born American featherweight fought his 79th bout which he won by a
TKO.
1926: Grigori
Sokolnikov completed his service as People’s Commissar for Finance of the USSR.
1927: “More
than $900,000 was pledged tonight at a mass meeting of the 1,800 Philadelphians
launching the 1927 campaign of the Federation of Jewish Charities” with the
largest contributions coming from Albert M. Greenfield and Charles Gimbel of
the Gimbel family.
1927: In a
speech he gave at the dedication exercises of the Talmud Torah of the Jewish
Centre in the Bronx, Louis Marshall “said the future of Jewry in New York was
never brighter because of the renewed interest in teaching religion.”
1927: “In
Ohio, the State in which Dr. Isaac M. Wise helped establish reform Judaism a
half century ago, 1,500 delegates from all parts of the country assembled today
for the thirtieth biennial council of the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations.”
1928: Part II
of “Queen Louise” a biopic about a little-known Prussian queen produced by Max
Glass on which Hans Jacoby served as Art Director was released in Germany
today.
1929: In
Newark, NJ, Lithuanian Jewish immigrants Gabriel Lowenstein and Augusta
Goldberg Lowenstein gave birth to Yale trained attorney and U.S. Congressman
Allard Lowenstein
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Allard-K-Lowenstein
1930: As of
today, Jerome Lewine, Leo Lowenstein and Paul Linz are serving as members of
the governing committee of the National Metal Exchange
1930:
Birthdate of Norman Podhoretz. Editor of “Commentary Magazine” Podhoretz has
moved from being a liberal to a conservative.
1931: “The
Love Habit,” an English comedy directed by Harry Lachman was released today in
the United Kingdom
1931: “The
Private Secretary” with music by Paul Abraham was released today in
Germany.
1932: After
260 performances at the New Amsterdam Theatre, the curtain came down on the
original Broadway production of “The Band Wagon” a revue with “book by George
S. Kaufman and Howard Dietz, lyrics by Howard Dietz and music by Arthur
Schwartz.”
1932:
Philadelphian Jacob Billikopf, who had been associated with the recently
deceased Julius Rosenwald in welfare activities for the last quarter of a
century, expressed the opinion today that Rosenwald’s work on behalf of “the
American Negro” was one of his most outstanding contributions to
humanity.
1932:
“Solomon Furth ran an American best 15 4/5 seconds in the 110-meter indoor
hurdles” today. (as reported by Bob Wechsler)
1933(18th
of Tevet, 5693): In Los Angeles, Mamie Klein the widow of Henry Klein, the
co-owner of Klein-Norton Co. passed away today.
1933:
NBC broadcast the 9th episode of “Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel”
starring Groucho and Chico Marx.
1933:
Birthdate of photographer Nathan Louis Finkelstein whose photographs of Andy
Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, and the Velvet Underground would become some of the most
famous images of Warhol’s Factory and its revolving cast of characters.
1933: “Madame
Wants No Children” a comedy with a script co-authored by Billy Wilder and
filmed by cinematographer Willy Goldberg was released in Austria and Germany
today.
1933: In New
York Mildred and Jack Rosenblatt gave birth to Susan Rosenblatt who gained fame
as Susan Sontag
http://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/16/1933/susan-sontag
1934: In
Albany, NY, “the Assembly today concurred with the Senate in the adoption of a
resolution by Senator Samuel Mandelbaum of New York, petitioning Congress to
ask President Roosevelt to protest to Germany against ‘the reign of terrorism
against Jews.’”
1935: Rabbi
Stephen Wise spoke at luncheon of the Women’s League for Palestine where “it
was announced that $21,000 has been received in gifts and pledges toward
building a home for needy girls at Tel Aviv.” The home is similar to one
already being operated in Haifa and will cost a total of $40,000 to complete.
1935: In
Boston, Temple Israel is scheduled to begin offering “courses in rabbinical
literature, Hebrew and history today.
1935: The
“sub-conferences” of “the sixth Revisionist World Conference” are scheduled to
come to an end today.
1935: Leaders
of the Jewish National Fund announced that it had raise $20,000 which
represents 40% of the goal of $50,000 needed to buy additional land in
Palestine “as perpetual national property.”
1935(12th of
Shevat, 5695): On her 91st birthday, Sophia Beer, the wife of Julius
Beer and the daughter of Isaac David Walter and Henriette Walter passed away
today in New York.
1935: Morris
Rothenberg, President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), announced
today that Sunday, January 20, 1935, has been designated as Palestine Day, with
observances planned in more than 400 cities across the United States.
1936: “The
Stern Conservatory of Music, founded by a Jewish family in 1850 and operated by
it ever since, was turned over to the city of Berlin under orders of Julius
Lippert, the Nazi Commissioner of Berlin. (Editor’s note – Anti-Semitism is a
good business0
1936:
Foreign Minister Josef Beck issued a statement tonight promising “protection to
Polish nationals living in foreign countries, regardless of religion or races”
which was welcomed by “Jewish Deputies who had complained recently of the
persecution of Polish Jews in Germany.”
1936: A
Magdeburg court sentenced a Jew lawyer named Fliess to one month’s
imprisionment for complaining to the Bar Association about the “allegedly
insulting manner adopted by” Dr. Kuhlmey “his Nazi adversary in demanding the
exclusion of Mr. Fliess on racial grounds.
1937(4th of
Shevat, 5697): Parashat Bo
1937:
“Nationalism was declared the greatest threat to world security and peace in a
sermon delivered this morning” in New Orleans, by Rabbi Morris S. Lazaron of
Baltimore at Sabbath services attended by delegates to the joint convention of
the Union of American Congregations and the affiliated national temple
sisterhoods and brotherhoods/”
1937(4th
Shevat, 5697): Seventy-seven-year-old Annie Humphrey Johnston, the daughter of
Moses and Esther Lazarus, sister of poet Emma Lazarus and wife of John Henry
Johnstone passed away today in Venice.
1937: In
Jerusalem, George Mansour, the secretary of the Arab Labor Federation testified
before the Royal Commission that “there was no employment for Arab workers
because of the government’s policy which, he alleged, favored the Jews.”
1938: Funeral
services will be held today for Albert Ottinger, the former New York State
Attorney General who lost to FDR in the 1928 gubernatorial race, at his home
with burial in Union Field Cemetery.
1938:
Birthdate of Robert Lipsyte, “an American sports journalist and author” who “is
a member of the Board of Contributors for USA TODAY's Forum Page, part
of the newspaper’s Opinion section.
1938:
Benny Goodman refused to play Carnegie Hall unless the African-American members
of his band were allowed to perform
1938: “The
Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert” was recorded today.
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that a Jewish constable, Shaul Levy, 22, was killed
and his companion, Yitzhak Zeldenberg was severely injured by an Arab in the
Sanhedria quarter of Jerusalem. The murderer escaped.
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that police found a small Arab arsenal in Ein
Zeikun village.
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that a government trade school had opened in Haifa.
1938: The
Palestine Post reported In Romania, Jews were forbidden to employ Christian
women under 40.
1939: “Jews
emigrating from Germany are forbidden from taking jewelry and valuable items
with them. All they are allowed to have is a single piece of dining silver
each, wedding rings, and a watch worth no more than 100 Reichsmarks.” (As
reported by Austin Cline)
1939(25th
of Tevet, 5699): Fifty-nine year old Luxembourg born and University of Michigan
trained civil engineer Moritz Katz, the son of Joseph and Rosalie Kahn and the
husband of Edith Jackson Kahn with whom he had four children who began his
career with the American Bridge Company and whose contributions to his field
included the creation of “pre-case reinforced concrete ships where were used by
the English Admiralty in W.W I passed away today in his berth aboard a
train traveling from Detroit to NYC.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4930193/moritz_kahn_obit/
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1939/01/17/91545980.html?pageNumber=21
1939: As the
war clouds form over Europe that would become WW II, the physicist Neils Bohr,
who was “half-Jewish” arrived in New York en route to accepting a position at
Princeton. He told Hungarian born Jewish physicist Leo Szilar that his
worst fears had come to pass. Two German physicists had successfully
split the uranium nucleus giving Hitler’s government a major edge in what would
become the race to build the first Atom Bomb.
1940(6th
of Shevat, 5700): Forty-eight year old Clinton, NC born University of
Pennsylvania trained attorney Walter Hansteiin, the World War I veteran who was
“a past president of the Atlantic County (NJ) Bar Association” and the father
of three children - Walter Jr., Ruth and Bertha- passed away today.
1940: A
two-day forced march of 880 Polish POWs all of whom were Jewish came to an end
with 600 of them being shot by the Nazis. (Jewish Virtual Library)
1941: Tonight,
Axis airplanes raided airfields near Tel Aviv.
1942: Senitsa
Vershovsky, a major in the Soviet Army, is shot by an Einsatzkommando unit at
Kremenchug, Ukraine, for protecting Jews.
1942: The
Nazis begin “resettling” the Jews in the Lodz Ghetto to the Chelmno
Extermination Camp
1943(10th
of Shevat, 5703): Parashat Bo
1943(10th
of Shevat,5703): Fifty-six-year-old CCNY, NYU and Fordham educated chemist, Max
Meltsner the son of Caroline Raphael and Joseph Meltsner and the husband of
Rose Melstner who was known for his work in the field of amino alcohols and an
associate professor of Chemistry at City College passed away today.
1943: As the
Battle of Stalingrad, one of the major turning points in WW II, reached a
climax the Nazis lost control of the Pitomnik Airfield which was a major blow
to attempts to supply the Wehrmacht.
1943: It was reported
today that 64-year-old Judah Isdeslon, the rabbi at the Eldridge Street
Synagogue who has “held pulpits in Jersey City and Denver” and is “a leader in
the Mizrachi movement” will be buried in New York after having passed away in
Miami Beach, FL.
1944: The
acting chairman of the War Labor Board announced “resignation of Robert Abelow
as executive director and general counsel for the regional War Labor Board”
after which he became “a partner in the firm of Weil, Gotshal and Magnes.
1944: the D.
Emil Klein Company, announced today that “Stephen Herz, who has been an
executive vice president, has been elected of the cigar manufacturing company.
1944:
Secretary of the Treasury Henry J. Morgenthau, Jr. presented a report entitled
“Report to the Secretary in the Acquiescence of This government in the Murder
of Jews” to President Roosevelt. Prepared by several non-Jewish
technocrats working at the Treasury Department, “the document cited chapter and
verse of the State Department’s ‘procrastination and willful failure to
act…even willful attempts to prevent action from being taken to rescue Jews
from Hitler.’” The report concluded ‘Unless remedial steps…are taken
immediately…the government will have share for all time responsibility for this
[Jewish] extermination.’ The authors of the report recommended that “refugee
policy be removed from the State Department jurisdiction.”
1945: Three
years after the “resettlement” of the Jews from Lodz began, the Soviets
liberate the town and find 870 Jews still alive.
1945: “Over 45 days, from 1 December 1944 to through today , Italian
businessman Giorgio Perlasca helped save
more than 5,000 Jews by posing “ as the Spanish
consul-general to Hungary in the winter of 1944…”
1945: Roy
Nielsen from Milorg and Max Manus from Kompani Linge planted ten limpet mines
50 centimeters (1.6 ft) under the waterline along a 60-metre (200 ft) section
of the port side of the SS Donau, became known as the "slave ship"
after the SS and Gestapo transported 540 Jews from Norway to Stettin, from
where they were taken by train to Auschwitz while she was docked in Oslo.
1945: The Red
Army liberated Czestochowa, including its 800 surviving Jews.
1946:
Birthdate of Sofia native Lydia Lazarov who along with Zefania Carmel “won the
1969 world title in the Team 420 Sailing Class, at Sandhem, Sweden” making them
“Israel’s first world champions in any sport.”
1946(14th
of Shevat 5706): Sixty-three-year-old NYU attorney Samuel A. Herzog, the New
York City born son of Joseph Herzog and the former Belle Adler, the nephew of
Dr. Cyrus Adler and the husband of the former Frances Rothschild who was a
leading realtor as can be seen by his presidency of the 907 Fifth Avenue
Corporation, the Darco Reality Corporation and the Samuel A. Herzog Building
Company passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/01/17/94035237.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1946: Sid
Tanenbaum scored 15 points as he led NYU to victory over Cornell.
1947: Arthur
Unger who lost his parents and a sibling when the Nazis murdered them in
Krakow, Poland, where they owned a prosperous furniture store” brought an album
that he had started at Dachau “after it was liberated by the U.S. Army to the
United States today.
1947:
Birthdate of Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Her popularity among some Orthodox
Jews would seem to run contrary to the admonitions found in Chapter I, Verse 5
of Pirke Avot concerning avoiding the gossip of women.
1948(5th
of Shevat, 5708): Thirty-five members of the Haganah set out to bring supplies
to the besieged four Kibbutzim known as the Etzion Bloc. Located the
Hebron hills, the four Kibbutzim were defended by thirty armed fighters.
They had already fought off one attack by hundreds of Arabs who were so
confident of victory that they had brought bags to cart off the loot. Due
to the lack of equipment, which was quite common among the Jewish forces, the
thirty five set off without a radio. According to information gathered
later, the column was given inaccurate directions by a local Arab who then
alerted those who were besieging the Etzion Bloc. The Arabs fell upon the
Haganah column and killed all of them. Their bodies were found and
brought into the Bloc whose defenders now realized that they were completely on
their own.
1948(5th
of Shevat, 5708): Seventy-two-year-old Jacob W. Mack, a former chairman of the
Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and a brother of the later
Judge Julian W. Mack passed away in Cincinnati, Ohio. (As reported by JTA)
1948: In New
York City, Ernst and Miriam (née Brudno), Reichl to “American food writer” Ruth
Reichel.
1949:
Elias Sassoon and King Abdulla met today to discuss the possibility of a
prisoner exchange between the Israelis and the Jordanians before the armistice
negotiations had been completed at Rhodes.
1950:
Birthdate of American stand-up comedian, Robert George "Bob"
Schimmel.
1951: Laborite
MP Ian Mikardo whose Jewish parents had escaped Czarist Russia, commented on an
article he had written which included a suggestion for Britain to have a
military base in Israel.
1952:
“Scandal Sheet” a film based on The Dark Page by Samuel Fuller and
storyline developed by Sidney Buchman was released in the United States today.
1952: U.S.
premiere of “The Light Touch” directed by Richard Brooks (born Reuben Sax) who
also wrote the screenplay.
1953: The
Jerusalem Post reported Soviet Jewry's fears that a major anti-Jewish
policy statement was being prepared and would soon be announced in Moscow. Four
knowledgeable Jewish Communist leaders fled from East Germany in anticipation
of the oncoming persecution. The Israeli government stopped the distribution of
the Communist daily Kol Ha'am to soldiers and warned that unless the newspaper
stopped "naming the poor Jewish doctors in the Soviet Union as murderers
and spies, it will be closed as endangering public security." The
Histadrut Executive, by 27 votes to one, banned Communist members from
participation in any trade-union activities.
1954: Rear
Admiral Lewis L. Strauss, chairman of the American Energy
Commission is scheduled to deliver a lecture at Washington Hebrew Congregation
as part of the “Man’s Opportunities and Responsibilities” series that began in
November of 1953.
1954: “His
Majesty O’keefe,” co-starring Abraham Sofaer, produced by Harold Hecht and with
music by Dimitri Tiomkin was released in the United States today.
1955: “At
Ahab’s Court,” published today provides a review of Flame in the Sky: A story
of the Days of the Prophet Elijah written by Jean Bothwell for readers between
the ages of 10 and 14 which was illustrated by Jacob Landau.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1955/01/16/92618051.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1956: Egyptian
President Nassar pledged to re-conquer Palestine. The immediate result of
this boast was the Israeli victory in the Sinai Campaign of 1956.
1958: One of
Israel's fondest dreams was fulfilled today with the opening of a new highway
linking Elath and Beersheba.
1961: The
production of “Conquering Hero” with a book by Larry Gelbart opened at the ANTA
Playhouse.
1963: A week
after firing coaching legend Paul Brown, Art Modell named one of the assistant
coaches to the Head Coach position.
1963: “The
Hook” starring Kirk Douglas, featuring Nehemiah Persoff, filmed by
cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg and with music by Larry Adler was released
today in the United States.
1964(2nd
of Shevat, 5724): Fifty-nine-year-old Bronx-born World Flyweight Champion
Pincus “Pinky” Silverberg passed away today.
http://www.nhregister.com/article/NH/20121013/NEWS/310139965
1964(2nd
of Shevat, 5724): Sixty-two-year-old Aharon Zisling, Israel’s first Minister of
Agriculture and member of the first Knesset passed away today.
http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=590
1964: David
Merrick’s musical ''Hello, Dolly!'' starring Carol Channing opened on Broadway,
beginning a run of 2,844 performances.
1965: The
recording of Al Kooper and Irwine Levine’s “This Diamond Ring” by Gary Lews
& the Playboys hit #65 on this week’s top 100 Billboard Chart.
1968(15th
of Tevet, 5768): According to the NYT, today and not yesterday is the date when
69 year old Dr. Leopold Infeld, the associate of Albert Einstein passed away.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/01/17/88922287.pdf
1968: At
midnight, the INS Dakar set sail from
Gibraltar. After submerging, the Israeli submarine was supposed to sail
across the Mediterranean to Israel.
1968(15th
of Tevet, 5768): Seventy-six year old “Morry Luxenberg, a tailor who for more
than 40 years specialized in military uniforms” as can be seen by a client list
that included Generals Douglas MacArthur, George C. Marshall, Jonathan M.
Wainwright, George Patton, Jr and Leslie McNair and who “produced a felt cap in
1931 that has been worn since by some 75 percent of West Point’s graduating
class each year” suffered a fatal heart attack today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/01/18/89316988.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1972:
Terrorist killed one American and injured 3 others during an attack at Gaza
today.
1974(22nd
of Tevet, 5734): Seventy-four year old New York native and Columbia University
Paul Francis Linz who “in World War II served as a lieutenant commander in the
Navy, during which time he worked in the Department of State, directing
distribution of nonferrous metals and working out a reverse lend‐lease
deal with Britain to obtain copper” and “who was a partner from 1932 to 1949 in
C. M. Loeb, Rhoades & Co., member of the New York and other stock
exchanges, died in Mexico City” today.
1974: “Mark
Lutsker, a 25-year-old mathematics student, expelled in 1972 from Voronezh
University for wanting to emigrate to Israel, was arrested today at Kiev OVIR
when enquiring about his emigration permit, sentenced to two years imprisonment
for alleged evasion of military service and sent to camp near Kutaisi,
Georgia.”
1975(4th
of Shevat, 5735): Eighty-six-year-old Israel Abramofsky, the native of Kiev who
settled in Toledo, Ohio where he became a leading artist of the 20th century
passed away today.
1976: Lidiya
Nisanova of Derbent who had tried to make Aliyah in 1975 went on trial in the
Soviet Union on charges of “speculation” and after having been found guilty was
sentenced to 18 months in prison.
1977: Shlomo
Hillel begins serving as Interior Minister
1977:
Birthdate of Bnaei Brak native Ariel “Arik” Ze’ev Israel’s black belt in Judo
who won the Bronze Medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
1977: The Marx
Brothers were inducted into the Motion Picture Hall of Fame.
1978(8th
of Shevat, 5738): Eighty-five-year-old Lithuania native Boris Deutsch, the
“modernist who specialized in Jewish genre and figures” and who settled in Los
Angeles in 1919 where produced his “single film, ‘Lullaby’ in 1929” passed away
today.
https://lightcone.org/en/filmmaker-615-boris-deutsch
1978: The
Jerusalem Post reported that the foreign ministers of Israel, Egypt
and the US, agreed to hold a "political conference" in
Jerusalem.
1979: The Shah
of Iran who had maintained comparatively positive relations with Israel was
forced to flee as he was replaced by an ant-Western regime that has called for
the destruction of the state of Israel.
1981: Harold
H. Saunders who played a key role in the creation of the Camp David Accords,
completed his service as the 12th Assistant Secretary of State for
Near East Affairs.
https://scrc.gmu.edu/finding_aids/saunders.html
1981: Two days
after its release in the United States ‘Scanners” directed and written by David
Cronenberg with music by Howard Shore was released in Canada today.
1983: Jan
Peerce who was recovering from a stroke that had left him partially paralyzed
on the right side of his body, was forced to postpone a concert that had been
scheduled for today.
1984: Prime
Minister Yithak shamir, Defense Minister Moshe Arens and IDF Chief of Stat
Moshe Levy are scheduled to attend the funeral of Major Saad Haddad in Lebanon.
1985(23rd
of Tevet, 5745): Sixty-three-year-old photographer Ruth Orkin passed away
today.
http://www.orkinphoto.com/photographs/europe-and-israel/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/150026231307475169/
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/17/nyregion/ruth-orkin-photojournalist-and-film-maker-dead-at-63.html
1991(1st of
Shevat, 5751): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1991: The
Persian Gulf War began today with the Palestinians supporting the Iraqis and
the Israelis standing down from the conflict at the behest of the Bush
administration.
1991: Zubin
Mehta, the music director of the New York Philharmonic, who was to fly back to
New York from Munich today changed his mind and headed for Tel Aviv instead.
"He felt he needed to be in Israel" to demonstrate his affection for
the country during the Persian Gulf crisis, said Neil Parker, a spokesman for
the Philharmonic. Mr. Mehta, who was born in Bombay, has also been the music
director of the Israel Philharmonic since 1968. In 1981, the orchestra named
him music director for life. He had been in Austria to conduct the Vienna
Philharmonic, then had driven to Munich for a flight to Paris, where he was to
board the Concorde and return to New York. In Paris, he changed plans and flew
to Israel instead. "He feels that the entire country has adopted him and
that it was not possible to be anywhere else at this moment but Israel,"
Mr. Parker said.
1992:
Birthdate of Diana Golovanov, the Russian born Israeli singer and actress.
1993: NBC
broadcast the last episode of “The Powers That Be” a sitcom created by David
Crane and Martin Kauffman for which Norman Lear served as executive producer.
1993: Rabbi
Kenneth Klaristenfeld officiated at the wedding of his nephew “Edward J.
Klaris, an associate at the New York law firm of Lankenau Kovner & Kurtz”
and Yale graduate Robin Pogrebin, a staff reporter at the New York Observer who
is thedaughter of attorney Bert Pogrebin and Letty Cottin Pogrebin, “a founding
editor of Ms. Magazine.”
1994: After
opening in March of 1993, the curtain came down today on the final performance
of Paul Rudnick’s Off-Broadway hit “Jeffrey.”
1995(15th
of Shevat, 5755): Tu B’Shevat
1995: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held for real estate developer and civic leader
Monte Henry Goldman at Fairlawn Cemetery in Oklahoma City.
1995: Malcolm
Irving Glazer purchased the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise and then named his
sons Bryan, Joel and Edward co-chairman.
1996(24th
of Tevet, 5756): Ninety-two-year-old author and music critic Marcia Davenport,
the daughter of Bernard Glick and Alma Gluck passed away today. (As reported by
Eric Pace)
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/20/nyregion/marcia-davenport-biographer-is-dead-at-92.html
1996: President of Israel, Ezer Weizmann, gave a speech
to both Houses of Parliament of Germany. He gave this speech in Hebrew to the
Germans, fifty years after the Holocaust, and in it he beautifully summed up
what Jewish history is. He said:
"It
was fate that delivered me and my contemporaries into this great era when the
Jews returned to re-establish their homeland ... "I am no longer a
wandering Jew who migrates from country to country, from exile to exile. But
all Jews in every generation must regard themselves as if they had been there
in previous generations, places and events. Therefore, I am still a wandering
Jew but not along the far flung paths of the world. Now I migrate through the
expanses of time from generation to generation down the paths of
memory..."I was a slave in Egypt. I received the Torah on Mount Sinai.
Together with Joshua and Elijah I crossed the Jordan River. I entered Jerusalem
with David and was exiled with Zedekiah. And I did not forget it by the rivers
of Babylon. When the Lord returned the captives of Zion I dreamed among the
builders of its ramparts. I fought the Romans and was banished from Spain. I
was bound to the stake in Mainz. I studied Torah in Yemen and lost my family in
Kishinev. I was incinerated in Treblinka, rebelled in Warsaw, and emigrated to
the Land of Israel, the country from where I have been exiled and where I have
been born and from which I come and to which I return.” I am a wandering Jew
who follows in the footsteps of my forbearers. And just as I escort them there
and now and then, so do my forbearers accompany me and stand with me here
today."I am a wandering Jew with the cloak of memory around my shoulders
and the staff of hope in my hand. I stand at the great crossroads in time, at the
end of the twentieth century. I know whence I come and with hope and
apprehension I attempt to find out where I am heading. "We are all people
of memory and prayer. We are people of words and hope. We have neither
established empires nor built castles and palaces. We have only placed words on
top of each other. We have fashioned ideas. We have built memorials. We have
dreamed towers of yearning, of Jerusalem rebuilt, of Jerusalem united, of a
peace that will swiftly and speedily establish us in our days. Amen."
1996(24th
of Tevet, 5756): Ninety-two-year-old music critic and author Marcia Davenport,
the daughter of Bernard Glick and Alma Gluck passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/20/nyregion/marcia-davenport-biographer-is-dead-at-92.html
1997: Benny
Begin completed his terms as Science and Technology Minister
1997: Sandy
Baron and Sarah Silverman make guest appearances on tonight’s episode of
“Seinfeld” entitled “The Money.”
1998: “Half
Baked” a comedy featuring Laura Silverman, Jon Stewart and Bob Saget was
released in the United States today.
2000: After
834 performances at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, the curtain came
down the original Broadway production of “Ragtime” the musical based on E.L.
Doctorow’s 1975 novel.
2000: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including America Divided: The Civil War
of the 1960s by Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, I’m Not Done
Yet! Keeping at It, Remaining Relevant, and Having the Time of My Life by
Edward I. Koch with Daniel Paisner and Fire In The Night: Wingate of Burma,
Ethiopia, and Zion by John Bierman and Colin Smith.
2001: In:
“Unorthodox Cinema; An Israeli Filmmaker Imagines the Unimaginable,” published
today Deborah Sontag provides a sympathetic review of Joseph Cedar's ''Time of
Favor,'' called ''Hahesder'' (''The Arrangement'') in Hebrew, which swept the
2000 Israeli Academy Awards. The film concerns a plan by a brilliant, deranged
settler to blow up the Dome of the Rock, which would also blow up the region.
Locally, this is the ultimate sensational plot. But Mr. Cedar is rare here, an
Orthodox Jewish filmmaker in an art world dominated by secular leftists. And in
his hands, the sensational, while still sensational, is grounded in an
authenticity that lends a haunting pathos to what emerges as a kind of
art-house thriller, flawed but gripping.
2002(3rd
of Shevat, 5762): Seventy-one-year-old Brooklyn born Avi Boaz, who had lived in
Israel sine 1961 and who “ignored political lines to designs” when it came to
designing houses was murdered today by Palestinian gunmen today on “a lonely
road above a soccer field.
2002(3rd
of Shevat, 5762): “Two Palestinian gunmen blocked a car as it turned into a gas
state” and opened fire killing 45-year0ld Yoela Cohen and wounding her aunt.
2003: Space
Shuttle Columbia took off for what would prove to be its final
mission. The shuttle was carrying Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli
astronaut.
2004: The
Disney Channel broadcast Pixel Perfect by Neal Shusterman for the first time.
2004: U.S.
premiere of “Along Came Polly” an “American romantic comedy film written and
directed by John Hamburg, starring Ben Stiller.”
2004:
Publication of “Survival of the Fittest?” Ari Shavit’s interview with Benny
Morris.
http://www.webcitation.org/5pvy2Rvfw
2005: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Seven Types of Ambiguity by
Elliot Perlman
2005: David
Klein completed his term as Governor of the Bank of Israel.
2006:
Shav Glick, legendary sportswriter, retired from the LA Times. Glick was
known for his coverage of auto racing. He gained early fame writing about
Jackie Robinson his classmate at Passadena Junior College.
2006: The High
Court of Justice rejected Jonathan Pollard's petition to be recognized as a
Prisoner of Zion on the grounds that he was jailed by US authorities for spying
against his country and not for conducting Zionist activity in a country where
such activity is prohibited.
2006(16th
of Tevet, 5766): Eighty-two-year-old “Stanley H. Biber, a small-town Colorado
doctor who for decades was internationally renowned as the dean of sex-change
surgery, died today at a hospital in Pueblo (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/21/national/21biber.html?pagewanted=all
2007: An exhibition entitled “From the Heart: The
photojournalism of Ruth Gruber” opened at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New
York City.
2007: Following the conclusion of several months of
probes into the summer's Lebanon war, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan
Halutz announced his resignation.
2008: Avigdor
Lieberman completes his term as Deputy Prime Minister
2008: At
the 92nd Y in Manhattan Jewish author Carl Bernstein discusses his
extensive research on Hillary Rodham Clinton, including her political rise and
current campaign, and his most recent book, A Woman In Charge: The Life of
Hillary Rodham Clinton. Bernstein shared a Pulitzer Prize with Bob Woodward
for their coverage of Watergate for The Washington Post.
2008:
The second episode of “The Jewish Americans” airs on PBS. The three
episode series traces the history of the Jews in America starts with the
arrival of the first 23 Sephardic Jews in New Amsterdam in 1654 and “ends with
Maisyahu, the Chasidic hip-hop star, one of about six million Jews in America
today.” For more information see:
http://www.jewishtvnetwork.com/jewishamericans/
2008:
A hawkish faction of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmerts
coalition pulled out of his government today following the start of talks this
week over how to resolve the most vexing issues of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
2008:
A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in
the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia
has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David,
a prominent Israeli archeologist said today. The 2,500-year-old black stone
seal, which has the name "Temech" engraved on it, was found earlier
this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the
Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is
leading the dig.
2009: The American Jewish
Historical Society and the American Society for Jewish Music present: “Ethel Raim and the Center for Traditional Music and
Dance: Three Decades of Showcasing Jewish Music as part of the Jewish Music
Forum featuring Ethel Raim and Professor Mark Slobin of Wesleyan
University.
2009:
Two Grad rockets fired from Gaza hit Kiryat Gat this afternoon, wounding three
people and causing heavy damage.
2009(20th
of Tevet, 5769): Eighty-year Sherwin “Shy” Raiken the Villanova and NY Knicks
basketball player passed away today in Philadelphia.
https://basketball.realgm.com/player/Sherwin-Raiken/Summary/100395
2009:
Guy Cook, an attorney sent an e-mail stating that “Sholom Rubashkin denies all
99 charges…” (Editor’s note - The denial refers to additional charges
filed against Rubashkin on Thursday, January 15, 2009.
2010:
As part of the effort to aid Haiti following the devastating earthquake that
struck the country on January 13, a field hospital operated by IDF medical
teams became operational today.
2010: At the
New York Jewish Film Festival, the New York premiere of “The Jazz Baroness,” a
documentary created by filmmaker Hannah Rothschild that tells the story of her
great aunt Baroness Pannonica “Nica” Rothschild de Konigswarter who “abruptly
leaves her family and creates a new one among celebrated jazz musicians in
postwar New York.”
2010: The 10th
annual Atlanta Jewish Festival features a screening of “Anita,” film that
revolves around terrorist bombing of the AMIA Jewish Community Center in 1994
that killed 85 people and wounded hundreds more and its impact on the life of
Anita Feldman a girl with Down syndrome.
2010: The
Museum of Modern Art features the first showing of Amos Gitai’s Carmel which
opens with “quotes from Josephus on the Jewish Wars
of two millennia ago, then segues to present-day Israel and his family, with a
focus on the remarkably articulate Efratia, the filmmaker’s late mother, whose
letters about life in Israel and abroad are read by Jeanne Moreau.”
2010(1st
of Shevat, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
2010(1st
of Shevat, 5770): Ninety-year-old Hungarian born radio host George Jellinek
passed away today.
http://www.wqxr.org/#!/articles/wqxr-news/2010/jan/18/wqxr-music-host-george-jellinek-90-dies/
2011:
András Schiff told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that he had become
"persona non grata" in Hungary and would probably never perform there
again "or even visit." This followed charges by Schiff that
Hungary was guilty of "racism, discrimination against the Roma, and
anti-Semitism…”
2011:
The Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival is scheduled to present a program
entitled “5000 Years of Kvetching – Illustrated with cartoonist,
Ken Krimstein” during which the New York cartoonist “will discuss the
development of his newly published book, Kvetch as Kvetch Can, full of
90 original cartoons, some of which have been published in The New Yorker,
Barrons, The National Lampoon, and The Bulletin of Atomic
Scientists
2011: The U.S.
premiere of the restored version of “Lies My Father Told Me”, a film set in the
1920s Montreal Jewish immigrant community, is scheduled to take place at The
New York Jewish Film Festival.
2011: In
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Hadassah sponsored a Tu B’Shevat Seder at Temple Judah
2011:
“The Social Network” based on the life of Mark Zuckerberg won the Golden Globe
award for Best Picture.
2011: In
Israel the Cabinet is expected this to approve Israel's acceptance of
membership in the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment
of Women.
2011: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman
and the recently released paperback edition of The Bridge: The Life and Rise
of Barack Obama by David Remnick
2011: The
Los Angeles Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Binocular Vision: New &
Selected Stories by Edith Pearlman
2011:
There were a number of attacks against Jewish institutions in Montreal sometime
between yesterday evening and this morning, local media reported today. Vandals
reportedly smashed the windows of three synagogues, a Jewish day school, and a
Jewish daycare center in the Côte-St-Luc and Hampstead neighborhoods. Local
authorities said that there might be a connection between the attacks and that
they may have been perpetrated by the same person or group of people.
2011(11th
of Shevat, 5771): Milton Levine, the co-creator of “Uncle Milton’s Ant Farm
which was an instant hit in the fad-crazy 1950s” passed away today at the age
of 97 (As reported by Valerie Nelson)
2012:
“Remembrance,” a film inspired by actual events that depicts a remarkable love
story that blossomed in the terror and squalor of a Nazi concentration camp in
1944 Poland, is scheduled to have its New York Premiere at the New York Jewish
Film Festival.
2012: Touro
Synagogue Weekend of Peace March-MLK,Jr. Parade is scheduled to take place in
New Orleans, LA.
2012:
The 10th Annual Used Book Sale at Beth El Hebrew Congregation is scheduled to
come to an end in Alexandria, VA.
2012: An
Israel Defense Forces court sentenced a Palestinian man to five life sentences
today, after he was convicted of murdering five members of the Fogel family in
the West Bank settlement of Itamar in 2011. Amjad Awad, a 19-year-old student,
carried out the crime with his cousin, Hakim Awad, who was already sentenced to
five consecutive life sentences in October 2011. The judges' panel contemplated
whether to give Awad the death penalty, saying the youth "doesn't have a
fragment of regret in his heart." However, ultimately the judges said that
despite the horrid acts he carried out, they decided not to sentence him to a
harsher punishment than the one the military prosecution had requested.
2012: Hackers
shut down both the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) and El Al’s respective
websites today, one day after a hacker network threatened to carry out attacks
on both sites. The network, which goes by the name “nightmare group,” was able
to cause severe problems for both sites
2013: In Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to discuss Unorthodox by
Deborah Feldman
2013: “An NFL
source told the Chicago Tribune
early” today that the Chicago Bears would name Marc Trestman as their new head
coach tomorrow.
2013: At least
five rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip in the direction of Ashkelon, at
approximately 2:00 am today.
2013: At The Wiener
Library in London, Dr. Joanna Beata Michlic from the Hadassah-Brandeis
Institute is scheduled to deliver a lecture that “discusses early postwar
memories of Jewish survivors and their rescuers concerning wartime rescue in
Warsaw and Warsaw province, and the relationships between rescuers and their
Jewish charges in the immediate postwar period.”
2013: “Aya” is
scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: A week
before the January 22 elections, representatives of the eight largest political
parties running for Knesset will face off before the English- speaking public
at The Jerusalem Great Synagogue tonight.
2013: Today
the Jerusalem District Court convicted the "Jewish Terrorist" Jack
Teitel of murdering two Palestinians and an assortment of other crimes between
1997 and 2008.
2014: The San
Diego Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to host a “Collage Workshop with
Irene Neimark.”
2014: “Saul
Bass Shorts” and “Cupcakes” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish
Film Festival
2014: The
Daniel Cooney Gallery is scheduled to host the reception which marks the
opening of “Inframen” a project of Nir Arieli.
2014(15th
of Shevat): According to the tradition of the Bene Israel of India, the prophet
Elijah ascended to heaven
2014(15th
of Shevat, 5774): Tu BiShvat / טו בשבט
2014(15th
of Shevat, 5774): Eighty-nine-year-old Seattle born producer Harvey Bernhard
passed away today.
http://www.filmreference.com/film/64/Harvey-Bernhard.html
2014: Sirens
went off tonight in the Ashkelon region as rockets were fired from Gaza for a
second straight night.
2014:
Among those nominated for Oscars today were “The
Act of Killing “Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen for Best
Documentary Feature and Emmanuel Lubezki for Cinematography for his work in
“Gravity.”
2014: The
Ministry for Senior Citizens announced today that it canceled its NIS 25,000
($7,000) support for a remembrance event organized by the city of Ramat Gan for
International Holocaust Remembrance Day, after a Ynet report revealed that
participants would be charged a NIS 20 ($6) entrance fee, including Holocaust
survivors. (As reported by Gilad Morag)
2015:
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court opened a preliminary
examination of possible war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories,
the first formal step that could lead to charges against Israelis today. (As
reported by Rick Gladstone and Isabel Kershner)
2015: “An
Unmarried Woman” is scheduled to be shown at the 92nd Street Y as
part of the winter film series.
2015: Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today blasted the joint Labor-Hatnua party list —
now called the Zionist Camp — for being “anti-Zionist” and representing the
“radical left,” and said his Likud party would not sit in a future coalition
alongside it. (As reported by Marissa Newman)
2015:
Secretary of State John Kerry laid a wreath at a kosher supermarket near Paris
where four people were killed on January 9.
2015: The NIFY
Southern Winter is scheduled to begin at Memphis, TN.
2016(6th
of Shevat 5776): Parashat “Bo.”
2016:
“Peridance, a group led by Israeli choreographer and dance teacher Igal Peri”
is scheduled to appear at the Salvatore Capezio Theatre.
2016: Israeli
trumpeter Itamar Borochov is scheduled to perform tonight at the Rockwood Music
Hall this evening.
2017: In Falls
Church, VA, graveside are scheduled to be held 105 year old Hilde Metzger
Prins, daughter of Louis and Clara Metger who moved to Palestine in 1933 to
escape the Nazis at the same time she sought refuge in Amsterdam after which
she moved to New York and married Benajamin Prins in 1940 with whom she moved
to Washington 1948 where she raised their daughter Judith, the wife of Larry
Lorber.
2017: Today,
Iraqi forces “retook an area in Mosul” where the Islamic State jihadists had
levelled “the Nabi Yunus Shrine which was built on the reputed burial site of
the prophet known as Jonah in 2014.
2017: The
Daily Mail reported today that an Amazon employee who correctly guessed that a
customer who purchased her niece was Jewish based on her last name “was fired
after allegedly leaving a note in a package for a Jewish customer which read:
“Greetings from Uncle Adolf.” (As reported by JTA)
2017: A special preview of “Denial” the film based
on Deborah E. Lipstadt victory of Holocaust denier David Irving, written by
David Hare and starring Rachel Weisz and Timothy Spall is scheduled to take
place at the Phoenix Cinema under the sponsorship of the UKJF
2017: The
Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a term opening event at
the Varsity Club this evening.
2017: Jack
Alan Markell completed his service as the 73rd Governor of Delaware.
2017: “Past
Life” and “Such is Life” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film
Festival.
2017: In
celebration of Martin Luther King Day, the Museum at Eldridge Street is
scheduled to host a program for the whole family – What’s Your Dream? Including
a discussion of What Do You Do With An Idea?
2018: The
Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to dinner where students will
have a chance to “learn a bit about something topical and Jewish.”
2018: In New
Orleans, the Cathy and Morris Bart Jewish Cultural Arts Series is scheduled to
host a screening of “Keep Quiet” which tells the “true story of a former
far-right, anti-Semitic member of the Hungarian Jobbik party who discovered he
was Jewish.”
2018: “German
authorities said today they were conducting searches countrywide in connection
with 10 suspected Iranian spies, with one report saying that the suspects were
members of an elite military force that had been watching Israeli and Jewish
targets.”
2018: “The
United States sent $60 million to keep the UN relief agency for Palestinians
(UNRWA) in operation but withheld a further $65 million while it urged others
to pay more, a State Department official said today.”
2018: The IAF
announced this evening that “Major T., whose first name is not provided due to
security, a 35-yeaer old mother of town has been named the commander of a
flight squadron making her the first female pilot to hold such a position
2018: “Army
sappers detonated a cellphone-operated explosive device that was apparently
planted by Palestinians at the entrance to the Joseph’s Tomb holy site in the
city of Nablus early this morning, ahead of a visit by approximately 1,000
Jewish worshipers, the army said.”
2018: In the
District of Columbia, the Washington Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host
a screening of “Two Trains Runnin’”.
2019: Dr.
Laurence Sherr, the “composer-in-residence and Professor of Music at Kennesaw
State University” and “an internationally recognized Holocaust music lecturer”
is scheduled to tell the “compelling stories about the “resistance and defiance
often hidden in the artistic work of Jewish musicians imprisoned at Terezin” at
the Breman Museum in Atlanta, GA.
2019: “Alan
Bern and Svetlana Kundish” are scheduled to present “Music from a Vanished
World” at the Jewish Museum in London.
2019: In
Cleveland, the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage is scheduled to host a screening
of “The Gatekeepers” a documentary by Dror Moreh.
2019: “Chasing
Portraits” is scheduled to be shown this afternoon at the New York Jewish Film
Festival.
2019(10th
of Shevat, 5779): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Rabbi Shalom Sharabi.
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Shevat_10.html
2020:
The Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled host the
Combined Jewish Philanthropies’ “Conversation for Action.”
2020:
The Boston Synagogue is scheduled to host the first session of “Magic, Miracles
and Messiahs: The Supernatural in Jewish Tradition.”
2020:
“An Irrepressible Woman” and “Four Winters: A story of Jewish Partisan
Resistance and Bravery in WW II” are scheduled to be shown at the New York
Jewish Film Festival.
2020:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to co-host discussion of Varian Fry,
featuring Julie Orringer, the author of The Flight Portfolio, Jonathan L.
Weinsner of the International Rescue Committee and Sandee Brawarsky, the
culture editor of The Jewish Week.
2020:
At the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, the UJA-Federation is scheduled to host
“Neshama Carlebach and her gospel choir are scheduled to perform a “Community
Concert for MLK Day.”
2021:
East Bay Jewish film fest, Contra Costa JCC and several local congregations are
scheduled to host a screening of “Shared Legacies” the 2020 documentary about
the history of Black-Jewish relations from the civil rights era to the present
day.
2021:
B’nai Jeshurun Congregation is scheduled to present via Zoom Havdallah and a
virtual Family Concert starring Rabbi Josh Warshawsky, a nationally touring
musician, song leader, composer, and teacher of Torah
2021(3rd
of Shevat, 5781): Parashat Va-ayrah;
2021:
In Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Temple Judea is scheduled to host “Havdalah in
loving memory of Debbie Friedman IN PERSON in the TJ in parking lot.
2021:
Based on reports that have been published at the end of this week in Newsweek,
Israelis now fact a new threat since “Iran has recently sent its Houthi allies
in Yemen unmanned aircraft loaded with explosives known as “suicide
drones," which can reach and operate against a variety of targets
including Israel.”
2022:
Jewish Baby Network and Tyler Dean of Palo Alto Congregation Kol Emeth are
scheduled to host an online party for kiddies under 5 and their families with
dancing, singing and puppets to celebrate Tu B’Shevat.
2022:
The New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host screenings of “Persian
Lessons” and “The Will to See.”
2022:
The Weitzman National American Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled
to host, online, a “Musical Tu B’Sjevat Seder featuring “Rebekka Goldsmith,
Battya Levine, Rabbi Micah Shapiro and Jessie Reagan Mann.
2022:
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled to present “The Qur’an and
its Relationship to Torah and Judaism.”
2022:
The Miami Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host the Florida premiere of
“Let It Morning,” the winner of seven Ophirs.
2022:
The National Library of Israel is scheduled to host Professor David B. Ruderman
as he presents “three case studies’ on “Jewish-Christian Encounters in Early
Modern Europe.”
2022:
Congregation Shirat Hayam of the North Shore is scheduled to host “Nature Hike
for Tu B’Shevat”
2022:
In an act of uniquely Jewish optimism, in Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is
schedule to hold, online, its Tu B’Shevat Seder twenty-four hours after a snowstorm
dropped more than half a foot snow on Linn County.
2023:
The Maltz Museum is scheduled to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day with
freed programing today.
2023:
The Vilna Shul is scheduled to present “MLK Day of Service for Young
Professionals.”
2023:
The Oshman Family JCC is scheduled to present community projects for the
national MLK Day of Service, with a closing ceremony at Mitchell Park.
2023:
Temple Isaiah, Temple Emunah, and Billy Dalwin PreSchool are scheduled to
celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. through tikun olam (repairing
the world).
2023:
Today, “Herzi Halevi will enter office as chief of staff of the Israel Defense
Force, as it marches into a political battleground, with members of Israel’s
new right-religious government taking aim at the army’s chain of command.” (As
reported by Emanuel Fabian)
2024:
The Miami Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host screenings of “Children of
Nobody” and “Vishniac.”
2024:
Temple Judea is scheduled to host “Modern Musar” with Michael Ross.
2024:
The New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host screenings of “Rabbi on
the Block” and “All About the Levkoviches.”
2024:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held at Tifte`reth Israel in Des Moines, IA
for Ethelyn Fishman who passed away at the age of 101 followed by burial at
Jewish Glendale Cemetery.
2024: As January 16th begins in Israel,
the Hamas held hostages begin day 102 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.)
