This Day, March 22, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
March 22
1144: This
date marks the first ritual murder libel which took place in in Norwich,
England. It set the pattern for subsequent accusations that would be made into
the 20th century all across Europe. A 12-year-old boy, William, was found dead
…
March 22
1144: This
date marks the first ritual murder libel which took place in in Norwich,
England. It set the pattern for subsequent accusations that would be made into
the 20th century all across Europe. A 12-year-old boy, William, was found dead
on Easter Eve, and the Jews were accused of killing him in a mock crucifixion.
They were not, however, accused of using his blood for the making of matzos,
although this would become a standard feature of later libels. It was later
presumed by scholars that the boy died during a cataleptic fit or else he was
killed by a sexual pervert. After Easter, a synod convened and summoned the
Jews to the Church court. The Jews refused on the grounds that only the king
had jurisdiction over them and they feared that they would be subjected to
"trial by ordeal." William was regarded as a martyred saint and a
shrine was erected in his memory. In spite of this episode, there was no
immediate violence against the Jews. Over the years, despite denunciations by
various popes, ritual murder libels continued. Possession of a saint's shrine
bestowed great economic benefits on a town because sacred relics drew pilgrims
who spent money on offerings, board, and lodging. For bones to be considered
sacred relics they had to be killed by a heretic (i.e. a Jew). Such charges
were used as an excuse to murder Jews as late as 1900.
1190: In
England, King Richard angered by the riots and the loss of crown property
(since the Jews belonged to the crown) renewed a general charter in favor of
the Jews first issued by Henry II. Chancellor Longchamp instituted heavy fines
against the Pudsey and Percy families thus at the same time enriching the
treasury and hurting his political opponents. Only three people who were also
accused of destroying Christian property were executed.
1349: The
townspeople of Fulda Germany massacred the Jews because they blamed them for
the Black Death.
1369: In
France, Charles V sought to force Jews to attend church services by issuing an
order that included a penalty for defiance. Unless they complied "the Jews
might suffer great bodily harm".
1457: The
Gutenberg Bible became the first printed book. The printing revolution would
soon reach the world of Jewish literature. Thanks to Gutenberg's remarkable
invention, books would soon be much more readily available to the People of the
Book.
1500: A huge
fleet under the command of Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral,
accompanied by Gaspar da Gama, a Polish born Jew whose slave name had been
Yusuf ‘Adil before being forcibly converted to Christianity reached Cape Verde,
a Portuguese colony on Africa’s West Coast as it made its way towards India.
1503: After 8
years of exile, Jews are allowed to return to Lithuania
1510: The Jews
were expelled from Colmar Germany. Jews had been living in this town in Upper
Alsac for at least three centuries prior to their expulsion for which no reason
is given.
1549:
1564: In
Mantua, Italy, David Provensalo and his son Abraham asked the Jewish notables
to help him create a Jewish College. The idea was to allow Jews to learn
languages and science while also receiving a “Jewish education.” Although they
did establish a Talmudic academy they were opposed by the local Church and did
not succeed in opening the College.
1599:
Birthdate of Antwerp native and “English court painter” Anthony van Dyck whose
“Portrait of Adriaen Moens” was stolen from the Jewish art dealer Jacques
Goudstikker by the Nazis.
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/dr-oetker-restitutes-van-dyck-831605
1609: In
Mexico, “a bailiff of the Holy Office carried a statue of Jorge de Almeida in a
procession and the bailiff tied the effigy to a stake” and publicly burned
it. Almeda was the wife of Donna Lenor
“a Jewess” and escaped the Inquisition when he was charged with Judaizing so he
was tried in absentia which meant that his effigy could not suffer auto de fe.
1704: The Lord
Mayor of London “and the Worshipful Court of Aldermen issued an order today “That
the said Synagogue being of a Large Extent adjoining to the Church Yard, very
near the said Parish Church, will, if Continued to be a great nuisance to the
Parishioners who Inhabit near the said Synagogue by bringing Numbers of Jews
into the Alley which is a Thoroughfare not Exceeding three foot in width, will
in a great measure block up that passage”
https://www.jewishgen.org/JCR-UK/susser/roth/chnine.htm
1749:
“Solomon,” an oratorio by George Handel based on the biblical stories about
King Solomon had its final performance at the Theatre Royal in London.
1753(16th
of Adar II, 5513): David Israel Athias, who had served as “Hakam of the
Portuguese community at Amsterdam” since 1728, passed away today.
1759: “The
Double Disappointment,” produced by Moses Mendes was revived at Covent Garden
today.
1769(13th
of Adar II, 5529): Ta’anit Esther; Erev Purim
1770: In
Buchau, Germany, Judith Mayer Hill and Samuel Obernauer gave birth to Rebecka
Obernauer, the wife of Ruppert Einstein and the mother of Hirsch, Judith,
Samuel, Raphael, Abraham and David Einstein.
1773: In
Amsterdam, Branca Levie Duijts and Simon Isaac Frankfort gave birth to Levie
Frankfort.
1777(13th
of Adar II, 5337): Parashat Vayikra; Erev Purim
1781(25th
of Adar, 5541): Fifty-eight-year-old Samson Levy, the son of Moses Raphael Levy
and Grace Mears passed away today in Philadelphia.
1787: London born,
and Montreal raised Eliza Chapman, the widow of “frontiersman” and trader
Abraham Chapman married Moses Myers after which in July she sail on the
Sincerity for Norfolk where gave birth to 12 children and became a hostess of
note.
https://chrysler.org/historic-houses/the-moses-myers-house/
1797:
Birthdate of German-Jewish jurist Eduard Gans.
1798(5th
of Nisan, 5558): Isaac Jacob Gans , the Lower Saxony born son of Jacob and
Ferude Katz Gans and husband of Pesse Pauline Leah Gans who became a wealthy
tobacco merchant and note philanthropist passed away today.
https://thejewishmuseum.org/collection/3701
1797:
Birthdate of Kaiser Wilhelm I German whose reign lasted from 1871 to 1888. The
Prussian monarch became the first ruler over a united Germany. In 1869, the
emancipation process for the Jews of Germany was completed. “All still existing
limitations of the…civil rights which are rooted in differences of religious
faith are hereby annulled.” Jews rose rapidly during his reign. Guided by
Chancellor Bismarck, the German government actually became champion of the less
fortunate Jews living to the East.
1798
Aarau, the city in which Albert Einstein “attended the Argovian cantonal school
(gymnasium) in 1895 and 1896 to complete his secondary schooling” was declared
the capital of the Helvetic Republic making it “the first capital of a unified
Switzerland” and another site for a failed attempt to effect the emancipation
of the Jews in that country.
1799(15th of
Adar II, 5559): Shushan Purim
1800(25th
of Adar, 5560): Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei; Shabbat HaChodesh observed for the
last time during the Presidency of John Adams, the last Federalist President.
1805:
Birthdate of Kassel native and convert to Christianity Franz Ferdinand Benary,
the orientalist and University Berlin associate professor of Old Testament
exegis who “was the older brother of classical philologist Agathon Benary.”
1809:
Georgetown, SC native Divinah Cohen and Isaac Minis who were married in 1803
gave birth to Eliza Minis.
1814: In
Dresden, Naftali and Bertha Nachod gave birth to “German banker and
philanthropist Jacob Nachod.
1815: Napoleon
reached Paris. Soon King Louis has fled, and all Europe has become mobilized.
In June, after a number of victories by Napoleon, the stock exchange in London
goes through a panic, and rumors circulate that it may close. To prevent the
closing, which would mean the collapse of English credit, Nathan stubbornly
continues to buy amid rumors of Wellington's defeat, until the war ends with
Wellington's victory at Waterloo. Sometime later, Julie and Fitzroy are
reunited, and Nathan is made a baron by the King of England, who expresses the
country's gratitude to this "adopted" son whose generosity and
courage brought victory and peace to England
1817: In
Charleston, SC, David Nunes Carvalho and Sarah Carvalho gave birth to Emanuel
Nunes Carvalho
1818(14th
of Adar II, 5578): Purim
1822: In
Vejle, Joseph Joel Ballin and Hanne Behrend gave birth to Danish engraver John
Ballin.
1827:
Birthdate of William Lafayette Strong, the last Mayor of New York City elected
prior to its modern consolidation. As befitted a Mayor of New York, Strong
spoke positively of his Jewish constituents of whom he said, “The Jews take
care their own. They are taught to be
self-supporting.” He expressed the view that while he had seen many
applications for public assistance, he did not “one single application came
from a Hebrew.”
1832: German
writer J W Goethe passed away at the age of 82. The creator of Fuast admitted
to being ant-Semite from his earliest days. His attitude towards Jews changed
when he came to realize that they were the same people who had authored the
Bible, especially the Songs of Songs, a book for which he had a special
affection. While Goethe could admire the Jews from an historic point of view he
was an opponent of Jewish emancipation in the Fatherland. Goethe was not the
first or the last intellectual who loved Jews, so long as they were dead Jews.
1833(2nd
of Nisan, 5593): Thirty-two-year-old poet Michael Beer, the brother of composer
Giacomo Meyerbeer and astronomer Wilhelm Beer, passed away today.
1834: In New
York City, Henry Benjamin Nones, the Philadelphia born son of Abraham Benjamin
Nones and Miriam Marks de Nones, and his wife Anna M. Nones gave birth to John
McInnis Nones
1834: In
London, Esther and John Nathan gave birth to Charlotte Nathan.
1835:
Birthdate of Munsterberg,Silesia native “wool and grain merchant” Julius
Schottlander, the brother-in-law of Louis Pakally and veteran of Prussia’s wars
with Austria and France who retired from the world of business in 1890 after
which “devoted himself to agriculture having acquired a large tract of farm
land in Silesia.”
1837(15th
of Adar II, 5597): Shushan Purim
1837: Phillip
Levy married Elizabeth Davis at the Great Synagogue today.
1838: Joseph
“Perl wrote a letter suggesting that the government censor Jewish libraries,
prohibit meetings in Jewish ritual baths and close traditional Jewish schools,
which he called "a place of refuge for vagabonds, thieves . . . a nest of
demoralization and of . . . nefarious, scandalous deeds."
1842: Isaac
Sanguinetti married Harriet Nathan today at the Great Synagogue.
1840: In St.
Martin in the Fields, London, Anne Solomons and Alexander Davis gave birth to
Montague Davis
1845:
Birthdate of Father Theodor Kohn whose appointment as Archbishop of Olomouc
drew a great deal of opposition because his grandfather was born Jewish.
1845: In
Liverpool, “John R. Isaac, one of the Liverpool Commissioners of the 1851 and
the engraver to” to Prince Albert and his wife gave birth to Benjamin Yates’
great-grandson Percy Lewis Isaac, the “naval architect marine engineer” who in
1867 was “appointed to supervise work in connection with the ‘Great Eastern’
steamship” and was the “author of Historical Notes on Shipping which contains
references to early Anglo-Jewish history.”
1848:
Birthdate of German historian Harry Breslau under whose chairmanship “the
Historical Commission for the History of the Jews in Germany was founded by the
Union of German-Jewish Congregations.”
1851(18th
of Adar II, 5611): Parashat Tzav; Shabbat Parah
1851(18th
of Adar II, 5611): Philadelphia native Mordecai Manuel, the husband of Rebeca
Esther Jackson whom he married in 1827 in New York City passed away in New York
City.
1853: James
(Jacob) Seligman and Rosa Seligman gave birth to De Witt J. (David) Seligman.
1853:
Birthdate of German native and future Missouri resident Marie Morgenstern Drey,
the husband of Albert Drey, the mother of Alice, Leo, Blanche and Bertie Drey
who in 1912 was “killed, along with her daughter, Blanche Sommers, and 2
grandchildren, when the auto they were riding in slipped in a pool of oil and
water, sending the vehicle over an almost perpendicular 15 foot embankment at
Olive Street Road and Creve Coeur Mill Road.”
1853:
Birthdate of Isidor Kaufman, the Hungarian born painter whose works include
“Portrait of a Yeshiva Boy” and “Day of Atonement.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kaufmann_Day_of_Atonement.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Isidor_Kaufmann_Portrait_of_a_Yeshiva_Boy.jpg
1854: In
London, Elizabeth Waley and Spanish Town, Jamaica native Jacob Zuixano
Henriques, gave birth to their Daughter
Alice Rache Henriques.
1856(15th
of Adar II, 5616): Parashat Tzav; Shushan Purim celebrated for the last time
during the Presidency of Franklin Pierce.
1861: Jacob
and Amalia Freud gave birth to Maria “Mitzi” Freud
1862: During
the American Civil War, as Union forces under the command of General McClellan
moved up the peninsula in an attempt to take the Rebel capital of Richmond, an
articled entitled "Clippings From Rebel Papers” Conditions of Richmond”
published today reported that only soldiers returning to their regiments were
being issued permits to leave the city. At the same time “The Jews have packed
up their goods, and gold and silver ornaments, and are in great tribulation and
ferment that their flight has been stopped.”
1864: In
Albany, NY, the Assembly passed a bill “authorizing the New-York City
authorities to convey to the Hebrew Benevolent Society certain real estate.”
1864(14th of
Adar II, 5624): Purim
1864: “The
Jewish festival of Purim will be celebrated this evening, by a grand, fancy
dress ball, at the Academy of Music. It is recognized as one of the most
important of Jewish festivals, as it commemorates the deliverance of the Jews
from the tyranny of Haman, who was prime minister to King Ahasuerus. The
arrangements for the ball are very extensive, and the ornaments appropriate and
beautiful. But one thousand tickets have been issued, and these only to be
obtained by personal introduction to a member of the committee, the party
introducing being held strictly accountable for the character and conduct of
the persons introduced. With such strict rules and such liberal preparations,
the ball cannot fail to be one of the best of the season.”
1865: Joseph
Magnus married Louisa Eve Finsterer today.
1865: In
Natchez, Mississippi, the Hebrew Ladies’ Aid Association was founded today
1866: Three
days after he had passed away, fifty-four-year-old Frederick David Goldsmid,
the son Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid and Isabel Goldsmid, the husband of the former
Caroline Samuel with whom he had had nine children was buried today at the
Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1868:
Birthdate of Vilmos Vázsonyi the Hungarian political leader who served as
Minister of Justice and was beaten to death by “a notorious anti-Semite.”
1868:
Elizabeth and George Joseph Emanuel gave birth to Blanche Emanuel who became
Blanche Abrahams when she married Samuel Abrahams.
1869: In
Philadelphia, PA, Adam Gimbel who founded the first Gimbel store in
Indiana and Fridoline Kahnweiler Gimbel
gave birth to Benedict Gimbel, the Philadelphia merchant, the husband of Birdie Loeb Gimbel and father of Benedict
Gimbel, Jr.
1873: It was
reported today that of 11,859 people committed to New York’s public lunatic
asylums since 1847, 402 of them were Jews.
1874; The
Young Men's Hebrew Association was founded in New York City. It was the first
of several such organizations found in cities across the United States intended
to provide for the “mental, moral, social, and physical improvement of Jewish
young men.” In part the YMHA was a Jewish response to the YMCA.
1875: Sixty-two-year-old
Hezekiah Linthicum Bateman, the American theatrical manager known as H.L.
Bateman passed away. Bateman was responsible for bringing Henry Irving so that
he could star in The Bells, the play based on “Le Juif Polonias” (The Polish
Jew)
1875: Samuel
Alexander, the famed Australian-born British philosopher who was the first
Jewish fellow of an Oxbridge college “matriculated at the University of
Melbourne where he entered an arts course.
1875: It was
reported today that the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews in New York had raised
$17,455.08 in the past year, spent $13,345.96 leaving a balance of $4,109.12.
1877: Albert
von Rothschild and Baroness Bettina Caroline de Rothschild gave birth to their
first child, Georg Anselm Alphonse.
1878: In
Frankfurt Flora Goldschmidt married Emil Schwarzschild the son of Emanuel
Schwarzschild and Rachel Fraenkel.
1880:
Birthdate of Honesdale, PA, native Abraham Julius Dimond, “the head of
Neumeyer, Dimond and Company, a New York specialty steel products concern and
husband of the former Rose Seidenman whom he married in 1904 who “was one of
the founder of the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Association of Newark” and
starting in 1916, a member of the American Jewish Committee.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/08/05/305912352.html?pageNumber=76
1883(13th of
Adar II, 5643): Fast of Esther
1883:
Seligman, MO, a town which had been named in honor of financier Joseph Seligman
shortly after his death, suffered its second major fire of the year when “the
stables of the Seligman and Eureka Springs Stage Coach Company burned down”
today.
1883: In New
York City, Rudolph and Virginia (Kohlberg) Sampter gave birth to Jessie Ethel
Sampter “poet, Zionist thinker and educator, social reformer, and pacifist” who
“was a member of the inner circle of Henrietta Szold’s female friends in
Palestine during the 1920s and 1930s.” (As reported by Baila R. Shargel)
1884: Jeanne
Franko, the New Orleans born daughter Helene Bergman and Herman Franko “performed
a concert at Steinway Hall in which she played virtuoso piano works by Liszt
and Chopin and difficult violin works by Wieniawski and Vieuxtemps.”
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/franko-jeanne
1885: In
London, Meyer Adam Spielman, the son of Adam and Marian Spielman and his wife
Gertrude gave birth to Edgar Raphael Meyer Spielman.
1885: In Orla,
near Bialystok, Binyamin Benish and Ethel Levin gave birth to Reb Aryeh Levin,
the husband of Tzipora Hannah who was the daughter Rabbi Shapira, ahd who was
known as the Tzadik of Jerusalem for his many humane acts including visiting
Jewish prisoners held at the Central Prison during the days of hte Mandate.
1886(15th
of Adar II, 5646): Shushan Purim
1887: In
Manhatten, Same and Minnie Schoenberg Marx gave birth to Leonard Joseph Marx,
knowns as Chico Marx, one of the famous Marx Brothers.
1881: In
Minsk, Leah Starobinetz and Solomon Cohon gave birth to University of Chicago
and University of Cincinnati alum Samuel S. Cohon the HUC trained rabbi Samuel
S. Cohon, the husband of Irma Reinhart who in 1923 left Temple Mizpah in
Chicago to begin serving as a professor at HUC.
1889: The
former Anna Finestone and Israel Saidel
gave birth to Harvard educated attorney, Myer Saidel, the WW I Army veteran who
in 1916 had begun practicing law in Manchester, NH where he was active in civic
affairs.
1890: The will
of Solomon Adler was filed for probate today.
1890: Harold
Nathan will deliver a lecture tonight on “The Use of a Library” at the downtown
branch of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association. (The public libraries of the
United States were “the poor man’s university, especially for the immigrant
population that came to the United States at the turn of the century.)
1890: Colonel
Jacob E. Bloom, a New York attorney “is suing James M. Seymour and Francis J.
Patton to establish an interest in Patten’s electrical inventions and to
recover $200,000. (Bloom would serve as Superintendent of the Baron de Hirsch
Industrial School)
1891: It was
reported today that the Jews were the first to feel the effects of the
resurgence of “semi-savage orthodoxy throughout the Muscovite Empire” although
they no longer have a monopoly “on the pains of persecution” since the
Protestants are now under government surveillance.
1891: In
Lithuania, Abraham Jacob Sanditen and Dina Glike Sanditen gave birth to Maurice
Sanditen the husband of Myrtle I. Sanditen
and father of Stanley Leon Sanditen
1891: It was
reported today that “the proposal of Baron Hirsch to” settle 300,000 Russian
Jews in Argentina, “which was at first very favorably received by the
government” has now been rejected as a result of objections “stirred up in the
press.” The government of Uruguay has
also rejected the proposal.
1892: The
creditors of the Jewish banker J.E. Guenzburg met in St. Petersburg today.
1892: In
London, The Times reported that
“after the death of his father Samson Wertheimer, Ashe Wertheimer took over his
Bond-street premises” and operated his business “from this address until his
death in 1918.”
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/21424
1892: The New
York City Health Department received information today that the SS Massilia,
the ship that had brought a large number of Jewish immigrants infected with
typhus on its last trip to New York was on its way back to the city with
another load of immigrants.
1893:
Thousands of people gathered outside of the Reichstag waiting to hear the
details of Hermann Ahlwardt’s proof that while Bismarck was Chancellor
“fraudulent contracts” had been entered to with Jewish financiers resulting in
“the loss of vast sums of money belonging to the State” Ahlwardt was a high
school president, who ironically, had been extricated from his financial
problems by Jewish friends before turning on them to pursue a career as an
anti-Semitic agitator.
1893: Dr.
Louis Fischer will deliver a lecture “Cholera – What It Is and How To Cure It”
at the Hebrew Institute.
1893: Banker,
philanthropist and leader of the Jewish community Maurice J.Mandelbaum, the
Cleveland born son of “Jacob and Amelia (Lehman) Mandelbaum took the first of
his three trips to the alter today when he married Amanda Mayer today.
1893: Arabs
attack Jews at Rehovot
1893: Senda
Berenson, the "Mother of Women's Basketball", officiated at the first
women's basketball game at Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts. Born
in Lithuania and raised in Boston, Berenson was weak and delicate as a child.
An athletic career would have seemed unlikely for the woman whose poor health
rendered her unable to complete her training at the Boston Conservatory of
Music. But in 1890, she entered the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, in a
bid to improve her strength and health. There, she trained in anatomy,
physiology, and hygiene, and was hired by Smith College upon her graduation in
1892. Berenson, the director of the physical education department at Smith,
first heard about a new game called "Basket Ball" soon after her
arrival in Northampton. Invented as a class exercise for boys, the game — like
most team sports — was considered too strenuous for girls, who were instead
encouraged to participate in individual sports like swimming, archery, and
horseback riding. Berenson observed the game being played in Springfield, and
met its inventor, Dr. James Naismith, who encouraged her to adopt the game as
exercise for her female students. At the first basketball game on March 22,
1893 (some sources cite March 21), Smith freshmen were pitted against Smith
sophomores, with no male spectators allowed. With rules intended to avoid the
roughness of the men's game, the new game became a hit, and soon swept the
country. By 1895, there were hundreds of women's basketball teams, and these
teams helped open the door to other team sports programs for women. Berenson
wrote the first official rulebook for women's college basketball, as well as a
number of articles on the new sport. She continued to edit the rules until the
1916-17 season, and many of the rules she developed remained standard until the
1980s. Berenson died in 1954. Over thirty years later, in 1985, she was the
first woman to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA.
1894(14th
of Adar II, 5654): Purim celebrated on the day “the first championship series
Lord Stanley’s Cup (the Stanley Cup) was played in Montreal.
1895: The will
of the late Dr. Bernard Grunhut was filed for probate following the end of the
challenge brought by the two children of the descendant. The judge’s ruling
that enough evidence had been presented that their father’s marriage was valid,
“even if he was not of sound mind” at the time of the ceremony. This means that the Hebrew Benevolent Society
and Mount Sinai Hospital will each receive bequests of $25,000 with the widow
receiving the residual of the estate with the exception of $25,000 that had
been bequeathed to a baby that reportedly died fifteen days after it was born.
1895: Operatic
soprano Selma Kurz was first heard in Vienna at a student concert of Ress
pupils
1896: “Easter
Cookery” published today included a description of Chad Gad Ya, “The Kid of
Passover,” which it compared to “The House That Jack Built.”
1896: Dr.
Gustav Gottheil delivered the second in a series of sermons on “What Is a
Christian Nation” at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
1896: In
Vienna, Erna (née Weinstein) and stage (and later motion picture) actor Rudolph
Schildkraut to American actor Joseph Schildkraut.
1897: Four days
after she had died, 32-year-old Julia Fisher was buried today at the Plashet
Jewish Cemetery in London.
1897: Rabbi
Ignatz Grossman, who passed away two days ago in New York, will be buried in
Detroit, Michigan where his son Dr. Louis Grossman serves as a rabbi. Two of his other sons, Julius and Rudolph,
are also rabbis while his fourth son Adolph is a businessman in Chicago.
1897: Two days
after he had passed away, 20 year old Moses Levy, the son of Aaron and Miriam
Levy was buried today at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.
1897: “The
Austrian Elections” published today described the various factions competing
for seats in the Reichsrath that meets in Vienna including “the anti-Semites,
the Jews baiters of Vienna and Lower Austria” who are “closely connected with
the Clericals.”
1897: Mr. and
Mrs. Jacob Schiff were unable to attend the Purim Ball at the Montefiore Home
for Chronic Invalids because they were in Frankfort-on-the-Main. Schiff is President of the Montefiore Home
and he sent a telegram from Germany expressing his regrets.
1897: “Home
For Aged Hebrews” published today included a history of the organization which
“is an outgrowth of the B’nai Jeshurun Ladies’ Benevolent Society.” In 1870, a
young men’s organization, the Benevolent, Dramatic and Musical Association,
gave the women $3,500 as seed money and the home was incorporated in 1872. The
home was designed to serve those over the age of sixty who are “entirely
dependent on themselves for support and unable to support themselves.
1897: Dr. S.N.
Leo is the director of the pharmacy at the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews in
New York.
1898: It was
reported today that 300 children from the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society
and the New York Orphan Asylum are going to attend the upcoming show at the
Harlem Music Hall.
1899: Seventy-eight-year-old
Beila Geitel Felber was buried today at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.
1899: Rabbi
Gottheil is among the speakers scheduled to address a meeting of workers at the
Hebrew
Institute
1899: The
“liberal synagogue” was dedicated in Cologne.
1900: It was
reported today that the Dreyfus brothers, the New York tobacco wholesalers
facing charges of defrauding their customers out of $50,000 have been arrested
in Chicago are planning on fighting extradition back to New York.
1901: While it
was stated today that General Louis Botha, the leader of the Boers, was
“generally in favor of the terms of the settlement” he was “greatly concerned
about the position Jewish capitalist would occupy in the country and” he “was
told that Jews and Christians would enjoy equal rights,” with “no distinction
being made in the matter of concessions.
1901: In
Camden, NJ, Rabbi David Shane, with the assistance of Rabbi Banet Leventhal of
Philadelphia officiated at the wedding of Annie Pauline Alberts, the daughter
of Isaac Alberts to Philip Sihisky at the Sons of Israel synagogue.
1902:
Birthdate of French actress Madeleine Milhaud.
1903: In
Brooklyn “Louis and Lena (Betz) Pomerantz gave birth to Brooklyn Law School
trained attorney
Abraham Louis
Pomerantz,, the husband of Phyllis Cohen and father of Dan and Charlotte Cohen
who served as deputy chief counsel at the Nuremburg Trials.
1903: In
Cherkassy, Russia, Max and Bessie (Leshinsky) Olanovsky gave birth to Lemel
Olanovsky who gained fame as Levi Arthur Olan whose accomplishments including
serving as the Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El of Dallas, Texas from 1949 to 1970.
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0181/ms0181.html
1904:
Birthdate of Isaac Goldberg, the native of Poland, who gained fame as “Itche
Goldberg, a champion of Yiddish who wrote and edited and taught his beloved
language in the face of all those who said keeping Yiddish alive was a lost
cause.” (As reported by Ari L. Goodman)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/obituaries/03goldberg.html
1905(15th
of Adar II, 5665): Shushan Purim
1905: In
Hoboken, NJ, two Austrian immigrants gave birth Columbia trained attorney
Burton A Zorn, a labor lawyer, partner in the prestigious law firm of
Proskauer, Rose, Goetz and Mendelsohn and “chairman of the American Jewish
Committee’s civil rights section who raised two children – Stephen and Karen –
with his wife Fay.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/02/23/77172613.pdf
1905:
Birthdate of Nathaniel “Nate” Weinstock who “played tackle at Western Maryland
College from 1925 to 1927” and whose breakout game came against Holy Cross in
1926 when he was a junior.
1905: In New
Orleans, during an executive session of the Constitution Grand Lodge of the
Independent Order of B’nai B’rith, Jacob Singer of Philadelphia “maintained
that time was not ripe for taking the step” of “abolishing the secrecy of the
Order.”
1906: It was
reported today that “Jewish merchants and their families are leaving” Moscow
“in haste owing to fears of a massacre at Easter time.
1906: It was
reported today that “the first appearance of anti-Jewish disorders” have been
“reported from Theodosia, in the Crimea, where a crowd broke into a synagogue
and destroyed the altar, religious emblems and pictures.
1906: In
Petach Tikva, Moshe Dov Bear Margalit and Taube (Yona) Margalit, the Bialystok
born daughter of Elijah and Sarah Golda Bloch gave birth to Avraham Margalit.
1906: It was
reported today that Nicolas Notovitch, a Jewish newspaper editor has been
imprisoned “for one year in a fortress for the publication of articles against
the” Czar and the army.
1907: As the
violent attacks continue in Northern Moldavia, as of today there at least
“10,000 Jews without homes,” most of whom were not able to save anything,
“escaping only with their lives.”
1907:
“Authorities are now making every effort to assist” the four thousand Jews who
have fled to Bucharest” but the reality is that most of them are forced “to
sleep in the open air.
1908: In
London, “Sir Oscar Emanuel Warburg, businessman and later chairman of the
London County Council, and his wife, Catherine née Byrne” gave birth to
“English botanist Edmund Frederick (E.F) Warburg. The husband of Primrose
Barrett. (Great first name for the wife
of a botanist)
1909:
Birthdate of Brooklynite Nathan Rosen, the MIT graduate who gained fame as an
American-Israeli physicist working with Albert Einstein. Among other things he is known for the “The
Einstein–Rosen Bridge, later named the wormhole, which was a theory of Nathan
Rosen.” The only person I know who
understands any of this is Dr. Joe Rosen, the son of Nathan Rosen, a prominent
physicist in his own right and a son of which his father would be proud.
1909:
Jefferson Seligman wrote to the NYT about “the friendly controversy between
Professor Morris Loeb and Mr. James Speyer in reference to the Federation of
Charities.”
1910: Eugene
Foss who would be one of the leaders in the fight to save the life of Leo
Frank, began serving as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from
Massachusetts’s 14th Congressional District.
1910:
“Impresario” Max Rabinoff married his first wife, singer Marie La Salle, today.
1911: It was
reported today that Samuel Untermeyer who had come to Albany in with litigation
before the Court of Appeals denied having any interest in filling the United
States Senate
seat which the state legislature was seeking to fill. (This was in the days
before the direct election of U.S. Senators)
1912:
Birthdate of Eliyanu Kitov the native of Poland who made Aliyah in 1936 and in
1954 established Aleph Institute Publications. His works include Is U’Veito
which was translated into English as A Jew and his Home by Rabbi Nachman Bulman
the New York born son of Rabbi Meir and Etil Bulman
1912(4th
of Nisan, 5672): Sixty-three-year-old Mark Arnheim, a “clothing merchant” in
New York passed away today.
1912: In
Dusseldorf, Gustav Cohn, the German born son of Sophie and Seligman Lazarus
Cohn, and his wife Henriette Cohn gave birth to Karlo Alfons Cohn.
1912:
Dedication ceremonies for Anshe Chesed’s new temple on Euclid Avenue in
Cleveland, Ohio began.
1913(13th
of Adar II, 5673): Parsashat Tzav; Shabbat Zachor; Erev Purim
1913: Rabbi
Julius Rappaport led services at Beth El Temple in Chicago.
1913: Rabbi
Felix A. Levy led services at Temple Emanuel today.
1913:
Louis-Lucien Klotz completed his service as Minister of Finance.
1913: In
Cleveland Ohio, Isaac Wasserman and Minnie Chernick gave birth to Lewis Robert
“Lew Wasserman, the MCA chairman who was a true “tinsel town” mogul.
1913:
Louis-Lucien Klotz began serving as Minster of the Interior.
1913: “Under
the leadership of Mrs. Minna Solomon and Mrs. Grete Hirsch” the women of
Emanuel Congregation enjoyed an afternoon of entertainment at the Kaiser Garten
in Chicago.
1914: The
United Synagogues of America, an organization of Conservative Congregations,
held its second annual convention in New York City. During his address to the
convention, Professor Solomon Schechter, President of the Jewish Theological
Seminary, called for worship services to be conducted in Hebrew with English
replacing Yiddish as the language in which the sermons were to be given.
Schechter also refused to serve another term as President of the organization
and Dr. Cyrus Adler of Dropsie College was elected to serve in his place. Among
the other highlights of the convention was a presentation by Rabbi Mordechai
Kaplan, Chairman of the Education Committee in which he outline an aggressive
program to upgrade and modern the Jewish educational opportunities in a manner
consistent with the challenges of modern day America.
1915: It was
reported today that Just Gustave Hartman of the Municipal Court, President of
the Israel Orphan Asylum has expressed “some objections” to plans for building
a second home for Jewish orphans in the Bronx sponsored by the Hebrew National
Orphan Asylum.
1915: It was
reported today that “more than 7,000 persons come to the building housing the
Educational Alliance daily” most of whom come to study and that the Alliance
spends “upward of $110,000 annually” to support its educational work.
1915(7th of Nisan, 5675): Fifty-five-year-old
“Professor H.L. Sabsovich, General Agent of the Baron De Hirsh Fund and the
first mayor of the Jewish Agricultural Colony at Woodbine, NJ” who was well
known for his social work among the Jews passed away tonight in New York. A
native of Russia, where he gained famed as a chemists and “manager of estates,”
he organized the Committee of Safety during the Pogrom of 1881 and help found
the Society of Am Olam. He came to the United States in 1888 and worked as an
agricultural chemist for Colorado State before joining the Woodbine Colony and
joining the Baron de Hirsch Fund.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F40F16F9395C13738DDDAD0A94DB405B858DF1D3
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sabsovich-h-l
1915: The Army
and Navy Young Men’s Hebrew Association issued an appeal to the New York Jewish
community asking that its members open their homes to serviceman for the first
Seder on March 29 and the second Seder on March 30. According to the
Association, “there are 300” Jewish serviceman in the New York area “who have
no friends or relatives here.” The Association will provide lodgings at a local
hotel and the servicemen will attend services at the synagogue or temple of
their choice. Those who cannot offer hospitality are urged to send a
contribution to support the group’s efforts to Joseph S. Marcus, the
association’s treasurer.
1915: British
Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson backed by Major-General Alexander
Godley was appointed commander of the force he was to recruit, with Captain
Trumpeldor as Second-in-Command after which they left Cairo for Alexandria
where there was a large Jewish refugee community.
1915: The
majority of the Palestine Refugees' Committee under the encouragement of Joseph
Trompledor and Vladimir Jabotinsky endorsed a resolution calling for the
formation of a “Jewish Legion" and propose to England its utilization in
Palestine. Within a few days about 500 enlisted.
1916:
Birthdate of New York City native Bernard Weissman who gained famed as American
composer and band leader George Wyle, the author of theme music for the sitcom
“Gilligan’s Island” and the grandfather of musician Adam Levy.
1916: During
on World War I, on the Western Front, the first British tree observation post
was put up today. The camouflages for
these posts was developed and produced by a unit under the command of Lt. Col.
Solomon Joseph Solomon, the artist who had been hand-picked by the British
General Staff to fill this role.
1917: Today,
“Julius Rosenwald, President of Sears, Roebuck and Co. of Chicago” sent a
telegraph “to the American Jewish Relief Committee” in New York City saying
“that he would contribute $100,000 for each $1,000,000 collected by the
committee in its campaign to raise $10,000,000 by June 1 for the benefit of
Jews suffering from the war.”
1917: “It was
announced that the State Department had given assurance that in the event of
war between” the United States and “the Central powers, American diplomats in
neutral countries would carry on interruptedly the work of feeding Jewish
noncombatants” using fund raised by the American Jewish Relief Committee which
is expecting a fresh impetus to its activities that’s to the Russian
Revolution.”
1918: In Lodz,
the “municipality” has agreed “to maintain a college for Jewish teachers” where
Hebrew will “be the language of instruction for Jewish subjects” and Polish
will be the language of instruction for all other subjects.
1918(9th
of Nisan, 5678): Private Solomon Ellis, the Hull, UK born son Jane and Harry
Ellis was killed in action today during WW I while serving with the Yorkshire Regiment,
2nd Battalion.
1918(9th
of Nisan, 5678): Second Lieutenant Crispian Asabel de Pass who was at Wellington
College before the war died today while serving with the Tank Corps.
1919(20th
of Adar II, 5769): Parashat Tzav; Shabbat Parah
1919: It was reported
today that Israel Cohen, the secretary of the World Zionist Organization,
currently serving as its special commissioner in Eastern Europe has said that
“The Jewish situation in Poland and Lithuania is so tragic that thousands are
starving and tens of thousands are clamoring for permission to join their
relatives in the United States.”
1919: It was
reported today that General Allenby, “the commander of allied forces in
Palestine” and the liberator of Jerusalem during the World War is now also
serving as the High Commissioner for Egypt and Sudan due to the outbreaks of
violence that “have spread through the whole Nile Valley.”
1920: In
Cologne, German, conductor Otto Klemperer and soprano Johanna Geisler gave
birth to actor Werner Klemperer who played Colonel Klink on Hogan’s Heroes.
1920:
Birthdate of Dame Fanny Waterman, DBE, the daughter Myer Waterman, a Russian Jew who had emigrated to England to
work as a jeweler who gained fame as “a piano teacher, and the founder,
Chairman and Artistic Director of the Leeds International Pianoforte
Competition.”
1921: In, Ústí
nad Labem, Czech Republic, “Erwin Schwenk, an organic chemist and the former
Rascha Shapiro, a pediatrician” gave birth to Lili Schwenk who gained fame as
Lili Horning, the holder of a Ph.D. from Harvard who played a significant role
in the Manhattan project and was the wife of fellow scientist Donald Hornig.
1922: Birthdate of screenwriter Stewart Henry
Stern, the New York native and nephew Adolph Zukor whose most famous script was
the one he wrote for cult classic “Rebel Without a Cause.”
1922: “Ludwig
II” a biopic about the Bavarian king directed by Otto Kreisler and written by
Alfred Deutsch-German was released today in Austria.
1922: In
Manhattan, “Morris Neuman and the former Ida Mitnistky gave birth to Charlotte
Sandra Neuman who gained fame as “Charlotte Spiegel, a civic leader and
Democratic politician from the Lower East Side who created New York’s
pioneering and lifesaving window guard program in the 1970s.” (As reported by
Sam Roberts)
1923: “The
Hungarian Princess” whose cast included Martin Herzberg premiered in Germany
today.
1923:
Birthdate of Eva Kleinova who in 1942 was transported from Prague to Ujazdow
where she was murdered.
1923(5th of
Nisan, 5683): Max Nordau, early Zionist leader, passed away at the age of 73.
Born in 1849 in the city that would later be known as Budapest, Hungary (then
part of the Austrian Empire), Nordau’s life followed a conventional pattern for
many Jews of his time and social class. Raised with a traditional Jewish
background, he drifted away from Judaism finding fame and fortune as a writer
and physician. As the 19th century came to a close, Nordau was alarmed by the
rise of anti-Semitism and became an early supporter of another Austrian Jew,
Theodore Herzl. When Herzl died, Nordau was asked to take his place. He
declined offering to serve as an advisor to David Wolffsohn. Nordau drifted
away from the formal organization as Zionism changed from Herzl's grand
political approach to a more practical approach. After World War I, Nordau
advocated the immediate immigration of half a million Jews to Palestine. Nobody
heeded his advice. He died in Paris, far from the limelight, an almost
forgotten figure who had believed in the cause of the Jewish state when most
said it was an impractical dream or the scheme of lunatics.
1923: In
Strasbourg, France “Ann Werzberg and Charles Mangel, a kosher butcher” gave
birth to Marcel Mangel, who gained fame as mime Marcel Marceau. After having
seen Charlie Chaplin, he became interested in acting. At 15, his Jewish family
was forced to flee their home as France entered the Second World War. He later
joined Charles De Gaulle’s Free French Forces and, because of his excellent
English, worked as a liaison officer with General Patton's army. He began
studying acting at the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris in 1946.
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/sep/24/local/me-marceau24
1924:
Birthdate of Solomon “Solly” Cornbleet “missing presumed killed 3rd Aug 1944
whilst serving aboard H.M.S. Quorn as a telegraph operator.
1924:
Birthdate of Michael Hamburger, the Berlin native who moved with his family to
Great Britain in 1933 where he became a “translator, poet, critic, memoirist
and academic.”
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/jun/11/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries
1925: “The
government is said to have warned troops,” include the Ninth (Queen’s) Royal
Lancers “to be ready to come to Jerusalem” because as today “both the Arab
Executive and the National Party” are continuing “to publish strike
publications in the local press” just days before the visit of Lord Balfour.
1925: “By
unanimous vote the New York branch of the United Synagogue of America at its
fifth annual meeting at the Hotel Astor today went on record as opposed to any
move which in any way might link religious education with the public schools.”
1926: The
funeral for 77-year-old Dr. Philip Klein who has been the rabbi of the First
Hungarian Congregation Ohab Zedek for the past 35 years is scheduled to take
place this afternoon at the family home.
1926: Chairman
William Fox announced that the United Jewish Campaign had received a $30,000
contribution from Paul Baerwald and a $50,000 contribution from Louis Marshall
who attached a letter “in which he described the misery now” being endured by
Jews in Europe and urging “the Jews of New York City to give unstinted support”
to the fund-raising drive.
1927: “Spider,”
co-staring Anton Ascher as “Dick” opened today on Broadway at Chanin’s 46th
Street Theatre.
1927:
Approximately nine hundred people, including Zionists and non-Zionists attended
a dinner at the Hotel Biltmore this evening that had been arranged by Judge
Irving Lehman to celebrate “the accord which now exists” among most Jewish
factions regarding “the up-building of Palestine.”
1927: In
Detroit, the libel case brought by Aaron Sapiro against Henry Ford, Stewart
Handley, a member of the Ford legal staff testified that stories published in
Ford’s Dearborn Independent from 1920 to 1922 “cast aspersions on the whole
Jewish race.”
1928(1st of
Nisan, 5688): Rosh Chodesh
1928(1st
of Nisan, 5688): Sixty-six-year-old Canadian tobacco mogul Sir Mortimer Barnett
Davis, the Montreal born son Samuel and Minnie Falk Davis a member of Temple
Emanu-El in Quebec and “a key force in building the Mount Sinai Sanatorium” who
in 1924 divorced his first wife Henriette Marie Meye to marry Eleanor Curran.
https://www.jgh.ca/about-us/jgh-archives/finding-aids-and-glossary-temp/sir-mortimer-b-davis/
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/davis-mortimer-b
1928: “Spione”
(Spies in English) directed and written by Fritz Lang was released today in
Germany
1929: The
month-long celebration of the 20th anniversary of the founding of Tel Aviv
began with a Purim Carnival.
1929: “Diary
of a Coquette” silent drama directed by Constantin J. David and produced by
Seymour Nebenzal was released in Germany today.
1930: In New
York City, the former Etta Janet “Foxy” Fox, a dress designer and Herbert
Sondheim, who “manufactured dresses designed by his wife” gave birth to
composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim who, at the age of ten began studying
lyric writing with Oscar Hammerstein a family friend and went on to compose his
own music and lyrics for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962),
Follies (1971), Sweeney Todd (1979) and Sunday in the Park with George (1984)
to name just a few of his accomplishments.
https://www.biography.com/musician/stephen-sondheim
1931: “In the
Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood of Montréal, Québec, Canada Ann (née
Garmaise) and Joseph Shatner, a clothing manufacture” gave birth to William
Shatner best known as Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. (Editor’s note –
Kirk and Spock never talked about their bar mitzvahs in any of the episodes I
ever saw)
1931: In
Brooklyn “Fanny (Pollack) and Abraham Richter, a textile worker” gave birth
Nobel Prize winner in Physics and the “director of the Stanford Linear
Accelerator Center.”
1931:
Moghannam Elias Moghannam, a member of the Palestine Arab Executive declared
that “it was totally untrue that certain Arab politicians had met Jewish
representatives I Palestine into to establish the preliminary basis of a peace
parley.” The Arab leader was especially critical of any Arab who was willing to
meet with Dr. Chaim Weizmann who had arrived in Tel Aviv in an attempt to reach
a modus Vivendi that would restore peace to Palestine.
1931:
“Marshall Letter Won $500,000 Gift” tells the hitherto unknown story of how a
letter from Louis Marshall to Julius Rosenwald resulted in the latter’s
decision to make a major donation to the Jewish Theological Seminary.
1932(14th
of Adar, II, 5692): Purim
1932: In
Germany, premiere of “Peter Voss, Thief of Millions” with a script co-authored
by Bruno Frank and directed by Ewald André Dupont for whom this would be his
penultimate film in Germany before being forced to flee due to the rise of the
Nazis even though he was not Jewish.
1932: “One
Hour With You” a musical comedy directed by George Cukor and Ernst Lubitsch who
also produced the film which was written by Samson Raphaelson and with music by
Oscar Straus was released in the United States today.
1933: “The
Concentration Camp at Dachau was opened today with the arrival of about 200
prisoners from Stadelheim Prison in Munich and the Landsberg fortress.” According to the official press statement
(yes the Nazis issued a press release for this) on March 22, “Wednesday the
first concentration camp is to be opened in Dachau with an accommodation for
5000 people. 'All Communists and—where necessary—Reichsbanner and Social
Democratic functionaries who endanger state security are to be concentrated
here, as in the long run it is not possible to keep individual functionaries in
the state prisons without overburdening these prisons, and on the other hand
these people cannot be released because attempts have shown that they persist
in their efforts to agitate and organize as soon as they are released.”
1934: Today,
Rabbi Norman Gerstenfeld married Louis Mundheim, the daughter of the former
Stella Kaufman, and Samuel Mundheim, the “president of the Stern Brothers
Department store on West 42nd Street in Manhattan.
1935: In
Camden, NJ, Rabbi Philip Lipis addressed Congregation Beth El during its search
for a new spiritual leader. In April,
the congregation offered him the position which he accepted.
1936: It was
reported today. that a spring fair in Tel Aviv will attract large crowds “from
overseas and Near Eastern cities.”
1936: “The
Polish Government was charged with ‘deliberate violations of its pledges made
in the treaty of June, 191 in which the Jews, together with other minority
groups, were assured full equality of rights and status’ by an emergency
conference at the Hotel Edison today attended by delegates from nearly 500
Jewish organizations.”
1936: At the
Free Synagogue in Carnegie Hall, Lewis Browne is scheduled to speak on “What
Makes A Jew?”
1936:
Professor Louis Finkelstein is scheduled to deliver an address on “The Jewish
Problem in the Perspective of History.”
1936: At
Temple Rodeph Shalom, Rabbi Louis I Newman is scheduled to deliver a message on
“Women’s Grievances Against Men and Men’s Grievances Against Women.”
1936: Rabbi
Morris Lichtenstein is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “When the Heart is
Hungry” at the Jewish Science Society.
1936: A letter
from President Roosevelt in which he commended Rabbi B. Leon Hurwitz as a
leader in Brooklyn interfaith activities was read this afternoon at the Ninth
Street Temple during the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the
founding of Congregation B’nai Shalom.
1936: Sir
Oswald Mosley, Britain’s leading fascist delivered a speech to a packed house
at Albert Hall where he delivered a speech calling for peace between Germany
and Britain while deliver “one of the most violent denunciations of the Jews”
that he has made to date.
1937(10th of
Nisan, 5697): Dr. Henry J. Wolfe, a general practitioner who “had also done
extensive work in neurology and psychiatry” passed away today at the age of 75.
A graduate of City College, Wolf earned his M.D. at Heidelberg University in
1884. One of his daughters, Mrs. Prsscilla Litavsky has made Aliyah and lives
in Tel Aviv.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that Dov
Zemel, a lorry driver, was shot at an ambush near Kfar Saba and was in critical
condition.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that British
troops captured two terrorists in a battle with an Arab gang near Acre. There
were sporadic shooting accidents in Jerusalem and Safed.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that Six Arab
prisoners sentenced to death had their sentences commuted to penal servitude
for life by the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that Two
cooperative groups settled on the Jewish National Fund land, allocated by the
Arlosoroff Memorial Fund in the Jordan Valley. Important archaeological finds
were discovered near Afula.
1938:
“Following the annexation of Austria, journalist and author Heinrich Eduard
Jacob was arrested today and eventually shipped to Dachau.
1939: In
Marylebone, London, Rosalie Fromson and Marcus Sieff, Baro Sieff of Brimpton
gave birth to their only son “The Honorable Sir David Daniel Sieff,” the
husband of Jennifer Walton with whom he had two sons, Simon and Jonathan and “a
director of retailers Marks and Spencer” which was founded by his
great-grandfather Michael Maks.
1939: The
German army occupied Memel and the region around the Lithuanian town. By that
time about 21,000 people had left the city, most of them Lithuanians as well as
a small number of Jews, the majority of the latter having left beforehand. The
Nazis confiscated private and public Jewish property valued at tens of millions
Litas. Jews had lived in Memel since the 14th century.
1940: “Horse
Fever,” produced by Alexander Yokel opened on Broadway at the Mansfield
Theatre.
1940: “In a
Good Friday interlude to his campaign for the Republican Presidential
nomination, Senator Robert of Ohio lashed out at religion intolerance and
assailed those who deliberately try to spread that kind of prejudice in the
United States” while telling a cheering crowd of more than a thousand people
that “any man born in the United States can be elected to any office whether he
be Protestant, Catholic or Jew provided only that his political views meet the
approval of a majority of the electorate.
1941(23rd
of Adar, 5701): Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudi; Shabbat Pareah
1941: It was
“disclosed” today that Colonel Morris J. Mendelsohn, chairman of the National
Council of the New Zionist Organization of America had telegraphed “an appeal
to President Roosevelt to ask the French Government for guarantees that will
abolish anti-Semitic laws and practices before” he gives “consent to food
shipments” being sent to France.
1942: The
National Jewish Welfare board announced to that “preparations for the
observance of Passover by Jewish soldiers and sailors at twenty-one oversea
based have been completed and approved by the War and Navy Departents.”
1942 “The
National Council of Young Israel celebrated its 30th anniversary”
tonight” at the Hotel Commodore.
1943: The
first group of Macedonian Jews were shipped from Skopje to Treblinka.
1943: While flying with a group of six Yak
fighters, Lydia Litvyak shot down a Junker 88 bomber and a Messerschmitt
fighter and then, after having been wounded, managed to land safely despite
being in severe pain and suffering significant loss of blood.
1943: The
first of four new crematoriums at Auschwitz was ready for use and began
operation.
1943(15th
of Adar II, 5703): Shushan Purim
1943(15th
of Adar II, 5703): Seventy-seven-year-old Dr. Lucian Mayer Langbank died today
at Theresienstadt Ghetto.
1943: Time magazine reported on
speech by Henri Honoré Giraud in which the High Commissioner of North Africa
disavowed the conditions of the German armistice and the subsequent decrees of
Vichy ("promulgated without the participation of the French people,and
directed against them"). He said that Vichy's anti-Jewish laws "no
longer exist," promised to hold municipal elections in North Africa. He
also revoked the Cremieux Decree of 1870, which granted French citizenship en
bloc to Jews in Algeria, but excluded the Arabs. Henceforth, Moslems and Jews
must complement each other economically, "the latter working in his shop,
the former in the desert, without either having advantage over the other,
France assuring both security and tranquility."
1944: The Washington Post reported "Poles
Report Nazis Slay 10,000 Daily." (Jewish Virtual Library)
1944: Shlomo
Venezia and his family who were living in Thessaloniki were deported to Athens,
the first leg of a trip that would take them Auschwitz.
1944: In
Poland, at the Koldzyczewo Work Camp Shlomo Kushnir succeeded in leading almost
all the Jewish inmates who were still alive out of the camp after killing ten
Nazi guards. Kushnir committed suicide when he was caught with twenty-five
others. The others joined the partisans in the forests.
1945: In New
York City, “Miriam "Mimi", a teacher, studio executive, and radio
writer, and Leon Roth, a university teacher and film producer” gave birth to
Eric Roth who “won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest
Gump” in 1994.
1945: The
headline in today’s edition of The Sentinel read “Soviet Jews Join World Jewry
in Mourning,” Rabbinate Calls For Opening of Gates of Palestine.
1945: The
police and the District Attorney's office still sought tonight to solve the
mystery surrounding the fatal stabbing of Samuel Zuckerman, 50 years old,
outside the doorway of his sixth floor home in the Euclid Apartments, 2345
Broadway, early today, when he was summoned to answer a telephone call.
1945: The Arab
League was formed today in Cairo. "The League's first resolutions included
a restriction on Egyptian Muslim contact with those who were call 'supporters
of Zionism,' that is, all Egyptian Jews."
1946: Gotthil
Wagner was killed by as yet unidentified gunmen today outside of Tel Aviv.
Wagner was a German national who had been detained by the British as an enemy
alien. The British were permitting Wagner to engage in his various business
interests. Reportedly several younger Jews were not happy with Wagner and other
Germans to return to a normal life in Palestine because they had openly
sympathized with Nazi policies before the war “and openly voice anti-Jewish
sentiments.”
1946:
“Gotthilf Wagner, former mayor of the German colony of Sarona, near Tel Aviv,”
a pre-war S.S. Group Leader “and one of the leading Palestine Nazis, was today
shot to death as he journeyed from Sarona to Wilhelma, another German
community.”
1946:
Birthdate of Tel Aviv native Rivka Golani, the daughter of Holocaust survivors
who became a world class viola player.
https://www.naxos.com/person/Rivka_Golani/249.htm
1947: For the
first time in eight days, all 12 members of the Anglo-American Committee of
Inquiry on Palestine were at the hearing in Jerusalem where a variety of
Christian leaders described their view (and needs) of the current conflict
between Arabs and Jews. The Anglican Bishop in Jersualem described the conflict
as one of “differing civilizations and different tempos of progress.”
1947: “Mr. and
Mrs. Bert Adler” of Woodmere, LI, “announced the engagement of their daughter
Joan,” a graduate of Goucher College “to Norman A. Lish the son of Mr. and Mrs.
Samuel Lish” who is studying at Hobart College.
1947: Sigmund
Menkes was award the Corcoran Gold Medal and the first W.A. Clark Prize for his
entry “Day’s End, 1946” in the Twentieth Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary
Painitings sponsored by the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Thirty-two year old Jack
Levine of Boston won the Bronze Medal for his entry “Apteka” making him the
youngest of the winners.
1947:
“Hagannah posted pamphlets in Tel Avi” today “accusing the Irgun…of being
deserters from the Zionist struggle and of wasting their efforts in murder
while Haganah strove to rescue Jews from Europe. As the principal organizer of
illegal immigration Haganah charged the Irgun with neglecting that primary
function.”
1947: Dr.
Nahum Goldman addressed the Tel Aviv Journalists Associate today telling them
that “the historical alliance between Britian and Jewry is nearing its end.
That alliance has existed since 1917 when the Balfour Declaration gave Zionists
their first legal claim on Palestine as a national home. Its virtual
dissolution obviously brings the Zionist movement to an hour of decision. It
must ovtain a new international guarantee, another protector among the great
powers.
1948: “Twenty
Jews…were reported killed today in two battles at Nitzanim, near the
Mediterranian coast in the land of the ancient Philistines.”
1948:
“Referring to the new American proposal for an international trusteeship,” “the
Moscow radio charged today that ‘neither Britain nor America ever intended that
the U.N. partition decision on Palestine should be carried out.’” (JTA)
1948: Today,
while introducing “a joint resolution to authorize the shipment of arms and
munitions to Jews in Palestine,” Representative Jacob K. Javits “argued that
failure to ship arms would leave 700,000 Jews in Palestine defenseless and ripe
for slaughter by the thousands of Arab fanatics who are being armed and
supplied, as all the world knows, by the surrounding Arab States.”
1948: In
Augusburg, Germany, Holocaust survivors Cesia Blitzer (née Zylberfuden), a
homemaker, and David Blitzer, a home builder gave birth to Wolf Blitzer the
graduate of the University of Buffalo (NY) who is best known for his work on
CNN.
1948:
Birthdate of Australian author Dr. Stephen Skinner.
1949:
Holocaust survivors Moryc Brajtbart (later Morris Breitbart) and Lucy Gliklich
“married in the Rosenheim displaced persons camp today and immigrated to the
United States the following December.”
1950:
According to New
York Times correspondent
C.L. Sulzberger, the future of Israel depends on its ability to make peace with
the surrounding Arab nations and developing normal commercial relations with
them while receiving continued political support from the the United Kingdom
and the United States and getting additional American aid so that it can meet
is “grandiose economic development plans.
1951(14th
of Adar II, 5711): Purim
1951:
Celebration of Purim assumes “a carnival air today” in New York, “particularly
ths afternoon when children in Jewish religious enact principal roles of the
Purim story in pageants, plays and dances.”
1951: “The
Government of Israel asked the United States today for $150,000,000 in
grant-in-aid for the period of July 1, 1951, to June 30, 1952, Abba S. Eban,
Israel's Ambassador to Washington announced
1952(25th
of Adar, 5712): Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudi
1952(25th of
Adar, 5712: Sixty-three-year-old attorney Elihu David Stone, the son of Elhanah
Stone and Channah Leba Libby Stone, the husband of Esther Stone and father of
Judah Meir Stone and Elchanan Stone who “was president of the Zionist Organization
of New England” passed away.
1952: “The
World Jewish Congress estimated today that the Jewish population of the
Americas had risen from 1,200,000 in 1900 to 6,000,000 in 1951, while that of Europe
had fallen from 8,900,000 to 2,700,000 in the same period
1952: “Scores
of limbless or blind persons took part in a demonstration” in Tel Aviv tonight
where “survivors of the Nazi persecution” protested “against the reparations
talks with West Germany” that started in the Hague yesterday.
1953: Arthur
Miller's "Crucible" premiered in New York City.
1954: In San
Antonio, TX, Clarice Lerner and restauranteur Aaron Golden gave birth to
Marilyn Golden, the “companion of Rabbi David J. Cooper” and advocate for the
disabled who played a played a key role in the passage of he American With
Disabilities Act. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1955:
“Yellowneck,” a film set in the Everglades of 1863 with music by Laurence
Rosenthal was released today in the United States.
1955: Twenty-nine-year-old
Max “Slats” Zaslofsky playing in his second to the last season with the Fort
Wayne Pistons providing the winning margin in the playoff game with the Lakers.
1956: In
London, Royal World Premiere of “Alexander the Great” a Hollywood “epic”
directed, produced and written by Robert Rossen and co-starring Claire Bloom.
1956: The
Broadway production of “Mr. Wonderful” a musical starring Sammy Davis, Jr with
music and lyrics by Jerry Bock and George David Weiss and a book co-authored by
Joseph Stein opened today at The Broadway Theatre today.
1957: Israeli
forces withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula as part of the peace process following
the Suez Crisis of 1956. Failure of the international community and United
Nations to honor its guarantees will lead to further crisis that will boil over
into the Six Day War of 1967.
1957(19th
of Adar II, 5717): Sixty-one-year-old Geoffrey Joel, the son of Woolf Joel, and
husband of Edith Joel passed away in Johannesburg
1958(1st of
Nisan, 5718): Rosh Chodesh Nisan;Shabbat HaChodesh
1958(1st
of Nisan, 5718): Forty-eight-year-old Art Cohn, the husband of Marta Cohn and
the Oakland Tribune sports journalist
who wrote the column “The Cohn-ing Tower” died today in the same plane crash
that claimed the life of Mike Todd.
http://tribunegogetters.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_26.html
1958(1st of
Nisan, 5718): Movie producer Michael Todd died in an airplane crash in New
Mexico. Born Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen in 1909, Todd won an Academy Award for Best
Picture in 1956 for producing Around the World in Eighty Days. At the time of
his death, he was married to Elizabeth Taylor who would later marry Jewish
crooner, Eddie Fisher. Along the way, Ms. Taylor would convert to Judaism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeoJFUT6m28#aid=P7JYwcjLtNA
http://documents.latimes.com/mike-todd-plane-crash/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0865239/bio
1959: In New
York, Yaakov Moshe Friedman, “an administrator at the United Lubavitcher
Yishiva in Crown Heights” and his wife gave birth to Avraham Shabsi Hakohen
Friedman “better known by his stage name Avraham Fried.”
1960(23rd
of Adar, 5720): Fifty-seven-year-old Simon Levy, the director of security for
the New Yorker Hotel in New York and a former inspector for the State Boxing
Commission of New York who had two daughters with his wife fanny passed away
tonight in Long Beach, L.I.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/03/24/105187533.html?pageNumber=33
1960: Arthur
Leonard Schawlow whose father was a Jewish immigrant from Latvia and Charles
Hard Townes receives the first patent for a laser.
1961(5th
of Nisan 5721): Eighty-eight-year-old Frederick Z. “Fred” Salomon, the Greeley,
CO, born son of Adolph and Mathilde Salomon, the husband of Helen Salomon and
the father of Fred, Jr who helped to create what is now the Famous Barr Co.
passed away today in St. Louis.
https://www.geni.com/people/Frederick-Salomon/6000000078555675279
1962: In
another reminder of the depth of Jewish involvement in the world of the
Broadway Musical “ I Can Get It For You Wholesale” premiered at the Schubert
Theatre. It was based on the novel by Jerome Weidman who wrote the script, with
music and lyrics by Harold Rome, directed by Arthur Laurens, starring Elliot
Gould and introducing Barbra Streisand as “Miss Marmelstein.”
1963(26th
of Adar, 5723): Fifty-five-year-old composer Abraham “Abe” Ellstein passed
away.
http://www.milkenarchive.org/people/view/all/511/Abraham+Ellstein
1965(18th
of Adar II, 5725): Eighty-four-year-old University of West Virginia tackle who
“during several games away from home heard he cry of ‘Kill the Jew’” and who
went on to a career in law and politics which took him to U.S. House of
Representatives passed away today in Cleveland.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/benjamin-louis-rosenbloom
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=R000441
1965: Yitzhak
Rafael completed his service as Deputy Minister of Health.
1965: More
than 400 persons paid tribute tonight to Dr. David de Sola Pool, rabbi emeritus
of Congregation Shearith Israel–the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue–in honor
of the rabbi’s 80th birthday. (JTA)
1965: Bob
Dylan "goes electric," releasing his first album featuring electric
instruments, Bringing It All Back Home.
1966(1st
of Nisan, 5726): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1966(1st
of Nisan, 5726): Sixty-one-year-old Austrian born and Prague trained award
winning biochemist Heinrich B. Waelsach, a professor at Columbia’s Collee of
Physicians and Surgeon and the husband of Dr. Salome G. Waelsch, a professor at
Albert Einstein College of Medicine with whom he raised two children – Peter
and Naomi – passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/03/23/79985075.pdf
1967: “Thunder
Alley” produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff and co-starring Jan Murray was released in
the United States today.
1968: In
Paris, the so-called “Movement of 22 March” during which George “Wolinski
co-founded the satirical magazine L'Enragé”
began today.
1969(3rd
of Nisan, 5729): Begin the Book of Vayikra
1969(3rd of
Nisan, 5729): Eighty-one-year-old Ms. Anna Nikolayvena Dymow, the widow of Ossip
Dymow who wrote for the Yiddish theater for forty years, passed away today and
she is survived by “a stepdaughter, Mrs. Isabel Sakier.
1969: Three
days after he had passed away, memorial services are scheduled to be held at
the Princeton University Chapel for 31-year-old Sociology Professor Dr. Ian
Weinberg, the son of Mrs. Golda Weinberg.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/03/19/90071779.pdf
1969(3rd
of Nisan, 5729): Seventy-eight-year-old Ernst Deutsch, the Austrian actor, who
spent the war in the United States ironically playing “Nazi and German
officers” and who is best known for his role in the classic spy film “The Third
Man” passed away today in Berlin after which he was interred in that city’s
Jewish Cemetery.
1970(14th
of Adar II, 5730): Purim
1970(14th
of Adar II, 5730): Forty-six Robert Ludwig Kahn, the Nuremberg born son of
Jewish businessman Gustav Kahn and the former Beatrice Freudenthal (both of
whom were murdered in the Holocaust) who survived because of he Kindertransport
and went on to became a Professor of German at Rice University in Houston while
raised two children, Peter and Beatrice, with his wife, poet Lieselotte
Maragrete Kupfer passed away today.
1972: In an
aritcle in the Jerusalem
Post,
Walter Eytan, who has served as Ambassador to France and Chairman of the Israel
Broadcasting Authority, wrote that he was sure Israelis would vote
overwhelmingly in a favor of a move to leave the West Bank if that departure
would guarantee peace. He was equally sure that Israelis would reject a call
for withdrawal just for the sake of withdrawal that was not part of a
guaranteed peace.
1973: Lyndon B
Johnson President died at his Texas Ranch at the age of 64. As a young member
of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1930’s, Johnson intervened to help
bring Jews from Hitler’s Europe to the United. In 1945, he visited
concentration camps in Germany where he was visibility moved by the suffering
inflicted on the Jewish people. At the time of the 1956 Suez Crisis, As a U.S.
Senator in 1956 and 1957, Johnson opposed the Eisenhower Administration's
pressure on Israel and supported her position. During the crisis that led to
the Six Day War in 1967, President Johnson urged the Israelis to act with
caution. Pre-occupied with the Vietnam War, Johnson attempted to organize an
International Flotilla that would enter the Straits of Tiran and break the
Egyptian Blockade of Elath. His attempts failed. Based on his intelligence
reports, Johnson assured the Israelis that he knew they would emerge
victorious. As the war came to a close, the Soviets attempted to repeat their
1956 diplomatic rescue of their Arab allies. The Soviets threatened military
action unless the Israelis immediately withdrew. Unlike Eisenhower, Johnson did
not cave into the threat. Instead he mobilized the Sixth Fleet and sent into
the eastern Mediterranean. The Soviets got the message. After the war, Johnson
saw to it that America filled the void left by France's new anti-Israel policy
and the United States became the main arms supplier for the IDF. Thanks to
Johnson’s efforts, the 1964 Civil Rights Act became law which, among other
things, banned discrimination against religion. Last but not least, one of
Johnson’s favorite lines was from Isaiah, “Come let us reason together;” a line
when uttered was a sure sign that an opponent was about to get “The Treatment”
intended to turn foe into political friend.
1973(18th
of Adar II, 5733): Seventy-nine-year-old
Hilda Geiringer, the Vienna born daughter of Ludwig Geiringer and the former
Martha Weltheimer who overcame religious prejudice and sexism to become a world
class mathematician passed away today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/geiringer-hilda
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191031-hilda-geiringer-mathematician-who-fled-the-nazis
1977: The
second season of “One Day At A Time” starring Bonnie Franklin comes to an end.
1977(3rd
of Nisan, 5737): Seventy-six-year-old Henry Calechman, the “son of Joseph
Calechman” and the husband of Gertrude Calechman passed away today after which
he was buried at B’nai Jacob Memorial Park in New Haven, CT.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the 4,500
employees of the country's three ports went on a general strike to back up
their demands for an increase of IL 600 per month. Only passenger ships were
exempted.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the
Supreme Court set a precedent in declaring an Israeli citizen extraditable. An
Israeli businessman who was wanted by the Swiss government on charges of
defrauding a bank was declared extraditable in a precedent-setting ruling.
1978: Harold
Herman Greene, the refugee from Hitler’s Germany and WW II Army veteran who
graduated from George Washington University Law School was nominated to a seat
on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
1979: The West
End production of “Ain’t Misbehavin’” a musical with a “book” co-authored by
Murray Horwitz opened today at Her Majesty’s Theatre
1979: The
Israeli Parliament approved the peace treaty with Egypt.
1981(16th of
Adar II, 5741): Purim Meshulash observed for the first time during the
Presidency of Ronald Reagan.
1983: Chaim
Herzog was elected President of Israel today by the Knesset defeating Menachem
Elon.
1984(18th
of Adar II, 5744): Fifty-six-year-old Harvard and Princeton trained economist
Otto Eckstein, the German born son of Hugo and Hedwig Eckstein, best known as
the co-founder of Data Resources Inc. passed away today.
http://www.hetwebsite.net/het/profiles/eckstein.htm
1987: The New York Times reviews "The
Messiah of Stockholm" by Cynthia Ozick, a novel that is dedicated to
Philip Roth.
1989(15th
of Adar II, 5749): Shushan Purim
1989(15th
of Adar II,5749): Julian M. Sieroty, the Los Angles born so of Adolph and Maye
M. Brown Sieroty and the husband of Jean Sommer Sieroty passed away today after
which he was interred at the Home of Peace Memorial Park in East Los Angeles.
1990:
“Ambulance,” an off-beat comedy written by Larry Cohn who also produced and
directed the film co-starring Red Buttons was released in the United States
today.
1991: “Delta
Force 3: The Killing Game” directed by Sam Firstenberg with a script
co-authored by Boaz Davidson was released in the United States today.
1992:
The original Broadway production of “Conversations With My Father,” a play that
“presents the saga of a first generation of American Jews who came of age in
the Depression and were assimilated at a high price during and after World War
II” opened at the Royale Theatre.
1993: The
third round of talks comes to an end at Oslo, Norway.
1994(10th
of Nisan, 5754): Ninety-year-old Ruth Spiegel who in 1929 had been married “in
the Crystal Room of the Ritz-Carlton” by Rabbi William Fineshriber of
Philadelphia to attorney Sylvan Hobson Hirsch who passed away in 1945 and then
married Frederick William Spiegel in 1949 passed away today in Chicago.
1995: Hilary
Koprowski was awarded the title of Commander of the Order of the Lion of
Finland by the President of the Republic of Finland. 1995: Hillary Koprowski
was awarded the title of Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland by the
President of the Republic of Finland. A native of Poland, Koprowski is an
American virologist and immunologist, and inventor of the world's first
effective live polio vaccine. He was one of three Jews – the other two being
Salk and Sabin – who played a leading role in developing a Polio Vaccine.
1998: “Escape:
Human Cargo,” co-starring Sasson Gabai was broadcast for the first time in the
U.S. on Showtime television network.
1998: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including
Laughing Matters: On Writing ''M*A*S*H,'' ''Tootsie,'' ''Oh, God!,'' and a Few
Other Funny Things by Larry Gelbart, A March to Madness: The View From the Floor
in the Atlantic Coast Conference by John Feinstein and Spin Cyle: Inside the
Clinton Propaganda Machine by Howard Kurtz.
1999: Eliezer
Sandberg left the Israel in the Centre party to establish HaTzeirim
1999(5th of
Nisan, 5759): Eighty-five-year-old British historian Max Beloff, passed away.
In addition to his academic accomplishments, Beloff served as governor of the
University of Haifa and as Baron Beloff served as an active member of the House
of Lords. According to the Unbroken Chain, the Beloff’s family lineage traces
back “to the House of David as descendants of Rabbi Meir Katzenellenbogen, the
Maharam of Padua.” For about Beloff see his autobiography An Historian in
the Twentieth Century.
2000: In “A
Victim's Sang-Froid in Very Coldblooded Times,” published today Richard
Bernstein not only reviews I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years,
1942-1945 by Victor Klemperer; translated and with a preface by Martin
Chalmers but provides a valuable picture of the privation faced by this hidden
Jew.
2001: It was
reported today that An Internet photo contest that included a picture of
Muhammad al-Durrah, who was shot to death in September in a battle between
Israeli and Palestinian security forces in the Gaza Strip and that had become a
test of wills over the Middle East was pulled from the Web because its sponsor,
MSNBC.com, said it had determined that a sizable number of votes had been
rigged.
2002(9th
of Nisan, 5762): Seventy-nine-year-old Josef von Stroheim, the son of director
Erich von Stroheim passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/mar/30/local/me-vonstroheim30
2003: “Leaders
of the Palestinian group Hamas urged Iraqis to use suicide as a weapon against
invading troops.”
2003: “French
Jews Tell of a New and Threatening Wave of Anti-Semitism” published today.
2004: Ahmed
Yassin, co-founder and leader of Hamas, and his bodyguards are killed in the
Gaza Strip when hit by Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache fired Hellfire missiles.
2005: The
New-York Historical Society opened an exhibit entitled "First Ladies of
New York and the Nation." Among the unusual items on display in the
exhibit were four handbags created by Judith Lieber.”
http://jwa.org/thisweek/mar/22/2005/judith-leiber
2006: Rabbi
Joseph Telushkin delivers a speech on "A Code of Jewish Ethics",
followed by a book signing at Barnes and Noble Bookstore in New York City.
2006: A new
production of “Shenandoah,” a musical with a book co-authored by Philip Rose
opened at Ford Theatre in Washington, D.C.
2006: In
Seville, Spain, the Second World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for peace came to
a close.
2006: Haaretz reported that a string
of anti-Semitic incidents in the aftermath of the torture and murder of a young
Jewish vendor is fueling concerns that anti-Jewish feelings are spreading in
France's black community. The incidents - three physical attacks allegedly
committed by blacks of Muslim descent - occurred in recent days, following the
extradition from Ivory Coast of Youssouf Fofana, the alleged leader of the gang
that kidnapped and murdered 21-year-old Ilan Halimi. The alleged involvement of
blacks has added a new twist to the wave of anti-Semitic incidents in recent
years, which mostly were the work of young Muslims of North African descent
responding to the Palestinian intifada.
2007: Ira
Glass and company began airing a television version of This American Life as
half-hour episodes on the Showtime network.
2007: In a
move opposed by the family of Bess Houdini, Harry “Houdini's grand-nephew (the
grandson of his brother Theo), George Hardeen, announced that the courts would
be asked to allow exhumation of Houdini's body, to investigate the possibility
of Houdini being murdered by spiritualists, as suggested in the biography The
Secret Life of Houdini.
2008: Shushan
Purim, 5768
2008: As part
of the Israel at 60, the 92nd Street Y presents Danny Sanderson, Israeli
lyricist and pop icon. Sanderson, a singer-songwriter legend whose album, Kongo
Blues, was voted January 06 album of the month in Israel, performs some of
Israel's best known and most beloved songs.
2008:
Publication of selected writings of Pfc. Daniel Agami, of blessed memory.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/us/4000agami.web.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
2009: An
exhibition featuring the works of Israeli born photographer Shai Kremer at the
Metropolitan Museum comes to a close.
2009: The YIVO
Institute for Jewish Research presents a speech by Dr. David Fishman of the
Jewish Theological Seminary on the topic "The Problem of Religion and
Secularism among Secular Yiddishists in Eastern Europe.
2009: The New York Times features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including
the recently published paperback edition of “Now You See Him” by Eli Gotlieb.
2009: At
Temple Sinai in Los Angeles, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen “faced off
against some 400 Iranian Jews and Bahais” who took exception to his recent
columns describing the plight of Jews living in Iran.
2010: The 14th
Annual Hartford Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present “Tribute:
Observations on Survival and Spirit - Lessons from the Holocaust” featuring
eight short films including “Holding Leah,” “Pigeon,” “Sarah and Hayah,” “The
Next Harvest,” “The Wall,” “Torte Bluma,” “Toyland” and “Waiting for Dachau.”
2010: Shots
were fired at an Israeli army patrol this evening next to Aduraim in the
southern Hevron Hills. No injuries or damage were reported. Additional troops
were sent to search the scene.
2010(7th of
Nisan, 5760): Rabbi Zachary Heller, past president of the World Council of
Masorti Synagogues and a congregational rabbi for nearly 30 years died today
after a long battle with cancer. He was 71. He served as senior rabbi of Temple
Emanu-El, a Conservative congregation in Bayonne, N.J., for 29 years, and was
considered "a rabbi's rabbi," according to a death notice in The New
York Times. Heller worked as the associate director of the National Center for
Jewish Policy Studies for 12 years from 1997. As president of the World Council
of Masorti Synagogues from 1989 to 1994, he lectured and taught in 22 countries
and mentored rabbis in many communities. The Masorti movement in Israel is
affiliated with Conservative Judaism.
2011: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held today in Covina, CA for actor Al Israel, Jr.
who was survived by his children Kathleen and John and his grandchildren Johnny
and Lizzy
2011: Tony
Kushner’s latest play, “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and
Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures,” is scheduled to open today.
2011: Moshe
Katsav was sentenced to seven years in prison and two years’ probation for
rape, indecent acts, sexual harassment and obstruction of justice, becoming the
first former President of Israel to be sentenced to prison. In addition, he was
ordered to pay one of the women compensation totaling 100,000 NIS and another a
sum of 25,000 NIS
2011: “James’
Journey to Jerusalem” is scheduled to be shown in Iowa City as part of the
Hillel Film Series.
2011(16h of
Adar II): On this date on the Hebrew Calendar the rebuilding of the walls of
Jerusalem began under King Agrippa I.
2011: The
three major film schools in Manhattan-- Columbia University School of Arts, The
School of Visual Arts Film School and NYU Tisch School of the Arts--, are
scheduled to host the opening night of a three day salute to the achievements
of the Sam Spiegel Film School. “Over the last decade The Sam Spiegel Film
School played a pivotal role in the film renaissance of Israeli cinema by
virtue of its distinctive focus on a personal and sensitive dialogue with the
audience.”
2011:
Thirty-five congregations including shuls from cities as large as Phoenix and
Las Vegas, and as small as Chesterfield, Mo. and Norfolk, VA have registered
for the 3rd annual Emerging Communities Conference sponsored by the Orthodox
Union which is scheduled to begin today.
2011: Today,
the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced former president Moshe Katsav to seven
years in prison and two years’ probation for rape and sexual harassment, which
he was convicted of in December. Judges George Karra, Judith Shevach and Miriam
Sokolov also ruled that Katsav pay NIS 100,000 to victim "Aleph" from
the Tourism Ministry.
2011: The IDF
spokesperson said that following the launch of Kassam rockets, that the IDF
fired mortar shells at the Kassam launch site. Apparently, innocent civilians
were hit in the strike. The spokesperson stressed, however, that Hamas was
responsible for firing Kassams from within densely populated civilian areas.
2011: Knesset
Speaker Reuven Rivlin slammed the “dangerous” military conversion bill, while
calling on the rabbinate to increase and enhance its conversion efforts as a
countermeasure to the massive assimilation taking place in Israel. (As reported
by Isaac Harari)
2011: A Grad
rocket fired from Gaza exploded south of Ashdod today after a day of escalation
along the border.
2011: The
opening of the exhibition by artist Sharon Poliakine and painter Oren Eliav,
takes place at The Tel Aviv Museum of Art
2011: In “New
edition out for Maxwell House Haggadah, part of Passover tradition for many
American Jews” that “From the White House to the Schein house, Passover is good
to the last drop thanks to the Maxwell House Haggadah, lovingly passed down
through generations, red wine splotches and gravy smears marking nearly 80
years of service at American Seder tables.
http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=118438959
2012: Spokane
Jewish Cultural Cultural Film Festival is scheduled to open in Spokane,
Washington
2012: The 16th
Annual New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to a close.
2012: The
Jewish Music Festival is scheduled to present the Bustan Quartet in Berkley,
CA.
2013: Julius
Genachowski announced that he would be leaving the FCC which he had been
chairing since June of 2009.
2013: “The
Gang’s All Here” which features Benny Goodman playing himself is scheduled to
be shown as part of the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Classic Film Series.
2013:
Portugal’s national soccer team is scheduled to square off against its Israeli
rivals at the national stadium in Ramat Gan this afternoon.
2013:
Political leaders flocked this morning to the bedside of Acre Mayor Shimon
Lankri, who survived an assassination attempt in what doctors describe as a
lucky escape.
2013: Barack
Obama ended his first presidential visit to Israel and headed off to Jordan
today, after another packed day.
2013:
President Barack Obama scored a diplomatic coup just before leaving Israel when
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkey for a 2010 commando raid
that killed nine activists on a Turkish vessel in a Gaza-bound flotilla.
2014:
The Jewish Children’s Regional Service (JCRS) which has done an outstanding job
of serving Jewish families and youth since 1855, is scheduled to host a gala
fundraiser “The Jewish Roots of Broadway.”
2014:
“The German Doctor” is scheduled to be shown at the Northern Virginia Jewish
Film Festival.
2014:
“A Palestinian militants sent threatening text messages to a large number of
Israelis this evening, calling on them to leave the country and warning them
they would be “the next Gilad Shalit.”
2014:
“Hunting Elephants” and “The Attack” are scheduled to be shown at the Houston
Jewish Film Festival.
2014:
“A joint IDF, Shin Bet and Border Police raid early today killed a wanted Hamas
operative in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank who was
reportedly plotting a major terrorist attack.”
2014:
Flexibility Key to Survival” published today described the way that Lebo’s the
91 year old family owned footwear business founded by Sidney Levin has changed
to meet the needs and challenges of its customers.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/20/6252722/for-family-owned-business-flexibility.html
2014:
In Rockville, MD, The Magen David Sephardic Congregation is scheduled host its
fundraiser “Casino Night”
http://www.magendavidsephardic.org/
2015:
“Disobedience - The Sousa Mendes Story” (Desobeir) is scheduled to be shown at
the Northern Virginia Jewish Film Festival.
2015:
“Letter to Afar, “an exhibition “based on films taken by Jewish immigrants who
traveled from New York back to Poland during the 1920’s and 1930’s came to a
close today at the Museum of the City of New York.
2015:
Ron Arons, author of "Jews of Sing Sing" and of "Mind Maps for
Genealogy," is scheduled to introduce basic concepts of "family
systems theory" at the Center for Jewish History.
2015;
In Cedar Rapids, Dan Bern, the son of Marianne Bern, is scheduled to perform as
CSPC.
2015:
“Letters to Afar: Installation by Péter Forgács and The Klezmatics,” a new
exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York is scheduled to be closed today.
(As reported by Cathryn J. Prince)
2016:
The annual AIPAC conference in Washington, DC is scheduled to come to an end.
2016:
The “Jews in the American South” is scheduled to visit Hobcaw Barony, the
on-time hunting retreat of Wall Street Investment Maven and Presidential
advisor Bernard Baruch, who contrary to the popular caricature was a native of
Camden, South Caroline where his father practiced medicine.
2016:
“Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt” is scheduled to be shown at the JCC
Manhattan
2017:
Today “Yahya Sinwar said Hamas would not allow the State of Israel to exist on
even a “morsel” of land.”
2017:
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely: "Israel expresses its deep shock
at the terror attack in London today and its solidarity with the victims and
with the people and government of Great Britain. Terror is terror wherever it occurs,
and we will fight it relentlessly."
2017:
Producer, keyboardist, lyricist, composer and performer Idan Raichel, a global
music icon and “leader of The Idan Raichel Project is scheduled to perform this
evening at City Winery in New York.
2017:
In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host an Israeli Wine Tasting and
a discussion led by Rabbi Feivel Strauss on “The Role of Wine in Judaism – From
the Bible Through Prohibition.
2018:
JW3 is scheduled to host the final screening in London of “Bombshell: The Hedy
Lamarr Story.”
2018:
Weather permitting, the New Jersey Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host
screenings of “Across the Line” and “Operation Wedding.”
2018(6th
of Nisan, 5778): Ninety-four-year-old Charles P. Lazarus, the Washington, DC
born son of bike shop owners Frank and Phoebe Lazarus who found Toys “R” US
passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/obituaries/charles-p-lazarus-toys-r-us-founder-dies-at-94.html/
2018:
"Bal Ej: the hidden Jews of Ethiopia" is scheduled to be shown at
Beit Oleh America Netanya AACI, Israel followed by a Q and A with filmmaker
Irene Orleansky.
2019:
The Meyerson JCC is scheduled to host “Shabbat Shabbang” featuring a world
premiere concert by Joanie Leeds and Matthew Check.
2018:
Fifty years after the publication of his controversial book The Population
Bomb, biologist Paul Ehrlich warns overpopulation and overconsumption are
driving us over the edge.”
2019:
As Jews prepare for Shabbat, one question they may be asking is if President
Trump’s twitter about the Golan Heights is venting, like his recent attacks on
Senator McCain who has been dead for seven months or if they represent an
official change in U.S. policy.
2019
The Boca Raton Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host screenings of
“Fractures” and “Waldheim Waltz.”
2019:
In San Jose, the 3Below Theaters and Lounge is scheduled to host “An Evening
with Groucho” as in Groucho Marx.
2019:
Forbidden Music, “an exploration of forgotten masterworks written by composers
living under the shadow of oppressive regimes and perished in the Holocaust” is
scheduled to continue for a second night in the San Francisco Bay area.
2020:
It was reported that Lizabeth Cohen’s Saving America’s Cities: Ed Logue and
the Struggle to Renew Urban American in the Suburban Age has won this
year’s Bancroft Prize, “one of the most prestigious honors in the field of
American history.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-374-25408-7
2020:
The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your
Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker by Barry Sonnenfeld and The
Power Notebooks by Katie Roiphe.
2020:
“In Search of Jewish Homelands” during which “local writer and teacher Dan Schifrin
was to have expanded on his January 2020 J. cover story about his heritage
visit to Spain with his family, and the country’s Jewish history and
communities” which was scheduled to take place today at the Jewish Community
Library in San Francisco has been postponed due to the pandemic.
2020:
The “Beth Ami Spring Concert” featuring a three-person string circle including
violin master Joseph Edelberg plus flutiest Stacey Pelinka which was scheduled
to take place this evening at Congregation Ner Shalom in Cotati, CA has been
postponed due to the pandemic.
2020:
The final Limmudfest-Meeting scheduled to take place today in New Orleans has
been canceled due to the pandemic
2020:
The concert by HaZamir, the International Jewish Teen Choir, honoring Rabbi
Daniel Freelander scheduled to take place this afternoon at Lincoln Center has
been canceled.
2020:
“A special online concert by Ian Raichel organized by the Jewish Agency” is
scheduled to take place today at 4 pm EDT.
2021: The
British Library, in association with The National Library of Israel is
scheduled to present “Hebrew Manuscripts: Journeys of the Written Word- Roly
Keating (Chief Executive, British Library)
-
Oren Weinberg (Director General, National Library of Israel) - Ilana Tahan
(Lead Curator, Hebrew & Christian Orient Collections, British Library) and
Yoel Finkelman (Curator Judaica Collection, National Library of Israel)
2021:
In celebration of Women’s History Month, the Jewish Community Center of the
North Shore is schedule to present a panel discussion featuring authors Janice
Kaplan (“The Genius of Women”); Maureen Trestman (“Fair Labor Lawyer: The
Remarkable Life of New Deal Attorney and Supreme Court Advocate Bessie
Margolin”); and Jill Wine-Banks (“The Watergate Girl: My Fight for Truth and
Justice Against a Criminal President”
2021:
The London School of Jewish studies is scheduled to present the final session
in Part 1 of 'The Torah of Rabbi Sacks zt"l', with Rabbi Joe Wolfson, who
will lead a discussion into ideas of Pesach and freedom.
2021:
Sha’ar Zahav is scheduled to present Tulane professor Golan Moskowitz who will
talk about the Maurice Sendak’s perspective as a gay, Jewish, son of
Yiddish-speaking Polish immigrants, and how his monsters changed children’s
literature.
2021:
The Boston College Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life is
scheduled to “host a screening of the film “Spiritual Audacity: The Abraham
Joshua Heschel Story” and a panel discussion with filmmaker Martin Doblemeier
and Professor Susannah Heschel.”
2021:
American Technion Society is scheduled to present “a talk about a new device
for fast, accurate Covid-19 testing by Technion grad and entrepreneur Adam de
la Zerda.”
2021:
Israelis “endure” one final day of campaigning before tomorrow’s election which
will be the last one for President Rivlin who has already “served through six
election campaigns.”
2022:
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled to present the third part
of “Kavkazi, Georgian, and Bukharian
Jews: At the Crossroads of Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Russian-Speaking Worlds.”
2022(19th
of Adar II, 5782): “Four Israelis were killed in a knife and car-ramming attack
in Beersheba, in southern Israel, this afternoon, in the third attack on
Israeli Jews in less than a week.”
2022:
The two day first ever summing meeting with leaders of Israel and the United
Emirates came to an end today.
2023:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host Ari Shapiro as he discusses his first
book The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening.
2023:
The exhibition “Hybrid Event: Holocaust Letters and Family Histories – Ariana
Neumann, Peter Bradley” is scheduled to open at the Wiener Holocaust Memorial
Library.
2023:
The Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Center is scheduled to host a lecture by Allen
Packwood on “2023: The Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Center is scheduled to host
a lecture by Allen Packwood on “Action this Day: War Aims and Strategy” the
third in a four-part course on “Sir Winston Churchill and the Second World
War.”
2023:
The Kornit Fashion Week is scheduled to come to an end in Tel Aviv.
2023:
On Zoom, curator Kenneth Helphand is scheduled to discuss the Elaine and Norman
Winik Mezuzah Collection currently on view at Eldridge Street.
2023:
LBI is scheduled to host “a viewing of the new exhibit ‘Unpacking Exile,’ a
meeting with curators and a light reception.
2023:
Israeli security forces “are once again gearing up for the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan “which is expected to being today or tomorrow.” (As reported by Emanuel
Fabian)
2024:
Kan Kol Hamusika is scheduled to broadcast of an “Excellence – Young Artists in
Concert featuring “outstanding young soloists and ensembles.”
2024:
In Waterloo, IA, Sons of Jacob Synagogue is scheduled to host a Purim
celebration with Rabbi Rebecca.
2024:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by Rabbi Shippel on the
Parsah of the Week.
2024: As March
22nd begins in Israel, the Hamas held hostages begin
day 168 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.)
