This Day, September 10, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
September 10
134
CE: The great Talmudic sage, Rabbi Akiva, was taken captive by the Romans, and
executed five days later in Caesarea, Israel. Rabbi Akiva had been a
40-year-old shepherd who could not even read the Aleph-Bet. One day, he came across
a stone that had been holed out by a constant drip of water. He concluded: If
something as soft as water can carve a hole in solid rock, how much more so can
Torah -- which is fire -- make an indelible impression on my heart. Rabbi Akiva
committed himself to Torah study and went on to become the greatest sage of his
generation, with 24,000 students learning under him at one time. The Roman
authorities eventually arrested him for "illegally" teaching Torah.
As he was being tortured, Rabbi Akiva rejoiced in fulfilling the biblical
command to "love God with all your life." As he died, Rabbi Akiva
uttered the words of Shema Yisrael. His self-sacrifice for Torah continues to
inspire Jews till today.
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tishrei_5.html
877:
Birthdate of Eutychius of Alexandria, the Greek who wrote Nazm al-Jauhar, a
history, of what some may consider of dubious accuracy that began with Creation
and ran through the 10th century which included a description of the
Great Revolt in 70.
1191:
During the Third Crusade, King Richard., the Lionhearted, captured Jaffa but
throughout the remainder of 1191 and into the summer of 1192, he was unable to
realize his ultimate goal of recapturing Jerusalem. Richard was facing Saladin,
the Muslim leader who readmitted the Jews to Jerusalem in 1190. Richard would leave the Holy Land and end up
in an Austrian dungeon. His brother Prince John would pillage the English people
to raise the ransom; the Jewish people were a special target for the Richard’s avaricious
brother who would one day become King of England.
1197:
As “the Crusader city of Jaffa is being threatened by Muslim forces,” “Henry
II, Count of Champagne and King of Jerusalem, died in Acre when he accidentally
fell from a balcony.
1199(8th
of Tishri): Maimonides wrote to Samuel Ibn-Tibbon, who as translating the
"Guide to the Perplexed from Arabic into Hebrew. The letter included advice on how to do this
as well as plea that Ibn-Tibbon not undertake his planned trip from France to
Egypt to visit him. The distance was too
great, and he would be too busy since to see him for more than an hour since
each day except Shabbat he must travel from Fostat to Cairo where he spends
half a day ministering to the Sultan and his court. Then he travels back to Fostat where he is
besieged by Jews, Moslems, et al all seeking his medical skill and advice.
1337:
In Deckendorf, Bavaria, there was an alleged host desecration. This allegation brought wide spread violence
to over fifty communities in Bavaria, Bohemia and Austria. Host desecration was
right up there with blood libel accusations when it came to inciting Christians
to violent attacks on Jews. Since the
host was symbolic of the body of Jesus, the desecration of the host was treated
like a repeat of the alleged betrayal of Jesus by the Jews that is at the core
of the Good Friday/Easter celebration.
1349:
Jews who survived a massacre in Constance Germany were burned to death.
1482: Federico da Montefeltro, who “protected his Jewish
subjects during his reign in Urbino from 1444 to 1482” passed away today.\
1487:
Birthdate of Pope Julius III. As far as
Popes went Julius was not the worst of the lot.
He did allow the burning of the Talmud and other “harmful books.” At the same time condemned the use of the
“blood libel” and the forced Baptism of children without the consent of their
parents.
1515:
Pope Leo X, whose “pontificate was very favorable for the Jews in general and
for the Jews of Rome in particular” “invested Thomas Wolsey” who would try to
twist the laws of marriage found in Deuteronomy to gain Henry VIII’s divorce
from Catherine, “as Cardinal in England’s Catholic Church.
1553(2nd
of Tishrei, 5314) Second Day of Rosh Hashana
1553:
The Jews of Rome confront a new year without copies of the Talmud since
Cardinal Caraffa, the future Pope Paul IV, had burned them all the day before.
1657(13th
of Tishrei, 5418: Samuel,
the son of Menassah ben Israel passed away to London, after which, at his
request he was buried in Amsterdam.
1663:
Letters of denization were issued to Jacob Lumbrozo, a Sephardic Jew who was
the first of his faith to settle in Maryland.
Denization was a level below full citizenship but included a several
rights including the right to buy and own real estate.
1671:
The Jewish community of Berlin was organized.
1691:
Eighty-six year old English Biblical school Edward Pococke whose works included
“the Porta Mosis, extracts
from the Arabic commentary of Maimonides on the Mishnah, with translation and
very learned notes” as well as a series
of English language commentaries of several of the Jewish prophets. passed away
today.
1718: The Collegiate School at New Haven, Conn.,
changed its name to Yale. Yale, of
course is noted for the fact that Hebrew is used in its crest. This was not
because of Jews attending the school but because Hebrew was one of the
languages used in the Biblical studies at the college. Elihu Yale, for whom
Yale is named, also had a slightly risqué relationship with the Jewish
people. While serving in Madras, he had
an affair with the wife of Jewish merchant who was a leading member of the
community. The relationship apparently
was open and ongoing and produced a son.
[I’ll bet that’s something that the Eli don’t sit around talking about
down a Mory’s.]
1725:
Emperor Charles VI., named Issachar Berush Eskeles "Landesrabbiner"
of Hungary, a position which had been occupied by his deceased father-in-law.
1753:
Sarah Cohen and Henry Marks gave birth to Leah Marks, the wife of Michael Hart
and the mother of Baruch, Simeon, Jacob and Naphtali Hart all of whom were born
in Pennsylvania.
1768(28th
of Elul, 5528): In Newport, Rhode Island, Aaron Lopez does not open his
businesses today because of Shabbat.
1771(2nd
of Tishrei, 5532) Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1774(5th
of Tishrei, 5535): Parashat Vayeilech; Sabbath of the Return
1779(29th
of Elul, 5539): Erev Rosh Hashanah observed as the American battle the British
for a fourth year.
1784:
Birthdate of German native Jacob Loeb Loebstein, the husband of Miriam Einstein
and the father of Loeb and Fanni Lobstein.
1790(2nd
of Tishrei, 5551): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah observed on the same day that
Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury with Jewish origins, wrote to
his mento President George Washington.
1798(29th
of Elul, 5558): Erev Rosh Hashanah observed on the same day that in Honduras,
the British defeated the Spaniards at the Battle of St. George’s Caye.
1809(29th
of Elul, 5569): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1817(29th
of Elul, 5578): Erev Rosh Hashanah observed for the first time the presidency
of James Monroe,
1820(2nd
of Tishrei, 5581): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1828(2nd
of Tishrei, 5589): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah observed for the last time
during the Presidency of John Q. Adams.
1829:
Michael Jones married Hannah Simmons at the Great Synagogue today.
1832:
In Surinam, a fire destroyed the village at Jodensavanne including the
synagogue.
1835:
In Alsace, David Strauss and his wife gave birth to Confederate Army veteran
and member of the Alabama state legislature Nat Strauss, the husband of Frances
Koch who in 1894 moved to New Orleans where he was Director of the Jewish Home
and a trustee of Touro Infirmary.
1839(2nd
of Tishrei, 5600): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1839:
Having returned to London “from his academic travels in Africa and the Middle
East” Louis Raphael wrote to his sisters that he was glad to be home and that
he would send them money by the next post.
1840(12th
of Elul, 5600): In Rozhniatov, Yenti, the daughter of Yehuda Pinchas passed
away today.
1847(29th
of Elul, 5607): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1847:
In London, Leopoldine Friedberger and Lambert Samuel gave birth to Helene
Samuel, the wife of Ernest Falck and the mother of Willie, Florence, Eveline,
Grace and Helene Alice Flack.
1851:
Ernest Oppenheim married Clara Harris at the New Synagogue today.
1851:
In Bohemia, “Lazarus and Fannie (Gostforf) Block gave birth to the Washington
University educated philosopher and the principle of Marshall High School in
Chicago.
1852: The New York Times reported that Lionel
de Rothschild, "that eminent Hebrew," is resigning from
Parliament since he cannot take his seat. "The Jewish Colossus has,
as it said, come to the conclusion that the post of 'dummy representative' confers
no credit on him while it is a decided disadvantage to the city" of
London.
1854 In Manchester, UK, Sarah Jacobs and Aaron Marks gave
birth to Laurence Marks.
1854: Birthdate of American journalist Poultney Bigelow
who during the 1890’s presented himself as an expert on “the persecution of
Christian Jews” and who, unlike others, represented “the Czar as a kindly man
overruled by fierce and venal bureaucrats.”
1855
(27 Elul 5615) Rabbi Sholom Rokeach, also known as the Sar Sholom (“minister of
peace”), the first Belzer Rebbe passed away. Born in 1779, Rokeach’s father was
Rabbi Elazar, a member of the Brody Kloise sages. His grandfather was Rabbi
Elazar Rabbi of Brody until 1736, then Rabbi of Amsterdam. Rabbi Sar Sholom
grew up as an orphan, in his uncle's home in the polish town of Skohl. This
uncle, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Ramraz, his mother's brother, was the head of the
Jewish law courts in that town. The uncle raised him, taught him Jewish tradition,
and married his daughter Malka to him. In the town of Skohl he was influenced
by Rabbi Shlomo (Flam) the Rebbe of Skohl (also known as Reb Shlomo Lutzker).
Rabbi Shlomo was the personal writer and second hand of Rabbi Dov Ber of
Mezeritch, the successor to the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chasidus. Since his
uncle (and father in law) was opposed to Hasidus, Rabbi Sholom would secretly
be let down the window by his wife, to learn at Rabbi Shlomo Lutzker's Beis
Midrash during the nights. He composed several songs - most still sung by the
Belzer Chasidim, including one tune, to "Tzur Mishaelo", sung during
the Shaleshudes third ritual meal on the Sabbath, which is still popular today.
Many of his speeches, teachings, writings and ideas, have been saved in an
anthology named "Midbar Kadesh". He reigned as rebbe from 1817 till
1855. He was a disciple of the Seer of Lublin.”
1856:
In London Adam and Marian Spielman gave birth to Sir Adam Spielman, the
educator and children’s advocated who was the brother of Isador and Marion
Spielman’
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9504E1DB143FEE3BBC4C52DFB766838D629EDE
1857:
Birthdate of Flora Langerman Spiegelberg, the "grand lady of the southwest
frontier.” Spiegelberg was born in New
York City. She met her husband while she
was on a visit to German. Willi
Spiegelberg also was visiting from the United States. The couple married in the
Reform Temple at Nuremberg in 1874 and then returned to America. Willi and his brothers were successful
merchants in Sante Fe, New Mexico. Flora
settled there and became one of the leaders of the frontier community, starting
among other things, the first non-sectarian school. Although her husband with some other relatives
had already established a prosperous mercantile business in Santa Fe,
Spiegelberg, upon her arrival, found that she was only the eighth woman in
town. Instead of giving into culture shock, Spiegelberg devoted herself to
improving her new community. The success of her husband's store enabled
Spiegelberg to put all her energy into community service. In 1879, she helped
to establish the first non-sectarian school in Santa Fe, and the following year
raised $1,000 from the Santa Fe business community to purchase an acre of land
for a new three-room schoolhouse. In addition, she ran not one but two
religious schools: a Hebrew school on Saturdays and a Catholic Sunday school.
Spiegelberg also created the first children's playground and garden in Santa
Fe. In addition to all of her efforts on behalf of Santa Fe's growing
community, Spiegelberg was also a moderately successful children's writer, and
some of her work was broadcast on the CBS radio network in the 1930s. In 1937,
she published Reminiscences of a
Jewish Bride of the Santa Fe Trail, a collection of stories from her
own life.
1858:
The City Items column published today reported that “Yesterday was kept
strictly holy by those of our citizens who profess the Jewish faith. The day,
until sunset, was observed with fasting and prayer. During the morning the Synagogues were all
open and were thronged with worshippers.”
“The day was not a mere nominal Day of Atonement since “all the Jews’
stores in the city were closed.”
1858:
Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt discovered Asteroid 54 Alexandria.
1859:
Birthdate of Albany, NY native and Dartmouth alum Arthur Lucas, a reporter with
the Albany Evening Journal.
1860:
“In Mstislavl, Russia, Meyer Ya’akov Dubnow
a lumber merchant” and his wife gave birth to
Shimon
Meyerovich Dubnow who gained fame as the great Jewish historian Simon Dubnow
whom the world could not be bothered to save so he was murdered in the cemetery
at Riga by the Nazis. Although he was
talking to the Jews of the Riga Ghetto when he said Yidn, shraybt un
farshraybt"' (Jews – write and record)” he was reminding us all of the age
old admonish to Zachor –Remember, which is a good enough reason to try one’s
hand at history, at any level.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Dubnow_Simon
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Dubnow.html
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/simon-dubnow/#
1862:
Rabbi Jacob Frankel of Philadelphia becomes the first Jewish chaplain in the
United States Army.
1864:
Philadelphian Michael Baer began his second enlistment in the Union Army today
as a Second Lieutenant in Battery I of the 204th Regiment.
1864:
Twenty-seven year old Philadelphia native Lyon Levy Emanuel, “the brother of
Louis Manly Emanuel” who had been serving since 1861 was promoted to the rank
of Major while serving with the 82nd Regiment.
1866(1st
of Tishrei, 5627): Rosh Hashanah
1871:
In Prussia, Bertha Rachel Pulver and Abraham Elias Gordon gave birth to “English novelist, short story writer,
and playwright” Samuel Gordon the Cambridge graduate and husband of
Esther Zichlin whose worked in “Sons of the Covenant: Tale of London Jewry which portrays the lives
of two newly-arrived Jewish immigrants to London's East End.”
1871:
It was reported today that The New Era, “a Hebrew magazine” that the
days are long gone when the Jews could be thought of as forming their own
nation. Living for so long among other
nations of the world, they have identified with the nations in which they
live. Thus Jews living in England are
Englishman; Jews living in Germany are Germans, etc. When nations go to war, Jews find themselves
fighting each other which is in violation of what had been a core value –
loyalty. As to the establishment of modern
Jewish state, “the idea of a restoration of a Jewish kingdom is an exploded
theory and is now rejected by the great majority of our people.”
1871:
In “Glories of the Temple at Jerusalem” published today, Reverend Buddington
described the findings of the Excavations of Jerusalem project paid for by the
Palestine Expedition Fund. The project
began in 1868 and was completed in 1870 under the leadership of Charles Warren
and Henry Brittles. Among other things, the British explorers found evidence of
the burning of Jerusalem, “the seal of Haggai” and pavement dating from the
time when Jesus was supposed to have been in the city.
1871:
Miss Isabel Burton’s account of her recent visit to Hebron was published
today. She described how the Moslems had
co-opted the Cave Macpalah by building a mosque on the site and the limitations
on placed on Jews trying to visit the site.
1873:
Birthdate Zemplin, Hungary native David Hartmann, the grandson of David Sugar,
“on of the heroes of the Revolution of 1848” who in 1888 came to the United
States where he eventually opened a large ladies’ ready-to-wear garment
business on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, joined Congregation B’nai Israel and
raised to wo daughters, Stella and Beatrice with his wife the former Jennie
Berkowitz.
1874(28th
of Elul, 5634): Thirty-five year old John Harris passed away today following
which he was buried in Natchitoches, LA.
1874:
It was reported today that Herr and Frau Heilbut had recently celebrated their
Diamond (60th) Wedding Anniversary in Hamburg, Germany. The Municipal Council had closed the area
where the festivities were taking place to all vehicular traffic. The celebration included services at the
local synagogue, serenades by two choral societies and congratulatory visits
from the Chief Burgomaster and the
Director of Police. Among the gifts were
a “a magnificently bound prayer-book with a large diamond set in the cover
presented by the Empress of Germany” a long with a persona note from her
Imperial Majesty. [The Jews of Hamburg had only recently won full civil rights
as German citizens. This outpouring of
official recognition gave a great deal of hope and comfort to the over 12,000
Jews living in a city whose Jewish citizens had included Moses Mendelsohn.]
1875:
James Koppel Gutheim “was engaged as a guest rabbi to lead
the inaugural services” for Temple Beth El’s new building in San Antonio,
Texas.
1875(10th
of Elul, 5635): Rebekah Gumpert Hyneman a noted authoress from Philadelphia, PA
passed away today. “She was a regular contributor to The Masonic Mirror,
published a volume of Tales for Children, and wrote essays descriptive
of the women of the Bible and the Apocrypha. She also published a number of
poems under the titles The Leper and Other Poems and The Muses.”
1876:
“‘Becky Sharp’ On Stage” published today described a dramatization of Vanity
Fair that had been performed in San Francisco, CA. (Thackeray’s novel contained
several references to Jews, none of which were particularly faltering. Rhoda
Swartz, a classmate of Becky’s is described as being the daughter of German Jew
who was a slave owner. Of a group of
Jews who are among the attendees at a bankruptcy auction she say “Look at them
with their hooked beaks…They’re like vultures after a battle.” As described by
Marcus Ballenger)
1876:
In Russia, Elias and Bluma Sarah (Dashinsky) Dubinsky gave birth “cellist,
conductor and composer” Vladimir I. Dubinsky, the husband of Ida Bernstein and
the found organizer and director of The Dubinsky Musical Art Studio in New
York.
1877:
“The Jewish New Year” published today describes the differences in the way in
which “Orthodox and Reformed” Jews observe the just completed holiday. It points out that “the Jewish Church has in
later years been somewhat divided on minor points, though” it is “thoroughly
united in all material matters.” For example,
one group considers it proper to use an organ which the other prohibits its
being played. One group observed the
holiday for one day and blew the ram’s horn on Saturday; the other group only
blew the ram’s horn on the second day of the holiday.
1877(3rd
of Tishrei, 5638): Tzom Gedaliah
1877:
In Montreal, Canada, Esther Jackson and Maurice Jacobs gave birth New York
resident and artist Michel Jacobs who painted portraits of Israel Zangwill and
Mischa Elman and served as an officer in the U.S. Army during WW I.
1878:
“Joshua Stampfer came to Jaffa to supervise the founding of Petach Tikhav, the
first Jewish farming settlement latter referred to as ‘the mother of
moshavot.’” (255 green)
1878:
Moses Ottinger and Amelia Gottlieb Ottinger gave birth to their son Albert
Ottinger a lawyer who played a prominent role in New York politics. A
Republican, Ottinger ran for Governor of New York in 1928. He lost to a Democratic Party Ticket on which
Herbert Lehman, who was also Jewish, was running as Lieutenant Governor.
1880:
Simon Rosenheim, a Polish Jew went on trial today charged with having set fire
to the Hester Street tenement house in which he lives.
1880:
Birthdate of baseball pitcher Barney Pelter, the native of Farmington, MO,
known as “the Yiddish Curver” who began his and ended his career with two
American League teams that no longer exist - the St. Louis Browns who became
the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Senators who became the Minnesota
Twins.
1881(16th
of Elul, 5641): Forty-eight year old Samuel Raphel, the husband of Anna Nathan
Raphael passed away today after which he was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in
Natchitoches, LA.
1881:
Based on information that first appeared in the Jewish World it was reported today that “Russia is at last taking
active steps to suppress any further outrages” aimed at the Jews.
1881:
In Chicago, Annette and Max Mayer Hamburger gave birth to Wailer Wile
Hamburger, the Rush Medical College trained physician and WW I veteran and
member of the University of Chicago faculty and husband of Edna Hamburger.
1882:`The
Congress for the Safeguarding of Non-Jewish Interests, which opened in Dresden,
Germany, was the first international assembly to promote anti-Semitism. This
meeting is considered to be a major milestone in the development of
anti-Semitism. For the past two
centuries, (see item above for an example) it appeared that Europe was slowly,
if gradually, rejecting anti-Semitism and moving to admit Jews as full
participants in legal, commercial and social affairs. This meeting represented a major move backwards
and, being held in Germany, which was considered a center of European culture
made the shift seem even more significant.
Finally, the anti-Semitism that this Congress represented was more along
"racial" lines - the pitting of the Aryans against the Semites. Over time, this mentality would find its
ugliest manifestation in the Final Solution.
1883:
Communal elections which were supposed to have been held in Agram today were
postponed following an outbreak of violence in which several houses occupied by
Jews were attacked by a mob that did not disperse until two in the morning
after the hussars fired several volleys in its direction.
1884:
Law enforcement officers scoured the countryside around Montana, PA looking for
the Polish miners who had attacked them when they attempted to arrest the
miners after they had stolen the packs belonging to a Jewish clothing merchant
whom they had refused to pay for the clothing they had ordered.
1885(1st
of Tishrei, 5646): Rosh Hashanah
1885:
Birthdate of Vienna native “Emilie ‘Emmy’ Heim” the singer and music teacher
who lived in England before settling Canada.
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/emmy-heim-emc/
1885:
In New York, Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs delivered a sermon based “on the text in
Isaiah: ‘For God is our King, and He will save us.’”
1885:
In Alpena, Michigan, for the first time a professional cantor led services.
1886:
Birthdate of Paul Burlin, a noted modern and abstract expressionist painter.
1886:
Three days after he had passed away, Samuel Samuel, the son of Lazarus and Rachel
Samuel and the husband of the former Sarah Brandon with whom he had two
children – Lean and Rosa – was buried today at the Sawnsea Jewish Cemetery in
Wales.
1886:
Lawrence Barrett played the role of Shylock in tonight’s performance of “The
Merchant of Venice” at the Star Theatre. Barrett’s portrayal stands out because
unlike others he does not portray the Jew as loathsome caricature and portrays
“the dignity of the representative of a shamefully abused race.”
1887:
Birthdate of Vienna native Rudolf Michael who gained game as American architect
Rudolph Michael Schindler who help changed the landscape of mid-twentieth
century Los Angeles.
http://makcenter.org/rm-schindler-bio/
1887:
In Romania, Rabbi Ezekiel Paneth, the son “of R' Moshe Panet, Daszer Rebbe and
Malka Paneth, and his wife Rivka Paneth gave birth to Mendl Paneth
1887:
It was reported today that the term “That beats the Jews” when used in New York
City is a “complimentary exclamation” that is used when a person accomplishes
something that is particularly clever. As can be seen from the large number of
businesses bearing German-Jewish names, Jews are increasingly successful in the
world of commerce. In the public
schools, Jewish children are almost half of the graduates and they excel in the
field of mathematics. “The Jews are the
great patrons of classical music and the dramatic arts” and their absence is
felt when performances fall on their holidays. (Editor’s note – This
complimentary description of New York Jews stands in stark contrast to the
exclusionary movement that began in Saratoga Springs and the fearful response
to the wave of eastern European Jewish immigrants which was beginning to swell
the city’s population.)
1888:
Birthdate of Israel Abramofsky, the native of Kiev who settled in Toledo, Ohio
where he became a leading artist of the 20th century.
1889:
Sixty-four year old Samuel Cox, who while serving as a Congressman from Ohio
spoke out against the treatment of the Jews in Russia, describing the Jews, in
a speech given in the House of Representatives as a “broken-hearted and
scattered race” upon whom “the Czar of all the Russia” uses “enormities of his
rule” to persecute this people “with a lineage unrivaled for purity, a
religious sentiment and ethics drawn out of the glory and greatness of Mount
Sinai.”
1889:
Thirty-four year old Dr. Nathan Weidenthal, the Cleveland born son Bernard and
Dorothea (Loewy) Weidenthal who did post grad work at the universities of
Prague and Vienna after earning his m.d. at Wooster University married
Ernestine Newman today.
1889:
Two days after he had passed away, 68 year old Alexander Aria, the father of
Judith, Morris, Charles, Sarah Marie and David Aria was buried today at the
Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1889(14th
of Elul, 5649): Twenty-seven year old British poet and novelist Amy Levy, the
first woman who attended Cambridge University and whose friends included Eleanor Marx, the
daughter of Karl Marx and Oscar Wilde passed away today.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/levy-amy
http://www.poemhunter.com/amy-levy/
1890:
In Prague, Rudolf Werfel, “a manufacturer of gloves and leather goods” and
Albine Kussi, “the daughter of a mill owner” gave birth to the first of their
three children, author and playwright, Franz Werfel. a Jewish Czech who wrote in German and was a contemporary of such famed
intellectuals as Franz Kafka and Martin Buber.
Werfel was one of the intellectuals brought to the United States by
American diplomat and righteous gentile, Adrian Frey. Werfel died in California in 1945. Two of his most famous American efforts were The Song
of Bernadette and Jacobowsky and the
Colonel, the film version of which featured Danny Kaye and Kurt Jurgens.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/57432.Franz_Werfel
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/franz-werfel
1890:
Birthdate of New York City native and Columbia educated pharmacist David Irving
Cohen, the husband of Bessie Cohen who made his home in Jersey City, NJ.
1890:
In Kiev, Fanny Shafferman and Henry Finkelstein, “a distillery worker studying
to be a rabbi” gave birth to Rose Finkelstein who gained fame as Rose
Finkelstein Norwood the American labor leader.
1891:
The trouble in connection with the 100 Russian Jews who arrived on September 8
is no closer to being resolved today than it was on the day they land
1891:
Birthdate of Sam Born, the Russian born American “candy man’ who invented a
machine that “inserted sticks into lollipops and created a candy company still
thriving today.
1891:
Four days after he had passed away, Russian born Alfred Monarch Kennard, the
husband of the former Eva Eskell with whom he had four children was buried
today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1891:
The platform of the New York Republican Party published today includes a “12th
plank” that calls for the intervention of the national government to end “the
cruelties and persecutions practiced upon the Jews in Russia” that “are
abhorrent to the sense of justice of this people.”
1891:
“Rabbi Soneschein Resigns” published today described the unexpected departure
of Rabbi Solomon Soneschein as the leader of Temple Israel in St. Louis – a change attributed to ill-health that
resurrected reports of “scandalous stories…that have never been proved.” [Editor’s note - His health could not have
been all that bad since he went to serve as Rabbi of B’nai Yeshurun in Des
Moines Iowa. He and his wife Rosa, who
was quite prominent in her own right, separated in 1891 and he divorced her in
1893. This personal misfortunes and frailties do not diminish the
accomplishments of either of them.}
1891:
The New York Times publishes an
editorial calling for strict enforcement of laws designed to keep Russian Jews
out of the United States. After quoting
statements by Lord Rothschild and Mr. Seligman that none of the funds of the
late Baron Hirsch were used to settle Russian Jews in the United States, New
York’s “paper of record” stated that “unlike their co-religionist from other
countries they (Russian Jews) fail altogether to assimilate with our people or
in any sense to become Americanized, but remain a class apart.”
1892:
Mr. Thomas Sherman, the U.S. Consul in Liverpool, UK offered described the
measures being used to keep sick immigrants from traveling to the United States
including the fumigation of luggage belong to Russian Jews because of problems
with small-pox.
1892(18th
of Elul, 5652): Parashat Ki Tavo
1892(18th
of Elul, 5652): Diertjen Jette Fischer, the daughter of Ede Fjor Fischer and
Tätje Zimmermann and the wife of Lazarus Gossel Funk and Isaac Gans passed away
in Lower Saxony.
1892:
It was reported today that Samuel Ulmar is the only surviving member of a
congregation started 34 years ago by French speaking Jews form Alsace
1893(29th
of Elul, 5653): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1893:
“Festival of Rosh Hashanah” published today described solemn nature of the New
Year which Jews throughout the world will begin celebrating tonight as 5654.
1894:
The funeral was held this afternoon at Cypress Hills Cemetery for Mrs. Abraham
Greenspahn of Williamsburg, but her husband would later come to believe that
the body buried belonged “to a Christian woman” and was not his wife.
1894:
“First American Bible” published today described preparation and printing of
the Bay Psalm Book in 1640 including the reliance on Bishop Bedell to provide
an accurate translation from the Hebrew – a task he was able to perform because
he had studied the language with “Rabbi Leo, the chief chachan of the synagogue
in Venice.”
1894:
Based on information that first appeared in The Denver Daily News, “Dream of
the Ages” published today described “the recent and sudden growth of the Jewish
population in Palestine” in which 100,000 Jews have entered that land in the
last seven years “as the beginning of the realization of the dream of
centuries, the first practical step toward the restoration of the Jews to their
ancient lands.”
1895:
Birthdate of Melville J. Herskovits, “inventor of African-American Studies.”
1895:
English author and historian Sir John Robert Seely, author of Ecce Homo
and Natural Religion who believed that “the Hebrew Scriptures express in
poetic form…the spirit of modern science” passed away today
1895:
Birthdate of Edwin R. Thiel the Seventh Day Adventist minister and
archaeologist who The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, “a comprehensive
work” that establishes the chronology of the Kings of the Northern and Southern
Kingdoms.
1896:
After more than a year of imprisonment on Devil’s Island where his jailers went
out of their to treat him in the most abusive manner, a totally “depressed”
Alfred Dreyfus “stopped keeping his diary, writing that he could not foresee on
what day his brain would burst.
1897:
In “A Jewish State Impossible” published today Rabbi Isaac M. Wise, the leader
of the Reform Movement dismissed Zionist Congress held at as “a novelty, a
gathering of visionary and impracticable dreamers who conceived and acted a
romantic drama” and then “applauded it all by themselves.”
1897:
Birthdate of Estera Guttmannova who was living in Prague when she transported
to the Ujazdow labor camp where she was murdered.
1897:
(13 Elul 5657): At the age of seventeen Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn married a
distant cousin, Rebbetzin Nechama Dina Schneersohn, daughter of Rabbi Avraham
Schneerson of Chişinău, son of Rabbi Yisroel Noach of Nizhyn, son of Rabbi
Menachem Mendel Schneersohn
1898:
It was reported today that approximately ten per cent of the 350,000 Jews
living in “Greater New York” belong to the 32 synagogues and temples in the
city.
1898:
In Paris, the Ministerial Council convened to
hear General Émile Zurlinden, the newly appointed Minister of War’s account and recommendations on the Dreyfus
case adjourned early because Zurlindent, who was an honorable man did not feel
he had all of the information.
1898:
Temple Beth-El is reported to be making plans for providing religious services
for Jewish soldiers serving in the local military camps during the upcoming
High Holiday season.
1898:
“Palestine Closed To Jews” published today provided the official Turkish
declaration which stated “The entrance into Palestine is formally prohibited to
foreign Israelites and consequently the imperial Ottoman authorities have
received order to prevent the landing of immigrant Jews in the province.”
1899:
The day after his conviction, Captain Dreyfus signed the Application to the
Court of Revision.
1899:
On the day after his conviction, Captain Dreyfus told his wife “I am not uneasy
regarding myself as I shall soon be free; but I think of you and my poor
children. They will be branded as the
children of a traitor.” (Dreyfus had been sentenced to ten years but based on
the time he had already served he thought he would be released in October)
1899:
Evangelist Dwight L. Moody addressed a mass meeting at the Plymouth Church in
Brooklyn where he and other speakers expressed their displeasure with the
verdict. Moody said that Dreyfus “is
suffering for his race.
1899:
In the Williamsburg section of New York, Reverend Roland S. Dawson responded to
the Dreyfus verdict by telling worshippers at the Ainslie Street Presbyterian
Church that “Justice and right are paralyzed in France before an unscrupulous
military despostism.”
1899:
John Most addressed a mass meeting of Anarchist at the Thalia Theatre which was
held to protest the verdict in the Dreyfus Case. Most said that “he had not come to shed tears
over the verdict because tears would not do any good.”
1899:
In Atlanta, GA, Mrs. David Eichberg received a letter today from the wife of
Captain Dreyfus in which she said her husband could not accept a sword from the
American people for which Mrs. Eichberg had been a leading fund-raiser.
1899:
At the Baptist Temple in Brooklyn, Reverend Cortland Myers denounced the
Dreyfus trail as persecution where the French have decided “Better that an
innocent man go to prison and death than that the nation suffer.”
1899:
In responding to the Dreyfus verdict, Dr. Madison C. Peters of Bloomingdale
Church “took for his text the words from Isaiah, “Justice standeth afar off,
for truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter.” In part he said, “France has gone mad…The
civilized world stands astounded that in the closing days of the nineteenth
century the bloodhounds of anti-Semitism should be let loose upon an innocent
man.”
1899:
“At The Play and With The Players” published today described the offerings for
this season’s dramatic entertainment in New York including the performance of
three dramas about Jewish life – “Ben Hur,” “The Ghetto” by Henrik Hyermann and
“Children of the Ghetto” by Israel Zangwill – which will appear at The Broadway
Theater
1900:
Birthdate of Itzik Feffer, the Yiddish poet who as a military reporter with the
rank of colonel and was vice chairman of the Soviet Jewish Anti-Fascist
Committee but who was murdered by Stalin after the war when the dictator’s
anti-Semitism trumped the patriotism of Soviet Jews.
1900:
During the Boxer Rebellion, having telegraphed dispatches about the Battle of
Beicang, today, the gunboat Yorktown, under the command of Commander Edward
Taussig, left Shanghai and headed for the Philippines.
1900:
It was reported today that Maurice B. Blumenthal, the Chairman of the Committee
on Speakers will not be attending the state Democratic convention at Saratoga
but “will be Tammany Hall daily…”
1901: The
future “Lt. Gen. Sir Frederick Stanley Maude who commanded the 13th
Division during the Gallipoli Campaign where the Zion Mule Corps gained game
and then took command of British forces in Mesopotamia where he turned defeat
into victory as could be seen by his capture of Baghdad which was a compliment
to Allenby’s campaigns that freed Palestine” was “mentioned in Dispatches”
today marking his service during the Second Boer War.
1901:
“One hundred and fifty children of the congregation of Temple Shaari Zedek on
Henry Street joined in religious services that were led by Rabbi Adolph Spiegel
“For the recovery of President McKinley.”
1902:
Birthdate of banker Herman F. Hahn who passed away in 1954 at the age of 51.
1903:
Herman Cohen “sold the two five-stary flats 53 and 57 at West 117th
Street.
1904(1st
of Tishrei, 5665): Rosh Hashanah
1904(1st
of Tishrei, 5665): Esther Poznansky passed away today after which she was
buried in the Blackley Jewish Cemetery in Manchester.
1904:
Birthdate of Max Shachtman Polish-born American leftist who began as an
associate of Lenin and evolved into anti-Soviet Socialist. A spokesperson of the downtrodden, he
espoused the cause of rights for African-Americans in the 1930’s when the issue
was barely a blip on most advocates of social change. He passed away in 1972.
1905:
“Kishineff Jews Apprehensive” published today reported that “the Jews are
extremely uneasy over current reports of impending disorders” in this Russian
city and that they view the situation with “greater apprehension” because the
Governor, Vice Governor, Police Chief and Mayor” are all away on vacation.
1905:
Charles Murphy has instructed Tammany Hall leader Harburger to arrange for
additional non-Jewish workers to serve as registrars on the first day of
registration which falls on October 9 which coincides with Yom Kippur.
1906:
Twenty-two year old Yiddish actor Sholem Perlmutter, a native of Galicia
arrived in New York today.
1906:
The pogrom at Siedice, in the Polish part of the Russian empire that impacted
over 1,500 families continued for a third day.
1907:
After deciding not to invest in an unknown
"sugary soda pop business," that would gain fame as Coca-Cola,
Herbert Marcus Sr., Carrie Marcus Neiman and A.L. Neiman invested in an retail
establishment which opened today in Dallas under the name Neiman Marcus.
1908:
Birthdate of Sir Walter Angus Bethune who served from 1969 to 1972 as Premier
of Tasmania bu which time the Jewish population of the Australian had dwindled
to less than one hundred, before beginning to grow again reaching a total of
almost 200 by the start of the 21st century.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/tasmania
1909(25th
of Elul, 5669): Mrs. Hane Schilling passed away today
1909:
Dr. Sigmund Freud received an honorary doctorate from Clark University where he
is delivering five guest lectures.
1909:
The list of Census Supervisors announced today by President Taft included New
York attorney William Liebermann whose second district included Brooklyn and
“all of Long Island.”
1910:
In Poland, Leah and Nathan Hartstein gave birth to Jacob Isaac Hartstein, the
husband of Florence Hartstein who in 1920 came to the United States where he
earned degrees from Yeshiva College, CCNY and Columbia before going on to
become a member of the faculty at Yeshiva College.
1910:
Birthdate of Chicago native Harris Krakow who gained famed as heavyweight boxer
King Levinsky.
1911:
In Russia, Minister of Justice Shcheglovitov rushed from St Petersburg to Kiev
to provide additional false evidence to ensure the conviction of Mendel Bellis.
1911:
After purchasing the territory in Clarion, Utah, Benjamin Brown, “a
Ukrainian-Jewish immigrant seeking to establish an Agro-Industrial cooperative
like the one in the Jersey homestead” and twelve original colonists
"chosen for their mechanical skills, experience with horses, and
‘seriousness,’” arrived at the settlement today
1911: Delegates of the Mizrachi Party meeting in
Berlin decided to secede from the main Zionist organization.
1912:
A month before the start of the first Balkan War, a bomb explosion at a market at the Macedonian town of Doiran,
near Salonika which at that time was still part of
the Ottoman Empire and which large Sephardic population dated back to the
Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492 killing 20 and injuring 30.
1913: New York Mayor William Jay Gaynor who
served as an honorary pallbearer for Moses May, the prominent Jewish
businessman and philanthropist at his funeral at Temple Beth Elohim passed away
today.
1913: “Would Colonize Palestine” published
today described Dr. Arthur Ruppin’s defense of the Palestine Bureau at the
meeting of the Zionist Congress in Vienna during which he said “it was not the
declared, the purpose of the Zionist organization merely to create farmers but
the aim was to lay the foundation of the national colonization.”
1913:
In Denver, Colorado, Harry and Sarah Wilner Weinstock gave birth to Isadore
Weinstock, the husband of Helen Weinstock.
1914:
As the Battle of the Marne sputtered to an end, the Germans thwarted Joffre’s
plans by holding the high ground “on the north bank of the Aisne” which would
all but guarantee that the war would not end by Christmas but would grind on
with all the evil implications that meant for Europe in general and the Jews in
particular.
1915(2nd
of Tishrei, 5676): Second day of Rosh Hashanah
1915:
For a second day, New Year’s services in New York are held in unconventional
venues including both the Lexington Avenue and Bronx branches of the Young
Men’s Hebrew Association as well as the building at 110th Street
near Lenox Avenue, home to the Young Women’s Hebrew Association.
1915:
According to reports published today the Council Ministers “has discussed the
program” of reforms presented by the new majority in the Duma which included
“complete cessation of religious persecution and removal of restrictions on the
Jews.” (Editor’s Note-they would still
be discussing this two years later when the winds of Revolution blew through
Russia.
1916:
It was reported today that among the contributions received by the Central
Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War were $20 from Anshe
Chesed in Cleveland, $60 from Rabbi J.N. Rosenberg and $45 from H.G. TAnanebaum.
1916:
After leaving New York aboard the Oscar II on August 17 and stopping in Berlin
for two or three days Abram I. Elkus the newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to
Turkey is scheduled to arrive in Constantinople today.
1916:
Birthdate of Haim Landau, the Cracow native who made Aliyah in 1935 after which
he became a leader of the Irgun and held several ministerial posts while
serving as an MK.
1916:
As of today, it was reported that The Joint Distribution Committee of the Funds
of the American Jewish Relief Committee for Jews Suffering through the War “has
received from committees and individuals in various parts of the country to
date more than $4, 600,000.
1917:
As the Russian government tried to cope with fighting a civil war and fighting
the Germans on the Eastern Front, today Kerenski “assumed” the role of dictator
in Russia.
1918:
Today, “the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company issued a statement denying a
published reported that it had discharge 500 of its Jewish employees because
they had remained away from their work to observe the Jewish holidays on last
Saturday and Sunday” although “it was admitted that twenty of the men had lost
their employment for this reason.”
1918(3rd
of Tishrei, 5679): Fast of Gedaliah
1918(3rd
of Tishrei, 5679): Seventy-seven-year-old innovative New York attorney Theodore
Aub, the Bavarian born son of Rabbi Jospeh Aub, who in 1868 came to the United
States where he “read” law, was admitted to the bar in 1871 and “organized the
entire corporate and legislative reform of conveyancing” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/09/11/97027628.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1919:
Birthdate of Harry Schwartz, the New York native who became “an editorial
writer for The New York Times from 1951 to 1979 and a specialist in Soviet and
East European affairs who wrote and lectured extensively on the cold war and
later on health care.” (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
1919:
Foreign Minister Eduard Benex signed Czechoslovakia’s own version of the
Minorities Treaty which Czech President Jan Masaryk immediately incorporated in
to the Czech Constitution. “Henceforth,
in common with others of Czechoslovakia’s ethnic communities, Jews were
entitled to a full panoply of linguistic, communal and educational rights.”
1920:
Today’s issue of the American Hebrew includes Otto H. Kahn’s “summary of his
new book, Our Economic Problems of today and Gustav Blum’s column on “The
Coming Theatrical Season” in which “he proves that the leading motives of
Jewish stars on the English stage are far from monetary.”
1920:
It was reported today that construction of nine cottages, the administration
building gymnasium and power building for the new Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum
in San Francisco is well under way “and that it is estimated that by next
spring all of the structures will have been completed.”
1920:
It was reported that 23 year old Israel Maizlish, who came to this country ten
years ago and who “graduated last June from M.I.T. receiving both the B.S. and
M.S. degrees” has assumed his new duties as an “instructor in mathematics and
science at the University of Iowa” where he will continue his studies to earn a
Doctor of Philosophy degree.
1921(7th
of Elul, 5681): Parashat Shoftim
1921:
“The Hebrew Shelting and Immigrant Aid Society announced” today “the opening of
a campaign to raise $1,000,000 to be devoted ‘to the many immigrations problems
which have arisen after the war among which is” finding new places for
“stranded Jews in Europe” to live.
1921:
HIAS announced today that “the passage of the immigration law restricting
immigration by nationalities has made the condition of the Jews of Europe more
tragic than before” and that “the society has taken up the problem of diverting
the stream of Jewish immigration to South and Central America.”
1922:
Memorial services are held at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in the Bronx,
NY for the late Colonel Harry Cutler, a leader of the America’s Jewish
community whose positions included serving as executive director of the Jewish
Welfare Board.
1922:
“The Mother’s Club” of Beth El Congregation of the South Hill “presented the
first Sefer Torah to the Pittsburgh congregation” today.
1923(29th
of Elul, 5683): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1923(29th
of Elul, 5683): Seventy-three year old Ukrainian born German author Mazimilian
Bern died of starvation in Berlin today.
1923:
Birthdate of award winning Israeli sociologist Shmuel Eisenstadt.
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3948435,00.html
1923:
In Beckum, Germany, “Alfred and Hilda Ostermann gave brith to Helmut Ostermann
who gained fame as Uri Avneri, Israeli author and politician who has traveled
the political spectrum from membership in the Irgun to left-wing peace
activist.
1924(11th
of Elul, 5684): Twenty-two year old actress Eva May, the daughter of Mia and
Joe May died today apparently of a self-inflicted wound.
1924:
Leopold and Loeb were found guilty of murder.
The sons of two wealthy Chicago Jewish families killed the son of a
third Jewish family. Clarence Darrow,
the famed defense attorney saved them from the hangman. They were each sentenced to life in
prison. The story became the source for
the novel (and a movie of the same name) called "Compulsion."
1925:
“An appeal has been issued for contributions to the fund being raised in
support of the Jewish Consumptives’ Relief Society at Denver.”
1925:
“Belief that American Jewry should be represented at the League of Nations in
Geneva was expressed by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise at a meeting of the Executive
Committee of the American Jewish Congress at the Aldine Club tonight.”
1926(2nd
of Tishrei, 5687): Rosh Hashanah Second Day
1926:
Jewish policeman and firemen in Newark, NJ are to be excused from active duty
because of Rosh Hashanah as ordered by the Director of Public Safety.
1927:
“7th Heaven” a silent film produced by William Fox with a screenplay
by Benjamin Glazer was re-released in New York today.
1928:
“Jews Spreading Inland” published today described the findings of a survey
conducted by Dr. H.S. Linfield which showed that “there is no city in the
United States” with a population of 25,000 or above “which does not have Jewish
inhabitants” and “that there is a notable tendency of Jews to spread from the
North to the West and South.”
1929:
“Paul Knabeshue, the American Consul General, went to Hebron today to inspect
the city where eight Jewish-American students were killed” by Arabs.
1929:”The
Zionist executive estimated today that Jewish losses amounted to 126 kill or
dead from wounds and 217 seriously wounded” and of “65 were killed and 62
wounded at Hebron, 30 killed and 46 wounded in Jerusalem and 16 killed and 27
wounded at Safed.
1930:
“Tribute to the ‘great work of Louis Marshall,’” the president of the American
Jewish Committee and Chairman of the Council of the Jewish Agency who died last
year in Zurich, in connection will matters affect the Jewish community was
paid” today “by Lord Melchett, the British industrialist and chairman of the
Council of the Jewish Agency for Palestine” who is currently visiting New York
City.
1931:
“Rabbi Johan Be Wise of the Central Synagogue, in his capacity as national
chairman of the 1931 Fund of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee,
issued a message calling on American Jewry to help in the effort to raise
$2,500,000 for Jewish sufferers in Eastern and Central Europe.
1932:
In New York City, Lillian (Levy) Goldman, a hat model, and Julian Goldman
Broadway producer, and owner of a chain of well-known eastern department stores
called The Goldman Stores” whose attorney was FDR gave birth to two-time
Academy Award winning “screenwriter and playwright” Robert “Bo” Goldman the
Princeton grad who gave us the scripts for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,”
“The Rose” and “Melvin and Howard.”
1933:
“The Concordat between Nazi Germany and the Holy See which guaranteed the
rights of the Catholic Church under Hitler which had been signed by the Pope in
July “was ratified and in force” as of today.
1934(1st
of Tishrei, 5696): Rosh Hashanah
1934:
At Lynbrook, NY, Rabbi Harold I Saperstein delivered a sermon at Temple
Emanu-El entitled “The Call To Battle” which “contained a powerful endorsement
of the boycott policy” which was intended to bring the Nazi regime “to its
knees through economic stranglehold” – a policy supported by Rabbi Wise and the
American Jewish Congress but opposed by the American Jewish Committee and B’nai
B’rith.
1935:
Kurt Weil and his wife moved from Nichols, Connecticut to the St. Moritz Hotel
in New York City.
1935:
In Nuremberg, opening of the seventh Nazi Party Rally with a motto of Party
Rally of Freedom, an allusion to Hitler’s renunciation of the Treaty of
Versailles.
1936:
It was reported today the Professor Horace M. Kallen, chairman of the World
Jewish Congress Commission to Combat Anti-Semitism has said that “there is a
great difference between the old anti-Semitism of the pre-war kind and the new
anti-Semitism” because “the attack on the Jew now is based upon the nation that
the world is divided into two races, the Aryan and the human race, and that the
former is destined be master of all mankind.”
1936:
In a speech given at Nuremberg during the Nazi Congress, Minister of Propaganda
Dr. Joseph Goebbels “declared that ‘almost exclusively Jews sit in the Soviet
Government’” while asserting that “bolshevism constituted ‘a far-flung attempt
by Jewry to obtain power over all the nations.’”
1937:
The Palestine Post reported from
Warsaw that a large number of Polish Jews were brutally attacked and beaten
during the Jewish New Year period. According to the Post' special
correspondent, the Polish government was to be blamed for being cognizant of,
if not officially sympathetic to, the present wave of the anti-Jewish
persecution. Yes, anti-Semitism was part of the Polish landscape before the
German invasion of 1939. And it lasted
after the defeat of the Germans in 1945.
1937:
The Palestine Post reported that the
Palestine question figured fourth on the agenda of the League of Nations
Council's meeting in Geneva. Discussions, however, of the problems involved
were expected to take most of the council's time and attention.
1937:
In Boston, Dr. Louis K. Diamond and Flora Kaplan gave birth to Pulitzer Prize
winning author Jared Mason Diamond whose works, none of which are easy reads
include Guns Germs and Steel and Collapse: How Societies Choose to
Fail or Succeed.
1937:
The Palestine Post reported that Arab
leaders from Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Iraq, met at Bludan, Syria, to discuss
Arab-British relations. All of them were highly critical of the Royal (Peel)
Commission's findings and the suggested partition of Palestine.
1938(14th
of Elul, 5698): Parashat Ki Teitzei
1938:
“Battle Day, 5-year-old brown gelding owned by Frederick M. Warburg of White
Plains, was named hunter champion at the twenty-fifth annual Greenwich horse
show, held today at the Yale University farms.”
1938:
Conservative Rabbi Israel H. Leventhal of the Brooklyn Jewish Center and Reform
Rabbi Louis I. Newman of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan issued a joint
statement urging American Jews to help raise funds for the Jews of Poland by
contributing to the American Committee Appeal.
Orthodox rabbis had already issued a similar appeal.
1938:
The Third Betar Congress opens in Warsaw, Poland. “Betar is the Zionist revisionist youth movement established 1923,
by Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Betar is an acronym for ‘Brit Trumpeldor,’ and is also the
name of Bar Kochba’s ancient fortress.
1939:
Today, Sydney Simon Shulemson enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He
graduated from flight school in 1942. He joined RCAF 404 Squadron in Wick in
Scotland, flying a Bristol Beaufighter. Shulemson downed a German flying boat
on his first sortie. He pioneered techniques for rocket attacks on Axis ships
in the North Atlantic. After the war, Shulemson located aircraft and recruited
pilots for Israel's growing Israeli Air Force.
1939:
After ordering 50 Jews to repair a bridge, General Halder shot them all in
their synagogue. For some Halder is some kind of "hero." An anti-Nazi, he was part of an aborted
attempt at a coup against Hitler prior to the war. Despite his high rank in the German Army, he
was imprisoned because he was alleged to have been part of the plot to kill
Hitler in July, 1944. But as this event
during the early days of the Nazi invasion of Poland shows, the supposed
anti-Nazi hero could serve Hitler and be a major player in the extermination of
the Jews. This episode also raises
questions about the lack of involvement of the German Army in the Holocaust.
1939(26th
of Elul, 5699): Sixty year old Austrian born American conductor and violinist
Hugh Riesenfed who composed the scores for numerous movies passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1939/09/11/90735417.pdf
1940:
Rabbi Yaakov Ben Zion Mendelson “made an impassioned plea” at the convention of
Knesset ha-Rabbanim (the Assembly of Hebrew Orthodox Rabbis of America and
Canada) “to all American Jewry for the support of war refugees.”
1940:
Ida Haendel, the British violinist who had been born in Chelm began her
recording career for Decca today. (
1941:
In Queens, NY, Leonard Gould “a court stenographer and a WW II veteran” and his
wife Eleanor gave birth to American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and
historian of science Stephen Jay Gould.
1941(18th
of Elul, 5701): Fifty-four year old Pittsburgh native Jacob Stacel, who began
serving as claims adjuster and real estate in the Department of Public service
in January, 1916 and who was the husband of Minnie Stacel passed away today in
Cleveland, Ohio.
1941(18th
of Elul, 5701): Two days after, “the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme
Court” had sentenced him to “death on the accusation of engaging in anti-Soviet
agitation, 56 year old Fritz Noether, the Jewish mathematician who had sought
sanctuary in the Soviet Union after the rise of the Nazis in his native Germany
“was shot at the Oriel Prison” today.
1941:
Pitcher Harry Feldman made his major league debut with the New York Giants.
1942:
Today, Lydia Litvyak, who would become one of the Soviet Union’s greatest
fighter pilots during WW II prepared for combat by moving with the rest of her
female comrades to the airfield at Verkhnaia Akhtuba where she would begin
flying combat missions in the next three days.
1942:
The Allies carry out an amphibious landing at Majunga, north-west Madagascar,
to re-launch Allied offensive operations in the Madagascar
Campaign. Madagascar played an odd role in the history of The Final
Solution. Prior to the war, anti-Semitic
elements in the Polish government investigated the possibility of deporting
Jews to the island. The plan was revived
by some of Nazi leaders after the defeat of France. The infamous Stern Gang actually bought into
this as a temporary solution for the survival of the Jews of Europe. Of course, in reality, only extermination of
the Jews fit the Nazi plan for victory in its “War Against the Jews.”
1942: In Belgium, foreign Jews are seized in
Antwerp. They are sent to a camp in Mechelen, Belgium, and then to forced labor
in northern France.
1942:
Yehuda Joakob “Edi” Weinstein escaped from Treblinka and returned to his home
town of Losice, Poland where he tried to warn the surviving Jews of the fate
that awaited him. Weinstein would
survive the war and chronicle his life story in Quenched Steel: The Story of
an Escape from Treblinka. The
1943(10th
of Elul, 5703): Riva (Rebecca) Bernstein and Levie (Louis) Hillesum the parents
of Esther (Etty) Hillesum died today either during their transport to Auschwitz
or in the gas chambers immediately upon their arrival at the German Death Camp.
1943:
Nine month occupation of Rome by the Nazis begins today.
1943:
Birthdate of Michael Dougall Bell who served two terms as Canada’s Ambassador
to Israel first from 1990 to 1992 and again from 1999 to 2003.
1943: Jewish youths attack German troops at
Miedzyrzec, Poland, killing two. Five Jews are shot.
1944:
Fifty-two Jews hiding from the prior two days of SS reprisals at Topolcany,
Slovakia, were discovered. They were brought to an open field, forced to dig
deep ditches and then shot. Among the dead were six young children
1945:
“New Year Prayers for Peace Are Said” published today took note of the fact
conservative and orthodox Jews ended their observance of Rosh Hashanah
yesterday “with the prayer that the Jewish year 5706 would see recent social
and scientific gains put to work to assure a prosperous and peaceful world” a
sentiment echoed by Reform Jews who ended their observance the day before.
1945(3rd
of Tishrei, 5706): For the first time since 1939, Jews of the world observe Tzom
Gedaliah
1945:
In Norway, Justice Erik Solem sentenced Vidkun Quisling, the Nazi collaborator
to death today.
1946:
“The French State sentenced” Paul Touvieer who had murdered “seven Jewish
hostages at Rillieu-la-Pape” in 1944 “to death in absentia for treason and
collusion with the Nazis.”
1946(14th
of Elul, 5706): Sixty-three year old Yale university trained civil engineer
Samuel D. Sarason, the Vilna born son of Abraham Moses Sarason and the former
Daisy Alpert who served for 29 years as a Professor in the College of
Engineering at Syracuse University and was the husband of the former Rose Links
with whom he had “a daughter and a son” passed away today.
1946:
Birthdate of history professor Shlomo Sand, the Austrian born son of Polish
Holocaust survivors who became a professor of history at Tel Aviv whose
unconventional views can be seen in several of his works including The
Invention of the Jewish People.
1946:
Birthdate of Kiev native Semyon Fishelevich Gluzman the psychiatrist and human
rights activist who was imprisoned by the Soviets for his political beliefs.
https://upclosed.com/people/semyon-gluzman/
1947:
Third baseman Al Rosen made his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians.
1947:
“Bombs Found on Jewish Ship: Battle Leaders Sent To Jail” published in the
Glasgow Herald wrote today “Security fears seemed justified after the Jews were
removed when a homemade bomb with a timed fuse was found on the Empire Rival .It was apparently rigged
to detonate after the Jews had been removed, the cables indicate."
1947:
George Washington University trained attorney and U.S. Army Air Force WWII
veteran Irving Abraham Levine, the Maryland jurist and Washington born son of
Minnie Cohen and Benjamin Levine today married Shirley Routhenstein with whom
he had two children, Karen and Susan.
1947:
“Bomb Found on Jewish” published today in the Glasgow Herald described the resistance
by Jewish refugees aboard the Empire Rival led by Mordechai Rosman and Paul
Bergman to being placed in DP camps in Hamburg by the British after they had
been turned away from landing in Palestine.
1948:
Birthdate of Nimrod Dori, the native of Kibutz Hulata who perished at the age
of twenty aboard the Israeli Submarine Dakar.
1949:
“The application of the Iraq Petroleum Company to the Syrian Government for
permission to build a cross line to Banyas on the Syrian coast from its two
pipelines from Kirkuk to Tripoli, has started a rumor that Haifa is finished as
a major oil outlet and a refining center.”
1949:
“Jewish leaders from thirty-four states met today” in Washington “ in an
atmosphere of "crisis" resulting from the failure so far of the 1949
United Jewish Appeal to reach anything close to its goal of $250,000,000.”
1950:
NBC broadcast the first “Colgate Comedy Hour” hosted by Eddie Cantor which also
the first television appearance by nine year old Bonnie Franklin who went to a
career that included that included starring in the popular sitcom “One Day at a
Time.”
1950:
According to reports published today, the government of Israel will be issuing
a stamp at harvest time picturing Stahveet, a cow which has produced 100,000
liters of milk, which may be a world’s record.
1950:
“A Native Returns” published today described the how Josef Von Sternberg has
resuscitated his career by directing “Jet Pilot, his first film in technicolor
and taking on the filming of “Macao” a blockbuster with a $1,400,000 budget.
1951:
The executive body of the World Jewish Congress will begin its annual meeting at
Geneva today. Described by its members as the most representative body of world
Jewry, they will discuss and try to formulate a policy on a number of matters
of pressing interest to Jewish groups throughout the world. “The resurgence of Germany as a leading
independent power” is one of the major issues on the mind of many of the
attendees. The attendees hope to prepare
a position paper to be circulated among the leading Western nations expressing
Jewish concerns which include the failure of Germany to accept responsibility
for War Crimes, failure to build in self-guards against a resurgence of
anti-Semitism and any attempt to pay reparations to those who suffered at the
hands of the Germans. Rabbi Israel
Goldstein is leading the U.S. delegation.
Dr. Nahum Goldman is serving as presiding officer, a position he had filled
at the recently completed Zionist Congress that had met in Jerusalem.
1951:
JTA reported that the Jewish organizations of Argentina have brought to the
attention of the Federal Ministry of Interior the wounding of a Jew in the
nearby city of Avellaneda in what they describe as a serious outbreak of
anti-Semitism. A 23-year-old Jew, Jacob Chermenitzky, was on his way to work
early yesterday morning when he was accosted by three men waving pistols. First
they made the young Jew shout "Viva Hitler" and "Death to the
Jews" then they shot him at close range. Cherminitzky was seriously
wounded
1951:
“Saturday’s Hero,” the film version of The Hero, a novel by Millard
Lampell who co-authored the script with Sidney Buchman and featuring the first
score by Elmer Bernstein was released in the United States today.
1952:
The Jerusalem Post reported that
Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett told reporters, while leaving for Luxembourg to
sign the Israeli-German Reparation Agreement, "that without complacency I
can say that this journey gives expression to the change which came about in
the Jewish people with the establishment of the State of Israel, and the
achievements which the state means for the Jewish people."
1952:
After six months of negotiations, the Claims Conference and the German federal
government signed an agreement embodied in two protocols. Protocol No. 1 called
for the enactment of laws that would compensate Nazi victims directly for
indemnification and restitution claims arising from Nazi persecution. Under
Protocol No. 2, the German government provided the Claims Conference with DM
450 million for the relief, rehabilitation and resettlement of Jewish victims
of Nazi persecution, according to the urgency of their need as determined by
the Conference. Agreements were also signed with the State of Israel.
1952:
Among those involved in the negotiations that led to the signing of the
Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany today was Benjamin B.
Ferencz, a Hungarian born American lawyer, veteran of WW II and an investigator
who gathered information for the trials of Nazi leaders.
1953(1st
of Tishrei, 5714): Rosh Hashana
1953: Birthdate of actress Amy Irving. Irving is the sister of director David Irving
and the wife of Steven Spielberg.
1953(23rd
of Elul, 5715): Parashat Nitzavim-Vayeilech
1955:
Cantor Jacob Konigsberg is scheduled to official at Sleichot services at Congregation
Kehilath Jeshurun tonight.
1956:
Birthdate of Israel archaeologist Eilat Mazar, the third in her line which
began with her grandfather Benjamin Mazar.
1956:
Following his graduation from the University of Iowa in 1955, Gene Wilder was
drafted into the United States Army today.
1957:
Pitcher Barry Latman made his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox.
1959:
Charles Miller Metzner, the former “counsel to the General Jewish Council
received his commission today to serve “on the United States District Court for
the Southern District of New York.
1960(18th
of Elul, 5720): Parashat Ki Tavo
1960(18th
of Elul, 5620): Eighty-three-year-old Mrs. Hadassah Levein Drachaman a former
junior high school teacher and the vice president of the Yorkville Joint
Passover Relief Association who married Dr. Bernard Drachman of Congregation
Zichron Ephraim in 1927 passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/
1961(29th
of Elul, 5721): Erev Rosh Hashanah – Jews prepared to celebrate the New Year
for the first time during the Presidency of JFK.
1963(20th
of Elul, 5723): Sixty-eight year old Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz the WW I veteran
of the German Army whose academic career was cut shut short by the rise of the
Nazis but who was lucky enough to find an academic haven in the United States
passed away today in Princeton, NJ.
1964:
In Nottingham, England, Esther Aline (née Lowndes-Moir) and Rev. Dr Victor de
Waal, who became the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral gave birth to British artist Edmund
Arthur Lowndes de Waal, the author of The Hare with Amber Eyes which “tells the
story of his family, the Ephrussi, once a very wealthy European Jewish banking
dynasty, centered in Odessa, Vienna and Paris, and peers of the Rothschild
family” who” lost almost everything in 1938 when the Nazis aryanized their property”
and the postwar attempts to recover at least some of what the Nazis had stolen.
1966:
In London, The Destruction in Art Symposium chaired by Gustav Metzger, came to
a close.
1969:
“Shocked and angered by news of the raid” on the Red Sea Coast which the
Israelis called Operation Raviv, “Egyptian president Gamel Abdel Nasser
suffered a heart attack.”
1969(27th
of Elul, 5729): Seventy-six-year-old Jersey City, NJ native and real estate
attorney Benjamin E. Gordon the former national vice chairman of the ZOA and a
founder of the Bergen County, NJ, Jewish Community Council who raised two
daughters with his wife, “the former Regina Reitman” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/09/11/89372727.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1969:
Designated hitter Ron Blomberg made his major league debut with the New York
Yankees.
1970:
Birthdate of Jeff Marx, the Florida native whose musical talents gave us the
Tony Award winning “Avenue Q.”
1971(20th
of Elul, 5731): Ninety-four year old judge, philanthropist, and political
activist Joseph Meyer Proskauer, a founding partner of Elkus, Gleason &
Proskauer and the Alabama born son of Alfred and Rebecca Proskauer and the
husband of Alice Naumburg with who whom he had three children – Frances, Ruth
and Richard – passed away today
http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/ad1/centennial/Bios/jmproskauer2.shtml
1972(2nd
of Tishrei, 5733): Rosh Hashanah Second Day
1972:
Under the auspices of the Committee on Justice and Peace of the Central
Conference of American Rabbis, “more than 100 rabbis through the” United States
are scheduled to begin “a five-day liquid fast” ‘to protest the Munich massacre
as well as the war in Vietnam.”
1972:
“The Planes’ Message: An Eye For an Eye” published today discusses Israel’s
response to the Munich Massacre.
1974:
Birthdate of Sarah Danielle Goldberg “an actress in the popular television
series “7th Heaven.”
1975:
Today, “in an interview with a Kuwati newspaper, President Sadat delivered an
attack on the Russians who ‘failed’ us in the year of decision.
1977(27th
of Elul, 5737): Parashat Nitavim
1977(27th
of Elul, 5737): Sixty-five year old New York native Abraham L. Kaminstein, the
former “register of copyrights in the Library of Congress” and winner of “the
Richard Strauss Medal from the German Society for Performing and Mechanical
Rights in Music” who was the husband of Barbara Kaminstein passed away today.
1977:
Broadcast of the fifth and final Nixon Interviews with David Frost which were
produced by Marvin MIntoff who was president of Frost’s production company.
1977:
After having been released in the United States and Finland, “Getting Straight”
starring Elliot Gould and featuring Jeannie Berlin (the daughter of Elaine May)
and John Rubinstein (the son of pianist Arthur Rubinestein) was released in
Spain today.
1980(29th
of Elul, 5740): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1980:
“The Exterminator” a film about Vietnam veteran directed and written by James
Glickenhaus was released in the United States today.
1981:
“Ticket to Heaven,” a film version of the “non-fiction Moonwebs” co-starring
Saul Rubinek premiered today at the Toronto Festival of Festivals.
1982(10th
of Elul, 5742): Eighty-three year old advertising pioneer Lawrence Valenstein passed away today. (As reported by Suzanne
Daley)
1983(3rd
of Tishrei, 5744): Shabbat Shuvah
1983(3rd
of Tishrei, 5744): Seventy-eight year old Polish born labor Zionist and Yiddish
author Shmuel Perlmuter passed away today at Bat Yam.
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2018/07/shmuel-perlmuter.html
1983(3rd
of Tishrei, 5744): Swiss born physicist and 1952 Nobel Prize winner Felix Bloch
passed away today.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1952/bloch/biographical/
1986:
According to a story by freelance writer and photographer Mark Richman in today’s
edition of the Jewish Light, on the
occasion of the 10th anniversary of Kohn’s Deli, Simon and Bobbie Kohn moved to
St. Louis in 1949 with the assistance of the Jewish Family & Children’s
Service.
1986:
Showtime broadcast the first episode of the sitcom “It’s Garry Shandling’s
Show” today.
1987:
Leon Markovitz completed three years of services as Mayor of Cape Town, South
Africa.
1988:
Elazar Shach, a leading Haredi Rabbi who seemed to have quarreled with or
disapproved of most Jewish leaders including the Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik and
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson wrote a letter today forbidding debate with
Rav Adin Steinsaltz because he is a heretic.
1993:
Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival of “Life According to
Agfa,” an Israeli film directed by Assi Dayan.
1993:
“True Romance” a “dark comedy featuring Michael Rapaport and Saul Rubinek with
music by Hans Zimmer was released in the United States today by Warner Bros.
1993:
First broadcast in the long-running television series “The X-Files” starring
David Duchovny.
1994(5th
of Tishrei, 5755): Shabbat Shuva
1997:
Two days after he had passed away funeral services are scheduled to be held
this morning for seventy-nine year old Maurice Levine, the “founder of the 92nd
Street Y’s Lyrics and Lyricist Series, the husband of Bobbi Baird and father of
Tedra, Michael, Whitney and Sigmund Levine.
http://www.playbill.com/article/lyrics-lyricists-leader-levine-dead-at-79-com-71440
1998:
The International Puppet Festival which provided a “a rare revival of the
E.Y.”Yip” Habrburg musical “Flahooley” opened today in New York.
1999:
Two months after opening the United States “Eyes Wide Shut” based on a novel by
Arthur Schnitzer, directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick who co-authored the
script with Frederic Raphael featuring Sydney Pollack as Victor Ziegler was
released today in the United Kingdom.
1999:
Ten months after opening in the United Kingdom “B. Monkey” directed by Michael
Radford who co-authored the script as well was released today in the United
States.
2000: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You:
Stories by Amy Bloom, The
Head Game: Baseball Seen From the Pitcher's Mound by Roger Kahn, Mirrors of Destruction: War, Genocide, and Modern Identity by Israeli historian Omer Bartov, The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and
Negotiating Historical Injustices by Elazar Barkan, Dreams
of Being Eaten Alive: The Literary Core of the Kabbalah by David Rosenberg and Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress by Debra Ginsberg.
2000:
Radio personality and commentator Scott Simon married Caroline Richard. They
are raising their two daughters as part of what “they consider to be a Jewish
family.”
2001:
With truce talks tentatively planned for later today, Palestinians and Israelis
did not wait for dawn to resume their all-but-declared war.
2001:
Despite the fact that truce talks were “tentatively planned for later today,” two
Israeli soldiers were slain by Palestinian snipers near the heavily fortified
checkpoint separating the Palestinian town of Tulkarm from Israel” after which
“Israeli tanks ringing Jenin, also in the West Bank, began shelling Palestinian
security positions just outside the town, which went dark, its electricity
apparently cut.”
2002(4th
of Tishrei, 5763): Ninety-year old Louis Pollock, whose wife Marian had passed
away in August, passed away today.
2003:
At a banquet hosted by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Kerala Tourism
Minister, K.V. Thomas gave Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a gift that “contained
replicas of the Copper plates from the `Magna Carta' of the Jews of Kochi,
which has the oldest synagogue outside Israel.”
2003:
In Saskatchewan, Canada, the Rural Municipality of Willow Creek designed Beth
Israel Synagogue and its cemetery as a municipal heritage site. The synagogue
had been built by Jewish immigrants who came to Canada from Lithuania via South
Africa and established the Edenbridge Hebrew Colony. The colony was part of the attempts to settle
eastern European Jews in areas outside of the major municipal centers.
2004(18th
of Elul, 5764): Parashat Ki Tavo
2004:
Ariel Sharon’s chief of staff Dov Weissglass “is in which Washington for
meetings with American officials about Israel’s settlement policies and plans
for disengagement from Gaza.”
2004:
“In Keeping Creativity Alive, Even in Hell,” Julie Salamon provided a review of
exhibition at the Jewish Museum, "Innovator, Activist, Healer: The Art of
Friedl Dicker-Brandeis," “Bauhaus-trained artist and a Viennese Jew”
murdered by the Nazis.
2005: The
Jerusalem Post reported that replicas of the Sarajevo Haggadah - a
600-year-old Jewish manuscript - are to be sold to the public. Jakob Finci, the
head of the Jewish community in Bosnia, said that a total of 613 replicas of
the document are to be printed and made available by next Passover. It was
decided to start with 613 replicas because there are 613 mitzvoth.
2006: The Sunday New York Times featured a review of Jennifer Gilmore’s debut novel,
Golden Country that details the complex history of two intertwined families:
the Blooms and the Brodskys. Both are Jewish, both touched with genius and
dishonesty, as they strive toward the twin goals of material success and social
acceptance in America. Haaretz featured a review of Auschwitz: The
Nazis and the Final Solution by Laurence Rees which the British Book Awards
named "History Book of the Year" for 2006.
2006:
“For Your Consideration,” a film
about the fictional filming of a 1940’s movie entiteld “Home for Purim,” premiered at the Toronto International Film
Festival.
2006:
James Boasberg, the Superior court of the District of Columbia is scheduled to
preside over the marriage of his sister Melissa Anne Boasberg, the daughter
Sarah Szold Boasberg and Emanuel Boasberg, the chairman of the Historic
Preservation Review in Washington to Eric Michael Schvimmer.
2006:
In an essay that appeared today in The Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung German historian Arno Lustiger criticized “Günter
Grass's treatment of his Waffen-SS membership in his latest book.”
2007:
A lawyer representing Neta Shoshani, a student at the Bezalel Art School in
Jerusalem, sent one last letter to the Ministry of Defense requesting all
documents related to the event that took place in Deir Yassin.
2007:
In a moment of great irony, Haaretz
reported that at a time when a German television network had fired a popular
news woman who had praised Nazi values in a book she had published, Jewish
residents of Petah Tikvah were enduring a two year long reign of terror by
neo-Nazi, skinhead gangs whose membership comes from teenage immigrants from
the former Soviet Union.
2007:
In “Little Trends, Big Impacts” published today U.S. New & World Reports,
an American magazine,
summarizes some of the findings found in Microtrends by Mark Penn
including a heading styled “Pro Semites” which reports that “when Americans
were asked how they feel about religious groups in the United States, Jews
rated the highest of any, with a net positive of 54 percent…As love for Jews
spreads, so do Jewish customs. Non-Jews
are having bar mitzvahs. Americans
consume over 8 million pounds of matzo per year – a sickening amount if divided
only among the nation’s 6 million Jews.
2007:
The New Republic features a review of
The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 by Saul
Friedlander.
2008:
Neal Karlen, noted journalist and author, discusses his book, The Story of
Yiddish: How a
Mish-Mosh
of Languages Saved the Jews at the U of Minnesota Bookstore in Coffman Memorial Union.
2008: The American Sephardi Federation presents the
screening and discussion of “The Law Aliyah from Yemen” and “About the Jews of
Yemen: A Vanishing Culture” - two films about the Yemenite Jewish Community.
2008:
Today Gina “Gershon appeared in a video on funnyordie.com, parodying former
Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, titled "Gina Gershon
Strips Down Sarah Palin" which she followed with "Gina Gershon Does
Sarah Palin 2"
2008:
The inaugural Library of Congress Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Writing
of Fiction will be conferred upon bestselling author Herman Wouk, author of The
Winds of War and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Caine Mutiny, at the library's Thomas
Jefferson Bldg., Special guests William Safire, Martha Raddatz and Jimmy Buffet
are among those who will read from Wouk's work, while Wouk himself will read
from his unpublished literary diaries.
2009:
Rich Cohen discusses, and signs Israel Is Real: An Obsessive Quest to
Understand the Jewish Nation and Its History at Politics and Prose
Bookstore
2009:
At Tulane University, the Jewish Studies program begins its Fall Colloquium and
Film Series.: The *Colloquium is devoted to the subject of “Cultural Judaism:
Experience, Concepts and Rival Perspectives”The first lecture of the series
presented today by Ronna Burger is entitled, “"In the Wilderness: Moses as
Founder and Legislator."
2009:
A class-action lawsuit accusing a Los Angeles Jewish cemetery of dumping
remains to make room for new interments was filed today in Los Angeles Superior
Court claims that Eden Memorial Park, one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in
the United States, instructed groundskeepers to “secretly break concrete vaults
with a backhoe and remove, dump and/or discard the human remains, including
human skulls, to make room for new interments.”
2009(21st
of Elul, 5769): Ninety-nine year old Lou Bender, depression-era Columbia
University basketball star, passed past away today. (As reported by Vincent
Malliozzi)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/sports/basketball/13bender.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
2009:
Cass Sunstein was confirmed by Senate as Administrator of the Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs.
2010(2nd
of Tishrei, 5771): Rosh Hashanah II
2010:
At the 67th Venice International Film Festival, premiere of Barney’s
Version, the cinematic treatment of the novel of the same name written by
Canadian author Mordecai Richler.
2010:
‘Ahead of Time’ is scheduled to open at New York’s Angelika Film Center
2010:
A Kassam rocket fired into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip exploded in the
Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council area this morning. No injuries or damage were
reported in the attack.
2010:
At a news conference held today, University of Tennessee men’s basketball coach
Bruce Pearl “acknowledged that he had lied to NCCA investigators looking into
recruiting violations at the Knoxville school.
2010(2nd
of Tishrei, 5771): Eighty-year old advertising executive Joyce Beber,
co-founder of Beber Silverstein & Partners and promoter of Leona Helmsley’s
business ventures, passed away today.
(As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/business/media/22beber.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
2011:
Renaud Capucon and Yefim Bronfman are scheduled to perform Beethoven’s Violin
Sonata no.5 in F major, op. 24 Spring at the 14th Jerusalem
International Chamber Music Festival.
2011:
The Daniel Ori quintet is scheduled to play two sets featuring arrangements
from their upcoming album “Emuna.” Ori is a native of Kfar Saba.
2011:
Israel sent a pair of military jets into Cairo at dawn today to evacuate its
embassy staff after six members had been trapped in the embassy overnight by
thousands of protesters who invaded the building and tossed documents from the
windows.
2011: In a televised statement tonight, Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the violent riots outside the Israeli
Embassy in Cairo last night, during which a mob demolished the security wall
surrounding the embassy and stormed the premises, forcing the Egyptian commando
to evacuate six Israeli Embassy employees that were stranded inside the
building in a special rescue operation.
2011:
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan today slammed US President Barack
Obama, claiming he did not take interest in the Turkish-American citizen who
died on board the Mavi Marmara during the 2010 IDF raid on the Gaza-bound
flotilla.
2012:
At the Toronto International Film Festival, premiere of a “Late Quartet,” a
simply marvelous must see movie directed and co-produced by Yaron Zilberman,
with a script by Seth Grossman and Yaron Zilberman.
2012: EMET is scheduled to host a noon time
lecture entitled “11 Years After 9/11: What Went Wrong With American Policy?” in Washington, DC.
2012(23rd
of Elul, 5772): Eighty-six year old Holocuast survivor Eli Zborowski who
founded the American and International Societies for Yad Vashem passed away
today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2012:
Deploying military force against Iranian nuclear sites too early or without the
United States' approval could ultimately be detrimental in preventing an
Iranian bomb, former head of Military Intelligence
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin said today
2012:
Following a string of "Price Tag" attacks in the West Bank over the
past few weeks, Israel Police are set to launch a new unit that will help
investigate such crimes, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich said today.
2102:
A French Canadian adaptation of BeTipulis an Israeli television drama revolving
around the personal and professional life of an Israeli psychologist, Reuven
Dagan entitled "En thérapie" was shown for the first time on Canadian
television.
2012:
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin called for the government to postpone continued
construction of the separation barrier, during a visit to Gush Etzion today.
2013:
MK Rabbi Dov Lippman and David Makovsky are scheduled to take part in a
discussion entitled “Secular and Religious Jews in Israel: How to Shape a
Better Future” at the JCC in Rockville, MD
2013:
In Fairfax, VA, the JCCNV Special Needs Committee hosts a book club meeting
that will discuss Touch of the Top of the World” A Blind Man’s Journey to
Climb Farther Than the Eye Can See by Eric Weihenmayer.
2013:
“Conference to Mark the 70th Anniversary of the Creation of the United Nations
War Crimes Commission in 1943” co-hosted by
the Weiner Library is scheduled to open in London.
2013:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “It’s a Thin Line: The
Eruv and Jewish Community in New York and Beyond”
2013:
Details of a deal to put Syria’s chemical weapons under international control
are highly murky, Knesset foreign affairs chief Avigdor Liberman said today,
warning that the plan could potentially serve the interests of the Assad
regime. (As reported by Stuart Winer)
2013:
A leaflet distributed today by the Fatah-affiliated Al- Aksa Martyrs Brigades
called for launching terror attacks against Israel as of this coming Friday.
(As reported by Khaled Abu Toameh)
2013:
Publication of Wilson, a biography of the 28th President of the United
States Woodrow Wilson by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Andrew Scott Berg
2014:
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman is scheduled to speak on “All the World: Universalism,
Particularism and the High Holidays at Temple Emanu-El’s Skirball Center.
2014:
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocuast Education is scheduled to
host a screening of “American Jerusalem: Jews and the Making of San Francisco”
followed by a Q & A by Professor Ellen Eisenberg.
2014:
Friends and family are scheduled to celebrate the birthday of Rabbi Avrohom
Blesofsky, the Lubavitch Leader of Iowa City.
2014:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Abraham Sutzkever: The
Power in Poetry Lecture”
2014:
At the University of Connecticut, the Center For Judaic Studies is scheduled to
sponsor a “Yiddish Tish.”
2014:
“Two weeks after the 50-day Israel-Hamas conflict ended, the Military Advocate
General Corps has ordered an investigation into five cases, ranging from
high-profile airstrikes to a simple case of alleged theft, a senior IDF officer
said today.” (As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)
2014:
“President Reuven Rivlin, who drew criticism before becoming Israel’s president
for broadsides against non-Orthodox Jewish streams, told a group of
Conservative Jews today that Jews are “all one family.”
2015:
A special “shiva service” for Murray Wolfe of blessed memory, beloved husband
of Charlene Wolfe, is scheduled to be held this evening in Cedar Rapids, IA.
2015:
In London, The Jewish Museum is scheduled to host Judith Kerr “who will share
the real-life stories behind her words and pictures.”
2015:
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to
host a “Book Talk” with the subject being Jewish Resistance Against the
Nazis by Patrick Henry.
2015:
The National Football League is scheduled to kick-off its 2015 season when
owner Robert Kraft’s New England Patriots, led by his son President Jonathan
Kraft square off against the Pittsburgh Steelers whose most famous Jewish
player may have been Randy Grossman, nicknamed the “Rabbi” who helped his team
win four Super Bowls.
2015:
Thanks in part to the efforts of New York State Senator Todd Kaminsky, the
National Grid announced a reversal of its policy and said it would not
reinstate fees for disconnecting and reconnecting gas lines – a practice that
had been beneficial to his constituents following Hurricane Sandy.
2015:
“On Transience” featuring the works of Friderike Heuer is scheduled to open at
the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.
http://www.ojmche.org/experience/exhibit-2015-09-10-on-transience
2016(7th
of Elul, 5776): Parashat Shofetim and the anniversary of the Bar Mitzvah of
Shelly Lubar, Z"L
2016(7th
of Elul, 5776): Sixty-eight year old Eddie Antar, the creator of “Crazy Eddie
Electronics” passed away today. (As reported by Niraj Chokshi)
2016:
ZviDance which “exists to share with audiences the choreographic vision and
movement vocabulary of Israeli-born Artistic Director, Zvi Gotheiner” is
scheduled to perform an excerpt from “COUPLING” at Joe’s Pub.
2017(19th
of Elul, 5777): Grandparents Day
2017(19th
of Elul, 5777): Sixty-nine year old DC Comics creator Leonard Norman Wein
passed away today. (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)
2017:
Nadav Argaman, the head of the Shin Bet security service said today that “the
security service has noted a significant increase in terrorist activities in
the wake of July’s Temple Mount crisis.”
2017:
Henry “Hank” Lewin is scheduled to tell the story “of his parents, Nora and
Joel Lewin, who were married in Kovno, Lithuania, and endured separation and
several concentration camps to survive the Holocaust” at the Breman Museum in
Atlanta.
2017:”Bogdan’s
Journey, a heartbreaking account of the pogrom that took place in the town of
Kielce, Poland in July 1946 is scheduled to premiere in Manchester, UK
2017:
The Jewish Children’s Regional Service (a charity that really delivers) is
scheduled to host its annual Channukah-Wrap-A-Thon in Metairie, LA.
2017:
In “Nicole Krauss: By the Book” this popular author answers several questions
while explaining that she “prefers to read classic novels on the plane” because
“twelve hours in economy is not the moment to gamble on a book.”
2017:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host a
screening of “The Last Waltz,” the Martin Scorsese documentary that captures
the final concert of the Canadian-American musical group The Band which was
organized and promoted by Bill Graham.
2017:
The Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to present a “Paper-Art Workshop for
Rosh Hashanah” facilitated by guest artist Marna Chester.
2017:
Slichot Tours from the Tower of David to the Western Wall is scheduled to begin
tonight.
2018(1st of Tishrei,
5779): Rosh
Hashanah – 5779 לשׁנה טובה
2018:
Services at the East Side Synagogue in Manhattan led by Rabbis Perry and Leah
Berkowitz lasted for five hours.
2018:
On Rosh Hashanah, Jason Stanley reminds us that “Germany’s Past is Still
Present.”
2018:
“UCLA’s Michael Grunstein wins 2018 Lasker Award for medical research.”
2019:
At the Center For Jewish History, Peter Schrag, “a writer, educator, and former
Guggenheim Fellow based in Davis, California” who “is a refugee from Nazi
Germany who has written extensively about the history and conflicts over
American immigration, is scheduled to lecture on “The World Aufbau: Hitler’s
Refugees in America” during which he examines the impact of the German language
newspaper on those who had fled the Nazis.
2019:
In northern Virginia, Agudas Achim Congregation is scheduled to host an “adult
outreach” program featuring author Nicholas Reynolds.
2019:
The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled a mid-day program on “Voices of the
Apocrypha…Tobit, Judith and Additions to Daniel.”
2019:
This evening the “Jerusalem WorldPress Beer ‘n Shmooze” featuring a visit from
Milan Invanovic is scheduled to take place at the Beer Bazar.
2019:
As authorities look for the cause of yesterday’s fire that destroyed Adas
Israel Congregation in Duluth, MN, one could not help but marvel at reports
that eight of the congregation’s fourteen Sefer Torahs had survived the flames.
2020:
JWA is scheduled to host a “virtual book” with author Laura Lippman.
2020:
Live on Zoom | Center for Jewish History, American Jewish Historical Society,
American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, YIVO Institute & Posen
Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization are scheduled to present “Midwives,
Musicians, Soldiers, Rabbis: Whose Stories Will Become Jewish History?”
2020:
The Virtual Sephardic Film Festival is scheduled to host the final screening of
“Sammy Davis, Jr., I’ve gotta be me” and the first screening of “The Lost
Crown.”
2020:
“Israel Bonds is scheduled to “host Chef Michael Solomonov as he prepares
Israeli and Jewish dishes in the spirit of the upcoming Rosh Hashanah holiday.”
2020:
In New Orleans, Jewish Family Service is scheduled to host the Women’s
Luncheon.
2020:
The Streicker Center is scheduled a fourth session of its virtual Holiday
Cooking School with Claire Saffitz presenting “The Sweet Tastes of the New
Year.”
2020:
The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans is scheduled to holds it Annual
Meeting where “nominating slates and awards will be presented.”
2020:
Chochmat HaLev is scheduled to present Jewish dance instructor Bruce Bierman
teaching about the Hebrew letter yud and Kabbalah through dance
2020:
As part of the film-and-talk series with historian Fred Rosenbaum, presented by
East Bay Jewish film festival, participants are scheduled to be able to be able
to live stream “Once in a Lifetime.”
2020:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled a lunch and learn examining “The
Case of the Minsk Ghetto,” “part of a series exploring armed resistance during
the Holocaust.”
2021:
The Jewish Arts Collaborative is scheduled to present online “JLive with
Nathaniel Seelen,” the “performer, music educator and composer, who was awarded
first prize at the 2020 Kletzival Bubbe Awards for best original klezmer tune
and who helped put Cambridge on the musical map when he founded the
internationally recognized Ezekiel’s Wheels klezmer band.”
2021:
The Los Gatos Israeli Center and WZO department for Israelis in the diaspora is
scheduled to host “Welcoming the Year in Hebrew,” an “outdoor Shabbat gathering
with blessings, songs and dinner” for which all attendees are encouraged to
“wear white.”
2021:
Based on a decision made yesterday evening by the Prime Minister, following the
detention of 13 pilgrims who were trying to return to Israel using forged
negative coronavirus, as of today “harsh
steps are to be taken against those who
returned to Israel from the Ukraine using fraudulent COVID tests”
2021:
Based on previously published reports, Israel’s contagion rate at 6.1% while Israeli
hospitals were treating 685 COVID-19 patients in serious condition, 162 of whom
were connected to a ventilator.
2021:
To mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to welcome
former New York Fire Department Commissioner Thomas Von Essen to speak about
his memories of that fateful day, the 343 firefighters who gave their lives to
save more than 10,000 New Yorkers and the lessons we have - and still must –
learn.
2021:
Three-hundred-fiftieth Anniversary of what is considered to be the founding of
the Jewish community of Berlin.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3083
2022:
In Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is scheduled to host a “pre-launch
event for Kyiv-born Anna Voloshyna’s new Ukrainian cookbook,” Budmo!
2022:
In Waterloo, IA, at Sons of Abraham Congregation, Malachi David Herrick is
scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah.
2022:
In Berkley, CA Urban Adamah is scheduled to present a three-day Shabbat and
community-building retreat featuring workshops on ancestral and modern Jewish
music.
2022(14th
of Elul, 5782):Parashat Ki Taytzay (When you will go out)
2023:
In New Jersey, the Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County is scheduled to
host “A Tribute to Molly Picon with Dr. Diane Cypkin” which “is a one-woman
concert/lecture on the Yiddish actress…”
2023:
In Cedar Rapids, IA, the first session of religious school is scheduled to be
held today at Temple Judah.
2023:
The Oscar J. Tolmas Charitable Trust is scheduled to sponsor the “Federation-JNOLA
Selichot Activity.”
2023:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to celebrate the launch of Hour of
Need, “a graphic novel that shares the true story of how” the Dannis people
“risked their lives to evacuate their Jewish countrymen.”
2023:
The Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to present “lectures by Professor
Smadar Rosensweig, Adjunct Professor of Bible, Stern College for Women, and
Rabbi Dr. Michael Rosensweig, Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological
Seminary followed by a tour of the Yeshiva University Museum exhibition, The
Golden Path: Maimonides Across Eight Centuries by Dr. David Sclar, Exhibition
Curator.”
2023:
The annual Alliance for Jewish Theatre Meeting is scheduled to be held today
via Zoom.
2023:
In Washington, the Lilian And Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum is scheduled
to host “Minnush.” which “combines traditional Sephardic songs with
contemporary elements of American folk, funk and jazz, creating serious,
joyful, relevant, and fresh music.”
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