This Day, December 24, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
December 24
3 BCE: Birthdate if of Servus
Sulpicius Galba one the emperors who ruled Rome, for a short period of time
during the Jewish Revolt that ended with the destruction of the Second Temple
1166: King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine gave
birth King John of England, the brother of Richard the Lionheart whom he
followed to the throne in 1199 and who was such a rapacious monarch that the
English nobles banned together and forced him to sign the Magna Charta, which
placed limits on the power of the King.
John’s record in dealing with the Jews was uneven, to say the
least. Since Jews fell outside of the
norms of the feudal world of the Middle Ages, special provisions were needed to
deal with them. Two years after coming
to power, King John issued a special charter guaranteeing the rights of the
Jews while he reigned as long as they conformed to all laws and decrees i.e.
provided a steady flow of funds to the royal treasury. In essence, the Jews were “the king’s
possession” to do with as he pleased. So
this same King John, when he needed more money, imprisoned several wealthy Jews
in a castle at Bristol in 1210 and held them until they paid a ransom of 66,000
marks. John’s son followed his father’s
pattern of behavior in dealing with the Jews.
His grandson would expel the Jews from England after squeezing them of
all their financial value.
1257: Jean d’Aresnes, count of Hainault who was a patient of the Jewish
physician Elias of London AKA Elias le Evesk, “one of the representatives in
the Parliament of the Jews” passed away today in Pas-de Calais.
1294: Pope Boniface VIII is elected Pope. In 1298, four years after Boniface came to power, 628 Jews are killed
after a priest Nuremberg, Germany, spreads a story that Jews drove nails
through communion hosts, "thereby crucifying Christ again". There are
those who hold Boniface accountable for this murderous act, if for no other
reason that it took place during his “undistinguished” papal rule.
1354: The Jews of Speyer, Germany were
given permission to open a school and synagogue.
1415: The infante Don Juan repaid the
437 ounces of gold which 13 Jewish communities in Sicily had lent him in 1413.
1491: Birthdate Ignatius of Loyola,
Spanish founder of the Jesuit order. Loyola was born one year before the Jewish
expulsion from Spain. He lived during a
period dominated by the Inquisition and Church sanctioned anti-Semitism. “It is
accordingly much to their credit that the Jesuits were firmly opposed
(particularly under Ignatius and his first three successors as Superior General
of the Jesuits) to ecclesiastical anti-Semitism and to the Inquisition's
persecution of suspected Jews. When Ignatius was accused of having partly
Jewish ancestry, he replied, ‘If only I did! What could be more glorious than
to be of the same blood as the Apostles, the Blessed Virgin, and our Lord
Himself?’”
1524: Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese
explorer who after establishing “a sea route from Europe to India and the Spice
Islands” met “Ysuf Adil” “a Jewish man of about forty who said he been born in
Posen, Poland and had been taken prisoner en route to Jerusalem and sold as a
slave in India” and the Portuguese explorer called Gaspar de Gama” and was
employed as a pilot in Indian waters” passed away today,
1529: According to various sources date
on which Kabbalist, poet and author Shlomo Alkabetz (שלמה
אלקבץ) married the daughter of one
Yitzchak Cohen, a wealthy householder living in Salonica. His most famous work
was 'Lecha Dodi', the hymn that marks the start of the Shabbat.
1610: Spain and the Dutch Republic signed a treaty recognizing free commerce
between the Netherlands and Morocco, and allowing the sultan to purchase ships,
arms and munitions from the Dutch. This was one of the first official treaties
between a European country and a non-Christian nation, after the 16th-Century
treaties of the Franco-Ottoman alliance. Samuel Pallache, a Jewish-Moroccan
merchant, was the lead negotiator during the negotiations. He had been appointed as the Ottoman envoy to
the Dutch Republic by sultan Zidan Abu Maali in 1608.
1679: Today. Portuguese “physician,
philosopher and writer” Isaac Cardoso wrote a letter Rabbi Samuel Aboab giving
“his views on the derivation of some Spanish words from persons mentioned in
the Bible.”
1698: Birthdate of William Warburton,
the Bishop of Gloucester, author of the Divine Legation of Moses in which he
contends, among other things, that “the
afterlife is not mentioned in the Torah” which makes “Mosaic Judaism distinctive among ancient
religions.”
1696: On Christmas Eve, at Evora,
Portugal, a group of alleged heretics were led from the palace of the
Inquisition (still existing today) to the Roman square, the most visible height
of the town, where they were burned. Evora,
a provincial capital of Portugal, had been an important center for Marrano Jews.
1730: “In the name of God amen. Today, I Lewis Gome of New York,
merchant, being in good health, I leave to my eldest son Mordecai Gomez one
part of silver ornaments for the Five Books of Moses…I leave to my sister
Elenor Gomez 25pounds a year to be paid my sons…All the rest of my estate I
leave to my sons Daniel, David, Isaac and Benjamin…”
1744: In Lancaster, PA, Bilah Myers-Cohen and Joseph Solomon gave
birth to Shinah Solomon, the wife of Elijah Etting with whom she had eight
children.
1754: In Adldeburgh, Suffolk, George Crabbe Sr. and his wife gave
birth to “English poet, surgeon and clergyman” George Crabbe who described “the
Jews of London in the most uncomplimentary terms” and who claimed that the Jews
are a people “ whose common Ties are gone,/Who mix’d with every Race, are lost
in none” helping to perpetuate the anti-Semitic trope of the Jews being “the
eternal other.”
1767(30th of Kislev, 5525): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth
Day of Chanukah
1769(25th of Kislev, 5525): First Day of Chanukah
1770: In Newport, RI, Judith Rachel Mears and Moses Isaacks gave
birth to Sarah Lopez Isaacks, the wife of Judah Myers.
1772(28th of Kislev, 5533): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1775(1st of Tevet, 5536): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh
Day of Chanukah
1775: During the American Revolution, as Jews prepare to light the
eight Chanukah candle, the Georgia Council of Safety attempted to keep lumber
from being shipped to the British West Indies.
1777(24th of Kislev, 5538): In the evening, kindle the
first Chanukah candle.
1777: Birthdate of Baden native Simon Zimmern the husband of Lena
Grombacher with whom he had seven children
1778: The South Carolina and American General Gazette reported
that Samuel Mordecai had married Catherin Andrews, the daughter of Abraham
Andrews.
1778: According to a memorandum of this day, a sum of $6,919.50
was settled on Philip Minis today.
1780(26th of Kislev, 5541): Second Day of Chanukah
1783(29th of Kislev, 5544): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1788(25th of Kislev, 5549): Chanukah
1789: During the French Revolution, the National Assembly approved
a law granting Protestants equal rights with Catholics. The Assembly refused to extend the same
rights to the Jews of France.
1794(2nd of Tevet, 5555): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1798: Birthdate of Adam Bernard Mickiewicz, poet, author and
Polish nationalist who sought to organize a military force to fight against the
Russians during the Crimean War. To that
end, he worked with Armand Levy to organize a military unit made up of Russian
and Palestinian Jews called the Hussars of Israel to fight against the forces
of the Czar – the same Czar who was the impediment to Polish independence.
1799(26th of Kislev, 5560): Second Day of Chanukah
1799: As Jews prepared to kindle the third Chanukah Candle, the
French adopted “The Constitution of the Year VIII,” a short document designed
to make the First Consul, a position held by Napoleon, the virtual dictator of
France.
1807: Today Lord Palmerston who while serving as of Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs during which tinw the British blockaded the
port of Piraeus as part of the response to Greece’s abuse of David Pacifico,
whom Palmerston defended as this “man of Jewish persuasion” and on whose behalf
he “made a celebrated speech which concluded that all British subjects ought to
be able to say, as did citizens of ancient Rome, "Civis Romanus sum"
("I am a citizen of Rome"), and thereby receive protection from the
British government” wrote a letter to a friend in which he described the late
Whig MP Edmund Burke as possessing "the palm of political prophecy"
which would become a metaphor for his
own career in divining the course of imperial foreign policy.
1810(27th of Kislev, 5571): Third Day of Chanukah
1812: Birthdate of Henry Russell, the “great-nephew of the British
Chief Rabbi Solomon Hirschel” who was a leading composer of tunes that were
popular both in England and the United States.
https://www.pdmusic.org/henry-russell/
1814: In Sheerness, Isle of Sheppey Kent, Sarah Levin and Moses
Russell gave birth to Henry Russel,
1814: The Treaty of Ghent is signed ending the War of 1812 which
is also referred to as the Second War for American Independence. As has been the case in all other conflicts,
Jews played an active role in the military.
The most famous of them was Uriah P. Levy whose naval career would see
him rise to the rank of Commodore despite having to deal with
anti-Semitism. Captain John Ordronaux gained
famed as a privateer. Several grandsons of Mordechai Sheftal, the Georgian who
gained fame during the Revolutionary War fought the British as did one of the
sons of Haym Solomon. Thirty Jews were
part of the force that defended Fort McHenry.
Captain Mordecai Myers distinguished himself on the water of Lake
Ontario and Major Abraham Massaias helped to “foil British attempts to invade
Georgia from the sea.” Last but not
least is Judah Touro who would fight with Andrew Jackson’s forces at the Battle
of New Orleans. As we all know, this
most famous battle of the War of 1812 was fought on January 8, 1815, more than
two weeks after the war had officially come to an end.
1814(11th of Tevet, 5575): Parashat Veyehci
1814 (11th of Tevet, 5575): Twenty-two-year-old Louisa
Hart, the daughter of Nathan Barnett who had married New Jersey merchant
Abraham L. Hart in 1813 passed away today.
1817: In Durbach, Johanna and Emanuel Bodenheimer gave birth to
Hermann “Hirschel” Bodenheimer.
1819: Birthdate of Prussian native Philip Victor Haldinstein, the
husband of Rachel Soman with whom he had seven children.
1820: Siegmund Leopold Beyfus and his wife “Babette” Rothschild,
the daughter of Mayer Amschel Rothschild gave birth to Charlotte Beyfus the
future wife of Abraham Oppenheim.
1821(30th of Kislev, 5582) Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet I
1822(10th of Tevet, 5583): Asara B’Tevet
1826(24th of Kislev, 5587: In the evening, kindle the
first Chanukah Candle
1826: In Paris, Jacob Libermann was baptized today taking the name
François Marie Paul after which he entered the seminary and began studying for
the priesthood.
1827(6th of Tevet, 5588): Elias Solomon, the son of
Rachel Elias passed away today after which he was buried at the Brady Street
Jewish Cemetery in England.
1828: Twenty-six-year-old Julia Levy, the New York City born
daughter of Rebecca Eva Hendricks and Solomon Levy married twenty-four-year-old
Joseph Lyons Moss, the Philadelphia born son of Rebecca Lyons Johns today in
New York City after which they lived in Philadelphia with their eight children.
1831(20th of Tevet, 5592): Parashat Shemot
1831(20th of Tevet, 5592): Seventy-one-year-old
Philadelphia and New York City merchant, the son of Samuel Judah and the
husband of Eliza Israel whom he married in 1803 “who suffered financial
bankruptcy during the War of 1812” passed away today.
1834: A letter of this date written from Jerusalem stated “It
should be known to you that from other lands, worthy people are actually
streaming to the Four Holy Cities (Hebron, Jerusalem, Tiberias and Safed)”
which is part of the proof offered by Arei Morgenstern in his book” Hastening
Redemption: Messianism and the Resettlement of the Land of Israel” that there a
significant number of Haredim had made Aliyah prior to the birth of the modern
Zionist movement at the end of the 19th century.
1836(16th of Tevet, 5597): Parashat Vayechi read for
the last time during the Presidency of Andrew Jackson.
1837: Birthdate of Samuel (Shmuel) Polyakov known as the “railroad
king” in Russia who was also the co-founder of World ORT.
1837: Sarah Moses and Alexander Jones gave birth to Rachel Jones.
1841: As the conflict between traditionalist and reformers in the
Anglo-Jewish community becomes increasingly strident, The Voice of Jacob
published an article with a relatively conciliatory tone under the heading
““The attempt to establish a secession synagogue in London.” The article’s
author clung to the notion that “that reform group was unlikely to wield any
influence.” Considering the names of the
people tied to the Reform movement, this seemed like “a vain hope.”
1841: Birthdate of Flaminio Ephraim Servi, the native of
Pitigliano, Tuscany who served as rabbi in several communities including
Casael-Moneferrato where he was the Chief Rabbi.
1844: Birthdate of Lambert N. Goldsmith, the husband of Frances
Goldsmith and the father Ida Goldsmith Morris
1845(25th of Kislev, 5606): Jews in Texas observe
Chanukah as members of an independent republic for the last time.
1846: Birthdate of Budapest native and New York resident Herman
Lebland, the husband of Theresa Leblang
1848: In Breslau, Simon Baruch Schefftel, a successful merchant in
Posen and the author of “a large Hebrew commentary on the Targum Onkelos which
was published posthumously by his son-in-law Joseph Perles” and the Prussian
born son of Alexander Baruch Schefftel and Roeschen Schefftel, and his wife
Henriette (Gitel) Schefftel gave birth to Amalie Behr.
1849: Birthdate of Charles Ephrussi, scion of prominent Jewish
banking family from Odessa who gained fame as an art critic and collector.
1850(19th of Tevet, 5611): Thirteen-year-old Isaac C.
Moses, the Charleston born son of Raphael Jacob Moses and Eliza Matilda Nunez
passed away today in Columbus, GA.
1851: The President of the Hebrew Benevolent Associations attended
tonight’s Anniversary Dinner commemorating the first landing of the Pilgrims
hosted by the Sons of New England at the Astor House.
1854: Sarah Peixotto Cardozo and Abraham Hart Cardozo gave birth
to Rachel Cardozo, the sister of Michael, Abraham and Algernon Cardozo.
1855(15th of Tevet, 5616): Fifty-four-year 0ld Isabella
Etting, the Maryland born daughter of Frances Gratz and Reuben Etting passed
away today.
1855: Today’s “Parisian Gossip Column” reported a claim by French
publicist and editor Taxila Delord that Mlle. Rachel, the famous Jewish actress
is planning on returning to France from the United States without completing
all of the performances to which she had agreed.
1856(27th of Kislev, 5617): Third Day of Chanukah
celebrated for the last time during the Presidency of Franklin Pierce.
1857: Birthdate of
Copenhagen native Arthur Rothenborg, the husband of Jenny Kann.
1857: Uriah P. Levy was restored to active duty. Naval officials
had tried to end his career prematurely, due in part, to the fact that he was
Jewish. Levy played a key role in
putting an end to flogging as a punishment for common sea men. He also was responsible for saving the
library that had belonged to Thomas Jefferson.
1859(28th of Kislev, 5620): Shabbat Shel Chanukah;
Miketz
1859: In Philadelphia, Wolf and Caroline Meyer Steppacher gave
birth to Walter Meyer Steppacher, the husband of Leah G. Gans Steppacher and
the father of Walter, Lester, and George Steppacher.
1860: In Austria, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and his wife gave birth
Julius Leopold Korngold, the chief music critic of the Neue Freie Press for
twenty years before fleeing to the United States in the wake the Anschluss who
was the husband of Josephine Korngold and the father of John, an orchestra
conducdtor and Erich who won an Oscar for writing the original score for the
movie “Robin Hood.”
1861: In England, Mary Levy and John Fileman gave birth to
Henrietta Fileman.
1862(2nd of Tevet, 5623): 8th day of
Chanukah
1862: Today, Henry C. Ekstein a native of Philadelphia joined the
U.S. Navy where he served as surgeon rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander
before he retired in 1893.
1863: In New York, Bernhard and Pauline (Josephthal) Sutro gave
birth to CCNY graduate Richard Sutro the financer and the senior partner of
Sutro, Bros and Company with an interest in railroads who was the husband of
the former Helen Hunt and father of May Rothschild and Edith Ward.
1864(25th of Kislev, 5625): Parshat Vayehsev, First Day of
Chanukah observed as President Lincoln revels in the news that Sherman has
taken Savannah.
1864: In Glewitz Germany, Lina Starke and Martin Wachsman gave birth
to University of Berlin trained physician Siegfried Wachsman, the husband of
Helen Jacobson who in 1901 came to the
United States where he served on the faculties of Fordham and Columbia
universities and the Medical Director of the Montefiore Home and Hospital for
Chronic Diseases on Gun Hill Road.
1864: Philadelphian Abraham Frauenthal who had been in the
military since 1861, completed his term of service today.
1865: Birthdate of Polish native William Graupe, the husband of
Martha and Pauline Graupe who was buried in B’nai Israel Cemetery in Salt Lake
City when he passed away.
1865: A group of Confederate veterans met in
Tennessee and founded the Ku Klux Klan. The first leader of this violent hate
group was Nathan Bedford Forest, the Confederate General who commanded troops
at the infamous Fort Pillow Massacre. Klan members have attacked
Blacks, Jews, Catholics, immigrants and just about everybody else who is not
just like them. The Klan has fallen several times only to reappear in
more virulent forms at a later date. The Klan is not just a Southern
phenomenon. During the 1920's one of the largest groups of Klansmen could
be found in Indiana. During that same decade, the hooded hate-mongers
staged a parade in Washington, D.C. with no objection worth noting. Any
attempt to rationalize or romanticize the Klan's behavior smacks of the worst
form of revisionism.
1865:
Birthdate of Polish historian Szymon Askenazy
http://www.jstor.org/discover/4203131?sid=21105504767003&uid=2&uid=4
1866: In
Russia, Alexander Sender Jarmulowsky, known as the New York “East Side J.P.
Morgan who “ was indispensable in constructing the Lower East Side’s
Eldridge Street Synagogue who was the son of Moszko Jarmulowski and Feiga
Jarmulowski and his wife Rebecca
Jarmulowsky gave birth to California resident Bluma Ettlinger, the wife of
Abraham Ettlinger and the mother o Dora Mann and Ernest Ettlinger.
1867: The
foundation of the North London Synagogue, a congregation whose founders
included Levin Lee, and Henry Harries “ was laded today Baron Ferdinand de
Rothschild.
1868(10th
of Tevet, 5629): Asara B’Tevet
1868:
Birthdate of Emanuel Lasker, a mathematician who gained fame as a chess
player. He was “World Champion” from
1894 through 1921. In one of those
on-going ironies of the way history is recorded, Lasker is identified as a
“German chess champion” even though he was the kind of German who was forced to
flee for his life in the 1930’s. Lasker
finally found refuge in the United States where he died in 1941.
1870(30th
of Kislev, 5631): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1870: Barbe-bleue, an opéra bouffe, or operetta, in three acts
(four scenes) by Jacques Offenbach with a French libretto co-authored by
Ludovic Halévy was performed today at the Grand Opera House in New York City.
1871(19th
Tevet, 5631): Abraham Samuel Benjamin (The Ktav Sofer) passed away. Born in
1815, he was a Rabbi, educator and Orthodox leader of Hungarian Jewry. He was
the son of Moses Sofer and took his father’s place upon his death in 1839. His
Responsa and clarification on the Torah were published under the title Ktav
Sofer.
1871: In
Indianapolis, Indiana, “Herman and Caroline (Daniels) Bamberger” gave birth to
University of Indiana trained lawyer Ralph Bamberger, a member of the Indiana
House of Representatives and husband of May Freiberg.
1872(24th
Kislev, 5635): Kindle the first Chanukah Candle
1872(24th
Kislev, 5635): Eighty-year-old Rebeca Philips, the daughter Hannah Isaacks and
Jacob Phillps and the wife of Isaiah Moses with whom she had 12 children passed
away today at Savannah, GA.
1872:
Birthdate of Riga, Latvia native and American sheet metal worker Israel Getzel
Gerber known by his new legal name Julius Gerber who “became secretary of the
Socialist Party in 1895 and served throughout the period when the great Eugene
V. Debs was its leader while being married to Lena Sacht with whom he had five
sons and three daughters.
1873: In
Manhattan, Yetta and Solomon Rosalasky gave birth to Otto A. Rosalsky, the NYU
law school graduate (class of 1894) who at the age of 33 was first appointed
Judge General Sessions a position he would continue to hold for so long that he
was the dean of that bench when he passed away in 1936.
1873:
Birthdate of C.G. (Charles Gabriel) Seligman, a pioneer in British anthropology
who conducted significant field research in Melanesia, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka),
and, most importantly, the Nilotic Sudan. After completing his medical
education, in 1898 he went with the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the
Torres Straits. Subsequently, his interests turned from medical research
towards anthropology. In 1904l he revisited New Guinea to distinguish the
characteristic racial, cultural, and social traits of the peoples of the
region. In the 1920's, he pioneered a psychoanalytic approach: studying
cross-cultural similarity of dreams. He concluded that the psychology of the
unconscious could provide an approach to some basic anthropological problems. He died in 1940.
1874: In
Lithuania, Jacob Menasseh Milwitzky and Hinda Riva Mandelstamm gave birth to
philologist William Milwitzky, the graduate of Columbia and the University of
Paris “who travelled through Turkey, Greece and Romania to collect material for
the study of Judaeo-Spanish dialects” which provided the basis for articles in
Modern Language Notes and the Jewish Encyclopedia and who also co-author La Bible en Espagne.
1877: One
day after he had passed away, 67-year-old Eleazar Raphael Meldola, the
Middlesex born son of Estella Bolaffa and Haham Raphael Hexekia Meldola and the
husband of Miriam Barend whom he married at Bevis Marks in 1864 was buried to
at the New Jewish Cemetery in London.
1878(28th
of Kislev, 5639): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1879: The
Pauline Markham troupe which included Sadie Marcus, the Jewess who would marry
Wyatt Earp performed “H.M.S Pinafore” for the first time In Tombstone the town
made famous by the Gunfight at the OK Corral.
1880: In
Sklov, Russia, Esther Kumin and Maier Raskin gave birth to Royal Sanitary Institute
and Yorkshire University educated health department worker turned poet and
lecturer Philip Max Raskin, the author of suck works as Ghetto Leider, Songs
of a Jew and Songs of a Wander who came to the United States where
he toured giving lectures and Zionism and remained to serve as editor of the American
Weekly Jewish News
https://congressforjewishculture.org/people/698/Max-Philip-December-24-1880-February-6-1944
https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poet/pm-raskin/
1881(2nd
of Tevet, 5642): Shabbat Shel Chanukah; Parashat Miketz
1881: It
was reported today that Baron Gustav Rothschild has purchased a “woodland tract
around Chantilly for which he paid the state” approximately a million dollars.
1881: It
was reported today that a near riot had broken out in Odessa, Russia, as people
sought to buys tickets for the upcoming performances of Sarah Bernhardt.
1882: It
was reported today that Judge Arnoux has lifted the temporary injunctions that
restrained the police from arresting Jewish merchants who kept their stores
open on Sunday. In his ruling, Arnoux
said that the state legislature has designated the “first day of the week” as
the day on which numerous commercial activities are prohibited and that it
would be a violation of that stance to allow those who observe a different day
of the week as a day of rest to remain open on Sunday. In other words, Jews who
do business on Sunday are subject to arrest.
The ruling did not prohibit Jewish merchants from contesting the
constitutionality of the law if they face trial on such a violation.
1882: It
was reported today that Annie Littlestein, the 19 year old Jewish immigrant
from Poland who had been saved after she jumped into the East River had fled
her home after a violent altercation with her jealous husband. The couple has one child whom the police gave
back to its mother after the husband disappeared from the home. (Life in the new world was not always an easy
walk on Streets Paved With Gold)
1883(25th
of Kislev, 5644): Chanukah
1883: Bertha
Löwi, the Czech born daughter of Samuel Hirsch and her husband Jacob Lowy gave
birth to Elvira Gutmann, the wife of Dr. Theodor Gutman and the mother of
Gertrud Gutmann and Anna Gutmann who was murdered at Oswiecim during the Holocaust.
1883: In
New York, Elizabeth Friedlander and Charles Jacobs gave birth to Columbia and
University of Berlin trained Chemist, Walter A. Jacob who joined the
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in 1907 and in 1908 married Laura F.
Dryfoos.
1884:
Birthdate of New York native and NYU trained dermatologist Dr. Louis Tulipan,
the chief of the NYU Clinic’s Department of Dermatology who raised two sons,
Ira and Alan, with his wife Kitty Tulipan.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/11/28/89608249.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1884: The
Paris correspondent of the Times of London” devotes considerable space to-day
to an account of the present state of Russia” in which he says, “the
persecution of the Jews is as fierce as it was a few years ago when the
European press boiled with indignation at the anti-Semitic outrages which
disgraced Russia.
1885:
Birthdate of Russian born American writer and drama critic Berl Botwinik who in
1905 came to the United States where wrote for The Jewish Daily Forward and the
Jewish socialist magazine Wecker, attended Columbia University for three years
and raised two daughters with his wife Rebecca,
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/08/30/305794002Berl
Botwink - Google Search
1885: In Sagagen,
Russia, Sona Leah Segal and Louise Cantor gave birth to University of
Pennsylvania Medical School trained cardiologist and WW I veteran, Aaron Cantor,
a captain in the post-war Reserve Corps of the United States Army and director
of the Jewish Federation of Scranton who eventually moved his practice to Scranton where he founded the Jewish
Physicians and Hospital Association and served as chairman of the board of director
for the Jewish Home for the Friendless.
1885(16th
of Tevet, 5646): Twenty-two-year-old Herman Weiss, the Hungarian born son of
Cecilia and Mayer Samuel Weiss and half-brother of magician Harry Houdini lost
his battle with TB and passed away after which he was buried at Machpelah
Cemetery in Queens County
1886(27th
of Kislev, 5647): Third Day of Chanukah
1886: In
Winnsboro, LA, Aaron Landauer, the German born son Sarah and Salmon Levi
Landauer and his wife Henriette Landuauer gave birth to Elsie Fechenbach the
wife of Dallas Texan Leon Lamm Fechenbach.
1886: In
Russia, Alexander Sender Jarmulowsky, the son of Moszko Jarmulowski and Feiga
Jarmulowski, and his wife of Rebecca Jarmulowsky gave birth to Bluma Ettlinger
1886:
Polish timber merchant Dovid Opatovsk and his wife gave birth to Yosef (Joseph)
Opatoshu who in 1907 came to the United
States where he taught school , earned a civil engineering degree from Cooper
Union and pursued a literary career that including publishing such books at From
the New York Ghetto and the novel Alone.
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2014/08/yoysef-joseph-opatoshu.html
1886:
Birthdate Manó Kaminer the native of Hungary who gained famed as film director
Michael Curtiz. Who directed everybody from Errol Flynn to Elvis Presley. Like so many other Jewish immigrants he
helped develop American Middle American culture with films like Yankee Doodle Dandy and White Christmas. But his most famous effort is the all-time
classic “Casablanca.”
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/42547%7C111394/Michael-Curtiz/biography.html
1887:
Birthdate of Galicia native Julius Haber, who at the age of 15 came to the
United States where he worked with Louis Lipsky, president of the ZOA, helped
found the Kadimah Zionist Society and wrote “The Odyssey of an American Zionist
while raising three children – Bernard, Henrietta and Chanah – with his wife
Birdie.
1887: It
was reported today that Bishop Potter, New York’s leading Presbyterian
minister, publicly praised the contributions of the Jews of New York to the
Sunday Hospital Fund and said that their generosity should serve as an example
to Christians who have not been nearly as generous.
1887: It
was reported today that among those contributing to the non-denominational
Sunday Hospital Fund were Mrs. J.H. Lazarus ($10.00) and Congregation B’nai
Jeshurun ($50.00)
1888:
Birthdate of Mihaly Kertesz, the Budapest born son of a carpenter and an opera
singer who gained fame as Michael Curtiz who won the Oscar as Best Director for
the film classic “Casablanca.”
1888:
Today, the first burial took place at the “New Hills of Eternity cemetery”
which stood on a twenty-acre site in San Mateo County that had been purchased
by two San Francisco Synagogues after the California state legislature had
passed a bill prohibiting further burials in the Mission District which had
been the site of the old Hills of Eternity, the city’s Jewish cemetery.
1889(1st
of Tevet, 5650): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1889:
Birthdate of Kiev native and chemical engineer Morris Omansky who 1891 came to
the United States where he earned a BS from MIT in 1911, developed many
patented chemical products and “served as an industrial consultant to the Army
and Navy” during both world wars.
https://archivesspace.mit.edu/repositories/2/resources/606
1889: In
Mobile, AL, Sarah Ashkowitz and Joseph Feibelman gave birth to University of
Alabama trained attorney Herbert Uriah Feibelman, the father of Herbert and
Emily Feibelman
1890: Rabbi
Pereira Mendes and Cantor A.H. Nieto officiated at the wedding of his daughter
Rebecca Nieto to Albert Lucas of London this afternoon at Shearith Israel on
West 19th Street.
1890:
Thirty-four year old Hyman B. Isaacson arrived in the United States “bringing
with him a letter (of introduction) from Rabbi Isaac Elchanon to Rabbi Jacob
Joseph” who offered him a position as supervisor of Kashruth” which he declined
deciding instead to learn “the trade of shirt cutting” which led him to found
what would becoming the firm of H.B. Isaacson and Son, a very successful
manufacturer of “boys’ wash suits” which provide him with the funds to become a
major philanthropist in the Jewish community.
1890: In
New York, Grand Jury presented its finding on “illegal divorces which often
cause trouble to the ignorant persons who put their faith in them” addressing
specifically the practice of Jewish immigrants to the United States obtaining
religious divorces from Rabbis and then re-marrying even though they have not
gotten a civil divorce – a practice which was acceptable in Europe but not in
the United States.
1891: The American Hebrew reminded its readers
to “let your children know that it is Chanukah this week and give them a good
time. You have eight days’ time in which
to celebrate the Feast, the first night being the 24” of Kislev which is December
25.
1891:
Birthdate of NYC native Jess Perlman, the CCCNY alum and Fordham Law School
graduate who worked with Camp Madison Grove School in Madison, CT and served on
the Jewish Board of Guardians in New York
1891:
Emanuel Lehman, the Treasurer of the ad hoc committee formed to provide aid to
Russian Jews reported that $77,708.73 has been raised for this purpose as of
today.
1891: In
Vienna, Rosa Korngut and Nathan Birnbaum gave birth to “Yiddish linguist and
Hebrew paleographer,” Solomon Birnbaum
1892:
Birthdate of New York City native and Cooper Union trained Civil Engineer Harry
Gertz, the President of B. Gertz, Inc. department stores who during WW I
“served in France as first lieutenant with 18th Field Artillery of
the Sixth Division” and was the husband of Sadie Gertz with whom he had two
children.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1954/08/19/83775700.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1892(5th
of Tevet, 5653): Thirty-three-year-old Herman Stern, a German Jew “who was
employed as foreign exchange clerk in the Wall Street banking house of
Landenburg, Thalman & Co committed suicide today by hanging himself in his
bedroom at the house of Samuel M. Marks.”
1893: The American Hebrew was founded by F. de Sola Mendes and Philip Cowen,
the publisher of the paper.
1893:
“History of the Jews In America” published today provided details about the
second annual meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society which will be
held at Columbia College later this month.
1894:
Birthdate of Lazarus Leonard Aaronson, the son of Orthodox Jew’s living in
London’s East End, who converted to Christianity and is best known for his
1930’s work Christ in the Synagogue.
1894: In
New York the United Hebrew Charities received $1,163.62 when the Mayor decided
to distribute the remainder of the funds donated by city employees last winter
to help the poor and the unemployed.
1894: In
Paris, “General Mercier, Minister of War, introduced…a bill in the Chamber of
Deputies providing the death penalty for such military traitors as Captain
Dreyfus.”
1894: In
the Chamber of Deputies, Socialist Jean Jaurès who has been “delegated by his
party to demand the abolition of the death penalty in the Army…said that
Captain Dreyfus escaped the death sentence because the Government feared the
consequences of executing him.”
1894:
“Christmas In Germany” published today provides a snapshot of events and
feelings in the Kaiser’s Kingdom including the anger being felt by Germans over
“the spy mania in France” including the Dreyfus Affair which try to make
Germany a villain responsible for espionage
1895:
Sixty-four-year-old Sir Edward J. Harland, who hired Gustav Wihelm Wolff to be
his personal assistant and with whom he later formed Harland and Wolff, the
leading shipbuilding company passed away today.
1896: In
Baltimore, MD, Minnie Jacoby and Louis Powdermaker gave birth to Goucher
College graduate Dr. Hortense Powdermaker, the labor organizer turned
anthropologist who “used her experiences of anti-Semitism and “passing” to
offer new insights into how societies manage tensions between insiders and
outsiders.
https://anthrotheory.fandom.com/wiki/Hortense_Powdermaker
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/powdermaker-hortense
1897(29th
of Kislev, 5658): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1897: It
was reported today that in Morocco, “a deputation from the Jewish community”
took part in the recent triumphant entry of newly appointed governor Kaid ben
Elsh into the city of Tetuan.
1897: It
was reported today the former president of the Municipal Council of Jerusalem
is applying for “a concession to supply Jerusalem with drinking water” which
will “utilize three ancient reservoirs, two of which dated from the time of
King Solomon and the third from the time of Sultan Soliman the legislator.”
1898(11th
of Tevet, 5659): Parashat Vayigash chanted for the first time after the signing
of the Treaty of Paris on December 10 marking the end of the Spanish American
War.
1900(2nd
of Tevet, 5661): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1900(2nd
of Tevet, 5661): Hananel Abendana, the
son so of Abigail de Costa Gomes and Joesph Abendana and Steward of the Spanish
Portugues Hospital passed away today in London.
1900: It
was reported today that Nathan Straus, “driving the famous trotter Alves”
posted a of 2:09 mark of while racing at the Speedway in New York
1901: In
Hungary, a carpenter named Samuel Rosenfeld and his wife Sarah Gluck gave birth
to Ruth Rosenfeld who came to the United States where she worked as a
seamstress.
1902(24th
of Kislev, 5663): Kindle the first Chanukah candle
1902:
“Sabbath Alliance Offers Prize” published today described an essay contest
conducted by The Woman’s National Alliance where contestants are to write on
ways to heighten observance of the Sabbath that has a $25 dollar prize with all
entries to be submitted to the office of the Educational Alliance by April 1,
1903.
1902: As of
today, the officers of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children “find themselves face
to face with a deficit of over $7,000 after the work done last summer which
included seeing to it that over 1,600 babies received professional medical care
and taking nearly 20,000 poor children on outings to Rockaway Beach.
1903(5th
of Tevet, 5664): Isaac Alsbacher, the husband of Rebecca Klein with whom he had
six children -- Moses, Harry, Sidney, David, Jessie and Rena – passed away
today 19 days after his 63rd birthday.
1903: In
Kovno, Tillie Lemanowitz and Abraham Miller gave birth CCNY and University of
Pittsburgh alum Rabbi Irving Miller, the Rabbi Isaac Elchannan Theological
Seminary trained cleric who in 1926 began service as the spiritual leader of
Temple Emanuel in Youngstown, OH where he was also a member of the Z.O.A. and
the B’nai B’rith.
1904:
Birthdate of New York native and Harvard trained attorney Abraham Howard Feller
who taught at his alma mater before providing legal services to the Office of
Lend-Lease Administration and the Office of War Information before serving as
general counsel to the newly formed United Nations, reportedly jumped to his
death today.
1904:
Birthdate of British financier and philanthropist, Sir Charles Clore the
descendant of Lithuanian Jews whose holding company owned the fabled Selfridges
department story and whose “Clore Foundation is a major donor to arts and
Jewish community projects in Britain and abroad.”
1905(26th
of Kislev, 5666): Second Day of Chanukah
1905: It
was reported today that the Novoe Vremya which “continues its provocative
attitude toward the Jews, sarcastically referring to the ‘second day of the
revolution so solemnly and stupidly proclaimed by the Russian Jewish agitators’
is one of only two non-official newspapers that is still being published.
1905: “A
meeting was held” tonight “in the Education Hall under the auspices of the
Zionist Council of Greater New York to define the attitude of Zionists toward the
Jewish question and the recent massacres in Russia.”
1905: In Philadelphia,
PA, today “a policeman threatened to stop a meeting of Socialists who had
gathered in a local theatre to ‘protests against the massacres of Jews in
Russia’ if the speakers persisted in denouncing President Roosevelt and his
administration.”
1906: In Georgia, USA,
Gerson Rothschild, the son of Sophie of Nathan Baruch Rothschild and his wife
Frances Rothschild gave birth to Sofia Rothschild
1906: In New York,
Jewish leaders who have been trying to have Christmas celebrations in public
schools abolished are hoping that Jewish children will stage a boycott on the
day that “children have been to come to school in their best clothes to part in
Christmas festivities.”
1906:
Birthdate of German-born American composer Franz Waxman whose film scores
netted him 12 Oscar nominations and two back to back Academy Awards for “Sunset
Place” and “A Place in the Sun.”
1907: Birthdate of I.F. (Isidore Feinstein) Stone,
a left-wing journalistic gadfly who published “IF Stone’s Weekly.”
1908:
Birthdate of Odessa native and City College and Columbia alum Maurice
Chernowitz, the profess of fine arts at Yeshiva University and the husband of
the “former Rose Fineman” with whom he raised two daughters – Tamara and Rena.
1909: It
was reported today that Jefferson Seligman delivered address at the annual
dinner at the Terrace Garden for “the mounted police of the Central Park squad
whose members regulate traffic and protect lives in the city’s great
playground.”
1909: I was
reported today that Professor Milton J. Rosenau, Professor of Hygiene at
Harvard and supporter of the Lake Preventorium wrote a letter to Nathan Straus
in which he said, “I see by the papers that you have a princely gift for the
establishment of a preventorium for tuberculosis at Lakewood, NJ” and then
reassuring Straus that :this is real preventive medicine and that its
establishment “will set an example which” will be widely followed.
1910(23rd
of Kislev, 5671): Parashat Vayeshev
1910: In
Braga, Poland, Esther Ben Dor, the mother of Emory University biblical
archaeologist Immanuel Ben-Dor, gave birth to Benami Bendor, the husband of
Ruth Bendor.
1910:
Birthdate of author Fritz Leiber. The
Phi Beta Kappa graduate won three Hugo awards for his science fiction writing
including Ship of Shadows.
1911(3rd
of Tevet, 5672): Rabbi Hirsch Goldberg of Savannah, GA died today in New York
City.
1911: In
Philadelphia, at Keneseth Israel Temple, Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf delivered a
talk on “War on Earth and Ill-Will Toward Men” in which “he paid tribute to the
United States as the only country which has never opposed the Jews…”
1911: University of Hungary
graduate and Yeshiva of Pressburg trained rabbi Edward Friedman the Hungarian born son of Sarah Weinstein and
Joseph Friedman who became the executive secretary of the Hebrew Theological
College in Chicago after having led a congregation in Monessen, PA married
Esther Westchester today.
1912:
Marguerite Thompson married William Zorach, the
Lithuanian born American Jewish sculptor, painter, printmaker, and writer who
won the Logan Medal of the arts.
1912: Dr. Lee K. Frankel, the Philadelphia born son of Aurelia
Lobenburg and Louis Frankel and the husband of Alice Reizenstein who held a PhD
from Penn where he taught Chemistry became a “sixth-vice president at
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company today.
1913(25th
of Kislev, 5674): Jews observe Chanukah for the last time in a world that is
not at war.
1913:
Birthdate of Bernard Manischewitz, the native of Cincinnati, Ohio who was the
last member of his family to preside over the worldwide kosher food empire that
began when his grandfather opened a small matzo bakery in Cincinnati. Mr.
Manischewitz was president of the B. Manischewitz Company for 26 years, until
he supervised its sale to a group led by Kohlberg & Company in 1990. At the
time, it had $1.5 billion in annual sales and exported its products, from
gefilte fish to borscht, around the world.
It then controlled 80 percent of the United States market for matzo, the
unleavened bread eaten year-round but especially at Passover. Mr. Manischewitz's father, Jacob, gave him
his first job with the company when he assigned him to inspect the production
line to make sure the flat, cracker-like matzos did not break. He eventually
became one of the three first cousins who ran the company in its third
generation, continuing alone after the others died. The cousins followed the
five sons of Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz, who began the bakery in 1888. In the company's early stages, the rabbi
installed certain innovations that were challenged by rabbinical authorities as
violating Jewish dietary laws. Rabbi Manischewitz, however, argued strongly
that his methods were more sanitary and led to standardized quality. Rabbi
Manischewitz also began insisting in advertisements that customers ask for his
matzos by the name Manischewitz in order to counter imitators who copied his original
name, Cincinnati matzos. In 1932, the company built a second factory, in Jersey
City, which quickly became the center of operations. By 1949, Bernard
Manischewitz's generation had taken over. He was president, D. Beryl
Manischewitz was chairman and William Manischewitz was treasurer. An article in The New York Times in 1951 told
how Bernard Manischewitz was leading the company into preparing more than 70
different kosher foods, in addition to matzo, including frozen fish and
poultry, canned borscht and chicken soup, and the Tam Tam cracker. Wines with
the name Manischewitz were sold throughout the country under a licensing
arrangement. In an interview with The
Times in 1956, Mr. Manischewitz suggested that those products signified the
biggest change in Jewish domestic life since biblical times. He said all but
the most strictly Orthodox homemakers had been released from "the
compulsory obsession with the problems of cooking." He also noted that American processed kosher
foods were selling well in Europe and even in Israel. All this expansion called for snappy — or at
least memorable — advertising. One tongue-in-cheek radio ad advised listeners
not to eat Manischewitz matzos in bed because they were crispier and so might
cause "a crummy night's sleep."
Bernard Manischewitz attended Syracuse University for a year and
graduated from New York University with a business degree. He later took night
courses in factory management. One of the last battles of his career came in
1990, when the company faced charges of conspiring to fix the price of Passover
matzos. It ended in 1991 with the company pleading no contest to a single
criminal indictment and paying a $1 million fine. Mr. Manischewitz was an
intensely private man who avoided using his own name to register in hotels and
make restaurant reservations, Dr. Hoffman said. He also believed that not
dropping his name made good business sense. When he was in Alaska bargaining
over the price of whitefish for making gefilte fish, Dr. Hoffman said, he
feared that if people knew he was Mr. Manischewitz, they might expect a higher
price. He passed away in 2003 at the age of 89. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1913:
Melech Epstein, the Russian born “Jewish American journalist and historian”
arrived at Ellis Island. He was the author of Jewish Labor in U.S.A. and
The Jew and Communism.
1914: “Open
Fund to Aid Jews” describes plans in London to provide aide for Russian and
Polish Jews who are suffering as the Russian, German and Austrian forces fight
it out on the Eastern Front.
1914: Dr.
Arthur Levy, a rabbi serving with the German Army in the campaign against
Russia wrote a letter today from Lodz describing the pogroms and murders
“committed by the Russians against the Jewish population.”
1914: In an
attempt to save the life of Leo Frank, Louis Marshall “presented the appeal
from the decision of the Federal District Court of Georgia before J.R. Lamar,
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
1914: It
was reported today that Charles S. Whitman, the Republican who begin serving as
Governor on January 1, 1915 plans to appoint at least one Jewish member to each
of the boards managing the state’s hospitals.
1914:
“Betty,” a musical comedy composed by Paul Rubens opened at the Prince’s
Theatre in Manchester, UK.
1914:
“To-Night’s the Night,” a musical comedy composed by Paul Rubens the son of
English stockbroker Victor Rubens and Jenny Wallach, opened tonight at the
Schubert Theatre in New York City.
1914;
During World War I the "Christmas truce" begins on the Western
Front. For more about this amazing tale
read Silent Night: The Story of The
World War I Christmas Truce by the Jewish author, Stanley
Weintraub's and you will see how a Christmas book can be considered a “Jewish
Book.”
https://www.ttbook.org/interview/stanley-weintraub-world-war-i-christmas-truce
1914: The
American Jewish relief organization in Washington, DC received a cablegram from
Alexandria, Egypt asking for aid to help the 682 Russian Jews who have just
reached that city after having been forcefully expelled from Jaffa by the
Turks.
1914: In
New York, Herman Bernstein, the editor of The
Day, a Jewish newspaper, received a telegram from Secretary State of
William Jennings Bryan in which he says, “Department hesitates to place full
credence in press reports of ill-treatment of Jews in Jaffa, inasmuch as no
official advices to that effect have been received from the Ambassador at
Constantinople.”
1915:
Eduard Gold was appointed mayor of South Vancouver today.
1915: It
was reported today that one of the signs of the great strides made by organized
religion in 1915 is “that Jews have recently started a movement to raise funds
for those of their race in war-stricken lands.”
1915: Rabbi
Louis Bernstein of St. Joseph preached “the opening sermon tonight at the
national meeting of the Jewish Chautauqua Society” which is meeting in St.
Louis for 6 days.
1915: “The
Central Committed for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War which is in
working in co-operation with the Jewish Relief Committee” announced today
“collections amounting to about $20,000.”
1915: It
was reported today that “more than three hundred Jews – captains of industry,
merchants, university professors and rabbis” attended a just concluded
conferred that had been convened to form “an organization that would bring
about closer relations between the Jews of Germany and the Turks.”
1915: It
was reported today that “Theodor Wolff of the Tageblatt, who is perhaps the
most prominent editor in Germany declares that notwithstanding the recent
revival of anti-Semitism the feeling against Jews in Germany is gradually on
the wane, existing nowhere to a great extent except possibly among the minor
ability.”
1915:
Birthdate of Aleksandr Yakovlevich Novakovsky, the native of Petrograd who
gained famed British economist Alexander Nove.
1915: It
was reported today that Jacob H. Schiff has continued his annual tradition of
marking the anniversary of the death of his mother, Mrs. Clara Schiff by
addressing “the girl members of the School of Religious Work” and awarding a
prize named in her honor for the best essay written by one of the students.
1916(29th
of Kislev, 5677): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1916: In
New Orleans, the Jewish Chautauqua Society led by Chancellor Berkowitz of
Philadelphia met for a third day today in New Orleans.
1916: Today
the Metropolitan League of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association held a Chanukah
celebration at Temple Israel in Harlem where Felix M. Warburg “advised the
young men to adhere closely to the teachings of their religion, never to desert
it and to obey their parents” while advising “the parents to send their
children to the Hebrew associations rather than to other places.”
1916: “A
plea for inclusion of Jewish political and religious freed in the treaties of
peace at the end of the European war was made by Max J. Kohler, author of Jewish
Disabilities in the Balkan States in an address” given this “morning at
Temple Israel in Brooklyn on ‘The Relation of American Jewry to World Jewry.’”
(Editor’s note – Woodrow Wilson had just been re-elected using the slogan “He
Kept Us Out of War.” All of this would
look different when a mere four months later the United States would declare
war on Germany ending the self-proclaimed role of honest peace broker.)
1916: More
than 20,000 youngsters attended the Chanukah celebrations at today’s session of
the Convention of the Young Judea National Leaders’ Association heard Professor
Israel Friedlander discuss the significance of the holiday when he said was the
only Jewish festival in which the “military spirit” was involved.
1916: “An
endless chain of contributors who persuade others to contribute and to persuade
still others is one of the plans for raising money put in operation by the
committee seeking to collect $10,000,000 before the end of 1917 for the relief
of Jews suffering from the war, it was announced” today “by Albert Lucas,
Secretary of the Joint Distribution Committee which represents those
organizations interested in Jewish war relief work.”
1916: The New York Times featured a review of
Isaac Mayer Wise: The Founder of American Judaism, a biography of the
founder of Reform Judaism, written by Max B. May.
1917(9th of Tevet, 5678): Seventy-four-year-old Maryland born and
St. Louis resident Moses Farley, the
husband of Rose Harsch Fraley and the father of Sadie, Jessie and Edward
Farley who served on the St. Louis Board
of Alderman, was president of the St. Louis Merchants Exchange and whose may
activities in the Jewish community included the founding of Temple Israel and
the creation of the United Jewish Charities passed away today after which he
was buried in the New Mount Sinia Cemetery in Affton, MO.
1917:
Birthdate of Zara Nelsova, the native of Winnipeg, Canada whose career as a
cellist took her to London and then back to North America where among other things
this one-time child prodigy taught at Julliard in New York.
1917:
During a discussion of juvenile education as a factor in the success of the
Zionist movement at today’s meeting of the Young Judea National Leaders
Association at the Central Jewish Institute Samuel Rodman Leaders of Baltimore
said that “the present Jewish education in America is worthless.”
1917:
Seventy-one-year-old Nevada Senator Francis G. Newlands the only Democrat to
vote against the confirmation of Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis D.
Brandeis.
1918: An
official notification reached Washington today “crediting Andrew Moraczeewski,
the Premier of Poland, with having just declared that it was the purpose and
intention of the Polish Government to put an end to the anti-Semitic movement.”
1918: “An
appointment was today by telegraph” for a delegation of American Jews to meet
in Paris with Colonel House, the advisor to President Wilson, to discuss the
Zionist movement.
1918: Birthdate of Anwar El Sadat who served as
President of Egypt from 1970 until his murder in 1981. Sadat’s trip to Jerusalem and subsequent
signing of the Camp David Peace Agreement make him a “Profile in Courage.”
1919(2nd
of Tevet, 5680): 8th day of Chanukah
1919: It
was reported today that the buyers for J.L. Brandeis and Sons of Omaha have
arrived in New York.
1920:
“Judge Otto A. Rosalsky told a delegation of the Daughters of Jacob who
presented him today with a judicial robe, that he was preparing a bill to bring
to court those “who persist in libeling not only Jews but every other
denominatin’” and then went to “assail Henry Ford for his anti-Semitic
utterances characterizing him as the ‘greatest menace to American
institutions.’”
1920:
Reviews of Playmates in Egypt and Other Stories by Elma Erlich Levinger,
A Book of Jewish Thoughts by J.H.
Hertz, Stories of Child Life in a Jewish Colony In Palestine by Hannah
Trager with a preface by Israel Abrahams and Omar and the Rabbi by
Frederick Leroy Sargent were published today.
1920:
Enrico Caruso gave his last public performance, singing in Jacques Halevy's
''La Juive'' (The Jewess) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Halevy was the
son of a cantor. In writing “La Juive” he created the role of Eléazar one of
the great favorites of tenors including Enrico Caruso. The opera's most famous
aria is Eléazar's "Rachel, quand du Seigneur”.
1920(13th
of Tevet, 5681): At erev Shabbat services, Shaari Zedek is scheduled to host
Jewish Collegians’ Night during which Louis S. Posner will deliver a lecture on
“The Building of a Nation” and “David Tannenbaum, formerly of the Chaplain of
the Eighty-second Division, American Expeditionary Force” will describe the
“achievements of the Inter-Collegiate Association.
1921(23rd
of Kislev, 5682): Parashat Vayeshev
1921(23rd
of Kislev, 5682): Odessa born financier and economist Arthur Raffalovich, the
son of Hermann Raffalvoich and brother of Sophie and author Marc-André
Raffalovich passed away today in Paris.
1922:
“Heroes of the Street” a crime drama produced by Harry Rapf was released today
in the United States.
1922:
“During a six-hour delay on the New York Central between Boston and New York,
Harvard President Abbot L. Lowell told Victor Kramer, a Jewish graduate of
Harvard that at Harvard Jews “are Menorah boys” and Christians “are Crimson
boys and the two just don’t mix” which accounted, in part for his belief that
the “real answer” to the Jewish problem “was for Jews to abandon their religion
which had been superseded by Christianity.”
1923:
Birthdate of David Frank Friedman a film producer from Birmingham, Alabama, who
cheerfully and cheesily exploited an audience’s hunger for bare-breasted women
and blood-dripping corpses in lucrative low-budget films like “Blood Feast” and
“Ilsa: She-Wolf of the S.S.” (As reported by Bruce Weber)
1923
"Jacob's Children," a musical folk-piece in four acts by Lillian and
Rosenberg was performed at Lillian's Lyric Theatre.
1924:
Albania becomes a republic. Jews had lived in parts of what is now Albania
since Roman times. As part of the
Ottoman Empire Albania provided a refuge for Jews fleeing from the Inquisition
(a role it was to play again during the Shoah).
An independent Albania had actually been created just before World War I
in one of the on-going dismemberments of the Ottoman Empire. After the war, there were probably 200 Jews
living in the country.
1924: In
Vilna, Sonia and Max Silverstein, who would later emigrate to Havana where he
operated a shoe factory, gave birth to Stanley Oscar Silverstein “who designed
fashionable but affordable shoes that helped Nina Footwear, the company he
founded with his brother, become a force in the international women’s footwear
industry…” As reported by Daniel Slotnik)
1924: In
Egypt, Simcha Ambash, an engineer whose name is “an acronym for ‘I believe in
complete faith’” and his wife Leah, “the daughter of Yechiel Michael Steinberg,
founding family of the village of Motza” gave birth to Aura Herzog, holder of a
B.A. in mathematics and physics, wounded veteran of the War of Independence and
wife of Chaim Herzog with whom she raised four highly accomplished children –
“attorney Yoel Herzog, Brigadier General Michael Herzog, politician and former
opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Bougie), and Ronit, a clinical psychologist.”
(Her sister Suzy was the vivacious wife of Abba Eban)
1924:
Birthdate of Nissim Ezekiel, the native Bombay (as it was called during British
rule) “an Indian Jewish poet, playwright, editor and art-critic” whose works
include The Bad Day and The Deadly Man.
1925:
Birthdate of Yafa Abramov, the native of Giv’at Rambam who gained fame as Yafa
Yarkoni “an Israeli singer who won the Israel Prize in 1998 for Hebrew song.”
1925: In
Brooklyn, Isadore and Nettie Stromer Singer gave birth to M.I.T. professor
Irving Singer.
1925:
Birthdate of Nuremberg native Claude Frank whose family moved to Paris when he
was 12 to escape the Nazis and eventually arrived in the United States where he
became a successful pianist who often performed with his wife Lillian Kallir
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/11316312/Claude-Frank-obituary.html
1925(7th
of Tevet, 5686): Seventy-eight-year-old whiskey dealer Isaac Weil, the husband
of Hannah Weil and the father of Jonas, Benjamin, Charles, Caroline, Herman and
one unnamed infant girl who died at birth, passed away today after which he was
buried at the Temple Israel Memorial Park in Minneapolis, MN.
http://pre-prowhiskeymen.blogspot.com/2011/10/isaac-weil-joined-old-world-with-new.html
1925: In
the Bronx, NY, Hetty and Max Schmertz gave birth to Eric Joseph Schmertz “who
as one of the nation’s most relied-upon labor peacemakers helped resolve
thousands of labor disputes, getting both the Rockettes and New York City cab
drivers to end strikes in the 1960s.” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1926: Jews
of New York City are doing "less than their just share" to perpetuate
Judaism, according to Ludwig Vogelstein, Chairman of the Executive Board of the
Union of American Hebrew Congregations, who spoke at Mount Neboh Temple, 562
West 150th Street, tonight.”
1926: In
address given today welcoming delegates from every part of the country to the
Ninth Annual Convention of the Histadruth Ivrith, the national association for
the promotion of Hebrew as the medium of literary expression, Rabbi Max D.
Klein called the revival of the Hebrew language a “phenomenon of modern life.”
1927: “The
New Moon,” an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by
Oscar Hammerstein II” opened in Philadelphia on Christmas Eve.
1928: Erwin
Rommel and his wife gave birth to Manfred Rommel who as mayor of Stuttgart
“strengthened the city’s Jewish population.” (As reported by Douglas
Martin)
1928: As
the internecine conflict between Jews for control of the project to settle Jews
in Palestine heated up, it was reported today that “M.W. Weisgal, editor of The
New Palestine, the official organ of the Zionist movement in this country
said…that the Jewish Agency was a term used by the Palestine mandate for any
Jewish agency which might arise to help Palestine and that the World Zionist
Organization was at present at such an agency.
1928: It
was reported today that “Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of New York, whose opposition to
the inclusion of non-Zionists in the Jewish Agency Council was overridden by
the World Zionist Organization” said “he will oppose the measure when it goes
before the Zionist Congress for ratification.”
1929(22nd
of Kislev, 5690):Rabbi Ezekiel Paneth, the Dej, Dej, Cluj County, Romania born “son
of R' Moshe Paneth, Daszer Rebbe and Malka Paneth, the husband of Rebetzin
Rivka Paneth and father of Mendl Paneth; R' Jacob Elimelech Paneth, A.B.D.
Desh; Malke Paneth; Giza Paneth; Rachel Paneth; Grand Rabbi Yosef Paneth,
ADMI"R of Daisz; Masha Greenwald (Grünwald); R' Moshe Paneth; Feige
Meisels” who is not to be confused with Ezekiel ben Joseph Panet, passed away
today.
1929: In
Jerusalem, “the Jewish case came to dramatic close at today’s hearing of the
Palestine Inquiry Commission when Sir Boyd Merriman, counsel for the Jews, who
was about to finish his summation, declined to continue because of the
interruptions of R. Hopkins Morris, the member of the Commission representing
the British Liberal Party.”
1930: The
Executive of the Jewish Agency announced “that a total of 5,883 Jews entered
Palestine during the Jewish Year 5690 (Oct. 1, 1929 to Sept. 30, 1930)
1931:
Birthdate of Argentinean born composer and director Maricio Kagel.
1931: In
Vienna, Friedl Rubin and perfumer Adolph Abish gave birth to award winning
American author Walter Abish, the husband of photographer Cecile Gelb, who
escaped the Holocaust by living in Shanghai and who served in the Israeli army
before settling in the United States where he won a MacArthur Fellowship.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Walter-Abish
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/02/16/sentimental-re-education
1932(25th
of Kislev, 5693): Parashat Vayeshev and first day of Chanukah
1932(25th
of Kislev, 5693): Sixty-five-year-old Rumanian native Samuel Schwartz,
“formerly known as the king of the east side pawnbrokers who…rose from poverty
to the presidency…of the Archibald Realty Corporation” and who was the
“director of the Menorah Home for the Aged and Infirm and the Agudath Jewish
Free Burial Association” while serving as a member of the Grand Street Boys and
the First Rumanian Jewish Congregation passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/12/26/105896624.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1932: The
Third Annual Maccabean Festival “sponsored by the New York Zionist Region in
association with all Zionist districts of Greater New York and other Zionist
groups” is scheduled to open this evening at Madison Square Garden
1932:
Birthdate of Pulitzer Prize winning Washington
Post reporter Walter Pincus.
1933: “Year
of Hitler Nears End with Small Hope for Jews,” published today described how
the entire structure of the Reich has been “altered” while “the persecutions of
‘Non-Aryans’ continued with only slight amelioration.”
1933: Ruth
Schimmel and Leon Francis Hoffman, the son of Dr. and Mrs. Charles Hoffman were
married today in Tel Aviv.
1934:
“Peter” a comedy directed by Henry Koster and produced by Joe Pasternak was
released in Austria today.
1935(28th
of Kislev, 5696): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1935: Two
days after she had passed away, funeral
services are scheduled to be held today for 43 year old Sophie Braslua, the New
York born daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Abel Brasula and “noted American contralto
who had a distinguished career on both the concert and the operatic state” and
whose honorary pallbearers will include Sergei Rachmanoff, Jascha Heifetz and
Fritz Reiner” after which she will be buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery.
1935(28th
of Kislev, 5896): Fifty-year-old36 Austrian composer Alban Berg passed away
today in his native Vienna as the result of blood poisoning.
http://www.naxos.com/person/Alban_Berg_25989/25989.htm
1936(10th
of Tevet, 5697): Asara B'Tevet
1936(10th
of Tevet, 5697): Seventy-five-year-old Raphael M. “Ralph” Massell, the husband
of Clara Mitnick Massell and Fanny Heyman Massel and the father of Levi,
Samuel, Rebie Jacob and Benjamin Massel, the
Atlanta realtor, passed away today after which he was buried at the
Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, GA.
1936: In
Germany, the hierarchy ordered its priests to read the pastoral letter, On the
Defense against Bolshevism
1936: In Cuba, Congress
impeached Miguel Mariano Gómez who as President of
Cuba had negotiated with Congressman William I Sirovich about the possibility
of “Cuba opening her doors to at least 100,000 persecuted German Jews.”
1936: It
was reported today that William Green, President of the American Federation of
Labor has expressed his support for “the ideals of the Jewish labor movement in
Palestine.”
1937: The Palestine Post
reported that 11 Arabs were killed, scores wounded, and one captured, in a
battle fought by a strong police and military force against a large Arab band
northeast of Nazareth. An Arab gang attack was repulsed at Kibbutz Alonim.
Telephone lines were cut in numerous places throughout the country.
1937: In a
leading article the Post sadly
reflected that at Christmas-time the world picture hardly presented a
flattering reflection of a Christian ideal. The situation in Europe was
painfully familiar and needed no elaboration, while in Palestine, in which the
centuries-old history of Christianity had its roots, peace seemed intractable.
1937: Pope
Pius XI delivered his annual Christmas message to the College of Cardinal
during which he “condemns…the persecution of the Catholic Church in Nazi
Germany.” "In Germany there is real, actual religious persecution despite
efforts to present a contrary impression. For some time people have been saying
and trying to make other people believe there is no persecution, but we know
there is — and very grave persecution. Indeed, rarely has there been
persecution so grave, so terrible, so painful, so sad in its deep effects.” (As
reported by Austin Cline)
1937:
“Thank You, Mr. Moto” “the second of eight Mr. Moto films” all starring Peter
Lorre as Mr. Motto and produced by Sol M. Wurtzel was released today in the
United States.
1938(2nd
of Tevet, 5699): Parasha Mketz; 7th day of Chanukah
1938:
“There’s That Woman Again,” a comedy produced by Harry Cohn, with a script
co-authored by Philip G. Epstein and co-starring Melvyn Douglas (Melvyn Edouard
Hesselberg) was released today in the United States.
1938(2nd
of Tevet, 5699): Sixty-six-year-old Nashville, TN native and University of
Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College trained rabbi Abram Simon, the husband of
Carrie Simon and father of David Simon passed away today “less than here hours
after he preached at the Washington Hebrew Congregation.
https://opensiddur.org/profile/abram-simon/
1938(2nd
of Tevet, 5699): Eight-one year old Arthur Ellis Franklin, a senior partner at
Keyser & Co, a merchant bank, the son of banker Ellis Abraham Franklin and
Adelaide Franklin and the husband of Caroline Franklin with whom he had six
children passed away today in London.
1938:
Several members of the American Catholic hierarchy and leading Protestants sign
a Christmas resolution expressing "horror and shame" in response to
the Kristallnacht pogrom.
1938: “The
desperate plight of 7,000 Jews expelled from Germany, who for almost two months
have been sheltered in barns near the Polish-German frontier is being
investigated be Robert Briscoe, a member of the Irish Parliament.”
1939: “On
Christmas Eve, approximately two months after occupying the city, Germans,
along with Polish policemen, encircled the synagogue in Siedlce, removed the
Torah scrolls from the building, and lit both the synagogue and the Torah
scrolls.”
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/december/01.asp
1940(24th
of Kislev, 5701): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light
1940:
Birthdate of Shaul Amor, the native of Morocco who made Aliyah in 1956 and was
elected to the Knesset for the first time in 1988.
1940: In
advising the Mandate Government as to how to deal with Jewish immigration to
Palestine after the Patria incident Churchill sent a memo urging the government
to consider their promises to the Zionists and to be guided by general
considerations of humanity towards those fleeing from the cruelest forms of
persecution. The Permanent
Under-Secretary of State ignored Churchill’s request and successfully convinced
his colleagues not let Churchill know of their decision to suspend Jewish legal
immigration until September, 1941.
1940:
Release date of the Czech film “Ecstacy” starring Hedy Lamar, who was the
daughter of two assimilated Viennese Jews – Gertrude and Emil Kiesler.
1941:
“Dangerously They Live” a “WW II spy film” starring John Garfield was released
in the United States by Warner Bros.
1941:
Viktor Alter, the Polish born Bundist who to organize the International Jewish
Ant-Fascist Committee was sentenced to death by the NKVD after having fallen
afoul of Stalin’s paranoia and anti-Semitism.
1942:
Following a successful attack on Nazi troops at the Cyganeria, a coffee house
in Cracow, Poland, the German authorities launched a massive retaliatory
campaign aimed at destroying the Jewish Fighting Organization.
1942: Hundreds of Jews were captured after another German manhunt in
the woods of Parczew.
1942: On Christmas Eve before Barney Ross and his Marines were to
go to battle the famous Father Frederic Gehring, a war-time chaplain who wrote
regular correspondences for Reader's Digest magazine asked Ross to take
part in what would become one of the most poignant such events of the war.
During his time in Guadalcanal, Ross had begun what would be a life-long
friendship with Gehring who considered Ross a national treasure who defied logic
when it came to bravery and the defense of principle. Ross was the only one capable of playing a
temperamental organ on the tropical island, so Gehring asked him to learn
Silent Night and other Christmas songs for the troops. Barney played these
songs and sang with the homesick young men, after which Gehring implored Ross to
play a Jewish song. Ross played a melancholy song called "My Yiddishe
Momma" about a child's love for his self-sacrificing mother. Many of the
Marines knew the melody of the song because Ross always had it played when he
entered the ring. But when the Marines heard the heart-rending lyrics,
newspaper reports say they were all in tears. After Ross's single-handed
victory in the battle at Guadalcanal, he was viewed as almost superhuman,
particularly based on all he had to overcome in his troubled life.
1942:
During his Christmas Eve address, Pope Pius mentioned “the hundreds of
thousands who without any fault of their own sometimes only by reasons of their
nationality or race are marked for death or gradual extinction.” Despite having been told about the fate of
the Jews of Europe, the Pope chooses not to condemn those who are engaged in
the slaughter known as “The Final Solution.”
1943: As
the Soviet Army began advancing toward Berlin, the Nazis worked furiously to
cover up the slaughter of the Jews. At
the infamous Fort Number Nine (known as “the Slaughterhouse") in the Kovno
Ghetto the Bobel Commando unit composed of 64 Jews dug up and assisted in the burring of 12,000
bodies out of the 70,000 that had been murdered there since the winter of
1941. On this Christmas Eve they attempted their escape while the guards
celebrated. Nineteen would survive and tell the horror story of Bobel Commando
Unit. In Borki, a similar attempt to escape was undertaken by its Bobel
Commando Unit. Of 60 who tried, only 3 escaped to live through the war. One,
Josef Sterdyner, testified at the trial of the Borki guards in 1962. Another,
Josef Reznik, was a witness at the Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem in 1961.
1943: “The
Ghost Ship,” “a psychological thriller directed by Mark Robson” was released in
the United States today.
1943: At Borki, Poland, 60 Jews working on an exhumation squad
attempt to escape through a tunnel, but few of them are successful.
1943: U.S.
premiere of “Jack London” a film treatment of the author’s life produced by
Samuel Bronston.
1943(27th
of Kislev, 5704): New York’s Rabbi Louis Werfel a 27 year old chaplain serving
with the Twelfth Air Force Service Command in North Africa was killed in a
plane crash in Algeria as he was flying back from conducting Chanukah services
in Casablanca. Rabbi Werfel was the fourth Jewish chaplain to lose his life in
the line of duty as of this date. He was
known as “the flying rabbi” because of his propensity for using aircraft to
travel to distant outposts to serve the unique needs of Jewish servicemen.
After graduating from Yeshiva University he served as the rabbi for the Mount
Kisco (NY) Hebrew Congregation and Knesseth Israel in Birmingham, Alabama, his
last pulpit before joining the Army Air Force. In Birmingham he was on the
board of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and the National Jewish Welfare
Board’s Army and Navy Committee The wide range of Werfel’s activities could be
seen from his request to the Jewish for 10,000 French-Hebrew prayer books for
the Jews fighting with the Free French forces.
1944: As
proof that for many British policy-makers keeping Jews out of Palestine was
more important than saving them from the Holocaust, Lord Gort, the High
Commissioner for Palestine telegraphed the Foreign Office from Jerusalem asking
that the Soviet Government – whose troops had entered the Balkans – be asked to
close both the Rumanian and Bulgarian frontiers on the grounds that Jewish
immigration from South East Europe to Palestine was getting out of hand.
1945: Twenty-one-year-old
Arnold Weiss who was serving as an officer in the United States Army’s
Counter-Intelligence Corps, began working on a project that would lead to the
discovery of Hitler’s last will and political testament.
1945: In
New York City Bernard Constant Meyer, a Manhattan psychoanalyst and his wife
concert pianist Elly Kassman gave birth to University of Iowa graduate Nicholas
Meyer who enjoyed a career in films and as an author whose works included The
Seven-Per-Cent Solution which was later made into a movie.
1946:
Birthdate of Uri Geller, the Israeli who specializes in the para-normal.
1946(1st of
Tevet, 5707): Rosh Chodesh Tevet, Seventh Day of Chanukah
1946(1st of
Tevet, 5707): Israel Levin is murdered in Tel Aviv, Palestine, for betraying
Stern Group leader.
1946:
Birthdate of Israeli movie director Uri Barbash, the brother of screenwriter
Benny Barbash whose most notable work might the 1984 film “Beyond the Wall,
which received an Oscar nomination in the category of Best Foreign Language
Film.
1946: The World Zionist Congress ended with the Zionists calling for
an end of terrorism. The Congress expressed its opposition to a UN trusteeship
and want independence with no partition. The delegates also adopt resolution to
boycott conference in London, England.
1947(11th
of Tevet, 5708): Forty-five-year-old Berlin native Gertrude Greissle, the
daughter Mathilde (Zemlinsky) Schonberg and Arnold Schonberg and the wife of
Felix Anton Greissle passed away today in New York
1947(11th
of Tevet, 5708): Forty-six-year-old Turku native Elias Katz who won a silver
medal while running the 3000 meter steeple chase as a member of Finland’s
Olympic team in Paris was murdered during an attack by Arabs in Palestine.
1947: Heavy
sniping amounting almost to guerrilla warfare killed four Arabs and two Jews
and wounded at least twenty-six other persons in Haifa during the last
twenty-four hours.
1947:
Nineteen people who had been on trial since August 7 on charges of committing
war crimes in their operation of Mittlebau-Dora Concentration Camp heard their
individual verdicts – 15 guilty and 4 acquitted.
1948: Abram
Chayes married Antonia (Toni) Handler who “served as Undersecretary of the Air
Force in the Carter Administration; a union that produced five children Eve,
Gayle, Lincoln, Angelica and journalist Sarah Chayes.
1948: “The
Paleface” a western comedy with a screenplay by Melville Shavelson was released
in the United States today.
1948: The
Canadian Minister for External Affairs, Lester Pearson, informed Israel’s
Foreign Minister, Moshe Sharett that “ the state of Israel, in the opinion of
the Canadian governments has given satisfactory proof that it complies with the essential
conditions of statehood” including “external independence and effective
internal government within a reasonably well-defined territory.” In plain English, the government of Canada
recognized the state of Israel.
1948: After
having been arrested last night while staying in a hospital where he was being
treated for a nervous condition, authorities began their interrogation of Yiddish actor Benjamin
Zuskin who was a colleague of Solomon Mikhoels and a member the Jewish
Ant-Fascist Committee during WW II.
1948: On
Christmas Eve, pilgrims were allowed to enter Bethlehem, but they had to pass
through both Jewish and Arab checkpoints.
1948:
Egyptian planes attack Nazareth, Haifa and Tel Aviv.
1950(15th
of Tevet, 5711): Lev Simonovich Berg
passed away. Born in 1876, Berg was the
geographer and zoologist who established the foundations of limnology in Russia
with his systematic studies on the physical, chemical, and biological
conditions of fresh waters, particularly of lakes. Important, too, was his work
in ichthyology, which yielded much useful data on the paleontology, anatomy,
and embryology of fishes in Russia.
1950(15th of Tevet, 5711): Seventy-year-old Boston born “camp
director and rabbi, Dr. Joseph I Gorfinkle, the holder of two degrees from a
Harvard and a Ph.D from Columbia and the husband of Rose Leventhal with whom he
had two sons – Herbert and Nathaniel – who led Sinai Temple in Mt. Vernon, NY
where he also founded the Talmud Torah and Y.M.H.A. passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/12/25/82088543.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1951(25th of Kislev, 5712): As the Korean War drags on for a
second year, the Jews observe Chanukah
1951: Idris
I is proclaimed King as Libya gains its independence from Italy. Jews had lived in what was now Libya since
the time of the Greeks and Romans.
Jewish fortunes in Libya were already in decline before
independence. The anti-Jewish policies
of the fascists coupled with outbreaks against Jews following the creation of
Israel had begun to take its toll on the Jewish population. The Six Days War in 1967 led to further
attacks on the Jews. Idris realized that
he could not protect his Jewish subjects, and he allowed the Jewish community
to leave the country. The Jews went to
Rome with some of them moving on to Israel or the United States
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the new
Mapai-General Zionists-Progressive government coalition won a 63-to-24 vote of
confidence. The religious parties still hesitated, but were expected to join
the coalition.
1952(6th
of Tevet, 5713): Ninety-eight-year-old Max Hexter, the son of Levi and Betty
Hoechster and the husband of Sarah Hexter passed away today in Cincinnati,
Ohio.
1952(6th
of Tevet, 5712): Moritz Hausler, the Viennese native who “played for the Austrian National team seven times
during his international career” and “was also a member of the famed
Hakoah-Vienna club” before coming to the United States where he played soccer
for the New York Giants and New York Hakoah passed away today
1952: “Come
Back, Little Sheba” a dramatic film directed by Daniel Mann, produced by Hal B.
Wallis and with music by Franz Waxman was released today in the United States.
1952: The
Jerusalem Post reported that 80 dunams of land and a house in the Zeita
village in the Little Triangle were detached from Israel and handed over to
Jordan by the Mixed Israeli-Jordanian Armistice Commission, according to the
demarcation armistice lines, agreed upon at the Rhodes armistice negotiations.
Arab residents of this area surrendered their Israeli identity cards and became
Jordanians.
1952: As
the third Israeli government ends and the fourth Israeli government takes power
today, Moshe Sharett retained his position as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
1952: Yosef
Burg replaced Mordecahi Nurock as Minister of Postal Services, making him the
second person to hold this position.
Nurock was the first person to hold the position now known as the
Communications Minister
1952: Israel Rokach replaced Haim-Moshe Shapira as Interior
Minister in Israel.
1955(9th of
Tevet, 5716):
Hugo Chaim Adler a Belgian composer, cantor, and
choir conductor passed away. “Born in Antwerp to Jewish parents, Adler studied
at the Hochschule für Musik Köln from 1912-1915. In 1915 he was drafted into
the German Army during the First World War; serving for three years in the
infantry until he was wounded at Argonne. In 1918 he was appointed cantor and
teacher at St. Wendel in the Saarland. He left there in September 1921 to
become second cantor at the synagogue in Mannheim, rising to head cantor there
in 1933. While in Mannheim he studied music composition at the Mannheim
Conservatory with Ernst Toch. In 1939 he fled Germany for the United States
after having been imprisoned due to his Jewish ancestry by the Nazi regime.
From September 1939 until his death of cancer in December 1955 he was cantor of
Temple Emanuel in Worcester, Massachusetts. He remained active as a choir
conductor and composer of sacred music during these years. Several of his works
were published by Sacred Music Press and Transcontinental Music Publishers in
New York City. He is the father of composer and conductor Samuel Adler.”
1955(9th
of Tevet, 5716): Seventy-two-year Samuel Charney, who wrote under the pen-name
of Shmuel Niger passed away today.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Niger_Shmuel
1955:
Release date in Japan for “The Court Jester” a musical comedy starring Danny
Kaye.
1957(1st
of Tevet, 5718): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1957: Norma
Talmadge, the former wife of Joseph Schenck with whom she created one of
Hollywood’s earliest and most successful production companies passed away
today. He was Jewish. She was not, although she apparently had a
penchant for Jewish husbands since she married George Jessel 9 days after she
divorced Schenck.
1957(1st
of Tevet, 5718): Seventy-seven-year-old Ephraim Frisch, the Lithuanian born son
of “Rabbi David and Hannah (Baskowtiz) Frisch and the wife of Ruth Cohen Frisch
who “was ordained at HUC in 1904, helped to found the New Synagogue of New York
in 1915 after which he led Temple Beth-El in San Antonio, TX passed away today
in New York.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/frisch-ephraim
1958(13th
of Tevet, 5719): Fifty-three-year-old Nicholas “Slug” Brodszky the native of
Odessa who came to the United States in 1934 where he composed the music for
many successful films including “The Student Prince” and “”Love Me or Leave Me
as well as “the score for the Yiddish language film Die Purimspieler.”
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/nicholas-brodszky-mn0000174438
1959: At the first post-war Christmas Eve celebrations in 1959,
the synagogue and the Cologne memorial for the Victims of the Nazi regime were
damaged by two members of the extreme rightist Deutsche Reichspartei, who were
later arrested. The synagogue was daubed with black, white and red color paint,
and a swastika and the slogan "Juden raus" were added
1959: The
desecration of a new synagogue in Cologne, Germany sparked a wave of
anti-Jewish incidents throughout Western Europe, the Americas, Australia, and
Africa.
1961: Sid
Gillman’s San Diego Chargers lost to the Houston Oilers in the 1961 American
Football Championship game.
1961:
Eighty-five-year-old prolific English author Charles Hamilton, best known for
his man series set in British Public Schools whose works included an
“anti-racism message as can be seen by his creation of “a Jewish schoolboy,
Monty Newland, as an admirable and respected” character passed away today.
1962(27th
of Kislev, 5723): Third Day of Chanukah
1962(27th
of Kislev, 5723): Seventy-seven-year-old Fannia Mary Cohn, the Belarus born
daughter of flour mill owner” Hyman Cohen and Anna (Rosfosky) Chen Russian
revolutionary who emigrated to the United States in 1904 where she became an
educational and labor leader whose work with International Ladies Garment
Workers Union was undermined by what today would be male chauvinism and sex
discrimination.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/cohn-fannia-m
1963:
Birthdate of Paul Bloom, the Canadian born American professor of psychology and
cognitive science at Yale University
http://pantheon.yale.edu/~pb85/Paul_Bloom.html
1964: Today
the Baroness Batshea de Rothschild vision of bring modern dance to Israel was
fulfilled with official founding of the Batsheva Dance Company under the
guidance of Martha Graham.
1965(1st
of Tevet, 5726): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1965: It
was reported today that convicted terrorist Mahmud Hejazi is appealing his
conviction because he was not allowed “to employ a foreign lawyer,” as he
should have been under a law that had been passed “to let Adolf Eichmann employ
a foreign lawyer.”
1966(11th
of Tevet, 5727): Parashat Vayehci
1968(3rd
of Tevet, 5729): Eight-three-year Detroit business executive Charles Grosberg,
the Russian born son of Anna Lasky and Jacob Grosberg and the father of Jean
and Merwin Grosberg passed away today.
https://digital.bentley.umich.edu/djnews/djn.1968.12.27.001/9
1968: A
funeral service is scheduled to be held at the Park West Memorial Chapel for
72-year-old Abris Silberman the Budapest University art history student and
president of E & A Silberman art galleries who in 1928 came to the United
States at the invitation of banker Otto H. Kahn “who had acquired some
important Byzantine enamels from” Silberman.
1969(15th
of Tevet, 5730): Morris Hassel, the son of Eliah and Sarah Becker Hassel and
the brother of Max. Fannie and Calvin Hassel passed away today after which he
as buried at the Kisher Zion Cemetery in Shillington, PA.
1969: On
Christmas Eve, five small boats showing almost no lights slipped out of
Cherbourg harbor into the teeth of a Force 9 gale which kept even large
freighters from venturing out. Built for the Israel Navy, the vessels had been
embargoed at the beginning of the year by French president Charles de Gaulle.
1970: Nine
Jews were convicted in Leningrad for hijacking a plane. In the post-Cold War era, some of us may have
forgotten about the Refusniks and the battles Jews waged to immigrate to
Israel.
1970: Three
weeks after its premiere “The Aristocats” featuring music by Richard and Robert
Sherman was released in the rest of the United States today.
1970: The New York Times reports that Jews and
Arabs are living harmoniously on the plain near Meggido--believed to be the
Biblical Armageddon--where St. John said in Revelations that the forces
of good and evil would fight the last great battle at the end of time.
1971(6th
of Tevet, 5732): Seventy-one-year-old Montgomery Country, MD native and San
Francisco Law School trained attorney Jacob Wilburn Ehrlich, the author of such
books as The Holy Bible and the Law and Howl of the Censors and husband of
Marjorie Ehrlich with whom he raised a son and a daughter passed away today.
1971: Birthdate of Tamir Bloom, a champion fencer,
who was a member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team.
1972:
“Leaders of New York’s Jewish community joined today with prominent figures of
other faiths” and political leaders including Mayor Lindsay to honor Rabbi
Abraham Joshua Heschel at his funeral
today.
1973(29th
of Kislev, 5734): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1973: Ninety-one-year-old
Smith graduate and author Mary Sachs, the husband of neurosurgeon Ernest Sachs,
“the grandson of a Goldman Sach’s founder” whose first play was “The Twelfth
Disciple,” a drama about Judas that as performed on Broadway passed away today.
1974(10th
of Tevet, 5735): Asara B’Tevet
1974:
Victor and Elena Polsky arrived in Israel.
1974:
Refuseniks from Leningrad led by Israel Varnavitsky and from Moscow led by
Alexander Luntz took part in a protest
in “the waiting room of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the 4th
anniversary of the 1st Leningrad Trial” after which approximately
“300 people signed a letter protesting the unjust sentences” at the end of
trail.”
1974: “On
Prisoner of Zion Day activists came to the Central Committee of the CPSU
demanding release of all 40 Prisoners of Zion.”
1975(20th
of Tevet, 5736): Sixty-four-year-old
composer Bernard Herrmann passed away.
Born in 1911, Herrmann gained fame for writing musical scores for a wide
variety of films including Citizen Kane, Vertigo and Psycho. In fact he died the day after he completed
the score for the film Taxi Driver
1975: In
Moscow, Anatolii Sharansky, Alexander Luntz, Mark Azbel, Yuli Kosharovsky,
Victor Brailovsky, Vladimir Lazaris and others were arrested today following a
demonstration of solidarity with the Prisoners of Zion that had been organized
by Vladimir Prestin.
1976(3rd
of Tevet. 5737): Eighth Day of Chanukah is observed for the last time during
the Presidency of “accidental president,” Gerald Ford.
1977:
BBC1 broadcast the final episode of “The Duchess of Duke Street” featuring June
Brown as “Mrs. Violet Leyton.”
1978(24th
of Kislev, 5739): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light
1978(24th
of Kislev, 5739): Sixty-eight-year-old native Washingtonian Philip Prince
Peyser, the son of Julius Peyser and Miriam Prince passed away today after
which he was interred in Davidsonville, MD.
1980: In Farmington,
CT, school teacher Ann Dokoupil and marijuana deal Anthony Dokoupil gave birth
to George Washington and Columbia University educated journalist and broadcast
journalist Tony Dokoupil who wrote about his conversion to Judaism in 2014 and
who was criticized by some of his colleagues for his questioning of the author
of The Message during on appearance on CBS when he was trying to publicize
a book that Dokoupil implied "reads like the work of an extremist"
https://newrepublic.com/article/117322/adult-circumcision-why-i-made-cut-judaism
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8098276/
1980: “Five
Jewish activists were sentenced to ten days’ imprisonment on charges of
hooliganism for demonstrating at the Lenin Library in solidarity with Prisoners
of Zion.”
1981(28th
of Kislev, 5742): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1981(28th of Kislev, 5742): Eighty-four-year-old Atlanta, GA native and
Emory University trained psychiatrist, Dr. Samuel Kahn, the husband of Karen
Khan with whom he raised two daughters, Janice and Susannah, while teaching,
practicing and writing in the New York Metropolitan area passed away today.
https://www.amazon.com/Essays-Freudian-psychoanalysis-Samuel-Kahn/dp/0802221742
1982: “Six
Weeks” a movie version of the novel by the same name produced by Peter Guber
with a screenplay by David Selzer was released today in the United States.
1982: “Bombs
in Australia Hit Jewish and Israeli Sites’ published today described attacks on
the Israeli Consulate and a Jewish social club in Sydney.
1984(30th
of Kislev, 5745): Rosh Chodesh Tevet;
Sixth Day of Chanukah
1984:
Yitzhak Peretz replaced Shimon Peres as Internal Affairs of Minister.
1984: In “A
Panel Explores Gambling Among Jews” Nadine Brozan describes the ways in which
the Jewish community is finally coming to grips with this social problem.
1985: A small bomb concealed in a loaf of bread was found at a
bus stop near Tel Aviv University today, the police said. A passer-by
discovered the suspicious-looking loaf and informed explosives experts, a
police spokesman said. The device was safely dismantled. No arrests were
reported.
1987(3rd
of Tevet, 5748): Eighty-nine-year-old Dr. John Jacob Sampson, the native of
Galveston, TX and husband of Rose Etta Sampson, who practiced medicine with his
father, passed away today in San Francisco, CA.
1990: In the run-up to what would be Gulf War I,
Saddam said Israel will be Iraq's 1st target. A Spanish television station
reported today that during a weekend interview, the Iraqi leader had said that
Tel Aviv would be Iraq's first target whether or not Israel joins the war
effort against Iraq.
1992(29th
of Kislev, 5753): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1992(29th
of Kislev, 5753): Seventy-one-year-old Philadelphia native, WW II Navy veteran and
Drexel University educated electrical engineer Isaac L. Auerbach, the holder of
masters degree in physics from Harvard and an early advocate of computer technology who was
the husband of Carol Auerbach with whom he had three children – Rachel, A .Phillip
and Phillip B.—and who was “chairman of the Philadelphia chapter of American
Associates of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev which he served as vice governor passed away today.
https://www.nae.edu/188491/ISAAC-L-AUERBACH-19211992
https://history.computer.org/pioneers/auerbach.html
https://findingaids.hagley.org/repositories/3/resources/2016
1993(10th
of Tevet, 5754): Asara B’Tevet
1993(10th
of Tevet, 5754): Lieut. Col. Meir Mintz, commander of the IDF special forces in
the Gaza area, was shot and killed by terrorists in an ambush on his jeep at
the T-junction in Gaza. The Hamas Iz a-Din al Kassam squads publicly claimed
responsibility for the attack.
1993:
“Tombstone” a film that tells the tale of “Wyatt Earp” including his
relationship with “Josephine Marcus” and featured the line in Latin by “Doc
Holliday” Credat Judaeus Apella, non ego which literally means "Let the Jew Apella
believe it; not I" and allegedly referred to a Hellenized Jew who, was
orthodox, ill-informed and consequently very superstitious.”
1995(1st of
Tevet, 5756): Rosh Chodesh Tevet, Seventh Day of Chanukah
1995: The night was certainly not silent, and it was not always
calm as Bethlehem marked its first Christmas under Palestinian control with
thunderous fireworks, choirs, bagpipes, dances and laser lights. While the
revelry flowed over Manger Square, Yasir Arafat, the chairman of the
Palestinian Authority, took his place in the front pew of St. Catherine's Roman
Catholic Church, part of the larger complex including the Orthodox Church of
the Nativity, for the traditional Midnight Mass in his role as the new leader
of Bethlehem and the Palestinians of the West Bank. Sitting impassively in his
trademark checkered headdress with his wife, Suha, and Bethlehem's mayor of 23
years, Elias Freij, Mr. Arafat listened as the Latin Patriarch, Michel Sabbah,
a Palestinian who is the chief Catholic prelate of the region, praised him and
declared that "the beginning of Palestinian freedom is the beginning of
reconciliation between Palestinian and Jewish people."
1995: On
Christmas Eve, at an Israeli checkpoint on the border of the West Bank, Israeli
police stopped busloads of Israeli nationalists who had wanted to hold a
protest against the transfer of authority to the Palestinians at Rachel's Tomb.
The protesters held up posters and chanted, "Land of Israel, Land of
Israel" as the police blocked their way to the West Bank."Why can't
we go in?" demanded Judy Pearlman, a Jerusalem resident originally from
New York. "The Arabs are having their celebration worshiping their God.
Why can't we worship ours? All we want to do is light candles at Rachel's Tomb
on the last day of Hanukkah. We're second-class citizens in our own
country."
1996: “The
Portrait of a Lady,” the cinematic version of the novel of the same name
co-produced by Steve Golin and co-starring
Barbara Hershey and Shelley Winters which had premiered at the Venice
Film Festival was released in the United States today.
1997(25th
of Kislev, 5768): First Day of Chanukah
1997:
Edward S. Walker, Jr. presented his credentials as the U.S Ambassador to
Israel.
1997: For the first time Chanukah candles were
officially lit in Vatican City.
1997: The New York Times published "A
Singular Passion for Amassing Art, One Way or Another" — outlined a case
involving Portrait of Wally by Egon Schiele, which was in the MoMA exhibition
but was obtained by Rudolph Leopold soon after the Nazi era. The Manhattan DA stepped
in to help restore the piece to descendants of its original owner, but
ownership of the painting is still in contention, nearly 10 years later. Ron
Lauder has been accused of a failure to act on the case, despite being MoMA
chairman at the time
2000:
Robert Durst's longtime friend, Susan Berman, who had facilitated Durst's
public alibi after Kathie Durst’s disappearance and who had recently received
$50,000 from Durst was found murdered execution-style in her Benedict Canyon
house in California.
2000: The New York Times book section featured
books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including The
Wandering Jews by Joseph
Roth and translated by Michael Hofmann, More Stories From My Father’s Court
by Isaac Bashevis Singer; translated by Curt Leviant and a poem entitled Flight
to Egypt by Jewish poet
Joseph Brodsky.
2001: David Broza performed his Not Exactly Christmas Eve Concert.
2001: The New York Times
published a profile 9/11 victim Mark Shulman today.
http://www.legacy.com/sept11/story.aspx?personid=147312
2002:
“Debate Erupts Over Authors of the Dead Scrolls” published today described the
questions that have arisen since Roland de Vaux “a French biblical scholar and
archaeologist” began his work at Qumran.
2003(29th
of Kislev, 5764): Fifth Day of Chanukah
2003: “A
day after Egypt’s foreign minister Ahmed Maher had met with Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon” in an attempt to work out a cease fire, Israelis troops fought
their way into the camp at Rafah where they “uncovered a large
weapons-smuggling tunnel.”
2004:
The Jerusalem Post reported a major
archeological discovery. The Israel Antiquities Authority announced that an
elaborately paved assembly area and water channel that carried rainwater to the
pool of Shiloah (Siloam) during the Second Temple period were uncovered by
archeologists digging in Jerusalem's ancient City of David.
2005: The
Seventh Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival featured showings of “Dear Enemy,” “Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer” and “The
Star Hidden in the Backlands.”
2006: The New York Times
book section featured books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish
interest including Isaac B. Singer: A Life by Florence Noiville;
translated by Catherine Temerson and Putnam Camp: Sigmund Freud, James
Jackson Putnam, and the Purpose of American Psychology by George Prochnik.
The book is based on Freud’s only trip to the United States, which took place
in 1909.
2006: The Washington Post
book section carried a review entitled “Out
of Hungary: How an extraordinary group of refugees helped create Casablanca, Darkness at
2006: BBC Radio 2 broadcast the first
of “two special on-hour tribute programs” that celebrate Lew Grade’s life and
mark the centenary of his birth.”
2007: The International Conference on
Contemporary Reform Judaism opens its two day meeting in Jerusalem.
2007: In Paul Rudnick’s “I Hit Hamlet”
published today, the playwright turned journalist tells the tale of the
creation and production “I Hate Hamlet.”
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/12/24/i-hit-hamlet
2008(27th of Kislev, 5769): Seventy-eight-year-old Harold Pinter, who was widely esteemed as the
most important British playwright of the past half-century and was awarded the
Nobel Prize for literature in 2005, passed away today in London today. (As reported by Mel Gussow and Ben Brantley)
http://theater.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/theater/26pinter.html?pagewanted=all
2008: The Maltz Museum, hosts a special Hanukkah candle-lighting service at 5 p.m., followed by a
full-buffet Chinese dinner, catered by Pearl of the Orient. Museum
2008: The Moshav Band joins with Soul
Farm in an appearance at B.B. King Blues Club in New York City.
2008: The American Technion Society (
2008: The
second season of the Hebrew-language edition of “Survivor” begins today.
2009: David Broza, one of Israel's most
enduring and energizing artists performs at the Kaufmann Concert Hall in New
York City.
2009: Jews in the Greater Washington
Metropolitan area can choose between an evening that features the perfect
blend of the latest, hottest dances from Israel intermingled with recent hits
and oldies from the whole gamut of Israeli choreographers at Tikvat Israel Synagogue in Rockville, MD or "Putting the Ha! in Hanukkah"
Jewish music for people who don't like Jewish music at Jammin Java in Vienna, VA.
2009: The gang
that ordered the theft of the infamous 'Arbeit Macht Frei' sign from the
Auschwitz death camp memorial were planning to sell it to fund attacks against
the Swedish prime minister and parliament, the Times reported on today.
2009(7th of Tevet, 5770): After months of quiet, a father of seven was shot dead in a drive-by
shooting attack near the northern Samaria settlement of Shavei Shomron today.
The victim was identified as Meir Chai, a 45-year-old resident of the
settlement and father of seven children ranging in age from two months to 18.
Chai was the fourth terror victim in the West Bank in 2009
2009: The Boston Globe published “Levi
Horowitz; guided many as Bostoner Rebbe; at 88,” a comprehensive obituary of
the Jewish leader who passed away on December 5.
2010(17th of Tevet, 5771): Roy R. Neuberger, who drew on youthful passions for stock trading and art
to build one of Wall Street’s most venerable partnerships and one of the
country’s largest private collections of 20th-century masterpieces, died today
at his home at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan” at the age of 107. (As reported
by Edward Wyatt)
2010: Hullegeb Fest is scheduled to
present “Kudus Kudus ‘The Sacred Songs of Ethiopian Jewry’” at the
Confederation House.
2010: Two suspects from Jerusalem and
Hadera are set to be indicted today on charges of stealing 30 Torah scrolls
from synagogues across the South and the Central region
2010: A Kassam rocket that was shot into Israeli territory early this evening.
The rocket exploded in an open field near Ashkelon. No injuries or damage was
reported.
2010: Following a series of attacks from
Gaza, IAF planes attacked targets in the northern and southern Gaza Strip late
tonight.
2011: The Kinsey Sicks in Oy Vey in a Manger is scheduled to open in
Washington, DC.
2011: Israelis from Baton Rouge, Gulfport and other cities nearby are scheduled
to join with Israelis from New Orleans and Metairie for a fun Chanukah event of
food, music and lots of fun at the Chabad Center in Metairie, LA.
2011: The Godfather of Israeli music, Miki Gavrielov, is scheduled to perform
at the 7th Annual Sephardic Music Festival at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC.
2011: Hamshoushalayim is scheduled to come to an end for 2011.
2011(28th of Kislev, 5772):
Shabbat Shel Chanukah
2011: Today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked
Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch to instruct the police to act
firmly against violent attacks targeting women in the public sphere.
2011: Around noon today, shots were fired at an Israeli vehicle near the Ma'ale
Shomron settlement in the West Bank. No one was injured in the incident but the
vehicle was damaged and there were clear signs that the vehicle had been struck
by bullets. Israel Defense Forces soldiers are searching the area for the
perpetrators and checkpoints have been set up.
2011: It was reported today “that
members of Anonymous had stolen e-mail messages and credit card data from the
website Stratfor, a “strategic forecasting company” founded by in Austin by
George Friedman in 1996.
2012: Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust
Studies and author of 15 books about the Holocaust and Jewish history, is
scheduled to unveil The Evian Initiative, a new campaign to solve Israel's
African refugee problem at Hebrew University.
2012: The Gefilte Fish Gala, a fund
raiser Sharshelet’s Breast Cancer research is scheduled to take place in
Washington, D.C.
2012: “Zimzum” a film that centers
around solving a spree of robberies at a Moshav, is scheduled to be shown at
the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2012: “Stand Up Rabbis” a night of
comedy featuring Rabbi Naftali Cohen and Shmuley Boteach is scheduled to take
place in New York City.
2012(11th of Tevet, 5773): Ninety-two-year-old
Alexander Leaf “a versatile physician and research scientist who was an early
advocate of diet and exercise to prevent heart disease” passed away today. (As
reported by Paul Vitello)
2012: Palestinian rocket attacks on
Israel’s civilian population have no lawful justification and are a war crime,
Human Rights Watch said in a scathing report published today, assigning Hamas
blame for civilian deaths in Israel and Gaza during last month’s Operation
Pillar of Defense.
2012(11th of Tevet, 5773):
The curtain came down today on the life of ninety year old Jack Klugman. Many people know him only as the funny slob:
“Oscar Madison” or the quirky Medical Examiner “Quincy” but he was an accomplished
dramatic actor as can be seen from the several episodes of “Twilight Episodes”
in which he starred.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2012/12/24/jack-klugman-dies/1789879/
2013:
The distribution of Christmas Trees by the JNF which began at Nazareth on
December 10 is scheduled to come to an end today.
2013:
“Gravehopping” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013:
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Minister Transportation Yisrael Katz
dedicated the first train station to be armored against missile attacks in
Israel in the southern city of Sderot. The ceremony was also attended by the
Chairman of Israel Railways, Doron Weiss, and its CEO, Boaz Tzafrir. (As
reported by Tova Dvorin)
2013(21st
of Tevet, 5774: Twenty-two-year-old
Salah Shukri Abu Latyef, a civilian worker for the IDF from the Israeli Arab
town of Rahat was shot fatally by sniper fire near Gaza, where he was working
between Nachal Oz and Kfar Aza. The worker was evacuated to Be'er Sheva's
Soroka Hospital where he was pronounced dead (As reported by Ari Yashar)
2013:
This afternoon a police officer was stabbed by an Arab terrorist.
2013: A firebomb was thrown at a car belonging to a
resident of Nazareth.
2013:
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) has struck multiple terrorist sites throughout
Gaza, in response to the fatal shooting of a civilian IDF worker by terrorist
snipers from the Islamist-controlled territory. During the afternoon the IDF
hit six targets in Gaza linked to terrorist groups. “The targets we attacked
belong to the Islamic Jihad and Hamas,” the commander said. (As reported by
Maayana Miskin and Ari Soffer)
2014(2nd
of Tevet, 5775): 8th day of Chanukah
2014(2nd
of Tevet, 5775): Seventy-five-year-old forger Lee Israel passed away today.
2014:
“The Spanish Prisoner “and “Ida” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem
Jewish Film Festival.
2014:
David Broza is scheduled to return for his annual concert at the 92nd
Street Y.
2014:
A successful robbery took place “at the Israeli owned Mizrahi-Tefahot bank in
Zurich today.
2015:
David Broza is scheduled to perform his annual “Not Exactly Christmas Eve”
concert at the 92nd Street Y.
2015:
Agudas Achim is scheduled to sponsor “Mushu & a Movie.”
2015(12th
of Tevet, 5776): On the Jewish calendar “Yahrzeit of Harav Moshe Margulies,
zt"l, of Amsterdam, author of Pnei Moshe on the Yerushalmi.”
2015:
On Christmas one hundred and ten years ago, as Jews were being massacred in
Russia Professor Israel Friedlander said “The Christian world as a whole
–especially to-night – is preaching the Gospel of peace and good-will to man
but the Christian world knows neither peace nor good-will in dealing with the
Jews.” (Editor’s note: As the terrorist
continue their three month long rounds of attacks on Jews, you can remove the
words “Christian” from Friedlander and they seem mournfully true especially in
world where CNN describes those who commit acts of terror against Jews as
“protestors.’)
2016(24th
of Kislev, 5777): Shabbat Va-yayshev;
2016:
Following services this morning at the Stanton Street Synagogue, YNY is
scheduled to host talk followed by Walking of Tour of the Lower East Side led
by Elissa Sampson
2016(24th
of Kislev, 5777): In continuation of a tradition that is more than two decades
old, The Public Menorah Lighting Ceremony under the leadership of Rabbi Pinchas
Ciment, the consummate lamplighter, is scheduled to take place in Little Rock,
AR.
2016(24th
of Kislev, 5777): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
http://strangeside.com/chanuka-unusual-menorahs/
2017: The New York Times features reviews of books by
Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Abu Dhabi Bar Mitzvah: Fear and Love
in the Modern Middle East by Adam Valen Levinson, The Exodus by Richard Elliott
Friedman, The Great Shift: Encountering God in Biblical Times by James L.
Kugel, The Book of Separation: A Memoir by Tova Mirvis, The Story of the Jews
Volume 2 Belonging: 1492-1900 by Simon Schama and Bethlehem: Biography of a
Town by Nicholas Blincoe.
2017: Veretski Pass, including Cookie
Segelstein (violin), Joshua Horowitz (button accordion and cimbalom) and Stuart
Brotman (cello, bass), is scheduled to make its New York City debut at the Town
and Village Synagogue as part of “Yiddish New York.”
2017(6th of Tevet, 5778): Eighty-three-year-old
musical prodigy turned law school graduate Marcus Raskin, anti-Vietnam
Kennedyite who founded the Institute for Policy Studies passed away today. (As
reported by Richard Sandomir)
2017: A concert dedicated to Claude Bolling with the
Ensemble “Al Hatefer” including Yael Hacohen, Goni Eshed, Alon Stern, Yoav
Lachovitsky and Eliah Zabaly is scheduled to take place this evening at the
Gula Bar and Restaurant in Jerusalem.
2018: In Coralville, IA, this evening Agudas is scheduled
to host a screening of “The Band’s Visit” and potluck dinner.
2018: “Yiddish New York” is scheduled to host “Not Just)
Az der rebe tants: Toward an Inclusive History of Hasidic Dance” during which
“Jill Gellerman sketches a multimedia survey of Hasidic dance, from the
European repertoire to the existing practice in America, including men’s and
women’s traditions among several Hasidic sects in Brooklyn.”
2018: In Boston, the City Winery is scheduled to host
“David Broza and Friends” featuring an appearance by Trio Havana.
2018: In Tel Hazor, Israel, Joshua Larry Rosenstein, the
son of David Asher and Dorrie Rosenstein and grandson of Judith Sharon and
Larry Rosenstein, zichronam leshalom, is scheduled to be called to the Torah as
Bar Mitzvah in a Minyan that will include his great-uncle David Levin and his
wife Debbie.
2019(26th of Kislev, 5780): Second Day of
Chanukah
2019: The USY International Convention is scheduled to
continue for a third day in Ontario, CA.
2019: YNY is scheduled to host a screening of “His People,” a “Yiddish film with a live
score by Paul Shapiro
2019: A television adaption of The Tiger Who Came to Tea
written and illustrated by Judith Kerr, “aired in the UK on Chanel 4 this
evening.
2019: In London JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of
“Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles.”
2019: The 1015 Folsom Night Club is scheduled to host
Latke Ball 2019, “the biggest event of the year.’
2020: Jewish Review of Books is scheduled to host its
“December conversation with acclaimed historian Sarah Abrevaya Stein. Stein who
will discuss her award-winning book, Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through
the Twentieth Century, which uses the correspondence of one Jewish family to
tell the story of their journey “across the arc of a century and the breadth of
the globe.”
2020: The 28th Kung Pao Kosher Comedy, one of
San Francisco’s longest running comedy shows is scheduled to have, online, its
first performance this evening.
2020: In Cleveland, Congregation Shaarey Tikvah is
scheduled to host, via Zoom, “Sisterhood Game Night.”
2020: Camp Yavneh is
scheduled to present online “Christmas Eve for the Jews” with comedian Joel
Chasnoff.
2020:
Likud Higher Education Ze’ev Elkin who yas announced he is leaving his party to join Gideon Sa'ar's "New
Hope" party for the March elections is scheduled to resign his Knesset
seat today. (As reported by Moran Azulay)
2021: As part of the virtual “Kung Pao Kosher
Comedy,” Ophira Eisenberg, Jessica Kirson, Lisa Geduldig and Lisa’s 90-year-old
mom are scheduled to perform at a virtual Chinese restaurant
2021: “The MATZOBALL®, which has been throwing
the hottest parties in 20-plus cities across the country for Jewish singles on
Christmas Eve, is officially back and in-person for it’s 35th year!” (Editor’s
note – do they know that in 2021 this coincides with erev Shabbat?)
2021:
Lmmud Festival 2021 is scheduled to start.
2021:
In Berkley, CA, The Back Room is scheduled to host “Merry Christmas from a
Jewish Atheist Pianist” during which Sam Rudin, owner of the Back Room, gives a
concert in which he puts his own spin on traditional Christmas songs, many by
Jewish composers.
2021:
Based on earlier published reports as of today “according to new guidelines,
approved by Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, Israelis who claim that the center
of their life is abroad, will be able to return to Israel after 30 days from
their last visit to a "red" country, down from the previous
requirement of 90 days.” (As reported by Itamar Eichner)
2022:
Yiddish New York is scheduled to begin today with a Yiddish Dance Party,
featuring dance leader Steve Weintraub and the YNY All-Star Faculty Band. All
the in-person events will take place at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36
Battery Place.
2022:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to close this evening for a twenty-four-hour
hiatus.
2022:
One hundred eighth anniversary of the Christmas Truce on parts of the western
front which was arranged a Jewish officer Leutnant (Lieutenant) Horstmayer
(German 93rd Infantry Regiment) and is described ironically by Stanley
Weintraub, the author of “Silent Night: The Story of the World War One
Christmas Truce"
https://www.ttbook.org/interview/stanley-weintraub-world-war-i-christmas-truce
2022:
The Eden Tamir Center is scheduled to host a Brahms concert with pianist “Gilad
Harel and Friends.”
2022:
Gateway Chanukah Retreat is scheduled to continue for a second day in Stamford,
CT.
2022(30th
of Kislev, 5783): Shabbat Shel Chanukah; Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet 1
2023:
In “The Beloved and the Hall” a new series of lectures is scheduled to start
today via Zoom “Prof. Tzachi Weiss will deal with the tension, parallelism and
reconciliation between Torah, its teaching, and existence, and between
different dimensions of love.”
2023:
Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to present lana Benson, YUM’s Director
of Museum Education leading a guided tour of The Golden Path: Maimonides Across
Eight Centuries, illuminating the life and impact of the multifaceted luminary
and great Jewish sage across continents and cultures through rare manuscripts
and books.
2023:
Continuing a long-standing tradition, members of Agudas Achim are scheduled to
staff the information desk at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City so “that the regular
volunteers can enjoy the Christmas holiday with their families.
2023:
In Boston, the “the No. 1 holiday party in the country according to USA Today,
MATZOBALL is scheduled to celebrate its 37th year connecting Jewish singles for
a night of schmoozing, fun, and romantic possibilities.
2023:
The YNY 2023 Visual Arts Exhibition is scheduled to re-open today.
2023:
The Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum is scheduled to be open
today.
2023:
As December 24 begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 79 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 San Franciso, the Imperial Palace Retaruant in Chinatown is scheduled to the
first night of “ Kung Pao Kosher Comedy.”
2024:
As December 24th 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 445 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)
