This Day, February 6, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
February 6
337:
Julius I began his papacy during which “he officially declared that the birth
of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25th of December.”
http://www.whychristmas.com/customs/25th.shtml
1095: Henry IV
of Germany who issued a charter to the Jews and a decree against forced
baptism. He desired to protect the Jews even during the Crusades and granted
favorable conditions wherever possible. He also permitted forcibly baptized
Jews to return to Judaism. He did this partly because he viewed the Jews as
valuable property. The Church criticized his actions.
1190: In
England, the Jews of Norwich were massacred by a mob following a similar attack
in Lynn.
1279: Dinis I
who resisted pressure from the clergy to apply the anti-Semitic restrictions of
the Fourth Council of the Lateran and “maintained a conciliatory position”
regarding his Jewish subjects began his reign as King of Portugal today. During
the reign of King Dinis, Alfonso’s father, the clergy invoked the restrictions
of the Fourth Lateran Council in an attempt to get the monarch to restrict the
role of Jews in Portuguese society. The
clergy, however, invoking the restrictions of the Fourth Council of the
Lateran, brought considerable pressure to bear against the Jews during the
reign of King Dinis I of Portugal, but the monarch maintained a conciliatory
position. Alfonso remained faithful to his father’s policies.
1283: In
England, a Justice of the Jews named Hamo Hauteyn, set up a commission to
investigate charges against Jews accused of selling plate made of clippings or
silvered tinplate to foreign merchants.
1298: King
Jaime II had a Jewish man's property confiscated. Moses Avencurel of Elche was
punished for taking part in an anti-royalist rebellion.
1413: The
first sitting of a “disputation” in which the Jews must listen to the Treatise
of Geronimo De Santa, a convert to Christianity, contend that the Talmud
recognized Jesus as the Messiah. This disputation was ordered by Pope Benedict
XIII and would last until November of 1414 with a total of 68 sittings.
1481:
Several affluent men of the community in Seville, led by Diego de Susan,
plotted to strike back at the Inquisitors. He stated to his
co-religionists: "Are we not the principal men of this city in standing,
and the best esteemed of the people? Let us assemble troops; and if they come
to take us, let us start an uprising with the troops and the people; and so we
will kill them and avenge ourselves on our enemies!"
1508:
Maximilian I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. In the first decade of his reign,
Maximilian would put an end to the attempts by some German nobles to banish the
Jews from their realms. Maximilian did this, not so much because he loved
Jews, but because he saw these attempts at banishment as an encroachment on his
imperial authority. Wherever they lived in the empire, the Jews were the
subjects of the emperor and not of any local lord. Therefore, only he
could banish Jews. Maximilian feared that if he gave way on his control
over the Jews, who knew what power the nobles might try and take from him
next.
1521:
Suleiman the Magnificent, whose reign was one of the highpoints for Jews living
in the domains of the Ottomans, led his army west with the intention of
conquering Hungary.
1640(13th
of Shevat): Rabbi Israel Samuel Kalihari, author Yismah Yistrael passed away
1647(1st
of Adar): Rabbi Azariah Figo (Picho) author of Giddulei ha-Terumah passed away
1649:
King Charles II of England and Scotland was declared King of Great Britain by
the Parliament of Scotland. While on the throne, Charles showed his support for
the Jews. In 1660, when Thomas Violet introduced a petition to have the
Jews expelled again from Great Britain, a “Royal message” was sent “Parliament
them to take the protection of the Jews into consideration.” Violet’s
petition was rejected.
(The Great Trappaner of England': Thomas Violet,
Jews and crypto-Jews during the English Revolution and at the Restoration
by Ariel Hessayon)
1664:
Birthdate of Sultan Mustafa II. During his reign Ottoman forces conquered
Belgrade again in 1690 and Jews were allowed to return to the city.
1685:
James II of England and VII of Scotland becomes King upon the death of his
brother Charles II. For once, a change in monarchs turned out to be a “win-win”
situation for the Jewish people. While still in the Netherlands, prior to
regaining the throne, the Anglican “Charles had assured Amsterdam Jews that
their coreligionists had no reason to fear his reemergence in England.”
How much of this was promise was due to personal beliefs and how much was the
product of the substantial financial support the soon to be crowned monarch
received from Dutch Jews is immaterial. The fact is, he kept his
word. A group of London merchants who wanted to limit their competition
petitioned the king to keep the Jews out of the country to protect the religion
and welfare of his subjects. “The targeted Jews” sought the King’s
protection which he granted. In 1673, 13 years after Charles II’s coronation,
“a grand jury…responded to anti-Semitic rabble rousing by indicting Jewish
communal leaders for worshipping in public. When Jews threatened to leave
England rather than endure loss of religious freedom, Charles had an order in
council issued to halt the legal proceedings. And to make sure it did not
happen again, King Charles gave orders “not to cause any more anxieties to
Jews.” During the first year of his reign King James II put an end to the
custom of requiring the Jews to pay “the mandatory tax imposed on those who
failed to attend the established church.” The King declared that he did
not want the Jews to be troubled about this ever again and only wanted them be
able to “quietly enjoy the free exercise of their religion.” What makes
this all the more remarkable is that it took place against a backdrop of
religious wars fought between English Catholics, Anglicans and
Protestants. While the Jews became victims of the religious wars on the
Continent, in England they were able to survive and thrive. This may
account for the affection which Jews came to hold England and its later
iteration as Great Britain.
1685:
With death of Charles II Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese born wife King
Charles II of England who brought Portuguese native Fernando Mendes to serve as
her personal physician which made it possible for him to begin living openly as
a Jew, ended her “reign” as Queen-consort.
1693:
Royal charter granted College of William and Mary, at Williamsburg VA.
Currently the most famous alumnus of this storied academic institution is Jon
Stewart, award winning host of “The Daly Show” and featured speaker at the
William and Mary’s commencement ceremonies in 2004.
1756:
Birthdate of Aaron Burr, Jr. one of America’s less distinguished “founding
fathers.” Burr’s greatest claim to fame is his participation in a duel
with Alexander Hamilton, whose mother was Jewish. Burr also played a role in
the career of Sampson who was one of the founders “Jews Hospital” which became
Mt. Sinai. Born at Danbury, CN, he studied under Burr who was a New York
lawyer before he went to become one of New York City’s first Jewish
lawyers.
1756:
In response to King George II”s order that today be observed as a period
fasting and penitence Isaac Nieto, the Cha-Cham of Sha'ar ha-Shamayim, the
Spanish and Portuguese congregation also known as Bevis Marks Synagogue
preached a “Sermon Moral” that was “published in Spanish and English in London,
1756.” The English monarch proclamation was probably issued in connection
with the Seven Year’s War. The positive response of the kingdom’s Jewish
community was an indication of how quickly it had become a part of the UK’s
social and political environment.
1759:
Birthdate of Paris native, attorney and French revolutionary Adrien Francois
Duport who in 1791 “proposed that the Jews be accorded all the privileges of
citizenship in France, and the suggestion was adopted despite some slight
opposition.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5364-duport-adrien
1765(15th
of Shevat, 5525): Tu B’Shevat observed as Parliament debates what will become
the Stamp Act, one of the stones on the path to the American Revolution.
1767:
In Berlin, Deiche Aaron and bank broker Anschell Jaffe gave birth to Saul ben
Anschel Jaffe, “a prolific writer whose work can be divided into three
different areas: author, translator, editor/publisher.”
1776:
Solomon Isaac, a Jew living in Philadelphia, enlisted as private in the Sixth
Pennsylvania Battalion, part of the Rebel forces fighting the British.
1778:
In Paris the United States and France signed treaties of alliance that, among
other thing, provided French aid for the fledgling republic. This helped
to guarantee the success of the American Revolution which helped to create the
site for the most prominent Jewish community in the diaspora. The aid
would also helped bring financial ruin to France. This financial ruin was
a catalyst for the French Revolution which had a major impact of Jews
throughout Europe
1781(11th
of Shevat, 5541): Two and half year old
Rachel Sheftall, the Savanah, GA born daughter of Sarah De La Motta and Levi
Sheftall, all part of the famous Sheftall clan, passed away today in
Charleston, SC during the American Revoltuion.
1785:
In London, Abraham Benjamin Cohen, the Dutch born son of Benjamin Jonas Cohen
and Eva Jacob Cohen and his wife Elisabeth Gompertz gave birth to James Abraham
Cohen-Stuart
1788:
Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
Solomon Franco a Sephardic Jew was reportedly the first Jew to come to
Massachusetts. He settled in Boston in 1649. Judah Monis, a descendant of
conversos is the next person of Jewish lineage connected with Bay State to
appear on the scene. He filled the chair of Hebrew in Harvard College
from 1722 until his death in 1764. When and why Monis became identified as a
Christian is a bit cloudy. Could he be the first example of a Jew who
swam through the baptismal font to secure a position in American
academia? The first significant Jewish settlers made their homes in
“Massachusetts when the Revolutionary War drove the Jews from Newport. In 1777
Aaron Lopez and Jacob Rivera, with fifty-nine others, went from Newport to
Leicester, and established themselves there; but this settlement did not
survive the close of the war. A number of Jews, including the Hays family,
settled at Boston before 1800. Of these Moses Michael Hays was the most
important. In 1830 a number of Algerian Jews went to Boston, but they soon
disappeared. The history of the present community begins with the year 1840,
when the first congregation was established.”
1788:
Two days after he died erev Shabbat, Avrahom ben Baruch was buried in the
Plymouth Hoe Burial Ground.
1797:
In Mt. Pleasant, NY, Jochabed Isaaks and Michael Marks who were married in 1786
gave birth to Levy Marks.
1799(1st
of Adar I, 5559): Rosh Chodesh Adar I observed for the last time in the 18th
century.
1801:
Birthdate of Salomon Herxheimer, of Dotzheim in Wiesbaden who became the Chief
Rabbi of Anhalf-Bernburg.
1804:
Seventy-year-old Joseph Priestly the English theologian and chemist who in 1786
published his Letters to the Jews in which he urged them to convert which led
David Levi to respond with his three-volume Dissertation
on the Prophecies of the Old Testament passed away today.
1806: Judith Moses Myers, the New York born daughter of Rachel
and Moses Michael Hays and her husband Samuel Myers gave birth to Dr. Henry
Myers.
1808: In Amsterdam, Sara Magnus (Nachman)
Hannover-Jochem-Mozes and Mozes Koopman Jacob-Hamburger gave birth to their
fifth child, Zise Mozes Hamburger.
1818:
One of two birthdates for Germain Sée the French
physician from Ribeauvillé.
1818: In Obernai, Departement du Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France,
Moses and Elenore Salomon Ries gave birth to Jannette Ries Mayer, the wife of
John Mayer who settled in Natchez, Mississippi.
1820:
In Greenwich, Kent, Elizabeth Davis and Myer Marks gave birth to Israel Marks
the husband of Rebecca Myers with whom he had 13 children.
1822(15th
of Shevat, 5582): Tu B’Shevat observed “as the first black American settlers
under the American Colonization Society (ACS) landed from the United States of
America on the soil which led to the founding of the Republic of Liberia.”
1831:
In Covent Garden, Eleanor Levy and Simon Marcus gave birth to John Marcus.
1835:
In Germany, Babette True and Isaac Jacob Bamberger who were married in 1832
gave birth to Ansel Bamberger who settled in Baltimore, MD where he married
Hannah Eilau with whom he had six children including Florence Eilau Bamberger,
the holder of a Ph.D. from Columbia Teachers College “who served as director of
Johns Hopkins College for Teachers.
1836:
Daniel Gittinger, the Maryland born son of Margaret and John Gittinger and his
wife gave Jane Elizabeth Gettinger gave birth to Catherine Elizabeth Gettinger.
1837:
In Charleston, SC, Raphael Jacob Moses the son of Deborah and Israel Moses and
his wife Eliza Matilda Nunez gave birth to Isaac C. Moses who died at the age
of 13.
1838:
Birthdate of Sir Henry Irving, the English actor who gained fame for his
portrayal of Mathias in “The Bells,” a version of Erckmann-Chatrian's Le
Juif polonais by Leopold Lewis, a property which Irving had found for
himself.
1838:
Birthdate of Yisrael Meir Kagan also known as the Chofetz Chaim. He passed away
in September of 1933.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/chofetz.html
1839:
Birthdate of Ferdinand Forzinetti, one of the first French officers to come to
the conclusion that Captain Dreyfus was innocent.
1839: Moshe
Yehoshua Yehuda Leib Jusha Diskin and Sara Sonia Diskin gave birth to Yitzhak
Yeruham Diskin.
1839:
In Charleston, SC, A.J. Moses of Cheraw, SC wed Octavia Harby, “the daughter of
the late Isaac Harby.”
1839:
In Charleston, SC, Lewis Hertz married Esther Peixotto, the “eldest daughter of
the late Solomon C. Peixotto.”
1840:
Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the document making New Zealand a British
colony. By this time, there were at least 30 Jews living in the area.
David Nathan is credited with founding the first Jewish community at
Aukland, in the same year that New Zealand became a colony.
1840:
In Hanover, German banker Adolph Meyer and his wife gave birth to banker
Sigmund Meyer the grandson of banker Simon Meyer.
1841(15th
of Shevat, 5601): Parashat Beshalach, Tu B’Shevat
1841:
In North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany,Abraham Bendix Weinberg and Frieda Sophia
Weinberg gave birth to Julie Rosenberg, the wife of Isaac Rosenberg and mother
of Emma Frankenthal; Adolf (Alfred) Rosenberg and Albertina Sophie Hedwig
Rosenberg.
1845:
In Ottenberg, Germany, Lazarus Strauss and his second wife Sara gave birth to
Isidor Strauss, the first of their five children who would become co-owner of
Macy’s and die when the Titanic sank.
1849:
In Worms, Germany, wedding of Abraham and Clara Kuhn.
1849:
In Worms, Wilhelmine "Mindel" Freudenberg and Nathan Blun gave birth
to Rosalie Ida Blun who gained fame as Ida Straus, the wife of Isidor Straus,
the co-owner of Macy’s.
1853:
In Madison, Indiana, Aaron Marks and Sarah August gave birth to Martin A.
Marks, the husband of Belle Hays who moved to Cleveland in 1887 and whose
activities included be a “member of the firm of A. Marks and Son founded by his
father in 1847” as well as a series of communal activities including serving as
“treasurer of the Covenant Endowment Fund of District Grand Lodge, No. 2,
Independent Order of B’nai B’rith and President of Tefereth Israel.”
1855: Lord Palmerston, who as Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs had defended David Pacifco as this “man of Jewish persuasion” and on
whose behalf he “made a celebrated speech which concluded that all British
subjects ought to be able to say, as did citizens of ancient Rome, "Civis
Romanus sum" ("I am a citizen of Rome"), and thereby receive
protection from the British government” began his first term as Prime Minister.
1855:
It was reported today that "two German Jews" were arrested and
charged with "stealing two pieces of black silk with a value of $131.00
from the Importing House of Henry E. Leyrain in New York City. According to the
charge, one of the men would appear to be pricing an item while the other would
be hiding an item in his coat. After appearing before a judge at the
Tombs, the two were bound over for trial. [How the Times discovered their
religion is one question. Why the two are identified by their religion is
another question since such practice was not common with those belong to other
religious groups.]
1856(30th
of Shevat, 5616): Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1856(30th
of Shevat, 5616): Sixty-four-year-old Elias Levy, the son of Lyon Levy and
husband of Rachel Moise passed away today in Charleston, SC.
1857:
Two days after he had passed away, 29-year-old Israel Bennett, the son of
Solomon Bennett and Angel Elizabeth was buried today in the “Brompton (Fulham
Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1858:
In Sulzburg, Leopold Dukas, the son of Sara and Baruch Benedikt Dukas and his
wife Magdalena Madel Dukas gave birth to Rosalie Brunschwig, the wife of
Silvain Brunshwig.
1859:
In Osyka Pike, MS, Mina and Louis Hart gave birth to Lena Catosk Hart who
became Lena Catosk Pearlstone when she married Barney Pearlstone with whom she
had six children.
1866:
In Montreal, Canada, Samuel and Minnie Falk David gave birth Canadian tobacco
mogul Sir Mortimer Barnett Davis a member of Temple Emanu-El in Quebec and “a key force in building the Mount Sinai
Sanatarium” who in 1924 divorced his first wife Henriette Marie Meye to marry
Eleanor Curran.
https://www.jgh.ca/about-us/jgh-archives/finding-aids-and-glossary-temp/sir-mortimer-b-davis/
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/davis-mortimer-b
1868:
In Philadelphia, “Joseph S. Berg and Louisa M. Berg” gave birth to William
Joseph Berg the stockbroker who married Rita Berg in 1893 and was the
half-brother of weapons manufacture Hart O. Berg.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/12/10/99263491.pdf
1869:
La Périchole, “an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach” was
performed in Stockholm for the first time today
1870:
Three days after she had passed away, 77-year-old Miriam “Polly” Isaacs nee
Solomons the wife of Isaac Isaacs was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish
Cemetery.”
1870:
In Mir, “in the Minsk Governate,” “Rabbi Baruch Peretz and Miriam Reisel
Meltzer gave birth to Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, “known as the Even HaEzel”
which is “the title of his commentary on the Rambam’s Mishne Torah.”
1870:
In Brixton, a suburb of London, James Yalden and his wife gave birth to James
Ernest Grant Yalden who became head “of a special new school to prepare Jewish
immigrants for jobs” in American which was the brainchild, and supported by,
the trustee of the Baron de Hirsch fund in America.”
1871(15th
of Shevat, 5631): Tu B’Shevat
1871:
Birthdate of Yonah ben Amitai the native of Minsk who came to the United States
in 1888 where he gained fame as John Paley, the author and editor of a Yiddish
daily paper.
1872: Benjamin Franklin Peixotto, the U.S. Counsel at Bucharest
wrote to the Secretary of State that reports describing the attacks the Jews
had suffered in several towns in Bessarabia and Romania as a result of which
hundreds of Jews had fled across the Danube to seek refuge in Turkey.
1872:
In New York, Morris and Rachel Victorius gave birth to Abraham Victor
Victorious, the husband of Rose Victorius and the father of Jeannette and Paul
Victorious.
1872:
Birthdate of German-born author Theodor Lessing. After the Nazis came to
power, Lessing fled to Czechoslovakia where he was murdered in broad day light
by Nazi supporters.
1873: The
Hebrew Charity Ball took place this evening at the Academy of Music in
Philadelphia, PA.
1874: In
Paris, Henry Bachrach who worked in Washington, D.C., Wheeling, W.Va. and
Chicago before opening Kaufman and Bachrach, a highly successful clothing store
in Decatur, Illinois where he and his wife, the former Matilda Hamburger gave
birth to Albert Bachrach
1874(19th
of Shevat, 5634): Fifty-five-year-old Mayer Amschel de Rothschild the fourth
and youngest son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild who was named for his grandfather,
the patriarch of the Rothschild family and whose only daughter Hannah became
the Countess of Rosebery, the wife of the Earl of Rosebery, the Prime Minister
in the 1890’s and one of the wealthiest women in Europe, passed away today.
1875(1st
of Adar I, 5635): Parashat Misphatim; Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1875: In
Cincinnati, OH, Cecelia Wertheimer and Morris Epstein gave birth to CCNY graduate
and Chicago businessman Max Epstein, the husband of Leola S. Selig and Chairman
of the Board of the Directors of the General American Tank Car Corporation who
donated the funds for the Max Epstein Dispensary at the University of Chicago
and who established a loan fund for Harvard University.
1876: It was
reported today that Rabbi Brown addressed the Indianapolis (Indiana) Young
Men’s Christian Association on the subject of the “Harmony of all creeds on the
Principle of Love.”
1876: It was
reported today that the Purim Association will host a ball at Delmonico’s on
March 7. The association expects a larger crowd than in the past due to
its recent decision to increase its membership.
1876:
According to reports published today, the Jews of New York are planning on
issuing a call for a national meeting to discuss plans for creating a college
designed to teach the Hebrew language and literature and to establish a system
of Jewish education.
1876: In New
York City, Michael and Amelia (Franklin) Spellman gave birth to NY Law School
graduate Benjamin Franklin Spellman, the husband of Rae Grace Freedman and
member of Temple Emanu El who was a member of the Democratic Party who was part
of the opposition to the “Food and Fuel Contract Act” also known as the Lever
Act because it was sponsored by Congressman Asbury Lever.
1877: In
Baltimore, MD, Henrietta and Kaufman Katz gave birth to A. Ray Katz, the
husband of Ethel Epstein with whom he had three children who was a member of
Oheb Shalom Congregation, vice president of the American General Corporation
“and the first president of the Associated Jewish Charities.”
1879: In the
District of Columbia, Isaac Ottenberg, the Bavarian born son of Rosina and
Meyer Ottenberg and his wife Regina Ottenberg gave birth to Jennie Berliner,
the wife of Soloman Berliner.
1879: It was
reported on Zebulon Baird Vance’s last day as Governor of North Carolina that
he has pardoned the only Jewish person imprisoned in the state’s
penitentiary. This unnamed Jew had been sentenced to serve 10 years for
manslaughter. Of the pardon, Vance wrote that he took pleasure in issuing
the pardon as recognitions of the good and law-abiding character of the state’s
Jewish citizens. According to Vance, this episode was “the first serious
case ever brought to my notice on the part of any of that people.”
1880: It was
reported today that Isaac Adolphe Cremieux, the Jewish-French, political leader
is seriously ill. He currently is serving as a “life Senator.”
1881:
Birthdate of Hanover native Bruno Italiener, the World War German Army chaplain
and chief rabbi of the Temple Congregation in Hamburg who was forced to flee
when the Nazi came to power and found sanctuary in England where he “was rabbi
of the Bernhard Baron Center from 1939 to 1941” and then “was appointed rabbi
of the West London synagogue of British Jews.”
https://judaism_enc.en-academic.com/9599/ITALIENER%2C_BRUNO
1881: In
Edinburg, Scotland, Professor Robertson Smith delivered a lecture on the
“Spirit of Hebrew Poetry.” He believes that the “Canticles’ (another name
for the Song of Songs” is simply a love poem and that the Book of Job was
written after the Exile and should not be viewed as historical literature.
1882(17th
of Shevat, 5642): Dorothy “Dora” Brobeck Kahn, the wife of Adam Kahn with whom
she had had nine children passed away today.
1883(29th
of Shevat, 5643): Seventy-four-year-old Raphael Jonathan Bischoffsheim passed
away. Born at Mayence in 1808, he gained fame as a Belgian financier and
philanthropist (As reported by Singer, Bloch and Weill)
1883: In Cape
Town, Isaac and Esther Abrahams gave birth to Sir Adolphe Abrahams, the British
doctor who “was the medical officer in charge of the British Olympic teams from
1912 until 1948.”
1886:
Birthdate of Buffalo, NY native Michael Martin Cohn, the Columbia undergraduate
and University of Buffalo trained attorney,
1887:
Birthdate of Ernest Henry Gruening, the Senator from Alaska who joined in Wayne
Morse in being the only two to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
1888 (24th of
Shevat, 5648): Rebbetzin Menuchah Rachel
Slonim, daughter of Rabbi DovBer of Lubavitch and granddaughter of Rabbi
Schneur Zalman of Liadi, passed away. She was born on Kislev 19, 5559 (1798 on
the secular calendar) -- the very day on which her illustrious grandfather was
freed from his imprisonment in the Peter-Paul Fortress in Petersburg; she was
thus named "Menuchah", meaning "tranquility" (Rachel was
the name of a daughter of Rabbi Schneur Zalman who died in her youth). The
Rebbetzin's lifelong desire to live in the Holy Land was realized in 1845, when
she and her husband, Rabbi Yaakov Culi Slonim, who passed away in 1857, led a
contingent of Chassidim who settled in Hebron. Famed for her wisdom, piety and
erudition, she served as the matriarch of the Chassidic community in Hebron
until her passing in her 90th year in 1888.
1889: In
Prudnik, Poland Max and Hedwig Pinkus gave birth to Alice Babette Cäcilie
Herzfeld
1890: The
Hofburgtheater produces Herzl's comedy "Die Dame in Schwarz" -
"The Lady in Black". The play is condemned as hokum by the critics.
1890: In
Chemulpo, Korea, Sarah Herzberg gave birth to Amalie Herzberg who passed away
eight months and twenty-two days later.
1890:
Twenty-four-year-old Rebecca Rosenberg, the daughter of “Abraham and Sara van
Weenen” and wife of Charles Rosenberg was buried today at the West Ham Jewish
Cemetery.
1891: In
Vienna, Johanna and Herman Joseph Popper gave birth to William Popper, the
husband of Annie Popper
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0027/ms0027.html
1891: Herzl's
best friend, Heinrich Kana, commits suicide in Berlin. After Herzl receives the
message, he sets out for a three-week journey to Italy and South France.
1893:
Following today’s scheduled performance of “Lady Windermere’s Fan” produced by
Charles Frohman at Palmer’s Theatre, the cast of the production will be sent on
the road “under Frohman’s personal management.
1893: It was
reported today that of 1,100 inmates at the workhouse on Blackwell’s Island, 5
of them are Jews. Of the 800 prisoners in the Kings County Penitentiary,
7 are Jews. In the whole state of New York, which has the largest Jewish
population of any state in the United States, fewer than 350 of those in prison
are Jews.
1893: It was
reported today that “with a view to promoting the organization of a society to
be called the Jewish Aid Association for the Relief of the Unfortunate, the
Jewish Ministers’ Association has published a sketch of the work of its prison
chaplain Rabbi Adolph M. Radin.”
1893: Samuel
J. Cohn, who had been a successful lace merchant, was still being held today on
charges that he had collected over $500 by posing as an agent of the United
Hebrew Charities.
1893: It was
reported today that the Central Labor Federation has “received a letter from
the International Typographical Union asking why the Federation had protested
against the issuance of a charter to the Hebrew Typographical Union.”
1893: “Central
Labor Union” published today described allegations by that body that the United
Hebrew Charities has used money from the Baron Hirsch Fund “to import thousands
of poor and persecuted Hebrews, who in turn underbid American workmen in the labor.”
(For those not acquainted with the immigration and labor battles of the 19th
and 20th centuries, this is the double whammy – “The Jews” are using
their money to take jobs from American workers and give them to foreigners.)
1894: Among
those charities that benefited from today’s distribution of the theatrical and
concert license moneys were: Montefiore Home, $500; Home for Aged and Infirm
Hebrews, $350; Beth Israel Hospital.
1894:
Sixty-four-year-old Prussian born Austrian surgeon Theodor Billroth who in 1876
triggered a “storm at Austrian universities with his “criticism of what he
considered the disproportionately large share of Jewish medical students from
Hungary and Galicia” and his strongly stated belief that Jews could never be
real Germans passed away today.
1897(4th
of Adar, 5657): Fifty-eight-year-old Morris Goodhart, a prominent New York
lawyer, passed away today. Born in Amsterdam in 1838, he came to the
United States in 1846 and graduated from Yale Law School in 1867. In
1869, he married the daughter of Philip J. Joachimsen, a prominent jurists and
leader of the New York Jewish community.
1897:
Birthdate of Berlin native and Berlin Technical Institute graduate Willi Menachem
Cohn who in 1931 came to the U.S. where he served on the faculty of University
of California, Berkley,
1897: A
significant number of Jewish men and women attended a meeting at the New York
Presbyterian-Hebrew Church Mission on Forsyth Street where they expected to
proposals about how to deal with the poor living on the East Side. Many
of the Jewish attendees were unemployed tailors who were suffering due to the
economic downturn.
1898: Two days
after she had passed away, 37-year-old Rachel Levy and husband of Solomon Levy
was buried today at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.
1898:
Birthdate of Russian native Beryl David Cohon who in 1906 came to the United
States where he was ordained as a Rabbi at Hebrew Union College and wrote
several books on Judaism including Come Let Us Reason Together and Judaism
In Theory and Practice.
https://www.amazon.com/Beryl-David-Cohon/e/B001KHWK2S%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
1899: The
Hebrew Fair, which will feature a speech by author Israel Zangwill, is
scheduled tonight at the Tuxedo in New York City.
1899: The U.S.
Senate ratified the peace treaty ending the Spanish-American War. There
were fifteen Jewish crewmen aboard the battleship Maine when she blew up in
1898 in Havana harbor. This was the “cause” of the war.
Approximately 5,000 Jews served in the war. In 1898 there were reportedly
four thousand requests for furloughs at the time of the High Holidays.
The first trooper in the famed Rough Riders was Jewish.
1900(7th
of Adar I, 5660): Elijah Benamozegh, who “served for half a century as rabbi of
the important Jewish community of Livorno, where the Piazza Benamozegh now
commemorates his name and distinction and whose major work is Israel and
Humanity passed away today.
http://www.jcrelations.net/Benamozegh%2C+Elijah.+Israel+and+Humanity.2552.0.html?L=3
1901: Herzl
travels to London and tries to win Rothschild for his plan. Despite the efforts
of British Zionists, Rothschild refuses to receive him.
1902: In
London, Bella Nizer and Joseph Nizer, who would start a dry-cleaning business
in Brooklyn gave birth to Columbia Law School graduate Louis Nizer one of the
leading trial lawyers of the 20th century.
https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/11/obituaries/louis-nizer-lawyer-to-the-famous-dies-at-92.html
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/387079/LOUIS-NIZER-ATTORNEY-DIES-AT-92.html
1902 Le Roy
Eltinge, the author of Psychology of War which contained such
anti-Semitic passages as “He doesn’t know what patriotism means”, “the soldiers
lot is hard physical work” which “the Jew despises and “he does not have any of
the qualities of a good soldier” – remarks which forced the War Department to
order him to go over the book and remove all such objectionable portions – was
promoted to the rank of Captain in the 15th United States Cavalry.
1902: Young
Women's Hebrew Association was organized in New York City. According to the
Jewish Women’s Archive, “Bella Epstein Unterberg held a meeting in her New York
City home to discuss the founding of the first Young Women's Hebrew
Association. At the meeting, at which she was unanimously elected president of
the new association, a decision was made to establish a sister organization to
the YMHA, a community center dedicated to the uplift—both social and
spiritual—of young Jewish women.”
1903: “The
first Semitic Museum to be established in America and indeed in the whole
world” which was “the gift of the Jacob H. Schiff…who for ten years has served
as a member of the Semitic Committee at Harvard” was dedicated this afternoon
at Harvard.
1904(20th
of Shevat, 5664): Parshat Yitro
1904: Members
of Congregation Adath Israel mourned the death of philanthropist Adolph
Erlebach the Bavarian born Boston businessman whose “name was on the roles of
all the Jewish charities of Boston.”
1905: It was
reported today that Morris Loeb is the President of the Hebrew Technical
Institute one third of whose “older graduated are positions of independent
reasonability and one-half follow the professions for which” the “school has
fitted them” which may account for why the school has more applicants than it
“can receive.”
1906: It was
reported today from Kiev that following the receipt of death threats in the
mail from the Pan Russian League in Defense of the Holy Cross, “a great panic
prevails among the Jewish population who are expecting a renewal of the
anti-Jewish excesses.”
1906: “The
restrictions on the residence of Jews in Moscow are again being applied with
the greatest severity” and “many of them have been expelled.”
1906: Cyrus L.
Sulzberger who had overseen “collection of the American fund for the relief of
the victims of the massacres in Russia” said tonight that did not give any
credence to the report from St. Petersburg that the Russian police “have
obtained the lion’s share “of the money sent to the country to aid the victims
of the recent uprisings.
1907: It was
reported today, that “Wolf Margolies, the chief rabbi of Grodno” “was met at
the pier by a delegation of Jews from the Orthodox Synagogues and take to the
Montgomery Street home of his brother Hirsch Margolies.
1908: It was
reported today that William Jennings Bryan who is running against William
Howard Taft for President of the United States, told “a gathering of Jewish men
and women” meeting at the Y.M.H.A. Building in Manhattan that “Yours is the
greatest of al races in its influence on history and the thought of the ages.”
1908:
Birthdate of JTS trained rabbi, Dr. Robert Gordis a “pioneer in interfaith
relations and author of several works including The Book of God and Man: A
Study of Job who raised three sons – Enoch, Leon and David – with his wife
Fannie. (As reported by Ari L. Godman)
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/gordis-robert
1909:
Birthdate of Russian-born American composer Israel Citkowitz who had an impact
on the careers of Aaron Copeland and Elmer Bernstein.
1909:
Birthdate of Cracow native Martin Klein who in 1938 came from Nazi Vienna to
the United where he co-founded Barton’s Candy Corporation and became the
benefactor of many Jewish institutions including the Crown Heights Yeshiva and
the Pressburger Yeshiva in Jerusalem while raising a son, Robert, with his
wife, “the former Regina Ischhof” passed away today in the Montefiore Hospital
in the Bronx.
https://www.brandlandusa.com/2008/12/22/bartons-candy-and-chocolate/
1910: It was
reported today that “a cottage community will be established by the Hebrew,
Sheltering Guardian Society on its new home site at Pleasantville, Westchester
County” thanks in part to the generosity of the “the Lewisohn family and other
friends of the society” who have raised over $650,000 for the building fund.
1911: Three
days after he had passed away, 65 year old Kaskil Casper, the husband of Sophie
Newman Casper, the Nevada City “clothing merchant” who “was granted a franchise
by the City Council in December, 1891 to light the city with a Heisler
incandescent system” was buried today the Hills of Eternity Memorial Park.
1912: In New
York City, the former Goldie Mereminsky and Rabbi Samuel Karp gave birth to
Dorothy Karp, who gained fame as Dorothy Karp Kripke, the author of children’s
books and wife of Rabbi Myer S. Kripe with whom she raised three children –
Netta, Madeline and Saul Kripke.
1912:
Twenty-two-year-old St. Louis University trained attorney Maximilian George
Baron, the Ukraine born son of Julius and Rose (Shucart) Baron who would become
a member of the faculty at his alma mater serve as the Vice President of Board
of Education of Associated Hebrew Schools of St. Louis married Dorothy Catlin
in Vandalia, Illinois today.
1913: Birthdate
of New York born Columbia graduate
Arthur J. Lelyveld, the HUC trained rabbi who led congregations in Omaha and
Cincinnati before serving Fairmont Temple for almost thirty years and whose
activism led him to head the Jewish Fellowship for Peace during WW II, to
support the creation of the State Israel and to work for improvement of the
conditions of people of color as can be seen by his being beaten by segregationists while
participating in the Freedom Summer of 1964.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/lelyveld-arthur-joseph
1913(29th
of Shevat, 5673): Seventy-seven-year-old David Fuld, a manufacturer from
Albany, NY, passed away today.
1913: James
Weber Linn of the University of Chicago is scheduled to speak today at the 5th
regular meeting of the Isaiah Women’s Club on the subject of Literature and
Daily Wife while Mrs. Oscar Lessing is scheduled to provide the music for the
attendees.
1914:
Birthdate of Baron Bernd Freytag von Lorinhoven, the native of the island of
Saaremaa who was one of the last to escape Hitler’s Berlin bunker in 1945.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/world/europe/01loringhoven.html
1914 (10th of
Shevat, 5674): Rebbetzin Rivkah Schneerson
passed away. She was born in Lubavitch in 1833; her maternal grandfather was
Rabbi DovBer, the 2nd Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch. In 1849 she married her first
cousin, Rabbi Shmuel, who later became the fourth Lubavitcher Rebbe. For many
years Rebbetzin Rivkah, who survived her husband by 33 years, was the esteemed
matriarch of Lubavitch, and Chassidim frequented her home to listen to her
accounts of the early years of Lubavitch. She is the source of many of the
stories recorded in the talks, letters and memoirs of her grandson, Rabbi Yosef
Yitzchak (the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe). The Beth Rivkah network of girls'
schools, founded by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak in the 1940's, is named after her.
1915(22nd
of Shevat, 5675): Parashat Yitro
1915: The
American Jewish Relief Committee of which Felix M. Warburg is Treasurer issued
a statement today saying, “that it would not sanction any for raising money
through chain letters.”
1916: “More
than $125,000 was subscribed for the Jewish war sufferers in an hour following
the appeal of Rabbis J.L. Magnes and Nathan Krass to an audience of Jews and
Gentiles in the Academy of Music in Brooklyn tonight.
1916: “Many
letters reaching the American Jewish Relief Committee show how wide-spread
among Jews and Gentiles alike is the desire to assist Jewish relief work”
including the one from Plymouth, MA, that read: “Dear Mr. Warburg, Please find
enclosed $2 for the Jewish relief. The
Jesus of the Christian was a Jews. I wish I could give more but, will send the
little I can spare.” Signed “A Christian Woman.”
1917: Twenty-eight-year-old
George Washington University trained educator and writer Reuben Fink, the
Russian born son of Morris and Malka (Finkelstein) Fink who was the Washington
correspondent for The Day and the manager of Die Zeit (The Jewish Times)
married Dr. Mary Goldfarb today.
1917: The
Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) was founded today “by Jacob Landau as the
Jewish Correspondence Bureau with the mandate of collecting and disseminating
news among and affecting the Jewish communities of the Diaspora.”
1917(14th
of Shevat, 5677): Seventy-seven-year-old German physiologist Julius Bernstein,
the son of Aron Bernstein, a founder of the Reform Congregation in Berlin and
the father of mathematician Felix Bernstein.
http://www.nncn.de/en/the-network/bernsteina
1917: Edouard
A. Drumont, French anti-Semitic journalist, dies at 72. His book La
France Juive (Jewish France) attacked the role of Jews in France
and argued for their exclusion from society. His newspaper “La Libre Parole,”
played a leading role in whipping up anti-Semitic passions during the Dreyfus
Affair.
1918: Austrian
painter Gustav Klimt passed away. Klimt was not Jewish but many of his patrons
were. Born in 1862, by 1898, Klimt had “managed to become the portraitist of
the Jewish haute bourgeoisie in Vienna who, since the Jews had reached legal
equality in 1867, had become a thriving force in commerce, finance, industry
and art. Klimt's patrons were financiers, industrials and other members of the
liberal (in the European sense) haute bourgeoisie. Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer (see
Klimt's portrait of his wife below) was dominating the Austrian-Czech sugar
industry. Karl Wittgenstein, another of his patrons, was often referred to as
the "Austrian Krupp" and the creator of the steel cartel. August
Lederer was the leading figure in the alcohol business in Central Europe. In
the 1920s, he was considered ‘the richest man in Austria after
Rothschild’". Several of the works Klimt painted for his Jewish
patrons were seized by the Nazis. The recovery of these art works became
a part of lengthy, difficult litigation in the post-War years.
1919:
Rabbi Hyman Gerson Enelow who served “as a member of the Overseas Commission of
the Jewish Welfare Board, which went to France in July, 1918” wrote today that
“I am feeling fine. I feel that Providence is taking care of me as I have come
out all right of every experience I have had.
At the different camps I have met many friends who have done so much to
help the work while the commanding officers have been very obliging.”
1919:
It was reported today that Julius Kahn, a Jewish Congressman from California,
has expressed his “regret that President Wilson has seen fit to come out openly
in favor of the Jewish State proposed by some of the English statesmen” and his
belief “that if President Wilson had consulted the views of those members of
the Jewish faith who have lived in the United States for many years he would have
found that an overwhelming majority of them is opposed to Zionism.”
1920:
Birthdate of Congressman James Scheuer who represented New York in the House of
Representatives from 1965 to 1993.
1920: In
Neutitschein, North Moravia, Margarethe (Markéta), née Gelb, Mannheimer and
Jakob Leib Mannheimer gave birth to author, painter and survivor of the
Holocaust Max Mannheimer.
1920:
Birthdate of Tidor Rudas, the native of Budapest who survived Bergen-Belsen and
who “was the impresario who brought Luciano Pavarotti out of the opera house
and into the arena.”
1920: In
Kottbus, the “synagogue was robbed of valuables.”
1920: In
Marburg, Jewish students were expelled from classes following their protest
against the anti-Jewish utterances of a professor at the university.”
1921:
"The Kid", starring Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan was released.
(Coogan was not Jewish.)
1921: In
Washington Heights, Josephine (née Condon) and Bernard Gorcey, a Russian Jewish
immigrant gave birth to David Gorcey, who appeared in the East Side Kids series
and was one of the Bowery Boys.
1921: Temple
B’nai Israel of Borough Park is scheduled to host a concert that will raise
funds for Israel-Zion Hospital which is led by its new President, Newman Dube
and Executive Director Boris Fingerhood.
1921: At the
New Rochelle Hospital, Rabbi and Mrs. Richard M. Stern gave birth to a daughter this morning.
1921: In
Brooklyn Harry and Ida Katz gave birth to Sidney (Sid) Lewis Katz, the WW II
USAAF mechanic and husband of Harriet Foreman who would eventually become a
pillar of the Temple Beth El Congregation in Augusta, Maine
1922: In
Worcester, MA, “Louis Chase and Bessie (Lubin) Chase gave birth to Princeton
educated Marine Corps Major General and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense
Harold William “Hal” Chase
http://seymourbrody.com/generals/gen-adm70.htm
1922: In
Muscatine, IA, Orrie and Anne Beck gave birth to Northwestern University
graduate and U.S. Navy WW II veteran Harold M. Backer, the Cedar Rapids banker
and pillar of the Jewish community who married Dianne Becker after his first
wife Arlene had passed away.
https://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2016/May/Harold-Becker/
1922: In
Chicago, Lottie and Simon Wexler, “the found founder of Allie Radio, a
mail-order and retail electronic firm” gave birth to Haskell Wexler, one of the
ten most influential cinematographers of the 20th century.
1922:
Birthdate of Denis Norden, the London native who gained fame as writer and a
“television presenter” and who “accidentally” found himself at Bergen-Belsen at
the end of World War II.
http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/435134/Denis-Norden-A-cruel-disease-robbed-me-of-my-sight
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33230122
1923:
Birthdate Frankfurt, Germany native Heinz Grunhaus who gained fame as Harold H.
Greene, the WW II U.S. Army Veteran and George Washington University Law School
graduate whose distinguished career on the federal bench included presiding
United States versus AT&T, the case that broke up AT&T and helped pave
the way for the modern communications industry.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/2000-01/30/102r-013000-idx.html
1923:
Birthdate of NYC native and Brooklyn Polytechnic alum Boris Sherbak who worked
as economic advisor.
1924(1st
of Adar, I, 5684) Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1924: “A
campaign for a five-day week for labor was decided on” today “at a conference
of rabbis of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut held under the auspices of
the Jewish Sabbath Alliance.”
1925: Sid
Terris lost an elimination bout for the World Lightweight Championship.
1926: In
Manhattan, Harold Stone, “the heir to a fortune built from a five-and-dime
store chain, and the former Elza Heifetz, the sister of violinist Jascha
Heifetz gave birth to Barbara Stone who gained fame as “author and journalist”
Barbara Gelb.
1926: In the
Bronx, Isaac Fein, a history professor and the former Chaya Wertheim, a
schoolteacher gave birth to Rashi Fein, the health economist referred to as “a
father of Medicare” who was the brother of Leonard J. Fein, the editor of Moment magazine.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/us/rashi-fein-economist-who-urged-medicare-dies-at-88.html
1927:
Birthdate of Bukovinian native and survivor Transnistira Zvi Laron who came to
Israel for the first time in 1948 where he eventually became world famous
endocrinologist best known for his work with a form of dwarfism known as the
Laron syndrome.
1927: The
Atlanta Journal reproduced the receipt of Major Rafael Jacob Moses (CSA) from
1865 for $40,000 of bullion which he was supposed to get to the remnants of the
Confederate Army to pay for food and munitions.
1928: Today
“King Victor Immanuel granted an audience” that lasted for an hour “to
prominent leaders of the Italian Jewish community” during which he “expressed
sympathy with the Zionist movement and asked for details about the colonization
work in Palestine.”
1928: In
Hungary, “the Jewish cemetery…near Husi was desecrated” tonight by unknown
vandals” who “completely destroyed” the cemetery.
1929: It was
made known to the United Jewish Campaign today, that “David A. Brown, the
national chairman of the United Jewish Campaign has sent letters to 100,000
persons in the United States and Canada asking them if the relief work on
behalf of Jews in Europe and Palestine” which has raised eighty million dollars
in the past fifteen years “shall be continued or come to an end on December 31,
1929.
1930(8th
of Shevat, 5690): Basheva “Sheva” Pearlman Lazarus, “the widow of Jacob
Lazarus” passed away today In Valdosta, GA after which she was buried at the
B’nai Israel Hebrew Cemetery in Thomasville, GA.
1931(19th
of Shevat, 5691): Fifty-three-year-old , the son of Max Epstein and Mary
Solomon and the husband the former Deana Grozcky passed away today in
Manhattan.
1931(19th
of Shevat, 5691): Hyman Lazarus Bernstein passed away today in Brooklyn after
which he was buried at Montefiore Cemetery in Springfield Gardens, Queens.
1931: “It was
said” today that “the condition of actor Louis Mann has shown considerable
improvement since his admission to Mt. Sinai Hospital some weeks ago” when he
was “suffering an intestinal complaint.”
1932(29th
of Shevat, 5692): Parashat Mishpatim
1932: In
Berlin, the “leaders of the Jewish community visited the Minister of the
Interior today to protest against the National Socialist or Nazi agitation
against Jews, which they said was causing considerable uneasiness.”
1933: The NBC
Blue Network broadcast an episode of “Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel,” “a
situation comedy radio show starring two of the Marx Brothers, Groucho and
Chico, and written primarily by Nat Perrin and Arthur Sheekman.”
1933: Time
magazine published “Hitler Into Chancellor” an article that provides a
contemporaneous account of the German leaders rise to power and plans for the
immediate future.
http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/printout/0,8816,745087,00.html
1934: In
France, Jewish political leader Leon Blum, chairman of the Socialist Party,
promised to stand with Premier-designate Daladier as right-wing paramilitary
gangs battered at the doors of the Chamber of Deputies. This attempt to impose
a fascist regime on France came before Vichy but explains why so many Jews were
so quickly shipped to Drancy, the doorway to Auschwitz.
1934:
Following tonight’s right-wing anti-government riots historian Daniel Halévy
“publicly declared that he “was now ‘a man of the extreme right’” which despite
his Jewish origins would lead him to support the Vichy anti-Semitic pro-Nazi
Vichy regime.
1935:
Birthdate of New Jersey political leaders Loretta Weinberg has served as a
member of the New Jersey Senate from the 37th Legislative District
and was an unsuccessful candidate for Lt. Governor in 2009.
1935(3rd
of Adar I, 5695): Seventy-six-year-old Santo Domingo native Francisco Hilario
Henriquez y Carvajal, the descendant of “Sephardic Jews who had immigrated in
the 19th century from Curaco,” and the husband of Salome Urena with whom he had
four children – Pedro, Francisco, Max and Camila – “who served as president
just prior to the US occupation of his country passed away today.
1935: As
reported in today’s edition of Sydney Commercial News, Sefton Louis
Cullen (born Louis Sefton Cohen) “became a shareholder of David Cohen and Co.,
Ltd.
1936: “The
Woman Doctor” directed by Sidney Salkow and produced by Sol C. Siegel.
1936: In
Washington, DC, Nehemiah Cohen and Samuel Lehrman opened the first Giant
supermarket on Georgia Avenue and Park Road, NW. Giant would grow to
become a major supermarket chain in the Washington metropolitan area. In the
1950’s, Giant would be the first grocery chain in Washington sell challah in
its in-store bakery.
1936(21st
of Shevat, 5694): Hyman Gerson Enelow, who had become Rabbi Emeritus Temple
Emanu-El on February 1 had a fatal heart attack while sailing for the
Mediterranean Sea.
https://snaccooperative.org/view/3810042
1936: An
editorial on the front page of the Voelkischer
Beobachter, “Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s own newspaper” demanded “the death penalty
for David Frankfurter, the Jewish student who killed Wilhelm Gustloff, the
German leader of the Nazis in Switzerland.
1936: While
addressing a meeting of Jews in London, the Bishop of Durham asserted that the
present rulers of Germany are those who are “ultimately responsible for the
assassination of Wilhelm Gustloff.”
1937(25th
of Shevat, 5697): Parashat Mishpatim; Shabbat Shekalim
1937: Rabbi
Hyman Schachtel is scheduled to deliver a sermon “The Strength Judaism Gives”
at the West End Synagogue.
1937: Rabbi
Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon “Will Democracy and Liberalism
Destroy the Jew?” at Temple Rodeph Sholom.
1937: The
National Conference for Palestine, whose attendees had had a chance to read
“How Many Jews Can Palestine Hold?” by Joseph L. Cohen, opened today in
Washington, D.C.
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that Ezekiel Altman, 22, a Jewish supernumerary
constable, was found guilty of firing at an Arab truck on December 27, 1937,
and was sentenced to death by the Military Court in Jerusalem. The prisoner
heard the sentence with equanimity.
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that in Tel Aviv, High Commissioner Sir Arthur
Wauchope inaugurated the first automatic telephone exchange. Romania started
the expropriation of Jewish private land properties in Bukovina.
1938: Edward
M.M. Warburg and Dr. Milton Steinberg are among the speakers at the second
Annual Conference on Jewish Affairs being held this afternoon at the Jewish
Theological Seminary where the attendees will discuss “The Future of Judaism in
America.”
1938: “A
Jewish Who’s Who” published today provided a brief review of Who’s Who In
American Jewry: Volume III 1938-1939 edited by John Simon a reference
containing “8,477 full biographies” and additional 1,900 names “for which
further information was not available.”
1938: In
“Terror Grips Jews In Rumanian Cities” published today G.E.R. Gedye continues
his series on the frightening conditions facing the Jews that includes a
description of Jassy as “the headquarters of the Anti-Semitic Cuzist
terrorists.”
1938: Don
Isaac Abravenel by Joseph Saracheck, “a biography of the 15th
century Jewish scholar and statesman” was included on today’s list of “Latest
Books Received.”
1938: Rabbi
Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Assignments in Utopia by
Eugene Lyons: Russia, the Riddle; What Can Americans Believe About Communism”
at Temple Rodoph Sholom.
1938: Rabbi
Morris Lichtenstein is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Conflicts Within”
at the Jewish Science Society.
1938: Rabbi
Clifton Harby Levy is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “What Jewish Science
Does” at the Centre of Jewish Science.
1938: Rabbi
Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “What Are the
Perquisites of Cooperation?” at Temple Emanu-El.
1938: Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise is scheduled to deliver a sermon “Prodigal Parents’ – Are
Parents Always Wrong? Sinclair Lewis Answers” at the Free Synagogue in Carnegie
Hall.
1939: While
speaking “the school of politics in the Women’s National Republican Club” in
Manhattan, “Brackett Lewis, the secretary of the American Committee for Relief
in Czechoslovakia demonstrated a burst of unwarranted optimism about the future
of the country when he “pointed out that the nation’s new president was not the
candidate suggested by Berlin and that Jews had not been persecuted as Berlin
had suggested to Prague’s ‘sincerity.’”
1939: On the
eve of the start of talks in London about the future of Palestine, Arabs, under
the leadership of the followers of Mufti of Jerusalem went on strike today
which forced the British to impose a twenty-four-hour curfew.
1940: In
Berlin, “the Reich Association of Jews announced today that the Jews would be
allowed to have a ration of twenty pfeddings worth of sewing materials each
three months to repair clothes” but “as before, Jews will receive no rations
cards for clothes, textile goods, shoes
or shoe soles.”
1940: Word
reached to New York today that German author Dr. Eduard Fuchs who had been
“violently attacked by the Nazi regime” because among other things “his second
wife, the former Grete Alsberg was Jewish.”
1940: This
evening. Dr. George N. Shuster, acting president and academic dean of Hunter
College is scheduled to speak at a public meeting of the North Hempstead Round
Table of Christians and Jews where the topic is “The Meaning of Democracy.
1941:
Birthdate of Richard Cohen, the New York native who became a leading columnist
with the Washington Post.
1942:
Birthdate of Dr. James W. Lowen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me:
Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong in which he wrote that
the prosecution of Robert Goldstein a Jewish German-American who produced “The
Spirit of ‘76” “was consistent with Woodrow Wilson's targeting anyone
suspecting of holding anti-British views, which the president claimed gave aid
to Germany” which the movie did not.
1943: Oy Is
Dus a Leben, “a musical cavalcade in two acts, closed today at the Moll Picon
Theatre.
1943: Upon
arriving in “liberated” Algiers, Churchill discovered that the Vichy laws
restricting the rights of the Jews of Algeria were still in force and insisted
that they be repealed at once.
1943: Himmler
received a report on the quantity of garments collected from Birkenau. The list
included: 97,000 sets of men's clothing, 76,000 sets of women's clothing,
132,000 men's shirts, 155,000 women's coats and 3,000 kilograms of women's
hair. The hair filled an entire railroad car. Children's items included 15,000
overcoats, 11,000 boys' jackets, 9,000 dresses and 22,000 pairs of shoes. The
clothing filled 825 freight cars. Included in this inventory was also close to
a half of million in American currency and $116,420 dollars in gold.
1943: Fifteen
trains of deportees reached Birkenau from Holland, Drancy (Paris) and from
Berlin. Five thousand on board were gassed.
1943: Rutka
Laskier, a fourteen-year-old living in Bedzin, Poland writes in her diary:
“Something has broken in Me. When I pass by a German, everything shrinks in me.
I don't know whether it is out of fear or hatred. I would like to torture them,
their women and children, who set their doggies on us, to beat and strangle
them vigorously, more and more. When will this day arrive which Nica talked
about ... that's one matter. And now another matter. I think my womanhood has
awoken in me. That means, yesterday when I was taking a bath and the water
stroked my body, I longed for someone's hands to stroke me ... I didn't know
what it was, I have never had such sensations until now ...I met Micka today. I
don't know with what these "dubious" lovers attract her, to the point
that she refuses to get into a quarrel with them. They are so dazzled by her
and think that every boy should be in love with her. Of course, I ascribe this
to Janek, but Janek finds her disgusting (I don't know why). I think Janek likes
me very much. But it doesn't matter to me, either way. Today, I recalled in
detail the day of Aug. 12, 1942. I'll try to describe that day so that in a few
years, of course if I'm not deported, I'll be able to remember it. We got up at
4 o'clock in the morning. We had a great breakfast (considering it was
wartime): eggs, salad, real butter, coffee with milk. When we were ... ready,
it was already half past 5, and then we left. There were thousands of people on
the road. Every once in a while we had to stop, in order to let the crowd in
front of us proceed. At half past 6, we were in place. We managed to get quite
good seats on a bench. We were in a pretty good mood until 9 o'clock. Then I
looked beyond the fence and I saw soldiers with machine guns aimed at the square
in case someone tried to escape (how could you possibly escape from here?).
People fainted, children cried. In short--Judgment Day. People were thirsty,
and there was not a single drop of water around ... Then ... it started
pouring. The rain didn't stop. At 3 o'clock Kuczynsky arrived and the selection
started. "1" meant returning home, "1a" meant going to
labor, which was even worse than deportation, "2" meant going for
further inspection, and "3" meant deportation, in other words, death.
Then I saw what disaster meant. We reported for selection at 4 o'clock. Mom,
Dad and my little brother were sent to group 1, and I was sent to 1a. I walked
as if I were stunned ... The weirdest thing was that we didn't cry at all, AT
ALL ... Later on, I saw many more disasters. I can't put it in words. Little
children were lying on the wet grass, the storm raging above our heads. The
policemen beat them ferociously and also shot them. I sat there until 1 o'clock
at night. Then I ran away. My heart pounded. I jumped out of a window from the
first floor of a small building, and nothing happened to me. Only my lips were
bitten so bad that they bled ... When I was already on the street, I ran into
someone "in uniform," and I felt that I couldn't take it anymore. My
head was spinning. I was pretty sure he was going to beat me ... but apparently
he was drunk and didn't see the "yellow star," and he let me go.
Around me it was dark like in a closed cabin.
From time-to-time flashes of lightning lightened the sky ... and it thundered.
The journey that normally takes me half an hour I did in 10 minutes. Everybody
was at home except Grandma, whom Dad released and brought home the next day ...
Oh, I forgot
the most important thing. I saw how a soldier tore a baby, who was only a few
months old, out of its mother's hands and bashed his head against an electric
pylon. The baby's brain splashed on the wood. The mother went crazy. I am
writing this as if nothing has happened. As if I were in an army experienced in
cruelty. But I'm young, I'm 14, and I haven't seen much in my life, and I'm
already so indifferent. Now I am terrified when I see "uniforms." I'm
turning into an animal waiting to die ...Now to everyday matters: Janek came by
this afternoon. We had to sit in the kitchen ... I told him that I had given
away all my photographs. He got very upset. We were joking around; we spoke
about "Nica and the gang." While we were talking he suddenly blurted
out he'd like it very much if he could kiss me. I said "maybe" and
continued the conversation. He was a bit confused; he thought I was Tusia or
Hala Zelinger. I would have allowed [myself] to be kissed only by the person I
loved, and I feel indifferent towards him. Then Dad sent me to deal with
something. I had to leave. Janek accompanied me. While going downstairs I asked
him, is kissing such a pleasant thing? And then I told him that I had already
kissed before, what a taste it has (that's completely true). He burst out
laughing. (He has a nice laugh, I must admit.) He said he was curious too.
Maybe, but I won't let him kiss me. I'm afraid it would destroy something
beautiful, pure ... I'm also afraid that I'll be very disappointed.” For more
about a young Jewess who has been compared to Anne Frank, another diary writer
see:
http://judicial-inc.biz/6_5_rutka_laskier.htm
1944:
Birthdate of actor Michael Tucker. Born in Baltimore, Maryland he is best known
for his role as the nebbish tax attorney, Stuart Markowitz on the television
series, “LA Law.”
1944(12th
of Shevat 5704): Phillip Max Raskin, editor of The Anthology of Modern
Jewish Poetry and author of New Songs of a Jew died
https://archive.org/details/songsofjew00raskiala
https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/the-eternal-riddle-by-p-m-raskin
1945: Today,
“Supreme Court Justice Meier Steinbrink, the chairman of the Board of the
eastern region of the ADL called upon the NYU, Columbia and the American Dental
Association to repudiate a report submitted to them by Dr. Harlen H. Horner,
secretary of the council on Dental Education of the A.D.A. which called for the
adoption of a quota policy for students based on racial origins which “Justice
Steinbrink charged was aimed solely at the exclusion of Jewish students from
dental schools.”
1946: Two Jews
who were plowing a field near Ramle were wounded by an unknown number of
attacking Arabs.
1946: After
one of their men had been killed tonight during an attack on the headquarters
of an East African soldiers' camp just south of Jaffa-Tel Aviv, British
soldiers stormed into the near-by Jewish community of Holon and began firing at
“anything that moved.” Apparently, the soldiers were not content to fire their
weapons since of the fatalities was a 15 year old boy who had been stabbed to
death.
1946 (5th of
Adar I, 5706): Fifty-year old Ben Zion Shenkar, the director of a knitting mill
and the vice chairman of the Community Council in Cholon was murdered by
rampaging British troops who shot up the town after an attack on their
headquarters. There are no records of anybody being held accountable for his
death.
1947: In Los
Angeles, Irving Yergin who worked at Warner Brothers and who was editor of The
Hollywood Reporter and a former journalist in Chicago and “Naomi Yergin, a
sculptor gave birth to Daniel Yergin, author, economist and co-founder of
Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
https://www.reuters.com/article/energy-medals-yergin-idUSL2N0RV2X720141001
1948: The Arab
Higher Committee of Palestine sent a “a formal declaration of war” to Trygve
Lie, Secretary General of the United Nations “against any attempt to partition”
Palestine. (Editor’s note – seems like a rejection of the two-state solution to
me)
1949(7th
of Shevat, 5709): Sixty-year-old MGM studio executive and producer of the
Academy Award winning best picture Broadway Melody Harry Rapf, New York born
son of Maurice and Eliza Brooks Rapf, the husband of Christian Rodin with whom
he had two children producer Mathew Rapf and blacklisted screenwriter Maurice
Rapf passed away today after suffering his second heart attack.
1951: Today, a
federal judge reinstated “Bernard Austin, Brooklyn Democratic member of the
State Assembly to practice law in the Federal District Court” ending a
disbarment that had begun in August, 1944.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/02/07/86973395.html?pageNumber=31
1951(30th
of Shevat, 5711): Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1951(30th
of Shevat, 5711): Seventy-three year old Russian born realtor Louis Kovner, the
president of the Park West Hospital in New York and father of Sidney and Harold
Kovner passed away today at his home in Miami Beach.
1952(10th
of Shevat, 5712): Samuel Idelman, the Russian born son of Max Idelman, with
whom he built a successful business career in Cheyenne, Wyoming while belonging
to Congregation Mt. Sinai passed away today after which he was buried at Mt.
Sinai Jewish Cemetery in Cheynne.
1953: The
Jerusalem Post reported that Israel told Britain and the US that Jordan was
entirely responsible for the current border unrest. The Mixed Israeli-Jordanian
Armistice Commission censured Jordan for mining Israeli railway line near
Kalkilya.
1953: The
Jerusalem Post reported that Israel had contributed to "Watershood
1953," the Dutch Welfare Fund for the victims of the recent terrifying
floods which claimed over 1,300 dead in Holland.
1954(3rd
of Adar I, 5714): Parashat Terumah
1954(3rd
of Adar I, 5714): Sixty-one year old poet and novelist Maxwell “Bogey”
Bodehnheim, the Hermanville, Mississippi born son of Carrie and Solomon
Bodenhierm who was raised in Chicago
where he met and joined forces with Ben Hecht and whose life story is told in
memoir My Life and Loves in Greenwich Village passed away today.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maxwell-Bodenheim
https://poets.org/poet/maxwell-bodenheim
1954:
Birthdate of “Érik Izraelewicz[, a French journalist and author, specialized in
economics and finance.”
1955: On Long
Island, NY, “author and financial consultant Stephen Pollan and columnist Corky
Pollan” gave birth Harvard and UC Berkley Professor Michael Pollan whose works
include The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
1955:
Birthdate of Avraham “Avram” Grant the Petah Tikva native who became a
successful “football” manager. (In the U.S. this football is called soccer)
1956(24th of
Shevat): Composer Joseph Rumshinsky passed away.
1958: In Los
Angeles, Sidney Miller, an actor, director, and writer, and Iris Burton, an
agent, gave birth to Barry L. Miller who won a Tony Award as Best Actor for his
portrayal of “Arnold Epstein” in Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues.”
1958: After
surviving the McCarthy Era which led to the death of her husband, Gertrude Berg
appeared on “The Ford Show.”
1959: Two
years after he had made his debut, fifteen-year-old violin prodigy Paul
Zufkosky performed tonight at Carnegie Hall.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/02/07/80759868.html?pageNumber=11
1961: “Senator
Joseph Zaretski served notice today that Democratic lawmakers would fight” the
Mayor of New York’s “charter revision plan if, as predicted, it by-passed
constitutional home-rule requirements.”
1961: At Mt.
Sinai Hospital, Dr. Joseph J. Aaron and the former Jane Doris Goldberg gave
birth to Henry Michael Aaron, the grandson of Rabbi and Mrs. Isadore A. Aaron.
1961:
“President Izhak Ben-Zvi began today what apparently will be a long drawn-out
and difficult process of obtaining a new Prime Minister and Cabinet to replace
the Ben-Gurion coalition government which fell last week as a result of the
Lavon affair.” (JTA)
1961: “The
Quai d’Orsay revealed today” that “Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville
has informed the Foreign Affairs and Security Commission of the Senate that the
French Government is concerned over the anti-Jewish discriminations practiced
by the Moroccan Government.”
1961:
“Do-Re-Mi” a 1961 jazz album consisting of selections from the Broadway musical
Do Re Mi, written by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolf Green was recorded
today at the Capitol Tower in Los Angeles.
1965: After
seven previews and one actual performance at the Broadhurst Theatre, the
curtain came down on the original Broadway performance the Mark Charlap musical
“Kelly”
1966: CBS
broadcast the final episode “Mister Ed,” a sit com created by Martin
Ransohoff’s Filmways production house
1967(26th
of Shevat, 5727): Seventy-five-year-old Henry Morgenthau, Jr. who served as 52nd
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1934 to 1945 passed away today.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007408
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Morgenthau.html
http://www.jta.org/1967/02/08/archive/henry-morgenthau-jr-ex-secretary-of-treasury-dead-at-age-of-75
1968(7th
of Shevat, 5728): Rae Shapiro Shelow, the wife of Rabbi Solomon Barsel, the Jerusalem
born son of Goldie and Pincus Barsel passed away today after which she was
buried at the Shalom Memorial Park in Huntingdon Valley, PA.
1969: The
Jerry Herman musical “Dear World” which featured lighting design by Jean
Rosenthal opened on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre.
1970(30th
of Shevat, 5730); Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1970:
“Egyptian frogmen sank an Israeli naval auxiliary vessel in Eilat harbor and
damaged an Israeli landing craft” which caused Israel to launch aircraft that
“sank a 700-ton Russian-built Egyptian mine-layer in the Gulf of Suez…”
1971(11th
of Shevat, 5731): Parashat Beshalach
1971(11th
of Shevat, 5731): Seventy-two-year-old Philadelphia, PA native and University
of Pennsylvania radiologist, Dr, Jacob Gershon-Cohen who served “on the
faculties of the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University medical
schools” and who “was known as the developer of mammography” passed away today.
1971(11th
of Shevat, 5731): Seventy-five-year-old author Marie Trommer, the Ukraine born
daughter of Bernard and Betha Trembitsky, a member of the Creative Writers
Group, Society of Independent Artists, Salons of America, and Art Alliance of
America passed away today in New York City.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/trommer-marie
https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/nyhs/pr437_marie_trommer/
1972(21st
of Shevat, 5732): Seventy-one-year-old Gavriel Mullokandov regarded by some “as
the greatest Bukharin Jewish singer and musician” passed away
1972: A
groundbreaking ceremony was held today in Reno for Temple Emanu-El's new
building. The dedication ceremony would take place in March of 1973.
1973: King
Hussein of Jordan who is scheduled to meet with President Nixon at the White
House today has “declined to say whether any ‘new initiatives’ regarding a
Middle East settlement will emerge during the discussions.”
1975: U.S.
premiere of “The Strongest Man in the World” co-starring Phil Silvers and
featuring Harold Gould a “Regent Dietz.”
1978: In
Paris, two Sephardic Jewish immigrants from Tunisia gave birth Israeli
singer/songwriter Yael Naim “who seved in the IDF as a soloist in the IAF
Orhestra.
1980: In a
letter-to-the editor published today, Zachary Saletan, President of Moriches
Duck Farm, takes issue with derogatory comments made by Patricia Wells in an
article published on December 19 entitled “So You Want to Buy a Duck” about
ducks sold by Empire Poultry. Saletan contends that it was unfair to
compare kosher ducks (Empire) with non-kosher fowl since the kosher birds have
to be slaughtered and dressed in conformity with the laws of Kashrut.
This requires a process which would account for the different appearance,
texture, etc of the final product. Saletan is doubly upset because
Moriches supplies Empire with its ducks.
1983(23rd
of Shevat, 5743): Seventy-two-year-old Polish native John “Jack” Grossman, a three-sport
all-star athlete at Rutgers who played professionally in the NFL for the
Brooklyn Dodgers before moving to Chile where he played professional baseball
and soccer passed away today in Hollywood, FL today.
1983: The
New York Times publishes “Hebrew Poetry In Its Israeli Phase,” Edward
Hirsch’s review of The Static Element: Selected Poems of Natan Zach;
translated by Peter Everwine and Shulamit Yasny-Starkman
1984(3rd
of Adar I, 5744): Seventy-one-year-old Dr. Solomon Schonfeld, the rabbi who
saved thousands from death during the Holocaust passed away today.
http://www.jta.org/1984/02/10/archive/solomon-schonfeld-dead-at-72
1985(15th
of Shevat, 5745): Tu B’Shevat
1985: Four
days after closing its premiere run in Los Angeles, Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues”
opened at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco.
1987: Prisoner
of Zion, Roald Zelichenok was released today in Leningrad.
1988(18th
of Shevat, 5748): Seventy-two-year-old Marghanita Laski, the author and critic
who was part of distinguished family of Anglo-Jewish intellectuals passed away.
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/09/obituaries/marghanita-laski-72-an-author-and-critic.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2003/feb/24/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries
1989(1st of
Adar I, 5749): Seventy-seven-year-old Pulitzer Prize winning historian Barbara
Tuchman passed away (As reported by Eric Pace)
1990: The
Egyptian authorities said today that the men they suspected of killing nine
Israelis in a rifle and grenade attack on a tour bus near here on Sunday were
Palestinians. That has come as no comfort to a dwindling minority of 40,000
Palestinians whose roots here, once firm, have weakened with time.
1990(11th
of Shevat, 5750): Eighty-one-year-old attorney and Treasury Department Bernard
Bernstein official passed away today.
1991: Today an
Arab traveling on a bus got up and attacked a soldier with a knife.
1994(25th of
Shevat, 5754): Seventy-six-year-old Jacob Kurtzberg, the son of Austrian
immigrants who gained famed as Jack Kirby passed away. He was one of the most
influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in American comic books, and
the co-creator of such enduring characters and popular culture icons as the
Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America, and hundreds of others
stretching back to the earliest days of the medium. He was also a comic book
writer and editor. His most common nickname is "The King."
1995: In “Can
Peace Survive?” published today, Lisa Beyer examined the status of the peace
talks in Israel.
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,982457-2,00.html
1996: Stanford
University graduate and University of Oregon trained attorney Ronald Lee Wyden
the Wichita, KS born son Edith Rosenow and Peter H. Wyden, “both of whom were
Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany” assumed office today as the U.S. Senator
from Oregon.
1997(29th
of Shevat, 5757): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Ezer Weizman
attended funerals and visited grieving families while thousands of Israelis
went to pray at the Western Wall and assemblies were held at schools nationwide
as Israel observed a national day of mourning for the 73 Israeli soldiers who
died on February 4 when two Sikorsky helicopters collided.
1998: U. S.
premiere of “Blues Brothers 2000” directed by John Landis with music by Paul
Shaffer.
1999: In
Manhattan, Rabbi Allan Schranz officiated this evening at the wedding of Robin
Holly Lass, D.D.S. and Samuel David Levy, “a founding partner in Marcus and
Levy, a Manhattan law firm.”
2000: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Trouble With Principle
by Stanley Fish and a newly published paperback edition of Kaddish
by Leon Wieseltier
2001:
Elections for Prime Minister were held in Israel today following the
resignation of the incumbent, Labour's Ehud Barak.
2001: Ariel
Sharon was elected Israeli prime minister in a landslide over Ehud Barak.
2001 Richard
N. Haass began serving as United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland and
Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department.
2002(24th of
Shevat, 5762): Max Perutz, the son Viennese Jewish converts to Catholicism, the
winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1962, passed away.
2003(4th
of Adar I, 5763): Eighty-seven-year-old journalist Herb Brit passed away today.
http://www.davidbrin.com/herbbrin/obituary.html
2004: A
revival of “Ma Rainey’s Black” produced by Benjamin Mordecai opened on Broadway
at the Royale Theatre
2004: “Focus
on the Soul: The Photographs of Lotte Jacobi” opened at the Jewish Museum.
http://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/focus-on-the-soul-the-photographs-of-lotte-jacobi
2005: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including “Unholy Alliance Radical Islam
and the American Left” by David Horowitz
2005: The
New York Times reported that two sisters who were separated in Budapest in
1944 were re-united. Unbeknownst to each other, they had made their
separate ways to Israel in 1948 and had been living 45 miles from each other.
2005: Robert
Kraft, the Jewish owner of the New England Patriots, received the Vince
Lombardi Trophy, as his team won their third super bowl in four years defeating
the Eagles owned by Jeffrey Lurie who is also Jewish.
2005 (27th of
Shevat, 5765): Russian born pianist Lazar Berman passed away at age 75 in
Florence, Italy.
2005 (27th of
Shevat, 5765): Karl Haas, award winning host of the radio show
“Adventures in Good Music” passed away.
2006: Ezekiel
Isaac Malekar, the head of the Jewish community in New Delhi who “is the
Honorary Secretary of the Judah Hyam Synagogue, “was a key participant in the
15th International Conference on Human Integration which took place
at Kirpal Bagh.” He was “a recipient of the Mahavir mahatma Award for
preserving Jewish heritage and culture in India.”
2006: In one
of the largest restitutions ever of art seized by the Nazis, the Dutch
government announced that it would return more than 200 old-master paintings to
the heir of Jacques Goudstikker, a wealthy Dutch Jewish dealer and collector
who fled Amsterdam ahead of advancing German troops in May 1940.
2006: British
Jewry was stunned and outraged over a surprise decision by the Anglican
Church's General Synod to divest from companies whose products are used by
Israel in the territories. The synod backed a call by the Episcopal Church in
Jerusalem to divest from "companies profiting from the illegal
occupation," such as Caterpillar, which makes bulldozers that Israel is
using to build the separation fence. Several Protestant churches in the United
States have adopted similar resolutions over the past two
2007: Jeff
“Zucker became president and CEO of NBC Universal.
2007: Nine Star Hotel, winner
of the 2006 Wologin Award for Israeli Cinema at the Jerusalem Film Festival
will begin being screened in movie theatres in several Israeli cities
2007:
In Cedar Rapids, Harold Becker, Chairman of Guaranty Bank and Trust Company and
pillar of the Jewish Community, was surprised with a reception celebrating his
85th birthday and marking his 35-year tenure as Chairman. Mr.
Becker is driving force behind the Jewish Welfare Board, the community umbrella
organization for the Jews of Cedar Rapids and surrounding communities.
2007:
A Holocaust denier who gave his name as “Eric Hunt” wrote on an anti-Semitic
website explaining why he had attempted to kidnap Eli Wiesel from an elevator
in San Francisco on February 1. Police would later issue an arrest
warrant for what is described as a “New Jersey” man for on charges including
kidnapping, false imprisonment, elder abuse, stalking, battery and the
commission of a hate crime.
2007:
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appointed Daniel Friedmann as the Minister
of Justice today.
2008:
Rosh Chodesh Adar I 5768
2008:
The heads of one of
the largest Palestinian clans in Hebron met with the Kiryat Arba local council
chief and prominent leaders of the Jewish community in Hebron in what both
sides described as a meeting of reconciliation. Sheikh Abu-Hader Ja'abri, the
head of a prominent Palestinian clan and a relative of a former mayor of
Hebron, and the head of the Abu Sneinah clan, Haj Akram Abu-Sneinah met with
the head of the Kiryat Arba settlement council, Zvi K'tzubar, and the heads of
Jewish settlers in Hebron.
2009:
An exhibition entitled Woman with a Camera: Liselotte Grschebina: Germany,
1908 – Israel, 1994 appearing at the Ticho House Gallery of the Israel
Museum comes to an end.
2009:
After having premiered at Alp d’Huex, “The Pink Panther2,” the 11th of the
films in the Pink Panther series, written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H.
Weber was released today in the United States.
2009:
A day after a Hamas delegation left Egypt without an agreement on a long-term
Gaza truce, terrorists in the Strip fired two rockets at southern Israel. One
of the rockets landed near a kibbutz in the Sha'ar Hanegev region, while the
other hit an open area south of Ashkelon
2009:
Eddie Schawartz, “the king of overnight radio in Chicago from the late 1970’s
to the mid-1990’s …was laid to rest after graveside services at Waldheim Jewish
Cemetery in Forest Park.
2010:
Sidney Ferris Rosenberg returned to WFAN to host a special Super Bowl preview
show from Miami.
2010:
In an article published in today’s LA Times, Megan Strack describes the
ordeal of Alexei Vaitsen, one of the few Jews who escaped from Sobibor, and has
lived to be able to bear witness against concentration camp guard, John
Demjanjuk.
2010:
At Temple Judah, in Cedar Rapids, IA, Super Bowl Shabbat combines Tefillah
& Tailgating with the Reading of the Ten Commandments.
2010:
Cellist Alisa Weilerstein and Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan are scheduled to
perform tonight at the Historic Sixth and I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.
2010:
“A Matter of Size” is scheduled to shown this evening as part of the 14th New
York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.
2010: Tony Copti, a supporting actor in the Oscar-nominated
Israeli film Ajami and brother of Ajami co-director Scandar Copti, was arrested
this evening along with another brother for allegedly assaulting police
officers during a brawl in Jaffa and released several hours later.
2010: In a rare occurrence, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon
shook the hand of Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki al-Faisal during the annual
security conference in Munich today.
2011: "Hitler and the Germans — Nation and Crime," an
exhibition at the German Historical Museum that juxtaposes the Nazis'
propaganda images and artifacts such as 1930s Hitler busts with footage and documentation
on the regime's brutality and Germans' involvement in it is scheduled to come a
close today.
2011:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present a program entitled
“Tableau Vivant: The Berberisca Ceremony (A Living Picture)” which is part “of the year-long series, "2,000 Years of Jewish Life
in Morocco: An Epic Journey", presented Under the High Patronage of His
Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco.”
2011:
The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special
interest to Jewish readers including “Ugly Beauty: Helena Rubinstein,
L’Oréal, and the Blemished History of Looking Good” by Ruth Brandon and
“The Last Brother” by Nathacha Appanah, a novel “inspired by the largely
unknown story of 1,500 Jews who fled Europe only to be imprisoned in Mauritius
from 1940 to 1945 after their ship was refused entry into Palestine (then under
British rule)” that “recounts the heartfelt friendship between two boys: David,
a Czech orphan, and Raj, an Indian-Mauritian grieving for the two brothers he
lost in a flash flood.”
2011: As the Green Packers were defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers
in Super Bowl XLV in Dallas, there was at least one Jew rooting for the
Steelers - Randy Grossman the tight end who earned four Super Bowl rings while
playing for teams from “the Steel City.” On the other hand, according to Andrew
Muchin, the Green Bay Packers might have not existed if it had not been for the
unheralded efforts of Nate Abrams, a five-foot, four inch “Jewish cattle
dealer” who helped finance the Packers and who played for them in their first
season.
2011: A colorful procession of dancers and musicians walked down
the aisles and took the stage tonight at Tel Aviv’s Mann Auditorium, the
venerable music venue where the sounds of Bach and Mozart are more often heard
than the blares of huge Korzai trumpets and bangs of Doyra drums. In the stands
some 2,800 Bukharan Jews and dignitaries – a handful of whom were dressed in
the colorful traditional garb of the Central Asian community – clapped and
cheered on the occasion of the Bukhara Jewish Congress’s 11th annual gathering.
2012:
Israeli violinist Shmuel Ashkenasi, pianist Seymour Lipkin and the Jupiter
musicians will perform Mozart’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, K. 493;
the Beethoven String Quintet in C minor, Op. 104; and Clarinet Quartet No. 2
inC minor by Bernhard Crusell, Finland’s first great master of chamber music at
the Good Shepherd Church in New York City.
2012:
Actor Mandy Patinkin who has star of stage, film and television, is scheduled
to appear “in conversation with Than Rosenbaum” at the 92nd Street
Y.
2012: Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini today announced that the
general strike in support of contract workers will begin in two days.
2013(28th
of Shevat, 5773): Eighty-two-year-old bridge champion Ira Rubin passed away
today. (As reported by Paul Vitello)
2013:
Sylvie Simmon and Liel Leibovitz are scheduled to discuss the life of
singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen at the Museum of Jewish Heritage at 36 Battery
Place.
2013:
“The Other Son” is scheduled to be shown at the 13th Annual Broward
County Jewish Film Festival.
2013(28th
of Shevat, 5773): Eighty-nine-year-old Menachem Elon, the former Supreme Court
passed away today and was buried in Jerusalem.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/menachem-elon-dies-at-age-89/
2013: Officials in charge of Bosnia’s national monuments said
today they rejected an offer by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to
exhibit one of Bosnia’s most prized relics, a 600-year-old Jewish manuscript
that remains locked in a museum which closed because of a lack of money.
2013: New York
Mayor Michael Bloomberg today spoke up for academic freedom amid controversy
over an event at a public college, despite stressing his distaste for the cause
at hand.
2013: U.S President Barack Obama wants to host a summit between
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas during his visit here this spring, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon
said today.
2014:
Anniversary of the birth Isaac Zaretski, “a Yiddish linguist, lexicographer and
educator…who was one of the major figures of the movement to reform and
standardize the Yiddish language in the Soviet Union.” (As reported by
Yiddishkayt)
2014: The San
Diego Center for Jewish Culture’s 24th annual Jewish Film Festival
is scheduled to begin today.
2014(6th
of Adar I, 5774): Eighty-seven CBS newsman Marty Plissner passed away today.
(As reported by William Yardley)
2014(6th
of Adar 1, 5774): Eighty-eight year old Pulitzer Prize winning poet Maxine
Kumin passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2014: The
Center for Jewish History is scheduled to a panel discussion “Jews, Cities,
Culture: Hamburg, New York, Kiev.’
2014: Amazon Video
broadcast the first episode of “Transparent” a comedy-drama created by Jill
Soloway and starring Jeffrey Tambor.
2014: Michael
Steinlauf of Gratz College is scheduled to deliver a lecture in Yiddish on “Y.L
Peretz in a Time of Revolution.
2014: The
Third Annual Reelabilities: Greater DC Disabilities Film Festival is scheduled
to begin today.
2014: The
Haifa Symphony Orchestra of Israel is scheduled to make its first New York
appearance at the Lehman Center for the Performing of Arts in Bronx
2014:
Thousands of Haredi demonstrators demanded the government to reinstate payments
to religious seminaries which were frozen earlier this week by Finance Minister
Yair Lapid. (As reported by Adiv Sterman and Stuart Winer)
2015:
According to todays “New York Law Journal” fifty-one-year-old Yisroel Schulman
“has resigned as president and attorney-in-charge of NYLAG” “has stepped down
amid a federal investigation into his alleged accounting irregularities” while
serving as “head of a Jewish legal aid charity for low-income New Yorkers.”
2014: For the
third time in the past 24 hours terrorists in the Gaza strip fired a rocket
into the Ashkelon and Eshkol regions.
2015: The Roni
Koresh Dance Company is scheduled to perform at Pace University’s Schimmel
Center.
2015: The
Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to present Singers of the
"Meitar" Opera Studio Of The Israel Opera “Bel Canto Gems”
2015: Funeral
services were held today at Chabad of the Rivertowns for Ellen Brody.
2015:
“Educating Rita” is scheduled to shown at the 92nd St Y as part of
the Women on Top series.
2016: As part
of its “Power of Pictures” exhibition the Jewish Museum is scheduled to show
“The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty” and “Aelita: Queen of Mars.”
2016: In
suburban Maryland, Kelly Terranova and Mike Aronin are scheduled to appear at
Shaare Tefila’s 5th Annual Night of Sweet Laughter Comedy Night.
2016(27th
of Shevat, 5776): Shabbat Mishpatim
2016(27th
of Shevat, 5576): Ninety-year-old construction mogul John L. Tishman passed
away today.
2016: A
terrorist stabbed a 65-year-old grandmother who was shopping with her family at
a market in Rahat.
2017(10th
of Shevat, 5777): On the Jewish calendar, yahrzeit Shalom Sharabi, the 18th
century Yemen born rabbi, kabbalist and author Nehar Shalom.
2017: The
Streicker Center at Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to host Canadian piano
virtuoso-playwright-director-composer-producer-actor-recording artist Hershey
Felder as Irving Berlin in a one-man bio-drama.
2017: “Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today called for new international sanctions
against Iran during his first meeting with British counterpart Theresa May in
London.” (As reported by Raphael Ahren)
2017: Less
than a month after becoming Governor of Missouri, Republic Eric Greitens
“signed a bill into las making Missouri the 28th right-to-work
state.
2017: Isaac
Zolotarevsky’s 1910 melodrama "Gelt, Libe, Un Shande" (Money, Love
and Shame) is scheduled to be presented at YIVO in a new English translation by
writer/director Allen Lewis Rickman in a ‘rehearsed reading’ format.
2017: The
Brookes Pub Meetup where Jews at Oxford Brookes University have a chance to
meet and mingle is scheduled to take place The Cowley Retreat.
2017: “Israeli
aircraft targeted three Hamas sites in the northern Gaza Strip this afternoon,
hours after tanks shelled one of the terrorist group’s positions in the coastal
enclave in response to a rocket attack earlier that morning, the army said.”
(As reported by Judah Ari Gross)
2018: The
Center for Jewish History is scheduled to offer the first session of Radical
Jewish Politics in Postwar America and Israel focusing on Arthur Waskow, Meir Kahane, Yoel
teitelbaum, and Zvi Yehuda Kook.
2018: Prize winning concert pianist Eliyahu Zabaly is
scheduled to play “selected pieces” at Harmonia Hall in Jerusalem.
2018: Ryan “Kalish signed with the New Britain Bees of the
Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.”
2018: Disney announced that D.B.Weiss and David “Benioff
would write and produce a new series of Star Wars films after the last season
of Game of Thrones ended in 2019.”
2018: Steve “Wynn stepped down as CEO of Wynn Resorts”
today because of allegations by dozens of people that he was guilty of a
variety of “sexual misconduct” “ranging from harassment to forcible assault to
coercing a female employee into sex” which led to his name being removed from a
plaza on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania and having his honorary
degree from the school was rescinded.”
2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to
host a Holocaust Memorial Day event featuring Czech native John Fieldsen who
came to England with his brother in 1939 on the Kindertransport.
2019(1st of Adar I, 5779): Rosh Chodesh Adar I
2019(1st of Adar I, 5779): Sixty-seven year old
Rabbi Yechiel Zvi Eckstein,the Winthrop,
MA son of Rabbi Simon L. and Bell (Hirschman) Eckstein, the founder of the
International Fellowship of Christians and Jews passed away today. (As reported by Isabel Kershner)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/obituaries/rabbi-yechiel-eckstein-dead.html
2019(1st of Adar I, 5779) On the Jewish
calendar yahrzeits Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra and Rabbi Shabsai HaKohen Ktaz.
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Adar_1.html
2019: “The Guiding Hand,” “an exhibition of Torah Pointers
from Past and Present” is scheduled to open today at the Herbert and Eileen
Bernard Museum of Judaica.
2019: The Washington Next Generation Board is scheduled to
host “Americans and the Holocaust: How Did US Citizens Respond?” a benefit
event for “young professionals in the DC area” at the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum.
2019: The Streicker Center is scheduled to “an evening
with Danny Meyer, the Culinary Maestro of Manhattan.
http://emanuelstreickernyc.org/events/the-culinary-maestro-of-manhattan-2/
2019: The JCC of Metro Detroit is scheduled to host a
lecture U. Michigan Professor Ryan Szpiech, author of Conversion and Narrative
on “He is Still Israel? Conversion and Jewish Identity in the Middle Ages.”
https://lsa.umich.edu/judaic/news-events/all-events.detail.html/57447-14193519.html
http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15053.html
2019: “Final results came in this evening for the Likud
party primary held the day before, with Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein taking
the top spot on the list (behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was
reelected as party leader in a 2016 vote), followed by Transportation Minister
Israel Katz, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and former interior minister
Gideon Sa’ar.”
2019: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to
host “a dinner quiz” prepared by “icon and legend of Entz team fame Chloe
Spinks.
2020: At Nocturno, Meni Berger is schooled to celebrate
forty years of rock and roll “in a concert with his best all-time hits.’
2020: In Tiburon, CA, Congregation Kol Shofar is scheduled
to host a “Lunch and Learn” in which “Rabbi Paul Steinberg leads the Great
Modern Jewish Thinkers series starting with a talk on philosopher Martin
Buber.”
2020: In Cincinnati, the Jewish and Israeli Film Festival
is scheduled to host a screening of several “short films.”
2020: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the final two
screenings of “Echo.”
2020: In Mt. Pleasant, NY, Jochabed Isaacks and Michael
Marks gave birth to Levy Marks.
2021: Temple Beth Avodah is scheduled to present online a
Havdalah program featuring a live concert by Nefesh Mountain.
2021: Temple Emunah is scheduled to present online
“Abayudaya: The Music and Culture of the Jews of Uganda.”
2021: The family of Rochelle Jacobson Weiss Z”L, a former
member of Temple Judah is scheduled to host a virtual shiva service this week.
2021: Temple Emanuel of the Merrimack Valley is scheduled
to present online a “Pajama Havdalah” with Rabbi Sparr and Morah Rosen.
2021(24th of Shevat, 7801): Parashat Yitro
2022: Former Cleveland Indians – now known as Guardians –
pitcher Len Barker is scheduled to speak to the Men of Fairmount Temple at an
in-person forum.
2022: The New York Times features reviews of books
by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including GOD:
An Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou and The Postmistress of Paris,
a novel by Meg Waite Clayton “inspired by the real-life Chicago heiress Mary
Jayne Gold, a devoted Francophile who used her money, her social contacts and
her American passport to aid Varian Fry, whose Centre Américain de Secours
smuggled thousands of refugees to safety.”
2022: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to
present a lecture by Richard Sassoon on “The Jew Who Ruled Persia: The Story of
Sa’ad ad-Dawla, a Persian Jew from the city of Abhar.
2022: Final performance of the award-winning musical “The
Band’s Visit” is scheduled to take place at the Golden Gate Theatre in San
Francisco.
2022: The National Library of Israel is scheduled to host
a lecture by Professor Paula Fredriksen on Power, Politics, and God: Religion
in the Roman Empire.
2023(15th of Shevat, 5783): On the Jewish calendar
Yahrzeit of Sir Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Sir Winston
Churchill – a marvelous historian who had the writing skills of novelist – but
who always had time to answer the questions of the most inconsequential of his
readers. If you have never had the
pleasure of reading his work you might want to start with Israel: A History
or Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century or In Ishmael’s House or…
well the list is almost endless.
https://www.martingilbert.com/blatt/in-honour-of-martin/
2023: In celebration of Tu B’Shevat Congregation Beth Ami
of Santa Rosa is scheduled to present a tour of Ron Rubin Winery in the Russian
River Valley, followed by a wine tasting with cheese and crackers.
2023: The ADL South Central Executive Committee is
scheduled to meet this evening.
2023: In New Orleans, LA, Chabad is scheduled to host a Tu
B’Shevat event incudes “a grazing table with a selection of Tu BShvat flavors
including the "Seven Species of the land of Israel."
2023: The Jewish Climate Action Network is scheduled to
present an online Tu B’shevat Lobbying Event where constituents meet with their
Congressional representatives to “advocate for climate solutions to subild a safe,
just and equitable world.”
2023: In Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is scheduled
to host a performance of “Remembrance of Things Present,” a play by L.A.-based
The Braid (formerly Jewish Women’s Theatre) telling the stories of descendants
of Holocaust survivors followed by Q&A with actors and artistic director.
2023(15th of Shevat, 5783): Tu B’Shevat
https://reformjudaism.org/jewish-holidays/tu-bishvat
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3264/jewish/15-Shevat.htm
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/468738/jewish/Tu-BiShvat-What-and-How.htm
https://www.jewfaq.org/tu_bshevat
https://www.alephbeta.org/tu-bishvat
2024: As part
of the Annual Winter Jewish Film Festival, JHMOC is scheduled to host the final
on-line screening of “Where Life Begins.”
2024: Congregation
Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host the first Northeast Columbus, OH, egalitarian
minyan at the JCC New Albany Library.
2024: The Streicker
Cultural Center is scheduled to host “Jew-Hating Through the Ages,” during Rabbi David Wolpe will discuss how anti-Semitism “is too irrational to be tamed
by analysis or lassoed by reason” because “it is the wild, irrational eruption
of the world’s dark collective unconscious.”
2024: As of
February 6th, begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 123 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.)
