This Day, March 3, In Jewish History by Mitchell A Levin and Deb Levin Z"L
March 3
321:
Roman Emperor Constantine named Sunday which had been a Roman pagan day for
honoring the sun as a day of rest. This
was an attempt by Constantine to close the gap between pagans and Christianity
and to isolate the Jews. Consta…
March 3
321:
Roman Emperor Constantine named Sunday which had been a Roman pagan day for
honoring the sun as a day of rest. This
was an attempt by Constantine to close the gap between pagans and Christianity
and to isolate the Jews. Constantine’s
day of rest should not be confused with the Jewish Sabbath which was a
universal day of rest.
505:
Rav Ahai ben Ray Huna, a member of the Saboraim, passed away
561:
The Papacy of Pelagius I came to an end.
He owed his election to Justinian I, the emperor whose religious program
included placing restrictions on Jews and interfering with their practices by
trying to force them to substitute the Greek Septuagint for the TaNaCh.
1186:
Saladin takes control of the city of Mosul which at that time had a Jewish
population of approximately 7,000 souls which had been led by Zakkai ha-Nais
“who claimed to be a descendant of King David.” (As reported by the Jewish
Encyclopedia)
1240:
Seizure of all copies of the Talmud in France
1337:
Levi ben Gershon, better known by his Latinised name as Gersonides or the
abbreviation of first letters as RaLBaG Levi observed a solar eclipse today.
1431:
Eugene IV began his papacy today. This was a less than positive move for Jews
since the new pope would “decree and order that from now on, and for all time,
Christians shall not eat or drink with the Jews, nor admit them to feasts, nor
cohabit with them, nor bathe with them. […]
They cannot live among Christians, but in a certain street, separated
and segregated from Christians, and outside which they cannot under any pretext
have houses.”
1455:
Birthdate of John II, the King of Portugal whom Abraham Zacuto served as Royal
Astronomer.
1554:
Fifty-year-old John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, whose issuance of “a
mandate that prohibited Jews from inhabiting, engaging in business in or
passing through his realm” sparked an episode in which Luther showed that he
had become an anti-Semite passed away today.
1605: VIII,
during whose Papacy Jews were forced to attend “conversionist sermons,”
prohibited from “dealing in new articles of clothing” and forced to allow
copies of the Talmud to be burned in 1601, passed away today at the age of 69.
1619(17th
of Adar, 5379): Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz passed away. Born at Lenczyk in 1550 he was “a rabbi, poet
and Torah commentator, best known for his Torah commentary Keli Yakar.” (For more see Seeing with
Both Eyes: Ephraim Luntshitz and the Polish-Jewish Renaissance by Leonard
S. Levin)
1641:
One day after he had passed away Rabbi Meir Jacob Schiff-KaZ, the son of Jacob
Schiff-KaZ and Gitlin Schiff-KaZ and the husband of Sprinz Schiff-KaZ was buried
today at Frankfurt am Main.
1658:
Dr. Jacob Lumbrozo, the first Jew to settle in Maryland was given amnesty by
Oliver Cromwell. Lumbrozo had been indicted on charges of blasphemy, which was
a capital offense.
1732(6th
of Adar, 5492): Isaiah Azulai, father of Isaac Zerahiah Azulai and the
grandfather Hayyim Joseph David Azulai passed away in Jerusalem.
1742:
Last will and testament of Benjamin Bravo of Kingston, Jamaica.
1743:
In Oberdndorf, Wurtembger, Tavis Einstein and Solomon Abraham gave birth to
Amson Solomon, the husband of Zerla Lucas whom he had married in 1773 and the
father of Abraham Amson.
1771:
In New York City, Eve Esther Gomez and Uriah Hendricks gave birth to Harmon
Hendricks, the husband of Frances Isaacs.
1779(15th
of Adar, 5539): Shushan Purim
1782:
Birthdate of German native Elias Levi Rosenheim, the husband of Rosetta Nathan
Eisendrath with whom he had seven children
1788:
Birthdate of German native Jeanette Franc, the wife of Hertz Heyn and the
mother of Betty Heyn.
1790:
As of today, Alexander Hamilton whom Dr. Andrew Porwancher, among others has
determined that Hamilton “was in all likelihood born and raised Jewish” was unable
to supply the information that would have enabled the resources to have been
applied to pay state debts.
1791:
Birthdate of Bavarian native Meyer Strauss who had four children with his first
wife, Goldie Strauss and three children – Abraham, Lessman and Nathan Strauss –
with his second wife.
1799:
General Kléber, Commander in Chief of the French Army invading Palestine,
received the order to push detachments after having taken up position to the
south of the river Nahar-al-Ougeh, to watch enemy movements, and to prepare for
the army to march to Acre.
1799:
Birthdate of Posen native and author Israel Albu, the husband of Johanna Cohen
and the father of Berthold, Cacilia, Salomon, Adolph and Eveline Alabu.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14462890.Israel_Albu
1799:
The French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte reached the outskirts
of Jaffa. The army had left for Palestine on the first of February in an
attempt to forestall a Turco-British invasion through the Palestinian
land-bridge. A division under the command of General Kleber deployed along the
shores of the river Yarkon, 10 kms north of the town and was responsible for
shielding the besieging forces from hostile interference. This military action
had nothing to do with the Jewish people. It was another example of the land of
the Jews being a battleground because it was the land bridge between Africa,
Asia and indirectly, Europe.
1800:
In Charleston, SC, Priscilla Moses and David Lopez gave birth to Aaron Lopez,
the husband of Eleanor Cohen with whom he had eleven children.
1801:
David Emanuel took office as the Governor of Georgia. Emanuel was the first
Jewish person to serve as a governor in the United States. Emanuel was
appointed to serve the last eight months of the term of his predecessor who had
assumed a seat in the U.S. Senate. Born in Pennsylvania in 1743, he passed away
in 1808.
1803:
John Jacob Hays, the New York City born son of Baruch and Prudence Hays and his
wife Mary Louise Hays gave birth to Jane Hays, who became Jane McKenney when
she married Samuel Templeman McKenney
1805(2nd
of Adar II, 5565): Eighty-year-old author Naphtali Hartwig Wessley passed away
in Hamburg following which he was buried “in the cemetery of the Portuguese
Israelites, whose rituals he had professed all his life.”
1808:
In the Kingdom of Westphalia, ruled by Jerome Bonaparte, Israel Jacobson “was
appointed president of the Jewish consistory which was established today.
1810:
In Frankfurt am Main, Jacob Hirsch Kann, the son of Miriam and Isaac Jacob
Kann, and Jetta Kahn gave birth to Fanny Sichel
1811:
Birthdate of Bernhard Wolff, the German journalist and editor who founded
Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau which was the German version of Rueters (British)
and Havas (French).
1813:
Henry Moses married Esther Nathan today at the Great Synagogue.
1814:
Birthdate of Charles Kensington Salaman, the native of London who gained fame
as pianist and composer.
1819:
Benjamin Cohen married Jestina Montefiore today at the Great Synagogue.
1822:
In Baltimore, “Dr. Jonas Horwitz and his wife Debby Andrews” gave birth to
Phineas J. Horwitz, the 1845 graduate of the University of Maryland who would
become Surgeon General and Chief of the Navy Bureau of Medicine.
1824:
Daniel Levy married Amelia Jacobs today at the New Synagogue.
1824:
Isaac Vallentine married Sarah Green today at the Hambro Synagogue.
1825(13th
Adar, 5585): Ta’anit Esther; Erev Purim
1826:
In London, Ellen Allice Jacobs and Gabriel Simmons gave birth to Samuel Simmons
who would be buried in Brooklyn, NY when he passed away fifty-five years later.
1833:
Birthdate of Mendel Hirsch, the German born Bible commentator and poet who was
the son of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch.
1844:
Birthdate of “Dreyfeusard” Clement Moras.
http://www.dreyfus.culture.fr/en/bio/bio-html-clement-moras.htm
1845:
Florida becomes the 27th state to join the Union.” In 1763, the first recorded
Jews in Florida came to Pensacola, in the northwest corner of the territory.
More Jews moved to north Florida in the next few decades, but the Jewish
population remained small during this time, numbering no more than a dozen
individuals. When Florida became a state, there were less than 100 Jews in a
population of 66,500. The first U.S. Senator from Florida was a Jew, David Levy
Yulee.” For more about the history of the Jews of Florida see
http://www.floridajewish.com/florida_jewish_history.php
1846:
The French Supreme Court declared the “Jewish Oath” unconstitutional in
response to a case involving Rabbi Lazard Isidor of Pflazburg who was defended
by Isaac Adolphe Crémieux, the Jewish lawyer and political leader.
1846:
In Franklin, PA, Julius Marx Rieser and Clara Kahn gave birth to Hernai Rieser,
the CCNY grad and husband of Carrie Rosenfeld who served as the Manager of the
Clara de Hirsch Home and Superintendent of Beth Israel Hospital.
1847:
In Germany, Leopold Solomon Bernheimer the son of Salomon Bernheimer and Ella
Bernheimer and his wife Fanny Weil—Bernheim gave birth to Leopold A. Bernheimer
1848:
Birthdate of Freudenburg, Germany native David Kahn.
1849:
The United States Department of the Interior is established. Joel D. Wolfsohn
who served as Assistant Secretary of the Department from in the final months of
the Truman Administration appears to be the highest-ranking Jew to have served
at the Department of the Interior. He served from July 10, 1952, through
February 20, 1953.
1849:
Israel’s Herold was published for the first time in the United States
1850:
Aaron Lyons married Fanny Nathan at the Great Synagogue today.
1851:
In Bavaria, Rose and Maier Ottenberg gave birth to future Washingtonian Isaac
Ottenberg, the husband of Regina Ottenberg.
1851:
David Levy Yulee completed his first terms as a United States Senator from
Florida. He was the first Jew to sit in the Upper Chamber of the U.S. Congress.
Yulee was also the last Jew in his family line since he married a gentile and
raised the children in the faith of their mother. Yulee would not only turn his
back on his religion, but he would turn his back on his country and join the
Confederacy during the Civil War.
1852:
Birthdate of Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel British merchant banker and capitalist.
Born in Cologne, Germany, the son of Jacob Cassel, who owned a small bank,
Cassel arrived penniless in Liverpool, England in 1869 and found employment
with a firm of grain merchants. With an enormous capacity for hard work and a
natural business sense, Cassel was soon in Paris working for a bank. The
Franco-Prussian War forced him to move to a position in a London bank, as he
was born in Prussia. He prospered and was soon putting together his own
financial deals. His areas of interest were in mining, infrastructure and heavy
industry. Turkey was an early area of business ventures, but he soon had large
interests in Sweden, the United States, South America, South Africa, and Egypt.
One of the wealthiest men of his day, Cassel was a good friend of King Edward
VII as well as of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith and the young Winston
Churchill. In 1878, he married Annette Mary M. Maxwell at Westminster He became
a Roman Catholic at the behest of his wife, Annette, but was always thought of
as a Jew. The establishment was shocked to find out on his death that he had
converted many years before. A few months after his death in 1921, Cassel's
estate was probated at £6,000,000.
1852:
Lionel Alman Myers married Julia Collins in the UK today.
1854:
Birthdate of Moisei Yakelovich Ostrogorski, the native of Grodno who lived in
France during the Dreyfus scandal and whose visits to the U.S. and the U.K. led
to the publishing of his most famous work Democracy and the Organization of
Political which did not keep him from returning to his native Russia where he
dies “in 1919 during the chaos that followed the Bolshevik Revolution.”
1855(13th
of Adar, 5615): Parashat Tetaveh; Erev Purim
1855:
In London, Caroline Lazarus and Mark George Simmons gave birth to Arthur
Abraham Simmons.
1855:
Philip Phillips, the son of a prominent Charleston, SC Jewish family completed
a term representing Alabama’s First Congressional District in the U.S. House of
Representatives.
1859:
Henry Myer Phillips completed his terms as member of the House of
Representatives in the 35th Congress.
1860:
In France, “Babette Kahn (née Bloch), an uneducated homebound mother: and
cattle dealer Louis Kahn gave birth to Abraham Kahn who gained fame as Albert
Kahn was a millionaire Parisian banker and philanthropist whose plan to use his
fortune to document the world in photographs was thwarted by the Great
Depression.
https://thebioscope.net/2007/05/21/searching-for-albert-kahn/
1861:
Marcus Jastrow repeated the sermon he had delivered yesterday on Shabbat so
that those who had heard and were impressed by the sentiments expressed could
write it down.
1861:
Alexander II of Russia signed the Emancipation Manifesto, freeing the serfs.
1862:
At a meeting of the Jewish community in Davenport, Iowa, Rabbi Lowenthal was
“elected to serve Congregation B’nai Israel” whose President was Isaac Bernist,
“as Chazan, Schoket and M’lamed” for which he was paid an annual salary of
$350.
1862:
During the American Civil War, David Yulee, barely avoided capture by Union
troops who were attacking Fernandina FL. Yulee was the first Jew to be elected
to the United States. When Florida left the Union and joined the Confederacy,
Yulee resigned from the U.S. Senate and took a seat in the southern Congress.
1862:
In Chicago, “Oscar L. American and Amelia Smith gave birth to social activist,
Sadie American, who moved to New York where she became “one of the founders of
the council of Jewish Women,” “a vice president and director of the Illinois
Consumers’ League,” “a leader in the formation of what later became the Jewish
Women Workers in England and during the Spanish-American War “one of the founders
of the Army and Navy League of Illinois.”
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/American-Sadie
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sadie-american
1863:
During the American Civil War, Alfred Mordecai, Jr. was promoted to the rank of
Captain in the Union Army.
1865:
Ellen (Barnett) Elias, the wife of Hyman Elias and mother of Herbert, Alfred,
Annette, Dora and Eleanor Elias was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.”
1867:
Myer Strouse, the Bavarian born American editor, lawyer and Democrat politician
completed his second and final terms as a Congressman from Pennsylvania.
1869:
In Widz, Russia Isaac Ginsburg and his wife gave birth to David Ginsburg the
“Rabbi of Congregations Beth Israel and Beth Hakneses Hachodesh, Rochester, N.
Y.”
1869:
In Pennsylvania, Bernhard and Henrietta Siegel Goldman gave birth to Helen
Goldman, the future resident of Minnesota who became Helen Bechhoefer when she
married Charles Bechhoefer.
1870:
Arguments resumed this morning in the matter revolving around the will of the
late Simeon Abraham, the New York physician and Jewish civic leader whose
bequests exceeded the value of his estate. The executor is seeking a court
order in how to resolve the shortfall while several of the beneficiaries are
seeking to protect their interests.
1870:
Two days after he had passed away, Hamburg, Germany native Adolphus Sallust was
buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1871:
On his 49th birthday, while serving with the United States Navy, Dr.
Phineas J. Horowitz was appointed medical inspector.
1871:
Abraham Hoffnung married Esther Levey in Manchester, UK.
1871:
In New York, the remodeled sanctuary of Shaarey Tzedek was dedicated today. The
building, which is located on Henry Street, was bought by the Jewish
congregation from Quakers in 1840. The remodeling was necessitated by the
growth of the congregation.
1874(14th
of Adar, 5634): Purim
1874:
Theodore Minis Etting, the son of Philadelphia merchant Edward Etting was
promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the United States Navy.
1874:
As a group of temperance crusaders marched through Columbus, Ohio looking for
support it was rebuffed by various merchants and other locals including a group
of German Jews who tautened them with offers of free beer. [Could the beer
drinking Jews have been Purim revelers?]
1875:
William Sprague completed his 12-year career as a United States Senator from
Rhode Island. During a debate in the
United States Senate on the massacre of Jews of Romania, Sprague said “the
facts would show that the Jews of Romania had possessed themselves of nearly
all the land and of all of the trade of the that principality while a vast
population of Christians there were deprived of their means of support.” He said that this “would be found to be the
cause of the recent outbreak” and that that this experience should provide
“food for profound reflection…in regard to conditions…in our own country.
1877(18th of
Adar, 5637): Parashat Ki Tisa; Shabbat Parah
1877:
It was reported today that a Reuter’s dispatch from Constantinople the said Greeks
are upset with the outcome of the election held in that city to choose
delegates for the Ottoman Parliament because the of the five non-Muslims chosen
the Greeks got the same number as the Jews – one – with the other three going
to Armenians.
1877:
In Philadelphia, Diana Newmayer and Levi Lowenstein gave birth to University of
Cincinnati gradate and Hebrew Union College ordained Rabbi, Solomon Lowenstein,
the husband of Linda Berger who was the Secretary of the National Conference of
Jewish Charities in the United States and a member of the Editorial Board of
Jewish Charity.
1877:
It was reported that a dispatch from the Daily News that one Jew was among the
10 delegates elected to serve in the Ottoman Parliament. Of the remaining
delegates, 5 were Turks and 4 were Christians – a result that the Daily News said,
“caused no excitement.” [Editor’s Note – no matter which version you prefer,
for the Jews the important item was that they were an accepted part of the
electoral process as the Porte lurched toward a more open form of government.]
1878:
Following the Russo-Turkish War, Bulgaria regained its independence from
Ottoman Empire. The rights of the Jews of Bulgaria, along with other religious
minorities, were guaranteed by the Treaty of Berlin. The treaty guarantee did
not protect from outbreaks of anti-Semitic violence, blamed in part on the
erroneous notion that the Jews had supported the Ottomans. Bulgaria was never
very hospitable to its Jewish population. On the other hand, Bulgaria managed
to avoid shipping most of its Jewish population to concentration camps.
1878:
In New York City, Meyer S. Isaacs presided over a meeting of prominent Jewish
leaders including rabbis, synagogue presidents and representatives of Jewish
benevolent societies. Those attending the meeting which was held at the 34th
Street Synagogue discussed ways of raising funds to aid the suffering Jews of
Turkey and the East during the current hostilities. A proposal to by the Ball
Committee to hold a masked ball at the end of March as a fundraiser was
rejected and a more direct approach for appealing for funds was adopted.
1878:
Rabbi D.C. Lewin delivered a well-received lecture on “The Life and Character
of Moses Mendelssohn” at the Young Men’s Hebrew Union in New York City this
evening.
1878:
Birthdate of German-born expressionist theatrical producer and director Leopold
Jessner who left Germany in 1933 which meant his life was saved but his career
was over.
1878:
“Macklin in the Merchant of Venice” published today described the decision of
great 18th century thespian Charles Macklin to play the role of Shylock in the
manner of a serious character. Despite the doubts of others, Macklin was so
successful that he reprised it hundreds of times. No other actor even came
close to his portrayal of this Jewish figure until Edmund Kean took up the role
in the 19th century. Of Macklin’s portrayal, Alexander Pope, the great English
poet wrote, “This is the Jew, That Shakespeare Drew.”
1878:
In Philadelphia, PA, “Hebrew School No. 2 opened today in a synagogue building”
at “fifth and Catherine Streets. The school would later move to Wheatley Hall
before finding its final home at Touro Hall. (As reported by Cyrus Adler and
David Sulzberger)
1878:
Charles Wessolowsky wrote to Rabbi Edward B.M. Browne today describing “the
B’nai B’rith organization in Uniontown, Alabama and the value of B’nai B’rith
to the survival of American Judaism” while praising “a Mrs. Ungar of Uniontown
not only for her resistance to attempted conversions, but also for the raising
of her family in Jewish lore.”
1879:
Jewish financier and businessman Joseph Seligman was among the major
stockholders of the St. Louis and San Francisco who arrived in St. Louis this
morning prior to tomorrow’s meeting during which a new Board of Directors will
be elected
1879: Birthdate
of Phillip Solomon Trost, the husband of Pearl Trost and father of Philip
Solomon Trost, Jr.]. who worked for the Curtis Publishing Company and was
president of the Society for Crippled Children.
1880:
It was reported today that the first edition of the “Oriental and Biblical
Journal” edited by Stephen D. Peet has been issued in Chicago, Illinois. [Peet
served as a pastor to several Congregational and Presbyterian Churches in the
Middle West. He had a passion for archeology which he used in his Biblical
studies. He was one of a series of English and American clergyman who tied the
study of Archeology with Biblical Scholarship; a connection that late would
become a national pastime of the Zionists.]
1881:
Edward Einstein completed his term as a member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from New York’s 7th Congressional District
1882(12th
of Adar I, 5642): Sixty-seven-year-old Ludwig Kalishch, the German born author
whose participation in the Revolutions of 1848 and 1849 forced him to move to
France passed away today in Paris.
1883:
Leopold Morse completed his service as a member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from Massachusetts’s 4th district.
1884:
On his 62nd birthday, Phineas Jonathan Horwitz retired from the U.S.
Navy after 38 years of service.
1885:
Leopold Morse completed his service as a member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from Massachusetts’s 5th district.
1885:
Fifty-year old Benjamin Franklin Jonas, a native of Williamstown, KY and 1855
graduate of the University of Louisiana (the future Tulane University) who
served in several governmental and political positions after the Civil War
completed his services a U.S. Senator from Louisiana today.
1886:
It was reported today that banker Isidore Wormser had given his daughter, the
former Miss Julia Wromser “$100,000 in Lake Shore 7 per cent sinking bond
funds” as a wedding gift, while James Seligman had given Jefferson Seligman,
his son and her new husband “a check for $50,000” which was supplemented by a
check for $20,000 from the firm of J & W Seligman.
1887:
Birthdate of Chasidic Rabbi Yehuda Meir Shapiro “a descendant of Rabbi PInchas
Shapiro of Korets, on the students of the Baal Shem Tov” and French tosafist
Rabbi Joseph ben Isaac Bekhor Shor, who was “known as the Lubliner Rav.”
1888(20th
of Adar, 5648): Parashat Ki Tisa; Shabbat Paah
1888:
Birthdate of František Langer Czech military physician and author who survived
the Shoah because he was serving “as a member of the Czechoslovakian Army
abroad (England) with the rank of brigadier general.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Langer_Frantisek
1889:
Leopold Morse completed his service as a member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from Massachusetts’s 3rd district.
1889:
Twenty-six-year-old Moses G. Zalinski who had joined the U.S. Army as a
private, completed his service with the First Artillery with the rank of
Sergeant.
1889: Birthdate of
Philadelphia native and graduate of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy Albert
A. Light, the “former president of the Light Box Corrugated Box Corporation who
was an officer of Young Judea and a director of the Welfare Society.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/10/08/96435109.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1889:
The Temple Emanu-El Sisterhood was incorporated today by several leading
Jewesses including Mrs. Theodora G. Levy, Mrs. Cordeilia Schnitzer and Mrs.
Theresa Sidenberg.
1890:
The Trustees of Columbia College met today and “acknowledged and accepted
“several gifts including “a valuable collection of Hebrew manuscripts from”
Oscar S. Straus, the former American minister to Turkey.
1890(11th
of Adar, 5650): Seventy-year-old Rabbi Julius Landsberger who helped found “the
Liberal Synagogue at Darmstadt” passed away today in Berlin.
1891:
Californian William W. Morrow championed the cause of Adolph Kutner, formerly
of Wierbchow, Russia who was afraid to return to his native land on business
because of the Czar’s policies, completed his service as a member of the House
of Representatives today.
1891:
It was reported today that the New York Siberian Exile Petition Association
will be forwarding a petition to the Czar in April “protesting against the
present treatment of the Jews.”
1891:
“Priests and Rabbis Barred” published today described an attempted Dr. T.T.
Eaton, “a liberal Baptist preacher” to have the Louisville Ministerial
Association admit Catholic and Jewish clergy as members. His motion failed in 14 to 12 vote.
1891:
Prominent St. Louis Jewish leader Nathan Frank completed his service as U.S
Congressman.
1891:
Charles Baker completed his service in the House of Representatives during
which he had protested the treatment of the Jews by the government of Russia.
1892:
President James H. Hoffman presided over tonight’s meeting of The Hebrew
Technical Institute which was held at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
1892(4th
of Adar, 5652): Joseph Ratner, a Russian Jewish immigrant who has been married
for two months shot himself this afternoon.
He was believed to have been despondent over health problems.
1893:
Birthdate of Salvator Cicurel “an Egyptian Olympic fencer, who competed in the
individual and team épée and team foil events at the 1928 Summer Olympics.”
1893:
Forty-two-year-old Sigmund Hyman was taken from Mount Sinai Hospital and sent
to North Brother Island because he was suffering from typhus fever.
1893:
The New York Auxiliary to the Jewish Section of the Woman’s Branch of the
Parliament of Religions is scheduled to resume its meeting today at the home of
Mrs. Scholle where they will continue making plans for the papers they will be
presenting at the upcoming World’s Fair. The members include Mrs. Oscar Straus,
Mrs. Jacob Schiff, Mrs. Simon Borg, Mrs. Isidor Wormser, Mrs. Jesse Selgiman
and Mrs. Alexander Kohut, the wife of Rabbi Alexander Kohut.
1894:
Policemen Fay and Schultz came to Shearith Israel to investigate reports that
“there was a crazy man in the synagogue.”
1895:
“A Wedding Reception, 1471” published today described the wedding of the Duke of
Ferrara who hosted so many guests that he was ‘obliged to hire” “the mattresses
and bolsters…from the Jews who kept a bank in Ferrara.
1895:
“The Fate of a Financier” published today provided one version of the life and
death of Joseph Suess Oppenheimer which is at odds with the facts as they are
known today.
1895:
Birthdate of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. Born in Uzda, Belorussia "Reb
Moshe" was the leading authority on Orthodox Jewish religious law
(Halacha) during the last century. He served as a Rabbi of Luban, near Minsk
starting in 1921 before coming to the United States in 1937. In 1938, he was
named Rosh Yeshiva (Dean) of Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim, a New York yeshiva,
a position he held until 1986, the year he passed away. As his reputation grew,
his rulings on religious law came to be accepted worldwide. A multi-volume
collection of his letters, Igros Moshe, is considered authoritative among
Orthodox Jews with regard to moral and ethical issues. He served President of
the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, 1968-1986,
Chairman, American Branch, Mo'ezet Gedolei ha-Torah of Agudat Yisrael, the
Council of Torah Sages, and was acknowledged as the Gadol Ha-Dor, or preeminent
individual of his generation of Jewish scholars.
1895:
“Early Bible Printing in This Country” published today described the role of
the city of Philadelphia has played “in this branch of bookmaking” including
the fact that the first Hebrew Bible published in the United States was printed
by Philadelphian William Fry in 1814. This was done five years after a Hebrew
language copy of the Book of Psalms had been printed at Harvard.
1895:
“B’nai B’rith Pioneers” published today traces the fifty-year history of “the
pioneer of all the existing Hebrew secret societies.”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F10715F73A5D15738DDDAA0894DB405B8585F0D3
1895:
Isidor Straus completed his service as U.S. Congressman from New York’s 15th
Congressional District.
1896:
Professor Felix Adler will deliver a lecture entitled “Moral Aspects of the
Question” at the opening session of a conference on Improved Housing being held
at the United Charities Building.
1896:
It was reported today the resolution Congress had adopted “which virtually
denounced the attitude of the Russians toward the Jews” had caused
“embarrassment” for the U.S. Minister to St Petersburg because he had to
“present such expression from his own government to the nation to which he is
sent.”
1897:
Four lodges of B’nai B’rith hosted a party in honor of the birthdays of George
Washington and Abraham Lincoln at the Tuxedo on Madison and 59th
Street.
1897:
One day after she had passed away, 61-year-old Rebecca Doncaster, “the widow of
Henry Doncaster” was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1898:
“The Jews For Arbitrators” published today described Rabbi Pereira Mendes wish
that the United States would consider submitting its claims against Spain
following the blowing up of the battleship USS Maine to a court of
international arbitration instead of resorting to war.
1899:
Stanford Moses who had been serving aboard the USS Oregon, was promoted to the
rank of Lt. Jr. Grade and transferred to serve on the U.S.S. Celtic, a “stores
ship” that provided support for U.S. forces during the Philippine-American War.
1900(2nd
of Adar II, 5660): Parashat Pekudi
1900:
It was reported today that at the first meeting of the Central Committee of the
Children’s National Easter Festival it was proposed that the upcoming benefit
for the Cuban Orphan Society include a building “where the customs of the
people of Jerusalem at the Easter could be shown” and where the games and
services cold be held represented the characteristics of the Jews… of the City.
1901:
Jefferson Monroe Levy completed his services a member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from New York’s 13th district.
1901:
New York Democrat Mitchell May completed his service as a member of the 56th
United States Congress.
1902(24TH
of Adar, 5662): Isaac Conquy Abecassis, a native of the Azores born in 1840
passed away today at Var, France.
http://www.abecasis.info/genpt2_isaac.htm
1903:
Congress passed legislation aimed at curbing immigration to the United States.
The bill required immigrants to pay a two-dollar head tax (a considerable sum
in those days for poor immigrants). It also gave immigration officers the right
to exclude those whom they deem anarchists or as people who believe in or
advocate the overthrow of the United States government. The legislation was
obviously aimed at immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, including the
large Jewish populations in the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires.
1903:
In Naugatuck, CT, “Gilbert and Helena (Pollak) Greenberg gave birth to Adrian
Adolph Greenburg the award-winning costume designer who gained fame as Gilbert
Adrian or simply “Adrian.”
http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/adrian-hatmakers-son-dressed-america/
1903:
Senator Joseph Simon, Oregon Republican, finishes his term in the U.S. Senate.
Simon returned to Portland, Oregon where he resumed his law practice and would
serve as may from 1909 to 1911.
1903:
Lucius Nathan Littauer completed his service as a member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from New York’s 22nd district which began in 1897.
1903:
Despite “all the pressure that has been brought to bear to induce him to
reconsider,” the leaders of Temple Beth-El reluctantly accepted the resignation
of Dr. Kaufmann Kohler from his position as Rabbi of New York’s leading Reform
congregation.
1904: Birthdate of Hans
Vogelstein, “former president of American Metal Climax” and a governor of the New York Commodity Exchange
who began his career in the metal industry after arriving from Germany in 1923
and who raised a son John with his wife the former Ruth Krieger while serving
as a trustee of Temple Emanu-El.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/08/08/99774847.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1904:
Birthdate of award-winning sportswriter Jesse Abramson, “who was noted for his
coverage of track and boxing.”
http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/JesseAbramson.htm
1904:
In South Carolina, Rabbi J.J. Simenhoff officiated at the wedding of Jake l.
Karesh and Minnie A. Ellison.
1905:
Cala and Jacob Zetzer gave birth to Samuel Zetzer, the brother of Morris and
Rose Zetzer.
1905:
In the wake of the defeat by Japan and the Russian Revolution, Czar Nicholas II
agreed to create an elected assembly, the Duma.
1906:
M.S. Snow delivered a lecture on “The Habit of Reading” before the Jewish
Educational alliance.
1907:
Charles Grosvenor completed his 14-year career as a member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from Ohio’s 11th district. He was an opponent of immigration bills that
specifically barred Russian Jews from coming to the United States.
1907:
Birthdate of London native Joyce Black, who as Joy Finzi gave birth to
Christopher and Nigel Finzi and founded the Finzi Trust “a foundation named for
deceased husband composer Gerald Finzi
1907(17th
of Adar, 5667): Sixty-two-year-old Levi Adler, the husband of Theresa Wile and
the father of Rochester, NY Mayor Isaac Adler passed away today.
1907:
After 4 years, Lucius Nathan Littauer completed his service as a member of the
U.S. House of Representatives from New York’s 25th district
1908(30th
of Adar I, 5668): Rosh Chodesh Adar II observed for the last time during the
presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.
1909;
“By a vote of 47 to 2 the Senate” today “refused to put a Statehood rider on
the House resolution looking to the prevention of discrimination against
American Jews traveling in Russia.”
1910:
Dorothy Levitt “was booked to give a talk at the Criterion Restaurant today
about her experiences learning to fly.
1910:
Birthdate of Eddie “Kid” Wolfe, the welterweight from Memphis, TN, who fought
his first bout in 1927.
1911(3rd
of Adar, 5671): Rabbi Jacob de Botton leader of the Jewish community in
Salonica passed away at the age 68.
1911:
William S. Bennett, who would publicly support aid for the Jews Europe after
the World War broke, completed his service as a member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from New York’s 17th District.
1912(14th
of Adar, 5672): Purim
1912(14th
of Adar, 5672): Eighty-six-year-old philanthropist William Wolf passed away
today in San Francisco.
1912:
The New York Times publishes a review
of Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben (The Jews in Economic Life) recently
published in Germany by Prof. Werner Sombart, Professor of Political Economy at
the Commercial High School of Berlin that includes the insights of Dr. Solomon Shechter.
1913:
Victor L. Berger completed his term representing the 5th
Congressional District of Wisconsin
1913:
Simon Guggenheim completed his term as U.S. Senator from Colorado.
1913:
Jefferson Monroe Levy completed his services a member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from New York’s 13th district.
1913:
Birthdate of Harold Hochstein who gained fame as Harold J. Stone, the American
actor who traveled from Broadway to Hollywood to Television.
1914:”
The way was paved to-day for the resentencing of Leo M. Frank in Judge Hill's
court, and for the next move of the defense when the remittitur was received
from the Supreme Court by the Clerk of the Superior Court, Solicitor Dorsey, it
is understood, will to-morrow move that Frank be brought into court and
resentenced.”
1915:
As the 63rd session of the United States Congress came to an end, Jacob Cantor
completed his term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He had
been elected on November 4, 1913 to fill the vacancy of Francis Harrison (who
was not Jewish). He lost to Issac Siegel who was Jewish and returned to his New
York law practice. Siegel in turn would be replaced by that most famous of all
New Yorkers, Fiorello H. LaGuardia, the son of a Jewish mother who was raised
as a Yiddish speaking Italian Catholic.
1915:
“Needs of Jews in Russia” published today described the request for aid from
the Jewish Colonization Association of Petrograd to aid the “tens of
thousands:” of “new refugees from Poland” that have arrived in the Russian
capital.
1915:
As the 63rd session of the United States Congress came to an end, Henry Mayer
Goldfogle completed his term as a member of the U.S. House of Representative
which had begun with the 57th session of Congress.
1915:
Jefferson Monroe Levy completed his services a member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from New York’s 14th district.
1916:
In Vienna, rabbis and communal leaders from Galicia met and formed a committee
designed to find a “solution for the eastern Jewish problem.”
1916:
Today, C.H. Rubenstein wrote to Simon Wolf, the Chairman of the Board of
Delegates in Washington, DC, “I am glad to inform you that the bill before the
Maryland Legislature, making the reading of the Bible compulsory in the public
schools of the State…has been defeated” by a “constitutional majority.”
1916:
After winning 15 straight bouts Benny Leonard (born Benjamin Leiner) fought
today for the lightweight championship but lost when he failed to knockout the
champ.
1917:
Birthdate of Lou Labovitch, the native of Winnipeg who played right wing in six
different hockey leagues from 1938 to 1948, none of which were the NHL.
1917:
William H. King, who in 1927 “declared…that he favored the United States
severing diplomatic relations with any country which failed because of
anti-Semitism to protect its Jewish nationals” and “expressed the belief that
eventually Palestine would be able to support a population of a million Jews”
began serving as a U.S. Senator from Utah.
1917:
William Stiles Bennet who in 1916 told 3,000 people attending a meeting at the
McKinley Casino that it was “now necessary for the American Jew to assist his
brethren in Europe” and “said that large sums of money would be needed in order
to accomplish the desired relief” completed his services as a Member of the US.
House of Representatives from New York’s 27th District today.
1917:
Djemal Pasha offers to give the Jews free access to the Western Wall in
Jerusalem to pray if they provide the sum of 80,000-100,000 Francs
1918:
Birthdate of photographer Arnold Abner Newman.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/arts/07newman.html
1918:
Germany and the new Communist government of Russia signed The Brest-Litovsk
Treaty. This treat dismembered the Russian Empire and took Russia out of the
war. This freed the German Army to shift all of its forces to the Western Front
where the Kaiser’s forces tried for a knock-out blow that failed. The treaty
helped bring on the Russian Civil War between the Whites and the Reds during
which Jews were slaughtered by both sides. Also, the treaty resulted in western
forces (U.S., English, etc.) sending troops to Russia. Once again, Jews were
caught in the middle and suffered economic ruin and death.
1918:
Today, after having reluctantly signed last week, Grigori Sokolnikov, a Jewish
born Bolshevik, predicted that “Germany’s expansionism would be short lived.”
1918:
In New York City, Joseph and Lena Kornberg who had married in 1904 and
emigrated to New York from Austrian Galicia gave birth to Arthur Kornberg US
biochemist who synthesized artificial DNA. He received the Nobel Prize in 1959.
He died in 2007 at the age of 89.
1919:
Emir Faisel writes a letter to Felix Frankfurter expressing his support for the
Zionist cause. ”We Arabs...look with deepest sympathy on the Zionist
Movement....We will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome… The Arabs, especially
the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement.
Our deputation here in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals submitted
yesterday by the Zionist Organization to the Peace Conference, and we regard
them as moderate and proper." The boundaries of Palestine shall follow the
general lines set out below: Starting on the North at a point on the
Mediterranean Sea in the vicinity South of Sidon and following the watersheds
of the foothills of the Lebanon as far as Jisr el Karaon, thence to El Bire following
the dividing line between the two basins of the Wadi El Korn and the Wadi Et
Teim thence in a southerly direction following the dividing line between the
Eastern and Western slopes of the Hermon, to the vicinity West of Beit Jenn,
thence Eastward following the northern watersheds of the Nahr Mughaniye close
to and west of the Hedjaz Railway. In the East a line close to and West of the
Hedjaz Railway terminating in the Gulf of Akaba [will serve as the boundary];
in the South a frontier to be agreed upon with the Egyptian Government; in the
West the Mediterranean Sea. The details of the delimitations, or any necessary
adjustments of detail, shall be settled by a Special Commission on which there
shall be Jewish representation. Emir Faisel fought against the Turks alongside
T.E. Lawrence. Faisal was expecting to be able to control a Caliphate based in
Damascus. As we can see here, he had even worked out a plan with Chaim Weizmann
that would have allowed for the creation of a Jewish home in Palestine. Unfortunately,
the French, who controlled Syria after the war, drove Faisal from Damascus,
ending his power and the dream of peace in the Middle East.
1919(1st
of Adar II, 5679): Abraham (Albert) Antebi, head of the Alliance Israelite
Universelle in Constantinople passed away. He was born at Damascus in 1899.
1919:
Illinois Democrat J. Hamilton “Ham” Lewis who as a Congressman had supported a
“proviso in the Balfour Declaration that Jews going to Palestine to live could
retain their original citizenship instead of automatically becoming British
subjects” and who as U.S. Senator led “a protest against the possible
transfer of American Jews from their present homes in Palestine to other parts
of the country” completed almost six years of service as Senate Majority Whip
today.
1919:
Meyer London, one of only two members of the Socialist Party to be elected to
the U.S. House of Representatives completed his term representing the 12th
District of New York. He had defeated Henry M. Goldfogle, a Jew, for the seat
and Goldfogle returned the favor.
1920:
Arabs attacked Kfar Giladi forcing the settlers to abandon their land and take
refuge in “the Shia village of Taibe” before finding ultimate sanctuary at
Ayelet Hashahar, a kibbutz settled in 1915 during the Second Aliyah.
1921:
In Galveston, TX, “Russian Jewish immigrants Louis and Rose Paskowitz” gave
birth to Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz the graduate of Stanford University
School of Medicine who gave up his medical career to become “a professional
surfer.
1921:
Birthdate of Allen Ginsberg beat generation poet who received the Arts and Letters
Award in 1969.
1922:
Birthdate of Richard S. Lazarus who was ranked as one of the “one hundred most
eminent psychologist of the 20th century.”
https://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2002/12/04_lazarus.html
1922:
An Arab delegation “held a meeting…at the Hyde Park Hotel in London to denounce
Britain’s ‘Zionist policy.’” The Secretary of the delegation was reported to
have declared “the necessity of killing Jews if the Arabs did not get their
way.”
1922:
The schedules in the estate of Jacob H. Schiff, banker and philanthropist, who
died Sept. 25, 1920, prepared for submission to the State Tax Commission in the
inheritance tax proceeding to begin shortly, fix the value of the property to
be taxed in New York State at $35,257,008. The net estate on which the
executors estimate a tax will be fixed is $34,426,282.
1923(15th
of Adar, 5683): Parashat Tetzaveh; Shushan Purim
1923:
Mayer Jacobstein began serving his first term a Member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from New York’s 38th District.
1923:
Meyer London completed his second, non-successive term as a member of the U.S.
House of Representatives representing New York’s 12th District. He was followed
in office by another Jewish politician, Samuel Dickstein.
1923:
TIME magazine was published for the first time by Henry Luce. Jews connected
with America’s leading weekly news magazine have included managing editors
Henry Grunwald (1968–1977) and Walter Isaacson (1996–2000) and contributors Lev
Grossman, Joe Klein and Joel Stein.
1923:
Fifty-six-year-old Republican Milton Kraus completed his service as a member of
the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana’s 11th congressional
district.
1924:
“Why Men Leave Home” a silent film directed by John M. Stahl and produced by
Louis B. Mayer was released today in the United States.
1924:
Felix M. Warburg, a partner in Kuhn, Loeb, and Co. arrived in Jerusalem today
to begin a fact-finding mission as allowed under the terms of the British
Mandate.
1924(27th
of Adar I, 5684): Eighty-year-old “author and communal worker” Lady Katie
Magnus, the Portland born wife of former MP Sir Phillip Magnus and the mother
of “Laurie Magnus, the editor of the London Jewish Guardian” passed away today.
https://www.jta.org/1924/03/03/archive/lady-katie-magnus-dies-at-age-of-eighty-years
1925:
“Salome of the Tenements” a silent film adapted to the screen by Sonya Levien
from the Anzia Yezierska novel produced by Jesse L. Lasky and Adolph Zukor and
co-starring Jetta Goudal was released in the United States today.
1925:
Birthdate of Lodz native Zvicka Zarevsky who at the age of seven months made Aliyah
with his family and gained fame as IDF Major General Zvi Zamir who headed
Mossad for six years.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/zvi-zamir
1926(17th
of Adar, 5686): Sixty-six-year-old Sir Sidney Lee, born Solomon Lazarus Lee,
the editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and author who specialized
in the Elizabethan period and who was the brother of Elizabeth Lee passed away
today.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Times/1926/Obituary/Sidney_Lee
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Lee,_Sidney
https://archive.org/details/alifewilliamsha04leegoog
1926:
The Lenox Quartette performed “String Quartette” by Leopold Mannes at the New
York Public Library.
1926:
Theatrical producer E. Ray Goetz returned to New York today on the line France
and said that his brother-in-law Irving Berlin and his bride the former Ellin
Mackay “are planning to make their home in London” at least until next fall.
1926:
“Important Jewish manuscripts, relics, early printed books, antiquities,
ceremonial objects and other items of Judaica” totaling 6,174 pieces “have been
purchased in Germany for the Hebrew Union College at Cincinnati and are now on
their way to “the United States” according to an announcement made today by Dr.
Adolph S. Oko, who has been in Europe for ten weeks working on the project.
1926:
Dr. William Filderman of Bucharest, the President of the Union of Rumanian Jews
was met at the pier when his ship docked in New York by “a large delegation
from the American Branch Branch of the Union of Rumanian Jews headed by Leo
Wolf who heard the visitor say that while the “King depalored any anti-Semitic
feeling in Rumania…the situation of the Jews…was very bad” and that economic
help might be a remedy for their troubles.
1927:
After ten years, Senator William King who “declared…that he favored the United
States severing diplomatic relations with any country which failed because of
anti-Semitism to protect its Jewish nationals” and “expressed the belief that
eventually Palestine would be able to support a population of a million Jews”
completed his service as Secretary of the Senate Democratic Caucus today.
1927:
“The wooden hut of the former tenants of the railway station in Tel Shamam”
were brought to the hill of what became Kfar Yehoshua, a moshav in northern
Israel named in honor of Yehoshua Hankin.
1927:
Nathan David Perlman completed his service as a member of the U.S. House Representatives
from New York’s 14th District.
1928:
A statement published today marking the passing of Max issued by Joseph C.
Hyman, Secretary of the Joint Distribution Committee closed by say “The annals
of the Joint Distribution Committee, as well as the record of American Jewry,
united in this great humanitarian effort to save rebuilt the lives of our
people across the sea, will for all time carry the name of his modest, simple,
devoted leader who gave of his very best to the causes which he served”
1928:
In New York City, “Abraham Hyman and Ivy (Ernst) Resnick” gave birth to their
second daughter Bernice Resnick who gained fame as Bernice Sandler the holder
of a D.Ed. from the University of Maryland who was the driving force behind the
implementation of Title IX. (As reported by Katharine Q. Seelye)
19291923:
Mayer Jacobstein completed his third and final term as a Member of the U.S.
House of Representatives from New York’s 38th District.
1929:
In the Old City of Jerusalem, Rabbi Salman Eliyahu, a Jerusalem Kabbalist from
an Iraqi Jewish family and his wife Mazal gave birth to Rabbi Mordechai Tzemach
Eliyahu
1929:
“Discovery of written tablets and clay stoppers which bear the impression of
the archaic seals and are the oldest written documents at Ur of the Chaldes”
(the Biblical of home of Abraham) “was revealed” in Philadelphia “following
receipt of a report from the joint archaeological field expedition of the
University of Pennsylvania Museum and the British Museum.” (As reported by JTA)
1930:
U.S. premiere of “Madame Satan,” a “musical romantic comedy” co-starry Lillian
Roth (b. Lillian Rutstein)
1931(14th
of Adar, 5691): Purim
1931:
A special screening of “1914” directed and produced by Richard Oswald,
co-starring Reinhold Schunzel and filmed by cinematographer Mutz Greenbaum was
held today at the Reichstag.
1932:
Judge Cutherbert W. Pound addressed Benjamin Cardozo on his last as Chief Judge
of the New York Court of Appeals saying of the man who was about to become a
U.S. Supreme Court Justice, “We shall miss not only the great Chief Judge whose
wisdom and understanding have added glory to the judicial office but all the
true man who has blessed us with the light of his friendship, the sunshine of
his smile.”
1932:
“In a unanimous opinion written by Chief Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo as his final
judicial act before taking his place on the United States Court bench, the
court held” today “that the issuance of a subpoena to Senator Hastings was
legal but that the efforts to penalize him were improperly conducted.”
1933:
Birthdate of Harry Oscar Triguboff, the native of Dalian whose parents had fled
from Russia to northeastern China after the Russian Revolution who became an
Australian billionaire residential property developer known as “high-rise
Harry.”
1933:
About a month after Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany and about a week
after the burring of the Reichstag 100 prisoners were taken to a school in the
small town of Norha near the city of Weimar. They were interrogated and sent
into three large rooms where they guarded by policemen and students from the
school. This was the start of Germany's first Concentration camp.
1934:
“Heat Ligthning,” the film version of the Broadway play by the same name,
directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Samuel Bischoff was released today in
the United States.
1934:
At the 102nd Engineers Armory, the undefeated City College of New
York basketball team led by Abe Weissbrodt lost to the undefeated NYU team led
Willie Rubenstein.
1935:
Birthdate of New York native, Brandeis Alum and Harvard Ph. D Michael Walzer,
the Professor Emeritus for Advanced Study in Princeton who is the husband of
Judith Borodovko Walzer with whom he had two daughters – Saran Esther and
Rebecca Leah – and “older brother of historian Judith Walzer Leavitt.
1936:
Birthdate of Eva Kleinova who was transported from Prague in 1942 to Ujazdow
where she was murdered.
1936:
Paul Bekker, the former director of the Wiesbaden opera whom “officials said
‘favored Jews and showed Bolshevik opposition” was among those deprived of
their citizenship today by the German government.
1936:
Funeral services are scheduled to take place at the family residence for Rabbi
Isaac Brill which will be attended by his four children – Jacques, Ray, Nellie
and Jessie Brill.
1936:
Eighty-five Jewish refugees from Germany arrived in New York aboard the Cunard
White Star Line Berenaria.
1936:
“Twenty-five more German intellectuals, led by Arnold Zweig” who “was denounced
as Jewish author” “were denationalized today by order of Dr. Frick in agreement
with…the Foreign Minister on the ground that they had violated their duty of
loyalty to the Reich…”
1936:
It was announced today that “the United Palestine Appeal will be opened in New
York City” on March 4” with a tea at the Hotel Astor.”
1936:
A dispatch from Berlin “today reported that an agreement has been reached
between the German and Netherlands Governments enabling Netherlands citizens of
Jewish descent living in Germany to be repatriated with part of their capital
in order to be in a position to start anew in the Netherlands.”
1937:
Benjamin Winter announced today that “Professor Albert Einstein has accepted
the honorary chairmanship of the American Appeal for the Jews in Poland” which
is trying to raise one million dollars in the United States to provide relief
for destitute Polish Jews. (Editor’s Note – Due to the
Shoah we often lose sight of the fact that during the 1930’s many countries in
Europe, including Poland, were in the grip of a virulent anti-Semitism that had
nothing to do with Hitler)
1937:
In an address at the annual luncheon of the Women’s Division of the American
Jewish Congress, Fiorello La Guardia suggested that Hitler’s effigy be placed
in a chamber of horrors at the World’s Fair.
1938:
Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia. The connection with Jewish history should be
self-evident.
1938(30th
of Adar I, 5698): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
1938:
Sholem (Samuel) Schwarzbard a Bessarabian-born Jewish poet and anarchist, known
primarily for the assassination of the Ukrainian nationalist leader Symon
Petliura who wrote poetry in Yiddish under the pen name of Baal-Khaloymes
(English: The Dreamer) passed away today in Cape Town, South Africa.
http://forward.com/articles/14428/when-france-embraced-a-jewish-avenger-/
1938:
The Palestine Post reported from London that the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Ormsby
Gore, assured the House of Commons that Palestinian police, assisted by British
troops, were doing everything possible to contain the deeply seated and
widespread Arab terror.
1938:
The Palestine Post reported that Yacoub Marata, an Arab police corporal, and
Alfred Koblenz, a Jewish constable, were shot and badly wounded by Arab
terrorists at a Haifa market.
1938:
The Palestine Post reported that the Haifa Port inaugurated a new, extensive
cargo jetty.
1939:
Cardinal Pace III, a long-time semi-supporter of the German government, became
Pope Pius XII. He was later greatly criticized for his passive acceptance of
the Final Solution.
1939:
Thirty-three-year-old Jenny Marx who was caring for ailing parents wrote to her
younger brother Max who had taken refuge in Palestine today that, “It makes
little sense to you about the same subject over and over, yet there is nothing
else to write about. I am so tired of
life that I have often wished it would end.
In your case it is quie different.
You are held in esteem, and you have a fantastic position, for which I
congratulate you. You enjoy life. In my case all is finished. The tragedy with
our parents, the long separation from you, everybody loaded down with sorrows,
so interest in life is not great.” (Editor’s Note – In a decision that we might
not understand, men were thought to be a greater risk in the 3rd Reich,
so women stayed behind when family matters forced them to make such a decision.
Jenny’s engagement in April to Sigmund Mayer, “a plain workman, baker and
confection” brought her renewed hope.”
1939:
“The first contingent of about 500 Jews who had been expelled from Danzig left
early this morning for an unknown destination. In a departure marked by
“distressing farewell scenes” the contingent of men, women and children were
taken to a German railway station by a convoy of buses and trucks. There are
unconfirmed rumors that these homeless Jews will pass through Hungary to
Constanta, Romania where a ship is waiting to take them to Tel Aviv. The Jews
face the double whammy of the Nazis and the Arab inspired limits on Jewish
immigration to Eretz Israel since no valid visas are available for this
wretched contingent.
1940:
When hundreds of Jewish women took to the streets of Tel Aviv today chanting
“anti-land law slogans,” the British military commander issued an order
imposing a total curfew that was scheduled to last for three days until.
1941:
Ice cream parlor owner Ernst Cahn was executed by a Nazi firing squad today in
the Netherlands.
1941(4th
of Adar, 5701): Adolph Schwartz died from a heart attack today at the age of
74.
http://epcc.libguides.com/content.php?pid=309255&sid=2604789
1942(14th
of Adar, 5702): Purim
1942:
“Thousands of members of the ZOA” are scheduled to “give defense stamps and
bonds” today “for Schalach Manos, in response to a plea made by Judge Louis E.
Leventhal.”
1942:
“An exhibition titled ‘Artists in Exile’” that included the works of Marc
Chagall “opened at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York.
1943:
Today, all the men from Brive-la-Gaillarde, including Jua Blusztajn, were sent
to Drancy after which he was sent to Majdanek where his surviving family members
lost track of him and assume he died on a forced march to another camp.
1943(26th
of Adar, 5703): Betty Diana Aarons passed away today after which she was
interred in the Rainham Jewish Cemetery.
1943(26th
of Adar I, 5703): Judikje Simons, later Judikje Themans- Simons, died today at
Sobibor, together with her husband, Bernard, their five-year-old daughter
Sonja, and their three-year-old son Leon. Simons was one of six Jewish members
of the Dutch Ladies’ Gymnastic Team that won the Olympic title at Amsterdam in
1928, Simons, who ran an orphanage with her husband in the city of Utrecht that
housed 83 children, had apparently been warned that the Nazis were heading her
way, and was offered a hiding place by Dutch friends. However, Simons had no
intention of forsaking her orphans, sealing her fate, and that of almost all of
the children.
1944:
“The Iraqi Government today announced through the Arab News Agency that its
protest to Washington with regard to the Palestine resolution “has had
satisfactory results.” (As reported by JTA)
1944:
Birthdate of Yoram Jerrold Kessel, the South African born Israeli journalist
and correspondent who gain fame with American audiences as the CNN
correspondent reporting on the Middle East from Jerusalem.
1944:
“The Jewish Agency for Palestine today announced that David Ben-Gurion,
chairman of its executive, has withdrawn his resignation and resumed work in
the Agency’s headquarters.” (As reported by JTA)
1944:
Birthdate of Fred Goldsmith “the 1992 Sports Illustrated National NCAA Football
Coach of the Year and the 1994 Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award.”
1944:
Emir Abdullah Ibn Husseein, ruler of Transjordan…cabled a bitter protest to
President Roosevelt against the pending Senate resolution reaffirming United
States approval of Palestine as Jewish national homeland.”
1944:
Jermie Adler, a Jewish father of three who was hiding in village outside of
Liege, Belgium became so ill that he checked himself into a hospital today.
“While he was in the hospital, the Gestapo arrested his wife, two daughters,
and a nephew.” Only his oldest daughter survived the war.
1945:
The Jewish Infantry Brigade was activated as part of the British Army. Jewish
military groups fought with distinction during World War II. These soldiers
were drawn from the Yishuv - the Jewish community in what was then called
Palestine. At the end of the war, some of these soldiers participated in daring
rescue activities that brought survivors of the Holocaust from central Europe,
through Italy and eventually to ships bound for Palestine. Military training
gained by the Jewish troops proved useful when the Israelis converted from the
small military unit tactics of the pre-Independence period to the larger
operations necessary to defeat the invading armies they faced in 1948 and 1949.
1945:
Eri Jabotinsky, son of the late Zionist Revisionist leader, Vladimir
Jabotinsky, was released after two days in custody for interrogation concerning
his “activities.”
1945:
Over two thousand Jews from Ebensee, a sub-camp of Mauthausen were sent from
Gross Rosen. Of them 49 died in the trains on the way and 182 more died upon
arrival.
1946:
The Union of American Hebrew Congregations, parent body of Reform Judaism in
the United States, was urged today by Dr. Maurice N. Eisendrath, executive
director, "to disassociate itself from dogmatic anti-Zionism."
1946:
In an article about the appropriate ways to rehabilitate disabled WW II GI’s
published today, Dr. Howard Rusk reported that the number of “working-age
males, who are either unemployable or marginally employable because of
handicaps exceed, numerically, the Jewish population.” Such a comparison would
indicate that the average American knows how many Jews live in the United
States.
1947:
Having left Poland for Paris in 1946 and Paris for the United States in
February 1947, future novelist Louis Begley and his family arrived in New York
City.
1947:
The four hundred ton “motor ship Susanna” left Italy carrying 800 Jewish
refugees who hope to avoid the British blockade and find a home in Palestine.
1947:
The Irgun gave proof to its announcement that open warfare exists between its
forces and the British by attacking British military installations in Haifa
with a barrage of 500 hand grenades.
1947:
The Haganah accused the British of “deliberately destroying the Jewish economy”
by imposing martial law on “thousands of people who have nothing whatsoever to
do with terror or crime.”
1947:
Lieutenant General G.H.A. MacMillan announced that the word “terrorist” would
no longer be used to describe those Jews attacking the British in Palestine.
The term had acquired a sense of “glamour” which should not be ascribed to
people he said were no better than the gangsters from Al Capone’s Chicago.
1947:
In New York City, Dr. Jacob and Maida (Seltzer) Bornstein gave birth to Tufts
University trained physician Harold Nelson Bornstein “who for a time was
President Donald J. Trump’s personal physician and who had attested that Mr.
Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” (As
reported by Katharine Q. Seelye)
1947:
Lazar Kagnovich began serving as First Secretary of the Communist Party of
Ukraine.
1948:
“Black Bart,” a cowboy biopic filmed by cinematographer Irving Glassberg was
released in the United States today.
1948:
The executive board of the Parent-Teacher Association at DeWitt Clinton High
School registered their protest “again the banning of Gentleman’s Agreement
and Focus.
1948:
“Pleading for a supreme for effort at conciliation, Canada today called on the
five permanent members of the Security Council” – US, UK, USSR, France and
China – “to make a last-minute attempt to find an agreed solution to the
Palestine problem.”
1949:
“At the Theatre” published today provided a review of “Two Blind Mice” starring
Melvyn Douglas.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A04E3D9123DE03ABC4B53DFB5668382659EDE
1949:
In Brooklyn, discount store owner and stock broker Israel Chernow and Ruth
Chernow, a bookkeeper gave birth to Pulitzer Prize winning historian and
biographer Ronald “Ron” Chernow whose subjects have included George Washington,
J.P. Morgan and Warburg family.
1950(14th
of Adar, 5710): Purim
1950:
After having premiered in San Francisco, “Love Happy,” a Marx brothers musical
comedy was released in the United States today.
1950:
In the San Fernando Valley, California, Elaine Edelman, and Jay Ziskin gave
birth to Laura Ziskin, the producer of “Spider Man” and “Pretty Woman.”
1950:
In Jordan, the cabinet has reportedly resigned because it was opposed to the
non-aggression pact which has been secretly negotiated with Israel. King
Abdullah is said to be the major supporter of the agreement.
1952:
In New York City, “real estate developer Richard Zirinsky” and “Cynthia (nee
Finkelstein) Zirinsky, the founder of Gracie Square Hospital” gave birth to
American University graduate and long-time CBS journalist and producer Susan
Zirinsky who is now the President and Senior Executive Producer of CBS News
https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/new-cbs-news-chief-susan-zirinsky-1203102819/
1953:
The Jerusalem Post reported that
seven infiltrators from Jordan were killed in two separate incidents on Israeli
territory. The Soviet ambassador to Egypt, Semyon Kozirev, invited the former
mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, to visit Moscow. The increased food
rations for Pesach included an extra 100 grams of meat, a welcome addition to
the monthly rate of 200 grams, and 290 grams of olive oil to every consumer.
(As you can see from this entry, even without the attacks from Arab terrorists
and the threat of attack from the surrounding Arab nations, the early settlers
of Israel had a rough time of it.)
1954:
“Rose Marie” an adaptation of the 1924 operetta with lyrics by Oscar
Hammerstein II with a script by George Froeschel and directed by Mervyn LeRoy
premiered in Chicago, Illinois today.
1954(29th
of Adar I, 5714): Sixty-four-year-old Ethel Weiner, the “daughter of Samson and
Mary (Miriam) Natleson and the husband of Meyer Weiner” who was active in
Jewish organizations including Hadassah while working as a public-school
teacher and principal passed away today in her native Brooklyn.
1956:
Morocco gained its independence from France. "One of the first actions of
the government was to order the Jewish agency to halt its emigration
activities."
1956:
After 461 performances, the curtain came on the original Broadway production of
“Plain and Fancy” with a book co-authored by Joseph Stein and music by Albert
Hague in which Bea Arthur understudied for the role of “Ruth.”
1957(30th
of Adar I, 5717): Controversial Holocaust survivor Rudolf (Israel) Kastner, the
man who negotiated with Eichmann to save Hungarian Jews was shot by by Zeev
Eckstein, 24, a Holocaust survivor, and died of his injuries nine days later.
1958(11th
of Adar, 5718): Eighty-six-year-old Joseph Emanuel, the son of Elizabeth and
George Joseph Emanuel and the husband of Ethel Emanuel passed away today.
1959:
Birthdate of Ira Glass, host of public radio’s “This American Life.”
1960:
U.S. premiere of Home From the Hill with a screenplay by Irving Ravetch, the
son of a rabbi and his wife Harriet Frank, Jr.
1961(15th
of Adar, 5721): Shushan Purim
1961:
Hassan II becomes King of Morocco who would play a positive role in relations
with Israel.
1962:
Art Heyman led Duke to victory over South Carolina in the ACC tournament
semi-finals. (As reported by Bob Wechsler)
1963(7th
of Adar, 5723): Today, in Rishon LeZion the foundation stone for Kiryas Kaliv
was laid on “the yahrtzeit of Grand Rabbi Yitzchak Isak Taub.”
1964:
It was reported today that “Jerome I. Udell, the 66-year-old chairman of Max
Udell Sons & Co., Inc.—manufacturer of Gramercy Park suits and Blacker
Bros. sport jackets — has retired and sold his interest in the company” which “marks
the end of his family’s dominance of the company which was founded by his
father, Max, in 1886 as a clothing contractor.”
1966(11th
of Adar, 5726): Ta’anit Esther
1966:
“The Lion in Winter” a play depicting the lives of Henry II and his wife
Eleanor written by James Goldman opened on Broadway at the Ambassador Theatre.
1967:
The Second International Conference of High Energy and Nuclear Structures is scheduled
to come to an end today the Weizman Institute at Rehovot, Israel.
1967:
Stan Lee was a special guest on WBAI’s broadcast of “Will Success Spoil
Spiderman?”
1968:
Birthdate of Scott David Radinsky, the native of Glendale, CA who spent eleven
years in the majors as a pitcher and pursued a career as a “punk rocker.”
1968:
Iraqi Prime Minister, Tahir Yahya, instituted a law that impoverished the Jews.
"Jews couldn't sell their cars or furniture. All licenses given to Jewish
pharmacists were canceled" and their pharmacies were ordered to close.
"All commercial officers in Baghdad had to dismiss their Jewish employees.
Muslim owned businesses were warned not to engage in commerce with Jews.
1969(13th
of Adar, 5729): Fast Esther; e’rev Purim
1969:
In a Los Angeles, California court, Sirhan Sirhan admits that he killed
presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. According to his diaries, he killed
Kennedy because he was a supporter of Israel.
1970:
Thirty-two “local, independent groups in the U.S. join together to create the
Union of Councils for Soviet Jews…”
1970:
Gabriel Oliver Koppell “was elected an Independent to the New York State
Assembly.”
1971:
After opening on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre, today “Man of La Mancha”
a musical adaptation of Dale Wasserman’s “non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don
Quixote” with music by Mitch Leigh moved to the Eden Theatre.
1972(17th
of Adar, 5732): Seventy-seven-year-old Rabbi Morris Silverman, best known for
the creation of the black book affectionately known as the “Silverman Prayer
Book” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1972/03/04/79426170.pdf
1973(29th
of Adar I, 5733): Parashat Vayakehl; Shabbat Shekalim
1973:
Senator Guy Gillette passed away. While serving in the Senate during World War
II, Gillette spoke out in favor of caring for the Jewish refugees in Europe and
in favor of Jewish aspirations in Palestine. After he lost his bid for
re-election he served as “president of the American League for a Free
Palestine, serving until the Committee's work ended with the establishment of
the state of Israel in 1948.” [Why a senator from Iowa, a state with a
miniscule Jewish population, would adopt such views is a mystery awaiting
further study.]
1973(17th
of Adar, 5732): Eighty-nine-year-old Carrie Sanger Shaw, the Waco, TX born
daughter of Samuel and Hannah Heller Sanger and the wife of Alfred Tennyson
Godshaw whom she married in 1907 and with whom she had one child, Elva Sanger
Godshaw Levy who was part of the family that founded Sanger Brother’s
Department Store, passed away today after which she was buried in Hebrew Rest
Cemetery in Waco.
1974(9th
of Adar, 5734): Fifty-eight-year-old Bernard Phillips, the native of
Minneapolis who earned PhD at Yale and became a Professor of Philosophy and
Religion passed away today.
1976:
In Jerusalem, the three day long annual meeting of the International –Catholic
Jewish Liaison Committee is scheduled to come to an end today.
1977(13th
of Adar, 5737): Fast of Esther; erev Purim
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1977/03/04/75043138.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1978:
The Jerusalem Post reported from
Washington that US President Jimmy Carter warned that “the abandonment” of UN
Resolution 242 by any of the parties in the Middle East “would put us back many
months or years.” Observers, however, noted that on the eve of the expected
Carter-Begin summit meetings, the American position on many issues was seen to
be much more supportive of Egypt than of Israel. In Jerusalem, the 91-year-old
Notre Dame Hospice, uninhabited for years, had quietly begun a new life as a
modern hostel for pilgrims.
1978(24th
of Adar I, 5738): Seventy-two-year-old “American industrial psychologist,
executive, civil rights leader, and philanthropist” Alfred J. Marrow passed
away.
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/34/11/1109/
1980:
In “Tens of Thousands of People Attend Funeral of Yigal Allon” Yitzhak Shargil
described the final ceremony honoring the fallen Israeli leader.
1981:
Israeli planes raided Palestinian positions northeast of Tyre today, according
to the Lebanese radio. The raid came a day after rockets from Lebanese
territory struck several homes in the Galilee town of Qiryat Shemona today,
wounding three people.
1981(27th
of Adar I, 5741): Eighty-three-year-old Hugh Harris the educator and journalist
who was the brother of Leslie Julius Harris and the son Rabb John Solomon
Harris passed away today.
1983(18th
of Adar, 5743): Fifty-six-year-old psyhciatrist Victor Jerome Teichner, the New
York born son of “William Isiah and Sonya Clare (Breitman) Teichner, husband of
Gail W. Berry and member of the U.S. Naval Reserve who earned his MD at Temple
and his certification in psychoanalytic medicine at Columbia passed away today.
1983(18th
of Adar, 5743): Seventy-seven-year-old Hungarian born author Arthur Koestler,
two of whose more famous works were Darkness at Noon and Thirteenth
Tribe, which highlighted his view of the role the Khazars played in the
life of European Jewry, and his wife died today in the United Kingdom,
apparently having committed suicide in response to their declining health.
https://spartacus-educational.com/SPkoestler.htm
https://spartacus-educational.com/SPkoestler.htm
1985(10th
of Adar I, 5745): Seventy-one-year-old Sándor Scheiber who served as director
of the Rabbinical Seminary in Budapest from 1950 until his death passed away
today.
1985:
After “767 performances and 37 previews” the curtain came down on the original
Broadway production of “My One and Only” a George and Ira Gershwin musical.
1986:
The final performance of a revival of “Jubilee” a musical with a book by Moss
Hart is scheduled take place at the Town Hall in New York.
1987(2nd
of Adar, 5747): Multi-talented performer Danny Kaye passed away. Born David
Kominsky in 1913, the red-headed comedian and vocalist enjoyed success in a
variety of entertainment formats. His hit movies included The Secret Life of
Walter Mitty and Hans Christian Andersen. He also starred in his own television
variety show. He used his fame for the betterment of mankind serving as a
champion for UNICEF when that organization was dedicated to the welfare of the
world's children without consideration to politics. (As reported by Eric Pace)
1987:
Israeli Air Force Colonel Aviem Sella was indicted today for his alleged role
in the Pollard spy operation.
1988(14th
of Adar, 5748): Purim
1988(14th
of Adar, 5748): Sixty-nine-year-old Polish-born Mexican violinist Henryk
Szeryng who donated his Stradivarius “King David” violin to Jerusalem in 1972
in honor of 25 years of Israeli independence passed away today.
1988:
Today the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith and the American Jewish
Committee protested the designation of Dr. Inamullah Khan, secretary general of
the Pakistan-based World Moslem Congress, as the winner of the $369,000
Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion because he has been associated with
anti-Semitic and anti-Israel causes.
1991(17th
of Adar, 5751): Arthur Murray passed away at the age of 95. Born Arthur
Teichman, Murray became "America's dance instructor" through a string
of dance studios and a hit television show featuring his wife and partner,
Catherine. (As reported by Eric Pace)
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/04/obituaries/arthur-murray-dance-teacher-dies-at-95.html
1991:
As the war with Iraq came to an end Air France is scheduled to resume service
to Tel Aviv today.
1991:
“THEATER; Music? Lyrics? He Can Get Them for You” published today described the
career of Harold Rome
1993(10th
of Adar, 5753): Albert Sabin passed away at the age of 86. Born in 1903, Sabin
developed an oral polio vaccine which supplanted the earlier Salk Vaccine.
https://www.sabin.org/legacy-albert-b-sabin
http://www.polioplace.org/people/albert-b-sabin-md
1993:
“American Samurai,” a “martial arts action film directed by Polish born,
Jerusalem raised American filmmaker Sam Firstenberg was released today in the
United States.
1994(20th
of Adar, 5754): Seventy-six-year-old actor, director and WW II veteran Ezra
Stone, the New Bedford, MA born son of Mr. and Mrs. Sol Feinstone and husband
of Sara Seegar who was best known for his role as adolescent “Henry Aldridge”
passed away today.
1995:
“Roommates” a comedy based on a story by Max Apple who co-wrote the screenplay,
with music by Elmer Bernstein and starring Peter Falk was released today in the
United States.
1995:
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb's She Who Dwells Within, which she describes as
"a practical guide to nonsexist Judaism," was published. In 2004,
Gottlieb left the pulpit to become director of a California organization
dedicated to interfaith work.
1995:
Steven T. Katz, “the man chosen to lead the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum resigned today “citing recent news reports over his misrepresentation of
his scholarly accomplishments and a violation of leave policy while a faculty
member at Cornell University.”
1996(12th
of Adar, 5756): In Jerusalem a Palestinian terrorist boarded a No. 18 bus,
detonated an explosive belt murdering 19 people and wounding another seven.
1996
(12th of Adar, 5756): Ninety-one-year-old Dr. Meyer Schapiro, university
professor emeritus at Columbia University, multi-disciplinary critic and
historian, galvanic teacher, lifelong radical and for more than 50 years a
pre-eminent figure in the intellectual life of New York, died at the Greenwich
Village house that had been his home for more than 60 years.
1997:
In “Where We Stand,” Albert Shanker said "Public schools played a big role
in holding our nation together. They brought together children of different
races, languages, religions, and cultures and gave them a common language and a
sense of common purpose. We have not outgrown our need for this; far from it.
1998:
Funeral services are scheduled to beheld at the Beth El Cemetery in New Jersey
for Irving Hirsch, the husband of the former Gene Braunstein, Z”L.
1998(5th
of Adar, 5758): Eighty-two-year-old Fred Friendly, the CBS broadcast executive
who teamed with Edward R. Morrow to make television news a meaningful part of
the 20th century passed away today.
1999:
Today 1999, during Barbara Walters interview with Monica Lewinsky which was
seen by a record 74 million viewers, the highest rating ever for a news program,
“Walters asked Lewinsky, "What will you tell your children when you have
them?" to which Lewinsky replied, "Mommy made a big mistake," at
which point Walters brought the program to a dramatic conclusion, turning to
the viewers and saying, "... that is the understatement of the year.:
2000:
“Love in A Thirsty Land” by Alan Glass was presented by the Jewish Repertory
Theatre at Playhouse 91 in Yorkville.
2000:
The exhibition “Berlin Metropolis: Jews and the New Culture, 1890-1918” is on
display at the Jewish Museum in NYC.
2000(26th
of Adar I, 5760): Eighty-six-year-old Polish born Shoshana Shifris, the wife of
Ovid Shifriss passed away today after which she was buried at Floral Park
Cemetery in South Brunswick, NJ>
2000:
Israelis authorities killed three terrorists in “Taibah an Israeli Arab town
southeast of Nazareth, where authorities said a group of at least five Islamic
militants from the Gaza Strip were preparing explosives for use in Israeli
cities.”
2001(8th
of Adar, 5761): Parashat Terumah and Shabbat Zachor
2001(8th
of Adar, 5761): Ninety-one-year-old Deborah (Pessin) Margolis, the widow of Dr.
Benjamin D. Margolis passed away today.
2002:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Summer in Baden-Baden by Leonid Tsypkin; translated by Roger
Keys and Angela Keys and Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic
Billionaire by Michael T. Kaufman
2002(19th
of Adar, 5762: Capt. Ariel Hovav (25), Lt.(res.) David Damelin (29), 1st
Sgt.(res.) Rafael Levy (42), Sgt.-Maj.(res.) Avraham Ezra (38), Sgt.-Maj.(res.)
Eran Gad (24), Sgt.-Maj.(res.) Yochai Porat (26), Sgt.-Maj.(res.) Kfir Weiss
(24), Sergei Birmov (33), Vadim Balagula (32) and Didi Yithak (66) were
murdered by Fatah terrorists at an IDF roadblock.
2003:
Natan Sharansky began serving as Jerusalem Affairs Minister.
2004:
“Arab governments, suspicious that the Bush administration plans to give
priority to changing how the region is ruled rather than solving the
Arab-Israeli conflict, began thrashing over a joint position today to counter
any such American initiative.” (As reported by Neil MacFarquhar)
2005(22nd
of Adar I, 5765): Max M. Fisher, the Detroit oil and real estate magnate known
for his philanthropy and for the advice he gave Republican presidents on the
Middle East and Jewish issues, passed away at his home in Franklin, a Detroit
suburb at the age of 96. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/04/national/04fisher.html
2006(3rd
of Adar, 5766): William Herskovic who was a Holocaust survivor and humanitarian
passed away at the age of 91. His escape from Auschwitz in 1942 and early
eyewitness testimony inspired Belgium's opposition to Nazi Germany during World
War II and alerted the Resistance to the atrocities that were taking place in
the concentration camps. Because of Herskovic's escape and testimony, hundreds
of lives were saved. Herskovic is also the founder of Bel Air Camera, a
veritable landmark in Los Angeles, which he established in 1957, and has
received numerable awards for his philanthropy.
2006(3rd
of Adar, 5766): Eighty-three-year-old “Scottish poet, songwriter and humorist
Ivor Cutler (born Isadore Cutler) passed away today.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4781980.stm
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/mar/07/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1512258/Ivor-Cutler.html
2007:
Shabbat Zachor
2007:
In the evening, Jews fulfill the mitzvah of hearing the Megillah as Purim
begins
2008:
This evening, Israel pulled its troops out of the Gaza Strip marking the end of
operation Hot Winter.
2008:
Agudas Achim, the Shulman Hillel and Chabad Lubavitch of Iowa City sponsor “An
Evening in Tribute to Michael Balch” (devoted member of the Iowa City Jewish
Community and Professor Emirtus of Economics at Iowa University) featuring an
address by Rabbi Dov Greenberg from Stanford University entitled “Death and
Afterlife in Judaism.”
2008(26th
of Adar I, 5768): Eighty-six-year-old artist William Brice the son of Fannie
Brice and Nick Arnstein passed away today in California.
http://www.lalouver.com/resource/brice_bio/brice_obituary.pdf
2009:
David Polonsky discusses “Waltz With Bashir” at the Society of Illustrators.
David Polonsky is the art director and chief illustrator for Waltz With Bashir,
written, produced and directed by Ari Folman.
2009:
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research presents a lecture by Dr. David Berger,
author of The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference,
entitled “The Lubavitcher Rebbe as Messiah: Turning Point in Judaism?” in which
he will examine whether the Lubavitch messianic movement represents a
fundamental transformation of Judaism or is merely a passing development of
little moment.
2009:
The Believers, Zoë Heller’s latest novel appears in American bookstores.
2009:
Hillary Clinton makes her first visit to Israel as Secretary of State meeting
with a variety of Israeli leaders.
2009:
A press release issued today confirmed that Julius Genachowski was President
Obama’s choice to serve as Chairman of the Federal Communication Commission.
2010:
The Jewish Women's Archive’s tour of Santa Fe is scheduled to begin today.
2010:
Israeli musicians Asaf Avidan &cellist Hadas Kleinman of Asaf Avidan
and the Mojos leading rock/folk band are scheduled to perform at the City
Winery in New York City.
2010:
In Columbus, Ohio, Congregation Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host
“Interfaith Study of Genesis” in conjunction with First Congregational Church
and Noor Islamic Center.
2010:
After years of drought-like conditions that saw the water level of the Dead Sea
plummet by 15 meters, this winter the water level rose by 8 centimeters, the
Water Authority said today.
2010: Canadian businessman and Brandeis
graduate Leonard Asper stepped down as Canwest CEO today.
2010:
A documentary entitled “Harlan – In the Shadow of ‘Jew Suss’” opened today in
Manhattan
http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/movies/03harlan.html
2011:
The Wiener Library, “the world’s oldest Holocaust memorial institution,” is
scheduled to sponsor an exclusive gala fund-raising event that will feature a
recital by Andras Schiff and a talk by Misha Aster about the Berlin
Philharmonic under the Third Reich.
2011:
Amit Peled and Dina Vainshtein are scheduled to perform at Symphony Space in
New York City.
2011:
Today Prime Minister Netanyahu met with White House senior advisor Dennis Ross,
who is in the country with a team of Middle East experts – including Fred Hoff
and Mara Rudman from US envoy George Mitchell's team – for talks.
2011:
Today, Canadian Historian Catherine Chatterley, who has said that “the
accusation that Zionism is racist and imperialist by nature is as old as
Israel” wrote an editorial for the National Post outlining the history of
Israel Apartheid Week and its relationship to the BDS movement
2011:
The 7th Annual Charlotte, NC Jewish Film Festival opened today.
2011(28th
of Adar I, 5771): Holocaust survivor Gina Borchardt Nencel passed away today in
Israel at the age of 100.
2011:
In “Yankees remember late baseball author Harvey Dorfman” Marc Carig described
the impact that the Jewish sports psychologist had on the National Pastime.
http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2011/03/yankees_remember_late_baseball.html
2012:
A conference entitled "One State Conference: Israel/Palestine and the
One-State Solution” hosted by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government
is scheduled to open in Cambridge Mass.
2012:
“Mahler on the Couch” is scheduled to be shown at the Denver Jewish Film
Festival sponsored by the Mizel Arts and Culture Center
2012:
“Making Trouble: Three Generations of Funny Jewish Women” at Florida Atlantic
University’s Jewish Kultur Festival in Boca Raton, Fl.
2012:
“Camera Obsucra” is schedule to be shown at Temple Beth Israel’s Fresno Jewish
Film Festival in Fresno, CA
2012:
“Ahead of Time” is scheduled to be shown at Congregation Beth Israel Judea in
San Francisco, CA.
2012:
“Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” is scheduled to be shown at Congregation Kerem Shalom
in Concord, MA.
2013:
“My Name is Asher Lev,” Aaron Posner’s dramatic adaptation of Chaim Potok’s
novel of the same name is scheduled to have its final performance tonight at
the Westside Theatre.
2013:
The Maccabeats are scheduled to perform at West Side Institutional Synagogue
2013:
An evening concert is scheduled tonight as part of the Preliminary Program for
Jewish Music in New Orleans hosted by Tulane University.
2013:
The AIPAC Policy Conference is scheduled to open in Washington, DC
2013:
Rebekka Helford and Bruce Bierman are scheduled to lead the Klezmer Jam Session
and Dance at The Talking Stick in Venice, CA.
2013:
A young couple expecting their first child was on their way to a hospital early
Sunday when the car they were riding in was hit, killing them both, but their
baby boy was born prematurely and survived, authorities said.
2013:
Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, opened the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee’s annual policy conference with an appeal for
pro-Israel outreach to African Americans, Latinos and Muslims, and others.
2013:
In “The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking.” Eric Lichtblau lets us know that the
worst event in Jewish history was even worse than we had thought it was.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/sunday-review/the-holocaust-just-got-more-shocking.html?hp
2013: The New York Times features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Russ
& Daughters: Reflections and Recipes from the House That Hearing Built
by Mark Russ Federman the grandson of the founder who made each trip to his
store a most memorable occasion for two Jews from Iowa.
2013:
In New York City, the City Winery is scheduled to host a Kosher Wine Tasting
2013(21st
of Adar, 5773): Ninety-one-year-old Abe Baum the leader of ill-fated Task Force
Baum in WW II passed away today.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-abe-baum-20130324,0,4017206.story#axzz2ullGs3ON
2014(1st
of Adar II, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
2014(1st
of Adar II, 5774): Eighty-three-year-old physician and author Sherwin B Nuland
passed away today. (As reported by Denise Gellene)
2014: “Women of the
Wall founder Bonna Devora Haberman attended a Women of the Wall prayer service
today.
2014: The HEA
All-Judaic & Israeli Art and Jewelry Festival is scheduled to take place in
Denver, CO.
2014: David Broza is
scheduled to appear in concert at the AIPAC Policy Conference.
2014: “Master of a
Good Name” and “Nothing Old About This Testament” are scheduled to be shown at
the 24th Jewish Film Festival.
2014: Shelter
Studious is scheduled to host a reading of “Suddenly a Knock at the Door” by
Robin Goldin based on stories by Etgar Keret
2014: In London, JW3
is scheduled to co-sponsor a showing of “Flash Faith.”
2014: Senator John
McCain, US Secretary Jack Lew and Senator Chuck Shumer addressed the AIPAC
Policy Confernece with each of them using the “Jewish issues” to promote their
American domestic political agenda – a point that apparently was lost to the
attendees who mistake pandering for policy.
2014: “Israeli
aircraft fired at Gaza terrorists (mortally wounding one) as they were
preparing to launch rockets at southern Israel.
2014: “France’s Jews
demand the election of new chief rabbi (the post had been filled by two interim
chief rabbis since April 2013), in a letter that cites the need of a leader “to
express the voice of Judaism during the difficult period we are experiencing.”
2014:
Some 20 Israelis who were making their way to India today found themselves for
a short time in Tehran
2015:
For two hours this morning, students at Oxford (UK) are scheduled to have a
chance to make hamantaschen while raising money for The Gatehouse and Camp
Simcha.
2015:
In a display of cultural diversity, the Jewish Community Center of Northern
Virginia is scheduled to offer programs on “Jews in Sports” and “The Evolution
of the Passover Seder.”
2015:
Marc Caplan, 2014-15 Cahnman Senior Scholar at CJH, is scheduled to present his
groundbreaking research on Jewish modernity in conjunction with a screening of
Arnold Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron at the Center for Jewish History.
2015:
Having created crisis atmosphere in relations between Israel and the United
States Prime Minister delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress where
he “argued that the proposed nuclear deal being negotiated with Iran will lead
inexorably to a nuclear-armed Iran and war in the Middle East.” (JTA)
2016:
“Remember” directed by Atom Egoyan is scheduled to be shown for the last time
at the UK Jewish Film Festival.
2016:
JCC Manhattan is scheduled to host “Shulamit, a new opera with music and
libretto by Dina Pruzhansky”
2016:
“Strong ties between Israel and US will be needed to confront the “instability
in the region,” according to Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., who met in Tel Aviv” today. (As
reported by Judah Ari Gross)
2016:
Screening of Three Episodes of the Israeli TV Show Fauda is scheduled to take
place at the Ninth Annual Ring Family Wesleyan
University Israeli Film Festival.
2017: Fifty-one-year-old author Amy Krouse Rosenthal “announced
that she was terminally ill with ovarian cancer, by way of a New York Times "Modern Love"
essay” which “was in the form of a dating profile for her husband Jason, to
help him remarry after her death.”
2017: Today thirty-one-year-old Juan Thompson of St. Louis, “a
reporter for a news website was charged on Friday with making more than a
half-dozen bomb threats against Jewish community centers, schools and a Jewish
history museum, federal authorities said.”
2017: “Hautey: Memory of
Fire” “a new Yiddish opera composed by iconic Klexmatics trumpeter Frank
London” “based on an epic poem written in 1931…by Oscar Pinis” is scheduled to
have its inaugural performance in Havana, Cuba.
2017: Penultimate day for New Yorkers and out of town visitors to
view “State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda” on view at the United
Nations headquarters.
2017: The Oxford University
Jewish Society is scheduled to host Shabbat evening dinner.
2018(16 of Adar, 5778): Parashat Ki Tissa.
2018: Tonight, as part of seventy-five-year-old Sixto Rodriguez’s
“latest American tour played a solo concert for a full house of several hundred
at Washington, DC’s historic 6th and I Synagogue”
2018: Jack and Jennifer Benjamin, Jr.,John Haspel and Amy
Gainsburgh-Haspel and Rob and Pamela Steeg are scheduled to be honored this
evening in New Orleans at Temple Sinai’s Spring Gala.
2018: Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan is scheduled to perform this
evening at the 92nd Street Y.
2019: The American Jewish Historical Society, the Center for
Jewish History and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research are scheduled to
present a “a screening of the 1923 silent classic ‘East and West’” as part of
the celebration of the “121st birthday of Molly Picon.”
2019: JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Foxtrot,” the
“winner of the Silver Lion at the 2017 Venice Film Festival,” directed by
Samuel Maoz.
2019: In suburban Chevy Chase, MD, Ohr Kodesh is scheduled to host
the “First Maryland Jewish Choral Festival.”
2019: “The 24th East Bay International Jewish Film
Festival” is scheduled to host screenings of “Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good
Deeds: The Conductor Zubin Mehta,” “A Bag of Marbles” and “Almost Famous.”
2019: At the JCC of Northern Virginia, the ReelAbilities Film
Festival is scheduled to host a screening of Director Rachel Israel’s “Keep the
Change.”
2019: In San Francisco, the Jewish Community Library is scheduled
to host author Shostak as he discusses his latest book Stealth Altruism.
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/stealth-altruism
2019: At today’s session of the Jewish Book Festival, Aureillia
Young is scheduled to discuss Finding Nemon, her biography about her father,
sculptor Oscar Nemon, “with cultural
historian Patrick Bade.”
2020: “At the concert celebrating the cultural melting pot of New
York, Israeli composer/pianist Dina Pruzhansky is scheduled to present a
segment from her Hebrew opera 'Shulamit', while perform her piano solo piece,
dedicated to New York.
2020: The Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to host Dan Abrams as he
discusses his newest work, John Adams Under Fire
2020: The Taube Center for Jewish Students at Stanford University
is scheduled to host Professor Ilana Pardes as she discusses her latest book, The
Song of Songs: A Biography,
2020: The JCC Chicago Film Festival is scheduled to host a
screening of “The Last Supper,” that tells the story of a Jewish family in
Germany gathered for dinner on the day Hitler came to power.
2020: At a time when we are seeing a spike in anti-Semitic
outbreaks, Democratic voters are scheduled to go to the polls for Super Tuesday
where the leading candidate is Senator Sanders and where former Mayor Bloomberg
will actually be on the ballot for the first time which should tell us
something about the impact of his ads, money and decision to skip the first
four “small” electoral events.
2020: The JCC Sonoma Country is scheduled to host a screening of a
“Flawless” on the opening night of the Israeli Film Festival.
2020: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a
shiru conducted by Rabbi Jeremy Gordon from New London Synagogue followed by
dinner and “the Yachad talk.”
2020: Israelis find out today, if the exit poll information was
accurate and that Prime Minister Netanyahu holds on to his job.
2021: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present
“The Jews of Iran and Rabbinic Literature: New Perspectives with Daniel Tsadik”
as part of “New Works Wednesdays.”
2021: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host op-ed NYT
columnist Charles Blow, author of Fire Shut Up in My Bones in a discussion
about ending “white supremacy” moderated by Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson.
2021: The London School of Jewish Studies is scheduled to host Rav
Avida Tabory who “will explore the Halachic issues with Cohanim serving in the
army.”
2021: Cleveland Jewish News Arts and Entertainment Columnist Bob
Abelman, author of All the World Is a Stage Fright, is scheduled to be “featured
in an author talk plus question-and-answer session at the Jewish Community
Center of Greater Columbus bookfair
2021: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present Eliyana
R. Adler (Penn State University) in conversation with Debórah Dwork (The
Graduate Center, CUNY) about her book, Survival on the Margins which
tells the forgotten story of 200,000 Polish Jews who escaped the Holocaust as
refugees stranded in remote corners of the USSR.
2021: In collaboration with Table Magazine, Asylum Arts and
Meislin Projects are scheduled to have organized a “special Pre-Passover
Art/Break exploring The Passover Haggadah: An Ancient Story for Modern Times
illustrated by Shai Azoulay” who “will be in conversation with Tablet
Editor-in-Chief Alana Newhouse.”
2021: In London, the Highgate Synagogue is scheduled to host via
Zoom a meeting of the Book Club which will be discussing Golden Hill by Francis
Spufford.
2021: The Consulate General of Israel in New York is scheduled to
host “a conversation between Academy Award Winner Guy Nattiv (Skin) and Tomer
Shushan, director of White Eye, shortlisted in the 93rd Academy Awards® Live
Action Short category.”
2021: As part of Jewish Book Week, Aviva and Jacqueline Saphra,
the author of Veritas: Poems After Artemisia are scheduled to explore, “with
conversation and readings, what it means to be a Jewish woman poet.”
2021: Following study published
yesterday by the military intelligence task force in the Health Ministry,
people who had been ill should receive a coronavirus vaccine three months after
they recovered, Israel is scheduled to continue vaccinating recovering patients
against recurring illness today.
2022: Oren Segal, VP of the ADL Center on
Extremism is scheduled to host “a special edition of the ADL’s Fight Hate from
Home webinar series to discuss alarming incidents of antisemitic and white
supremacist propaganda from coast to coast.”
2022: Playwright and author Harvey Fierstein is
scheduled to discuss his memoir I Was Better Last Night which tells the
story of his move “from Bensonhurst to Broadway” at the Streicker Center.
2022: David Winitsky, the founder of the and
Executive Artistic Director of the Jewish Play Project is scheduled to moderate
an event today where attendees can “meet several of the finalists from this
year’s Jewish Plays Project.”
2023: “The Americans and the Holocaust
traveling exhibition” is scheduled to which opened in January is scheduled to
have its last showing at the Chattanooga Public Library in Chattanooga, TN.
2023: Kan Kol Hamuskia is scheduled to broadcast,
live” a special concert featuring “Maestro Jeffry Swann.”
2023: In Israel the police are investigating the
incident that resulted in two brothers and their sister, aged 3, 4, and 8,
respectively, being fatally injured yesterday morning when they were hit by a
car in the Shuafat refugee camp of East Jerusalem. (TOI)
2024: Yeshiva is
scheduled to present the last exhibition tours o “The Golden Path: Maimonides
Across Eight Centuries.”
2024: “At The
Breman Museum, The Vega String Quartet-in-Residence at Emory University is
scheduled to present "Music of Jewish Composers.”
2024: The
Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host a “Walking Tour of the Lower
East Side.”
2024: Temple
Sinai Annual Gala at The Pavilion of the Two Sisters at City Park, featuring
Cantor Rebecca Garfein and her captivating one-woman show, Cantorful! Is scheduled
to take place today.
2024: “In conjunction with Adrienne Ottenberg's ongoing exhibition, the Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host a panel discussion moderated by Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition Vice President Rose Imperato, with historians and Coalition members Andi Sosin and Kevin Baker. Adrienne Ottenberg will join these esteemed speakers, and together we will mark 113 years since the March 1911 Fire
2024: The 2024 Atlanta Jewish Life Festival is scheduled to take place at the Georgia
Aquarium.
2024: As March
3rd begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 149 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.)
