This Day, April 17, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
April 17
44:
Birthdate of Pope Evaristus, who was “born in Greece
of a Jewish father named Juda, who was originally from the city of Bethlehem
and who reigned for thirteen years, six months and two days, under the reigns
of Domitian, Nerva and Trajan.
69: After the
First Battle of Bedriacum, Vitellius becomes Roman Emperor. The year 69 was
called “The Year of the Four Emperors” because four different claimants held
the position in this brief period of time. According to Rome and
Jerusalem, the sacking of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second
Temple were byproducts of this violent year and grew out of a need by
Vitellius’ successor, Vespasian, to prove his power and legitimacy.
392: The Roman
Emperors issued a new law “stating that Jewish leaders who have been expelled
by their community cannot be forced back on the” Jewish community by Roman
judges. While this may seem like a gain for the Jews, the decree refers
to them as “belonging to the Jewish superstition” – language that does not bode
well for the long-term well-being of the Jews in the Roman Empire.
1222:
Deacon Robert of Reading (England) was burned for converting to Judaism,
setting the precedent for the burning of heretics.
http://www.executedtoday.com/tag/robert-of-reading/
1280: Today
Richard Swinefeld who 1286 “threatened to excommunicate several of his flock
who wished to attend the wedding of the daughter of a leading Jew of Hereford”
was named Archdeacon of London
1397: Geoffrey
Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of
Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this date (in 1387) as when
the book's pilgrimage to Canterbury starts. There should be no connection
between the Jewish people and Chaucer since the Jews had been expelled from
England a century before he told his “tales.” But Chaucer is proof that
you do not need Jews to have anti-Semitism. The “Prioress’s Tale,” one of
the the twenty-three stories contains the following plot line, “While wandering
through the Jewish section of town singing hymns of his faith an eight-year old
Christian child is murdered…The frantic mother uncovers the crime when she
hears her newly buried son singing Alma Redemptoris. Justice is
sternly served when the Jewish community is wiped out in retaliation.”
1506(Nisan,
5266): In Lisbon, several Conversos were discovered who had in their possession
"some lambs and poultry prepared according to Jewish custom.” They
also had “unleavened bread and bitter herbs” needed “according to the
regulations for the Passover, which festival they celebrated far into the
night." Several of them were seized but were released after a few days.
Angered by the release, mobs would riot and attack conversos living in the
Portuguese capital.
1525(Nisan,
5285): Isaac ben Jacob Margolioth, the son of Nuremberg Rabbi Jacob Margolioth,
who served as a rabbi at Prague and wrote a preface to one of his father’s
works passed away today.
1528: First
Jews settle legally in Fuerth, Bavaria
1559: At
Cremona, Italy, Sixtus Senesis, an apostate Jew, who had become a Dominican,
tried to convince the local Spanish governor to burn the Talmud. The governor
demanded witnesses before he would give the order. Vitttorio Eliano the
converted grandson of Elias Levita and one Joshua dei Cantori bore witness that
the Talmud was full of lies about Christianity. A few days later approximately
10,000 books were burned. The Zohar was not touched since the Pope and the
Catholic Church was interested in its publication believing that it would
supplant the Talmud and make it easier to convert the Jews. Ironically it was
Eliano himself who wrote the preface to the Cremora Zohar.
1579: The
seaside town of Youghal in County Cork, Ireland was damaged during the which
was badly damaged today during the Second Desmond Rebellion had had the unique
distinction in 1555 of being the first Irish town to have a Jewish mayor –
William Moses Annyas Eanes, the grandson of Gil Eanes of Belmonte,
Portugal. Francis Eanes served as the town’s mayor on three different
occasions coinciding with the rebellion but the relation between the two men
has yet to be determined.
1581: King
Phillip, who commanded the governor of Milan to expel the Jews from Alessandra,
began his reign as King of Portugal and Algarves.
1671: In
Amsterdam, construction began on a synagogue under the direction of the
architect, Elias Bouman. The Sephardic community had bought the land in
December of 1670.
1682(9th
of Nisan, 5441): Today a riot broke out in Carpentras which “French liturgical
poet” Saul ben Joseph of Monteux memorialized in a piyyut.
1702(30th
of Nisan, 5462): Saul “David’ Pardo Brown, the Rotterdam born son of Sara and
Josiah David Pardo and the husband of Esther Pardo Brown who moved to New York
City from Newport in 1685 where he had been a merchant and who was one of the
earliest members of Shearith Israel passed away today in Curacao.
1731: Yeshivah
Minhat Arab became the first Jewish day school in North American when it was
founded today in the colony of New York. “The hazzan who taught the classes was
instructed to teach the students ‘the Hebrew Spanish and English writing and
arithmetick.’Eventually its name was changed to the Polonies Talmud Torah.”
1748(19th
of Nisan, 5508): Raphael Meldola passed away at Leghorn. Born at Leghorn in
1685, he was the son of Eleazar Meldola and Reina Senior. He served as
rabbi in Pisa, Bayonne and St. Esprit.
1750:
Frederick II issued a general patent to the Jews limiting their role in the
Prussian economy to activities involving commerce and industry. Jews were no
longer viewed as dependents of the monarch but as citizens of the state even
though they were not first class citizens. On the one hand, Jews were
encouraged to be part of the state and its economy. On the other hand they were
still second class citizens and divided into two classes - privileged and
protected. Considered by some to be an "enlightened monarch,"
King Frederick wrote his “Political Testament” that was published in 1752 in
which he described Jews as dangerous, superstitious and backward.
1760:
According to his will dated today, English businessman Sampson Gideon, the son
of West India merchant Rowland Gideon “left legacies to many charities, both
Jewish and Christian, including the Portuguese synagogue and the Corporation of
the Sons of the Clergy, to which he had been an annual subscriber during his
lifetime.”
1761: In New
York, Hayman M. Levy, the Hanover, Germany born son of Reyna and Moses Levy and
his wife Sloe Levy gave birth to Rachel Deborah Levy
1764(15th
of Nisan, 5524): Pesach
1765: Jews of
Arnhem were given permission to build a synagogue.
1770:
Charleston (SC) merchant, Moses Lindo responded to an appeal from Hezekiah
Smith and contributed five pounds to Rhode Island College which is now known as
Brown University. (As reported by Abraham Bloch) “Moses Lindo was the
inspector-general and surveyor of indigo, drugs, and dyes for South Carolina.”
1772(14th
of Nisan, 5532): Fast of the First Born; Erev Pesach observed as conditions
deteriorate between the thirteen colonies and mother country as can be seen by
formation of the Committees of Corrspondence.
1775(17th
of Nisan, 5535): Third Day of Pesach
1775: As “Paul
Revere clattered through ‘every Middlesex village and farm’ there were
approximately 3,000 Jews living in the thirteen colonies to respond to his call
to arms.
1777:
Birthdate of Bavaria native Abraham Bendel, the husband of Pessle Bandel and
the father of Elias, Sophia, Henry, Hendil and Bertha Bendel.
1782(3rd of
Iyar, 5542): Chaim Samuel Jacob Falk, known as the “Baal Shem of London” passed
away. Reportedly born in 1708, possibly in Furth, Germany, Falk escaped to
England in 1742 after authorities in Westphalia had sentenced the Kabbalist and
Mystic to death on charges of sorcery. “Falk left a diary,
now in the library of the bet ha-midrash of the United Synagogue, which is a
quaint medley of dreams, records of charitable gifts, booklists, cabalistic
names of angels, lists of pledges, and cooking-recipes.”
1783(15th
of Nisan 5543): First Day of Pesach
1783: “Jews
were expressly excepted from the benefit” of The Irish Appeals Act or the
Renunciation Act which was passed by Parliament today.
1783: Jewish
pugilist Daniel Mendoza “won a ten-round fight in 26 minutes” with “Sam Martin the Bath
Butcher in Barnet” after which “he was transported home followed by a cheering
crowd who carried lighted torches and sang 'See the Conquering Hero Comes'” and
“the Prince of Wales, who would become King George IV, presented Mendoza with
500 pounds, in addition to the 500 pounds he had won in the match, and shook
his hand in full view of the gallery.”
1789(21st
of Nisan, 5549): Seventh Day of Pesach 13 days before the inauguration of
George Washington.
1790: American
Patriot, Scientist, Printer and liver of the good life Benjamin Franklin passed
away at the age of 84. As with so many of those of his time, Franklin
espoused moral values but mistrusted organize religion. He used the
Exodus from Egypt as a metaphor for the colonists clash with King George, a
modern day Pharaoh. He wanted to have a depiction of the Israelites
crossing the Sea of Reeds as part of the Great Seal of the United States.
At a more practical level, his name was at the top of the list of prominent
Philadelphians who contributed funds to Congregation Mikveh Israel at the time
of its financial need.
1790(3rd of
Iyar, 5550): A major pogrom took place in the Jewish community of
Tetouan, Morocco. On this day the Muslim ruler Mawlay Yazid entered the city,
rounded up all of the Jews, men women and children, and violently stripped them
of their clothing. They were left with no dignity, naked for three days in
prison. Some of the Jews fearing for their lives escaped to the graves Moorish
saints where they would pray for their lives. The Muslim leader had some Jews
beheaded to make a statement.
1793: In
Richmond, VA, Judith I. Solomon and Israel I. Cohen gave birth to Philip I.
Cohen, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the postmaster at Norfolk, VA who was
the husband of Augusta Myers.
1794: In
Arnheim, Holland, Fronika Alexander Van Zanten and Philip Levie Haas gave birth
to Benjamin Philip Haas, the husband of Christina Hartog with whom he had seven
children including one who settled in Connecticut and another who settled in
Montana.
1797: “The
status of the Jews of Posen was now determined by the
"General-Juden-Reglement" of this date which aimed to make them, as
mechanics and tradesmen, useful members of the state.
1797: In
Eastern Poland, after falling to Prussia in the third partition of Poland in
1793, the government enacted "The Regulation" which removed a number
of regulations regarding occupations and domicile restrictions for Jews. This
still left many of the old regulations in place, including that of not being
able to marry under the age of 25 and then only upon proof of a fixed income.
1798: Jews
were given permission to “settle within the old city walls of Cologne.”
1798: David
Leion, the future present of Congregation Mikveh Israel in Savannah, GA married
Hannah Minis toda.
1799:
Birthdate of Cleveland, OH naïve Karl Strauss, the wife of Hendel Strauss and
father of Ferdinand Strauss.
1800(22nd
of Nisan, 5560): Eighth Day of Pesach; Yizkor recited for the last time as part
of Pesach during the administration of President John Adams.
1801(4th
of Iyar, 5561): Fifty-one-year-old Ruben Moses Rubino, the husband of Minkel
Rubino passed away today.
1802(15th
of Nisan, 5562): First Day of Pesach and Shabbat
1802: In
London, Matilda De Metz and Levy Salomons gave birth to Joseph Solomons, the
husband of Rebecca Montefiore, a daughter of Joseph Montefiore, the father of
Sophia, Henrietta and Matilda Salomons and the father-in-law of Aaron Goldsmid,
Lionel Benjamin Cohen and Professor Jacob Waley Salomons. (As reported by Sir
David Salomons)
1803: In
Charleston, SC, Sarah Levy and Zachariah Florance, the Netherlands native gave
birth to Jacob Levy Florance, the husband of Hannah Levy with whom he had six
children all of whom were born in New Orleans.
1805(18th
of Nisan, 5565): Fourth Day of Pesach
1805: As Jews
munch on their matzoth, Lewis and Clark their trek up the Upper Missouri from
Fort Madan.
1811:
Birthdate of Amsterdam native Rachel David Blok, wife of Meyer Hartog Silver
and the mother of London born Clara Silver.
1813(17th
of Nisan, 5573): Shabbat shel Pesach observed on the same day as he issuance of
the Constitution of the “First Independent State of Texas; Part of the Mexican
Republic.”
1817(1st of
Iyar, 5577): Rosh Chodesh Iyar observed on the same day that poet John Keats
wrote John Hamilton Reynolds in which he said, “‘I find that I cannot exist
without poetry – without eternal poetry – half the day will not do – the whole
of it – I began with a little, but habit has made me a Leviathan – I had become
all in a Tremble from not having written any thing of late –,”
1818: In
Mainz, Germany, Michael Creizenach and his wife gave birth to poet and
historian Theodor Creizenach.
1818:
Birthdate of Rouen, France native Henry Salomon, the “bootmaker and merchant”
and husband of Edinburgh native Clara Jacob with whom he had eight children,
all of whom were born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
1829: The
consecration of the Maiden Lane Synagogue that had originally been established
in 1810 in Soho “as a result of a rupture with the Westminster Congregation
(the future Western Synagogue) took place today in Londo.
1833: Thomas
Babington Macaulay delivered his speech “on the disabilities of the Jews” in
the House of Commons.
http://mises.org/library/civil-disabilities-jews-britain
1835(18th
of Nisan, 5595): Fourth Day of Pesach observed on the birthdates of American
poet Augusta Coope Bristol and Major General Zenas R. Bliss who was awarded the
Medal Honor during the Civil War.
1837: In
Savannah, GA, William and Eliza Ann Nelson Heidt gave birth Georgia Medical
College trained physician and pharmacist Dr. William Theodore Heidt, the
husband of Caroline E. Sheftall Heidt whom he married in 1856 and with whom he
had two children, a daughter who died in infancy and a son, William Horace
Heidt.
1837: Albert
Moses Levy's ship, the Independence, was captured by two Mexican brigs-of-war.
After three months he escaped and walked back to Texas, where he set up medical
practice in Matagorda. The next year he received an appointment to a medical
board established by both houses of the Congress of the republic.
1838(22nd
of Nisan, 5598): Eighth Day of Pesach and Yizkor
1839: In
Poland, Jeffe and Zadek Salomon gave birth to future Denver resident Adolph
Zadek Salomon, the husband of Mathilde Salomon and father of Frederick Z
Salomon; Amy Gertrude Lifton and Joel Salomon.
1840(14th
of Nisan, 5600): Erev Pesach
1840: In
Frankfurt, Clementine Oppenheim and her husband Adolphe de Reinach the Belgian
consul in Frankfurt gave birth to French banker Baron Jacob Adolphe Reinach
1840:
Birthdate of Hippolyte Bernheim the French born physician whose work with
hypnotherapy attracted the attention of Sigmund Freud.
1843(17th
of Nisan, 5603): Third Day of Pesach observed as President John Tyler continues
his efforts to have Texas join the Union.
1844: Hannah
Van Gelder and Philip Marcus Leuw, both of whom were natives of Holland, gave
birth to their daughter Mattje Philip Leuw.
1844: A
cabinet order issued today allowed Meno Burg “to replace his black epaulettes
with the red shoulder pieces” that were indicative of his role in the Prussian
Artillery and which he had been denied to the right to wear because he was
Jewish
1846(21st
of Nisan, 5606): Seventh Day of Pesach observed as American and Mexican forces
prepare to fight what became known as the Mexican-American War.
1846: In
Germany, Leopold Solomon Bernheimer, the son of Salomon Bernheimer and Ella Bernheimer
and his wife Fanny Weil—Bernheim gave birth to Henry Bernheim
1848(14th
of Nisan, 5608): Fast of the First Born; erev Pesach
1848: The
gates of the Rome Ghetto were pulled down during the Revolutions of 1848
that swept much of Europe in general and Italy in particular. Ciceruacchio, a
popular Italian Catholic leader, led a group who tore down the gates Passover
eve. The Jews in the ghetto at first thought they were being attacked and hid
in their houses.
1848: In
London, Rebecca Crawcour and Aron Hart gave birth Eve Hart.
1849: Birthdate
of Manhattan native Rosalie Jacobs Lewisohn, the wife of Leonard Lewisohn and
the mother of Jesse, Julia, Samuel, Lillie, Florence, Walter, Frederick, Alice,
Aaro and Irene Lewisohn.
1851(15th
of Nisan, 5611): First day of Pesach observed for the first time during the
Presidency of Millard Fillmore.
1852: In
Montgomery, AL, founding of “Kahl Montgomery” led by Rabbi A. J. Messing,
President David Weil and Vice President Nathan Greil.
1853:
Birthdate of German mathematician Arthur Moritz Schoenflies, the great-uncle of
Walter Benjamin.
1854: A
French-language version of “Margherita d'Anjou an operatic melodramma
semiseria in two acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer was performed in New Orleans
today.
1854: One day
after she had passed away, 70-year-old Hannah Crawcoure, the wife of Moses
Crawcoure, was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1855: One day
after he had passed away, 63-year-old Jacob Moses was buried today at the
“Plymouth Hoe Burial Ground.”
1856(12th of
Nisan, 5616): Fast of the First Born observed for the last time during the
Presidency of Franklin Pierce.
1858: In
London, Louis Lionel Cohen, MP and his wife gave birth to Sir Leonard Lionel
Cohen, the son-in-law of Sigismund Slosh and “a partner in the family fir of
Louis Cohen and Sons, foreign banks founded by his grandfather and, the
President of the Board of Guardians.
1859: In New
York City, Joseph and Theresa Bien gave birth to University of California
trained engineer and George Washington University trained attorney Morrie Bien,
the husband of Lilla Virginia Hart who among other things, worked for the U.S.
Geological Survey from 1879 to 1893 and for the U.S. General Land Office from
1893 to 1902.
1861(17th
of Iyar, 5621): Two-year-old Zachary Kowalski, the New Orleans bon son of
Bernard and Sophia Bernstein Kowalski passed away today after which he was
buried in the Gates of Prayer Cemetery.
1861: One day
after she had passed away, Lucy Esther Goetz, the daughter of Edward Ludwig
Goetz and Angelina Levy was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.
1862(17th
of Nisan, 5622): Third Day of Pesach observed on the day after “Abraham Lincoln signed a bill abolishing
slavery that compensated loyal Union slave owners in the District of Columbia up
to $300 for each slave freed.”
1863: Today, on the 13th day of the Omer sawthe
start of Colonel Ben Grierson’s Union legendary raid into the Confederacy. With
1700 cavalrymen, Grierson roamed 600 miles during his raid deep into the South.
The raid lasted 16 days and within the Union army Grierson became a legend.
1865(21st
of Nisan, 5625): Seventh Day of Pesach
1865: In North
Carolina, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman met with Confederate General
Johnston to discuss the surrender of the Rebels on the same day he learned
about the assassination of President Lincoln.
1866: Bryants
Minstrels acting as Ethiopian Fun Makers will perform “The Challenge Dance of
Shylock” or “The Jew of Chatham Street” tonight in New York City. [Most
Jews are aware of Shylock as a figure of anti-Semitism. In 19th
century American references to Chatham Street were equally anti-Semitic.
Chatham Street was the locale of the 2nd hand clothing business in
New York. Supposedly the trade was dominated by Jews were who always
exploiting the Christians who frequented their shops]
1866: In Cincinnati,
OH, Caroline Stix Swarts and Joseph Louis Swarts gave birth to St. Louis attorney
Solomon Louis Swarts, the husband of Florene Eiseman Swarts and the father of
John and Frederick Swarts.
1868(25th
of Nisan, 5628): Abigail Gomes de Costa, the wife of Joseph Abendana the mother
of grocer Hananel Abendana, who was a steward of the Spanish Portuguese
Hospital passed away today.
1869: The
Mercantile Club, a Jewish social club established in Philadelphia in 1853, was
incorporated today. Louis Bomeisler and Clarence Wolf have served as Presidents
of the club. Other Jewish clubs included The Garrick, the Progress, and the
Franklin.
1870(16th of
Nisan, 5630): Second day of Pesach; 1st day of the Omer.
1872: In
Tarnow, Galicia Miriam and Jacob Dintenfass gave birth to Mark Dintenfass, the
husband of Esther W. Wallace Dintenffass and a “co-founder of Universal Studios
(Universal Pictures) who “was a producer, known for Between Two Husbands
(1922), My Four Years in Germany (1918) and Love That Never Fails (1912).”
http://www.historyoffilm.net/picture/studios-locations-mark-dintenfass/
1873(20th
of Nisan, 5633): Sixth Day of Pesach
1873: In
Mariampol, Leah and Pesach David Greenstone gave birth to CCNY grad and JTS
trained rabbi Julius Hillel Greenstone, the holder of Ph.D. from the University
of Pennsylvania who began teaching at Gratz College in 1905 and author several
works including The Religion of Israel and The Messiah Idea in Jewish History.
1873:
Birthdate of Kovno native Mike Miller who in December of 1885 came to the
United States where they went into the scrap metal business in Lancaster and
Reading, PA and after the death of his father, Miller moved on to Sundbury, PA
where he owned “a large iron and medal business where he rasied a family of ten
children with his wife, the former Rebecca Fink while belonging B’rith Shalom
and “Havra Samra Habrith Congregation of Reading, PA” and serving as Preside of
the Talmud Torah and “Moses Israel of Northumberland of Sundbury, PA.”
1875: “Die
Maccabäer” (The Maccabees) an opera in three acts by Anton Rubinstein and
Salomon Hermann Mosenthal which is itself based on the biblical story of the
Maccabees was first performed today at the Hofoper, Berlin.
1876:
Birthdate of Vincennes, Indiana native and Vincennes University graduate Jacob
Gimbel who in 1910 “financed an expedition which explored rivers of British
Guiana and studied the life habits of the symnotide, cell-like fish.”
1878(14th
of Nisan, 5638): Ta’anit Bechorot; erev Pesach
1878: In
Hamburg, Germany Hermann and Henrietta (Wollenberg) Fuchs gave birth to birth
NYU trained attorney and owner of the Boston Braves Judge Emil Fuchs who was
the husband of Aurelia Marcovich and who was the last man to give Babe Ruth to
play Major League baseball.
1878(14th of
Nisan, 5638): “The Deliverance of Israel” published today noted that some Jews
are no longer substituting bread for Matzoth during Passover especially thosr
who are members of the congregations led by Rabbi David Einhorn and Rabbi
Gustave Gottheil two Reform rabbis who led Congregation Adath Israel and Temple
Emanu-el respectively.
1880:
Birthdate of Sir Charles Leonard Woolley, the British archeologist whose work
at Ur (the Biblical city) led him to “finding ties between ancient Aegean and
Mesopotamian civilizations” which led to greater understanding to some of the
references in the Bible and who also found substantiation for Noah’s flood.
1881(18th
of Nisan, 5641): Fourth Day of Pesach
1881: Nathan
Blesenthal, a prominent Buffalo, NY, Jew became a Presbyterian today. His
conversion was a condition set by Gertrude Deming if the couple was going to be
wed. Blesenthal’s mother had opposed the conversion and young Nathan only
left the “faith of his fathers” after his mother passed away.
1881: The
property occupied by the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum was purchased today for
$12,500.
1881: It was
reported today that the Jews are talking about erecting a national synagogue in
Washington, DC.”
1882: In what
is now Lipnik, Poland “Isidor Schnabel, a textile merchant, and his wife,
Ernestine Taube (née Labin)” gave birth to Aaron Schnable who gained fame as
Artur Schnable, the pianist was famous for his performances of Beethoven’s
Piano Sonatas who like so many others, he left Europe to escape Nazi
persecution eventually settling in the United States and who was the husband of
the contralto and Lieder singer Therese Behr with whom he had two sons, Karl
Ulrich Schnabel who also became a classical pianist and renowned piano teacher,
and Stefan Schnabel who became a well-regarded actor.
http://www.schnabelmusicfoundation.com/Artur%20Schnabel.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpiPHjSRUOg
1882(28th
of Nisan, 5642): Joel Samuel Polack passed away. Born in 1807, he was the
first Jewish settler in New Zealand, arriving there in 1831.
1883: In
Minsk, “Polish singing professor” Eduard Darewski and his wife gave birth to
“British composer and conductor” the brother of fellow musician Max Darewski
and the husband of “musical comedy actress Madge Temple.”
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/106880/Darewski_Herman
1883: In
London, Hannah Cohen and James John Woolley gave birth to Moss DaCosta Woolley,
the husband of Hannah Levy whom he married at the New Synagogue in London in
1910.
1884(22nd of
Nisan, 5644): 8th day of Pesach
1884: In
Cuero, Texas, Rudolph Frank and Rachel Rae Jacobs gave birth to Leo Frank who
moved to New York when he was three months which would lead some to
characterize him as “a New York Jew” when he was convicted of the murder of
Mary Phagan – a crime of which he was innocent but thanks to a wave of
anti-Semitism led to his lynching in 1915 – an event that seems to be part of
an unusual “amnesia” for much of the American Jewish community.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/leo-frank
http://the-temple.org/AboutUs/History/TheLynchingofLeoFrank.aspx
1884: Theodore Hoffman who will be hanged
tomorrow after having been found guilty of murdering a Jewish peddler named
Zife Marks, ate a breakfast of fried oysters this morning in his cell at White
Plains, NY
1887:
President Levy presided over tonight’s meeting of the Jewish Immigrants’
Protective Society which was held at the synagogue on Rivington Street in New
York. In its first year of operation the society has given $1,600 to
“newly arrived immigrants.
1888(6th
of Iyar, 5648): Businessman and philanthropist Abraham Warshawski passed away
in St. Petersburg.
1889(16th of
Nisan, 5649): Second day of Pesach observed for the first time during the
Presidency of Benjamin Harrison.
1890:
Birthdate of Russian born, Columbia trained attorney Samuel J. Levinson, “a
partner in the law firm of Weinstein and Levison” who was the husband of the
“former Silvia Opalinsky” and the father of Mrs. Lila Perlstein.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/06/01/86600975.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1891: Jacob
Ezekiel Hyneman, a Union veteran of the Civil War resigned as 1st
Lieutenant Veteran Corps of the First Regiment of the Pennsylvania National
Guard
1891:
Birthdate of University of Maryland Medical School graduate and WW I Army
Medical Corps veteran Dr. Herbert L Langer, “the president of the medical board
of Peninsula General Hospital” and the husband of “the former Helen Stein” with
whom he had “two sons, Howard and Irwin”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/02/26/96969974.pdf
1891:
Birthdate of Rudolf Propper, a resident of Pilsen who was murdered at Izbica.
1892(20th
of Nisan, 5652): Sixth Day of Pesach
1892: “Jews
Who Speak Spanish” published today provided a review of Biblioteca
Espanola-Portugueza Judaica: Jewish Authors-Titles of their Works in
Spanish and Portuguese with a notice on Spanish Jews and a Collection of
Spanish Proverbs by Meir Kayserling.
1892: In
Brooklyn, NY, Temple Israel dedicated its new building a the corner of Bedford
and Lafayette Avenues.
1892: Based on
reports published today the personal efforts of Emperor William bring peace
between the Government and the Conservatives have been hampered by Pastor
Stoecker and his anti-Jewish policies which are growing ever more popular.
1892:
“Clerical Control of Education Their Ultimatum” published today included a
description of a libel trial in Berlin during which the President of the Berlin
Municipal School Bard testified “that out of the twenty-four members composing
the board thirteen, or a majority, were Jews and the rest agnostics and that
all of them cooperated against religious teaching in the schools.”
1892: An
article entitled “Given A Breathing Spell” attributes the sluggishness in the
New York real estate market to the celebration of Easter and Passover. As
the author says, “It is a good thing for the real estate market that such
holidays as the Passover and Easter do not come too often.”
1893(1st of
Iyar, 5653): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1893: The will
of Mrs. Babet Karl, the widow of Abraham Karl was executed today and Benjamin
Blumenthal, Simon Goldsmith and Theodore Hirsch were named as executors.
1893: It was
reported today that the leading Jews of Bulgaria have ordered from Budapest “an
album inlaid with diamonds, rubies and emeralds to be given to Prince Ferdinand
and his bridge on their wedding day.”
1893: As the
New York Jewish community responded to aggressive attempts by Protestants to
convert Jews, Rabbi Joseph Silverman of Temple Emanu-El embellished on his
sermon give yesterday by saying “I am not ready to be drawn into a public
discussion on this subject but the charges which I make against the Christians
I can prove, and if the Protestant organizations which are devoting themselves
to this work of so-called convention will come forward and deny my general
charges I will produce the facts on which my allegations rest specifically and
in detail.”
1894: In
Russia, “Nicholas and Fannie (Silver) Ehrlich” gave birth to Columbia educated
physician David Ernest Ehrlich, the roentgenologist who raised his daughter
Frances with his wife “Emma Grace Smith.”
1894(11th
of Nisan, 5654): Seventy-five-year-old Fanny Neuda passed away.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Neuda_Fanny_Schmiedl
1895: As beef
prices continue to rise, Jewish butchers on the lower East Side express their
gloom about any chance of improvement.
1895: Birthdate of
Warsaw native “Samuel David Landau,” the painter
known as Lev-Landau who raised his son Jacob with his wife Lola
https://www.nytimes.com/1979/01/09/archives/obituary-1-no-title.html
1895(23rd
of Nisan, 5655): Fifty-two-year-old Moritz Dessauer, the son of Gabriel L.
Dessauer, who was the district rabbi at Meiningen and author of several works
including one on Spinoza and Hobbes passed away today.
1895(23rd
of Nisan, 5655): Seventy-seven-year-old Hermann “Hirschel” Bodenheimer, the son
of Emanuel and Johanna Bodenheimer passed away today after which he was buried
in the Durbach Jewish Cemetery.
1895(23rd
of Nisan, 5655): Fifty-eight-year-old Jorge Isaacs Ferrer, the son of “George
Henry Isaacs, an English Jew originally from Jamaica” and whom Isaac Goldberg
described as “a half-Jew” “who is “Spanish America’s most famous novelist”
passed away today.
http://biography.yourdictionary.com/jorge-isaacs
1895: Three
days after she had perished in a yachting accident, 15 year old Lily Gertrude
Barton, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Jewish Cemetery.”
1895: Thanks
to the efforts of New York state senator Joseph C. Wolff, the Hebrew Infant
Asylum received its charter today.
1895: In South
Carolina, Mary Beatrice Levy married Miguel Bofill
1896: The will
of the late Leonard Friedman will filed for probate today in the Surrogate’s
office.
1897(15th
of Nisan, 5657): Pesach
1897: A list
of the bequest’s made by the late Frances Danzig, the widow of Frances Danzig,
whose estate was valued at $40,000 included “$500 to each of the following
instiutions: The Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids, the Hebrew Benevolent
and Orphan Asylum, the Mounts Sinai Hospital and the Home for Aged and Infirm
Hebrews” as well as “the income of the sum of $1,000 to be applied by Temple
Emanu-El to the care of the Danzig family plot in the Salem Fields Cemetery.”
1897: Art and
Artists published today described recently published books including A
Handful of Exotics: Scenes and Incidents Chiefly of Russo-Jewish Life by
Samuel Gordon
1898: “Comic
Opera for Charity” published today described the performance given by the Young
Folks’ League of the Hebrew Infant Asylum of “The Little Tycoon” in which Silas
Musliner directed the members including Henry D. Kleinman Emanuel Cohen, Celia
Baumann, Clara Weinstein and J.S. Kornicker, in an event designed to raise fund
for the orphans.
1900(8th
of Nisan, 5660): Fourth Day of Pesach
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/09/26/78395024.html?pageNumber=47
1900: Herzl
began a two-week journey that would take him from Karlsruhe to Paris and
finally to London. Like so many of his trips, Herzl was again seeking support
from the rich and famous for the creation of a Jewish homeland in the Land of
Israel.
1901: “Jewish
Visitors to Palestine” published today described the response of Secretary of
State Hay to an inquiry by Senator Mitchell of Oregon concerning a request by
one of his constituents, Solomon Hirsch of Portland, that the United States
lodge a protest with the Ottoman government over its new regulation that
foreign born Jews not be allowed to stay in Palestine for any more than three
months.
1902: Three
days after he had passed away, Lionel Jacob Samuel “the elder son of” Frederick
Samuel and Sarah Mocatta” was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.”
1902:
“Exhibition by East Side Artists” published today, described the plans of the
Education Alliance to hold the second annual exhibition of the work of east
side artists this weekend.
1902: The Dr.
Joseph H. Hertz, who was a member of Lord Milner's High or Advisory Committee
in South Africa, and Chaplain of the Rand Rifles, was among the passengers who
arrived on the White Star liner Teutonic today. Yes, the Rabbi Hertz who
gave us the “Hertz Chumash” and the “Hertz Siddur” served as the chaplain for a
military unit that helped protect Johannesburg during the Boer War.
1903(20th
of Nisan, 5663): Sixth Day of Pesach
1903:
Birthdate of Russian born, cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. This musical
prodigy escaped Lenin’s Russia,
made his way to the United States where he made a name for himself as a
performer and academic. He passed away in 1976.
1903(20th
of Nisan, 5663): Seventy-year-old Abraham Printz, the native of Kashau and
husband of Rosa Printz with whom he had seven children including Bert H. Prtinz
the founder and own of Printz Company Men’s Clothing and Furnishings passed
today in Youngstown, Ohio.
1904:
Birthdate of New York native and playwright Edward Chodorov.
1905: The
First American Rumanian Congregation was scheduled to continue distributing
matzoth to poor Jews living on the Lower East Side today.
1905:
Birthdate of Italian Zionist Enzo Sereni, the founder of a kibbutz and
volunteer member of British parachute unit that jumped behind German lines
along with others including Hannah Senesh who was murdered at Dachau.
http://www.zionism-israel.com/bio/biography_enzo_sereni.htm
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/enzo-sereni
1906(22nd
of Nisan, 5666): Eighth Day of Pesach and Yizkor are completed just in the nick
of time for the residents of San Francisco since the great earthquake took
place on the following day.
1907: “A
menacing French naval demonstration” which was thought by some to increase
France’s influence in Morocco, took place off of Mogador, “a fortified city and
seaport on the Atlantic whose population of Jews went from approximately 4,000
in the 1840’s to 12,000 by 1912.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/mogador
1908(16th
of Nisan, 5668): Second Day of Pesach and the first day of the Omer is counted
for the last time during the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt
1909: Birthdate
of Alain Poher, the French President and member of the French Resistance during
WW II whom an Iraqi commando unit tried to kidnap in 1973 allegedly because of
his “close ties to Israel.
1909(26th
of Nisan, 5669): Sixty-year-old Andrew Rosewater, the native of Bohemia who
came to the United States in 1854 and pursued a career where he pursued a
career as a civil engineer passed away after which he was buried in Omaha,
Nebraska.
http://www.jmaw.org/rosewater-jewish-omaha-bee/
1910: In
Warsaw, Zelig and Henia (nee Lieberman) Vilenski gave birth to Israeli composer
Moshe Vilenski who “was voted the 187th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll
by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public
considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.” He collaborated with lyricist Nathan
Alterman and singer Shoshana Damari to create the Israeli classic “Kalaniyot.”
1910: By four
o’clock this afternoon, at least 3,000 persons had been given supplies for
Passover by the United Hebrew Community at their offices on East Broadway.
Distribution of the supplies is scheduled to continue throughout the week or
until they run out, whichever comes first.
1910: Louis
Diamond, Secretary of the United Hebrew Community called for additional
contributions to help defray the costs of the increased demand for Passover
supplies to help out the city’s needy Jews.
1911:
According to statements made tonight, a Kheillah is meeting to consider what
steps to take in the case of Esther Yachnin, the sixteen-year-old girl who
converted to Christianity last year at the age of 15. Esther had come to
United States at the age of 13 and had enrolled in an English language class
offered by the Young Women’s Christian Association which eventually led to her
conversion. The parents had no prior knowledge of the plans for the
conversion. Given the Esther’s youth and the estrangement from her family
and community, Jews living on the Lower East Side question the validity of the
conversion. They may also be concerned that their unsuspecting children
will become candidates for similar such conversions. The Kheillah is
considering legal action if such recourse to law can be effective.
1911:
Birthdate of George Stenius who grew up to be director George Seaton. According
to Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends by Charlotte Chandler,
Seaton “grew upon in a Jewish neighborhood in Detroit where he was the “Shabbas
goy for his friends” learned enough Hebrew to be “bar mitzvahed” receiving the
fabled fountain pen as a gift.
1912:
Birthdate of British lawyer and patron of the arts Isador Caplan.
1912: “Mountain
Ridge Country Club, located in West Caldwell, New Jersey, was officially formed
today, when 25 charter members filed a Document of Incorporation with the State
of New Jersey. Among its founders were Louis Bamberger, whose Newark department
store, Bamberger’s, was among the largest in the Unites States, and Felix Fuld,
Bamberger’s brother-in-law who was the first Parks Commissioner of New Jersey.
The prominent membership has also included Joseph Weintraub, former Chief
Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, and
A.J. Dimond.
1913: Seventy-eight-year-old
German-born British shipbuilder and politician Gustav Wilhelm Wolff passed
away. He was raised as a Lutheran because his father had converted before his
birth. This was one of many examples of Jews who were “lost” in the wake
of those who thought a trip to the baptismal font was the price of economic
success and/or social acceptance. The racial policies of the Nazis would
prove them wrong.
1914(21st
of Nisan, 5674): Seventh Day of Pesach
1914: Original
date set for the execution of Leo Frank.
1915(3rd
of Iyar, 5675): Parashat Tazria-Metzora
1915: The Zion
Mule Corps left for Gallipoli. Commanded by Colonel Henry Patterson and
organized by Trumpeldor and Jabotinsky, they were a Jewish auxiliary unit of
the British Army. The British were not interested in giving them the ability to
fight, so they were assigned to provide provisions to the front lines.
Gallipoli was part of the Ottoman Empire. With the stalemate on the
Western Front, Churchill convinced other Allied leaders to attack at Gallipoli
in an attempt to outflank the Central Powers. Churchill thought the Allies
would easily defeat the Turks, open up the water route to Russia
and end the war. Unfortunately, the plan and the
Allied Forces, including the Zion Mule Corps were forced to
withdraw. The Jewish troops performed with distinction and later became
the nucleus for the Jewish Legion that was formed in 1917. This was part
of the on-going process of the creation of what would eventually become the
IDF. While the original Zionist dream had been a peaceful, almost
pacifist comments, the realities of the neighborhood forced the Jews to become
adept warriors.
1915: “The
following additional appropriations for the relief of the war sufferers” were
reported today” to have been made by the Executive Committee of the American
Jewish Relief Committee: “$15,000 to Russian Poland; $15000 to German Poland;
$50,000 to those parts of Galicia now occupied by Russia; $3,000 to Monastir,
Serbia and $2,500 to Aleppo, Syria.”
1916(14th of
Nisan, 5676):Ta'anit Bechorot; Erev
Pesach
1916: Harold
Rich “was the master of ceremonies” at a Seder held tonight in Sing Sing Prison
conducted by the Jewish member of the Mutual Welfare League which included a
sermon by Dr. Abraham Cronbach of the Free Synagogue of New York City “on the
religious significance of the event” and a violin solo by Dachin Jacobson.
1916:
Approximately “175 Jewish soldiers and sailors from forts and battleships near”
New York City joined “with 200 others” for “a Seder at the Young Men’s Hebrew
Association building at the corner of Lexington Avenue and Ninety-second
Street.
1916: Rabbi
Stephen Wise officiated at the marriage of Elinor Fatman and Henry Morgenthau,
Jr; a marriage that was unusual for its time because the bride had proposed to
the groom.
1916: Isadore
Hershfield of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society of New York returned to Berlin
from Vienna and a trip through Galicia and the Austrian-occupied sections of
Poland where he “completed arrangements for forwarding letters and appeals for
assistance from distressed Jews and other inhabitant to relatives in the United
States.
1916: It was
learned today that David R. Francis, the new American Ambassador to Russia who
has just left for his new post is carrying with him a draft for a new treaty of
commerce which is intended to replace the old treaty which was allowed to lapse
a few years ago “because of the refusal of the Russian Government to honor
proper passports issued to American Jews, particularly to American Jewish
citizens of Russian birth.”
1916: “Herman
Bernstein” became “editor of the American
Hebrew today.”
1917(25th
of Nisan, 5677): During WW I, Lieutenant-colonel Rene Cahen was killed today.
1917(25th
of Nisan, 5677): Gustavus I. Peavy, of Peavy Brothers who was a director of the
National Association of Clothiers passed away today.
1917: In
Russia, “the first congress of the Jewish Social Democratic Party known as ‘the
Bund’ opened today” and the leading item on the agenda was the condition of the
Jews in Finland.
1917: French
President Raymond Poincare bemoaned the fact that “in London our agreements are
now considered null and void.” He was upset by the fact that the British
were now calling for a larger role in the post-World War Middle East including
acknowledgement of Zionist plans for Palestine.
1917: During
World War I, the British army employs tanks for one of the first times in the
Middle East in an attempt to defeat the Turks at Gaza. The so-called
Second Battle of Gaza will prove to be a costly defeat for His Majesty’s Forces
who will suffer over six thousand casualties.
1918: “Jews
Protest To Baker” published today described the formal complaint being lodged
by Louis Marshall the prominent New York lawyer and chair of the American
Jewish Committee with Secretary of War Newton Baker concerning discrimination
against Jewish soldiers that also contends a demand that the discrimination be
stopped and the officers responsible for it be punished.
1919(17th
of Nisan, 5679): Third day of Pesach
1919: Bernhard
Dernburg, whose father publisher Friedrich Dernburg had converted to the
Lutheran religion began serving today as “Federal Minister of Finance and Vice
Canceller” during the early days of the Weimar Republic.
1919: In
Chicago, the funeral was today for Jacob Joel, the husband of Elise Joel
1919: As part
of an episode that would have far-reaching implications for the Middle East in
general and Israel in particular, the French prepared a declaration today that
was presented to Prince Feisal. Feisal expected the document to be a
written affirmation of Clemenceau’s promise of total Arab independence for
Syria – a Syria to be ruled by Feisal. But according to the French
document, the French army would occupy Damascus, and the new Arab nation would
actually exist as a mere federation of local autonomous states in which all the
government advisers, including the governors and heads of major government
bureaus, as well as the judiciary, would be French, under Paris's control as
they were in Lebanon. What's more, Faisal himself would be compelled to
publicly declare the importance of France's historic relationship with the
Maronite Christians. Other than that, said the French, Syria would be
completely "independent." Faisal quickly refused, encouraged by
Lawrence of Arabia, who advised him to demand total independence "without
conditions or reservations." Clemenceau, however, would not tolerate what
he considered Arab impudence. Faisal summarily left Paris for Syria to claim
his nation. Faisal, who had signed a letter welcoming the Zionists to
Palestine, would fail. The perfidy of the French would lead to an
unstable Syria that would become an implacable enemy of Israel. Faisal would
settle for throne of another British creation, Iraq.
1920(29th
of Nisan, 5680) Parashat Shimini; Mevarchim Chodesh Iya
1920(29th
of Nisan, 5680): Seventy-five-year Bavarian born Samuel Grabfelder, the husband
of Cordelia “Delia” Grabfelder and long-time resident of Louisville, KY where
he founded S. Grabfelder s, served as president of both Adath Israel, the Jewish Elderly Home in Cleveland
and “was a major contributor to te National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives in
Denver” passed away today in Atlantic City after which he was buried in Brooklyn’s
Salem Fields Cemetery
https://pre-prowhiskeymen.blogspot.com/2012/11/sam-grabfelder-and-distillery-of-his-own.html
1920: The
Twelfth Conference of the Bund continued its meeting Gomel.
1921: “The 32nd
annual convention” of American Reform Rabbis that had included a lecture by
Professor Jacob Z. Lauterbach “on the attitude of the Jew toward the non-Jew”
and a visit at the White House with President and Mrs. Harding is scheduled to
come to an end today in Washington, D.C.
1922(19th
of Nisan, 5682): Fourth Day of Pesach.
1922: “5,000
Begin Drive For Zionist Fund” published today described a meeting at Carnegie
Hall which marked the opening of campaign to raise three million dollars for
the Palestine Foundation Fun which was addressed by Colonel John H. Patterson,
the former commander of the British “Jewish Legion” during the World War.
1923(1st of
Iyar, 5683): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1923:
Birthdate of Zaslav native and former IDF Chief of Staff Tzvi Tzur who made Aliyah
at the age of two, joined the Haganah, served
as battalion leader of the Givati Brigade during the fighting in 1948, founded “Samon’s
Foxes,” and who following an illustratious military career eventually served as
an MK and pursued a business career that included serving in “several managing
positions, including the Israeli Aircraft Industries, the shipping company Zim,
and "Hevra LeYsrael".
1923: “Turkish
Jews Dine Fouad” published today, described a dinner “given by the Sephardic
and Ottoman Societies of New York at which “Dr. Fouad Bey, a former Minister of
the Interior and Social of Turkey and a member of the Turkish National Assembly
was the guest honor” which was a fund-raiser to provide assistance for Turkish
orphans.
1924: "The
President Arthur, which was owned by the American Palestine Line set sail from
Haifa for the United States after taking passenger on a ten-day cruise of the Mediterranean
with stops at Jaffa, Beirut, Alexandria, and Naples, among others.
1924: Today,
the ownership of “The Dewey House, also referred to as Building 29, North
Chicago VA Medical Center,” which was designed by David Adler “was transferred
to the United States Department of Veterans Affair.”
1924: In
Brooklyn, Joseph Geller, an artist who earned a living painting signs, and his
wife, Olga gave birth to” Andrew Geller, an architect who embodied postwar
ingenuity and optimism in a series of inexpensive beach houses in whimsical
shapes, many of them in the Hamptons, and who helped bring modernism to the
masses with prefabricated cottages sold at Macy’s.” (As reported by Fred A.
Bernstein)
1924: Metro Pictures,
Goldwyn Pictures & Louis B Mayer Company merged to form MGM. Many of the
early motion picture studios were dominated, if not owned outright, by
Jews. Many of them were immigrants who made movies idealizing America
since that was what sold at the box office. The film industry may have
been run by Jews, but you sure would not have known from the content.
1925: “The
Golden Calf” a silent drama filmed by cinematographer Mutz Grennbaum was
released in Germany today.
1925: It was
reported today that the London Yiddish paper Zeit, the New York Jewish Daily
New (Tageblatt), the Jewish Daily Jud of Kishinef and the Hebrew daily
Ha’arezt, published in Jerusalem are among the Jewish newspapers that the
Polish government has banned from being sold.
1925: Brooklyn
businessmen are scheduled to “discuss the organization of a luncheon the
Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce by S.P. Rothschild, the President of Abraham and
Straus.
1925(23rd
of Nisan, 5686) One day after the end of Pesach, fifty-eight year old Godfrey
Charles Joseph Isaacs, the brother of Rufus Isaacs, the 1st Marquess
of Reading, the husband of Lea Constance Perelli with whom he had two sons –
Marcel and Dennys -- and, starting in 1910, the “Managing Director of
Marcon’s Wireless Telegraph Company” which led to his involvement in an insider
trading scandal known as “the Marconi Scandal of 1912 passed away today.
1925: “Father
Voss” a silent comedy written by Robert Liebman was released in Germany today.
1926:
Birthdate of Aharon Yadlin, the sabra from Ben Shemen who served with Palmach
and as an MK and Education Minster from 1974 through 1977.
1926:
Birthdate of British composer Ronald Senator.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-composer-and-his-musician-wife-die-in-ny-house-fire/
1927(15th
of Nisan, 5687): Pesach
1927: At
Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, Rabbi Israel Goldstein is scheduled to deliver a
Passover sermon “The Messiah – A Universal Hope.”
1927: “HIAS
Now Aids Immigrants Who Must Go To Other Lands” published today described the
assistance the organization is giving to settle Jews in places including South
America.
1928: A check
for $50,000 from S.R. Guggenheim of New York for the $5,000,000 endowment fund
of the Hebrew Union College, National Theological Seminary, was received by the
seminary today.
1928:
According to an interview sent out by the Jewish Telegraph Agency, Emil
Vandervelde, a member of the Belgian Cabinet, is “greatly impressed” with the
work being done by the Jewish settlers in Palestine. He said that it was only
through personal observation that he “had he been able to understand the
difficulties and appreciate their achievements in transforming deserts and
swamps into flourishing” settlements. He “cited the municipality of Tel
Aviv as a marvelous expression” of the Jewish ability to build and improve the
land. Furthermore, in a speech at Hebrew University, the Belgian leader
cited Zionism’s “fraternal tendencies toward the Arabs which was an important
factor toward international peace.
1928: A
conference of Communist youth being held in Tel Aviv was broken up by
police. Fourteen boys, including one Arab, and six girls were detained by
the authorities.
1928:
Birthdate of Cynthia Ozick, author of the “Puttermesser Papers”. Born in New
York City to Jewish immigrants from Russia, who both worked as pharmacists,
Ozick grew up in the care of her grandmother, who was always telling her
stories. She grew up to write several more novels full of Jewish mysticism and
history, including “The Messiah of Stockholm” and “The
Puttermesser Papers” but she's perhaps best known for her essays,
collected in Art and Ardor, Metaphor and Memory and Quarrel
and Quandary (2000). Ozick said, "I believe a writer can weave
in and out of genres—do it all. It is a gluttonous point of view, to be sure.
Then again, when it comes to writing, that is what I truly am and nothing less:
a glutton."
1929: As of
today, the Jews of Cincinnati have contributed $107,000 to the Cleveland Jewish
Orphan Home Fund for a New Building chaired by Herbert R. Bloch.
1929:
“Mascots” a silent movie filmed by cinematographer Mutz Greenbaum was released
today in Germany.
1930: “The
board of trustees of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic
Societies has voted to fix the 1930 budget at $5,080,000, a record amount, to
be devoted to the maintenance of its ninety-one constituent agencies, it was
announced today by Dudley D. Sicker, president.”
1931(30th of
Nisan, 5691): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1931: In South
Central Los Angeles, Morris George Axelrod, “an organizer for the radical
Industrial Workers of the World union” and “the former Pearl Plaskoff” gave
birth to “producer, arranger and composer” David Axelrod.
1931:
Birthdate of Harold Martin Feinstein, whose black and white pictorial record of
his native Coney Island marked him as yet “another Jew with a camera.”
1931: The Post
Office in England is planning to broadcast “from Jerusalem” today “as part of
the celebration of the seventh anniversary of the Hebrew University.” (JTA)
1932(11th
of Nisan, 5692): Thirty-eight-year old
University of Illinois College of Medicine educated gynecologist and surgeon,
the Chicago born daughter of Ida Louis La Pook and Jacob Hoffman and a “member
of the Volunteer Medical Service Corps during World War I” who “a the time o her
death was an associate in gynecology at her alma mater,” president of the Medical
Woman’s Club of Chicago and a member of Hadassah passed away today.
1932:
“Announcements have been received” in New Haven CT of the engagement of Miss
Leone Yaffe, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Yaffe of Park Avenue, New York
to Syracuse University graduate Myles Stodel Friedman, son of Mr. and Mrs.
Abram of New Haven.
1933(21st
of Nisan, 5693): Seventh Day of Pesach
1933: Drawing
their illustrations from the present economic and political situation, Seventh
Day Passover sermons delivered today in some of New York City’s synagogues
emphasized the thought that economic as well as moral justice should be the
concern of religious leaders.
1933: At
Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan Rabbi Israel Goldstein delivered a
sermon in which he “recalled the efforts of Moses to establish a social and
economic justice among the Jews and declared that President Roosevelt has
caught something of the vision of the economic emancipator.”
1933: Rabbi
William F. Rosenblum of Temple Israel delivered a sermon in he “pleased for a
militant Judaism” which “will bring us security and peace as a people.”
1933: In
Antwerp today “at a conference of Jewish market traders in the fur business,
resolutions binding the organization to boycott German furs and accessory goods
used in the trade were passed unanimously.”
1934: “The
three-day annual convention of the New York State Conference of the National
Council of Jewish Women” is scheduled to come to an end in Syracuse, NY.
1934(2nd
of Iyar, 5694): Fifty-three-year-old Harry Krensky, a merchant in Waterloo,
Iowa, passed away today.
1934(2nd
of Iyar, 5694): Maria Isaak the wife of Abraham Isaak with whom she “founded
the anarchist-inspired Aurora Colony near Lincoln, California” in 1909 passed
away today.
1934:
Birthdate of Don Kirshner who was “known as The Man With the Golden Ear.” He
was an American song publisher and rock producer who is best known for managing
songwriting talent as well as successful pop groups such as The Monkees and The
Archies. He passed away in 2011.
1935(14th
of Nisan, 5695): Ta’anit Bechorot; Erev Pesach
1935: Ben
Heiineman married Natalie Goldstein who as Natalie Goldstein Heineman became a
pioneering national champion for children’s welfare and respected community and
national leader, who changed the lives of thousands of children through her
innovative and thoughtful leadership.” (As reported by Pastora San Juan
Cafferty)
1935: In a
sermon delivered this evening “at the Downtown Branch of the Institutional
Synagogue” Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein said that “the world has come to realize
that Hitler is not only the enemy of the Jew but also the enemy of God” and
that “Hitlerism could have and would have been nipped in the bud” it had not
been deemed a Jewish problem “but a humanitarian problem.”
1936: Eighty-one-year-old
German orientalist Fritz Hommel author of Ancient Hebrew Tradition
passed away today.
1936: In Tel
Aviv, the funeral for 61-year-old Israel Hazan who had been killed during a
robbery two days ago by Arab who said they were stealing money “to buy arms to
carry on the work of the ‘Holy Martyrs’” turned into demonstration which turned
violent when “police prohibited eulogies” and attempted to divert the funeral
procession.
1936: At a
funeral held this morning in Tel Aviv for a Jewish victim of Arab violence, a
clash broke out between Jewish protesters and police.
1936: Mrs. Amy
G. Wyle, the chairman of the Women’s Division of the Greater New York Campaign
of the Joint Distribution Committee which seeking to raise $1,500,000 as the
city’s share of the national fund for the aide of Jews of Germany and Central
and Eastern Europe hosted a dinner at Park Avenue home tonight.
1936: At
today’s hearings being conducted by the Senate Lobby Committee correspondence
was produced between W. Cleveland Runyon of Plainfield, NJ and Alexander
Lincoln, an investment bank from Boston and the President of the Sentinels of
the Republic in which Mr. Lincoln “declared the ‘Jewish threat’ to the United
States was a ‘real one’” to which Mr. Runyon replied, “old-line Americans…want
a Hitler.”
1937: Rabbi
William Rosneblum is scheduled to lead services this morning at Temple Israel.
1937: Today,
“The Committee for Special Jewish Interests” “which represents 120,000 Jews
living in the Netherlands” “issued a protest against the prohibition by Germany
of all Jewish meetings for sixty days in retaliation for Mayor Fiorello La
Guardia’s speeches in New York.”
1938(16th
of Nisan, 5698): Second Day of Pesach
1938:
“Attacking ‘totalitarian religion’ Rabbi Stephen S. Wise declared in” his
Sunday morning sermon at the Free Synagogue in Carnegie Hall “that Jews cannot
believe in ‘the Christ of dogma’ in order ‘to be saved or to be safe.” The
sermon was in response to two books Where Now, Little Jew”? by Magnus
Hermansson and An Open Letter to Jews and Christians by John Cournos
that “attempt to prove that the answer to the Jewish problem lies in the
acceptance of Jesus Christ.”
1938: Arturo
Toscanini conducts the Palestine Orchestra in a second performance in Tel
Aviv. Unlike last night’s performance which was given to a packed house
filled with officials and those who could afford high priced tickets, tonight’s
performance was for workers who paid greatly reduced prices for their tickets.
1939: “Menuhin
Aids Refugees” published today described a concert given by Yehudi Menuhin in
London that raised more than five thousand pounds “for the benefit of Jewish
refugees.”
1939: Adolf
Hitler said he would respond to yesterday’s speech by FDR which was a “plea for
peace” at a meeting of the Reichstag on April 28.
1940: In
Brooklyn, “George Stein, a stockbroker, and the former Anne Shuchman, who
taught history and civics at Erasmus Hall High School” to award winning author
Professor Judith Stein. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/books/judith-stein-dead-historian-author-on-marcus-garvey.html
1940: Franklin
and Eleanor Roosevelt went to dinner this evening at the residence of Mr. and
Mrs. Henry Morgenthau, Jr. at the Washington residence of the Secretary of the
Treasury.
1941(20th
of Nisan, 5701): Sixth day of Pesach
1941: In the
Warsaw Ghetto, “Michał Klepfisz, a member of the Jewish Labour Bund (Yiddish:
der algemeyner yidisher arbeter bund), and his wife, Rose Klepfisz (née
Shoshana Perczykow)” gave birth to “Yiddishist” Irena Klepfisz, the co-editor
of The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women’s Anthology.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/klepfisz-irena
1941:
Following a coup staged by “four anti-British army colonels” who called
themselves “The Gold Square” staged a coup which was supported by the Nazis,
“British troops landed unopposed in Basra” and following military successes
forced the Germans, Italians and their Arab Allies, including the Grand Mufti
of Jerusalem, to flee.
1941:
Yugoslavia surrenders to the Nazis. Nearly 60,000 Jews were murdered by the
German army. Gold teeth from the murdered victims were later found
in the palace of the Catholic Bishop of Zagreb (Croatia).
1941(20th of
Nisan, 5701): In Warsaw, a Jewish policeman named Ginsberg was bayoneted
and shot by German soldiers after asking a soldier to return a sack of potatoes
taken from a Jewish woman.
1941:
Photojournalist David E. Scherman was among the 201 passengers aboard the
Egyptian liner Zamzam when it was sunk by the German “surface raider” Atlantis
which the British would find and sink thanks to the photographs he took from a
lifeboat.
1942: French
General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein where
he was a German POW. Giraud joined the Free French in North Africa. In
1943, while serving as High Commissioner he said that Vichy's anti-Jewish laws "no
longer exist," promised to hold municipal elections in North Africa. He
also revoked the Cremieux Decree of 1870, which granted French citizenship en
bloc to Jews in Algeria, but excluded the Arabs. Henceforth, Moslems and Jews
must complement each other economically, "the latter working in his shop,
the former in the desert, without either having advantage over the other,
France assuring both security and tranquility." This even-handed sounding
speech is a bit disingenuous. Many of the Vichy restrictions against Jews
continued during this period in an attempt by the Allies to placate the Arabs.
1942(30th of
Nisan, 5702): The Gestapo entered the Warsaw ghetto and shot 52 people on
Rosh Chodesh Iyar.
1943(12th
of Nisan, 5703): Parashat Metzora; Shabbat HaGadol
1943:
Birthdate of journalist, writer and member of the Brandeis faculty, Robert
Kuttner.
1943: Sixty-nine-year-old
German native Alfred Hertz, the second conductor of the San Francisco Symphony,
who replaced Henry Hadley, in 1915, when the orchestra was just four years old
and who remained with the symphony until his farewell performance April 15,
1930” passed away today.
http://www.sfmuseum.org/bio/hertz.html
1943: In a
meeting at Klessheim Castle near Salzburg, Hitler met with the Hungarian
Regent, Admiral Horthy, to urge the Hungarians to deport their Jewish
population. Hitler explained, ". . . they are just pure parasites . . .
they had to be treated like tuberculosis bacilli which in a healthy body may
become infected." Horthy and Hungary continued to hold out against
Hitler's demands. Things would change in 1944 and most of Hungary's Jews
became victims of the Final Solution.
[Editor’s
Note: Holocaust Deniers might want to consider the findings of British author
Gerald Reitlinger. He claimed to have found conclusive proof of a
Hitlerian liquidation policy in the protocol of a conversation between Hitler
and Hungarian Regent Horthy on April 17, 1943. Hitler complained about the
black market and subversive activities of Hungarian Jews and then made the
following comment: "They have thoroughly put an end to these conditions in
Poland. If the Jews don't wish to work there, they will be shot. If they cannot
work, at least they won't thrive"]
1944:
Mordechai (Motke) Eldar was among the Jews from Transylvanian taken to the
Sltina Ghetto where he would be held until May when he was shipped to
Auschwitz.
1944: Seventy-three-year-old
German actor Eugen Burg who had converted to Christianity to Judaism but was
banned from the film industry when the Nazis came to power died today at
Theresienstadt concentration camp today.
1944: The Lady
and the Monster” based on a novel by Curt Siodmak with a script by Frederick
Kohner co-starring Erich von Stroheim was released in the United States today.
1945:
Surviving inmates of Sachsenhausen and Ravenbruck were forced to march deeper
into Germany. With the war coming to an end, the Germans continued to
force evacuees including 17,000 women and 46,000 men to move away from
the Allied armies. Those who once boasted of their effort to
make Europe "Jew Free" now worked feverishly to cover up what
would come to be called "Crimes Against Humanity."
1945: Today,
Captain Leslie Hardman, “the 32-year-old Senior Jewish Chaplain to the British
Forces, attached to the 8th Corps of the British 2nd Army” “entered
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, two days after it had been liberated by
British military forces…”
1945:
Lieutenant Al Ungerleider approached Nordhausen with orders to take and hold
part of an industrial complex there. “His detachment had to fight its way
through the gates and the barbed wire, dodging machine-gun fire from enemy
soldiers hiding in towers near the entrance. After his men took out the enemy,
the camp inmates began to appear. They were so emaciated that only a few could
stand upright. Some fell over, he recalled. Still others were lying in bed,
covered in lice and sores. Lt. Ungerleider sent his men to check the grounds
for remaining Nazi soldiers. They captured 44 SS troopers, all of whom
surrendered. Billy Millhander, one of” his “soldiers, Ungerlider entered a
large building at the center of the camp and discovered 10 huge ovens —
crematoriums.” At the time, he did not know what they were. According to
Ungerleider, “The ovens were cold, and the doors were closed.” he said. He
began opening the doors of the oven expecting to find German troops in hiding.
“The first four contained ashes. But when the lieutenant opened the fifth, Millhander
immediately fired several rounds, killing an armed German guard.” They returned
to the main yard, and Lt. Ungerleider spoke a mixture of Yiddish, English and
German to the camp inmates. He asked how many were still alive. The reply came:
maybe 250 out of thousands. He asked what they were making at the plant.
Someone said V-2 rockets, missiles that were launched against England. “And
that’s when the enormity of the evil that the Germans were doing to these
people hit me,” Ungerleider said later. “And this was a slave labor camp, not a
death camp. They were making a product for the war effort. The first thought
that came into my mind is how the Germans could take [thousands of people] and
put them to work. How could they not feed them, take care of their medical
needs, not clothe them?” He led the survivors in the mourner’s kaddish, the
Jewish prayer for the dead. Al Ungerleider enjoyed a successful career in the
U.S. Army rising to the rank of General. At the same time, he remained an
active member of the Jewish community wherever he was stationed.
1945: Robert
Limpert, the head of a genuine anti-Nazi underground group, sought to get the
leaders of the Bavarian city of Ansbach to defy Wehrmacht fanatics and to
surrender to the approaching American Army.
1945: William
Scott of the 183rd Combat Engineers, an all-African-American unit
took pictures of Leon Bass and other members of the unit at Buchenwald six days
after its liberation by the U.S. Army.
1946(16th
of Nisan, 5706): Second Day of Pesach; 1st day of the Omer
1946: “Admission
after admission fell from the lips of Dr. Alfred Rosenberg today as the United
States prosecutor, Thomas J. Dodd, destroyed the Nazi philosopher's
selfportrait as a kindly benefactor and forced the German to admit
responsibility for the Nazi regime in the plundered and devastated lands of
Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe.”
1946: It was
reported today that the “hunger strike by 15 Jewish leaders” in Palestine came
to an end after “it was announced that the Palestine administration had agreed
to the admission of all 1,200 refugees detained in northern Italy.
1947:
One day after he had passed away funeral services are scheduled to be held
today for 83-year-old Rabbi Simon Finkelstien, “the
dean of the Brooklyn Rabbinate.
https://www.cincinnatijudaicafund.com/index.php/Detail/objects/4331
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/04/17/87517640.pdf
1947: General
Lucius D. Clay, the United States Military Governor, announced today the
closing of displaced camps in Germany “to further Jewish refugees infiltrating
from Poland.”
1947: “Top
representatives of the American-Jewish Joint Committee were scheduled to meet
in Paris in response to General Clay’s announcement.
1947: “Pan
Ruczaj, described as the organizer of last July’s anti-Semitic riot in Kielce,
where forty-two Jews were killed, surrendered to Polish security officers in
Waldenberg, Silesia” but even though he “made a full confession, “under the
terms of the Polish amnesty, he will not be punished.”
1948(8th of
Nisan, 5708): On Shabbat Hagadol news came that a convoy bringing in needed
supplies to Jerusalem had broken through by night. Crowds came down to the
Romema roadblock to greet the convoy. Over 250 lorries bringing a thousand tons
of food and arms and ammunition came streaming into the entrance to the city.
Written on the first lorry were the words: "If I forget thee, O
Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its cunning".
1948: As
Jewish soldiers fight to open the road to Jerusalem and break the blockade that
was strangling the city reports circulate through the City of David that five
Arab villages had been taken and as many as 350 Arab fighters had been killed.
1948: In his
report on the massacre of the staff going to the Hadassah Hospital on Mt.
Scopus, Robert Watson, the American Consul in Jerusalem wrote " . . .
queried as to whether convoy included armoured cars, Haganah guards, arms and
ammunition in addition to doctors, nurses and patients, Kohn [of the Jewish
Agency] replied in affirmative saying it was necessary to protect convoy."
1949(18th of
Nisan, 5709): Meir Bar-llan, an Orthodox Rabbi from Lithuania who was a leader
of the Mizrachi movement passed away today in Jerusalem. Bar-Illan University
was named in his memory.
1950: The
New York Times reported that the obsolete conditions at the port of Tel
Aviv pose a threat to the continued economic growth of the infant Jewish
state. According to Jose Ensuade, President of Flomarcy Company,
“Israel’s maritime position and the continued growth of her foreign comer,
which has had an almost phenomenal growth may be impaired unless harbor
facilities are improved.” He marveled at the fact that the port which is
the nation’s entry point for 25,000 immigrants arriving each month and which
has seen a remarkable growth in trade “is virtually without modern docking
facilities.”
1951:
Birthdate of Yaky Yosha, the Tel Aviv born award winning film director.
1952(22nd of
Nisan, 5712): 8th day of Pesach observed for the last time during
the Presidency of Harry Truman.
1954(14th of
Nisan, 5714): Shabbat Ha-Gadol; Erev Pesach
1954: Aaron
Jean-Marie Lustiger who was born as into an Ashkenazi Jewish family was
ordained as a Roman Catholic Priest today.
1954: In Tel
Aviv, the family of Emanuel Shoam celebrates the first Seder with three friends
of his brother Joe, who had been held as a prisoner of war by the Jordanians
during the War of Independence. The three were a young Canadian Jew named
Martin and two gentile deserters from the British army named Paddy and Harry
who had stolen tanks from the British in 1948 and brought them to the Haganah.
1955: Chicago
Cubs’ pitcher Hy Cohen played in his first major league baseball game.
1957(16th
of Nisan, 5717): Second Day of Pesach
1957: George
Pirkis Kidd, Canada’s first Ambassador to Israel, completed his term of
service.
1957: Margaret
Blanche Meagher began serving as Canada’s Ambassador to Israel, making her the
first Canadian woman to hold an ambassadorial place.
1958(27th
of Nisan, 5718): Yom HaShoah
1958: Los
Angeles Dodgers’ pitcher Larry Sherry appears in his first major league
baseball game. Sherry would lead the Dodgers to a World Series
Championship in 1959.
1959: U.S.
premiere of “Imitation of Life” the cinematic treatment of Fannie Hurt’s novel
produced by Ross Hunter with a musical score co-authored by Sammy Fain.
1960(20th
of Nisan, 5720): Sixth Day Pesach
1960: ABC
broadcast “Blind Marriage” an episode of “The Rebel” directed by Irvin
Kershner.
1961: In
London, Bernardine Coverley and artist Lucian Freud gave birth to fashion
designer Bella Freud, the great granddaughter of the inventor of psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud.
1962(13th
of Nisan, 5722): Eighty-one-year-old C.C.N.Y (B.S.) and Columbia University
(Ph.D.) trained biologist Dr. Abraham Goldforb, the London born son of Morris
and Anna (Mishkowsky) Goldforb and CCNY Professor specializing in physiology
and experimental embryologist who was the husband of Dr. Frances Shostac and
father of Mrs. Miriam Dinerman passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/04/18/94100787.html?pageNumber=37
1964:
Birthdate of Ofer Hugi, the Shas MK who ended up going to prison for two years
after being convicted of numerous illegal acts.
1965(15th of
Nisan, 5725): 1st day of Pesach
1965:
Cincinnati Reds outfielder Art Shamsky appears in his first major league
baseball game.
1966:
Two days after he had passed away, funeral services were scheduled to be held
this afternoon at the Riverside for sixty-year-old University of Chicago alum
Alvin Handmacher, the president of Handmacher-Vogel Inc. and founder of the
Handmacher Foundation who raised three daughters with his wife “the former
Margaret Murdock.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/04/16/82431991.pdf
1967:
CBS broadcast the final episode of “Gilligan’s Island” a sitcom created by
Sherwood Schwartz and co-starring Natalie Schafer as “Lovey Wentworth Howell.”
1967:
Egypt, Syria and Iraq signed a treaty of alliance that placed their military
forces under a unified command with the stated purpose of “liberating
Palestine” i.e. destroying the state of Israel.
1968(19th
of Nisan, 5728): Fifth Day of Pesach
1968(19th
of Nisan, 5728): Fifty-year-old “American microbiologist” Sol Haberman, the
Chicago born son of “Nathan and Eva (Yankovitch) Haberman” and husband of
“Carletta Jeanne Rambo” who had earned a PhD from OSU and went from being
lecturer on bacteriology at SMU to directing the graduate studies division of
the Graduate School College of Dentistry passed away today.
1968(19th
of Nisan, 5728): Seventy-five-year-old Birmingham born Pathologist Arnold Rice
Rich, the husband of “pianist and composer Helen Jones and the father of
Adrienne and Cynthia Rich, whose scientific work led to the discovery of Rich
Focus, passed away today.
http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/2547.html
1969: Sirhan
Sirhan, the Palestinian terrorist, was convicted of murdering Senator Robert
Kennedy, the leading nominee for the Democratic nominee for the Presidential
nomination, thus single handedly changing the course of history.
1969(29th
of Nisan, 5729): Eighty-four-year-old banker and University of Miami trustee
Arthur Arnold Ungar who was a member of the Orange Bowl Committee passed away
today.
1970: The
Auditorium Building in Chicago “one of the best-known designs of Dankmar Adler”
and his partner “was added to the National Register of Historic Places” today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Auditorium_Building_Chicago_June_30,_2012-92.jpg
1971(22nd
of Nisan, 5731): Eighth Day of Pesach and Shabbat Shel Pesach
1971: Susan
Brownmiller organized today’s New York Radical Feminist Conference on Rape
1973(15th
of Nisan, 5733): Pesach
1973(15th
of Nisan, 5733): Ninety-one-year-old Clara Ferrin-Bloom the native of Tucson,
AZ who was a schoolteacher when she married merchant David Bloom with whom she
had three children, one of whom David A. “established the Bloom Southwest
Jewish Archives at the University of Arizona passed away today.
1974: “Professor
David Azbel and his family were granted permission to emigrate to Israel”
today.
1974: “Thursday’s
Game” “a made-for-television comedy written by James Brooks with a cast that
includes Gene Wilder, Norman Fell and Rob Reiner was released today.
1977: The
Broadway production of “I Love My Wife” with a book and lyrics by Michael
Steward, music by Cy Coleman and directed by Gene Sakes opened today at the
Ethel Barrymore Theatre.
1978: NBC
broadcast “The Road to Babi Yar” the second part he miniseries “Holocaust.”
1979(20th
of Nisan, 5739): Sixth Day of Pesach
1979(20th
of Nisan, 5739): Sixty-sixty-year-old Brooklyn born Edward Field, “the
Manhattan rug designer and manufacturer” and husband of Eleanor Field with whom
he raised one son passed away today.
1979(20th
of Nisan, 5739): Terrorists who had crossed the border from Lebanon killed one
Israeli soldier today and injured six others.
1980:
The Presidium of the Brussels World Conference on Soviet Jewry had its final
meeting today in Paris.
1980:
Today the art critic of the Chicago Evening post described Rumanian native Emil
Armin, the grandson of a sofer who in 1905 came to the United States where he
joined his brother, enrolled in night art classes after which he became a
leading American painter “as perhaps the most finely sensitized artist in
Chicago…with a soul of a peasant and poet and the mind of a philosopher.”
https://richardnortongallery.com/artists/emil-armin
https://richardnortongallery.com/artists/emil-armin/artworks/7148-humoresque
1983(4th of
Iyar, 5743): Yom HaZikaron
1984(15th
of Nisan, 5744): Pesach
1986:
Authorities foiled an attempted bombing at Heathrow Airport. Israeli airline
security guards at Heathrow Airport in London took a hard look at Anne-Marie
Murphy and her luggage as she was about to board an El Al flight for Tel Aviv.
Beneath a false bottom in her bag they found 10 pounds of plastic explosive
rolled paper-thin -enough, the police said, to destroy the El Al Boeing 747 and
its 340 passengers. The police said Miss Murphy told them that the bag, which
had passed unnoticed through Heathrow security checks, had been handed to her
by Nazar Hindawi, a Jordanian who had several passports. The woman's father
said Mr. Hindawi had given Miss Murphy, who is pregnant, $300 to buy a wedding
dress and promised that they would be married yesterday in Israel. At the
airport, according to the police, Mr. Hindawi told his fiancée he had second
thoughts about flying on an Israeli plane and would take a different airline.
He hurried off but was arrested later at a London hotel. A sophisticated
microchip timer was set to ignite the bomb after a stopover in Munich, the
police said. It was possible that Miss Murphy, who had been working as a hotel
maid in the London Hilton, intended to disembark at Munich, the police said,
but more likely she was an innocent victim of the plot.
1986(8th
of Nisan, 5746): Steven M. Tielsch who while in a jail cell in Allegheny Country
who “bragged that he had killed a Jew, and would often make antisemitic remarks
and draw swastikas, a common antisemitic symbol, on himself” murdered Neal
Rosenblum as he walked to the Kollel Bais Yitzchok Torah Institute Study Center
in Squirrel Hill to daven ma’ariv.
1986(8th
of Nisan, 5746): Ninety-four-year-old French aircraft builder Marcel Dassault
who as Marcel Bloch was imprisoned in Buchenwald for his refusal to collaborate
with the Nazis passed and who became a Catholic after the war passed away
today.
1987(18th
of Nisan, 5747): Fourth Day of Pesach
1987(18th of
Nisan, 5747): Comedian Dick Shawn, born Richard Schulefand, died on stage from
a heart attack at age 63.
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/19/obituaries/no-headline-625287.html
1987: “Wild
Thing,” a murder mystery featuring Maury Chaykin and Shawn Levy was released
today in the United States.
1987: In the
UK, premiere of “Prick Up Your Ears” directed by Stephen Frears based on the by
John Lahr.
1988(30th
of Nisan, 5748): Eighty-eight-year-old Russian born American sculptor Louis
Nevelson passed away today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/nevelson.html
1989(12th
of Nisan, 5749): Eighty-year-old Bernard “Ben” Fishman, the son of Abrham and
Sarah Eckstein Fishman and the husband of Jeanette Felsen Fishman passed away
today after which he was buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery at Commerce City, CO.
1990(22nd
of Nisan, 5750): Eighth Day of Pesach and Yizkor
1991(3rd
of Iyar, 5751): Yom HaZikaron
1991(3rd
of Iyar, 5751): Ninety-seven-year-old songwriter Jack Yellen whose most famous
ditty was FDR’s campaign song, “Happy Days Are Here Again” passed away today.
1997: The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra made its Carnegie Hall debut under the
direction of Jewish conductor Yakov Kreizberg
1992: “Twilight:
Los Angeles, 1992,” produced by Benjamin Mordecai opened on Broadway at the
Cort Theatre.
1997: Joyce
Shepard of the Citizens Action Committee for Change met with Alan G. Hevesi and
Mayor Giuliani at City Hall where they promised her that more facilities would
be provided for the victims of domestic abuse.
1997(10th of
Nisan, 5757): Chaim Herzog passed away. Born in Ireland in 1918, Herzog
was the son of the distinguished Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog. Herzog moved
to Palestine in 1935 and served in the Haganah during the Arab Uprising that
started in 1936. During World War II, Herzog served in the British Army
where he worked with intelligence units liberating concentration camps.
During the War for Independence, Herzog was a leader in the fighting at Latrun,
part of the heroic campaign to keep the road to Jerusalem open thus ensuring
that the ancient city would be part of modern Israel. Herzog had a
distinguished career in the IDF and retired in 1962 with the rank of Major
General. In civilian life he pursued a career in business and the law while
also serving as a media commentator on military matters. In the middle
seventies, he returned to public service as Israel's Ambassador to the U.N. and
then as a Member of the Knesset for the Labor Party. He served two terms
as Israel's President (1983-1993). His historical writings include The Arab-Israeli Wars, War of Atonement: The Inside Story of
the Yom Kippur War, Who Stands Accused? and Israel's Finest Hour.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-04-17/news/9704180154_1_chaim-herzog-tel-aviv-shin-bet
1998(17th
of Nisan, 5758): Third day of Pesach
1998(7th
of Nisan, 5758): Fifty-six-year-old Linda McCartney the wife of Beatle Paul
McCartney, the granddaughter of Jewish immigrants from Germany and Russia
passed away today.
1998: In
“Putting the Inquisition on Trial” published today, Richard Boudreaux reports
on newly published records from the Vatican that shed light on the ancient
practices of the church.
http://articles.latimes.com/1998/apr/17/news/mn-40292
1998: Six
months after it opened in the U.S., ”Deconstructing Harry” a Woody Allen comedy
co-starring Bob Balaban, Richard Benjamin and Billy Crystal was released in the
United Kingdom today.
1998:
Marek Edelman one of the last surviving leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising was awarded with Poland's highest decoration, the Order of the White
Eagle.
1998: U.S.
premiere of “The Object Of My Affection” directed by Nicholas Hytner, with a
script by Wendy Wasserstein and co-starring Paul Rudd.
1999: In
Australia, a production of Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” closed today at the
Sydney Theatre Company.
2000: “The
Israeli police today recommended that Transportation Minister Yitzhak Mordechai
be prosecuted on three counts of sexual assault, dealing a humiliating blow to
the former general, who ran for prime minister last year as the first Sephardic
candidate in Israel's history.”
2001: “Israeli
officials said today that the overnight airstrike in Lebanon, which demolished
a Syrian radar installation and killed three soldiers, was meant as a warning
to Syria and not as an invitation to further conflict in the region.”
2002(5th of
Iyar, 5762): Yom Ha’atzmaut.
2002: “Shortly
after calling a game between the Indiana Pacers and Philadelphia 76ers on TNT,”
Marv Albert was injured in a car crash in which he “sustained facial
lacerations, a concussion, and a sprained ankle” leaving him unable to call the
opening game of the NBA playoffs.
2003(15th
of Nisan, 5763): Pesach
2003: “Tonight,
survivors of last year's” Passover attack at the seaside Park Hotel where a
Palestinian terrorist murdered 29 people “were invited back, along with other
Israeli victims of Palestinian violence for another Seder meal that begins the
week of Passover, the most significant holiday on the Jewish calendar
2004: For the
fifth time terrorists, in this case Hamas and Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Bridge, staged
an attack at the Erez Crossing.
2004: An Israeli missile
strike killed Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi. In the words of the
Associated Press, "Rantisi was Hamas' top leader in Gaza and one of
the most hard-line members of the militant movement who rejects all compromise
with Israel and calls for the destruction of the Jewish state."
2005: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including “The Outlaw Bible of American
Literature” Edited by Alan Kaufman, Neil Ortenberg and Barney Rosset and the
recently released paperback edition of “Alexander Hamilton” by Ron Chernow.
2005: A
Jewish Museum of Belmonte (Museu Judaico de Belmonte) opened today.
2006: At
precisely 4:00 P.M., President Moshe Katsav calls the 17th Knesset to order in
its maiden session with three blows of the gavel
2006(19th
of Nisan, 5766): Nine people were killed and at least 40 wounded in a suicide
bombing near the old central bus station in Tel Aviv. The blast ripped through
Falafel Rosh Ha'ir, the same restaurant that was hit by an attack on January
19. The Islamic Jihad and Fatah’s Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades both claimed
responsibility for the attack. The Hamas led PA government defended the suicide
bombing, calling it an act of "self-defense." Hamas official
spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called the attack "a natural result of the
continued Israeli crimes against our people".
2006(19th of
Nisan, 5766): Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, a leading Jewish scholar and civil
rights advocate known for his provocative, often contrarian views, has passed
away at the age of 84. The cause of death was heart complications.
Hertzberg was president of the American Jewish Congress from 1972 to 1978, and
vice president of the World Jewish Congress from 1975 to 1991. He also wrote a
dozen of books on Jewish thought and history. Dedicated to the creation of
Israel, he angered many Jews by also calling for a Palestinian state. An early
advocate of civil rights for blacks, Hertzberg was among the prominent
participants in Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington. Nine years
later, he headed the first Jewish delegation to meet formally with the Vatican
about the Roman Catholic Church's silence during the Holocaust. Born in
southeastern Poland, Hertzberg's family emigrated to the U.S. when he was five.
He studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and met his wife
while serving as an air force chaplain in Britain. After returning to the U.S.,
he became a congregational rabbi at the conservative Temple Emanu-el in New
Jersey, where he served until 1985.
2006: Today “to
mark the centennial of the birth of the playwright Clifford Odets, Lincoln
Center Theatre is scheduled to open a new production of “Awake and Sing!,”
Odets’s first full-length play and the one that made him a literary superstar
in 1935, at the age of twenty-eight.”
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/04/17/stage-left
2006: In
today’s issue of The New Yorker Seymour “Seymour Hersh reported on the
Bush administration's purported plans for an air strike on Iran” that would
include “the possible use of B61-11 bunker-buster nuclear weapon to eliminate
underground Iranian uranium enrichment facilities.”
2007: The
Israel Project and The Hebrew University's Truman Institute sponsored a one-day
conference entitled “IRAN, HIZBALLAH and HAMAS: Money, Martyrdom and the
Mahdi.”
2007: The
New York Times reviewed Shimon Peres: The Biography by Michael
Bar-Zohar.
2008: Famed
author Cynthia Ozick celebrates her 80th birthday. "Ozick is
the most high-browed of all the Jewish-American writers, completely lacking
well-read Saul Bellow's interest in the demimonde and the low-life. And yet her
prose is always alive and crackling, flashy and sensuous, and as distinctive as
the markings on a hoopoe." - Clive Sinclair, Times Literary Supplement
(3/11/2006) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Ozick.html
2008: In Cedar
Rapids, Hedy Epstein, whose parents died in concentration camps during the
Holocaust speaks at Coe College and at Kennedy High School.
2008: In Iowa
City, Iowa. Agudas Achim and Hillel hold a siyyum for the Fast of the
Firstborn. For the siyyum, Professor Steven Green leads a presentation on the
Talmudic section called “Yadyim,” which discusses the laws of Levitical
cleanliness or un-cleanliness of the hands.
2008:
UNITE HERE, a union of textile workers and hospitality workers, organized a
rally outside the offices of Goldman Sachs in downtown Manhattan to advocate
higher wages for the company’s cafeteria workers. Though few of the cafeteria
workers are Jewish, the rally will feature a mock Seder along with Passover
songs.
2008: “A
Catered Affair” starring Harvey Fierstein who also wrote the book for the
musical opened on Broadway today.
2009: A.B.
Yehoshua, the award-winning Israeli writer, presents a lecture, "From
Mythology to History," as well as discusses his latest novel, “Friendly
Fire.” This event is part of the University of Maryland’s (College
Park),"George Wasserman Family Israeli Cultural Event" series.
2009: In Cedar
Rapids, Temple Judah hosts the final Musical Shabbat in this the second season
of this popular celebration of the start of the “Day of Rest.”
2010: The
Westchester Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to show “Rafting to Bombay,” a
documentary about three generations of a family who
recollect their history among the European Jews who found safe haven in Bombay
after fleeing the Nazis and “Forgotten Transports: To Estonia,” the
third in Lukas Pribyl’s seminal series of documentaries on Czech Jews in WWII
which in this case, chronicles girls who were transported together through the
Nazi archipelago of camps in Estonia.
2010: Jonathan
Biss, American-Jewish pianist is schedule to perform at the Kaufman Concert
Hall in New York City.
2010: As part
of its pre-festival screening The Northern Virginia 10th
International Jewish Film Festival showed of "No. 4 Street of Our
Lady" a film tells the story of a Polish-Catholic woman who rescues 16 of
her Jewish neighbors during the war.
2011: The
Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to sponsor a
workshop entitled Women’s World War II Resistance at Beth El Hebrew
Congregation is Alexandria, VA.
2011: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including “Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan
Sontag” by Sigrid Nunez.
2011: The
Los Angeles Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including “Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How the
Ancient City Ignited Our Modern World” by James Carroll.
2011(13th
of Nisan. 5771): “The teenager who was critically wounded after Gaza militants
launched an anti-aircraft missile at a school bus in southern Israel earlier
this month succumbed to his wounds today. 16-year-old Daniel Viflic died in the
Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva after his condition seriously deteriorated
last week. The missile hit the bus traveling near Kibbutz Sa'ad just moments
after it had dropped off the rest of the school children, wounding Viflic and
the bus driver, who was moderately wounded by shrapnel wounds in his leg.
"Sadly, Daniel passed away this afternoon," said Professor Shaul
Sofer, the director of the intensive care unit at the Soroka Medical Center.
"It wasn't a surprise for us. He arrived in critical condition and shortly
afterward his brain stopped functioning. Due to the sensitive nature of the
event, we continued treatments despite knowing that he had no chance of
recovery." Yitzhak Viflic, Daniel's father, thanked the doctors and the
supporters of his family. "Daniel fought but passed away calmly. I am
positive he is in a good place now." Viflic was a resident of Beit Shemesh
and studied in a yeshiva there. When he was wounded, he was on his way to the
western Negev to visit his grandmother. Following the bus attack, cross-border
fire between Gaza and Israel seriously escalated. Palestinian militants fired
dozens of rockets into southern Israel and IDF forces launched numerous attacks
on targets in the Gaza Strip.”
2011 Israeli
security forces have arrested two teenage residents of the West Bank Arab
village of Awarta for allegedly carrying out last month's murder of five family
members in the settlement of Itamar, the lifting of a gag order revealed today.
2011(13th
of Nisan. 5771): Ninety-four-year-old Dr. Alfred M. Freedman, a psychiatrist
and social reformer who led the American Psychiatric Association in 1973 when,
overturning a century-old policy, it declared that homosexuality was not a
mental illness” passed away today.
2012: Dr. Neil
Gillman is scheduled to begin teaching “The Prophets: An Anthology” at the
Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning.
2012: “On the
run from the Nazis. A Boynton man remembers” published today.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/on-the-run-from-the-nazis-a-boynton-man-remembers/nN3DP/
2012: “Paul
Goodman Changed My Life is scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film
Festival followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Jonathan Lee.
2013: Dr.
Diane M. Sharon is scheduled to begin teaching “Reading the Hebrew Bible in One
Year’ at the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning.
2013: The
Center for Jewish History, Leo Baeck Institute and Taschen Books are scheduled
to present “The Hanover Esther Scroll, 1746 – a Masterpiece of Jewish Scribal
Art Rediscovered.
2013: “Let My
People Go and “Simon and the Oaks” are scheduled to be shown at the Westchester
Jewish Film Festival.
2013: Renee
Firestone, the native of Hungary who survived Auschwitz is scheduled to address
students at Washington High School, Xavier High School and Coe College.
Mrs. Firestone’s “is sponsored by the Joan and David Thaler Holocaust Memorial
Foundation. Dr. David Thaler was a native of Lvov who graduated from the
Medical School at the University of Paris and came to the United States before
WW II. He served in the United States Army where, ironically, he treated German
POWs. He settled in Cedar Rapids in 1946 where he practiced until he
passed away. Dr. Thaler’s father and sister perished in the Lvov Ghetto. Dr.
Thaler established the foundation as an educational tool that brings Holocaust
survivors and their children to Cedar Rapids each year to provide a human face
to what for some is an imaginable event. Joan Thaler has graciously
carried on the work started by her late husband to ensure that this vital
effort continues.
2013: The
Helly Nahmad Gallery remained closed today following the arrest of Hillel
Nahmad for his alleged role in an international money laundering and gambling
conspiracy. Nahmad is the scion of a prominent family that traces its roots to
the famous Jewish community of Aleppo where it was led by the patriarch who was
also named Hillel Nahmad
2013: Two Grad
rockets were fired on the southern city of Eilat this morning. One landed in a
residential neighborhood and the other in an open area in the outskirts of the
city
2014:
Alexander Fiterstein, Ian David Rosenbaum and Arnaud Sussman are scheduled to
perform at the Kaplan Penthouse.
2014: “The
Jewish Cardinal” is scheduled to be shown at the JCC Rockland International
Jewish Film Festival.
2014:
"Zero Motivation” a zany, dark comedic portrait of everyday life for a
unit of young female Israeli soldiers is scheduled to be shown at the Tribeca
Film Festival.
2015(28th
of Nisan, 5775): Ninety-one-year-old real estate tycoon A. Alfred Taubman
passed away today.
2015: “Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett today
and later with Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman as well, as an initial
deadline for the formation of a new governing coalition approached with no
deals yet made.”
2015: It was
reported today that “over 90 people had attended a Yom HaShoah Commemoration at
the Dublin Hebrew Congregation sponsored by the Jewish Representative Council.
2015: “Woman
in Gold” is scheduled to open in Israeli theatres today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/as-woman-in-gold-premieres-meet-the-man-who-battled-for-the-klimt/
2015: “Rue
Mandar” and “The Art Dealer” are scheduled to be shown at the Westchester
Jewish Film Festival.
2015: “Lost Stories, Found Images: Portraits of Jews in Wartime Amsterdam” which
has been on display at the Goethe Institute in San Francisco is scheduled to
come to an end today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/wartime-mystery-on-display-with-new-portrait-trove-of-dutch-jews/
http://www.jewishfed.org/news/events/lost-stories-found-images-portraits-jews-wartime-amsterdam
2016(9th
of Nisan, 5776): Eight-four-year-old broadcaster Elton Spitzer, the driving
force behind WLIR, passed away today.
2016:
Under the leadership of Dr. Brian Horowitz, the chair of the Jewish Studies
Department, Tulane University is scheduled to host “Kol Minei Dvarim: All Different Things” - The Inaugural Jewish
Studies Colloquium
2016:
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, The Thaler Holocaust Memorial Fund under the leadership
of Dr. Robert Silber and the Inter-Religious Council of Linn County are
scheduled to host the annual Yom HaShoah Service where “the speaker will be Magda
Brown, who was 17 years old in 1944 when she and her family were deported on
one of the final transports to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In March 1945, Ms. Brown was
sent on a 3-day death march from Birkenau Concentration Camp. Magda and several
other prisoners in her group escaped and hid in a barn. A few days later they
were discovered and liberated by two American Armed Forces. Only Magda and her
brother survived from her immediate family and only six cousins survived from
her extended family of 70.
2016:
In Northern Virginia, the Olam Tikvah Men’s Club is scheduled to host its
Survivors Tribute Brunch where Irene Fogel Weiss, “a survivor of Auschwitz who has
made many presentations of her story and testified recently at the trial of a
Nazi Auschwitz official in Germany” will be honored.
2016:
“Raise the Roof” is among the pictures to be shown on the final day of the
Northern Virginia Jewish Film Festival.
2016:
In Atlanta, GA, the Breman Museum is scheduled to host Hershel Greenblat who
spent the first two years of life hiding with other Jews in a dark cave in
Ukraine and the next five years in a DP camp before coming to the United States
in 1950.
2016:
“Rock in the Red Zone” is scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film
Festival.
2016:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including America’s
War for the Greater Middle East by Andrew J. Bacevich and the recently
released paperback editions of Michelle Obama: A Life by Peter Slevin,
Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler’s Concentration Camp for Women by
Sarah Helm, Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security
by Sarah Chayes and Publishing: A Writer’s Memoir by Gail Goodwin
2017(21st of Nisan, 5777): Seventh Day of Pesach
2017(21st of Nisan, 5777): Eighty-one-year-old
forensic psychiatrist Dr. Robert L. Sadoff passed away today. (As reported by
Sam Roberts)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/us/robert-sadoff-dead-forensic-psychiatrist.html
http://jaapl.org/content/jaapl/36/3/286.full.pdf
2017: In Jerusalem, the Hebrew Music Museum is scheduled
to host several “interactive exhibits and activities” as part of their Passover
program to acquaint visitors with “the rich traditions of Jewish and Israeli
music.”
2017: While hundreds of Palestinian prisoners began a
hunger strike, Israelis used “life fire” to control the mobs who joined in
supporting the prisoners, many of whom were convicted terrorists.
2018: The Jewish Federation of Cleveland Yom Hazikaron
ceremony is scheduled to take place today at the Mandel JCC Stonehill
Auditorium in Beachwood.
2018: Today, “the state attorney general plunged”
Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, the Jewish Republican who had already
“admitted to an extramarital affair with his former hairdresser” “even more
deeply into political and legal jeopardy saying the governor may committed a
felony in using a charity’s donor list for political funding raising.”
2018: Today, four days after he had passed away funeral
services were scheduled to be held at Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor,
Michigan for award winning chemist Charles Gelman, the New York born son of Fay
and Rita Gelman and husband of Rita Gelman who was the holder
of a BS from Syracuse and MS from the University of Michigan and who after
serving in the United States Army founded Gelman Instrument Company led to him
being a “recipient of the Michigan Science and Technology Trailblazer Award.”
2018: The Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to host a talk
by Rudolf Klein a professor of modern architectural history at Szent István
University” “on his new book, Synagogues in Hungary,
1867–1918 “which “is the first comprehensive study that systematically
covers all synagogues in Hungary from the Edict of Tolerance by Joseph II to
the end of World War I.”
2018:
Holocaust survivor Michael Bornstein who was only four years old when liberated
and his daughter Debbie Bornstein Holinstat are scheduled to speak at Kirkwood
Community College in Cedar Rapids and at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon as part
of the Yom HoShoah memorial which is being sponsored by The Thaler Holocaust
Education Programming Committee chaired Dr. Robert Silber.
2018:
Today in Jerusalem, Beit Avi Chais is scheduled to host a Yom HaZikaron event
that will include “animated films from the Panim project” as well as music and
personal stories.
2019:
At the University of Pennsylvania, the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
is scheduled to host Dr. Keren Dotan as she shares her research on “Hebrew
Prose by Late-Ottoman Rabbis from Eretz Israel.”
2019:
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host a presentation
by Holocaust survivor Steven Fenves as part of First Person Conversation
series.
2019:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a screening of “From
Swastika to Jim Crow” the documentary “based on the book by Gabrielle Simon
Edgecomb.
2020:
The day after Pesach ended, the Lido Kosher Deli and Ben’s Kosher Delicatessen
are among the kosher eateries scheduled to open today.
2020(23rd
of Nisan, 5780): Yahrzeits Rabbis Moses Tani of Safed and David Deutsch of
Budapest.
2020:
The Israeli American Council in Boston is scheduled to present on-line “Flow No
Fear: How to Stay Calm and Grounded During Challenging Times.”
2020:
The ban on Muslim at the Temple Mount which has the approval of the Waqf which
means no Friday Prayers today, is now scheduled to continue through the end of
Ramadan.
2020:
As Israelis prepared for Shabbat, they can contemplate the impact of
yesterday’s decision to “slowly start re-opening businesses on April 19.
2021:
After two successive nights of rocket attacks from Gaza, Israelis prepare for a
possible third such attack as Shabbat ends this evening.
2021:
This afternoon, the JCC Contra Costa is scheduled to present an in-person,
Israel-themed scavenger hunt for Israel Independence Day.
2021:
Jazz singer Noa Levy is scheduled to present Jewish contributions to Broadway
musicals in her one-woman show that includes the 2019 documentary “On Broadway.
2021:
The JCC of Greater Boston is scheduled to present the “PJ Library Woodland Art
Hike.”
2021(5th
of Iyar, 5781): Parashat Tazria-Metzora;
2021:
Scott Rudin, a powerful Broadway producer facing renewed accusations of
bullying, apologized today for “troubling interactions with colleagues” and
said he would step aside from “active participation” in his current shows. (As
reported by Michael Paulson)
2022(16th
of Nisan, 5782): Second Day of Pesach
2022:
Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County is scheduled to be closed today in
observance of Pesach.
2022:
2022:
For the first time UK Jewish Film is scheduled host an online screening of “The
Dinner.”
2022:
The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Flight and Metamorphosis: Poems
by Nelly Sachs, “best known as a Holocaust poet.”
2023:
The Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre is scheduled to host a lecture by
Professor Maiken Umbach on “Photographing Departures and Arrivals: Picturing
global Jewish migrations in the era of the Holocaust.”
2023:
Based on previously published reports the Labour party is scheduled to withdraw
from talks sponsored by President Herzog “aimed at reaching a broad agreement
over the government’s controversial judicial overhaul legislation, because it
claims that backroom deals were being cut without its involvement” at the same
time that the Netanyahu government is moving to pass legislation that would
lower the age for Hardei exemption from serving in the IDF and other
legislation that would “severely limited the power of ministry legal advisers.”
2023:
The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to host its Yom
HaShoah observance this evening at Caspe Terrace.
2023:
Through the generous support of the Stanley-UI Foundation Support Organization,
the Provost’s Global Forum is scheduled to host the “Festival of Cotemporary
Music from Israel” which begins tonight.
2023:
Feast Day of Pope Evaristus, who was “born in Greece of a Jewish father named
Juda, originally from the city of Bethlehem, reigned for thirteen years, six
months and two days, under the reigns of Domitian, Nerva and Trajan, from the
Consulate of Valens and Veter (96) until that of Gallus and Bradua.”
2023:
In the evening, beginning of the observance of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust
Remembrance Day)
2024:
The Elie Wiesel Foundation, chaired by the writer’s son Elisha, has joined the
Uyghur Human Rights Project and the World Uyghur Congress is scheduled to hold
a two-day New York conference starting today entitled “Disrupting Uyghur Genocide.”
2024:
The Jewish Federation is scheduled to host it’s phonathon fund raiser
“Wonderful Wednesday.”
2024:
The Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre is scheduled to host an evening with Randolph
Churchill and Allen Packwood as they discuss “Churchill, the Jews and Israel:
Romantic Saviour or Political Pragmatist.”
2014:
Town Hall in New York is scheduled to host a performance of “Address Unknown,”
which is “based on the bestselling novel, which was written as an anti-fascist
warning and banned in 1930s Germany for dramatically exposing the threat of
Nazism, Address Unknown tells the story of one friendship, one love, and one
betrayal.”
2024:
Beit Agnon is scheduled to host a lecture by Rabbi Daniel Epstein on “What Can
Socrates Teach Us These Days?”
2024:
As April 17th begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 194 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.)
