This Day, August 5, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
August 5
135: Betar fell to the
Romans
http://www.jewishmag.com/135mag/beitar/beitar.htm
http://archaeology.tau.ac.il/?page_id=2049
939: Battle of
Alhandic: Cordoban forces conquered the Leonese city of Zamora, Spain with
great cost in lives to both sides.
1100: Henry I is
crowned King of England at Westminster Abby. During Henry’s reign the first
attempts were made to introduce the continental principle - that all Jews were
the king's property. Under King Henry, a
clause to that effect was inserted in some manuscripts of the so-called
"Laws of Edward the Confessor."
1199: Birthdate of
Ferdinand III of Castile. Catholics
remember as the monarch who was canonized as Saint Ferdinand III. Jews remember him as the King who refused the
Pope’s demand that Jews be forced to wear special badge and clothing.
Apparently he was afraid that if the Jews mistreated they would flee to Muslim
Granada, which would be disastrous for the revenues of the kingdom
1264: Anti-Jewish riots
broke out in Arnstadt Germany
1381: Rabbis and
communal leaders from Speyer, Worms and Mayence met at Mayence to review and
reinforce laws pertaining to marriage and the rights of widows in the wake of
the Black Death. One of the rules
enacted was Tekanoth Shum which allowed a childless widow to receive a definite
portion of her late husband’s property even though she had refused to marry her
brother-in-law.
1391: More than 400
Jews were killed in attacks in Barcelona. Attempts by the city Fathers and
Artisans to protect them were of no use. The attacks were instigated for the
most part by Castilians, who had taken part in the massacres in Seville and
Valencia.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-barcelona-echoes-of-long-lost-jews/
1529: Francis I, King
of France and Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire who was also King of
Spain appear to settle their differences by signing the Treaty of Cambrai in
which Francis agrees to give up his claim to Italy and Charles gives up his
claim to Burgundy (a part of modern day France.) The Jews had been expelled
from France in 1394, so officially there were no Jews for Francis to mistreat
or exploit. Charles treatment of his Jewish subjects depended upon where they
lived. As King of Spain, Charles
followed the line established by his forbearers starting with the Spanish
Inquisition. As Emperor he took a much more benign attitude towards his Jewish
subjects living in central Europe. Pope Clement VII, whose support of the Jews
earned him the “accolade of ‘favorer of Israel’ and a price gracious to
Israel,” made the mistake of siding with Francis over Charles in their
dispute. Once in control of Italy,
Charles allowed his troops to sack Clement’s Rome, safe in the knowledge that
no French troops would come to the Pope’s assistance. Dona Gracia, the famous
Marrano businesswomen who reasserted her Jewish identity, lent money to both
monarchs and her nephew was well known to both of these competing rulers.
1540: In Agen, France,
Italian scholar Julius Caesar Scaliger and Andiette de Roques Lobejac gave
birth to their tenth child and third son Joseph Justus Scaliger, “the Hugenot
scholar and professor at the University of Leiden” who “argued that it was only
possible to establish the true text and meaning of Scripture gaining an
understanding of rabbinic sources” and who “maintained Jews should be permitted
to return to western Europe simply because of their economic importance but
because of their learning.”
1718: Barent Gompertz
married Rachel Isaac today in Amsterdam.
1748: Empress Maria
Theresa revoked the edict of expulsion directed at the Jews of Bohemia
1756(9th of
Av, 5516): Tish’a B’Av observed on the same day, that during the French and
Indian War, George Washington wrote to the Speaker of the House of Burgess,
that Fort Cumberland “is not capable of an hour’s defense if the enemy brings a
single half pounder cannon against it.”
1761(16th of
Av, 5521):Ritzel Hannah Adolphus, the daughter of Benjamin Adolphus who was
married to Asher Ettting and Ralph de Paz passed away today in New York City.
1769: In a move that
set him apart from many of his predecessors and successors, Pope Clement XIV
elevated the conditions of the Jews when he declared that they were “no longer
under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition and are instead subject to the
authority of Rome's cardinal vicar (Vicariato di Roma). Jews were furthermore
given permission to work as artisans and even to own small factories.” (As
reported by Austin Cline)
1769: Herz Wesel
Gumperz and Abraham Wesel Gumperz gave birth Ruben Samuel Gumperz the husband
of Roeschen Gumperz.
1769: The day after she
had passed away, the sixty-five year old wife of Meir Reboya was buried today
at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.”
1772: First of the
three partitions of Poland begins. The
Jews of what had been Poland and Lithuania will end up in the Prussian, Austrian
and/or Russian Empires. Ironically, the
bulk of them will end up living under Russian monarchs who had committed
themselves to keeping Jews out of Russia.
1782: Birthdate of
Abigail Isaacs, the Newport, RI born daughter of Moses Isaacs.
1786(11th of
Av, 5546): Parashat Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu observed for the last time
while John Hancock served as President of the Continual Congress, the governing
body of the United States of America at that time.
1788(2nd of
Av, 5548): In Trier Rabbi Moses Lwów, the son of Joshua Heschel Lwow and Marie
Merlé Lwow and husband of Bella Eger passed away today.
1797(13th of
Av, 5557): Parashat Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu observed for the first time
during the Presidency of John Adams.1
1799(23rd of
Av, 5558): Rebecca Etting, a toddler and the daughter of Rachel Gratz and
Solomon Etting passed away today at Oakland, Maryland
1802: Birthdate of
Eliakim Carmoly, a French born Jewish scholar and rabbi who would eventually
resign from the rabbinate, move to Frankfurt and devote himself to Jewish
literature and to the collection of Hebrew books and manuscripts.
1812: Moss Jewell
married Eleanor Joseph today at the Great Synagogue.
1814: In New York City,
“American Revolutionary War veteran Sampson Means and Catherine (Cohen) Isaaks
gave birth to Rebecca Cohen Isaaks Hart, who was an
active member of “Synagogue Mickveh Israel” in Philadelphia where she served
for thirty years as “President of the Female Hebrew Benevolent Society” and
helped to managed the Jewish Foster Home and was the wife of Abraham Hart.
1813(9th
of Av, 5573): Tish’a B’Av is observed by Jews in America and England whose
countries are engaged in the second year of the War of 1812/
1816: Two days after
she had passed away, Maria Hart, the daughter of Stephen and Esther Hart was
buried in the United Kingdom today.
1820: In Frankfurt,
Adelheid (née Herz) and Carl Mayer von Rothschild gave birth to Mayer Carol
Freiherr von Rothschild who became the first Jewish member of the House of
Lords of Prussia.
1832(9th of
Av, 5592): Tish’a B’Av
1834(29th of
Tammuz, 5594): Forty-three year old Sarah Nathan, the wife of Isaac Mendez
Seixas Nathan and the mother of Grace Nathan passed away in New York City.
1842: In New York City,
Harriet Jackson and Israel Benjamin Phillips who were married in 1837 gave
birth Benjamin Phillips today.
1842(29th of Av, 5602):
Fifty-three year old German educator and theologian Michael Creizenach, author
of the 4 volume work “Shulḥan 'Aruk, oder Encyklopädische Darstellung des
Mosaischen Gesetzes," passed away today.
1843(9th of
Av, 5603): Parashat Devarim and Shabbat Chazon
1843: In Richmond, VA,
Issac and Adeline Hyneman gave birth to Jacob Ezekiel Hyneman who moved to
Philadelphia, PA and the Civil War broke out, the southern born Hyneman cast
his lot with the Union, serving with the U.S. Army from 1862 to 1865.
1845(2nd of
Av, 5605): Captain Henry B. Nones passed away today after which he was buried at
the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery in Delaware.
1846: Two days after
she had passed, 72 year old Sarah (Moss) Barnett, the widow of the late Joel
Barnett, was buried today at the “Brompton Jewish Cemetery.”
1848(11th of
Av, 5614): Shabbat Nachamu
1848: Birthdate of
Adolph M. Radin, the Polish born, German trained American rabbi who has served
congregations in Elmira and New York City including the Congregation Gates of
Hope and the People’s Synagogue.
1854: Julius
Goldschmidt and Caroline Marie Hansen gave birth to Karl Julius Isak
Goldschmidt today.
1854: John Griffins, a
native of Poland, was arrested today for swindling Reverend Stephen Wilkins,
the pastor of a Baptist church in New York.
Wilkins gave money to Griffins because the latter claimed to be
collecting funds for a society for "aiding and better the conditions the
Jews." Griffin’s claims were false.
1860: The consecration
of the new synagogue to be used by congregation B'nai Israel, located on the
corner of Stanton and Forsyth streets, took place this afternoon. The building,
which is capable of holding about 800 people, was formerly a Baptist Church,
but has recently been purchased, and converted into a synagogue by the above
congregation, most of whom are natives of Holland. The interior transformations
required to convert it into a synagogue were not extensive or costly -- the
only change being a shifting of the position of the pews, so as to leave a
space for the "reading desk" in the centre of the church, and the
erection of a semicircular ark in the place of the pulpit. The reading desk is
the same as that used in the old synagogue of this congregation, in
Christie-street, made of rosewood, and surrounded by an enclosure, or railing,
about ten feet square, and of elegant workmanship. On the four corners of the
enclosure are gas fixtures, in imitation of candies, and over head depends a
magnificent bronze chandelier, with numerous jets, all of which were kept
burning during the consecration service. The "Ark" is also made of rosewood,
with sliding doors, and, when closed, is screened from public view by rich
damask curtains, which were presented by the ladies of the congregation. The
synagogue was filled to its utmost capacity, yesterday, by an audience composed
about equally of ladies and gentlemen. As the congregation B'nai Israel is
among the strictest of the "orthodox" party of the Jews, and opposed
to the modern "improvements" and "reforms" that have been
introduced into some other synagogues, the old customs, seating the sexes
apart, was adhered to, and the ladies occupied the gallery, while the gentlemen
sat in the body of the church. Among the Jewish clergy of other congregations
present were Rabbi Morris Jerome Raphall, of the Greene-street Synagogue; Rabbi
Samuel Myer Isaacs, of the Wooster-street Synagogue and Rabbi J.J. Lyons, of
the Portuguese Synagogue. The ceremonies of the consecration were arranged and
conducted by Rabbi M.R. de Leeuw, of the congregation B'nai Israel. The
consecration service opened with a chant from the choir, which occupied the
enclosure surrounding the reading-desk, and was led by the minister of the
congregation. The trustees of the synagogue then entered bearing the
"sacred scrolls," and proceeded by twenty-four young girls, dressed
in white, with blue scarves, and each one carrying in her band a basket of
flowers. The trustees took their position in the open space, between the
reading-desk and the ark, and were flanked on either side by a column of the
young girls, who commenced picking flowers from their baskets and throwing them
at their feet, while the choir chanted a dedication psalm. The bearers of the
sacred scrolls, accompanied by the honorary officers of the church, men marched
in procession seven times around the synagogue, each circuit being accompanied
by an appropriate chant from the choir. On each return of the procession to the
open space fronting the ark they were pelted with roses from the fair hands of
the young misses until the ground was literally covered with these fragrant
floral offerings. The seventh circuit having been completed, the ark was
opened, the sacred scrolls were deposited therein, the doors were closed, the
damask curtains were drawn close around it, and the perpetual lamp which
depends from the ceiling in front was ignited, never to expire. After another
chant from the choir, Rev. Dr. RAPHALL ascended the platform on which rests the
ark, and addressed the congregation in a few remarks befitting the occasion,
taking for his text the passage of Scripture commencing, "How beautiful
are thy Tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts." He alluded to the persecutions
which the children of Israel had suffered under the Roman Empire, and all
through the Middle Ages, even to the time when they crossed the ocean and
landed in this home of freedom and equality. He spoke of the progress of the
congregation B'nai Israel, from the time when he first addressed them in their
Synagogue in Pell-street until now, and exhorted them to renewed devotion and
praise to the Lord for the prosperity that had attended them. Rabbi Isaacs
alluded in disparaging terms to the innovations of the "reform party"
among the Israelites, which he attributed to religious pride. He thanked God
that the congregation B'nai Israel remained uncontaminated by these pretended
reforms, and adhered strictly to the ceremonials of their fathers. A
consecration prayer was then delivered by Rabbi de Leeuw, and the ceremonies
closed with a Hallelujah by the choir.
1860: The London
correspondent for the New York Times reported that the Times of London
no longer enjoys any special advantage over its competitors because it has lost
its monopoly on information. The
accumulated wealth of the Times had given it access to the telegraph providing
it with an advantage over its poorer competitors. “But since the monopoly of telegraphic
communication has been secured by that clever and far-seeing German Jew, Mr.
Reuters, all the journals are supplied, share and share alike, at the same
time, and at the same tariff. In many specialties, such as "City Intelligence"
and "Foreign Correspondence," the Daily News is nearly equal
to the Times. The leading articles of the Telegraph are generally
on the same subjects as those of its high-priced rival, and the Post, Herald
and Star each appeal to their own peculiar class of readers.”
1861: At the meeting of
the Board of Alderman in New York City this evening the report of the Committee
donating $30,000 to the Hebrew Benevolent Society was adopted, but was
subsequently reconsidered and laid over, on the motion of Alderman Tuomey.
1861: At a time when
President Lincoln had called for “90 day volunteers” Herman Stern began his 3
month service with Company of the 83rd Regiment.
1861: Twenty-eight year
old Jefferson Medical College trained laryngologist Dr. Morris Joseph Asch
joined the United States Army today at which time he was assigned to the
surgeon-general’s office after which he would become “surgeon-in-chief to the
Artillery Reserve of the Army of the Potomac, medical inspector Army of the
Potomac, medical director of the 24th Army Corps, medical inspector of the Army
of the James, staff surgeon of General P. H. Sheridan from 1865 to 1873.”
1862(9th of
Av, 5622): Tish’a B’Av observed on the same day Union forces defeated the
Rebels at the Battle of Baton Rouge which thwarted Confederate attempts to
capture the state capital of Louisiana which was the home of the recently
established “Hebrew Congregation of the
City of Baton Rouge.”
1865: A correspondent
for the Levant Herald wrote from Smyrna today describing the mortifying
effects of the Cholera epidemic that has struck the city. Among other things he
reported that Hyde Clark, the English engineer, has informed Sir Moses
Montefiore of the suffering among the Jewish people. In response, the Jewish
philanthropist has begun raising funds from the Jewish communities in London
and France and it is thought that he and his associate, Dr. Hodgkins might
personally come to the city with the necessary aid.
1865(13th of
Av, 5625): Shabbat Nachamu
1865: Birthdate of
Leopold Bloch, the resident of Pilsen who was transported to Terezin where he
was murdered in 1942.
1865(13th of
Ave, 5625): Thirty-one year old author Naphtali Keller whose works include to
stores - "Sullam ha-Haẓlaḥah" and "Debek lo Tob", a tale of
Galician Jewish life passed away today.
1867:
Twenty-five-year-old Miriam Maduro Davis, the New York born daughter of Dr.
Daniel Moses Levy Maduro Peixotto and Rachel Lopes Mendes Peixotto and her
husband Michael Marks Davis gave birth to Constance Miriam Davis who became
Constance Miriam Mordecai when she married Benjamin Mordecai with whom she had
five children – Eva, Lucile, Constance, Katherine and Allen.
1867: In Chicago, Il, Hannah
Briedenbach and Berman Friend gave birth to Rush Medical College trained
surgeon Emanuel Friend, the husband of Magdalem Jane Alexander and chairman of
the surgical department at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago.
1867: Birthdate of
“eastern Prussia” native Hermann Wronker, the founder of S. Wronker and
Company, the German department store chain he operated with his brother Simon
which he was forced to sell when the “company was aryanized” before being
killed at Auschwitz in 1942.
1871: Less than a month
after his birth, author Marcel Proust, the son of Jeanne
Clémence (Weil) Proust, “the daughter of a wealthy Jewish family from Alsace,”
was baptized in the Catholic faith of his father Adrien Proust “at the church
of Saint-Louis d’Antin” today.
1872: In Baltimore, MD,
Moses and Jane (Alborn) Friedenwald gave birth to Racie Friedenwald who became
Racie Adler when she married Cyrus Adler.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/adler-racie
1872: In London Sir
Philip and Lady Magnus gave birth to Laurie Magnus the husband of Dora
Spielmann, “the eldest daughter of Sir Isidore and Lady Spielman” and “editor
of John Murray’s Educational Publications” who was active in the Anglo-Jewish
community as can be seen by his membership on the Jewish Board of Deputies and
service as Warden at the West London Synagogue.
1873: “From A Traveler”
published today provides the views of an American merchant in Switzerland on the
treatment of religious groups in Europe as opposed to the United States
concluding that “in the end tolerated must be secured to all. I am led to this course of reflection from
observing the wrong done the Jews than those inflicted on dissenting Christians. If the great Rothschild does not devote his
accumulated wealth to the assertion and maintenance of the rights of his people
then he will deserve the execration of mankind.
That family, with a few others, have it within their power to say to the
Governments of southern and eastern Europe ‘this far and no father.’” (Editor’s note – This view of the all
-powerful Jewish families is one of those myths that went up in smoke with the
Shoah.)
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B05E6DD1239EF34BC4D53DFBE668388669FDE
1876(15th of
Av, 5636): Parashat Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu: Tu B’Av
1876: Leopold Wintner who
had assumed the position of the eight rabbi of Temple Beth El in Detroit gave
his farewell sermon today. When Wintner delivered a sermon at the Church of Our
Father in May of 1876, he became “the first Detroit rabbi to preach in a local
Christian church.”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A00EEDE1239EF34BC4C53DFBE668388669FDE
1877: Birthdate of
Hermann Ludwig Mass, a Protestant minister from Badem and one of the Righteous
Among the Nations who attended the Six Zionists Congress and was imprisoned by
the Nazis for helping Jews to escape from Europe.
1877: In Cincinnati,
OH, Emile and Ameilia (Hyman) Kahn gave birth to gold medal winning University
of Cincinnati graduate Cora Kahn, the instructor in public speaking at Hebrew
Union college, who daughter drama classes at the Wise Center of the Plum Street
Temple and served as an active member of the Council of Jewish Women.
1877: Birthdate of
Ludwig Hollaender, who studied law at the University of Munich and practiced
law there before returning to his hometown of Berlin where he fought growing
anti-Semitism as the founder and director of the Central Union of Jews in
Germany.
1878: It was reported
today Peace Society had sent a delegation headed by Professor Leone Levi to the
Congress of Berlin that was supposed to present a petition to the leaders of
Europe calling for the use of arbitration as a method of settling international
disputes. Britain’s Lord Salisbury
expressed his sympathy with the effort but held out little hope for any
action. Levi was an Italian born Jew who
moved to Great Britain where he converted and became a lawyer and author.
1878: In New Orleans,
Charles and Dora (Kohn) Simon gave birth to Tulane trained physician and
gastroenterologist Sidney K. Simon and husband of Emma Roos Drefyous who was a
member of Temple Sinai, active in the Y.M.H.A. and a supporter of the Jewish
Orphans Home.
1879: “Tracing Some
Stolen Goods,” an article published today described how a Jew named Louis
Pollard was arrested and falsely accused of stealing shoes worth five hundred
dollars from a shoe factory on West Broadway last September. The police finally realized their error and released
him.
1881: It was reported
today that mobs have started to attack the synagogues and shops owned by Jews
in Pomerania. The police had to be
called to disperse the mobs.
1881: The views of “M.
de Bacourt, Talleyrand’s friend, secretary and literary executor” on Americans
published today included the following description of the New England Yankee
whom others saw as a flinty Protestant as being “the type of the Englishman
combined with the subtlety and cleverness of the Jews. He is a mixture of British pride, coldness
and stiffness with Hebrew cunning.” (Editor’s note – One can only imagine how
those New Englanders who put stumbling blocks in front of the Jews would have
felt about this description.)
1881: Based on
information that first appeared in the London
Standard, “Beaconsfield’s Manuscripts” published today descried the high
prices that these works by Benjamin Disraeli brought at auction citing in
particular the original copies of the novels The Young Duke and Contarini
Fleming which were written in his own hand.
1882: The Standard Oil
of New Jersey is established. During the 1930’s “Standard of New Jersey…forged
a synthetic oil and rubber cartel with the Nazi-controlled I.G. Farben.” This “helped the Third Reich to make significant
gains “in the development of synthetic rubber and gasoline”; gains which would
prove to be of invaluable assistance to the Nazis during WW II. During the 1930’s Farben’s holding in
Standard of New Jersey “were second only to those of John D., Jr., himself.”
(For more about Standard Oil and the Jewish people, see The Secret War
Against the Jews by John Loftus and Mark Aarons.)
1883: It was reported
today that there was an anti-Semitic riot at Presburg in protest over the not
guilty verdicts rendered in the case of Esther Solymosi.
1883: “The Scientific
Gossip” column published today explained earlier comments by M.G. Lagneau about
the differences in birthrates between Catholics, Protestants and Jews. Although
Jews have a lower birthrate than the other two religions, there mortality rate
“is remarkably low” a condition attributed
to their religious dietetic and hygienic regulations, early marriages, the fact
that most Jewish women do not work out of the home and “general sobriety.”
1885: In Kovno,
Lithuania, “Rachel and Hyman Jehuda Osinsky” gave birth to Moshe Osinsky, who
came to England in 1900 where as Montague Maurice Burton he became a successful
maker and seller of men’s clothing, and married
Sophia Amelia Marks with whom he had four children – Barbara, Stanley,
Raymond and Arnold.
1885: Herzl withdrew
from the court service in order to become a writer.
1887(15th
of Av, 5647): Tu B’Av
1887: Adolph Loeb, the German born son of Jakob and Ester
Loeb and his wife Johanna Loeb gave birth to Dorothy Loeb.
1887: Birthdate of Chicago native and New York businessman
Victor Riesnfeld, the chairman of the board of Montefiore Hospital and husband
of “the former Eleanor Hirsch” with whom he had a daughter and a son.
1888: It was reported
today that plans have been made to provide the youngsters at the Sanitarium for
Hebrew Children with an extra summer excursion.
1888: According to a review
of Quince Culture by W.W. Meech published today, the fruit is so mild that In
Palestine it is eaten as soon as it is picked from the tree. According to Jewish tradition, the quince was
“the apple” that Eve used to tempt Adam.
1888: “Hearing the New
Rabbi” published today described the views of the recently elected spiritual
leader of The Temple of Gates of Hope on the use of the pulpit and “the duties
of the one who occupies it” which included the idea that just ‘as the statue in
our harbor proclaims light and peace to all nations os the pulpit must proclaim
light and peace to all mankind.” (Temple of Gates of Prayer was the forerunner
of today’s Park Avenue Synagogue)
1889: Salvatore Levy
was arrested on charges of obtaining credit under false pretenses. A
Greek Jew, Levy claimed to be the son of Elie Levy, who had a seat on
the Bourse in Paris and had sent him to America.
1889: Assemblyman
Charles “Silver Dollar Smith got into an altercation with Samuel Roberts at the
Golden Rule Hotel during a meeting of Republicans of the 8th
Assembly District. [Smith was a Jewish
political leader named Solomon who, among other things, passed out free Matzot
at his saloon each year before Pesach.
1889(8th of
Av, 5649): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1889(8th of
Av, 5649): Seventy-seven year old Isaac Phillips passed away this morning in New
York City. A successful businessman, he
worked in the cutlery industry in Philadelphia and New York before pursuing a
life of public service including work as a Customs Examiner and Surveyor of the
Port. He also edited the Courier
Enquirer. A life-long Democrat, he
attended the convention that nominated James K. Polk to serve as President of
the United States.. An active member of the Sephardic community, he was one of
the founders of Mount Sinai Hospital. In
1834, he married Sophia Phillips and after she died in 1855, he married Miriam
Trimble, a gentile woman who had converted to Judaism. He was the son of
Naphtali Phillips who held a position of responsibility at the Custom House and
was editor of the National Advocate
1889: The members of
gang called the Yellowstone Cowboys were sentenced to the Albany Penitentiary
for their role in terrorizing a boarding house owned by Jew in Ulster County.
(Compare this to what was going on in Russia at this time)
1889: Seventy-eight
year old author and German “feminist” Fanny Lewald who converted to
Christianity at the age of 17 passed away today.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_International_Encyclop%C3%A6dia/Lewald,_Fanny
1890: When asked about
the order to enforce the Russian edicts of 1882 against the Jews, Sir James
Fergusson, the Under Foreign Secretary told the House of Commons “that the
British Government could interfere with the Czar’s treatment of the Jews.”
(Sort of reminds you of the British not being able to “interfere” with Hitler’s
“treatment of the Jews.”)
1890: The U.S. State
Department cabled the American Legation at St. Petersburg asking if there was
“any foundation” to reports of wholesale Jewish expulsion.
1890: A man described
as a slender 5’ 8” German Hebrew attempted to obtain three copies of a recently
issued book using a forged purchase order from H.C. Squires, a gun dealer on
Broadway.
1890: “Dancing At
Saratoga” published today provided a summary of activities and events at the
New York resort including the fact “that Judge Hilton no longer holds a
controlling interest in…the Grand Union Hotel” and there the “Hebrews are once
more welcomed there.”
1890: Rabbi Freudntahl,
the superintendent of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of Baltimore married “Miss Addie
Sutto” at the New York home of her parents.
1890: In New York
founding of the “Russian-American Hebrew Association, Educational Alliance” an
organization seeking “to exercise a civilizing and elevating influence upon the
immigrants, to Americanize them” which defending “the Russian immigrants
against unjust attacks” whose President since its founding was Adolph M. Radin.
1891: “Russian Jews
Released” published today describe the decision to let a group of Jews from
Russia enter Baltimore now that the Maryland State Board of Immigration has
been “given satisfactory assurances that the immigrants would not become public
charges.
1892: A letter printed
in an English publication, the Jewish Chronicle, “confirmed the failure
of Baron de Hirsch’s colony in Argentina.” According to the writer, the
conditions at Moiseville, the Jewish colony, “baffled description. The land selected for the settlement was ill
chosen and an enormous number of the families are huddled together in tents and
sheds, where they have been living for months in idleness and intrigue.” After
failing to improve conditions, Colonel Goldsmid disbanded the colony and made
arrangements for eight hundred of the colonists to sail back to Europe.
1892: Birthdate of
Hartford, CT native Emanuel Cohen, the “newsreel editor for Pattie News,” the
vice president in charge of productions for Paramount” and the husband of “the
former Madeline Bender.”
1893: “Rabbi Cohen Has
The Records” published today described the dismissal of Rabbi Louis Cohen by
the congregation at 44 Orchard Street led by President Abraham Finberg and
Secretary Samuel Finkelstein and the problems they have encountered in
obtaining the congregation’s records from the former rabbi.
1894: “Masquerade Ball
at Deal Beach” published today described this social event that included Bryan
Kennelly and Lou Rolston dressed as “a Hebrew merchant and his wife.” (Is it
Shylock or Rothschild?)
1894: Two days after
she had passed away, 45 year old Betsy (Levy) Defries, the daughter of Moses
and Esther Levy and the wife of I.L.
Defries was buried today at West Ham Jewish Cemetery.
1894: “Remains of the
Eight Cities” published today provided a detailed review of A Mound of Many Cities:
Tell-el-Hesy Excavated by Fredrick Bliss the American archaeologist who worked
at the site under the auspices of the Palestine Exploration Society and under
the direction of the famed British archaeologist Flinders Petrie
1895: “Objects To
Having Jews Converted” published today described “Aaron Drucker’s indignation”
that “has been aroused” by the Saturday afternoon meetings in the Church of Sea
and Land “for the purpose of converting his co-religionist to Christianity.” He
broke up one such meeting when shouted “Such meetings as this should not be
held! It is an outrage to humanity. If a man is born a Jew… nothing can change
him!” Efforts to convert the Jews of the Lower East Side continued despite his
objections.
1895: Louis Stern, a
New York dry goods merchant, went on trial today in Kissingen, Germany on
charges that he had insulted Baron von Thuengen, the Deputy Commissioner of the
city’s Spa much to the delight of “the Jew-baiters” and “the anti-Semitic
press.”
1895:
Birthdate of Newark, NJ native William Sawelson, the WW I Doughboy who was
posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for service at Grand-Pre,
France. Sawelson served as a Sergeant, United States Army, Company M, 312th
Infantry, 78th Division. His citation reads: “Hearing a wounded man in a shell
hole some distance away calling for water, Sgt. Sawelson, upon his own
initiative, left shelter and crawled through heavy machinegun fire to where the
man lay, giving him what water he had in his canteen. He then went back to his
own shell hole, obtained more water, and was returning to the wounded man when
he was killed by a machinegun bullet.”
1895: “The Aldemanic
Law Committee met this afternoon and decide to recommend that the Hebrew
Benevolent Orphan Asylum Society be allowed to sell the property from 76th
to 77th Street, Third to Lexington Avenue.”
1895: It was reported
today that Meyer J. Stein, a lawyer in New York has expressed his outrage along
with that of several of his co-religionists over the letterhead of the Hotel
Lowry that says in red ink “3$ per day. No Jews.”
1896 “Free Trade In
Money” published today provides the view of Edward Atkinson that the attempt to
switch United States currency from a gold standard to a bi-metal standard is a
plot spearheaded by William Jennings Bryan, the silver miners and “the Jews
bankers.”
1896: “Notes of Stage
People” published today provided a preview of the fall season in New York
including Oscar Hammerstein’s production of the romantic comic opera “Santa
Maria” which will open at the Olympia.
1896:
Twenty-four-year-old Carrie Obendorfer, the Uniontown, AL born daughter of Leo
and Mary (Wise) Obendorfer became Carrie Obendorder Simon today when she
married Rabbi Abram Simon with whom she had two sons, Leo and David and who
founded the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods and who devoted herself to the Jewish Braille
Institute of America, founded in 1931, where sisterhood volunteers gave countless
hours transcribing English, Yiddish, and Hebrew books for the blind.”
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/simon-carrie-obendorfer
1897: The roof garden
on the Hebrew Institute Building opened for its second season this evening. The
delay in re-opening this facility which provides relief from the heat for
thousands on the Lower East Side was brought by the need to finish “extensive
repairs…to the building” that will make it nicer for those seeking some
semblance of “coolness.”
1897: The Straus
sterilized milk booth (so named because they are funded by Nathan Straus) which
was located at the roof garden of the Hebrew Institute last year opened today “for the first time
this year.”
1898: “A Riot In East
New York” published today described a spontaneous outbursts of violence when
Jewish immigrant mothers thought that attempts to vaccinate their daughters
were an attempt to put the mark of the cross on their bodies and convert them
to Christianity.
1898(17th of
Av, 5658): Seventy-six year old Isidor Bush the native of Prague whose
“maternal great-grandfather was Israel Hönig, Edler von Hönigsberg, the first
Jew raised to nobility in Austria” passed away in St. Louis MO. He moved to the
United States after the failed Revolutions of 1848 where he enjoyed an exciting
life that included a career in banking, service in the Union Army and helping
to develop the Jewish community in St. Louis and the wine growing industry in
Missouri; an effort that was felt all the way back to France.
1899(29th of
Av, 5659): Seventy-five year old Myer Stern passed away today at Bath Beach
while staying at the Hotel Argyle. A native of Bavaria, at the age of 16 he
went to work for a banking house owned by the father of Baron Hirsch before
coming to the United States where he became a successful banker and
merchant. An active philanthropist, he
served as President of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum, first President
of the Institute of Deaf Mutes and was a founder of Temple Emanu-El.
1899: Israel Zangwill,
the author of “The Children of the Ghetto” was one of the first passengers to
come down the gangplank of the SS Campania when “she docked at the Cunard pier”
today.
1899: Israel Zangwill
left New York this evening to visit Judge Meyer Sulzberger in Philadelphia, PA
1899: The
United Hebrew Charities acknowledged that it had raised an additional $200.50
for an impoverished family that sought to move to the country since both of the
parents had become chronic invalids as result of overwork in the city. The
contributions ranged from as much as $20 from A.A. Levy to fifty cents from
Philip Domich.
1899: In Las
Vegas, New Mexico Isaac Bacharach and Belle Ilfeld gave birth to Isaac
Bacharach, the art collector and amateur historian who along with his brother
Simon was a “pioneer merchant in New Mexico.”
1900(10th
of Av, 5660): Tish’a B’Av observed on the same day that Chinese and “allied”
troops fought a battle at Peit-sang during the Box Rebellion
1901:Sixty
year old Victoria, Empress of Germany, the sister of King Edward VII who had
numerous Jewish friends and the mother of Kaiser Wilhelm II of WW I infamy who
in the end blamed the Jews for his defeat passed away today.
1902: Herzl’s
trip to the Ottoman Empire begun on
Herzl offers to liquidate the entire Ottoman national debt in return for a
concession to "Haifa and its environs."
1903: Herzl begins his
journey to visit the Jews of Russia. The
trip will end on the 18th day of the month.
1904: In Hungary, Jacob
and Sarah Mandell gave birth to Carl Mandell the ex-husband of Tennessee native
Sylvia Mandell.
1905(4th of
Av, 5665): Parashat Devarim
1905: Two thousand
bakers went on strike meaning that “bread will be scarce on the lower east and
in the Jewish neighborhoods south of 42nd Street.
1905(4th of
Av, 5665): Parsahat Devarim; Shabbat Chazon
1905: It was reported
today that during the strike “on the Novorossiysk-Vladikavkaz Railway riots
broke during which houses “were bombarded with stones” which, according to
some, led to the Jews “replying with bullets.”
1906: Birthdate of
Chicago native and University of Chicago trained attorney, Arnold I Shure, the
husband of Freida Shure, who initiated a program to bring students from Nazi
Germany to the United States and “was noted for his representation of
depositors in the liquidation of City Savings and Loan Association as well as
American Airlines stewardesses fired because they had become pregnant”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-01-28-9201080931-story.html
1906: Today, eleven
English-speaking Jews held a formal meeting in Havana with the intention of
founding a congregation and cemetery. The venue was the home of Manuel Hadida
at Pasaje Arcado No. 9. Hadida was a Sephardic Jew originally from Algeria, who
apparently had migrated from North Africa to Paris, and then to the United
States. Evidently it was from the United States that he moved to Havana.
Typical of the period, most of the others were Ashkenazi "Americans,"
although some had been born in Europe. At the first meeting Louis Jurick was
elected chairman of the Hebrew Congregation of Cuba, and Manuel Hadida was
chosen as general secretary.
1906: Birthdate of
Nobel Prize-winning economist, Wassily Leontif. Born in St. Petersburg, the son
of an economist, Leontif received his Ph.D. from Berlin University. He began
teaching at Harvard in 1932. He won the Nobel Prize "for the development
of the input-output method and for its application to important economic
problems." Later in life he developed an interest in environmental issues.
He passed away in 1999 at the age of 92.
1907: It was reported
today five thousand people in Honolulu attended a reception for Secretary of
Commerce and Labor Oscar Straus
1908(8th of
Av, 5668): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1908: In Ashton,
England, UK Charles Rothschild and Rozsika Edle Rothschild (née von
Wertheimstein) gave birth to “Miriam Rothschild, the heiress who discovered how
fleas jump, brought Chaucerian wildflowers back to modern England and was
acknowledged as one of the world's most distinguished naturalists.’
1908: In
Charenton-le-pont, Meir Pines and his wife gave birth to Sholomo Pines the
Israeli scholar who made Aliyah in 1940 and is best known for his English
translation of Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed. The Shlomo Pines Society, founded in 1990 is
dedicated to advancing his work a preserving his memory http://www.shlomopines.org.il/len/
1909(18th
of Av, 5669): On the Jewish calendar, yahrzeit Rabbi Jacob Culi, the Talmudist
and author Me-Am Lo’ez who passed away in 1732.
1910: In Brooklyn,
Jennie (Marrow) Green and “Hyman Levy Green, a garment manufacturer” gave birth
to biochemist David Ezra Green.
http://www.nap.edu/read/10992/chapter/8#114
1911(11th
of Av, 5671): Shabbat Nachamu
1911: Millard Cantor
is scheduled to serve as Cantor at Shabbat Morning services at Isaiah Temple.
1911: Dr. Gerson B.
Levi is scheduled to deliver the sermon this morning at Congregation B’nai
Sholom-Temple Israel.
1911: Max von
Oppenheim, the son of a member of the Jewish banking family who had converted
to Catholicism so he could marry Max’s mother and a team of 5 archaeologist
began “a digging campaign” at Tell-Halaf.
1912: In Brooklyn,
NY, attorney Samuel Chugerman and his wife Helen gave birth to Daniel Chugerman
who gained fame as director Daniel Mann. (A reported by William Honan)
1913: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held this morning for 19 year old Donald Milton
Malkan, the son of Phillip and Bertha (Burgheim) Malkan followed burial at
Rosehill Cemetery.
1913: In Mt. Vernon,
NY, Abraham and Lena Federman Levy gave birth to Bernard G. Levy, the youngest
of their six children who worked as a jewelry salesman for several companies
before opening “his own store, ‘Bernie Levy, Jeweler’ in Tuckahoe, NY.”
1914: As Europe
stumbles into what will become a World War Montenegro declared war on
Austria-Hungary
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/montenegro-virtual-jewish-history-tour
1914: American
“specialist in eye, car and throat diseases” Dr. Leopold Gulshak, the Latvia
born son of Rabbi Joseph and Alida
(Gutkin) Glushak who served on the faculty of Army Medical School during WW I,
and was member of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun married Annie Gordon today in
Glasgow.
1915: The German
Army occupied Warsaw during WW I
1915:
Three thousand mostly young Jewish workingmen and workingwomen attended a mass
meeting tonight in Cooper Union “for the purpose of takings steps toward the
organization of a Jewish congress” which would to “ameliorate the conditions of
Jews all over the world.”
1915:
It was reported today that among the ten thousand prisoners being held by the
Germans in a camp “near the university town of Giesen in Upper House includes
“Russian Jews.”
1916:
“The Day’s New Editors” published today described the change in leadership at
the “New York national Jewish daily newspaper which is now under the control of
a board of three Jewish scholars, Professor Isaac Hurowitz, William Edlin and
Dr. A. Coralnick.
1916: “Movie Ad Men In
Association” published today described the first meeting of the Associated
Motion Picture Advertisers whose Executive Counsel includes Jesse Lasky, Paul
Gulick and Harry Reichenbach.
1916: Tickets are
scheduled to go on sale today for a benefit arranged by Daniel Frohman to raise
money for the Actor’s Fund of America to be held at the New Amsterdam Theatre.
1916: Having been able to concentrate 50,000 troops
at Romani in response the attack by the Germans and Turks, the British Imperial
forces went on the offensive putting an end to the last attempt by the Central
Powers to take the Suez Canal and opening the way for the British to begin to
seriously considera campaign that liberate Palestine and take them all the way
to Damascus by war’s end.
1917: In New York,
Benjamin Swartz, the Chairman of Draft Board 151 explained the failure of his
board to make public its number of recruits because “as a matter of fact, we
were going so fast and things were coming in our way in such fine shape that we
decided it would be better to wait until we got our quote and then let the good
news out and that is what we did.”
1917:
Today in New York, University of Cincinnati graduate
and HUC ordained Rabbi, Samuel Joshua Abrams, the Vilna born son of David and Sarah
Abramowtiz who served several congregations starting with B’nai Israel in
Kalamazoo before finally settling in at Temple Ohabei Shalom married Sarah
Friedman.
1917: In Dusseldorf,
Gustav Cohn, the German born son of Sophie and
Seligman Lazarus Cohn and his wife Henriiette gave birth to Max Cohn.
1918: It was reported today that the Hebrew
University has received a gift of five thousand shares of the Jewish Colonial
Trust valued at $25,000 from Jacob Schiff.
1918: In Poland, Rabbi
Mordechai Dov Eidelberg and his wife gave birth to Shlomo Eidelberg, WW II
resistance fighter and Professor Emeritus of Jewish History at Yeshiva
University in New York.
https://biblio.co.uk/the-jews-and-the-crusaders-by-eidelberg-shlomo/work/2165583
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/new-york-ny/shlomo-eidelberg-4405715
1918: “Twenty-four new
welfare workers were graduated from the training school of the Jewish Welfare
Board of the United States Army and Navy” this evening in New York.
1918(27th
of Av, 5678): Seventy eight year old Moritz Guedemann, the chief rabbi of
Vienna passed away today.
http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=1568973
1919: It was reported
today that “as a tribute to the memory of Oscar Hammerstein, Hugo Riesenfeld,
Director of the Rioli and the Rialto, ordered the flag on the Rialto to be
flown at half-mast” during the funeral of Oscar Hammerstein while a bugler
played “Taps” from the roof of the theatre.
1919(9th of Av, 5679):
As the Minsk Offensive continues and the Jews of that city wonder if they will
be living under Polish or Soviet rule, Tish'a B'Av is observed.
1920: Representatives
“of the Hungarian University Club, Hungarian Self-Culture Society and the
Hungarian-American Federation addressed today addressed an appeal to Berthold
Singer, the Spanish Consul in Chicago whose country “is looking after American
interests in the former dual monarchy” asking that Charles Huszar, the former
Premier of Hungary not be allowed to visit Chicago because “many Hungarians
hold him responsible for pogroms and oppression of Jews in Hungary.”
1922: Birthdate of Tel
Aviv native and Columbia educated psychologist Hiam Ginott best known for the
work Between Child and Parent.
1923(23rd of
Av, 5683): Constance Miriam Mordecai, the New York City born daughter Miriam
Maduro Davis and Michael Marks Davis and the wife of Benjamin Mordecai with
whom she had five children – Eva, Lucile, Constance, Katherine and Allen –
passed away today.
1924: It was reported
today the Manhattan banker Roger Straus has furnished the $2,500 bail for his
son-in-law 18 year old Albert Hockstatter who was charged in car crash that
killed 8 year old Felix Diyeso.
1925(5th of
Av, 5685): Tu B’Av
1925: In Brooklyn,
Phillip and Minnie Shainmark Bloom gave birth to Joel Nachum Bloom “who in his
21 years as director of the science museum and planetarium at the Franklin
Institute in Philadelphia transformed a lackluster exhibition space into a
bright and appealing one with hands-on experiments and walk-through exhibits,
including a giant, pulsing human cell…” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1925
Birthdate of Richard Heffner who conducted some two dozen interviews with Elie
Wiesel for his public television productions "The Open Mind" and
"Dialogues: A Series of Conversations on the Crucial Issues of Our Times”
which were published as Conversations with Elie Wiesel
https://nook.barnesandnoble.com/products/9780307518156/sample?sourceEan=9780805211412
http://www.thirteen.org/programs/richard-heffners-open-mind/fdr-and-the-jews/
1926: Houdini
stays in a coffin under water for more than one hour.
1927: It was reported
today that the rebuilding of structurers of Dagnia B Foundation Fund
Settlements which were damaged in the recent earthquake “will cost $15,000.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/08/05/104221922.html?pageNumber=7
1928: It was reported
today that “The United Palestine Appeal has collected for all its constituent
organizations $9,911,077, from Oct. 1, 1925 to July 31, 1928, an increase of
$3,160,743 over a similar period prior to the organization of the appeal.”
1929: More than two
hundred people attended “the first of a series of conferences to unite the
Kashruth boards of New York into one central agency for the enforcement of the
Jewish dietary laws was held tonight by the Kashruth Association of New York
State.
1930: It was reported
today that Professor Cuza, the leader of the anti-Semitic campaign for the
expulsion of all Jews from Rumania has held “a big meeting a Jassy which
resolutions to the government protesting the repression of anti-Semitism and
demanding an extension of the campaign.
1931: It was made known
today that David A. Frown, leader in Jewish philanthropic work, has assumed the
office of president and publisher of The American Hebrew, succeeding Rabbi Isaac Landman, as editor of the publication
1932: Baron von Gayl
the Minister of the Interior in “promised the Jews that he would all he could
to protect” their lives and properties in East Prussia and Upper Silesia.
1933: Archaeologists
working for the Palestine Exploration Fund discovered an ancient synagogue,
dating from the sixth century C. E near Nahalal.
1933:
“The Big Brain” based on story by Sy Bartlett who also wrote the script was
distributed today in the United States by R.K.O. Pictures
1933: In Montreal, The
arrival of Sir Herbert Samuel in Montreal, as leader of British delegation to
the fifth biennial conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations, is made
the occasion of attack by anti-Semitic newspaper, Le Patriot, which charges him
with being the emissary of the "Elders of Zion" to open Canada to
Jewish refugees from Germany.
1933: The Nazi Lawyers'
Association addresses a formal letter to business establishments threatening
them with a boycott if they continue to employ Jewish lawyers.
1933: In Frankfort,
Court imposes a two months' imprisonment sentence upon a Jewish journalist for
wearing a swastika, even though he contends that he renounced Judaism in 1922
and had applied for membership in the National Socialist Party.
1933: In Hamburg, The
Heinrich Heine monument is removed from the city park.
1933: The Nazi Rhine
officials issue an order prohibiting the employment of Jews as non-qualified
labor in the entire Rhine district. Employers are warned of penalties if they
employ Jews who do not produce a special card entitling them to employment.
1934: “Good Morning,
Eve!” a comedy short starring Leon Errol was released today in the United
States.
1934(24th of Av, 5694): One hundred Jews are killed in an anti-Semitic pogrom
at Constantine, Algeria.
1936: Arab disturbances and on the division of
responsibilities between the Palestine and the British governments.
1936(17th of
Av, 5696): Fifty-six year old Irvin Frank Lehman, the Pittsburgh born son of
Moses and Franny Frank Lehman and husband of Franny Fanny Klein Lehman who was
“one of the original trustees of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies”
passed away today.
1936: “A letter from
President Roosevelt, made public” today “by the United Palestine Appeal in
connection with its forthcoming publication, the United Palestine Appeal Year
Book for 1936 which is designed to raise $3,500,000, declares that the Jews
have a right to settle in Palestine.”
1936: “A group of
residents of North Bergen, NJ, filed a petition with the township commission” today
“asking for the removal of a Talmud Torah, a Jewish religious center and school
at 1,154 Fourth Avenue, a residential street of semi-detached houses.”
1937: In Tel Aviv,
Amnon Drori and Ella Drori, the daughter of Alexander and Ester
Govorkovski gave birth to Amir Drori
1937: The British
Palestinian policy gained its first ground today when Dr. Chaim Weizmann,
president of the World Zionist Congress, made an eloquent though guarded plea
in favor of the partition principle to the biennial congress.
1937: Birthdate of Dan
Shomron the Sabra who would play a key role in the 1976 Raid on Entebbe and
served as the 13th Chief of Staff of the IDF.
1937:
The 20th Zionist Congress, held in Zurich, decided by a vote of 285 against
115, to hold the political debate behind closed doors.
1937: In Geneva,
the Permanent Mandates Commission reminded the British Colonial Secretary, Mr.
Ormsby-Gore, that Britain administered Palestine on its behalf.
1938: As they attempted
to halt Arab instigated violence, British troops clashed with a band of armed
men, killing three and wounding four.
1938(8th of
Av, 5698): Eighty-two year old Abraham Cherniavsky, “the composer and former
conductor of the Royal Opera House at Moscow” suffered a fatal heart attack
today in Los Angeles.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/08/06/98174999.html?pageNumber=13
1938: “Alexander’s
Ragtime Band” a musical with a script co-authored by Irving Berlin who along
with Alfred Newman wrote the score was released in the United States today.
1938: “Algiers’
produced by Walter Wagner (born Walter Feuchtwanger) and starring Hedy Lamar
was released in the United States today by United Artists.
1938: “The Crowd Roars”
produced by Sam Zimbalist and featuring Lionel Stander as "Happy"
Lane was released in the United States today by Loew’s, Inc.
1939(20th of
Av,5699): Parashat Ekev
1939: “Indianapolis
Speedway” a drama with a script by Sig Herzig and music by Adolph Deutsch was
released in the United States today.
1940(1st of Av, 5700):
Rosh Chodesh Av
1940: It was reported
today that Joseph Schildkraut has been added to the cast of Universal’s “Meet
the Wildcat.”
1940: It was reported
today that “New Wine,” a story that is being adapted to the screen “will be
Alexander Korda’s second picture on this season’s schedule, to follow his
forthcoming screen treatment of the lives of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton.”
1941(12th of Av, 5701):
Sixty-five year old Yaakov Ben Zion Mendelson, the rabbi of the Bergen Street
Shul and a leading member of the
Assembly of Hebrew Orthodox Rabbis of America and Canada passed away today.
1941(12th of Av,
5701): The Holocaust continued to gain momentum. In Rasaininai, 213 men and 66
Jewish women were murdered.
1941: A three day long
slaughter of Jews begins in Pinsk that results in the death of eleven thousand
Jews.
1941: It was reported
today that attorney Edgar J. Nathan, Jr. a former legal association of the
latest Justice Cardozo who is “treasurer
and secretary of the Jewish Social Association, a director of the Jewish
Theological Seminary…and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution” has
been chosen by the Republican Executive Committee to be the party’s candidate
for Borough President of Manhattan.
1942: “Tales of
Manhattan” an “American anthology film” produced by Sam Spiegel, with music by
Sol Kaplan, with a script co-authored by Ben Hecht and co-starring Edward G.
Robinson was released in the United States today by 20th Century
Fox.
1942: In the Warsaw
Ghetto German soldiers came to collect the 192 (there is some debate about the
actual number and it may have been 196) orphans and about one dozen staff
members to take them to Treblinka extermination camp. The children were under
the care of Janusz Korczak, the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit a Polish-Jewish children's author, pediatrician,
and child pedagogue, known as Pan
Doktor (Mr Doctor). Korczak had been offered sanctuary on the “Aryan
side” of Warsaw but turned it down repeatedly, saying that he could not abandon
his children. Now too, he refused offers of sanctuary, insisting that he would
go with the children. The children were dressed in their best clothes, and each
carried a blue knapsack and a favorite book or toy. Joshua Perle, an
eyewitness, described the procession of Korczak and the children through the
ghetto to the Umschlagplatz (deportation point to the death camps):
... A miracle occurred.
Two hundred children did not cry out. Two hundred pure souls, condemned to
death, did not weep. Not one of them ran away. None tried to hide. Like
stricken swallows they clung to their teacher and mentor, to their father and
brother, Janusz Korczak, so that he might protect and preserve them. Janusz
Korczak was marching, his head bent forward, holding the hand of a child,
without a hat, a leather belt around his waist, and wearing high boots. A few
nurses were followed by two hundred children, dressed in clean and meticulously
cared for clothes, as they were being carried to the altar. (...) On all sides
the children were surrounded by Germans, Ukrainians, and this time also Jewish
policemen. They whipped and fired shots at them. The very stones of the street
wept at the sight of the procession.
According to a popular
legend, when the group of orphans finally reached the Umschlagplatz, an
SS officer recognized Korczak as the author of one of his favorite children's
books and offered to help him escape, but once again, Korczak refused. He
boarded the trains with the children and was never heard from again.
Korczak's evacuation
from the Ghetto is also mentioned in Władysław Szpilman's book The Pianist
"One day, around
5th August when I had to take a brief rest from work and was walking down Gesia
Street, I happened to see Janusz Korczak and his orphans leaving the ghetto.
The evacuation of the Jewish orphanage run by Janusz Korczak had been ordered
for that morning. The children were to have been taken away alone. He had the
chance to save himself, and it was only with difficulty that he persuaded the
Germans to take him too. He had spent long years of his life with children and
now, on this last journey he could not leave them alone. He wanted to ease
things for them. He told the orphans they were going out in to the country, so
they ought to be cheerful. At last they would be able exchange the horrible
suffocating city walls for meadows of flowers, streams where they could bathe,
woods full of berries and mushrooms. He told them to wear their best clothes,
and so they came out into the yard, two by two nicely dressed and in a happy
mood. The little column was lead by an SS man who loved children, as Germans
do, even those he was about to see on their way into the next world. He took a
special liking to a boy of twelve, a violinist who had his instrument under his
arm. The SS man told him to go to the head of the precession of children and
play – and so they set off. When I met them in Gesia Street the smiling
children were singing in chorus, the little violinist was playing for them and
Korczak was carrying two of the smallest infants, who were beaming too, and
telling them some amusing story. I am sure that even in the gas chamber, as the
Zyklon B gas was stifling childish throats and striking terror instead of hope
into the orphans hearts, the Old Doctor must have whispered with one last
effort, ‘it's all right, children, it will be all right’. So that at least he
could spare his little charges the fear of passing from life to death." The
Pianist - Page 96
Sometime after, there
were rumors that the trains had been diverted and that Korczak and the children
had survived. There was, however, no basis to these stories. Most likely,
Korczak was killed with most of his children in a gas chamber upon their arrival
at Treblinka. There is a memorial grave for him at the Powązki Cemetery in
Warsaw.
1943: Along with 11
other women Liane Berkowitz was executed Plötzensee Prison for their part in
the German Resistance Movement.
1943: In “Rockaway,
Queens, NY, pharmacist Hyman Pearlman and his wife gave birth to “music man”
Samuel Clarke "Sandy" Pearlman.
1943: Harold Alfond,
the founder of Dexter Shoes, married Dorothy Levine of Waterford, Maine.
1943: Eva-Marie Buch a
member of the Red Orchestra who had been arrested “for passing message to
French slave workers in factories” was hanged today “in Plötzensee Prison,
Berlin”
1944: Polish fighters liberated the Gesoiowaka
Labor Camp from the Germans. Among those freed were 384 Jewish
prisoners.
1944(16th of
Av, 5704): Parashat Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu
1944(16th
Ave. 5704): Russian born Rabbi Louis Jacob who in 1912 came to the United
States who led congregations in Spokane, WA and Kansas City passed away to.
1944: The Mekfure
carrying 394 Romanian Jews seeking refuge in Palestine sank today
1945: On the day before
the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the bombing of Hangkew, the site of a
“strategically placed radio transmitter” and home to large number of Jewish
refugees, which had begun in July, came to an end.
1946(8th of
Av, 5706): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1946: “The executive of
the Jewish Agency adopted today a resolution declaring that the "British
proposals based on the report of the Committee of Six and as announced by
Herbert Morrison in the House of Commons are unacceptable as a basis of
discussion" of the Palestine problem.”
1946: “David Horowitz,
the economic adviser of the Jewish Agency for Palestine said today at a press
conference that any attempt” by the British government to prevented the
debarkation of so-called illegal Jewish immigrants “would be resisted and would
wreck for a long time any hope of
reconciliation between the British administration and the Jewish community.”
1947: Birthdate of
Rabbi David Nathan Saperstein, an alum of Cornell, Hebrew Union College and
American University, who was “the director and chief legal counsel at the Union
for Reform Judaism’s Religious Action Center” and “the first non-Christian to hold
the post of United States Ambassador-at-Lary for International Religious
Freedom”
1947: Today, as the
British returned to work from the three-day bank holiday weekend, they dealt
with the reality that anti-Jewish riots and “disturbances had “taken place in
Glasgow, Bristol, Hull, London, Warrington. Salfrod where “a crowd of several
thousand had thrown stones at shop windows, West Derby “where arsonists set
fire to a wooden synagogue,” Liverpool where “workers at Canada Dock found
‘death to all Jews’ painted above the entrance” and Ecles where John Regan, “a
former sergeant major” told a crowd of 700 that Hitler was right – exterminate
every Jew.”
1947: Israel Rokach,
the future Mayor of Tel Aviv was imprisoned in the prison at Latrun
1947(19th of
Av, 5707): Lucian Kahn, the son of Ohio businessman Lazard Kahn and the former
Coralie Alice Lemann of Donaldsonville, LA and the brother of Marie, Milton,
Bertram and Jerome Kahn passed away today “while visiting his daughter in San
Francisco” after which during a community salute, it was said that “it is
doubtful if a more civic and community-minded person ever lived in Hamilton,
OH.”
1948: Today Austrian
banker Sonja Kohn was born to Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe in Vienna.
“She grew up in Vienna in a small Jewish community. In the 1970s, with her
husband Erwin Kohn, she started an import-export business and moved to Milan,
Italy. In 1984 she founded the Bank Medici in Vienna. One year later, she moved
to New York. They lived in Monsey, a large, ultraorthodox Jewish community.
Increasingly orthodox, she covered her hair as is customary for traditionally
orthodox women. The Kohns founded a small brokerage firm, the Eurovaleur Inc.
In New York City she became known as “Austria’s woman on Wall Street.” In
1990s, they moved back to Vienna. There, she cooperated with Gerhard Randa of Bank
Austria. The Bank Medici was relaunched in 2003 as an Aktiengesellschaft. Sonja
is shareholder of 75 percent and is head of the bank's supervising board. She
also became consultant of the Vienna Stock Exchange and was member of the
supervisory board of Italian Finlombardia bank.
1948: Today, Wilfred
“Canter arrived in Israel ,one of just five Jewish-Canadian World War II
veteran pilots in a newly minted Air Force that had few aviators with any
significant operational experience.” (As reported by Aron Heller)
1948: At the land at
that Haifa airport yesterday of a British-Manned paned assigned to the U.N.
Mission, “An Israeli Government spokesman wanted today that the British crews
of aircraft assigned to the United Nations Truce Commission would be detained
if they landed in Israeli territory.” (JTA)
1948: In light of the
realities of the military situation and the failure of the UN to act, the
Israeli government explicitly rejected the proposal for an internationalized
Jerusalem.
1949: It was announced
today that Comdr. Joshua L. Goldberg, Chaplains Corps, USNR, a graduation of
the Jewish Institute of Regions whose congregation, the Astoria Center of
Israel, gave him a leave of absence in 1942 to begin his service in the Navy,
has been named Chaplain of the Third Naval District.
1949: “United States
Army customs agents impounded an Israeli ship today and ordered her officers to
unload millions of dollars' worth of contraband machinery and vehicles that
allegedly were to have been smuggled into Israel.”
1950: The Saturday
Review published “The Squaw Man Rides Again,” Robert Gessner’s reviews of the
western film “The Broken Arrow”
1951: Funeral services
are scheduled to be held this morning of Isidor Freedman, the wife of Selma
Freedman one of the founders and leaders of the Hebrew Teachers Training School
for Girls.
1953: Premiere of “From
Here to Eternity” for which Fred Zinnemann won an Oscar as Best Director.
1955: The task of
marking the border between Israel and Egypt “in the Nitzana/Auja vicinity” was
completed today.
1957(8th of
Av, 5717): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1957(8th of Av, 5717):
Nobel Prize winning chemist Heinrich Otto Wieland passed away. Wieland was not Jewish. According to one
source, Wieland provided educational opportunities for Jewish students who were
expelled under the terms of the Nuremberg Laws. Wieland was also an associate
of members of the White Rose, a secret anti-Nazi organization whose membership
was, for the most part, killed off by the Gestapo during the last years of the
war.
1957(8th of
Av, 5717): Sixty-eight-year-old Dr. Israel Bettan, “president of the Central
Conference of American Rabbis and an authority on Jewish preaching” and the
husband of Ida Goldstein Bettan with whom he had one daughter, Anita Bettan,
passed away tonight.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/08/06/87310759.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/bettan-israel
1958: Isaak Jack Martin
was confirmed by the United States Senate as an Associate Judge of the U.S.
Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.
1958: Birthdate of
Israeli political leader Silvan Shalom, the native of Tunisia who made Aliyah
in 1959 and served in a number of ministerial positions including Vice Prime
Minister
1959(1st of Av, 5719):
Rosh Chodesh Av
1960: The Metropolitan
Synagogue of New York is scheduled to hold Shabbat Eve services at its
temporary home” – Community Church.
1960: Funeral services
are scheduled to be held this morning in Forest Hills for David Goldman, the
husband of Ina Goldman and father of Patricia and Mark Goldman
1962(5th of Av, 5722):
Actress Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her Los Angeles home. She was 36. Her
death was ruled a probable suicide from an overdose of sleeping pills. Monroe
had converted to Judaism when she married playwright Arthur Miller.
1963(15th of
Av, 5723): Tu B’Av
1963(15th of
Av, 5723): Ninety-one year old bantamweight champion Sigmund “Sig” Hart passed
away today.
1964: Mel Brooks marries Anne Bancroft.
1964: “Bande à part,”
which would later be released in the United States as “Band of Outsiders”
starring Sami Frey was released today in France.
1964: Birthdate of Adam
Nathaniel Yauch, the son of a Catholic father and a Jewish mother, the American
rapper “best known as a founding member of the hip hop group Beastie Boys” who
“sometimes worked under the pseudonym Nathanial Hörnblowér.”
1964: David Hurst
appeared in the role of “Paedagogus” when “Electra” opened at the Delacorte
Theatre during the New York Shakespeare Festival.
1965: Sandy Socolow
produced a report on the CBS Evening News that showed “U.S. Marines torching
dozens of thatched huts” at the village of Cam Ne which “defied the upbeat
assessment of the war” being presented by the Department of Defense.
1966: Birthdate of
actor Jonathan Silverman the son of Rabbi Emanuel Silverman and the grandson of
Rabbi Morris Silverman.
1968(11th of
Av, 5728): Sixty-eight year old New York born and Columbia Law School educated
attorney Herbert. W. Aldenstein, the husband of “the former Mrs. Jennie L.
Whitehall” with whom he raised a daughter and a son, John K. Haldenstein who
“was associate chairman of the board of rustees of the Jewish Home and Hospital
for the Aged” and “former President of the Central Bureau for the Jewish Aged”
passed away today after suffering “an aneurism.”
1971(14th of
Av,5731): Fifty-one-year old University of Chicago trained physician and
psychiatrist and WW II veteran Seymour Leonard Lustman who was named master of
Davenport College at Yale last month and was the former Katherine L. Ritman
with whom he had two children, a son, Jeffrey, and a daughter, Susan, passed
away today.
1973(7th of
Av, 5733): Seventy-three year old Dr. Ernst Papanek, the native of Vienna who
came to the United States in 1940 where he eventual became “a professor of
educational psychology at Queens College passed away today.
http://archives.nypl.org/mss/2333
1973: In Athens, five people were murdered and
another fifty-five were wounded when 2 Palestinian terrorists machine gunned
the passenger lounge at the airport.
1975: Birthdate of Iddo
Goldberg, the Israeli actor who played Yitzchak Shulman, in the film version of
Defiance, the book and film that told the story of the Bielski partisans, a
group led by three Jewish brothers who saved and recruited Jews in Belarus
during the Second World War.
1976(9th of
Av, 5736): Tish’a B’Av is observed for the last during the Presidency of Gerald
Ford.
1976: ABC broadcast the
first episode of “What’s Happening!!” a sitcom produced by Bernie Orenstein,
Saul Turtletaub and Bud Yorkin.
1976: Leonard Bernstein
conducted the German-language premiere of Candide, at Wiener Stadthalle in
Vienna.
1978: Birthdate of
Israeli tennis player Harel Levy.
1979(12th of
Av, 5739): Eight-four year old “Jacob S. Potofsky, former president of the
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America” whom President Jimmy Carter described
as “one of the giants of the American labor movement” passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9E0CE2DA153EE732A25755C0A96E9C946890D6CF
1980(23rd of
Av, 5740): The former Kitty Rovine, the widow of Ukrainian-American Herman
Brodsky to whom she had been married for more than fifty-seven years, passed
away today in Philadelphia.
1981: After more than 4
years, the 18th government under Prime Minister Menachem Begin came
to an end.
1981: Ariel Sharon
replaced Menachem Begin as Minister of Defense.
1981: Yitzhak Berman
succeeded Yitzhak Moda’i as Minister of Energy and Water Resources.
1981: Mordechai
Tzipori, succeeded Yoram Aridor as Communications Minister
1982: Prime Minister
Begin and his Cabinet met this evening in Jerusalem to consider the situation
in Lebanon in light of the American expression of the to re-establish and
maintain a cease-fire.
1982: “A delegation of
Jewish leaders were told by Administration officials today that President Regan
has not considered sanctions against Israel because of Isreal’s military action
again the Palestine Liberation Organization terrorist in west Beirut.” (JTA)
1983(26th of
Av, 5743): Eight year old Trenton native Rabbi Saul Habas, the husband of “Ruth
Janette Zerkowsky Habas” passed away today after which he was buried in the
Natchez City Cemetery in Adams County, Mississippi.
1983: “The Star
Chamber” a judicial thriller directed by Peter Hyams, produced by Frank Yablans
and co-starring Yaphet Kotto was released in the United States today.
1983(26th of
Av, 5743): Seventy-nine year old I. J. (Israel James) Kapstein, the boyhood
friend of S. J. Perlman who became a successful novelist and English professor
while raising a daughter Judith an a son, Jonathan with his wife Stella passed
away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/08/06/obituaries/ij-kapstein-dies-novelist-was-79.html
1985(18th of Av, 5745):
Eighty-seven year old Arnold “Arnie” Horween who was the first Jewish captain
of the Harvard football team and then went on to a career in the NFL and
coaching passed away today.
http://www.jewsinsports.org/profile.asp?sport=football&ID=72
1986(29th of
Tammuz, 5746): Ninety year old New York native John Alexander, the WW I veteran
who was guided during his career at Rutgers by theatrical legend Paul Robeson
and who made football history in 1922 when as a member of the Milwaukee Badgers
played the position of “outside linebacker” much to the surprise of the Chicago
Cardinals passed away today.
1987: Mathew Broderick
was in a car accident in Northern Ireland in which he was seriously injured and
the passenger in the other was killed for which he was eventually found guilty
of “careless driving and fined $175.
1988: “Track 29”
co-starring Sandra Bernhard as “Nurse Stein” was released today in the United
Kingdom.
1989(4th of
Av, 5749): Shabbat Chazon
1993: A soldier was
kidnapped and killed north of Jerusalem
1995(9th of Av, 5755):
Because today is Shabbat, this evening is Erev Tisha B’Av
1995(9th of
Av, 5755): Eighty-six year old New York native Bertram Harris who “played guard
on the Rutgers University football team from 1928 to 1930: passed away today.
1995(9th of Av, 5755):
Israeli composer Menachem Avidom passed away at the age of 87.
1996:
“Shylock” a one act play that “focuses on a Jewish actor named Jon Davies, who
is featured as Shylock in a production of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice”
opened at Bard on the Beach in Canada today.
1998(13th
of Av, 5758): Ninety-eight year Jacques Landesberg, the husband of Isabelle
Goldberg Landesberg, passed away today after which he was buried at Mount
Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, NY.
1998(13th of Av, 5758):
Harel Bin-Nun, 18, and Shlomo Liebman, 24, were shot and killed in an ambush by
terrorists while on patrol at the Yizhar settlement in Samaria. (Jewish Virtual
Library)
1998: Two soldiers were
killed during an ambush at Yizhar.
1999: Matan Vilnai
succeeded Ehud Barak as Minister of Culture and Sport
1999: Yithak Vaknin
began serving as Deputy Minister of Communications.
1999: Efraim Sneh began
serving as Deputy Minister of Defense.
1990: Yeshiva
University and The Lincoln Square Synagogue are in a state of mourning over the
deather of Helen Newman Greenwald, the wife of Herbert Greenwald and the mother
of Rose (Mrs. Morton L.) Landowne.
2000: It was reported
today that a ruling Judge Nina Gershon of the Federal District Court in
Brooklyn ‘ that New York State's kosher food laws are unconstitutional
highlights the intersection of centuries-old biblical and rabbinical strictures
with modern state sanctions.”
2001: The New York Times book section featured
a review of Francine du Plessix Gray’s biography of Simon Weil, the ‘atheist
Jew’ entitled Simon Weil
2001: U.S. Premiere of
“Wild Iris” co-starring Emile Hirsch.
2001:
“Israeli helicopters fire a pair of laser-guided rockets at a carrying the
Hamas terrorist Amer Hassan Madiri
2001: For the first
time TNT broadcast the made-for-television film “James Dean” written by Israel
Horovitz and directed by Mark Rydell.
2001(16th of Av, 5761):Tehiya Bloomberg, 40, of Karnei Shomron,
mother of five and 5 months pregnant, was killed when Palestinian gunmen opened
fire on the family vehicle between Alfei Menashe and Karnei Shomron. Three
people were seriously wounded, including her husband, Shimon, and daughter,
Tzippi, 14.
2002: At the Umm
al-Fahm junction a terrorists set off a bomb killing himself and wounding his
Israeli-Arab taxi driver.
2002(27th of
Av, 5762): Twenty-nine year old Avi Wolanski and his wife 27 year old Avital
Wolanski were murdered “when terrorists” from “The Martyrs of the Palestinian
Popular Army” “opened fire on their car.”
2002: “A heavily armed
Palestinian in a wet suit was shot and killed by Israeli police as he swam
ashore near an Israeli settlement.”
2003: “The Bush
administration, looking for ways to press Israel to halt construction of a
barrier separating its citizens from Palestinian areas, is considering a
reduction in loan guarantees for Israel that were approved by Congress this
spring, administration officials said today.” (As reported by Steven R. Weisman
2004: ''Anne Frank: A
Private Photo Album'' includes 8 original photographs, 69 copies, a facsimile
of Anne Frank's diary and reproductions of family photo albums assembled by
Otto Frank, the girls' father, and his wife, Edith can be seen starting today
at the Holocaust Museum. (As reported by Lawrence Van Gelder)
2004: “The rapid
growth” of the Casah Bahia chain of department stores “and Samuel Klein’s role
in building it into a regional economic force were the subject of one of the
case studies in The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid which was published
today.
2005: In Los Angeles,
actress Rena Sofer, the daughter of Rabbi Martin Sofer and Sanford Bookstaver
gave birth to their first child Avalon Leone.
2005: Nicole Sarah
Mackey, daughter of Mark and Karen Mackey, granddaughter of Harvey and Elaine
Luber, and an all-around great person, becomes a Bat Mitzvah in Little Rock,
Arkansas.
2006: Marissa Carson,
daughter of Laura and Bill Carson is called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah in
Cedar Rapids, IA.
2006(11th of Av, 5766):
Fadiya Juma'a, 60, and her daughters Sultana, 31, and Samira,
33 were killed by Hezbollah rockets.
2006:
Jerry “Reinsdorf was inducted into the Appleton, Wisconsin Baseball Hall of
Fame today in a ceremony at Fox Cities Stadium prior to that evening's game
between the Midwest League Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and Beloit Snappers.”
2006(11th
of Av, 5766): Ninety-nine year old “producer, direct and actor” the brother of
Jack, Jules and Ben White and husband of Claretta Ellis whose career included
everything from making musical comedies to WW II armed forces training films
passed away today.
2007: An
exhibition entitled “Dateline Israel: New Photography and Video Art” comes to a
close at the Jewish Museum in New York City.
2007(21st of Av, 5767):
Eighty-nine year old Amos Manor, the survivor of Auschwitz who was Director of
Shin Bet for ten years passed away today.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3433999,00.html
2007: Tevi David Troy,
the holder of a Ph.D. from the University of Texas, a “member of the Kemp Mill
Synagogue in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he lives with his wife, Kami (née
Pliskow) and their four children” began serving as United States Deputy
Secretary of Health and Human Services today.
2007: The Sunday New York Times Book Section
reviewed Dalia Sofer’s first novel, The September of Shiraz, a “richly
evocative, powerfully affecting depiction of a prosperous Jewish family in
Tehran shortly after the revolution” and 15 Stars: Eisenhower, MacArthur, Marshall: Three Generals Who Saved the
American Century by
the Jewish author Stanley Weintraub.
2007: The Sunday Washington Post book section
reviewed Girls Gone Mild by Jewish author Wendy Shalit and Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That
Changed the World, 1940-1941 by Ian Keshaw. “The
last decision Kershaw explores -- moving to the industrial-scale murder of
Europe's Jews -- wasn't so much a decision as the endpoint of a long trajectory
of anti-Semitism that found its ultimate exponent in Hitler and its impetus in
the speed of his victories in 1940 and 1941. This final chapter is a horrifying
chronicle of the "spiral of radicalization" in Nazi thinking that led
from Mein Kampf to Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is a fitting coda to Kershaw's
thoughtful, far-reaching examination of events that echo down to today.”
2007: The Cedar Rapids Gazette featured an article about In
Tolerance a precision contractor manufacturing company owned by Jewish
community leader Robert Becker describing it as “a Cedar Rapids company leading
the way in family-friendly policies.”
2007: Eighty-year old Jean-Marie Lustiger, the French Cardinal who was
a born Jewish in Poland and whose mother died in a Nazi Concentration Camp,
passed away today. (As reported by Tagliabue)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/world/europe/06lustiger.html?pagewanted=all
2008: In Little Rock, AR, opening session of From Ruins to Glory, a
course of study based on a virtual tour of the Temple.
2008: In St. Paul, MN, the Modern Marvels series, “Jewish Adventures in
the Graphic Novel ”examines The Quitter by Harvey Pekar.
2008: Shaul
Mofaz officially entered the race to be leader of Kadima and received a blessing
by Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
2008: Yakov
Kreizberg conducted his final symphony at the BBC Proms.
2009: The
Pittsburgh City Council President declared to to be "Evelyn Kozak
Day" in Pittsburgh in 2009 in honor of her 110th birthday, saying that”
this daughter of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants “was the oldest living
Pittsburgher.
2009(15th of
Av, 5769): Tu B’Av - “According to the Talmud (tractate Ta'anit, 30b-31a), Tu
B'Av was a joyous holiday in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem: Unmarried
girls would dress in simple white clothing (so that rich could not be
distinguished from poor) and go out to sing and dance in the vineyards
surrounding Jerusalem. One of the happier holidays on the Jewish calendar, the
Fifteenth of Av is today considered the Israeli equivalent of Valentine's Day.
Yet another holiday with agricultural origins, Tu B'Av is said to be the day
that the members of the twelve tribes were first allowed to marry each other.
While often forgotten elsewhere, Tu B'Av is a fairly big deal in Israel. People
send cards and give flowers to their loved ones and hold special "Holiday
of Love" parties. http://www.sfjcf.org/resources/jholidays/
2009: The
Times of London reported today that the Lebanon-based militant group
Hezbollah has stockpiled 40,000 rockets near the border with Israel and is
training its guerillas to use missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv.
2009: In case
of Jews replace Jews, it was announced today that A.O. Scott and Michael
Phillips “would take over hosting duties on ‘At the Movies’ from Ben Lyons and
Ben Mankiewicz.”
2009(15th of
Av, 5769): Budd Schulberg, an American screenwriter, television producer,
novelist and sports writer passed away.
He was known for his 1941 novel, What Makes Sammy Run?, his 1947
novel The Harder They Fall, his 1954 Academy-award-winning screenplay
for “On the Waterfront,” and his 1957 screenplay for “A Face in the Crowd.”
2009: The
New York Times reviewed Wrestling With Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On
New York’s Master Builder and Transformed the American City by Anthony
Flint
2010: A
screening of "Azi Ayima", a documentary that explores the roots of
the Moroccan Jewish community, is scheduled to be shown at the Leavantine
Cultural Center in Los Angeles, CA.
2010: Bankito,
sometimes referred to as "Jewstock" -- a youth-oriented Jewish
culture festival is scheduled to begin on the shore of Bank Lake, north of
Budapest.
2010: The
Senate confirmed Elena Kagan to a seat on the Supreme Court today, giving
President Obama his second appointment to the high court in a year, and a
political victory as the Senate neared the end of its business for the summer.
2010: Rep.
Steve Cohen (D-TN) has been easily re-nominated in his Democratic primary
tonight, beating back former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton's effort to make
race an issue against the white progressive Congressman from a majority-black
district.
2010: Mark
Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, lost out on his bid to buy the Texas
Rangers baseball team.
2010(25th
of Av, 5770): Ninety-three year old Stanley Simon, the former Vice President of
Bulova Watch Company who assisted veterans following World War II passed away
today (As reported by Maraglit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/nyregion/16simon.html
2011: Roseanne
Barr appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and announced her candidacy for
president in the 2012 presidential election, running on the "Green Tea
Party" ticket
2011: In
Israel, the JCC Maccabi Games are scheduled to come to a close.
2011: Jewish
Rock Artist Sheldon Low is scheduled to perform at a musical family Shabbat
service at Temple B'nai Shalom, in Fairfax, VA.
2011:
Bellamy, the daughter of Debbie and Michael Beecher will be the center of
attention at her baby-naming ceremony that is scheduled to take place at Temple
Judah, in Cedar Rapids, IA
2011:
This morning, the Air Force struck five targets in the Gaza Strip following
several strikes earlier yesterday coming in response to increased rocket fire
emanating from the Strip in recent days, including one rocket which reportedly
landed in the Lachish area but caused no damages or injuries.
2011:
Due to escalation in rocket fire from Gaza Strip, Defense Minister Ehud Barak
decided today to deploy a battery from the Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system
outside the southern city of Ashkelon.
2011: Ten dairy farmers staged a small protest rally today near
Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Shalom Simhon's home in Moshav Even Menachem
in northern Israel.
2012:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stiglitz, Einstein’s
Jewish Science by Steve Gimbel, Uncanny Valley and other Adventures in
the Narrative by Lawrence Weschler and What in God’s Name by Simon
Rich
2012:
A revival of “Fiddler on the Roof” sponsored by the Tulane Summer Lyric
Theatre, featuring Cantor Joel Colman, is scheduled to have its final
performance.
2012: Dozens of mortars were fired at Kerem Shalom from the Gaza
Strip Sunday night, hours after an IAF airstrike killed a terrorist in Rafah.
Authorities urged residents to remain in fortified shelters and lock their
doors.
2012:
Lex Shatilov failed
to win an Olympic medal today, finishing the men’s floor exercise in sixth
place
2012(17th
of Av, 5772): Ninety-six year old Martin Segal head of the Segal Company and
“the elder statesman of Lincoln Center” passed away today. (As reported by
Robin Pogrebin)
2012: an ambitious and sophisticated attack, global jihad
terrorists infiltrated Israel tonight after breaking into an Egyptian military
base and stealing two armored jeeps.
2012(17th of Av, 5772): Ninety-eight year old Ben
Heineman, the successful businessman who wrote speeches for Adlai Stevenson and
advised Lyndon Johnson during his presidency, passed away today. (As reported
by Denise Grady)
http://blog.glassquarterly.com/2012/08/10/in-memoriam-ben-heineman-1914-2012/
2012(17th
of Av, 5773): Eighty-six year old Sami Rohr passed away today. (As reported by
Dennis Hevesi)
http://forward.com/articles/160793/sami-rohr-philanthropist-who-invested-millions-in/?p=all
2013:
“The Strange Case of Wilhelm Reich” a documentary about “the controversial
Jewish psychoanalyst and experimental scientist Wilhelm Reich” is scheduled to
be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2013:
“Fill the Void” a film that tells the story of an Orthodox Hassidic family from
Tel Aviv is scheduled to open at the Bear Tooth Theatre in Anchorage, Alaska
which is in an interesting choice of venues for such a film.
2013(29th
of Av): Yarhrzeit of Abraham Cahan, the editor of The Jewish Daily Forward who
passed away on the 29th of Av, 5711 (August 31, 1951)
2013(29th
of Av: Yarhrzeit of Rabbi Samuel Salant
2013(29th
of Av: Yarhrzeit of Moshe Leib Halpern, the modern Yiddish poet.
2013:
Jeff Bezos announced his purchase of The Washington Post from the family of
Katherine Graham, the daughter of Eugene Isaac Meyer the Los Angeles born Jew
who bought the bankrupt paper in 1933.
2013:
A massive operation to inoculate some 150,000 children in the south of the
country against polio began this morning as part of a Health Ministry effort to
stamp out the virus before it can infect anyone. (As reported by Haviv Rettig
Gur)
2014(9th
of Av, 5774): Tisha B’Av
2014(9th
of Av, 5774): Eighty-seven year old Dr. Jesse L. Steinfeld, Nixon’s
Surgeon-General passed away today. (As
reported by William Yardley)
2014:
A 72 hour cease-fire is scheduled to begin today at 8 a.m. local time
2014:
This evening, The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide
is scheduled to host an Online Resource User-Testing Focus Group which is part
of the growing interest in the digitization of historical collections.
2014
Israeli security forces announced the arrest of Hussam Kawasme, a native of Hebron
thought to be the ringleader of the terror cell responsible for the kidnapping
and murder of three Israeli teens in mid-June.” (As reported by Avi
Issacharoff)
2014:
The Israel Antiquities Authority announced today the discovery of “a hoard of
coins from the fourth year of the Jewish Revolt against Rome — minted months
before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE —“just outside of the Jewish capital
city. (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)
2014:
“As the 72-hour truce between Israel and Hamas appeared to be holding, Israel
was preparing to send a delegation to Cairo to participate in negotiations. (As
reported by Raphael Ahren)
2014:
In Jerusalem, a Palestinian stabbed a
security guard “near the police station in Ma'aleh Adumim, close to
Jerusalem” making this third such attack
in the last twenty four hours and comes on the same day that Moslem worshippers
threw rocks and Molotov cocktails from the Temple Mount.
2014(9th
of Av, 5774): Eighty-six year old physician and Holocaust survivor Emanuel Emek
Tanay lost his battle with prostate cancer today.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?pid=172345664
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_oi.php?ModuleId=10005059&MediaId=1128
2015:
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to
host a screening of “Paper Moon.”
2015:
In Baltimore, MD a three day workshop on Holocaust education that focuses on
giving educators the tools to help their students understand the Holocaust
sponsored by the Jewish Museum of Maryland in conjunction with the Baltimore
Jewish Council and the Maryland State Department of Education is scheduled to
come to an end.
2015:
In Berlin, the 14th European Maccabi Games are scheduled to come to an end
today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/iconic-nazi-built-berlin-stadium-to-host-maccabi-games/
2016:
As the 2016 Olympics are scheduled to open in Rio, Gabe Friedman writes that
the seven Jewish Americans to watch are Aly Raisman (Gymnastics), Nate Ebner
(Rugby), Anthony Ervin (Swimming), Merrill Moses (Water Polo), Eli Dershwitz
(Fencing), Monic Rokhman (Women’s rhythmic gymnastics) and Zack Test (Rugby).
2016:
Israel plans on fielding “its largest-ever Olympic delegation at the 2016
Olympics” which are scheduled to officially open today. (As reported by Luke
Tress)
2016:
Mathew A. Reimer is scheduled to “ascend the bimah at Temple Sinai” this
evening “for the first Shabbat service over which he will officiate as the
congregation’s new Senior Rabbi.” (As reported by the Crescent City Jewish
News, the source for everything Jewish in the Cajun heartland)
2016(1st
of Av, 5776): Rosh Chodesh Av
2016:
“The Baghdad municipality announced today it would demolish and then give to a
developer the 100-year-old home of Iraq’s first finance minister, Sir Sassoon
Eskell,” “who was born into an aristocratic Baghdadi Jewish family in 1860 and
who was instrumental in founding the Iraqi government’s laws and financial
infrastructure” “while an official in
Iraq’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities slammed the decision as a
“violation” of the law.”
2016:
Claudio Bonadio, “a federal judge in Argentina” decided today to reopen “a
criminal complaint against former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in
which she had been accused of conspiring to derail an investigation into the
bombing of a Jewish center here in 1994 in which 85 people were killed.”
2017(13th
of Av, 5777): Shabbat Nacahamu
2017:
“Emergency services evacuate five buildings in the center of Jerusalem” today “as
a large brush fire broke out in one of the city’s central parks.” (TOI Staff)
2017: “Cleveland
Partnership Minyan: Bridging Divides” partnership minyan is scheduled to take
place at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood, Ohio
2017:
“Gershon Leizerson and The Yiddish Blues Drifters” a “new folk outfit from
Jerusalem” is scheduled to perform at Yiddish Summer Weimar this evening.
2017:
Lip Schmeltzer who “sang at the annual White House Chanukah Party” in 2015 is
scheduled to perform this evening on the second day of the Shabbat Nachamu
Weekend sponsored by the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientist (AOJS)
2018:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors or of special interest to Jewish readers including
the recently released paperback editions of An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and
an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn and Class Mom by Laurie Gelman
2018:
“The Oslo Diaries” and “My War Hero Uncle” are scheduled to be shown today, on
the closing day of the Jerusalem Film Festival.
2018(24th of
Av, 5778):Sixty-four year old Alan Robert Rabinowitz, the Brooklyn born son of Frank Rabinowitz, “a high school P.E. teacher” and “Shirley
(Felman) Rabinowitz, the University of Tennessee Ph.D. conservationist best
known for his work with saving the Jaguars from extinction passed away today.
(As reported by Richard Sandomir)
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/08/alan-rabinowitz-big-cat-champion-news/
2018(24th of
Av, 5778): Ninety-two veteran comedic actress Charlotte Rae, the Milwaukee born
daughter “Meyer and Esther )Ottenstien) Lubotsky,” “Jewish immigrants from
Russia” passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/06/obituaries/charlotte-rae-dead.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
2019:
In Atlanta, GA, the Breman Museum is scheduled to host the last of its “Magical
Mondays.”
2019:
In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Ask Dr. Ruth,” a biopic
about the world’s most unlikely sex therapist.
2019:
In the wake of yesterday’s seizure of another tanker by Iran, citizens in
Israel and the United States are left to ponder today if this is another move
that will lead to armed conflict that is bound to include asymmetrical warfare.
2020(15th
of Av, 5780): Tu B’Av or in English simply the 15th Day of Av which
was “originally a post-biblical day of joy, that served as a matchmaking day
for unmarried women in the second Temple period which went virtually unnoticed
for almost 2,000 years before being “rejuvenated in recent decades, especially
in Israel as Jewish Day of Love which at least one sabra likened to Valentine’s
Day but which has “no formal legal status.” (Editor’s note – in the era of the
Pandemic, hug your honey whether in person or virtual)
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/tubav.html
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/53680/jewish/15th-of-Av.htm
http://www.israeldailypicture.com/
2020
Addison-Penzak and Peninsula JCCs and WZO are scheduled to host a virtual
screening of “Tateh,” a short film about a secular kibbutznik who becomes a
Hasid, followed by a discussion about the tensions between those identities,
led by Roey Yamin of WZO diaspora affairs.
2020:
In London the LSJS is scheduled to host a “Special Tu B’Av Celebration:
Teachers We Love.”
2020:
The Addison-Penzak JCC’s Virtual “two day Tu B’Ab celebration is scheduled to
come to an end this morning.
2020:
The Illinois Holocaust Memorial is scheduled to host Adina Sella as part of the
“Coffee with a Survivor” program.
2020:
Presenters from Forum of Dialogue, Warsaw, Poland; Lola Hahn, second-generation
Holocaust testimony; JMM Museum Educators are scheduled to speak on the final
day of the Summer Teachers Institute 2020,” a Zoom event sponsored by the
Jewish Museum of Maryland.
2021:
Following yesterday’s rocket attacks just outside of Kiryat Shmona, Israelis
awaken to increased threats from the virus and those seeking to create one
state from the river to the sea.
2021:
Based on reports published yesterday, as of today travelers from the United
States and 17 other countries only have five days left of being able to enter
Israel being quarantined for a mandatory seven days.
2021:
The JWA’s Book Club is scheduled to host Rachel Beanland, the author of Florence
Adler Swims Forever.
2021:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present “Broken Promises – The
Dismantling of the Spanish Law of Return.”
2022:
Services are scheduled to be held this morning for Jill Schwartz Musin, beloved
wife of Howard Musin, mother of Aaron (Laura) Schwartz, Robyn (Jason) McCaslin,
and Randi (Chris) Carr., at Temple B’nai Jeshurun in Des Moines, IA.
2022:
In Oakland, CA Temple is scheduled to host “Topics in Judaism” with Beth
Bourland presenting “her artwork that explores Jewish concepts, people, places,
world issues and history.”
2022:
Road closures along the border with the Gaza Strip are scheduled to remain in place today amid fears of an
anti-tank guided missile or sniper attack by Islamic Jihad, after the IDF
arrested its West Bank terrorist leader earlier in the week.
2023:
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of “My
Neighbor Adolf,” a film about “a Holocaust survivor in South America who becomes
convinced that his secretive German neighbor is Adolf Hitler and sets out to
prove his case.”
2023:
Temple Israel Boston is scheduled to present “Thank Goodness Its’ Shabbat” “led
by local musician Wayn Potash and the clergy of Temple Israel.”
2023:
In San Francisco, CJM is scheduled to host “Regard,” a dance performance inspired
by Jewish philosopher Martin Buber…”
2023(18th
of Av, 5783): Parashat Eikev; for more
see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
