All #ourCOG News 5.0
121: Birthdate of Marcus Aurelius 16th Roman
emperor. The “Philosopher” Emperor
reigned from 161-180 and he was a cut above those who came before and after
him. But he had a low opinion of the
Jews, referring to them as “stinking and tumultuous” as “he rode through
Judea.” He reportedly preferred the
company of the barbaric Teutons in the north to that of the Jews. This attitude may have been shaped by the
difficulty the Romans had in defeating the Jews during their successive
rebellions against Rome. Only 25 years
before Marcus Aurelius came to power, it had taken the full force of the Roman
Empire four years to finally defeat Bar Kochba and Rabbi Akiva
570: Birthdate of Muhammad or Mohammad, the
founder of Islam.
1096: Approximately 40,000 peasants led by
Peter Hermit left Cologne on the start of what was called the “Peasants’
Crusade.” This populist movement among
the poor was the most ill-fated part of the First Crusade. The peasants had nothing and trusted in God
to provide for them. This meant living off of the land which would bode ill for
those in their path including the Jews of the Rhineland.
1103(10th of Iyar, 4863):
Ninety-year-old Isaac ben Jacob Alfasi ha-Cohen, also known as the Alfasi or by
his Hebrew acronym Rif (Rabbi Isaac al-Fasi), a Maghrebi Talmudist and posek
(decider in matters of halakha - Jewish law) who is best known for his work of
halakha, the legal code Sefer Ha-halachot, considered the first fundamental
work in halakhic literature. Passed away today in Lucena, Al-Andalus.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1191-alfasi-isaac-ben-jacob
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Isaac-ben-Jacob-Alfasi
1176: Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke,
nicknamed “Strongbow” whose attempt to establish an independent kingdom in
Ireland was bankrolled by a Jewish financier, “Josce Jew of Gloucester” passed
away today.
1191: Phillip II, who expelled the Jews from
France in 1182 after extorting as much money as he could from them, arrived at
Acre to perform his holy Christian obligation to take part in the Crusades.
1192: As the Christians jockey for control over
the Holy Land, Richard I of England gives his support to Conrad of Montferrat’s
claim to be King of Jerusalem.
1298(7th of
Iyar, 5058): In Rotttingen, a
small German town in Franconia, a local noble named Rindfleish,
accused the local Jews of profaning the host. He then incited the Burgher and
local populace to join in the killing. Twenty one Jews were murdered. The
killing soon spread to a hundred and forty communities in Bavaria and Austria.
In all tens of thousands of Jews were either killed or wounded. The
killing stopped when the civil war raging through Germany ended.
Albrecht, the newly chosen Emperor, brought an end to the violence and even
punished some of the participants.
1303: Pope Boniface
VIII issues the bull creating The University of Rome La Sapienza. Considering
the fact that Boniface believed in the concept that “Outside the Church, no
Salvation” meaning that the key to salvation required membership in the
Catholic Church, it is safe to assume that there were no Jewish students or
faculty at the school. Relations between
the Jews and the school have obviously changed as can be seen by the
“wide-ranging cooperation agreement” that was signed by Tel Aviv University and
Rome's Sapienza University in March of 2010. The agreement allows for exchanges
of students and professors, as well as joint research projects and master's
programs. The Italian economist Franco Modigliani and Zionst Ze'ev Jabotinsky
were two of the most prominent Jews to attend the University of Rome during the
20th century.
1314: Pope Clement V
the first of the “Avignon Popes who in the first year of his reign, 1305,
became the “first pope to threaten Jews with an economic boycott in an attempt
to force them to stop charging Christians interest on loans passed away today.
1344(28th of
Nisan, 5104): Levi Ben Gershon (the RaLBaG) also known as Gersonides passed
away.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9813-levi-ben-gershon
1455: Today, after his
coronation, People Callixtus III, rode a
white horse through the streets of the city and followed the ancient custom,
known as Monte Giordano, where representatives of the Jews met with the pope
and presented him with the roll of the law which he then and stated "We
ratify the law, but condemn your interpretation", which instigated a riot
at the ceremony that endangered the pope's life.
1505: Philibert of
Luxembourg expelled the Jews from Orange Burgundy. At this time
Luxembourg is ruled by Phillip the Fair, King of Spain - where Jews had been
expelled in 1492. Phillip's mother was Marie of Burgundy. In
this case the Jews merely seemed to have gotten caught up in the
dynastic swirl that was so much of European History prior to the
French Revolution.
1506: Violence
continued for a second day in Lisbon after Christians attack the Jews when a
recently converted Jew “raised doubts” about the appearance of a miraculous
vision at St. Dominic’s Church. (History of the Jewish People)
1615: Led by Dr. Chemnitz, the guilds of Worms
"non-violently" forced the Jews from the city. Chemnitz was a lawyer
and he devised a series of schemes where the Jews were deprived of food and the
ability to leave and enter the city. A deputation came to them on what
was the seventh day of Pesach and gave them an hour to leave the city. As
the Jews left, the thousand year old synagogue and the adjacent burial grounds
were attacked and desecrated by the "non-violent" citizens of Worms,
Germany.
1632(29th of Nisan):
“Nicolas Antione, a French Protestant theologian and pastor who attempted to
convert to Judaism and lived the life of a crypto-Jew “suffered martyrdom by
being burned at the stake in Geneva today.
1657: After a battle of almost two years Asser Levy
one of the original 23 settlers was allowed to serve on guard duty .
Levy had been denied the right to serve, having been told to pay a tax
instead. This was the European Way of doing things. Levy would have
none of it. Serving guard duty marked him as a full-fledged
citizen. It was an early indication that the New World would indeed
be a new world for the Jews. Levy, who was the ritual slaughterer of the town,
opened his slaughterhouse on what is now Wall Street. He further petitioned to
be allowed the rights as a Burgher or freeperson on the town, which he received
albeit reluctantly by the burgomasters of New Amsterdam.
1728: The London Gazette reports that twelve
individuals (including four Jews) who had been previously captured by Moroccan
pirates are now released under a new peace treaty between England and the
Emperor of Morocco. Rachel, David, and Raphael Franco along with Blanco Flora
had been captured while en route from London to New York. The Gazette
reports that they were returned to England on "His Majesty's Ship
Monmouth." Interestingly enough, though the other victims are listed by
name and nationality i.e. William Pendergrass/English, Joseph Patroon/Spanish,
Alboro Tordaselas/Gibraltar— the four Jews (Rachel, David and Raphael Franco,
and Blanco Flora), are listed as "Jews," under nationality. These
events of 1728 preceded the era of Jew Bills and the civil and religious
liberties of Jewish people were far from secure. They were indeed people
without a country. Our research shows the Franco family to be of
Portuguese/Sephardic extraction, who generations before undoubtedly fled the
Inquisition of Portugal. Raphael Franco became a powerful merchant in the
diamond and coral trade operating between India, Brazil and England.
1729: London native
Mordecai Marks who came to America in 1726 “was baptized today at Stratford,
CT.”
1746: Four days after
the Battle of Culloden, during the “Jacobite Rising” for which Sampson Gideon
provided the funds to the Hanoverian-Whig government so it could defeat Charles
Edward Stuart, Charles, Charles dismissed his remaining force of 1,500 saying
that the fight could not go on without French support.
1747: In New York City,
Jochabed Michaels and Judah Mears gave birth to (Judith) Rachel Mears, the wife
of Moses Iaacks whom she married in 1764 and with whom she had fourteen
children.
https://www.underthebutton.com/article/2017/04/on-this-day-in-history-benjamin-franklin-invents-weed
1759: Vögele Pressburg,
the daughter of Isak Aron Arnsteiner and Ella Elsa Eleonora Arnsteiner and wife
of Simon Samuel Pressburg passed away today at Mattersburg, Burgenland,
Austria.
1760: In Buchau,
Franziska Levi and David Einstein gave birth to Moses David Einstein.
1761(16th of
Nisan, 1761): Second Day of Pesach; First Day of the Omer
1764(18th of
Nisan, 5524): Fourth Day of Pesach observed on the same day that Abigail Smith,
the future wife of founding father John Adams, wrote to him during their
courtship.
1767(21st of
Nisan, 5527): Seventh Day of Pesach observed as the UK prepares to enact the
Townsend Acts, measures which will inflame relations with the thirteen American
colonies and lead to the American Revolution
1771(6th of
Iyar, 5531): Parashat Tazria-Metzora
1772(17th of
Nisan, 5532): Third day of Pesach
1772(17th of
Nisan, 5532): Israel Ben Moses Ha-Levi Zamosz, a Polish born Talmudist who
wrote on both religious and secular subjects passed away today at Brody
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15158-zamosz-israel-ben-moses-ha-levi
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Zamosc_Yisrael_ben_Mosheh_ha-Levi
1773(27th of
Nisan, 5533): Nehm Joseph Rindskopf, the son of Joseph (Yosel) Alexander
Rindskopf, z. Ampel and Jentel Mosche Rindskopf and husband of Hindle Rindskopf
passed away today in Frankfurt.
1775(20th of
Nisan, 5535): Sixth Day of Pesach observed as the British lick their wounds in
Boston after yesterday’s losses at Concord and on the same day that the Royal
Governor of Virginia makes the mistake of seizing gun power in what became
known as the “Gunpowder Affair” which ended, unlike the episode with no shots
being fired.
1776(1st of
Iyar, 5536): Parashat Tazria-Metzora; Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1777: At Kingston, the
New York Convention voted to guarantee the free exercise of religion.
1783(18th of
Nisan, 5543): Fourth Day of Pesach observed on the same day that Daniel Parker
wrote General Washington concerning his meetings in New York the British leader
Sir Guy Carleton where they talked about plans for allowing the Tories sail
from that city now that the war is officially over.
1785: Birthdate of
German native Nanette Wexler the wife of Leser Lazarus Ochsenhorn whom she
married in 1803 and with whom she had eight children.
1786(22nd of
Nisan, 5546): Eighth Day of Pesach; Yizkor observed on the same day that future
political opponents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, along with his family,
spent the day together in London.
1790: Birthdate of
Ludwig Hermann Friedlander, the native of Konigsberg who served as physician
with the Prussian Army, the first step on a career that led to him being
appointed as a Professor of Theoretical Medicine at Halle, as position he held
until his death in 1851.
1791(16th of
Nisan, 5551): Second Day of Pesach celebrated on the same day that, during the
French Revolution King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette attempted to flee
to Varennes.
1795: In Kingston,
Jamaica, Grace Cohen, the London born daughter of Aaron Gomes Da Costa and
Miriam De Solomon Gomes Da Costa and the husband Judah Mordechai Cohen gave
birth to Andrew Cohen.
1796: Amsterdam native
Rabbi Abraham Azuby, the “first paid rabbi at K.K. Beth Elohim Congregation in
Charleston” officiated at the wedding of “Benjamin Milhado of Kingston, Jamaica
to Hannah Depass, “the youngest daughter of Ralph Depass, a vendue master” in
Charleston, SC. (Editor’s note – according to the dictionary a vendue master is
an auctioneer.)
1799(15th of
Nisan, 5559): First day of Pesach and Shabbat
1799: In a
proclamation, a copy of which is quoted below, Napoleon "promised"
the Jews of Eretz Israel the "reestablishment of ancient Jerusalem",
coupled with a plea for their support. This was the first promise by a modern
government to establish a Jewish state. In 1799, the French armies under
Napoleon were camped outside of Acre. Napoleon issued a letter offering
Palestine as a homeland to the Jews under French protection. The project was
stillborn because Napoleon was defeated and was forced to withdraw from the
Near East. The letter is remarkable because it marks the coming of age of
enlightenment philosophy, making it respectable at last to integrate Jews as
equal citizens in Europe and because it marked the beginning of nineteenth
century projects for Jewish autonomy in Palestine under a colonial
protectorate. After the defeat of Napoleon, it was largely the British who
carried forward these projects, which have in hindsight been given the somewhat
misleading name of "British Zionism." Napoleon conquered Jaffa but
retreated from Acco (Acre); Napoleon's Proclamation of a Jewish State was
stillborn, and his declaration of equal rights for Jews was repealed in part in
1806.
Letter to the Jewish
Nation from the French Commander-in-Chief Bonaparte issued at General Headquarters,
Jerusalem 1st Floreal, April 20th, 1799, in the year of 7 of the French
Republic by BUONAPARTE, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMIES OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
IN AFRICA AND ASIA, TO THE RIGHTFUL HEIRS OF PALESTINE.
Israelites, unique
nation, whom, in thousands of years, lust of conquest and tyranny have been
able to be deprived of their ancestral lands, but not of name and national
existence!
Attentive and impartial observers of the destinies of nations, even though not
endowed with the gifts of seers like Isaiah and Joel, have long since also felt
what these, with beautiful and uplifting faith, have foretold when they saw the
approaching destruction of their kingdom and fatherland: And the ransomed of
the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon
their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall
flee away. (Isaiah 35,10) Arise then, with gladness, ye exiled! A war unexampled In the annals of history,
waged in self-defense by a nation whose hereditary lands were regarded by its
enemies as plunder to be divided, arbitrarily and at their convenience, by a
stroke of the pen of Cabinets, avenges its own shame and the shame of the
remotest nations, long forgotten under the yoke of slavery, and also, the
almost two-thousand-year-old ignominy put upon you; and, while time and
circumstances would seem to be least favorable to a restatement of your claims
or even to their expression ,and indeed to be compelling their complete
abandonment, it offers to you at this very time, and contrary to all
expectations, Israel's patrimony! The young army with which Providence has sent
me hither, let by justice and accompanied by victory, has made Jerusalem my
head-quarters and will, within a few days, transfer them to Damascus, a
proximity which is no longer terrifying to David's city. Rightful heirs of
Palestine! The great nation which does not trade in men and countries as did
those which sold your ancestors unto all people (Joel,4,6) herewith calls on
you not indeed to conquer your patrimony ;nay, only to take over that which has
been conquered and, with that nation's warranty and support, to remain master
of it to maintain it against all comers.
Arise! Show that the former overwhelming might of your oppressors has but
repressed the courage of the descendants of those heroes who alliance of
brothers would have done honor even to Sparta and Rome (Maccabees 12, 15) but
that the two thousand years of treatment as slaves have not succeeded in
stifling it. Hasten!, Now is the moment, which may not return for thousands of
years, to claim the restoration of civic rights among the population of the
universe which had been shamefully withheld from you for thousands of years,
your political existence as a nation among the nations, and the unlimited
natural right to worship Jehovah in accordance with your faith, publicly and
most probably forever (JoeI 4,20).
1801(7th
of Iyar, 5561): Barnard Gratz, the German born son of Mr. and Mrs. Solomon
Gratz, the husband of Richea Myers-Cohen and the father of Fanny and Rachel
Gratz passed away today in Baltimore, MD.
1803: Myer Tobias
married Hannah Woolf at the Great Synagogue today.
1808: Birthdate of
Louis-Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte who became Napoleon III, Emperor of
France from 1852 to 1871. On July 19, 1870, Napoleon III declared war on
Prussia in what is known as the Franco-Prussian War. A number of Jews,
including Jules Moch and Leopold See, attained high rank in the French army.
See later became Secretary General of the Ministry of the Interior. The war
also marked the beginning of Rabbis serving as chaplains in the German army.
After the War the region of Alsace and part of Lorraine became annexed to
Germany. Many Jewish families preferred to emigrate rather than be under German
rule.
1810(16th of Nisan, 5570): Second Day of Pesach
celebrated on the second day of the Venezuelan War of Indepenece.
1811: Ephraim Gompertz married Adelaide Smith at
“Camberwell St. Giles.”
1813(20th of Nisan, 5573): Sixth Day of Pesach
observed a week before American forces under General Zebulion Pike captured
York, Canada during the War of 1812.
1814(30th of Nisan, 5574): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1814(30th of Nisan, 5574): Thirty-four-year-old
“Jewish writer, teacher, translator and publisher” Moses Philippson passed away
today at Desau.
1816(22nd of Nisan, 5576): Eighth Day of Pesach;
Yizkor
1817: Solomon Joseph Mordecai, the Virginia born son of
Esther and Joseph Mordecai married Isabella Jane Kincaid today in Franklin, MO.
1818(14th of Nisan 5578): Ta’anit Bechorot; erev
Pesach observed on the same day that President James Monroe signed the
Neutrality Act of 1818 into law.
1822: In Denmark, Thamar (Terese) Rée, the daughter of Isac
Hartvig Rée and Sara Wulff von Essen and her husband Hartvig Philip Rée gave
birth to Vilhelm Hartvig Rée
1824(22nd of Nisan, 5584): Eighth Day of Pesach;
Yizkor observed for the last time during the Presidency of James Monroe
1826(14th of Nisan, 5586): Ta’anit Bechorot,
erev Pesach
1828: One day after she had passed away 78-year-old Judith
Cohen, the wife of Aaron Cohen and the most of Samuel and Rosy Cohen was buried
today at the Lauriston Jewish Cemtery.
1832: Congress established a park at Hot Springs, Arkansas
when it designated its famous natural springs
as a natural resource preserve as people from around the country flocked to the
143 degree water as a medical treatment for arthritis and other bone ailments.
Jews were connected with Hot Springs from its earliest day. Jacob
Mitchell, a Jewish immigrant from Galicia, arrived in Arkansas in 1830 along
with his two brothers. Mitchell somehow acquired an old Spanish land
grant to a portion of the springs, and he and his heirs spent the next forty
years unsuccessfully fighting the federal government in court over their rights
to the springs. Regardless of the status of the litigation, Mitchell became an
active part of the city’s commercial scene when he bought a hotel in Hot
Springs in 1846 and opened a bath house.
1835(21st of Nisan, 5595): Seventh Day of Pesach
1835: Henry Russell married Isabella Lloyd today.
1837(15th of Nisan, 5597): Jews observe Pesach for the
first time with Martin Van Buren as President of the U.S.
1838: Charlotte Beyfus married German banker Abraham Oppenheim.
1839(6th of Iyar, 5599): Parashat Tazria-Metzora
1840(17th of Nisan, 5600): Third Day of Pesach;
on the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit Rabbi Reuben Hoeshke, Katz who died in 1673.
1841: Despite opposition from Hamburg’s Ashkenazi community
led by Chief Rabbi Isaac Bernays, the Senate granted a license to the New
Israelite Temple Society to build a house of worship.
1843(20th of Nisan, 5603): Sixth Day of Nisan;
on the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Rav Hai Goen who passed away in 1038.
1846(NS): in Meshchovsk, Kaluga Governorate, Russia,
schoolteacher Konstantin von Plehve and Elizaveta Mikhailovna Shamaev gave
birth to the vociferously antisemitic Interior Minister Vyacheslav von Plehve who recommended a further worsening of the
Jews' legal position following the pogroms of the 1880’s and 1890’s.
1846: Two days after the end of Pesach, in London, Fanny
Heilbronner and Isaac Samuel gave birth to Theodore Samson Samuel
1848(17th of Nisan, 5608): Third Day of Pesach;
on the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of Israe ben Moses Zamosc of Brody who passed
away in 1772.
1851(18th of Nisan, 5611): 4th day of
Pesach
1851: In Breslau, Samuel Lubszyński and Rebeka Lubszyńska
gave birth to Zygmunt Lubszyński, who gained fame as Siegmund Lubin “the motion
picture who founded Lubin Manufacturing Company, the Philadelphia, PA film
company.
1851: After three years of meeting at a building on Pearl
Street, Congregation B’nai Israel moved to Number 63 Christie Street, where the
congregation began raising “funds for the erection of a more commodious
synagogue to the meet the requirements of the rapidly increasing membership.”
1851(18th of Nisan, 5611): Isaac Erter, the
native of Galicia who gained fame as a physician and satirist passed away today
at Brody.
https://archive.org/details/jstor-1450003
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Erter%2C%20Isaac%2C%201791-1851
1852: Abraham Harris married Leah Brandon today at the
Great Synagogue.
1854(22nd of Nisan, 5614): Eighth and final day
of Pesach observed as pro- and anti-slavery forces fought it out in what was
called “Bleeding Kansas.”
1856(15th of Nisan, 5616): First Day of Pesach
1859(16th of Nisan, 5619): Second Day of Pesach;
first day of the Omer
1860: Fortunee (nee Dayan) Lichenstein, the wife of Louis
Lichtenstein was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1860: “In a small town near Kowno, Russia, David Rabbino
and Leah Yeglin gave birth to Bernhard Rabbino, the husband of Anna Ladewig who
served as a rabbi at several American congregations beginning with one Keokuk,
IA in 1884 before becoming an attorney in Florida and then in New York where he
settled in 1899 and became an attorney with the Legal Aid Bureau of the
Educational Alliance.
1861: Joseph Seligman, “whose firm, J. and J. Seligman
& Co., sold federal bonds in the astonishing sum of $200,000,000” attended
a pro-Union meeting today held at Union Square in New York City.
1861: In Baltimore, MD, a pro-Southern mob attacked the
printing shops that produced Der Wecker and Sinai, two "abolitionist
publications. Rabbi Einhorn, an
out-spoken foe of slavery, felt threatened enough to agree to the request of
his congregation that he leave the city.
Einhorn would move to Philadelphia where he would resume publishing the
Sinai.
1862(20th of Nisan, 5622): Sixth Day of Pesach
1862: In London, Sara Bloom Phillips and Solomon Abraham
gave birth to Rose Bloom Abraham
1863(1st of Iyar, 5623): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
observed on the same day that President “Lincoln announced that West Virginia
would join the Union on June 20th, 1863.”
1864(14th of Nisan, 5624): Ta’anit Bechorot;
Erev Pesach
1864: In Opava, a town in the Moravian-Silesian Region,
Samuel D. and Charlotte Kaluber gave birth to Emile Kaluber who married an
attorney Alois Eisler and became Emilie Eisler, the mother of Otto, Rudolf and
Paul Eisler.
1864: “In Wilno, Russia, Chaim and Chaya (Kabatchnik)
Weinstein gave birth to Brooklyn journalist and political activist Gregory
Weinstein, a reporter with The Leader, a supporter of Henry George, and
an organizer of the “first Jewish Workingman’s Unions who was the husband of
Eugenie Lasser, the author of Savonarola: Italian Reformer and Patriot
and the publisher of Jew-Baiting by Horace Bridges.
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6658628M/Jew-baiting
1865: “An estimated 25 million Americans attended memorial
services for Abraham Lincoln in Washington and around the country.” In New York
several synagogues held well-attended services in memory of the recently
assassinated President. At Shearith Israel, after the choir sang a variety of
Psalms, Rabbi J.J. Lyons “delivered a short but eloquent address, in which he
frequently” referred “to the qualities of the man and the unswerving loyalty
and honesty of the statesman, whose loss they were…suddenly called upon to
mourn.” This was followed by a
recitation of the Kaddish and “a special prayer for the recovery of Secretary
of State Seward who had been wounded on the same night that Lincoln had been
killed. The service ended with a prayer for “ the future prosperity of the
country” and the chanting of psalms by the choir. At B'nai Jeshurun, the chanting of Psalms was
followed by a Dr. Raphael’s sermon in which he praised the virtues of the slain
President. At the Broadway Synagogue, the chanting of opening hymns
was followed by a prayer for the government before the opened Ark and a sermon
by Rabbi S.W. Isaacs based on Genesis, chap. xv., v. 1: "Fear not,
Abraham; I am thy shield. Thy reward shall be exceedingly great.'' Services
were also held at several other synagogues including the Norfolk Street
Synagogue, the Greene Street Synagogue and Temple Emanu-El. The
neat little synagogue of the Congregation Sheary Berochole, in East
Ninth-street, was the scene of very impressive ceremonies. At noon, the
building was filled to overflowing with a very respectable audience, mostly
dressed in deep mourning, to participate in the services commemorative of the
death of Mr. Lincoln arranged by the congregation. After reciting Psalms 1, 4,
5, 6, 7 and 10, the Kadish, or prayer for deceased persons, was said, and the
Minchah Prayer intoned, at the close of which Rev. H. WASSERMAN delivered the
funeral sermon. His text was from Isaiah 44, 7: "For a small moment I have
forsaken thee, and all forsook thee." The tenor of his discourse was the
necessity of trusting to the goodness of God, however mysterious his
providences may seem. He exhorted all to imitate the honesty, charity and good
will to all men which had distinguished the life and character of our deceased
President. The Hebrew prayer for a deceased father was then said, coupled with
an exhortation for the recovery of the Secretary of State and his son was then
said, and after the recitation of five psalms, the congregation dispersed.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1931/02/16/102215589.pdf
1865: As the nation mourned the death
of President Lincoln, today’s Boston Traveler noted that “solemn and
appropriate services were held at both Jewish synagogues” – a reference to
Adath Israel, a Reform Congregation led by Rabbi Joseph Schoninger and Mishkan
Israel led by Rabbi Alexis Alexander.
1866: In a plebiscite, Charles was
elected in a near unanimous vote to serve as King of Romania. His government
would not prove to be a protector of its Jewish citizens.
1867(15th of Nisan, 5627):
Jews living in Alaska celebrate Pesach for the first time as U.S. citizens
since the U.S. had purchased Seward’s Folly 30 days ago.
1867: In Atldorf, Germany, Maier (Mayer) Dreifuss and Karolina Dreifuss
gave birth to Max (Moses) Dreifuss, the husband of Selma Dreifuss who passed
away in 1940 at the age of 73.
1868: Birthdate of French author
Charles Maurras, whose anti-Semitism first surfaced during the Dreyfus Affair
and continued through his support for Vichy and Petain.
1871(29th of Nisan, 5631): Polish author
Jacob Tugenhold who was born near Krakow and who founded a “modern Jewish
school” in Warsaw, passed away today.
1871:
Today, “a Dutch physician and women's suffrage activist. Aletta Henriëtte
Jacobs, the Dutch born daughter of Anna de Jongh
and Dr. Abraham Jacobs, became the “first woman to officially attend a Dutch
university when she entered the University of Groningen,
1872:
Pianist Joseph Poznanski is scheduled to play today at Robinson Hall in NYC.
1874: Di Yidishe Gazeten, the first influential Yiddish newspaper in the
United States began publication today.
1875(15th of Nisan, 5635):
Pesach
1875: Birthdate of Edouard
Alexandre de Pomiane, also known as Edouard Pozerski author of the 1929 epic “The Jews of Poland:
Recollections and Recipes” who passed
away in 1964.
1876: In Hungary, Emil and Sally
Gintzler gave birth to Cooper Union graduate and NYU trained attorney Morris
Gintzler, “the president of the Pulp and Paper Trading Company and the husband
of Rose Gintzler with whom she had had two daughter – Selma and Dorothy.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/09/29/94882989.pdf
1877: London native Sampson Herny
Levy and his wife Annie Levy gave birth to New York native Edgar A. Levy, the husband of Isabelle
Estelle Levy and the “father of Julien Sampson Levy; Edgar I. Levy and
Elizabeth Ann Woolf” who passed away in 1962.
1877: Louis David Meyers, the son
of Henry Myers and Julia Davis was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.”
1878(17th of Nisan,
5638): Shabbat shel Pesah
1879: According to the report
made by Superintendent Louis today, the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum was home
to 10 children, eight of whom were boys and two of whom were girls, ranging in
age from three and half years to ten years.
1879: Birthdate of Ukraine native
Isaac Streisand, the husband of Anna Streisand and the grandfather of
award-winning entertainer Barbra Streisand.
1881(21st of Nisan,
5641): Seventh Day of Pesach; on the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of Rabbi Daniel
of Horodno who passed away in 1806.
1882(1st of Iyar, 5642): Rosh
Chodesh Iyar
1882: J. A. Engelbart presided over tonight’s
meeting of a committee formed “raise money to feed and shelter Jewish refugees
from Russia and to aid them in finding home in” in the United States. The meeting was held at B’nai Jeshrun. Among the attendees were Rabbi Henry S.
Jacobs and Dr. Simeon N. Leo.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9902E0DB113EE433A25752C2A9629C94639FD7CF
1882: It was reported today that
a dispatch from St. Petersburg “states that the persecution of the Jews
continues” unabated. At least 17,000
Jews have been left homeless after villages in Southern Russia were destroyed.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9406E5D81730E433A25753C2A9629C94639FD7CF
1882: “Current Foreign Topics”
published today described a private meeting that had been held in Berlin to
provide assistance for Jews who wished to leave Russia. The attendees pledged seventy thousand marks
to assist in the endeavor.
1883: In Frankfurt, Germany, Leo Isaac and his wife gave birth to Robert
Isaac, who came to the United States in 1915, worked with Eugene
Meyer before going on to the “investment firm of Halle and Stieglitz and
married the “former Lucile Martin”
1883(13th of Nisan, 5643):
Ninety-one-year-old Asher American, who had served as the Assistant Reader at
congregations on Norfolk, Stanton and Sixth Streets passed away tonight.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F05E1D61530E433A25752C2A9629C94629FD7CF
1883: It was reported today that The Cleveland Herald has been
interviewing the city’s Jewish clergy on the possibility of Jews returning to
Palestine. Rabbi Hahn considers the idea
as being impracticable and feels that “the Jewish people…are a great deal
better off here than they could possibly be there.” Rabbi Lane echoes these sentiments and “is
most strongly opposed to …immigration schemes.” The Herald believes “that these gentlemen speak
the prevailing sentiment” of the Jewish people.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9807E7D61530E433A25753C2A9629C94629FD7CF
1884: According to “The Relations
of Animal Diseases to the Public Health and Their Prevention” by Frank S.
Billings which was reviewed today’s New York Times, the author “quotes the Hebrew legislator who forbade pork
as food for the chosen people of the Lord.
Moses did this with a knowledge of its ‘non- hygienic character.”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C00EFDC173FE533A25753C2A9629C94659FD7CF
1884(25th of Nisan, 5644): Dr.
Lyon Berhard, one of the oldest dentists in New York passed away today in
Manhattan. Born in Amsterdam in 1812 and
a graduate of the Baltimore College of Dentistry, he came to New York 42 years
ago. He was a founding member of B’Nai
Israel and was an active member of the Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E05E5DB173FE533A25751C2A9629C94659FD7CF
1884: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil,
Rabbi Kaufman Kohler and Joseph Blumenthal were among the attendees at a
reception given at the new building of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian
Society. The building, which is located
at Avenue A and 87th Street was originally built for the use of the
late John Jacob Astor.
1886(15th of Nisan, 5646): First Day of Pesach
1886: Birthdate of Pauline Lonnersteadter Thalhimer, the
wife of Gustavus Thalhimer and mother of Morton Gustavus Thalhimer.
1888: It was reported today that in Jacksonville, FL, Rabbi
of Levy of Charleston, SC had presided at the marriage of Susie Jacoby of
Charleston to Mose J. Ullman of Evansville, Indiana.
1888: The Jewish Messenger reports
that Orach Chaim has contributed support for a New York City Chief Rabbi.
"This action is the more significant as it is the first uptown
congregation to join the downtown contingent and mostly composed of Germans
while the other uptown orthodox congregations are mostly composed of the Polish
element."
1888((9th of Iyar): Russian born
philanthropist Samuel Poljakoff passed away.
1889: Birthdate of Otto Heinrich Frank, father
of Anne Frank, who survived the Holocaust and passed away in 1980.
1889: Birthdate of Adolph Hitler
1889: In Chicago, Israel and Augusta (née
Mendeburskey) Balaban gave birth A.J. (Abraham Joseph Blaban) the co-founder
the Balaban and Katz Motion Picture Theatre chain.
http://archives.nypl.org/the/18638
http://www.balabanandkatzfoundation.com/
1889: Birthdate of Albert Jean Amateau, rabbi, businessman, lawyer and social
activist. Born a Sephardic Jew in Milas, Turkey, Amateau attended the American
International College in Izmir (Smyrna), Turkey. He immigrated to the United
States in 1910. In the early 1920s, Amateau began a movement to bring more Jews
into the workplace and government. He was also involved largely in the affairs
of deaf people. After he returned from the Army (he served in World War I),
Amateau was ordained in 1920 at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and he became
the first rabbi of a congregation of the deaf. In 1941, Amateau developed the
Albert J. Amateau Foreign Language Service, a business providing translators
for lipsync dubbing for motion pictures. The business continued in operation
until 1989. An ardent supporter of his homeland of Turkey, Amateau began
various Turkish-oriented organizations while residing in the United States. In
1992, at the age of 103, he helped found the American Society of Jewish Friends
of Turkey and was named as its president. Amateau was also an advocate of
peace, and in 1937, he assisted with negotiations between Jews and Arabs of
Palestine. Amateau died in 1996 at the age of 106 years, 10 months.
http://www.sephardicstudies.org/aa.html
1890(30th of Nisan, 5650): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1890: “In Trois-Rivières, Berthe (née Genest)
and local politician Nérée Le Noblet Duplessis gave birth to Maurice Duplessis
who as Premier of the Province of Quebec issued the warrant which empowered the
provincial police to raid “the cultural section of the Canadian Labor Circle, a
Jewish fraternal organization” during which they removed “eight hundred books
of the 950 volume library maintained by Jewish cultural circle.”
1890: Birthdate of Erfut, Germany native David
Baumgardt the author and philosopher who in 1939 found refuge in the United
States where he worked for Archibald MacLeish, the Librarian of Congress, wrote
such books as Maimonides in 1955 and Great Western Mystics: Their
Lasting Significance in 1961.
1890: In Russia, “Joseph and Sarah (Herman)
Frisch gave birth University of Minnesota trained attorney, Leonard Herman
Frisch who in 1901 came to the United States where he worked for the
Immigration Bureau and while serving as the editor of the American Jewish World
and Director of the Talmud Torah of Minneapolis, MN.
1890: It was reported today that strikers in
Austria are trying to turn the labor unrest “into an anti-Jewish crusade. Many of the mill and mine owners in the
region are Jewish and the Rothschilds own the largest iron and steel works at
Witkowitz. The strikers have turned
their fury on the local Jewish merchants, and their attacks have left several
hundred Jewish families “camping in the fields in utter destitution.
1891: A fire broke out in a tenement house at
194 Henry Street which is home to a large number of Russian Jews.
1892: In Russia, Leon and Bessie Levoitz
Epstein gave birth University of Pittsburgh graduate Abraham Epstein a pioneer
in the field of providing financial support for the “elderly” which led to what
we now know as Social Security.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/historians-miscellaneous-biographies/abraham-epstein
1893(4th of Iyar, 5653): Dr. Wilhelm
Lowenthal, “the Jewish scientist who had been invited to Argentina in 1890 to
share his technological expertise on agricultural matters” and who “persuaded
Baron de Hirsch to fund the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) to aid Jewish
settlers in Argentina” passed away today.
1893: William A. Matson, the Secretary of the
Church Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews wrote a letter today
in which he took issue Reverend Jacob Freshman’s statement he was “the pioneer”
in New York City “in mission work for the conversion of the Jews
1894(14th of Nisan, 5654): Fast of
the First Born
1894(14th of Nisan, 5654): “Festival of the
Passover” published today states that “Pesach, the Jewish festival of the
Passover, begins the evening and continues for a week.” Furthermore, “the households of the Orthodox
and many of those who have accepted the modern or reformed” customs will host a
Seder.
1895(26th of Nisan, 5655): Joseph
Heiman Caro, author of Ṭevaḥ ṿe-hakhen (טבח והכן: כל דני שחיטות ובדיקות)
passed away today
1895: The Hebrew Orphan
Asylum Band performed at the Odd Fellows’ Home Fair which is being held at the
Lenox Lyceum.
1896: “A Precious
Privilege Retained” published today described a declaration published by the
anti-Semitic German “National” Students at the University of Vienna stating
that “they would henceforth refuse to accept challenges from the Jewish
Students’ Corps, as they would think themselves defiled if they fought
them.” The Rector refused to respond to
an appeal from the Jewish students asking that this declaration be overturned.
According to some observers, the German students’ declaration is rooted in the
fact that the Jews have defeated them whenever a challenge was made and
accepted.
1897 (18th of Nisan, 5657): Fourth
Day of Pesach
1897: In Samara, Russia, Sophie (née Markison)
and Benjamin Ratner gave birth to Grigory Vasilyevich Ratner, who gained fame
as actor and director Gregory Ratoff whose portrayal of “Max Fabian” in “All
About Eve” is one of my personal favorites.
http://www.classicmoviehub.com/bio/gregory-ratoff/
http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/gregory-ratoff/
1899: Fire broke out
tonight at the New York Theatre in the “dressing rooms used by ‘Hebrew
Creditors’ characters” appearing in the first act “The Man in the Moon.”
1899: Testimony
continues to be given before the Court of Cassation in the Dreyfus revision
inquiry.
1899: Four days after
she had passed away, Eliza Kane, the daughter of “Moses J. and Sarah Henriques”
and the wife of John Clarke Kane was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road
Jewish Cemetery.”
1900(20th of
Nisan, 5660): Sixth Day of Nisan
1900: Max Nordau introduced
Herzl to Alfred Austin who gives him a friendly letter to Lord Salisbury, the
British Prime Minister. Herzl sought British support in his attempts to
persuade the government at Constantinople to allow the development of a Jewish
homeland. . Salisbury did not receive Herzl "on account of the war
worries".
1901(1st of
Iyar, 5661): Parashat Tazria-Metzora; Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1901: “Alliance
Israelite Universelle” published today described plans for a meeting to “be
held in the vestry rooms of Temple Emanu-El under the leadership of Jacob H.
Schiff where “stereopticon views of Jewish life in the Holy Land which will be
shown by Nissim Behard.”
1901: It was reported
today that every year, for the last fifteen years, Charlotte Yonge has sent a
manuscript to her publisher for a story of a “historical character written
especially for boys and girls” including The Patriots of Palestine, a
tale of the Maccabees.
1902: Birthdate of Polish native Dr. Monah
L. Bialik, the holder of Ph.D from Columbia and the dean of the Yeshiva of
Flatbush who was the husband of “the former Clara Telushkin” with whom he had
two children
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/10/07/121476085.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1902: The second annual exhibition that
includes “the work of east side artists” and featuring “an exhibition of Jewish
antiquities relating to Jewish rites and customs” is scheduled to come to an
end this evening at the Education Alliance on East Broadway and Jefferson
Street
1903: “Bishop Praises
Jews” published today described a sermon by Bishop Satterlee of the Episcopal
Church who said, “The Jews are preserving the home and family better than we
Christians are doing” and that while “I do not know how to account for this, but
I do know it to be fact.”
1903: “Twenty-five Jews
were killed and 275 were wounded, many of them mortally, in anti-Semitic riots
at Kishineff, the capital of Bessarabia” today “when a number of workman
organized an attack on the Jewish inhabitants.”
1904(5th of
Iyar, 5664): Hannah Peixotto, the Louisville born daughter of Sarah and Mark
Straus, the wife of Benjamin Franklin Peixotto who was the “United States
Counsel General to Romania” and the mother of George da Madouro Peixotto;
Frances (Fannie) Corinne Bloom; Mark Percy da Maduro Peixotto; Judith Eugenia
Salzedo Morningstar; Beatrice Peixotto; Mabel Louise Peixotto; Florian (Frank)
Peixotto; Victoria Maud Bronner and Irving Peixotto.
1904: It was reported
that a large number of Jews were part of the cheering throng that greeted Vice
Admiral Skrydloff, who is married to “a Jewess” as he stopped in St. Petersburg
on his way to the Far East.
1905(15th of
Nisan, 5665): As Russia confronted its defeat by the Japanese and the violence
of the Russian Revolution, the Jews observe Pesach.
1905: In Dallas,
Herbert Marcus, the founder of Neiman Marcus and Minnie Marcus gave birth to
Harold Stanley Marcus who followed in his father’s footsteps.
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmabz
1905: The Manchester
Guardian published “The Aliens Bill: Some Prejudices Examined” by M.J. Landa.
1905: Birthdate of
composer Nicholas “Slug” Brodszky, the native of Odessa who came to the United
States in 1934 where he worked with lyricist Sammy Cahn and produced songs for
numerous movies, the most famous which might have been “The Student Prince” and
Love Me or Leave Me.”
1906: In Montreal Shlomo
Chaim Caplan and Chaya Bluma Routtenberg gave birth to Yonah Ephraim “Jimmy”
Caplan, the husband of Lena Herman and graduate of Yeshiva University who led a
congregation in Astoria, NY.
1906: It was reported
today that among the earliest contributors to the fund for the victims of the
San Francisco Earthquake were “Half Bros. who gave $25, Morris Frankel who have
$10 and Schoenfeld Company who gave $5.
1907(6th of
Iyar, 5667): Parashat Tazria-Metzora
1907(6th of
Iyar, 5667)): Thirty-eight-year-old Benedict Gimbel, the Philadelphia born son
Fridoline and Adam Gimbel and husband of Birdie Loeb Gimbel with whom he had
one child, Benedict Gimbel, Jr., who was part of the merchant family that
created the department stores that bore the family name passed away today in
Hoboken, NJ after slashing himself with pieces of broken glass.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11324771/1907-benedict-gimbel/
1908: Birthdate of Yisrael
Yeshayahu Sharabi, a native of Sa’dah, Yemen, who made Aliyah in 1929 and
eventually became the fifth Speaker of the Knesset.
1909: Funeral services
are scheduled to take place this afternoon for Edward Karmer who had died at
the Jewish Hospital on April 18.
1909: Miss Ray
Pearlman, “an agent of the Council of Jewish Women escorted unmarried Russian
Jewish immigrant “Sarah Koten, the young nurse who shot and killed Dr. Martin
W. Auspitz last June and who was released today under a suspended sentence”
from the courtroom.
1910: Birthdate of New
York native and NYU trained attorney Leo Isaksson who appeared to upset the
political applecart when he was elected to House of Representatives as a member
of the American Labor Party in what appeared to be a leg up for Henry Wallace’s
bid to win the White House.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=I000046
1911(22nd of
Nisan, 5671): Eighth Day of Pesach
1911(22nd of Nisan,5671): Sixty-one year old
Minsk native and author Henry Iliowizi, the teacher in Alliance Israélite
Universelle’s “school at Tetuan, Morocco from 1877 to 1880” who came to the
United States where he “was minister of a
congregation at Harrisonburg, Virginia; from 1880 to 1888, rabbi of the
Congregation Sha'aré Tob in Minneapolis; and from 1888 to 1900, of the
Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Philadelphia” passed away today.
1911: Birthdate of New York native and NYU trained lawyer
Jacob Mishler who served as “a United States district judge of the United
States District Court for the Eastern District of New York from 1960 to 2004
and its Chief Judge from 1969 to 1980.”
1912: Birthdate of David
Ginsburg, “a liberal lawyer and longtime Washington insider who helped found
the Americans for Democratic Action and led the presidential commission on race
relations whose report, in 1968, warned that the United States was ‘moving
toward two societies — one black, one white, separate and unequal.’”
1912: In the Bronx, a
memorial service is scheduled to be held at the Montefiore Congregation for the
crew and passengers who died when the Titanic sank.
1912: Guy Zinn, an
outfielder with the New York Highlanders (later re-named the NY Yankees)
“scored the first run ever at Boston’s Fenway Park” today.
1912: A banquet
celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Free Synagogue hosted by Rabbi Stephen
Wise was postponed as public mourning for those who lost their lives on the
Titanic continues.
1912: Birthdate of Gertrude
Erika Perlmann, the Czechoslovakian-born U.S. biochemist.
1913: A general strike
by 4,000 kosher bakers began today when 1,000 of them quit work in Manhattan,
Brooklyn and Brownsville. The strike had
originally been scheduled to start on April 29. The early strike date really
was of little significance since the bakers would have quite working tomorrow
any way do the fact that Passover starts tomorrow evening.
1913: Rabbi Joseph
Stolz is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Walking in the Statutes of the
Nations at the Isaiah Temple at Vincennes and 45th Street.
1913: This morning at
Temple Sinai, on Chicago’s south-side, Dr. Emil G. Hirsch is scheduled to on
“The Ethics of Judaism and the Ethics of Christianity” which is “the concluding
lecture in the series on the ‘Relations of Liberal Judaism to its Neighbors.’”
1913: This afternoon,
Dr. Emil G. Hirsch will deliver the sermon at the People’s Synagogue which
meets every Sunday at Chicago’s Ziegfeld Theatre. (Editor’s Note: As you can
see from these entries, this was a period in which Reform Judaism was making a
concerted effort to replace Saturday morning services with Sunday morning
services—a move which they thought would improve attendance and participation.)
1913: Morris Siegel,
known to his friends and family as “Morris the Apple Peddler” attended the Brit
Milah today for three boys – his three sons all of whom were born eight days
ago. The crowd of well-wishers grew even
larger when the entire class of his 13 year old son Harry arrived at the event.
1914: Investment banker
and art collector Maurice Wertheim, the son Jacob and Hanna Wertheim, and his
first wife Alma Morgenthau gave birth to Anne Rebe Wertheim, the younger sister
of historian Barbara Tuchman.
1914: Re-argument of
Gompers (as in Samuel Gompers) versus the United States began today at the U.S.
Supreme Court.
1915: Birthdate of South African-born, American
psychologist Joseph Wolpe.
1915: “It was announced” today “in a
letter received from Counselor Robert Lansing” of the U.S. State Department “by
The Jewish Daily Warheit of New York” that “the State Department in Washington
has telegraphed the American Consul at Warsaw” seeking a full report on “the
severe sufferings of the Jews in Russian Poland.”
1915(6th of Iyar, 5675): Seventy-two-year-old
Nathan Gratz, a well-known New York lawyer passed away today. He was the son of
Jonathan and Rebecca Gratz (Moses) Nathan. “Mr. Nathan graduated from Columbia
College in 1861. He engaged in practice in 1864 and was well known in
Democratic political circles, clubs, and charitable societies. He was a member
of New York law Institute, Columbia Alumni, and the New York Genealogical and
Biographical Society.”
1915: Birthdate of journalist Israel Epstein.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1491973/Israel-Epstein.html
1916(17th of Nisan, 5676): Third Day
of Pesach
1916:” A ‘Life for a Life’ campaign in which
500,000 Jewish women in the United States are expected to raise $1,000,000 a
month for the needy Jews in Europe was started by the Women’s Proclamation
Committee of the Central Jewish Relief Committee at the Astor Hotel today.”
1916: Birthdate of Wiera Vera Gran, the Polish
born Jewish singer who first performed under the name Sylvia Green and who
became the center of a controversy surrounding her survival of the Holocaust.
http://www.newsweek.com/wiera-gran-strange-saga-warsaw-ghetto-singer-68575
1917(28th of Nisan, 5677):
Eighty-six-year-old civil engineer Sir John Howard, the husband of Georgina
Paver and the father o Alice, Rosina, Frederick, Esther, Leah and Howard Hannah
who “was involved in building the Palace Pier, Brighton, construction of
railways in Andover, Colne Valley, Andover and Redgbridge, Bognor, Midhurst and
Mid-Sussex” and who was affiliated with the West London, Brighton and Edinburgh
Synagogues passed away today after which he was buried in the Jewish Cemetery
in Brighton.
https://www.jewsfww.uk/sir-john-howard-3750.php
1917: Two days after he had passed away,
forty-seven-year-old David Myer Petrofsky was buried in the “Plashet Jewish
Cemetery” in London today.
1917: As the Russian
military position continued to deteriorate and Russian soldiers demanded
immediate peace with the Germans, mutinies broke out. In one instance an artillery officer named
Khaust who had demanded that his fellow Russians lay down their arms was
saved from an angry assembly of soldiers by a Jewish soldier known simply as
Rom who intervened on their behalf.
1917(28th of Nisan, 5677): During WW I, Lt. Max
Oster was killed at the Battle of Aisne.
1917(28th of Nisan, 5677): During WW I, Lt
Sydney Fine, 2/5 S Lancers, the son of Jacob Fine of Edgbaston, was killed
today.
1918(8th of Iyar, 5678): Parashat Achrei Mot –
Kedoshim
1918: Rabbi Krass is scheduled to deliver a sermon on
“Hebraism and Humanity” at Central Synagogue on Lexington Avenue.
1918: Rabbi Silverman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on
“Revival of Jewish Culture” at Temple Emanu-El.
1918: Rabbi M.H. Harris is scheduled to deliver a sermon on
“The Loaf that Fed the Multitude” at Temple Israel of Harlem.
1918: “Banquet to Jewish Soldiers” published today
described plans for an upcoming banquet being hosted by the Jewish Board of
Welfare and the Young Men’s Hebrew Association under the chairmanship of
Benjamin Natal for the benefit the young Jewish men who are about to leave for
Fort Dix to begin serving in the U.S. Army.
1919: Dr. J. Leon Magnes spoke at the groundbreaking
ceremonies for the new Bronx Jewish Hospital during which $60,000 was pledged
toward the building fund.
1919: The public was
invited to attend the entertainment of the children of the Marks Nathan Jewish
Orphan Home during Chol-Homaed Pesach.
1919: In Manhattan,
Tillie Gold, of Gold’s Horseradish fame and her husband gave birth to her
oldest Morris Gold “who helped make” Gold’s a household name.
1919: The Jewish Literary Society meeting at Zion Temple is
scheduled to discuss The Religion of Canaan by Mary Erenberg and The Religion
of Babylon and Syria by William Elfenbaum.
1919: “The young women who worked as telephone operators at
New England Telephone and Telegraph walked off the job. One of the strike
leaders was Rose Finkelstein, a young Jewish worker, who had emigrated with her
family as a young child from Kiev, Russia.”
(As reported by Jewish Women’s Archives)
http://jwa.org/thisweek/apr/20/1919
1920: “Chaim Weizmann arrived at the Hotel Royal in San Remo, two
days after the San Remo conference had convened.” Still smarting from the failure of the
British to stop the riots aimed at the Jews of Jerusalem that had broken out
earlier in the month, the usually reserved Weizmann, congratulates Phillip
Kerr, Lloyd George’s private secretary, on the “first pogrom ever conducted
under the British flag.” The unusual
outburst took place in the hotel lobby, a public denunciation that caught the
British leader off guard and led to cooling off period for the Zionist leader.
1920: In the aftermath of World War I, Palestine
ceased to be a part of the defeated Ottoman Empire (now Turkey). The
League of Nations made Palestine a British Mandate which meant recognition of
the terms of the Balfour Declaration.
1920: Today, “word
reached Canada that Britain had received the Mandate for Palestine with the
"express obligation of carrying out the Balfour Declaration.”
1921: Birthdate of
Marcos Moshinsky the Ukrainian born Mexican physicist who won the Prince of
Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Investigation in 1988 and the
UNESCO Science Prize in 1997. He passed away in 2009 at the age of 87.
1922(22nd of
Nisan, 5682): Eight Day of Pesach
1922: Philadelphia
Athletics 2nd baseman Heinie Scheer appeared in his first major
league baseball game.
1923(4th of
Iyar, 5683): D. Falk Duschoff passed away today in Detroit.
1923(4th of
Iyar, 5683): Eighty-one-year-old German born Philadelphia lawyer Mayer
Sulzberger, a life-long Republican who served as a judge and was active in
numerous Jewish organizations including the Jewish Theological Seminary and
Dropsie College.
http://www.library.upenn.edu/cajs/sulzberger.html
1923: Birthdate of pioneering statistician and
psychologist Jacob Cohen. (Editor’s Note – I do not have a clue as to what he
did but it was obviously brilliant.)
http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/04/04708608/0470860804-2.pdf
1923: Rabbi Aaron David
Burack, the Lithuanian born son of Chaim Natan (Nassen) Burack and Bashe (Bessie)
Gitel (Gibberman) Burack and his wife Esther Burack gave birth to Dr. Bernard
Burack
1924(16th of
Nisan, 5684): Second Day of Pesach
1924: “The Woman on the
Jury,” in Arthur Lubin played the role of a juror was released today in the
United States.
1924: Birthdate of Morris
Edward Chafetz, the son of Jewish immigrants who played an important role in
changing the public perception of alcoholism from social crime or personal
failing to a disease requiring treatment. ´ (As reported by William Grimes)
1925: “Speedy repeal of
the present immigration law "in favor of a measure embodying more
accurately the unbiased findings of science," was urged here today by
Adolf Kraus of Chicago, President of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, in
his annual address to the Grand Lodge convention of that body, in the
Ritz-Carlton Hotel.”
1926: At luncheon at
the Hotel Biltmore, Mrs. Alexander Kohut
told members of the Women’s Division of the United Jewish Campaign about
“the conditions she witnessed on her trip to Eastern Europe and urge the newly
appointed committee heads to spare no
effort toward raising the $500,000 which the women have pledged as their share
of the New York quota.”
1926: “Sir Leo Levison,
President of the International Hebrew Christian Alliance, arrived in New York
today from London on the White Star Liner Majestic to attend the national
conference of the American Hebrew Christian Alliance at Buffalo” which is
scheduled to begin on April 25.
1926: Warner Brothers, which was owned
by the four Warner brothers and Western Electric announced the creation of Vitaphone, a
process to add sound to film. Vitaphone would be the sound system used in the
making of “The Jazz Singer,” the first talking motion picture.
1927(18th of Nisan, 5687):
Fourth Day of Pesach
1927: “Counsel for Henry Ford and the
Dearborn Publishing Company, defendants in Aaron Sapiro's suit for $1,000,000
as libel damages, filed today with Federal Judge Raymond their application for
a mistrial.”
1928(30th of Nisan, 5688):
Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1928(30th of Nisan, 5688):
Seventy-year-old Dr. Samuel Weszel, a native of Rotterdam who was the Chief
Rabbi of the Ashkenazic community in Bosnia passed away today in Bosnia.
1928: According to a prediction made
tonight in Philadelphia by Rabbi Max D. Klein, local chairman of the United
Palestine Appeal, “within a week or ten days Wall Street will hear that two of
its banks have completed a joint loan of three million dollars to the World
Zionist Organization for use in the rehabilitation of Palestine.
1928: “The tenth anniversary of the
He’Chaultz Palestine Pioneer organization was marked at a meeting” held in
Paris.
1929(10th of Nisan, 5689):
Parsahat Metzora and Shabbat HaGadol observed for the last time before the
Great Depression
1930(22nd of Nisan, 5690):
Eighth Day of Pesach.
1930: The Jewish Theatrical Guild is
scheduled to hold an open meeting this afternoon at the Bijou Theatre where
S.L. Rothafel will be the guest of the honor.
1931(3rd of Iyar, 5691):
Sixty-two-year-old San Francisco attorney Henry George Washington Dinkelspiel,
the Suisan, CA born son of Meier "Moses" Dinkelspiel and Lena
Dinkelspiel. husband of Estelle Dinkelspiel and N.N. Dinkelspiel and father of
Bette Leve, John Dinkelspiel and Martin Jerrold Dinkelspiel, who followed in
his father’s footsteps to become a leading member of the California bar, passed
away today.
1931: “The Outsider,” film treatment of
the novel of the same named directed by Harry Lachman who co-authored the
script was released in the United Kingdom today.
1931: Plans for a charity dinner to be
held on April 22 at the Hotel Biltmore “under the auspices of the New York
Campaign for the Relief of Jews in Eastern Europe were announced” today “ by
Albert Ottinger, chairman of the local committee.”
1932(14th of Nisan, 5692):
Fast of the First Born is observed for the last time under the Presidency of
Herbert Hoover and in pre-Hitler Germany.
1932: “Four witnesses testified today that
they had given money to the Rabbi Samuel Buchler, lawyer, former city official
and former Jewish chaplain at Sing Sing, in futile efforts to bring alien
relatives into this country.”
1933: “Adolf Busch, the German
violinist, has just resigned his part in the forthcoming Brahms centennial
celebration in Hamburg because permission to participate was refused to the
pianist, Rudolf Serkin, because of his Jewish origin.”
1934: “For the first time in its
history of more than two hundred years” Yale University is the site of a
conference of Christians and Jews, sponsored by five of the school’s “religious
clubs” scheduled to open this afternoon with the theme of “Common Citizenship.”
1935(17th of Nisan, 5695):
Third day of Pesach
1935(17th of Nisan, 5695):
In Pelham, NY, merchant and philanthropist Philip Pearlman passed away today.
1935: “Little Mother,” a comedy
directed Henry Koster, produced by Jose Pasternak and starring Otto Wallburg
was released in Austria today.
1936: As tension continue to rise amid
reports of plans for further attacks by Arabs, “all the Jews in the Beersheba
district have been moved to Jerusalem in trucks under police escort.”
1936: Jews repelled an
Arab attack in Petach Tikvah. This attack was part of the Arab
Uprising that lasted from 1936 until 1939. The Arabs aim
was to put an end to the dream of a Jewish homeland. While
they failed militarily, they were handed victory by a British decision
to virtually put an end to Jewish land purchases and immigration.
This effectively slammed the door shut on the Jews of Europe on the eve of the
Shoah. Petach Tikvah or "Gateway of Hope"
was originally founded by religious Jewish pioneers who had been
living in Jerusalem. What would eventually become a city, was a
collection of mud huts built by 26 families on malaria infested piece of land
seven miles east of what would one day become Tel Aviv. Petach Tikvah
took its name from a verse in Hosea "And I will give her...the valley of
Achor for a gateway of Hope (2:17)." The moshav would be abandoned
for a brief period and then re-started with support from Baron
Rothschild. Petach Tikvah became a model and inspiration for the moshav
movement. Unfortunately, Petach Tikvah is no stranger to Arab
violence. During the 1920's, the defense of Petach Tikvah had
helped to defeat an earlier Arab attempt to destroy the efforts by Jews to
resettle and rehabilitate land that had been designated as “the Jewish
Home.’ In the latest Arab Uprising, Petach Tikvah has been the scene
of a suicide bombing in 2002 and the scene of a thwarted bombing in 2003.
1936(28th of Nisan, 5696): Zvi Dannenberg died today of
wounds suffered on April 15 when he and Israel Khazahn were attacked by Arabs
as they traveled from Nablus to Tulkarm.
1936:
Bronislaw Huberman, founder and organizer of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra
announced that Arturo Toscanini has decided to include music by Mendelssohn on
the first program he will conduct with the symphony. There is an element of
political protest in this announcement since Mendelssohn has been banned by the
Nazis.
1936(28th
of Nisan, 5695): “In an attack in the Shapira quarter, a Jewish suburb of
Jaffa, Arabs killed two Jews and wounded several others” including “a Jewish
youth riding a bicycle in Jaffa” who “was beaten so severely that he died
almost instantly.”
1936:
“The Yemenite Jewish quarter outside of Tel Aviv” was destroyed by fire set by
Arabs.
1936:
Part of a mob of three hundred Haurani Arabs “broke into the home of a Jewish
family in Manshieh quarter and killed the father and injured the mother who was
transported by the police along with their three children to Hadassah Hospital.
1937:
B'nai B'rith was banned in Nazi Germany because of individual members spreading
"communist propaganda.
1937:
After moving its meeting that had been scheduled to start on April 13 in
London, the Zionist General Council is scheduled to meet today in Jerusalem.
1938:
Despite bomb throwing which has become a daily occurrence in Jerusalem, an
enthusiastic crowd filled Jerusalem’s Edison Hall for Toscanini’s fifth concert
Aprof the season with the Palestine Orchestra.
1938: German planes fly over Austria on Hitler’s birthday
dropping tiny Swastikas. This is the
“new” Austria after the Anschluss which had taken place in March of 1938.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that for the
third night in succession bombs had been thrown in the center of Jerusalem,
injuring Edwin Eisler, 18, and Banu Baland, 35. Forty "illegal"
Jewish immigrants who had been in Palestine for many years, declared a hunger
strike in order to persuade the mandate's authorities to change their status
from "illegal" immigrants whom the courts failed to deport, to that
of recognized permanent residents, so that they could bring here their families
from abroad.
1939: On Hitler's fiftieth birthday, all Catholic
churches in Greater Germany hoisted the swastika in celebration.
1939: “The Four
Feathers,” a film version of the novel by the same name, directed by Zoltan
Korda and produced by Alexander Korda was released today in the United Kingdom.
1939: The Wirtschafts-
und Verwaltungshauptamt (WVHA; Economy and Administration Main Office) was
upgraded. It was concerned with SS economic matters, particularly at
concentration camps.
1939: At a meeting of the British Cabinet’s Palestine
Committee, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, ever the appeaser, stressed that
it of ‘immense importance’ with regard to British strategy ‘to have the Moslem
world with us. If we must offend one
side, let us offend the Jews rather than the Arabs.’ This pronouncement was a
complete violation of the Balfour Declaration and the terms of the
Mandate. It set the stage for the
effective closing of Palestine to Jewish immigration in May of 1939; a policy
that bought death for the Jews but failed to win the goodwill of the
Arabs.
1940: In the U.K., Russian Jewish immigrants and longtime
residents of the British Isles,“Abraham Samuel and Rosalie Wander” gave birth
to Michelene Samuels who gained famed as Mechelen Vicor and Michelene Wandor,
the author of Music of the Prophets, the 2007 work that “commemorates the 350th
anniversary of the Jews return to England in 1657.”
http://www.filmreference.com/film/73/Michelene-Wandor.html
1941: Philippe de Rothschild was “released from Vichy
custody” today following which he went to England and joined the Free French
under Charles de Gaulle.
1941: Birthdate of New York native, author and
Distinguished Professor of history Blanche Wiesen Cook.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/author/cook-blanche
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Blanche+Wiesen+Cook.-a058726440
1941: German newspapers in Greece come out blaming Jews for
ruining Germany after World War I. During this same period in
April, the Greek newspaper New Europe wrote in capital letters “DEATH TO THE
JEWS.” The paper reported that the Jews were the cause of economic problems in
Germany. Levy stated the Greek paper called for the destruction of the
"Jewish race once and for all."
1942: The Battle for Moscow comes to an “end.” The war in the East will grind on. But thanks to the gritty, desperate defense
of the Soviet capital, the German Army has been stopped and what was to have
been a lightning war turns into a war of attrition. As bad as the Holocaust was, defeat at Moscow
would have made it even worse. The
Soviet victory here, along with other Soviet victories later in the war caused
General Douglas McArthur (of all people) to declare that the Red Army was the
Hope of the World.
1942: “Frank L. Weil was re-elected president of the
National Jewish Welfare Board, and Judge Irving Lehman was re-elected honorary
president at the Twenty-Fifth annual conference of the J.W.B. which concluded
its three-day session today” in New York City. (As reported by JTA)
1942: At Mauthausen, “forty-eight people were shot at
two-minute intervals as a present to Hitler on his birthday.”
1942: “Thirty French hostages – “Communists, Jews and
sympathizers” – were executed today by the German military command near Roden
in reprisal for the bombing last week of a military train in which a large
number of German soldiers were killed.” (As reported by JTA)
1942: At a birthday
banquet for Hitler in East Prussia, Hermann Göring announced that he was
responsible for the Reichstag fire of February 27, 1933, that set off
Nazi reprisals against purported Communist subversion.
1942: As part of the exercises commemorating the 1,000th
anniversary of the medieval scholar Saadia Gaon, the Jewish Theological
Seminary of New York will confer honorary degrees on three modern educators
this evening at the University of Chicago.
1942: “More than a thousand prominent educational and
religious leaders gathered tonight at the University of Chicago’s Mandel Hall
at a convocation called by the Jewish Theological Seminary to honor Rabbi
Saadia Gaon, the thousandth anniversary of whose death is being celebrated this
year. President Robert M. Hutchins of the University of Chicago presided at the
meeting.” (As reported by JTA)
1943(15th of Nisan, 5703): Pesach
1943: On the second day of Pesach, the Warsaw uprising
continued for a second day. The ghetto is bombarded with fire frp,
mortars and machine guns. Germans kill all the sick in the Czyste hospital.
Then they set the hospital on fire. Jewish resistance was stubborn and
organized. The Nazis, who had swept France in a mere six weeks, could not
believe that the Jews of all people were providing this kind of a fight.
According to one account, some of the Jews could not believe they were doing it
either.
1944: “A citation of the New York Round Table of the
National Conference of Christians and Jews was presented tonight to former
Supreme Court Justice Joseph M. Proskauer, president of the American Jewish
Committee, as "a valiant fighter in the cause of goodwill" in
ceremonies broadcast from station WHN.”
1944: While it is estimated that more one million Jews are
serving the forces of the “United Nations” as of today “more than fifty members
of Parliament have signed a motion to come before the House of Commons asking
that facilities be granted for the formation of a Jewish army under British or
United Nations command to fight on any required battlefield and to composed of
volunteers not a present liable to compulsory military service.”
1945(7th of
Iyar, 5705): During the night 20 children and at least 28 adults were hanged at
Bullenhuser Damn, one of the satellite camps of Neuengamme. The Bullenhuser
Damm Memorial is dedicated to the memory of these children, who were subjected
to medical experiments in the Neuengamme concentration camp before being
murdered, to the 4 prisoners who cared for them, and to 24 unidentified Soviet
prisoners.(Based on information supplied by the Wiener Library)
1945: Jerusalem’s
District Commissioner, James Huey Hamilton Pollock, met with Arab leaders in an
attempt to reach a solution as to how Jerusalem should be governed. Jewish leaders had accepted a British
proposal that would have the position of Mayor rotate among each of the three
main religious groups in the city. The
Arabs had maintained that the mayor must be Muslim. The compromise would allow for a partition
plan.
1945: Prime Minister
Churchill telegraphs his wife who is in the Soviet Union stating that “Here we
are all shocked by the most horrible revelations of German cruelty in the
concentration camps.”
1945: Ernst Hess, who
was Hitler’s commanding officer during World War I ended his work as a “forced
laborer’ for plumber named George Grau.
1946(19th of
Nisan, 5706): Shabbat shel Pesach
1946: The
Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry completed its report, urging the British to
end the land purchase restrictions imposed on the Jews as part of the 1939
White Paper and to grant 100,000 Palestine certificates immediately. The British rejected the proposal, refused to
allow immigration on anything approaching that scale.
1946: “Woman Bites
Dog,” produced by Kermit Bloomgarden and written by Bella and Sam Spewack was
performed on Broadway for last time at the Belasco Theatre.
1946: “Five Yemenite
Jews were killed when a three-inch shell exploded…in Nathanya” a town halfway
between Tel Aviv and Haifa.
1946: Birthdate of
“Israeli-born American pianist Mordecai Shehori, the native of Tel Aviv who “made
his New York debut after winning the 1974 Jeunesses Musicales Competition.”
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Shehori-Mordecai.htm
1946:
Twenty-eight-year-old Brooklyn-born southpaw Herbert “Lefty” Karpel pitched in
the second and final game of his two game career with the New York Yankees.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/karpehe01.shtml
1946: “Devotion” a
biopic directed by Curtis Bernhardt was released in the United States today.
1947: Seventy-six-year-old Christian X
of Denmark, who fourteen years earlier almost to the day had attended the
ceremonies marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the
Grand Synagogue and who according to a popular myth donned the Yellow Star of
David during the Nazi occupation (something he wrote about in his diaries”
passed away today.
1948: On the eve of Pesach, "the
last food convoy after Operation Nachson, made up of some 300 trucks brought
provisions to Jerusalem.
1948: A convoy that included Prime Minister
David Ben Gurion set out from Tel Aviv to the besieged city of Jerusalem. Ben Gurion wanted to spend Pesach in
Jerusalem with the beleaguered defenders as a way of raising moral. The trip was extremely dangerous because the
Arabs controlled the high ground on both sides of the highway and had
successfully beaten back several other such attempts. While Ben Gurion, who was traveling in one of
the lead vehicles, made it through, the rest of the convoy came
under heavy attack and was forced to turn back after suffering heavy
casualties. This was only one of the
many battles fought to open the road to Jerusalem. Long after the war was over, travelers on the
modern-four lane highway from the coast to Jerusalem could see the burned-out
hulks of the Jewish vehicles that serve as constant reminder of the price the
Jewish people paid for Jerusalem.
1948(11th of Nisan, 5708): Twenty
Jewish soldiers were killed today when “a second attempt was made to” take
Metzudat Koach, a Tegart fort built by Solel Boneh during the British Mandate”
that “was a key observation point on the Naftali heights, overlooking the Hula
Valley” which had been seized by the Arabs thus threatening the existence of
kibbutzim in the Upper Galilee.
1948(11th of Nisan, 5708): Five members of
Haganah were killed and twenty-four were wounded during a day long fight “at
Deir Ayoub, just short of the gorges of Bab El Wad” with Arabs who were trying
to keep a convoy from reaching Jerusalem which was under siege that was a violation
of international law.
1948: “Arab throngs turned out at Amman to
welcome The Grand Mufti, Haj Amin el Husseini” prior to his meeting with King
Abdullah of Trans-Jordan who has intimated that his Arab Legion would soon join
armies from Arab nations in an invasion of Palestine.
1948: “In Jerusalem armed Arabs held up a
postal trucked, for the driver to drive to the Garden of Gethsemane and stole
seventy-six bags of foreign, domestic and army mail.
1948: A group of Jewish veterans who had had
served with the British Army during World War II drove a convoy to twenty-four
armored trucks to the edge of the Negev where they founded “a new settlement
called Brur Hayal.
1949(21st of Nisan, 5709): Seventh
Day of Pesach
1949(21st of Nisan, 5709): Ben
Spector, an ironworker from Russia and the father of famous popular musician
Phil Spector passed away today.
1949: Twenty-five-year-old outfielder Cal
Abrams plays in his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1949: Publication of The Brave Bulls which
would become a 1951 film directed by Robert Rossen.
1950(3rd of Iyar, 5710): Yom
HaAtma’ut
1950: During a debate in the House of Commons Prime
Minister Atlee’s Labor government announced that it would continue to refuse to
sell arms to Israel while continuing to sell arms to Egypt, Iraq and
Jordan. According to sources in Tel
Aviv, the British have said they would consider sales of weapons to Israel if
she reaches a full settlement with the Arab states. No such pre-condition has been attached to
sales to the Arab states.
1951(14th of Nisan, 5711): Erev Pesach and Erev
Shabbat
1951: “When I Grow Up” produced by Sam Spiegel and with
music by Jerome Moross was released today in the United States.
1951(14th of Nisan, 5711): Sixty-one-year-old
David Stanley Dreyfus, the Pine Bluff born son of Isaac and Bertha Simon
Dreyfus and the brother of Ruth, Hugo, H. Artie and Jerome Dreyfus passed away
today after which he was buried in the Congregation Anshe Emeth Cemetery in
Pine Bluff, AR.
1951: Funeral services are scheduled to be held in
Jefferson City, MO for Etta Amolsky Schatzkey, the Lulling. TX born daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Amolsky and the wife of Albert Schatzkey whom she married in
1900 and with whom she lived in Houston before moving to Jefferson City.
1951: “Whirlwind I, a Cold War-era vacuum-tube computer
developed by the MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory for the U.S. Navy” on which
Alan J. Perslis, the Jewish born native of Pittsburgh and future winner the
Turin and Computer Pioneer awards had worked, was released today.
1952: NBC broadcast the final episode of “The Big Show” a
radio variety show written by Goodman Ace of Easy Aces who hired Selma Diamond
to work on the scripts with him.
1953(5th of Iyar, 5713): Yom HaAtzma'ut observed
1954(17th of Nisan, 5714): Third Day of Pesach
1954: “The Golden Apple,” a Jerome Moros musical that had
opened “Off-Broadway” in March opened on Broadway today at the Alvin Theatre.
1955: A production of “Guys and Dolls” “starring Walter
Matthau as Nathan Detroit” opened today.
1956: A subpoena duces
tecum was served today on Mauricio Hochschild.
1957(19th of Nisan, 5717): Shabbat Shel Pesach
1957: U.S. premiere of “The Spirit of St. Louis” directed
by Billy Wilder who also co-authored the script with music by Franz Waxman.
1958(30th of Nisan, 5718): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1958: “Back to Methuselah” for which Bernard Simon, Nat
Dorfman and Irvin Dorfman was preformed for the last time on Broadway at
Ambassador Theatre.
1960: “From A to Z,” “a musical revue with a book by Woody
Allen…opened on Broadway” today at the Plymouth Theater.
1961(4th of Iyar, 5721): Yom HaAtzma’ut
1961: Israel is scheduled to hold military parade in
Jerusalem, that despite assurance from the Ambassador Arthur Lourie will not
include any aircraft or weapons containing ammunition, the Jordanians have
alleged will “international peace and security.”
1963: Final performance of at the Royal Theatre of “Lord
Prego,” written by S. N. Behran and for which Kal Bernstein served as “general
press representative.”
1963: CBS broadcast the final episode of “Have Gun – Will
Travel” that included an opening theme composed by Bernard Herrmann and over
its six-year history included episodes written by Bruce Geller and Irving
Wallace as well as appearances by Martin Balsam, Sydney Pollack, Norma Crane,
Suzanne Pleshette, Werner Klemperer and Dyan Cannon.
1965: U.S. premiere of “The Pawnbroker” the film version of
the novel by Edward Lewis Wallant, directed by Sidney Lumet and filmed by
cinematographer Boris Kaufman.
1965: In Montreal, architect Moshe Safdie and his wife gave
birth to “Canadian-American-Israeli playwright and screenwriter Oren Safdi who
whose works included “Jews & Jesus, a musical that satirizes the naiveté of
young Jews, half-Jews, Christians who date Jews and vice versa, while
questioning the place of religion in this unfettered age.”
1967: Birthdate of Mike Portnoy, drummer in the
progressive metal band Dream Theatre.
1968(22nd of Nisan, 5728): Eighth Day of Pesach
and Shabbat
1968: “The Portrait of a Queen was performed on Broadway
for the last time at Henry Miller’s Theatre which was owned and operated by
“the Messrs. Nerdlander.
1968: After 598 performances, the curtain came down on
Woody Allen’s “Don’t Drink the Water.”
1969: “In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” directed by
Jules Irving was performed on Broadway for the last time at the Vivian Beaumont
Theatre.
1970(14th of Nisan, 5730):Ta'anit Bechorot; Erev Pesach
1970(14th of Nisan, 5730): Forty-nine-year-old Poet and
translator Paul Celan passed away.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/paul-celan
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/celan
http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/paul-celan
1970: Bruno Kreisky became the first Socialist and the first Jew to
serve as Chancellor of Austria.
1970: Pini Nahmani, an Israeli pilot being held
in a Damascus prison, celebrated a Seder made possible by two Haggadot and some
Matzah crumbs sent by the Chief Rabbi of Zurich.
1971: Barbra
Streisand recorded "We've Only Just Begun."
1971: Three days after he had passed away
Austrian native Harry Sackler, the husband of Freda Sackler and the father of
Helen Muller Raphael; Susan Sylvia Chayefsky; Philip Sackler and Claire Landau was buried at the Baron Hirsch Cemetery on
Staten Island.
1972(6th of Iyar, 5732):
Eighty-six-year-old Isidor Posner, the husband of Ida Weinstein Posner and the
father of Marcy, Rhoda and Irving Posner passed away today after which he was
buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Lansing, Michigan.
1973(18th of Nisan, 5733): Fourth
Day of Pesach
1973(18th of Nisan, 5733):
Seventy-four-year-old economist Theodore N. Beckman, the Bessarabia born son of
Pearl Treistman and Nahum Backman, the holder of a Ph.D. from the Ohio State
University where he became a Professor of Marketing and husband of Esther G.
Society who also served “as the faculty adviser of the OSU Menorah Society and
a member of the advisory board of Hillel passed away today,
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/04/22/90932508.html?pageNumber=54
https://www.amazon.com/Books-Theodore-N-Beckman/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ATheodore+N.+Beckman
1974: Birthdate of Tucson native and
Harvard educated Republican political Randy Fine, the husband of Anne Price and
since April 1, 2025, the Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from
Florida’s 6th District who styles himself as the “Hebrew Hammer” and
who was sworn “using an ArtScroll Stone Edition Chumash.”
1974: South African Jewish professional
association footballer Martin Cohen was part of the White XI that played their
black counterparts today “in a racially charged match at Rand Stadium. After
initially going down 1-0 to the black side (the goal was called off-side by
referee Wally Turner), Cohen scored a crucial goal before Neil Roberts put the
game away.”
1975: Larry Blyden, a practicing Jew from
Houston born Ivan Lawrence Blieden, co-hosted the telecast of the Tony Awards.
1976(20th of Nisan, 5736): Sixth Day
of Pesach
1976: Paula
Hyman spoke about the history of Jewish women in America on New York radio
station WEVD.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/apr/20/1976/paula-hyman
1977(2nd
of Iyar, 5737): Yom HaZikaron
1977: "Annie
Hall" a comedy directed and written by Woody Allen co-starring Paul Simon
and Janet Margolin was released in the United States, a month after premiering
at the Los Angeles Film Fesitval.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Yitzhak
Navon was elected the fifth president of the State of Israel on his 57th
birthday. The minister of defense, Ezer Weizmann, was expected to leave for
Cairo in another bid to renew the stalled Israeli-Egyptian peace negotiations.
In Washington, efforts were made to set the stage for another, possibly more
promising, summit between Prime Minister Menachem Begin and US president, Jimmy
Carter.
1979: U.S. premiere of “Dawn of the Dead” co-starring
Gaylen Ross who would later produce the acclaimed documentary “Killing
Kasztner.”
1979: “Gol Maal” featuring David Abraham Cheulkar, the
member of Indo-Israeli family from Ashdod was released today in India.
1980(4th of Iyar, 5740): Yom HaZikaron
1981(16th of Nisan, 5741): Second Day of Pesach;
First Day of the Omer under President Reagan.
1981(16th of
Nisan, 5741): New York City native and CCNY grad Sol Rafel, “the executive
director of Bronx House, the largest Jewish community center the borough” who
had two daughters – Judy and Ellen – with his wife Ruth passed away today
1982(27th of Nisan, 5742): Yom HaShoah
1986: An Irishwoman arrested
in connection with an attempt to blow up a crowded Israeli airliner was freed
tonight after two days of questioning with no charges brought against her, the
police said. Anne-Marie Murphy, 32 years old, was arrested at London's Heathrow
Airport carrying explosives on Thursday as she was about to board an El Al
flight to Tel Aviv. She carried a bag containing about 10 pounds of explosives
stashed in a false bottom. The police said she may have been duped into taking
the bomb onto the plane. Detectives are still questioning her fiancé, Nezar
Hindawi, a 35-year-old Jordanian who was arrested on Friday.
1986 - World famous pianist Vladimir Horowitz performed in
his Russian homeland. A non-observant Jew, this performance was one of his
last before he went into his final retirement. "It's better to make your
own mistakes than to copy someone else's." "My future is in my past,
and my past is in my present. I must now make the present my future."
1987: Two Israeli soldiers
and three terrorists were killed today in a shootout after the terrorists cut through a Lebanon border fence
and crossed into northern Israel, an Israeli Army spokesman said. The Israeli
radio said three terrorits who slipped past Israeli troops in southern Lebanon
and crossed the border near the Menara kibbutz ''were wiped out,'' but not
before they had killed the two Israeli soldiers who had tracked them to their
hiding place in an apple orchard 500 yards inside Israel. Al Fatah, Yasir
Arafat's faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, took credit for the
operation.
1988(3r of Iyar, 5748) Yom HaZikaron observed
1988: Bernard A. Friedman began serving as “Judge of the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan” today.
1989(15th of Nisan, 5749): Pesach is observed
for the first time during the Presidency of George H.W. Bush.
1989: In Hammersmith London, Bernard and Flora Sternberg
gave birth to actress Roxy Sternberg.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/apr/20/1989/birth-actress-roxy-sternberg
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4662925/
1990(25th of Nisan, 5750): Seventy-one-year-old
Justice Irene Finkelstein, the daughter of Aaron Rushovich and Sonia
Chatzkelowitz Rushovich, the wife of David Finkelstein and Maurice Finkelstein
with she gave birth to Arlene Dawn Joel passed away today.
1990(25th of Nisan, 5750): Ninety-year-old
University of Pennsylvania trained attorney and WW I veteran Philip Amram, the son attorney David Werner Ambram and the
father of composer David Amram who was the chairman of the United States delegation
to the 1972 Hague Conference on International Private Law, passed away today
https://www.acbabenchbar.com/amram-history
1991(6th of Iyar, 5751): Parashat Tazria-Metzora
1991(6th of Iyar, 5751: Movie director Don Siegel passed
away. Born in Chicago in 1912 and
educated in England, Siegel had a long and storied career. In 1945,
two shorts he directed, Hitler Lives?
and A Star in the Night, won Academy
Awards, which launched his career as a feature director. Among his long list of
film credits were a series of Clint Eastwood films including Coogan’s Bluff, Two Mules for Sister Sarah and the classic Dirty Harry.
1993: At a solemn outdoor
ceremony tonight at the place where several hundred poorly armed Jews battled
the Nazis 50 years ago, the leaders of Poland and Israel hailed the valor of
the uprising and called for a new beginning in the often difficult relationship
between Jews and Poles.
1994: “Paul Touvier, the first French citizen tried for
crimes against humanity, was sentenced today to life in prison for ordering the
execution of seven Jews during World War II.”
http://articles.latimes.com/1994-04-20/news/mn-48236_1_war-crimes
1995(20th of Nisan, 5755): Sixth Day of Pesach
1995(20th of Nisan, 5755):
Fifty-two-year-old, “Jacob Shaham, among the world's leading theoretical
astrophysicists in the study of neutron stars and professor of physics at
Columbia” passed away today.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/archives/vol20/vol20_iss26/record2026.28.html
1996: Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, head of Al Azhar Mosque
and University, the spiritual guide for hundreds of millions of Muslims, said
in an interview published today that he considered those who blow up Israeli
troops in suicide operations to be martyrs which was meant to clarify an
earlier statement that appeared to deny the status of martyr to the four
Palestinians whose suicide bombings this year in Israel left 63 dead.
1997: The New York Times featured reviews of Rabin:
Our Life, His Legacy by Leah Rabin and The Boys: The Untold Story of 732
Young Concentration Camp Survivors by Martin Gilbert.
1998: One day after he passed away, a funeral service is
scheduled to held at The Jewish Center of
for eighty-eight-year-old REITS graduate Rabbi Israel Silverstein, the
husband of Sadie Silverstein with whom he had two children –Lorraine and
Jerrold – and “a self-made business man, communal leader, philanthropist,
scholar and teacher at The Jewish Center who was also he Chaplain at St. Luke’s
Hospital and one of the founding members and long-term President of the
Metropolitan N.Y. Commission on Talmud Torah Education.”
1999(4th of Iyar, 5759): Yom HaZikaron
1999(4th of Iyar, 5759): Eighty-four-year-old Baroness
Bethsabée de Rothschild passed away in Tel Aviv
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethsab%C3%A9e_de_Rothschild
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/22/world/batsheva-de-rothschild-84-a-patron-of-graham.html
2000(15th of Pesach, 5760): Pesach
2000: In Shanghai, 100
Jews attended Pesach services at Ohel Rachel Synagogue.
2000: “A Story Still Painful After Repeated” published
today provides a review the Robert Myers’ The Lynching of Leo Frank which
is another in a list of less than successful attempts to capture the events
surrounding the events that took place in pre-WW I Georgia.
2001(27th of Nisan, 5761): Ninety-two-year-old
Avigdor HaKohen Miller passed away today.
http://www.livingwithhashem.com/remembering-rabbi-avigdor-miller-ztl.html
2001:Alejandro Mayorkas, the Cuban born Jew and Loyola
Marymount University trained attorney completed his service as the United
States Attorney for the Central District of California.
2002(8th of Iyar, 5762): Border
Policeman St.-Sgt. Uriel Bar-Maimon, 21 of Ashkelon was killed in an exchange
of fire near the Erez industrial park in the northern Gaza Strip. Israeli
forces pursued the Palestinian gunman and killed him. An explosive belt was
found on his body. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility.
2002(8th of Iyar, 5762): Sgt. Maj.
Nir Krichman, 22 of Hadera, was killed in an exchange of gunfire, when IDF
forces entered the village of Asira a-Shamaliya, north of Nablus, to arrest
known Hamas terrorists.
2003: The New York Times included reviews of books by Jewish authors
and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including recently released
paperback versions of “Sunday Jews, by Hortense Calisher in which she “explores
the disparate fortunes of an extended Jewish family living on the Upper West
Side after World War II” and “Be My Knife” by David Grossman.
2003(18th of Nisan, 5763): IDF photographer Cpl.
Lior Ziv, 19, of Holon, was killed and three other soldiers were wounded during
an operation to destroy a Hamas smuggling tunnel in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip.
2003(18th of Nisan, 5763): Biophysicist, Sir
Bernard Katz passed away. Sir Bernard Katz was born in Germany in 1911. He fled to Great Britain when the Nazis came to power. Katz was noted for his work on nerve
biochemistry. He shared the Nobel Prize
in physiology or medicine in 1970 with Julius Axelrod and Ulf von Euler. He was
knighted in 1970.
2004: The Public Law
Department of the Buenos Aires University School of Law and the International
Raoul Wallenberg Foundation organized and presented The International Seminar
"Diplomacy and the Holocaust.”
2005: While some controversy swirls around reports of Pope
Benedict XVI’s membership in the Hitler Youth, reports published today say he
has “won strong praised from Jewish leaders…for his role in helping Pope John
Paul II mend fences between Catholic and Jews” as can be seen by the statement
of Rabbi Israel Singer, the chairman of the World Jewish Congress that he views
“him as our most serious partner in the Catholic Church” over a span of time
lasting twenty-six years.
2006(22nd of Nisan, 5766): Eighth
Day of Pesach including recitation of Yizkor.
2006(22nd of Nisan, 5766): Seventy-seven-year-old
Medal of Honor Jack Weinstein passed away today
http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/valor24/recipients/weinstein/
http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=6794
2006(22nd of Nisan, 5766):
Eighty-two-year-old Paul Mortiz Cohn, the “Aster Professor of Mathematics at
University College London passed away today.
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Cohn.html
2006: “President George W. Bush signed an
official document declaring the month of May Jewish American Heritage Month
(JAHM)”
2007(2nd of Iyar, 5767): Ninety-two-year-old
Israeli rabbi Yehuda Meir Abrmowicz, the son Tzvi Yitzchok
Abramowicz who made Aliyah in 1935 where “he served as general secretary
of Agudat Yisrael, which he represented in the Knesset from 1972 until 1981,
and as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset between 1977 and 1981” passed away today.
2007: Haaretz
reported that sixty-six civilians were killed in hostile actions since last
Independence Day, mostly during the Second Lebanon War, bringing the number of
civilians killed in terror attacks since the state's establishment in 1948 to
1,635, according to National Insurance Institute (NII) Director Dr. Yigal
Ben-Shalom.
2007: The Jerusalem
Post reported that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had condemned as
"hurtful" and "spurious" comments made by former Sephardi
chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu that the victims of the Holocaust were made to
suffer because of the sins of the Reform Movement. Olmert went on to praise the
Reform Movement as an important element in the “House of Israel.”
2007: U.S. premiere of “In The Land of Women” starring Adam
Brody with a script by Jon Kasdan who also directed the film.
2008(15th of Nisan, 5768): First Day of Pesach
2008: San Francisco chefs
Gayle Pirie and John Cook are and putting a Slow Food spin on the Passover
Seder for the second night of Passover. The Seder, held at Foreign Cinema is
sponsored by Heeb and is the magazine’s inaugural "Slow Food Seder.”
2008: The New York
Times book section featured a review of “Dictation” the most recent
work of Jewish author Cynthia Ozick.
2008: The Washington
Post book section featured a review of a biography of the Jewish poet Louis Zukofsky entitled “The Poem of a
Life” by Mark Scroggins and an interview with American poet Edward
Hirsch whose grandfather was a stringer for a Yiddish newspaper who wrote poems
and copied them into the backs of books.
2008: The Sunday Chicago
Tribune reported that two Torah scrolls, each
worth an estimated forty to sixty thousand dollars. were taken from Kenosha
synagogue just days before the beginning of Passover.
2009: In Washington, D.C.,
Adina Hoffman, a Jerusalem-based writer, critic and
founder of Ibis Editions, discusses and signs “My Happiness Bears No Relation
to Happiness: A Poet's Life in the Palestinian Century, “her new biography of
Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali.
2009: Opening session of “Durban
II Counter at the Fordham University School of Law. The American Association of
Jewish Lawyers and Jurists sponsor this counter-conference organized to address
the real issues of "racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and other
forms of intolerance."
2009: Human Rights Watch said
in a new report issued today that Hamas security forces
killed at least 32 Palestinian political rivals and those suspected of
collaborating with Israel during and after the Israeli offensive in the Gaza
Strip. The report also said “unlawful arrests, torture and killings in
detention” were making a mockery of Hamas’s claims to uphold the law in Gaza,
which is ruled by Hamas, an Islamic group. “Hamas should end its attacks on
political opponents and suspected collaborators in Gaza, which have killed at
least 32 Palestinians and maimed several dozen more during and since the recent
Israeli military offensive,” the report by Human Rights Watch, an advocacy
group, said. It said that gunmen believed to be from Hamas killed 18
Palestinians, most suspected of collaborating with Israel, and that another 14
Palestinians had been killed by people said to be members of Hamas security
forces since Israel ended its offensive.
2009: Today President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad of Iran used the platform of a United Nations conference in Geneva
on combating racism to disparage Israel as a “cruel and repressive racist
regime,” prompting delegates from European nations to desert the hall and
earning a rare harsh rebuke from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
2009: Lord Hoffmann (Leonard Hoffmann) completed his terms
as Second Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in South Africa.
2009: “President Obama formally nominated Fred
Hochberg” the son of refugees from Nazi Germany “to be Chairman and President of the
[[Export-Import Bank.”
2009: Steve Reich was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for
Music, on April 20, 2009, for Double
Sextet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Sextet
2010(6th Iyar, 5770): Yom Ha’Atzmaut
2010: In “a Federal Criminal Complaint dated today (Case
No. 10-8082), Nevin Karey Shapiro who went to prison for running a $930 milling
Ponzi scheme "directed others to create and show to the investors
documents fraudulently touting the profitability” of Capitol Investments USA
which was a key vehicle in the fraud.
2010: The US premier of “I Was There In Color,” is
scheduled to take place as part the Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebration at the JCC in
Manhattan.
2010: Or Ashual, a 17-year-old student at the Kfar Saba Amana
girls’ school, became the 2010 winner of the World Bible Quiz competition today,
which took place on Israel’s 62nd Independence Day at the Jerusalem Center for
the Performing Arts.
2011(16th of Nisan, 5771): Second Day of Pesach
2011: Beit Avi Chai, in collaboration with Merkaz Hamagshimim
Hadassah, is scheduled to hold its second annual English speaking amateur
theatre festival: "Stage One".
2011: Two suspects were arrested today in connection with setting
fire to a synagogue on the Greek island of Corfu a day earlier, Greek Police
said.
2011: A Haggadah Fair sponsored by Kol HaOt and the Inbal
Hotel will open today in Jerusalem.
2011: One day after Steve Soboroff was hired to be the Vice
Chairman of the LA Dodgers, Major League Baseball seized control of the team
from Frank McCourt.
2012: “In Darkness” a film about Polish sewer worker and
Jews living in the Lvov Ghetto is scheduled to be shown in Iowa City under the
sponsorship of Agudas Achim
2012: “Joanna” and “Life Is Too Long” are scheduled to be
shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival
2012: “The Man Behind the Curtain” provides a detailed
review of Mr. Broadway: The Inside Story of the Shuberts, the Shows and the
Stars by Gerald Schoenfield.
2013: “No Place on Earth” is scheduled to be shown for the
first time in Claremont, CA.
2013: Adam Burstain, the son of Todd and Jennifer Burstain
- pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community-
and marvelous student of Judaism is scheduled to appear in the final
performance of “Urine Town.”
2013: “Cabaret-Berlin: The Wild Scene” is scheduled to be
shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival
2013: “Dorfman in Love” is scheduled to be shown at the
Northern Virginia Jewish Film Festival.
2013: Israeli gymnast Alexander Shatilov won the gold medal
in the European Men's Artistic Gymnastic individual Championships, held in
Moscow today.
http://www.jpost.com/Sports/Israeli-gymnast-wins-gold-at-European-Championship-310466
2013: U. S Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will
finalize a huge arms deal with Israel during his visit starting today, under
which Israel will for the first time be permitted to purchase US aerial
refueling planes and other ultra-sophisticated military equipment that could
prove vital to any Israel strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities
2014: “Igor and the Crane’s Journey” is scheduled to be
shown at the JCC Rockland International Jewish Film Festival
2014: “Helen Suzman: Fighter for Human Rights” an exhibition that
has been on display at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is
scheduled to come to a close.
2014: The New York
Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special
interest to Jewish readers including No Book But The World by Leah Hager
Cohen, Updike by Adam Begley and Plato at the Googleplex: Why
Philosophy Won’t Go Away by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
2015: Mark Strauss, the “well-known oil painter” and
Holocaust survivor who wrote Crumbs under the pen-name of Marek Mann is
scheduled to speak at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
2015: “Secrets of War” and “Magic Men” are scheduled to be
shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2015: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to
present a lecture by Rabbi Marvin Toyaker and Ellen Rodman, authors of Pepper,
Silk & Ivory: Amazing Stories about Jews and the Far East.
2015: In Washington, DC, Dr. Samuel Gruber is scheduled to
deliver a lecture that “will explore the evolution of the movement to preserve
historic synagogues entitled “Preserving America’s Synagogues” Past and
Future.”
2015(1st of Iyar, 5775): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2015: Four days after he had passed away, funeral services
were held today at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue for Richard Suzman of
Chevy Chase, MD, the “husband of Janice Krupnick” and father of Daniel and
Jessica Suzman.
2015(1st of Iyar, 5775): Eighty-five-year-old
record executive Bernard Stollman whose parents met in the balcony of a Yiddish
theatre, passed away today.
2015(1st of Iyar, 5775): Ninety-year-old
Frederick Morton, the baker turned author passed away today.
2015(1st of Iyar, 5775): Eighty-one-year-old
Paris born Rosh Yeshiva and expert on Halakah rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein passed
away at Alon Shvut, Israel.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/renowned-rabbi-aharon-lichtenstein-dies-at-81/
2016: “A New Leaf” and “Michael Nichols: American Masters”
are scheduled to be shown on the final night of the Westchester Jewish Film
Festival.
2016: Two days after he
had passed away, funeral services are scheduled be held for 92 year old Rabbi
Ben-Zion Gold, the native of Radom, Poland “who came to America in 1947 and
settled in Cambridge, MA, where he became Director of the Hillel at Harvard”
and whose mourners will include his daughters Merav and Hannah.
2016: The ShapeShifter Lab is scheduled to present the Alon
Yavnai Big Band.
2016: The Samaritans are scheduled to celebrate their Passover
today.
2016(12th of Nisan, 5776): Seventy-four-year-old
University of South Carolina graduate and Columbia trained attorney Solomon
Blatt, Jr. the Barnwell, SC bon son of Ethel Green and Speaker of the House of
the South Carolina House of Representatives Solomon Blatt, Sr and husband of
Carolyn Gayden with whom he had three children who served on a destroyer during
WW II and who was Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the
District of South Carolina at the time of his death, passed away today.
https://www.fjc.gov/node/1377931
https://web.archive.org/web/20120123222517/http://www.charlestonlaw.edu/v.php?pg=254
2017: In Arizona, the Valley Beit Midrash and the Jewish
Book Council are scheduled to co-host “Why Be Jewish? – Continuing the Legacy
of Edgar Bronfman”
https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/events/why-be-jewish/
2017: The Jerusalem Opera Spring concert scheduled for this
evening will “pay home to Enrico Caruso.
2018: The “12-day
Journey of Remembrance and Celebration” sponsored by the Steicker Center is
scheduled to come to an end today.
2018: In the Netherlands, a 23-year-old man, identified in
the media as “Jordi A” “drew a shape reminiscent of a cross on the main
Holocaust memorial monument of The Hague.”
2018: “Hungarian Kosher Foods, a Chicago-area landmark for
45 years” “America’s first all –kosher
supermarket” which was founded by “Holocaust survivor Sandor Kirsche” is
scheduled to become the property today of “Orian Azulay, the owner of the
kosher supermarket Sara’s Tent in Aventura, Florida.”
2018: In Metairie, LA, the Jewish Community Day School is
its Yom Ha’atzmaut Celebration which including a torch lighting ceremony
“representing the 12 Tribes of the people of Israel.”
2018: “Spring Scenes,” the final production of the
Cleveland Institute of Music Opera Theatre under the leadership under the
direction artistic director David Bamberger is scheduled to open this evening.
2019: “The Greater Reconstruction: American Democracy after
the Civil War,” a two day conference which was inaugurated by “President Susan
Herbst of the University of Connecticut” and heard a keynote address by
Professor Eric Foner is scheduled to come to an end today.
2019(15th of Nissan, 5779): First Day of Pesach
15th of Nisan, 5650 (1890): An untold number of
poor New Yorkers enjoyed eating meat at their Seder tonight thanks to the
generosity of Mrs. Paulina Rosendorff who had provided the funding that enabled
butchers to distribute their product free of charge.
15th of
Nisan, 5675(1915): The 300 Jewish soldiers and sailors who attended last
night’s Seder sponsored by the Army and Navy Y.M.H.A. which also provided a
night’s lodging at the Hotel Roland are scheduled to worship at Temple Beth
Israel at Lexington and 72nd Street today while the Secretary of
War, the Governor of New York and the Mayor of New York City have been invited
to attend tonight’s Seder sponsored by the Army and Navy Young Men’s Hebrew
Association for the benefit of 300 of the 8,000 Jews serving in the military
which is being held at Vienna Hall on Lexington and 58th Street.
15th of
Nisan, 5677 (1917): One day after U.S. declared War on Germany, Jews gather in
the synagogue to observe Pesach and Shabbat
15th of Nisan,
5705(1945): At least 58 Jews were murdered in a forest near the
Austrian village of Deutsch Shuetzen, in what would come to be called the
Deutsch Shuetzen Massacre while in the evening, members of the Jewish Infantry
Brigade of the British 8th Army serving in Italy took part in a
Seder at Faenza.
15th of Nisan,
5725(1965): While Jews in the Soviet struggled to deal with a
shortage of Matzah created by the government refusal to let state bakeries
prepare adequate supplies of unleavened bread Rabbis in America were encouraged
to deliver sermons that related the themes of Pesach with fight for Civil
Rights complete with references to the recent voting rights march in Selma.
15th of
Nisan, 5728(1968): For the first time, Pesach is observed in a unified
Jerusalem
2020: Using Facebook,
The YIVO Institute is scheduled to host “Beethoven in the Yiddish Imagination.
2020: Live on Zoom, the
Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to host “Overcoming the Present – A Virtual
Salon with Max Czollek.
2020: Live on Zoom, the
American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host “Laughter is the Best
Medicine: Virtual Comedy Show with K-von.”
2020: A reading on Zoom
of the names for Holocaust Remembrance Day, followed by a commemorative program
which is scheduled to be presented by S.F.-based JFCS Holocaust Center in
partnership with many organizations.
2020: Three Berkeley,
CA synagogues are scheduled to host a “Virtua Yom Hashaoh Commemoration”
featuring Holocaust “survivor Ernst Valfer talking about the trauma of children
separated from their parents.”
2020: The Streicker
Center is scheduled to present “The Soap Myth: Play and Webinair” with Dr.
Michael Berenbaum, Ira Forman, Jeff Cohen, Ed Asner and Tovah Feldshuh.
2020: This evening as
Yom HaShoah begins the Board of Deputies of British Jews is scheduled to host
“a virtual National Holocaust Commemoration marking the 75th
anniversary of the end of the Shoah and the liberation of Bergen Belsen” by the
British Army.
2021: YIVO is scheduled
to present a discussion of Judy Batalion's new book, The Light of Days: The
Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos led by Andrew
Silow-Carroll.
2021: In what
shopkeepers in Israel see as welcome opportunity, “Ramadan, when Muslims
refrain for eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset and gather for festive
break-fast meals and to exchange gifts at night, is scheduled to kick off today.
(As reported by Mohammad Al-Kassim/The Media Line)
2021: LBI is scheduled
to host Griselda Pollock (University of Leeds, UK)
who will be in conversation with Kerry Wallach (Gettysburg College, PA) about
the work and life of the Berlin-born Jewish artist, Charlotte Salomon who was
murdered at Auschwitz at the age of 26.
2021: Professor Marc Michael Epstein
is scheduled to begin his course exploring the relationship between Jews and
art throughout history at the London School of Jewish Studies.
2022(19th of Nisan,
5782): Fifth Day of Pesach
2022: In San Francisco, Congregation
Emanu-El is scheduled to host “A Passover Evening Out,” a unique Chol Hamoed
event that features a screening in the main sanctuary of “The Frisco Kid,”
starring Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford, a 1979 comedy that includes a storyline
about the first rabbi of Congregation Emanu-El trying to make his way west
along with Passover desserts, wine and soft drinks in the courtyard.”
2022: UK Jewish Film is scheduled
host the final online screening of “The Dinner.”
2022:The Wiener Holocaust Library is
scheduled to host a virtual talk during which Senior Curator Dr. Barbara
Warnock will explore the development of antisemitism in Western Europe from the
late nineteenth century to today and the means by which Jewish organizations
and other groups have fought back against antisemitism.”
2022: In San Rafael, CA, the Osher
Marin, JCC is scheduled to host a “Passover Poetry Celebration” featuring a
translated reading of the “Song of Songs” the scroll connected with Pesach by
UC Berkeley professor Robert Alter, with a lecture on the book’s liturgical use
during Passover.
2022: As terrorists fire rockets from Gaza and Islamic
Jihad shows off its “tunnel city” that will be used in its next wave of attacks
on Israel, while the violence in
Jerusalem which was called for by terror groups in Gaza on April 13 continues,
“residents of Israeli communities living near the Gaza fear it's just a matter
of time before the south becomes the battle zone yet again.”
2022: SFSU is scheduled to host Agata Bielik-Robson discussing
her 2022 book about how 20th-century philosopher Jacques Derrida used his
self-identification as a Marrano as a literary experiment of autofiction.
Presented by SFSU Jewish Studies.
2023: The Vilna Shul is scheduled to host a
behind-the-scenes tour of the Boston Athenaeum, including a special tour of the
Great Boston Fire exhibit, “Revisiting the Ruins.”
2023: The Osher Marin is scheduled to host Henry Michalski
discussing his book Torn Lilacs: A True WWII Story of Love, Defiance and
Hope which tells the story of his parents’ survival from Poland to a remote
island gulag in Siberia to Kazakhstan and his family’s eventual immigration to
the U.S. through Ellis Island.
2023: The Streicker Center is scheduled to
host a screening of the “The Lost Eichmann Tapes.”
2023: The Boston Workers Circle is
scheduled to present “Antisemitism: Reclaiming the Conversation.”
2024: The Tulane Alumni Association is to honor Avron B. Fogelman with the
Dermot McGlinchey Lifetime Achievement Award.
2024: In Jerusalem, Agnon House is
scheduled to host another joint reading of Agnon's stories, this time called
"The Legend of the Writer" with Adin Ner-David, who will try to
provide an interpretation of the story, examine his poignant statement about
the act of art and trace the biographical elements scattered throughout it.”
2024(12th of Nisan, 5784): Shabbat HaGadol;
2024: As April 20th begins in Israel, the Hamas held hostages begin day 197 in captivity. (Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid
for this blog to cover so we are just providing a snapshot as of the posting at
midnight Israeli time.)
2025: DEGENERATE! Hitler’s War on Modern
Art, a traveling exhibition that explores how modern art was used as a tool to
sway public opinion by the Nazi party is scheduled to come an end today at the
Maltz Museum.
2025: Dr. Yahil Zaban is scheduled to
deliver an online lecture that examines “how greed is formulated in the Bible,
focusing on the story of Kerem Navot.
2025(22nd of Nisan, 5758):
Eighth Day of Pesach; Yizkor
2025: As April 20th begins in Israel, an
unprecedented wave of ant-Semitism sweeps across the globe that includes the
fire-bombing of the mansion housing the family of Governor Josh Shapiro on
Pesach, the reality is that the remaining Hamas held hostages begin day 562 in
captivity (Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so
we are just providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time)
2026: At sunset, the start of Yom
HaZikaron
https://rabbisacks.org/jewish-holidays/yom-hazikaron/
2026: The Streicker Cultural Center is
scheduled to host a conversation with Dan Senor, host of the Call Me Back
podcast and coauthor of the New York Times bestsellers The Genius of
Israel and Start-Up Nation and Rachel Goldberg-Polin who is
launching her new book, When We See You
Again, a powerful and universal story of grief and remembrance, perseverance
and love.
2026: On the eve of Memorial Day, Agnon House will host a special
on-line event that will include a reading with Agnon House counselors Ofir
Lifshitz, Uri Grinshpon and Ido Nitzan in "Opening to Kaddish - After the
Bedside of the Dead of the Land of Israel" after which attendees will embark
on a journey in the wake of the Kaddish prayer and the theological and national
difficulties it raises, and see how Agnon grasped the national mourning, a few
months before the establishment of the State of Israel. a reading.”
2026: YIVO and the American Society for
Jewish Music are scheduled to present a lecture by Anna C. Schultz, a Professor
and Chair of Music at the University of Chicago and author of Echoes of
Translation: Audibility and Relationally in Indian Jewish Women’s Songs.
2026: As April 20th begins in Israel, London
police are investigating an arson attack on the Kenton United Synagogue which
may be the work of the newly founded
Islamist group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI), or Movement of the
Companions of the Right Hand of Islam, which has links to Iran and which has
claimed responsibility for other attacks. (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)
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