This Day, April 27, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin z"l
April 27
399
BCE: Socrates drank hemlock as he carried out the death penalty that had been
imposed on him by the government. For centuries to come some Jews would study
Socrates and other Greeks, in many cases trying to find a harmony between Judaism
and Greek philosophy. Other Jews would
view Socrates and the other Greeks as the mortal enemies of Judaism and go so
far as to attempt to officially ban the study of their works.
711:
Tarik, a Moslem general attacked southern Spain from a place known as Jebel
Tarik or Gibraltar. He soon defeated Roderic, last of the Visigoth kings, at
the Battle of Xeres. Tarik was helped by both the Jews and the rebel Prince
Witiza. After each city was conquered - Cordova, Granada, and Malaga - the Jews
were often given positions of safeguarding Moslem interests.
1220(4th
of Iyar): Today after having responded “negatively” to “an ultimatum by the
provincial council, held at Osney Abbey, charged with applying the Lateran
decrees in England, that he must abandon his faith, Haggai of Oxford, formerly
Robert of Reading, who had converted to Judaism from Christianity and married a
Jewish wife in the Oxford Jewry “was burnt alive at the stake at the entrance
to Osney Abbey.” (As reported by the Oxford Chabad Society)
1296:
During the First War of Scottish Independence, King Edward I defeated the Scots
at the Battle of Dunbar. The first written evidence of their presence dates
from the last decade of the 12th century. However, nobody is sure
when Jews first arrived in the land of Kilts and Pipes. King Edward had already issued his edict of
expulsion six years before the battle and it is thought that some of the Jews
fleeing his realm went north to Scotland.
1495:
Birthdate Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire one of the
most philo-Semitic rulers in history. He
built the walls around Jerusalem that impress tourists to this day. He intervened with Pope to protect the Jews
of Ancona. He provided a haven for the
Sephardim and Marranos fleeing the Inquisition.
He intervened on behalf of Dona Garcia and her nephew Joseph Nassi,
bringing them to his capital from a Venetian captivity. Nassi became a close advisor to the
Sultan. In 1564, the aging Ottoman
leader gave Nassi the city of Tiberias so that Jewish refugees from Europe
would have a place to settle. And that is just the tip of the iceberg!
1509:
As part of what was really a temporal and not a religious dispute with the
Doge, Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.
Fortunately for the Jews of his days, Julius was more concerned about art (he
was the one who Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel) and power politics as
can be seen with his on-going political and military confrontation with the
Doge of Venice, among others. His lack of theology concerns meant that the Jews
enjoyed a period of benign Papal neglect.
Furthermore, Julius II employed a Jew named Samuel Sarfatti as his
personal physician. Life for the Jews living in Venice at this time was
becoming increasingly precarious. Three years before this, several Jews died in
violence brought on by a “blood libel” and seven years at this, the Jews would
be confined to Ghetto Nuova an island containing a foundry (geto in Italian)
which made it the original Ghetto.
1584: Sir
Walter Raleigh dispatched an expedition to explore the area of the Atlanta
Coast around Roanoke Island that probably included Joachim Gans, which made
“Gans the first recorded Jew in Colonial America.”
1596(9th
of Iya, 5356): Rabbi Yakov Eberles, the Krakow born son of R' Moshe Gershon
Altschuler and Chana Yonah Altschuler,
the husband of Gittel Eberlis (Rapaport) and father of Royzu Schrentzel, Golden
Heart; Moshe Eberles and Rabbi Eisik Jekels passed away today in Lesser Poland.
1607:
As the Inquisition took action against “Jorge de Almedia, a Portuguese residing
in Mexico, the prosecuting attorney renewed the motion that he be adjudged in contumaciam (in contempt)
1667:
The blind and impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of “Paradise Lost”
for £10. According to Elliot Rosenberg, “Milton wrote as Puritan in the England
of Cromwell’s heritage, and from a Jewish perspective he was a good man. He respected the Hebrew Bible, read it each
morning until his vision failed, and as he aged, turned more and more to the
precepts of Mosaic law. In his more
worldly capacity as Cromwell’s’ Latin secretary, he may had had a hand in the
negations that led to the return of Jews to England.”
1678:
Spanish born Dutch-Jewish printer Joseph b. Abraham Athias “succeeded, through a Jewish agent of the
Polish crown in Holland, Simon by name, in gaining still more favorable
protection from the Council of the Four Lands at their meeting today in Lublin,
1694:
August II, the ruler whom Naphtali Cohen would go to in an attempt “to secure
reinstatement in his former rabbinate at Posen” began his reign as Elector of
Saxony. His rise to power was facilitated by his “court Jew” and financier
Issachar Berend Lehmann. August II was a contemporary of the Besht who was
making his public personna known at about the same time as the Polish King
passed away.
1701(19th
of Nisan, 5461): Moses Germanus passed away.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0019_0_18945.html
1727:
Empress Catherine, I ordered the expulsion of all Jews from the Ukraine.
1737:
As far backs as today, records show that the partnership of Minis and Salomons had
“dealings with the Trustees of the Colony (Georgia) in relation to issuing what
were known as ‘Sola Bills’.”
1737: Birthdate of English historian Edward Gibbon,
author of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. In an attempt to blame Jews for anti-Semitism
at least one writer has claimed that Gibbon wrote “ that, while Jews were
populous in Rome and suspected and resented by the Romans, Nero’s Jewish wife,
the beautiful Poppaea Sabina, probably incited him, as a convert to her
Judaism, against a relatively obscure sect, the Christians. Nero’s accusation
that they had set the fires that ravaged Rome began centuries of Roman
persecution of Christians.” However, in Chapter XV:
Progress Of The Christian Religion. -- Part II of Gibbon’s
classic, the historian seems to paint a picture of a Christianity’s efforts to
distance itself from “Mosaic” doctrine when convenient and adopting its own
version when it felt it would advance its cause.
1748: The South Carolina
Gazette reported today that Solomon Isaacs, an early Jewish settler who under
the names of Solomon Isaacs and Company “sold goods at the House on the Bay in
which Captain Colcock lives” “is a plaintiff in a lawsuit.
1758(19th of
Nisan, 5518): Fifth Day of Pesach observed on the same day that Delaware and
Shawnee Indian warriors attacked Fort Upper Tract in present Pendleton County,
West Virginia
1773: In an attempt to
save the British East India Company whose first and only Jewish director was
Joseph Salvador and whose records showed “that Jewish traders controlled
virtually the entire World diamond traffic by the end of the 18th
century,” today Parliament passed the “Tea Act” which gave it a monopoly on the
sale of the brown liquid in North America.
1764:
In Amsterdam, Haham Moses Cohen d’Azevedo, the Amsterdam born son of Daniel David Cohen d'Azevedo and Sara
Cohen d'Azevedo and his wife and Sara de
Haham Moses Cohen D'Azevedo gave birth to Benjamin Cohen D’Azevedo
1774:
Today, Pierre Briet, acting as a front man for Hanover born Jewish businessman
Liefman Calmer who became the official purveyor for King Louis XV “bought from the creditors of the duke of
Chaulnes the lordship of the barony of Picquigny and the function of vidame of
Amiens in the Somme for 1,500,000 francs.”
1781:
Charleston merchant and Revolutionary War veteran Marks Lazarus and Rachel De
Torres gave birth to Rachel Lazarus.
1783:
In Rheinpalz, Germany Johanna and Abraham Rubel gave birth to Mayer Rubel the
husband of Regina Ehrma and father of Sabina, Reuben, Esther Abraham and Joseph
Rubel.
1796:
In London, Hanna Montefiore and Judah Moses Ancona gave birth to Sarah Ancona.
1796(19th
of Nisan 5556): The Jewish community of Fossano, Italy was miraculously saved
from the hands of a murderous mob by a French bomb which landed just in time to
scare away the attackers. This day was established as "Purim Fossano"
in commemoration of the miraculous salvation.
For
the complete story, see Purim Fossano
1798:
In the Netherlands, Abraham Benjamin Cohen, the son “of Benjamin Jonas
Cohen-Amesfoort and Eva Jacob Cohen” and Eva Gompertz gave birth to Henri
Theodor Cohen.
1799(22nd
of Nisan, 5559): Eighth Day of Pesach; Yizkor
1799:
As Jews munched on their Matzah for the last time in the 18th
century, during the “War of the Second Coalition, Austrian and Russian forces
under the command of Alexander Suvorov defeated the French army lead by Jean
Moreau at the Battle of Cassano d’Adda in Lombardy which is now part of modern
day of Italy.
1801:
In Warrenton, NC, Norwalk, CT native Rebecca Mears Myers and Philadelphia
native Jacob Mordecai who were married in 1798 gave birth to George Washington
Mordecai who married Margaret Cameron in 1853.
1802:
Birthdate of London native and Amsterdam attorney Samuel Philippus Lipman who
converted to Roman Catholicism in 1852.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10007-lipman-samu
1803(5th
of Iyar, 5563): London born jeweler’s
apprentice Abraham Wagg, the holder of “a seat in the Great Synagogue who
because a successful grocer and chocolate manufacturer in New York where he
married Rachel Gomez, a member of the wealthy, prominent Sephardi family with
whom he had ten children passed away today in the United Kingdom to which he
had returned because he was a Loyalist during the American Revolution
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/wagg-abraham
1815:
In Charleston, SC, David Nunes Carvalho and Sara Cohen D’Azevdo, both English
born Sephardi Jews gave birth to “painter, photographer, author and inventor
Solmon Nunes Carvalho who traveled with fabled explorer John C. Fremont on his
5th expedition.
https://thejewishmuseum.org/collection/artist/solomon-nunes-carvalho-american-1815-1897
1819:
Isaac Harby’s “third and last play, ‘Alberti’” opened today at Charleston
Theater in Charleston, SC.
1820:
Birthdate of Herbert Spencer, the English biologist who coined the term
“Survival of the Fittest” which he took from the world of biology and applied
it to world of human social development.
This concept stands in stark contrast with the Jewish concept of
creating a society that calls for us to protect “the widow, the orphan and the
stranger in our midst” i.e. the weakest
1821: Sarah Mocatta and David Abarbanel Lindo gave birth to Leah David Lindon.
1821:
Today, when the Greek Patriarch Gregory, head of the Greek Orthodox Church had
been publicly executed, the Turkish Grand Vizier Benderli Ali Pasha was
reportedly to have said to the Jews present, "Here hangs your enemy and
ours."
1821(25th
of Nisan, 5581): Hungarian historian and poet Solomon Löwisohn passed away
today.
1822: Birthdate of U.S. Grant, “savior of the
Union” and President of the United States.
Grant did issue the infamous Order #10.
But at the same time, he had Jewish political allies, was a voluntary
contributor to the building for Adas Israel, the famous congregation in
Washington, D.C. the dedication of which he attended. A majority of Jews
supported Grant’s election as President and this eulogy by Felix Adler adds
additional proof to the fact that Grant’s Jewish contemporaries did not view
him as an anti-Semite.
1824:
At “York Place Queens Elm, Sophia and Nathaniel Levy gave birth to Elizabeth
Levy.
1826(20th
of Nisan, 5586): Sixth Day of Pesach
1826(20th
of Nisan, 5586): Seventy-one-year-old Austrian rabbi and author Eleazar ben
David Fleckeles, author of “Olat Hodesh” passed away today in his hometown of
Prague.
1826(20th
of Nisan, 5586): Denmark born Sara Wulff von Essen, the wife of Isac Hartvi Ree
and mother of Thamar, Berend, Hanschen, Israel and Wulf Ree passed away today
in Hamburg, Germany.
1827:
This evening in Charleston, SC, Rabbi S.C. Peixotto officiated at the wedding
of Rosina Florance, the daughter of Dr. Florance to Dr. Audler of Augusta, GA.
1829:
In Bavaria, Zidone Wald and Joseph Hackes gave birth to Yetta Hackes, the wife
of Louis Stix whom she married at Cincinnati in 1852 and with whom she had ten
children.
1829:
In Baden, Germany, Max Oppenheimer and his second wife Sarah gave birth to
Zacharias Oppenheimer who was named in honor of Max’s father.
1831(14th
of Iyar, 5591): Pesach Sheni
1832:
One day after he had passed away “Feivel bar Abraham” was buried today at the
“Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1832:
Benjamin Disraeli met his future wife “Mary Anne Wyndham Lewis at a soiree at
Bulwer Lytton’s house today;” a meeting which he described: 'I was introduced
by particular desire to Mrs Wyndham Lewis, a pretty little woman, a flirt and a
rattle, indeed gifted with volubility I should think unequalled and of which I
can convey no idea. She told me she liked silent, melancholy men. I answered
that I had no doubt of it.'
1835:
Founding of the 11th Regiment of the New York State Militia which
was commanded by Colonel Joachim Maidhof when it went off to fight in the Civil
War
1837(22nd of Nisan, 5597): Eighth Day and final day of Pesach
observed for the first time in the Presidency of Martin Van Buren.
1838:
A huge fire destroyed the synagogue in Charleston, S.C. Moses C. Levy, who had
been worshipping there for forty years, rushed to synagogue in an attempt to
save the Torah scrolls. According to an eyewitness account, he was overcome by
inconsolable grief at the sight of the conflagration.
1842:
In Sydney, Australia, “Samuel and Rachel (Nathan) Cohen gave birth to London
educated, Australian businessman George Judah Cohen who after inheriting a
portion of the fortune of his uncle David Lewis pursued a series of
philanthropies while serving as Vice President of Sydney’s Great Synagogue and
raised a family with his wife Rebecca Levy.
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cohen-george-judah-5711
http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/cohen-george-judah-5711
1843:
In Bratislava, David and Karoline Wottitz gave birth to Moritz Wottitz.
1845(20th
of Nisan, 5605): Sixth Day of Pesach
1845(20th
of Nisan): Rabbi Ezekiel Panet, author of “Mareh Yehezkel” passed away today.
1845:
In Marylebone, Middlesex, London, Hannah (Chana) Benjamin Leonino, the London
born daughter of Justina Sebag Cohen and Benjamin Barnet Cohen and her husband
Ippolito Leonino gave birth to Barone Charles Emanuel Leonino and Edward
Emanuel Benjamin Leonino
1846(1st
of Iyar, 5606): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1846:
Birthdate of Baltimore native Martin Emrich who in 1887 moved to Chicago where
he was a successful businessman and Democrat Party activist who was elected to
the House of Representatives for one term.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=E000170
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/martin-emerich
1847:
Birthdate of New York native Henry S. Hernnan, the banker and realtor who was a
director of the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids.
1856(22nd
of Nisan, 5616): Eighth Day and final day of Pesach observed on the birth day
of the Tongzhi Emperor, “the tenth emperor of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty.
1857: Establishment of Jewish congregations in
Lower Austria prohibited.
1857:
It was reported today that Baron Rothschild attended an auction on Rue Druot
where he expressed a dismissive view of the items being offered.
1859(23rd
of Nisan, 5619): Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, English financier and the first
Jewish baronet passed away. “Born in London on Jan. 13, 1778 “he was the son of
Asher Goldsmid, and nephew of Benjamin and Abraham Goldsmid, the financiers.
Educated at an English school in Finsbury square, he received a sound financial
training in the technicalities of his father's business of bullion-broking. At
a later period his association with Ricardo made him familiar with the leading
questions of political science. He became in due course a partner in the firm
of Mocatta & Goldsmid, bullion-brokers to the Bank of England and to the
East India Company. His early ventures on the Stock Exchange were unfortunate,
and, after losing on one occasion £16,000, he abandoned speculation and
contented himself with steady business as a jobber. Goldsmid gradually rose to
eminence as a financier, and ultimately amassed a large fortune. His most
extensive financial operations were connected with Portugal, Brazil, and
Turkey; and for his services in settling an intricate monetary dispute between
Portugal and Brazil he was, in 1846, created Baron de Palmeira by the
Portuguese government. Goldsmid was one of the founders of the London Docks.
The main effort of his life was made in the cause of Jewish emancipation. He
was the first English Jew who took up the question, and he enlisted in its
advocacy the leading Whig statesmen of the time. Soon after the passing of the
Act of 1829, which removed the civil disabilities of the Roman Catholics, he
secured the powerful aid of Lord Holland, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Duke of
Sussex, and other eminent members of the Liberal party, and then induced Robert
Grant to introduce in the House of Commons a similar measure for the Jews.
During more than two years from the time when Jewish emancipation was first
debated in Parliament, Goldsmid gave little heed to his ordinary business,
devoting himself almost exclusively to the advancement of the cause. He was one
of the chief agents in the establishment of University College, London,
purchasing at his own risk the site of the university. Goldsmid was a liberal
supporter of the Reform synagogue and of all Jewish institutions (As reported
by the Jewish Encyclopedia)
1860:
In Vilna, Lithuania, Aaron Hourwich, a well-educated bank employee and his wife
Rebecca Shevelevich gave birth to Isaac Aaronvich Hourwich the lawyer,
economist and statistician who fought for social reform in both the United
States in Russia and who was the husband of Louise Joffe.
1862:
Birthdate of Rudolph Schildkraut, the son of Constantinople hotel owners who
grew up on Romania before moving to Austria where he pursued a career as an
actor before moving to United States in the 1920’s.
1864(21st
of Nisan, 5624): Seventh Day of Pesach
1864:
As Jews munched their Matzahs, Union Armies under Meade and Sherman broke camp
and headed South to start General Grant’s national campaign designed to crush
the Confederate Armies under General Lee and General Johnston which he knew was
the key to ending the Civil War.
1865(1st
of Iyar, 5625): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1865:
In San Bernardino, CA, Isaac H. Levy and Johanna Gans gave birth to Meyer H.
Levy, a member of numerous Jewish communal organizations including the Pacific
Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Home Society, the husband of Rose Anita Harris and the
author of “numerous reports and articles pertaining to the Jewish charities of
San Francisco.”
1865:
The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state’s land grant
university. According to recent figures, Cornell has 13,800 undergrads, 5000 of
whom are a Jewish. It has 3000 graduate
students of whom approximately 500 are Jewish.
The school offers sixteen courses in Jewish Studies. Students may major or minor in the subject.
1865:
“April 27, 1865” by Emma Lazarus
http://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussionSymposium/thread-2305.html
1866:
As another sign of how it has changed from a medical facility for indigent Jews
to a community hospital, Officer Milcahy sent Herman Deutch to the Jews'
Hospital after he had been stabbed with a carpenter’s chisel during a
drunken brawl with Rudolph Schriever.
1866:
In New York City, Levi Morris was arrested today on charges that he had
attempted to leave the store of David Valentine &Co with three pieces of
silk, valued at more than sixty dollars, for which he had not paid.
1866:
Fromental Halevy’s grand opera, “Charles VI” was performed for the first time
in Batavia, Indonesia.
1867(22nd
of Nisan, 5627): Eighth Day of Pesach
1867:
At the Crystal Palace in London, first performance of Piano Concerto [No.2] in
E flat, Op.89 composed Julius Benedict, the Stuttgart, Germany born “son of a
Jewish Banker.
1868:
In London, UK, Henry Greenburg and his wife gave birth to Heidelburg University
Ph.D.and graduate from the University of London and Montefiore College, Ramsgate
London,” Rabbi Willliam H. Greenburg “a
professor of Semitic languages and literature as well as the author of “The
Haggadah, in Arabic and Hebrew with an English translation” who at the age
of 29 he began serving as the leader of the largest congregation in Albuquerque
before moving on a congregation in Sacramento, CA before settling in at Temple
Emanu-El in Dallas, TX.
1868:
Mlle. Janauschek gave a performance of "Deborah" tonight at the
Academy in New York City where "she presented her enthusiastic conception
of the ideal Hebrew maiden."
1869:
In New York, Jacob Harris and his wife gave birth to composer and conductor
Victor Harris, the husband of the former Catherine L. Richardson and the father
of Cecilia, Victor, David and Mary Harris.
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/50056/Harris_Victor_composer
1870:
In Prasnysz, Poland, Amalie Grinberg, the daughter of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch
Kalischer and Henrietta (Gütel) Kalischer and her husband of Moritz Grünberg
gave birth to Nataly Grünberg
1875:
Birthdate of Louisville, KY, native and architect William G. Tachau who as
partner in the firm of Pilcher and Tachau designed Mikveh Israel, Gratz College
and Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning all of which were located
in Philadelphia.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/01/19/90040073.pdf
https://www.peoplemaven.com/p/K62EoG/william-g.-tachau
1876(3rd
of Iyar, 5636): Fifty-year-old German native and Princeton and Harvard alum
Samuel Hirsch, “the well-known Hebrew lawyer” who “reportedly lost heavily in
the late commercial crisis” died today from an apparent drowning accident in
the East River.
1879:
Rabbi Elias Hilikowitz and Riva Rebecca Hilikowitz gave birth to Anna Bressler,
the wife of Abraham Nachman Bressler and mother of Riva and Elya Bressler.
1880:
Obituary of Joseph Seligman expressed surprise at his sudden death and
recounted his distinguished career.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9407E0D91F31EE3ABC4F51DFB266838B699FDE
1880 Birthdate
of Russian born Rabbi Leon Album, the University of Chicago and Stanford
University alum who was the husband of Amelia Album with whom he raised two children
– Selma and Manuel Album, the “dentist who was a pioneer in the care of
children and the handicapped.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/03/27/119099940.pdf
1881:
Benjamin J and Eliza (Cohn) Goldsmith gave birth to Cornell undergrad and
Columbia trained attorney Irving Islington Goldsmith who rose to the rank of 1st
Lt. while serving with the U.S. Army in WW I and who was a partner in the
Saratoga Springs, NY law firm of Schwartz, Slade, Harrington and Goldsmith
1881:
A Pogrom began in Elisabethgrad
1881:
Yesterday and todays attacks on the Jews of Kiev “were encouraged by the
authorities” and “the promoters of the persecution of the Jews” acted with
“impunity.” (As described by the Vienna correspondent for the London Telegraph)
1882:
Birthdate of Austria native Edward Hoenig, the Cornell trained gynecologist.
1882:
In Jamaica, Isaac Gomes DaCosta was “named to be Quartermaster” today.
1882:
“More Room for Patients” published today described the remodeling project at
Mount Sinai Hospital.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A05E7D9113EE433A25754C2A9629C94639FD7CF
1882:
Samuel Ellis, the husband of Esther Aarons, was buried today at the “Balls Pond
Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1883(20th
of Nisan, 5643): Sixth Day of Pesach
1884:
Jesse Seligman, the President of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum
Society, gave his report at today’s annual meeting. According to Seligman, the asylum served 361
boys and that the institution had total assets of almost three hundred thousand
dollars.
1885(12th
of Iyar, 5645): Seventy-one-year-old English “engineer and politician” Jacob
d’Aguilar Samuda, the “younger son of Abraham Samuda” and brother of Jacob
Samuda with whom he formed Samuda Brothers and who was both an MP and the
husband Louisa Samuda with whom he had one daughter, Ada, passed away today.
1885:
In New York, a jury was chosen to hear the case in which Ferdinand Mayer, a
Jewish businessman is charged with having committed perjury and is represented
by Albert Cardozo.
1886(22nd
of Nisan, 5646): 8th day of Pesach
1886:
In St. Louis Yetta and Samuel Goldman gave birth to Leo Goldman, the father of
Celia, Benjamin, Freda, Helen and Morris Goldman.
1887:
Certificates of incorporation for a Talmud Torah in Brooklyn were filed in the
County Clerk’s office.
1888:
In New York City, Celia Block and Solomon Levin gave birth to CCNY graduate and
Columbia trained medical doctor Oscar L. Levin, the husband of Fanny Franklin
and chief of clinic and instructor at the Cornel University Medical College who
was also the director of dermatology at Israel, United Israel Zion Hospital and
the and author of “Your Hair and Your Health.”
1889:
In the Ukraine “Joseph Yussel Handelman and Dobris (Dora) Handelman” gave birth
to Abraham Handlelman, the husband of Anna (Boorstein) Handelman with whom he
had two children – Lillian and Arnold
1889:
Ester and Benjamin Leventhal gave birth to Jacob Frank Leventhal, the husband
of Ida Tobolowsky Leventhal and the father of Grace Jean Leventhal Goodman.
1890:
“Mr. Delaney’s Little Scheme” published today described efforts by of one of
the incumbent Tax Commissioners to thwart the plans of Mayor Nathan Barnett,
the city’s first Jewish mayor, to appoint a new person to the position.
1890:
Based on testimony given to the sub-committee of the Joint Congressional
Committee on Immigration it was reported today of the 25,000 Jewish immigrants
who have come to the United States, 17,000 were Russians and Poles. There are approximately 500,000 Jews living
in the United States of whom 130,000 reside in New York City.
1890:
In New York City, Israel Bella Epstein Unterberg gave birth to Mabel Unterberg
who became Mabel Unterberg Nathan when she married Edgard Joshua Nathan
1890:
The Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society held its annual meeting today.
1890:
In Pittsburgh, PA, Tinnie Klee and Isaac W. Frank gave birth to Cornell University
graduate William K. Frank, the husband of Florene Kingsbacher and starting in
1917, general manager of the Damascus Bronze Company where he had begun his career
working as a chemist in 1911.
1890:
Henry Seligman was re-elected President at today’s annual meeting of the Hebrew
Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society.
Seligman delivered the society’s 67th annual report which
included the information that the Asylum had cared for 559 youngsters in the
past year.
1891(19th
of Nisan, 5651): Fifty-eight-year-old Rabbi Joachim Oppenheim, the husband of
Helen Pund and the father of Berthold Oppenheim passed away today in Berlin.
1894(21st
of Nisan, 5654): Seventh Day of Pesach
1894:
A circular describing the dangers of consumption and providing about ways to
avoid contracting is being printed in several different languages, including
Hebrew, in an attempt to reach New York’s large immigrant population
1896(14th
of Iyar, 5656): Pesach Sheni
1896:
“A Large Betrothal Reception” published today described the engagement party
held for Lucien Bonehur and Ameila Simon.
Bonehour is the President of the Young Ladies and Gentlemen’s League of
the Montefiore Home, Vice President of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and
Manager of the Educational Fair. He is
also the nephew of Rosa Bonheur, the famous painter. Miss Simon is the
Secretary of the Young Ladies and Gentlemen’s League of the Montefiore Home.
1897:
Birthdate of New York native Noel Nathaniel Moscovitch who gained fame as movie
actor Noel Madison.
1897:
“Jews Barred from Romania” published today described a reported given to the
U.S. State Department “that the government of Romania has prohibited the entry
of Jews into that country.”
1898:
B. Albert Lieberman was commissioned as 2nd Lt. in the 3rd
Missouri Infantry.
1899:
Eleven months after being mustered into U.S. Service, the 4th
Virginia Volunteer Infantry whose members included Corporal William D Kahn from
Phoebus, Private Julius T. Lansberg from Norfolk and Captain Bernard W
Solomonsky from Norfolk was mustered out of U.S. Service.
1899:
Reverend Madison C. Peters, the author of Justice to the Jews, The Wit
and Wisdom of the Talmud and The Jew as a Patriot defended himself
against the accusations leveled against him Lionel de R. Cohen of London
1899:
In “Dr. Peters Advised to Study” published today Frances Freda praises Lionel
de R. Cohen’s negative comments about the views of Reverend Madison Peters
1900
Dr. Maurice H. Harris, the Rabbi at Temple Israel in Harlem released a letter
today “to the Jewish press of America” in which he calls attention to the fifty
million people starving in India during its latest famine using words that
paraphrases Pirke Avot --“The time is short, the work is great, the necessity
is urgent; we ae not expect to finsh the work but we are not exempt from doing
our share” – and then ends by asking for each person to contribute “two dollars
which will save a life until harvest.”
1901:
On Shabbat, Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes delivered a sermon at Shearith Israel in
which he described the work of the Alliance Israelite Universelle.
1902:
In Yonkers, NY, the police here have evolved a new plan for arresting the
drivers of motor vehicles which run faster than the laws allow which led to
bankers Jefferson Seligman, Isidor Wormser and Maurice Wormser being stopped by
authorities.
1902:
Henry Rice and other officers of the United Hebrew Charities expressed their
confidence that members of the Jewish community would raise the $50,000
necessary to match the $50,000 gift from William Guggenheim. Guggenheim’s contribution is contingent on
the UHC raising a similar amount.
1902:
Birthdate of Pittsburgh native and University of Michigan alum Sally Oram
Krauss the volunteer social worker at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City and
officer in the National Council of Jewish Women.
1902:
The New York Times reports that macaroons, an Italian delicacy, have
become quite popular during the Passover holiday with Jews living on the Lower
East Side
1903(1st
of Iyar, 5663): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1903:
Samuel Dort, Grand Master of the Order of Brith Abraham presided over a mass
held this evening in the synagogue at 316 East Fourth Street in New York “to
protest against the massacre of the Jews in Kishinev Russia last week.”
1904: Birthdate of Cincinnati native and music executive
Sydney Nathan the founder of King Records who “used the pseudonym Lois Mann for
song publishing and copyrights in order to obtain a share of the songwriting
royalties, a common practice among record company owner.”
1904: Mr. and Mrs. Rogers Pinner gave birth to Karl
Pinner
1905(22nd of Nisan, 5665): Eighth and
final day of Pesach
1905: Birthdate of Aiken, SC native Anna G. Efron
1906: As Russia prepares to live under a new
“Fundamental Law” or Constitution, it was reported today that a coalition of
Russians, Letts, Estonians and Jews had combined to defeat the German
landowners seeking to become electors from the Baltic Provinces proving that
politics does indeed make for strange bedfellows.
1906: Today, the Homestead reported that the
“Hebrews were initiating their own fundraising effort” to aid the victims of
the San Francisco Earthquake.
1906: Funeral services are scheduled to be held
today for 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
–after which she was buried at the Mount Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia.
1907: On the day after the dissolution of Klauber,
Horn and Company, Samuel David Klauber formed Klauber Brothers and Company
which made no profits in its first six months of operation at which time
Kaluber passed away.
1908(26th of Nisan, 5668): Fifty-five-year-old
Jacob Voorsanger, the native of the Netherlands who has been serving as the
rabbi at San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El since 1889 passed away today.
1908: Freud's early followers met together formally
for the first time at the Hotel Bristol, Salzburg
1909:
Sultan of Turkey Abdul Hamid II is overthrown and is succeeded by his brother -
Mehemed V. Sultan Abdul Hamid II is famous for his refusal to allow Dr.
Theodore Herzl, the founder of Political Zionism, to settle Palestine with
Jewish colonists. But this does not mean
that he was unsympathetic to his Jewish subjects or that Jews were kept from settling
in other parts of Turkey. Abdul Hamid II
was born in 1842 and died in 1918. During his reign, Turkey was defeated in
a war with the Russians. As a result of the
Treaty of Berlin, the Turks lost a substantial amount of their holdings in the
Balkans. This triggered a migration of
Turks and Jews into the remaining lands of the Ottoman Empire. Abdul Hamid made
plans for an influx 200,000 Jewish immigrants from Russia. Jews played an ever
more active role in Turkish affairs.
Several Jewish leaders played prominent roles in the Parliament. Turkish
Jews participated in special festivities celebrating the 400th anniversary of
their arrival from Spain. After the Alfred Dreyfus case, Herzl made three
visits to Turkey (1898, 1901 and 1903) in attempt to see the Sultan. It was on his third voyage that he was
finally granted one through the intervention of the Chief Rabbi, Moshe Levy.
The Sultan received him and Herzl tried to obtain a Jewish homeland under the
protection of the Sultan under the same statutes as the Island of Crete.
1909(6th
of Iyar, 5669): Heinrich Conried, the Austrian born theatrical manager who
became director of the Metropolitan Opera passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F40D17F63A5512738DDDAE0A94DC405B898CF1D3
1909:
It was reported today that “The executors of the estate of the late Louis A.
Heinsheimer of the banking house of Kuhn, Loeb Co., 52 William Street, will
hold a conference in the near future to discuss whether it is possible to make
available the $1,000,000 that Mr. Heinsheimer willed to six Jewish benevolent
institutions on the condition that those institutions shall form a
confederation.”
1910: “Supreme Court Justice Greenbaum, Jacob
H. Schiff, the banker; Cyrus L. Sulzberger, President of the United Hebrew
Charities; Dr. L. Rosenberg, Superintendent of the Bedford Sanitarium, and Dr.
Maurice Fishberg united tonight at the Educational Alliance in East Broadway in
urging the people of the lower east side to move out of that section if they
wished to escape the menace of tuberculosis.:
1911: Today, The Jewish Chronicle stated that
it is rumored that Sir Mathew Nathan, the former Governor of Natal will become
the next “British Resident in Egypt” which would make him the first Jew since
Joseph to “have taken the most prominent place in the government of Egypt.”
1912(10th of Iyar, 5672): Parashat
Kedoshim
1912: Dr. Judah Magnes presided over the third
annual convention of the Kehillah or Jewish Community which opened tonight with
“Jacob Schiff offering memorial resolution for the Jews who had lost their
lives on the Titanic including, Benjamin Guggenheim, Henry B. Harris, Edgar J.
Mayer, George Rosenchein, Benjamin L Foreman and Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Strauss”
after which “the whole gathering a rose in silence as the resolution was put to
a vote.”
1913(20th of Nisan, 5673): Sixth of
Pesach
1913:
At 3:00 a.m. the police received a call from the factory's night watchman, Newt
Lee, reporting the discovery of a dead girl who was in fact Mary Phagan.
1913:
In Chicago, at Sinai Temple Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch will oversee Pesach and
Confirmation Services which will be led by the students.
1913:
In Manhattan, Marcus and Celia Adler, two Jewish immigrants from Poland, gave
birth to “Irving Adler, a former New York City teacher who became a prolific
writer of books on math and science for young people after being forced from
the classroom during the Red Scare of the early 1950s…” (As reported by Dennis
Hevesi)
1913:
Dr. Samuel Schulman delivered his last lecture for the season today at the
Temple Beth-El in New York. It was on the “Song of Songs.” He talked combined
the themes of Passover and the ideal woman as presented in this book of the
Bible. “The love of nature, the love of
woman, the love country and the love of god – that is what the book, the Songs
of songs teach us. That is every
Passover the book Song of Songs is read.”
1913:
Rabbi Joseph Stolz is scheduled to deliver a sermon “An Old Love Song” at the
Isaiah Temple in Chicago.
1914:
During the second day of the Fifth Assembly of the Eastern Council of Reformed
Rabbis a luncheon was given in honor of Adolph Lewisohn, the founder of the
Lewisohn Lectureship.
1914(1st
of Iyar, 5674): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1914(1st
of Iyar, 5674): Fifty-six year old James Doppelmayer, the Marshall, TX born son
of Meyer and Rosalie Doppelmayer, the husband of Bella Davis Doppelmayer and
the father of Marguerite, Walter and Rose Marie Doppelmayer who worked in the
family dry goods store with his brother Moses passed away today in Marshall
where his father Meyer and his Uncle Daniel and his Uncle Isaac Woolf had
arrived in the 1850’s which later led to his cousin Joe Weisman settling there,
passed away today.
1914:
Today, the Reverend C.B. Ragsdale signed an affidavit “in which he swore he
overheard the negro ‘Jim’ Conley confess to killing Mary Phagan” which on
January 28, 1915, he testified was a “false affidavit” for which he was paid
$200 by attorney Arthur Thurman, C.C. Tedder and Dan S. Lehon, the Southern Manager
of the W. J. Burns Detective Agency which employed both Thurman and Tedder.
1915:
During the Gallipoli Campaign, the 300 men serving under Colonel John H.
Patterson in the Zion Mule Corps landed off the Dundernoon. Despite having had only three weeks of
training, the Mule Corps served with distinction.
1915:
Birthdate of Abraham Judah Klausner the native of Memphis, TN who was one of
five children of Rabbi Joseph Klausner and Tillie Binstalk Klausner. After
graduating from Hebrew Union College in 1941 he served as “a Jewish chaplain in
the United States Army who arrived at the Dachau concentration camp a few days
after its liberation in 1945 and a strong voice for thousands of Holocaust
survivors who remained in displaced persons camps for years after the war…(As
reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1916:
One day after he had passed away, 68-year-old Israel Miller, the husband of the
former Liba Nachama, with whom he had had five children was buried at the
“Belfast Jewish Cemetery” in Northern Ireland.
1916:
“Joseph Barondess, Chairman of the Jewish Congress Organization Committee sent
word to the newspapers tonight that news had been received by the committee
that a massacre of Jews had been arranged by reactionaries in Russia, to begin
with the Easter holiday, which under the Greek calendar will be in about two
weeks.”
1916:
In an example of Jews versus Jews, the efforts of the Mayor of New Yoek “to
avert a lockout of more than 60,000 workers in the cloak and suit industry by
offering their services as mediator came to naught” tonight “when the Executive
committee of the Cloak and Suit Manufacturers’ Protective Association decided
the that they close shop immediately” in what is called a lockout” and “fight
the union.” (A number of the clothing manufacturers were Jewish and a large
number of the workers in the garment industry were also Jewish.)
1916:
As a threat of a work stoppage in New York’s garment industry seem to become a
reality, Dr. Felix Adler, a member of the Council Conciliation could not be
reached.
1916:
“Benjamin Schlesinger, President of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’
Union said that if the manufacturers carried out their threat of a lockout the
entire (garment) industry would be tied up next week.”
1917:
U.S. Ambassador Francis sent a cable today from Petrograd to the United States
Department in response to a message “sent by Louis Marshall, Henry Morgenthau,
Jacob H. Schiff, Oscar Straus and Julius Rosenwald of the American Jewish
Committee to the Russian Foreign Minister” which said that “the Russian
Provisional Government is very appreciative of the sympathy of American Jews,”
realizes the threat posed by German militarism and will not make a separate
peace with Germany.
1917:
“A.B. Leah & Co., investment bankers, who had made a specialty of Russian
securities received today from A. Oppenheim, their Petrograd representative, a
cable message which said that conditions in Russia were ‘very satisfactory’ and
announcing that the new Government loan was a ‘complete success’ with Jews
participating largely in the purchase of the bonds.”
1917:
“It was announced today that a Poale-Zion ‘tag day’ would be held in May to
raise funds for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
1917:
Dr. M.H. Harris is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Our Duty to America” at
Tempe Israel of Harlem.
1917:
Adolph Lewisohn who has previously not been a supporter of the Zionist movement
“authorized the Provision Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs to
issue a statement tonight beginning “I think favorably of the establishment of
a Jewish State in Palestine and hope that the League to Enforce Peace will
include the Jewish nation among those small nationalities which ought to be
liberated and protected.”
1917:
Albert Lucas, the Executive Secretary of the Joint Distribution Committee, was
quoted today as having said that “in Constantinople there a 60,000 destitute
Jews” of whom thanks to “the efforts of the American Jewry” 20,000 “are enabled
to get one meal – only a bowl of soup of some kind – every other day.”
1918:
A cable was received today by the Provisional Zionist Committee of New York
City describing “the reception accorded to the Jewish Administrative Commission
when it arrived at Jerusalem where it was greeted by several dignitaries
including the Orthodox rabbis representing the Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews and
the Colonel Storrs, the British Military Governor.
1919:
Else Lasker-Schüler’s first and most important play, Die Wupper, was performed for the first
time at the Deutsche Theatre in Berlin.
1920:
In Vienna, violence aimed at Jews continued with German students attacking
Jewish students with swords and canes and a riot broke out when Monarchist
students barred Jews, socialists and several eminent professors from entering.
1921(19th
of Nisan, 5681): Fifth Day of Pesach
1921:
As part of the peace settlement ending World War I, Germany is ordered to pay
132 billion gold marks in reparations.
The economic dislocations that would be caused by these reparation
payments are given as one of the underlying causes for the disintegration of
the inter-war German economy and society and the rise of Hitler.
1921:
In Chicago, Robert Tandler Mack, the son of Rebecca and William Jacob Mack and
Jeanette Mack gave birth Robert Tandler Mack, Jr, the author of Raising the
World’s Standard of Living who was the husband of Doris Mack and the father
of Robert Tandler Mack III
https://www.amazon.com/Raising-Worlds-Standard-Living-Tandler/dp/1258197340
1921:
In the Bronx, Alfred C. Nietzel and Ruth Laence gave birth Alfred B. Nietzel
who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor during the Battle of the
Hurtgen Forest in November, 1944. The
citation for the award read in part “"That afternoon, Sergeant Nietzel
fought tenaciously to repel a vicious enemy attack against his unit. Sergeant
Nietzel employed accurate, intense fire from his machine gun and successfully
slowed the hostile advance. However, the overwhelming enemy force continued to
press forward. Realizing he desperately needed reinforcements, Sergeant Nietzel
ordered the three remaining members of his squad to return to the company
command post and secure aid. He immediately turned his attention to covering
their movement with his fire. After expending all his machine gun ammunition,
Sergeant Nietzel began firing his rifle into the attacking ranks until he was
killed by the explosion of an enemy grenade.”
1922(29th
of Nisan, 5682): Seventy-four year old Russian born “Jewish scholar” and Rabbi
Simon Zaretsky, the founder of “Congregation Anshe Oshmane and the husband of
Dora Zaretsky with whom he had five children passed away today.
1922:
Birthdate of Warren, Ohio Sol Berkowitz, the Queens College and Columbia
trained composer and music educator who “was a professor at the Aaron Copland
School of Music at Queens College.”
1922:
Birthdate of Manfred Gans. When he was 16 when his parents sent him to England,
fearing for his life as a Jew in Nazi Germany, and when war broke out he
clamored to join the British armed forces. Finally he was accepted, his fluency
in German earning him a spot with a secret commando unit.” As a Captain in the British Army, he helped
free his hometown, the ancient walled city of Borken His house, on the
outskirts of town, had been used as a Nazi headquarters; the wine cellar was a
torture chamber. His parents, Moritz and Else Fraenkel Gans, had been taken
away. Eventually Ganz was able to trace them Theresienstadt where they were
re-united.
1922: Birthdate of Jack Klugman. Born in
Philadelphia, Klugman had a very successful career on the stage, film and
television. Like all good Jewish boys, he was a doctor - in this case
Quincy, the Medical Examiner. Many of you remember him as Oscar Madison
in the Odd Couple. The oddest thing about this television version The Odd
Couple is that Tony Randall (born Leonard Rosenberg) was Jewish giving a whole
new dimension to the term popularized by the Jewish playwright Neil Simon.
1923:
Rabbi Joseph S. Kornfeld of Columbus, Ohio, the American Minister to Persia was
presented by representatives of the Persian Jewish with a silver plate
inscribed with the Ten Commandments which was a token of gratitude for his
intervention in their behalf which end the anti-Semitic disorders last year.
1924:
“Seventy-five representatives of Temple Sisterhoods are attending the annual
meeting and conference of the New York State Federation of Temple Sisterhoods
which opened tonight in the auditorium of Temple Beth Emeth in Albany, New York
1925:
“It was officially announced tonight that the Earl of Balfour” who as Foreign
Secretary in November, 1917 made “his famous declaration regarding the
provision for a national home for the Jews in Palestine” will be appointed Lord
President of the Privy Council.
1926:
“New contributions of $324,230 were announced today at the first rally and
report meeting, held in the Hotel Biltmore, in the United Jewish Campaign to
raise $6,000,000 in Greater New York toward a $15,000,000 national fund to
relieve the millions of Jews who are suffering from famine, disease and unemployment
in Eastern Europe.”
1927:
Austrian born American composer Maximilian Raoul "Max" Steiner
married Audree van Lieu today.
1928:
In the Bronx, “Meier Weintraub, who owned a toy and baby-carriage business, and
the former Anna Bogatz” gave birth to Fred Robert Tucker, the Bar Mitzvah
student of Metropolitan Opera star Richard Tucker, the driving force behind the
Bitter End, a cultural force that reached far beyond Greenwich Village.
1929(17th
of Nisan, 5689): Shabbat Shel Pesach
1929:
In an interview with the representative of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in
Jerusalem, Felix M. Warburg revealed that “the Zionists and the non-Zionists
who are to form jointly the extended agency for Palestine have reach a
completed agreement on the constitution of the new body…”
1930:
In his sermon this morning at Temple Emanu-El, “Dr. Nathan Krass declared that
as very man sees the truth in a different light, he can but preach it as he
understands it, that the false prophets are only those who know they are
preaching what is wrong, that the pulpit speaks the truth as it understands
it.”
1930:
“According to a report on investigations by the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee made public” today “the Allied Jewish Campaign, “an
abnormal record of Jewish insolvency, with may resulting suicides, revealed in
Eastern Europe, indicates that the hope that Jewish populations there would
soon be able to get along without American charity is no way justified…”
1931:
“The Budapest Rabbinate has proclaimed” today a “fast day in commemoration “ of
the shooting earlier this month at the Great Synagogue in the Tabek Gasse
during Emil Zatloka shot four Jews -- Tauglich, Ignatz Pinter, Leo Kera, and
Eugen Roth (As reported by JTA)
1931:
The Washington, DC campaign to raise $60,000 for the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee is scheduled to come to an end today.
1931:
It was reported today that the speakers at the testimonial dinner for Herbert
D. Perlman included Solomon Schelinsky, Leon Sanders, Mrs. David de Sola Pool,
Max Silverstein, Samuel Koenig, Albert Ottinger and Magistrate Adolph Stern.
1931:
Birthdate of refusenik and Israeli economist Ida Nuel.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/world/middleeast/ida-nudel-dead.html
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/nudel-ida
1932:
The New Republic published “The Supreme Court and a Balanced Budget” by Felix
Frankfurter.
http://www.newrepublic.com/authors/felix-frankfurter
1932(21st
of Nisan, 5692): Seventh Day of Pesach
1932(21st
of Nisan, 5692): Forty-two-year-old Sutter, CA native Otto Oscar Dannenberg,
“the youngest child of Charles and Mary Amanda Dannenberg and husband Iceophine
Elsie Zimmerman passed away today after which he was buried in Dixon, CA.
1933:
The American Jewish Congress and other organizations continued preparations for
a march to be held on May 10 in New York to protest Germany’s treatment of her
Jewish population. At the same, the American Jewish Committee and its allies
issued a statement opposing the upcoming event as “futile.” “They serve only as an ineffectual channel
for the release of emotion.”
1933: The German government prohibited the
practice of ritual Jewish slaughter of animals for meat.
1933:
Denouncing the persecutions and discriminations practiced against Jews in
Germany by the Hitler government, the American Jewish committee, acting in
conjunction with the B'nai B'rith, Jewish fraternal organization, issued a
statement today disapproving boycotts, parades and mass meetings as measures
for bringing relief to the sufferers.
1933:
Otto Blumenthal, a German mathematician who converted to Christianity as young
student, “was arrested and detained. He had been denounced as a communist by
the Aachen Student Association, certainly a false accusation, and after two
weeks he was released but he was suspended from his teaching duties at the
university. The official reasons were not racial, but rather cited his
involvement with the German League for Human Rights and the Society of Friends
of the New Russia.” In other words he
was not arrested because under German racial laws, he was a Jew because his
parents were Jews.
1934:
Premiere of “Liliom,” a “French fantasy film” directed by Fritz Lang whose
Jewish converted to Catholicism with music by Franz Waxman.
1934: George Gershwin and George S. Kaufman are
among those sponsoring t “The Film and Photo League” motion picture costume
ball scheduled to take place this evening which also includes a photo exhibit
of the works of Ralph Steiner.
1935:
In Brooklyn, Dorothy Alter, a housewife and her husband Morris, the owner of
“lamp repair shop” gave birth to Lean Rose Napolin the Alfred University
graduate who gained fame as the playwright who created the Broadway hit
“Yentl.” (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)
1935:
In Syria, Beirut banker Jacob Sifra who founded Banco Safra in São Paulo and
his wife gave birth Moise Y. Safra who followed in his father’s Brazilian
Banking footsteps.
1936:
It was reported that Rabbi Stephen S. Wise told a meeting of 1,500 at the Hotel
Astor that an additional $150,000 was being raised in addition to the
$3,500,000 already being raised by the United Palestine Appeal Campaign in
response to the recent outbreak of violence in Palestine.
1936: In Berlin, “the Official Gazette
announced today that two scholarships of the Felix Mendelsohnn-Bartholdi
Foundation would be awarded in October this year to talented and diligent music
students” who can present data proving that they are not Jews” which based on
Nazi race laws Mendelssohn was and his music has been officially banned for
that reason.
1937: “Officials of B’nai B’rith said
today they had been given to understand that Secretary of State Cordell Hull,
in a letter to be sent soon to Alfred M. Cohen of Cincinnati, the president of
the organization, would set forth his views concerning the recent dissolution
of B’nai B’rith in Germany.
1938:
The Palestine Post reported
from Warsaw that the Polish Vice-Prime Minister, Professor Kwiatkowski,
declared that his government intends to pursue a vigorous policy of
Polonization of cities and trade and will further the emigration of all
non-Polish elements. This statement was seen as a call for a further
intensification of the economic boycott and a direct threat to the existence of
the three-and-a half million strong Jewish Polish community.
1938: Lev Landau, the head of the Theoretical Division at the
Institute for Physical Problems, was arrested by the NKVD and sent to Lubyanka
prison for comparing “the Stalinist dictatorship to Hitler.”
1939: There is hope in Hungary that both house of parliament will
pass the “compromised Jewish bill” “which provides that all persons whose
ancestors live in Hungary prior to 1848 and who were themselves baptized for August 1, 1919 shall be
recognized as non-Jews apart from certain disqualifications to which are also
subject.” (Editor’s note – in the end the tap-dance would not matter to the
mass of Jews sent to Auschwitz in 1944.)
1939: Today, “American authorities are investigating the case of
Leib Schenker a Galician born Jew and American citizen now imprisoned at
Reichenberg having been charged with complicity in plot to kill Hiterl
1940: British Foreign
Office official H. F. Downie argued that the Jews are "enemies just as the
Germans are, but in a more insidious way," and that "our two sets of
enemies [Nazis and Jews] are linked together by secret and evil bonds."
1940: Himmler ordered the establishment of
Auschwitz Concentration Camp
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/auschwitz-birkenau-concentration-camp
1941:
In “Franz Boas and the Aims of the Science of Man,” published today Ernest
Harms provides a detailed review of Race, Language and Culture by Franz
Boas.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/04/27/85315687.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1941: German troops occupied Athens
Greece. This would be the opening act in a tragic drama that would lead
to the demise of the very old, Greek Jewish Community, including the Jews
of Salonika.
1942: Jews living in Belgium were
forced to wear stars.
1942: Jews throughout Greater Germany were
prohibited from taking public transport.
1942: One thousand Jews were deported from the
Theresienstadt Ghetto to Izbica Lubelska, Poland; only one person survived - a
woman who escaped after arrival. Other Theresienstadt deportees were sent to
their deaths at the Sobibór and Belzec extermination camps.
1942(10th
of Iyar, 5702): Eleven-year-old Ruth Bachrachova was murdered today at Isbica.
1942(10th of Iyar, 5702): The Nazis executed 60
Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. Among the victims were people suspected of being
involved with the ghetto's underground newspaper.
1942:
After three days, the liquidation of the Wloclawek Ghetto was completed when
the remaining Jews were sent to Chelmno.
1943(22nd
of Nisan, 5703): Eighth Day of Pesach
1943(22nd
of Nisan, 5703): Cantor Gershon Yitzchak Sirota ”was murdered with his entire
family during the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto on the last day of
Passover.” Gershon Sirota was born in Podolia Guberne in 1874. When just a
young child, he was already helping his father, a noted cantor, to conduct
services in the local synagogue. Soon his parents moved to Odessa and Gershon's
wonderful voice began to become well known. Yakovkin, cantor Yankel Seroka's
choir director at the Shalashner Shul immediately offered the young Sirota a
position in his choir. Shortly afterwards, Sirota was introduced to Baron
Kalbos, the director of a Music Conservatory, and admitted on a scholarship.
Gershon quickly made great stridges in his musical education and, as a result,
was assigned larger solos in Yakovkin's choir. One Shabbat morning Sirota was
asked to sing in the Shalashner Shul. After his magnificent performance he was
appointed Assistant Cantor, with the salary of 100 rubels a month. It was not
long before Yankel Seroka came complaining to Gershon's father that his young
son ws trying to take away his position. Sirota resigned and accepted the
Cantorial post at the Prikashtchikes Shul in Odessa.
In
1896 Sirota became Cantor of the famous Vilna Shtat Synagogue, where he
remained for nine years. There is choir directors were Yitzchak Schlossberg,
Nathan Abramson and later Leo Loew. When Leo Loew became choir director, he
arranged for a special concert, in which Cantor Sirota sang with the
accompaniment of a large, newly founded choir. This concert was a tremendous
success and the newspapers wrote enthusiastic reviews. He and Leo Loew began to
receive invitations from Bialystok, Grodno, Minsk and other Russian cities to
make new concerts. Sirota's appearances were so well received and praised that
Svatopolk-Mirsky, the Russian Gubernator General decided to visit the Vilna
Shtat Synagogue to hear Sirota. A few days later, the General sent a letter to the
Czar's wife, Maria Feodorovna, highly praising the young cantor's talent. She
requested that he perform at a concert sponsored for the benefit for the Vilna
Institution for the Blind. Shortly arfterwards, Gershon Sirota was called to
St. Petersburg to give a series of concerts before Czar Nicholas II. He was
then asked to give yearly concerts in St. Petersburg, and Moscow by Imperial
Command. The publicity of Sirota's name soon came to the attention of the major
recording companies in Europe. In 1903, twelve records of Sirota's liturgical
selections were released. This event achieved for him the great honor of being
the first Cantor to record his voice of phonograph records. His recordings were
distributed throughout Europe and later appeared in America. The medium of
these records soon made Sirota's name world famous, even though he had not yet
appeared in many of the countries which his records had already reached.
Meanwhile, in Warsaw, the directors of the Tlomackie Synagogue were looking for
a new Cantor. Gretzhandler, who had held the Cantorial post, was now old and
the Synagogue needed a fitting successor to take his place. They offered Sirota
the position because of his great popularity and Cantorial ability. He was
thirty-one years old when he accepted the position, which he held for nineteen
years. In February 1912, Cantor Sirota made the first of what was to be many
concert tours of America. He appeared at Carnegie Hall, The Hippodrome, and the
Academy of Music in New York before making tours to the other large cities.
During
1913 he returned again on another concert tour, appearing at Kessler's Theatre,
The New Star Casino, The Palace Garden, and Carnegie Hall. His third American visit in 1921 began with
an appearance at the Metropolitan Opera House, accompanied by Meyer
Machtenberg's hundred voice choir. Arturo Toscanini and the famous Opera Star
Joseph Schwartz were among the prominent celebrities who attended the concert.
He then conducted services in many famous Synagogues, singing for the High Holy
Days at the Kalvariah Shul in Harlem. During the seasons of 1924, 1925, and
1927, he also officiated in New York for the Yamim Noraim. When he returned to
Europe (after conducting services at the Bronx Winter Garden for the Benefit of
the Beit HaMidrash HaGadol of Harlem in 1927), the Tlomackie Synagogue had
already chosen a Cantor to replace him. They took this action, because they
were very disturbed about his constantly leaving them to daven elsewhere in
America for the High Holy Days.In 1935, Sirota became Cantor of the Norzick
Shul. That year, a concert was held in his honor at the Warsaw Coliseum and he
also made a trip to Israel. There he conducted services for the High Holy Days
at Magrabi Theatre.His last trip to America was made in 1938, when he davened
for the Yamim Noraim in Chicago and during Succot in Milwaukee. He then
returned to Europe, after receiving a telegram that his wife was critically ill
in Warsaw. With the outbreak of the war, Sirota was imprisoned in the Warsaw
Ghetto with his family and the other Jews of the city. He conducted High Holy
Day Services in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1941
1943:
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising continued into its third week. This is
amazing when you consider that France with a modern Army surrendered to the
Nazis after six weeks. By now thousands of Jews were being rounded up and
marched away. But the Jews continued their counter attacks from rooftops above,
doorways and windows. Jewish women and children huddled in buildings, staying
with their armed protectors fleeing only when those
structures were set on fire by the advancing Nazis.
1943: Eminent American poet Ezra Pound
continued his anti-Semitic broadcasts from Italy. He called the Jews
"rats," "bedbugs," "vermin," "worms,"
"bacilli," and "parasites" who constitute an overwhelming
"power of putrefaction."
1943:
During WW II, G.I. (and future New York Mayor) Ed Koch wrote “I’m tired but not
dismayed. The chow (chili con carne) was terrible but I scraped the plate. It
will be a long time before I’ll get used to the open latrine. The fellows in
the bunk are pretty good. Mother acted fine in the station. I think that I’ll
get along fine. . . . The beer stinks, it leaves a taste in my mouth.
1943:
"The United States Vice Counsel in Casablanca reported that 'it seems
indubitable that there is a systematic persecution of the Jews by the Pasha of
Beni-Mella.' Jews had been expelled from their homes and shops for up to
a week and 'arbitrary economic measures had been directed against them,
including a ban on any Jewish trade in vegetables or poultry. There had
also been random arrests and beatings...David Cohen, who half-blind, was
sentenced to six weeks in prison for not saluting a Muslim official." [For
more on this see Gilbert's "In Ishmael's House" and Statloff's
"Among the Righteous"]
1944: Psychoanalyst Helene Deutsch published the first of two
volumes of The Psychology of Women. http://jwa.org/thisweek/apr/27/1944/helene-deutsch
1944(4th
of Iyar, 5704): Thirty-eight-year-old Leon Israel, the Jewish, French doctor
and resistance fighter was arrested and summarily by the French Milice,
murderous para-military organization organized by the pro-Nazi Vichy government
after which “during his funeral, the people of Mâcon rallied together, and more
than a thousand individuals attended, despite the city still being under Nazi/Vichy
occupation.”
1945: Mussolini and his mistress were caught while
trying to escape outside of Lake Como. They were executed and their
bodies were brought to Milan where the next day they were hung up by
their heels from lampposts, then cut down, and mutilated. When
Hitler heard of this, supposedly, he made his decision to take his own
life and have his body burned. He was afraid of being captured by the
Russians and/or having his corpse savaged by those upon whom he had unleashed
so much misery.
1945:
The British Parliamentary Delegation organized at the request of Churchill in
order that they would have first hand, visual proof German atrocities reached
Buchenwald where they saw a “half-naked skeleton tottering painfully along the
passage as though on stilts” who “drew himself …smiled and saluted” as the
delegates approached.
1945:
An original typescript of the Nuremberg Laws signed by Hitler was found today
by the 203rd Detachment of the U.S. Army's Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC),
commanded by Martin Dannenberg, in Eichstätt, Bavaria.
1945:
2nd Lt. William Robertson (U.S. Army) and Lt. Alexander Silvashko (Red Army)
pose for a formal picture signifying the final link up of the two armies at the
Elbe River.
1946(26th
of Nisan, 5706): Parashat Achrei Mot
1946(26th
of Nisan, 5706): Fifty-nine-year-old Russian born, NYU graduate Boris
Fingerhood, “one of the founders of Israel Zion Hospital” who had married Mrs.
Sylvia Golden after his first wife Nadezhda Finerghood had passed away died
today at his home.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/04/28/91613055.pdf
1946:
In separate speeches the Premier of Iraq and Ahmed bey Shukairy head of the
Arab Office in Palestine threatened unspecified action that “will not be word”
should the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry recommend the admission of any
additional Jewish immigrants to Palestine. The Iraqi premier promised action,
not just on the part of his country, but on the part of the Arab League as
well.
1946:
After 657 performances the curtain came down on the original Broadway
production of “Bloomer Girl,” a musical with lyrics by E.Y. Harburg and a score
by Harold Arlen
1946:
U.S. premiere of “The Glass Alibi” directed and produced by W. Lee Wilder.
1947:
“Representatives of member states of the Arab League met for four hours”
tonight “to plan strategy to force inclusion of their demands for the immediate
independence of Palestine on the agenda of the special session of the United
Nations General Assembly.”
1948(18th
of Nisan, 5708): Fourth Day of Pesach
1948:
During the Israeli War for Independence, the British landed a tank battalion
and an artillery regiment at Jaffa.
Ernest Bevin, the British Foreign Minister, informed the British
commanders that they must prevent the capture of Jaffa by the Jews ‘at all
costs’.” The British artillery shelled
Haganah units and British aircraft attacked Jewish settlements in the
area. This is an example of the “even
handed” policy pursued by the British during this period.
1948:
The Arab Legion crossed the Jordan River on the “road bridge” near the
town of Gesher, a Jewish settlement. The
Arab Legion was the name given to the army of what is now the Kingdom of
Jordan. It was trained, equipped and
officered by the British. It was the
most effective fighting force in the Middle East. The Jordanians crossed the river with
intention of seizing a police fort and the town of Gesher. The Jewish settlers were told evacuate within
an hour and to turn the fort over to the Arab Legion. The Jews refused to leave and the Legion
attacked. So confident were they of
success that the heir to the Jordanian throne had come to watch what was sure
to be a victorious battle. However, when
the smoke cleared, the Jews had held on and the Legion retreated back from
whence they had come.
1949: :
Dr. Isaac Halevi Herzog, Israel's chief rabbi,
arriving this afternoon at the New York International Airport, Idlewild,
Queens, said that unless Israel's housing situation was remedied immediately
"a condition may arise that may cause us to consider a curtailment of
immigration."
1949: “United States Major General John H. Hilldring” who had
sympathized with Jewish statehood project” and who had helped stimulate the
United States delegation to secure the needed two-thirds majority vote in the
General Assembly favoring partition, arrived at Haifa today “aboard an Israeli
ship that had sailed from Marseille” for what he described as a private visit.
1950:
The modern state of Israel was officially recognized by the British government.
1950:
Britain recognized the annexation by King Abdullah of Jordan of all land west
of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea seized by his troops during the fighting
that followed the partition vote of November, 1947.
1952:
The Jerusalem Post reported
that Jerusalem suffered a severe shortage of water because the Jerusalem
Electric Corporation had withdrawn power from the water pumping stations until
the municipality settles a debt of IL60,000.
1952:
The Jerusalem Post reported
that Israel expressed regret at the resignation of General William D. Riley, as
the Chief of Staff of the U.N. Truce Supervisory Organization. A further
deterioration of the border situation was expected, as the appointment of
General Riley's expected successor, General de Ridder, known for his one-sided
decisions, was completely unacceptable.
1953: Maud Gonne, the Irish born actress and revolutionary who was
on “good terms with Marcel Habert” a known French anti-Semite, passed away
today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F20817FF3E5811738DDDAC0894DB405B8985F0D3
1954: The film White
Christmas, starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, premiered. Once again a signature piece of Americana
bears a Jewish imprint.
1954(24th
of Nisan): Underground fighter and Yiddish poet Shmerke Katcherginsky died in a
plane crash today
1955(5th
of Iyar, 5715): Yom HaAtzma’ut
1956:
U.S. premiere of “Godzilla, King of the Monsters!” produced by Joseph Levine.
1957(26th
of Nisan, 5717): Parashat Kedoshim
1957(26th
of Nisan, 5717): Sixty-nine-year-old Lithuanian born “businessman,
philanthropist art collector and founder of L.M. Rabinowitz and Company (a
corset manufacturing company) Louis M. Rabinowitz, the husband of Rose
Rabinowitz and father of University of Michigan trained civil rights attorney
Victor Rabinowitz who “established endowments at Yale University and the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem” and who “funded Nelson Glueck's archaeological trips
to the Negev of Israel” while seeing to it that his art collection went to Yale
University Art Gallery after he passed away today.
1958:
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Hurwitz announce the engagement of their daughter Helen
Saundra to Mr. Paul David Peisach, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Peisach.
1958:
During an interview with Mike Wallach. Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr discussed several
topics including anti-Semitism.
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/niebuhr_reinhold_t.html
1959(19th
of Nisan, 5719): Fifth Day of Pesach
1960(30th
of Nisan, 5720): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1960(30th
of Nisan, 5720): Sixty-seven-year-old Boston born Abraham Benjamin Cohen, the
President of the United States Shoe Corporation and Jewish leader who was “a
member of the board of governors of HUC and the board of trustees of the Jewish
Hospital” known as A.B. Cohen, the husband of Dolly Lurie Cohen and the father
of Ralph I. Cohen passed away today.
1962:
Connie Francis recorded “Button and Bows” a popular song created by the Jewish
team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.
1962:
Some of My Best Friends…” a report by the ADL about discrimination written
by Benjamin R. Epstein and Arnold Forster is scheduled to be published today by
Farrar, Straus and Cudahy.
1962:
But Not Next Door in which authors Harry Rosen, an executive of the
Jewish Hospital of St. Louis and David Rosen, “an executive of the Jewish
Community Centers Association of Chicago” describe what happened when it was
learned that some houses in Deerfield, IL “were to be sold to Negroes” is
scheduled to be published today by Ivan Obolensky.
1962:
“Chips With Everything” by Sir Arnold Wesker opened “in the West End at the
Royal Court Theatre” today.
1963(3rd
of Iyar, 5723): Parashat Tzaria-Metzora
1963(3rd
of Iyar, 5723): Eighty-year-old New York native and NYU trained real estate
lawyer Alexander Pfeiffer who “was a founder and boarf chairman of the United
Home for Aged Hebrews in New Rochelle and the husband of the “former Lilie
Lowenfield” with whom he had three children – Fred, Paul and Roslyn – passed
away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/04/28/356684532.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1963:
Rabbis used the upcoming 15th anniversary of the creation of the
state of Israel as a theme for their sermons. At New York’s Temple Emanu-El,
Rabbi Julius Mark said that “for a small nation to have achieved and maintained
its independence for a decade and a half in these turbulent times is in itself
no mean accomplishment…Of one thing we may be certain, Israel is here to
stay. While her constant plea is for
peace, she will not shrink from war – may God forefend it – if her sovereignty
is threatened. Her citizens are
determined not to be exterminated as were their fellow Jews in Hitler’s hell
holes. If Israel goes down, she will go
down fighting.” At Congregation Tifereth Israel, Rabbi Kurt Klappholz said that
“The successful experiment of the state of Israel will, in the words of Isaiah,
be a ‘light unto the nations.’” He went on to praise Israel for her willingness
“to share her scientific and technical edge as her educational know-how with
the new emerging republics of the African continents.”
1963:
Ambassador Katriel Katz, Consul General of Israel, spoke at Congregation B’nai
Jershurun where he paid tribute to the late Izkhak Ben-Zvi, Israel’s second
President and reviewed the accomplishments of the state of Israel over the past
fifteen years.
1964:
Birthdate of Jennifer Burstain, physician par excellence, mother of four really
neat sons and an asset for the Temple Judah Jewish community.
1964:
German born Jacob (Yaakov) Birnbaum whose family had escaped the Holocaust
convened a meeting today at Columbia University that planned what would become
the first public demonstration demanding freedom for the Jews of the Soviet
Union.
1965:
Birthdate of Dr. Jennifer Burtstain, the wife of Dr. Todd Burstain and the
mother of four of the neatest sons who are the pride of the Cedar Rapids Jewish
community.
1965: Famed
Broadcast Journalist Edward R Murrow passed away at the age of 57 after fighting a
losing battle with lung cancer. Murrow gained fame for his coverage of World
War II. One of his most famous
broadcasts came on April 15, 1945 when he described the Liberation of
Buchenwald to the American listening public. Murrow was a staunch supporter of
Israel. When Teddy Kollek visited him in
1964, Murrow told him that once he had licked cancer he wanted to be the United
States Ambassador to Israel.
1966:
After having served as head of the Air Department in the General Staff since
1961, Mordechai "Mottie" Hod became Commander of the IAF. Hod led the Israeli Air Force through its
most brilliant moment, the strikes that opened the Six Day. Hod served as the
air commander until 1973, leaving office six months before the Yom Kippur War.
1967(17th
of Nisan, 5727): Third Day of Pesach
1967:
The 20th Cannes Film Festival where “Three Days and a Child” was
nominated for Best Film opened today.
1967:
Birthdate of Rhehovot, Israel Yitzhak Avni, the “actor entertainer and
television” known as Aki Avni whom American audiences saw in “Free Zone”
starring Natalie Portman.
1968(29th
of Nisan, 5728): Parashat Shimini
1968:
“I'm Solomon,” a musical with music by Ernest Gold which had opened April 23, 1968,
and closed today after seven performances.
1968:
Birthdate of Todd Thalblum, husband of Sabrina Thalblum (Cedar Rapids’ ashish
chayel) who would become the Rabbi of Temple Judah in 2010.
1969:
Three days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held
at Roth Memorial Chapel this afternoon for seventy-seven-year-old Yonkers NY,
native and Dickinson College trained attorney, Joseph Altman a powerful figure
in New Jersey politics which led to his serving six terms as the Mayor of
Atlantic City while raising his son Michael with his wife Lillian.
1970(21st
of Nisan, 5730): Seventh Day of Pesach
1971(2nd
of Iyar, 5731): Sixty-six-year-old Galveston, TX native and University of Texas
physician Harry Hauser, the Professor of Radiology at the Western Reserve
University’s School of Medicine who raised two sons, David and Daniel, with his
wife Miriam passed away today.
https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/abs/10.1148/101.2.455?journalCode=radiology
1973:
An Italian clerk was killed when Palestinian terrorists attacked the El Al
office in Rome.
1973:
A terrorist plot was foiled today when 3 Arabs carrying explosive were arrested
before they could board a plane bounced for Nice, France. (As reported by
Jewish Virtual Library)
1976(27th
of Nisan, 5736): Yom HaShoah
1976:
“So Long, 174th Street,” “a musical with a book by Joseph Stein and
lyrics and music by Stan Daniels” opened on Broadway today at the Harkness
Theatre.
1976:
Sophie Masloff began serviing as a member of the Pittsburgh City Council.
1977:
“Between the Lines,” a romantic comedy directed by Joan Micklin Silver, the
Omaha born daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants Doris Shoshone and Maurice
David Micklin, directed by her husband Raphael D. Silve and co-starring Jeff
Goldblum was released in the United States today.
1978:
The Jerusalem Post reported
that two German volunteers were killed when Arab terrorists threw a bomb into a
tourist bus parked in the center of Nablus.
1978:
The Jerusalem Post reported
that in Washington, the Israeli Foreign Minister, Moshe Dayan, and the U.S.
Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, were reported to be unable to reach an
agreement in their quest for peace in the Middle East, and awaited the arrival
of the Prime Minister, Menachem Begin.
1979:
Soviet dissidents and Jewish activists, including
Mark Dymshitz and Edward Kuznetsov who were exchanged by America for two Soviet
spies, arrived in New York City today.
1980: One hundred thousand “people attended the ninth annual
Solidarity Day rally of the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry.”
1980: This afternoon Rabbi Charles Lippman of Temple Beth Am in
Pearl River, NY officiated at the wedding of “Marcia Robinson Lowry, director
of the children’s rights project of the ACLU and Frederic Adams Mosher, a
program officer at the Carnegie Corporation” which was held at the home of the
birde’s aunt and uncle, “Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Finkelstein of Manhattan.”
1981: Actress Barbara Bach (born Barbara Goldbach) married Ringo
Starr
1981: “The Floating Light Bulb” written by Woody Allen and
directed by Ulu Grosbard and starring Beatrice Arthur as “Enid” “opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in
Lincoln Center today.”
1982(4th of Iyar, 5742) Yom HaZikaron
1983(14th of Iyar, 5743): Pesach Sheni
1983: Today, Southpaw Bob Tufts pitched his “first and only game
in Yankee Stadium.”
https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/now-pitching-the-great-bob-tufts/
1983: In Boston, Jewish parenting expert Joani Geltman and her
non-Jewish husband Greg Graynor gave birth to actress Ariel Geltman “Ari”
Grayenor
1984(25th of Nisan, 5744): Sixty-one-year-old Hans
Arthur Aalsmeer, the son of Charles Aalsmeer and Margaretha Schwarz passed away
today.
1984: A revival of “Hello Dolly” starring female impersonator
Danny La Rue as Dolly came to a close at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London.
1984: The daily Israeli newspaper Hadeshot “was ordered to stop
publishing for four days” for having reported that Minister of Defence Arens
had set up a committee of inquiry, headed by Reserve General Meir Zorea to
investigate facts surrounding what became known as the Bus 300 Affair.
1986(18th
of Nisan, 5746): Fourth Day of Pesach
1986(18th
of Nisan, 5746): Funeral services are scheduled to be held this afternoon at
Congregation Beth Sholom in Rhode Island for 87 year old Morris I. Fishbein the
Chelsea, MA born son of Sarah Miller and Louis Fishbein, the husband of Helen
(Bennett) Fishbein with whom he had four children – Gilbert, Joseph, Ruth and
Harriet – who was “a contractor and real investor as well as a member of
Congregation Beth Sholom, Congregation Mishkon Tifiloh and the Providence, RI
Hebrew Free Loan Association.
1987(28th
of Nisan, 5747): Eighty-seven-year-old Rachel Lichterman, the London born daughter
of Emanuel and Sarah Leah Epstein and the wife of New Yorker Abraham Lichterman
passed away today.
1987: The Justice Department barred Austrian
President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he aided in the
deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army
officer during World War II. Yes, the Secretary General of the United
Nations was a soldier an officer in Hitler's army.
1989(22nd
of Nisan, 5749): Eighth Day of Pesach
1989:
“Ghetto” a play set in the Vilna Ghetto written by Joshua Sobol opened in the
Olivier Theatre today under the direction of Sir Nicholas Hytner.
1990:
After having premiered in Italy in December, “Black Orchid” directed by Zalman
King was released today in the United States.
1991(13th
of Iyar, 5751): Parashat Achrei Mot-Kedoshim
1991(13th
of Iyar, 5751): Eighty-six-year-old Samuel Zetzer, the “son of Cala and Jacob
Zetzer” passed away today in Palm Beach, FL.
1993:
In “Museum Opens With Firm Grip On the Emotions,” published today Diana Jean
Schemo described the opening of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/27/us/museum-opens-with-firm-grip-on-the-emotions.html
1995(27th
of Nisan, 5755): Yom HaShoah
1996: Operations Grapes of Wrath, the Israeli
military incursion into Lebanon brought on by terrorist attacks and the
inability of the Lebanese government to control its own borders, came to an
end.
1997(20th
of Nisan, 5757): Sixth Day of Pesach
1997:
The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Irving Berlin: Songs From the
Melting Pot: The Formative Years, 1907-1914 by Charles Hamm, Streisand: A
Biography by Anne Edwards and Locked in the Cabinet by Robert B.
Reich.
1997:
Memorial services are scheduled to be held this after at the UCLA Faculty
Center for Judge Jerry Pacht.
http://articles.latimes.com/1997-04-04/news/mn-45393_1_jerry-pacht
1998(1st
of Iyar, 5758): Rosh Chodesh Iyar.
1998:
“Hacker Case Taps Into Fame, Fury” provides a description of the activities of
18 year old computer hacker Ehud Tenenbaum whose skills were praised by Prime
Minister Netanyahu admiringly as “damn good.”
http://articles.latimes.com/1998/apr/27/news/mn-43491
2000(22nd
of Nisan, 5760): Eighth Day of Pesach; Yizkor
2000(22nd
of Nisan, 5760): Ninety-three-year-old University of Chicago trained attorney
Elmer Gert whose clients included Nathan Leopold, Arthur Miller and Jack Ruby
and who married Mami Laitchin Friedman after his first wife Ceretta Samuels had
passed away died today. (As reported by Eric Pace)
2000:
Today, Steve “Wynn purchased the Desert Inn for $270 million.
2000:
Jack Lang completed his second terms as a member of the French National
Assembly for Loir-et-Cher.
2001:
A Central Intelligence Agency file on Adolf Hitler was made public today,
including a report that described the Nazi leader as a "border case
between genius and insanity" and predicted that Hitler could become the
"craziest criminal the world ever knew."
2001:
The C.I.A. files on 19 other wartime figures, like Josef Mengele, the sadistic
doctor at the Auschwitz death camp; Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi architect of the
extermination of Europe's Jews, and Heinrich Mueller, the feared Gestapo chief
were released today.
2002(15th
of Iyar, 5762): Seventy-seven-year-old Jakub Goldberg the Polish film maker who
“was co-writer and assistant director of Polanski's feature debut Knife in the
Water” passed away today in Denmar,
2002(15th
of Iyar, 5762): Ruth Handler passed away at the age of 85, having provided
America with a revered icon and piece of popular culture. Born in 1916, Handler
was the youngest of 10 children in a Polish-Jewish immigrant family that
settled in Denver. In 1945, Handler's husband and a partner started what
would become the Mattel Toy Company. During the 1950's Handler invented
the "Barbie Doll" which took its name if not its anatomy from her
daughter, Barbara. Barbie was joined by the "Ken Doll" named
for Handler's son, Kenneth.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/29/arts/ruth-handler-whose-barbie-gave-dolls-curves-dies-at-85.html
2002(15th
of Iyar, 5762): Danielle Shefi, 5; Arik Becker, 22; Katrina (Katya) Greenberg,
45; and Ya'acov Katz, 51, all of Adora, were killed when terrorists dressed in
IDF uniforms and combat gear cut through the settlement's defensive perimeter
fence and entered Adora, west of Hebron. Seven other people were injured, one
seriously. The terrorists entered several homes, firing on people in their
bedrooms. Both Hamas and the PFLP claimed responsibility for the attack. (As
described by theJewish Virtual Library)
2003: The New
York Times included reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special
interest to Jewish readers including recently released paperback versions of Elvis
In Jerusalem: Post-Zionism and the Americanization of Israel by Tom Segev
in which “the author maintains that Israel's connection to the United States is
driving a transformation in the nation's cultural life, weakening social
solidarity while boosting the role of the individual.”
2003:
In Champaign-Urbana, The fifth annual Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival
closes.
2004(6th
of Iyar, 5764): Yom HaAtzma’ut
2005(18th
of Nisan, 5765): Fourth Day of Pesach
2005:
In “Nothing Can Be Compared to the Massacre of 6 Million Jews” published today
“Israeli President Moshe Katsav discusses Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza
Strip, the new pope, the special relationship between Jerusalem and Berlin and
his worries about the rise of anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism in Europe
and Germany.”
2006:
“Rabbi Yona Metzger filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Israel to
protest Mazuz's public declaration alleging that his image had been destroyed
without a chance to tell his side of the story, and accusing Menachem Mazuz of
engaging in "child-like" tactics. Metzger's lawyer charged that
Mazuz's report on Metzger contained unverifiable information and that it
constituted a personal attack on the rabbi without giving him the benefit of a
defense or hearing. The petition requested that the second half of Mazuz's
30-page report, in which he harshly attacked Metzger's conduct and recommended
his removal, be stricken from the record.”
2007:
Dr. Jonathan Karp and Dr. Jonathan Schorsch present "Blacks and Jews in American
Popular Music-The Business of Cultural Mediation" at the Center for Jewish History in New York City.
2007: New York Mets star Shawn Green
(currently sixth in National League hitting), along with teammates David
Newhan, Scott Schoeneweis and Aaron Sele, reportedly paid a visit to the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Green, who called the
visit “intense” and “educational,” found himself particularly moved by a
display of victims’ shoes. Newhan, whose great-grandmother was killed during
the purge of the Warsaw Ghetto, was also deeply moved. “It was pretty heavy,”
he told the Journal News, “but something definitely worthwhile.” He said he
planned to take his 2-year-old son when the time was right. Newhan, though bar
mitzvahed at a Conservative synagogue, today considers himself to be a
messianic Jew. Green and Schoeneweis are both Jewish; Sele is not. The Mets’
chief operating officer, Jeff Wilpon, who serves on the museum’s board,
arranged the outing.
2008: Eighth Day of Pesach, 5768 – Traditional (Orthodox,
Conservative, et al) Jews recite Yizkor
(Here is a suggestion for what do with the all the leftover
Matzoth Butterfinger
Comedy Network on Yahoo! Video.
2008:
The Ramle Conference 'Between Israel and the Nations' takes place. The Ramle
Conference which deals with the relationship between the Jewish people and the
non-Jewish minorities living in Israel is the first of its kind.
2008:
Annie Leibovitz’s topless photo of a 15-year-old entertainer “was published
with an accompanying story on The New York Times' website” today.
2009(3rd
of Iyar, 5769): Phillip Stein, the musician who created the mural on the back
wall of the Village Vanguard, passed away today at the age of 90.
2009:
At the JCC in Columbus, Ohio, Israel Memorial Commemoration features a
remembrance ceremony with former IDF soldiers and screen the documentary film
"A Hero in Heaven" about the life of Michael Levin (Z"L)
2009: The Leo Baeck Institute presents multi-media
event featuring a book and film both which are entitled “The Kissinger Saga,
Two Brothers from Fürth.”
2009:
Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, the former (now emeritus) president of George
Washington University, discusses and signs Big Man on Campus: A University
President Speaks Out on Higher Education at Reiter's Scientific &
Professional Books in Washington, D.C.
2009(3rd
of Iyar, 5769): Yom Hazikaron events begin this afternoon with a ceremony at
the Ammunition Hill battlefield in Jerusalem in the presence of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
2009:
“The Confession of Eliot Spitzer” is the cover story for Newsweek magazine.
2009:
Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist “signed legislation removing the word
‘shylock’ from Florida’s criminal money-lending laws.”
2010: "My Father's Microcosm, Tel Aviv", a photographic
installation by Israeli photographer Yossi Guttmann is scheduled to have its
final showing at the Williams Club of New York.
2010: Dr. Ori Z. Soltes,
Goldman Lecturer in Theology at Georgetown University, is scheduled to discuss
“Famous Jewish Trials: From Jesus to Eichmann” at Northern Virginia focusing on
the cases of Jesus of Nazareth, the “Blood Libel" cases during the Spanish
Inquisition, the early twentieth century trials of Jews in Czarist Russian, the
U.S. trial in the 1920's of Leo Frank, the Rosenberg trial in the 1950's, and
the1961 Israeli trial of Adolf Eichmann.
2010(13th of Iyar, 5770): Doctor Stanley I. Greenspan, a psychiatrist who invented an influential
approach to teaching children with autism and other developmental problems by
folding his lanky six-foot frame onto the floor and following their lead in
vigorous play, died today at a hospital in Bethesda, MD at the age of 68.
2010: The Jewish Federation communities of the
Commonwealth of Virginia “have written a letter to Governor Bob McDonnell
asking him to reconsider this decision that lifted a ban on Virginia State
Police troopers referring to Jesus Christ in public prayers.
2011: Kinky “Friedman launched his Springtime For
Kinky Tour (cf. "Springtime For Hitler") in Kansas City, Missouri at
Knuckleheads Saloon] which includes dates in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky
before heading towards the east coast.
2011: In preparation of Yom
HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Detroit’s Congregation Beth Ahm is
scheduled to screen “Hidden Poland”, a one-hour documentary film recounting the
experiences of four people who were hidden children in Poland during the Shoah.
2011: Three days after she had passed away, funeral
services were scheduled to be held today for Joan Peyser, “the master
storyteller who was a biographer of seminal figures in 20th-century music, as
well as an editor and a winner of six ASCAP/Deems Taylor Awards.”
2011: Today on the 189th anniversary of
U.S. Grant’s birth it was announced “Ron Chernow has signed a deal to write a
‘comprehensive biography’ of Ulysses S. Grant” just days after he Chernow had
won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for his book Washington:
A Life.
2011: Fatah and Hamas, the
rival Palestinian movements, announced an agreement in principle today to end a
years-long internal Palestinian schism.
2011: Moroccan Jews who
suffered under the Nazis and their allies during World War II will for the
first time ever receive compensation from Germany, a Jewish group announced
today.
2011(23rd of Nisan, 5771): Sixty-year-old
Dr Stanley I. Greenspan, a psychiatrist who documented the developmental
milestones of early childhood and developed the widely used "Floor
Time" method for teaching children with autism and other developmental disorders,
passed away today.
2011: In Mitzvah Tanks Roll Again,” Gabe Johnson and
Tamir Elterman describe the reappearance of this unique Chabad invention.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/mitzvah-tanks-roll-again/
2012:
“Love During Wartime,” a film about an Israeli Jewish woman in love with a
Palestinian Moslem man, is scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film
Festival.
2012:
“Safe” directed and written by Boaz Yakin was released in the United States
today.
2012: Shabbaton Shira
v’Kehilah, a Shabbat of Song and Community is scheduled to begin at the Kane
Street Synagogue.
2012: David Samson, the owner of the Miami Marlins
baseball team “completed a 52.4 mile run to honor the workers who built the new
ballpark, and which raised over $550,000 to be split among 10 charities.
2013: Ossie Schectman, “is credited with having
scored the first basket in the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which
would later become the National Basketball Association (NBA)” ‘gave his very
last autograph to young NBA fans who came to visit him in his home for the
elderly in New City, New York.”
2013:
The recently retired chief of Israel’s internal security agency said tonight that
he had “no faith” in the ability of the current leadership to handle the
Iranian nuclear threat, ratcheting up the criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak from the defense and intelligence
communities. (As reported by Jodi Rudoren)
2013:
“Dancing In Jaffa” is scheduled to be shown at the Tribeca Film Festival.
2013:
In Livonia, Michigan, “Bookstock,” co-sponsored by the Jewish Community
Relations Council is scheduled to come to an end
2013:
The National Park Service and the United States Military Academy are scheduled
to host the official government ceremony commemorating the 191st anniversary of
President Grant’s birth. While there are those who would paint Grant as an
anti-Semite his Jewish contemporaries did not view him as can be seen by the
fact that Jews overwhelming supported him when he ran for President and by this
eulogy by Professor Felix Adler http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F50E15F8355911738DDDAF0A94DC405B8785F0D3
2013:
A heat wave hit Israel today and caused several fires across Israel, ahead of
Jewish holiday Lag Ba'Omer (bonfire night). Army Radio reported that one man
was lightly injured today in a fire started from burning embers left by hikers.
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Heat-wave-causes-outbursts-of-fires-across-Israel-311273
2014:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including I Pity the Poor Immigrant, Zachary Lazar’s “novel of spiritual
discovery featuring Meyer Lansky, an American journalist and the murder of an
Israeli poet,” Mount Terminus, David Grand’s novel about the early days
of the movie industry featuring half-brothers Simon Reuben and Bloom Rosenbloom
and In Paradise, “Peter Matthiessen’s novel about a Zen retreat at
Auschwitz.”
2014:
The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host
“Downtown Washington,” a “tour of the historic 7th Street, NW
neighborhood” that “includes four former synagogues.
2014(27th
of Nisan, 5774): In the evening start of Yom Hashoah. While the 27th of Iyar is the
official date for Yom Hashoah, when the 27th of Nisan falls on a
Sunday, the observance takes place on the 28th of Nisan (Monday) “to
avoid adjacency with Shabbat.”
2014:
Three days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held
for Dr. Charles A. Schwartz, the husband of Dr.Sheila Schwartz, the father of
Pamela Fay Cohen, Julia Molly Healy, David Ansin Schwartz and Columbia and
Boston University graduate and award winning television journalist Elizabeth
Cohen (Elizabeth Sondra Schwartz) and wife of Israeli-born Entrepreneur Tal
Cohen.
https://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/cohen.elizabeth.html
2014:
“Light and Shadows: The Story of the Iranian Jews” an “exhibition that tell the
rich and complex history of one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities” is
scheduled to come to an end at Yeshiva University Museum.
2014:
“The March of Life” under the title “Remembering, Reconciling and Shaping the
Future in Friendship” is scheduled to come to an end in Hungary.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/179748#.U1smEJtOWpo
2014:
Popes John XXIII and John Paul II are being declared saints of the Roman
Catholic Church today, the day that is also the eve of Yom Hashoah
http://www.timesofisrael.com/from-pope-to-saint-two-men-who-revamped-jewish-catholic-ties/
2014:
In New Orleans, the keynote speaker at the Holocaust Memorial Program is
scheduled to be eighty-eight year old Philip Bialowitz, one of only seven
survivors of the Sobribor revolt at the Nazi death camp who was 17 at the time
of the revolt, joined with his brother and others to overwhelm the guards and
helped free 200 of the 600 prisoners housed there” whose memoir is A Promise
at Sobribor: A Jewish Boy’s Story of Revolt and Survival in Nazi-Occupied
Poland. (As reported by the Crescent City Jewish News)
2014:
“Golda’s Balcony” a one-woman show starring Tova Feldshuh as the Israeli Prime
Minister is scheduled to be performed for the last time this evening at the
D.C. Jewish Community Center.
2014:
In Coralville, Iowa, Rabbi Jeff Portman has organized a memorable and
meaningful series of Yom HaShoah events that are scheduled to include the
Fourth Annual Music of Commemoration at Agudas Achim and a reading by Professor
Lud Gutmann, MD from his book Richard Road: Fleeing the Holocaust and
Growing Up In Rural America.
2014:
Holocaust Remembrance Week is scheduled to begin today.
2015:
“The Last Sentence” and “Let’s Go” are scheduled to be shown at the Westchester
Jewish Film Festival.
2015(8th
of Iyar, 5776): Ninety-year-old Dr. Alexander Rich who provided the visual
proof of the DNA’s Double Helix passed away today. (As reported by Denise Gellene)
2015:
Dana Kalishov is scheduled to discuss the important role of the IDF in
providing invaluable educational and leadership opportunities, fostering the
growth of pluralism, encouraging respect and equal rights for women, members of
the LGBT community, and other minorities at the Northern Virginia Jewish
Community Center.
2015:
“In the Community: Touchdown Israel” is scheduled to be shown at the Gershman Y
as part of the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival.
2015:
Michele Gold author of Memories that Won't Go Away:A Tribute to the Children
of the Kindertransport is scheduled to speak at the US Holocaust Memorial
Museum.
2015:
Mark Gelber and Birger Vanwesenbeck are scheduled to
discuss “Stefan Zweig and World Literature: 21st Century Perspectives” at the
Center for Jewish History.
2015: In Baltimore looters
carried away over a million dollars in merchandize as they vandalized the
Sports Mart a business started in 1980 by 89 year old Leon Levy and his sons
Harvey, Marc and Brian.
2015: Congregants
Challenge Sale of Bulwark of Judaism on Lower East Side published today
described the dispute surrounding the sale of the Home of Sages “a Manhattan
nursing home in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge.”
2016(19th of
Nisan, 5776): Fifth Day of Pesach
2016(19th of
Nisan, 5776): Eighty-seven year old abstract artist Harold Cohen passed away
today in California.
2016: “Common Ground”
written by Israel Yael Ronen is scheduled to be performed at the Segal Theatre
tonight.
2016; “The first Jewish
film festival of Casablanca, which was organized in the Moroccan city by a
Sephardic Jewish woman from Atlanta” and which was attended by nearly 300
people came to an end today.
2016: “Two Palestinian
terrorists this morning attempted to stab Border Policemen at Qalandiya
checkpost north of Jerusalem before being shot and killed by security forces.”
2017(1st of
Iyar, 5777): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2017(1st of
Iyar, 5777): Ninety-six year old Julius Young “the last surviving member of
Jonas Salk’s original research team” passed away today. (As reported by Sam
Roberts)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/science/julius-youngner-dead-salk-polio-vaccine-researcher.html
2017(1st of
Iyar, 5777: Eighty-nine year old Holocaust survivor and “award winning author
and illustrator Peter Spier” passed away today. (As reported by Richard
Sandomir)
2017: Dan Margulies is
scheduled to lead an early Talmud study session on Tractate Sukkah at the
Streicker Center
2017: The National
Museum of American Jewish Military History and the Jewish Historical Society of
Greater Washington are scheduled to host a tour of the exhibition “Jews in the
American Military” followed by a presentation by JHS curator Christiane Bauer,
who will share treasures from our collection related to the involvement of
Jewish Washingtonians in "The Great War."
2017: The UKJF is
scheduled to host a screening of “Photo Farag” which tells “the story of the
photography studio in Israel” as the Phoenix Cinema.
2017: The American
Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present “A Vanished People: Jewish Heritage
in the Greater Middle East.”
2017: 195th
Anniversary of the birth of U.S. Grant, the underrated general who understood
modern warfare which led to the Union victory and who offered the position of
Secretary of the Treasury to his friend Jesse Seligman who declined the offer
which would have made him the first Jewish member of the Cabinet.
2018: Today, “flanked by
the Nassau County Democratic Chairman and the Governor of New York, Anna
Kaplan, the native of Tabriz and Cardozo School of Law trained attorney, who
had fled her homeland after the Islamic Revolution, “announced her candidacy for
the New York State Senate's 7th District to a large gathering of supporters and
state and local Democratic elected officials at the "Yes We Can Community
Center" in Westbury, New York.”
2018:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host Friday night services
followed by a Shabbat dinner.
2018:
“The Love Letter “directed by Atara Frish is scheduled to be shown at the
Tribeca Film Festival.
2018:
“The National Park Service and the United States Military Academy at West
Points” are scheduled to “host the official government commemorating the 196th
anniversary of the birth of President U.S. Grant, the first sitting President
to contribute to a synagogue building fun and to attend synagogue services – in
this case Adas Israel in Washington, D.C.
2019:
Israeli Culture in North America, which presents and discusses “the works of
young emergin and established Israeli artists in the performing, visual,
literary and cinematic arts recommends attendance at the “Debut concert of
so&so” that is scheduled to take place this evening at the Brooklyn Armory
Terminal.
2019:
On the secular calendar, six month anniversary of the Pittsburgh Synagogue
Slaughter, the deadliest one day killing of Jews in the United States.
2019(22nd
of Nisan, 5779): As Jews attended services at Chabad of Poway Synagogue in
Poway, CA, a gunman shot four including the rabbi, murdering one woman.
2019:
This evening award winning biographer Ron Chernow is scheduled to be the
featured speaker at the 2019 White House Correspondents Dinner
2019(22nd
of Nissan, 5779): Eighth Day of Pesach; 7thDay of the Omer;
2020:
ASF IJE Travels in Jewish History... from Home is scheduled to present
Expedition to Iraq, a journey in time and space, that features Babylonian
Jewish shrines, schools, cemeteries throughout the country with stops in
Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, al-Kifl, and Amediye, powered by Diarna Geo-Museum Tours
2020: The Israeli American Council – Boston is
scheduled to host the Yom Hazilkaron Online Commemoration Ceremony.
2020: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host
“Jewish Resilience Through Chocolate” a virtual “sweet” presentation by Rabbi
Debbie Prinz.
2020: The Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Studies at Salem State University is scheduled to host a livestream of a
Holocaust remembrance ceremony.
2020: As part of a special Israel Independence
Day “Tikvah Life” presentation, Dr. Ran Baratz is scheduled to speak live from
Jerusalem on “The Strengths of Israel: A Civilizational Assessment.”
2020: In Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is
scheduled to host its first Yiddish study group via Zoom.
2021:
The Combined Jewish Philanthropies are scheduled to present, online “Redemption
and the Unquiet Mind in the Exodus Narrative” during which “world-renowned
author and Torah scholar Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg discuss mental unease as
a factor in the Exodus epic” as part of the
Ruderman Synagogue Inclusion Project (RSIP)
2021: The Schusterman Center for Israel Studies
is scheduled to present online an “Artist Workshop with Dana Arieli: “The
Zionist Phantom.”
2021: In New Orleans, LCMC and the Schoenbaum
Family Foundation are scheduled to sponsor "Hello Gorgeous," a virtual tour of the
life of Barbra Steisand, located at the Bernard Museum of Judaica in New York
which is open to Lions of Judah (women who give a minimum household gift of
$5,000 to the Federation's 2021 Annual Campaign) and the members of their
households.
2021:
YIVO is scheduled to present “The Jewish Experience in Opera” a panel
discussion which “will include four prominent composers of such operas of
Jewish experience: Ofer Ben-Amots, composer of one opera in Hebrew based on The
Dybbuk and another in Yiddish on Isaac Bashevis Singer's story, "A Fool's
Paradise"; David Schiff, whose opera, Gimpel the Fool is also to a Singer
story; Bruce Adolphe, whose operas include Mikhoyels The Wise—about the
legendary Soviet Yiddish actor—and Shabbtai Zvi, about the 17th-century
so-called "false messiah" naively followed by many thousands of Jews;
and Alex Weiser, who wrote an opera about Theodor Herzl, State of the Jews,
with librettist Ben Kaplan who will also join the panel.”
2021:
As part of The Sir Martin Gilbert Churchill Conversation Series Allen Packwood
and Lord (Michael) Dobbs are scheduled to “discuss Churchill’s legacy on stage
and screen.”
2021:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host Malcolm Gladwell as “he discusses the
launch of his new book The Bomber Mafia.”
2021:
The ADL is scheduled to host the webinar “A Special Briefing on the State of
Antisemitism in the U.S.”
2021:
Following a weekend where “at least 36 rockets were launched on Israeli
communities in the south” and yesterday’s meeting of the Security Cabinet, as
of today Israel is prepared to launch a “substantial air force attack on the
Gaza Strip if the launch rocket fire into Israeli territory persists.” (As
reported by Itamar Eichner and Yoav Zitun).
2022:
In London, The Wiener Library is scheduled to host a “Virtual Panel Discussion
on Holocaust Distortion.”
2022:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host an online lunch and learn on
“Stories of Survival: In Conversation With Jim Lommasson, Holocaust Survivor
Ralph Rehbock, and Deputy Consul General Daniel Aschheim”
2022:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host the first session of “Paul: Radical
Convert of Lifelong Jew?” with Dr. Mark. W. Weisstuch.
2022:
The auction for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s modern art collection is
scheduled to take place today.
2022:
This evening, the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to host
Steven Pressman who will discuss his film “”50 Children: The Rescue Mission of
Mr. and Mrs. Kraus” as part of their Yom Ha’Shoah Holcaust Remembrance Day
observance.
2022:
LBI is scheduled to present Lore Segal discussing her latest book , The
Journal I Did not Keep.
2022:
This evening UK Jewish Film is scheduled to present the first screening of “I
Am Here.”
2022:
Erev Yom Hashoah, the American Society for Jewish Music, the Center for Jewish
History, LBI and YIVO are scheduled to present flutist Urlrike Anton, the
Selini String Quarter and students from the Mannes School of Music at the New
School performing “Forbidden Music: Jewish Composers Banned by the Nazis.”
2022:
Two months after initial reports of the Polio outbreak in Israel, the Health
Ministry is prepared to begin a widespread vaccination drive for children.
2022:
Ninety-six year old Olga Czike Ka, a survivor of Auschwitz and the Kaufering
and Bergen-Belsen is one of six Holocaust survivors scheduled to to light memorial torches at Israel’s
official state Yom Hashoah commemoration ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem
this evening.
2023:
The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History and ADL Philadelphia
are scheduled to host “Faith in the Face of Hate” during which “prominent
national faith leaders, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker of Temple Emanuel and
Reverend Mark Kelly Tyler, Ph.D. of Mother Bethel AME Church, will discuss
combating rising antisemitism and hate crimes in a conversation moderated by
Jane Eisner, director of academic affairs at Columbia University.”
2023:
In Cleveland, the Maltz Performing Arts Center is scheduled to host “An Evening
With Josh Ranor,” the actor, writer, director and musician originally from
Columbus, OH who “can currently be seen
hunting Nazis in the Jordan Peele-produced “Hunters” for Amazon Prime and
“Fleishman Is In Trouble.”
2023:
The Skirball Department of Hebrew
and Judaic Studies, and the Taub Center for Israel Studies at NYU are scheduled
to present "You can't look at the same Cloud twice": An encounter
with acclaimed Israeli poet and writer Tal Nitzan.
2023: In New Orleans, Tulane Hillel is
scheduled to host a gallery viewing and opening reception to celebrate “Tulane
Hillel's Portrait Identity Project which uses portraiture photography and
interviews to share the unique stories of Tulane students and diversify the
narrative of what it looks like to be Jewish.”
2023: The Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan is
scheduled to present the first session of “Who Are We? 120 Years of Art in
Israel.”
2023: In New Orleans, the Jewish Community
Center is scheduled to host a screening of “Code Name: Ayalon” which “is a
documentary to forever preserve an important period in the infancy of the
Jewish state.”
2023:
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at the Center for Jewish
History is scheduled to present a lecture by Rachel B. Gross on “Family History
Today: Give Us Our Name - Jewish Genealogy and American Jewish Religion - Live
on Zoom.”
2024:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by David Peimer on “Jerusalem
in Poetry and Myth.”
2024:
“Nebulous,” Orit Hofshi’s debut solo exhibition is scheduled to come to a close
at the Yossi Milo Gallery
2024:
Eden Tamir Center is scheduled celebrate the 85th birthday of pianist
Oxana Yablonskaya with a “Cello and Piano Recital.”
2024:
As April 27th begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps
the United States and the Hamas held hostages begin
day 204 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(19th of Nisan, 5784): Shabbat
Shel Pesach; for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
