This Day, April 25, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"l
April 25
693: Opening session of the Sixteenth Council of Toledo which, before its close, would add more regulations that would prove oppressive to the Jews living under the Visigoths. This Visigoth anti-Semitism would provide a major impetus for Jewish support of the Moors when they invaded Spain in the early decades of the next century.
799:
Leo III who during his papacy “introduced public
disputations between Jews and Christians, resulting in forced conversions to
Christianity” was today attacked by relatives of Adir I as he “was making his
way towards the Flaminian Gate” “on the occasion of the procession of the
Greater Litanies…”
1211:
Birthdate of Duke Frederick II the Quarrelsome who granted a privilegium to the Austrian Jews in
1244.
1214:
Birthdate of King Louis IX of France. According to one historian Louis “hated
the Jews so thoroughly that he would not look at them.” Considering the fact that Louis that Louis
financed his Crusade from the wealth he stole from his Jewish subjects, the
fact that he expelled them from his domain and that he burned 12,000 copies of
the Talmud and other Jewish texts, one would have to say that there is more
than just a little credence to this evaluation.
1221(2nd
of Iyar): Baruch ben Samuel, a leading Talmudist and author of religious poems
“who was one of the leading signatories of the Takkanot Shum, a set of decrees
designed to deal with the problems facing Rhineland Jews in the wake of the
Crusades passed away today.
1284:
Sancho IV of Castile, who treated the story of the affair between Rahel la
Fermosa, a Jewish woman from Toledo, and King Alfonso VIII as fact and not
fable, began his reign today.
1284:
Birthdate of King Edward II of England Edward would be the first King of
England since the Norman Conquest, to reign over a Kingdom that had no Jewish
subjects.
1288:
At Troyes, thirteen Jews chosen from among the richer members of the community
were condemned by the Inquisition to perish in the flames because of “the
pretended murder of a Christian child.”
https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11591-normandy#anchor37
1295:
King Sancho IV of Castile who treated the story of the affair between Rahel la
Fermosa, a Jewish woman from Toledo, and King Alfonso VIII as fact and not
fable, began passed away. Among the Jews who served Sancho were the Kabbalist Todros
Abulafia and the physicians of the Ibn Waqar family who were close enough to
the king that they served as witnesses to his last will and testament.
1333:
Coronation of King Casimir III of Poland. From the
Jewish point of Casimir III was seen as a cut above the average ruler. He was
favorably disposed toward Jews. On October 9, 1344, he confirmed the privileges
granted to Jewish Poles in 1264 by Boleslaus V. Under penalty of death, he
prohibited the kidnapping of Jewish children for the purpose of forcible
Christian baptism. He inflicted heavy punishment for the desecration of Jewish
cemeteries. Although Jews were living in Poland earlier, Casimir allowed them
to settle in Poland in great numbers and protected them as king's people.
1342:
Pope Benedict XII during whose Papacy a large number of Jewish communities were
attacked in Bavaria, Austria and Poland and Isaac ben Jacob of Lattes of
Provence wrote “Toledot Yitzhak” which provided a history of his community
passed away today.
1367: Poland's Casimir III "The
Great" expanded the "privileges" of 1334 to include the
Jews in Lesser Poland and Ukraine.
1599: Birthdate of Oliver Cromwell. Most
people remember Cromwell as one of the leaders in the revolt against
Charles I that left the latter a beheaded monarch and the former Lord
Protector. To the Jews, he is the English leader who enabled the Jews to
return to England after three and half centuries of exile. Despite a
great deal of opposition, Cromwell held fast to his commitment to the return of
the Jews. Although they came in secret at first, by 1657, one year before
the death of Cromwell, the Jews of London felt confident enough in their
position to purchase a building to be used as a Synagogue. Cromwell passed away
in September, 1658.
1607:
During the Eighty Years' War, the Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish
fleet at Gibraltar.
The Eighty Years'
War, or Dutch Revolt, was the war of secession between the Netherlands and the
Spanish king that lasted from 1568 to 1648. The war resulted in the Seven
United Provinces being recognized as an independent state. The United Provinces
of the Netherlands, or the Dutch Republic, became a world power for a time
through its merchant shipping and experienced a period of economic, scientific
and cultural growth.
The region now known
as Belgium and Luxembourg also became established as the Southern Netherlands,
part of the Seventeen Provinces that remained under royal Habsburg rule. The Spanish were Catholics. The Dutch were Protestants. More importantly, the Protestant Dutch were
willing to provide a safe haven for the Jews.
In fact, the early Jewish community in the Netherlands was dominated by
Sephardic Jews whose families had been driven out of Catholic Spain. It was this Dutch victory over the Spanish
that would mean that New Amsterdam would be Protestant and would be a haven for
the first Jewish community in what would become the United States.
1621 Birthdate of Roger Boyle, the 1st
Early of Orrery, the Anglo-Irish dramistis who works included “Herod The Great”
and “Tryphon” which “enacted the story of the pretender to the throne of Syria
in the 2nd century BC as related by Josephus in History of the Jews and
in the First Book of Maccabees passed away today.
1734:
Jacob de Beer was employed by the Dutch East India Company.
1744: Birthdate
of German native Juettle Kahn the daughter of David Kahn, and husband of Aron
Loeb Regensburger and the mother of Sara, Monathan, Esther and Madel
Regegensburger all of whom passed away in Jebenhausen, Germany.
1758(17th
of Nisan, 5518): Third Day of Pesach
1770:
Birthdate of Georg Sverdrup the Norwegian who favored a constitutional ban on
Jews living in his country because he “felt that it would be incompatible with
Judaism to deal honestly with Christians, writing that ‘no person of the Jewish
faith may come within Norway's borders, far less reside there.’”
1772(22nd
of Nisan, 5532): Eighth Day of Pesach and Shabbat
1774(14th
of Iyar, 5534): As the Jews living in the 13 colonies observed Pesach Sheni as
loyal subjects of King George III, British forces which had orders to close the
port of Boston were making their way across the Atlantic.
1775: In
Bedford, NY, David Barrack Hays and Esther (Hetty Asher) Hays gave birth to Asher
Hays.
1779(9th
of Iyar, 5539): Isaac Lazarus passed away today in New York.
1780: In
Buchau, Johanna Ullman and Jacob Dreifus gave birth to Moses Jakob Dreifus, the
husband of Regina Maendle with whom he had six children.
1785: in
Newport, RI, Judith Rachel Mears and Moses Isaacks, who were married in
Philadelphia in 1764 gave birth to Jacob Isaacks.
1785:
Birthdate of Meyer Israel Bresselau, a notary by trade who “was a founding
member and chairman of the Hamburg Temple, one of the first Jewish reform
congregations in Germany.
https://www.nli.org.il/en/a-topic/987007500794105171
1786: In
Baltimore, Isaac Abrahams and his wife gave birth to Joseph Abrahams who is not
to be confused with Boston native Joseph Abrahams Jr. who was born in 1800.
1791(21st
of Nisan, 5551): Seventh Day of Pesach
1791:
Birthdate of Abraham Lazarus, the husband of Mary Wilks whom he married in 1809
at London’s Great Synagogue.
1792:
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed
La Marseillaise (French national anthem). One hundred and eighty-one years La
Marseillaise would become part of Jewish liturgy. On Shemini Atzeres,
5734/1973, before the fourth hakafa, the Rebbe stood on the edge of the bima
and began to sing “Ha’aderes vehaemuna” to the tune of the French national
anthem, “La Marseillaise.” Rebbe’s
rendition of “Ha’aderes vehaemuna” to “La Marseillaise,” was related to the
concept of “Napoleon’s March,” when the Alter Rebbe took the theme of victory
from the March.
1794:
Two days after the Vilna Gaon’s 74th birthday, the Great Hetman of
the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Szymon Marcin Kossakowski was hanged as a traitor
of the Commonwealth during the Vilnius Uprising of 1974.
1795:
After nineteen days of imprisonment, German-Jewish author Saul Ascher was
released by authorities in Berlin.
1803:
Wolf Breidenbach, a self-made man who used his wealth and influence in the
cause of Jewish emancipation in Germany, succeeded today in having the Jewish
"Leibzoll" abolished in Isenburg.
The "Leibzoll" was a tax levied on Jews when they entered a
town in which they did not leave or in which the Jews had not been granted
special priviliges.
1804(14th
of Iyar, 5564) Pesach Sheni
1808:
Birthdate of Gustav Weil, the native of Sulzburg who eschewed a career as a
rabbi and instead became one of the leading Orientalists of his time which, in
those days meant a study of what today we call the Middle East including
studies of the world of Islam and their leading prophet.
1810:
Nineteen days after having been arrested, 33 year old Berlin native Saul Ascher
was released by authorities.
1819:
Two days after he had passed away, 56 year old Henry Alexander was buried today
at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1820: Seventy-five-year-old
Patrick Colquhoun the Dumbarton
native and Scottish merchant and statistician according to whom “at the opening
of the 19th century,” “the Jewish population of London amounted to
20,000” who “worshipped at six synagogues” while “various provincial centers
held five or six thousand additional Jews” who worshipped at twenty synagogues”
passed away today.
(Jews
of England 300)
1823:
Birthdate of “German orientalist and biblical scholar” whose works included
commentaries on Genesis published in 1875, Exodus and Leviticus published in
1880 and the “Ascension of Isaiah” published in 1877.
1823:
Birthdate of Abdülmecid I, the Ottoman Sultan under whom Yakir Gueron served as
chief rabbi of Constantinople
1824:
Birthdate of Samuel Mohilwer, the native of Hluboka who became a rabbi and a
supporter of Jewish settlement in Palestine.
1825:
Yenchiel Michael ben Samuel married Hindela bat Eliezer today at the Western
Synagogue.
1829(22nd
of Nisan, 5589): Eighth Day of Pesach and Shabbat; Yizkor is recited for the
first time during the Presidency of Andrew Jackson.
1830: In
London, Rebeca Raphael Medola and Rabbi David Aaron De Sola gave birth to
Elizabeth David De Sola.
1837:
Montague M. Hendricks, the New York born son of Frances and Harmon Hendricks
and his wife Rachel Siexas Nathan gave birth to Mortimer M. Hendricks, the
husband of Jessie Justina Brandly Hendricks.
1838: In
Germany, Deborah Cohen and Solomon Stix gave birth to William Stix, the husband
of Dinah Riche with whom he had nine children.
1840(22nd
of Nisan, 5600): Eighth Day of Pesach and Shabbat
1840:
Birthdate of Caroline Kaiser, who married Alois Kaiser, the cantor of
Baltimore’s Eutaw Place Synagogue while she was living in Vienna where “she was
held of a girls; school.
1845: Today, the Herald of Freedom published an article entitled
"The Jews and the Holy Land" in which Nathanial Peabody Rogers, a leading
abolitionist from New Hampshire "expressed his views of Mordecai Noah's
efforts at Jewish restoration in Palestine." Showing a complete lack of
understanding of Jewish feeling for Palestine, Rogers expressed his opposition
to "any American Jewish effort to rebuild a Jewish Palestine as a
weakening of the struggle for justice and equal rights in the United
States."
1845(18th of Nisan, 5605): Fourth Day of
Pesach
1845(18th of Nisan, 5605): Thirty-one-year-old
Rinah J. Otteolengui, the daughter of Sarah Jacobs and Abraham Ottolengui and
wife of Jacob I. Moses with whom he had two children, Montefiore and William
passed away today in Charleston, SC.
1846(29th of Nisan, 5606): Parashat Shmini
1846(29th of Nisan, 5606): As a prelude to the
Mexican-American War, “a 2,000-man Mexican cavalry detachment attacked a 70-man
U.S. patrol commanded by Captain Seth Thornton, which had been sent into the
contested territory north of the Rio Grande and south of the Nueces River. In
the Thornton Affair, the Mexican cavalry routed the patrol, killing 11 American
soldiers and capturing 52.
1846(29th of Nisan, 5606): Rabbi Judah ben Joshua Heskiel
Bacharach, author of “Nimukei Hagriv and a lineal descendent of Tobias
Bacharach, passed away today
1846: The United Order of True Sisters, the first
independent national women's organization in America, held its first meeting. Organized
at Temple Emanu-El in New York City, the United Order of True Sisters (UOTS) was
conceived as a female counterpart to the male Jewish B'nai B'rith organization
(founded in 1843), but functioning separately, UOTS claims to be the first
independent national women's organization in the United States. Some of the
Order's goals resembled those of earlier Jewish women's mutual aid and
charitable societies. The Sisters sought "refinement of the heart and mind
and moral improvement," and paid regular dues to be used for burial fees
and material aid to members struck by illness or sudden poverty. Unlike earlier
charitable women's organizations, however, the UOTS also had explicitly
political goals. In the words of the group's 1864 constitution, the Order
sought "particularly the development of free, independent and
well-considered action of its members. The women are to expand their
activities, without neglecting their obligations as housekeepers, in such a
manner, that if necessary they can participate in public meetings and
discussions." The structure of the lodge, with secret passwords, degrees
of membership, and closely-guarded rituals, mirrored the organization of men's
fraternal organizations like B'nai B'rith, the Masons, and the Odd Fellows. The
members of UOTS were mostly middle-class German-Jewish women, as evidenced by
the fact that meetings at most lodges were conducted in German until the end of
the First World War. Many members were wives of B'nai B'rith members. The UOTS
provided these women a place to exercise their leadership abilities and develop
a role in the public sphere, without being subject to the authority of men.
Although most probably did not fear material want, the system of mutual aid
provided an unusual degree of security and independence. Initiated under the
leadership of Henriette Bruckman, and founded with just ten other members, the
original lodge counted over 100 members by 1851. In the same year, the UOTS
established a Grand Lodge as an umbrella organization to connect lodges in
different cities and to centralize authority. By the mid-1860s, lodges existed
in Philadelphia, New Haven, and Albany as well as New York. Active in public
life from the beginning, the UOTS established its own newspaper, Der
Vereinsote, in 1884.Today, the UOTS continues to maintain chapters across
the country, although its focus has changed and is no longer identified as an
exclusively Jewish organization. Since 1947, the main activities of the Order
have been raising money for cancer research and providing support to cancer
patients. The most recent chapter was formed in Suffolk County, New York, in
1978.
1846:
“Charles VI” a French grand opera with music composed by Fromental Halevy was
performed at The Hague for the first time.
1847:
In New York, the “Orthodox congregation…composed exclusively of natives of
Holland” which was found on April 14, 1847 and was led by Rabbi Simon C. Noot
today “adopted the name B’nai Israel today.
1848(22nd
of Nisan, 5608): Eighth and final day of Pesach
1848: The new Austrian constitution guaranteed
freedom of the Jewish religion.
1849:
General Joseph
von Radowitz began serving as the chief minister for Frederick William IV “who
declared in the beginning of his reign that he desired to exclude the Jews from
military service, believed strongly in a "Christian" state.”
1850:
Paul Julius Reuter used 40 pigeons to carry stock market prices. Born
Israel Beer Josaphat, Reuter had left his uncle's bank just two years before
to establish what would become one of the world's greatest news gathering
organizations.
1850:
In Gronigen, Ravel Beer Jacobs, the
Dutch born son of Simon Jacob Jacobs and Marianne Abraham Hamming / Hammo
and his wife Frouke Jacobs gave birth to Salomon Levie Jacobs the husband of
Frouke Jacob and the F-father of Stillborn Jacobs; Diena Jacobs; Samuel Jacobs;
Estella Jacobs; Ravel Salomon Levie Jacobs; and Johan Jacobs
1851:
In Hagerstown, MD, Nathan and Isabella Kahn gave birth to Mayer Kahn, the brother
of Solomon Kahn and Rebecca Kahn Affelder.
1851:
In Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, Nathaniel de Rothschild and Charlotte de
Rothschild (née de Rothschild) gave birth to Baron Arthur de Rothschild
yachtsman and philatelist.
1852:
Plymouth, England native Esther Braham and Russian born Joseph Benjamin gave
birth to David Ezekiel Benjamin.
1852: Twenty-one
Reform Jews formed Washington Hebrew Congregation in Washington D.C.
1853: Two days after she had passed away, 77-year-old Ann
(Levy) Lazarus, the wife of Aaron Lazarus was buried today at the “Brompton
(Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1854: In London, Rosetta Abrahams and Moses Joseph Martin
gave birth to Judith Martin.
1859: Construction of the Suez Canal begins. The
construction and operation of the canal became entangled in the European power
politics and imperial conflicts between the French, who built the canal and the
British who wanted to control it. While
serving as Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli bought a controlling interest in
the company that owned the canal. This
“extra-legal” purchase was made possible by money from the House of Rothschild.
1860: In Dayton, OH, Jacob Ach and the former Jeanette
Guttman gave birth to Samuel Ach, the husband of the former Esther Ruth Kahn
who was the head of The Samuel Ach Company of Cincinnati, OH, which included a
Tailor Made Hat Department.
https://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/digital/collection/p16998coll6/id/3457/
1861: In New York City Joseph and Babette Steinhart gave
birth to influential political economist Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman, the
husband of Caroline Beer who earned a B.A. Ph.D. and LL.B from Columbia
University and who
became the head of the faculty of economics and sociology at his alma mater
while authoring numerous works that works were “translated into French, Italian
and Japanese” including The Economic Interpretation of History.
1861:
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Philadelphian William Moss, the son of Joseph
and Julia Moss enlisted for a three month hitch with Company A of the
Seventeenth Regiment. (Lincoln’s initial call had been for ninety-volunteers)
1862:
In London, Colonel George Henry Grey and Harriet Jane Pearson gave birth to Sir
Edward Grey, the British Foreign Minister who expressed his support for “a
homeland for the Jewish people” and after the outbreak of WW I, for the
“emancipation of the Russian Jews.
1864(19th
of Nisan, 5624): Fifth Day of Pesach
1864:
As Jews munched on their matzah, in Arkansas, the Rebs and the Union clashed at
the Battle of Marks’ Mills.
1865:
In, Girait Hungary, Morris and Rosa (Friedlander) Moschcowitz gave birth to
Columbia trained surgeon, Alexis Victor Moschcowitz. the husband of Milly Lowei
who served as Lt. Col. In the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army and a Professor of
Clinical Surgery at Columbia.
1865
Birthdate of Frannie Bernstine who was buried at the Temple Beth-El Cemetery in
Pensacola when she passed away
1867(20th of Nisan, 5627): Sixth Day of Pesach
1867: As Jews munched on their matzah, “Tokyo was opened
for foreign trade” today.
1869(14th of Iyar, 5629): Pesach Sheni
observed for the first time during the Presidency of U.S. Grant.
1875(20th of Nisan, 5635): Sixth Day of Pesach
1876: In Des Moines, IA. “from 1869 until today when the
congregation B’nai Israel was chartered were held only on special occasions
including a Yahrzeits, holidays and fast days such as the ninth day of Av.
1878: Birthdate of Kovno native Lous Luxenberg who in
1891 came to the United States where he served as Mayor of Barnesboro, PA.
1879: In Russia, Abraham Lurie and his wife gave birth to
Michael Lurie, the husband of Johanna Becker and the father of Josep and
Adelaide Lurie,
1880(14th of Iyar, 5640): Pesach Sheni
1880(14th of Iyar, 5640): Joseph Seligman, founder of
Seligman Brothers passed away today in New Orleans.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13403-seligman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Seligman
http://www.fau.edu/library/brody33.htm
1880: In Ostrina, Russia, Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Krensky
gave birth to Harry Krensky who came to the United States at age 13 and who
would return to Russia to facilitate his parents coming to America. Krensky eventually settled in Waterloo, Iowa
where he became a successful merchant.
1880: “The Falashas –Remnants of Jews in Abyssinia”
published today provides a brief history of the Jews of Ethiopia beginning with
the generals who divided the empire created by Alexander the Great.
1880: It was
reported today that a correspondent for the Jewish
Messenger in Jerusalem has described the attempt to develop a Jewish
agricultural movement near Safed has failed.
The farms have been abandoned and the would be-farmers have returned to
live in Safed.
1881: “Journeys in Asia Minor” published today includes a
review of “The Land of Gilead with Excursions in the Lebanon” by Laurence
Oliphant.” According to the review the
book describes Oliphant’s mission to the land ruled by the Ottomans which
included what some saw as “nothing less than” an attempt to begin “a
restoration of the Jews” in Palestine.
1881: A petition signed by 250,000 Germans was
presented to the government requesting the barring of foreign Jews from
admission into Germany. The petition bore no less than two hundred and
fifty-five thousand signatures. This petition marked the opening of modern
German anti-Semitism.
1881:
In what some say marks the start of “modern anti-Semitism” in Germany, “a
petition signed by 250,000 Germans was presented to the government requesting
the barring of foreign Jews from admission to the country
1882
“The Persecuted Russian Jews” published today described a meeting that was held
in Berlin attended by Sir Julian Goldsmid and Dr. Herman Adler from London,
Mortiz Ellinger from the United States and several leading German Jews to
decide the roles that various Jewish communities should play in aiding their
c0-religiionists trying to escape the Czar’s oppression. The Jews of London and Berlin will take care
of raising funds for the efforts. The
Jews in the United States will be in charge of procuring employment for the
immigrants as they arrive in America.
1882:
Tonight, in the Russian town of Kamentz, shops and houses belonging to the Jews
were destroyed by a fire. Losses are
reported to total 500,000 rubles.
1882:
It was reported today that four hundred “Jewish mechanics” who had left Warsaw
for the United Sates were stopped at the border between Russia and Germany
because they did not have passports. Several of them escaped but most of them
are being held by authorities and are waiting for a disposition of their cases.
(The Russians did not want to keep the Jews but they did not want to let them
leave either.)
1883:
In Brooklyn Ceclia and Joseph Bacharach gave birth to Harvard graduate Clarence
Grove Bachrach the Brooklyn Law School trained attorney and partner in the firm
of Bachrach and Bisgyer who was the husband of Grace Baer.
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/10/24/archives/clarence-grover-bachrach.html
1883:
In Duluth, MN, Henry F. and Caroline NIrdlinger Leopold gave birth to
University of Pennsylvania graduate Morton F. Leopold, author of “Lining Up Our
Silent Salesman.”
1884(30th
of Nisan, 5644): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1885:
In Kishineff, Samuel and Sarah Blanck gave birth to Phillip G. Blank who in
1903 came to the United States where he eventually settled in Miami, FL and
opened Blank’s Department Store while raising three children – Minnie, Bernard
and Saul – with his wife, the former Jenny G. Ripper.
1885:
In Cracow, Eva Langer and Jacob Nachman Koplad
gave birth to University of Cincinnati graduate and HUC trained rabbi
Louis Joseph Koplad the husband of Elisa Rheinstrom and starting in 1912 the
spiritual leader of Temple Beth Zion in Buffalo, NY where he was the founder and chairman of the
“Interdenominational Thanksgiving Service and the Chairman of the Buffalo
Jewish Relief Committee while also serving as the director of the Jewish Orphan
Asylum in Rochester, NY and lecturing “on Jewish themes at the University of
Nebraska Summer School.
1885:
In Cracow, Jacob Nachman and Eva (Langer) Kopald, gave birth to University of
Cincinnati graduate and HUC ordained rabbi, Louis Joseph Kopald the husband of
Elsa Rheinstrom who began his career at Temple Israel in Stockton, CA before
moving on to Temple Beth Zion in 1912 where he also participated in numerous
Buffalo, NY civic organizations including the Mayor’s soldier’s Welcome
Committee and the Buffalo Jewish Relief Committee.
1886:
Sigmund Freud opened his practice at Rathausstrasse 7, Vienna.
1886:
Birthdate of Lithuanian native, “author and artist” Samuel H. Siegel who in
1904 came to the United States where he settled in New Jersey, served as secretary
of the “Yiddish Workmen’s Circle and editor of The Banner.”
http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=creators/creator&id=13758
https://archives.cjh.org/agents/families/13757
1887(1st
of Iyar, 5647): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1888(14th
of Iyar, 5648): Pesach Sheni observed for the last time during the Presidency
of Grover Cleveland.
1889:
The coroner began an investigation into the death of a Jewish youngster named
Tobias Hipper who had reportedly been killed by some other boys in his
neighborhood.
1890:
It was reported today that Jews in Oregon are expected to support the Democrats
because the Republican candidate had worked to unseat Joseph Simon as Chairman
of the State Central Committee. Simon
was the law partner of Solomon Hirsch who was appointed as U.S. Minister to
Turkey by President Harrison.
1890:
The first meeting of the working girls’ section of the Beth-El Society of
Personal Service which would be known as the Pansy Club was held today.
1891:
Today, Fannie Ingber, the mother of cartoonist William Erwin “Will” Eisner, was
born on a ship born bound for the United States.
1892:
It was reported today that D. Appleton & Co will be publishing The Jew
at Home by Joseph Pennell based on the author’s first hand observations of
life the Jews living in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
1893:
It was reported today that gentiles in Dennisville, NJ are organizing “a law-and-order
society for the purpose of making the Jews from Woodbine, the Baron Hirsch
colony, show proper respect for Sunday.” The people of Woodbine “trail their
carts and wagons through Dennisville” which reportedly upset the villagers who
are all “interested in church and temperance work.”
1894(19th
of Nisan, 5654): Fifth Day of Pesach1894: In St. Louis, MO, Julius and Rose
(Schucat Baron gave birth St. Louis University and Washington University
trained attorney David Baron, the Vice President of the Y.M. and Y.H. and
member of the Jewish Orphan Home Men’s Club who was the husband of Mollie
Marshak.
1894:
“The Samaritan Pentateuch” published today described the text from 1232 which
is in the possession of the Lenox Library.
It contains thirty chapters of the Book of Genesis which are not found
in the copies of the Samaritan Pentateuch in the possession of the British
Library or the Vatican Library. The text is written in Hebrew and contains the
Samaritan version of the Five Books of Moses.
1895:
“Boston's German-Jewish population establishes the Federation of Jewish
Charities of Boston to help the Russian-Jewish immigrants adjust to life in
America. Member organizations include the United Hebrew Benevolent Society, the
Hebrew Ladies Sewing Society, the Leopold Morse Home for the Aged and Infirm
Hebrews and Orphanage, the Free Employment Bureau, and the Charitable Burial
Association. Boston's Jewish population is estimated at 20,000, including
14,000 new immigrants.”
1895:
Three days after she passed away, 34-year-old Constance Marion Salamon, “the
second daughter of Nahum Salamon and Amelia Bertram was buried today at the
“Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1896:
The Reverend
William H. Hechler brought a very nervous Theodor Herzl to a private audience
with the Grand Duke, Friedrich I of Baden, the uncle of Kaiser Wilhelm II, It
was the first time that Herzl was able to share his vision of Political Zionism
and his solution to the “Jewish Problem” with German royalty. The Grand Duke
was very taken with Hechler’s eschatological predictions and with Herzl’s
pragmatic solution to the Jewish problem through restoration of the Jews to
Palestine. The Grand Duke became a lifelong advocate of Herzl and the Zionist
cause. He used his office and his relationship with his nephew…to support Herzl
and Zionism. Hechler was an English clergyman who fought against anti-Semitism
and was an early and ardent supporter of Zionism in general and Herzl in
particular.
1896:
Gustave May, a French born Jew who had taken refuge in the United States after
the Franco-Prussian War was buried today.
May considered himself a “freethinker” and did not want a religious funeral. His friend Columbia Professor Adolph Cohn
delivered a eulogy in French.
1896:
Yesterday’s planned dedication of a new synagogue in Lancaster, PA did not take
place because of an explosion caused by a gas leak. Isaac Grootfield, the “shamas” was injured
when struck by flying timbers.
1897:
Rabbi Silverman of Temple Emanu-El will officiate at the funeral of Simon
Alexander Wolf the long-time writer for The
Hebrew Journal.
1897:
Professor Felix Adler delivered an address on “The Debt of the American People
to Ulysses S. Grant” at Carnegie Hall today.
1897:
It is estimated that the world’s Jewish population totals 7 million souls.
1897:
In Boston, the founding of the Utopian Club whose members included Isaac H.
Peyser, Lew E. Goldman and Arnold Hartman.
1897:
The annual meeting of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum took placed at
the asylum’s building at 136th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Emanuel Lehman who had recently donated
$100,000 to the asylum was re-elected as President.
1898:
The newly elected officers of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society
are: Emmanuel Lehman, President; Henry Rice, Vice President; Abraham Wolff,
Treasurer and Meyer Stern, Secretary.
Dr. Herman Baar continues to serve as the superintendent.
1898(3rd
of Iyar, 5658): Michael Wromser, the son of a poor butcher from Lorraine,
passed away in Phoenix, Arizona, where he was the sole possessor of an
agricultural empire worth a quarter of a million dollars.
1899:
The annual meeting of the Society for the Aid of Jewish Prisoners was held
tonight at Temple Emanu-El.
1899:
Birthdate of Aversa, Italy native Sal B. Hoffman, the president of the
Upholsters International Union who used $2,500,000 of the union’s welfare-fund
to build the 634-acre community of Salhaven in Jupiter, FL which was a
retirement community designed to house 500 union members and their families and
predicted to cost $5,000,000 upon completion. The plans were to build 240
cottages that would be air-conditioned and completely furnished. There
would
also be 10 apartment lodges.
https://jupiter.fl.us/DocumentCenter/View/316/SALHAVEN?bidId=
1900: Birthdate of Wolfgang Ernst
Pauli. The Austrian born physicist won
the Nobel Prize in 1945. Pauli shows up
on lists of Jewish scientists. In
reality, his father was born Jewish, and his maternal grandfather was
Jewish. But like so many German and
Jewish intellectuals of the time, conversion had taken him out of the House of
Israel and only the blood laws of Hitler could have “brought him back.”
1900: The 27th
Convention of the District Grand Lodge No. 7 of B’nai Birth ended today in New
Orleans.
1900: A two-day crisis began in the Jewish Colonial
Bank. Herzl called a meeting of the directors, and had the bank affairs
reviewed by an accountant and a bank expert.
1901: Today, “Marcus W. Marks, a member of the
National Clothiers’ Association proposed a plan involving the formation of an
organization who members would not represent a particular branch of merchant
trade, but all branches.”
1902: The New York Times reported that Rabbi
Morris Schreiber died while being taken to Bellevue Hospital after suffering an
apparent heart attack when he was leaving the East Tenth Street Ferry House.
Rabbi Schreiber whose congregation was located on Bushwick Avenue was on his
way to eat a Passover meal with relatives living in Manhattan.
1902: The first step toward the creation of a
permanent endowment fund for the United Hebrew Charities was taken today by
William Guggenheim, a member of the Board of Directors, when he sent to the
President of the organization. Henry Rice, a check for $50,000 for that purpose
and a promise of $50,000 more upon the fulfillment of certain specified
conditions.
1903: Herzl returns to Paris as he continues to search for
support for a Jewish home with the leaders of European government and
business. His approach would stand in
stark contrast with the methods of the leaders of the Second Aliyah.
1903:
A report from St. Petersburg, that was published in spite of the censor, said
that “the anti-Jewish riots in Kishinev” were the product of “a well-laid out
plan for the general massacre on the Jews on the day following the Russian
Easter” where “a mob led by the priests” crying “kill the Jews” – something
they did so well that 120 were murdered and 500 injured including “babes who
were literally torn to pieces by the frenzied, blood-thirsty mob.
1904:
A mass meeting at Carnegie Hall the attendees who were “concerned with the
plight of working children overwhelmingly supported the formation of the
National Child Labor Committee one of the founding members of which was Felix
Adler.
1904:
Birthdate of Polish born labor Zionist and Yiddish author Shmuel Perlmuter who
settled at Bat Yam.
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2018/07/shmuel-perlmuter.html
1905(20th
of Nisan, 5665): Sixth Day of Pesach
1905:
In Providence, Rhode Island, James Edward Ingham and Elizabeth Whelan gave
birth to Martha Ingham Dickie who as Martha Sharp acted to save those at risk
from Hitler and the Nazis for which she was honored by Israel as one of the
righteous among the nations.
http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/4057.shtml
1905:
In New York, Alfred Wolf Mack, the Cincinnati born son of Max and Eleanor Mack,
and his wife Frieda Theresa Mack gave birth to Frederick M. Mack, the brother
of Harry Ranger Mack.
1906(20th
of Nisan, 5667): Sixth Day of Pesach.
1906(20th
of Nisan, 5667): On her 66th birthday Caroline Kaiser, the wife of
Alois Kasier, the “cantor at the Eutaw Place Synagogue” who she had married
while living in Vienna passed away today in Baltimore ather which she was
buried at the Oheb Shalom Cemetery.
1906(20th
of Nisan,5667): German native Caroline Meyer Steppacher, the wife of Wolf
Steppacher whom she married in 1851 and with whom she had four children –
Marcus, Walter, Emanuel and Oscar – passed away today after which she buried at
the Mount Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia.
1906:
Birthdate of Joel Brand who gained fame for his role in negotiations with Adolf
Eichmann in an attempt to save the Jews of Hungary.
1907:
Birthdate of Helen Misener the Greenwich (UK) daughter of a Polish born Jew
whose acting career included appearing in “A Night to Remember” and starring in
a 1939 staging of “Night Must Fall” which produced “for the benefit of
deportees on the German-Polish border” passed away today.
1907:
Birthdate of Estonia native Israel Shapiro who gained fame as Samuel H.
Shapiro, the Lt. Gov. of Illinois who became the second Jewish governor of “the
Land of Lincoln” when the incumbent resigned to become a federal judge.
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1968/05/12/page/242/article/mr-sam-of-illinois
1908(24th
of Nisan, 5668): Parashat Achrei Mot
1908:
It was reported today that the concert to be given tomorrow night at the
Metropolitan Opera is a benefit designed to help raise $25,000 for the United
Hebrew Charities.
1908:
Birthdate of Edward R. Murrow. Most of
the world remembers him as Ed Murrow, the voice of CBS News. But before joining
CBS, Murrow served as Assistant Secretary of the Emergency Committee in Aid of
Displaced Foreign Scholars, which helped prominent German scholars most of whom
were Jews deal with the effects of the Nazi rise to power. When the committee issued its first report in
1934, Murrow compared the conditions with those reminiscent of “the expulsion
of the Jews from Spain in 1492.”
1908:
In Birmingham, AL, Temple Beth El adopted its first constitution today which “definitely
asserts that the congregation shall be associate with the Union of Orthodox
Congregations.
1908:
Joseph Dulberg, a leader of the Manchester Jewish Community, writes to Winston
Churchill expressing sympathy for Churchill’s failure to win re-election and
reiterating the strong support that Jews showed for him during the election.
1909:
“Abraham Abraham, a trustee of the Baron de Hirsch Fund, was the principal
speaker” this “afternoon at the dedication serves of the new gymnasium of the
Young Men’s Hebrew Association in Brooklyn.”
1910:
In Philadelphia, “physician Charles S. Hirsch and Fannie Wittenberg” gave birth
to the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art trained “award winning painter,
illustrator, muralist and teacher” Joseph Hirsch, the husband of Ruth Schindler
with whom he had two sons Charles and Paul and Genevieve Baucheron with whom he
had one son Frederic and the creator of the famous “Till We Meet Again” WW II
war bond poster who fell afoul of the 1950’s Red Scare championed by such
Republican notables and Joe McCarthy.
https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/art/artists/the-art-of-joseph-hirsch.html
1910:
“Rabbi in Christian Pulpit” published today described “arrangements for the
annual Jewish-Christian Union Services in Pittsburgh” which will include Rabbi
J. Leonard Levy of Levy of Rodeph Shalom Congregation preaching at St. Mark’s
on the topic of “A New Gospel.”
1911:
Cornerstones were laid for new buildings at Hebrew Union College.
1911: Birthdate of Jack Ruby, the man who killed
presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby was Jewish. Oswald was not.
1911:
As part of “The Case of Mendel Bellis,” two medical professors from Kiev
University issued a second autopsy of the thirteen year old boy who had been
killed in March of 1911. The report
“stated the victim had almost been completely drained of blood…” and intimated
that a ritual murder had been committed.
The autopsy was a fraud. The two
medical men had received a 4,000-ruble bribe from the Russian Ministry of
Justice.
1912:
“A delegation of Jewish rabbis from New York City obtained a hearing before the
House Military Committee today to speak in favor of the Sulzer bill which seeks
to increase the number of Chaplains in the army” because they hope that the
increase will lead to the appointment of at least one Jewish chaplain.
1912:
In Berlin, today, the Central German-Jewish Relief League has “private advices”
stating that 10,000 Jews in Fez, Morocco are homeless and that the entire
Jewish quarter of Fez “has been plundered, demolished and partially burned.”
1913(18th
of Nisan, 5673): Fourth Day of Pesach
1913:
J. Rosenberg, the President of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of
Jacksonville, FL, wrote to the Editor of the Reform Advocate in Chicago, asking
him to inform the Jews of that city his organization which was founded three
years ago has purchased a lot and raised $8,000 on which they will build “a
substantial and creditable building” to use in their cause of perpetuating “the
cause of Judaism.”
1914:
In the UK, Isidore Abrahams, who would acquire Aquascutum, “the raincoat
manufacturer and retailer” and his wife gave birth to Sir Charles Myer Abrahams
who served as Vice President of Nightingale House of the Home for the Jewish
Aged and Vice President of the British Paraplegic Sports Federation.
1914:
The Second Annual Convention of the Jewish National Workers Alliance of America
continued to meet for a fourth day in Philadelphia, PA
1914:
Birthdate of screenwriter Arnold Manoff whose career was ruined by the infamous
“blacklist.”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9401EFD9143CE733A25751C1A9649C946491D6CF
1915: The Second Annual Convention of the Mizrahi of
America continued for a fourth day in New York City.
1915:
Birthdate of Mortimer Weisinger, the American magazine and comic book editor
who edited the Superman series and helped create such action heroes as Aquaman
and Green Arrow
1915:
The seventh semi-annual Assembly of the Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis opened
today in New York City.
1915:
The Anglo-French invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula began. Almost 30,000
men landed on the beach to fight the Turks for this strategic
position. Fighting with the British was a Jewish force known as the
Zionist Mule Corp. The Zion Mule Corps was a supply unit that carried
material from the beach up to the front lines.
The work was not glorious. The
founders of the corps had hoped to have a Jewish fighting force. That would come later. In the meantime, this was the first military
unit composed of Jews who fought as Jews since the second century of the common
ear. Unbeknownst to the Jews serving with the Allies, the Turkish army
had Jews fighting in Gallipoli at the same time.
1916(22nd
of Nisan, 5676): Eighth Day of Pesach
1916:
On the day after the end of Pesach for Reform Jews the Sinai Social center
offered a much demanded course in “First Aide to the Injured.”
1917:
“A cablegram was received in New York” today “from the Central Committee of the
Bund at Petrograd, one of the influential revolutionary bodies composed of
Jews, stating unqualified that the bund was opposed to a separate peace with
Germany.”
1917:
At Minsk, Russia, during the a great-army congress attended by representatives
of the Council of Workmen and Soldier Deputies and the Duma Executive
Committee, one of the leaders so of the Jewish question, “It is the shame of
the twentieth century to have to raise this subject. I as a Russian am insulted when I hear it
said, ‘Shut out the Jews from the universities or they will take all the first
places in science.’ The Jews question was one of the chief tools of the
autocracy. Russia must be rid of this
nightmare.”
1918:
Lieutenant General Sir John Monash, the son of Jewish immigrants and the
ranking member of the Australian Army serving on the Western Front, described
today’s recapture of the town of Villers-Bretonneux as the turning point of the
Great War.
1918:
Three days after she had passed away, 59 year old Constance (Jessel) Stern, the
daughter of Sir George Jessel and Amelia Moses and the wife of Sir Edward David
Stern was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1918:
“With the première of his opera Die Gezeichneten, in Frankfurt today, Franz
Schreker moved to the front ranks of contemporary opera composers.
1919:
Formation of Ha-Shomer ha-Za’ir
1919:
The funeral of Bertha M. Kahn, the wife of Max R. Kahn and the mother of Ludwig
and Mrs. Anna Schiller is scheduled to take place today in Chicago.
1919:
Thirty-one-year-old Cornell University educated
biochemist Dr. Aaron Bodansky, the Ukrainian born son of Pinchus and Chava
(Geiro) Bodansky” who worked at the Research Laboratories of Upjohn in
Kalamazoo while writing “numerous scientific papers on enzymes and hormones”
before going on to “enzymes and hormones, today married Marie Syrkin at Ithaca,
NY.
1919:
The funeral of Maier Neumann, the 74-year-old husband of Sera Neuman and the
father of Fannie M. Neuman is scheduled to take place today followed by “interment
at Mount Maariv.”
1920:
At the San Remo Conference, the Supreme Allied Council assigns mandates for
Mesopotamia and Palestine to Britain, and Syria and Lebanon to France. The
Zionists scored a triumph since, when awarding the mandate to the British it
was stated that “the mandatory would be responsible for putting into effect the
declaration originally made on the 8th November 1917 by the British
government.” In other words, “the
Blafour Declaration was affirmed in an international treaty.
1920:
As the San Remo Conference comes to an end, “Jewish and Arab delegations dined
together in the Hotel Royal, toasting each other as the British looked on
benevolently at the next table.” Enmity
between Zionists and Arabs was neither inevitable nor “present at the
creation.”
1920:
“The Paris Peace conference formally confirmed the allocation of the Middle
East’s Arab rectangle to Britain and France. The Allies’ final boundaries for
their respective mandates in Palestine and Syria did not produce the viable
frontiers the Zionists had anticipated for their National Home.”
1921(17th
of Nisan, 5681): Third Day of Pesach
1921:
The Daily Express expressed its displeasure with the budget introduced in the
House of Commons by Austen Chamberlain, for a number of reasons including the
fact that requires taxpayers to pay “2 pence on the pound to supply British
bayonets to the Jewish republic,”
which can assume is the paper’s term for
Palestine.
1922(27th
of Nisan 5684): Less than a month from his 66th birthday, Austrian
born American rabbi Leopold Zinsler who had led the “Bohemian Congregation in
Newark” and Share Zedek (the Old Henry Street Congregation) before moving to
“Congregation Mr. Sinai Anshe Emeth” passed away today.
1923(9th
of Iyar, 5683): Seventy-four-year-old Elise Lehmann passed away today after
which she was interred at the Jewish Cemetery in Morgan City, LA.
1923:
In Toronto Jacob Herman and Kate Weinberg gave birth to Mildred Hayden who
gained fame as ballerina Melissa Hayden.
1924(21st
of Nisan, 5684): Seventh Day of Pesach
1924:
“It was announced from the offices of Nathan Straus tonight that he is
recuperating from the effects of a slight operation performed at his residence
on 27 West 72nd Street.
1925(1st
of Iyar, 5684): Parashat Tazria-Metzora; Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1925:
“Professor Philip M. Brown of Princeton today corrected widely published
reports that he had attacked the patriotism of Jews in a speech yesterday at a
meeting here of the American Society of International Law.” Professor Brown had
described Jews “internationalists” who “as whole did not owe allegiance to any
land.”
1926:
The first regular meeting of the recently created Department of Industrial
Economics of the National Civic Federation was held at the Park Avenue
Hotel. Speakers for the evening included
Louis D. Brandeis of the National Civic Federation and Samuel Gompers,
President of the American Federation of Labor.
As the last speaker of the evening, Gompers “reviewed the blessings
which had come to the individual through organized labor and expressed the
opinion that the beneficiaries would hardly agree to the proposition that
association curtailed their liberty. He
said that labor could not depend upon the courts for protection citing the
recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in holding the
ten-hour day for bakers unconstitutional.
‘I suppose bakers will have to go back to the eleven and twelve hour and
even longer day. If they do, I will urge
them to strike.’”
1926:
A campaign to raise six million dollars led by the Mrs. Jacob H. Schiff, the
Honorary Chairman of the Women’s Division of the United Jewish Campaign of New
York was scheduled to begin today.
1926:
The national conference of the American Hebrew Christian Alliance which will be
attended Sir Leon Levison, President of the International Hebrew Christian
Alliance is scheduled to open today in Buffalo, NY.
1927:
Seventeen-year-old Eddie Wolfe, the Memphis born welterweight fought his first
professional fight today.
1927:
Members of Temple Emanu-El are scheduled to meet today to discuss the possible
merger with Temple Beth-El in New York.
1928:
“The Asbury Park Hospital, which closed a month ago because of financial
difficulties, was purchased today by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and the
Young Men’s Hebrew School for used as a Jewish community center.
1928:
In New York, “Irwin S. Chanin, the architect and builder after whom the Irwin
Chanin School of Architecture at Cooper Union was named” and his wife gave birth
to Albright College and Columbia University graduate Doris Chanin Freedman, the
wife of Alan J. Freedman with whom she had three children – Karen, Nina and Susan
– and the chairman of the Public Art Fund Inc. and a cultural affairs and
landmarks preservation activist in New York City” who “was the first director
of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.” (As reported by Paul
Goldberger)
https://www.centralparknyc.org/locations/doris-c-freedman-plaza
1929(15th
of Nisan, 5689): Last Pesach of the Roaring Twenties.
1929:
“An appeal to the Jews of New York to celebrate Passover by increasing their
cooperation in the rebuilding of Palestine as the Jewish national
homeland…issued by Morris Rothenberg” was read today in several synagogues.
1930:
The Soviet Union establishes the Gulag administration to coordinate the network
of penal labor camps for criminals and political prisoners many of whom were
Zionists or Jews who fell afoul of the Stalinist regime such as the members of
the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.
1930:
“Around The Corner” “a comedy-drama written Jo Swerling, produced by Harry Cohn
and starring George Sydney as “Kaplan” was released today in the United States.
1930: In New York, Jean (née Gerson), a piano
player for dance classes, and David Mazursky, a laborer gave birth to Irwin
Mazursky who gained fame as Paul Mazursky, director of “Down and Out in Beverly
Hills.”
1931(8th
of Iyar, 5691): Parashat Achre Mot – Kedoshim
1931:
“Support toward the upbuilding of Palestine by all Jews, including
anti-Zionists, we urged today by Dr. Julian Morgenstern, the non-Zionist leader
and president of the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati.”
1931:
“A review of the medical and sanitary work of the American Joint Distribution
Committee, which is conducting a campaign to raise $2,500,000 from the Jews of
American to carry on its work of rehabilitating the suffering Jews of central
and Eastern Europe was made public today by Rabbi Jonah B, Wise, the
committee’s national chairman.”
1932(19th
of Nisan, 5692): Fifth Day of Pesach
1932: Rose Franken's "Another Language",
premiered in New York City.
1933(29th of Nisan, 5693): Forty-one-year-old
Pauline S. Horkeimer Lazaron, the daughter of Louis and Clementina Rosenberg
Horkheimer, the wife of Rabbi Morris Samuel Lazaron and the mother of Morris,
Harold and Clementine Lazaron passed away today after which she was buried in
the Baltimore Hebrew Cemetery in Baltimore, MD.
1933: The Law against the Overcrowding of German
Schools and Institutions of Higher Learning set a Jewish quota of 1.5 percent
of high-school and university enrollment and stipulated a limit of 5-percent
Jewish enrollment in any single school. Because a compulsory education law was
in effect, Jewish enrollment in primary schools was not limited for the time
being. However, growing numbers of Jews voluntarily moved to purely Jewish
settings by 1938, when they were totally barred from general institutions. In
autumn 1941, the Jewish schools were closed by administrative order.
Ironically, extra-legal discrimination against Jews seeking admission to
colleges and universities existed in the United States at this time. These quotas would hang on until the late
1960’s.
1933: Birthdate of songwriter Jerry Leiber who
teamed with Mike Stoeller, “another Jewish white boy” who also loved Jazz and
Boogie Woogie to create some of the greatest songs of the early days of Rock
and Roll including Hound Dog, Love Potion #9, On Broadway and most of the hits recorded by the Coasters. If you recognize these classics, you are
almost as old as the author and if you are scratching your because you never
heard them, then you are young, very young and should be home practicing the
Four Questions.
1934:
“Princess Charming” a comedy produced by Michael Balcon and filmed by
cinematographer Mutz Greenbaum was released today in the United Kingdom.
1934:
Sixty-six-year-old Prussian Army officer and American and German journalist
Eduard Golbeck, the husband of Lina Abarbanell, the German soprano who was a
descendent of Sephardic Jews from Bulgaria passed away today.
1935:
Birthdate of Edna Shavit the “Emeritus Professor in the Drama department in the
University of Tel Aviv, and Ha'Levi theatre prize winner for the year 2006.”
1936(3rd
of Iyar, 5696): Parashat Shmini
1936:
As Arab violence in Palestine continued a British policeman was injured when
Arab demonstrators stoned government officers at Tulkarem.
1936:
The policed arrested three Arabs after “a fire in the Jewish quarter of the Old
City of Jerusalem tonight destroyed one of the largest wholesale groceries in
the city” causing damaged “estimated at $50,000.”
1936:
The Supreme Arab Executive Committee led by the President, Mufti Haj Amin el
Husseini “decided that all Arabs in Palestine would continue their strikes
until Jewish immigration had been prohibited and the sale of land to Jews had
been stopped.”
1936:
Joseph C. Hyman, the secretary of the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee said today that “the salvage of the Jewish community in Germany
depends increasingly on American aid” which will come to a total of two million
dollars if the committee is able to reach its goal of raising $3,500,000.
1936:
In New Haven, CT, Felix M. Warburg told a meeting of the New England Conference
of Jewish Communal Agencies meeting at Temple Mishkan Israel, that I “improved
business conditions in the United States” should help Jews to give generously
to the relief program designed to aid the suffering Jews in Germany, Russia and
Poland.
1936:
Following a mass meeting this morning at Columbus Circle in New York, “a
resolution protesting treatment of Jewish people and ‘bloody pogroms’ in Poland
was presented’ this afternoon “ to an attaché of the Polish Consulate by the a
delegation representing the Peoples Committee Against Polish Pogroms.”
1936:
“The Spokesman, a Louisville, KY, Jewish newspaper today quoted Alfred P. Sloan
Jr., president of General Motors as saying ‘under no circumstances will I
further, knowingly, support The Sentinels of the Republic’” an organization
recently identified by a Senate investigating committee as being anti-Semitic.
1937:
“Dr. Samuel Buchler, founder of the Jewish Court of Arbitration, said tonight
at a meeting celebrating the court's sixteenth anniversary that since the
court's inception it had settled some 8,000 cases.”
1937:
Benjamin Winter announced today that “Jeremiah T. Mahoney, New York Supreme
Court Justice, president of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States and
leader of the forces which opposed American participation in the 1936 Olympic
Games in Germany has accepted the chairmanship of the current one million
campaign of the American Committee Appeal for the Jews in Poland” of which
Professor Albert Einstein is the honorary chairman. (Editor’s note – for the revisionist in
Poland, this entry serves as a graphic reminder of the anti-Semitism that had
swept Poland during the 1930’s.)
1938:
Associate Justice Louis Brandeis writes the majority opinion in the landmark
case Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins.
Associate Justice Benjamin Cardozo joins the majority in the 7 to 2 decision.
1938:
“An exhibition and sale of paintings by contemporary American artists…for the
benefit of the Joint Distribution Committee to aid needy Jews overseas” is
scheduled to open today at the Studio Gallery at 730 Fifth Avenue.
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that Arab terrorist gangs murdered two Arabs who
refused to hand over money and valuables in a village near Tulkarm.
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that there were isolated shooting incidents in
Jerusalem and Haifa.
1938: In the Bronx, Judith Solo and Irving Feldman, “the
President of a drug company gave birth to Syracuse graduate and NYU trained
attorney, Ira Ronald Feldman, the husband of Frayda Futterman with whom he had
three children – Julie, Marak and Andy- and owner pf the Ronald Feldman Gallery
in Soho which thanks to his efforts was for “nearly 50 years” known as one of New York’s most consistently political,
forward-looking art galleries (As reported by Roberta Smith)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/02/arts/ronald-feldman-dead.html
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that Arturo Toscanini, the famous conductor who had
just given a series of concerts all over the country, and Bronislav Huberman,
the great violinist and the founder of the Palestine Symphonic Orchestra, were
granted the freedom of Tel Aviv.
1939: Birthdate of Dr Yaacov Maor, the native of
Lithuania and son Ella and Yehezckiel who at the age of the 29 passed away when
the Dakar was lost on January 25, 1968.
1939: In Harbin, China, Boris Skidelsky, a Russian
Jewish British subject and his Christian wife gave birth to award winning
economic historian and lecturer, Robert Jacob Skidelsky, the future Baron
Skidelksy and author of the definitive work on British economist John Maynard
Kenyes.
1939: In Chicago Shirley Mazur Garrison and Henry
Garrison gave birth to cartoonist Niocle Hollander.
http://jwa.org/people/hollander-nicole
1940(17th
of Nisan, 5700): Third Day of Pesach
1940:
It was reported today that in his Passover address “Governor Herbert H. Lehman…expressed
the conviction that the ideals of democracy and of religious freedom would
triumph over the Forces of dictatorship.”
1940:
“Budapest Hampers Jews” published today described the announcement by the municipality
of Budyapest “that henceforth Jews would be able to obtain the licenses granted
by city authorities” which includes the permits for opening shops and markets
as well as working as taxi drivers and filling-station operators.
1941:
“Ziegfeld Girl,” a musical produced by Pandro S. Berman and filmed by
cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was released today in the United States.
1941:
“During a White House press conference” President Roosevelt criticized Charles
Lindbergh, the popular American hero and a leader of the Isolationists for his
opposition to the Lend-Lease Bill calling him “a defeatist and appeaser.”
1941:
“The Invisible Ghost,” a horror film directed by Joseph H. Lewis and produced
by Sam Katzman was released today in the United States.
1942:
Today “Berlin
radio announced that French general Henri Giraud” who was supposedly pro-Ally”
but who, unbeknownst to most, sought to limit the civil rights of Jews in
Algeria and post-war France, had escaped from Königstein Fortress
1943(20th
of Nisan, 5703): Sixth Day of Pesach
1943:
As the Warsaw Uprising raged on, Germans continued their invasion of the ghetto
by lighting fires to buildings. Escaping women and children were shot to
death and burned. Thus, the ancient Polish Jewish Community began its
final descent from greatness into oblivion.
As
fires set by Germans consume the Warsaw Ghetto, a German Jew named Hoch
desperately leaps from a fourth-floor window, breaking both arms and his spine.
1943:
Birthdate of New York City native and Hunter and Columbia educated billionaire
and CEO of Omega Advisors Leon “Lee” Cooperman the father of Wayne and Michael
Cooperman and the husband of Toby Cooperman with whom he signed the “Giving
Pledge” in 2010 which is just of the many philanthropic activities in which he
and the Leon and Toby Cooperman Family Foundation participate.
https://www.forbes.com/profile/leon-g-cooperman/#2b79998318f7
1943: Composer Ezra Laderman was inducted into the U.S. Army where
he served as a radio operator with the 69th Infantry Division during World War
II. In describing his wartime experiences Laderman wrote "we were in
Caversham, England poised to enter the war. It was here that I learned that my
brother Jack had been shot down and killed in Germany. The Battle of the Bulge,
crossing the Rhine at Remagen, liberating Leipzig, meeting the Russians at Torgau
on the bank of the Elbe were the points in this constellation that was filled
with tension and waiting, victory and grief. We became aware of the horror, and
what we now call the 'holocaust,' while freeing Leipzig." During the weeks
after the war was over, Laderman composed his Leipzig Symphony. This work brought him recognition within the
army, and subsequently he was assigned as orchestrator of the GI Symphony
Orchestra.
1944: At
tonight’s “dinner of the food division of the United Jewish Appeal of Greater
of New York, Dr. Israel Goldstein, the president of the ZOA who had just
returned from England, said that “Great Britain will meet its obligations to
the Jewish people” and “that British statesmen under the guidance of Prime
Minister Churchill will be mindful of its internationally covenanted
obligations to the Jewish people embodied in the Balfour Decelaration.”
1944:
“Religious pioneers from Germany members of the Ezra youth movement and Agudat
Israel founded a new kibbutz which was called Chafet Chaim.
1944:
Birthdate of Nili Priel, the wife of Ehud Barak.
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3430534,00.html
1944: Joel Brand, a member of the Relief and Rescue
Committee of Budapest, was summoned to a meeting with Adolf Eichmann, who
presented him with an offer that would be known as "Blood for
Trucks." Eichmann told Brand that the highest SS authorities had approved
the terms, in which Eichmann would barter "a million Jews" for goods
obtained outside of Hungary, including 10,000 trucks for civilian use, or, as
an alternative, for use on the eastern front. The 1 million Jews would have to
leave the country-since Eichmann had promised that Hungary would be
Judenrein-and might head for any destination other than Palestine, since he had
promised the Mufti of Jerusalem that no Jews would be allowed to emigrate
there. To negotiate the effectuation of the deal, Eichmann let Brand leave
Hungary. Although Brand was unaware of it at the time, the offer was evidently
connected with an attempt by Himmler to drive a wedge between the Western
Allies and the Soviet Union, and to conclude a separate peace with the former.
Brand did go to Ankara, Jerusalem, and Cairo, and he negotiated with American
officials and leaders of the Jewish Agency for Palestine. However, he was
arrested and imprisoned in Cairo, and the rescue scheme was never implemented.
1945:
Ten months after the Americans landed at Normandy, they successfully completed
their drive across Europe when they linked up today with Soviet troops on the
Elbe River.1945: In Italy, a partisan uprising began that
ended with the execution of Fascist Party dictator Benito Mussolini. Members of
the Jewish Infantry Brigade Group, an all-Jewish fighting force in the British
Army, was part of the Allied forced that helped liberate Italy.
1945: Forty-three-year-old
Karl Ludwig von Guttenberg who had been arrested after the failure of the plot
to assassinate Hitler in July, 1944 and who refused to name names despite being
tortured by was murdered in the early hours of this morning by order of
“Gestapo chief Heinrich Muller.”
1946: The
French ship Champollion brought 880 Jewish refuges with Palestine immigration
certificates to Haifa today from Marseille.
Of the group, 500 were children, mostly orphans.” Many of the immigrants were concentration
camp survivors.
1946: A
force of Jewish fighters attacked a police station in northern Tel Aviv killing
seven British soldiers and policemen while wounding two other Britons and nine
Jewish civilians. The Jewish fighters
got away without suffering any casualties and have apparently escaped the
security cordon created by the British.
1946:
Several thousand Jewish youth marched through the streets of Tel Aviv mourning
the death of Braha Fuld who was killed during the attack on the Sarona police
mobile force headquarters. She was
referred to as ‘a fighter for immigration.’
1947:
“Haven For Homeless Is Offered By Dutch” published today described an offer
from the Government of Surinam, Dutch Guiana, “to open territory there for the
colonization of 30,000 homeless European Jews.”
1947: It
was announced today that “the American Council for Judaism will ask the United
States to oppose any move by the Jewish Agency for Palestine to become a
non-voting representative at the United Nations General Assembly session on
Palestine.”
1948(16th
of Pesach, 5708): Second Day of Pesach
1948: A reporter for The Times of London (the voice of the British establishment)
described the efforts of the Jewish leaders in Haifa to convince the Arab
residents to remain. “The Jews wish the
Arabs to settle down again to normal routine, but evacuation continues.” While the Haganah was distributing leaflets
urging the Arabs to stay, the Arab High Command based in Damascus was urging
them to leave supposedly to avoid Arab casualties when Arab planes would bomb
Haifa. The planes never came, but the Arabs
took flight and the “refugee problem” was born.
1948:
A comedic bit
featuring funny man Don Wilson and opera singer Dorothy Kirsten generates what
would become the longest laughter pause in the history of the Jack Benny
Program.
1949(26th
of Nisan, 5709): Fifty-three-year-old Lodz native and Polish Army veteran,
Jankel Adler, the painter and printmaker who lost all nine siblings in the
Holocaust passed away today.
https://www.imj.org.il/en/search/site/Adler%20and%20+Jankel
https://www.pissarro.art/artistdetails/231833/jankel-adler
1949:
Birthdate of Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn, a French economist, lawyer,
politician, and member of the French Socialist Party who became the Managing
Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
1949:
Berta Gersten is scheduled to be starring in the
title role of “The Silent Woman,” a dramatization of Louis Frieman’s new Jewish
radio play of the same which will open today at the Parkway Theatre in
Brooklyn.
1949(26th
of Nisan, 5709): Eighty-seven-year-old Bernard Horwich, the Lithuanian born son
of “Keize and Yakov Yankel Horwich, “the husband of Mamie Horwich with whom he
had five children and the successful banker and businessman who was “the first
President of the Federated Jewish Charities of Chicago” and an early, ardent
who “worked closely with Chaim Weizmann, Nahum Sokolow and Shmarya Levin”
passed away today in Chicago.
1950:
Following the collapse of a building in Jaffa that killed nineteen and injured
thirty mostly recent Jewish immigrants, Mayor Israel Rokah “called for the
immediate evacuation of 1,700 people from unsafe houses in Jaffa.”
1950:
Mohammed Pasha Shureiki “formally notified the United Nations today that Jordan
had annexed eastern Palestine and the old walled city of Jerusalem.” This action is in complete violation of the
United Nations partition resolution which called for Jerusalem and Bethlehem to
be administered by the UN Trusteeship Council.
There was no motion of condemnation of the Jordanian action which was
really the “ratification of facts on the ground” created by the invasion of
Jerusalem in the winter of 1947/1948.
1950:
Prime Minister David Ben Gurion addressed the Zionist General Council on the
sixth day of its meeting in Jerusalem.
Ben Gurion told the leaders from around the world that “their financial
and other aid to Israel did not entitle them to a voice in the affairs of
Israel.” While acknowledging the
importance of aid and support from the Jewish communities in the Diaspora, Ben
Gurion took the classical Zionist line that “only Zionists who came to Israel
and assumed the responsibilities of citizenship were entitled to a voice in
determining policy.
1951(19th
of Nisan, 5711): Fifth day of Pesach
1951(19th
of Nisan, 5711): Sixty-seven-year-old Soviet composer Alexander Krein part of a
long line of Russian/Lithuanian musicians passed away today in Moscow.
https://www.universaledition.com/en/Contacts/Alexander-Krein/
https://jewish-music.huji.ac.il/en/content/alexander-krein
https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Krein_Aleksandr_Abramovich
1951:
During the Korean War, while serving with “UN Partisan forces behind enemy
lines,” David Sharp, a major in the British Army was captured today at the
Imjin River after being wounded three times by enemy fire.
1954:
It was reported today that Frederick Marcus Warburg, a graduate of Harvard “and
a partner of the firm of Kuhn, Loeb and Co. since 1931 has been elected to”
served a year term as a member of the Board of Trustees of Smith College.
1954(22nd
of Nisan, 5714): 8th Day of Pesach and Yizkor
1954(22nd
of Nisan, 5714): Sixty-two-year-old Russian born “cantor and interpreter of
Jewish folk songs” Beryl Chagy, the husband of Esther Chagy with whom he had
three children who in 1913 came to the United States where he was cantor at
Congregation Adas Yisroel in Newark, NJ and Temple Beth El in Brooklyn while
serving as president of the Cantors and Ministers Association and writing “a
book of cantorial prayers” suffered a fatal heart attack today while attending
services at the Young Israel Synagogue.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1954/04/26/83752645.pdf
1955(3rd of Iyar, 5715): Eighty-one-year-old
to “essayist, theatric critic, writer
and translator” Alfred Polgar, the husband of Elise Loewy (aka Lisl Polgar) and
Viena born son of “Henriette and Josef Polak, a piano school owner,” who was
saved from the Nazis by the Emergency
Rescue Committee and came to the United
States where he first became a screenwriter for MGM passed away today.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0689017/
https://androom.home.xs4all.nl/biography/p026603.htm
1956(14th
of Iyar, 5716): Pesach sheni
1957:
Birthdate of Bernard Rajzman, the native or Rio de Janeiro who became one of
Brazil’s leading volleyball players
1957:
In the U.K., premiere “Funny Face” directed Stanley Donen that included music
by George and Ira Gershwin.
1958(5th of Iyar, 5718): Sixty-year-old
Adele Meltsner, the daughter of Sarah Bach and Joseph Meltsner and the wife of
Charles Pores passed away today.
1959(17th of Nisan, 5719): Third Day of
Pesach
1959(17th of Nisan, 5719): Ninety-three-year-old violinist and conductor
David Mannes, the New York born son Natalie Wittkowsky and Henry Mannes the
husband of Clara Mannes and son-in-law of Leopold Damrosch, who helped to
“found the Colored Music Settlement School” and the Mannes Music School passe
away today.
https://www.newschool.edu/mannes/history/
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/04/25/83683650.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1960(28th of Nisan, 5720): Yom HaShoah
observed for the last time during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower.
1961(9th of Iyar,5721): Seventy-three-year-old Moses
Winkelstein, the Syracuse, NY born so of Meyer Winkelstein and Ida Marquisse
and husband of Martha M. Holstein who was a graduate of Syracuse University and
President of both the Community Chest and the Jewish Welfare Federation passed
away today.
1964: Birthdate of actor Hank Azaria, voice of Moe
and Comic Book Guy on “The Simpsons.”
1965:
“Half A Sixpence” a musical directed by Gene Sakes opened at the Broadhurst
Theatre in New York.
1966(5th
of Iyar, 5726): Yom HaAtma’ut
1966:
. Mrs. Arthur J. Goldberg, wife of the United States representative at the
United Nations, is scheduled to be guest
of honor at
the
annual spring luncheon of the Women's Division of the Jewish Guild for the
Blind which will be held todah in the Americana's Imperial Ballroom.
1966(5th
of Iyar, 5726): Seventy-five-year Yiddish author and Jewish labor leader Jacob
Pat passed away today.
http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/lex/P/pat-jacob.htm
1966(5th
of Iyar, 5726): Leonard Drucker, the husband of Anette Bloom Drucker with whom
he had two children, Rachel and Lynn, passed away today at Stamford, CT.
1967(15th
of Nisan 5727): Pesach
1967(15th
of Nisan, 5727): Sixty-two-year-old Ben Weissman, the St. Louis born son of
Charles and Rose Weissman, the husband of Esther Polinksy Weissman and the
father of Sandra and Harry Weissman passed away today after which he was buried
at the Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol Cemetery in suburban Ladue, MO.
https://stljewishlight.newspapers.com/clip/22518464/weisman_ben_obit/
1967: Jules
Feiffer's "Little Murders", premiered in New York City.
1969(7th
Iyar, 5729):
1969: Birthdate of Israeli yachtsman Nir Shental.
Shenatal and his brother Ran won a bronze medal in 1995 the World 470 Sailing
Class Championships. Nir and Ran also
represented Israel in the 1996 Olympics.
1970(19th of Nisan, 5730) Shabbat Shel
Pesach
1972(11th of Iyar, 5732): Seventy-five-year-old
Israel Mandelkern a member of the Yiddish Theatrical Alliance passed away today
after which he was interred at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Queens County, NY.
1974(3rd of Iyar, 5734): Yom HaAtama’ut
1974: Senator Ted Kennedy met with “leading Jewish
activists in the apartment of Professor Alexander Lerner.”
1974: “Jews all over the Soviet Union commemorated
Israel’s 26th Independence Day and sent messages to President Katzir
and the Israeli people.”
1975(14th of Iyar, 5735): Pesach Sheni
1975(14th of Iyar, 5735): Twenty-eight-year-old
Israeli singer Mike Brant, the son of two Holocaust survivors passed away
today.
http://www.mikebrant.co.il/en/biography/
1975: ABC broadcast the final episode of “Hot I
Baltimore” a sitcom featuring Charlotte Ray and Richard Masur with music by
Marvin Hamlisch.
1976(25th of Nisan, 5736): Markus Reiner“an Israeli scientist and a major figure in rheology” passed
away. Reiner was born in 1886 in Czernowitz, Bukovina, then part of
Austria-Hungary, and obtained a degree in Civil Engineering at the Technische
Hochschule in Vienna (Vienna University of Technology). After the First World
War, he emigrated to Palestine, where he worked as a civil engineer under the
British mandate. After the founding of the state of Israel, he became a
professor at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) in Haifa. In his
honour the Technion later instituted the Markus Reiner Chair in Mechanics and
Rheology. Reiner was not only a major figure in rheology, (the study of the
flow of matter: primarily in the liquid state, but also as 'soft solids' or
solids under conditions in which they respond with plastic flow rather than
deforming elastically in response to an applied force) he along with Eugene C.
Bingham coined the term] and founded a society for its study. As well as the
term rheology, and his publications, he is known for the Buckingham-Reiner
Equation, the Reiner-Riwlin Equation, (now usually spelled Reiner-Rivlin), the
Deborah number and the Teapot effect - an explanation of why tea runs down the
outside of the spout of a teapot instead of into the cup.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported
that Myron Marcus, an Israeli prisoner in Mozambique, was released in a
three-way prisoners exchange swap.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported
that in Washington the White House officials declared that the U.S. President
Jimmy Carter, will not consider any compromise with Congress on the
all-or-nothing aircraft package sale to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel that
would change the number of planes involved. A group of outspoken critics of the
Carter Administration published a full-page advertisement in the "New York
Times" warning that any weakening of Israel was in effect, a weakening of
U.S. in the Middle East.
1979: Woody Allen’s “Manhattan” with music by George Gershwin that
included Helen Haft in “a cameo role” was released today in the United States
1979: Peace treaty between Israel and
Egypt went into effect.
1979:
In “Camp David: Farseeing Diplomacy or Neocolonialism? ” published today Daniel
Pipes expresses his concerns about the newly signed peace agreement.
1980:
Funeral services are scheduled to take place at the Riverside Memorial Chapter
this morning for attorney Mary B, Tarcher, the wife of the late Jack D. Tarcher
with whom she had three children – Judith, Mimi and Jeremy – and the Chairman
of the Personnel and Labor Relations Committee of the United Jewish Appeal
Greater New York and an active supporter of HIAS “who played a significant role
in strengthening its hand on behalf of Jewish refugees seeking to begin new
lives in freedom.
1980(9th
of Iyar, 5740): Norfolk, VA native and Virginia Polytechnic Institute graduate
Stanley Ragone, the president of Virginia Electric and Power Company who raised
three children with his wife Bertha died in a traffic accident in 1980.
1980(9th
of Iyar, 5740): Ninety-six-year-old Katia Mann, the wife of Thomas Mann, the
famous author who left Germany because his wife had been born Jewish.
1980(9th
of Iyar, 5740): Ninety-four-year-old Austrian born American conductor Richard
Lerft, the brother of director Ernst Lert passed away today in California.
1981(21st
of Nisan, 5741): Shabbat shel Pesach observed for the first time during the
Presidency of Ronald Reagan.
1982: The Sinai Peninsula was returned
by Israel to Egypt, as part of the 1979 Camp David Accord.
1984:
“The weekly HaOlam HaZeh (This World), which had appeared with blank spaces the
week before, published on its front page a blurred picture of a man being led
away.”
1984:
“Dangerous Moves” the winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film
produced by Arthur Cohn was released in Switzerland and France today.
1985:
Felipe Gonzalez sent a personal letter to the secretary general of the Arab
League informing him of Spain’s plans recognize Israel.
1986:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for composer Harold Arlen at
the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home in Manhattan
1988: The popular ABC news program
"Nightline" went on location to Jerusalem Israel.
1988: In
Israel, John Demjanuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World
War II.
1991: U.S.
premiere of “The Punisher” an action film directed by Mark Goldblatt with a
script Boaz Yakin
1992(22nd
of Nisan, 5752): Eighth Day of Pesach
and Shabbat; Yizkor
1993(4th of
Iyar, 5753): Yom HaZikaron
1993(4th
of Iyar, 5753): Sixty-two-year-old Canadian Doris Giller who went from being “a
secretary with a supermarket chain” to a career in journalism passed away
today.
https://web.archive.org/web/20091009104037/http:/www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca:80/about.html
https://torontolife.com/from-the-archives/for-doris-jack-rabinovitch/
1994:
Baltimore born outfielder Brian Mark
Kowitz, ho had been drafted by the Minnesota Twins as part of the Rule 5 draft
was sent back to the Atlanta Braves today “when he failed to stay on the 25-man
major league roster.”
1995(25th of
Nisan, 5755): Ninety-five-year-old Polish born French director an actress Marie
Epstein passed away today.
1996(6th
of Iyar, 5767): Seventy-five-year-old movie designer and corporate logo creator
Saul Bass passed away today.
1996: In “Germans,
Jews and Blame: New Book, New Pain” published today Alan Cowell described the
German reaction to the recently published "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary
Germans and the Holocaust" by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. “The book's message is that the Holocaust was
a result of a deep strain of specifically German anti-Semitism, growing from
the 19th century onward that sought the elimination of Europe's Jews and drew
enthusiastic, willing support from possibly hundreds of thousands of ordinary
Germans who physically took part in Hitler's deadly campaign against the Jews.
The Holocaust, the book says, was a ‘national project.’ The German response, in
a flurry of published articles, has been to condemn the book as lacking in
scholarship, one-sided, derivative, downright wrong and willfully provocative.”
1997: Launch
of the INS Leviathan, a Dolphin class submarine.
1997(18th
of Nisan, 5757): Fourth Day of Pesach
1997(18th
of Nisan, 5757): Hagit
Zavitzky, 23, of Kfar Adumim and Liat Kastiel, 23, of Holon were found stabbed
to death in Wadi Kelt.
1997: “Romy
and Michele's High School Reunion” a comedy starring Lisa Kudrow was released
in the United States today.
1997: “In concert
with the publication of Lauren Greenfields’s debut monograph, Fast Forward:
Growing Up in the Shadow of Hollywood (Knopf 1997) her first major show,
"Fast Forward" had its US debut at the International Center for
Photography (ICP) today.
1999: PGA
golfer Bruce Fleisher won the Home Depot Invitational
1999: The New York Times features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including The
Lexus and The Oliver Tree by Thomas L. Friedman
2000(20th
of Nisan, 5760): Producer David Merrick passed away. Born in 1912 in St. Louis,
Merrick's name was originally Margoulis. He lived in what he described as
a mid-western Jewish ghetto. He had an extremely unhappy childhood.
He found solace and success working in stage production at The Young
Means Hebrew Association where his uncle was the director. Merrick
married well, moved to New York where he disassociated himself from his Jewish
origins and carved a successful career on Broadway. Some of his more
notable hits were Beckett and Hello Dolly.
2000:
In initial DVD release of “Little Women” starring Winona Ryder who won the Best
Actress Oscar for her portrayal of “Jo March.”
20012(2nd
of Iyar, 5761): Yom HaZikaron
2001:
In “Making a Case for Healing, Even of Holocaust Wounds” published today, Bruce
Weber provided a review of ''The Gathering'' by Arje Shaw.
2002:
“Negotiations over a possible guilty plea by Lemrick Nelson Jr.” who was a
participant in the killing of Yankel Rosenbaum in the Crown Heights riot have
broken down, a lawyer for Mr. Nelson said” today.
2003:
“It Runs In the Family” starring three generations of the Douglas family –
Kirk, Michael and Cameron – was released in the United States today.
2003:
On the day after Pesach had come to an end it is reported that In a unique
partnership between Chabad and the New York-based Manischewitz company, ten
tons of Matzah reached Lithuania’s 6,000 Jews in time for Passover. The
donation by Manischewitz was particularly meaningful in a country long part of
the Soviet Union, where Matzot were baked clandestinely.
“The
largest amount of Matzah received since the independence of Lithuania, this
donation literally assured Jews countrywide the ability to have a kosher
Pesach,” says Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, Chabad representative to Lithuania.The
donation came through a business associate of Manischewitz and an acquaintance
of Rabbi Krinsky’s, Mr. Armand Lindenbaum, whose grandfather Rabbi Moshe
Avigdor Amiel lived near Vilna in the early 20th century. When Krinsky
approached him several months back about the possibility of making a donation
to the Jewish community of Lithuania, Lindenbaum, who visited Vilna and was
surprised to find a thriving Jewish community there, facilitated the initial
contact between Chabad and The B. Manischewitz Company. From its perspective,
Manischewitz, the leading manufacturer of kosher processed food products in the
U.S., and the top provider of Matzah worldwide, feels the need and is honored
to “give back to the Jewish community,” says executive vice president Steven M.
Grossman.One thousand people participating at Chabad’s thirteen public Seders
in Lithuania, partook of the Matzah, which was distributed in Lithuania’s major
cities and remote towns. Even the five lone Jews living in Svencionys—a city
whose pre-Holocaust Jewish population numbered 4,000—were not forgotten. “I
want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your help in enabling us to
conduct the Seders in Svencionys according to Jewish tradition and with kosher
Matzah,” said one. According to Grossman, this was Manischewitz's first joint
venture with Chabad, and Grossman sees the company’s relationship with Chabad
as an “opportunity to make other contributions in the future.” The concerns of
the general Jewish community, he says, are concerns of Manischewitz as well,
and the company is pleased to contribute wherever it can.
2004: The New York Times reviewed books by Jewish authors
and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Alexander Hamilton
by Ron Chernow and A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers
and Artists, 1854-1967 by Rachel Cohen
2004:
The
Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at
Brandeis University sponsor a program entitled “Double or Nothing: Jewish
Families and Mixed Marriage in the United States.
2004:
Starting today “the Lancaster City Museum and Art Gallery hosted the first show
of the successful touring exhibition: Hannah Frank: A Glasgow Artist.’
2005:
For the first
time since the Expulsion in 1492, a public, rabbi led Passover Seder was
celebrated in Piano Battaglia, Palermo by Rabbi Barbara Aiello.
2005(16th
of Nisan, 5765): Second Day of Pesach; 1st day of the Omer
2005(16th
of Nisan, 5756): Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe passed away in Jerusalem. Born in Berlin in 1914, he made Aliyah in
1946 and is remembered as the author of Alie
Shur
2006:
In “Grits and Gefilte: How did a southern Methodist college become a
destination for America's Jews?” author Steve Stein explains the phenomenal
growth in the number of Jews attending Atlanta’s Emory University. Jewish students now compromise almost one
third of the student body at a school once known primarily for its connection
with Coca Cola. http://www.emorywheel.com/detail.php?n=17852
2006(27th of Nisan, 5766): Observance of Yom Hashoah – Holocaust
Remembrance Day.
2007: “Makor Rishon started publishing daily. At the same
time, HaTzofe (also owned by Hirsch Media) stopped publishing its daily
edition, becoming instead a weekly religious insert in Makor Rishon” Shlomo
Ben-Tzvi's Hirsch Media had purchased the newspaper in 2003. His wife is the
editor of Segula, a magazine about Jewish history and culture that began
publishing in 2012.
2007: At the Leo Baeck Institute Barbara Hahn, Distinguished Professor of German at Vanderbilt University,
previously Professor of German at Princeton University, delivers a lecture
entitled, “Kafka´s Wife - the Children of Bruno Schulz - On broken Traditions.”
2007: “Yiddish Theater: A Love
Story" is scheduled to be shown at American Jewish University (formerly
the University of Judaism), as part of the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival
2008(20th
of Nisan, 5768): Sixth Day of Pesach
2008(20th
of Nisan, 5678): Ninety-nine year “painter and sculptor” succumbed to injuries
“sustained in taxi accident” and passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/arts/26donati.html
2008: The
Jerusalem Cinematheque features a screening of “The Decalogue” \ עשרת הדיברות.
2008: “Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay” a comedy directed
by Jon Hurwitz who also co-authored the script was released today in the United
States.
2008: In what would be the start of a minor tempest, Entertainment
Tonight reported that Annie Leibovitz had taken topless pictures of a 15 year
old actress for a layout in Vanity Fair.
2009(1st of Iyar, 5769Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2009(1st of Iyar, 5769): Beloved television and theater star Bea Arthur passed away
today at her home in Los Angeles after a battle with cancer. The 86-year-old
was born Beatrice Frankel to a Jewish family in New York City and became a
household name on such TV shows as "Golden Girls" and
"Maude". Arthur began her career in the theater, where she won a Tony
Award for the musical "Mame" and played "Yente the
Matchmaker" in the Broadway premiere of Fiddler on the Roof. Arthur was
perhaps most well known for her role as Dorothy Zbornak on the hit series
Golden Girls. The show, which centered on the lives of four retired women
living together in a house in Miami, Florida, was a hit for six seasons and won
10 Emmys, including one for Arthur in 1988. After Golden Girls ended its run,
Arthur appeared in guest spots on TV, including a part as Larry David's mother
on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Arthur was inducted into the Academy of Television
Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 2008.
2009: The David Bromberg
Quartet at MerleFest
2010: Agudas Achim in Iowa City is scheduled to host its annual “Mitzvah
Day.”
2010: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to
offer “A Walking Tour of Downtown Jewish Washington” that will enable
participants to visit the sites of four former synagogues while learning what
it was like to live and worship as a Jew from 1850-1950 in the historic Seventh
Street neighborhood, now known as Chinatown.
2010: A revival production of “Promises, Promises” with music by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David, and
book by Neil Simon opened at The Broadway Theatre.
2010: Wrestler Bill Goldberg and Olympic swimmer Jason
Lezak were among seven inductees into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
The five others inducted at the Hall of Fame in Commack, N.Y., were Virginia
Tech men’s basketball coach Seth Greenberg; female judo champion Rusty
Kanokogi; Penn State women’s volleyball coach Russ Rose; Achilles Track Club
founder Dick Traum; and former NFL offensive lineman Alan Veingrad. Goldberg,
an all-American defensive end at the University of Georgia, was taken in the
11th round of the 1990 NFL draft by the Los Angeles Rams, but he turned to
wrestling and martial arts three years after an injury ended his football
career in 1994. During his seven-year career on the World Champion Wrestling
circuit, World Wrestling Entertainment twice recognized Goldberg as the world
heavyweight champion.In an often humorous and casually self-effacing speech at
the Hall of Fame ceremony, Goldberg sought to tie his unconventional career
choice in professional wrestling to Judaism."I wanted to try my best to
give the Jewish youth something to look up to, someone who's persevered and
somehow made a difference," Goldberg said. "What better way to help
Jewish youth in dealing with adversity than to parade around the ring on national
television in my underwear, demolishing every single person in my
path?"Goldberg did not address recent rumors of a return to professional
wrestling, instead saying that he wanted to focus on remaining on this season
of NBC's reality television show "Celebrity Apprentice." Lezak, a professional swimmer, came to
national prominence as the unassuming hero of the U.S. 4-by-100-meter freestyle
relay team that won the gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and set a world
record. His dramatic final lap of the race made international headlines and
helped teammate Michael Phelps notch a crucial victory on his way to a record
eight gold medals at the Games. Lezak has won numerous Olympic medals,
including an individual bronze at the '08 Games, and earned four gold medals at
the Maccabiah Games in Israel last summer.
2011: “Twilight Becomes Night” is one of two documentary shorts scheduled
to shown at Film Form in New York. The documentary examines the widespread
closing of independently owned businesses in New York City, and the significant
impact this transformation has on the people who live here. Russ &
Daughters, a multi-generational Jewish owned family business known for its
quality and genial atmosphere, “is presented in the film along with interview
clips with Niki Russ Federman and Russ & Daughters' longtime manager,
Herman Vargas.”
2011: Yael Hedaya, “an Israeli novelist, one of the head
writers for In Treatment, the acclaimed Israeli TV series adapted for HBO” is
one of the writers scheduled to appear at “PEN Speakeasy: Sex; Erotic Readings”
on the opening day of the PEN World Voices Festival.
2011(21 Nisan, 5771): Seventh Day of Pesach – holiday ends for Israelis
and Reform Jews.
2011: Politicians from left, right and center put aside
their political differences this evening to join in the traditional Moroccan
celebration of Mimouna marking the end of Pesach and the beginning of spring.
2011: In New York, Russ & Daughters is co-sponsoring a screening of The
Vanishing City & Twilight Becomes Night, two documentaries that trace the
changing face of the city and the reasons behind the morphing of Manhattan.
2012: “Common Sense Media honored John David Leibowitz, the Chairman of
the Federal Trade Commission as a Champion for Kids
2012: Israeli newspapers reported today that Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz has said
economic and diplomatic pressures against Iran were beginning to succeed
2012: Filmmakers Alan Snitow and
Deborah Kaufman are scheduled to participate in a Q&A following a screening
of “Between Two Worlds” at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2012: The Embassy of Israel,
the Washington Jewish Film Festival and The Avalon Theatre are scheduled to
sponsor a screening of the Israeli film "Ha'lahaka"
2012: Ninety-six-year-old Inge
Elsas who gave an untold number of youngsters their first taste of Jewish
education as the Kindergarten Teacher at Temple Sinai, passed away today.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5696-ellinger-moritz
2012(3rd of Iyar, 5772): Yom Hazikaron –Israel Remembrance
Day
2013(15th of Iyar, 5773): Ninety-six-year-old “inventor and
philanthropist” Stanley Dashew passed a way today
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/obituary-stanley-dashew-96-philanthropist-245607
2013: In Columbus, Ohio,
Congregation Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host a concert where the winners
of the 2012 Justine Hackman Memorial Young Artist Competition will perform.
2013: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled
to a lunchtime event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the
performance of “We Will Never Die” at Constitution Hall.
2013: In London, the Wiener Library is scheduled to present “The Human
and the Inhuman: Writing in the Wake of the Holocaust”
2013: Police today
finished a probe of Rabbi Avraham Chaim Sherman, a judge on the Great
Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem. Officers from the National Fraud Investigative
Unit suspect Sherman of breach of trust, obstruction of justice and abuse of
power in his ruling in a divorce proceeding. Today Police handed over the case
to state prosecutors who will decide whether to pursue an indictment.
2013: A court handed the Women of the Wall a significant legal victory
in a decision released today, ruling that the state cannot arrest the women for
their activities at the holy site.
2014: In New York, the Centro Primo
Levi is scheduled to host a presentation by David Meghnagi and Barbara Spadaro
on “The Jews of Libya Between the 19th Century and the Colonial
Era.”
2014: Funeral services for Canadian
political leader Herb Gray ware scheduled to held at Congregation Machzikel
Hadas in Ottawa followed by interment at the Jewish Memorial Gardens.
2015(6th of Iyar, 5775):
Parashat Tazria-Metzora
2015(6th of Iyar, 5775): Ninety-three-year-old
German born screenwriter and novelist Don Mankiewicz passed away today.
2015: Today Israeli filmmaker Nadav
Lapid received his award for best director at the Buenos Aires Film Festival
for the “Kindergarten Teacher.” (JTA)
2015:
“Assaf Evron’s one person show “The sea was smooth, perfectly mirroring the
sky” is scheduled to close at the Andrea Meislin Gallery.
2015:
“Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem” is scheduled to be shown at
the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2015:
“The Arrest” directed by Yair Agmon is scheduled to be shown at the Tribeca
Film Festival.
2015:
An Evening of Songs and Stories In Tribute to Israel’s Greatest Music Legend
Arik Einstein
In Celebration of Israel Independence Day is
scheduled to take place this evening at The Axelrod Performing Arts Center.
2016(17th
of Nisan, 5776): Third Day of Pesach
2016:
The Halelu Choir is scheduled to present a Pesach Concert at the Waldorf
Astoria in Jerusalem.
2017(29th
of Nisan, 5777): One-hundred-eight-year old Holocaust survivor Shobha Magdolna
Friedman Nehru passed away today at her home India.
2017:
In Cedar Rapids, IA, Holocaust survivor Jacob Eisenbach is scheduled to speak
at Kirkwood Community College, a Holocaust Memorial Event co-sponsored by David
and Joan Thaler Holocaust Memorial Fund
2017:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a “3 course meals and
a group discussion focusing on ‘The countdown: Sefirat Ha’omer in halacha,
thought, history and memory.’”
2017:
In Mt. Vernon, IA, Holocaust survivor Jacob Eisenbach is scheduled to speak at
Cornell College, a Holocaust Memorial Event co-sponsored by David and Joan
Thaler Holocaust Memorial Fund
2017:
Matti Friedman and Hair Watzman are scheduled to discuss their new books –
Pumpkinflowers; A Soldier’s Story and Necessary Stories – at the
Crusaders Hall at the Tower of David at event sponsored by the Times of Israel.
2018:
Dr. Frederick Roden is scheduled to begin lecturing on “Reform Spirituality”
this evening at The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center this evening.
2018:
In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel congregants are scheduled to participate in a
community-wide social action panel discussing “Food Insecurity.”
2018:
A photo exhibition showing “Elderly Jews and Holocaust Survivors” opened at the
Streicker Center.
2018:
The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host the book talk and
the launch of Broadway: A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles,
where the author Fran Leadon will talk about the extraordinary ways in which
American Jews contributed to making Broadway the iconic street that it is
today.
2018:
People took part in the ‘Berlin Wears Kippa’ event, with more than 2,000 Jews
and non-Jews wearing the traditional skullcap to show solidarity with Jews today,
in Berlin, after Germany has been rocked by a series of anti-Semitic incidents.
(As reported by Tobias Schwarz)
2019:
As part of First Person series, featuring “conversations with Holocaust
Survivors, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host an
hour long session with Manny Mandel
2019(20th
of Nissan, 5779): Sixth Day of Pesach; Fifth Day of the Omer
2020:
Anzac Day which was originally devised to honor the members of the Australian
and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who served in the Gallipoli Campaign, their
first engagement in the First World War which made them comrades of the Zion Mule
Corps, and which is now “a national day of remembrance in Australia and New
Zealand that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who
served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and
"the contribution and suffering of all those who have served" is
scheduled to be observed today.
2020(1st
of Iyar, 5780): Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Nathan Shapiro of Horadno
2020(1st
of Iyar, 5780): Parashat Tazria/Metsora; Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2020(1st
of Iyar, 5780: Seventy-six-year-old Madeline Faith Kripke, the New London, CT
born daughter Dorothy (Karp) Kripke. “an author of children’s religious books”
and Rabbi Myer S. Kripke and the sister of philosopher Sol Krikpe passed away
today leaving behind “one of the world’s largest private collection of
dictionaries, much of crammed into her Greenwich Village apartment.” (As
reported by Sam Roberts)
2021:
This afternoon for a second time,“streaming live from the Vancouver Symphony
with Maestro Ken Selden, pianist Orli Shaham is scheduled to perform
Beethoven's bright and lyrical Piano Concerto No.2 in honor of the composer’s
250th anniversary.
2021:
The Jewish Community Library is scheduled to present “facilitated discussion of
Anna Solomon’s 2020 novel, The Book of V, which is rooted in the Book of
Esther but involves modern narratives and is this year’s One Bay One Book
selection.
2021:
Two Stony Brook U. professors who
are authors/editors of two books on Jewish Spain are scheduled to address the
2015 Spanish law granting nationality to descendants of Jews expelled in 1492
and its implications.
2021: The Oshman Family JCC’s Israeli Cultural
Connection is scheduled to present an in-person treasure hunt/escape room with
bands Plaster Band and The Peatot, in honor of Israel’s 73rd birthday
2021;
Congregation Etz Chayim of Palo Alto is scheduled to present “Portland State
professor Loren Spielman who offers insight into daily Jewish life in ancient
times and what the rabbis thought about chariot races, theater, athletics and
gladiator shows in the Greco-Roman world.
2021:
IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi, is scheduled to travel to Washington today to meet with a number of top US defense
officials, in his first trip to the US since entering his position.
2021:
The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Empire of Pain: The Secret
History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe and Houdini and
Me by Dan Gutman
2022:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a Tina Brown and Lesley Stahl as they
discuss “Windsor Castle: Behind the Closed Doors.”
2022:
In New Orleans, the federation is scheduled to host a Jewish Community
Relations Council Ukraine Event.
2022:
The Baltimore Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to begin today with a screening
of “The Spy Behind Home Plate.”
2022:
Based on reports published yesterday, the Gaza border crossings remain closed
“following rocket fire into southern Israel.”
2022:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a presentation by Idan Chabasov, the
Sephardic Jew with roots in Turkey and Usbekistatn who “has become challah
royalty worshipped by 70,000 Instagram followers for his photos and videos
about Jewish egg bread.”
2023:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host the second session of Naomi Miller’s
“Beginner’s Yiddish: Shopping, Cooking, Inviting and Eating For the Jewish
Holidays.”
2023(4th
of Iyar, 5783): Yom HaZikaron; Israel’s official day of remembrance for fallen
soldiers and victims of terrorism.
2023:
“The Jewish Clergy Council of New Orleans are scheduled lead a Yom Ha'Zikaron
ceremony honoring those who have fallen during the wars and acts of terrorism
since the birth of the State of Israel
2023:
In New Orleans, the Jewish Community Center is scheduled to “celebrate Israel's
75th birthday with an amazing concert by Gili Yalo and delicious Israeli foods.”
2024:
The Jewish Studio Project is scheduled to host the first session of “Creating
with the Seasons: Omer Series with Rabbi Bec Richman.”
2024:
The Alliance for Jewish Theatre is scheduled to host a “Bake-Off For Short
Plays” which “is a quickly written exercise on an assigned theme with assigned
elements that folks do within a short period of time.”
2024:
The funeral for Marsha Fensin, the widow of Lee Fensin and mother of Scott and
Lori who was “the former cantorial soloist at Temple Judah” in Cedar Rapids is
schedule to take place at Mount Zion Cemetery in Brookfield, WI.
2024:
With this recital of music by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, baritone
Matthias Goerne is scheduled to come together with superstar pianist Evgeny
Kissin for the first time in a special tour that includes the concert hall New
York’s own Carnegie Hall tonight.
2024: 109th anniversary of the Anzac
Landings at Gallipoli during WW I of which Sir Martin Gilbert writes so
poignantly in his First World War: A Complete History “On 25 April 1915,
a day of gas and demoralization for British and French alike on the Western
Front, the Anglo-French military landings, from which the Allies expected so
much, took place on the Gallipoli Peninsula.”
2024:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by Dr. Hilary Pomeroy on “The
Jews of Spain: A ‘Golden Age’? An Historical and Cultural Overview, Part 2.”
2024:
In Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is scheduled to host a screening the
animated film “The Prince of Egypt” complete KP Dr. Browns.
2024:
As April 25h begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 202 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.)
2024(17th of Nisan, 5784): Third Day
of Pesach; for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
