This Day, February 24, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
February 24
303: The first
official Roman edict for the persecution of Christians was issued by Roman
Emperor Galerius Valerius Maximianus. This was part a contest between
Pagans and Christians for control of the Roman Empire. The Jews were not involved.
But they would be the ultimate losers when Christianity became the state
religion of the Roman Empire and the Church unleashed the power of the state on
all religious groups that opposed it, including the Jews.
1147: In
Wurzburg, Germany, a rumor began that a Christian corpse was found in the river
which could perform miracles. The Jews were accused to killing the person. In
the ensuring riots, twenty-two Jews were murdered including the rabbi, Isaac
ben Elyukem. After the riot the survivors fled to a local Castle
1221: Alice de
Montmorency, wife of Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester passed
away. In 1217, Alice ordered the arrest of all of the Jews living in
Toulouse. They could either convert or be killed. Children
under the age of six were taken from their parents, baptized and raised
Christians. Her actions violated the promise her husband had made to
the Jews of Toulouse guaranteeing them their freedom and right to practice
their religion.
1304:
Birthdate of Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battutah commonly known as Ibn Battuta,
a Maghrebi traveler, explorer and scholar whose travels took him to the Sinai
Peninsula, Gaza, Hebron, Jerusalem and Bethlehem and some of whose travels
mirrored those taken by Benjamin of Tudela, the 12th century Jewish
author of The Travels of Benjamin, the Hebrew language text, which
provided “a description of Jewish communities” but also was a
reliable source about the geography and ethnography of the Middle Ages which “some
modern historians credit Benjamin with giving accurate descriptions of everyday
life in the Middle Ages.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/benjamin-of-tudela#google_vignette
1463: At
Mirandola, near Modena, Gianfrancesco I Pico, Lord of Mirandola and Count of
Concordia, by his wife Giulia, daughter of Feltrino Boiardo. Count of Scandiano
gave birth to Italian Renaissance philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola who
studied Kabbalah with Johanan Aleman and was one of the first Italian nobles to
collect Hebrew manuscripts and who “was convinced that the literature of
Kabbalah was the true transcript of what Moses heard at Sinai , that
Christianity and Judaism were one with Kabbalah as the point of connection and
that the differences between Judaism and Christianity were superficial”
1479: After
four years of conflict and intrigue, Queen Isabella of Castile secured her
throne. Isabella’s machinations to gain control of the kingdom show her
as every bit as other female monarchs as Elizabeth of England or Catherine the
Great of Russia. Later in the year, she would marry Ferdinand of Aragon,
a move that would lead to the creation of the modern Spanish state.
Contrary to popular misconception, she was the abler of the two monarchs.
In fact, it was only because Ferdinand was a man in a male-dominated society
that saved his reputation. Isabella’s accession to the throne was the
first in a series of events that would end with the expulsion of the Jews from
Spain in 1492.
1500: In
Ghent, Philip the Handsome and Joanna Castile gave birth to Charles V, the Holy
Roman Emperor who provided Josel of Rosheim with “a charter or letter of
protection from for the whole of German Jewry but who alos “issued a proclamation again the Jews who had
not been baptized” which may have applied to the Jews he ruled as King of
Spain.
1510:
Pope Julius II excommunicated the Republic of Venice. Many remember Julius II
as the Pope who commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel.
Julius II, like at least one of his predecessors, had a Jewish physician; in
this case Samuel Sarfatti. From the Jewish point of view, Julius clashes
such as the one that brought on the above mentioned excommunication and
aesthetic projects meant that he did not have time to waste on persecuting his
Jews. Out of sight out of mind or benign neglect placed Julius on the
list of one of the “better Popes.”
1530:
Coronation in Italy of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor who provided Josel of
Rosheim with “a charter or letter of protection from for the whole of German
Jewry but who alos “issued a proclamation again the Jews who had not been
baptized” which may have applied to the Jews he ruled as King of Spain.
1536:
Birthdate of Ippolito Aldobrandini who became Pope Clement VIII during whose
Papacy Jews were forced to attend “conversionist sermons,” prohibited from
“dealing in new articles of clothing” and forced to allow copies of the Talmud
to be burned in 1601.
1590: Accused
“Judaizer” Catalina de Leon, the wife of Antonio Dias de Caceres, did penance
at an auto da fe held in Mexico City today.
1597: Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, who, in 1588
sent Mantua born engineer Abraham Colorni to Prague married his third wife
today.
1582:
Pope Gregory XIII announced the Gregorian calendar. This replaced the
Julian Calendar which explains why there is some confusion about various dates
in history. Of course the Jews use their own calendar, but as a people
who “live in time” it is useful to know when other parts of the Western world
began changing the way they keep track of the years.
1590: An
entire family of Marranos named de Carabaja “was forced to confess and abjure
at a public auto-da-fé, celebrated” today. “Luis de Carabajal the younger, with
his mother and four sisters, was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and his
brother, Baltasar, who had fled upon the first warning of danger, was, along
with his deceased father, Francisco Rodriguez de Matos, burnt in effigy.”
(According to some accounts this happened in 1599)
1688(23rd of
Adar): Portuguese poet and grammarian Moses Gideon Abudiente passed away.
1739: The army
of Iranian ruler Nadir Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India,
Muhammad Shah at the Battle of Karnal. Nadir Shah’s rise to power marked
an improvement in the lives of the Persian Jewish community. The last
half of the 17th century had been a period of persecution for the
Jews when many of them actually outwardly converted to Islam. Under Nadir, the
Jews were once again free to practice their religion in public.
1749(16h of
Adar I, 5509): Sahara Helbert, the Daughter of Philip Helbert and the second
wife of Baruch Judah passed away today in NewYork City
1763: Today “a mob protesting the abolition of half-price
admissions stormed the theatre in the middle of the performance of
“Artaxerxes,” an opera which would in the next decade feature the tenor voice
of Michael Leoni who was also known as Myer Lyon, the Chazan at the Great
Synagogue in London.
1765: David
Tevele Schiff was named as the Rabbi to lead the Great Synagogue in London
succeeding Hart Lyon in that position. Hart had actually been the rabbi
for the Great Synagogue and the Hambro Synagogue. The two congregations were
supposed to continue this practice. But they could not agree on a
successor. Once the Great Synagogue had made its decision, the Hambro
Synagogue chose Israel Meshullam Solomon to serve as their rabbi.
1774(13th
of Adar, 5534): Erev Purim, celebrated on the same day that American patriot
Richard Henry Lee wrote to Arthur Lee that "North America is now most dimly united
and as firmly resolved to defend their liberties ad infinitum against every
power on Earth that may attempt to take it away” which was one of the defining
statements on the road to the fight for independence from Great Britain.
1781: In
Newport, RI, Jochabed Levy and Moses Mendes Seixas, who were married in 1770,
gave birth to Bella Seixas who never married.
1789: Emanuel
de la Motta and his wife gave birth to Doctor Jacob de la Motta, “a member of
the South Carolina Medical Society, a U.S. Army Surgeon during the War of 1812
who lived in Savannah where he was instrumental in erecting the building that
housed Mikveh Israel and serving as a lay leader before returning to Charleston
“where he became one of that city’s leading physicians while taking an active
role in community affairs
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11188-motta-jacob-de-la
1793: Zipporah
Isaacs and Hymen Cohen gave birth to Frances Cohen, the wife of Aaron Joseph
with whom she had seven children.
1796(14th
of Adar II, 5556): Purim observed for the last time during the presidency of
George Washington.
1798(8th
of Adar, 5558): Parashat Tetzaveh: Shabbat Zachor
1803: In Marbury
v. Madison decided today, The Supreme Court of the United States establishes
the principle of judicial review which would be part of the judicial arsenal
when Jewish justices starting with Justice Brandeis began serving on the High
Court.
1809(8th
of Adar, 5569): Lea Landauer, the wife of Raphael ben Isser Landauer and the mother
of Joseph Löb Arjeh Landauer; Löb (Leopold) Raphael Landauer; Israel Isser
Landauer and Moses Landauer passed away today in Bavaria.
1816(25th
of Shevat, 5576): Parashat Mishpatim; Shabbat Shekalim
1816: In
Germany Sara and Isaac Fried gave birth to Friederike Feist, the wife of Moses
Feist and the mother of Leopold, Salomon and Sarphan Feist.
1817: Two days
after he had passed away, Zvi, the son of Isaac HaCohen was buried today at the
“Brady Jewish Cemetery.”
1818: In
London, “actor-manager Henry John Wallack and Fanny Jones” gave birth to
American actor James William Wallack
https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-William-Wallack-II
http://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1801197
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1873/05/25/80319891.pdf
1829: Lyman and Achsah Wells Granger gave birth
Fanny R. Granger who became Fanny Granger Kanter when she married Breslau
native Edward Kanter, the Detroit banker with whom she had four children –
Henry, Charles, Edward and Jessie.
1831:
Birthdate of Leo von Caprivi, who as Chancellor of Germany earned the enmity of
the anti-Semites, who were a growing force, when he attacked their leaders in a
speech before the Reichstag in 1893.
1831: One day
after he had passed away, Same Benjamin was buried today at the “Brompton
(Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1835:
Birthdate of Sir Julius Vogel, the eighth Premier of New Zealand and the first
Jew to hold this position.
1836: Louis
Goodman married Julia Salamon today at the Western Synagogue.
1839: Birthdate
of Hanover, Germany native and future Yazoo City, Mississippi resident Emile
Schaefer, the husband of Julia Marx Schaefer and Caroline Weinschenk Schaefer
1841: David
ben Jacob married Rachel bat Aaron HaLevi today at the Western Synagogue.
1842:
Birthdate of German Egyptologist Émile Brugsch who in 1881 “discovered the
tomb at Deir el Bahir” which included the mummy of Ramses II, the Pharaoh of
the Exodus.
1844: In New
York, Isabella Lloyd and Henry Russell gave birth to William Clark Russell.
1847: Moss
Ansell married Mary Cantor today at the Great Synagogue.
1847: Asher
Solomon married Anna Russel today at the Great Synagogue.
1848:
Louis-Philippe, “King of the French,” abdicates the throne. Louis’s reign began
with a revolution in 1830 and ended with a revolution in 1848. This
monarch from the house of Orleans was a rather dull character when compared to
the glory of the Bourbons and Bonaparte but it was his very dullness that got
him to the throne. As is so often the case, Louis’ record in dealing with
the Jews is a mixed bag. As Elliot Rosenberg points, by the time Louis
came to the throne French Jews were well on their way to full
emancipation. Under Louis, “rabbis joined other clerics paid from the
state exchequer.” While English Jews were still denied entry to Oxford
and Cambridge, the doors “opened widely” at French universities. “Jewish
communities joined in praising” him as the monarch who “’had enlarged our
liberties.’” In 1835, Louis defended the rights of French Jews in a diplomatic
conflict with the Swiss. James de Rothschild, head of the French branch
of the House of Rothschild was “a royal intimate” who according to his brother
Salomon “goes to the palace whenever he wishes. James was not only a
pillar of the French government, he was also the man who handled the “personal
investment accounts” of the French monarch. All this good will was
tainted by the Damascus Affair in which the French sided with those who
supported the claim of the Blood Libel against Jews living in Syria. The
French were trying to establish their sphere of influence in the Middle East
and North Africa and if the price was that of a few Jews, so be it.
Regardless, by the time of the abdication, Jewish emancipation in France was so
ingrained that nothing would stem that tide. Of course, the Dreyfus
Affair, fifty years later would demonstrate the illusory nature of that emancipation.
Louis’s successor, Napoleon III would prove to be “bad for the French people”
and therefore “bad for the Jews.”
1848: As the
revolutionary forces took power, the Republicans named Adolphe Cremieux, a
prominent lawyer, statesman and leader of the French Jewish community, to serve
as the minister of justice. During his time in office, he “secured the decrees
abolishing the death penalty for political offenses, and making the office of
judge immovable.” “He was instrumental in declaring an end to slavery in
all French Colonies, for which some have called him the French Abraham
Lincoln.”
1849: One day
she had passed 62-year-old Catherine, “the wife of Shimson bar Tuvya” was
buried today at the “Brady Street Jews Cemetery.”
1852: In
Richmond, VA, Joseph and Caroline (Waterman) Myers gave birth University of
Richmond graduate Lee Roy Myers, the husband of Julia Davis who in 1869 went to
the cigar business in Savannah GA where he served as president of Lee Roy Myers
Company and Cortez Cigar Company.
1853: Lord
John Russell, the last Whig to serve as prime minister of Great Britain spoke
in a favor of the bill to remove the political “Jewish Disabilities.”
JEWISH DISABILITIES. (Hansard, 24 February 1853) (parliament.uk)
1857: In
England, Phoebe Levy and Aaron Samuel gave birth to John Samuel
1859: In
Michigan, Julius and Jennie F. Ringuette Houseman gave birth to Hattie Houseman
Amberg, the wife of David Moses Amberg.
1860(1st of
Adar, 5620): Rosh Chodesh Adar observed on the day Henry David Thoreau wrote in
his journal, “A fact state barely is dry” but “it must be the vehicle of some
humanity in order to interest us.”
1860: In
Lithuania, “Chaim and Golde H. (Purvin) Bluestone game birth to NYU trained medical doctor and organizer of
the ZOA Joseph Isaac Bluestone, the organizer and president of Choveve Zion in
American and an organizer and member o f the board of Beth Hospital in New
York.
1861(14th
of Adar, 5621): Purim
1861: As the
Jews celebrated Purim for the first time during the Civil War, President
Lincoln sat for a photographic portrait by Alexander Gardner.
1862: Sergeant
Elias Reubenthal began a three-year enlistment with Company I of the 113th
regiment of the 12th Cavalry.
1863: In New
York City. Adolphe and Ida (Deutsch) Blum gave birth to merchant and banker
Edward Charles Blum, the First Vice President of Abraham and Strauss Department
Store and husband of Florence Abraham.
1863: In
Vienna, Austria, Rabbi Ignatz and Nettie (Rosenbaum) Grossman gave birth to
Louis Grossman who graduated from Hebrew Union College and served as the rabbi
at Detroit’s Temple Bethel and Congregation B’nai Yeshurun in Cincinnati, Ohio.
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0092/ms0092.html
1864: During
the Civil War, Joseph B. Greenhut, who had been fighting as a member of the
Union Army since April of 1861, resigned his commission and returned to
civilian life. Greenhut had fought at a series of famous battles including Fort
Donelson, Gettysburg and Lookout Mountain.
1865: In
Louisville, KY, “Moritz (Morris) Flexner, an immigrant from Neumark, Bohemia,
via several years in Strasbourg, France; and his wife Esther from Roden,
Germany” gave birth to Bernard Flexner the founder and first president of the
Palestine Economic Corporation” and husband of Mary Flexner and younger brother
of Dr. Simon Flexner.
https://library.princeton.edu/special-collections/collections/bernard-flexner-papers
1868(1st of
Adar, 5628): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1868:
Alphonse, Baron de Rothschild and his wife Leonora, the daughter of Baron
Lionel de Rothschild of London gave birth to their only son Edouard who fought
a duel during the Dreyfus case.
1869(13th
of Adar, 5629): Erev Purim observed for the last time during the Presidency of
Andrew Johnson.
1869:
Birthdate of Rochester, NY native and
clothing manufacturer turned banker, Max I Holtz, the president of the
Rochester Clothiers Exchange who in 1918 settled the strike with the
Amalgamated Clothing Workers and who resigned as head of Louis Holtz and Sons
which had been founded by his father so he could devote more time to serving as
President of the Columbia Banking, Savings and Loan Association while also
serving as leader of the Republican party.
1873: In New
Orleans, Theodore and Frances “Fanny: Hellman gave birth to Editi Cecilia
Hellman who became Edith Cecilia Beer when she married George Louis Beer, the
New York born son of Julius and Sophia Beer and award-winning historian.
1874: Three
days after he had passed away, George John David Jonassohn, the young son of
“Moses John Jonassohn” and Mathilda Jonassohn was buried at the “Balls Pond
Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1874:
Birthdate of Moshe Smilansky, the native of Telepino and brother of Meir and
Anna Smilansky who first came to Palestine in 1890 as part of the First Aliyah,
became an author who wrote in Hebrew and was a proponent of a bi-national state
in the 1930’s.
1876: Two days
after he had passed away, Frederick Augusta Cowen, the husband of Emily Cowen
and the father of Lionel, Emma and Frederick Cowen was buried today at the
“Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1877: An
agreement was reached today between the Ottoman rulers and the Serbian envoys
led by Prince Milan. The Serbians agreed to all of the conditions set by the
Turks except two, one of which was the requirement that the Jews of Serbia be
granted the same rights as all other Serbs.
1878: “Is
Disraeli A Jew” was published today.
1878: In
Halle, Germany, Julius Bernstein, “the Chair of Physiology at the Martin Luther
University of Halle-Wittenberg and was the Director of the Physiological
Institute at the University of Halle” and his wife gave birth to Felix
Bernstein the “mathematician known for proving in 1896 the Schröder–Bernstein
theorem” who was forced to flee Hitler’s Germany.
1878: The
Young Men’s Hebrew Association met tonight in New York to discuss the proposal
made by Thomas Grady to abolish the Free College.
1879(1st
of Adar, 5639) Rosh Chodesh Adar observed on the same day it is reported
President Hayes will use the pocket veto to deal with Anti-Chinese Immigration
Bill.
1880(12th
of Adar, 5640): Seventy-nine-year-old Judge David Naar, the St. Thomas born
sone of Sarah and Chazan Joshua Naar and the husband of Sarah Cohen Naar passed away today in Trenton, NJ.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/naar-david
1881:
Seventeen-year-old Marion Calish, the Hebrew teacher at Professor Felix Adler’s
kindergarten who has been missing since the 19th, was found just
before midnight tonight by a traveling salesman who took her to the local
police precinct.
1882: A man
who claimed to be named Rothschild and is thought to be Jewish attempted to use
a bogus check to pay for purchases at A and C Myer in New York City.
1882: Two of
the Jewish refugees from Russia who arrived in Philadelphia, PA on the SS
Illinois are the only ones who have been identified as being sick – that is
two out over three hundred men, women and children.
1882: A cable
sent to the Toronto Globe from London stated that at a meeting of the Committee
on the Fund for the Relief of Russo-Jewish Refugees, Sir A.T. Galt suggested
that two or three of the Jewish refugees should be allowed to go to Canada’s
Northwest Territories to make arrangements for the arrival of their
co-religionists.
1883: In
Columbia, MO, Bertha Myer and Bernhard Loeb gave birth to University of
Missouri graduate and St. Louis University trained physician and oral surgeon
Virgil Loeb, the husband of Therese M. Metzler and professor of oral surgery at
St. Louis University as well as a professor of stomatology at the Washington
University Dental school who rose to the rank of Major while serving in France
during WW I as member of Medical Corps of the United States Army.
1884(28th
of Shevat, 5644): Fifty-four-year-old Alsatian born French painter Benjamin
Ulman passed away today in Paris.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14574-ulmann-benjamin
https://www.invaluable.com/artist/ulman-benjamin-7j27ldsgaq/
1884: Harold
Emmanuel Levy, an infant, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.”
1885:
Birthdate of Joseph Sprinzak, first Speaker of Israeli Knesset. “Born in
Moscow, Sprinzak's father was active in the Hovevei Zion. When Jews were
expelled from Moscow in 1891, the family moved to Kishinev and then Warsaw. The
home was a center for young Hebrew writers and Zionists. In the early 1900s, he
was one of the organizers of HaTehiyah, a Zionist group led by Yitzhak
Gruenbaum. During this period, he worked in a Hebrew publishing house as well
as on Hebrew and Yiddish newspapers in Warsaw. In 1905 he returned to Kishinev
where he was active in Zionist affairs. In 1908 he spent several months in
Constantinople where he was in contact with Zionist leaders, and then went to
Beirut to study medicine. His studies were cut very short when, after just a
few months, he was asked to become secretary of HaPoel HaZair. During World War
I he was in Eretz Yisrael and after the war, was instrumental in founding Hitahdut,
a world movement which joined HaPoel HaZair and Zeirei Zion. A delegate to the
11th and 12th Zionist Congresses, Sprinzak became the first representative of
the yishuv's labor movement to be elected to the Zionist Executive. When
independence was declared in 1948, he was elected to the Provisional State
Council as well as the first three Knessets, serving as speaker for 10
years. Joseph Sprinzak was known as a Zionist leader who strongly
identified with the rank-and-file, both in Israel and abroad. His conception of
Zionism was based on socialism and the process of national rebirth. During his
tenure as secretary of HaPoel HaZair, he was involved in the absorption of Jews
from Yemen. During World War I, he helped organize the yishuv's Jewish workers.
In the 1920s, as a member of the Zionist executive, he was head of the Labor
and then the Aliyah Departments. He also helped found the Histadrut labor
federation and was a member of the Tel Aviv municipality. In the 1930s, as a
member of the Histadrut executive, Sprinzak was instrumental in the formation
of Ben-Gurion's Mapai political party. In the 1940s he became a leading member
of the Zionist General Council and eventually was general secretary of the
Histadrut. As Knesset speaker during the body's first 10 years, Sprinzak had a
major influence on the country's emerging democracy. He died in 1959.”
1887: In Louisville, KY, Morris and Ray Forst
Kaluber gave birth to medical school student turned journalist and broadcaster,
Edward Kaluber, who married Doris Larson Klauser two years after the death of
his first wife Gladys Gustafson Kaluber and served as the city of the New
York Times before eventually becoming an executive vice president of the
Columbia Broadcasting System
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1954/09/24/93409711.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1887: Three
days after he had passed away, Phineas Abraham, the husband of the former
Caroline Simon with whom he had had eight children was buried today at the
“Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1889:
Birthdate of Aleksei Denisovich Dikiy, the native of the Ukraine and brother of
actress Maria Sukhodolska – Dikova who was a Soviet actor and director during
the Stalin era.
1889:
Birthdate of Arne Laurin the graduate of the “Technical Academy of Prague,” the
editor-in-chief of Prager Presse, a
German language newspaper regarded as the mouthpiece of the Czech government
who was forced to flee because of opposition to the Nazis and Conrad Henlein,
leader of the Sudeten Germans and who “took charge of the index department of
the Czechoslovak Information Service” after arriving in New York in 1939 with
his wife “Olga Weiss Laurinova.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/02/19/84628244.pdf
1889: In
“eastern Galicia,” Shmaryahu Imber, the Hebrew author and Bella Miriam Imber
gave birth to Samuel Jacob Imber the “husband of Nussia Imber, the nephew of
Naphtali-Herz Imber, the author of “Hatikvah” who wrote poetry in Polish and
was Yiddish author who in 1942 was murdered by anti-Semites “during pogroms
following the Nazi occupation of the Ukraine.”
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/imber-samuel-jacob
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2014/06/shmuel-yankev-samuel-jacob-imber.html
1889: In the
United States, Arthur Richard Rosson and Helene Rochefort gave birth to actress
Ethel Rosson, who became Ethel Rosson Daly, the wife John Daly and whose
siblings cinematographer Harold Rosson and actor/director Richard Rosson.
1889:
Birthdate of Jacques (Jacob) Presser “a Dutch historian, writer and poet best
known for his book Ashes in the Wind: The destruction of the Dutch Jews
which descried “the persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands during World War
II.”.
1890: It was
reported today that Sarah Bernhardt will be returning to the United States in
October to perform at the Broadway Theatre in New York City.
1890: It was
reported today that at the request of Elsie Leslie, 500 hundred children from
the Industrial Schools of the Associated Hebrew Charities will attend one of
her final matinee performances of “The Prince and the Pauper at the Broadway
Theatre. (Elsie Leslie was a noted child actress of her time. Born in
1881, she passed away in 1966. I cannot find any reason why she singled
out a school for Jewish students for this treat.)
1890: It was
reported today that the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society is caring for nearly
600 children, 200 of whom were girls and 400 were boys.
1891:
“Elevated Funeral Trains” published today described the decision of the
Directors of the Union Elevated Railroad in Brooklyn to extend service to
Cypress Cemetery and the “numerous Jewish cemeteries in the neighborhood and to
establish funeral trains consisting of a car for the coffin and two or three
cars for the funeral party. Most of the directors are Jewish and Edward
Lauterbach who is counsel for the company is attempting to establish contracts
with various synagogues to convey the funeral parties from the ferries or
bridge to the cemetery.
1892: Birthdate of Moscow native, vaudeville
monologist and radio and Broadway performer Joe Laurie Jr. who formed the
vaudeville team of Laurie and Bronson with his first wife Aleen Bronson and was
the father of Joseph Bryant Hughes Laurie.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0491385/
https://archives.nypl.org/the/22632
https://the-lambs.org/club_member/laurie-joseph-jr/
1893: The
American University, a private Methodist university in Washington, D.C. is
chartered by an act of the Congress of the United States of America. A.U. has
over one thousand Jewish undergraduate students out of a total of almost
6,000. Out of an estimated 4,700 grad students, 1,000 are Jewish.
The school offers a minor in Jewish Studies, a university program in Israel and
the services of an authorized Hillel House.
1893(8th of
Adar, 5653): Benjamin Henry Ascher, Hebrew scholar and author passed away
1893: “At the
second session of the 52nd Congress…a bill was presented to the
House ordering that a gold medal be struck off in recognition of the services
rendered by Haym Solomon during the Revolutionary War, in consider of which the
Salomon heirs waived their claims upon the United States for indemnity.” The
full House never took action on the resolution.
1894: It was
reported that Kuhn, Loeb & Co is among the contributors to the
Citizens’ Relief Committee which has raised $94, 065.50 for those suffering
from the effects of the economic depression.
1894: It was
reported today that Jacob H. Schiff, Solomon Loeb and Abraham Wolff are among
the prominent citizens who have joined a movement led by Cornelius Vanderbilt
“to establish a pawn broking establishment” in New York modeled on “public pawn
broking establishing that have been of great help to the poor in several large
European cities.
1895: “A Most
Noble Charity” published today described the work of the Montefiore Home for
Incurables which “was originally intended as home where incurable patients
should be received and made comfortable during their lives” has not taken on
the additional role of providing treatment for chronic invalids” many of whom
“were hopelessly stricken by disease” but have left the facility “in the full
possession of health.
1896:
“Religion In Large Cities” published today described the conditions of
religious institutions in New York City including the fact that there “51
Hebrew organizations” in the city.
1896:
According to Emily Crawford of the Associated Press, Prince Henry of Orleans is
hoping to capitalize on the anti-Dreyfus spirit as a way of bringing about the
downfall of the Republic which he no doubt hopes will be replaced with a
Monarchy.
1897: Two days
after he had passed away, 84-year-old Harris Silver was buried today at
“Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1898:
Birthdate of Romanian born American political scientist and Fabian Socialist
Herman Finer the University of Chicago professor and author who is the brother
of Samuel Finer.
1898: “Prison
and Fine For Zola” published today described the scene in the courtroom when
Emile Zola was convicted. The verdict was handed down at seven in the evening
but the jury had agreed on its decision days ago in response, in part to
threats from the mob that surrounded the court during the trial. In response to
the sentence which stemmed from his defense of Captain Dreyfus the defamed
Jewish officer Zola compared himself to Christ saying that he too was “a victim
of mob violence office cowardice and a grand miscarriage of justice.”
(Considering that the Catholic Churc were one of the groups arrayed against
him, this was a bold, fitting, comparison.)
1899(14th
of Adar, 5659): Last Purim celebration of the 19th century.
1900(25th
of Adar I 5660): Parashat Vayakhel; Shabbat Shekalim
1900: In
London, Chief Rabbi Adler has been elected a member of the Anthenaeum Club
after having been proposed for membership the Most Reverend Mandell Creighton,
Bishop of London.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1903/02/25/101975306.html?pageNumber=8
1901(5th
of Adar, 5661): Twenty-six-year-old Joseph Herzfeld the Bad Konig, Deutschland
son of Regina and Moses Herzfeld passed away today in his hometown.
1901: It was
reported today that Jews have been excluded “from all the professional schools
in Romania” as well as “the college for preceptors,” the naval and military
schools” and “from all boarding schools.”
1902: In
Berlin, the ninth meeting of the Union of Judæo-German Congregations came to
end.
1903: It was
reported today Nathan Straus’s trotter Ted “established a remarkable record for
himself by defeating the crack pacer Bell Boy at the Speedway.
1904:
Herzl writes, "Yesterday I had a most curious visitor: Ali Nuri Bey ...
His proposal ... comes to this: Sail into the Bosporus with two cruisers,
bombard Yildiz, let the Sultan flee or capture him, put in another Sultan
(Murad or Reshad), but first form a provisional government - which is to give
us the Charter for Palestine...."
1905(19th
of Adar I, 5665): Sixty-six year old Florida born Israel Moses Nunez who rose
to the rank of Major in the CSA and founded a stage line at Stonewall, TX in
1870 passed away today Austin, TX after which he was buried at the Beth Israel
Cemetery.
1906(29th
of Shevat, 5666): Parashat Mishpatim; Shabbat Shekalim
1906: Russian Communist leader Leon Trotsky and his
second wife Natalia Sedova gave birth to Lev Lvoich Sedov.
http://spartacus-educational.com/Lev_Sedov.htm
1906:
Birthdate of Yosef Serline, the native of Bialystok who served as personal
secretary Nahum Sokolow before making Aliyah in 1930 following he which he
served as an MK in the first seven Knessets.
1906:
Birthdate of Yosef Serlin, the native of Bialystok who made Aliyah in 1933 and
worked as lawyer in Tel Aviv while pursuing a political career that included
serving as member of the First Knesset.
1906: “Their
Stores to Close Saturdays” published today described the decision of the East
Side Dry Goods Merchants’ Association to give their employees the day off on
Saturday because they did little or no business because the vast majority of
customers were Jews.
1907(10th of
Adar, 5667): Composer Otto Goldschmidt passed away at the age of 87.
1907: In New
York, Hyman Novick, a Russia Jewish immigrant
operator of a Borscht Belt hotel and his wife Sadie gave birth Ben
Novick who was Ben Novack moved to Miami Beach where he co-owned the Sans Souci
Hotel before he built and owned the luxurious Fontainebleau hotel, one of the
most famous hostelries on Collins Avenue.
1908: Muller
v. Oregon in which Louis Brandeis “as additional counsel for the state of
Oregon” filed the first of its kind of brief now known as the “Brandeis Brief”
which relied “more on a compilation of scientific information and social
science than on legal citations” was decided today by the Supreme Court in
favor of the state of Oregon
1908(22nd of
Adar): Rabbi Jehiel Michal Epstein of Novogrdok, Russia author of Arukh
ha-Shulhan passed away
1909:
Birthdate of Max Black. Born in Azerbaijan, raised and educated in
England, Black became a U.S. citizen in 1948. It is hard to classify him
because his interests were so varied. “Black was famed for his contributions to
the philosophy of language, the philosophy of mathematics and science, the
philosophy of art, conceptual analysis, and his studies of the work of several
major philosophers. Black was a prolific author and lists of his publications
contain over 200 items. He passed away in 1988.
1910:
Birthdate of Fred Sington, the native of Birmingham, Alabama, who as an
all-America tackle at the University of Alabama, led the Crimson Tide to the
national championship in 1930 before going on to a major league baseball career
with the Washington Senators and Brooklyn Dodgers.
1911: As the
issue of Russian treatment of American Jews wishing to go the land of the Czar
for business purposes heated up, “Senator Culberson to-day introduced a
resolution declaring it to be "the sense of the Senate that the treaty of
1832 between the United States and Russia should be abrogated because of the
discrimination by Russia between American citizens in the administration of the
treaty." (Editor’s Note- The irony is that this philo-Semitic behavior was
going on at the same time efforts were being made to heavily restrict Jewish
immigration, especially from Russia)
1912: “The
Sunshine Girl” a musical comedy “with a book by Paul A. Rubens” opened at the
Gaiety Theatre in London.
1912: “At a
meeting at Temple Emanu-El in New York City today, Henrietta Szold together
with other Zionist women, proposed to the Daughters of Zion study circle that
they expand their purpose and embrace proactive work to help meet the health
needs of Palestine's people” which resulted in the birth of Hadassah, the
largest women's organization in America.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/feb/24/1912/hadassah
1913: Dr.
Stephen Wise of New York is scheduled to deliver an address on “Moral and
Religious Aspects of the Woman’s Movement” at a joint meeting of the Chicago
Association of Jewish Women and the Chicago Woman’s Aide this afternoon at
Sinai Temple
1914:
Birthdate of Esta Saltzman the native of Boston, MA who gained fame as Yiddish
actress Esta Saltzman Lubin
1914(28th
of Shevat, 5674): Sixty-one year old Joseph Fels, the Virginia born son of
Susannah and Lazarus Fels and the husband of Bavarian born, Iowa raised
“philanthropist, Zionist” WW I anti-War
activist, Mary Fels passed away today in Philadelphia.
1915: It was
reported today that Jews were among the hundreds of thousands who were
suffering and has lost everything because they lived along the borders of
between Russia and Germany where much of the fighting was taking place on the
Eastern Front and were now fleeing to avoid the advancing and retreating
armies.
1916:
Representatives from the National Jewish Workmen’s Committee on Jewish Rights
are scheduled to attend “a public hearing before the Committee on Foreign
Relations of the House of Representatives called for the purposed of
considering a resolution…urging that all legal disabilities of the Jews be
removed in the countries now at war.”
1916: In
Congress, “the Committee on Foreign Relations” is scheduled to hold a public
hearing on a joint resolution offered by Representative London and Senator Lane
supporting the cause of peace and “the removal of discriminations against Jews
wherever they exist.”
1916: The
Zionist Council of New York held a mass meeting at Cooper Union tonight.
Louis Lipsky, who presided over the meeting, attacked the critics of the
Zionist movement, including fellow Jews who had called it a “partisan
issue.” He said that “Zionism is the essential ingredient of any policy
the Jewish people may adopt at this time time for the protection of Jewish
interests.” Wolf Gluskin, who has only arrived in the United States from
Palestine where he had helped to establish one of first Zionist settlements,
told the assembly about the suffering being experienced by 35,000 Palestinian
Jews as a result of the World War. The wine industry, which the Jewish
settlers had worked so hard to develop, was on the verge of destruction.
The New York Zionists also heard from Dr. Ben Zion Mossinsohn, a teacher living
in Jaffa and Dr. Schmaraya Levin of the International Zionist Committee.
1917: H.
Pereira Mendes celebrates his 40th anniversary as rabbi of Congregation
Shearith Israel of New York City.
1917: Dr.
Samuel Schulman is scheduled to leader Saturday morning services at Temple
Beth-El in Manhattan.
1917: Dr.
Enelow is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “How Can We Gain the Benefits of
Religion” at Temple Emanu-El.
1917: At
Temple Israel of Harlem, Dr. M.H. Harris is scheduled to deliver a Sabbath
sermon on “The Temple and Israel.”
1917: The
Judeo-Spanish newspaper El Emigrante was established in New Jersey.
1917: The
Russian Revolution begins in earnest when troops of the Czar fire on the
citizens of St. Petersburg. This is the first, non-Bolshevik Russian
Revolution. Jews played an active role in the various upheavals that would
bring an end to the reign of the Czars. The Jews did not realize that
anti-Semitism was such an integral part of the Russian psyche that it would
survive and flourish under the next wave of autocrats – the Communists who
replaced the Czars.
1917: The
German plan to bring Mexico into World War on the German side is exposed.
The incident is referred to as the “Zimmerman telegram.” Zimmerman was
the German foreign minister. This bit of arrogance and ignorance was one
of the causes of the United States entering the war in April of 1917. The
Jewish author Barbara Tuchman wrote a very readable and informative book on
this subject.
1918:
Einstein wrote “to an academic correspondent who had rebuked him for his
dislike of war, ‘Your ostentatious Teutonic muscle-flexing runs rather against
my grain. I prefer to string along with my compatriot Jesus Christ, whose
doctrines you and your kind consider to be obsolete. Suffering is indeed
more acceptable to me than resort to violence.’”
1918: It was
reported today that the Joint Distribution Committee has appropriated an
additional $100,000 to help pay for “the medical unit being formed by Hadassah”
which is to be sent to Palestine.
1918: It was
reported today that Joint Distribution Committee has allocated $500,000 “for
the general relief” of Jews living “in the occupied parts of Russia, including
Poland, Lithuania and Lublin” and $800,000 to help “the wives and children of
American Jews stranded in Harbin to join their husbands” in the United States.
1918: Lenin’s
newly installed government decided today that Russia would have to sign a
“treaty of capitulation” with the Germans and that since nobody would lead the
delegation Jewish born Bolshevik Grigori Sokolnikov was forced to lead the
delegation that would sign the humiliating Brest-Litovsk Treaty.
1919: “Jews
Point in Pride to Record in War” published today reported that “the total
number of Jews in the military and naval service during the war was between
165,000 and 200,000, or from 4 to 5 per cent. of the total personnel of the
American forces at the time the armistice was signed.”
1920: The Nazi
party held it first major meeting in Munich, Germany during which they adopted
a platform that stated “Jews could never be citizens or a part of the German
Volk or German people.”
1921: In New
York City, two Jewish immigrants from Russia – Samuel Vigoda and the former
Lena Moses gave birth to actor Abraham “Abe” Charles Vigoda known to many as
“Tessio” the mobster who betrayed Michael Corleone in the “The Godfather” and
Detective Fish in the comedy cop show “Barney Miller.” https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/27/arts/television/abe-vigoda-actor-of-godfather-fame-dies-at-94.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
1921: In
Cincinnati, Ohio, the Board of Governors announced that Dr. Kaufman Kohler,
President of the Hebrew Union College, will retire at the end of the current
academic year. Dr. Kohler has been serving as President since February
1903.
1921: As head
of the Colonial Office, Winston Churchill makes his first commitment to
practical Zionist enterprise by approving Pinchas Rutenberg’s plan to harness
the waters of the Jordan and Yarkon rivers for electrical power enabling the
Jews to begin to make further plans for substantial urban and rural
development.1922: Birthdate of actor Steven Hill. Born Solomon
Krakovsky in Seattle Washington, he is best known for his role as Adam Schiff
on the television series “Law and Order.
1922:
Birthdate of Seattle, Washington, native Solomon Krkovsky, who gained fame as
actor Steven Hill who was the “original team leader” on “Mission: Impossible”
and the long-serving New York District Attorney Adam Schiff on “Law and Order.”
http://www.biography.com/people/steven-hill-9542271
1922(26th
of Shevat, 5682): Sir Ellis Kadoorie passed away today and was buried in
keeping with Jewish ritual was buried on the same day at the Jewish Cemetery in
Hong Kong. Born in 1865, he was part of prominent Jewish family from Baghdad
that moved to Bombay and eventually made their fortune in a variety of
enterprises many of which were located in China and Hong Kong.
1923: Karl and
Helene Neubauer gave birth to Otto Neubauer who was murdered at an
extermination camp in Belarus in 1942 at the age of 19.
1923:
Birthdate of David Soyer, “the founding cellist of the Guarneri String Quartet”
who raised two sons – Daniel and Jeffery – with his wife Janet.
1923: In New
York Hungarian born composer George Steiner and his wife gave birth Frederick
“Fred” Steiner whose most famous musical accomplishments may be creating the
theme song for the ironic cartoon comedy show featuring Rocky and Bullwinkle
and CBS’s popular series “Perry Mason.”
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-fred-steiner-20110625-story.html
1924:
Birthdate of Warsaw native Simcha (Szymon) Rathajzer the ZOB fighter later
known as Simcha Rosten who when he died had been known as the last surviving
Warsaw Ghetto fighter.
1924: In “Banker to the Beggars of Berlin”
published today Joseph Gollomb tells the rags-to-riches story of a man reduced
by the Great War to selling matches on the Kurfuerstendamn.”
1925(30th of
Shevat): Rabbi Isaac Jeroham Diskin passed away today.
1925: Ida M.
Frances Ehrich, the daughter of Lazarus and Seline Babette Morgenthau, the
wifoe of William Joseph Ehrich and the mother of Lilian and Joseph Ehrich
passed away today in New York City.
1926: An ad
for Cass and Rosenthal, a business owned by Israel Cass and Max Rosenthal that
produced closes for “children and juniors” appeared in Women’s Wear today.
1926: In
Washington, DC, President Calvin Coolidge received a delegation from “Agudath
Israel, the world organization of Orthodox Jewry, who extended the
felicitations of the organization.”
1927: It was
reported today, W.L. Lewis of he Bethlehem Steel Company Football Club and
Morris Vanderweghe of the New York Giants Football Club have made arrangements
to “conduct a tour in America of the Hakoah Soccer team of Vienna this Spring.”
1928:
Birthdate of Ezat Delijani, a 1979 refugee from Iran’s Islamic Revolution who
became a prominent Los Angeles businessman (As reported by Dennis McLellan)
1929(14th
of Adar I, 5689): Purim Katan
1929: This
morning, Rabbi Louis Novick is scheduled to open “a joint session of
constituent Zionist Organizations” after which Harry T. Kellman will deliver
the President’s annual message and Mrs. Israel Shapiro will render a report, as
Chairman of the Seaboard Hadassah Region followed by Judge William M. Lewis, of
Philadelphia, National Chairman of the United Palestine Appeal who will be a
principal speaker at the sessions.
1929(14th
of Adar I) 5689): Twenty-nine-year-old Sophie Josephine Franks, the daughter of
Louis and Emma Sachs and the wife of Siegfried Frank passed away today in
Winschoten.
1930: In
Moscow “reports emanating from Berlin to the effect that the Chief Rabbi of
Minks had been sentenced to death on a charge of speculating on foreign
exchange” are declared to be absolutely false.1931(7th of Adar,
5691): Seventy-nine-year-old Isaac Ottenberg, the Bavarian born son of Rosa and
Maier Ottenberg and the husband of
Regina Ottenberg passed away today in Washington, D.C..
1932: Senator
George Norris, the Republican from Nebraska who chairs the Senate Judiciary
Committee was reported today to have said that he did not know of any plans for
speeches being given in the Senate expressing opposition to the confirmation of
Benjamin Cardozo as a Supreme Court Justice.
1932: Benjamin
N. Cardozo was confirmed by a unanimous voice vote in the Senate to be an
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Compare the ease with which Cardozo’s
name sailed through the approval process with the contentious combat that
surrounded the confirmation of Justice Brandeis.
1932: The
Maccabee Association of the United States hosts a benefits concert at Carnegie
Hall to raise funds for an athletic stadium in Tel Aviv.
1933: “Perfect
Understanding” a comedy directed by Cyril Gardner was released in the United
Kingdom today.
1934: Litzi
Friedman, the daughter of Viennese Jews Israel and Gisella Kohlman, married Kim
Philby the British communist spy.
http://spartacus-educational.com/Litzi_Friedmann.htm
1935: “A drive
to place 10,000 new contribution boxes in homes and offices was begun” tonight”
by the Jewish National Fund in conjunction with its campaign to raise $500,000
this for land purchases in Palestine.”
1936(1st
of Adar, 5696): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1936:
“Henrietta Szold…replied today to Palestine Jewry’s greetings on her
seventy-fifth birthday, stating that without their assistance she could have
achieved nothing.”
1936: In
Jaffa, Arabs picketing construction sites where schools were being built
“stoned Jewish laborers and policemen, dangerously wounding one British
constable and seriously damaging” at least one building.
1937(13th
of Adar, 5697): Ta’anit Esther and Erev Purim
1937: Thy
Neighbour by Lord Melchett which provided “a survey of the history of the
persecution of Jews, a description of the rise and progress of Zionism and the
position of Jews in the world today” was included on the “Books Published
Today” listing.
1937: It was
reported today that funeral services have been held in Prague for Dr.
Maxmillian Reiner “a founder of the Czech-Jewish movement and active member of
Sokol, the Czech national gymnastic organization.
1937: The
anti-Semitic student demonstrations that took place today in Hungary included
driving Jews from classrooms, interrupting professors’ lectures, smash windows
in Budapest’s main synagogue, and the rector of the University of Budapest
forcing threes Jewish students to “absent themselves from graduation ceremonies
in order to prevent disturbances.
1938: Three
speakers – Reverend Edward Lodge Curran, head of the International Catholic
Truth Society; Rev. Dr. Mark Depp of Christ Methodist Church in Pittsburgh;
Rabbi Philip D. Bookstaber of Ohev Sholom Temple in Harrisburg --- representing
Catholics, Protestants and Jews “today addressed Dickinson College’s Forum on
Interreligious Cooperation which is designed to opposed attempts by
dictatorships to get a foothold in America.”
1939: An
informal meeting that lasted less than half an hour “between Jewish delegates
to the Palestine conference and representatives of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iraq
was held today in St. James’s Palace on the same day that Dr. Stephen S. Wise
and Louis Lipsky met with United States Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy.
1939: Europe’s
Conscience in Decline by Charles E. Shulman which provided “a survey of the
vicissitudes of the Jews in Europe” was included on the “Books Published Today”
listing
1940(15th
Adar I, 5700): Parashat Ki Tisa
1940: “Stop Me
If You've Heard This One,” a comedy radio series hosted by Milton Berle and
featuring Harry Hershfield (the Jewish Will Rogers) as a panelist was broadcast
for the last time today.
1940:
Winston Churchill shared a telegram with the War Cabinet in which Chaim
Weizmann described the “deplorable” effect that adoption of the Land Transfer
Regulations would have. The War Cabinet was unmoved by the plea.
1940: In
Elizabethtown, NJ, Gregor Piatigorsky and Jacqueline de Rothschild gave birth
molecular biologist Joram Pitaigorsky, the author of Jellyfish Have Eyes.
https://www.amazon.com/Jellyfish-Have-Eyes-Joram-Piatigorsky/dp/0989562263
1941: Today’s
issue of Time magazine recalled 1928 as a time when people “danced to Leo
Reisman’s orchestra at the Central Park Casino” while the New Yorker said “the
reason for going” to the Central Park Casino” is the fact that Leo Reisman’s
orchestra is what it is.
1941:
Following a two-long pogrom in Amsterdam, “an open-air meeting was held on the
Noordermarkt to organize a strike to protest against the pogrom as well as the
forced labor in Germany.
1942: The
Struma was torpedoed and sunk by the Soviet submarine SC 213.
Approximately 769 illegal Jewish immigrants aboard the Struma
perished on their way to Palestine. The Struma was one of a
series of ships filled with Jews that attempted to run the British
blockade. The blockade was part of the British commitment to the Arabs to
keep Jews out of Palestine in violation of the Balfour Declaration and
the terms of the Mandate. The British slavishly enforced the
blockade during and after World War II. The Struma traversed the Black
Sea and attempted to stop at Istanbul. But the British told the Turks
that the Jews would not be allowed to land in Palestine, so they turned the
ship back in the Black Sea. It was there that the ship was sunk,
reportedly torpedoed by a Nazi submarine. Exodus by Leon
Uris is based on another blockade running episode that took place in 1947.
1942: In
Stamford, CT, liquor store owner Henry Lieberman and Marcia (nee Manger)
Lieberman gave birth to Joseph Isadore “Joe” Lieberman the U.S. Senator from
Connecticut and the first Jew to run for Vice President of the United States on
the ticket of a major political party.
1943: Hitler
sent Nazi members a message on the anniversary of the establishment of the Nazi
Party, "The struggle will end . . . with the liquidation of Jewry in
Europe."
1944: At
Birkenau, 200 of the 800 prisoners in the Sonderkommando were sent to Majdanek
where they were shot.
1944:
Birthdate of Bucharest native Dan Manor (Menes) who perished when the Dakar was
lost in 1968.
1944: Max
Jacob a French artist, who was born Jewish but converted to Catholicism, was
arrested by the Gestapo and put into Orléans prison. He was then transferred to
a holding camp in Drancy for transport to a concentration camp in Germany.
1945(11th
of Adar, 5705): Parashat Tetzaveh; Shabbat Zachor
1945(11th
of Adar, 5705): Thirty-two-year-old Italian physicist and anti-Fascist Eugenio
Curiel who had been a prisoner of the Mussolini government was gunned downed
today by members of the Black Brigades, a fascist para-military unit that
continued to flourish even though Italy was supposedly on the side of the
Allies.
1946: In Tel
Aviv, a throng of more than 50,000 Jews attended the funeral of four men killed
during an attack on several RAF airfields. For more than six hours, this
“all-Jewish” city was truly in control of the Jewish people as there were no
signs of any British police or soldiers. Jewish newspapers published
black-bordered obituaries for each of the deceased. During the funeral,
the Haganah distributed leaflets, giving further proof that the airfield
attacks were not the work of the Irgun, but were the work of a broader-based
Jewish resistance movement. The attack and the public outpouring of grief
seemed to indicate a change in mood among the Jewish population who were now
apparently willing to support more aggressive tactics designed to secure their
national home in light of what they have come to view of as the British
betrayal of the Zionist cause and their support for the Arabs.
1946:
Birthdate of Michael Radford the New Delhi born son of an Austrian Jewish
mother who became a successful director and screenwriter who directed the 2004
film version of the Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino as Shylock.
1947:
Birthdate of Lawrence Bailey Bogdanow an architect whose love for natural
materials and fine craftsmanship brought a sense of warmth and ease to the
interiors of dozens of Manhattan’s most popular restaurants, including Union
Square Café, Savoy and the Cub Room (As reported by William Grimes)
1947:
Birthdate of Juval Aviv, the native of kibbutz Kfar Menachem who is known as an
Israeli-American security consultant and writer.
1948: At Lake
Success, NY, the home of the United Nations, “the tensest atmosphere yet felt
in this international headquarters accompanied the long-awaited Palestine
debate that opened today in the United Nations Security Council as disrupting
crowds twice forced the Council's president to rap angrily for silence.”
1949: "Under the
auspices of the United Nations Mediator Dr. Ralph Bunche, an armistice was
signed between Egypt and Israel." This marked, more or less, the end
of Israel's War for Independence. "It was the first such agreement
between Israel and any of its warring neighbors. The aim of the armistice
was not merely to end the fighting but, as its terms stated to 'facilitate
the transition...to permanent peace'. The phrase was taken from the
United Nations Security Council resolution of November 16." Unfortunately,
the Egyptians and the other Arab nations only viewed this as a cease
fire. Over the next several decades they would violate the spirit and the
agreement as they sought to destroy the state of Israel. For the Israelis
the armistice was a great victory won against seemingly impossible odds.
When asked to explain the reason for this victory which sealed the creation of
the Jewish state, Yigal Yadin replied, "If we are to condense all the
various factors, and they are many, which brought about victory, I would not
hesitate to credit the extraordinary qualities of Israel's youth, during the
War of Independence, with that victory." In other words, it was the
spirit of the people that provided the will to hold out in the early dark days
and then to take advantage of later breakthroughs to turn toward victory.
As we study Jewish History, it will be interesting to see the similarity
between the causes of Jewish victories in ancient and modern times.
1949:
President Weizmann entrusted David Ben-Gurion with the task of forming Israel’s
first government.
1950: Ada
Maimon, a member of the Knesset, is spearheading the drive to tighten Israel’s
marriage laws. She is seeking to raise the minimum age of consent from 15
to 18 and tighten up on rules concerning the exceptions. Current law,
which is left over from the British mandate allows girls to marry at the age of
15 but allows for marriage at a younger age with parental consent. Miss Maimon
would limit exceptions to girls at the age of 17. Miss Maimon, who is a
member of the Knessett, is most concerned about ending what she considers the
abuse of this “loophole” that has girls as young as 12 getting married.
Primary opposition is coming from Jews of Oriental orign who are offended by
Miss Maimon’s characterization of Oriental mothers as “breeding delinquents.”
The fifty-seven-year-old Miss Maimon is the sister of Rabbi Judah L. Maimon
Israel’s Minister for Religious Affairs and is in charge of the agricultural
training farm at Ayanot that was founded in 1930.
1950: It was
reported today that “St. Louis University, a Roman Catholic Institution…presented
its ninth honorary degree in half a century and the first in its 132-year-old
history to a faculty member, Professor Gustave Kaydsh Klausner,’ the Jewish
refugee who came to the United States because of the pogroms in White Russia
1907.
1951: A month
after premiering in New York City, “The Enforcer” co-starring Zero Mostel was
released today in the rest of the United States.
1952: Mrs.
Ralph A. Freundlich, the widow of Ralph A. Freundlich, “announce the engagement
of her daughter Miriam” to WW II veteran and Brooklyn College graduate Bernard
Weinstein, an NYU trained attorney associated “with the law firm of Rabkin and
Johnson.”
1952:
Birthdate of Simon Weinstock, British businessman and racehorse owner.
1953:
Birthdate of March Feinstein the native of Mitchell, South Dakota who has
served as the Representative from the 14th District in the South
Dakota House of Representatives.
1954:
Birthdate of Dutch author Leon de Winter whose works include the novels Kaplan
and Hoffman’s Hunger.
1956: “Churchill
received the Israeli Ambassador, Eliahu Elath, who presented him with a
portfolio of woodcuts depicting ancient Jerusalem as an eightieth birthday gift
from the Prime Minister and Government of Israel.
1956:
Birthdate of television journalist, Paula Zahn, the ex-wife of Jewish realtor
Richard Cohen, who decided with him to raise their children in the faith of
their father.
1958: In
London, Katherine Margaret McAdam and Lucian Freud gave birth Jane McAdam the
“winner of the 2014 European Trebbia Award” who is the great-grand daughter of
Sigmund Freud.
1959(16th
of Adar I, 5719): Eighty-two-year-old Hyman Cantor “secretary-treasurer and a
founder of Cantor Brothers, wholesale paint and hardware company and the
husband of Lena Cantor with whom he had four daughters – Dorothy, Helen, Ruth
and Martha – passed away today in Long Island.
1959:
Twenty-one-year-old “Roughhouse Rudy” LaRusso scored 29 points as Dartmouth
defeated Holy Cross.
1962: “After
113 performances and three previews” at the Shubert Theatre, the curtain came
down on the original Broadway production of “The Gay Life,” “a musical with a
book by Fay and Michael Kanin, lyrics by Howard Dietz, and music by Arthur
Schwartz,” “directed by Gerald Freedman” and co-starring “Jules Munshin as
Max.”
1967(13th of
Adar I, 5727): German born, American composer Franz Waxman passed away.
Waxman was nominated for 12 Oscars. In back-to-back victories he won for
“Sunset Boulevard” and “A Place in the Sun.” These two films give us a
sense of the breadth of Waxman’s skills since the first film was classic cinema
noir and the second was a Western.
1968(25th
of Shevat, 5728): Parashat Mishpatim
1969(6th
of Adar, 5729): Seventy-four-year-old Riga native and University of Petrograd
lawyer Anatole Chujoy who in 1924 came to the United States where he founded
Dance Magazine in 1936 and Dance News in 1942 where he was editor and publisher
until he passed away today.
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095611725
1970(18th
of Adar I, 5730): Eighty-one-year-old Allen Kander, the Kansas City, MO born
son of “Felix Victor and Matilda Epstein Kander the newspaper reporter turned
“award winning” newspaper broker and husband of “the former Jeanette Unger”
with whom he had three children – Kenneth, Carol and Margaret – passed away
today.
1971: “The Shooting,” directed by Monte Hellman (Monte Jay
Himmelbaum) premiered today at Dallas, TX.
1972(9th
of Adar, 5732): Ninety-year-old Sidney Hollander, a 1902 graduate of the
University of Maryland, President of the Maryland Pharmaceutical Company and
the national president of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds
from 1939 to 1956 passed away today in Baltimore.
1973(22nd
of Adar I, 5733): Parashat Ki Tisa
1973(22nd
of Adar I, 5733): Sixty-five year old 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/
1973: First
screening today of “A Brand New Life” starring Martin Balsam with music by
Billy Goldenberg.
1976: Jules
Feiffer's "Knock Knock" premiered in New York City.
1976:
Birthdate of Kiryat Ata native Yuval Noah Harari, a professor of History at
Hebrew University and the history of two major works: Sapiens: A Brief
History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/24/homo-deus-by-yuval-noah-harari-review
1977(6th
of Adar, 5737): Fifty-five-year-old Milton “Milt” Kaimen who was a successful
French horn player and occupied a French horn chair at the Metropolitan Opera”
before pursuing his career as a comedic actor and standup comedian passed away
today.
http://cscottrollins.blogspot.com/2013/03/milt-kamen-stand-up-guy.html
1977(6th
of Adar, 5737): Seventy-five-year-old North Carolina born Johns Hopkins alum
Louis Clark the member of the American relay team that won the gold medal at
the 1924 Summer Olympics passed away today.
1978(17th
of Adar I, 5738): Lionel Jacobson, the son of Lithuanian immigrant Moses
Jacobson and the brother of Sydney Jacobson with whom he created a major
European textile business when he combing Jackson the Tailor with the Burton
Tailoring Group and who was President of the Newcastle Jewish Representative
Council passed away today.
1981(20th
of Adar I, 5741): Eighty-two year old Moshe Nathanson, the Jerusalem born son
of Rabbi Nahum Nathanson, who moved to Canada in 1922 before settling in New
York where “he became the cantor for the Society for the Advancement of Judaism
(Mordecai Kaplan's Synagogue in New York) passed away today,
1981: Fannie
(Stein) Schwartz the widow of Harry Schwartz, the maternal grandmother of Rabbi
Fred Davidow, whose home was where the family celebrated all holidays including
Passover, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur passed away. (Editor’s note – Fred was
my college roommate. A lover of history and a really decent human being whose
voice had the same sweet sound of the South as Shelby Foote, another
Mississippi born Jew, has done a marvelous job of creating a family history
which he has been kind enough to let me use.)
1981: Jean
Harris as convicted of murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower, the Jewish author of the
bestselling The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet. From “eat, eat my
children eat” to a mania for weight watching; such is the Jewish experience in
the last hundred years.
1981: Two
bronze doors, weighing about 200 pounds, were stolen from a mausoleum at the
Baron Hirsch Cemetery on Staten Island cemetery today. The police estimated the
value of the doors at $600.
1982(1st
of Adar, 5742): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1982: The Israeli Government approved plans
today to add $2.3 billion to the budget for the current fiscal year which cabinet
officials said, “was to cover a rise in food subsidies, civil service wage
increases and higher compensation for settlers scheduled to evacuate Sinai next
month under the peace treaty with Egypt.”
1983(11th
of Adar, 5743): Ta’anit Esther
1983: “Moshe
Arens, the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, was confirmed as Defense
Minister by the Israeli Parliament today.”
1984(21st
of Adar I, 5744): Eighty-eight-year-old Florence Zellermayer Silverman the
Austrian born daughter of Abraam and Bella Altshuler Zellermayer and the widow
of George Silverman passed away toady in Boston, MA.
1987(24th of
Shevat, 5747): Marian Gerber Greenberg, who worked closely with Henrietta
Szold, the founder of the Hadassah, the Woman's Zionist Organization of
America, and its Youth Aliyah to help rescue thousands of Jewish children from
Nazi Germany, died of congestive heart failure at the Cooley-Dickenson
Hospital, Northampton, Mass. She was 89 years old and lived in Amherst, Mass.
Mrs. Greenberg was the first national chairman of Youth Aliyah, serving in the
post from 1936 to 1941. A national board member of Hadassah since 1927, she was
a national vice president and a Hadassah delegate to five world Zionist
Congresses between 1931 and 1952. She was also national chairman of the
Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Building Fund. She edited the Hadassah newsletter
(now a magazine) and, from 1943 to 1946 was editor of the monthly bulletin of
the Citizens' Housing and Planning Council of New York. A former resident of
Manhattan, she retired to Amherst in 1976, where she taught courses in the
Bible and modern Jewish thought, sponsored by the Judaic Studies department of
the University of Massachusetts. She was born in Philadelphia and graduated
from Cornell University in 1919. She was the widow of David Greenberg, a writer
on wildlife and conservation, who died in 1968.
1988(6th
of Adar, 5748): Sixty-one-year-old Seymour Siegel, the Rabbi who has been a
major force in Conservative Judaism for the last four decades passed away
today. (As reported by Ari L.Goldman)
1989(19th
of Adar I): Sergeant Binyamin Meisner, an Israeli paratrooper, was killed today
when he was struck in the head by a concrete block thrown from a building in
Nablus, in the West Bank, the army said. Meisner, a 24-year-old reserve
sergeant, is the sixth Israeli soldier to die in the current Arab wave of
violence.
1989: Premiere
of “My Left Foot” starring Daniel Day-Lewis with music by Elmer Bernstein.
1991: The
New York Times reviews To Know A Woman by Amos Oz.
1991: Allied
forces began their ground offensive in Gulf War – a war which was unique for
the Israelis because they had trust the United States to protect them from the
Iraqi Scud attacks that were cheered by Palestinians.
1994(13th
of Adar, 5754): Erev Purim
1994(13th of
Adar, 5754): Dinah Shore passed away. Born Francis Rose Shore in 1916, the
Tennessee native gained fame as a singer and star of her own television variety
show. (As reported by Stephen Holden)
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/shore-dinah
1995: “New
Director of Museum Was Censured by Cornell” published today described the
reaction of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s to allegation that
Steven Katz, the director-designate has falsified his record of academic
achievement.
1995(24th
of Adar I, 5755): Sixty-nine year old Ellen Louise Sulzberger Straus, the New
York born daughter of David Hays Sulzberger and Louise Mayer Sulzberger and wife
of Ronald Peter Straus, whose good works included starting the first telephone
help line in the United States passed away today.
1996: Andrew Beckerman-Rodau a Jewish professor at Suffolk
University Law School flew from Detroit to Kiev. His visit to Kiev was at the
invitation of the Ukrainian Supreme Court in cooperation with USAID, an agency
of the United States government. USAID's mission is to assist this newly
independent country in developing a democratic government.
1996:
For the first time, HBO televised “The Late Shift” featuring Bab Balaban and
Sandra Bernhard for the first time.
1997(17th
of Adar I, 5757): Ninety-one-year-old Harvard graduate and businessman Robert
Straus, the son of Jesse Isador Straus, who was president of R. H. Macy &
Company and an Ambassador to France and the grandson of Isador Straus and
husband of Barbara Flower Straus passed away today.
https://archives.nypl.org/mss/2905
1997:
Time published “Echoes of the Holocaust” that describes attempt for
victims regain some of the wealth stolen from them be bankers during the Nazi
domination of Europe.
http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,985946,00.html
1998(27th of
Shevat, 5758): Comedian Henny Youngman passed away at the age of 92.
Youngman was famous for his tagline “Take my wife please.” Youngman did
not have a Bar Mitzvah as a child. When he was in his seventies, he
finally had one much to his joy and delight. (As reported by Mervyn Rothstein)
1999(7th of
Adar, 5759): David Daube, a world-renowned Biblical law scholar who charmed
generations of students while teaching at the University of California,
Berkeley's law school passed away at the age of 90.
http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/10358/noted-bible-scholar-david-daube-dies/
2000(18th
of Adar I, 5760): Eight-four-year-old Bronx born Bernard Opper, the All SEC
Guard for the pre-WWII University of Kentucky Wildcats who went on to play for
nine years in the pros passed away today.
http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/Statistics/Players/Opper_Bernard.html
2001(1st of
Adar, 5761): Rosh Chodesh Adar
2001: “On the
eve of Colin L. Powell's first visit to the region as secretary of state,
officials in Israel today rebuffed his pleas for an easing of the blockade of
Palestinian territories, while Palestinian militants burned him in effigy.”
2002: Bruce
Fleisher won the RJR (Golf) Championship
2002(11th of
Adar, 5762): Leo Orenstein, Russian born American composer and pianist
passed away at the age of 89.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1387072/Leo-Ornstein.html
https://www.milkenarchive.org/artists/view/leo-ornstein/
2002: “An
exhibition of the work of colonial silversmith Mike Myers, one of the most
accomplished craftsmen working in pre-industrial America” is scheduled to open
today at the Skirball Cultural Center.
2002: In Salt
Lake City, the Winter Olympics where Sarah Hughes won a Gold Medal for Ladies’
Figure Skating came to a close today.
2002: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including A Life in Pieces: The Making
and Unmaking of Binjamin Wilkomirski by Blake Eskin and Kindred Souls:
The Friendship of Eleanor Roosevelt and David Gurewitsch by Edna P.
Gurewitsch. (Gurewitsch, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia was “Eleanor
Roosevelt's friend, confidant, personal physician, housemate, and traveling
companion during her post-White House years.”)
2003(22nd
of Adar I, 5736): Ninety-two-year-old 10-time Oscar nominated composer
Walter Scharf passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/28/local/me-scharf28
2003: An
International Conference hosted by the Dubnow Institute on “Transforming
Religious and Ethnic Emblematics of Judaism and Jewishness” ended today.
2003(22nd
of Adar I, 5736): Ninety-two-year-old composer and arranger Walter Scharf, “the
son of Yiddish theatre comic Bessie Zwerling” who worked with everybody from
George Gershwin to Rudy Valle, to Al Jolson to Elvis Presley passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/28/local/me-scharf28
2004(1st
of Adar, 5764): Rosh Chodesh Adar
2004(1st
of Adar, 5764): Eighty-three-year-old Albert “Albie” Axelrod the leading
American fencer during the middle of the 20th century who won the
Bronze at the 1960 Summer Olympics passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/05/sports/albert-axelrod-83-a-champion-in-fencing.html
http://usfencinghalloffame.com/wp/axelrod-albert/
2005: Roger
Ebert’s review of “Paper Clips” was published today.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/paper-clips-2005
2005: It was
reported today that “a recent string of racist incidents in France” including swastikas
on the walls of a Paris mosque, an arson attack on a railway carriage
commemorating French Jews who were deported to Nazi camps in World War II and blatant
anti-Semitic comments by a comedian “has shaken the political establishment at
a time when the country is battling its image abroad as a country where
anti-Semitism is making a powerful comeback and anti-Arab sentiments are
rising.”
2005: The
Seville Hotel which was designed by New York City native and Columbia School of
Mines trained architect Harry Allan Jacobs, the winner of the Prix de Rome,
husband of Elsie Wolfe Jacobs and the father of investment banker Harry Allen
Jacobs, Jr. and architect Robert Allan Jacobs, was added to the NRHP today.
2006: London Mayor Ken Livingstone was suspended from office for
four weeks after being found guilty of bringing his office into disrepute by
comparing a Jewish reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard.
2006:
“After the Wedding” directed by Susanne Bier was released today in Denmark.
2006:
"Growing Up Jewish In Nogales: Memories Of a Bygone Era," by Renee
Claire and "Tucson Was a Wonderful Place to Grow Up In the '40s and
'50s," by Lori Olshansky Sobel err published today in the Arizona Jewish
Post.
2007:
Israel Non-Stop “seven days of cutting edge Israeli music, theatre, film, art,
food and more” began in New York with the appearance of Israeli music
phenomenon Mosh Ben-Ari.
2007:
“West Bank Story” won the Academy Award for Short Film-Live Action. The 21
minute musical has a “West Side Story” motif. “In this case the confrontation
is between competing West Bank Falafel stands, the Israeli Kosher King and the
Palestinian Hummus Hut.
2008:
Rabbi Avrohom Yitzchok Ulman was one of the main speakers at a major protest
rally against the growing influence of nationalistic (Zionist) thought and
philosophies in the Haredi world”
2008: “Burnt
Diary Yields Horror of Warsaw Ghetto” published today described the recovery of
the writings of person known only as “Debora” who chronicled life in one of the
most infamous places of Jewish captivity.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/25/secondworldwar.usa
2008:
In Australia at Parliament House, Rabbis Reisenberg, Rubinfeld and Gutnik are
scheduled to officiate at the marriage of Federal Labor MP Michael Darby and
Amanda Mendes Da Costa “in the first Jewish wedding to be held in the big
house” with the bedecken taking place in the Marble Hall followed by the trip
to the chuppah which was erected at the Queens Terrace. (As reported by Jehane
Sharah)
2008:
The Sunday New York Times book section featured a review of a biography
about Jewish author and playwright David Mamet entitled David Mamet: A Life
In The Theatre by Ira Nadel.
2008:
An exhibition styled “CHIM: The Photography of David Seymour (1911 – 1956)”
came to an end at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco.
2008:
The Washington Post book section featured a review of Alfred Kazin: A
Biography by Richard M. Cook and Staring At The Sun Overcoming
the Terror of Death by Irvin D. Yalom, the award winning Jewish born
psychiatrist and author.
2008:
Israelis (and many others) wonder if Beaufort directed by Joseph Cedar
will win the Oscar for best Foreign Language Film.
2009:
Dalia Itzik completed her term as Speaker of the Knesset
2009:
Paul Finkelman, a professor of law and public policy who had reviewed Eli
Faber’s Jews, Slaves, and the Slave Trade: Setting the Record Straight
and is the author of Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in
the Age of Jefferson, presents a lecture on abolitionist John Brown as
part of the "Great Lives Lecture Series" at the University of Mary
Washington, Fredericksburg, VA.
2009:
More than 300 rabbis gather at the 120th annual Central Conference American
Rabbis convention opens in Jerusalem, Israel.
2009(1st
of Adar, 5769): Rosh Chodesh Adar
2009(1st
of Adar, 5769): Eighty-seven-year-old choreographer Pearl Lang, the founder of
the Pearl Lang Dance Theatre passed away today. (As reported by Jack Anderson)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/arts/dance/27lang.html
2009: More than three months after the 17th Knesset was
dispersed, the 18th Knesset was sworn in this afternoon, in a ceremony that
began with a moving speech by President Shimon Peres, during which he paid
tribute to the IDF for the recent Gaza operation, hailed US President Barack
Obama's election and called for a peace deal with the Palestinians during the
next Knesset's term.
2009:
The Jerusalem Post reported that an archive of over 10,000 works of
modern Yiddish literature has gone on-line. The collection of full texts,
comprising the National Yiddish Book Center's Steven Spielberg Digital Library,
can be read, downloaded and printed free at
www.archive.org/details/nationalyiddishbookcenter.
2010: The Israel Ballet, Israel's foremost classical ballet
company which was founded in 1967 by Berta Yampolsky and Hillel Markman is
scheduled to perform "Don Quixote" in Elmira, NY.
2010: Ted Leonsis, the AOL entrepreneur and the owner of the
Washington Capitals as well as a partner in the Washington Wizards franchise,
is scheduled to discuss his new book, "The Business of Happiness: 6
Secrets to Extraordinary Success in Life and Work," at the Sixth &
Historic Synagogue in Washington, D.C.
2010: A bill that allows civil marriage in Israel to couples who
could not be married by the rabbinate failed by a large margin in its initial
reading.
2010: Today, the Israel Flower Growers Association reported a
30-percent drop in exports for Valentine’s Day compared to last year.
2010:
Forty-year-old Dawn Brancheau who was “pulled into a tank and killed by a
six-ton orca” at Seaworld – a death which Stephen A. Schwarzman blamed on her
because he claimed “that the veteran animal trainer” had broken “multiple
safety rules,” a claim which the company later disclaimed.
2011:
Gainsbourg, “the boldly imaginative and wildly entertaining
biopic of Jewish French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, one of the most
iconic and diversely talented music artists of the 20th Century” and Chariots
of Fire are scheduled to be shown at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
2011: Ruth
David, Professor Peter Davies (Edinburgh) and Dr Andrea Hammel (Aberystwyth)
are scheduled to present a program entitled “Holocaust Texts and Translation”
at The Wiener Library in London, UK.
2011: The San
Francisco Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to continue its year-round
programming in Berkeley with an encore presentation of 2010 Festival sleeper
hit Father’s Footsteps– a gripping coming of age drama about a Tunisian-Israeli
family threatened by violence and crime.
2011: YIVO
Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present: "Integrale
Yidishkeyt": Modern Yiddish Culture's Turn Inward in Response to the
Holocaust.
2011: YIVO
Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present a discussion of Joseph
Roth's Job
2011: IAF
aircraft struck against a number of terrorists in the southern Gaza Strip today
in a joint IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) operation following a
rocket being fired into Beersheba.
2011: With
Israeli Apartheid Week a week away, Israel seems to have found an unexpected
champion in Michael Lucas, a popular gay columnist and porno producer with dual
US-Israeli citizenship who told The Jerusalem Post by phone from New
York today that “I defeated a group of anti- Semites” who sought to equate
Israel with the former South African apartheid regime at an event slated to be
held at the city’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Center.
2011(20th
of Adar I, 5771): Jerrold (Yoram) Kessel passed away today.
http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=209791
2011: Judy
Gross, the wife of Alan Gross “pleaded with the Cuban government to release her
husband on humanitarian grounds. Gross' daughter, 26, has breast cancer, and
his mother has been diagnosed with lung cancer.” (As reported by JTA)
2012(1st
of Adar, 5772): Rosh Chodesh Adar
2012(1st
of Adar, 5772): Ninety-two-year-old mathematician Benedict Freeman who
co-authored the novel Mrs. Mike with his wife Nancy passed away today.
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-benedict-freedman-20120305-story.html
2012: In
London, Claudia Roden is scheduled to talk about discoveries she made while
researching her new book “The Food of Spain” as part of Jewish Book Week.
2012: As many
as 100 college students who are part of the Kol HaOlam competition are
scheduled to attend the Ruach Minyan at Adas Israel in Washington, DC.
2012: In New
York City, Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to host a Friday night service that
will include a commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the
founding of Hadassah attended by Marcie Natan, National President of Hadassah.
2012: Tensions
continued to escalate in the South early this morning with the Israel Air Force
making two separate forays into the Gaza Strip to bomb terror targets in
response to the firing of Kassam rockets into Israeli communities.
2012: Security
forces used force to disperse hundreds of Muslim worshipers at the Temple Mount
today who rioted and threw stones following a tense week in the Old City.
2013: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Searchers: The Making of an
American Legend by Glenn Frankel, City of Angels Or, the Overcoat of Dr.
Freud by Christa Wolf and the recently released paperback edition of God’s
Jury; The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World by Cullen Murphy
2013: Center
for Jewish History, YIVO Institute and the International Center of Photography
are scheduled to sponsor a screen of Eleanor Antin’s “Man Without a World.”
2013: Temple
Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa is scheduled to celebrate Purim complete with a
megillah reading and separate costume contests for children and adults.
2013:
Dedication of the Jacobs Family Education Center is scheduled to take place at
Agudas Achim in Iowa City, Iowa.
2013: The
Maccaebeats are scheduled to perform at The Moriah School Purim Chagiga in
Englewood, NJ
2013(14th of
Adar, 5773): Purim
2013: Purim’s
carnival atmosphere spread out across Israel today, with revelers of all types
and ages soaking up the holiday cheer, many bedecked in bright, loud and
extravagant costumes.
2014:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to begin a two-day visit to
Israel.
2014: At the
Center for Jewish History, Henry L. Feingold is scheduled to speak on “American
Jewish Political Culture and the Liberal Persuasion.”
2014: “Dancing
Alfonso” is scheduled to be shown at the UK Jewish Film Festival
2014: Israel
Apartheid Week, a week-long orgy of anti-Semitism hidden under the guise of
anti-Israel lectures and workshops is scheduled to begin today.
2014(24th
of Adar I, 5774): Sixty-nine-year-old comedy screenwriter Harold Remis passed
away.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-harold-ramis-dead-20140224,0,4983189,full.story
2014:
Ian Heath Gershengorn, Principal Deputy Solicitor General, U.S. Department of
Justice, is scheduled to address the Hadassah Attorneys Council in Washington,
DC.
2014:
In New Orleans, the Jewish Studies Department of Tulane University is scheduled
to present a lecture by Tome Beller entitled “J.D. Salinger’s Late Barmitzva.”
2014:
According to a report today on the news site timenews.in.ua, the Giymat Rosa
Synagogue in Zaporizhia located 250 miles southeast of Kiev was firebombed
overnight.
2014:
Israel is facing the driest winter since 1927, Ma'ariv reported today, leaving
experts concerned. The Kinneret (Sea of Galilee)'s water level has dropped by
four centimeters since the rainy season began, compared to a 1.97 meter rise
over the same five-month period in 2013. (As reported by Tova Dvorin)
2015:
The Tulane University Jewish Studies Department chaired by Professor Brian
Horowitz is scheduled to host a lecture by Antony Polonsky entitled “Writing
the History of the Jews of Poland and Russia.”
2015:
Robin Renwick, former British Ambassador to South Africa is scheduled to
discuss Helen Suzman’s extraordinary life and achievements with her daughter,
art historian Frances Suzman Jowell and niece, actress and director Janet
Suzman at the Jewish Museum in London during Jewish Book Week.
2015:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Roads Taken: The
Great Jewish Migrations to the New World and the Peddlers Who Forged the Way.”
2015(5th
of Adar, 5775): One hundred- and nine-year-old Wall Street investor Irving Kahn
passed away today.
2016:
Itzik Barak the executive
chef from Jerusalem’s Waldorf Astoria is scheduled to prepare 150 plated dishes
of the Seven Species for the panel of judges at the annual Tastes of
Waldorf Astoria competition.
2016:
“The Breman Museum is scheduled to sponsor "Fitting In: A Short History of
Jewish Film in America" at The Temple in Atlanta, GA.
2016: “Baba
Joon” “Israel’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award” is
scheduled to be shown on the opening night of the 26th Annual
Washington Jewish Film Festival.
2017: In
London, JW3 is scheduled to host a pre-Shabbat celebration combining singing
and challah baking.
2017: “Major
roads and key thoroughfares were blocked to traffic in Tel Aviv today for the
city’s marathon, with an estimated record number of 40,000 runners from across
the country and abroad taking part in the annual event” which was won by Ethiopian
runner Balata Mekonnen.
2017: The
Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host both Orthodox and
Egalitarian Kabbalat Services, followed by Shabbat dinner and voting for next
term’s president and vice president.
2017: At
Agudas Achim, Professor Robert Cargill is scheduled to deliver a lecture in
which he “unfolds biblical verses talking about the kind of life one ought to
live and about the origin of the z’’l tradition.”
2018(9th
of Adar, 5778): Shabbat Zachor.
2018(9th
of Adar, 5778): Ninety-three-year-old Latvian born Kalman Aron, the “American
portraitist” who used skill as a sketch artist to survive the concentration
camps passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2018: Agudas
Achim is scheduled to host the Hillel Adult B’nai Mitzvah Service.
2018:
Twenty-one-year-old Miss Internet Tamar Morali is scheduled to take part in
“the final stage of the Miss Germany Contest today in Germany’s Europa Park.”
2018: “Israeli
company Roy Assaf Dance is scheduled to perform at the Norman Rothstein
Theatre.
2019: “Roman
Vishniac Rediscovered,” the first UK retrospective of the Russian born American
photographer” is scheduled to come to an end London.
https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/roman-vishniac/
2019: The
Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of “From Cairo to
the Cloud: The World of the Cairo Geniza”
2019: The JCC
of San Francisco is scheduled to host Bernard-Henri Lévy as he “discusses his
book The Empire the Five Kings” which examines “the U.S. withdrawal from
world leadership.”
2019: The New York Times features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Separate:
The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America’s Journey From Slavery to
Segregation by Steve Luxenberg, Good Riddance, a novel by Elinor
Lipman, Willa and Hesper, the debut novel of Amy Feltman, At The
Wolf’s Table by Rosella Postorino and Annelies, a novel by David
Gillham as well as a “By the Book” interview with Isaac Mizrahi.
2020: The New York Sephardic Jewish Film
Festival is scheduled to host the New York premiere of “Say Amen” and “Life
Will Smile.”
2020:
Harvey
Weinstein, who long reigned as one of the most influential producers in
Hollywood, was found guilty today of two felony sex crimes but was acquitted on
charges of predatory sexual assault.
2020: In San Francisco, the American Jewish
Committee is scheduled to host a “Lunch and a report on reconciliation and
interfaith relations from Rabbi David Rosen and Michael Pappas, director of
S.F. Interfaith Council.”
2020: The London School of Jewish Studies is
scheduled to host Senior Rabbi Joseph Dweck as he lectures “Meeting
God at Mt. Sinai” as described in Shemot.
2020: In Palo Alto, CA, Congregation Etz Chayim,
“The San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society is scheduled to host a
workshop to learn how to publish your family stories without being a
professional author.”
2020: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is
scheduled to host “Create Meaning or Fade Away: The Dilemma Facing American
Jews.”
2020: Israeli Prize recipient Professor Asa
Kasher, one of the authors of The Spirit of IDF is scheduled to be one
of the speakers at the Begin Center during the program “Giving the Fallen a
Face – Rescuing Combatants from Anonymity.”
2020: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a
screening of “Leona” directed by Isaac Cherem.
2021: The Jewish Federation of Greater New
Orleans is scheduled to host the JNOLA Purim/Mardi Gras Event.
2021: The Atlanta Jewish Films Festival is
scheduled host virtually, “Adventures of a Mathematician” and “Atlanta: The
City Too Busy Wait.”
2021: The Lappin Foundation is scheduled to
present online “Masking and Unmasking: A Purim Experience with Ariela HaLevi”
the “director of healing, intuitive guide and energy healer at Soul Centered.”
2021: The Cass Tech High School is scheduled to
host a screening of “Rosenwald” followed by a panel discussion with Aviva
Kempner.
2021: In Pepper Pike, OH, Park Synagogue is
scheduled to hold three Purim evets: a Purim car parade, a Zoom Megillah
reading including a costume contest, and “an interactive Purim comedy show on
Zoom” presented by the Bible Players.
2021: The Maltz Museum is scheduled to “kick
off the Notorious RBG Exhibition” with a discussion by Irin Carmon and Shana
Kniznik, authors of the biography of Justice Ginsburg.
2021: The Temple Emanu-El Streiker Center is
scheduled to host “A Journey Across The Jewish Past “which provides look
“Inside the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Rare Book Collection” lead by Dr.
David Kraemer, Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian and Professor of Talmud and
Rabbinics at JTS.
2021: In Florida, Temple Judea is scheduled a
lunch and learn with Rabbi Feivel Strauss who will discuss Abraham, “the
founding father of Reform Judaism as part of the “Great Jewish Leaders Lecture
Series.
2021: Staff at the Sea Turtle Rescue Center in
Michmoret, are scheduled to continue with their efforts to treat 11 eleven sea
turtles which is part of a larger effort that will last for several months to
clean up Israel’s beaches that have been polluted by the “country’s worst oil
spill.
2022: Congregation Beth Ami and the Sanoma
County Israel Committee are scheduled to present online “Jonah Cohen, director
for CAMERA, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis,
discussing strategies for reacting effectively and tactfully to provocative
statements” which are in fact anti-Semitic.
2022: Israeli President Isaac Herzog is
scheduled to “depart for a state visit to Greece” today at the invitation of
his counterpart Katerina Sakellaropoulu” which will include meetings with the
Prime Minister and “members of the Greek Jewish Community.”
2022: The Center for Jewish History is
scheduled to present online access to the Arolsen Archives: the International
Center on Nazi Persecution formerly known as the International Tracing Service.
2022: The Vilna Shul, “Boston’s Center for
Jewish Culture” is scheduled to present “Museum Nights on Beacon Hill” which
will focus on an exploration of the Boston Athenaeum.
2023: Temple Judea is scheduled to host Friday
night services with Rabbi Yaron and Cantor Abbie “honoring all 10+year Temple
Judea Members.
2023: Israelis brace for more violence after
IDF responded to six rockets being launched from Gaza by attacking a weapons
storage facility that the Gaza rulers operated near a mosque, health clinic and
school.
2023: The West Newton Cinema is scheduled to
host the first screening of “Four Winters,” “a documentary about Jewish
partisans.
2023: First anniversary of the Russian invasion
of Ukraine.
https://jdcorg-media.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Shabbat_for_Ukrainian_Jews_Blessings.pdf?_hsmi=247032745&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9Cq6vXVv8gNBII9uaOXZ8RMEzjtff7xpGXUe-Sl6kHTk2LCDpBmCdg0fs5WnnFqgfkIDArkYk-falXwwd7q86qqZjDpA
2024: In
Jerusalem, the Eden Tamir Center is scheduled to host a concert “The Best of
Chamber Music” with Vika Gelman, Omer Herz, violins; Leikie Glick, Tali
Kravitz, viola; and Gali Knaani, May Endy, cello with discounted tickets for
evacuees.
2024: “On
behalf of the AJC (and by extension, the Atlanta Jewish community), Rabbi Scott
Colbert, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Emanu-El, is scheduled to read a passage from
the Book of Ruth, in the Hebrew Bible, at today’s funeral Mass” for Reverend
Henry Gracz, “a friend and an ally of the Jewish community.
2024: Second
anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine which has a long history of
anti-Semitism and whose leader against its larger totalitarian leader is
ironically President Volodymyr Zelensky “was born to a Ukrainian Jewish family.”
2024: At
Temple Judea, Rabbi Feivel Strauss is scheduled to lead the Torah Study after
which Piper Segalowitz will be called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah.
2024: In Coralville,
IA, Agudas Achim Congregation is scheduled to host a luncheon honoring Rabbi
Esther Hugenholtz followed in the evening with a Havdalah Bowling Party.
2024: In Des
Moines, Temple B’nai Jershurun is scheduled to host its 150th
anniversary celebration.
2024: In New
Orleans, Virtuoso pianist and scholar Dr. Astrith Baltsan is scheduled to perform
her original show about Israel's National Anthem, Hatikvah.
2024: At
Tifereth Israel in Columbus, OH, as part of “Shabbat with JTS,” “Claire Miller,
a rabbinical student from the Jewish Theological Seminary” is scheduled to
deliver the sermon this morning followed by a discussion later in the day led
by Claire Miller on “What on Earth are Tzitzit?”
2024: In
Tenafly, NJ the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades is scheduled to host an exclusive
screening of. The Monkey House, “an award-winning film by Avi Nesher, one of
Israel's foremost filmmakers.”
2024: At noon
today at the Agnon House in Jerusalem, following a reading of “The Picture,” Ofir
Lifshitz is scheduled to “examine the connections that are forged between the
various characters and the narrator, and wonder about the meaning of the
pictures of life that Agnon places side by side.”
2024 (15th of
Adar I, 5784): Parashat Tetzaveh
For more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2024: As
February 24th begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 141 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.)
