This Day, April 6, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
April 6
1199:
King Richard I of England dies from an infection following the removal of an
arrow from his shoulder. Richard spent most of his reign fighting to protect
his lands in France or on the Third Crusade. While he was in England, he did
protect his Jewish subjects. Jews did
suffer during his Kingship. Among other
things, they were forced to contribute a disproportionate amount towards the
ransom collected to free Richard from the clutches of an Austrian duke. Richard’s death put King John on the
throne. John openly exploited Jewish
subjects. His tyranny brought on the
Magna Charta which included a special section on treatment of the Jews.
1233:
Pope Gregory IX, who was criticized by some for being too protective of the
Jews wrote "Mandate, if facts are established, to the archbishops and
bishops of France to induce the Christians in their dioceses to stop
persecuting the Jews, who had complained to the pope that they were being
maltreated and tortured by certain lords, imprisoned and left to die. The Jews
are willing to forsake usury. They are to be set free and are not to be injured
in person or in property." A year
later, in Decretals, he invested the doctrine of perpetua servitus iudaeorum –
perpetual servitude of the Jews – with the force of canonical law. According to
this, Jews would have to remain in a condition of political servitude and
abject humiliation until Judgment Day. The doctrine then found its way into the
doctrine of servitus camerae imperialis, or servitude immediately subject to
the Emperor's authority, promulgated by Frederick II.
The second-class status of Jews thereby
established would last until well into the 19th century.
1397:
Boniface IX issued a papal bull confirming the “grant of Roman citizenship on
Manuele” a Jewish physician “and his son Angelo.
1443: In
a document from King John of Castile on economic conditions, he mentions Jews
are prohibited from exercising certain high offices among Christians, and from
being employed as judges, farmers, collectors, directors, or stewards of revenue
(taxes).
1453:
Mehmed II began his siege of Constantinople (Istanbul). His ultimate conquest of the city would be a
positive thing for the Jews since, among other things, he opened the city to
their settlement.
1490:
Matthias Corvinus also known as Matthias I King of Hungary and Croatia who
“created the office of Jewish prefect in Hungary” passed away today marking the
start of an immediate downturn in the fortunes of the Jewish people which
included the confiscation of their property, refusal by gentiles to pay their
debts and the start of a “generalized period of persecution.”
1568:
“Elvira del Campo, a young Marranon woman, was subjected to her first torture
session by the Inquisition of Toledo, Spain.” (As reported by Abraham Bloch)
1667:
The “Old Synagogue” is among the buildings damaged when an earthquake struck
Dubrovnik today. The synagogue dates back to the 14th century and is
reportedly the oldest Sephardic synagogue in use today.
1737:
In Amsterdam, Ketubah of Ephraim Conquy, the Dutch born son of Aron Conquy, and
Judica Conquy who were the parents of Rabbi Joseph Conquy.
1754(14th
of Nisan, 5514: Parashat Tzav; Shabbat HaGadol; erev Pesach observed for the
first time with Thomas Pelham-Holles, the 1st Duke of Newcastle
serving as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
1765(15th
of Nisan, 5525): Pesach celebrated for the first time after the passage of the
Stamp Act which was one of the steps on the road to the American Revolution.
1766:
Birthdate of Israel B. Kursheedt, the native of Sing-hafen Germany and husband
of Stratford, CT, Sarah Abigal Seixas with whom he had nine children and who
when he arrived in Boston in 1796 became the first rabbi to come to the city.
1767(7th
of Nisan, 5527): Newport, RI merchants and manufacturer of potash and candles
Moses Lopez the husband of Rebecca Riveria and the son of Diego Jose Lopez
passed away today.
1768(19th
of Nisan, 5528): Fifth day of Pesach observed for the last time while William
Pitt the Elder, on of England’s great leaders was serving as Prime
Minister.
1720:
Manuel San Vicente, a Spanish mercenary turned himself in to the Inquisitional
Tribunal after living among the Spanish Jews in Constantinople and Salonica as
a Jew for a month. He sought pardon for his sin, and/or to avoid being turned
in by another party. While he was in the Ottoman Empire he was circumcised and
learned Jewish prayers.
1771(22nd
of Nisan,5531): Eight Day of Pesach and Shabbat
1771:
In Savanah, GA, Levi Sheftall and St. Croix native Sarah De La Motta, who were
wed in 1768 on the bride’s home island gave birth Benjamin Sheftall, the father
of Barnwell, SC native Mordecai Sheftall.
1772:
Birthdate of German native Sara Kan, the wife of Buchau native David Einstein,
and mother of five children, two of whom Abraham and Eva passed away in
Pennsylvania.
1780(1st
of Nisan, 5540): As the Jews of Charleston observed Rosh Chodesh, the besieging
British Army tightened its noose around the beleaguered Continental Army.
1780:
In Germany, Juttle Kahn and Aron Loe Regensburger gave birth to Jonathan Aaron
Regensurger, the husband of Voegele Loebstein with whom he had five children.
1783:
Birthdate of Rohrbach native Moses Wolfe, the husband of Nanette Regensburger.
1785:
Joseph Hart Myers married Jane Diamantschleifer today
1790(22nd
of Nisan, 5550): 8th day of Pesach
1790:
According to some sources, birthdate of Rachel Luzzatto, the native of Trieste,
who was “called ‘the Queen of the Hebrew Versifiers.”
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/morpurgo-rachel
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0014_0_14214.html
1792(14th
of Nisan, 5552): Ta’anit Bechorot; erev Pesach observed as France prepares to
declare war on Austria and Prussia during the French Revolution.
1793:
Jacob de Beer was employed today by the Dutch East India Company
1795(In
Savannah, GA, Sarah Sheftall and Abraham De Lyon who had been married in 1785
in nuptials uniting two prominent Sephardic families, gave birth to Jacob De
Lyon.
1799(1st
of Nisan, 5559): Parashat Tazria; Rosh Chodesh Nisan; Shabbat HaChodesh
1799:
William Huskisson, the MP who supported full emancipation for the Jews married
Emily Milkanke.
1802:
Sarah Mocatta and David Abarbanel Lindo gave birth to Esther David Lindo.
1803(14th
of Nisan, 5563): Fast of the First Born; erev Pesach
1806(18th
of Nisan, 5566): Fourth Day of Pesach
1806(18th
of Nisan, 5566): Sixty-eight-year-old Zipporah Lyon, the daughter of Abraham de
Lyon and the wife of Mordecai M. Mordecai passed away today in Savannah, GA.
1808:
John Jacob Astor incorporated the American Fur Company.
1809:
Jews fled Pressburg (Bratislava) when Napoleon attacked the city
1810:
German Jewish author Saul Ascher was arrested on Berlin.
1810:
Birthdate of Philip Henry Gosse, the native of Worcester, UK who wrote The
History of the Jews from the Christian Era to the Dawn of the Reformation
https://archive.org/details/historyjewsfrom00gossgoog
1812:
Birthdate of Aaron David Bernsterin whose works included a “translation of the
‘Song of Songs’ published in 1834, History of Revolution and Reaction in
Prussia and Germany from the Revolution of 1848 up to the present and the multivolume book From the field of natural science
1814:
Louis XVIII, during whose reign the emancipation the came about under the
Revolution and Napoleon, was left unchanged much to many Bourbons, began his
service as King of France.
1816:
In Spitafields, London, Rose and Barent Salomons gave birth to Aaron Salomons
who enjoyed a “happy marriage” of more than fifty-seven years with Adelaide
Cohen with whom he had four children.
1817(20th
of Nisan, 5577): Sixth Day of Pesach
1819:
Birthdate of Elizabeth Magnus the daughter of Sarah Moses and Lazarus Magnus,
who was born at Chatham, Kent, England.
1819:
In Chatham, Sarah Moses and Lazarus Philip Magnus gave birth to Elizabeth
Magnus.
1822(15th of Nisan, 5582): Pesach and Shabbat
1825(18th of Nisan, 5585): Fourth
Day of Pesach
1825: In the Hague, Mozes Abraham Verveer the son
of Abraham Salomon / Shabtay Cohen Kloot and Marretje / Mata Mozes Tokie and
his wife Saartje Isaac van der Velden gave birth to Mietje Maria Moses VerVeer,
the wife of Emanuel Verduin.
1825: On the same day when Jews were munching
matzoth for the fourth day in a row, Henry Brougham was being installed as Lord
Rector of the University of Glasgow whose first known Jewish graduate was Levi
Myers who earned his degree in 1787
1829: Emily Goodman, the daughter of David M.
Goodman, was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1830: On the day before the first Seder, Mexico
adopted the “Law of April 6, 1830” which, in attempt to keep the United States
from ultimately annexing part of its territory, banned immigration from the
United States in the area that now includes, part or all of California, Texas,
Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, which if successful, the vibrant Jewish
communities in these places would never have been established.
1832: In London, Rachel Mocatta and Lewis
Raphael gave birth to Henry Lewis Raphael, the husband of Amsterdam native
Henriette Raphael whom he married in 1855 and with whom he had nine children.
1833(17th of Nissan, 5593): Third
Day of Pesach and Shabbat Shel Pesach
1836: Birthdate of Nordstetten, Baden-Württemberg, Germany native
Victor Henry Rothschild who in 1852 came
to the United States, settled in Ft. Wayne where he worked as a traveling
salesman before opening businesses in Mt. Carroll, Illinois, Macon, GA and
Hawkinsville, GA before finding in success in New York manufacturing clothing
with a company ultimately called V. Henry Rothscihild and Company that employed
seven thousand families while raising five children – Irene (the wife of
Solomon R. Guggenheim), Victory, Gertrude, Constance and Clarence – with his
wife, the former Josephine Wolfe, the daughter of Jacob Wolfe.
1836: Birthdate of Bavaria native and future
Natchez resident Henry Frank, the husband of Melanie Mayer Frans ad the father
of Caroline, Rosalie, Frederick, Ernest, Herman, Edgard, Wilhelm, Ophelia,
Jeannette and John Frank.
1839: In Bordeaux, France, Esther Iffla and
Jonas Espir gave birth to wine merchant Elie Camille, the resident of London
and husband of Sophie Neymarck with whom he had two children – Ferdinand and
Daniel Lucien Espir.
1841(15th of Nisan, 5601): Pesach
observed on the same that John Tyler was sworn as President of the United
States following the death of President William Henry Harrison on April 4.
1844(17th of Nisan, 5604) Third Day
of Pesach and Shabbat Shel Pesach
1844: As Jews celebrated Passover and observed
the Sabbath, Joseph Smith, the leader of
the Mormons who saw themselves as the new “chosen people delivered on of his
final address to the general conference.
1845: After a year and a half of meeting for
worship services a group of Jews whose number grown to 33 voted to establish a
congregation called Emanu-El which “then engaged Dr. Ludwig Merzbacher as rabbi
and lecture and G.M. Cohn as reader” each of whom was paid $200 per year while
Mr. Renau was hired “as secretary and sexton with an annual salary of $150” and
a room was rented in house at the corner of Grand and Clinton Streets to be
used as a synagogue. (The room was fitted so that the front seats for men and
the front seats for women – a configuration that would change as Emanu-El
became Temple Emanu-El, the leading Reform congregation in NYC.)
1847(20th of Nisan, 5607) Sixth Day
of Pesach observed as American forces under General Scott moved inland from
Vera Cruz during the Mexican American War.
1848(3rd of Nisan, 5608):
Sixty-six-year-old Anne Jeane Phillipe Louis Cohn the son of Abraham Benjamin
Cohen and Elisabeth Gompertz passed away in Paris today.
1848: "In every part of Germany excluding
Bavaria, Jews were granted civil rights. As a result, Gabriel Riesser (a
Jew, and an advocate for Jewish emancipation) was elected vice-president of the
Frankfurt Parliament and became a member of the National Assembly.” It must be
noted that for the most part these freedoms existed only on paper and were not
enforced." This paper emancipation was part of the revolutionary
ferment sweeping Europe at this time. The revolts failed in Germany. The
result was a migration of German liberals, including many Jews, to the United
States.
1849(14th of Nisan, 5609): Ta’anit
Bechorot; erev Pesach
1852(17th of Nisan, 5612): Third Day
of Pesach; 2nd day of the Omer
1852(17th of Nisan, 5612):
Sixty-three year old Rabbi Judah Bilbas, known in his Gibraltar place of birth
as Yehuda Aryeh Leon Bibas who become a friend of Sir Moses Montefiore while
living in London and then led the Corfu Jewish community passed away today in
Hebron.
http://en.hebron.org.il/history/716
1853: In Leipzig Rosalie Bettelheim and Dr.
Adolf Jellinek, a leading Rabbi in the Austrian Empire gave birth to Emil
Jellink who sat on the board of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft ('DMG') and was
responsible for the naming of Mercedes in Mercedes-Benz.
1856:
“After a
background check” the Board of Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes (the Kane
Street Synagogue) “decided
by a 10–9 vote” that M. Gershon, its newly hired Cantor, “had never held the
position of cantor in any other congregation, and was therefore not ‘sufficiently
acquainted with the actual requirements to fill said office’, and was
furthermore not ‘a competent reader enough to read the Sefer Torah’. As a
result, services were led by laymen,except during the Jewish holidays, when a
professional cantor would be brought in from Manhattan.”
1857(12th
of Nisan, 5617): Seventy-two-year-old James Abraham Cohen-Stuart the London
born son of Elisabeth Gomperz and Abraham Benjamin Cohen and the husband of
Petronella and Theodra Stuart passed away today
1858(22nd
of Nisan, 5618): Eighth and final day of Pesach
1860(14th
of Nisan, 5620): Ta’nit Bechrot
1860:
Joseph Samuda who with the rank of
captain was one of the original officers of 2nd Tower Hamlets Rifle Volunteer
Corps when it was formed today at Dalston.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/samuda-joseph-d-x0027-aguilar
1861(26th
of Nisan, 5621): Parashat Shmini
1861:
According to the “Our Charleston Correspondence” column published today,
Benjamin Mordecai was among those who lent the government of South Carolina
funds it needed immediately after its declaration of secession. Mordecai’s “free will offering” was in the
amount of $10,000. Another un-named
“Hebrew gentlemen” from Charleston was pressured by his co-religionists into
donating five hundred dollars to the cause.
He had just returned from New York where he had made $50,000 speculating
as a “Bear” in the stock market.
1862:
During the American Civil War, The Battle of Shiloh begins in Tennessee when
Confederate forces under Albert Sidney Johnston attack forces under Union
General Ulysses S. Grant. The
Confederate attack surprised the Union troops who literally ended the day with
their backs to the river. On the
following day, the Union forces would go over to the attack and drive the
Confederates back into Mississippi. The 16th Regiment from Iowa was
one of the units engaged in the fight.
Among the “Hebrew Hawkeyes” engaged in the fight were Jacob Jacobs and
Charles Weissman of Company B and Abraham Meyers and Jacob Lehman of Company
D. Both Jacobs and Meyers were wounded
in the battle.
1862:
First Lieutenant Charles A. Appel was promoted to the rank of Captain in
Company F of the 99nd Regiment/Ninth Cavalry
1863(17th
of Nisan, 5623): Third Day of Pesach observed on the same day that President
Lincoln reviewed the Army of Potomac during the Civil War.
1864(29th
of Adar II): Hebrew author Zebi Hirsch Mecklenberg, passed away at Konigsberg
1864:
Leopold Schloss married Anna Horatia Montefiore today.
1864:
In Oss, Simon van den Bergh, the merchant who came to be known as the Margarine
King and his wife gave birth to Samuel van den Bergh who followed in his
father’s footsteps.
1866(21st
of Nisan, 5626): Seventh Day of Pesach
1866:
The Grand Army of the Republic, an American patriotic organization composed of
Union veterans of the American Civil War, was founded today. Among other things, the GAR worked to
establish appropriate burial sites for Union veterans. When the five Grand Army
of the Republic posts in Seattle established a cemetery in 1895, Huldah and
David Kaufman donated the land. The
Kaufmans were two of the first Jews to settle in Seattle having settled there
in 1869.
1866:
In New York Israel Ullman and Julia Bluemthal gave birth to Selina Greenbaum
the wife of Samuel Greenbaum who was President of of the Young Women’s Hebrew
Association and a member of the Board of Directors of the Council of Jewish
Women.
1868(14th
of Nisan, 5628): Fast of the First Born; erev Pesah
1868:
Rebecca Mocata was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1869(25th
of Nisan, 5629): Seventy-nine-year-old Richmond, VA born Baltimore business man
Jacob I. Cohen, Jr. who supported the “Jew Bill” that removed the religious
requirement for holding public office in Maryland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_I._Cohen_Jr.
http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/013400/013489/html/13489bio.html
1870:
The articles of incorporation for Temple Israel were “recorded in the Kings
County clerk’s office” today.
1870:
In Kaschau, Austria-Hungary, Bertha Friedman and Solomon Greenfield gave birth
to University of Cincinnati graduate and HUC trained rabbi, Samuel Greenfield
who began serving as the leader of Mount Zion Congregation in New York City in
1899 and was the editor of the Jewish Criterion.
1871(15th of Nisan, 5631): Pesach
1871(15th
of Nisan, 5631): In New York, on the first day of Passover, The Forty-fourth
Street Synagogue, the Thirty-fourth Street Synagogue and the Clinton Street
Synagogue are the only Jewish houses of worship where rabbis will preach
sermons in English. All of the others, with the exception of the Sephardic
congregations, will hear sermons preached in German including Temple Emanuel on
Fifth Avenue.
1872:
In Turin, Giacomo Serge and his wife gave birth to “General Roberto Segre who
commanded artillery formations at the start of” World War I and was cited for
bravery at the Battle of Gorizia” being promoted to chief of staff of the Fifth
Army Corps before becoming head of the Italian-Austrian Armistice
Commission.
1873:
In Amsterdam, Abraham Querido and Schoontje / Ribca Gosler gave birth Jacob
Querido, the
husband
of Anna Heilbron1873: Two days after he had passed away, 40 year old Silesia
native Zacharias Goldstucker, the husband of Amsterdam native Marie B.
Goldstucker, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1874:
Four days after she had passed, 75 year old Susanna Durlacher, the daughter of
Hannah Solomons and David Levy and the wife of Lewis Durlacher with whom she
had had five children was buried today in the “Balls Pond Jewish Cemetery.”
1875(1st of Nisan, 5635): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1875(1st of Nisan, 5635): Sixty-two-year-old
Moses Hess the Bonn born son of David Hess and Hindel Flereshim who was an author, socialist
and forerunner of the Zionist movement and whose book Rome and Jerusalem
published in 1862, expressed the belief that German anti-Semitism was based on
race and nationhood and advised Jews to accept the fact and revive their own
state in Eretz Israel passed away today.
http://www.zionism-israel.com/bio/biography_moses_hess.htm
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7649-hess-moses-moritz
1876(12th of Nisan, 5636):Ta'anit Bechorot
1878: Birthdate of Erich Mühsam. Mühsam was a German-Jewish
anarchist, writer, poet, dramatist and cabaret performer. The Nazis imprisoned him in a series of
concentration camps following the Reichstag Fire. After months of beatings and torture guards
at the Orianberg Concentration camp murdered him in July of 1934.
1879: “A Festival of Thankfulness” published
today states that “To-morrow evening the Jewish feast of Peach, or the
Passover, will commence, and will continue for seven days. This festival, which
was instituted to celebrate the deliverance of the children of Israel from the
land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage, is also called Hag Hamatzoth.”
1879: Future Dreyfusard Ludovic Trarieux was
elected to the Chamber of Deputies
1881: “The administrators of the Tunis Railway
have seized a case of cartridges sent to the Khoumis by Tunisian Jews.” (The
Khoumis were a tribe living on the frontier who had rebelled against Mohammed
Bey. So far, I have not been able to find a reason for the Jews to be sending
them aid since Mohammed Bey had made amends for executing a Jew named Batto
Sfoz on charges of blasphemy.)
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D02E0DD133CEE3ABC4F53DFB266838A699FDE
1882: Birthdate of Rose Schneiderman, the labor organizer
who taught Eleanor Roosevelt everything she "knew about trade
unionism." Born in Russian Poland, her Orthodox Jewish family was
close but exceedingly poor, despite both her parents' employment as tailors.
Her mother insisted that Rachel (who would later change her name to Rose)
attend school and enrolled her in a traditional Hebrew school and, when she
turned six, in a Russian public school. The family immigrated to the United
States in 1890 and made the Lower East Side of New York City their home. Two
years later, Samuel Schneiderman died of meningitis, leaving his family in a
dire economic condition. Deborah, his widow, took in borders and sewed for
neighbors; despite her efforts, however, the family descended into poverty and
was forced to rely on charity to help pay the rent and grocery bill. A
thirteen-year-old Rose dropped out of school after the ninth grade to help
support the family by working as a department store sales clerk. Three years later,
despite her mother's objections, Rose left sales for a better paying (but more
dangerous) job in the garment industry. By 1903, she organized her first union
shop, the Jewish Socialist United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers' Union, where she
quickly developed a reputation as an effective leader after she organized a
successful strike opposing an open-shop policy. By 1907, Schneiderman devoted
most of her time to the Women's Trade Union League, which she later called
"the most important influence on my life." Within a year, she was
elected vice-president of the New York chapter, and thanks to a stipend
provided by a member, she was able to work full-time organizing for the WTUL.
After the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, she helped established the
International Ladies Garment Workers Union and led its 1913 strike. Determined
to outlaw sweatshop labor, she told New Yorkers, "I would be a traitor to
those poor burned bodies if I came here to talk good fellowship. . . . Every
year thousands of us are maimed. The life of men and women is so cheap and
property is so sacred." Although she was a committed trade unionist,
Schneiderman grew increasingly frustrated trying to get male union members to
address women's labor issues. By the late nineteen teens, the WTUL was her
major focus. As president of both the New York and national WTUL, she
concentrated her efforts to lobby for minimum wage and eight-hour-day
legislation. In 1921, she helped organize the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women
Workers. In 1922, Eleanor Roosevelt joined the WTUL and the two women began a
lifelong friendship. Schneiderman tutored ER on the issues confronting women
workers, the challenges facing the trade union movement, and the problems
inherent in labor-management relations. ER responded to Schneiderman's tutorial
by chairing the WTUL finance committee, donating the proceeds from her
1932-1933 radio broadcasts to the WTUL, and promoting WTUL in her columns and
speeches. As Schneiderman recalled in her autobiography, ER overcame the
trappings of privilege to become "a born trade unionist." President
and Mrs. Roosevelt enjoyed Schneiderman's company and often invited her to
their homes in New York City, Hyde Park, and, after FDR became governor,
Albany. In 1933, FDR named Schneiderman to the advisory board of the National
Recovery Administration, a position she held until the Supreme Court declared
the NRA unconstitutional in 1935. For those two years, she represented labor's
voice on the board, working to see that wage and hour provisions of the NRA codes
treated workers fairly. In 1935, she returned to both the New York and the
national WTULs, whose presidencies she held until the New York WTUL ceased
operations in 1950 and the national WTUL disbanded in 1955. From 1937 to 1943,
Schneiderman, balancing her WTUL work with state politics, served as secretary
to the New York State Department of Labor. Ninety-year-old Schneiderman died in
New York in 1972 at the Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged.
1882(17th of Nisan, 5642): Third Day
of Pesach
1882(17th of Nisan, 5642): Sixty-nine-year-old
Austrian Rabbi Ephraim Israel Blucher passed away today in Budapest after
having served “at Osviecin, Galicia, and Kosten, Moravia.”
1883: In Bloomington, Illinois, “at a meeting
held today, Maik Livingston offered a donation of $100 toward the building of
the temple, providing the congregation was named after Sir Moses Montefiore,
the great English philanthropist.”
1885: Founding today of Oestereich-Unarischer Kanken-Unterstutzungs-Verein which was
“charteed under the laws of the State of Illinoisto operate a cemetery (Waldheim),
relieve members and their families in sickness and distress, and promote social
and beneficial intercourse and assist Jewish institutions.”
1885: In Archachon, France, Isaac Gaston
Salzedo and Thérèse Judith Anna Salzedo-Silva gave birth to Charles Moïse Léon
Salzedo who was born prematurely and gained fame as Carlos Salzedo, “French
harpist, pianist, composer and conductor.”
1886: David Oppenheimer, “the fourth son of
Salomon Oppenheimer” one of the two brothers who “opened the first wholesale
grocery house in Vancouver in July, 1887, was among those who successfully
petitioned for the incorporation of Vancouver which became a reality today.
1886:
Vancouver was incorporated as a Canadian City. Jewish people have been
on the Vancouver scene since the city's earliest days. The first to take up
residence was Polish born Louis Gold who arrived in 1872. His wife Emma was a
businesswoman, and by 1882 she had established the West End Grocery and Royal
City Boot and Shoe stores. David Oppenheimer, a German native, was undoubtedly
the outstanding citizen in Vancouver's formative period. He promoted
incorporation of the city. In June of 1886, Oppenheimer Bros.--today
Vancouver's oldest business--built the first wholesale grocery in the city's
first brick building, still extant in present-day Gastown. The Great Fire
passed over its foundation, then under construction. Upon completion, the building
was used as Vancouver's first "city hall." Both David and his brother
Isaac were members of the 1887 city council, David being chairman of the
finance committee. From 1888 to 1891 David served four terms as mayor, among
the most constructive in Vancouver's history.
1886(1st
of Nisan, 5646): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1886: Birthdate
of Ontario, Canada native and NYU trained lawyer, Jonah Goldstein who began his
political career as a secretary for Al Smith and rose to become a Judge of the
General Session Court while raising a family with “former Harriet B.
Lowenstein”.
1886(1st of Nisan, 5646): Rabbi Mordechai Aby
Serour of Morocco, who was best known for his work as a geographer and explore
passed away.
1889: Baltimore Hebrew Congregation which had
been variously known as "Stadt-Schul" or "Fell's Point Hebrew
Friendship Congregation" erected its new synagogue at Madison Avenue and
Robert Street.
1890(16th of Nisan, 5650): Second Day of
Pesach; first day of the Omer
1890: In New York City, Joseph and Rose Friedman
gave birth to “Cleveland Law School of Baldwin Wallace College” trained
attorney and holder of an M.A. from Columbia University Sol Bezalel Friedman,
the Issac Elchanan Theological Seminary trained rabbi and husband of Claire
Goldstein who began serving Paole Zedek in Pittsburgh in 1920, founder of
Augdath Kehillath of Pittsburgh and the author of “Roman vs. Jewish Law.”
1890: “Aid For Immigrants” published today
described the finalization of “the plans for the fund which Baron de Hirsch…has
established to the amelioration of the conditions” of Jews living in Russian,
Romania “and those other countries in Europe where the Jew is persecuted to
martyrdom” to find refuge in more civilized places.
1892: “Rabbi Browne on the ‘Talmud’” published
today described the speech delivered on this topic at the Central Musical
Hall. The lecture entitled "Talmud
- Its Ethics and Its Literary Beauties" including his assertion that "What the Congressional Record is to the loyal
American citizen, the 'Talmud' is to the Jew - an embodiment of the laws and
history of his race. And yet the books of the 'Talmud' so dear to every Hebrew
heart have gone through a most trying ordeal. At times they have been banished
and burned, plundered and torn, and yet their glory lives.”
http://flps.newberry.org/article/5423972_2_1379
1892: Birthdate of Orangevale, CA native and U.
of California trained attorney Matt Wahrhaftig a law partner of Samuel Bell
McKee and Arthur Tasheira who had officeds in The Oakland Bank of Savings
Building.
1894: One day after he had pass away, Joseph
Kaufman was buried today in the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1895: Three revenue collectors raided a
basement at 119 Division Street where they found 200 gallons of wine that was
supposed to be “Kosher.” The illegal
still is operated by a Russian Jew known as “Gordon” who was not on the
premises when the raid was being made.
1895: The
Tidings, a weekly Jewish newspaper published in Rochester, NY has been
merged with The American Hebrew published
in New York City.
1896: The German anti-Semitic agitator Herman
Ahlwardt was accompanied by A.M. Woeller, President of the Anti-Semitic Society
and Jacob Hoefnagel, the society’s secretary as he made his way to deliver a
speech at Germania Hall in Hoboken, NJ.
1897(4th of Nisan, 5657):
1897: Birthdate of Otto Marz who was
transported from Uhersky Brod from Terezin in 1943 before being transported
from Terezin in 1944 to Auschwitz where he was murdered.
1897: Rabbi Joseph Silverman of Temple Emanu El
and Cantor William Sparger officiated at today’s funeral for the late Julius
Ehrmann.
1897: President Lewis Parmer of the Hebrew
School on Stone Avenue said that the Long Island Water Supply Company is
refusing to continue to service because “the supply lines are worn out”
1897: Frances Danzig, the widow of Louis
Danzig, a resident of New York City, passed away today while visiting Atlantic
City, NJ.
1898(14th of Nisan, 5658): Ta’anit
Bechorot; erev Pesach
1898(14th of Nisan, 5658): “The Feast of
Passover” published today states that “The Jewish Passover, or the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, will be ushered in at sundown to-day. It will be universally
observed by orthodox Jews for eight days and by their reformed and Palestinian
brethren for seven days. With the former, however, only the first and last two
days are actual holidays, and with the latter only the first and last, the
intervening days being only semi-festivals, on which all manner of work may be
performed.”
1899: Mrs. Samuel Hirsch is scheduled to sing
at today’s musicale and tea sponsored by the Women’s Committee of the Hebrew
Technical Institute being held at Sherry’s.
1898: Moses Lewin, the Kiev born son of Ida and
Henry Levine and his wife Hannah Lewin gave birth to Edwin H. Lewin
1899: Adolf von Sonnenthal received a standing
ovation when he returned to the Irving Place Theatre as Nathan in Lessing’s
“Nathan Der Weise.”
1899: In Newark, NJ, “Baer and Sarah (Gutkin)
Hailperin gave birth NYU alum and JTS trained rabbi, Herman Hailperin who led
Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh for over forty years, while teaching
history at the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne and marrying Cecilia Moss
after the death of his first wife Harriet Silverman.
1899: In Paris, L’Figaro published “the
evidence given by Examining Magistrate Bertulus before the Court of Cassation
hearing the Dreyfus Case.
1900: “With the end in view of supporting all
their charitable organizations in” Chicago “by direct cash subscriptions,
instead of by raising funds through the means of a charity ball and numerous
other entertainments every year, the Jewish people of Chicago already” as of
this date “have pledged annual subscriptions amounting to more than $100,000,
and it is expected to increase the total in a short time to $100,000, the sum
required each year.
1900: Birthdate of Pittsburgh native and
University of Pittsburgh Law School and Carnegie Tech Drama School alum Leo
Robin, the lyricist who won an Oscar in 1938 for “Thanks for the Memory.”
https://www.songhall.org/profile/Leo_Robin
1901(17th of Nisan, 5661): Third Day
of Pesach and Shabbat shel Pesach is observed on the day after Good Friday and
the day before Easter
1902: “Plans for Jewish Asylum” published today
described Rabbi M.H.Harris’s support “for a charter for the establishment of
Jewish Asylum and Reformatory” in New York which is necessary when one
considers that there are 232 Jewish children in the House of Refuge and 233
Jewish children in the juvenile asylum
1903(9th of Nisan, 5663):
The Kishinev pogrom began. “The Kishinev pogrom was an anti-Jewish riot
that took place in Kishinev, which was back then part of the Bessarabia
province of Imperial Russia (currently Chişinău is the capital of independent
Moldova). It started on April 6 and
lasted until April 7, 1903.The riot started after a Christian Russian boy,
Michael Ribalenko, had been found murdered in the town of Dubossary, about 25
miles north of Kishinev. Although it was clear that the boy had been killed by
a relative (who was later found), the government chose to call it a ritual
murder plot by the Jews.The mobs were incited by Pavolachi Krushevan, the
editor of the Anti-Semitic Newspaper "Bessarabetz", and the
vice-governor Ustrugov. They used the ages-old blood libel against the Jews
(that the boy had been killed to use his blood in preparation of matzo).
Viacheslav Plehve, the Minister of Interior, supposedly gave orders not to stop
the rioters. During three days of rioting, the Kishinev Pogrom against the Jews
took place. Forty-seven (some put the figure as high as 49) Jews were killed,
92 severely wounded, 500 slightly wounded and over 700 houses looted and
destroyed.This pogrom is considered the first state-inspired action against
Jews of the 20th century. Despite a world outcry, only two men were sentenced
to seven and five years and twenty-two were sentenced for one or two years.
This pogrom was instrumental in convincing tens of thousands of Russian Jews to
leave to the West and to Israel.”
1904(21st of Nisan, 5665): Seventh Day of Pesach
1904(21st of Nisan, 5664): Fifty-three-year-old
literary critic Elazar Atlas, the son of David Atlas passed away today in
Bialystok.
1905(1st of Nisan, 5665): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1905(1st of Nisan, 5665): Sixty-one-year-old Flavian
Ernest Lezard, the Middlesex born son of Joseph Lezard and Zepherine Lezard and
the husband Julia Lezard and the Father of Zhephorina Florence Ida Levine;
Joseph Charles Edward Lezard; Rachel Ethel Maud Abrahams; Hector Solomon Ernest
Lezard; Louis Flavian Lezard; Capt. Arthur Gower Lezard; Lucy Catherine Lezard
and Alice Lezard passed away today.
1905: After a 15-year absence, “Abraham Roeser, a son of the
east side returned to visit his child haunts” while wearing five medals, one of
which had been pinned on him by “Queen Alexandra of England in recognition of
the young Jew’s bravery in the Boer War” and the other five “were for life
saving.
1906: The Jewish Chronicle reported that Pope Pius X
“cordially” received “Cav. Grassini, the Vice President of the Jewish
Congregation of Venice.
1907: In Brooklyn, “Russian Jewish immigrants Ernestine (nee
Miriamson) and Leopold Lewis who was an optometrist gave birth to movie
producer Joseph H. Lewis.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/13/arts/joseph-h-lewis-93-director-who-turned-b-movies-into-art.html
1907(22nd of Nisan, 5667): Eighth Day of Pesach
and Shabbat
1907(22nd of Nisan, 5667): Eighty-eighty-year-old
Geffen born Simon van den Bergh, known as the “King of Margarine whose
philanthropies included held poor Jews leaving from Rotterdam for American and
the father of Samuel van den Bergh who followed in his father’s footsteps,
passed away today in Rotterdam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_van_den_Bergh
https://dbpedia.org/page/Simon_van_den_Bergh
1907(22nd of Nisan, 5667): Seventy-six-year-old
Hungarian native Adolf Neubauer who served “at the Austrian Consulate in
Jerusalem and studied in Paris before moving to the United Kingdom where he “was
sublibrarian at the Bodleian Library and reader in Rabbinic Hebrew at Oxford
University” passed away today.
1908: In “Kirschseiffen, Germany, “Bernhard and Henriette
(Jetta) Rothschild “gave birth to Albert Rothschild, the “husband of Ruth
Rothschild” and father of Pierre Rothschild who died at Buchenwald in his 37th
year.
1909(15th of Nisan, 5669): Pesach
1909(15th of Nisan, 5669): Abraham Bengrihan,
Chief Rabbi of Marrakech, Morocco, passed away.
1909: Birthdate of Estella Agsterribe, later
Estella Blits- Agsterribe, the Dutch Olympic Gold Medal winner who would die at
Auschwitz with her children and her husband.
1910: Commanding officers in Constantinople
granted Jewish soldiers nine days off for Passover, even though official leave
is stipulated only for the first two and last two days.
1910: In Constantinople in response to a
request from the Hambashi, the Minister of Justice, ordered all Jews in prison
for trivial offenses be liberated in preparation for the celebration of Pesach.
1911: “Resolutions were introduced today in
both houses of Congress directing” President Taft “to mee the discrimination
shown by the Russian government against American Jews who wish to travel in
that country “by the abrogation of the treaty of 1832 in which the citizens of
each country are granted the right to travel and sojourn” without regard to any
other qualification.
1911: “The question of the treatment of Jews in
Russia came before the Supreme Court today on the appeal of Leibl Glicksman”
who had been a leather merchant in Lodz and “who was arrested upon a warrant
issued by the Russian Government…”
1912: In Chicago, more than 15,000 thousand
Jews found out today that the Orthodox among them will not be able to
participate in the primary election being held on Tuesday, April 9, the last
day of Passover. A plan to allow
somebody to accompany Orthodox Jewish voters into the booth and mark the ballot
for them was rejected “because of the chances of fraud.”
1912(19th of Nisan, 5672): Shabbat
Chol HaMoed Pesach
1912(19th of Nisan, 5672):
Sixty-three year old California educator William Lissner passed away today in
San Francisco.
1913: Sons of Israel Synagogue founded in
Lawrence, MA.
1913: The Independent Order of Free Sons of
Judah whose members including Sam Goldstein, Louis Cohn and Jacob Weisman, held
its 23rd annual convention today in New York City
1913: The Alliance of Jewish Women was founded
in Washington, D.C. today.
1913: In Philadelphia, as part of the second
day of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Jewish
Publication Judge Simon W. Rosendale of Albany who “presided over the
Convention at which the Publication Society was organized” is scheduled to
preside over the afternoon session.
1914: A committee met at the hotel Astor tonight to
make final arrangements for the Passover celebration for the Jewish soldiers
and sailors whose release on furlough was obtained a few days ago.
1915(22nd of Nisan, 5675): Eighth
Day of Pesach
1915: “A meeting was held tonight at the
offices of the Jewish newspaper, Forwards, to discuss plan for a memorial
meting to b held in Madison Square Garden in commemoration of Isaac Loeb
Peretz, the Jewish writer who died in Warsaw a few days ago.”
1915: In discussing the United States reaction
to losses at the hands of German submarines the Frankfurter Zeitung, denigrated
the possibility of a U.S. military response saying that “if now a war should
break out the hosts of Russian Jews and their children…would increase the
obstacle which would be met by a people that goes to war only half-heartedly.”
(Editor’s note – two years later, the Germans would find out how badly they had
misunderstood the patriotism of the vast number of American Jews.)
1915: Birthdate of Joseph “Joe” Goldberg who
played guard for Iowa State University in 1936, 1937 and 1938 when they
surprised everybody by defeating the University of Nebraska and making it to
the conference title game against the University of Oklahoma.
1916: Albert Lucas, Chairman of the Central
Jewish Relief Committee of New York City address a meeting at Memorial Hall in
Dayton, Ohio where “$6,700 was raised for the relief of Jews in the
war-stricken countries of Europe.”
1917: Congress voted to declare war on Germany,
marking the entry of the United States into World War One.
1917(14th of Nisan, 5677): Erev Pesach - As
Jews sat down to their Seders tonight, they had no idea how much their world
was about to change!
1917: “The celebration of Passover which began”
this evening “was made especially notable by the rejoicing of the new freedom
of the Jews in Russia.
1917: “At Temple Emanu-El a public announcement
was made to the effect that a Russian decree had emancipated the Jews of that
country” based on a message that Jacob H. Schiff had sent to Louis Marshall who
was at the Temple.
1917: “Special services” marking the
celebration of Passover were held at the Hebrew National Orphan Home followed
by a dinner for 200 orphan boys and girls who were accompanied by “forty
well-known men and women who took the part of foster parents.”
1917:
"The United States declared war on Germany. Approximately 250,000 Jewish
soldiers (20% of whom were volunteers) served in the U.S. army - roughly 5.7%
of the servicemen, while 7of Eastern and Central Europe. The aftermath,
Communism and Fascism, would prove to be even worse. For American Jews,
the aftermath of the war included immigration restrictions and the Red Scare.
1917:
German soldiers and a military band marched through the streets of Jerusalem,
which was controlled by their Turkish ally, apparently unaware of the fact that
the United States was preparing to declare war on the Kaiser’s kingdom.
1917:
“A movement was started” today “by a group of Austro-Hungarian Jews to enlist
citizens of foreign birth who are loyal to the American flag in the in the army
and navy.”
1917:
One of the British Undersecretaries for Middle Eastern Affairs, Mark Sykes
informed his French counterpart Georges-Picot that Britain’s military efforts
in Palestine would have to be “taken into account” at the peace conference. This was a polite way of saying that new
realities had changed the British view of the Sykes-Picot Agreement and that
the British would be pushing for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
1918:
A “a choir of boys from various synagogues sang ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’
Governor Charles addressed the annual convention of the Rumanian Jews of
America tonight at the Hebrew Technical School for Girls.
1918:
The Jewish Administration Commission for Palestine arrives at Tel Aviv. “Dr. Chaim Weizmann, head of the commission,
evokes great enthusiasm when he replied in Hebrew to the address of welcome. The British Military Governor of Jaffa, who
participated in the reception, expresses his sympathy with the Zionist aims.”
1919:
In Moscow, Miron Kovarsky, a piano student at the St. Petersburg conservatory
and the former Zinaida Eisenstadt gave birth to New Yorker cartoonist and
artist Anatoly Mironovich Kovarsky.
1919:
In Cincinnati, Ohio, former president William Howard Taft delivered an address
on “A League of Nations” at the 30th convention of the Central
Conference of American Rabbis
1919:
Ernst Toller began servings as President of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet
Republic.
1920(18th
of Nisan, 5680): Fourth Day of Pesach
1919:
Sol Witkewitz, the Instructor at the Art School of Chicago Hebrew Institute is
scheduled to take his classes to the Chicago Artists Exhibition at the Art
Institute this afternoon.
1920:
Despite the declaration of martial law, Arab attacks continue on the Jews of
Jerusalem for a third day.
1920: Birthdate of Dr. Edmond H. Fischer. The son
of a Jewish father, Fischer shared in the 1992 Nobel Prize for Physiology or
Medicine.
1921:
“The Board of Aldermen having failed yesterday to extend to Drs. Albert
Einstein and Chaim Weizmann, the Zionist emissaries, the freedom of the City of
New York, the Senate today, by unanimous vote, extended to the distinguished
visitors the freedom of the entire State of New York.”
1922(8th
of Nisan,5682): Professor Elie Azoulay passed away today in San Francisco.
1922:
The Neue Freie Presse reported today that “that all those killed in
Budapest on April 3 “when a bomb exploded at a Democratic Club banquet were
Jews” and “that the outrage was of purely religious origin.”
1923:
Birthdate of Shoshana Shenburg who moved to Eretz Israel a year later where she
would marry Professor Elisha Netanyahu and gain fame as attorney and jurist
Shoshana Netanyahu who served as a justice on the Supreme Court of Israel.
1924:
Birthdate of New York native and recipient of the Bronze Star while serving with
the U.S. Army in WW II Israel Leo Glasser the graduate of CCNY and Brooklyn Law
School who as I. Leo Glasse served as Judge of the United States District Court
of New York.
1924:
More than fifty organizations were present at a convention held tonight at
Temple Emanuel where plans were discussed to “organize junior societies and
young folks’ leagues of temple organization in the metropolitan area into a
federation” under a plan proposed by Mrs. Albert May, the daughter of the late
Dr. Wise and Walter Wolfe, president of the Temple Emanuel Junior Society.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/04/07/105466627.html?pageNumber=17
1925:
Birthdate of Helga Deen, a young Jewish girl who kept a diary that “described
her stay in the Dutch prison camp “Kamp Vught” which was only recently
discovered.
http://www.joodsmonument.nl/person/546602/nl?lang=en
1925:
During his triumphal tour of Palestine, Lord Balfour, of Balfour Declaration
fame, spent tonight at the hotel on top of the historic Mount Carmel, from
which he had a superb view of Haifa, on the northeastern slope, and of the bay
below.
1926(22nd
of Nisan, 5686) Eighth Day of Pesach
1926:
At Temple B’nai Jershurun, Rabbi Israel Goldstein paid tribute during the
Pesach Services to the late Jacob P. Adler, the Jewish actor who “he
characterized…as the Nestor of the Yiddish drama who never cheapened his origin
or discarded his people during his long stage career.”
1926:
“Should We Silent?” directed, written and co-produced by Richard Oswald and
featuring Fritz Kortner was released today in Germany.
1927:
Birthdate of Jules Hirsch, the physician who was a pioneer in the scientific
study of obesity.
1927:
In Hudson County, New Jersey, District Court Judge Myron C. Ernst said today
that if the date proposed for voting on constitutional amendments is not
changed from September 27, the date on which Rosh Hashanah is observed “every
Jewish voter in this State will be disenfranchised.”
1928(16th
of Nisan, 5668): Second Day of Pesach
1928:
In New York at Temple Ansche Chesed which was holding their first Pesach
services in their new facility, Dr. Jacob Kohn delivered a sermon today on “The
House Prison of Shut-in Lives” during which “he spoke of the symbolical meaning
of opening the door in the midst of the Seder feast.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/04/07/95566788.html?pageNumber=32
1929:
It was reported today that The Jewish Welfare Board will be distributing
“Matzoth and Haggadahs” to Jewish
soldiers for the upcoming Passover holiday the celebration of which will begin
on the evening of April 24th.
1929:
In Berlin, Charlotte (née Epstein) and Jack Previn, who was a lawyer, judge,
and music teacher gave birth to pianist and conductor Andre Previn
1930:
Today, “during an exhibition baseball game against the Little Rock Travelers,”
Moe Berg’s “spikes caught in the soil as he tried to change directions and he a
knee ligament.
1930:
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that according to a report submitted by
the Zionist Education Council to the Action Committee, “there are 21,031 pupils
in the schools maintained in Palestine by the Zionist Organization. The annual
budget for the schools is $637,250 which includes…a $37,975 subsidy from the
Palestine Colonization Association and $60,000 from the municipality of Tel
Aviv.
1930:
René Dreyfus won the 1930 Monaco Grand Prix today in a privateer Bugatti..
1930:
In an interview on this date “Ittamar Benavi, one of Palestine’s leading
journalists” reiterates his support for the creation of a series of Cantons
along the Swiss model as a way to govern Palestine.
1931(19th
of Nisan, 5691): Fifth Day of Pesach
1931(19th
of Nisan, 5691): Seventy-three-year-old Colonel Michael Friedsman, the New York
born manger at B. Altman and Company and during WW I, the Quartermaster General
of the New York State Guard who was a philanthropist and art connoisseur “for
whom the Friedman Memorial Library is named” passed away today after which his fortune
was left in trust, "for the care and education of the young and the care
and comfort of the aged."
http://archives.sbu.edu/friedsam/col.%20michael%20friedsam.htm
1931:
The first episode of “Little Orphan Annie” Radio Show aired today with a
ten-year-old Jewish girl named Shirley Bell playing the lead role.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/apr/06/1931/shirley-bell-cole
1931:
Birthdate of Deborah Meier “an American educator often considered the founder
of the modern small schools movement.”
1932:
The New York United Hotels, Inc., operator of the Hotel Roosevelt, is
"abundantly solvent," although, like other hotels, it has difficulty
during the economic depression in making its current income meet its overhead
charges, the president of the company, declared today day in an affidavit filed
in Supreme Court, asking dismissal of the suit for a receivership brought by
Samuel M. Bomzon, a bondholder.
1933:
In New Haven, CT, “Harry Shulman, a Jewish immigrant from the Russian Empire
who served as a professor and eventual dean at Yale Law School” and his wife gave
birth to Harvard graduate and Yale Law School trained attorney Stephen N.
Shulman the husband of the former Sandra Still and Chairman o the EEOC who in private
practice defended Egil Krog of Watergate fame.
1933:
Today, “the Nazi German Student Association's Main Office for Press and
Propaganda proclaimed a nationwide “Action against the Un-German Spirit,” to
climax in a literary purge or “cleansing” (Säuberung) by fire or book burning.
1934:
In Brooklyn, Henry and Shirley Guttenplan gave birth to Howard Herman
Guttenplan, “who took what began as an antipoverty program on the Lower East
Side of Manhattan and transformed it into a leading workshop and showcase for
experimental filmmakers.”
1935:
It was reported today that Actions Committee of the Supreme Council of the
World Zionist Organization has adopted a budget of £329,000 for the coming year
at its meeting in Jeruslaem.
1936(14th
of Nisan, 5696):Ta'anit Bechorot, Erev Pesach
1936(14th
of Nisan, 5869): Ninety-year old historian Alfred Stern, a professor at the
Zurich Technical Institute since 1887, a contributor to the Journal of the History of Jews in Germany and the author of A History of the English
Revolution, A History of Switzerland and History of Europe,
1815-1871 passed away today. (As reported by JTA)
1936:
In Germany, “Gestapo agents…stood guard within synagogues to listen to the
sermons…”
1936:
The Passover “service at the Hebrew Association for the Deaf…was conducted
entirely in sign language under the leadership of Mrs. Tanya Nash, director of
the association.”
1936:
Today, “the United Palestine Appeal…released messages from public leaders”
including Frank D. Fitzgerald of Michigan, Hill McAlister of Tennessee and
Harry Nice of Maryland “hailing a Zionist ideal.”
1936:
In a note to Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, released today “Secretary of State Cordell
Hull said: ‘The existence of a Jewish national home in Palestine has been a
source of encouragement and comfort to many Jews who in these difficult times
have found it necessary to seek refuge and new homes. All will agree that the support and extension
of the benevolent work of providing shelter in the Holy Land for homeless Jews
is a highly unselfish and commendable task.
I sincerely hope that your efforts in this laudable undertaking will
meet with success.’”
1936:
In case that “involves a State law to prevent ‘frauds on religious
institutions’ through sales for profit of tickets to purported religious
services” “the Supreme Court continued in effect an interlocutory injuncted
obtained by Sara Wachs” “in the New York ‘mushroom synagogue’ controversy.”
1936:
In Lodz, Poland, “twenty-four young nationalist were sentenced today to terms
of imprisonment ranging from one to four years after they had been convicted of
having formed a secret society with the object of committing acts of terrorism
against Jews and destroying Jewish property.”
1936:
Today, “the scholarship department of the Yeshiva Endowment Foundation
announced…a $10,000 bequest from the family of the late Mr. and Mrs. Albert
Herskovits in memory of the parents.”
1936:
Rabbis Samuel H. Goldenson and B. Benedict Glazer conducted Passover eve
services at Temple Emanu-El on 65th Street.
1936:
“The American Jewish Congress called upon American Jews to ‘united for the
collective security of the Jewish people to combat progressive deterioration of
their equal rights in their native lands’ and to organize for the ‘self-defense
of the Jewish people through a world Jewish congress.’”
1936:
Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, Carl J. Austrian and Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein
participated in a radio broadcast sponsored by the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee “which is conducting a $3,500,000 drive” to “aid their
oppressed brethren in Germany, Poland and other Eastern European Countries.”
1937:
At is annual conference today, the “Jewish Marachi…adopted a resolution
strongly opposing any attempt at partition of Palestine and declaring that the
whole country must be open to Jews to the extent of its historic boundaries.”
1937:
In Jerusalem Moshe Baram and his wife Grazia who was born in Aleppo, gave birth
to MK and cabinet minister Uzi Baram.
1938:
Today, “Julius Streicher, Germany’s No. anti-Semited issued his ‘First Reader’
which he said was intended to instruct Germans on the Jewish questions by
pictures and stories” so that “the German people” can be protected in the
future from the dangers in which the Jew has tumbled.”
1939:
In Chicago, delicatessen owners Paul and Gertrude Krause gave birth to Jerome
“Jerry” Krause the general manager who turned the Chicago Bulls into an NBA
dynasty.
1940(27th
of Adar II, 5700): As Jews observe in Shabbat HaChodesh they can contemplate
the call this week by Reverend Harry Emerson Fosdick for “closer cooperation
among Catholics, Jews and Protestants.”
1941:
German forces, in alliance with Hungarians and Bulgarians, invaded Yugoslavia
(75,000 Jews) and Greece (77,000 Jews). The invasion was caused by the
Italian Army's failure against the Greeks. For the Jews, this meant that
the Balkans would come under Nazi domination which later resulted in the
destruction of some of the most ancient Jewish communities in the world.
According to some, this "diversion" delayed the invasion of the
Soviet Union which resulted in the Nazi forces becoming trapped in the Russian
Winter. This in turn was a contributing factor to the final defeat of the
Nazis.
1941:
In New York City, 23-year-old Sylvia Lubow Rindskopf married Ensign Maurice H.
Rhindskopf – a marriage that would last nearly 69 years during which she played
the perfect Naval wife to Rear Admiral Mike Rindskopf.
1941:
The Nazis established two ghettos in Radom, Poland. Radom's Jewish
community dated back to the Middle Ages. Nine tenths of the Jewish
population of 25,000 perished in the Holocaust. According to some
reports, the remaining Jews did not return because of the anti-Semitic riots
that took place in Poland after the war.
1941:
“Flame of New Orleans” a comedy produced by Joe Pasternak, co-starring Mischa
Auer and featuring Shemp Howard was released in the United States today.
1942:
Staff Sgt. Frank Glassman, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants Peter and Sadie
Glassman enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps today which was the first step in
a “career” that would lead him to serve as a belly gunner aboard the “Green
Hornet” which would crash in the Pacific Ocean
1942:
In Baltimore, MD Violet "Vi" (née Krichinsky) and Irvin Levinson, who
worked in the furniture and appliance business gave birth to Academy Award
winning director Barry Levinson whose works included one the greatest movies
ever – “Avalon.”
1943:
“Tahiti Honey,” a musical comedy starring Simone Simon “the daughter of Henri
Louis Firmin Champmoynat, a French Jewish engineer, airplane pilot in World War
II, who died in a concentration camp” was released in the United States today.1944:
The Jewish nursery at Izieu-Ain France was overrun by Nazi's
1945: The 14th Armored Division
liberated the Serbian hospital at Camp Hammelburg whose patients included
Captain Abraham Baum who had been shot in the groin while trying to rescue
General Patton’s son-in-law John K. Waters who was also in the hospital
recovering from his wounds.
1945: After the USS Bush, an American destroyer
was struck by a Japanese suicide bomber today, Raphael J. “Ray” Moses was among
those who were rescued from the East China Sea.
1946: The British consulate General in
Madagascar reported in confidence to the foreign Office in London that while
Madagascar might be suitable for 200 colonists of the peasant class, stress
should be laid by Britain on providing the right type of colonist in the first
instance and not city-bred Jews who were worn and emaciated through long
confinement in concentration camps.
1947: As it begins its American tour, The
Hapoel soccer team is scheduled to board a plane a Tel Aviv today as it makes
its way to New York City.
1947: The first Tony Awards are presented for
theatrical achievement.
1948: In an appeal cabled from Tel Aviv today, “Dr.
Israel Goldstein, national chairman of the United Palestine Appeal called on
Jewish communities throughout the United States to intensify their efforts to
raise at least $100,000,000 during the month of April…”
1948: The Irgun raided the British Army camp at
Pardes Hanna killing seven British soldiers and stealing a large quantity of
weapons
1948: Operation Nachshon was launched this
evening in an attempt to open the road to Jerusalem. At the same time, a convoy left the coast and
after a ten hour trip arrived in the beleaguered city. It was the first the first convoy to reach
the city in two weeks. They found a city
that was under constant bombardment from Arab Legion (Jordanian Army) artillery
situated on the high round north of the Damascus Gate. For the next three weeks, the Arabs would use
their military might to try and re-gain control of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv
Road.
1949: The SS Caserta, carrying 400 Jews from
Tripoli and 350 Jewish refugees from Czechoslovakia is on the second day of its
trip to Israel.
1949: “A Federal grand jury returned two
indictments today against nine persons and a corporation, charging them with
attempting to ship airplanes, airplane parts and other equipment to Jewish
forces in Palestine in violation of the arms embargo.”
1951: “The Scarf,” a thriller based on a story
by Isadore Goldsmith, the film’s producer and directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
who wrote the screenplay, was released in the United States today.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel
Air Force planes bombed Syrian entrenchments in the demilitarized zone near El
Hamma where seven Israeli policemen were killed and one wounded. The government
lodged a complaint with the UN Security Council listing all recent Syrian
border violations.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that for the
first time since the establishment of the state, Britain announced that it was
ready to sell small arms to Israel, on the same terms as had been enjoyed by
Egypt.
1952: A Broadway
revival of Clifford Odets’ “Golden Boy” starring John Garfield as “Joe” as
after 55 performances at the ANTA Playhouse.
1953(21st
of Nisan, 5713): Seventh day of Pesach
1953(21st
of Nisan, 5713): Sixty-nine-year-old Russian born Solomon Leon Skoss, a
Professor of Arabaci and Literature at Dropsie College for Hebrews and Cognate
Learning and the husband of Irene Kapnek Skoss with whom he had one child, Mrs.
Theodore Katz passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/skoss-solomon-leon
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/skoss-solomon-leon
1953: A revival of “Room Service,” produced by
Bernard Hart opened on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre.
1954:
The body of Baron Edmond de Rothschild was re-interred in Zichron Yaakov, the
wine-producing village which had been established with his help.
1954:
Today, during the Rudolf Kastner trial Dr. Rueben Hecht, who worked as an Irgun
representative in Zurich was interrogated as the seventeenth witness by
advocate Tamir who questioned him about his relationship with Dr. Jean-Marie
Musy, the former president of the Swiss Confederation and “long term friend” of
Heinrich Himmler.
1954(3rd
of Nisan): Yiddish poet Aaron Leib Baron passed away
1955(14th
of Nisan, 5715): Fast of the First Born and erev Pesach
1955:
David Saul Marshal, a descendant of Indian Baghdadi Jews, began serving as
Chief Minister of Singapore.
1956:
“The Rose Tatoo,” the film version of the successful Broadway play produced by
Hal B. Wallis with a screenplay by Hal Kanter was released today in Belgium and
France.
1956:
“Jubal,” an “oater” with music by David Raskin was released in the United
States today.
1957:
First oil tanker in Eilat arrived filled with Persian Gulf oil.
1957:
In Brooklyn, “Thomas Sapolsky, an architect who renovated the restaurants
Lüchow's and Lundy's and his wife gave birth to Harvard graduate Robert Morris
Sapolsky, the neuroendocrinologist and the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn
Professor at Stanford University, holding joint appointments in several
departments, including Biological Sciences, Neurology & Neurological
Sciences, and Neurosurgery.
1958(16th
of Nisan, 5718): Second Day of Pesach; First day of the Omer
1958:
In New York, David Brownstein, an electrician, and Shirley Brownstein gave
birth State University of New York – Binghamton graduate Ronald J. “Ron”
Brownstein who began his career as a senior staff writer for Ralph Nader and
then moved through a series of journalistic assignments before becoming a
senior political analyst with CNN.
1959:
“The Sound and the Fury” the movie version of the novel by the same name
directed by Martin Ritt, with a script co-authored by Irving Ravetch was
released in the United States today.
1959(27th
of Adar II, 5719): Sixty-four-year-old Leo Aryeh Mayer, who worked jointly with
Eleazar Sukenik, in connection with the excavations of the "Third
Wall" of Jerusalem, built by in 41-44 CE, Agrippa, king of Judea, in 41-44
CE and served as rector of Hebrew University, passed away.
1959:
Joseph B. Levin represented the Securities and Exchange Commission before the
Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals in Columbia General Investment
Corporation v. the SEC.
1961(20th
of Nisan, 5721): Sixth Day of Pesach celebratedfor the first time during the
Presidency of JFK.
1962:
Leonard Bernstein causes controversy with his remarks from the podium during a
New York Philharmonic concert featuring Glenn Gould performing Brahms' First
Piano Concerto.
1966(16th
of Nisan, 5726): Second Day of Pesach; first day of the Omer
1967:
Birthdate of Brooklyn native Glenn Thrush who became the White House
correspondent for the NY Times in
2017.
1966(15th
of Nisan, 5726): Pesach
1967:
Avraham Lanir “scored his first aerial kill in a major skirmish along the
Syrian border which ended with the downing of six Syrian jets. Lanir, flying
Mirage 60, downed a SAF MiG-21 with cannon fire after closing in to a distance
of 200 meters. The MiG exploded and Lanir flew right through the fireball, covering
his aircraft with soot. Initially blinded, enough soot was eventually blown off
his canopy to afford Lanir a safe landing at Ramat David. The scorched aircraft
earned the nickname ‘Black Mirage’".
1968:
Romanian Jewish playwright Israil Bercovici adapted a collection of Itzik
Manger's poems into a two-act stage piece, Mangheriada, which premiered today
at the Romanian State Jewish Theater in Bucharest.
1969(18th
of Nisan, 5729): Fourth Day of Pesach
1969(18th
of Nisan, 5729): Boston native and Harvard educated scholar of Chinese history
Joseph Richmond Levenson, the husband of Rosemary Sebag-Montefiore and father
of Richard, Irene, Thomas and Leo Levenson who the namesake of the Joseph
Levenson Book Prize passed away today.
https://www.asianstudies.org/grants-awards/book-prizes/levenson-prize/
http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb629006wb&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00025&toc.depth=1&toc.id=
1969:
In Passaic, NJ, two Anglo-Jewish immigrants, Michael Rudd, “an historical guide
and former vice president of TWA” and his wife Gloria, a sales manager at a
television station gave birth to actor Paul Rudd
1969:
Birthdate of actress Ari Meyers best known for her role as "Emma Jane McArdle" in
the television series, “Kate & Allie.”
1969: Golda Meir spoke to 3,000 teenagers in
Jerusalem, expressing her absolute
faith that peace would come.
1970: “More
than 200 Israeli students turned out at Iydda airport today to welcome Yasha
Kazakov, the Moscow‐born Israeli who held a hunger strike
outside United Nations headquarters in New York to dramatize his demand that
the Soviet Government allow his family to emigrate to Israel.”
1970:
Today Notebooks of A Dilettante, a collection of essays by Polish author
Leopold Tyrmand who survived the Holocaust because the Germans did not know he
was Jewish were published.
1971:
Jews must have felt mixed emotions today when Igor Stravnisky passed away
today. On the one hand he was a giant in
the world of music and yet he was also an anti-Semite.
http://thejewniverse.com/2013/stravinsky-the-anti-semite/
1972(22nd
of Nisan, 5732): 8th Day of Pesach
1972(22nd of Nisan, 5732): Sixty-eight-year-old
St,
Louis and Harvard educated neurologist, Dr. Robert Sidney Schwab the WW II
veteran and husband of Dorothy Miller passed away today.
1972(22nd
of Nisan, 5732): Sixty-two-year-old Chemistry Professor and patent holder Dr.
David Perlman passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/06/archives/dr-david-perlman-62-dies-chemistry-professor-here.html
1973: In
the aftermath of the Munich Olympic Massacre, Basil al-Kubaissi, a law
professor who provided arms and logistic support for Black September was shot
to death while returning home from dinner in Paris.
1974(14th
of Nisan, 5734): Shabbat Hagadol; Erev Pesach
1974(14th
of Nisan, 5734): Canadian born poet Rochelle Mass and her family celebrate
their first Pesach in Israel at a kibbutz where she had picked oranges during
the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
1975:
Birthdate of actor Zach Braff
1975:
Sandy Helberg the American actor who is the son of 2 Holocaust survivors
married Harriet Birnbaum.
1975(25th
of Nisan, 5735): Seventy-one-year-old Ernst David Bergman, “the father of
Israel’s nuclear program” passed away today.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1yz8B3IPltmNWxuR0U1bUEyanM/edit?pli=1
1976(6th
of Nisan, 5736): Sidney
Franklin a Brooklyn born Jew whose name was originally Sidney Frumkin and who
was the U.S.’s first successful bullfighter passed away today.
http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=635255
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that France
sold to Egypt Mirage F-1 interceptors, the most advanced French combat
aircraft. It is pointless for Israelis, or for Israel friends abroad, to shadow
box with PLO, Defense Minister Shimon Peres told the International Conference
on Palestinians and the Middle East, since the PLO aspires to liquidate the
Jewish State. He added that the PLO had maintained its rigid extremism and had
lined up the entire Arab world behind this position.1977: CBS broadcast,
“Something for Joey” a sports film featuring Steve Guttenburg and with music by
David Shire for this time today.1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
called upon US President Jimmy Carter to establish "a political entity
where the Palestinians can, at long last, be a community of citizens, not a
group of refugees." The Israel Press Council decided to form a team to
check local papers’ observance of their ban on publication of criminal
suspects’ names before they are remanded. Israeli artillery shelled terrorist
concentrations in Lebanon. Israeli meat producers obtained a US permit to export
kosher meat to America.
1978: The annual meeting of the International
Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee continued for a second day in Madrid, Spain.
1979: “Israeli agents sabotaged the Osirak reactor
awaiting shipment to Iraq at La Seyne-sur-Mer in France.”
1979: In “Joseph R. Levenson: A Retrospective”
published today
Thomas M. Levenson provided “a remembrance of Joseph
R. Levenson on the tenth anniversary of his death.”
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1979/4/6/joseph-r-levenson-a-retrospective-pithis/
1979: Thirteen people were injured by a bomb set off
at a bus stop in Jerusalem.
1980(20th of Nisan, 5740): Sixth Day of
Pesach
1980: After six weeks, the curtain came down today
on an Off-Broadway production of “Biography” written by S.N. Behrman.
1981: “Fools, a comic fable by Neil Simon”
“premiered on Broadway at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre” today.
1982: “Police searched the home of Nehemiah
Rozengauz, 37, a Tashkent computer scientist” and “confiscated all materials
connected to Hebrew studies.”
1982: Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir,
speaking at the funeral of an Israeli diplomat slain two days ago in Paris,
said today that Israeli forces would strike ''without reservation, without
end'' at bases and headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization in
Lebanon and elsewhere.
1982: “Katya Umanskaya of Moscow, was warned to stop
her Jewish cultural activities.”
1982: “Sverdlovsk refuseniks Lev Shefer and Vladimir
Yelchin were sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on charges of anti-Soviet
propaganda.”
1984: “Hard to Hold,” a musical directed by Larry
Peerce, the son tenor and form cantor Jan Peerce, was released in the United
States today.
1985(15th of Pesach, 5747): Pesach
1985(15th of Pesach,5747):
Seventy-five-year-old “Romanian-born Jewish artist, writer and Holocaust
survivor Arnold Daghani, the husband of Anisoara Daghani with whom he was
shipped to the “Nazi labor camp of Mykhailivka in Ukraine” who escaped to
Budapest in 1943 after which his Graves in the Cherry Orchard was published in
1947 while his works were eventually housed at the University of Sussex, passed
away today in the United Kingdom.
1986(26th of Adar II, 5746): Eighty-nine-year-old Pesach Burstein, a Yiddish actor whose singing, dancing and whistling
delighted audiences here and abroad for more than 70 years, died today at Lenox
Hill Hospital after suffering a heart attack last Monday. http://articles.latimes.com/1986-04-13/local/me-4493_1_abraham-goldfaden
1990:
In recognition of
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s “vital efforts, the Congress, by House Joint
Resolution 173, has designated today, as "Education Day, U.S.A.
1990:
U.S. premiere of “Tall Story” with a script co-authored by Julius Epstein and
Howard Nemerov who wrote the novel on which the film was based.
1991(22nd
of Pesach, 5751): 8th Day of Pesach and Shabbat
1992:
The keel was laid down today for “MY Sam Simon, fourth vessel of the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society fleet, named after American television producer
and writer Sam Simon, who donated the money to purchase the vessel.”
1992(3rd
of Nisan, 5752): Molly Picon passed away at the age of 94. Born in 1898, the
petite Molly Picon was a star of both the Yiddish theatre and a variety of
American entertainment mediums. Her career included 19 years of radio
broadcasts and roles on Broadway and film. She performed for
American troops during World War II. She was one of the first
entertainers to go to Europe after the war to perform for Jewish refugees.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/picon.html
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/culture/2/Film/American_and_European/Yiddish_Film/Molly_Picon.shtmlhttp://www.ajhs.org/scholarship/Molly/index.cfm
1992(3rd
of Nisan, 5752): Isaac Assimov died at the age of 72. Born in Russia in 1920,
Asimov was raised in Brooklyn which he always considered his home. He was
known as a science fiction writer but also wrote about the Bible as well.
A confirmed atheist, Assimov attributed this interest to his devoutly Jewish
father.
http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_home_page.html
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/23/lifetimes/asi-v-obit.html
1992:
Ninety-six-year-old Herman F. Mark an Austrian-American chemist who fled Europe
for America because he was the son of Dr. Herman Carl Mark, a Jew who converted
to Lutheranism passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/10/us/dr-herman-f-mark-dies-at-96-a-pioneer-in-polymer-chemistry.html
1993(15th of Nisan, 5753): Pesach
observed for the first time in the Presidency of Bill Clinton
1994(25th of Nisan, 5754): A Palestinian
suicide bomber killed 7 Israelis and himself.
1994(25th of Nisan, 5754): Eighty-one-year-old
Goodwin George “Goody” Rosen, the son of “Samuel and Rebecca, two Russian
Jewish immigrant who played centerfield for two National League teams that no
longer exist – the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants – passed away today
in his native Toronto.
http://jewishbaseballmuseum.com/player/goody-rosen/
1994(25th of Nisan, 5754): Eight people were
killed in a Hamas terrorist car-bomb attack on a bus in the center of Afula.
This was the first documented car bombing in Israel. The dead included: “Asher
Attia, 48, of Afula, bus driver; Vered Mordechai, 13, of Afula; Maya Elharar,
17, of Afula; Ilana Schreiber, 45, a teacher from Kibbutz Nir David; Meirav
Ben-Moshe, 16, of Afula; Ayala Vahaba, 40, a teacher from Afula; and Fadiya
Shalabi, 25, of Iksal were killed in a car-bomb attack on a bus in the center
of Afula. Ahuva Cohen Onalla, 37, wounded in the attack, died of her wounds on
April 25.”
1995(6th of Nisan,
5755): Six Israelis were killed in two suicide bombings at Kfar Darom.
1996: “Hava Naquila, “a happy hardcore version
of the classic folk song "Hava Nagila" set in a gabber beat” was
released today.
1996: Memorial services are scheduled to take
place today for “Morton F. Rome, whose distinguished legal career of nearly six
decades was highlighted by serving as assistant prosecutor during the Nuremberg
War Crimes Trial…”
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1996-03-23-1996083047-story.html
1997: Andrea Mitchell “married her second
husband, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan” today
1997: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Memories of Summer: When Baseball Was an Art
and Writing About It a Game by Roger Kahn.
1998: In “Lasar Segall’s Happy Life Didn’t Make
for Great Art” Hilton Kramer examined the life and work of the Lithuanian born,
Brazilian artist.
http://observer.com/1998/04/lasar-segalls-happy-life-didnt-make-for-great-art/
1999(20th Nisan, 5759): 6th
day of Pesach
1999(20th of Nisan, 5759): Eighty-three-year-old
British cellist William Pleeth, the son of Jewish immigrants from Warsaw,
Poland passed away today.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-william-pleeth-1085615.html
2000: The United States
Postal Service issued five stamps depicting the work of Jewish sculptor
Louise Nevelson.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/apr/06/2000/louise-nevelson
2000: Habib Bourguiba, President of Tunisia, passed away. Bourguiba came to
power when Tunisia gained its independence from France in 1956. By then the Jewish population had shrunk from
its 1948 high of approximately 100,000.
The Tunisian government enacted a series of anti-Jewish decrees. In
1958, Tunisia's Jewish Community Council was abolished by the government and
ancient synagogues, cemeteries and Jewish quarters were destroyed for
"urban renewal."
The increasingly unstable situation caused more than
40,000 Tunisian Jews to immigrate to Israel. By 1967, the country's Jewish
population had shrunk to 20,000. During the Six-Day War, Jews were attacked by
rioting Arab mobs, and synagogues and shops were burned. The government
denounced the violence, and President Habib Bourguiba apologized to the Chief
Rabbi. This apology certainly marked Bourgiba as unique among Arab leaders. His
government appealed to the Jewish population to stay, but did not bar them from
leaving. Subsequently, 7,000 Jews immigrated to France. Today about 1,000 Jews
live in Tunisia.
2001: In “Out of the Jewish Ghetto and Into the Mainstream,” published today Grace
Gluek traces the life and times of one of the earliest of Jewish artists,
Moritz Daniel.
2002: During Operation Defensive Shield the
terrorist leader responsible for trying to turn Jenin into a massive booby-trip
(including the homes of the civilians) and two of his comrades were killed by
Israeli troops as they cautiously made their way through the camp in an attempt
to minimize civilian casulaities.
2002(24th
of Nisan, 5762): Twenty-six-year-old Staff Sergeant Nisan Avraham from Lod was
killed today and five of his comrades were wounded when Islamic Jihad
terrorists attacked them at the entrance of Rafiah Yam.
2003: The New York Times included reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including ''The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror'' by Bernard
Lewis.
2003(4th
of Nisan, 5763): Leon Levy, the co-founder of Oppenheimer & Co who was
praised as an “investment genius and prolific philanthropist” passed away.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/08/nyregion/leon-levy-philanthropist-is-dead-at-77.html
2004(15th
of Nisan, 5764): Pesach
2004(15th
of Nisan, 5764): Ninety-year-old Alexander Lerner the Russian trained
mathematician and leading refusenik passed away today in Israel where he had
lived since 1988.
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/06/world/alexander-lerner-cybernetics-expert-is-dead-at-90.html
2005: The New
York Times featured a review of “In Satmar Custody.” This documentary
written in English, Hebrew, Yemenite and Yiddish describes the fate of Yeminite
Jews living in Israel who were brought to the United States to live in the
Satmar community in Monsey, N.Y. The
Times describes the fate of such Jews as a “nightmare for a Jewish family from
Yemen.
2005(26th
of Adar II, 5765): Specialist
Daniel J. Freeman aged 20, who “had been in Afghanistan for about two months
was killed today in a helicopter crash “along with 15 other soldiers.. (As
reported by Maia Efrem)
2006: The
Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (JRF) of Metropolitan New York/New Jersey
recognizes their Vatikim: Those Who Inspire Us with a Lifetime of
Contribution with a festive evening of celebration featuring the unique
Sephardic spirit and sounds of Gerard Edery and the Bnai Keshet a Cappella Singers
2006: “The industry group MarHedge awarded Matador
Fund Ltd. and Manchester Trading, two funds managed by Victor Niederhoffer, the
prize for best performance by a commodity trading advisor (CTA) in the two
years 2004 and 2005.
2006:
David Bromberg is featured in a Washington
Post article entitled “In Fine
Fiddle” by Paul Schwartzman.
2006: In “A
Homecoming, in Los Angeles, for Five Klimts Looted by Nazis,” published today Sharon
Waxman describes Maria Altmann’s fight to regain her family’s art.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/06/arts/design/06klim.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=Maria%20Altmann&st=cse
2007:
As reported in Haaretz, during the
Intermediate Days of Passover, Israelis visit tourist sites throughout the country, with a wide
variety of festivals and activities on hand
2007:
“Spots of Light: To Be a Woman in the
Holocaust” opens at Yad Sachem’s Exhibitions Pavilion:
2007: “A Jew Grows in Brooklyn” Jake Ehrenrich’s
one-man show is playing Off-Broadway at 37 Arts.
2007: U.S. premiere of “The T.V.Set” directed,
produced and written by Jake Kasdan.
2007(18th of Nisan, 5767): Fourth day of
Pesach
2007(18th of Nisan, 5767): Seventy-two-year-old
award winning screen writer Stan Daniels passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/obituaries/14daniels.html
2008: David Blatt, the head coach of the the
Istanbul-based Turkish Basketball League team Efes Pilsen, “parted ways with
the team.”
2008: In Washington, D.C., Jewish author Jonathan Rieder discusses and
signs The Word of the Lord Is Upon Me: The Righteous Performance of Martin
Luther King, Jr. at Politics and Prose Bookstore.
2008(1st of Nisan, 5768): Rosh Chodesh
Nisan
2008: The Boston Globe published “House of
Cards” which investigated claims that Bringing Down the House: The Inside
Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich is
largely fictional and questioning its designation as “non-fiction.”
2008: The Sunday New York Times book section
featured reviews of two books by Jewish authors - Fidelity by Grace
Paley and Please Don’t Remain Calm by Michael Kinsley.
2008(1st of Nisan, 5768: Thirty-six-year-old
Major Stuart Wolfer was killed today when his unit was attacked by
insurgents in Baghdad. (As reported by Maia Efrem)
Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/135331/profiles-of-our-fallen/#ixzz1r7KLHWdl
2009: Lubavitch Chabad of Northbrook and CJE Senior
Life present the “Yiddish Club.”
2009: Ambassador
Daniel Kurtzer, professor of Public and International Affairs at Princeton
University delivers an address entitled "Iran, Israel and the US: Dissecting
the Triangular Relationship’ at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and
International Affairs.
2009: Mary Altaffer of AP photographed Ruth Madoff
being “escorted by private security as she left the Metropolitan Correctional
Center after visiting her husband” Bernard Madooff
2009: Today “at 31 years of age, Josh Pastner was selected
to be head coach of the University of Memphis Tigers basketball team”
2009: J. Ezra Merkin, a prominent New York financier whose private clients
lost more than $2 billion in the collapse of Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme,
has been accused of fraud and deception in a civil lawsuit filed today by the
New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo.
2009: A list of 801 Jews
saved during the Holocaust by German businessman Oskar Schindler has been
recovered from a Sydney library, News Agencies reported today.
2010(22nd Nisan, 5770): Yizkor is
recited on the Eighth Day of Pesach.
2010: The Home Minister of Maharashtra State, which
includes Mumbai, informed the Assembly that the bodies of the nine Pakistani
gunmen from the 2008 attack on Mumbai who had murdered 8 people at Nariman
House were buried in a secret location in January 2010.
2010: “Date Night,” a comedy directed and
co-produced by Shawn Levy premiered in New York City.
2010: Model
and actress Lisa S. (Lisa Slesner) married David Wu today.
2010: Israeli Author
Savyon Liebrecht is scheduled to speak at Yale’s Slifka Center for Jewish life.
2010: David Remnick's biography of President Barack
Obama, The Bridge, was released today.
2011: Michael Applebaum began serving as Chair of
the Montreal Executive committee.
2011: Season three of Top Chef Masters premiered
with Chef Ruth Reichl as a judge.
2011: Alexander Mashkevitch
announced his intention to found a Jewish version of Al-Jazeera that will
"represent Israel on an international level, with real information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mashkevitch
more
2011: Former Israeli
Supreme Court Justice Dalia Dorner as keynote speaker is scheduled to speak
today at an event marking the formal launch of The Berkeley Institute for
Jewish Law and Israeli Law, Economy and Society at the University of California
Law School.
2011: Ruth Messinger, President
of the American World Jewish Service is scheduled to speak today during the New CAJE Lehrhaus webinar series. For
registration and further information see http://newcajelehrhausonline.org/page.aspx?id=239947
2011(2nd
of Nisan): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of The fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe,
Rabbi Sholom DovBer Schneersohn ("Rashab") who passed away in 1920.
2011(2nd
of Nisan): Eighty-two-year-old Igor Yakovlevich Birman, the Russian born
American economist who predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union passed away
today.
2011: Tel Aviv has been
ranked No. 34 out of 40 cities in the annual Knight Frank global cities index,
which was released today, one place lower than last year and three below Cairo
2012: Alexander “Mashkevitch announced his
intention to found a Jewish version of Al-Jazeera that will "represent
Israel on an international level, with real information”
2012(14th of Nisan, 5772): Fast of the
First Born
2012(14th of Nisan, 5772): Fifty-nine-year-old
Elan Steinberg who was head of the World Jewish Congress passed away
today. As reported by Douglas Martin)
2012:
Rabbi Greg Wall is scheduled to lead the Seder at The Sixth Street Community
Synagogue; an event that will “swing between tradition and utter hipness.”
Chag
Kasher v'Sameach!
2012:
At Kherson, in one of a series of acts of vandalism where “graves have been
repeatedly covered with trash and tombstones destroyed and desecrated” a fire
was set at the Jewish cemetery which “spread over an area of about 700 square
meters and caused severe damage to the graves and tombstones.”
2013:
Tom Arnold who converted to Judaism when he married Roseanne Barr and continues
to be a practicing Jew and his fourth wife Ashley Groussman gave birth to their
first child Jax Copeland Arnold.
2013:
“A Bottle In The Gaza Sea” is scheduled to be shown at the Hartford Jewish Film
Festival.
2013:
“Joe Papp In Five Acts” is scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film
Festival.
2013:
US Secretary of State John Kerry is headed to the Middle East today on his
third trip there in just two weeks in a fresh bid to unlock long-stalled
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/kerry-heads-back-to-middle-east-for-fresh-peace-push/
2014: The New York Times reviewed books by
Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including three
written especially for children and young readers about the Holocaust: Hidden:
A Child’s Story of the Holocaust by Loic Dauvillier; Hidden Like Anne Frank:
Fourteen True Stories of Survival by Marcel Prins and Peter Henk Steenhuis
and The Whispering Town by Jennifer
Elvgren
2014: The Jerusalem Post is scheduled to hold its annual
conference in New York City.
2014: “Prior to MIPTV’s official launch tomorrow, “a
session titled ‘Business Opportunities in Israel’ is scheduled to be held
today.
2014: A special performance of “The Last Act of Lilka
Kadison” for the benefit of Yiddishkayt and in memory of NPR radio producer
Johanna Cooper is scheduled to take place in Burbank, CA.
2014: In Springfield, VA, Congregation Ada Reyim is
scheduled to host a Sisterhood Community Women’s Seder using a special Haggadah
honoring “the role of women in Passover tradition.”
2014: An Arab-Israeli microbiologist Dr.
Nof Atamna-Ismaeel, a 33-year-old mother of three, was crowned the winner of
Israel’s most-watched television show, Master Chef tonight.
2014: Elections are scheduled to be held in Hungary amid
charges by the “leadership of Hungarian Jewry that Prime Minister Viktor
Orban’s government is pandering to nationalist voters who do not wish to be
reminded of the role Hungary played in the murder of its Jewish citizens
2015: The Israeli Folk Dance group is scheduled to meet in
Metairie, LA.
2015: “More than 75,000 people gathered at the Western
Wall for the Priestly Blessing ceremony called Birkat Kohanim in Hebrew, during
the second intermediate day of Passover.” (As reported by JTA)
2015: “Clearly unsatisfied with assurances from President
Obama about the provisions of the Iran nuclear deal, Israel” today “listed
specific requirements that it declared were necessary in any final agreement.”
2015(17th of Nisan, 5775): Third Day of Pesach;
in the evening count Omer 3
2015(17th of Nisan): According to tradition,
date on which “Noah’s Ark came to rest on Mt. Ararat.”
2015(17th of Nisan, 5775): “Bernice S.
Tannenbaum, the 101-year-old “former president of Hadassah” who fought against
the U.N. resolutions “equating Zionism with racism” passed away today.
2016(27th of Adar II, 5776): Sixty-eight year
old economist Joel Kurtzman passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2016: “Last Musik is scheduled to present a benefit
concert to protect and preserve the music composed in concentration camps,
featuring Ute Lemper, renowned vocalist.”
2016: “The Kind Words” is scheduled to be shown at the
Hartford Jewish Film Festival.
2016: “The Experimenter” is scheduled to be shown at the
Westchester Film Festival.
2016: In New York, the Consul General of Israel is
scheduled to speak at the Amal Israel Entrepreneurship Event.
2016: As a sign of the vitality of Yiddishkeit in places
where you might not expect to find it, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to
discuss the book Paradise Park: A Novel by Allegra Goodman this evening.
2017(10th of Nisan, 5777): The 10th of Nisan is the date
on which the Israelites under Joshua crossed the Jordan into Eretz Israel
2017(10th of Nisan, 5777): The 10th
of Nisan is the official day of national celebration in which Jewish
immigration to Israel is honored and noteworthy immigrants are recognized for
their contributions to the nation. (As reported by Debra Kamin)
2017(10th of Nisan, 5777): Seventy-one-year-old
accountant and business manager to the starts Joseph Rascoff passed away today.
(As reported by Richard Sandomir)
2017(10th of Nisan, 5777): Ninety-year-old
comedian Donald Jay “Don” Rickles passed away today.
http://www.filmreference.com/film/97/Don-Rickles.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/06/arts/television/don-rickles-dead-comedian.html
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/apr/07/don-rickles-obituary
2017: In “The Great Genius of Jewish Literature” published
today, Robert Alter reviewed the works of S.Y. Agnon.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/04/06/sy-agnon-great-genius-jewish-literature/
2017: “J.B. Pritzker announced that he was running for the
Democratic nomination for Governor of Illinois.
2017: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of
“When Do We Eat, “a Pesach themed film
2017: The Maimonides Friendship Award Ceremony is
scheduled to be the highlight of the final night of the 20th New
York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.
2017: In NYC, The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a
presentation by Alessio Assonitis,
Franesco Benelli and Lorenzo Vigotti on “Reconstructing the Ghetto in
Florence.”
2018(21st of Nisan, 5778: Seventh Day of
Pesach; for Reform and in Israel, last day of the holiday.
2018: An exhibition of “the Urban Impressionism of
Lawrence Kushner,” is scheduled to open today in the Isaacs Gallery at the
Osher Marin JCC in San Rafael.
2018: During today’s “violent protest in the Gaza Strip”
which the Defense Minister described as “a terrorist march, a man, who it was
later claimed was a Palestinian photo-journalist was killed today while flying
a drone above Israeli soldiers.
2018: Today “an additional four women who formerly worked
at Richard Meier’s architecture firm came forward with allegations” of improper
sexual behavior on his part which would eventually lead to his permanent
resignation from the firm.
2018: “Itzkak,” a feature film that “captures the life,
work and heritage to violinists Itzhak Perlman” is scheduled to open at several
U.S. theatres today including The Opera Plaza in San Francisco, the Midtown Art
in Atlanta, GA and the Lagoon in Minneapolis, MN.
2018: The Reuter Center at the Osher Lifelong Learning
Institute in Asheville, NC is scheduled to host a screening of “Rosenwald” this
evening.
2018: In Memphis, TN,
Temple Israel is scheduled to host a special “Tot Shabbat Passover Experience,”
this evening.
2018: The New Israel Fund said today that it has seen a
major boost in donations after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s accusations
that the left-wing NGO pressured Rwanda to refuse to resettle African migrants
whom the Israeli government wants to deport.
2019: In London, Phoenix Cinema is scheduled to host a
screening of “The Keeper.”
http://ukjewishfilm.org/film/the-keeper/
2019: In Washington, D.C., the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum is scheduled to host a lecture by Felicia Farbert, author of Abe vs.
Adolf: The True Story of Holocaust Survivor Abe Peck
2019(1st of Nisan, 5779): Rosh Chodesh Nisan;
Shabbat HaChodesh;
2020: Rabbi Lawrence Kushner of Emanu-El in S.F. is
scheduled to a session via Zoom on “Getting a Head Start on Passover” that
“includes strategies, text exploration and more.”
2020: Today is the scheduled deadline for submitting
proposals for the central exhibition of the 8th International Photography
Festival in Tel Aviv, November 2020.”
https://www.photoisrael.org/opencall/
2020: As part of its Modern Jewish Thought Series, the
Streicker Center is scheduled to host Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson as he delivers
the on-line lecture “The Wisdom of Martin Buber.
2020: Four members of LSJS’s faculty -- Dr Aviva Dautch, Rabbi Dr
Raphael Zarum, Dr Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz and Rabbi Barry Kleinber - are
scheduled to discuss, on-line, The Four Sons, in a debate format in which the
participants will assume the persona of these famous siblings.
https://www.lsjs.ac.uk/four-sons-seder-night-debate-1111.php
2020(12th of Nisan, 5780): On the Hebrew calendar, Yahrzeit of the 32
Jews of Meshed, Persia who were massacred after which “the one hundred
remaining families were forcibly converted to Islam.”
2021: The New England Yachad is scheduled to present
“Torah Talk” online.
2021: S.F.-based Israeli diplomat Matan Zamir and Israeli Covid-19
advisory team member epidemiologist Nadav Davidovitch are scheduled to talk
about Israel’s response to Covid, its leadership and its successes, and the
importance of global collaboration.
2021: As part of the virtual Holocaust and Genocide
Lecture Series, Keene State professor James Walker is scheduled to discuss
“Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing.”
2021: The Stanford Taube Center for Jewish Studies is
scheduled to host a lecture by Professor Moshe Halbertal on the “Jewish Notions
of the Holy.”
2021: JCCSF, Emanu-El, JFCS Holocaust Center and Taube
Center are scheduled to present a free streaming of No Place On Earth, “ the
83-minute 2012 docudrama about 38 Polish Jews who survived WWII by living in
cave followed by panel discussion that
includes the film’s director, a caving expert, a Bay Area relative of
some cave survivors and moderator Shana Penn of Taube Philanthropies.
2021: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a lecture
by Gilad Sharon on his father Ariel Sharon.
2021: The National Council of Jewish Women is scheduled to
host a board meeting in New Orleans.
2021: The Jewish Federation of Cleveland is scheduled to
host “Inside the Play: Whistle: My Mother was Mengele’s Secretary.”
2021: The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at
Salem State University is scheduled to present a Virtual Holocaust Remembrance
Ceremony.
2021: The Lappin Foundation is scheduled to host online “a
presentation by Ambassador Ido Aharoni about the recent Israeli election during
which he “will unpack the election results and explore the ramifications and
opportunities for Israeli society and for the U.S.-Israel relationship.”
2021: Based on reports published yesterday, Prime
Minister, who has just lashed out the legal system because of his prosecution,
is the leading candidate to form a new government which may or may not include
members of The Islamic Movement which Dr. Mordechai Kedar has described as “a
branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
2021: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of
Israel was asked by the president to try to form a new coalition government,
offering a possible path for him to remain in office even as he stands trial on
corruption charges”.(As reported by Isabel Kershner)
2022(5th
of Nisan, 5782): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit
for fifty-four-year-old Amy Barnum, the wife of Joel Barnum with whom
she raised three daughters – Emma, Sasah and Gail – and daughter Jack and Bette
Kozlen of Omaha who was a pillar, in the truest sense of that term, of the
Jewish community in Cedar Rapids and a driving force behind the Traditional
Services at Temple Judah whose untimely passing can
only be described as a tragic loss for all of us.
https://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2017/Apr/Amy-M-Barnum/
2022: The Breman Museum, in partnership with the Southern
Jewish Historical Society (SJHS) and The Temple, is scheduled to present noted
photographer and author Andrew Feiler in the third Janice Rothschild Blumberg
Lecture.
2022: The Eden-Tamir Center is scheduled to host Osana
Yablonsky and her students as they perform a fundraising concert in support of
Ukraine.
2022: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to
present Mark A. Schneegurt author of Anthology of Religious Poetry from the
Mexican Trials of 16th-Century CryptoJews as part of the New Works
Wednesday Program
2022: Jewish Women International (JWI) Advocacy Day
2022: The Illinois Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled
to present another in its online series “Coffee With A Survivor” during which
Ben Goldwater who was living with his family in Brussels and whose father
“joined the Belgian underground” shares his story of survival.
2022: The New York Sephardi Film Festival is scheduled to
host the New York premiere of “Tango Shalom” directed by Gabriel Bologna.
2022: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today in
Kansas City for fifty-one-year-old Brian Thalblum, the brother of Temple
Judah’s Rabbi Todd Thalblum, the brother-in-law of Sabrina Thalblum and the son
of Dr. Harvey and Donna Thalblum.
2023(15th of Nisan, 5783): First Day of Pesach
2023: At Temple Judea, Rabbi Feivel and Cantor Abbie are
scheduled to lead services at Temple Judea making the celebration a family
affair.
2023: Rabbi Andy Bachman is scheduled to
lead a Seder, with music by Lorin Sklamberg of the Klezmatics at Russ and
Daughters Café.
2024: The Sultan Room in Brooklyn is scheduled to host
Kleztronica for “A Time Traveling Purim Afterparty.”
2024 (27th of Adar II, 5785): Parashat Shemini (Eighth)
9:1-11:47 Vayikra (Leviticus)
For more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2024: Agnon House in Jerusalem is scheduled to host another
meeting of joint reading of Agnon's stories, this time called "Misha, King
of Moab" with Ofir Lifshitz, who “will examine Agnon's criticism of the
people of the Jewish community, wonder about the meaning of the name of the
hotel planned by the architect and its significance in relation to the company
described.”
2024:
As April 6th begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 183 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.)
