This Day, August 6, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
August 6
412: Roman emperors
Honorius and Theodosius II command that Jews should not be persecuted because
of their religion or have their property confiscated without cause but Jews are
warned not “to disrespect Christianity. (As reported by Austin Cline)
425: Among the edicts
issued by Emperors Theodosius II and Valentinian III is one banning Jews from
owning Christian slaves. (As reported by Austin Cline)
1187: As Christians and
Moslems vie for control the Middle East, including Palestine, Saladin captured
the city of Beirut.
1223: Coronation of
Louis VIII, the French monarch “who issued an ordinance that prohibited his
officials from recording debts owed to Jews” which deprived the Jews of income
and set him at odds with Theobald IV, the powerful Count who ruled Champagne.
1243: After a ritual
murder accusation in Kitzingen, Bavaria (Germany), fifteen Jews were tortured
to death. Their corpses lay in the street for a fortnight before they were
allowed to be buried.
1284: Genoa defeated
Pisa at the Battle of Meloria. This battle took place when Genoa was at the
height of period “mercantile expansion.”
According to Cecil Roth, “Genoa was one of the least hospitable and
tolerant of Italian states as far as the Jews were concerned.” Not only did the Genoese not encourage the
settlement of Jews, they may have actually actively discouraged them from
settling so as to avoid introducing business competitors. There was no organized Jewish community in
Genoa at this time and in fact, there may have only been two Jews living
there. By the 13th century
evidence exists that Pisa did have an organized Jewish community of at least 20
families. There are Jewish tombstones embedded in the town walls that date back
to the middle of the 13th century.
And a synagogue may have been located on the “Alley of the Jews” during
this time.
1301(1st of
Elul, 5061): Rabbi David ben Avraham Maimuni HaNagid passed away. Known
variously as David Maimuni or Rabbi David Hanagid, this Rabbi was the grandson
of the Rambam He was born in 1233 and followed in the footsteps of his
grandfather and father as Nagid or "Prince" over the Jewish
congregations in Egypt. He was an ally of the powerful Rabbi of Barcelona,
Solomon ben Abraham Ben Adret known as Rashba. In 1285, when those who opposed
Rabbi Hanagid sought to depose him, Ben Adret supported his declarations of
excommunications. An interesting legend has grown up around the Hanagid
concerning these attacks. According to the legend the embattled Rabbi prayed at
the cave of Meron in Eretz Yisrael. This cave was also known as the cave of
Rabbi Hillel and Shammai. Supposedly its waters had magical powers. When cold
water issued forth from the cave in response to the Rabbi’s prayers, he
excommunicated five hundred of his opponents. On that day the five hundred who
had slandered him in Egypt died. Surely a legend like that would have greatly
troubled his rational and compassionate grandfather. Hanagid was a scholar. For
those of you who have read Pirke Avot, you might remember Hillel’s comments
about a floating skull. Maimonides' grandson, Rabbi David Hanagid, cited a
tradition handed down by "the early ones" that the floating skull
belonged to none other than Pharaoh himself. Hillel therefore told him:
"Because you commanded that Jewish children be drowned in the Nile, you
were drowned." It was specifically Hillel who confronted Pharaoh's skull,
since as a reincarnation of Moses he was fit to confront Pharaoh.
1414: Ladsilas, the
King of Naples who offered the Jews a charter which would have given them
economic equality, passed away.
1492: Following the
issuance of the order expelling the Jews from Spain, today, “Infante Henry
ordered the Catalonian officials to transfer to him the property of the Jews
expelled from Jaca.´(Jewish Virtual Library)
1527: R. Samuel
Margolioth of Posen was confirmed as chief rabbi of Great Poland, and was
vested with important powers over all the Jews of that district by a document
issued by Sigismund I bearing today’s date.
1623: Urban VII who
ended the custom according to which a Jew, upon entering the pontiff’s presence
was expected to kiss the Holy Father’s foot” and replaced it with a requirement
that Jew kiss the spot on the floor where the Pope’s foot had stood began his
papacy today.
1698:
Birthdate of Nāder Shāh Afshār, the founder of the Afsharid dynasty, who
reversed the anti-Jewish policies and practices that had been put in place by
the Safawid’s dynasty which had ruled during the previous century.
1718: Barent Gompertz
married Rachel Benjamin Isaac in Amsterdam today.
1724(28th of Av, 5484): Sixty-six-year-old Samson
Wertheimer, the husband of Frumet Brulle and father of Sara Wertheimer who was
chief rabbi of Hungary and Moravia, and rabbi of Eisenstadt as well as an
Austrian financier, court Jew and Shtadlan to Austrian Emperor Leopold I passed
away in Vienna.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/samson-wertheimer
1762: Myth meets
myth. According to the non-Jewish world
the sandwich was born today when the Earl of Sandwich has a servant bring him a
piece of meat between two slices of bread so that he can eat without leaving the
gambling tables. As anybody who has ever
attended a Seder, the Earl was a Johnny-come-lately since Hillel began eating
his sandwich – bitter herbs between two pieces of Matzah – during the days of
the Second Temple.
1764(8th of
Av, 5524): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1766(1st of
Elul, 5526): Rosh Chodes Elul
1775(10th of
Av, 5535): Tish’a B’Av observed since the 9th of Av fell on Shabbat.
1775: Birthdate of
Irish reformer Daniel O’Connell known for fighting for Catholic Emancipation
but who also supported the rights of Irish Jews and in 1846 insisted on the
repeal of “De Judaismo” which “prescribed a special dress for Jewish. He
claimed that Ireland was “the only country unsullied by any one act of
persecution of the Jews.”
1781(15th of
Av, 5541): As the American and French Armies led respectively by Washington and
Rochambeau prepare to being their fateful march from Newport, RI to Yorktown,
VA during the American Revolution, Jews celebrate Tu B’Av
1783(8th of
Av, 1783): Erev Tish’a B’Av observed as the negotiators put the final touches
on the Treaty of Paris that will officially end the American Revoltion.
1789: Birthdate of
Solomon Ludwig (Levy) Steinheim whose poems included Sinai and Obadjah Sohn Amos
Lieder aus der Verbannung and whose contribution to philosophy is
memorialized by the creation of The Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute of the
University of Duisburg-Essen in Duisburg Germany
http://www.steinheim-institut.de/wiki/index.php/English
1793: Samuel Marks
married Sophia Collan today at the Great Synagogue.
1795: Birthdate of
Island of Saint Chistopher native and descendant of Daniel Robles de Fonseca,
Aaron Wolf the Danish merchant who was
president of the St. Thomas Marine Insurance Company, president of the Bank of St.
Thomas and President of the synagogue.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14986-wolff-aaron
1798: In Lorraine,
France, Mayer Lippman, the Alsace born son of Raphaël Isaac Lippmann and Jutelé
Lippmann and his wife Madelleine Lippmann gave birth to David Lippmann
1799(5th of Av, 5559):
Marcus Elieser Bloch the German physician who was one of the leading
ichthyologists of the 18th century “whose collection of 1500
specimens is preserved at the Museum for Natural History at Humboldt University
in Berlin passed away today.
1800(15th of
Av, 5560): Tu B’Av (As can be seen from the next two entries, some people took
the love holiday seriously)
1800: Samuel Moses
married Hannah Emanuel at the Great Synagogue today.
1800: William Simmons
married Eve Jacobs at the Great Synagogue today.
1801(27th of
Av, 5561): Eighty-seven-year-old Deborah de Leon, the Barbados born wife of
Isaac Gomez whom she married in 1738 passed away today
1806: Francis II, the
last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicates, thus ending the Holy Roman Empire. But this
was not a great loss to this European monarch since he had already declared
himself Francis I, Emperor of the Austrian Empire in 1804. It was in this more powerful role that he
would have an effect on the life of European Jews, For example, in 1820,
Francis I of Austria required rabbis to study sciences and use the language of
the country in prayers and sermons. As a result, a rabbinical seminary opened
in Padua in 1829. While moves such as this were supported by followers of the
Haskalah, they were viewed with suspicion, if not outright dread, by those
opposed to the modernists.
1806: Joseph Nathan
married Elizabeth Jacobs at the Great Synagogue.
1810: Rabbi Issachar
Dov Baer of Zloczow, author of Mevas-ser Zedek passed away
1811: Two days after
she had passed away, 47-year-old Ann Levy, the wife of Jonas Levy was buried
today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1812: Moss Jewell
married Eleanor Joseph at the Great Synagogue today.
1817(24th of
Av, 5577): Sixty-nine-year-old Benjamin Mendes Seixas, the Newport, RI born son
of Isaac Menes Siexas and Rachel Franks Levy, passed away today in New York
City.
1813: In Middlesex,
Zipporah Isaacs and Hymen Cohen gave birth to Adelaide Cohen, the wife of Aaron
Salomons and mother of Adelaide, Alfred, Gertrude and Alice Salomons.
1819:
Norwich University founded in Vermont. Rabbi Ken Spiro, the Jewish
historian, has a Master’s Degree in History from The Vermont College of Norwich
University.
1825:
Bolivia gains its independence from Spain. During the colonial period,
the Jewish presence would have been made up of Marranos or Conversos some of
whom worked in the silver mines and helped establish the city of Santa Cruz de
la Sierra. Evidence of Jewish presence may be seen in reports of settlers
following “Jewish customs” including “lighting candles on Friday nights and
sitting on the ground in mourning when a close relative dies.” A truly
recognizable Jewish community appeared in the country in the early 1900’s with
the arrival of Russian Jews.
1828:
Wolf Cohen married Ann Prins today at the Great Synagogue.
1838(15th
of Av, 5598): Tu B’Av
1839:
Reuben Phillips married Ellen Hymen at the New Synagogue.
1839:
In South Carolina, Alexander H. Abrahams and Hannah Moses
Abrahams gave birth to Edmund H. Abrahams, the husband of Cecilia Solomons
Abrahams and father of Edmund and Alexander Abrahams.
1840:
As Europeans – Jews and non-Jews – attempted to deal with the Blood Libel in
Damascus, Moses Montefiore sought an interview with Mehmet Ali in Cairo. When the two met Montefiore “handed him a
petition in the name of the Jewish community rerrqauestion permission to go to
Damasacus” so he could investigate the charges that had been. The Jewish leaders need a guarantee of safe
conduct so that they could meet with prisoners.
1840: In England,
Daniel Levy and Amelia Jacobs gave birth to Angelina Levy.
1842(30th of Av, 5602):
Rosh Chodesh Elul
1842: In Wankheim,
Germany, Leopold Hirsch, the son of Lea ad Simon Seev Hirsch and his wife Therese
Tölzele Hirsch, the daughter of Gudele and Abraham Wormser gave birth to future
Memphis resident Julius Hirsch, the “husband of Mathilde Hirsch and father of
Emma Lea Gumbel; Leopold Hirsch and Sigmund Hirsch.”
1842: In Pennsylvania,
Moses and Benvenida Valentina Nathans gave birth to twin daughters Judith
Isabel Solis Nathans Solis Nathans, the wife of Herman M. Myers and Helen
Virginia Nathans, the wife of Samuel Kessler.
1843(10th of
Av, 5603): Tish’a B’Av observed.
1847(24th of
Av, 5607): Eighty-three-year-old Solomon Etting, the York, PA, born son of
Shinah Solomon and Solomon Etting who were married in 1759 and the husband of
Rachel Simon with whom he had four children – Elijah, Bilah, Miriam and Joseph
– passed away today in Baltimore, MD. “Maryland had a ban on non-Christians
holding office or practicing law, and from 1797, Etting campaigned persistently
to have this barrier removed. He finally succeeded in 1826 and was immediately
elected to the Baltimore City Council. By the time of his election the American
Jewish population numbered 6,000.”
1849: In London, Adam
Spielmann, the son of Michele and Lewin Spielmann and his wife Marian Spielmann gave birth to
Edwin Spielmann, the brother of Sir Meyer Adam Spielmann
1851(8th of
Av, 5611): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1855: Birthdate of Sir
Isaac Alfred Isaacs. The son of a Polish
Jew named Alfred Isaacs, Sir Isaac “was an Australian judge and politician, was
the third Chief Justice of Australia, ninth Governor-General of Australia and
the first born in Australia to occupy that post.”
1856 Birthdate Jacob
Koppel Sandler failed Russian businessman Jacob Koppel Sander who came to the
United States where pursued a successful career as a “musical director” and
“composer whose works included “The Hero and Bracha or the Jewish King of Poland
for a Night.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sandler-jacob-koppel
https://www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il/content/jacob-koppel-sandler
1857:
The New York Times reported that Baron Rothschild had resigned his seat
in the House of Commons and a notice had been posted for the election of a
replacement. A public meeting of
electors in London pledged to return Rothschild to his seat in Parliament and
called upon Lord Russell to resolve the matter that was keeping Jews from
serving in Parliament.
1858:
After a five-and-twenty years' wrangling the admissibility of the Jews to
Parliament has been conceded.
1861(30th
of Av, 5621): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1861:
During the Civil War, 24-year-old Philadelphia native Lyon Levy Emanuel, the
“brother of Louis Manly Emanuel” began his three year enlistment in the Union
Army today as a 2nd Lt. in Company F of the 82nd
Regiment.
1863:
As part of the day of National Thanksgiving which was celebrated today Rabbi
Samuel Isaacs of B’nai Jeshurun addressed his congregation in New York City.
1864:
Henry Simmons married Hannah Harris in Dublin, Ireland today.
1865:
Jacob Schiff came to the United States arriving today in New York City.
1865:
As he made good his escape from Union forces, Judah P. Benjamin left Havana for
Britain.
1866:
In Winnsboro, LA, Betty Haas and Lazaruz Tiche gave birth to Edwad Tiche, the
founder along with Max Goettinger of one of Texas’ leading department stores
Tiche-Goettinger which was eventually bought out by Joske and was a leading
civic leader in Dallas as well as a member of Temple Emanu-El and the Jewish Welfare
Association.
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/titche-edward
1866:
Birthdate Cleveland native Salmon Portland Halle, the businessman who supported
the work of the American Joint Distribution Committee for “more than a quarter
of a century.”
1867:
Isaac and Julia Elkus gave birth to Abram I. Elkus, the New York lawyer and
politician who served as U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War
I. “In 1902, Elkus' firm James, Schell & Elkus, merged with a firm headed
by Joseph M. Proskauer, creating the firm of Elkus, Gleason & Proskauer, a
predecessor of the law firm of Proskauer Rose.”
1867: Solomon
and Betty Loeb gave birth to their second son, James Loeb who joined Kuhn, Loeb
& Co in 1888 and became a partner in 1894 before retiring because of health
problems in 1904. A patron of the arts, he endowed the Loeb Classical Library
founded the Institute of Musical Art, which later became part of the Juilliard
School of Music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loeb_Classical_Library
1869(29th
of Av, 5629): Seventy-nine-year-old Moses Garber, the Lancaster County, PA born
son of Abraham and Elizabeth Garber and the husband of Susannah Garbert passed
away today in Sugar Creek Township, Cedar County, which is located in eastern
Iowa.
1869:
In Woodville, MS, Joephine and Isaac T. Hart gave birth to Emily Blanche
Rothschld, the wife of Morris H. Rothschild with whom she had two children –
Marcus and Bertha.
1870(9th
of Av, 5630): Parashat Devarim; Erev Tish’a B’Av
1871:
It was reported today that The Jewish
Messenger has proposed a national conference aimed a promoting “the unity
and welfare of the Hebrews” living in the United States. Among the proposals that the Messenger feels
should be considered are that delegates from the various congregations from
across the country should meet regularly to discuss measures that would “bring
order from chaos, union from discord” as regards the differences between
different Jewish groups and that efforts should be started to provide trained
rabbis who can meet the needs of the American Jewish community,
1873:
Approximately 700 Jewish youngsters including students who attend the six New
York schools that make up the Free Hebrew Association and the children living
at the Jewish Orphan Asylum and Industrial School went on an excursion up the
Hudson River to Excelsior Park. Among
those traveling with this well-behaved group were Abraham Oetlinger, President
of the Hebrew Free School Associations and several Jewish philanthropists who
had raised the funds for the trip.
1875;
In Helena, AR, Simon Krow and Rosa Seaman gave birth to Julia Krow who died at
the age of 8.
1876:
Birthdate of Richmond, VA native and Medical College of Virginia graduate Rose
Z. Van Vort who served as hospital executive and a member of member of Hadassah
while helping to organize the Virginia State League of Nursing.
1877:
In Mobile, Alabama, Alfred and Rebecca Proskauer gave birth to Joseph M.
Proskauer, the graduate of Columbia Law School, judge on the New York State
Supreme Court and husband of Alice Naumburg with whom he had three children –
Frances, Ruth and Richard Proskauer.
1878:
Birthdate of New York and CCNY and NYU trained educator Israel Edwin
Goldwasser, the youngest district superintendent of schools in New York City
who moved into the world of business in 1920 where he became president of an
investment firm while serving as the executive director of the Federation of
Jewish Philanthropies.
1878:
The case of Lewinski v Lewinski is scheduled to be held in Brooklyn, New York.
Mrs. Josephine Lewinski is suing her husband Philip Lewinski for divorce. As part of the divorce decree, she is seeking
alimony and the payment of her legal fees. The Lewinski’s are both Jewish. Six years ago, when Lewinski was a successful
businessman he met Josephine Schauffer at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, where she was
a ward. The trustees gave them
permission to marry after Lewinski told them that he loved her, and she had
happily consented to the marriage.
However, Lewinski’s business affairs went sour and he became a
counterfeiter. He was caught and
imprisoned. Mrs. Lewinski stood by him
and went to various officials seeking his release. After he got out of prison, he began spending
time with his old associates which is why she is seeking a divorce.
1879:
The Congressional Medal of Honor was issued to David Orbansky who had served
with 58th Ohio Infantry during the Civil War was it fought its way
down the Mississippi River starting with the Battle of Shiloh in 1862.
1880:
Sixty-three-year-old Bavarian native Fanny Heilbronner who married Isaac Samuel
in Paris was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1880:
In Tepleck, David Eli Melich and Sprina Odella (Efont) Ellis gave birth to
Philadelphia resident Abraham M. Ellis, the president of the Broadway Amusement
Company, which owned the Broadway Theater in Camden, in the 1930s and husband
of Rose Barenbaum who was on organizers of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun and the
namesake for the Abraham M. and Rose Ellis Foundation.
1881:
It was reported today that the excursion sponsored by the Athletic Society of
the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Harlem which had been scheduled to take
place on August 4 has been re-scheduled for later this month. (August 4 was
Tish’a B’Av which probably accounted for the scheduling change)
1881:
In Freeport, Illinois, Joshua Oettinger, a German-Jew and his wife non-Jewish
wife Helen Stine gave birth to Louella Rose Oettinger, who gained fame as
gossip columnist Louella Parsons, an eventual convert to Roman Catholicism.
1881:
The government of Argentina appointed a special agent to attract Jewish
immigrants from Russia.
1881:
It was reported today that Englishmen have developed a more positive attitude
towards beef imported from the United States.
Part of that improvement is attributed to the fact that between April
and October of 1880, English Jews bought cattle from 15 different shipments
without any complaint. Not one of the
animals was rendered not Kosher or “unsound.”
Apparently, the strict observance of Jewish laws concerning the
inspecting and slaughter of meat is well enough known among the general
populace for this fact to have had a positive impact on the sale of American
cattle in the United Kingdom
1882:
“Mohammed’s Success” published today includes in its description of the rise of
Islam the reminder that “it must not be forgotten that the Arabs and Jews were
kindred races, speaking kindred customs, practices and prejudices” and that
many Jews, having been “driven out of their own land during successive epochs
settled in Arabia.
1883:
It was reported today that the Town Council of Ekaterinoslva, Russia has voted
to give the Jews 5,000 rubles to compensate them for the losses suffered during
a recent attack by an ant-Semitic mob.
1883:
“The Nyireghyhaza Tiral” published today described the feelings and treatment
of Jews in Europe in the wake of the “blood libel” trial recently held in
Hungary.
1884: General Sir
William John Codrington passed away.
Codrington served as the Governor General of Gibraltar in 1859 when he
provided food and shelter for Jews who had taken refuge in the colony because
of the war between Spain and Morocco.
1884: “Hotel Rent By
Religious War” published today described the conflicts between Jewish and
Gentile society matrons at one of the leading resort hotels in Long Branch, NJ
1884: Rabbi Henry S.
Jacobs delivered the principle address this afternoon at the cornerstone laying
ceremony for the new synagogue to be used by Congregation B’Nai Jeshurun. The
building is located at Madison Avenue, between 64th and 65th
Streets in Manhattan. The Chairman of the Building Committee, Newman Cohen,
deposited a variety of items including newspapers, coins and a scroll
containing the history of the congregation into the cornerstone before it was
put in place. Unlike many of the other Jewish congregations in the area, B’Nai
Jeshrun will follow Orthodox ritual.
1885: In St. Louis,
Caroline and Joseph Lazarus Kranson gave birth to Jake Kranson
1885: In Russia, Hannah
Spigel and Samuel Morgulis gave birth to Columbia and Harvard trained
biochemist Sergius Morgulis and husband of Fannie Bashkirtzeva who in 1904 came
to the United States where he became Associate in biochemistry, College
Physicians and Surgeons (Columbia), and Professor
physiology and biochemistry, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, before
becoming a Professor of biochemistry, University of Nebraska College of
Medicine, from 1921.
1886: Birthdate of
Meletopal, Russia native who in 1906 came to Memphis where he founded S. F. H.,
Inc. (formerly Sam Fortas Housefurnishing Company, Inc.),
1886: Superintendent
Jackson, the chief immigration officer at Castle Garden received a cable today
from Hamburg informing him that a large number of Romanian and Polish Jews were
waiting for a ship at the German port that would take them to America. According to the message, most of them were
paupers.
1886: A major fire in
Phoenix, Arizona, finally convinced the city council to accept the proposal of
Mayor Emil Ganz to establish a waterworks and fire department.
1886: Birthdate of Boise
native and Jefferson Medical College trained physician, Dr. Ralph Falk, the
chairman of the board of Baxter Laboratories and WW I Army Medical Corps
veteran who was the
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/11/03/119113028.html?pageNumber=39
1887(16th of
Av, 5647): Parashat Vaetchanan
1887: Today’s “Short
Cuts” column contained an excerpt from the American Hebrew about the quality of
meals served at the various resort “the mountains.” While patrons complain
about the food, they come back year and year out. The paper concluded that the vacationers
except too much for the small amount of money they pay. (The mountains refers
to the Catskills which will later be known as The Borscht Belt)
1888: Stern Brothers of
West 23rd Street in New York, have promised to provide the fund for
today’s excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children.
1889(9th of Av, 5649):
Tish’a B’Av
1889: In Shenandoah,
PA,, David and Rebeccah (Zamalan) Grossman, gave birth to Columbia and JTS
graduate Lewis B. Grosmans, the Rabbi serving Temple Beth Elohim in the Bronx
and the husband of Theresa Tomar Pear.
1889: Birthdate of
Kamenitz-Podolks, (western Ukraine) native Morris Quasha who came to the United
States in 1894 and after graduating NYU Law School and passing the bar exam was
denied admission to the bar by the “character committee” which was forced to
change its ruling thanks to Judge Samuel Seabury who demanded that the
committee either producer evidence for its ruing or admit him immediately.
1889: Two days after he
had passed away, “22-year-old Edward Stephen Schloss,” the son of Joseph and
Adel Schloss was buried at the Balls Pond Jewish Cemetery.
1890: Coroner Ferdinand
Levy is one of the speakers scheduled to address those attending Shoen &
Lowenthal’s German American Institute and Kingdergartern, a summer festival at
the foot of East 69th Street.
1890: Paul Ohleshaus
whose skull was fractured by Timothy Abbot after he stopped him from
“tormenting an inoffensive Jew” is “lying unconscious in the Chambers Street
Hospital”
1890: At its meeting in
Berlin, the International Medical Congress “rejected a proposal to meet in St.
Petersburg” because “of the repression of the Jews in Russia.”
1890: As of today, the
managers of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children have $7,118.47 which can be used
for their free summer excursions.
1890: The Jews of
Edinburgh met today and resolved to raise funds which would be sent to the
Jewish Society for the Colonization of Palestine to provide assistance for
“Jews expelled from Russia.”
1891: The Executive
Board of the Jewish Alliance of America met in Philadelphia, PA, this evening
where they adopted “an excellent plan” for meeting the needs of the “friendless
and often penniless” Jewish immigrants arriving in the United States.
1891: “The grand annual
afternoon and evening picnic of the Daughters of Israel Benefit Society” most
of whose members are from Congregation Beth Israel “took place at Bay View
Park” today.
1891: “The Russian
Jews” published today described the attack on the Jewish quarter of
Elisabethgrad by a mob crying “Kill the Jews!”
The authorities did nothing to stop the mobs or put an end to the
looting.
1892: “Religious
Statistics” published today provided a summary of the Unite States cenus report
prepared by Charles E Bull Chief of the Division of Religious Statistics that
showed of the 20,347,346 people counted 150,000 of them are Jewish.
1892(13th of
Av, 5652): Shabbat Nachamu
1892(13th of
Av, 5652): Forty-eight-year-old Danish economist Ernst Immanuel Cohen Brandes
who was a critic of the theories of Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo and Karl Marx
passed away today.
http://broom02.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Ernst%20Immanuel%20Cohen%20Brandes&uid=1575
1892: Harper’s Weekly
published a drawing of Alexander Berkman, the Jewish anarchist who attempted to
Henry Clay Frick, the steel magnate who played a key role in the Homestead
Steel Strike.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Berkman_with_Frick_(1892).jpg
1893: It was reported
today that a Jewish organization in London took care of the Russo-German family
named Kaiser who had been expelled as Protestants by the government in Kiev
along with a stream of Jews. The English
Jews raised $250 to send them on to Winnipeg.
1894: “A Standard
German Life of Heine” published today provides a detailed review of Heinrich
Heine’s Life In His Own Words edited by Gustav Karpleles and translated
from the German by Arthur Dexter.
According to the review, the refusal of the city of Dusseldorf to erect
a statute to the “Hebrew poet” and the attempts to build one for him in the
United States has done more to keep him before the public than publication of
successive editions of his works would do.
1894: Birthdate of New
York native and Cornell University graduate and the husband of the former
Fannie Fishelson who went from “a career as a chemical engineer” to being “a
leader of relief and resettlement activities for Jews throughout the world.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/06/22/106994817.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/leavitt-moses-a
1894: “Swearing Oaths
on Books” published today contained the reminder that in English courts
“Christians are sworn on the New Testament, Jews on the Old Testament and
Mohammedans on the Koran and persons of other religions according to the form
prescribed for that purpose by the religion they profess.” (In the 21st century an American
Jewish radio host would come unglued when a newly elected Moslem member of the
House of Representatives asked to take the oath of office using a Koran)
1895: The late I.S.
Goldberg of San Francisco was reported to have divided his estate equally among
the city’s Jewish, Protestant and Catholic Orphan Asylums.
1895: “Jewish
Liberality” published today, relying on information that first appeared in The
Jewish Messenger, described the decision of the late Abraham Levy of Richmond,
VA, to divide his estate among Protestants, Catholics and Jews.”
1895: Louis Stern, the
New York dry good merchant is prepared to serve a fortnight in a German jail
and pay 600 marks after having been found guilty of insulting Baron von
Thuengen who objected to Mr. Stern’s son being in the dance hall at Kur Garden
in Kissingen.
1895: In the U.K.,
Alfred Mond the son of chemist Ludwig Mond and his wife Violet gave birth to
Lady Eva Violet Mond Isaacs, née Melchett, Marchioness of Reading who served
“as Vice President of the World Jewish Congress and President of its British
section” where she was a “vocal supporter of the Zionist cause.”
1896: In New York City,
Joel Rock and the former Ida Libby Gross gave birth to Brooklyn Law School
graduate Lillian D. Rock, the founder and senior partner of Rock and Rock “who
as vice president of the National Association of Women Lawyers and as national
chairman of Women in Public Service, Inc., suggested in the nineteen‐thirties
that women fill high public office…
1896: “Died Too Far
Uptown” published today described a case being hearing in New York’s Fourth
Civil District Court in which it will be decided if the member of a “downtown
Hebrew benefit society” “should die above a certain street” in New York is
still entitled to the benefits for which he has been paying dues.
1897: “East Side Roof
Garden” published today provided the rules for the facility on top of the
Hebrew Institute Building which will allow children to visit along between 8
A.M. and 5:30 P.M. but require them to be accompanied by their parents or
guardians from 7:30 P.M. to 11:00 P.M.
1895: It was reported
today that Hebrew Institute under the direction of Superintendent of Isaac
Spectorsky will be offering concerts five times a week now that remodeling has
been completed.
1898(18th of
Av, 5658): Parashat Eikev
1898: Dr. Adolph M
Radin, the rabbi of the People’s Synagogue celebrated his 50th
birthday today.
1898: Anti-Juif Marseillais et de la Région du
Midi, a short lived anti-Semitic published appeared at Marseilles for the
first time today.
1899(30th of
Av, 5659): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1899: In an interview
published today Israel Zangwill said his “soul purpose in visiting America is
to supervise the staging of ‘The Children of the Ghetto’” Since “the Hebrew
character has never been faithfully portrayed on the stage” and “the Jew has been
caricatured” his “aim is to give a true a picture of the Hebrew as he is both
as regards characteristics and religion” which is important because many of the
characters in his play are Jewish.
1899: “Dreyfus Case
Clearly Reviewed published today provides a summary of Joseph Reinach’s
explanation of how Dreyfus was wrongly convicted including the fact that the
French Army attributed Esterhazy’s treachery to French Jewish officer.
1900: Kaiser Wilhelm II
delivered a speech during the unveiling of a statute honoring Frederick
William, the Great Elector who readmitted Jews to his realm on limited bases
and who permitted “Israel Aron, a military contractor and purveyor to the mint”
to settle in Berlin where he “became Frederick William’s Court Jew
1900: Birthdate of Kiev native Grigory Shtern, the Jewish Soviet
officer in the Red Army and military advisor during the Spanish Civil War” who also
served with distinction during the Soviet-Japanese Border Wars and the Winter
War which did not keep him from being shot during Stalin's military purge of
1941.
1901: Birthdate of
Arthur Flegenheimer, who gained fame as gangster Dutch Schultz who made his
money as a violent bootlegger during the dry days of the Roaring 20’s. Even his
fellow gangsters saw him as being out of control and they gunned him down in 1935.
The Jews dodged the bullet on this one. Schultz converted to Catholicism before
he died and is buried in a Catholic Cemetery in the state of New York.
1901(21st of
Av, 5661): Thirty-year-old Hungarian poet and author Emil Makai passed away
today.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Makai_Emil
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0013_0_13066.html
1902: “Mayor Low
decided today to have a committee of citizens, appointed by himself,
investigate the east side riots attending the funeral of Rabbi Joseph and
recommend what action should be taken in the matter.”
1902: It was reported
today that “The Republican organization of the Fourth Assembly District” has
“adopted a resolution denouncing the recent attack on the mourners following
the remains of the late Chief Rabbi Joseph and calling on the city authorities
to further investigate the affair in order to place the blame where it properly
belongs.”
1902: Emil Adams and
George Church, employees of R. Hoe and Company have been charged with “having
maliciously interfered with the funeral of Chief Rabbi Joseph” by turning a
hose on the mourners and drenching them with water.
1903: In Charleston,
Rabbi Simenhoff officiated at the wedding of Levy Cohen and Lena Berger.
1904: Rufus Isaacs
began serving as a Member of Parliament for Reading
1904: In Gainesville,
TX, Nathan and Eva Baum Lapowski gave birth to Gerome Baum Lapowski, the
brother of WW I Marine veteran Errold Baum Lapowski.
1904: Today, thirty-one-year-old
Yiddish author Solomon Blumgarten, who used the nom de plume “Yehoash” and had
come to the United States in 1891, married Flora Smirnow in Denver, CO.
1905: In “Russia in
Revolution: More Confessions of a Revolutionaire” published today Walter
Littlefield the author of The Truth About Dreyfus wrote that “the
Russian Government hates the Jews, confines them to Ghettos, inspires a
superstitious and ignorant populace to butcher them, interferes in their
mental, moral and physical progress in all possible ways and would gladly send
every one out of the country or into the next world for the simple reason that
the Russian Jew, by his innate or enforced homogeneity, by his rectitude of
family life, by the education received in the family circle, is a tremendous
uplifting moral force which exerts its influence in every community where there
are Jews, no matter how high be the Ghetto Walls.”
1906(15th of
Av, 5666): Tu B’Av
1906: In Jersey, UK,
Sarah Blank and Alfred Krischefski gave birth to Bernard David Krischefski.
1907(26th
of Av, 5667): Seventy-four-year-old Bavarian born Rabbi Judah Wechsler who in
1857 came to the United States where he shifted to Reform and led congregations
in Indianapolis, Richmond, Columbus, St. Paul and Meridian passed away today in
Indianapolis, IN.
https://archives.cjh.org/agents/people/117346
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/wechsler-judah
https://collection.mndigital.org/catalog/jhs:352#/image/0
1907: Birthdate of
Beaver Falls, PA, native and U. of Cincinnati graduate Abraham Haskel Feinberg,
the HUC trained rabbi ho lead congregations in Rockford, IL and Youngstown, OH.
1908(9th of
Av, 5668): Tish’a B’Av
1908: Birthdate of
Lawrence Wnuk, the Polish Roman Catholic priest who survived Auschwitz,
Buchenwald and Dachau and then “bore witness” against his captors. (Ironically
he died on his 98th birthday in 2006)
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/windsorstar/obituary.aspx?n=lawrence-wnuk-wawrzyniec&pid=18815169
1909: “The Dollar
Princess,” a musical with “additional numbers by Jerome Kern” and a book by
Fritz Grünbaum who would die at Dachau, opened on Broadway today.
1909: Birthdate of U.S.
economist Solomon Adler, the native of Leeds who was the brother of Israeli
Doctor Saul Adler.
1910(1st of
Av, 5670): Parashat Masei; Rosh Chodesh Av observed on the same day the “HMS
Lion, first of the "super-Dreadnought" class of Royal Navy
battlecruisers, was launched at Devonport.”
1910: Rabbi Jacob
Massel, the Belarus born son of Jehuda and and Gittel Massel, who settled in
Chicago and his wife Sophi Massel gave birth to Moses Massel the “husband of
Jean Massel and Katherine D. Massel.’
1911: Birthdate of
Norman Gordon a “South African cricketer who played in 5 Tests from 1938 to
1939.”
1912: The Bull Moose
Party meets at the Chicago Coliseum. The Bull Moose Party was formed by Teddy
Roosevelt after he lost the Republican nomination to Taft. The formation of the party would lead to a three-way
race for the Presidency in 1912 between Taft, Roosevelt and Wilson. Roosevelt
had enjoyed strong support among Jewish leaders going back to his days as Chief
of Police in New York and his two terms in the White House where appointed a
Jew to the cabinet and championed the rights of Russian Jews. So strong was his support among the Jewish
reform leaders that Oscar Straus “led the New York delegation down the aisles
at Roosevelt’s breakaway Progressive convention in Chicago and then agreed to
run for governor of New York on the Progressive ticket.” Jewish reformers were obviously in this
election as can be seen by the support of Brandies for Wilson. In the end T.R. lost, but he never lost the
good will of a significant part of the Jewish community. According to one
source, a Jewish police officer, Otto Raphael, said Kaddish over Roosevelt's
body the night before he was buried.
1913: Dr. Sun Yat-sen,
founder of the Republic of China, who held admiration for the Jewish people and
Zionism, and who saw parallels between the persecution of Jews and the
domination of China by the Western powers, stating that “Though their country
was destroyed, the Jewish nation has existed to this day... [Zionism] is one of
the greatest movements of the present time, fled from the mainland to Taiwan
today after his life had been threatened.
1914: As Europe
continued its seemingly unstoppable spiral into war, Austria-Hungary declared
war on Russia.
1915: Pincus Rutenberg,
one of the leaders of the 1906 Russian Revolution who has been living in Italy
was reported today to have been one of the speakers at the recent mass meeting
at Cooper Union where the Jewish attendees called for the creation of an
organization designed to ameliorate the suffering of their co-religionists
around the world.
1915: As the Germans
took control of Warsaw from the retreating Russians “a major revival of Jewish
political and cultural life began that included the reappearance of previously
banned newspaper and the “creation of a Jewish private school system that came
to form the basis of the Zionist, Bundist and Orthodox school networks in
interwar Poland.”
1915: As part of the
Gallipoli Campaign, the Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide
with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay. Despite the courage
of the troops, the landings were botched due to the ineptitude of the generals
in charge. The campaign ultimately
failed with the hopes of knocking the Ottoman Empire out of the war and
breaking the stalemate on the Western Front.
The Zion Mule Corps, an all Jewish supply unit gained the respect of the
British during the campaign and this helped lay the groundwork for the creation
of all Jewish Battalions in the British Army that would distinguish themselves
while fighting with Allenby.
1916: Having stopped
the attack of the Central Powers at Romani, the mounted ANZAC (Australia and
New Zealand) forces begin driving the Turks back on Oghratina in fighting that
would permanently secure the Suez and England bases in Egypt and the Sinai from
which they would eventually launch their attack on Palestine and Syria.
1916: Birthdate of historian Richard
Hofstadter. Hofstadter’s father was
Jewish. His mother was not. Hofstadter was a professor at Columbia
University where he had earned his Ph.D.
Hofstadter came of age during the Great Depression. He embraced communism because it was the
enemy of capitalism, a system that Hofstadter had failed the working men and
women of America. As the thirties wore
on, he became equally disenchanted with the Party and the Soviet Union. The final break came, as did with so many others,
over Stalin’s pact with Hitler in 1939.
Hofstadter’s writings were quite influential during the mid-20th
centuries. Two of his works, The Age of
Reform and Anti-Intellectualism in American Life won Pulitzer Prizes and were
on the required reading list in many of the history and political science
departments at American colleges and universities. His influence would have been greater had he
lived longer. He died at tragically at
the age of 54.
1916: During World War
I Julius Mendes Price “was the only foreign correspondent present at the
capture of Gorizia by the Italian army” during the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo
which began today.
1916: It was reported
today that in Palestine, “Syria and Egypt the heat has been excessive with
sandstorms at intervals which have been so violent on two or three occasions in
June that the traffic in the Suez Canal” which would have included ships carrying
Imperial troops coming from India and Australia “had to be suspended for
several hours.”
1916: A benefit to
raise money for the Actors’ Fund of America arranged by Daniel Frohman is
scheduled to take place at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York.
1916: In “German Not
Seeking Conquest, Says German” published today Professor of Economics Julius
Bonn denied that Germany “would impose her culture on other nations by the
doctrine of “Might Makes Right!’” (Editor’s Note- Bonn, whose family had lived
in Germany for centuries, was forced to take refuge in the United States when
the Nazis came to power.)
1916: It was reported
today that when Abram I. Elkus the new U.S. Ambassador to Turkey was asked if
he hoped “for better treatment of the Jews by Russia in view of their good work
in the war” he replied that “I can only hope that because of the very valiant
service which the Jews have given in the army of the Czar he will accord to
them the civil rights which every other subject enjoys.”
1916: Among the
contributions listed today by the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews
suffering through the War were $30 from the Mercantile Company of Mound City,
South Dakota, $749 from the Federation of Jewish Charities in Cleveland, Ohio
and $20 from the H.O.R Society of Shreveport, Louisiana.
1917: During the Summer
after which the Czar had been deposed but before Lenin took control Alexander
Kerensky solidified his position as Prime Minister after having thwarted
General Kornilov’s attempted coup.
1918: Birthdate of
Norman Granz, American jazz musician and record producer.
1918: It was reported
today that Hebrew University “is one of the first projects for the
reconstruction of Jewish Palestine” that has been “proposed by the Zionist
Administrative Commission.
1919: Plant Pathologist
Julius Matz, the Lithuanian born son of Baruch S. and Frome Leah (Feinberg)
Matz who eventually settled in Puerto Rico where he specialized in matters
related to sugar and sugar can married Etta Frances Dine today in Chelsea, MA.
1919(10th of
Av, 5679): Seventy-eight-year-old John Moss, the son of Mary Levy and Eleazer
Moss, passed away today in his native Philadelphia.
1920: 1920: Birthdate
of Selma Diamond. Born in London, Ontario this comedienne with the gravelly
voice gained lasting fame as Selma on the television hit, Night Court.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/diamond-selma
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/14/arts/selma-diamond-64-is-dead-comedy-writer-and-actress.html
1920: In Bucharest, the
government of Romania decides to consider Turkish Jews as enemy aliens. The
Romanians intern the Jews, sequester their property and threaten to expel them.
The Union of Native Jews of Romania intervenes to help their co-religionist.
1921(2nd of
Av, 5681): Parashat Matot-Masei observed on the same day that “in return for
American humanitarian aid to relieve the famine in the Soviet Union, the
Russian Relief Committee's Chairman Kamenev pledged that all Americans held
prisoner in Soviet Russia would be released to Walter L. Brown of the American
Relief Administration.”
1922(12th of
Av, 5682): Isaiah Woolf Jacobs passed away today in Milwaukee, WI.
1922: JTS trained rabbi and co-founder of ZBT Aaron
Eiseman, the son of Rebecca Rosenthal and Bernard Eiseman Alexander and Army chaplain serving during the
Mexican Mobilization and WW I who began his rabbinic career at Beth Israel
Bikur Congregation before settling in at Mt. Neboh Temple where he earned the
nickname “the marrying rabbi” because he married two thousand couples a year
during the decade starting in 1920 married Estelle Viola Alexander today.
1923: American
delegates to the "World Zionist Congress, as well as hundreds of other
American Jews who have come to Carlsbad for the gathering took part in a
memorial service to President Harding held here yesterday, to which all
Americans were invited.
1924: In the Bronx
Morris and Shirley Haber gave birth to Herbert Lawrence Haber “, the chief
labor negotiator for the City of New York from 1966 to 1973.” (As reported by
Paul Vitello)
1924: The Executive
Council of the American Federation of Labor made public the text of a letter
sent with its approval by Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation
of Labor to former Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson, who had asked the council
not to make a decision on Presidential endorsements until it had the acceptance
speech of John W. Davis before it, a request which was refused
1925(15th of
Av, 5685): Tu B’Av
1925: In New York City,
Herbert Abraham, the son of Rosalie and Samuel Abraham and his wife Dorothy
Abraham gave birth to Jane Abraham who became Jane Bowie when she married Oscar
Bowie.
1925(15th of
Av, 5685): Izaak Naftali Botwin, a member of the Polish Communist Party who had
been convicted of killing “an agent of the Polish secret police” whose last
words were ″Down with bourgeoisie! Long live the social revolution!″ was
executed today a firing squad – a “martyrdom” that would lead to his name being
used a battalion of Jewish volunteers who fought against Franco’s fascists in
the Spanish Civil War in 1937.
1926: In New York, the
Warner Brothers’ Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juan
starring John Barrymore
1926: Harry Houdini
performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank
before escaping.
1926: Birthdate of
Oscar-nominated screenwriter Norman Wexler.
http://www.allmovie.com/artist/p116533
1927(8th of
Av, 5687): Parashat Devarim; Shabbat Chazon; Erev Tish’a B’Av
1927: It became known
today that “Henrikas Rabinavicius, the only Jew in the Lithuanian diplomatic
service, has resigned from his post as Consul General here following a
statement made by Prime Minister Waldemaras last January that he wanted the New
York representative to be "a Lithuanian, not a Jew," and a subsequent
official communication that his successor would be appointed…”
1928: At Westminster,
London f Stuart Albert Samuel Montagu, 3rd Baron Swaythling and Mary Violet
Elliot-Blake gave birth to David Charles Samuel Montagu, 4th Baron Swaythling
the banker, horseman, Jewish philanthropist the husband of Françoise Christiane
Montagu, Baroness Swaythling
1929: A month before
his death, Louis Marshall wrote a letter to Julius Rosenwald in which traced
the history of the Jewish Theological Seminary, praised its many accomplishments
and expressed his fear that adequate funding would not be available to ensure
the growth of this unique educational institution. (This letter would inspire
Rosenwald to contribute a half million dollars to JTS after Marshall passed
away in September of 1929)
1930: The photo of two
young black being lynched today provided the inspiration for the Abel Meerpol
to compose “Strange Fruit, one of the most haunting jazz ballads of the past
century.”
http://www.npr.org/2012/09/05/158933012/the-strange-story-of-the-man-behind-strange-fruit
1930: Birthdate of historian and author Martin
Baumi Duberman.
https://www.thenation.com/article/martin-duberman-conversation/
1930: Birthdate of
Marvin Pomerantz, the Des Moines, Iowa native who would become a successful
businessman, public benefactor, a friend and adviser to Republican governors
and presidents for four decades, who
twice served as president of the Iowa Board of Regents. He was the eighth of
nine children of Jewish immigrants who came to Iowa from Poland in 1912. In
2006, he published his autobiography entitled The Best I Can Do.
1931: After the death
of Lady Reading, today seventy-one-year-old Rufus Isaacs, 1st Earl of Reading
married thirty-seven Stella Charnaud, who as Stella Isaacs, “Marchioness of
Reading, Baroness Swanborough” devoted her life to philanthropy and public
service including the found of the Women’s Voluntary Service.
1931: “A nationwide
strike of all motor and bus lines in Palestine is scheduled to begin today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1931/08/03/92156691.html?pageNumber=17
1932: In Beirut, Jacob
Safra, “the Lebanese Sephardi Jewish Banker” and his wife Esther gave birth to
“Lebanese Brazilian banker” Edmond J. Safra.
1933(14th
of Av, 5693): Sixty-four-year-old David William Edelman, the native of Los
Angeles and NYU trained physician who became the “chief of staff of the Cedars
of Lebanon Hospital” and “a member of the national committee of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1933/08/07/99837292.pdf
1933:
In Springfield, New Jersey, an unidentified plane flies over an open-air
meeting of United Singers Society and scatters German language pamphlets
protesting against the decision of the Society to prohibit representatives of
the Friends of New Germany from attending its meetings. The Friends of the New
Germany was a pro-Nazi organization formed at the behest of Berlin that would
morph into the German-American Bund. The United Singers Society was a German
organization made up conservatives who are not sympathetic to the Friends of
New Germany. Attendees complained that
the noise of the plane interrupted the community sing-along taking place below.
1934:
“One More River” a drama that was a supplement to the saga about the Forsyth
family, directed by Carl Laemmle was released in the United States today.
1934:
“The Admiral’s Secret,” a comedy featuring Abraham Sofaer as “Don Pablo y
Gonzales” was released today in the United Kingdom.
1935:
“The mayor of the German spa town of Bad Tölz ordered all Jews to leave within
24 hours” while the police closed “a Jewish owned hotel to protect it.”
1936:
“Former New York Governor Alfred E. Smith, Lillian D. Wald and Norman Thomas”
today “endorsed a movement to petition the League of Nations to intercede in
behalf of the oppressed minorities in Germany, according to Sol M. Stroock,
chairman of the American Jewish Committee, who spoke” tonight “over radio
station WMCA on ‘German Persecution Before the League.’”
1936:
“Mass emigration as the solution of Poland’s Jewish problem was advocated by
the Foreign Ministry in a statement issued today by the official Political
Information Agency.
1936:
In Brooklyn, Samuel Gnaizda, “a Jewish immigrant from Russia who became a
pharmacist” and Sandra (Ackerman) Gnaizda, a commercial realtor gave birth
to Columbia graduate Robert Leslie
Gnaizda, the Yale trained attorney “who gained a national reputation defending
the civil and economic rights of the poor and minority groups…” (As reported by
Sam Roberts)
1937(29th of Av, 5697):
Miss Eleanor Septima Cohen, prominent for many years in Jewish and
non-sectarian benevolent activities, died today at a Baltimore hospital at the
age of 79. Her grandfather, Benjamin I. Cohen, was one of the founders and
president of the Baltimore Stock Exchange. A philanthropist who supported
numerous Jewish and non-Jewish causes and institutions, Miss Cohen was a
descendant of Solomon Etting (her great-grandfather) and Jacob I. Cohen (her
great-uncle) who were instrumental in the fight for Jews to obtain religious
rights in Maryland.
1937: Dr. Chaim
Weizmann’s Palestine partition policy gained so much support today at the
Zionist Congress meeting at Zurich that many of its supporters and opponents
believe it has already gained enough votes to ensure that it will be adopted
when voted on this Monday, August 9.
1938(9th of
Av, 5698): Parashat Devarim, Shabbat Chazon, Erev Tish’a B’Av
1938(9th of
Av, 5698) Tobacco dealer Joseph F. Cullman the founder of four generation
“tribe” of tobacco makers that included Joseph Cullman III who turned Phillip
Morris into an industry powerhouse.
1938: Near Hedaria,
several Jewish laborers were wounded when they were fired on by and a band of
Arabs.
1938: “The Nazi regime
expatriated” (banished) Manfred George the German-Jewish author who had fled
his homeland in 1933 living in various countries as an exile until he finally
came to the United States where he the Aufbau “into an important journalistic
voice for the Jewish exile community.”
1938: In Danzig, “the
Gestapo raided a number of hotels, restaurants and cafes and frequented by Hews
and demanded that all present establish their identity and explain their
presence in the Free City.” This was the
first of two nights of what were described as “harsh anti-Jewish measures.
1939: “The Dinah Shore
Show” starring the singer of the same name debuted on NBC Radio. Dinah Shore was the stage name of France Rose
Stein, the Jewish lass from Tennessee who was a graduate of Vanderbilt
University in Nashville.
1940: As more than
12,000 persons stood out in the street, a funeral service was held today for
Vladimir Jabotinsky, author, soldier and world leader of the New Zionist
Organization, at the Gramercy Park Memorial Chapel in New York.
1941(13th of
Av, 5701): Sixty-five-year-old New York City native Herman Hyman, the “retired
furniture manufacturer and wholesale dealer, the founder of Hyman founders who
“had been active in welfare work among needy New York and refugee Jews and was
the husband of Stella Hyman with whom he raised two sons, Bram and Alexander
Hyman, passed away today.
1941: It was reported
today that “no less than ninety-eight ‘Jews and Communists’ were rounded up as
‘accessories to and spiritual authors”’ of the attack on 200 Oustaschi militia,
supporters of the Nazis, on a street in Zagreb
1942: The 5,500 Jews
imprisoned at Gurs whom the French turned over to the Nazis were shipped to
Drancy from where most of them would be sent to their death at Auschwitz.
1942(23rd of Av, 5702):
Sixty-eight-year-old Cincinnati native Millard William Mack, the son of William
and Rebecca Mack, the husband of Lydia Mack and the father of William Jacob
Mack passed away today in Traverse City, Michigan.
1942(23rd of Av, 5702):
Three thousand Jews were slaughtered in the streets of Minsk. One hundred would
escape and form a partisan unit
1942: The Palestine
Regiment consisting of, three Palestinian Jewish battalions and one Palestinian
Arab battalion was officially formed as part of the British military armed
forces. Despite the efforts by the British to enlist an equal number of Jews and
Arabs into the Palestine Regiment, three times more Jews volunteered than
Arabs. Arab reluctance and Jewish enthusiasms accounts for the numerical
disparity. At the time of its formation, the Regiment was principally involved
in guard duties in Egypt and North Africa. The British also wanted to undermine
efforts of Hajj Amin al-Husayni who successfully drummed up Arab support for
the Axis Powers against the Allies.
1943: In Vilna, over a
dozen Jews were shot as they attempted to resist deportation orders.
1943(5th of
Av,5703): Seventy-one-year-old Isaac Aaron Levin the Lithuanian born son of Aba
Ascher Levin and Golda Reizel Margolis and the husband of Rachel Levin passed
away today in Baltimore, MD
1944: The United Jewish
Appeal for Refugees, Overseas Needs and Palestine announced today that as part
of a large-scale program in behalf of the Jews in the Balkans special measures
are being taken by the organization’s agencies to save as many as possible of
the 400,000 Jews remaining in Hungary.”
1945: The Atomic Bomb
named Little Boy is dropped on Hiroshima.
The “Jewish Bomb” as some call it hastened the end of the war and save
the lives of untold numbers of Allied soldiers and sailors who would have died
during an invasion of Japan as well as the millions of lives of Japanese who
would have also died. Without the work
of Oppenheimer, et al, the war would have lasted anywhere from three to five
years longer. (It was August 5 in the United States.
1946(9th of Av, 5706):
Tish'a B'Av
1946: Leonard Bernstein
conducted American premiere of Britten's Peter Grimes, BMC.
1946: In New York City
Professor Irene Golden Dash and greeting card published Martin Dash gave birth
to historian Deborah Dash Moore whose “GI Jews: How World War II Changed a
Generation was “awarded the Saul Viener Prize for Best Book in American
Jewish History.”
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/moore-debra-dash
1946: Gabriel Charitos
is elected First Mayor of a free Rhodes, after 600 years of occupation.
1946: Acting Secretary
of State Dean Acheson “said at a press conference that the American members of
the Joint Committee of Inquiry on Palestine would meet tomorrow with the
Cabinet Committee on Palestine and the deputies for the Cabinet members who recently
were recalled from London by President Truman after Henry F. Grady chairman of
the deputies had gone along with the British views that immediate admission of
displaced European Jews could not be considered separately from the long range
problems of Palestine.”
1947(20th of
Av, 5707): Seventy-nine-year-old U. of CA. School of Pharmacy graduate William Lewis Gerstle, the California born
son of Lewis and Hannah Gerstle who was President of the San Francisco Chamber
of Comere and President of the San Francisco Art Association passed away today.
1947: In Eccles,
England, “Magistrate J.H. Chapman today sentenced 38-year-old Jack PIggot to
six months in prison for damage a shop window in a demonstration against Jews,
telling the defendant that “we cannot find any excuse for this anti-Jewish
demonstrations” which “are both un-British and unpatriotic.”
1948(1st of
Av, 5708): Rosh Chodesh Av
1948(1st of
Av, 5708): Russian born author Dr. Ben M. Edidin, the hold of a Doctor of
Education degree from the University of Buffalo who “worked for the Tel Aviv
Board of Education from 1935 to 1937” and was the husband of “former Dorothy
Edelman with whom he had a daughter, Judith” passed away today while serve as
the “assistant director of the Jewish Education Committee of New York.”
1949(11th of
Av, 5709): Shabbat Nachamu (A theme of comfort seems appropriate as Israel
begins its second year and the DP camps are still filled five years after the
war had ended)
1949: “Six or seven
persons were killed and twenty-seven injured in the bombing of a synagogue in Damascus, Syria, by
terrorists believed to have been demonstrating against the Palestine peace
negotiations conducted by the United Nations Conciliation Commission in
Lausanne, Switzerland.”
1951: Funeral services
are scheduled to be held this afternoon for Thomas Goldstein, “the brother of
Edith Wolff.”
1952(15th of
Av, 5712): Tu B’Av
1952: Foreign Minister
Moshe Sharett denied that Israel was constructing air bases for atomic
bombs on its soil and that it had agreed in the past, or will agree in the
future, to serve a foreign power for such purposes.
1952: Over 500 members
of the World Assembly of Jewish Choirs turned Jerusalem into a city of song.
1952: The first English
draft of the text of the agreement between Israel and West Germany was drawn up
and agreed to at The Hague. Israel announced that a special German Goods
Purchasing Commission would be appointed as soon as the Jewish negotiating team
returned from The Hague. The issues of reparations from the Germans and
diplomatic relations between the two governments were two of the most
contentious items confronting Israeli and Jewish society.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/08/09/86670370.html?pageNumber=2
1957(9th of Av, 5717):
Tish’a B’Av
1957: “Sources close to
the Imperial Chemical Industries, chief source of Israel’s chemical imports,
said today that despite recently renewed heavy Arab pressures to stop
operations in Israel, the company is continuing business in the Jewish State
and the Israeli branch had no reason to expect a change in policy.” (JTA)
1958: After having been
confirmed by the Senate, today fifty-year old Cincinnati native and University
of Cincinnati trained attorney Isaac Jack Martin received his commission as to
serve as an associate justice on the United States Court of Customs and Patent
Appeals
1959(2nd of Av, 5719):
Salman Schocken passed away at Pontresina, Switzerland. Born in 1877 in
Margonin, Province of Posen, German Empire (today Poland) , he was a German
Jewish publisher and businessman. Salman Schocken was the son of Jewish
shopkeeper in Posen. In 1901, he went to Zwickau, a German town in southwest
Saxony, to help run a department store owned by his brother, Simon. Together
they built up the business and established a chain of stores all over Germany.
In Chemnitz and Stuttgart, Schocken commissioned the German Jewish architect
Erich Mendelsohn to build branches of the Kaufhaus Schocken. In 1915 Schocken
was co-founder of the Zionist journal Der Jude (with Martin Buber). After
Simon's death in 1929 Salman Schocken became sole owner of the firm. The same
year, in which Schocken's friend Franz Rosenzweig also died, 1929 he
established the Schocken Institute for Research on Jewish Poetry. In 1931, he
founded the publishing company Schocken Verlag, which reprinted the recently
completed Buber-Rosenzweig translation of the Bible.In 1934, after the rise of
Nazism, Schocken left Germany for Palestine. In 1940, he settled in the United
States. In Jerusalem, he built the Schocken Library, also designed by Erich
Mendelsohn. He was a board member of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and
bought the newspaper Haaretz, which is still owned by his family. He also
founded Schocken Publishing House Ltd. and opened another branch in New York
(Schocken Books). The Nazis forced him to sell his German enterprises to Merkur
AG but he managed to recover some of his property after the war. Schocken
became the patron of Shmuel Yosef Agnon when he was a struggling writer in
Palestine. Recognizing Agnon's literary talent, Schocken paid him a stipend
that relieved him of financial worries and allowed him to devote himself to
writing (Agnon went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature).
1960(13th of
Av, 5720): Parashat Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu
1960: Bar Mitzvah of David Levin at Adas Israel in
Washington, D.C. – the words of Isaiah never sounded so sweet! This was the
first time that a large group of adults got a chance to be dazzled by his voice
and skill. Sixty years later, he is
still dazzling us. This also marked the
first Bar Mitzvah at Adas Israel that was officiated by Rabbi Stanley
Rabinowitz.
1960(13th of
Av, 5720: Fifty-six-year-old Has Vogelstein, “the former president of American
Metal Climax” and a former governor of the New York Commodity Exchange who
began his career in the metal industry after arriving from Germany in 1923 and
who raised a son John with his wife the former Ruth Krieger while serving as a
trustee of Temple Emanu-El, passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/08/08/99774847.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1964: In Washington, D.C.,
“The House Appropriation Committee today approved a bill releasing more than
$3,500,000 in Israeli pounds sterling for distribution among scores of Israeli
cultural organizations.”
1964: Yves-Andre Istel,
the Paris born son of Andre and Yvonne (Cremieux) Istel and Princeton educated
economist Yves-Andre Istel, who worked with Kuhn Loeb and Company, Lehman
Brothers and Rothschild, Inc. married the former Nancy Lazarus today.
1965(8th of
Av, 5725): Eighty-three-year-old Lee B. Foster, associate board chairman and
former president and board chairman of the L.B. Foster Company who was a director of the Montefiore Hospital
and a member of the Board of the YM-YWHA passe away today in Pittsburgh.
1965: President Lyndon
B. Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The passage of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Right Act of 1964
marked one of the high-water marks in the battle for equal rights for all
Americans regardless of race, religion, national origin and sex. Both of these landmark laws were supported by
Jewish voters, communal leaders and elected officials.
1967(29th of Tammuz,
5727): Seventy-one-year-old Russian born Benjamin Tabachinsky, a leading
American critic of Soviet policies toward Jews, whose first wife Kreindl and
son Samuel were killed during the Holocaust and who was the husband of Nadia
Tabachinsky and executive secretary of the Jewish Labor Committee passed away
today.
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2016/09/benyomen-tabatshinski-benjamin.html
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/08/08/83629386.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1967: Birthdate of
sportscaster David Greenberg
1968(12th of
Av, 5728): Eighty-three-year-old Columbia law school graduate Leonard
Wallstein, the holder of several governmental positions that required the
utmost integrity including Commissioner of Accounts under Mayor Mitchell,
“special assistant corporation counsel under Mayor Walker and head of the legal
staff under Robert Moses and the husband of Olive Rose Wallstein with whom he
had “three sons, Leonard M. Jr, Robert R. and William C.” passed away today in
New York City.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/08/07/76959862.pdf
1968: Four days after
he had passed away memorial services are scheduled to be held this afternoon
“at the Forum Theatre in Lincoln Center” for sixty-nine year old Rochester, NY,
native Jacob Robert Cominsky, the “publisher of the Saturday Reviews and vice
president of its part concern McCall Corporation.”
1969: “Eighteen Soviet
Georgian Jewish families” made an appeal to the United Nations calling “for
their right to leave the Soviet Union.”
1969(22nd of Av, 5729):
A month before his 66th birthday, Theodor W. Adorno, passed away.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/adorno/
1970: Elimelekh Rimalt
completed his service as the Minister of Postal Services in Israel.
1971(15th of
Av, 5731): In one of those ironies of the calendar Tu B’av, the holiday about
love, was celebrated on the day before Shabbat Nachamu – the Sabbath of
Comfort.
1972: Woody Allen’s
comedic film “Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex But Were Afraid to
Ask” based on a book by David Ruben was released today in the United States.
1973(8th of
Av, 5733): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1973: Birthdate of
Bronx native Max Kellerman, boxing commentator and sports talk radio host who
is the husband of the former Erin Manning with whom he had three daughters -
“Esther, Sam and Mira.”
1974(18th of
Av, 5734): Memphis native Henry Jacques Gaisman who made part of his fortune
from his inventions related to the safety razor passed away today at the age of
104 after which he was buried at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, NY.
http://www.safetyrazors.net/DEBladePage.htm
1976(10th of Av, 5736):
Seventy-three-year-old Russian born American cellist Gregor Piatigorsky passed
away today.
http://www.cello.org/cnc/piat.htm
1976: Kenya and Uganda
“formally agreed…to end their state of belligerency and resume normal
relations.” The strained relations came
following Israel’s rescue mission at Entebbe in which the Ugandans claimed the
Kenyans had played an active role.
1977: The United States
officially disclosed that the nuclear facilities in the US were unable to trace
more than 3,000 kilograms of highly enriched uranium and plutonium. A number of
American newspapers speculated that the minerals might have found their way to
Israel.
1977: Today, while
attending Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute, Franklin and Marshall College
graduate Lance Jonathan Sussman, the son of WW II war hero Charles Sussman and
German refugee Freda Sacki Sussman, married “Elizabeth “Liz” Zeller” in Rye, NY.
1978: Eighty-year-old
Pope Paul VI who visited Israel in 1964 and who is remembered for “the impetus
he gave to a continuation of the Catholic Church’s rapprochement with Judaism
initiated by the late Pope John, and his personal encouragement and support of
the Guidelines for the implementation of Nostra Aetate No. 4, a document that
holds promise of a new era in Catholic-Jewish relations” passed away today.
1979(13th of
Av, 5739): Just a week before his 66th birthday Austrian born, American Jewish stage,
film and television actor Kurt Kaszner, the U.S. Army trained photographer who
was one of the first to film Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the dropping of the
Atomic bomb passed away today.
1982: As Israeli forces
continue fighting in Lebanon, the administration in Washington has high hopes
that Philip Habib will be successful in his efforts to get the PLO to leave
Lebanon, but at the same time Vice President Bush said that “the PLO must withdraw
promptly.”
1982: It was reported
today that Knesset Speaker Menachem Savidor told a delegation of “North
American women leaders” that “Israel has a nuclear option, but it will not be
the first country to introduce such weapons in the Middle East because of its
moral views.” (JTA)
1984(8th of
Av, 5744): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1985:
Thomas R. Pickering presented his credentials as U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1986: In London, at the Almeida Theatre, the curtain came
down on a revival of the Kurt Weill musical “Johnny Johnson.”
1986: Bernard Lewis publisheg his seminal work Semites and
Anti-Semites, which explores modern anti-Semitism in the Arab world.
1986(1st of Av, 5746): Rosh Chodesh Av
1986: Birthdate of Lod native Natan Goshen, the Israeli
musician whose first “Kol Ma Sheyesh Li” was released in 2011/
1986: The Israeli Supreme Court upheld the pardon given
to Shin Bet chief Avraham Shalom, in connection with the “300 Bus Affair.”
1990: The funeral for philanthropist Lucy Goldschmidt
Moses who passed away at the age of 103 is scheduled to take place this
afternoon at Temple Emanu-El.
1991(26th of Av, 5751): Eighty-five-year-old
violinist and viola player Max Rostal passed away today.
http://www.mtv.com/artists/max-rostal/biography/
http://pronetoviolins.blogspot.com/2011/06/max-rostal.html
1995(10th of Av, 5755): Tish’a B’Av
1998(14th of Av, 5758): Ninety-two-year-old
mathematician André Abraham Weil, the French born son of Salomea Reinherz and
Dr. Bernard Bernhard Weil passed away today.
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Weil.html
1998: On the day before
Tu B’Av, former White House intern Monica Lewinsky spent 8 1/2 hours testifying
before a grand jury about her relationship with President Bill Clinton.
1998: Robert D. Sack,
“the son of Eugene Sack, who served as rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim for 35
years” began serving as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the
Second Circuit today.
1990: Funeral services
are held at Temple Emanu-El for philanthropist Lucy Goldschmidt Moses
1991(26th of Av, 5751):
Eighty-five-year-old Austrian born British violinist whose pupils included
Yifrah Neaman and Edith Peinemann and who” played in a piano trio with Heinz
Schröter and Gaspar Cassadó passed away today.
1995(10th of Av, 5755):
Since the 9th of Av fell on Shabbat today Tish'a B'Av is observed.
1995:
Seventy-two-year-old German born George Washington University Law graduate
Harold Herman Green begins serving as “Senior Judge of the United States
District Court for the District of Columbia.
1998: Castle Hill,
which included a mansion designed by Chicago architect David Adler was
designated today as a National Historic Landmark.
1998: “Tango” an
Argentine-Spanish film with music by Lalo Schifrin was released in Argentina
today.
1999: “The Iron Giant”
an animated science fiction film starring Eli Marienthal and with music by
Michael Kamen was released today in the United States.
2000: The New York Times book section featured
reviews of In Search of Deep Throat:
The Greatest Political Mystery of Our Time by Leonard Garment, one
of a handful of Jews who worked for Richard Nixon, The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish
Suffering by Norman G. Finkelstein, Benjamin Zucker's first novel, Blue
which is at once a spiritual challenge and a gorgeous typographical object.
Echoing the style of the Talmud, the book presents a continuing narrative in
the center of each right-hand page, where a passage from the Mishna -- ancient
commentary on the Torah -- would ordinarily be placed.
2001: President George
W. Bush receives President's Daily Briefing entitled Bin Ladin Determined To
Strike in US and does nothing in response.
It will be left to future historians to determine if a response might
have avoided the first successful attack on Washington, D.C. since the British
burned the city in 1814. To paraphrase
Elie Weisel, the only thing we know for sure is that now the world knows what
it feels like to be Jewish in the worst sense of that term.
2001(17th of
Av, 5761): Eighty-one-year-old Harry Abramson, the Berlin, NH, born son of
Hyman and Ida Abramson passed away today.
2001(17th of Av, 5761):
Yitzhak Snir, 51, of Ra'anana, an Israeli diamond merchant, was shot dead in
Amman, in the yard of the building where he kept a flat. His body was found the
following morning
2002: The 18th
European Athletics Championships during which Israeli Ayele Seteng “ran one his
first marathons” opened today.
2003(8th of
Av, 5763): Erev Tisha B’Av
2003: Without making
any further demands, “Israel today released more than 330 Palestinian prisoners
who were hugged, kissed and hoisted onto the shoulders of friends and relatives
who greeted them at checkpoints in the West Bank and the entrance to the Gaza
Strip.”
2003: “The Palestinian
Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, today canceled talks… with his Israeli
counterpart, Ariel Sharon, to protest a planned release of Palestinian
prisoners as a damaging diplomatic stunt, Palestinian officials said.” (As
reported by James Bennet)
2004: FOX broadcast the
final episode of the “The Jury” produced by Barry Levinson who also played the
role of “Judge Horatio Hawthorne/.”
2005(1st of Av, 5765):
Rosh Chodesh Av
2005: In Cedar Rapids,
despite summer vacations and a myriad of other distractions, the small Jewish
community at Temple Judah mustered more than a minyan for the Traditional
Shabbat morning services.
2006(12th of
Av, 5766): Ninety-year-old Esther Abraham, who was the first Miss India when
she won the crown in 1947 and whose cinema fans knew her as Pramila passed away
today.
http://b-inet.com/sammy/indian-jewish-actors/
2006 12th of Av, 5766):
Fifteen Israelis are killed by Hezbollah rocket attacks. Among them were the
following twelve soldiers:
Sgt. Gregory Aharonov, 34, of Or Akiva,
moved to Israel from the Ukraine in 1991. Despite concerns about serving,
Aharanov obliged when he was called up. Aharanov was named after his
grandfather who died, also at the age of 34, in World War One. Aharanov was the
manager of a cosmetics factory and is survived by his wife, two children,
parents and older sisters. He was laid to rest at
Sgt.-Maj. Marian
Berkowitz,
of Ashdod, was called up Wednesday and has a younger brother who is currently
serving in Lebanon. Friends described him as fun loving and that he "loved
challenges." Berkowitz is survived by his parents and two brothers. He was
laid to rest at
CWO Yosef Karkash, 41, of Afula, met
with Shlomo Buchris, his cousin and fellow reservist, early Sunday. Later that
day, both cousins were killed by the Katyusha. Relatives are devastated, and
were quoted as saying that they "don't know which family to visit and console
first." Karkash is survived by his wife and two daughters. He was laid to
rest at
Sgt.-Maj. Ro'i Yaish, 27, of Herzliya got
his call up order last week. "He loved his motorcycle," friends said.
"You couldn't touch his bike or his helmet. Whenever we heard his bike, we
knew he was coming and everyone would get excited." Ro'i is survived by
his parents and three brothers. Ro'i was laid to rest at
Despite being recently
hurt in a field trip to the Judean Desert, St.-Sgt. Yehuda Greenfeld,
27, of Maale Michmas, was called to duty. Greenfeld leaves behind a two and a
half year old daughter and a four month old son. Greenfled is survived by his
wife and two kids, along with his parents and five brothers. He was laid to
rest at
St.-Sgt. Shaul Shai
Michlowitz,
21, of Netanya, had finished his army service three months ago, and was waiting
for his request to serve additional time as a career soldier to be authorized.
Instead, he received an emergency call-up order last week. Shaul is survived by
his parents and two sisters. He was buried at
St.-Sgt.Maj. Daniel
Ben-David,
38, of Moshav Ahituv, volunteered to join fellow paratroopers in Lebanon,
despite his family's objections. Ben-David was described by a neighbor as
"always laughing and hugging" and as someone who "loved to help
people." Ben-David is survived by his wife and three children. He was
buried at
Warr.Ofc. Shmuel Halfon, 41, of Bat Yam, was
called up two weeks ago, only to be told that he could return home last week.
One day after he went home, Halfon was called up again. Family members said
that Halfon loved the army and liked serving reserve duty. Halfon left behind three
sons, one of whom is 11 months old. Halfon is survived by his wife and three
sons. He was laid to rest at
Sgt.-Maj. Ziv Balali, 28, of Kfar Sava, was
about to celebrate his 29th birthday next month. Ziv recently completed a
degreee in Middle East Studies. He is survived by his parents and sister. He
was laid to rest at
St.-Sgt.Maj. Shlomo
Buchris,
36, of Moshav Sde Yitzchak, reassured his brother that while other troops had
gone into Lebanon, he had not yet entered and was fine. Just a short time
later, Buchris was killed. Buchris was named after his father, who fell in the
Six Day war.
He was buried at
F.-Sgt. Mordechai
Abutbul,
28, of Shlomi who was buried at
Captain Eliyahu
Elkariaf,
34, of Moshav Granot. He will be laid to rest on Tuesday at
2006: Surprisingly, the
Chicago Tribune published an op-ed
article by David Memet entitled, “Bigotry Pins Blame on Jews.”
2006: The Sunday New York Times features
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Spoiling For A Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer by Brooke A.
Masters and Richard Hofstadter: An
Intellectual Biography by
David S. Brown. (Hofstadter’s father was Jewish.)
2006: Anglo-Jewish
author Michael Rosen was the subject of the BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs
program.
2006: The WorldPride
which was scheduled to be held today in Jerusalem did not take place due to the
conflict being fought in response to attacks on Israel by Hezbollah.
2007: In “Climates” which appeared in The New
Republic, Leon Wieseltier, takes issue with the behavior and media
treatment of the “super-rich” citing specifically Sanford Weill and “the
obscene Stephen Schwarzman, who is very bad for the Jews.”
2007: The New Republic published a review of Jesus
in the Talmud by Peter Schafer.
2007(22nd of Av, 5767):
Mose Fishman, who as a 21-year-old from New York fought Fascists in Spain with
the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, passed away at the age of 91.
2007: At a meeting in
the synagogue of the Novominsker Rebbe, more than a dozen religious
heavyweights – including Rabbi Aryeh Kotle and Rabbi David Zwiebel – consider
evidence that that chickens may have been mistreated in past Kapparot
ceremonies and acknowledged that the problem rose to a level that could violate
rabbinic law. After the conference, the
rabbis collectively issued a call for members of the community to clean up the
process during this year’s holiday season.
2008: “Pineapple
Express” co-produced by Judd Apatow, with a screenplay by Evan Goldberg and
Seth Rogen, one of the film’s stars and featuring Connie Sawyer was released
today in the United States.
2008: After a meeting
today between Prime Minister Ehud Omert and Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas, officials from both sides announced that Israel will release about 150
Palestinian prisoners at the end of the month as a gesture to President Abbas.
2008: “Pineapple
Express,” a comedy produced by Judd Apatow and written by Evan Goldberg and
Seth Rogen who also starred in the film was released today in the United
States.
2009(16th of
Av, 5769): Ninety-three-year-old Dutch real estate tycoon whose parents and
brothers were murdered in a Nazi concentration camp passed away today.
http://www.dutchamsterdam.nl/726-maup-caransa-dead
2009: In Jerusalem Beit
Avi Chai presents Part 4 of “Symbolically Speaking": Visual images of
Israel, Hebrew culture, Zionism, and Judaism in which art scholar Dr. Gideon
Ofrat traces the course of five icons of Jewish art until they reached Israeli
galleries, thereby telling the story of modern Hebrew culture with its hopes
and disappointments, highs and lows.
2009: Final night of
the Israeli Wine Tasting Festival at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
2009: Funeral is held
for Amos Kenan at a Kibbutz in central Israel.
2009: Voting closes for
the selection of those who will appear in the Only In America Gallery of the
National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, PA.
2009: Robert David
Sack, the son of Rabbi Eugene Sack took senior status as Judge of the United
States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
http://www.law.columbia.edu/fac/Robert_Sack
2009: Israel's largest
political party, Kadima, shut down its official Web site today, claiming it had
been infiltrated by Palestinian hackers..
2009: A Cobb, GA rabbi
is seeking to declare Georgia’s Kosher Food Labeling Act unconstitutional,
saying it de-legitimizes interpretations of “kosher” by different Jewish
communities. Shalom Lewis, rabbi of Congregation Etz Chaim, filed suit today in
Fulton County Superior Court. He is represented by the American Civil Liberties
Union, the ACLU of Georgia and Atlanta law firm King and Spalding. The Kosher
Food Labeling Act, enacted in 1980, mandates that any food sold as kosher must
meet “orthodox Hebrew religious rules and requirements.” Lewis, a conservative
Jew, said he cannot fulfill his rabbinical duties because his theological
interpretation of the state’s kosher laws differs from that of Orthodox
Judaism. He said he violates state law when he approves some foods as kosher
that are not kosher under Orthodox definitions. According to the lawsuit, for
example, there are disagreements between the Orthodox and Conservative Jewish
communities as to whether swordfish and sturgeon may be eaten under dietary laws.
The same is true for many dairy products and wines, the suit said. Lewis also
said the state should not endorse one religious group’s beliefs over another.
“It’s an intrusion into the separation of church and state clause.” A state
Attorney General’s Office spokesman declined comment. Orthodox are among the
more traditional Jews. Conservative Jews are more open to change than
Orthodoxy. About one in three American Jews belong to a Conservative synagogue,
according to the 2000-2001 National Jewish Population Survey. About one in five
are Orthodox.
2010: In Omaha,
Nebraska, the JCC Maccabi Games are scheduled to come to an end.
2010: In Springfield,
VA, a Wine and Cheese Reception is scheduled to take place at Adat Reim prior
to Friday night Shabbat services.
2010: According to a
report by London-based Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat the Israel Security
Agency (Shin Bet) head Yuval Diskin met with Egyptian officials today to
discuss the Grad rockets fired at Eilat and Aqaba earlier this week. Cairo
officials have been searching for two trucks that were used in the firing of
the Grad rockets. The newspaper hinted that head of Egyptian Intelligence, Omar
Suleiman, was present at the meeting.
2010: CNN host Fareed
Zakaria has returned an award to the Anti-Defamation League over the group's
opposition to building a mosque near Ground Zero. Zakaria, also a Newsweek
columnist, had received the Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize
in 2005
2010(26th Av,
5770): Sixty-two-year-old Tony Judt, a highly praised and
controversial historian who wrote with sharp persistence about the changing
world at large and the tragic world within - the fatal disease that paralyzed
him - died today at his home in New York City. (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/books/08judt.html?pagewanted=all
2011: “In Heaven Underground: The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery a film that
provides “A lush, surprising and utterly absorbing journey into the lively
stories hidden among the tombstones, pathways and woodlands of the Weissensee
Jewish Cemetery, which has been in continuous operation in Berlin for 130
years,” is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2011(6th of Av): At Shabbat Chazon services in Cedar Rapids,
congregants celebrated the second anniversary of Todd Thalblum, as Rabbi at
Temple Judah with a special Kiddush.
2011: More
than 250,000 people took part in demonstrations across Israel tonight to
protest the high cost of living. The biggest demonstration took place in Tel
Aviv where more than 200,000 marched from Habima Square, near the tent city on
Rothschild Boulevard, to the Kirya defense compund on Kaplan Street
2012: Athletic competition is scheduled to begin today at the Maccabi Games
in Memphis, TN after opening ceremonies were held yesterday.
2012: AACI
- Association of Americans & Canadians in Israel- is scheduled to present a
program commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Raoul
Wallenberg at the Dr. Max and Gianna Glassman Family Center in Jerusalem
featuring a special message from Raoul Wallenberg's niece Louise von Dardel
2012: Two
Kassam rockets hit the Hof Ashkelon region today. The rockets exploded in an
open area and there were no reports of injury or damage.
2012(18th of Av, 5772): Sixty-eight-year-old Pulitzer Prize
winning composer Marvin Hamlisch passed away today. (As reported by Rob
Hoerburger)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/arts/music/marvin-hamlisch-composer-dies-at-68.html?_r=1&hp
http://www.marvinhamlisch.com/
2012(18th of Av, 5772): Eighty-nine-year-old R. Peter Straus,
the son of Nathan Straus Jr. and Helen Sachs Straus, “who took over WMCA in New
York in the late 1950s and turned it into one of the nation’s most innovative
radio stations, broadcasting what are regarded as the first radio editorials and
political endorsements and helping to popularize rock ’n’ roll” passed away
today (As reported by Robert McFadden)
2012: Representatives
of the families of 11 Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 Olympics attacked
International Israeli Olympic Committee Chairman Dr. Jacques Rogge at a
memorial event in London.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=280317
2012: The
Tel Aviv City Council rejected a proposal to include Arabic on the city's
official emblem
2013:
“Closed Season,” a film about a young German student who visits a holocaust
survivor in Israel is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film
Festival.
2013:
The fans of Faye Kellerman are filled with excitement and anticipation as The
Beast, the latest in the Decker/Lazarus novels arrives at book stores
across the country.
2013(30th
of Av, 5773): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2013:
“The Wall Street Journal published an
opinion piece by Ted Koppel entitle ‘America’s Chronic Overreaction to
Terrorism’”
2013(30th
of Av, 5773): Eighty-six-year-old Jerry Wolman the former owner of the
Philadelphia Eagles football team and the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team
passed away today. (As reported by Richard Goldstein)
http://www.jewishexponent.com/jerry-wolman-86-former-eagles-owner
2013:
Zygi “Wilf, along with his brother and cousin, were found liable by a New
Jersey court for breaking civil state racketeering laws and keeping separate
accounting books to fleece former business partners of shared revenue” leading
the judge award “the two business partner plaintiffs Ada Reichmann and Josef
Halpern $84.5 million in compensatory damages, punitive damages and interest
that the Wilfs must pay.:
2013:
Beginning this morning, passengers traveling on Dan’s #5 bus line in Tel Aviv
may suddenly encounter a much quieter and cleaner ride, aboard the country’s
first fully electric – and vibrantly orange – bus. (As reported by Sharon
Udasin)
2013: A poll released
today “by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University, found that 63
percent of Jews in Israel oppose a withdrawal to the 1967 lines with land swaps
as part of any peace arrangement with the Palestinian Authority, even if it
meant Israel would hold onto the Etzion Bloc, directly south of Jerusalem;
Ma’aleh Adumim, east of the capital; and Ariel in the central West Bank about
34 kilometers (21 miles) east of Tel Aviv. (As reported by Asher Zeiger)
2013: “Rabbi Artur
Ovadia Isakov, the Chabad rabbi shot in a likely terrorist attack in southern
Russia has been discharged from an Israeli hospital after recovering from
surgery to repair his live. One or more terrorists shot him in the chest as he
was getting out of his car near his home.” (As reported by Jewish Press)
2014: Annual
commemoration of the role the Jews of Corfu played in defending the island
against the Turks during the invasion in 1716.
2014: Dr. Diane M.
Sharon is scheduled to begin teaching a four week course, “Biblical Temptress:
Sacred or Scandalous?”
2014: Tomasz Jankowski
a freelance genealogist specializing in Jewish genealogy and founder of Jewish
Family Search is scheduled to present “Legal and Practical Aspects of
Genealogical Research in Galicia (Poland and Ukraine)” at the Center for Jewish
History.
2014: “Israel has
reportedly agreed to extend the current ceasefire in Gaza Strip today as
indirect Israel-Palestinian negotiations over extending a truce in Gaza got
underway in Cairo. However, Hamas was quick to deny the reports, saying it will
renew fire at Israel as soon as the current lull has ended.” (As reported by
Roy Kais)
2014: According to a
poll published today, more Israelis believe Hamas emerged victorious in
Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip than think that Israel did” (As
reported by Gil Hoffman)
2014: A school bus
driving children home from three Jewish private schools in Sydney, Australia
today was boarded by eight drunk men who proceeded to yell “Heil Hitler” and
“Kill the Jews,” threatening to cut the children’s throats before disembarking
(As reported by Stephanie Butnick)
2015:
The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host the Camp
Omanoot Performance: "Fiddler on the Roof"
2015:
The stolen Stradivarius violin was returned to Roman Totenberg’s daughters
today, after which Nina Totenberg said "we’re going to make sure that it’s
in the hands of another great artist who will play it in concert halls all over
the world.”
2015:
“The Train,” a “short film in which Eli Wallach made his final cinema
appearance playing the role of “a holocaust survivor who in a meeting teaches a
self-consume and pre-occupied young man that life can change in a moment”
premiered today at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
2015:
Larry and Mindy are scheduled to sing “Simon & Garfunkel” tonight at Café
Yaffo.
2015:
The Historic 6th & I Synagogue is scheduled to host “An Evening
with Delta Spirit & Friends.”
2016:
“From a Dacha Wall, a Clue to Raoul Wallenberg’s Cold War Fate” published today
described how “newly published diaries” hidden in the wall of a Russian estate
provide evidence the Swedish diplomat was murdered by the Soviets.
2016:
“The Writer” and “Baba Joon” are scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco
Jewish Film Festival.
2016(2nd
of Av, 5776): Parashat Matot-Masei – Completion of Bamidbar
http://www.jtsa.edu/jts-torah-online?parashah=2060¶shah=2061 or http://www.chabad.org/parshah/default_cdo/aid/52599/jewish/Matot-Massei.htm
2017:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Best Minds of My Generation: A Literary History of the Beats by
Allen Ginsberg and recently published paperback editions of I’m Supposed to
Protect You From All This: A Memoir by Nadja Spiegelman, East West Street:
On the Origins of “Genocide” and “Crimes Against Humanity” by Philippe Sands
and Hot Milk by Deborah Levy.
2017(14th
of Av, 5777): Eight-seven-year-old Canadian “commercial real estate” mogul Jack
Rabinovitch who is best known for creating the Giller Prize, Canada’s
pre-eminent English language award, which was his way of honoring the memory of
his “second wife Doris Giller” passed away today. (As reported by Ian Austen)
2017:
“After Auschwitz: The Stories of Six Women,” the documentary that opens with
the word “You’re free. Go home” is scheduled to be shown at the Illinois
Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
2017:
“Charlemagne Palestine’s Bear Mitzvah in Meshugahland” is scheduled to come to
an end at the Jewish Museum.
http://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/charlemagne-palestine-bear-mitzvah-in-meshugahland
2017:
The exhibition “500 Years of Treasures From Oxford” is scheduled to come to a
close at the Yeshiva University Museum.
2017:
“The Arcades: Contemp”orary Art and Walter Benjamin” is scheduled to come to a
close at the Jewish Museum.
http://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-arcades-contemporary-art-and-walter-benjamin
2017:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host a Tu B’Av celebration
this evening at the Center for Jewish History
2018:
“Classical Bridge, an international musical festival, academy and conference
designed to build bridges through music” featuring “Israeli musicians Pinchas
Zuckerman and Alexander Fiterstein” is scheduled to continue for a third day.
2018:
JW3 is scheduled to host a screening this evening in London of “Generation of
Wealth.”
2018:
Prime Minister Netanyahu will not be traveling to Columbia today so that he can
be in Israel in case his support is needed for a cease fire in Gaza that is
reportedly being negotiated by the United Nations. (As reported by Maayan
Lubell)
2019:
The 1961 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II Drophead Coupe, a convertible which
Elizabeth Taylor got as part of the settlement when she divorced Eddie Fisher
(Jew v Jew) is scheduled to be auctioned off in New York today.
2019:
The citizens of Dayton, OH a city with a Jewish population of 5,000 that dates
back to the 1840’s and which boast a Jewish Community Complex, struggle to deal
with the latest “mass shooting.”
2019:
As the number of fatalities of the El Paso mass shooting continues to grow,
Rabbi Stephen Leon expressed his sympathy and support for the victims and the
Hispanic population which was the target of the shooter.
https://jewishelpaso.org/el-paso
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/el-paso
2020: Urban Adamah is scheduled to host a virtual
community song circle led by former fellow Anna Cone.
2020: The 11th annual Axelrod Israel Jewish
Film is scheduled to host a screening of “An Impossible Love.”
2020: “B’nai Jeshurun Congregation is scheduled to host
“Ethical & Ritual Issues Through the Lens of Conservative Jewish Law with
Rabbi Stephen Weiss”
2020: The Webinar “The Ongoing Fight Against Antisemitism
in the UK: A Conversation with Lord John Mann,” the United Kingdom Government’s
Independent Adviser on Antisemitism and the former head of the All-Party
Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism” is scheduled to begin today at noon
EDT.
2020: Congregation Beth Emek, the Jewish Community Library
and East Bay JCC are scheduled to present a virtual “Intergenerational Book
Club” during which “writer-teacher Dan Schifrin will lead a discussion of
Michael David Lukas’ novel The Oracle of Stamboul, and the theme of
intergenerational wisdom.
2020: HBO is scheduled to host the first screening of “An
American Pickle” starring Seth Rogen.
2020: The Breman Museum in partnership with the Savannah
Jewish Federation, Savannah Jewish Educational Alliance, and the Southern
Jewish Historical Society are scheduled Rabbi Bailey Romano speaking on
“Weathering the Storm: Rabbi’s Responses in Times of Crisis.”
2020: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host
Children’s Storytime with a reading of The Name of the Tree.
2020: In London, LSJS is scheduled the first session of
“Lovers in the Bible with Lindsay Simmonds.
2020: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host the
webinar “What’s So Funny About America?” with Alan Zweibel and Judd Apatow
2020: Based on reports published yesterday, Israel is
working with the U.N. to transfer medical supplies to Lebanon following the
catastrophic explosion that has devastated much of Beirut.
2021: In Framingham, MA, Temple Beth Sholom is scheduled
to host “Park and Pray” – “a casual, sometimes lively, sometimes spiritual
Friday night service.”
2021: Chabad of Santa Clarais scheduled to present the
opening of a three-day getaway at a cabin in the Sierras that “includes hiking,
happiness workshops, meditation, art, meals and Shabbat dinner, plus a
mindfulness coach.”
2021: Based on reports published yesterday, as of today,
the future behavior of the 1.8 million Israelis over the age of 12 who are
eligible for a coronavirus vaccine but have refused to take it will be a key
determinate in whether or not Israel is lockdown for the High Holidays.
2021: Yisod is scheduled to host its first Shabbat dinner
of the year at the Boston Public Garden.
2022: In Berkley, CA, Jewish Gateways is scheduled to
present “Shabbat and Challah Painting in
the Park: which is a “casual shabbat celebration for kids.
2022: Israel’s targeted campaign against the Palestinian
Islamic Jihad is scheduled to continue today.
2022: Temple Israel of Boston, Temple Sinai of Brookline
and Temple Ohabei Shalom are scheduled to sponsor a joint Havdalah and Tisha
B’Av service
2022(9th of Av): Shabbat Chazon; Parasha
Devarim; Erev Tisha B’Av.
2023: The New York Times features reviews of books
by Jewish authors or of special interest to Jewish readers including The
Visionaries by Wolfram Eilenberger which examines the divergent of theories of
self and other developed in a time of crisis by Hannah Arendt, Ayn Rand and
Simone Weil, all of whom are Jewish and Simone de Beauvoir.
2023: In Beverly, MA, Temple B’nai Abraham is scheduled to
present “PJ Library Schmooze and Play.”
2023: In New Jersey, the Jewish Heritage Museum of
Monmouth County is scheduled to host a research talk by Executive Director
Jessica Solomon on “Jewish Spies and Fort Monmouth Lies: The Fort Monmouth
Hearings of 1953.”
2023: Jewish Silicon Valley is scheduled to present “Two
Worlds Dance,” “a performance that blends the world of a deaf dancer,” Amnon
Damti, “with that of a hearing dance” that will feature hearing dancer Jill
Damti Feingold who like Damti is from Israel.
2023: In New
Orleans the Oscar J. Tolmas Charitable Trust and Alan and Sherry Leventhal are
scheduled to sponsor a “family program” welcoming attendees “to the Cool Zoo.”
2024: “In the Midwest” Hadassah is scheduled to host “Your
Are Not Alone: Sharing Our Journeys.”
2024: HTC's Fasman Yeshiva High School, in
partnership with Illinois Holocaust Museum and the Simon Wiesenthal Center is
scheduled to host an exclusive premiere
screening of Names, Not Numbers - A Movie In The Making, a
student-produced Holocaust documentary.
2024: The Secure Community Network (SCN), the
network of Jewish communal security professionals, national security experts,
and religious leaders is scheduled to host a series of conversations to aid preparedness
for the High Holiday season. All resources and webinars, including the remarks
made during the three training-based webinars, are available below for viewing
and sharing. https://www.securecommunitynetwork.org/high-holidays
2024:
As August 6th begins in Israel, an
unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism that has included Hamas supporters calling
for Zionist passengers on a New York subway to raise their hands, sweeps the
United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day 305 in captivity. (Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid
for this blog to cover so we are just providing a snapshot as of the posting at
midnight Israeli time
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