This Day, December 14, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"l
DECEMBER 14
164 BCE (3597): On the secular calendar
date on which Judah Maccabee restored the service in the Temple in Jerusalem.
1243: “King Henry III turned a
confiscated synagogue into the chapel of St. Mary. Many other synagogues were
also confiscated and turned into churches, including one which became St.
Thomas' Hospital.”
1293: The reign of Al-Ashraf
Khalil, the eighth Mamluk Sultan best known for driving the Crusaders from
Palestine when he captured Acre came to an end today when he was attacked and
murdered while “walking with his friend Emir Shihab ad-Din Ahmad.”
1503: Birthdate of Michel de Nostradame,
the native of St. Remy de Provence better known as Nostradmus who, according to
some sources was born Jewish but later baptized as part of forced conversion
commanded by the King of France or who was not born Jewish because his
grandfather had converted under duress
https://www.age-of-the-sage.org/historical/biography/nostradamus_prediction.html
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/nostradamus
https://www.amazon.com/Nostradamus-Revealer-Lost-History-Prophecy-ebook/dp/B004OA6L3M
1546: Birthdate of Danish astronomer
Tycho Brahe who spent time with Jewish astronomer David Gans while visiting in
Prague and who wrote Path to God which Franz Rosenzweig said “should be
considered a ‘Jewish book’” but which said should be called a “Jewishlike
book.”
1584: According to a document with this
day’s date, “Isaac (Isaiko) Shachovich, a Jew of Brest, visited Moscow on
business in 1581, notwithstanding the prohibition of Ivan the Terrible, and en
route stopped in Mohilev at the house of his friend, the tax-collector Isaac
Jacobovich.”
1655: “Something must have changed
concerning the re-admission the Jews to England because today, “John Evelyn
wrote in his diary, ‘Now were the Jews admitted.”
1670: In Denmark, “The privilege of
1657,” under which “the Portuguese professing the Hebrew religion" were
permitted to travel everywhere within the kingdom, and to trade and traffic
within the limit of the law “was specially ratified in an open letter today, at
the instance of Gabriel Gomez, who was in the service of the king.”
1735: In Livorno, Italy, Judah
Montefiore and his wife gave birth to Esther Hannah Magood Montefiore, the wife
of Moses Vita-Haim Montefiore Medina.
1754: Mahmud I, Sultan of Turkey, passed
away at the age of 58. Under the reign of Mahmud I, the treaty of Belgrade was
signed (September 18th, 1739). This gave rights to the Ottoman Jews. Their
situation was so good that Austrian Jews applied for Ottoman citizenship.
1755: In New York City,
Benjamin Myers and his wife gave birth to Benjamin Myers, who married Hannah
Hays, the mother of Sarah and Abigail Myers, after having first been married to
Rachel Hays.
1760: The Board of Deputies of
British Jews was composed of elected Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews was
founded today.
1762(28th of
Kislev, 5523): Fourth Day of Chanukah observed on the same day that Free
Ilocos, a state in Northern Luzon (Philippines) was declared independent from
Spain “by revolutionary Diego Silang.”
1763: In New York,
Jessie Jonas and Samuel Judah gave birth to Sarah Judah, the wife of Samuel
Myers.
1765(2nd of
Tevet, 5526): Parashat Miketz; Seventh day of Chanukah observed for the first
time after the Marquess of Rockingham had replaced Lord North as Prime Minister
of Great Britain.
1765: In New York City,
Abraham Isaac Abrahams and his wife gave birth to Leah Abrahams.
1770(27th of
Kislev, 5531): Third Day of Channukah
1773(29th of
Kislev, 5534): Fifth Day of Chanukah on the same day that “thousands of people
from Boston and towns across Massachusetts gathered at the Old South Meeting”
as part of the protest against the Tea Tax which would result in the Boston Tea
Party.
1778(25th of
Kislev, 5539): Chanukah
1780: Birthdate of
Count Karl Robert Nesselrode, the Russian foreign minister who successfully
thwarted the plan of Jacques Isaac Altaras to settle 40,000 Russian-Jewish
families in Algeria.
1781(27th of
Kislev, 5542): Third Day of Channukah celebrated on the same day that The Independent
Chronicle, a Boston newspaper published an account of Cornwallis surrendering
at Yorktown.
1789(26th of
Kislev, 5550): Second Day of Kislev
1790: Two days after he
had passed away, Abraham ben Nathan was buried at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd)
Jewish Cemetery” today.
1792: In New York,
Zipporah Levy and Benjamin Mendes Seixas gave birth to Hayman Levy Seixas, the
husband of Abigail Nunez Cardozo with whom he had nine children.
1795(2nd of
Tevet, 5556): Eighth Day of Chanukah observed on the same day The Committee on
Energy and Commerce which was originally known as the Committee on Commerce and
Manufactures to regulate interstate and foreign commerce was established
1798: Abraham bar
Samuel was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1798: “Hancah (Hannah)
Weil and Hirsch Weil gave birth Sophia Loeser who was married in Kentucky where
her parents had moved to from their respective homes in Germany and France.
1799: In Westphalia,
Germany, Sara Moses Weinberg and Bendix Aron Weinberg gave birth to Abraham
Bendix Weinberg the husband of Fiekchen Sophia Weinberg and Hannchen Leffmann
Weinberg
1799: Alexander
Hamilton, the native of Nevis who according to some was the son a Jewess Rachel
Levine and who attended the island’s Jewish school before leaving for North
America, began service “as the inspector general of the United States Army”
during which he “was the de facto head of the army.”
1799:
President George Washington whose letters of acceptance to Jewish communities
in the early days of the United States set the tone for acceptance that has
made it possible for the Jewish community to flourish passed away today.
1800(27th
of Kislev, 5561): Third Day of Chanukah observed for the last time during the
Presidency of John Adams.
1803(29th
of Kislev, 5564): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1803: In
Georgetown, SC, Savanah, GA merchant Isaac Minis married the “eldest daughter
of Solomon Cohen.”
1807: In
Hamburg, Israel Abraham Meyer and his wife gave birth to Meyer Isler who wrote
a these on the Greek poet to earn his doctorate and who was a follower “of the
new science of Judaism” as presented by Leopold Zunz and Isaak Markus Jost.
1808(25th
of Kislev, 5569): Chanukah celebrated for the last time during the Presidency
of Thomas Jefferson
1808(25th
of Kislev, 5569):
Abraham ben Elijah of Vilna the son of Elijah, the
Vilna Gaon passed away today in Vilna.
http://thesaurus.babylon.com/Abraham%20ben%20Elijah%20of%20Vilna#!!ARV6FUJ2JP
1812: In
Bavaria, Nanette Wexler and Leser Lazarus Ochsenhorn who were married in 1803
gave birth to Maier Ochs, the husband of Agatha Ochs and the father of
Mathilda, Nannie, Flora and Louis Ochs.
1812: With
Napoleon having “abandoned his army on December 5 to deal with the aftermath of
an attempted coup d'état in France” the shrunken “the Grande Armée” left Russia
– a move that would lead to the downfall of the French Emperor and to many of the reforms made possible in the
aftermath of the French Revolution that were beneficial to the Jews of Europe.
1814(1st
of Tevet, 5575): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1814:
Alexander Solomon married Esther Lyons today at the Great Synagogue.
1815:
Today, the Allgemeine Zeitung published an item reporting the appointment of Carl
‘Asser to an important post in the Department of Justice by the King of
Netherlands, ‘the king makin no distinction on the sore of the religious faith
of his subjets and considering only merit in the bestowal of honors.’’
1816(24th
of Kislev, 5577): Parashat Vayeshev; Kindle the first Chanukah Candle
1816:
Birthdate of Ban, Hungary, native Abraham Hochmuth, the “principal of the newly
founded Jewish school at Miskolcz who served as the rabbi in Kula and Veszprim
while playing a prominent role in the Hungarian Jewish Congress.
1817: Birthdate
of Bavaria native and future Ohio resident Rosina Leopold Lebensburger, the
wife of Joseph Lebensburger whom she married in 1846 and with whom she had four
children – Myere, August, Caroline and Nora.
1819(26th
of Kislev, 5580) Second Day of Chanukah
1819:
Alabama becomes the 22nd state to join the Union. For those of you who think that Jews only
made a contribution on the eastern seaboard, please take note. Abram Mordecai came to Alabama in 1785 and is
credited by some with the founding of Montgomery, the state capital. He was described as “’an intelligent Jew who
lived fifty years in the Creek nation.’” (The Creeks were an Indian tribe made
famous by their battles with Andrew Jackson and Davey Crockett.) He traded with
the Creeks, married a Creek woman and found what he considered proof positive
that the Creeks were descendants of the ten lost tribes. The first congregation in Alabama was formed
in Mobile in 1844 and a second congregation was founded in Montgomery in 1852.
1822(30th
of Kislev, 5538): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Channukah; Parashat Miketz
1825: A
group of disgruntled Russian Army officers begin what is now known as the
Decembrist Revolt, an uprising against the newly installed Czar, Nicholas
I. The Jews had nothing to do with the
revolt. The officers were animated by
the tainted road to throne followed by Nicholas and their desire for a more
liberal regime. The unsuccessful revolt
reinforced the despot’s drive to follow in the reactionary footsteps of his
father. Among other things he increased
the drive to remove the Jews from Russian society by forcing growing numbers
into the Pale of Settlement and by enforcing draft laws that forced young
Jewish boys to serve 25 years in the Russian Army.
1827(25th
of Kislev, 5588): First Day of Chanukah.
1827: Three
days after she had passed away “Rosetta Cowan,” the wife of George Cowan was
buried today at the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1828(8th
of Tevet, 5589): Forty-year-old Charleston native Isaac Harby, the son of
Solomon and Rebecca Moses Harby and the husband of Rachel Harby, the editor of
the Charleston Mercury and playwright
whose “Alberti” premiered with President Monroe in the audience passed away
today while living in New York.
1829: A day
after he had passed away, 29 year old Mark Benjamin was buried today at the
“Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1831(10th
of Tevet, 5592): Asara B’Tevet
1831:
Birthdate of Zevi Hirsch Dainow, the native of Russia and magid (teacher) who
settled in London.
1834: Two
days after she had passed away, 66-year-old Maria Isaacs, the wife of Samuel
Isaacs was buried at “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1841(1st
of Tevet, 5602): Seventh Day of Channukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1841: John
and Janette Ries Mayer gave birth to Caroline Mayer who became Caroline Mayer
Weis when she married Julius Weiss, the businessman who in 1901 was “fined $25
for violating the Wilson separate car law because he sat in the section
reserved for negroes and declined the conductor's request to get up because
there were no empty seats in the white section” and with whom she had six children –
Henrietta. Simon, Samuel, Joseph, Marion and Frederick.
1842: David
Woolf Marks, the ‘British Hebrew scholar and minister who was the first
religious leader of the West London Synagogue, married Cecilia Sarah Woolf in
London today after which they six children including Harry Marks, the “MP for
the Isle of Thanet and proprietor and editor of the Financial News.”
1844: In
Hungary, Hannah Heller Steiner gave birth to Rosalie Steiner Schonberger, the
future New Yorker who was the wife of Herman Schonberger.
1846(25th
of Kislev, 5607): Chanukah is observed for the first time during the
Mexican-American War.
1846:
Birthdate of Isidor Abisdid, the resident of London and husband of Flora
Henriette Raphael.
1849:
Following the revolution in Hungary during which he had been arrested Rabbi
Judah Leib "Leopold" Löw was pardoned by General Julius Jacob von
Haynau
1850:
Birthdate of Jean (Jan) Taubenhaus, the native of Warsaw who became a “French
chess master.” He was the brother of Godfrey Taubenhaus and Joseph Taubenhaus
both of whom would become rabbis in the United States.
1851: Rabbi
Isaac Leeser of Philadelphia gave a speech “to more than a hundred people at
United Hebrew temple on Fifth Street in St. Louis” in which “he pointed out the
absurdity of” the St. Louis Jewish community “maintaining three separate
congregations” which led to the merger of B’nai B’rith Congregation,
Congregation Emanu-El and United Hebrew in 1852.
1852(3rd
of Tevet, 5613): Seventy-one-year-old Rebecca Hayms the daughter of Sarah
Sarzedas and Colonel David Maysor and the wife of David Hayms with whom she had
three children passed away today.
1852: In
Curaçao, Sarah Jesurun De Leon and Daniel de Leon, the descendant of
Spanish-Dutch Jews gave birth to Daniel De Leon the future lead of the
Socialist Labor Party of America.
1853: Three
days after she had passed away, Hanna Schloss, a native of Bamberg, Bavaria,
and wife of Joseph Schloss was buried today at “Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.”
1854(23rd
of Kislev, 5615): Just 12 days before his 71st birthday Emanuel
Baruh Lousada a West Indies merchant and member of prominent Sephardi family
that had settled in England in the 17th century who developed
Sidmouth, in Devon, as a popular resort passed away today leaving an estate
valued at one hundred thousand pounds.
1856: In
Syracuse, NY, Zilli Strauss and Jacob Marshall gave birth to Louis Marshall,
prominent lawyer and leader of the United States Jewish community.
http://www.jrbooksonline.com/intl_jew_full_version/ij76.htm
http://syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu/fall-2012/louis-marshall.html
1857(27th
of Kislev, 5618): Third Day of Chanukah observed for the first time during the
Presidency of James Buchanan.
1858: At
Lomzha, Poland, “Boruch Meyer Brown and Sarah Brzoza gave birth to Wolf Brown
who began serving as the Cantor at Congregation Mount Zion in 1888.
1860(1st
of Tevet, 5621): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah observed as South
Carolinians prepare to secede from the Union because they did not like the
outcome of the Presidential election.
1861(11th
of Tevet, 5622): Parashat Vayechi
1861: Today
Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to Rabbi Arnold Fischel who “was instrumental in getting the United States military
chaplaincy law changed to allow for inclusion of Jewish chaplains” that “I find
that there are several particulars in which the present law in regard to
Chaplains is supposed to be deficient, all of which I now design present to the
appropriate Committee of Congress” and “I shall try to have a new law broad
enough to cover what is desired by you in behalf of the Israelites.”
1862:
Following the crushing Union defeat at Fredericksburg caused by the ineptness
of General Burnside, Lieut. G.L. Snyder, Company B, of the 104th
N.Y. was among the group of Jewish members of the Army of the Potomac who were
buried near the hospital that had been set up across the river from the
battlefield.
1863: In Leavenworth,
KS, Henry / Hartog Bernard Haas, the Dutch born “son of Benjamin Philip Haas
and Christina Haas and his wife Sarah Haas” gave birth to Hyman (Harold) Levy
Sexias Haas, the “husband of Leontine Margaret Haas and father of Marguerite
Nadine Cole; Frederick Foignet Haas and Leonie A Read.”
1865(26th
of Kislev, 5626): Second Day of Chanukah observed for the first time during the
Presidency of Andrew Johnson.
1868(30th
of Kislev, 5629): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1868: A
Hungarian Jewish Congress was convened today which created Neolog Judaism a
“mild reform movement” that was concentrated in the “Hungarian speaking regions
of Europe.”
1869(10th
of Tevet, 5630): Asara B’Tevet
1869: In
Pittsburgh, PA, Mina and Louis Israel Aaron gave birth to Marcus the Aaron, the
husband of Stella Aaron, the brother of Charles Aaron and the father of Marcus
Lester Aaron and Fanny Friedman.
1870:
Birthdate of South Carolinian Julius Levin, the husband of Etta Karesh Levin
and the father of Sidney L. Levin
1870: A
large number of Jews and Christians including several governmental dignitaries
attended today’s cornerstone laying ceremony for Ahavath Chesed on the corner
of Lexington Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan In his introductory
remarks, Ignatz Stein traced the history of the congregation which began with a
few Jews from Bohemia holding High Holiday services at house on Ludlow Street.
The congregation’s real growth began in 1848 when large number of Jews fled
Europe following the failure of the liberal revolutions.
1871(2nd
of Tevet, 5632): Seventh day of Chanukah observed for the first time under the
reign of Kaiser Wilhelm, the first ruler of Unified German State.
1873(24th
of Kislev, 5634): Kindle the first Chanukah candle
1873: In
Egeln, Germany Selig and Juliane Blumenthal gave birth to Oskar Michael Blumenthal
the husband of Dora Blumenthal with whom he had two children – Margot and Ilse
– who died at Theresienstadt.
1874: One
day after he had passed away, Prussian born Lewis Haines, the wife of Catherine
Haines, was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1876(28th
of Kislev, 5637): Fourth Day of Chanukah observed as the United States deals
with the disputed outcome of the Presidential Election that would like to the
Compromise of 1877
1877:
Cesare Porec helped to engineer today’s resignation of the Interior Minister in
Italy.
1877: It
was reported that the few Jewish families who had fled last summer as the
Russian Army crossed into the Balkans last summer have been proven right in
fearing the treatment they could expect from the Czar.
1879: Four
days after he had passed away, 67 year old French born Lambert Samuel was
buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1879:
Birthdate of Lomza native Abraham Joseph Cohen who in 1888 came to the United
States where he graduated from Jefferson Medical College after which he
specialized in tuberculosis and served on the faculty of Temple Univsersity.
1879: Mr.
Isaac Rosenwald chaired the annual meeting of the Society of the Home for Aged
and Infirmed Hebrews in New York City today.
The home is providing shelter for 44 women and 32 men. The election of
officers was held which included the re-election of Mr. Rosenwald as President
1880: Mrs.
Lizzie Wenke appeared in Essex Market Police Court today to answer charges that
she had horse-whipped Isaac Stern, a Jewish tenant living in the same tenement.
1881:
Birthdate of Nicholas M. Schenck, the Russian born American movie mogul who
headed MGM.
1882: In
Bradford, PA, f Jacob Olshofsky and Louise Olshofsky gave birth to Richmond
resident Stella O. Bowman the wife of Louis Bowman and mother of Louis O.
Bowman who was an active member of the National Council of Jewish Women.
1882:
Julius W. Kaskel, an early Jewish settler of Leadville, was an active member of
the Reception Committee for the charity ball held today in the Colorado
boomtown
1883(15th
of Kislev, 5644): Ignatz Fischl, a 23 year old German Jewish immigrant was
found dead in his room at the Great Northern Hotel, in the Bowery.
1883(15th
of Kislev, 5644): Naphtali Mendel Schoor, the “Galician Hebrew writer” who in
1861 founded a Hebrew weekly who wrote a three-part history of the Medieval
Jews.
1883: In
Rochester, NY, for the first time in the history of Berith Kodesh, Rabbi Max
Landsberg led the Friday night service using the newly printed English language
order of service. (They prayed in \English and not Hebrew. One of the tenants of Reform Judaism was that
people should pray in the vernacular – Germans in German, French in French,
Americans in English)
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E0DE7D8103BE033A25756C1A9649D94629FD7CF
1884(26th
of Kislev, 5645): Second Day of Chanukah
1884: The
Hebrew Free School Association held its annual meeting today at their building
on East Broadway.
1884:
Professor Felix Adler delivered an address at Chickering Hall where he
condemned the conditions of those living in tenements on the Lower East Side,
blamed them on the landlords and called for the establishment of inspection
committees as the first step in improving conditions.
1886: Rabbi
Francis Lyon Cohen who would serve as “the first Jewish chaplain in the British
Army” and serve as the “Chief Minister of the Great Synagogue in Sydney
Australia” married Rose Hast at the Great Synagogue in London where her father
Rabbi Marcus Hast served as “Reader.”
1887(28th
of Kislev, 5648): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1887: It
was reported today that of the twenty-eight hospitals in New York represented
by The Hospital Saturday and Sunday Association, two of them have “a Jewish
connection,” “are of distinctively Jewish origin and depend for their
maintenance almost exclusively upon Jewish support.”
1888(10th
of Tevet, 5649): Asara B’Tevet
1888: In
Chicago, Sol and Emma (Luca) Levinsohn gave birth to Bennett Medical College
trained physician Edmund David Levinsohn the husband of Melanie M. Poll who
served as the chief surgeon for the Illinois Malleable Iron Company and
associate professor of minor surgery at the Chicago Medical School starting in
1924.
1888: Rabbi
Gustave Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El was among the clergymen appointed by
Elbridge T. Gerry to organize the church services to be held on April 30, 1889
as part of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washing as
President of the United States.
1888: In
New York, Justice Patterson is scheduled to hear evidence on the charges that
Telemaque T. Timayneis “doctored” the books of Minerva Publishing Company. The complaining witness in this case of grand
larceny is his partner, Emma Dickinson.
Timayenis is the author of three very popular books aimed at
discrediting the Jewish people - The Original Mr. Jacobs: A Startling Exposé,
The American Jew: An Expose of His Career, and Judas Iscariot: An
Old Type in a New Form.
http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Telemachus_Timayenis
1889: Birthdate of Leopold Philipp
who was buried at Adath Jeshurun Cemetery in Philadelphia when he passed away
in 1982.
1889: “New Departures” published
today summarized the views of newspaper editor Moritz Ellinger which included
the advocacy of “a departure from many of old forms and ceremonies used by
Hebrews for centuries, some of which characterized as superstitions. Mr. Ellinger felt that such reforms were the
only to attract the “new blood” needed to strengthen Jewish congregations.
1890: “The
Jews In Russia” published today described “the mass meeting recently held in
London to protest against the persecution of the Jews in Russia” which was
attended by many prominent Christian Englishman who “made speeches denouncing
the obnoxious laws” aimed at the Jews which American Jews hope will emulated in
this country including outspoken support by prominent Christian Americans.
1890: The
residents of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews will be able to attend an
afternoon of music starting at 3 p.m.
1890: In
Poland, “Abraham Solomon Taxon and Gruna (Hailperin) Taxon gave birth to Morris
Nathan Taxon the REIT trained rabbi who got his secular education at CCNY, Ohio
State and Omaha University and who held several pulpits starting with Augudas
Achim in Columbus, OH, before settling in at Shaareth Israel in Dallas where he
also served President of the Texas State Zionist Association and as amember of
the directorate of the Jewish Federation for Social Service in Dallas while
raising a family with the former Edyth Irene Schotenstein.
1890: In
Berlin, the stock marked “closed weak” today due to many chaotic situations in
Europe included the “stringent measures” taken against the Jews.
1891: “An
Indictment of Russia” described the abusive treatment of the Jews in the Czar’s
empire including their recent expulsion from St. Petersburg that came without
warning. Among those affected were
“Moses Mordechai Feinberg, a gold and silversmith whose right of residence” in
St. Petersburg “dated from 1871 and Eidel Solomon Gissing, whose permit
extended back to 1868” reducing them and there co-religionist “to beggary.”
1891:
Birthdate of Jozef Hecht, the native of Cracow who gained fame as “painter and
printmaker” Joseph Hecht.
https://www.annexgalleries.com/artists/biography/984/Hecht/Joseph
1892(25th
of Kislev, 5653): Chanukah observed for the last time during the Presidency of
Benjamin Harrison.
1892:
Birthdate of Kiev native Samuel Umansky who in 1912 came to the United States
where he eventually settled in Meriden, CT while raising three daughters with
his wife Elizabeth Umanksy while serving for “15 years on the National
Administrative Council of the ZOA” and attending 20 National Zionist
conventions.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1952/01/05/84294899.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1892: In
Decatur, GA, Henry and Mathilda Hamburger Bachrach gave birth to Louis
Bachrach, a graduate of Decatur High School who had gone to work in a
department store in Philadelphia where he died tragically at the age of twenty.
1893: Sarah
Polskie, whose three children were turned over to the Hebrew Children’s
Guardian Society by order of the court, said that she had been unable to
provide for the youngsters since her husband had been sent to the penitentiary
and she had been out of work for five weeks.
1894:
Birthdate of New York native Barney Pressman, the founder of the famous
Barney’s clothing store.
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/27/nyregion/barney-pressman-retailing-legend-is-dead-at-96.html
1895: The
Allen Memorial Church on Rivington Street played host an overflow crowd that
come to protest the visit to American by Hermann Ahlwardt the German
anti-Semite who has been delivering speeches in New York.
1895:
“Against Cuba’s Rebels” published today described a pamphlet that has been
circulated among members of Congress that demonizes their leaders including
Carlos Roloff “the most inhuman and ferocious of them all” a Polish born Jew
who is “a Nihilist and dynamiter.” (According to Ben Frank, Roloff was “a
Ukrainian Jewish adventurer” and “became the first finance minister of Cuba after
she gained her independence who supported the revolt against For more see
“Carlos Roloff:A Cuban Jewish Patriot” by Isidoro Aizenberg in the Judaica
Philatelic Journal
1895: After
Shabbat, the charity fair sponsored by leading Jewish New York families
reopened this evening at 8 p.m.
1895: At
the charity fair sponsored by the leading Jewish New York families, the Aguilar
Library book was given one of the first copies of The American in Paris by
Eugene Coleman Savidge which it would be able to sell to raise funds.
1895: At
the Hebrew Charity Fair, Mrs. Joseph L. Buttenweiser has raised $5,650 at the
Candy Booth.
1895: Birthdate of King George VI
of the United Kingdom, whose reign covered the dark days leading up to World
War II and the war itself. According to documents published in the Guardian in
2002, in the spring of 1939 George VI instructed his private secretary to write
to Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax: “Having learnt that ‘a number of Jewish
refugees from different countries were surreptitiously getting into Palestine’,
the King was ‘glad to think that steps are being taken to prevent these people
leaving their country of origin.’” Halifax’s office telegraphed Britain’s
ambassador in Berlin asking him to encourage the German government ‘to check
the unauthorized emigration’ of Jews.” Halifax’s telegraph in 1939 initiating
the request that Hitler not allow “unauthorized” Jews to leave Germany was thus
a direct result of George VI’s letter to him. “When it came to anti-Semitism,
King George VI did not stutter at all!” King George Street in Israel is named
for George V not George VI.
1895: A copy of the Hebrew
Scriptures is among the items placed in the bronze box which is in a cavity of
the cornerstone of the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science
which the mayor will lay this afternoon at 3 p.m.
1896: Bertha Alberge and Isadore
Conn gave birth to Joseph Conn the husband of Henrietta Sassienie whom he married at the South Hackney synagogue
and the father of Jack and Rita Cohn ho
served as an “Air Mechanic 2 / Sailmaker” with Royal Flying Corps during WW I.
1897: Columbia Law School honor
graduate Max David Steuer, the Austrian born son of Dinah Goodman and Adam Steuer
and defense attorney whose clients included “Harris and Blank who were charged
with manslaughter in the death of 147 girls killed in the Triangle Shirt Waist
factory fire and former Attorney Geneal Daughtery of Teapot Dome fame
1897: In Riva del Garda, Tyrol,
Austria-Hungary, Austrian General Artur von Schuschnigg and his wife gave birth
to Kurt Schuschnigg, the last Chancellor of an independent
Austria whose opposition to the Anschluss earned him imprisonment at Dachau
until the end of the war.
1898(1st
of Tevet, 5659): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; 6th day of Chanukah
1898: Two
days after he had passed away, 65-year-old Emanuel Thierman was buried at the
“Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1898:
Today twenty-nine-year-old CCNY graduate Louis Maurice Josephthal, the New York
born son Theresa Wise and Moritz Josephthal and the husband future husband of
Edyth Guggenheim was named Assistant Paymaster with the rank of Ensign which
would lead to him being named Paymaster while serving aboard the ironclad
“Nahant” during the Spanish American War.
1898(1st
of Tevet, 5659): David Marks, the benefactor of many Jewish charities, passed
away today in New York City.
1900(22nd
of Kislev, 5661): Baruch Jonas passed away today.
1900: In
Romania, the issue of Lazăr Șăineanu's naturalization was also revisited by the
lower chamber, and the proposal defeated with 44 votes to 31 (from an
insufficient quorum of 75) despite the fact that he had converted to
Christianity to facilitate the process.
1900: Six
days after she had passed away, the former Sophia Goldsmed, the “widow of David
Viscount de Stern” with whom she had had five children was buried today at the
“Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1900: Max
Plank publishes his study on quantum theory.
His greatness as a scientist is transcended as his greatness as
man. He protested Hitler’s treatment of
Jewish scientists. At great personal
risk he resigned in protest but stayed in Germany.
1901(4th
of Tevet, 5662): Parashat Miketz
1901:
Birthdate of Cincinnati, OH native and Harvard Ph.D Charles Louis Kuhn, the
expert on German art who served with Naval Intelligence during WW II before
becoming one of “The Monuments Men.”
https://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/the-heroes/the-monuments-men/kuhn-lt.-cdr.-charles-l.
1902: Julie
Dent Grant, the widow of Ulysses S. Grant, whose general officers during the
Civil War included several Jews and who was the first President to attend the
dedication of a synagogue (Adas Israel) passed away today.
1902:
Birthdate of Austrian American philosopher Herbert Fiegl, the son of a Bohemian
textile designer and husband of Maria Kaspar who emigrated to Iowa where he
taught philosophy at the University of Iowa.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/feigl-herbert
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feigl/
1903(25th
of Kislev, 5664): First Day of Chanukah
1903: Herzl
explains his position on Uganda in a letter to Sir Francis Montefiore,
President of the English Zionist Federation.
1903: “The
Girl from Kays” an English musical with “additional songs by Paul Ruben” today
moved from the Apollo Theatre to the Comedy Theatre where it finished “its run
of 432 performance.”
1903: The
United Zionists of Greater New York continued its semi-annual meeting today.
The 250 delegates representing 74 Zionist societies were scheduled to deal with
“routine business.”
1903: Belle
Mandel, the daughter of Simon Mandel who with his brothers Solomon, Leon and
Emanuel formed Chicago’s Mandel Brother’s department store married Ben
Altheimer, the Arkansas born lawyer and philanthropist who was the driving
force behind the creation of Flag Day. (Carolyn Gray LeMaster)
1904: It
was reported today that the Carnegie Institution had made a minor grant “for
archeological investigations in Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Nubia
1904: It
was reported today drove “the old Speedway favorite, Cobwebs to a hooked
featherweight cutter” today.
1905: In
Lodz, this afternoon “a band of roughs attacked Jewish shops and residences in
Zielczna Street.”
1905:
Thirty-two-year-old NYU trained attorney, John L. Bernstein, the Russian born
son of “Leib-Ber and Dina Schurr Bernstein married Celene J. Richter today in
New York.
1905:
During a session of the Reichstag, Adolf Stocker called “the Jews a
revolutionary element which is responsible for socialism.
1906(27th
of Kislev, 5667): Third Day of Chanukah
1906(27th
of Kislev, 5667): Sixty-five-year-old Ancona native Federico Consolo, the
“Italian violinist and composer who created “the national anthem of San Marino”
passed away today.
1907(9th
of Tevet, 5668): Parashat Vayigash
1907:
According to a dispatch from London today, “a special commemoration will be
made next July of the fiftieth anniversary of the admission of Jews to the
British Parliament.
1908: In Chicago, “Max and Jennie (Finder)
Amsterdam, Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary” gave birth to Moritz
Amsterdam who gained fame as comedian Morey Amsterdam.
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/29/arts/morey-amsterdam-comedian-and-joke-encyclopedia-dies.html
1909:
Marcus M. Marks, President of the Tuberculosis’ Prevenotrium at Lakewood, NJ
met with Samuel Untermeyer, counsel for Max Nathan in an attempt to reach an
agreement on the disposition of Mr. Nathan's share of the Lakewood Hotel
Property which is valued at $300,000.
1910:
In Brookline, MA, Mary Blanchard Linder Goodwin and Harry M. Goodwin, “the dean
of graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology” gave birth
to “Richard H. Goodwin, a botanist who as national president of the Nature
Conservancy in the late 1950s and mid-60s helped preserve thousands of acres of
open space on both coasts, including 1,100 acres around the farm where he lived
in East Haddam, CT.”
1910(13th
of Kislev, 5671): Sixty-six-year-old Aaron E. Greenewald the husband of Sallie
Gimbel passed away today after which he was buried at Mount Sinai Cemetery in
Philadelphia.
1911:
Roald Amundsen, of whom Apsley Cherry-Garrard, the author who described the
ill-fated trip of his rival Robert Scott wrote “The truth was that Amundsen was
an explorer of the markedly intellectual type, rather Jewish than Scandinavian
. . .” reached the South Pole today.
1912(4th
of Tevet, 5673): Parashat Vayigash
1912:
Dr. Hirsch “spoke at the annual meeting of the Education Alliance of New York”
today.
1912:
It was reported today that plans are being made to move the Jews’ College from
London to either Oxford or Cambridge so that students may combine university
courses with their “rabbinical studies.”
1912:
Birthdate of “rubber technologist” and “Labour MP for Bolton and Bolton West”
John Lewis.
1912: It was reported today that “synagogue of the
Bikur Cholim Congregation in Seattle Washington, on which construction work was
stopped two years ago due to lack of funds will soon be completed now that the
necessary moneys have been raised.
1913:
A very pregnant Myra Lyons Rukeyser was one day away from giving birth to her
daughter Muriel.
1913:
Rene Cohen, a descendant of Eliahu Hadar Cattaui was married today.
1914(26th
of Kislev, 5675): Second Day of Chanukah
1914:
Dr. Nathan Blaustein was unable to save Mrs. Sadie Mager a widow who was
brought to the Flower Hospital after having suffered a heart attack, but thanks
to his quick thinking was able to save her unborn child by performing a
Caesarian operation and then alternately immersing her in basins of hot and
cold water for 30 seconds at a time until she was able to breath on her own.
1914:
Birthdate of Jack Donald Foner and Philip S. Foner two brothers who were both
academics and activists in the labor and social movements.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/15/obituaries/philip-s-foner-labor-historian-and-professor-84.html
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/foner-obit.html
1914:
In an address given this afternoon to students of the Atlanta Law, Hooper
Alexander, the United States District Attorney and “an authority on
constitutional law” said “that Leo M. Franks still has a ground of appeal to
the Supreme Court of the United States on a writ error.”
1914:
Solomon Rabinowitz who writes under the name of Shalom Aleichim and is known as
the “Jewish Mark Twain” is scheduled to lecture at Cooper Union where last
spoke in 1908 when he his family had come to the United States to escape the
anti-Semitic violence in his native Kiev.
1914:
Birthdate of Solomon Spiegelman, an American microbiologist and geneticist who
discovered that only one of two strands of molecules that make up
1915: The
Allies were making preparations to evacuate from Gallipoli, where the Zion Mule
Corps had served with distinction.
1915:
Having prepared to launch the first gas attack of WW I, the Germans spent today
waiting for favorable weather. (Editor’s note – the effect of gas was so
horrible that nobody used it in combat during WW II but it was not horrible
enough for Hitler, who had suffered from a gas attack, to use it on the Jews)
1916: The
Senate voted 64 to 7 in favor of the highly restrictive Burnett Immigration
Bill that had sparked a debate on whether Jewish immigrants could be exempted
from the literacy requirement.
1917(29th
of Kislev, 5678): Fifth day of Chanukah
1917: Abram
I. Elkus, the former Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, “issued a special plea
for aid for sufferers everywhere, especially in Turkey” in which he said he
wished he could find the words to make the plight of the sufferers more “vivid”
for those living in New York.
1917:
Congregation Temple Rodeph Sholom is scheduled to begin the celebration of its
75th anniversary today.
1917: After
Montrose Strassburger spoke at the Palace Theatre “he was showered with silver”
to donated to the fund trying to raise five million dollars for Jewish relief.
1917:
Today, the Palace Theatre, the Bushwick Theatre in Brooklyn and the Morris
Theatre in Harlem gave their total receipts to the Jewish relief fund.
1917: Harry
H. Rosenfeld, the assistant executive director of the American Jewish War
Relief Committee which is raising ten million dollars across the United States
reported that in Tulsa, OK, where oil man Marion Travis has led the campaign,
$150,000 has been raised including contributions from Travis himself.
1917: A
Reuters’ telegram to Amsterdam reported that the population of Palestine is
suffering terribly; and that the population has been reduced to one third
because of hunger, sickness and distress. Only 23,000 of the 60,000 Jews are
left in Jerusalem.
1917: In
Warsaw, “municipal authorities took control of all bakeries and declined to
allow Jewish bakeries to close on Saturdays and work on Sundays.”
1917: In
Kharkov, “in response to appeals from rabbis,” the local military commander
posted guards at Jewish burial grounds “to prevent Bolsheviki and deserters
from molesting funerals ton the pretext that Jews bury hidden stores” in their
graves.
1917: In
Moghilev, peasants who are dividing “pasture ground” allotted “land to Jews
possessing cattle with the proviso that Jews work on the land themselves and do
not hire” laborers.
1917: Today
in Russia, “Jewish communal leaders in many towns appealed to educational
authorities to excuse Jewish pupils from writing on Saturday when secondary
schools are open.”
1917: the
Franfurter Zeitung reported today about preparations “by ant-Semitic
organizations for a strong anti-Jewish campaign after the war.”
1917: In
Germany hundreds of thousands of copies of “a work entitled A Knife for the
Jews are being distributed”
1918:
“Rabbi Samuel Schulman preached a sermon” today at Temple Beth-El “in which he
pointed out that the American Jewish Congress” which begins its meetings
tomorrow “has of uniting the Jews in the United States on behalf of the great
work of complete emancipation of their co-religionists in the world by
presenting a perfect solidarity of opinion before the” Peace Conference which
is going to convene to settle the issues of the World War.
1918: Today
in Warsaw, the municipal authorities took “over control of all bakeries, and
declined to allow Jewish bakeries” to be closed on Saturday and open on
Sundays.
1918:
Today, “the Federation of Russian Societies ended the second day of its three
day convention” in New York where “the Jews were both reviled and defended.”
1919:
Tonight, “at a meeting of the Judeans in the Hotel Pennsylvania,” “Henry
Morgenthau, who head President Wilson’s special to Poland to investigate”
reports of Pogroms described “the horrors which had been revealed to the
commission and also some of the constructive proposals which he had made to the
Polish Government in order to save the people, thousands of whom he predicted
will die of starvation this Winter.”
1920: In
San Antonio, TX, Morris Stern was elected President of the Chamber of Commerce.
1920: In
“Bryan on the Protocols” published today, the failed Democratic Presidential
candidate and former of Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan wrote “The
libel that is being circulated against the Jews, based on the so-called
‘protocols’ is absurd as well as cruel” and that “it is astonishing that anyone
would build upon an anonymous publication an indictment against one of the
greatest races in history.”
1921:
Members of Gdud HaAvoda, “a socialist Zionist work group” went to work at Tel
Yosef to help develop the fledgling Kibbuz.
1922(24th
of Kislev, 5683): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1922: In
New York City, “Frieda (née Pike) and Ely S. Hewitt” gave birth to Donald
Shepard “Don” Hewitt, the creator of Sixty Minutes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/business/media/20hewitt.html
1922: The
Anshe Emes Sisterhood is scheduled to host a theatre party this afternoon at
the DeLuxe Theatre in Chicago with all proceeds going to the Building Fund.
1922: In
Berlin, Leo and Lotte Jachmann gave birth to their first son Isadore Seigfried
Jachman the Baltimore raised U.S. Army Staff Sergeant who killed in 1945 after
“defending the town of Flamierge in Belgium” – an action for which received the
Congressional Medal of Honor.
1923: Sir
William Graham Greene wrote Churchill congratulating him on finally being
cleared of charges that he issued misleading reports about the Battle of
Jutland that benefited Jewish financiers to whom Churchill owed a greater
allegiance than he did to the British people.
1924: Dedication of the Beth El’s new synagogue took place today
in Camden, NJ. Participating in the ceremonies were Mayor Victor King of
Camden, Dr. A. A. Neuman of Philadelphia's Adath Jeshurun, Judge William M.
Lewis of Philadelphia and Rabbi Samuel Freedman of Beth EI in Philadelphia.
Rabbi Grayzel and Cantor Mickleman officiated at the service. The Cantor was
accompanied by a choir under the direction of Gedalia Rabinowitz.
1924:
Martin Henry Glynn, the first Irish American Roman Catholic governor of New
York and a staunch defender of the rights of Jewish immigrants living in his
state, passed away.
1925: At
Atlantic City, in a case of Jew versus Jew Benny Shwartz defeated featherweight
Wilbur Cohen
1925:
“Wozzeck,” an opera which Alban Berg had completed in 1922, was performed for
the first time today in Berlin.
1926: Louis
Marshall is honored on his seventieth birthday for his success
as a lawyer, a philanthropist who raised millions, supporter of forest
conservation and immigration reform, statesman and champion of Jewish causes.
1926:
Birthdate of German native Arnulf M. Pins, the “director for the Middle East
Region of the Joint Distribution Committee, and associate director of
JDC-Israel…”
1927:
President Coolidge his express “sympathy with the Zionist movement” in its
attempts “to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine” when he met with “Rabbi
Uzziel, a patriarch of the Jewish synagogue in Palestine.”
1927: In
St. Louis, Isadore Lavin and Jenny Shuff gave birth to Washington University
trained art historian Irving Lavin.
https://www.ias.edu/news/press-releases/2019/irving-lavin-obit
1928(1st
of Tevet, 5689): Seventh Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1928:
“Nathan Chanin, the Secretary of the Jewish Socialist Ferband of America who
has just returned from Russia where he visited the Jewish agricultural colonies
said in an address at the Rand School” tonight “that the Jews in Russia were on
the verge of starvation.”
1929: “The
Aviator,” a comedy with a script co-authored by Arthur Caeser and produce by
Warner Brothers was released today in the United States.
1929: After
519 performances the curtain came down at the Casino Theatre on the original
Broadway production of “The New Moon,” “an operetta with music by Sigmund
Roberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II…”
1930(24th
of Kislev, 5691): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1930: 74th
anniversary of the birth of Louis Marshall.
1930: Dr.
Nathan Krass delivered a sermon at Temple Emanu-El “on the significance of the
festival of Chanukah and on the problem of human suffering.”
1930:
Murray Seasongood, the Jewish former Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio and Rabbi Samuel
S. Cohen of Hebrew Union College are two of the speakers scheduled to address
tonight’s fourth annual dinner of the metropolitan conference of Temple Men’s
Club at the Emanu-El Community House in New York City
1931: In
New York, Fay and Rita Gelman gave birth award winning chemist Charles Gelman
the holder of a BS from Syracuse and MS from the University of Michigan, who
after serving in the United States Army founded Gelman Instrument Company led
to being a “recipient of the Michigan Science and Technology Trailblazer
Award.”
1932: “The
possibility of Palestine becoming a source for supply of oil for the British
Navy was raised today in the House of Commons in a question by Sir Alfred
Knox.” (JTA)
1932: Two
days after she passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held today for
78-year-old Mrs. Ida Wise Bernheim, the widow of Henry Bernheim with whom she
had five children and the graduate of the Ohio Female College in Cincinnati who
was the daughter or Rabbi Isaac M. Wise and Theresa Bloch Wise.
1932(15th
of Kislev, 5693): Dr. Angel Pulido y Fernandez, Spanish researcher of the
Sephardim passed away. In 1904 he wrote Espanoles sin Patria (Spaniards
Without A Home) which sparked the idea of the Sephardim returning to Spain.
He became a member of the Spanish Parliament, and later the King made him a
Senator. He spent the latter part of his life writing, holding meetings and
passionately advocating for the return of the Sephardim.
1933:
Forty-five year old composer Max Steiner and Audree Van Lieu whom had married
in 1927 were divorced today
1934: In
Nuremberg, Julius Streicher, “the Franconian Nazis leader” “demanded new
anti-Semitic legislation” tonight saying that “sexual intercourse between a Jew
and a non-Jewish woman must be punched with death.”
1935(18th of Kislev, 5696): Science fiction writer Stanley G Weinbaum
passed away.
1935: Lillian Hellman's "The Children's
Hour" is banned in Boston. Calling it "indecent," Mayor
Frederick Mansfield issued a decree banning Lillian Hellman's first play, The
Children's Hour, from being staged in Boston. Showcasing the destructive
power of lies, the play depicts the experiences of the headmistresses of a
girls' boarding school, who are ruined by a malicious rumor that they are
lovers. Although the play was also banned in London, The Children's Hour
had opened on Broadway in 1934 to critical and popular success. One reviewer
called it both "a venomously tragic play" and "one of the most
straightforward, driving dramas of the season." The scandal associated
with the play's lesbian theme was reflected in a 1936 film remake, These
Three, for which a screenplay written by Hellman transformed the play's
rumor of lesbianism into a rumored love triangle centered around a man. Another
film version, starring Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine in 1961, restored
both the lesbian-rumor theme and the original title. The play remains a
significant milestone in the representation of gay themes in American letters
and an important piece of the contemporary American theater repertoire.
Hellman, whom the New York Times has called "one of the most
important playwrights of the American theater," was born in New Orleans,
Louisiana, on June 20, 1905. Her parents both came from wealthy German-American
Jewish families. After her high school graduation and three years at New York
University, Hellman took a job reading manuscripts at a Greenwich Village
publishing house. After a year, she left to marry writer Arthur Kober and move
to Hollywood. Although their marriage ended in 1932, the move proved a good one
for Hellman. She worked reading scripts and was soon writing them herself.
Other significant Hellman plays include The Little Foxes (1939), Another
Part of the Forest (1947), and The Autumn Garden (1951), all loosely
based on her mother's family, and the two anti-fascist plays Watch on the
Rhine (1941) and The Searching Wind (1944). Watch on the Rhine
and Toys in the Attic (1960) each won a New York Drama Critics Circle
Award. If her later plays were less controversial than The Children's Hour,
Hellman's offstage life was even more so. From 1930 to 1961, she lived off and
on with writer Dashiell Hammett, with whom she was active in left-wing literary
circles. Hellman became known as a pro-Stalinist, and in 1948, she was
blacklisted from Hollywood as Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communist witch
hunt began. Called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee
in 1952, she offered to speak about her own activities but refused to name
names or speak about the activities of others. In a line perhaps more famous
than those from any of her plays, she wrote to the committee that "I
cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions." It was
considered a brave statement at the time, but Hellman was later criticized for
never explicitly condemning Stalinism. During a decade on the blacklist,
Hellman wrote stage adaptations of four plays, including the book for the
operetta "Candide," with music by Leonard Bernstein. She wrote no new
plays after 1960, but did publish three volumes of memoirs. The first of these,
An Unfinished Woman, won the National Book Award for 1969. Hellman died
on June 30, 1984.
1936(30th of Kislev, 5697): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1936: “Crack-Up” a dramatic film written by Sam Minz, with music by
Samuel Kaylin and starring Peter Lorre was released in the United States today.
1936: “You Can’t Take It with You” a comedy written by those two Jewish
giants of the stage, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, opened at the Booth
Theatre for the first of what would prove to be 837 performances. The play won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for
Drama.
1936: The original production of “You Can't Take It with You” a comedic play in three acts by George S.
Kaufman and Moss Hart opened at the Booth Theater tonight and played for 837
performances. The play won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
1936: Twenty-seven-year-old Jewish
medical student David Frankfurter began serving an 18 year prison sentence
tonight after having been found guilty of murdering Wilhelm Gustloff the Nazi
leader in Switzerland.
1936: Tonight, “the German press
announced” that now that the verdict has been handed down at Chur, Switzerland
in which David Frankfurter was convicted of leading the Swiss Nazi leader,
“Germany will now undertake an its own investigation of the case” with the aim
of doing “something” about “the hidden men behind Frankfurter who are alleged
to have been responsible for the murder.”
1936: Dr. Maurice B Hexter “summed up Jewish grievances when testified
before the Royal Commission. These
include a complaint that survey and settlement of titles to land take too long
to be completed are required and a demand to accelerate the pace of the work.
1936: The Palestine Post reported that
despite official assurances further instances of violence and arson were
carried out by various Arab armed bands throughout the country. There was arson
in Tel Aviv port, bus passengers were robbed on roads, and trees in Jewish
settlements were uprooted. Moslem youth boycotted the Christian-owned National
Bus Company, claiming that it had offered assistance to the British army and
police during the Arab strike. But both the Jerusalem Mufti, Haj Amin
el-Husseini, and the Arab Higher Committee appealed to both Jerusalem's Moslems
and Christians to settle their differences.
1937: It was reported
today, that the “American Joint Distribution Committee has said that as of
January 1, 1937, there was 39,000 Jewish school children still in Germany” and
that “of this total, 23, 670 were attending special Jewish Schools.
1938: “The Novel of
Werther” a film based on a 1774 French novel directed by Max Ophuls, with music
by Paul Dessau was released in French today.
1939: Raymond Samuel
married Lucie Bernard today “after he warned her that it might be dangerous for
her to marry a Jew.” He would take the nom de guerre of Raymond Aubrac. (As
reported by Douglas Martin)
1939: Heydrich issued a
modified directive ordering all rural and small-townJews in the General
Government (occupied Poland) to be transported to the larger Polish cities
where they would be quarantined from the rest of the Polish population and kept
under tight SS surveillance.
1939: The League of
Nations expelled the Soviet Union for its attack on Finland in what is known as
the Winter War which would result in Jewish soldiers fighting on the same side
as the Wermacht.
1940: “Horse Fever,”
produced by Alexander Yokel was performed on Broadway today at the Mansfield
Theatre for the last time.
1940: British military
intelligence confirmed that the effect of the Patria decision on the Arabs had been “remarkably small.”
1940: Final performance
at the Mansfield Theatre of “Horse Fever” produced by Alexander Yokel
1941: The German
military commander of Kharkiv, Ukraine ordered the Jewish population to move to
the city periphery within 2 days and to occupy the barracks of the works of a
machine factory. In the next days, 15.000 Jews were shot at Drobitsky Yar.
1941:
Jews by the hundreds are dying from hunger and the cold in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Two Jews were shot dead at a funeral for a friend
1941: A Jewish ghetto at Kharkov, Ukraine, is established.
1942: In a
letter made public today, “Representative Hamilton Fish told Secretary of State
Cordell Hull that he was ‘profoundly shocked’ by statements of the ‘alleged
slaughter of 7,000 Jews daily by the Nazis in conquered territories’ and asked
‘Is there not some action that may be taken by the United States Congress and
the Administration that will these pogroms of Jews in Poland and Eastern
Europe?’”
1943(17th
of Kislev, 5704): Fifty-eight-year-old New York born, and Columbia trained
gynecologist Samuel H. Geist, the husband of Juliet Beecher Geister and father
of Joyce B. Jacobson passed away today.
1943(17th
of Kislev, 5704): Forty-year-old tobacco dealer Ford Meyer Bayuk the
Philadelphia born son of Meir and Julia Bayuk and the husband of Mabel J Bayuk
suffered a heart attack and passed away today.
1944(28th
of Kislev, 5707): Fourth day of Chanukah
1944(28th
of Kislev, 5707): 1st Lt. Joseph Levine, a bombardier with the 20th
Air Force was killed today.
1944(28th
of Kislev, 5707): 1st Lt. Chester E. Paul, a co-pilot was killed
today while flying with the 20th Air Force.
1944: A
funeral service is scheduled to be held this morning for sixty-seven-year-old
Columbia trained lawyer and life-long music aficionado Lewis Montefiore Isaacs,
the son of Meyer and Maria Solomon Isaacs and the husband Edith J. Rich “the
editor of Theatre Art Monthly, who found time to serve as the Borough
President of Manhattan and to write guides to “Koenigskinder” and “Hansel and
Gretel”
1944: Birthdate of Mitchel Jay Feigenbaum, a mathematical
physicist whose pioneering studies in chaos theory led to the discovery of the
Feigenbaum constants. In 1983 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, and in
1986, he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics "for his pioneering
theoretical studies demonstrating the universal character of non-linear
systems, which has made possible the systematic study of chaos".
1945: Josef Kramer known as "beast of Belsen", and 10 others were hanged
for crimes committed at the Belsen and Oswiecim Nazi concentration camps.
1945(10th
of Tevet, 5706): Asara B'Tevet
1945:
“Fallen Angel,” “a film noire directed
by Otto Preminger” was released today in the United States.
1945(10th
of Tevet, 5706): Ten years after her
husband passed away, Lucie Hadamard Dreyfus passed away. She had remained in
France at the behest of her granddaughter who worked with the Resistance. Ultimately she took refuge in a convent in
Valence where her benefactors did not know her identity. Her death so close to the end of the Shoah
served as a reminder that the road to Vichy and Drancy had begun a half century
before when her husband was convicted because he was Le Juif, the Jew
1945: The
Broadway production of “Dream Girl” by Elmer Rice opened at the Coronet Theatre
1945: Ruth
(Pincus) Koch and Howard Winchel “Hawk” Koch, Sr. gave birth to movie producer
Howard Winchel “Hawk” Koch, Jr.
1946:
Birthdate of Michael S. Ovitz, the Chicago native who began as a talent agent
and rose to serve as President of the Walt Disney Company.
1946: After
almost a month, the curtain comes down on the final performance of “A Flag Is
Born” at the Broadway Theatre.
1947(1st of
Tevet, 5708): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1947:
Oswald Rothuag, the Nazi jurist who sought to provide over the trial of Leo
Katzenberg whom he gladly sentenced to death, was sentenced to life
imprisonment today after being found guilty of “crimes against humanity.”
1947: Birthdate of entertainment mogul, Michael
Ovitz.
1948(12th
of Kislev, 5709): Twelve days after his 70th birthday, Kishinev
born, Russian army veteran Shmuel Adler who began his literary career writing “correspondence
for Tog (Day) of St. Petersburg under the pseudonym Nesher” and
who after living in Germany and England where he continued to write, settled in
New York where he “contributed to the daily press in New York under the pen
names: Der Ashmedai (The demon king) and Yekhezkil Baran and wrote a melodrama in English that was produced
in 1918 passed away today.
1948: At a
meeting today with Jordanian commander Abdullah el-Tell, Elias Sasson “recorded
el-Tell saying ‘strike the Egyptians as much as you like. Our attitude will be
totally neutral.’
1949: In
keeping with a resolution adopted by the Knesset, the Israeli government moves
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
1951:
Birthdate of Norton A. Schwartz, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, the
19th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force and the first Jew to hold
this position.
http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio.asp?bioID=7077
1951: The Jerusalem Post announced that for
the third successive year the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Palestine
Archaeological Museum refused to admit the participation of Prof. E.L. Sukenik
of the Hebrew University, the board's sole Jewish representative, to its deliberations.
Since the museum was located in the Jordanian-occupied part of Jerusalem, Prof.
Sukenik suggested that meetings should be held at the Mandelbaum Gate, on the
border, but his offer was turned down.
1951: David Montagu, 4th
Baron of Swaythling married Christiane Francois Dreyfus today after which they
had had three children – Fiona, Charles and Nicole.
1952(26th of
Kislev, 5713): In Little Rock, Arkansas, on the
third day of Chanukah, Agudas Achim dedicated its new synagogue.
1952:
"Makin' Whoopee!" a jazz/blues song, first popularized by Eddie
Cantor in the 1928 musical Whoopee!” with lyrics by Gush Kahn was re-released
today.
1952: “Anne Frank: Diary of
a Young Girl” a radio drama written Jewish journalist Meyer Levin who had
visited the concentration camps after the war and had contacted Anne's father
Otto Frank to request the rights to create a play based on the diary of Anne Frank,
appeared on The Eternal Light series, produced by the Jewish Theological
Seminary on the NBC network.
1952: In Manhattan,
Hugo Levy, who had been a textile merchant before fleeing the Nazis after which
owned a hardware store in New York and his wife Alice gave birth to Harold
Oscar Levy, the Citicorp executive who served as “chancellor of New York City’s
public school system. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
1953: The Brooklyn Dodgers signed pitcher Sandy Koufax.
1954: Governor
Stratton is scheduled to speak at a dinner meeting of the Jewish Federation of
Chicago in the Morrison Hotel where 600 people are expected to be in
attendance.
1955: Arthur M. Loew, the son of Marcus Loew, succeeded Nicholas
Schenck as the President of MGM, although Schenck remained Chairman of the
Board
1956(10th
of Tevet, 5717): Asara B’Tevet
1956(10th
of Tevet, 5717): Eighty-four-year-old Newark, NJ attorney and a former member
of the Jewish Community Council of Essex County Nathan Kussy who served on
Newark’s Board of Education and served as the assistant city attorney for four
years while writing playlets that were performed in Army camps during WW I and
writing three books, Grinmar, The Abyss and Victor passed away passed away at
the Alps Manor nursing home in Preakness, NJ.
1957: U.S.
premiere of a remake of “Farewell To Arms” the cinematic version of the novel
of the same name directed by Charles Vidor produced by David O. Selznick with a
screenplay by Ben Hecht.
1957: At
Adas Israel in Washington, DC, Bar Mitzvah of Avraham Elimelech ben Yosef Dov
1957: The
City of Paris awarded the Gold Medal of the City of Paris to David Feuerwerker the French Rabbi and Jewish historian who fought against
the Nazis as a member of the French Army at the start of WW II and then joined
the Resistance after Petain and Vichy came to power.
1957: “Bridge On The River Kwai” a WW II epic produced by Sam Spiegel with
a script co-authored by Carl Foreman was released in the United States, two
months after first being shown in the United Kingdom.
1959: “The World of Sholom Aleichem” produced by Henry T. Weinstein was
broadcast as “The Play of the Week.”
1960: U.S. premiere of “Esther and the King” an Italian made movie based on
the Book of Esther starring Joan Collins whose father was Jewish in the title
role.
1960(25th of Kislev, 5721): Chanukah is observed for the last
time during the Presidency of Dwight David Eisenhower.
1960(25th of Kislev, 5721): Sixty-three-year-old Gregory Ratoff,
the Russian born American actor and director best known for his role as “Max
Fabian” in “All About Eve” and as director for the film “Oscar Wilde” passed
away.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gregory-Ratoff
1961: “Judgement at Nuremberg” a film classic produced and directed by
Stanley Karmer and written by Abby Mann was released today in Berlin.
1961: Louis Jacobs who had been named the rabbi at the New West End
Synagogue in London in 1953 was forced to resign from the staff of Jews’
College.
1961: “El Cid” an epic film produced by Bessarabian born American Jew
Samuel Bronston who was a nephew of Leon Trotsky, directed by Anthony Mann and
with a script by Yordan was released in the United States today.
1962(17th of Kislev, 5723): Fifty-one-year-old Robert Clyde
“Bob” Katz whose “entire major league career consists of 6 appearances for the
1944 Reds” in a season which he was 0-1 passed away today.
1963: Gustav Machatý, the movie director who gave Hedy Lamar her big break
in “Ecstasy” passed away today. He was
not Jewish, but she was.
1965: Simon and Garfunkel recorded “Homeward Bound” which appeared on the
album “Sounds of Silence” in the UK and “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme” in
the U.S.
1965: Simon and Garfunkel re-recorded Paul Simon’s “I Am a Rock” which had
originally been “recorded and released” the previous August.
1966(1st of Tevet, 5727): Seventh Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh
Tevet
1966:
“A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Forum” based on the play co-authored
by Larry Gelbart, produced by Melvin Frank who also co-authored the screenplay,
with music by Stephen Sondheim and starring Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford and Phil
Silvers was released today in the United Kingdom.
1967(12th of Kislev, 5728): Fifty-year-old University of
Michigan basketball and baseball player Herman Fishman, the co-founder of Camp
Michigama and Director of the Detroit Pistons passed away today.
1967: U.S. premiere of “In Cold Blood” the movie version of the novel of
the same name directed and produced by Richard Brooks who also wrote the
screenplay and edited by Holocaust survivor Peter Zinner.
1967: The first
synthesis of biologically active
1968: Birthdate of
Franklin High (New Orleans) and Brandeis graduate Theodore H. “Ted” Frank the
University of Chicago trained lawyer who is “a nephew of author Hurwitz” and
who helped launched the national career of Sarah Palin when he wrote the
vetting report on her for Senator John McCain.
1969: “John and Mary”
the movie version of a novel by Mervyn Jones starring Dustin Hoffman was released
in the United States today.
1969: “La Strada,” “a musical with lyrics and music by Lionel
Bart, with additional lyrics by Martin Charnin” and featuring Larry Kert as
“Mario” opened today on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatres.
1970: Joseph B. Levin
represented the National Assn. of Securities Dealers, Inc. when arguments
opened before the Supreme Court in INVESTMENT COMPANY INSTITUTE et al.,
Petitioners, v. William B. CAMP, Comptroller of the Currency, et al. NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF SECURITIES DEALERS, INC., Petitioner, v. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION et al.
1971: “Diamonds Are
Forever” one of the James Bond movies co-produced by Harry Saltzman with a
screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz was released in Germany today.
1971: “The Hospital”
directed by Arthur Hiller, a Canadian born Jew for which Paddy Chayefsky won
the 1972 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and featuring Stephen
Elliot was released in the United States today.
1973(19th of Kislev, 5734):
Composer Yitzhak Edel passed away.
http://www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il/thesaurus6fe4.html?cat=9&in=9&id=649&act=view
1974(30th
of Kislev, 5735): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1974(30th
of Kislev, 5735): Eighty-five-year-old American
journalist and political philosopher Walter Lippmann passed away. (As
reported by Alden Whitman)
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F20D17F63B5A13718DDDAC0994DA415B848BF1D3
1974: In
New York, WNYC is scheduled to broadcast “The Story of Chanukah” adopted by
Pearl Klein
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FA0A10FA35551A7493C6A81789D95F408785F9
1975: “The Adventure of
Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother” a musical comedy film with Marty Feldman,
Madeline Kahn and Gene Wilder who also wrote the script and directed the film
was released in the United States and the United Kingdom today.
1975: “A National
Council on Soviet Jewry was established at the conclusion of the first National
Conference on Soviet Jewry held in Great Britain.”
1976: “Sly Fox” a
comedic play by Larry Gelbart premiered on Broadway today at the Broadhurst
Theatre with a cast that included Jack Gillford.
1976:The Jerusalem Post reported from
Washington that the US State Department, Pentagon and industry were becoming
concerned over Israeli use of foreign military sales credits (from the US) not
only to obtain US weapons for its inventory, but also to import technical data
packages that eventually could be exported in competition with American
products. Syrian troops moved into East Beirut where two Christian militias
continued to fight each other.
1976: “A new wave of
searches and interrogations of members of the organizing committee of the
symposium on Jewish culture in Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad, Gorky, Minsk, Tbilisi
and other cities” which would last until December 20 began today.
1977: U.S. premiere of
“Saturday Night Fever” based on “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night” a New
York Magazine article by Nik Cohm with a screenplay by Norman Wexler with Donna
Pescow as “Annette” and Fran Drescher as “Connie.”
1977: Representatives of Egypt and Israel gathered in Cairo for their
first formal peace conference.
1978: “Superman” the movie that brought to the big screen the
comic hero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster and directed
by Richard Donner (born Richard Donald Schwartzberg) opened in the United
Kingdom today.
1978: After having been
first premiered in the United States, “Force 10 from
Navarone,” the movie version of the novel by the same name with a story created
by Carl Foreman was released today in the United Kingdom.
1979(24th
of Kislev, 5740): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light
1979(24th
of Kislev, 5740): Seventy-five-year-old Milton Harold Bren, the St. Louis born
son of Sadie Simon and Henry Simon the movie producer whose most famous work
was the screw-ball comedy “Topper” who was married to actress Claire Trevor
passed away today.
1980(17th
of Tevet, 5741): Seventy-seven-year-old Isadore Efron, the son of Morris Efron
passed away today after which he was buried in the Sons of Israel Cemetery in
Aiken, SC.
1981: Israel annexed the Golan Heights which had been captured from
Syria in 1967. The Syrians had shelled
Israeli farmers from the Golan Heights for almost twenty years. The IDF took the heights in an amazing
exercise of physical courage at the end of the Six Days War.
1981:
“Silkwood,” a biopic directed and co-produced by Mike Nichols with a script
co-authored by Nora Ephron was released in the United States today.
1984(20th
of Kislev, 5745): Sixty-nine-year-old New York born Cornell University graduate
Charles Jay Oppenheim 3d, a former broadcasting executive who was director of
information services for CBS Television in the 1950's, and who raised two
daughters – Barbara and Jan – with his wife, the former Elaine Kent passed away
today.
1984: After
having premiered in Albany, NY, “The Cotton Club” which was filmed by
cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt was released today in the United States.
1984: Howard Cosell retired from Monday
Night Football. The Carolina Israelite via Brooklyn was no longer the third
man in the booth.
1985: Edgar
Bronfman, the president of the World Jewish Congress was among the group of Jewish
leaders who today visited “site of the Treblinka death camp” which was part of
three days of talks which included meetings with the Polish leader, Gen.
Wojciech Jaruzelski.
1986: It
was reported today that “whatever the fate of day schools among the
non-Orthodox” attendance at the afternoon Hebrew schools in the New York City
which had reached a high of 96,000 in the 1960’s “ was now steadily declining.”
1988:
“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” a comedy directed by Frank Oz, with music by Miles
Goodman was released in the United States today.
1988: U.S.
premiere of “Torch Song Trilogy” written and co-starring Harvey Fierstein,
produced by Ronald K. Fierstein with music by Peter Matz.
1989:
Joel Brinkley, writing in the New York Times,
reported that Soviet Jews are leaving at a record pace, with many of them
opting to settle in Israel. “
1990(27th
of Kislev, 5751): Third Day of Chanukah
1990: U.S.
premiere of “Look Who’s Talking Too” directed by Amy Heckerling
1990:
“Captain America” a film based on the Marvel comic super-hero created by Joe
Simon and Jack Kirby produced by Menahem Golam and Stan Lee and with music by
Barry Goldberg was released in the United Kingdom today.
1991(7th
of Tevet, 5752): Parashat Vayigash
1991(7th
of Tevet, 5752): Eighty-nine-year-old Hartford, CT native Edward Allen “Ed”
Suisman who played as a guard and forward for Yale from 1923 to 1925 passed
away today.
1993: As a closely watched target date came and went with no
change in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin suggested today that there could be still further delays
in withdrawing Israel's soldiers and introducing Palestinian self-rule.
1993: In
Pittsburgh, PA, Miron Bisnowaty a Sabra raised in Rishon Lezion “who came to
the U.S. at the age of 27” and his wife Randi gave birth Adam Bisnowaty who
played tackle for the University of Pittsburgh before going to the NFL with the
New York Giants.
1994:
Alfred Moses presented his credentials today as the U.S. Ambassador to Romania.
1995:
“After a private audience with Pope John Paul II,” Leah Rabin, the widow of
Yitzhak Rabin said today that the Pope “had acknowledged Jerusalem's
"double role" as capital of Israel and a holy city to Jews,
Christians and Muslims”
1997(15th
of Kislev, 5758): Seventy-nine-year-old musical comedy “second banana” Stubby
Kaye, passed away. Two of his more
famous film credits were “Guys and Dolls” and “Cat Ballou.” (As reported by
Myrna Oliver)
http://articles.latimes.com/1997/dec/16/news/mn-64593
1997: The New York Times book section included
a review of Gloria Steinem by Sydney Ladensohn Stern
1998:
President Clinton stood witness as hundreds of Palestinian leaders renounced a
call for the destruction of Israel.
Based on what has happened since then, the deeds did not match the word.
1998(25th
of Kislev, 5759): First Day of Chanukah
1998: A
Chanukah celebration was held this evening “at the Chaar Hachamayim Synaogugoe
on Cairo’s Adly Pasha Street.”
1998(25th
of Kislev, 5759): Actor Norman Fell passed away.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-norman-fell-1191859.html
1998(25th
of Kislev, 5759): Seventy-four-year-old Annette Strauss, the former Mayor of
Dallas, passed away.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/21/us/annette-strauss-74-former-mayor-of-dallas.html
1999: U.S.
and German negotiators agreed to establish a $5.2 billion fund for Nazi-era
slaves and forced laborers.
2000: Marty
Glickman underwent heart bypass surgery.
2000:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for 89 year-old Alexander Kahn,
the husband of the late Eva Kahn after which interment will take place at the
New Montefiore Cemetery.
2000: “The
Family Man” a comedy directed by Brett Ratner, with a script by David Diamond
and David Weissman and music by Danny Elfman was released in the United States
by Universal Pictures.
2000: The
International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation presented the Raoul Wallenberg 2000
Award. to Oscar Vicente,
2001:
In what some considered an unusual turn of events, the men who gathered for the
funeral of a local boy killed by a Palestinian attack spoke
little about revenge or military reprisals. Instead the talk was about God's
mysterious ways and about what many saw as a divine signal that Jews had
strayed from their faith in their own land.
2002(9th
of Tevet, 5763): Ninety-one-year-old Columbia trained professor of economics
Eli Ginzberg the son of Adele Ginzberg and JTS Professor of Talmud Louis
Ginzberg passed away today.
2002(9th
of Tevet, 5763): Seventy-eight-year-old multi-talented actress and native of
Des Moines, IA, Ruth Kobart passed away today in San Francisco.
2003: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews
by Melvin Konner and The Conspiracy Club by Jonathan Kellerman.
2004(2nd
of Tevet, 5765): Seventh Day of Chanukah
2004:
“I, Robot” a sci-fi thriller based on the work by Isaac Asimov, with a
screenplay co-authored by Akiva Goldsman and featuring Shia LaBeouf was
released today on VHS and DVD.
2004: Molly
Tambor gave birth to Mason Jay Moore Jeffrey Michael Tambor’s first grandchild.
2004: Gary Shaprio reviews Ron
Rubin’s book on the New York City Marathon's co-founder, Anything for a
T-Shirt: Fred Lebow and the New York City Marathon, the World's Greatest
Footrace .The book - the first biography of Lebow - has been published on
the 10th anniversary of his death.
2005(13th of Kislev, 5766): Israeli
archaeologist Ruth Amiran passed away.
Born in 1914 she was the author of Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land:
From Its Beginnings in the Neolithic Period to the End of the Iron Age and
a 1982 recipient of the Israel Prize.
2005(13th of Kislev, 5766): Eighty-one-year-old “Dr. Herman Roiphe, a psychoanalyst who explored the notion
of sexual identity in early childhood development, passed away today.(As
reported by Jeremy Pearce)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/26/obituaries/26roiphe.html
2005(13th
of Kislev, 5766):
Nathalie Babel Brown, a daughter of Isaac Babel, the
illustrious Russian-Jewish storyteller of the Soviet era, whose literary work
she edited, died in Washington at the
age of 76. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/13/arts/13babel.html
2006: The Jerusalem Post reported that Ha’eda, the official organ of the
fiercely anti-Zionist Eda haharedit, characterized those Jews attending the
Teheran Holocaust denial conference as a ‘tiny group of insane people, who are
liable to incited hatred against hareidi Jews.’ The paper’s editor lambasted
them for having ignored the ‘opinion of Torah Sages’ in pursuit of their
distorted anti-Zionist zealotry.
2006: In Boston, The
Improv Asylum presents its new production, "Andy Warhol's Christmas Special, or, How Hanukkah Stole Christmas."
It's a story narrated by Andy Warhol about a sick, young Jewish woman who makes
a wish for Hanukkah to replace Christmas. Sadly, it comes true.
2006: The Roundabout Theatre
Company’s revival of “The Apple Tree” a Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick musical
of began today.
2007(5th of Tevet,
5768): Eighty-eight-year-old Hank Kaplan, an American boxing historian and
writer who was the founder and editor of Boxing Digest, passed away today, at
his home in Florida. (As reported by Matt Schudel)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/15/AR2007121501821.html
2007: In New York City The 92nd
Street Y School of Music presents a recital by pianist Laura Barg as part of
its series of one-hour faculty concerts in the Weill Art Gallery.
2007: The Washington (D.C.) Jewish
Community Center continues “Theater J,” its successful series of informal play
readings, with a presentation from “Forgiveness”
by David Schulner, directed by Daniella Topol, featuring Tim Getman, Conrad Feininger, Helen Hedman,
Kimberly Gilbert and Julia Proctor.
2008: Final performance
of The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater production of “The Very Sad
Story of Ethel & Julius, Lovers and Spies, and About Their Untimely End
While Sitting in a Small Room at the Correctional Facility in Ossining New York.”
2008: In Washington,
D.C., the 3rd Shalshelet International Festival continues for its second and
final day when the composers and performers will provide a day of free creative
workshops beginning at 10:00 am, also at the Sixth & I historic Synagogue.
2008: At the Chabad
House in Little Rock, AR, Rabbi Pinchas Ciment facilitates the beginning of the
writing of a Sefer Torah as part of this special year of Hakhel. . This momentous occasion will take place as
Mrs. Ruth Itzkowitz will be celebrating her 90th birthday and is being
partially underwritten by the Itzkowitz family in loving memory of Bob
Itzkowitz (obm).
2008:
The Washington Post book section
featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics uniquely related
to the Jewish people including The
Alchemy of Air: A Jewish
Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but
Fueled the Rise of Hitler by Thomas Hager Jewish Pirates of the
Caribbean by Edward Kritzler and American Priestess: The
Extraordinary Story of Anna Spafford and the American Colony in Jerusalem by
Jane Fletcher Geniesse.
2008:
Funeral services are held for Holocaust Survivor and longtime resident of Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, Ann Gilbert (Chana Zylberstajn) at Tempe Judah with burial at
Eben Israel Cemetary.
2008:
Avraham Infeld, President of the Chais foundation confirmed today that the
California-based foundation that doles out about $12 million per year was
forced to close as a result of the securities scheme orchestrated by Bernard
Madoff, The Chais Family Foundation, which gives away approximately $12.5
million annually to Jewish causes in Israel, the former Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe, closed Sunday because all of its assets were invested with
Madoff. The United Jewish Communities and the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee were among its main beneficiaries.
2008:
Jack Black hosted the Spike Video Games.
2009(27th
of Kislev, 5770): Third Day of Chanukah
2009(27th
of Kislev, 5770): Ninety-three-year-old Sol Price who as the founder of
PriceSmart is considered the pioneer of stripped down bargain warehouse store
passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/business/16price.html
2009(27
Kislev, 5770): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of Harvey David Luber. He will always be missed and never be
forgotten.
2009:
The Center for Jewish History, American Sephardi Federation and Center for
Traditional Music and Dance present: “Ilyas Malayev: Remembering the Poet
Laureate of the Bukharian Jews.”
2009:
Gary Schmitt and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius take part in a
discussion of "The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking"
with one of the book's editors, Kenneth Weinstein, at the Hudson Institute in
Washington, D.C.
2009:
Israel's top-ranked player won the 2009 Chess World Cup. Boris Gelfand, a grand
master from Rishon LeZion, defeated former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of
Ukraine in a playoff today in the Russian town of Khanty-Mansiysk to take the
$120,000 top prize
2009:
Kinky Friedman announced “that he was leaving the gubernatorial race and would
the Democratic nominated for Texas Agriculture Commissioner.”
2010:
The Historic 6th & I Synagogue is scheduled to present “Food for
Thought: Digesting Ethics, Mysticism, and Philosophy” with Rabbi Yosef
Edelstein of MesorahDC
2010:
In New York, the YIVO is scheduled to present a program entitled
“Ukrainian-Jewish Relations in the Aftermath of the Schwarzbard Trial.”
2010:
In Hawaii, The Kahului Union Church is scheduled to host a program entitled “A
Voice for Israel” featuring Nora Finberg the wife of Pastor Robb Finberg of
Grace Church in Pukalani.
2010:
Today Israeli officials canceled a ceremony planned to honor the Palestinian
firemen who assisted in battling the Carmel fire last week, after a number of
crew members were refused permits to cross the border. countries.
2010:
It was reported today that Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is
off to an early lead in the race for Chicago mayor, but there is plenty of room
for other contenders in the crowded field as the fluid contest takes shape, a
new Tribune/WGN poll found
2011:
Opening session the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial is scheduled to take
place today at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Session in suburban
Maryland.
2011:
“Yiddle with His Fiddle” is scheduled to be shown today at the Maltz Museum of
Jewish Heritage in Beachwood, Ohi
2011:
Arsonists set fire to a deserted mosque in central Jerusalem during the night.
2011:
Dozens of right-wing activists clashed with police officers in Jerusalem today,
amid attempts to arrest suspects linked to recent so-called price tag attacks.
2012:
Ninety-eight-year-old “Joe Simon, a writer, editor and illustrator of comic
books who was a co-creator of the superhero Captain America, conceived out of a
patriotic impulse as war was roiling Europe,” passed away today (As reported by
Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/books/joe-simon-a-creator-of-captain-america-is-dead-at-98.html
2011(14th
of Kislev): Ninety-eight-year-old “Norman Krim, an electronics visionary who
played a pivotal role in the industry’s transition from the bulky electron
vacuum tube, which once lined the innards of radios and televisions, to the
tiny, far more powerful transistor” passed away today. (As reported by Dennis
Hevesi)
2012(1st
of Tevet, 5773): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth day of Chanukah; Kindle the 7
candles.
2012(1st
of Tevet, 5773): Six-year-old Adam Posner was the youngest of the victims
murdered today at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.
2012(1st
of Tevet, 5773): Seventy-two-year-old China scholar and UCLA professor Richard
Baum passed away today. (As reported by Meg Sullivan)
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/prominent-china-scholar-richard-241975.aspx
2012:
“Call me a Jew,” a documentary about Austrian treatment of Jews during World
War II is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2012:
Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis is scheduled to bring her unique message to members
and guests of Park East Synagogue.
2012:
In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host its second Musical Shabbat
in the 5773 season.
2012:
Avigdor Liberman announced today he would resign from his position as foreign
minister and vice premier in the current government in light of a pending
indictment against him for fraud and breach of public trust
2012:
Bob “Benmosche announced that the U.S. government and American taxpayers
received their full investment in AIG, plus a $22 billion positive return.”
2013:
Two days before his 90th birthday, Israeli pianist Menahem Pressler
is scheduled to perform on the Tully stage of the Lincoln Center
2013:
Weather permitting, “Francis Ha” and “Life Sentences” will be shown at the
Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013:
The Union of Reform Judaism Biennial Convention is scheduled to host a
centennial celebration “Extraordinary Women Shaping Reform Judaism: A
celebration of the 100th anniversary of Women of Reform Judaism” followed by a
concert featuring Neshama Carlebach and Josh Nelson.
2013:
As thousands of Gazans suffer from record flooding, Israel relaxes restrictions
at the border crossing to allow the shipment of water pumps and gas for heating
to relieve the human misery.
2013:
Israel faced another freezing night, with fears of icy roads nationwide, but
the worst storm in decades was winding down. Late tonight, much of Jerusalem
and northern Israel were still deep in snow, the authorities were working to
open roads in and out of the capital, and much of the rest of the country was
still grappling with stormy conditions. Four Israelis were known to have died
since the storms began
2014:
Musician David Broza is scheduled to perform in the Mintz Auditorium of the
Uptown Jewish Community Center as part of the Community Chanukah Celebration in
New Orleans.
2014:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to host a
program with Ruth W. Messinger, President of the American Jewish World Service
2014:
At the Berman Museum, Emory Professor and WW II veteran Dr. Mort Waitzman is
scheduled to speak in third installment of the Bearing Witness series.
2014:
After today’s performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” Miriam Isaacs who taught
Yiddish at the University of Maryland for 15 years is scheduled to speak on the
literary antecedents to the show based on Sholom Aleichem's "Tevye"
short stories.
2014:
Ambassador Mal Berisha is scheduled to deliver “a talk on the role of U.S.
Ambassador Herman Bernstein (1930-1933) in championing positive Albanian Jewish
relations and how this set the stage for Albania sheltering its Jews during the
war.
2014:
“State Aid Formula Said to Hurt in a District Where Most Go to Yeshivas”
published today described the behavior of an Orthodox Jewish community in
Rockland County.
2014:
“The Labor Party voted unanimously in favor of merging with Tzipi Livni’s
Hatnua party this evening, sealing the deal for a rotation premiership in a bid
to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a large center-left bloc.” (As
reported by Marissa Newman)
2014:
In a statement issued today, the Women of the Wall said that Rabbi Shmuel
Rabinowitz, the rabbinic authority of the Western Wall and holy places, denied
its request to hold a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony in the women’s section
of the holy. (As reported by JTA)
Read
more: http://www.jta.org/2014/12/14/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/women-of-the-wall-
2014:
The New York Times featured books by
Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including J
by Howard Jacobson and Gangsterland by Tod Goldberg.
2014(22nd
of Kislev, 5775): Eighty-year- old Rabbi Dr. Yitzchok Meyer Abramson, the
Chicago native who was the husband of Ruth Abramson passed away today in St.
Louis, MO.
2014(22nd
of Kislev, 5775): Ninety-one-year-old Sy Berger, “the father of the modern-day
baseball trading card” passed away today.
2014(22nd
of Kislev, 5775): Ninety-year-old Bess Myerson, the first Jewish “Miss America”
passed away today.
2014:
Today’s New York Times list of the 10
Best Books of 2014 included Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin and
Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright.
2015(2nd
of Tevet, 5776): Eighth Day of Chanukah
2015(2nd
of Tevet, 5776): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of Rabbi Aharon Kotler.
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Kislev_2.html
2015(2nd of Tevet, 5776): Eighty-eight-year-old
Lillian Vernon, the refugee from Nazi Europe who made her name into a women’s
fashion brand passed away today. (As reported by Lynn Povich)
2015:
Today, “just after the new government voided the Argentine pact with Iran to
jointly investigate the AMIA attack,” prosecutor Paul Plee “filed a request
today to reopen the case with the Federal Criminal Cassation Court” in which
“the late special prosecutor Alberto Nisman had charged that former President
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner covered up Iran’s role in the 1994 AMIA Jewish
center bombing.” (JTA)
2015:
The American Sephardi Association is scheduled to host “The Silk Road
Experience: A Night of Food, Fashion and Music.”
2015:
Juilliard faculty member and alumnus Itzhak Perlman is scheduled to lead “the
Juilliard Orchestra in a brilliant program of iconic Tchaikovsky masterworks
for their only Geffen Hall appearance of the season.”
2015:
At the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia Susan Barocas, Founding
Director of the Jewish Food Experience is scheduled to “share stories of
several immigrant families from diverse backgrounds who all lived in the same
tenement building — 97 Orchard Street — on the Lower East Side of New York,
between 1863 and 1935. Their stories will be told through the foods they ate.”
2015:
“The Dove Flyer” and “The Guardians of Remembrance” are scheduled to be shown
this evening at the AJS 47th Annual Conference in Boston, MA
2016:
In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel, Rabbi Feivel Strauss is scheduled to enlighten
attendees with the teachings of Reb Meir.
2016(14th
of Kislev, 5777): Ninety-seven-year-old “Edwin Goldwasser, a physicist who
co-founded the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., and
helped build one of the world’s most powerful particle accelerator” passed away
today.
2016:
In “Klezmer: Music, History and Memory” Walter Zev Feldman is scheduled to
discuss the emergence in 16th century Prague of klezmer which
“became a central cultural feature of the largest transnational Jewish
community of modern times.”
2016
Alon Oleartchik who “is considered among Israel's most important and inspiring
musicians, with an exciting and creative career spanning more than 40 years” is
scheduled to “perform his greatest hits from all-time including; "Ba La
Schuna Bahur Hadash" , "Hi Holechet Badrachim", "Eretz
Melach" and many, many more” at the Highline Ballroom.
2017:
In Omaha, the Chanukah Art and Soul Festival The Annual Menorah Parade at Boys
Town.
2017:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational Center is scheduled to host a
screening of “Summer of Love” followed by discussion “led by Michael J. Kramer,
Professor of history and American Studies at Northwestern University.”
2017:
“Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. said today it plans to cut 14,000
positions globally – over 25 percent of its total workforce – over the next two
years.”
2017:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host another session of
Peter G. Weintraub’s “Introduction to Judaism.”
2017:
Omri Tubi, “a PhD candidate in the Sociology Department at Northwestern
University and the recipient of the 2017 Martin and Rhoda Safer/JDC Archives
Fellowship” is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “What Can Malaria Eradication
Teach Us about the History of Israel?” at the Center for Jewish History in New
York.
2017:
The professional conference “The Book and the Desert” at which the import of
recently discovered Hasmonean era coins, pottery and ritual baths was to be
discussed was held today at the Susya Tour and Study Center.”
2017(26th
of Kislev, 5778): 2nd day of Chanukah
2018:
In Georgia, Or VeShalom, a congregation “established by refugees primarily from
Turkey and the Isle of Rhodes, is scheduled to host its Congregational Shabbat
Dinner.
2018:
In Columbus, OH, Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host a “conversation between
two feminist theologians, Judith Plaskow and Carol P. Christ, as they debate
the nature of divinity in the world, beginning from the premise that the
transcendent, omnipotent, male God of traditional theologies must be
re-understood.”
2018:
And in one final example showing the ways American congregations make erev
Shabbat special, in Chevy Chase, MD Ohr Kodesh Congregation is scheduled to
host “USY Friday Night Lights.”
2019(16th
of Kislev, 5780): Parashat Vayishlach;
2019:
In Boston, today’s session of the URJ Biennial includes a full schedule of
Shabbat related activities beginning with a Sabbat Breakfast and end with
“Havdalah and a Song Session.”
2019:
In San Jose, CA, Addison-Penzak JCC and Silicon Valley Federation are scheduled
to co-host “Legacy Project Shabbat,” “a service for a program that aims to
strengthen local synagogues, Jewish agencies and the community.
2019:
The Boston Synagogue is scheduled to host its “Family Chanukah Party” complete
with “latkes, dreidels, donuts, singing, live music and more.” (Editor’s note – never sure what “more”
consists of)
2019:
In Walnut Creek, CA, Congregation B’nai Shalom is scheduled to host a screening
of “Defiant Requiem,” a 2012 documentary that “uses archival footage and
animation to tell the story of Terezin inmates learning and performing Verdi’s
“Requiem” during the Holocaust.”
2019:
In Los Gatos, CA, the Addison-Penzak is scheduled to host “Vodka and Latkes,” a
Chanukah party featuring a “7-piece band, dreidel spinning, libations,
sufganiyot and latke bar with toppings.
2019:
“The Grant Monument Association is scheduled to commemorate the 117th
anniversary of the date of Julia Dent Grant today. For more about her husband
and the Jewish people see When Grant
Expelled the Jews by Jonathan Sarna
2020(28th
of Kislev, 7801): Fourth Day of Chanukah
2020:
“Robin Mencher is scheduled to replace Avi Rose as executive director of Jewish
Family & Community Services East Bay starting today.
2020:
As part of its “8 digital nights of Chanukah,” in London, the Jewish Museum is
scheduled to Karen Pollock, the CEO of the Holocaust Educational Trust.
2020:
The Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action is scheduled to present online
“Chanukah Celebrations: Hearts, Minds and Stomachs.”
2020:
In Cleveland, B’nai Jeshurun Congregation is scheduled to host online a
“Chanukah NIte Live and Congregation Candle Lighting” which is a celebration of
the 5th night of the holiday featuring songs, stories, teachings and
“a few surprise guests.”
2020:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Bay Area philanthropist Tad Taube, in his capacity as
honorary consul of Poland, are scheduled to be honored today at the American
Jewish Committee’s virtual Hanukkah gala, “Diplomacy at 75: Celebrating the
75th Anniversary of the Founding of the United Nations and AJC San Francisco.”
2021(10th
of Tevet, 5782): Yahrzeit of Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin) the wife of Larry
Rosenstein of blessed memory, the mother of Danny, David Asher and Joel
Rosenstein and the sister of David and Mitchell Levin all of whom miss her and
remember her with love and affection.
2021(10th
of Tevet, 5782): The Fast of the 10th of Tevet; Asarah b’Tevet, is a
minor fast day that commemorates the date “when, according to the Tanach (II
Kings 25:1-4), the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem.”
2021:
Touro College and University System is scheduled to sponsor “Who Was Judah
Touro?” with Professor Jonathan Sarna, University
Professor and Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis
University in conversation with Touro President, Dr. Alan Kadish
2021:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host online a lecture by Trudy Gold on
“Hollywood and Leon Uris Film Exodus.”
2021:
The Park Synagogue Sisterhood is scheduled to host a talk by Lori Potash, a
co-founder of OverDrive, a leading a digital reading platform followed by
Debbie Scolnick talking about “A Touch of Yiddish.
2021:
Via Zoom, the Jewish Museum is scheduled to present “The Hare with Amber Eyes,”
the third in a three-session coursed that “focuses on current and past Jewish
Museum exhibitions centered around the art produced or lotted during World War
II.”
2021:
The Jewish Climate Action Network is scheduled to present, online, “Setting
Climate Goals for Your Synagogue” featuring Robert Cooper, a long-time member
of the Green Team at Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, which endeavors to make
the temple more sustainable, encourage congregants to practice sustainability
in their lives and raise awareness about climate change.”
2021:
The Taube Center for Jewish People is scheduled to present “Reimaging the
Coalition: Israel After Netanyahu: during which “Masua Sagiv, visiting
assistant professor at UC Berkeley and scholar-in-residence at Shalom Hartman
Institute, will discuss the consequences of the first Jewish-Arab partnership
in the Israeli government, both from political and sociocultural perspectives.”
2022:
Caryn Tamber-Rosenau Instructional Associate Professor of Jewish Studies,
University of Houston is scheduled to deliver a virtual lecture on “How To Get
A Head in Ancient Israel: Exploring the Book of Judith” sponsored by Case
Western Reserve University.
2022:
YIVO is scheduled to present a virtual lecture by Hanna Abakunova on
“Ukrainian-Jewish Relations on the Eve and During the Holocaust.”
2022:
The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host “Art History Through a
Jewish Lens: Chanukah in a New Light” a virtual program during which “guest
lecturer Ellaine Rosen will dispel popular Chanukah myths and misconceptions by
exposing the true origins of gelt, latkes, dreidels, and the miraculous cruse
of oil” while investigating “the evolution of the Chanukiah, the Chanukah lamp,
and the varied styles which reflect the architecture of the countries in which
they were crafted.
2022:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Everlasting Light,” a Chanukah
classical musical performance ‘featuring GRAMMY winners Anthony Roth Costanzo
and Angel Blue;
The
Knights and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.”
2023(2nd
of Tevet, 5784): Seventh Day of Chanukah
2023:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host an on-site film and
discussion of “Without a Whisper.”
2023:
Based on previously published reports “A rare find of four Roman swords
discovered in a Judean Desert cave, announced by the Israel Antiquities
Authority earlier this year, has been named the most exciting archaeological
find of 2023 by National Geographic.”
2023:
As December 14 begins in Israel, the Iranian backed Houthis continue to pose a
threat as can be seen from their missile attack on “a commercial tanker loaded
with Indian-manufactured jet fuel near the key Bab el-Mandeb Strait yesterday,
the situation on the northern border worsens following rocket attacks aimed at
Rosh Hanikra and several U.S. administration try to walk back President Biden’s
description of Israel’s air campaign as being “indiscriminate” that Israel is basically telegraphing its
punches “by alerting civilians as to which neighborhoods they to attack;
something that “very few modern militaries would do ”decent people are reminded
of what started all of this thanks to the retrieval of the bodies of two
hostages while the Hamas held hostages begin day 69
in captivity. (Editor’s note:
this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are just providing a
snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time)
2024:
In New Orleans, Tempe Sinai is scheduled to host a “Chanukah Silent Disco.”
2024:
The Eden-Tamir Center is scheduled to host a “Russian Winter,” a concert performed
by the Ben Haim Trio.
2024:
In Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is scheduled to host “Tal Becker of the
Shalom Hartman Institute as he examines the current struggle Israel faces and
its profound implications for Jewish peoplehood.”
2024:
Today in Jerusalem, Agnon House is scheduled to host a reading of “Covenant of
Love,” followed by discussion led by Uri Grinshpon who “will delve into the
questions that preoccupy the protagonists of the story, discuss biblical Israel
versus modern Israel, and deal with the changes that occurred in the Jews in
the transition from the Diaspora to the Holy Land.”
2024(13th
of Kislev,5785):Parashat Va-yishlach (lit. “And he sent”)
For
more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2024:
As December 14th begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of
anti-Semitism that has included Hamas supporters calling for Zionist passengers
on a New York subway to raise their hands, demonstrations at a high school
production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” and the beating of a college student in
Chicago sweeps the United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day 435 in
captivity while Israelis brace for more rocket attacks by Hezbollah, Iran and
terrorists based in Iraq (Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid
for this blog to cover so we are just providing a snapshot as of the posting at
midnight Israeli time)
