This Day, March 15, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
March 15
457
BCE (12th of Nisan, 3303): Ezra and his followers departed from the River Ahava
on their way to Jerusalem.
44
BCE: Julius Caesar was assassinated in the Roman Senate. The Jews supported
Caesar in his fight for power against Crassus and Pompey. Pompey had seized
Jerusalem, violated the Holy of Holies and shipped thousands of Judeans off to
the slave markets. Eight years later, Crassus came to Jerusalem and stole the
Temple Treasury. As a reward for Jewish support, Caesar returned the port of
Jaffa to Judean control. He instituted a more humane tax rate that took into
account the Sabbatical Year. He allowed the walls of Jerusalem to be rebuilt
and he allowed Jewish communities in the Italian peninsula, including Rome
itself, to "organize and thrive."
351:
Constantius II elevates his cousin Gallus to Caesar, and puts him in charge of
the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. During his rule, Gallus had to deal with
a Jewish rebellion in Judea/Palestine. The rebellion, possibly started before
Gallus' elevation to Caesar, was crushed by Gallus' general, Ursicinus, who
ordered all the rebels slain.
1317:
Today Richard Swinefeld who had been named Archdeacon of London in 1280 and who
in1286 “threatened to excommunicate several of his flock who wished to attend
the wedding of the daughter of a leading Jew of Hereford” passed away.
1391:
“A Jew hating monk” is responsible for starting anti-Jewish riots in Seville,
Spain. These riots marked the start of a wave of violence throughout Spain and
Portugal which claimed 50,000 lives within less than a year. Many Jews escaped
death by converting to Christianity. This marked the emergence of Marranos who
were said to number 200,000.
1513:
Pope Leo X who relied on Bonet de Lates, a Jew from Provence, as his personal
physician and unofficial advisor and whose leniency
towards the Jews may have stemmed from an attitude summed up by his statement
that “It is well known how useful this fable of Christ has been to us and
ours!” was ordained today.
1545:
Opening session of the Council of Trent. At the Council of Trent in the 16th
century, the Roman Church stated as a theological principle that all men share
the responsibility for the Passion—and that Christians bear a particular
burden. "In this guilt [for the death of Jesus] are involved all those who
fall frequently into sin..." read the catechism of the council.” This
guilt seems more enormous in us than in the Jews since, if they had known it,
they would never have crucified the Lord of glory; while we, on the contrary,
professing to know him, yet denying him by our actions, seem in some sort to
lay violent hands on him."
1594:
Spanish born Hebraist Casiodoro de Reina, the author of one of the first books
that opposed the Inquisition and the translator of a Spanish language bible
that was a source for the creators of the King James Bible passed away today.
1672:
Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence. This
declaration was part of the jockeying for power between Roman Catholics,
Anglicans and non-Anglican Protestants. Religious rights for Jews were not a
part of this measure. Oliver Cromwell, the Protestant civil ruler who
temporarily replaced the Stuarts allowed the Jews to re-enter England. Charles
II continued his policy and actually expanded the rights and protection for the
growing Jewish population. Charles II’s, his successor King James II and the
last Catholic King of England further expanded the royal protection of the
Jews. Both monarchs appreciated the financial support they received from Jewish
bankers. By the time William and Mary had replaced James on the English throne,
Jews were too well established in England to ever again be candidates for
expulsion and exile.
1697:
In New York City, Rachel Simpson and Isaac Rodrigues Marques gave birth to
Jacob Rodriguez, the wife of Esther Maduro and father of Isaac and Rachel
Marques.
1698:
New York ship owner and freeman Isaac Rodriguez, the Denmark born son of Rachel
and Jacob Rodriguez and his wife Rachel Peixotto gave birth to Jacob Rodriquez
Marques.
1764(11th
of Adar II, 5524): Ta’anit Esther observed because the 13th of Adar
fell on Shabbat.
1767(14th
of Adar II, 5527): Purim observed on the same day “in the Waxhaws region of the
Carolina, Elizabeth Hutchinson and Andrew Jackson gave birth to Andrew Jackson
who as General Andrew Jackson counted Judah Touro as one of those commanded
during the Battle of New Orleans and who as President Jackson appointed
“Mordecai Noah to serve as overseer of the Port of New York.
1773:
The South Carolina Gazette reported
that Moses Lindo purchased a stone which he believed to be a topaz of immense
size, and that he sent it to London by the Right Hon. Lord Charles Greville
Montague to be presented to the Queen of England.” Lindo was a native of
England who settled in South Carolina where he prospered in the trade of
indigo.
1775(13th
of Adar II,5535): Erev Purim celebrated for the last time before the firing of
“the shot heard round the world.”
1776:
South Carolina becomes the first American colony to declare its independence
from Great Britain and set up its own government. The Jews played an active
role in the political affairs of South Carolina from its earliest days. As
early as 1702 they were voting in the colony’s general elections. Francis Salvador
began serving in the Provincial Congress in the year before the Palmetto State
declared her independence.
1778(16th
of Adar, 5538): Purim Meshulash observed on the same day that British General
William Howe wrote General George Washington about the possibility of an
exchange of prisoners including General Charles Lee who was ignominiously
captured by the British in 1776.
1792:
Birthdate of Jacob Barrett, the husband of Hetty J. Ottolengui whom he married
in Charleston, SC in 1834 and with whom he had twelve children.
1795:
Birthdate of Samuel Moses Marx, the son of a Jewish doctor in Halle who, when
baptized in 1819, changed his name to Adolf Bernhard Marx who gained fame as a
German composer and critic.
1800(18th
of Adar, 5560): Parashat Ki Tisa; Shabbat Parah
1800:
Birthdate of Joseph Wetheimer, who joined his father’s business in 1821 and who
was “the founder of Jewish Alliance in Vienna.
1801:
In Wurttemberg, Germany, Moses Levi Frankfurter and Mirjam Landauer gave birth
to Bernhard Frankfurter, the husband of Esther Frank.
1801:
Birthdate of Joseph Levin Saalschütz, the native of Konigsberg who was the
first Jew to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Konigsberg.
1805(14th
of Adar II, 5565): Purim
1807:
Easton, PA native Rachel Pettigrew and Jacob Phillips gave birth to Samuel
Phillips.
1808:
Judith Moses Myers the New York born daughter of Rachel and Michael Moses Hays
and her husband Samuel Myers gave birth Ella C. Myers and Rachel Hays Mayers.
1809:
Philip Lazarus married Amelia Barnes today at the Great Synagogue.
1810:
In Maryland, Margaret and John Gettinger gave birth to future Ohio resident
Daniel Gettinger the husband of Jane Elizabeth Gettinger.
1811:
Don Judah Benoliel, the president of the Jewish community on Gibraltar and the
consul for Morocco and Austria and son of Judith and Solomon Benoliel and his
wife Esther Ben-Oliel gave birth to Gibraltar native Isaac Benoliel.
1813:
Birthdate of German native Augusta Straus Bachrach, wife of Aaron Bachrach and
the mother of four children including Henry Bachrach, the founder of Bachrach’s
a department store chain that got its start in Decatur, Il and survived for
over 125 years.
1816(15th
of Adar, 5576): Shushan Purim
1817:
Birthdate of Samuel Naumbourg, the native of Bavaria who served as Chazzan at
Besancon and choir director at a Strasburg synagogue before becoming the leader
“of synagogue of the Rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth at Paris, where he became
professor of liturgical music at the Séminaire Israélite” in 1845.
1820:
Just a year after Rebecca Gratz established the country's first Female Hebrew
Benevolent Society in Philadelphia, Richa Levy led a group of women that
established a Female Hebrew Benevolent Society at New York's Shearith Israel
congregation. At that time, Shearith Israel was the only synagogue in New York
City.
1820:
The King of Saxony granted “Jewish tradesman” Joseph Friedländer permission to
remain at Bautzen.
1820:
Maine becomes the 23rd state to join the Union. Today Maine has a small but
active Jewish population. There are ten congregations in the state. There are
Hillel chapters at the University of Maine, Colby, Bates and Bowdoin. Statewide
organizations include the Jewish Community Council of Bangor, Main, the
Holocaust Human Rights Center of Main, The Jewish Community Alliance of
Southern Maine and the Maine Jewish Film Festival. The mission of the Maine
Jewish Film Festival is to “provide a forum for the presentation of films to
enrich, educate and entertain a diverse community about the Jewish experience.”
Since 1998, we have fulfilled this mission by presenting over 145 films about
all facets of Jewish life and culture to nearly 17,500 people. Our annual
Festival takes place over nine days in mid-March, and each year we bring a rich
selection of films to Maine that otherwise wouldn’t get seen by audiences
anywhere else in the state or even Northern New England. The Festival serves
filmgoers of all ages and backgrounds, both Jews and non-Jews alike. Maine is
one of the smallest cities in the United States to host an independent Jewish
film festival and each successive year we attract increasing numbers of
attendees (over 3,000 in 2006).
1824(15th
of Adar II, 5584): Shushan Puri
1827:
The University of Toronto is chartered. The first Jewish community did not
develop in Toronto until the 1840’s. Today the Toronto University has 3,000
Jewish students among its 40,000 undergraduates and 500 Jewish students among
its 10,000 graduate students. The University offers approximately 35 courses in
Jewish Studies and a minor in Jewish studies. The Hillel chapter is located at
the Wolfond Center for Jewish Life.
1830:
Birthdate of Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse, the first Jew to win the Nobel Prize
for Literature
1833:
In Pennsylvania, David Davis and his wife Ann gave birth to Charllota “Charlotte”
Davis Morningstar, the wife of Bernard Morningstar and the daughter-in-law of
Ignatz “Isaac” Morningstar who as Ignatz Morgenstern passed his exams in the
Austrian Empire to serve as a dentist and a surgeon.
1839:
In Württemberg, Germany, Bernhard Frankfurter, the son of Moses Levi
Frankfurter and Mirjam Landauer, and his wife Esther Frank gave birth to
Henriette Emma Frankfurter
1840:
Ephraim Alex married Catherine Jones today the Great Synagogue.
1843(13th
of Adar II, 5603): Ta’anit Esther; Erev Purim
1848(10th
of Adar II, 5608): Seventy-four-year-old Frances Isaac, the New York City born
daughter of Moses Isaacs and the wife of Joseph Simson passed away today in
Yonkers, NY.
1848:
Birthdate of Ignace Ephrussi, the native of Odessa, who was a member of a
family of famous Jewish bankers that included his brother Charles. The family moved their operations from Odessa
to Paris and Vienna.
1848:
Birthdate of Toby Edward Rosenthal, the native of New Have CT, whose family
moved to San Francisco in 1855 where he began his art studies which led him to
pursue a career as painter whose worked include “Morning Prayers In Bach’s
Family” which was purchased by the government of Saxony and hung at the museum
in Leipzig.
1849:
Birthdate of Emanuel Rich, who with his brother Morris, founded Rich’s
Department Store.
1851:
Birthdate of Hungarian attorney and Diet Member, Arthur Jellinek.
1852:
In Szekszárd, Hungary,Jakab Friedmann and Jozefa Friedmann gave birth to Sandor
Forgo (Fiedman, the husband of Nettiq Friedmann and the ex-husband of Jozefa
Bettelheim.
1854(15th
of Adar, 5614): Shushan Purim
1855:
Birthdate of Bohemian native Eduard Glaser, a groundbreaking Arabist and
archeologist.
https://www.wdl.org/en/item/16771/
http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ead/ead.html?id=EAD_upenn_cajs_PUCJSARCMS36USUSUSPUCJS
1855:
Pauline Koch and Hermann Einstein the parents of Albert Einstein gave birth to
their youngest child Friederike, nicknamed “Rika.”
1855:
Birthdate of Henry Wallenstein, the husband of Gisele Wallenstein, the father
of Henry Wallenstein and a member of Temple Emanuel in Wichita, KS.
1856:
Following the creation of the Company Ports of Marseille, Franco-Jewish
financier Jules Mires formed a partnership with Talabot Paulin to rebuild the
docks of this major French Mediterranean port.
1858:
In Chicago, Rosine and Elias E. Greenebaum a co-founder of the Greenebaum
Brothers Banking House gave birth to Moses Ernst Greenebaum, the husband of
Julia Greenebaum.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/greenebaum
1859:
Abramo Volterra, a cloth merchant, and Angelica Almagià, the parents of Italian
mathematician and physicist, Vito Volterra were married today.
1860:
Birthdate of Count Moïse de Camondo, a native of Constantinople whose Sephardic
family owned one of the largest banks in the Ottoman Empire and who became a
leading French banker and art collector.
1860:
In Germany, “Feist H. and Caroline (Cagle) Siegel gave birth to Benjamin Siegel
who in 1876 came to the United States where he worked in “general merchandise
stores” in Selma and Prairie Bluff, AL before moving to Detroit in 1881 where
“he organized B. Siegel Co” dealers in women’s clothing and married Sophie
Siegel.
1860:
Birthdate of bacteriologist Waldemar Mordecai Wolff Haffkine, the native of
Odessa who refused to convert to further his career choosing instead to
immigrate to France where he continued his work that led to vaccines against
cholera and the bubonic plague.
1862:
In Russia, Miriam Amsterdam and Mordecai Brainin gave birth to journalist and
author Reuben Brainin the contributing editor for the Jewish Daily News and The
Day who
was the “author of two volumes of Yiddish short stories and the thirty
volumes known collectively as “Brainin’s Collected Hebrew Works.”
1862(13th
of Adar II, 5622): Shabbat Zachor; erev Purim
1862:
“Treason in Embryo: A Remarkable Document” published today contained excerpts
from correspondence written by David Yulee in January of 1861. At the time,
Yulee was a United States Senator representing Florida. The correspondence
described the meetings of U.S. Senators from several southern states and the
role they would be playing the secession movement and the establishment of the
Confederate States of America.
1864(O.S.)
Birthdate of Sergei Zubatov, “the head of the Czarist Secret Police in Moscow”
who “convinced” the imprisoned Manya Shochat to form “tame” workers
“organizations that would work for reform rather than the overthrow of the
government” which would supposedly “help achieve rights for Jews” – a
supposition which the policeman knew was false and which the Jewish leader came
to see as a “pipe dream.”
1865:
The activities surrounding “the fourth annual masquerade ball of the Purim
Association” which was held last night was described in an article published
today entitled “The Purim Ball--Grand Masquerade at the Academy of Music.”
According to the article “The Purim Ball is held to commemorate one of the
great epochs of Jewish history -- the deliverance of the chosen people from the
machinations of Haman, Prime Minister to King Ahasuerus, of Persia. “The Purim
Association raised approximately $9,000 for its charitable activities through
the sale of 900 tickets at $10 each. The society also published the Purim
Gazette, a paper which is printed at each recurrence of the Purim ball.1867:
The Amusements Column, in an item styled "Last of Shylock" reported
that this evening marked the next to the last performance of “The Merchant of
Venice” at the Winter Garden Theatre. There would be one more Saturday matinee
and then "farewell to the Jew for the Season. “The Merchant of Venice”
featuring Shylock reportedly was the first Shakespearean play to have been
performed in United States; a performance that took place in colonial Virginia.
1867:
In Russia, Jacob Baruch Abramowitz and his wife gave birth to Odessa trained
cantor Jacob Abramowitz who in 1919 came to the United States where he served
congregations in Chicago and Buffalo, NY before accepting a position with
Congregation Sons of Halberstamm in Philadelphia.
1869:
Prussia does away with the Oath More
Judaico or Jewish Oath
1869:
Basheva Pearlman Lazarus gave birth to Sara Lazarus who became Sarah Mickelson
when she married David Mickelson with whom she had two daughters – Anne and
Lena.
1872:
Birthdate of Riga native Max Maisel, the founder, in 1892 of a bookshop at 424
Grand Street on the Lower East Side which was a gathering place for
intellectuals and the setting for Christopher Morley’s novel The Haunted
Bookshop who also translated the
works of Shakespeare, and Darwin into Yiddish.
1873:
Birthdate of Vitsebsk native Leon Korbrin the Philadelphia shirt maker, cigar
maker and baker who became a New York journalist, author and playwright.
https://yiddishkayt.org/view/kobrin/
1875:
In Witosk, Russia, Yetta Friedman and Emanuel Ravitch gave birth to American builder Joseph
Ravitch, the husband of Elizabeth Chauser who at age 13 arrived in the United
States where he went into the real estate business with Harry Fischel and where he was a director of the Central
Jewish Institute and Jewish Center on West 86th Street as well
chairman of the Yeshivah Building Committee.
1875:
In Vilna, Lithuanian, Leon and Elizabeth Gershonovitz gave birth to Moishe
Gershnowitz who in 1890 came to Boston where he began the journey which would
lead to him being the theatrical producer Morris Gest, the husband of the
former Reina Belasco and the son-in-law of the famous producer David Belasco.
1876(13th
of Adar, 5636): Forty-two-year-old Margaethe Meyer Schurz, the Hamburg, Germany
born daughter of Heinrich Meyer and the wife U.S. Senator Carl Schurz who among
other things is credited for creating the first kindergarten in the United
States passed away today in child-birth.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/schurz-margarethe-meyer
1876:
It was reported today that the Earl of Aylesford was in such dire financial
straits that if he paid all of the money he owed to various English Jews, “he
would have scarcely had a income to support himself.”
1877:
Birthdate of Vilna native, the Pittsfield, MA realtor and member of both the
ZOA and the United Palestine Appeal who passed away in 1958 after which he was
buried in the Knesset Israel Cemetery.
1877(1st
of Nisan, 5637): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1877:
In New York, Caroline and David L. Einstein gave birth to Columba educated
American diplomate and author Lewis Einstein, the husband of Helen Ralli, a
well-connected English lady who served in several posts in the Ottoman Empire
as well as Ambassador to Czechoslovakia.
1877(1st
of Nisan, 5637): Sixty-six-year-old Alexander Lewis, the Charleston, SC born
son of David and Rachel Benjamin Lewis and the husband of Rebecca Lewis and
Esther Lewish passed away today in St. Louis, MO.
1877(1st
of Nisan, 5637): Sixty-two-year-old Albert Cohn, the Hungarian born French
philanthropist and scholar who enjoyed a “lifelong connection with the
Rothschild” and worked to improve the condition of Algerian Jewry passed away
in Paris.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4514-cohn-albert
1879:
Birthdate of Warsaw native Yakov Ganetsky, “also known as Jakub Furstenberg”
the Bolshevik Revolutionary who reportedly was one of those who negotiated with
the German General Staff to send Lenin back to Russia so he could complete the
revolution and take Russia out of the war so that the Kaiser would be able to
defeat the Allies in the West and win World War I.
1879:
In Kiev, Simon and Sarah (Rappaport) Spielberg gave birth to NYU trained
attorney Harold Spielberg, the husband of Rebecca Fishman and a member of the
Society for the Advancement of Judaism who was an “organizer, vice president
and general counsel of the Equitable Surety Company of the State of New York.
1880:
It was reported today that Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen by Johann Karl
Friedrich Zöllner “bristles with attacks on Jews.”
1881(14th
of Adar II, 5641): Purim
1881:
Birthdate of Russian native Harry Handler, the NYU Law School graduate who
morphed into a Jewish educator who was the husband of “the former Esther
Liskowsky.”
1881:
The Purim Masquerade Ball will be held today at the Academy of Music in New
York City.
1882(24th
of Adar): Rabbi Eliezer Lipmann Silbermann founder of Ha Maggid, the first
weekly Hebrew newspaper, passed away today.
1883:
In Russia, Helen Newmark and Salmon Jaffee gave birth to Riga native and Riga
Dental College trained dentist Charles D. Jafee, the husband of Katherine
Weisbord who in 1905 came to the United States where he rose from being an
office to being the treasurer of clothing manufacturer L.J. and C.D. Jaffee,
Inc. and President of the New York
Clothing Manufacturer’s Exchange while serving a direction of the Brooklyn
Jewish Hospital and a member of Temple Emanu-El and Union Temple in Brooklyn.
1883:
In Lithuania, Alex and Agnes Salaway Vigransky gave birth to future Ohio
resident Moses Vigransky
1884(18th
of Adar, 5644): Shabbat Parah
1884(18th
of Adar, 5644): Seventy-nine-year-old Mary Moss, the daughter of Solomon and
Rebecca Eve Levy and wife of Eleazer (Eugene) Moss passed away today in
Philadelphia.
1884:
In Podolia, Hana and Boksir Dov Sharfshtein gave birth to author and linguist
Zvi Scharfstein who came to the United States in WW I where he continued his
work.
1886:
In New York, formation of the Jewish Immigrants’ Protective Society
1886:
Birthdate of Morris Schulman, the Russian native who gained famed as American
actor Michael Mark who enjoyed a forty career in films
1886:
Birthdate of Brest-Litovsk native Abraham Asen, the dentist who in 1903 came to
the United States where he was member of the Executive Committee of the
Farband-National Workers Alliance and pursued a career as Yiddish author and
translator.
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2014/06/avrom-aysen-abraham-asen-march-15-1886.html
1886:
Yeshiva Etz Chaim was founded in New York. It was the first American yeshiva to
include the study of Talmud.
1887:
Birthdate of Polish born “Yiddish scholar, novelist and poet J.J. Trunk, a
protégé of I.L. Peretz who was in 1941 was brought to the United States where
he joined the staff of The Jewish Day.
1887:
In Valozhyn, Samuel Eliezer and Hanna Rogosin gave birth to American textile
manufacturer Israel Rogosin who opened a plant in Israel at the request of the
Israeli government and who was the father of documentary filmmaker Lionel
Rogosin.
1889:
Birthdate of “Nivki” native Moshe Bassin, who in 1907 came to the United States
where he gained fame as Yiddish poet and anthologist Max Bassin the husband of
Miriam Berman Bassin and the father of Milton and Eugene Bassin.
https://www.york.cuny.edu/library/about/bassin-collection
1889:
Simon Cook was promoted from Ensign to Lt. Jr. Grade in the USN.
1889:
Birthdate of Prague native and Prague University trained attorney Dr. Hugo
Feigl, the veteran of the Austro-Hungarian Army and art critic and art gallery
operator who in 1939 came to the United States where he found the Feigel Art
Gallery while raising a daughter, Marion, with his wife Greta,
1889:
Birthdate assigned to Melech Epstein by his parents. The native of Belarus
moved to the United States where he wrote Labor in U.S.A. and The Jew
and Communism
1890:
In Sutter, CA, Charles and Amanda Dannenberg gave birth to Otto Oscar
Dannenberg, the husband of Iceophine Elsie Zimmerman.
1890:
Birthdate of Kiev native Shmuel-Mortkhe Zamd, the Yiddish author whose penname
was Shmuel Pesok, who settled in Chicago in 1909 and whose first articles was
“Notes on Montreal” and who “was an
internal contributor and assistant editor the Shiager forverts (Chicago
Forward.)
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2016/07/shmuel-mordkhe-zamd.html
1891:
General H.B. Carrington delivered four lectures today a Syracuse University
including one entitled “Hebrew History.”
1891:
“New York University” published today described the upcoming free lectures that
would be offered by The School of Pedagogy including Rabbi Leight on speaking
on “Old Hebrew Education.”
1892:
Birthdate of Jacob Bartfield, “an Austrian-born Jew nicknamed
"Soldier" because he served in the American army after emigrating to
the USA” who “boxed as a welterweight and middleweight in the 1910s and 1920s”
and who passed away in September of 1970.
1892:
“Sunday Not Recognized By Jews” published today described the grounds on which
John Besher dismissed the charges that had been lodged against two Jewish
grocers for doing business on Sunday. Bsher accepted their position that
“Sunday being recognized by their race as an ordinary week day, they were
entitled to keep their stores open for business” but only if they observe
Saturdays as their Sabbath.
1892:
As the business operations of J.E. Guenzburg crumbled today in St. Petersburg,
it was announced that the Jewish bankers had liabilities totaling six million
rubles. It had been thought that the assets of his firm which dates back to the
Crimean War were closer to ten million rubles.
1892:
In Paris, the Bourse closed down based on reports of the failure of J.E.
Guenzburg’s banking interests in St. Petersburg.
1892:
Birthdate of Lithuanian native Henrikas Rabinavicius, a graduate of the
“Universities of Dorpat, Leningrad and London” who in 1927 was forced to resign
as Counsel General of Lithuania in New York because Premier Waldemara wanted
his country to be represented by “a Lithuanian, not a Jew.” (Editor’s note:
this 1927 expression of anti-Semitism might help to explain the success of the
Final Solution in the Baltic States.)
1892:
Word of the failure of J.E. Guenzburg, a leading Russian banker had little
effect on the financial markets in London
1892:
In Berlin it is believed that the failure of Guenzburg was the result of
governmental animosity. The Czar’s government objected to the power of a Jewish
banker and his involvement with German bankers since Russia is now allying
itself with France. Creditors have good reason to believe that Guenzburg will
pay all of his creditors.
1893:
Birthdate of Jules Salvador Moch, the French politician who was the grandson of
Colonel Jules Moch and the son of Captain Gaston Moch who was born and died in
the same year as Captain Alfred Dreyfus whose cause he supported.
1893:
Arthur Reichow, a representative of the committee connected with the Baron
Hirsch Fund, returned to New York City tonight after having spent the day
investigating conditions at the Jewish colony at Chesterfield, eight miles from
New London, CT. “Instead of starvation” Reichow said “he found a comparatively
contented people with only six families of the thirty-two” at the colony were
“really in need of assistance” and two of the families refused to accept any
help unless it was in the form of loan.
1893:
In Manhattan Henry and Barbetter Lashanska gave birth to operatic soprano Hulda
Lashanska, who was also known as Hulda Rosenblum after she married Harold
Rosenblum with whom she “had two daughters – Lenore and Peggy.”
1893:
It was reported today that a Jewish peddler named Morantz has been fencing
stolen goods for several gangs in the Kansas City area. Morantz has a daughter named Mollie who takes
the goods from the thieves when her father leaves the city “to sell the
plunder.”
1893:
Citing information that has appeared in German newspapers, “Andrew D. White,
the United States Minister to Russia” has written to the State Department
warning “that it is the intention of the promoters of the Baron Hirsch fund…to
renew the immigration of Russian” Jews “to the Argentine Republic.” “Only the better class of” Jews “will be sent
to the South American republic and that those of an undesirable class will be
sifted out and sent to the United States.”
White did not comment on the credibility of the reports saying only that
U.S. immigration officials should be vigilant about the appearance of such
undesirable immigrants.
1894:
In New York City, Babette Born and Henry Lashanska gave birth to Hunter College
graduate and lyric soprano Hulda Lashanska Rosenbaum a member of Temple
Emanu-El in New York City and the wife of Harold A. Rosenbaum whom she married
in 1913 after which made her debut concert at Detroit in 1916 and give her
first New York recital in 1917.
1894:
In Manhattan, Albert and Rose Guggenheim gave birth to Yale educated
anthropologist Edwin Loeb and husband of Ella-Marie Karr Loeb with whom he had
three children – Robert, Peter and Barbara – who served with OSS during WW II.
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1967.69.2.02a00070
1895:
In Kremenetz, Russia, Yetta Shilberg and Israel Pollen gave birth to future
Englishman Zalman Solomon Pollen, the husband of Esther Violet Lipshitz and the
father of Sheila and Andrew Pollen
1895:
Alfred Dreyfus arrived at the Iles de Sault, “a small archipelago situated
twenty-seven miles (43 km) off Cayenne, opposite the mouth of the River Kuru”
best known for Devil’s Island where the disgraced officer was to be imprisoned.
1896:
In Rochester, NY, founding of the Congregation of Tailors (Chevra Chayteem)
whose members included Nathan Rubenstein and which held services three times a
day, operated a daily religious school and used Mt. Hope Cemetery.
1896:
Seventy-eight Jewish veterans of the Union Army met in New York City's
Lexington Opera House to form the Hebrew Union Veterans, the precursor group to
the Jewish War Veterans of the USA. The veterans gathered in an attempt to
refute claims in Harper’s Weekly and
the North American Review that Jews
had not fought in the war. (As reported by Seymour “Sy” Brody) The same charge
was also made by Mark Twain which would prove to be unusual on two counts.
Twain’s brief flirtation with the war had come on the Rebel side and his
daughter would end up marrying a Jews.
1896:
In Knyszyn, Poland “Reb Eli Novodvorsky, a Jewish scholar, and Chaya Tserel
Novodvorsky, a small goods store owner” gave birth to Shimeon Novodvorsky,
better known as Jim Novy, the Austin, TX
businessman and leader of the Jewish community who worked to save Jews from the
Holocaust and was close friend of Lyndon Johnson.
http://www.caa-austin.org/?q=historyofJimNovy
1896:”
Russia and Religious Liberty” published today described the treatment of
non-Orthodox treatment in the Czar’s empire including his five or six million
Jewish subjects who are subject to “Jew baiting” in which the government has
“appealed to what is worst in human nature.
“The harrying of the Jews is generally admitted being one of the cause
of the growth of poverty” among the Russian people. “After the expulsion of the Jews from Moscow,
the rate of interest in private pawnshops rose from 25 to 200 per cent per
annum. (So much for the myth of the avaricious Jewish moneylender)
1897:
It was reported today that a performance of “My Uncle’s Will” by the students
of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts was the main entertainment provided at
an event hosted by the Hebrew Institute.
1897:
Eighty-two-year-old English Mathematician James Joseph Sylvester, the son of
Abraham Joseph who was awarded the Copley Award, the highest honor of the Royal
Society passed away today.
1897:
“Eulogies of Mr. Goodhart” published today described the speeches made by Dr.
Emil G. Hirsch of Chicago, Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Dr. F. de Solo Mendes and Dr.
Hermann Phillips the religious director at the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian
Society all of which spoke movingly of the contribution of the late Morris
Goodhart.
1897:
The Hebrew Education Society of Philadelphia, whose “annual report showed that
it had an income of $9,114 last year” celebrated its 49th
anniversary today.
1897:
“Ephraim Lederer” has volunteered to continue giving “weekly lectures on the
Constitution of the United States and the requirements for the proper
performance of the duties of a citizen” in Philadelphia.
1897:
“Catholic Praises of Jewess” published today described the praise Reverend
Sylvester Malone, State Regent and Pastor of the Church of Saints Peter and
Paul in Brooklyn had for “Mrs. Nannette Marks, a Jewish lady who has become
famous throughout Brooklyn for her benevolent acts, irrespective of creed and
who walked to the altar rail and presented a bouquet of flowers” to Reverend
Maurice Ryan, the Paulist missionary.
1898:
Two days after he had passed away, 39 year old Abraham Rosenberg was buried
today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1899:
Today the General Conference of American Rabbis discussed a paper entitled “The
National Idea in Judaism with Especial Reference to the Zionistic Movement”
presented by Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch of Chicago, Illinois.
1899:
In Riga, “Mr. and Mrs. Richard Taub” gave birth Harry Taub, the Columbia
University trained pharmacist and professor of pharmacology at his alma mater
Harry Taub, the president of Bayside Jewish Center and brother of Abraham Taub,
a fellow faculty member of the Columbia College of Pharmacy who was the husband
of Mildred Taub with whom they raised two children – Robert and Sylvia.
1899:
Three hundred forty-five guests attended the celebration of the 80th
birthday of Rabbi Isaac M. Wise which included a dinner at the Phoenix Club in
Cincinnati, Ohio hosted by the General Conference of American Rabbis.
1899:
It was reported today that the next musicale and tea sponsored by the Woman’s
Committee of the Hebrew Technical Institute will take place next month at
Sherry’s
1900(13th
of Adar II, 5660): Fast of Esther; erev Purim
1900:
Parts of the body of Ernst Winter, a student who had disappeared in Konitz,
West Prussia were discovered in a nearby lake and an arm was found in a
cemetery.
1900:
Following the death of a student in Konitz, Poland, local Jews are faced with
another “blood libel” episode. While Count Plucker promoted riots against the
Jews, Wolf Israelski was accused and arrested. After Israelski was proven
innocent, two other Jews, Moritz Lewy and Rosenthal, were arrested on the same
charge. Rosenthal and Lewy were acquitted, yet Lewy was sentenced to four years
for denying he knew the victim. All the evidence was based on the testimony of
a petty thief named Masloff who later received only one year for perjury.
1900:
In Hampstead, UK, barrister Herman Cohen and his wife gave birth to Eastbourne
College graduate and WW I Royal Navyman Kenneth Herman Cohen who was the head
of Secret Intelligence’s Vichy branch
during WW II where he organized disruptive activities behind enemy lines.
1901:
Benjamin and Rose Ratner gave birth to Samuel Augie Ratner, the resident of
Minneapolis who was the husband of Betty Ratner and the father Cornell College
(Mt. Vernon, IA) graduate Rochel Rachel Kingman
1901:
Birthdate of Starobin, Belarus, native Nathan Chenitz the CCNY grad and U of
Pennsylvania trained dentist who began practicing in Newark, NJ in 1926.
1902(6th
of Adar II, 5662): Parashat Pekudi
1902:
Today Charles Scribner and Son published Letters from Egypt and Palestine by
the late Maltbie D. Babcock, D.D.
1903(16th
of Adar, 5663): Purim Meshulash
1903:
In Washington, DC, Mary Sweitzer Strauss and Admiral Joseph Strauss gave birth
to Rear Admiral Elliot B. Strauss who was awarded a Bronze Star with Combat “V”
for his role in the Dieppe Raid of 1942 and the Normandy Invasion.
1903(16th
of Adar, 5663): Sixty-four-year-old Adolph Loeb the native Bechtheim, Germany,
the son of Jakob and Ester Loeb and the husband of Johanna Loeb passed away
today in Chicago.
1904:
Rabbi Schulman of Temple Beth-El opened the exercises marking the dedication
and opening of Mount Sinai Hospitals ten buildings” that were attended by
Governor Odell, Isaac Wallach, Edward Lauterbach and Rabbi De Sola Mendes who
“delivered the invocation.”
1904:
Rabbi Jacob Sonderling, the Silesia, Germany born son of Johanna Lebowitsch and
Wilhelm Sonderling married Emma Klemann today after which he served as an Army
Rabbi and a member of the staff of Field Marshal Von Hindenburg after which he
moved to the United States where he served as the spiritual leader of the First
Hungarian Congregation in Chicago and Temple Beth El in Manhattan Beach, NY.
1904:
Rabbi Jacob Sonderling, the German born son of Wilhelm and Johanna Sonderling,
who served on the staff of Field Marshall Von Hindenbrug during WW I, married
Emma Klemann
1905:
Birthdate of Nat Perrin, the lawyer turned gag writer whose career spanned Marx
Brothers Movies to “The Addams Family” – a 1960’s sitcom.
1905(8th
of Adar II, 5665): Seventy-seven-year-old Meyer Guggenheim, the native of
Switzerland, who came to the United States in 1847 where he made his fortune in
mining and smelting and became the patriarch of the Guggenheim clan consisting
of his wife Barbara and ten children, passed away today.
1906:
While delivering a speech at Chesham on the question of the excluding aliens
from settling in the British Isles, The Honorable Lionel Walter Rothschild,
Member of Parliament for the Aylesbury Division of Buckinghamshire, “referred
to the number of poor Russian refugees excluded from Great Britain in the last
few months.” Based on what he considered to be “irrefutable evidence,” Mr.
Rothschild, the son of Lord Rothschild, reported that those Russians who were
forced to return to their native land were shot at the border without being
given any kind of trial.
1907: “Fanny
"Faigel" (née Anczkowski) and Abraham Atlas (formerly Atlasowicz)”
gave birth to
Sol G. Atlas,
the recipient of the Man of the Year from Yeshiva University in 1969 and was
the husband “of the former Edythe Samuel” with whom he had one daughter, Sandra.
1907:
The Jewish Chronicle reported that, a departure from Jewish burial
customs, “at the cemetery of the United London Synagogue” a minister officiated
at the burial of ashes.
1908:
Countess Muravieff, one of Russia most prominent actresses is scheduled to
begin her tour of America with a performance of Ibsen’s “Nora” which will be
followed at a later date by a performance of “The God of Revenge,” “Sholom
Ash’s Jewish Play.
1908:
With Passover a month away, the baking of Matzoth has become a full-time
operation in New York with large moving vans having to be used to take the
boxes of unleavened bread from the bakeries to the various distribution centers
around town. A bakery on 33rd Street between Second and Third Avenues is
actually having to work around the clock to keep up with the worldwide demand
for Matzoth.
1909:
It was reported today that while Dr. Charles A. Eaton, the pastor of the
Madison Avenue Baptist Church was sermonizing on “the New American” that will
grow out of the mingle of native Americans and immigrants he said, “The Jews
have got your theatres and most of your banks.
They will soon hold you in the hollow of their hand. Most have no religion at all. What can we do with them? I say, let them
come to the Madison Avenue Baptist Church.
There was one Jew would have received here – Jesus Christ. There was another – Paul.”
1910:
It was reported today that when he was in Europe Samuel Gompers “was styled as
a socialist” but in the United States he is known as a “trade Unionist.”
1911(15th
of Adar, 5671): Sushan Purim
1911:
Following yesterday’s funeral for Albert J. Teller, a young man who rose from
being a “ragged boy of the streets” to become a bookkeeper and an inspiration
to his Jewish peers several “older men” in the community decided that he be
remembered permanently by creating “a memorial prize for debating which will be
offered by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.”
1912:
The Turkish Ministry of the Interior to the Governor of Jerusalem issued a
decree permitting the Jews to place benches and light candles in front of the
Western Wall.
1913:
The Annual Conference on Child Labor to which Leon Schwarz of Mobile, Alabama
had been appointed as a delegate continued for a third day Jacksonville,
Florida.
1913:
It was reported today that “the will of the late Moses Strauss, a Polk County,
Iowa, pioneer and financier bequeathed $75,000 to charities in Des Moines, IA.
1914(17th
of Adar, 5674): Eighty-year-old Prussian born Canadian artist; a founding
member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts passed away today in Montreal.
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id_nbr=7660
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Raphael#/media/File:Behind_Bonsecours_Market.png
1914:
Birthdate of New York native, high school drop-out and singing water Joseph
Roszawikz the USAA Corps veteran who gained fame as Joe E. Ross best known for
his role in the ridiculous sitcom “Car 54.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/15/obituaries/joe-e-ross-dies-at-67-actor-in-tv-s-car-54.html
1915:
Birthdate of Joe E. Ross, borscht belt comedian and star of such television
sitcoms as “Car 54 Where Are You?”
1915:
In Vilkovishky, Lithuania, Rabbi Simon
Eisenstein Barzilay and Taube (Rosenthal) Barilay
gave birth to American historian and educator, Isaac Eisenstein, the husband of
and father of Sharonah and Joshua Barzilay.
1915:
Birthdate of Bronx native Theodore Wilentz “who with his brother, Eli, owned
the Eighth Street Bookshop, a bustling bibliophilic beehive in the 1950's and
60's.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/06/nyregion/theodore-wilentz-86-dies-a-bookman-extraordinaire.html
1915:
The Austrian Hungarian Consul General in New York issued a dispatch today that
had originated in the foreign office in Vienna
1915:
Birthdate of broadcast journalist David Schoenbrun, the CBS broadcast bureau
chief in Washington DC and Paris France who was one of the famous “Murrow
boys.”
1915:
It was reported today that the “relief cargo” being carried by U.S. collier
Vulcan, “represents an expenditure of $150,000 by the American Jewish Relief
Committee” and the flour is the primary staple in the shipment.
1915:
Birthdate of Dr. David Wilfred Abse, the native of Cardiff, Wales and Professor of Psychiatry at the University
of Virginia from 1962 until 2000 whose siblings included poet Dannie Abse and
Welsh Labor Member of Parliament Leopold “Leo” Abse.
1915:
It was reported today that L. H. Levine and E.W. L. Epstein of New York will
direct the distribution of relief supplies once they arrive at Jaffa.
1915:
It was reported today that the membership in the Hebrew Sheltering and
Immigrant Aid Society had grown from 15,357 in 1913 to 46,023 in 1914 and that
the society had raised $112, 988 last year and spent $110,869.
1915:
It was reported today that Jewish immigration had fallen form 130,237 in 1913
to 66,557 in 1914.
1916:
It was reported today that in Philadelphia, the newly formed Maccabean Regiment
has “unanimously elected Jacob D. Lit, one the owners of Lit Brothers
department store which had been founded as dress and millinery shop by his
sister Rachel, as Colonel” and “Isidore Stern, a prominent attorney as
Chairman.”
1916:
An expeditionary force under the command of General Pershing crossed into
Mexico in an attempt to capture Pancho Villa – a military action that would
include enough Jews that Rabbis were sent to the Mexican border by the Army and
Navy Committee and the Central Conference of American Rabbis to conduct
services for the High Holidays and Sukkoth.
1916:
As part of the ceremonies marking the dedication of “the new Temple of Sinai
Congregation of the Bronx” the Sinai Auxiliary Societies are scheduled to host
a reception tonight complete with music and speakers.
1917:
“Herman Bernstein, the editor of the American Hebrew…predicted” tonight “that
equal rights for the Jews would be one the important results of the Reactionary
Party.”
1917:
Czar Nicholas II abdicated bringing an end to the Romanov dynasty which had
caused so much suffering for the Jewish people.
1917(NS):
Sergei Zubatov, “the head of the Czarist Secret Police in Moscow” who
“convinced” the imprisoned Manya Shochat to form “tame” workers “organizations
that would work for reform rather than the overthrow of the government” which
would supposedly “help achieve rights for Jews” – a supposition which the
policeman knew was false and which the Jewish leader came to see as a “pipe
dream” committed suicide today.
1918:
In Lemberg, the police searched the “headquarters of the Paolie-Zionists and
Union Jewish Workmen and arrested several leaders.”
1918:
In Frankfort, a “conference of Orthodox Jewish organizations resolved that the
support of a Jewish settlement in Palestine is the religious duty of all Jewry
and pledged itself to work for the emancipation of Jews everywhere.”
1919(13th
of Adar II, 5697): Parashat Vayikra; Shabbat Zachor; Erev Purim
1919(13th
of Adar II, 5679): Albert, (Avraham) Harkavy passed away. Born in Belarus in
1835, Harkavy led an unusual life for a Russian Jew. After getting a Yeshiva
education he received two degrees from the University of St. Petersburg before
gaining a doctorate while studying abroad. In a country wracked by
anti-Semitism, he was appointed head of the Oriental Division in the Imperial
Public Library, a position he held until his death.
1919:
This evening, Drs. David Philipson of Cincinnati, Samuel Schulman, Joseph
Silverman and Ambassador Abram I. Elkus were among the speakers at Temple
Emanu-El where the campaign to raise funds for organizations created by Rabbi
Isaac Mayer Wise as a way of “commemorating the centenary of his birth” was
formally begun.
1919:
In Connecticut, Michael and Rose Abitz gave birth to Irving Abitz, who served
with Patton’s Third Army during WW II and who was the husband of Ruth Abitz.
1919:
“Ex-Ambassador Henry Morgenthau” sailed for Europe today where “he will assist
in Red Cross work…and help to arrange the international convention” of the Red
Cross” which will be held in Geneva after the peace treaty ending the World War
has “been promulgated.”
1919:
The New York office of the Jewish Correspondence Bureau opened today as a New
York Corporation with a total capitalization of $26, 650.
1920:
Birthdate of Minneapolis, MN, native and sportswriter and broadcaster Sid
Hartman who took time off from his journalistic career to serve as the acting
general manager of the NBA Minneapolis Lakers.
1920:
“The Blue Flame,” starring Theda Bara as “Ruth Gordon” premiered on Broadway at
the Shubert Theatre.
1920(25th
of Adar. 5680): Forty-seven-year-old Staten Island native and Columbia educated
historian George Louis Beer, a member of the American delegation to the Paris
Peace Conference and winner of the Loubat Prize who was the husband of Edith
Hellman, the niece of Columbia trained academic Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman,
the son of banker Joseph Seligman passed away today.
1921:
Birthdate of John Patrick Kenneally, the illegitimate son of a wealthy Jewish
textile manufacturer, who won the Victoria Cross for his bravery on April 29
and April 30, 1943, while fighting in Tunisia.
1922:
After Egypt gains nominal independence from the United Kingdom, Fuad I becomes
King of Egypt. This is the same King Faud I who declared in 1917, when he was
the Guest of Honor at the opening of the Zionist Movement in Cairo and
Alexandria that: "You Jews of Egypt, will always be protected by us, until
you go back to your land, the Land of Israel."
1923:
Birthdate of Rostam Bastuni, an Arab Christian who was the “the first Arab
citizen of Israel to represent a Zionist party in the Knesset.”
1923:
“Old Heidelberg” a silent film starring Eugen Burg and directed by Hans
Behrendt who was murdered at Auschwitz in 1942.
1924:
Birthdate of Michael Harsegor an Israeli historian and a professor for history
at the Tel Aviv University who specialized in the history of Europe in the late
Middle Ages.
1924:
Birthdate of Richard Topus, who gained fame as pigeon trainer during World War
II. Born in Brooklyn, Topus was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. Growing
up in Flatbush, he fell in love with the pigeons his neighbors kept on their
rooftops in spacious coops known as lofts. His parents would not let him have a
loft of his own — they feared it would interfere with schoolwork, Andrew Topus
said — but he befriended several local men who taught him to handle their
birds. Two of them had been pigeoneers in World War I, when the United States
Army Pigeon Service was formally established.
“In
January 1942, barely a month after Pearl Harbor, the United States War
Department sounded a call to enlist. It wasn’t men they wanted — not this time.
The Army was looking for pigeons. To the thousands of American men and boys who
raced homing pigeons, a popular sport in the early 20th century and afterward,
the government’s message was clear: Uncle Sam Wants Your Birds. Richard Topus
was one of those boys. He had no birds of his own to give, but he had another,
unassailable asset: he was from Brooklyn, where pigeon racing had long held the
status of a secular religion. His already vast experience with pigeons — long,
ardent hours spent tending and racing them after school and on weekends —
qualified him, when he was still a teenager, to train American spies and other
military personnel in the swift, silent use of the birds in wartime. World War
II saw the last wide-scale use of pigeons as agents of combat intelligence. Mr.
Topus, just 18 when he enlisted in the Army, was among the last of the several
thousand pigeoneers, as military handlers of the birds were known, who served
the United States in the war. Pigeons have been used as wartime messengers at
least since antiquity. Before the advent of radio communications, the birds
were routinely used as airborne couriers, carrying messages in tiny capsules
strapped to their legs. A homing pigeon can find its way back to its loft from
nearly a thousand miles away. Over short distances, it can fly a mile a minute.
It can go where human couriers often cannot, flying over rough terrain and
behind enemy lines. By the early 20th century, advances in communications
technology seemed to herald the end of combat pigeoneering. In 1903, a headline
in The New York Times confidently declared, “No Further Need of Army Pigeons:
They Have Been Superseded by the Adoption of Wireless Telegraph Systems.” But
technology, the Army discovered, has its drawbacks. Radio transmissions can be
intercepted. Triangulated, they can reveal the sender’s location. In World War
I, pigeons proved their continued usefulness in times of enforced radio
silence. After the United States entered World War II, the Army put out the
call for birds to racing clubs nationwide. Tens of thousands were donated. In
all, more than 50,000 pigeons served the United States in the war. Many were
shot down. Others were set upon by falcons released by the Nazis to intercept
them. (The British countered by releasing their own falcons to pursue German
messenger pigeons. But since falcons found Allied and Axis birds equally
delicious, their deployment as defensive weapons was soon abandoned by both
sides.) But many American pigeons did reach their destinations safely, relaying
vital messages from soldiers in the field to Allied commanders. The information
they carried — including reports on troop movements and tiny hand-sketched maps
— has been widely credited with saving thousands of lives during the war. Mr.
Topus enlisted in early 1942 and was assigned to the Army Signal Corps, which
included the Pigeon Service. He was eventually stationed at Camp Ritchie in
Maryland, one of several installations around the country at which Army pigeons
were raised and trained. There, he joined a small group of pigeoneers, not much
bigger than a dozen men. Camp Ritchie specialized in intelligence training, and
Mr. Topus and his colleagues schooled men and birds in the art of war. They
taught the men to feed and care for the birds; to fasten on the tiny capsules
containing messages written on lightweight paper; to drop pigeons from airplanes;
and to jump out of airplanes themselves, with pigeons tucked against their
chests. The Army had the Maidenform Brassiere Company make paratroopers’ vests
with special pigeon pockets. The birds, for their part, were trained to fly
back to lofts whose locations were changed constantly. This skill was crucial:
once the pigeons were released by troops in Europe, the Pacific or another
theater, they would need to fly back to mobile combat lofts in those places
rather than light out for the United States. Mr. Topus and his colleagues also
bred pigeons, seeking optimal combinations of speed and endurance. After the
war, Mr. Topus earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business from Hofstra
University. While he was a student, he earned money selling eggs — chicken eggs
— door to door and afterward started a wholesale egg business. In the late
1950s, Mr. Topus became the first salesman at Friendship Food Products, a dairy
company then based in Maspeth, Queens; he retired as executive vice president
for sales and marketing. (The company, today based in Jericho, N.Y. and a
subsidiary of Dean Foods, is now known as Friendship Dairies.) In the 1960s and
early ’70s, Mr. Topus taught marketing at Hofstra; the C. W. Post campus of
Long Island University; and the State University of New York, Farmingdale,
where he started a management-training program for supermarket professionals.
In later years, after retiring to Scottsdale, he taught at Arizona State
University and was also a securities arbitrator, hearing disputes between
stockbrokers and their clients. Though the Army phased out pigeons in the late
1950s, Mr. Topus raced them avidly till nearly the end of his life. He left a
covert, enduring legacy of his hobby at Friendship, for which he oversaw the
design of the highly recognizable company logo, a graceful bird in flight, in
the early 1960s. From that day to this, the bird has adorned cartons of the
company’s cottage cheese, sour cream, buttermilk and other products. To legions
of unsuspecting consumers, Andrew Topus said last week, the bird looks like a
dove. But to anyone who really knew his father, it is a pigeon, plain as day.
Mr. Topus passed away in December of 2008.
1925(19th
of Adar, 5685): Mordecai Spector passed away.
1925(19th
of Adar, 5686): Forty-six-year-old Ukrainian native Samuel Dreben, known as the
“fighting Jew” because of the many decorations received while serving in the
United States Army passed away today “when a nurse accidentally injected him
with the wrong substance.”
http://www.theoccident.com/wildwest/dreben.html
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sam-dreben
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/dreben-samuel
1926:
James N. Rosenberg of New York, the Vice Chairman of the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee conferred today in Washington with Secretary Herbert
Hoover who “expressed great interest in the plans” of the committee to provide
relief for the Jews in Russia and said “he would assist the committee as far as
circumstances permitted.”
1926:
Birthdate of Sheldon Jerome Segal, “who led the scientific team that developed
Norplant, the first significant advance in birth control since the pill, and
who also developed other long-acting contraceptives…”
1926:
David A. Brown, the national chairman of the national campaign to raise fifteen
million dollars for the relief of Jews in “Russia, Poland, Palestine, Eastern
and Southeastern Europe” is scheduled to address the first meeting of the
Women’s Division of the New York campaign chaired by Mrs. Abram I. Elkus, the
wife of the former ambassador and supported by Mrs. Jacob Schiff, the honorary
chairman.
1927:
In Vienna, violinist Max Rostal and his wife gave birth to psychologist Sybil
Bianca Giuliett Eysenck the psychologist and editor of “Personality and
Individual Differences” whose husband Hans was raised by a grandmother who,
although a devout Lutheran, died in a concentration camp because “she
‘apparently’ was from a Jewish family.”
1927:
“The Csarda Princess” a romance film directed by Hanns Schwarz and with music
by Artur Guttman was released today in Germany and Hungary.
1927:
The libel suit that Aaron Sapiro brought against Henry Ford’s newspaper, the
laughably named Dearborn Independent
(it was published in Dearborn, but hardly independent since nothing was
published in it that did not reflect the views of Ford) began today.
1928(23rd
of Adar, 5688): Sixty-four-year-old Charles Alexander Loeser, the Harvard
graduate and husband of pianist Olga Lebert Kaufman who created one of the
great collection of “early Renaissance art furniture” while living in Florence.
http://museicivicifiorentini.comune.fi.it/en/palazzovecchio/donazione_loeser02.htm
https://izi.travel/en/ce5e-biography-of-charles-loeser/en
1929:
Birthdate of Betty Asher, who as Betty (Mrs. Jacob) Levin would grow up to be a
marvelous person, who raised four fine children, taught school, opened her
heart and home to one and all and was a life-long partner to her husband of
blessed memory.
1930(15th
of Adar, 5690): Parashat Tetzaveh
1930:
Dedicatory exercises for the Temple Rodeph Sholom’s new home in Manhattan
continued for a second day.
1931:
In Waco, TX, during the Great Depression, Sanger Brothers the department store
founded by Sam and Isaac Sanger closed its doors today.
https://wacohistory.org/items/show/85
1931:
In what was “the first split in the US Troytskyist movement” Albert “Weisbord
and his wife launched an independent Marxist group, the Communist League of
Struggle, which existed until 1937.”
(Editor’s note – this intermural fight seemed so important at the time,
but in the great scheme of things have proven meaningless like so much else.)
1932:
Today at Macy’s Department Store shoppers can buy “Cultured Pearl Necklaces”
from “a new shipment straight from the Japanese fisheries for $39,50 and “commodes”
that are “fine collector pieces” for as little as $69.50.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/03/15/105790029.html?pageNumber=7
1932:
In an article datelined London, the Associate Press describes “the Jewish
Olympiad at Tel Aviv, Palestine” as one the “four great athletic competitions
of 1932” putting it in the same category as the world’s Tenth Olympic Games to
be held in Los Angeles. “More than mere physical contests, the Jewish games
serve both body and soul. They recall the protest of ancient Maccabees against
the Greek Olympiads which glorified Athenian physique.”
1933:
In Brooklyn, Nathan and Celia (née Amster) Bader gave birth to their second
daughter, Ruth Joan Bader who gained fame as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsberg.
http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/nGetInfo?jid=865
1933:
Three Jews were arrested by Storm troopers in Breslau were beaten and bloodied.
1934:
“New Faces of 1934” with lyrics by Viola Brothers Shore opened on Broadway
today at the Fulton Theatre on 46th Street.
1934:
“Romance of Ida” a film based on a book by the same name directed by Steve
Sekely was released in Hungary today.
1935:
“The People’s Enemy,” co-starring Melvyn Douglas, featuring Sheldon Leonard,
with a screenplay by Gordon Kahn and filmed by cinematographer Joseph
Ruttenberg was released today in the United States.
1935:
Bernard S. Deutsch, New York’s President of the Board of Alderman, met with the
team of Jewish athletes that will be representing the United States at the
World Maccabiah Games
1935:
According to a statement issued today by Dr. E.L. Sukenik, Professor of
Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, twelve pieces of broken
pottery found on the site of ancient Lachish destroy the very foundations of
biblical "higher criticism."
1935:
Birthdate of actor Judd Hirsch best known for his role in the hit sitcom,
“Taxi.”
1936:
The Joint Distribution held a memorial meeting at the Commodore Hotel where
tribute was paid “to the memory of Paul Sandor, statesmen, member of the
Hungarian Parliament and leader in the organization and legislation to preserve
Hungarian Judaism.”
1936:
In Tel Aviv, shops were closed “as a sign of grief for the plight of the Jews
of Poland said to be the victims of renewed pogroms.” The economic protests
“coincided with a mass meeting called by the Jewish National Council of
Palestine.” According to published reports, Polish Jewry is facing a threatened
prohibition of kosher slaughtering in the Polish republic.
1936:
“The Ages-Old Battleground of Conflicting Faiths” published today provides a
detailed review of The Battleground: Syria and Palestine by Hilaire
Belloc. (Eighty years later to the day, sounds like this book was published to
match today’s headlines.)
1936:
Two days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held at
Temple Emanu-El for seventy-six-year-old attorney Henry Wollman which will be
led by Rabbi Samuel H. Goldman and will be attended by Julian Mack and Albert
Ottinger.
1936:
In London, Doctor Chaim Weizmann is scheduled to address a meeting that will
mark the start of an appeal “to British Jewry to raise one million English
pounds for the expatriation of Jews from Germany.”
1936:
“Mass Lesson In Charity” published today described plans for the upcoming
pageant at the Roxy Theatre that “will portray historical episodes illustrating
the evolution of the tradition of Jewish charity from Old Testament times to
the present.”
1936:
Birthdate of Howard “Howie” Greenfield, the Brooklyn native who formed a
successful songwriting partnership with Neil Sedaka with whom he co-wrote four
songs performed his Sephardic Jewish friend that reached first place on
Billbaord.
1937:
The Palestine Post reported that after Shlomo Gafni and Hanoch Metz were
murdered and robbed near Nazareth, Gedaliah Geller, 36, Moshe Zalman
Ben-Sasson, 33, and Yehuda Eliovitz, 28, of Yavne¹el were murdered nearby.
Police dogs followed the tracks to Tiberias. Ammunition disappeared from a
sealed government armory at Kfar Tavor and there was sporadic shooting all over
Galilee. Dr. Chaim Weizmann accepted a donation of £5,000 for the Yishuv¹s
security and development from the British Synagogues Federation.
1937:
Dr. James Bryant Conant the President of Harvard is scheduled to deliver a
lecture on “the ideals of scholarship and academic freedom” which is the third
in a series of lectures sponsored by the Semi-Centennial Committee of the
Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
1937:
Based on a cablegram from Gordon Loud, who was leading the Megiddo Expedition
sponsored by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, to Dr. John
A. Wilson, Director of the Institute, an announcement was made that gold, gems
and vessels hidden at Megiddo dating back to 1400 BCE had been discovered. It
is speculated that the treasure was hidden there by some hitherto unnamed
“Prince of Megiddo.”
1938(12th
of Adar II, 5698): Morris Tankus, a member of the Workmen’s Circle, passed away
today in Chicago.
1938:
As the Nazis took over Prague Martha and Waitstill Sharp who were running one
of the most successful refugee rescue operations in Europe finished burning
their notes to keep any information from failing into the hands of the SS.
1938:
Today, “all over Austria,” as “excited crowds are cheering the union” with
Germany, “the Jews of Austria” who have been “loyal citizens” “now find
themselves disfranchised, barred from public office, deprived of their
citizenship, harried and beaten in the streets.”
1939:
Felix Weltsch left Prague with Max Brod and his family on the last train out of
Czechoslovakia. In Palestine, Weltsch worked as a librarian in Jerusalem until
his death in 1964.
1939:
Following today’s occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Germans, Czech
diplomate Egon Hostovský left Brussels,
“emigrated to Paris” then moved on to Portugal before finally arriving in New
York in 1941.
1939:
German troops marched into Prague in what was the last act of German aggression
before the start of World War II. It also brought the Jews of Czechoslovakia
under the control of the Nazis
1939:
In Slovakia, Alexander Mach became commander of the Hlinka Guards, the Slovak
Nazis who helped deport the Jews to Auschwitz.
1939:
Today, one day after “Slovakia seceded from Czechoslovakia and became a
separate pro-Nazi state” “Carpathian Ruthenia proclaimed its independence”
three days before it would be swallowed up by Hungary. (The unraveling of central Europe just before
WW II was more than just a case of Hitler on the march.)
1939:
The family of historian Dr. Yehuda Bauer left Czechoslovakia for Palestine.
Bauer’s life reads like some character out of one of those historic fiction
novels that Leon Uris would write. It spans everything from membership in the
Palmach to a distinguished academic career.
1940:
In the Bronx, Benjamin Faerstein, a dentist, and “the former Rose Rosenberg,”
“Jewish immigrants from what is now the Ukraine” gave birth to Florence Ina
Faestein who gained fame as poet and translator Chana Bloch. (As reported by
William Grimes)
1940:
“Young Tom Edison,” a biopic directed by Norman Taurog with a script
co-authored by Dore Schary was released in the United States today.
1940:
Birthdate of Judith Rose Fingeret, the Pittsburgh native, who, as Judith F.
Krug, led the campaign by libraries against efforts to ban books, including
helping found Banned Books Week, then fought laws and regulations to limit
children’s access to the Internet.
1941:
In Amsterdam, Etty Hillesum a young woman studying Slavic languages at
Amsterdam University recorded her rage of the deportations (of the Jews)
writing in her diary “The whole German nation must be destroyed root and
branch. They are all scum.”
1942:
The First Dünamünde Action, a murderous assault designed “to execute Jews who
had recently been deported to Latvia from Germany, Austria, Bohemia and
Moravia” conducted by the Nazis and their Latvian collaborators began today in
the Biķernieki forest, near Riga, Latvia.
1942:
In Brooklyn, bookkeeper Eleanor Friedman and insurance salesman Alan Jacob
Friedman gave birth to Alan Jacob Friedman “a physicist who specialized in
communicating the tenets of science to nonscientists and as the director of the
New York Hall of Science in Queens oversaw its growth from a moribund museum to
one of the city’s formidable educational institutions.”
1942(26th
of Adar, 5702): Seventy-year-old Viennese born composer and conductor Alexander
von Zemlinksy passed away today in the United States.
http://orelfoundation.org/composers/article/alexander_zemlinsky/
1943:
In Toronto, Canada, “Esther (née Sumberg), a musician, and Milton Cronenberg, a
writer and editor’ gave birth to David Paul Cronenberg a Canadian film director and occasional actor
who is one of the principal originators of what is sometimes known as the
"body horror" genre, which explores people's fears of bodily
transformation and infection.
http://www.filmreference.com/film/84/David-Cronenberg.html
http://thechronicleherald.ca/heraldmagazine/99409-canadian-icon-david-cronenberg
1943:
The deportation of the Jews from Thrace began. When Hitler was dismembering the
Balkans, he gave Thrace to Bulgaria. The price was for the Nazis largesse was
the extermination of the local Jewish population. The Jews of Thrace ended up
at Treblinka. At the time of the deportation, Anthony Eden, the British Foreign
Minister was meeting in Washington with the Cordell Hull, the Secretary of
State. Hull raised the issue of rescuing the Balkan Jews. Eden cautioned
against this. After all, Hitler might offer the Allies the Jews of Poland and
Germany as well and there simply were not enough ships available for such an
effort.
1943(8th
of Adar II, 5703): At the Theresienstadt Ghetto, Trude Neumann died of
starvation. She was the daughter of Theodor Herzl, founder of the Zionist
movement.
1943:
“The Silver Fleet,” a British war movie co-produced by Emeric Pressburger and
filmed by cinematographer Erwin Hillier.
1943:
In Cleveland, Ohio, “Helen (Smolen) Moss, a schoolteacher, and Nelson Nathan
Moss, a lawyer and small-business owner: gave birth to Harvard Business School
professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter.
https://books.google.com/books?id=tV3CKGuGoRkC&pg=PT25#v=onepage&q&f=false
1943:
“In the aftermath of the Stalingrad disaster, Hitler informed Joseph Goebbbels
that the liquidation program should not ‘cease or pause until no Jew is left
anywhere in the Reich.’”
1944:
Fort Ontario, an 80-acre federal reservation on Lake Ontario, was closed today,
only to be re-opened later in the year as the European refugee center that
would be known as “Safe Haven.”
1944:
Birthdate of Josef Joffe, the native of Łódź, Poland who grew up in West Berlin
and became editor of Die Zeit, a
weekly German newspaper before moving onto a career in academia in the United
States.
1944:
Abba Berditchev parachuted into Yugoslavia. His “mission was to assist the
Jews, gather intelligence and help rescue members of the air forces who were
captured or had parachuted into Romania. He did not succeed in reaching
Romania, instead returning to Bari, Italy. In August 1944 Berditchev traveled
to Slovakia, where he participated in the Slovak National Uprising. After two
months of fighting in the mountains, Berditchev was captured by the Germans and
transferred in December 1944 to Mauthausen along with other captives, where he
was brutally tortured and murdered by the Nazis.”
(As
chronicled by Yad Vashem
1944: Bowing to international criticism led by the
British and Americas, Turkey abolished the “Varlik Vergisi” or “Wealth Tax”
levied on that nation’s non-Muslim population including the Jews.
1944:
Birthdate of Adèle Geras, the native of Jerusalem, wife of Norman Geras and
author Sophie Hannah who gained fame as author specializing in works for “young
children and teens and winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Golden
Windows.
1944:
Today, the National Council of Resistance whose members including Stephane
Hessel “urged the younger generations to live by and pass on the legacy of the
Resistance and its ideals of economic, social and cultural democracy.”
1945: Birthdate of New York politician Mark J. Green
1945:
The exact date of the death of Anne Frank has not been established. According
to one source, on this date Anne Frank died in Bergen Belsen concentration camp
from Typhus shortly before the liberation. Anne was born in Frankfurt but spent
most of her life in Holland. Once the deportations began Anne and her family
moved to a hiding place and stayed there from July 9, 1942 until August 4, 1944
when they were betrayed. Anne had hoped to become a writer and succeeded beyond
anything she could have imagined when her diary was published after World War
II
1946:
British premier Attlee agreed to India's right to independence. This decision
had a major, if under-reported effect on the future of the Jews in Palestine.
Once the British decided to give up India, the need to protect the Suez Canal,
the British lifeline to India, had greatly diminished. The British had wanted
the Palestine Mandate primarily to protect this lifeline. Now that this would
no longer be needed, the British were prepared to give up the Palestine Mandate
which led to the creation of the state of Israel two years later.
1947:
For the first time, British authorities have shipped “authorized immigrants”
from Palestine to Cyprus on Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest. The immigrants are
Jews who had come to Palestine aboard the Susannah.
1948:
Birthdate of Kate Bornstein, American transgender author.
1948:
“The meeting of the United Nations Security Council scheduled today for
consideration of the Palestine question was postponed until 2:30 P.M. tomorrow
as a result of an eleventh-hour decision by the United States, China and France
to ask Jews and Arabs whether they would agree to a truce in the Holy Land,”
1948:
“A spokesman of the Jewish Agency protested today that the seven-day curfew on
road traffic which imposed on Jewish settlements in the Upper Galilee was
‘inconsistent’ with the neutrality that British security forces had professed
to maintain.”
1949(14th
of Adar, 5709): Purim
1949(14th
of Adar, 5709): Emma Menko, the wife of Jake Menko and the daughter of Charles
Wessolowsky, an earlier supporter of B’nai B’rith in Alabama, passed away.
1950:
“Tarzan and the Slave Girl,” another film about the Jungle man directed by Lee
Sholem, produced by Sol Lesser and written by Hans Jacoby was released today in
the United States.
1952(18th
of Adar, 5712): Parashat Ki Tisa; Shabbat Parah
1952:
In Tangiers, a Muslim demonstration supporting union with Morocco turned
violent and "many Jewish-owned shops were among those looted and
burned."
1952:
The Jerusalem Post reported from Egypt that a political battle was
shaping up in Cairo between Palestine hard-liners and moderates over the future
of the Palestine Liberation Organization¹s role in the Middle East and its
relations with Jordan and Syria.
1953(28th
of Adar, 5713): Eighty-year-old Herman B. Baruch, the brother of financier and
Presidential adviser Bernard Baruch who was both a doctor like his father and a
former Ambassador to the Netherlands
and Portugal passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9403E5DB173EE53BBC4E52DFB5668388649EDE
1953(28th
of Adar, 5713): Seventy-six-year-old Democratic Party leader and “chairman of
the board of trustees of Yeshiva University Samuel Levy, the St Patrick Day
born NYU trained lawyer and husband of Sadie Vesell Levy with whom he raised
two children – Bernice and Lawrence – passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/03/16/83714230.pdf
1956:
"My Fair Lady" opened on Broadway. The lyrics were written by Alan J.
Lerner and the music was composed by Frederick Lowe. These are but two Jews
connected with that unique American entertainment creation - the musical
comedy. Some other names include the team of Rogers and Hammerstein, Moss Hart,
Leonard Bernstein, Frank Loesser, Jerome Kern and the Gershwin Brothers, George
and Ira.
1957(12th
of Adar II, 5717): Twelve days after having been shot by Zeev Eckstein, Rudolf
Israel Kastner succumbed to his wounds and died today in Tel Aviv.
http://www.jewishjournal.com/yom_hashoah/article/rudolph_kastner_gets_a_new_trial_20110426
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/kastner.html
http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/movies/23killing.html
1957:
On Long Island NY, chemical engineering professor Joseph Silverman and his wife
gave birth to
David Silverman, the American animator best
known for his work on the television “The Simpsons.”
1959:
In Irvine, CA, Austrian born Holocaust survivor and former resident of Israel
Eric Teltscher and his wife, a native of pre-state Israel gave birth to
American tennis pro Eliot Teltscher.
http://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/14107
1961(27th
of Adar, 5721): Seventy-one-year-old Bertha L. Goldberg Schlossberg, the wife
of Joseph Schlossberg with whom she had three children – Harry, Regina and
Selma – passed away today after which she was buried in the Lincoln Park
Cemetery at Warwick, RI.
1962:
“No Strings” with music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers which was the first
musical he composed after the death of Oscar Hammerstein II, opened on Broadway
at the 54th Street Theatre.
1962(9th
of Adar II): Seventy-four-year-old Minsk native Daniel Persky who “had been a
columnist for the Hebrew weekly Hadoar” since 1921 and columnist for Haaretz as
well as the winner of Louis LaMed Prize winner for the best Hebrew book of 1948
for writing Ivri Anokhi (I Am a Hebrew) passed away today in New York’s Mt.
Sinai Hospital.
1962:
Congregation Zichron Ephriam announced today that Rabbi Arthur Schneier, who
has been served as the “spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Jacob in
Brooklyn” will be installed tomorrow evening as “its new spiritual leader.”
1965:
President Lyndon Johnson asked Congress to ensure everybody's right to vote
regardless of any race, religion, sex, etc. This landmark legislation which was
heavily supported by Jewish voters and politicians would be known as the Voting
Rights Act of 1965. It would change the landscape of American politics forever.
And it was a true act of political and physical courage for Johnson to make and
support such a proposal.
1966(23rd
of Adar, 5726): Abe Saperstein, founder of the Harlem Globetrotters passed away
at age 63.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/saperstein.html
1967:
ABC broadcast the last episode of “The Monroes” created by Milt Rosen and
co-starring Barbara Hershey.
1967:
“In Like Flint,” a spy spoof produced by Saul David, co-starring Lee J. Cobb, featuring
Herb Edelman and with music by Jerry Goldsmith was released in the United
States today.
1968(15th
of Adar, 5728): Shushan Purim
1968(15th
of Adar, 5728): Seventy-nine-year-old “French philanthropist and property
developer” Noemie de Rothschild the Paris born daughter of Jules Halphen and
Marie Hermine Rodrigues-Pereire and the granddaughter of Sephardic financier
Eugene Pereire who was the husband of Maurice de Rothschild and the mother of
Edmond Adolphe de Rothschild.
1969(25th
of Adar, 5729): Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei
1969(25th
of Adar, 5729): Eighty-six-year-old antique dealer Abraham Ash, the husband of
the former Tilly Adler with whom he had two daughters – Rose and Florence – who
operated the Madison Galleries on West 45th Street passed away
today.
1969:
US Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas resigned under a cloud of scandal. Fortas
was a close friend and advisor to Lyndon Johnson. According to some accounts,
when Johnson told Fortas that he was going to appoint him the "Jewish
seat" on the Supreme Court, Fortas, cautioned against this. He told
Johnson that neither he, nor the Jewish community, would consider his
appointment as fulfilling that role. Apparently, Fortas saw himself only
nominally as a Jew and did not see this accident of birth as a steppingstone to
power. Johnson ignored him and made the appointment later.
1970:
“After 28 previews, the Broadway production” of Purlie directed by Phillip Rose
who also wrote the book for this musical by Louis Johnson, opened at The
Broadway Theatre.
1970(7th
of Adar II, 5730): Eighty-three-year-old Sarah Grobstein, the Kaunas born
daughter of Mera and Leizer Benjamin Ipp and the wife of Jacob Grobestien
passed away today in Youngstown, OH.
1972:
“Slaughterhouse-Five” a movie version of the novel by the same name co-starring
Ron Leibman was released in the United States today.
1972:
“The Godfather,” a movie version of the novel by the same name produced by
Albert S. Ruddy and co-starring James Caan and Abe Vigoda opened at the Loew’s
State Theatre.
1973(11th
of Adar II, 5733): Ta’anit Esther
1973:
An attack on the Israeli and Jordanian embassies in Paris” was “forestalled”
today when “2 Arabs were arrested by French police at the French-Italian
bordered, leading to the arrest of one Palestinian and one English doctor in
Paris.”
1973:
André Bettencourt, who like so many Frenchmen of his generation had a checkered
pass, as can be seen by his service as cabinet under President Pierre Mendès
France after having written during the days of Vichy France that Jews were
“hypocritical Pharisees whose race has been forever sullied by the blood of the
righteous” for which “they will be cursed” began serving as French Foreign
Minister.
1974:
“President Nixon stated that the rise in the number of Jews permitted to leave
the USSR is due to his personal contacts with Soviet leaders; passage of his
trade bill necessary for continuing dialogue with Russians and further
emigration.”
1974:
“Senators Henry Jackson and Abraham Ribicoff told Dr. Kissinger that Soviet
assurance of more than 35 thousand Jewish emigration permits annually are the
condition for considering compromise on the Jackson Amendment.”
1974:
Funeral services were held today in Brooklyn, for Judge Harold W. Cohn, the
husband of Lillian Cohn and father of Steven and Michelle who was a long-time
board member of the Williamsburg YM/YWHA.
1975:
In a case of Jews playing Jews, U.S. premiere of “Funny Lady” with Barbara
Streisand as Fanny Brice and James Caan as Billy Rose.
1976(13th
of Adar II, 5736): Ta’anit Esther and Erev Purim
1976:
Just days before his 75th birthday, Jewish born set designer Jo
Mielziner who converted to Catholicism passed away today. (As reported by Albin
Krebs)
1976:
“In Beersheba, Meir and Esther Ohana, Sephardic Jewish immigrants from Morocco
gave birth to their third son, Amir Ohanah, who has served as both the Minister
of Justice and the Minister of Public Safety and who “ss the first openly gay
right-wing member of the Knesset and the first openly gay man from Likud to
serve in the Knesset.
1977:
In Johannesburg, South Aica, Melanie and Mervyn Hurwitz gave birth to Sara
Hurwitz a “Rabba at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, “the president and
co-founder of Yeshivat Maharat” and the wife of “lawyer
Joshua Abraham, with whom she has four sons.”
1977:
The Jerusalem Post reported that at his press conference in Washington
US President Jimmy Carter suggested how Israeli and international troops,
assisted by listening stations, might possibly man Israel¹s "defense
line" which would be outside of the sovereign border. He refused, however,
to say where the "line" would be. He warned that further Israeli
settlement in the administered territories hampered the peace effort.
1977:
The Jerusalem Post reported that The Knesset Law Committee discussed
legislation which would introduce partial constituency elections in Israel.
1977:
The Religious Torah Front, a political alliance in Israel composed of Agudat
Yisrael and Poalei Agudat Yisrael that held five seats in the Knesset split
with Agudat Yisrael taking three seats and Poalei Agudat Yisrael two.
1977:
The Hadash movement which included Rakah and Non-Partisans parliamentary group
was formed in preparation for the 1977 elections.
1978(6th
of Adar II, 5738): Fifty-year-old “Milton Perlmutter, president and chief
executive officer of the Supermarkets General Corporation” passed away today.
1978:
“House Calls,” a comedy based on a story by Julius J.Epstein and Max Shulman,
directed by Howard Zeiff and co-starring Walter Matthau and Richard Benjamin
was released today in the United States.
1979:
In Cincinnati, Ohio, Carolyn and Mike Youkilis, a wholesale jeweler, gave birth
to professional baseball player Kevin Youkilis.
1980:
“The Union of Council for Soviet Jews convened an international consultation in
London and in Israel, meeting with officials and local groups to coordinate
efforts and discuss strategies and programs to defend Soviet Jews.”
1981: The BBC
broadcast the final episode of seven-part mini-series based on Jane Austen’s
Sense and Sensibility with a script written by Alexander Baron, the son of
Jewish immigrants from Poland who had settled in the East End of London.
1982:
Paul Saginaw, Michael Monahan and Ari Weinzweig founded Zingerman's, a
kosher-style delicatessen, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
1983:
“Over 1,000 delegates from 30 countries attended the opening session of the
Third World Conference on Soviet Jewry in Jerusalem.”
1984:
Ninety-one-year-old Henning Linden, the Brigadier General who led a group of
reporters including Marguerite Higgins and a detachment of the 42nd (Rainbow)
Infantry Division as the soldiers liberated Dachau, generating international
headlines by freeing more than 30,000 Jews and political prisoners, passed away
today.
1985:
“Lost In America” a comedy directed by, written by and co-starring Albert
Brooks was released in the United States today.
1987:
In an article entitled, “For Israel and U.S., A Growing Military Partnership,”
David K. Shipler describes how the relationship between the two nations
continues to thrive despite the Jonathan Pollard fiasco.
1987:
Today an Israeli newspaper quoted Rafael Eitan, named as the spymaster in the
Pollard case, as saying that his superiors had known of the operation,
contradicting the Government's position. Mr. Eitan later denied having made
such a statement.
1988:
CBS brought the series “My Sister Sam” featuring Rebecca Schaeffer as “Patricia
Russell” back to the air today due in part to letters from fans and the 1988
Writers Guild of America strike which affected the production of other
television series for CBS and the other two major television networks.
(Schaeffer would be murdered by an obsessive, stalker a year later)
1990:
The first London production” of “Sunday in the Park with George, a musical with
music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim” “opened at the Royal National Theatre
today, and ran for 117 performances, with Maria Friedman as Dot
1990:
Haim Bar-Lev complete his terms as Minister of Public Security
1990:
Yitzhak Rabin completed his term as Minister of Defense.
1990:
Gad Yaacobi completed his term as Minister of Communications
1990:
Ezer Weizman completed his term as Minister of Science and Technology.
1990:
The Labor Alignment left the National Unity Government leading to the defeat of
Likud’s Yitzchak Shamir.
1990:
Yitzhak Moda'I and four other MKs (all of them former members of the Liberal
Party) broke away from Likud to form the Party for the Advancement of the
Zionist Idea, later renamed the New Liberal Party.
1992:
In “Separating the Men From the Apes” published today Frans B. M.de Waal
reviewed The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal
by Jared Diamond.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/15/books/separating-the-men-from-the-apes.html
1994(3rd
of Nisan, 5754): Arthur Taubman, a self-made businessman who built the Advance
Stores auto parts chain into a multimillion-dollar business passed away at the
age of 92. During World War II, Mr. Taubman also helped about 500 European Jews
reach the United States by filing affidavits with the immigration authorities
saying the Jews were relatives. When questioned by Federal officials, he said
any Jew facing death in Nazi-occupied Europe was his first cousin. In addition,
he was the founding chairman of Alliance Tire and Rubber Company Ltd., which he
and Prime Minister David Ben Gurion of Israel established in 1953. The company,
based in Hadera, Israel, became the largest such manufacturer in the Middle
East. Mr. Taubman, who was born and reared in Astoria, Queens, went to work as
a stock boy in a New York department store at the age of 13 after completing
the sixth grade. He served in the Navy in World War I and later began an auto
parts chain in Pittsburgh. When the business failed in the early 1930's, he
moved to Roanoke, Va., and started over, making a down payment on three failing
auto-parts shops. This time he achieved success. The chain, Advance Stores, a
privately held family business based in Roanoke, now has 370 stores. Automotive
Marketing magazine estimated its 1992 sales at $320 million. Mr. Taubman was
president of the chain until 1969, when he became chairman. He retired in 1973
but was vice chairman until 1985.
1995(13th
of Adar II, 5755): Ta’anit Esther; Erev Purim
1995:
It was reported today that Secretary of State Christopher has gotten Syria to
agree to direct talks with Israel during which they hope to find a forumula for
peach.
1998:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held at “Boulevard-Riverside” this morning
for Samuel Goldman, the husband of Bea Goldman and the “father of Eileen and
Robert Roman, Elizabeth and Lawrence Goldman” who was a member of Temple
Beth-El in Cedarhurst, NY which is led by Dr. Sholom Stern and Rabbi Allan
Kroningold.
1998:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including
The Children by David Halberstam and Persian Brides by Dorit Rabinyan
2000:
Barbra Streisand opened her concert at the Colonia Stadium in Melbourne.
2001
Thirty-seven-year-old Khalid Abu Elba, the Palestinian bus driver who ran over
and killed eight Israelis last month, told reporters in Tel Aviv, while
speaking in Hebrew that “I am not sorry.”
2002:
Three Israelis made the Forbes list of 500 Billionaires - Cruise ship heiress
Shari Arison Dorsman, shipping magnates Sammy and Yuli Ofer and software
kingpin Gil Schwed are the world's richest Israelis. Jewish billionaires
featured on the list include New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a media
mogul turned Republican politician, whose $4.4 billion fortune ranks him at No.
72. Mortimer Zuckerman, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations, is No. 413 with $1.1 billion
2003:
“President Bush's announcement in Washington today of plans to publish the long
delayed plan for Middle East peace represented a gain for Prime Minister Tony
Blair at a time when the British leader is getting little lift elsewhere.”
2004(21st
of Adar, 5764): “Two Palestinian suicide bombers blew themselves up minutes
apart at the industrial port here today, killing 10 others and prompting
Israel's prime minister to cancel a first meeting with his Palestinian
counterpart.” (As reported by James Bennet)
2005:
Dignitaries from all over the world attended the opening of Yad Vashem's new
History Museum in Jerusalem.
2006:
Attorney David Etra stays overnight at the White House on the day after Purim
and when asked to explain the holiday’s meaning, Etra summed it by saying, “It
was a about a crazy guy in Iran who wanted to kill all the Jews” which caused
President Bush to remark that “not much has changed.”
2006:
15th of Adar 5766 – Shushan Purim. This day points out one of the differences
between the Jews and those who sought to conquer or destroy them. There are
still Jews around to celebrate Purim and Shushan Purim. Where are the Romans
who must “Beware of the Ides of March”?
2007(25th
of Adar, 5767): Stuart Rosenberg an American film and television director whose
notable works included the movies Cool Hand Luke), Voyage of the Damned ,The
Amityville Horror, and The Pope of Greenwich Village passed away at the age of
79.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/arts/19rosenberg.html
2007:
As part of its program to republish out of print “classic works” Amazon
published a paperback edition of Chronicle of An American Crusade by
Rabbi Samuel S. Mayerberg.
https://www.amazon.com/Chronicle-American-Crusader-Samuel-Mayerberg/dp/1406758817
2007:
“Stan Lee Media's new president, Jim Nesfield, filed a lawsuit against Marvel
Entertainment for $5 billion, claiming that the company is co-owner of the
characters that Lee created for Marvel.”
2007:
USA Today reported that Businessman Jimmy Delshad is set to become the first
Iranian-American mayor in the USA. The sixty-sixty-year-old Delshad, who
immigrated to America at the age of 19, will assume the top job in Beverly
Hills, California. As the article points out, 8,000 of the city’s 35,000
residents are of Iranian descent. Just as America benefited from the German
Jews who fled Hitler in 1933, so it would appear that America is benefiting
from the Iranian Jews who fled the Ayatollah in 1979.
2007:
The Canadian Jewish News reported that Zahal Square, the barren space just
outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, is to be rebuilt by Canadians,
Jewish and non-Jewish, into an attractive public gathering place and site of
national celebrations and cultural events, under a joint project of the Jerusalem
Foundation, the municipality and leading Israeli businesspeople.
2008:
Shabbat Zachor, 5768
2008:
The Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities and The Iowa Arts Council present
Israeli Pianist Ofra Yitzhaki at the Galvin Fine Arts Center, St. Ambrose
University. Ms. Yitzhaki is a recipient of the Vladimir Horowitz Scholarship at
Julliard and the winner of the Van Cliburn Institute Concerto Competition.
2008:
In Washington, D.C. The National League of American Pen Women hosts author
Cynthia Polansky presenting a lecture, "Why a Holocaust Novel? The Far
Above Rubies Journey," delving into the real-life story that inspired her
novel.
2009:
Soviet-born Israeli-American pianist “Yefim "Fima" Naumovich Bronfman
“performed Brahms's Second Piano Concerto with the Houston Symphony Orchestra.”
2009:
In an event that is part of the Chaim Kempner Author Series and is co-sponsored
by the Italian Cultural Institute Robert Zweig discusses and signs Return to
Naples: My Italian Bar Mitzvah and Other Discoveries at the D.C. Jewish
Community Center.
2009:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman
2009(19th
of Adar, 5769): A Palestinian terrorist shot Israeli Senior Warrant Officer
Yehezkel Ramzarkar, 50, and Warrant Officer David Rabinowitz, 42, as they
patrolled near the northern Jordan Valley town of Massua.
2009:
Over 600 Jewish professional from across North America who are attending the
National Young Leadership Conference in New Orleans took a break from lectures
and learning opportunities to work on restoring Archbishop Hannan High School
in St. Bernard Parish which had been abandoned in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina.
2009(19
Adar, 5769): Twenty-four-year-old Sgt. Robert Weinger was killed near Bati Kot,
Afghanistan, when his vehicle struck an explosive device.
2010:
After a nearly 62-year hiatus, the renowned Hurva synagogue inside the Jewish
Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City has been rebuilt and is again an operational
house of prayer. Hundreds of people, braving the wind and an unexpected
Jerusalem chill, crowded into a courtyard opposite the outer walls of the
synagogue tonight to take part in an official rededication ceremony for the
newly-rebuilt shul – which stands in the exact spot it did before its
destruction at the hands of the Jordanian Arab Legion during the War of
Independence in 1948. Huvra’s first incarnation came in 1701, when it was
constructed by disciples of Judah Hahasid. Its first destruction came some 20
years later, when those same disciples lacked the funds to repay local
creditors, who in return burned the Hurva to the ground.It was nearly 150 years
before the Hurva stood again, but in 1864, after a massive construction project
was approved by the Ottoman Turks and funds were procured from Jewish
communities the world over, a neo-Byzantine Hurva was soon towering over the
rest of the Jewish Quarter. However, Hurva, which hosted the likes of Theodor
Herzl and Ze’ev Jabotinsky before the creation of the state, also met with
ruin. The Jordanian army took Jerusalem’s Old City in May of 1948, loaded the
building with explosives and set off a blast whose smoke cloud could be seen
miles away.
2010:
The New York Philharmonic is scheduled to present “Sondheim: The Birthday
Concert” marking the 80th anniversary of the birth of Stephen Sondheim.
2010:
Phillips-Van Heusen (the Phillips part of the name goes back to a Moses and
Endel Phillips a 19th century that sewed shirts and sold them in a
pushcart in Pennsylvania) was “acquired by Tommy Hilfiger today for three
billion dollars.”
2010:
Actress Isla Fisher who took the Hebrew name “Ayala” when she converted in 2007
married actor/comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.”
2010:
An Israeli lawmaker told a delegation of American Jewish leaders that he would
consult with Diaspora Jewry on issues involving conversion.
2011(9th
of Adar, 5771): Fifty-one-year-old “Yakov Kreizberg, an internationally known
conductor praised for the depth and intensity of his interpretations” passed
away today. (As reported by Margalit
Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/arts/music/yakov-kreizberg-orchestral-conductor-dies-at-51.html
2011:
“Action Bronson's debut studio album Dr. Lecter was independently released
under Fine Fabric Delegates” today.
2011(9th
of Adar II): On the Jewish calendar anniversary of First Dispute Between Two
Schools of Torah Thought (1st century CE). According to Chabad-Lubavitch, “The
schools of Shammai and Hillel for the very first time disagreed regarding a
case of Jewish law. This occurred around the turn of the 1st century. In the
ensuing generations, the schools argued regarding many different laws, until
the law was established according to the teachings of the "House of
Hillel" -- with the exception of a few instances. According to tradition,
following the arrival of the Moshiach the law will follow the rulings of the
House of Shammai. All throughout, the members of the two schools maintained
friendly relations with each other.”
2011:
The five finalists for the Sami Rohr Prize in fiction for Jewish Literature are
scheduled to meet with judges in New York City. The winner is expected to be
announced shortly after these meetings.
2011:
“Yolande: An Unsung Heroine” is one of the films scheduled to be shown today at
the 15th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.
2011:
Samuel Heilman is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Lubavitchers: What
Do They Want, and Who Sent Them?” at Ohev Shalom – The National Synagogue.
2011:
Nissim Reuben, the American Jewish Committee’s Program Director for
Indian-Jewish American Relations is scheduled to deliver a lecture about the
Jewish community in India, Jewish Indian Americans, their relationship with
Israel, and his personal story at Congregation Beth Emeth.
2011:
The IDF seized a freighter ship with dozens of tons of weaponry from Iran
headed for Hamas in the Gaza Strip today.
2011:
At 11:00 AM this morning, people throughout the country stopped, observing five
minutes of silence in honor of Gilad Schalit.
2011:
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art announced the selection of painters Asaf Ben Zvi and
Michael Halak as the winners of the 2011 Rappaport Prize. (As reported by
Daniel Rauchwerger)
2011:
Egyptian security officials said that Egypt's army captured five vehicles
smuggling weapons into the country from Sudan, and apparently heading to Gaza,
AP reported.
2012(21st
of Adar, 5772): Seventy-four-year-old “Jerome Albert, who with his father,
Dewey, created and operated Astroland, the space age-themed amusement park that
breathed new life into the Coney Island Boardwalk in the 1960s” passed away
today. (As reported by Denis Hevesi)
2012:
Noa (Achinoam Nini) and Mira Awad, two of Israel’s most beloved singing stars
and coexistence advocates are scheduled to perform their concert “Two Voices,
One Vision.”
2012:
Political Stand-up Comedian Jeremy ‘Political’ Man is scheduled to appear at
the Off The Wall Comedy Basement in Jerusalem.
2012:
“Non-practicing” Jewish authoress Jodi Picoult is scheduled to discuss the
moral dilemmas presented in her new novel “Lone Wolf” at the Historic Sixth and
I Synagogue in Washington, DC.
2012:
New York Congressman Gary L. Ackerman a flamboyant Jewish Congressman from New
York and a supporter of Israel announced today that he will not seek
re-election.
2012:
The Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted a Grad-type Katyusha rocket fired
by Gaza militants toward the southern city of Ashdod today, following hours of
relative calm along Israel's border with the coastal enclave. Two more
projectiles hit an open field in the Eshkol and Ashkelon regional Councils; no
wounded reported.
2013:
In Olney, MD, Shaare Tefila is scheduled to sponsor “Shabbat Alive!”
2013:
“FDR: Anti-Semite or friend of the Jews?” published today
2013:
In Tel Aviv, the city’s annual marathon will not be run today because of the
expectation of unseasonably high temperatures.
Other races, including the half marathon, are scheduled to be run as
planned. (As reported by Adviv Sterman)
2013:
Yotam Ben Horin and Sarai Givaty are scheduled to perform at SXSW 2013 in
Austin, Texas.
2013:
Playwright Jonathan Garfinkel has probably gone where no Canadian Jewish writer
has gone before — Pakistan and Afghanistan — to create his new play, “Dust.”
2013(4th
of Nisan, 5773): A participant in the Tel Aviv half marathon collapsed and died
Friday morning, and more than 20 others were hospitalized due to extremely hot
conditions. The deceased runner, Michael Michaelovitch, was a 29-year-old IDF
sergeant from the settlement of Tene, south of Hebron
2013:
The Jewish Home and Yesh Atid parties signed a coalition agreement with
Likud-Beytenu this afternoon, paving the way for Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to swear in his new government early next week
2014:
The Desert Film Society is scheduled to show “The Sturgeon Queens.”
2014(13th
of Adar II, 5774): Shabbat Zachor
2014:
“My Best Holiday” is scheduled to have its New York Premiere at the New York
Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.
2014:
Today, Masha “Gessen wrote in the Washington Post that Putin's popularity had
been restored thanks to the Sochi Olympics and invasion of Ukraine, which had
played on the longstanding notion "that Russia is a country under siege,
surrounded by enemies and constantly on the brink of catastrophe" and
added that "the only way to continue shoring up his popularity is to
escalate war rhetoric and the war effort," to paint "the
Western/fascist/Ukrainian enemy as ever more dangerous and the Russian invasion
of Ukraine as ever more important
2014:
In Springfield, VA, Congregation Adat Reyim is scheduled to host a Purim Pasta
Party.
2014:
In the evening, Ilan Caplan is scheduled to chant the Megalith Esther at Shir
Chadish in Metairie, LA.
2014:
Four Border Police soldiers were hit by a car, driven by a Palestinian, at a
roadblock near Beit Ummar in Gush Etzion in what the driver claimed was an
accident. (As reporterd by Yoav Zitun)
2014(13th
of Adar II, 5774): Seventy-eight-year-old comedian David Brenner passed away.
http://www.davidbrennersite.com/
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-comedian-david-brenner-dies-at-78/
2015:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Last Flight of Poxl West by Daniel Torday and Frank: A
Life in Politics From the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage by Barney
Frank.
2015:
“The kosher supermarket in Paris attacked by a jihadist gunman linked to the
shootings at Charlie Hebdo magazine in January re-opened today.” (Times of
Israel)
2015:
World premiere of “Khoya: Jewish Morocco Sound Archive” is scheduled to take
place at the 18th Annual NY Sephardic Film Festival.
2015:
In Chicago the Lyric Opera is scheduled to perform “The Passenger” which tells
the story of a former SS officer who thinks she sees one of her former
prisoners on an ocean liner.
2015:
“Two days ahead of the general election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog today continued to vie for the premiership,
with the former addressing a right-wing rally in Tel Aviv in the evening and
Herzog saying he was willing to form a national unity government under his own
leadership.” (As reported by Marissa Newman)
2016:
In Washington, DC Dr. “Pamela Nadell -- the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women's
and Gender History, Chair of the Department of History, and Director of the
Jewish Studies Program at American University – is scheduled explore the lives
of Jewish women who immigrated to the United States as she lectures on “Tevye’s
Daughters in America.”
2016:
“The Man in the Wall” and “Baba Joon” are scheduled to be shown at the Houston
Jewish Film Festival
2016:
“Hiker finds rare gold coin in Israel” published today described Laurie Rimon’s
discovery in the eastern Galilee of “a 2,000-year-old coin with the face of
Emperor Augustus…who ruled from” 27 BCE to 14 CE.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/14/middleeast/israel-gold-coin-found/index.html
2016:
Mosh Ben Aris, an Israeli from a Yemenite Iraqi family, is scheduled to perform
at B.B. King Blues Club in New York.
2016:
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to
host an “Educators' Open House which is open to teachers and educators from
around the region and is a chance to learn directly from OJMCHE staff about
renowned photojournalist Ruth Gruber's importance to the topics of 20th century
history.
2017:
“Henryk Ross’s Grim Photos Document Life in the Lodz Ghetto” published today
provides a description of an exhibition entitled “Memory Unearthed: The Lodz
Ghetto Photographs of Henryk Ross” scheduled to open at The Museum of Fine Arts
in Boston.
2017:
The Jerusalem Unity Prize, which was “launched in 2015 in memory of three slain
Israeli teenagers” -- Eyal Yifrach, 19; Naftali Fraenkel, 16; and Gil-ad Shaar,
16 – included Limmud, “the international network of Jewish learning
communities” among the winners announced today.
2017:
The Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to present fabric artist Ita Aber
and curator Bonni-Dara Michaels leading a tour of Yeshiva University Museum’s
Uncommon Threads exhibition, featuring garments, textiles and jewelry from the
Museum’s collection, including Aber’s 1970s customized Israeli flag.
2017:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “The Jewish Response to Racism”
presented by April N. Baskin the Union for Reform Judaism’s Vice President of
Audacious Hospitality, Stosh Cotler the CEO of Bend the Arc: A Jewish
Partnership for Justice and longtime U.S. civil rights strategist Eric Ward.
2018:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host “If Not
Now, When – Impact and Response to the Rohingya Genocide.”
2018(28th
of Adar, 5778): Seventy-eight-year-old Robert Samuel Grossman, the son of
silk-screen printing shop owner who gained fame as a leading illustrator passed
away today. (As reported by Neil
Genlinger)
https://www.robertgrossman.com/
2018:
“Journey from Tunisia” and “Remember Baghdad” are scheduled to make their
premiere showing on the final night of the 21st NY Sephardic Jewish
Film Festival.
2018:
“Saving Neta” and “Winter Hunt” are scheduled to be shown at the Houston Jewish
Film Festival.
2018:
The Chabad Rosh Chodesh Society is scheduled to meet in Metairie, LA.
2018:
Liz Alpern and Jeffrey Yoskowitz—cofounders of Gefilteria and coauthors of The
Gefilte Manifesto: New Recipes for Old World Jewish Foods -- are scheduled
to host “All About Gefilte Fish” at the Streicker Center.
2019:
In Metairie, LA (suburban New Orleans), Congregation Beth Israel is scheduled
to host Community Dinner featuring a talk by Jessie Wilson, author of Under
Water.
2019:
Despite yesterday’s rocket attacks, Balkan Beat Box, fronted by Tomer Yosef, is
scheduled to perform at the Barby in Tel Aviv.
2019:
Edlavitch Jewish Community Center of Washington DC is scheduled to co-host a
production of “The Jewish Queen Lear,” an “1898 Yiddish play be Jacob Grodin”
officially titled “Mirele Efros”
2019:
Washington Hebrew Congregation is scheduled to host “District Shabbat” at the
Southwest Waterfront featuring “internationally celebrated musicians Dan
Nichols and Alan Goodis.”
2019:
Following yesterday’s rocket attack aimed at Tel Aviv, “a rocket fired at the
Eshkol Regional Council from the Gaza Strip overnight landed in the coastal
enclave, failing to reach Israeli territory.” (YNET)
2020:
As the world wrestles with pandemic, one bright spot is the opportunity to
celebrate the birthday of Betty Asher whose virtues are too numerous to list
and who is the embodiment of the term Ashish Chayel. (I would have written this
even if she weren’t my aunt)
2020:
“Out of concern for the welfare of our community and in accordance with the
recommendations of Governor Pritzker and Mayor Lightfoot, Illinois Holocaust
Museum is canceling “Jump For Justice” which was scheduled to take place today.
2020”
In Belmont, MA, Beth El Temple Center is scheduled to host “Purim Drag Story
Time and Purim Carnival.
2020:
In Berkley, Urban Adamah has cancelled “Preparing for Passover through
Meditation which had been scheduled to take place today.
2020:
The Breman Museum is canceling Bearing Witness featuring Dr. Alfred Schneider
which was scheduled to take place today in Atlanta.
2020:
The gala honoring Rabbi Peretz sponsored by HaMaqom scheduled for today has
been canceled in response to “the public concerns over COVID-19.
2020:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman, The Nation City: Why
Mayors Are Now Running the World by Rahm Emanuel, Facebook: The Inside
Story by Steven Levy and The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For: How a New
Generation of Leaders Will Transform America by Charlotte Alter.
2020:
Yiddishkayt is scheduled to host “Virtual Passover Around the World” this
evening online.
2021:
KlezCalifornia is scheduled to host “Klezmer by Ear,” during which Klezmatics
violinist and composer Lisa Gutkin teaches a workshop on how to play music by
ear, including classic klezmer tunes.
2021:
The National Museum of American Jewish History, for which Mitchell Levin is “an
official content provider” is scheduled to present, online “For the Love of
Opera,” Celebrating RBG’s 88th Birthday.”
2021:
While the world is worrying about vaccinations, masks and social distancing,
Betty Levin, the matriarch of the Levin Clan is spending her birthday worrying
about how she will get enough fish to make her famous gefilte fish while her
family and friends get to bask in her warmth for another year.
2021:
Based on an announcement made yesterday by Health Minister Yuli Edelstein,
Israelis have only to wait another six days for the reopening of nightclubs and
bars which is scheduled to take place on
2021:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to present American Jewish Matriarchs during
which Pamela Nadell discusses the lives of Abigail Franks, Rebecca Gratz and
Rose Sonneschein among others.
2021:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present Ayala Fader as she talked
with Michal Kravel-Tovi about her book Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the
Digital Age.
2021:
Suburban Temple-Kol Ami is scheduled to “host its “Cook-Along: A Muffin can be
Filling: Potato Kugel Muffins Easy and Perfect for Your Seder!” event featuring
Rabbi Shana Nyer.”
2021:
The Lappin Foundation is scheduled to present “Mosaics With Mia,” during which
Israel-based mosaic muralist Mia Schon leads a one-hour collage workshop via
Zoom during which “participants will learn how to creatively repurpose old
magazines and paper to create Spring and Passover themed cards.
2021:
As part of the Part of Faces of Israel Series this time marking “A Celebration
of Ethiopian Jewish Heritage” Contra Costa JCC, East Bay Int’l Jewish Film
Festival, Jewish Book Council and local congregations are scheduled to host a
screening of “The Passengers,” a “2019 documentary about two young Ethiopian
Jewish men advocating for expanded immigration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.”
2021:
Based on an announcement made yesterday, Israelis may feel a little safer today
because “Iron Sting, the new guided mortar system, is now ready for deployment.
2022:
It was reported today that a study “of Israeli health care workers, showed that
even though fourth shots of either Pfizer’s or Moderna’s vaccine boosted
antibody levels, they were not very effective at preventing infections.” (As
reported by Sharon LaFraniere)
2022:
The mayor who led the seaside town of Surfside, FL, through the traumatic
aftermath of the collapse of a condominium tower in which 98 people were killed
last year was defeated in today’s election by Shlomo Danziger. (As reported by
Maria Cramer)
2022:
The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to present
“A Celebration of Persian Jewish Music in hoor of Purim” this evening with Dr.
Galeet Dardashti.
2023:
As part of the series “Knowledge Under Siege,” YIVO is scheduled to present a
lecture by Anna Bikont on “Irene Sendler: In Hiding.”
2023:
Modern Jewish Couples is scheduled to present online “Passover Prep for
Jews-by-Choice.”
2023:
The Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Center is scheduled to host a lecture by Allen
Packwood on “Action this Day: War Aims and Strategy” the second in a four part
course on “Sir Winston Churchill and the Second World War.”
2023:
The Walnut Street Synagogue is scheduled to present, online, “Crackers, Crepes
and Cheese: Jewish Culinary Traditions from Passover to Shavuot.”
2023:
The final streaming of “Paris Boutique” presented by UK Jewish Film is
scheduled to take place today.
2023:
The Jewish Community Library is scheduled to present Marcia Falk as she
discusses her new haggadah, which unlike traditional haggadahs, recounts the
Exodus narrative in its entirety, highlights the actions of its female
characters and includes new blessings.
2023:
Based on previous published information hearings under the direction of MK
Simcha Rothman, the chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice committee are
scheduled to come to an end today.
2024:
In a special event scheduled to take place at Agnon House in Jerusalem today,
at 11:30, “we will host Greenbaum for a conversation with Dr. Shira Stavabout
father-daughter relations following her work as a photographer and with
photographer Gilad Ophirabout generational differences in the artistic
arrangements of home and body in the shadow of Israel's wars.’
2024:
At Temple Judea, Rabbi Yaron and Canto Shira Ginsburg are scheduled to lead two
Shabbat services with a Dessert Oneg immediately following services.
2024:
The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host a “Walking Tour of the
Jewish Lower East Side” during which participants can “explore an era of
unparalleled growth as waves of immigrants settled, prayed, played, worked,
shopped, and attended school in this neighborhood as they built their new lives
in a new land.”
2024:
Friends and family are over-joyed to celebrate the 95th birthday of
Betty Levin, long-time partner in life of Dr. Jack Levin, Z”L, mother of four
wonderful children and grandmother and great-grandmother too a whole tribe and
the best aunt I could ever ask for.
2024: As March
15th begins in Israel, the Hamas held hostages begin
day 161 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.)
