This Day, March 16, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
March 16
597 BCE (2nd
Adar): On the secular calendar, according to certain archaeological
calculations, the first conquest of Jerusalem by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar
occurred. In the Bible, the event is recorded in 2 Kings 24:1ff. and in 2
Chronicles 36:5-8. It is also implied in the early chapters of Jeremiah and
Ezekiel.
37: Caligula becomes Roman Emperor after the
death of his great uncle, Tiberius.
Caligula was a challenge to all those he ruled, including the Jews,
because he was “crazy.” Among other things, he appointed his favorite horse to
the position of Consul. He did present a
special problem for Jews because he believed he was a god and expected to be
worshipped by his subjects. Fortunately,
he never succeeded in having his golden image installed in the Temple of
Jerusalem. After a bizarre meeting with
a delegation of Jews from Alexander that included the famous Philo, Caligula
said of the Jews, “They’re not so bad after all. They’re just a poor, stupid people unable to
believe in my divinity”
455: Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor
passed away. During his reign, the position of Jews continued to worsen. Under
one imperial decree, Jews were excluded from government service and were
prohibited from practicing law. Another decree made it possible for the
children of Jews who converted to Christianity to inherit the property of their
Jewish parents.
1021: The first documentary reference to Jews
living in Cologne after 331 occurs during the time of Archbishop Heribert of
Cologne who passed away today.
1190: On the Sabbath eve before Passover
("Shabbat Hagadol") in York, England, a group made up of clergy,
barons indebted to the Jews, and crusaders waiting to follow Richard, set
Jewish houses on fire and stole all their valuables. The Jews under Josce, a
prominent Jew of York, and their Rabbi, Yom Tov of Joigny (a contemporary of
Rabbenu Tam and author of the Yom Kippur Hymn "Omnam Ken"), fled to
the castle. Richard Malebys (a noble who owed large sums to Jewish
moneylenders) commanded the attackers. For 6 days the Jews held out. A monk who
came each morning to celebrate mass and inflame the crowd was killed by a stone
thrown from the tower. Facing the choice of baptism or death, most chose death.
(Josce killed his wife and two children and was in turn killed by the Rabbi).
The vast majority killed themselves after destroying their belongings. Josce
was the last to die. The few who remained opened the gate and requested
baptism. They were massacred anyway. Over 150 Jews died.
http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/jews-of-york-massacre-of-1190-a-film-by-barry-levinson
1421:
Chomutov, a Czech city which was declared “Judenrein” a week before the
occupation by Germany in 1938 and was the home to the Seligman family “was sack
and burned” today by the Taborites, a sect of Catholic heretics.
1523:
Birthdate of Antoine Rodolphe Chevaillier, the French born English Hebraist who
learned the language from Francis Vatablus and who tutored Elizabeth I in the
Biblical tongue while producing translations of several books in both the New
and Old Testaments.
1547: François
Vatable who got the chair of Hebrew at what “became known as the Collège de
France” where “he procured Hebrew editions of the Bible for scholarly use” and
whose lectures were attended by Parisian Jews passed away today.
1711(25th
of Adar, 5471): Isaac Spira, the son of Eliezer Spira and the father of Nathan
Spria, passed away leaving behind a text entitled Elef ha-Magen.
1716:
Birthdate of Pehr Kalm, the Swedish-Finnish explorer who visited North America
in 1740’s and described “the Jews of New York” as having “formed a considerable
portion of the population” having
“stores and fine houses and ships and flourishing synagogue” while enjoying
“all the privileges of the other citizens.”
1722: The
new "Aeltesten-reglement" (Constitution of the Jewish Community) was
issued today in Prussia. It was intended to do away with the evils that had
become apparent in the administration of the community, and which, in order to
be brought home more thoroughly, was to be read every year in the synagogue.
Under this constitution the administration consisted of two permanent chief
elders, five elders, four treasurers, and four superintendents of the poor, and
assistants; new officers were to be elected every three years by seven men
chosen by lot from among the community. The committee was to meet every week in
the room of the elders, and to keep the minutes of their proceedings;
resolutions, passed by them, becoming law by a majority vote. The exclusion of
a member of the community from the Passover was made dependent on the unanimous
vote of the committee; the ban could be pronounced only with the consent of the
rabbi; and both of these measures were to be subject to ratification by the
Jews' commission. The elders were held responsible with their own money for the
proper collection of the taxes but could proceed against delinquent payers.
Every year the entire board had to report to a committee of five chosen by the
community. The college of rabbis was to consist of a chief rabbi, a vice rabbi
and two or three assessors. Other taxes were soon added to the existing ones; e.g.,
on pawnshops, and calendar money for the Royal Society of Science, and marriage
licenses. The income from the last was paid into the treasury from which
enlisted men received their pay, and its amount (4,800 thalers a year) soon
became a permanent tax upon the whole community.
1743: The
New-York Weekly Journal reported that a Jewish funeral procession in New
York was attacked by a mob. According to "one learned Christian"
witness to it, the mob had, "insulted the dead in such a vile manner that
to mention all would shock a human ear."
1751: Birthdate of James Madison author of the
Federalist Papers and 4th President of the United States. Madison was also the President during the War
of 1812. He was the first President to
appoint a Jew to a diplomatic post. “In
1813, President Madison appointed Mordecai Manuel Noah as Consul to Tunis in
the Barbary States, where he obtained the release of Americans who had been
captured and sold into slavery by the Barbary pirates. It was a difficult task
requiring considerable adroitness, but he spent more than his allotment for the
purposes and his commission was revoked, the letter of recall affirming that
his religion was deemed to disqualify him for the post…In time, however, he got
a clean bill of health in the conduct of his mission and the sums he advanced
in performing it were reimbursed.” While
Noah’s name is known but a handful today, he was considered to be “the most
conspicuous figure in the American Jewish community in the period between the
War of 1812 and the Mexican War (1846).” When he returned from Tunis, Noah
became a power in New York politics. At
one point he was elected High Sheriff of New York. One angry citizen complained about Noah
saying, “What a pity that Christians are to be hung by a Jew.” Noah replied, “What a pity that Christians
should have to be hung.”
1758: In Buchau, Franziska Levi and David
Einstein gave birth to their son Heinrich Einstein.
1767(15th of Adar II, 5527): Shushan Purim
1771: Birthdate of Benjamin De Leon, the son of
Spanishtown, Jamaica resident Abraham Rodrigues De Leon.
1775(14th of Adar II, 5535): Purim was
celebrated for the last time before the start of the American Revolution.
1778: Amsterdam native Solomon da silva Solis
and benvenida de Isaac Henriques Valentine gave birth to David Solis.
1782: In Bavaria, Marion and Joseph Muhlhause
gave birth to future New Haven CT resident Moses Muhlhauser, the husband of
Frederika Fretel with whom he had seven children.
1789: Benvenida de Isaac Solis, the daughter of
Isaac Henriques Henriques Valentine and Simha Mandil and Solomon da Solis gave
birth to David Solis.
1794: In Mayence, “R’Jonas Moshe Bondi” and
“Bella Bondi” gave birth to “Rabbi Samuel Bondi one of the founders of the
orthodox congregation of Mayence and the progenitor of the largest branch of
the Bondi family.”
1794: English born Esther Cohen and future
Easton, PA resident Michael Hart gave birth to Isaac Hart.
1795: Birthdate of Cynthia Gomez, the wife of
Curacao native Mordecai Frois and mother of Rachel, Morris and Abigail Frois.
1796: Robert Reuben married Esther Solomons at
the Great Synagogue today.
1797: Rebecca and Samuel Suhami gave birth to
Jacob Samuel Suhami, the husband of Esther Gabriel Nunes Da Costs with whom she
had six children.
1799(9th of Adar, 5559): Parashat
Vayikra; Shabbat Zachor observed for the last time in the 18th
Century.
1802: The United States Military Academy West
Point is established. According to
recent figures, there are 85 Jewish Cadets among the 4.200 members of the Corps
of Cadets. There is an accredited Hillel
Chapter at West Point and a Jewish Chaplain.
“The West Point Jewish community provides a warm, supportive,
nondenominational family to all West Point Jewish cadets and cadet friends.
Family night services are very popular. The choir practices once per week and
travels several times per semester to other university Hillel Houses and
community functions for relaxed overnight trips. The community celebrates
nearly all Jewish holidays and the West Point Hillel sponsors parties, retreats
and service field trips.” “The completion of the Jewish Chapel in 1984
culminated a twenty-year undertaking. The organization responsible for the
project was the West Point Jewish Chapel Fund a private, non-profit civilian
organization. This group raised more than 7.5 million dollars to erect and
furnish the facility. In 1986 the Jewish Chapel was deeded to the Academy. Led
by a military chaplain, the congregation serves the needs of various branches
of Judaism represented in the Armed Forces. In close connection with the Jewish
Welfare Board worship resources are designed to meet the broad spectrum of our
faith. The Chapel contains an extensive Judaica collection, a fine library, and
special exhibits. Sabbath services are held every Friday evening during the
academic year at 7:00 p.m.”
1805(15th of Adar II, 5565):
Parashat Tzav; Shushan Purim celebrated on the same day that at “Fort Mandan,
ND Long-time Upper Missouri Villages trader Joseph Garreau showed Lewis and
Clark how the Arikara melt glass trade beads and re-make them more to their
liking” as the “two captains” continued their trek to the Pacific.
1806: Israel Jacobs married Elizabeth Abrahams
at the Great Synagogue today.
1807: Birthdate of London native Hannah Cohen
the wife of Joseph Lewis Isaacs whom she married at the Birmingham Synagogue in
1854.
1812(3rd of Nisan, 5572):
Seventy-four-year-old Fromet (Frumet) Mendelssohn, the Altona, Berman born
daughter daughter of Abraham Ben Joseph Guggenheim and Mirjam Glückel
Guggenheim, the wife of reformer and intellectual Moses Mendelssohn and mother
of Sarah Mendelssohn; Dorothea Veronika Breindel Veit - Schlegel; Haim Chajim
Mendelssohn; Rechel Meyer; Mendel Abraham Mendelssohn; Joseph Emanuel Levi
Mendelssohn; Henriette Maria Mendelssohn; Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy; Susgen
Mendelssohn and Nathan Carl Theodor Nathanel Mendelssohn passed away today after
which she was buried in the Königstraße Jewish cemetery, Hamburg-Altona,
Germany.
1813(14th of Adar II, 5573): As
Americans fight the British and the Canadians fight what is known in the United
States as the War of 1812, Jews on both sides observe Purim.
1815: Today, William I, whose father William V,
the last Stadtholder was supported by the Dutch Jews, began his reign as king
of the Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg
1816(16th of Adar, 5576): Parashat
Ki Tisa coincides with the first anniversary of William whose father William V,
the last Stadtholder was supported by the Dutch Jews, beginning his reign as of
King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
1817: Four days after he had pass away,
58-year-old Levy Nathan was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1817: Two days after he had passed away, was
buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1818: Birthdate of Germain Sée the native of
Ribeauvillé who graduated from the Sorbonne in 1846 after which he became a
leading Parisian physician.
1821: Birthdate of German native and future New
Yorker Rieka Ikelheimer Collenberger, the husband of Aaron Collenberger with
whom she had two children – Amanda and Hattie.
1828: In Grebenstein, Germany Meyer (Meier)
Goldschmidt and Lea Goldschmidt (Katzenstein) gave birth to Selig Meier
Goldschmidt.
1830: In Germany, Abraham Bendix Weinberg, the
Westphalia, Germany, born son of Sara Moses Weinberg and Bendix Aron Weinberg
and his wife Hannchen Leffmann Weinberg gave birth toe Aron Abraham Weinberg,
the husband of Pauline Weinberg and father of Abraham Alfred Weinberg who was
murdered by the Nazis in 1941.
1831: Three days after he had passed away,
Israel Isaacs, the husband of Breina Isaacs, was buried today at the “Brompton
(Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1832(14th of Adar II, 5592): Purim
1835: In Dolnośląskie, Poland, Löbel Schottländer and Henriette
Grossmann Schottländer gave birth to Julius Schottländer, the husband of Anna
Galewski Schottländer and the father of Paul Schottlander.
1836: After having arrived in Texas in 1835, today,
Abraham Lewis began serving in the Army as “a member of Captain James C. Winn’s
Company” today.
1841(23rd of Adar, 5601): Thirty-three-year-old
Washington Hendricks, the son of copper manufacturer Harmon Hendricks, the son
of Uriah Henricks, one of the founders of Congregation Shearith Israel and his
Frances Isaacs, the daughter of Joshua and Brandy Isaacs passed away toay.
1843(14th of Adar II, 5603): Purim
1843: In Moravia, Jakob Brüll and his wife gave
birth to “rabbi and scholar” Nehemiah Brüll
1847: Birthdate of Ephrim Henry Addleman, the
husband of Maria Jane Johnson Addleman, and the father of Martha, Alice, Henry
and Samuel Addleman.
1851: In London, Judith Lazarus and Abraham
Daniel de Pass gave birth to Eliot Arthur de Pass, the husband of Beatrice
“Trixie” de Mercaco and father of Chibbie (Charles) de Pass.
1852: Two days after she had passed away, 7-week-old
Mina Braham, “the infant daughter” of Sophia and Lewis Henry Braham was buried
today at the Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1855: Bates College in Lewiston, Maine is
founded. According to recent figures, this small liberal arts college has 150
Jewish students among its 1,700-student body.
The school has a Hillel Chapter.
The environment on campus is described as follows. “Bates is very
supportive of the Jewish Community. Jewish students gather weekly for Shabbat
services and dinner at the Multicultural Center. Films, lectures, holidays, and
parties are frequent. Highlights include Sukkah Building and campout, Tu
B`Shvat Seder, and Parent's Weekend Bagel Brunch. Bates has a Klezmer Band,
Gefilte Dog, and speakers are brought to campus for forums and discussions
often. Hillel also presents a visiting Rabbi retreat. Programs are also held
with students at Colby and Bowdoin. Bates students volunteer at the local
synagogue, Temple Shalom.”
1856(9th of Adar II, 5616): Hannah
(Anne) Manuel, the daughter of David Manuel and the second wife of Gershom M.
Seixas whom she married in 1789 passed away today in Philadelphia.
1859: Emperor Alexander II granted Jewish
scholars, wholesale merchants and manufacturers the right to live outside of
the Pale.
1859: Today, in
Liverpool, the first meeting was held of the Board of Guardians for the Relief
of the Jewish poor.”
1860:
Based on reports from the Halifax Sun, “an extraordinary event in the history
of the German Jews has just taken place. In the free City of Hamburg, where a
Jew, ten years ago, was not even eligible for a night constable, a Jew, by the
free suffrages of the citizens, has lately been chosen a chief magistrate, next
in station to the highest dignity in that Republic. The gentleman elected is a
distinguished juris-consult and writer, Dr. Gabriel Reisser who was
Vice-President of the German Parliament that sat at Frankfort in 1848.” Born in
1806, Gabriel Riesser “was the first Jewish judge in Germany and an advocate of
the emancipation of the Jews in Germany.”
1861(5th
Nisan, 5621): Parashat Vayikra read on the same day that President Abraham Lincoln
wrote to “Arkansas governor Henry M. Rector concerning a proposed Thirteenth
Amendment to the U. S. Constitution” which in February Congress had passed to guarantee
the legality and perpetuity of slavery in the slave states and which President James
Buchanan had on March 2, 1861, two days before Lincoln was inaugurated.”
1862(14th
of Adar II, 5622): Purim
1862:
Birthdate of Ruben ben Mordecai Brainin the native of Belarus who gained fame
as Reuben Brainin (Some sources show March 15, 1862, as his birthdate)
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9A02E7DF153EE432A25752C0A9649D946894D6CF
1864:
In Baltimore, MD, ”Elkan Bamberger, who had emigrated from Bavaria in 1840, and
Theresa (Hutzler) Bamberger, who was heir to a large Baltimore department
store” gave birth to Caroline “Carrie” Bamberger, the fifth of their six
children who became Caroline Frank when she married Louis Frank and Caroline
Frank Fuld when she married Felix Fuld the name under which became a noted
philanthropist who provide the initial
endowment of five million dollars for “what became the Institute of Advanced
Study in Princeton.”
https://www.jta.org/1929/01/23/archive/funeral-rites-for-felix-fuld-marked-by-simplicity
1866(29th
of Adar): Rabbi Solomon Ha-Kohen of Radomsko, author of Tiferet Shelomo passed
away.
1866:
Philipp Salzer, “the son of Maier Salzer and Silah Malzer gave birth to Sofie
Salzer.
1868:
“Affairs In England” published today described the reaction to Benjamin
Disraeli who was a member of the Conservative or Tory Party, to being selected
to serve as Prime Minister. Generally
speaking, the “Radical press” has congratulated Disraeli on the appointment and
wish him well in his new position. The “Conservative press” has responded
coldly, showing distinct dissatisfaction with Disraeli’s appointment. For them, Disraeli’s appointment is not a
triumph for the Tories but “a blow to their prejudices and principles.” Instead of being led by Duke or an Earl, the
party is now being led by a commoner who “is not an Englishman by descent” but
rather by a man “whose grandfather was a Jew of Venice, whose father was a man
of letters” and who himself was the editor of a newspaper.
1872: Birthdate of Philip King, the native of Washington, DC, who played
quarterback for Princeton before going on a coaching career at the University
of Wisconsin and Georgetown University.
1872: Emily Catherine and Josiah Wedgwood gave birth to Josiah Clement
Wedgwood the British political leader.
During the 1930’s Wedgwood took the politically unpopular positions of
opposing the appeasement of Hitler and the limitations on Jewish settlement in
Palestine that climaxed with the White Paper of 1939. Although he passed away
in 1943, the Jewish people honored his memory by naming several things in his
honor including Moshav, an INS destroyer and streets in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and
Haifa.
1873: Two days after he had passed away, 64-year-old Abraham Marks, the
husband of Louisa Aarons with whom he had had ten children was buried today at
the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1873(18th of Adar, 5633): Seventy-seven year old Joseph Salvador a member
of a distinguished French Sephardi family whose mother was Roman Catholic, the
author of Paris, Rome, Jerusalem ou la
Question religieuse au XIX siècle who was angered by the anti-Jewish riots in
German and was considered a ‘proto-Zionist” passed away today.
1874: It was reported today that the Germania Theatre Company will be
performing at the Terrace Garden Theatre in two days for the benefit of the
Ladies’ Hebrew Benevolent Society
1875(9th of Adar II, 5635): Eight-five year old Zipporah Hart,
the daughter of Jacob Hart and Leah Nathan and the wife Eleazar Lazarus passed
away today in New York City.
1875: Mayor Wickham Chamberlain Tappan was among the dignitaries who
attended tonight’s charity
ball organized by the Purim Association. The event raised $13,000 for the
various Hebrew charities in New York City.
1876”
Birthdate Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet official Solomon Lozovsky, who
would like many others, find out that Russian anti-Semitism was stronger the
Communist brotherhood when he was executed by Stalin in 1952 along with other
members of the Jewish Ant-Fascist Committee.
1878(11th
of Adar II, 5638): Parashat Vayikra; Shabbat Zachor
1878:
On Shabbat Zachor, rabbis at several synagogues addressed the appeal that has
been issued by the Board of Delegates of American Israelites to raise funds to
aid their suffering co-religionists trapped in war torn Eastern Europe and
parts of the Ottoman Empire. They did
not make a direct appeal for funds. Instead, they urged them to respond to the
appeal that has been sent to all congregations by the Executive committee of
the Central Relief Committee whose members include Meyer S. Isaacs, Moritz Ellinger,
Jacob H. Schiff, Leonard Lewisohn and Hyman Blum
1878: Birthdate of Wichita, KS native Mildred Hayes
Printz, the wife of Bert
H. Prinz who came the United States in 1864 and where he opened several stores
in Pennsylvania and New York before opening "Printz Company Men's Clothing
and Furnishing in Youngstown, Ohio which became the headquarters of his
commercial enterprises and the mother of Bert H. Prinz, Jr who died in infancy.
1879:
“Mendelssohn and Lessing” traced the improvement in the situation of the Jews
of Germany reminding readers that when these two met, “the country where the
Hebrew race has since attained the highest honors – where a galaxy of Jewish
names, Heine, Borne, Rahel figure among the glories of national distinction –
the Jew was then looked on like a spotted leper, against whom were shut the
doors not merely of the aristocracy and of fashion, but actually of all public
schools and public office” and were excluded “from social position and civic
right” in a manner worse than now found in Romania.
1880:
In New York City, Emma Lowenthal and Leopold J. Lewis gave birth attorney and “jurist”
Harry E. Lewis, the Republican Party activist, husband of Rose Nathan and
father of Mrs. Barnett J. Nova who held several judicial positions including serving
as Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division of the Second Department in New
York and who although a Republican was appointed by Governor Franklin
Roosevelt, a Democrat “to preside in a special Supreme Court session for cases
involving bank scandals in Manhattan and Brooklyn.”
https://history.nycourts.gov/biography/harry-e-lewis/
1881(15th
of Adar II, 5641): Shushan Purim
1882:
The Tenth Assembly District Republican Association met tonight to decide if
Civil Justice Alfred Steckler, Charles Steckler, and Julius Harburger should be
expelled because they had supported Steckler over the association’s chosen
candidate. (In the 19th century the majority of Jews voted
Republican)
1883:
Sir George Jessel, who was fighting a variety of chronic illnesses, sat as the
Master of Rolls for the last time. He
was the first Jew to hold this important judicial position.
1883:
In Russia, Samuel and Rachel (Bernstein) Weinberg gave birth to University of
Pittsburgh trained physician and neurologist Max H. Weinberg, a WWI Lieutenant
in the Army Medical Corps who was the husband of Bessie E. Sakon and who
translated “server books into English,” including Iron Heel by Jack
London.
1885:
Birthdate of “Dr Alfred Wiener who became a central figure in the documentation
of Nazi and anti-Nazi literature during the Holocaust, forming a collection
that would become known as the Wiener Library – a national resource which
continues to document and educate about genocide.”
https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/dr-alfred-wiener/
https://en-cenlib.tau.ac.il/Wiener/Alfred-Wiener
1885: Birthdate of Sydney Chaplin, half-brother of Charlie Chaplin.
1886: Rabbi Bernard
Louis Levinthal the Kovno born son of Rabbi Abraham and Beth-Sheba Levinthal
who in1891 came to the United States where he succeeded his father as the
leader “of the United Orthodox Hebrew Congregation of Philadelphia” and helped
to found several Philadelphia institutions including the Hebrew Free Schools,
the Free Burial Society and the Kosher Meat Association married Minna Kleinberg
today,
1887(20th of
Adar, 5647): Eighty-seven-year-old Joseph Ritter Von Wertheimer whose good
works included the founding of the first kindergarten in Vienna, the founding
of a Jewish children’s school in the same city in 1834 and the establishment of
the Society for the Education of Jewish Orphans in 1860 while fighting for the
full emancipation of the Jews, passed away today.
1889(13th of Adar II,
5649): Shabbat Zachor; erev Purim
1889: In Austria, Dr.
Gotthard Ezekiel Deutsch and Hermine Deutsch gave birth to Hermann Bacher
Deutsch, the holder of a Ph.D. in Biology turned journalist and author who
wrote for both daily newspapers in New Orleans and was an authority on Huey
Long.
1889(13th of
Adar II, 5649): Parashat Tzav; Erev Purim
1889(13th of
Adar II, 5649): Sixty-four-year-old Dr. Alfred Edersheim the Austrian born Jew
who would later convert to Christianity passed away today. He was made an A.M.
at Oxford in 1881 where he lectured on Biblical topics and wrote Life and
Times of Jesus the Messiah.
1890: The Mageburg Israelitishes Wochenblat
reported “that a petition is in circulation among the rabbis of Europe and
America begging the Pope to end the calumny that the Jews use human blood in
religious sacrifice by ordering a formal denial throughout the Catholic
churches.”
1890: Two days after he
had passed, Ferdinand May, the son of Isaak Withelm Mayer and Jentle Del Banco
Hamburg and the husband of Kettchen Landauer was buried today at the “West Ham
Jewish Cemetery.”
1890:
Birthdate of Solomon Mikhoels, Soviet actor and chairman of the Jewish
Anti-Fascist Committee.
Solomon Mikhoels was a Soviet Jewish actor and
director in Yiddish theater and the chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist
Committee. Born Shlioma Vovsi in
Dvinsk (now Daugavpils), Latvia, Mikhoels studied law in Saint Petersburg, but
left school in 1918 to join Alexander Granovsky,s Jewish Theater Workshop,
which was attempting to create a national Jewish theater in Russia based on the
Yiddish language. Two years later, in 1920, the workshop moved to Moscow, where
it established the Moscow State Jewish Theater. This was in keeping with
Lenin's policy on nationalities, which encouraged them to pursue and develop
their own cultures under the aegis of the Soviet state. Mikhoels, who showed
outstanding talent, was the company's leading actor and, as of 1928, its
director. He played in several memorable roles, including Tevye in an
adaptation of Sholom Aleichem's comic short stories about Tevye the Milkman
(which were adapted for an American audience as Fiddler on the Roof) as
well as in many original works, such as Bar Kochba, and translations.
Perhaps his most noted role was as King Lear in a Yiddish translation of the
play by William Shakespeare. These plays were ostensibly supportive of the
Soviet state, however, closer readings suggest that they actually contained
veiled critiques of Stalin's regime. It is noteworthy that two of the
Shakespearean plays put on by the theater company were King Lear and Richard
III, both studies in tyranny. It is now believed that the Ukrainian
director Les Kurbas contributed to the original King Lear production after he
was ousted from his Berezil theater in 1934. He seems to have had a lasting
influence on Mikhoel's directing style. By the mid-1930s, Mikhoels' career was
threatened because of his association with other leading intelligentsia, who
were victims of Stalin's purges, notably author Isaac Babel. Mikhoels actively
supported Stalin against Hitler, and in 1942, he was made chairman of the
Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. In this capacity, he travelled around the world,
meeting with Jewish communities to encourage them to support the Soviet Union
in its war against Nazi Germany. While this was useful to Stalin during World
War II, after the war, Stalin opposed contacts between Soviet Jews and Jewish
communities in non-Communist countries, which he deemed as
"bourgeoisie." The Jewish State Theater was closed, and the members
of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee were arrested - all except for two were
eventually executed in the purges shortly before Stalin's death. Mikhoels was
the most visible of the intellectual Jewish leadership, and a show trial would
have cast aspersions on Stalin's rule. Such claims lead most people to a
suggestion that Stalin had him assassinated in Minsk in January of 1948 masking
his death as a car crash, and Mikhoels received a state funeral. According to
documents unearthed by the historian Gennady Kostyrchenko, the organizers of
the assassination were L.M. Tsanava and S. Ogoltsov, and the "direct"
murderers were Lebedev, Kruglov and Shubnikov. Mikhoels' brother Miron Vovsi
was Stalin's personal physician. He was arrested during the Doctors' plot
affair but released after Stalin's death in 1953, as was his son-in-law, the
composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg.
1891: Birthdate of Chicago native and University of Chicago
graduate Leon Unger, the Rush Medical College trained physician and WW I
veteran who served on the faculty of Northwestern University.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/daily-ray-karchmer
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/daily-ray-karchmer
1892: Based on information that first appeared in the Hartford
Courant and the New Haven Evening Post it was reported today that when he is
not lecturing on military topics Professor Charles Totten of Yale, devotes his
time to Biblical work including study of the Hebrew Prophets. Furthermore, this
early supporter of Jewish settlement in Palestine says in the preface to the
published copy of his Yale Military Lectures that “the whole series was written
in the spirit of Anglo-Saxon identity with the ten lost tribes of Israel.”
1892: In Albany, GA, Julia and Morris Weslosky gave birth to their
daughter Blanche who became Blanche Adler when she married Ben Adler
1892: “A Russian Banker Fails” published described the impact of
the failure of the Russian-Jewish banker J.E. Guenzburg. The firm dates back to
the Crimean War when Guenzburg’s father supplied “vast quantities of spirits to
the Russian Army. While Guzenburg
currently has extensive holdings in lands and mines, his financial setbacks are
due in no small part to “the expulsion of the Jews who were employed in the
firm’s immense sugar factories” and the hostility of the current government
towards its Jewish citizens.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F0061EFC3C5F1B738DDDAF0994DB405B8285F0D3
1893: In Cincinnati, OH, “Aleck and Aggie (Salaway) Vigransky gave
birth to attorney and A.E.F veteran Nathan Vigran the husband of Bertha Cohn
who was “elected to the 87th Ohio General Assembly and was a member
of Congregation Keneseth Israel in Cincinnati.
1893: Two days after he had passed away, 48-year-old Edward
Joseph, the son of Abraham Joseph and Sarah Falcke and the husband of Elizabeth
Jonas was buried today at the “Balls Pond Jewish Cemetery.”
1893: “A Contented Colony” published today described conditions
“in the Jewish colony at Chesterfield” which is eight miles from New London,
CN. Contrary to previously published reports the colonists are not destitute
and that most of the 32 families are “comparatively contended people” The
colony already has 180 cows which will provide milk for the new creamery;
something that will produce “considerable revenue.” The colony is supported by
the Baron Hirsch Fund.
1895: Lt. Moses G. Zalinski who had been serving with U.S. Army
artillery units since 1885 transferred from the 4th Artillery to the
2nd Artillery.
1896: Birthdate of Otto Hofmann, the head of SS Race and
Settlement Office Main office and participant in the Wannsee Conference that
finalized the “Final Solution who served six years of a twenty-five-year
sentence for his role in genocide.
1897: It was reported today that “a recent and clever English
novel represents the rector of a struggling parish as having a written a book
assailing the moral character of the Hebrew patriarchs.” The purpose of the
novel is to acquaint the reader with “higher Biblical criticism” and
demonstrate “that Moses did not write the Pentateuch.”
1898: One day after he had passed away, 25-year-old Harris
Liberman was buried at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1898: Oscar S. Straus said today that the “a large sum of money
that had recently” been received by the Trustees of the Baron de Hirsch funds
“was not a new gift “but the second installment of $1,000,000 which the
Baroness had promised him last year” to help “the Jews in the crowded districts
of New York.”
1898: The recital of Aristide Franceschetti in the Carbon Studio
on West Sixteenth Street began “with an evening prayer,’Vegna reba’ in the
Hebrew text, which preserved by tradition in the synagogue of Leghorn.”
1898: At today’s meeting of the School Board for the Boroughs of
Manhattan and the Bronx, the commissioners voted 11 to 5 to set aside “the full
week in which Good Friday” and “some of the Passover days occur” as Spring
Vacation.
1899: Those attending the meeting of Rabbis belonging to the
Reform Movement in Cincinnati will have to decide if this conference “will
supersede the conference which” had been scheduled to be held in Boston this
year. While the current conference has included several general reports, its
primary purpose was to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Rabbi Wise,
who favors holding the Boston conference.
1899:
“Credit Men Meet At Dinner” published today described the event sponsored by
the New York Credit Men’s Association which included the statement by one of
the speakers declared that “No man in business life respects” Jewish merchants
“more than I do. I have lost less money
by them than by Gentiles, at the ratio of 4 to 1. They often pay 100 cents on the dollar when
they fail.
1899:
Simon Wolf of Washington, DC delivered a lecture at Temple Israel in New York
at a meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association entitled “American Jewish
Philanthropy.”
1899:
Ant-Jewish riots begin in Nikolayev, Russia
1900(15th
of Adar II, 5660): Shushan Purim
1900(15th
of Adar II, 5660): Raphael Tuck who with his wife the former Ernestine Lissner
whom he married in 1848 founded Raphael Tuck and Sons, the postcard firm passed
away today.
1900:
Herzl, in his never-ending quest to have the rich and powerful support the
creation of a Jewish homeland in Eretz Israel, had a luncheon with
Eulenburg-Hertefeld, the German ambassador in Vienna.
1901(25th
of Adar, 5661): Parashat Vayakhel – Pekudi: Shabbat HaChodesh observed for the
last time during the presidency of William McKinley
1902:
Road drivers and horsemen from far and near including Nathan Straus who was
driving Cobwebs “throng the Harlem River Speedway from early morning until the
rain began to fall this afternoon.
1903:
It was reported today that in his comments on the Czar’s latest edict Cardinal
Gibbons said it was the most “unexpected as well as the most important and
beneficent movement that has occurred in the twentieth century” and that he
hopes “the Jews will have a share in the proposed radical changes.
1904: Birthdate of Mississippi native Buddy
Myer, the infielder for the Washington Senators from 1925 through 1941 except
for two years spent with the Boston Red Sox.
1905: “Word was received” in New York today, “that Meyer Guggenheim, the found
of the great smelting business controlled by M. Guggenheim’s Sons” had passed
away in Palm Beach, FL where he had gone two weeks ago because he was
“suffering a severe cold.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1905/03/17/102133209.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1906: Birthdate of Henny Youngman. Born
in London, England, this comedian was known for his signature line, 'Take my
wife, please. Youngman was had to drop out of school as a youngster and was not
Bar Mitzvahed at age 13. When he was well past the age of seventy,
Youngman studied and proudly participated in the rites that he had missed out
on as a youngster.
1906: The Jews of Vladivostok were ordered to
leave the city within the next three days.
1907: Brooklyn, “George Wiener, an attorney who
had emigrated from Russia in 1903, and Mollie (Zuckerman) Wiener” gave birth to
Dr. Alexander Solomon Wiener whose many accomplished included the discovery of
the Rhesus factor and who was the 1946 recipient of the Lasker Award.
http://scienceheroes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=195&Itemid=195
1908: The New York Times reported that
the Passover Relief Association has arranged to buy 10,000 pounds of matzoth,
3,000 pounds of coffee, 5,000 pounds of sugar and 500 pounds of tea which will
be distributed among the city’s poor Jews at a distribution center at the
Continental Hall during the week prior to the celebration of Passover which
begins on the evening of April 15.
1908: In Haifa, "bitterness against the
Jews led to a clash between Jews, Ottoman soldiers and local Arabs in which
thirteen Jews were injured, some of them severely."
1909: In Finland, “the Senate to-day passed a
measure prohibiting the slaughtering of cattle in accordance with Jewish
ritual.”
1910: Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Straus, who will
“remain abroad until August” are scheduled to set sail on the Celtic today for
the Mediterranean.
1910: It was reported today that the Trustees
of the of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum are planning to a special anniversary at the
Hippodrome to mark the 50th anniversary of opening of the first
building of the asylum on April 10,
1911: Election for Grand Council of the Jewish
Community of Constantinople takes place. Ashkenazim boycott the elections. Five
Ashkenazim who were elected by the votes of Sephardim do not accept office.
1911: The American Jewish Committee which had
organized in 1906 was incorporated in New today.
1911: Birthdate of Josef Mengele. This is
was a dark day in history, marking the birth of the German Nazi doctor at
Auschwitz extermination camp. To make matters worse, Mengele escaped
justice and lived out his days in South America. He died in 1979.
1911: In Pittsburgh, PA, Oscar William
Oppenheimer, the President of the Steel Drum Company and Claude Seisel gave
birth to Louise (Oppenheimer) Levin
1912: In New York City, “Drs. Pauline (a
psychiatrist) and Maurice (an ear, nose and throat specialist) Rosenthal” gave
birth to Jean Rosenthal “one of the pioneers of theatrical lighting design.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20020824231526/http://www.northern.edu/wild/jr.htm
1913: Birthdate of Natalie Goldstein the native
of Chicago’s south side who gained fame as Natalie Goldstein Heinmen, “a
pioneering national champion for children’s welfare and respected community and
national leader, changed the lives of thousands of children through her
innovative and thoughtful leadership.” (As reported by Pastora San Juan
Cafferty)
1913(7th of Adar II, 5673): Sixty-two year old
Abraham H. Fisher, the Maryland Judge who was a founder of what is now Nusiinov
Smith LLP, attorneys at law, passed away today in Baltimore, MD.
1913:
The Annual Conference on Child Labor to which Leon Schwarz of Mobile, Alabama
had been appointed as a delegate came to a closed today in Jacksonville, Florida.
1914: Dr. Franz Opphenheimer, a lecturer on
political economy at the University of Berlin told a mass-meeting in Cooper
Union about agricultural cooperation in Palestine, saying that “the colony
which I have founded in Palestine is on the plain of Jezreel, with fifty people
working 1,000 acres and is “of the pure co-operative kind.”
1915: “Tried to Drive Jews Out” published today
described an attempt by the Russians to force the Austrians soldiers to accept
the 1,500 Jewish families being expelled from territory in and around Namiona
and Tysmieniczany into their lines and to not shoot them as they made their way
forward.
1915: “The American Jewish Committee announced
today that it had decided to contribute $5,000 to the International Pro-Falasha
Committee which has been endeavoring to spread knowledge of Judaism among the
Falashas, or Black Jews, of Abyssinia.”
1916: Felix M. Warburg, Dr. Morris D. Waldman
of the United Hebrew Charities and Judge William M. Cohen are scheduled to
address today’s meeting at Temple Emanu-El where plans will be discussed “to
federate” the Jewish charitable organizations in New York City.
1916(11th of Adar II, 5676): Rabbi Moses
Guedalia passed away at the age of 76.
Born in Gibraltar, Guedalia lived in Brazil before coming to New York
City when he was nine years old. This
“prominent Jewish scholar” was the founder of the Moses Montifore Congregation
and during “the last few years of his life served as the lay-reader for the
Free Synagogue established by the Spanish-Portuguese congregation.
1917: Following the death of his first wife,
Jean Cahn Wolf, today, University of Cincinnati graduate and Harvard trained attorney,
Max Benjamin May, the Cincinnati born son of Emily Wise and Benhamin May
married Aimee Max Benswanger while service as Judge of Common Pleas Bench for
Hamilton Country.
1917: At Temple Israel of Harlem, Dr. M.H.
Harris is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Cleanliness and Godliness” at
services this evening erev Shabbat,
1917: It was reported today that Herman
Bernstein, the editor of The American Hebrew, believes the condition of
the Jews would improve under the revolutionary government that has taken
control of Russia. He also believes that the new government will seek a
separate peace with Germany while seeking to sign a treaty with the United
States that guarantee the Russian government would allow all Americans to visit
and do business in Russia.
1917: Provisional government of Russia voided
many anti-Jewish laws and restrictions. This was the so-called Kerensky
Government which replaced the Czar. Unfortunately, Kerensky and the
forces of democracy were overthrown by Lenin and his Bolsheviks.
1918:
Birthdate of Frederick Reines winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in
1995.
1918: Dr. Joseph Silverman, the rabbi of Temple
Emanuel is scheduled to be one of the speakers when “leaders in the Catholic,
Protestant and Jewish communities take their place side by side tonight at the
Hippodrome to start the campaign in New York state to raise funds for the kings
of Columbus Camps and Over-Seas Service Program.”
1919(14th of Adar II, 5679): Purim
1919(14th of Adar II, 5679): Yakov Mikhaylovich
Sverdlov, Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Congress of
Soviets of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR) passed away
at the age of 33.
1919: The Isaac M. Wise Centenary Meeting at
Temple Emanu-El where attendees paid tribute “to the Americanism of Dr. Isaac
M. Wise” marked the inauguration of “the campaign which will last all this week
for the” purpose of raising $300,000 for the support of the institutions
founded Dr. Wise.”
1920: Birthdate of Avron Zalmon Fleischman, the
native of Brooklyn who gained ame as author Albert Sidney “Sid” Fleischman.
1920: University of Cincinnati graduate and HUC
ordained rabbi Louis Joseph Kopald, the Cracow born son of Eva Langer and Jacob
Nachman Kopald and the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Zion in Bufffalo since
1912 today married Elsa Rheinstrom.
1921: Birthdate of welterweight Daniel Kapilow,
the founder of Ring 8 “which was founded to offer health coverage and aid to
retired aging boxer and President of Teamsters Local 966 who was the husband of
Natalie Kapilow.
1922: A medical bulletin issued from Government
House in Jerusalem today said that “the condition of Sir Herbert Samuel, the
High Commissioner for Palestine has greatly improved” and that “he is out of
danger.”
1922: “David M. Bressler, Chairman of the city
campaign for Jewish relief for victims of the war, famine and pogroms in
Russia, said today that 25 teams were still canvassing the trades and
industries” and that “these teams have promised to turn in $450,000 next Monday
night either by collecting the money or donating it themselves.”
1923: “The Covered Wagon” a film version of the
novel of the same name produced by Jesse Lasky with music by Hugo Riesenfeld
and Josiah Zuro was released today in the United States.
1924: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise said he “views the
Oil Scandal as one of many signs of a great moral wakening.
1925(20th of Adar, 5685): Fifty-nine-year-old
August Paul von Wassermann, the Bamberg native, who developed the Wassermann
test that remains “a staple of syphilis detection” passed away today.
1925: Seventy-five-year-old “French sculptor
Charles-Henri Cordier who in 1862 created a bust called “Jewess from Algiers,”
which portrays a striking woman cloaked in Eastern garb; a striped headdress
covers her hair, and her shoulders are draped in a voluminous and intricately
detailed white cloth,” passed away today.
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/232047
1926: Mrs. Abram I. Elkus, wife of the former
United States Minister to Turkey, was appointed chairman of the Women's
Division of the New York drive in the United Jewish Campaign. Mrs. Jacob H.
Schiff heads the Division as its honorary chairman, according to an
announcement made by William Fox, chairman of the New York drive. An
organization meeting will be held today at the Hotel Biltmore, where
headquarters of the New York drive are located. Fifty women, leaders in women's
clubs, professional groups, synagogue organizations, and others making up a
representation of all varied women's interests in the Jewish life of the city,
will be present. They will be addressed by David A. Brown, national chairman of
the United Jewish Campaign. Each of these fifty will head a unit of workers in
the active drive, which opens April 11th. Mrs. Elkus served in the great Jewish
War Relief Campaign of 1918 and led a group of 1,000 women workers in the Red
Cross Drive of that year. Her life abroad in the years immediately after the
war in Eastern Europe brought her into personal contact with the tragedy
precipitated by the war upon European Jewry. (As reported by JTA)
1926:
Trinity College and Columbia University graduate Leon Spitz, the Lithuanian
born son of Debora Klausink and Hillel Spitz and the award winning JTS trained
rabbi who in 1921 became the leader of Congregation B’nai Jacob in New Haven,
CT where he also served as director of the United Jewish Charities of New Haven
and President of the Connecticut Zionist Regional Union married Yettta Rome
today.
1926: In
Newark, NJ, Daniel Levitch and Rachel ("Rae") Levitch (née Brodsky)
gave birth to Joseph Levitch who gained fame as Jerry Lewis who teamed with
Dean Martin to form one of the most popular comedy duos of the post-war
period. After the team broke up, Lewis honed his comedic craft and is
especially loved by French audiences. He is best known for his Labor Day
http://variety.com/2017/film/people-news/jerry-lewis-dies-dead-nutty-professor-1202533899/
1927: It was reported today that “three farm
training camps for girls which have started operation Palestine are already
self-sustaining.”
1927: “Resuming his opening ‘statement at the
trial of the $1,000,000 libel suit brought by Aaron Sapiro, Chicago attorney,
against Henry Ford, the chief of counsel for Sapiro, Milton H. Gallagher, today
took up point by point the allegations concerning a "Jewish
combination" to exploit farmers published in The Dearborn Independent and
branding each as false as he went along.”
1928: It was reported today that Senator James
E. Watson of Indiana will be “the principal speaker” at the 19th
annual meeting of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Society of American which
will be held at Cooper Union on March 18th.
1929(4th of Adar II. 5689): Parashat
Pekudi
1929: During an interview given today in
Philadelphia, Professor C. Leonard Woolley said that based on recent
archaeological discoveries at Ur of the Chaldees, “it was necessary for the
world to completely revise its estimate of Abraham.”
1929: Today, Benjamin “Gitlow was named to the
three-man Secretariat at the helm of the Communist Party, assuming the post of
Executive Secretary.”
1930(16th of Adar, 5690): Shushan
Purim
1930: It was reported today that “the main
difficulty in connection with the report of the Palestine Inquiry Commission
centers around the land question…” (As reported by JTA)
1931(27th of Adar, 5691): Russian
born Jennie Goodman Amolsky, the wife of Isaac Joseph Amolsky with whom she had
five children – Gertrude, Meyer, Lazarus, Dora and Rebecca – passed away today
in Houston, TX after which she was buried at Beth Israel Cemetery.
1932: A New immigration category for
middle-class settlers seeking admission
to Palestine which would mean that “farmers, merchants and industrialist would
be admitted in the new category if they that have a capital of five hundred
pounds, was announced in Jerusalem today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/03/17/100695344.html?pageNumber=10
1933: Birthdate of Sandy Weil financer and
1929: New York Hakoah of the Eastern Soccer
League defeated a touring team from Budapest today thanks to two goals scored
by Moritz Haeusler. (Bob Wechsler)
1930: Ceremonies marking the dedication of the
new sanctuary of Temple Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan continued for a third day.
1933: “A Love Story” based on a play by Arthur
Schnitzler and directed by Max Opuls was released in France today.
1934(29th of Adar, 5694): Sixty-eight-year-old
Gertrude Aronson, the “daughter of Joseph and Theresa Deutsch” and the first
wife of Louis Vincent Aronson, the inventor of the Ronson lighter passed away
today.
1934: In its first international football
(soccer) match the team from Mandatory Palestine (the future Israel) lost to
Egypt 7 to 1.
1935: After 237 performances the curtain comes
down on the original Broadway production of “Life Begins at 8:40,” “a musical
revue with music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and E.Y. Harburg.”
1935: Fourteen Jewish American athletes and
their manager David White set sail on the SS
Conte di Savola. The athletes will participate in the
Maccabiah, the Jewish Olympics, scheduled to open in April in Tel Aviv. Due to unexpected financial difficulties, it
was not known until the last minute if the team would be able to go. Thirty teams are expected to compete in the games,
up from the twenty-five teams that competed in the inaugural games held in
1932.
1935(11th of Adar II, 5695): Aron Nimzowitsch passed away. Nimzovich
or Niemzowitsch was born in
Latvia in 1886 when it was part of the Russian Empire. He was a chess
grandmaster and was the foremost figure amongst the hypermoderns.
Nimzowitsch came from a wealthy Jewish family and learned chess from his
father. He travelled to Germany in 1904 to study philosophy but began a career
as a professional chess player that same year. After tumultuous years during
and after World War I, Nimzowitsch moved to Copenhagen in 1922 and lived there
until his death. He is buried in Bispebjerg Cemetery in Copenhagen, Denmark.
1936: Jews in Palestine protested the worsening
conditions under which the Jews of Poland were living. Polish Jews were dealing with everything from
a government threat to end Kosher slaughtering to actual Pogroms. The Jewish National Council of Palestine
conducted a mass protest meeting, and the Jews of Tel Aviv shuttered their
shops for one day.
1936: The U.S. Secretary of the Interior “spoke
at a joint banquet” held tonight by the United Synagogue of America and its
women’s auxiliary where he told the attendees “Like those forefather of yours,
we of America today are wandering the desert even though it is a social and not
a physical desert.”
1936: Magistrate Anna Moskowitz Kross and Mrs.
David E. Goldfarb are scheduled to speak a tea being held today that has been
organized by Mrs. Benjamin Antin and Mrs. Edna Crane which will mark the
opening event of the Bronx Women’s Division of the United Palestine Appeal.
1937: In New York, “Catholic, Protestant and
Jewish speakers” including Rabbi Elias L. Soloon and Rabbi Morris M. Goldberg
joined in tonight’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of
Congregation Shaare Zedek which was also marked by President Roosevelt and
Governor Lehman who “sent letters of feciliation…”
1937: In Haifa, “Polish-born veterinarian Yosef
Tversky and Lithuanian Jewish Jenia Tversky (née Ginzburg), a social worker who
later became a member of the Knesset representing the Mapai (Workers' Party)”
gave birth to cognitive psychologist Amos Tversky, a Stanford psychology
professor who with his longtime colleague, Princeton psychologist Daniel
Kahneman, jointly won the 2003 Grawemeyer Award for Psychology. The $200,000
prize, awarded for the third time by the University of Louisville in Kentucky,
recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of psychology. Working as a
team for nearly three decades, Kahneman and Tversky revolutionized the
scientific approach to decision making, ultimately affecting all social
sciences and many related disciplines. Tversky died of cancer in 1996. His untimely death prevented him from sharing
in a Nobel Prize with his longtime colleague, Daniel Kahneman.
1937: Police fired on a crowd in Clichy which
provoked a crisis that the opponents of Leon Blum used in an attempt to gain a
vote of no confidence in his Popular Front government.
1937: Thanks to intervention by United States
consular representatives, Boris Smolar, a correspondent for JTA who was ordered
to leave Germany on March 12, “has received permission for an indefinite stay I
Berlin.”
1938(13th of Adar II, 5698): Fast of
Esther
1938: Tonight, Harold Jacobi, the chairman of
the New York United Palestine Appeal, joined with leaders of Hadassah in using
a Purim theme to call upon American Jews to support the drive to provide aid
for the “more than 200,000 Jews in Austria who have come under the rule of the
Nazis” on the eve of the holiday when Persian Jews were faced with possible
destruction.
1938: Jewish professors were kicked out of
Austrian universities
1938: In his review of Goodbye Wester
Country by Henry Williamson, Ralph Thompson described the author’s
interpretation of the Nazi revolution as being “the most naïve interpretation
of the Nazi revolution ever put to paper.
1938: During the Spanish Civil War the four day
battle at Belichite in which the Botwins, a company of Polish volunteers named
after political radical Naftali Bortain, had almost been wiped out.
1938: Adolf Eichmann went to Austria to begin
the removal of Jews
1939: Emil Hacha, who had been the last
President of an “independent” Czechoslovakia bowed to personal pressure from
Hitler and became the “State President of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia”
where, regardless of what else he did to help or combat the Nazis, he did sign
“into law legislation modeled after the Nuremberg Laws that meant the Jews were
no longer Czech citizens in any sense of that term.
1939: As Arab violence continues unabated, 3
Arabs were killed today and another 250 were arrested by British forces who
also seized a large quantity of rifles, ammunition and explosives.
1939: “Myron C. Taylor, the United States
representative on the Evian inter-governmental refugee committee, who is en
route home, arrived in London and spend the day discussing with the leaders in
the City problems connected with the mass emigration of Jews from Germany if
the recent Nazi proposals are carried out.”
1940(6th of Adar II, 5700): Parashat
Vayikra
1940(6th of Adar II, 5700):
Sixty-eight-year-old Samuel Mundheim, the Washington D.C. born son of Lewis and
Fanny Foster Mundheim and the husband of Stella Kaufmann Mundheim who was
chairman of the board of the American Safety Razor Corporation and former
president of Stern Brothers department store passed away today in New York
after which he was buried at the Washington Hebrew Congregation Cemetery in the
District of Columbia.
1940(6th of Adar II, 5700): Samuel Untermyer
passed away. It is difficult to do justice to the life and career of this
lawyer, self-made millionaire and leader of the Jewish community born in
Virginia who found success in New York City. The following lengthy obituary in
the New York Times provides a picture of his life and accomplishments Untermyer
was the grandfather of Samuel Untermyer II. Born in 1912, he was “a United
States nuclear engineer who theorized that steam bubble formation in a nuclear
reactor core would not produce unstable reactions but would instead result in
an inherently stable and self-controlling reactor design. He was responsible
for the BORAX Experiments and in recognition of his fundamental development
work on safe, water-cooled reactors the American Nuclear Society now has an
award named after him for work in this field.” He won the Newcomen Medal in
1980 and passed away in 2001.
1941:
In Vichy, France, “the government published a fourth list of nearly 500
business firms in Paris” including Andre Seligman and Seligman Freres, “the
internationally known antique dealers” that have been “provided with Aryan
administrators because anti-Jewish laws prevent their owners and directors from
functioning. (Anti-Semitism is a profitable business)
1942:
L.F. Rothschild and Company and Goldman Sachs and Company were among those
institutions which purchased “the $100,000,000 of short-term notes sold today
by allotment by State Controller O'Leary” and which “will be delivered tomorrow
to the Bank of the Manhattan Company in New York City for conveyance to the
buyers. Proceeds of the sale will be used for general governmental purposes.”
1942: The first 1,600
Jews were deported from Lublin to Belzec. Another 10,000 would follow the next
week.
1942: “The American Federation for Lithuanian
Jews, of which Sidney Hillman is honorary president, today issued an appeal to
all Jews from the Baltic countries now in the United States to come to the aid
of Lithuanian Jews who succeeded in escaping from the Nazis into Soviet
territory.” (As reported by JTA)
1943: Birthdate of actress Susan Linda Bay who
is the widow Leonard Nimoy.
1943: In Manhattan, attorney Jacob Goldberg and
“the former Etta Herman, a department store coat model and homemaker” gave
birth to Michael Harris Goldberg “the general counsel of the upstart American
Basketball Association during its final years in the 1970s and the head of the
N.B.A. coaches’ union for nearly four decades…” (As reported by Richard
Sandomir)
1943(9th of Adar II,
5703): An SS officer was killed by a Jew named
Kotnowski at Lvov. In reprisal, the Germans hung 11 Jewish policemen from the
balconies overlooking the main street of the Ghetto. Also over 1,000 Jews were
taken away and shot.
1944: Following reports that Prime Minister
Miklós Kállay was putting out feelers to the Allies about a possible
capitulation, “Hitler summoned Admiral Miklos Horthy to a meeting” where he
pressured him to stay in the work and “to assist in the kill of more of
Hungary’s Jews.”
1945: Approximately 90% of Wurzburg, a city
that had shipped its Jewish population to concentration camps from 1941 through
1943, was destroyed today when 225 British heavy bombers attacked the city in a
17-minute period.
1946(13th of Adar II, 5706):
Parashat Vayikra; Shabbat Zachor; erev Purim
1946: Today, The Acheson-Lilienthal Report on
the International Control of Atomic Energy was published. Lilienthal is David Lilienthal who had gained
fame as the creator of TVA. His involvement in how the United States should
deal with Atomic Energy in the post-war world is another example of Jewish
involvement in a whole raft of issues dealing with the creation and use of both
the Atomic and Hydrogen bombs.
1946: Today, at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York,
during the 29th convention of the Commercial Education Association, “the
convention gave a special award to Nathaniel Altholz, director of commercial education,
in recognition of his forty years of service in the New Yok City school system”
which was presented to him y Heny Levy chairman of the Board of Education.
1947: “The Red House,” the film version of the
book by the same name, starring Edward G. Robinson was released today in the
United States.
1947: The British announce plans to end Martial
Law in Tel Aviv and adjacent areas effective tomorrow.
1947(24th of Adar, 5707): Sixty-three-year-old
Copenhagen born Waldemar Holberg, the world welterweight champion in 1914 who
boxed for in the 1908 Olympics for Denmark passed away today.
1947: An explosion ripped through press room
and tourist information center in the Jerusalem offices of the Jewish
agency. While some said the attack was
the work of “Jewish terrorists” and highlighted the split between Yishuv and
militant extremists, the Irgun denied responsibility and said the attack may
have been the work of the British.
1948: “In a day of comparatively little
violence in Palestine, a spokesman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine said
today that the Jews ‘would welcome any truce under any conditions.’”
1948: As Arab forces waged a war of terror
designed to undo the UN Partition Resolution, the Palmach attacked
al-Husayniyaa in response to the explosion of land mine.
1949: In
London, Ontario, Joe Garber and Hope Wolf gave birth to Canadian actor Victor
Garber
1951(8th of Adar II, 5711): Eighty-three-year-old
Laura Bearden Leigh, the wife of John Marion Leigh and the daughter of Louis Alexander Gratz, the Mayor of North Knoxville, TN and
a Major in the Union Army and Elisabeth “Lizzie” Trigg Gratz passed away today
in San Antonio, TX.
1952:
Birthdate of French American businessman, Philippe Kahn, founder of
Borland Software Corporation.
1952: It was reported today that the New York
Society for Geneal Semantics, an affiliate of the New York Academy of Sciences
and the International Society for General Semantics has elected Karl Ettinger
to serve as one of its trustees.
1952: Birthdate of award-winning author Alice
Hoffman, the granddaughter of a Russian Jewish immigrants whose works included The World That We Knew based on a true story about a
child whose Jewish parents “had her live with non-Jewish parents to escape the
Nazis.
1954(11th of Adar II, 5714): Tonight, unknown
assailants attacked an Egged bus traveling between Eilat and Tel Aviv killing
the driver Efraim Firstenberg, eight male passengers and two female passengers
following which the killers spat on and abused the bodies of the dead before
leaving with loot they had collected.
1957(13th of Adar II, 5717):
Parashat Tzav; Erev Purim
1957: “Robert Briscoe, the Jewish Lord Mayor of
Dublin, carrying his Talis bag from Dublin visited and prayed at the Park East Synagogue
on Shabbat morning.
1958: In Croatia Slavko Goldstein and his wife
gave birth to Ivo Goldstein, the historian who is ‘the former president of Bet
Israel, a Jewish community in Zagreb, which he founded with his father” with
whom he also worked on “the reconstruction of the Zagreb Synagogue.”
1958: An explosion caused severe damage to
school wing of Temple Beth El in Miami, Florida.
1958: Bombing of Jewish Community Center in
Nashville, Tennessee at 8:07pm, claimed by segregationists of the Confederate
Union. The front of the unoccupied building was damaged by dynamite, including
broken windows and the front door, but the center reopened two days after the
bombing.
1959: Birthdate of Scott L. Schwartz, the
native of Philadelphia who used “his size and agility at 6"10 and 303
pounds (137 kg)” to carve out careers in law enforcement, acting and wrestling.
1960: The Smith-Roosevelt Independent Democrats
which “is opposed to the Tammany leadership of State Joseph Zaretski” announced
their endorsements for State Senator and for the Assembly in the Fifteenth
District.
1960(17th of Adar, 5720):
Seventy-one-year-old Hyam John “Boy” Lipman, a dentist and the first husband of
Australian political and social leader Esther Solomon passed away today.
1962: It was reported today that Daniel Persky,
the brother of Eliah Persky, had the motto “Eved L’Ivrith Anokhi” (A slave unto
Hebrew am I) on his business cards.
1962: The “Golani Brigade raided Syrian
outposts to the north of the Sea of Galilee in order to stop Syrian shelling of
Israeli Villages. Seven Israeli soldiers
and thirty Syrian soldiers were killed during the battle.” The raid did not end the shelling. It would continue sporadically until 1967
when the IDF heroically took the Golan Heights.
1963: “Personality: Boom is Loud for Lesser”
published today provides a profile of Louis Lesser and his real estate empire.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9C06E7DF173FE03BBC4E52DFB5668388679EDE
1964: Premiere of “Nothing But the Best,” a
British comedy with a script co-authored by future Oscar winner Frederic
Raphael.
1965: Israel Votes to Have Diplomatic Relations
with West Germany
1965: As bagel bakers clashed over how to deal
with the changing world of Bagel Baking, Morris Skolnick was defeated in his
bid to be elected business agent for famed local 388.
1966: When David Dubinsky announced his
retirement today from the International Ladies Garment Workers he told fellow
union officers, ‘I didn't have a life, I had a union life. You know my nature.
If I'm president I can't only be president from morning till night. It has to
be from morning until the next morning.'
1968(16th of Adar, 5728): Italian Jewish
composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
passed away. Born in Florence in 1895, he was descended from a prominent
banking family that had lived in the city since the expulsion of the Jews from
Spain in 1492. Like many artists who fled fascism, Castelnuovo-Tedesco ended up
in Hollywood, where, with the help of Yasha Heifetz, he landed a contract with
1972(1st of Nisan, 5732): Rosh
Chodesh Nisan
1972(1st of Nisan, 5732): Sixty-eight-year-old
Swiss born physicist and Cornell University Professor Henri S. Sack passed away
today.
https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/18071/Sack_Henri_S_1972.pdf;sequence=2
1973(12th of Adar II, 5733):
Seventy-seven year old Samuel L. Calman, the Russian born husband of Fannie
Calechman who in 1897 moved to New Haven, CT where he was active in business
and the Jewish community passed away today after which he was buried at the
B’nai Jacob Memorial Park in his adopted home town.
1975(4th of Nisan, 5735): Eight-three-year-old
Galicia native Jacob Kalich, “the Yiddish theatrical producer, playwright and
actor” who was the husband of Molly Picon passed away today.
1976(14th of Adar II, 5736): Purim
observed for the last time during the Presidency of Jerry Ford.
1978(7th of Adar II, 5738):
Eighty-year-old Keene, NH native “Dr. Samuel L. Saltzman, an ophthalmologist
and medical historian” who served as a volunteer with the Israeli Army in 1948
and was married to Rose Saltzman with whom he raised two children – Suzanne and
Jonathan – passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/18/archives/dr-samuel-saltzman-eye-surgeon-historian.html
1979(24th of Adar, 5739): Sixty-six-year-old
University of Minnesota trained attorney and WW II U.S. Army veteran Julius E.
Davis, the “son of Isadore and Molly (Edelman) Davis, the husband of Lillian
Stacia Kropman and father of Lawrence and Stephen Davis passed away today
1980: Funeral services were held today for Dr.
Herbert J. Fernbach, a member of Temple B’nai Sholom in Rockville Centre,
NY>
1980(28th of Adar, 5740): Eighty-two
year old Harvard trained New Orleans, LA, businessman Edward Bernard Benjamin,
Sr. the Little Rock, AR born son of “Emanuel V. Benjamin and Rachel Goldsmith
and WW I U.S. Army veteran who was the husband of Blanche Sternberger of
Greensboro, NC with whom he had three children passed away today in New Orleans
after which he was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Greensboro.
1981: Birthdate of Phillip Ruch “, a German
artist built a replica of Berlin’s Holocaust memorial and placed it outside the
house of a far-right politician who had called the original “a monument of
shame.”
1982: In case of Jew on Jew, in “Rudnick’s Poor
Little Lambs’ of Yale” Frank Rich reviewed Paul Rudnick’s ''‘Poor Little
Lambs,’ a no-holds-barred account of a year in the life of the Whiffenpoofs
singing group.”
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/03/16/theater/theater-rudnick-s-poor-little-lambs-of-yale.html
1983: The Third World Conference on Soviet
Jewry continued to a second day in Jerusalem.
1984: William Buckley, the CIA station chief in
Beirut, Lebanon, is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists and later dies in
captivity.
1985:
Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut.
1985(23rd of Adar, 5745): Shabbat Parah
1985(23rd of Adar, 5745): Olga
Ginsburg (nee Bessman) who had been born in 1894 and was the wife of Joseph Ginsburg
and the mother of the multi-talented Serge Gainsbourg passed away today.
http://forward.com/articles/14621/the-man-with-the-yellow-star-/
1987: Israel radio reported today that the
Israeli Government has helped to pay the legal bills of Jonathan Jay Pollard,
the American intelligence analyst sentenced to life in prison last month for
spying for Israel. The radio said ''state elements in Israel'' transferred
$80,000 by unspecified indirect means to the defense of Mr. Pollard and his
wife, Anne Henderson-Pollard. Mrs. Henderson-Pollard was sentenced to five
years for helping her husband to pass hundreds of top-secret American documents
to the Israeli Government. The couple's total legal expenses were reported to
be somewhere between $120,000 to $200,000. The radio report did not say when
the transfer took place or whether the Israeli Government planned to make
additional payments to the Pollards. Israel radio said the funds were provided
to James Hibey, a Washington lawyer, whom it described as the lawyer for Mr.
Pollard and his wife.
1987(15th of Adar, 5747): Shushan
Purim
1987(15th of Adar, 5747): Eighty-seven-year-old
Estonia native Samuel H. Shapiro, the second Jew to serve as Governor of
Illinois passed away today.
1987: Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin today
denied reports that Israel may still be spying on the United States. Mr. Rabin
was responding to a story in The Washington Post which said American
investigators became suspicious during their questioning of Mr. Pollard that
Israel had another agent working in an American intelligence operation.
1987: Doctors discovered and removed a tumor
from the brain of Jazz Drummer Buddy Rich. (As reported by James Barron)
1988(27th of Adar, 5748): Eighty-five-year-old
Austro-Hungarian Empire native Paul Kohner, a dominating talent agent, the
brother of novelist Frederick Kohner and father of actress of Susan Kohner
passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/1988-03-18/news/mn-1515_1_paul-kohner
1991:
"Underground," a new work by the Israeli playwright Joshua Sobol,
directed by Adrian Hall, is scheduled to have its last performance today at the
Yale Repertory Theater.
1991:
“Trabbi Goes to Hollywood” a comedy film directed by Jon Turteltaub and
featuring Milton Berle was released in Germany today.
1992:
Loretta Weinberg began serving as a Member of the New Jersey General Assembly
from the 37th Legislative District,
1995(14th
of Adar II, 5755): Purim
1997(9th
of Adar I, 5757): Eighty-two-year-old Thomas C. Fichandler, the co-founder of
the Arena Stage in Washington D.C. who was the husband of producer, director
Zelda Fichandler and the son-in-law of scientist and inventor Harry Diamond
passed away today.
1997: In “Cabaret That Shocked, Shocked the
Nazis” published today David Mermelstein Ute Lemper’s plans to “perform
relatively obscure cabaret songs banned by the Nazis.”
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/16/arts/cabaret-that-shocked-shocked-the-nazis.html
1998: The Vatican expressed remorse for the
cowardice of some Christians during the Holocaust,but defended the actions of
Pope Pius XII.
1998: At a press conference today Cardinal
Cassidy, President of the Holy See's Commission For Religious Relations With
the Jews, presented for publication the document, We Remember: A Reflection On
The Shoah. Joining him in the presentation were Bishop Pierre Duprey, Vice
President of the Commission, and Father Remi Hoeckmann, O.P., its Secretary.
1999(28th of Adar, 5759): Rhoda Mendelson
Faffer passed away today at the age of 87.
The deceased was the wife of the late Samuel Faffer and the late,
well-known Chazan, Cantor Nathan Mendelson of Montreal Canada.
2000(9th of Adar II, 5760): Eighty-one-year-old
Georgia born, University of Chicago trained attorney Morris B. Abram the
fighter for human rights and President of Brandeis University passed away
today. (As reported by William Honan)
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/17/us/morris-abram-is-dead-at-81-rights-advocate-led-brandeis.html
http://articles.latimes.com/2000/mar/17/news/mn-9914
2001: More than 30 Jewish student journalists
from across the United States studied with Pulitzer Prize-winners Charles
Krauthammer and Glenn Frankel, the editor of The Washington Post Magazine,
as well as editors of leading American Jewish publications as part of the
Journalism Track of the 2001 Charlotte and Jack J. Spitzer B'nai B'rith Hillel
Forum on Public Policy.."
2002: “The Last Days of Pompeii,” a solo
exhibition of the works of Eleanor Antin came to a close.
2003: On the eve of the United States' invasion
of Iraq, Pastor John Hagee took to the pulpit to warn of the coming Antichrist.
In his sermon, "The Final Dictator," Hagee described the Antichrist
as a seductive figure with "fierce features." He will be "a
blasphemer and a homosexual," the pastor announced. Then, Hagee boomed,
"There's a phrase in Scripture used solely to identify the Jewish people.
It suggests that this man [the Antichrist] is at least going to be partially
Jewish, as was Adolph Hitler, as was Karl Marx." This "fierce"
gay Jew, according to Hagee, would "slaughter one-third of the Earth's
population" and "make Adolph Hitler look like a choirboy."
2004: “Israel's security cabinet, headed by
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, approved military action in response to recent
Palestinian attacks emanating from Gaza, including a double suicide bombing on”
March 14, 2004 “that left 10 Israelis dead.”
2003: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
interest to Jewish readers including What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News by Eric Alterman
2005: After having been screening at the
Germany-Berlin Film Festival and the Israel-Jerusalem Festival “Avanim,”
“Raphael Nadjari’s fourth feature film was released in France today.
2005: In
yet another exchange of land for a promise of peace, Israel officially hands
over Jericho to Palestinian control
2006: Excavations at Tel Arad in the Negev were
photographed today
2006: In an interview at the time, repeated on
BBC2's Newsnight today Michael Levy stated that "Over the years I have
paid many millions of taxes and, if you average it, each year it comes to many
hundreds of thousands of pounds. In that particular year, I was giving my time
to the Labour Party and the voluntary sector, and I just lived off the capital.
2007: While serving as Chief Rabbi of France,
Joseph Haim Sitruk “was selected as Commander of the Legion of Honor.”
2007: The
Jewish Post reported that “Hadarom, the Rabbinical Council of America’s
annual Torah journal, is now available on the Internet. The 50-year-old
journal, which deals principally with matters of Jewish law and biblical and
Talmudic exegesis, is accessible at www.rabbis.org.”
2008: The
New York Times book section features reviews of Why We’re Liberals: A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America by liberal Jewish
columnist Eric Alterman and The Best American Erotic Poems From 1800 to the Present edited
by David Lehman.
2008: Within a week
of the near collapse of Bear Stearns led by President and COO Bear Stearns and merger
with JP Morgan today, “the shares were trading at $5.33 per share which
eventually prompted a reportedly angry confrontation between Schwartz and
senior trader Alan Mintz in the company gym
2008: “Black Rabbi Reaches out to Mainstream of
His Faith” published today described the life and work of Rabbi Capers C.
Funnye, Jr. (prounced fun-AY) the spiritual leader of Chicago’s Beth Shalom
B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/us/16rabbi.html
2008: About two dozen Holocaust survivors,
including some saved by German industrialist Oskar Schindler mark the 65th
anniversary of the Nazi's liquidation of the Jewish ghetto in Krakow.
2009: In Albany, NY,
a screening of Etgar Keret’s film “Jellyfish” followed by Q&A with the
famed Israeli author.
2009: After The New Republic published ‘Wasting Away
in Hooverville” today, Jonathan “Chait appeared on Comedy Central's The Colbert
Report to counter conservative arguments that the New Deal was a failure.”
2009: As part of Lillian
Goldman Literary Series the American Jewish Historical Society, the
Center for Jewish History and Jewish Heritage present: “The Lifecycles of New
York Jews: Love and Loss,” the second in an already widely praised series of
staged readings that explores the experiences of love, well-being and loss
through the eyes of New York Jewish authors. With the assistance of stage and
screen star Kathleen Chalfant and a wonderful supporting cast, acclaimed author
Nicole Krauss joins in a theatrical reading of her poignant and powerful New
Yorker magazine story, "The Last Words on Earth," from the novel The History of Love.
Non-fiction story writer and memoirist Dorothy Gallagher, whose work has been
described as "intimate, fierce and hilarious," reads from her
collections How I Came Into My Inheritance and Strangers in the House.
Jonathan Rosen, editorial director of Nextbook, reads from his national
bestseller, The Life of the Skies
and Alix Kates Shulman reads from her memoir, To Love What Is: A Marriage Transformed.
2009: A 29-year-old
Israeli man connected with Jerusalem’s haredi “modesty squad” was sentenced to
four years in prison today for the brutal gang assault of a woman in her
apartment last year. The Justice Minister announced that the group’s ringleader
and other alleged cell members were never charged in the case due to a lack of
evidence.
2009: Ninety-six-year-old
song writer Jack Lawrence passed away today.
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-jack-lawrence18-2009mar18-story.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/arts/music/18lawrence.html?_r=0
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/17/AR2009031703363.html
2010: Federal
Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski “released a National
Broadband Plan, titled “Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan”.
2010: Rosh Chodesh
Nisan, 5770
2010: According to
the Vilna Gaon, construction of the third temple is scheduled to begin on this
day.
2010: As part of its
series “Far Flung Jews: Jewish Cultures Around the World,” the Jewish Study
Center is scheduled to offer a program describing “The Resurgent Jewish
Community of Berlin” at Adas Israel in Washington, DC.
2010: A senior Israel Defense Forces officer said
today that despite the violence that erupted across Jerusalem in response to
Hamas' declaration of a "day of rage,” neither the Palestinian Authority
nor Israel was interested in seeing a renewal of conflict. "
2010: Avner Netanyahu, 15, son of Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu and Sarah Netanyahu, received the top honor in Israel's
national Bible Quiz championship for youth today. The girls' champion was Or
Ashual of the Bnei Akiva Amana Academy in Kfar Saba.
2010: David Sofer,
“the Jewish Israeli businessman living in London” whose property would be part
of a dispute in 2018 between Israel and the Greek Orthodox Church, and his wife
Cindy attended the “opening reception of the Jewish Museum in London” today.
2010:
“Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson…helped” to “re-launch the London Jewish Museum”
today “after a two-year closure. “
2011:
The 15th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to
come to an end.
2011(6th
of Adar II, 5871): Seventy-five-year-old actor Al Israel who was best known for
his role in two Al Pacino gangster films – Scarface and Carlito’s Way—passed
away today.
2011:
Final screening of Human Resource Manager, a film based on a novel by A.B.
Yehoushua, is scheduled to take place at the Cinema Village in New York.
2011:
Yale Strom & Hot Pstromi are scheduled to appear “in concert for the
opening of the exhibit on Ketuvot at The Jewish Museum.
2011:
The Israel Air Force fired two missiles at a security compound in the
Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip today, killing two Palestinians, Palestinian medical
officials said.
2011:
Jewish youth held an artistic and educational ceremony to memorialize the
victims of the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires Israeli pop
star Ivri Lider, who was invited to Argentina by the "Autumn Festival” of
music, performed at the event. Youth media professionals specializing in video
and film prepared a video called “Justice will not stay buried under the
rubble” about the attack memorials. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt-AhWWL4nc
2011:
The northern California home of Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of the progressive
Tikkun magazine, was vandalized for
the third time in less than a year. The attack came a day after Lerner
presented the Tikkun Award for ethics to South African Justice Richard
Goldstone at a celebration of Tikkun’s 25th anniversary attended by more than
600 people at the University of California, Berkeley. (As reported by JTA)
2011:
The Chief Rabbinate, Interior Ministry and State Attorney’s Office are
currently drawing up new procedures to determine the validity of Orthodox
conversions for the purpose of aliya, Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar said
today.
2012:
Benjamin Berell Ferencz, the last surviving Chief Prosecutor from the Nuremberg
War Crime trials, “in another letter to the editor of the New York Times, hailed the International Criminal Court's
conviction of Thomas Lubanga as "a milestone in the evolution of
international criminal law."
2012:
“Nina Menkes Retrospective: Cinema as Sorcery” featuring personal appearances
by the famed filmmaker whose parents are Holocaust survivors is scheduled to
come to an in New York City.
2012:
The Friars Club is scheduled to present a tribute to Jerry Lewis at the 92nd
Street Y. The program will include a “screening of a new documentary, Method to
the Madness of Jerry Lewis, followed by a talk/tribute with Jerry Lewis on the
occasion of his 86th birthday.”
2012:
Jerusalem hosted its second annual marathon today.
2013:
The Alexandria Kleztet is scheduled to perform in Rockville, MD.
2013:
“The Day I Saw Your Heart” is scheduled to have its Minnesota Premiere at the
Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival.
2013(5th
of Nisan, 5773): Sixty-year-old former MK Marina Solodkin suffered a stroke and
passed away while attending a conference in Riga, Latvia.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/former-mk-marina-solodkin-dies-of-stroke-in-latvia/
2013:
The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to a the Virginia
Virtuosi performing an evening of Jewish classical music celebrating Freedom.
2013:
The Philomusica Quartet – Nadia Weintraub, Yelena Tishin, Avraham Leventhal,
Dmitri Golderman – is scheduled to perform at the Eden-Tamir Music Center
2013: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
presented the new government to President Shimon Peres tonight.
2013:
MK Tzipi Livni, Israel’s newest Justice Minister, stressed today that she would
not support the basic law bill “Israel is the national state of the Jewish
people,” whose promotion is part of the new coalition agreements with the
Jewish Home party. In the absence of a constitution, The Basic Laws of Israel
(Chukei Hayesod) deal with the formation and role of the principal state’s
institutions, and the relations between the state’s authorities.
2014(14th
of Adar II, 5774): Purim
2014(14th
of Adar II, 5774): Eighty-six year old Tony award winning composer Mitch Leigh
whose work also included the “Nobody Doesn’t Like Sara Lee “ jingle passed away today. (As reported by Anita
Gates)
2014:
Eden Rose Strauss, daughter of Rabbi Feivel and Abbie Strauss and granddaughter
of Dr. Bob and Laurie Silber is scheduled to be the youngest person in Bexley,
Ohio “celebrating” what for will be her first Purim
2014:
The Jewish Museum is scheduled to host a family concert by The Dirty Sock
Funtime Band.
2014:
“The Jewish Cardinal” and “Suskind” are scheduled to be shown at the Houston
Jewish Film Festival.
2014:
The New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of
“Joann Sfar Draws From Memory” which “tracks his odyssey through the Algerian
and Eastern European Jewish heritage that serves as the wellspring of his
work.”
2014:
Ilan Caplan, the Chazan for the Traditional High Holiday Services in Cedar
Rapids is scheduled to chant Megalith Esther at Shird Chadesh In Metairie, LA
which when it was the Conservative Congregation of New Orleans gave Mitchell
Levin who davens in Cedar Rapids, his first teaching job. (Don’t you just love
Jewish Geography?)
2014:
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa Temple Judah is scheduled to host a Religious School
Purim Carnival followed later in the day by a Megillah Reading with attendees
including adults in costumes.
2014:
In Israel, Channel 2 reported that Israel has tightened security in its
airspace following the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. (As
reported by Times of Israel)
2014:”
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel’s top negotiator in talks with the
Palestinian Authority, chastised Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Sunday
evening over comments he’d made the previous day dismissing the viability of
peace talks, saying “grumbling and despairing is easy…our responsibility is to
change reality.” (As reported by Itamar
Sharon)
2014:
“Hundreds of east Jerusalem residents held a demonstration in Jerusalem’s Old
City near the Damascus Gate this evening, with several demonstrators throwing
rocks at a police car, breaking its windshield.” (As reported by Itamar Sharon)
2014:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Bernard Malamud: Novels and
Stories of the 1940s and 50s: "The Natural," "The
Assistant," "Twenty Stories," "Posthumously Published
Stories edited by Philip Davis, Bernard Malamud: Novels and Stories of
the 1940s and 50s: "The Natural," "The Assistant,"
"Twenty Stories," "Posthumously Published Stories edited by
Phillip Davis and The Wherewithal, A Novel in Verse by Philip Schultz as
well as the publication of an interview with Philip Roth.
2015:
“Solomon Schechter Symposium” with Dara Horn is scheduled to be presented by
the Herbert D. Katz Center Advanced Judaic Studies.
2015:
Rabbi Denise Eger read the Torah today during installation as CCAR president.
2015:
Jack Goldberg is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Middle East Chaos: From
Civil Wars to Disintegration of States” in San Diego.
2015:
Orient Stier is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “The Hidden and the Revealed:
A God’s-Eye View of the Landscape of Holocaust Postmemory” at the Jewish Museum
of Florida.
2015:
“Los Angeles County prosecutors filed a murder charge today against real estate
scion Robert Durst in the December 2000 killing of his longtime friend Susan
Berman, who was found shot execution-style in her Benedict Canyon home on
Christmas Eve.”
2015:
“Under pressure on the eve of a surprisingly close election, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel today doubled down on his appeal to right-wing
voters, declaring definitively that if he was returned to office, he would
never establish a Palestinian state.”
2015:
“The Allied Powers’ Response to the Holocaust Conference” is scheduled open
today.
http://www.alliedpowersholocaust.org/
2016:
“Shore of Love” and “Arabic Movie” are scheduled to be shown at the 19th
New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.
2016:
“Women’s Night Dinner” and “A La Vie” are scheduled to shown at the Houston
Jewish Film Festival.
2016:
Today, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to serve as an Associate
Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court” (As reported by Julia Edwards)
2016:
Today, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to serve as an Associate
Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
2016:
During a speech in the Rose Garden this morning “new U.S. Supreme Court nominee
Merrick Garland credited his Jewish grandparents, who he said fled to the
United States from anti-Semitism in Russia, for putting him in position to be nominated.”
2016:
The YIVO Institute for Jewish research is scheduled to present a lecture on
“Yiddish Culture and Interwar Paris: The 1937 World's Fair & the Modern
Jewish Culture Pavilion.”
2017:
Mobster Myron Sugerman, the son “Barney Sugerman, a man who partnered in the
gambling business with such notorious mob figures as Meyer Lansky and fellow
Jerseyan Abner “Longie” Zwillman” and who “followed his father into the world
of illegal gambling and wound up serving 19 months at the Federal Correctional
Complex in Allenwood, Pa., after being convicted on gambling charges” “regaled
the crowd at Congregation Beth Israel with his own take on the Jewish
involvement in famous crime syndicates. (As reported by Alan Smason) Editor’s
Note – wonder when the congregation will yuck it up with tales of the Purple
Gang.
2017(18th
of Adar, 5777): Ninety-one year old neurologist, Dr. Lewis Rowland passed away
way today. (As reported by Denise Grady)
2017:
The Princeton Tigers (23-6) led by senior forward Spencer Weisz, “a Maccabiah
Games gold medalist” and “the Ivy League’s Player of the Year are scheduled to
face off against Notre Dame in the opening round of the NACC Basketball
Tournament.
2017:
JW3 is scheduled to host the last screening of “Denial,” a film based on the
libel trial in which professor Deborah E. Lipstadt squared again Holocaust
denier David Irving.
2017:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Hidden Mysteries and
Magic: Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism in Renaissance Florence.”
2018(29th
of Adar, 5778): Sgt. Netanel Kahalani, left, and Cpt. Ziv Daos, have been
identified as the soldiers killed in an apparent car-ramming terror attack that
took place today.
2018(29th
of Adar, 5778): Ninety-five-year-old rabbi Mordechai Hager passed away today.
(As reported by Joseph Berger)
2018:
The New Jersey Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present a screening of “The
Children of Chance,” the story of a Jewish boy surviving the Holocaust in
Paris.
2018:
The Fifth Edition of the Socially Relevant Film “featuring Israeli films The
Gravedigger’s Daughter by Shira Gabay, The Girl by Lihi Sabag, Jerusalem In
Line by Amir Har-Gil and Hotel Everest by Claudia Sobral.” Is scheduled to open
in New York City.
2018:
Following a service at the Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel and a Shabbat
dinner, scholar-in-residence Rabbi Marc D. Angel is scheduled to deliver his
first lecture.
2018:
Limmudfest is scheduled to begin this evening in New Orleans, LA.
2018:
“Collecting for the Nation: The 75th Anniversary of the Lessing J. Rosenwald
Gift of Prints and Drawings to the National Gallery of Art” is scheduled to
begin at noon at The National Gallery of Art.
2018:
Following its release in Berlin and the United Kingdom, “Seven Days in Entebbe”
is scheduled to be released in the United States today.
2019(9th of Adar II, 5779): Shabbat Zachor;
begin reading from the Book of Vayikra
2019: The New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival is
scheduled to host a screening of “The Lost Crown” a documentary about the
Aleppo Codex created by “Avi Dabach, the filmmaker and great-grandson of the
Crown Keeper who navigates the dark corridors of hidden history, archival
documents and rare testimonies reveal an astonishing story involving an Israeli
president, Mossad agents, passionate rabbis, and antique dealers.”
2019: In the wake of massacre of Muslims in Christchurch
on March 15, “Synagogues across New Zealand are to remain closed over Shabbat”
because, as “the Auckland Hebrew Congregation told members of ‘concern about
the security’ of the community.” (As reported by Mathilde Frot)
2019: In New Orleans, Temple Sinai, the oldest reform
congregation in the Crescent City is scheduled to host its annual Spring Gala.
2019: Joshua Nelson, “the Prince of Kosher Gospel” and The
Kosher Gospel Singers ae scheduled to perform this evening at the Osher Marin
JCC.
2020: Deadline for those in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City to
express their desire to involved in a rejuvenated “Jewish Federation of the
Corriodr.”
2020: Israelis experience the second day of having all
educational institutions, including preschools, kindergartens that previously
had remained open, closed.
2020: Due to the pandemic, the Center for Jewish History
is postponing “a screening of Cinema and Sanctuary followed by a panel
discussion with award-winning director and CUNY Professor Dave Davidson,
documentary filmmaker (We Were So Beloved) and film school alumnus Manny
Kirchheimer (CCNY ’52), CUNY Professor Jerry Carlson, and current CCNY film
school students.”
2020: Unless canceled due to the pandemic, the London
School of Jewish Studies is scheduled to host the first session of Dr. Aviva
Dautch’s “Seder Night with my Ancestors.”
2020(20th of Adar, 5780): Yahrzeits of Rabbi
Joel Sirkes, Rabbi Moses Meir Perles of Prague, Rabbi Yom Tov Algazi, and
Yiddish poet Joseph Jaffe.
2021: “The Bay Area and other Federation communities are
scheduled to host an evening with Michael Solomonov, executive chef and
co-owner of Zahav in Philadelphia who “will share three favorite Passover
recipes during a virtual cooking event.”
2021: The Schusterman Center for Israel Studies is
scheduled to present online “The Nature of A.D. Gordon: Environment,
Nationalism and Jewish Culture.”
2021: The Jewish Community Relations Council of San
Francisco is scheduled to host “The 25th Annual Multicultural
Passover Freedom Seder.”
2021: The Jewish Community of the North Shore is scheduled
to present online “Nafshi Yeshovev: What Lifts My Spirit – An Exploration of
Text, Poetry, Music and More.”
2021: The New Israel Fund and the Other Israel Film
Festival are scheduled to present online “Israeli Leaders on Film.”
2021: Sephardi Federation of the Palm Beach County is
scheduled to present “Dr. Albert Menache & The Holocaust in Salonika With
Dr. Joe Halio.”
2021: Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple’s clergy is scheduled
to “lead a special virtual healing service at 6:15 p.m. today designed to
comfort and support those facing illness or pain of any kind and their
caregivers, and to mark the first year period since COVID-19 shut down Ohio and
much of the United States.”
2021: Moment and the Rewind film project from the Stanford
Jewish Studies Department are scheduled to present online “Adapting Jewish
Literature” during which “movies
based on I.B. Singer’s “Yentl” and Amos Oz’s “A Tale of Love and Darkness” are
discussed by historian Fania Oz-Salzberger, author Ruby Namdar and culture
critic Rokhl Kafrissen.”
2022(13th of Adar II, 5782): Ta’anit Esther; Erev
Purim
2022: In “She Discovered What Happened to 400 Dutch Jews Who
Disappeared,” published today Nina Siegal described a new exhibition which
shows how “Wally de Lang, a Dutch historian, has tracked what happened to each
of the men rounded up in the first Nazi raids on Dutch Jews, whose fates have
largely been a mystery for decades.”
2023:
Yiddishkayt and Martin Cohen are scheduled to present a program featuring three
of the world’s most renowned klezmer musicians and Yiddish singers in a concert
style “Songs of the Jewish Ukrainian” in Los Angeles
2023:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present “Diary of A Black
Jewish Messiah” during which “Professor Alan Verskin will share the world into
which the semi-messianic figure, David Reubeni, peddles his vision of an
autonomous Jewish country in the Holy Land.; a world filled with fierce
rivalries between Christian and Muslim powers, brutal conquest, and fantastic
discovery.”
2023:
Lockdown University is scheduled to a lecture by Judge Dennis Davis on Marx and
His Relationship to Judaism: A Radical Rethink.”
2023:
JWA booktalk is scheduled to host Cindy Kaplan, author of Freefall: One
Mother’s Journey Raising a Child with Special Needs.
2023:
Temple Judea is scheduled to host a morning minyan with Rabbi Feivel and Cantor
Abbie followed by an afternoon of “Candid Conversations for Women with Marcia
Grobman.
2023:
The United Solo Theatre Festival is scheduled to host Tal Levi Cohen's original
solo performance follows the story of a girl-woman-dancer's experiences with
the eating disorder bulimia, and the way she healed through learning psychology
and expressive arts.
2024:
In Brookline, MA, Congregation Kehillath Israel is scheduled to host a “Melaveh
Malkah” during which “Jacob’s Ladder will perform live, bringing their unique
blend of Jewish and roots/Americana music, with soulful melodies and catchy
rhythms.”
2024:
At Temple Judea, Rabbi Feivel Strauss is scheduled to lead Torah Study and
Sydney Pomerantz is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah.
2024:
As part of the Sacramento Jewish Film Festival, The Center is scheduled to host
“Remembering Gene Wilder” a “biographical tribute to the late comedic genius
and beloved star of “The Producers,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein”
and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”
2024:
In Sudbury, MA, Ma’Yan Tikvah – A Wellspring of Hope is scheduled to present a “Havdalah
Campfire.”
2024:
In San Francisco, the Curran Theatre is scheduled present “All Things Equal,” a
“Broadway play from Tony Award-winning playwright Rupert Holmes about the life
and trials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”
2024:
Agnon House in Jerusalem is scheduled to host another joint reading of Agnon's
stories, this time called "Days Gone by". Together with Ofir
Lifshitzwe who will “examine the connections between the various characters,
look at Jerusalem as reflected in the story and discuss the difficulties of
immigration.
2024:
The Boston Workers Circle is scheduled to present “Gragger: A Raucous &
Radical Purim Party,”
2024(6th
of Adar II, 5784): Parashat Pekuday (Count or Enumerate); for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2024: As March
16th begins in Israel, the Hamas held hostages begin
day 162 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.)
