This Day, October 19, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"l
OCTOBER 19
1187: Pope Urban III passed away. Urban was a
supporter of the Crusades, the cause of so much Jewish misery. A large part of
his papacy was spent in struggle with Frederick I, the Emperor who issued “The
Confirmation of Rights of the Jews of Regensburg” that stated, “We must make
provision for them tom maintain their customs and secure peace for their
persons and property.”
1216: King
John of England died at Newark-on-Trent and is succeeded by his nine-year-old
son Henry.
Richard's brother John's lack of judgment and
popularity meant that he was always short of money and support. While his
barons might grumble at John's incompetence and resist his ever-increasing
demands for money, the Jews had no such leverage. When the Baron’s forced him to sign the Magna
Carta they included a clause that restricted claims of Jews against debtors who
died owing them money. John pressed his Jews to provide a royal dowry for his
daughter, Joan, followed too quickly by the massive so-called Bristol Tallage,
which depleted the wealthiest Jews upon which it largely fell. Henry was only a nine-year-old child. As Henry III will also clash with the Barons
and will look to the Jews as a source of revenue to prop up his throne.
1216: King
Henry III who gave “Peter de Rivel gives him the office of Treasurer and
Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, the king's ports and coast, and also
"the custody of the King's Judaism in Ireland" began his reign today.
1295: Coronation of Mahmud
Ghazan who converted to Islam in 1295 marking the start of a downgrading of the
conditions of the Jews in Persia because they were forced back into the role of
“dhimmis” – official second class citizens.
1298: Two hundred Jews were massacred in
Germany. This was part of a period half
century of violence aimed against the Jews of Germany. Much of the popular sentiment was aroused by
claims that Jews were using Christian blood to make matzoth. The clerics were working to enforce laws
against any kind of intercourse between Christians and Jews. And the royalty was trying to figure out ways
to strip the Jews of their wealth. It
was this kind of violence that would cause Asher ben Yechiel (see above) to flee
Germany in 1303.
1329 (9th of Cheshvan 5090): Asher
ben Yechiel passed away. Born in 1250 this great Talmudic commentator
was known as Rabbenu Asher or the "Rosh". He fought against the
over-philosophizing of his day. Asher was a unique case. He was Ashkenazi and had begun his work among
the Jews of France of Germany. When his
life was threatened in Germany he fled to Spain where he became rabbi of the
Sephardic Jews of Toledo. His
rabbinical academy attracted students from Europe and Russia. His works
included "Diskei Rosh", discussions, over 1000 Responsa, a commentary
of the Mishnayot Zerayim and Teharot, and notes on some
Talmudic Tractates. He encouraged his pupil, Isaac ben Yoseph, to write Yesod Olam "Foundation of the World," a
scientific work on astronomy and the calendar. At the time of his death he was
preparing a codification of commentaries that for the first time included the
views of the German and Spanish rabbinical authorities. His son, Jacob ben Asher, would finish his
father’s task by writing a code called Turim.
1433: In Figline
Valdarno, Republic of Florence, Diotifeci d'Agnolo , “a physician under the
patronage of Cosimo de' Medici” and his wife gave birth to Marsilio Ficino, the
Roman Catholic priest and Christian Kabbalist..
https://therealsamizdat.com/2014/09/26/marsilio-ficino-and-christian-kabbalah/
1466: In
Poland, the Thirteen Years War comes to an end with Polish forces victorious
over the Teutonic Knights. This victory
came during that period of time when Poland was on its way to becoming home to
the largest Jewish population in Europe.
1469: Ferdinand II of Aragon wedded Isabella of
Castile, a marriage that paved the way to the unification of Aragon and Castile
into a single country, Spain. The marriage also paved the way to Spanish
Inquisition, The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and the discovery of the New
World by Christopher Columbus. In other
words, these two Hispanic lovebirds closed out what had been one of the most
vibrant Jewish communities in history and opened the door to what would become
the most vibrant Jewish community in the history of the Diaspora.
1518: “Shealtiel a
Sephardic Jew who had served as Kahya for twenty years was ousted from office
by the community leaders, after many complaints of bribery and arbitrary taxes
were lodged against him by Jews. The community banned him and his sons from
holding the position of kahya or performing any other function involving contact
with the Ottoman authorities.” (As described by the Jewish Virtual Library)
1587: Forty-six-year-old
Francesco I de’Medici, the 2nd grand duke of Tuscany who “invited
Jewish merchants to settle in Livorno, granting them free residence, unlimited
access to trade and extensive self-government in this new Medicean free-port on
the Mediterranean” passed away today.
1686(2nd of
Tishrei, 5446): Jacob Abendana passed away today after which he was buried in
the Velho Sephardic Cemetery.
1704: With his friend
Dr Samuel Nunes and two uncles, Isaac de Sequeira Samud was arrested in 1703,
tortured and convicted, under duress, of practicing Judaism, at an auto da fé
in Lisbon today, which meant the death penalty if convicted again but which he
avoided because he escaped to London where he joined the “Spanish and
Portuguese in October 1790” and “was admitted as a licentiate by the Royal
College of Physicians” in March of 1722.
1733: The will of
Barbados resident Abraham Burssy was dated today.
1735(2nd of
Cheshvan, 5496): Moses Kalman, grandfather of A.M.
Rothschild passed away.
1739: In Portugal, Antonio Jose
da Silva, who was a Converso born in Brazil to Converso parents was found
guilty of heresy. He was a well-known dramatist, and his works were
popularly referred to as those of “The Jew.” Da Silva whose parents had also
been persecuted by the inquisition was arrested numerous times and tortured.
Although the King himself was inclined toward leniency, he was burned. At the
same time, one of his plays was playing in a popular theater in Lisbon. Despite the King’s inclination towards
leniency Da Silva was garroted and burnt at a Lisbon auto-da-fe. His wife, who
witnessed his death, did not long survive him.
At the time of his death, one of da Silva’s plays was being performed in
a popular Lisbon theatre. Da Silva's
tragic story has inspired several modern writers, including the Portuguese
Camilo Castelo Branco (author of the novel O Judeu), who was himself of
Converso origin.
1753(21st
of Tishrei, 5514): Hoshana Raba
1766(27th
of Cheshvan, 5527): Jamaica born Boston merchant Moses Alvarez passed away
today.
1767:
Birthdate of Salomon Heine, the Hamburg born banker who was the father of
Amalie Friedlander and the uncle of Heinrich Heine.
1769(18th
of Tishrei, 5530): Fourth Day of Sukkot observed on the same day that “Governor
Norborne, Baron de Botetourt issued a proclamation offering a bounty for
killing Indians.”
1773: In
New York City, Jonas Phillips, the son of Aaron Phillips and his wife Rebecca
Mendz Machado gave birth to the their second child and first son, Naphtali
Phillips who married Esther Siexas one year after the death of his first wife
Rachel and became the publisher of the National
Advocate and who in 1796 “took the first copy of George Washington’s
farewell address that came off the press of the American Advertiser” which was
later place in the cornerstone of the Washington monument.
1778: Marks
and Rachel Dorris Lazarus gave birth to Leah Lazarus who became Leah Lazarus
Cohen when she married Mordecai Cohen.
1780(20th
of Tishrei 5541): Sixth Day of Sukkoth observed on the same day that the Battle
of Stone Arabia and the Battle of Klock’s Field took place during the American
Revolution.
1781(30th
of Tishrei, 5542): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1781(30th
of Tishrei, 5542): Sixty-three-year-old Samuel Judah the New York born son of
Baruch Judah and husband of Jesse Jonas who moved to Philadelphia passed away
today.
1781:
Emperor Joseph II issues the Toleration Decree in which the Jews of Austria
were accorded civil and political equality.
1781: The
British fleet having been defeated by the French fleet thanks in no small part
to the anti-Semitic plundering of St. Eustatius by Admiral Rodney, Cornwallis’s
army which lacked supplies, provisions or a route of escape, marched out of
Yorktown and surrendered to George Washington.
1781: The
articles of capitulation were signed today marking the end of the siege of
Yorktown and for all intents and purposes the end of the American Revolution.
1783(23rd
of Tishrei, 5544): Simchat Torah is celebrated for the first time since the
signing of the Treaty of Paris which marked the end of the American Revolution
1790: The
merger of two Mason lodges – King David and St. John’s – took place with “merged
lodge being known as St. John’s Lodge, No. 1 of Newport” with Mose Seixas
serving as its first Master, a position he held until he passed away in 1809
1790: Feiwel Duschenes
and Brache Duschenes gave birth to Joachim Duschenes, the husband of Sara
Duschenes.
1793: Birthdate of
German native Julia Isaak, the wife of Samson Nathan Eisendrath with whom she
had eleven children.
1796(17th of
Tishrei, 5557): Third Day of Sukkot observed on the same day that “the Battle
of Emmendingen took place during the French Revolutionary Wars during which
Austrian forces forced the French to retreat…”
1798: In Rhode Island,
Esther Mordecai and Philip Moses Russell gave birth to Rachel Russell, the wife
of David de Oliveria Tobias and the mother of Orlando, Esther, Josephine,
Thaddeus and Rachel H. Tobias.
1801(12th of
Cheshvan, 5562): Michael Emanuel passed away today in Charleston, SC.
1803: In Great Britain,
an official fast for success in the war against France begins.
1807(17th
of Tishrei, 5568): Third Day of Sukkoth
1807: In Philadelphia,
PA, Isaac and Rachel Cohen Lyons gave birth Jacob Cohen Lyons, the husband of
Louisa Elizaeth Hart Lyons and father of Isaac, Rachel, Isabelle, Hymen and
Theodore Lyons who was raised in South Carolina and who owned a successful
grocery store in Columbia, SC with his father Isaac an his brother Henry.
1807: In
Charleston, SC, Priscilla Moses and David Lopez gave birth to Priscilla Lopez,
the wife of Edwin Warren Moise and the mother of Cecilia, Sallie and Theodore
Moise.
1810: The
Grand Duke of Frankfurt, a French official, resisted granting full equality to
the Jews. A.M. Rothschild was sure that
the Grand Duke was just holding out for a larger bribe.
1812: Napoleon begins his retreat from Moscow. This marks the beginning of the end for the
emancipation of the Jews of Europe that had followed in the wake of France’s
military victories. The defeat at Moscow would hasten the return of the
reactionaries. Figuratively, if not
literally, ghetto doors that had been thrown open would be closed again.
1814(5th
of Cheshvan, 5575): Savannah teenager Joseph Deylon, who was born to Dr.
Abraham D’Lyon and Sarah Sheftall D’Lyon in 1800 passed away today.
1819(30th
of Tishrei, 5580): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1819(30th
of Tishrei, 5580): Charles Gompertz, the twelve-day-old son of Isaac Gompertz
and the former Charlotte Florence Wattier passed away today in Cleveland Row,
London.
1801(12th
of Cheshvan, 5562): Michael Emanuel, the husband of Flora Emanuel, the father
of Simon, Joel and Michael Emanuel passed away today in Charleston, SC.
1821(23rd
of Tishrei, 5582): Simchat Torah is celebrated for the first time since Mexico
and the nations of Central America threw off the yoke of Spanish rule.
1824(27th
of Tishrei, 5585): On the 23rd anniversary of her husband’s death, Flora
Emanuel, the English born daughter of Mary and Mordecai Levy, the wife of
Michael Emanuel and the mother of Simon, Joel and Michael Levy passed away
today in Charleston, SC.
1826:
Birthdate German Jewish philosopher Manuel Joel who followed Abraham Geiger as
the rabbi in Breslau.
1827: In
France, Barbe Levi and Jacques Goudchaux who were married in 1813 gave birth to
Anne Gouchaux.
1829(22nd
of Tishrei, 5590): Shmini Atzeret
1832: Moses
and Amalie Schoenfeld gave birth to Raphael Schoenfeld, the brother of Salomon,
Philip and Meyer Schoenfeld.
1833: In
“Canterbury, Kent” Hannah Barnard and Nathan Jacobs gave birth to Asher Jacobs.
1834(16th
of Tishrei, 5595) Second Day of Sukkoth
1836(8th
of Cheshvan, 5597): Fifty-seven-year-old Slowey Hays, the Kingston, Jamaica
born daughter of Rachel and Moses Michael Hays passed away today in Richmond,
VA.
1837(20th
of Tishrei, 5598): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
1837(20th
of Tishrei, 5598): Rachel Abrahams, the New York City born daughter of Abraham
Isaac Abrahams and the wife of Alexander Zuntz whom she married in 1779 passed
away today.
1839:
Rebecca Roxas, the daughter of Judith and Isaac Nunez Cardoza and her husband
Jacob Roxas gave birth to Abraham Roxas who passed away in 1850/
1842:
Birthdate of Adolph Meyer, the native of Natchez, Mississippi and student at
the University of Virginia who left school to fight in the Confederate Army and
who later represented Louisiana’s First Congressional District for 18 years.
1845(18th
of Tishrei, 5606): Fourth Day of Sukkot
1845: In
Cleveland, OH, Fannie Berg and Samuel Dittenhofter gave birth Jacob
Dittenhoffer , the husband of Bettie Elsinger whom he married in 1875 who came
to St. Paul from Cleveland in 1886 and assisted in organizing the firm of W. H.
Elsinger & Co., known as The Golden Rule, while serving as a director
National German American Bank and Sharood Shoe Corporation.
http://genealogytrails.com/minn/ramsey/bios_d.html
1846(29th
of Tishrei, 5607): Sixty-nine-year-old Jacob Hirsch Kann, the son Miriam and
Isaac Jacob Kann and the husband of Jetta Kann with whom he had 13 children
passed away today.
1847: After
struggling for two years, Temple Emanu-El purchased “a church on Chrystie
Street between Hester Streets for $12,000 which it would alter so that it was
ready to be used as a Jewish house of worship by Pesach, 1848.
1850(13th
of Cheshvan, 5611): Parashat Lech-Lecha
1851(23rd
of Tishrei, 5612): As the turmoil that would lead to the coup that would end
the Second Republic gripped France, Jews observed Simchat Torah
1853(17th
of Tishrei, 5614): Third Day of Sukkoth
1854: In
Spitalfields, Jane Silver and Henry Woolf gave birth to Louis Woolf.
1854:
Ernestine Rose, a leading early
American advocate for women's rights, presided over the Fifth National Woman's
Rights Convention in Philadelphia which ended today. (As reported by the Jewish
Women’s Archive)
http://jwa.org/thisweek/oct/19/1854/ernestine-rose
1856(20th
of Tishrei, 5617): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
1857(1st
of Cheshvan, 5618): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan observed as New Yorkers deal with the
sixth day of bank closing that were part of the financial crisis known as the
Panic of 1857.
1859(21st
of Tishrei, 5620): Hoshan Rabba
1859:
In Mulhouse, Alsace, Second French Empire, Raphaël Dreyfus was a prosperous,
self-made, Jewish textile manufacturer and his wife Jeannette Dreyfus (née
Libmann) gave birth to the youngest of their nine children, Alfred Dreyfus, the
French army officer whose trumped-up treason trial would split French society
and become a prime catalyst for the creation of the Zionist movement under
Herzl.
1859:
In Liverpool, Professor Prag and his wife gave birth to Joseph Prag, the
graduate of Queen’s College who was a member of the Anglo-Jewish Association
and the Conjoint Committee for Foreign Affairs as well as a Warden of the
North-West London Synagogue.
1859:
In Cincinnati, OH, Phebe Phillips and Morton S. Cohen gave birth to University
of Cincinnati trained attorney Alfred Morton Cohen, the husband of Millie
Phillips who served as a state legislator and city councilman.
1860(3rd
of Cheshvan, 5621): Rebbe Eliezer Horowitz of Dzhikov, the son of Rebbe Naftali
Tzvi passed away today.
1861:
One day after he had passed away, 40-year-old Lazarus Leopard was buried today
at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1862:
Philadelphian Abraham Kuhn completed his service with Company B of the 27th
Regiment.
1863(23rd
of Tishrei, 5764): Simchat Torah
1863; In
Grand Ridge, IL, James Gibson Finley and Lydia Margaret McCombs gave birth to
Knox College and Johns Hopkins University graduate John Huston Finley, an
associate editor of the New York Times in 1932 received The American Hebrew
Medal for the Promotion of Better Understanding Between Christians and Jews in
America.
1863:
During the American Civil War, on the same day marking the end of the Jewish
“holiday season” General U.S. Grant replaced William Rosecrans as Commander of
the Army of with General George Thomas. Thomas will appoint Major Alfred
Mordecai Junior, Senior and Supervising Ordinance Officer of the Army of the
Cumberland. Young Mordecai was a West Point Graduate and the son of one of the
Army’s highest ranking Jewish officers in the pre-Civil War U.S. Army.
1864(19th
of Tishrei, 5625): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth
1864:
During the American Civil War, Union forces under the command General Sheridan
decisively and dramatically defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Cedar
Creek. This victory marked the end of the Valley Campaigns of 1864. From this time on no Confederate Army could
threaten Washington with invasion through the Shenandoah Valley and the rich
valley farms would no longer be a source of supply for the armies of Robert E.
Lee. The defeated Confederate was commanded by a general with a name straight
out of Bereshit – Jubal Early. Major Lyon Levy Emanuel, a member of a prominent
Jewish family from Philadelphia was among those fighting with Union in the
Shenandoah Valley
1864:
"Our Paris Correspondence" published today reported that "Baron
Erlanger and his fair bride, Miss Slidell, were the prime pets of the brilliant
feudal throng, and the joy at Baden-Baden knew no bounds…nothing remains of all
the Summer's gay humbug but Erlanger’s courtship with Miss Slidell. The
Erlangers are German Jews, originally from Marburg, a University town in the
Electorate of Hessen, but the academic glories of that town made but little
intellectual impression upon the Erlanger stock, who took themselves to
Frankfort, where they attained to wealth by stock-jobbing, and to a baronetcy
by the grace of the King of Portugal, to the great distress of Rothschild-- he
being no longer the only Jew Baron…”
Erlanger was a member of family of German-Jewish bankers who was head of
the leading banking house in France.
Miss Slidell was the daughter of John Slidell of Louisiana, a
Confederate diplomat living in France who tried unsuccessfully to get the
French to recognize the South’s independence during the Civil War. Erlanger was not the first Jew to marry into
Slidell’s family. August Belmont was his
brother-in-law. The Rothschild’s claim to
the title Baron stemmed from the Austrian house of the famous banking family.
1867(20th
of Tishrei, 5628): Shabbat Shel Sukkoth
1867: In
the Kolin District of Central Bohemia, Caroline and Moses Kafka gave birth to future
New York resident Hermine Zeisler, the wife of Rabbi Joseph Zeisler who led several
congregations including San Bernardino’s Congregation Emanu El and Beth
Ha-Tefilah in Ashville, NC.
1870: In
New York, Katherine and Allen Louis Mordecai gave birth to Robert E. Lee
Mordecai, the husband of Nellie King Mordecai
1871(4th
of Cheshvan, 5632): Twenty-nine-year-old Anna Henrietta Bethlehem, the Czech
born daughter of Theresia and Dr. Jacob Isaac Joachim Weintraub, who was “the
first Jewish woman in Hungary to be a public-school teacher and who married
Rabbi Aaron Albert Siegfried Bettelheim after the death of her first husband,
Itzak Meisler, passed away today.
1871: In
St. Petersburg, a pharmacy owner and his wife gave birth to “Russian political activist
and journalist, Fydor Ilyich Dan, a founder of the Mensheviks whom Stalin
exiled after the Russian Revolution and who found refuge in the United States during
WW II.
Fyodor
Dan, Social Democrat Leader, Dies in New York - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
http://pdfs.jta.org/1947/1947-01-23_019.pdf
1875(20th
of Tishrei, 5636): Fourth Day of Sukkot
1875: In
Darmstadt, Germany, “an army surgeon” and his wife gave birth to WW I German
Army officer Theodor Duesterberg “a leader
of Der Stahlhelm in Germany prior to the Nazi seizure of power” who “was
arrested by the Nazis during the Night of the Long Knives and sent to Dachau
concentration camp, where he was briefly interned” and survived the war after
which “he wrote The Steel Helmet and Hitler, in which he defended his
pre-war political career and Der Stahlhelm and detailed the movement's
independence from the Nazi Party and "the insane Jew hatred preached by
Hitler".
1876: Argentina completed legal reforms that would permit
the establishment and consolidation of Jewish agricultural settlements.
1876: Judith Aria, the eldest child of Alexander Aria and
the former Flaimngo Abigail was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.”
1876: Rosalie and Samuel Peck gave birth to Eleanor Peck,
who became Eleanor Kuh when she married Millard F. Kuh with whom she had one
son, Howard Michael Kuh.
1877: The report of a correspondent who is traveling with
the Russian Army during the Czar’s war with the Ottoman Empire reported that
there are more Jews at the Bulgarian town of Sistova now than on his last
visit. He described the Jews as “more
bestial than before.” Once he had
reached the Czar’s headquarter encampment, the correspondent found himself
eating food provided by “a firm of enterprising Israelites” that charges “Fifth
Avenue Hotel prices.”
1878(22nd of Tishrei, 5639): Shemini Atzeret
1878: “In Lipine, Silesia,” Wilhelm and Johanna
Lebowitsch Sonderling gave birth to Jacob Sonderling who in 1904 received a
Ph.D. from the University of Tiibgingen, “was ordained by Dr. Baruch Jacob” and
“married Emma Kleman” with whom he had three sons – Egrmont, Fred and Paul –
after which “during the First World War he served as a Germany Army Chaplain on
the staff of Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg and then came to the United
States where he “founded the Fairfax Temple in Los Angeles.”
https://jewish-history-online.net/source/jgo:source-83
https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/01/archives/rabbi-sonderling-zionist-aided-herzl.html
1879: In New York Mary Grunhut and Moritz Bullowa gave
birth to College of Physicians and Surgeons trained medical doctor Jesse
Bullowa the assistant professor of clinical medicine at Fordham University
Medical School, the husband of Sadie Nones and a member of the Free Synagogue
and Spanish Portuguese Synagogue.
https://www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/jesse-gm-bullowa-1879-1943/
1879: In Bucharest, the Chamber of Deputies is scheduled
to vote on a measure designed to resolve the issue of Jewish emancipation. Under the proposal, the Jews will have to
apply individually for naturalization except for those who have served in the
army. Jewish veterans will be granted
full citizenship en bloc.
1880: It was reported today that in the past year St.
Luke’s Hospital treated 1,114 patients in the last year, four of whom were
Jewish.
1880: An article published today described the bustling
commercial activity in Smyrna, a Turkish city where trade “is chiefly in the
hands of the Greeks and the Jews.”
Smyrna, according to the article, was the scene of “one of the most
striking episodes in the history” of the Jews – the rise to prominence of
Shabbetai Zvi.
1881: In
Charleston, Rabbi David Levy officiated at the marriage of Albert De Leon of
Baltimore, MD and Amanda Moise, the “eldest daughter of B.F. Moise.”
1882: The
Young Men’s Hebrew Association is sponsoring tonight’s concert at Chickering
Hall in New York.
1882: In
Baltimore, Hannah Eliau and Ansel Bamberger gave birth to Florence Eliau
Bamberger the holder of a B.S., M.A. and PhD from Columbia Teachers College,
the advocate of progressive education as advocated by John Dewey and the first
woman to become a full professor at Johns Hopkins University.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/bamberger-florence
1882: Israel
Ettler is scheduled to return to court today where he will face charges
involving his role in the recent “riot” among the immigrants on Ward’s Island.
1882(6th
of Cheshvan, 5643): Seventy-four-year-old Celia Marks, the daughter of Moshe
and Hannah Wolfe and the wife of David Woolf Marks passed away today.
1883(18th
of Tishrei, 5644): Fourth Day of Sukkoth
1883: In
New York City, “Jacob Meyer and Hannah Horn” gave birth to Julia Horn the
college educated public school teacher who after marrying Gabriel Max Hamburger
became Julia Horn Hamburger, the champion of numerous social causes and the
mother of Maxsina and Bernard Hamburger. (As reported by Daniel Bender)
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/hamburger-julia-horn
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/09/16/98446051.html?pageNumber=19
1883: Three
days after she had passed away, Henrietta (Montefiore) Samuel, the daughter of
“Horatio Joseph Montefiore and the former Sarah Daniel Mocatta” and the wife of
Horatio Simon Samuel was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1883: It
was reported today that Mrs. Martin Scherbner has filed for a divorce in New
Jersey Chancery Court because her husband deceived her before they were
married. Before their wedding he assured
his Catholic bride that he was not Jewish, but Catholic like her. After the wedding, he confessed that he was
Jewish.
1883: Sir Moses Montefiore has given a gift of 99 English pounds
to the London Sheriffs' charitable fund. That sum represented 1 pound for each
year of the giver's age. Nearly 50 years ago the aging philanthropist had held
the office of Sheriff for London and Middlesex.
1884: It
was reported today that 40-year-old Benjamin Levy “is lying at his
home…dangerously near death.” According
to Levy and those who witnessed the event, Levy was beaten by a policeman in
plain clothes. The officer claimed he
had been provoked by Levy and his companions “who were full of liquor” The
officer’s claim is questionable since the beating took place on Yom Kippur.
1884:
“Statistic of the Deaf and Dumb” published today reported that “in Berlin the
greater proportion of deaf-mutes is found the Israelites where consanguineous
marriages are frequent and the smaller number among the Catholics to whom such
marriages are forbidden.” In evaluating these statistics, it should be noted
that the same article said that the causes of “deaf-mutism” are “damp
atmosphere, uncleanliness, bad air in dwellings and” parents who are
laundresses, excavators, miners and weavers.
1885(10th
of Cheshvan, 5646): A mounted officer serving with the New York Park Police
found the dead body of a man identified as 29-year-old Albert Unger propped
against a tree just south of Camp Grant.
1886(20th
of Tishrei, 5647): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
1886:
Birthdate of Reb Velvel (Yitzchok Zev) Soloveitchik, the native of Belarus and
son Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk
1886:”A
Thrifty Prince” published today erroneously reported that the Princess of
Battenburg, the wife of Prince Alexander of Hesse “was the daughter of a German
Jew” named Haucke. (Actually her father was a German professional soldier).
1886:
“Violated the Sunday Law” published today described the plight of Wolf Bloom, a
26-year-old Jewish immigrant from Russia who had been arrested on charges
brought Cornelious Leary for having violated the Sunday Law (aka Blue Laws) by
having the employees of his cloak factory work on Sunday. In his defense Bloom said that as a Jew he
observed Saturday as “his holy day” which is why he worked on Sunday. (In a
world where everything seems to be open 7/24/36, it is hard to remember that
Sunday closing laws were the norm in many parts of the U.S. well into the
second half of the 20th century)
1886: In New York City Angeline Seligman married Albert H. Gross
1887: Joseph Krauskopf began serving as the rabbi for Keneseth Israel, a
Reform congregation in Philadelphia, PA.
1888: Moshav Gederah was attacked by Arabs. Gederah was one of the first
agricultural settlements developed by Jewish pioneers. It was established by a Russian-born Jew
named Yehiel Michael Pines in 1884.
Money for purchasing the land came from the Moses Montefiore Testimonial
Fund. Grapes and grain were the
principal products of the moshav.
1888: As
charges of financial mismanagement swirl around the theatrical productions that
the Jewish Order of the Harp of David have been sponsoring at Poole’s Theatre
in New York, a threatened injunction brought by one group of claimants might
cancel tonight’s performance of “King Solomon.”
1888: It
was reported today that Mrs. John Jacob Astor has made a bequest of $25,000 to
St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City.
1888: It
was reported today that of the 1,793 patients treated at St. Luke’s, an
Episcopal Hospital in New York, 19 of them were Jewish.
1889: Luis
I of Portugal who in 1869 conferred the noble title of viscount on David de
Ster in recognition of the work of Stern's bank in floating Portuguese loans
passed away today.
1889:
Broadway producer and director George Washington Lederer married Florine
Newcombe with whom he had one son, theatre manager and present agent George W.
Lederer, Jr and divorced in 1894.
1889: It
was reported today that property valued at $27,500 owned by the Home for Aged
and Infirm Hebrews and property valued at $4,000 owned by the Talmud Torah on
East Broadway, were among those charitable and educational institutions granted
an exemption from paying property taxes.
1890: It
was reported today that during 1889, St. Luke’s Hospital a New York facility
supported by Episcopalians that is non-denominational when it comes to offering
services, served 1,997 patients of whom 38 were Jewish.
1890: The
managers of the
Society of St. Luke’s hospital reported that of 1,384 patients treated this
year four of them were Jewish.
1890: The Jews of
Alpena, Michigan met today and adopted the articles of incorporation and
by-laws creating Temple Beth El for which they agreed to purchase a building on
White Street to use as a sanctuary.
1890: “A Big Hotel
Planned Where Jews Will Be Welcomed” published today described the purchase of
10,000 acres owned by the Mutual Life Insurance Company in the Adirondacks
around Lake Saranac Nathan Strauss on which he along with Isidor Straus, Max
Nathan and Mayor Hugh J. Grant will spend one million dollars to develop with
cottages and a luxury hotel that will be open to all who wish stay which would
set it apart from many of the hostelries in the areas which do not accept
Jewish guests.
1891: “An Indictment of
Russia “ published today described the “golden age of the Jews in Russia” which
“lasted from 1857 to 1877” was followed by a “return to oppression” in which
“nobody in Russia has dreamed of paying a debt owed to a Jewish trader or
artisan” in the past twelve months.
1892: In
Lancashire, Thomas and Annie Mackereth give birth to Sir Gilbert Mackereth who
in 1937 while serving as the British council “advised
an increase in border patrol around Palestine due to the high numbers of Jewish
immigrants fleeing Nazism in Hitler's Germany”
At the same he “observed that the Arab nationalists had hired known criminals in
Syria who crossed the frontier to join bandit groups in Palestine where they
blew up passenger trains, menaced and murdered both soldiers and civilians
alike, and indiscriminately robbed Arabs, Christians and Jews.” (As reported by
Leslie Stein)
1892: In
New York City, William Israel Walter, the son of Henriette and Isaac David
Walter, and his wife Florence Walter gave birth to Marjorie Walter who became
Marjorie Goodhart when she married Howard Lehman Goodhart.
1893: On
Manhattan’s Lower East Side, German born Tammany Hall political leader Simon
Steingut and the former Lean Wolbach gave birth to St. John’s College of Law
trained attorney and Speaker of the New York State Assembly Irwin Steingut the
husband of Rae Kaufman Steingut and the father of Stanley Steigut who followed
in his father’s political footsteps.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1952/09/27/84583213.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1894(19th
of Tishrei, 5655): Fifth day of Sukkoth
1894(19th
of Tishrei, 5655): Forty-five-year-old James Darmesteter who “published a
thesis on the mythology of the Avesta, in which he advocated that the Persian
religion of Zoroastrianism had been influenced by Judaism (and not backwards as
many scholars say) passed away today
1894: After
visiting his son Lester, Abraham Keyser, a retired grocer left to go home and
was never seen alive again.
1894: In
New York, morning newspapers described the decision of the Trustees of the
Hebrew Institute to not to let the Women’s Municipal League use its building
for a meeting even though only one of the five, Nathan Straus had opposed the
request.
1894: The
two children of Mrs. Urchittel, who had been sent to the Hebrew Sheltering
Guardian Society, were returned to her at a meeting of the Lexow Committee
which is investigating corruption in the New York City Police Department. The children had been taken from her based on
the testimony of two men from the 12th Precinct who claimed she ran
“a disorderly house” when in fact her only crime was her refusal to pay them
blackmail. State Senator Cantor had
previously testified before the committee on her behalf.
1895:
Birthdate of New York City native Walter Staunton Mack, Jr. the Harvard
educated, WW I Naval officer and long-time President of Pepsi-Cola.
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-19/news/mn-579_1_pepsi-syrup
1896: The
Vitascope Theatre opened in Buffalo, New York.
It was one of the first buildings built deliberately for the showing of
motion pictures. The theatre was owned
by Mitchell Mark. In 1906 this Jewish entrepreneur teamed with his brother Moe,
Adloph Zucker and Marcus Lowe to for the Automatic Vaudeville Company.
1896:
Gaston
Michel Calmann-Lévy and Hélène Koenigswarter gave birth to Nicole Germaine
Oulman
1896:
Colonel J.E. Bloom, Chairman of the Wage Earners Patrotic League presided over
a mass meeting at Cooper Union where delivered an address opposing William
Jennings Bryan and his Free Silver Platform.
1896:
Birthdate of NYU star basketball player Nat Holman who went on to a successful
coaching career at City College of New York that included winning both the NCAA
and NIT titles
http://digital-archives.ccny.cuny.edu/exhibits/holman/intro.html
1896:
Morris Lincoln Bettman, the son Matilda and “Baerlein (Bernhard) Betterman and
Alma Bettman gave birth to Arthur Bettman, the brother of Louis Rauh
Pappenheimer.
1897(23rd
of Tishrei, 5658): Simchat Torah is observed for the first time during the
Presidency of William McKinley
1897(23rd
of Tishrei, 5658): In London, the Hambro Synagogue is scheduled to hold
services at Bonn’s Hall.
1897: “The
East London Jewish Communal League winter session” opened this evening “with a
social gathering at the Stepney Jewish Schools.”
1897:
Birthdate of Philadelphia native and pioneer radio television broadcaster Stanley Alexader Broza, the husband of Esther
Malis Broza and father of composer and conductor Elliot Broza Lawrence who
gained fame as Stan Lee Broza the long time producer of the Horn and Hardart
Children’s which “was the incubator for many famous vocalists and actors.
1898: The Zionist Delegation aboard the "Emperor Nicolai
II" is on its way to Palestine.
1898: Forty-two-year-old
Harold Frederic the journalist who visited Russia in 1891 to investigate the
conditions of the Jews and who wrote The New Exodus: A Study of Israel In
Russia in 1892 passed away today.
1899(15th
of Cheshvan, 5660): Seventy-one-year-old Samuel Rosenwald, the Bunde, Germany
born son of Vogel and Bendix Rosenwald and the husband of Augusta
Rosenwald who was the owner of
Hammerslough Brothers, a clothing store in Springfield passed away in
Springfield, Il after which he was buried in Chicago.
1900: In
Baltimore, the organization overseeing The Frank Free Sabbath School led by
principal Martha Sromberg met today.
1901(6th
of Cheshvan, 5662): Parashat Noach read for the first time during the
Presidency of Teddy Roosevelt.
1902(18th
of Tishrei, 5663, Fourth Day of Sukkoth
1902: It
was reported today that Major Evans Gordon, M.P., a member of the Royal
Commission on Alien Immigration, who has just returned from a two months' visit
to Russia, Poland, Galicla, and Roumania, where he has been studying the causes
underlying the Jewish exodus thence, speaking to a representative of The
Associated Press today, said that quite apart from the Jewish side of the
question of Romania’s treatment of these citizens, he believes “that England is
being made and has long been made a dumping ground not only for the paupers,
but for the criminals and undesirable persons of all Europe.”
1903: In Constantinople,
Herman Margolis, “a halutz and agronomist and Cecilia Schwartz, the daughter of Dr. Solomon Schwartz, the
personal physician to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire gave birth to Ohio State
University and Western University educated social worker Laura Leah Margolis,
the wife of Yiddish newspaper editor and member of the Resistance Marc Jarblum
whose amazing career with the JDC began in pre-war Cuba and continued in
Shanghai and included working with children smuggled over the Pyrenees
Mountains from France into Spain.” (Editor’s note – there is no way that this
blog can do justice to the life of this fascinating person whose life sounds
like something out of a James Bond movie, so we urge you to go to the links
below)
https://dc.uwm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1553&context=etd
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jarblum-laura-margolis
1903: “Dr.
Kohler Installed’ published today described the services in Cincinnati, OH
marking the inauguration of Dr. Kaufman Kohler as the President of the Hebrew
Union College which were opened by “Bernard Bettmann, President of the Board of
Governors” who said, “Let us not speak today of the trials and troubles of the
Hebrew Union College but of its achievements and its triumphs.”
1904:
Birthdate of Hayyim Schirmann, the Russian born Jewish scholars who specialized
in Hebrew Poetry of the Middle Ages and who worked in Berlin until the rise of the Nazis
when moved to Palestine and began teaching at Hebrew University. He passed away in 1981.
1905(20th
of Tishrei, 5666): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
1905: A two-day
Pogrom began at Kishinev. This was the
second Pogrom at Kishinev in two years.
The Kishinev Pogrom of 1903 is the more famous (or infamous) of the two.
1906:
Birthdate of Polish born, American cinematographer Irving Glassberg
1907: After
winning the first two games of the season, The Tennessee Volunteers coached by
Izzy Levene lost to archrival Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
1907, Today,
Louis Epstein, son of Max Epstein and Mary Solomon, married Deana Grozcky,
daughter of Abraham Grozcky and Sarah Levy, in Manhattan, New York
1907: Twenty-year-old
actor and manager Nathan Goldberg the Austrian born son of Jacob and Paulina
Goldberg married seventeen-year-old American stage actress Rose Goldberg, the
Austrian born daughter of Jacob and Bessie Finkenthal.
1907: In
Morristown, NJ, Adelaide “Addie” Wolf and “Otto Herman Kahn, a wealthy banker
and patron of the arts gave birth to Roger Wolfe Kahn, jazz bandleader and
composer, who like his father appeared on the cover of Time magazine.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/07/13/81791687.html?pageNumber=23
https://syncopatedtimes.com/roger-wolfe-kahn-and-his-orchestra/
http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Kahn_Roger_Wolfe.html
1908: Jesse
Lewisohn” the son of Hamburg born Jewish merchant Leonard Lewison and Rosalie
Jacobs “and Miss Edna McCauley, an actress who are romantically linked are
scheduled to return to New York today from Atlantic City in what would prove to
be a step on the road to their marriage.
1908:
“Irving Lehman” published today described the qualifications, career and family
history of 33-year-old Irving Lehman “who was nominated for Justice of the
Supreme Court by the Tammany County Convention” and who will be the youngest
person to serve on the bench if elected which seems to be highly likely.
1909: The
Jewish Record Story Contest which offers three cash prizes to the Jewish women
who write the best articles “on prominent modern Jews” as well as the
possibility of being published in The
Jewish Record came to an end today.
1909:
Morningside College graduate Max Schlossberg, the Vilna born son of Rachel
Anselowtiz and Ezra Schlossberg who served as principle of the Sioux City, IA
Hebrew School before eventually become principle of the Lynn (MA) Hebrew School
married Fannie Friedland today.
1910:
Today, John Purroy Mitchell, the President of the Board of Alderman received a
letter today from Nathan Straus, an advocate of providing pasteurized milk to
the poor, praising him for comments his comments at mass meeting in which he
gave “assurance that the municipal authorities will seriously grapple with the
public duty of protecting the babies from the diseases that too often lurk in
raw milk.
1911: In
Yorkville, NY, “a German-Catholic father and a Hungarian-Jewish mother” Helen Klein
gave birth to American violinist Evelyn Kahn, the wife and colleague of Ukrainian-Jewish
band leader Phil Spitlany who was best
known for her performances as “Evelyn and Her Magic Violin.”
1912:
Birthdate of Bernard “Red” Sarachek, the long-time basketball coach and
director of athletics at Yeshiva University.
1912: Italy takes possession of Tripoli, Libya from
the Ottoman Empire. “According to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus,
Jews were first settled in Cyrene and other parts of present-day eastern Libya
by the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy Lagos (323-282 B.C.E.) With their numbers likely
bolstered by Berbers who had converted to Judaism, later supplemented by Jews
fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition, and, from the seventeenth
century, by Jews from Leghorn and other Italian cities, Jews lived continuously
in Libya for well over two millennia, predating the Muslim conquest in 642 C.E.
by centuries. In 1911, 350 years of Ottoman rule ended and the Italian colonial
period began. At the time, Libya’s Jewish population numbered 20,000. The next
quarter century was to prove a golden age for Libya’s Jews. By 1931, nearly
25,000 Jews lived in Libya.” For more
about the Jews of Libya see
1913(18th of Tishrei, 5674): Fourth Day of Sukkoth
1913: “" Christianity and Christlessness in the Home of Jesus"
was the subject of the second of the series of addresses based upon recent
studies and observations in the Holy Land, given by Dr. Stephen S. Wise before
the Free Synagogue at Carnegie Hall this morning.”
1914: “Predicting that the close of the European war will be the signal
for a tremendous Jewish immigration to American shores, Dr. Joseph Krauskopf,
President of the National Farm School, nearly Daylestown, speaking at the annual
meeting of the school today, urged that plans be made at once for sending the
thousands of immigrants "back to the soil," and thus prevent
congestion in the tenement-house district of the great Eastern cities.”
1914: The Germans clash with the French, Belgian and BEF forces on the
opening day of the First Battle of Ypres, one of the many futile attempts by
both sides to try and outflank the other and bring the war to the quick close
that had been promised with the slogans of “home by Christmas.
1915: In New York City, Jacob and Esther Nahem, immigrants from Aleppo,
Syria gave to major league pitcher Samuel Ralph "Subway Sam" Nahem
1915: Ethel Seligman, the daughter of Addie and “De Witt J. (David)
Seligman) and Edgar Dinkelspiel, the son of Lazarus and Pauline Dinkelspiel
gave birth to Edgar Ned Dinkelspiel
1916(22nd of Tishrei, 5677)” Shemini Atzeret
1916: Birthdate of New South Wales native Julius Cohen, the RAAF pilot
and public servant who changed his name to Richard Kingsland to avoid being a
victim of anti-Semitism.
1916: Tonight, “at a series of big rallies… which marked the start of the
homestretch” of the Presidential campaign in New York, Oscar charged “that
President Wilson and his advisers had insulted the Jews by appealing to them to
sell their birthright as American citizens by voting for the President on the
ground that he had appointed a number of Jews to responsible offices…”
1916: Birthdate of pianist Emil Gilels.
Born in Odessa, Gilels is variously described as a Ukrainian, and a
great artist who made his career in the Soviet Union until his death in
1985. But his name appears on the list
of Jewish Pianist. This litany of origins points once again to the difficulty
of answering the question, “Who is A Jew?”
1916: Dr.
Judah Magnes, “who went abroad in July armed with credentials from the
Secretary of State to investigate the methods of distribution of the vast sums
of money raised in this country for the relief of Jewish War Sufferers” sailed
from Europe today with the expectation that he will return to New York next
week.
1917: Benny
Leonard (the Ghetto Wizard) defeated Jack Britton in what would be the first of
three bouts between the two.
1917: At
Moscow, the mayor and members of the Council of Workmen and Soldiers intervened
to stop anti-Jewish rioting.
1917: In
Indianapolis, IN, Bella and Bernard Isaacs, the future “Superintendent of
Hebrew Schools” in Detroit gave birth Irving Raphael Isaacs, WW II Army Air
Corps veteran and the husband of Martha Lillian Horelick.
https://jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/irving-raphael-isaacs/
1917: In
Lugansk, “several Jewish shops and houses were looted and burned before the
militia could restore order.
1917: In
Petrograd, “several Jews were injured” during “anti-Jewish rioting” which was
triggered by “a shortage of supplies.”
1918:
Sergeant Abraham Blaustein, who was serving with the 165th Regiment
on the Western Front left Excamont today to attend the Army Candidate School at
La Volbonne.
1918: In
Lockhart, Texas, Edith Violet (née Schwarz) and Charles H. Strauss gave birth
to Robert Straus the Democratic political leader whose career included serving
as U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union under Republican President George H.W.
Bush.
1918: In
the Bronx, Samuel and Molly Eisen gave birth to their only child, Max. Max
Eisen was one of the nation’s leading press agents who “from 1954 to 1997… was
the press agent for more than 60 Broadway shows and dozens of Off Broadway
productions.”
1919:
“Jewish Critic Here Tells of Pogrom” published provided the Samuel Charney’s
description of the attacks on the Jews of Vilna which he experienced while with
his wife Bessie Lauria from which he was saved due to the intervention Colonel
House who was attending the Peace Conference in Paris.
1919: The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago White Sox, 5
games to 3 in the16th World Series. This series is known as the Black Sox
Scandal since 7 White Sox players threw the series. Supposedly the Series was fixed by Arnold
Rothstein. Although raised as an
observant Jew, Rothstein turned his back on his Jewish upbringing after his Bar
Mitzvah. A son of wealthy middle-class
parents, Rothstein hung out with “Irish gangsters” and married out of the
faith. Did Rothstein fix the
series? Or was this part of a pattern of
blaming Jewish and other foreign influences for corrupting a pristine
America. This was a common theme among
Natavists during the 1920’s.
1920:
“Reports that published in a morning paper that foreign Jews had played a
conspicuous rioting” in London, “led to a demonstration in Whitechapel today
when some hundreds of men began throwing stones and mud at the mounted police.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1920/10/20/109800806.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1920:
Preliminary arrangements for the mass meeting at Madison Square Garden to be
held on the night of October 23 which will be presided over by Nathan Straus
and which will feature a speech by Governor Cox were completed today.
1921:
Today, Franz Kafka wrote in his diary, “Moses fails to enter Canaan, not
because his life is too short but because it is a human life.”
1921:, Blanche Sternberger of Greensboro,
N. C., daughter, of Emanuel Sternberger, a leading industrialist of Greensboro,
N. C., and Bertha Strauss married New Orleans native and Harvard graduate Edward
Bernard Benjamin, the father of Edward Bernard Benjamin, Jr.
1922:
Today at the Carlton “backbench Conservative MPs decided to withdraw from the
David Lloyd George–led coalition government” which toppled the government of
the Prime Minister who had led Great Britain to victory in WW I and who issued
the Balfour Declaration.
1922:
Birthdate of author and historian Ruth Gay, a writer known for her nonfiction
books documenting Jewish life in the Old World. Ms. Gay's books include Safe
Among the Germans: Liberated Jews After World War II which dealt with a
little-studied subject - the more than 250,000 Jews who returned to
Allied-occupied Germany in the immediate aftermath of World War II. She also
wrote The Jews of Germany: A Historical Portrait which chronicled Jewish
life in Germany from the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 to the rise of Hitler in
1933. Reviewing the book in The New York
Times Book Review, Peter Filkins called it "moving and lively."
"What emerges is the portrait of a culture very much alive and aware of
its own rich heritage," he wrote. In 1997, Ms. Gay received the National
Jewish Book Award for nonfiction for Unfinished People: Eastern European
Jews Encounter America. In that book, she examined the immigrant experience
through the lens of her own girlhood in the Bronx. Ms. Gay has also coauthored
a book with her daughter, Sophie, entitled Ms. Gay's book The Jewish King
Lear Comes to America. She passed away in 2008.
1923:
Hadoar, a Hebrew Language weekly published in the United States temporarily
suspends publication
1923: Czernowitz born author Rosalie Beatrice
Scherzer married Ignaz Ausländer. Her increasingly famous works were
published under her married name, Rose Ausländer even though her marriage
proved to be short-lived.
1923:
Alfred Mond, 1st Baron Melchett completed his service as Minister of Health in
the government led by David Lloyd George.
1924(21st
of Tishrei, 5685): Hoshana Rabah
1924: It
was reported to that “in Cuba, there are now 5,000 Jews en route from foreign
countries to the United States but who are unable to come here because of the
immigration restrictions according to an announcement made by the Emergency
Committee…which is attempting to find a solution for the stranded refugee
problem.
1925: Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise, speaking at the Brooklyn Jewish Centre, 667 Eastern Parkway,
asserted last night that there was no conflict between "the truth of the
Bible and evolution."
1926: In
New Haven, CT, Anna Henrietta Mendel and Sol Ellis Wallant gave birth to author
Edward Lewis Wallant.
1926: Birthdate of American moral philosopher Joel
Feinberg.
1927(23rd
of Tishrei, 5688): Simchat Torah
1927: Pan
American World Airways, one of the corporate clients of press-agent Benjamin
Sonnenberg, began operations today.
1927:
Birthdate of Schaerbeek, Belgium native abstract painter Pierre Alechinsky.
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1927: Today,
“Dr. Herman E. S. Chayes, President of the First District Dental Society of New
York, the official and largest dental organization in the State, wrote to the
State Superintendent of Insurance, offering the facilities of the society to
make available as expert witnesses in malpractice suits the best dentists in
the State” of New York.
1927: Harry
Blitman who had not lost a bout, fought his 26th bout.
1928:
Birthdate of “animator and voice actor” Louis Sheimer, the Pittsburgh, PA who
helped to found Filmation.
1928(5th of
Cheshvan, 5689): Sixty-seven-year-old Chess Champion Berthold Lasker passed
away. Chess must have been in his genes
since he was the brother of Emanuel Lasker.
1928: Terrence
and Benjamin Waldman, four and a half years old and fourteen months old
respectively, the sons of Mr. and Mrs. Milton S. Waldman, who was the daughter
of Titanic victim Benjamin Guggenheim of
New York and Paris, were killed this afternoon in a fall from the roof of the
Surrey, a sixteen-story apartment hotel at 20 East Seventy-sixth Street.
1928: It
was reported that Nathan Swindler, the “counsel for the three Jewish interns
who were hazed at Kings County Hospital last summer,” has complained “that the
Lay Board of Kings County Hospital of which he is Chairman has bee unable to
function since its organization five months ago because of the lack of
cooperation on the part of those who created it.”
1929(15th
of Tishrei, 5690): Sukkoth
1929: In
Cincinnati, OH, “Co-incidentally with
his 70th birthday, Alfred M. Cohen of Cincinnati was awarded the
honorary degree of Doctor of Hebrew Law
today at the opening exercises of the 55th academic year of the
Hebrew Union College.”
1930: The
dinner marking the opening of the 1930 campaign for the Support of Jewish
Philanthropic Societies which is trying to $2,221,000 in New York “for the
maintenance of the ninety-one social agencies comprising the Federation” which
has been organized by Mortimer L. Schiff is scheduled to take place at the
Commodore Hotel.
1930: Sir
Hermann Gollancz, “the first British rabbi to be granted knighthood” was buried
today at the Willesden Jewish Cemetery followed by a memorial service at the
Bayswater Synagogue.
1931: It
was reported today that the new members of the board of directors of the JNF
include Isaac Allen of the ZOA, Juliet Benjamin of Hadassah, Benjamin Fein of
the Sons of Zion, Rabbi A.D. Burack of Mizrachi and Meyer Brown of Poale Zion.
1932: It
was reported today that Sir Ronald Storrs who “became Military Governor of
Jerusalem in 1917 when Allenby took it and then served as the civil governor of
Palestine until 1926 is sailing for Northern Rhodesia where he will become
Governor.
1933: “The
twentieth and final performance of "The Romance of a People," Jewish
historical pageant, was held last night before 18,000 persons at the
Kingsbridge Armory marking an end of an event that raised $200,000 most of
which will go to help German Jews settle in Palestine.
1934: Boxer
Harry Blitman fought his 76th and penultimate bout.
1934:
“Forbidden Territory,” a film version of the book by the same name starring
Gregory Ratoff and with Music by Louis Levy was released in the United Kingdom
today.
1935(22nd
of Tishrei, 5696): Shimini Atzeret; Shabbat
1935: It
was reported today that in Athens, Premier George Kondylis has received a
spokesman for a Greek-Jewish organization to whom he declared “Greek Jews
constitute a large part of our aristocracy in the professions an and the arts”
and that “they can count on me as among their strongest supporters and
protectors.”
1935: It
was reported today that Governor Herbert Lehman has said that “New York State
will cooperate heartily with other States in raising and improving labor
standards, but it will enter into no alliances "if there is the slightest
likelihood" that these will be used as "an excuse or pretext for
leveling down our own labor standards to those existing in some of our
competing States…”
1936: Harry
Newman scored the Brooklyn Tigers' only touchdown in a loss to Pittsburgh at
Forbes Field
1936: In
Philadelphia, “about 2,000 delegates and visitors from 45 states” attending the
annual convention of Hadassah hear a message from President Roosevelt in which
he praised the “women’s Zionist organization” for its “fine humanitarian work.”
1936: “Sir
Philip Game, the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police is demanding some Cabinet
decision… on which to base his plans for protecting the people of East London”
a large number of whom are Jewish from “physical attack and oratorical abuse by
Sir Oswald Mosley’s Black Shirts.”
1936: “Last
Thoughts,” published today, provide insight as to how Jesse Isidor Strauss, the
U.S. Ambassador to France, dealt with the increase in the rate of federal
estate taxes.
1937: Haj
Amin el Huseini, the Mufit of Jerusalem, leader of the latest wave of Arab
violence who is currently in Syria, is trying to get permission to take refuge
in Italy, where Mussolini’s fascist government has expressed support for the
Arabs.
1937(14th
of Cheshvan, 5698): Fifty-five-year-old WW I veteran, former deputy sheriff and Zionist
Harry Baron passed away today in Chester, PA.
1937: Arab
violence continues as bombs were thrown in the Shimon Hazadik quarter of
Jerusalem, in Safed at group of reserve Jewish policeman and in the Tel
Aviv/Jaffa area.
1937: In Berlin, Sala and Jacob Max gave birth to American Pop Artist
Peter Max who was raised in Shanghai, China and in Israel before his family settled
in the United States in 1953 where his art work was influential and much
imitated in advertising design in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His artwork may be viewed at numerous
websites.
1938: In
Great Neck, NY, Jeanette and Bernard Workman gave birth to Peter Israel Workman
the founder of Workman Publishing.
1938: The
National Council of Catholic Men sent a letter to President Roosevelt today
asking him “to exercise his influence to avert the closing of the doors of
Palestine to Jewish refugees and the abandonment of the Jewish national home
policy Great Britain.”
1939: At
the World’s Fair in New York, members of the New York Council Pioneer Women’s
Organization meet this morning for a ceremony at the Palestine Pavilion
followed by a luncheon at the Café Tel Aviv.
1939: A Jewish ghetto at Lublin, Poland, is established.
1939: In
Pittsburg, Ross Freedman, “a traveling salesman” and Selma Freedman, “a nurse,”
gave birth to “street photographer” Jill Freedman. (As reported by John Leland)
1939: The American film classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” starring
Jimmie Stewart premiered. The real
Jewish connection comes from Columbia Studios the production company that made
the movie. Harry Cohn owned and ran the
studios. He was one of a group of Jewish
movie moguls who helped to create the middle brow American culture and the
myths that were a part of it.
1939: Otto
Blumenthal and his wife moved from Utrecht to Delft because they had been able
to find a flat in that Dutch city.
Blumenthal could only find one student to tutor which left them so
impoverished that they had to live on charity.
After the Nazi invasion, the Blumenthals would be forced to leave Delft
because of ethnic cleansings. The tragic
life of the mathematician would end at Theresienstadt in 1944 where he had gone
voluntarily to care for his sister.
1940(17th
of Tishrei, 5701): Shabbat Shel Sukkoth
1940: Air
raid sirens sounded tonight in Jerusalem as Axis planes were spotted
approaching the coast of Palestine. No
bombs fell on the City of David.
1941(28th
of Tishrei, 5702): Just ten days after celebrating 77th birthday,
“Jessica Blanche Peixotto, Professor of Social Economics, Emeritus” at U.C.
Berkeley passed away today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/peixotto-jessica-blanche
http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb3199n7tr&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00011&toc.depth=1&toc.id=
1941:
During the Battle of Moscow, Stalin institutes martial law, ordering the NKVD
to shoot looters and anybody else who looked suspicious. Yes, this was more of Stalin the brutal. But it replaced Stalin, the confused, the
supreme leader of the Soviets who had so supremely bungled everything in the
fight against Hitler. Although the
Battle for Moscow would rage into the spring of 1942, these aggressive tactics
provided the impetus for the defense that brought the seemingly invincible Nazi
military machine to a grinding halt.
From a Jewish perspective (and from the point of view of the western
democracies as well) whatever was good for the Russians was good for the Jews
and the West in the fight against fascism in general and the Holocaust in
particular.
1942:
Today, the Gestapo arrested Robert Abshagen who would later be beheaded for his
work with the Red Orchestra resistance group.
1942:
Seventy-one-year-old Julius Löwenbein, the Prague born “son of Ignatz Isak
Löwenbein and Antonie Löwenbein, the husband of Julie Löwenbein and ather of
Edith Šulc / Schulz arrived Treblinka today after which he was murdered
1943: In
Trieste, the Nazis conduct a roundup of Jewish citizens.
1943: Operation
Reinhard, the German program to murder all of the Jews in Poland, “was
terminated today by a letter from Odilo Globocnik which meant that operations
at Treblinka came to an end but the murder of the Jews continued.
1943: A
funeral service is scheduled to be held today in Brooklyn for banker and
philanthropist Nathan S. Jonas.
1943:
Streptomycin the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, was first isolated
by researchers at Rutgers University by a Jewish research student from
Connecticut named Albert Schat. However, according to academic tradition,
Schatz's supervisor, Professor Selman Abraham Waksman, took credit for his
student's discovery and received the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1952. Schatz
was belatedly awarded the Rutgers medal in 1994, at the age of 74.
1944(2nd of
Cheshvan, 5705): Sixty-seven-year-old screen writer Isadore Bernstein, passed
away today.
1944: Today
fifty-nine-year-old Dr. Ernst Eylenburg who had been transported from Berlin to
Terezin in 1943 was transported from Terezin to Auschwitz where he was
murdered.
1944:
Today, a month after her 51st birthday, Anna Skobisova who had been
transported from Prague in 1943 was transported to Terezin to Auschwitz where
she was murdered.
1945:
Today, Syria ratified the charter of the United Nations, the organization that
two years later would, much to Syria’s dismay would vote to partition Palestine
and create a Jewish state.
1946: After
two weeks, the curtain comes down on “A Flag is Born” at the Adelphi Theatre.
1947:
Prosecutors completed their preparations for the start of tomorrow’s trial for
the Nazi leaders of the “SS Race and Settlement Office.”
1948: In
some of the fiercest fighting of the War of Independence Israeli forces are
victorious at Huleikat after fighting both Egyptian and Saudi army units. This victory opened the road to the rest of
the Negev.
1948: A
naval battle took place between three Israeli warships near Majdal, and an
Egyptian corvette with air support. An Israeli sailor was killed and four
wounded, and two of the ships were damaged. One Egyptian plane was shot down,
but the corvette escaped. This naval clash was part of the Israeli attempt to
thwart the Egyptian drive up the coast through Gaza with the aim of taking Tel
Aviv. [While people have heard of the Israeli Air Force and the accomplishments
of the IDF’s armored and infantry units, they are unaware of the fact that Heil
HaYam HaYisrael (the Israeli Navy) has played an active role in the defense of
Jewish people going back to the days of the British Mandate.
1948: Stan
Andrews, who had promoted to the rank of major and made the IAF “liaison to the
UN truce supervision forces in the South” today “flew as an observer in a
Beaufigher D-171” belonging to Squadron 103.
1948:
This
afternoon, Len “Fitchett left Ramat David to take part in a naval skirmish off
Majdal but before he could reach the Egyptian vessel, he encountered three
Egyptian fighters: two Spitfire LF9s and a Fury. Fitchett jettisoned his
ordinance and dove for the surface, maneuvering violently. The Fury moved in
for a rear attack. Just before hitting the sea, Fitchett hauled back on the
stick and leveled out. The Fury slammed into the sea. Its pilot, Sqn Ldr
Muhammad Abd al Hamid Abu Zaid, commanding officer of 2 Sqn REAF since May 22,
was considered one of the REAF's top flyers and had flown 72 sorties since May.”
1948: In
Iraq, “the discharge of all Jewish officials and workers from all governmental
departments was ordered.’
1948:
Tonight, the 51st Battalion of the Givati Brigade launched an
unsuccessful attack from the south on the Egyptian held police fort of Iraq
Suwaydan
1948:
Founding of Tzova, a kibbutz in the Judean hills outside of Jerusalem.
1949: The first
session of the 81st Congress, which came to an end down, sixteen
million dollars was appropriated for the relief “of 500,000 refugees in
Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Egypt and Iraq.”
1949: It
was reported today that Gottlieb Hammer, the executive director of the American
section of the Jewish Agency for Palestine who has just returned from a three
week tour of Israel said that “he and his group were as much to blame as the
other Jewish organizations “for giving out statements that resulted in
pessimism and defeatism” that appear in the newspaper stories about Israel.
1950: In
Haifa, Ashkenazi Jews Avi and Liza Litman gave birth to Israeli film,
television and stage actor and model Daniel Litman, the husband of Shiri Lubl and
supporter the Maccabi Haifa Football Club who is best “known for his roles in
Mossad 101 and The Little Drummer Girl and who “since the 2023 Hamas-led attack
on Israel on October 7, he has been visiting Israelis evacuated from their
homes and wounded civilians and soldiers.”
1950: The
Dumont Television Network broadcast the first episodes of “The Adventures of
Ellery Queen,” for which Helene Hanff wrote scripts.
1951:
During the Korean War, near Kumson, when his platoon came under enemy attack
Sgt. Jack Weinstein volunteered to stay and provide cover while his men
withdrew. Weinstein killed six enemy combatants and, after running out of
ammunition, used enemy grenades around him to keep the enemy forces back.
Weinstein held his position until friendly forces moved back in and pushed the
enemy back. (He received the Medal Honor for this action)
1951: In
compliance with a decision reached in 1950 at a meeting of the foreign
ministers of France, the UK and the US, the United States officially ended the
“state of war with Germany” that had existed since December of 1941.
1952:
“Two’s Company” a musical revue with lyrics by Sammy Cahn opened its out of
town tryout at the Shubert Theatre in Detroit, Michigan.
1953: In a
radio broadcast to the nation Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion blatantly
“says that no IDF unit had left its base on the night of the attack on Qibya
and that it seems as though it was done by a group of local Israeli villagers.”
1953(10th
of Cheshvan 5714): Seventy-two-year-old Anna Shulman, the wife of Harry
Shulman, passed away after which she was interred in the Agudas Achim Cemetery
in Iowa City, IA.
1953(10th
of Cheshvan, 5714): Forty-six-year-old attorney Felix Solomon Cohen who
received the Department of Interior’s Distinguished Service award for his
handbook on federal Indian law passed away today.
https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/1232
1953(10th
of Cheshvan, 5714: Fifty-nine-year-old Mercer University graduate and member of
the Georgia bar Solomon Louis Wisenberg, the Russian born son of Abraham Issac
and Bluma (Ruchel) Wisenberg and the husband of Bessie Mindel whom he married
in 1917 who taught Hebrew in Macon GA, practiced law in Georgia and served as the treasurer of the Mississippi
Wholesale Company in Laurel, Mississippi passed away today in Harris, TX.
1954(22nd
of Tishrei, 5715): Shmini Atzeret
1954(22nd
of Tishrei, 5715): Seventy-year-old Sholom Joseph Perlmutter, the vice
president of the Hebrew Actors Union, co-founder of the Society of Jewish
Composers and the Jewish Playwrights League as well as a “historian of the
Jewish theatre” who wrote Jewish Dramatists and Jewish Composers passed away
today at Coney Island Hospital.
1961: Helen
Shaprio’s “Walkin’ Back to Happiness” topped the UK pop charts today.
1962(21st
of Tishrei, 5723): Hoshana Raba
1962: New
York police are pursuing leads in the death of Rabbi Bernard Eisdorfer, “a
prominent disciple of the Satmar Rabbi” who was beaten to death on the third
day of Sukkoth.
1963(1st
of Cheshvan, 5724): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan; Parashat Noah
1963(1st
of Cheshvan, 5724): Eighty-one Russian born American author Elias Tobenkin, the
son of Marcus and Fanny Tobenkin and the husband of the former Rae Schwid with
whom he had one son, Paul, passed away today.
http://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6259g62
http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00256
1963:
Birthdate of New York native “Jonathan David Haidt, the Professor of Ethical
Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business.”
1963: Today
actress Hope Lang married Jewish producer, director and writer Alan J. Pakula
who would marry the former Hannah Cohn Boorstin after this union ended in 1971.
1964:
Simon
and Garfunkel's first LP, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., which consisted of 12
songs in the folk vein and five written by Paul Simon was released today and
initially was a flop.
1965(23rd
of Tishrei, 5726): Simchat Torah
1965: “The
Man Who Has Almost Everything Gets Another Honor” published today tells of
Sandy Koufax being named the outstanding player in this year World Series,
which helped the Dodgers win by pitching three victories even though he had
refused to pitch the opening game because it was Yom Kippur.
1966:
United Artists released “The Fortune Cookie,” a comedy directed and produced by
Bill Wilder, with a screenplay written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond and
starring Walter Matthau.
1966: In
Queens, Madeleine and Charles gave birth to actor Jon Favreau who followed the
faith of his mother and “attended Hebrew school and had a Bar Mitzvah.”
1967(15th
of Tishrei, 5728): Sukkoth
1967: Polish
born Canadian physician and Holocaust survivor Henry Morgentaler “presented a
brief on behalf of the Humanist Association of Canada before a House of Commons
Health and Welfare Committee that was investigating the issue of illegal
abortion.”
1968(27th
of 5729): Parashat Bereshit – on Shabbat the cycle begins again
1968(27th
of Tishrei, 5729): Sixty-eight-year-old Polish born poet Anatol Stern who was
sent to the Gulag at the start of WW II and then allowed to live in Palestine
before returning to Warsaw where he passed away today.
1970(19th
of Tishrei, 5731): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
1970: Seventy-five-year-old
Lazaro Cardenas, the President of Mexico, whose government had hired Morris
Swadesh to promote the education of “indigenous peoples” passed away today.
1970:
Birthdate of SNL cast member Chris Kattan the son of an Iraqi born Jew
1970: After
thirteen previews, the Broadway production “The Rothschilds” produced by
Emanuel Azenberg and directed and choreographed by Michael Kidd, opened today
at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, where it ran for 505 performances. Hal Linden,
who happened to be Jewish, played Mayer Rothschild. “The Rothschilds” is a
musical that tells the story of the rise of the famous Jewish banking family
1971:
Broadway premiere of “The Incomparable Max,” with a script co-authored by
Jerome Lawrence based on a collection of short stories by Max Beerbohm.
1971: Reed
v. Reed for which Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the plaintiff’s brief was argued
before the Supreme Court today.
1971: Look
magazine which had carried a large feature article on the demise of the
American Jewish community was published for the last time – while the Jewish
community continued to survive and thrive.
1973: “The
Way They Were” a film that spans the Depression through the Post-War years
directed by Sydney Pollack, written by Arthur Laurents, with must by Marvin
Hamlish, starring Barbra Streisand and featuring Herb Edelman was released
today in the United States by Columbia Pictures.
1973 (23rd
of Tishrei, 5734): Simchat Torah
1973: The
Battle of Ismail which took place south of the Egyptian city as part of a plan
to cut off supplies to Egypt’s Second Field Army continued for a second day.
1973: The
Yom Kippur War continued to exact its toll.
By nightfall, the Syrian counterattack on the Golan Heights had been
repelled with losses that included thirty Jordanian and Iraqi attacks. Israel may have been alone, but the Syrians
certainly were not. On the Suez front
seventy Egyptian tanks were knocked out and fourteen of Sadat’s aircraft had
been shot down. With the war entering
the end of its second week, the Arabs were looking to the Soviets to bring
about a face-saving cessation of hostilities.
Secretary of State Kissinger, who had arrived in Moscow, joined the
Soviets in issuing a call for the end of hostilities.
1975: In
“My Name is David Lurie” Hugh Nisserson provides a review of Chaim Potok’s
latest novel In the Beginning which is another of his works that that
features a narrator who is a brilliantly gifted Orthodox Jewish boy” accommodating himself to modern life.
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/10/19/archives/my-name-is-david-lurie-in-the-beginning.html
1975:
“Hester Street,” a film based on a novel by Abraham Cahan, directed by Joan
Micklin Silver who also wrote the script and directed by Raphael Silver was
released today in the United States.
1976:
“Thirteen activists held a demonstration at the Supreme Soviet” at the end of which participants were detained and taken into the woods where some of the refuseniks, including Zahar Tesker, were
beaten up by the police.
1976: A “press-conference
organized by Natan Sharansky was held at Vladimir Slepak’s apartment in
connection with beating of activists in the forest near Moscow, following the
demonstration at the Supreme Soviet.”
1976: At “a
joint Israeli-American committee meeting in New York participants agree in
principle to restrict aid to “drop-outs” in Vienna.”
1977: U.S.
premiere of “Looking For Mr. Goodbar” the film version of the novel by Judith
Rossner directed by Richard Brooks and produced by Freddie Fields, the brother
of band leader Shep Fields.
1979:
“French Postcards” a comedy produced and written by Gloria Katz and starring
Mandy Patinkin and Debra Winger was released today in the United States.
1979: “Chilly
Scenes of Winter,” an American romantic comedy film written and directed by
Joan Micklin Silver was released today in the United States.
1979: After
premiering in Toronto, “And
Justice for All” a film that looks at the dark side of the judicial system with
an Oscar nominated script co-authored by Barry Levinson, featuring Lee
Strasberg, Darrell Zerwling and Sam Levene was released in the United States
today.
1980(9th
of Cheshvan, 5741): Sixty-year-old Sydney Stuart Baron, the “son of a Brooklyn
shoemaker,” “an ‘A’ English student at New Utrecht High School” and husband of
high school sweetheart Sylvia Schreibman whose public relations clients
included Anheuser-Busch, Iona College, Beth Jacob Schools and Carmen G. DeSapio
whom he served as press agent passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/02/13/97657964.pdf
1982:
Yitshak Moda’I began serving as Minister of Energy and Water Resources.
1984(23rd
of Tishrei, 5745): Simchat Torah
1984: In
“New Moon Offered” published today, Allen Hughes provides a glowing review of
Light Operate of Manhattan’s production of Sigmund Romberg’s 1928 class “New
Moon.”
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/19/arts/opera-new-moon-offered.html
1986(16th
of Tishrei, 5747): Second Day of Sukkoth
1986(16th
of Tishrei, 5747):
Eighty-one-year-old Moses Asch, the driving force
behind Folkways Records passed away today. (As reported by Jon Pareles)
http://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/21/obituaries/moses-asch-who-founded-folkways-records-dies-at-81.html
1987(26th
of Tishrei, 5748): Forty-two-year-old Jacqueline du Pre the brilliant
Anglo-Jewish cellist who had been stricken by multiple sclerosis passed away
today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/20/obituaries/jacqueline-du-pre-noted-cellist-is-dead-at-42.html
1987: Today’s “Black
Monday” stock market crash created “ a funding crisis” for the Museum of Jewish
Heritage because it "wiped out" funds of potential donors for the
museum as well as dropped real estate prices.
1987: Eighty-four-year-old
Igor Newerly, the Polish novelist and educator passed away today.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0627846/
1988: Leon
Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger win the Nobel Prize for Physics.
1989: A
London revival of “Stop The World – I Want to Get Off “directed by, and
starring, Anthony Newley opened today at the Lyric Theatre.
1990: Two
days after opening in Los Angeles, “Reversal of Fortune” a film adaption of Alan
Dershowitz’s book produced by Edward R. Pressman and co-starring Ron Silver
opened in New York today.
1992(22nd
of Tishrei, 5753): Shemini Atzeret
1992(22nd
of Tishrei, 5753): Eighty-three-year-old Magnus Alfred Pyke “the son of a
wholesale confectioner and cousin of Geoffry Pyke” passed away today after
enjoying a career as food scientist, author and broadcaster.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-magnus-pyke-1558840.html
1994(14th
of Cheshvan, 5755): Twenty-one Israelis and one Dutch national were murdered
and another fifty were injured by a Hamas terrorist who set off a bomb as bus
was approaching Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dizengoff_Street_bus_bombing
1994: Sivan
Horesh survives the No. 5 bus bombing on Dizengoff Street in central Tel Aviv.
1995: A
revival of David Merrick’s “Hello Dolly” opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
1995(25th
of Tishrei, 5756): Sixty-nine-year-old Sir Peter Esmond Lazarus, the Bayswater
born Mary Rebbeca Lazarus and Kenneth M. Lazarus passed away today in London
1996:
During the U.S Presidential election, Chris Wallace served as moderator for the
Third Presidential Debate.
1996: “The
Fortune Cookie,” a comedy directed, produced and written by Billy Wilder and
I.A.L. Diamond and co-starring Walter Matthau was released to theatres today.
1996: The
talents of cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter and novelist Jules Feiffer were
on display as he spoke to a gathering at the Library of Congress in Washington,
D.C.
1997: The New York Times features
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Jewish history
or culture including Perfidia by Judith Rossner, Miriam’s Kitchen A Memoir by Elizabeth Ehrlich and The World Is The
Home Of Love and Death by Harold Brodkey.
2000(20th of Tishrei, 5761): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
2000(20th of Tishrei, 5761): Sixty-four-year-old Rabbi
Binyamin Herling was murdered today when “Fatah members and Palestinian
security forces opened fire on a group of men, women and children” at Mount
Ebal.
2001: In “Her Name Still Rings A Bell” published today described the
“life of Mercedes Jellinek, daughter of a wealthy Austrian businessman with a
passion for the newly invented motorcars at the turn of the 20th century.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/19/automobiles/her-name-still-rings-a-bell.html
1999: The 1960 production of Peter Pan with music by Mark “Moose” Charlap
and July Styne and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green was released today
on DVD.
2000: “Disregarding a plea by the United Nations secretary general, the
Palestinians carried their bitter confrontation with Israel into a special
session of the General Assembly today” which “prompted an angry rebuttal from
the Israeli ambassador, Yehuda Lancry.
2001: “Israelis and Palestinians talked today about assassination and war
rather than any peace effort, as their forces clashed in two West Bank cities”
following the murder of Rehavam Zeevi, Israel’s Minister of Tourism.
2002: “Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns, who arrived in
Egypt today at the start of a Middle East tour, is to meet Israeli and
Palestinian officials next week to discuss an American blueprint for a peace
settlement that was given to Mr. Sharon in Washington.”
2003(23rd of Tishrei, 5764): Simchat Torah
2003: The New York Times
features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Jewish
history or culture including Blacklist by Sara Paretsky, Arthur
Miller: His Life and Work by Martin Gottfried and The Beginning of
Wisdom: Reading Genesis by Leon R. Kass.
2004:
Archivists in the Dutch City of Tilburg announced the discovery of the diary of
a Holocaust victim that has an eerie similarity to that of Anne Frank. The Holocaust era diary and love letters
written by Helga Deen, a Jewish woman, for her Dutch boyfriend while she
imprisoned in a Dutch internment camp were donated by the family of the now
deceased Dutch man. Deen died at
Sobibior.
2004: In
“Cole Porter and Moss Hart’s Jubilee: Still Smart, Funny and Tuneful” published
today Michael Dale sings the praises for the musical Juiblee.
2004: Adam Aptowitzer, a tax and charity lawyer in Ottawa and “former
Ontario chairman of B'nai Brith Canada’s Institute for International Affairs” “made
statements today on the broadcast of the
Michael Coren Show defending the bulldozing of Palestinian terrorists' homes as
a means of deterring further suicide bombings” arguing “that such actions were
permissible when used to prevent deaths.”
2005(16th
of Tishrei, 5766: Second Day Sukkoth
2005:
“Stalking Kosher Game (Hold the Giraffe)” published today described the unique
meals created “in the strictly kosher kitchen at Levana on the Upper West Side”
run by chef Bill Spitz.
2005: “Israel
is weighing a plan to bar Palestinians from the main roads in the West Bank
with the aim of protecting Israeli motorists from roadside shootings, according
to Israeli officials and a newspaper report today.”
2006: The Times of London reported on the
premier of the documentary “Spell Your
Name” by the Ukrainian director Sergei Bukovsky. The 90 minute film records
testimonies of Jews who survived the Nazi occupation of Ukraine. The highlight
of the event was the appearance of Steven Spielberg whose grandparents came
from the Ukraine.
2006: While
speculation about the political ambitions of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg
are subject of intense it was reported that he has decided to sell Bloomberg LP
which “could be worth as much as twelve billion dollars.”
2007:
“Things We Lost In The Fire” directed by Susanne Bier with a script by Allan
Loeb was released today in the United States and Canada.
2007: Rex
Ditto, one of the men convicted of murdering Allen Shalleck who co-authored
parts of the Curious George series with Margaret Rey in the 1970’s was
sentenced to life in prison today.
2007: The Washington Post featured a review of
Jezebel: The Untold story of the Bible’s Harlot Queen by Leslie
Hazelton.
2007: The New York Times featured a review of Young
Stalin by Jewish historian Simon Sebag Montifore. This book could be viewed as a prequel to
Mr. Montifore’s Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar.
2007:
“The
Last Jews of Libya” opens at
São Paulo International Film Festival in São Paulo, Brazil. “The Last Jews of Libya documents
the final decades of a centuries-old North African Sephardic Jewish community
through the lives of the remarkable Roumani family, who lived in Benghazi,
Libya, for hundreds of years. Thirty-six thousand Jews lived in Libya at the
end of
World War II, today none remain. The film traces the story of the
Roumanis from Turkish Ottoman rule through the age of Mussolini and Hitler to
the final destruction and dispersal of Libya's Jews in the face of Arab
nationalism.”
2008:
The New York Times includes reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Fred Astaire by Joseph Epstein and Explainers a new
anthology “which gathers all of Jules Feiffer’s Village Voice strips from 1956 to 1966.
2008: A former
Israeli soldier, Marti Mintz, who was trained in a counter-terror unit of the
IDF and is married to an Australian risked his own life today to save five
people during during a fire that had broken out in supermarket in Perth,
Australia.
2009(1st
of Cheshvan, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
2009(1st
of Cheshvan, 5770):
Ninety-one-year-old
Joseph
Wiseman a Canadian actor, best known for starring as the titular antagonist of
the first James Bond film, Dr. No, passed away today. (As reported by Adam
Benstein)
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-joseph-wiseman21-2009oct21-story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/arts/20wiseman.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/20/AR2009102003549.html
2009:
At Olam Tikvah
the
new sisterhood Co-President Rachel Rothberg, leads a discussion of the
well-reviewed book Sarah by Marek Halter.
2009: In Chevy
Chase, MD, Richard Breitman, a professor of history at American University,
discusses and signs Refugees and Rescue: The Diaries and Papers of James G.
McDonald, 1935-1945. McDonald was the first U.S. ambassador to Israel.
2009:
In “A Believer in Heroism, to Jews’ Lasting Gratitude,” published today Joseph
Berger described the exploits of Dr. Tina Strobos who is scheduled to
be honored today by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, based in
Westchester.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/nyregion/17metjournal.html
2009:
CBS is scheduled to hold a memorial service today at the Time Warner Center in
New York for Don Hewitt the creator and longtime executive producer of ''60
Minutes.'' Hewitt died of cancer in August at age 86. In addition to his work
at ''60 Minutes,'' Hewitt also produced the first televised presidential debate
in 1960.
2009:
At The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival a screening of
“Adam Resurrected” based on novel of the same name in which “a former circus
clown who was spared the gas chamber so that he might entertain thousands of
Jews as they marched to their deaths, Adam Stein is now the ringleader at an
asylum in the Negev desert populated solely by Holocaust survivors.”
2009: “Jewish
Transit Berlin: From Hell to Hope,” the 52-minute documentary, which premiered
today at the Berlin Jewish Museum, relates the unusual and brief history of the
Displaced Persons camps set up in postwar Berlin.
2009: “Schmatta: Rags To Riches To Rags,” a
documentary about the rise and decline of New York’s garment district — and the
efforts to preserve what remains of a sector that played a vital role in the
American Jewish experience during the past century — premieres tonight on HBO..
2010: Scribner published a collection of
short stories, Palo Alto, by James Franco
2010: Israeli
author David Grossman who was named the winner of the Germany's book
publishers' association’s 2010 Peace Prize in honor of his support for
reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians is scheduled to be awarded
the $30,200 prize today during the annual Frankfurt Book Fair.
2010: Leon Wieseltier, Literary Editor at The
New Republic is scheduled to introduce “Ruth Franklin, A Thousand
Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction” at the Hyman S. & Freda
Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival in Washington, DC.
2010: Labor Party
lawmakers lambasted their fellow MK, Einat Wilf today for proposing to cancel
the annual memorial rally marking the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak
Rabin
2010: Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that his cabinet needed more time to
decide when and how to dismantle certain illegal West Bank outposts, due to the
"political implications" involved.
2010(11th of Cheshvan, 5771):
Tom Bosley, best known for his role as Richie’s father on the t.v. sitcom
“Happy Days” passed away.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/arts/television/20bosley.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
2011: “It was reported today that Theo
Epstein’s official title with the Chicago Cubs would be President.”
2011(21st
of Tishrei, 5772): Hoshanah Rabbah
2011: This
afternoon Israel Defense Forces soldiers thwarted a stabbing attack at the Gush
Etzion junction in the West Bank, Channel 10 reported.
2011: A
day after returning to his home in Mitzpe Hila after five years in Hamas
captivity, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit marked the Simchat Torah holiday at
home with his family tonight.
2012: At the Wiener
Library in London, Dr. Ruth Levitt is scheduled deliver a lecture on “Jews in
the Netherlands,” a country where “some 75 percent” of the Jews “were deplored
and killed in the Holocaust
2012: Director Arnon
Goldfingers award winning film, “The Flat,” is scheduled to open at the Lincoln
Plaza Cinemas
2012: Four masked
individuals infiltrated the IDF's Naftali camp near the Golani junction in the
North early this morning and stole four weapons. The infiltrators tied up the
soldier on guard duty, stealing his and three other weapons before escaping
2012: The American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) announced today that the long-time director of
its Jerusalem office, Wendy Singer, will be leaving her position early next
year. Singer will be replaced by Leslie Levy Mirchin, who is currently the lobbying
group’s local director of policy and research
2013:
As part of the Performing Arts Series, the Jewish Community Center is scheduled
to present “The Marcy and Zina Show” featuring Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich.
2013:
In California, the Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to present Khaossia,
performing EOSLove Across Time, Space, and Sound, a concert based on a love
story from Puglia, after the Shoah.
2013:
Gaza-based Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called today for Palestinians to
wage a “popular uprising” in the West Bank.
2014:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest including Spoiled
Brats by Simon Rich and The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide
to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker.
2014:
In Washington, DC, the Hyman S & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival
is scheduled to begin today.
2014:
Ed Stein’s comic strip “Freshly Squeezed” ended today.
https://www.gocomics.com/freshlysqueezed/about
2014:
“Hitler’s Hidden Drug Habit” is scheduled to be shown on British Channel 4.
2014:
The Center For Jewish History is scheduled to show “Jacques Faitlovitch and the
Lost Tribes,” a film that explores the ‘extraordinary odyssey’ of Jacques Faïtlovitch,
a Polish Jew who “discovered” Ethiopian Jewry, in 1904, and thereafter set
about reestablishing a connection between their community and the rest of the
Jewish world.”
2014:
“Police opened an investigation today after graffiti was found in the Temple
Mount compound depicting a swastika as the equivalent of a Star of David.”
2014:
“The daughters of slain American tourist Leon Klinghoffer released a statement
today, a day before the opening of the play recounting the murder of their
father, saying it “rationalizes, romanticizes and legitimizes” the killing. (As
reported by Lazar Berman)
2014:
A spokesman for Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital confirmed reports issued today by
Reuters that it had treated a daughter of Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader for
Hamas, following complications during a standard medical procedure in Gaza.”
(As reported by Marissa Newman)
2014:
In Boston, Ashkelon native Roni Vorvoreanu, 16, will fly the Israeli flag today
for the first time in the Head of the Charles Regatta rowing race, considered
one of the sport’s premier events. (As reported by Tamar Pleggi)
2014:
Funeral services for Mildred Puro Pittman, the widow of Joseph Puro and Howard
Pittman is scheduled to take place in Great Neck, NY
2014:
“Louis-Fest!” a celebration of the life of local realtor, bicycle enthusiast
and musician Louis Lederman of blessed memory will be held today at The Willow
(formerly Jimmy’s Music Club
following
the Saints vs. Detroit Lions game. (As reported by the Crescent City Jewish
News)
2014:
“Dancing in Jaffa” is scheduled to be shown at The Twin City Jewish Film
Festival
2014:
“Ester Rada, an Ethiopian-Israeli actress and singer-songwriter, released “Nanu
Ney,” a song which was a major success
and became the first Amharic song played on Israeli pop radio.”
2014(25th
of Tishrei, 5775): Eighty-four-year-old photographer Alfred Werthimer passed
away today. (As reported by William Yardley)
http://www.alfredwertheimer.com/
2015:
“Israeli Bedouin leaders today expressed shock, surprise and outrage at news
that the perpetrator of yesterday’s deadly terrorist attack at the Beersheba
central bus station was an Israeli Arab from a Bedouin village east of the
city, in the country’s Negev region.
2015:
“A Jewish and a Muslim cemetery were defiled with Nazi symbols and anti-migrant
slogans in western Austria, police said today, just weeks after similar attacks
on a refugee hostel and Jewish museum.”
2015:
Martin Kaufman is scheduled to begin teaching the Leon Finley Course in Jewish
Studies which will focus on the lives and teachings of Maimonides and
Nachmanides.
2015:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to a screening of “The Blum Affair”
directed by Erich Engel
2016(17th
of Tishrei, 5777): Third Day of Sukkoth
2016: Today, “the municipality of Amstelveen south
of Amsterdam where several thousand Jews live, inaugurated a street sign
bearing the name of” writer Jules “Schelvis, who survived seven Nazi
concentration and death camps” and who “died earlier this year in Amstelveen.”
2016:
In Little Rock, Chabad Center for Jewish Leadership under the leadership of
Rabbi PInchas Ciment hosted “Sushi in the Sukkah.”
2016:
In Jerusalem, the Admaya Conference “where architects, builders and creative
types discuss the opportunities for building with earth” is scheduled to open
today.
2016:
Dora Horn is scheduled to “provide a look at the contemporary significance of
the Book of Job” during an appearance at Ursinus College.
2016:
“A safari in search of wild animals” is scheduled to place in the center of
Jerusalem this evening.
2016:
The Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County (HMTC), in
cooperation with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), is
scheduled to present a one-day professional development workshop on
"Choice and Responsibility during the Holocaust."
2017:
Case Western Reserve University is scheduled to host “What are the Dead Scrolls
and Why are They Important” with Alex Jassen.
2017:
“Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters launched major protests against the
arrest of draft-dodging community members today, capping a week of
road-blocking actions and scuffles with the police”
2017:
JW3 is scheduled to host two screening of “Moos,” a comedy about Jewish
families following their dreams.
2017:
“Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters launched major protests against the
arrest of draft-dodging community members today, capping a week of
road-blocking actions and scuffles with the police.”
2017:
The Dodgers defeated Theo Epstein’s defending World Champion Chicago Cub
denying them a chance to return to the World Series to try for a second chance
championship.
2017:
“Designs on Britain” an exhibition depicting “how much of the most iconic
British design was produced by immigrants” to the UK opened today at the Jewish
Museum in London.
2017:
Katinka’s Tail, the latest book by Judith Kerr, the 94 year old English
author whose family fled Nazi Germany is scheduled to “be published by
HarperCollins in hardback” today.
2017:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host “An Evening with Mel
Brooks,” the man who gave us The 2000 Year Old Man, The Producers, Blazing
Saddles and Young Frankenstein.
2017:
The Leo Baeck Institute and the Jewish Review Books are scheduled to present
Abraham Socher, David Sorkin and Leora Batnitzky discussing “Why Moses
Mendelssohn Matters.”
2017:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present “Rescuing Endangered
Jews: The Unit for Aliyah, Absorption, & Special Operations.”
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7gZZmhBv3JnswnbfqUKv4xdLF3sEQExDIjwTvhdUzMIHTJQ/viewform
2018: “Architect Leora Berry, the Deputy Director
of the Bible Land Museum is scheduled to lead a tour that “will highlight the
architectural qualities originating from countries of the ancient East, which
are incorporated in the museum`s modernist façade, as well as models from the
museum`s collection that illustrate ancient construction techniques and the philosophies
and beliefs associated with architectural elements that appear on ancient
artifacts.”
2018:
“Architect and geographer Michael Jacobson” is scheduled to lead a tour of the
Library and Garden at the National Library of Israel.
2018:
The Oxford University Jewish Society Friday Night Book Club is schedule to
“Rachel Adler’s short essay ‘Feminist Judaism: Past and Future.’”
2018:
After premiering at Tellluride, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” a film “based on the
confessional memoir of the same name by Lee Israel” with a screenplay
co-authored by Nicole Holofcener was released today in the United States.
2018:
Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak is scheduled to “deliver remarks during”
Friday night serves at Temple-Emanuel followed by “an extended Oneg Shabat and
a moderated conversation.”
2019:
Despite having found “an Israeli flag defaced with a swastika and white
supremacist symbols” on its grounds right after Yom Kippur, the Falmouth Jewish
Congregation is scheduled to host its “open Sukkah program” this afternoon.
2019:
In Napa, CA, Congregation Beth Shalom is scheduled to host “L’Chaim Napa
Valley,” “a benefit and dinner celebrating Jewish vintners.”
2019:
In New Orleans, the New Avodah 2019-2020 Cohort is scheduled to celebrate
Havdalah in their Sukkah.
2019(20th of Tishrei, 5780): Shabbat Chol Hamo’ed Sukkoth
2020: The JCC Literary Consortium is scheduled to host a
“virtual JCC Book Fest in Your Living Room” during which “Jonathan Safran Foer
talks about his new environmental nonfiction book, We are the Weather: Saving
the Planet Begins at Breakfast.”
2020: The Mandel JCC Cleveland Jewish FilmFest is
scheduled to make available a home-viewing window for “Asia.”
2020: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “live from
Israel” a presentation on “Israel and the Dangers Ahead” presented by Carmi
Gillon, the former head of Shin Bet.
2020: The Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture
is scheduled to present online “Jews and Race: A Fireside Conversation with
Former Governor Deval Patrick and Rabbi Jonah Pesner.”
2020: The Jewish Museum of London is scheduled to host “a
virtual tour revealing Black History and Black Jewish History” in the museum’s
collection led by Learning Officer Shereen Hunte.
2020: Today, Jeffrey Toobin was suspended from The New
Yorker after he masturbated on camera during a Zoom video call between New
Yorker and WNYC radio staffers.
2020: In New Orleans, the Jewish Community is scheduled to
host a “Seminar on the 2020 Election.”
2020(1st of Cheshvan, 5781): Rosh Chodesh
Cheshvan
2021: “A New Showcase for the Story of Jews in the South”
published today “the new $5.5 million Museum of the Jewish Experience” located
in New Orleans which tell the “350-year history of Jews in America’s Southern
states.”
2021: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Joyce
Maynard: Women on the Move.”
2022: ToI@10 is scheduled to present – “Paralyzed Nation:
How Israel's dysfunctional electoral system still could be fixed.”
2022: The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish
History is scheduled to host “Beyond Chicken Soup: Ashkenazi Herbalism” with
Detra Cohen and Adam Siegel.
2023: As part of the “Jewish Values and Strategy in
Wartime” series Tikvah is scheduled to
host a lecture by J.J. Kimche on “Why Is Israel Hated? Three Big Falsehoods.”
2023: In Washington, the Capital Jewish Museum is
scheduled to host “The Notorious RBG.”
https://capitaljewishmuseum.org/events/cjm-after-sunset-the-notorious-rbg/
2023: This afternoon in New Orleans, the Jewish Community
Center is Scheduled to host a screening of “Dead Sea Guardians” by Ido Glass
and Yoav Kleimann followed by a Q&A with Gidon Bromberg, Director of
EcoPeace.
2023: “Psalm to David: An Exhibition Marking the 50th
Anniversary of the Yom Kippur War” which was to have been a tribute to
photographer, poet and graphic designer Tamir Lahav-Radelsmer was scheduled to
open this morning at the Agnon House before the terrorist attacks caused a
postponement of all such events.
https://mailchi.mp/923ff600da8d/05x5v34yno-282784?e=b0fbcc2d98
2023: Brigadier General (Res) Amir Avivi is scheduled to
provide his lates update on the current war in Israel.
2023: YIVO is
scheduled to present a panel discussion of The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Music Studies, a
handbook of Jewish music that addresses the diverse range of sounds, texts,
archives, traditions, histories, geographic and political contexts, and
critical discourses in the field with contributors Eléonore Biezunski, Jessica Roda,
and Merav Rosenfeld-Hadad, introduced and led by editor Tina Frühauf.
2023: As of midnight, October 19, President Bident is
flying back to the United States from Israel, “rocket fire from the north and
the south intensifies,” and mass demonstrations take place in front of American
and Israeli embassies take place in the wake of the disaster at a hospital in
Gaza which Hamas blames on Israel but which the White House says, based on
available intelligence, was done by “the other team.”
(Editor’s
note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are just
providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time)
2024:
The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to begin its 56th concert
season
2024:
The rallies, led by families of hostages, which have been held weekly since the Hamas terror
group launched its October 7, 2023, attack, killing some 1,200 people and
taking 251 hostages into Gaza are scheduled to take place this evening.
2024(17th
of Tishrei, 5785): Shabbat Chol Hamo’ed Sukkoth
for more see Weekly Torah Reading / Weekly Torah Portion
(downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com)
2024(17th
of Tishrei): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Bernard Eisendorfer who was beaten to death in
1962 at the age of fifty-five.
2024:
As October 19th 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 379 in captivity while Jerusalem braces for more rocket
attacks by Hezbollah (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)
