This Day, February 10, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
February 10
1163: Baldwin
III, the first so-called King of Jerusalem to have been in “the Holy Land”
passed away. None of these Crusader monarchs were rightful heirs to the
crown worn by David, Solomon and their successors. His successors would …
February 10
1163: Baldwin
III, the first so-called King of Jerusalem to have been in “the Holy Land”
passed away. None of these Crusader monarchs were rightful heirs to the
crown worn by David, Solomon and their successors. His successors would so bungle
things that 25 years later Saladin would take the city which was a boon for the
Jewish people.
1258: Mongols
overran Baghdad, burning it to the ground and killing 10,000 citizens. This
marked the beginning of the Il-khan (Mongol) Dynasty in Persia. The
Dynasty lasted until 1335. With the conquest of Baghdad by the grandson of
Genghis Khan, the Mongol dynasty replaced the Abbasids. The Mongols were for
the most part tolerant of Judaism. An Arab writer reported that on the eve of
the Mongolian invasion there were 36,000 Jews living in the city and that they
supported 16 Synagogues. Most of the city was destroyed during the siege. It is
during this period that Judeo-Persian literature flourished specifically the
poetry of Shahin whose most famous work was Sefer Sharh Shain al Hatorah.
1574: Sigismund
II Augustus, the Polish King who allowed “Jews to settle in Vilna without
restriction” and who issued “the ‘Magna Cara of Jewish Self-Government’’ “which
permitted Jews to elect their own chief rabbi and judges” was buried today in
the Pawel Cathedral at Cracow. (The History of the Jewish People)
1622(1st
of Adar I, 5422): Shabbatai ben Meir HaKohen ”a noted 17th century talmudist
and halakhist” b known as the Shakh
which is an abbreviation of his most important work, Siftei Kohen ((literally
Lips of the Priest) on the Shulchan Aruch passed away today
1660(28th
of Shevat, 5420): Saul Levi Morteira passed away. Born in 1596, he was a
Dutch rabbi of Portuguese descent. In a Spanish poem Daniel Levi, de Barrios
speaks of him as being a native of Germany ("de Alemania natural").
When in 1616 Morteira escorted the body of the physician Elijah Montalto from
France to Amsterdam, the Sephardic congregation Bet Ya'aḳob elected him ḥakam
in succession to Moses ben Aroyo. Morteira was the founder of the
congregational school Keter Torah. He taught Talmud and Jewish philosophy to
the older students. He had also to preach three times a month.. Among his most
distinguished pupils were Baruch Spinoza and Moses Zacuto. Morteira and Isaac
da Fonseca Aboab (Manasseh ben Israel was at that time in England) were the
members of the bet din which pronounced the decree of excommunication
("ḥerem") against Spinoza. Some of Morteira's pupils published Gibeat
Shaul a collection of fifty sermons on the Pentateuch, selected from
500 derashot written by Morteira.
1719: Jacob de
Beer was employed today by the Dutch East India Company.
1738: In
Savannah, GA, Esthter Nunez and Abraham de Lyon gave birth to Zipporah de Lyon,
the wife of Mordecai Moses Mordecai with whom she had six children.
1753: In
German, Hindel Mayer and Ruben Rubel gave birth to Abraham Rubel the husband of
Johanna Rubel with whom he had four children.
1755:
Sixty-six-year-old French author and political philosopher Charles Louis De
Secondat Montesquieu, simply known as Montesquieu passed away. A product
of the Age of Reason, the optimistic Montesquieu’s most famous work is De
l'esprit des lois which is known in English as The Spirit of the
Laws, published in 1748. Montesquieu did not just believe in
religious toleration. He believed that the state had a responsibility to
see to it that religious groups leave each other in peace. In the Spirit
of Laws he writes, “’I cannot help remarking by the way how this nation (the
Jews) has been sported with from one age to another: at one time their effects
were confiscated when they were will to become Christians; and at another, if
they refused to become Christians they were ordered to be burn.’” He described
the Jews as a “’a mother that brought forth two daughters who have stabbed
herewith a thousand wounds.’” As befitted his optimistic views,
Montesquieu believed “’the Jews are at present safe; superstition will return
no more, and they will no longer be exterminated on conscientious principles.’”
Unfortunately, History would prove him wrong.
1763: The
Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was
signed on by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in
agreement marking the end of the Seven Years War which those living in North
America called the French and Indian War. As part of the agreement,
France ceded Quebec to the British. This opened the way to Jewish
settlement in Canada since French law had prohibited Jews from settling the
colony. Under “the law of unintended consequences,” the war left Britain
with a debt that it looked to the North American colonies to help pay
off. The taxation levied on the 13 colonies was a cause of the American
Revolution which helped to create the nation that has become home to one of the
leading Jewish communities in our history.
1767: In
Berlin Esther Bamberger and Liepmann Meyer Wulff gave birth to Amalie Beer the
mother of Giacomo Mayerbeer.
1768: In New
York City, Rebecca Machado and Jonas Phillips gave birth to David Machado
Phillips, the husband of “Catherine” Phillips and the father of Catherine,
Dina, Jane and Rachel Phillips.
1775: In
London, Elizabeth Field and John Lamb gave birth to their youngest child
English author and poet Charles Lamb who used anti-Semitic tropes in his
attacks on tenor John Braham while mocking him for having married a gentile.
1778: In
Stratford, CT, Elkaleh Myers-Cohen and Gershom Mendes Seixas gave birth to
Sarah Abigail Seixas, the wife of Israel Baer Kursheedt with whom she had nine
children.
1779:
Jews were granted right of residence in Stuttgart, Germany(As bad as all the
bad things that happened to the Jewish people were, one often considers some of
the good things also bad - Anon). The Jewish experience in the Germanic states
was a mixed bag. Emancipation and anti-Semitism co-existed in an uneasy
alliance that produced great culture but ended in the ashes of the Shoah.
1791:
Birthdate of Reverend Henry Hart Milman who published History of The Jews
in 1829, which was the first work by an English clergyman that “treats Jews as
an Oriental tribe.” Milman based his work on “documentary evidence” and
minimized the mythological approach that was used in earlier such works. In a
world where the Bible and Science were clashing, his view was upsetting to many
Christians and delayed the advancement of his career.
1791:
Birthdate of German native Sarah Bernheimer, the wife of Samuel Moses Faist
Rosenheim with whom she had seven children.
1795:
Birthdate of Dutch born French painter Ary Scheffer who was not Jewish but who
used Biblical themes in one of his famous paintings “Ruth and Naomi” which is
based on the Book of Ruth.
1796: Rachel
Aarons and Joseph Tobias gave birth to Isaac Tobias, the husband of Isabella
Cowen with whom she had six children, five of whom were born in South Carolina
and one in Georgia.
1797(14th
of Shevat, 5557): Mordecai Gumpel Levison, born Mordecai Gumpel ben Judah Leib,
the native of Berlin who pursued a medical degree after arriving in London in
1771, the same year he published the first of several religious works – Ma’amar ha-Torah V’Hokmach (Dissertation
on Torah and Wisdom)
1799: Duke
Karl Eugene decreed that no Jew should be deprived of the right of residence in
Stuttgart, Germany
1799: In
Bavaria, Jachet David and Samuel Bluthenthal gave birth to David Bluthenthal.
1799:
Birthdate of Hannah Hamel Straus, the Bavarian born daughter of Abraham Baum
and father of Helena Baum.
1800(15th of
Shevat, 5560): Tu B’Shevat
1800(15th
of Shevat, 5560): Benjamin Cohen - the maternal grandfather of Jonas Daniel
Meijer, the first Jewish lawyer in the Netherlands – passed away. Born in 1725,
Cohen was a successful businessman, Jewish teacher and supporter of William V,
Prince of Orange-Nassau, the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic.
1802: In
London Isaac D’Israeli married Maria Basevi, the daughter of Anglo-Jewish
merchant whose family originally came from Italy. This union produced
five children the most of which was Benjamin, the future Prime Minister and
Earl Beaconsfield.
1804:
Birthdate of Joseph Zender, the German Jewish bibliographer who became
librarian of the Hebrew department of the British Museum in 1845.
1805(11th
of Adar I, 5565): Amsterdam born chazan Abraham Azuby, the husband of Esther
Azuby and father of Joseph Abraham Azuby who in 1764 came to the America where
he became the leader of Congregation Beth Elohim passed away today.
https://mappingjewishcharleston.cofc.edu/1788/map.php?id=1002
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/azuby-abraham
1807: In
Curacao, Judith van Samuel Peixotto. the Dutch born daughter of Samuel van
Isaac Lopes Salzedo and Sipora De Isaac Hisq. de La Penha and her husband
Cantor Moses Levy Maduro Peixotto gave birth to Sarah Mozes Levi Maduro Naar, the
future resident of Trenton, NJ and the wife of Benjamin Naar.
1815:
Birthdate of Kowel native Meir Auberach, part of the Rabbinic Auerbach family,
who “was president of the Jewish court at Koło”, and after immigrating to
Palestine “was appointed the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem and
headed the Poland Kollel.”
https://www.rabbimeirbaalhaneis.com/Rabbi%20Meir%20Auerbach.asp
1817:
Seventy-three-year-old Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg, the “prince
bishop” sovereign of Frankfurt during whose reign Karl Ludwig Börne was
appointed a police actuary in 1811 and then forced to resign three years later
because he was Jewish, passed away today.
1819(15th
of Shevat, 5579): Tu B’Shevat
1824: Simon
Bolivar named dictator by the Congress of Peru. At the turn of the nineteenth
century, the Jews of Curacao became involved with Simon Bolivar and his fight
for the independence of Venezuela and Colombia from their Spanish colonizers.
Two Jewish men from Curacao distinguished themselves in Simon Bolivar’s army,
while another supplied moral and material support to Bolivar, as well as refuge
for him and his family.
1829: Leo XII,
the Pope who in 1826 order that the gates of the Ghetto at Ancona be replaced
and that the “old time persecutions” be resumed, passed away today.
1830(15th
of Tevet, 5590): Benjamin Jonas Phillips, the Phiadelpha born son of Rebecca
Machado and Jonas Phillips and husband of Abigail Seixas with whom he had eight
children passed away today in New York City.
1831:
Birthdate of Dr. Isaac Rülf, a German rabbi who supplemented his income as a
newspaper editor and became an early supporter of the Zionist cause.
1836: Dr.
Albert Moses Levy completed his service chief surgeon in the Texas Volunteer
Army that had fought against Mexico.
1838: In
Bavaria, Judith Marx Luchs and Seligman Pinchas Luchs gave birth to future
Washingtonian Leopold Luchs, the husband of Hanna Luchs with whom he had five
children – Augusta, Morris, Clara, Norman and Albert.
1836: Samuel
and Rosetta Moses were married today at the Great Synagogue.
1839: In,
Lynn, Norfolk, England, Esther and Aaron Daniel de Pass gave birth to Daniel
Aaron de Pass.
1840: Queen
Victoria of the United Kingdom married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Three years before the wedding Victoria had
“knighted Moses Haim Montefiore” and a year after her marriage she made Isaac
Lyon Goldsmid a baronet, making him the first Jew to receive a hereditary
title. According to one source, “Prince Albert may have had a Jewish
father.” According to this report, “Albert's mother was dismissed from
the court of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha for having an affair with the Jewish
chamberlain, the Baron von Mayern.”
1841: Samuel
and Ann Solomon were married today at the Maiden Lane Synagogue.
1842(30th
of Shevat, 5602): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1842(30th
of Shevat, 5602): Eighty-one-year-old Sally (Sarah) Judah, the New York City
born daughter of Hillel Judah who married Ralph de Paz in August of 1798 passed
away today in Baltimore.
1847: “The
first of a series of annual balls in aid of a Hebrew School Fund was held at
the City Hotel in Richmond, VA” today “under the management of Dr. Fred Marx,
James Lyons, Isaac A. Levy, Jacob Lyon, Dr. John Dove, Isaac Rosenfield,
Naphtali Ezekiel, Myer A. Levy, Samuel H. Myers, Henry L. Brooke, Augustus Mailert,
Henry Hyman, James H. Grant, Isaac Hyneman, Abraham Levy James
Allen, Adolphus Morris, Isaac Lyon, Solomon Hyman Jacob Ezekiel, and Edward
Pincus.”
1848: In New
York, Canadian native Rebecca Solomons and Simon Mendes Nathan gave birth to
Sara Nathan who never married.
1852:
"The Revolution in Northern Mexico" published today reported that the
Mexican revolutionaries are opposed by foreign merchants in Brownsville, Texas
and Matamoros, Mexico. They are led by an English Jew named Charles Uhde
a man with major business interests "south of the border" and who is
the editor of the Brownsville Flag.
1853:
Birthdate of Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt, German mineralogist. Goldschmidt
made important studies of crystallography. His books The Index of Crystal
Forms and The Atlas of Crystal Forms are considered classics of
mineralogy.
1853: English
natives Mary Levy and John Fileman gave birth to Catherine Fileman.
1857:
In Troy, NY, Lottie Wolfe and Louis Gross gave birth to Williams College and Gottingen University educated historian Dr. Charles
Gross, the Harvard professor who has “been regarded as one of the leading
authorities on the history of early English institutions and constitutional
history.”
1858: Lord
John Russell's bill that would modify the oath of office so that Jews could
serve in Parliament was "debated and read for a second time" in the
House of Commons.
https://primo.getty.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay/GETTY_ALMA21115508190001551/GRI
http://archives.sbu.edu/friedsam/col.%20michael%20friedsam.htm
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/friedsam-michael
1860: In
Sulzberg, Leopold Dukas and Mathilda Kahn gave birth to Julius Dukas, the
husband of Sarah Hyman, whose involvement in American Jewish communal affairs
included serving as Vice President of Congregation Zichron Ephraim, first vice
president of the Hebrew Free Loan Association and treasurer of Orach Chaim.
1861(30th
of Shevat, 5621): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1861: On the
same day that the Jews began celebrating a new month, Jefferson Davis found out
he had a new job when a telegram arrived at his plantation telling him he had
been chosen President of the Confederate States of America.
1861: In
Tarnow, Rebecca Schapiro and Isaak Ettinger, gave birth to Marcus Ettinger, the
Doctor of Jurisprudence, the husband of Adele Ettinger.
1862: “The
Lily of Killarney” an operetta in three acts by Julius Benedict premiere at
Covent Garden Theatre in London.
1863: Elvira
S. Solis, the “daughter of Isaac Mendes Seixas Nathan and Sarah Mendes Nathan
and her husband David Hays Solis gave birth to Sarah Solis who became Sarah
Nathan when she married Edgar Joshua Nathan.
1867: After
the death of his first wife, Victorine in 1865, Sir George Henry married his
second wife, Elizabeth, “the daughter of Ferdinand Eberstadt of Mannheim
Germany with whom he had three children – George, Gertrude and Katherine.
1868(17th of
Shevat): Haim Palachi, the author of works in Hebrew and Ladino and the Chief
Rabbi of Smyrna who married Esther Palacci with whom he had three sons all of
whom were Rabbis – Abraham Palacci, Isaac Palacci and Joseph Palacci. passed
away today.
1869:
Twenty-seven-year-old Myer S. Isaacs, who would go on to become a distinguished
jurist and President of the Baron de Hirsch Fund, married Marie Solomon, the
daughter of B.L. Solomon.
1869: In
Galicia, Mathia and Sarah Leah (Fassberg) Spiegel gave birth to Adolph Spiegel,
the husband of Anna Krebs and alum of NYU and Oskaloosa College in Oskaloosa,
IA whose quarter of a century of as rabbi included serving as a chaplain during
the Spanish American War during which he “started the first Jewish Congregation
in Puerto Rico.”
1869: Twelve
years after founding The Jewish Messenger with his father and seven
years after being admitted to the Bar, 27-year-old Myer S. Isaacs married Marie
Solomon, the daughter of New Yorker B.L. Solomon. She would pass away in 1888
leaving him with six children including I.S. Isaacs and Louis Isaacs. He
would on to become a judge and President of the Baron de Hirsch Fund.
1871:
Maximillian Steiner wrote the libretto for “Indigo and the Forty Thieves” which
premiered today.
1874: Baron
Mayer Amschelm de Rothschild, late Member of Parliament for Hythe was laid to
rest this morning at the Jewish Cemetery at Willesden. According to an
article in the Pall Mall Gazette, “the funeral cortege consisted of a
hearse drawn by four horses followed by thirty mourning coaches and a large
number of private carriages.”
1874:University
of Pennsylvania trained physician and Civil War veteran Jacob Da Silva Solis
Cohen, the New York born son of Myer David and Judith Simirah Solis Cohen
married Miriam Binswanger today.
1874: Anslem
Rudolph de Jongh married Sophia Woolf at 24 Gloucester Terrace in Hyde Park.
1875:
Birthdate of Troy, NY native and Williams College graduate Charles Gross, the
Harvard Professor of History who at the time of his was “regarded as one of the
leading authorities on the history of early English institutions and
constitutional history.”
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/gross-charles
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1909/12/4/death-of-professor-gross-pprofessor-charles/
1876(15th
of Shevat, 5636): Tu B’Shevat
1876: In Kyiv,
Wolf Husik and his wife gave birth to University of Pennsylvania educated
Jewish historian, philosopher and one of the first faculty members of Gratz
College, Isaac Husik.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/husik-isaac
1876: In Kings
County, the trial of P.N. Rubenstein, who is charged with the murder of Sara
Alexander, was scheduled to resume this morning at 10 o’clock.
1877: It was
reported from Belgrade that the Serbians have refused to discuss granting equal
rights to the Jews and Armenians living in their realm. The opposition is
led by merchants in Belgrade who do not want any new business competitors.
1879: Dr.
William M. Taylor will deliver a lecture on “Walter Scott” to the Young Men’s
Hebrew Association who are holding a social at the Chickering Hall.
1879: Joseph
G. Wilson, the United States consul at Jerusalem approved the plan of the
American Jews in Southern Syria to organize their own kolel saying that “a
responsible agency for the distribution of their charities may be the means of
great and lasting good," and promised cooperation to the best of his
power.
1880: In
Washington, DC, Bertha E. Roginski and Solomon Lewis gave birth to George
Washington University trained doctor and surgeon Harry Samuel Lewis, the
husband of Fedora Lewis and “author of numerous monographs on various medical
subjects” who was a member of the board of directors of directors of the Herew Home
for the Aged and a member of the Washington Hebrew Congregation. (Editor’s
note: He is not to be confused with English author Henry Samuel Lewis who
passed away in 1940)
1880(28th of
Shevat, 5640): Adolphe Crémieux, a French statesman and leader of the Jewish
community, passed away. A lawyer and political leader he championed the rights
of the less fortunate in general and the Jews in particular. Born before the
first French Revolution, he came to power following the Revolution of 1830. He
fought to end the death penalty for political offenses and the abolition of
slavery in France’s colonies. Crémieux worked tirelessly to improve the
conditions of the Jewish community. “In 1827, he advocated the repeal of
the More judaico, legislation stigmatizing the Jews left over from
pre-revolutionary France. He founded the Alliance Israelite Universelle in
Paris in 1860, becoming its president four years later. In 1866 Crémieux traveled
to Saint Petersburg to successfully defend Jews of Saratov who had been accused
in a case of blood libel.”
http://www.ohio.edu/chastain/ac/cremieux.htm
1881: “La
Civilta Cattolica, an official Jesuit publication founded by Pope Pius IX and
published under the direct control of the papacy, publishes an article in a
36-part series of anti-Semitic pieces. Father Giuseppe Oreglia di Santo
Stefano, one of the journal's founders, argues that pogroms against the Jews
are a natural consequence of Jews demanding too much liberty”
1882: In
Russia, Mark A. and Fanny Tobenkin gave birth to University of Wisconsin
graduate whose career in journalism including for the “Hearst Newspapers,” “The
New York Tribune” and JTA who was the husband of the former Rae Schwid.
https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingaid.cfm?eadid=00256
http://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6259g62
1887: In Evansville, IN, Louis Denebim, the
Lubova born son of Son of Moses Meyer Denebeim and Hannah Denebeim Friedman,
and his wife Jennie Denebeim gave birth to Bessie Saffran, the future resident
of Kansas City and wife of Harry Bernard Saffran.
1887: In San Francisco, Minnie Thalhimer, the
Hungarian born daughter of Rabbi Dr. Aaron Albert Siegfried Bettelheim and Anna
Henrietta (Yetta) Bettelheim and her husband Jacob E. Thalhimer gave birth Etta A/
Talhimer, the wife of William Flatow, Sr.
1888: Birthdate
of Vilna native and Yiddish actor Alexande Asro, a member of the Vilna Troupe,
the internationally known Yiddish Theatre group who later came to the United
States where he became best known for creating the role of “Sasha Smirnoff” in
the play and Marx Brothers film “Room Service.”
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0039729/
1888: In the Ukraine, Adel and Akiva Brodetsky,
the beadle of the local Synagogue, gave birth to Selig Brodetsky, a “British
Professor of Mathematics, a member of the World Zionist Executive, who served
as the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and was the second
president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.”
https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Brodetsky/
1890:
Birthdate of Boris Pasternak, the Russian Nobel Prize-winning novelist and
poet, author of Dr. Zhivago.
1890: The
Grand Lodge, No. 1 of the Independent Order of Free Sons of Israel met for a
second day at Webster Hall. Among the attendees were David Keller, S.B.
Hamburger, Aaron Stern, Harry Jacobs, Gabriel Marks and Benjamin Baker.
1890: It was
reported today that Edward Lauterbach delivered a speech eulogizing the late
Seligman Solomon, the Jewish philanthropist who was the driving the force
behind the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. The memorial service is an annual event held
at the asylums building on Tenth Avenue.
1891: Julius
Rosenwald of Sears and Roebuck fame and Augusta Nusbaum gave birth to Cornell
University alum and Chairman of Sears Lessing Julius Rosenwald, who turned to a
life of book collecting and philanthropy as well as a stint of political
activity that included support of the America First Committee and the
Presidency of the anti-Zionist American Council of Judaism.
1891: In Bern
Switzerland, Russian born Sergius Ingerman and his wife Anna gave birth to
Eugenia Ingerman who became Eugenia Low when she married Bela Isidor Low with
whom she had one child, Francis Eugene Low.
1891: It was
reported today that very few of the Jewish immigrants from Russia who have
received assistance from a fund established by Baron Hirsh settle in the
southern United States. Many of them settle in the West, while smaller
numbers settle in the Middle Atlantic States or New England.
1891:
According to the first paragraph of trust agreement signed by Baron Hirsch
which was made public today, his reason for establishing a charitable fund is
that he has “observed with painful interest the suffering and destitution of
the Hebrews dwelling in Russia and Rumania where they are oppressed by severe
laws and unfriendly neighbors, and have determined to contribute to the relief
of such of my brethren in race who have emigrated or shall emigrate from these
inhospitable countries to the Republic of the United States of America.”
1892: “A New
Loan Commissioner” published today described the appointment of Edward Jacobs
to the position of Loan Commissioner in New York by Governor Roswell P.
Flower. A native of Buffalo, the 38-year-old Jacobs is a lawyer who has
never held office but is a member of the Tammany Society (Ed. Note – Yes the
Jewish lawyer belonged to the Irish Catholic political organization) Jacobs is
an active member of several Jewish charities and social organizations including
the Hebrew Sanitarium, the Sons of Israel and B’nai B’rith.
1892(12th
of Shevat, 5652): Henry Adler passed away today.
1892:
Birthdate of New York native Frederick Eberson, the holder of an M.S. from Iowa
State, a Ph.D. from Columbia and an M.D. from the University of Minnesota, the
pathologist and bacteriologist who served with the U.S. Army during WW I after
which he pursued research at Washington University and the Mayo Clinic.
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf8c6009g5/
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Eberson%2C%20Frederick%2C%201892-
1894: Meyer
Markowitz remained in custody on charges that he had broken the lock off of an
icebox and tried to steal the contents to feed his family. Markowitz is a
tailor who has been out of work for several months due to the Depression.
He had exhausted all other sources of assistances, including asking for aid
from the United Hebrew Charities. The arresting officer was sympathetic to his
plight but the law against theft had to be reinforced.
1894: Birthdate
of Rostov on Don native Yakov Il’ich Frankel who gained fame as award wining
physicist Yakov Frenkel, renowned for his works in the field of condensed
matter physics” who is known for, among other things “the Frenkel defect” and the
Frenkel-Kontorova model.”
1895:
Birthdate of Samuel Holtzman, the Brooklyn born lightweight boxer who fought
under the name of Frankie Callahan.
1895: “Charity
and Pleasure” published today traces the history of the Purim Association which
was formed in 1862 by ten young Jewish men – Moses H. Moses, Herman H.
Stettheimer, A. Henry Shutz, Solomon B. Solomon, Joseph A. Levy, Louis G.
Schiffer, Solomon Weill, Adolph Sanger, Lionel Davies and Myer S. Isaacs.
The men decided to combine the celebration of the holiday with fundraising by
hosting an annual ball that would provide funds for a growing listing of
agencies that now includes Mt. Sinai Hospital, the Montefiore Home, the Hebrew
Orphan Asylum, United Hebrew Charities, the Russian Emergency Fund and many,
many more.
1895: “For
Sick Poor Children” which was published today provides a history of the
Sanitarium for Hebrew Children. The organization grew out of a meeting in the
Spring of 1877 at which Dr. S.N. Leo and John J. Davis decided that the
children of Jewish parents would benefit from a series of outdoor excursions
each summer. The first excursion took place in August of 1877 and
provided a riverboat excursion for between 700 and 800 children and their
mothers. These events have become part of the summer time activities for
underprivileged New York youngsters thanks to the fundraising activities of
Jewish leaders including Abraham Ettinger, Leonard Lewinson, Mrs. A.M. Kohn and
Mrs. Julius Hart.
1896: Herzl
reads Auto-Emancipation by Leon Pinsker. Leon Pinsker was a
Russian born physician who became a Zionist years before Herzl had his “vision
of a Jewish state. ’Auto-Emancipation was a pamphlet Pinsker published in 1882
“in which he urged the Jewish people to strive for independence and national
consciousness.”
1897:
Freedom of religion granted in Madagascar. This “liberal sounding
statement” was actually the product of French imperialism. France conquered the
island in 1895 and the Chamber of Deputies voted to annex it in 1896. The
extension of Freedom of Religion, including securing the rights of French Jews
who might settle there, was part of the law of unintended consequences.
Madagascar would enter into Jewish history as the site where the Nazis offered,
before World War II to deposit the Jews. This was the so-called
Madagascar Plan.
1897: In
Auburn, Maine, founding of Congregation Beth Abraham which owned a “cemetery
three and one-half miles from town on Denvil Road” and whose members came to
include Hyman Savage, Abrahm Widronitz and Moses Miller.
1898: In
Argentina, Samuel and Raissa Kessel gave birth to French journalist and author,
Joseph Kessel, the uncle of Maurice Duron, the author of the bestselling novel Les
Grandes Familles
1898:
Birthdate of German aircraft designer and journalist whose 1929 article in The
World Stage exposing the creation of “a secret German Air Force in violation of
the Treaty of Versailles” was ignored in the West but earned him an 18-month
prison term in a German prison for treason and espionage. (Editor’s note:
This warning came four years before Hitler came to power putting the lie to the
contention that German re-armament was strictly a Nazi affair)
1900(11th
of Adar I, 5660): Parashat Tetzaveh
1900: As Jews
observer Shabbat, Lord Balfour, who would gain fame for the declaration about
Palestine, was reported today to have conceded that the Boer’s have the
advantage over British forces in the fighting in South Africa.
1900: In Fort
Smith, AR, founding of the Afternoon Literary the purposed of which was “the
discussion of current events and the study of the classics” and who members
included Miss Mae Wolf and Mrs. Benno Stein.
1901: On
New York’s Lower East Side, Sara and Jacob P. Adler gave birth to their
youngest daughter, Stella Adler, the sibling of actors Luther, Jay, Charles and
Celia Adler. She began her career on the Yiddish stage before making the
transition to Broadway. Her fame as an actress was exceeded only by her
fame as an inspiration for aspiring actors and actresses at the Stella Adler
Conservatory of Acting in New York City. She passed away in 1992 at the
age of 91.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/adler-stella
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Stella-Adler
1901:
Birthdate of German born American mathematician Richard Dagobert Brauer.
1902: “Opera
Company Entertained” published today described a dinner given by Jacob
Rothschild, one of the owners of the Hotel Majestic for 25 guests including
artists and their friends all connected with the Metropolitan Opera Company.
1902: Herman
Gutstadt , a resident of San Francisco and a representative of the American
Federation of Labor testified before the Congressional Committee whose members
included Representative Kahn on the Chinese Exclusion bill.
1903: Herzl
writes to Lord Rothschild, reports about the commission and asks for a meeting
in Paris.
1903:
Birthdate of Russian born composer, Matvey Isaakovich Blatner.
1904: It was
announced at this afternoon’s meeting of the Trustees of the New York Library
“that the later Isaac Meyer” a part of whose “life was spent in investigations
of Jewish and Egyptian mysticisms” and who “was the author of “The Cabbalah,”
“Ion Gebirol” and “Scarabs” “had donated his library of 2,000 volumes and
manuscripts to the library.”
1905: The will
of Kasryel H. Sarasohn, the founder of The Jewish Daily News disposing of about
$600,000 worth of property which was “written in the old Hebraic language” was
filed for probate in the Surrogates’ office today “by the testator’s son,
Abraham H. Sarasohn, the lawyer who is to receiving one-fifth interest in the
publishing business.”
1905: On the
Lower East Side of Manhattan, Dora and Max Heller, Jewish immigrants from
Romania gave birth to Fordham Law School trained attorney Louis Benjamin Heller
who resigned a seat in Congress so he could become a judge in New York City.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/louis-benjamin-heller
1906: It was
reported today that the Russians are refusing to cash money orders intended to
aid Jewish citizens and are returning them to the senders because “orders have
been issued from St. Petersburg to refuse payment…because the money is for the
purpose of aiding the revolutionary cause.”
1906(15th
of Shevat, 5666): Parashat Beshalach; Tu B’Shevat
1906: “In the
lower sections of” New York City “the majority of the workers” removing snow
“were Jews, refugees, young men and old” many of the latter of which were “too
weak for the work and had to quit” due to exhaustion.
1907: It was
reported today that faculty would have nothing to say about charges of
discrimination against Jewish student until they were officially informed that
such behavior existed.
1908: In
Chicago, Leo and Helen Jeanette Heimerdinger gave birth to Leo H. Heimerdinger.
1908: In St.
Louis, MO, 28-year-old Leopold Cronbach and 24-year-old Ruby Lowenhaupt gave
birth to Washington University trained sculptor Robert M. Cronbach
https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/robert-m-cronbach-papers-7553
1909: It was
reported today that labor stoppage by the United Hatters of Amerian would
center around the factor of the Samuel Mundheim Company since Mundheim is
president of the National Hat Manufacturers’ Association.
1910:
Forty-nine-year-old Jules Guérin the anti-Semitic journalist who helped to
found the Anti-Semitic League of France and was active in the campaign to smear
Captain Dreyfus passed away today.
1911(12th of
Shevat, 5671): Madame Fakima Modiano, a prominent philanthropist from Salonica,
passed away.
1911: At the
request of the Hahambashi, the Turkish Minister of War directs his officers in
every Army Corps to provide money for Jewish soldiers to buy Matzah and kosher
food during the 8 days of Passover.
1912: De Witt
Seligman saw his brother Washington Seligman, both of whom were the sons of
James Seligman founder of J & W Seligman & Co, for the last
time today at the brokerage firm of Post and Flagg noting that his brother
“appeared to be in the best of spirits at that time” and giving no hint that he
was about to commit suicide.
1912:
Birthdate of Herbert Baum, “the Jewish member of the German resistance against
National Socialism who was either hanged or decapitated by the Nazis in Moabit
Prison
1912:
Birthdate of Heinrich Josef Krips, the son of a Jewish-born convert to
Catholicism, who gained game as conductor Henry Krips.
1912(22nd
of Shevat, 5672): Sydney James Stern, 1st Baron Wandsworth the eldest son of
Viscount David de Stern, senior partner of the firm of Stern Brothers, and
Sophia, daughter of Aaron Asher Goldsmid passed away today leaving “estate of
1,555,984 pound sterling most of which was bequeathed to charity, over a
million being given to found an orphanage in his name which was actually used
to found Lord Wandsworth College.”
1913(3rd
of Adar I, 5673): Sixty-eight-year-old Patterson, NJ merchant Marcus Cohen
passed away.
1913:
Birthdate of Charles “Charlie” Thompson a native of Brookline, MA who helped to
smuggle three surplus B-17 Bombers into Israel as she prepared to fight for her
independence. The story of how he and Al Schimmer did this sounds like the
stuff of a fictional spy-thriller, but it really happened. These three
planes were the only heavy bombers the Israelis had during the war with the
invading Arab armies who were supported by modern aircraft. He was
imprisoned by the U.S. for 18 months for doing this but was pardoned
posthumously by President Bush in 2008
1914: The
completion of the first English translation of the Bible from the original
Hebrew by a body of Jewish scholars representing all shades and schools of
Jewish thought and learning was celebrated at a dinner in the great hall of the
Jewish Theological Seminary of America tonight. Jacob H. Schiff gave the main
address praising the work of the translators.
1914:
“Twenty-nine prominent clergymen and churchmen, representing all denominations
including Jewish organizations were appoint trustees of Andrew Carnegie’s
Church Peace Union
1914:
Birthdate of one of the world’s greatest harmonica players, Baltimore native
Lawrence "Larry" Cecil Adler.
1914:
Birthdate of Wausau, Wisconsin native Benjamin Walter Heineman, the “lawyer and
corporate leader who took over railroads, created one of the nation’s first
conglomerates and became a close confidant and adviser to President Lyndon B.
Johnson.” (As reported by Denise Grady)
1915:
Birthdate of Russian actor Vladimir Zeldin
http://www.playbill.com/article/vladimir-zeldin-worlds-oldest-working-actor-is-dead-at-101
1915: “Denies
Pogrom Stories” published today described claims by Russia’ Foreign Minister
that reports of attacks on Jews organized by the Russian government are untrue
saying that the suffering of the Jews came because so many of them lived in
Poland and those parts of Russia where war was being waged and that these
reports were being spread by “the German Ambassador in American…in an attempt
to create a feeling hostile” to the Russians.
1915: As he
left today on a trip to the South, Adolph Lewishon said that “The question of
equal rights for Jews, and also of Palestine will not doubt arise at the future
peace conference and I believe that the Jewish question will be treated with
more sympathy and friendship by the nations than at any other time” because of
the ardent patriotism shown by the Jews.
1915: The list
of the officers for District 1 of the International Order of B’nai B’rith
published today included Herman Asher, Grand President; Abraham K. Cohen, First
Vice President; Joseph Rosenzweig, Second Vice President; Solomon Sulzberger,
Treasurer and Dr. Bernard M. Kaplan, Grand Secretary.
1915: In New
York, Percy St. Straus, head of R.H. Macy & Co. and President of the
Dry Goods Association told those attending the dinner marking the final night
of the convention of National Dry Goods Association that “the department store
men can afford to see a minimum wage law enacted without making any protest.
(Editor’s note – 100 years later, in the United States, the battle is being
waged over raising the minimum wage – the more things change the more they stay
the same)
1916: Nathan
Straus who is staying at a hotel in Long Beach, CA today mailed a check for
$250,000 to New York “for distribution among the need Jewish children of
Poland” and Mrs. Straus mailed another check for $100,000 for the same cause.”
1916:
Birthdate of New York native and University of Minnesota educated socialist
Louis (Eliyahu) Guttman, the Professor of Social and Psychological Assessment
at Hebrew University who passed away while visiting Minneapolis.
https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2009-08878-001
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/guttman-louis
1917(18th
of Shevat, 5677): Raphael “Al” Hayman, the business partner of Charles Frohman
with whom he established the Theatrical Syndicate, the dominant theatrical
booking agency of its day passed away. Frohman, one of three Jewish brothers
from Ohio who made it big in the world of New York entertainment, has died two
years earlier when he was on board the RMS Lusitania.
1917:
Birthdate of Edward Lawrence “Eddie” Turchin, the New York native who at the
age of 26 played a handful of games with the Cleveland Indians in 1943.
1918: Judge
Julian W. Mack, Colonel Sir Arthur Murray of the British Embassy in Washington
D.C. and Ittamar Ben-Avi, a newspaper editor from Jerusalem were among the
guests who attended a dinner presided over by Eugene Meyer, Jr., the Chairman
of the of the Palestine Restoration at the home of Adolph Lewishohn where the
future of the Zionist’s dream for a state in Palestine was discussed.
1918: The International Ladies Garment Workers
received a letter from Dr. Harry Garfield of the National Fuel Administration
saying the will see to that “their shops are heated and lighted …Washington’s
Birthday” – a holiday on which the Jewish trade unionists have agreed to work
with the understanding that their pay for the date will go to the Jewish War
Relief Fund.
1918:
Abdul Hamid II Ottoman Sultan passed away. Sultan Abdul-Hamid II's is
famous for his refusal to allow Dr. Theodore Herzl, the founder of Political
Zionism, to settle Palestine with Jewish colonists. Herzl offered to buy up and
then turn over the Ottoman Debt to the Sultan's government in return for an
Imperial Charter for the Colonization of Palestine by the Jewish
people. Herzl probably thought that he was offering the Sultan a
bargain, knowing that the Sultan's dearest wish was to rescue the empire from
the indebtedness it had fallen into as a result of easy European loans.
While some saw this as a form of anti-Jewish bias others contend that Abdul
Hamid’s response was based on internal nationality problems that were already
troubling the empire. Hamid had enough problems with indigenous groups
without bringing a new nationality problem to his tottering empire.
1918: “Owing
to the wheat conservation rules of the United States Food Administration,
Albert Kruger, the director of a” Jewish “relief society on the east side,
said” today “that the Jewish population of the country will have its supply of
matzoth for the Passover season reduced by at least 30 per cent.”
1919(9th
of Shevat, 5679): Annie Blatcky (nee Annie Sugar), the wife of Sol Blatcky
passed away today.
1919: Two days
afte she passed away, funeral services were held in Chicago for Johanna Levy,
the mother of Mrs. Emma Zimmer and Maxwell Levy.
1920: In
Chicago, Isidore Rabinowitz, the “son of Chaim Aaron Rabinowitz and Sura Mena
Rabinowitz” and his wife Miriam Rabinowitz gave birth to Harry Rabin
1921:
Birthdate of New York native Samuel “Sam” Deitchman who “played guard, forward,
and center at CCNY from 1940 to 1942 when the team made repeat appearances at
the NIT, the premier college basketball tournament of that period.
1922: Judge
Max S. Levine was named chairman of the committee which includes Congressman
Christopher Sullivan, Judge Morris Koenig, Joseph Levenson, Samuel Markewich
and Joseph Marcus that was formed tonight “at a meeting at 485 Fifth Aveny that
will work to raise five million dollars “for the Jews of Eastern Europe who are
suffering from famine and war conditions.”
1923:
Birthdate of Brooklynite Alex ‘Allie Sherman who was best known as head coach
of the NFL’s New York Giants.
1923: Texas
Tech University was founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas.
Today, Texas Tech boasts a small, but vibrant Hillel about which you can find
out more by seeing http://www.orgs.ttu.edu/hilleljewishsociety/.
1924: It was
reported today that Henry A Dix is he honorary chairman of the upcoming bazar
designed “to raised funds to establish trade, vocational and agricultural
schools among the Jews of Eastern and Central Europe.
1924: “About
Books, More or Less” published today provided an in depth review of The Jew
in Civilization by Ada Sterling.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/02/10/issue.html
https://www.amazon.com/Jew-Civilization-Ada-Sterling/dp/1258051508
1925(16th
of Shevat, 5685): Jacob “Jay” Pike, the brother of Lipman Pike, passed away
today. Lipman was a famous baseball player. Jay played in only one major
league. In 1877, he got a hit while playing in the outfield for the Brooklyn
Hartfords who on that day beat the Cincinnati Red Stockings.
1926: In New
York City, “Joseph Solomon, a commission merchant in a wholesale produce
market” and Beatrice Solomon gave birth to NYU graduate and journalist Mimi
Solomon who gained fame as “American food critic” Mimi Sheraton, the wife of
Richard Falcone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBcOV7dKwP4
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/12/03/missing-links-2
mimi
sheraton books - Google Search
1926: Poet
Chaim Nachman Bialik delivered a speech in Yiddish to 4,000 people at Mecca
Temple in New York at an event designed to raise funds the United Palestine
Appeal.
1927:
Birthdate of Austrian born British novelist, story-writer and memoirist Jakov
Lind author of Landscape in Concrete and Ergo.
1927:
Bantamweight Herman “Kid Silvers (Herman Silverberg) scored a knockout in his
bout tonight at the Engineer’s Amory in New York.
1927: “Two
Jewish student…were seriously injured in new attacks…at the School of Commerce”
in Bucharest.
1927: “A
further step toward ameliorating unemployment in Palestine was taken” today
when the Zionist Executive, the Centraol Cooperative Bank and the Workers Bank
advanced a loan of twenty thousand pounds to the Solel Boneh, the Jewish
workers’ cooperative building society.
1928: In St.
Louis, during his “tenure as a professor of history at the University of
Illinois” Abram L. Sachar and his wife Thelma Horwitz gave birth to the first
son historian Howard Morley Sachar author of such “big books” as A History
of Jews in America and A History of the Jews in the Modern World.
http://www.thebrandeishoot.com/articles/6474
1928: The
Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported today the District Court of Jaffa ruled that
“compulsory Sabbath observance is in contradiction with Article XV of the Palestine
Mandate that states: “The mandatory shall see that complete freedom of
conscience and the free exercise of all forms of worship, subject only to the
maintenance of public order and morals are assured to all. No
discrimination of any kind shall be made between the inhabitants of Palestine
on the ground of race, religion or language. No person shall be excluded
from Palestine on the sole ground of his religious belief.” The
District Court was overruling a decision by a Tel Aviv magistrate who had fined
a Jewish shopkeeper named Altschuler for violating the city’s ordinance
regarding the observance of the Jewish Sabbath.
1929:
Birthdate of Jerry Goldsmith the prolific composer
who wrote hundreds of film scores and television theme songs, including music
for the films Patton and Basic Instinct and television's The
Twilight Zone. He passed away at the age of 75 in 2004.
1929:
Birthdate of Elaine Edna Kaufman, founder of owner of Elaine’s, the famed
restaurant on the Upper East Side that she made into a New York landmark.
1929:
Flyweight Moe Mizler fought his 26th bout at Whitechapel, London
1930(12th
of Shevat, 5690): Sixty-seven-year-old Galicia native Jacob Geller, the husband
of Sarah Geller with whom he raised eight children, who was an Orthodox Rabbi
in Galveston before beginning his service at Adath Israel in Houston, TX in
1929 passed away today.
1930:
In Manhattan, Beulah and Adolph Lobl gave birth to Elaine Lobl who gained fame
as award-winning children’s author E.L. Konigsburg. (As reported by Paul
Vitello)
1931(23rd
of Shevat, 5691): Herman Rudolf Cohn, the Frankfurt am Main born son of Hanna
and Rabbi Moses Jesaias Cohn, the grandson of Rabbi Simon Cohn and the husband
of Klara Cohn, passed away today in Hamburg, Germany.
1931:
In Jerusalem, Isaac Benzvi opened a meeting at the Nathan Straus Health Center
attended by three hundred Jews who “paid tribute to the memory of two prominent
Americans” – Louis Marshall and Nathan Straus.
1932(3rd of
Adar 1, 5692): Yiddish author Mordecai Rabinowitz (Ben-Ammi) passed away today.
1932:
Fifty-six-year-old English author, Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace, passed away
today four years before his works would banned by in Germany “because of rumors
that the writer was of Jewish extraction” – a charge vehemently denied by his
daughter Mrs. Frere Reeves.
1933: “The
first one-man exhibition in New York of Michael Rosenthal’s work which includes
a picture of “a Jewish ceremony” is being held at the Contemporary Arts Gallery
1934(25th
of Shevat, 5694): Parashat Mishpatim; Shabbat Shekalim
1934: The
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee announced today that it fund
raising chairman, Rabbi Jonah B. Wise has set a message to about five thousand
Jewish leaders” in the United States and Canada on the subject of German-Jewish
relief in which said that, after a year of Hitler, it is obvious that the
conditions for the Jews in Germany will get worse and they will require more
assistance.
1935: “A new
country-wide effort to raise $3,250,000 this year for the relief of Jews in
Germany and other European countries and for the settlement of Jews in
Palestine was started today by the United Jewish Appeal under the combined
efforts of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the American
Palestine Campaign.”
1935: “Early
American Jews” published a review of Early American Jews by Lee M.
Friedman which presents a different picture of the Jews “from the conception
most commonly held” about them including that “although the Jews are generally
thought to be comparatively recent arrivals, they have really been here from
the earliest days, ‘long before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth…’”
1936: With the
unification of the police and the SS, the Gestapo became the supreme police
agency of Nazi Germany. Gestapo Law was enacted in Prussia, giving them
exclusive right to make arrests, and entitled to investigate all activities
considered hostile to the state. The same law gave the Gestapo complete
independence from the courts.
1936: In
Berlin the Ministry of Justice “has issued new regulations” that for all
intents and purposes “prohibit the admission of German Jews to the Bar” and
ordering all “German lawyers to dissolve all associations with Jews or half
Jews.”
1936(17th
of Shevat, 5696): Ludwig Hollaender, who studied law at the University of
Munich and practiced law there before returning to his hometown of Berlin where
he fought growing anti-Semitism as the founder and director of the Central
Union of Jews in Germany passed away today “in his 59th year.”
1936: At
Cambridge, Massachusetts, “Wassily Leontief, a political refugee from the
Soviet Union, a Nobel laureate Economist who pioneered computer modeling, and
poet Estelle Marks” gave birth to Svetlana Leontief the American art historian
who married in 1958 and became Svetlana Alpers.
1937: At 7:30
pm, WEAF is scheduled to broadcast “Let’s Be Sensible About the Supreme Court”
featuring Representative Emanuel Celler.
1937: Edward
Isaac Lending a high school teacher received a passport today ten days before
he sailed for Europe where he fought with the Lincoln Brigade during the
Spanish Civil War.
1938: The
Palestine Post reported from London that the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Ormsby
Gore, made a clear reaffirmation of the British desire to proceed with the
partition, as recommended by the Peel Report and the Mandates Commission of the
League of Nations. Gore repeated that partition was the best means to establish
a Jewish National Home in Palestine.
1938: Harold
Jacobi, the President of the Schenley Distillers Corporation announced he would
chair the Greater New York Campaign of the United Palestine Appeal “because the
Jews of Central Europe and Eastern
Europe have been plunged into profound despair and hopelessness by the new
restrictions and threats of expulsion hat be made by the Government of Rumania
and because of the anti-Jewish measures in German, Poland and other lands.
1938: G.W.
Kunze, national director of public relations for the German American Bund led a
delegation of “gray-uniformed Nazi into Syracuse” where they were met by a
belligerent band of men from the American Legion.”
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that a British Army sergeant was killed by an Arab
terrorist near Tulkarm.
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that the final allocation of 31 seats at the
Jerusalem Community Council was: Labor 10, Revisionists four, Hapoel Hamizrahi
and Sephardim three each, and the rest were divided between nine smaller
parties. The total number of votes cast was 9,368.
1939: Pope
Pious XI passed away. The Pope earned high marks from the B’nai B’rith
which featured him on the cover of its monthly magazine in 1939 hailing for his
stag against fascism and racism. In 1939, The Jewish National Monthly
describe him as "the only bright spot in Italy has been the Vatican, where
fine humanitarian statements by the Pope have been issuing regularly".
1939: Jewish
converts were banned from Evangelical-Lutheran churches in Thüringen, Germany.
1939: “…One
Third of a Nation…” starring Sylvia Sidney (born Sophia Kosow) and Sidney Lumet
who appeared with his father Baruch Lumet and with music by Nathaniel Shilkret
was released in the United States today.
1939(21st
of Shevat, 5699): Sixty-four-year-old Ernest Lesser who “who was called to the
Bar by the Middle Temple in 1900 and whose Jewish communal activities included
serving as Warden of the New West End Synagogue passed away today. (Lesser was a man born before his time as can
be seen by his support for the “enfranchisement of female seat-holders of the
United Synagogue” and his description of “the problem of augunot as ‘a canker
in our midst.’”
1940(1st of
Adar I, 5700): Parashat Terumah and Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1940: Rabbi
Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “New Cults and Old
Religions” at Temple Emanu-El,
1940: Rabbi
Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Lincoln Speaks” New
Anecdotes of the Great Emancipator” at Temple Rodeph Sholom.
1940: Rabbi
Samuel M. Segal is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Sanctuary” at Mount
Neboh Temple on West 79th Street.
1940: Rabbi
Alexander Segel is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Gift and the Giver” at
Fort Washington Synagogue.
1940: Rabbi
Harold H. Mashioff is scheduled deliver a sermon on “The Protocols of Zion – a
Myth Exposed” at the Temple of the Covenant in New York City.
1940: Rabbi
Hyman Judah Schachtel delivered a sermon on “Edmund’s Candle in the Dark” at
the West End Synagogue.
1941: “Two
French mining engineers, Arman Mayer and Pierre Lion have been retained in
office by an order published today exempting them from the regulations
discharging Jews from public employment.”
1942(23rd
of Shevat, 5702): Thirty-seven-year-old Baruch Kremer, the husband of Batia
Kremer and father of Joshua Kremer was murdered by the Nazis in his hometown of
Kurenets.
1942: As of
today, “the approximate ghetto and concentration camp populations of German
Jews in Riga and the vicinity were: Jungfernhof concentration camp, 2,500; the
German ghetto: 11,000; Salaspils: 1,300. Of the Latvian Jews, about 3,500 men
and 300 women were in the Latvian ghetto.”
1943:
Birthdate of St. Louis native and award-winning astrophysicist Gerald Jay
(Jerry) Fishman’
http://www.shawprize.org/en/shaw.php?tmp=3&twoid=90&threeid=179&fourid=305&fiveid=150
https://www.revolvy.com/page/Gerald-J.-Fishman
1944: Birthday
of Geoffrey Alderman, the native of Middlsex and Oxford graduate who in 2006 “was
awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Oxford for his
important work on Anglo-Jewish history” and who is the father of Naomi Alderman
the of Disobedience, for which she earned the 2006 Orange Award for New
Writers.
http://www.geoffreyalderman.com/
1944 (16th of
Shevat, 5704): Dr. George Bernhard, exiled editor and political economics of
pre-Nazi Germany who had been living in the United States since February 1941
passed away today at the age of 68 from the effects of pneumonia. A native of
Berlin, Bernhard was part of a Jewish family that had lived in Germany for
centuries. Bernhard’s enjoyed a successful business career before
devoting his time to government service and the publishing industry. “Dr.
Bernhard’s Pariser Tageblatt was considered the world’s first anti-Nazi daily”
and “was read all over the world by German speaking Nazis” before the Nazis
took control of it in 1936. Bernhard stayed one step ahead of the Nazis,
publishing in Paris until it fell in 1940 and then moving on to Marseilles
before had to leave Vichy France in 1941. Dr. Bernhard who had been a
deputy member of the Agency for Palestine as a representative of the German
Jews and was a member of the executive committee of the Jewish World Congress
was a member of the staff of the Institute of Jewish Affairs from the time he
arrived in the United States until his demise.
1944(16th
of Shevat, 5704): Fifty-year-old Yiddish author Israel Joshua Singer brother of
two other Yiddish writers, Esther Kreitman and Isaac Bashevis Singer, passed
away.
1944:
The first ship to break the British blockade of Palestine arrives in Eretz
Israel. Worldwide publicity of "illegal" immigration of Jews to
Israel was an important factor in England's ultimate decision to give up the
mandate. Most of you know the story the “Exodus” which Leon Uris used as basis
for novel of that name that later was a big screen Hollywood
event. The story was based on an actual event that took place in
1947. However, it was only one a series of blockade runners seeking to
bring Jews from Europe to Palestine despite the White Paper banning
immigration and the military might of the British Royal Navy.
1944: Mrs.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was honored today for her work in helping to rehabilitate
40,000 refugee children in Palestine. More than 1,000 persons attended the
meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel where she received the first citation and
cash award given for humanitarian work with children by Hadassah, the Women's
Zionist Organization of America, in memory of the late Henrietta Szold, founder
of the organization.
1944:
Birthdate of Georffrey Alderman the British historian whose works include The
Jewish Community in British Politics and Modern British Jewry. He is
the father of British authoress Naomi Alderman who was born in 1974.
1944: U.S.
premiere of “Lady in the Dark” the film version of the Broadway musical created
by Kurt Weill, Ira Gershwin and Moss Hart.
1944: “Song of
Russia,” a war movie directed by Gregory Ratoff and produced by Joe Pasternak
and Pandro S. Berman.
1945: Lt. (JG)
Leon Rankel began a three-month tour “as a pilot of carrier-based torpedo
bomber’ during which “he participated in twenty strikes against” Japanese
shipping, airfields and other installations.
1946: “A drive
for $2,000,000 for destitute Jews throughout the world was started this
afternoon by the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York at a meeting in the
Barbizon Plaza Hotel.”
1946: In
“Franz Boas vs. Hitler” published to R.L. Duffus provides a detailed review of
Rae and Democratic Society by Franz Boaz, who “began answering Hitler before
Hitler was born.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/02/10/93044535.html?pageNumber=116
1947:
Following the Paris Peace Conference of 1946, the Paris Peace Treaties were
signed between the victorious Allied Powers and Italy, Romania, Hungary,
Bulgaria and Finland.
1947: Dov
Rosenbaum, Eliezer Kashani and Mordecai Alkoshi were convicted by a British
court of carrying firearms.
1948: The
Central Committee of the Communist Party indicted Dimitri Shostakovich and
other leading Soviet composers as "formalists," enemies of the
people. This bogus charge and all that flowed from it caused one critic to
describe 1948 as “the worst year of Dmitri Shostakovich's life;” a year in
which the Stalinist government would fire him from two teaching positions, ban
his works and take away his livelihood. Shostakovich, who was not Jewish,
responded to all of this travail by setting eleven texts from "Jewish Folk
Poetry" -- a collection of Yiddish folk poems published the year before in
Russian translation -- for soprano, alto, tenor and piano. This musical work
would gain fame as "From Jewish Folk Poetry." Shostakovich's orchestration
of the cycle would not be heard in public until 1955, two years after Stalin’s
death. [Ed. Note: Shostakovich was not Jewish and I do not know why he chose
this way of thumbing his nose at Stalin at a time when the Soviet dictator’s
anti-Semitism was reaching a new crescendo]
1949: Arthur
Miller's play "Death of a Salesman" opened at Broadway's Morosco
Theater. How Jewish was Arthur Miller? He was Jewish enough that
when Marilyn Monroe married him she converted to Judaism.
1949: Lehi
Leader Nathan Yellin-Mor was sentenced to 8 years in prison after having been
guilty of being part of the leadership of a terrorist organization for his role
in the assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte.
1950(23rd
of Shevat, 5710): One day after his 81st birthday Lithuanian native
Israel Matz, the founder and president of Ex-Lax, Inc, the famous laxative
company and husband of Gussie H. Matz who as “pioneer Zionist widely known for
his philanthropies and his work in re-establishing Hebrew as a living language…
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/matz-israel
TimesMachine:
February 11, 1950 - NYTimes.com
1950: “The
heads of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial
Organizations requested President Truman today to protest Great Britain's arms
shipments to Arab countries, asserting that such arms would be used in "a
second war against the State of Israel."
1950(23rd of
Shevat, 5710): Seventy-seven-year-old, French sociologist Marcel Mauss, the
nephew of Émile Durkheim and author of The Gift passed away today in Paris.
http://www.aaanet.org/committees/commissions/centennial/history/092mauss.pdf
http://www.freewords.org/graeber.htm
1950: In
Modesto California Arnold Spitz and Lenore Sylvia Smith gave birth to Mark
Spitz, Olympic Games swimming gold medalist who was wisked away from the 1972
Summer Olympics in Munich when terrorists attacked the venue and slaughtered
part of the Israeli Olympic team.
1951: In New
York City, Mimi Tunick and Arthur L. Iger gave birth to Ithaca College graduate
Robert Allen “Bob” Iger, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company.
1952:
Birthdate of Zvika Greengold the native of the Kibbutz of the Ghetto fighters
who earned Medal of Valor for his heroics during the Yom Kippur War.http://www.badassoftheweek.com/greengold.html
1953: The
Jerusalem Post reported that a strong explosion shook the Soviet Legation
building in Tel Aviv, injuring three members of the staff. Israel expressed
"horror and detestation" at this cowardly act. The owner of a Soviet
bookshop in Jerusalem was threatened. This violence came as a wave of
anti-Semitism swept across the Soviet Union.
1953: The
Jerusalem Post reported that The Haifa Technion opened a faculty of
agricultural engineering.
1953(25th
of Shevat, 5713): Isaac Aronoff passed away today after which he was interred
at the Beth Moses Cemetery in West Babylon, Suffolk, NY.
1954: A
discussion of “The Holmes-Laski Letters” will start the Books for the Bar
Program, a series of panel discussions under the guidance of New York lawyer
and legal writer Ephraim London.
1954:
Birthdate of Peter Wennik Kaplan, the Manhattan born Harvard graduate who spent
15 exciting years as the editor of the New York Observer. (As reported by
Margalit Fox)
1954: Archeologist
Max Mallowan who worked several sites in Mesopotamia including Ur, reputed to be
the Biblical home of Abraham resigned from the Royal Air Force Volunteer
Reserve.
1956: By
personally raising funds from an anonymous source Joseph Rosenstock has enabled
the New York City Opera to include the first New York production of Rolf
Lieberman's new opera, "The School for Wives," in its spring season.
(Both Rosenstock and Lieberman are Jewish)
1957: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held today at the Riverside for Max Hertzoff, the
husband of Dorothy Hertzoff with whom he had three children – Beverly, Bernard
and Ira.
1958(20th
of Shevat, 5718): “Reverend Joseph B. Freedman of Springfield, MA,” the husband
of Lena Freedman and the father of “Rabbi Jacob S. King” passed away this
evening.
1958:
Birthdate of Yitzhak Nakash an associate professor of Middle Eastern and
Islamic studies at Brandeis University who is the author of The Shi'is of Iraq and who has
contributed articles to "Foreign Affairs, Newsweek," and the
"New York Times.
1960(12th
of Shevat, 5720): Seventy-five-year-old New York City native and NYU Law School
grad Abraham Landau, an executive with clothing manufacture Julius Schwartz and
Sons which later “became a personal investment firm” starting in 1922, a
“president of the fifteenth Assembly District Republican Club” and “a trustee
of Beth Israel Hospital” who with his wife Hannah raised two daughters passed
away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/02/11/105178222.pdf
1962: Ray
Lichenstein’s first solo exhibition which included the canvas “Look Mickey”
opened today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Look_Mickey#/media/File:Look_Mickey.jpg
1963(16th
of Shevat, 5723): Eighty-year old Stella Bowman the daughter of Louise and
Jacob Olshofsky the wife of Louis Bowman and the mother of Louis O. Bowman who
was active in the National Council of Jewish Women passed away today in
Richmond, Va.
1963: In
Montreal, Ray and Moishe Applebaum gave birth to their third child, Michael
Mark Appelbaum, the future mayor of his native city.
1964: “Strange
Bedfellows,” directed by Melvin Frank who co-wrote the screenplay while serving
as co-producer and starring Melvyn Douglas was released today in the United
States.
1965(8th
of Adar I, 5725): Fifty-year-old screenwriter Arnold Manoff who was a victim of
the blacklist passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9401EFD9143CE733A25751C1A9649C946491D6CF
1965: The
United States Figure Skating Championships, in which Taffy Pergament placed
seventh, opened today.
1965: Tonight
on the Versailles Terrace of the Americana Hotel, Rabbi Moses Feinstein
officiated at the wedding of “Esther Rogl, daughter of Rabbi and Mrs. Hertz
Rogol of Petach-Tikvah and Rabbi Moishe Joel Watkins the son of Brooklyn Rabbi
and Mrs. Watkins.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/02/11/95530774.html?pageNumber=48
1966(20th of
Shevat, 5726): Billy Rose composer and band leader passed away. Born William
Samuel Rosenberg in New York City, he began his career as a
lyricist. Two of his most famous efforts were "Me and My
Shadow" and “It’s Only a Paper Moon."
1966:
“Bunny Lake is Missing” a thriller directed and produced by Otto Preminger and
featuring Lucie Mannheim was released in the United Kingdom today.
1966:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for German born and University
of Illinois trained physician Dr. Harold Jacobnziner, the 64 year old assistant
commissioner of the New York City Department of Health who had been a captain
in the U.S. Naval reserve and the husband of Fannie Jacobziner.
1968:
Birthdate of New Jersey native Dr. Garrett E. Resiman the astronaut who “was a
crewmember of of NEEMO V.”
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/reisman_garrett.pdf
1969: “The
Guru” with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was released today in the
United States.
1970: Three
days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held this
morning for seventy-four-year-old Joseph Brainin, the veteran of the Jewish
Battalion that fought with Allenby during his successful WW I campaign turned
journalist and author who was the husband of “the former Salomea Neumark.”
1970(4th
of Adar I, 5730): Three Arab terrorists attacked an “airport bus head for an El
Al plane at the Munich airport” killing 1 Israeli passenger and wounding 8
others including actress Hanna Maron who had to have her leg amputated after
being injured in the grenade blast.
1970(4th
of Adar I, 5730): Just 4 months shy of his 100th birthday, Rabbi
Tobias Geffen, “the Coca Cola Rabbi” passed away in Atlanta, GA.
http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishFeatures/Article.aspx?id=169154
1971(15th
of Shevat, 5731): Tu B’Shevat
1971: “The
House of Blue Leaves,” directed by Mel Shapiro, opened today Off-Broadway at
the Truck and Warehouse Theatre, where it ran for 337 performances with a cast
that included Harold Gould.
1973:
Birthdate of Ramat HaSharon native, Naor Zion the multi-talented Israeli
performer who was the son of “Persian Jewish Parents.”
1974: In Givat
Haim, Asher Lider and Warsaw Ghetto survivor Dalia Lider both of whom had
immigrated to Israel from Argentina gave birth to their third child Ivri Lider,
one of Israel’s most popular pop rock singer-songwriters.
1977(22nd
of Shevat, 5737): “Hotel owner and operator Monis Lansburgh” passed away today
in Miami Beach, FL.
1977: In the
Bronx Yehonathan Netanyou Lane was named in honor of the Bronx-born Israeli
soldier who died freeing hostages in Entebbe Raid in 1976. Netanyou was
the only Israeli soldier to die in the daring rescue mission. His brother
would build a political career based on the fame garnered from being Jonathan’s
surviving brother.
1978: “Blue
Collar” a crime drama co-starring Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto and featuring
Milton Selzer was released in the United States today.
1978: The
Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Menachem Begin rejected the US
position that the Jewish settlements in the administered areas are illegal and
an obstacle to peace. He said that Israel offered Palestinians a local autonomy
which was "more than anything they had been offered by the Arab states
which ruled them in the past Jordan and Egypt."
1979(13th
of Shevat, 5739): Sixty-two-year-old Rephoel Baruch Sorotzkin, the Rosh Yehsiva
of the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland, the husband of Rochel Bloch, passed away
today which was the same date on the Hebrew calendar on which he was born.
1980(23rd
of Shevat, 5740): Nathan Yellin-Mor, the leader of Lehi who had been born at
Grodno in 1913 and whose political transformation led him to become “a radical
pacifist who support negotiations with the PLO” passed away today.
1981 In
Houston, TX, Karen Lee Finn and her husband gave birth to Mindy Lis Finn, the
2016 Vice Presidential candidate, founder and president of Empowered Women and
husband of David Feinberg, the father of her two sons.
1983: “Peace
Now!” held a demonstration in Jerusalem.
1983(27th
of Shevat, 5743): “Right-wing terrorist Yona Avrushmi” murdered IDF veteran and
teacher Emil Grunzweig and injured nine others including Abraham Burg and Yuval
Steinitz when he threw a grenade at a peace rally in Jerusalem.
1984:
“Unfaithfully Yours” the movie version of the novel by the same name directed by Howard Zieff,
produced by Daniel Melnick, with a script co-authored by Barry Levinson and
co-starring Albert Brooks was released today in the United States.
1986: Gary
Jacobs fought and won his sixth about meaning the Scottish welterweight is
undefeated after six fights
1988:
Publication of the “Survivors of the Spanish Exile: The Underground Jews of
Ibiza.”
http://www.jcpa.org/jl/hit12.htm
1990(15th
of Shevat, 5750): Tu B’Shevat
1990: The
New York Times reported that based on a poll created by Steven M. Cohen, a
sociologist at Queens College of the City University of New York, and by the
study's sponsor, the Israel-Diaspora Institute, a Tel Aviv-based public policy
center that deals with relations between Jews in Israel and elsewhere officials
of American Jewish organizations, although highly distrustful of the Palestine
Liberation Organization, say that Israel should talk to the P.L.O., a national
survey has found.
1990: On
Off-Broadway revival of “The Rothschilds,” a musical based on Frederic Morton’s
biography opened at the American Jewish Theatre.
1991: An
American official said today that Air Force F-15's had destroyed a Scud
surface-to-surface missile launcher in western Iraq, but it was not the one
that lobbed another projectile into Tel Aviv, Israel, wounding 26 people.
1991: During
Desert Storm, the Israeli Army allowed some West Bank and Gaza Palestinians to
return to their jobs in Israel today for the first time in three weeks.
1994 (29th
of Shevat, 5754): Naftali Sahar a citrus grower, was killed by blows to his
head. His body was found in his orchard near Kibbutz Na'an.
1995: “Billy
Madison,” a comedy starring Adam Sandler who co-wrote the script was released
today in the United States.
1995: Eli
Rosenbaum has been named director of the Office of Special Investigations
(OSI), Jo Ann Harris, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal
Division, announced today. OSI is the unit of the Criminal Division that
identifies and takes legal action against those who participated in persecutory
activities of the Nazi regime during World War II. "
1996(20th of
Shevat, 5756): Seventy-five year old Haskell L. Lazere, who was executive
director of the New York chapter of the American Jewish Committee from 1969 to
1989 and helped found various human rights coalitions in New York City, passed
away at his home on the Upper East Side.(As reported by Wolfgang Saxon.
1997: In
Manhattan Beach, CA, “Charles Rosen, an orthopedic spine surgeon and Liz
Lippincott, a former journalist gave birth to UCLA and Arizona Cardinals
quarterback.
1999(10th
of Shevat, 5759): Eighty-five-year-old Gideon Rafael, who engaged in a variety
of clandestine activities in the 1930’s and 1940’s before becoming one of the
founders of Israel’s Foreign Ministry in 1948 passed away today.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-gideon-rafael-1070457.html
1999(10th
of Shevat, 5759): Seventy-two-year-old Newark, NJ native Herbert “Herb”
Krautblatt who played college basketball at Rider before being drafted by the
professional Baltimore Bullets passed away today.
https://www.thesquander.com/herb-krautblatt-net-worth-2018-what-basketball-player-worth-2022292131
2000: Russian
actor Vladimir Zeldin was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 4th
Class “for outstanding contribution to the development of domestic theatrical
art.
2001: Eve
Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" was presented to a crowd of 18,000
men and women at Madison Square Garden.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/feb/10/2001/eve-ensler
2001(17th of
Shevat, 5761): Abraham “Abe” Beame, first Jewish Mayor of New York City
passed away. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
2002: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including the recently published paperback
edition of James Atlas” Bellow: A Biography, the encyclopedic portrait
of the writer Saul Bellow in which the author beat all the bushes to trace
his personal life and achievements, drawing on more than a decade's worth of
research.
2003:
Eighty-seven-year-old journalist Herb Brin was interred today “in Jerusalem,
overlooking the Temple Mount.”
http://www.davidbrin.com/herbbrin/obituary.html
2003(8th of
Adar I, 5763): Ron Ziegler, Press Secretary for Richard Nixon during the
Watergate Scandal passed away. (As reported by Tina Kelley)
2003(8th of
Adar I, 5763): Antoinette Feuerwerker, a French jurist, veteran of the WW II
Free French forces and the wife of Rabbi David Feuerwerker, passed away today
in Jerusalem at the age of 90.
2004:” The
Commission for the Indemnity of Looting Victims, a government panel, said
France should pay remaining compensation requests of $154 million to the
families of Jews whose property was looted in the Nazi occupation of World War
II.”
2005 (1st of
Adar I, 5765): Playwright Arthur Miller passed away. (As reported by
Marilyn Berger)
http://theater.nytimes.com/2005/02/11/theater/newsandfeatures/11cnd-miller.html
2005: Russian
actor Vladimir Zeldin was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd
class “for outstanding contribution to the development of theatrical art and
may years of creative activity.
2006: In
“Beating Swords Into Photographs” published today, Menachem Wecker reviews the
wrong of David Seymour.
http://forward.com/articles/1652/beating-swords-into-photographs/
2006:
Sheloshim ends for Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin) of blessed memory.
2006: An
animated film, Curious George, based on the character created by Hans Augusto
Rey and Margret Rey featuring Will Ferrell as the voice of the originally
unnamed Man With the Yellow Hat, was released. (The Reys are Jewish- Ferrell is
not)
2007: “Musical
Genius” Chen Halevi performs together with five musicians from the Tel Aviv
Soloists Ensemble in a Classical-Romantic-Modern program featuring works by
Mozart, Dvorak and Paul Ben-Haim at the Israel Conservatory in Tel Aviv.
2008: The
Sunday New York Times featured a review of Comeback: Conservatism That
Can Win Again by Jewish author David Frum.
2008: The
Sunday New York Times featured a pre-Valentine’s Day interview with Ben
Karlin, Wisconsin alum and former member of Hillel based on his book Things
I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me
2008: Jerusalem
Post on-line reported that “anger boiled over in Sderot on as residents
took to the streets, demanding that the government take stronger steps against
the rocket fire from Gaza following a Kassam strike that shattered one local
family's Shabbat.
2008: At the
Tucson Jewish Film Festival in Tucson, AZ a showing of “Samuel Bak:
Painter of Questions,” a documentary that explores Bak's work and life through
the lens of his childhood experiences.
2008: The 12th
New York Sephardic Jewish Festival continues with showings of “Sallah
Shabati,” “Souvenirs,” “Operation Mural: Casablanca 1960,” “The Jews of
Lebanon” (le Petite Histoire des Juifs de Liban) and “My Love (Aviva
Ahuvati).”
2009: Adelphi University Cultural Events Lecture
Series presents a presentation a lecture entitled “Israel and the United Nations”
by Ambassador Danny Carmon, Deputy Permanent Representative of Israel to the
United Nations followed by a Q & A session.
2009: Kinky
Friedman “confirmed to the Associated Press that he was still interested in
running” for governor of Texas.
2009: In Little Rock, Arkansas, the Chabad-Lubavitch
Center for Jewish Life, under the dynamic leadership of Rabbi Pinchas Ciment,
presents a lecture on the power of prayer by Dr. Lisa Aiken, entitled,
“Dear G-d, is anyone listening?”
2009:
Israelis go to the polls in the only free, democratic elections (in the western
sense of that that term) held in that part of the world. Kadima captures 28
seats and Likud captures 27 seats in the inconclusive race to control the 120
seat Israeli Parliament.
2009:
Eighty-nine-year-old Leo Alan Orenstein, who directed and produced over 150
television shows at the CBC will be laid to rest today at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
2010: Today,
the Antiquities Authority said that “archaeologists in Jerusalem have
discovered an ancient street which confirms the accuracy of the 1,500 old
Madaba Map which depicted in a mosaic floor of a church in Madaba, Jordan, that
shows Jerusalem as it was in the Byzantine period, between the 4th and the 7th
centuries. (As reported by Nir Hasson)
2010: Maggie
Anton, author of the outstanding trilogy about Rashi’s Daughters, is scheduled
to speak at Milken JCC in West Hills, CA.
2010: The 14th
New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present the New York
Premiere of “Azi Ayima” (Come Mother), “a story of transition, cultural crisis,
social survival and also lots of faith, optimism, joy and dignity, told for the
first time by Moroccan women of the first generation to immigrate to
Israel.”
2010(26th
Shevat, 5770): First-Sgt. Muhammad Ihab Khatib, 26, was stabbed to death at the
Tapuah junction on this afternoon by Mahmoud Hattib, a Palestinian Authority
police officer from Yabed.
2011: “Five
Brothers,” “The Loners” and “There Were Nights” are scheduled to be shown at
the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.
2011: Opening
night of the Jewish Film Festival in San Diego, CA.
2011: Laura
Cohen Apelbaum, Executive Director of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater
Washington and Archivist Wendy Turman are scheduled to present an illustrated
lecture of Jewish Life in Mr. Lincoln's City, detailing Civil War-era
personalities and events in Washington and Alexandria.
2011: Dr.
Nathan Abrams is scheduled to deliver an illustrated lecture entitled “(Jewish)
men and (gentile) women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in
the way” based on romantic comedy, “When Harry Met Sally.”
2011: At a
ceremony for the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of
the Holocaust, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told an audience today in the United
Nations General Assembly hall that “an independent, strong, thriving and
peaceful State of Israel is the vengeance of the dead.”
2011: It was
announced today that three authors who attended the University of Iowa Writers’
Workshop are among five finalists for the Sami Rohr Prize in fiction for Jewish
Literature. They are Allison Amend for “Stations West,” Julie Orringer for “The
Invisible Bridge” and Austin Ratner for “Jump Artist.” Top prize is
$100,000 and a $25,000 Choice Award will be given to the first runner-up.
Established in 2006, the annual prize honors the contribution of contemporary
writers in the exploration and transmission of Jewish values. It is intended to
encourage and promote outstanding writing of Jewish interest in the future.
Fiction and non-fiction books are considered in alternate years. Other
finalists, announced by the Jewish Book Council, are Nadia Kalman for “The
Cosmopolitans” and “Joseph Skibell for “A Curable Romantic.” Finalists will
meet with the judges March 15 in New York, and the winners will be announced
shortly thereafter. The 2011 award ceremony will be held in New York City on
May 31.
2011(6th
of Adar I, 5771): Tel Aviv University Professor Michael Harsegor, one of
Israel's most-prominent historians, passed away today at the age of 87. For
decades Harsegor taught history at Tel Aviv University and was considered an
expert on Late Middle Ages European History. He was most well-known to the
Israeli public for hosting the long-running Army Radio program "historical
hour". Harsegor was a native of Romania but moved to Israel in 1949 at the
age of 25. In Romania, he was sentenced to 20 years hard labor for being a
member of the HaShomer HaTzair Zionist youth movment, but was released in
1944.After arriving in Israel, following a short imprisonment by British forces
in Cyprus, Harsegor became a member of Kibbutz Zikim, and also gave the kibbutz
its name. (As reported by Ben Hartman)
2012: In New
York, an exhibition of the work of Ilan Averbuch, an Israeli artist who creates
sculpture using wood, stone, copper and steel is scheduled to come to an end.
2012: The 92nd
Street Y is scheduled to host a Tu B’Shevat Dinner this evening.
2012: Jews
around the world can participate in the International Young Israel Movement
Mishloach Manot Campaign 2012 starting at 10:AM
2012: Israel's
Defense Ministry said this morning that it had conducted a successful test of
the Arrow 2 missile defense system.
2012: The
Knesset's Judicial Selection Committee approved Justice Asher Grunis as the new
Supreme Court President today.
2012: A
general strike in Israel's public sector will continue today, after
negotiations between the Histradrut Labor Federation and the Finance failed to
resolve the gap between the two sides late yesterday
2013: In
Washington, DC final scheduled day for “Matzah Without Dogma: Four Centuries of
Secular and Humanistic Judaism” featuring Rabbi Adam Chalom, North American
Dean of the IISHJ
2013: The
Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to present “The
Queen of H Street, a one-woman show that tells the true-life story of Anna
Shulman, her arrival in the U.S. and in Washington, and her impact on the H
Street neighborhood, home to Jewish merchants in the 1920s and 1930s
2013: At the
Grammies, “The Jewish Canadian singer Drake won an award for Rap Album of the
Year and the indie pop band “fun” whose leader singer Antonoff is Jewish won
the Song of the Year with “W Are Young.” (As reported by JTA and The Jewish
Press)
2013: The
Baltimore Zionist District and United Against a Nuclear Iran are scheduled to
join forces today with more than a dozen other organizations — Jewish and
non-Jewish -- in front of the Baltimore Convention Center during the Motor
Trend International Auto Show to call upon auto manufacturers to stop doing
business with Iran.
2013:
“Orchestra of Exiles” a film about Bronislaw Huberman, the man who saved 1,000
musicians, their families and their friends, is scheduled to be shown in Iowa
City, Iowa.
2013: YIVO
Institute for Jewish Research and Posen Foundation are scheduled to present:
“Jews and Words: A Celebration of Jewish Writing, Language, and Expression” – a
series of panel discussion including such literary luminaries as Jonathan Sarna
and Dora Horn.
2013: Four
hundred police officers and 200 private security guards were on hand at Teddy
Stadium in the capital as Beitar Jerusalem played a high-tension match against
Arab squad Bnei Sakhnin tonight.
2013: Barack
Obama will be making his first presidential visit to Israel next month
primarily in order to tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in person to hold
off on any military intervention in Iran, it was reported today
2013: A float satirizing local politicians dressed
as Nazis holding canisters of Zyklon B gas is to take part in a carnival parade
in the Belgian city of Aalst which is scheduled to take place today. (As
reported by JTA and Forward)
2014: A
version of “Threshold to the Sacred: The Ark Door of Cairo's Ben Ezra
Synagogue” based on the exhibit at the Walter’s in Baltimore is scheduled to
come to a close at Yeshiva University.” (As reported by Menachem Wecke)
http://forward.com/articles/173384/what-lay-behind-maimonides-door-in-cairos-ben-ezra/?p=all
2014: The
Tulane University Jewish Studies Department led by its chair Dr. Brian J.
Horowitz is scheduled to host a lecture by Jennifer Richard entitled “Passover
and Politics: Remember the Jewishness of Hannah Arendt.”
2014: “Putzel”
is scheduled to be shown at the 14th annual the David Posnack JCC
Jewish Film Festival.
2014: “Five
Hours from Paris” is scheduled to be shown for the first time at UK Jewish Film
Festival.
2014: The
Chronicle of Philanthropy reported today that Mark Zuckerberg and his wife were
the most generous American philanthropists in 2013, with a donation of 18
million shares of Facebook stock valued at more than $970 million to a Silicon
Valley nonprofit.”
2014:
Abraham H. Foxman announced today that he would be stepping down as head of the
Anti-Defamation League in July of 2015.
2014:”A red
alert sounded in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council early this afternoon after a
rocket launched from within Gazan territory was detected.”
2014: “The
crisis at Hadassah’s two Jerusalem hospitals intensified today as nurses and
administrative employees joined doctors in a strike that has been going on
since last Tuesday.” (As reported by Aron Donzis)
2015: Florida
International University is scheduled to host a lecture by Dr. Juan Gil on
“Conversos in Seville and the Empire, From the Coast of Africa to the Indies.”
2016: The JCC
Manhattan is scheduled to host “Israel in Love.”
2016: “A Life
for Football” which “dramatizes the story of Munich-based soccer team FC Bayern
and its club president, Kurt Landauer, a Jew who returned to Munich after the
war to reinstate the club and the game in the city” is scheduled to be shown at
the 26th Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival.
2016(1st of Adar I, 5776): In an
ecumenical quirk of the calendar Ash Wednesday coincides with Rosh Chodesh Adar
I.
2017(14th of Shevat, 5777): On the
Jewish calendar, “Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yaakov Yehoshua Falk better known as the
"Pnei Yehoshua," which was the title of his book of Talmudic
commentary”
2017 (14th of Shevat, 5777): On the
Jewish calendar Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan.
http://www.sephardicstudies.org/kaplan.html
2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is
scheduled kick off Parent’s Shabbat with Orthodox and Egalitarian Services
followed by a three course Friday Night Meal.
2017: In Coralville, Iowa, Agudas Achim is
scheduled to host is annual New Member Dinner.
2017: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Temple Judah is
scheduled to host its annual Tu B’Shvat Seder.
2017(14th of Shevat, 5777):
Ninety-five-year-old Miles Cahn who along with his wife founded Lillian founded
Coach, maker of the famous Coach handbag, passed away today.
2018: As the northern border heated up again,
“Iran and Syria today denied that an unmanned drone Israel said it shot down
violated the Jewish state’s airspace, calling Israeli allegations “lies” and
saying the drone was on a regular mission gathering intelligence on Islamic
State.”
2018: “Shalom Bollywood: The Untold Story of
Indian Cinema” is scheduled to be shown this evening at the San Diego Jewish
Film Festival.
2018: “Israel’s military attacked 12 Syrian and
Iranian targets in Syria today in a new wave of strikes it described as a
‘large-scale’ attack, following exchanges of fire earlier in the day sparked by
an Iranian drone infiltration from Syria.”
2018: A “charity cycle ride” to raise money for
the Oxford Food Bank supported by The Oxford University Jewish Society is
scheduled to take place this afternoon
2018(25th of Shevat, 5778): Parashat
Mishpatim and Shabbat Shekalim
2019: In Amherst, MA, the Yiddish Book Center
is scheduled to host a screening of “Itzhak.”
2019: The Breman Museum is scheduled to host “teen
actors from Atlanta’s Jewish community perform scenes from Michael Slade’s
Vedem-inspired play ‘And A Child Shall Lead.’”
2019: An exhibition “Remembering the
Kindertransport” which marked the 80th anniversary of this
life-saving event is scheduled to come to an end at the Jewish Museum in
London.
https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/kindertransport/
2019: The Breman Museum is scheduled to host a
“Historic Jewish Atlanta Tour with a one-of-a-kind trolley tour of the Jewish
connection to Atlanta’s Civil Rights Movement” which will “explore the role
Jewish institutions played in the fight for integration with tour stops at The
Temple, Prior Tire, the Rich’s Building, the Peachtree Manor Hotel, and the
American Motor Hotel.”
2019: UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to
host screenings of “Budapest Noir,” a film centering around the “mysterious
death of a Jewish woman” in Glasgow and Manchester.
2019: The American Sephardi Federation,
Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America, Binghamton University Department of
Judaic Studies, and American Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to present
“International Ladino Day: A Celebration of Words and Music” at the Center for
Jewish History.
https://mailchi.mp/asf/international-ladino-day-a-celebration-of-words-and-music?e=9870a7a862
2020: In Mountain View, CA, “as part of the
American Associates of Ben-Gurion University Silicon Valley meeting,” the
Computer History Museum is scheduled to host a cocktail with former U.S. Middle
East envoy Dennis Ross
2020: The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival opened
its 20th anniversary series today, just weeks before the first casualty of the
COVID-19 pandemic was announced.
2020: The University of San Francisco is
scheduled to host “Arab Music and Jewish History in North Africa” during which
“Chris Silver of McGill University talks about Jewish-Muslim relations in the
region”
2020: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a
screening of “The Unorthodox” directed by Elliran Malka.
2020(15th of Shevat, 5780: Tu
B’Shvat – the New Year of the Trees
2021: As part of virtual “Purim 101” Rabbi Ruth
Adar of Hamaqom | The Place is scheduled to explain “the basics of the holiday.”
2021: The Jewish Arts Collaborative is
scheduled to present online “JLive Music with David Derrick who “is a composer,
conductor, music educator and Yiddishist based in Boston” who is also “the
musical director of A Besere Velt, the chorus of Boston Workers Circle.”
2021: In Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Temple Judea
is scheduled to host a virtual “Noon Lunch and Learn with Rabbi Yaron
Kapitulnik talking about “The R-Rated Version of the Book of Esther.”
2021: “Covid-19 Conversation from the Front
Line” a series sponsored by Congregation Sherith Israel is scheduled to
continue “with UCSF professor Dr. Jonathan Fuchs in discussion with UC Berkeley
professor Jonathan Graf about S.F’s neighborhood Covid-19 vaccination policy.
2021: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is
scheduled to host online Ahan Hirsi Ali who “issues a forceful warning about
the dangers the West faces by refusing to take seriously the challenges of
integrating into their societies young men raised in a world of
institutionalized polygamy and lack of legal protections for women.”
2021: The National Museum of American Jewish
History, for which Mitchell Levin is an “official content provider” is
scheduled to host a screening of “the 2014 concert documentary ‘Flory’s Flame’
about living Ladino musical legend, Flory Jagoda.”
2021: The American Sephardi Federation is
scheduled to present Sina Kahen talking about his “newly released book Ideas:
Shemot.
2022: The Falmouth Jewish Congregation is
scheduled to present online Jewish Book Council author talk by scholar Laura
Arnold Leibman about her engaging historical study, “Once We Were Slaves: The
Extraordinary Journey of a Multiracial Jewish Family,” which brings to
light “the fluidity of America’s racial boundaries and the multiracial threads
of Jewish history”
2022: The Center for Jewish History and LBI are
scheduled to present a discussion of Eva and Eve: A Search for My Mother’s
Lost Childhood and What a War Left Behind, a memoir by Julie Metz.
2022: The Boston Synagogue is scheduled to
present online the first of ten sessions on Antisemitism: Origins to Today.”
2022: Tony Award® and Grammy Award® winner
Katrina Lenk (The Band’s Visit), two-time Tony Award and two-time Grammy Award
winner Patti LuPone (Evita, Gypsy) and Tony Award and Olivier Award-winning
producer Chris Harper (War Horse, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the
Night-Time) are scheduled to discuss Company and why the play resonates so
strongly at this moment at the Streicker Center
2022: The JWA is schooled to host a book talk
with Haviva Ner-David, author of Hope Valley, the story of a
Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli who form the unlikeliest of friendships,
and Dreaming Against the Current, the journey from Orthodox Jewish
feminist activist to post-denominational inter-spiritual rabbi/minister.
2022: RJ on the GO is scheduled to host Jewish
& New-ish: A Supportive Online Space for Those Who Have Recently (0-5
Years) Converted to Judaism
2022: The Taube Center for Jewish Studies at
Stanford, the Center for Jewish Studies at UC Berkley and the Jewish Community
Library are scheduled to sponsor “a conversation with Helene Wecker” during
which the “author discusses her 2012 book The Golem and the Jinnie and her
newest book, The Hidden Palace.
2023: In Sebastopol, CA, the Rialto Cinemas is
scheduled to host a screening of “Remember This,” a “feature film adaptation of
play in which actor David Strathairn portrays Polish World War II hero and
Holocaust witness Jan Karski, who risked his life to report about the Warsaw
Ghetto only to be met with woe.”
2023: “A drama about Israel’s Druze community, “Apples
Taste Red,” is scheduled to premiere nationwide in Rahat today, followed by a
meeting with the director Mahagolan Ihab Tarabia.
2023: As it commemorates Black History Month,
Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to welcome to its Friday night Shabbat service one
of America’s leading voices in the struggle for racial equity and social
justice, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, MacArthur Fellow, National Book Award winner, #1
New York Times bestselling author and founder of the Center for Antiracist
Research at Boston University.
2023: As the death toll mounts in Turkey,
Israeli rescue continue to search for survivors and the medical teams at the
Israeli field hospital continue to care for the injured.
2024: The newly formed “Hawkeye Minyan,” “a
traditional egalitarian Jewish prayer experience” led by Rabbi Michael Gilboa
is scheduled to meet today in Iowa City.
2024: The Eden Tamir Music Center is scheduled
to host “The Best of Chamber Music” with violinist Elina Gurevich, cellist Adi
Tal and pianist Ilan Levin.
2024: As part of the observance of Repro
Shabbat, sponsored by the National Council of Jewish Women, in Columbus, OH, Congregation
Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host a discussion about reproductive rights in
Ohio with guest speaker Erica Wilson-Domer, President of and CEO of Planned
Parenthood of Greater Ohio.
2024 (1st of Adar I, 5784): Parashat
Mishapatim; Rosh Chodesh Adar I
For more https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2024: As February
10th, begins in Israel, the Hamas held hostages
begin day 127 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.)
