This Day, January 29, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
January 29
904: Sergius
III began his papacy during which Jews first began settling at Mayence, Germany
in 906.
1258: “The
Mongols under Chinese general Guo Kan laid siege to” Baghdad today as part of a
successful invasion Persia which led to the abolishment of “the inequality of
dhimmis” which meant that all religions, including that of the Jews “were
declared equal.”
1421(17th of
Shevat, 5181): The Jews of Sargossa, Spain
were spared from slaughter at the hands of King Alfonso V, thanks to the fact
that a handful of synagogues beadles had acted on the advice given to them by
the Prophet Elijah in a dream shared by each of them. The resulting
salvation on the 17th of Shevat was celebrated by Saragossan Jews and dubbed
"Purim Saragossa." A Hebrew Megillah (scroll) was penned,
describing the details of the miraculous story. To this day, this scroll is
read in certain communities on Purim Saragossa.
1478: “The
Washington Haggadah,” the creation of Joel Ben Simeon was completed today. “In
addition to the full text of the Passover night liturgy, the Washington
Haggadah features stunningly intricate illuminated panels and a series of
Passover illustrations that include depictions of "The Four Sons,"
"The Search for Leaven," and "The Messiah Heralded." The
enduring popularity of Joel ben Simeon's miniatures is reflected in the many
reproductions of his work that have appeared over the years in anthologies of
Jewish art and manuscript painting. In 1991, the Library of Congress published
a facsimile edition of the Washington Haggadah, accompanied by a companion
volume with a detailed scholarly description, analysis, and assessment of the
manuscript.”
1482: Pope
Sixtus V addresses a “severe letter” to Ferdinand and Isabella censuring the
conduct of the Inquisition. “In this letter the pope admitted that he had
issued the bull for the institution of the Inquisition without due
consideration.”
1522: “German
Catholic humanist and scholar of Greek and Hebrew languages Johann Reuchlin,
who risked his career and his life in opposing Johannes Pfefferkorn, the German
theologian and convert from Judaism who was one of the many who thought
depriving Jews of their books was the first step to conversion.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Encyclopedia_Americana_(1920)/Reuchlin,_Johann
https://sacred-texts.com/jud/t10/ht117.htm
1581: Baptism
of Sir Rowland Cotton, the English MP who learned Hebrew from Hugh Broughton.
1621: Jacob
Israel Belmonte, the Portuguese born son of Catrina Moniz and Andre Belmonte
and his wife Simcha Israel Belmonte gave birth to Salomon Belmonte.
1676(OS): Tsar
Alexis I of Russia passed away. “During his reign a considerable number of Jews
lived in Moscow and the interior of Russia. In a work of travels, written at
that time, but published later, and bearing the title, Reise nach dem Norden
the author states that, owing to the influence of a certain Stephan von Gaden,
the czar's Jewish physician, the number of Jews considerably increased in
Moscow. The same information is contained in the work, The Present State of
Russia by Samuel Collins, who was also a physician at the court of the
czar. From the edicts issued by Alexis Mikhailovich, it appears that the czar
often granted the Jews passports with red seals (gosudarevy zhalovannyya
gramoty), without which no foreigners could be admitted to the interior; and
that they traveled without restriction to Moscow, dealing in cloth and jewelry,
and even received from his court commissions to procure various articles of
merchandise. Thus, in 1672, the Jewish merchants Samuel Jakovlev and his
companions were commissioned at Moscow to go abroad and buy Hungarian wine.”
Another edict “instructed a party of Lithuanian Jews to proceed from Kaluga to
Nijni-Novgorod, and as a protection they received an escort of twenty
sharpshooters.” The Czar’s attitude towards the Jews was a mixed bag as can be
seen from his expulsion of “the Jews from the newly acquired Lithuanian and
Polish cities” – Mohilev, Wilna, and Kiev. Altogether, taking into
consideration the hatred of foreigners among the Russian population of his time,
it is evident that Alexis was kindly disposed toward the Jews.”
1689: The
Convention Parliament adopted a resolution declaring England to be “a
Protestant Kingdom” and that only a Protestant could be King. This
effectively removed James II from the throne and paved the way for William and
Mary to come to the throne. The Jews had already returned to the British Isles,
but the Protestant monarchs would prove to be sympathetic to their cause which
helped with the peaceful growth of the nascent Anglo-Jewish community.
1723: “Today, “Moses
Yefraimovich, an elder of the Grodno ḳahal, presented for entry in the
municipal records of the city of Grodno the charter of privileges granted to
the Jews of Vizhainy by King John III.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14721-vizhainy-vizhuny-vizan-vizany
1735:
Sixty-eight-year-old George Granville, the British playwright adapted “The
Merchant of Venice” into the “Jew of Venice” in 1701 passed away today.
1754: In St.
Croix, Virgin Islands, Sara and Isaac de la Motta gave birth to Sarah de la
Motta, the wife of Savanah, GA native Lei Shefattal whom she married in 1768
and with whom she had fourteen children.
1764: In
Germany, Jettle Oppenheimer gave birth to Behle Ottenheimer, the wife of Mayer
Loeb Kaufman with whom she had three children and Simon Kaufman with whom she
had three children.
1777(21st
Shevat, 5537): Long Island merchant and New York City shochet Aaron Hart, the
husband of Richa Simson passed away today in New York City.
1779: Figlah
Levy and Joseph Simons gave birth to Gershon Simons.
1780: Today,
“Jonas Levi, an American Jew who had been capture by the English the previous
year and sent back to France” and who had been given a passport by Benjamin
Franklin so he could return to America along with “ninety-six livers” appeared
before a notary today where he gave a deposition describing how three French
soldiers had attacked him at inn at Trappes and stolen his money after which
members of the Swiss Guard told him to go to Versailles and pursue his
complaint.
http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1975_27_01_00_doc_roseman.pdf
1787: When
there was a delay in his being appointed Purchaser and Inspector of Drugs Lyon
Prager wrote to the Board of Trade today, asking that “if it should be the
intention of the Hon. Board to confirm me in the said appointment, I should
request that I might be made acquainted with their pleasure as soon as
possible” after which he “even asked his family, the firm of Israel Levin
Salomons in London to intervene on his behalf.”
1789: Rebecca
Franks and English born Lucius Levy Solomons gave birth to Fanny Solomons
1790:
"The Jews of Paris obtained a certificate, couched in most flattering
terms, and testifying to their excellent reputation, from the inhabitants of
the district of the Carmelites, where most Jews dwelt at this time.”
1791: During
the French Revolution, a Jewish delegation dressed in their uniforms as
National Guardsmen and bearing certificates of ‘good behavior’ from the
Christian citizens of Paris appeared before the Commune seeking support for
their demand to be granted full rights as citizens of France.
1794: Ezekiel
Hart, one of the early leaders of the Canadian-Jewish community married Frances
Lazarus. She was the niece of Frances Noah and her husband Ephraim Hart, a
successful New York merchant.
1800: “In a
joint patent issued today in Vienna, the Habsburg Emperor Franz II appoint
Rothschild and Amschel his Imperial Crown Agents.”
106
1803(6th of
Shevat, 5563): Jonas Phillips the German born son of Aaron Phillips gave birth
to Jonas
the first of
the Phillips family to settle in America who was a founder of Mikveh Israel in
Philadelphia, the father of twenty-two children and the grandfather of Uriah
Phillips Levy, the first Jewish Commodore in the United States Navy.
1803: In
Frankfurt am Main, Germany to Baron Salomon Mayer von Rothschild and his wife
Caroline gave birth to Anselm Salomon von Rothschild, an Austrian banker and a
member of the Vienna branch of the Rothschild family.
1808:
Ezekiel Hart was elected to the Canadian parliament but was prevented from
taking his seat because as a Jew he could not take the oath "on the true
faith of a Christian." Though reelected in May 1808, and in April 1809, he
was again prevented from being seated. Only in 1832 was legislation passed
allowing Jews to hold public office and giving them full civil rights. Born in
1767, Hart passed away in 1843.
1812(15th
of Shevat, 5572): Tu B’Shevat celebrated for the last time before the outbreak
of the War Of 1812, often referred to as “the second American Revolution.
1815(18th
of Shevat, 5577): Benvenida de Isaac Solis, the daughter of Isaac Henriques
Henriques Valentine and Simha Mandil and wife of Solomon da Silva Solis passed
away today in London
1817(12th
of Shevat, 5577): Sixty-year-old Abraham Furtado, the President of the
Assemblee des Notables and assistant of the Mayor of Bordeaux passed away in
Bordeaux.
1817: Israel
Helbert married Adeline Cohen at the Hambro Synagogue.
1819: Sir
Stamford Raffles establishes at a post at Singapore. By 1830, there at least 9
Jewish traders living at the British outpost and by 1840, the Sassoon family
with all that that meant for the growth of the colony and the Jewish community.
1820: King
George III, whose life had been saved by a Jew in 1800 and who had his first
conversation with a Jew when he spoke to boxer Daniel Mendoza passed away
1821: In
London, Hannah and Abraham Harris gave birth to Isaac Harris.
1830: The date
for the congregation charter for Nidce Israel, in Baltimore which became the
Baltimore Hebrew Congregation.
1832: In St.
Petersburg, Maria Ivanovna Maltsova and Captain Pavel Nikolayevich Ignatyev
gave birth to Count Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev who was appointed Minister of
the Interior by Alexander III who fomented pogroms and who was the driving
force behind the issuance of the infamous May Laws.
1835:
Philadelphia natives Julia Levy and Joseph Lyons Moss who were married in New
York City in 1828 gave birth to Rebecca Moss.
1839: Hannah
Levy, the Philadelphia born daughter of Sarah and Daniel da Silva Solis and her
husband Isaac Abraham Levy gave birth Abraham Isaac Levy in Richmond, VA.
1842: Rosa and
Benjamin Valentine gave birth to Julia Valentine.
1843: In
Niles, Ohio, William and Nancy (née Allison) McKinley gave birth to William
McKinley, Jr. who appointed Oscar Straus to serve as United States Minister to
the Ottoman Empire.
1847(12th
of Shevat, 5607): Eight days after celebrating his sixty-second birthday
Liverpool native Henry Solomon, the husband of Julia Levy and the father of
Rachel, Simon, Louis and Isaac Solomon passed away today in Savanah, GA.
1848: In a
speech at the annual Thomas Paine Dinner, suffragist and anti-slavery activist
Ernestine Rose declared "superstition keeps women ignorant,
dependent, and enslaved beings. Knowledge will make them free." http://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/29/1848/ernestine-rose
1849: Isaac
Noah Mannheimer delivered a speech in the Austrian Reichstag where he called
for the abolition of capital punishment.
1849:
Birthdate of Odessa native Adolph Zederbaum, the Berlin trained physician who
served on the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Consumptives’ Relief Society
headquartered in Denver, CO.
1851: In
Charleston, SC, Leopold Cohen married Elizabeth Cohen, “the eldest daughter of
Nathan A. Cohen.’
1852:
Birthdate of Frederick Hyman Cohen, the native of Kingston Jamaica, who would
gain fame as the Composer, Conductor, and Pianist, Sir Fredrick H. Cowen.
1856:
Birthdate of Elisheba (Bathshebabai) Wargharkar, the wife of Moses Shalom
Bapuji Israel Wargharkar with whom she had 11 children.
1856:
Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross. Frank de Pass was the first Jew
to be awarded Britain’s highest award for valor. He earned it for action
on the Western Front on November 24, 1917. The award was made
posthumously since he was killed the next day.
1857(4th
of Shevat, 5617): Forty-year-old Jane L. Theiss Sheftall, the wife of Emanuel
Sheftall and mother of William, Hannah, Josephine, Caroline, Louisa, Jane,
Edward James, Mary and Sarah Sheftall passed away today after which she was
buried at the Laurel Grove Cemetery North in Savanah, GA.
1859 (24th of
Shevat, 5619): Passing of Rabbi Menachem
Mendel of Kotzk. Born in 1787, he was renowned Chassidic leader, and forerunner
of the "Ger" Chassidic dynasty.
1860: German historian Ernst Moritz Arndt, who “played a crucial
part in the development of German nationalism, with a corollary of hostility
to, and fear of, the Jews” whom believed “had become ‘a depraved and degenerate
people,…unfit to be full citizens of a Christian state’” passed away today.
1860:
Birthdate of Russian author Anton Chekhov. Unlike other Russian literary lions,
Chekhov fully opposed anti-Semitism. He was a supporter of Dreyfus,
publicly declaring his innocence and supporting Zola when he came to the
defense of the French Colonel. When Alexsi Suvorin, his longtime friend
and literary colleague, attacked Zola as an agent of the Jews, Chekhov ended
their professional and personal relationship.
1861: Kansas
became the 34th state of the Union. One of the unique aspects of the history of
the Jews of Kansas was the Jewish agricultural colonies that were established
on the High Plains during the 1880’s. The Jewish Agriculturists' Aid Society of
America seven Jewish agricultural colonies in places with such Biblical and or
Jewish names as Beersheba, Montefiore, Lasker, Leeser, and Touro, Gilead and
Hebron. For more about this interesting attempt to create what Zionist would
come to call The New Jew in America’s heartland see "Jewish Farming
Communities Enriched Kansas Cultural Heritage" at http://www.kshs.org/features/feat1201.htm. Today there is a
thriving Jewish Community in Kansas, much of it centered in Overland, Kansas, a
Kansas City suburb.
1865: Rosetta
Moses, the daughter of Martha and Joseph Jonas and her husband Dr. Montefiore
Moses gave birth to Mary Stanford Moses
1866:
Philadelphian Aaron de Haan completed two years of service with Battery A of
the 112th Regiment –Second Artillery.
1869: In Los
Angeles, CA, Hannah Pessah Cohn and Rabbi Abraham Wolf Edelman gave birth to
NYU trained
physician David William Edleman who became the “chief of staff of the Cedars of
Lebanon Hospital” and “a member of the national committee of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1933/08/07/99837292.pdf
1872(19th of Shevat, 5632) Fifty-four-year-old Jacob Israel passed
away today after which he was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Natchitoches,
LA.
1872: In Staunton, VA,
Pauline Frank and Jonas Heller gave birth to Georgetown University trained
physician and major and surgeon in the United States Volunteers Joseph Milton
Heller the professor of Tropical Diseases at George Washington University in
Washington, D.C.
1872: Two days after she
had had passed away 37-year-old Sara (Kosman) Lang, the wife of Jacques Lang
and the mother of Judith, Alice and Charles Lang was buried today at the “West
Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1873: In Baden-Wurttemberg,
Germany, Sophie and Nathan and Baruch Rothschild gave birth to “Ike” Rothschild
who would only live for a week.
1874: In Elgin, Illinois,
Charles and Leonora (Goldman Bachrach gave birth to Benjamin Charles Bachrach,
the holder of an A.B. from Notre Dame and an LL. B from Kent College of Law in
Chicago and the husband of Martha Hartman whose success as a criminal lawyer
can be seen by his successful defense of accused murders Alderman Thomas
O’Malley, Baron von Biedenfeld and David Rosenbaum as well as his
representation of Heavyweight Champion Jack Jackson and “thrill killers”
Leopold and Loeb.
1874: Two days after she
had passed away, 49-year-old Leah Moses, the wife of Moses Moses with she had
had five children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1874:
Birthdate of Arthur Lenz who would die in Nazi held Berlin in 1944.
1875: Two days
after he had passed away, William Phillip De Jongh, a native of Amsterdam, was
buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/01/31/88513430.pdf
1876: In St.
Louis, Isaac and Anna (Loewenstein) Koperlick gave birth to Washington
University train attorney Benjamin F. Koperlik, the husband of Hattie Levy who
settled in Pueblo, CO, where served as City Attorney and president of Temple
Emanu-El.
1877(15th
of Shevat, 5637): Tu B’Shevat
1877: After
studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary at Breslau, David Kaufmann was
ordained as a Rabbi. He had received his Ph.D. from the University of
Leipzig 3 years before his ordinated.
1877: It was
reported today that according to an unconfirmed rumor, the Ottoman government
is so desperate for money that it has offered to sell the Pashaluk of the Holy
Land, which is effectively Palestine, to any candidate acceptable to the Jews
in return for a loan. If the Jews are not interested, the Turks might
make a similar offer to Brigham Young since agents of the Mormon have been
reported making similar inquiries during the past year.
1878: Three
days after he had passed away Stephen Joseph Spyer, the son of Joseph and
Sophia Spyer who was the husband of Rosetta de Metz and Eliza Nathan was buried
today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1878:
Birthdate of Dr. Alexander Marx, the native of Elberfield, Germany who became
the director of libraries and Jacob H. Schiff Professor of History at the
Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
1880: In Kiev,
Sofia G. Munstein and Alexander S. Goldenweiser gave birth to Harvard and
Columbia trained anthropologist Alexander Goldenweiser, the husband of Anna
Hallow who was a lecturer on anthropology at Columbia and the New School for
Social Research in New York City.
1880(16th
of Shevat, 5640): Twenty-eight-year-old Elias Abendana passed away after which
he was buried at the New Jewish Cemetery in London.
1882:
Twenty-two year old Hart Blumenthal, the Philadelphia born son of David and Eva
(Baum) Blumenthal, a trustee of the Jewish
Publication Society, chairman of the Keneseth Israel Free Library and a noted
collector of Lincolniana” married Ida Ratwich , the mother of author Walter
Hart Blumenthal.
1882:
Seventy-one-year-old General Alfred von Henikstein, “the youngest son of the Jewish
banker Ritter Joseph von Henikstein, who was baptized as a child” and who was”
chief of staff before the battle of Königgrätz in the Austro-Prussian War”
passed away today.
1883: In
Hoboken, NJ, Dora and Lilienthal gave birth to Felix Lilienthal, the founder of
Felix Lienthal and Company and husband of Selma Goldstein with whom he raised
WW II Navy veteran and Dartmouth graduate Felix Lilienthal, Jr.
1883: In
Austria, Aron and Charlotte (Licht) Brandler gave birth to European trained
diamond cutter Samuel Brandler, the husband of Sarah Gutwirth who in 1915 came
to the United States where he founded a pearl and diamond importing business
was active in numerous Jewish organizations including the ZOA and HIAS and
“enjoyed” a bit of notoriety when three young men stole $100,000 worth of uncut
diamonds from him while he was eating in Chicago restaurant in 1926.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/05/12/98376982.pdf
1884:
Birthdate of Austrian native Dr. Samuel Barbash, a graduate of the
Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia, the husband of the “former of Rae
Alper” and “medical director of the Atlantic City Hospital.”
1885: NYU Law
School graduate Max Altmayer, the New York born son of Babetta New and Israel Altmayer
who was a Democratic Party activist and a member of Temple Israel married Rosa
Sickles Toda.
1888: Two days
after she had passed away Floretta Maria Ascher, the daughter of “Joseph Ascher
and Maria Carter” was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1888: In New
York City, Isaac and Bertha (Jaros) Wise gave birth to Columbia trained chemist
Louis Wise Elsberg, the university professor and researcher with a main
interest “in organic chemistry as applied to cellulose and wood who worked in
the science and research division of the Bureau of Aircraft Production during
WW I and then briefly for DuPont while being married to the former Ethel Brand.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/wise-louis-elsberg
1888: In New
York City, Caroline “Carrie” Weiss, the New York born of Yetta and Louis Stix
and her husband Samuel Weiss gave birth to William Stix Weiss.
1890: It was
reported today that Professor Felix Adler officiated at the wedding of Gertrude
Hiller and Gustave Leve in New York City.
1890:
Forty-year-old Mrs. Basche Gersohnfeld a Russian Jewess and her four children
ranging in age from eleven to two arrived at Castle Garden where she was met by
her husband Moses who had come to American before her with their son Joseph and
was working as butcher.
1890:
Commissioner Stephenson denied Basche Gershonfeld and her young children the
right to leave Castle Garden because even though her husband Moses was earning
$12 a week as a butcher and her son Joseph was earning $9 a week, he was not
sure that they would not become public charges.
1891: It was
reported today that the 200-year-old Wells Mansion which is believed to be the
oldest house still standing in Boston, MA, has been purchased by a Jewish
millionaire named Ratchesky. (This may be Abraham “Cap” Rashesky who founded
the A.C. Ratchesky Foundation.
1892: Two days
after he had passed away, Solomon Isaacs, the son of Isaac Isaacs and Elizabeth
Davis, and the husband of Esther Hart and then Jane Abrahams and then Esther
Abrahams was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1892(29th
of Tevet, 5652): Sixty-three-year-old Benjamin Russak, a partner in Harris and
Russak, a “fur-manufacturing house” passed away today. A native of Posen,
he came to the United States in 1848 and opened a retail hat, cap and fur store
with his brother-in-law, Henry Harris. The firm prospered and was one of the
first to enter into the fur-seal trade. Russak was active in several
organizations including the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the United Hebrew Charities
and the Hebrew Technical Institute.
1892(29th
of Tevet, 5652): Eight-year-old Liebmann Adler, the native of Lengsfeld,
Germany who came to the United States in 1854 to lead a congregation in
Detroit, MI, before becoming the Rabbi at the Ḳehillath Anshe Ma'arabh
("Congregation of the Men of the West"), of Chicago in 1861 passed
away today.
1892: Birthdate of German –born American
director Ernst Lubitsch.
1893(12th
of Shevat, 5653): Seventy-five-year-old German native Sailing Wolfe, the
husband of Sarah Cohen Wolfe, with whom he had seven children – Isabel, rose,
Solomon, Debora, Henrietta, Sarah and Hartwig – passed away today in South
Carolina, after which he was buried at the Hebrew Benevolent Society Cemetery
in Columbia, SC
1894:
Birthdate of Jaroslaw, Poland native Lionel S. Reiss, the Polish-American
painter raised on the Lower East Side who “became known for his portraits of
Jewish people and landmarks in Jewish history which he made during his trip to
Europe, Africa, and the Middle East in the early 1920s” and who in 1938 “published
his book My Models Were Jews, in which he illustratively argued that there is
no such thing as a "Jewish ethnicity", but the Jewish people are
rather a cultural group, whereby there is significant diversity within Jewish
communities and between different communities in different geographical
regions.”
https://www.rogallery.com/artists/lionel-s-reiss/
1894:
Twenty-two-year-old NYU trained attorney Simon Berg, the Kiev born son of Henry
and Frieda (Uselow) Berg married Rose Berliner today in New York, five years
before he was admitted he was admitted to the bar and six years before he
established “the law firm of Simon Berg” which specialized “in all phases of
real estate work.”
1895: It was
reported today that the mid-year exams, including tests in Hebrew, will begin
this week at Columbia College in New York,
1895: In
Natchez, Mississippi, Moritz and Beulah Benjamin Hellman gave birth to Jess Lee
Hellman who settled in Texas and who became Jessie Lee Alexander when she
married Benjamin Mortimer Alexander.
1896: It was
reported today that the American Jewish Historical Society will be holding its
fourth annual meeting in Philadelphia.
1897: Captain
Ferdinand Forzinetti, the commandant of military prison, who was “one of the
first to be convinced of the innocent of Dreyfus” received a letter of
commendation from the Ministry of War “for having taken part in a panel that
reviewed the regulations concerning the serving of military justice.” Later in
the year, he would be relieved of duty when his support for Dreyfus became a
matter of public record.
1897: “Our
Jewish Population” published today included a summary of paper presented by
Philadelphian David Sulzberger at the annual meeting of the American Jewish
Historical Society which described the growth of Jewish population in the
United from 3,000 in 1812 to its present level of 500,000 “of whom 140,000”
live in New York City.
1897: Rabbis
Kohler and Kleeberg will co-officiate today at the funeral of Dr. Solomon
Deutsch, the author of Essays on the Talmud
1898: Lucien
Millevoye delivered an anti-Dreyfus speech tonight in Bordeaux.
1898:
Birthdate of NYC native and mortician Sanford Roscoe Gumpert who received his
training at the Renouard Training School for Embalmers.
1898:
“Fortunes in Antiquity” provided a review of The Art of Getting Rich in
which Henry Hardwicke uses the story of Cain and Able as evidence that “the
first occupations of mankind were sheep industry and tillage.”
Furthermore, as can be seen from the fact that “the wealth of the
patriarchs…consisted principally in their flocks” the “pastoral life…seems to
have been more…profitable among the Hebrews than tillage.”
1899:
Birthdate of Harold W. Carmely, the native of Wolkowysk, Poland, who came to
the United States in 1922 where he served as the Superintendent of the
Daughters of Israel Home in New York and Director of Keren Hayesod.
1899: “Homer
and Jewish Rites” published today noted the similarity between the Jewish
rituals concerning the washing of the hands and the prayer uttered in the
Iliad, “Now pray to Jove what Greece demands: Pray in deep silence and with the
purest hands.”
1899: The
meeting of the Zionist Actions Committee in Vienna came to an end.
1899: Mr.
Green introduced a bill in Albany today that would exempt “the real property of
the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of New York City from all taxes commonly
known as ‘land taxes.’”
1899: It was
reported today that Governor Theodore Roosevelt has chosen Jastrow Alexander to
serve as State Inspector of Gas Meters. “In Mr. Alexander, the Governor
believed he had found another Maccabee – a Jews who had come to this country
from Germany while a young man, had become thoroughly imbued with the American
spirit, had enlisted when the civil war broke out, and by reason of conspicuous
courage had been advanced to be an Adjutant General.”
1900:
Birthdate Pryluky, Ukraine native Irving Chernev who in 1905 came to the United
States where he became a national class chess champion and the prolific author
of books on chess including Chessboard Magic!, The Bright Side of Chess, The Fireside Book of Chess, The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played, 1000 Best Short Games of Chess, Practical Chess Endings, Combinations: The Heart of Chess, and Capablanca's Best Chess Endings.
https://worldchesshof.org/hof-inductee/irving-chernev
1900: It was
reported today that Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, was one of several clergymen who had
attended the non-denominational memorial service for Father McGlynn of whom he
said “that if all the world were made up of Father McGlynns there would be no
persecution of the Jews such as prevails in Europe” and he also “told of how
twenty years ago Father McGlynn from his own depleted purse furnished the
wherewithal to complete a synagogue on East 29th Street that the
Jews were building and found they could not finish for lack of funds.”
1901: “Nathan
Strus had the famous trotter Cobwebs on the road and worked him out several
times but did not enter him in any heats at the Speedway.
1902: In “Work
for Able-Bodied Men” published today, Lee Frankel, the manager of the United
Hebrew Charities of the City of New York said, in response to efforts by
Roumanian Jews to find working for their co-religionists, “the United Hebrew
Charities is prepared to find work through its employment bureau for any
able-bodied man who will apply” at their offices.
1903: Herzl
and the Actions Committee in Vienna work out the outline of a Charter which is
taken to Cairo by the expedition and delivered to Leopold Greenberg.
1903: In New
York, Ike ("Charlie Hoey") and Jennie A. Guerin Croter gave birth to
Alvina Croter who gained fame as Viña Delmar “the American playwright and
screenwriter” who “was nominated for an Academy Award for 1937 for her screen
adaptation of the Arthur Richman play, “The Awful Truth.”
1903:
Birthdate of Yeshayahu Leibowitz, the Riga born intellectual who made Aliyah in
1935 and whose career both in depth in breadth is beyond my ability to even
begin to describe.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/yleib.html
1904: In
Warsaw Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof, the originator of Esperanto and his wife gave
birth to their youngest daughter Lidia Zamenhof who died in Treblinka.
http://bahai-library.com/dale_lidia_zamenhof
1904: Two days
after he had passed away, Abraham Bermon was buried at the “Plashet Jewish
Cemetery” in London.
1905: Carl
Jung made an entry in the records of the Burgholzli Hospital in which he
described his treatment of Sabina Spielrein whom he described as
“oriental” and “voluptuous.” The young Jewess went from being a patient
of Freud and Jung to being a pioneer in the field of psychoanalysis. (As
reported by Karen Hall)
1905: Three
days after he had passed away, 64-year-old Isaac Gabriel, the husband of Sophia
Morris and then Julia Gabriel was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish
Cemetery.”
1906: It was
reported today that when “a deputation of the reactionary League of Russian
Men” told the Czar, “We are convinced that the present sedition is the work of
the Jews’ hands” and “therefore entreated the sovereign not to grant equality
before the laws to the Jews” the Emperor replied “I shall think it over.”
1906: As of
today, Louis S. Brush is President of the Choral Society for Ancient Hebrew
Melodies and Mrs. Solomon Schechter, the wife of the President of the Jewish
Theological Seminary and the founder of the society is the vice president.
1906: “A
special international congress of Jews” meeting under the auspices of the
Zionists which will discuss action to be taken to protect the Jews of Russia is
scheduled to open today in Brussels and will be attended by a delegation
selected by the Federation of American Zionists.
1907: It was
reported today that Dr. Judah L. Magnes, the rabbi of Temple Emanu-El and
Secretary of the of the Federation of American Zionists” has said that there
will probably be a public meeting in New York to protest the arrest of Jewish
political leaders in Vilna.
1907: Today,
George Washington Oakes, the University of Tennessee and Columbia educated
editor and son of Bertha Levy and Julius Oakes married Bertie Gans who passed
away in 1913.
1908: It was
reported today that the United Hebrew Charities will need at least another
forty-thousand dollars so that it can continue to perform its function until
its fiscal year which ends in September.
1909(7th
of Shevat, 5669): Sixty-year-old Sarah Nathan the New York born daughter of
Canadian Rebecca Solomons and Simon Mendes Nathan passed away today in her
hometown.
1910(19th
of Shevat, 5670): Parashat Yitro
1910: It was
reported today that “the enormous Jewish population of the east side asking for
kosher meat
which for the most part comes from the
less expensive cuts such as chuck steak has introduced a whole element in the
business of exporting meat because it means that the prime cuts are more
available for sale in places such as England where prices are much lower than
in the United States.
1910: The New
York Section of the Council of Jewish Women acknowledged that contributions
total $43, including one for $25 from “A Friend” have been received following
an appeal made recently to help two unnamed girls.
1911: “Denouncing
the American people for their patience with immoral leader, and declaring that
an end to our "moral breakdown" can come only "through the
determined leadership of the religious and moral forces of the nation,"
the Rev. Dr. Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue preached today before a
congregation that filled every corner of Carnegie Hall.”
1912: It was
reported today that Louis Marshall who was chairman of Governor Hughes’s State
Immigration Commission, Abram Elkus, the president of the National Jewish
Immigration Council, Dr. Herbert Friedenwald, the Secretary of the American
Jewish Committee and Max K. Kolhler, representing the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations and the Order of B’nai B’rith are working members of the Senate
Immigration Committee including Senators O’Gorman, Penrose and Lodge to modify
the Dillingham immigration bill especially as it pertains to literacy
requirements and deportation.
1913: The
British Consul in Jerusalem, P.J.C. McGregor wrote a dispatch assuring his
government that he had talked to one of the leading Zionists in Palestine who
denied reports in some British papers that the Palestinian Jews were pro Turk
and pro German. This un-named leader assured the British diplomat that the
Zionist sought the protection of the Union Jack since it was the only force
that would support their goal of a Jewish home in Palestine.
1913:
Birthdate of Daniel Taradash, the Louisville native and graduate of Harvard Law
School before becoming a director and screenwriter who won the 1953 Oscar for
writing the script for “From Here to Eternity.”
1913:
Birthdate of Nina Zimet Schneider, anative of Antwerp, Belgium, who grew up in
the United States where she combined forces with her Husband Herman to write
dozens of books for children “that deftly explained the intricacies of stars,
plants, the human body and even the networks of pipes and cables below the city
streets…”
1913: In
Chicago, Samuel Kadish and his wife gave birth to American sculptor Reuben
Kadish. (As reported by Roberta Smith)
1913(21st
of Shevat, 5673): Ninety-one year old “communal worker” Louis Lewengood passed
away in New York City.
1913:
Churchill sends a letter to the Reform Club announcing his resignation because
Baron de Forest, his Jewish friend and Member of Parliament had been
blackballed in his bid for membership.
1914: Leading
members of the AZK (the Anti-Zionist Committee which had been established by
the Association for Liberal Judaism) including Bernhard Breslau, Hermann Coehn,
Eugen Katz, James Simon and Hermann Veit Simon were asked to prepare a
declaration “to be published in the most prestigious papers” on the “danger of
Zionist activity in German
1915: “With
the evidence of the negro Jim Conley, the principle witness against Leo M.
Frank when the latter was convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan and that of
Herbert Hass, of counsel for Frank, Solicitor Hugh Dorsey, late this afternoon
rested the case of the State against Dan S. Lehon, C.C. Fedler, and Attorney
Arthur Thurman, representatives of the W.J. Burns Detective Agency, who are
accused of subornation of perjury in the effort to get a new trial for Frank.”
1915:
Following his death last week, Louis Sulzbach who “was the first continental
American appointed as Associate Justice of the newly created Supreme Court of
Puerto Rico” was honored by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico in a Memorial
Resolution” today.
1915: In
Philadelphia, PA, Arthur Kaufman and Henrietta Berkowitz Stern gave birth to
historian and rabbi, Malcolm H. Stern.
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0626/ms0626.html
1916: Four
years after having originally premiered in the United Kingdom, “The Miracle” a
British silent film based on a play by Max Reinhardt premiered in Argentina.
1916: The
opposition in the Senate yesterday to the nomination of Louis D. Brandeis of
Boston to the Supreme Court of the United States appears to have been softened
overnight. One Democratic Senator, who is especially well placed for knowing
the drift of sentiment on the subject, said today that twenty-four hours ago he
would have estimated that two-thirds of the Senate was against Mr. Brandeis.
1916: In
Argentina, premiere of “The Miracle” a British silent film treatment of Max
Reinhardt’s play of the same name.
1916: As of
today, the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War
has “received $1,746.588 of which $1,104,966.24 was in cash and $641,621.76 in
pledges.
1917: At
Temple Emanu-El in New York, Dr. H. G. Enelow is scheduled to deliver a lecture
today entitled “The Jewish Heritage of Jesus.”
1917: “A roof
garden, built as a memorial to Mrs. Louis Marshall, for the use of children is
scheduled to be dedicated this afternoon at the Lenox Hill Settlement.
1917: “Daniel
Goldberg, Secretary of the Brooklyn Jewish Volunteer Relief Committee announced
today that $5,000, mostly in $5 to $25 contribuitons had been added to the
$50,000 subscribed and pledged at the meeting that had been held at the Academy
of Music.
1917(6th
of Shevat, 5677): Esther Kantrowitz, the mother of Meta Itskowitz, who raised
her grandson Eddie Cantor from the time he was two because both of his parents
had passed away died today.
1918: Hugo
Guttman, a German-Jewish Lieutenant in the Kaiser’s Army began serving as
“Adolf Hitler’s direct superior.”
1918:
Birthdate of Morton Schindel, the Wharton School graduate who turned books into
animated films.
1918: A letter
dated November 27, 1917, from David Fenik to Rabbi Jacob Bernstein of Newport,
RI, excerpts of which were published today said that “the day before the
British entered” one of the Jewish settlements in Palestine, “Turkish troops”
armed with knouts “drove out most of the inhabitants and robbed and pillaged
the homes of the refugees.”
1918: Two days
before his death, Zionist leader Dr. Jechiel Tchlenow wrote a letter to the
convention of the English Zionist Federation which was to take place four days
later in which he stated that the convention was of the greatest historical
importance; that Great Britain is the traditional friend of the small nations
and that history would record in letters of gold the English promise to assist
in the establishment of the Jewish national homeland in Palestine.
1919: It was
announced today that that one million dollars has already been raised during
the campaign of the ZOA whose goal is to raise three million dollars for aid to
Palestine.
1920: “First
Zion Ship Launched” published today described the launching, at Jaffa, of the
first Jewish vessel in the Mediterranean, “owned by Jews, manned by Jews and
flying the Jewish flag” during which the wife of Major John English, the
commandant at Jaffa” raised the flag and expressed “the hope that next year the
Jewish people might possess a large merchant marine on the Mediterranean.”
1921: Harold
Brand was “appointed second lieutenant in the United States Army” today.
1921:
Alexander Berkowitz was “appointed captain in the medical administrative corps
of the United States Army” today.
1921: Ralph
Eli Fleischer was “appointed lieutenant in the quartermaster corps of the
United States Army” today.
1921: Sidney
Ginsberg was “appointed a second lieutenant” serving in the infantry of the
United States Army today.
1921: Benjamin
Lester Jacobson was “appointed major in the finance department of the United
States Army” today.
1921: Simon
Jacobson was “appointed lieutenant in the quartermaster corps of the United
States Army” today.
1921(20th
of Shevat, 5681): Parashat Yitro
1921(20th
of Shevat, 5681: Seventy-three-year-old U.S. Naval Academy graduate and Rear
Admiral U.S.N. Edward David Taussig the St. Louis born son of Austrian Jewish
immigrants Anna Abeles and “wool broker” Charles Taussig who was raised as a
Unitarian and who was the first in a four generational family that graduated
from Annapolis and who played an active role in the Pacific Theatre during the
Spanish American War passed away today.
https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/us-people/t/taussig-edward-d.html
1921: In
Philadelphia, the new Stanley Theatre which cost $2 million dollars (“equal to
$26 million today”) opened today.
1921: Robert
Scott Israel was appointed to the rank of lieutenant while serving in the
infantry of the United States Army today.
1921: Arthur
Louis Koch was “appointed captain in the quartermaster corps of the United
States Army” today.’
1921: Louis
Lehman Korn was appointed major in the Judge Advocate-General’s Department of
the United Sates Army” today.
1921: Samuel
Marcus was “appointed captain the medical administrative corps of the United
States Army” today.
1921: Today,
Herbert Block Mayer was appointed to the rank of lieutenant while serving in
the infantry of the United States Army.
1921: Alfred
Mordecai was “appointed lieutenant in the medical corps of the United States
Army” today.
1921: Today,
Eustace Maduro Peixotto was appointed to the rank of lieutenant while serving
in the infantry of the United States Army.
1921: Today,
Harvey Israel Rice was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving
in the infantry of the United States Army.
1921: Today,
Harry Isaac Rosen was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving
in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army.
1921: Today,
Frederick Buchanan Rosenbaum was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant
while serving in the infantry of the United States Army.
1921: Today,
Nathan Rosenberg was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving
in the medical corps of the United States Army.
1921: Today,
Louis Bernard Saxe was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving
in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army.
1921: Today,
Philip Schneeberger was appointed to the rank of lieutenant while serving in
the air service of the United States Army.
1921: Today,
Charles Eugene Schwartz was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while
serving in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army.
1921: Today,
Max Weinberg was appointed to the rank of captain while serving in the medical
administrative corps of the United States Army.
1921: Today,
Arthur Henry Wolf was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving
in the infantry of the United States Army.
1921: Today,
Samuel Israel Zeidner was appointed to the rank of captain while serving in the
quartermaster corps of the United States Army.
1921:
Birthdate of Eugene V. Klein the American businessman, supporter of candidates
as varied as Pierre Salinger and Richard Nixon whose sport’s endeavors include
ownership of the Seattle Supersonics and San Diego Chargers.
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-13/sports/sp-260_1_san-diego-chargers
1922: In
Newcastle, UK, Henry Morris Cohen and Eva Sussman Cohen gave birth to Gabrielle
Cohen who became Gabrielle Blake when she married Leonard Blake.
1922: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held today at the West End Synagogue in Baltimore
for Baltimore native Moses Crystal, the President of the Fabian Construction
Company and a trustee of the West End Synagogue who had passed away two days
ago.
1923: In the
Bronx, Russian-Jewish immigrants Harry and Gussie (Stuchevsky) Chayefsky gave
birth to Sidney Aaron Chayefsky who gained fame as three-time Oscar
winning playwright, novelist and
screenwriter “Paddy” Chayefsky who was an opponent of McCarthyism, a worker in
the cause of allowing Jews to leave the Soviet and a supporter of Israel who
early on said that the term “Anti-Zionism” was a polite code for being
anti-Semitic.
1924(23rd
of Shevat, 5684): Seventy-nine-year-old Frederick Salomon van Nierop a Dutch
lawyer who was Chairman of the Supervisor Board of the Amsterdam Bank, a member
of the Amsterdam Main Synagogue and President of the Committee of the General
Affairs (a Jewish communal organization) passed away today.
1925: Funeral
services were held today for 56-year-old Jewish philanthropist Joseph Smolenksy,
the founder of the Jewish Court of Arbitration and the father of Dr. Morris
Smolensky.
1925: Dr.
Israel Goldstein, the rabbi of Congregation B’nai Jershurun was installed today
“as President of the New York Board of Jewish Ministers.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/01/30/98815539.html?pageNumber=16
1925: Today
“after a meeting of the Jewish Probation Society in the Criminal Courts
Building it was announced that a drive had been started for contributions so
that the work of the organization could be expanded to equal the wider efforts
of the Catholic Probation Society” and “Magistrate Moses R. Ryttenberg.
President of the Society said that Felix M Warburg had contributed $2,500 and”
Jonah Goldstein had made a smaller gift.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/01/29/101636582.html?pageNumber=21
1926:” The
Great Duchess” directed by Willi Wolff, starring Ellen Richter and produced by
the husband-and-wife team of Ellen Richter and Willi Wolf was released today in
Germany.
1927: Today,
President Coolidge appointed twenty-eight-year-old Nathan Cayton to serve as a
Judge of the Municipal Court in the District of Columbia, making him, after his
unanimous approval the Senta, the “youngest man ever to be appointed to a
judicial post in the Nation’s Capital.”
1928: The
New York Times reported on improving economic conditions in
Palestine. For example, at Petakh Tikvah, an additional fifty Jewish
workers have been hired and “the Arab lessees of local orange groves have
promised to take on 200 more Jews within the next few days.”
1928: When
asked by an interviewer in an article published two days before his 80th
birthday “When should one commence giving?” Nathan Straus replied, “As soon as
one has a little more than he actually needs. At first it is hard.
But afterwards it grows into a pleasure and there is nothing more satisfying,
nothing to make one happier than to give in order to relieve the distress of
others.” By “others” Mr. Straus means “men women and children of all races and
creeds.” He has “the deep seated feeling that all humanity is one blood
whatever the accident of birth or the circumstances of religious faith.
We are all brothers and should help each other to the full extent of the
opportunities that the one God of all mankind gives to each of us.
1929: U.S.
premiere of “The Case of Lena Smith” directed by Josef von Sternberg, produced
by Jesse L. Lasky, filmed by cinematographer Harold Rosson based on a story by
Samuel Ortiz.
1929: Birthdate
of Richard Lawrence Ottinger who served as a member of the United States House
of Representatives from New York before he went on to pursue a career as a law
school professor.
1929The London
production “Funny Face” a George and Ira Gerswin musical which ad opened at Princes Theatre on November 8, 1928 came
to an end today.
1929: “The
Case of Lena Smith” directed by Josef von Sternberg, produced by Jesse L.
Lasky, with a story by Samuel Ornitz was released in the United States today.
1930(29th
of Tevet, 5690): Seventy-two-year-old Louisville native and graduate the
University of Louisville Law School Moses N. Sale who moved to St. Louis in
1881 and where he served as Judge of the Circuit Court passed away today.
https://www.jta.org/1930/02/02/archive/judge-moses-sale-of-st-louis-dead-at-72
1931: “The effect of the current economic
situation” which became known as the Great Depression, “is reflected in the
recent admissions to the National Jewish Hospital at Denver, said to be the old
non-sectarian institution for tuberculosis in the country according to Dr.
William S. Friedman of Denver who has arrived” in New York “to attend a meeting
of the local committee at the Harmonie Club today
1931:
Birthdate of Brooklyn native Hyman “Hy” Cohen the Chicago Cubs pitcher who was
also a coach for the Birmingham Braves.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cohenhy01.shtml
1932: In New
York City, the Julien Levy Gallery owned by Julien Levy hosted “the landmark
multi-media Surrealist exhibition of the work of Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst,
Joseph Cornell, Marcel Duchamp, and the introduction of Salvador Dalí's The
Persistence of Memory owned by Levy who “also championed the surrealist work of
Leon Kelly.”
1932: French
premiere of “Comradeship” the Franco (La Tragédie de la mine)-German
(Kameradschaft) film starring Alexander Granach as “Kasper.”
1932: The
American Hebrew appeared for the last time. It would merge with the New
York Jewish Tribune and re-appear as American Hebrew and Jewish Tribune
1932: In
London, England, celebration of the 80th anniversary of the birth of
famed composer, conductor and pianist Sir Frederic H. Cowen.
1933: Paul von
Hindenburg, President of Germany appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of
Germany. The Nazis did not come to power through a coup or putsch.
They came to power legally, using the German political and electoral processes.
1934: Pierre
Van Passen is scheduled to deliver a lecture this evening at the Brooklyn
Jewish Center on “European Dictatorships and the Jew.”
1934: The
“Conference of the Women’s division of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to
Champion Human Rights” sic scheduled to meet this after the Hotel Plaza.
1935: “For the
first time since the Nazis came to power the Central Committee of Jewish
Associatios in Germany today protested formally in its organ, the Judische
Rundschau, against Julius Streicher’s anti-Semitic propaganda.”
1935: Motion
picture director Ernst Lubitsch who “was one of 207 person affected by an
order” in Germany “revoking the nationality of Eastern Jews” said today that
the “losing of his German citizenship as reported from Berlin was of little
importance to him because he was preparing for United States Citizenship.”
1936: Today’s
decision by the Hungarian Ministry of Justice “refusing permission to Hungarian
Jew to marry a German girl in Hungary” was seen as evidence that Hungary is
applying the Nuremberg Laws as a sign of friendship for Germany.
1936: Rabbi B.
Leon Hurwitz represented the Jewish community at memorial service honoring the
late King George V held at the Hotel New Yorker.
1936: When
Hans Frank told the German Academy’s economic council “We do not care what the
wolrd says about our Jewish legislation” it was Germany’s way of serving
“notice that she would continue her unrelenting drive against Jews” in what was
part of a “strong restatement of Nazi principles on the third anniversary of
Hitler’s assumption of power.
1937: “You
Only Live Once,” produced by Walter Wagner, with music by Alfred Newman and
starring Sylvia Sidney (Sophia Kosow) was released today in the United States.
1937: “The
Good Earth” the cinematic treatment of the novel of the same name produced by
Irving Thalberg and Albert Lewin, filmed by Karl Freund winner of the Oscar for
Best Cinematography and starring Paul Muni and Luise Rainer winner of the Oscar
for Best Actress was released in the United States today.
1937: In
Geneva, Polish Foreign Minister Josef Beck told reported Clarence K. Streit
that the pressure from his country to force Jews to emigrate was not based on
anti-Semitism but on the changing nature of the Polish economy.
1938(27th of
Shevat, 5698) Parashat Mishpatim
1938: Rabbi
Benedict Glazer is scheduled to deliver the sermon this morning at Temple
Emanu-El
1938: Rabbi
Jonah B. Wise is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Organized Foreign Born
and Democracy” this morning at the Central Synagogue.
1938: Rabbi
Nathan Stern is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “What Shall We Teach Our
Children?” this morning at the West End Synagogue.
1938: Rabbi
William F. Rosenblum is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Laws of God and
the Ordinances of Man” at Temple Israel.
1938: Rabbi
Wendell A. Phillips is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Slaves to Convention”
at Temple Rodeph Sholom.
1938: Rabbi
Alexander Segal is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Value of Freedom” at
Fort Washington where services will be followed by a meeting of the
congregations Junior League.
1938(27th
of Shevat, 5698): Sixty-seven-year-old Eugene Hugo Paul, who worked with Kuhn,
Loeb & Co. for 48 years and was active in several Jewish organizations
including the Young Men’s Hebrew Association passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=950DE6D61E3EE03ABC4850DFB7668383629EDE
1938: Speaking
at re-union dinner at the Hotel Astor tonight, Morris R. Cohen, the retiring Professor
of Philosophy at City College said that there was a real danger in the fact
that “the proportion of non-Jews at the college was becoming negligible”
because the friendships formed when the student body contained significant
numbers of Catholics and Protestants’ would cease to exist and this could lead
to a form of “segregation” in New York City.
1939(9th
of Shevat, 5699): Sixty-six-year-old Sir Laurie Hammond, “who was a member of
the Peel Royal Commission which in 1937 recommended tri-partition of Palestine
as the only solution of the Arab-Jewish conflict” passed away today.
(EDITOR’S
NOTE- THE FOLLOWING LISTINGS SERVE AS A REMINDER OF A TIME WHEN SOME WISHED TO
OBSERVE SHABBAT ON SUNDAY)
1939: Rabbi
Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “How Men Enslave
Themselves” at Temple Emanu-El.
1939: Sir
Ronald Storrs who began serving as Governor of Jerusalem in 1917 as soon as
Allenby had taken the city is scheduled to deliver talk on “The Problem of
Palestine: England, Arab, Jew” at the service of the Free Synagogue being held
in Carnegie Hall.
1939: The West
End Synagogue is scheduled to host a “lecture forum” where Rabbi Hyman Judah
Shacthel will deliver “an address on ‘A Way of Life.’”
1939: At
Rodeph Sholom, Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver “an address” on
“Hitler’s Six Years: What Have They Cost Jews, Germans and the World?”
1940(19th
of Shevat, 5700): Forty-two-year-old Havre, France born consulting engineer
Martin Popkin who “received his education in the Kansas City, MO public
schools, the Baron Rothschild Academy at Port Said and the University of Turin”
and who had written “several textbooks including Manufacture of Men’s
Clothes and Personnel Management passed away today in New York City.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/01/30/92854392.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1941: Harold
Levin, Albert Levin Isidor Silverman and Samuel Gold, “an attorney in the
Department of Justice” are among the Democrats mentioned to fill the vacancy
for the seat in Congress in the Seventeenth District.
1941: Mrs.
Tehilla Lichtenstein is scheduled to deliver an address on “A Formula For
Courage” at the Jewish Science Society on West 85th Street,
1941(1st of
Shevat, 5701): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1941(1st of
Shevat, 5701): At the Lodz Ghetto, Bluma Lichtensztajn committed suicide and
painter Maurycy Trebacz died of hunger. (He was one of five thousand Jews who
will die of hunger over the next six months.)
1942: This
week’s issue of the Sentinel, Chicago’s Jewish Weekly was published today
http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16614coll14/id/68555
1942(11th
of Shevat, 5702): Seventy-four-year-old Matilda “Tillie” Isaacs, the London
born daughter of Albert and Adelaide Hart and wife of Julius Isaacs with she
had four children passed away today after which she was buried in Sheffield,
England.
1942: It was
reported today that “Nathaniel Phillips, president of the Natioal League for
American Citizenship” has “amplified is statement that an enemy alien may become
naturalize if at the tie of declaration of intention issued at least two years
previously, or if, as the spouse of an American citizen, he was exempt from
obtaining a declaration of intention, or if on Dec. 11, 1941, his petition for
final papers was pending.”
1943: Germans
execute 15 Poles at the village of Wierzbica for aiding three Jews. One of the
victims is a two-year-old girl.
1943: The
“Nazis ordered all Gypsies arrested and sent to extermination camps.”
1944: In
London, unwed Australian Jewess named Oldham gave birth to Andrew Oldham, the
“manager and producer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 to 1967.”
1944: In
Trieste, the Nazis conduct a roundup of Jews aimed the old and sick people
including those living in facilities for the aged.
1944: A
Nazi court in Kraków, Poland, sentences five Poles to death for aiding Jews.
One of the accused, Kazimierz Jozefek, is hanged in the public square.
1944: In
Lithuania, Soviet led partisans including Jews from the Kovno and Vilnius
ghettos attacked Koniuchy which was later described a pro-Nazi town from which
Germans launched attacks against partisans. According to various reports
several civilians were killed in the action which has led to it being described
as a “massacre.”
1945(15th
of Shevat, 5705): Tu B’Shevat
1945(15th
of Shevat, 5705): Seventy-year-old Olympic Gymnast Gustav Felix Flatow died of
starvation today at Theresienstadt.
http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/GustavFlatow.htm
1945(15th
of Shevat, 5705): Less than a month before his 80th birthday
Pittsburgh, PA native Albert M. Hanauer, a partner and Secretary-Treasurer of
the Hamburger Distillery passed away today.
1945: Today,
President Roosevelt nominated Herman B. Baruch who “had been working with the
Foreign Economic Administration in Latin America” and who is the brother of
Bernard Baruch to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Portugal.
1945:
Birthdate of Paysach J. Krohn, rabbi, mohel and author of the “Maggid” series
of books for ArtScroll.
1946(27th
of Shevat, 5706): Seventy-seven-year-old Yale graduate, corset manufacturer and
bank director Frederick Max Adler, the New Haven born son of Max Adler, “a
manufacturer who commanded Connecticut during the Civil War” and Esther Myers
Adler and husband of “the former Sophie Greenspecht with whom he raised two
daughters passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/01/30/93022532.html?pageNumber=22
1946: The
Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, a joint British and American committee
composed of six Americans and six Englishmen that was charged with examining
the “political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine as they
bear upon the problem of Jewish immigration and settlement therein and the
well-being of the peoples now living therein” which had been meeting in
Washington, D.C. continued its meetings today in London
1947: Arthur
Miller's "All My Sons" premiered in New York City.
1948: “A
Woman’s Vengeance” produced and directed by Zoltan Korda which arrived at the
Winter Garden “is this morning’s lone film newcomer.”
1948:
Birthdate of Canadian Gerald Barry Falovtich who gained fame as
singer-songwriter Yank Berry, “the philanthropist who along with his friend and
partner Muhammad Ali has fed over 954,000,000 documented meals to the needy
around the world over the last twenty years.”
1948: The
colleagues and friends of Dr. Alexander Marx will hold a reception in the
reading room of the JTS Library so that they can celebrate his 70th
birthday and congratulate him on his 45 years of service to the academic
institution which is the flagship of Conservative Judaism.
1948: At its
annual meeting in the Commodore Hotel, the board of governors of the Hebrew
Union College approved an $8,000,000 "Blueprint for the Future."
1948: “A
Woman's Vengeance,” “a 1948 American
film noir drama mystery film directed and produced by Zoltán Korda was released
in the United States today.
1949(28th
of Tevet, 5709) Parashat Vaera
1949(28th
of Tevet, 5709): Sixty-five-year-old “Jakub Karol Parnas, a prominent
Jewish-Polish–Soviet biochemist who contributed to the discovery of the
Embden–Meyerhof–Parnas pathway, together with Otto Fritz Meyerhof and Gustav
Georg Embden and who was arrested during the Stalinist Jewish Anti-Fascist
Committee affair in 1949 and died today in the prison, reportedly of heart
attack.”
1950:
Birthdate of South African native Jody David Scheckter, “the 1979 Formula One
World Drivers' Champion.”
1951: “Where’s
Charley?” featuring music and lyrics by Frank Loesser began a second Broadway
run today when it opened at The Broadway Theatre.
1953:
“Dreaming Lips” with a script by Paul Czinner and Carl Mayer was released in
Germany today.
1953: The
Jerusalem Post reported that Mapam, by a vote of 228 to 22, expelled from
the party one of its veteran Zionist leaders, Dr. Moshe Sneh. According to the
Post's leading article there was no room in Mapam for two groups which
justified the new Soviet anti-Semitic policy and this explained why Sneh, and
his more extreme "Left Faction," were expelled. They were expected to
join the Communists.
1953: The
Jerusalem Post reported that President Juan Peron said that the gates of
Argentina stood wide open to any Soviet Jew who wished to find shelter there.
The offer was also valid for Jews from other Soviet-dominated countries.
1953: The
Jerusalem Post reported that The Ministry of Interior closed the Communist
daily Kol Ha'am for 10 days for publishing articles threatening the
public peace.
1953: The
Jerusalem Post reported that arson damaged the Russian bookshop in
Jerusalem.
1954: Dr.
Robert Oppenheimer sent a telegram requesting a hearing before the Atomic
Energy Commission which had suspended his security clearance in response to
charges that he was untrustworthy because of associations with Communists.
1954: After
premiering in Los Angeles three weeks ago, “The Great Diamond Robbery” directed
by Robert Z. Leonard and filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was
released today throughout the United States.
1954: CBS
broadcast the final episode of “Action in the Afternoon” directed by U. of Penn
graduate Richard Lester.
1955(6th
of Shevat, 5715): Parashat Bo
1955(6th
of Shevat, 5715): Fifty-two-year-old New York born, Columbia educated Dr.
Michael Alper who was ordained by the Jewish Institute of Religion and served
as “a director of Jewish Education of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum” while editing
several Jewish magazines and authoring “several textbooks” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1955/01/31/92844715.pdf
1956:
Seventy-five-year-old Louis Mencken, better known as sharp tongued journalist
H.L. Mencken whose diaries revealed a streak of anti-Semitism which did not
keep him being “close friends” with Alfred Knopf and Ben Hecht, praising the
work of Ayn Rand or that asserted that “books such as Caught Short! A Saga
of Wailing Wall Street by Eddie
Cantor (ghost-written by David Freedman) did more to pull America out of the
Great Depression than all government measures combined” passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/1989-12-05/news/mn-198_1_h-l-mencken
1958(8th
of Shevat, 5718): Joya Garger, the wife of Albert Abraham Garger, passed away
today after which she was buried at the Spanish-Hebrew Sephardic Beth Shalom
Cemetery in Price Hill, Ohio.
1958: It was
reported today that Bernie Sarachek, Yeshiva University’s basketball coach
urged a change in the college basketball rule requiring a team to play with
fewer than five men when the rest of its players have fouled out” recommending
instead the adoption of the rule used in the National Basketball Association
that say “when a club has been reduced to five players, any player who commits
a normally disqualifying personal foul would be permitted to continue in the
game.
1959: Marian
Winters began playing the role of “Myra Solomon” in the stage production of
“Tall Story.”
1961: “Look in
Any Window” co-starring Ruth Roman, the daughter of Mary and Abraham Roman,
Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, was released today in the United States.
1962:
Violinist Fritz Kreisler passed away. According to at least one source, Kreisler’s
father was Jewish, but he was not. Reportedly Kreisler’s wife was an
Austrian anti-Semite whose reactions to Kreisler’s ethnic origins have helped
to cloud the issue. At least one of Kreisler’s brothers is reported to
have said that he was Jewish but the same could not be said of Fritz.
1962: It was
reported today that the Herzliah Hebrew Teachers Training Institute will
receive $750,000 to “develop an accredited degree-training college for Hebrew
studies.” (As reported by JTA)
1964(15th of
Shevat, 5724): Tu B'Shevat
1964:
Birthdate of Ruhama Avraham, the Sephardi native of Rishon LeZion who was first
elected to the Knesset in 2003.
1964: Premiere
of Stanley Kubrick's anti-war dark comedy, "Dr. Strangelove"
1966: “Sweet
Charity” a musical with a book by Neil Simon opened on Broadway at the Palace
Theatre.
1967: The
album Casino Royale Soundtrack featuring “The Look of Love” composed by Burt
Bacharach and Hal David was released today.
1967
"Let's Sing Yiddish" closed at Brooks Atkinson in New York City NY
after 107 performances.
1968: “How to
Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life” a comedy produced and written by Stanley
Shapiro and co-starring Eli Wallach was released today in the United States.
1968(28th
of Tevet, 5728): Eighty-five year old J. B. S. Hardman, born Jacob Benjamin
Salutsky who was a leader of the Jewish Socialist Federation of the Socialist
Party and who married “the former Virginia Mishnun in 1964” after his first
wife, “the former Hanna Goldstein died in 1953”
passed away today.
http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/tam_050/
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/01/31/79932536.pdf
1968: Two days
after he had passed away funeral services are scheduled to be held today for sixty-three-year-old
Norman Gerstenfeld, the British born long-time rabbi at Washington Hebrew
Congregation and husband of the former Louise Mundheim with whom he had four
children
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/01/28/89318887.pdf
1969:
Birthdate of Dov Charney CEO of the garment company American Apparel.
1969(10th of
Shevat): Max Weinrich a founder of the Yiddish Institute (YIVO) and author of
History of the Yiddish Language passed away
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Weinreich_Max
1970(22nd
of Shevat, 5730): Areyh Ben-Eliezer, the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, a
member of several pre-state organizations including Hebrew Committee for
National Liberation, The American League for a Free Palestine and the Emergency
Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, passed away
1970: Gideon
Patt, a sabra born in Jerusalem during the British Mandate, began serving in
the Knesset following the death of Areyh Ben-Eliezer.
1971: It was
reported today that “although some Jewish leaders, particularly among the
Orthodox, favored some sort of state aid, most Jewish groups opposed any such
monetary help saying that it ‘posed a grave threated to the independence of
religion and the stability of government.’”
1973(26th
of Shevat, 5733): Eighty-nine-year-old Ludwig Stössel one of many Jewish actors
and actresses who were forced to flee Europe when the Nazis came to power in
1933 and who played supporting roles in such famous films as “Kings Row,”
“Pride of the Yankees” and “Casablanca” passed away today.
1974: Today,
in an interview at his Leningrad apartment, Valery Panov disclosed the “rumors
that the authorities plan to jail him to stop his campaign to emigrate to
Israel with his wife.
1975: In
Israel, Boris Chait, the president of the Israeli Ice Skating Federation and
his wife gave birth to Galit Chait, the bronze medal winning ice dancer and
head coach of the Israeli figure skating team who is he wife of Francesco
Moracci with whom she has had two children – Raffaella and Gabriella.
1975: Alan
King hosted the First Annual Comedy Awards of the Year. Considering the
number of Jewish comedians going back to the early days of vaudeville, the
choice of the Jewish King is doubly appropriate.
1975: In Santa
Monica, CA, Barbara Crane (née Cowan) and Harold Abeles gave birth to Sara
Rebeca Abeles who gained fame as Sara Gilbert, the younger sister of Melissa
Gilbert who starred in “Little House on the Prairie” and whose career included
starring in the sitcom “Roseanne” a twentieth century version of the family
unit which provides an interesting counterpoint to the 19th version
of the family shown on Little House on the Prairie.
1976(27th
of Shevat, 5736): Sixty-nine-year-old Milton “Milt” Galatzer the Chicago native
who played outfield and first base for the Cleveland Indians and the Cincinnati
Reds passed away today.
1978: The
Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Menachem Begin had reversed his
earlier decision and recommended to the cabinet that the Israeli military
delegation return to Cairo to resume negotiations. He hoped that the joint
Egyptian-Israeli Political Committee would eventually resume its meetings in
Jerusalem. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made a direct appeal to US Jewry and
complained "that the behavior of the Israeli government had been negative
and disappointing." Egypt, according to its Foreign Ministry statements,
would never bargain over its territory and will always defend the rights of the
Palestinians.
1978:
Eighty-three yea old Harold Lionel Zellerbach, “a topic executive for fifty
years at Crown Zellerbach, a paper company started by his grandfather in 1870”
and the husband of Doris Zellerbach passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1978/01/31/110785618.pdf
1982: After
having been released in Japan and the United Kingdom, “Venom” a horror film
produced by Martin Bregman with music by Michael Kamen was released in the
United States today.
1982: “An
appeal court upheld Samuel Rombe’s suspended sentence” today.
1983(15th
of Shevat, 5743): Tu B’Shevat
1983:
Birthdate of Ethiopian born Israeli fashion model Esti Mamo.
1983: Today
German-born British jurist and author Sir Michael Robert Emanuel Kerr, “son of
German drama critic Alfred Kerr and the brother of author Judith Kerr” married
Diana Sneezum with whom he had two children – Lucy and Alexander.
1986(19th
of Shevat, 5746): Two soldiers were killed and two more were wounded when a
terrorist attacked any Army patrol today.
1986: Today
Jerry Reinsdorf acquired an additional seven per cent of the stock of the
Chicago Bulls, bring his ownership percentage to 63% and setting the stage for
his ouster of Rod Thorn as general manager and moving Jerry Krause into the
“top slot.”
1989: It was
reported today that a Holocaust museum is to be built on the National Mall in
Washington, DC has received thousands of artifacts, including letters, diaries,
arm bands and secret coded communications between inmates.
1989: It was
reported today that a Jewish institute plans to donate $100,000 for training
black South African medical workers. The grant will be presented to Archbishop
Desmond Tutu.
1990: Yuli M.
Vorontsov, the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister, met with the head of Israel's
consular delegation in Moscow, Aryeh Levin. Mr. Vorontsov was quoted as saying,
''We oppose any use of citizens' leaving the Soviet Union, at great risk to
them, to push Palestinians off land belonging to them.'' Soviet displeasure
over the settlement debate is also threatening an agreement reached between El
Al and Aeroflot for direct flights between Moscow and Tel Aviv. The head of the
Soviet consular mission in Israel, Georgi Martirosov, told reporters on Monday
that ''recent Israeli statements have hindered any possibility of moving this
process forward.''
1991: After
several days of growing frustration over the slow pace of allied efforts to
eliminate Iraq's Scud missile launchers, Israeli officials warned today that
Israel may not wait much longer before it attacks. An Israeli television
interviewer offered a sentiment common among Israelis when he told Defense
Minister Moshe Arens this evening: "The Americans keep bombing launchers
but haven't been terribly effective. Meanwhile, Americans are watching the
Super Bowl, and Israelis are sitting in shelters and sealed rooms." Mr.
Arens responded: "The situation you described isn't going to continue --
not two months, and not a month. I simply estimate that a situation in which
we'll be neutral or not active, and their ability to launch missiles against us
isn't eliminated, it won't continue for a long time."
1991: In a
meeting with a visiting French politician today, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir
is reported to have said that Israel wants to play an active role in the battle
against Iraq but is constrained by limits imposed by the United States. Mr.
Shamir said he hoped the limits would be lifted soon. Iraq has fired 26
missiles at Haifa or Tel Aviv on seven occasions over the last 12 days, killing
four people and wounding nearly 200. More than 2,000 apartments have been
seriously damaged or destroyed. Elementary schools remain closed because there
are too few teachers to help children put on gas masks quickly when the missile
alert sounds. Productivity in business and industry is off. Much of the nation
is traumatized. For the first time, Israel is under attack and unable to
respond.
1991: Isaac
Stern and Itzhak Perlman will share a stage in New York today when they team up
to honor Zubin Mehta. The three violinists will appear at the annual lunch that
benefits the orchestra. Last week, Mr. Mehta turned around en route to New York
from Europe and flew to Tel Aviv on the eve of the war in the Persian Gulf as a
show of support for Israel, where he is musical director of the national
orchestra.
1992: Gila
Almajor, performed a one-woman play entitled “The Summer of Aviya” which she
wrote as part of “Israel: The Next Generation.”
1992: The
daughter of Abie Nathan the Israeli philanthropist and peace campaigner,
Sharona Nathan El Saieh, accepted the Abraham Joshua Heschel Peace Award from
the Jewish Peace Fellowship today on behalf of her father because Mr. Nathan is
in prison in Israel
1993: Feeling
bolstered by a seal of approval from the country's High Court of Justice,
Israel renewed its diplomatic offensive today to stave off United Nations
sanctions over its deportation of more than 400 Palestinians to Lebanon.
1996: PBS
broadcast “The Battle Over Citizen Kane,” a documentary film directed and
produced by Michael Epstein and narrated by Richard Ben Cramer who also
co-wrote the script.
1999:
“Shakespeare In Love” co-produced by Harvey Weinsten and Edward Zwick
co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow premiered in the U.K. today.
2000(22nd of
Shevat, 5760): Harold H. Greene a federal judge for the United States District
Court for the District of Columbia who was nominated by President Jimmy Carter
in 1978 passed away.
2001: Eric
Edelman completed his service as U.S. Ambassador to Finland.2001: Prime
Minister Ehud Barak campaigned inside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, where
he spoke to a small group of disabled Israelis and some youth advocates.
2002: In the
battered center of Jerusalem, beefed-up police squads guarded sidewalks and
street corners today as weary shopkeepers opened for business and workers
repaired the stores damaged by a bomb set off yesterday by a Palestinian woman.
Along the main street, Jaffa Road, where two terrorist attacks in six days have
killed three Israelis and wounded dozens, the routines of daily life became a
test of bravery.
2003(26th
of Shevat, 5763): Eighty-five-year-old University Wisconsin educated award
winning author and critic Leslie Aaron Fiedler, the Newark born son Lillian and
Jacob Fiedler and husband of Margaret Shipley passed away today in Buffalo.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1420884/Leslie-Fiedler.html
2004(6th
of Shevat, 5764): “Eleven people were killed and more than 50 wounded, 13 of
them seriously, in a suicide bombing of an Egged bus #19 at the corner of Gaza
and Arlozorov streets in Jerusalem. Both the Fatah-related Al Aqsa Martyrs’
Brigades and Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, naming the bomber as
Ali Yusuf Jaara, a 24-year-old Palestinian policeman from Bethlehem. The
victims: Avraham (Albert) Balhasan, 28, of Jerusalem; Rose Boneh, 39, of
Jerusalem; Hava Hannah (Anya) Bonder, 38, of Jerusalem; Anat Darom, 23, of
Netanya; Viorel Octavian Florescu, 42, of Jerusalem; Natalia Gamril, 53, of
Jerusalem; Yechezkel Isser Goldberg, 41, of Betar Illit; Baruch (Roman)
Hondiashvili, 38, of Jerusalem; Dana Itach, 24, of Jerusalem; Mehbere Kifile,
35, of Ethiopia; and Eli Zfira, 48, of Jerusalem.”
2004: As she
was returning to her home in Rehavia after having left her child at
kindergarten, award winning-Israeli author Zeruya Shalev was severely injured
when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a near-by bus. Shalev is the
daughter-in-law of Israeli playwright Aharon Megged and the cousin of award-winning
author Meir Shalev. [Meir Shalev’s latest literary effort is “Beginnings,” a
must read for anybody interested in the TaNaCh and Jewish philosophy and
history]
2004: Israel
and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah carried through with their deal to
exchange prisoners and war dead today, in a trade greeted in Israel by a spare
ceremony for three fallen soldiers and in Lebanon by a day of national
celebration. Besides the soldiers -- Adi Avitan, Benny Avraham and Omar Sawayed
-- Hezbollah also freed an Israeli businessman, Elhanan Tannenbaum, kidnapped
by Hezbollah in October 2000. Unlike the returning Lebanese, Mr. Tannenbaum,
who said he had been treated well in captivity, did not receive a hero's
welcome. He was permitted a brief reunion with his family at the airport and
was then taken away for a medical check and questioning by the Israeli
authorities about possible illegal activities, Israeli officials said.
2004: The
Thirteenth Annual New York Jewish Film Festival comes to an end.
2005(19th
of Shevat, 5765): Eighty-year-old Ephraim Kishon passed away
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/feb/01/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries
2006: A
day after International Holocaust Memorial Day, the new Chancellor of Germany
met with the acting Prime Minister of Israel. In one of those amazing
turnabouts in history German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would
have no contact with Hamas until it disavowed terrorism and recognized Israel
and all agreements signed with it. This declaration comes in the face of the
recent electoral victory by Hamas, an organization dedicated to the destruction
of the State of Israel and death to the Jewish people.
2006: Ted Koppel
signed up as an opposite editorial-contributing columnist, effective today, for
The New York Times
2006: “An
estimated 300,000 people took part in Yitzchak Kaduri’s funeral procession
today which started from the Nachalat Yitzchak Yeshivah and wound its way
through the streets of Jerusalem to the Givat Shaul cemetery near the entrance
to the city of Jerusalem.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzhak_Kaduri#mediaviewer/File:Kaduri_funeral.JPG
2006: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including American Vertigo: Traveling
America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville by Bernard-Henri Lévy
2007: Haaretz
reported that according to the Global Forum Against Anti-Semitism this past
year saw a substantial rise in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Germany,
Austria and the Scandinavian countries. In an annual press conference, the
forum explained that 2006 was characterized by escalation in the number and
violent nature of attacks on Jews, proliferation of Holocaust denial and
increased comparison of Israel to the Nazi regime.
2007(10th
of Shevat): A Palestinian from the Gaza Strip blew himself up today inside a
bakery in the Israeli resort city of Eilat, killing all three people inside.
The two owners of the bakery, Amil Elimelech, 32, and Michael Ben Sa'adon, 27
were killed in the attack as well as one of their employees, Israel Samolia,
26. Elimelech was married with two children while Ben Sa'adon was married with
one child. Samolia was an immigrant from Peru. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, each
took credit for the bombing.
2008: In New York City, the 92nd St Y hosts “Commando
Krva Maga: Israeli Self Defense” where attendees learn defense skills
developed by the Israeli military, now popular with civilians.
2008: In Iowa
City, the funeral is held for Dr. Michael Balch, Associate Professor Emeritus
of Economics at the University of Iowa and a longtime member of the Jewish
community. Michael earned a BS in Engineering Science
from Pratt Institute in 1960 an MS from New York University in 1962 and a PhD
in Mathematics from New York University in1965. His areas of expertise
were Economic behavior under uncertainty and Theories of deterrence, arms control,
and war. He passed away on January 28, 2008 (21 Shevat, 5768).
2008:
Barnard College named as its next president Debora L. Spar, a Harvard Business
School professor who has written about the economics of the human fertility
industry and the evolution of the Internet but has not previously been
affiliated with a women’s college. Professor Spar, 44, whose appointment is
effective July 1, will succeed Judith R. Shapiro, president since 1994, the
college announced on Tuesday morning. “We never expected to have anybody until
March or April or May, but she was too good to pass up,” said Helene L. Kaplan,
a Barnard trustee and one of two leaders of its presidential search committee.
“She’s bright, she’s lively, she’s young and she’s very energetic.”
2009: Stephen
Joel Trachtenberg, the former (now emeritus) president of George Washington
University, discusses and signs Big Man on Campus: A University President
Speaks Out on Higher Education at the Jewish Community Center of Greater
Washington in Rockville, Md.
2009:
An exhibition, "Erfurt: Jewish Treasures from Medieval Ashkenaz,"
which had been on display at the Yeshiva University Museum of the Center for
Jewish History in New York City since September of 2008 and which drew on “a
hoard of coins, goldsmiths' work and jewelry that is assumed to have belonged
to Jews who hid them in 1349 at the time of the Black Death pogroms” came to a
close today.
2009:
An American appeals court today dismissed a lawsuit by Holocaust survivors who
alleged the Vatican bank accepted millions of dollars of their valuables stolen
by Nazi sympathizers. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld
a lower court ruling that said the Vatican bank was immune from such a lawsuit
under the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which generally protects
foreign countries from being sued in U.S. courts2009: “The Wedding Song,” Karin
Albou’s story of a friendship between a Muslim man and a Jewish woman, set in
Tunisia during the Nazi occupation is featured tonight at the New York Jewish
Film Festival.
2009: James Braidy "Jim" Steinberg began serving as the
16th United States Deputy Secretary of State.
2010:
An exhibition entitled Blue Like Me: The Art of Siona Benjamin is scheduled to
have its final showing at the JCC in Washington, D.C. Siona Benjamin is a
painter originally from the Bombay Jewish (Bene Israel) community now living in
the United States.
2010: The Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem is scheduled to
celebrate Tu Bishvat from a bit of a different angle, with parents and children
and having a chance to learn about the connection between planting trees and
global warming.
2010:
The Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Chapter of Hadassah is scheduled to sponsor a Tu
B'Shevat Seder and Shabbat Services at Temple Judah.
2010: US President Barack Obama's national security adviser cited
a heightened risk that Iran will respond to growing pressure over its nuclear
program by stoking violence against Israel. The adviser, retired Marine Gen.
James Jones, said today that history shows that when regimes are feeling
pressure they can lash out through surrogates. He said that in Iran's case that
would mean facilitating attacks on Israel by Hezbollah and Hamas
2010:
Pei Xiong provides a description of the academic efforts of Jane Eisner in
“Jane Eisner ’77 Teaching a New Generation of Writers.”
http://wesleyanargus.com/2010/01/29/jane-eisner-%E2%80%9977-teaching-a-new-generation-of-writers/
2011:
A screening of The Matchmaker directed by Avi Nesher is scheduled to take place
at the Seventh Annual Brooklyn Israel Film Festival.
2011: Internationally recognized rising star, Israeli violinist
Vadim Gluzman is scheduled to join Orpheus for the first time in a performance
of Prokofiev’s hauntingly beautiful second violin concerto at Carnegie Hall.
2011:
“A Musical Mitzvah Evening” the Mitzvah Day fundraiser for Agudas Achim is
scheduled to take place in Iowa City, IA.
2011:
Israel
watched fearfully today as anti-government unrest roiled Egypt, one of its most
important allies and a bridge to the wider Arab world. The Israeli prime
minister ordered government spokesmen to keep silent. Officials speaking
anonymously nonethless expressed concern violence could threaten ties with
Egypt and spread to the Palestinian Authority. 2011: An official at Cairo
International Airport said today that El Al was trying to arrange a special
flight Saturday to take roughly 200 Israeli tourists out of Egypt. The official
spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the
media.
2011: At Coe
College in Cedar Rapids, the final performance of “Copenhagen” in which Barb
Feller played Margrethe Bohr and her husband Steve played Niels Bohr
2011: Mark
Zuckerberg made a surprise guest appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”
2012(5th
of Shevat, 5772): Eighty-eight year old Savannah, GA native Lee Adler, the
grandson of Leopold Adler who, in an oft told tale, “came to Savannah in the 19th
Century and founded Adler’s Department Store” passed away today.
http://www.tributes.com/obituary/show/Leopold-Adler-93202081
2012: “The
Religion Thing” is scheduled to have its final performance at Theatre J in
Washington, D.C.
2012: A
display featuring a selection of 32 Chanukah lamps selected by Maurice Sendak
is scheduled to come to a close today at the Jewish Museum in New York.
2012: “Jewish
Soldiers in Blue and Gray” is scheduled to be shown at the Boulder JCC in
Boulder, CO.
2012: The
New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including “Ida” by Gertrude Stein, “Stanzas
in Meditation: The Corrected Edition” by Gertrude Stein, “Jews and Booze:
Becoming American in the Age of Prohibition” by Marni Davis, “The Street
Sweeper” by Elliot Perlman and “God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of
the Modern World.”
2012: An
Israel Defense Forces Heron-class drone crashed in central Israel, Army Radio
reported today, with no injuries reported.
2012: Anger
and despair gripped many residents of the town of Harish today, the day after a
local synagogue was found completely gutted by a fire that broke out early
yesterday morning on Shabbat. While police said today, they are sure the fire
was caused by an electrical short, some residents say they believe it was
intentionally set by unknown assailants looking to threaten the Breslov
hassidic community that worships at the synagogue.
2013: In
London, The Wiener Library’s Young Volunteers are scheduled to host a special
interactive discussion workshop for 16-25 years during which they will discuss
the advantages and disadvantages in using Social Media to raise awareness and
promote learning about the Holocaust and Genocide.
2013:
“Numbered,” a film directed by Urial Sinai and Doan Doron is scheduled to be
shown at the JCC in Manhattan
2013(18th
of Shevat, 5773): Ninety-six-year-old Louis Lesser, chairman of Louis Lesser
Enterprises passed away today.
http://www.spokeo.com/Louis+Lesser+1
2013: Bank of
Israel Governor Stanley Fischer informed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
today that he will step down as Israel's central banker on June 30, two years
before the end of his second five-year term.
2014: “The
House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a bill that would enhance the already
close U.S.-Israel defense relationship. The bill initiated by U.S. Reps. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen (D-Fla.) and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), the top two members on the
committee’s Middle East subcommittee, passed unanimously today. (As reported by
JTA)
2014(28th
of Shevat, 5774): Eighty-nine-year-old sociologist Lewis Yablonsky passed away
today.
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-lewis-yablonsky-20140219-story.html#axzz2uObFsmt0
2014(28th
of Shevat, 5774): Eighty-five year old psychologist Theodore Millon passed away
today, (As reported by Benedict Carey)
2014: “The
head of Israel’s most powerful intelligence agency depicted today a changing
battlefield in which offensive cyber capabilities will, in the near future,
represent the greatest shift in combat doctrine in over 1,000 years.
2015: In
Switzerland fifty-nine-year-old Israel Yinon had a heart attack while
conducting the Lucerne University Orchestra and passed away after being taken
to a local hospital.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11379995/Israel-Yinon-composer-obituary.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2932877/Israeli-conductor-collapses-Swiss-concert-dies.html
2015:
“Felix and Meira” and “The Go-Go Boys: The Inside story of Cannon Films” are
scheduled to be shown on the final day of the New York Jewish Film Festival.
2015:
In New York City, the 16th Street Book Club is scheduled to discuss Hope:
A Tragedy, a novel by Shalom Auslander
2015:
The Thaler Holocaust Memorial Programming Committee chaired by Dr. Bob Silber
is scheduled to meet today in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2015:
Today “B'nai Brith Canada announced that it was suspending publication of
eleven year old Jewish Tribune’s
print edition for 13 weeks, and possibly permanently
2016:
“Rabin, The Last Day” is scheduled to open at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema.
2016:
The San Diego Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to host the final session
“Art, Stories, and Movements: Jewish Art Through the Ages.”
2016:
In Cedar Rapids, just days before the first in the nation Caucuses, Temple
Judah is scheduled to host another of its ever popular Musical Shabbats.
2016:
“Israel, Mired on Ideological Battles, Fights on Cultural Fronts” published
today described internal tensions sparked, to some extent, by Miri Regev, the
country’s new minister of culture and sport.
2017(2nd
of Shevat, 5777): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of King Alexander Yannai
(Jannaeus), a Hasmonian king of Judea from 103 BCE to 76 BCE whose unpopularity
led him to, according to at least one source, led him to murder thousands of
Jews on more than one occasion.
2017:
The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Patriots by Sana Krasikov, The
Signal Flame by Andrew Krivak author of “At the New Jewish Cemetery in Prague”
and Lara: The Untold Love Story That Inspired Doctor Zhivago by Anna
Pasternak.
2017:
'21 Rue de la Boetie,' an exhibition on legendary French art dealer Paul
Rosenberg (1881-1959) is scheduled to have it last showing today at the Musee
de la Boverie in Liege, Belgium.
2017:
The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, Iowa is scheduled to host a
screening of “Raise the Roof.
2017:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to play some 5-a-side
football with an Oxfordshire-based charity called Streets Revolution, who aim to promote sports and leisure as a
tool for engaging adults and young people from marginalized sections of the
community, particularly those with mental illnesses.”
2017:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host a
screening of “Defiant Requiem” – “Maestro Murry Sidlin's inspiring documentary
that spotlights conductor Rafael Schächter, a Theresienstadt prisoner who
taught Verdi's Requiem to 150 prisoners in 1942.”
2017:
The National Yiddish Theatre Flksbiene co-presented a five hour reading of Night
in the Edmond J. Safra Hall of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in event honoring
the memory the late Elie Wiesel.
2018:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a screening of “The Band’s Visit”
followed by a discussion with director Eran Kolirin, actor Tony Salhous,
playwright Itamar Moses and theatre reporter Michael Paulson.
2018:
“Omer Bartov, John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History,
Brown University, a leading scholar of the Holocaust,” is scheduled to discuss
his new book Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called
Buczacz at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
2018:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a screening of “The
Room.”
2018:
At a time when Poland, which is “largely Roman Catholic” is considering
legislation that would outlaw mention of Polish complicity in the crimes of the
Holocaust as well as the use of the term ‘Polish death camps’” Pope Francis
said today that “countries have a responsibility to fight anti-Semitism and the
‘virus of indifference’ threatening to erase the memory of the Holocaust.”
2018:
“Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage” an exhibition of some of the 2,700 Jewish
books and tens of thousands of documents discovered by U.S. Army soldiers
discovered in the Mukhabarat that provide a “written record of Iraqi Jewish
life provides an unexpected opportunity to better understand this community” is
scheduled to open to the general public at the Breman Museum in Atlanta.
2018: Moriah Amit, the Center for Jewish History’s Senior
Genealogy Reference Librarian, is scheduled to deliver a lecture covering major
resources and strategies for locating the living descendants of deceased
individuals on your family tree.
2018:
University of Western Ontario Professor Alain Goldschlager, who was once
president of B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights, is a recipient of
the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes académiques award and has authored many
books, the most recent of which is Les témoignages écrits de la Shoah (Written
Testimonies of the Shoah), is scheduled to deliver a lecture on Holocaust
survivor and author Primo Levi at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Winnipeg
2019:
Today, Democrats raised ethical concerns about connections between Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuuchin and Sir Leonard Blavatnik, the Russian born
Anglo-Jewish billionaire and major Republican donor “who stands to benefit
financially from the Trump administration’s decision to lift sanctions on the
Russian oligarch Oleg V. Deripaska’s companies.”
2019:
Coe College, the intellectual home of award winning-physicist Steve Feller is
scheduled to host an evening with Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell, his friend and
college who was finally credited with being the first to detect pulsars which
is considered to be “one of the most significant scientific achievements of the
20th century.”
2019:
Tulane University is scheduled to host Dimitry Shumsky, the Professor of Jewish
History at Hebrew University who will lecture on “Beyond the Nation-State: The
Idea of National Self- Determination in Zionism before 1948.”
2019:
The University of Michigan is scheduled to Claude Stuczynski of Bar-Ilan
University on "Taxing Identities": The Impact of 'Pardon Taxes' on
Converso Identity.
https://lsa.umich.edu/judaic/news-events/all-events.detail.html/57440-14193512.html
2019:
In Boca Raton, FL, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to
“honor survivors of the Holocaust with the Elie Wiesel Award at the annual
South Florida Dinner.
2019:
“The Jewish Conference: Past, Present and Future,” presented by the American
Sephardi Federation and Association Mimouna is scheduled to come to an end
today.
2019:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host an evening with Jill Abramson, the
former executive of the New York Times as she discusses issues raised in her
new book, Merchants of Trust.
2020:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host “Quiz Night” complete
with dinner and the Jewuniversity Challenge.”
2020:
In San Francisco, Congregation Sherith Israel is scheduled to host “Shtisel
Uncovered: The New Haredim” during which “haredi social activist and
self-described feminist Pnina Pfeuffer talks to screenwriter and co-creator of
“Shtisel” Yehonatan Indursky discusses the inspirations for the show and the
haredi movement.”
2020:
In Berkley, the Friends Meeting House is scheduled to host Rabbi Jonathan
Seidel and “AstroloJew” Lorelai Kude as they “talk about the month of Shevat,
why sages thought Aquarius was the sign of the Jewish people and how the
Aquarian Minyan got its name.”
2020:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to a screening of “Incitement” followed by a
discussion of the film Dalia Rabin and Ambassador Ido Ahroni.
2020:
Following yesterday’s warning that “all options are open” in expressing its
rejection of President Trumps Middle East Plan Israelis wonder today what kind
of violence they can expect from the terrorist group.
2021(16th
of Shevat, 5781): Ninety-seven year old
Flory Jagoda, the Sarajevo born daughter of Rosa and Samuel Papo and the wife
of Harry Jagoda, who survived the Nazi
occupation and settled in the United States where she used her skill as a
musician, “composer and singer-songwriter” to connect her Sephardic origins and
the ladino music of her Balkan homeland with the post-Holocaust world.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jagoda-flory
2021:
The Lappin Foundation is scheduled to host online a special Tu B’Shevat puppet
show with Anna Sobel.
2021:
This evening via Zoom “The Jewish Secular Community of Cleveland is scheduled
to host Sunny Simon, Cuyahoga Councilwoman, whose topic is "Cuyahoga
County's Ban on Single Use Plastic Bags."
2021:
In Pepper Pike, OH, B’nai Jeshurun Congregation, is scheduled to host “A
Historical Introduction to the Laws of Purim” during which Rabbi Noah Bickart
“will trace the ways the laws of Purim have developed from the test of the
Biblical Megillah of Esther through Modern Codes.”
2021:
The Israeli American Council of Boston is scheduled to present and online
Community Tu B’Shevat Seder.
2022(27th
of Shevat, 5782): Parashat Mishpatim;
2022:
The Eden-Tamir Center is scheduled to host the “Best of Chamber Music” with
pianist Oxana Yablonskaya and cellist Dimtry Yablonsky.
2022:
As a snowstorm appears to be headed for Massachusetts, Kesher News space-themed
Havdalah, featuring the award-winning short film “Space Torah” scheduled to for
this evening has been cancelled.
https://spacetorahproject.com/
2022: The Amtrak railroad service is reportedly conducting an
investigation aimed at find the “vandals” who drew swastikas on the outer walls
of Washington, DC’s Union Station yesterday.
2023:
The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Ghost at the Feast: America
and the Collapse of World Order, 1900-1941 by Robert Kagan the son of historian
Donald Kagan…who was of Lithuanian Jewish descent.
2023:
Congregation Beth El in Sudbury is scheduled to host a huge used Jewish book
sale fundraiser!
2023:
KlezCalifornia, New Lehrhaus and Jewish Community Library are scheduled to present
former Jewish Music Festival director Ellie Shapiro giving an online talk about
the vibrant, Jewish cosmopolitanism that existed in 1920s and ’30s Warsaw
2023:
Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is schedule to host an afternoon
of reflection at the New England Holocaust Memorial.
2023:
The National Library of Israel is scheduled to host a lecture by Devin E. Naar
the Isaac Alhadeff Professor of Sephardic Studies and associate professor of
history and Jewish studies at the University of Washington in Seattle on “From
the Ottoman Empire to Auschwitz.”
2023:
In New Orleans, attendees at the Federation-JNOLA Costume Workshop attendees
are scheduled to be making Mardi Gras/Purim headpieces and masks.
2023:
The American Sephardi Federation, the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America,
the Sephardic Foundation on Aging, and Shearith Israel League Foundation are
scheduled to present: “Kontar i Kantar:
The
6th Annual New York Ladino Day.”
2023:
In San Francisco, at the Jewish Community Library S.F.-raised Alina Adams talks
about her new book, My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous
Region about an 18-year-old girl who flees Stalin’s Russia out of fear and
ends up in the Jewish state of Birobidzhan on the Russia-China border.
2023:
In the wake of the Erev Shabbat and Shabbat attacks in Jerusalem, and the
celebration of these events by residents of Gaza and the West Bank, Israelis
brace for more violence.
2024:
On Zoom and its Facebook page, Agnon House is scheduled the first in a series
of lectures in which Prof. Hanna Nave will talk about the story of"The
Blind" Yaakov Steinberg, while recognizing its complexity as an exemplary
short story and emphasizing the dramatic and decisive conceptual role of the
contrast between light and darkness.”
2024:
“Annie Leibovitz at Work,” a show of about 300 photographs at the Crystal
Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas is scheduled to come to
an end today.
https://crystalbridges.org/calendar/annie-leibovitz/
2024:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center is scheduled to welcome Chef Alon
Shaya in conversation with June Hersh and Naama Shefi as they talk about the “Rescued
Recipes initiative, which will help acquire, preserve and make accessible the
Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Collection.”
2024:
JWA is scheduled to present “Judith Rosenbaum, together with colleagues Idit
Klein, CEO of Keshet, and Rabbi Claudia Kreiman of Temple Beth Zion, as they
share their experiences and reflections on their trip to Israel earlier this
month.”
2024:
YIVO is scheduled to present “What Do We Know?”, “a concert centered on
exploring the human experience through Jewish texts and music.”
2024:
As January 29th begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 115 in captivity.
(Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we
are just providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time.)
