This Day, June 15, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
JUNE 15
1215: King John of England puts his seal to the
Magna Carta. The Great Charter which is
supposed to be one of the cornerstones of English and American rights contains
the following reference to the Jews: “If anyone who borrowed from the Jews any
amount, large or small, dies before the debt is repaid, it shall not carry
interest as long as the heir is under age, of whomsoever he holds; and if that
debt falls in our hands [i.e., the king’s hands, following the Jewish
creditor’s own demise], we will take nothing except the principal sum specified
in the bond.” King John and the Barons both saw the Jews as a source of revenue
to be used and abused.
1226: Twelve
Jews of Cologne martyred.
1363:
Coronation of Wenceslaus IV, who as Emperor failed to continue the Imperial
protection of the Jews of Luxembourg led to their expulsion in 1391 as King of
Bohemia today.
1389:
Murad I, the Ottoman Sultan whose reign began in 1362, allowed Jews fleeing
from persecution in Hungary to settle in Thrace and Anatolia which were part of
his empire. On the same day, the forces of Murad fought the Serbs in the Battle
of Kosovo, a battle that would be a rallying point for Serbs in the Balkan
battles of the 1990’s.
1397:
Birthdate of Italian painter Paolo Uccello whose “Miracle of the Profaned Host”
probably painted in 1468 depicts Jews being burned at the stake and “is unusual
because it depicts a Jewish Host Desecration in a country in which such accusations
historically are not documented.”
The
Jew in the art of the Italian renaissance page 16
1512:
In another example of non-Jews exercising control over David’s City, Al-Ashraf
Qansuh Al-Ghuri, “second-to-last of the Mamluk Sultans” who levied exorbitant
taxes on Jews and Christians to replenish his treasury received an envoy of the
King of Georgia with 20 horses who was trying to get the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher in Jerusalem re-opened
1520: Leo X issued the papal
encyclical 'Exsurge Domine,' which condemned German Reformer Martin Luther as a
heretic on 41 counts and branded him an enemy of the Roman Catholic
Church. This moved heightened the tensions
between Rome and those whom they saw as rebels.
This event was one of the steps in the division of Europe into
Protestant and Roman Catholic states.
This conflict would lead to the Hundred Years War. Too often, the Jews would be innocent
bystanders in this Christian conflict that would turn them into victims. Much of the treatment of the Jews in
Christian Europe can only be understood if it is seen against the backdrop of
this theocratic conflict.
1567:
Jews of Genoa were expelled. Jews had been living in Genoa since the 6th
century. They had been expelled from the
city in 1515, readmitted in 1516 and expelled again in 1550. This expulsion would be short-lived since
“permission to engage in moneylending and to open shops” was again granted to
the Jews in 1570. (As reported by the Jewish Virtual Library)
1580:
Phillip II of Spain declares William I,
Prince of Orange, to be an outlaw. William led the Dutch revolt
against the Spanish that started the Eighty Years War, which ended in 1648 with
recognition of the independence of the United Provinces (aka The Netherlands).
The Netherlands were Protestant and they provided a refuge for the Jews of
Europe including those fleeing the Spanish Inquisition begun by Phillip’s
predecessors and continued by his successors.
1623:
Cornelis de Witt was killed by an angry mob from the monarchist,
Orangist-Calvinist faction. De Witt and his brother had admired the works of
Spinoza. News of his death was quite
disturbing for Spinoza since it could presage the rise of a conservative
faction that would not be tolerant of unconventional thinkers like himself.
1722(30th
of Sivan, 5482): Zebi ben Saul Landau, a member of the Polish Landau Family,
who was the rabbi at Zmigrod passed away today in Lemberg.
1779(1st
of Tammuz, 5539): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1779(1st
of Tammuz, 5539): Beila bat Michael Benjamin zl passed away today in the United
Kingdom.
1787:
Rachel Ritzel Heilbron, the New York born daughter of Sarah and Moses Benjamin
Franks and her husband David Heilbron gave birth to Hannah Monnheimer, the wife
of Jacob Monnheimer with whom she had four children 00 Judith, Haym, Joseph and
Rachel.
1798(1st
of Tammuz, 5558): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1799:
Birthdate of Sophie Barbanelle Bernhard who was buried in Denmark when she
passed away in 1881
1800:
Alexander Hamilton, the native of Nevis who according to some was the son a
Jewess Rachel Levine and who attended the island’s Jewish school before leaving
for North America, completed his two years of service “as the inspector general
of the United States Army” during which he “was the de factor head of the
army.”
1811:
In Philadelphia, PA, Lancaster, PA native Rebecca Lyons and London born John
Moss gave birth to Samuel Lyons Moss, the husband of Isabell Harris whom he
married at New Orleans in 1838 with whom he had seven children.
1815:
In Frankfurt am Main Malchen Schloss and David Philipp (Feist) Schloss gave
birth to Salomon David Schloss
1815:
Birthdate of Rudolph Carl Hertzog, the father of Louis Rudolph Hertzog and the
grandfather Rudolph Hertzog who in 1839 founded the famous Berlin department
store that bore his name - Rudolph Hertzog.
1818(11th
of Sivan, 5578): Thirty-six-year-old David Cohen Mordecai, the husband of
Reinah Abrahams Mordecais and father of Moses, Isaac, Zipporah and Reinah
Cordelia Mordecai passed away today after which he was buried at the Coming
Street Cemetery in Charleston, SC.
1825(29th
of Sivan, 5585): Twenty-year-old Lucia Orah, the wife of Abraham Jonas and the
sister-in-law of Joseph Jonas passed away today in Cincinnati, OH.
1826:
Sultan Mahmud II destroyed the Janissary soldiers as part of his reforms for
his empire. This was said to be a "great boon" for the Jews, who were
often harassed by these soldiers.
1828(3rd
of Tammuz, 5588): David Sarzedas, Jr, the Charleston born son of David and
Sarah Sazrzedas and the stepson of Col. David Mayros passed away today in
Cheraw, South Carolina.
1830:
In Württemberg, Germany, Bernhard Frankfurter, the son of Moses Levi
Frankfurter and Mirjam Landauer, and his wife Esther Frank gave birth to Fanni
Frankfurter
1833:
Birthdate of Theodor Hermann Meynert, the non-Jewish psychiatrist whose
students included Josef Breuer and Sigmund Frued.
1834:
In what will be the first of three days of violence, “members of the local Arab
population gathered to attack Tzfat’s Jewish community. Jewish property was
plundered, as Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues were burnt to the ground.
Jewish women were tortured and raped. Many Jews were murdered or maimed.” Tzfat is the town in Israel famous for its
connection with Jewish mystics. It is "the home of Lecha
Dodi" the hymn used to welcome the Sabbath Queen. [This was not an
isolated episode. Ever since the 16th century the town which is also
called Safed, became a major Jewish center it was subject to
1835:
James and Eliza Davis were married today at the Great Synagouge.
1835:
Birthdate of Adah Isaacs Menken, American actress and poet. Adah Menken’s
true religious origins are controversial. Born in Louisiana in 1835 to Auguste
and Marie Theodore, some historians believe that she was raised a Catholic, an
assertion that Menken herself denied. In response to a journalist who called
her a convert, Menken replied, "I was born in [Judaism], and have adhered
to it through all of my erratic career. Through that pure and simple religion,
I have found greatest comfort and blessing.” In 1857, Adah and Alexander,
(the first of her four husbands) moved from New Orleans to Cincinnati, then the
center of Reform Judaism in America. Adah learned to read Hebrew fluently and
studied classical Jewish texts. It was at this time that Adah’s other artistic
and intellectual talents emerged. An aspiring writer, she contributed poems and
essays on Judaism to Isaac Mayer Wise’s weekly newspaper, The Israelite. Menken
saw herself as a latter-day Deborah, advocating for Jewish communities
around the world. In the 1860’s, Menken earned world fame in an
equestrian melodrama, "Mazeppa." She daringly appeared on stage
playing the role of a man, wearing nothing but a flesh-colored body stocking,
riding a horse on a ramp that extended into the audience. Menken’s costume
scandalized "respectable" critics—even as it attracted huge and
enthusiastic audiences that included such notables as Walt Whitman and the
great Shakespearean actor, Edwin Booth. She died of t.b. at the age of 33 while
living in Paris. To give you an idea of how famous she was, Napoleon III
sent his personal physician to care for her. Yet today, she is less than a footnote in history. She passed
away at the age of 33 in 1868.
1836:
“Two days after her 17th birthday, Charlotte von Rothschild who was
a member of the Naples branch of the banking family married Lionel de
Rothschild her first cousin from the English branch of the family.”
1836:
Arkansas is admitted as the 25th state to join the Union. There were
only a handful of Jews living in the land of the Razorbacks. Probably the first Jew to live in the state
was Captain Abraham Block who moved there in the 1820’s with his family of
seven and became a prominent merchant who proudly maintained his Jewish
identity. For more about the small, but
vibrant Arkansas Jewish community see A Corner of the Tapestry: A History of the Jewish Experience in Arkansas, 1820s-1990s by Carolyn Gray LeMaster.
1843: In Bergen, Norway, “Alexander Grieg, a merchant and
vice-consul in Berge and Gesine Judithe Hagerup, a music teacher” gave birth to
the great composer and conductor Edvard Greig who in 1899 refused a request to
participated in Colonne Concerts in Paris because of his opposition to the way
Dreyfus had been treated , that like any
other individual who is not a member of the French nation, I am shocked by the
disgusting manner in which your compatriots treat both the law and justice, and
my disgust is so great that I have no desire to appear before a French
audience.” (As reported by Shaul Koubovi)
1847:
In a discussing the matter of Jewish emancipation
Otto Von Bismarck said today that Prussia was indeed a Christian state and that
Jews could not expect equality within it. They could only hold a subordinate
position. That might not be perfectly Christian, but admitting the Jews into
Prussia would not make Prussia itself more Christian. What the Jews most
wanted, he said was to become military and civilian officers of the state and
that was quite out of the question.
1850: Today, during the reign of Napoleon III, changes were made
in the laws that had been adopted by Napoleon I concerning the method of
choosing delegates the Jewish consistories in France.
1850: “The application for Simon Lodge No. 4 of the Independent
Order of Free Sons of Israel which had been formed in 1849 was received today.
1853: Nehemiah Joseph Alexander married Rosa Bachrach at the Great
Synagogue in London today.
1862: In Vilna, Moses Pinanski and his wife gave birth to Nathan
Pinanski the Boston philanthropist who was the founder and president of both
“Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Roxbury” and “the People’s Free Loan Society, a
non-sectarian charitable organization.”
1862: Catherine Green, the daughter of Solomon and Jane Green, was
buried today in the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.
1863: During the siege at Vicksburg, the 38th Iowa took a position on the extreme left of the line, extending
from the river to a short distance across the Warrenton Road thus helping to
thwart an attempted Confederate raid intended to break the siege.
1864:
A portion of the lands surrounding the Custis-Lee Mansion across the Potomac
River from Washington become Arlington National Cemetery. Over 2,000 Jewish veterans are buried at
Arlington National Cemetery. Over six
thousand Jews fought for the Union and about half that number fought on the
side of the Confederacy. Five Union
Civil War Veterans are buried in Section Thirteen. Two Rabbis who served as chaplains buried at
Arlington are Captain Joshua Goldberg and Admiral Betram W. Korn. Other famous Jews buried at Arlington are
Arthur Goldberg, an Air Force Colonel better known for his service as Secretary
of Labor, Associate Supreme Court Justice and U.N. Ambassador, The “Atomic
Admiral”, Hyman Rickover, Astronaut Judith Resnick, Ambassadors Robert
Guggenheim and Samuel D. Berger and Colonel Rae Landy, a veteran of both World
Wars, who helped open Hadassah Hospital in 1913. Orde Wingate, a British Major General who
died in Burma during World War II is also buried at Arlington. Wingate was not Jewish, but he played a
significant role in Jewish history.
During the 1930’s, he was stationed in Palestine. He was one of the few British officers who
were sympathetic to the Zionist cause.
Among other things, he helped train the Jewish self-defense forces
teaching them the arts of small unit combat and night fighting. Two of his most famous students were Moshe
Dayan and Yigal Allon.
1865:
In France, Jonas Bernard and Douce Noémie Rouget gave birth to the eldest of
their four sons, Lazare Marcus Manassé Bernard whose “family had introduced the
Jacquard Loom to Toulouse” and who gained fame a journalist Bernard Lazare, one
of “the first of the Dreyfusards.”
1865:
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton wrote “to Brevet Brigadier-General Edward S.
Salmon, U.S Volunteers” that “you are hereby informed that the President of the
United States has appointed you for distinguished gallantry and meritorious
services during the war, a Brigadier General of Volunteers” which you have held
by brevet since March 13, 1865.
1868:
Birthdate of Boston native Lottie Feibelman, the wife of Ely Feibelman who
organized the Jewish women of Boston to supply kosher food and Yiddish speaking
physicians for local hospitals and whose served as president of the Ladies
Auxiliary of Boston’s Mount Sainia Hospital Outpatient Clinic from 1906 to 1916
during which time she led “approximately 350 Jewish woman in raising monies for
medical instruments, linens, social services, research and a building fund.”
1870:
It was reported today that the review of Disraeli’s latest novel Lothair
that appeared in Blackwood goes beyond the bounds of a literary critique and
takes on the tone of polemic that attacks the British statesman personally
taking special pains to mockingly refer to his Jewish origins.
1870: Today's
"European Mail News" column reported that a petition is being
circulated in Paris asking that the Grand Rabbi Isidore should be nominated to
serve as a Senator. No Jew has ever held such a position.
1870: In Chicago, Julia
and Solomon Austrian gave birth today attorney Alfred S. Austrian, the Harvard
graduate who was the husband of Mamie Rothschild.
1871: While visiting “the
Holy Land” former Secretary of State William Seward spent part of today at the
Huvra Synagogue.
1873(20th of Sivan, 5633):
Twenty-five year old Zadok, “Oskar” Waldstein, the son of Ephraim and Lea
Koppel Waldstein passed away in Bavaria.
1874: Seventy-two year old
German Orientalist Emil Roediger who revised Wilhelm Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar
passed away today.
1875: Final performance of
“The Two Orphans” which had opened in 1874 with Rose Eytinge in the role of
“Marianee.”
1875: In Patterson New
Jersey, James A. Morrissee married Rachel Blumenthal, the daughter of a Jewish
merchant from Montreal. Blumenthal left
his bride and told her he was going to Chicago on business for his wife. (These
facts would be revealed in a subsequent, messy divorce proceeding).
1876: According to a report published
today the United Hebrew Charities raised $72,115.60 and the Hebrew Orphan
Society raised $70,115.35 during the 1875-76 fiscal year.
1877: In Landau, Germany
Jakob and Ida Edelchen Baruch gave birth to Julius Baruch, the husband of Irene
Baruch and the father Irene Baruch who was murdered by the Nazis in the Minks
Ghetto, probably some time after November, 1941
1877: “To Jew” published
today provides a summary of Richard Grant White’s wide-ranging linguistic
history on the use of that term and concludes with the wish that the Jews “who
have outlived the Pharaohs may outlive philology. Certainly, they will live down
prejudice and obloquy of which this verb is evidence reproachful only of its
users.
1877: “Where Boccaccio
Gave Offense” published today provide a critical summary of the third novel of
the first day entitled “Melchisedech a Jew, by recounting a Tale of three
Rings”
1878: According to reports
published today "The English, French, German and Eastern branches of the
Israelite Alliance have sent a delegate to" the meeting of European
leaders at Berlin (Congress of Berlin) to describe "the deplorable
conditions" of the Jews living in Romania and Bulgaria with the hope of
gaining some relief for their co-religionists.
1878: As "The
Season" opened today at Saratoga, The Grand Union Hotel announced that
will continue its policy of refusing to accept Jews as guest at the hotel.
1879: “Why clergyman
should study Hebrew” published today stresses the necessity for Christian
clergymen to learn this ancient Semitic tongue. “Without such knowledge they
can neither understand the Old Testament, nor the new,
1879: "Murder That Do
Not Out" published today explores the history of unsolved New York City
murders including that of Benjamin Nathan, a wealthy New York Jew who was
killed in 1870.Nathan had had his skull crushed during what appeared to be a
robbery at his home. Despite a sizeable
reward and the best efforts of the police department the crime remains
unsolved.
1880: It was reported that conditions in
Palestine have greatly improved over the last few years. In Jerusalem several houses have been
restored or rebuilt. The streets are now
lit and, for an Oriental city, kept clean.
Water now flows to the city through the aqueduct connected to the Pools
of Solomon. The tanneries and
slaughterhouses have been outside the city walls. Bethlehem and Nazareth are emulating many of
these improvements and windows are now being placed in many buildings in these
cities. These and other improvements may lead to Europeans “wintering” here.
[As we know, modern Israel has become a popular tourist destination for many
Europeans seeking to escape the winter.]
1880:
It was reported that “there is a fixed resolution on the part of thousands in
Prussia to make that country as hot as possible for Jews” and this might force
a large number of German Jews to move to Palestine. [The rise of Jews in German
society coincided with a rise in anti-Semitism. In one sense this report is a
prophecy of what happened in the 1930’s when German Jews left for Palestine.]
1880:
It was reported today that while a conference in Madrid concerning conditions
in Morocco was at an impasse, the British government was considering joint
action by all the powers in favor of religious liberty in Morocco. At the conference, the Austrian and American
governments were ready to “energetically” plead the cause of the Jews but the
French and the Moroccans halted deliberations before they could do so.
1880:
Alexander Weinberg, the German born son of Abraham Bendix Weinberg and Fiekchen
Sophia Weinberg and his wife Elise
Weinberg gave birth to Iwan Weinberg.
1880:
It was reported today the Maurice Heineltrop, left a note for his wife before
taking his own life which was written in Hebrew and begged to take care of
their four children and to pay
1881(18th
of Sivan, 5641): Fifty-three year old Rachel Seixas Phillips, the wife of
Adolphus Simson Solomons and the mother of Aline Esther Solomons passed away
today in the District of Columbia.
1881:
In Vilna, Elijah and Ethel Traces Isador Michael Trace who in 1899 came to
Chicago where he earned a medical degree from Northwestern, served on the
faculty of Loyola University and was affiliated with the Jewish Home for the
Aged.
1882(28th
of Sivan, 5642): Julius Porges, the Principal of Hebrew Free School Number 8
passed away today by his own hand.
1883:
In Dukora, a small village in Minsk Governorate, Zev Volf and Brokhe Tsharni
(née Hurwitz) gave birth to Shmuel Ṭsharni who gained fame as Shmuel Niger as a
leading Yiddish literary figure in Russia and then the United States.
1883:
Birthdate of Russian native and medical economist Joseph Slavit the Cornell and
LI College Hospital trained physician.
1884:
In Dorpat, Russian Joel and Anna Rothenberg gave birth to NYU trained attorney
and Zionist leader Morris Rothenberg who was the husband of Annie Shomer.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/rothenberg-morris
1884:
In Elmira, NY, Sarah Meyerfeld and Myer Friendly gave birth Edwin S. Friendly,
the husband of Henrietta S. Steinmeirer who served as assistant business manager at
the New York Times before becoming the business manager of the New
York Sun.
1885:
In Myslowitz, George and Helena (Munzer) Frischer gave birth to University
Medical College (K.C. MO) urologist Julius Frishcer , the husband of Marion
Sickle whom he married in June of 1920.
1885:
Birthdate of Lithuanian native Julius Kassinger, the St. Louis trained
physician who 1914 applied for membership in the “St. Joseph-Buchanan-Andrew
County Medical Society.
1885:
In Kiev, Ephraim Kaganovsky and Beth Sheba (Katz) Cohen gave birth to Harvard
trained, Minnesota dentist Abraham Kaganovksy Cohen the husband of Rebecca
Falk.
1886:
In Grodok, Bialystock, Louis and Mary Rosenblatt gave birth to Columbia trained
attorney and New York City Magistrate Bernard A. Rosenblatt, the husband of
Gertrude Goldsmith and longtime Zionist leader.
https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-2000882
1886:
In a sign of an ecumenical spirit that was rare for this time in history it was
reported that Dr. B.M. Palmer, a Presbyterian minister delivered the eulogy at
the funeral of Rabbi James K. Gutheim of Temple Sinai. Other signs of the esteem in which he was
held by the non-Jewish community was a floral offering from Christ Episcopal
Church and attendance at the funeral by several minister including the Father
Hubert who was a Jesuit.
1887:
“Wanted by Two Wives” published today described a strange case of bigamy
involving Abraham Bernstein who deserted his wife and family in Port Chester,
NY and then married a woman in nearby Glenville, Conn. The two women have become aware of the
situation and have sworn out a warrant for his arrest. The “husband” has disappeared. [It can’t all
be about Nobel Prize winners and great scholars]
1887:
A fire swept through Botosani, Romania destroying over a thousand buildings
most of which were occupied by Jews and leaving 8,000 people homeless and on
the verge of starvation. Jews made up a large part of the population of this
city in Northeast Romania. By the first
decade of the 20th century 72% of the city’s population would be
Jewish, “the highest percentage of any large city in the world at that time.”
1888: Crown Prince Wilhelm became Kaiser Wilhelm
II. Ten years after coming to the throne, the Kaiser would visit Jerusalem in
1898 where Herzl tried, and failed, to interest him creating a Jewish homeland
in Palestine. The Kaiser’s reign was a mixed bag for Jews. As they became more
successful a new virulent form of anti-Semitism grew apace. During the War the Jews rushed to the colors,
but the accusations of malingering were so strong that a special commission was
established to look into this pernicious falsehood. The true measure of the Kaiser can be seen
when he was forced to abdicate, he blamed it on the Jews. The myth of the “stab in the back” so popular
with the Nazis was first the lament of “Wailing Willie.”
1888:
In Lemberg, Austria, “Hirsch L. and Yetta (Bentel) Blitz gave birth to Columbia
University alum Samuel Blitz, the husband of Amelia Hirsch, the Secretary of
the Zionist Council of Greater New York and who, as an organizer for the ZOA
“traveled throughout the U.S. and Canada, visiting nearly every Jewish
community in both countries.”
1888:
It was reported today that Newton Harrison was the top performing student in
the First Class at the Hebrew Technical Institute while Samuel Schneider was
the top student in the Second Class and Max Lowenthal was the top student in
the third school. The institute was
created to provide free vocational training for young Jewish boys.
1889:
In Sambor, a city in Galicia attorney Joseph Steuermann and his wife Auguste Steuermann gave birth
to Salomea Sara Steuermann who gained
fame as actress and screenwriter Salka Viertel whose scripts included the
famous 1935 epic “Anna Karenina.”
1889:
In Sudlekov (Zhidachov), Ukraine, Rose Schwartz and grain dealer Isaac Schwartz
gave birth to Avram Moishe Schwartz who gained fame as Maurice Schwartz the
theatre and film actor who founded the Yiddish Art Theatre at New York in 1918.
1890(27th
of Sivan, 5650): Harry Waldstein, the native of Weisendorf, Germany, who was
the son of Zadok and Esther Waldstein and the husband of Sophie Schriesheimer
Waldstein passed away today in NY.
1890:
“Talmudic Quibbles” published today provides a commentary on the verse from
Genesis “The Lord said, ‘Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great.’”
(What makes this worth noting is that it was published in a leading American
secular daily paper and not some obscure Yiddish or Hebrew language journal.)
1890:
A review of The Montefiores:
Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore an illustrated two volume work
edited by Dr. L. Lowe and his sons, based on the actual diaries of these two
notables in which they recorded the events from 1812 through 1883 was published
today.
1890:
“The closing exercises of the Sabbath school of Temple Ahawath Chesed took
place this afternoon at the 55th Street and Lexington Avenue
1891:
Rabbi Gustav Gottheil presided over the opening session of the Jewish
Ministers’ of America thirteenth convention which was being held at the Gates
of Heaven Temple on 15th Street.
1891:
This evening, the twenty-five rabbis attending the convention of the Jewish
Ministers’ Association of America hearing addresses on “The Evil of Skepticism
and Its Remedy” and Does Knowledge Lessen Crime?”
1891:
“Judge Andrews, in Supreme Court Chambers reserved his decision on a motion to
have transferred to Montgomery County for trial a suit brought by Gustave A.
Epstein against David Straus of Amsterdam, NY to recover $10,000 malicious
prosecution.” Epstein and Straus were
Jewish businessman. Andrews was not
Jewish.
1891
In Philadelphia, PA, hundreds of Jewish and Russian tailors went on strike this
morning.
1893:
Abraham B. Cohen who settled in Scranton, PA where he was president of Keystone
Realty Company, the President of the Scranton Zionist District and a founder
and president of the Linden Street Temple in Scranton married Ella Wittret
today.
1892:
In Russia, “Nathan Byrllion and Matilda (Neistadt) Fagin” gave birth N.
Bryllion Fagin who in 1900 came to the United States where he earned a BA at
Michigan State, an MA at George Washington University and Ph.D at Johns Hopkins
before going on to teach English literature at several institutions and write The
Histrionic Mr. Poe.
https://www.worldcat.org/title/nathan-bryllion-fagin-papers-1925-1951/oclc/49310163
1893:
The Senatorial Committee chaired by Senator David B. Hill which has been
looking into immigration practices at Ellis Island, including the treatment of
Jewish immigrants will leave New York to continue its work in Oklahoma, Utah,
New Mexico, Arizona and California.
1893:
In “Russians Fear the Jews” published today Colonel Weber, the former U.S.
Immigration Commissioner takes issue with the claim by the Secretary of the
Russian Legation that the laws limiting the rights of Jews are a matter of
religion and are a matter of economic survival citing his observation that Jews
who convert to the Orthodox religion are still discriminated against.
1894:
It was reported today that Joseph Herman Hertz who has a PhD from Columbia has
been ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary. Henry M. Speaker and David Wittenberg have
earned diplomas as teachers of Hebrew from JTS.
1895:
Birthdate of Richmond, KY, Reuben C. Pearlman, a graduate Johns Hopkins Medical
School who became a surgeon in Louisville, KY.
1895:
“The announcement that Mrs. Maud Craig Burke Davis is being held by police in
San Francisco on charges of forgery has caused “a great sensation” among her
friends and family in Rochester, NY.
Mrs. Davis comes from a prominent and wealthy family in Rochester. Her recent marriage to J.C. Davis came as a
surprise because her family was Catholic and Davis was Jewish.
1895:
Birthdate of Brooklyn native and WW I U.S. Army veteran Agen Myer, a reporter
for several newspapers in France from 1919-1940 before he fled World War II and
moved to the U.S who in 1919 married Helene Siegel whom she met after she read
“a poem he had published from the trenches” and began writing to him during the
war.
1896:
Based on information that first appeared in The
Fishing Gazette, it was reported today that “no one in New York except the
Jews eat the buffalo carp, a fish found in the Illinois River “which does not
feed on anything except vegetable matter” which is “exceedingly sweet to the
taste.” The carp was probably used by
the Jews in the making of Gefilte Fish.
1896:
In the Polish part of Russian Empire, David and Gute (Feldman) Starbobinsky
gave birth gave birth to Zelig Strobinksky, who gained fame as Rabbi Selig
Starr, who in 1921 came to the United States where he married Pearl Cohen in
Chicago in 1924 and became a professor at the Hebrew Theological College in
Chicago.
https://www.jewage.org/wiki/en/Article:Selig_Starr_-_Biography
1896:
Herzl and Newlinski travel to Constantinople. Herzl succeeds in visiting a
number of highly placed individuals, including the vizier
1896:
“Lauterbach Taunted As A Jew” published today described an episode at the
Republican National Convention where Edward Lauterbach of New York was taunted
by an opponent who “made a coarse remark when he coupled with an illusion to
Mr. Lauterbach’s race.”
1897:
In Berlin the former Else Lieberman and Doctor of Jurisprudence Hugo Preuß gave
birth to Gerhard Preuß
1897:
A fire of unknown origin which began last night, possibly caused by faulty
wiring, turned the wooden structures on Ellis Island into ashes. No loss of
life was reported, but most of the immigration records dating back to 1855 were
destroyed. About 1.5 million immigrants had been processed at the first
building during its five years of use. Plans were immediately made to build a
new, fireproof immigration station on Ellis Island.
1897:
In Boston, founding today of Congreation “Kennesseth Israel” whose members came
to include Louis Pakroisky, David Kasanof, Moses Goldberg, M.S. Rosenbaum,
Robert Krensky and Harry Werner.
1897:
The Barge Office which had been the immigrant processing center from April 19,
1890 to December 31, 1891 began to fill that function again today due to the
fire that had destroyed Ellis Island.
1897:
“Topics of the Times” published today included a summary of The Chicago
Israelite’s opposition to plans to settle Jews in Palestine. A Jewish return to the Palestine “without a
Messiah or even the remote exception of one is an extremely odd conception.” (The opposition to Zionism by the weekly
paper should come as no surprise the editor was Leo Wise the son Rabbi Isaac
Mayer Wise. But it is odd to have a
pillar of Reform Judaism invoke the Messiah since Rabbi Wise and Reform Judaism
had rejected the concept.)
1897: Starting today, the Barge Office was used as
New York’s immigrant processing center as a result of the fire at Ellis
Island. This was the second time that
the Barge Office was used in this capacity.
1898:
Cornell educated newspaper executive Charles Colman Rosewater, the son “Edward
and Leah (Colman) Rosewater who began his career as the business manager of the
Omaha Bee before moving on to the Los Angeles Express, the Los
Angeles Times, the Kansas City Journal and the Seattle Post
Intelligencer before finally serving as the director of publications for Success
Magazine in New York married Julia Alice Warner today
1898:
“Anti-Jew Riots in Austria” published today relies on information that first
appeared in the Neue Freie Presse to
describe the outbreaks of anti-Semitic violence that has taken place throughout
Galicia.
1899:
As of today, the United Hebrew Charities has collected $80.50 following a
special appeal to meeting the needs of destitute family consisting of husband
and wife who have ruined their health working and their four children. Donations have included one for $20 and one
for fifty cents.
1899:
Second Lieutenant Gustave Hirsch who had served as a signal officer was
honorably discharged today from the United States Army.
1899:
Captain Dreyfus is expected to disembark from the French cruiser Sfax at Brest
which he had boarded at French Guiana on June 10.
1900(18th
of Sivan, 5660): Eighty year old. Samuel Kristeller the Polish born German
physician who also was a leader of the Jewish community serving as an active member
of the Deutsch-Israelitische Gemeindebund and the Society for Propagation of
Handicrafts, passed away today in Berlin. (As reported by Isidor Singer and
Frederick T. Haneman)
1901:
Birthdate of Sir Dove-Myer Robinson, who became Mayor of Auckland City, New
Zealand.
1902: Birthdate of Max Rudolf. Born in Frankfurt
Germany he was conductor Gutenberg Symphony Orchestra.
1902: In Frankfurt, Karla Abrahamsen, who came from a prominent
Jewish family in Copenhagen, Denmark, and “an unnamed non-Jewish Dane” gave
birth to Erik Salmonsen who gained fame as Pulitzer Prize winning psychologist
Erik Erikson whose troubled personal identity problems reportedly had a
profound effect on his professional research.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-professor-erik-erikson-1436255.html
1903 In Dej, Romania, Rabbi Ezekiel Pananth, the Romanian born son
of R' Moshe Panet, Daszer Rebbe and Malka Panethm and his wife Rivka Paneth
gave birth to Masha Paneth who became
Masha Greenwald when she married Yehoshua Greenwald.
1904: A “scattering of Jews” were among the “excursionists” who
drowned today following the burning and sinking of the General Slocum
which claimed the lives of a large population from the East Side.
1905: “The New York branch of the Bund” received a telegram today
from its headquarters in Geneva that the “anti-Jewish riots at Brest-Litowsk,
Minsk and Warsaw” was “done with the aid of soldiers.”
1906: Day 2 of the Bialystok Pogrom.
1907: In his capacity as Minister of War, Major General Georges
Picquart “told Dreyfus that it would be impossible to reconstitute
his career, which led to Dreyfus's retirement.”
This must have been difficult for Picquart since he “became a Dreyfusard
after having identified Esterhazy as the author of the bordereau.”
1908: It was reported today that “a call has been sent from the
local headquarters of the Zionists on 204 East Broadway, for a convention of
the American Federation of Zionists at Atlantic City from July 10 to 15, for
the purpose perfecting an organization they say has long been neglected.”
1908:
Twenty-eight-year old NYU grad and JTS ordained rabbi Jacob Kohn the Newark, NJ
born son of Bertha and Siegfried Kohn married August Hirsch today in Newark.
1909: In Cleveland, OH, “Menachem and Johanna
(Herzberg) Katz gave birth to Meyer Myron Katz the husband of Goldie “Grace
Epstein, who gained fame as “novelty band leader” Mickey Katz, a comedian and musician
specializing in Yiddish humor also known for being the father of Joel Grey and
the grandfather of Jennifer Grey, famous for her role in “Dirty Dancing.:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-05-01-mn-11563-story.html
https://case.edu/ech/articles/k/katz-meyer-myron
1909: Thirty-one-year-old Judge Emil Fuchs, the
future owner of the Boston Braves today married “Aurelia “Oretta” Marcovich, the
daughter of Henry and Rose (Trauber) Marcovich, immigrants from Jassy (also
called Lassi or Lasi), a city in eastern Romania.
1910:
Birthdate of David Rose, the British-born American composer and
conductor who won four Emmys and whose compositions include The Stripper, Calypso Melody, and the
themes for two television hits – Little House on the Prairie and Bonanza.
1910: Moss DaCosta Woollley married Hannah Levy at
“New Synagogue St. Helens London” today.
1911:
Tabulating Computing Recording Corporation (IBM) is incorporated. For the role
of IBM during the Shoah see IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black. “IBM
Germany, known in those days as Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft,
or Dehomag, did not simply sell the Reich machines and then walk away. IBM's
subsidiary, with the knowledge of its New York headquarters, enthusiastically
custom-designed the complex devices and specialized applications as an official
corporate undertaking. Dehomag's top management was comprised of openly rabid
Nazis who were arrested after the war for their Party affiliation. IBM NY
always understood-from the outset in 1933 that it was courting and doing
business with the upper echelon of the Nazi Party. The company leveraged its
Nazi Party connections to continuously enhance its business relationship with
Hitler's Reich, in Germany and throughout Nazi-dominated Europe.”
1912(30th
of Sivan, 5672): Parashat Korach; Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1912:
Birthdate of Brooklyn native and New York Medical College Dr. Irving
Innerfield, “research professor of medicine at New York Medical College and a
pioneer in the medical field of inflammation” and husband of “the former Jean
Pozefsky” with whom he raised four children.
1913:
At the Piedmont Hotel on Long Island, Bessie Hawkshaw married Dr. Lewis Arthur
Goldberger.
1913(30th
of Sivan, 5672): Izer Perlstein, a rabbi in Rockland, Maine, passed away today.
1913:
In Baltimore, MD, the Jewish Educational Alliance dedicated the Michael S. Levy
Memorial Building.
1913:
In South Bend, Indiana, at Temple Beth El Rabbi Abraham Cronbach officiated at
Confirmation Services this morning.
1913:
At the Chicago Hebrew Institute Mrs. M.L. Purvin is scheduled to address the
children at today’s Sabbath School Graduation Exercises
1914:
In London, soprano Alma Gluck married violinist Efrem Zimbalist with whom she
had two children “Maria Virginia Goelet” and actor Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. best
known for his starring role in “77 Sunset Strip.”
1914:
Hammerstein’s Roof Garden will host an amateur dance contest tonight in
connection with “Dancing by Moonlight.”
1914:
Birthdate of Romania native cartoonist and illustrator Saul Steinberg who
worked and studied in Italy until 1940 when the anti-Jewish racial laws in
Fascist Italy forced him to flee to America by way of Santo Domingo where in 1941, he started publishing regularly in The
New Yorker.
http://saulsteinbergfoundation.org/
https://www.illustrationhistory.org/artists/saul-steinberg
1915:
Birthdate of Oscar Westreich, the native of Vienna who made Aliyah in 1933 and
as Yehoshua Bar-Hillel became a noted mathematician and linguist.
http://www.hutchinsweb.me.uk/Bar-Hillel-2000.pdf
1915:
A summary of the remarks of Dr. C.B. Wilmer, the rector of St. Luke’s
Protestant Episcopal Church made during the clemency hearing for Leo Frank,
published today included the statement that “the appeal was not based on
mercy.” “We appeal on moral grounds for justice. We appeal against the provincial prejudice
which has been evident against outside interference and against the prejudice
of Gentiles against Jews.”
1915:
The Clemency hearing for Leo Frank was postponed for the day so that the
governor, who had taken the time to visit the pencil factory where the murder
had taken place, could deliver the commencement address at the University of
Georgia in Athens. “Governor Slaton is putting every spare moment on the Athens
trip studying the Frank trial record and the briefs submitted by Solicitor
Dorsey and the attorneys for the defense.
1915:
“The speech of ex-Governor Joseph M. Brown in opposition to commutation has
caused much criticism including today’s communication to the press from “C.
Ross Wall, a prominent Georgia which says, “I have read the outrageous and
wicked diatribe of ex-Governor Brown against the long-maligned, persecuted and
innocent Leo M. Frank. There is no man on earth that has more respect for the
Bible than I have, but when Mr. Brown quoted from it in an effort to have an
innocent man hanged in order to satiate the blood thirst of a mob which menaced
the court during the trial of the Frank case and which continues its efforts to
bulldoze officials of Georgia in an effort to present them from do their plain
sworn duty, his conduct should and will be condemned by all Christian men and
women…”
1915:
Today, the New York Times published a letter Professor William R. Shepherd
“sympathetic” to “the idea that the Jews should once more take up residence in
Spain.”
1915:
As of this date “approximately 600,000 Jews had been uprooted from the Pale of
Settlement, by far the largest proportionate transplantation among the various
populations of the Russian empire’s western provinces.
1916:
“The Jewish Daily News announced”
today, “that Dr. Harry Freidenwald of Baltimore, a member of the American
Jewish Committee” who favors “the Congress movement of the American Jewry which
called for a convention of American Jews to seek a settlement of right of Jews
in foreign countries” “has sent a letter of resignation to that body on the
ground that he did not consider the committee sufficiently representative of
popular Jewish opinion.”
1916:
Elma Ehrlich, the daughter of Samuel and Sarah Ehrlich married future rabbi Lee
J. Levinger making her Elma Ehrlich Levinger the name under which she pursued
an active career that included writing over thirty children’s books. (Jewish
Women’s Archives)
1916:
Today Maurice Simmons issued a copy of a letter he sent to Adjutant General
Louis W. Sotesbury and a statement in which he said that the National Guard” is
not taking the investigation of alleged discrimination against Jews in the
National Guard seriously.
1916:
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Arthur Simon, a German born electrical engineer and
pianist “Edna Marguerite Merkel” gave birth to Nobel Prize winning economist
Herbert Simon.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1978/simon/biographical/
1916:
“New persecutions of the Jews in Russia” were described in the edition of the
American Hebrew being sold today by it European correspondent who is simply
identified as “A.I.”
1916:
Birthdate of developer and businessman Lois Lesser.
http://www.spokeo.com/Louis+Lesser+1
1917:
Vilmos Vázsonyi began serving as Minister of Justice of Hungary.
1917:
President Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act of 1917 into law. Among those
who have been charged under the act are Victor Berger, Daniel Ellsberg,
Jonathan Pollard and the Rosenbergs.
1917:
Birthdate of Lillian Violet Bassman, the Brooklyn born daughter of Russian Jews
who became famous as “Lillian Bassman, a magazine art director and fashion
photographer who achieved renown in the 1940s and ’50s with high-contrast,
dreamy portraits of sylphlike models, then re-emerged in the ’90s as a fine-art
photographer after a cache of lost negatives resurfaced…” (As reported by
William Grimes)
1917:
“The Royal Navy yacht Managam returned
two Palestinian Jewish agents to Athlit after they had been trained in the use
of explosives in Cyprus. Their task was to blow up a section of the Haifa to
Damascus railway, between Afula and Dera’a.”
1918:
Jeroham El-Yachar, the chief rabbi of Baghdad sent a protest, through the Swiss
Government, in which he complained about “the cruel treatment of the Jews in
the Turkish Empire” which included “various forms of oppression and robbery”
and the strangling of young imprisoned Jews whose bodies are then thrown into
the Tigris River.”
1919:
After the street battle in the Hörlgasse today, when police shot eight of his
unarmed party comrades, Karl Popper became disillusioned by what he saw to be
the "pseudo-scientific" historical materialism of Marx, abandoned the
ideology, and remained a supporter of social liberalism throughout his life.”
1919:
“The Confirmants Club of the Bronx Free Synagogue” performed “The Jew” a comedy
by Richard Cumberland that had first been performed in 1794 and was unique
because it was the first play to show the Jewish moneylender as a hero and
which was so well received that Louis I. Newman wrote a book about the
playwright -- Richard Cumberland: Critic and Friend of the Jews.
1920:
The Haganah, the pre-Israel Self Defense Force was formed during a meeting of
the Ahdut Avodah party. It was designed to take the place of the Ha-Shomer
movement, and was dedicated to "havlagah" or pure self-defense. The
Haganah was formed in response to a wave of Arab violence from which the British
were unable or willing to protect the Jewish community. The Haganah was
forced to operate underground during the 1930's and 1940's as the British took
an increasingly pro-Arab stance and the Arabs engaged in periodic waves of
violence. The Haganah also was active in bringing immigrants into the
country despite the White Paper.
1920:
The operation to widen the Jaffa to Jerusalem Railway to “standard gauge” was
completed today.
1920:
All funds collected by volunteers working for The Greater New York Non-Sectarian
Appeal for Jewish War Sufferers Abroad must be turned in today.
1921:
Birthdate of Gavril Abramovich Ilizarov, the “Soviet physician, known for
inventing the Ilizarov apparatus for lengthening limb bones and for his
eponymous surgery.”
1922:
“The Williamsburg Mission to the Jews of Brooklyn, N.Y., has sold for a client
of theirs, a plot 40 by 90 feet on Maine Avenue, Westerleigh, to Ada M. Clawson
and Maud B. Granger, who recently purchased the adjoining property on College
Avenue from William S. Van Clief.”
1923:
The first financing by means of a bond issue for a city in Palestine was
completed today when a loan 75,000 pounds was obtained for the city of Tel Aviv
through the sale in New York of six and half percent municipal bonds. Tel Aviv is described as atypical American
city in point of construction and improvements planted in the heart of Asia
Minor.
1924:
In Tel Aviv, agronomist Yecheil Weizmann and his wife Ida gave birth to Ezer
Weizmann the colorful RAF veteran who was one of the first to fly combat
mission for the newly minted IAF in 1948 and capped off a career of public
service by following in his Uncle Chaim Weismann’s footsteps by serving as
President of Israel.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/apr/26/guardianobituaries.israel
1925:
Sir Herbert Samuel the first Jewish British High Commissioner in Palestine
attended a farewell reception in his honor at Hebrew University on Mount
Scopus. Colonel Fredrick H. Kish of the Zionist Executive in Jerusalem and Tel
Aviv Mayor Meir Dizengoff expressed their regret over his departure. They also expressed gratitude for the efforts
of Lady Samuel’s efforts.
1926:
Birthdate of Pittsburgh native Herschell Gordon Lewis, the movie producer known
as “the Godfather of Gore.”
1927:
“A farewell dinner for the delegates of the American Jewish Congress to the
Conference Of Jewish Rights at Zurich” was held tonight at the Hotel Baltimore
where Dr. Stephen S. Wise gave the major address.
1928:
Fritz Ernst Oppenheimer, the Berlin born son of Dr. jur. Ernst Oppenheimer and
Clara Amalie Oppenheimer and future Little Rock, AR resident and his wife Elizabeth
Oppenheimer gave birth to Marfrit Enate Oppenheimer.
1928:
The Zionist Executive in Jerusalem intervened to prevent the deportation of
four Jewish immigrants. Unfortunately, they were not able to keep the British
from deporting their family members. The National Council of Palestine Jews
sent a letter to Lord Plumer, the High Commissioner, protesting the
deportations. The council reminded the High Commissioner that only 54 Jewish
immigrants had been admitted into the country during all of April, 1928.
1928:
During an investigation of cemeteries and cemetery boards being conducted by
the Attorney General for the State of New York, representatives of the Baron
Hirsch Cemetery on Staten Island rebutted allegations of misconduct and abuse
that had been previously presented by representatives of the Hebrew Religious
Protective Association of Greater New York.
1929(7th
of Sivan, 5689): Second Day of Shavuot and Shabbat
1929:
The sound version of “Noah’s Ark” directed by Michael Curtiz was released in
the United States today.
1929:
Birthdate of Orthopedic surgeon Leon Root, the author of No More Aching Back.
1930(20th
of Sivan, 5690): Sixty-two year old Louis-Lucien Koltz, the founder of Vie
Franco-Russe, an illustrated paper and the French Minister of Finance at the
end of World War I who negotiated the reparation payments from Germany
following the war.
1930:
“Flag Day…” published today described the Jewish origin of this American
holiday.
1931(30th
of Sivan, 5691): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1931:
In Weehawken, NJ, homemaker Charlotte Silver and furrier Samuel Dreiwitz gave birth
to Martin Charles Dreiwtiz the conductor “who drew on his twin passions for
travel and classical music to found the globe-trotting Long Island Youth
Orchestra…” (As reported by Clay Risen)
1931:
Italian Rabbi Riccardo Reuven Pacifici and his wife Wanda Abenaim, both of whom
would be murdered at Auschwitz in 1943 gave birth to their oldest child
Emanuele in Rome.
1932:
Seventy-one year old Edmund H. Hinshaw, the
Congressman from Nebraska who in 1906 attended a mass meeting at Belasco’s
Theatre in Washington, D.C which a protest against the atrocities begin committed
against the Jews of Russia. (Editor’s note – no explanation for his attendance;
certainly not courting the “Jewish vote” in his home district.)
1932: Birthdate of Kashan, Iran, native Davoud Alliance who gained
fame as British businessman David Alliance (Baron Alliance) ranked as one of the country’s richest people
“with an estimated fortune of £3.1 billion” whose philanthropies and good works
included working to rescue the Jews of Ethiopia” and helping to finance the
Liberal Democrat Party.
1932:
In Omaha, Nebraska, William Hertzog Thompson and his wife gave birth to Susan
Thompson who as Susan Buffett, the wife of Warren Buffett, whose friendship
with Dorothy Kripke the wife of Omaha Rabbi Myer S. Krippe led to a $70,000
investment turning into almost 25 million dollars which went to aid a number of
worthwhile causes.
1933:
Governor Herbert H. Lehman and Dr. John H. Finley received the first honorary
degrees to be conferred by Yeshiva College. Each was made a Doctor of Humane
Letters at the institution’s second commencement exercise.
1933: The Baltimore, MD City Council approved
“resolutions protesting ‘discriminating decrees’ against Jews in Germany and
asserting that body’s belief ‘in religious and racial tolerance’” that were
introduced by E. Lester Muller, the council’s president were adopted today.
1933:
Having earned her bachelor’s degree from Vassar in 1932, and master’s degree
from Columbia in 1933, today Harriet Fleischl married “social service executive
Robert C. Pilpel” and became Harriet Pilpel the name under which she earned her
J.D. from Columbia and became a leading American lawyer who “participated in 27
cases that came before the United States Supreme Court.”
1934:
“Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of New York today led a wave of objection to the advice
of Professor Henry J. Cadbury of Bryn Mawr College to the convention of the
Central Conference of American Rabbis.”
1935:
In Budapest, Dr. Georg M. Hübsch and Magda Hübsch (née Klug) gave birth to
“Canadian writer, poet and journalist” George Jonas author of Vengeance
which inspired the movies “Sword of Gideon” and “Munich.”
1936: As Arab violence escalated, The Palestine Post reported
that heavy firing marked an Arab attack on Ekron. Since there were only four
Jewish defenders they sent up rockets to ask for assistance, but ultimately
repulsed the marauders. There were also Arab attacks on Migdal, Geshur, Kfar
Saba, Gan Yavne, Kfar Azor, Tel Mond, Tzofit and Givat Ada, Over 500
three-year-old vines were uprooted at Rehovot and Givat Brenner. The Jewish
National Fund planned to replace some 40,000 trees that have been burned so
far. Marine insurance premiums went up and some insurance companies refused to
cover riot risks. Five Jews were injured in separate attacks on Egged buses.
1936: “Opposition to a World Jewish Congress” to be held “in
Geneva in August” was “expressed in a statement issued” today “by a group of
leading Jews” including Professor Morris R. Cohen, Abram I. Elkus, attorney
James N. Rosenberg, Rabbi Abram Simon of Washington, Rabbi Morris Newfield of
Birmingham, Rabbi David Philipson of Cincinnati and advertising executive
Albert D. Lasker of Chicago.
1937: In the wake of anti-Jewish violence, “Welwel
Szcezerbowski, a young Jew, went on trial today” in Poland “on a charge of
murdering a policeman.”
1937(6th of Tammuz, 5697):
Sixty-eight-year-old former city council member Morris Apt passed away today in
Philadelphia, PA.
1937: “President Roosevelt and Secretary of State
Cordell Hull were asked today to used their good offices with Great Britain for
the purpose of maintain Palestine as a refuge and a home for Jews by a
delegation of the Pro-Palestine Federal of America.”
1938: Throughout Germany, any Jew "previously
convicted" of a crime (even a traffic offense) was arrested.
1938:
“Holiday,” a romantic comedy directed by George Cukor, with a screenplay
co-authored by Sidney Buchman and featuring Binnie Barnes, was released in the
United States today.
1939:
Malcolm MacDonald, British Colonial Secretary, today outlined before the League
of Nations Mandates Commission the proposals for the future government of
Palestine contained in the recent British White Paper.
1939:
At a meeting of the women's division of the American Jewish Congress in the
Temple of Religion at the World's Fair Rabbi Louis I. Newman of Temple Rodeph
Sholom called upon the Jews to stand forth courageously against counsels of
defeat in a time of persecution. Rabbi Newman made his appeal for courage in
the face of the tragedy of the liner St. Louis whose passengers had been turned
away from Cuba and who would not find refuge in any western nation including
the United States.
1939:
A secret directive issued to the German High Command stated that deployment for
"Operation White" (invasion of Poland) would be put into operation on
August 20. Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939. The conventional
wisdom is that the invasion was made possible by the signing of the
non-aggression pact between the Nazis and the Soviets in the last week of
August. Apparently, Hitler planned to invade Poland at a time when such
an agreement was thought to be impossible.
1939:
“World premiere” of “Land of Liberty” – a documentary written by Jesse Laseky,
Jr. with music by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II – “premiered at the New
York World's Fair & Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco
1940:
Today, New York Giants catcher Harry Danning “hit for the cycle in a game
against the Pittsburgh Pirates.”
1940:
“An official of the German Foreign Ministry, and SS Sturmbannführer Karl
Bömelburg arrived in Paris today with orders to find Hershel Feibel Grynszpan.”
1940:
Mordechai Rumkowski, Chairman of the Judenrat in Lodz, Poland, spoke to a large
crowd today in the Lodz Ghetto.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/june/04.asp
1941:
“Professor Albert Einstein joined 1,200 persons today at dedication ceremonies
for a 208-acre farm near” Hightstown, NJ “that has just been purchased by the
Hechalutz Organization of America, a Zionist group, to train young Jewish boys
and girls for pioneer life in Palestine.”
1941
Colonel Josiah C. Wedgwood, British M.P. and Professor Avigdor Aptowitzer who
for more than thirty years was a Professor of Talmud at the Jewish Theological
Seminary in Vienna are scheduled to “receive the honorary degree of Doctor of
Hebrew Letters at the commencement of the Jewish Institute of Religion this
morning where ”Dr. Abram L Sachar, the director of the B’nai B’rith Hillel
Foundations in American universities will speak on ‘New Challenges for Jewish
Leadership.’”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/06/14/104293726.pdf?pdf_r
1942:
Republican political leader Harvey L. Schwamm, who will enter the Army as a
major in the Transportation Service tomorrow “was a guest of honor tonight at a
dinner of the New York County Republican executive committee.
1942(30th
of Sivan, 5702): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1942:
Deportations of Jews from the Netherlands to Poland and Germany began today.
Over the next 15 months, more than 100,000 Jews would be transported from
Westerbork to the various death camps in the East.
1942: Authorities in Riga, Latvia, request a
second gassing van.
1943: At the Janówska death pits at Lvov,
Ukraine, hundreds of Jewish slave laborers are forced to exhume corpses of
Jews, plunder them for jewelry and gold dental work, and then burn the corpses
to destroy evidence of the killings.
1943:
Jaworzno concentration camp opens in the Auschwitz region. It contained two
crematoriums.
1944: A photo was taken today of a group of Jews
from Dunaszerdahely, Hungary, boarding the cattle car that will take them to
Auschwitz
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/june/13.asp
1944:
U.S. premiere of “Man from Frisco,” a wartime spy film written by Arnold Manoff
who later be on the infamous Hollywood Blacklist
1944:
The 1,684 “exempted Jews” selected by Reszoe (Rudolf) Kasztner, head of the Aid
and Rescue Committee known as Va’adah leave Hungry by a special train that
takes them safely to Switzerland.
1945:
“Conflict” “a film noir based on the story The Pentacle by Alfred
Neumann and Robert Siodmak” directed by Curtis Bernhardt was released today in
the United States.
1945:
Chaim Weizmann wrote to Churchill expressing his sense of shock and betrayal
over the Prime Minister’s decision to continue to restrict Jewish entrance to
Palestine based on the White Paper of 1939.
Weizmann expresses his sense of betrayal since he Churchill had always
conveyed the impression that as soon as the war was over, he would abrogate the
terms of the White Paper.
1946:
In New York, today, the 300 delegates attending the first national convention
of the American Jewish Labor Council heard executive secretary Max Stein warn
“that discrimination against Jews was increasing” and issue a call “for Federal
and State Legislation that would outlaw anti-Semitism. (Editor’s note – for
those living in the 21st century this has an awfully familiar sound.)
1947:
Today, “President Truman assured the 800 delegates to the sixtieth annual
convention of the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham of his determination to
everything in his power to reach a ‘just solution’ in Palestine” which
expressing his “commiseration for displaced persons” terming them “innocent
bystanders of war.”
1947:
In light of a number of unexplained incidents in Palestine including “the
beatings of Jewish citizens in various parts of Jerusalem, “the disappearance
of 16 year old Alexander Rubowitch” and the bombing the Jewish Agency’s press
offices, today, “Zionist bodies expressed the hope that the Palestine
Government would ‘cleanse the security forces of any elements who may be
responsible for a number of mysterious crimes that have taken place of late.”
1948:
Erwin Hiller, a “German born actor” who survived the Holocaust despite his
Jewish ancestry unlike his older brother who was shipped to Theresienstdat
“emigrated to the United States today where he eventually resumed his acting
career under the name of Marcel Hillaire.
1949:
While speaking at the Delmonico Hotel today, Mrs. William Prince, president of
the Women’s League for Israel declared that “housing is the most acute problem
in Israel” and that “the new home for young women Netanya which is to be
completed within ten months would accommodate 600 girls.
1949:
The first season of Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theatre that had begun in
September of the previous fall that was the product of such writers as “Nat
Hiken, brothers Danny and Neil Simon, Leo Fuld and Aaron Ruben” came to an end
today.
1949:
In Philadelphia, the “eleventh national biennial convention of Pioneer Women”
which began on the evening of June 11 and which “has been designated the
Freedom Convention, dedicated to the independence of Israel” is scheduled to
come to an end today.
1949:
“Britain to Discuss Middle East Policy” published today reported that “fitting
Israel into the pattern of British policy for the Middle East will be one of
the problems discussed by British ministers and ambassadors in eight middle
eastern countries who will attend a conference at the Foreign Office” in
London” during the last week of July.”
1949:
In New York City, Hinda (née Gould) and entrepreneur Richard L. Rosenthal, Sr.
gave birth to Richard L. “Rick” Rosenthal, Jr. director of “Bad Boys.”
1950:
In Jerusalem, Israel turned over the British pilot of a Jordanian airliner that
had been forced down when it flew across the Negev to members of the Arab
Legion. Four Arab passengers from the plane
that was flying from Amman to Cairo were also released. Charles Clinton Cloud, Jr., an American
passenger flew to Cyprus.
1950:
Today, as the investigation that would lead to the execution of Julius and
Ethel Rosenberg for spying, “David Greenglass named Julius Rosenberg as the man
who recruited him to spy for the Soviet Union
1950:
“With These Hands” an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature
“produced by the International Ladies Union” that recreates the Triangle
Shirtwaist Factory Fire featuring Sam Levene and Joseph Wiseman was released
today in the United States.
1951:
“White Corridors” hospital movie produced by Joseph Janni was released today in
the United Kingdom.
1951:
Today, American Orientalist William Popper, the husband of Tess Magnes, and
brother-in-law of Dr. Judah Magnes, who wrote his doctorial decision at
Columbia under Dr. Richard Gottheil “was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor
of Laws by the University of California in recognition of his achievements.”
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Food Control
Commission took care of the sale and distribution of ice for domestic use in
Jerusalem.
1951: After forty performances at the Broadhurst Theatre, the
curtain came down on the original Broadway production of “Flahooley, a musical
with a book by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by
Sammy Fain.”
1951: “Three Steps North” directed and produced by W. Lee Wilder
was released in the United States today.
1951: In the Bronx, “Joseph Mlotek, the education director at the
Workmen's Circle, an American Jewish civic and cultural organization, and an
editor at the Yiddish Forward,” and Eleanor Chana Mlotek (née Gordon),an
archivist of Yiddish music, who, together with her husband, published three Yiddish
songbooks” gave birth “Zalmen Mlotek, “the conductor, pianist, musical
arranger, accompanist, composer, and the Artistic Director of the National
Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene.”
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel had demanded
that the UN Security Council should consider Egypt's refusal to allow ships
engaged in trade with Israel to pass through the Suez Canal
1951: The Israeli government announced today that an Israeli
soldier had been killed when he encountered Jordanian forces that had crossed
the border.
1952: Today, the Israeli Foreign Ministry published the text of a
note it addressed to the Czechoslovak Foreign Minister on June 11 concerning
the arrest of Mordechai Oren, an Israeli citizen who is a leading member of the
Mapam Party. The Israelis demanded that
a member of the Israeli Legations be allowed to visit Oren and be with him as
he worked his way through the Czech justice system. The Israelis believe that Oren was arrested
as part of a plot to portray Rudolf Slansky, the former Deputy Premier, who is
being held in prison as being a Zionist, something which was an anathema in
Communist Czechoslovakia.
1952: “The first housing project specifically for immigrants from
the United States and Canada was launched today when ground was broken for ten
houses a Kfar Haroeh, a village midway between Tel Aviv and Haifa…The village
which is being built on land donated by the JNF is only twenty minutes, by car
from Natanya and Hadera two towns where the immigrants can go for jobs and
western style entertainment.
1952(22nd of Sivan, 5712): Forty-four year old
Christine Granville, the Polish born daughter of a Catholic Count and an
assimilated Jewish mother who worked for the British Special Operations
Executive (SOE) in occupied Poland and France passed away today.
1953(2nd of Tammuz, 5713): Sixty-year-old New York born
and Columbia graduated and JTS ordained Rabbi Dr. Joseph Saracheck “the former
president of the New York Board of
Jewish Ministers and chaplain at the Tombs” who was the husband of Mary
Saracheck and the father of Julian Saracheck passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/06/16/110065376.html?pageNumber=27
1953: It was reported today that Senator Paul Douglas, Democrat
from Illinois who had taught at the University of Chicago before WW II, was the
keynote speaker at the commencement exercises of Brandeis University in
Waltham, MA.
1954: Ruth Ann and Daniel Edelman gave birth to Richard Edelman
who would become President and CEO of the public relations firm Edelman that
was founded by his father.
1956: Birthdate of New York native Marc Siegel, the doctor who
serves as a medical and political commentator on FOX.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/medicare-for-all-2020-democrats-marc-siegel
1957(16th of Sivan, 5717): Parashat Sh’lach
1957(16th of Sivan, 5717): Eighty-seven-year-old
Columbia Law School graduate and investment banker Louis F. Rothschild, the New
York born son of Frank and Amanda (Blum) Rothschild, the husband of Cora
Guggenheim with whom he had three children – Louis, Muriel and Gwendolyn – and
the son-in-law of Meyer Guggehiem, who was “a member of the NYSE and the
founder of L.F. Rothschild, passed away today.
1958: At the Roof Garden of the Pierre Hotel, Rabbi Nathan A.
Perliman of Temple Emanu-El officiated at the wedding of Harriet Anne Zuckerman
and Columbia University trained industrial engineer Arthur A. Greenberg.
1960: “The Apartment” a Billy Wilder production that was
co-written by I.A.L. Diamond was released for showing to the movie going public
today.
1961: Rabbi David J. Bleich married Professor Judith Ochs today.
1961: In performances that were hailed as "good quality
directed with great intelligence," "admirable for subtle
expressiveness and intelligent composure," and "exceptional,"
the off-Broadway Living Theatre troupe made its European debut in Rome. By the
time of the Living Theatre's European tour, co-directors Judith Malina and
Julian Beck had been directing off-Broadway plays for over a decade.
1963: After 1,443 performances the curtain came down on the
original Broadway production of Roger and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music.”
1964: ‘IESC's(International Executive Service Corps) first board
meeting took place today in Washington D.C. and included American business leaders
Sol M. Linowitz, chairman of Xerox Corporation and William S. Paley, chairman
of CBS.”
1964: U.S. premiere of Rod Serling’s “The Yellow Canary” featuring
Jack Klugman as “Lt. Bonner,” Harold Gould as “Ponelli” and Milton Selzer as
“Vecchio.”
1965(15th of Sivan, 5725): Sixty-three year old
Galician born “American Assyriolpgist” Ephraim Avigodor Speiser, the holder of
PhD from Dropsie College and husband of “Sue Gimbel Dannenbaum” the
granddaughter of Charles Gimbel, one of the founders of Gimbel’s Department
Story who taught Semitics at Penn, served with the OSS in WW II and led the
excavation of Tepe Gawra, an ancient settlement near Ninveh, passed away today.
https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/ephraim-avigdor-speiser/
https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/ephraim-a-speiser/
1966: Simon and Garfunkel recorded “The Big Bright Green Pleasure
Machine today as cut five on side one of the album “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and
Thyme.
1967(7th of Sivan, 5727): Second Day of Shavuot
1967: Argentine born Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim
married British cellist Jacqueline du Pré who had converted to Judaism at a
Western Wall ceremony.
1967: After “608 performances and 10 previews” the curtain came
down on the original Broadway production of “Sweet Chairty,” with music by Cy
Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and the book by Neil Simon.
1967: “The Dirty Dozen” a WW II classic film based on a novel of
the same name by Erwin “Mick” Nathanson was released in the United States today.
1968(19th of Sivan, 5728): Parashat Beha’alotcha
1968: After “220 performances and 19 previews” the curtain came
down on the original Broadway production of “How Now Dow Jones” with music by
Elmer Bernstein, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh and the book by Max Shulman.
1970: Eleven Soviet citizens, nine of them Jews, tried to hijack a
Soviet airplane so they could be flown out of the country. The plot was foiled before the plane took off
and two of the Jews were sentenced to death for their part in the attempt. Due in no small part to protests from Jewish
communities around the world, the sentences were commuted to 15 years at hard
labor. The hijacking focused attention
on the plight of Soviet Jews seeking to escape from the U.S.S.R. This was a major step forward in what became
the campaign to “Free Soviet Jews.”
1970: “The Strawberry Statement” produced by Robert Chartoff and
Irwin Winkler and with a script co-authored by Israel Horovitz was released in
the United States today.
1971: U.S. premiere of “Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He
Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?” a comedy directed by Ulu Grosband who
also co-produced and co-authored the scripts, starring Dustin Hoffman with
music by Shel Silverstein
1974: “On the 4th anniversary of the Leningrad hijack attempt 34
Leningrad activists launch a 48 hour hunger strike in solidarity with Jewish
Prisoners of Conscience. Jewish prisoners in Potma and Perm labor camps also
stage hunger strike on this anniversary.”
1975(6th of Tammuz, 5735): At Kfar Yuval, “terrorists
seize farmhouse, killing 1 person, injuring 6, and taking family hostage;
Israeli soldiers storm farmhouse and kill all four terrorists plus 1 hostage.”
1975(6th of Tammuz, 5735): Three were killed and
another five were injured when terrorists fired three rockets into Nahariya.
1975: In the Soviet Union, Refusniks and Activists in several
cities held a hunger strike to protest the sixth anniversary of the beginning
of mass arrests in 1970
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that in Washington the US
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz
concurred that Syria's growing military involvement in Lebanon posed no
immediate threat to Israel. The Syrian forces in Lebanon were seen as holding
back instead of trying to crush the PLO and its leftist allies.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that ore Lebanese had
been given Israeli first aid at Metulla.
1977: Fifty-two year old former Dutch journalist Willem Poalk
whose parents were murdered by the Nazis during the “German occupation of the
Netherlands” became mayor of Amsterdam today.
1977: For days after he passed away, funeral services are
scheduled to be held today for 38 year old Cornell University of English
Professor and author of The Meaning of Hamlet, Paul A. Gottschalk, the husband
of Katherine Gottschalk and the some of Fruma Gottschalk.
1977: U.S. premiere of “A Bridge Too Far” produced by Joseph E
Levine and Richard P. Levine with a screenplay by William Goldman and cameo appearance
by Elliot Gould.
1978(10th of Sivan, 5738): Eighty-two year old Ukraine
native Joseph K. Alliger who in 1898 came to the United States where he became
a “real-estate man and mortgage-investment” banker who was active in the UJA,
JNF and HIAS while raising his “two son Martin and Howard” with “his wife, the
former Gladys Scheirer” passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/06/21/archives/obituary-3-no-title.html
1978: A Broadway revival of “Once in a Lifetime” the first play on
which Moss Hartman and George S. Kaufman collaborated opened at the Circle
Theatre.
1979: “The In-Laws” a comedy directed and co-produced by Arthur
Hiller, written by Arthur Bergman and co-starring Peter Falk and Alan Arkin was
released in the United States today.
1979:” Butch and Sundance: The Early Days” a western about two
outlaws produced by William Goldman and featuring Elya Baskin was released in the
United States today.
1980: “About 90 American Jews, some of them prominent, issued a
statement aligning themselves with the Peace Now movement in Israel, which
opposes the Government's policy of establishing further Jewish settlements in
the occupied West Bank territory.”
1982: “The Soldier” an action film directed, produced and written
by James Glickenhaus was released in the United States today.
1983: During season five, NBC broadcast the final episode of
“Taxi” a sit com created by James Brooks, Stan Daniels and Ed. Weinberger
starring Judd Hirsch.
1984(15th of Sivan, 5744): Seventy-eight year old character actor
Ned Glass, born Nusyn Glass in Poland, passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/25/obituaries/ned-glass-an-actor-dies.html
1985: Twenty-three year old U.S. Navy Seabee diver was murdered
today by Hezbollah terrorists who had hijacked TWA Flight 847.
1987: An exhibition entitled ''Daughters of the Pale,''
documenting in words and photographs the experiences of daughters of Jewish
immigrant opened in London.
1987: An exhibition entitled ''East End Synagogues: From the
Shtiebel to Duke's Place’’ opened at the Heritage Center in London.
1989: In “Jews and Geniuses: An Exchange” Robert F. Taruskin
published today responds to Robert Craft’s “Jews and Geniuses published in
February.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1989/06/15/jews-and-geniuses-an-exchange/
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1989/02/16/jews-and-geniuses/
1990: After five years in office, Abraham David Sofaer completed
his servce as Legal Adviser of the Department of State.
1992: The Fifth International Convention of Studies of “Italia
Judaica” opened in Palermo.
1992: Best-selling instrumental musician Kenny G (Kenneth Bruce Gorelick) married Lyndie – a union
that would produce two sons before ending in divorce in 2012
1993: In Baghdad, Iraq, Eiahu and Naima Carmel gave birth to Moshe
Carmelia the Albert Einstein Professor of Theoretical Physics at Ben Gurion
University and the Preside of the Israel Physical Society.
http://physweb.bgu.ac.il/HOMEPAGES/FACULTY/Carmeli/main.html
1994:
Israel and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations.
1994:
“The Lion King” with music for which Hans Zimmer would receive two Grammy
Awards and which was directed by Rob Minkoff was released in the United States
today.
1996:
Judge Burkhardt Stein from Tübingen County Court ordered the confiscation and
incineration of all books Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte and the destruction of
all means for manufacturing them. The book was written by holocaust denier and
anti-Semite Ernst Gauss.
1997: The New York Times featured reviews of books by
Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The
Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick, Steven Spielberg: A Biography by
Joseph McBride and Steven Spielberg: The Unauthorized Biography by John
Baxter
2000: The United Nations is continuing work on verifying that
Israel had withdrawn all of its forces from southern Lebanon.
2001: Today marked the first full day of yet another
Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire.
2002: “After 109 performances and 18 previews at the Martin Beck
Theatre” the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of Marvin
Hamlisch’s “Sweet Smell of Success” the musical version of Sweet Smell of
Success co-authored by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman that was based on
Walter Winchell-like character.
2003: “After a week of ferocious bloodshed, Israel and the
Palestinians held top-level security talks into the early hours of this morning
in a bid to calm the region and salvage an international peace plan.” (As
reported by Greg Myre)
2004 It was reported today that Palestinians have criticized, and
American officials have objected to Israel’s plans “to build new segments of
its barrier around Ariel and other Jewish settlements that are more than 10
miles inside the West Bank
2005: In words that would come back to haunt them it was reported
today that “analysts Lehman Brothers “for its strong performance in spite of a
weaker bond trading environment.”
2006: Yakov Kreizberg made his “last appearance with the” London
Symphony Orchestra “at the Barbican … when he performed Ludwig van Beethoven's
Piano Concerto no. 5 with Stephen Hough, and Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony no.
11
2006: “The exhibition ‘Jules Fieffer: If You Really Love Me, You’d
Find Me” opened at the Adam Baumgold Gallery.
http://adambaumgoldgallery.com/feiffer_jules/feiffer.htm
2007: The Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam opens an
exhibition on the life and work of famous French actress Sarah Bernhardt who
was the first international superstar.
2007: The 46th Hebrew Book Week comes to a close.
2007(29th of Sivan, 5767): Fifty-six-year-old Claudia Cohen, a high-profile gossip reporter for
television and newspapers who was a frequent subject of the gossip columns
herself, partly because of her marriage to, and remunerative divorce from, the
billionaire businessman Ronald O. Perelman, died today in Manhattan. (As
reported by Margalit Fox.)
2008: The Sunday New York
Times book sections features reviews of Cecil B. DeMille: A Life in Art by Simon
Louvish and Audition: A Memoir,
the autobiography of Barbara
Walters. How “Jewish” is the movie maker whose father is lay leader in the
Episcopal Church and whose mother is a Sephardic Jew who converted? How Jewish is a television personality whose
parents were both Jewish but who observed no Jewish ritual growing up and loves
having a Christmas tree in her home?
2008: The Washington Post features books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including America Aged: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors,
Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial
Crisis by Roger Lowenstein
2008: Stephan Grayek, one of the last survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising
who passed away at the age of 92 was buried at the Herzliya Cemetery today. He
is survived by his daughter, Ora, his son, Yitzhak, grandchildren and a great
granddaughter. During the Nazi era Grayek took advantage of his Aryan features
to move with relative ease in and out of the ghetto, fighting against the Nazis
with both Jews and Poles. Grayek's wartime exploits were recorded in his book,
“Shelosha Yemin Krav” (“Three Days of Battle”). Eli Zborowski, chairman of the American and
International Societies for Yad Vashem and vice president of the World
Federation of Polish Jews, wrote in a condolence notice in the Hebrew press
that he had lost his mentor and close friend. He referred to Grayek as the
"commander and hero of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and worldwide leader of
Holocaust survivors." Grayek, who was the founder of the World
Organization of Partisans, Underground Fighters, Ghetto Rebels and Camp Inmates
- the first body to focus public attention on the needs of Holocaust survivors
- swore in 1943 to fight anti-Semitism for as long as he lived. He frequently
led groups of Holocaust survivors accompanied by the children and grandchildren
of survivors on journeys of memory in Poland. For many years he lobbied
tirelessly for a Jewish museum pavilion in Auschwitz and against the
establishment of a Catholic convent there. He declared in 1989 that no convent
would go up in the largest Jewish graveyard in the world. In a Jerusalem
Post interview 20 years ago, Grayek was asked why he had not experienced
the trauma so common among many Holocaust survivors. He answered:
"Perhaps, because like other people in the resistance, I fought
back."
2008: The Jewish Film Festival in
Croatia comes to an end having screened more than 20 films for 2,500 attendees.
2009: Defense Minister Ehud Barak
reportedly told French officials in Paris today that the Israel has “a secret
accord” with the United States to maintain “natural growth” of settlements in
the West Bank.
2009: Israeli artist Irit Zohar, whose
work has been exhibited at the Tel-Aviv Museum (Meirovich section) and
countless other galleries, debuts in America at the Historic Sixth and “I”
Street Synagogue with Painting in Action, a series of large, powerful, energetic
works deeply influenced by her spirituality.
2010: Mark Russ Federman (Herring Maven Emeritus) is scheduled to his share
herring tales at the Russ & Daughters Herring Pairing at New York’s Astor,
an event designed to celebrate the New Catch Holland Herring and the wonders of
many different herrings
2010 “The Biennial Scholars' Conference
on American Jewish History,” a meeting organized by the Academic Council of the
American Jewish Historical Society, which will examine the notion of American
Jewish "exceptionalism," or uniqueness, the has shaped conceptions of American Jewish
history from its beginning is scheduled to open in New York City.
2010(3rd of Tammuz, 5770):
Ninety-two year old Ida Weiner the widow of Manfred Swarsensky who served as
Rabbi Temple Beth El in Madison, Wisconsin for thirty-six years, passed away
two.
2011: The Leo Baeck Institute is
scheduled to present a program entitled “Mahler & Radical Departures”,
featuring the works of Mahler, Korngold and Schoenberg, three composers who are
a representative of “German and Austrian musicians of Jewish descent who
arrived in this country and transformed the American musical landscape.” The
works of German-Jewish composer Mauricio Kagel are also scheduled to be
performed.
2011: THE
BIG JEWCY, sponsored by Jewcy.com, is scheduled to take place in Brooklyn, New
York.
2011: At
the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee, archivist Jay Hyland is scheduled to present a
program entitled ‘Archival Exploration: WWII Edition' that will provide a
first-hand look at artifacts and documents from the JMM's collection connected
with WWII. This program is a 'teaser' for the 'WWII Historical Encampment
Reenactment' scheduled to be later this month.
2011: A
Used Book Sale is scheduled to begin today in San Diego, CA, to benefit the Samuel &
Rebecca Astor Judaica Library.
2011: The new Israeli Ambassador to the
United Nations, Ron Prosor, started work today, taking over for Meron Reuben,
who had held the post on an interim basis since last year’s departure of
Gabriella Shalev.
2012: In
Washington, DC, The Hadassah Attorney’s Council is scheduled to host a luncheon
event where Judith Barnet “will speak with us about her decades of experience
assisting companies to grow their business in the Middle Eastern and North
African marketplace.”
2012:
Funeral services are scheduled to take place this morning for Rabbi Stanley
Rabinowitz who was the spiritual leader of Adas Israel for over a quarter of a
century. While much has been written
about his stature as a “Washington Rabbi” for us he was simply the Rabbi. Rabbi Rabinowitz arrived in the summer of
1960. My father had been on the search
committee that brought him from Minneapolis.
My brother was his first Bar Mitzvah.
That Shabbat Nachamu service may have been Rabbi Rabinoiwtiz’s first
Saturday morning service. I was in the
first newly instituted post-Confirmation class which he taught. I remember him trying to explain to a group
of adolescents what a Reconstructionist Jew was. It wasn’t about ritual; he wanted us to see
that it was about the poetry of the soul.
[Excuse the personal comments, but history is a story and even for the
great and near-great it is still a story about individual persons.]
2012:
Rabbi Ariel Stone the spiritual leader of Portland, Oregon’s Shir Tikvah,
author of Because All Is One and the daughter-in-law of Cedar Rapids
community leader Joan Thaler, is scheduled to deliver the sermon at Temple
Judah this evening.
2012: Uzi
Arad, who served as the head of the National Security Council during the 2010
Mavi Marmara incident, slammed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his
government for carrying out "sloppy work" in preparation for the
flotilla to Gaza. Arad, speaking during a panel discussion in Tel Aviv today,
made the comments two days after State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss
criticized the government's decision-making process in dealing with the
flotilla in his report on the incident.
2012: In
Los Angeles, Langer’s Deli began a celebration of its 65th
anniversary by giving away its signature pastrami sandwich which normally sells
for $15.20 for free.
2012: In
an interview given today Irving Stern gave “his perspective as mayor of Saint
Louis Park and Minnesota state senator on local politics, commercial and
residential development, and Jewish issues during his years in public service.”
2012:
“That’s My Boy” a comedy produced by Adam Sander who co-starred along with Andy
Samberg was released today in the United States.
2013: The
Jerusalem Piano Duo – Shir Semel and Dror Semel – is scheduled to perform at
the Eden-Tamir Music Center.
2013: In
Coralville, Iowa, Agudas Achim is scheduled to honor outgoing religious school
principal Kineret Zabnert with a special Kiddush Luncheon following Shabbat
Moring Services led by Rabbi Jeff Portman.
2013:
“Ameer Got His Gun” and “Dr. Pomerantz” are among the films scheduled to be
shown today at “Seret 2013” – The London Israeli Film & Television
Festival.
2013: Worshipers who came to a Bat Yam
synagogue for Shabbat services this morning were stunned to see crosses
spray-painted on the doors of the prayer house. Police were investigating the
incident.
2013: “Unidentified assailants broke
into an IDF base in northern Israel this morning, injuring a soldier and
stealing his rifle. The assailants managed to enter the Naftali base, near
Golani Junction, after tying up the soldier on guard duty. They then ran away
with his rifle.”
2013:
MIT’s Shafi Goldwasser was a co-winner of the Alan M. Turning Award.
2013(7th
of Tammuz, 5773): Eighty-seven year old Paul Soros, the brother of George Soros
passed away today. (As reported by Robert D. Hershey, Jr)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/business/paul-soros-shipping-innovator-dies-at-87.html
2014: A
release today from Gaylen Ross announced that “for the first time the
critically acclaimed documentary Killing Kasztner will be available as a
special 2 DVD Edition as of June 30th which will coincide with the 70th
anniversary of the departure of Kasztner’s dramatic rescue train from wartime
Budapest.
2014: Jean-François Copé is scheduled
to complete his term of office as President of the Union for a Popular Movement
(UMP)
2014: The
Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Centuries of Surnames: What
Names Can Tell Us,” a presentation by Jeffrey S. Malka who is an authority on
Sephardic last names.
2014: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A
Replacement Life by Boris Fishman, The Impossible Exile: Stefan Zweig at the End of the
World by George Prochnik and The Myth of
the Spoiled Child: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom About Children and
Parenting by Alfie Kohn
2014: IDF and security forces continue to
search for the 3 kidnapped Israeli boys; a search which has included the arrest
of several Hamas leaders.
2014: Arabs pelted Jews who returning from a
prayer service at the Kotal with rocks which only stopped when authorities
arrived.
2014(17th of Sivan, 5774): Eighty
year old Moise Yacoub Safra the Beirut native who “co-founded Banco Safra with
his brothers Edmond Safra and Joseph Safra” passed away today at São Paulo,
Brazil.
http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/brazilian-jewish-philanthropist-moise-safra-passes-away
2014: “Four rockets were fired by Palestinians
in the Gaza Strip at the southern city of Ashkelon.”
2014: “Palestinian gunmen opened fire at
Israeli security personnel at a military checkpoint near the West Bank city of Bethlehem,
south of Jerusalem, tonight.
2015: The Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Education at the University of Northern Iowa in cooperation with the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to present “Teaching the
Holocaust Today Why and How” at Grandview University in Des Moines, IA.
2015: “The Kishka Monologues” and “When Blood
Ran Red” are scheduled to be seen at the Kulturfest, the first-ever
international festival of Jewish performing arts, celebrating the global impact
of Jewish culture. Presented by National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene
2015: “Righteous Rebel: Rabbi Avi Weiss” and “A
Tale of a Woman and a Robe” are scheduled to be shown at the JCC Manhattan.
2016: For the first time ever, “Russ &
Daughters” is scheduled to “have kosher New Catch Holland Herring for sale at
the Jewish Museum” in New York City.
2016: The 17th annual Washington
Jewish Music Festival is scheduled to come to an end.
2016: The Eden-Tamir Music center is scheduled
to host the Achinoam Keisar Piano Recital.
2016: “Midnight Orchestra” is scheduled to be
shown on the opening night of the 24th Portland, Oregon, Jewish Film
Festival.
2016: As part of its exploration of Gravity,
the Chelsea Music Festival is scheduled to present a program celebrating Albert
Einstein’s contributions to science as well as his lifelong love for his violin
and chamber music.
2016: The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene
and Museum of Jewish Heritage are scheduled to present Yiddish Soul at Central
Park Summer Stage starring The Maccabeats, Benny Friedman, Netanel Hershtik,
Yanky Lemmer, Joseph Malovany, Lipa Shmeltzer, and Zusha
2017: The CHYE Crown Heights Young
Entrepreneurs is scheduled to sponsor an evening of “Sushi and Study.”
2017: Today, “Rabbis at B’nai Jeshurun, an
influential nondenominational synagogue in New York City, announced at the
synagogue’s annual meeting” that they “will officiate at the weddings of
interfaith couples who commit to creating Jewish homes and raising Jewish
children.” (JTA)
2017: “Brad Sabin Hill, former Fellow in Hebrew
Bibliography, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies” is scheduled to
speak on “Oxford and the Printing of Judeo-Arabic” which is being presented in
conjunction with the exhibition 500 Years of Treasures from Oxford.”
2018: Stan Yaroslavsky is scheduled to appear
at Pergamon in Jerusalem
2018: In New Orleans, Temple Sinai is scheduled
“to host Mayor LaToya Cantrell at r Shabbat services and the Oneg that follows.
2018: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the
first screening of “Studio 54,” a documentary about the venue “which was
co-founded by two Jewish friends from Brooklyn, Ian Schrader and Steve Rubell.”
2019: In San Francisco, Benjamin Haims is
scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah at Congregation Emanu-El.
2019: A week in which the United States Senate
unanimously approved a resolution condemning ant-Semitism while preparing to
pass the National Defense Authorization Act which includes a statement
indirectly expressing concerns that the Port of Haifa which is often used by
the Sixth Fleet will be operated for twenty-five years starting in 2021 by the
Shanghai International Port Group comes to an end hopefully without any more
rocket attacks from Gaza.
2019: It was reported that NBA Champion Toronto
Raptors co-owned by Larry Tanenbaum will be making a visit to Israel.
2019(12th of Sivan, 5779): Parsahat
Nasso;
2019(12th of Sivan, 5779): Forty-two
year old Yale University trained attorney Charles Alan Reich
Manhattan born son of , hematologist Carl Reich
and school administrator Eleanor (Lesinsky) Reich and the author of The
Greening of America, assed away today.(As reported by Sam Roberts)
In Manhattan, hematologist Carl Reich and
school administrator Eleanor (Lesinsky) Reich gave birth to Yale University
trained attorney Charles Alan Reich the author of The Greening of America. (As
reported by Sam Roberts)
2021: In New Orleans, the Leventhal Center is
scheduled to sponsor a life cycle event in which Cantor Lucy Fishbein and
Deacon Debbie Scalia discuss wedding customs and answer questions that show how
similar “our traditions really are.
2020: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is
scheduled to host a virtual conversation with Deborah Feldman, the author of Unorthodox
and Shira Haas who was “Esty” in the Netflix series “Unorthodox.”
2020: The London School of Jewish Studies is
scheduled to host a session on “The Meaning of Life: Is it All Pointless?” with Rabbi Dr. Michael Harris and Dr.
Tamra Wright
2020: In Cedar Rapids, IA, a moment of great
sadness as funeral services are scheduled to be held for Andrew Nelson, the
husband of Melissa Gasway Nelson, the daughter of Julie and Scott Gasway and
granddaughter of Bill and Harriet Gasway, all staunch members of this small but
vibrant Jewish community.
2021: In New Jersey, The Jewish Heritage Museum
of Monmouth County is scheduled to re-open to the public today by APPOINTMENT ONLY!”
with the additional requirements that everyone entering the facility must wear
a mask and must be fully vaccinated.
2021: The Center for Adult Jewish Learning at
Temple Israel is scheduled to present “Baking Bread Across the Diaspora” with
“culinary historian and all-around bread lover,” Sara Gardner.
2021: The Temple Emanu-El Striecker Center is
scheduled to host a conversation with long-time police professional Bill
Bratton who “served as Commissioner of the Boston Police Department, Chief of
the Los Angeles Police Department, and two terms as New York City Police
Commissioner” and former U.S. Attorney, Preet Bharara.
2021: The London School of Jewish Studies is
scheduled to host the return of Rabbi Barry Kleinberg as he continues his
“popular series exploring important works of writing which changed the way we
observe Jewish law.”
2021: The 9th annual Israel Film
Festival is scheduled to begin at the JCC Manhattan.
2021: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is
scheduled to host a discussion of We Were Strangers, “the true story of
Magda Preiss which is a breathtaking masterpiece of Holocaust literature,
composed in her own words upon arriving in America in the 1940s.”
2021: Based on an agreement reached last week
between Netanyahua and Gantz, the Jerusalem flag march is scheduled to take
place today.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rJxMME65u
2021: As part of its “Summer Survivor Speaker
Series, the Dallas Holocuast and Human Rights Museum is scheduled to host a
talk by Roisan Zerner, a survivor of the Kovno Ghetto
2021: The YIVO Institute is scheduled to
present “The Lost World of African American Cantors, 1915-1953: with Henry
Sapoznik.
https://programs.cjh.org/event/lost-world-2021-06-15
2022: The Weitzman National of America Jewish
History is scheduled to co-host a screening of
“La Nona Kanta” a tale of survival and courage in which films of
interviews of Flory Jagoda (z”l) tells the true story of how music helped her
escape from Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia when she was a teenager; how she made a
life in the United States; and how she turned the tragic fate of her family and
Balkan Sephardic culture into a celebration of five centuries of faith and
tradition, giving meaning to the rest of her life, and delighting audiences
worldwide.
2022: Tel Aviv University (TAU) Trust is
scheduled to host its signature event, Night at the Movies, where Golden Globe
award winner and TAU Steve Tisch School of Film and Television alum Hagai Levi
will share his insight into Israel’s many cinema and television triumphs,
including his own recent hit Scenes from a Marriage starring Jessica Chastain
and Oscar Isaac.
2022: As part of its second annual celebration
of the national holiday Juneteenth, the ADL is scheduled to host Pulitzer
Prize-winning author and Harvard Professor Annette Gordon Reed author of On
Juneteenth.22
2023: In Coralville, the Agudas Achim
Seniors Chavurah will feature a a conversation with Iowa Senator Janice Weiner
and Iowa Representative Adam Zabner, both members of Agudas Achim Congregation.
2023: In New Orleans, the Jewish
Community Center is scheduled to host its board meeting.
2023: UK Jewish Film is scheduled to
host a screening of “A Sense of Belonging, “ “plus a recorded discussion with
director Paul Morrison, writer Howard Cooper, screenwriter David Schneider, and
Professor Nathan Abrams.”
2023: YIVO is scheduled to present a
panel moderated by Kalman Weiser and featuring Naomi Seidman, Kenneth Moss, and
Jeffrey Shandler, that will examine Max Weinreich's evolving understanding of
the meaning of Yidishe visnshaft (Yiddish studies) and the role of Yiddish in
Jewish life throughout his career.
2023: Lockdown University is
scheduled to host a webinar with Trudy Gold lecturing on “Philosemitism and
Proto-Zionism in Britain.”
2023: Closing arguments are scheduled
to begin today in the case of Robert Bowers who is on trial for the murder of 11
Jewish worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA.
