This Day, August 13, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
August 13
236:
The body of Hippolytus, the author of Contra Judaeous, which blamed the harsh
conditions of the Jews on their rejection of Jesus was buried in a cemetery on
the Via Tiburtina
339:
The Roman Emperor “issued a decree forbidding intermarriage between Jews and
Christians with transgressors to be punished by death.” (As reported by Austin
Cline)
339:
The Roman Emperor “issued a decree imposing the death penalty on Jews who
circumcise non-Jewish slaves.” (As reported by Austin Cline)
339:
The Roman Emperor issued a decree imposing the death penalty on any Jews who
hired women weavers that had been “in imperial service.” (As reported by Austin
Cline)
985:
Birthdate of the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim who “ordered…Jews to wear wooden calves
around their necks.”
1099:
Following a ceremonial that had been instituted by Emperor Otto III, the Jews
of Rome “were obliged to attend the entry into” Rome of Paschal II whose papacy
began today “singing laudatory hymns.
1311:
Birthdate of King Alfonso XI of Castile. During his reign, in 1348, Alfonso
issued decrees prohibiting Jews from charging interest when lending money and
prohibiting them from collecting unpaid debts.
(The same rules applied to Moslems, but not Christians.) At the same
time, Jews were still allowed to own land during his reign.
1315:
Louis X of France marries Clemence d'Anjou. In
1315, Louis X also overturned the decree of his predecessor that allowed the
Jews to return to France, and accorded them a charter "in answer to the
demands of the people."
1391:
In Spain, anti-Semitic mobs attacked the Jews of Lerida, reportedly killing 75.
Other Jews were forcibly baptized and were forced to see their synagogue turned
into a church.
1453:
Seventeen Jews were burned at the stake in Silesia (now Poland and/or Czech
Republic).
1551:
Jews of Great Poland were granted limited self-government.
1599:
In Basel, “Protestant Christian Hebraist” Johannes Buxtorf and his wife gave
birth to their son “Johannes Buxtorf the Younger” who completed and edited
several of his father’s works on Hebrew or related to Judaism as well as
creating works of his own including a Latin translation of the writings of
Maimonides.
1620(4th
of Av): Rabbi Menachem Azariah da Fano (Rama), author of Alfasi Zuta, passed
away
1624:
In France Cardinal Richelieu was named first chief minister of finance by King
Louis XIII. The Cardinal gave new
meaning and depth to the term “power behind the throne.” Many historians contend that any decree
issued by King Louis XIII was really the work of Richelieu. This would include
a decree issued in 1632 after the French had taken the fortress city of Metz
that allowed the Jews to remain in the city.
The decree was necessitated by the fact that the King had issued a
decree in 1615 banning all Jews from living in France. This decree is an oddity in its in own right
since when it was issued Jews were supposedly not living in the Gallic realm to
start with.
1713:
Birthdate of David Franco Mendes, the native of Amsterdam, a successful
businessman who used his leisure time to write poetry, study Talmud and play a
prominent role in the Spanish-Portuguese community.
1793:
In Stamford Hill, UK, Benjamin Goldsmid and Jessy Salomons gave birth to Albert
Goldsmid.
1796(9th
of Av, 5556): Parashat Devarim; Erev Tish’a B’Av
1804:
Birthdate of Israel Franklin Moses the native of Charleston, South Carolina who
became known as Franklin J. Moses, Sr. – prominent planter, politician and
jurist.
1807(9th
of Av, 5567): Tish’a B’Av
1807(9th
of Av, 5567): “Rabbinical author Meir Schiff” the brother of “Teble Schiff, the
rabbi of London” who had passed away in 1792, passed away today “at
Frankfurt-am Main.”
1816:
Birthdate of German jurist and office holder Rudolf von Geneist who
courageously helped to found the Association for the Defense against
Anti-Semitism “a non-Jewish organization” also known as The Union for Combating
Anti-Semitism.
1817:
In Frankfurt am Main Malchen Schloss and David Philipp Schloss gave birth to
Jenny Schloss
1823:
Birthdate of British born historian Goldwin Smith, “a pathological anti-Semite”
who spent his last years in Canada.
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/antisemitism
1824:
Nota ben Solomon married Reizecha bat Moses Israel at the Western Synagogue.
1829:
One day after she had passed away, Shifra bat Joel, the wife of Jacob ben Moses
was buried at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1831:
Birthdate of composer and pianist Salomon Jadassohn whose musical
accomplishments are overshadowed by the fact that unlike other German Jews he
did not convert even though his being Jewish kept him from many “church jobs
such as directors or organists” which went to Christians instead.
1833:
Eighty-nine year old Simon Solomon Wilks, the husband of Elizabeth Wilks with
whom he had seven children – “Abraham Philip, Israel, Leah, Sara, Mary and
Elisha” – was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1837(12
of Av, 5597): Aryeh Löb ben Joseph Katzenellenbogen: who followed in the
footsteps of his grandfather and father by serving as a rabbi at Brest-Litovsk
a city that would become infamous in the 20th century as the site of
the humiliating peace treaty that the Germans forced on the Russians during WW
I passed away today.
1846(21st
of Av, 5606): Eighty-one-year-old “barrister, politician and novelist” Robert
Plummer Ward the London born son John Ward and his wife Rebecca Raphael, a
member of “a Sephardic Jewish family from Genoa and political ally of Prime
Minister William Pitt passed away today.
1846:
In Hamburg, Germany, Friederike and Daniel Joseph Jaffe gave birth to Otto
Jaffe, the Lord May of Belfast and the husband Paula Hertz with whom he had two
children – Arthur and William Jaffe.
Birthdate
of Sir Otto Jaffe, the Hamburg native who became a successful British
businessman and Lord May of Belfast.
1846:
“In Kensington,” Adelaide Cohen and Aaron Salomons gave birth to “their only
son” Alfred Hymen Salomons.
1847(30th
of Av, 5634): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1847(30th
of Av, 5634: Seventy-one-year-old Grace Gomes Cohen, the London born daughter
of Aaron Gomes Da Costa and Miriam De Solomon Gomes Da Costa and the wife of
Judah Mordechai Cohen passed away today after which she buried at the Brady
Street Jewish Cemetery in London
1851(15th
of Av, 5611): Tu B’Av
1851:
In England, Cigar Maker Samuel (Isaac) Henry Gluckstein and Hannah Coenraad
Gluckstein who had gotten married at the Great Synagogue on Saint James’ Place
in 1845 gave birth to their fifth child Isidore Gluckstein.
1851:
In Alzey, Germany, Henrietta Frankfurter and Samuel Adler gave birth to Felix
Adler, the husband of Helen Goldmark. Adler’s family moved to the United States
when he was five. His father, Rabbi
Samuel Adler, was head of Temple Emanu-el, the leading Reform Congregation in
New York City. In 1873, Adler became
professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature at Cornell University. In that same year he delivered a major
address at his father’s congregation entitled “the Judaism of the Future.” He proposed ridding Judaism of its
superstitious traditions in order to better focus on the ethics that he felt
were central to any human community. The
congregation was receptive to his emphasis on ethics but was loathe to cast
aside 3000 years of religious tradition.
Adler soon found himself beyond the pale. In 1876, he founded the New York Ethical
Cultural Society. He remained a champion
of the Ethical Cultural Movement until his death in 1933.
1853(9th
of Av,5613): Shabbat Chazon; Erev Tish’a B’Av
1858(3rd
of Elul, 5618): Benjamin Etting Hays, the Bedford, NY born son of David Hays
and Esther Etting and the husband of Sarah Sally Myer, a successful farmer
passed away today in Pleasantville, NY
1860:
Birthdate of Baltimore native Jules Kann Hexter who moved to Victoria, TX where
he served on the Board of Aldmeran, was active in the town’s Jewish community
and married Melanie Levi, daughter of Abraham Levi whose family organized the
large financial institution, which became Victoria Bank and Trust Company.
1860:
In response to a public call, signed by a number of influential citizens, a
meeting was held at the Tract-Society House today afternoon, to consider the
subject of the Christian massacre in Syria, and to adopt measures for rendering
assistance to the sufferers. About twenty persons were present, among them some
of our most prominent clergymen. During
the meeting it was noted that meetings for the same purpose were being held in
England and France by Jews as well as Christians.
1861:
Philadelphian Joseph Lewenberg began serving with Company I of the 23rd
Regiment.
1861:
Birthdate of Dr. Marcus Jastrow, Jr., the Warsaw native who moved to
Philadelphia with his father, the famed Talmudist Marcus Jastrow and became a
noted Orientalist.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30917F73D551A738DDDAA0A94DE405B818EF1D3
http://forward.com/articles/138271/
1862:
Philadelphians, Emanuel Lehman, Jacob Lehman, Eli Arnold, Charles Lillienstein
and Daniel S. Myers began a nine month hitch with the 127th
Regiment.
1862:
During the Civil War, Aaron Miller began serving with Company F of the 129th
Regiment today.
1862:
During the Civil War, William Lazarus who would be killed during the Battle of
Antietam began serving with Company E of the 132nd Regiment.
1862:
Henry Bear began serving with Company H. of the 133rd Regiment
today.
1862:
The Keystone Battery, a Pennsylvania Light Artillery Regiment in which Leon da
Silva Solis-Cohen served until just before the Battle of Gettysburg was
organized today in Philadelphia.
1865:
Morris Sontheimer completed four years of service with Company K of the 108th
Regiment of the Eleventh Calvary.
1865(21st
of Av, 5625): Fifty year old Bavarian native Henry Bendel, the son of Abraham
and Pessle Bendle who married Mary Anker Bendel with whom he had 8 children
passed away today in Albany, NY.
1866(2nd
of Elul, 5626): Forty year old Lithuanian born Hebrew scholar Wolf Adelsohn
whose students included grammarian Ḥayyim Ẓebi Lerner passed away today in
Odessa.
1866:
In Liverpool, England, Gustave and Louisa (Nelson) Harrison gave birth CCNY
graduated, and Emanuel Theological Seminary trained rabbi Leon Harrison who
served as the Rabbi of Temple Israel in St. Louis for 35 years.
https://accessgenealogy.com/missouri/biography-of-leon-harrison.htm
https://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/islandora/object/ui%3Atc_39403_39399
1867:
Birthdate of Arthur Eichengrün, the German-Jewish chemist who holds 47 patents
but is best known for his claim to really have been the inventor of Aspir
1867:
In Philadelphia, Aurelia Lobenberg and Louis Frankel gave birth University of
Pennsylvania trained chemist, the husband of Alice Reizenstein and “manager of
the United Hebrew Charities” in Philadelphia.
1867:
Birthdate of Dr. Charles Foster Kent, the American Biblical scholar who dozens
of works on ancient Israel including Outlines Of Hebrew History, A
History of the Hebrew People (2 volumes) and A History of the Jewish
People during the Babylonian, Persian and Greek Periods.
1868:
Today a tsunami washed the gunboat Wateree, whose crew included Midshipman
Edward David Tausig, “far in land at Arica.”
1869:
In Nordhausen, Germany, “Jacob and Clementine (Heineman) Ball gave birth to
University of Berlin trained surgeon Max Ballin who began practicing in Detroit
in 1901, served as a Lt. Col. in the Medical Corps during WW II while sharing a
life with his wife, the former Carrie Leppel.
1870(16th
of Av, 5630): Parashat Vaetchanan
1870(16th
of Av, 5630): Joseph Moss, the 14 month old son of Mary Noronha and William
Moss who were married in 1863 passed away today.
1870:
In New York City, “Joseph Arthur and Pauline (Goodheim) Levy” gave birth to
patron of the arts Florence Nightingale Levy.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/levy-florence-nightingale
1871:
The Grand Lodge of the Ancient Jewish Order of Kesher Shel Barzel held their
annual banquet this evening at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 14th Street in
New York City. The lodge has 4,000 members. The dinner was attended by 110
members including thirty delegates from various parts of the United States.
1871:
In Chicago, Rabbi Elkan Herzman was physically forced to leave his synagogue on
Fifth Avenue. Some of the congregants had complained because Herzman had
violated Jewish law by eating ice cream on a day when he should have been
fasting. When Herzman arrived at the
synagogue he found another rabbi in his usual place. Following the altercation, Herzman complained
to the police who said that there was nothing they could do about. Herzman has threatened further political
action. (I have not been able to find
any further reference to this Rabbi or a synagogue on fifth avenue, so if you
have, please let me know.)
1871:
“Berton Gotthemier” the husband of the former “Julia Zachariah” with whom he
had two children – “Lavinia and Maurice” – was buried today at the Balls Pond
Road Jewish Cemetery.
1872:
Birthdate of German born chemist, Richard Willstätter. Willstatter won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry
in 1915 for his study of the structure of chlorophyll and other plant
pigments. He resigned his position on the
faculty at a university in Munich over the issue of anti-Semitism. After Hitler’s
rise to power, he fled to Switzerland where he died in 1942.
1872:
Birthdate of Jacob de Haas, an English journalist who was one of Herzl’s
earliest supporters. After Herzl’s death, de Haas became a lead of the Zionist
movement in Israel.
1874(30th
of Av, 5634): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1874:
It was reported today that George Walling, the Superintendent of the New York
Police Department had written to Henry Honscheidt, the Sheriff of McLean
County, Illinois, telling him that in his opinion the man who had confessed to
the Sheriff that he had killed Benjamin Nathan was “either insane or an imposter.”
1875:
Birthdate of Arthur Yitzhak Biram, Israeli philosopher, philologist, and
educator, who died on the first day of the Six Days War.
1877:
Midhat Pasha, the head of the “Young Turkey” Party is in Vienna where he hopes
to negotiate a treaty with Austria and England that will protect the Ottoman
Empire and avoid a Holy War. Pasha is the son of a Bulgarian Jew who converted
to Islam to enhance his commercial opportunities in the lands of the Sultan.
1876:
The Anglo-Jewish Association’s description of a Jewish community living in
India was published today. According to the reported the community is known as
the Beni-Israel (Children of Israel) and has been in existence for a thousand
years. They dress like Hindus and speak
the Hindu language. While they know
little Hebrew, they follow the Levitical Code and strictly observe the Sabbath.
They are separate from other Jewish communities in the subcontinent.
1878:
Birthdate of Arthur Yitzhak Biram, the native of Saxony who earned a Ph.D. at
the University of Leipzig and completed training as a rabbi before emigrating
to Ottoman Palestine in 1913 where his academic accomplishments to him being
awarded the Israel Prize for education in 1954.
http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Streetwise-Rehov-Biram-Haifa
1880:
Belfast native George Betzold and Anne Rosenbaum gave birth to Florence
Betzold.
1881:
It was reported today that the government is taking “strong measures” to
suppress the anti-Semitic riots in Pomerania including the arrest of 21 rioters
at Koslin.
1881:
Birthdate of Hugo Hansel who was transported from Prague in 1942 to Ujazdow
where he was murdered.
1881:
“Comical German Names” published today includes a commentary on the names used
by German Jews who were “not more than a century ago, forlorn of family
names.” “He was either known by a ‘front
name,’ supplemented by that of his father as in ‘Aaron ben David’ or ‘Solomon
ben Israel’ or by some nickname owing its origin to the nature of his
occupation or perhaps to a conspicuous physical peculiarity.” Apparently this
method of nomenclature made it difficult for the taxman to make his collections
so a law was passed requiring Jews to choose a surname, use for the entire
lifetime and “transmit it by legal act of registration to his children.”
1882:
“Mr. Jenkins’s New Book” published today provides a review of A Paladin of
Finance by Edward Jenkins in which the Member of Parliament creates a work of
fiction based on the financial crash in France in which “he insists., the Jews
rule the finances of the world and there wield all the power.”
1883:
The New York Times published a letter
to the editor from Raphael Lewin in which the author disputes the account of
the Damascus Libel of 1840 published in the Times on August 6 describing
it as being slanted and anti-Jewish.
1884:
The Board of Governors of the Hebrew Union College re-elected Bernhard Bettmann
as President. Rabbi Henry Berkowitz of
Mobile, Alabama and Rabbi Max Landsberg of Rochester, NY, were chosen to serve
as new members on the board.
1884:
It was reported today that Russian Jew on his way to his brother’s wedding in
Paris was detained for 4 days by authorities because he did not understand
French and could not answer their questions.
While in custody, a rope was kept around his neck; he was handcuffed and
knocked about by those holding him. When
the mayor heard of the incident he called for an investigation
1884:
It was reported today that Mrs. Morris Cohn, the daughter of Michael Englemann
(the Salt King of Manistee, Michigan) has left her husband and returned after
his arrest on charges of numerous counts of forgery. Cohn, a prominent Jewish businessman had
spent the $50.000 wedding gift from Englemann and turned to criminal activity
to support their lifestyle.
1885:
In Philadelphia, PA, Anna Jochebed Feller and Phineas Mordell gave birth to attorney and author Albert
Mordell whose works included “The Shifting of Literary Values.”
1886:
It was reported today that numerous homes of Jews living in Kiev have been
destroyed during anti-Jewish riots in the Russian province.
1887:
It was reported today that Israel Lipski’s solicitor has new facts that will
prove that he did kill Miriam Angel, the woman he was convicted of
killing. Lipski’s lawyer has met
privately with Judge Stephen convinced him of his client’s innocence.
1887:
Israel Lipski’s solicitor, who has prepared a pamphlet reviewing the case
against Israel Lipski containing “sundry points that could not brought into
trial” met privately with Judge Stephen, who tried the case and is said “to
have been convinced that there was grave doubt of Lipski’s guilt.”
1887:
Henry Mathews, the Home Secretary who has refused to interfere in the case of
Israel Lipski who has been sentenced to hang for murdering Miriam Angel “took
the prompt step of announcing to the press late” tonight “that “Lipski would
certainly be hanged” as scheduled.
1889:
It was reported today that Theodore Cohn, the young man who stole $610 from
A.H. & King is in the Tombs awaiting trial on a charge of grand larceny.
1890:
The expenses of today’s excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew
Children will be paid in full by an anonymous female donor who has been paying
for one such excursion for each of the last seven years.
1890:
In London, “the meeting at the Mansion House to protest against” Russian
persecution has been postponed following reassurance by the Lord Mayor offers
reassurances that there is no reason to believe that the Czar’s government will
enforce the edicts of 1882.
1890:
Godfrey Taubenaus has been selected to serve as Rabbi of Mount Sinai Temple on East
72nd Street.
1891(9th
of Av, 5651): Tish’A B’Av
1891:
The Russian government prohibited the collection of funds or the publication of
appeals for financial assistance to Jewish immigrants today
1892:
“A Chicken Too Much for the Police” published today described the uproar at
police stations throughout New York caused by Davis Rubenstein bringing a
decayed chicken to each police station
in his attempt to have action taken against Berman’s Butcher Shop which is
“selling impure food.” The foul fowl was turned over the Sanitary Bureau to use
in its investigation.
1893(1st
of Elul, 5653): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1893:
“Parties in Austria” published today described the political divisions in the
polyglot central European kingdom that include “anti-Semites, who
conscientiously hold that hell is not hot enough for the Jews, whose torments
ought, in strict justice, to begin in this life and be continued in the next.”
1893:
Birthdate of Monnet Bain Davis who served as U.S. Ambassador to Israel from 1951
through 1953>
1895:
According to Charles Bernstein, the settlement committee of the striking
tailors, most of whom were Jewish, will meet for the last time tonight.
1895:
American opera singer Francesca Halle and Joseph Gluckstein who with his
brothers Isidore and Montague founded J. Lyons and Co. gave birth to Hannah
Gluckstein the British painter known simply as Gluck who also the brother of
Sir. Louis Gluckstein.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/aug/13/1895/androgynous-artist-gluck-is-born
http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/gluck_A.pdf
1896:
Herzl meets with the Turkish ambassador, Mahmud Nedim Bey, in Vienna.
1896: Since American commanders did not know that
an armistice had been signed yesterday, they proceeded to capture the
Philippine city of Manila, the climactic moment in the Battle of Manila. Sergeant Maurice Justh of the First California
Volunteers, a regiment with 100 Jewish members, was the first soldier “to fall
in the attack on Manilla.”
1897(15th
of Av, 5657); Tu B’Av
1898:
“Hebrew Charities Building” published today described “the new Hebrew Charities
Building, just now rising above the ground level on the corner of Second Avenue
and Twenty-first Street” next to the Post Graduate Hospital.
1898(25th
of Av, 5658): Parashat Re’eh
1898:
An entry in a Swiss hotel log showed that Freud stayed at the hostelry possibly
with “a woman who was not his wife” and may have been his sister-in-law Minna
Bernays.
1899:
As tensions rise in France during the re-trial of Captain Dreyfus, Paul
Deroulede, the poet who is also a member of the Chamber of Deputies and 23 of
his allies were arrested today. (The
Dreyfus affair was symptomatic of deep divisions in French society that pitted
Republican secularists against Royalist Roman Catholics.)
1899:
Three duels are scheduled to be fought by journalists cover the court martial
of Captain Dreyfus and Rennes, France.
1899:
In Paris, demonstrations took place this evening outside of the offices of the
Anti-Semite League where the President of the League and Max Regis, “the former
Jew-baiting Mayor of Algiers” are hiding.
1899:
“London Sympathy With Dreyfus” published today described a rally where a
resolution was adopted calling for “a meeting of rejoicing” “in the event of
the acquittal of Dreyfus.”
1899:
“‘King Lear’ In Hebrew” published today described the emotional response to
Jacob Adler’s portrayal of King Lear at the People’s Theatre in Brooklyn. The Shakespearian drama has been updated to
fit the taste of its predominately immigrant Jewish population, so it is set in
modern day Vilna and the women “dress in the latest New York Fashions.”
1899:
It was reported today that the recent rapprochement between France and Germany
has led to renewed mistrust and mistreatment of Germans in Russia as well the
decision of the government to order German and Polish Jews who have been living
in St. Petersburg for years to leave the capital by the end of the month.
1900: The Fourth Zionist
Congress convened in London with five hundred delegates in attendance. Max
Nordeau gave the opening in address which included an account of the appalling
conditions faced by the Jews of Romania and a tribute to the Kaiser for his
treatment of the Jews of Pomerania and East Prussia.
1900:
In London, an open air meeting for the evangelizing of Jews was held near
Queen’s Hall where the Zionists were holding their congress.
1900:
Forty-seven year old Russian theologian and philosopher who “profoundly
disagreed with the views of novelist Dostoevsky about the Jews” because he did
not “see Judaism…as the antithesis of Christianity but as a forced that could
help reconcile the peoples of Eastern Europe and revitalize Christianity”
passed away today.
1901:
It was reported today that the Hebrews Union College has “received a dispatch
from Scranton, PA, saying that one third of a one million dollar estate left by
Simon” was bequeathed to the school and that “although the college trustees
have not been officially notified the place full credence in the report” as can
be seen by a statement issued by President Bernhard Bettman.
1902:
It was reported today that the committee, consisting of E. C. Whitney,
Chairman; William H. Baldwin, Louis Marshall, Nathan Bijur, and Thomas M.
Mulry, appointed by Mayor Low to investigate the causes that led to the recent
riot on the occasion of the funeral of Chief Rabbi Joseph” has held its first
meeting at 61 Rivington Street.
1902:
“At a meeting of Roumanian Jews held tonight at the Hebrew Alliance, the
Roumanian Government was censured both by the speakers and by resolution for
the shameful and ill-treatment and abuse heaped upon by Bernhard Lazar of
Paris.”
1903:
In Salt Lake City, Utah President Joseph F. Smith of the LDS (Mormon) Church
gave the dedicatory address at the cornerstone laying for Congregation
Montefiore.
1903:
Birthdate of Rochester, MN, native and University of Minnesota graduate Herman,
“the associate librarian for manuscripts and archives at Yale” who raise two
children with his wife, “the former Anne Seuss.”
1904(2nd
of Elul, 5664): Parashat Shoftim read on the day before the Kaaterskill is
scheduled to host a benefit for the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital.
1905:
It was reported today that “a children’s costume carnival is being arranged to
take place at the Royal Palace Hotel for the benefit of children’s war in the
Atlantic City Hospital and the Jewish Seaside Home at Ventnor, NJ.”
1906:
It was reported today that at its tenth summer assembly, the Jewish Chautauqua
Society voted refer proposed resolution voicing opposition to further
restrictions on immigration to the Board of Directors.
1907:
The first American taxicabs appear on the streets of New York City. At least two Jews played a major role in the
introduction of this type of conveyance in the United States. In 1915, John
Hertz, a Hungarian born Jew started the Yellow Cab Company in Chicago, Il. In
1922, a Russian born Jew named Morris Markin formed the Checker Cab Company and
in 1929 he bought the Yellow Cab Company from Hertz.
1908:
William Jennings Bryan delivered a speech to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association
in New York City.
1909:
Birthdate of attorney Joshua J. Nasaw, the husband of Beatrice “Bea” Kaplan
Nasaw and the father of historian and author David Nasaw.
1910(8th
of Av, 5670): Parashat Devarim; Erev Tish’a B’Av
1910:
Birthdate of Shlomo-Yisrael Rosenberg; the native of Warsaw who moved to the
United States where he became a lawyer and a rabbi before making in Aliyah
where as Shlomo-Yisrael Ben-Meir he became an MK who held several ministerial
portfolios.
1911:
At Basel, Switzerland, the 10th Zionist Congress, adopted a
resolution to establish a Zionist immigration office in Berlin
1911:
In New York City, Jacob and Rebecca Reiter gave birth to NYU graduate William
Bernbach, “the founder and chairman of the Doyle Dane Bernbach advertising
agency and the husband of the “former Evelyn Carbone with whom he had two sons,
John and Paul – the New York attorney and patron of the arts.
1912:
Franz Kafka met Felice Bauer in Berlin.
The relationship between these two had a profound effect on Kafka’s
literary output as well as his personal life.
One critic recently wrote that Kafka’s correspondence with Bauer “is the
most useful key to Kafka’s thoughts and actions during the decisive years of
his emergence as a writer.”
1912:
In Vineland, NJ, founding of Ahabat Achim synagogue
1912:
In Turein, Ester Sacerdote and David Luria gave birth to biologist Salvador
Luria who in 1969 shared the Nobel Prize in medicine with Max Delbruck for the
“Luria-Delbruck experiment”
which “demonstrates that in bacteria, beneficial mutations arise in the absence
of selection, rather than being a
response to selection. This reinforces the Darwinian notion of evolution by
natural selection acting on random mutations.”
1913:
In Bavaria, Moritz and Rachel Hellmann, the daughter of Rabbi Isaac Bamberger
and Julie Judith Bamberger, gave birth to Julie Hellmann
1913:
Birthdate of Melvin Frank, the Chicago native and graduate of the University of
Chicago whose screen writing efforts included two classics “Mr. Blandings
Builds His Dream House” and “White Christmas” that helped to create the “middle
class American dream.”
1913:
Twenty-five year-old Yale Medical School Graduate Dr. Maxwell Lear, the Russian
born son of Samuel and Fannie (Freedman) Lear and his wife, the former of Ida
H. Avrutin whom he married in 1812 gave birth to their first child, Pearl
Sylvia Lear, the granddaughter of Hyman and Rachel Avrutin.
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ctnhvbio/Lear_Maxwell.html
1914:
The Great War, which will bring so many changes to Jews throughout the next
four years, began to take shape as a great conflict as today, on the same day,
“four squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps flew from Dover to France while
Austria invaded Serbia as its armies crossed the Drina.
1915:
Sixty-year old Eli Pochansky, an Orthodox Jew who attacked his son Samuel for
smoking on Shabbat and then struck his wife and daughter who tried to defend
them is a free man because when the magistrate hearing the assault complaint
learned of Pochansky’s strict view on smoking he “decided not to entertain the
charge.
1915:
In a move that would presage the greatest naval threat to the Allies, a German
submarine sank the H.M.T. Royal Edward in the Ægean Sea.
1916:
It was reported today that Abram I. Elkus, the new United States Ambassador to
Turkey is scheduled to set sail on August 17 for Copenhagen and then spend two
or three days in Berlin before continuing on to Constantinople.
1916:
It was reported today that Herman Bernstein, the editor of The American Hebrew,
in speaking about the service of Oscar Straus, Henry Morgenthau and Abram Elkus
as American diplomats said, “The world is more exacting toward a Jewish
statesman” meaning that “in addition to serving his country, he must by the
brilliance of his service disarm prejudice and raise the prestige of the Jewish
people.”
1916:
Birthdate of Connie Polan who became Connie Wald when she married Jerry Wald.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-connie-wald-20121123,0,7388384.story
1917:
The Turkish military leader Djemal Pasha announces the Turkish government has
become convinced that the Jewish colonies inside Palestine must be destroyed,
so they won't present a danger to the integrity of Turkey.
1917:
It was reported today that to meet the needs of the thousands of Jews “who will
be drafted into the” United States Army and Navy, “the need for Jewish
Chaplains to tend to their spiritual wants” has become clearly apparent which
has led Representative Isaac Siegel of New York has introduced a bill into
Congress which provides that “The President may appoint not exceeding twenty
Chaplains at large for the United States Army representing religious sects not
recognized in the apportionment of Chaplains now recognized by law..”
1918:
Based on information first supplied by the Vienna Morgen Zeitung, “the Jews who
were supporters of the Austro-German Alliance…must now alter their opinion
regarding Austria’s foreign policy since Germany no longer allows Jews to cross
her frontier” and enter the country while Russia, as a result of the Revolution
has lifted all of her laws aimed at suppressing the Jewish population.
1918:
Birthdate of Judith Iris Martin, the Newark native who created the long-lived
children’s theater group, the Paper Bag Players which would become a New York
City institution (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1918:
In a move that will have unforeseen meaning for decades to come the “British
Government recognized the Czecho-Slovaks as an Allied nation on the same day
when the Czechs declared their independence and declared war on Germany.
1919(17th
of Av, 5679): Russian born Hyman L. Little passed away today in Atlantic City,
NJ.
1920:
One day after she had passed away Myer Lukowsky was buried today at the
“Belfast Jewish Cemetery in Northern Ireland.”
1920:
In Carlsbad, Czechoslovaki, the “Chief Rabb of Stockhom” today delegates
attending the Jewish World Relief Conference that “half a million children in
Russia and Ukraine are absolutely without any schooling” and “that in Switzerland Jewish academicians
were pawning their diplomas in order to stave off starvation.
1921(9th
of Av, 5681): Parashat Devarim; Erev Tish’a B’Av
1921:
“The Hotel of the Dead” a silent film written by Walter Wassermann, starring
Rosa Valetti and featuring Hermann Picha was released today in Germany.
1921:
In Philadelphia, a $15,000 donation to the Jewish Hospital (now the Einstein
Medical Center) established the May Fleisher Rosenburg Memorial Fund.
1922:
Birthdate of Ruby Burman, the native of Columbus, Ohio, who as Ruby Cohn became
“a theater scholar who espied the genius of Samuel Beckett early on in Paris
and became a leading authority on his work as well as his friend…” (As reported
by Bruce Weber)
1922:
“Samuel Untermeyer, President of the Palestine Foundation Fund made public a
letter from Dr. Arthur Ruppin describing the future establishment of Jewish
suburbs at Jerusalem and other sites in Palestine which show the likelihood of
the development of major municipalities throughout the area.”
1923:
Establishment at Jerusalem and other places in the Holy Land of many Jewish
suburbs which show a likelihood of developing into big municipalities is
described in a letter from Dr. Arthur Ruppin made public today by Samuel
Untermyer, President of the Palestine Foundation Fund.
1924:
“The largest Jewish fraternal order in the United States, the Independent Order
of Brith Abraham, with national headquarters at 37 Seventh Street, announced today
that through the activity of Congressman Nathan D. Perlman of the Fourteenth
District the order would begin on Sept. 2 a drive to prepare for citizenship
every alien Jew in the country”
1925:
In the “Free City of Danzig” Eliezer and Dina Sterenberg gave birth to Meir
Shamgar who served as President of the Israeli Supreme Court from 1983 until
1995.
1926:
“The Third Squadron” a silent German movie starring Fritz Spira and Eugen Burg,
both of whom died in concentration camps in WW II, was released in Germany
today.
1926:
Birthdate of Arthur Ortenburg, the native of Newark who teamed with his wife
Liz Claiborne and Leonard Boxer to create fashion line Liz Claiborne, Inc (As
reported by Douglas Martin)
1927(15th
of Av, 5687): Shabbat Nachamu; Tu B’Av
1927:
The members of the fourth official Anglo-Catholic Congress pilgrimage,
including thirty Americans arrived in Jerusalem today.
1928:
Birthdate of Yehuda "Nimrod" Lapidot “an Israeli historian and former
professor of biochemistry. Lapidot was a member of the Irgun and an officer in
the Israel Defense Forces. In 1980 he was appointed head of Lishkat Hakesher by
former Irgun commander and then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Lapidot
received a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Hebrew University in 1960 and later
became a professor.”
1928(27th
of Av, 5688): Eighty-two year old American Jewish author Isaac Markens, the son
of Orientalist Elias Markens and the collector of Lincoln memorabilia whose
works included Lincoln and the Jews passed away today in Newark, NJ.
1928(27th
of Av, 5688): Seventy-one year old Nathan Lamport, the son of Tsvi Hirsch
Lamport and Esther Lamport and the
husband of Sarah Lamport passed away today in Dobbs Ferry, NY after which he
was buried in Jerusalem. He was “nationally known Orthodox leader and
philanthropist, president of the Board of Directors of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan
Theological Seminary and donor of $200,000 toward the Yeshiva College now in
process of construction.”
1928:
At the casino in Deauville, Charles A. Levine punched the editor of The
Boulevardier after the latter admitted that he was the one who had been
taking “dirty cracks” at Levine. The two
were separated and Miss Mabel Boll, who was reportedly Levine’s mistress, took
him away. Levine, a non-observant Jew,
claimed to be the first passenger to fly the Atlantic in 1927.
1929:
New York State Supreme Court Justice Frankenthaler is scheduled to hear
arguments regarding a petition to have the question of the sanity of Alfred
Dreyfus be determined by a jury.
1929:
Jewish financier Felix Warburg and Lord Melchett, the famous British nobleman
whose picture appeared on the cover of Time
Magazine on
1930:
“A delegation of the American Jewish Congress, representing Jews throughout
this country, called today upon Carol A. Davila, Rumanian Minister to the
United States, to request him to urge upon his
1931(30th
of Av, 5691): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1931:
In the wake of a weeklong series of reports of “agitation” in Arab villages and
threats of violence in Jerusalem, “today there was a real exodus of Jews who
reside in the Arab sections” of Jerusalem.
1932(11th
of Av, 5692): Parashat Vaetchanan
1932:
Representative Samuel Dickstein of New York, chairman of the Congressional
Committee on Immigration, arrived in Warsaw today, and although he is on a
honeymoon trip he intends to investigate complaints made by both Jewish and
non-Jewish would-be emigrants from Poland against American medical officers in
the Warsaw Consulate of unduly restricting and delaying visas.
1933:
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency published an article that estimated that there
were about 660,000 non-Aryans living in Germany of which 500,000 are
"official" Jews and 160,000
of
Jewish descent.
1933:
“So This Is Harris!” – “a short comedy directed by Mark Sandrich” was released
in the United States by RKO.
1933:
Birthdate of Luxemburg native Gaston Kahn who went from Drancy to Auschwitz
1934: La signora di tutti (Everybody's
Woman) the only Italian film directed by Max Ophüls was released in Italy
today.1934: The comic strip “Li’l Abner,” created by Al Capp, made its debut.
Born Alfred Gerald Caplan in New Haven, in 1909, Capp was a successful
syndicated cartoonist by the age of 19.
He created Li’l Abner and all of his Hillbilly friends during the depths
of the Great Depression. One of the most
famous characters in the strip were the Schmoos. These characters could jump into your pot or
skillet and “cook up” to taste like any food you wished for. To Jewish kids, the Schmoos sounded an awful like
the manna in the Bible.
1935: It was reported
today that South Germany’s anti-Jewish campaign started in Munich with a
six-hour parade of truck loaded with shouting Storm Troopers and decorated with
anti-Jewish slogans.”
1936: Felix M. Warburg,
New York banker and philanthropist, today was named chairman of the American
division of the executive committee of the Council for German Jewry.
1936: It was reported
today that two Jewish newspapers in Berlin are not publishing any news about
the Olympics because “neither has received a press card or been recognized in
any way.”
1936(25th of
Av, 5696): Late tonight in Safed, “Arab terrorists” “broke in the house of
Rabbi Alter Ungar who was asleep with his family” and threw a bomb that
“decapitated the rabbi” and killed an eight year old girl and a six year old
boy.
1936: It was reported
today that “there are no real Jews on the German Olympic team” since “Helen
Mayer is only half Jewish” and that “there is no evidence that Olympics has
made any difference (improvement) in the status of German Jews.”
1936: In Geneva, “The
World Jewish Congress adopted eight resolutions by acclamation today and
tonight cover the Palestine problem, the German boycott, emigration,
anti-Semitism, the German Jewish question, refugees, relief and Soviet Russia.”
1936: Roger W. Straus,
the co-chairman of the National Conference of Christians and Jews was appointed
as “special assistant” in the Landon Presidential Campaign and “hit at reports
that the Republican National Chairman had anti-Semitic tendencies.”
1937(6th of
Elul, 5697): “Four members of a Jewish family,” including three children were
“shot dead by Arabs who broke into their home in Safed.
1937: Two days after he
had passed away in New Haven, CT. funeral services were scheduled to be held
for Leopold A. Spier, the husband of Hannah Shenfeld Spier.
1937: Dr. Isidore
Frank, a chaplain in the NYPD and assistant rabbi at Mount Neboh Temple
officiated at the funeral for Detective Isidore Astel which attended by
hundreds of patrolman and Mayor La Guardia who “paid tribute to his heroism in
the line of duty” which led to his death following his thwarting of a robbery
in December of 1936.
1937: A proposal to
settle 200,000 Jews in Palestine within the next three years, involving an
investment of about $175,000,000, was laid before the World Zionist Congress
today. The proposal was made by Elieser Kaplal, treasurer of the Zionist
executive committee, who said American Jewry was expected to contribute
$2,000,000 to the Zionist movement and Palestine fund in the current fiscal
year.
1938: “Fifty-five
Austrian Jews,” including ten women and three children “who have been deprived
of their livelihoods and homes” following the Anschluss arrived in Helsingfors,
Finland, aboard a Finnish liner but were forbidden to come ashore because of
irregularities in their passports” even though the local Jewish community
promised to provide food and shelter for the refugees and the Cabinet granted
temporary permission for their landing.
1938(16th of Av, 5698):
As they bicycled from Ramatayim to Petah Tikva Benjamin Babayoff and his wife
were shot and killed by gunmen firing from an orange grove and their seven year
old daughter who was riding on the handlebars was severely wounded.
1939: Newlyweds
Katherine and Walter E. Sachs were sailing across the ocean to Europe today.
1939: In Brooklyn Julius and Anee Cohen Steinberg
gave birth to Saul Phillip Steinberg the Wharton graduate who founded “Leasco”
which provided him with the financial bases to acquire 150 year old Reliance
Insurance Company.
1940(9th of Av, 5700):
Tish'a B'Av
1940: Birthdate of
Rabbi Alan Bergman, who served Congregation Temple Israel in St. Louis before
moving to the Chicago area where her served “as Director of the Great Lakes
Region/Chicago Federation of the Union American Hebrew Congregations” for a
quarter of century while raising three children – Daniel, Marc and Saralyn –
with his wife the former Marcia Sky
1940: During the Battle
of Britain the Luftwaffe attacked British airfields Field Marshall Goering told Hitler that the
Luftwaffe could bomb the British into submission making an invasion
unnecessary. On the other hand, by destroying the RAF, the Germans would be
able to invade the British Isles with complete control of the skies insuring a
Nazi victory. If the British had lost
the Battle of Britain, the Final Solution would have been that much closer to
being truly “final.” For more about the
role of Jews in actually fighting the Battle of Britain see http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/ww2/sugar4.html. Failure to win the Battle of Britain soured
Hitler on the capabilities of the Luftwaffe and caused him to turn his face
eastward towards the Soviet Union. The
invasion of the Soviet Union would result in the millions of Jews coming under
the sway of the Final Solution.
1941: “Ostland
Reichkommissar Hinrich Lohse ordered that all property belonging to Jews was to
be confiscated and registered, and all money and valuables in their possession
handed over immediately.”
1942(30th of
Av, 5702): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1942: Four days after
its world premiere in London, “Bambi” one of the most popular children’s films
which was based on Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Felix Saltan, “the
grandson of an Orthodox rabbi” opened in New York City today.
1942(30th
of Av, 5702): Sixty-nine year old German born Nobel Award winning chemist
Richard Willstätter who in 1924 he left his post a prominent German university
because of the overt anti-Semitism he encountered passed away today in
Switzerland after having left his homeland in the 1930’s.
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1915/willstatter-bio.html
1942: The
Jewish communities at Mir, Belorussia, and Gorodok, Ukraine, are liquidated.
1942: Switzerland
forces Jews (mostly French) already safe in Switzerland back across the border.
The Swiss government will turn back 10,000 Jews to their deaths during the
remainder of the war on the grounds that only political refugees can be
admitted into Switzerland, not "racial refugees." The Swiss
government does, however, welcome the gold that the Germans extract from the
mouths and fingers of the dead Jews.
1942: For the next fourteen days, 53,750 Jews from
Warsaw will be deported to the Treblinka death camp.
1942: United States State Department officials
and the British Foreign Office decide that the Riegner Cable outlining details
of the Holocaust be kept secret.
1943:
“A group of 367 Jews with Spanish citizenship arrived at Bergen Belsen, and in
violation of his instructions, Spanish diplomat Sebastian de Romero Radigales
kept them alive until the Spanish government “changed its position and
permitted their transfer to Spanish Morocco.”
1943:
Y. Ben Ami wrote a letter to Peter H. Bergson proposing “the creation of a
‘Free Palestine League’ to influence United States policy on the Middle East
and to wage a publicity campaign to create public support for an independent
Palestine.” (Ben Ami would have a son, Jeremy who became the executive director
of “J Street.”)
1944(24th
of Av, 5704): Sixty-seven year old Yale educated attorney Leo Arnstein, the San
Francisco born son of “Eugen and Josefine Mandelbaum Arnstein,” who served as a
Lt. Colonel during WW I and was a civic leader closely connected with Mayor La
Guardian while raising four children – William, Robert, Margaret and Elizabeth
– with his wife “the former Elsie Nathan” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1944/08/15/87463870.pdf
1944: The Monuments Men under the command of James
Rorimer “met as a group for the first time today outside the ruins of Saint
Lo.”
1944: Following today’s arrest of an SOE agent and a
French officer by the Gestapo, Krystyna Skarbek with the SS officer in charge,
and using a combination of threats and bribery obtained the release of her
comrades.
1945(4th of Elul, 5705): Sixty-nine year
old architectural scholar Samuel Edward Gideon, the Louisville, KY born son of
“Louis and Henrietta (Brooks) Gideon” who was a professor at the University of
Texas passed away today.
https://cemetery.tspb.texas.gov/pub/user_form.asp?pers_id=2279
1945(4th of Elul, 5705): Thirty-five Jews
sacrifice their lives to blow up Nazi rubber plant in Silesia
1946: British authorities open detention camps
on the island of Cyprus to hold Jewish refugees who have been prevented from
entering Palestine due to British restrictions on immigration.
1946:
In Brooklyn Anna Blumenthal and Dr. Julius Yellen gave birth to Janet Louise
Yellen the American economist who has a career as an academic and public
service including chairing the Council of Economic Advisers and holding senior
positions with the Federal Reserve.
1947:
It was reported today that Mrs. Anna Erickson Leven had given the Museum of
Modern Art three cubist paintings by Juan Gris “in memory o Dr. Pheobus Aaron
Theodor Levene”
1948:
Harry Dexter White, the son of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, who had been
accused of being a communist and a traitor denied being a member of the party
when testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee today.
1948:
On what came to be known as “Black Friday” due to the horrible weather
conditions, during the Berlin Blockade, American and British aircrews delivered
a record amount of supplies to the citizens of the Western Zone in what was
part of an effort to halt Communist Russia’s imperial designs on western Europe
– designs, as the Stalin purges were showing were inimical to the survival of
the Jewish people.
1948(8th
of Av, 5708): Silent screen star Elaine Hammerstein, daughter of Arthur
Hammerstein and granddaughter of Oscar Hammerstein, died in an automobile
accident.
1949(18th
of Av, 5709): Parashat Eikev
1949(18th
of Av, 5709): In Brooklyn, dentist Abraham Schartzburg who wrote short stories
in Russian, Hebrew and Russian, passed away today.
1951:
“A Nahal group from the Ezra movement” Sha’alvim, “a religious Kibbutz in
central Israel…affiliated with Agudat Israel.
1951:
Gonen a Nahal settlement which was “civilianized in 1952 by a group of Hebrew
Scouts” was established today in the Upper Galilee “
1952: In New York Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt welcomed
the 50,000th visitor to the Bond Drive’s Israeli Industrial Exhibition. The
Hebrew lettering on a gleaming, Kaiser-Frazer car, assembled in Israel, made a
great impression.
1953(2nd of Elul, 5713): Seventy-three
year old history Eugen Täubler who began his career teaching at the Higher Institute for Jewish in Berlin
and finished it teaching at HUC in Cincinnati, Ohio, passed away today.
http://leobaeck.oxfordjournals.org/content/39/1/131.extract
1955: Two years after the death of Joseph Stalin,
old-line Bolshevik Semyon Dimanstein was rehabilitated by the Communists
running the Soviet Union. Born in 1886,
Dimanstein reportedly became a Rabbi after studying at a Chabad Yeshiva before
becoming a Russian revolutionary. He was
widely identified with Jewish issues inside the Soviet Union including the
Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the Far East and Yidn in FSSR (Jews in the
Soviet Union). He was a victim of Stalin’s murderous purges in 1938.
Rehabilitation is sort of like the Communist version of Resurrection.
1957: In Philadelphia, PA, “veteran WCAU
Philadelphia news anchor Gene Crane and his first wife Joan” gave birth to
David Crane, who helped to create one
television’s most popular sitcoms – “Friends” which will live on forever in
re-runs.
1958: “God’s Little Acre” the film version of a
novel by the same name directed by Anthony Mann with a script by Philip Yordan
and Ben Maddow, starring Vic Morrow and with music by Elmer Bernstein was
released today in the United States.
1959(9th of Av, 5719):Tish'a B'Av
1959: Today, “the Supreme International Restitution
Court in Berlin, recognized the claims of four Jewish families for the return
of valuable estates and houses sold to foreign diplomatic agencies during the
Nazi era.”
1960(20th of Av, 5720): Parashat Eikev
read for the last time during Presidency of Dwight David Eisenower.
1961(1st of Elul, 5721): Rosh Chodesh
Elul
1961: Ernst and Karola Bloch were on a lecture tour
in the Federal Republic of German when the Berlin Wall “went up” today forcing
them to forsake their home Leipzig (East Germany) and settle in Tubingen (West
Germany)
1961(1st of Elul, 5721): Seventy-nine
year old Sir Ellice Victor Sassoon, who became a Baron on the death of his
father Edward Elias Sassoon and who made much of his fortune in the orient
passed away today.
http://www.chinaexpat.com/2009/03/30/sir-victor-sassoon-a-most-fortunate-expat.html/
1964: In Los Angeles, “stage and film director
Gordon Davidson” and his wife Judi Davidson” gave birth to movie actor and
director Adam Davidson who “won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject” for
“The Lunch Date.”
1965(15th of Av, 5725): Tu B’Av
1965(15th of Av, 5725): Eighty-four-year-old
Sadie Jacobs Crockin, the wife of Emil Crockin whom she married in 1908 passed
away today after which she was buried at the Hebrew Friendship Cemetery in
Baltimore
1965: It was reported today that the auditorium of
newly built Anna Lazaroff Synagogue in Kfar Chabad “was donated by Mr. and Mrs.
Eugene Ferkauf, of New York, honoring Mr. and Mrs. Isidore and Rose Silverman.”
(JTA)
1966: Birthdate of Marblehead, MA native and
Brandeis and Penn State alum David Silverman who was raised in Jewish home and who
became “president of the American Atheists, a non-profit organization
supporting the rights of atheists” that also supports “the removal of
expressions of religion in government.
1968: Funeral services are scheduled to be held to
at Temple Israel Center of White Plains, NY for Edward Lewis, the husband of
Anne who served as President of the Temple and was an active leader for forty
years.
1969(29th of Av, 5729): Eighty-year-old
Russia born Dr. Joseph V. Deporte, the husband of “the former Elizabeth
Parkhurst with whom he had three sons “who succeeded in having any indication
of illegitimacy eliminated from birth certificates in New York State” passed
away today.
1970: Two months after being released in the United
States, “Two Mules for Sister Sara” directed by Dan Siegel and with a
screenplay by Albert Maltz was released in Mexico today.
1973(15th of Av, 5733): Tu B’Av
1973(15th of Av, 5733): Maurice Bisgyer, retired executive vice
president of B'nai B'rith, the Jewish service organization, died today at the
age of 75.
1973: The
body of Sir Moses Montefiore, father of modern Jewish settlement in Eretz
Israel, will be returned to Jerusalem a century after his death, the Israeli
Government said today. The body will be moved from Ramsgate to Israel in 1975.
1975(6th of Elul, 5735): Forty-four year
old Jerusalem native Rabbi Simcha Teitlebaum the found of Hillel Academy in
Pittsburgh and the Yeshiva High School of Queens while two children – Aron and
Naomi – with “the former Elly Mayer” passed away this in evening.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1975/08/15/76584163.html?pageNumber=38
1976(15th of Av, 5755): Tu B’Av
1976: It was announced today that “the working
title” of the film to be made about the raid on Entebbe “is ‘Operation
Jonathan,’ in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Netanyahu, a 30 year old
American born Israeli officer who killed during the rescue operation.”
1976: Having returned to NYC from a campaign trip to
Rochester, Daniel P. Moniyhan who is running for a seat in the U.S. Senate was
reported today to have “said that the Entebbe raid followed by” the terrorist
attack at Istanbul “were indications of the failure of the international
community to cooperate to cope with terror.”
1976: The Palestinian terrorists “who killed four
persons in an attempt to hijack an Israeli plane at Istanbul were reported
today to have “said they had been instructed to kill as many Israelis as we
can” and that they were “active warriors of the PLO” which “they had joined six
months ago.”
1976: Abraham Hirschfeld, a candidate for the U.S.
Senate from New York was reported today to have named “a coordinator for his
effort to win support in Hispanic areas of the state.”
1977: President Carter’s administration rejected the
Israeli request for the co-production rights of the F-16 fighter-bomber and
announced that Israel would not be able to purchase the 250 planes as requested.
This number had been reduced to 50 or 75 on grounds that the Israel Air Force
no longer needed to maintain its air superiority over the Arabs.
1978(10th of Av, 5738): Tish’a B’Av
observed
1982: “White Dog” a cinematic treatment of Romain
Gary’s novel of the same name “directed by Samuel Fuller” who co-authored the
script was released in the United States by Paramount Pictures today.
1982(24th of Av, 5746): Sixty-seven year
old New York native, “singing waiter” and WW II Veteran Joe E. Brown the comedic
actor best known for his role in the sitcom “Car 54” passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/15/obituaries/joe-e-ross-dies-at-67-actor-in-tv-s-car-54.html
1984(15th of Av, 5744) Tu B’Av
1987: “Lyricist Lorenz Hart Lives On Through
Sisterly Devotion” published today described the efforts of Dorothy Hart, the
sister-in-law of the composer to preserve his legacy as can be seen by her new
book The Complete Lyrics of Lorenz Hart.
1982: “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” directed by Amy
Heckerling was released in the United States by Amy Heckerling.
1986(8th of 5746): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1987: “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” a Grammy
nominated song written by Michael Masser was released today.
1991: The
publisher Robert Maxwell said today that he had reached a private agreement
with the publisher and other shareholders of Israel's Ma'ariv-Modin Group to
acquire the majority of shares in the company, which owns the Israeli daily
Ma'ariv. Ma'ariv is published in Hebrew in Tel Aviv. Financial details were not
given. A statement said Mr. Maxwell would be the chairman and publisher and
hold more than 70 percent of the shares. Dov Judkowski, who with Mr. Maxwell
controls more than 75 percent of the shares, will be editor in chief and deputy
chairman. "I shall put at the disposal of Ma'ariv-Modin all the funds
necessary for the swift development of the paper, for the benefit of both the
group and its staff," said Mr. Maxwell, who recently acquired The Daily
News in New York.
1993: “A Bronx Tale,” a crime film produced by Jane
Rosenthal premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
1993: Belgian middle distance runner Nathan placed
10th in 800 metres at the 1993 World Championships which opened
today at Stattgart.
1995: Aharon Barak succeeded Meir Shamgar as
President of the Supreme Court of Israel.
1999(1st of Elul, 5759): Rosh Chodesh
Elul
2000: The New
York Times book section featured a review of Half-Jew: A Daughter's
Search for Her Family's Buried Past by Susan Jacoby and Rodinsky’s
Room a mystery about David Rodinsky coauthored by Iain Sinclair and Rachel
Lichtenstein, granddaughter of Polish Jewish refugee Gedaliah Lichtenstein.
2001: In the fight against West Nile Virus, pesticides are applied at Baron Hirsch
Cemetery In New York.
2002: “Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer offered
a personal apology today to a prominent Israeli journalist, Gideon Levy, who
was fired upon on Sunday by an Israeli soldier as the journalist entered a West
Bank military zone with army permission.”
2003(15th of Av, 5763): Tu B’Av
2003: “The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
unanimously rules to refuse to reconsider a three-judge panel ruling that a Ten
Commandments plaque from 1920 can remain on the Chester County courthouse in
Pennsylvania. The appeals court was overruling a decision that the plaque with
the commandments “violated the separate of church and state.” (As reported by
Austin Cline)
2004: Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, the army chief of
staff, broke with Israel's traditional position in an interview published today
with the newspaper Yediot Aharonot, saying: "From the point of view of
military requirements, we could reach an agreement with Syria by giving up the
Golan Heights. The army could defend Israel's borders wherever they are."
2005: The
20th annual Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education (CAJE) opens at the
University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
2005(8th of Av, 5765): Parashat Devarim;
Shabbat Chazon; Erev Tish’a B’Av
2005(8th of Av, 5765): Ninety-two year
old movie producer Armand Deutsch passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/print/2005/aug/17/local/me-deutsch17
2006: A Woman in Jerusalem by A. B. Yehoshua
(translated from the Hebrew by Hillel Halkin) was reviewed in the Book Section
of the New York Times. A human
resources manager is described as “the nameless main character” of this latest
acclaimed novel. Finally a novel
features a Jewish human resources manager – how can one not be excited at the
prospect of reading this?
2006: The Book Section of the Washington Post featured a review of Peter Hartcher’s Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan and the Missing 7 Trillion
Dollars which the reviewer
describes as a “flawed jeremiad” that attempts to blame Greenspan for the
collapse of the dot com bubble and the losses that may or may not have taken
place.
2006(19th of Av, 5766):
Mahadi Hiyat, 83, was killed when a rocket crashed directly into his house near
the town of Shlomi. Hiyat was the sole Egyptian resident of the northern Jewish
community of Ya'arah.
2007: A copy of Faye
Kellerman’s latest novel, The Burnt House is contributed to the Temple
Judah in Cedar Rapids, thus insuring that its library will have a complete
collection of her detective mysteries.
2007: Some 75 people from
the Jewish community of Rochester, New York, attended a dedication ceremony
today to honor a rediscovered burial plot, long unknown to the community, where
over 100 Jews from the 19th century were buried.
2008: Forty Reform Jews
land in Israel for a first-of-its-kind trip to meet the Israeli Reform
movement.
2008: Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez met with Jewish leaders today, pledging to work together
against anti-Semitism and open up channels of communication despite differences
on Middle East politics.
2009: Funeral for Robert
William Levine, the businessman and philanthropist who worked to aid Russian
immigrants is scheduled to take place at Temple Emanuel in Newton, MA followed
by burial at Memorial Park in Sharon, MA.
2009: In Jerusalem, the
Yiddishpiel Theatre helps prepare people for the High Holidays by presenting a
“unique musical event which combines stories about the great cantors and Jewish
and cantorial soul songs.
2009: In Jerusalem, Beit
Avi Chai, A cultural center
that explores concepts of Jewish and Israeli identity and creativity presents a
workshop led by Dr. Meir Buzaglo, Department of Philosophy, at Hebrew
University entitled Rambam in the 21st Century that asks the
questions, “How does the Rambam’s thinking relate to the basic questions of the
modern age?”\
2009: The Israel Defense
Forces said today that they were investigating reports of a kidnapped soldier.
2009: The Jewish Lads’
and Girls’ Brigade (JLGB), “the UK’s oldest Jewish youth which was founded as
the Jewish Lads’ Brigade by Colonel Albert E.W. Goldsmid” “broke the Guinness
World Record for the largest custard pie fight at their annual summer camp with
253 people taking part and throwing 648 pies in a matter of minutes.”
2009: Rai Ephraim Simon,
co-director of Friends of Lubavitch and a father of nine donated one of his
kidneys to Samar Chasid living in Williamsburg who is the father of ten.
2009 Today, 36 year old
Tzipora “Obziler convened a press conference to announce her retirement from
professional tennis.”
2009 Patriot’s rookie
Julian Edelman scored his first professional points on today in a pre-season
game with the Philadelphia Eagles returning a punt 75 yards for a touchdown.
2010(3rd of Elul,
5770): On the Hebrew calendar today
marks the 75th anniversary of the passing of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak
HaCohen Kook. He passed away on the 3rd of Elul, 5695. During the
British Mandate, “Rabbi Kook was the first Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of the Jewish
population in the Land of Israel in modern times, and had great love and respect
for the secular Zionist movement…”
2010: Temple Judah is
scheduled to celebrate the 88th birthday of Marianne Bern at the
Oneg following Friday night services.
2010(3rd of
Elul, 5770): Seventy-eight year old Oregon State University statistician, the widow
of Professor Alan Berg and the first “female mayor of Corvallis, OR” passed
away today.
https://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/article_fd4053cc-a967-11df-a42f-001cc4c002e0.html
2010: The man who killed
Meir Kahane in 1990 claims he did not carry out the shooting alone, as
previously thought, but was part of a three-man terrorist cell with links to
al-Qaida.
2010: The reopening of
Shaarei Torah, the synagogue of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, luminary sage and
father of modern religious Zionism, coincided with the 75th anniversary of
Rabbi Kook's death.
2011: The Gaga Summer
Intensive that included Ohad Naharin's Repertoire is scheduled to come to a
close today. Ohad Naharin “is an Israeli contemporary dancer, choreographer,
artistic director, and musician.”
2011(13th of
Av, 5771): Shabbat Nachamu
2011: The Summer Israeli
Folk Dance Mostly Couples Marathon is scheduled to take place at Buttenwieser
Hall in New York City.
2011: Social protests
took place throughout Israel today, with demonstrators turning out en masse in
Haifa, Be’er Sheva and Afula.
2011: Gunmen abducted an
American Jew after breaking into his house in the eastern Pakistani city of
Lahore today in an unusually brazen raid that illustrated the threat to
foreigners in this militancy-wracked, US-allied country.
2012: Five short films
created by Israeli directors - Occupy Rothschild, Wall to Wall, Busted, Word Games, A Wonderful Day – are scheduled to be
shown in NYC
2012: The Industry,
Trade and Labor Ministry announced today that the price of a price-controlled
loaf of bread will rise by 6.53 percent tomorrow.
2012: Hezbollah has
rockets that can hit any Israeli city, a leading official of the organization
said this afternoon.
2012: Israel may need to
destroy parts of Lebanon and Gaza if Hezbollah and Hamas rain missiles upon the
country in response to an Israeli attack on Iran, former Mossad head Danny
Yatom said today
2012(25th
of Av, 5772): Eighty three year old real estate mogul and philanthropist Zev
Wolfson passed away today.
http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/vilna/vilna_pages/vilna_stories_zev.html
2013:
“Israel: A Home Movie” is scheduled to be shown at the Morris Cafritz Center
for the Arts as part of the Year-Round Washington Jewish Film Festival.
2013:
“Little Me” a Neil Simon musical opened at the Rose and Crown Theatre in
London.
2013:
“The High Court of Justice today rejected a petition by the families of terror
victims to block the release of 26 Palestinian prisoners who were convicted of
terrorism, ruling that it is not for the court to involve itself in what is a
diplomatic rather than a legal process.” (As reported by Stuart Winer)
2013:
The Israel Defense Forces gained 125 new recruits today as over 300 immigrants
from North America landed in Israel, part of a charter flight organized by the
Nefesh B’Nefesh organization. (As reported by Joshua Davidovich)
2013:
Amir Levy is scheduled to appear in “Bellimi and the Sultan” at the Robert Moss
Theatre
2014:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to unveil two
plaques honoring rescuers from Italy and Poland at the Ferro Fountain of the
Righteous
2014:
Dr. Mark W. Weisstuch is scheduled to deliver the second in his series of
lectures on “The Merchant of Venice: A study of despair and humanity” at the
Skirball Center for Jewish Life and Learning.
2014:
“Jewish people must be
allowed to pray on the Temple Mount during the High Holidays and Sukkot,
lawmakers in the Knesset Interior Committee said today.” (As reported by Lahav
Harkov)
2014:
“Rockets were fired from Gaza tonight two-hours before the midnight deadline to
Sunday's 72-hour cease-fire, as the IDF enhanced its troop presence along the
border preparing to once again wage war against Hamas in Gaza.” (As reported by
Herb Keinon, Hhaled Abu Toameh and Michael Wilner)
2014:
“Accompanied by Senate Majority co-leaders Dean Skelon and Jeff Klein together
with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Andrew M. Cuomo, the Governor of New
York, called on President Reuven Rivlin today to affirm the State of New York’s
support for the State of Israel in light of the continued threat of attacks by
Hamas and other terrorist organizations.” (As reported by Greer Fay Cashman)
2015:
Aly Raisman began competing at the National Championships in Indianapolis.
2015:
“Asif Kapadia’s Amy Winehouse film is” is scheduled to be shown in London under
the auspices of the UK Jewish Film which “aims to develop a culture where
Jewish and Israeli film is recognized and enjoyed by the widest possible
audience, and to bring Jewish related film to the heart of British culture.”
2015:
Jews On Bikes is scheduled to cosponsor “What It Takes: Havdalah” where
attendees will “gain the skills to make Havdalah on their own” at the Historic
6th & I Synagogue.
2015:
It was reported today, that the appoint of Fiamma Nirenstein, a former Italian
MP and journalist who immigrated to Israel in 2013 to serve “as Israel’s
ambassador to Rome has rattled the Italian Jewish community amid fear of
accusations of dual loyalty.”
2016:
In “Obit for the Obits” Bruce Weber bid farewell to his role as an obituary
writer for the New York Times. (Editor’s Note – This a moment of mixed
emotion. On the one hand we are glad
that Mr. Weber will get to enjoy the fruits of a long life. On other hand, he will be sorely missed. His obits have provided mountains of
information. And his writing is elegant
and amazing. He is able to capture the
life of people, some of whom are obscure and/or long forgotten, in a handful of
well-chosen words. I can think of no
greater way to end one’s life than to be a subject of Bruce Weber’s writing.)
2016:
At its triennial assembly which ended today, ‘The Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America approved a resolution calling on the U.S. government to end all aid
to Israel if Israel does not stop building settlements and “enable an
independent Palestinian state.” (Editor’s Note – considering Luther’s view on
Jews, he would be so proud of his spiritual descendants.)
2016:
“Israeli superstar David Broza” and the Jazz Encounters are scheduled to
perform at National Sawdust.
2016(9th
of Av, 5776): Parashat Devarim; Shabbat Chazon; Erev Tish'a B'Av; for more see
2016:
The “22nd annual March around the Old City Witt the Women in Green”
is scheduled to begin at 9:30 pm with the reading of “Eicah” in Independence
Park.
2016:
At midnight, “floodwaters began to flow into Ellen Sager’s Baton Rouge” – one
of the 34 homes owned by Jewish resident of the city that would be lost to the
rising waters.
2016:
The Jerusalem Soul Center is scheduled to host the annual reading of Eicha
starting at 8:45 pm which this year will be “dedicated to the Memory of Mike
Levin z'l, our holy brother and lone soldier friend killed 10 years ago in the
Lebanon War and buried on Tisha Bav 2006.”
2017:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Bed-Suy Is Burning, a novel by Brian Platzer and the recently
released paperback edition of You’ll Grow Out Of It by Jessi Klein as
well as recommendation for the sleep deprived to read Go The F**K To Sleep
by Adam Mansbach.
2017:
The Gula Bar and Restaurant at 4 David Remez Street in Jerusalem is scheduled
to host an Ilan Jazz Trio Concert featuring singer and pianist Ilan Chouraki.
http://icmusic.club/index.php/en/bio
2017:
Dov Boros, the native of Budapest who survived the Gestapo and the Arrow Cross,
who survived the Budapest ghetto is scheduled to talk about his experiences at
the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
2017:
Rita is scheduled to host Shimon Buskila at the Jerusalem Arts and Crafts Fair.
http://us.napster.com/artist/shimon-buskila
2017: The exhibition “Generation of Wealth by
Lauren Greenfield” came to a close at the Annenberg Space for Photography in
Los Angeles.
2018:
In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Through Lotte’s Lens” a
documentary that tells the extraordinary story of the ‘Hitler Émigrés’, the
refugees – mainly Jewish who escaped the Nazi regime in the 1930s and found
refuge in the UK.”
2018:
Today Politico published an essay by Stephen Miller's uncle, Dr. David S.
Glosser, titled "Stephen Miller Is an Immigration Hypocrite. I Know
Because I'm His Uncle", in which he detailed the Glosser family's history
of coming to the United States from the village of Antopal in present-day Belarus.
2018:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled “to host the
U.S. premier of MGM's new motion picture Operation Finale- the story of the
Mossad capture of Adolph Eichmann” followed by a presentation by “Avner
Avraham, former Mossad agent and special Operation Finale film consultant.”
2018:
In New York the Muslim American Leadership Alliance and the American Sephardi
federation are scheduled to host “An Evening of Islamic and Jewish Calligraphy”
led by “experiential educator and artist Ruben Shimonov.”
2019:
Outfielder Kevin Pillar and his fellow San Francisco Giants are scheduled to
begin a two game series with the neighboring Oakland A’s.
2019:
The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host “Relax, Meditate and Find
Peace with Nature.
2019:
The Center for Jewish History and the YIVO Institute are scheduled to present a
workshop on “Researching Your Ancestral Town” in which participants will learn
how to investigate the history and culture of the Jewish community in their
“ancestral towns.”
2020:
“Israel and the United Arab Emirates reached a landmark accord sealed by
President Trump today that could presage a broader realignment in the region as
the two agreed to “full normalization of relations” in exchange for Israel
suspending annexation of occupied West Bank territory.”
2021:
Based on yesterday’s vote by a Health Ministry expert panel, as of today the
coronavirus booster shot campaign, which had only been available for citizens
aged 60 and over, may now include other demographics as well, chief among them
are the over 50s.(As reported by Nina Fox and Adir Yanko)
2021:
In Berkley, CA, Urban Adamah and Wilderness Torah are scheduled to host an
“Outdoor Kabbalat Shabbat” service that
“includes singing, poetry, meditation and prayer.”
2021:
Boston Jewish Film is scheduled to present an online screening of “Here We Are”
a film about an Israeli family coping with autism “followed by a pre-recorded
Q&A with Shai Avivi, moderated by Amir Tadmor, director of cultural affairs
at the Consulate General of Israel in New England.”
2022:
In Tiburon, CA, Congregation Kol Shofar is scheduled to celebrate the
installation of Cantor Naomi Weiss with performances by several cantors.
2022:
In Cedar Rapids, IA, Jacob Copeland is scheduled to be called to the torah as a
Bar Mitzvah at Temple Judah
2022(16th
of Av, 5782):Shabbat Nachamu
2023:
Final performance of “Paper Cut” by Yael Rasooly is scheduled to take place at the
International Puppet Fringe in New York City.
2023:
The Museum at Eldrige Street is scheduled to a walking tour “Activism on the
Lower East Side” “that explores landmarks in the movement for social and
economic reform on the Lower East Side at the turn of the 20th
century.”
2023:
Temple Beth David of the South Shore is scheduled to host an “Open House
Barbecue.”
2023:
The Jewish Studio Project is scheduled to host “Creating with the Moon: Rosh
Chodesh Elul” with Rabbi Bec Richman.
2023:
Netanyahu indicated today “that his government will move ahead with changing
the makeup of the Judicial Selection Committee, the most far-reaching and
controversial measure in the judicial shakeup package. He intimated that he was
still seeking consensus on this. After that, he said, he would shelve the rest
of the judicial overhaul plan.”
2023:
Today, in Berlin Makkabi is scheduled to ”be the first Jewish club to play in
the German Cup, a season-long tournament for 64 of the country’s best
professional and amateur sides.” (As reported by Ciaran Fahey)
