This Day, August 28, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
August 28
388: Magnus
Maximus, an Hispanic usurper to the throne of the western Roman Empire passed
away. During his disputed reign Maximus issued an edict of which censured
Christians at Rome for burning down a Jewish synagogue which was condemned by
Bishop Ambrose who said people exclaimed: ‘the emperor has become a Jew’.
430: St.
Augustine of Hippo passed away. Augustine believed that Jews should be allowed
to survive in a Christian world to provide credence to roots of Christianity.
But Jews should live at best as “second class” citizens in that Christian world
to serve as a reminder of their fall from God’s favor for rejecting Jesus as
the Son of God and as proof that God had made the Christians the new Chosen
People.
1189: The
Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan. This two year long
siege was part of the Third Crusade which is known as a confrontation between
England’s King Richard I and Saladin. The siege followed the Crusader defeat at
the Battle of the Horns of Hittin but was followed by Crusader victories near
Jaffa. In the end, the Moslems kept Jerusalem, the Jews of England suffered
under the rule of Prince John in the absence of the Crusading Richard and the
Jewish population of Eretz Israel suffered further depredations and
despoliation.
1349: Six
thousand Jews are killed in Mainz after having been accused of being the cause
of the plague.
1378: Having
been promised the payment of 20,000 gulden in “voluntary taxes” in 1377 by the
Jewish community, the city of Worms “was granted the right of extending
protection to the Jews.”
1453: Zbigniev
Olesnicki, Bishiop of Cracow and a heretic hunter named Capistrano, began a six
month long campaign turn Poland’s King Casimir against the Hussite heretics and
the Jews of Cracow.
1481: John II
of Portugal who chose Abraham Zacuto to serve as Royal Astronomer, began his
reign as King of Portugal.
1511: The
Portuguese conquer Malacca. “Malacca, Malaysia was in the 16th century a Jewish
hub not only for Portuguese Jews but also for Jews from around the Red Sea and
the Malabar. With its synagogues and rabbis, Jewish Culture in Malacca was
alive and well. Visible Jewish presence existed in Malacca right up to the 18th
century. Due to the Portuguese inquisition a lot of the Jews of Malacca
assimilated into the Malacca Portuguese (Eurasian) community. They are a creole
community often referred to as Kristang; and their Portuguese dialect Papia
Kristang.”
1521: The
Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade. “The first written records of the presence of
Jews in Belgrade date back to the 16th century when the city came under Ottoman
control. “At that time Belgrade boasted a strong Jewish Ladino-speaking
Sephardic community mostly settled in the central Belgrade neighborhood called
Dorćol. The city's Ashkenazi Jews, many of them from Central Europe and nearby
Austria-Hungary, mostly lived near the Sava River in the area where the current
active synagogue stands.” Even with the official “second class” status accorded
to Jews under the laws of Islam, the Ottoman Empire offered a haven for Jews
who had been expelled from Spain and/or were fleeing the clutches of the
Inquisition.
1565: St.
Augustine, the oldest European settlement in what is now the United States, is
established on the coast of Florida. According to Marcia Zerivitz, Founding
Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Jewish Museum of Florida, "It
is possible that Jews were living in St. Augustine as conversos or secret Jews
when Ponce de Leon first discovered Florida. There are Sephardic names among
those who lived there in the 1500s. This is nearly 100 years prior to the first
settlement of Jews in New York in 1654. Documented Jewish history in Florida
began in 1763 when the Treaty of Paris was signed at the conclusion of the French
and Indian War. In that treaty, Florida was taken from the Spanish and given to
the British. Until that time, Jews had been prohibited from living in
Florida."
1619:
Ferdinand II is elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The Jesuit trained
monarch was an arch foe of the Protestants who ruled during the first 18 years
of the Thirty Years War. His treatment of the Jews was uneven to say the least.
It was influenced by his hatred of the Protestants, the needs to finance the
war and his Jesuit training. He protected the right of Jews to live in Worms
and Frankfort because the Protestants had tried to drive them out of the city.
He warned his generals not treat the Jews harshly since they were a source of
funds for their fight. This protection came at a high price as can be seen by
the 40,000 florins that the Jews of Bohemia were forced to contribute annually
to support the war effort. He did play a role in the unfortunate affair
surrounding Lipmann Heller, but the original cause of the affair was one of jealousy
in the Prague Jewish community. Once the emperor was involved no good could
come of the matter. He did order the Rabbi brought to court in chains and even
though he was found innocent of the charges, his Jewish opponents would not
stop their attacks which resulted in the Emperor removing him as the Chief
Rabbi in the Bohemian city. Now that the Jews had brought themselves to the
Catholic monarch’s attention, he issued a decree in February, 1630, compelling
the Jews to listen to conversation sermons every Saturday morning between eight
and nine. Two hundred Jews of both sexes had to be in attendance and at least
forty of them had to be between 15 and twenty years of age. The Jesuit trained
monarch hoped these measures would lead to mass conversion of Jews.
Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for the Jews, the Jesuits to whom he
entrusted this task were more concerned with fighting Protestants than
converting Jews.
1645:
Sixty-two year old of Delft native Hugo Grotious the diplomate and theologian
who was a friend of Manasseh Ben Israel whose works he admired and an advocate
for the admission of Jews to settle as full citizens in the Netherlands passed
away today.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43059491?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
1655: Peter
Stuyvesant barred Jews from military service. Asher Levy led the fight for Jews
to able to serve as part of the local guard force. He rejected the notion of
paying a special tax in lieu of military service. Service in the militia was
the sign of first class citizenship. In a resolution of the New Amsterdam
Council, Stuyvesant writes, "Whether the Jewish people who reside in this
city, should also train and mount guard with the citizen's bands, this was
taken into consideration, and deliberated upon…" The result was that the
Dutch members of the citizen guard had a "disinclination" and
"unwillingness" to be on guard with Jews in the same guardhouse. They
also pointed out that Jews were "not counted among the citizens…"
1703 The
Aleinu prayer was prohibited in Brandenberg, Germany. Aleinu,( עָלֵינוּ)
composed by Rav (one of the great Talmudist (d. 247)) had been part of the
ritual prayer for almost 1500 years. It served as a focal point for anti-Jewish
attacks. Although the wording "For they bow down to emptiness and vanity
and to a God that cannot save" which was taken from Isaiah (45:20)
referred to idol-worshipers, some Christian leaders claimed it was an attack on
Christianity. The part of the prayer was eventually eradicated from the
Ashkenazic siddur (prayerbook) entirely and only reprinted recently.
1730: King
Frederick William I, gave permission to Moses ben Aaron to serve as the rabbi
of Frankfort-on-the Oder.
1765: Benjamin
Ze’ev ben Menachem Mendel married Sarah bat Eliezer today.
1766:
Birthdate of Simon Edler von Lamel the native of Bohemia who became a leading
Austrian merchant while working to improve the conditions of his fellow Jews as
could be seen by his efforts to reduce their taxes. (Something that was not
intended to benefit him)
1782: After
the death of Philadelphia merchant Moses Mordecai, a signatory of the 1765
Non-Importation Resolutions, in 1781, his twenty-one year old widow Elizabeth
also known as Esther today married Jacob I Cohen who helped to found the
“Virginia’s first synagogue – Kahal Kadosh Beth Shalom in Richmond.”
1789: In
France, adoption of the declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
1793: Abraham
Aaron who had passed away yesterday was buried today at the Alderney Road
(Globe Road) Jewish Cemetery where his tombstone contains a Hebrew inscription
saying “Here lies an upright and proper man, Abraham ben Uri HaCohen of
Hichburg.”
1793: Jonas
and Sarah Levy were wed today at the Great Synagogue.
1797: Four
months after the entry of the French army into Padua Italy, the provisional
government decreed that "Jews are able to live in every part of the
city." Jews enlisted in the National Guard and the main street in the
ghetto was changed to Via Libera. Unfortunately, as in most parts of Italy, the
newly won freedom only lasted until the arrival of Austrian troops 8 months
later.
1799:
Birthdate of Immanuel Wolf who gained fame as German Jewish educator Immanuel
Wohlwill the director of the Jacobson School in Seesen.
1800: In
London, Matilda De Metz and Levy Salomons gave birth to Eliza Salomons,
1817: In
Germany, Jakob Mayer Moos and Jeanette Scheinle Moos gave birth to Rosine Reele
Erlanger the wife of Simon (Schimele) Erlanger and mother of Isidor Erlanger;
Abraham Erlanger and Jeanette Erlanger.
1819: As
conditions for the Jews of Hamburg continued to deteriorate Martin Steinthal
today told how he had been forced to leave the Schweitzer Pavillion where he
was told that “as a Jews there was no place for him this coffeehouse or in the
larger society.”
1827: Two days
after he had passed away, “Moses Isaacs of Cox’s Square, Bell Lane” was buried
today at the Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1828:
Birthdate of Count Leo Tolstoy. As one commentator has said, Tolstoy did not
like Jews, but he did not hate them which made him a cut above other Russian
authors such as Dostoyevsky. In 1881 he reluctantly signed a private letter to
the Czar protesting a pogrom and publicly protested the infamous pogrom at
Kishinev. On the other hand, he held Jews responsible, in part, for loss of the
war with Japan. In the twilight of his career he expressed a desire to write
how the teachings of Jesus, “who was not a Jew” were replaced by the teachings
of Paul, who was a Jew.
1833: One day
after he had passed away, “58 year old Meir bar Yehuda” was buried today at the
“Brady Jewish Cemetery” today.
1833: The
British enact the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 which put abolished slavery
throughout the British Empire. One of the driving forces behind this was
William Wilberforce who also was a leader of London’s Jews Society, a
missionary Christian group who advocated the return of the Jewish people to
Palestine.
1839: Birthdate
of Hungarian-born “Austrian actor and theatre manager” Maximilian Steiner, the
father of theatre managers Franz and Gabor Steiner and the grandfather of
composer Max Steiner.
1839(18th
of Elul,5599): Thirty-one-year-old Priscilla Lopez Moïse , the Charleston, SC
born daughter of Priscilla Moses and David Lopez and the wife of Dr. Edwin Warren Moïse passed away today
Woodville, Mississippi due to complications following the birth of her twins
afther which she was buried in the Old Hebrew Cemetery in Charleston
1840: During
the Damascus Affair, Mehemet Ali’s personal physician, who was Jewish, removed
a boil from the royal buttock. During the procedure, the doctor is reported to
have told the Khedive that he would soon need all of his strength including the
support of six million Jewish voices raised in his support.
1840: In
attempt to avoid appearing to be caving into pressure from the European powers,
Mehmet Ali dispatched an order to Damascus order that the Jewish prisoners
should be set free much to the joy of Montefiore, Cremiuex and the Jews of
Egypt, where he three synagogues in Alexandria “resounded with prayers of
thanksgiving and blessing for Mehment Al…” The joy of the Jewish leaders would
be dampened when they read the text of the document which “implied that the
Jews were guilty” and that they were being released as an act of mercy.
1840: In
Hungary, Lean and Abraham Klein gave birth to Rabbi Julius Klein, the future
resident of Cleveland, OH and the husband of Deborah Klein.
1845: French
banker Jules Isaac Mires sued his brother Alphonse, a wine merchants and his
brother Edward in the Court of Assizes.
1846: In
Natchez, Mississippi, Jessie and James Newlands gave birth to Francis Newlands,
the Senator from Nevada who was the only Democrat to vote against the
confirmation of Louis Brandeis as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
1847: In
Marietta, OH, Joseph Ullman, the German born son of Rosa and Hayim Uhlmman and
Sara Ullman gave birth to Lena Ulman.
1849: One day
after he had passed away, “47 year old Benjamin Levy” the wife of Eve Levy with
whom he had four children – “Jane, Henry, Edward and Hannah” – was buried today
at “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1853: Henry
David Thoreau’s journal entry described what would become “the ancestral vine
to all of Lower East Side sugary sweet kosher wine.” “I detect my neighbor’s ripening grapes by
the scent twenty rods off, though they are concealed behind his house. Every
passer knows of them. Perhaps he takes me to his back door a week afterward and
shows me with an air of mystery his clusters concealed under the leaves, which
he thinks will be ripe in a day or two—as if it were a secret. He little thinks
that I smelled them before he did.” (As reported by Laurie Gwen Shapiro)
1855: “In
Ponevezh, Kovno region of Lithuania,” “a prominent mashkil” and his wife gave
birth David Apotheker the Yiddish poet and husband of Celia Shulman who came to
United States in 1888 where he combined the role of “insurance broker” with
“membership in the nihilistic movement.
1858: In New
York City, Semel Sobel and the former Cecilia King gave birth to Isador Sobel
to Erie, PA attorney and Republican political leader who served as President of
Anshei Chesed and was the husband of Emma Auerhaim.
1860: A column
entitled General City News published today reported that “a new Jewish
Congregation has been organized in this City, which for now is worshiping in
Cooper Institute, Room No. 24 in the Cooper Institute, under the guidance of
Rabbi Bondi, “whose learning and popularity will no doubt tend to advance this
organization to the foremost rank among the Israelitish Congregations in this
City.”
1861:
Sergeant-Major Washington Cromelien completed his 3 month enlistment in the 27th
Regiment which made it possible for him “accept a commission as a Lieutenant in
the 65th Regiment
1862: Alfred
A. Rinehard who would rise in rank from Sergeant to Captain began his service
with Company D of the 148th Regiment.
1862: During
the Civil War, the Second Battle of Bull Run during which Joseph Aarons of
Company B. of the 109th was captured began today.
1864:
Ferdinand Johann Gottlieb Lassalle was mortally wounded when he fought duel
with Count von Racowitza, the brother of Helene von Dönniges. The two had
fallen in love, but her family opposed the marriage.
1867: In Vilna,
Israel David Lascoff and Anna R. Lascoff gave birth to Russian trained
pharmacist Dr. J. Leon Lascoff , the husband of Clara Joacimson Lascoff who in
1882 came to New York where founded J. Leon Lascoff and Son, served as
“president of the American Pharmaceutical Association and earned the Remington
Honor Medal.
1869: Twelve
year old Gottlieb Schumacher, the son of Jacob Schumach, arrived in Haifa from
Buffalo today.
1870: In San
Francisco, “at a meeting held in the synagogue,” members of Congregation
Sherith Israel “subscribed the sum of $48,500 towards expunging the
indebtedness of the synagogue and received in return ownership of the selected
seats in the synagogue.”
1871: In New
York, the B’nai Brith held their annual meeting at the Masonic Hall during
which they elected officers for the coming year and heard the Treasurer
reported that the balance on hand was $46,378.29.
1872: Isaac Levitt, the son of Solomon Levitt and
the former Ann Isaacs, was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1872: Kate
Emanuel and Philip Magnus gave birth to Laurie Magnus.
1873: A man
named Irving who was in a San Francisco jail confessed to being the killer of
New York businessman and Jewish community leader, Benjamin Nathan.
1874: Based on
information that first appeared in the London
Echo, that Edgardo Mortara is now Father Pius Mortara, an Augustine friary
in the Monastery of Notre Dame de Beacuhene. At the age of six, Mortara was
secretly baptized by a servant girl and then “kidnapped: by agents of the
Papacy who raised him as a Catholic.
1874: In New
York Fabian and Theresa Saxe gave birth to Martin Saxe, the New York State
Senator who introduced a bill that would have banned public announcements such
as were used by numerous establishments stating that "Jewish patronage is
not solicited." The bill was inspired by an episode involving Bertha Rayner
Frank in which she was refused a room at a hotel in Atlantic City.
1875: In New
York City, Sara M. Ritterband and David Brickner gave birth Columbia trained
surgeon Walter M. Brickner, the husband of Perla S. Abrahams who reached the
rank of Lt. Colonel in the Medical Reserve Corps of the United States having
served overseas during World War I.
1878: As
Louisiana continued to grapple with the latest Yellow Fever Epidemic, it was
reported today that Messrs. Levy, Loeb, Scheuer and Co. of New York has
received and forwarded to Turo Infirmary and the Hebrew Benevolent Association
of New Orleans the sum of $65.00
1878: The
Hebrew Ladies’ Benevolent Society of Montgomery, Alabama, sent $100 to those
suffering during the Yellow Fever Epidemic.
1879:
Birthdate of Mt. Pleasant, PA native and Pittsburgh, PA realtor Albert O.
Homer.
1880: At
Frankfurt am Main Rabbi Isaac Seckel Bamberger and Julie Judith Bamberger
(Klein) gave birth to their daughter
Rachel who married Mortiz Hellmann
making her Rachel Hellman the name under which she would meet death at Sobibor
in 1943.
1880: Leopold
de Rothschild was present at the cricket match played at Ascot House which lead
to the family taking a leading role “in the formation of the Buckinghamshire
County Cricket Club.”
1880: “Jews in
Germany” published today cites information from the Pall Mall Gazette that “the
silly season in Germany promises again to be enlivened by a crusade again the
Jews.”
1881: It was
reported today that Richard Andree, a German ethnographist who has been
studying the world’s Jewish population for the last 11 years says there are
6,080,000 Jews in the world. This
includes 403,000 in Africa, 183,000 in Asia, 308,000 in American and 20,000
Australia. His figures do include the
Falashas or “pseudo-Jews.”
1882: The New York Times reviewed The
Prophets of Israel and Their Place in History by W. Robertson Smith.
1882: In
Manhattan, Mary Solomon and Max Epstein gave birth Hyman Epstein, the brother
of Louisand Jacob Epstein.
1882: It was
reported that there are 2,525 students enrolled in the various Sunday Schools
hosted by New York’s Temples and Synagogues.
(This is a misleading number for anybody who knows how Jews educate
their children)
1883: “Affairs
In Foreign Lands” published today described riots against the Jews in Hungary
and Russia where recent attacks on the Jews at Ekaterinoslav destroyed 346 houses
and caused damage valued at 611,000 rubles and attacks on the Jews of Berchadi
destroyed 80 houses leaving the inhabitants “without shelter and suffering
great privations.
1883(25th
of Av, 5643): Eighty-six year old Solomon Plessner whose controversial views
forced him to leave Berlin and settle at Posen in 1843 where he served as a
rabbi until he passed away today.
1883: As
violence aimed at Jews worsened it was reported today that “the Russian
government has made a serious effort “to suppress the outbreaks against the Jews”
while “there are many indications that the authorities at Vienna and Budapest
are not seriously trying to protect the Jews.”
(In other words, for once the Czar is trying to do something to protect
his Jews, while Emperor Franz Josef is not)
1883:
Following their meeting last month at the British Museum where they discussed
the antiquity of a scroll of Deuteronomy recently discovered by Moses Shapira,
Shapira wrote to Edward A. Bond from Amsterdam asking him to reconsider his
evaluation of the scroll contending that “the sin of believing in a false
document is much greater than disbelieving the truth. The tendency of showing great scholarship by
detecting forgery is rather great in our age.”
1884: It was
reported today that Adolph Meyer, a wealthy Jewish cotton merchants, is
challenging Representative Carlton Hunt for the 1st Congressional
District in Louisiana. Meyer is a
Democrat while Hunt is a Republican supported by the sugar cane and rice
planters. (Meyer would have to wait
until 1901 before he would win a seat in Congress)
1884: Three
days after she had passed away, “Louisa Isaac, the daughter of Alexander Isaac”
and the former “Sophie Levy” was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.”
1884(7th
of Elul, 5644): Seventy-three year old Philadelphia native Henry Myer Phillips,
the first Jewish member of the House of Representative from Pennsylvania passed
away today after which he was interred in Mount Sinai Cemetery.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000308
1885: Four
days after she had passed away, Caroline Samuel, the daughter of “Philip Moses
Samuel” and the former “Julia Goldsmid” was buried today at the “Balls Pond
Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1885: In
Edinburg, Scotland, “Alphonse and Marian Reis” gave birth to Emile Montague
Reis.
1886:
Birthdate of Burlington, VT merchant and civic leader Charles Levin.
1887: Lizzie
Kauffman, the young German-Jewess whose body had been found floating in the
river at Philadelphia is scheduled to be buried today by the Hebrew
Association.
1888: The body
of Jacob Noisotz, the Moldavian born banker and businessman who had passed away
two days ago was taken to “Temple Beth Jacob” where after a service he was
buried at the Jewish Cemetery in a service conducted by Rabbi Samuel David
Tauber.
1888: It was
reported today that Dr. John T. Nagle, the Deputy Register of Records at the
Sanitary Headquarters has complained to Commissioner John Griffin that a Polish
Jew was buried at Cypress Hills surrounded by “a few boards” rather than in a
coffin. He considered this burial, which
is common among Polish Jews to be “unsanitary.”
1889(1st
of Elul, 5649): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1890: As of
today, it was reported that the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children has received
donations totaling $8,000.17 including $309.70 from Isaac Stern, $306 from
Benjamin Stern and $5 from Herman Mendel.
1890: In New
York, “Harris and Jennie (Yarzumbek) Nowak gave birth Abraham Nowak, the holder
of degrees from CCNY, Columbia University and JTS and WW I Army Chaplain who
organized two congregations in Cleveland before moving to Beth El in New
Rochelle and was the husband of Ann Segal with whom he had two sons – Wellville
and Peter.
1890: Adolph
Eisner who has been Superintendent of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in Brooklyn for
the last six years left the asylum today “telling his wife that he was going to
Coney Island.”
1891: Jewish
immigrants from Russia, most of whom are penniless and do not speak English
have begun arriving in Detroit, Michigan.
1891: American
chemist Julius Stieglitz, the twin brother of Leopold Stieglitz and the younger
brother of photographer Alfred Stieglitz married Anna Stieffel today.
1891: A Jewish
agricultural colony was established in New Jersey. This was one of several
attempts at Jewish settlement in the Americas. The failure of most of these
projects confirmed the view that Jews needed a historical and religious link to
the soil upon which they would work in order for them to succeed.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15008-woodbine
1891: Birthdate
of Providence, RI native and Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins and the
husband of Simone Brangier Boas George Boas who earned a PhD at UC Berkley and
was a commander in the USNR during WWII.
1892: Today is
the last day for the accused murders of Jake Marks to appeal for a writ of
habeas corpus and avoid extradition from Canada to the United States. The victim and the accused (Blank and
Rosenweig) are all Jewish.
1892: Four
year old Ida Samyan, the daughter of Russian Jewish couple who had just arrived
in London from Hamburg was admitted to the London “suffering with the symptoms
of Asiatic Cholera.
1892: “The
Prophets of Israel” published today provides a detailed review of Prophètes
d'Israel par James Darmesteter published by Calmann-Levy.
1892: In
Deadwood, South Dakota, the Hebrew Cemetery Association purchased a section in
the new cemetery for Jewish burials for the sum of $200. Hebrew Hill, as the
Jewish area was called locally, is located at the top right-hand side of the
cemetery and is accessible via a pathway marked "Jerusalem," which is
most likely a Masonic, rather than a Jewish, reference. While there are more
than 80 Jews buried up on Hebrew Hill, or Mount Zion as it was known among the
community, Deadwood's most famous Jewish citizen, Sol Star, is not among them.
In accordance with the wishes of his family, Star lies in the Mount Sinai
Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri. Two hundred and fifty meters up from the
Jewish section lies the grave of Deadwood's first sheriff and Star's long-time
friend and business partner, Seth Bullock. Among the Jews who are interred on
Hebrew Hill is Harris Franklin, né Finkelstein. Franklin was said to have been
Deadwood's wealthiest man, having made his fortune - estimated at $5 million -
from the liquor business and the mining industry. Given his status and wealth,
it is unsurprising that the Franklin headstone is the largest in the cemetery.
His name is perpetuated in Deadwood through the Franklin Hotel in which he was
the largest investor. The Franklin name is also prominent in the city's annals
owing to Harris's son, Nathan, who became the second Jewish mayor of Deadwood
in 1914, running on an anti-Prohibition platform. Also buried in the cemetery
is the Colman family, who arrived in Deadwood from Germany in the spring of
1877. In 1878, Nathan Colman (born Kugelmann) was appointed justice of the
peace, an office he held until his death in 1906. Colman was also the lay
religious leader for the Jewish community and officiated at the first Jewish
wedding in the Black Hills, when Rebecca Reubens married David Holzman
1894: It was
reported today that there are 5,000 Orthodox Jews in Newark, NJ who worship at
seven different synagogues.
1894: In
“Siedice, Poland,” “David L. and Eve (Ossinholtz) Spiegleman” gave birth to journalist
and author William Zev Spiegelman who worked for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
in London before serving as executive secretary of the Jewish Educational
Association of San Francisco and the first editor of the Jewish Telegraphic
Agency while writing such tomes as History of Development of Jewish Sects.
1894: As the
leaders of the Central Labor Federation and the Central Labor Union compete for
power and membership, Abraham Cahan, the leader of the Jewish Socialists has
expressed his dissatisfaction with the leadership of the Central Labor
Federation and wants his supporters to join the Central Labor Union.
1895: The
Board of Health has been told to improve the safety of the bathhouse at 26
Ridge Street following the accidental drowning of 4 year old Sarah Rubin who
had fallen into the tank that had no railing around it.
1897(30th
of Av, 5657): Parashat Re’eh; Rosh Chodesh Elul
1897: In
Gemuden, Germany, Rosalie Lorig and Joseph Wirth gave birth to University of
Chicago trained sociologist and husband of
Mary Bolton whose graduate work, according to Roger Salerno, was
"first significant expression of interest in urban social disorganization,
ghetto life, assimilation, consensus, and urban cultural conflict."
https://www.asanet.org/louis-wirth/
https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/social-sciences-and-law/sociology-biographies/louis-wirth
1897: It was
reported today that “at two o’clock this
morning the nephew of Charles
Fleischmann” went to Bellevue Hospital and asked that a doctor come out to his
yacht, the Hiawatha and examine his uncle who seemed to be quite ill. After examining him, the doctor “intimated
that his condition was serious.”
1898: In New
Jersey, found of the Paterson Hebrew Ladies’ Relief Society which meets every
two weeks and whose members included Ida Kushner, Ester Limskey, Fannie With,
Freda Finkelstein and Emma Urdanz.
1898: “Many Themes
Stir Paris” published today described the happenings in the French capital
including Jules Guerin’s decision to start a new anti-Semitic paper L’Antijuif
1898: The
Second Zionist Congress convenes in Basel and hears an address from Dr. Max
Nordeau. Herzl's father is among the delegates.
1898: Private
Henry Behren, Company E, 31st Michigan Volunteer Infantry was
discharged today due to a “physical disability.”
1898: Private
M.A. Hahn of Mobile, Alabama transferred from Company I of the 1st
Louisiana Volunteer Infantry to the Hospital Corps of the United States Army.
1898: Abram
Herschberger “installed as the rabbi at the North Side Temple on Goethe Street
in Chicago, Illinois.
1899:
Birthdate of Union City, NJ and NYU trained attorney Abraham Lieberman the police
court judge in Weehawken, New Jersey who 1963 endowed “a professorship in
Hebraic studies and to provide scholarship aid to students in related programs
at New York University.”
1899: “Light
From A Russian General On The Dreyfus Case” published today provided
information about the soon to be published memoirs of the late General
Annenkoff which “include certain evidence tending to prove that Henry and
Esterhazy delivered War Office documents to the agents of several foreign
powers.”
1900: “A
special United States official is” in Vienna and is “investigating the
condition of the Romanian Jewish emigrants who intend to go to North America”
and is paying particular attention those “suspected of planning to get into the
United States through Canada.”
1900:
Birthdate of Alexander Zeitlin who was a leading figure in the Air Force’s
Heavy Press Program which “enhanced the US defense industry's capacity to forge
large complex components out of light alloys such as magnesium and aluminum.”
1901:
“Arrangements for the celebration of the Jewish New Year are progressing
rapidly and it is now announced that service will be held in the Grand Central
Palace on September 14, 15, 22, and 23.”
1902:
Birthdate Johnstown, PA native and University of Pennsylvania student Louis
Robert Myers who settled in Canton, OH.
1902:
Birthdate of Leo Hollander, the native of Hungary who married Goldie Gertrude
Finegold Hollander and eventually settled in Indianapolis, Indiana.
19o2: The
engagement of Edith Abraham, the youngest daughter of department store owner
Abraham Abraham to Percy S. Straus, “a member of the firm of R.H. Macy and
Company” was announced today.
1903:
Birthdate of famed psychiatrist Bruno Bettelheim. Born in Austria in 1903,
Bettelheim survived the death camps. He is “best known for his pioneering work
with emotionally disturbed and autistic children. Bettelheim’s views on the
Jewish response to the Holocaust were controversial to say the least. On one
point he does seem to track with “Man’s Search for Meaning” when he writes that
those who survived the death camps were able to do so because they believed in
some cultural or religious ideal that helped them transcend themselves. He
passed away under tragic circumstances in 1990.
1903: An
abridged version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion begins to appear in a
St. Petersburg daily newspaper. (As reported by Austin Cline)
1903: The
Sixth Zionist Congress came to a close after five days during which Herzl
proposed using territory offered by Britain, specifically Uganda, as a
temporary shelter for Jews fleeing Eastern Europe and Russia. The Russian
delegates, after a riotous debate, walked out and refused to return for the
next congress unless the plan was stopped. Herzl had been concerned about the
immediate physical well-being of Russian Jews who were faced with a series of
Pogroms. The Russian Jews were telling Herzl and the world, that there was only
one place for a Jewish homeland and that was Eretz Israel.
1904: “Woman
Shoots Merchant” published on the front page of the New York Times described the shooting of prominent New Jersey
businessman Rogers Pinner. (The Times misspelled his name as Piner.)
1904: “Several
prominent rabbis from Philadelphia and Camden, NJ, Mayor Joseph E. Nowrey are
among those scheduled to speak at ceremonies this afternoon marking “the
reopening of the synagogue of the Congregation of the Sons of Israel” which
will be attending by the “Knights of Joseph, the Young Hebrew Zionists and the
Hebrew Educational Society.”
1905:
Birthdate of Kiev native Semyon Fridlyand, the photographer who lived his adult
life in Moscow.
https://www.moma.org/interactives/objectphoto/artists/24450.html
1905:
Birthdate of Russian born actor Sholom Levene who gained fame as stage and film
actor Sam Levene who created the role of “Nathan Detroit” in the musical hit
“Guys and Dolls.”
1905: “The
Catch of the Season” a musical produced by Charles Frohman opened today at
Daly’s Theatre in New York City.
1906: “A reply
is expected to-day...to the appeal of the National Committee for Relief of
Sufferers by Russian Massacres regarding the thirty Jewish children who were
orphaned through the massacres in Russia, and who are being detained at Ellis
Island. The committee feels convinced that they will be admitted.”
1906:
Birthdate of Ukrainian born American composer David Tamkin who along with his
brother Alex created an operatic version of The Dybbuk by S. Anksy (Shloyme
Zanvl Rappoport)
1907:
Dispatches from Saffi and Morocco City say that the subscriptions and offers of
presents in support of Mulai Hafig amount to not less than $1,000,000 and that
of that amount $200,000 “alone” has been given by the Jews of Morocco.
1908(1st
of Elul, 5668): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1908(1st
of Elul, 5668): Twenty seven year old Jack Annenberg who had “served for the
last 10 years in the London Rifle Brigade before transferring to the New
Territorial Force drowned today while
swimming at Plemont Jersey.
1908: In
Vienna, “left-wing bookshop owner” Wilhelm Suschitzky and the former Adele
Bauer gave birth to Edith Suschitzky who gained fame as photographer and
communist sympathizer Edith Tudor-Hart
http://spartacus-educational.com/Edith_Tudor_Hart.htm
1909: Abraham
Isaac Waremwasser, the paternal grandfather of broadcaster Barbara Walters
who changed
his surname to Warmwater when living in Londo arrived in New York City today.
1909: After visiting
ailing financial giant Edward Harriman, Jacob H. Schiff, the Jewish New York
financier said that Harriman would “avoid the knife” and rely on medical as
opposed to surgical solutions. Schiff’s statement had a calming effect on the
markets and the world of high finance. (Schiff was Jewish; Harriman was not)
1910: A
bulletin issued by the Government that gives information about the clergy in
America reported that there were “1,084 Jewish rabbis in the United States in
1906,” that the average salary of rabbis in cities having a population of
300,000 or more is $1, 491” which is the lowest paid to clergy except for Roman
Catholics and that in New York City “Jewish places of worship are valued at
$8,700,000 with 19 per cent debts.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1910/08/28/105088505.html?pageNumber=8
1911:
Birthdate of Dutch diplomat Joseph Luns who while serving as Secretary-General
of NATO denied allegations that he had belonged to the Dutch Nazi party.
https://www.jta.org/archive/luns-denies-having-been-a-nazi
1912: In
Toronto, “Samuel and Rebecca Rosen,” two Russian Jewish immigrants from Minks
gave birth to Goodwin George “Goody” Rosen who played centerfield for two National
League Teams that no longer exist – the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York
Giants.
http://jewishbaseballmuseum.com/player/goody-rosen/
1913: Birthdate
of American cantor and operatic tenor Richard Tucker. Born Reuben Ticker,
gained fame as a Chazzan in Brooklyn before pursuing his operatic career. He
debuted at the Met in 1945. He made his European debut in 1947 where he joined
Maria Callas in La Gioconda. Tucker’s operatic career was such that when passed
away unexpectedly in 1975 he enjoyed the singular honor of being the only
person to have his funeral take place on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera
House. Tucker never lost his love of Jewish music or serving as a chazzan. He
was the brother-in-law of another famous American tenor and cantor, Jan Peerce.
Can you imagine a Seder at their house?
1914: As the
conflict in Europe turns into a Great War that will effect Jews serving as
combatants in forces on both sides of the fight, The Royal Navy defeated the
Kaiser’s fleet at the First Battle of Heligoland Bight on the same day that
Austro-Hungary declared war on Belgium.
1915: In
today’s Jewish Chronicle, Israel
Zangwill described Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, DSO, the commander
of the Zion Mule Corps “as the soul of chivalry and gentleness.”
1915: Dr.
Jacques Faitlovitch, an Ashekanzi Jew from Lodz “who studied Ethiopian
languages at the Sorbonne and traveled to Ethiopia for the first time in 1904”
set sail for Italy today having “completed a successful mission in the United
States to raise fund for the education of the black Jews in Abyssinia who are
known as Falashas.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0006_0_06241.html
1916: Italy
declares war on Germany and Germany declares war on Romania. By the time Italy
joined in the fighting, the Jews of the country were so will integrated into
the national fabric that a Jew had served as prime minister and another Jew had
served as Mayor of Rome for six years. Prior to World War I, Romania was
notorious for its mistreatment of its Jewish population – the nation was a
haven for anti-Semitism and one of its major exports was Jews fleeing the
country. Ironically, during the war, hundreds of Jews served in the Romanian
Army and were decorated for valor. The additions of these two combatants did
nothing to shorten the war but it did add to the misery suffered by the peoples
of Romania and Italy.
1916: In
Chicago, the center of the grain trading market “The abrupt widening of the
European war zone sent wheat values tumbling as if the market had no bottom”
while the value of the ruble which tumbled from 51 cents to 30 cents actually
moved up in value by two cents.
1916: Today,
“The plan for an American Jewish Congress, agreed to by representatives of the
Jewish Congress Organization and the Conference of National Jewish
Organizations in the movement to demand equal rights for Jews in lands
discriminating against them was submitted to a referendum of the delegates who
had given shape to the congress campaign at a preliminary conference held at
Philadelphia more than a year ago.”
1917: Russell
Dunne who “has been for some time making inflammatory speeches in which he has
tried to stir up religious prejudice” was sentenced to one month in the
workhouse in Men’s Night Court for a speech he made in Madison Square where he
disparaged Jews and called them slackers – statements that brought a an angry
response from Joseph Friedlander a Jewish soldier in uniform who was in the
park at the time.
1917: Justice
Leonard A. Snitkin was beaten up by two supporters of Russell Dunne as he left
the courthouse today.
1917:
Birthdate of Benjamin Saget, the supermarket executive who was the father of
comedian Robert Lane “Bob” Saget.
1917:
Birthdate of Jacob Kurtzberg, the son of Austrian immigrants who gained famed as
Jack Kirby, one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in
American comic books, and the co-creator of such enduring characters and
popular culture icons such as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain
America, and hundreds of others stretching back to the earliest days of the
medium. He was also a comic book writer and editor. His most common nickname is
"The King."
1918: American
diplomats Henry King and Charles Crane presented their report to the Paris
Peace Conference. They recommended the joining of Palestine to Syria, an end to
the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine and an international
and interdenominational committee to supervise the Holy Places. Their report proved
to be meaningless when the U.S. Senate rejected the Versailles Treaty. What may
come as a surprise to some is that this betrayal of Zionist principles was
prepared on the initiative of Woodrow Wilson.
1918: Samuel
Gompers arrived in London as the head of a labor delegation. He expressed the
delegation’s solidarity with workers in Europe and declared its support for all
measures designed to win the war against the Germans.
1918: Samuel
S. Koenig, Chairman of the New York Republican Committee was sent a letter
tonight “tell him that forgeries had been committed by workers in the Sixth
Assembly District” of which he is the leader.
1919:
Birthdate of German born Rabbi Walter H. Plaut, the graduate of Franklin and
Marshall College and Hebrew Union College who served as the spiritual leader of
Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
http://www.nytimes.com/1964/01/04/rabbi-walter-plaut-44-dead.html
1919: The
recommendations of the King-Crane Commission with regard to Syria-Palestine and
Iraq were presented today.
1920(14th
of Elul, 5680): Parashat Ki Teitzei
1920: Rabbi I.
Mortimer Bloom is scheduled to deliver a sermon this morning on “The Seats of
the Lowly” at the Hebrew Tabernacle on Broadway.
1920(14th
of Elul, 5680): Forty-six year old Colonel Harry Cutler, the chairman Jewish
Welfare Board of United States, passed away today in London.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/cutler-harry
http://unitedwarwork.com/groups/jewish-welfare-board/
1920: “Mr. and
Mrs. Nathaniel Leipziger of Philadelphia” who have been entertaining Mrs.
Nathan Sommer and Evelyn Sommer from Memphis, are scheduled to set sail for
England today where they will meet Nathaniel Leipziger’s sister Pauline.
1920: “The Red
Cross ship Yomei Marua arrived in New York today from Valdistok” carrying 780
children of 37 were Jewish and “77 prisoner of wars” from Siberia “of whom 17
are Jews.”
1920: Henry
Ford’s Dearborn Independent published
another in a series of “major” anti-Semitic articles.
1920: At the
insistence of advertising maven turned campaign manager Albert Lasker, Warren
Harding, the Republican candidate for President delivered an address opposing
entrance into the League of Nations where he said, (in Lasker’s words) there
would be “no more wiggling and wobbling” on foreign policy as there had been
under President Wilson.
1920: Dr.
Kaufmann Kohler, the President of the Hebrew Union College celebrated their
Golden Wedding Anniversary today “at the Catskill Mountain House.”
1921(24th of
Av, 5681): Eighty-four-year-old Florian Moss the son of Julia Levy and Joseph
Lyons Moss who married in 1828 passed away today.
1921:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for Rebecca Liefmans
Cohen, who passed away in her 87th
year and was the mother of six – Michael, Levi, Cecilia, Sophia, Sarah and
Rose.
1922:
"The League of Nations is a Jewish idea, and Jerusalem someday will become
the capital of the world's peace," declared Dr. Nahum Sokolow, Chairman of
the Zionist Executive Committee, at a special meeting of the Zionist Conference
today.”
1923: Three
Jewish mobsters -Samuel “Sammy” Weiss, Jacob “Little Augie” Orgen and Samuel
Gipson - were arrested by police outside of the Essex Market Courthouse. When
the police found that they were each carrying pistols, they were charged with
violation of New York’s Sullivan Law.
1923(16th of
Elul, 5683): "Kid Dropper" Nathan Kaplan was gunned down today by
Louis Cohen, a member of Jacob “Little Augie” Orgen’s gaing.. Born in 1891, he
was “also known as Jack the Dropper. Kaplan was an American gangster
controlling labor racketeering and extortion in New York City during the
post-World War I period into the early years of Prohibition in the early
1920s.”
1924: In
Georgia, opponents of the Communist regime staged the August Uprising against
the Soviet Union. Following the fall of the Czar’s Empire, Georgia declared its
independence in 1917. Following their seizure of power, the Communists sought
to re-constitute the Russian Empire as the Soviet Union. When the Soviets
invaded Georgia, approximately 2,000 Jews left the country. Following the
August Uprrising, the Soviets cracked down on the remaining Jews, enacting laws
that bankrupted their businesses and putting an end to all Zionist activities.
Charges of blood libels would increase during the rest of the decade and things
would get even worse in the 1930’s
1924:
Birthdate of Rabbi Zalman Meshullam Schachter-Shalomi, the native of Zhovkva
who survived the detention camps of Vichy to settle in the United States where
he eventually became a leader in what is called the “Jewish Renewal Movement.”
http://www.rzlp.org/Yesod-RZLP/Home.html
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_26084358/zalman-schachter-shalomi-dies-jewish-renewal
1924:
Birthdate of American sculptor Stanley Bleifeld.
1925: “The
Elegant Bunch” a silent film written by Adolf Lantz and featuring Hermann Picha
was released today in Germany.
1926:
Birthdate of Ursula Stern the Sobibor survivor who fought with the Parczew
Partisans.
1927: In New
York City, the Secretary of the Socialist Party confirmed reports that Jacob
Panken, the Socialist candidate for Municipal Court Justice, who described
himself as “a Socialist” who “can only be a candidate of the party which
represents the workers” has rejected the endorsement of the Republican Party.
1927: In
Mounds, Illinois Hessie and Eileen Sullivan gave birth to Elizabeth Josephine
Sullivan who gained fame Jo Sullivan Loesser, the wife of Frank Loesser who
starred in his Broadway hit show “The Most Happy Fella” and worked to preserve
his legacy after his death. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1928: George
Engles, the manager of Jascha Heifetz, announced that his employer had married
film star Florence Vidor, the ex-wife of King Vidor. He was Jewish. She was not. (The marriage would end in
divorce in 1945)
1929:
Birthdate of Hungarian conductor Istvan Kertesz.
1929: As Arab
violence engulfs Palestine French troops are patrolling the Jewish quarter of
Beirut in case there are further attacks by Arabs in this Lebanese city. So
far, Arab militants have contented themselves with demonstrations and clashes
with local police, but the French authorities are alarmed enough to have taken
these extra measures.
1930: Premiere
of “A Student’s Song of Heidelberg” a German musical written by Billy Wilder
along with Hans Wilhelm and Ernst Neubach, the latter two who were fled from
the Nazis even though they were not Jewish.
1931: “Figures
compiled by S.W. Straus and Company and announced today show that out of a
total of 580 cities throughout the United States, New York stood first in the
volume of building permits issued in June.”
1932: In New
York, Markets Commissioner Thomas F. Dwyer made public a proposed schedule of
license and permit fees that would among other things “bring the handlers of
kosher foods under the control of the department and through the collection of
fees make the kosher inspectional service self-supporting.”
1933: It was
reported today that Herman Bernstein, the United States Minister to Albania has
announced his resignation and said that he plans to return to New York the end
of September. Bernstein had served in the post for 3 years during which he
enjoyed a positive relationship with the ruler, King Zog.
1933: Laurence
Adolph Steinhardt began serving as United States Ambassador to Sweden.
1933: In
Johannesburg, South Africans, Jews and non-Jews, led by Tielman Roos, a leading
statesman, express resentment against the attitude of Premier Hertzog towards
boycott of German goods.
1933: The Deutsche
Landhandelsbund, the Nazi department for agrarian trade and industry, informs
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that an agreement has practically been concluded
between Germany and the Palestine Government whereby the Reich will import
oranges to the value of eight million to ten million marks for which it will
pay with exports of its goods to Palestine valued at twice that amount plus
transportation in German ships. The Palestine Government, the British Colonial
Office and the World Zionist Organization issue denials of the German report.
1933: In
Warsaw, The Central Organization for the German Boycott wires protest to
Zionist Congress against the reported trade agreement between Germany and
Palestine.
1933: In
Davenport, IA, “Richard Emanuel and Bernice (Klemperer) Petersburger gave birth
to Harvard educated Washington lawyer and U.S. Air Force veteran, Ralph Isaac
Petersburger the husband of the former
Helen Blackham with whom he had two children – Clare and Wilfrid
1934: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held today for Marcus W. Marks, the former
President of the Borough of Manhattan who passed away two days and who is
survived by his widow Esther Friedman Marks; two sons, Erich H. and Warren L.
Marks and two daughters, Mrs. Bernice M. Stearns and Mrs. Doris M. Dreyfus. (As
reported by JTA)
1934(17th
of Elul, 5694): Fifty-three year old Elias Harry Pofcher, the native of Odessa
who earned an MD from Tufts and an LLB from Boston University and was a Zionist
passed away today.
1934(17th
of Elul, 5694): After having “suffered a collapse while working near Asheville,
NC, 52 year old photographer Doris Ulmann passed away today in New York.
http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/1568/doris-ulmann-american-1882-1934/
http://blog.nyhistory.org/doris-ullman/
1935: In
Lucerne, Black flags flew at half-staff today on buildings housing the
nineteenth World Zionist Congress, a symbol of Jewry's protest against Nazi
"persecution" of their race.
1935: Most
baseball writers are reported to believe that Detroit’s slugging first baseman
Hank Greenberg will win this year’s MVP award for the American League.
1936(10th of
Elul, 5696): David Nishri, a19 year old student was killed today “when Arabs
ambushed a bus traveling between Kiriat Anavim and Jerusalem” making him the
seventy-eighth Jew to be killed during the 18 months of Arab riots and
violence.
1936: In
response to the violence in Palestine and the pressure being brought on the
British government to stop Jewish immigration, the Association of Chief Rabbis
of Holland has ordered a special evening prayer to be recited in all of the
country’s synagogues.
1936: Four
“children were injured when three bombs exploded in Tiberius” and two more
people were injured when Arabs attacked on bus traveling to Jerusalem.
1936: “The
authorities’ determination to stamp out ‘Jew-baiting’ in Great Britain was
emphasized in the Old Street Police today when the Magistrate ordered John
Penfold to pay a fine and “to be on good behavior for 12 months” after being
found guilty of using “insulting words” in an open-air meeting in the East End
which included his statement that “he would turn all Jews out Britain headed by
Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Minister of Transport, Sir Philip Sassoon, the
Under-Secretary for Air” and the sculptor Jacob Epstein who “would be there
with is grotesque monstrosities to keep the birds away from the Wailing Wall.”
1936: “A
denial that Father Coughlin was prompted by anti-Semitic motives in his attacks
on ‘money changer’ coupled with a statement he will continue to assail Jewish
international bankers” is scheduled to be carried today “in his publication Social Justice.”
1937(21st
of Elul, 5697): Parashat Ki Tavo; Leil Selichot
1937(21st
of Elul, 5697): Eighty year old comic
strip pioneer Frederick Burr Opper who created the Happy Hooligan comic strip
passed away today.
https://cartoons.osu.edu/digital_albums/newspaperartists/opper/Opper_bio.html
http://www.sil.si.edu/ondisplay/caricatures/bio_opper.htm
1937: In
London, it was announced that Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, the English Jew to
whom the late Lord Balfour addressed the famous Declaration promising Jews a
National Home in Palestine had passed away on August 27. The Balfour
Declaration was actually a letter dated November 2, 1917 written by the Foreign
Minister, Arthur Balfour, which began “Dear Lord Rothschild” and was delivered
to Rothschild’s home. This should give one an excellent idea of how
well-connected the English branch of the House of Rothschild. Lord Lionel was
well known for his philanthropies, but like all of the Rothschilds, power and
money never separated them from the House of Israel.
1937: In
Berlin, Henrietta Szold addressed a meeting of parents of 100 Youth Aliya
children leaving for Palestine. She told them how during her recent visit to
Eretz Israel she was impressed by the Jewish German youth working on the land,
unhindered and conscious of their task. Youth Aliyah, the Hadassah sponsored
program to rescue Jewish children from the Nazis, saved the lives of
approximately 22,000 Jewish-German youngsters.
1938(1st of
Elul, 5698): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1938: As “Arab
Irregulars continued their sniping and arson: today, “curfews were imposed on
Jaffa, Ramleh, Jenin, Nablus and Beersheba.”
1938:
Dispatches reaching New York “say that the United States Embassy in Berlin is
not accepting any more applications from German (including former Austrian)
Jews and has enough on hand to fill available immigration quotas for virtually
two years.
1939: Fifteen
year old Heinz Bernard’s mother sent him from Germany to England as part of a
plan for the two to eventually join family members in the United States.”
1939(13th
of Elul, 5699): Fifty-year-old Mary Gelperin Aronoff, the wife of Isaac Aronoff
with whom she had three children – Sarah, Nathan and Louis – passed away today
after which she was buried in Cincinnati, OH.
1940: Chiune
Sugihara, the Vice Counsul for the Empire of Japan in Lithuania continued to
defy his government and issued visas on his own initiative to thousands of Jews
fleeing from certain death in Poland and Lithuania.
1940: The
National Encampment of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States is
scheduled to begin today in Boston.
1940: After
seven weeks of traveling by train across Eastern Europe and Asia, and then by
ship across the Pacific Ocean to escape the terror of Nazi Germany, Eva Schott
Berek and her parents arrived at the Angel Island Immigration Station one week
before Eva’s 19th birthday
1941: Chicago
Bears’ quarterback Sid Luckman led the Monsters of the Midway to a 37 to 13
victory over the College All-Stars in what had become an annual event at
Soldier Field
1941: Second
day of two day Aktion under the command of Obergruppenfuehrer Friedrich Jeckeln
at Kolomija near Kamenets-Podolsk during
which a total of 23,600 Jews were murdered. Of the total between 14,000 and
18,000 of them were Hungarian Jews. The Germans were assisted by the Hungarians
during the two days of slaughter. A complete description of the event can be
found in Jeckeln’s report (Operational Report USSR No. 80).
1941: The
Gestapo murdered more than 23,000 Hungarian Jews in the occupied Ukraine.
1941: Isidore
Newman, who was training to serve as a Wireless Officer with SOE was described
by one of his trainers as seeming to be “depressed” while adding that his
“colloquial French” is not good even though his French vocabulary is improving
but that his proficiency in Morse Code is such that “he does excellent work in
instructing other students.
1941(5th of
Elul, 5701): A Jewish butcher, one of 2000 Jews forced into a ditch at
Kédainiai, Lithuania, resists by inflicting a fatal bite upon the throat of one
of the Einsatzkommando soldiers. The butcher and the other Jews are immediately
shot.
1941(5th of
Elul, 5701): Lithuanian Nazi collaborators murdered Rochel Leah and sons
Hillel, Shimon and Avraham in Panevezys.
1941:
Thousands of Jews are murdered at Czyzewo-Szlachecki, Poland.
1942: Joseph
C. Hyman executive chairman of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
announced tonight that it was sending
$25,000 to the OSE to provide for 1,200 Jewish children trapped in occupied
France.
1942: It was
revealed today that President Rafael L. Trujillo has offered to allow 3,500
Jewish children between the ages of 3 and 14 living in Vichy France to settle
in the Dominican Republic.
1942:
Forty-one year old Bension Gotlob and 43 year old Regina Gotlop were among
those who left Drancy today in Convoy 25 which was headed for Auschwitz. Among the 285 children heading for the death
camp were seven year old Salomon Gottlob and his two year old sister Tama,
1942: Fourteen
thousand Jews are killed at Sarny, Ukraine.
1942:
Fleischer Studios, Inc which was found in 1921 as Inkwell Studies by Max and
Dave Fleisher and had been acquired by Paramount Studios went “defunct” today
1942:
Seventy-seven General Antoine Louis Targe (Retired) who played a key role in
proving the innocence of Captain Dreyfus passed away today.
1942: World
Jewish Congress (WJC) President Stephen S. Wise receives a cable from Swiss WJC
representative Gerhart Riegner regarding the "Final Solution." Wise elects
to suppress the information until it can be verified.
1942: Ten
thousand Jews are murdered at Miedzyrzec, Poland.
1942: Jews of
Chortkov, Ukraine, are put into freight cars and transported to the death camp
at Belzec.
1942: German
authorities order the arrests of Parisian priests who have sheltered Jews.
1942: The
Antwerp police roundup 1,243 Belgian Jews and ship them to the death camps.
1943(27th
of Av, 5703): Parashat Re’eh
1943(27th
of Av, 5703): Sixty-two year old Ukrainian born historian Elias Tcherikower who
eventually came to the United States to work with the U.S branch of YIVO with
his wife, the former “Riva or Rebecca Teplisky” in 1940 passed away today.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Tsherikover_Elye
http://www.mydearchildrendoc.com/the-treasure-of-the-tcherikower-archive/
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-Tcherikower-Archive-and-why-is-it-important-to-Jewish-history
http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32545
1943: The
Danes began a general strike against the Nazi occupation.
1943: Two days
after returning from Berlin, King Boris dies under mysterious circumstances in
Sofia, Bulgaria. According to some sources, the Nazis had poisoned the king as
punishment for protecting the Jews of his kingdom. Thanks in part to the
monarch who was a “reluctant hero,: most of Bulgaria’s fifty thousand Jews
avoid the deadly consequences of the final solution.
1944: An
internal memo bearing today’s date, a copy of which is in the Eric M. Lipman
collection, was circulated to all SD branches by Rudolf Brandt, Himmler’s
personal administrator, “informing all recipients that the perpetrators of July
20 were a small “clique” of high-ranking Wehrmacht officers who did not in the
least represent the overall loyal attitude of the Wehrmacht to the Führer.”
1944(9th of
Elul, 5704): Jewish Sonderkommando Auschwitz inmates beat to death sixty-seven
year old Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/rumkowski.html
http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/rumkowski-chaim.htm
1945: Final
entry in the third of the three marriage registers the Artillery Lane Synagogue
which was “incorporated into the Ezras Chaim Synagogue.
1945:
Birthdate of producer Robert Greenwald.
1945:
Birthdate of Benny Lévy the native of Cairo, Egypt who served as personal
secretary to Jean-Paul Sartre from 1974 to 1980.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/oct/21/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries
1945: The
British Mandate Government published the Fitzgerald Plan for governing
Jerusalem. The system of dividing the city into boroughs had some merit, but it
was predicated on the notion that the British Mandate would continue. The plan,
like so many before and after it, was “dead on arrival.”
1946(1st
of Elul, 5706): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1946: “After
an all-night closed session that end early this morning, the national executive
of the Zionist Organization of America unanimously reaffirmed its confidence in
the leadership of its president, Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, in the current
Palestine crisis.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/08/29/93149936.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1947: “The
Song of the Thin Man” the last of the “Thin Man films” produced by Nat Perrin
who also co-authored the screenplay was released in the United States today by
MGM.
1948: In
Egypt, “Jews were forbidden to engage in banking or foreign currency
transactions. (In the following month Egyptian Jews would be” dismissed from the
railways, the post office, the telegraph department and the Finance Ministry on
the” unfounded “ground that they were suspected of ‘sabotage and treason’”]
1949(3rd
of Elul, 5709): Fifty-seven-year-old “social worker and childcare authority”
Mary E. Boretz the wife of Henry Friedman and executive director of the what
became known as the foster home depart of the Jewish Child Care Association
passed away today in New York.
1949: “Israeli
Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett said in an interview today that his government
was willing to sponsor joint development schemes in cooperation with
neighboring Arab states” adding that “he would be prepared to consider joint
action with the Kingdom of Jordan on the Jordan Valley Authority scheme…”
1950: Today,
Lee Pressman, a spy for the Soviets during the 1930’s said of Nathan Gregory
Silvermaster his fellow Jewish spy for the Soviets, “"I believe he was
with the Maritime Labor Board when I was with the CIO, and in that connection,
I may have had some business dealings with him"
1951(26th
of Av, 5711): Sixty-two-year-old Lawrence S. Greenbaum, a senior partner in the
New York law firm of Greenbaum, Wolff Ernst and a former chairman of the New
York State Board of Social Welfare, the graduate of Columbia Law School and son
of Selina and Justice Samuel Greenbaum passed away today.
1952: The
reparations talks between Israelis and West Germans ended in The Hague. West
Germany was to pay Israel 3 billion marks (about $714m.) in the form of goods.
She was also bound to deliver to Israel goods worth 450m Marks (about $106m.),
to cover the claims of world Jewry. This was part of very painful process
especially for those Israelis who had survived the Holocaust or who had lost
family and friends at the hands of the Germans. Many, including Menachem Begin,
did not want to accept anything from the Germans. For some acceptance of the
money was part of a forgiveness process in which they were unwilling to
participate. [The East Germans - the Communist half of Germany did not take
part in the talk. Unlike West Germany, East Germany never conducted any
de-Nazification program or made any attempt to make amends for Germany's
slaughter of the Jewish people.]
1952: The
first, undated letter written by Mordechai Oren, the Mapam leader imprisoned in
Czechoslovakia, was received by his family.
1952: In an
address to the Knesset, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion reported that Arab
infiltrators killed 62 Israelis, injured 110 and abducted 29 during 1951. These
on-going attacks would have several impacts on Israeli society. One was that
the military developed an aggressive stance in fighting these terrorists.
Another was the Suez War of 1956. Part of the Israeli goal was to destroy the
bases of Egyptian sponsored terrorists in Gaza.
1953: In the
evening, Unit 101, under the command of Ariel Sharon, conducted its first
mission.
1954: Mortimer
May, president of the Zionist Organization of America, said tonight that the
State Department's proposed policy of arming the Arab states would not thwart
the advance of communism.
1955: Funeral
services are scheduled to held today in Far Rockaway, Long Island, for Rebecca
Cohen, the widow of Michael Cohen and mother of Harry and Charles Cohen.
1957(1st
of Elul, 5717): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1957: “Perri,”
the Walt Disney filme based on Perri: The Youth of A Squirrel by Felix Salten,
the Hungarian born grandson of an Orthodox Rabbi, was released in the United
States today.
1957: Birthdate
of actor Daniel Stern a graduate of Bethesda-Chevy Chase in suburban Washington
who made his debut as the off-beat “Cyril” in “Breaking Away” but who may be
best known for his appearance in the comedy “City Slickers” and whose brother
is television writer David M. Stern.
1959: The Pan
American Games in which Eugene Selznick would coach the United States
Volleyball Team opened today in Chicago.
1959(24th of
Av, 5719): Fifty nine year old Raphael Lemkin, the Polish-Jewish attorney who
created the word “genocide” passed away today.
http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v02/v02p-19_Martin.html
1960(5th of
Elul, 5720): Eighty-five-year-old Wing Commander Lionel Frederick William
Cohen, DSO, MC (World War I), DFC (World War II) was known as 'Sos' or sausage
to all who knew him, and Evergreen to all his RAF comrades, passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/wing-commander-lionel-cohen
http://www.militarian.com/threads/wing-commander-lionel-cohen-the-man-with-a-hundred-lives.6855/
1960: Rabbi
Edward Klein officiated at the wedding of Jeptha Piatigrosky, the daughter of
cellist Grego Piatgorsky and the “granddaughter of the Baroness Edward de
Rothschild of Paris and the late Baron de Rothschild and Dr. Daniel Drachman,
the “grandson of Mrs. Bernard Drachman and the late Rabbi Bernard Drachman who
was spiritual of Temple Zichron Ephraim.”
1961: Milk and
Honey, the musical featuring the music and lyrics of Jerry Herman, began its
pre-Broadway tryout run at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven. “The story centers
on a busload of lonely American widows hoping to catch husbands while touring
Israel and is set against the background of the
country's
fight for recognition as an independent nation. It was Herman's first Broadway
book musical.”
1963: Isaac
Franck, executive director of the Jewish Community Council, Hyman Bookbinder
and the Washington Board of Rabbis were among the 250,000 people who attended
the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom made famous by Martin Luther King,
Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech. (As reported by the Jewish Historical Society of
Greater Washington)
1964: Al Aronowitz
brought Bob Dylan to the Delmonico Hotel in New York City where he introduced
them to the Beatles.
1965(30th
of Av,5725): Parashat Re’eh and Rosh Chodesh Elul
1965(30th
of Av, 5725): Fifty-six-year old Florence Italy born Israeli physicist Giulio (Yoel) Racah who “served as deputy
commander of the Israeli forces defending Mount Scopus” during the War for
Independence and “was acting President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
passed away today.
1966(13th of
Elul, 5726): Sixty-year-old Brooklyn born Fordham University trained pharmacist
Solomon S. Goldwyn who practiced law for 30 years after graduating from
Brooklyn Law School and who served as “president of the Great Neck Synagogue,
North Shore Hebrew Academy, National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish
Education and the Colony of Hope in Israel” which three children – Martin,
Sharon and Judith – with his wife, “the former Bella Skolnick” passed away
today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/08/29/90221025.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1969: In
Washington, DC, Adele and Joel Sandberg gave birth to Sheryl Kara Sandberg, the
Harvard grad who became COO of Facebook.
1969: In Santa
Monica, CA, Judith and Thomas Black gave birth to actor Joe Black
1970:
Birthdate of Richard Samuel “Rick” Recht, the Jewish troubadour known, among
other things for his Shabbat Alive programs.
1972: Mark
Spitz wins the first of his seven gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Munich.
He earned the medal by setting a new world’s record for the 200 meter
butterfly.
1973: “Gone
with the Wind” a musical adaption of the novel by the same name with lyrics and
music by Harold Rome opened today at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los
Angeles.
1973: Former
U.S. Senator Kenneth B. Keating presented his credentials as U.S. Ambassador to
Israel.
1975(21st
of Elul, 5735): Nizhni-Novgorod, Russia native Maurice Beckeer who in 1892 came
to the United Stated where he became “a radical political artist best known for
his work in the 1910s and 1920s for such publications as The Masses and The
Liberator” passed away today “at
the Jewish Home of Eastern Pennsylvania in Scranton, PA.
1977: Amos
Horev, president of the Haifa Technion, announced that Israel was on the
threshold of a major breakthrough in water desalination. He claimed that Prof.
Abraham Kogan had completed work on a revolutionary invention on desalination,
ready for industrial exploitation. Negotiations were advancing for a full-scale
million-cubic-meter a year desalination plant. Water has always been a major
issue in Israel and continues to be to this day. Desalination projects such as
this were critical for those seeking to irrigate the Negev, among other things.
1979: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held this morning in New York City for Hylve
Blomberg, the widow of Philip Blomberg and the mother of Norman and Richard
Blomberg.
1980: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held at “The Riverside” for Milton Sklarz, the
husband of Elsie Sklarz.
1981: “Body
Heat” a thriller directed by Lawrence Kasdan who also wrote the script was
released in the United States by Warner Bros.
1981(28th
of Av, 5741): Eighty-two year old “Hungarian footballer and coach” Bela Guttman
passed away in Vienna.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/may/18/bela-guttmann-benfica-european-cup-eusebio
1982: Jack
Weinstein was promoted to the rank of 2nd Lt. in the U.S. Air Force.
1983(27th
of Av, 5703): Parashat Re’eh
1983(27th
of Av, 5703): Seventy-seven year old Texas native Marguerite Wallenstein
“Peggy” Feldheym, the wife of Norman Frank Feldheym, the longtime Rabbi of
Temple Emanu-El in San Bernardino who served as an Army chaplain in WW II and
Korea, passed away today, marking the end of their 49 year marriage.
1983: Israeli
PM Menachem Begin announced his resignation.
1984(30th
of Av, 5744): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1984: Second
Lt. Jack Weinstein was promoted to the rank of 1st Lt. in the
U.S.A.F.
1984: Funeral services
are scheduled to be held today for eighty-six-year-old Abraham Isaac “Abe”
Lasfogel the New York City born son of “a Yiddish-speaking animal skinner who
had fled Russia in 1889 to escape the pogroms” who began with the William Morris
Agency in 1912 and worked his to the presidency of the world’s leading talent
agency.
1986: First
Lt. Jack Weinstein was promoted to the rank of Captain in the U.S.A.F.
1986:
Birthdate of Galid Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas in June, 2006
1986: Premiere
of “A King and His Movie” an Argentine comedy written by Jorge Goldenberg the
native of Buenos Aires whose other works include “Los Gauchos judíos,” a 1975 film about Russian Jews settling in
Argentina in an effort to escape from the Pogroms in their native land.
1986: “Danny
Arnold sold his production company Four D Productions, Inc. to Coca-Cola's
Columbia Pictures Television Group for $50 million after Arnold dropped the
federal and state lawsuits against Columbia Pictures Television accusing them
of antitrust violations, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty.”
1987:
“Matawan” a cinematic treatment of the 1920 coal strike for which Haskell
Wexler was nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography and featuring Josh
Mostel, the son of Zero Mostel, was released in the United States today.
1988: Leonard
Bernstein’s three day long 70th birthday celebration comes to an end.
1991: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held today for eighty-four year old “retired Cook
County deputy sheriff, local restaurant owner and “lifelong long resident of
Rogers Park, Hyman Hirsch.
1991: Ukraine
declares its independence from the Soviet Union. Approximately 80% of Ukraine's
half million Jews left the country. At the dawn of the 21st century there was a
rejuvenation of Jewish life in Ukraine. Unfortunately, the anti-Semitism that
has been endemic to Ukraine continues to rear its ugly head.
1996: “The
Portrait of a Lady,” the cinematic version of the novel of the same name
starring Nicole Kidman, Barbara Hershey and Shelley Winters premiered at the
Venice Film Festival.
1997 Boston's
Jewish Advocate ran a story entitled "Jewish Women's Archive (JWA) set for
launch into cyberspace," which outlined JWA's origin, mission, and work,
and announced a new chapter in the organization's history. JWA was a young
organization, just two years old, when the launch of its "virtual
archive" was announced in the Advocate article. The goal of the virtual
archive is to identify and link existing materials and archives around the country.
JWA's founding director Gail Twersky Reimer explained that although Jewish
women's letters, diaries, personal papers, and more exist, "most material
is not readily identifiable and needs to be resurfaced." She envisioned
the virtual archive as a gateway for scholars and the public to gain access to
otherwise-hidden resources. As Reimer told the Advocate, documenting existing
collections is only part of JWA's mission. JWA was also working to create new
materials, primarily by conducting oral history interviews with elderly women
from the congregation of Temple Israel in Boston. This project, called
"Women Whose Lives Span the Century," led to an art exhibit of works
based on the interviews; the exhibit took place at the Jewish Community Center
in Newton, MA. Reimer also told the Advocate that JWA was engaged in long-term
planning to assemble the resources to fulfill its mission. The article reported
that that mission had been recently refined to focus on archival and
educational work. In the eleven years since the launch of the Virtual Archive,
JWA has been at the forefront of collecting and disseminating that information.
Through Women of Valor web exhibits and posters; curriculum materials; oral
history projects in Baltimore and Seattle; Women Who Dared events honoring
local Jewish activists; an exhibit on Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution;
Katrina's Jewish Voices; the Jewesses with Attitude blog; and the This Week in
History feature which you are reading now, JWA has led the way in putting Jewish.
1997: “"Jewish
Women's Archive (JWA) set for launch into cyberspace."
http://jwa.org/thisweek/aug/28/1997/jewish-womens-archive
1998: Congregation
member Daniel Z. Nelson was celebrating his 43rd wedding anniversary with his
family at his home in Amagansett, New York, when he learned that Manhattan's
Central Synagogue was in flames.
1998:
“Indiscreet” a made for television “thriller” starring Gloria Reuben whose
father was Jewish and featuring Lisa Edelstein as “Beth Sussman” was broadcast
for the first time today.
1998: Central
Synagogue in Manhattan burned today. The Central Synagogue, believed to be the
oldest continuously used Jewish house of worship in New York, was built between
1870 and 1872. Its cornerstone was laid by the founder of Reform Judaism in the
United States, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise. Built as a fifth synagogue for the
Ahawath Chesed congregation, which was formed in 1846 by Bohemian Jews, the
building was designed by Henry Fernbach, one of the first Jews to make a name
for himself in American architecture. According to Cissy Grossman, a member of
the congregation and the author of a 1989 book about the synagogue called The
Jewish Family's Book of Days, at the time it was built, American Jews were
casting about for a style that could represent both their sense of modernism
and their desire to root themselves in a rich past. The search expressed itself
in a revival of Spanish, Moorish and Egyptian style and, in the Central
Synagogue, in a profusion of arches and lacy arabesque designs carved into the
woodwork. Ms. Grossman continued, ''It was the whole idea of finding a
stylistic thing that has the feeling of being Jewish and also refers to the
fact that Jews lived in the Islamic world for so long and had a peaceful
existence.'' Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president emeritus of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations, the umbrella organization of Reform temples,
said: ''I come from Nazi Germany, so I don't tie myself to a building. But this
one hit me that way. The architecture was awe-inspiring. It's a place that made
the spirit soar.'' Over the years, the congregation undertook several major
renovations. Yet another repair project was under way to restore the original
painted designs on the interior walls, some of which had been painted over.
That dedication to maintaining the glory of the synagogue and uncovering its
original splendors apparently has saved many of its treasures. Ms. Goldman, who
oversees the synagogue's extensive collection of Judaica, said most of the
precious historical objects, many Torah scrolls and even the original
architectural plans from the 19th century had already been moved to warehouses
over the last few months. So had much of the congregation's archive of wedding
and birth records, letters, cemetery maps and other documents. Despite the
fire, records of what the synagogue looked like and how it was built survive.
''There are many restorers in New York who know that building very well,'' Ms.
Goldman said. ''Every aspect of it has been photographed and many people have
worked on it.'' The fate of two of the synagogue's most beloved treasures,
vestiges of the lost Jewry of Eastern Europe, was still unknown. One is a grand
bronze Hanukkah lamp from the 18th century that was donated by some of the
original members of the congregation. The other is a recovered and restored
fragment of a Torah scroll that had been confiscated by the Nazis from one of the
countless synagogues destroyed, along with their members, in World War II. ''If
they are not able to rescue it,'' Rabbi Schindler said, ''it will burn twice.''
In 1970, at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the
Central Synagogue, Rabbi Schindler recalled the simple people -- the
shopkeepers and tailors of the lower East Side -- who pooled their money to buy
the land at 55th Street and Lexington Avenue where they would eventually build
their temple. ''We can imagine the trepidation that filled their hearts as they
stood here that morning,'' Rabbi Schindler said then. ''We can imagine the
doubts they knew and the fears they had. But they conquered these fears and
doubts and gave strength to their children and their children's children and to
us.'' But as the Central Synagogue burned today, Ronald Goldberger recalled the
small personal moments he had shared there with his family: the naming of his
children, their bar mitzvahs, the service when his wife blew the shofar, or
ram's horn, to signal the arrival of the Jewish New Year. And then Mr.
Goldberger, who said he has been a member for more than 20 years, wept.
''That's my synagogue that's burning up,'' he said hoarsely, as a friend
embraced him in the pall of smoke.
2000:
''Friendly fire'' may have been responsible for killing three Israeli soldiers
in a bungled West Bank antiterror operation on Saturday, Israeli officials
acknowledged today. But they defended the late-night attack on the hideout of a
man accused of terrorism who heads Israel's most-wanted list. (As reported by
William A. Orme, Jr.)
2001: An
editorial in today’s Washington Post urged Secretary of State Colin Powell to
support the proposal to support the proposal for a postage stamp honoring U.S.
diplomat Hiram Bingham IV who risked his career to save thousands from the
Nazis.
2002: Just
before Amir Hadad and Aisam ul-Haq Qureshi emerged from the tunnel into the
Grandstand court at the National Tennis Center, flanked by a half-dozen
escorts, they peered out, looking unsure of what awaited them tonight.Their
unusual pairing had become a celebration of sorts as they reached the third
round of Wimbledon, this Israeli/Pakistani, Jewish/Muslim sports partnership
that crossed not only national lines but also religious ones. Hadad and Qureshi
were a two-man peace initiative, with rackets.
2003(30th of
Av, 5763): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2003: The
president, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, ordered the Zayed International
Center, a political research center financed by him and sponsored by the Arab
League, opened in 1999, has drawn criticism from American and British groups
that accuse it of promoting anti-Semitism closed.
(As reported by Abeer Allam)
2004(11th
of Elul, 5764): Parashat Ki Teitzei
2004:
“Administration officials say that the Pentagon official who has been accused
of passing secrets to Israel and who has been identified in some news reports
but who could not be reached for comment early today works in the office of
Douglas J. Feith, the under secretary of defense of policy. (As reported by Steven
Erlanger)
2005: the IDF
began dismantling Gush Katif's 48-grave cemetery.
2005: Rabbi
David M. Gordis and Rabbi Barry Freundel officiated at the wedding of Fern
Schad and Alfred Moses a senior partner with Covington & Burling who served
as U.S. Ambassador to Romania.
2005: The
University of California published Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of
Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History, Norman Finkelstein’s attack on Alan
Dershowitz and his latest work, The Case for Israel
2005: Matan
Vilnai began serving as Minister of Science and Technology.
2005: “Israeli
author Amos Oz received the German city of Frankfurt's Goethe Prize for 2005 at
the city's St Paul's Church.
2005: The New York Times features
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Indecision by Benjamin Kunkel, The Amorous Busboy of
Decatur: A Child of the Fifties Looks Back by Robert Klein and 100
People Who Are Screwing Up America(And Al Franken Is #37) by Bernard
Goldberg.
2006:
Sportscaster Max Kellerman lost out in the competition to serve as host on the
7 pm timeslot at WEPN also known as 1050 ESPN Radio in New York City.
2006: Family
and friends of Corporal Gilad Shalit came to Kerem Shalom, where he was
abducted, to mark his 20th birthday.
2006(4th of
Elul, 5766): Melvin Schwartz, who shared in the Nobel Prize for Physics in
1988, passed away.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1988/schwartz-bio.html
2006: Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert appointed Nahum Admoni “to be chairman of an investigation
committee, charged with investigating the actions of the government during the
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.”
2006: Today
Jackie Mason who described himself as Jewish as a Matzah ball or kosher salami
“filed a lawsuit against the group Jews for Jesus for using his likeness in a
pamphlet in which his image was used next to the tag line "Jackie
Mason...a Jew for Jesus!?"
2007: “Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas,
discussed the core issues of contention between their peoples at a meeting here
today, but it was unclear how closely they moved toward a foundation for a
final settlement.” (As reported by Steven Erlanger and Isabel Kershner)
2008: Zehava
Ben along with Sarit Hadad and Israeli Arab singers Lubna Salame and Riham
Hamadi join forces at the third and final night of the inaugural Gilboa
Coexistence Festival taking place throughout the Gilboa region.
2008: Rabbi
David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism,
will be making history today as he opens the Democratic convention’s last day,
in front of an expected crowd of 70,000 in the audience and millions more
watching from afar.
2008: The
Democratic National Convention which Ayelet Waldman, a law school classmate and
supporter of Barak Obama attended as a delegate came to an end.
2009(8th of
Elul, 5769: Thirty-eight year old DJ AM (Adam Michael Goldstein was found dead
in his apartment today.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=132025382
2009: Premiere
of “Taking Woodstock,” a comedy co-starring Henry Goodman, Liev Schreiber,
Eugene Levy and Emile Hirsch.
2009: Today
“the Vancouver Canucks signed Mathieu Schneider to a one-year, $1.55 million
contract.”
2009: At
Temple Judah Friday night services are a ‘family affair in the best sense of
the word. Dr. Bob and Laurie Silber, pillars of the Jewish community, lead the
Tefillah, while their daughter Abbie leads the singing bringing her own special
brand of musical excitement and joy to the celebration of Shabbat.
2010: The
Gilead Barkin Trio is scheduled to perform at the Indium Jazz Club in New York
City.
2010:
Palestinian Authority Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat rejected Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu's calls for fortnightly face-to-face meetings with PA President
Mahmoud Abbas during upcoming peace negotiations between Israel and the
Palestinians, Israel Radio reported today, citing an interview Erekat conducted
with the BBC in Arabic
2011: Kol
Shira is scheduled to perform at the Agudas Achim end of summer picnic in Iowa
City.
2011: The
British Jewish community is marking Gilad Schalit’s 25th birthday today by
launching a new awareness campaign and calling on the government and Red Cross
to press for his release.
2011: Israeli
jazz clarinetist, saxophonist and bandleader Anat Cohen is scheduled to perform
at the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in New York City.
2011(28th
of Av, 5771): “David Reichenberg, a 50-year-old Orthodox Jewish father of four
from Spring Valley, N.Y. died saving a father and his 6-year-old son from a
downed power line when Reichenberg came into contact with the live wire and was
electrocuted.” (As reported by JTA)
2011: The body
of eighty-two year old Rozalia Gluck, one of two Jews reported to have died
during Hurricane Irene was recovered this evening. (As reported by JTA)
2011: Today,
“as part of its 75th anniversary, the CBC is showing an hour of old Wayne and
Shuster comedy material.”
2011(28th
of Av, 5771): Eighty-one year old CBS culture critic Leonard Harris passed away
today. (As reported by Daniel Slotnik)
2012: “Two of
the Upper West Side of Manhattan’s most renowned Cantors – Rebecca Garfein,
Senior Cantor of Congregation Rodeph Sholom, and Dan Singer, Cantor at Stephen
Wise Free Synagogue – are scheduled to perform at the Enrico Caruso Room at Grotta
Azzurra Ristorante in Little Italy” this evening.
2012: Magillah,
Montreal’s Yiddish/Klezmer Band directed by Henri Oppenheim is scheduled to
perform at the Montreal Jewish Music Festival.
2012: Congregation Shir
Hadash is scheduled to offer “Taste of Judaism,” an interactive class designed
to provide an introduction to Jewish perspectives on ethics and values, study,
community, holidays, and spirituality
2012: The Jewish
Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host a tour of the special
exhibition To Bigotry No Sanction: George Washington & Religious Freedom at
the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia
2012(10th of
Elul, 5772): Sixty-seven year old Shulamith Fireston, author of The Dialectic
of Sex passed away today (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/authors/firestone-shulamith/dialectic-sex.htm
2012: “Two of the Upper
West Side of Manhattan's most renowned Cantors – Rebecca Garfein, Senior Cantor
of Congregation Rodeph Sholom, and Dan Singer, Cantor at Stephen Wise Free
Synagogue – performed at the Enrico Caruso Room at Grotta Azzurra Ristorante in
Little Italy.”
2012(10th of
Elul, 5772): Eighty year old Eva Figes, a leading feminist, author and refugee
from the Holocaust passed away today. (As reported by Leslie Kaufman)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/arts/eva-figes-author-and-feminist-dies-at-80.html?hpw
2012: Police indicted
the nine suspects connected with the near-deadly beating of an Arab teenager
two weeks ago in downtown Jerusalem today in the Jerusalem District Court. The
suspects were indicted on charges of assault and battery, racial incitement and
inciting violence.
2012: An Israeli judge
ruled today that the state bore no responsibility for the death of Rachel Corrie,
the young American woman who was run over by a military bulldozer in 2003 as
she protested the demolition of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.
2012: Two rockets and a
mortar were fired from Gaza into the Eshkol Region in the Western Negev this
evening
2013: Tel Aviv Woodwind
Quintet - Roi Amotz , Danny Erdman, Yigal Kaminka , Nadav Cohen , Itamar Leshem
– is scheduled to perform Kleine Kammermusik, op. 24/2 by Hindemith in
Jerusalem.
2013: Stúdió11 Band is
scheduled to perform “Evergreen – selection from Barbra Streisand’s songs” at
the Dohany Street Synagogue in Budapest
2013(22nd of
Elul): Yarhrzeit Joseph B. Levin, husband of Deborah Levin z”tzl, father of
Judy z”tzl, Mitchell and David without whom literally, this blog would never
exist.
2013(22nd of
Elul, 5773): Ninety-one year old Murray Gershenz who ran a used record store in
Los Angeles for fifty years passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)
2013: “The Security
Cabinet approved a limited call-up of reserve soldiers as preparations for a
possible US strike on Syria and retaliation against Israel intensified this
afternoon. (As reported by Gavriel Fiske and Mitch Ginsburg)
2013: “Thousands of
Israelis failed in their attempts to obtain gas masks today as growing numbers
of citizens flooded post offices and IDF Home Front Command distribution
centers ahead of an expected US strike on Syria.” (As reported by Haviv Gettig
Gur)
2013:
Ethiopian-Israelis are planning a protest outside of Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu’s office at the same time that a plane representing the official end
of Ethiopian aliya is scheduled to land at Ben-Gurion Airport today. (As
reported by Sam Sokol)
2014: Roey Gilad, the Consul General of the
State of Israel is scheduled to speak at the ceremonies marking the 70th
anniversary of the liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto and Hazan Alberto Mizrahi of
Anshe Emet Congregation is scheduled to provide the cantorial music for the
event at Chicago’s Union Club.
2014: “The body of missing US student Aaron
Sofer, 23, of Lakewood, New Jersey, was found near the capital’s Ein Kerem
neighborhood, Hatzalah said in a statement today” (As reported by Marissa
Newman and Adiv Sterman)
2014: As tensions rose on the border with Syria,
rebels who have taken control of the area and fired into Israel abducted 40
members of the UN Peacekeeping force.
2015: Dor Zweigenbom’s “Why I Killed My Mother”
is scheduled to be performed at Under St. Marks in New York City.
2015: A Study Mission to New Orleans sponsored
by the American Jewish Archives as part of its Travels in American Jewish
History is scheduled to continue for a third day.
2015: “Adam J. Szubin, the top Treasury
Department official who helped negotiate the accord between Iran and six world
powers” is scheduled to arrive in Israel today to defend the nuclear
containment deal with Iran and try to reassure a government and public deeply
opposed to the accord that the United States is still prepared to inflict
severe financial penalties on Tehran for its sponsorship of terrorism and
support for military proxies.”
2015: “Avid Life Media, the parent company of
Ashley Madison, announced that its chief executive, Noel Biderman, stepped down
today, more than a month after hackers broke into the company’s computer
systems and released data and emails that suggested it engaged in questionable
business practices.”
2016: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including
Mamaleh Knows Best: What Jewish Mothers Do to Raise Successful, Creative,
Empathetic, Independent Children by Marjorie Ingall ADHD Nation: Children, Doctors, Big Pharma,
and the Making of an American Epidemic by Alan Schwarz, The Gardner and the Carpenter What the New
Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents
and Children by Alison Gopnik, The
Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction by Mark Lilla, Against Everything: Essay by Mark Greif and
The Hatred of Poetry by Ben Lerner.
2016:
“Weiner” the winner of the 2016 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary
that examines the behavior Anthony Weiner, the husband of one of Hillary
Clinton’s closest advisors is scheduled to open at JW3 Cinema.
2016:
The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington is scheduled to pay tribute to “the
national pastime” by sponsoring Grand Slam Sunday Jewish Community at the home
of the Washington Nationals baseball team.
2016:
Congregation Mikveh Israel of Philadelphia and the American Sephardi Federation
are scheduled to host a screening of “Disobedience: The Sousa Mendes Story” a
film that describes the exploits of “Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese
Consul-General in Bordeaux, France, who courageously rescued thousands of refugees,
many of them Jews, in the spring of 1940 by issuing visas contrary to the
strict orders of his government.”
2016:
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to host “Nusakh Vilne
Memorial” – a commemoration of the Jewish community in Vilna” featuring a
presentation by Executive Director Jonathan Brent.
2016:
In Los Angeles YIDDISHKAYT is scheduled to commemorate the start of Stalin’s
Great Terror “which led to the devastation of Yiddish culture” in the Soviet
Union “at the Southern California Arbeter Ring | Workmen's Circle”
2016:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host the
U.S. premiere of “Heaven in Auschwitz” “a documentary film that tells the
incredible story of 13 Jewish children during World War II, whose lives were
changed forever by the legendary Fredy Hirsch, a German-Jew who worked to
provide arts, culture and sports to improve the lives of children in the
Terezin Ghetto.”
2016(24th
of Av, 5776): Eight year old Iraqi born Israeli leader Binyamin Ben-Eliezer
passed away today.
2016:
UKJF is scheduled to sponsor a screening of “Mr. Gaga” directed by Tomer
Heymann
2017:
The Catherine Russell Quartet and the Josh Evans Quintet are scheduled to
perform at the Red Sea Jazz Festival.
2017:
Gilad Katz, “Israel’s consul general in Houston said today that people were living
like “cavemen” in the city as a result of the flooding brought on by the heavy
rains from Harvey, saying many residents of America’s fourth-largest city were
stuck without food, water and electricity.”
2017:
For a second day, “the Foreign Ministry” is scheduled to open “its doors to the
diplomatic compound” so the public can see “just how diplomacy is done.”
2017:
The City Contemporary Dance Company of Hong Kong is scheduled to perform at the
dance festival in Tel Aviv.
2017(6th
of Elul, 5777): Seventy-six year old mechanical engineer and son of Jewish
immigrants from Poland, Maurice Bluestein, the “maven of the wind chill index”
pass away today. (As reported by Amisha Padnani)
2017: Maj. Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Pundak, whose contributions to
the birth of Israel included creation of 53rd battalion of the Givati Brigade
during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, founding of the IDF’s Nahal unit
while serving as its first commander, and leading the IDF Armored Corps in the
1950s.who passed away yesterday is scheduled to be buried this afternoon at
Kibbutz Nitzanim next to his wife.
2018:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host concerts featuring Itamar
Borochow and David Serero this evening at the Center for Jewish History.
2018:
“The new Tree House musical show…together with an original screen art work
which incorporates still photography and animation, created by Daniel Zini and
Yair Moss are scheduled to be shown in Jerusalem as part of the “End of Summer
Festival..”
2018:
“Hebrew folk country band Jane Bordeaux which is considered one of the most
intriguing and surprising musical phenomena of recent times” is scheduled to
perform tonight in Jerusalem.
2018:
Following yesterday’s outbreak of fire in Be’eri and Shokeda forests and in
Sa’ad Junction which were started by incendiary balloon, it appears that those
elusive peace talks have not put an end to the violence from Gaza.
2018(17th
of Elul, 5778): Sixty-nine year old historian Jan Ellen Lewis the historian who
used DNA evidence to develop a full picture of President Jefferson’s other
family, passed away today. (As reported
by Richard Sandomir)
2019:
In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the penultimate screening of “Skin,”
“Israeli filmmaker Guy Nattiv’s first English language feature” film.
2019:
In Walnut Creek, CA, Congregation B’nai Shalom is scheduled to offer the first
session of the three part course “The Longest Hatred: Anti-Semitism Then and
Now.”
2019:
In Metairie, LA, Slater Torah Academy is scheduled to host “Curriculum Night.”
2020:
It was reported today that “unsealed archives give fresh clues to Pope Pius
XII’s response to the Holocaust.”
2020:
Hitler and the Holocaust published today provided a detailed review of Hitler:
Downfall 1939-1945
by
Volker Ullrich.
2021(20th
of Elul, 5781): Parashat Ki Tavo; in the evening Selichot
for
more see
2021(20th
of Elul): Yahrzeit Dr. Jacob Levin, who along with his wife Betty created a
tribe and world which combined both the best of what is secular and what is
Jewish, who was Yaink or Yainkel to his brother Joe and Uncle Jack to me a man
loved by so many who will never be forgotten.
https://legacy.suntimes.com/us/obituaries/chicagosuntimes/name/jacob-levin-obituary?pid=93838997
2021:
The Rabbinical Assembly and the Conservative/Masorti movement are scheduled to
sponsor a virtual “Selichot Night Life
2022:
Interplay Jewish Theatre is scheduled to present a staged reading of “The Dogs
of Pripyat” at the Mandel Jewish Community Center’s Stonehill Auditorium.
2022:
As part of the National Library of Israel's In Her Majesty's Kingdom series,
Israeli diplomat and international lawyer, Daniel Taub, is scheduled to look at
how conceptions of Israel have changed over time in British literature, and
consider whether these tell us more about the Jewish state they are describing
or the authors who are writing them.
2022:
In Atlanta, Jessica Kirson, “the irreverent Jewish queen of the Prank Call” is
scheduled to perform at the RoundTrip Brewing Company.
2022:
The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host an “historic walk to the
Jewish Burying Ground, “the oldest Jewish Cemetery in the United States.
2022:
As the “talking heads” are scheduled to discuss inflation on the Sunday morning
“news” shows, they would well to take into account the words of Professor
Jeremy Siegel, who was one of the first to warn about the dangers of inflation
and who is now calling for the Federal Reserve to take it slow with
interest-rate hikes as the central bank seeks to rein inflation back in.
2022(1st
of Elul, 5782): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2023:
The Aden Conference presented by the ASF’s Institute of Jewish Experience is
scheduled to begin today.
2023:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational Center is scheduled is scheduled
to host its fifth annual “Friends, Funds and Games” event that includes “game
play” and museum tours.
2023:
The 34th Annual Conference of the World Federation of Jewish Holocaust
Survivors and Descendants is scheduled to come to an end today in Washington, D.C
