This Day, August 7, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
August 7
117: The Roman Emperor Trajan passed away. Trajan came to think of himself as another
Alexander the Great and moved east towards Babylonia with the intent of
extending the boundaries of the Roman Empire.
One of Trajan’s first moves was to conquer Parthia and then continue his
eastward march towards to the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. Unfortunately for him Parthia refused to
remain conquered. They rebelled against
Trajan forcing him turn back and try and subdue them a second time. The Jews of Parthia, many of whose families
had fled the Roman Legions fifty years earlier when Rome sacked Jerusalem, were
active in the revolt since they had no desire to live under Trajan or any other
emperor. If this were not enough reason
for Trajan to have no love for the children of Israel, the Diaspora Revolts
centered, primarily in the Jewish communities of Egypt and Cyprus broke out in
115, and last until the year of Trajan’s death. These revolts further drew down
on the empire’s military might helping to end Trajan’s dreams of glory.
317: Birthdate of Constantius II, Roman emperor who, unfortunately for
the Jewish people, followed in the footsteps of his father, Emperor
Constantine. “Judaism faced some severe restrictions under Constantius, who
seems to have followed an anti-Jewish policy in line with that of his father].
Early in his reign, Constantius issued a double edict in concert with his
brothers limiting the ownership of slaves by Jewish people and banning
marriages between Jews and Christian women. A later edict (issued by
Constantius after becoming sole Emperor) decreed that a person who was proven
to have converted from Christianity to Judaism would have their entire property
confiscated by the state. However, it should be noted that Constantius' actions
in this regard may not have been so much to do with Jewish religion as Jewish
business; apparently, it was often the case that privately-owned Jewish
businesses were in competition with state-owned businesses. As such,
Constantius may have sought to provide as much of an advantage to the
state-owned businesses as possible by limiting the skilled workers and the
slaves available to the Jewish businesses.”
1028: Alfonso V passed away and was succeeded as king of León by his son
Bermudo III of León during a period when the Jews of Iberia were trying to
survive as Christians fought Christians and Christians fought Muslims for
control for Spain.
1106: Henry IV, the
Holy Roman Emperor, passed away. During
the period of the First Crusade acted to protect his Jewish subjects giving
rise to the notion that rulers of the Holy Roman Empire saw themselves as
“guardians” of their Jewish subjects.
Henry protected the rights of German Jews to pursue commercial
activities. In opposition to the Pope,
Henry allowed any Jews who had been forcibly converted to return to
Judaism. Anyone who harmed “their Jews”
was liable to be charged with treason.
The price of this protection was the acceptance of the role as “servi
camerae,” i.e. “serfs of the imperial chamber.”
1291: Following the
fall of the “Templar fortress of Atlit south of Acre, marking the fall of “the
last Crusader outpost in Syria” today “Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil returned to
Cairo in triumph as the "final victor in the long struggle with the
Crusaders" which part of a centuries long fight over whether Muslims or
Christian would control Jerusalem, the City of David.
1316: John XXII is
elected Pope. During his reign, John the
second of Avignon Popes would take the unpapal role of opposing a crusade, in
this one proposed by King Philip V. He
did banish the Jews from all “Roman territory after his sister Sangisa
conspired with “several priests to give testimony that the Jews had ridiculed
by words and actions a crucifix which was carried through the street in a
procession.”
1610: Paul V, issued
“Exponi nobis nuper fecistis,” a papal bull concerning the dowries of Jewish
women.
1617: Herman
L’Estrange, the author of Americans no
Jews, or improbabilities that the Americans are of that Race which
refuted the theory that the “Indians were the ten lost tribes” was admitted to Gray’s
Inn today
1634(13th of
Av, 5394): Sara Abigail da Silva, daughter of Semuel da Silva passed away which
led her husband Benjamin ben Immanuel Musaphia, the Spanish doctor and
kabbalist to dedicate “Zekher Rav, an adaptation of the
creation myth in which all Hebrew word roots are used exactly once, to her.”
1705: Rabbi Zvi
Ashkenazi sent a letter, co-signed by two other rabbinic judges, “exonerating
David Nieto of all charges and the taint of Spinozian heresy.”
1713: A commission in
Amsterdam declared that Nehemiah Hayyun was not guilty of heresy and he was
returned to the community at public ceremony held at that city’s great
synagogue.
1764(9th of
Av, 5524): Tish’a B’Av observed in Tiberias, whose Jewish community had been
rebuilt by Hayyim ben Jacob Abulafia who passed in 1744.
1772: In a letter from
Jacob ben Abraham Benider to the Earl of Rochford (Britain), Jacob tells how he
was appointed by the Emperor of Morocco to be the Moroccan Minister to the
English Court of King George III.
1782: General George
Washington created the Purple Heart, a medal given for acts of military valor
which was later given to those wounded in battle including Samuel Sobel, the
Jewish Chaplain serving with the First Marine Division during the Korean War
and Eric Greitens, a decorated Navy Seal who went on to be elected the first
Jewish Governor of the state of Missouri.
1789: The United States
War Department which would be renamed the U.S. Defense Department by President
Truman, is established. The first Jew to hold the title of Secretary of War is
Judah P. Benjamin. But he held the job
with Confederates, not the United States.
James Schlesinger, was the first person who was born Jewish to serve as
U.S. Secretary of Defense. However, he
had converted to Christianity. Harold
Brown, who served under President Carter, was the first Jewish person to ever
hold the top civilian military job.
1791: King Louis XVI of
France signed into law a bill passed by the Assembly “that the Jew taxes should
be remitted without an indemnification and that every tribute, under whatever
name – protection money, residence tax, or tolerance money – should cease.”
1796(3rd of
Av, 5556): Samuel Scheindlinger, the “first rabbi in Sale” who passed away
today while serving as the Rosh Bet Din in Lemberg.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13256-scheindlinger-samuel-b-abraham-saler
1797(15th of
Av, 5557): Tu B’Av celebrated for the first time during the Presidency of John
Adams.
1812: Rabbi Schneur
Zalman of Liadi, who supported and aided the Czar's army during the Napoleonic
wars, was forced to flee his hometown from Napoleon's forces which were
advancing through White Russia in their push toward Moscow. After five months
of wandering, he finally found refuge in Pyena. ‘
1813(11th of
Av, 5573): Parshat Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu observed on the same that
American and British fleets fire on each other in the first of a series of
naval actions during the War of 1812.
1820: Jacob De La
Motta, the Georgia native who served as a surgeon in the U.S. Army during the
War of 1812 wrote a letter to President James Madison which he attached to a
copy of the remarks he had made at the dedication of the new synagogue in
Savannah. It read in part, “Believing
that you have ever been, and still continue to be, liberal in your views of a
once oppressed people, and confident that you would cheerfully receive any
information appertaining to the history of the Jews in this country, have
induced me to solicit your acceptance of a Discourse pronounced on the occasion
of the Consecration of the new Synagogue recently erected in our city.” (This
stands in stark contrast to anti-Semitic environment Jews were dealing with in
post-Napoleonic Europe. As reported by
Jewish Virtual Library)
1823: In Vejle,
Denmark, Hartvig Meyer and his wife gave birth to Julius Meyer.
1824(13th of
Av, 5584): Parashat Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu observed for the last time
during the Presidency of James Monroe, the last member President to have served
in the Continental Army during the American Revolution
1830: Following the
July Revolution, Jean-Pons-Guillaume Viennet a French deputy, proposed that
recognition of a state religion should be removed from the constitution. The proposal met with general approval and
was another step towards Jews becoming fully integrated into French society.
1831: Two days after
she passed away Erev Shabbat, Catherine Joseph, the wife of Judah Joseph was
buried today at the Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.
1832:
Birthdate of Agram, Croatia native and Austrian pianist Julius Epstein and
professor of piano at the Vienna Conservatorium who was the father of two
daughters Rudolfine (cellist) and Eugénie (violinist) and a son Richard who is
professor of piano at the Vienna Conservatorium.
1833: Isaac ben Raphael
married Krendel bat Aaron at the Western Synagogue today.
1834: Isaac ben Asher
married Nennela bat Nathan at the Western Synagogue today.
1835: Birthdate of
Governor Roswell Flowers who appointed Edward Jacobs a lawyer and leader of the
Jewish community to serve as Loan Commissioner
1839(27th of Av, 5599):
Eighty-six year old Baron Bernhard von Eskeles the co-founder of banking-house
of Arnstein and Eskeles and the founder
of the Austrian National Bank who was also a patron of the arts passed away
today near Vienna.
1840: As Europeans –
Jews and non-Jews – attempted to deal with the Blood Libel in Damascus, a
delegation head by Adolf Cremieux and Moses Montefiore arrived in Egypt.
1840: Birthdate of
Edward Henry Palmer who 1869 took part in the survey of the Palestine
Exploration Fund’s survey of the Sinai and the author of The Desert of the
Exodus: Journeys On Foot In The Wilderness of the Forty Years’ Wandering.
1841(20th of
Av, 5601): Parashat Eikev
1842(1st of Elul,
5602): Rosh Chodesh Elul observed two days before President Tyler submitted the
Webster-Ashburton Treaty which settled Canadian boundary disputes to the United
States Senate – one of the many steps that would make that border the longest,
peaceful border in the world
1844: Birthdate of
French geologist Auguste Michel-Lévy.
1844: Birthdate of
Quedlinbrug native and Bonn University trained medical doctor Gustav Schwalbe
who was the professor of anatomy at the universities of Jena, Konigsberg and
Strausburg.
1846(15th of
Av, 5606): Tu B’Av
1846: Beginning of the
dedication of the Eagle Street Synagogue in Cleveland, Ohio.
1846: Samuel Costa
married Sarah Levy at the Bevis Marks Synagogue today.
1848(9th of
Av, 5608): Tish’a B’Av
1850: Karoline and
Sigmund Max Einhorn gave birth to Rosa Heinhorn who became Rosa Hesslein when
she married Nathan Hesslein with whom she had two children – Alfred and Max.
1850: In Laupheim,
Klara Adler and Elkan Henle gave birth to composer and cantor Mortiz Henle.
1851(9th of
Av, 5611): Tish’A B’Av
1853: Birthdate of
Shalom Bapuji Israel (AKA Shalom Ezekiel) the native of Belgaum, India the
husband of Elisheba (Bathshebabai) Wargharkar and father of Moses Shalom Bapuji
Israel Wargharkar who was a member of the civil service serving in Bombay who
was “an active promoter of native female education.”
1853: In Philadelphia,
PA, Elvira S. Solis, the New York City born daughter of “Saran Mendes Nathan
and Isaac Mendes Seixas Nathan” and her husband David Solis gave birth to their
first child, Charity Solis who became Charity Lyon when she married Edmund
Robert Lyon with whom she had three children – Elivra, Augusta and Walter.
1855: One day after she
had passed away, Eugenius Ugo Foa, the daughter of Ocatve Foa and Adele Alberto
Fermi was buried at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1857: Birthdate of
French journalist Armand Schiller who severed on the editorial board of Le
Temps and co-founded Le Petit Temps.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13272-schiller-armand
1858(27th of
Av, 5618): Parashat Re’eh
1861: Birthdate of
Baltimore native Ophthalmologist Charles Henry May, the 1883 graduate of the
Columba University College of Physicians and Surgeons and husband of Rosalie
Adams who invented an electric ophthalmoscope and the author of the “Manual of
Diseases of the Eyes”
1861: During the Civil
War, “Colonel Max Friedman, the commander of “The Cameron Dragoons, the 65th
Regiment, 5th Cavalry of the Pennsylvania Volunteers” which “was organized in
July of this year “was mustered into federal service today.
1861: Corporal Jacob
Mayer began his service with Company B of the 23rd Regiment.
1861: Two days after
she had passed away, Martha Levy who had married Woolf Levy at the New
Synagogue in 1813, was buried today at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.
1861: Philadelphian
Joseph Gallinger, “who enlisted when he was 18 years old” began his service
with Company B of the 123rd Regiment.
1862: "From
Central Europe: A Scheme for Paying the National Debt " published today
reports from Hanover Germany, that “a leading Jewish banker in Hamburg” has a
plan “for defraying the expenses of war in America, raising a revenue, and
paying the national debt” which he plans to present to the Secretary of the
Treasury. He proposes to use a lottery
based system similar to that used by the Austrians and the Russians to save the
credit of the United States. He proposes, on a semi-annual loan of
$200,000,000, to issue eighty thousand representative shares at $2,500, which
shares are to be subdivided into certificates, twenty-five in number for every
share, and bearing the uniform value of $100, to which shall be attached a
promissory coupon for two and a half per cent semi-annual interest. Every
certificate, numbered for each share successively from one to twenty-five, is
to be made payable semi-annually two months after the interest therefore
becomes due, and to be taken up each in its regular order. In addition to this,
he proposes the distribution of prizes, to be drawn after the manner of
lotteries, and allotted to the holders of the drawn and fortunate shares --
every certificate representing a ticket or chance in the semi-annual drawing.
These prizes, ranging variously from $200,000 down, are to be one hundred in
number, and make a total of $490,000 every, half year. The loans, upon this
basis, it is calculated, would cost the Government six per cent.
1862: “A Scheme for
Paying the National Debt” described a plan that “a leading Jewish banker in
Hamburg” plans on presenting the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury that will
employ the same system of loans and lotteries used in Europe to wipe out
America’s debt.
1862: “Speculators
Proscribed” published today quotes the following telegram from General Grant:
“To Brif.-Gen. J.T.
Quimby, Columbus, Ky.:
GENERAL: Examine the
baggage of all speculators coming South, and, when they have specie, turn them
back. If medicine and other contraband articles, arrest them and confiscate the
contraband article. Jews should receive special attention.
(Signed) U.S.GRANT.
Major-General
1863: Philadelphian,
Benjamin B Goodman who had begun his military career as a Sergeant in Company
of the 27th Regiment completed his service in the Union Army as First
Lieutenant in Company G of the same regiment.
1865: Birthdate of
multi-lingual author Micha Josef Berdyczewski, the Ukrainian native and son of
a rabbi, who wrote in Hebrew, Yiddish and German.
1865: In New York,
Benjamin I. Hart and his wife gave birth to New York College of Dentistry
graduate John Isaac Hart, who “became professor of
operative dentistry, dental pathology, and therapeutics at his alma mater and
who is the grandson of John I. Hart.
1865: The Sixty-Fifth
Regiment a twelve-hundred man cavalry unit consisting of ten companies from
Philadelphia and two companies from Pittsburgh which was organized by Colonel
Max Friedman and which had a large number of Jews was mustered out of service
today at Richmond after four years of service with the Union Army.
1865: After more than
four years of service, Leopold Goldstrom, who had risen from the ran if Private
to Quartermaster Sergeant of Company E in the Fifth Cavalry completed his
service with the Union Army today.
1865: Two days short of
having served a full four years with the Fifth Cavalry, Sergeant Jacob Trautman
completed his service with the Union Army
1865: Philadelphian
Henry Schloos, a Corporal with Company E who had been wounded near Richmond, VA
in December of 1864 completed his service with the Union Army.
1865: The New York
Times published the following letter from one of its readers who took
exception to the use of the term “Jew” in a previous day’s publication along
with an “apology from the paper.
To the Editor of the
New-York Times:
Being one of a large
number of the "Jewish" subscribers and supporters of your journal, I
this morning noticed in your paper an extraordinary fact that a "Jew"
was in trouble for selling cigars to make a living, without a license. May 1,
as a Jew, ask you why this dreadful crime should call forth from you the fact
that the perpetrator was a "Jew?" Was it because you so seldom hear
of a Jew being in trouble or committing crime, that it deserved your special
mention of the fact that the man was a Jew and not a Catholic, Protestant or of
any other denomination? By informing me through your columns, you will much
oblige MANY JEWISH SUBSCRIBERS.
We do not know that
there is any propriety in giving prominence in a report to the religious
persuasion of any delinquent before the courts. Nor do we believe the practice
to be a common one. It was done in the instance above complained of,
inadvertently. Unless a journal is in the habit of making such insidious
distinctions in matters of religion, nationality, and so-forth there is
probably little gained by parading a casual grievance of this kind. We don't
suppose one in ten thousand readers of the TIMES will have noticed the slip (if
such it must be called,) in our report until they read this. Certainly, there
is no daily newspaper in the world less chargeable with sectarianism than the
TIMES, and no class of our citizens know this better than those in whose behalf
our correspondent professes to write. -- [ED, TIMES.]
1868: Today, the Israelite, “an Anglo-Jewish
publication…wished Andrew Carr Commons, the editor of the Workingman’s Advocate, success in his efforts to advance the cause
of trade unionism in America.”
1868: In San Francisco,
Leopold Seligmann, the native of Bavaria and husband of Fanny and David Isaac
Seligmann and his wife Julia gave birth to Hugo Seligman
1870: Birthdate of
Isaac Hirschman, who according to his tombstone on Pensacola, FL led “a life of
faithfulness, goodness and devotion.”
1871: One day after she
had passed away, sixty-one year old Clara Ann Abrahams, the wife of David
Abrahams was buried today at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.
1873: Birthdate of
Alice Lillie Seligsberg, social worker and Zionist who helped to found
Hadassah.
1873: In a letter dated
with today’s date, John T. Leonard sent a letter to the Sherriff of Placer
County California, in which he claimed to have information as to who had
murdered the late Benjamin Nathan of New York City. The letter was actually addressed to the
Superintendent of the New York City Police Department
1873: B.D. Dunman, the
Sheriff of Placer County California wrote to Superintendent Matsell of the New
York City Police Department that he had a letter from John T. Leonard in which
Leonard claimed to have vital information about the unsolved murder of Benjamin
Nathan. Dunman said he was enclosing a copy of the letter and would await
instructions from Matsell as to what should be done next. (The Nathan Murder was a major scandal in New
York in which suspicion was cast on several people including Nathan’s
sons. The murder has never been solved.)
1874: Late this
afternoon, Simon Meyer, a Jew from Poland, entered a saloon at Port Jefferson,
New York. For some unknown reason,
Captain Simpson, skipper of the schooner James Owen, “committed a brutal
and…unprovoked assault” on the Jewish Peddler.
The crowd of citizens separated the two and Simpson ran off. But a little while later, he went into a
store and attacked Meyer again. This
time Simpson was arrested and made to stand trial for these assaults.
1874: In Kovno,
Lithuania, Joseph and Kune Rele(Strauss) Geffen, gave birth to Tobias Geffen
who, after receiving Semicha in 1903 began his rabbinic career with
Congregation Avahavath Zedek in New York before moving on Canton, OH and
finally settling at Congregation Shearith Israel in Atlanta, GA where he live
with his wife Hannah Rabinowitz and held numerous communal position including
director of the Federation of Jewish Charities of Atlanta and directed of the
United Hebrew School of Atlanta.
1875: Julius Myers was
the first President of The Hebrew Benevolent Society was organized today in
Alpena, Michigan. (As reported by Rabbi Robert Layman)1876: “Sodom and
Gomorrah,” an article published today contains a description of Selah Morrel’s
archeological expedition in Palestine that include visits to a series of
“tel’s” (mounds) that correspond to
various sites mentioned in the Bible.
1876: “Sodom and
Gomorrah,” published today contains a
description of Selah Morrel’s archeological expedition in Palestine that
include visits to a series of “tel’s”
(mounds) that correspond to various sites mentioned in the Bible.
1877: A reprint of an article by
Alfred Austin that had appeared in The National Review in which the
British poet examined the life of Benjamin Disraeli including allusions to the
prejudices he faced was published today in the United States. In the end Austin concludes that in terms of
Disraeli, “the English people blamed what was blameworthy, distrusted what was
untrustworthy, and admired what was admirable. Had not wit ripened into wisdom,
had not duty burned ambition pure, he never would have become Prime Minister of
England.”
1878(8th of Av, 5638):
Erev Tish'a B'Av
1878: In Philadelphia,
PA, Morris and Matilda (Bamberger) Stern gave birth to University of
Pennsylvania Law graduate Horace Stern, the lecturer at his alma mater, a major
in the U.S. Army during WW I and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania who was the husband of Henrietta Pfaelzer and active leader of the
Jewish community as can be seen by his service as a Director of the Y.M. and
Y.W. H.A, director and vice president of Dropsie College and a member of
executive committee of the American Jewish Committee.
https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20070725_Horace_Stern__active_in_Jewish_affairs.html
1878(8th of
Av, 5638): Eighty-one year old Isaak Straus, the son of Judith Baierthaler and
Samuel Straus, the husband of Julie Straus and the father of Samuel, Gitelina
and Abraham Straus passed away today.
1879: The London
Truth featured an article that described the relationship between the
ancient Temple in Jerusalem and such biblical figures as Haggai, Joshua and
Zerubbabel with the Fraternal Order of Masons.
1880: William Daly, the
attorney for Gustave Hauser gave notice of his intention to appeal the jury’s
decision that B.N. Crane did not have to repay the money his client had paid
for the burial of person whom the undertaker had identified as being
Jewish. Hauser contended that Crane knew
the deceased was not Jewish and misled the Jewish community so that the burial
expenses would be covered.
1880: In “Kensington,
London,” Matilda Samuel and Ernest Falck gave birth Alfred Lambert Falck
1881: “A Cemetery for
Strangers” published today described an upcoming concert that will be held to
raise funds for a Jewish cemetery in Long Branch, NJ. The concert is the second such fund-raiser
held by a group under the leadership of Joseph Seligman.
1882: By nine o’clock
this morning a crowd of more than three hundred Jews had gathered on the
sidewalk in front of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society. The destitute immigrants were seeking aid
from the society.
1882: In New York, the
eight-week long freight handlers strike came to an end when the workers
capitulated even though the Italians and Jews who had been filling in for them
appeared to be willing to join their ranks. (Businessmen would successfully pit
members of different ethnic groups against each as a way to break a strikes; a
tactic that would lose its effectiveness in the 1890’s)
1882: It was reported
today that the British Museum has just bought the Judaeo-Persian manuscripts
that had been acquired by Dr. Adolf Neubauer
1882: “Literary Notes”
published today described the purchase by the British Museum of “The
Judaeo-Persian manuscripts” recently acquired by Dr. Neubauer.
1882: Shortly before
noon, a crowd of desperate Jews rushed up the stairs of the offices of the
Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society. The
situation deteriorated and the police were called to quell the commotion. Mr. Heilprin, the Superintendent of the
Society, said the action was understandable because they had been misled by so
many agencies in Europe that they no longer trust promises of future help
1883: It was reported
today 100 people have been killed or wounded during anti-Semitic riots in
Ekaterinoslav, Russia. The mob has
destroyed many of the homes and businesses belonging to the Jews including the
liquor stores.
1883: “An Important
Discovery” published today reported that the owner of a newly discovered
manuscript has offered to sell it to the British Museum for five million
dollars. The manuscript, which is nearly 3,000 years old contains a version of
the Ten Commandments that differs from the one found in the Book of
Exodus.
1883: Mrs. Ivan M.
Lotowski, a Jewess from Estellville, NJ lies near death after her cabin burned
under mysterious circumstances which she has refused to describe to
authorities.
1884: In Leadville,
Colorado, the board of directors Temple Israel approved a contract for the
building of a sanctuary at 201 West 4th Street.
1886: “Charitable Work
Criticized” published today described a turf war between Jewish agencies. The President of the Jewish Immigrants’
Protective Society wrote a letter to the President of the United Hebrew
Charities asking him to withdraw his organization’s representative from Castle
Garden. The Society was supposed to be
taking care of the “resident poor” and most of the arriving immigrants were
heading for the American West, thus bringing them under the purview of the
Protective Society.
1886: “On The Watch For
Paupers” published described the scheme of some of the subagents of English
shipping lines to transport poor Romanian and Polish Jews to the United States
for the highly discounted price of 38 marks of $10 per person.
1886: In Paris,
“Charles McCarthy Spiers and Melicent Marguerite Lucy Hack, were British
residents of France” gave birth to Sir Edward Louis Spears, a WW I British
military leader who as an MP during the 1930’s warned of the rise of Hitler and
opposed the policy of appeasement” and who as a liaison with De Gaulle visited
Syria where he warned of German intervention there and in Iraq.
1887: It was reported
today the next excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children will
be paid for by “a friend.” This
anonymous donor is a woman who has been sponsoring the cruises for the last
three years.
1887: Henry W. Unger,
who has resigned as the official stenographic secretary of the Grand Jury and
joined the firm of Isaacs and Sanger is reported today to be the leading
candidate to replace the current Justice of the Seventh District Court.
1888(30th of Av, 5648):
Rosh Chodesh Elul
1890: As of today the
managers of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children “have received…$6,983” which
will be used to provide free excursions for the children and their mother.
1890: Talmudic scholar
Shalom Albeck and his wife gave birth to Hanoch Albeck who would follow in his
father’s footsteps and become a Professor of Talmud at Hebrew University.
1891: In St, Louis,
Missouri, Joseph Lazarus Kranson and Caroline Kranson gave birth to Nathan
Newton Kranson
1892: It was reported
today the newly opened St. Vincent Hospital offers many services but unlike Mt.
Sinai Hospital, it does not an “out-patient department” nor does it provide
service for “convalescents that no longer require medical or surgical
treatment.”
1893: “Education and
the Family” published today provides a review of Talks by Twilight by Abbott
Kinney who writes that Jews and Catholics in the United States enjoying the
“happiest…family life.”
1894: Dr. James Drew, a
professor of Biblical Literature who had written a Hebrew grammar book passed
away. He was a member of the Palestine
Exploration Committee, the leading organization for modern archaeological exploration
of 19th century Eretz Israel.
1894: Elias Ganse, the
Jew who rented the ground floor at 236 Broome Street which he used as a saloon
and liquor store stands accused of setting fire to the building so that he
could collect on a $2,500 insurance policy.
The smell of kerosene and the
discovery that the fire had four points of origins was the Fire Marshall’s
first clue that the fire was not one of those accidental conflagrations that
was common to the Lower East Side.
1895: Henry Marks was
elected to represent the constituency consisting of St. George, Tower Hamlets
in the general elections that end today in the United Kingdom.
1895: “Gifts to Hebrew
Charities” published today lists the bequests to Jewish organizations made by
the late Eugene Kelly that total $9,500 which are to be distributed by Joseph
Seligman.
1898(19th of Av, 5658):
Sixty-one year old German Jewish Egyptologist Georg Moritz Ebers who discovered
the Ebers Papyrus, a collection of medical writing from approximately 1550 BCE.
https://web.archive.org/web/20050226100008/http://www.macalester.edu/~cuffel/ebers.htm
1899(1st of
Elul, 5659): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1899: Birthdate of
Austrian native Dr. Gusatve Joseph Landau, who came to the United States in
1900, pursued a career as an Oral Surgeon and was the father of Elissa Pamela
Landau, the future wife of Barry Steven Glassman.
1899: Captain Dreyfus
today “refused to see the last set of photographs of children” that his brother
had brought from Paris to Rennes where the French officer was about to go on
trial for a second time.
1899: At Rennes,
France, “the second trial by court-martial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus of the
Fourteenth Regiment of Artillery” who had been sentenced to life imprisonment
in 1894 “after having been convicted of delivering to the agents of a foreign
power documents connected with the defense of France” began at 7:10 this
morning
1899: “Jews Talk of
Buying Cyprus” published today described the decision of Jews meeting in Berlin
to gather more information about the American plan to purchase the
Mediterranean island as site for Jewish colonization “before proceeding in the
matter.”
1900: "The Dead
Sea, which for thousands of years has been a forsaken solitude in the midst of
a desert, on whose waves no rudder has been seen for centuries," says
United States Consul Winter at Annaberg, in a letter to the State Department,”
is to have a line of motor boats in the future” which will provide “a shorter
route between Jerusalem and Kerak, the ancient capital of the Land of Moab”
which has become a popular tourist destination.
1901: In San Francisco,
“The Willing Workers of the Bush Street Temple was organized” today “for the
purpose of aiding financially Congregation Ohabai Shalom, its Sabbath School
and cemetery.”
1902: In London, Sarah
and Joseph Cohen gave birth to Nathan Cohen who would die at the age of 15.
1902: Birthdate of
Kovno native Joel Sylvan Geffen the Conservative Rabbi and Zionist.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/geffen-joel
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/06/obituaries/joel-s-geffen-rabbi-85.html
1903: Herzl arrives in
St. Petersburg, where he seeks Russian intervention with Turkey on behalf of
his Zionist proposals to secure Jewish settlement in Palestine, and to permit
open Zionist activity in Russia. He is received twice by Count Wenzel von
Plehve, Russian minister of the interior, who is believed to be responsible for
the Kishinev pogrom. Herzl's most important achievement is Wenzel von Plehve’s
acquisition as a supporter of Zionism. Von Plehve would do anything to rid
Russia of her Jews.
1904: Birthdate of Nobel
Laurette Ralph J Bunche an African-American who hand an unusual career with the
United States government before going to work with the United Nations shortly after
its founding. Beginning in 1947, he was involved with the Arab-Israeli
conflict. He served as assistant to the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine,
and thereafter as the principal secretary of the U.N. Palestine Commission. In
1948 he traveled to the Middle East as the chief aide to Count Folke
Bernadotte, who had been appointed by the U.N. to attempt to mediate the
conflict. In September, members of the Stern Gang assassinated Bernadotte.
Bunche became the U.N.'s chief mediator and concluded the task with the signing
of the 1949 Armistice Agreements. This was a Herculean task that began with
negotiations on the island or Rhodes. Bunche had to conclude separate
agreements between each of the combatants and Israel. He received the Nobel
Peace Prize for his efforts in 1950
1904: Birthdate of
anti-Nazi activist Hanna Melzer.
1904: An attorney
living in Solomonville, a town in the southeastern Arizona Territory founded by
Anna and I.E. Solomon wrote a letter describing the Solomon family’s
preparations for the upcoming wedding of their daughter Lillian. In the same
letter, the lawyer lamented the fact that another local attorney and Lillian
had been in love with each other but Anna Solomon “raised a big hullabaloo”
because “he was not one of the chosen people” and the relationship came to an
end.
1905: “Petticoat Lane”
by James Douglas published today described a place where he says, “the Jew
barters and the Gentile buys.”
1906: Birthdate of American philosopher Nelson Goodman.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/goodman/
1907: As of today, Phillip M. Shabin, Abraham G.
Desiatoff and Efin A. Urin, all of Los Angeles, reprsentig 15,000 Russian Jews,
who have formed a movement to establish a colony in Mexico, are now in Mexico
negotiating for the purchase of 100,000 acres of land in the vicinity of
Eapioco upon which the colony will settle.”
1908: Birthdate of Bessie Geffen.
1909(20th of Av, 5669): Parashat Eikev read on
the same day that President William Howard Taft, who worked to better the lot
of Jews in Poland and Russia and would speak out against the anti-Semitism
arrived at the “Summer White House” in Massachusettes.
1910: The Sixteenth Annual Convention of the Independent
Western Star Order opened in Cleveland, Ohio.
1911: Representative Seaborn A. Roddenbery of Georgia
introduced a bill “providing for exclusion of aliens over 14 years of age
unable to read and write, those not possessing one hundred dollars in cash,
those not having certificates of good moral character, those not passing
physical test equal to that of that of the United States Army, those judged to
be physical, mentally or morally unfit to be American citizens and a head-tax
of $50.” (Editor’s note – this was but one of many attempts to exclude
immigrants in general and Jews from Eastern Europe in particular from coming to
the United States See item below.)
1911: Senator William P. Dillingham of Vermont introduced
a bill “providing an educational test for immigrants, the exclusion of those
not eligible for naturalization, the consolidation of the Chinese exclusion law
with the general immigration statues, the procuring by each immigrant of a
certificate of admission and identity and other restrictive features.”
1912: Before the House of Commons adjourned today,
Herbert L. Samuel, the Post Master General and first practicing Jew to serve as
a Cabinet Minister, “explained the Government’s contract with the Marconi
Company which provides that Government is to pay to the company $3,000,000 for
the building of five great wireless stations.”
1913: In a little noticed move, that would help lead to
WW I for all that would be for the Jews of Europe, the French voted to extend
the term of conscription from two years to three years.
1914: Ludwig
Wittgenstein, the 25 year old Austrian philosopher volunteered as a gunner in
the Austrian army. Wittgenstein’s story was all too common. His paternal
grandparents were Jewish. His father, a
well-to-do industrialist was raised as a Christian and young Wittgenstein
followed in the faith of his father, not his grandfather.
1914: As the conflict
widens, the first contingents of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) began
arriving in France thinking they would “be home by Christmas” and having no
idea that they would in France for four years.
1915: In Brixton, south
London, “Arnold Mishcon, a rabbi who emigrated from Russian Poland, and his
wife Queenie” gave birth to Victor Mischon, the future Baron Mischon, “a leading
British solicitor” and Laborite whose firm represented Princess Diana in her
divorce proceedings.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1509163/Lord-Mishcon.html
1915: Today Brooklyn
Polytechnic engineer Emanuel Wyner, the New York born son of Meyer and Lena
(Michael) Wyner, whose career including working for the Fort Pitt Bridge
Company and the Wilputte Coke Oven Corporation married Theresa Gluckselig.
1915(27th of Av, 5675):
Lt Leo Edwin Davis, Manchester Regiment, was killed at Gallipoli. Of him one of
his soldiers wrote. 'I was his orderly and all the men used to say what a nice
officer we had got. He was as cool a man as I ever saw and never troubled'
1915: On Shabbat,
Samuel Pochansky, the eldest son Eli Pochansky, an Orthodox Jew, entered his
father’s home on Cherry and Grand Streets where he tormented his father by
blowing cigarette smoke on him and taunted him which so enraged the Shabbat
observant father that he struck his son and then struck his wife and daughter
because they defended Samuel
1915: As the Gallipoli
Campaign in which the Zion Mule Corps distinguished itself continued to stall,
the Australian 3rd Light Horse Brigade suffered severe losses during
a failed attack at the Nek.
1915: During the
Gallipoli Campaign, a brigade under the command of Sir John Monash led the
ill-fated attack on Hill 971.
1915: In a
heavily-bombed trench at Gallipoli, Lieutenant Leonard Keysor caught Turkish
explosives and threw them back at the enemy for 50 hours straight. He was
wounded twice but refused medical attention. He was awarded a Victoria Cross
for his bravery.
1915: According to
reports reaching Berlin tonight from Warsaw, the Polish capital has fallen to
Germans following an attack on August 5 that was led by a Prussian reserve
division which means that a significant Jewish population that has been ruled
by Russians since the partitions in the 18th century will now be
governed by the Germans who claim to be so much more enlightened.
1916(8th of
Av, 5676): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1916: “An impressive
Black Night service, commemorative of the fall of the Temple in Jerusalem 1,847
years ago was conducted” tonight by Dr. H. Pereira Mendes, the rabbi at
Shearith Israel where “the auditorium of the synagogue was draped in black and
the only light was from the individual candles which those in attendance held.”
1916: During WW I, the
Ottoman and Germany forces that had launched an attack intended to take the
Suez from the British continued their retreat which tonight reached Bir el Abd,
the supply base established three weeks ago.
1917: During WW I,
forty-two women and children, the families of American Jews arrived” in Berne “today
in Jerusalem.”
1918: The Central
Committee began publishing Der Emes (“The Truth”) today in Moscow. It was the continuation of a short lived
publication Di Varhayt
1918: Following the
Aisne-Marne Offensive which ended yesterday, future Medal of Honor Winner
William Shemin began fighting along the Vesle River, near Bazoches.
1919: “Jews To Fix
Relief Budget” published today described plans for a meeting to be held on
August 10th under the leadership of Felix M. Warburg, the Chairman
of the Joint Distribution Committee of the Jewish Relief Funds “to consider the
present crisis of Jewry abroad, as outlined by recently returned investigators”
and “to prepare a tentative budget which will cover if possible the whole
future activities on behalf of the Jews abroad…”
1920: In Vienna,
popular singer Lifshe Schaechter and her husband gave birth to Beyle
Schaechter-Gottesman who married Jonas (Yoyne) Gottesman and after surviving
the Holocaust came to the United States
where she raised three children – Taube, Hyam and Itik – and gained fame as a
“Yiddish poet and playwright.
http://forward.com/news/188637/a-poets-life-spanning-shtetl-and-subway/
1920: Ossip Samoilovich
Bernstein won the “State Chess Championship” today at the “annual tournament of
the New York Chess Association” in Albany.
1920: “Adolf Hitler
gives a speech in Salzburg in which he asserts the importance of eliminating
the Versailles Treaty and furthermore blames the Jews — not just for the
treaty, but for all of the problems afflicting Germany.” (As reported Austin
Cline)
1921:Ex-Chaplain
Levinger of the 27th Infantry was the Jewish clergyman who
co-officiated at services held today on Pier 4, Hoboken, NJ for the “1,400 war
dead brought last week on the transport Cantigny.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/08/08/109819787.html?pageNumber=8
1922:”Friends of
Professor Albert Einstein insist upon his remaining abroad where he is
understood to be hiding from the ‘Deutsche Nationale’ plotters by whom he has
been blacklisted together with a number of other leading Jews.”
1923: Birthdate of
Liane Berkowitz a member of the German resistance movement who was executed in
1943
1924: “Oscar S. Straus
who was operated on eight weeks ago at Mount Sinai Hospital” left the hospital
today “for his home at Purchase, NY.
1925: Nahum Shtif
established YIVO (Yiddish Scientific Institute - Yidisher Visenshaftlikher
Institut) as a Yiddish academic institute with its center in Vilna. Its goal
was to promote scholarly research in Yiddish, especially on Jewish life and
history in Eastern Europe. In addition, it standardized Yiddish spelling and
gathered thousands of documents on Jewish culture and folklore from over much
of Europe.
1926: “The Three
Mannequins” a silent film written by Max Glass, starring Paul Graetz and with
sets “designed by the art director Hans Jacoby” was released in Germany today.
1926: On Long Island
Marcus and Anna (Low) Kaufman gave birth to author Sue Kaufman whose works
included Diary of a Mad Housewife.
1926: Birthdate of
English “political activist and journalist” Maurice Ludmer, the son of “a
Salford hairdress and a Hebrew teacher, whose life was unalterably changed when
he visited Blesen while serving with the British Army during WW II.
1927(10th of
Av,5687): Tisha B’Av observed
1927: The Maccabee
soccer team of Palestine defeated the Brooklyn Wand-erers by a score of 2 goals
to 1 at Hawthorne Feld in Brooklyn today, thus completing their tour of the
United States with an even break of five victories, five losses and one tie.
1927: It was reported
today that Henrikas Rabinavicius “who was described as the only Jew” serving “n
the Lithuanian diplomatic service” has “resigned as Consul General “ in New
York “after Premier Augustinas Waldemaras of Lithuania stated that he want his
country’s New York representative to be ‘a Lithuanian, not a Jew.’”
1927: The Zitenfeld
twins, Bernice and Phyllis have arrived in Boulogne France, with the plans for
swimming the English Channel.
1928: “Vienna, City of
My Dreams” photographed by cinematographer Mutz Greenbaum whose company produced
the film was released today in Germany.
1929(1st of Av, 5689):
Rosh Chodesh Av
1929(1st of
Av, 5689): Victor Luitpold Berger, a founding member of the Socialist Party of
America and the first member of the Socialist Party to serve in the United
States House of Representatives, died today from injuries sustained in a
streetcar accident. Berger's views on World War I were complicated by the
Socialist view and the difficulties surrounding his German heritage. However,
he did support his party's stance against the war. When the United States
entered the war and passed the Espionage Act in 1917, Berger's continued
opposition made him a target. He and four other Socialists were indicted under
the Espionage Act in February 1918; the trial followed on December 9 of that
year, and on February 20, 1919, Berger was convicted and sentenced to 20 years
in federal prison. The trial was presided over by Judge Kenesaw Landis, who
later became the first commissioner of Major League Baseball. His conviction
was appealed, and ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court on January 31,
1921, which found that Judge Landis had improperly presided over the case after
the filing of an affidavit of prejudice.[12]In spite of his being under
indictment at the time, the voters of Milwaukee elected Berger to the House of
Representatives in 1918. When he arrived in Washington to claim his seat,
Congress formed a special committee to determine whether a convicted felon and
war opponent should be seated as a member of Congress. On November 10, 1919
they concluded that he should not, and declared the seat vacant. Wisconsin
promptly held a special election to fill the vacant seat, and on December 19,
1919, elected Berger a second time. On January 10, 1920, the House again
refused to seat him, and the seat remained vacant until 1921, when Republican
William H. Stafford claimed the seat after defeating Berger in the 1920 general
election.Berger defeated Stafford in 1922 and was reelected in 1924 and 1926.
In those terms, he dealt with Constitutional changes, a proposed old-age
pension, unemployment insurance, and public housing. He also supported the
diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union and the revision of the Treaty of
Versailles. After his defeat by Stafford in 1928, he returned to Milwaukee and
resumed his career as a newspaper editor.On July 16, 1929 Berger was struck by
a streetcar at the corner of 3rd and Clarke Streets in Milwaukee. The accident
fractured his skull, and he died of his injuries on August 7, 1929. Prior to
burial at Forest Home Cemetery his body lay in state at City Hall and was
viewed by 75,000 residents of the city.
1930:Today, Nationalist
students forced their way aboard the Bucharest-Czernowitz express at a wayside
stop and began cudgeling Jewish passengers as anti-Semitic disorders have
broken out again in Romania.
1931: “Huckleberry
Finn” a movie version of the Mark Twain novel directed by Norman Taurog and
produced by Adolph Zuckor and Jesse Lasky was released in the United States
today by Paramount Pictures.
1931: “The Miracle
Woman” a movie based on “Bless You Sister” a play co-authored by Robert Riskin
produced by Harry Cohn with a screenplay by Jo Swerling was released in the
United States today by Columbia Pictures.
1932: Eighteen year old
Holocaust survivor wrote a description of his trip to “the beer garden in
Hausenheimer “ in his diary today.
1933: Birthdate of
Elinor Clair Awan, the daughter of a Jewish father and a Protestant mother who
gained fame as Elinor Ostrom, the award winning political economist.
1933:
In Springfield, New Jersey, for the second day in a row, 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.
1933:
In Germany, an order is issued forbidding Jews to remain in the towns near
Nuremberg.
1933:
In the Bronx, CPA Max Gross and the former Sophie Golberg gave birth to Samuel
Harry Gross who gained fame as Sam Gross “whose cartoons wrenched gags from frogs’
legs, fairy tales, cats, aliens and cave men, drawing belly laughs whether they
graced the pages of The New Yorker or eviscerated notions of taste in National
Lampoon…” (As reported by Daniel E. Slotnik)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/10/arts/sam-gross-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1
https://www.newyorker.com/gallery/sam-gross-in-the-new-yorker
1933:
The municipality of Nuremberg forbids Jews to use municipal swimming pools and
baths.
1933:
The Baden Government issued new citizenship regulations declaring that no Jew,
no Jewish descendants, and no one married to a person of Jewish blood will be
permitted to obtain citizenship; non-Jews applying for citizenship must prove
their pure "Aryanism."
1933:
The Leipzig Fair Management announces that non-Aryans will be admitted to the
exposition; and though there will be a "Brown display" of goods
limited to Germans only, Jews will not altogether "be eliminated from the
bazaar."
1933:
In an interview with Herschel Farbstein, of the Executive of the Jewish Agency
for Palestine, President Ignacy Moscicki of Poland expressesd his satisfaction
with the share Polish Jewry has played in the rebuilding of Palestine.
1933(15th of Av, 5693):
The Nazis murdered Felix Fechnebach, a Jewish Editor in Dachau.
1934: Herbert H. Lehman,
“New York’s first Jewish Governor announced today” that “in spite of his ‘very
strong personal desire to return to private life’ that he is a candidate for
re-election.
1934: Birthdate of
Philadelphia native and U.S. Army veteran Richard Levinson who after earning a
Bachelor in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania changed careers and
became a producer and screenwriter known for his award winning mystery scripts
and such full length movies as “The Hindenburg” and “Rollercoaster.”
1934: Today, “the
Lithuanian government officially denied that Antaol Meulestein, the Polish
Jewish diplomat who was recently in Kauanas, had been negotiating a
rapprochement between Poland and Lithuania, declaring his visit was concerned
entire with Palestine Jewish affairs and not Polish politics.”
1935: In Chicago,
40,000 fans watched Joe Louis knocked out King Levinsky after only 2 minutes
and 21 seconds of the first round.
1936: In Geneva, Dr.
Stephen S. Wise, the president of the World Jewish Congress “told newspaperman at a reception today” said
that the first meeting of the Congress which will open tomorrow will be
attended by ;250 delegates and would be the “most representative meeting of its
kind in Jewish history.”
1937: “Blonde Trouble”
a romantic comedy based on the George S. Kaufman musical “June Moon” was
released today in the United States by Paramount Pictures.
1937: “A Yiddish
newspaper called Der Freihaits Kempfer
or Fighters for Liberty appeared at
the Front” during the Spanish Civil War today.
1937: Menachem
Ussishkin was unanimously elected president of the 20th Zionist Congress, held
in Zurich.
1937: The debate over
the recommendations of the Peel Commission raged on among and between Jews,
Arabs and various third parties. Opening the deliberations, Chaim Weizmann, on
behalf of the Zionist Organization, proposed to accept the Royal (Peel)
Commission's partition plan in principle, but simultaneously declared the
present scheme unacceptable. He complained that world Jewry failed to make a
massive aliya in the early 1920s. Weizmann urged that the current challenges
demand an undivided Jewish front and thought that the eventual emergence of a
Jewish state would facilitate the Jewish-Arab understanding. Dr. Moshe
Kleinbaum (Sneh) also urged the congress to accept the Jewish state but sought
to empower the Zionist Executive to negotiate different frontiers.
1938(10th of Av,
5698):Tish'a B'Av
1938: In Lynn, MA,
Milton Bloom a grocery store owner and his wife Sara (Damsky) Bloom gave birth
to Verna Frances Bloom whose acting skills enabled her to play in Clint
Eastwood western as well as “Animal House,” one of the all-time great comedic
spoofs.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/obituaries/verna-bloom-dead.html
1938: In Danzig, a
second night of Gestapo raids aimed at Jews frequenting local hostelries and
dining establishments. Several British
Jews who vacationing along the Baltic were victimized along with the local
Jewish population.”
1938: As Malcolm
McDonald, the British Colonial Secretary, visited Palestine he got a firsthand
taste of Arab violence when “a settlement near Tel Aviv” was subject to an
attack by Arabs armed with heavy weapons including machine guns while another
band of Arabs broke into a Jewish mosaic factory near Petah Tikvah and burned
it.
1938: Seventy-five year
old Constantin Stanislavski, founder of the Moscow Art Theatre whose
relationship with “Yiddish actress Stella Adler” is the subject of “Stella in
the Bois de Bologne” passed away today.
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/theater-and-dance/1103/center-stage
1939: Birthdate of
Lynn, MA, native Verna Bloom, the actress who has played roles as varied as
Mary, the mother of Jesus and Marion Wormer, the promiscuous dean’s wife in
“Animal House.”
1939(22nd of
Av, 5699): Leonard Merrick, born Leonard Miller in London, an overseer in the
Kimberly Diamond mine and solicitor who worked in the theatre before becoming,
in his day, a popular novelist, passed away today.
https://books.google.com/books?id=jhcDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA478#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/sep/10/leonard-merrick-unloved-female-detective
1940: The Jews of
Algeria lost their French citizenship with the abrogation of the Cremieux
Decree.
1941: “Here Comes Mr.
Jordan,” produced by Everett Riskin and with a script co-authored by Sidney
Buchman was released today in the United States.
1941(14th of Av, 5701):
In Zhitomir, Russia 402 Jews were
gathered and brought to the town square, where they were forced to watch the
public hanging of the two Jewish judges, Wolf Kieper and Moshe Kagen. After the hanging, “A large crowd of locals
had gathered to watch the event, and participated in the public abuse, beating
and murder of the 402 Jews gathered in the town square.”
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/august/04.asp
1941(24th of Av, 5702): Four hundred and two
Jews were forced to watch the pubic hanging of two Jewish judges – Wolf Kieper
and Moshe Kagan- in Zhitomir, Ukraine.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/august/04.asp
1942(24th of
Av, 5702): Janusz Korczak, a Polish-Jewish educator, children's author, and
pediatrician known as Pan Doktor ("Mr. Doctor") or Stary Doktor
("Old Doctor") who wrote under the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit died
with the orphans he had been caring for at Treblinka
http://www.timesofisrael.com/court-confirms-janusz-korczak-was-killed-in-treblinka/
1942: During World War
II the Battle of Guadalcanal began as U.S. Marines initiate the first American
offensive of the war with landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon
Islands. Jewish boxer Barney Ross (he
was lightweight, welterweight and junior welterweight champion in the 1930s)
had enlisted right after Pearl Harbor even though at age 32 he was well passed
draft age. During the battle of
Guadalcanal, he was seriously wounded while rescuing injured comrades from a
Japanese ambush. His heroism under fire earned him a Silver Star. Other Jewish
Marines who served on Guadalcanal included Lou Diamond and LeRoy Diamond, model
for the film Pride of the Marines
1942: A photograph, a
copy of which survived the war, was taken today of Jewish policeman and Germans
during an aktion in the Warsaw Ghetto.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/august/06.asp
1943: “Polish Labor Fights, a publication
issued” in London today, printed an account of a house maintained by the
Germans at Treblinka, Poland, for the extermination of Jews” in which “it is
said, the Germans have killed 2,000,000 persons.”
1944: Approximately
68,000 Jews remained in the Lodz Ghetto.. This was the largest gathering of Jews
outside of the camps left in all of Europe. Of this remnant, 67,000 of were
told they were to be resettled. Instead they are sent to Birkenau. The shipment
of Jews that began today lasted 23 days, finally ending on August 30. Once
there, most of the Jews meet the usual horrific fate - selection, death by gas,
and then the cremation of their bodies. Some of the crippled were specially
selected by Dr. Mengele. He still had plenty of subjects to use for his medical
"studies" and experiments
1945(28th of
Av, 5705): Forty-six year old Carl Packof Worcester native Carl Pack, the
Brooklyn Law School trained attorney and the Bronx Democratic State Senator
from the 22nd District who was “vice president of Temple Beth Elhoim and the
husband of “the former Henrietta Langbert” with whom he had two children.passed
away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=980CE7DA113BEE3BBC4053DFBE66838E659EDE
1945: Today, in Munich
a small street and a square which had been re-named by the Nazis, was given
back its original name “Schuleinbrunen” in on honor German-Jewish beer baron
Joseph Schulen.
1945: It is reported
that there are eight Rabbis left in Salonica.
1946: David Dubinsky,
the president of the International Ladies Garment Works Union who met with
President Truman today reported the President “had taken under advisement some
suggestions he had made on the ‘Jewish and Italian situations.’”
1946: “President Truman
was expected by White House advisers to renew his demand for the immediate
entry of 100,000 displaced European Jews into Palestine and officially to
reject the British partition plan, which was described to Acting Secretary of
State Dean Acheson today as providing a "ghetto in attenuated form."
1947: Proving that a
good thing can last “forever” The Cole Trio record Gus Kahn’s “Makin’ Whoopee”
which was “first popularized by Eddie Canton in the 1928 musical “Whoopee!”
1947: Fourteen members
of the SS, 4 kapos and 1 civilian faced charges of war crimes “committed in the
operation of the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp on the first day of the
“Dora Trial.”
1948: Birthdate of Dan
Halutz who served as Commander of the Israeli Air Force and Chief of Staff of
the IDF.
1948: In Brooklyn,
NYIrving and Celia Appel gave birth to sports management executive and author
Martin E. “Marty” Appel the author of Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees
from Before the Babe to After the Boss and husband of Lourdes Appel.
1949: In New York the
former Beverly Behrman and her husband Norman Bertram Coleman, Sr. gave birth
to Norman Bertram “Norm” Coleman, Jr. the future U.S. Senator from Minnesota.
1949: When the Jewish
Museum in New York opened this morning visitors could see an “an exhibit,
‘Birth of a State,’ showing pictorially the evolution of the Israeli Republic”
which “includes material from the Histadrut Foto News.”
1951: The New York
Times reports from Tel Aviv that many prominent United States Zionists who
are gathering here for the opening next week of the World Zionist Congress are
trying to use their influence to bring about an Israeli coalition government of
the Socialist Mapai party and the General Zionists.
1952: In its on-going
war against Arab terror Israeli police and soldiers caught 37 infiltrators
trying to enter the country in the week just ended.
1953: In New York City
Clifton and Annalee Jacob Fadiman gave birth to Radcliffe College graduate and
award winning author Anne Fadiman whose works included The Spirit Catches
You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision
of Two Cultures and The Wine Lover’s Daughter
1953: “The Band Wagon,”
a musical comedy co-produced by Arthur Freed, written by Betty Comden, Adolph
Green and Alan Jay Lerner and co-starring Oscar Levant was released today in
the United States by MGM.
1954: Birthdate of
Jonathan Jay Pollard
1954: “King Richard and
the Crusaders” a medieval costume drama co-starring Laurence Harvey and with
music by Max Steiner was released in the United States today.
1955: Birthdate of
comedian and television producer Marc Weiner.
1955: Bar Ilan
University was founded. Since its founding, Bar Ilan has grown to become one of
Israel’s largest universities. The main campus is located outside of Tel Aviv
and currently has 32,000 students with a faculty of over 1,600. For more about
the school see its English language website
http://www.biu.ac.il/index_eng.shtml.
1957: Today, Yitzhak
Ben-Zvi, the President of Israel was among those who attended the consecration
of “the Rabbi Dr. I. Goldstein Synagogue, a synagogue on the Edmond J. Safra
Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University in Israel named in honor of Rabbi
Israel Goldstein, an American-born Israeli rabbi, author, and Zionist leader”
which was “designed by two Israeli architects--the German-born Heinrich Heinz
Rau and the Brazilian-born David Resnick.”
1958: Filming of “The
Geisha Boy” starring Jerry Lewis came to an end.
1959: In London
“Dominic Elwes, a portrait painter, and Tessa Kennedy, an interior designer”
gave birth to producer Cassian Elwes, the brother of actor Cary Elwes and
artist Damian Elwes
1960: In New York
Margaret "Meg" Duchovny and Amram "Ami" Ducovny a writer
and publicist who worked for the American Jewish Committee gave birth today
David Duchovny, award winning star of the X-Files.
1960: “It Started in
Naples” a romantic comedy directed Melville Shavelson was released in the
United States today.
1961: Twenty-eight year
old Moshe Carmeli married Elisheva Cohen while working on his doctorate at
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa
1963: A month after its
premiere screening “Beach Party” the first in a series of teen summer movies
directed by William Asher under the guidance of Executive Producer Samuel Z.
Arkoff was released in the rest of the United States today.
1964: “Alan Abraham
Feinberg, general manager of the Supersol supermarket chain in Israel, was
released today on bail of 350,000 Israeli pounds (§116,666), a bail figure
unparalleled in Israeli legal history.”
1964: In an act that
proved to prophetic, Ernest Gruening of Alaska was only one of two U.S.
Senators to vote against the Gul of Tonkin Resolution.
1965(9th of
Av, 5725): Parashat Devarim; Erev Tish’a
B’Av
1966: Funeral services
for “dancer and choreographer” Helen Tamiris whose career spanned almost 40
years are scheduled to take place this afternoon in New York City.
1968: “With Six You Get
Eggroll” a comedy directed by Howard Morris and produced by Martin Melcher was
released today in the United States by National General Pictures.
1968: Actress Barbara
Bach (born Barbara Goldbach) and her husband gave birth to “singer-songwriter
Francesca Gregorini.”
1969(23rd of
Av, 5729): Sixty-three year Budapest born French composer Joseph Kosma passed
away today.
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/joseph-kosma-mn0000042034
1969: Birthdate of
American journalist Scott Stossel author of My Age of Anxiety.
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/159456/anxiety-scott-stossel
1969: One soldier was
killed and 12 more injured in bus bombing near El Hamma.
1970(5th of
Av, 5730): Seventy-three year old Benjamin “Bennie” Zeidman, also known as B.F.
Zeidman whose lengthy career in the movie industry began in 1911 at Lublin
Studios passed away today in Philadelphia.
1970: A cease fire was
declared between Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon on the one hand and Israel on the
other.
1970: A cease-fire
agreement was reached, forbidding either side from changing "the military
status quo within zones extending 50 kilometers to the east and west of the
cease-fire line." Minutes after the cease-fire, Egypt begins moving SAM
batteries into the zone even though the agreement explicitly forbids new
military installations and by October there are approximately one-hundred SAM
sites in the zone.
1971(16th of Av, 5731):
Rabbi Yitzhak-Meir Levin, a Haredi (ultra-orthodox Jewish) politician passed
away. “He had political roles in Poland and Israel. One of 37 people to sign
the Israeli declaration of independence, he served in several Israeli cabinets,
and was a longtime leader and Knesset minster for Agudath Israel and related
parties. Born in Góra Kalwaria (known as Ger in Yiddish) in the Russian Empire
(today in Poland), Levin studied at yeshivas, before being certified as a
rabbi. A founder of Agudath Israel in Poland, he was elected to Warsaw
Community Council as a representative of the organisation in 1924, and five
years later was elected to the World Agudath Israel presidium. In 1937 he was
elected as one of the two co-chairmen of the organisation's executive committee.
Between 1937 and 1939 he was a member of the Sejm, the Polish parliament,
representing Agudath Israel. In 1940 became the sole chairman. He was also
involved in founding the Beis Yaakov school system for religious Jewish girls.
Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Levin helped refugees in
Warsaw, before immigrating to Mandate Palestine in 1940, where he became head
of the local branch of Agudath Israel. After signing the Israeli declaration of
independence in 1948, Levin joined David Ben-Gurion's provisional government as
Minister of Welfare. He was elected to the first Knesset in 1949 as a member of
the United Religious Front, an alliance of the four major religious parties,
and was reappointed to his ministerial role in the first and second governments.
After retaining his seat in the 1951 elections Levin rejoined Ben-Gurion's
government as Minister of Welfare, but resigned in 1952 in protest at the
National Service Law for Women. He remained a member of the Knesset until his
death in 1971, but not a member of the cabinet; in his remaining terms, he
represented Religious Torah Front -- an alliance of Agudath Israel and its
laborer's branch Poalei Agudath Israel.”
1972: Sandy Koufax is
inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York
1973(9th of
Av, 5733): As the Egyptian Army engages in training exercises that will lead to
the Yom Kippur War, Jews observed Tish’a B’Av
1973:
Sixty-five-year-old New York born, St. Johns Law School graduate and WW II
veteran Maxwell Arnold Kreindler, who was president of the famous “21” Club
from 1947 to 1955 and passed away today.
1974: Premiere of
“California Split” starring George Segal and Elliott Gould.
1976: President Amin of
Uganda is reportedly asking President Kenyata of Kenya to act “as a go-between
with Britain in efforts to normalize relations” between the two nations. Uganda had broken diplomatic relations with
the United Kingdom in the wake of the Entebbe Rescue Mission.
1977: Wayne L. Horvitz,
who President Jimmy Carter had named director of the Federal Mediation and
Conciliation Service in April 1977 played a behind-the-scenes role in the
negotiations between the Communications Workers of America and the American
Telephone and Telegraph Company that averted a nationwide strike just before
tonight’s midnight deadline
1977: After 1.050
performances, the curtain came down on “Shenandoah,” a musical with a book
co-written by the producer Philip Rose and featuring Robert Rosen as “Henry.”
1978: “Israeli, Jewish
Leaders Express Sorrow at the Death of Pope Paul VI” published today described
the saddened reaction of everybody from Yitzhak Navon to Menachem Began to
Rabbi Shlomo Goren to the death of the pontiff of whom Goren said, “He tried to
remove the chronic hatred between Christianity and Judaism.” (JTA)
1981: “Heavy Metal,” a
sci-fi fantasy film produced by Ivan Reitman with a screenplay by Daniel Goldberg
and Len Blum, co-starring Eugene Levy and Harold Ramis and with music by Elmer Bernstein was
released today the United States and Canada.
1983: After 199
performances, the curtain came down on the Broadway production “Merlin” a
musical co-authored by Richard Levinson with music by Elmer Bernstein and
lyrics by Don Black which had been playing at the Mark Hellinger Theater.
1984(9th of Av, 5744):
Tish’a B’Av
1986: “Ex-Aides Charge
Brooklyn College Violated Rules” published today described allegations made
against basketball coach and former NYU standout Mark Reiner. (As reported by
Michael Goodwin)
1987: “Masters of the
Universe” a sci-fi fantasy film produced by Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan was
released in the United States today.
1987: “Who’s That Girl”
a comedy with a script co-authored by Ken Finkleman was released in the United
Sates today.
1988: Today’s riots in
New York’s Tompkins Square Park, led to a “clean up” project ordered by Mayor
Ed Koch and in which Elson Gelfand who had been on five Jews in his 1959 Police
Academy class of 500, played a critical role.
1988: “Safe Men” a
comedy directed and written by John Hamburg costarring Michael Lerner was
released in the United States today by October Films.
1990: :Harvard trained jurist Michael Boudin began servicing as
a Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
1990(16th of
Av, 5750): Eighty-two year old Marie Louise Gattman, the Milwaukee born
daughter of “Anna and Henry Gattman” and ‘the wife of Elwood Scott Chapman”
passed away today in San Francisco.
1992: After premiering
in Los Angeles, “The Unforgiven” a very dark Western with music by Lennie
Niehuas and featuring Saul Rubinek as W. W. Beauchamp was in the rest of the
United States today by Warner Bros.
1992: “3 Ninjas” a
comedy directed by Jon Turteltaub was released in the United States today.
1995(11th of
Av, 5755): Seventy-three year old former motion picture executive David
Begelman passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/09/obituaries/david-begelman-73-headed-columbia-pictures.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-08-09-mn-33202-story.html
1996: Rabbi Eli Suissa,
the native of Morocco whose family moved to Israel in 1956 became Minister of
Religious Affairs a position he held for only five days until replaced by
Netanyahu.
1997: Thirty-seven year
old James Phillip “Jamie” Rubin began serving as Assistant Secretary of State
for Public Affairs.
1998: “Safe Men” a
comedy written and directed by John Hamburg and co-starring Michael Lerner was
released today in the United States.
1998: Publication of
paperback edition of The Picador Book of Contemporary Scottish Fiction
by Peter Kravitz the native of London who has spent “most of his life in
Edinburgh where among other things, he served as the editor of Polygon for ten
years.
2000: As American Jews,
regardless of political leanings or depth of spirituality, expressed great pride today that one of their
own, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, had been picked by Vice
President Al Gore to be his running mate, their “pride was tempered by concern
that having a Jew in a position of such prominence might set off an
anti-Semitic backlash or, at the least, feelings of unease among other
Americans” as could be seen by the fact that “political chat rooms on the
Internet focused on the Lieberman designation all day today, and many of the
comments were rawly anti-Semitic. (As reported by Clyde Haberman)
2001(18th of Av, 5761):
Wael Ghanem, 32, an Arab Israeli resident of Taibeh, was shot and killed by
Palestinian assailants on the road near Kalkilya. Police believe he was
murdered because of suspected collaboration with Israeli authorities.
2001(18th of
Av, 5761): Zohar Shurgi, 40, of Moshav Yafit in the Jordan Valley, was shot and
killed by terrorists while driving home at night on the Trans-Samaria Highway.
2002: Andrew M. Cuomo,
a Democratic candidate for Governor is on a trip to Israel which he has denied
“was intended to counter the expected boost in Jewish support that his
opponent, H. Carl McCall, the state comptroller, will receive from a recent
endorsement by Senator Charles Schumer.”
2002: Israeli military
forced continued to press their “offensive” today in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip as part of the on-going fight against terrorism.
2003(9th of
Av, 5763): Tish’a B’Av
2003: During an
interview on the "Sean Hannity Radio Show," Alabama State Supreme
Court Chief Justice Roy Moore says that he may ignore the federal court order
to remove the 5,280-pound granite Ten Commandments monument which he installed
at the state's judicial building. For
those who object to the display, this is a matter of separation of church and
state. Moore claims that the Biblical
commandments are a cornerstone of the American legal system. One problem that he and those of his ilk
never address is which version of the commandments should be shown – Hebrew,
Latin or English; Exodus or Deuteronomy; Jewish, Catholic or Protestant.
2004: “The Nautch Girl”
a two-act comic opera with music by Edward Solomon was performed for the first
time by the Royal English Opera Company of Rockford, Illinois.
2005: Quarterback Bennie Friedman was inducted into
the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In the following article entitled “Benny
Friedman: Considered NFL’s First True Passer” Seymour “Sy” Brody described the
prowess of one the early stars of the NFL.
Benny Friedman was finally inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame
today.
After many years of being overlooked, while friends and sports figures
campaigned for his induction, it became a reality. Friedman was considered as football’s first great passer. He changed the
running game into one of running and passing and, as a result, revolutionized
college and professional football. Benny Friedman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1905, to orthodox Jewish
parents. He went to high school in Cleveland. Upon graduation, he went to
Michigan University where he was a quarterback on the football team. The first
three games of the 1924 season found Benny Friedman sitting on the bench.
Michigan’s legendary coach, Fielding Yost retired before the season. He
convinced Coach George Little that he should start Benny Friedman against
Wisconsin. Friedman became an instant star by throwing a 62 yard touchdown pass
and running 26 yards for a touchdown. Benny Friedman and Bennie Oosterbaan were college football’s greatest
passing combinations. Friedman was twice named All-American as a quarterback
and as a halfback.. After graduating in 1927, he turned pro and joined the
Cleveland Bulldogs of the National Football League. Professional football at this time didn’t enjoy the same attention that
it has today. Red Grange and Benny Friedman were the stars of that era. They
attracted large crowds for their games. Benny Friedman was named All-Pro for
four years and he led the league in passing and passing touchdowns. The Cleveland Bulldogs folded and he moved to the Detroit Wolverines. The
New York Giants wanted Benny Friedman so much that they bought the entire
Detroit Wolverines franchise so that they could have him. The Giants finished
the 1929 season with a 13-1-1 and for the first time made a profit. In 1934, Friedman retired from professional football and became the head
coach at City College of New York (CCNY). In 1949, he became the Athletic
Director of Brandeis University and was the head coach of the football team. It
was his hope to make the Brandeis football team the “Jewish Notre Dame.” Benny Friedman was named one of the 300 Greatest Players of All-Time by
Total Sports, the Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League. He was
elected to the College Hall of Fame, the University of Michigan Hall of Honor,
the State of Michigan Sports Hall of Fame and the International Jewish Sports
Hall of Fame. Paul Gallico, a top football expert and sports
writer of his day, said, ”The things a perfect football player must do are
kick, pass, run the ends, plunge the line, block, tackle, weave his way through
broken fields, drop and place kick, interfere, diagnose plays, spot enemy
weaknesses, direct an offensive and not get hurt. I have just been describing
Benny Friedman’s repertoire to you.” Forty-two years after Football Pro
Football Hall of Fame opened in Canton, Ohio, Benny Friedman got his spot
there. David Friedman, a nephew, gave the speech for the family at the
induction ceremony. He said, “despite being denied for so long, his uncle would
have been very respectful of the honor.”
2005: Bibi Netanyahu resigned from the Israeli
cabinet in protest over the withdrawal from Gaza.
2005:
Showtime broadcast the first episode of “Weeds” a “dark comedy drama created by
Jenji Kohan” co-starring Alexander Gould.
2006(13th
of Av, 5766): John Livingston Weinberg the American banker and businessman who
ran Goldman Sachs from 1976 to 1990 passed away.
2006(13th
of Av, 5766): Three Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed and four others
wounded in fierce fighting with Hezbollah militants today in southern Lebanon.
Two of them were identified as Major Yotam Lotan, 33 of Kibbut Beit Hashita and
Staff Sergeant Malk Moasha Ambao, 22, from Lod.
2007: The
Jerusalem Post reported that swastikas and other Nazi symbols had been
painted on at least 100 gravestones the large Jewish cemetery in Czestochowa,
Poland and that officials of the Israeli government expressed their anger over
the failure of the Polish government to publicly condemn the continuing
anti-Semitic rhetoric of Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, founder of Poland's Catholic,
nationalist Radio Maryja whose audience is estimated at between 1.5 million and
2.5 million daily.
2007:
Today, Poland's chief rabbi and the mayor of a Polish town joined efforts to
clean gravestones at a Jewish cemetery that vandals had desecrated with Nazi
symbols. Rabbi Michael Schudrich said that he and Tadeusz Wrona, mayor of the
southern city of Czestochowa, joined about 20 Polish art students who spent a
couple of hours scrubbing black paint off some of 100 gravestones at the city's
Jewish cemetery.
2007:
Britain declared the New West End Synagogue in London a national monument
putting it in the same category as Buckingham Palace and Stonehenge.
2008:
In Washington, D.C. Kenneth M. Pollack, director of
research at the Brooking Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy,
discusses and signs his new book, A
Path Out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East,
at Politics and Prose Bookstore
2008(6th
of Av, 5768): Seventy-seven year old Bernard Jules "Bernie"
Brillstein, the talent agent and television executive who helped produced shows
from the “corn-ball Hee Haw” to the “sophisticated Saturday Night Life” passed
away today.
https://archive.nytimes.com/query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage-9503E1DE143DF93AA3575BC0A96E9C8B63.html
2008:
Rep. Steve Cohen was all smiles after resoundingly winning his primary today in
Tennessee, but it was hardly a pleasant campaign for the freshman Democrat. A
white Jewish incumbent representing a predominantly black Christian
constituency, Cohen defeated Nikki Tinker by a 4-to-1 margin, despite efforts
by his black opponent to insert race and religion into the primary.
2009:
In New York, Yoed Nir performs at a Bargemusic Concert in a program entitled
“World of Cello” The Six Bach Suites for Solo Cello and Beyond, Part 2.
2009:
“Breath Made Visible,” a “documentary film about modern dance legend Anna
Halprin” was released today in the United States.
2009:Six
months after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, “500 Days of Summer,”
a comedy written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber and starring Joseph
Gordon-Levitt premiered today at the Sundance Film Festival.
2010: “Amos Oz: The Nature of Dreams” is
scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2010(7th
of Tammuz, 5770): Ninety-one year old chemist Jacob Bigeleisn who worked on the Manhattan Project, passed
away. (As reported by Kenneth Chang)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/science/31bigeleisen.html
2010:
“Imagining Madoff” written by Deboarah Margolin is scheduled to have the final
performance of its first run at Stageworks/Hudson, a theater company in this
town, about 30 miles south of Albany. Elie Wiesel had used legal threats to
shut down the original version of the play which was to have premiered in
Washington, D.C. Apparently Mr. Wiesel was offended by the fact the Ms Margolin had used a characterization of
him for her drama.
2010:
Michael Leventhal, son of Shelley Arenson and Bruce Leventhal is scheduled to
be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA.
2010:
Chief Justice John Roberts swore in Elena Kagan as an Associate Justice of the
United States Supreme Court
2011: The final performance of “13: The
Musical” starring Temple Judah’s very own Bentlee Birchansky is scheduled to
take place tonight.
2011:
“In Another Lifetime,” a film about a group of Hungarian Jews who “begin
staging a Strauss operetta” for those living in an Austrian village in an
attempt to avoid the Final Solution, is scheduled to be shown at the San
Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2011: Wikimania, the
annual international conference of the Wikimedia community which is being held
in Haifa is scheduled to end today.
2011: The New York
Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special
interest to Jewish readers including Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden by Brook
Wilensky-Lanford
2011: Israel's finance
minister says the government will take swift action to reduce the soaring cost
of living, looking to ease tensions a day after 300,000 people demonstrated
across the country.
2011: The Tel Aviv
Stock Exchange opened to major losses today, as indices plunged by more than 6
percent, immediately prompting a series of brief suspensions in trading.
2011: An earthquake
measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale was felt for several seconds across Israel
today, shortly before midday.
2011(7th of Av, 5771):
Ralf Pinto, who founded the Algarve Jewish community in western Portugal and
was instrumental in the restoration of the Faro Jewish Cemetery there, passed
away today. He would become the first person to be buried there since 1923.
2011(7th of
Av, 5771): Eighty-three year old educational innovator Stanley Bosworth passed
away today (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2012: San Francisco’s
Congregation Sha’ar Zahav is scheduled to host a special yizkor or remembrance
today to raise awareness about suicides and bullyinghttp://www.timesofisrael.com/san-francisco-synagogue-service-to-remember-1558-golden-gate-bridge-suicides/
2012: Jared Loughner,
the man accused of killing six people and wounding then-U.S. Representative
Gabrielle Giffords in 2011, is scheduled to plead guilty in a Tucson court
today (As reported by Reuters and The Forward)
2012: An Israeli
American man escaped from his captors today after being kidnapped while hiking
in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. Mickey Grossman, 64, a 1973 Yom Kippur War
veteran, was captured August 5 by approximately 20 gunmen whose affiliation is
unclear, as well as several members of the Huaorani Tribe, near Yasuni National
Park, which reportedly is an unfriendly area to foreigners
2012: Jewish-American
gymnast Aly Raisman won a gold medal in the floor exercise as well as a bronze
on the balance beam at the London Olympics. Raisman, 18, of Needham, Mass.,
took the gold today with a score of 15.6 to edge Catalina Ponor of Romania and
Aliya Mustafina of Russia, the silver and bronze medalists.
2012: Romanian Jews
expressed outrage today after a politician who made comments denying the
Holocaust in the country was appointed to a ministerial position.
2012(10th of
Av, 5772): Ninety-year old Judith Crist, one of American’s most noted film
critics, passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/movies/judith-crist-film-critic-dies-at-90.html?pagewanted=alla
https://jwa.org/thisweek/aug/07/2012/death-of-film-critic-judith-crist
2013:
The 2013 Summer Author Talk Series is scheduled to come today with “Fay
Moskowitz, And the Bridge of Love.”
2013:
“Before the Revolution” a story about the Iranian Jewish Community is scheduled
to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2013(1st
of Elul, 5773): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2013(1st
of Elul, 5773): Ninety-two year old Elisabeth Maxwell, the widow of media
tycoon Robert Maxwell passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2013(1st
of Elul): Purim de los Christianios observed commemorating the defeat of
Portuguese King Sebastian at the “Battle of the Kings.”
2013:
Barred once again from entering the women’s section of the Western Wall, some
300 activists from the Women of the Wall prayer group held their monthly Rosh
Chodesh (new moon) prayer service at the back of the Western Wall compound this
morning, raising their voices in song against the jeers and whistles of a large
gathering of ultra-Orthodox protesters. (As reported by Debra Kamin)
2013: As peace negotiations
began in Washington, a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed overnight in an
open field in the Eshkol region of southern Israel. No injuries or damage were
reported (As reported by Yoel Goldman)
2014: The Illinois
Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to host “Artist Panel:
Creating A Legacy” where attendees can “meet Chicago Holocaust survivor artists
Gerda Meyer Bernstein, Vera Klement and Ava Kadishson Schieber and view their
stunning artwork.”
2014: Hamas officials
said that if its demands are not met on ending the blockade the true will end
tomorrow.
2014: “Israel will have
to host its Davis Cup World Group playoff tie against Argentina abroad after
the ITF ruled today that it can't be held in Tel Aviv due to the security
situation.” (As reported by Allon Sinai)
2014: Hamas said today
that it had executed several Palestinians “on suspicion of helping Israeli
forces during the recent” fighting in conflict and that it had executed its
spokesman Ayman Taha “on suspicion of spying for an Arab country and financial
corruption.” (As reported by Khaled Abu Toameh)
2015: The Historic
Sixth & I Synagogue is scheduled to a Shabbat dinner and “a low-energy
service with Rabbi Shira and Chazzar Aaron Shneyer.
2015: “Ricki and the
Flash,” a feel good comedy about drugs, broken homes and runaway parents
featuring Ben Platt and Charlotte Rae was released today in the United States.
2015: Oriental Lab, a
Jerusalem instrumental group, is scheduled to give a live pre-Shabbat
performance at the Tower of David.
2015: Following the
firing of three rockets from Gaza last night “Terrorists in Hamas run Gaza
fired a rocket into Israel this afternoon, where it struck the Eshkol region.”
2015: “The Trauma of
World War II Might Outlast Its Survivors” published today described the efforts
of “a Scottish group called Never Again Ever” to start “a campaign to help
support the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors.”
2015: “Yuval Diskin, a
former head of the Shin Bet security service” warned today “that societal
divides have led to the creation of a hardline Jewish settler state along
Israel”
2015: “Employees at Ben
Gurion International Airport are scheduled to strike this evening, shutting
down the airport for 24 hours.” (As reported by Times of Israel)
2016: “Isaac Mizrahi:
An Unruly History” the Jewish Museum’s “first exhibition” focusing on the
American fashion designer” is scheduled to come to an end today in New York.
http://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/isaac-mizrahi-an-unruly-history#about
2016:
The second “weeklong exploration of literature and culture for high school
students where they will “read, discuss, argue about and fall in love with
modern Jewish literature” sponsored by the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA
is scheduled to come to an end today.
2016: In California,
the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 36 is scheduled to come to an end today.
2016: The IAJGS
International Conference on Jewish Genealogy is scheduled to begin today in
Seattle, Washington.
2016: The New York Times features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Hot
Milk by Deborah Levy, The Inseparables by Stuart Nadler. Siracusa
by Delia Ephron, Focus: The Secret, Sexy, Sometimes Sordid World of Fashion
Photographers by Michael Gross and I’m Supposed To Protect You From All
This: A Memoir by Nadja Spiegelman, the daughter of Art Spiegelman, the
author of Maus.
2017(15th
of Av): Tu B’Av – Jewish Valentine’s Day
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/tubav.html
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/53680/jewish/15th-of-Av.htm
http://www.israeldailypicture.com/
2017: This year's New
York City TUBAV Party is scheduled to take place starting at 7:00 PM at the
BOAT BASIN Cafe at 79th street and Riverside Park) MUST WEAR WHITE!
2017: In New York City,
the Stone Creek Bar is scheduled to a Tu B’Av event “Jewcy Presents: Love
Bites.”
2017: Yiddish Summer
Weimar is scheduled to host a Yiddish Dance Orchestra Workshop today.
2018: In London, JW3
hosted a screening of “Generation Wealth,” a documentary directed by Emmy Award
winner Lauren Greenfield.
2018: “Front man of
legendary band “Beach Boys”, Brian Wilson, is” scheduled to perform “at Menora
Mivtachim Arena in Tel Aviv” today.
2018: “Yemen Blues
founder Ravid Kahalani to perform his Arabic and African-infused music with
backing from oud player Ahmed Alshaiba at the Brooklyn Bowl” this evening.
2019: In London, The
Jewish Museum is scheduled to host a Curator’s Talk tied to the extremely
popular exhibition “Jews, Money, Myth.”
2019: Bar-Ilan
University’s International School is scheduled to host the second in its series
of information sessions for those interested in learning about the school’s
“English instructed degree programs.”
2019: The European
Maccabi Games are scheduled to come to a close today in Budapest.
2019: “The West
Bank's Civil Administration High Planning Subcommittee authorization of the
promotion of 2,304 homes in settlements and outposts, of which 838 have
received a final approval for construction” has been criticized by Peace Now as
“part of a destructive policy” that will doom the two-state solution and will
replace any possibility of a peaceful solution with the annexation of Judea and
Samaria. (As reported by Elisha Ben Kimon)\\
2020: The Jewish
Family and Children’s Service is scheduled to present the “Virtual Memory
Café.”
2020: The Lappin
Foundation is scheduled to present online, the musical Shabbat puppet show
“Time to Slow Down.”
2020: The
Albuquerque Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a virtual screening of
“The Spy Behind Home Plate.”
2020: B’nai Jeshurun Congregation is scheduled to host a Virtual
Kinder Shabbat in the moring and Kabbalat Shabbat services this evening.
2020: In Cedar
Rapids, IA, Temple Judah is scheduled to host live-stream Kabbalat Shabbat
services where the Yahrzeit List includes Jack Zomlefer, a trained chemist,
successful businessman and educated Jew who overcame physical challenges to
read the Torah for the Traditional Shabbat Minyan.
2020: The Jewish
Heritage Museum of Monmouth Country, NJ is scheduled to host a “free
interactive Zoom children’s music program with Carol Lester.
2020: The
Contemporary Jewish Museum is scheduled to present Sonoma-based
singer-songwriter Avery Hellman, known artistically as Ismay, performing folk-
and bluegrass-tinged music in a virtual setting.
2021: The Eden-Tamar
Music is scheduled host “The Best of Chamber Music” with Irit Rub on Piano and
Yossi Arneheim on Flute.
2021: In Winchester,
MA, Temple Shir Tikvah is scheduled to host and “Outdoor Havdalah Open House.”
2021(29th
of Av, 5781): Parashat Re’ay;
2022: The Museum at
Eldridge Street is schooled to host a “Walking Tour of Lower East Synagogues “ which allow for the
exploration of “the evolution of the Lower East Side through the fate of its synagogues.”
2022: The San
Francisco Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to end today.
2022: J. and
Congregation Beth Shalom in Napa Valley are scheduled to sponsor “L’Chaim Napa
Valley,” the “inaugural Jewish food and wine festival with 15+ regional wines, four
local craft beers, more than 20 foods from various Jewish heritages, live music
by Cookie Segelstein and Josh Horowitz of Veretski Pass and children’s
singer-songwriter Megan Schoenbohm, Israeli dancing with instructor Bruce
Bierman…
2022: LSJS is
scheduled to host an online “Tisha B’Av Museum Tour with Dr. Lindsey
Taylor-Guthartz.
2022: This
afternoon, in Iowa City, an open house is scheduled to be held to celebrate the
100th birthday of Miriam Canter who along with her late husband whom
she married at Temple Judah, formed a “dynamic duo.”
https://magazine.foriowa.org/story.php?ed=true&storyid=1720
2022: In the wake of
the Palestinian Islamic Jihad having fired 350 rockets at several cities
including Tel Aviv, the IDF is scheduled to continue its offensive the aim of
which is to provide residents of the south with security and to inflict
critical harm on the Islamic Jihad both in Gaza and on the West Bank.
2022: The New York
Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to
Jewish readers including Shy:
The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers by Mary Rodgers and
Jesse Green, Roll Red Roll:
Rape, Power, and Football in the American Heartland by Nancy
Schwartzman and Thank You For Your
Servitude: Donald
Trump’s Washington and the Price of Submission by Mark Leibovich
2022(10th
of Av, 5782: Tisha B’Av observed.
2023: The Lent
Chabad Center is scheduled to present Aleeza Ben Shalom, “the host of Netlfix’s
“Jewish Matchmaking” discussing “the
world of matchmaking, the secrets to successful relationships and the intricate
art of finding the perfect match.”
2023: Temple Israel
in Boston is scheduled to present Dudu Fisher in Live Concert for Israel’s 75th
during which this internationally acclaimed entertainer and child of Holocaust
survivors “will perform Israeli and Yiddish songs and musical numbers,
including “Adon Olam,” “My Yiddishe Mamme,” “Jerusalem of Gold (Yerushalayim
Shel Zahav)” and more.”
2023: In San
Francisco, The Helen Diller Family Foundation is scheduled to host the “2023
Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards Celebration” which celebrates “fifteen
exceptional teens from across the nation for their leadership to make the world
a better place while awarding each of the honorees with $36,000 “to further
their initiative or education.”
2023: “ A new 36
session course of Intro to Judaism is scheduled to begin this evening at Agudas
Achim in Coralville, IA.
2023: Lockdown
University is scheduled to host lecture by Claudia Rubenstein on “Eleanor of Aquitaine:
Black Legend or Golden Myth.
2023: In an
interview which is scheduled to be published today in the Saudi Elef newspaper,
“Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said the Palestinian conflict will not be an
impediment to a normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.”
(As reported by Daniel Salami)
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