This Day, August 21, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
August 21
1157:
Alfonso the Emperor died. His kingdom was divided between his two sons with
Sancho III the receiving Castile and , Ferdinand II, “who granted the Jews
special privileges” receiving León.
1165:
Birthdate of Philip II Augustus, the French king who first imprisoned his
Jewish subjects; then extorted ransom from them before banning them from Paris
and its environs.
1321:
Jews in France were accused of encouraging lepers to poison Christian wells.
This directly led to the graver accusations of the same kind during the Black
Plague. This time, five thousand Jews were killed. At Chinon, 160 Jews were
burned in a pit on an island outside of town. Eventually the King, Philip the
Tall, admitted that the Jews were innocent. The island is still known as Ile de
Juifs (Island of the Jews).
1379:
In Spain, Fernan Martin, King John’s executioner accompanied by Don Zulema
Solmon and Don Zag Isaac, went to the home of Joseph Pinchon, Martin beheaded
Pinchon per the order of the king.
Because of the scandal surrounding the event it led to the repeal of
Jewish jurisdiction in criminal cases in Castile
1486:
Volume II of a Mahzor, using the Roman Rite was printed for the first time at
Casal Maggiore, Italy.
1569:
Cosimo I de' Medici, who had invited the Jews to settle in Tuscany but who also
gave in to pressure from the Pope to burn the Talmud, became Grand Duke of
Tuscany today.
1669:
“The priest of the Russian church made a complaint against the Jews of Brest
for reconverting to Judaism a baptized Jewess of the name of Judith, whose
baptismal name was Anastasia, a daughter of Shemuel, at one time leaseholder of
taxes.”
1684:
In response to a letter from the Dutch commander of Essequibo and Pomeroon
explaining that the trade in vanilla had come to an end because of the death of
a Jew named Salomon de la Roche, representatives of the Dutch West India
company wrote “As to the vanilla trade, which we recommend you carry on for the
company, where you answer us saying this trade has come to an end through the
death of a Jew, Salomon de la Roche...a meager and poor excuse.” This
correspondence is one example of the important role that Jews played in the
vanilla trade.
1736:
Isaac Levy arrived in Savannah from London today.
1765:
King George III and Queen Charlotte gave birth to his third son King William IV
during whose reign he opposed a bill that would freed Catholics from their
Civil Disabilities which would have benefited the Jews and whose death led to a
general election in which Benjamin Disraeli scored his first electoral victory
gaining a seat in the House of Commons as one of the two Tories representing
the constituency of Maidstone.
1770:
Marcus Herz, the German Jewish physician and philosopher traveled to Berlin to
Königsberg so he could as respondent when Emmanuel Kant presented his inaugural
dissertation at the University of Königsberg
1772:
A coup d'état by King Gustav III is completed by adopting a new Constitution,
ending half a century of parliamentary rule in Sweden, and making him an
enlightened despot.
1775:
Daher el-Omar who ruled the Galilee as an autonomous region during the days of
the Ottoman Empire passed away today.
1785:
In Denmark Isac Hartvig Ree, the Danish born son of Hirsch Isac Philip Rée and
Mirjam Marie Rée and his wife Sara Wulff von Essen gave birth to Berend Isaac
Ree.
1802:
Birthdate of Moravia native Hirsch Bar Fassel who gave up a career in business
for the rabbinate, eventually leading the congregation at Nagy-Kanizsa, Hungary
while contributing to various Jewish publications in the Orient.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6032-fassel-hirsch-bar
1806:
In Charleston, SC, Isaac Clinton Moses and Hanna Lazarus Moses gave birth to future
New Orleans resident Cecilia Frances Moses Moise, the wife of Major Theodore
Sidney Moise and the mother of Theodora Sydny Moise
1811(1st
of Elul, 5571): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1811:
Birthdate of Joseph Derenbourg, or Joseph Naftali Derenburg, Franco-German
author, historian and a prime mover in the rehabilitation of Jewish education
in France
1811:
Barnet Joseph married Elizabeth Emanuel at the Great Synagogue today.
1811:
In London, Abigail Montefiore and Benjamin Gompertz gave birth to Justina Lydia
Gompertz, the wife of Jacob Montefiore.
1820(11th
of Elul, 5580): Haim Farhi who known as the Hakham Haim, a prominent
Palestinian Jewish leader in the days of the Ottoman Empire passed away.
http://www.farhi.org/Documents/HaimFarhi_1.htm
1822:
In Badan, marriage of Marx and Henriette Oppenheimer.
1823:
Birthdate of “Rosa Hanne.”
1829:
In Hamburg, Germany “author and prominent social reformer Johanna Schwabe and prosperous
merchant Moritz David Goldschmidt gave birth
to “composer, conductor and pianist, Otto Moritz David Goldschmidt known for
his piano concertos and other piano pieces” who “married the ‘Swedish
Nightingale’, soprano Jenny Lind” whom he married in 1852 shortly after he had
been baptized.
1831(12th
of Elul, 5591): Rose “Rosey” Nathan, the Exeter, England born daughter of Sarah
and Abraham Ezekiel, “wife of Philip Eliezer Lipman ben Nathan and mother of
Nathaniel Nathan; Anna Phillips (Nathan); Rachel Louise Arnold; Jacob Philip
Nathan; Isabella Solomon; Julia Cohen and Harriett rose Nathan” passed away
today in Portsmouth, England
1831:
In Buttenwiesen, Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, Seligmann Pinchas Luchs, the German
born son of Moses and Maianne Marie Luchs, and his wife Judith Marx Luchs gave
birth to future Tennessee resident Mina Bissinger, the wife of Baruch Ben Bessinger
and the “mother of Gussie Augusta Lefkovits and Abraham Bissinger.”
1832(25th
of Av, 5592): Seventy-two-year-old Zipporah Levy Seixas, the New York born
daughter of Hyman and Sloe Myers Levy and the wife of Benjamin Mendez Seixas
with whom she had three children – Rebecca, Esther and Grace --
passed away today in New York.
1835:
Parliament passes the Sheriff’s Declaration Bill which allowed Jews to hold the
ancient and important office of Sheriff. Passage of this bill was an
intermediate step in Parliamentary efforts to pass the so-called Jew Bill.
1837:
In Wollstein, Dr. Marcus Mosse, the son of Salomon Moses and Henriette (Jette)
Marcus Levin and Ulrike Mosse gave birth to Salomon Mosse
1837:
“Mr. Hart Lyon presented a Sefer Torah to the Kaal today.
http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/library/events/EventsCalendar/Pages/docutext-04.aspx
1839(11th
of Elul, 5599): Sixty-year old to Zalegman Phillips the son of Jonas Phillips
and Rebecca Machada, a successful lawyer and husband of Arabella Solomon whom
he married when she was nineteen years old passed away today.
1840:
Persecution of the Jews of Damascus brought together Congregation B'nai
Jesheran in New York City to declare: "Resolved, that we do most
emphatically and solemnly deny, as well in our own name as in that of the whole
Jewish people, that murder was ever committed by the Jews of Damascus, or those
of any other part of the world for the purpose of using the blood or any part
of a human being in the ceremonies of our religion." U.S.
President Van Buren instructed his officer at Constantinople to help the
persecuted Jew of Damascus
1841(4th
of Elul, 5601): Parashat Shoftim
1850:
David Cohen married Julia Nathan at the New Synagogue today.
1850:
John and Adelaide wed today at the West London Synagogue.
1852: Birthdate of British historian Arnold
Toynbee. Toynbee was baffled by the
continued existence of the Jewish people whom he described as a fossil of
history. Not only was he baffled by the
Jews continued existence, he did not approve of it either.
1852(6th
of Elul, 5612): Marchand Ennery passed away.
Born at Nancy in 1792 he studied Talmud under Baruch Guggenheim and at
the rabbinical school of Herz Scheuer, in Mainz. He went to Paris, became
teacher in the family of a wealthy coreligionist, and in 1819 was appointed
director of the new Jewish school at Nancy. At this time he published his
Hebrew-French lexicon, the first of its kind to appear in France. In 1829 he
became chief rabbi of Paris; in 1846 chief rabbi of the Central Consistory; in
1850 chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He was succeeded as chief rabbi by
Salomon Ulmann.
1852:
“Bohemia: A Visit to Prague” published today included a description of the
current conditions and history of the Jews living in this ancient central
European City.
1855:
In Adrian, Michigan, William J. and Hannah May Schloss gave birth to New York
businessman Henry W. Schloss the President and general manager of Castle Braid
Company and President of Eltsac Realty Corporation in Brooklyn who was the
husband of Isabella Frankfield with whom he had three children – William,
Alfred and May.
1858(11th
of Elul, Parashat Ki Teitzei
1858:
In Safed, Sarah Bela Zartkis and Jacob Mordecai Hirschensohn, the principal of
the “Maor Jacob Academy in Jerusalem, gave
birth to Hayim Hirschensohn, “the teacher in an orphan asylum in Jerusalem, a
student of hierographics in Egypt and
the “director of a Sephardic school in Constantinople before coming to the United
States in 1903 and beginning his service s the Rabbi of Congregation Etz
Hachayim in Hoboken, NJ and serving as a delegate to the Sixth Zionist Congress
while serving as the editor of the monthly Hebrew publication Ha-Misderonah.”
1859:
In “Rose Law Cottage Kennington Oval,” Rebecca Crawcour and Aron Hart gave
birth to Bernard Hart.
1859:
Birthdate of Westmorland Davis who in 1919, while serving as Governor of
Virginia “designated October 14 through October 24 as the days for the Jewish
relief campaign and urged “citizens, irrespective of
race or creed, to contribute liberally” to the Jewish relief campaign – a move
that surely was not motivated by the “large number of Jewish voters in the Old
Dominion.
1860:
The “Hebrew Son” is scheduled to be performed tonight at the New Bowery Theatre
in New York City.
1861:
According to a report placed on board the the steamer Saladin which is sailing
from Kingston, Jamaica tonight for New York City, Commercial matters seem to
become worse every day. Fresh failures are announced before people have time to
recover the shock occasioned by previous ones. The greatest of all has been
that of Mr. Lucas, a prince among the Jews, whose books, it is said, show a
very unpleasant state of things for his creditors, and whose self is now non
est inventus. There will, doubtless, be very great depression for a time in the
trade of the country; but a conviction is felt that a crisis like the present
was necessary to correct the fictitious and corrupt business that was for some
time done here by a certain class of merchants, and that when the country has
passed over the trials of the present ordeal, there will be a healthy state of
things, and the prosperity indicated by our agriculture will be permanent and
lasting.
1862:
Philadelphian Samuel B. Salsburg began serving a three year hitch with Company
C of the 138th Regiment during which he was wounded during fighting
at Monocacy, MD.
1863:
In describing his uneventful trip down the Mississippi River from St. Louis to
New Orleans, the New York Times correspondent offers as proof the
peaceful conditions that "This circumstance is shown by the crowds of
civilians -- Jews and others -- who may be seen besieging the authorities at
every point from Cairo to the Gulf, asking only the permission to bring in
clothing, drugs, staples, to buy cotton, or, in short, do anything whereby they
can realize quick sales and a thousand per cent profits. There are many long
faces and much cursing, but all uselessly, for Gen. Grant will, so long as he
can influence the matter, refuse to open trade at any point in his
Department."
1864(19th
of Av, 5624): Isaac J. Levy (CSA) was killed in the trenches at Petersburg, He
was 21 years old. Isaac is buried in the Hebrew Cemetery on Shockoe Hill in
Richmond, in the Levy family plot.
1864:
“Turkey: The Missionary Difficulty at Constantinople” published today recounts the failure of the
European missionaries to convert the locals. Citing information supplied by the
Times of London correspondent in the Turkish capital the article reports
that the efforts of missionaries - both English and American -"The
influence of these preachings among the Jews and Greeks, with the exception of
isolated cases, some of which do not bear much examination as regards the
conviction and good faith of the proselytes, has been comparatively a
failure."
1865:
As evidence of how the Jew’s Hospital is now serving the general population, a
maid named Ellen Murray was rushed to the hospital for treatment after she was
burned when trying to start a fire in a stove.
Unfortunately, “she suffered mortal injuries” and died at the hospital.
The hospital, which would be re-named Mt. Sinai, came into general use during
the Civil War when it was used to treat the Union soldiers wounded during
McClellan’s ill-fated Peninsula Campaign in 1862.
1865:
In Germany, Goetz and Johanna (Strauss) Oppenheimer
gave birth to Baltimore merchant Henry
Oppenheimer, the husband of Cara Hutzler, who would serve as President of Har
Sinai Congregation in Baltimore and who was a member of the Associated Jewish
Charities in Baltimore.
1866:
In New York City, Esther Hellman Wallenstein and Solomon Wallenstein gave birth
to Jennie Wallenstein Kohstamm, the oldest of their four children.
1866:
In New York City, Solomon and Jael Belais gave birth to David Belais
1867:
At the residence of the bride's parents, John Hart of 7 St Paul's Rd.,
Canonbury, son of Isaac Hart, married Maria Hannah, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Moses Angel of 1 King St., Finsbury. Moses Angel was the headmaster of the Jews
Free School (JFS)
1868:
In Galicia, Helen Bader and Yiddish writer Isaac Moses Bader gave birth to
Hebrew and Yiddish journalist and playwright Gershom Bader.
https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Bader_Gershom
1868(5th
of Tishrei, 5629): Sixty-two-year-old Louis Loew Leopold Affelder, the Bavarian
born son of Samuel Lazarus Affelder and Nanni Nanette Affelder and the husband
of Regine Rosalie Affelder passed away today in Furth.
1869(14th
of Elul, 5629) Parashat Ki Teitzei
1869(14th
of Elul, 5629): Fifty-three-year-old Mozes Jesajas de Vries, the son of Mozes
Jesajas de Vries and Judik Mozes Blog passed away today in Harlingen,
Friesland, Nederland,
1870:
One day after he had passed away, three-month-old Frederick Louis Makower, the
son of Moritz Makower and the former Jessie Isaac was buried today at the Balls
Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1870:
It was reported today that of the 31 chaplains serving with the Army of the
Rhine, 3 of them are Jews.
1871:
It was reported today that Rabbi Elkan Herzman has been fired from his position
at an Orthodox synagogue in Chicago for eating ice cream on the Jewish fast day
of Tish’a B’Av. According to the report first published in the Jewish Times, the issue was not so much
one of violating the law about the fast as one of hypocrisy.
1871:
It was reported today that of the 21 chaplains serving in the Army of the
Rhine, 3 of them are Jews.
1872:
In New York City, Louis B. and Katie (Barnett) Davis gave birth Columbia alum
and NYU Law School trained attorney Harry Benjamin Davis, the husband of Sarah
Barnett who a member of Sinai Temple in Mount Vernon and the Republic Party
nominee for a judgeship in 1907.
1873:
Birthdate Ogdensburg, NY native, Yale graduate and NYU trained realty lawyer,
the husband of the former Adele Morgenthau with whom he had a son and a daughter
and a director of the Seixas Corporation who “was one of the foudr of the
Educational Alliance’s Surprise Lake Camp for Boys and a member of the Free Synagogue
of New York.”
1873:
The Grand lodge of the Kesher She Barzel reopened this morning at Pythagoras
Hall under the leadership of Grand Saar Rosenthal.
http://forward.com/articles/7288/man-of-the-book-reading-a-life-of-salman-schocken/
1874:
It was reported today that Sol Mortiz, a prominent Jewish merchant from
Indianapolis, Indiana has denied all the charges that he had an improper
relationship with the 18-year-old daughter and wife of George C. Harding. Harding and Mortiz were friends, but this did
not keep the enraged newspaper proprietor from shooting the merchant several
times. Moritz said he will prove his innocence once he has recovered from his
wounds.
1875:
Birthdate of Karl Neubauer, the Czech born son of Adolf and Klara Neubauer and
Helene Neubauer, who died at Treblinka some time “after October 1942.”
1876:
Birthdate of Elizabeth, NJ native and NYU trained attorney Abe J. David who
served as district court judge and country prosecutor and who was the husband
of Anna Kampner David.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1942/11/22/85067540.html?pageNumber=52
1878:
The London World published a commentary about the Earl of Beaconsfield’s
(Benjamin Disraeli) religious beliefs and his plans for his burial. According to a Jewish source, Beaconsfield
will pull of the greatest surprise of his life by having himself buried beside
his father at the “graveyard of the Jews at Mile-end.” After all he had been baptized by trickery
and “no Jew is ever sincere in renouncing” his religion. The correspondent for
the World takes the opposite view and is sure that he will be “true to the
religion of his knighthood” and will be content to be buried beside his wife
instead of beside his father.
1878:
In Washington, DC, Simon Wolf served as chairman of a meeting attended by Jews
who had gathered to raise money for southerners suffering from the current
Yellow Fever Epidemic. The meeting was
poorly attended because of a lack of notice so only $180 was raised.
1879:
Justice Flammer sent 5-year-old Liba and
2-year-old Louis Wildever to a Jewish charitable institution after they were
discovered along with their mother Sarah starving in a room on Franklin
Street. According to Mrs. Wildever, an
immigrant from Russia, the children’s father (and her husband) and had deserted
them.
1879:
An assignment for the benefit of creditors by Nathan Mayer, to Isaac D.
Einstein, with $16,110 preferences was filed in the County Clerk’s office today
1881:
It was reported today that the Young Men’s Hebrew Union is planning to sponsor
a concert in New York’s Washington Park.
1881:
In Savannah, GA, Edmund H. and Cecilia Solomons Abrahams gave birth to Edmund
Hezekial Abrahams, the husband of Mildred Guckenheimer Abrahams and the father
of Marion Cecile Abrahams Mendel who “was a descendant of Benjamin and Perla
Sheftall who were among the 41 Jews whom General Oglethorpe welcomed to settle
in the Georgia Colony in July 1733.
1882:
It was reported today that Florence Templeton, the daughter of the banker John
Templeton is engaged to marry Jack Springfield the adopted son of an
Anglo-Jewish financier.
1884(30th
of Av, 5644): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1884:
Alexander Labotsky, a Polish Jew was arrested today after his Frieda had
charged him with abandonment.
1884:
It was reported today that Annie Lifcawitz, a young girl living in an apartment
above the store owned by Solomon Ellinsohn was the first one to discover the
fire that local ruffians had started.
Ellinsohn had complained to the police about these young ruffians
terrifying people living on the Lower East Side, but the authorities had taken
no action.
1885:
Dr. Cyrus Edson, Chief of the Second Sanitary division made another raid on the
Jewish owned truck stores on the Lower East Side. Edson and his staff seized “a half ton of bad
fish and some unwholesome meat” along with seven boxes of fruits and
vegetables.
1887(1st
of Elul, 5647): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1887:
Birthdate of Levie Van Praag, the native of Zaandam, Holland and husband of
Sabiena Cohen both of whom were murdered at Sobibor.
1887:
Three days after she had passed away, 78 year old Miriam Spyer, the widow of
Lawrence Spyer with whom she had three children – Rachel, Frederick and
Nathaniel – was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1887:
Abraham Trombitsky’s right leg was fractured during a melee that resulted when
Patrolman John Etterick moved to disperse a crowd of Polish and Russian Jews at
the corner of Hester and Ludlow Streets.
1887:
Three-year-old Ella Hortense Alberga, the daughter of Eugene Alberga and the
former Celia Morrice was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1887:
“The Treaty of Berlin” published today described the multiple violations of
this agreement including the persistent persecution of the 400,000 Jews of
Romania “with the connivance of the Romanian Government”
1887:
“Old World News By Cable” published today described a letter from George Blyth,
the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem in which he reports that the Jewish population
in Palestine has grown from 15,000 to 42,000 in the past few years and “that
they are very friendly to him and his church.”
1887(1st
of Elul, 5647): In London, Israel Lipski whom some confused with the killer
“Jack the Ripper” was hanged at Newgate Prison after having been convicted of
murdering Miriam Angel.
1888:
Congressman Ford’s Immigration Committee completed its hearings in New York and
made plans to move on to Boston. The
thrust of the hearings is that immigrants, especially Jews from Russia and
other parts of eastern Europe, are responsible for depressing wages for
American workers.
1888:
Henry Russell married Hannah de Lara at Paddington, London.
1888:
Funeral services will be held at one o’clock this afternoon for Marks Laski, a
prominent Jewish merchant who had passed away unexpectedly with internment in
Cypress Hill Cemetery. The 52-year-old Laski arrived in New York from Poland in
1850 and entered into the wholesale dry goods business where he enjoyed enough
success to become a prominent philanthropist.
1889(24th
of Av, 5649): A man thought to be Adolph Cohn a resident of the Hebrew Home for
the Aged in New York City appeared to have jumped overboard as the Hoboken
ferryboat Hopatcong was pulling into the slip at Christopher Street. The identification is based on papers and
memos that the man placed on the cabin floor just before jumping.
1889:
The 9th free excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew
Children is scheduled to leave this morning at 9 o’clock.
1889:
Birthdate of Russian native Jacob J. Heller, “a vice president of the
International Ladies Garment Workers Union and author of two volumes of poetry
– My Union, My Life and Moments of Meditation who was the husband
of Rose Heller and father of Mrs. Gertrude Adler.
1890(5th
of Elul, 5650): Albert (Aaron) Siegfried Bettelheim, Hungarian born American
Rabbi died at sea while returning to the United States from a visit to
Europe. Born in 1830, he led a rather
colorful life before coming to the United States in 1867 where he had pulpits
in Philadelphia, Richmond, San Francisco and finally in Baltimore, MD. While in Richmond, he studied medicine but
accepted a position in San Francisco rather pursue a medical career. According to one source he was buried at sea
under the supervision of two Catholic priests that Bettelheim had met on the
voyage. The clerics reportedly recited
the Kaddish as the body was consigned to the depths. (As reported by Isidore
Singer, et al)
1891:
The United States Commissioner of Immigration Owens visited the SS Slavonia at
Lower Canton outside of Baltimore and examined the baggage and tickets of the
fifty-one Jews detained by order of Inspector Davis. He decided that twelve of
them could land because they had tickets to other parts of the United States
and “a few dollars” (which meant they would not become public charges).
1891:
At the Barge Office, the Acting Superintendent of Immigration refused to honor
the bond that Coroner Levy had come to post for ten Russian Jews who had been
detained because it was believed “that they were liable to become public
charges.”
1892:
The first train belonging to the Jaffa-Jerusalem Railway reached Jerusalem
today.
1892:
Three days after he had passed away, Bavaria native Nathan Kahn, the husband of
Isabella Jeri Levy Kahn with whom he had six children –Caroline, Rebecca,
Solomon, Mayer, Harriet and Gerson – was buried at Mt. Sinai Cemetery in
Philadelphia, PA.
1892:
“The Old Dutch Farmhouse” described the fate of agriculture in Holland
including that “enterprising Jews” have bought up the “heirlooms of the old
“agricultural” families.
1892:
“Agriculture in Russia” published today reported that in Russia, “the Jews are
blamed for avoiding agriculture and not wishing to live by the sweat of their
brow;” but they are not allowed to settle outside of the Pale where there is
arable land.
1893:
“Literary Notes” published today described plans for the upcoming publication
of The Settlement of the Jews in North America by Judge Charles P. Daly
which will soon appear in Hebrew.
1893:
The Park Department has issued a permit allowing mass meeting of unemployed
Jews to be held tonight in Union Square
1893:
“Light On Bible Records” published today provides a detailed review of The
Sacred Books of the Old Testament including a Hebrew text and English
translation edited by Paul Haput, a Professor at Johns Hopkins University.
1893:
Following last night’s meeting of the United Hebrew Trades during which a fight
broke out between socialists and anarchists a saloon keeper at 162 Broadway in
New York sent out circulars offering free food to unemployed workers.
1893:
Twenty-five-year-old Sigmund Maier, the German born son Jacob Maier, “a cattle dealer” and his
wife Dina, the manager of Mill Brothers married married Charlotte Lowenstein
with whom he had four boys and one girl.
1893: Emma Goldman “spoke to a crowd of nearly 3,000 people in Union Square, where she encouraged unemployed workers to take immediate
action.”
1893:
Joseph Peel was held by authorities today while the veterinarian examined two
dead horses owned by his former business partners, Feinberg and Cooper, to
determine if they had been poisoned. The
three had been partners in Feinberg, Cooper & Peel, a vegetable peddling
firm. The two Orthodox Jews claimed that
Peel threatened to poison the horses after they ended their relationship with
him; a relationship that had begun when the two men let Peel join them even
though he lacked any capital.
1893:
According to the New York Times the custom of throwing a slipper at wedding
stems from a custom “ancient Jews had of handing over a shoe to complete a
bargain” as demonstrated in the Book of Ruth.
1894(19th
of Av, 5654): Twenty-three-year-old Julius Marcus “a handsome and romantic
young” Jews shot 17-year-old Juliette Fournier, a French Protestant, through
the heart and “then put a bullet in his temple.”
1895:
In the Czech Republic Karl Low, the son of Helene and Daniel Low and his wife
Rosa Low gave birth to Bernhard Bernard Low
1895:
A list of bequests of the late Joseph Lewis published today included $100 for
each of the following: Mount Sinai Hospital, Montefiore Home for Chronic
Invalids, Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society, Home for Aged and Infirm
Hebrews and the United Hebrew Charities.
1896:
“Successful Festival of District Grand Lodge No. 1 of Free Sons of Israel”
published today described the successful fundraiser which raised several
thousand dollars “to enlarge the fund of the order devoted to sick and
distressed members.”
1897:
“In an article on an old Jewish Treasure House” that appeared in today’s issue
of The Time’s Saturday Review, “an
account was given of what might have been considered a charnel house of decayed
literature.” In fact it was a description of the Geniza “of the old synagogue
in Cairo.
1897:
“The Trouble At Jerusalem” published today described a dispute in that city
over the distribution of funds from America.
The amount in question is approximately $500 which Rabbi Salant can be given
to “worthy poor Jews” regardless of their nationality. The problem comes from the fact that American
Jews living in Jerusalem incorrectly think that the money should be used to
help them since it comes from the United States.
1897:
Birthdate of Berdichev native Albert Milton Mallin, who came to the United
States in 1908 where he earned a bachelor’s degree at CCNY before going on to
do post-graduate work at Columbia and teach in the New York City public
schools.
1899:
Rehearsals of “The Children of the Ghetto” by Israel Zangwill will begin today
in New York.
1899”
“For A Hebrew Sanitarium” published today described the successful package
arranged by the guests of the Cedars that included a “surprise auction” which
raised funds for the Hebrew Sanitarium of Rockaway, NY.
1899:
A summary of the report showing the July activity of the United Hebrew
Charities published today showed 1,623 applications for aid had been received
which affected the lives of 5,410 people. The society received donations of
$8,640.55 but spend $11,085.58 in providing aid and assistance.
1900:
In Milwaukee, WI, Carrie Marks and Isaac Schiff gave birth to University of
Chicago trained attorney and history teacher Sydney Kaufman Schiff who was a
history instructor and law schoolteacher at his alma mater.
1900:
Birthdate of NYC native and NYU trained attorney Chester Rohrlich, the husband
of “the former Edith Wacthel with whom he raised two daughters and the author
“Organizing Corporate and Other Business Enterprises who endowed the Chester
Rohrlch chair in corporate law and finance at NYU and who was the “president of
the Jew Child Care Association of New York” for three years.
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/12/18/archives/chester-rohrlich-lawyer-and-author.html
1901:
Birthdate of Wellesley College graduate and social worker Henriette Cooper Gutennan, the wife of attorney Harry
Nathaniel Gutennan with whom she had one daughter, Paula.
1901(5th
of Elul, 5661): Fanny Brooks, the wife of Julius Gerson Brooks and the mother
of George, Eveline, Edgar and Milton Brooks passed away today in Salt Lake City
after which she was buried
“Bnai Israel Cemetery.”
https://jwa.org/thisweek/aug/21/1901/this-week-in-history-death-of-pioneer-fanny-brooks
http://www.jmaw.org/brooks-jewish-slc-utah/
1902:
It was reported today that that the public hearings being held by the committee
appointed by Mayor Low to investigate the recent riot surrounding Rabbi Joseph,
for which three policemen have been indicted for misconduct, have been
concluded.
1903:
Herzl reported on the Uganda offer and the Russian journey to the Greater
Actions Committee at Basle
1904:
“The United States Government has again formally proposed to Russia the opening
of negotiations for the unrestricted recognition of American passports. In
accordance with the law of the empire only foreign Jews of specified classes --
merchants having business connections in the country, -- are allowed to enter
Russia, but quite a liberal policy has been pursued in making exceptions to the
rule where legitimate reasons therefore are given.”
1905(20th
of Av, 5665): French-German Assyriologist Julius Oppert passed away. Born in
1825 at Hamburg, he studied at Heidelberg, Bonn and Berlin, before graduating
at Kiel in 1847. In 1848, Oppert went to France, where he was teacher of German
at Laval and at Reims. In his spare time he continued his Oriental studies
which he had begun while living in German. In 1851, he joined the French
archaeological mission to Mesopotamia and Media under Fulgence Fresnel. On his
return in 1854, he was naturalized as a French citizen in recognition of his
services. He occupied himself with analyzing the results of the expedition,
with special attention to the cuneiform inscriptions he had collected. During
1855, he published Écriture Anarienne, advancing the theory that the language
spoken originally in Assyria was Turanian (related to Turkish and Mongolian),
rather than Aryan or Semitic in origin, and that its speakers had invented the
cuneiform writing system. Although the classification of the
"Casdo-Scythian" inscriptions as Turanian would later be rejected by
scholars, research would confirm Oppert in his identification of the
distinctness of the Sumerian language (as he renamed it in 1869) and the origin
of its script.During 1856 he published Chronologie des Assyriens et des
Babyloniens. During 1857, he was appointed professor of Sanskrit and
comparative philology in the school of languages connected with the National
Library of France, and in this capacity he produced his Grammaire Sanscrite
(1859). But his attention was chiefly given to Assyrian and cognate subjects.
His account of the Fresnel mission and the results of his consequent study were
published as Expédition Scientifique en Mésopotamie (1859-1863), with the
second volume entitled Déchiffrement des inscriptions cunéiformes. During 1865
he published a history of Assyria and Chaldaea (Histoire des Empires de Chaldée
et d'Assyrie) in the context of new archaeological findings. His Assyrian
grammar, Éléments de la grammaire assyrienne, was published in 1868. During
1869 Oppert was appointed professor of Assyrian philology and archaeology at
the College de France. During 1876, Oppert began to focus on the antiquities of
ancient Media and its language, writing Le Peuple et la langue des Médes
(1879). During 1881, he was admitted to the Academy of Inscriptions and in
1890, he was elected to its presidency.
1906(30th
of Av, 5666): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1906: Birthdate of Kansas City native Fritz Frelang
one of the great cartoon animators who worked at Warner Brothers for over
thirty years and was the man behind such icons as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and
Yosemite Sam to name but a few and was also the husband of Lily Freleng
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-friz-freleng-1621602.html
1907:
Dr. David Wolffsohn of Cologne, Germany “delivered the closing speech” today at
the final session of the eighth International Zionist Congress in The Hague.
1908:
The Championship Committee of the Amateur Athletic Union including Theodore E.
Straus, the Baltimore born son of Solomon and Rosalie Straus has decided this
year to distribute the different swimming championship events among the clubs
that make application for them.
1909(4th
of Elul, 5669): Parshat Shoftim
1909:
“Rabbis for Palestine Colony Plan” published today described plans for an
upcoming meeting, the object of which is to start a movement to enlist the
co-operation of the Jews” in the United State in the establishment of colonies
in Palestine.”
1910:
It was reported today that “the entry of Russian Jew immigrants at the port of
Galveston, Texas will be regulated more closely in the future” because
Department of Commerce and Labor officials “are convinced “the laws had been
loosely enforced at the port where “three shiploads of Russian Jews have landed
since June 24.”
1911:
Following the outbreak of anti-Semitic riots in New South Wales, the British
Home Secretary assured local Jewish leaders that no precautions would be
overlooked by the civil and military authorities to prevent a recurrence of
such outbreaks.
1911:
Dedication of Temple Ahavath Israel in Trenton, NJ.
1911:
The invitations for the wedding of John Nathan Levine of Waterville, Maine, a
former Yale football player “were received” in New York City today.
1912:
It was reported today that letters of administration have been granted to
Percy, Jessie and Herbert Straus, the three sons of Mrs. Isidor Straus who died
aboard the Titanic and did not have a will.
1913:
Closing arguments in the Leo Frank case began today.
1914:
In Vienna Dora Angel and her first husband Otto Soyka gave birth to Hedwig
Soyka
1915:
Birthdate of Sir Joshua Abraham Hassan, the first mayor and chief minister of
Gibraltar.
1915:
According to a report received in London from Petrograd, “owing to the
occupation by the Germans of a great part of the pale of Jewish settlements and
the inclusion of the remainder in the sphere of military operations, the
condition of the Jews is critical.”
1916:
The Jewish Academicians of America whose members included Bernard Drachman,
David I. Macht, Georges Bacarat, J.D. Eisenstein and Meyer Waxman was organized
today in New York City.
1917:
After winning his two professional bouts featherweight Danny Frush lost for the
first time today.
1917:
It was reported today that the “Committee of Dutch Jews that has been formed in
Amsterdam under the Chairmanship of Frederick Solomon Van Nierop, President of
the Amsterdamsche Bank in Amsterdam” will work with Dr. Boris Bogen and Max
Senior, American representatives the Joint Distribution Committee to distribute
funds “transmitted from America for the relief of Jews in the warring
countries. (Editor Note – the Netherlands was neutral in WW I which made them a
good conduit for sending money to European Jews from the United States now that
the U.S. was a belligerent)
1917:
Birthdate of Leonid "Leo" Hurwicz the Polish born American economist
and mathematician who won the Nobel Prize at the age of 90 – making him the
oldest person to do this.
1918:
The Second Battle of the Somme, the offensive that would lead to the end of WW
I and in which Sir John Monash played a leading role began today.
1918:
It was reported today the Secretary of Navy has issued a general order granting
furloughs to Jewish sailors so that they can observe the high holy days which
fall on September 7, 8, 14 and 15 which “a similar order has been issued by the
War Department granting furloughs to Jewish soldiers in this country, in the
Philippines, Puerto Rico and Panama and when possible on the Western Front.
1919:
Rabbi Henry Barnston, the Dover, England born of Isadore and Eve (Mendelson)
Barnston, who became the Rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in Houston Texas and
a lecturer at Tulane University married Ruth Kennard after his first wife Ethel Kennard had passed
away in 1917
1919: Today, The Committee on Public Information for which Walter
Wanger made short propaganda films designed “to combat anti-war or pro-German
sentiment in Allied Italy” and for which Edward Bernays served of its Latin
News Service “was formally disestablished by an act of Congress”
1920(7th
of Elul, 5680): Parashat Shofteim
1921:
Birthdate of Reuven Feuerstein the Romanian born Israeli clinical,
developmental, cognitive psychologist who is renowned for his theory of
intelligence which states “it is not ‘fixed’, but rather modifiable”.
1921:
Birthdate of Ruth Charlotte Barcan Marcus, “a philosopher esteemed for her
advances in logic, a traditionally male-dominated subset of a traditionally
male-dominated field…” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1921:
A Sephardic organization which was to include all Sephardic Jews from around
the world was founded in Madrid. It planned to defend Jewish interests
everywhere.
1922:
“Luise Millerin” a “silent historical film” featuring Fritz Kortner (born Fritz
Nathan Kohn) and Reinhold Schunzel was released today in Germany.
1922:
An appeal signed by Samuel Gompers, President, and eight Vice Presidents of the
American Federation of Labor was issued today to organized labor, urging the
fullest moral and financial support of the railroad shopmen now on strike.
1923:
It was reported today that a bequest in amount equivalent to $5,500,000 was
left by Jewish millionaire Jacques Elias “for Rumanian cultural and charitable
purposes “has been formally handed over to the Rumanian Academy.”
1924:
Birthdate of County Cork native David Marcus, “the Irish Jewish Editor” and
husband of Ita Daly who described their life in I’ll Drop You a Line: A Life
With David Marcus.
1925: “Tumultuous scenes occurred at the Zionist Congress when Vladimir
Jabotinsky, founder of the Jewish Legion, which fought together with the
British Army in Palestine during the war, took the floor. When the majority
gave Jabotinsky permission to continue his speech after his time limit had
expired, the Labor groups renewed their protest.”
1926: In Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Dawid
Buschell and Miriam-Manya Zuckermann gave birth to Ben-Zion Büschel who has
family moved to Palestine in 1933 where he gained fame as Israeli composer
Ben-Zion Orgad
1927: It was reported today that Sacco
and Vanzetti will be executed tomorrow after United States Supreme Court
Justice Louis D. Brandeis refused to their request for a stay of execution.
1928: Twenty-five-year-old banker Herman
F. Hahn, the Chicago born son of “Harry W. and Daisy (Kohn) Hahn” married
Louise Getz with whom he had four children – Mary, Peter, John and Ann Hahn.
1928: “The Big Pond” the first play to
be produced by Edwin H. Knopf” with a cast that included Kenneth MacKenna was
scheduled to open at the Bijou Theatre today.
1928: Two days after they had passed
away, Fanny (Jacobs) Michaels and her husband Max Michaels were buried at the
Wilesden Jewish Cemetery.
1929(15th of Av, 5689): Tu
B’Av
1929: “A funeral cortège, taking the
form of a public demonstration for the dead Jewish boy, wound its way through
the old city, with the police blocking attempts to break into the Arab
quarters.”
1930: In an attempt to keep the peace on
the first anniversary of the riots in which 133 Jews were killed, “the
Palestine Government today confiscated all the issues of Aljamea al Arabis, the
mouthpiece of the grand mufti which called for a general strike.
1931(8th of Elul, 5691): Seventy-seven-year-old
Augusta Louis Ernst, the California born daughter of Samuel and Ernestine
Anspach Louis, the wife of Louis M.
Ernst and the mother of Milton and Irving Ernst passed away today in New York
after which she was buried at the Machpelah Cemetery in Ridgewood, NY.
1932: Birthdate of Menashe Kadishman,
the native of Tel Aviv who became a renowned, award winning sculptor and
painter.
http://new.menashekadishman.com/
http://www.timesofisrael.com/famed-israeli-artist-menashe-kadishman-dies-aged-82/
1933: Dr. Nahum Sokolow, president of the World Zionist Organization, asserted
in opening the eighteenth world Zionist congress in Prague tonight that as a result
of the persecutions in Germany the Jewish question must be brought before the
international forum and fugitives must find a refuge in Palestine.
1934: Magistrate Benjamin Greenspan, the
president of the Wall Street Synagogue announced today that “President
Roosevelt has sent a greeting to American Jews preliminary to the observance of
Rosh Ha Shanah which falls early next month.”
1934: “Bolstered by the advice of Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise of New York to reject all peace offers from Nazi Germany, the
boycott commission of the third World Jewish Conference issued a communique
tonight declaring the boycott would be intensified until German Jews got back
all their rights of citizenship.”
1935: Speaking in Lucerne, Switzerland,
David Ben-Gurion, Palestine labor leader, accused the British Government today
of having committed "robbery" by artificially cutting the immigration
quota of Jews seeking to enter Palestine.
1935: The “swing era” of the Big Band
Sound starts when Jewish Jazz clarinet player Benny Goodman performs at the
Palomar Theatre in Los Angeles.
1936: “Sing, Baby, Sing” a musical
staring Gregory Ratoff, Tony Martin and the Ritz Brothers was distributed today
in the United States by 20th Century Fox.
1936: “Synagogues and Jewish Temples in
St. Paul announced special prayers would be said tonight” for the recovery of
Governor Floyd B. Olson who has been hospitalized at Mayo Clinic.
1936: It was reported today that “the
whole story of the sudden death of Captain Wolfgang Fuerstner has come to light
and that contrary to the original reports he had actually committed suicide in
his home “after he had been informed of his dismissal from active military
service because he had Jewish Blood.”
1936: Tel Aviv Mayor Meier Dizengoff
charged the British government with “playing a ‘diabolical game’ in handling
its mandate over Palestine. He told the
British High Commissioner for Palestine that evidence showed the (British)
administration was blocking the Jewish National Home.” He was especially critical of the
government’s behavior during the latest wave of Arab violence which has
“introduced demoralization, anarchy and lawlessness into the country…”
1936: Thirty-nine-year-old Louis Billig
a native of London, “a noted Islamic scholar and lecturer in Arabic was found
shot to death at his home where authorities believe he was murdered “by
terrorists as he sat as his study table.”
1936(3rd of Elul, 5696): Arab gunmen
attacked a car filled with five Jews traveling towards Tel Aviv. Seventeen-year-old Shoshana Laznicki was
wound in the attack and three other Jews were killed by the Arabs.
1937: The Toronto Daily Star reported
that Lou Herman will be appearing on a new program, the “Jewish Variety Hour”
along with his three sisters who perform as a trio.
1937: The General Zionist Council Executive meeting in Zurich composed of
both Zionist and non-Zionist members authorized the Jewish Agency's Executive
to seek the establishment of a Jewish state and to try to arrange a Jewish-Arab
conference to discuss the matter.
1937(14th of Elul, 5697): Parashat Ki Teitzei
1937(14th of Elul, 5697): Sixty-eight-year-old Polish born,
Ohio State University graduate, Myer Applebaum who in 1885 came to the United
States where “he maintained a real estate and insurance office in Cleveland”
and served as “first secretary of the Hebrew Immigrants Aid Society” while
raising a son, Saul who is a rabbi in Bradford, PA, passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1937/08/22/468912142.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1937(14th of Elul, 5697): Sixty-six-year-old Élie Halévy the French
historian who was part of a distinguished Franco-Jewish family passed away
today.
1937: A watchtower was built at Sha’ar Ha-Golan today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shlomo_Gur#/media/File:Sha%27ar_Ha_Golan_003.jpg
1937: The Hon. Cyril Asquith, in a letter to The Times of London wrote that the pledges given to Jews by the
British government explicitly promised to establish a Jewish state in the whole
of Palestine. He explained that after the separation of Transjordan, the offer
made to Jews under the Royal (Peel) Commission Report granted them less than 10
percent of the country's territory.
1938:
Italy banned Jews from teaching in public and high schools.
1938:
Thirty Jewish refugees from Austria arrived in Shanghai today, amidst reports
that untold numbers more were on their way which would swell the Chinese city’s
growing refugee population that include a large number of Jews from “Greater
Gerrmany.”
1939:
As Stalin maneuvers between the Germans on the one hand and the Poles, Brits
and French, he ended talks with the latter about military cooperation and
secretly agreed to the German’s “proposed non-aggression pact that would place
half of Poland (east of the Vistula river), Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and
Bessarabia in the Soviets' sphere of influence.” (The War and the Shoah were
almost upon us.)
1939:
When the World Zionist Congress reconvened its plenary session this morning
Joshua Suprasky, leader of Group B of the General Zionists, one of the minority
parties, announced that his party had decided to abstain from further
participation
1940:
Aaron Jean-Marie Lustiger, the son of Ashkenazi Jews who would become
Archbishop of Paris was baptized today.
1940:
Junior Hadassah, the Young Women's Zionist Organization of America will award
gold keys to forty-one members at the seventeenth annual convention which
begins this evening in Chicago
1940(17th
of Av, 5700): Leon Trotsky dies as a result of wounds suffered on August 20th
at the hands of an assassin working for Stalin. Born Lev Davidovich Bronstein
in 1879, Trotsky was the son of a Jewish farmer from Odessa (Russia). Believing
there was no future for the Jewish people as a people, he became a contemporary
of Lenin's, helping him with his publication of Iskra (Spark). He
was exiled and arrested many times before the revolution. Trotsky played an
important role in the Communist government and only after Lenin's death did
Stalin expel him from the party. He was exiled in 1928 first to Turkey, then
Norway, and finally Mexico. Trotsky’s Jewish origins helped buttress the claims
of anti-Semites that Communism was part of Jewish conspiracy. At the same time, Trotsky Jewish origins were
used by Stalin to demonize his opponents in the Soviet Union.
1940:
Those being held at Gurs because they were sympathetic to the Nazis were
released today, the same day on which the German inspection team arrived at
what would become a French concentration camp for Jews.
1940:
Étienne Szabo, an officer with the Free French married Violee(Bushnell) Szabo,
an agent with SOE who would eventually be murdered at Ravnsbruck, a fate met by
many non-Jewish as well as Jewish women.
1941:
In Brooklyn, Abraham Block, a certified public accountant, and Ruth Block, a
paralegal, gave birth to economist Walter Edward Block who holds a Ph.D. from
Columbia and “is best known for his 1976 book Defending the Undefendable.”
https://mises.org/library/defending-undefendable
1941:
“Specifications charging 3,409 cases of forgery in the designating petitions
filed for John R. Davies candidate for the Republican nomination for Mayor
against Mayor La Guardia, were filed today with the Board of Elections by Louis
J. Lefkowitz and A. David Benjamin, chairmen of the law committees of the New
York and Kings County Republican organizations.”
1941: The authorities send 5,000 Jews to Drancy,
the detention camp outside Paris. This
will be their last stop as the move to “the East” for “Re-settlement.”
1941:
The German Army occupied the Black seaport city of Kherson which had a large
Jewish population since the 19th century.
1941: “The Jadovno concentration the “first of
26 concentration camps operation by the Independent State of Croatia in which
thousands of Serbs and Jews were imprisoned was closed today and turned over to
the Italians.
1941(28th of Av, 5701): The Nazis murdered 3500 Jews from
Minsk Mazowiecki, Poland, at Treblinka.
1941(28th
of Av, 5701): Sixty-three-year-old Hadassah leader and Zionist Bella Pewsner
leader passed away today.
http://www.jta.org/1941/08/22/archive/bella-pewsner-noted-zionist-dies-after-accident
1941:
“Sun Valley Serenade” a musical produced by Milton Sperling and starring Milton
Berle
1942(8th of Elul, 5702): The Jewish
community at Ozorków, Poland, is destroyed.
1942:
At Siedlce, Poland, “400 Ukrainians, joined by the Polish police and SS troops,
surrounded the ghetto” as they prepared to ship the Jews to Treblinka and/or
slaughter the rest of them. (Yad Vashem)
1942:
Etty Hillesum returned to Westerbork.
1943:
While serving in the U.S Army, Ed Koch, the future Mayor of New York, snapped
after being taunted with the anti-Semitic epithet ‘Yiddy’ by a fellow soldier
named LaRue. He challenged the bigot to a fight, which went down in full view
of the entire company. According to Koch, “(The lieutenant) wanted to stop the
fight but I wouldn’t let him. Even though I took the beating, I’m glad I
fought.” (As reported by Forward
staff)
1943:
“The Seventh Victim” a horror film directed by Mark Robson and produced by Val
Lewton was released in the United States by RKO.
1943:
“Someone to Remember,” directed by Robert Siodmak and with music by Walter
Schart was released today in the United States.
1944:
“Song of Norway” a musical with a book co-authored by Milton Lazarus and
featuring a performance by Siegfried “Sig” Arno opened today at the Imperial
Theatre in New York where it ran for 860 performances.
1944:
Rudolf Kastner “travelled from Budapest under German escort to the Swiss
frontier and acted as intermediary for the first conversation between Kurt
Becher and Saly Mayer, Swiss representative of the Joint D.C to discuss the
price of abandoning the gassing.
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/kastner.html
1944:
Photo-journalist Julia Pirotte participated in the Marseille Uprising which
began today.
http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/1134/features/faces-and-hands/
1944(2nd
of Elul, 5704): Sarah
Vasen, first Jewish woman doctor in L.A. and first superintendent and
resident physician of Kaspare Cohn Hospital (later Cedars-Sinai Hospital)
passed away.
http://home.earthlink.net/~nholdeneditor/Sarah%20Vasen.htm
1944(2nd
of Elul, 5704): Private Irwin Handled “perished” today “when U.S. Army Air
Corps YB-29 Superfortress #41-36966 flew into ground 25 miles northeast of
Alamagordo Army Airfield, New Mexico, on a training flight during
World
War II.
1945:
At the urging of Lt. Colonel Judah Nadich, the rabbi serving as senior Jewish
chaplain in Europe, General Eisenhower issued an order reversing the policy
that would have required Jewish displaced persons to return to their native
countries.
1945:
In Harbin, Dr. Abraham Kaufman, was invited to attend formal reception by the
Soviets to mark the end of WW II after which they kidnapped this “Russian-born
medical doctor, community organizer and Zionist who helped protect some tens of
thousands of Jews seeking safe-haven in East Asia from Nazi atrocities during
World War II” and shipped off to a Gulag labor camp where he languished for
eleve years.
1946:
The cornerstone for Beit Berl, which has named after Berl Katznelson, was laid
today.
1946(24th
of Av, 5706): Rising Sun, IN native Dr. Louis Heyn, the internist who served on
the faculty of the University of Cincinnati passed away today in Petoskey, MI.
1947:
Today, 295 of the large number of Jews and part Jews, who left Berlin for
Shanghai in 1939 after “having been told by the Nazi regime to get out”
returned to Berlin today.
1948:
Mitchell “Mike” Flint, a WW II naval combat pilot who had volunteered to fly
with the IAF transferred out of squadron 101 to a dive-bombing squadron where
he would be the most experienced pilot in this form of aerial combat.
1949;
Nine Friedman “an Alabama-born civil rights activist of Mizrahi Jewish (Syrian
Jewish) descent who worked full time to support her three kids after Aaron's
father, who was of Sephardic Jewish (Lebanese-Jewish) descent, passed away”
gave birth to “ American stage director, film director, and producer” Josephine
R. "Josie" Abady, the holder of a BA from Syracuse and MFA from
Florida State University who created “To Catch a Tiger,” “a short film inspired
by the life of her Nina Friedman Abady before she died tragically at the age of
52 from breast cancer.
1949:
Gertrude Samuels describes the story of one group of participants in the
seventh aliyah to Israel who are traveling from Munich, the home of Nazism, to
Haifa. Of all the aliyot -- waves of immigration to Palestine -- the present is
the most dramatic and, in terms of numbers and ultimate goals, perhaps the most
important. To the desperate and the idealistic streaming in the new State of
Israel is a miracle born of years of longing
1950:
“My Daughter Joy” a film version of a novel by Irène Némirovsky, produced and
directed by Gregory Ratoff and starring Edward G. Robinson was released today
in the United Kingdom.
1951(19th
of Av, 5711): Fifty-five-year-od Rose Hirsch, the daughter of Harry and Minnie
Hirsch ad the wife of Moris B. Wolf passed awa.
1956:
Arthur Schwartz, “the Broadway and Hollywood composer and producer” and his
wife gave birth to a son today at Mt. Sinai Hospital.
1959(17th
of Av, 5719): Eighty-one-year-old Publisher and businessman Salman Schocken
passed away.
http://forward.com/articles/7288/man-of-the-book-reading-a-life-of-salman-schocken/
1959(17th
of Av, 5719): Seventy-eight-year-old Sir Jacob Epstein, the American born
British sculptor passed away.
http://www.academia.edu/732537/Carving_a_Legacy_The_Identity_of_Jacob_Epstein_1880-1959_
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/08/23/88813259.pdf
https://www.theartstory.org/artist-epstein-jacob.htm
1959:
President Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state
of the union. Today Hawaii has a Jewish population of 10,000 out of a total
population of about 1.2 million people.
In 2002, Linda Lingle, 49, won the Hawaii governor's race. Lingle was the first Republican to win the
job in forty years and she was the first Jewish governor of the state. “Lingle
says her Jewish heritage has aided her political career in Hawaii because it
has given her a better understanding of diversity, helping her connect with
citizens of different religious and ethnic backgrounds. Lingle is a member of a
Jewish congregation on the island of Maui and attends Lubavitch services in
Honolulu on the island of Oahu. There also are a Reform synagogue and a Conservative
synagogue in Honolulu.”
1960(28th
of Av, 5720): Seventy-four-year-old CCNY and Columbia educated award winning
structural engineer David Barnard Steinman, the husband of Irene Hoffman and
New York born son of “Louis Kelvin and Eva (Scollard) Steinman” passed away
today.
https://www.asce.org/templates/person-bio-detail.aspx?id=11213
https://www.michigan.gov/mdot/0,4616,7-151-9623_11154-126386--,00.html.
1961(9th
of Elul, 5721): Sixty-one-year-old Galveston born Mose M. Feld the “onetime
newsboy who became a millionaire industrialist” and a leader of the Houston
Jewish Community and supporter of Brandies University and the National Jewish
Hospital in Denver suffered a fatal heart attack today.
1963:
In a column published today in the Herald Tribune, Rowland Evans and Robert
Novak charged that “The Jewish Telegraphic Agency had accused Senator Barry
Goldwater, Arizona Republican, of anti-Semitism.”
https://www.jta.org/archive/jta-takes-issue-with-herald-tribune-report-on-goldwater-anti-semitism
1961:
In what may have been some sort of record two Jewish hurlers, Sandy Koufax and
Larry Sherry, pitch their team to defeat as the Giants beat “the Bums.”
1964:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for 53 year old Bernard Hart,
the producer and stage manager whose hits included Broadway shows “Dear Ruth”
and “Anniversary Waltz” who often worked with his more famous brother Moss
Hart.
1964:
In New York, Rabbi Seymour Fox who would become a professor of Jewish education
at Hebrew University and Sara Kaminker-Fox who would become head of the
Jerusalem City Council gave birth to Israeli director Eytan Fox who made Aliyah
at the tender age of two.
1965:Wolfgang
Lotz, the Mannheim, Germany born son of Hans and Helen Lotz who gained fame as
the Israel spy Z’ev Gur-Aire who took on the persona of German businessman and
supplied valuable information to Israel until his arrest by the Egyptians in
1965 was released from an Egyptian prison today, along with his wife, following
the 1967 Six Day War.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/wolfgang-lotz
1967:
In the Eastern District, David Feinstein formerly doing business as Eastern
Distributors who claims to have no assets filed for bankruptcy today.
1969:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for Rabbi Simon Federbush, the
former chief rabbi of Finland.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/08/21/89023110.pdf
1969,
Michael Dennis Rohan, a tourist from Australia and a member of the "Church
of God," a Protestant sect, set fire to the mosque on the Temple Mount in
an attempt to hasten the coming of the Messiah. He was judged insane and
deported by Israel.
1971(30th
of Av, 5731): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1971(30th
of Av, 5731): Sixty-seven-year-old St. John’s University trained attorney
Milton J. Goell, the holder of a BA from Harvard and Ph.D. from Yeshiva
University and son Jacob Goel and Mary Samowitz who raised two children – James
and Martha – with his wife Amy passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/08/23/archives/milton-j-goell.html
1973:
In Moscow, Evgenia and Mikhail Brin, both graduates of Moscow State University
(MSU) gave birth to Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google.
1974(3rd
of Elul, 5734): Sixty-three-year-old Dr. Edward R. Schlesinger, who earned his
M.D. at Columbia and Masters of Health Degree from Johns Hopkins before going
to “head the maternal and child health programs at the University of Pittsburgh
and who was the husband of Sylvia Schlesinger and the father of Doctors Stephen
Schlesinger and Ann Louise Silver, passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/22/archives/e-r-schlesinger-63-child-health-expert.html
1974:
Today, Abraham Hirschfeld, one of three candidates in the Democratic primary
seeking to unseat Senator Jacob Javits in November, “attacked President Ford’s
nomination of Nelson A. Rockefeller for the Vice Presidency.”
1975(14th
of Elul, 5735): Eighty-eight-year-old educator Fanny Cohen, the New South Wales
born daughter Dr. Algernon Aaron Cohen and Priscilla Cohen who “who was
appointed M.B.E. for for her services to education passed away today in Sydney,
Australia.
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cohen-fanny-5709
1977: A small group of young West Bank
intellectuals tried to set up a political faction aimed at challenging the
Palestine Liberation Organization’s claim of being the sole representatives of
the Palestine Arabs in the administered territories. The group vehemently
opposed Yasser Arafat and blamed him for plunging Palestine into bloody strife
and for the failure to safeguard the Arab people's political interests. (Sounds
an awful lot like what some of Arafat’s critics are saying 25 years later.)
1977: In Washington the US State Department announced that the current
disagreements on the question of the settlements in the administered areas did
not harm the long-standing Israeli-American friendship.
1977: Moshe Dayan met secretly with King Hussein in London marking the
first time that any member of the Begin government had direct talks with any
Arab leader.
1979(28th of Av, 5739): “Department store executive” David W.
Davidson passed away today.
1980(9th of Elul, 5740): Ninety-six-year-old Walter E. Sachs, who has
been a partner in Goldman-Sachs since 1910 and who married actress Katharine
Williamson in 1939 passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=990CE1DF1E3BE732A25750C2A96E9C94619FD6CF
1981: “An
American Werewolf in London,” a “horror comedy film” directed by John Landis,
with music by Elmer Bernstein was released in the United States by Universal
Pictures.
1981: “Honky Tonk Freeway” a comedy directed by John Schlesinger, with
music by Elmer Bernstein and co-starring Daniel Stern was released in the
United States today by Associated Film Distribution.
1982: “350 French paratroopers arrived in Beirut, followed by 800 US Marines
and Italian Bersaglieri plus additional international peacekeepers (for a total
force of 2,130) to supervise the removal of the PLO, first by ship and then
overland, to Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, and Syria after which 8,500 PLO men were
evacuated to Tunisia, and 2,500 by land to other Arab countries which
ended the most recent attempt by Arab terrorist to take over a country having
failed in the attempt to do the same thing in Jordan.
1983 La Cage aux Folles
opened on Broadway at the Palace Theatre today. It could be seen as “Jewish
affair” since the book was by Harvey Fierstein, the music and lyrics were by
Jerry Herman and the director was Arthur Laurents
1983: Eighty-six-year-old
Sir Francis Edward Evans, the Belfast native who served as the United Kingdom’s
Ambassador to Israel from 1951 to 1954, passed away today.
1987: In Santa Monica,
Jody and Taylor Kasch gave birth to actor Cody Kasch the brother of Max Kasch.
1987: “The Big Easy” a
crime movie set in New Orleans starring Ellen Barken was released today in the
United States by Columbia Pictures.
1988(8th
of Elul, 5748): Seventy-eight-year-old H.G. Adler who survived three different
concentration camps, escaped from the Communists and became an award winning
author passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/24/obituaries/hans-g-adler-78-survived-nazis.html
1988(8th of Elul, 5748): Eighty-seven-year-old Lena Shimshak, the wife
of Morris J. Clurman and the mother of Bernice and Herman Clurman passed away
today after which she was buried in the Montefiore Cemetery in Springfield
Gardens, Queens.
1990(30th
of Av, 5750): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1991: As
violence continued for another day following a traffic accident that had
resulted in the death of a seven year old boy, hundreds of marchers led by Al
Sharpton gathered at 770 Eastern Parkway--Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters,
carrying anti-Semitic signs, attacking police with bricks, bottles and bullets
while burning an Israeli flag. Lubavitchers took to the streets in response.
Groups of blacks and Jews assailed each other with bottles.
1991: After
premiering at Cannes in May, “Barton Fink” directed, produced and written by ty
Joel and Ethan Coen and starring Michael Lerner was released today in the
United States.
1992:
“Lightsleepers” featuring Victor Garber as “Tis Brooke” was released today in
the United States by Fine Line Features.
1994(14th
of Elul, 5754): Seventy-two-year-old legal scholar Albert P. Blaustein passed
away today.
1994(14th
of Elul, 5754): German born American sociologist Rose Laub Coser passed away.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0005_0_04652.html
1995(25th
of Av, 5755):
Five Israelis – 26-year-old Rivka Cohen, 56 year old
Hannah Naeh, 46 year old Joan Davenney, 35 year old Police Chief Superintendent
Noam Eisenman - were killed and at least 100 injured including 38 year old Yona
Peter Malina who would die ten years later,
when an Arab bomb ripped apart a bus in a residential neighborhood of
Jerusalem.
1996: “Waiting for Guffman” with a screenplay co-authored by
Eugene Levy who also co-starred in the comedy along with Bob Balaban premiered
today at the Boston Film Festival.
1998(29th of
Av, 5758): Ninety-year-old Wanda Toscanini Horowitz, the daughter of Conductor
Arturo Toscanini and the wife of pianist Vladimir Horowitz passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1998/08/22/473278.html?pageNumber=13
1998: “The
Blade” a film based on the Marvel comics character created by Marv Wolfman and
Gene Colan, produced by Avi Arad, written David S. Goyer and co-starring
Stephen Dorf whose father was Jewish was released today in the United States.
1999(9th
of Elul, 5759): Ninety-one-year-old Leo Castelli, the son of a Jewish family
from Trieste, who became a leading New York art dealer passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/23/arts/leo-castelli-influential-art-dealer-dies-at-91.html
2000:
“Remembering Kunianksky, A Loyal Friend” published today provided a tribute to
Harry P. Kuniansky, a standout on the University of Georgia Bulldog football
team.
http://onlineathens.com/stories/082100/dog_0821000032.shtml#.V7fJS4-cF9B
2001: Hamas
claimed responsibility for today’s bombing in downtown Jerusalem during which
one person was injured.
2001:
Palestinian terrorists exploded at least one bomb in the Russian Compound
neighborhood in Jerusalem.
2003:
“Because Roy Moore, Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, refused to
remove his Ten Commandments monument by the August 20th deadline, the associate
Justices of Alabama Supreme Court unanimously overrule Moore and order the
monument removed by the building's manager.” (Anybody who remembers Governor
Wallace and his ilk know that officials in Alabama have a lot of trouble with
the Constitution and obeying the law)
2004: “Fire
swept through a Jewish community center in eastern Paris in the early morning
hours today after arsonists broke into the building and scrawled swastikas and
anti-Semitic slogans inside. It was the latest in a wave of neo-Nazi acts
sweeping the country.”
2005: The
Sunday edition of the Washington Post
featured a review of A History of the Jews in the Modern World by Howard
M. Sachar that covers events from the 18th century to present
times.
2005: The New York Times featured a review of The
Tatoo Artist by Jill Ciment and Redemption: The Life of Henry Roth by
Steven G. Kellman. Roth is best known as
the author of Call It Sleep which is now considered a classic in
Jewish-American Literature.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/books/review/the-tattoo-artist-an-illustrated-woman.html
2005:
Israeli poet Dahlia Ravikovitch was found dead in her apartment. Initial
reports speculated the cause of death to be suicide, but the autopsy determined
the cause to be sudden heart irregularities. A literary
celebrity in Israel, Dahlia Ravikovitch who was born in 1936 is barely known in
the United States, and far too small a presence in the English-reading world.
Ravikovitch is not only one of the towering figures of 20th-century Israeli
poetry, but also one of the strongest female poets in the history of Hebrew
verse; she was so present here that she used to make frequent appearances on
television, in which she was asked for her views on political or military
developments. Long active in the peace movement, she often mixed the
contemporary with the ancient and the biblical in her poetic responses to the
news. While Ravikovitch is not an easy poet or a simple one, there is an
approachability to the best of her work, and also, fortunately, to the best of
a new translation entitled Hovering at a Low Altitude: The Collected
Poetry of Dahlia Ravikovitch; translated
by Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld. One of her strongest poems “Like Rachel” is
quoted below.
Like Rachel
To die like Rachel
when the soul shudders like a
bird,
wants to break free.
Behind the tent, in fear and
dread,
Jacob and Joseph speak of her,
a-tremble.
All the days of her life
turn head over heels inside her
like a baby that wants to be
born.
How grueling. How
Jacob's love ate away at her
with a greedy mouth.
As the soul takes leave now,
she has no use for any of that.
Suddenly the baby screeches,
Jacob comes into the tent -
but Rachel does not even sense
it.
Rapture washes over her face,
her head.
* * *
Then did a great repose descend
upon her.
The breath of her nostrils would
not stir a feather.
They laid her down among
mountain stones
and made her no lament.
To die like Rachel,
that's what I want.
2006
(27 Av, 5766): Yahrzeit of Mathilde Schechter. Schechter “was the United States
founder of the US National Women's League of Conservative Judaism in 1918. She
was married to Rabbi Dr. Solomon Schechter, a prominent rabbi who was
Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary. She founded and taught at the
Columbia Religious and Industrial School for Jewish Girls. After assisting
Henrietta Szold in creating Hadassah, Schechter later served as its national
chairwoman of education. The Mathilde Schchter Residence Hall (MSRH), named for
Schechter, contains undergraduate housing for students of the Jewish
Theological Seminary's List College.” She passed away in 1924.
2006
(27 Av, 5766): Yizhar Smilansky passed away. Known by his pen name S. Yizhar or
Samech Yizhar, he was an Israeli writer and a great innovator in Modern Hebrew
literature. His pen name S. Yizhar was given to him by the poet and editor
Yitzhak Lamdan, when in 1938 he published Yizhar's first story Ephraim Goes
Back to Alfalfa in his literary journal Galleons. From then on, Yizhar signed
his works with his pen name.
2006:
On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Friz Feleng, Dan Miller
remembered the great animator in “Puttin’ On the Friz.”
http://danmiller.typepad.com/dan_millers_notebook/friz-freleng.html
2006: The New York Times reported that Dina
Najmin aged 38, a wife; mother of three and an expert in Jewish bioethics will
become the spiritual leader of Kehilat Orach Eliezer.
2006: Starting today,
Max, Kellerman did at least two nights of audition shows at 7 PM for WEPN
(1050) 1050 ESPN Radio in New York City, hosting one night with Sid Rosenberg
2007: The man accused of stalking Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and
dragging the Holocaust scholar out of a hotel elevator earlier this year was
ordered to stand trial for hate crimes. A San Francisco Superior Court judge
ruled there was enough evidence to try 23-year-old Eric Hunt on six felony
charges including attempted battery, stalking, kidnapping, false imprisonment,
elder abuse and false imprisonment of an elder. Each charge carries a hate
crime allegation.
2007:
Fatah’s armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades announced that it would no longer
honor understandings reached with Israel and called on its members to carry
weapons to defend themselves against the IDF.
The announcement was seen as a challenged to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’
efforts to dismantle the Aksa Martyrs Brigades and other Fatah-linked armed
groups in the West Bank. In other words,
this more internecine Arab feuding camouflaged as part of the war against the
Zionist entity.
2008: The New York Times
included a review Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight Over Presidential Power by
Jonathan Mahler managing editor of The
Forward
2008 (20 Av 5768): President Shimon Peres is spending his 85th
birthday in southern Israel's Negev desert as part of his crusade to promote
growth in the sparsely populated arid region. Peres is celebrating his birthday
based on the Hebrew Calendar, not the secular calendar. He was born on August 2, 1923, which was 20
Av.
2008: Today the state of Israel informed the High Court of
Justice that it will shift the route of the separation barrier in the Judean
desert so that 4,000 dunams of the roughly 70,000 dunams that were until now to
be located on the "Israeli" side will now be on the West Bank side.
At the same time, it made clear that the settlement of Kedar would remain on
the "Israeli" side of the barrier in accordance with the original
route.
2008: The Beaux Arts Trio with Menahem Pressler on piano performed its
final American concert today at Tanglewood.
2009: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah hosts a Special Welcoming Friday
Night Service for Rabbi Todd Thalblum as he settles in to his new pulpit.
2009: Today The London Beth Din ordered the board of an Orthodox
synagogue in Sydney to make a six-figure payout to a prominent rabbi it tried
to lay off. The ruling by the rabbinical court ends a bitter dispute between
the Mizrachi Synagogue in Bondi and Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, who won an injunction
in the New South Wales Supreme Court in March to stop synagogue members from
voting on a resolution to lay him off. In a statement, Gutnick, who worked part
time as the synagogue's rabbi while also serving as a judge on the Sydney Beth
Din and rabbinic administrator of the New South Wales Kashrut Authority, said
he had been “fully vindicated” by the ruling. The cash-strapped synagogue's
board had argued that it could no longer afford to retain the services of the
rabbi, who was first appointed to his post in 1987.But Gutnick had argued that
he was granted life tenure, which entitled him to retain his salary until he is
80. The board argued there was never a formal agreement. The three judges ruled
that although there was no “clear indication as to what was agreed between the
parties,” Gutnick should receive his annual salary of $67,000 until he reaches
the normal retirement age of 65 -- a total of $1 million over 15 years. But
because the synagogue is facing financial ruin, the judges then ruled that
Gutnick should be paid $168,000 immediately and about $4,000 a month from 2012
until 2024.The judges also said Gutnick is entitled to recover costs incurred
during the injunction proceedings because the synagogue board “bluntly refused”
to resolve the issue in front of a rabbinical court “despite repeated
requests.” Gutnick is the brother of Joseph Gutnick, who was a special emissary
of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe and a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu.
2009(1st of Elul, 5769): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2009(1st of Elul, 5769): Edward
René David Goldsmith widely known as Teddy Goldsmith, an Anglo-French
environmentalist, writer and philosopher passed away. The eldest son of Major
Frank Goldsmith, and elder brother of the financier Sir James Goldsmith, Edward
Goldsmith was the founding editor and publisher of The Ecologist. Known for his
outspoken views opposing industrial society and economic development, he
expressed a strong sympathy for the ways and values of traditional
peoples. His father was Jewish. His mother was not.
2009: “My One and Only” a comedy biopic starring Logan Lerman was
released in the United States today.
2009(1st of Elul, 5769): Ninety-three-year-old Robert
Bendheim, “the former president and chairman of he textile company M.
Lowenstein Corporation and the president of the Leon Lowenstein Foundation, a
charity named for his uncle passed away today after having led a full life that
included graduating from Princeton, attending the Harvard Business School and
serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy during WW II.
2010: A revival of Ira Levin’s “Deathtrap” opened at the Noel Coward
Theatre in London.
2010: Adam Burstain, son of Todd and Jennifer Burstain, was called to the
Torah as a Bar Mitzvah at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA.
2010:
During today’s national elections in
Australia, Joshua Frydenberg, became Australia’s first Jewish lawmaker for the federal Liberal Party.
2011: Beth El Hebrew Congregation in Alexandria, VA, is scheduled to host
its Perspective Members Brunch
2011: Israeli and New York-based choreographer Deganit Shemy & Company are scheduled to present a Work-in-Progress Performance of 2
Kilos of Sea at LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island.
2011: The New York Times features
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Submission by Amy Waldman
2011: Members of
Knesset from Israel's leading opposition party, Kadima, urged the cabinet today
to launch a military campaign in the Gaza Strip, following the barrage of
rockets that struck Israel over the weekend and the deadly terrorist attack
that had taken place on August 18.
2011: The escalation
in southern Israel continued this morning when six rockets and a barrage of
mortars hit near the city of Ashkelon. The Iron Dome system successfully shot
down three rockets. Rockets also fell in several open areas, and hit a school
building in Be'er Sheva, causing no injuries as students are currently on
summer break. Earlier, a Grad rocket directly struck a home in the southern
city of Be'er Sheva last night, killing one person and seriously wounding four.
26 people are being treated for shock.The Popular Resistance Committees claimed
responsibility for the Be'er Sheva rocket attacks while Hamas claimed
responsibility for the Ofakim rocket attacks. More than 70 rockets and mortar
shells were fired at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip since August 18,
killing one person and injuring a large number of people. Extensive property
damage has also been reported. Last night, the forum of eight senior cabinet
ministers convened to discuss the escalation in the south. A senior diplomatic
official in Jerusalem said participants discussed the possibility of additional
military strikes against terror organizations in the Gaza Strip. The anonymous
source also stressed containment efforts. “No one wants an Operation Cast Lead
2,” he said.
2011: Over a
thousand people crowded a Kfar Saba cemetery today, to bid farewell to four
people gunned down during Thursday’s combined terror attack near Eilat that
left eight Israelis dead. Moshe Gez, 53, and Flora Gez, 52, as well as Dov
Karlinski, 58, and Shula Karlinski, 54 were on their way to Eilat for a holiday
on August 18 when they came under fire from terrorists who had infiltrated
Israel from the Sinai Peninsula. Mourners described sisters Shula and Flora as
almost angelic figures, two career nursery schoolteachers who were also the
best of friends. The two and their husbands Moshe and Dov were described as the
best of friends who spent nearly every day together. It appeared that some also
took some solace in knowing that they passed away alongside those who they were
closest to. During his eulogy, family friend Itzik Yoel said “they were always
together in life, and they’re together again now. They helped each other in
their daily lives, and there’s no way to describe how great they were or how
much love they shared, or how many great friends they had from across the
entire Israeli spectrum.” Yoel continued “they were on heir way to a vacation,
when they [terrorists] hurt them. They hurt innocent people, happy people, who
died in a hail of gunfire without any ability to defend themselves.” He
finished “fate destined that you would be taken together and that even in the
heavens, the four of you will be together forever, and spend your days like you
did here: together.” Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon told the mourners that
they were killed at the hands of cowards who struck at civilians….These are the
same blood-drenched hands of the terrorists living in the Gaza Strip, who are a
continuation of the generations of Israel haters. There goal is only to murder
Jews because they are Jews.” Ayalon added “our response to the terror is that
the state of Israel will liquidate anyone who harms or even asks to harm its
citizens.” Other politicians in attendance included Labor Mks Shelly
Yachimovich, Amir Peretz, and Isaac Hertzog, as well as businessman and Labor
Party member Arel Margalit. Shula and Dov’s son Yaniv Karlinsky told the crowd
that “there is no way to describe the sorrow and the pain. There aren’t other
people like you in the world - full of light, warmth, and love. You were picked
apart like flowers in a field by murderous, heartless terrorists. There is
nothing that can fill the space you left behind.” Idan Gez, said that ever
since he heard the news of his parents’ death “it has been very difficult for
me to look forward, everything is full of question marks. We have been left
here alone.” Addressing his deceased parent, Gez said “thanks to you, I know
what it means to be a family, and the meaning of love, happiness, and a strong
work ethic. You must know that I will build a house in Israel and I will raise
children like you raised me. Thank you for everything you did, and for raising
me to be the person I am today.” In a special message to this father, Gez said
“father, just like I was everything to Mom, you were everything to me and I
never told you that enough.” He added that he took some solace knowing “that
Shula and Dubik are with you.”
2011: Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly was among those who spoke at the
funeral of Sally Goodgold, the civic leader who lobbied for affordable housing.
(As reported by David Dunlap)
2011: The annual ceremony commemorating “George Washington’s famed letter
to the Jews of Touro Synagogue was held today in Newport, RI.
http://forward.com/articles/141627/pressure-grows-to-display-george-washingtons-famed/
2012: Shlomo Bar, Dan Shtag, Sharona Elimelech and the Desert Drummers are
scheduled to perform songs by Uzi Hitman, Yoni Rechter, Nurit Hirsh, Miriam
Yellin Shteklis, Nahum Vardi and Leah Goldberg in Hazan Hall as part of the Oud
Festival.
2012: Fifty-seven-year-old legal scholar Cass Sunstein completed his three
years of service as Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs.
2012: “Israel is “troubled” by the entry of Egyptian tanks into the
northern Sinai Peninsula without coordination with Israel, a violation of the
terms of the 33-year-old peace treaty between the two countries, and has asked
Egypt to withdraw them, an Israeli government official said today.”
2012: For the first time, criminal charges have been pressed against a German
rabbi for performing circumcisions, a Jewish weekly reported today.
2012: More than 600 rabbis displayed their support for US President Barack
Obama's reelection bid today joining a campaign initiative called Rabbis for
Obama. Obama for America announced today that Rabbis for Obama is designed to
“engage and mobilize grassroots supporters.”
2013: A letter, of questionable authenticity which describes the transportation of 5,000
Jews daily to the Treblinka extermination camp is scheduled to be auctioned off
today in London (As reported by JTA)
2013: The Washington, DC JCC is scheduled to host “Atonement: Stories about
Confession, Redemption and Making Amends” in which 8 “morally challenged
individuals tell true stories about holding themselves accountable for their
mistakes and wrong-doings.
2013(15th of Elul, 5773): Ninety-five-year-old Sid Bernstein who
played a key role in the early American visits of the Beatles passed away
today.(As reported by Allan Kozinn)
2013(15th of Elul, 5773): Seventy-two-year-old Eddie Goldstein –
“little Honest Joe King Edward” – who “opened the first swap shop in Dallas, TX
passed away today.
http://andersonclaytonbrosterrell.tributes.com/our_obituaries/Eddie-King-Edward-Goldstein--96298719
2013: In “Hasidic Jews Turn Up Pressure on City to Accommodate Their
Traditions” published today, Joseph Berger examines the growing power of the
Ultra-Orthodox in New York City while offering no differentiation in the use of
the term “Hasidic.”
2013: “Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel’s chief envoy to peace talks,
met clandestinely this morning with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat at
Jerusalem’s King David Hotel, Israeli officials said. A second meeting, which
took place Tuesday evening at an undisclosed location in Jerusalem, included
Washington’s point man Martin Indyk, the officials said.
2014: L.A.’s Yiddish Tango Club which
“infuses klezmer with the fresh sensuality of Argentine tango” is scheduled to
perform this evening in Los Angeles.
2014:
Two days after the latest cease fire was broken Hamas
rockets, “Israel approved the call-up of 10,000 IDF reservists today.”
2014(25th of Av, 5774): Eighty-nine-year-old Helen Bamber, “the
comforter of torture victims” passed away today. (As reported by Douglas
Martin)
2014: The armed wing of Hamas announced today that three of its senior commanders
- Mohammed Abu Shamalah, Raed al-Attar and Mohammed Barhum - were killed in a
pre-dawn Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.(As reported by
Uzi Barach)
2015: In Atlanta, Timothy Frilingos the Berman Museum’s Director of
Exhibitions is scheduled to lead a tour of the museum’s latest Southern Jewish
History Exhibition “Eighteen Artifacts: A Story of Jewish Atlanta.”
2015: “Jewish American singer Matisyahu confirmed his participation in a
Spanish music festival” today “two days after organizers apologized for
canceling his appearance following an uproar by pro-Palestinian groups.”
2015: “A former Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, revealed new details
to his biographers about how close Israel came to striking Iran’s military
facilities in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and why it did not despite his and Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s desire to do so, according to interview excerpts
aired on Israeli television” tonight. (As reported by Jodi Rudoren)
2015: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the funeral of Joan Lipsky is scheduled to
take place at Temple Judah followed by burial at Eben Israel Cemetery.
http://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2015/Aug/Joan-M-Lipsky/
2016: “From The Deep” a play “inspired by the story of Gilad Shalit and
Ilan Shaliach” is scheduled to be performed for the last time at The New York
International Fringe Festival FringeNYC.
2016:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe
by Joseph E. Stiglitz
2016:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center a performance by Dwight Sora
who is playing the role Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara saved thousands
during the Holocaust by issuing visas that allowed them to leave Lithuania.
2016:
The UKJF is scheduled to host a screening of “We’ll Never Have Paris” directed
by Simon Helberg at the JW3 Cinema.
2016:
“One Crown Heights,” a neighborhood festival “sponsored by civic groups and
elected officials including the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish
Children’s Museum” but disapproved of by Norman Rosenbaum whose brother Yankel
was killed during the riots is scheduled to be held today to commemorate the 25th
anniversary of what one source euphemistically described as “the racial unrest
that tore through the Brooklyn neighborhood.”
2016:
The Chicago production of “War Paint, a “musical focuses on the lives and
rivalry between Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubenstein” came to an end today.
https://www.goodmantheatre.org/warpaint
2016:
In Newport, RI, The Annual Meeting of the Touro Synagogue Foundation is
scheduled to be held this morning at the Levi Gale House followed by the annual
reading of George Washington's historic letter "To the Hebrew Congregation
at Newport" 1:00 pm.
http://www.tourosynagogue.org/
2017: The Hillel at the University of Iowa is scheduled to
host and evening of hot dogs, hamburgers and whole lot more for incoming
freshman and returning Hawkeyes.
2017 Five police officers were lightly injured overnight
as dozens of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators who do not want to serve in the IDF
pelted them with stones and bottles during rioting in Jerusalem, police said in
a statement today
2017: In Louisiana, “The East Jefferson Interfaith Clergy
Association (EJICA), a group of Metairie and Kenner clergy men and women
representing a number of denominations and faith groups including Congregations
Beth Israel (Orthodox), Gates of Prayer (Reform) and Shir Chadash Conservative
Congregation” is scheduled to held a prayer vigil tonight “in order to denounce
the white nationalists, anti-Semites and neo-Nazis who marched last week in
Charlottesville, which resulted in the overflow of violence and the death of a
counterprotestor as the hands of one of the so-called alt-right.” (As reported
by CCJN the source for everything Jewish on the Louisiana Gulf Coast.
2017: In response to poplar demand, JW3 is scheduled to
host a screening of “Dough” in London
2017: American University graduate Ross B. Levinsohn, the
“son of Joyce (née Salton) and WW II veteran Jay Douglas Levinsohn” “was named
the publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times by tronc” today.
2018: Following yesterday’s skirmish on the Gaza border
that began when a terrorist fired “live rounds” at IDF troops in Israel, “talks
on a long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas” appeared to be stalled with
no end in sight.
2018: Yad Vashem is scheduled to continue hosting its
newest exhibition “Flashes of Memory – Photography During the Holocaust.”
2018: The Penultimate session of “the four annual Docu.
Text festival” is scheduled to take place at the National Library of Israel.
http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/library/events/EventsCalendar/Pages/docutext-04.aspx
2019:
Two days after he had passed away funeral services are scheduled to held for
Sol Maikon, “the dean of traditional Judaism” in Cedar Rapids and one of the
last surviving members of Beth Jacob at Eben Israel Cemetery.
2019:
Klezkanada is scheduled to host an evening of dancing preceded by the
presentation “Yiddish Glory – The Lost Songs of World War II.
2019:
Those attending the McGill/Klezkanada Academic Seminar are schedule to being
their day study “The Music of the Hasidim” and end with an “interview with
Irena Klepfisz.”
2019:
In the morning the JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to off Intermediate
Bridge Lessons” following in the evening by a dinner theatre performance of
“Rogers and Hammerstein’s ‘South Pacific”
2019:
“Carry/jump/catch by Club Guy & Roni‘s Poetic Disasters Club” is scheduled
to open in Amsterdam.
https://aicf.org/event/carry-jump-catch/
2020(1st
of Elul, 5780): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2020:
“A team of three Israeli scientists has pioneered a virus testing procedure
that they say is faster and more efficient than any now in use, testing samples
in pools of as many as 48 people at once.” (As reported by David M. Halbfinger)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/21/health/fast-coronavirus-testing-israel.html
2021(13th
of Elul, 5781): Parashat Ki Taytzay
2021:
Temple Sinai is scheduled host an “Accessible Havdalah Hike” at the Redwood
Regional Park in Oakland, CA.
2021:
Temple Beth David of the South Shore is scheduled to host and Open House
Barbecue and Havdalah service.
2021:
“A surge in COVID-19 cases in Israel
is fueling a black market for counterfeit coronavirus tests and vaccination
certificates, with some selling for several hundred dollars apiece.”
2021: Recent law school Geula Malka spends her
first Shabbat as member of law officer after having “officially joined the
police on August 19 as to honor the memory of her daughter Hadas Malka, a
Border Policewoman who was murdered four years ago during a terrorist attack in
Jerusalem.
2022: The Museum of Jewish Heritage is scheduled
to host author Rita Gabis discussing her latest work A Guest at the Shooter’s
Banquet.
https://mjhnyc.org/events/a-guest-at-the-shooters-banquet-book-talk/
2022(24th of Av, 5782): Observance of
the Yahrzeit of Deb Levin, an ashish chayil and some much more
2022: LIVE AT MISTER KELLY'S the true story of
two visionary Jewish nightclub owners working side by side to change the face
of entertainment is scheduled to be screened today as part of the Neranenah
Concert and Culture Series
2022: As part of its “In Her Majesty's Kingdom -
Celebrating the Rich History of Anglo-Jewry” series, the National Library of
Israel is scheduled to host a lecture by art historian Monica Bohm-Ducehn on
“Insiders/Outsiders: Jewish Artists in Britain from the Nineteenth Century to
the Present Day.”
2022: Due to the possibility of inclement
weather, in Columbus, OH, Tifereth Israel has decided to hold its annual picnic
indoors with family fun and games scheduled to take place in the Melton
Gymnasium and with food and snacks in the Schottenstein Auditorium.
2022: “Israel is scheduled to raise the quota of
work permits for Gazan Palestinians to 15,500 today, expanding a policy that
defense officials view as a means of maintaining quiet on the country’s
southern front.”
2022: The 42nd IAJGS International Conference on
Jewish Genealogy is scheduled to begin today.
2022: The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled
to host a walking tour on the Lower East Side which explores “landmarks in the
movement for social and economic reform on the Lower East Side at the turn of
the twentieth century.”
2022: Yochi Rappeport, executive director of
Women of the Wall, is scheduled to speak about the group of Jewish women from
Israel and around the world who strive to achieve equal rights in prayer and
religious practice, as well as her own journey today at The Temple-Tifereth
Israel in Beachwood, OH.
2023 : Collector Robert Hartman is scheduled to
lead a guided tour of "The Golden Path: Maimonides Across Eight
Centuries," illuminating the life and impact of the multifaceted luminary
and great Jewish sage across continents and cultures through rare manuscripts
and books. Exhibition highlights include manuscripts in Maimonides’s own
handwriting, a carved 11thcentury door to the Torah ark from Cairo’s Ben Ezra
Synagogue, and beautifully illuminated medieval manuscripts.
2023: The Boston Synagogue is scheduled to host
the next session of “Not Your Bubbe’s Book Club” hosted by Richelle Gewertz who
combines a discussion of a book from the Jewish Book Council’s list of hottest
new reads with a good glass of wine.
2023: Chef Mark Liberman of Mägo and chef Aliza
Grayevsky Somekh of Bishulim SF are scheduled to team up to showcase the
culinary charms of their homelands of Colombia and Israel, respectively at the
Mago Restaurant in Oakland, CA.
2023: Lockdown University is scheduled to host a
lecture by Baroness Ruth Deech on “Jews, Israel and the House of Lords.
2023: The Reading Room and Exhibition of the
Wiener Holocaust Library is scheduled to be closed today for the first of two
days of “maintenance works.”
2024: Chabad is scheduled to host “The Foundation
of Wisdom: Rambam on Torah Study,” which this week will look at “No Famine, No
War: Rambam on the Messianic Era.’
2024; Temple Judea in Palm Beach Gardens, FL is
scheduled to host a “Lunch and Learn with Rabbi Rose on the topic of The Spirituality
of Self-Care.”
2024: The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled
to hold ‘a virtual seminar with urban historian Bradley Shaw on the life of
businessman and philanthropist Jacob Schiff!’ who always donated “at least 10%
of his earnings to charity.’
2024: As the pro-Hamas demonstrators are scheduled
to continue their protests during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago
all decent people mourn “Alex Dancyg, 75, Yagev Buchshtav, 35, Chaim Peri, 79,
Yoram Metzger, 80, Nadav Popplewell, 51, and Avraham Munder, 78 whose corpses
were recovered yesterday who had died as captives of Hamas.
2024: “Water Tower Murder,” “The Little Prince: A
Star is Born” and “Agent of Happiness” are three of the movies scheduled to be
shown on the fourth night of the Documentary Film Festival at the National
Library of Israel.
2024: Rabbi David Cohn-Henriquez is scheduled to
conduct “a short Torah Study session” at the Wrong Iron” after the “You Adults
of Shir Chadash” have had “a couple o drinks” the first of which is “on the
house.’
2024:As
August 21st begins in Israel, an
unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism that has included Hamas supporters calling
for Zionist passengers on a New York subway to raise their hands, sweeps the
United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day 320 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)
