This Day, January 27, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
January 27
98: Nerva, the
Roman emperor who in “96 Nerva courted popularity in Rome for his new regime by
changing the way in which the special tax on Jews payable to the fiscus
Judaicus was exacted” passed away today.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/…
January 27
98: Nerva, the
Roman emperor who in “96 Nerva courted popularity in Rome for his new regime by
changing the way in which the special tax on Jews payable to the fiscus
Judaicus was exacted” passed away today.
98: Trajan
becomes Roman Emperor after the death of Nerva. The second of the three Jewish
revolts against Roman authority took place at the end of Trajan’s reign.
This second revolt took place in the Diaspora. It started in 115 and
lasted until 117. The revolt began in Egypt and then spread to other
parts of North Africa including Libya, Cyrenaica and the Island of
Cyprus. The revolt angered Trajan because it took place while he was
campaigning in the East and he saw it as an act of treachery aimed at his
rear. Just as the Jews of the Diaspora remained passive during the two
revolts that took place in the land of Israel, so the Jews of Israel took no
part in this bloody action which resulted in the destruction of the Cypriot
Jewish community and the start of the decline of the Egyptian Jewish community.
661: The
Rashidun Caliphate ends with death of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of
Muhammad. Begun in 632, the Caliphate marked a period of conquest that gave
Islam control over a large swath of North Africa, the old Persian Empire and
the modern Middle East. It was during this period that the forces of
Islam defeated the Byzantines thus giving them control over Jerusalem.
681: The 28
canons adopted by the Twelfth Council of Toledo which contained a series of
“diverse measures against the Jews” were read for the fir time in the Church of
Santa Maria in Toledo, Spain.
1164(1st of
Adar): Poet and philosopher Abraham ibn Ezra passed away
1186: Henry
VI, the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, married Constance
of Sicily. During Henry’s reign Jews would be massacred from the Rhine
districts all the way to the Vienna.
1197(6th of
Adar): Rabbi Samuel ben Natronai, a tosafist, was broken on the wheel and
martyred today.
1343: Pope
Clement VI, who had portions of Levi ben Gershon’s (Gersonides) Sefer Milhamot
Ha-Shem, ("The Wars of the Lord"), translated into Latin today
“issued the Bull Unigenitus Dei filius to justify the power of the pope
1349: The Jews
were driven out of Burgundy and escorted as far as Montbozon.
1449: New
Christians or Conversos were the targets of a riot in Toledo, Spain. The
Conversos especially the wealthy ones, were attacked during a revolt against
taxation. Three hundred of them decided to band together and defend themselves.
During the attack one Christian were killed. In response, 22 Marranos were
murdered and numerous of their houses were destroyed.
1569: Esther
Lanier, the daughter of Margret Johnson and Baptiste Bassano, “a Venetian born
musician at the court of Elizabeth I was baptized today as Aemilia Bassano, the
poet who wrote “Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (Hail, God, King of the Jews) which
led many to contend that she was of Jewish origins.
1571: Birthdate of Abbas I of Persia, “the 5th Safavid
Shah of Iran during whose early reign the “Jews prospered throughout Persia and
were encouraged to settle in Isfahan, the new capital.” As the years wore
on, the conditions of the Jews worsened and among other things, they “were
forced to wear a distinctive badge on their clothing and headgear.
1659: Cornelis
Janss Plavier and his wife Geertje Andriesz, who were about to leave for New
Amsterdam borrowed 1625 guilders, insurance included, from Amsterdam merchant
Abraham Cohen Henriquez. The loan was to be repaid with the sale of beaver
shipped in the autumn to Amsterdam. Merchandise and bills of lading for the
beaver were to be kept by Asser Levy, or in his absence by Joseph d' Acosta,
until proper security could be given by the couple for the shipment for which
they were obligated. The borrowers were not Jewish; the others involved were.
1695:
Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul on the death of Amhed II.
Ahmed II had been born in 1643. During his reign he imprisoned Doctor
Hayati Zadi in the Yedikule prison where he died. During the reign of Mustafa
II, Belgrade was reconqured and the Jews were allowed to return to the city in
1690. Also, Doctor Nuh efendi, Doctor Levi, Doctor Tobias Cohen and Doctor
Israel Koenigland were appointed palace doctors. Mustafa ruled until 1703.
1725: Mr. and
Mrs. Michael Hays gave birth to Jacob Hays, the husband of Hetty Adolphus with
whom he had seven children.
1755: In Jamaica, Sir Mannasseh Masseh Lopses who converted to
Christianity so that he could become a Member of Parliament, was born into “a
wealthy family of Portuguese Jews.”
1766: In Jamaica, Abigail and Gotchal Levien gave birth to Joicey Levien.
1773:
Birthdate of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, the 6th son
of George III who(the one who lost the 13 colonies) who “became a Patron of the
Jews' Hospital and Orphan Asylum, later to become the charity known as Norwood”
and who supported legislation to remove “the civil liabilities of Jews” passed
away today.
1774(15th
of Sheva, 5534): Tu B’Shevat
1774: Two days
after his death at the age of 63, Abram ben Tov was buried at the “Alderney
Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.
1775: in the
town of Leonberg in the Duchy of Württemberg (now Baden-Württemberg), of Joseph
Friedrich Schelling and his wife Gottliebin Marie gave birth to German
philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling who was a major influence on
Rabbi Sekl Loeb Wormser, Talmudist and Kabbalist who was a follower of Rabbi
Nathan Adler.
1748: One day
before his 31st birthday, Benjamin Mendes Seixas, the Newport born
son
Rachel Franks
Levy and Isaac Menes Seixas, married Zipporah Levy in Philadelphia, PA after
which they reportedly had 18 children.
1779: Zipporah
Levy married Benjamin Mendes Seixas today in Philadelphia, PA.
1780(20th
of Shevat, 5540): Amsterdam native Rebecca bat Rab Meir passed away today in
the United Kingdom
1781: As the
United States garnered allies in its fight for independence, British Admiral
Sir George Rodney was informed that Britain was now at war with the United
Provinces (Holland) and recommended as "first objects of attack St.
Eustatius and St. Martin” attacks that would lead to the worst outbreak of
anti-Semitism during the American Revolution
1785: Founding
of the University of Georgia. According to the January, 2005 issue of “The
Jewish Week,” the University of Georgia is emerging as one of the new “hot
campuses” for Jewish students. “In 1993 the state of Georgia began paying full
tuition to students with a 3.0 average or better in high school who kept a B
average or better in college. So now the University of Georgia, which the
Chronicle of Higher Education said had been considered a party school 10 years
ago, is now a popular destination for in-state Jewish students. It’s 58th on
this year’s U.S. News and World Report ranking of state schools for
undergraduates, right below Maryland. Now the University of Georgia Hillel gets
as many as 130 students at a Shabbat dinner, according to its director Shawn
Laing.”
1787: In
Lancaster, PA, Reyna Simon and Solomon Etting gave birth to Miriam Etting, the
wife of Jacob Myers
1788: “The
first of England’s flotilla of convict transports dropped anchor at Sydney
harbor, New South Wales.” There were eight Jews among the eight hundred
prisoners one of whom was sixteen-year old Esther Abrahams of London, sentenced
to an Australian penal farm for stealing a piece of lace.
1788: Sarah
Cohen, and New York native David Nunez Cardozo gave birth to Frances Cardozo.
1790: In
France, active citizenship was extended to the "well born" Sephardic
Jews of Bordeaux, who promptly bowed out of the fight for equal rights. They
looked upon their poorer brothers in Alsace-Lorraine with contempt.
1791: The
National Assembly grants civil rights to the Jews of Alsace and Lorraine
completing the process of emancipation for French Jews.
1806:
Birthdate of “German philologist and lexicographer” Wilhelm Freund whose four
volume Latin dictionary became “the basis for the standard English-Latin
dictionaries in the 19th century” Lewish and Short’s A Latin
Dictionary
1806:
Birthdate of Devon native Barnet Jonas.
1808:
Birthdate of German theologian and author David Friedrich Strauss who was a
leader of those studying Jesus as a historical figure, which would have
included his Jewish origins.
https://www.westarinstitute.org/resources/the-fourth-r/david-friedrich-strauss/
1808: Jerome
Bonaparte granted full civil rights to the Jews of Westphalia
1811: Abraham
Lima Lamert married Elizabeth Abrahams at the Great Synagogue.
1813:
Birthdate of Heinrich von Friedberg who became a Protestant and enjoyed a
successful legal career in Prussia.
1813: Solomon
Meyer married Sarah Samuel at the Great Synagogue today.
1814:
Seventy-two-year-old Philip Astley, “the father of the modern circus” who in
1786 hired Jacob de Castro, the son of a Hebrew teacher, to perform in
“Amphitheatre and Ambigu-Comique” for several years and a group of whose
performers were known as “Astley’s Jews” passed away today.
1814:
Fifty-one-year-old Johann Gottlieb Fichte the German philosopher who in 1793
“singled out Jews and Judaism as constituting a ‘state-within-a-state’ that was
‘predicted on the hatred of the entire human race’ and ‘spreading thought
almost all lands of Europe and terribly oppressing its citizens” yet whose
Addresses to the German Nation shows “few traces of such Jews-hatred.”
1818(21st
20th of Shevat, 5578): Fifty-five-year-old Rachel Heilbron, the New
York born daughter of Sara and Moses Benjamin and sister of Revolutionary War
hero Colonel Isaac Franks who married David Heilbron after having been married
to Chaim Moses Salomon Sr. passed away today in New York.
1824: In
Groningen, Netherlands, Hartog Abraham Israels and his wife gave birth to Dutch
painter Jozef Israëls. “Descended from a poor Jewish family, Jozef Israëls
started taking drawing lessons in 1835 at the Academy Minerva in Groningen…. In addition to fishermen scenes and portraits, he
expanded his subject matter with peasant scenes, and later in his career he
returned to the subject of death and old age, as well as treating Jewish and biblical
themes. He traveled
extensively and was much honored at home and abroad. Israëls was the most
acclaimed Dutch painter in his time, eagerly sought after by collectors in
Great Britain, the United States, and other countries. Hailed as a second
Rembrandt, he participated in many exhibitions, and his work was disseminated
through reproductions.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jozef_Israëls#/media/File:Jozef_israels_solo_en_mundo.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jozef_Israëls#/media/File:Josef_Israels_001.jpg
http://www.nndb.com/people/207/000104892/
http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artist.php?artistid=963
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jozef_Isra%C3%ABls
1829: Two days
after he had passed away, 84 year old Benjamin Zeev Coster was buried today at
the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1832: In
Alsace, Alexander Aron and his wife, the former Charlotte Ascher Lower, gave
birth to Clara Aron.
1836: Benjamin
Marks married Abigail Garcia today at the Hambro Synagogue.
1836:
Birthdate of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch the Austrian author whose works included
Jews and Russians and New Jewish Stories. “He faithfully
described the manners of the Polish Jews but he feared that his affection for
them might give the impression that he was an Israelite.”
1840: One day
after she had passed away, Hannah Chapman, the wife of Benjamin Chapman, was
buried today at the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1841: In New
York City, Jacob Levy Seixas, the New York bon son of Judith and Moses Benjamin
Seixas and his wife Hortensia Seixas gave birth to Moses Mendes Seixas who
passed away at the age of 11.
1842: During
the consecration of the first Reform Synagogue in London, Rabbi David Woolf
Marks shocked the traditional Anglo-Jewish community by declaring. “We solemnly
deny that a belief in the divinity of those traditions written in the Mishnah
and the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmud is of equal obligation to the Israelite
with the faith in the divinity of the Laws of Moses… These books are human
compositions; and, though we are content to accept with reverence, advice and
instruction from our post-biblical ancestors, we cannot unconditionally accept
their laws. For Israelites there is but one immutable Law – the sacred volume
of the Scriptures commanded by God to be written down for the unerring guidance
of His people until the end of time.” Every Hebrew congregation must be
authorised to take such measures as shall bring the divine services into
consonance with the will of the Almighty, as explained to us in the Law and in
the Prophets.”
1843(26th
of Shevat, 5603): Sixty-nine-year-old Levy Salomons, the son of Shiphra Levy
Salomons and Solomon Salomons passed away today in the United Kingdom
1743(26th
of Shevat, 5603): Abraham Hyman, the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Hyman passed
away today in New Orleans.
1848: In York
Place Queens Elm, Sophia and Nathaniel Levy gave birth to Lewis Levy.
1850:
Birthdate of Samuel Gompers, first president the American Federation of
Labor. When asked what does the American working man want, Gompers
responded, “More!”
http://www.aflcio.org/About/Our-History/Key-People-in-Labor-History/Samuel-Gompers-1850-1924
1854: In
London, Caroline Lazarus and Mark George Simmons gave birth Henry Frederick
Simmons.
1859(22nd of
Shevat, 5619): Rabbi Menahm Mendel of Kotsk passed away.
1859(22nd
of Shevat, 5619): Seventy-nine-year-old Mozes Abraham Verveer, the Amsterdam
born son of Abraham Salomon passed away today in The Hague.
1859:
Birthdate of Kaiser Wilhelm II who served as German emperor from 1888 until his
abdication in 1918. Wilhelm played many complex roles in the lives of the Jews
of Europe. He missed one opportunity to alter Jewish history by not
supporting Herzl when he sought the Kaiser’s help in creating a Jewish state in
Eretz Israel. Despite the thousands of Jews who fought and died in his Army,
Wilhelm was an anti-Semite who blamed the Jews for Germany’s defeat helping to
give rise to the canard about Germany having been defeated by “the stab in the
back,” a stab delivered by the Jews.
1860:
Birthdate of Sir Charles Solomon Henry, an Australian merchant and businessman
who lived mostly in Britain and sat as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) in
the House of Commons from 1906-1918.
1861: Three
days after he had passed away, 64-year-old Philip Benjamin, the husband of
Frances Benjamin and the father of Deborah Benjamin was buried today at the
“Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1862:
Birthdate of Nagy Mihaly, Hungary native and Budapest trained attorney, Armin
Fodor who “was appoint ed district Judge at Budapest in 1890” and who began
serving as Ministry of Justice legal expert in 1895.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6211-fodor-armin
1863:
Sixty-eight-year-old Edward Robinson, the American biblical scholar who is
considered the “Father of Biblical Geography” passed away. The American
Protestant journeyed to Palestine with Reverend Eli Smith where they identified
many of the sites described in the Bible. Among them was the tunnel dug
during the reign of King Hezekiah. An arch dating back to Herod’s
rebuilding of the Second Temple was named Robinson’s Arch in his honor. In
1839, Robinson became the first person to describe Tell el-Hesi., a site later
excavated by Flinders Petrie.
1864: During
the American Civil War, the Richmond (VA) Examiner published an article
today about those who have are deserting the southern Confederacy for the
safety of the North with Jews being the only group identified by their
religion. According to the paper, a “great underground route to the North
is now open through to Washington, D.C, via the track of the York River
Railroad. This route, so generously left open by the Confederate
Government, is patronized daily by scores of the principal of substitutes in
search of more healthful localities -- Jews and blockade-runners carrying out
gold and running in goods…”
1869(15th
of Shevat, 5629): Tu B’shevat
1869:
Twelve-year-old Jacob Bibo, the younger brother of Isaac R. Bibo, who had been
placed in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in March 1867 after his mother died, “left
the institution” today “and went to work with a pawnbroker on the Bowery.
1871: In St.
Petersburg, Russia, Oscar Ittleson and Eva Magaret Sterne gave birth to future New
Yorker Henry Ittleson who was the founder of Credit and Investment Company, the
first time-payment company in the United States, the husband of pioneer social
worker Blanche Ittleston and the father Lee and Henry C. Jr. Ittleson.
1872:
Birthdate of Weaverville, CA native Julius C. Lang who was one of the delegates
from Seattle Washington at the 1919 convention of the Hebrew Sheltering and
Immigrant Aid Society of America.
1873: In
Russia, the recently promulgated Ukase concerning recruiting sailors and
soldiers for the Czar’s military went into effect. Among the change in
the new law was the termination of the exemption from service that had been
given to Jews who had converted to Christianity. This is one of dozens of
exemptions that were terminated. Now an exemption may be purchased upon
payment of 800 silver rubles to the government.
1876(1st
of Shevat, 5636): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1876(1st
of Shevat, 5636): German native Moses Aufesser, the husband of Mary Pretzfelder
Aufesser and the father of Ferdinand M. Aufesser passed away today after which
he was buried at the Beth Emeth Cemetery in Loudonville, NY.
1878:
President Henry S. Herman presided over the opening session of District Grand
Lodge No. 1 of the Independent Order of the B’nai Brit which was being held at
the Nilsson Hall in New York City. District 1 includes New York States,
all the states of New England and the Dominion of Canada.
1879: A
Commission of Investigation was established to examine charges of immoral
contact by Monsignor Thomas John Capel. Capel’s behavior would lead to
his being sent to the United States where he became a popular speaker who
delivered an address on patriotism to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1879(3rd
of Shevat, 5639): Schiee Jaffe, the native of Gnesen who was the son of Samuel
and N.N. Jaffe passed away today in Berlin
1880(14th
of Shevat, 5640): Eighty-five-year-old German born pianist Jacques-Simon Herz
passed away today.
1880:
Birthdate of Baltimore native and HUC graduate Eli Mayer whose thesis on “War
and Religion” earned him his Doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania and
who served at congregations in Helena, AR, Patterson, NJ, Philadelphia, PA,
before settling in at Temple Beth Emeth in Albany, NY while serving on the
board of the NAACP and wring Joshua and Ruth.
1880: Three
days after she had passed away, 37-year-old Fanny Milligan, the daughter
Charles and Sarah (Barnet) Milligan was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham
Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1882: In
Austria, Solomon and Edith Bodenstein gave birth to Columbia University trained
physician and Health Commissioner of New York City Dr. Louis Israel Harris who
led the fight against the outbreaks of typhoid fever and influenza while
serving as the director of the “Committee for the Care of the Jewish
Tuberculous” while raising to children – Sophia and Carl—with his wife the
former Bertha Adler Harris.
1882:
Birthdate of Houston, TX native, Arthur Harris, the Atlanta businessman
who
was “active in the National Conference of Christians and Jews
1883:
Joseph and Minnie Frieberg Ranshoff gave birth to Helen Ranshoff Iglauer, the
wife of Samuel Iglauer whom she married in 1906 and who was the mother of Helen
Glueck
1883: In New
Orleans, Judge H.L. Lazarus and his wife gave birth to Tulane trained Attorney
Eldon Spencer Lazarus who was a member of the ADL for forty years and President
of Temple Sinai while raising a son and a daughter with his wife Hilda Lazarus.
1884(29th
of Tevet, 5644): Sixty-nine-year-old Rabbi Gutmann Gumpel Klemperer, the
husband of Julie Klemperer, whose intellectual accomplishments included writing
“a history of the Prague rabbinate from the death of Yehudah Leib ben Betsal’el
(Maharal) through the period ending in 1879” passed away today.
1885: In New
York City, Fannie Kakeles and Henry Kern gave birth to Jerome (David) Kern, one
of America's foremost composers of music for the theatre and screen who is best
known as the composer of Broadway musicals like The Cat and the Fiddle
(1931) and Roberta (1933). http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C67
1885:
Birthdate of musician and composer Harry Ruby.
http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C308
1886: In
Atlanta, GA, Joseph L. Loeb of Charleston SC, married Stella Jackson the
“youngest daughter of the late J.J. Cohen of Rome, GA” at the “residence of her
brother, L.L. Cohen.”
1887: Henry M.
Stanley, the leader of the expedition to save Emin Pasha, the apostate Jew
turned Christian, turned Moslem, arrived in Cairo.
1887: In
Cincinnati, OH, Bertha Saenger and David Zielonka gave birth University of
Cincinnati graduate and Miami Medical College trained surgeon Samuel Zielonka, an
instructor in surgery at the University of Cincinnati, the attending surgeon at
the Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati and the author of numerous “articles on
neurosurgery and general surgery."
1888:
Birthdate of mineralogist and petrologist Victor Moritz Goldschmidt
1888:
Birthdate of Sacki Gustav one of the many German Jews from Kleinseinach who
died while serving in WW I.
1890: In St.
Louis, Rabbi Rosentretter presided at the wedding of Fannie Miller, the
daughter of A.A. Miller and Morris Elman.
1890: In
Albany, NY, Davis S. Mann, a Jewish teller, was denied a promotion to cashier
of the Albany County Banks.
1891(NS):
Birthdate of Russian and later Soviet author, journalist and activist, Ilya
Ehrenburg.
1891: Joseph
Kline, the President of a Hebrew Cemetery Society “was put on trial” today “in
the Union County charged with larceny and obtaining money under false pretenses
from John Leece
1892:
Birthdate of Ernst Lubitsch “a German-born Jewish film director” whose “urbane
comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant
and sophisticated director” which led critics to say that his films had “the
Lubitsch touch".
1892: In
Baltimore, Russian Jewish parents gave birth to Herman Samuel Kominetzky, better
known as Herman “Kay” Kamen, who introduced the first-ever Mickey Mouse watch
and who during his seventeen association with The Walt Disney Company created a
Mickey Mouse advertising bonanza.
https://d23.com/walt-disney-legend/kay-kamen/
1892: It was
reported today that the recent charity ball hosted at the Brooklyn Academy of
Music raised approximately $6,000 for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1893(10th
of Shevat, 5653): Russian journalist Nachum Cohen author of “In A Dull Townlet”
which “appeared in book form in 1895” passed away today.
1893: It was
reported today that the average attendance during 1892 at the Hebrew Technical
Institute was 138. Seventy-five percent of the 32 students who graduated
“have obtained desirable positions.
1894:
Approximately 200 delegates attended the opening session of the annual meeting
of District Lodge No. 1 of B’nai B’rith at the Lexington Avenue Opera House
where they heard an address from the retiring President, Judge Goldfogle of the
Fifth Judicial District.
1895(2nd
of Shevat, 5655): Forty-eight-year-old Gustavus Thalhimer, the Richmond, VA,
born son William Thalhimer, the German born founder of Richmond, VA, Thalheimer
Brothers, Inc. and Mary Millhiser Thalhimer and the husband of Pauline
Thalhimer passed away today after which he was buried in the Hebrew Cemetery in
Richmond.
1895: It was
reported today that the 2,000 people who attended a charity ball in Brooklyn
last week raised over $10,000 for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1895:
Birthdate of Bristol, RI native Leo Isaacson, the husband of Esther Isaacson.
1895:
Birthdate of Joseph Rosenstock, the native of Cracow who conducted orchestras
in Poland, Japan, Germany and the United States.
1895: “The
Navigator Prince Henry” published today provides a detailed review of Prince
Henry The Navigator: The Hero of Portugal and of Modern Discovery in which
the author C. Raymond Beazly draws on the accounts of Benjamin of Tudela.
1896: It was
reported today that Mrs. Wallenstein has been re-elected as President of the
Hebrew Infantile Asylum Association. Mrs. Reiser has been re-elected as
Vice President.
1896: Sarah
Bernhardt appeared in the role of Marguerite in “La Dame aux Cemelias” at the
Abbey Theatre.
1897: Opening
session of the Fifth Annual meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society
took place in Baltimore, MD.
1897: The
Jewish Messenger published a complete report about Henry Herzberg’s speech,
“The Soul of Judaism.”
1897(24th
of Shevat, 5657): Dr. Solomon Deutsch, a leading philologist, passed away today
in New York. Deutsch was born in Silesia in 1816 and came to the United
States in 1857 after completing his education. He served as a rabbi in several
cities including Philadelphia and Hartford before retiring to purse an academic
career that included the authorship of Hebrew Grammar, Medical German
and Biblical History.
1897: The
Hebrew Union Veteran Association held its annual reception at the Lenox Lyceum
in New York City.
1897:
“Condition of the Poor” published today included Superintendent N.S. Rosenau’s
of the United Hebrew Charities description of the “suffering among the poor
Jewish people on the east side” which is made all the worst with the
combination of bad weather and economic depression. The Jewish fund is “broke”
having provided half a million dollars to the destitute “In the three years
from October 1893 to the close of 1896.”
1897: During
today’s debate on the proposed Immigration Bill being considered by the House
of Representatives, Ohio Congressman Henry Grosvenor said “he would not vote
for a measure framed specialty to restrict the Russian Jews” because such a
vote would leave him open to charges that he had voted “against a man on
account of his religion.”
1898: Two days
after he had passed away, 64-year-old Isaac Hart was buried today at the
“Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1898: It was
reported today that a lady was wounded by accident when a Spaniard fired at a
French non-commissioned officer during today’s anti-Jewish riots in Algiers.
1899: A trial
opened in the Assize Court in Paris today Mme. Henry, has sued Joseph Reinach,
a member of the Chamber of Deputies and the editor of the Republic Fracaise
for libeling her late husband by calling him “a traitor.” Mme. Henry is
the widow of the late Lt. Col. Henry who committed suicide after having
confessed to forging documents used against Alfred Dreyfus.
1899: In
Detroit, Leo Franklin “preached his first sermon as Rabbi of Bethel at the
Washington Boulevard Temple” today.
1899: In Pennsylvania,
Russian born Dora (Weinstein) Aronoff and her husband Isaac Aronoff gave birth
to Morris Aronoff, the husband of Katie Orenstein Aronoff.
1899:
Birthdate of football player and manager Béla Guttmann the native of Budapest
who “moved to Vienna to escape the anti-Semitism of the Admiral Horthy regime
and joined the all-Jewish club SC Hakoah Wien which won the all-league title in
1926.
1900(27th
of Shevat, 5660): Parashat Mishpatim
1900:
Birthdate of Nova Scotia native Jacob Lighter who in 1917 came to Seattle, WA
where he became a C.P.A. formed the accounting firm of Friedman and Lighter,
married Esther Marshin and helped to establish the Hillel chapter at the
University of Washington. (As described by Esther Lighter)
http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv86962
1900: In
Przasnysz, Russian Poland, Abraham Rickover and the former Rachel Unger gave
birth to Chaim Godalia Rickover who gained fame as U.S. Naval Academy graduate,
Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the father of the atomic and later nuclear-powered
Navy. He, more than any other single individual, was responsible for the
creation of the submarine fleet that gave America its strategic edge over the
Soviet Union during the Cold War.
https://www.atomicheritage.org/profile/hyman-g-rickover
1900: This morning’s
sermon at the Temple Israel of Harlem “will be on ‘Subserviency.’”
1901:
Birthdate of Abraham Cantarow, the native of Hartford, CT, who served on the
faculty of Jefferson Medical College.
1902: Shaare
Zedek Hospital opened today in Jerusalem “with 20 beds, an outpatient clinic,
and a pharmacy.”
1902:
Birthdate of Yosef Sapir, the native of Jaffa who served as mayor of Petah Tikva,
an MK and a member of the government that guided Israel through the Six Day
War.
1902:
Birthdate of Alberto Carlos de Liz-Texeira Branquinho, Portugal’s Chargé
d'Affaires in Budapest in 1944 who risked his life to save thousands of
Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust.
http://vidaspoupadas.idiplomatico.pt/en/
1903: The
Eighth Annual Convention of the Progressive Order of the Western, which has
1,721 members, continued for a third day today.
1904: In
Mulhouse, Baruch Kahn and Constance Lange gave birth to Edmond Kahn.
1904: Herzl
received a telegram from Leopold Greenberg that described a definitive offer
from the British Government that would allow for a Jewish homeland in Nandi, a
territory in the colony of Kenya. Greenberg advised immediate acceptance and
the sending of an expedition. Greenberg was a British Zionist and publisher of
the Jewish Chronicle.
1905: The
large East End resort, "Wonderland," which is notorious as a
prize-fight arena, was the scene tonight of a remarkable revolutionary
demonstration attended by an audience numbering 3,000, and “which was composed
largely of Russian Jews.”
1906(1st
of Shevat, 5666): Parahsat Vaera; Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1906: “Joseph
Hartigan, President of the senior class” presided over “a mass meeting and
conference held by the New York University Relief Association” tonight ‘at the
Educational Alliance in East Broadway” where “the massacres of the Jews in
Russia were denounced and a protest was ordered to be sent President
Roosevelt.”
1906: Although
his troubles were compounded by an injury to a finger, today’s performance by
the Russian Symphony Orchestra Society. which featured Anton Rubinstein's Fifth
Concerto and drew a very favorably review from the New York Times.
1906: “In Law
and the Facts of Life,” published today Washington C. Ford points out that in
feudal times “the King oppressed or protected the Jews according to his own
interests.”
1907(12th
of Shevat, 5667): Sixty-five-year-old Dutch-born American businessperson,
carver and gilder Isaac Magnin, the husband of Marry Ann Cohen whom he married
at the Great Synagogue in London with whom he had eight children - Samuel, Henrietta, Joseph, Emanuel
John, Victor, Lucille, Flora, and Grover – who cofounded the upscale San
Francisco emporium I. Magnin and who was a member of Temple Emanu-El in San
Francisco passed away today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/magnin-mary-ann-cohen
1907(12th
of Shevat, 5667): Ninety-year-old Moritz Steinschneider who overcame
anti-Semitism to become a noted bibliographer and Orientalist
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Steinschneider_Moritz
1908: It was
reported today that public can now “view the Isaac Wallach memorial bust” on
display at Mt. Sinai Hospital which was commissioned to show recognition for
his services to the hospital.
1908: “Ein Walzertraum (A Waltz Dream),”an
operetta by Oscar Straus opened today at the Broadway Theatre in New York City.
1909:
Birthdate of boxer Lou Halper.
1909: Eight
days after she had passed away at Nice, Emily Isaacs, the daughter of Samuel
and Ann Isaacs and the widow of David Falcke and John Nathaniel Whitmore was
buried today at the “Balls Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1910(17th
of Shevat, 5670): Mrs. Chaie Schore Schaker passed away today in Liepaja
1910:
Natal day of German-born “logician and philosopher” and author Robert S.
Hartman who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973.
https://www.hartmaninstitute.org/
1911:
Birthdate of Blanche Margaret Meagher, who served as the Canadian ambassador to
Israel from 1958 to 1961 making her the first woman to serve as a Canadian
ambassador.
1912: In New
York City, President Taft attended a ball sponsored by the Daughters of Jacob,
an organization established in 1895 to fund a home for aged Jewish citizens.
1912:
Birthdate of Adolph Jacob Feinberg, the graduate of the University of
Cincinnati and HUC who served as the rabbi at Temple Israel in Valparaiso, IN.
1913:
Twenty-four-year-old Alvah Myer who won a Silver Medal at the 1912 Olympics ran
what he thought was “a world-best time in the 100 meters at the Lyceum Games in
New York” which the AAU would later disallow. (As reported by Bob Wechsler)
1913(19th
of Shevat, 5673): Fifty-three-year-old Moses J. Harris a Brooklyn lawyer and
Democrat who had been appointed to serve as a police magistrate in 1910, passed
away today in Brooklyn.
1914: In
Providence, RI, Joseph and Bertha L. Goldberg gave birth to Harry Schlossberg,
the husband of Marilyn Fogel Schlossberg and the father of Jon Schlossberg.
1914: In
Trenton, NJ, Rose Fine and Samuel Diskin gave birth to University of Baltimore
trained attorney, Carlton Fine Diskin, the husband of Esther Zenits and father
of Ronald and Jeffrey Diskin, who served as “assistant chief counsel and
division counsel in the Office of Personnel Services in Washington after which
he joined the National Container Corporation where he became a Vice President
in 1954.
1914: “Change”
which was produced by Walter Hast opened at the Booth Theatre on Broadway.
1915: During a
series of campaigns that would result in the British holding Palestine, one
part of the German-led Ottoman troops cut the road between El Arish and Qantra
Road while another unit attacked “near Qantara in the northern sector of the
Suez Canal and near the town of Suez in the south”
1915:
Birthdate of basketball player Edward L. “Ed” Keller who played for Duquesne
before turning professional and playing two seasons with the NBL.
1915: Among
those listed today as contributors to the American Jewish Relief Committee were
the Sewing Circle of Memphis, TN, the B’nai B’rith Lodge of Meridian,
Mississippi, the House of Israel, Hot Springs, Arkansas and Temple B’nai
Israel, Natchez, Mississippi
1916: Citizens
of the United States responded generously today, which President Wilson and
several governors had officially proclaimed as Jewish Relief Day as a way of
aiding the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War
reach their 1916 fund raising goal of five million dollars. In response to a
Congressional Resolution asking him to do so, President Wilson had issued a
proclamation proclaiming January 27 as Jewish Relief Day and urged people to
donate to the committee or send contributions to the American Red Cross to aid
the Jews in war-torn Europe and Palestine.
1916: As a
twenty-four-hour fund-raising effort that began last night in San Francisco
continued today, Governor Hiram W. Johnson of California urged “Californians to
aid in the work” of raising money for Jewish Relief Day.
1916: In
response to the fund-raising efforts on Jewish Relief Day, “employees in
factories have contributed their dinner money” to the cause including a large
number of Italians working on the East Side.
1916: In
Richmond, VA, Governor Henry Carter Stuart, Mayor George Ainslie and Right
Revered Dennis J. O’Connell, the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Richmond
were among the speakers at meeting attended by Jews and Christians under the
auspices of the Jewish War Relief Committee during which almost $17,000 was
raised
1916: Across
the United States, “many workmen are giving their day’s pay and many business
men are contributing a part of their proceeds on Jewish Relief Day.
1916: As part
of Jewish Relief Day, in Cincinnati, $50,000 has been contributed and another
$50,000 pledged to the American Jewish Relief Committee.
1916: As part
of Jewish Relief Day, the Fruit and Produce Merchants’ Committed raised $8,207
at a fruit auction today.
1916: Nobody
was exempt from the thousands of volunteers participating in the Tag Day
fundraising event today including President Wilson who bought two tags – one
from Dr. David S. Sola Pool and one from Miss Ruth V. Kahn.
1916: Albert
Lucas, the Executive Secretary of the Central Committee sent the following
telegram to President Wilson: “The Central Committee for the Relief of Jews
suffering Through the War respectfully desires to express its grateful
appreciation of your action in proclaiming today as Jewish Relief Day. Entirely apart from the immense sum of money
which will doubtless be raised through the efforts of thousands of volunteers
of all sects and creeds that are devoting to for the aid of the stricken Jewish
people your Excellency has the assurance that we are convinced that day be
reckoned as the dawn of another Emancipation Day.”
1916: The
American Jewish Relief Committee announced today that, to date, it has received
$1,262,700.78 of which “$1,070,748.56 was in cash and $191,952.22 in pledges.”
1917: As World
War I drags on for a third year it is reported that not one home in the Jewish
quarter of Belgrade remains standing undamaged. Large numbers of Jews have
immigrated to Greece from various areas in the Balkans. The Americans sent
$55,000 to help with relief in Serbia and Greece, after receiving a cablegram
for help from the Chief Rabbi of Salonica, Jacob Meir.
1917(4th
of Shevat, 5677): Eighty-year-old Rabbi Moses Samuel Zuckermandl, a student of
Samson Raphael Hirsch, passed away today in Breslau.
1918: “At the
annual meeting of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic
Societies held tonight at the Manhattan Opera House, officers reported great
success during the first year of the federation and the members cheered the
announcement of full victory for the two week’s drive to get 50,000 new
members, pledged to the maintenance of the 89 welfare bodies embraced in the
organization.”
1919: “Oh,
Joy!” the English version of the Jerome Kern musical “Oh, Boy!” opened in
London at the Kingsway Theatre.
1920: The
Palestine Military Railways, the British operator of the Jaffa-Jerusalem
Railway began rebuilding the line today, widening to “standard gauge” today.
1921: “After
her shining success in London, Ruth Draper returned to the Princess Theatre in
New York where she performed a series of sketches one of which featured “three
generations of Russian Jews” who were making a court appearance.
1921: It was
reported today that “Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue has denied the
charges by William H. Hobbs, the head of the University of Michigan’s
Department of Geology that during the World War he was a pacifist and
pro-German.
1922: Two days
after she had passed away, 83-year-old Rachel (Toms) Kaufmann, the wife of
Jacob Kaufman with whom she had had four children was buried today at the “West
Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1923:
Walter James, 2nd Baron Northbourne the Liberal political leader who in 1906
called on the British government to make public “any consular or other reports
concerning the anti-Jewish outrages in Russia” because “he thought the
publication of any such reports might indirectly have some effect in inducing
the Russian Government to do its best to remedy conditions that outraged the
civilization of the twentieth century” passed away today. (Editor’s note - I
have not been able to find a reason why this member of the British aristocracy
spoke out on behalf of the Jews during the Pogroms in Russia.)
1924:
Birthdate of Harvey Irwin Shapiro, the Chicago born poet who became an editor
of the New York Times (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1925: London
born, American featherweight David “Danny” Frush who fought under the name
“Seaman Clarke” lost his bout today in Paris by a Knockout.
1926:
Birthdate of journalist, broadcaster and humorist Fritz Spiegl. Born and
educated in Austria, Spiegel and his family fled when the Nazis annexed
Austria. He settled in England where he lived and worked until his death
in 2003.
1927: Today,
Mrs. Estelle M. Sternberger of New York City was appointed editor of The Jewish
Woman at “the final meeting of the National Council of Jewish Women which was
held at the Hotel Commodore.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/01/28/issue.html
1927: Felix M.
Warburg, the Chairman of the American Jewish Joint Distribution committee who
is on a tour around the world that will include Russia reached Palestine today.
1928: At the
Brooklyn Jewish Center Rabbi I.H. Levinthal delivered an address tonight during
an event designed to celebrate the 80th birthday of Nathan Straus
which falls on January 31.
1928; “Rabbi
Joseph Schick of the Congregation Beth Israel, in an address tonight at the
West Side Jewish Centre, 347 West Thirty-fourth Street, deplored Senator
Heflin's recent religious attacks in the Senate on Governor Smith.”
1929: Rabbi
Israel Efros, the “Dean of the Baltimore Hebrew college was formally installed
as the rabbi of Temple at banquet attended by “Saul Tschernichowsky, one of the
greatest of contemporary Hebrew poets, Solomon Goldman, one of America's
outstanding rabbis” and toastmaster Charles Dautch
1929:
Birthdate of German-born American chess champion Hans Berliner.
1929: “Marquis
Preferred” a comedy featuring Mischa Auer was released in the United States
today.
1929: “Businessman
Lawrence Ottinger, founder of U.S. Plywood and his wife gave birth to Harvard
Law School trained attorney Richard Ottinger, a New York Democratic Party
leader who served in the House of Representatives and then pursued a career
with the Pace University School of Law.
1930:
Today, “Al Jeamia al Arabia, the Arab daily which is the mouthpiece of the
Moslem Supreme Council, of which the Grand Mufti is president” is scheduled to
publish an editorial urging all Moslems in Palestine to boycott the
international Wailing Wall Commission which the League of Nations decided
should determine the rights of Jews and Moslems at the wall…”
1930: Austrian
composer Oscar Straus who was “on his way to Hollywood to write operettas for
the screen received word” today “that the Orde of Merit had been awarded to him
by the Austrian Government ‘as a writer of light opera.’”
1930:
According to reports published today, “there are more than 213,000 volumes in
the Hebrew University Library.” During 1929, 22,000 volumes were added to
the library’s collection. The library includes the ‘only medical library of
note in the entire region.’” The Library has expanded its locations as well as
it collection. Based on the demand of physicians in Palestine, the
library has established a branch medical library at the Nathan Straus Health
Center in Jerusalem and another such facility in Tel Aviv.
1931:
Birthdate of author Mordecai Richler. A native of Montréal many Americans
know him as the author The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz which was
later turned into a film of the same name. His first novel, The Acrobats
(1954), is about a young Canadian painter in Spain with a group of expatriates
and revolutionaries. Richler was a sharp cultural critic, and his books The Apprenticeship
of Duddy Kravitz (1959), St. Urbain's Horsemen (1971), and Joshua
Then and Now (1980) all deal with greed and success. He wrote a
collection of humorous essays titled Notes on an Endangered Species and
Others (1974), and a series of children's books. He said, "Coming from
Canada, being a writer and Jewish as well, I have impeccable paranoia
credentials."
1932: It was
reported today that “Samuel Wulfin, one of the two Jewish youths arrested to
months ago on charges that they part in the assassination of a student during
street riots” in Vilna, “was released from prison this morning on bail” and
that “the State’s Attorney of the Vilna District Court is charging the former
chief of the Vilna police and four of his aides “with neglecting their during
the anti-Jewish demonstrations” that took place last November.
1933: The
American Hebrew sent a telegram today to William D. Mitchell demanding the
dismissal of Boris Brasol, who is “now employed as an expert by the Department
of Justice” because he is “a professiona fomenter of religious strife and group
hatred in the United States” who engaged in “anti-Semitic activities” when
served as “prosecutor under the Czarist regime.”
1934(11th
of Shevat, 5694): Parashat Beshalach
1934(11th
of Shevat, 5694): Forty-six-year-old “Mrs. Nadezhda Fingerhood, the wife of
Boris Fingerhood, the superintendent of the Israel Zion Hospital in Brooklyn,
passed away today after being ill for three weeks.
1934:
“Bedside,” drama produced by Samuel Bischoff was released in the United States
today.
1935: “A
national campaign to raise $500,000 this year for buying land in Palestine was
opened tonight under the auspices of the Jewish National Fund at a dinner at
the Hotel Astor.”
1936: In
Manhattan, the former Sally Frankel and Harry Schlossberg gave birth to Harvey
Schlossberg, the New York City police officer with a doctorate in psychology
who choreographed what became a model law enforcement strategy for safely
ending standoffs with hostage takers.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1936: Supreme
Court Justice McCook, who had been hearing a suit brought S.S. & B Live
Poultry Corporation to restrain the Kashruth Association of New York from
proceeding against it for failing to use leg band, “handed down a decision”
today “upholding the right of the association, a semi-official organization of
laymen and orthodox rabbis to declare a ban against all poultry not killed
under the supervision of the organization and not bearing leg-bands or seals
sold by it.”
1936: The
National Conference of Jewish Federations and Welfare Fund ended its annual
meeting today after having agreed that American and British Jews were committed
“to the withdrawal of the younger generation of Jews from Germany” after “it
was revealed that” the plans involved “no incidental benefits to Germany such
as withdrawal of Jewish property in the form of German goods to be sold and
accepted by Jews in abandonment of the boycott” already in place.
1937: Delegates to the annual convention of the
Federation of Jewish Women’s Organizations who represented 125,000 women
engaged in a variety of Jewish communal activities “pledge their support to the
Child Labor Amendment which was designed to that children are “not called upon
to do the work of adults.”
1937: While
discussing “the problems facing the Jews of the world” today Rabbi Stephen S.
Wise “decried the threat recently made by the government of Poland ‘to compel
3,000,000 Jews to emigrate from that country’” which “he added was in violation
of the covenant under which that country” had been created “under the Treaty of
Versailles.”
1938: A
special issue of the Stuermer, the anti-Semitic newspaper published by Julius
Streicher – a favorite of Hitler – on sale today included a demand that Jewish
men and Aryan woman “found guilty of having relations” should be subject to the
death penalty.
1938:
The Palestine Post reported on the plight of the Jews in Romania. Under
the new restrictions over 200,000 Jews had lost their trading licenses and one
hundred thirty Jewish lawyers at Yassy had been expelled from the bar.
1938:
In a greeting to the National Council for Jewish Women meeting in Pittsburgh,
Albert Einstein urged the attendees to remember that “Mutual assistance is” the
“one weapon” in the “bitter struggle” of the Jews “for existence” and that
although “weakened through dispersion in countless factions” the Jews ‘remained
united through this fairest of all duties – the duty of selfish mutual aid.”
1938:
The Palestine Post reported that Tel Aviv Mayor Israel Rokach opened a
picturesque garden on the seven-dunam oval island at Zina Dizengoff Circle.
1939:
It was announced from Berlin today that “the negotiations between George
Rublee, American chairman of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees and
Dr. Helmuth Wohlthat of Germany regarding the evacuation of Jews from” Germany
“are progressing satisfactory.” (Editor’s Note – These words, have, to say the
least, a hollow ring to them as we observe Holocaust Memorial Day.)
1940 (17th of
Shevat, 5700): Based on information that became public in the 1990’s, today is
the day on which author Isaac Babel was shot to death after being found guilty
of belonging to an anti-Soviet Trotskyite organization and with spying for
France and Austria during a 20 minute trial that had been held the day before.
Babel had been arrested by Stalin’s NKVD in 1939 and shipped off to a Siberian
labor camp. Two of Babel’s more famous works were Red Cavalry based on his
experiences as a cavalry officer fighting against the Whites and Odessa Tales
which describes the richly textured Jewish society of Odessa. Babel was
rehabilitated in the 1950’s by Khrushchev.
1941: The
fund-raising campaign of the United Talmud Torahs of Montreal is scheduled to
come to a close tonight.
1941: Bond
dealer, Harvey L. Schwamm “was elected Republican leadr of the Seventh Assembly
District” at a meeting tonight of the county committeemen in the district.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/01/28/85310013.html?pageNumber=15
1942: In New
Haven, CT, Michael Weinberg who would change the family name to “Wynn” and his
wife gave birth to Stephen Alan Weinberg, the University of Pennsylvania
graduate who gained fame as luxury hotel developer and Republican Party leader
Steve Wynn whose reputation was “tarnished” following charges of “sexual
misconduct.”
1942: Gussie
Schwebel and her son Jack delivered three dozen of her knishes to Mrs. Eleanor
Roosevelt at her house located at 49 East 65th Street in Manhattan.
1943: Simon
Attali, “a self-educated person who achieved success in perfumery ("Bib et
Bab" shop) in Algiers” and Fernande Abécassis, the parents of French
economist Jacques Attali and his sister Fabienne were wed to in the French
North African colony.
1943: Members
of the 'Amitié Chrétienne’ held an emergency meeting at the home of Swiss
Protestant pastor Roland de Pury to try and find a way to warn Jews that the
Gestapo was watching the offices of the Union Générale des Israélites de France
(UGIF),where they were going to get false documents. They decided to have
Germaine Ribière pose as a cleaning lady, who, while cleaning the stairs would
warn the Jews not to end the building. Germaine Ribière was a Catholic member
of the French Resistance who was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by
Yad Vashem for her efforts to save Jews from the Nazis. The 'Amitié Chrétienne’
was founded in Lyon, France, in 1941 with the goal of saving Jews and others
from the Nazis and the Vichy Governments
1944: SS
Morris Hillquit, a liberty ship named after the Jewish Socialist who
opposed the United States entering World War I, was launched today. Like so
many other supply vessels that survived the war, it would be sold to a private
entity in 1947 and finally be scrapped in 1968. Not bad for a ship that
was built in 34 days.
1945(13th
of Shevat, 5705): Parashat Beshalach
1945(13th
of Shevat, 5705): Fifty-seven-year-old
“Dr. Karl Elias Landuer, a colleague of Sigmund Freud, who after seeking refuge
from the Nazis in Sweden and the Netherlands ended up being murdered at
Bergen-Belsen today.
1945: The
Soviet army entered Auschwitz and liberated more than 7,000 remaining
prisoners, who were mostly ill and dying. It is estimated that at minimum 1.3
million people were deported to Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945; of these, at
least 1.1 million were murdered.
http://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-features/special-focus/liberation-of-auschwitz
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/january/14.asp
1945: The Red
Army entered Birkenau and found it almost entirely empty of human inhabitants.
One survivor found in the hospital was Anne Frank's father, Otto. Anne had died
there months earlier from decease. (Otto would return to Amsterdam to find the
famed diary.) Though most of the storage facilities were already destroyed, the
Russians discover 836,255 women's dresses, 348,000 sets of men's suits and
38,000 pairs of men's shoes.
1945: After
Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz today Salamo Arouch, a Greek-born Jewish
boxer who survived the death camp by winning fight after fight against fellow
prisoners, began searching other liberated camps for any family members who
might have survived. During the search he found Marta Yechiel, a girl from his
home in Greece. The two moved to Palestine, married and raised a family
that included four children and 12 children at the time of his death.
1945: Tzipora
Shapiro, whose “father, grandfather, brothers, aunts, and uncles all died in
the Lodz Ghetto,” and whose mother was gassed at Auschwitz “walked out of the
gates” that same death camp today. (As reported by Yardena Schwartz)
1945: “Up in
Central Park” a music with a book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields and a score by
Sigmund Romberg and Dorothy Fields, choreographed by Helen Tamiris opened on
Broadway at the New Century Theatre where it ran for 504 performances.
1946: Four
hundred people marched 15 miles in the snow to the town of Celle to attend the
wedding of Holocaust survivors Lilly and Ludwig Friedman’s wedding. Lily
wore a wedding gown that had been created from a parachute acquired from a
former Nazi pilot by an unknown seamstress. For Lilly “the dress
symbolized the innocent, normal life she and her family had once led before the
world descended into madness.” The dress would eventually go on display
at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
1947: As part
of “Aliya Bet,” the Chaim Arlozoroff set sail from Trelleborg, Sweden, carrying
664 survivors of the European death camps. Most of those on board, who
were labeled illegal immigrants by the British, were women. When the ship
finally arrived in Haifa, a struggle ensued at the end of which the British
transferred the former camp inmates to detention camps at Cyprus.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/february/14.asp
1948:
"British troops fought a two-hour skirmish with Arabs on the Haifa-Tel
Aviv highway this morning after both Arabs and Jews had broken a tacit truce in
that area.”
1949: In a
letter published today Randolph Churchill lamented that “Henry Melchett who was
a good Jew and a good Englishman” passed away just before “his own country was
about to recognize the state of Israel.
1951(20th
of Shevat, 5711): Parashat Ytro
1952:
Birthdate of Brian Gottfried, Baltimore born tennis star who won the Wimbledon
Doubles in 1976
1953:
The Jerusalem Post reported that over 2,000 frightened refugees,
including many Jews, escaped the purges in East Germany and crossed over from
East to West Berlin. Israel got an urgently needed one-year loan of $16 million
from an American group of banks, headed by the Bank of America.
1955: At the Boston Medical Library an exhibit of Jewish medical
leaders, including medieval manuscripts and awards presented to Jewish
physicians.
1955:
“Plain and Fancy,” a musical comedy co-authored by Joseph Stein opened at the
Mark Hellinger Theatre for the first of 461 performances.
1956:
“The Court Jester,” a musical comedy directed and produced by Melvin Frank who
also co-wrote the script and starring Danny Kaye was released in the United
States a month after it had premiered in Japan.
1957(25th
of Shevat): Yiddish poet Zishe Weinper passed away
1958:
Birthdate of Rabbi Judith Z. Abrams.
1959:
Birthdate of Keith Olbermann former TV sportscaster and former MSNBC host.
1959: “The
anti-defamation bill approved by the West German Cabinet last month was
presented to the Federal Parliament today.” (JTA)
1959: At
Amsterdam, “the fourth conference of European Zionists” to be held since the
end of WW II “today asked the countries of Eastern Europe to enable ever Jew
who wishes to do so to emigrate to Israel.” (JTA)
1961:
"Sing Along with Mitch" featuring Mitch Miller premiered on NBC TV
1960:
Sixty-five-year-old Brazilian statesman Osvaldo Aranha the “President of the
United Nations General Assembly in 1947 during the UNGA 181 vote on the United
Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, in which he postponed the vote for three
days to ensure its passage” and for which he was nominated for a Noble Prize
passed away today.
1962(22nd
of Shevat, 5722): Parashat Yitro
1962(22nd
of Shevat, 5722): Forty-eight-year-old Cologne born Brooklyn Law School
graduate Hugo Rothschild, a WWII veteran of the Foreign Legion who was the
author of How To Make Money In Real Estate Syndicates passed away today
in New York.
1962: “A
Family Affair” a musical about Chicago Jewish wedding with a book by James
Goldman and William Goldman, lyrics by James Goldman and John Kander, and music
by Kander all of whom share a suburban Chicago Jewish upbringing opened on
Broadway today at the Billy Rose Theatre with a cast that included Shelly
Berman, Larry Curt, Morris Carnovsky and Linda Lavin
1964: A
memorial service is scheduled to be held today 87-year-old Charles G. Galston
the retired Federal Court Judge for the Eastern District of New York in
Courtroom 214 in the Federal District Courthouse in Brooklyn.
1964: Red
Buttons married Alicia Pratt, his third and last wife today.
1964(13th of
Shevat, 5724): Lieb Glantz, famed chazzan and composer, passed away at the age
of 65
https://www.milkenarchive.org/artists/view/leib-glantz/
1965(24th
of Shevat, 5724): Eighty-six-year-old Siberian born American Modernist painter
Abraham Walkowitz who may be best known for his drawings of Isadora Duncan
passed away today.
http://www.askart.com/artist/Abraham_Walkowitz/30115/Abraham_Walkowitz.aspx
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/abraham-walkowitz-5214
1965: Up
the Down Staircase, a best-selling novel written by Bel Kaufman was
published today. Writing must be in her blood since she is the granddaughter of
Shalom Aleichem, something not mentioned in any of the education classes that I
took where this book was mandatory reading.
1966: “Morgan
– A Suitable Case for Treatment” a comedy starring David Warner in the title
role was released today in the United Kingdom.
1966(6th
of Shevat, 5726): Sixty-five-year-old New York real estate executive and
philanthropist Solomon N. Petchers, who served on the board of the American
Association for Jewish Education and helped to fund the Albert Einstein College
of Medicine and the Central Library for the Blind in Jerusalem passed away
today.
1967(16th
of Shevat, 5727): On his 53rd birthday University of Baltimore
trained attorney Carlton Fine Diskin, the Trenton, NJ born son of Rose Fine and
Samuel Diskin, the husband of Esther Zenits and father of Ronald and Jeffrey
Diskin, who served as “assistant chief counsel and division counsel in the
Office of Personnel Services in Washington after which he joined the National
Container Corporation where he became a Vice President in 1954 passed away
today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/01/28/83001330.html?pageNumber=23
1968(26th
of Tevet, 5728): Parashat Vaera
1968:
Sixty-three-year-old Norman Gerstenfeld, the British born long-time rabbi at
Washington Hebrew Congregation and husband of the former Louise Mundheim with
whom he had four children passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/01/28/89318887.pdf
1968: A radio
station in Nicosia, Cyprus, received a distress call on the frequency of the
INS Dakar's “emergency buoy, apparently from south-east of Cyprus, but no
further traces of the submarine were found.”
1968:
Congregation Shaar Hashomayim began the dedication of its new chapel with a
Sabbath Service.
1969(8th of
Shevat, 5729): Nine Jews were publicly executed in Damascus Syria
1969: A day
after Beatle John Lennon retained Allen Klein as his new financial
representative in an attempt to stave impending economic ruin, the two met with
the other Beatles who opted to remain with their own money managers.
1970(20th
of Shevat, 5730): Eighty-three-year-old Maurice Samuel Calman, the Romanian
born American oral surgeon who served on the Board of Alderman passed away
today.
1971(1st of
Shevat, 5731) Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1971: Today “The
New York Board of Rabbis abandoned its long‐standing opposition to
state aid for parochial schools.”
1971: Today,
in Paris, at a news conference organized by the International Conference for
the Deliverance of Jews in the Middle East, a “25-national group head by Alain
Poher,” “a young man and woman who said that they had escaped from Syria some
months ago reported that the 5,000 Jews
of Damascus were being forced to remain in a ghetto under daily threats and
harassment by the Syrian authorities.
1972: “The
Winter Soldier,” a documentary co-created by Barbara Kopple was released today
in the United States.
1972:
Birthdate of Knoxville, TN native and University of Tennessee graduate Alan
Gratz, the author of “novels for young adults.”
1972(11th
of Shevat, 5732): Eighty-four-year-old mathematician Richard Courant, co-author
of What is Mathematics? who was forced to flee Germany even though
he had fought for the Kaiser, passed away today. (As reported by Harry
Schwartz)
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=940DE2DC103DEF34BC4151DFB7668389669EDE
1973(24th of
Shevat, 5733): Actor John Banner passed away. Best known for his
portrayal of Sgt. Schultz in the television hit “Hogan’s’ Heroes,” Banner was
born on this date in 1910.
1974:
“Lorelie” a musical with “lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by
Jule Styne” which was based on “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” opened at Broadway at
the Palace Theatre.
1975: “The
Main in the Glass Booth” a film adaptation of a novel and play that old the
story of bringing Adolf Eichmann to justice, directed by Arthur Hiller,
produced by Ely Landau and featuring Luther Adler was released today in the
United States.
1976(25th
of Shevat, 5736): Seventy-eight-year-old Benjamin Tietelbaum the Yiddish
novelist who used the pen-name “B. Demblin” and who with his wife Sylvia had
one daughter, Miriam passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1976/01/30/archives/b-demblin-author-of-yiddish-novels.html
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/demblin-benjamin
http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32521
1976: ABC broadcast the first episode of “Laverne
and Shirley” a sitcom featuring David Lander and Phil Foster.
1977:
Broadcast of the first episode of “Lanigan’s Rabbi” based on the novels of
Harry Kemelman featuring the character of “Rabbi David Small.”
1977: “Operation Thunderbolt,” known in Israel as Mivtsa Yonatan,
(literally "Operation Jonathan"), a 1977 Israeli film based on an
actual event – the hijacking of a flight and the freeing of hostages (Operation
Entebbe) at Entebbe Airport in Entebbe, Uganda, on July 4, 1976, directed by
Menahem Golan and starring Klaus Kinski, Yehoram Gaon, and Sybil Danning was
released in Israel today.
1978:
The Jerusalem Post reported that Egypt embarked on a massive diplomatic
effort to explain why it had broken off peace talks with Israel.
1978(18th
of Shevat, 5738): Seventy-nine-year-old Viennese actor Oscar Holmoka who, among
other things was nominated for an Oscar for his role in “I Remember Mama” which
was a reprise of the same part he played in the Broadway version of the play.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9A02E1DE1E3EE632A2575AC2A9679C946990D6CF
1978:
The Jerusalem Post reported that The Jerusalem Municipality had begun
the installation of a sewerage network at the Anatot Refugee Camp, despite
UNRWA's objections that this would violate the camp's protected status as a
"refugee camp of implicitly temporary nature." UNRWA had previously
objected to the installation of such a network, despite the 1970 cholera
outbreak. (This should provide a slightly different slant on the "refugee
problem" and how these poor souls are being exploited.)
1982: In
an example of “The Bible on Broadway,” “Joseph and the Amazing Dreamcoat"
opened at the Royale in New York City for the first of what would be a total of
747 performances.
1982(3rd
of Shevat, 5742): Seventy-nine-year-old Alexander Abusch who joined the
Communist Party of Germany in 1918 and survived the Nazi years by living in
Mexico and returned to serve as the Minister of Culture of East Germany passed
away today
1986(17th
of Shevat, 5746): Eighty-one-year-old American artist Edward Biberman passed
away.
http://www.lacma.org/art/installation/edward-biberman
1988: After
having been finally granted an exit permit, “refusenik” Alexander Lerner, “his
son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter” emigrated to Israel today.
1989:
“Parents,” a “black comedy horror film directed by Bob Balaban” was released
today in the United States.
1991: In the
midst of Iraqi attacks on Israel 74-year-old Alexander Goldberg, a retired
aeronautical engineer from Hempstead, Long Island, will join more than 100
other Americans, both Jews and Christians, for a flight tonight to Israel,
where they will be put to work at army bases, hospitals and collective
settlements, or kibbutzim. Some will pick fruit or help maintain army tanks;
others will work in a factory that makes protective gear for chemical warfare.
In the midst of Iraqi attacks on Israel
1992: Singer
Ofra Haza and the Amka Oshrat Yemenite Dance Troupe appear in concerted at the
Brooklyn Academy of Music.
1993: During
the Intifada, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian terrorist.
1994(15th of
Shevat, 5754): Tu B'Shevat
1994(15th
of Shevat, 5754(: Eighty-one-year Ruben Mattus, the Jewish immigrant who along
with his wife Rose created “Haagen-Dazs ice cream” passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/29/obituaries/reuben-mattus-81-the-founder-of-haagen-dazs.html
1994: The
second season of “Homicide: Life on the Street” produced by Barry Levinson and
co-starring Yaphet Kotto and Richard Belzer came to an end this evening.
1995: U.S.
premiere of “Miami Rhapsody” written and directed by David Frankel with a cast
that included Sarah Jessica Parker, Paul Mazursky, Jeremy Piven and Ben Stein.
1996(6th
of Shevat, 5756): Eighty-six year old Israel Eldad the native of Galicia who
became a leading member of the Irgun and winner of the Bialik Prize passed
away.
1996:
Germany observed its 1st Holocaust Remembrance Day
1997(19th
of Shevat, 5757): Ninety-six-year-old Saginaw, Michigan born composer Gerald
Marks best known the hit “All of Me” passed away today in New York.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-gerald-marks-1278362.html
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/gerald-marks-mn0000653199
1997: FOX
broadcast the final episode of “Ned and Stacey” a sitcom starring Debra
Messing.
1997: It was
revealed today that French museums had nearly 2,000 pieces of art that were
stolen by the Nazis.
1999: Moshe
Arens begins serving as Defense Minister.
1999: An
e-mail sent today that “ultimately reached White House adviser Sidney
Blumenthal” detailed “a Dartmouth College Jewish studies professor’s defense
of” charges that President Clinton had committed adultery because “According to
classical Jewish law, President Clinton did not commit adultery; adultery is
defined as a married man having intercourse with a married woman, and Monica
Lewinsky is single,” (As reported by Lazar Berman)
2000: An
off-Broadway revival of “The Time of the Cuckoo” by Arthur Laruents opened at
the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater today.
2001: “Manic”
starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt was released today at the Sundance Film Festival.
2001:
Survivors of Auschwitz have gone on a poignant march past the gas chambers
which claimed their fellow prisoners as Europe marked Holocaust Memorial Day.
Today, Shabbat, 700 people, including camp survivors and local Jewish leaders,
walked from the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp's Gate of Death to its giant memorial
wall, past the remains of the gas chambers and the crematoria. The Nazis killed
1.5 million people in Auschwitz, the highest number at any camp, before hastily
retreating from an advancing Soviet army which liberated Auschwitz on January
27, 1945. The Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, regarded as the world's largest Jewish
burial ground, now houses a museum and is little changed from the day Red Army
troops freed its last inmates. Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek told the
participants in a letter that they were the "guardians of this tragic
heritage of mankind." Ceremonies from London to Lithuania marked the 56th
anniversary of the Auschwitz death camp's liberation. Britain and Italy held
their first-ever Holocaust memorial days, while survivors, spiritual leaders
and politicians across the continent pledged to remember a grim historical
lesson about the consequences of intolerance.
"Not
everyone who survived has the strength to share," said Auschwitz survivor
Hedi Fried, speaking at a forum in Stockholm, Sweden. "We who can have an
extra obligation. We owe it to our murdered parents, the 6 million Jews,
500,000 Gypsies and countless homosexuals, Russians and Poles who died."
Britain observed its first national Holocaust Memorial Day with ceremonies
across the country and a London service that also honours victims of other
20th-century genocides. The guest list for the memorial at Westminster Central
Hall in London included Prince Charles, Prime Minister Tony Blair, the
archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster and Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan
Sacks. The ceremony included tributes to survivors of violence in Cambodia,
Bosnia and Rwanda. In Germany, where a sharp rise this year in violent attacks
on minorities gave the annual Day of Remembrance for Victims of Nazism added
resonance, Parliament president Wolfgang Thierse issued a warning about the
dangers of neo-Nazism. Germans must show "commitment to democracy and
against raging right-wing extremism," he told Deutschland Radio.
"This isn't about remembrance without consequences."
Six million
Jews and five million others, including communists, homosexuals, gypsies and
the mentally retarded, perished under the Nazi regime. Italy also marked
Holocaust Memorial Day for the first time, with a ceremony in Milan organised
by Italian unions and a moment of silence during evening soccer games. Padua,
in northern Italy, was honoring Giorgio Perlasca, a butcher credited with
saving more than 5,000 Italian Jews by pretending to be a Spanish diplomat.
Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi acknowledged Italy's blame in the
Holocaust, calling Benito Mussolini's racial laws a betrayal of the country's
founding principles.
"But
numerous Italians knew how to further the demands of their conscience against
the violence of the dictator," he said. About 7,000 Jews were deported
from Italy during the Holocaust, and 5,910 of them died. Lithuanian Jews
gathered in Vilnius to mark the anniversary, and in Sweden, Prime Minister
Goeran Persson was attending a ceremony at a Stockholm synagogue. The Jewish
Museum planned a lecture, music and a reading from Anne Frank's diary.
United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan was to give the keynote speech in Sweden on Monday
at an international conference on ethnic and religious intolerance.
2002: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish author and/or of special
interest to Jewish readers including What Went Wrong? Western Impact and
Middle Eastern Response by Bernard Lewis and Beyond the Last
Village: A Journey of Discovery in Asia's Forbidden Wilderness by Alan
Rabinowitz.
2002: In Great
Britain, a Holocaust event, organized by the Holocaust Education Trust, takes
place in Bridgewater Hall. Extracts of the event will be broadcast by the
Granada group of television companies during the week following the event. The
second UK Holocaust Memorial Day takes place in Manchester involving the
participation of survivors from the Holocaust and victims of contemporary
racism and prejudice, young people and a range of community representatives.
2002(14th
of Shevat, 5762): Ninety-five-year-old Nettie Konigsberg, the widow of Martin
Konigsberg and mother of Allan Stewart Konigsberg better known as Woody Allen
passed away today.
2002(14th
of Shevat, 5762: Eighty-one-year-old Pinhas Tokalti was murdered and more than
a hundred were injured today when a female terrorist “worked for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Ramallah”
“detonated a 22 pound explosive device at the entrance to a “shoe store located
on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem
2003: In the
United Kingdom the main Holocaust Memorial Day event took place in Edinburgh
with a theme of “Children and the Holocaust.
2003: Polls
published today affirmed that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel is likely
to retain his post in elections on Tuesday, and then to face the complex
challenge of assembling a durable coalition from a fragmented Parliament.
2004: An
event establishing January 27 as memory day for Greek Jews and Holocaust
victims was held at the Athens Concert Hall's convention center today, under
the auspices of the foreign ministry.
2004: Israel
honored 9 Greeks for their efforts to save Jews during WWII. Today, Israel’s
ambassador to Athens presented that country’s influential “Righteous Among the
Nations” award to nine Greek nationals who saved persecuted Jewish compatriots
during the Nazi occupation of Greece (1941-44). Ambassador Ram Aviram presented
the awards the same day as the recently enacted Greek Holocaust Memorial Day
(Jan. 27), with a relevant event held at the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron) as
well. According to a press release by the Israeli embassy in Athens, the
“Righteous among the Nations” awards are given by “Yad Vashem”, an institute
created by the Israeli state to perpetuate the memory of the six million
victims of the Holocaust. They are bestowed to individuals who risked their
lives to save Jews during the Second World War. More than 200 Greek citizens
have been honored by the Yad Vashem Institute, including the late Archbishop of
Greece during the occupation, Damaskinos, the Greek chief of police at the
time, Angelos Evert, the Metropolitans of Zakynthos and Dimitrias at the time,
Chrysostomos and Loakeim, respectively, the one-time mayor of Zakynthos, Loukas
Karrer, and many other unsung Greek heroes of World War II. This year’s
awardees are Dimos and Theodora Vevelekos, Michalis and Eleni Mavridis,
Smaragda Sarafianou, Ioannis and Tasia Spentzos as well as Ilias and Angeliki
Kazantzis. The president of the Central Board of Greek Jewish Communities,
Moses Konstantinis, also participated at the ceremony.
2004, Modena
Municipality, the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, the Istituto Storico
di Modena and the Jewish Community of Modena and Reggio Emilia organized a
Study Convention in memory of Angelo Donati and an exhibition with photos
2005: The
Fourteenth Annual New York Jewish Film Festival comes to an end.
2005: Arno
Lustiger, the historian who documented “Jewish resistance under Nazi rule” and
Wolf Bierman whose father was a member of the resistance who was murdered
because he was Jewish spoke before the German Bundestag.
2005: At a
ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz, the former Foreign Minister of Poland Władysław Bartoszewski
delivered a speech in which he paid honor to Jan Karski when he said, "The
Polish resistance movement kept informing and alerting the free world to the
situation. In the last quarter of 1942, thanks to the Polish emissary Jan
Karski and his mission, and also by other means, the Governments of the United
Kingdom and of the United States were well informed about what was going on in
Auschwitz.” (While his comments about Karski are true, there are those who
would say he provided a distorted picture of the Polish Resistance movement’s
treatment of the Jews.)
2005:
Holocaust Memorial Day in Great Britain. Holocaust Memorial Day is a national
event in the United Kingdom dedicated to the remembrance of the victims of the
Holocaust. It was first held in January 2001 and has been held on 27 January
every year since. The chosen date is the anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet Union in 1945. This year’s major
event took place in London with a theme of “Survivors, Liberation and
Rebuilding Lives.
2006:
The following column in the Jerusalem Post explains the importance of
the First annual "International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the
Victims of the Holocaust.
Last
November the United Nations General Assembly designated January 27 as an annual
"International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the
Holocaust." With 104 co-sponsors, including Israel, the historic UN
resolution selected that date as it is the anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz. During the 1950s the Knesset debated which date to establish as
Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Chief Rabbinate had already designated
the 10th of Tevet - an existing fast day marking the beginning of the siege of
Jerusalem that culminated in the destruction of the Temple - as the date of
"General Kaddish" for Holocaust survivors who did not know the date
of death of their fallen family members. The ultra-Orthodox rabbinate suggested
adding - as had been done to signify the destruction of Jewish communities by
marauding Crusaders - additional piyyutim (liturgical poems) relating to the
Holocaust to the lamentations recited on Tisha B'Av itself, the solemn fast day
commemorating the destruction of the first and second Temples. While
incorporating the Holocaust within existing fast days marking national
calamities reflected the traditional view that the Holocaust was yet another
chapter in a long story of Jewish suffering through the ages, others argued
that the Holocaust needed to be commemorated on its own.After long debate, the
Knesset established the 27th day of Nisan as "Yom Hashoah
Ve-Hagevura," literally "Holocaust and Heroism Day." The date
marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which in fact began on the
15th day of Nisan (April 19, 1943). Since the actual beginning of the uprising
coincided with Pessah, the Knesset, as a compromise, chose a date that falls a
week after the end of Pessah and a week before Yom Hazikaron, our Memorial Day
for fallen soldiers, and Independence Day - but within the span of the nearly
month-long uprising. As a further compromise, the legislation provided that if
the 27th day of Nisan impinged upon Shabbat (i.e. fell on a Friday or a
Saturday), the commemoration would be moved to the following Sunday. In effect,
both sides of the debate in Israel in the 1950s wanted to place the Holocaust
within an established context, either the traditional suffering of the Jew or
the heroic Zionist model of the "new" Jew. Neither wanted to face the
enormity and senselessness of the tragedy, especially in the first decade after
World War II.In its infancy, Israel could not bear the image of Jews as victims
being "led like sheep to the slaughter" and, accordingly, latched on
to the heroic (if doomed) resisters in the Warsaw Ghetto as the proper
"Israeli" model on which to base Holocaust remembrance. Moreover, the
placement of Holocaust Memorial Day as a prelude to Independence Day conveyed
the "Israel-centric" message that the Holocaust was a stepping stone
in the founding of the State of Israel, the proverbial "darkness before
the light" of national redemption. But this focus on the perceived heroic
aspects of the Holocaust to fit our tough (but vulnerable) sabra self-image,
together with the implicit message that the Holocaust's true significance lies
in its happy ending - Israel's establishment - has had unfortunate
repercussions. Sadly, most Israelis don't mark Yom Hashoah in any meaningful
way.
For
its part, the ultra-Orthodox community has always opposed, on halachic grounds,
the imposition of a day of mourning during the joyous month of Nisan, which
commemorates the birth of the Jewish nation and its exodus from bondage in
Egypt. Sandwiched between Pessah and, to most Israelis, the more significant
Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel's Wars and Independence Day, Holocaust
Memorial Day has traditionally not been given the undivided attention it
deserves. The Holocaust deserves to be viewed honestly and in depth as a unique
historic event. Adopting January 27 as Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day would:
signify Israel's appreciation of the unusual step taken by the UN; ensure
that the worldwide Holocaust Memorial Day will not be a passing fad since
Israel's annual ceremonies can serve as the focus of global attention and as a
model for other national commemorative events;· indicate that Israel
has "grown up" since the 1950s to appreciate that Jewish victimhood
in the Holocaust is not something shameful that must be obscured in the
celebration of Jewish heroism;·
unite the Jews in Israel, both observant and secular, to commemorate, discuss
and ponder in an unhurried and thoughtful manner the manifold aspects of a
tragedy that does not easily fit into any previous category of Jewish or world
history. The UN has finally acknowledged the global historical significance of
the Holocaust. Israel should support this development for its own good as well
as that of the world.
2006:
In Poland, as part of Holocaust Memorial Day observances a 1940’s tram marked
with the Star of David - like the ones that used to travel through the ghetto -
is seen again on the streets of Warsaw. It is empty, with nobody getting
on or off. It will be empty. Nobody will get on or off.
2006: Rick Recht takes Cedar Rapids by storm as he leads the
Jewish Community in a celebration of “Shabbat Alive.”
2006(27th
of Tevet, 5766): Ninety-year-old solicitor Lord Mischson, the Brixton Rabbi
Arnold Mishcon passed away today
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/jan/30/guardianobituaries.mainsection
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1509163/Lord-Mishcon.html
2006:
“Author Howard Jacobson described his new novel Kalooki Nights as ‘the
most Jewish novel that has ever been written by anybody, anywhere.’”
http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/1730_howard_jacobson_talk.htm
2006: “The New World” a historic drama filmed by cinematographer
Emmanuel Lubezki and edited by Saar Klein was released today in the United
Kingdom.
2007:
“Dirty Girl,” a play based on the experiences of Ronnie Koenig, the former
editor in chief of Playgirl Magazine, finished its initial run in New
York City.
2007:
In the UK, the main National Holocaust Memorial Day event is hosted at
Newcastle with a theme of “The Dignity of Difference.”
2008:
In “The Capa Cache,” published today Randy Kennedy describes the fate of
“the suitcase — actually three flimsy cardboard valises — that contained
thousands of negatives of pictures that the Hungarian born Jew Robert Capa, one
of the pioneers of modern war photography, took during the Spanish Civil War
before he fled Europe for America in 1939, leaving behind the contents of his
Paris darkroom. Capa assumed that the work had been lost during the Nazi
invasion.” The negatives were in fact “hidden for more than
half a century until last month… they made what will most likely be their final
trip, to the International Center of Photography in Midtown Manhattan, founded
by Robert Capa’s brother, Cornell.”
2008:
The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Alfred Kazin: A Biography
by Richard Cook
2008:
International Holocaust Memorial Day – light a light, kindle a candle –
Holocaust Memorial Trust website http://www.hmd.org.uk/
2009:
In Manhattan’s East Village, third part of a four-part series “The Comedy
and Kabbalah of Relationships” featuring Rabbi YY Jacobson
2009: As part of Holocaust Remembrance Day, The Centro Primo Levi, the
Consulate General of Italy and the Italian academic institutions in NY under
the auspices of the United Nations present Giorno della Memoria (Day of Memory) including a reading the names of the Jews deported from Italy and the
Italian territories on Park Avenue at 68th Street in front of the Consulate
General of Italy and a discussion of the Fascist Racial Laws and the
socio-political conditions, the indifference, and collaborationism that allowed
their promulgation in 1938.
2009:
In his new book We Must Rise From Its Ashes, Avraham Burg advocates
commemorating the Holocaust three times during the year. “By observing it on
January 27, the international day of Holocaust remembrance, Israelis would
never lose sight of the fact that the Shoah was a crime against humanity, not
just against the Jews, and that preventing further genocide is the business of
the entire world. Commemorating it May 9, the day on which the former Soviet
republics — and Israel’s immigrants from those countries — mark the victory
over Nazi Germany, would symbolically embrace the many immigrants from the
former Soviet Union who are not Jewish under Jewish law. Finally, celebrating
it on the Ninth of Av would express the Jewish particularity of the genocide,
while incorporating the Shoah into that day’s remembrance of the destruction of
the Temples would place it within the historical continuum of Jewish suffering
rather than consider it wholly unprecedented.
2009:
The Massachusetts attorney general’s office said today that it planned to
conduct a detailed review of Brandeis University’s surprise decision to sell
off the entire holdings of its Rose Art Museum, one of the most important
collections of postwar art in New England. The decision to close the
48-year-old museum in Waltham, Mass., and disperse the collection as a way to
shore up the university’s struggling finances was denounced by the museum’s
board, its director and a wide range of art experts, who warned that the
university was cannibalizing its cultural heritage to pay its bills
2010:
Sara Hurwitz was given the title of “rabbah,” (sometimes spelled “rabba”) the
feminine form of rabbi
http://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/27/2010/sara-hurwitz
2010:
Dorit “Beinisch was moderately hurt when a 52-year-old man named Pinchas
Cohen hurled his sneaker at her during a hearing on medical marijuana, hitting
her between the eyes, breaking her glasses and knocking her off her chair.”
2010: The recently discovered 29 blueprints depicting the layout
of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in chilling detail, with gas chambers,
crematoria, delousing facilities and watch towers drawn to scale are scheduled
to go on display in Jerusalem today.
2010: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is scheduled to be at
Auschwitz to take part in a ceremony marking the 65th liberation of the death
camp by the Soviet Red Army.
2010:
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to meet at Temple
Judah where attendees will discuss Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. De
Rosnay's novel is set against a backdrop of the 1942 Paris roundups and
deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the
Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, and then transported to Auschwitz.
2010:
International Holocaust Memorial Day.
2010:
Alan D. Solomont, the holder of B.A. from Tufts and nursing degree from the
University of Massachsettes and the husband of Susan Solomont began serving as
U.S. Ambassador to Spain today.
2010: Bundled tightly against the cold and snow, elderly
Auschwitz survivors walked among the barracks and watchtowers of Auschwitz and
Birkenau on today, many clad in scarves bearing the gray and blue stripes of
their Nazi prison garments decades ago
2010(12
Shevat, 5770):
J. D. Salinger, who was thought at one time to be the
most important American writer to emerge since World War II but who then turned
his back on success and adulation, becoming the Garbo of letters, famous for
not wanting to be famous, died today at his home in Cornish, N.H., where he had
lived in seclusion for more than 50 years. He was 91.
2010
(12 Shevat, 5770):
Howard Zinn, historian and shipyard worker, civil
rights activist and World War II bombardier, and author of “A People’s History
of the United States,” a best seller that inspired a generation of high school
and college students to rethink American history, died today in Santa Monica,
Calif. He was 87 and lived in Auburndale, Mass.
2011:
The Seventh Annual Brooklyn Israel Film Festival is scheduled to open tonight
“with three episodes from Season 2 of Srugim, the very popular Israeli
television series about the lives and loves of five young Jewish singles living
in the hip Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem, as they navigate the frequently
contradictory worlds of contemporary Israeli romance and traditional
observance.”
2011:
ASF is scheduled to present “Behind the Scenes: An Intimate Video Visit to
Morocco” which is part of the year-long series, "2,000 Years of
Jewish Life in Morocco: An Epic Journey", presented Under the High
Patronage of His Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, and made possible
through the generous support of the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation.
2011: A program entitled The Holocaust and Justice: How Do You Prosecute
Unprecedented Crimes is scheduled to be held at the University of Iowa Law
School. The program will included a screening of the film “Night and Fog”
followed by a discussion by UI Law Professor Mark Osiel
2011:
International Holocaust Memorial Day
http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=205541
2011:
In Italy, observance of Giorno della Memoria (Day of Memory)
2011:
Holocaust Memorial Day (UK)
2011: The memory of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis
during World War II was honored around the world today, the day which marked
International Holocaust Remembrance Day. German President Christian Wulff paid
his respects on a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the site of the biggest Nazi
concentration camp, where about a million Jews were murdered during the war,
accompanied by World Jewish Congress President Ron Lauder and his Polish
counterpart Bronislaw Komorowski. "On International Holocaust Remembrance
Day, the Jewish community and the survivors of the Shoah welcome the fact that
President Wulff - who has only been in office for a few months and has already
been to Israel - is visibly giving the issue of the Holocaust remembrance such
a high political priority,” Lauder declared ahead of the ceremonies in
Auschwitz and Birkenau2011: “Copenhagen” a
(high) drama with considerable comedy concerning the two Nobel physicists Niels
Bohr and Werner Heisenberg and Bohr's wife Margrethe, opened tonight at Coe
College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The play features performances by Steve
and Barbara Feller, pillars of the Temple Judah community.
2011: Four hundred rabbis will submit a letter today, demanding
Fox News sanction host Glenn Beck for his repeated airing of Nazi and Holocaust
imagery, and for putting on his show attacks on WWII survivor George Soros,
Reuters reported.
2011: In excerpts of Ehud Olmert’s new memoirs that were
published today, the former Jewish leaders says that he and Mahmoud Abbas, the
Palestinian president, were very close to a peace deal two years ago, but Mr.
Abbas’s hesitation killed the deal. According to Olmert, at their last
meeting, Abbas “said that he could not decide and that he needed more time.”
(As reported by Ethan Bronner)
2011(22nd
of Shevat, 5771): Ninety-year-old Joseph Lefkowoitz a native of Patterson, NJ,
a World War II veteran who had retired from the Social Security Administration
passed away today in Crossville, TN.
2012:
“With a French Flavor” featuring the wind and string Ensembles from the
Buchmann Mehta Music School at Tel Aviv University is scheduled to begin at
noon in the Ein Kerem Music Center.
2012:
Jack Lew completed his service as Director of the OMB began serving as the 25th
White House Chief of Staff.
2012:
Jeff Zients follows in the footsteps of his co-religionist Jack Lew and begins
serving as Director of Management and Budget.
2012:
Today, "I Honor Wall" - Online virtual event on Yad Vashem's Facebook
page, invites people to honor the Righteous Among the Nations. When particpants
agree to attend the online event, their names and Facebook profile pictures
will be automatically connected to the name and story of a Righteous Among the
Nations.
2012:
International Holocaust Memorial Day
2012: Today,
Malcolm “Glazer and his family hired long-time Rutgers University head coach
Greg Schiano” making him the ninth head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2012: Defense Minister Ehud Barak said today the world must
quickly stop Iran from reaching the point where even a "surgical"
military strike could not block it from obtaining nuclear weapons
2012: Israeli officials and academic experts think that Iran’s
threats of retaliation to a possible strike against it are a bluff, the New
York Times reported today
2012:
Today, authorities leveled additional charges against a teenager accused in the
fire-bombings of two New Jersey synagogues, saying he had plotted a similar
attack on a Jewish community center and had conducted Internet searches for
building Molotov cocktails and instructions on blowing up buildings.
Bergen
County Prosecutor John Molinelli said investigators found multiple Molotov
cocktails this week in a wooded area near the Jewish Community Center of
Paramus, and they traced the evidence to a foiled attack they said suspect
Anthony Graziano was planning for January 7. Graziano, 19, was charged today
with aggravated arson, bias intimidation and other charges for the planned
attack on the Paramus Jewish community center.
2013:
The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Insurgents: David Patraeus and
the Plot to Change the American Way of War by Fred Kaplan and the
recently released paperback edition of Shalom Auslander’s first novel, Hope:
A Tragedy
2013(16th
of Shevat, 5773): Eighty-seven-year-old Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and
historian Stanley Karnow passed away today. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
2013:
“The Jews of Algeria,” an exhibition that retraces the history of the Algerian Jews
since Antiquity, is scheduled to come to a close at the Musée d'art et
d'histoire du Judaïsme
2013:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to sponsor “Superman at 75:
Celebrating America’s Most Enduring Hero” who was the creation of Joe Shuster
and Jerry Seigel.
2013: In Recognition of the International Day of Holocaust
Remembrance, the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to
present “I’m Not Leaving: The Power of Presence, Our Most Valuable Weapon.”
2013:
Rabbi Sidney Kleiman of Congregation Adereth El in Murray Hill turned 100
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/legendary-rabbi-turns-100-article-1.1249022
2013:
The World Zionist Organization’s Department for Activities in Israel &
Countering Anti-Semitism is scheduled to mark the International Day for
Countering Anti-Semitism (International Day for Commemorating the Holocaust)
with a special conference on countering Anti-Semitism which will take place at
the Mediatheque Theater in Holon.
2013:
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/ihrd/comment_post.php
2013:
In the UK, observance of Brent Holocaust Memorial Day.
http://www.brent.gov.uk/arts.nsf/Festivals/LBB-21
2013: The IDF confirmed the deployment of Iron Dome missile
defense batteries in the North today, amid an escalation in the Syrian civil
war and concerns over Syria’s sizeable chemical weapons falling into radical
Islamic hands.
2013: Former
prime minister Silvio Berlusconi triggered outrage from Italy's political left
today with comments defending fascist wartime leader Benito Mussolini at a
ceremony commemorating victims of the Nazi Holocaust. Speaking at the margins
of the event in Milan, Berlusconi said Mussolini had been wrong to follow Nazi
Germany's lead in passing anti-Jewish laws but that he had in other respects
been a good leader.
2014: While
she celebrates the arrival of her grandchild, the friends and family of Debbie
Rosenbloom including her husband David Levin celebrate the natal day of the
Director of Programs for Jewish Woman International
2014: As it
has every year since 2006, the United Nations is
scheduled to remember the Holocaust that affected many people of Jewish origin
during World War II on the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the
Victims of the Holocaust.
2014: As part
of the 2014 observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of
the victims of the Holocaust” is promoting “The Path to Nazi Genocide” a film
“using rare footage that examines the Nazi’s rise and consolidation of power in
Germany and explores their ideology, propaganda and persecution of the Jews.
2014:
“Documents from the Nuremberg Trials recently found in a flea market in Israel
are to go on display at the Chabad Jewish Educational Center in Berlin as part
of events marking the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.” (As reported by
JTA and Times of Israel)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/berlin-chabad-to-display-newly-discovered-nuremberg-trials-evidence/
2014: “The
largest ever delegation of Knesset members will convene overseas, on the
grounds of Auschwitz-Birkenau, together with Holocaust survivors, for a
historic gathering on combating anti-Semitism and preservation of death camps.
2014: As a way
to observe International Holocaust Memorial Day, the Reform Movement recommends
visiting The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to “Some
Were Neighbors: Collaboration and Complicity in the Holocaust,”
2014: “Hackers
attacked Israeli computers, including one used by the Defense Ministry
department dealing with civilians in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli data
protection expert said today.”
2014: “The UN
commemorated the 69th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death
camp, with honorees such as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron
Prosor, and filmmaker Steven Spielberg speaking before the United Nations
assembly.” (As reported by Yitzhak Benhorin)
2015(7th
of Shevat, 5775): Journalist Maurice David Landau who had been the managing
editor of the Jerusalem Post and
editor-in-chief of Haaretz passed
away today.
http://forward.com/news/israel/213602/david-landau-provocative-israeli-editor-dies-at-67/
2015: As
record snow covers her east coast stomping grounds, Debbie Rosenbloom’s friends
and family (including her husband David Levin) send her the warmest of best
birthday wishes.
2015: “Voices
of Auschwitz” is scheduled to air on CNN
2015: The
Czech Republic observes Memorial Day for the Victims of the Holocaust and
Prevention of Crimes against Humanity
2015: German
observes Memorial Day for the Victims of National Socialism
2015: In honor
of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
is scheduled to show “Liberation and Return Life” a film that “shows liberation
and its immediate aftermath through the eyes of the American soldiers who first
entered Nazi concentration camps in the spring of 1945, and amateur footage
that shows the rebuilding of the personal, political, and religious lives of
Holocaust survivors in displaced persons’ camps."
http://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-features/special-focus/liberation-of-auschwitz
2016: In
an example of de ja vu all over again, friends and family (including her
husband David Levin) gather to settle the birthday of Debbie Rosenbloom as the
east coast digs out from a record snow fall.
2016:
Professor Michael Wildt is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Antisemitism,
'Volksgemeinschaft' and Violence: Inclusion and Exclusion in Nazi Germany” at
the Institute of Historical Research in London.
2016: In a
Radio 4 program on scheduled to be broadcast cast today BBC journalist Gavin
Esler will tell the “story of Albert Goering — the brother of Nazi minister and
air force chief Hermann Goering — who is said to have saved hundreds of Jews
and political dissidents during World War II.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/top-israeli-honor-eludes-goerings-brother-who-heroically-saved-jews/
2016: At the
Israeli Embassy in Washington, President Obama echoed the words of the late
Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds who told his German captors that “We are all Jews
here” when they sought to murder his Jewish comrades when he spoke at
ceremonies making Robbie “the first American service member to be named
Righteous Among the Nations.”
2016: The Tel
Aviv Cinematheque is scheduled to host screening of “Into the North,” “a
Czech-Israeli co-production” sponsored by the Czech and Danish ambassadors to
Israel as part of the observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
http://www.go2films.com/Family-Social-issues/Into-the-North
2016: In a
quirk of the calendar International Holocaust Remembrance Day falls on the 100th
anniversary of Jewish Relief Day – an event where the people of the United
States under the leadership of the President raised funds to provide funds to
ameliorate the suffering of the Jews of Europe and Palestine. (Editor’s Note –
the irony is that some of the Jews saved by this generosity would perish in the
Holocaust.)
2017: While
others mark the anniversary of the liberation at Auschwitz, the friends and
family of Debbie Rosenbloom including her husband David Levin are preparing to
celebrate a double portion of nachas – Shabbat and her birthday.
2017:
Observance of Holocaust Memorial Day which coincides with the anniversary of
the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviets.
For Jews there is a certain irony in the decision to use this date
because what the Soviets actually “liberated” were the ashes of a people that
the world had turned its back on.
2017: In a
moment of irony Bruhilde Pomsel, “the personal stenographer of Goebbels” and
survivor Hitler’s bunker passed away on International Holocaust Memorial Day.
2017: In
London, “Denial” is scheduled to be shown for the first time at JW3.
2017: As part
of Interfaith Week, the Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to open
its Friday night dinner to anybody “who wants to come and experience JSoc.”
2017: “And the
Waters Subsided,” an exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the
Arno Flood featuring Jewish books and Judaica objects is scheduled to come to
an at the National Library of Florence, Italy.
2017:
Observance of Holocaust Memorial Day which coincides with the anniversary of
the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviets.
For Jews there is a certain irony in the decision to use this date
because what the Soviets actually “liberated” were the ashes of a people that
the world had turned its back on.
http://hmd.org.uk/page/why-mark-27-january-holocaust-memorial-day
2017: While
Holocaust International Holocaust Remembrance Day is being observed right wing
anti-Semitism in on the rise in Poland and Germany while left wing
anti-Semitism is on the rise from London, England to Knoxville, TN.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/diaspora-ministry-reports-surge-in-anti-semitism-links-it-to-far-right/
2018(11th
of Shevat, 5778): “Shabbat Shirah”; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2018:
In addition to hearing the Song of the Sea, Debbie Rosenbloom will hear the
song “Happy Birthday To You” as offered by her friends and family including
most importantly, her husband, David Levin.
2018:
“The Testament,” directed by Amicahi Greenberg is scheduled to be shown at the
Brooklyn Israel Film Festival today.
2018:
Holocaust Memorial Day – The Power of Words
http://www.martingilbert.com/blatt/sword-pen-jewish-experience-esther-gilbert/
http://www.yadvashem.org/27th/about_27th.asp
2018:
In the UK, Britain’s Channel 4 is scheduled to show “Holocaust: Revenge Plot,”
a “documentary featuring long-lost tapes describing how a Jewish group sought
to exact revenge for the murder of 6 million.”
2019: The New York Times features reviews of books by
Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including
Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity and Love by Dani Shapiro and the
recently released paperback editions of Eternal Life by Dara Horn and
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress by
Steven Pinker
2019: International Holocaust Remembrance Day is scheduled
to be observed at a number of venues and locations including Auschwitz.
(Editor’s note – The date was chosen because in 1945 it was the date on which
Auschwitz was liberated. Surely somebody
has written about the fact that January 27, 1945 was Shabbat and the Torah
portion included the description of the drowning of Pharaoh’s chariots in the
Red Sea, marking the final act of the Exodus from Egypt)
2019: “The world premiere of The ‘Night’ Concert took
place in the Baltic Sea city of Kaliningrad Russia today.
2019: Patrice
Bensimon who has served as Research Director for Yahad-In Unum, a French
association founded by Father Patrick Desbois “who has interviewed close to
2,000 eyewitnesses” is scheduled to update” those attending the Holocaust
Remembrance Day event at the Illinois Holocaust Museum “on Father Desbois'
Holocaust-related work and describe Yahad-In Unum's efforts to raise awareness
of this piece of Holocaust history and to fight against genocide.”
2019: In Arlington, VA, Noam Vinokur is scheduled to
lecture on “Jewish History: The Last 175 Years Part 2” which “will cover the
first half of the 20th century” including the rise of Zionism and
the Jewish-Socialist Bund Movement at Etz Chayim Congregation.
2019: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the
Yiddish Book Center in Amherst are each scheduled to host a screening of “Who
Will Write Our History?”
2019: Today, “Israel's cabinet approved a law to allow
exports of medical cannabis in a move expected to boost state revenues and the
agriculture sector, and which frustrates critics who fear it could lead to more
recreational use of the drug. (Reuters)
2020: International Holocaust Memorial Day
2020: The Yeshiva University Museum, American Sephardi
Association and YIVO are scheduled to present “A Holocaust Remembrance Day
performance of Yehuda Poliker’s celebrated 1988 album “Ashes and Dust,” a
tribute to children of survivors, by Israeli singer Gilad Paz..”
2020: “Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz” is
scheduled to meet with President Trump privately today in which where the
President will unveil his “administration’s long-awaited Middle East peace
plan.”
2020: In San Francisco, The Commonwealth Club is scheduled
to host “Violins of Hope: A Journey of Heroism, Healing and Humanity” during
which Avshalom Weinstein, co-founder of Violins of Hope, talks about the
collection of 70+ violins played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust.
2020: Prince William is scheduled to “give a reading”
during the Holocaust Memorial Day commemorative ceremony in Westminster.
2020: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational Center
is scheduled to host “the live stream from Auschwitz-Birkenau commemorating the
75th anniversary of its liberation.
2021: In commemoration of International Holocaust
Remembrance Day, The Thaler Holocaust Memorial Fund is scheduled to sponsor a
Zoom event with Deborah Levison, author of The Crate: A Story of War, a Murder
and Justice who will tell the true story of Holocaust survivors, her parents,
who were forced to confront present-day evil.
2021: In Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Temple Judea is scheduled
to a Noon Lunch and Learn during which Rabbi Feivel Straus will lead a
discussion on Chaim Nachman Bialik as part of the series on “Great Jewish
Leaders.”
2021: In
commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Vilna Shul is
schul and its partners are scheduled to host a screening “Finding Matilda: The
Anne Frank of Lithuania” followed by a panel which will “discuss the search for
a little-known Holocaust victim, Matilda Olkin, and her extended family who
were killed in an isolated location in northern Lithuania in the beginning of
Holocaust in 1941.”
2021: The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents
award winning author Gila Green discussing her new work White Zion
2021: The US Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to
host “Eisenhower’s Foresight: Protecting the Truth of the Holocaust” during
which Susan Eisenhower, the author of How Ike Led will talk about her
grandfather dealt with his wartime realization that a day could come “when the
horrors of the Holocaust might be denied.”
2021: The Breman Museum is scheduled to host “a special
virtual reading of excerpts from 18 young writers' diaries from the Holocaust
to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 76th anniversary
of the Liberation of Auschwitz.”
2021: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a
performance of by survivor and Klezmer band leader Saul Dreir followed by a by
discussion with Tod Lending who made the film “Saul and Ruby’s Holocaust
Survivor” and Saul’s “bandmate Ruby Sosnowicz.
2021: “Eva Fogelman, psychologist, writer, filmmaker and a
pioneer in the treatment of psychological effects of the Holocaust on survivors
and their descendants, is scheduled to moderate a panel of second- and
third-generation survivors as they explore how their lives have been impacted
by the Shoah.”
2021: As the landscape fills with events marking the
observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, nobody seems to have made the
connection that this Shabbat, January 30, the Jews will be reading the same
Torah portion that was read on January 27, 1945, a Torah portion that includes
the end of Pharaoh’s legions and the battle with Amalek and is known as Shabbat
Shira.
2021: In this time of Pandemic darkness, the friends and
family of Debbie Rosenbloom, including her husband David Levin prepare to bring
a bright light into the world with the celebration of a “milestone” birthday.
2022: Schools in Jerusalem which closed yesterday and
COVID-19 testing sites are scheduled to say closed until this afternoon as
Jerusalem “braces for winter storm Elpis.”
2022: The Paper Brigade’s editors are scheduled to host
the first session of the Short Story Club where they will discuss Yael van der
Wouden’s short story “Into the Mud” — a tale about the relationship between
two young women amid family struggles, summer heat, and magic.
2022: In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day,
the Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host virtually “a question and
answer session with the cast and filmmaker of Saul and Ruby’s Holocaust
Survivor Band.”
2022: Justin Cammy and YIVO's Executive Director and CEO
Jonathan Brent are scheduled to discuss Yiddish poet and resistant fighter
Avrom Sutzkever account of the Holocaust.
2022: The Miami Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come
to a close today.
2022: JWA is scheduled to host a book talk with Helene
Wecker, author of The Hidden Palace: A Novel of the Golem and the Jinni, an
enthralling historical epic, set in New York City and the Middle East, that
follows the explorations of mythical creatures.
2022: International Holocaust Memorial Day
https://www.ushmm.org/online-calendar/event/MAINTLREMDAY0122
2022:
Observance of Holocaust Memorial Day
coincides with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the
Soviets. For Jews there is a certain
irony in the decision to use this date because what the Soviets actually
“liberated” were the ashes of a people that the world had turned its back on.
2022:
While it much of the United States copes with record cold, the friends and
family of Debbie Rosenbloom including her husband David Levin, enjoy the warmth
of celebrating her natal day.
2023: International Holocaust Remembrance Day is scheduled
to be observed at a number of venues and locations including Auschwitz.
(Editor’s note – The date was chosen because in 1945 it was the date on which
Auschwitz was liberated. Surely somebody
has written about the fact that January 27, 1945 was Shabbat and the Torah
portion included the description of the drowning of Pharaoh’s chariots in the
Red Sea, marking the final act of the Exodus from Egypt)
2023: This evening, as the observance of
International Holocaust Memorial Day ended and the Jewish Sabbath began, in Jerusalem,
a terrorist opened fire on a group of Jews, some of whom were on their way to the
synagogue killing five men and two women who ranged in age from 14 to 68.
2023: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to
present “Violins of Hope,” during “extraordinary instruments that survived the
Holocaust – even as most of their owners did not – will be played in a special
concert by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s with a group of survivors telling the
stories of the violins.”
2023: In the wake of yesterday IDF raid that was designed
“to foil imminent attacks planned by a local wing of the Palestinian Islamic
Jihad terror group” in which 9 Palestinians were killed the “IDF is bracing for
escalation as Gaza terror groups vow revenge…” (As reported by Emanuel Fabian)
2023: Based on a report made in honor of International
Holocaust Remembrance which is being observed today, “52,551 Holocaust
survivors have immigrated to Israel in the last 30 years.” (As reported by
Sivan Hilaie and Itamar Eichner.)
2023: In Washington, DC there will be two sets of candles
– one set for Shabbat and one set on the cake marking the celebration of the
natal day of Debbie Rosenbloom, the wife of David Levin.
2024: A Palestinian group which wasscheduled to demonstrate
today in Rome on International Holocaust Remembrance without realizing the
irony of the fact the Haj Amin al-Husseini - Mufti of Jerusalem spent WW II in
Germany reportedly will not be able to do due to the concern of public officials over the possibility of anti-Semitic attacks.
2024: International Holocaust Remembrance Day
2024: The Eden Tamir Music Center offers discounted tickets
to evacuees wanting to attend today’s scheduled chamber music concert.
2024: In Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host
“New Member Welcome Shabbat and Lunch.”
2024 (17th of Shevat, 5784): Shabbat Shirah
For more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2024:
The term Shabbat Shirah takes on a double meaning today since we can Sing the
Song at the Sea and sing Happy Birthday to Debbie Rosenbloom, JWI executive par
excellence, who is the wife of David Levin.
2024: Today, on the Gregorian Calendar, we mark the first anniversary of the murderous attack that took place in Jerusalem as Jews walked to the synagogue erev Shabbat.
2024:
As January 27th begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 113 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.)
