This Day, May 25, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
May 25
1085: Pope
Gregory VI passed away. Gregory opposed
Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor who saw himself as a protector of the
Jews. Henry contended that the Jews,
regardless of where they lived, were his subjects. He granted them special dispensations and
exemptions in matters of trade and taxes.
1085: Alfonso
VI of Castile took Toledo back from the Moors. As Moslem Spain came under the
control of increasingly intolerant religious leaders, Jews and liberal Moslems
found refuge in the tolerant world of Christian Toledo. As many as 40,000 Jews are reported to have
fought in the armies of Alfonso against the Almoravides. Ironically, there were thousands of Jews
fighting with the Almoravides as well.
1096: Massacre
of the Jews of Worms who took refuge in the city's castle during the First
Crusade. Simcha Bar Isaac haKohen was "torn to bits" by
Crusaders in a church for stabbing the bishop's nephew while pretending to
submit to compulsory baptism. (Editorial
comment: I’ll bet that scene is in not in any of the blockbuster hits about the
noble Crusaders and their noble Moslem opponents.)
1241: First
attack on Jewish community of Frankfort-on-the-Main Germany.
1261: The
Papacy of Alexander IV, who brought the Inquisition to France, ended today.
1490: In
Toledo, 400 Judaizers and “many Hebrew books” were burned “1t a great auto da
fé “where a woman who wished to die as a Jewess expired with the word
"Adonai" on her lips.”
1648:
Chmielnicki's pogroms, which resulted in the massacre of more than 300,000
Jews, broke out. This slaughter took place in the Ukraine. This was
the worst slaughter of Jews until the Holocaust.
1710(5th
of Iyar): Rabbi Benjamin Ozer of Zolkiev, author of “Even ha-Ozer” passed away
1717: Johann
Christian George Bodenschatz, the native of Hof, Germany who “devoted his life
to Jewish antiquities, and is said to have made elaborate models of the Ark of
Noah and of the Tabernacle in the wilderness.”
1738(6th
of Sivan, 5498): “Moshe Neta, the son of Avi passed away today in Yablonov.
1741(10th
of Sivan): Daniel Christian Jabolonski, who printed the Talmud passed away in
Berlin today.
1751: In
London, Sarah Nunes Navaro and Aaron Nunez Cardozo who were married in 1739
gave birth to Isaac Nunez Cardozo, the husband of Sarah Hart with whom he had
five children – Michael, Rachel, Abigail, Esther and Judith.
1757(6th
of Sivan, 5517): Shavuot
1757(6th
of Sivan, 5517): Italian Rabbi and Poet Jacob Daniel Olmo Ben Abraham passed
away today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_15085.html
1759: Judah
Lob Ben Nathan Krysa, an 18th century Frankist leader from Galacia
“declared that the cross symbolized the "holy trinity" spoken of in
the Zohar, and the seal of the Messiah.”
Krysa also “asserted before the ecclesiastical dignitaries that the
Talmud prescribes the use of Christian blood. Like his master Jacob Frank and
most of the Frankists, Krysa” would later embrace Christianity.
1765(5th
of Sivan, 5525): Parashat Bamidbar; erev Shavuot
1768: Levi
Sheftall and Sarah de la Motta, the parents of Savannah native Rachel Sheftall
were married today in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, the homeland of the bride.
1769(18th
of Iyar, 5529): Lag B’Omer
1772(22nd
of Iyar): Rabbi Aaaron ben Solomon Amarillo, author of “Penie Aharon” passed
away.
1776(7th of
Sivan, 5536): Second Day of Shavuot observed for the first time during a
meeting of the Second Continental Congress.
1779:
In the United Kingdom, Jonathan Jones and the former Catherine Phillips gave
birth to Rachel Jones.
1784:
Jews are expelled from Warsaw by Marshall Mniszek
1787:
Opening session of the Philadelphia Convention which would become known as the
Constitutional Convention because its fifty-five delegates would write the U.S.
Convention. While there were no Jewish delegates at the Convention, the framers
took action that had a profound effect on the Jewish people that has lasted to
the 21st century. Article VI of the document states: “No religious
test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust
under the United States.” In other
words, from the beginning of Jews, at least at the federal level, were eligible
to hold office. Lewis Charles Levin
would be the first Jew elected to Congress, winning election to the House of
Representatives in 1844.
1798:
In St. Mary Axe, Raphael Raphael, and the former Ashe Julia gave birth to Henry
Raphael.
1800
:(1st day of Sivan, 5560): Rosh Chodesh Sivan observed for the first
time in the 19th century.
1812:
Recommendation were passed today related to the establishment of a charity to be
known as the Free School for German Jews
which later became the Talmud Torah of the Great Synagogue.
1813:
In Charleston, SC, Rebecca Philips and Isaiah Moses gave birth to Sarah Moses
the wife of Aaron Alexander whom she married in 1836 and with she had nine
children.
1815:
One day after she had passed awat Leah bat ? was buried today at the Brady
Jewish Cemetery.
1817:
Birthdate of Saul Solomon the native of St. Helena, the leader of South
Africa’s Liberal Party who is called the “Cape Disraeli” because, like Benjamin
Disraeli, he converted to Christianity.
And like Disraeli, he retained a sense of pride in his ethnic
origins. He passed away in 1892.
1820:
In New York, David and Henriette Cromelien gave birth to Washington Cromelin
who is buried at Mikveh Israel Cemetery in Philadelphia.
1821: Influential 19th
economist David Ricardo the son of Anglo-Sephardic Jews who became a Unitarian
when he married Priscilla Anne Wilkinson voted for the abolition of the death
penalty for forgery.
1821: Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich began serving as 1st
State Chancellor of the Austrian Empire. Metternich was an extremely complex
character whose treatment of Jews depended on the needs of the Austrian
Empire. Thus he could favor rights for
Jews in Germany while opposing them for Jews in Austria. Henry Kissinger, the
first Jewish Secretary of State wrote his thesis on Metternich and eventually
published A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of
Peace, 1812-22
1822(5th
of Sivan, 5582): Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot observed as the Greeks wage
war against the Ottomans for their independence.
1822(5th
of Sivan 5582: Fifty-seven-year-old Miriam Marks, the daughter of Rachel
Solomon and Levy Marks who were married in 1764 and who was the wife of
Benjamin Abraham Nones whom she married in 1782 with whom she had 13 children
passed away today in her hometown of Philadelphia, PA.
1826(18th
of Iyar, 5586): Lag B’Omer
1826:
Bavarian Lewis Eisenmann, “took out his first papers” – a step to becoming a
citizen of the United States.
1826:
Uri Feivel ben David married Blumah bat Samuel today at the Western Synagogue.
1827:
One day after he had passed away, Prague native Reuben Lyon was buried today at
the Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1827:
In the Hague, Mozes Abraham Verveer, and Saartje Isaac van der Velden gave
birth to Benjamin Moses Verveer, the husband of Clara de Bok
1831:
In Philadelphia, PA, Mary Levy Moss and Eleazer (Eugene) Moss gave birth to philanthropist
Lucien Moss “a machinist for the firm of Morris & Taws, Philadelphia, for
whom he superintended the erection of sugar-mills in Porto Rico” and the
founder firm of Wiler & Moss, brass-workers who “left the bulk of his
moderate fortune to the Jewish Hospital Association of Philadelphia, for the
founding and endowing of the Lucien Moss Home for Incurables of the Jewish
Faith.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11171-moss-lucien
1831:
Henry Jones married Elizabeth Benjamin today at the Great Synagogue.
1832(25th
of Iyar): Rabbi Jacob Lorberbaum of Lissa, author of “Netivot ha-Mishpat”
passed away.
1833(7th of Sivan, 5593): Second day of
Shavuot
1839: Birthdate of Vienna native Yehuda Porges, who
gained famed as “Paris based financer” Jules Porgès and husband of Rose-Anne
Wodianer who played a major role in the development of diamond and gold mining
in South Africa
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jules_Porgès_at_Rochefort75.jpg
1839: "The British Vice-Counsel in Jerusalem,
William Tanner Young, wrote a report comparing the conditions of the Jews in
Palestine to that of their counterparts in Egypt. Young wrote that the
Governor of Egypt, Ibrahim Pasha, showed 'more consideration' for the Jews than
the Christians did. Young also wrote that he had heard several Egyptian
Jews acknowledge that 'they enjoy more peace and tranquility under this
Government, than they have ever enjoyed here before.' But he then observed
that, in contrast, 'the Jew in Jerusalem is not estimated in value much above a
dog - and scarcely a day passes that I do not hear of some act of tyranny and
oppression against a Jew.'" (In Ishmael's House by Martin Gilbert)
1841(5th of Sivan, 5601): Erev Shavuot
1842: Angel Haas married Elizabeth Cohen at the Great
Synagogue in London today
1843: In New York, Jonathan Nathan, the New York born son
of Isaac Mendes Seixas Nathan and Sarah Mendes Nathan and his wife Rebecca
Gratz Nathan gave birth to Gratz Nathan, the husband of Eudora M. Nathan and
father of Constance and Frank Henry Nathan.
1844(7th of Sivan, 5604): Second Day of
Shavuot
1844: In Schleswig-Holstein, Levi J. Unna and his wife
gave birth to Johanne M. Loeb the husband of Moritz Loeb who settled in show
was she was a director of Michael Reese Hospital and a member of the Relief
Committee of the Hebrew Charities.
1844: Today, during the reign of Louis Philippe, major
changes were made in the way members were chosen for the Jewish consistory
which Napoleon convened first as the Assembly of Jewish Notables and later as a
“Grand Sanhedrin.”
1845(18th of Iyar, 5605): Lag B’Omer observed
on the same day that “a theatre fire in Canton, China, kills 1,670.
1845: In New York City, Jane and Emanuel Boaz Pike gave
birth to Lipman Emanuel "Lip" Pike reportedly was the first Jewish
baseball player and the first baseball player to play the game for cash meaning
he was the first professional baseball who was the husband of Zila Pike with
whom he had three children – Boaz, Minnie and Emanuel.
1846: In Philadelphia, PA, Phillipa Minis and Edward
Johnson Etting gave birth to Theodore Minis Etting, \who served in the U.S.
Navy from 1862 until 1877 when he resigned to pursue a career as a lawyer a
civic leader that culminated in his election as member of the Select Council
while being Married to Jeanette Verplanck.
1849(4th of Sivan, 5609): Fifty-three-year-old
University Pennsylvania trained attorney Elijah Gratz Etting, the Baltimore
born son of Reuben Etting and the district attorney for Cecil County in the
state of Maryland, passed away today.
1852: In Chicago, fourteen Jews organized B’nai Sholom,
the second oldest congregation in the city.
1852:
“Jewish Disabilities” published today began with the sentence “No more accurate
gauge for advancing civilization could probably be chosen, than the political
condition of the Jews” is worth reading in its entirety for anybody seeking to
understand the unique nature of the American Jewish experience.
1854: Today
during the second reading of the Jewish Disabilities Bill sponsored by Lord
Russell, Benjamin Disraeli voiced his opposition to the measure. In part, Disraeli’s opposition was based on a
desire to divorce the bill, which is designed to allow Jewish MP’s to sit in
Parliament, from a move to provide full rights of citizenship to British Roman
Catholics.
1854:
German author Paul Heyse arrived in Munich where he had been appointed
professor of Romance philology at the city’s university. Heyse, who father was not Jewish and whose
mother Julie was the daughter of the Prussian court jeweler Jakob Salomon, is
considered by some to be the first Jew to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
1854:
In Gibraltar, Eliyahu Benoliel and Ester Baquis gave birth to Solomon Benoliel
the husband of Rachel Pariente.
1858:
In Vilna, Louis Cohen and his wife gave birth to Rabbi Abraham Cohn who in 1902 began serving as the spiritual leader
of Congregation Ansche Israel in Newark, NJ.
1859:
Birthdate of Russian native Isaiah Agat, who served as the Rabbi at Chicago’s
Congregation Moses Montefiore which had been founded in 1875 and which during
his tenure offered a three-day religious school and looked to the Sisters of
Moses Montefiore, as an Auxiliary Service to help with congregational projects.
1859:
In Philadelphia, PA, “David and Eva (Baum) Blumenthal” gave birth to “Hart Blumenthal,
a trustee of the Jewish Publication Society, chairman of the Keneseth Israel
Free Library and a noted collector of Lincolniana” with his wife Ida Ratwitch
raised Walter Hart Blumenthal, the Clinton, IA native precocious enough to the University of Pennsylvania at the age
of 16 before going on to a career as an author.
http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ead/ead.html?id=EAD_upenn_rbml_PUSpMsColl1104
1861(16th
of Sivan 5621): Parashat Beha’alotcha read as word reaches New York City that
North Carolina has officially adopted an ordinance of secession.
1863:
Birthdate of Parisian native and opera composer Camille Erlanger.
1863(7th
of Sivan, 5623): Second Day of Shavuot
1863:
In Kovno, Jehuda Zwie Finkelstein and his wife gave birth to Simon I.
Finelstein who served as rabbi at a several American congregations including
Congregation Bikur Cholim, Baltimore, Md., 1886-1890; Beth T'flla, Cincinnati,
Ohio, 1890-1897; and Poale Zedek, Syracuse, N. Y., 1897-1902 and Congregation
Ohave Sholom, Brooklyn NY
1865:
Today the Jewish Messenger “published
an appreciation of Abraham Lincoln in Hebrew by Isaac Goldstein which began
with “Happy are thou, Lincoln, Who is like unto thee! Among Kings and princes
thou art exalted…”
1867:
In “Libau Courland, Hyman and Sarah Maltinsky gave birth to Samuel Maltinsky
who in 1888 came to the United States where he went from being a peddler to
serving as the President and Treasurer of the Crescent Jewelry Company in
Pittsburgh, PA.
1867:
In Odessa, Nathan Sanders and his wife gave birth to Leon Sanders who was
admitted to the New York bar in 1895, Married Bertha Fisher in 1896 and served
as Tammany Hall leader in a series of legislative capacities before being
elected “as justice of the Thirteenth District of the Municipal Court of the
City of New York.”
1868:
The New York Times reviewed “The Book of Genesis,” translated
from the original Hebrew by Dr. T. J. Conant.
The translation is accompanied “with copious notes and an introduction.”
1868:
Birthdate of
Polish native Dawid “David” Markelowicz Janowski, the
Jewish chess champion who settled in Paris in 1890, and won his first
tournaments at Monte Carlo and Hanover..
https://www.chess.com/players/david-janowsky
https://www.chessgames.com/player/david_janowski.html?kpage=2
1868:
In Camden, SC, Susan Hyams and Adolph Wittkowsky, gave birth to University of
South Carolina trained attorney and the husband of Pauline Heyman with whom he
had two children – George and Cecil – and City Attorney for Camden who was
president of the Hebrew Benevolent Association an a member of the synagogue in
Camden.
1870: In Hungary, Mayer Newman and his wife gave birth to Morris Newman who
served congregations in McKeesport and Scranton, PA before becoming the “Cantor
of the First Hungarian Congregation Agudath Achim” in Chicago.
1870:
At 3 o'clock this afternoon the corner-stone of the Mount Sinai Hospital was
laid at the corner of Sixty-sixth-street and Lexington-avenue. The ceremony
included addresses by New York Mayor Abraham Hall and Judge Cardozo.
1871(5th
of Sivan, 5631): 49th Day of the Omer; Erev Shavuot
1873:
“A Jewish Ceremony” published today described “a very curious ceremony called
‘The Burying of the Law.’” Such a
ceremony which takes place once every eight or ten years recently took place
“in the Spanish Synagogue in Jerusalem” which has a “subterranean cave” in
which “every old leaf torn out from any holy book, every old worn-out Bible,
Gemara and phylactery” has been deposited “by all the Jewish residents of
Jerusalem” regardless of their Minhag. Every 8 to 10 years, these materials are
made into bales and then, after following the applicable rituals, the bales are
carried out of the Zion Gate by a procession of Jews who descend “into the
valley of Jehoshaphat where a very deep well is located. The bales are then drop into the well “amid
the singing of the joyous crowd.
1874:
Birthdate of Roemerstadt, Austria native Dr. Otto Marburg, the leading
neurologist who became a “clinical professor of neurology at Columbia” after
fleeing the Nazis in 1938 and who said of the United States, “I am full of
gratitude to this great nation which wants nothing for itself but helps as much
as possible those who need help.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/06/14/84538495.pdf
1875: This evening Professor Felix Adler, of Cornell University,
addressed the American Geographical Society at Association Hall in New York
City. His topic was "The Influence of the Physical Geography of Palestine
on Hebrew Thought." The opening of this address was devoted to the
statement and citation of the effects of climate on the character and thoughts
of people born in it.
1876:
A meeting of delegates representing Hebrew congregations from various U.S.
cities which was being held at The Harvard Rooms in New York City came to an
end. The delegates discussed the
possibility of establishing a seminary that would teach Jewish theology and the
Hebrew language while preparing students to become Rabbis.
1876:
In Breslau, Germany, Bertha Heppner and Baruch Fox gave birth to Boston public
school educated pianist Felix Fox the head of the Felix Fox School of
Pianoforete and a member of Temple Israel in Boston.
1877:
“A Romance in Paterson: The Marriage of a Pretty
Jewess Under Peculiar Circumstances” published today described the suit for an
annulment that Miss Rachel Blumenthal, the daughter of wealthy Montreal Jew, is
bringing against Moses Tannenhoz a cigar dealer from Patterson, NJ. The 18 year
old Miss Blumenthal claimed that she was tricked into marrying Tannenhoz and
that she was not of the age of consent when the ceremony took place.
1879:
Birthdate of Harry Lilienthal, the husband of Gertrude Harrison Lilienthal and
the son-in-law of Gustave and Louisa Nelson Harrison.
1879: The yearly meeting of the United Hebrew Charities was held
this morning at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, in East Seventy-seventh Street.
1880:
In Amsterdam, a merchant named Jacob Samuel Hillesum and his wife Esther
Hillesum-Loeza gave birth to their 4th and youngest child Levie
(Louis) Hillesum, the father of Esther "Etty" Hillesum. Years later, Etty would keep a diary of life
under Nazi occupation that would not surface until after her death at the age of
29 in Auschwitz.
1882(7th
of Sivan, 5642): Second Day of Shavuot
1882(7th
of Sivan, 5642): English publisher and convert to Judaism Thomas Jones passed
away
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8779-jones-thomas
1882:
In Lithuania, Hannah-Dvorah Hersch (née Blumberg) and Meyer Dovid Hersch gave
birth to Pesach Liebmann Hersch who gained fame as the pioneering demographer
and statistician Liebmann Hersch, the husband of Liba Lichetenbaum with whom he
had three children Irene, Joseph and philosopher Jeanne Hersch
http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=34147
1883:
Birthdate of Chicago native and University of Pennsylvania graduate Harry
Walter Jastrow, the refrigerator manufacturer and husband of Henrietta Levy as
well as the father of Stanley L.
Jastrow, the MIT graduate and president of Chicago Sinai Congregation and the
grandfather of Ellen Jastrow.
1885:
In Kiev, Fannie Sacherenko and Isaac Molarsky gave birth to School of
Industrial Art and Academy of Fine arts trained award winning painter Maurice
Molarsky, the wife of Tina Maroglis, known for his “portraits, still lifes,
landscapes and mural decoration
https://woodmereartmuseum.org/explore-online/collection/linda
https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Maurice-Molarsky/AB6D7F3839AC6294
1887:
In “Ukraine, Pinchus and Chava (Geiro) Bodansky” gave birth to Cornell
University educated biochemist Dr. Aaron Bodansky, the husband of Marie Syrkin,
who worked at the Research Laboratories of Upjohn in Kalamazoo while writing
“numerous scientific papers on enzymes and hormones” before going on to
“enzymes and hormones.”
1889:
Birthdate of Philadelphia native and NYU trained attorney Jacob Axelrad.
1889:
In NYC, Louis and Miriam Deborah Friedman gave birth to CCNY and the NYU School of Commerce, Accounts
and Finance trained investment banker Elisha Michael Friedman, a member of the
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Secretary of the American
Committee for Hebrew University in Palestine.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/elisha-michael-friedman/2025689/
1890(6th
of Sivan, 5650): First Day of Shavuot
1890:
At Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi Gottheil will officiate at Confirmation Services.
1890:
At Temple Beth-El, Rabbi Kohler will officiate at Confirmation Services.
1890:
At Temple Ahawatch Chesed, Rabbi Kohut will officiate at Confirmation Services.
1890:
At the Temple on East 15th Street, Rabbi Raphael Benjamin will
officiate at Confirmation Services.
1890:
Rabbi H.S. Jacobs will lead Shavuot Services today at B’nai Jeshurun.
1890:
Rabbi De Sola Mendes will lead Shavuot Services today at Shaarai-Tephilla.
1890:
The body of Samuel Hotz, a Jewish peddler, was found in an old mining shaft at
Wurtsborough, NY.
1890:
“Republican Origins” published today described the reaction to The Origins
of the Republican Form of Government in the United States by Oscar Straus
which has now been translated into French by Madame Jessie Catherine Couvreur
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F40711FA395F10738DDDAC0A94DD405B8085F0D3
1890:
It was reported today that President Carnot’s meeting with the Chief Rabbi of
France has “called forth a host of letters on the ‘second Babylonish captivity’
and the freedom of the Jews in modern times.”
1890:
It was reported today that the Republican Club in New York City continues to
refuse to admit Jews with several members publicly committed to using the
blackball to accomplish this end.
1890:
It was reported today that the Internal Revenue Collector and “boss of one-half
of the Republicans of Kings County,” Ernst Nathan began his career as a cigar
maker. Today he owns several rows of houses, “has made many thousands of
dollars in real estate” and is worth a half-million dollars. His political
power stems from his ability to name those who will occupy important elected
positions including two state Assembly districts as well as the party
candidates for Senator and Third District Congressman.
1891:
It was reported today that resolutions passed six months under the leadership
of the Duke of Westminster beseeching the Czar to show some pity for his Jewish
subjects have been met with “unseemly contempt” and no let-up in the expulsion
of the Jews. In response, the Hebrew
Lovers of Zion has been formed in London with the aim of finding a home for the
Jewish refugees in Palestine. Their
attempts have been met approval in England and the United States where
anti-immigrant sentiment is growing.
1891:
It was reported today that the flood of refugees is gaining, not losing
“headway.” During April 7,501 Russian and Polish immigrants arrived in the
United States “an increase over 1890 of 3,291. While German immigrants are
described as “sturdy” and Scandinavians are described as “honest, lusty
workers” these immigrants are described as being poor, degraded and in
“pitiable condition” who would be better settled in the lands of the Sultan
(Palestine).
1892:
“Mortally Wounded In A Duel” published today described the circumstances around
a duel fought in Hungary Baron Aczel, a member of the Diet and a rich Jewish
landowner named Karsay who was denied a chance to participate in the
celebration of the jubilee of the coronation of the King because of his
religion.
1892:
The building of the new sanitarium for Jewish children located at Rockaway Park
which cost $20, 975 was overseen by the Board of Managers whose officers
include Nathan Lewis, President; Dr. Horatio Gomez, Vice President; Hezekiah
Kohn, Treasurer; Joseph Davis, Secretary.
1893: Birthdate of László Jenő Ocskay of Ocskó and
Felsődubován a Hungarian army officer, captain of the Royal Hungarian Army who
saved approximately 2500 Jews in Budapest in 1944–45, thus being one of those
Hungarians who saved the most Jews during the Holocaust.”
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/h13kskds9?utm_source=Taboola_internal&utm_medium=organic
1893:
According to Israel Schwartz who has been living at the Ladies’ Deborah Nursery
for nine years, today, “in school I talked to other boys against” following
which “my teach Byron Reilly wrote to Superintendent Engel of the nursery about
me.”
1894:
“Annoyed by a Sausage Dealer” published today described the store owned by
Florian Sicher, the Yorkville butcher which includes signage advertising
“Anti-Semitic Sausages” as well as banners on the awning reading “Do Not Buy
From Jews” and “No Sales Made to Jews.”
1894:
Two days after she had passed away, 35 year old Sophia Isaacs, the daughter of
Lewis and Sarah Isaacs was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1894:
Samuel Maltinsky, the chief proprietor, President and Treasurer of the Crescent
Jewelry Company in Pittsburgh, PA married Gerturde Kunst today on his
twenty-seventh birthday.
1894:
The Longman publishing company will publish Christopher Columbus and the
Participation of the Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese Discoveries by
Rabbi Meyer Kayserling today.
1894(19th of Iyar, 5654): Alexander Kohut, the Hungarian born
Rabbi who was elected rabbi of Congregation Ahavath Chesed in New York in 1885
and helped to found the Jewish Theological Seminary passed away. He was the
father of the scholar and author George Alexander Kouth.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9436-kohut-alexander
1895:
Andrew McCran, the next-door neighbor of Samuel Samuelson, has been arrested on
suspicion of shooting the Jew living in Miles Alley.
1896:
The New York Times reported that
Baron Hirsch had left “only” thirty million pounds to his heirs and
beneficiaries, the primary one of which is his widow. While there are rumors floating around London
that the Baron had destroyed the IOU’s of a prominent royal personage (possibly
the Crown Prince) those in the know do not believe that the Baron was of such a
forgiving nature.
1898:
Birthdate of French writer Robert Aron
1898(4th
of Sivan, 5658): Seventy-year-old Middlesex native Joel Woolf, the husband of Helen
Solomons whom he married at the Great Synagogue in 1851 passed aa today.
1898: In
Manhattan, “Gustave Cerf, a lithographer and Frederika Wise, the heiress to a
tobacco-distribution fortune” Bennet Alfred Cerf, the founder and CEO of Random
House” who was best known for being a panelist on the Sunday night television
show, “What’s My Line?”
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/nny/cerfb/profile.html
1898:In
“Kremenchug, Russia, Jacob and Anna Smeilansky gave birth to composer and
concert pianist Mischa Levitzki who “made his American debut at the Aeolian
Hall in New York” in 1916.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/01/03/85238153.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1899: Dr.
Henry M. Leipziger was re-elected as President of the Judeans who held their
annual meeting this evening at the Tuxedo. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise spoke of the
political progress being made by the Jews as can be seen by the appointment of
Oscar S. Straus as U.S. Minister to Turkey and the election of Joseph Simon as
U.S. Senator from Oregon, making him the fourth Jew to serve in Upper House of
Congress. He compared the Jewish condition in the United States to Russia which
is in the grips of the “outrage of anti-Semitism and France where Dreyfus is
still not free.
1899(16th
of Sivan, 5659): Rosa Bonheur French realist painter and sculptor passed away.
Born in Bordeaux in 1822, she was one of four children all of whom were
artists. According to some reports, as a
child she was known as Rosa Mazeltov.
1900: The
four daylong meeting of the Actions Committee and Trust began today. During the
meeting a new Bank Commission was appointed, and a decision was reached to hold
the next Zionist Congress in London.
1901(7th
of Sivan, 5661): Second day of Shavuot
1901(7th
of Sivan, 5661): Samuel Joseph Rubinstein passed away. Born in Mitau in 1817, his father sent him to
the U.K. when he reached the age of 12 – the age at which he would have been
forced to join the Russian Army. He traveled with his aunt who was joining her
husband in Glasgow. When Rubinstein
reached the Scottish city, he was befriended by the Davis family who members of
the local Jewish congregation. They took
him in, gave him work to do so that he could earn some money and treated him as
if he were a member of the family.
1902(18th
of Iyar, 5662): Lag B’Omer
1902: In
Lisbon, a foundation stone is laid for the first synagogue built in Portugal
since the expulsion of the Jews in 1497.
1902: At
Temple Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan, Joseph J. Corn presided over the first
public meeting of the Israelite Alliance of America where resolutions were
adopted “approving the passage of the resolution of Congressman Henry M.
Goldfogle urging the government of the United States to insist that Russia end
its discrimination against American Jews and observe the treaty of 1832.”
1903: In
Islington, Rosa Enoyce and George Barnes, a Jewish policeman gave birth to
English actress Gertrude Maude “Binnie” Barnes.
1904: “Myer S.
Isaacs Dead” published today recounted the life of the recently deceased Judge
Myer S. Isaacs who had served as President of the Baron de Hirsch Fund,
President of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites and of the Hebrew
Free School Association. A lifelong
Republican, Governor Cornell had appointed him to the Marine Court in
1880. He was nominated to the Superior
Court in 1891 and the Supreme Court in 1895.
1905:
Birthdate of future Virginia resident Alice Rice Jaffe the wife of Louis Isaac
Jaffe and the mother of Louis Lawson Jaffe.
1905: In
Baden-Wurttemberg, Samuel and Malchen Jeselsohn gave birth to Sigmund “Shimon”
Jeselsohn the husband of Karolina Jeselsohn.
1905: Today,
the New Music Society announced that Modest (Moisei Isaacovich) Altschuler
would be retained as director of the Russian Symphony Orchestra for another
three years.
1906(1st of
Sivan, 5666): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1906: Oscar S.
Straus is scheduled to be member of the committee planning to create a
permanent national memorial for the late Carl Schurz.
1907(12th
of Sivan, 5667): Parashat Naso
1907: It was
reported today that a group of prominent Jews have appointed a committee
chaired by Michael Furst “to raise the sum of $18,000 to build an addition to
the Jewish Protectory at Hawthorne, NY which will be maintained by Jewish
charitable societies in Brooklyn.”
1908: It was
reported today that The Jewish Publication Society of America has “announced
that the Board of Publication had finally completed arrangements for the
successful carrying on of the Bible translations, which it is expected will now
be accomplished in a short time.”
1909(5th
of Sivan, 6669): Erev Shavuot
1909:
Birthdate of Holocaust victim, the student Roza Ail.
1909: In New
York City, Max and Fannie Danovitch Abrahams gave birth to Jesse Abrahams, the
husband of Estelle Sheikowitz whom he married in 1938.
1909: Today,
Jacob H. Schiff, who is staying at the Ritz in London, told the New York Times
correspondent “that the report that he had committed himself to the plan for
planting Jewish colonies in Mesopotamia was erroneous.”
1910: It was
reported today that the Presbyterian General Assembly has “passed a resolution
condemning the persecution of the Jews in Russia” by a unanimous vote.
1910: Birthdate
of Memphis native, and University of Cincinnati graduate Jack H. Hexter, the
holder of advanced degrees from Harvard and husband of Ruth Mullin Hexter who as a professor of history at Washington
University and Yale University “launched a major scholarly effort to chronicle
the history of modern freedom” and who was “known as a specialist in British
history, conducting research and teaching at major American universities for
more than 60 years…”
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/14944
https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/hexter-j-h-jack
1910: The
Chief Rabbi of Salonica protests that despite assurances to the contrary,
during his departure, Jews were enrolled in the Army on Saturday. The Minister
of Interior telegraphs the Governor General and instructs him to not let this
be repeated. Of 1,908 Jews enrolled at Salonica, 1,719 entered active service;
the remaining 189 went into the reserves.
1911: In St.
Louis, MO, Rose Pfeiffer and Samuel Elijah gave birth to “coin collector” Eric
Newman. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
1912(9th
of Sivan, 5672): Parashat Nasso
1912: Austrian
jurist Hans Kelsen married Margarete Bondi, few days after converting “to
Lutheranism of the Augusburg Confession,” – a conversion that would not save
him from being treated as a Jew the Nazis.
1912: Founding
of the East Boston Hebrew Free School
1913: The
Independent Order of B’rith Abraham which had been organized in 1887 opened its
26th Annual Convention today in New York City.
1913:
Birthdate of Lee Tabor Shalom, the Paris, Illinois, native who as a director
was known as “Roll ‘Em” Sholem.
1913:
Birthdate of film and television screenwriter Sidney Carroll
1913:
Dedication of the Sarah Morris Hospital for Children of Michael Reese Hospital
1913:
Dedication of B’nai Jacob synagogue in New Haven, CT.
1913:
Dedication of Beth David Hospital in New York City.
1913
Dedication of Tifereth Israel in Lincoln, Nebraska.
1914: Today,
ten years after Herzl wrote in his diary that Pope Pius X had said “Jerusalem
must not get into the hands of the Jews” Pius created 25 new cardinals.
1915: The
conclusion of Judge Ben B. Lindsey asking for clemency for Leo Frank which read
“I was born and raised in the South and I haven’t any doubt of the sincerity
and certainty of the people of Georgia as well as your Excellency and the
honorable Board of Pardons, doing anything but justice in this matter. That is why I join the appeal in behalf of
the commutation of the sentence of Frank with perfect confidence that your
action will be in accord with what seems to me to be the universal opinion
throughout the country and that the sentence of Frank should at least be
commuted to life imprisonment.”
1915: The list
of candidates published today of those of who might replace M.S. Stern as the
Grand Master of the United States Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Sons
of Israel who has held the office for
thirteen years includes Solon J. Liebeskind, Louis Hess and Emil Tausig of New
York City.
1915: One of
the last acts of the Michigan Legislature which “formally concluded its 1915
session today” “was the adoption of resolutions urging the Governor of Georgia
to commute the death sentence of Leo M. Frank to life imprisonment.”
1915: In
Springfield, Illinois, Governor Edward F. Dunne addressed a mass meeting at the
State Arsenal tonight in behalf of Leo M. Frank during which he “declared
capital punishment to be ‘barbarism’ and asking that the Governor of Georgia to
commute his sentence to life imprisonment.”
1916:
Dedication of the Grace Aguilar Home in Philadelphia, PA.
1916: “As
Chairman of the Board of Delegates of the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations and as resident member of the Executive Committee of the
International Order B’nai B’rith” Simon Wolf wrote to President Woodrow Wilson
asking him to express himself “as far as is consistent and proper at this
juncture” as supporting the “securing of equal rights for” the Jews throughout
the world, “especially those in Russia and Romania” when the terms of peace
ending the World War are agreed upon.
1916(22nd
of Iyar, 5676): Fifty-five-year-old Morris Weslosky, the native or Riddleville,
GA, who was the husband of Julia Weslosky passed away today in New York City.
1916: It was
reported today that “there are about 1,500,000 Jews” in New York City” and
there “about 3,500 Jewish organizations of all kinds – religious educational,
social philanthropic, industrial and mutual aid.”
1916: It was
reported today that “Governor Whitman will be asked to broaden the inquiry into
discrimination against Jews alleged to have practice in selecting recruits for
Battery D, Second Field Artillery, New York National Guard to a general
investigation of similar conditions alleged to exist in other companies and
regiments” including the 22nd regiment of the National Guard.
1916: It was
reported today that “an Army and Navy Committee of the Young Men’s Hebrew and
Kindred Associations is being formed to continue the work of a special
committee that takes care of the wants of the estimated 5,000 Jews in the
United States Army and Navy.
1916: Isidore
Hershfield, the Director of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of
America, returned to New York, “after being abroad for many months” during
which, “with the permission of the military authorities of both the
Austro-Hungarian and German Government, he established a means of communication
between the war sufferers and their friends and relatives in the United
States.”
1917: In
Minsk, Russia, Yiddish was recognized as a second official language.
1917: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held for Minnie Weil, the widow of Benjamin Weil at the home of her son Isaac
Weil followed by burial at Free Sons’ Cemetery in Chicago.
1917: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held today for 47-year-old Dwight S. Hirsch, the
husband of Mae Hirsch followed by interment at Mount Maariv.
1917:
“Diversions of the Turk” summarized “the account sent to Jewish bodies in the
United States by the British Ambassador at Washington” that “shows the Turks
driving the Jews out of Jaffa during Passover” sacking their houses and robbing
them while the Jews who resisted the pillagers “were hanged.”
1918: The
Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs announced tonight
that an uncensored letter from a correspondent with the British Army in
Palestine, reported that General Allenby’s army had renewed its offensive in
Palestine and that the campaign will carry these forces beyond the borders of
“the Holy Land.” This marked the end of three-month
halt in the campaign during which the British troops had plenty of time to
establish good relations with the Jewish population including the people of Tel
Aviv, the site of a major English encampment.
1919: KAM
(Kehilath Anshe Ma’arav or "Congregation of the Men of the West"),
“the oldest Jewish congregation in Chicago” is scheduled to host the last
regular meeting of its Junior Alumni today.
1920: “Max
Pine and Harry Kagan, representative of the Joint Distribution committee for
all Jewish Relief Funds” both of whom are Americans “are now in Moscow engaged
in work preparatory to taking up the relief of the Jews and investigating the
reported pogroms in the Ukraine.”
1921: Birthdate of Jack Steinberger, German-born
American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988. In talking about
his escape from Germany, Steinberger said, “In 1934, the American Jewish
charities offered to find homes for 300 German refugee children. We were on the
SS Washington, bound for New York by Christmas 1934.”
1921:
“Austrian Jewish immigrants Lina Goldberg and delicatessen owner Gedalier David
gave birth to lyricist and song writer, Harold Lane “Hal” David a prolific
producer of tunes, many of which were written in collaboration with Burt
Bacharach. "Raindrops Keep Fallin'
on My Head" won an Academy Award as the score for the movie “Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid,” “Don't Make Me Over", "Close to You", and
"Walk on By" are all in the Grammy Hall of Fame. "What's New
Pussycat,” “Alfie” and "The Look of Love" received Oscar nominations.
He also wrote many country music hits, including Willie Nelson's "To All
The Girls I've Loved Before".
1921
The Hurwitz Educational League sponsored a lecture and recital featuring Dr.
A.A. Roback of Harvard University and his wife on “Folk Music Among Jews and
Other Nations” in the auditorium of the Young Women’s Hebrew Association on 31
West 110 Street in New York City.
1922(27th
of Iyar, 5682): In Chicago, political economist Joseph Pedott passed away
today.
1923: Britain
recognized Transjordan with Abdullah as its leader. In this illegal
action, Britain paid off part of its debt to one Arab family for its part
in fighting the Turks during World War I. There are those who
contend that by this act Britain effectively portioned Palestine
and created an Arab state out of it.
1924: Louis
Marshall, President of Temple Emanu-El presided at the memorial services held
in the temple this afternoon by the New York County united of the American
Legion in which “he praised the heroic deeds of the soldiers in the World War…”
1924: “Several
hundred public school teachers and principals listened” this afternoon “to half
a dozen speakers on the need for religious training of Jewish children a t a
meeting in the Town Hall under the auspices of the Jewish Education
Association.”
1925: The
Camden Section of the Junior Hadassah met this evening at the Beth-El
Synagogue.
1926: "No
attempt toward the economic reconstruction of European Jewries will succeed
unless we stem the anti-Semitic wave," declared Dr. William Filderman,
president of the Union of Rumanian Jews, on the eve of his departure for Europe
on the Berengaria today. "There is no use educating Jewish artisans if
anti-Semitic prejudice deprives them of any market for their products," he
explained.
1926:
Sholom Schwartzbard assassinated Symon Petliura, the head of the Paris-based
government-in-exile of Ukrainian People's Republic. Schwartzbard had lost both of his parents in pogroms,
and he held Petliura accountable for the anti-Semitic violence that had been
part of the war in the Ukraine.
Anti-Semitic violence was part and parcel of life in the Ukraine, as can
be seen in the Chmielnicki's
pogroms of 1648, the pogroms in Kiev at the start of the 20th
century and the slaughter at Babi Yar during World War II. Schwartzbard’s case was taken up by the
French Jewish community and he was acquitted of the charges.
1926: Molecular
biologist Alfred Ezra Mirsky married children’s author Reba Paeff
1927: The United
Palestine Appeal in Philadelphia, PA is scheduled to come to an end today.
1927: Three weeks after
its first screening in Los Angeles of “7th Heaven” a movie that
produced at least one Oscar with a screenplay written by Benjamin Glazer opened
at New York City.
1928(6th of
Sivan, 5688): Shavuot
1928: Birthdate of
Henry Baron, the first Jew to sit on the Irish Supreme Court
1929: Today, the
curtain came down at the Vanderbilt Theatre on “Lady Fingers,” produced by Lew
Levinson with music by Joseph Meyer which had opened on Broadway in January.
1929:
Birthdate of Belle "Bubbles" Miriam Silverman in Brooklyn NY who
gained fame as fame as operatic soprano
and patroness of the arts Beverly Sills.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/may/25/1929/beverly-sills
1929:
According to reports published today “industrial establishments in Palestine
have increased to 513, employing 5,000 workers” with a total of $7,500,000 in
invested capital. The actual figures
could have been higher but the Ruttenberg Works which has 700 employees was not
included in the survey.
1930:
Birthdate of John Strugnell who would become editor-in-chief of the Dead Sea
Scrolls in 1984. Strungell was not
Jewish but he spent a major portion of his academic life working with these
texts and his comments about Judaism in Haaretz turned into a major cause
célèbre.
1930:
Birthdate of Sonia Fils, the native of Paris who gained fame as fashion
designer Sonia Rykiel.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/26/fashion/sonia-rykiel-dies.html?_r=0
1930: The
Peter J. Schweitzer Memorial Hospital, a modern health institution operated at
level comparable to those found in an American hospital, opened today in
Tiberius in the Valley of the Galilee.
1931: Birthdate of Herbert Eser Gray, “Canada's first Jewish
federal cabinet minister, and one of
only a few Canadians ever granted the title The Right Honourable who was not so
entitled by virtue of a position held.
1931: New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker is scheduled to chair a conference
at City Hall this afternoon which he “expects to be attended by a large and representative
group of rabbis and Jewish layman wit whom he will discuss” the need for more rigorous
enforcement the state statute governing the sale of kosher meat.
1931: In New York City, Sol and Anna Winkler gave birth movie
producer and director Irwin Winkler who “won an Oscar for Best Picture for
‘Rocky’.”
1931: In
Palestine
voting began to select the representatives to the 17th Zionist
Congress to be held in June. When the voting ends, the Yishuv delegation of 36
consists of 24 Mapai and HaShomer HaTzair, 7 Revisionists, 2 Mizrachi, 2 Hapoel
HaMizrachi and 1 Yemenite.
1932(19th
of Iyar, 5692): Sixty-four-year-old “Joseph Cowen, one of the first English
Jews to be associated with the late Theodore Herzl who became the guardian of
Herzl’s son Hans and brought him up in his own home passed away today in
London.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cowen-joseph
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/05/26/100748666.html?pageNumber=25
1932:
“Sixty-nine persons were injured today in communal rioting after Arabs attack
Jewish inhabitants of the Crater district of Aden whom they accused of defiling
a mosque.”
1933(29th of
Iyar, 5693): Louis Schloss, a Jewish lawyer was murdered in Dachau.
1934:Funeral
services are scheduled to be held this afternoon for sixty-six-year-old United
States Judge Simon Louis Adler of the Western New York District Court and
“former Republican majority leader in the State Assembly who had suffered a
fatal heart attack on May 23.
1934: Ernest
Peixotto of the Fontainebleau School arrived in New York after having crossed
the Atlantic Ocean on the same liner that carried the chairman of the board of
the French Line. Peixotto reported that
he had offered American student of the Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts the
honor of decorating one of the cabins on the Normandie, the largest ship in the world which is now under
construction.
1935(22nd
of Iyar, 5695): Parashat Bechukotai
1935(22nd
of Iyar, 5695): Fifty-six-year-old Russian born NYU trained attorney and New
York City municipal judge Abraham Harawitz passed away today. (Some sources
show May 24)
https://www.jta.org/1935/05/26/archive/judge-harawitz-dies-elected-over-panken
1936: The
Jewish Auxiliary Police, "Ghaffirs", was established to guard Jewish
settlements and rural roads.
1936: “Hannah
Gluckstein (the artist known as Gluck) “married Nesta Obermer, a socialite
married to an American businessman” – an event that provided the inspiration
for Gluck’s work “Medallion” that “pictured the two together at a performance
of Don Giovanni.”
1936: The body
of thirty-six-year-old Jacob Rasili, a laborer belonging to the Jewish
Federation of Labor, was found this morning near the Hebrew University library
and the doctors reported he had been murdered when “he had been struck on the
head with a heavy cane or iron bar.”
1936: It was
reported today that Governor Lehman has contributed $3,500 to the United
Palestine Appeal and that Maurice Levin and his half-brother J.M. Kaplan have
contributed $50,000 to the same cause.
1937: “The
League of Frightened Men” co-starring Lionel Stander the Bronx born son Russian
Jewish immigrants was released in the United States today.
1938(24th
of Iyar, 5698): Shihata Abdalla Saltoun passed away today after which he was
buried in Khartoum, Sudan
1938: In
Brooklyn Jack and Rose Israel gave birth to “living theatre performance artist”
Steven Ben Israel (As reported by Paul Vitello)
1938: As Arab violence continued unabated The Palestine Post reported that in Jerusalem 30 year
old Moshe Proper was killed and there were other casualties including 12 Arab
victims and seven Jewish victims. A curfew was imposed to stop stoning and
shooting incidents. A number of Jewish youths were arrested and a 120 pounds
fine was imposed on the Jewish quarter of Montefiore. A number of Revisionists,
just released from the Acre prison, were rearrested. Nahum Bibi, a Jewish
laborer was fatally shot at Safed and a Bedouin sheikh was murdered by an Arab
gang roaming Galilee.
1939(7th
of Sivan, 5699): Second Day of Shavuot
1939(7th
of Sivan, 5699): Sir Joseph Duveen passed away. The son of Sir Joseph Joel Duveen,
who had 13 children, he followed in the footsteps of his father and his uncle
Henry J. Duveen and became one of the leading art dealers of his time.
http://snbehrman.com/library/newyorker/51.10.6.NY.htm
1940(17th
of Iyar, 5700): Parashat Bechukotai
1940:
As the Allied position in Western Europe crumbles before Hitler’s Blitzkrieg,
Churchill’s War Cabinet meets to decide if Britain should continue to the fight
against Germany. The ‘peace party’ is
led by Foreign Minister Lord Halifax who will make a strong case for a deal
with Germany as the debate rages for three days.
1940:
FDR began his day in the White House by meeting with Associate Justice Felix
Frankfurter.
1940:
Judge Samuel I. Rosenman was among the five people who had dinner in the White
House with FDR.
1940:
U.S. premiere of “Torrid Zone” featuring George Tobias as “Rosario La Mata.”
1940:
Hans Biebow today issued orders for factories to be set up in the ghetto
(called Arbeitsressorte, or work sections). Provided with very cheap labor,
these factories were to serve the Nazis as a source of easy profits and
exploitation. The Jews in the ghetto, cut off as they were from all other
possible sources of livelihood, were prepared to work for no more than a loaf
of bread and some soup. The exploitation of the Jews imprisoned in the ghetto
yielded a profit to the ghetto administration estimated at 350 million
reichsmarks ($14 million). (As reported by Yad Vashem)
1941:
Koestler’s anti-Soviet novel “Darkness at Noon” received a rave cover review
in the New York Times Book Review Section: “A splendid novel,” Harold Strauss
declared, “written with such dramatic power, with such warmth of feeling and
with such persuasive simplicity that it is as absorbing as melodrama. It is a
far cry from the bleak topical commentaries that sometimes pass as novels.”
1942:
Birthdate of Barry K. Schwartz, the Bronx native who joined with his boyhood
friend Calvin Klein to form Calvin Klein, Inc. in which he enjoyed so much
success that he could indulge his passion for thoroughbred horse racing.
1942:
Edgard J. Nathan, Jr., the Borough President of Manhattan was among the
officials who “opened the final link of the East River Drive today with a noon
ceremony at Forty-seventh Street, on the crest of an elevated section of the
drive.”
1943:
“At the Auschwitz a group of 1,035 Gypsies (507 men and 528 women) were killed
in a single day.”
1943:
Four deportations of Jews from Holland to the death camps at Auschwitz and
Sobibór total 8000 people.
1943:
The expulsion of the Jews from Sofia, Bulgaria, began today. 1944: Birthdate of Actor Frank Oz
1944:
Release date of “Mr. Skeffington,” a film about Job Skeiffington, a Jew living
in high society directed by Vincent Sherman with a script by Julius and Philip
Epstein who produced it along with Jack L. Warner with music by Franz Waxman
and Paul Dessau.
1944:
In Budapest, the German representative, General Edmund Veesnmayer reported that
138,870 Jews had been deported in the past 10 days.
1944:
Hundreds of fleeing Hungarian Jews are killed during a revolt at Auschwitz.
1944:
“The Kolozsvár Ghetto was liquidated in six transports to Auschwitz (now
Oświęcim, Poland), with the first deportation occurring” toda.
1944:
Pioneer television station WPTZ (now KYW-TV) in Philadelphia presented a
special, all-star telecast which was also seen in New York over WNBT (now WNBC)
and featured cut-ins from their Rockefeller Center studios. Cantor, one of the
first major stars to agree to appear on television, was to sing "We're
Havin' a Baby, My Baby and Me". Arriving shortly before airtime at the New
York studios, Cantor was reportedly told to cut the song because the NBC New
York censors considered some of the lyrics too risqué. Cantor refused, claiming
no time to prepare an alternative number. NBC relented, but the sound was cut
and the picture blurred on certain lines in the song. This is considered the
first instance of television censorship.
1945:
Just three weeks after the surrender of the German capital, pharmacist Erich
Zwilsky became the Berlin Jewish Hospital’s managing director, assuming
responsibility for the only Jewish institution that had remained in operation
throughout World War II.
1945:
“Investigating Team 6822, part of the U.S. War Crimes Program to create legal
standards and judicial systems to prosecute Nazi crimes” completed its
investigation into the murder of prisoners being moved from Rottleberode
subcamp to Neuengamme concentration and sent a report to General William Hood
Simpson, the Supreme Commander of the United States 9th Army.
1946: Abdullah I becomes King of the Kingdom of
Transjordan. From 1921 until 1946 Abdullah had been Emir of the Emirate of
Transjordan. On the eve of the creation of state of Israel in 1948, Abdullah
met secretly with Golda Meir. Meir
sought to keep the Jordanians from attacking the soon to be created Jewish
state when the British withdrew.
Abdullah offered to let the Jews peacefully as subjects of Jordanian
Kingdom that would include all the land of the Palestine mandate. Abdullah’s army invaded Israel seized what is
called the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem. In 1951, Abdullah would be assassinated by an
Arab fanatic at the Al Aqsa Mosque. He thought Abdullah was involved in secret
peace talks with the Israelis.
1946:
Switzerland signs the Washington Agreement, under which the Swiss government
will voluntarily contribute $58.1 million in gold to an Allied commission
established to help rebuild Europe. The Allies are aware that this payment will
come from Swiss stores of looted gold taken from Jews and other victims of Nazi
persecution. Regardless, the Allies agree not to press the Swiss for additional
claims. At this time, Switzerland holds between $300 and $400 million in looted
gold.
1947(6th
of Sivan, 5707): Shavuot
1947: “The
Web,” a “film noir thriller” filmed by cinematographer Irving Glassberg was
released in today in the United States.
1947: Perry
Belmont, the former Congressman and diplomat who was the son of August Belmont
passed away. The Belmonts had passed out
of the Jewish world when August married Caroline Slidell, the daughter of a
Confederate diplomat and descendant of American naval hero Matthew C. Perry,
the man who “opened up Japan.”
1948: The Old
City of Jerusalem falls. Defended by local residents, Etzel members and about
80 Haganah soldiers, they were outnumbered and out-gunned by the Arab
legionaries. After weeks of desperate fighting, it was decided to surrender and
save the almost 2000 mostly elderly Jews who were still living in the Old City.
1948: British
Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin says that the Negev should not be included in a
Jewish state because no Jews lived there and that Jaffa and Acre “should be
given back to the Arabs” because they were “purely Arab towns.
1948: The attack on Latrun, begun the night before
continues. The forces of the Arab Legion
are able to fire down on the attacking Jews.
As the Jews fall victim to the barrage of bullets, they are forced to
confront a second enemy, the searing heat which many of these recent refugees
from Europe are not used to. To make
matters worse, many of them went into battle without canteens. Their pleas for water are met by sniper fire
from the Arabs. Realizing that the
attack has failed, the Israelis withdraw with eighty dead and uncounted others
wounded. Among the dead is Reuven
Oppenheim who had survived the Holocaust.
He fought with partisan forces in that part of the Soviet Union known as
White Russia. Miraculously, Oppenheim’s
immediate family (mother, father and sister) survived with him and came to
Palestine in 1947. The price for a
Jewish state was high indeed.
1948: The government of Egypt "issued a proclamation
stipulating that no Jew could leave Egypt with a special visa from the Ministry
of the Interior. This...applied to the many thousands of Jews who held
foreign passports." (In Ishmael's House by Martin Gilbert)
1948: The Scotsman,
a newspaper published in Edinburgh, “quoted an Israeli government statement
that Thomas C. Wasson,” the Counsel General for the United States in Jerusalem
who days before “had attempted to stop the Arab Legion shelling of the Hadassah
Hospital and Hebrew University on Mount Scopus”
"was killed by Arab bullets."
1949:
Chaim Weizmann went to the White House as President of Israel at the invitation
of President Harry Truman.
1950:
“Israel's mounting immigration troubles became more apparent today with the
interim report of Malben, which handles the country's hard core cases. This
organization has discovered that its six month-old budget of $17,500,000 is
about half what it needs to handle the handicapped immigrants under its care.”
1950:
Tonight, “The decision of the United States, Britain and France to include
Israel in their over-all plan for supplying the countries in the Middle East
with arms for defense purposes was greeted” in Israel “with satisfaction by a
Foreign Ministry spokesman.”
1950:
“In an effort to further stabilize the Armistice Agreements, and to control the
flow of arms to the Middle East, France, Britain and the United States
announced, today, their decision to stabilize the situation in the region by an
agreement among themselves not to supply weapons to a state harboring
aggressive designs. They also agreed to take action both within and outside the
U.N. to prevent any change in the armistice lines. Text of the Declaration
follows.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/tripartite-declaration-may-1950
1951:
In a handwritten letter proposes, Abba Eban proposed periodic meetings between
himself and the leaders of major American Jewish organizations “to exchange
views and impressions about the American-Israeli relationship.”
1952:
King Features launched the Sunday version of the comic strip “Big Ben Bolt”
written by Elliot Caplin, the brother of Al Capp.
1953:
In New York City, Arthur Ensler, a Jewish food industry executive and his
non-Jewish wife Christ gave birth to award winning playwright Eve Ensler, “best
known for her play The Vagina Monologues.”
1953:
The Jerusalem Post reported that the
Cabinet was discussing the deteriorating security situation in border areas.
1953:
The Jerusalem Post reported that
Thomas Harlan, son of Veit Harlan, a notorious Nazi film producer, was in
Israel working on a film which would "atone" for the sins of his
father.
1954:
The Pittsburgh Pirates traded Cal Abrams to the Baltimore Orioles.
1954(22nd
of Iyar, 5714): Robert Capa, possibly the most famous photojournalist of the 20th
century was killed while on assignment cover the French- Indochina War. The Jewish native of Hungary waded ashore
with the first wave of troops at Omaha Beach, providing the first photographic
record of the assault.
From
the Spanish Civil War, “Death of Loyalist Soldier”
”D-Day
Landing - 1944
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Capa,_Death_of_a_Loyalist_Soldier.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Capa,_D-Day2.jpg
http://www.army-photographer.com/index.php/robert-capa
http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL535353
1955(4th
of Sivan, 5715): Eighty-five-year-old
Regina “Rae” Mayer Sabath, the Baden-Wurttemberg born daught of Willam
and Sarah (Stern) Mayer and wife of Judge Joseph Sabath who whom she married in
1888 and whom she had three children -
Albert, Stella and Milton Sabath -
passed away after which she was buried in Chicago at the Rosehill
Cemetery and Mausoleum.
1957: NBC
broadcast the final episode of “Caesar’s Hour” starring Sid Caesar and his
comedic sidekicks Howard Morris and Carl Reiner.
1957: After
49 performances at the Broadway Theatre, the curtain came down on “Shinbone
Alley,” a musical with a book by Mel Brooks orchestrated by Irwin Kostal.
1958(6th
of Sivan, 5718): Shavuot
1958: After
only 4 months, ABC broadcast the final episode of “Sid Caesar Invites You”
which “briefly united” the comedian with a group of writers that included Carl
Reiner, Neil Simon and Mel Brooks.
1962(21st
of Iyar, 5722): Eighty-seven-year-old
Emanuel S. Hartman, the husband of Mabel Hartman and “a lawyer active in
the affairs of the American Society of Composers who “helped to establish
copyright laws for the society” passed away today in Chicago.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/05/28/82764891.html?pageNumber=29
1963(2nd
of Sivan, 5723): Parashat Bamidbar
1963(2nd
of Sivan, 5723): Fifty-year old New York Times publisher Orvil Dryfoos, the
husband of Marian Sulzberger and son-in-law of Arthur Hays Sulzberger who
guided the paper through the 114 day long newspaper strike passed away today.
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1963/05/26/page/3/article/orvil-dryfoos-dies-head-of-n-y-times
1963: During his Shabbat
Sermon, at Tremont Temple in the Bronx, Rabbi Maurice J. Bloom declared that
because of his divorce and recent remarriage Governor
Rockefeller is morally obligated to press for an easing of New York State's
divorce laws. If New York State had a
proper marriage and divorce code neither the Governor nor his first wife, nor
his current wife would be forced to participate in actions that are variance
with the laws that the Governor is sworn to uphold as the state’s chief
executive. Furthermore, the Rabbi
contended that it is not fair that divorce is only open to the wealthy who can
afford to take up temporary residence in other states with more lenient laws
related to terminating a marriage. Tying
the contemporary issue to Jewish tradition, Rabbi Bloom said, “Judaism believes
in making strict marriage laws to safeguard marriage and easy divorce laws to make it possible
to repair mistakes made by the application of those strict laws. Judaism
stresses the sanctity of
marriage, and for that reason it does not condemn people to live together where
strife and incompatibility would
mar good family life.”
1964: “The
Subject Was Roses,” the Pulitzer Prize winning play directed by Israel Ulu
Grosbard and starring Jack Albertson “premiered on Broadway at the Royale
Theatre” today.
1965(23rd
of Iyar, 5725): Sixty-four-year-old Irving Isaacs, the husband of the “former
Bertha Goldman” and the father of Albert and Morton Goldman, who was the “owner
of Abalon Kosher Caterers in the Bronx” passed away today “in Westchester
Square Hospital.”
1965:
Shimon Peres completed his term as Deputy Minister of Defense.
1966(6th
of Sivan, 5726): Shavuot
1966:
Opening in the United Kingdom, “It Happened Here” a film based on a mythic
successful invasion of England by the Nazis filmed by Peter Suschitzky was
released today in Australia.
1966: U.S.
premiere of “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming” co-starring Carl
Reiner, Alan Arkin and Theodore Bikel with music by Johnny Mandel.
1966: Helen
Reddy, who had converted to Judaism before the ceremony married Jeff Wald
today.
1967: U.S.
premiere of “Barefoot in the Park” the movie adaption of the play by Neil
Simon, directed by Gene Saks, produced by Hal B. Wallis, featuring Herb
Edeleman as “Harry Pepper”, Mabel Albertson as “Harriet” and Fritz Feld.
1968(27th
of Iyar, 5728): Parashat Emor
1968(27th
of Iyar, 5728): Sixty-four-year-old agent and movie producer Charles K.
Feldman, the husband of Clotilde Barot, whose film credits included “A
Streetcar Named Desire,” the timeless comedy “The Seven Year Itch” and cowboy
classic “Red River” passed away today.
https://www.fandango.com/people/charles-k-feldman-204477
1969:
Release date of “Midnight Cowboy” directed by John Schlesinger and starring
Dustin Hoffman.
1969: An Israeli vehicle was damaged Sunday night after hitting a
mine near Maoz Chaim in the valley. There were no casualties.
1971(1st
of Sivan, 5731): Seventy-six-year-old New York Institute of Musical Art trained songwriter, composer, pianist, and organist Muriel Pollack, the
Kingsbridge, NY born daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants Joseph Pollock and
Rose Graff who began her career playing “the organ in silent movie theatres” before
on to a creative career that began with the 1914 musical “Carnival” and “Mme.
Pom Pom” passed away today in Los Angelese.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/2556482-Muriel-Pollock
https://www.ragpiano.com/comps/mpollock.shtml
1971: The
board of directors of Yonkers Raceway announced today that 51-year-old Stanley
Tananbaum has been named president replacing his late brother Martin Tananbaum
1972:
Filming of “Ciao! Manhattan” co-directed, co-produced and co-written by David
Weisman was completed today after which it premiered “in Amsterdam…to critical
acclaim.”
1975(15th
of Sivan, 5735): Ninety-one-year-old Rabbi Samuel Baskin who had served as the
spiritual leader “of Temple B’nai Israel in Brooklyn from 1933 until his
retirement in 1955, passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/27/archives/rabbi-samuel-baskin.html?searchResultPosition=1
1976(25th
of Iyar, 5736): A guard at Ben Gurion Airport was killed and nine others were
injured when a bomb planted in a suitcase by a terrorist went off prematurely.
1977:
Samuel W. Lewis, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel presented his credentials today.
1977: Star
Wars opened. This would be the first in
a whole series of films that would include the villain Darth Vader. According
to Adams Walls, “Even though it's too small to see on screen, part of Darth
Vader's chestplate features three lines of Hebrew, one of which appears to be
upside down. What the lines say is a matter of much online debate among Jewish
"Star Wars" fans. On TheForce.net, which features photos of the
Hebrew script in question, one blogger believes it's a play on a section from
Exodus 16 about repentance, while another thinks the lines read: "His
actions/deeds will not be forgiven until he is proven innocent" and
"One shall be regarded innocent until he is proven guilty."
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported the official
denial of reports that Israel sought control over the West Bank's absentee
property owned by Arabs residing abroad, and that there were plans to establish
a Jewish urban quarter near Nablus. Officials of the Land Administration were
instructed to lift a ban on transactions affecting property owned by local Arab
residents, residing abroad.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that The
Knesset Speaker, Mr. Yitzhak Shamir, accepted an invitation to visit Germany at
the head of the Knesset delegation.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that a
six-lane divided highway, which would cut through the Sacher Park and expand
the Kirya, was approved in Jerusalem.
1978(18th
of Iyar, 5738): Lag B’Omer
1978(18th
of Iyar, 5738): Eighty-two-year-old Columbia University graduate Melvin
Krulewith, the Manhattan born son of
Anne and Harry Krulewitch and the U.S. Marine Corps General who served in WW I,
WWII and Korea and Chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission passed
away today.
1979(28th of Iyar,
5739): Yom Yerushalayim
1979: “The Brood” a
sci-fi film directed by David Cronenberg who also wrote the script was released
in the United States today.
1979:
Israel begins to return the Sinai to Egypt as part of the Camp David Peace
Accords.
1979:
A graveside funeral service is scheduled to held “at the Jewish Memorial
Cemetery in Racine, Wisconsin today for seventy-four year old Dr. Ralph P
Rosenberg, the son of “Barnet and Rose (Weislander) Rosenberg and the husband
of Leah (Davidson) Rosenberg, the holder of a Ph.D. from the University of
Wisconsin who was a “Professor of German and the Humanities at Yeshiva
University in New York for 38 years.
1979(28th
of Iyar, 5739): Yom Yerushalayim
1979:
Six-year-old Etan Kalil Patz disappeared in Lower Manhattan, New York City as
he walked to catch the school bus. . He
would be the first missing child to be pictured on the side of a milk carton.
1981(21st
of Iyar, 5741): Sixty-five-year-old UK native Leonard Blake, the son of Harry
and Gertrude Balke and the husband of Gabrielle Blake passed away today in
Marbella, Spain.
1981:
“News Summary” published today included charges by Prime Minister Menachem
Begin made for the first time that “Soviet advisers are entering Lebanon
accompanying large Syrian Army Units.”
1982:
In a meeting today with Alexander Haig, Philip Habib repeated
what he had already said many times before: "Terrorist attacks against
Israelis and Jews in Europe are not included in the cease-fire agreement.”
1983(13th
of Sivan, 5743): Eighty-four-year-old journalist and author Zelda F. Popkin
whose works included Quiet Street which “was based on the siege of
Jerusalem during the Israeli War of Independence.”
1983:
“Demonstrations protesting against the persecution of refuseniks were held
simultaneously in New York, Washington, Paris, London and Lisbon.”
1983: Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi with a script by
Lawrence E. Kasdan and Frank Oz performing as “Yoda” was released today in the
United States.
1985(5th
of Sivan, 5745): Erev of Shavuot
1985(5th
of Sivan, 5745):
Robert Gruntal Nathan “an American novelist and poet”
passed away. “Nathan was born into a prominent New York family. He was educated
in the United States and Switzerland and attended Harvard University for
several years beginning in 1912. It was there that he began writing short
fiction and poetry. However, he never graduated, choosing instead to drop out
and take a job at an advertising firm to support his family (he married while a
junior at Harvard). It was while working in 1919 that he wrote his first
novel—the semi-autobiographical work Peter Kindred—which was a critical
failure. But his luck soon changed during the 1920s, when he wrote seven more
novels, including The Bishop's Wife, which was later made into a successful film
starring Cary Grant, David Niven, and Loretta Young. During the 1930s, his
success continued with more works, including fictional pieces and poetry. In
1940, he wrote his most successful book, Portrait of Jennie, about a
Depression-era artist and the woman he is painting, who is slipping through
time. Portrait of Jennie is considered a modern masterpiece of fantasy fiction
and was made into a film, starring Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten. In January
1956 the author wrote, as well as narrated, an episode of the CBS Radio
Workshop, called "A Pride of Carrots or Venus Well-Served." Nathan's
seventh wife was the British actress Anna Lee, to whom he was married from 1970
until his death. He came from a talented family — the activist Maud Nathan and
author Annie Nathan Meyer were his aunts, and the poet Emma Lazarus and Supreme
Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo his cousins.”
1986(16th
of Iyar, 5746): Polish born Rabbi Nisson Alpert, a student of Rabbi Moshe
Feinstein and the husband of Zeldi Scheinberg who was Rosh Yeshiva at RIETS
passed away today in New York after which he was buried in Jerusalem.
1987:
James Levine is scheduled to conduct the IPO tonight in a performance that will
include Mahler’s Third Symphony.
1990(1st
of Sivan, 5750): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1990:
Showtime broadcast the last episode of “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” a sitcom
“created by Garry Shandling and Alan Zweibel.”
1990(1st
of Sivan, 5750): Seventy-nine-year-old Vienna born and refugee from the Nazis
Harry Bachrach, the husband of Katherine Bachrach and the father of Alfred,
George and Frances Bachrach who was “the president of Harry Bachrach Inc., a
Manhattan textile company specializing in neckties” passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/29/obituaries/harry-bachrach-necktie-maker-79.html
1991: Israel
began the evacuation 14,000 Ethiopian Jews. This was done as a secret
operation and served as a reminder of the role of Israel as a haven for all
Jews.
1991: Final
broadcast of “Out of This World” a sitcom co-starring Donna Pescow.
1993(5th of
Sivan, 5753): Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Friedman, the founder and former spiritual
leader of the Garment Center Synagogue in Manhattan, passed away today at the
age of 95. He was a rabbinical graduate of Yeshiva University's Rabbi Isaac
Elchanan Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1921 and, a decade later,
founded the Garment Center Synagogue. The synagogue, at 205 West 40th Street,
was established primarily to serve the many Jews who worked in the garment
trade. Born on Nov. 13, 1897, in Jerusalem, Rabbi Friedman came to the United
States with his mother and brother in 1918 to escape famine in his homeland.
His father had arrived a year earlier. Trained as a scribe, Rabbi Friedman
began his rabbinical studies in 1919. After his ordination, he was appointed
rabbi of Congregation Ezrath Israel in Ellenville, N.Y., a position he held for
four years before moving to Brooklyn. In 1931, after serving at several
synagogues in New York City, Rabbi Friedman founded the Garment Center
Synagogue. In the mid-1950's, he was named rabbi emeritus. Rabbi Friedman's
wife, Charlotte, died in 1980.
1994: In
Needham Massachusetts, Lynn (née Faber), a former high school gymnast, and Rick
Raisman gave birth to Alexandra Rose Raisman who gained fame as Olympic gymnast
Aly Raisman, the victim of sexual abuse who was “awarded the Arthur Ashe
Courage Award.”
http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/its-official-the-worlds-most-famous-jewish-sports-star-is/
1996(7th
of Sivan, 5756): Second Day of Shavuot
1997(18th
of Iyar, 5757): Lag B’Omer
1997: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The
Actual by Saul Bellow and the Wisdom of the Body by Sherwin B.
Nuland
1999: Final
broadcast of season one of “Felicity” created by J.J. Abrams staring Greg
Grunberg as “Sean Blumberg.
1999: A
production of “The Phantom of the Opera” starring Paul Stanley (Stanley Bert
Eisen) opened today in Toronto.
2000:
Publication of Bee Season by Myla Goldberg.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/06/18/reviews/000618.18garnert.html
2000(20th
of Iyar, 5760): Centenarian Francis Lederer, an actor who enjoyed successful
careers in Europe and the United States passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/27/arts/francis-lederer-dies-at-100-actor-known-for-suave-roles.html
2000: Israel
withdraws the last of its forces from Lebanon.
2001: The
terrorists of Palestinian Islamic Jihad took credit for the bombing today the
Hadera bus station where 65 people were injured but nobody was killed.’
2001:
The 54th Cannes Film Festival where Dover Kosashvili’s “Late
Marriage was screened in the Un Certain Regard Section” came to an end today
2001:
The terrorists of Hamas took credit for the bombing at a mall in Hadera today
where there were no reports of any fatalities.
2002:
“Last Call,” the film version of the book by Frances Kroll, the F. Scott
Fitzgerald’s last secretary and personal assistant, who portrayed herself as
playing a key role in his last and uncompleted novel, The Last Tycoon, was
released in the United States today.
(Editor’s note – watched on Amazon or Netflix and for some reason really
enjoyed it.)
2002: An exhibition opens at the Tate in London
entitled “Ori Gersht: Afterglow” which features the work of Israeli artist Ori
Gersht.
2003: The
New York Times featured books by Jewish writers and/or of special interest
to Jewish readers including The Last Good Season by Michael Shapiro.
2004(5th of Sivan, 5764): Roger Williams Straus, Jr. passed away.
Born in 1917, “Strauss was co-founder of Farrar, Straus and Giroux a New York
book publishing company. Straus, along with John Farrar, began the influential
firm of Farrar and Straus in 1945. In 1955, the company hired editor Robert
Giroux away from rival Harcourt, Brace, who brought along authors such as T. S.
Eliot and Flannery O'Connor, among others. Ultimately, in 1994, twenty years
after his partner Farrar had died, Straus determined he could no longer run the
company, retired, and sold the business to a German publishing conglomerate,
Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, the type of company he had long
disdained and spoke out against. Straus was regarded as one of the last,
old-fashioned publishers, faithful to his company and tight with his money, but
emphasizing quality over commercial success. His dedication to the publishing
business earned him several Nobel Prize-winning authors, including Isaac
Bashevis Singer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Brodsky, Nadine Gordime,
Czeslaw Milosz and T. S. Eliot, and Pulitzer Prize authors such as Robert
Lowell, John McPhee, Philip Roth, and Bernard Malamud. Straus grew up in a
wealthy and influential family. His mother was Gladys Guggenheim, heir to one
of the largest fortunes in America. His father, Roger W. Straus, was chairman
of the American Smelting and Refining Co., which was owned by his wife's
family. Straus' paternal grandfather, Oscar S. Straus, served as Secretary of
Commerce and Labor under President Theodore Roosevelt.”
2004(5th
of Sivan, 5674): Erev Shavuot
2004(5th
of Sivan, 5674): Eighty-seven-year-old publisher Roger Williams Straus, Jr, the
“son of Gladys and Roger Williams Straus” and the “brother of Oscar Solomon
Straus, II” passed away today after which was buried in Manhattan.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/roger-straus-k9zn5b9g9r7
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1463001/Roger-W-Straus-Jr.html
2004:
In Israel, striking lifeguard returned to work today as part of what they
called “a goodwill gesture” for Shavuot which begins this evening.
2005(16th
of Iyar, 5765): Sixty-seven year old concert pianist Ruth Laredo whose career
spanned three decades lost her battle with ovarian cancer today.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/27/AR2005052701445.html
2005:
At U.C Santa Cruz, The Jewish Studies Program is scheduled to present a lecture
by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, titled “Seduced into Eden: The Beginning of
Desire.” Zornberg's first book, Genesis: The Beginning of Desire won the
National Jewish Book Award for nonfiction in 1995.
2006(27th
of Iyar, 5766): Rabanit Yocheved 'Jackie' Wein z"l, the first wife of
Rabbi Berel Wein passed away today.
2006:
In “New Stamp to Honor WWII Envoy” published today Christopher Lee described
plans to honor “Hiram Bingham IV, a blue-blood American diplomat in France who
defied U.S. policy by helping Jews escape the Nazis in the early years of World
War II.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/24/AR2006052402467.html
2006:
During the Sydney Writers’ Festival at the Sydney (Australia) Jewish Museum
Professor Konrad Kwiet leads a discussion with editors and journalists from
major Sydney newspapers where they examine the role of free press in a
democratic society including the need, if ever, for limits on freedom of the
press and the need for the media to demonstrate a sense social responsibility.
“Books
can be entertaining, insightful and at their best, life changing. But are there
some books that just should not be read? Are they indeed dangerous? Books like
Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, have spawned some of the most evil Books can be
entertaining, insightful and at their best, life changing. But are there some
regimes the world has known. Yet should we limit our access to these ideas? The
intrinsic virtues of free speech are often touted throughout the West, however
in countries such as Australia Anti Racial Vilification Legislation limits what
can and cannot be said in public forums. What can or should be the role of the
media in these kinds of debates? A free press is one of the basic tenets of a
democratic society, but are there times when this freedom is taken too far?
Does the press have a social responsibility and if so, what is it?
2007: In
Israel, Avner Itai the lead Israel Chamber Orchestra oboist, one of the
greatest conductors in Israel and a professor for choir conducting joins Ora Seitner and guitarist Oded Schub in
performing folk songs and works from Catalonia and France at the Abu Gosh
Festival. He will play an oboe d'amore
that he bought this year. Itai will conduct instrumentalists from the
Philharmonic and his choir, Collegium Tel Aviv, in Bach's "Mass in B
Minor."
2007: Ryan
Joseph Braun made his major league debut with the Milwaukee Brewers.
2008 Efram
“Sneh announced that he would be leaving the Labor Party and creating a new
party, Yisrael Hazaka.”
2008: The Wolf
Prizes were awarded today at the Chagall Hall by the President of the State of
Israel, Mr. Shimon Peres, in the presence of the Minister of Education and
Chairperson of the Wolf Foundation Council, Prof. Yuli Tamir, and the Chairman
of the Board of Trustees, Mr. Zeev Schleisner.
2008: Barry
Levinson's tale of an embattled Hollywood producer entitled “What Just Happened?” closes this year's Festival de
Cannes. The movie is based on
his memoir about his experiences as a producer.
2008: The
winner of the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award is announced in New
Orleans at the 62nd Reuben Awards Ceremony. Mad
Magazine Veteran Al Jaffee is one of the nominees for this year's Reuben
Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. The Reuben Award (a statuette
designed by and named after the
2008: The
Cedar Rapids Jewish community watches with pride as Daniel DeClue takes part in
the graduation ceremonies at Prairie High School. A dedicated student of Judaica, a regular at
Saturday morning services and an all-around great guy, he will be truly missed
while he is away at college.
2009:
As Americans gather to observe Memorial Day, the following we are reminded of
the role that Jews have played in defense of this country from Asher Levy in
New Amsterdam to Corporal Mark Evnin, the first Jewish casualty in Iraq.
2009:
Israel is likely to face simultaneous missile strikes and terror attacks across
the country in the event of a war breaking out, Deputy Defense Minister Matan
Vilnai said today. Hanegbi concluded.
2009(2nd
of Sivan, 5769): Amos Elon, author of “The Israelis: Founders and Sons,”
passed away at the age of 82.
2010:
"The Adventures of Hershele Ostropolyer," a new musical adaptation of
the classic Yiddish play by Moyshe Gershenson, is scheduled to premiere tonight
at The Baruch Performing Arts Center in New York City.
2009:
Conference 2009 hosted by The Philadelphia Kehilla For Secular Jews came to an
end.
2010:
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., officially reopened the Etan Patz
case today.
2010:
American Olympic figure skating champion Sarah Hughes “graduated from Yale and
received a bachelor's degree in American studies with a concentration in U.S.
politics and communities.”
2010:
Elizabeth Holtzman announced that she had decided not to run for New York State
Attorney General.
2010:
The 49th Israel Festival, arguably one of Israel's most important cultural and
artistic events, will commence with performances by Nuevo Tango, Ahavat Olamim,
a tribute to Charlie Parker by Anchipolosvky, the King's Singers, and a dance
performance entitled Vertigo, Birth of the Phoenix. The three week festival centered in Jerusalem
will feature music, dance, and theater from Israeli and international artists
that hail from the U.S., Britain, Lithuania, Germany, Denmark, France, Iceland,
India, Japan and Korea. Events will
occur in venues throughout the city.
2011:
Jonathan D. Sarna is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “That Obnoxious
Order”: Ulysses S. Grant and the Jews at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim in
Charleston, SC.
2011:
Joan Nathan is scheduled to sign copies of “Quiches,
Kugels, and Couscous” at the National Archives following a presentation that
“explores the rich tapestry of more than three centuries of Jewish cooking in
America.
2011: The New
England Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to
present a lecture, “Among Mishpocha: At Home in the Boston Jewish Community” by
Dr. Michael Feldberg in the Education Center of the New England Historic
Genealogical Society in Boston.
2011:
Ken Spiro is scheduled to deliver a lecture on the accomplishments of the Jews
throughout history entitled “What Would the World be Like without the Jews?” in
Greenwich, CT.
2011:
Six Israeli women from Beit Shemesh-Mateh Yehuda are scheduled be at the JCCNV
to cook foods from different origins (Moroccan, Kurdish -Iraqi, Persian,
Russian
and
Yemenite) as part of “Taste of Israel: Ethnic Cooking at its Best.”
2011:
Opening of “Jews, Slavery and the Civil War” a conference hosted by the College
of Charleston.
2011:
US President Barack Obama said today that a resolution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict was "more urgent than ever." And while
expressing confidence that a two-state solution was achievable, the US
president made it clear that seeking Palestinian statehood in the United
Nations would be "a mistake." Speaking alongside UK Prime Minister
David Cameron at a press conference in London after the two met privately,
Obama stated that the Palestinians must understand "they have obligations
as well."
2012:
Gil Shohat is scheduled to conduct a Brahms Marathon at the Henry Crown Concert
Hall as part of the Israel Festival.
2012:
The Centre Daily Times reported that Graham Spanier “is suing” Penn State
University in order to force them the school to turn over some e-mails related
to the Jerry Sandusky scandal. The paper
also reported that Spanier “was listed as one of four officials at the center
of the school’s faiure to respond to Sandusky’s predatory behavior.” Spanier had been President of Penn State
until he was forced to resign for his failure to act to react to reports of
Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse of young boys. (Spanier is Jewish, Sandusky is
not)
2012:
As Americans begin their Memorial Day Weekend by Cantor Larry Paul and musician
Robyn Helzner are scheduled to lead a special Shabbat Eve service at the
Historic 6th & I Synagogue honoring the memory of the Jewish
Fallen Heroes of Iraq and Afghanistan. National Museum of American Jewish
Military History President, Norman Rosenshein, is scheduled to deliver the
opening remarks. During the service, the names of the more than 40 fallen
heroes will be read as a sign of solemn remembrance.
2012:
The confirmands and their families attended Shabbat evening services at Plum
Street Temple in Cincinnati, Ohio.
2013:
Zubin Mehta is scheduled to conduct the IPO at a gala concert in Israel
featuring Itzhak Perlman.
2013:
The Alexandria Kleztet is scheduled to perform at the Potomac Overlook Regional
Park in Arlington, VA.
2013: Syrian web activists loyal to the regime
of Basher Assad launched a failed cyber-attack on Haifa's water supply system,
a senior scientist and web expert revealed today.
2013:
Dozens of protesters demonstrated tonight in Ramat Gan around Energy and Water
Minister Silvan Shalom's residence over the government's intention to approve
the export of natural gas from Israel, Army Radio reported
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Protest-around-ministers-home-over-gas-exports-314346
2014:
Forty-six-year-old Carla Brui, the Italian born former first lady of France is
scheduled to perform in Tel Aviv.
2014:
The funeral for Don Levine, the creator of “GI Joe” is scheduled to be held at
Temple Beth-El in Providence, RI
2014:
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve “condemened” yesterday’s atrack in
front a synagogue in Créteil, a Paris suburb on what he describe as members of
“the Jewish faith.” (Tmes of Israel)
2014:
“Prosecutors today said they are looking for a lone suspect in the lethal
weekend shooting spree at the Brussels Jewish Museum that left three people
dead and one in critical condition. “ Two of the victims have been identified
as an Israeli couple Mira and Emmanuel Riva.The other victims have only been
idenitied as a murdered French woman and an injured Belgian.
2014;
“AOL Inc said today it is starting a program in Israel to assist start-ups, and
that it will invest at least $100,000 in as many as 10 projects at a time.”
2014:
At Ben Gurion Airport President Shimon Peres “welcomed Pope Francis, saying
"On behalf of the Jewish people and in the name of all the people of
Israel, I welcome you with the age old words from the Book of Psalms: 'Welcome
in the name of the Lord.' Welcome at the gates of Jerusalem." (As reported
by Attila Somfalvi)
2014:
In Durham, NC, Hundreds of people are scheduled “to witness the internment of a
cake of ashes given to an American soldier by a Dachau survivor in 1945” at the
Durham Hebrew Cemetery. (As reported by Rene Ghert-Zand)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/dachau-human-remains-come-to-rest-in-north-carolina/
2014:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Sons of Wichita by Daniel Schulman (reviewed by Nicholas Lemann) and
in-depth interview of Leah Hager Cohen author of No Book but the World.
2014:
In a front-page ad in today’s edition of Haaretz, “the New Association For a Better Future” “called on MKs” to support 88 year old former Defense Minister Moshe
Arens for the Presidency of Israel.
2014:
In Spain, residents of the town of Castrillo Matajudos (Castrillo Kill Jews)
will vote on changing the town’s name to Mota Judios or Mota Judious, both of
which means Mound of the Jews.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/spanish-town-of-kill-jews-to-vote-on-name-change/
2015(7th
of Sivan, 5775): Second Day Shavuot – Yizkor
2015(7th
of Sivan, 5775): Ninety-year-old Morris Wilkins passed away today. (As reported
by Sam Roberts)
2015:
Today, “judges sentenced former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to serve an
additional eight months of prison over a graft conviction, tacking the sentence
onto a separate six-year jail term the ex-politician is set to serve for
another conviction.”
2015:
This evening the Historic 6th & I Synagogue in Washington, DC is
scheduled to host Café Nite, an exploration of several learning options with
MesorahDC.
2015:
Memorial Day observed as Americans remember those who made the supreme
sacrifice for the United States and her citizens.
https://kaplancenter.org/memorial-day-and-united-jewish-people
http://forward.com/news/135331/profiles-of-our-fallen/#ixzz1DeAMPaIh
http://www.algemeiner.com/2011/07/18/jews-in-the-military/
2016: Despite the issuance of a “severe travel advisor for
Tunisia” by Israel’s Counter-Terroirsm Bureau, “many Jews who” come the former
French colony are scheduled to travel, as they do “each year to the island of
Djerba in the country’s south, the historic home of an ancient community of
Jewish priestly families, to celebrate the Lag B’Omer holiday, which” begins
this evening.
2016: The Skirball Center is scheduled to present Dr.
Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg speaking on “Lech Lecha: Becoming Abraham,”an
examination of “Abraham’s odyssey through a combination of psychoanalysis,
rabbinic commentary, art history and other disciplines…”
2016: The Leo Baeck Institute and the American Society for
Jewish Music are scheduled to present “An Erwin Schulhoff Retrospective with
the Downtown Chamber Players” who will perform compositions of the
Czechoslovakian composer and pianist who died in 1942 in the Wurzburg
concentration camp in Bavaria.
2017(29th of Iyar, 5777): Ninety-three year old
Eliezer David Jaffe “the founder and president of The Israel Free Loan
Association and a professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem” passed away
today.
2017: “The premiere of Nania” and a performance of “Tech
It Away” is scheduled to take place tonight at “Catamona Rave, a one-night
party at Beit Alliance” in Jerusalem.
2017: “The annual Shavuot Festival in White” is scheduled
to begin today.
2017: “A Night of Philosophy” is scheduled to “be held at
several locations throughout Tel Aviv, including Beit Alma and the Nachum
Gutman Museum.”
2017: The USHMM is scheduled to host a talk by Holocaust
survivor Marcel Drimer as part of its “Fist Person Series.”
2017: ELI Talks is scheduled to host presentations by
Andrew Belifnfante, Director of Public Programs at Mechon Hadar, Amy Reichert
and singer and songwriter Neshama Carlebach.
2018: JW3 is scheduled to host a pre-Shabbat screening of
“Entebbe” this afternoon in London.
2018: Professor Dr. Robert Harris of JTS is scheduled to
teach present the final session of “Medieval Jewish Commentaries of the Hebrew
Bible.”
2018: The 14th Street Y is scheduled to present
a performance of “The Labor of Life” by Hanoch Levin and directed by Ronit
Muszka Tblit
2018: In Iowa, as part of the Jewish Federation of the
Quad Cities Jewish Culture Series Holocaust Survivor Eva Schloss a step-sister
of Anne Frank, and creator of the exhibit "Paintings Created in Hiding by
Erich and Heinz Geiringer" which will be permanently housed at the
Danville Station Museum in Danville, Iowa” is scheduled to speak this evening
at the Tri-City Jewish Center in Rock Island, Illinois.
2019(20th of Iyar, 5779): Parashat Behar and
Chapter Four of Pirke Avot; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2019: In Washington, DC, the Avalon Theatre is scheduled
to host a screening of Aviv Kempner’s “The Spy Behind Home Plate.”
2019: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a
presentation by Leonie Bergman as part of their Survivor Speaker series.
2019: On Shabbat,
Israelis prepared to deal with the third day of massive wildfires, Prime
Minister is reported to have thanked the international community for their
response, including two helicopters sent by Egypt to fight the conflagration
2020: The Virtual
Sonoma County JCC Israeli Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of
“Turn Left at the End of the World,” a 2004 drama about culture clashes between
Indian and Moroccan Jews who have immigrated to Israel and the love between two
girls on opposite sides
2020: Memorial Day is
scheduled to be observed in the United States since the start of the pandemic
https://kaplancenter.org/memorial-day-and-united-jewish-people
http://forward.com/news/135331/profiles-of-our-fallen/#ixzz1DeAMPaIh
http://www.algemeiner.com/2011/07/18/jews-in-the-military/
2020: The History
Channel is scheduled to host the first in a three-part miniseries about U.S.
Grant, infamous for Order Number 11 but also known for his positive
relationship with the Jewish community that led to its support for him at the
ballot box and included his attendance at the dedication of Adas Israel to
which he made a contribution.
2020: Aish is schedule
to host a “special live class with Rabbi Benjamin Blech” who will speak on “How
the Torah Changed the World,” “a 40-minute exploration on the 10 commandments
and personal fulfillment.
2020: As they arise
this morning, Israelis will be confronting the realities of the Pandemic and
the reality of Prime Minister standing on trial for corruption.
2020: The ASF Institute
of Jewish Experience is scheduled to present a Webinar on “Value and
Consequences in the Halakhic Process: A Sephardi Perspective” with Professor
Zvi Zohar.
2021: Kerem Shalom is
scheduled to present online “Voter Rights and Suppression” with Nancy Brumbeck,
the voting rights specialist at the Massachusetts League of Women Voters.
2021: The Laura and
Alvine Siegal Lifelong Learning Program at Case Western Reserve University is
scheduled to present “Finding God in Our Relationships: Insights from Martin
Buber.”
2021: The YIVO
Institute is scheduled to present, live on Zoom, “Salomea Perl and Women
Yiddish Prose Writers.”
https://programs.cjh.org/event/salomea-perl-2021-05-25
2021: Stanford
historian Steven Zipperstein is scheduled to be the guest this evening at
“conversation” hosted by the Jewish Review of Books.
021: The Jewish
Heritage Alliance is scheduled to present “Our of the Dungeons” with Genie
Milgrom.
2021: In partnership
with the Consulate General of Israel to New England, The Zamir Chorale of
Boston us scheduled to host “a virtual concert and conversation with
international artists Achinoam Nini, Benjie Ellen Schiller and others,
including a discussion about Israeli songwriter Naomi Shemer.”
2021: The JCC of
Greater Boston is scheduled to present online “Cancel Culture Through a Jewish
Lens.”
2021: The Taube Center
for Jewish Studies at Stanford is scheduled to present Cecile Kuznitz from Bard
College Jewish studies department lecturing on various aspects of Yiddish
culture and scholarship.
2021: The Jewish Arts
Collaborative is scheduled to present online a “Tribute to Leonard Cohen with
David Broza and Friends.”
2021: Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at
his Jerusalem office today at 10 a.m. local time.
2022: The Wiener
Holocaust Memorial Library and HGRP are scheduled to host the second and final
day of “Recovery and Repair: Supporting Jewish Family Histories of the
Holocaust Throughout Britain.”
2022: The ASF Institute
of Jewish Experience is scheduled to present “New Works Wednesday with Rachel
and Frankel and JJCPF (Jamaican Jewish Cemeteries Preservation Fund.”
2022: LSJS is scheduled
to a lecture by Dr. Shalva Weil on “Baghdadi Jews under the Raj: Religion,
Opium and Bollywood.”
2022: In New Orleans,
the Jewish Community Day School is scheduled to hold its 6th grade
graduation.
2022:
Today, Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu is scheduled to “meet with Israeli
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, visit Israel's main Holocaust memorial and pay a
private visit to Jerusalem's flashpoint holy site, known to Muslims as the
Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and to Jews as the Temple Mount.”
2023:
“Gateway Shavuos 2023 is scheduled to begin at the Armon Motel in Stamford, CT.
2023:
“Etz Chayim, Beth Am, Hausner, JCC, Keddem, Kehillah and Kol Emeth” is
scheduled to present an “all-night learning session centered on stories of
conversion and Jewish identity completed with film screening, kiddush, snack,
seven species tasting and blintzes.”
2023:
Congregation Kehillath Israel is scheduled to present “Community Tikkun Leil
Shavuot in Brookline.”
2023:
Hebrew College is scheduled to present “Tikkun Leyl Shavuot 2023/5783”
2023(5th
of Sivan, 5783): Erev Shavuot
2024:
Tickets are available today for The Nova Music Festival Exhibition, an in-depth
remembrance of the brutal October 7th attack
2024(17th
of Iyar, 5784): Parashat Behar; Pirke Avot Chapter Four
for
more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2024:
As May 25th begins in Israel,
an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps the United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day 232 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.)
